Offensive OU Team

[connoisseur]

This is an offensive team closer to a bulky style. The team has two trickers to screw with stall, total immunity to toxic spikes, 1 SR weak, and 2 spikes effected pokemon. I've played the team for a while and it's done relatively well. I would like for you to point out a few improvements as even though it works pretty well, I don't feel that this team is as good as my old ones.

Changes are in BOLD

Here is the team:

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/232 Atk/12 Def/12 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Earthquake (considering meteor mash)
---
This Metagross is the best lead in the game in my opinion. Stealth Rock is used when the opponent is not azelf, aerodactyl or some other lead I can 2HKO with BP. EQ is just a good general power move, BP is awesome priority that guarantees the death of the opposing lead if it is one I can 2HKO. The most important move on this set, however, is explosion. Metagross's job is not only to set up stealth rock, but to guarantee at least one kill. If this guy lives to the endgame, explosion can be used to destroy an annoyance. Metagross's natural bulkiness allows for it to waste a couple turns of screens if my opponent leads with DS Azelf. Lum berry has given me plenty of free kills against smeargles and roserades, both who die to EQ+BP.

Type Synergy:
Ground: stay in, EQ won't kill you unless CB mamo is using it. Earthpower is a non-issue as heatran would rather use a fire move instead.
Fire: Latias or Gyarados depending on my mood.

Latias (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
---
I wanted to use Latios with the specs, but he is banned. Therefore, I decided to try latias. Draco Meteor spam is incredibly powerful even though it is not its cousin with its base 130SpA. Surf rounds out coverage with Dragon for the two best neutral attacking types in the game. Thunderbolt (thanks to whoever suggested it) is just for stuff like gyarados and its awesome neutral coverage anyway. IIRC thunderbolt is resisted only by electric and dragon. If rotom has already tricked his scarf and the opponent switches in curselax or something, trick is always good for that :) Generally I like to keep the specs on this guy for the power it provides.

Type Synergy:
Dark, Bug, Ghost, Ice: Go to scizor
Dragon: kill it with dragon pulse
Tyrantitar: shit, kill it with scizor/use trick

Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Extremespeed
- Crunch
- Swords Dance
---
Lucario was sort of just stuck here. SD, CC, and Extremespeed are standard fare on lucario. Crunch and Close Combat are awesome getting very powerful neutral coverage. Ice Punch was ditched because everything it is supposed to beat is faster than luke, and I generally do not do that kind of prediction... He usually gets ample set up opportunities due to trick from either latias or rotom-h and latias can easily remove gliscor from the game. All though he seems excellent, I feel like he is the one doing the least work in the team. I am thinking about sticking magnezone in here because he is just so awesome, but I am not sure that is such a good idea. Usually matches that I win do not really have lucario playing a major role. I am considering Infernape as a replacement maybe.

Type Synergy:
Fighting: Rotom
Ground: Rotom, Latias, Gyarados
Fire: Gyarados, Latias

Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit
- Bullet Punch
---
Standard CB scizor. He is here to abuse U-turn early game to latias and rotom to destroy the enemy pokemon. CB BP is always good on him, pursuit traps latias, superpower destroys blissey. If I feel ballsy with him I will randomly spam superpower to get rid of the ever present heatran switch in. He serves to kill DD Mence, the only DDer/booster my rotom cannot handle. Scizor is an integral part of the team. His fire weakeness allows gyarados and latias free switches. Scizor's spread used to be 244HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd but I realize the U-turning game works better if you have less speed.

Type Synergy:
Fire: Latias, Gyarados

Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Waterfall
---
DD Gyarados is an awesome sweeper. His job is to do as much damage as possible, and possibly set up with DD. If he sets up 2 its GG. Waterfall is very powerful, EQ is standard fare on gyarados, it also serves as a way to deal with metagross/lucario. Stone Edge is mainly for opposing salamence and gyarados which almost automatically appear if I send this guy in. I try to switch him in a maximum of two times though because of SR.

