Switch-Happy OU Team

[Silph Co.]

Half OU/half UU. Relies heavily on prediction and switching. A variation of the first pokemon team I ever made, definitely my favorite six pokemon. I have had great success with this team against the more conventional OU lineups, but in spite of being a competitive lower-percentage team(It was 59% on the old rating system), it can sometimes get outpowered by stacked OU teams. Any feedback is appreciated, I am a vet with this team but it can always be tweaked. Honestly I think this team doesn't get the props that it deserves haha...

Claymore lv. 100
Item: Choice specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP, 24 SpAtt, 180 SpDef, 52 Spd
Nature: Modest
Trick
Psychic
Stealth Rock
Rapid Spin

-Claydol's rapid spin is crucial to my team in many ways as it has a weakness to stealth rock. Trickspecs is good for slow SR leads like Hippowdon and Marshtomp, but Ttar is a big problem(for the team in general, really). Psychic can surprise Infernapes, Gengars, etc and while EQ trickband is tempting and can blast Heatran(who it often switches into to when earth power comes at hound), it seems to be much more predictable for the opponent.

Silphosaurus lv. 100
Item: Black Sludge
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 240 HP, 252 SpDef, Spd 16
Nature: Calm
Sleep Powder
Leech Seed
Roar
Giga Drain

-Despite devoting nothing to Def, Venusaur is still able to take a physical hit, surprisingly, and has all kinds of critical defensivetype-strengths for my team. Essential for ridding toxic spikes. sleep powder/leech seed is nasty. Roar is extremely useful(I HATE substitute) and the LS/Roar contradiction has never really been a problem. When Venusaur dies early, I usually lose.

Purebred Hound lv. 100
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP, 252 SpAtt, 252 Spd
Nature: Modest
Flamethrower
Overheat
Dark Pulse
Hidden Power(Ground)

-Hound is faster then most everything conventional but scarf Flygon blasts it. HP ground is for Heatran but as of late has lost its surprise factor. A great sweeper because most gengars/starmies underestimate it and get ko'd with pulse. Fragile, but venusaur attracts fire attacks to switch in hound and get fearsome overheat damage.

Free Lapras lv. 100
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 12 HP, 252 Att, 244 SpDef
Nature: Brave
Curse
Ice Shard
Avalanche
Heal Bell

Every once in a while, Lapras gets crit-ed and I wish I would have went with Shell Armor, but water absorb fits the team's strategy and helps to punish water attacks coming at claydol or hound. Lapras's presence alone usually scares off fire foes. Ice Shard almost guarantees that I dont get swept by a dragon. Overall, Lapras is an awsome unexpected sweeper for me but usually needs to be saved for late in the game.

Silph Scope lv. 100
Item:Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP, 76 Att, 180 Def
Nature: Impish
Will-o-Wisp
Pain Split
Shadow sneak
Curse

-When used right, Dusknoir can make physical attacking teams straight-up forfeit. Using Wow and Curse requires switch predictions. Its always good having another stab-priority move. Ttar and Weavile are big trouble though and sometimes the Def just isn't enough. Taunt ruins everything.

Pride of Silph lv. 100
Item: Lum Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 40 HP, 252 Att, 216 Spd
Nature: Adamant
Dragon Dance
Outrage
Superpower
Extremespeed

-Dragonite is the sort of late-game hero that my team badly needs. If Im desperate enough I can try to bait a status attack to get the Lum goin and get a free DD. Or if Im feeling reckless I can try for an early sweep and go the distance with Lum. Extremespeed is awsome but Lucario can always take a couple. Overall an extremely strong but one-dimensional physical sweeper, superpower is great for blissey and all kinds of things: it still seems that alot of people don't see it coming.

 

[Pallas Athena]

I don't have time for a standard in-depth analysis of threats and suggestions, so I'm just going to look at your Pokemon's sets:

Claydol: Your EV's are a bit confusing to me. Besides that, why are you rubbing Psychic? Aside from Poisin, and possibly steel, it is the worst offensive type in the game, walle by the abundance of steels, Psychics, and Dark types, a lot of whom happen to be in the lead position. Also, having a spinner out front is counterproductive, because if Claydol can not kill the opposing lead, you might lose a spinner. I would suggest TrickScarf Azelf or Jirachi in Claydol's place, or switching Dragonite and Claydol's positions on the team.

