Team Storm Break

[Jukain-Arashi]

Hey guys, I haven't posted on here for a long time. I recently took a break from Pokemon and came back to build this team. I'm a bit rusty, and need some help in perfecting this. So feel free to make as many changes as required.

**Just a thank you for everyone that's been helping me out with this team. After taking a break from OU and coming back, it was frustrating to be losing all the time because I couldn't keep up with the metagame. But with all the help, I'm slowly getting back into the rhythm of the OU metagame, so thanks guys!**
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Team at a Glance:
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Changes are in this color

Some points about this team:
- All the Pokemon resists Toxic Spikes
- Only 3 of the Pokemon take Spikes damage
- Only 1 Pokemon is weak to Stealth Rock
- The team has status absrobers for: Burn, Paralysis, and Poison

Heatran (M) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock

I decided to start my team off with a Heatran lead with Shuca Berry. The idea here is to either set up my rocks, or to KO the other lead. With this set I can take on most common leads. Hidden Power [Grass] aids in 2HKOing Swampert leads, and Shuca Berry allows me to take the Earthquake and finish it off. Once I have SR up, if I predict a switch I Will-o-Wisp what ever is coming in and cripple it.

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Rotom-c @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/72 Def/88 Spd/96 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Shadow Ball
- Discharge
- Will-O-Wisp

Next up is Rotom-c. This serves as my only way of taking out bulky waters. Toxic usually wears them down as long as they don't have rest. I chose Discharge instead of Thunderbolt because the surprise parahax is always pleasing. Leaf Storm takes a huge chunk out of incoming Tyranitar, allowing my to KO it the next turn.
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Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Extremespeed
- Swords Dance
- Crunch

This is my late game sweeper, Lucario comes in late game and cleans things up. I usually come in on something to force a switch, then follow up with a Swords Dance and proceed to sweep. The only problem I see with this set is that Gliscor completely stops it, which is why I have Tyranitar for Gliscor.
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Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Thunderpunch
- Ice Punch
- Iron Head
- U-Turn

Ice Punch and Scarf allows you to outspeed all MixMence and destroy them and as well as some Dragon Dance Salamence, if they haven't taken upon a +1 DD yet. Thunderpunch also allows as a backup or primary use against Gyarados because it seems your team with have a little trouble itself with DD Gyarados. Both Rotom's bulkiness, and Jirachi's Scarf, Gyarados is at least kept in check. I also used Jirachi because it seems you won't have much problems with Ground- moves considering you have Gyarados, Gliscor, and Rotom-c, who all resist Ground- attacks. Same for Fire-, where Heatran absorbs it, and Gyarados takes the damage because it's part Water-. So looking at Jirachi, it has some good synergy with this team. Iron Head is great for T-tar which possible I see only Gliscor handling it well, and Lucario (considering it's not Scarfd.) Fire Punch is great for Steels- like Metagross, Lucario, and Scizor, who really don't hurt your team much with your defensive core of Gliscor and Rotom. I feel that you don't need Fire Punch so I also added U-turn so you can scout enemy teams. If they bring in something you can destroy while you've U-turned, then you almost have a chance to lay a free hit if its a major threat for your opponent.

Jirachi has good synergy with this team and works as a great revenge killer, so with this suggestion over Latias, it has potential defensively and offensively to keep some threats in check. Good Luck.

Special thanks to Rugaji for this
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Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/36 Def/220 Spe
Jolly nature (+Spe, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Roost

Next up is Gliscor. I chose the stallbreaker set mainly to beat stuff like Blissey, as long as it doesn't have Ice Beam. Toxic + Roost stall is a great way to annoy people. Taunt prevents stuff from healing off damage or passing around status on my team. This set has become very useful for me team as it helps me stall out some major threats. For example, I can Toxic MixApe and then stall it out with a combination of switches while I predict around it's attacks.
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Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 156 HP / 72 Atk / 96 Def / 184 Spe
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon Dance
- Taunt
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge

It can handle all of the leads that Heatran doesn't fare well against (Infernape, Machamp, Swampert, Aerodactyl). It has defensive synergy with your team, being immune to Earthquake and resisting Fire and Fighting, which helps Heatran and Lucario a lot. It can set up on Scizor reliably as it resists both STABs and boasts Intimidate. It can lure Rock-type attacks from Scarf/Band Tyranitars for Lucario to set up on. Gyarados provides a valuable second water resistance. Bulky Gyarados is a good check to most Infernape. Special thanks to Rising Dusk for this
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Please rate guys, I'd love to have this team perfected and use it in a tourney one day​

