Counter that OU Pokemon! **DON'T REPEAT SETS!!!!**

[melvni]

Tornadus@Leftovers
Timid Nature, 252SpA/4SpD/252Spe
Hurricane
Rain Dance
Taunt
Focus Blast

Tornadus totally shuts Sableye down thanks to its faster priority Taunt. After Sableye is forced to attack with its laughable Night Shade, Tornadus can proceed to set up Rain Dance and thrash him with an STAB 120 BP Attack. Even if it switches in and gets burned by Will-O-Wisp, Tornadus will still win one on one, and be around for a few more turns to decimate with his fearsome attacks. .

Since Sableye and Tornadus are both things I've never really used that much, I decided to take a look at this out of interest. So let's take a look at how this plays out in what I view as Sableye's best case scenario:

Turn 1:
Tornadus (299 hp) switches in and takes 74 damage from stealth rock
Sableye (304 hp) uses Will-o-wisp, burning Tornadus
Tornadus takes burn damage (37 hp) and recovers with leftovers (18 hp) leaving it with 206 hp

Turn 2:
Tornadus uses Hurricane (I will assume it hits since it wouldn't be fair to do otherwise) and Sableye takes minimum damage (since it's a counter it should be able to win even with min damage rolls, also the max it can do is 79.3%), meaning that Sableye loses 204 hp and is now at 100 hp.
Sableye uses Night Shade meaning Tornadus loses 100 hp and is now at 106.
Tornadus takes burn damage and recovers with leftovers leaving it with 87 hp.
Sableye recovers with leftovers leaving it with 119 hp.

Now we reach an interesting situation, namely, since we're assuming min damage rolls, if Sableye recover spams Tornadus will need to attack three times to kill it meaning it will take three turns worth of burn damage and be left with 30 hp. However, if Tornadus taunts and Sableye night shades, Tornadus is dead.

Even if the Sableye user expects the Tornadus user to predict perfectly and acts to ensure Sableye lives the longest possible under those circumstances and even if the Tornadus user actually does predict perfectly, Tornadus is still going to need two more turns to kill Sableye (Taunt to stop Recover, Hurricane to kill), and is going to be left with 49 hp, a mere 16% of its health. At that point Tornadus is now unable to switch back in without dying, burned so it will only live three more turns max, and has no rain up meaning both its moves only have 70% accuracy.

I'm not entirely sure this makes Tornadus not a counter since Sableye is dead and Tornadus still has the ability to wreak havoc for a good three more turns, but I thought it was pretty interesting how much Sableye can cripple it before it goes down.

 

[Drifloon]

I would do Sableye, but someone already took the set I wanted, so I'll go with

Spiritomb @ Choice Band
Trait: Pressure | Nature: Adament
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Shadow Sneak / Sucker Punch / Pursuit / Trick

Espeon literally cannot touch Spiritomb. Because of his typing, Spiritomb is immune to all of Espeon's moves, meaning it can't be damaged. What's more, Spiritomb can Pursuit trap Espeon, meaning that no matter what, Espeon will die and Spiritomb will remain unharmed. Once Espeon is gone, there isn't much Spiritomb can do afterwards. However, it isn't a complete deadweight. Spiritomb has a niche ability to be able to take out basically every psychic type in the game. He can also be a revenge killer of needed. Plus, you can always trick his CB to cripple a wall, setting up an opportunity for a sweep later on.

Scrafty@Leftovers
252 HP/ 8 Atk/ 248 spDef
Careful
Bulk Up
Rest
Crunch
Drain Punch

has good bulk to take a shadow sneak and spiritomb literally cannot touch scrafty as it gets up to +6/+6 and kos with crunch

 

[bubbly]

I'm not completely sold that it's possible to counter certain sets, but anyway, at least I've got an easy one here...

Gyarados @ Leftovers, Intimidate
Adamant nature, 176 HP / 128 Atk / 204 Spe
-Taunt
-Waterfall
-Dragon Dance
-Bounce

Obvious counter is obvious, Scrafty can't touch Gyara which in return can stop it from boosting with Taunt and set up in return.

 

[Nova]

Rotom-W@Leftovers
Modest Nature
4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
-Will-o-Wisp
-Pain Split
-Volt Switch
-Hydro Pump

Can outspeed and WoW to render Gyarados pretty much useless, then Volt Switch for the kill or Volt Switch right away. Resists Waterfall and Bounce and can Pain Split off the damage if needed

 

[Drifloon]

Roserade@Life Orb
Modest nature
136 HP/252 spA/120 spDef
rest
leaf storm
sludge bomb
hp fire

will o wisp is the most hurtful but theres still natural cure so it doesnt really matter, volt switch and hydro pump dont hurt, leaf storm is a okho. evs have something to do with scizor and bullet punch, cant remember if i got them right or not but still counters rotom easily.

