Team Plammo! It explodes!

After rating so many teams, I finally decided to post my own. 95% of my teams are jokes (I have a team based off of cow-like Pokemon, for instance) so making a team that was actually good was a difficult concept for me. This team actually started out as a joke team too- every member had explosion (except for Tyranitar, who just killed the ghosts) and had a Lickilicky. It turned out to be the best team I had ever made, so I decided, what the hey, I guess I should actually make it good. So, without further ado, meet team Plammo! Changes are in red!


Mega Man (Azelf) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Psychic
- Flamethrower
---

I first used azelf because it was a common lead that set up rocks reliably and also exploded (or at least it was common when I first made this team). It origionaly had taunt over flamethrower (I hate non-taunt leads) but having Psychic as my only non-suicidal attack left me wanting. Azelf has since more than pulled his wieght, frequently getting up stealth rock and taking out two people before dying (and rarely ever dying without blowing up.)



Fire Blast (Bronzong) @ Choice Band
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/176 Atk/80 Def
Brave nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Trick
- Gyro Ball
---

As silly as it sounds, bronzong is both my offensive and defensive MVP. Choice banded gyro ball does absolutely absurd damage to everything... including stuff that resists it. Earthquake is for everything slow or unsuspecting, catching Heatrans and Magnezones who think they can force me out for a quite unexpected surprise. Choice band and trick combine to form a stall-destroying combination, taking out the Hippos that this team hates so much. The best part is that no one seems to figure out it's choice banded until it gets tricked onto them. Bronzong is also always my go-to guy right after Azelf explodes and I have no clue what my opponent is going to switch in, as he can survive anything short of a Heatran's Specs Fire Blast and hit back for some usually deadly retaliation.



Beautiful (Heatran) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+Sp. Atk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Substitute
- Toxic
---
Isn't she cute? Originally, this was an expert belt set named "scarfed" but that fooled no one and also kind of sucked. So behold, a set for Heatran that actually does useful things every match! It's a set I picked up (e.g., "stole") from another RMT. The idea is to come in on something that's scared of this monster and then set up a substitute as they switch to their counter, allowing me to deal some damage/status before she has to run away like the scared little girl she is. Toxic deals with the waters, earth power for the Heatrans and other fires, and fire blast for the idots who got their real Heatran counters all killed!



Scarfed (Flygon) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- U-turn
- Fire Punch
---

Is it named scarfed because it's scarfed? Or because he's trying to fool me into thinking its scarfed? Or is it both? Well, it's scarfed, but I am a fan of making my opponent indecisive. He's the basic scarfgon, what is there to say? Beats set-up sweepers that plauged my old team. I'm trying out fire punch because stone edge misses and Scizor sucks!



Fuzz Hog (Shaymin) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/188 Spd/68 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Leech Seed
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Protect
- Seed Flare
---

While it was sad to see Gengar go, Sheymin has become quite the boon to this team, leeching health from foes and/or murduring them with one of its two moves. Protect also helps me a TON against all the choice users I see flying around, and with my team's plethora of immunities it's a cinch to pick the appropriate counter. The only issue I find is that Sheymin makes me kinda bug-weak, with three weaknesses and only one resist, but so long as Heatran's live it's no issue.


5FeetTall (Tyranitar) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/60 Atk/20 Spd/176 SAtk
Quiet nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Crunch
- Substitute
- Flamethrower
- Focus Punch
---

I forget which game it was, but one of the Pokedex entries for Tyranitar says he's five feet tall (same height as your ten-year old main character) and I thought that was funny enough to warrant nicknaming. This guy started as a choice bander, switched to a dragon dancer, and now is spending his life as a quiet Tyraniboah in the hills, secluded from all society but the kind young boy who visits him every day, slowly warming his crusty old heart and giving him hope for the future. I originally wanted to get rid of this guy entirely, but everyone's like "Oh, hey! I remember 5FeetTall!" Or, "Hey! I saw your team on Smogon! Cool Tyranitar!" So I guess I'm taking the hint. The dragon dance sweeper just wasn't doing it for me, though, and then some team owned me with a Tyraniboah so I decided to try it out. (Kudos to whoever you were, by the way. Holy crap, dude.) I am pleasently suprised to say that it's working really well, but moveset changes are still up for discussion.