 

[S7atcat]

Hey guys, I haven't posted on here for a long time. I recently took a break from Pokemon and came back to build this team. I'm a bit rusty, and need some help in perfecting this. So feel free to make as many changes as required.
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Team at a Glance:
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Heatran (M) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Will-o-wisp
- Stealth Rock

I decided to start my team off with a Heatran lead with Shuca Berry. The idea here is to either set up my rocks, or to KO the other lead. With this set I can take on most common leads. Hidden Power [Grass] aids in 2HKOing Swampert leads, and Shuca Berry allows me to take the Earthquake and finish it off. Once I have SR up, if I predict a switch I Will-o-Wisp what ever is coming in and cripple it.

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Rotom-c @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/72 Def/88 Spd/96 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Shadow Ball
- Discharge
- Toxic

Next up is Rotom-c. This serves as my only way of taking out bulky waters. Toxic usually wears them down as long as they don't have rest. I chose Discharge instead of Thunderbolt because the surprise parahax is always pleasing. Leaf Storm takes a huge chunk out of incoming Tyranitar, allowing my to KO it the next turn.
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Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Extremespeed
- Swords Dance
- Crunch

This is my late game sweeper, Lucario comes in late game and cleans things up. I usually come in on something to force a switch, then follow up with a Swords Dance and proceed to sweep. The only problem I see with this set is that Gliscor completely stops it, which is why I have Tyranitar for Gliscor.
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Vaporeon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 188 HP/252 Def/68 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Surf
- Protect
- Hidden Power [Electric]

This is like my only MixApe counter on the team. As long as Vaporeon is in good health, I can OHKO back after taking a Grass Knot. Wish helps keep my team healthy and Hidden Power [Electric] helps against other bulky waters. Not much to say about this set, it's pretty self explanatory and meant to support the rest of the team while taking out MixApe.
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Swampert (M) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP/40 Def/216 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Curse
- Earthquake
- Avalanche
- Rest

Next up is CursePert. To be honest, I have no idea why I have him here and would like to get rid of it. But anyways, the idea here is to Curse up and start sweeping. Rest + Chesto Berry allows me to shrug off status. Avalanche is for grass types, but I may change that for Ice Punch since I'm using Curse.
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Tyranitar (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/80 Spd/176 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Rock Polish

This Tyranitar is a novelty set I made. Before anyone flames me, let me explain how this works. It comes in on a ghost type or anything that it can scare off, and proceeds to use Rock Polish. After +2 Spd, I can outspeed most threats, +4 puts me in position to Outspeed Scarfed thread. The only thing that stops this is priority, which really screws up my sweep (Blissey screws up my sweep as well). Now, for the moves themselves. Dark Pulse takes out any Psychics/Ghosts as long as they aren't SpD bulky. Ice Beam OHKOs Gliscor. And Flamethrower OHKOs Scizors that are trying to come in on Tyranitar.
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What does your leadtran do if it faces a leadtran or a machamp D:!

And I don't think toxic and Discharge are necessary on Rotom.

Also is it necessary to have only one eq resistant?

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

I switch out on Machamp into Rotom-c.

If it's not required, do you have any other suggestions?

 

[Laprabi]

I just did a quick calc to see if Vaporeon could like a +2 Grass Knot for Life Orb 252SpA MixApe, and here are the results:

692 Atk vs 203 Def & 448 HP (60 Base Power): 380 - 448 (84.82% - 100.00%)

79.49% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock, and if Sandstorm is in play, it's a guaranteed OHKO, I think. Could someone else check that for me? I want to know if I screwed up the calculation. I used Librelldra Forge's Damage calculator, in case you're wondering.

 

[george182]

- 226 sp.def not 203, misread on smogon lol
- 674 atk, not 692, reason being you have misunderstood like many people how stat boosts work.

