XY OU After a long hiatus, an attempt at a basic bulky team

[tea_and_blues]

After years and years of not playing much competitive Pokemon, and just popping back in for CAP and wifi, I've been laddering on Showdown. I've had a couple of battles across the last few days, climbing up to the 1500s, and I expect I can climb up quite a bit further but I need to give my team some serious thought, so I'd appreciate criticism and advice. At the moment my biggest problem is Charizard-Y, followed by status, and particularly burns.

Initial line-up:

Details:

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
- Leech Seed

Originally Modest, I switched to Bold because Saur was taking more from Earthquakes than I wanted, and the whole team began around this mega. I've always been a more defensive player, right back to GSC stall wars, so Mega Saur felt like a natural starting point for me. Saur blocks Spore leads well, which would otherwise shut down my usual Mamoswine lead.

Mamoswine @ Focus Sash
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 244 Atk / 12 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Freeze-Dry
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake

Normally I lead with Mamoswine to get rocks up, or do serious damage then threaten with Ice Shard. My playstyle tends to force a lot of switches and require a lot of prediction on both sides, so rock damage can quickly add up, especially against big threats like Talonflame and M-Pinsir. I started out with Endeavour over Freeze-Dry, but as I was testing this team for cart, and didn't see myself RNGing a Moon Ball Swinub in HGSS just to get Endeavour from the BW2 move tutors, I switched over to Freeze-Dry and it's worked surprisingly well. I've scored comfortable 2hkos on Gyarados that have tried to set up on me, and taken huge chunks out of unsuspecting or worn down Rotom-W. Not being totally crippled by Will-O is also an advantage over the Endeavour set. Oblivious is easily the best ability as the odd person tries to Taunt me and I get a free turn to set up Stealth Rocks.

Zapdos @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Roost
- Heat Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Defog

Initially I ran U-Turn over Heat Wave, but Ferrothorn kept proving an issue to my team, Venusaur walling it but doing nearly nothing back. The main reason I run physically defensive Zapdos is to counter Flying spam, which seems to be everywhere. Defog also helps immensely, preserving Mamoswine's Sash if it's still unbroken, and preventing hazard damage generally. Unfortunately it also removes my rocks. Rocky Helmet felt like a gamble at first, but the number of times I've needed to switch into Pinsir's Brave Bird, that extra damage quickly starts to count, and I can always Roost with good prediction.

Bisharp @ Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Pursuit

Basically a trap for Lati@s and other Psychic types that switch in and try to take down my Venusaur. People tend to predict Sucker Punch and switch out, making Pursuit a regular killer. Iron Head flinching, while unreliable, works as a last ditch gamble if showing down with a weakened Azumarill, and it kills Fairy types on the switch in.

Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Recover
- Stockpile

Standard anti-boosting Quag. Stockpile works much better for me than Toxic, allowing it to actually stall out a lot of physical threats it otherwise couldn't. Without any boosts, Quag's bulk is a little underwhelming, and it can't switch in on Life Orb Excadrill's Earthquake, dying to the 2hko. A boost of two, which isn't hard to get, often wins me matches, allowing Quag to tank hits and recover off damage happily even with a burn and/or Leftovers knocked off. Occasionally I've found myself fishing for scald burns, which can seem a bit desperate. I've probably let Quag lose Leftovers far more than necessary by failing to predict and switch into M-Saur.

Infernape @ Expert Belt
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Thunder Punch
- Mach Punch

If I see a Will-O-Wisp on the way, I usually switch to Infernape to block it. I suppose Infernape is the weakest link of my team, except that it kills switching in Heatran reliably with Close Combat, and Water or Flying types seem never to expect a Thunder Punch. More often than not Infernape is my slightly shaky way of destroying Ferrothorn, and between Rocky Helmets and Iron Barbs, I often lose Nape in the process.

Threats

Charizard-Y: This thing eats my team alive. I haven't encountered it very much, but when I have it has been very difficult to take down. I'm reliant at the moment on keep Stealth Rocks up and then knocking it down with priority attacks, but that's a huge gamble. Chansey is probably the answer, but I don't know where to fit it.

LO Excadrill: Earthquake from this thing destroys. I've managed to wear it down, but usually with difficulty. Non-LO variants don't pose so much of an issue.

Probably others I haven't encountered yet. I have only been using this team the past three days. I hope that's not too short an amount of time to justify a RMT.

 

[SomeKidFromJohto]

Well, from looking at your team and reading your descriptions, it seems like you feel infernape is a bit of a weak link on your team, and I tend to agree. Nape is a cool pokemon, but not always up to the tasks it needs to handle to be OU effective. I think I can actually solve all your problems at once by simply switching out infernape for heatran. Use this heatran set, and see what you think:

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Ancient Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power

I think this particular heatran setup would work well for you, as it will basically solve every problem you brought up. Air balloon will protect you against excadrill's earthquake, and while it moves to it's backup moves to pop it, you can murder it with fire blast. You can laugh off basically any move charizard-Y could throw at you, barring maybe hidden power ground, but in the meantime you can kill it with ancient power. It will also act as a good will-o-wisp absorber, just like your infernape did, only heatran will get a boost to it's fire moves from it. You could potentially switch the other moves around to suit other jobs, such as running flash cannon to deal with fairies, but for now, I would recommend starting with this set, and adjusting it as necessary from there.

So try out this heatran and see what you think. I believe you'll be pleasantly surprised at how effectively it can help you against the threats you listed. Good job on your team, and good luck with your laddering!