Team Swampy Standard OU

[K9gamer]

INTRODUCTION
This was a team someone helped me make a while back, and it did pretty good. But I took a break from Pokémon for a few months, so this team may be a bit dated and its not doing as well as it used to. So I’m putting it here for suggestions, getting it up to date and improving it. Without farther ado, here it is! (And I hope I’ve put good descriptions, still a bit new at this)

AT A GLANCE

THE SWAMPY LEAD

Swampert @ leftovers
Ability: torrent
EVs: 252 HP, 4 Atk, 252 Def
Nature: Relaxed
- Stealth rock
- Ice beam
- EQ
- Protect

SO I HEARD YOU LIEK MUDKIPZZZ!!?? No but seriously. Swampert was and still is my favorite ou starter and he makes a great lead. Being able to set up stealth rock, and not so frail as to die on the 1st or 2nd turn. Stealth rocks are of course for entry hazard, ice beam for leads like aerodactyl and azelf that won’t be affected by EQ. EQ is for stab and taking out leads that don’t levitate. And protect for scouting and evading pesky explosions. I used to have surf in the last slot but protect helps me take down metagross. EX- first turn I EQ and meta SRs, next turn I protect and because my EQ depleted more than half its hp it explodes. It’s happened almost every time I faced a metagross lead.


THE SEMI REVENGE TRICKER

Latias @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Spe, 252 Spatk
Nature: Modest
- Draco Meteor
- Thunder Bolt
- Surf
- Trick

Ah, latias. One of the most annoying pokemon in this meta game. Gotta love it <3. Usually she switches in on surf or EQ aimed at heatran, and sweep. The reason I have this set though is because latias attracts a certain egg shaped nuisance. So if I know I that blissey is on my opponents team I can cripple it by tricking choice scarf to it. And this set can still work pretty well with leftovers. It has draco meteor for salamence and other dragon types. T-bolt for bulky waters like vaporeon and gyrados, and surf for heatran and infernape.


THE ACTUAL REVENGE KILLER

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash fire
EVs: 4 Atk, 252 Spe, 252 SpAtk
Nature: Rash
- Fire Blast
- Earth power
- Hidden power (Ice)
- Explosion

Heatran is one of the most commonly used revenge killers in today’s meta game and for this team that’s no exception. I originally had the torment tran set on this team but It turned out not to work so well. I was hesitant to switch over to the scarf set because I already had latias. But it still works out pretty well. So I basically use it how it’s usually used. I switch in after one of my pokes fainted or a fire attack and well, revenge kills. Fire blast is for scizor and lucario common sweepers. Earth power for fire or electric types like infernape or jolteon. HP ice for dragons and gliscor, and explosion to go out with a bang if there are no other options.


THE POSSESED LAWN MOWER (SPIN BLOCKER)

Rotom-C @ Item Leftovers
Ability: levitate
EVs: 252 HP, 72 Def, 88 Spe, 96 Spatk
Nature: Bold
- Shadow Ball
- Leaf Storm
- Will-o-Wisp
- Pain Split

Now, The most annoying thing that happens when setting stealth rocks is having them rapid spun away right? So I decided to get a ghost type on this team to avoid that scenario. I originally had gengar for this but he was to frail, so I decided to test me luck with a rotom appliance. And it has worked great! The most common rapid spinner ive seen in ou is starmie. So when it comes in I switch out into this baby and either force it to switch or shadowball it into oblivion! It also has leafstorm to get rid of swampert, pain split for semi recovery, and will-o-wisp to shut down phys sweepers.


THE WOLF SWEEPER

Lucario @ Life orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant
- Swords dance
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Extreme Speed

When I made this team I wanted to try a poke that (believe it or not) Ive never had on a team before! Lucario. In the beginning I was thinking about running the cb set but i realized that even if you have to spend a turn setting up its well worth it. So I have SS for setting up, Close Combat for a powerfull stab move to use on preferably special walls, Crunch for Pokemon like latias, Gengar and rotom forms, and finally Extreme speed for finishing faster pokemon off.




