Kingdra, we are clear and ready for take-off (OU)

[madjohnflint]

At a glance

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The focus of this team is to set Kingdra up for a sweep, hopefully by removing its counters first, and things that resist water (dragon, grass, water).


Lead:

Celebi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 100 HP/156 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Leaf Storm
- Trick
- Psychic

How does it help Kingdra?

• STAB Leaf Storm to scare/kill bulky waters.
• My Breloom counter--before I added this Celebi, I had no answer to counter to Breloom, and would lose consistently, it seemed.
• Trick can mess up stall teams, another thing I was having problems with; no matter what I did, I could not get around a well built stall team, and Trick will hopefully help.
• HP Fire hits grass pokemon (Tangrowth, Celebi), and Steel Pokemon (Skarmory, Magnezone) which could be problematic to Kingdra

---

Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP/120 Def/136 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Surf
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off

How does it help Kingdra?

• Toxic spikes, to wear down water types (Vaporeon, Swampert)
• It absorbs Toxic spikes, which easily ruins Kingdra's durability.

---

Weavile (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 40 HP/252 Atk/216 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit
- Brick Break
- Ice Punch

How does it help Kingdra?

• Revenge kills Dragons (Salamence, Flygon)
• Kills grass types.
• Removes.. actually, I don't remember at the moment if Pursuit is for anything in PARTICULAR, but it's.. good to have.

---

Zapdos @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Heat Wave
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Thunderbolt

How does it help Kingdra?

• Can kill Gyarados, outspeeding even Jolly variants after a single dragon dance.
• Again, grass and fire to kill water and grass types, respectively.
• Outspeeds Empoleon (even with an agility) and does 96% minimum.

---

Uxie @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Reflect
- Memento
- Light Screen

How does it help Kingdra?

• The ultimate set-up poke. Max speed to ensure that I can get both screens up on nearly anything.
• Memento forces them to switch, giving me a free turn, especially handy if Uxie is low on HP.

---

Kingdra (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk/24 Def/232 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Waterfall
- Outrage
- Dragon Dance
---

The star of the team; with Uxie's set up and sacrifice, Kingdra can easily sub up (which avoids status), and hopefully get two dragon dances per substitute; this leads to usually 3 or 4 dragon dances, which sweeps pretty well.



Things I'm concerned about.

1. Stall: I still have trouble with stall, as they seem to usually have both Vaporeon and Skarmory, two of the bigger counters to my Kingdra. To counter it, I suppose I could remove one of my choice users and add a mixed sweeper, but I don't know what to put.
2. No SR: I really like SR, it helps against Gyarados most notably, as well as Salamence. I haven't ran any calcs to see how much it REALLY helps though..
3. I'll add more as I think of stuff.

 

[iKitsune]

Quick rate from me.

I absolutely love Kingdra and want to help you sweep with this noble pokemon.

I have a few sugestions for you to consider to help you beat stall while fufil primarily the same goal.

Consider changing Zapdos to Timid Rotom-H Scarfed. Trick will help you with stall. This will also always outspeed Gyarados and OHKO with STAB Thunderbolt. Shadow Ball will also be useful against bulky Psychics.

Consider changing Uxie to Azelf this should also help you to beat stall run. I prefer this over Uxie as it is faster, has explosion which allows Kingdra to come in for free and scares Stall and finally can taunt shutting stall down.

This is the Set:
name: Bulky Dragon Dance
move 1: Dragon Dance
move 2: Waterfall
move 3: Outrage
move 4: Substitute
nature: Adamant
item: Leftovers /
evs: 184 HP / 208 Atk / 116 Spe

The given Speed EVs give Kingdra enough speed outrun positive base 110 Speed Pokémon after a Dragon Dance. The HP investment makes Kingdra's Substitutes durable enough to withstand: Vaporeon's Hidden Power Electric and usually take a defensive Starmie's Thunderbolt / Ice Beam as well as an Adamant Scarf Flygon's U-turn.

With Screens it will only be more likely to set up and will easily set up against Vaporeon.

 

[wildfire393]

Who is your lead? Is it Celebi? If so, I would suggest changing Celebi to this:

Celebi @ Choice Specs
Nat Cure / Modest
252 Special Attack / 172 Speed / 88 Defense
Leaf Storm
HP Fire/Earth Power
Stealth Rock
Trick

172 Speed EVs let this outspeed Positive Natured Heatran, which is the fastest lead that really bothers you. Suicide leads like Azelf and Aerodactyl are increasingly uncommon and are 2hkod by Leaf Storm.
Leaf Storm OHKOs standard CB Tyranitar (and anything less bulky) and Standard Hippowdon. HP Fire or Earth Power will 2HKO any lead Metagross, regardless of whether or not he carries the appropriate resist berry (actually there is a miniscule chance of missing the 2HKO with HP Fire if he has a fire-resist berry, as it does a minimum of 64% normally, meaning it could get 32 + 64 = 96% and fall a little short), and Earth Power will 2HKO Heatrans who run the ground-resist berry and OHKO those who do not.
Swampert is obviously OHKO'd by Leaf Storm.
Trick lets you cripple any lead trying to stat up or slower SR leads like Bronzong, giving you a chance to SR yourself.
The defense EVs allow this to come in on physical Fighting, Ground, and Water attacks easier later in the game, while also allowing Celebi to barely survive non-stabbed U-Turns from the likes of Jirachi or Infernape.

 

[madjohnflint]

Thank you two for your input; I will try everything that has been suggested.

And yes, Celebi is my lead, I'll clarify that in the OP.

I'll edit this post once I have tested the new team.

EDIT: I tested Scarfed Rotom H, but found that having 3 pokes weak to pursuit SUCKS. back to zapdos.