Team LoNg ShoT HeRo - Peaked #7

[matty]

Introduction
Hello friends and fools. I recently came back to competitive battling (like for serious this time) after a long absence. I decided to see if I could come back to a completely new meta-game since the last World Cup (which was when I actually played seiously). During that time most teams were very balanced and Stally. Recently in the last month, the meta-game has focused on fast, hard-hitting teams that were popular during the Age of Husk. And so, I set out to make the gayest team the world has ever seen and abuse the shit out of the random number generator. And what did I accomplish? A team that peaked at number 7 (until I got bored), a whole lot of pissed of people, and my accomplishment that this meta-game doesn’t take much skill to get easy wins. What I like most about this is that it would be a good starter team for anyone just beginning competitive OU. Enjoy!

The Preview

The Team Itself

Uxie @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/104 Def/152 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Trick
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic

For a while this lead spot was my Achilles heel. I had an Azelf lead, which later became a Metagross lead which later became a Heatran lead which blah blah blah. I could never find a lead that have synergy with the rest of my team, got Stealth Rocks up quickly and could support. And then one day, I played another fellow running a similar Parahax team with TrickScarf Uxie and it just instantly clicked. After testing it for a couple of days, I can’t say how happy I am that I played that guy. This thing wrecks almost every single lead in OU bar a few things and what I love about it is that people have no idea what to except from it because it is so rarely used in OU to begin with. Plus the thing is a fucking tank and takes hits like a champ. In fact, often times you’ll take a significant amount of damage and I’ll save it just for a free switch for my other Pokemon. It uses simple strategy: you trick, you Twave, you SR and you switch. It is amazing to me how many things this fucks up. If a bulky lead gets a Scarf, it’s useless for most of the game. If an Azelf or Aero gets the scarf and Taunts, its deadweight and it’ll have to come in latter in the game to Stealth Rock giving me extra tempo time. The EVs are fairly simple with 152 Spd outrunning all leads without a scarf including Aero and Azelf, while the rest goes into making you a bulky little tank. I run Psychic because should I encounter Champ leads or Infernape leads, I like having some Fighting security. I tried U-Turn but I really don’t care much because often times they are just switching out anyway and I almost always go to Machamp off the bat.

I’m just going to go through the Top 10 list of leads and mention what I do and how I play around them:

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#1 Azelf: One of the trickier leads because once every twenty games or so I find one running Trick Scarf itself. Process is the same, Trick the Scarf, Twave the incoming Pokemon (usually Scizor or Scarf Tar lol), Stealth Rock as you are always faster and switch out.
#2 Aerodactyl: Probably one of my favorite leads to see. Aero’s 95% of the time will taunt you and since you are faster with your Scarf, you Trick and they are locked into Taunt. Then you go straight to Champ as they switch out as well and usually you have solid tempo.
#3 Swampert: My favorite lead to see in the beginning of a match. You Trick them and have literally crippled one of the most annoying Pokemon for my team. You T-Wave the incoming Pokemon, Stealth Rock as usual and switch. I love giving a Scarf to Swamp because it makes Jirachi sweeps so much easier.
#4 Metagross: See Swampert. The only thing that bother me is that like Azerlf, some people run Scarf and can ruin Uxie. I mean whatever, but like it is so rare I don’t even care that much.
#5 Jirachi: This is another Pokemon that I play conservative around. A lot of LeadChis will trick a Scarf onto you, while others will try and go for the Iron Head Flinch hax right off the bat. I normally just Stealth Rock and see what it does. If it Tricks, I usually just stall them out with Stealth Rock because none of my team members particularly enjoy receiving a Scarf. This also preserves my Scarf should I come to a troublesome Pokemon like Crocune or what have you. If they Iron Head I go straight to Jirachi, get a free sub and see what comes into counter me.
#6 Infernape: They Fake Out, you take it. They Stealth Rock, you Trick them. Then you are T-waving as usual and laying Rocks.
#7 Machamp: Ahh one of the banes of this set. This is a tricky set to play around, especially since everyone and their mother all at the same time decided to start running LeadChamp. Once in awhile I get lucky with people tying to beat me with DynamicPunch. What is so great about that is: You trick them, you get their lum, thus avoiding Confusion for a turn, you T-Wave because DP does like 10% to you and you Stealth Rock for free. However, most Champs will Payback off the bat as your trick to them dealing between 43%-55%. Then I have two choices: Since I out-speed a Choice Scarf Machamp (which by the way always cracks me up) I can take the conservative route and ensure my Stealth Rocks get down and switch to Machamp to get a free sub. Or I take the risky route and T-wave it on the second turn, hopefully surviving the second Payback or maybe a lucky Full Para, still get Rocks and now have completely crippled that Machamp. After all is said and done, I go straight to my own Machamp and always get a free sub as payback does peanuts to Machamp. For the most part I take Door number one.
#8 Ninjask: No idea why people still run Ninjasks these days because I never see them. I’m pretty sure I don’t outrun them so I usually go to Gyarados to bluff the Roar and get the Intimidate in. Break the subs, when it passes I usually try and predict so that I can T-Wave it. I don’t see these anyway, so I’m not particularly worried.
#9 Roserade: Another super annoying Pokemon for this team because I’m running three grounded Pokemon and Celebi and Blissey absolutely hate Toxic Spikes. You often Trick as they try and sleep you. You must make sure to avoid Toxic at any cost available because if she gets them up, you are basically down 3 Pokemon.
#10 Tyranitar: You would think I would be absolutely terrified of Tar leads, but usually I’m not. I Trick as usual and most Tars will Stealth Rocks off the bat thus crippling them as you usually get a Cresto Berry in return. Again, I T-Wave -> SR. In the event that they Crunch or Dark Pulse (which recently happened). It does about 50%ish. I usually just go for the SR and die. But after that, I can another free Machamp Sub.

