INTRO
Hey everyone, this is my first RMT and i aim to describe a team i've had great pleasure playing with.
The goal was to design a weatherless balanced team that could perform well against both Sun and Rain, as they dominate the metagame. I happen to dislike playing weather teams for some reasons, that's why this one goes weatherless.
This team has done fairly well so far, reaching OU top 100 (rating 2200+). And i'm not an experienced ladderer at all. It is well rounded and balanced, starting with a solid defensive core that works to open up opportunities for Garchomp and Gengar. Scizor being there to pick up weakened foes/check/revenge kill. The longetivity of the core is the key to this team's success. So is the awareness of the opponent's sets.
I started designing the core with key roles in mind : handling sweepers both physically and specially, having a mean of stopping setups, laying SR, great types synergy, status inducing moves (with a preference for burn and paralysis).
Then I wanted Speed and revenge killing abilities, a physical and a special sweeper.
In the end, i made changes so that the team has ways of controlling Sun and Rain Teams while achieving the best synergy possible and the least weaknesses.
IN-DEPTH
Scizor @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- U-Turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
I change from time to time in between this set and an offensive SD set.
This set aims to make sure Latias/Latios/Starmie/Weavile/Lucario/Gengar/Alakazam/Terrakion/Kyurem-B/Tyranitar are all kept at bay/revenge killed. Thanks to SR, this Scizor is almost sure to either OHKO or trap them, depending on the situation.
It is a good lead and happens to check some physical threats sometimes. He can clean late game, only if the opposing team is injured since it lacks a bit of power nonetheless.
Garchomp @ Yache Berry
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
Then it comes to those supposed to threaten Sun Teams. Substitute Garchomp is awesome if those teams lack a Spinner.
All in all, Garchomp is here to punch holes and threaten with his STAB Earthquake (Jirachi, Heatran, Magnezone etc...). Yache Berry has saved me countless times when i needed a decisive kill. On top of that, Yache Berry is not consumed if you are behind a Sub.
The goal is to build up momentum so that at some point, i have the opportunity to either set a Substitute and attack OR SD OR Sub+SD.
I don't run Fire Fang/Fire Blast because Rain is everywhere and Heatran is supposed to take care of that.
The idea behind this Garchomp is also to scout with Substitute - once is usually enough since i scout with my other pokemons as well - to identify Choiced opponents or what kind of sets they have.
In the end, Garchomp doesn't kill a lot, but the kill he gets or the big wound he induces is often of value. And gives me the chance to power through the opponent.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
His role is to check Jirachi, Magnezone, opposing Heatran, and Sun Teams. And swallowing Draco Meteors. Which means that he often ends up being a punching ball Roaring the hell out of the opposition, just to put the weak targets into BulletPunch KO range, breaking Focus Sashes, preventing setups, trying to rack up residual damage and landing an ever-so-frustrating Lava Plume Burn. His role is of value even if on it's own he is almost harmless. I've never found Offensive Heatran to be particularly effective - there are faster versatile Special Attackers in OU - but is bulk and synergy with Celebi and Slowbro are great. Besides i needed a fully SpD pokemon alongside Celebi since there are so many special threats.
In between Lava Plume and Slowbro's Scald there isn't room for Toxic, Roar is more usefull imo. Especially since the team needs Burn or TW more than Toxic.
Gengar @ Black Sludge
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Destiny Bond
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Thunderbolt
The Special Sweeper. He can come in on Earthquakes, U-Turns, Normal and Fighting attacks : the kind of things that threaten my team. His speed is often enough so that he can severely injure many pokemons once he found an opportunity to come safely. The set is pretty straightforward, just spam Shadow Ball unless coverage is needed. Destiny Bond makes sure you do not die for nothing.
It works perfectly against slower teams especially because he is immune to common priority attacks (Extremspeed/Mach Punch). Giga Drain might help with longevity against Rain Teams but Thunderbolt is more usefull to bring down Tentacruel/Skarmory/Tornadus.
Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SDef / 36 Spd
Calm Nature
- Perish Song
- Giga Drain
- Baton Pass
- Recover
Celebi is the heart of this team. He appears completely designed to solely check nearly half of the metagame on its own - it's actually wrong i think but it really looks like he does. Natural Cure being a blessing and his good bulk and typing along with Recover and Leftovers really makes him incredibly hard to kill even uninvested but with good support. His weakness against Dark types and Bug attacks although are severe and require careful play.
In general, he plays safely until i'm almost sure of the sets of my opponents and i try to keep him healthy as much as possible. I used to run TW back when a had a SD Scizor instead of a Scarfed one. Celebi and Heatran cause a lot of switches and make sure nothing really can setup (except Lucario).
Perish Song helps pulling favorable match-ups, safely placing Scizor/Garchomp/Gengar.
Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 19 Spd
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Slack Off
Slowbro perfectly checks Physically Offensive pokemons like Dragons, Metagross, Mamoswine, Gyarados, Conkeldurr, Cloyster and numerous random stuffs (especially LifeOrb ones, thanks to Regenerator). His defensive synergy with Heatran and Celebi is almost perfect, the main problem being the shared weakness to U-Turn/ShadowBall/Crunch which means non-burning Scalds tend to become rather problematic - so are succeeding Focus Blasts on my Heatran from those having both ShadowBall and FB. Thanks to Regenerator, he is very reliable and can take Jirachi's U-Turn without problems (but not Landorus's which is why i tend to preserve Gengar/Scizor in that case).
Concerning the EV's, let's go for full physical defense. Ice Beam to KO Landorus, Gliscor and most dragons. If Slowbro is kept healthy, it wins nearly every matchup against any Physical Dragon unless there is a critical hit. STAB Psychic to prevent Terrakion/Breloom(on predicted switch)/Tentacruel from being overzealous. STAB Scald to randomly burn things, sometimes with a rather high amount of hope (Tyranitar, Scizor, Jirachi, Weavile, etc..).
Rocky Helmet helps wearing down U-Turners (Landorus-T, Scizor, Jirachi) as well as physical attackers that Slowbro is to check. This has helped me bringing those threats into Gengar/Garchomp/Scizor OHKO range. Regenerator makes this strategy a lot more valuable.
CONCLUSION
RESUME
In the end, Celebi and Slowbro have a great longetivity and complementarity : Celebi absorbs Status and acts as a backup SpD while Slowbro takes care of physical blows. Slowbro checks most physical attackers, helped sometimes by Scizor and Gengar's immunities.
Heatran completes the core and capitalizes with Stealth Rock on the number of switches it causes. Burn inducing attacking moves help making things way easier for everyone. Heatran prevents setups and checks Jirachi, Heatran, Magnezone, Sun Teams, spounging special attacks as well.
Celebi handles most of Rain correctly acting as a backup special spounge.
The entire team can afford a bit of scouting time thanks to their resistances and Substitute. Only Slowbro really is vulnerable to status (and Garchomp to some extent).
Garchomp is the wallbreaker and provides a welcomed Electric immunity as well as a one-time reduced exposure to Ice with Yache Berry making its setup and breakthrough easier when it counts.
Scizor helps Slowbro's task to spounge physical hits and is a great revenge killer. It's the main response to the threats that i have a hard time taking care of (Alakazam, Gengar, Reuniclus, Starmie, Latios, Kyurem-B etc...).
Finally Gengar is very versatile and is almost sure to remove half of the health of most switch-in, while being very performant against slower teams.
WEAKNESSES
Nevertheless, this team is weak to Bug (U-Turn), Hurricane, Dark and powerful combinations of Ice/Electric/Water special attacks. Rain's boosted moves (Thunder/HydroPump) are hard to spounge if Celebi isn't healthy, espcially if the opponent wields a strong Ice Beam.
Overall the team relies a lot on Celebi, SR and Burn.
Scarfed users are a concern, i aim to identify them quickly. If Scizor isn't healthy or they resist him, it can become difficult because he is the only one who outspeeds them.
Status is not really that big of a deal thanks to Natural Cure Celebi and fast Substitutes, but the team lacks a Spinner even if it definitely is not overly weak to entry hazard.
Extremely specially offensive or extremely defensive teams are huge threats.
IMPROVEMENTS
There's probably room for improvement, especially on Scizor's set, maybe even considering someone else instead.
Another wallbreaker than Garchomp, that performs well against Sun Teams, could be of use.
Hippowdon could be an alternative in the duo Garchomp/Heatran, but i wanted this team weatherless at first.
Tornadus with Prankster Rain Dance could nevertheless be nice especially since it protects Celebi and Scizor from Fire attacks and boosts Slowbro's Scalds. Perhaps he is to consider in place of Heatran but that means putting SR elsewhere and finding someone else to prevent DracoMeteors from crushing the team.
I actually saw an interesting Tauros set from a recent RMT that might replace Garchomp : huge versatility, less counters, but exposed to Burn, not immune to Electric and relying on less accurate moves for coverage.
Dragonite's versatility and mixed potential (Ice Beam/Flamethrower/Thunderbolt) as well as longetivity (Roost/Multiscale) would allow him to perform the same tasks as Garchomp with less efforts and risk. But his speed holds me back... (fear of a Burn).
I can't find someone better than Gengar but there maybe is : Reuniclus and Starmie being good candidates but that means another Bug weakness -> core revamp. However Reuniclus is definitely to consider, even instead of Celebi thanks to its great SpA, good defenses, relative immunity to hazards and status, and ThunderWaving abilities.
I always found Latias to be a formidable SpD pokemon but a bit limited offensively, causing issues with its vulnerability to Status. Besides, if the wallbreaker is a Dragon then Latias won't add complementarity... unless he wallbreaks !
Tangrowth could replace Slowbro as well depending on team synergy after changes.
