As much as I've had fun playing this team over the last few weeks, I've reached the point where I don't really feel I can go higher with it and it's probably time to try something new. This team has gotten me to 12-13 on the ladder board, and that's about where it's peaked. I made it to get me wins consistant enough to make sure I'd be in for the shaymin voting, and it's done that. Time to move on so, I'll reveal it now:
Since I noticed that the archive was made (and this included), I thought I'd mention some revamps that improve this team's performance in the current metagame (4/16/2009), in bold.
This is an offensive team, not too unlike a standard pre-deoxys-s offensive team. The big noteable changes being that metagross and garchomp find themselves replaced by Scizor and Flygon. Loosing garchomp, anyone would say is a big hit for the team's overall power, but I'd have to say that in many ways this team is probably even stronger than the pre-platinum version. Scizor's huge power boost from technician and added flexibility from U-Turn and Flygon's U-turn giving it more flexibility compared to garchomp, has made the team a lot better at keeping the initiative. In a metagame without Garchomp, I'd say this offensive team has become even more powerful.
Keep in mind that almost none of the pokemon here are "sweepers" in a traditional sense. It's more like having an entire team of wall breakers.
Adamant Jolly
252ATK 252SPD 4HP
@Life Orb
-Water Fall
-Stone Edge / Outrage
-Taunt
-Dragon Dance / Earthquake / Protect
Perhaps the fact that Gyarados is now below the 13 mark for lead pokemon that it is now so successful as a lead pokemon. The very start of the game is the point most like rock-paper-scissors in pokemon, and Gyarados comes out on top quite often actually. Intimidate is a great ability on the lead, netting advantage even when Gyarados is forced to switch out. Waterfall does an excellent job dealing a lot of general damage to whatever, and with so many forretress, swampert and hippo leads around taunt is simply brilliant. The leads that this "loses" too are quite few and far between. When playing gyarados, try not to get too caught up with preveserving its life. Life Orb Gyara is meant to scout and set the pace of the game, dealing out as much damage as possible. Don't feel you have to save it for the late game sweep, as between LO and SR you probably won't get there. It makes excellent sacrificial fodder later on though with intimidate and posing an immediate threat. I have almost never felt that Water Fall + Stone Edge was lacking in coverage. Stone Edge is pretty much necessary as the number of times this thing finds itself facing enemy gyarados or salamence is just too frequent, and it's useful for hitting zapdos switch ins as well. Earthquake, being the main alternative, is a really crappy early game move for obvious reasons, and makes you totally helpless before celebi. Aquatail can be used over waterfall if you really want the extra power, but waterfall's flinch rate has saved me many a time.
With faster lead pokemon, including faster bulky leads like +Speed Heatran/Metagross coming into popularity, I found myself wondering about Adamant v. Jolly. Jolly Gyara outruns all Heatran, Metagross, Breloom, Smeargle, and the newly popularized lead Mamoswine. Getting ahead of these guys and taunting them is really valuable. When the first draft of this team was made, Tyranitar leads were popular, and without a doubt Adamant is preferrable against them, but with lead-tar MIA, Jolly becomes almost unquestioningly better (except that it can't 1hko some heatran . . . lame).
CB is an option to ensure the kill on heatran, but obviously gives Gyarados issues with using taunt. However CB lead gyara should be praised for its effectiveness against trick-leads.
With Jirachi and Metagross in the lead position more and more (and Empoleon's rise to popularity), EQ started becoming much more valuable, especially when I realized the times I actually used dragon dance were becoming more and more slim.
Outrage is a possible move, especially if CB is in use, mostly for its damage to Latias, and to provide more reliable coverage against salamence and the newly popular kingdra.
On a last note, it's rather Gimmicky but Protect can be a very effective move in the final slot. Mostly, it's there to escape from Explosions. It can be useful in a number of other situations though-- the primary one being when a rotom/latias/jirachi/etc. switches in and you see no lefties. Odds are, it'll be scarfed, so you can protect once to see what he does. Protect can also stack your odds against rotom for knowing whether to switch to Flygon or Infernape (if you don't want to go immediately to Tyranitar).
