Harmony and Balance, a Semi-Stall OU team

[elemonator6]

The idea of this team is to use natural bulk and entry hazards to wear down the enemy and allow for a dragonite sweep, rather than the hyper offense that everyone seems to be running nowadays. I like the balance of a semi-stall team to an all out offensive team, which is why I decided to make this. However, I could use some help to make this team go far in the pokemon world, so thanks in advance.

The Rivoter (Roserade) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Toxic Spikes
- Sleep Powder

Roserade is a great lead and offensive presence on my team. I often use her as a lead and generally am able to get 2 layers of toxic spikes up fairly easily and sometimes without losing roserade. She is a great threat to almost all spinners in the game and works well with Jellicent and Vaporeon defensively. Max special attack and speed allows me to outspeed common leads and hit hard with offensive moves.

Iron Man (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave

Ferrothorn is the great wall of this team. Great defensive typing, great stats and an ability to punish physical attackers. Ferro also meshes extremely well with the resistances provided by jellicent, forming the amazing jellithorn core. He also functions well to cripple setup sweeper with thunder wave. A change I am considering is putting bulldoze over thunder wave, because hitting heatran and magnezone on the switch is almost too good to pass up, as none of them see it coming. Leech Seed and spikes provide more passive damage to wear down the opponent's team and allow dragonite to clean up the remains.

Mermaid Man (Vaporeon) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell

In my opinion, Vaporeon is a better cleric and wish passer than blissey. There I said it. Although it doesn't have the gargantuan hp stat that blissey does, it isn't complete and total setup bait for every sweeper from lucario to farfetch'd. Scald allows me to maybe cripple a setup or strong physical sweeper and coming off of vaporeon's above average special attack, will hit hard regardless of burn or not. Heal bell allows vaporeon to act as a cleric as well as a wish passer, curing the team of status and allowing it to outstall blissey one on one.

Mrs. Pringle (Jellicent) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Taunt

I was having a real problem with scizor and wasn't happy with heatran, as it had the same problems with the metal bug as ferrothorn: superpower. But I was struck with inspiration as i munched on my tube of pringles sour cream and onion chips.... and so the pink jelly was welcomed. With the above moveset, jellicent walls not only scizor, but also beats politoad and heatran. It also cripples any incoming physical sweeper with will-o-wisp, if it hits >:( and shuts down the always annoying rain-stall with taunt and water absorb.

Dumbo (Donphan) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Roar
- Stealth Rock

Well this team, as a defensive team, will be switching a lot and doesn't enjoy having to deal with entry hazards. Not only that, it provides a nice electric immunity that helps a lot with jellicent and vaporeon. Roar also allows donphan to phaze the numerous bulk up sweepers after walling them with its stellar defenses. Water and grass type attacks give my other pokemon plenty of free switches, so donphan is a welcome addition to the team.

Lance (Dragonite) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Extremespeed
- Dragon Dance

And finally, the offensive pillar of the team, Dragonite. This dragon is truly a beast. With multiscale making it an amazing wall without any investment, setup opportunities are pretty easy to come by. Outrage is a brutally powerful attack that hurts even those who resist it and with a boost is pretty hard to wall. Extremespeed mauls any frail choice scarfers that try to come in and revenge dragonite and allows dragonite to become a revenge killer himself. Fire punch puts the hurt on steels that come in to try and wall outrage and gets a boost from the omnipresent sun.
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This team does have a few problems, like any other. Choice Band tyranitar and choice scarf terrakion are always annoying, but donphan generally handles them pretty well. Super Charged pokemon on steroids like choice specs latios and choice band haxorus are extremely annoying too, but with a little prediction they are beaten.

Any tips in teambuilding and formatting will be apprectiated. Thanks in advance for reading this post and I really hope that you'll leave comments to help me out.

 

[Professor Birch]

There is something you can do to make it easier to counter your biggest threats. Give Donphan Ice Shard! It counters all the pokemon you said are a big threat to you.

 

[doughboy]

Alright let me help you out here with a substantial rate.

Taking a glance at your team, which is a defensive team, I can already see its biggest flaw: overlapping roles. You need more diversity on your team if you are going to secede defensively: Ferrothorn/Roserade and Vaporeon/Jellicent are too similar! Because of this your team is going to need a big overhaul.

So here is my first piece of advice: drop the freaking lead set for Roserade. First of all, there are no leads in Gen 5 anymore, so having a dedicated lead (especially on a defensive team) is a bad idea. You are pretty much wasting your Roserade and a teamslot when you do that. What I would is replace it with a bulkier set (provided below). Roserade gets access to Aromatherpy, allowing it to act as a cleric admirably. She can focus on it pretty much alonde due to Toxic Spikes taking a short amount of time to set up. You made a good pair with Roserade+Donphan, but you didn't complete their combo :P On Donphan replace Roar with Rest. By replacing Roar with Rest, Donphan does not require Wish support anymore, which frees up a slot to be more flexible with our choice!

