Several months ago this team took #stark by storm, simple, effective, and showed how easy it was to just create a team and win consistently during the era of Latias and Salamence. A large number of users tried the team to much success and it wasn't even a secret, I told any and everybody about the team.
Prior to creating the team I spent a few months playing UU toying with things like Ditto, Tauros, and one of my favorite UU Pokemon, Magneton. Magneton's role in teams is simple, take out the Steels on the opposing team to open sweeps for Normal and Dragon-type sweepers. It does it's job well and if you can't hit it for super-effective damage it can be difficult to take down. Recently I decided to try OU again, and I wanted to try an idea I was toying with for some time, abuse the hell out of Dragons and their two nearly broken moves, Draco Meteor and Outrage. The idea was simple, throw a bunch of Dragons on a team and spam those two moves, however the abundance of Steels in the metagame would make this rather difficult and that's where Magnezone and Magneton come in. With their ability to trap and either defeat or hurt Steels for a large chunk of health they can open up the rest of the team for a sweep. The first question I get a lot is "Why Magnezone AND Magneton?" which I will answer later, but I feel both are necessary for this team to work.
The design for 4drag2mag, as the team is affectionately known, allows for battles to finish quickly, and more often than not a win for the user. I've seen people try to be fancy with the team, trying to predict, which is completely unnecessary. I've joked that you can use the following flowchart and still win:
Obviously it is not always that simple, things happen, but the general idea is there, click Outrage and win. After using it for some time I passed it off to #stark and people have had similar success with it, some people needed help at first so here is a sample battle with me telling the user exactly what to do:
As you can see, simple and effective and only once I had the user switch from one Pokemon to another. This team does its job and does it well, and the reactions from the opponents it crushes are often hilarious as they get tired of seeing ANOTHER Dragon come in and start to Outrage. Without further ado, the team:
At a glance:
Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- U-turn
- Fire Blast
Flygon is one of the weaker Outrage users, but with its access to U-turn and Earthquake it does very well at beating other leads. U-turn can allow me to scout for certain problem Pokemon and break opposing Focus Sashes. However more often than not, I can start to Outrage right away, very few opponents expect a first turn Outrage and almost immediately I can take a 6-5 lead. I really don't care about letting opponent's set up Stealth Rock, Spikes, or Toxic Spikes, the entire team is immune to Toxic Spikes, 2/3 immune to Spikes, and due to the nature of the team Stealth Rock damage is very limited because of the lack of switching.
Latias (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
Outside of the 2 Mags, Latias may be the most important Pokemon on the team. While I could've opted for something like Kingdra to maintain the idea of total Outrage, Latias makes the team work. Certain threats like Swampert and Gliscor are difficult for the rest of the Dragons to take down. Gliscor is a Pokemon that shrugs off Outrage and can Roost the damage off, putting me into a losing position. Latias can either do one of two things to Pokemon such as this, hit hard with one of its attacking moves, or more commonly, Trick. These bulky, defensive Pokemon dislike being locked into one move and it essentially makes them fodder for the rest of the team.
Dragonite (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Extremespeed
Dragonite's is very basic, Outrage and 2 moves to hurt Steels that I might not have had a chance to remove. The final move is what gets people, a Scarfed Extremespeed seems ludicrous, what point does it serve? Through testing I discovered that while rare, Pokemon that use Ice Shard are major problems, Weavile and Mamoswine being the main culprits. Extremespeed helps me with this issue as with the Scarf, I am bound to out speed other priority users.
Salamence (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk/176 Spd/80 SAtk
Naughty nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Hydro Pump
As mentioned before, physical walls can cause some problems for my Outrages, so with Salamence's above average Special Attack I am able to use a mixed set to help vs these problem Pokemon. While sometimes Mence can lack some oomph on the Special side sometimes, it still does its job very well.
Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 40 Atk/216 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Explosion
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
During this time in the OU metagame, Steels were very rampant because of the huge number of Dragon Pokemon, and for good reason, they are the only Pokemon that resist Draco Meteor and Outrage. Magnezone is one-half of the Mag duo critical to the success of this team. Magnezone takes care of the slower Steels like Scizor and Forretress, easily OHKOing both with Hidden Power Fire or faster Choice Steels locked into a NVE move. When trapping Pokemon like CB Scizor locked into Bullet Punch and Forretress, it is often beneficial to put a Substitute up first to guarantee a second attack on the switch in. If it is another Steel such as Heatran, a Thunderbolt can often put them in KO range of Outrage and if it something such as a Swampert, Explosion removes that Pokemon easily.
Magneton @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 28 Atk/228 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Explosion
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Flash Cannon
The second half of the Mag duo is also very important, it traps the faster Steels and while it doesn't always knock them out, the dent from Thunderbolt is enough to remove them from the game with an Outrage. As previously mentioned, Ice Shard Pokemon like Mamoswine and Weavile cause major problems for the rest of the team, often times they will stay in against this Magneton not knowing it is Scarfed using Earthquake or Low Kick to try to KO Magneton, but the faster Flash Cannon has other ideas and takes out a big threat to the team. Hidden Power Ice is great for removing Dragons trapped in Outrage and Explosion can be used to get rid of or put a large dent into anything that might attempt to wall my Outrage barrage.
While I have laid this team out for everyone, this was just my version of the team. Everyone tweaked it to their liking, changing natures, moves, whatever they felt could make the team better or better suited for their type of play. This version was entirely a guideline, basic and ready for tweaks, people would use Magnet Rise on Magnezone to make it even better at beating certain Steels and some people even removed Trick from Latias for an additional attacking move. Every person has their own tweak suited for them, and while this team can no longer be used on the OU ladder, and this RMT is mostly to finally get it out there outside of #stark, I suggest playing with it just to see how well it actually did during the time it was legal.
If you happen to be a fan of the team join this group!
Prior to creating the team I spent a few months playing UU toying with things like Ditto, Tauros, and one of my favorite UU Pokemon, Magneton. Magneton's role in teams is simple, take out the Steels on the opposing team to open sweeps for Normal and Dragon-type sweepers. It does it's job well and if you can't hit it for super-effective damage it can be difficult to take down. Recently I decided to try OU again, and I wanted to try an idea I was toying with for some time, abuse the hell out of Dragons and their two nearly broken moves, Draco Meteor and Outrage. The idea was simple, throw a bunch of Dragons on a team and spam those two moves, however the abundance of Steels in the metagame would make this rather difficult and that's where Magnezone and Magneton come in. With their ability to trap and either defeat or hurt Steels for a large chunk of health they can open up the rest of the team for a sweep. The first question I get a lot is "Why Magnezone AND Magneton?" which I will answer later, but I feel both are necessary for this team to work.
The design for 4drag2mag, as the team is affectionately known, allows for battles to finish quickly, and more often than not a win for the user. I've seen people try to be fancy with the team, trying to predict, which is completely unnecessary. I've joked that you can use the following flowchart and still win:
Obviously it is not always that simple, things happen, but the general idea is there, click Outrage and win. After using it for some time I passed it off to #stark and people have had similar success with it, some people needed help at first so here is a sample battle with me telling the user exactly what to do:
Code:
<zerowing> outrage
<zerowing> outrage
<zerowing> outrage
<zerowing> outrage
<zerowing> magneton
<zerowing> tbolt
<zerowing> salamence
<zerowing> outrage
<zerowing> outrage
<zerowing> magneton
<zerowing> dragonite
<zerowing> outrage
<zerowing> outrage
<zerowing> magneton
<zerowing> flash cannonAt a glance:
Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- U-turn
- Fire Blast
Flygon is one of the weaker Outrage users, but with its access to U-turn and Earthquake it does very well at beating other leads. U-turn can allow me to scout for certain problem Pokemon and break opposing Focus Sashes. However more often than not, I can start to Outrage right away, very few opponents expect a first turn Outrage and almost immediately I can take a 6-5 lead. I really don't care about letting opponent's set up Stealth Rock, Spikes, or Toxic Spikes, the entire team is immune to Toxic Spikes, 2/3 immune to Spikes, and due to the nature of the team Stealth Rock damage is very limited because of the lack of switching.