Venusaur: You could conisder Substitute over Roar or Giga Drain, but fairly good for an attempt to use UU's in OU.

Houndoom: I want to question the value of a choice-user weak to SR, but other than that, it looks pretty good.

Lapras: There are only two OU fire types to scare off. Heatran uses HP Electric on occasion, while Infernape has STAB Close Combats. Houndoom checks Fire types, while Lapras' main job in most cases is to check Bulky Waters, by being immune to thier attacks, and KOing with Thunderbolt. Therefore, I suggest you use Thunderbolt over Heal Bell, or just replace it with Vaporeon.

Dusknoir: You run a setup sweeper with a single attack, that happens to have a type immune to it. Another physical attack would be more helpful to you than Shadow Sneak.

Dragonite: Might move to lead. Nothing wrong there.

This team also seems to lack a purpose, as so many other new player teams do (self-included). I can't help you there though.

Better than most first RMT's, and Kudos for using UU's in OU.

 

[bubbly]

Hmm. Few problems here, but well done on trying to use UU's. I'm not convinced on you're overall strategy and cohesion, so I'll leave that up to you and just try and help your pokemon fill their roles better.
If you're using that Venusaur set, then Tangrowth does basically the same thing except much better. It has ridiculous physical bulk (e.g. standard Metagross can't 4HKO it with Meteor Mash if you go Impish and max hp + defense). It's an almost perfect counter for lots of physical threats such as Tyranitar, which you mentioned as a problem, and it still has Sleep Powder, etc (however I'd definitely recommend not using the same set as is on Venusaur, since Giga Drain blows and...yeah, it's just not efficient).

Alternatively, although I thought you might like to stick with an UU, you could either run one of Shaymin or Celebi (Shaymin's arguably the better SubSeeder, depending on whether you want better typing or Recover). However, you lose sleep, so you could run instead a SubSeed Breloom with physical bulk which is again an incredible Tyranitar counter, and is one of the most difficult to counter SubSeeders in the game.

It also seems like Houndoom is just an inferior Heatran with that set. Its only advantages are Dark Pulse and a bit of extra speed, whereas it has vastly less bulk and power. Also, Heatran is so predominant in the metagame that every team has a fair number of counters for it.

Your Lapras set is also kinda terrible, sorry. You pack two weak Ice moves as your only offense to utilise Curse with, and even at +6, there's no way you can break numerous OU pokemon. I'd actually recommend completely dumping Lapras in favour of one of Vaporeon or Suicune. Both can be effective sweepers, but Vaporeon's Wish support would be incredibly helpful to you, while Suicune has some extra bulk and is a threatening late game sweeper.

Again, Dusknoir just has a bad set. Curse with only Shadow Sneak to use? Again, there's just no way you can kill stuff with that. Heatran, for instance, is simply immune to WoW, takes a pittance from Shadow Sneak, and can get rid of you fairly easily. Drop Curse, maybe run a SubPuncher, or just the standard wall with WoW. Alternatively, use Rotom-A, which is definitely the better choice; a basic defensive set works well.

The Dragonite set really doesn't need Superpower or Extremespeed. One, Superpower negates your Attack boosts just to take down Blissey, which you can kill with Outrage anyway, plus it makes you extremely vulnerable to things like Scizor. Extremespeed is obviously unnecessary on something which needs to boost its speed to sweep anyway.
Replace these two moves with Roost and Earthquake, give it more bulk (probably max hp, check the smogon analysis for the best ev's), and it'll be a much better sweeper.

Claydoll makes a fairly horrible lead too, unfortunately. It has Rapid Spin and SR, sure, but it flat out loses to anything with Taunt, any of the fairly numerous pokemon which can KO it, and anything which doesn't mind Specs. After you've fixed the rest of the team, work out what fits. You'll need SR and looking at the rest of the team a bulky option like Metagross is prob best.