I've got friends in all the right places [RMT]

[Synral]

So after a shit-ton of fine-tuning and editing and testing and getting my ass handed to me by what I totally believe to be Ice Beam's new 50% freeze rate, I've perfected my team for Gen V. Honestly, this team works out best for me because I simply have outs to most everything. Boosted Roopuushin/Breloom? Shanderaa and Espeon. Deadly Rain Dance sweepers? Nattorei. Boosted Doryuuzuu? Roopuushin. The amount of stat-upping on this team is a bit ridiculous with half of the team carrying boosting moves, but it hasn't slowed the tempo at all.

Bad Company (Sazandora) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Fire Blast
- U-turn

A very solid Scarfed lead. Draco Meteor tears through things instantly with that massive base 125 Sp. Atk, while Dragon Pulse is a consistently solid attacking move. Fire Blast is for the obvious coverage against the steels, and U-turn is your generic scouting. The lovely thing about Sazandora is that he's able to switch in on so much more than the other dragons could. Salamence had to deal with Stealth Rock, whereas Flygon's defenses were subpar. Not the case with Sazandora. 92/90/90 defenses with resistances to Grass/Fire/Electric/Water and an immunity to EQ makes it really easy to transition him back and forth.

Pollyanna (Espeon) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Mirror
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Baton Pass

Favorite pokemon of all time just got cooler. Magic Mirror is a fantastic ability that renders Erefuun nearly useless, but also allows Espeon to set up Calm Minds with no fear of status, Encore, entry hazards, or whatever. Magic Mirror is usually the set up for my Stealth Rock since this team doesn't have it. Espeon also occupies an interesting speed tier that lets it outspeed Infernape, Birijon, Terakion, and Kerudio and hit them with SE Psychics. Unfortunately, without a boost, it usually doesn't OHKO except on Infernape, which it always does. Calm Mind can be passed to literally any member of the team, it's that good. Roopuushin doesn't give a shit about the boosted Sp. A, but with boosted Sp. D, and one or two Bulk Ups, he hits like a truck and takes hits like one too. After two Calm Minds, Sazandora can fire off a boosted Draco Meteor and then a regular one shortly after. Mothra/Shanderaa love the boosts that bolster their already retarded Sp. A. The spread enables Espeon to take hits reasonably well so he can pass his CMs and Subs off easier.

Yeah (Urugamosu) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Bug Buzz
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Butterfly Dance
- Flamethrower

Mothraaaaaaaa... Urugamosu has a scary base 135 Sp. Atk, one of the best boosting moves in the entire game, and two amazing stabs to utilize it with. The downside? He's 4x weak to Stealth Rock, vulnerable to spikes and toxic spikes, and can't take physical attacks worth a damn. Espeon alleviates the problem somewhat by making entry hazards bounce to my opponent instead, so I can usually get him in unscathed. My ultimate goal with Uruga is to get 2 Butterfly Dances. There isn't much that stops him after that. By that point, he also outspeeds Dory in the sand, which is huge, and he's defensively solid enough to take a Boil Over/Surf from a Kerudio with +2 Sp. D. Hidden Power Ground is for Heatran and Shanderaa, but it also hits Blaziken. I've yet to find a better Hidden Power atm, as Electric, while hitting bulky waters, does shit damage when it's neutral and the others are resisted.

Glycerine (Roobushin) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Guts
EVs: 192 HP / 172 Atk / 144 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Payback

Roopuushin is becoming a staple for a pretty fucking good reason. He hits like a truck and is pretty competent defensively to boot. Fighting/Dark is some sexy fucking coverage. Roopuushin can take an unboosted EQ from Dory and get his HP back with a Drain Punch, or do around 80-90% with a +1 Mach Punch. Predicting with Roopuu is also really easy. Throwing him into T-tar's Crunch and then Paybacking the oncoming Shanderaa is great.
The spread is a bit off the standard 252 HP/252 Atk but not for a bad reason. The spread I'm using gives it the same offensive power as a Machamp while at the same time making it possible for Roopuu to take Special Attacks reasonably well. A huge problem I was having with him was his massive vulnerability in that shitty 65 Sp. Def, and I just love the current spread. Shanderaa now no longer OHKOs with Psychic or Overheat which is reason enough to keep the current spread.

Grasshole (Nattorei) (M) @ Shed Shell
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed

Due to my lack of entry hazards of any kind, I thought Nattorei was appropriate to tack onto the team, and he's done a wondrous job of supporting the team with Spikes/Leech Seed, but he can also slam sweepers back with Gyro Ball and Power Whip if they try to set up on him. I was originally using Rugged Helmet which was great because it did 24% to the opponent for every contact move they used, something I adored when the opponent was locked in Outrage. But according to the PO statistics, Shanderaa is the #1 in the ladder right now, and I couldn't keep letting something so powerfully defensive be eradicated that quickly. I slapped on a Shed Shell to give Shanderaa a much harder time killing Nattorei.

