Since I've finally been eliminated from the dpp ou tournament, I have decided to retire this great team of mine as well as retire from dpp ou. This is a team that I've had for a very long time; the first version was made either just before or just after bw came out, I can't remember. After taking a long break from pokemon, like 10 months or something (school, soccer, friends, etc) I decided to revamp this team and use it for the dpp tourn. This team is very effective in this metagame despite being an extremely offensive team. The ladder is very close to dead now on both the PO/SU servers obviously, but I was still able to make top 50 with several alts within the past ~3 months or so with various versions of this team, if that means anything. Yes, this is one of my better teams, but that's not what sets this team apart from others in my eyes; it is the fact that this team is so fun to use. It is fast-paced and it's also very easy to play with compared to other offensive teams I think. It also, of course, features some really neat and underrated sets which is always a good thing, especially for tournaments. Enjoy!
Team building for those who care:
When I started thinking about this team, the very first thing I thought of was colbur azelf lead + scarftar, but I very soon realized that weavile would be a better choice, as it does not have to be choice locked, and sandstorm would hurt this offensive team. Plus, I wanted this team to be fun, and scarftar is boring as shit.
+
At this point I am not quite thinking types yet. Thinking about strategy, I realize that weavile is an excellent lure for steels, which makes them easy to trap early in the game. After adding magnezone, I figured dragonite would be a logical partner.
The last two spots was what I really had to think about. I knew that the first 4 guys that I chose were sort of strategy based only, and I still needed a solid check for a lot of stuff. I picked suicune for this, as it can keep the offensive pressure going while also checking pretty much everything. With one spot left, I couldn't think of a good choice after a lot of thinking, so I went with superachi for another steel and some variety. Grass Knot was good for taking out swampert, which I thought would be a pain to get rid of.
TEAM VERSION 1:
This was a good looking team, but there were still a few problems. Blissey was a pain because zone could never explode on her (lol?), and so was a lot of defensive pokemon like celebi and vaporeon. Scizor's u-turns were killing me because zone couldn't trap him. Also, fighting types were such a bitch at times, especially mixape. Superachi is fun to use, but I needed something better. I made a list of the weaknesses of this team, and I found that heatran with a chople berry and sub+explosion would be a really cool filler mon to help with the weaknesses. I tried him out, and worked really well, so I kept him. I also changed explosion to magnet rise on magnezone because I could never seem to explode on anything before dying. Heatran's spread got changed around, and fire blast was changed to flamethrower. Azelf's EVs got changed and heatran went to modest, and voila, the team was done.
CURRENT:
At this point I am not quite thinking types yet. Thinking about strategy, I realize that weavile is an excellent lure for steels, which makes them easy to trap early in the game. After adding magnezone, I figured dragonite would be a logical partner.
The last two spots was what I really had to think about. I knew that the first 4 guys that I chose were sort of strategy based only, and I still needed a solid check for a lot of stuff. I picked suicune for this, as it can keep the offensive pressure going while also checking pretty much everything. With one spot left, I couldn't think of a good choice after a lot of thinking, so I went with superachi for another steel and some variety. Grass Knot was good for taking out swampert, which I thought would be a pain to get rid of.
TEAM VERSION 1:
This was a good looking team, but there were still a few problems. Blissey was a pain because zone could never explode on her (lol?), and so was a lot of defensive pokemon like celebi and vaporeon. Scizor's u-turns were killing me because zone couldn't trap him. Also, fighting types were such a bitch at times, especially mixape. Superachi is fun to use, but I needed something better. I made a list of the weaknesses of this team, and I found that heatran with a chople berry and sub+explosion would be a really cool filler mon to help with the weaknesses. I tried him out, and worked really well, so I kept him. I also changed explosion to magnet rise on magnezone because I could never seem to explode on anything before dying. Heatran's spread got changed around, and fire blast was changed to flamethrower. Azelf's EVs got changed and heatran went to modest, and voila, the team was done.
CURRENT:
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Azelf @ Colbur Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 64 HP / 228 SDef / 216 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Explosion
This is an excellent lead for an offensive team, especially in the current metagame (or how it was left). Azelf can almost always give me early momentum. If I'm not really sure what to do, or against attacking leads that can't be pursuited, I'll get stealth rock up first and usually live the oncoming attack. If the pokemon is skarmory, forretress, roserade, swampert, etc. then I'll taunt of course. Colbur Berry allows me to stay in safely against forretress/machamp/tyranitar mainly. U-turn is a great move on azelf, which most people have figured out by now. I will often get SR up having my opponent think I will explode next turn, only to have me u-turn their ghost/steel as I go to trap them. Azelf lures trappable stuff which is very necessary for this team. Whenever I see a blissey, I will almost always switch azelf in to see if it has thunder wave, and if it doesn't, then I can be more confident switching in other guys to kill it (assuming I do not choose to explode with azelf). Azelf is great for death fodder. If I don't like something, I just switch in azelf who is faster than most stuff, and I explode or just let it die for a free switch in. The EVs may seem weird but they're really not. The speed EVs beat timid gengar and below, as in everything that azelf normally beats accept other base 115. I do this so that I can get the slower u-turn on starmie and azelf to pursuit them. The SpD EVs are enough for any special attack and most heatrans. The rest is dumped into HP to take u-turns and stuff. I don't need attack EVs for explosion and u-turn since explosion does plenty already, and u-turn doesn't need to do a lot of damage. Honestly the only lead that I lose to is CB azelf which has only recently become slightly popular. Azelf has been on the team since the beginning, and so has the next member as well...
