Chicken Little the Poliwrath

[bigbear]

Before anyone asks, this is NOT a joke.

Before when I created this team originally, I was going for a Blaziken sweep. I used victini to boost my accuracy and then the rest of my team was to keep hazards off the field and keep those two alive, as well as doing some serious damage. Excadrill, Delphox, M-Gyrados, Celebi were my other team members. Then I realized that M-Gyrados was underwelming at best, so I used Mega- Houndoom. Delphox was also starting to disappoint me in a sweeper, so I opted for Landorus-I. Then I realized that with talonflame around, blaziken is kinda shut down. Also I noticed that everything on my team was weak to water, so I went for Poliwrath. Now a great team has arisen through the ashes.

Let us begin.

Vi (Victini) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- U-turn
- Bolt Strike
- Zen Headbutt

Victini. He is my lead and the revenge killer. With U-turn and a choice scarf, he is able to beat common leads such as Mamoswine, Greninja and others. With the investment, he is able to outspeed pokemon like m-Alakazam and M-Gengar. V-Create is his main STAB, while Bolt Strike and Zen Headbutt provide coverage. What are the counters to Victini? Scarfed faster threats like Greninja. Pokemon like Rotom-W like to come in to Hydro Pump me. What do you do? U turn to poliwrath.

Chicken Little (Poliwrath) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Encore
- Waterfall
- Brick Break

This is Chicken Little. The Poliwrath. His Water Absorb and his encore and ability to outspeed Rotom W, makes it a formidable foe. Poliwrath will come in on predicted water moves, go for a encore set up and then sweep.
+6 252 Atk Poliwrath Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 84 Def Gastrodon: 450-529 (105.63 - 124.17%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Poliwrath Brick Break vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Rotom-W: 348-409 (114.85 - 134.98%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Poliwrath Waterfall vs. 248 HP / 244 Def Tentacruel: 204-240 (56.19 - 66.11%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 252 Atk Poliwrath Brick Break vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Vaporeon: 361-426 (77.96 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 252 Atk Poliwrath Waterfall vs. 244 HP / 248+ Def Gliscor: 486-572 (138.06 - 162.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Poliwrath Waterfall vs. 224 HP / 32 Def Skarmory: 286-337 (87.46 - 103.05%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
+6 252 Atk Poliwrath Waterfall vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Heatran: 740-872 (192.2 - 226.49%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Poliwrath Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 48+ Def Ferrothorn: 510-600 (144.88 - 170.45%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Poliwrath Waterfall vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Forretress: 222-262 (76.02 - 89.72%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Sorry for the wave of Calculations, but as you can see, Poliwrath OHKO's or 2OHKO's pretty much all of the walls of OU, Bar things like Jellicent, Gourgeist and Trevenant. Also scores key KO's on pokes like talonflame. Overall a great pokemon though and able to beat a lot of setup sweepers through encore. Note: Life Orb could turn some of these 2OHKO's into OHKO's
+6 252 Atk Life Orb Poliwrath Brick Break vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Vaporeon: 469-554 (101.29 - 119.65%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Life Orb Poliwrath Waterfall vs. 224 HP / 32 Def Skarmory: 372-438 (113.76 - 133.94%) -- guaranteed OHKO
etc.

Giovanni (Landorus) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Earth Power
- Calm Mind
- Focus Blast
- Psychic

Same ol, same ol. It is Landorus with a twist. Calm Mind over HP Ice. Why? With the HP Ice nerf, normally it is better to hit some pokemon with Earth Power or Psychic, as it hits harder. So, CM brings its special Defense and Special Attack through the roof. After 1 setup, it already shows to be able to sweep entire teams. It destroys dedicated to special walls.
+1 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Focus Blast vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 354-419 (54.29 - 64.26%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 390-460 (55.39 - 65.34%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
The ability to 2HKO is amazing for any special attacker against bliss and chans.