 

[typhonandfafnir]

Bronzong @ leftovers
heatproof
Quiet
ev's 4 hp, 252 sp.atk, 252sp.def
Psychic
Block
Gyro Ball
Heal Block (I've seen it happen)
completely walls Roserade, prevents it from leaving with block, prevents it from resting/healing with heal block, while he can go to town with psychic, which should be at least a 2hko. This specific Bronzong takes little from leaf storm, even less from hp:fire (ability), and absolutely nothing from Sludge Bomb, meaning Bronzong comes in on every move. Gyro Ball deals with those fast ice types who are specially defensive. Basically I call him WallZong on this set, because that's what he does. Of course, without levitate he's vulnerable to ground types so water types and grass types in particular work with this set.
Challenge: don't use a ground type to counter

 

[Jaetheho]

no ground types? fine.
lehgo bisharp

bisharp@leftovers
adamant
-184hp 252Atk 72def
-sub
-swords dance
-sucker punch
-brick break

can come into psychic as it is immune, and also gyro ball as it resists it and is pretty slow. it can also pp stall gyro ball (8) with subs.

swords dance allows it to boost its excellent attack and sucker punch is a very strong but albeit unreliable priority.

challenge: no steel type counter

 

[AfroThunderRule]

no ground types? fine.
lehgo bisharp

bisharp@leftovers
adamant
-184hp 252Atk 72def
-sub
-swords dance
-sucker punch
-brick break

can come into psychic as it is immune, and also gyro ball as it resists it and is pretty slow. it can also pp stall gyro ball (8) with subs.

swords dance allows it to boost its excellent attack and sucker punch is a very strong but albeit unreliable priority.

challenge: no steel type counter

The standard SubDisable Gengar

Gengar @ Leftovers
Timid
6 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast
-Sub
-Disable

Can come in on any move without fear of getting hit. Can set up a sub at any time to easily avoid any Sucker Punches. If it ever does Sucker Punch your sub you can simply just just Disable it and try to kill it with lolFocus Blast.

Hopefully this is long enough, I don't think I could add anything else that matters. :/

 

[Comets]

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SDef / 32 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Wish
- Iron Head
- Thunder Wave
- Zen Headbutt

Takes both focus blast and shadow ball with ease and it can wish off the damage. Disable isn't a problem since both iron head and zen headbutt can hit Gengar.

 

[Zoap]

Flygon @ Earth Gem
Rash(+SpA -SpD)
Levitate
236 Att/228 SpA/ 44 Spe

~Substitute
~Earthquake
~Outrage
~Fire Blast

Flygon eats special Jirachi alive thanks to Earth Gem, it takes a max 40% from either head hitting attack on the switch in and cannot be paralyze thanks to its ground typing. Here are the calcs:

Jirachi Iron Head/Zen Headbutt vs Flygon:34.2-40.9%
Flygon EQ vs Jirachi: 100.0-117.8%


Sub Flygon can be a decent mixed attacker thanks to its base 80 SpA, and with EQ/Outrage hitting almost everything neutral(Skarmory), Fire Blast helps cover that last option. Some interesting calcs:

Fire Blast vs 252/+236 Skarmory: 56.3-66.5%
Fire Blast vs 252/168 Ferrothorn: 88.6-104.5%
Fire Blast vs 252/216 Scizor: 111.6-132.6%
Fire Blast vs 252/+224 Celebi:37.1-44.1%
Outrage vs 252/0 Celebi:40.1%-47.5%
Outrage vs 252/+252 Gyrados: 34.3-40.6%
Outrage vs 252/+252 Blissey:40.9-48.3%
Earth Gem EQ vs 252/+252 Blissey:51.0-60.2%

 

[Pippy]

Slowbro @ Lefties
Trait: Regenerator | Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Scald / Ice Beam / Psychic / Slack Off

Slowbro is an excellent counter to Flygon. Thanks to his bulk, Flygon's gem boosted EQ only does 51% max, and the rest of his attacks a measly 30% max. This means our Bro can easy heal off anything that Fly throws at him. Slowbro can also attack Flygon with a 4X effective Ice Beam. Once Flygon is down, Slowbro can continue serving his team as a physical wall. He's very useful for dealing with the many frightening fighting types, like Conkeldurp and Terrakion. Thanks to Ice Beam, he can also take on some physically inclined dragons, like Dragonite and possibly Salamence.