Latias (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
Outside of the 2 Mags, Latias may be the most important Pokemon on the team. While I could've opted for something like Kingdra to maintain the idea of total Outrage, Latias makes the team work. Certain threats like Swampert and Gliscor are difficult for the rest of the Dragons to take down. Gliscor is a Pokemon that shrugs off Outrage and can Roost the damage off, putting me into a losing position. Latias can either do one of two things to Pokemon such as this, hit hard with one of its attacking moves, or more commonly, Trick. These bulky, defensive Pokemon dislike being locked into one move and it essentially makes them fodder for the rest of the team.
Dragonite (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Extremespeed
Dragonite's is very basic, Outrage and 2 moves to hurt Steels that I might not have had a chance to remove. The final move is what gets people, a Scarfed Extremespeed seems ludicrous, what point does it serve? Through testing I discovered that while rare, Pokemon that use Ice Shard are major problems, Weavile and Mamoswine being the main culprits. Extremespeed helps me with this issue as with the Scarf, I am bound to out speed other priority users.
Salamence (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk/176 Spd/80 SAtk
Naughty nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Hydro Pump
As mentioned before, physical walls can cause some problems for my Outrages, so with Salamence's above average Special Attack I am able to use a mixed set to help vs these problem Pokemon. While sometimes Mence can lack some oomph on the Special side sometimes, it still does its job very well.
Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 40 Atk/216 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Explosion
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
During this time in the OU metagame, Steels were very rampant because of the huge number of Dragon Pokemon, and for good reason, they are the only Pokemon that resist Draco Meteor and Outrage. Magnezone is one-half of the Mag duo critical to the success of this team. Magnezone takes care of the slower Steels like Scizor and Forretress, easily OHKOing both with Hidden Power Fire or faster Choice Steels locked into a NVE move. When trapping Pokemon like CB Scizor locked into Bullet Punch and Forretress, it is often beneficial to put a Substitute up first to guarantee a second attack on the switch in. If it is another Steel such as Heatran, a Thunderbolt can often put them in KO range of Outrage and if it something such as a Swampert, Explosion removes that Pokemon easily.
Magneton @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 28 Atk/228 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Explosion
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Flash Cannon
The second half of the Mag duo is also very important, it traps the faster Steels and while it doesn't always knock them out, the dent from Thunderbolt is enough to remove them from the game with an Outrage. As previously mentioned, Ice Shard Pokemon like Mamoswine and Weavile cause major problems for the rest of the team, often times they will stay in against this Magneton not knowing it is Scarfed using Earthquake or Low Kick to try to KO Magneton, but the faster Flash Cannon has other ideas and takes out a big threat to the team. Hidden Power Ice is great for removing Dragons trapped in Outrage and Explosion can be used to get rid of or put a large dent into anything that might attempt to wall my Outrage barrage.
While I have laid this team out for everyone, this was just my version of the team. Everyone tweaked it to their liking, changing natures, moves, whatever they felt could make the team better or better suited for their type of play. This version was entirely a guideline, basic and ready for tweaks, people would use Magnet Rise on Magnezone to make it even better at beating certain Steels and some people even removed Trick from Latias for an additional attacking move. Every person has their own tweak suited for them, and while this team can no longer be used on the OU ladder, and this RMT is mostly to finally get it out there outside of #stark, I suggest playing with it just to see how well it actually did during the time it was legal.
If you happen to be a fan of the team join this group!