Getting the timing right against explosion can be difficult, and is often a matter of luck-- but when pulled off, it's amazing. You just have to practice. As a tip, Azelf will explode if it's gotten SR up and has weak life. Metagross will often explode even if it's at full health (if it has SR up).
Modest
252HP 180S.ATK 76SPD
@Leftovers
-Substitute
-Dark Pulse
-Flamethrower
-Ice Beam
This TTar is surprisingly useful. More speed than boah (and more than 0 speed metagross and scizor for that matter) and more special attack too. It's fat, and bulky, and brings the all-valuable sand stream. Water fall with gyara during the SR set up, then switch to this, is how I deal with azelf. Explosion only does like 40% when intimidated.
It is unreal how often I see skarmory, scizor, forry, gliscor and hippow switch into this thing's substitute. Hence why this is a "wall breaker." Best way to use it is to bring it into a special attacker like Rotom-A, Jolteon, Zapdos or even heatran (who actually walls you) and substitute as they run away. If you can predict ice beam/flamethrower from blissey, it's a good switch in too as there's little chance they'd know this is an all-special ttar. Then procede to annhialate whatever comes in. It's a good idea to treat this as a special sponge of sorts. Keep in mind that 1 on 1 (even without sub) this thing will beat even pokemon like gliscor, hippowdon, skymin, celebi and starmie who think they can win because "they have super effective" damage.
Having a poke who can turn porygon 2 into set up fodder is huge too for an offensive team.
Also, 1 on 1, this tyranitar will always defeat Obi's wish-bliss. Flamethrower takes as many as 4 hits to destroy sub, by which time you've gained all your health back. Ice Beam it for the eventual freeze hax, or just keep attacking because you have more PP. I've had a few games where Blissey tried to wall this ttar (once it discovered I have no physical moves), only to find itself on the losing side. If by chance they do have enough special attack to 2 hit your sub or they have seismic toss, just keep subbing/attacking for the freeze hax or until you can predict a wish/softboiled, and switch to one of your other pokemon.
Adamant
108HP 252ATK 98DEF 52SPD
Careful
200 HP 56 ATK 200 Sp.DEF 52 SPD "Uber Scizor" spread also viable
@Choice Band
-U-Turn
-Bullet Punch
-Superpower
-Quick Attack/Pursuit PURSUIT
Pretty plain and simple. CB Scizor is a beast. Rather, CB U-Turn is a beast (oh, and bullet punch too, lol). Scizor's here for all around "It's faster than my team so I need to kill it" purposes. U-Turn also goes a long way to breaking some important walls. Starmie and Celebi in particular would be much bigger problems without scizor around. It even helps against opponents that resist it. After getting hit by two U-Turns Heatran can be taken down by outrage from teammates. It also brings any magnezone into range to be anhialated by salamence or infernape. (Magnezone loves switching in to get hit in the face by U-Turn). In the early game, abuse U-Turn as much as possible over Bullet Punch, which comes into play more late-game.
Though the loss of a Rock resistance is unfortunate, overall I've found this much more useful compared to CB metagross who was the pre-platinum pokemon in this slot. No Garchomp means that CB Ice Punch and Metagross' better defenses have become unnecessary.
Pursuit/Quick Attack: The main issue I have with pursuit is that I really hate playing the stupid "will they switch or not" game. If I'm in the same situation, I'm likely to do the same thing. Quick attack provides coverage against the likes of gyarados/zapdos and lets you finish off weakened infernape. I find this fairly useful. If you're an absolute god at prediction though, I'd say go with pursuit.
Careful CB Scizor was born from Latias' coming to OU. It also provides a much more reliable way of dealing with Starmie and Gengar (who was previously somewhat of a problem), as well as Celebi who now sometimes carry HP Fire (which this thing can survive provided they have minimal sp.ATK evs). Obviously U-Turn doesn't hurt nearly as much against things that resist it anymore, but Scizor now takes down all the flighty special attackers with much more reliability. Pursuit is also far more reliable with the bulkier spread.
To ilustrate this things defensive abilities, LO Focus Blast from Gengar is a 3hko.
Naive
16ATK 240s.ATK 252 SPD
@Life Orb
-Draco Meteor
-Flamethrower/Fire Blast
-Brick Break Earthquake
-Outrage
This is a unique kind of mix-mence. Max Speed is underrated. The ability to outspeed zapdos and enemy salamence almost without fail and wipe them out with draco meteor is huge. This makes you almost impervious to the "bulky sweeper," and very capable of ripping wholes in the enemy team, especially stall teams. This salamence overall though, does not wipe out too many enemies on its own. It does however, do an amazing job of revenge killing and wall breaking There are very few pokemon who aren't 2hko'd, and there's absolutely nothing that really likes switching into draco meteor. This slamence is flexible and agile, capable of doing a lot of jobs-- #1 being, take out one of the enemy pokemon. Against a stall team, even once if I've lost the initiative and this salamence or even 2 pokmon, if I can wipe out one of the enemy walls I can usually break the rest of the team to shreds. With that in mind, let's go over the moves since they're a bit un-intuitive.
Draco Meteor: This is your "Mop," not a broom to sweep, but the brush that can hurt just about any 1 opponent really badly. When in doubt, Draco Meteor. In my opinion, still Salamence's ultimate move, especially now when everyone is expecting a physical mence. Draco Meteor is what makes Salamence a wall breaker and a special threat in general. Even Blissey and Heatran are not going to like having to come into this repeatedly.
Flamethrower/Fire Blast: Overall, I've found flamethrower to be more viable but I certainly agree with fire blast's usefulness. For instance, if Bulky Gyara switches in on fire blast, it is now in ko range from draco meteor. Bulky Gyara is a threat of old though, and with scizor around these days the cost of missing has been exponentiall increased. Breloom and lucario also being quite common has detered me from using fire blast. Against most enemies, flamethrower more than suffices. Overall, flamethrower and brick break are nice moves when I'm in a position to revenge kill and don't want to use up draco meteor or get locked into outrage.
Brick Break: I'm sure this is the big question for most: Why Brick Break over Earthquake? The most simple answer is that there are more flying/levitate pokemon than there are ghost pokemon. This mence is fighting against sand, SR and LO. It's not going to last long. You need to land the hits. I understand that Outage hits harder than a super effective hit from Brick Break, but having a move that doesn't lock you in and provides reliable damage is huge on this mence. The damage between missing earthquake and hitting with brick break against zapdos could very well be the difference between KOing it with Draco Meteor and dieing to LO damage as it roosts back up. Being able to use this move to finish off bronzong's without worrying about whether or not they'd switch to heatran for instance. Brick Break just lets me have to rely a bit less on prediction. Being able to take tyranitar out of the game as well as hurt blissey without outrage is more valuable than one would expect.
*let's also not forget how popular double screen is, and the fact that brick break fits here better than on scizor or infernape imo.
For a number of reasons, EQ became more and more viable here than BB as the metagame continued.
Outrage: Before Platinum, this slot was Stone Edge. Stone Edge let you hit enemy salamence/gyarados even if your special attack was expunged. It was also a good "last resort" against Togekiss. It's high critical hit ratio also made it a good move for sacking mence when it was all burnt out. After some playtesting though, I realized Outrage was superior in almost every way. Against almost every flying type pokemon (SE's main target), Outrage hits almost as hard (180 v. 200 super effective). Outrage also provided some much needed accuracy (remember the original set was D.Meteor/Fire Blast/Brick Break/Stone Edge), and overall is even better for sacrificing thanks to STAB. Salamence is now a "two step offensive." Just when they think they got mence beat, it's special attack and hp near rock bottom, it can let loose with Outrage and take another enemy down with it. By the time I get around to Outrage, I'm normally so weak I don't have to worry about being locked in, LO, and sand damage will remove that danger. Besides, with Scizor instead of Metagross around for the most part, I can be sure Outrage is leaving some damage behind. This "Two-Step" offensive wall breaker is truly incredible.
As a note, against enemies with near even defenses (like Swampert or Celebi), Draco Meteor and Outrage will be doing very similar damage. You can use this to help you gauge whether or not you should outrage. When playing with mence, use it in the early game and don't worry too much about keeping it alive, just make sure to take something down. The most ideal targets are the enemy bulky water type and the enemy steel type.