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Weavile (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 40 SDef / 184 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Pursuit
- Ice Shard
- Low Kick
- Night Slash
Weavile is extremely underrated, and he's probably my favorite mon on this team. When people talk about dpp ou weavile, there seems to be mixed opinions. A lot of people think weavile just isn't very strong, which is understandable, but then again a lot of people don't know how to use him. Besides trapping starmie/azelf at the beginning of the game and rotom-a/gengar a little later, Weavile is used early game to lure any steels the opponent might have. If there is a skarmory, forretress, bronzong, or scizor, you know it's coming out. Once the main steel counter is gone, weavile is usually good to sweep late in the game, if I was able to keep him alive. Life Orb is so much better than CB because the loss in power is not bad at all, and being able to switch moves allows me to finish off teams as well as not get set up on by deadly things like dd nite if I was locked into low kick, for example. I'd like to know why ice punch is the first option in the last slot over night slash, because ice shard kills dragonite/flygon already and does tons to gliscor, and night slash allows me to kill starmie/gengar/offensive rotom/etc. when they stay in thinking I'm going to pursuit, which is like, the whole point of weavile. It has also gotten me out of sticky situations with the high chance of a critical hit. EV wise, I have to disagree with the weavile analysis once again: 216 spe doesn't make sense when ice shard easily OHKOes sceptile and dugtrio. 184 spe is enough to beat scarftar as well as stuff that beats scarftar by 1 point I believe. 32 HP EVs is for a good LO number, and the leftover 40 SDef EVs are put into SDef for rotom/starmie/jolteon/etc. Unlike scarftar, weavile is not locked in on a move, and there is no sand to hurt the rest of this offensive team. Azelf and weavile was what I thought of first when making this team, along with the next guy as well.
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Magnezone @ Life Orb
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon
- Magnet Rise
I really appreciate everyone who stopped using magnezone because I came across exactly zero skarms and forries with shed shell, up until maybe a week or two ago when I played people for a third or fourth time. It is not uncommon at all for my azelf to u-turn to weavile and trap something, and then I switch to zone to trap something else. Two mons down without even thinking in the first ~4 turns of the battle are almost guaranteed wins for me. If both my opponent and I are switching in a mon (when I use explosion or something), weavile is my go-to guy because steels will get lured and taken out next turn, and weavile does not let much set up on it. The only difficult thing with this set is choosing either LO, scarf, or sub. I eventually went with LO because of the extra power and the ability to change moves, which is very important with this team. My opponent is often not prepared for the power of LO. Magnet Rise is actually really cool for metagross, bronzong, swampert, tyranitar, flygon/gliscor switching in, etc. who I suspect might have earthquake. I have two other users with explode so I figured I could live without it. I am usually too slow to pull off a last minute explosion if I were to have it, and a LO tbolt/flash cannon does plenty to almost everything. HP fire kills any and all scizor/forretress, and it all does great damage to rotom-a/celebi/shaymin (no earth power) and other stuff that resists tbolt. HP fire is an automatic OHKO on breloom, which has saved me in many games. Flash cannon is great STAB move for predicting stuff like flygon and ttar, and it even does decent damage to mons that resist, which often happens after I use magnet rise on ground-types.
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Dragonite (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 56 Atk / 252 SAtk / 200 Spd
Mild Nature (+SAtk, -Def)
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Superpower
- ExtremeSpeed
I wish there was something else that was as powerful as mixnite but faster to put on my team, but there isn't. Dragonite provides a really nice ground immunity as well as a fighting and bug resistance. The stealth rock weakness is very unappealing but I can deal with it most of the time, especially since azelf often stops stealth rock from being set up. If I can get dragonite in early, I can do some great damage to the other team before SR gets up. It is a good feeling when I get dragonite in against something slower because dragonite has the power to rip holes in any team, usually by just clicking draco meteor. With magnezone taking care of steel-types, there will be nothing to absorb a draco meteor powered by LO, stab, and a +SAtk nature. I only wish Dragonite was faster, but oh well. I feel as if dragonite is one of the weaker links on the team believe it or not. I never really considered dd mence or cb mence, but I think draco meteor is too powerful to pass up. Dragonite's purpose is just to break stall and abuse magnezone's trapping by spamming draco meteor afterward. I really enjoy having dragonite on my team despite my occasional doubts. I had roost for a very long time, but I finally decided to replace roost with extremespeed because I simply need it more often than roost. Even with magnezone, I still like flamethrower for extra steels as well as grass types. Superpower is for a few things like heatran/blissey/tyranitar, and its good as just a neutral physical attack to hit a switch in or finish something off. EVs come straight from the analysis because I saw no reason to change them. Despite my doubts, I do appreciate dragonite on this team.