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Machamp (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP/252 Atk/16 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Dynamicpunch
- Payback
- Ice Punch

Boy, this things wrecks fucking house and hits like a pile of bricks. I’ve literally had this thing sweep teams with Confusion luck alone. As I’ve mentioned above, Uxie is a great compliment to Champ because Uxie is a Dark and Bug magnet, which easily allows Machamp to come in, get a free Sub and wreck faces behind it. Without a doubt, this thing gets a kill a game easily. DP is a given on the set, Payback is for ghosts and Latias that switch in and Stone Edge is for Salamences and Gyaradoses trying to Intimidate you. I’ve often thought about testing dropping Sub so that I could run both Ice Punch and Thunderpunch (because I miss the KO on Gyarados if it Intimidates me. Maybe sometime in the future; but I enjoy all the free subs I get. I also run 16 Speed just because I hate tying other Machamps and I want to know I’m faster and because I’d rather not get T-Waved from a Blissey when I can get a free sub should it try and get cheeky by staying in.


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Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/110 Def/112 SAtk/32 Spd
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Grass Knot
- Thunder Wave
- Recover
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Celebi, Blisey and Gyarados are my defensive core that makes sure I have plenty of options to get safe switches and keep tempo. Celebi T-Waves like a champ, counters Gyarados and Breloom, and spreads Paralysis. It is also a nice lure for Scizors trying to U-Turn off me. The only thing I hate about her is that I can’t KO Scizors unless I have at least two Stealth Rock damages. So what I’ll test in the future is giving it enough SpA to make sure I get those KOs. *EDIT* I have changed her EVs so that I am now guaranteed the KO, thanks to Pratty for the Calcs and helpful advice. It is also a nice from Scarf Tar as they usually get T-Waved on the switch. Then I recover to Scout what move they are using and depending if they are Crunching or Pursuiting I’ll either stay in and GKnot and Recover stall them if they Pursuit or go to Champ if they Crunch since it usually only does 50%-60%.


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Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 152 HP/252 Def/104 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Seismic Toss
- Thunder Wave
- Softboiled
- Ice Beam

Yep, gay old Blissey is on the team because I need the Special Attack switch-in and because it spreads Paralysis for the rest of the team. What I like so much about Blissey is that often times it lures in Heatrans that have the possibility of stopping my Jirachi Sweep and often times they will explode. I opted for Ice Beam over other things because Salamence is a bitch and likes to DD in her face. Often times I get the last laugh. It counters all the main Special sweepers blah blah blah, but the one thing I don’t like about her is that she also lures Tyranitars and Scizors which are annoying as fuck for her. Its usually fine because I para them all the same, but I have to play on eggshells around them.


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Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 80 HP/176 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Thunder Wave
- Iron Head
- Fire Punch

This thing should be named Gaychi in the analysis (if it had one.. -.-). You all heard about this set from the Smogcast I’m sure but many of the “Bros” (you know who you are), were running this set way before it gained huge popularity. What I love about this set is that should you get a Sub down (which is so easy) and many of the opponents team is paralyzed, it usually spells GG. You get a T-Wave in combined with Iron Head and you have a slim chance of hitting me. If your running inaccurate moves (I’l looking at you Tran and Starmie), you can easily be Hax fucked. The moves are self-explanatory, Iron Head anything and everything (except steels) to death, T-Wave annoying things that are faster than you and/or are steels, and switch out if you could be possibly KO’d because this is the most important part of the team and needs to be saved at all costs. The EVs are my own creation: 80 HP for lefties number, 252 Spd + Jolly to make sure I’m atleast tying or outrunning all 100 Spd tier pokemone (fuck you Mence), and the rest dumped into Atk. Easily the MVP of the team along with Uxie. The main sweeper and the main bitch.


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Gyarados (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 156 HP/72 Atk/96 Def/186 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Thunder Wave
- Stone Edge

So I had a general idea of the team when I started and I was left with one slot left to fill. I realized that I had an enormous fighting weakness so I decided to go with my lovely friend, BulkyGyara. The EVs are the same, along with most of the moves: T-Wave. Yep, ripped from Pride’s RMT I decided to test it on a whim and liked it quiet a bit. While he opted for Bounce, I went with Stone Edge. I hate Salamence and often if I can Para them I can easily Stone Edge them. Every once in awhile, I DD if I know I have a good chance at sweeping or dealing significant damage to a team. But for the most part he is just here to check Infernape (which btw he does an awful job at) Scizor, and Lucario. He is probably the weakest link on the team and I’ve often messed around with his sets like taking out DD, but I’ve never found the perfect set for him. Oh well!