Cerebus (Houndoom) @ Houndoominite
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Hasty Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Flamethrower
- Flame Charge
- Dark Pulse

I swear this guy is the coolest mega ever. It looks soooo awesome. But this set is amazing. It has the ability to boost both its speed and special attack, making it a formidable sweeper only stopped by priority. It defeats a lot of common threats and with dark now not resisted by steel, it is able to ease prediction and hit heatran as well. Almost nothing can safely switch into this thing.

Kronos (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 220 SDef / 252 HP / 36 Spd
Calm Nature
- Heal Bell
- Stealth Rock
- Recover
- Earth Power

This Celebi is the standard support set with Earth Power over a normal STAB. Why? Because Heatran and Aegislash are so popular this generation that this set should be seen more. Threats like, excadrill, Aegislash, Heatran, etc. are killed by Earth Power. SR are also on celebi.

Moleman (Excadrill) @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Excadrill serves as a great rapid spinner, to keep my SR on the field and spin over defog. I find it also exceedingly awesome when exca gets me out of tough situations against pokemon like Rotom W and Goodra. He hurts bad with that attack as well as LO and is my answer to fairies.


I would love it if you could give me some constructive criticism. Other than the fact that do not just call me stupid for using Poliwrath :D Go nuts, I would love to see some help on this team

 

[PumpHead]

lol scrub using poliwrath go back to NU
On a serious note, that Encore set sounds like a major rage inducer. Calm Mind Landorus I've used a bit, and I'm glad to see I'm not alone in that. It's a good core going on too. I'd suggest SR on Landorus for Focus Miss because you have the coverage for most of the types it hits anyway. That way, Celebi could have a normal STAB, Thunder Wave, or Perish Song even.

 

[bigbear]

PumpHead Thanks for the advice, I will try to have SR on Lando, although then I am walled by Hydrei. I will give it a try and see what I think, anyway thanks for the advice.

 

[bascas]

Hey! I'm fascinated by your use of poliwrath. I did some theorycrafting myself and found him too frail to some threats in the current meta game especially (I know you're running pokebank) such a Zapdos, etc. I love your set on him, but I want to ask: how good is your survival rate After Belly Drum?

 

[bigbear]

bascas
Thank you for taking interest in my team. Poliwrath is a pokemon that takes quite a bit of prediction to play him, predict a switch and then either know your speed tier or just hit a poke hard on the switch. For example, if you know blissey or skarm are coming in, belly drum and then hit them hard. If you know someone like quagsire is coming just hit it hard. Then play mind games with a ground type to say like is it a poliwrath coming in so use electric moves and then or stay in on the ground type. This lets with good prediction for poliwrath to gain all its health back. It has decent survivability and also encore makes it a great free set up. It also outspeeds many threats and is a great poke.

 

[BadPandaPancham]

I think this team relies a little too much on prediction for Poliwrath. While I always enjoy crafty ways to sneak lower meta-gamers to the OU playing field, I feel like there are some pokemon who can just do his job...better. Kingdra can switch in and get a few Dragon Dances off with ease without having to rely on Encore, which they can switch out of. This way, you are also able to out-speed everyone else, unlike worrying about fast electric types. You also don't have to rely on only switching in on water type moves, as Kingdra only faces 2 weaknesses: Fairy and Dragon. I honestly don't mind your decision on what to keep, but this Kingdra is more of a less risk a little less reward, since anything that out-speeds Poliwhirl's Encore or even just switches out ruins your whole fiasco. Just a thought. I like the general team idea, though I think it is limited to an average use or rating on a scale. Your team is quite speedy though, which can either swipe you the win or come back and bite you in the...after your opponent lives with around 1-20% HP.
(note: Your only water hit taker [one of the most common types] is Poliwrath. You can switch into Celebi, but it'll take your opponent little time to figure out it's lack of a Grass-Type move, which they can easily take advantage of)
I do enjoy creative sets, please don't stop creating these unique teams! :)

 

[bigbear]

BadPandaPancham This is the main reason Poliwrath is on the team. It isn't made to sweep, but rather to absorb water hits and weaken key opponents. Most notably the fact that its weakness to electric is completely ignored by the fact that I have 2 ground types on the team. The other key element is that with the HP nerf, HP Ice is not as common making lando even more of a threat. Slower electric types such as lanturn that would pose a threat towards lando or exca can easily be killed on the switch. I think that Poliwrath does its job better than Kingdra on this team, due to the synergy and trolling Rotom-W really hard as well as being able to score key KO's on pokes as well as countering Greninja. This gives it a spot on this team as the water killer if you will. Great synergy is the key to this team and how I have gotten high on the ladder. With 4 Water Weaknesses, Poliwrath benefits from the health restoration on the switch as opposed to a sweeper in Kingdra.