THE DANCING FISH THING

Gyrados@ Leftovers
Ability: intimidate
EVs: 156 HP, 72 Atk, 96 Def, 184 Spe
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon dance
- Taunt
- Stone edge
- Water Fall

For my last slot I decided to go for gyrados. This guy was originally an offensive dragon dancer, but ive found the the bulkier variant is a lot more practical being able to stay in long enough to get some dds and attempt a sweep. I usually switched this guy in on sweepers attempting to set up. It has dragon dance to of course set up for a sweep. Taunt to prevent other pokes setting up, stone edge for other gyrados and salamence. And water fall for a powerful priority move.

And there’s the team please rate and suggest! Thank you for reading

 

[MCRandom]

Just a nitpick waterfall isnt priority. and is one word...Waterfall

And I feel Scarfing Heatran is a waste on this team since you already have Latias to Revenge kill, and Thunderbolt has its way with Scizor, and Gyarados already Checks Lucario, I feel a SubTran would fit your team better, particularily a Status inducing one. Try:

Heatran@Leftovers
Timid Nature
4 Hp / 252 Spe / 252 SpAtk
Moves:
-Substitute
-Toxic
-Lava Plume
-Earth Power

This set aims to inflict either burn on Physical Sweepers trying to come in and set up on you, or Toxic for anything expecting to wall you. Also, it still easily disposes of Scizor and Lucario once behind a sub. And after switching into a fire attack and receiving a Flash Fire boost, you wont be lacking in power with Lava Plume

 

[Ontop]

Hello, nice team!

Have you ever thought about how hard Starmie and Gengar really hurts you? Latias is the only pokemon who can take care of those threats, but he's Scizor bait. Heatran can kill but not the scarfed variants. I suggest Blissey(for the first time ever since i hate Blisseys). The reason being it hinders those Gengar and Starmies and it provides great help to your team with Wish, since none of you pokemon has a recovery move. (except for Rotom Pain split). Wish/Protect/Toxic/Siesmic toss or Flaethrower could work fine in here. 24 HP / 252 Def / 232 SpD Is the standard Smogon EV spread which i think would work absolutely fine here. I second the idéa of taking of the Choice scarf from the Heatran since you already have Latias as your revenge killer.

Personly i enjoy running Roar over Protect for scouting purpose on LeadPert. If you smell the Explosion you can always switch in to your Rotom-C. Talking of your Rotom it lacks Thunderbolt hard. Leaf storm hits Swampert and.... that's pretty much it. Dropping 2- in Special attack is not worth killing a Swampert for since he is set-up bait for your Gyarados.

 

[K9gamer]

Hello, nice team!

Have you ever thought about how hard Starmie and Gengar really hurts you? Latias is the only pokemon who can take care of those threats, but he's Scizor bait. Heatran can kill but not the scarfed variants. I suggest Blissey(for the first time ever since i hate Blisseys). The reason being it hinders those Gengar and Starmies and it provides great help to your team with Wish, since none of you pokemon has a recovery move. (except for Rotom Pain split). Wish/Protect/Toxic/Siesmic toss or Flaethrower could work fine in here. 24 HP / 252 Def / 232 SpD Is the standard Smogon EV spread which i think would work absolutely fine here. I second the idéa of taking of the Choice scarf from the Heatran since you already have Latias as your revenge killer.

Personly i enjoy running Roar over Protect for scouting purpose on LeadPert. If you smell the Explosion you can always switch in to your Rotom-C. Talking of your Rotom it lacks Thunderbolt hard. Leaf storm hits Swampert and.... that's pretty much it. Dropping 2- in Special attack is not worth killing a Swampert for since he is set-up bait for your Gyarados.

Thanks for the rate! I get what you mean about being gengar and starmie weak but what pokemon should i get rid of for blissey?

 

[Abutorn]

I got a message saying you wanted me to rate this team, so here it goes.

For Swampert, you already have a rotom on your team so that works well, why just not go out to it if you're predicting him to explode then just put Roar on Swampert to also make it a phazer since I see protect as kind of a wasteful move since you already have something on your team that can deflect the explosion.

