Hello! I'm pretty new here, but I've played on the simulatore quite a bit before i decided to register myself to the forum. Please forgive my errors in the thread, but English is not my first language :P!
INTRODUCTION
First of all, I have very little experience with competitive Pokemon, as i began to play it only last year. I jumped from 3rd gen to 6th gen, so i may have missed something in the meantime :P!
However, my favourite playstyle were offensive rain teams, but i wanted to try something new. So I decided to build my first real standard team not based on rain. I don't play all my matches on the simulator, as I really like playing on the real game too (even if it's very difficult to find a decent OU match in-game XD). Between simulator and in-game online battles, i managed to get a really nice score (19 w and only 1 l to a wi-fi team with mega mawile and trick room that i really didn't know how to handle XD). So i started to think that the team was decent, and not the usual garbage i have built in my previous attempts. However, I think that it could be improved in some way, as my knowledge of the metagame is still very limited and I consider myself only an average player, so i decided to post my team here to collect opinions and advices :)!
GENERAL TEAM DETAILS
Here I want to explain some of my choices you may find strange.
I have no hazard control on this team (no taunt users to shut down rock and spike setters, no rapid spinner, no defogger). The reason is that, as much as i know that is very important to control the hazards on the field, i built the team in such way that hazards wouldn't give my opponent a great advantage against it.
Let's start with the most important form of hazard in OU: Stealth rock. I have 2 resistence, 4 neutralities and no weakness. It's not so good, but not so bad.
Then spikes: with 3 immunities, I think i'm safe enough. More over, only 1 member of the team is affected by both neutral stealth rock and spikes.
Finally the not-so-common web: as i said for spikes, i have 3 immunities. Metagross is immune if it's not megaevolved. Klefki is affected, but has prankster. Azu is affected, but he is already very slow, so i'm not concerned with it.
THE TEAM
Ok, now (after my incredibly long wall of text :P) here is my team.
Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Hammer Arm
- Ice Punch
When it first came out, i wasn't sure about this thing. I preferred other megas (like Mega-altaria) to it. But when i began to use it, i discovered his amazing strenght! My god, this thing hits hard everything that doesn't resist his attacks. It's very simple to use, so it was the optimal choice for someone who wanted to start with a standard team.
Meteor Mash and Zen Headbutt are here for dual STAB and hits so hard that i don't have to rely too much on prediction to deal some damage. Hammer Arm is here for annoying steel types. I don't use Earthquake because hammer arm is more powerful and allow me to deal more damage and even 2HKO Ferro and offensive megascizor, which can be useful if i lose my answer to them (see below the other teammates). Ice punch is nice for hitting dragons, gliscor and landorus and it deals nice damage to flying types (even if i need to pay attention to Mandibuzz. If it's still very healty, it's better to switch out as that thing survives the hit pretty well)
Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Fire Blast
You may ask why i choose such a subpar pokemon that is, at best, a C+ mon. Well, I like him very much (in fact, he is my favourite pokemon). However, i find him to be a very good teammate for Metagross. He covers all of his weakness, and metagross covers 3 of hydreigon 5 weakness. I thought it was nice enough to put him in my team. In OU, the best (and probably only semiviable) set for Hydreigon is the choice scarf set. He outspeeds everything that's not scarfed, and Dark pulse is a very spammable move now that steel don't resist dark anymore (and has a nice 20% chance to flinch). Draco Meteor is used to do some heavy damage on everything if needed, even if i don't use it very often. Fire Blast help me to pass through steel types like Scizor that can give me problems, or Ferrothorn, that can stop Azu from destroying the opponent's team. U-turn is useful because i can gain momentum if i predict a switch and it's very spammable too (even if i do very little damage with it).
Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe (on wifi the spread is a little different to have sitrus activated after belly drum, but that's not important)
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower
- Belly Drum
- Play Rough
Standard belly drum Azumarill set. I like that set very much, as a belly drum - aqua jet combo can totally destroy my opponent's team if i'm good enough to remove defensive wall and resistant pokemon. I made calcs and i see that it pretty much OHKO and 2HKO the majority of the tier even with only aqua jet. Superpower is for Ferrothorn (again lol. I really hate him, and you can understand why as i used to play rain offense) and it' s very good for bisharp if i know i didn't set up the belly drum yet.
Play Rough is my secondary stab, and is useful if i didn't set up yet, predict a switch to a mon that resist my aqua jet (like rotom-w) and it's too early in the game to set up the belly drum. The Sitrus berry is obvious for the set i'm running, as it let me recover some health after the set up.