Type synergy:
Electric: Latias, Rotom
Rock: Waterfall ftw

Rotom-h @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Trick
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
---
Rotom-H is a brilliant pokemon. He counters a plethora of set up pokemon such as DD gyarados, SD lucario, and crocune. He usually ends up using trick at least once every 2 matches, and this is his most useful trait. It has saved my ass by tricking the scarf onto blisseys, cursecradilys, and other tankish annoying/cursing pokemon. He employs a hit and run style that tends to alternate between him, scizor and latias.


Type Synergy:
Ghost, Dark : Scizor

Changelog:
-Latias gets thunderbolt in place of dragon pulse
-Lucario gets crunch in place of ice punch
-Scizor loses the speed evs

Thank you for reading.
Have fun Rating, Hating, Helping, or Stealing.

 

[Dark Talon]

These changes might seem a bit drastic, but I think that your pair of sweepers could be swapped out for a duo that will work much better with your team: Salamence and Empoleon. Why these two you ask? Well, when I first glanced over your team, I realized that you had two pursuit weak Pokemon - something that could be used to your advantage. Lucario can easily set up in the face of a pursuit, but its mediocre speed can keep it from sweeping. Empoleon's ability to virtually win the game with proper set up and not be outsped by things as common as Salamence gives you much more powerful offense.

Empoleon @ Petaya Berry
Modest Nature
12 HP / 12 Def / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Surf | Ice Beam | Substitute | Agility

Empoleon's main counters are Blissey, Vaporeon, Suicune, CM Latias, and the occasional Tentacruel. These are dealt with by the other half of this duo, Salamence. I would suggest using the New Mixmence variant:

Salamence @ Life Orb
Naive Nature
16 Atk / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Outrage | Draco Meteor | Fire Blast | Earthquake

Draco Meteor + Outrage will eliminate everyone on that list. Although Latias will win 1 vs 1, Rotom, Scizor, Metagross, and your own Latias can all come out on top against it, thus making it a non issue.

Once you've plowed through whatever water resists the opponent carries, Latias or Rotom can serve as Pursuit or Bullet Punch bait for Scizor or Tyranitar. After they've been locked into Pursuit, Empoleon can come out and easily set up Agility and a subsequent substitute.

 

[tobi10]

Hello there connoisseur, I´ve played with a very similar team before, so it should be easy to rate this one; most of it will be just nipticks, however.
First of all, you should change your latias spread to 12 HP / 244 SpAtk / 252 Spe. You don´t lose any KO/2HKO whilts you get a Lefties number (after you trick your specs to bliss and stuff.) For Lucario, since you said he isn´t doing that much for your team, I reccomend you to change him to Baittar; because he can kill most of Gyarados´counters like Celebi and Rotom-A.

Tyranitar @ Expert Belt
Hasty
252 Atk / 208 Spe / 48 SpAtk
Sandstream

Crunch
Pursuit
Superpower
Flamethrower

This should be enough to stop Rotom-A, Celebi, and Skarmory from walling your team, while he helps to get a clean sweep with Gyarados.

Good Luck with your team and i hope i had helped

*btw--someone should help him with a better gyara spread, i gtg run for now

 

[joshe]

This is a super standard team, yet very good, and I just have a few nitpicks i want to address. Firstly, Metagross. You use lum berry on a team which is unaffected by Toxic Spikes and only 2 pokemon really care about spikes and Smeargle won't get more than one layer with you Bullet Punching turn 1. Depending on how that 1 spikes layer bugs you, I still want you to try out putting an Occa Berry on Metagross. With an Occa berry you can survive hits from lead Infernape, Azelf, Heatran, and other leads that will normally use a fire attack on it. You can now beat Infernape and set up Stealth Rock much easily without having to weaken a pokemon against a lead. If you still want to use Lum Berry on Metagross, you should use the spread: 200 HP / 232 Atk / 44 SpD / 32 Spe (originally made by reyscarface on his heavenly star team), which lets you survive any Focus Sash Timid Azelf Fire Blast 100% of the time and gives you some speed. I also suggest you go with Meteor Mash over Earthquake when running Lum Metagross as you have no chance of beating Infernape or Heatran through Metagross. Opposing metagross can just be dealth with by Scizor, hard hitting moves, and switching Rotom-h into the Explosion.