The synergy of your team is well, The other thing you might want to change is the tran, you already have one scarfer and when Tran is scarfed it's speed doesn't reach a lot, so you might just want to change it into SubVersion to probably predict Heatran switchins or just make it easier to predict.

Heatran @Leftovers
Nature: Timid
EVs: 6 HP/ 252 Sp.Att/ 252 Spe
Moveset:
Fire Blast
Earth Power
Subsitute
Dragon Pulse/ Will-O-Wisp/ Explosion

Last thing you might want to change in the team which is minor is probably just editing rotoms moveset and EVs. For the EVs you might want to make it:
252 HP/ 70 Defense/ 188 Speed The Reason why is to outspeed Lucario, which seems to destroy that Lucario and it comes in handy with other pokemon! The Defense EVS are to help with the Will-O-Wisp you'll be probably using. So make the moveset Thunderbolt, Will-O-Wisp / Shadowball, Pain Split, Subsitute. The reason I added subsitute is because if you're against blissey you can definitly stall it out but if you don't have sub and maybe blissey has Toxic or a status, then you might have a hell of a problem to your Rotom.

Well, I hope my analysis for your team helped and good luck.

 

[KnightoftheWind]

I like this team, it has some nice synergy and isn't very weak to anything, there's just a few things I'd change if I were you.

First off, I agree with Abutorn and suggest you use Roar over Protect on Swampert. The main use of Protect is to use it when Azelf or Metagross uses Explosion so they faint and you take no damage. However, you possess Rotom that can just simply switch into the Explosion users and can do the same thing Swampert did without wasting a moveslot. With Roar however, Swampert can now prevent sweeps from starting, shuffle Stealth Rock damage around the opponent's team and scout the opposing team so you can work out a game plan.

My second suggestion is to use a Timid nature on your Latias. With a Modest nature, Latias speed-ties with Jolly / Naive Salamence after a Dragon Dance. Considering that Latias is all that prevents you from being swept by DD Salamence, this is something you don't want. If Latias loses the speed-tie, DD Salamence can do some serious damage to your team. With Timid, this is a situation that will never end up happening.

Similarly, I want you to try out a Naive nature on your Heatran. Your Latias guards you against so many threats, but it suffers from a Pursuit weakness, so it's nice to have some good back-up against set-up sweepers. Heatran does provide said back-up, but it can't do this effectively with a Rash nature. The main reason of using Naive Scarf Heatran is that it outspeeds Adamant Gyarados after a Dragon Dance. If Gyarados manages to set-up and Latias is dead, Heatran can come in and Explode on Gyarados, thus stopping a sweep. Other merits include outspeeding Adamant Scarf Heracross and at least speed-tying with other Scarf Heatran.

Good luck with your team.

 

[animenagai]

I'm infamous here for being stall paranoid and right now, I think you team will struggle a bit with it. Having said that, I do think you can make a simple adjustment that would make a big difference in beating stall. Use stone edge over crunch on luke.

You beat stall not just by having stuff that hits hard, but by planning a sweep once you've trapped a certain counter somehow, letting another poke sweep. When playing stall, I think the gameplan for your team (round about mid game) is to DD up with gyara and when the enemy rotom switches in, STAY IN. Go ahead and waterfall it and let the rotom kill you. If it chooses to WOW you, just taunt the next turn so it can't heal up. After that, scare it away with say heatran and bring luke in before rotom can heal up. Their stone edge luke counter is now severely weakend and you can sweep with a SD under your belt.

The only other problem I see for your team is that you're a bit latias, gengar and mence weak (you'll have to guess whether it is a DDmence or mixmence when it frst switches in, if you guess wrong they may get a free DD or just kill one of your team members for free). You have your own scarfed latias which can outrun and OHKO them, but the problem with scarfed latias is that it is very easy to pursuit and there's really not much you can do about it. After it gets pursuit killed, the floodgates are wide open. I actually think that latias isn't all that central to the success with your team, you have enough resistances elsewhere to make up for it. I think it would be a good idea to replace latias with scizor, as it counters and pursuits latias/gengar. It also helps with the mence problem.