However
Klefki @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave
Ok, now here's what i think to be the most useful pokemon i've ever seen. I really enjoy his presence in my rain teams, I love his typing, and i didn't find a reason not to use him again. And i have to say that he is the reason of most of my victories. My main aim when using it is to send him out mid/late game, set up the screens and let him die. Then Azu (possibly with no or little damage) comes in, set up the belly drum with ease and wreck the opponent's team. However, even if i rarely manage to use this strategy during a battle, setting up screen is very important, as it trasforms Metagross in an incredible monster capable of eating with ease even super effective hits and destroy with his enormous power. Sometimes setting up screens is important to survive priorities late game if my pokemon are damaged (lol even Gengar manages to survive some hits and hurt the opponent back with screens up). Thunder wave is also useful, as it let me to shut down fast sweepers. Foul play is here to punish set up sweepers that thinks they can set up on me.
In the end, i can consider Klefki my emergency button, as it allows me to correct some (many!!!) misplays and mispredictions.
The EVs spread let klefki survives even supereffective physical hits with little problems with the screens up. He can survive supereffective special hits too if necessary, but he will be heavily damaged by them.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off /Stone Edge
- Earthquake
Landorus-T is here mainly to set up rock. The defensive set is not the most common in OU, and catch sometimes the opponent by surprise. Knock off is spammable, and allow me to remove eviolite from chansey if needed, but i'm considering to change it with stone edge as it will allow me to kill talonflame, which can surely be a problem with priority brave bird and high speed. Earthquake is here for STAB, and U-turn to gain momentum after setting up rock or intimidating an enemy mon.
The EV-Spread is the one i found on smogon, and it allows me to handle Talonflame, to survive hp ice from manectric and to outspeed modest magnezone.
Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Focus Blast
Gengar is my special attacker. I used to run sub but with life orb it really worked bad as his health was lowered too fast. Timid is to outspeed all non timid 110 (which is a very crowded tier from what i can see now). Shadow ball is for STAB and hits for neutral damage many enemies. Sludge Wave is a more powerful STAB used when it's not resisted. Focus Blast helps Gengar to pass through Dark and Steel types, even if I hate the miss chance. If you find something more useful than focus blast, i will be very happy to replace it. Energy ball is here to save me from bulky water types, as i lack electric and grass types moves on the team.
Here it is. :) I hope you can help me to improve my team and my metagame knowledge. Thanks in advance :)!
PS: Sorry for the wall of text :P!
INTRODUCTION
First of all, I have very little experience with competitive Pokemon, as i began to play it only last year. I jumped from 3rd gen to 6th gen, so i may have missed something in the meantime :P!
However, my favourite playstyle were offensive rain teams, but i wanted to try something new. So I decided to build my first real standard team not based on rain. I don't play all my matches on the simulator, as I really like playing on the real game too (even if it's very difficult to find a decent OU match in-game XD). Between simulator and in-game online battles, i managed to get a really nice score (19 w and only 1 l to a wi-fi team with mega mawile and trick room that i really didn't know how to handle XD). So i started to think that the team was decent, and not the usual garbage i have built in my previous attempts. However, I think that it could be improved in some way, as my knowledge of the metagame is still very limited and I consider myself only an average player, so i decided to post my team here to collect opinions and advices :)!
GENERAL TEAM DETAILS
Here I want to explain some of my choices you may find strange.
I have no hazard control on this team (no taunt users to shut down rock and spike setters, no rapid spinner, no defogger). The reason is that, as much as i know that is very important to control the hazards on the field, i built the team in such way that hazards wouldn't give my opponent a great advantage against it.
Let's start with the most important form of hazard in OU: Stealth rock. I have 2 resistence, 4 neutralities and no weakness. It's not so good, but not so bad.
Then spikes: with 3 immunities, I think i'm safe enough. More over, only 1 member of the team is affected by both neutral stealth rock and spikes.
Finally the not-so-common web: as i said for spikes, i have 3 immunities. Metagross is immune if it's not megaevolved. Klefki is affected, but has prankster. Azu is affected, but he is already very slow, so i'm not concerned with it.
THE TEAM
Ok, now (after my incredibly long wall of text :P) here is my team.
Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Hammer Arm
- Ice Punch
When it first came out, i wasn't sure about this thing. I preferred other megas (like Mega-altaria) to it. But when i began to use it, i discovered his amazing strenght! My god, this thing hits hard everything that doesn't resist his attacks. It's very simple to use, so it was the optimal choice for someone who wanted to start with a standard team.
