Team Underrated [OU Special HO]

[Jukain-Arashi]

Hey guys, I'm back with a second attempt at HO. I've had a few people offer to help me improve my HO skills, so I'm still learning. But from what I've learned, I decided to have another go at it, this time making the team on the special side of the spectrum. Why this side? Because after looking at the metagame I realized that it's mostly physically based, and there are many counters to physical Pokemon. Looking at Pokemon with a high special attack, I noticed that the only thing stopping them really was Blissey, Snorlax, and sometimes Tyranitar in the Sandstorm. So I decided to build this team to abuse the fact that there aren't many walls for specially offensive Pokemon.

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Azelf @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 16 HP/188 Def/252 Spd/52 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion

The team starts off with Dual Screen Azelf who sets up screens to help my Pokemon set up safely. Stealth Rock and Explosion are self explanatory. Max HP EVs add some bulk to Azelf and max Spe is necessary for it to be an effective lead.

vs Top 10 Leads

Currently revising...

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Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Spd/252 SAtk/4 SDef
Naive nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Fire Blast
- Close Combat
- Nasty Plot
- Vacuum Wave

Next up is Nasty Plot Infernape. Infernape will usually come in ones I sacrifice another Pokemon. As it scares off my opponent, I get a Nasty Plot up and proceed to sweep till I get KOed or LO kills me. Fire Blast is the perfect STAB move and once LO gets my health low enough it receives a Blaze boost making it that much more deadly. Focus Blast was chosen instead of Close Combat so that I don't have to split my EVs and hurt Infernapes sweeping potentional. The final slot has Vacuum Wave > Grass Knot because the rest of my team takes care of bulky waters, and it's extremely helpful against Scarfed Pokemon and opposing priority users like Lucario. After a Nasty Plot, Vacuum Wave is a guaranteed OHKO on Heatran, thus not risking Focus Blast's below average accuracy.
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Gengar (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 36 Atk/220 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spe, -Def)
- Focus Blast
- Explosion
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute

Gengar is truly a Pokemon that can cause damage. This Gengar is to help my take on Blissey. With Blissey I Pain Split to Focus Focus Punch range, and then KO it. Substitute helps avoid status, allowing me to scout what move Blissey has. It also lets me get away from Pursuiters like Tyranitar and Scizor. Shadow Ball provides STAB. Life Orb works well on this set because I can Pain Split and recover health due to Gengars shitty HP stat.

I've decided to change SubPainSplit Gengar to one that uses Focus Blast/Shadow Ball/Explosion/Substitute. Why? Simply because having Focus Blast > Focus Punch is helpful against some Pokemon, like Heatran and Forretress who most likely will deal damage to me rendering my attack useless. Yes, not having Focus Punch + Pain Split means I can't deal with Blissey as effectively, so I added Explosion to at least deal some heavy damage. Also, Azelf has Explosion, Infernape has Close Combat, and Togekiss can pretty much set up on Blissey if played correctly. So Explosion seems like a better choice here, also it's nice to Explode on something that can be problematic to the rest of my team. Shadow Ball, like always, is an excellent STAB. The final move is Substitute. Why? Because things like ScarfTar and Scizor exist. Using Substitute, I can safely switch out.
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Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/4 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Agility
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave

Previously, I was using Jolteon, but that made half my team weak to Ground attack. With Zapdos, that is no longer a problem. Thunderbolt is the perfect STAB and Heat Wave let's be hit things like Scizor and Celebi should they pose a problem for me. Since Swampert walls Zapdos just like with Jolteon, I decided to use Hidden Power [Grass] to surprise them. Agility on Zapdos allows it to outspeed a +1 Salamence and KO with Thunderbolt + Stealth Rock. What does that mean? That means Zapdos can also outspeed Gyarados and if I cant get another Agility up, the rest of OU bar the annoying Ninjask. It's also a nice way to get rid of annoying SubPetaya Empoleons that I seem to hate battling, but love to use.
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Empoleon (M) @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 24 Def/252 SAtk/232 Spe
Modest (+SpA, -Atk)
- Agility
- Surf
- Substitute
- Ice Beam

SubPetaya Empoleon is a beast when used properly. Having the ability to tear through teams, this is a must have on specially based HO teams. After one Agility it can already outspeed most of the metagame, and after a second it can outspeed Scarfed Pokemon. What's not to love about that? Substitute helps me get down to Torrent and Petaya range, making Surf one tough attack. Empoleon can come in on ScarfTar of CB Scizor after they kill of Starmie and proceed to get a Sub up then Agility the next turn. So far in my testing, this set has saved me a lot from being 4-0ed, so this definitely gets a spot on the team.
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Togekiss @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP/152 SpA/104 Spe
Nature: Modest (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Nasty Plot
- Aura Sphere
- Air Slash
- Thunder Wave

This Nasty Plot Togekiss is probably my best chance at taking out Blissey, it also aids in weakening bulky waters so the rest of my team can sweep. Basically, Thunder Wave helps slow my opponents down and it's very useful. One may thins Thunder Wave on a HO team isn't a good idea, but with my opponent paralyzed I can start hitting them a lot faster, and sometimes harder if I set up one of my sweepers. Air Slash and Aura Sphere work together to KO Blissey. By the time Blissey comes in, I usually have +2 SpA under my belt. From there I just proceed to Air Slash, and get flinches, it down to a range where Aura Sphere will KO it without a doubt. Leftovers helps me stay longer to support the team a bit more.
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[GaRgAnt]

Hey, got your message.

Alright then, let's see the lineup. This is a pure special HO team, which makes me a bit worried that you might not be able to take out Blissey if Focus Blast misses. Against Snorlax? Of course it's an OHKO, and you don't even have to worry about Scarftar since you're carrying Vacuum wave (As long as you can nail a Nasty Plot before it switches in).

But Focus Blast still has the unforgivable 70% accuracy (Funny how against me, all my opponent's Focus Blasts have all hit, those bastard hackers) issue which leads me to suggest Close Combat over Focus Blast. If you change your nature to Naive, you will score the KO despite it not being boosted when I calculated Close Combat's damage against Diverse Blissey's moveset, the most physically defensive there is.

However, you must have Stealth Rock up in order to make it a 100% certainty that Blissey will die after it switches in, which leads me to another point- Besides making it a certainty that Blissey will die to a Naive unboosted Close Combat, it'll punish the switching power of the opponent. HO is notorious for its ability to force switches on opposing teams like a mother, and Stealth Rock punishes the way of survival that teams like your have.

I would forgo Magnezone entirely on this team; even after a Salac boost he still cannot outspeed max speed base 115 Pokemon, such as opposing Starmie, and Azelf from revenge killing you. In its place...

WAIT A MINUTE. YOU'RE NOT USING EMPOLEON, AND THIS IS CALLED A SPECIAL-BASED HYPER OFFENSE TEAM??

That's a shame onto itself. Dump Zone for Empy; Empy by itself will tear apart literally any team that doesn't pack a Scarfer toting Thunderpunch. All popular priority moves bar Mach Punch/Vacuum Wave (You don't see those alot, since its most effective user Technitop is UU) are resisted by Empy's wonderful typing so you can take Bullet Punches/Quick Attacks/Ice Shards at least twice before you die, which means you kill them before they kill you with Torrent and Petaya boosted Surfs.

In summary, my changes are:

Azelf needs Stealth Rock and Taunt, to keep himself safe from Taunts aimed at him. Move the 4 attack EVs into defense to give him extra bulk against LeadChamp if you follow this advice.

Give Infernape a Naive nature and replace Focus Blast with Close Combat.

Replace Magnezone with Subpetaya Empoleon.

Hope that helped.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

I'll try out these changes later this afternoon and try to get back ASAP.