I agree with everyone else that you should replace protect on pert with roar. Right now your team is a bit gyara weak as the only answer you have to it is rotom without any reliable means of recovery. Latias could help. but once again it's just pursuit bait so I wouldn't rely on that either. If pert has roar, you would at least force it to switch out, wasting its DD and stacking up SR damage in the process. Play your cards right and you could get it down to extremespeed or bullet punch range so it'll at least not sweep you.

Good luck with your team, hope I helped.

 

[Eternal]

I'm infamous here for being stall paranoid and right now, I think you team will struggle a bit with it. Having said that, I do think you can make a simple adjustment that would make a big difference in beating stall. Use stone edge over crunch on luke.

I don't see how Stone Edge over Crunch would help his team. His team doesn't really fear stall all that much. He has SD Lucario + DD Gyarados with Trick Latias and Explosion Heatran. What would he benefit from Stone Edge? While he wouldn't want to be weak to Rotoms, he'd want to keep Crunch.

Team Adujustments:

Swampert - Replace Protect with Roar. Just like everyone stated.

Latias - Change its Nature to Timid. You DON'T want to let Dragon Dance Salamence to outspeed you.

Heatran - Naive Nature over Rash is better.

Overall, it's solid team.

 

[zarator]

I don't see how Stone Edge over Crunch would help his team. His team doesn't really fear stall all that much. He has SD Lucario + DD Gyarados with Trick Latias and Explosion Heatran. What would he benefit from Stone Edge? While he wouldn't want to be weak to Rotoms, he'd want to keep Crunch.

He needs Stone Edge because stall teams will stop Lucario with RestTalk Gyarados.

 

[Eternal]

He needs Stone Edge because stall teams will stop Lucario with RestTalk Gyarados.

RestTalk Gyarados isn't a big threat with Stealth Rock up. Besides he has Pain Split Rotom for that (which can get RestTalk Gyarados switching on those SR). While he certainly doesn't want to be weak to something like Rotom in stall or sweepers (SubCharge). While he has Trick Latias which walls Waterfall. As well as his own Gyarados with Taunt and Dragon Dance. There is a greater need for Crunch than Stone Edge.

 

[animenagai]

I don't see how Stone Edge over Crunch would help his team. His team doesn't really fear stall all that much. He has SD Lucario + DD Gyarados with Trick Latias and Explosion Heatran. What would he benefit from Stone Edge? While he wouldn't want to be weak to Rotoms, he'd want to keep Crunch.

For starters, I don't like trick latias much anyways. I wouldn't want to have something so pursuit weak in my own team so if it was up to me, I wouldn't run it against stall either.

On the more important point, his gyara is countered by rotom, his luke is countered by gyara. They are countered by DIFFERENT things. Therefore, even if he achieves some sort of kamikaze with one of those members it does not really help him in beating stall in general as the rest of his members are still walled.

You can make a case for heatran exploding on gyara, thus letting luke sweep, but that is very much prediction based and a not necessarily hard to read. Stall teams also often carry the likes of swampert which can counter heatran too and exploding on that wouldn't give you much of an advantage at all.

The reason I am vouching these changes is because they allow you to beat stall while being in the driver seat and not just allowing your opponent to predict around your 50/50 mind games. Giving luke stone edge is a very simple and minimal change that gives you a big advantage against an entire strategy.

PS. what would crunch hit harder anyways? Celebi and cress have dropped a lot in usage since the days of DP, rotom's already covered obviously with the above strategy and gengar's frail anyways.

 

[K9gamer]

wow... a lot more rates than last time i checked a lot of different suggestions too but ill test them all out and see how they work!

 

[Eternal]

On the more important point, his gyara is countered by rotom, his luke is countered by gyara. They are countered by DIFFERENT things. Therefore, even if he achieves some sort of kamikaze with one of those members it does not really help him in beating stall in general as the rest of his members are still walled.