 

[AasTmO]

Slowking @ Choice Specs
Ability: Regenerator
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
- Trick
- Surf
- Psychic
- Slack Off

Slowking to counter Slowbro? Am I out of my mind? No, I am not. Switch in on any move (the worst thing that can happen is receive a Scald burn) and trick the Specs. From here on, Slowbro can either fire off one pathetic attack (20% max), or spam Slack Off while Slowking cycles through its PP. No way this set loses to that set in a 1v1 fight. In a match without Slowbro this thing does a lot as well, firing off very powerful special attacks while walling Special attackers throughout the match. As soon as you get walled switch out, regenerator will heal you back up, and you can switch back on, and Trick the wall a fancy set of Specs.

 

[Sayonara]

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 SpA
Calm Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover

Taunt forces Slowking to use either Surf or Psychic. Water Absorb renders Surf useless, while Jellicent is able to take a Psychic thanks to its massive Special Defense, which is maxed out thanks to the EVs and Nature. Jellicent can retaliate with a super-effective Shadow Ball!

 

[Blatreutka]

Houndoom @ Passho Berry (water resist berry)
Timid Nature
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Flash Fire
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Taunt

Houndoom doesn't mind anything besides Taunt, which is only a minor inconvenience since it can just wait out the turns until it can Taunt Jellicent itself. Shadow Ball isn't doing anywhere near enough damage to stop Houndoom from boosting up and hitting it with Dark Pulse. Passho Berry isn't necessary against that Jellicent, but it helps as a back up if Jellicent happens to carry Scald over one of the other moves since it tends to mix and match moves depending on the team.

 

[Stratos]

Terrakion @ Rock Gem
Jolly
Justified
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
-Swords Dance
-Substitute

The almighty SubKion dares you to use dark pulse (no srsly please do). all of Houndoom's moves are not very effective as he is outsped and either subbed on, SDed on, or KOed by either STAB move.

Besides Houndoom, Terrakion is still an extremely threatening sweeper with either a sub or SD (and so help you god if he gets both), with a Rock Gem not much except Golurk can take a hit and sub protects against stray status and revenge kills.

 

[czechm8]

Claydol @ Lefties Bold
252 HP 252 Def 4 Spatk
Rapid Spin
Stealth Rock
Earth Power
Ice Beam/Toxic
Claydol resists both of terrakion's stab moves and can spin away the assumed spikes and rocks. He can set up his own rocks as well. Earth Power lets him to damage rakion; while toxic cripples spin blockers (barring gengar) on the switch. Alternatively ice beam can be used to hit the various dragons, gliscor and landorus. (typed via IPhone so i apologize for typos)

 

[GatoDelFuego]

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helment Relaxed
252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD, 0 IV Spe
Spikes
Leech Seed
Power Whip
Gyro Ball

Ferrothorn can come in on anything claydol can hit it with and either set up leech seed or spikes. Claydol will already be wary of Power Whip, and once it tries to spin away the spikes or seeds it gets hurt even more with the Rocky Helmet. Granted, the spikes will be spun away, but from there ferrothorn can either set them up again and force claydol to hurt itslef more or just punish it with Power Whip

 

[AasTmO]

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 SpA
Calm Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover

Taunt forces Slowking to use either Surf or Psychic. Water Absorb renders Surf useless, while Jellicent is able to take a Psychic thanks to its massive Special Defense, which is maxed out thanks to the EVs and Nature. Jellicent can retaliate with a super-effective Shadow Ball!

As you have to be able to switch in on it, this is not a counter. It is ABSOLUTELY CRIPPLED by a Trick, and after a trick Shadow Ball fails to 2HKO, so you don't counter anything about it..

 

[AfroThunderRule]

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helment Relaxed
252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD, 0 IV Spe
Spikes
Leech Seed
Power Whip
Gyro Ball

Ferrothorn can come in on anything claydol can hit it with and either set up leech seed or spikes. Claydol will already be wary of Power Whip, and once it tries to spin away the spikes or seeds it gets hurt even more with the Rocky Helmet. Granted, the spikes will be spun away, but from there ferrothorn can either set them up again and force claydol to hurt itslef more or just punish it with Power Whip

Rotom-C @ Choice Specs Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Trick


Ferrothorn's Gyro ball would do 29.75% - 35.12% max. (It could do less, not sure what's Gyro Ball base Power be against this Rotom-C so I just assumed the worst and gave it a 150 Base Power), Power Whip does even less: 23.97% - 28.51%

Rotom-C's Hidden Power Fire will kill it 100% of the time with the aid of Stealth Rock (if that's forbidden then it OHKO about 46% of the time :/)

Leech Seed does nothing to Rotom-C since it's a Grass type but unfortunately he will get a layer of Spikes on the switch-in so I suck.

