RMT: Finally got top 500 in OU

As we bid goodbye to Gen 5, I wanted to take one last kick at making a run on the OU ladder. I dusted off my old team, spruced it up a bit, and went to work. I took several games and a lot of practice to hang with some of the best players this community has to offer but I finally achieved my goal (on my main account: Sensfanman).

I usually run a balanced offence team and this one is no exception but definitely leans on the offensive side of things. I use many of my favourite Pokemon (except Heatran who I loved in Gen 4 but rain made me sad) and I think the combination of overall power and type coverage both offensive and defensive lets me do well against most teams. That isn't to say I don't have trouble with some big threats, but usually I can throw enough at them to stop them and come out on top.

With further adieu, let's get to it!

Team Preview:



The Team:


@ Focus Sash
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Endeavor
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake

Purpose: Quickly replacing Heatran as one of my favourite Pokemon in Gen 5 for his exceptional anti-metagame role, Mamoswine is typically my lead against teams without Rapid Spin. He is very reliable at setting up Rocks or killing an Anti-Lead like Espeon/Xatu/Froslass/etc. He is also very good at punishing misplays by opponents, allowing him to pick off a Keldeo, Starmie, or Rotom-W who thinks they can one-shot him from full health which is really useful for my team. I've started keeping Mamoswine around longer in fights because he is still functional late game as a cleaner and his Earthquakes are hard to switch-in to.



@ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 36 HP / 252 Atk / 220 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Spore
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch

Purpose: Breloom has been a favourite of mine since he came out, as a SubSeeder and now a powerful cleaner. Breloom typically has two purposes on my team, sleeping something I don't like, and cleaning up later on with his buddy Scizor. Bullet Seed is great for predicting on a switch as many of his counters don't enjoy taking one of those. The EV spread is to out pace defensive Gliscor and Rotom-W as well as almost all Jellicent varieties as those are key defensive Pokemon I need to use Bullet Seed on if it comes down to a fight. I find I don't use Swords Dance that often and would rather hit something on the switch with Bullet Seed instead but if I can manage to find one, I can end the game much sooner than usual.


@ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Trick
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Purpose: I originally had Rotom-W as a bulky attacker and was consistently let down by his performance. Then I gave him some pop and Choice Specs and I am very happy with the results (other than Hydro Pump's accuracy >_<). Many teams, especially enemy rain teams, with usually have no one who can eat a Hydro Pump meaning I have a reliable move to hit switches with. Volt Switch is pretty important to work with Scizor and provide coverage with Trick crippling the odd tank switch-in (Ferrothorn and Blissey/Chansey for example). HP Ice rounds out the coverage, but usually I'll throw Hydro Pump if I feel a Ground type is coming in just because it's safe if they try and out-play me and it hits really hard on its own. Defensively, I need his typing on my team, even though he's not built tanky, he can usually eat ~3 good hits before going down.



@ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn

Purpose: Bar none, my favourite Pokemon who ends up on every single team I've used since Gen 4. This guy really needs no explanation for his general role. On my team, I love his synergy with Breloom and sometimes Mamoswine as reliable late game priority abusers to close out a fight as well as his synergy with Rotom-W for VoltTurn. He also provides the strongest Fighting type move on my team for Balloon Heatran and is a reliable trapper for Lati@s. Defensively, I can use him to eat a lot of abuse, especially as my only Steel type, and still be able to clean out a battle. I essentially designed this team around having Scizor on it and he definitely shines in almost every game.



@ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SAtk
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Fire Blast

Purpose: The newest addition to my team, replacing Dragonite, Garchomp is hugely responsible for breaking down a variety of threats that would otherwise make my team cry. Gliscor, Skarmory, Landorus-T, Jirachi (especially in rain), Forretress, and Ferrothorn to name a few. With rocks reliably set up by Mamoswine, Garchomp can straight up beat all the aforementioned Pokemon. Most Landorus-T, who is getting very popular right now, won't hesitate to switch into Garchomp hoping to ruin his fun only to get killed or unable to comeback into the fight due to HP Ice. HP Ice also lets me pick off slower, weaker dragons like Dragonite or Salamence without locking into Outrage or relying on the less than perfectly accurate Fire Blast. I've found he is the absolute perfect answer to so many major problems for my team that I feel I couldn't have ascended in rank without him.