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Stragey Talk:
Its simple and if you don’t see it, I’d be surprised. 5 of my 6 Pokemon carry T-Wave. Know I now many of you are gonna go “matty, isn’t that fucking overkill?” And I’ll reply, FUCK NO. Why so much Para? Because for the most part I’m making sure nothing sets up for starters, I give my Jirachi a chance to sweep teams because it absolutely loves the Paralysis support, and because getting free turns from full para’s is game breaking helpful. Now having said that, DON’T LOSE JIRACHI. Lemme repeat this again: DON’T FUCKING LOSE JIRACHI. Jirachi is the lynchpin for the team and the saving grace. Also, be weary of Pressure Pokemon when using it. Often times a Dusknoir will switch in and I’ll go “Oh whatever, that thing isn’t doing much to me” and I Iron Head it to death. Then I look after I kill it and I have 10 PP left v_v. Be weary of this kind of stuff because Iron Head is your bread and butter and should a team stall you out of it you are most likely fucked.
Early to Midgame you will want to bring Machamp in to scout the other team, DP some things and soften walls and counters up up. It isn’t a bad idea to also save him, but for the most part he is expandable. Another thing I’d like to say is that this team is very, very MixApe weak and should you lose Gyarados really on, you can be in a world of trouble. Make sure that you don’t apply to much pressure on Gyara so let Champ take bullet punches from Scizor and avoid SR damage, or feel free to sac Uxie as fodder to get free switches in for Gyara or other Pokemon. Don’t take unnecessary chances and make good uses of Celebi and Blissey. They can tank things out, spread paralysis and stick around for awhile. Use them well.



Troublesome Pokemon:
I’m not going to do a complete treatlist because for the most part I hope you all can figure out the safe switches for each situation. But I will add some things that I absolutely hate playing against.

MixApe: I mentioned it before and I’m mentioning it again. Should a player correctly play MixApe (aka switches him out, conserves him late game), that is almost an instant GG for this team. Ape only needs to be careful about getting Para’d and of residual damage as SR and LO will add up. Physical sets are also annoying (albeit rare) and I just need to Intimidate it to death.

Rotom-A: Ugh hate this thing. Why? Because all of its sets are annoying as shit and can possibly screw me up. Trick + Scarf is annoying because as I’ve said earlier, nothing on the team likes taking Scarfs. Pain Split + Rotom: Annoying because even though I can get an easy Para on it, it just stalls me and is a general bitch. Rest Talk sets are also annoying seeing as the only thing that is remotely touching it is Jirachi and that is super shaky at best. Definitely one of the bigger threats to this team, but not impossible to stop should I get some luck with Iron Head and Full Paras

Gliscor: Oh Zak, how you unleashed the most annoying Pokemon known to man. Since only one of my Pokemon cough Bilssey cough has the chance to OHKO Gliscor, it is sure a pain in my side. Should I lose Blissey, I’m fucked and since Gyarados hates switching in so many times and Gliscors often run at the site of Gyarados I usually can’t do much. Heaven help you should Sandstorm be up because even in a pinch Jirachi can Iron Head it to death, but if I miss, its bad news bears. Otherwise it taunts everything, Poisons you and laugh in your face as you slowly die. This is another reason I’m seriously considering Ice Punch on Machamp.

Swampert: Yep the Blue Swamp hippo is very annoying. I can’t paralyze it at all and while I’d can’t really do shit to me except wall Jirachi, it walls Jirachi haha. If I get a Scarf on it, no problem I’m golden. However if it’s brought out late game, it is just annoying. It’ll Roar me around giving Gyara residual damage which it hates. Now I have a Swamp counter in Celebi, but it is hard to pin it down and kill it. Usually a thorn in my side but not unbeatable

Starmie: Starmie is another annoying little bitch. It dodges paralysis thanks to natural cure, can easily stall out Jirachi if it has Recover and spins rocks which is not great for the team. I can’t do much to it with Blissey, if it carries TBolt, Gyara is screwed. Machamp can Payback, but I often lose him because of it. Starmies that lack Recover are cake however and often times I’m able to wear down a Starmie team (because for the most part they are Offensive teams and she usually lacks Recover on those types of teams) and just T-Wave and Blissey stall it out / kill it with Celebi. Celebi is also a nice lure because I don’t mind taking an Ice beam to the face just so that I can GKnot it.

Jirachi: Yep, my own set is quite annoying to this team, but in all honestly, it’s fairly easy to play around because I usually know what to expect. Gyara is ALWAYS my first switch in? Why you might ask?”matty aren’t you gonna give up a free sub or get T-Waved.” Yep I probably will, but I’ve Intimidated it so it isn’t doing shit to Gyara anyway and I often just go straight to Celebi afterwards to take the T-Wave if it already dodged it. Celebi then can HP Fire it which breaks subs like 87% of the time and after that it is just a matter of T-Waving it. What cracks me up about Jirachi is that often times I get a Para their own Haxchi and many people will just leave immediately.
Wish + CM Jirachi is also another annoying bugger. They often come out late game so it is crucial that I Para it. After that I need to go to my own Chi to Fire Punch it, hope for some luck full para’s and hope that it doesn’t paralysis myself. Should it get to many CM’s in, it can easily sweep me.

