Sand is about as easy as rain considering how easy it is to slap CBtar / Keld / RP lando onto a team and then just build around it. Sand and rain are usually about even in usage from my experience on the ladder, with sun being a little bit behind ( a lot of sun users on the ladder have no clue how to play it). I'm surprised if anything DragMag isn't used more on the ladder. It performs pretty well against most team style and is a nice and easy way to quickly climb the ladder. Its pretty consistent and doesn't generally have bad match ups to certain team types like the weathers tend to do (rain generally being weak to hail etc)really? i would expect rain to be the most prevalent playstyle on the ladder seeing as it's the easiest sort of team to build and the simplest style to play with.
No doubt Haxorus is an offensive monster, but then you have Dragonite who has the exact role and has a much consistent set-up+sweep rate with better bulk and not to mention multiscale which just makes it so much better to use than hax. Plus it has a super-asset in Extremespeed. a +2 priority which haxorus doesn't have which makes it super easy to revenge kill.Haxorus, Lum DD, again why not used as much, Outrage + Low Kick + EQ is great even though it would like Fire Punch > EQ.
One of the main reasons you don't see Haxorus used at all because it's not appealing to many of the top players. It has many great offensive options (Swords Dance, Dragon Dance, Earthquake, Superpower / Low Kick) an overkill attack stat, and it's brain dead easy to use, but a subpar speed and shockingly bad defensive stats makes it a worse choice than practically every offensive Dragon in the tier. That last point is actually pretty important. What's the point of having an awesome mono Dragon-typing when threats like Specs Hydro Pump are always OHKOing you in the rain. Haxorus can't survive a from +2 Jolly Mach Punch Breloom, +2 ExtremeSpeed from Lucario, and +2 Bullet Bunch from Scizor. (while Garchomp can) It can't switch into anything in BW OU, and it has to rely on double switches or revenge KOs which are pretty risky.Honestly I don't see why Haxorus and Reuniclus are so low. TR: Focus Miss beats Ttar. Psyshock beats Toed + Tales. Hippowdown can be dealt with otherwise, plus if either TR or CM setup, then Recover, kinda GG.
Haxorus, Lum DD, again why not used as much, Outrage + Low Kick + EQ is great even though it would like Fire Punch > EQ. Try some calcs at +1 with Both of them (except TR reuniclus)
Also to those saying things will drop, not everything under 7% will drop (this goes for all tiers)
I think psyshock holds more value than psychic to get past CM Keldeo, the blobs, jelly to an extent, and tentacruel (I think terrakion can take one psychic in sand from zam). HP ice is probably more useful as the prevalance in rain makes HP fire somewhat a bad choice (Spdef ferro lives 1 hit from zam anyways), also the only thing scizor is gonna do is BP, so you dedicate zam to scizor only (they will often switch out till your sash is broken anyways). I think with zam you need to be going after things that are in reach if near OHKOing, or at least being very revengable.the only alakazam worth using right now is the focus sash 4 attacks set. it's an excellent catch-all for boosting sweepers, and has some nice coverage that lends it a very unique niche in the ou metagame. psychic hits really hard, focus blast can take out normally solid psychic-type checks like tyranitar and heatran, and access to signal beam makes it one of the few common special attackers that can bypass celebi. don't use shadow ball, it sucks. magic guard and focus sash together guarantee that it will tank at least one attack, unless the move in question is a multi-hit attack like icicle spear or bullet seed. i guess the problem with zam lies in the choice between hp ice and hp fire; whereas hp ice can ohko dnite after rocks, lando, gliscor, etc., hp fire is also really important for taking out one of hp ice zam's best checks, scizor. the choice between the two is pretty difficult, since whatever you choose leaves you open to something else. i usually go with hp ice since stopping sweepers like dragonite and landorus is what zam is all about, but anything works. the prevalence of both sdef and scarf jirachi also really hurts zam's viability, since it can't do anything to the former and gets brought down to its sash by the latter's faster u-turn. kinda disappointing that such a good pokemon is countered by one of the other best pokemon. overall i'd say alakazam is medium-level ou, i think it's pretty great for enabling more bulky hyper-offensive teams but some people just hate it and i think i understand why.
