Mono-type team.

[Cantus Tropus]

I'll start by telling you right now that this is intended to be a mono team.
No, I will not drop the mono concept, not for this team. I have plenty of other ones, but i'd like your guys opinions on this. Telling me to drop half of my team for Heatran, Salamence, and Scizor kind of defeats the purpose of the team, so please try to remember that in your posts. And yes, it HAS been tested on shoddy, quite a lot.

Without further ado:

Girafarig@ Focus Sash
Timid
Early Bird
6 HP/252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd

~Protect
~Wish
~Thunder Wave
~Psychic

This is intended as a lead for my mono-psychic. With a focus sash, it can survive long enough to paralyze any lead with a thunder wave, which can be a big hindrance to their plans. Early Bird will hopefully stop sleep users from hindering his job too much. After that, it can use a protect/wish combo to prepare to heal a teammate after their switch-in, which can help to stop Stealth Rock ruining their focus sashes. Psychic is your generic STAB move, it doesn't matter too much, since I don't really expect it to live long. It also helps provide a useful Ghost immunity on a team like this. Pursuit is still a problem, though.

Slowbro@ Leftovers
Relaxed
Own Tempo
252 HP/252 Def/6 Sp.Atk

~Slack Off
~Light Screen
~Seismic Toss
~Psychic

This is a useful physical wall. 350 HP and defence takes hits like you wouldn't believe. Slack Off recovers HP, and Light Screen helps it to take specials as well as physicals, and psychic and seismic toss together help to wear down the many counters and walls it may face.

Starmie@ Leftovers
Calm
Natural Cure
252 HP/6 Def/252 Sp. Def

~Cosmic Power
~Rapid Spin
~Recover
~Toxic

Starmie makes an absurdly good special wall, particularly when using cosmic power. After a single Cosmic Power, Adamant Choice scarf Weavile's Night Slash fails to OHKO. Life Orb Scizor bullet punch does a pathetic 5%, although U-turn and X-scissor will still OHKO, so caution is required on my part. Starmie also boasts high speed, reaching 266 even without any EVs, allowing it to get the jump on other walls, such as Blissey and Hippowdon. Earlier versions of this team used Slowking in this position, and whilst it boasted some advantages (namely Counter and Calm Mind), this set has Rapid Spin, and since Stealth Rock has proven to be problematic to my team, this poke is preferred. Toxic and Recover allow it to stall out the likes of Blissey, although it cannot harm Skarmory at all.

Alakazam@ Focus Sash
Modest
Inner Focus
6 HP/252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd

~Calm Mind
~Counter
~Psychic
~Hidden Power Fighting

This fellow here is the reason who Slowking got the boot. The Focus Sash is vital here, allowing him to switch in on something with low Special Defence, Calm Mind on the switch, then kill the physical attacker switch-in with Counter. Many a Tauros, Machamp, and Weavile has fallen, not expecting that move. Once that trick has been pulled, psychic and Hidden power fighting allow for good type coverage for a mini-sweep of sorts. The one thing I'm not sure of is HP fighting, if a better suggestion i offered, I will consider it strongly.

Exeggutor@ Choice Scarf
Lonely
Chlorophyll
6 HP/252 ATK/252 Speed

~Seed Bomb
~Sleep Powder
~Zen Headbutt
~Explosion

Yes, you read that right, a physical Exeggutor. Rather than use ANOTHER special hitter, I opted to use Exeggutor's not inconsiderable physical movepool as a surprise threat. Seed Bomb and Zen Headbutt are good STAB attacks, Sleep Powder allows for versatility, sleeping dangerous threats, and Explosion owns Blissey in the face. The main problem here is Speed - even with a Choice Scarf, Exeggutor barely breaks the 300 barrier, so it often gets outsped.

Rampardos@ Choice Scarf
Jolly
Mold Breaker
6HP/252 ATK/252 SPD
~Stone Edge
~Earthquake
~Crunch
~Zen Headbutt

This is my wildcard: not psychic at all, but rather an extremely brutal physical sweeper that easily 2HKOs the likes of Blissey with Stone Edge. A choice Scarf helps with speed, but once again, it only reaches 354 with a Scarf, so no outspeeding other Scarfers. If it gets to attack, the wide array of attacks will own most things into dust in two rounds or so, but getting that to happen is rather a problem. Zen Headbutt is there to fill gaps and maintain the Psychic Theme.