Heatran: This is more of an annoyance than a counter to the team. Tran easily walls Jirachi taking absolutely nill from Iron Head. It can also switch in on Celebi easily. Once its Paralyzed players usually opt to sacrifice it which helps me tremendously. Blissey can easily switch in and take Fire Blasts all day and losing Blissey isn’t the end of the world but it sure can be annoying.

Salamence: Honestly, I think all teams have a problem with him and mine is no exception. I just need to play around him carefully. If Salamence comes out early, I assume its Mixmence and I go straight to Blissey, T-Wave it as some like to Outrage early and I’m done with it. Other times many like to DD up late game. I ALWAYS T-Wave Salamences late game just because I am so deathly afraid of them sweeping me, should the have Lum Berry its bad news, but it means that lack LO and I can usually get a Gyarados in, Intimidate it, lure an Outrage and let either Celebi or Jirachi take them.

Roserade: Fuck Toxic Spikes; 'nuff said



Team Synergy:
I feel like more people should have team Synergy sections to truly show how their team works as a whole. I’m going to go through some of the combos on these team I particularly like.

Uxie + Machamp
As If I didn’t beat it enough into you, this combo is great. Trick fucks up many things and locks in Dark moves that easily allows Machamp to come in, give Free subs and take tempo away from my opponent. On top of that, many things like Salamence and Gyarados hate switching in to SR and then if I have a Sub up they are basically sacking themselves to take out a Machamp, that is great in my book, especially if I can remove Salamence early. Uxie also spread Machamp Paralysis giving it an easier time of getting a sub down.

Blissey + Celebi + Gyarados
My defensive core of Pokemon that does their job so well by removing many of the threats in the meta-game. It resets tempo, spreads Para for the rest of the team and puts me in the driver seat to scout teams. Gyara and Celebi take incoming Fighting attacks from Blissey. Blissey and Gyara take Fire attacks aimed at Celebi. Gyarados can take Bug attacks (mostly Scizor) fairly well from Celebi. Celebi and Blissey take Special Electirc Attacks. Gyarados and Celebi are also champ at Intimidating and working around annoying threats like Electrivire which often gets easy speed boosts due to my spamming of T-Wave. I’m a big fan of this combo.

Jirachi + the rest of the team
With everything spreading Para’s around and confusions from Champ, this thing comes in so easily, gets a sub up and will sweep you before you know it. If you ever end up playing this team, make sure you don’t let this bugger get a sub up, otherwise you are often losing 1-2 Pokemon to wear it down.

Jirachi + Gyarados
The only thing that Jirachi hates is Paralysis, Ground moves and Fire moves. That is where Gyarados comes in. It takes all three attacks (because it doesn’t mind Paralysis very much), can threaten many of Jirachis counters and further spread Paralysis on unsuspecting things.


Team Building Process

[Jirachi]
I started off with the Queen of Hax. I had my mind already made up on the set. Pretty easy.

[Jirachi] [Machamp]
Next I decided that I needed to add the King of Hax. Machamp is great with spreading around Confusion and just being a prick in general. Originally I tried him out as my lead which worked fine, but I wanted something more sustainable.

[Jirachi] [Machamp] [Blissey] [Gyarados] [Rotom-H]
Next I decided that I needed to have something that gave me easy switches, was fairly straight forward and something more to spread paralysis. Blissey was easy to add. Shes bulky, spreads Para and takes pressure off of Jirachi by taking Fire attacks. Next I added Gyarados. I needed something that could take Fighting attacks, was an all around dependable Poke and he even had access to T-Wave with was gravy. Rotom-H was the last member of the defensive core I added. I needed something that was a switch-in for Gyarados and could be a generally good Spin blocker. Unfortunately, this thing ended up being sorta dead weight. It spin blocked (but honestly losing SR isn’t the end of the world), but often it just Pursuited to death and gave Latias easy switchins. Plus I needed WoW to be on it to stop TTar and I didn’t want to Statuses on the same team.

[Jirachi] [Machamp] [Blissey] [Gyarados] [Celebi]
Next, I looked at what bother my team and I decided that I needed a solid defensive Pokemon that also could lure things like Tran and Scizor, which were a general nuisances for Jirachi sweeps. Who better than Celebi who has access to T-Wave and can KO Scizor with SR down. So far she has been great. She does her job, switches into Swamp all day, takes Paras aimed at my team and is just a great bulky Pokemon.


???

[The Hunt for the lead] [Jirachi] [Machamp] [Blissey] [Gyarados] [Celebi]
As I mentioned before, I had the hardest time finding something that filled my lead spot. I originally had Machamp in the lead spot which was solid, butI tried the popular Azelf, Metagross, Swampert, Heatran and Tyranitar and found all of them to be underwhelming for this team. I can’t exactly put my finger on why I didn’t like each one, but I wasn’t impressed with the synergy they gave. And then that fateful when I played Trick Scarf Uxie and it was a beautiful sight to behold. Not only did it cripple leads and spread Paralysis, it ALWAYS got SR down. It was a gift from heaven. I recommend it to anyone who has never tried it. I’m sure you’ll be surprised how great it is.

[Uxie] [Jirachi] [Machamp] [Blissey] [Gyarados] [Celebi]
And so the team was finished. I tweaked sets but ultimately the only one that was ultimately changed was Gyarados' because I tinkered with DD or not DD. I’m extremely pleased with the results.

Alright, well I’ve talk you ears off enough. Rate and Hate it!


P.S. BS HAX

 

[broodjekebab]

I'd go for Ice Punch on Machamp. Celebi counters opposing Gyarados well enough (barring Bounce versions...).
Toxic Spikes ruin half of your team, which might warrant replacing your own Gyarados with a Tentacruel. This would however, leave you quite weak to physical attacks in general.

I'm interested in how you deal with opposing Celebi, since they sometimes carry heal bell (the other common heal beller, Blissey, is food for the King of Hax).

 

[matty]

You know honestly I haven't seen a Heal Bell Celebi yet. AromaBlissey does give me problems and honestly you just have to keep at them. Hopefully I can break their Gyarados counter and hopefully sweep. But ya, thats sketchy, I agree.

 

[ginganinja]

Well since im not your friend I guess im a fool right lol.
Anyway I think this is a pretty fine team however I believe it has issues agasint a well played Flygon. Scarfed or Banded it is immune to paralysis and carries a STAB Earthquake to hit Jirachi with. Blissey can check it with Ice Beam. Therefore I second the use of Ice Punch on Machamp, perhapes over Stone Edge. Also I think that Jirachi could run Body Slam over Thunder Wave since it can hit ground types better (such as Gliscor and Flygon) and since that other members of the team are utalising Thunder Wave I doubt that the drop of paralysis chance would be an issue.

Have a Nice Day!

 

[DarkSlay]

Hey there! Before I make any comments, congratulations on reaching #7 on the leaderboard. Quite an accomplishment!

However, I'm going to be one of those guys who's going to ask...why so much TWave? I understand that this team relies on TWave (although I really only see Machamp, Jirachi, and (to a small extent) Gyarados taking advantage of it), and I know you discussed it to a good extent in the OP, but one, if not a few, Pokemon has/have better things to do that using TWave. I'm not questioning its effectiveness, and I'm not going to be a madman and eliminate half of your team, but I do wonder if other move choices will benefit you more.

Another Pokemon I notice that will give you trouble that is not mentioned in the OP is a well played Flygon. Once Blissey is gone (or even it it's severely weakened) and Gyarados is at ~60% health, ScarfGon has a way to nail your entire team hard with little consequence (with the exception of Machamp). One, it is notably immune to TWave. Two, it can 2HKO Celebi, nearly OHKO's Jirachi after SR (which means it it's at around 85%, it's done), can U-Turn spam Uxie, nearly OHKO that Gyara with Stone Edge and SR and can 2HKO Machamp after SR (albeit Machamp can DPunch it). It out-speeds +1 Gyara as well, keep this in mind. BandGon is just as threatening, but cannot out-speed +1 Gyara and is slower than Jirachi. However, those "near OHKO's" turn into guarantees, and Celebi has a small chance to be OHKO'd. It's not as bad of a threat as Infernape since it's Choiced (and can be played around), but still pretty threatening.

Uxie

It's a great Pokemon, and its bulk is immensely underestimated. I wouldn't change it. I do question the use of TrickScarf, however, as I personally find it more useful in the lower tiers compared to the higher, but if you find it working, then excellent!

Machamp

What a beast! It's standard, sure, but it's standard for good reason. Wouldn't change it. You can consider Ice Punch (like suggested earlier) to give your team a much needed second Ice move, but Stone Edge works well enough against Mence and Gyara, and you really need a way to hit opposing Gyara. If you're thinking about adding another Ice move, look at your other Pokes first.

Celebi

You took Tinkerbell and applied it to the Defensive set. It's okay, and if it works, then great. However, is there a reason why you're not just using the Tinkerbell set, but just adding Lefties as the item? ScarfTar's Crunch and Pursuit does not OHKO it. Leaf Storm almost OHKO's it after SR, and Grass Knot is a guaranteed 2HKO. Meanwhile, Crunch and Pursuit still don't OHKO, and you're faster. With a Life Orb, LS is a OHKO, and GK is pretty much a OHKO after SR. It still counters Gyara. And it still counters Breloom. In return, you can now OHKO Scizor. And it gives you more firepower. If there's a great reason to use our set and it works for you, keep it. I just find this set more practical for this team.

Blissey

Blisseh. Not much to say about her. She's good to go!

Jirachi

To be honest, if this ever goes up on analysis...can we please call the set Liberachi? I think it fits the set perfectly, and has a touch of humor. Anyways, good set. The only optional change I can see is dropping Fire Punch for Ice Punch, enabling you to hit Salamence and the Dragons hard, plus Flygon and Gliscor. Fire Punch hits Scizor, who is taken care of by Gyara and Celebi, Forretress, see Scizor, and Skarm, who will just whirlwind you away/roost off damage. The only positive is against opposing Jirachi, who can be handled through your Gyara anyway. It's not mandatory, but it would give your team a second Ice move that you desperately need.

Gyarados

Here is where a change needs to be made. I love BulkyGyara, but with four other TWave users on the team, you're really limiting its potential. What's wrong with just using Taunt? It stops Pokes from setting up reliably. At +1, you out-speed Mence anyway, assuming it switches in. I really think Taunt will play the same role as TWave, but Taunt gives you a way to continuing boosting immediately with little worry. TWave doesn't prevent status, after all. And with so many other TWave users on the team, what are the odds that your opponents will need to be TWaved at this point? Taunt just seems more practical.

Awesome team once again, and hope this helps!

 

[Zach]

Good god matty this team is evil, I'd be throwing a fit with all the paralysis.

With that said, I'm going to recommend you use Toxic over Thunder Wave on Blissey. Toxic gives you the ability to stall out many of the things on your threat list, such as Starmie (well at least it can't just recover off Blissey's S-toss then), Swampert, Gliscor (gives you another move besides Ice Beam that can screw Gliscor over on the way in), non-Resting Rotom, and Salamence (although DD Roost can be an ass if you are unable to Paralyze it and it sets up on Blissey). It still causes problems for Infernape as well.

Another thing you could do is use Wish Blissey. I don't know what you'd want to put Protect over (if anything) but it would certainly help this team's most important Pokemon, Jirachi, who is constantly lowering its own health with Substitute and relieves Pressure on Gyarados to check Infernape, allowing you to play it more liberally.

Also, you could use Waterfall/Thunder Wave/Rest/Sleep Talk

 

[Alan]

Cute team matty.

Looks like Vire could give you some trouble as it doesn't give a rats ass about T-Wave (it enjoys it actually) so you could possibly give something Toxic instead of Thunder Wave (just play around I guess and find out which one it feels best on).

I can't really see anything to help out against your threats without messing up your general team idea and synergy. :/ You could give Celebi Earth Power over Hidden Power [Fire] which lets you hit Heatran on the switch, Infernape (if anyone switches it in) and other steel types for Neutral or SE damage as long as they aren't named Skarmory or Bronzong.

P.S. FUK JIRACHI

 

[Lockeness]

4/5 stars

Ahhhh, I know this team all too well. Paralysis is annoying as all get out and I know that this team needs every t wave it can get. That being said I would suggest replacing gyrados with suicune. Calm mind offensive Suicune seems to be able to take a lot of your top threats and neutralize them. I suggest that you use something like Surf/Hydro Pump, Ice beam, HP Grass ,and Calm Mind with emphasis in spec def. This way you can take on stuff like Infernape, Heatran and Gliscor with ease or at least force some inoportune switches. You may also want to think about putting Bulky Latias into Gyrados' spot for the same reason as listed above. Latias has t wave and calm mind as well as Draco Meteor and Surf to wreck your top threats.

I realize t wave is important to your team and I know from personal experience that this team is a monster to face. I run pana's psycho shift Latias set for this very reason and yet this team can still beat the living daylights out of me. Definitley a good read and a good team. The RMT forum needs more teams like this (maybe not t-wave necessarily....).

PS- My explanation of my nick was the real one. Just for the record.

 

[3v3rnoob]

I've looked at the things that ruin your day, mainly Swampert, Gliscor, and Rotom-A, and I think that you'd do well to change Twave on your blissey to toxic. I know that it's not going to be a solid Gliscor killer, seeing as you'll either miss or get taunted, but it's still an option if you really don't want to get rid of sub on Machamp. A poisoned swampert is a dead swampert, so suddenly you have an answer to that, and I just noticed that Zack had the same comment. *facepalm*

 

[Cherub Agent]

i know the thunderwave strategy works well, and is awesome, but i think it could use a couple modifications. First, i think that with so much TWave going around, jirachi can easily afford to drop it for body slam. This really helps with your flygon, and to an extent, electrivire problem. It also means you can paralyze random stuff like mamoswine. Next, i think that gyarados could lose twave for taunt. It really helps him rip through skarmbliss, and chances are your opponent is already paralyzed. You also don't benefit from cutting the speed from the opponent since you have DD. Overall awesome team, and congrats for reaching the leaderboard!

 

[Kir]

One of my good friends and I have been using Trick Scarf Uxie too lol. I love how it almost always gains the momentum. One question though: why are you running a -SAtk nature? If you switch to Bold and use 44 SAtk EVs you can always break 252 HP Rotom's subs, which could be really useful for your team. That makes the new spread 252 HP / 60 Def / 44 SAtk / 152 Spe.

Great team, very well built! I enjoyed the read.

 

[george182]

For blissey, like you said scizor + tyranitar are problems, and you can just thunderwave a salamnce so it doesn't' set up. You said you are also having problems with gyrados.

Give blissey wish + protect over ice beam, as thunderwave cripples salamence. Protect allows you to scout scarf t-tar, and scizor's choice moves. While you whole team loves wish support.

Now for gyrados, I would not use a sweeping set, as gyrados is beter as a scout. Instead I would use the sleep talk set:
Gyrados @ leftovers
248 hp/ 248 def /12 speed
- Waterfall
- Roar / thunderwave / stone edge
- Rest
- Sleep talk

Now roar is the suggested option, you have enough thunderwave on your other pokemon. Stone edge takes out opposing Gyrados and salamence. But they are crippled by roar + rocks anway. It's a good scout, a good infernape/heatran counter and just a good poke in general.

252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD with a Careful nature this ev spread allows you to beat special attackers like special ape, and heatran easier.

Considering that Jirachi has subsitute, she can safely use body slam, this allows you to paralyse ground types such as flygon, and it also does damage and it works if your taunted.

It's very difficult to build a successful parahax team, but this one looks very effective.

 

[matty]

One of my good friends and I have been using Trick Scarf Uxie too lol. I love how it almost always gains the momentum. One question though: why are you running a -SAtk nature? If you switch to Bold and use 44 SAtk EVs you can always break 252 HP Rotom's subs, which could be really useful for your team. That makes the new spread 252 HP / 60 Def / 44 SAtk / 152 Spe.

Great team, very well built! I enjoyed the read.

Ugh thank you so much, I had been using U-Turn before this and was so disappointing. I'll change that immediately.

I'm also going to try Ice Punch on Machamp since I have the best Gyarados counter anyway and Stone Edge isn't a huge asset.

 

[Pratty]

I'm not sure if it's worth losing the bulk, but shifting 80 EVs into Special Attack and making Uxie Modest gives you a 100% chance of 2HKOing 252 HP/96 Special Defense Machamp, which I think is the standard Leadchamp's thread.

If you want Celebi to 1HKO Scizor after Rocks, then the best way to do it might be to give it a + Sp. ATK nature, allowing it to do 78.1% - 92.1% with HP Fire, an average 1HKO.

112 Sp. ATK EVs + Modest gives you a guarenteed 1HKO after Rocks, 87.5% - 103.8%.

Bold Celebi needs an amazing 216 Sp. ATK EVs to guarenteed a 1HKO after Rocks to Scizor, with 87.5% - 103.8%, the same as 112 Sp. ATK + Modest Celebi.

If your wondering, 252 HP/106 Defense/112 Sp. ATK/32 Speed Modest Celebi gives you a little more bulk than 252 HP/6 Defense/216 Sp. ATK/32 Speed Bold Celebi.

Of course, you can do less on either side to just give yourself an average 1HKO(Again, no EV investment Modest Celebi does 78.1% - 92.1%), or just ignore lacking the One Rocks One HKO and leave yourself with the 2 Rocks 1HKO you've been doing.

Just figured I'd calc this sense you said you might wanna run EVs to 1HKO Scizor.

 

[matty]

Thank you! Ya I'm going to try that, it really is annoying when Scizor switches in and you know that you won't get the guaranteed KO.

 

[jc104]

I'm not sure if it's worth losing the bulk, but shifting 80 EVs into Special Attack and making Uxie Modest gives you a 100% chance of 2HKOing 252 HP/96 Special Defense Machamp, which I think is the standard Leadchamp's thread.

Nah, its something like 240/16, assuming people are running the superior offensive set with bullet punch. This would require 8 EVs and modest. Nonetheless, I am reasonably sure that the current Trick strategy would work better, forcing machamp out, so making any attempt to 2HKO is probably pointless.

I must admit that I disagree somewhat with the others about toxic on Blissey. With thunderwave spread around this will amount to nothing more than a free switch. If you want a toxic user, it has to be something precise like a Sub + Toxic Heatran. For stuff like Flygon and Gliscor, Jirachi's Body Slam is the best way to cripple them. A sleep talking Gyarados spamming thunderwave is likely to be equally futile, so I'm not really sure that is the best idea either.

Must say though, this team is quite possibly the most irritating team I've seen, and I must compliment you on that Uxie, which I will be trying shortly. Good luck.

 

[Vaz]

Matty man, I love this team. I tried this thing out and it rocks.


One thing you mentioned though is that you are only putting Gyarados on your team because you have to to provide a counter to Mixape and work as a physical wall. With this, you mentioned that it does not do the best job at it (resists Stone Edge maybe) anyway and you are forcing yourself to have it and also forcing yourself to switch from Gyarados to spare it for pretty much the sole purpose of taking out Mixape. Consider using a bulky variant of Salamence instead of Gyarados or something else you would prefer to make your team much better at winning BUT! Not a good team when up against a Mixape, if you know where this is getting at.


Also a few minor things you might want to put on the thread:
- For Uxie include that it should have 17 Attack IVs to be legal
- For Celebi include that it should have 26 Attack IVs to be legal and get 70 Base Power on Hidden Power Fire with 30 Speed and Special Attack IVs to go with it and also put 112 Defence EVs
- For Jirachi include that it should have 29 Special Attack IVs to be legal

 

[george182]

Latias can replace gyrados as latias is the best mix ape counter, and latias can still spread paralysis around, I'd also suggest body slam on Jirachi to paralyse the ground types, and taunters.

 

[ToF]

You know, I think I agree with the above post. Latias would work a lot better on this team with what you're trying to do. Since Infernape, Gliscor, and Swampert are the top three problems on your threat list, and Latias covers all three relatively easy, I think the switch would be beneficial. You also happen to keep the Ground immunity and Fire resistance. The only possible problem with this change is the added Pursuit weakness, but I think you can run a set like Reflect / Thunderwave / Dragon Pulse / Recover. Might be nifty to catch Scarf Tyranitar on the switch with Thunderwave too!