The enemy bulky water is the #1 thing you want to kill, and the enemy steel type is something likely to be tempted out. If you can take it out, you can help clear the path for Flygon's late game outrage sweep. IE, this salamence is not only a wall-breaker, it's a lure-- a precursor to help set up for flygon's sweep. It's rare that I'll take out more than 2 enemies with Salamence, but thanks to it games where Flygon wipes out 4-5 enemies are quite common.
If you can, keep in mind it makes good death fodder with intimidate and it's SR weak.
Mild Rash
@Life Orb
24 ATK 252sATK 232 Speed
-Overheat
-Close Combat
-Grass Knot
-Hidden Power [Ice]
Never underestimate Overheat, especially if it's got Blaze. Overheat is like Salamence's Draco Meteor, this is your mop. This infernape can outspeed Zapdos and do 80-90% to it with Overheat (meaning with just a bit of damage from teammates, you can 1hko it). You'd be shocked at how much this thing can still do to Jirachi or Metagross even after the sp.atk drop, so if the enemy is stupid enough to bring a fire-weak pokemon in after overheat, don't hesitate to go for it. Oh, keep in mind that grass knot can 2hko most gyarados and hit Suicune for around 70%. Otherwise, this is mix-ape. The damage from Mild is impressive. You know what to do with it, the premier wall breaker.
*A note about rash: Worth a note mostly because of scizor's bullet punch and luke's extreme speed. Overall though, taking heatran's fire attacks is a bigger concern, since forcing out heatran gives you more chances to use your wall breaking abilities than trying to revenge kill luke or scizor. Also with naive on mence, -def on nape is not a bad idea.
As the metagame progressed, with Scizor's popularity only rising, along with SD Luke, it became more and more apparent that Rash was becoming superior to Mild.
Adamant
80HP 252ATK 172 SPD
@Choice Scarf
-U-Turn
-Earthquake
-Outrage
-Fire Punch Fire Blast
Flygon really is the star of the show. Period.
This is how I deal with all the early game trick and thunder wave bull-shit. When switching from Gyarados, Flygon is an incredible switch in to zapdos, metagross, aerodactyle and gengar. Against pokemon who try to counter gyarados, it is a huge help against celebi, who eats a 60-70% hit from scarf U-turn. Starmie can be dealth the same treatment. It also screws trick/thunderbolt/thunderwave rotom-A, who is soon to find itself as ttar set-up fodder. If you're really brave, you can even switch this into P-2 or Cresselia, and help bring infernape or scizor into a nice easy ice beam.
Without it, I seriously could not lead with gyarados. Scarf U-Turn from ground/electric immunity + rock resistance is simply incredible in the early game.
Thanks to its near-immunity to practically all passive damage, it will usually still be doing good in late game, where this thing rapes. It's not garchomp, but after salamence, infernape and ttar have done thier thing, flygon will come in and destroy the enemies with scarf outrage and earthquake (we all know how good the stab combo is). So much for "last pokemon luke" eh?
Some notes:
U-turn: Is currently programmed wrong in shoddy. Platinum alleviated the choice item-u-turn glitch of D/P, so when U-turning between flygon and scizor, you should be free to switch between moves. When playing on shoddy, keep in mind that this still is not the case. This problem has been fixed. Feel free to spam U-Turn between Scizor and Flygon.
EVs: Flygon wants as much bulk as possible. It needs to be able to take on fire blasts, bullet punches and extreme speeds as it makes for the late game sweep. 80 HP and Adamant nature keeps it fairly bulky (ie. Lonely/Naughty are fail). At first I was using 112 HP 140SPD and saw a lot of success with it, but being outrun by +speed scarfran turned out to be too annoying, so I made sure this flygon would outrun all heatran. It's still pretty tough. If you really need the speed though, the targets you should try looking to beat are other 100 base scarf users (celebi in particular is annoying) and agility metagross (though this requires Jolly).
Fire Punch: As I mentioned in the EVs area, flygon needs bulk. a -def/-sp.def nature is not acceptable, which is why fire punch comes in. Although not really a core move to the set (Outrage/u-turn are your most used moves), it's good to have around in case you're facing a last-pokemon-scizor or you just need to get rid of skymin. Speaking of skymin, flygon u-turn to scizor is an excellent way of getting rid of skymin behind a sub (just don't do it on shoddy). Even with Adamant, Fire Blast 2hko's Skarmory. That alone gives it a mention.