Phew! So, there it is! It has its limits, and may not be able to counter all the meta threats, but please rate it based on its own virtues. What I'd hate to see is: "it sucks, because it isn't X pokemon". Not being as good as another poke isn't really a reason to say that it can't do its job, at least not in my mind. Anyway, give your honest opinions.

 

[zarator]

Since your team is almost all Psychic-type, you will attract Pursuit users like a magnet. I advise you to replace Rampardos with a sweeper which can take advantage of Pursuit-locked Choice users. SD Lucario springs to mind, but there are a lot of other useful choices such as Infernape and Tyranitar

 

[Ciaran]

I'll start by telling you right now that this is intended to be a mono team.
No, I will not drop the mono concept, not for this team. I have plenty of other ones, but i'd like your guys opinions on this. Telling me to drop half of my team for Heatran, Salamence, and Scizor kind of defeats the purpose of the team, so please try to remember that in your posts. And yes, it HAS been tested on shoddy, quite a lot.

You also have to remember to use guys that somewhat defend against Psychic's weaknesses. The Steel/Psychic pokes work well in this case, as do Starmie and Azelf who defend against the Steel types' additional weaknesses.

Without further ado:

Girafarig@ Focus Sash
Timid
Early Bird
6 HP/252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd

~Protect
~Wish
~Thunder Wave
~Psychic

This is intended as a lead for my mono-psychic. With a focus sash, it can survive long enough to paralyze any lead with a thunder wave, which can be a big hindrance to their plans. Early Bird will hopefully stop sleep users from hindering his job too much. After that, it can use a protect/wish combo to prepare to heal a teammate after their switch-in, which can help to stop Stealth Rock ruining their focus sashes. Psychic is your generic STAB move, it doesn't matter too much, since I don't really expect it to live long. It also helps provide a useful Ghost immunity on a team like this. Pursuit is still a problem, though.

There are better Psychic leads, like Metagross, Azelf, Celebi, DS Uxie, ScarfJirachi, or Anti-Lead Starmie. All of them are better than this.

Slowbro@ Leftovers
Relaxed
Own Tempo
252 HP/252 Def/6 Sp.Atk

~Slack Off
~Light Screen
~Seismic Toss
~Psychic

This is a useful physical wall. 350 HP and defence takes hits like you wouldn't believe. Slack Off recovers HP, and Light Screen helps it to take specials as well as physicals, and psychic and seismic toss together help to wear down the many counters and walls it may face.

Slowbro is quite good, but you're not using his advantages over other Bulky Waters. Namely Thunder Wave and Fire Blast/Flamethrower. Light Screen isn't really needed, since on Mono-Psychic you can have DS Cress or Uxie.

Starmie@ Leftovers
Calm
Natural Cure
252 HP/6 Def/252 Sp. Def

~Cosmic Power
~Rapid Spin
~Recover
~Toxic

Starmie makes an absurdly good special wall, particularly when using cosmic power. After a single Cosmic Power, Adamant Choice scarf Weavile's Night Slash fails to OHKO. Life Orb Scizor bullet punch does a pathetic 5%, although U-turn and X-scissor will still OHKO, so caution is required on my part. Starmie also boasts high speed, reaching 266 even without any EVs, allowing it to get the jump on other walls, such as Blissey and Hippowdon. Earlier versions of this team used Slowking in this position, and whilst it boasted some advantages (namely Counter and Calm Mind), this set has Rapid Spin, and since Stealth Rock has proven to be problematic to my team, this poke is preferred. Toxic and Recover allow it to stall out the likes of Blissey, although it cannot harm Skarmory at all.

Starmie would work better as a lead, Gyara counter or sweeper. There are much better options for walls in Psychic: Bronzong, Uxie, Cresselia, etc.