Standard poke is at 100% attack
+1 goes to 150% (only the first boost multiplies attack by 1.5)
+2 goes to 200% (you assumed it was 150% x 1.5 = 225%, a common mistake)
+3 goes to 250%
...
+6 goes to 400% (another common misconception, people assume +6 is 600% when it actually is not, hence why belly drum pokemon are not as powerful as people would initially assume)

so with a life orb, and nastyplot, 60 base damage does between 334 - 394.

if max damage is achieved and stealth rock and sandstorm/hail (cancels leftovers) are in play it will OHKO, but this is 1.666666% chance of happening, which is very low and highly unlikely.

sorry to pick you up, but you did ask if it was wrong.

However 64 speed ev's is no longer need, its there outspeed skarmorys before they roost and make HP electric weaker. This fails for 2 reasons, 1 surf with stab has 95 x 1.5 = 142.5 base damage, while a supper effective HP has base 70 x 2 = 140. So surf is more powerful anway. Secondly skarmory does not use that speed anymore, as that speed was there to outspeed rhyperior, who is now UU and rarely seen. So 16 speed ev's will allow you to outspeed a CB scizor, and if you dump the rest in HP, then you can hold true to your claim that vaporeon is a 100% counter to mix ape.

 

[Alan]

Give Rotom-C Will-O-Wisp >> Toxic imo, keeps Tyranitar/Scizor from OHKOing with Pursuit.

Heatran probably wants Earth Power >> Will-O-Wisp so its not walled and/or OHKO'd by other Heatran leads.

I'm not crazy about <defensive/offensive boost> + ResTalk sets. They are fairly gimmicky and easy to wall. The only one that every really worked was CroCune but even that is pretty outdated anymore. If I were you, go with DDTar. Much stronger, easier to set up, and its not begging for a crit. DDTar gives you're team more of an offensive feel and CurseTar seems kinda bad.

Looks good other than that.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Alright, I'll make those changes. Keep the reviews coming guys, it means a lot to be able to fix this team up.

 

[SlottedPig]

Why is Gliscor Careful? Impish is far better. (jolly is overrated as luke is rarely jolly now)

And even if you want the SpD you can invest special defense evs and use an impish nature and get a higher stat total.

 

[Delko]

Careful is indeed not a very good nature on Gliscor. But unlike the power within I DO suggest a Jolly nature on Gliscor. That and 252 Spe EV's (others are put in Max HP and leftovers in Atk). Stall breaker Gliscor is very common these days and when 2 Gliscor face each others the one that gets the Taunt of the quickest wins. Therefor Max speed is required. You don't have much else to deal with this Stall Breaking Gliscor as well.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Alright thanks man, I've changed that.

Anything else?

 

[george182]

Yea the description for tyranitar goes on about curse lol, would be better if it was going on about DD tyranitar lol.

Gliscor and hippowdon easily walls both of your sweepers, you can get around this 1 by giving lucario a shucca berry. Or 2, by giving tyranitar a shuca bery + aqua tail.

The second option would be much better and it gives you a way of luring in both of them, and taking them both out.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Woops, I didn't change that! Thanks for letting me know xD

What would you recommend Aqua Tail over? I have Fire Punch to deal with Scizor and steel types.

 

[george182]

I would use a set of stone edge/aqua tail/earthquake
It gives great type coverage still hits those pesky steels, stone does just as much as fire punch to skarmory. Earthquake does more to Jirachi and metagross and on full health you should live a Jirachi iron head, does 58% - 70% while you OHKO with earthquake (fire punch does not OHKO) but flinch hax will screw you over. Stone edge OHKO's scizor after 2 stealth rocks. So fire punch doesn't gain you that much. Bronzong still beats the set with a OHKO from gyro ball, scizor you still need babri, and Jirachi you can now OHKO, but same flinch problem. But hippowdon, gliscor, rhyperior, oposing tyranitar, heatran, empoleon and metagross are beaten by this set. as well as others probably. The lack of crunch doesn't hurt much as a DD stone edge still OHKO's latias, rotom, gengar etc. just accracy is a problem.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Awesome! Thanks for the advice! Anything else?