I'd rather not post a full threat list, as it seems long and tedious (and I happen to know that there are few really obvious holes in this team). If you have questions about specific enemy pokemon, I'll answer (granted I check back on this thread).
Since I noticed that the archive was made (and this included), I thought I'd mention some revamps that improve this team's performance in the current metagame (4/16/2009), in bold.
This is an offensive team, not too unlike a standard pre-deoxys-s offensive team. The big noteable changes being that metagross and garchomp find themselves replaced by Scizor and Flygon. Loosing garchomp, anyone would say is a big hit for the team's overall power, but I'd have to say that in many ways this team is probably even stronger than the pre-platinum version. Scizor's huge power boost from technician and added flexibility from U-Turn and Flygon's U-turn giving it more flexibility compared to garchomp, has made the team a lot better at keeping the initiative. In a metagame without Garchomp, I'd say this offensive team has become even more powerful.
Keep in mind that almost none of the pokemon here are "sweepers" in a traditional sense. It's more like having an entire team of wall breakers.
Adamant Jolly
252ATK 252SPD 4HP
@Life Orb
-Water Fall
-Stone Edge / Outrage
-Taunt
-Dragon Dance / Earthquake / Protect
Perhaps the fact that Gyarados is now below the 13 mark for lead pokemon that it is now so successful as a lead pokemon. The very start of the game is the point most like rock-paper-scissors in pokemon, and Gyarados comes out on top quite often actually. Intimidate is a great ability on the lead, netting advantage even when Gyarados is forced to switch out. Waterfall does an excellent job dealing a lot of general damage to whatever, and with so many forretress, swampert and hippo leads around taunt is simply brilliant. The leads that this "loses" too are quite few and far between. When playing gyarados, try not to get too caught up with preveserving its life. Life Orb Gyara is meant to scout and set the pace of the game, dealing out as much damage as possible. Don't feel you have to save it for the late game sweep, as between LO and SR you probably won't get there. It makes excellent sacrificial fodder later on though with intimidate and posing an immediate threat. I have almost never felt that Water Fall + Stone Edge was lacking in coverage. Stone Edge is pretty much necessary as the number of times this thing finds itself facing enemy gyarados or salamence is just too frequent, and it's useful for hitting zapdos switch ins as well. Earthquake, being the main alternative, is a really crappy early game move for obvious reasons, and makes you totally helpless before celebi. Aquatail can be used over waterfall if you really want the extra power, but waterfall's flinch rate has saved me many a time.
With faster lead pokemon, including faster bulky leads like +Speed Heatran/Metagross coming into popularity, I found myself wondering about Adamant v. Jolly. Jolly Gyara outruns all Heatran, Metagross, Breloom, Smeargle, and the newly popularized lead Mamoswine. Getting ahead of these guys and taunting them is really valuable. When the first draft of this team was made, Tyranitar leads were popular, and without a doubt Adamant is preferrable against them, but with lead-tar MIA, Jolly becomes almost unquestioningly better (except that it can't 1hko some heatran . . . lame).
CB is an option to ensure the kill on heatran, but obviously gives Gyarados issues with using taunt. However CB lead gyara should be praised for its effectiveness against trick-leads.
With Jirachi and Metagross in the lead position more and more (and Empoleon's rise to popularity), EQ started becoming much more valuable, especially when I realized the times I actually used dragon dance were becoming more and more slim.
Outrage is a possible move, especially if CB is in use, mostly for its damage to Latias, and to provide more reliable coverage against salamence and the newly popular kingdra.
On a last note, it's rather Gimmicky but Protect can be a very effective move in the final slot. Mostly, it's there to escape from Explosions. It can be useful in a number of other situations though-- the primary one being when a rotom/latias/jirachi/etc. switches in and you see no lefties. Odds are, it'll be scarfed, so you can protect once to see what he does. Protect can also stack your odds against rotom for knowing whether to switch to Flygon or Infernape (if you don't want to go immediately to Tyranitar).
Getting the timing right against explosion can be difficult, and is often a matter of luck-- but when pulled off, it's amazing. You just have to practice. As a tip, Azelf will explode if it's gotten SR up and has weak life. Metagross will often explode even if it's at full health (if it has SR up).