Alakazam@ Focus Sash
Modest
Inner Focus
6 HP/252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd

~Calm Mind
~Counter
~Psychic
~Hidden Power Fighting

This fellow here is the reason who Slowking got the boot. The Focus Sash is vital here, allowing him to switch in on something with low Special Defence, Calm Mind on the switch, then kill the physical attacker switch-in with Counter. Many a Tauros, Machamp, and Weavile has fallen, not expecting that move. Once that trick has been pulled, psychic and Hidden power fighting allow for good type coverage for a mini-sweep of sorts. The one thing I'm not sure of is HP fighting, if a better suggestion i offered, I will consider it strongly.

Never sash a non-lead. You can't just rely on a spinner to keep every entry hazard off the field period. A lot of people keep SR back in their team to deal with potential Spinners first. Outclasses by Azelf as an attacker. And Azelf can also be Physical, which is something a Psychic team likes and other than him the only other heavy Psychical hitter is Metagross, although Jirachi kinda counts...

Exeggutor@ Choice Scarf
Lonely
Chlorophyll
6 HP/252 ATK/252 Speed

~Seed Bomb
~Sleep Powder
~Zen Headbutt
~Explosion

Yes, you read that right, a physical Exeggutor. Rather than use ANOTHER special hitter, I opted to use Exeggutor's not inconsiderable physical movepool as a surprise threat. Seed Bomb and Zen Headbutt are good STAB attacks, Sleep Powder allows for versatility, sleeping dangerous threats, and Explosion owns Blissey in the face. The main problem here is Speed - even with a Choice Scarf, Exeggutor barely breaks the 300 barrier, so it often gets outsped.

This thing will be serious set up fodder. Azelf, Metagross, and Jirachi are much better options for Physical attackers in Psychic. Use one of them.

Rampardos@ Choice Scarf
Jolly
Mold Breaker
6HP/252 ATK/252 SPD
~Stone Edge
~Earthquake
~Crunch
~Zen Headbutt

This is my wildcard: not psychic at all, but rather an extremely brutal physical sweeper that easily 2HKOs the likes of Blissey with Stone Edge. A choice Scarf helps with speed, but once again, it only reaches 354 with a Scarf, so no outspeeding other Scarfers. If it gets to attack, the wide array of attacks will own most things into dust in two rounds or so, but getting that to happen is rather a problem. Zen Headbutt is there to fill gaps and maintain the Psychic Theme.

Exchange it for something that's not Pursuit bait, like LUCARIO! As the poster above me suggested.

Phew! So, there it is! It has its limits, and may not be able to counter all the meta threats, but please rate it based on its own virtues. What I'd hate to see is: "it sucks, because it isn't X pokemon". Not being as good as another poke isn't really a reason to say that it can't do its job, at least not in my mind. Anyway, give your honest opinions.

Most of it's limits are because you're using Pokes for jobs that they're un-suited for or using Pokes in jobs that others do much better. There is no reason why Psychic monotype can't be well done in OU, but this is not a prime example of it.

Comments in RED

 

[Bloo]

There are better options for a Psychic-type lead such as Azelf, Metagross, Uxie, Starmie, Jirachi, and Bronzong as CAL-Ciaran stated. You are better of using one of the aforementioned Pokemon as most of them provide your team with much more bulk in addition to most providing Stealth Rock for your team. Your lead should be able to combat some of the Pokemon that trouble Psychic teams, such as Tyranitar and Scizor while doing well against common leads as well. Metagross and Jirachi are one of the best Pokemon to handle these Pokemon. I suggest using Jirachi over your current Grumpig lead.