Conclusion:
I don't have a conclusion. Please help rate my team, and be nice! Thanks!

I'm not a great rater (not even close), but I have some things I might consider:

On Bronzong, you might want to use Heatproof instead of Levitate - nobody uses stuff like EQ or EP on Bronzong because it always carries Levitate anyways. Why not profit from that, and be able to deal with weaker Heatran and other Fire-Pokémon at the same time?

Also, talking about Heatran. You're running Toxic at the moment for bulky waters, but why not use HP Grass or Electic? It deals direct damage (2/3HKO on most bulky waters), and even though Heatran runs Substitute, it doesn't stick around for too long. What I'd use, however, is Explosion - it will get rid of almost every bulky water in a single hit, and more other things too. My Heatran runs a set of Sub/Fire Blast/Earth Power/Explosion, and it works great.

Also, try to include something like the team-building process or a threatlist, mods don't seem to like RMTs without any of them.

Also, try to include something like the team-building process or a threatlist, mods don't seem to like RMTs without any of them.

Click to expand...

I guess I have nothing better to do with my time. Well, except like, homework or something. But whatever.

I try out Bronzongs on a lot of teams, and I'm telling you now levitate is better. It's saved my butt a ton. Plus, with heatproof being more common, people are inclined to try to use ground type-moves on bronzong.

Bronzong counters Starmie with gyro ball, and the not very effective can suck it. No joke. CB Gyro ball does like 70%. While starmie can deal lots-o-damage to Bronzong, it's usually switching into Bronzong's attacks, so I win in the end. Flygon also does a good job as a revenge killer.

I might have played this team the other day. I think I was trying to get gyara-vire to work, but I remember 5feetTall the TTar.

If you don't like thunderpunch on flygon try out stone edge. I would also use jolly over adamant to speed-tie other flygon. Hes on so many teams nowdays.

Threats:
- Swords Dance Infernape, Mixape
- Agility Lucario, SD Lucario [Agility Lucario is the bigger threat, because you can deal with SD Lucario using Gengar]
- SD Scizor / offensive Scizor [basically the same]
- Slight bulky waters problem / offensive suicune problem.

Agility Lucario can flat out OHKO all of your team members with some entry hazards once it's set-up using a combination of Ice Punch / Close Combat / Crunch, while SD Lucario can kill most of your team members except for Gengar who outspeeds and revenge-kills using Hidden Power Fire. Suicune can be a little problem once it gets a Calm Mind or two, because then, Thunderbolt will do like nothing, and all Gengar can do is explode, which isn't very good. Suicune can really damage this team, especially offensive Cunes, because they can set up on Bronzong and all Bronzong can do is Trick.

SD Scizor is the bigger problem here, because Bullet Punch > this team except for Heatran, but Superpower takes care of that, and Scizor will also outspeed.


I suggest you change your Hetaran set entirely, and change it to Choice Scarf Heatran.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Naive
252 SpA | 4 SpD | 252 Spe
Fire Blast | Earth Power | Hidden Power [Grass] | Explosion

This will help you revenge-kill / counter Scizor, Infernape and SD Lucario.

I also second using Jolly > Adamant on Flygon.
And if Scizor is really annoying even with Heatran, try a Babiri Berry and Fire Punch on Tyranitar over Earthquake. [Lum Berry + Fire Punch can be used for Breloom]

Hmm...

Does jolly Flygon out-speed things that Adamant Flygon does not? I don't care about speed tying with other flygon, but if there's another reason I'd be happy to change.

I've tried scarftran before (on this team, in fact) and I really don't like him, but the threats listed are certainly something to worry about. Is there something else that checks the above Pokemon? I wouldn't mind removing or modifying Ttar, gengar, or Azelf if the need arises. I'm also up to changes in sets/evs for pretty much any of my pokemon, but I really hate the choice items (outside of flygon, anyway.) My Ttar usually doesn't have enough HP to make use of babiri berry, unfortunately.

I've usually used Bronzong to deal with lucario, who gets OHKO'd by EQ. Bronzong checks basically everything. I realize that it's not always that simple, however.

Thunda-Moo said:

Hmm...

Does jolly Flygon out-speed things that Adamant Flygon does not? I don't care about speed tying with other flygon, but if there's another reason I'd be happy to change.

I've tried scarftran before (on this team, in fact) and I really don't like him, but the threats listed are certainly something to worry about. Is there something else that checks the above Pokemon? I wouldn't mind removing or modifying Ttar, gengar, or Azelf if the need arises. I'm also up to changes in sets/evs for pretty much any of my pokemon, but I really hate the choice items (outside of flygon, anyway.) My Ttar usually doesn't have enough HP to make use of babiri berry, unfortunately.

I've usually used Bronzong to deal with lucario, who gets OHKO'd by EQ. Bronzong checks basically everything. I realize that it's not always that simple, however.

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Jolly honestly doesn't outspeed anything really important that Adamant does. The only good things it does do is a speed tie with any other Base 100 Scarfers who run positive natures, and losing power for a speed tie is a stupid thing to do IMO since you can just lose the speed tie, thus losing your Flygon.

Before anyone tries to say i'm wrong, check out the Speed Tiers please. http://www.smogon.com/dp/articles/ou_speed_tiers


Edit:

Agility Lucario can flat out OHKO all of your team members with some entry hazards once it's set-up using a combination of Ice Punch / Close Combat / Crunch, while SD Lucario can kill most of your team members except for Gengar who outspeeds and revenge-kills using Hidden Power Fire. Suicune can be a little problem once it gets a Calm Mind or two, because then, Thunderbolt will do like nothing, and all Gengar can do is explode, which isn't very good. Suicune can really damage this team, especially offensive Cunes, because they can set up on Bronzong and all Bronzong can do is Trick

Click to expand...

Uh, you do know that Bronzongs Trick completely disables Suicune considering it'll be holding a Choice Band and Suicune is uslesss with one? And how is Agility Lucario destroying his team with only entry hazards when Bronzong is in the way?

anyway, Arikado is right in that your weak to Lucario, Infernape, and Suicune. Scarf Heatran stops the first 2 unless Lucario is an Agility varient, which destroyes you right now. The only Poke that I would replace fully right now is Gengar with a Leech Seed Shaymin, which will help alot against bulky Waters in general and can provide team support with Leech Seed.

( This is Faladrans post on Leech Seed Shaymin)




Shaymin @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 68 SpA / 188 Spe
Timid nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Seed Flare
- Hidden Power Fire

One of the biggest advantages that this set has over the LO variant is its ability to switch into and set up on bulky Water-types, regardless of whether they switch out or not. Leech Seed is very useful with Leftovers, and in conjunction with Protect, can cause problems for Heatran and Choiced U-turn users. Seed Flare is, as you have stated, the ideal choice for a STAB attack due to its high base power and outstanding secondary effect. HP Fire prevents Steel-types from walling you, and can OHKO Scizor switch-ins. This is quite a difficult set to beat if it is played correctly; offensive teams will be worn down by Leech Seed and Shaymin's powerful moves, while stall teams often don't have methods of taking Shaymin down. Overall, I feel that this set functions even better than the LO variant, as it is able to damage opponents while preserving the longevity of your other Pokemon.

Cool team.

Threats

• Dragon Dance Kingdra
  
• Machamp
• Choice Band Scizor

This is an excellently team you have built here, as it can check the majority of threats commonly seen in the current standard metagame while also being able to execute it's offensively orientated strategy without much of a problem, in most cases. However, I see problems with a couple of commonly seen offensive threats like dragon dance Kingdra, offensive Machamp, and lastly, but not the least (probably the most problematic), choice band Scizor, and to an extent, bulky SD variants. If Kingdra manages to get a DD off, nothing on your team will be able to outpace it bar Flygon who will often only speed tie with it if the opposing Kingdra is running max speed; even Bronzong will slowly be wire down from repeated Waterfalls. Machamp will also be problematic as nothing will want to take repeated Dynamic Punches, and even Gengar who is immune to Machamp's STAB attack, will fall to Payback. Lastly Scizor presents a huge threat as choice banded bullet punch will heavily dent everything on your team bar Bronzong which, although its immense bulk and resistances, will not enjoy taking a predicted Superpower to the face; similarly, SD variants seem to be problematic as if they manage a swords dance, it can possibly game over for your team.