Use Thunderbolt on Latias over Dragon Pulse. The only thing Dragon Pulse is really used for is late game sweeping which Gyarados or Lucario should be doing. With Thunderbolt, you get perfect coverage, a check to non-Ice Fang Gyarados, and eases some prediction on your part after tricking a scarf on something, allowing you to more or less clean up stall once blissey has been taken care of (i.e. hitting Gyarados and Skarmory as well as alot of other bulky waters like Suicune and Vaporeon super effectively). Overall, I believe using Thunderbolt serves your team better than Dragon Pulse can. I also want Crunch on Lucario over Ice Punch. Most Gliscor, Salamence, Latias, et cetera, will outspeed you anyway, and you can nail Rotom-a, Gengar, and other ghosts all on the switch in with a Life Orb Crunch, which will help you against Gyarados' and Scizor's counters, allowing them to have an easier time sweeping.

Finally, since Gyarados is basically your main sweeper and you want to keep it alive, I suggest you change its EV spread to 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spe. You are using an Adamant nature with Leftovers and do not need to use max speed anyway. With 184 Speed EVs you still outspeed positive natured base 115's after a Dragon Dance such as Azelf, Starmie, and Raikou, and do pretty good damage to each (same damage you've done before obv) while having some more bulk to take hits and dd up. I also want you to try out 160 HP / 176 Atk / 168 SpD / 4 Spe on Scizor with an Adamant nature. This spread gives you alot more bulk while optimizing your stats.

Good Luck!

 

[connoisseur]

Thank you for the rates.

I am trying out mixmence and empoleon in place of lucario and gyarados at the moment as those seemed like they'd work at first glance on paper.

To the guy who suggested bait-tar, it sounds like it could work, but in my opinion it seems to lack enough firepower to back up its bad speed.

I am trying out T-bolt over dragon pulse on latias, and it's been helping, so thank you to the one who suggested it.

If Salamence turns out to be underwhelming (I love empoleon, he's awesome) I'll put gyarados back in and try the alternate 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spe spread.

I have used metagross leads on all of my teams, and I know what I am doing by putting the lum berry on metagross. I made the decision because teams that lead with smeargle and roserade are more important to kill than the occassional infernape or heatran leads. With the roserade and smeargle leads, an incapacitated metagross is not a cool thing to have and is basically death fodder when I prefer to detonate him. On Heatran and Infernape I can always switch in latias while against smeargle someone vital is forced to sleep.

 

[MCRandom]

For your Gyarados set, I reccomend you run a set that me and some buddies came up with that most people get thrown off by and works very well. It is a Bulky JollyDos, which sounds wierd but bear with me. Here it is:

Gyarados@Leftovers/Wacan Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Jolly Nature
104 HP, 192 Atk, 40 Def, 172 Spe
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Stone Edge
-Bounce/Taunt

I reccomend Bounce on the Fourth Slot since the normal switch in for Gyara is an electric pokemon, most commonly Jolteon, which is outsed and KO'd by a +1 Waterfall. The only main threats to this set are Magnezone and Electivire and Celebi if you run Taunt, and if not be wary of phazers, but there are always openings for Gyara to come back in and set up again. If you feel Magnezone and Electivire are giving you problems, you can use Wacan Berry which will give you the 2nd turn to be able to 2HKO both of them. These EV's give you all the fire power you need, a little bulk, and the speed to outspeed base 130's after only 1 DD.

 

[tlb31m]

I like how you put much thought into this team but what if latias tricks a tyrana boah and it outspeeds scizor and can ko with fire blast or flamethrower? Also I dont see eneything wrong with ice punch on luke its not common on him and wont be expected giving him/her and advantage.Other than that good team 10 out of 10!