 

[BadPandaPancham]

BadPandaPancham This is the main reason Poliwrath is on the team. It isn't made to sweep, but rather to absorb water hits and weaken key opponents...With 4 Water Weaknesses, Poliwrath benefits from the health restoration on the switch as opposed to a sweeper in Kingdra.

None of your Pokemon have 4x water weaknesses, firstly. And also, your Poliwrath won't be able to out-speed pokemon like Greninja. 70 base speed vs. 122 base speed, usually maxed just like yours. Also, if it's only a crippler, is Excadrill your only sweeper? It's good, but while it tricks Volt Switching Rotom-W's, their Hydro Pumps think something else, which involves too much switching and your Poliwrath getting out-sped on the switch-in. It's too frail and not too fast. This gimmick may work on a tier like RU or UU, but OU's bulk and speed outclasses Poliwrath a tad too much.
But like I said, I do love the idea of it. It's a one trick pony, once you fool your opponent once, it won't happen again, especially with Gale Wings Talonflame so abundant in OU. :)

 

[bigbear]

BadPandaPancham No what I mean is 4 members of my team have water weaknesses, also my sweepers are Houndoom, Landorus and Excadrill. This team is a builky offensive team that is able to absorb damage and then hit back for more, and also victini just mops the floor with talonflame. Greninja is countered by poliwrath because rarely do they run a move that can hit him. U turn is their best option unless running extrasensory which is rare. I think that Poliwrath has a unique place in this team, although I may consider replacing a member to make the team overall more bulky because some pokemon such as DD bounce gyrados are a pain in the face to deal with.

 

[bigbear]

Bump

 

[BadPandaPancham]

Greninjas usually run Extrasensory, which is an OHKO. According to damage Calc, 1 Brave Bird is able to OHKO Victini as well, and that's without the usual SD on a Talon. I would suggest a Pokemon like Magnezone or so to deal with DD Bounce Gyarados. d: That's just my suggestion though.

 

[Dinosaurman]

Greninja definitely do not "always run extrasensory" lol. Anyway, you should drop CM and Psychic from Lando and replace them with Rock polish and HP Ice. Hidden power was nerfed but it's still extremely viable on pokemon x4 weak to attacks. Your team is also very slow and RP is easy to set up with Lando.

 

[BadPandaPancham]

Greninja definitely do not "always run extrasensory" lol.

Unless you are talking to someone else, I said Greninja usually has extrasensory. It gives it much more coverage. I see it all the time.

 

[Dinosaurman]

I have no clue what you're on about lol. Psychic had terrible coverage. I use Greninja myself and everyone I have faced with one on multiple accounts at 2100-2300 hasn't used it once..

 

[bigbear]

OK, first off, Greninja rarely runs extrasensory, I find that it is never seen, and also on the normal talonflames, they run acrobatics with flying gem and rarely BB. Tini takes 35-40% from a post flying gem acrobatics and KO's with bolt strike. I think that my team is relatively fast, victini and houndoom manage to outspped nearly the entire tier, bar scarf users(houndoom after a boost). I still find that psychic outweighs HP Ice, because of the reliability of accuracy against pokemon like rotom w when commencing a sweep. CM gives the definite power that allows me to sweep, but I will try RP. I think that HP Ice is a inferior option as psychic hits more threats that are not covered, but again I will try it. Thank you for the rates. Also I will try Magnezone, but I think that it will only make my team even more talonflame weak.

 

[bigbear]

Bump