 

[george182]

You will have a lot of trouble with DD mence. This can be solved If you use lead metagross over lead heatran, this problem is solved, let me explain:

Metagross @ Shucca/occu/lum
252 HP / 236 Atk / 12 Def / 8 Spe
admant
- Stealth rock
- Earthquake
- Bullet punch
- Explosion

This lead can realibly set up stealh rock, and take out common taunters like aerodactyl and weavile. Bullet punch will 2hko salamence after stealth rock and some residual damage. Explosion will OHKO lol. Shucca means if you are over half health you will live a salamence DD boosted EQ. But shucca is not needed, and occu/lum can be used.

Shucca is not needed because this is just to be combined with lucario, as bullet punch + a lucario life orb extreame speed OHKO's salamence after rocks, giving it no chance to do anything. By no means is it reliable, but you only need one of them alive to take out a life orb mence, a roost set can be countered by rotom. If he is locked into outrage then he also easy to counter.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Hm... I'll test out Meta lead. However one thing, Tyranitar doesn't have Crunch :P

 

[Delko]

Hm... I'll test out Meta lead. However one thing, Tyranitar doesn't have Crunch :P

You can put Crunch over Earthquake as with Aqua Tail in his moveset, Earthquake is a bit redundant.

 

[Yoz]

If I were you, I'd take off HP Grass from Heatran because a Leads job is usually to put up entry hazards and/or prevent the enemy from doing so. If I were you I'd put Taunt instead as this will allow you to achieve that. Besides, Heatran can usually take a hit from Swampert. So I'd put up SR then switch to perhaps Rotom to take the incoming EQ. This will probably force a switch and gives you the momentum. Also Heatran may be able to KO one other poke later in the game or soak up Status inflictions.

BTW wouldn't Pursuit or Payback work better instead of Crunch? But yes I agree, put it over EQ as it is quite redundant, specially because you have EQ on Gliscor, Swampert and Heatran (well Earth Power but it's pretty much the same)

 

[Rising_Dusk]

Hello:

Your team is pretty cool; I've always been a big fan of SDLuke, it's excellent at what it does. I feel like your team could set it up a bit better, though, as well as perhaps lure out and eliminate the counters of one another that they might come across. Your team has, as you've noticed and mentioned, severe issues with bulky water-types and Scizor. Scizor can pretty much run through your Tyranitar, since you run Aqua Tail for those pesky bulky-grounds, score free damage against your Vaporeon, and even revenge your Lucario after a CC and some passive damage.

I must suggest that you replace your DD Tyranitar with a DD Gyarados. Bulky Gyarados in particular will be a huge boon to your team for a few reasons:

• It can handle all of the leads that Heatran doesn't fare well against (Infernape, Machamp, Swampert, Aerodactyl)
• It has defensive synergy with your team, being immune to Earthquake and resisting Fire and Fighting, which helps Heatran and Lucario a lot
• It can set up on Scizor reliably as it resists both STABs and boasts Intimidate
• It can lure Rock-type attacks from Scarf/Band Tyranitars for Lucario to set up on
• Gyarados provides a valuable second water resistance
• Bulky Gyarados is a good check to most Infernape

Run the following set:

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 156 HP / 72 Atk / 96 Def / 184 Spe
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon Dance
- Taunt
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge

Taunt can help give you an edge over many of the defensive Pokemon that might try to phaze you or paralyze you.

You could use another answer to those bulky-waters. For this reason, I suggest replacing Will-O-Wisp on Heatran with Explosion. If you can blow up on a Vaporeon, Suicune, or Swampert switch in, then you will have done your team a great service. Because of Explosion, you should then run Earth Power over Hidden Power Grass on Heatran. You'll explode on Swampert, and having Earth Power is crucial for beating opposing Heatran and rounding out your coverage as best as possible.

You also don't need that much Speed on Gliscor for any reason. You should only aim for 216 Speed EVs to outrun opposing Jolly Lucario. You should run 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Spe as Gliscor's EV spread. Definitely keep Toxic on Gliscor no matter what people say, as catching bulky water switch-ins with Toxic is a Godsend for your team.