I'm not sure why I didn't have Stealth Rock on Azelf, I figured I could Explode on Blissey, but that isn't very reliable.

Thanks for the rate.

 

[GaRgAnt]

As a quick note, my changes leave you a lot more vulnerable to Aerodactyl than I thought. You could try running Calm Mind Celebi over Sceptile to also use grass-type STAB and HP Fire, and slightly lessen Aerodactyl issues by having a mostly safe switchin (Thank god it doesn't know U-turn).

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

I noticed that and considered Celebi actually. But I wasn't sure if I should use Recover or Psychic on Celebi. Since this is HO, I could go with Psychic to have another attacking move, but LO recoil will wear me down.

Celebi @ Life Orb
Natural Cure
Timid
76 HP / 252 SpA / 180 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Grass Knot
- Recover / Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Also, using Recover, I can set up more Calm Minds if my HP gets low.

 

[GaRgAnt]

That's a lot like Superachi, except obviously you have instant recovery. Heatran walls the set all day if you go for Recover... Which is unfortunate.

My HO team is mostly physical, but it used a variation of Tinkerbell that's this:

Celebi @ Life Orb
Modest
216 Special Attack/ 120 speed/ 172 HP

Leaf Storm
Earth Power
Thunder Wave
Recover

This set is what I aimed to break down most physical walls- AKA the bulky grounds that stand in my way, like Hippowdon and Swampert and Gliscor- Whom all conviniently happen to have rather lacking special defense stats! Of course, Skarm was trouble but I had SD Lucario/SD Ape to break it down. This set also stops Gyara from setting up by being at 265 speed, 1 point higher than Gyarados that run enough speed EVs in order to be faster than Jolteon after a DD so I can T-wave/Leaf Storm before they can do ANYTHING.

That's just me, but the rest of your team has no trouble with Skarm, so I'm recommending this set.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

This set might be more effective than Calm Mind Celebi, as my team is lacking a Ground attack which may turn out to be problematic.

Btw, I'll be testing this Empoleon set:

Empoleon @ Petaya Berry
Torrent
Modest
EVs: 24 Def / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
IVs: 30 HP
- Agility
- Surf
- Substitute
- Ice Beam / Grass Knot / Flash Cannon

Would it be better to go with Ice Beam, since Celebi + Jolteon work nicely to take out bulky waters. And if Starmie were to go down, Salamence could be a potential counter to my team?

 

[GaRgAnt]

The goal of Hyper Offense is to kill everything the fastest way possible. This team isn't letting Mence setting up anytime soon, with the exception of Azelf, but you can set up screens/Taunt in its face.

So as you can see, Hyper Offense follows the simple logic of "They can't set up on me if I'm killing them." You're not letting Mence set up, and Mixmence can easily be taken out as Mixmences rely on natures that cut special defense- Which your team conviniently focuses on bashing.

Oh, and I think you have a mistake with your Sceptile's EVs...

 

[coolguy31337]

I actually am using a specially based HO team myself and I noticed a few things that your team needs.

First, SR is absolutely necessary to get a few necessary OHKOs, such as against Salamence/Gyarados using infernape's +2 fire blast. Your other pokes will miss key OHKOs as well because of a lack of SR - i.e. Salamence/Togekiss for jolteon, heatran for sceptile, etc. It's also a good move in general, as HO has a tendency to cause switches.

Second, your team doesn't have the best offensive synergy. The purpose of HO is to use pokemon with similar counters - by sacrificing one poke, you can weaken the common counter. The offensive synergy seen in your team is basically only against blissey, ttar, and snorlax. For example, if you bring in jolteon against a bulky water, it's just going to switch out. Sure, it handles bulky waters really well, but you'll have to predict what it will switch to (and in a HO team, any prediction means that your team isn't as good as it could be). Instead, what you really want to do is just utilize the disadvantageous matchup to do as much damage to the counter as possible, as it won't be switching out. This way, it can later be destroyed by your other pokemon who are countered by it.