This is a pretty different set, however, it works. Try Shuca Berry, Adamant, 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe, Body Slam, Iron Head, Stealth Rock, Fire Punch. This Jirachi will help you out greatly against Tyranitar and Scizor, two huge threats to your team. Alright, here is how the set works. You already have a Scarf Heatran and Specs Latias on your team, which is why I agree with you in changing Jirachi’s item to Shuca Berry. Your team also lacks a Pokemon that can set up Stealth Rock for your team, so this set makes up for that. This set is very useful because more often than not, it will provide paralysis support for the rest of your team thanks to Body Slam’s 60% chance to inflict it. Iron Head, along with max attack investment, means that once you have paralyzed a foe, you can flinch them to death with Jirachi's Iron Head. Jirachi’s Shuca Berry also serves other purposes too such as saving you against leads that run Earthquake such as Swampert and Metagross. The speed EVs allow you to outspeed Adamant Lucario while the rest of the EV’s are put into Attack so Jirachi can hit as hard as possible. Fire Punch allows Jirachi to combat leads such as Metagross and other Pokemon such as Scizor and Lucario more effectively.

Sadly, your Starmie set will not work in this current metagame. That Starmie is vulnerable to Scizor, Tyranitar, and is walled by every Steel-type as you cannot Toxic them nor do enough damage with Rapid Spin. I would make Starmie an offensive Life Orb version. Starmie with Life Orb serves as an excellent sweeper. It can also weaken Tyranitar and Scizor with a strong Hydro Pump, making it so much easier for your team to deal with those two threats. Try a set of ThunderBolt/Hydro Pump/Recover/Ice Beam, 252 Speed/252 Apecial Attack/ 6 HP, Timid, Life Orb, Natural Cure. Ice Beam allows Starmie to hit Grass and Dragon-types. ThunderBolt gets a big hit on bulky Water-types such as Suicune and Tentacruel while Hydro Pump serves as STAB and hits most of Starmie's common switch-ins bar Blissey pretty hard. Recover allows you to heal of Life Orb damage and allow Starmie to survive for longer periods of time.

Slowbro is actually pretty cool. However, I advce you to change his set a bit. Slowbro can be put to more use with a much different set. Instead of Psychic you should be using Surf. Psychic has pretty poor coverage in OU while SUrf allows you to have more coverage while having STAB as well. Over Light Screen, use Thunder Wave. Thunder Wave brings many opposing Pokemon down to around Slowbro's Speed level, while making it easier for your team to sweep when some Pokemon are inflicted by paralysis. Slack Off is fine as is Seismic Toss, however, you might want to consider Hidden Power Electric to allow Slowbro to defeat Gyarados and have a better chance against bulky Water-types like Vaporeon.

As above posters have already mentioned, you are better of using Lucario over Rampardos. Due to this team attracting Pursuit from Tyranitar, Lucario can set up a Swords Dance easily on a locked Pursuit and potentially sweep. A simple set of Close Combat/Crunch/ExtremeSpeed/Swords Dance with 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 6 Def Adamant, Life Orb should suffice.

Alakazam is to frail as it will die to most hits easily. If you want another Calm Mind user, try Latias. Look at the Latias analysis on the site for a set you like. Latias is basically bulkier, has Recover to heal and has key resistances as well.

Well that is all I'm going to say. The rest is up tp you. Just remember to pick some bulky Psychic-types. Your team is currently quite frail and will have a hard time taking hits. You should generally stick to bulky Psychic-types such as Celebi, Bronzong, Metagross, etc

 

[Cantus Tropus]

Thanks for your comments, guys, and i appreciate the fact that your posts are more than just "YR DOIN IT WRNG!!". I think i may take your advice on many of these issues. I agree that surf and thunder wave are a better option for slowbro, and i think i may take your advice on Starmie, however, i don't always play in OU, so perhaps i'll make two teams: an OU one with Life Orb starmie, and a UU one with my current starmie. I have indeed had trouble for pursuit, so thanks for the advice. Perhaps, in another time, another metagame, my starmie will work ;). As for Lucario, yes, i reckon he's a good choice, but i think that rather than go for the expected swords dance set, i may try a special calm mind set instead, as that still works darned well. Perhaps Close Combat, Aura Sphere, Calm Mind, Shadow Ball? I think girafarig may go also, he's nifty, but i think I can find someone better. Probably not metagross, as he's not my favourite poke ever, (I'm not a massive fan of pseudo-legendaries), but we'll have to see. Anyways, thanks for your suggestions, and I look forward to more advice from the residents of Smogon in the future!