The issue with Psyshock is that Focus Sash Alakazam is already kind of weak, and Psyshock makes it harder for you to hurt physically orientated Pokemon. It doesn't have much utility worth noting against Chansey and Blissey (The former is 4HKOed, while the latter needs Stealth Rock, and 1 layer of Spikes to be 2HKOed)and Keldeo gets smashed by Psychic at +1 anyway. I think it's worth noting that Sash Alakazam is actually kind of weak offensively, it's true strength lies in its coverage, which lets it get the drop down on a ton of Pokemon. It's pretty much why I love HP Ice on zam. Sure beating down Scizor is nice, but OHKOing all of the 4X Ice-weaks is too good to pass up.I think psyshock holds more value than psychic to get past CM Keldeo, the blobs, jelly to an extent, and tentacruel (I think terrakion can take one psychic in sand from zam). HP ice is probably more useful as the prevalance in rain makes HP fire somewhat a bad choice (Spdef ferro lives 1 hit from zam anyways), also the only thing scizor is gonna do is BP, so you dedicate zam to scizor only (they will often switch out till your sash is broken anyways). I think with zam you need to be going after things that are in reach if near OHKOing, or at least being very revengable.
Well, when you try to think of something that psychic stab actually hits... you draw many blanks. So while psychic may hit harder than psyshock, what does it even hit, if not something that is for SE damage?. Forgot to mention Volc, but meh.The issue with Psyshock is that Focus Sash Alakazam is already kind of weak, and Psyshock makes it harder for you to hurt physically orientated Pokemon. It doesn't have much utility worth noting against Chansey and Blissey (The former is 4HKOed, while the latter needs Stealth Rock, and 1 layer of Spikes to be 2HKOed)and Keldeo gets smashed by Psychic at +1 anyway. I think it's worth noting that Sash Alakazam is actually kind of weak offensively, it's true strength lies in its coverage, which lets it get the drop down on a ton of Pokemon. It's pretty much why I love HP Ice on zam. Sure beating down Scizor is nice, but OHKOing all of the 4X Ice-weaks is too good to pass up.
Scarf Keldeo used Hydro Pump!!!OK, so I'd like to start a discussion based on, save Smeargle, the most versatile Pokemon EVER: Mew
So guys, do you have any creative Mew sets you like to use?
This is my favorite on a Rain team:
Mew@Life Orb
EVs: 252 SpA/252 Spe/4 HP
- Nasty Plot/Charge Beam
- Surf
- Aura Sphere
- Psychic
This set can actually sweep with the right assistance. After a Nasty Plot, anything not called Kingdra is taking BIG damage from Nasty Plot Life Orb Rain boosted Surf.
You don't believe this set can sweep?
Blissey (OU Support)Aura Sphere 41.87 - 49.38%
That means that after SR, 2HKO.
Alternatively, you can run HP Bug to beat Celebi or HP Ice to beat Celebi AS well as Dragonite.
Save Blissey, Chansey and the odd Pokemon that can wall your set(depends on coverage), almost every pokemon is beat after a Plot by Mew in the rain.
I've been using Lead Mew a lot lately, and although Tailwind is cool, I think that Magic Coat is more practical. It lets you beat all of the other common leads 1v1 without having to resort to Mental Herb. Since fast Taunt leads such as Terrakion/Azelf/Aerodactyl seem to be hot right now (possibly in response to the rise of Custap Skarmory), it can really give you an edge over other HO teams.SR Lead Mew aint so shabby, either. Granted it's not as fast as Terrakion, but it's probably better than Terrakion when facing against Spinners. It provides some nice momentum with Normal Gem Explosion + Tailwind support, too, a combination that Jimbonhttp://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3473211 introduced awhile back.