I wouldn't say his Gyarados is countered by Rotom. If you're stating that the opponent will be switching like that, then the opponent's Pokemon will be weakened by Stealth Rock up. Thus, giving his DD Gyarados enough power to sweep Rotom and stop Gyarados. While even if your opponent sends in Gyarados on your Lucario, your opponent is being weakened by Stealth Rock. Which will make the opponent resort to using Rest. And if Impish Gyarados was more popular than Rotoms, then I would obviously suggest Stone Edge. But, if you checked the usage you can clearly see how rare Impish Gyarados is nowadays:

Gyarados | Usage | 140890 | 18.7
Gyarados | Nature | Other (3) | < 9.0

It's in the "other" category.

Rotom-h | Usage | 152909 | 20.35

Although you can use Stone Edge, it's significance is very low. You're not benefiting that much from it.

 

[animenagai]

Dude, you make it sound like that rotom can't heal up. Stall teams often run wish support or aromatherapy to wake rotom up having used rest. Furthermore, stall teams always carry a spinner. If that starmie happens to be starmie, you're not gonna get to stop every spin attempt they get as switching your own rotom into starmie is not necessarily safe (often isn't). You're not going to be rely on SR damage either, not that it was such a game breaking part of breaking stall to start off with.

Oh and how does rotom being more popular than a defensive gyara have anything to do with this? I am suggesting a way to beat both gyara and rotom on the same stall team. it requires a sacrifice but you get to sweep from it so it's completely worth it. Every respectable stall team is going to have rotom and a crunch SD luke counter such as gyara or zapdos anyways, so it's not like it's uncommon when facing stall.

Your reasoning for why you should run crunch over stone edge seems to rest on rotom being a popular pokemon when the fact of the matter is that stone edge hits more (quantatively) and more popular switch ins to luke such as mence and gyara (not just rest talk, offensive gyaras are often switch ins to luke). So even if your point is that crunch would let you hit more things on the switch, you would still be wrong.

Not only that, your so called statistical proof is based on the general usage of rotom compared to one set of gyara. The problem with this is twofold, one is that you're completely forgetting the general usage of gyara. Don't tell me that you're gonna wear down the gyara either with SR, luke doesn't usually come out till late game. The other is that these stats will not be the same when you look at the stats for stall teams particularly and even less so when you look at stall teams made by good players. This team isn't any more weak to rotom than it is to gyara so I can't see why you would favour one or the other. If anything, gyara can sweep so you would think it's better to prevent that.

Honestly, I just don't see why you are so against this change.

 

[Stathakis]

given the fact that I haven't really laddered in a little while, I don't really know today's metagame, so I'm not too confident giving a full rate.

that said, there are a few things in 4th generation pokemon that don't change. one of them is that having stuff walled by the same stuff generally helps you break through teams, because you can attack kamikaze style and break through the wall, allowing you to sweep with the other guy, whose counter is now dead. 4th gen pokemon is so overpowered offensively that this strategy, when used with good judgment, is failproof more or less (against heavy defense, as revenge killing can cramp your style, etc). with that in mind, I think animenagai is 100% right in wanting crunch on lucario to turn into stone edge. having both guys be walled by rotom means that he can sac one dude to cripple rotom and then the other dude can sweep. if they're walled by different things, luke can sac himself to weaken stalkgyara, but then rotom still walls his own gyarados. or gyarados can weaken rotom, but then stall's gyarados still beats lucario. having stone edge stops this problem and allows him to attack stall kamikaze-style, without having to predict much, and still win. furthermore, there's really hardly anything that crunch hits other than rotom, into whom a lot of the team can switch depending on the set. in the meantime, stone edge goes miles fighting stall teams (even the ones with rotom, it actually helps more than crunch in the long run, because then nothing but rotom can switch in, and then rotom gets weakened so gyara sweeps the whole team), hits many more counters or checks on the switch for more damage (count em, salamence, gyarados, gliscor, scarftran, scarftar vs scarfrotom, scarfjirachi, and latias?), and in general is more useful. the offensive synergy gained by being walled by the same stuff seems to make it a no brainer, regardless of the metagame or stats.