Solutions

• SD Lucario

[box]
Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk,-SpAtk)
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- ExtremeSpeed
- Swords Dance[/box]
Luckily, there's one Pokemon that can be easily fit into your team who can easily handle all of the aforementioned threats while also sharing great synergy with the rest of your team and lastly, presenting a major offensive threat to any team foolish enough not to be prepared for it. Swords Dance Lucario is what I have in mind. I think that putting Lucario in Bronzong's place will be your best, as although choice band Bronzong seems like an interesting variant, it also seems to be the least useful Pokemon on your team due to a plethora of self explanatory reasons. Moving on: Lucario can effortlessly take on the aforementioned threats due to its nice offensive capabilities, passable defensive prowess and key resistances. Even a +1 Kingdra will fail to OHKO Lucario after stealth rock damage while Lucario can usually KO back with a STAB close combat; Machamp is also handled nicely by Close Combat but you must resort to revenge killing it with Lucario or luring it into Payback as Lucario will not like taking a Dynamic Punch head on. Finally, choice band Scizor's bullet punch does virtually nothing to Lucario while Lucario can either set up swords dance or eliminate the aforementioned Scizor via Close Combat. I hope this helped, and good luck!

You're a huge help, but wrong about bronzong; I must continue to emphasize he is my team's MVP! I see no reason to remove such a valuable player. Heck, I think it would solve all of my team's problems if I could just replace T-Tar with another Bronzong (but I can't do that because species clause and it would be silly.)

While everyone seems to love 5FeetTall, He seems to do the least in matches, so I will try out Lucario in his place. I will also try out Shaymin. In fact, I will do that now.

My responce to all those threats you mentioned (especially Machamp) has been to explode. It has worked well so far, but I'm more than up for team changes. It will be sad to lose splody gengar, though.


Edit... Your points become increasingly relevant to me as I climb up the ladder. Testing scarftran in 3... 2... 1... (double edit) Zero. I still hate scarf heatran. He gives my foes too many free switches.

I am also looking for an alternate set for T-Tar. Maybe something weird like the Boah.

Berserker Lord said:

Uh, you do know that Bronzongs Trick completely disables Suicune considering it'll be holding a Choice Band and Suicune is uslesss with one? And how is Agility Lucario destroying his team with only entry hazards when Bronzong is in the way?

anyway, Arikado is right in that your weak to Lucario, Infernape, and Suicune. Scarf Heatran stops the first 2 unless Lucario is an Agility varient, which destroyes you right now. The only Poke that I would replace fully right now is Gengar with a Leech Seed Shaymin, which will help alot against bulky Waters in general and can provide team support with Leech Seed.

Click to expand...

Yes i do, which is why i mentioned it, but Bronzong can't really do anything if Suicune already set-up a couple CMs, which it can easily do. I also see no water resist in Thunda-Moo's team, meaning Suicune locked into Surf / Hydro Pump at +2 isn't a very bad thing.

And Bronzong is 2HKO'd by Lucario's Close Combat, meaning it can't switch in unless he predicted an Agility / Ice Punch.

Also, yeah, there was a typo in my last post, forgot Bronzong has Levitate to avoid Spikes which Agility Lucario needs to accomplish a sweep. (Meaning Lucario can't OHKO with Close Combat and 2HKO instead.)

Hmm. I'm now replacing Gengar with Shaymin and updating accordingly. The water resist is a big help.

Speaking of water, I generally take them out by luring them in with a substituted heatran and using toxic. This is also one of the major reasons I don't want to switch to scarfed: toxic is invaluble for taking out certain threats, and combined with Sheymin's stalling power it's all the better.

I switched to Boah over dragon dance because DD T-Tar just wasn't doing it for me. Even with all the set-up oppertunities provided from trickbanding, exploding, and general sillyness, he didn't feel like he was pulling his weight, and failed to OHKO too many things with a +1. I decided, then, to go for a bulkier T-tar, and eventually settled on Boah rather than curse. If this was a stupid move for some reason, please enlighten me, but so far tyraniboah seems to be doing better than his setup sweeper counterpart.

Hey I got your message! Cool team. Many others have pointed out current threats to the team, but in summary, Boosting move + Priority Infernape, SD Lucario, and indeed most fighting types are real problems. Taunt Gyarados also strikes me as somewhat problematic, if it has bounce. So I have a couple of suggestions, one of which you may find pretty strange.