@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Trick

Purpose: Despite being only the second special attacker and third choiced Pokemon on the team, Latios is a key pivot during the mid game as well as an occasional late game finisher. Being virtually un-matched in speed, Latios helps me deal with faster threats neither my twin-punchers nor Garchomp can handle reliably such as Keldeo, Starmie, Gengar, other Lati@s, almost all Scarfers etc. He also lets me deal with burns for my otherwise physical team. Most opponents don't realize they are out matched by Latios, letting me kill key targets or bring them into range to be cleaned out later. Trick also helps me mess up Ferrothorn and Forretress who come in expecting to soak a Draco Meteor without resorting to HP Fire.


Team Strategy:
As you can see, I have no Leftovers, or ways to recover health. As a result, my goal is to use momentum and prediction to outpace my opponent and get them into kill range for my variety of late game cleaners. I also ease prediction my throwing out heavy damage moves on the switch and then rely on typing to keep counter damage down. With reliable rocks set up and no weakness to Stealth Rock in return, I can usually keep ahead of my opponent the whole game. Additionally, many opponents can find themselves straight up beaten in a few turns if they mis-predict against my team due to how many threats it has.

That being said, there are definite holes in my team. Lack of Rock coverage offensively means I rely on Stealth Rock to beat Volcarona reliably and that can be hard with Starmie Rapid Spin support. Some obscure things also can be hard to beat, such as Tangrowth who negate my momentum with Regenerator and cannot be reliably beaten due to my lack of strong Fire coverage. Teams featuring several fast threats like Keldeo and Starmie mean Latios gets pushed really far requiring me to have excellent prediction and team management to win out in the end.



Thanks so much for reading and I appreciate any feedback you might have :)
 
It's an interesting team. I will rate it later, assuming this rainstorm doesn't knock out the power.
 
Last edited:
Hey, nice team :)
I'm more used to defensive teams so i can't really give too much advice, but you don't need too much advice if you ask me.
You got most threats covered and can handle yourself in any weather as far is i can see at a first glance.

The only suggestion i would have right now is this:
Change Trick to Sleep Talk on Latios. You allready have rotom to trick-cripple a tank/setup sweeper.
With sleep talk Latios becomes the perfect breloom counter and there is almost no downside to making latios your sleep fodder. Works for venusaurs aswell :)
 
Hiya, your team is very good as it is. However you could change some things for the better.

  • Change Mamoswine to a Life Orb set. Instead, give Breloom a focus sash with the same moveset. It it is amazing lead. It can put slower leads to sleep and get a free SD up. If the lead is faster you have your sash for a gurantee'd Spore. If it doesnt resist both STAB's it will most likely switch out on your SD and you can do big damage. (I didnt really need to explain that -.-)
  • Change Latios' Choice Scarf to a Choice Specs. The choice between Trick and Sleep Talk depends on what you have most problems with: Breloom or certain walls.
  • However, this means you have no scarfer, so change Chomp's Life Orb to a Choice Scarf. I get the point of the Life Orb but people in the top 500 probably wont be staying in with their Lando's after they saw the Life Orb.
  • Change Rotom-W to something that isnt Choice Specs. It servers very well as a bulky attacker, maybe give it an e-belt and change Trick to Will-o-Wisp. If you really like the specs keep it but I think e-belt/lefties would be better.
Hope I helped!

-ApplepieFTW


Sets:
Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock/Super Power

Latios @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Trick/Sleep Talk

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 4 Def / 252 Atk
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dual Chop/Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge/Fire Blast/Hidden Power Ice
 
Instead of instead of using Swords Dance on Breloom, try Low Sweep. It's great for hitting pokemon on the switch like you said and has the added benefit of lowing their speed, making faster checks to breloom having to think twice once switching in. It's also a 60 base power fighting move meaning it gets stab and technician boost.
 
Many noticeable threats include sash-zam, conkeldurr, drag-mag, and especially lucario. A solution to these problems would be switching latios for sash-zam, and breloom for lucario as a late cleaner. A tiny change: Scarf>Specs on rotom. Other than that, good team.
 

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