Modest
252HP 180S.ATK 76SPD
@Leftovers
-Substitute
-Dark Pulse
-Flamethrower
-Ice Beam
This TTar is surprisingly useful. More speed than boah (and more than 0 speed metagross and scizor for that matter) and more special attack too. It's fat, and bulky, and brings the all-valuable sand stream. Water fall with gyara during the SR set up, then switch to this, is how I deal with azelf. Explosion only does like 40% when intimidated.
It is unreal how often I see skarmory, scizor, forry, gliscor and hippow switch into this thing's substitute. Hence why this is a "wall breaker." Best way to use it is to bring it into a special attacker like Rotom-A, Jolteon, Zapdos or even heatran (who actually walls you) and substitute as they run away. If you can predict ice beam/flamethrower from blissey, it's a good switch in too as there's little chance they'd know this is an all-special ttar. Then procede to annhialate whatever comes in. It's a good idea to treat this as a special sponge of sorts. Keep in mind that 1 on 1 (even without sub) this thing will beat even pokemon like gliscor, hippowdon, skymin, celebi and starmie who think they can win because "they have super effective" damage.
Having a poke who can turn porygon 2 into set up fodder is huge too for an offensive team.
Also, 1 on 1, this tyranitar will always defeat Obi's wish-bliss. Flamethrower takes as many as 4 hits to destroy sub, by which time you've gained all your health back. Ice Beam it for the eventual freeze hax, or just keep attacking because you have more PP. I've had a few games where Blissey tried to wall this ttar (once it discovered I have no physical moves), only to find itself on the losing side. If by chance they do have enough special attack to 2 hit your sub or they have seismic toss, just keep subbing/attacking for the freeze hax or until you can predict a wish/softboiled, and switch to one of your other pokemon.
Adamant
108HP 252ATK 98DEF 52SPD
Careful
200 HP 56 ATK 200 Sp.DEF 52 SPD "Uber Scizor" spread also viable
@Choice Band
-U-Turn
-Bullet Punch
-Superpower
-Quick Attack/Pursuit PURSUIT
Pretty plain and simple. CB Scizor is a beast. Rather, CB U-Turn is a beast (oh, and bullet punch too, lol). Scizor's here for all around "It's faster than my team so I need to kill it" purposes. U-Turn also goes a long way to breaking some important walls. Starmie and Celebi in particular would be much bigger problems without scizor around. It even helps against opponents that resist it. After getting hit by two U-Turns Heatran can be taken down by outrage from teammates. It also brings any magnezone into range to be anhialated by salamence or infernape. (Magnezone loves switching in to get hit in the face by U-Turn). In the early game, abuse U-Turn as much as possible over Bullet Punch, which comes into play more late-game.
Though the loss of a Rock resistance is unfortunate, overall I've found this much more useful compared to CB metagross who was the pre-platinum pokemon in this slot. No Garchomp means that CB Ice Punch and Metagross' better defenses have become unnecessary.
Pursuit/Quick Attack: The main issue I have with pursuit is that I really hate playing the stupid "will they switch or not" game. If I'm in the same situation, I'm likely to do the same thing. Quick attack provides coverage against the likes of gyarados/zapdos and lets you finish off weakened infernape. I find this fairly useful. If you're an absolute god at prediction though, I'd say go with pursuit.
Careful CB Scizor was born from Latias' coming to OU. It also provides a much more reliable way of dealing with Starmie and Gengar (who was previously somewhat of a problem), as well as Celebi who now sometimes carry HP Fire (which this thing can survive provided they have minimal sp.ATK evs). Obviously U-Turn doesn't hurt nearly as much against things that resist it anymore, but Scizor now takes down all the flighty special attackers with much more reliability. Pursuit is also far more reliable with the bulkier spread.
To ilustrate this things defensive abilities, LO Focus Blast from Gengar is a 3hko.
Naive
16ATK 240s.ATK 252 SPD
@Life Orb
-Draco Meteor
-Flamethrower/Fire Blast
-Brick Break Earthquake
-Outrage
This is a unique kind of mix-mence. Max Speed is underrated. The ability to outspeed zapdos and enemy salamence almost without fail and wipe them out with draco meteor is huge. This makes you almost impervious to the "bulky sweeper," and very capable of ripping wholes in the enemy team, especially stall teams. This salamence overall though, does not wipe out too many enemies on its own. It does however, do an amazing job of revenge killing and wall breaking There are very few pokemon who aren't 2hko'd, and there's absolutely nothing that really likes switching into draco meteor. This slamence is flexible and agile, capable of doing a lot of jobs-- #1 being, take out one of the enemy pokemon. Against a stall team, even once if I've lost the initiative and this salamence or even 2 pokmon, if I can wipe out one of the enemy walls I can usually break the rest of the team to shreds. With that in mind, let's go over the moves since they're a bit un-intuitive.
Draco Meteor: This is your "Mop," not a broom to sweep, but the brush that can hurt just about any 1 opponent really badly. When in doubt, Draco Meteor. In my opinion, still Salamence's ultimate move, especially now when everyone is expecting a physical mence. Draco Meteor is what makes Salamence a wall breaker and a special threat in general. Even Blissey and Heatran are not going to like having to come into this repeatedly.
Flamethrower/Fire Blast: Overall, I've found flamethrower to be more viable but I certainly agree with fire blast's usefulness. For instance, if Bulky Gyara switches in on fire blast, it is now in ko range from draco meteor. Bulky Gyara is a threat of old though, and with scizor around these days the cost of missing has been exponentiall increased. Breloom and lucario also being quite common has detered me from using fire blast. Against most enemies, flamethrower more than suffices. Overall, flamethrower and brick break are nice moves when I'm in a position to revenge kill and don't want to use up draco meteor or get locked into outrage.
Brick Break: I'm sure this is the big question for most: Why Brick Break over Earthquake? The most simple answer is that there are more flying/levitate pokemon than there are ghost pokemon. This mence is fighting against sand, SR and LO. It's not going to last long. You need to land the hits. I understand that Outage hits harder than a super effective hit from Brick Break, but having a move that doesn't lock you in and provides reliable damage is huge on this mence. The damage between missing earthquake and hitting with brick break against zapdos could very well be the difference between KOing it with Draco Meteor and dieing to LO damage as it roosts back up. Being able to use this move to finish off bronzong's without worrying about whether or not they'd switch to heatran for instance. Brick Break just lets me have to rely a bit less on prediction. Being able to take tyranitar out of the game as well as hurt blissey without outrage is more valuable than one would expect.
*let's also not forget how popular double screen is, and the fact that brick break fits here better than on scizor or infernape imo.
For a number of reasons, EQ became more and more viable here than BB as the metagame continued.
Outrage: Before Platinum, this slot was Stone Edge. Stone Edge let you hit enemy salamence/gyarados even if your special attack was expunged. It was also a good "last resort" against Togekiss. It's high critical hit ratio also made it a good move for sacking mence when it was all burnt out. After some playtesting though, I realized Outrage was superior in almost every way. Against almost every flying type pokemon (SE's main target), Outrage hits almost as hard (180 v. 200 super effective). Outrage also provided some much needed accuracy (remember the original set was D.Meteor/Fire Blast/Brick Break/Stone Edge), and overall is even better for sacrificing thanks to STAB. Salamence is now a "two step offensive." Just when they think they got mence beat, it's special attack and hp near rock bottom, it can let loose with Outrage and take another enemy down with it. By the time I get around to Outrage, I'm normally so weak I don't have to worry about being locked in, LO, and sand damage will remove that danger. Besides, with Scizor instead of Metagross around for the most part, I can be sure Outrage is leaving some damage behind. This "Two-Step" offensive wall breaker is truly incredible.
As a note, against enemies with near even defenses (like Swampert or Celebi), Draco Meteor and Outrage will be doing very similar damage. You can use this to help you gauge whether or not you should outrage. When playing with mence, use it in the early game and don't worry too much about keeping it alive, just make sure to take something down. The most ideal targets are the enemy bulky water type and the enemy steel type.
The enemy bulky water is the #1 thing you want to kill, and the enemy steel type is something likely to be tempted out. If you can take it out, you can help clear the path for Flygon's late game outrage sweep. IE, this salamence is not only a wall-breaker, it's a lure-- a precursor to help set up for flygon's sweep. It's rare that I'll take out more than 2 enemies with Salamence, but thanks to it games where Flygon wipes out 4-5 enemies are quite common.