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Suicune @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 160 HP / 120 SAtk / 228 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Electric]
This suicune set has been amazing since the days of latias. Suicune is my switch-in for gyarados, heatran, infernape, dragonite, blah blah blah. Suicune checks pretty much everything. This suicune is so incredibly hard to take down after a calm mind, especially mid and late game. Rotom-a will take me down, but not after I fire off a +1 surf (defensive rotoms can only do 30% with a tbolt as I 2HKO it). Even shaymin and celebi are taken out by 2 ice beams provided they are not faster. Without blissey, jolteon, or lanturn, my suicune will usually at least one or two guys very quickly. Suicune has the ability to hit most stuff super effectively with its 3 attacks. I prefer surf over hydro pump because hydro pump misses too much, simple as that. The Speed EVs allow me to outpace everything important basically, and the HP/SAtk EVs I stole from a suicune on a reyscarface team I believe; I tried them out and they seemed fine so I just kept them. The EVs aren't too important though to be honest, because suicune will get the job done with any variation of the current spread. There's not much to say about suicune, really. Overall, suicune is bulky, powerful, and perhaps most important of all, consistent. I never once thought of changing suicune when I first picked him for this team.
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Heatran (F) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 36 SAtk / 220 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Substitute
- Explosion
Heatran is a damn good filler. He gives me extra resistances to stuff like scizor so magnezone doesn't have to take multiple u-turns by itself. I must admit, chople Berry is cool as fuck. My team functions well without heatran, but I was a bit weak to infernape (fucking mixape)/lucario/gengar as well as some other stuff like jirachi and defensive shaymin, and heatran with chople berry beats these guys for me. This team doesn't really have weaknesses because it is so fast-paced, but heatran often gives me extra insurance in case I get off track, if I can't explode with azelf anymore. Substitute is there so I can explode without my opponent being prepared for it. It makes it really easy to explode on stuff I don't like which is just awesome, including but not limited to vaporeon, blissey, and togekiss. Using a modest nature is okay because explosion does plenty of damage and I really like the bulkiness that heatran has. Basically heatran just resists some attacks and then kill an infernape and/or explode when I need it to. This spot has been changed a bit, but Heatran has been the best (and most fun) filler up until this point.
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Conclusion: What often makes offensive teams not very effective is that they can't break through cores in balanced teams, and momentum is lost. That is not the case here; this team is impossible to set up on, and momentum is basically never lost because my team always forces the momentum. I have used this team in every round I played in the dpp tourn, and even though I narrowly lost in the quarter-finals, I still think highly of this team, and it performed very well. Since dpp ou is over now, maybe I'll stop procrastinating and learn BW (especially with the new bans), but honestly, I'm losing interest in pokemon and the internet in general because life is hitting me pretty hard. School and sports and friends are always typical reasons for not spending all of one's time on the computer, but since I'm on the home stretch now (senior year in high school) and I actually have to work hard to make A's in my college classes as an engineer major, and club soccer isn't a joke anymore, and volunteering and school activities are actually important to me now, and I have to take care of most of my family and the house for the time-being, I just don't have that kind of time anymore. Plus, I never did like the internet very much as there seems to be too much negativity and veering away from reality. Even smogon has begun to slowly disappoint me recently. It's still a great place though, as there's truly no where else like it, and I hope it continues to grow in a positive way. And finally, special thanks goes out to ENZ0, CTI, Reachzero, IronBullet, Tomahawk and Phil for various reasons.
:D
edit: Importable version
Azelf @ Colbur Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 64 HP / 228 SDef / 216 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Explosion
Weavile (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 40 SDef / 184 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Pursuit
- Ice Shard
- Low Kick
- Night Slash
Dragonite (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 56 Atk / 252 SAtk / 200 Spd
Mild Nature (+SAtk, -Def)
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Superpower
- ExtremeSpeed
Magnezone @ Life Orb
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon
- Magnet Rise
Suicune @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 160 HP / 120 SAtk / 228 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Calm Mind
Heatran (F) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 36 SAtk / 220 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Substitute
- Explosion
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 64 HP / 228 SDef / 216 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Explosion
Weavile (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 40 SDef / 184 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Pursuit
- Ice Shard
- Low Kick
- Night Slash
Dragonite (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 56 Atk / 252 SAtk / 200 Spd
Mild Nature (+SAtk, -Def)
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Superpower
- ExtremeSpeed
Magnezone @ Life Orb
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon
- Magnet Rise
Suicune @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 160 HP / 120 SAtk / 228 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Calm Mind
Heatran (F) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 36 SAtk / 220 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Substitute
- Explosion
