TGIF! An OU RMT

Hiya. Here’s a team I’ve been working on for about a week that I’d like a few opinions on. Please forgive the slightly skimpy descriptions compared to other RMT threads… As I’m sure many of you here can understand, a busy student usually has time to either read/write about games OR play them, not both, even on glorious Friday afternoons like this one. That being said, let me dive right into the team. The goal of this one is to sweep with a bulky Heracross. I tried to give it teammates that could lure in and dispose of its most dangerous counters early in the match, taking out as many members of their team as possible. Thanks for any suggestions!



Gyarados @ Lum Berry/Leftovers
EVs: 212 HP/118 Atk/180 Def
Impish (+Def, -Sp.Atk)
Intimidate
-Taunt
-Thunder Wave
-Waterfall
-Stone Edge

This is an old lead I used to use back in the day… a modification on the tried and true Bulky-Gyara. As I mentioned before, the goal of this team is to set up for Heracross, who isn't breaking any land speed records. Therefore, it is good to have a user of T-wave, and even better to have a user of T-wave they don’t expect. Paralysis works fairly well in combo with Waterfall’s flinch rate (although it’s far from gyrahax, lol) and no one is switching grounds into Gyarados to avoid T-wave for fear of Water STAB. Other than paralyzing certain things that would cause trouble for Hera down the road, this guy acts like a normal Gyra lead. Notice the Impish nature and defensive EVs… Man, is it nice to have a solid counter to Bandzor and SDLuke for once. This is also a very important player in fighting opposing Gyarados. The best way to give you a picture might be to take the common approach and list what he would do against a few of the most popular leads…

Azelf: Increasingly, I’ll just Waterfall it. Hopefully, they will go down like Aero by Taunt>SR.
Metagross: I’ll try a taunt, even though some may outspeed me… Most of the time they just explode right away without even setting up rocks, for some reason.
Heatran: Same thing as Meta, Taunt, T-wave, or Waterfall become options.
Gliscor: They usually try to Taunt me, so I go straight for Waterfall
Roserade: Assuming I have the Lum, I taunt and switch or T-wave
Mamoswine: Direct to Waterfall, or perhaps a switch.
Swampert: Taunt it, and Waterfall or switch.
Infernape: Waterfall or T-wave.
Jirachi: Switch directly to Flygon. I’ve been T-bolt’d way too many times…
Hippowdon: Same with Swampert. Sometimes I go for T-wave after Taunt, because they usually switch out fearing Waterfall.



Bronzong @ Choice band
EVs: 252 HP/84 Atk/80 Def/92 Sp. Def
Sassy (+Sp. Def, -Spe) 0 Spe IV
Levitate
-Stealth Rock
-Gyro Ball
-Earthquake
-Trick

Standard Trickzong. This is here to aid Hera by setting Stealth Rock and hopefully open up a chance to set up by tricking his item onto a wall or special attacker. It’s easy to see how SR helps out any team, limiting the number of times threats like Gyarados and Zapdos can switch in facing my pokemon’s attacks. It is particularly helpful to Heracross, wearing down dangerous fire and flying attackers. In my experience so far, Trick has been a mixed bag… in one hand you could give a huge power boost to a physical attacker on accident, but on the other hand tricking a Band onto something like Skarmory (which walls the heck out of most of this team otherwise) could be invaluable.



Tentacruel @ Lefties
EVs: 252 HP/120 Def/ 136 Sp. Def
Calm (+Sp. Def, -Atk)
Liquid Ooze
-Rapid Spin
-Surf
-Toxic Spikes
-Knock Off

Pure supporting Tentacruel. Tentacruel is one of the most important players on the team merely for the Rapid Spin utility. While literally no one on my team cares about Toxic Spikes, SR is my absolute weakness with Gyara and Yanmega. Also supports the team by laying out my own T-spikes, and Knocking off items that give my opponent more control over the battle. Surf is just here for STAB as another answer to Heatran and Infernape. I have to say that this is the member I’m the most unsure about…



Yanmega @ Expert Belt
EVs: 252 Sp. Atk, 152 Spe., 104 Def.
Modest(+Sp. Atk, -Atk.)
Speed Boost
-Bug Buzz
-Air Slash
-Hidden Power Ground
-Protect

I’m sure this will be the most controversial member of the team. However, Yanmega is here for very specific reasons. The first and most important role it plays is as a tool to remove several very painful thorns from the side of Heracross. Scarfzone, Scarftran, and Jolteon are both very effectively lured in and KO’d by HP Ground, and pokemon like Rotom and Salamence are drawn in and tempted to use their electric/fire attacks (at which point I can switch in Flygon) Overall I’ve found the guy much more useful than its UU (BL?) status leads one to believe, but I am always open to suggestions.