Before we get that, I would like to mention that both Ferrothorn and Jellicent are being removed. Ferrothorn was replaced with Skarmory since your team could not take repeated and physical Dragon attacks that could be spammed against your team. Of course, Skarmory has access to Spikes and more importantly, phazing. Shed Shell is their for consistent wins. Jellicent was replaced with Duskclops to keep spinblocking, due to it being a stronger playing against physical fighting-types. Dusclops rest-talk set synergizes well with Roserade and provides burns for the team.

One possible change I could see on this team is replacing Dragonite with Substitute or Taunt Gyarados. Intimidate is much more of a "team-player" ability than Multiscale is, as it can be used to weaken an opposing CB user if something died. Gyarados also defeats Scizor which you would have had trouble with after Jellicent was taken off the team.

The last, surprise member for the team is Porygon2. You need a solid counter to Heatran (that isn't Gyarados) while also being able to take a hit from Latios. Porygon Z is the perfect poke for the job. I can even tank DM+Outrage combos. Overall it provides a nice little offensive touch for the team since it acts as a glue that covers Dragons and Heatran and can be used your user of Toxic.

all the changes

Donphan (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Atk / 176 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Rest
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Skarmory (M) @ Shed Shell
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Roost
- Drill Peck
- Whirlwind

Dusclops (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Night Shade
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Roserade (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 32 Def / 136 SDef / 92 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Aromatherapy
- Giga Drain
- Rest

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Trait: Trace
EVs: 252 Def / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Discharge
- Toxic
- Recover

Gyarados (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 56 HP / 248 Atk / 204 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Waterfall
- Bounce
- Dragon Dance

 

[AeroNightmare]

Zapdos with heatwave will give your team some trouble. You have no way of poisoning him, which would be you're slim hope to KO relatively easily. So I suggest giving donphan(your best matchup if they aren't running hidden power) ice shard. If you can't do that then atleast give either jellicent or vaporeon toxic. Relying on toxic spike setup is not the way to go.

Also I would strongly recommend giving dragonite earthquake instead of extremespeed so you have much better coverage.

All in all nice team I can tell you've put thought into it.

 

[Drizzin123]

I would replace your current Jellicent with a special sweeper Jellicent thats runs Energy Ball, Surf, Water Sprout, and Shadow Ball while wearing a choice scarf. Roserade eh its a good lead but you could use a Gengar, or an Accelgor with focus sash and get a little more use out of them. Accelgor running Final Gambit, Hidden Power(rock), Bug Buzz, and Spikes is a good way to go. I love Ferrothorn on the other hand he is the rock of your group. Dragonite, i'd replace extremespeed with Earthquake as stated about because you will be able to hit so many more people harder with EQ than Extremespeed. Donphan i like what he is running.

 

[Asek]

not to sound lika an arrogant dickhead but REPLACE JELLICENT/VAPOREON WITH HEATRAN. you dont need 2 Waters which have conflicting roles which the Pillsbury Dough Boy pointed out as well. Heatran works well into the team with his usefull imunity to fire and his Phazing capabilities.

Hide

Heatran @ Leftovers
Nature: Calm (+SpDef -Atk)
Trait: Flash Fire
EV's: 252HP/ 4SpAtk/252SpDef
-Lava Plume
-Protect/Substitute
-Earth Power/Hidden Power [ICE]
-Roar

The beast. This guy works wonders on both offensive and defensive teams. Lava Plume is here to spread burns and ruin a Physical sweepers day. Protect or Substitute is a preference. Protect gives you an extra turn of Leftovers recover and an extra turn of burn damage, scouting potential etc. Substitute works when you switch into something Heatran counters and while it is forced to switch out you get a sub up and are free from damage temporarily. Earth Power and Hidden Power Ice are coverage move and use the one you think your team needs. Roar is for the obvious

 

[elemonator6]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.
--

Also, a question for pillsbury, did you mean to leave porygon2's hp uninvested? If so, why?

 

[doughboy]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.
--

Also, a question for pillsbury, did you mean to leave porygon2's hp uninvested? If so, why?

Yes I did. My thought process was that since eviolte boosts the defensive stats of a Pokemon, one would get more out of fully investing in both defenses rather than HP, then only one defense.

 

[666lumberjack]

That isn't actually the case, investing in defenses over HP is only worthwhile if the Pokemon's HP is extremely high relative to its defenses, which is obviously not the case for Porygon2. A set with 252HP qnd the remainder split between the defenses is better even with Evioliten