 

[EmeraldGoblin]

Rotom-C @ Choice Specs Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Trick


Ferrothorn's Gyro ball would do 29.75% - 35.12% max. (It could do less, not sure what's Gyro Ball base Power be against this Rotom-C so I just assumed the worst and gave it a 150 Base Power), Power Whip does even less: 23.97% - 28.51%

Rotom-C's Hidden Power Fire will kill it 100% of the time with the aid of Stealth Rock (if that's forbidden then it OHKO about 46% of the time :/)

Leech Seed does nothing to Rotom-C since it's a Grass type but unfortunately he will get a layer of Spikes on the switch-in so I suck.

Heatran (M) @ Choice Scarf Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earth Power


Heatran seems to be the best counter. He shrugs off any damage made by leaf storm, doesnt mind the boost from hp fire, and is faster with choice scarf so rotom cant just volt switch out and live another day while Heatran can use Overheat and OHKO it.


Flamethrower is for constant fire damage if you dont want to get locked into overheat and lowering your spatk stat. It works great for ferrothorn, scizor, and forretress.


Hp ice for pesky dragons



Earth power for opposing heatran that do not have balloon, or for terrakion if he is not scarfed.

 

[Lork]

Heatran (M) @ Choice Scarf Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earth Power


Heatran seems to be the best counter. He shrugs off any damage made by leaf storm, doesnt mind the boost from hp fire, and is faster with choice scarf so rotom cant just volt switch out and live another day while Heatran can use Overheat and OHKO it.


Flamethrower is for constant fire damage if you dont want to get locked into overheat and lowering your spatk stat. It works great for ferrothorn, scizor, and forretress.


Hp ice for pesky dragons



Earth power for opposing heatran that do not have balloon, or for terrakion if he is not scarfed.

obvious choice here is a bulky water:

Suicine @ Leftovers Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Sleep talk
- Rest
- Calm Mind

can come in on one of three attacks which suicine resists and start setting up calm minds. earth power wont do much to it either.

 

[Siberian]

Seeing as this suicune is a mono-attacker, the best counter would be a physical poke with the ability water absorb.

Poliwrath @ leftovers
ability: water absorb
EVs: 132 HP, 252 Attack, 124 Speed
nature: Adamant

-Substitute
-Waterfall
-Bulk Up
-Focus Punch

Not only does is this set immune to suicune`s only offense, it gets to setup in its face and threaten with a very strong stab focus punch after a couple of boosts.

 

[Zacchaeus]

Poliwrath @ leftovers
ability: water absorb
EVs: 132 HP, 252 Attack, 124 Speed
nature: Adamant

-Substitute
-Waterfall
-Bulk Up
-Focus Punch

Let's get creative

Shedinja - Choice Band
Lonely - Wonder Guard
252 Atk 252 Spe 4 SpD
X-Scissor
Shadow Sneak
Will-O-Wisp
Trick

Shedinja is immune to Water and Fighting, and can either smack the switch-in with STAB attacks, status it, or Trick its Choice Band to further throw the opponent's team off balance

 

[canno]

Let's get creative

Shedinja - Choice Band
Lonely - Wonder Guard
252 Atk 252 Spe 4 SpD
X-Scissor
Shadow Sneak
Will-O-Wisp
Trick

Shedinja is immune to Water and Fighting, and can either smack the switch-in with STAB attacks, status it, or Trick its Choice Band to further throw the opponent's team off balance

Conkeldurr @ Choice Band
Adamant
Guts
252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spe
~ Hammer Arm
~ Mach Punch
~ Stone Edge
~ Payback

Will-O-Wisp gives him Guts, his strongest STAB X-Scissor only 5HKOs, and Trick doesn't work since I already have a choice band. Now I can hit him with either Stone Edge or Payback or hit something hard with STAB Hammer Arm on the switch.

 

[Pippy]

Skarmory would be the obvious choice, but someone already took him, so I'll take

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal | Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Swords Dance / Earthquake / Ice Fang / Protect

Gliscor is a pretty decent counter to Conkeldurr. Gliscor can wall Conkeldurr to kingdom come, as Stone Edge only does 41% max. This can easily be healed off with Poison Heal and Protect. Don't forget, it's sometimes called Stone Miss for a reason. Gliscor can also set up SD and proceed to 2HKO with EQ. He can also simply PP stall Conkeldurr out of SE, meaning he'll barely be able to scratch Gliscor later. Once Conkeldurr is down, Gliscor may be at somewhat low health, but this isn't a big issue with Poison Heal. Gliscor can support as a physical wall, or possibly even sweep under the right conditions.