 

[Snorlaxe]

hi :)

a lot of raters have already covered some things, but i do see some problems with your team. as joshe said, this is a super standard team, and standard teams will always have one or two pokemon that trouble them....for this team, its dragon dance babiri berry tyranitar. it can easily set up a dragon dance against rotom or scizor locked into the wrong move, and from there its pretty much over for your team if metagross is already down. stone edge can ohko gyarados, fire punch gets scizor and lucario, and crunch gets latias and rotom-h. bullet punch from choice band scizor is no longer a very safe check to dragon dance tyranitar, as really most tyranitar these days do carry babiri berry. another minor issue that i see is problems with swords dance lucario once rotom-h goes down...this is not at all an uncommon scenario, as unfortunately for this team choice scarf wielding rotom-h is pretty much the easiest pursuit bait in the entire ou metagame, barring maybe other scarfers like choice scarf latias.

in order to fix these problems, i really want you to try out a physically-based mixed infernape set in place of lucario. at the moment lucario really does look like it was just randomly slapped on the team, and in terms of physical sweeping is kinda redundant when you also have choice band scizor and dragon dance gyarados on your team. infernape is helpful as it is a fantastic wallbreaker, and can help wear down stall teams super easily. this is pretty important, as a well played stall team will be able to stop your attempts to set up relatively easily. anyway, infernape: use a set of close combat | u-turn | mach punch | overheat, an ev spread of 252 atk | 64 spa | 192 spe, and a naive nature (item life orb). this set i feel can really help your team, as mach punch takes down any and all swords dance lucario and dragon dance tyranitar before they even get a chance to attack. in addition infernape helps your team deal with walling combinations like the ever-popular "skarmbliss". infernape also makes for a really great scout due to its ability to cause a lot of switches coupled with the useful move u-turn.

okay, for rotom-h, i really think that you should try moving 252 special attack evs into hp. the reason is that to be honost rotom-h doesnt really need special attack evs to get the same kills that it can with little ev investment. 252 hp evs, on the other hand, really help rotom-h take hits with much more ease. you could also go for a spread of 232 hp | 24 spa | 252 spe, which allows you to still 2hko standard life orb latias variants with shadow ball if i recall correctly. also on metagross i think that you may want to go with meteor mash on metagross as opposed to earthquake. earthquake is generally only used on metagross leads that carry occa berry, as it allows metagross to deal with infernape and (to an extent) heatran leads. since you are running lum berry, however, then it isnt the best choice. earthquake is also useful for hitting steel type pokemon; between lucario (or infernape) and rotom-h, however, steel type pokemon are handled very easily, so meteor mash becomes a great option, allowing you to deal with opposing suicide leads as well as just cause more damage in general and help the team by softening up the opposing teams core.

hope i helped, and good luck with your team! ;)

 

[connoisseur]

I have tested out empoleon an salamence as replacing lucario and gyarados, and the result was lucario and gyarados were 1000x better as a combo. Empoleon always seemed to draw in blissey, and sucks at stall breaking in general. Mixmence just plain sucked, specslatias did its job much much better, so it was dead weight. Gyarados still has not let me down as a DD sweeper and tends to work well with my style of play, so he is back in.

I am now testing out a 68HP/252ATK/188SPE (1 higher speed to outspeed others doing the same thing) spread on gyarados.

I don't really like tauntrados or bounce, so I'll pass on your gyarados, NarutoXXXUzumaki. I don't really believe gyarados is ever taking down celebi, even with bounce...

tlb31m: sorry to say, but yours wasn't helpful..tyraniboah is not around much anymore and a specs'd tyranitar is still LOL, especially since gyarados can come in and lol at specs fireblast. You also just repeated what others said.


Later on I might try your infernape spread, snorlaxe. Would a nasty plot or SD nape work as well in that spot?

Thank you for the rates.