Finally, Jirachi has potential but i never really liked playing this pokemon. Instead of Celebi/Heatran/Gengar, he is to perform well thanks to the number of roles it can play. If i use a scarf one day, it would certainly be him.
Heatran completes the core and capitalizes with Stealth Rock on the number of switches it causes. Burn inducing attacking moves help making things way easier for everyone. Heatran prevents setups and checks Jirachi, Heatran, Magnezone, Sun Teams, spounging special attacks as well.
Celebi handles most of Rain correctly acting as a backup special spounge.
The entire team can afford a bit of scouting time thanks to their resistances and Substitute. Only Slowbro really is vulnerable to status (and Garchomp to some extent).
Garchomp is the wallbreaker and provides a welcomed Electric immunity as well as a one-time reduced exposure to Ice with Yache Berry making its setup and breakthrough easier when it counts.
Scizor helps Slowbro's task to spounge physical hits and is a great revenge killer. It's the main response to the threats that i have a hard time taking care of (Alakazam, Gengar, Reuniclus, Starmie, Latios, Kyurem-B etc...).
Finally Gengar is very versatile and is almost sure to remove half of the health of most switch-in, while being very performant against slower teams.
WEAKNESSES
Nevertheless, this team is weak to Bug (U-Turn), Hurricane, Dark and powerful combinations of Ice/Electric/Water special attacks. Rain's boosted moves (Thunder/HydroPump) are hard to spounge if Celebi isn't healthy, espcially if the opponent wields a strong Ice Beam.
Overall the team relies a lot on Celebi, SR and Burn.
Scarfed users are a concern, i aim to identify them quickly. If Scizor isn't healthy or they resist him, it can become difficult because he is the only one who outspeeds them.
Status is not really that big of a deal thanks to Natural Cure Celebi and fast Substitutes, but the team lacks a Spinner even if it definitely is not overly weak to entry hazard.
Extremely specially offensive or extremely defensive teams are huge threats.
IMPROVEMENTS
There's probably room for improvement, especially on Scizor's set, maybe even considering someone else instead.
Another wallbreaker than Garchomp, that performs well against Sun Teams, could be of use.
Hippowdon could be an alternative in the duo Garchomp/Heatran, but i wanted this team weatherless at first.
Tornadus with Prankster Rain Dance could nevertheless be nice especially since it protects Celebi and Scizor from Fire attacks and boosts Slowbro's Scalds. Perhaps he is to consider in place of Heatran but that means putting SR elsewhere and finding someone else to prevent DracoMeteors from crushing the team.
I actually saw an interesting Tauros set from a recent RMT that might replace Garchomp : huge versatility, less counters, but exposed to Burn, not immune to Electric and relying on less accurate moves for coverage.
Dragonite's versatility and mixed potential (Ice Beam/Flamethrower/Thunderbolt) as well as longetivity (Roost/Multiscale) would allow him to perform the same tasks as Garchomp with less efforts and risk. But his speed holds me back... (fear of a Burn).
I can't find someone better than Gengar but there maybe is : Reuniclus and Starmie being good candidates but that means another Bug weakness -> core revamp. However Reuniclus is definitely to consider, even instead of Celebi thanks to its great SpA, good defenses, relative immunity to hazards and status, and ThunderWaving abilities.
I always found Latias to be a formidable SpD pokemon but a bit limited offensively, causing issues with its vulnerability to Status. Besides, if the wallbreaker is a Dragon then Latias won't add complementarity... unless he wallbreaks !
Tangrowth could replace Slowbro as well depending on team synergy after changes.
Finally, Jirachi has potential but i never really liked playing this pokemon. Instead of Celebi/Heatran/Gengar, he is to perform well thanks to the number of roles it can play. If i use a scarf one day, it would certainly be him.
Those are good recruits awaiting on the bench :
CHANGES
Feedback as helped improving this team, especially Scizor's set that used to be a Choice Band. I can now check most of this team's threats.
Celebi has gone from a balanced SpA/SpD pivot capable of OHKO Scizor with HP Fire (Rain down) into another SpD alongside Heatran. This helped with my weakness against Rain special attackers. Slowbro takes care of Scizor with Rocky Helmet/Regenerator.
I used to use TW a lot, but Scarf Scizor doesn't really need that.
I then opted for more coverage on Slowbro (Psychic) and Perish Song on Celebi so that i have more opportunities for favorable match-ups.
Garchomp uses SD following wise advices to wallbreaks more effectively.
Gengar's set as changed to help bringing down Tentacruel and Skarmory on defensive teams and being overall more offensive. It used to be a Sub+Pain Split set.
ENTERTAINMENT
These are few replays i've got :
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-43353690These are few replays i've got :
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-43389139
-> Missed countless opportunities with Gengar
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-43719430
-> Both a tad lucky and some mispredictions
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-43523358
-> Especially lucky with Status on that one, but it would possibly have made it even without that amount of luck
Last edited:
