Ask a Simple Question; Get a Simple Answer & General Resources (OU Edition)

[Lavos]

That's tough to say, because if you're a grass-type, you're generally weak to Tornadus-T, who is pretty common on Rain teams. I guess the best thing I could suggest would be

Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 148 SDef / 108 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Recover
- Perish Song

Handles rain teams pretty well, minus Tornadus-T, who you'll have to get a check for. This thing is made to tank Scalds like a pro. Natural Cure even lets it shrug off burns and such that might afflict it. It can beat most things commonly seen under rain, able to 2HKO Thundurus-T, 2HKO Breloom, 2HKO Starmie, etc. Speed EVs let it outrun standard DD Dragonite and Jolly Breloom. Giga Drain is good STAB and gets a bit of recovery, with HP Ice giving Celebi nice coverage. Recover is to keep it alive, and Perish Song is great for beating SubCM Jirachi and the like.

Remember to change Celebi's IVs to 2 Atk / 30 Def to get the most out of your EV spread, and good luck!

 

[Jimbon]

Is there a bulky grass type who is extremely reliable, can halt/check rain teams, has good (form of) recovery, and can stop dragon types and set uppers from taking advantage of it? I want to use it alongside gastrodon on my team to check rain teams

The main two that stand out are Celebi are Ferrothorn, but the two are very different. Ferrothorn helps out greatly against Rain Teams, due to it's main weakness being halved. Ferrothorn also has semi reliable recovery in Leech Seed, which can be easily abused if you run Protect alongside it. Ferrothorn also can lay down hazards and has a number of very good resistances, namely Dragon, Electric and Water making it a great asset against Rain Teams. Ferrothorn can also make great use of status such as Thunder Wave to cripple faster Pokemon such as the Dragons you mentioned.

Celebi on the other hand plays a little differently. It gets access to reliable recovery, in the form of Recover and can also lay down Stealth Rock. Celebi has a harder time checking Dragons but arguably has more durability against Rain Teams due to the reliable recovery. Celebi can also run a better offensive set than Ferrothorn, making sure it is not easy set up fodder for any Dragon that can take Celebi's STAB options. Celebi also gets access to Heal Bell, being able to perform a support role on a team.

Both have their benefits, it's more a matter of what the rest of your team has troubles with.

 

[Dark Fallen Angel]

If you want a more offensive option, I have a set that should work:

Vinicius (Celebi) @ Life Orb Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Nasty Plot
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]


A Nasty Plot set. It can sweep entire rain teams once Tornadus-T is out of equation. It can even take Tornadus-T itself if you predict correctly (once I've destroyed Tornadus-T with Psychic because the opponent thougth that I would switch to Tyranitar, and they used Focus Blast, a move that Celebi resists, and Celebi replied with Psychic, OHKOing Tornadus-T) I know this, I've tested and it works well, and is even my lead. Get a Nasty Plot boost, tank that Ice Beam that Politoed uses on you, and Giga Drain him, killing him and instantly winning the weather war.

Psychic is for Fighting and Dragon-types like Dragonite and Toxicroak (toxicroak may have sucker punch, take care with this fact!) Hidden Power Fire destroys Steel-types like Scizor, even in rain. Take care that under rain and without a Nasty Plot boost, Scizor can survive one Hidden Power Fire and destroy you with U-Turn or Bug Bite.

The good of this set is that even without investiment, Celebi cannot be OHKOed by any attack that Water-types on a rain can use against it, and it outspeeds and OHKO most of them with Giga Drain.

Stealth Rock is recommended, because with that, Celebi can OHKO Dragonite (it can survive even a boosted Psychic if it has Multiscale intact).

Earth Power can be used instead of Psychic if you fear being walled by Heatran, and is also a better attack to use against most Steel-types under rain, but without Psychic, Celebi would not be capable of defeating things like Dragonite, unless if you use Hidden Power Ice, but if you take out Hidden Power Fire, you are going to be walled by Steel-types that aren't weak to Earth Power. You can take out the nickname if you want, and I didn't create this set.

Another set that works is Tinkerbell, with 232 HP, 240 SpA, 36 Spe, a Modest nature with moves Thunder Wave, Leaf Storm, Recover and Hidden Power Fire/Earth Power/Psychic; with defensive investiment, it can survive even more attacks, and can OHKO nearly any Water-type with Leaf Storm. It can paralyze Tornadus-T on switch, making it much more manageable. I prefer the Nasty Plot set, however, but both of them work very well against rain teams.

 

[Zowayix]

In GSC and RSE, you get the Return and Frustration TMs from someone if your lead Pokemon is very happy or very unhappy. Can both TMs be obtained an unlimited number of times, once per week? Or can you only obtain each TM once? Is there a difference between GSC and RSE?

 

[Stratos]

this is supposed to be a metagame discussion forum; ingame discussion belongs in Orange Islands.

but to answer your question, in GSC they can be obtained every Sunday, and in RSE, every seven days (not necessarily only Sundays)

 

[Zowayix]

Thanks for answering!
I posted it here because there's no SQ;SA forum in Orange Islands, and I didn't want to make a whole new thread there just for this one question that could be answered in one post. What should I have done instead?

 

[hotcoldyay]

@Lavos Spawn, Jimbon, and Dark Fallen Angel

Thanks so much for the recommendations; however looking my team over, I don't know if either can really counter rain teams with the likes of tornadus therian and thundurus therian running around. Both celebi and ferrothorn are threatened incredibly by the two, due to the therians' coverage and sheer power. My team holds a defensive core resisting just about everything, but if one falls out, I can fall prey to the therians, electric, flying, water, and grass types if I lack the luck and correct predicition. Is there any pokemon (or solid core if there is none) who can resists/reliably handle all/most of those types and still fight back against rain teams, dragons, and the therians?

 

[Thorhammer]

@Lavos Spawn, Jimbon, and Dark Fallen Angel

Thanks so much for the recommendations; however looking my team over, I don't know if either can really counter rain teams with the likes of tornadus therian and thundurus therian running around. Both celebi and ferrothorn are threatened incredibly by the two, due to the therians' coverage and sheer power. My team holds a defensive core resisting just about everything, but if one falls out, I can fall prey to the therians, electric, flying, water, and grass types if I lack the luck and correct predicition. Is there any pokemon (or solid core if there is none) who can resists all/most of those types and still fight back against rain teams, dragons, and the therians?

That's a lot to ask of one Pokemon. You're talking about three groups of top threats, and everything within each group is a top threat because it's so hard to handle. What else is on your team? Perhaps you might be able to adjust something else to better shoulder some of the burden.

 

[ginganinja]

@Lavos Spawn, Jimbon, and Dark Fallen Angel

Thanks so much for the recommendations; however looking my team over, I don't know if either can really counter rain teams with the likes of tornadus therian and thundurus therian running around. Both celebi and ferrothorn are threatened incredibly by the two, due to the therians' coverage and sheer power. My team holds a defensive core resisting just about everything, but if one falls out, I can fall prey to the therians, electric, flying, water, and grass types if I lack the luck and correct predicition. Is there any pokemon (or solid core if there is none) who can resists/reliably handle all/most of those types and still fight back against rain teams, dragons, and the therians?

As someone pointed out, thats asking far too much for any single pokemon. You could try a Latias I guess, since it can handle Water / Grass / Electric attacks, and can threaten a Calm Mind sweep. Its also fairly effective against Keldeo and Breloom which both see a fair bit of usage on rain teams.

If you wanted a core to handle Rain teams, ideally you would want a specially defensive Celebi, backed up with a steel type that can handle Tornadus-T, something like Jirachi or Specially Defensive Skarmory are good options to consider. However, if you wanted something to resist all those types, and still handle Dragons / Thierians and Rain, I personally would start looking at the following core

-Dragon type: Latios / Latias / Dragonite are really good options for this, all are fairly bulky, fairly threatening, and resist grass and water attacks (Latias and latios handle electric attacks as well).

-Steel Type: Calm Mind Jirachi (or specially Defensive Jirachi), is seeing a fair amount of usage simply because it can handle Tornadus-T, shrug off those Hurricanes and threatening to hit back with paralysis or other such tactics. Your steel type should ideally be able to switch into Hurricanes from Torandus-T and threaten it out.

-Revenge Killer: This can really be anything, but something such as Genesect is a good option, since it gives you a second dragon resist, as well as checking Thundurus / Torandus / Dragonite with Ice Beam, and providing momentum with U-Turn. Mamoswine could also work, as its STAB Ice Shard threatens Dragons, as well as the flying Therians. Scarf Terrakion is another good choice, it lacks Ice moves, but its Rock STAB still hits many dragons for super effective damage, and it still checks Tornadus-T and Thundurus-T

Do note that the above is really only an example of a sort of core that might handle some or the threats you mentioned, you might have to take a look at your team and decide if anything could be replaced for something else. My advice is to play around with combinations that you yourself might come up with, look at the RMT Forum and see how other people handle the threats you listed, post a RMT yourself or ask for assistance from Team Raters on the irc channel #ratemyteam or if you were really concerned with your teambuilding, you could sign up for tutoring in the Battling 101 forum which might be helpful.

Hope I helped!

 

[hotcoldyay]

@thorhammer and ginganinja

Thanks so much for the advice :) ive been reconstructing my team since you handed me the advice. By removing my original scarfer and spinblocker, ive found space for a latias (or latios, since im still testing waters) and genesect, both of which should help me greatly, since my team now has a more out of hand core than ever- in a good way. Besides the fact that having two psychic types playing different roles on my team might hurt me due to their typing, my only real concern is that when soul dew is released officially for american games, latias/latios will get bumped back to ubers, thus losing a member thats part of the core that makes up my team. Dragonite (and hydriegon to a lesser extent) might fit well, but lati@s still has those perks.

After soul dew is released, couldn't they both just stay in ou, but only use soul dew in ubers? If there was already something written about this, please excuse my ignorance.

 

[ginganinja]

my only real concern is that when soul dew is released officially for american games, latias will get bumped back to ubers, thus losing a member thats part of the core that makes up my team.

I am pretty sure that soul dew has been released, and as far as I know, a Soul Dew clause is still present in OU, thus, Latias should stay OU so long as you play with smogon Tiering, unless Soul Dew gets suspected.

EDIT

fuck yea ninjaed 2 ppl

 

[Ames]

Edit: Ninja'd
Haha. Good news for you - exactly what you are suggesting is already in place. Under the "soul dew" clause, Latias and Latios are both legal in OU so long as soul dew is not equipped.

 

[voodoo pimp]

If I'm not mistaken, Soul Dew is already banned. Smogon doesn't care about region, so as soon as it's legal anywhere it's legal on the sim (importing and trading exist, after all). So the Latis should be safe.

 

[Smaug 2]

What's the fifference between Challenge Cup and Random Battle?

 

[haunter]

Challenge Cup is completely random (Pokemon, moves, abilities) while Random Battle uses competitive sets on random Pokemon.

 

[Psyshock]

Hi; how do I create a social group on here.
Also, hows this gimmick designed to own Snorlax:
Alakazam@Leftovers/Lum Berry
252 Atk/252 Speed/4 Sp. Atk
-Lonely Nature
~Psychic
~Encore
~Substitute
~Focus Punch
Thanks. But please, don't tell me to use trickband Alakazam.
New: Im talking bout gen III. besides i cant get MagicGuard; my router doesn't support ds lite :(

 

[haunter]

User CP-> Networking-> Social Groups-> Create a New Group. That Zam is very gimmicky and since it gets magic guard you might want to run life orb anyway so, at least, you power up that focus punch.

 

[WeezingFTW]

Is the Lightball always required for breeding Pichus with Volt Tackle or do you not need it if say, the father already knows it. Pretty sure you'd still need the Lightball, just making sure.

 

[ginganinja]

Also, hows this gimmick designed to own Snorlax:
Alakazam@Leftovers/Lum Berry
252 Atk/252 Speed/4 Sp. Atk
-Lonely Nature
~Psychic
~Encore
~Substitute
~Focus Punch
Thanks. But please, don't tell me to use trickband Alakazam.

Honestly man, you might as well run LO Psyshock on Zam instead of Focus Punch. Zam is pretty darn frail, and most Snorlax are going to attack right off the bat, making it harder to ull off a second Focus punch. LO Psyshock gives you a 2KO on Shorlax switching in, Focus Blast does the same. Basically, going all special is prolly better on Zam, since it hits a lot harder, against more things too.

 

[Cinccino]

How does Sleep Talk work with Choice items?

 

[Jukain]

How does Sleep Talk work with Choice items?

Yeah, people use stuff like Scarf Heracross in Ubers to check Darkrai. I guess you could use it in OU to check Breloom.

 

[Soulforged]

really want to start playing online(wifi/poke online) but ive never played competetively
ive played most of the games but i mostly spent my time on battle frontier after i was done with the story and never tried to play competetively online
so,where do i start?

 

[Zacchaeus]

Welcome to Smogon! The best way to learn competitive play is to get to know Smogon, really. Reading the articles is helpful, including Intro to Competitive Pokemon made for last generation. Looking at pages for specific Pokémon will help you learn more about them, such as Golurk. You should also get involved at our battling simulator, Pokemon Showdown. If all of this isn't helping you improve, you can sign up for Battling 101, our official tutoring program. Enjoy your stay! There's also a section of the website dedicated to the Battle Frontier and other noncompetitive endeavors: Orange Islands

 

[Psyshock]

I'm talking about gen III where my namesake doesn't exist...

 

[Psyshock]

Also my bro's snorlax is a crap set atm: belly drum rest snore & bodyslam. My gengars gonna wall him :D. Basically I predict belly drum, switch to zam, use encore, set up sub, whup him with focus punch or use Psychic on his switch-in