Firstly, you're unsure about Tyranitar-well, so am I. Synergy wise, he brings very little to the table and, if I may say so, accomplishes nothing. I think we can agree we can probably replace this bro. A bulky water seems like it would be very useful, in stopping the above threats as well as completing the famous fwg core. I think a Gyarados would b really cool for this team, particularly BulkyDos. His bulk allows him to effectively stop the above threats while also behaving as an offensive threat to the team that synergizes well with the rest of the team. Stall is also a minour issue for the team, so some extra help with that never hurt anyone.

Of course, BulkyDos doesn't live forever, and some extra insurance against fighting types and other threats wouldn't kill ya. This may strike you as an odd idea, perhaps even absurd, but from experience, I can tell you that this works amazingly. Try this set over Shaymin:

@ Leftovers
252 HP / 24 SpA / 176 SpD / 56 Spe
Calm Nature
-Sleep Powder
-Leech Seed
-Grass Knot
-Hidden Power (Fire)

This set has passed quality control and is pretty frickin' amazing. It's basically Roserade, minus the spikes, minus the awesome ability, plus a lot of bulk. He works as a fantastic counter to fighting types in a pinch, and actually handles Lucario and Breloom very well. You have my personal guarantee that he is one of the best Pokemon in OU.

Minour changes. You might want to give Bronzong a Macho Brace instead of a Choice Band. Because of the speed drop, his Gyro Ball is actually around the same power- the difference is that he can change attacks in a pinch and still neuter a sweeper by giving them a macho brace.

And that's all the advice I have, I hope this all helps. Good Luck.

Hmm. Well, I guess I'd better get started thinking up a good nickname for Venasaur! Wait... I've got it! TREE FROG! Yeeeeeaaaaahhhh!

I will also try out the Gyarados, who shall be named... He'll be... um... dang. Well, I'll think of something.

You know, honestly, I think the only reason Tyranitar was kept this long is because I love that chibi picture of him so much. It's so cute!

I'll test those guys out and update accordingly. Thanks for the rate!

This is a very nice team, I had problems find flaws in it. The biggest thing I noticed is you get completely demolished by a team with a scizor and a gengar, scizor's u-turn kills 3 pokes on your team (Azelf, Shaymin, Tyranitar), Fighting moves kill 2 (heatran, tyranitar) Ghost does a good amount, even though its neutral. If scizor manages to kill your heatran, you lose. Period. I suggest using a Rotom-C over shaymin, removes a bug weakness, and being able to come in on fighting moves:
Rotom-C @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EV's: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
~Thunderbolt
~Shadow Ball
~Will-O-Wisp
~Leaf Storm
I chose this rotom forme mainly because it could go over shaymin, and keep the grass attacking prowess. It also runs WoW, something that cripples banded pokes, and you said Shaymin also helped against choiced pokes. Heres how he works; You see the fighting attack aimed at heatran, you switch to rotom-c. Once they have a poke in you know runs ghost/dark moves, you switch to tyranitar. If it has another fighting move, back to rotom-c. With some predicting, mind games, and just luck/skill, this guy could keep the pokes you need as counters alive.

More Cowbell said:

I'm not a great rater (not even close), but I have some things I might consider:

On Bronzong, you might want to use Heatproof instead of Levitate - nobody uses stuff like EQ or EP on Bronzong because it always carries Levitate anyways. Why not profit from that, and be able to deal with weaker Heatran and other Fire-Pokémon at the same time?

Also, talking about Heatran. You're running Toxic at the moment for bulky waters, but why not use HP Grass or Electic? It deals direct damage (2/3HKO on most bulky waters), and even though Heatran runs Substitute, it doesn't stick around for too long. What I'd use, however, is Explosion - it will get rid of almost every bulky water in a single hit, and more other things too. My Heatran runs a set of Sub/Fire Blast/Earth Power/Explosion, and it works great.

Also, try to include something like the team-building process or a threatlist, mods don't seem to like RMTs without any of them.

Click to expand...

The thing is, people tend to notice if their LO Heatran's Fire Blasts aren't OHKOing.

To Thunda-Moo: seems pretty sound to me!