Other than that, its a great team. Good job dude.

 

[jc104]

You know, I think I agree with the above post. Latias would work a lot better on this team with what you're trying to do. Since Infernape, Gliscor, and Swampert are the top three problems on your threat list, and Latias covers all three relatively easy, I think the switch would be beneficial. You also happen to keep the Ground immunity and Fire resistance. The only possible problem with this change is the added Pursuit weakness, but I think you can run a set like Reflect / Thunderwave / Dragon Pulse / Recover. Might be nifty to catch Scarf Tyranitar on the switch with Thunderwave too!

Does that set not simply fail against standard stallbreaker Gliscor, provided that it has toxic?

 

[matty]

I think this is a good suggestion, the only problem that with taking Gyarados out, I make myself even more Scizor weak. That's not a bad thing (because theoretically I'd try and lure Scizor with Celebi anyway) but should Champ go down, their is nothing on the team that wants to take repeated U-Turn hits.

I'll test both. Oh and btw, Ice Punch on Machamp is the superior option so far.

 

[Fuzznip]

Hello matty. I have a couple of suggestions to help improve your team.

I get the idea that Machamp is probably the most vital component of your team, as it’s basically the primary abuser of the paralysis your team spreads. You can’t really afford to lose Machamp that easily, and because you are utilizing Substitute, it may be worn down and possibly killed fast. That said, I would like to suggest the use of Wish on your team. Not only will Wish aid Machamp’s survivability, but it will also accommodate Gyarados’ Stealth Rock weakness and generally keeps your entire team in good shape.

I believe Jirachi would make the best user of Wish on your team, which could replace Substitute. I know that you really like that set, but I think by using Wish, Jirachi survives longer and is more harder to take down, especially since you can paralyze the opponent, use Wish, and flinch right after to heal some health for free (unless you’re opponent gets very lucky and passes through the hax). I would also suggest making Jirachi more defensive so it can survive powerful attacks (you don’t need Speed because of paralysis). Here’s the set:

Jirachi @ Leftovers | Impish
240 HP / 160 Def / 76 SpD
~Wish
~Thunder Wave
~Iron Head
~Fire Punch

Now, Jirachi will be susceptible to status, which may turn the set off for you, but that’s where my next suggestion comes in: Aromatherapy. I think you should try this move out on Blissey so it can remove status such as burn, poison, or paralysis that have hit Jirachi/Gyarados/Machamp, all of whom absolutely hate status. Aromatherapy also helps Blissey not be poison stalled from Toxic Spikes and the like. You could probably run Aromatherapy in the place of Thunder Wave, as you already have a lot of paralysis spreaders.

Really cool team matty. I personally love paralysis teams because of how frustrating they are to deal with. Hopefully my suggestions will help you. Good luck!

 

[george182]

Zapdos/gyrados over celebi solves the scizor problem, and makes you less pursuit weak.

I would suggest a latias set of:

Latias @ leftovers
timid
252 hp, 252 speed
- Wish / recover
- Protect / roar / reflect
- Dragon pulse
- t-wave

Protect allows you to scout siczor and tyranitars moves. T-wave gives you a back up against gyrados, as it quaters his speed meaning machamp/jirachi/zapdos can easilly take it out. Wish helps your teamates out.

 

[Super Mario Bro]

To help your team with ground types, you should consider putting Body Slam over Thunder Wave on Jirachi. This allows it to net an unexpected paralysis on Gliscor and Flygon hoping to switch in on a Thunder Wave. It also allows your team to Paralyze every Pokemon in the game.

Even though they are somewhat rare, Bulky DD Gyarados with Taunt and Bounce can rip apart this team.

I feel like this team is just dying to fit a Vaporeon somewhere. It gives you an awesome Infernape and Gyarados counter, and gives you much needed Wish Support. Consider placing it over Blissey or Gyarados, as Blissey doesn't really check much (except for Jolteon, who can be handled by placing Leaf Storm & Life Orb on Celebi).

This is the Vappy moveset that I am talking about:
Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Bold nature
EVs: 188 HP/252 Def/56 SpD/12 Spe
-Wish
-Protect
-Surf
-Hidden Power Electric

Toxic is an option over HP electric to defeat Swampert, but then you lose the ability to defeat Bulky Gyarados. Swampert can't take repeated Surfs anyway.

 

[Vaz]

If one was to use a Latias in place of Gyarados, and in came Infernape, one might presume it will is HP Ice as it is a Mixape and in fact might be a scarfer and us U-Turn which does hefty damage to Latias. This of course, does not matter if you have Reflect up.

The one thing I dislike about the Jirachi suggestion is that with no attack EVs Iron Head bearly does any damage at all. Jirachi needs to do some considerable amount of damage, but I am yet to test this out and could be wrong due to the fact it is very defensive and can out stall the opponent.

Vaporeon looks like a better place of Gyarados as this team needs Special Defence support.

I can see Body Slam working, but only if there are enough other T-Wavers on the team. Four is enough, and Body Slam can be the other paralysis tactic. Body Slam is also nice against Water types, Electric types and hits paralysis on Grounds, Jolteon and Electivire.

Also, giving Blissey Aromatherapy means that those three awesome moves it has as a trio do not go very well with only two out of three of them in play.