A New Dawn

[fatsnorlax]

Hello fellow Smogonites. This is one of my first real Gen 4 OU teams. After a little bit of help, it started doing pretty well. Now, I created this team simply because the other one was miserable (ableit, it won me a couple on Smogon). It's not to innovative, featuring some standered Pokemon and what not, but it'll do. After all, this isn't Gen 5 OU where half the teams are almost exactly alike(:

At a glance:

Dead Box(Past Members)

In depth:

Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 248hp/216def/44Sdef
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Ice Beam
-Roar​

Swampert was recommended to me by Tomahawk to help counter T-Tar, but he is more useful than just that. Setting up Stealth Rock is always helpful, and PHazing is too. Luckily, Swampert does both quite well thanks to its high bulk and good typing. It also has useable offenses that make it a decent pivot when needed ot kill off certain threats. A 4x Grass weakness isn't exactly heavensent, I can make due.​

The EVs are quite simple, maintaining a lot of bulk and decent offenses. Stealth Rock is one of Swampert's main purposes, putting a hazard on the field to put pressure on switching. Roar PHazes set-up sweepers and ruins baton pass chains while racking up entry hazard damage. Ice Beam hits things that Swampert walls like Hippo and Flygon for a ton of damage, and Earthquake functions as his main attack.​

Synergy:
Grass: Zapdos, Celebi, Lucario​

Reaction to other leads

Azelf
Switch to T-Tar and crunch.​

Machamp
A hard one. I guess pert does decently enough... Gyara can also do semidecently.

Aerodactyl​

Metagross​

Swampert​

Infernape​

Heatran​

Jirachi​

Roserade​

Hippowdon​

Starmie​

Dragonite​

Gliscor​

Tyranitar​

Skarmory​

Forretress​

Yanmega​

Ambipom​

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Calm
EVs: 248hp/222Sdef/36spd
-Thunderbolt
-Roost
-Heat Wave
-Thunder Wave​

Zapdos is here to counter Shaymin and friends, and does a good job. Its high Special Defense and resistance to Seed Flare allow it to easily switch in and either Paralyze (which isn't the most effective thanks to Natural Cure), destroy its targets.​

The EVs give Zapdos a lot of special bulk and a decent amount of speed. Roost is one of the main moves in this set; it restores half of Zapdos's hp and rids of its flying type for one turn, which is a mixed bag. Thunderbolt allows it to fry stuff like Gyarados, one of the most troublesome fishies in history. Heat Wave hits Shaymin and Breloom both for major damage, and thunderwave makes walling/ sweeping (done by other team members) easier. Zapdos isn't without its flaws, but it certainly has its uses.​

Synergy:
Rock: Lucario
Ice: Starmie, Lucario, Heatran​

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4hp/252atk/252spd
-Stone Edge
-Pursuit
-Crunch
-Superpower​

Tyrantiar is basically the anti ghost member of the team, being able ot easily take out most of them by Crunching or Pursuiting as they flee. Its high Special Defense allows it to check quite a few things. Tyranitar also functions as a revenge killer, killing thing like Blissey and Azlef.​

The EVs are self explanitory: max speed, max power, and a little bit of bulk in the mix. Stone Edge is my main STAB, having 150 power and a high crit rate. Unfortuantly, that all comes with 70 accuracy. Crunch is another STAB, being more accurate than Stone Edge, but less powerful. Pursuit traps the spin blockers that will try and get away, and Superpower hits the super tough pink puff (not Kirby, Blissey!). Tyranitars usefulness to the team is undeniable.​

Synergy:
Fighting: Celebi, Starmie, Zapdos
Steel: Starmie, Zapdos
Ground: Celebi, Zapdos
Water: Celebi, Starmie​

Celebi @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Modest
EVs: 232hp/240Satk/36spd
-Leaf Storm
-Recover
-Thunder Wave
-Hidden Power [Fire]​

I would like to thank 2sly4u for reccommnding this little guy to me. Clelebi's purpose is complicated... kill stuff, wall stuff.... yadda yadda yadda. Celebi's nice bulk and double edge'd typing give it some nice defensive stuff to work with, and its offense isn't shabby either. It also has a useful ability in Natural Cure.​

The EVs are there to give Celebi good bulk and attacking power, while the Life Orb compliments the latter. Leaf Storm is my STAB, wrecking what doesn't resist it. Recover restores health, which goes good with its bulk and Life Orb. Thunder Wave stops sweepers, most notably Gyarados, from going on a rampage. Hidden Power gives coverage.​

Synergy:
Ice: Lucario, Heatran, Starmie
Bug: Lucario, Heatran
Ghost: Lucario, Heatran, Tyranitar
Dark: Lucario, Heatran, Tyranitar
Flying: Heatran, Tyranitar​

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Careful
EVs: 248hp/156def/96Sdef/8spd
-Waterfall
-Dragon Dance
-Rest
-Sleep Talk​