Flygon @ Choice Scarf
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 6 HP
Naïve(+Spe, -Sp. Def)
Levitate
-Earthquake
-Outrage
-U-turn
-Fire Blast

So I guess this qualifies as an 8x Ice weakness? =P So far the shared weakness between Yanmega and Flygon somehow hasn’t been a big problem for me, with both Gyara and Tentacruel present. Flygon makes a very important member of the team, as a switch in to electric attacks and as a counter to other speedy Dragon Types. Fire Blast gives me an extra option to deal with Forry and Skarm, which might not know to switch out. U-turn rounds out the set, and is excellent for hitting incoming Celebi and Starmie for super effective damage.



Heracross @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP/40 Atk/216 Sp. Def
Careful (+Sp. Def, -Sp. Atk)
Guts
-Megahorn
-Bulk Up
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

The final boss. Here’s a pokemon you don’t see on threat lists anymore, using a moveset that wasn’t even popular to begin with. This Heracross’s nature and EVs allow it to set up on a broad spectrum of pokemon. Megahorn is my only attacking option, but with +2 or +3 attack even resisted types begin to feel the pressure. Guts activates when Hera is asleep, so if the Sleep Talk goddess is feeling particularly kind it becomes easy to overcome threats. Truly a frightening sweeper if the opponent's team is ill-prepared.

Biggest threats:
Gyarados – Especially ones with Stone Edge and DD… which is most of them. xD This hasn’t managed to sweep my entire team yet, but it can do quite a number while I wear it down. I might replace Knock Off on Tenta with HP electic to help…
Rotom-H – Dangerous… the worst thing that may happen is if Heracross gets tricked a scarf or specs. Kinda tough to take down, but might also be funny to have Bronzong trick a Band on it.
Suicune – Ugh, I hate this thing. I can trick it if it isn’t behind a sub, but otherwise it's free to set up. Really I’m in trouble in it carries HP Elec OR Ice Beam…
…
I’m sure there are more… might update later. Please post your thoughts guys! =)

Hi, I have some thoughts for what you can do to improve this team. For starters, I think Bronzong should hold Leftovers instead of Trick. Like you said, it's a mixed bag of results. With Leftovers, you can set up SR and still keep Bronzong in to do something. Threats that you are trying to eliminate for Heracross (especially Magnezone and Heatran) may be likely to switch in. Why not have the possibility of hitting it with Earthquake either on the switch or after it's in? If you choose to do this, you'll also be able to use Explosion. It can come in handy in a lot of tight places.

The next thing I suggest you change is Yanmega. I realize you are using it to lure in counters of Heracross, but it doesn't give you a good guarantee of taking them out. You can't switch it into Heatran or Magnezone and when you send it in to hope to lure them in, you are only going to get a few chances if Stealth Rock is in play. Snorlax would allow you to do a lot more. It can switch into all of the things you want to take out and hit them hard with a Choice Band set. Additionally, it takes care of your Scarf Rotom-A worry with Pursuit. Not only would you avoid having something you don't want be Tricked, but you can also take a nice chunk out of Rotom-A.

Snorlax (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Spd/252 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Fire Punch
- Return
- Pursuit
- Earthquake

For my final suggestion, Tentacruel is a weak link on the team. If you want both a Rapid Spinner and an answer for Gyarados and Suicune, you should run a defensive Starmie. You keep the ability to Rapid Spin but make that slot on your team less of an area to set up. Tentacruel with just Surf is setup bait for a lot of things. With Starmie you'll have a few extra weapons to take out some things you struggle with.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 136 HP/156 Def/216 Spd
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Recover

Hope this helps. Good luck with the team.

Woah, bandlax? I'd never even though of it. I think I'll give it a try over Yanmega. It looks like fun to use after all... I'll go experiment with it.

Thanks for your post pal. :)

Both Yanmega and Brongzong look like the weak links of this team. Yanmega has a nasty 4x weakness to SR and does not enjoy eating that damage. With that damage it can't really switch into Hera's counters. I suggest a Choice Scarf Latias that can outspeed all of the threats you said Yanmega handles, and it can outspeed a +1 Gyarados and OHKO with TBolt.

Latias @ Choice Scarf
Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
252 SpAtk/ 252 Spe/ 4 Hp

Draco Meteor
Surf
Thunderbolt
Trick

Draco Meteor OHKOs Salamence and Latias outspeeds +1 Mence. Surf and Thunderbolt add extra coverage for other threats. Latias adds a third choice item to the team, so I suggest switching Bronzong's item to Leftovers and giving it Hypnosis or Light Screen/Reflect over Trick. If you are set on using Trick, run a Macho Brace or Iron Ball, both lower your speed and power up Gyro Ball, and the Iron Ball negates the Flying-Type immunity to Ground, Spikes, and Toxic Spikes. However, this negates Bronzong's Levitate so Macho Brace may be a better idea, but it is your choice.

I hope my rate helps and good luck with your team. I really like seeing someone using Tentacruel in OU, so it was fun looking at your team.