Meteor Mash and Zen Headbutt are here for dual STAB and hits so hard that i don't have to rely too much on prediction to deal some damage. Hammer Arm is here for annoying steel types. I don't use Earthquake because hammer arm is more powerful and allow me to deal more damage and even 2HKO Ferro and offensive megascizor, which can be useful if i lose my answer to them (see below the other teammates). Ice punch is nice for hitting dragons, gliscor and landorus and it deals nice damage to flying types (even if i need to pay attention to Mandibuzz. If it's still very healty, it's better to switch out as that thing survives the hit pretty well)
Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Fire Blast
You may ask why i choose such a subpar pokemon that is, at best, a C+ mon. Well, I like him very much (in fact, he is my favourite pokemon). However, i find him to be a very good teammate for Metagross. He covers all of his weakness, and metagross covers 3 of hydreigon 5 weakness. I thought it was nice enough to put him in my team. In OU, the best (and probably only semiviable) set for Hydreigon is the choice scarf set. He outspeeds everything that's not scarfed, and Dark pulse is a very spammable move now that steel don't resist dark anymore (and has a nice 20% chance to flinch). Draco Meteor is used to do some heavy damage on everything if needed, even if i don't use it very often. Fire Blast help me to pass through steel types like Scizor that can give me problems, or Ferrothorn, that can stop Azu from destroying the opponent's team. U-turn is useful because i can gain momentum if i predict a switch and it's very spammable too (even if i do very little damage with it).
Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe (on wifi the spread is a little different to have sitrus activated after belly drum, but that's not important)
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower
- Belly Drum
- Play Rough
Standard belly drum Azumarill set. I like that set very much, as a belly drum - aqua jet combo can totally destroy my opponent's team if i'm good enough to remove defensive wall and resistant pokemon. I made calcs and i see that it pretty much OHKO and 2HKO the majority of the tier even with only aqua jet. Superpower is for Ferrothorn (again lol. I really hate him, and you can understand why as i used to play rain offense) and it' s very good for bisharp if i know i didn't set up the belly drum yet.
Play Rough is my secondary stab, and is useful if i didn't set up yet, predict a switch to a mon that resist my aqua jet (like rotom-w) and it's too early in the game to set up the belly drum. The Sitrus berry is obvious for the set i'm running, as it let me recover some health after the set up.
However
Klefki @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave
Ok, now here's what i think to be the most useful pokemon i've ever seen. I really enjoy his presence in my rain teams, I love his typing, and i didn't find a reason not to use him again. And i have to say that he is the reason of most of my victories. My main aim when using it is to send him out mid/late game, set up the screens and let him die. Then Azu (possibly with no or little damage) comes in, set up the belly drum with ease and wreck the opponent's team. However, even if i rarely manage to use this strategy during a battle, setting up screen is very important, as it trasforms Metagross in an incredible monster capable of eating with ease even super effective hits and destroy with his enormous power. Sometimes setting up screens is important to survive priorities late game if my pokemon are damaged (lol even Gengar manages to survive some hits and hurt the opponent back with screens up). Thunder wave is also useful, as it let me to shut down fast sweepers. Foul play is here to punish set up sweepers that thinks they can set up on me.
In the end, i can consider Klefki my emergency button, as it allows me to correct some (many!!!) misplays and mispredictions.
The EVs spread let klefki survives even supereffective physical hits with little problems with the screens up. He can survive supereffective special hits too if necessary, but he will be heavily damaged by them.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off /Stone Edge
- Earthquake
Landorus-T is here mainly to set up rock. The defensive set is not the most common in OU, and catch sometimes the opponent by surprise. Knock off is spammable, and allow me to remove eviolite from chansey if needed, but i'm considering to change it with stone edge as it will allow me to kill talonflame, which can surely be a problem with priority brave bird and high speed. Earthquake is here for STAB, and U-turn to gain momentum after setting up rock or intimidating an enemy mon.
The EV-Spread is the one i found on smogon, and it allows me to handle Talonflame, to survive hp ice from manectric and to outspeed modest magnezone.
Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Focus Blast
Gengar is my special attacker. I used to run sub but with life orb it really worked bad as his health was lowered too fast. Timid is to outspeed all non timid 110 (which is a very crowded tier from what i can see now). Shadow ball is for STAB and hits for neutral damage many enemies. Sludge Wave is a more powerful STAB used when it's not resisted. Focus Blast helps Gengar to pass through Dark and Steel types, even if I hate the miss chance. If you find something more useful than focus blast, i will be very happy to replace it. Energy ball is here to save me from bulky water types, as i lack electric and grass types moves on the team.
Here it is. :) I hope you can help me to improve my team and my metagame knowledge. Thanks in advance :)!
PS: Sorry for the wall of text :P!