This cool Gyarados set was recommended to me by Bubbly, and it has worked pretty well. Its good bulk and Intimidate give it the ability to withstand a nice bit of punishment and set up, at which point teams can be severely dented if Electrics and bulky PHazers are gone. It also has good typing, giving it a good amount of resistances to come in on a lot of foes. A Stealth Rock weakness is unfortunate, but it can be remedied via Rest.​

The EVs and nature are there so that Gyarados has a lot of bulk, giving it the ability to counter a lot of things. Dragon Dance is a set up move, which can turn Gyarados into a sweeping machine. Waterfall hits a good amount of stuff hard and has a nice 30% flinch chance. Rest and Sleep Talk are the infamous Rest Talk combo, reliably recovering Gyarados and allowing more time to set up.​

Synergy:
Electric: Celebi, Swampert
Rock: Lucario, Swampert​

Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 4hp/252atk/252spd
-Swords Dance
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
-Extremespeed​

Lucario is a physical sweeper, capable of boosting its attack to sky high levels with a single boost, and sweeping with the unresisted coverage of its moves. It is frail, but can still find an opportunity to set up thanks to its typing.​

The EVs and Item are all about power. Swords Dance is an excellent boosting move, allowing Lucario to hit 700 attack with a single boost. Close Combat is the best fighting move in the game imo, boasting perfect accuracy, 180bp, and the great coverage that comes with the almighty fighting type. Stone Edge provides coverage against common switch ins like Gyarados and Dragonite. Extremespeed rounds off the set with an outstanding form of priority, which is just awesome.​

Thank you for reading! Feel free to rate, hate, Luvdisc, and nominate all you like!​

Recent changes will be in red.​

Logs

Log
A Log With Gyara
MOAR PWNAGE!

Threatlist

Heatran:

Lead: Swampert takes it one on one; Lucario and Gyarados beat the tar out of it... speaking of tar, Tyranitar works well too.
Choice Scarf: Swampert, Tyranitar, and Gyarados can take it out Zapdos Paralysis it.
Choice Specs: Lucario, Gyarados, Swampert, and Tyranitar can all take it.
Specially Defensive: Lucario, Gyarados, Swampert, and Tyranitar
Substitute: Swampert can Roar it before it torments. Lucario easily takes it out.

Scizor:

Choice Band: Gyarados and Zapdos and easily take anything it has, and either fry it or set up on it. Celebi and Lucario revenge it.
Swords Dance: Zapdos and Gyarados still treat is pretty badly, and Celebi and Lucario still revenge it.
Choice Scarf: Gyarados and Zapdos are mean to it.

Flygon:

Gyarados:

Rotom-H:

Rotom-W:

Rotom-C:

Infernape:

Starmie:

Gengar:

Tyranitar:

Metagross:

Dragonite:

Breloom:

Jirachi:

Swampert:

Blissey:
Wall: Lucario easily takes it out with Close Combat; Tyranitar has Superpower. Swampert can come in on T-Wave and Earthquake it.
Wish: see above

Azelf:

Zapdos:

Suicune:

Lucario:

Machamp:

Skarmory:

Vaporeon:

Gliscor:

Kingdra:

Celebi:

Shaymin:

Forretress:

Snorlax:

Roserade:

Bronzong:

Aerodactyl:

Jolteon:

Togekiss:

Hippowdon:

Magnezone:

Credits

You, for reading.
Arkies, Pokemon Elite and Qbone for pictures.
2sly4you for the suggestion of Celebi.
Bubbly for the suggestions of Gyarados and Stone Edge on Lucario.
Tomohawk9 for the suggestion Swampert.​

 

[2sly4u]

Hi FatSnorlax, nice team.

My biggest issue is how much pressure Starmie is under. He's your only pokemon who doesn't have a weakness to the popular EdgeQuake, and is also your best answer to DD Gyarados. Even with instant recovery, Starmie isn't very bulky and can't live forever when it's your sole check to many common threats. To remedy this, I'd replace Dragonite with a Celebi

Celebi@Life Orb
232 HP/240 SpA/32 Spe
Leaf Storm
Recover
Thunder Wave
HP Fire/Psychic/U-Turn

Celebi is a great fit for your team, deftly handling EdgeQuake users while laughing at Gyarados's Waterfall. It also pairs well with Starmie and Heatran, completing the FWG core while giving you two Natural Cure users with instant recovery. I picked the support variant for its nice mix of raw power and respectable defenses. Leaf Storm gives you a huge amount of power, often OHKOing things that don't resist it. Recover lets you sluff off lighter hits, and Thunder Wave cripples faster pokemon who otherwise give you trouble. HP Fire is standard in the last slot to prevent you from becoming Scizor fodder, but Psychic is actually decent on Celebi since she has Leaf Storm to handle the most common Dark-type, Tyranitar. U-Turn is an option as well, but the coverage the other two moves provide is usually preferred.

I hope that helps. Good luck!

 

[fatsnorlax]

I have added in Celebi.