Lastly, I feel that Vaporeon's stalling nature steals too much momentum away from the rest of your team and the wishpassing benefits are being wasted on Pokemon that may not survive an unfavorable switch in. I recommend using a Choice Scarf Latias over Vaporeon for the following reasons:

• Gives you ways of checking and defeating opposing DD Salamence and Gyarados that set up on other members of your team
• Is a strong check to Nasty Plot MixApe by resisting both STABs and taking pittance from Grass Knot
• Keeps the offensive momentum of your team alive with its Draco Meteors
• Has excellent synergy with Lucario if Tyranitar decides to Pursuit it or Crunch it, giving it a free setup
• Can Surf the hell out of opposing bulky-ground types that threaten Lucario's sweep
• Can put the hurt on bulky waters with Draco Meteor or Thunderbolt

Run the following set:

Latias @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Trick

It is worth noting that with all of these extra checks to bulky waters, you can probably run Rotom-H instead of Rotom-C and Overheat instead of Leaf Storm to better handle Scizor, Forretress, Jirachi, and Metagross.

These suggestions should help your team greatly. Give them a try and let me know what you think. Cheers and good luck with the team!

 

[donbosco]

I agree with Rising Dusk, because you seem to have a HUGE weakness to Salamence in general, whether it be a MixMence or a DDMence. And outside of Tyranitar getting a Stone Egde in before Gyarados can use DD, and I don't think Vaporeon's HP Electric will OHKO a Bulky Gyarados, so other than those two, you don't have a way to deal with him. So ScarfLatias would be a huge help, as it can also deal with a lot of defensive Pokemon with Trick.

You are extremely weak to LO Gengar. He can OHKO everyone except for Vaporeon and Gliscor, whom he can 2HKO. To fix that I recomend you give your Lucario a Chople Berry, so it could survive a Focus Blast, and OHKO with Crunch.

 

[george182]

Gyrados is a good idea, I would just like to point out that after stealth rock and a dragon dance stone edge does have a 49% chance to OHKO scizor, and after 2 turns of SR, the KO is garunteed. His T-tar has a babri berry so it can't be OHKOed by bullet punch.

I disagree with using scarf latias. Due to the fact that the top two used pokemon are tyranitar and scizor, latias is not a reliable revenge killer anymore. Perhaps a scarf starmie, who both scizor and t-tar are affraid of due to surf, or scarf flygon is beter.

Using lead empoleon over heatran, can give you a water resist, if you replace vaporeon with flygon.

 

[Rising_Dusk]

Sceptile asked me in a PM what set he should run for my recommended Rotom-A, so I'm posting here to let him know that it should be as follows. Rotom-C is excellent at beating Swampert, who even with numerous checks can be annoying. Rotom-H has a tendency to keep Scizor, Metagross, and Jirachi hesitant to switch in, and lets Rotom-H serve as a very excellent Lucario check. You already have both Gliscor and Gyarados, though, so it is probably worth it to stick with Rotom-C in the oft chance you really need to take down a bulky water.

Rotom-C @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Leaf Storm
- Will-O-Wisp

Try that set out. It should work fairly well for you.

I disagree with using scarf latias. Due to the fact that the top two used pokemon are tyranitar and scizor, latias is not a reliable revenge killer anymore. Perhaps a scarf starmie, who both scizor and t-tar are affraid of due to surf, or scarf flygon is beter.

Scarf Starmie is equally Pursuit bait for both Tyranitar and Scizor - especially with how easy it can be to lure an Electric- or Ice-type attack. I think the ground immunity, higher SpA and SpD stats, and better general bulk will help over the course of the match more than what Starmie provides. Flygon is also an unreliable answer to DDMence, as you have to resort to a speed tie and then lock yourself into Outrage.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Alrighty, I'll test that out as well. However, I current have two Scarfed Pokemon: Latias and Rotom-C. I don't think I need two Scarfers, or do you think I should use both?

 

[Rising_Dusk]

Oh, sorry, I was still editing my post. I think Standard Rotom-C will offer the best general protection for your team, as you can burn common switch ins like Tyranitar and Scizor as well as burn Swampert. These Pokemon being burned will both protect Rotom-C and Latias while also covering Lucario's sweep from Scarf Tyranitar later on. (Since you run Crunch and not Bullet Punch) The only real difference from yours in the first post is the EV spread, which is more generally efficient. Only change to Rotom-H if you notice that you're having lots of trouble with Steels, although I think you'll like sticking with covering bulky waters.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Alright, so far the team is doing good with these changes, I haven't run into many problems. I'm still uncertain about what to do in case I run into a lead Infernape.
Also, would running Discharge on Rotom-C be just as effective as Thunderbolt? The higher paralysis rate may be useful later on.