If you can, keep in mind it makes good death fodder with intimidate and it's SR weak.
Mild Rash
@Life Orb
24 ATK 252sATK 232 Speed
-Overheat
-Close Combat
-Grass Knot
-Hidden Power [Ice]
Never underestimate Overheat, especially if it's got Blaze. Overheat is like Salamence's Draco Meteor, this is your mop. This infernape can outspeed Zapdos and do 80-90% to it with Overheat (meaning with just a bit of damage from teammates, you can 1hko it). You'd be shocked at how much this thing can still do to Jirachi or Metagross even after the sp.atk drop, so if the enemy is stupid enough to bring a fire-weak pokemon in after overheat, don't hesitate to go for it. Oh, keep in mind that grass knot can 2hko most gyarados and hit Suicune for around 70%. Otherwise, this is mix-ape. The damage from Mild is impressive. You know what to do with it, the premier wall breaker.
*A note about rash: Worth a note mostly because of scizor's bullet punch and luke's extreme speed. Overall though, taking heatran's fire attacks is a bigger concern, since forcing out heatran gives you more chances to use your wall breaking abilities than trying to revenge kill luke or scizor. Also with naive on mence, -def on nape is not a bad idea.
As the metagame progressed, with Scizor's popularity only rising, along with SD Luke, it became more and more apparent that Rash was becoming superior to Mild.
Adamant
80HP 252ATK 172 SPD
@Choice Scarf
-U-Turn
-Earthquake
-Outrage
-Fire Punch Fire Blast
Flygon really is the star of the show. Period.
This is how I deal with all the early game trick and thunder wave bull-shit. When switching from Gyarados, Flygon is an incredible switch in to zapdos, metagross, aerodactyle and gengar. Against pokemon who try to counter gyarados, it is a huge help against celebi, who eats a 60-70% hit from scarf U-turn. Starmie can be dealth the same treatment. It also screws trick/thunderbolt/thunderwave rotom-A, who is soon to find itself as ttar set-up fodder. If you're really brave, you can even switch this into P-2 or Cresselia, and help bring infernape or scizor into a nice easy ice beam.
Without it, I seriously could not lead with gyarados. Scarf U-Turn from ground/electric immunity + rock resistance is simply incredible in the early game.
Thanks to its near-immunity to practically all passive damage, it will usually still be doing good in late game, where this thing rapes. It's not garchomp, but after salamence, infernape and ttar have done thier thing, flygon will come in and destroy the enemies with scarf outrage and earthquake (we all know how good the stab combo is). So much for "last pokemon luke" eh?
Some notes:
U-turn: Is currently programmed wrong in shoddy. Platinum alleviated the choice item-u-turn glitch of D/P, so when U-turning between flygon and scizor, you should be free to switch between moves. When playing on shoddy, keep in mind that this still is not the case. This problem has been fixed. Feel free to spam U-Turn between Scizor and Flygon.
EVs: Flygon wants as much bulk as possible. It needs to be able to take on fire blasts, bullet punches and extreme speeds as it makes for the late game sweep. 80 HP and Adamant nature keeps it fairly bulky (ie. Lonely/Naughty are fail). At first I was using 112 HP 140SPD and saw a lot of success with it, but being outrun by +speed scarfran turned out to be too annoying, so I made sure this flygon would outrun all heatran. It's still pretty tough. If you really need the speed though, the targets you should try looking to beat are other 100 base scarf users (celebi in particular is annoying) and agility metagross (though this requires Jolly).
Fire Punch: As I mentioned in the EVs area, flygon needs bulk. a -def/-sp.def nature is not acceptable, which is why fire punch comes in. Although not really a core move to the set (Outrage/u-turn are your most used moves), it's good to have around in case you're facing a last-pokemon-scizor or you just need to get rid of skymin. Speaking of skymin, flygon u-turn to scizor is an excellent way of getting rid of skymin behind a sub (just don't do it on shoddy). Even with Adamant, Fire Blast 2hko's Skarmory. That alone gives it a mention.
I'd rather not post a full threat list, as it seems long and tedious (and I happen to know that there are few really obvious holes in this team). If you have questions about specific enemy pokemon, I'll answer (granted I check back on this thread).