 

[bubbly]

Hey, this is a pretty good team. However, there are a number of offensive threats which are going to give you problems if used well, such as:

-Dragon Dance Tyranitar = If you lose the speed tie with your own ScarfTar its game over.
-Gengar = Can't get a Substitute anywhere so is vulnerable to Tyranitar but it walls Lucario and OHKO's the majority of the team. If Tyranitar is locked into Superpower and it subs you'll lose at least one pokemon.
-Machamp = No team is really secure against these things; however, you've got nothing which can avoid confusion from DynamicPunch or weaken it such as Gyarados.
-Lucario = Tyranitar checks non Bullet Punch versions, Zapdos can beat it from full health, but both are very very shaky counters and can easily be got round.

Anyway, these threats can be covered pretty easily but it'll take some moderate adjustment to the team. First of all, I think you should run with a bulky DD Gyarados in place of Zapdos. Its a stronger counter to Fighting types, helps with Heatran, and in particular it makes a brilliant sweeping combo with Lucario (both are typically countered on offensive teams by Scarf Rotom-A which Tyranitar takes out).

Next thing, your team doesn't really have any way to kill off Gyarados. Celebi, Starmie and Zapdos could all force it out but since its the strongest and most common counter to Lucario it makes sense to try and lure it somehow. I've run teams before which use a ThunderPunch Infernape to do this and double up on the Fighting type offensive but unless you really like the sound of that, you can still use Heatran to occasionally take out Gyara and run Stone Edge > Crunch on your Lucario. Crunch only really helps with non-Scarf Rotom since you have better things to do with Luke than try to catch incoming Ghosts on the switchin - and the old defensive Rotom sets are pretty uncommon now.

Finally, Gyarados doesn't patch up the existing weaknesses to DDTar and Gengar. The threat coverage between Gyarados and Starmie is pretty much the same except for Gyarados being able to take on physical threats so I think you can try a Scizor in place of Starmie. This also aids Lucario's sweep because it and Scizor are countered by very similar things usually, meaning it can weaken up Gyarados, Rotom, Gliscor etc with U-turn. Finally it also makes a good back up Pursuiter allowing you to play Tyranitar a little bit more recklessly against Rotom and the like.

So basically, Gyarados > Zapdos, Stone Edge > Crunch on Lucario, Scizor > Starmie. Sets!

Gyarados @ Leftovers, Careful nature
248 HP / 156 Def / 96 SpDef / 8 Spe
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

If you prefer you can obviously run the standard bulky Taunt Gyarados; I just like this one because nobody knows about it and its literally impossible to stop from sweeping if your opponents out of Electric attacks and bulky phazers.

Scizor @ Choice Band, Adamant nature
248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
-U-turn
-Bullet Punch
-Pursuit
-Quick Attack / Superpower (yeah I'm not a Superpower fan)

Hope these suggestions help :) Good luck with the team

 

[Tomahawk]

Dragon Dance Tyranitar can be troublesome, setting up on Heatran or Zapdos and outspeeding your whole team after besides your own Tyranitar, who has to rely on a speedtie. All other members of your team are outsped and KOed. (Heatran by Earthquake, Zapdos by Stone Edge, Celebi by Crunch, Starmie by Crunch, Lucario by Earthquake).
I can see you having trouble with Dragon Dance Kingdra as well. Sets up on Starmie mainly, but also on Heatran and Celebi if it's the SubDD version (or ChestoRest version on Celebi as well). After that, it outspeeds and KOes most of your team with Waterfall, and Celebi can't take an Outrage.

Therefore, I think a Swampert would work well over your current Heatran. He still sets up Stealth Rock very reliably, but also does a great job at countering Tyranitar and Kingdra. He can take an attack with his physical bulk, and Roar them out, or Earthquake for the KO vs Tyranitar. The exact set is:

Hide

Swampert @ Leftovers | Torrent
Relaxed | 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 SpD
Stealth Rock / Earthquake / Ice Beam / Roar

Good luck!

 

[BKC]

Lead Machamp completely slaughters you. Heatran is mustering only 75% or so with Fire Blast and then he dies to DynamicPunch--Champ can then be revenge killed by anything else but he'll have taken your Stealth Rocker out in the process. Try running Life Orb as the item and Overheat over Fire Blast; this lets you KO Machamp at the cost of 10% of your HP, which is much better than losing an entire mon just to strip off three quarters of Champ's health. I'd also drop Earth Power; you're never staying in on other lead Tran because you lack Shuca Berry, while the addition of HP Grass means you can get an easy KO on Swampert leads, which helps Lucario sweep late-game.

Speaking of Lucario, use Bullet Punch over Crunch. You don't need to hit ghosts because Tyranitar is Pursuiting them. BP means that other Scarftar can't check you, and it also helps a bit with your DD Tar weakness, especially if you take bubbly's Scizor suggestion.

 

[fatsnorlax]

I'm using Gyara and Pert now. Will try Stone Edge.

 

[fatsnorlax]

Bump

EDIT: I'm trying Stone Edge. Any suggestions will be at least thought about.

 

[bubbly]

The team's looking pretty good, obviously mention if you're having any issues with it etc. Congrats :)

 

[fatsnorlax]

Thanks

 

[fatsnorlax]

Anyone?

 

[fatsnorlax]

Is anybody out there? Anybody there? Does anybody wonder? Anybody care?