The Grudge (Shandera) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Overheat
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Shadow Ball

I seriously think the first time I saw the massive leak of B/W info I fell in love with everything about Shandera. The design, the typing, the 145 Sp. Atk, the ability. In practice, however, I sucked with him the first couple of times I played him. I wanted to run an abusive CM Sub set because of his immunities, but it was getting to be stupidly hard to find him a good candidate to trap who could do nothing back. Instead, I went with the much simpler Choice Scarf set. Overheat/Flamethrower works on the same principle as Draco Meteor/Dragon Pulse. Overheat for when I need to take down something in good health or particularly meaty, and then Flamethrower for consistent sweeping. HP Fighting and Shadow Ball have perfect coverage, and the latter receives STAB, so that was pretty cool as well. Sazandora and Espeon especially make it easy to trap things. Espeon reflects Nattorei's entry hazards while Shanderaa sponges the Gyro Ball/Power Whip. Sazandora frequently has to deal with Breloom and Roopuushin, neither of which like dealing with Shandera. Sazandora's U-turn also scouts possible trap targets for Shandera, which is absolutely amazing.​

 

[Synral]

Bee you em pee

 

[Jaroda]

I'm liking the scarf Sazandora. I think you have a pretty good team overall.

I've been meaning to try a CM Baton Pass Espeon. Mine is actually a dual screener, which is easy to set up and I also have multiple stat up users on my team who always appreciate Reflect or Light Screen. (Roopushin LOVES Light Screen).

As for Roopushin, you really need to consider Stone Edge or Rock Slide over Payback. Stone Edge kills Gengar, Espeon and Shandera anyway and it really helps against Gyarados, Gliscor, Ulgamoth, Dragonite and Salamence.

Otherwise I'm really having a hard time thinking of something that would give you trouble outside of maybe Skymin. Great team.

 

[Plusle]

Energy Ball>Flamethrower on shandeera. You already have shadow ball as a reliable sweeping move and overheat as a fire move. Energy ball halos you with bulky ground and water types. GL with the team

Ps. Ignore jaroda run payback on roobpushin

 

[Synral]

I've been considering HP Ice over HP Fighting on Shandera mostly because Tyranitar NEVER gets OHKO'd by it, and neither does Heatran. I'll test Energy Ball over Flamethrower, seems like it'd be better in terms of coverage, but I do like trapping subseed skymin and being able to fry it instantly.

I see the logic behind Stone Edge > Payback on Robuu, but it seems like whatever would lose to Stone Edge already gets completely walled by Nattorei. (ie Salamence, Dragonite, Gyarados, etc)

Speaking of Skymin, Nattorei is my answer to the scarfed version of it, and Shanderaa the non-scarfed (assuming it doesn't have sub) It does take some really careful plays, but I can typically remove it only losing one pokemon.
Having said that, I still think it's too powerful for OU, so it shouldn't be an issue forever.

Trying a SubVoid Darkrai over Ulgamoth for as long as Darkrai is in OU and it's working out pretty nicely.

Darkrai @ Life Orb
Nature: Timid
Trait: Bad Dreams
EV's: 252 Sp. A, 252 Spe, 4 Sp. D
~Dark Pulse
~Focus Blast
~Substitute
~Dark Void

Basically works on the same principle as SubSplit Gengar, only it's not weak to Pursuit, so it has a much easier time with Tar and Scizor.

And my team has peaked @ #4 on the Smogon PO server, so I'm quite satisfied.

 

[Jaroda]

I see the logic behind Stone Edge > Payback on Robuu, but it seems like whatever would lose to Stone Edge already gets completely walled by Nattorei. (ie Salamence, Dragonite, Gyarados, etc)

QUOTE]

Salamence and Dragonite often pack Fire Blast and Fire Punch respectively. Not as much of a wall as you think. Plus, the idea is you don't have to switch and you can keep your Bulk Up momentum going. You know how many dragons try to dance on me because they don't think I have a move to use on them?

Payback is simply not the best move for Roopushin on a Bulk Up set.

 

[TransparentOpacity]

You have friends in all the right places, but do you have all the right moves in all the right places? I would get rid of HP fighting on Shandera for something like HP Electric, because you already have a lot of Ttar counters but I can see a Gyarados ripping through this team once Nattorie is gone.

 

[Chou Toshio]

I personally really (really, really) dislike Stone Edge's accuracy . . . >_>

^How? Sazandora destroys Gyara, even when it is at +1.

Also HP Fighting is good because you don't want to be trapped and killed . . .

 

[Jaroda]

A miss can stink that's for sure, but it more often than not is worth it. There's always Rock Slide if you really want.

 

[Chou Toshio]

75 Base Power for only 90% Accuracy? >__> The only good thing about either attack is that they are rock attacks. I think Payback is definitely usable, and should be up to a matter of preference. Sure Rock is an awesome offensive type, and gets lots of super effective hits (great without STAB), but the decision to "put up" with the sheer shittiness of the attacks themselves (in terms of power/acc) is something each player has to decide for himself, and based on the team and the role of the pokemon in question.

"Stone Edge" is not an immediate answer for Roobushin > Payback. It's not that simple.