Since it seems like you're going to be using SubPetaya Empoleon, a course of action might be to let your team be walled by bulky waters. So, the preferred move in the last slot would be ice beam. This gives you great offensive synergy with infernape, as you can let infernape weaken the waters which trouble you, putting them in range for a KO by Empoleon.

Slap a life orb on Starmie, as it has terrible defensive stats and you want to be hitting as hard as possible. You shouldn't need to try to predict the switch-in and hit super effectively - with lo, firing off a strong hydro pump hits anything that doesn't resist it extremely hard (except bliss, of course).

You absolutely need a way to deal with blissey. Leadzelf isn't going to be seeing a blissey very often because most leads can dealing with azelf without switching. Your only other way of dealing with blissey is a +2 focus blast from nape - blissey won't be switching into nape very often, and focus blast has terrible accuracy. Either have another exploder to use, or a setup sweeper that can reliably beat blissey - blissey 3KOs jolteon with stoss, and jolteon doesn't do enough damage with even +2 thunderbolts to sufficiently weaken it so your other pokemon can break through.

I suggest a read through stath's Greek RMT to help you with your team - it is also a specially based HO team, and his team is a great example of an offensively synergetic core.

 

[GaRgAnt]

What, you've not read my post concerning Infernape changing Focus Blast to Close Combat? He's already (If he follows my advice) got Blissey covered, though Gyara may happily jump in.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Sorry, I just updated my original post. I was testing the changes.

Well anyways, OP is updated.

@coolguy31337: I'm not very good at working out a synergy between my Pokemon, can you offer a bit more assistance?

@GaRgAnt: So far the changes you've recommended have been wonderful. Celebi providing paralysis support is welcomed to Empoleon allowing it to get a Sub/Agility up in preparation for its sweep.

 

[coolguy31337]

What, you've not read my post concerning Infernape changing Focus Blast to Close Combat? He's already (If he follows my advice) got Blissey covered, though Gyara may happily jump in.

Like I said, blissey is not going to be switching into nape. Even with screens up, you obviously can't expect nape to be lasting until the end of the battle, so only having one check to blissey is not enough on an all special team.

@coolguy31337: I'm not very good at working out a synergy between my Pokemon, can you offer a bit more assistance?

Well, the idea of offensive synergy is that a number of pokemon on your team have the same counter, so that if you can weaken it enough with one poke, another one can take advantage of the weakness and sweep. Being walled by blissey/ttar/snorlax as synergy is not enough, because each poke has more counters than just one of the above. However, if the other counters are similar, then you would have great offensive synergy.

For Example, take SubPetaya empoleon and NPape. Their main counters are bulky waters, so that creates offensive synergy - if you can damage the bulky water with NPape by sacrificing it and hitting it hard, that makes it more possible for empoleon to sweep because the water would be severely weakened.

Starmie has decent offensive synergy with both of them - it is countered by some bulky waters (lanturn, tentacruel); however, its primary counters take advantage of is psychic typing and are pursuit users.

The two pokemon that do not have good offensive synergy with emp/nape are jolteon and celebi, because they are not walled by bulky waters. You don't necessarily need to change both of them, as celebi provides great para support and jolteon is a great late game sweeper because of its high speed.

However, I think you're losing too much offensive momentum by using celebi because it's not extremely fast, and doesn't have the best offensive synergy. Its also terrible defensively because it makes you much weaker to scarf'd pursuiters - ttar for example can switch in on azelf/jolteon/starmie (not using hydro pump), take minimal damage, and do heavy damage back. The change I'd recommend is to replace celebi with a more specially based version of the mixed rain dance set for kingdra.

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 92 Atk / 164 Spd / 252 SAtk
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Rain Dance
- Waterfall
- Hydro Pump
- Dragon Pulse

Here's an explanation of why the spread and moveset differs from smogon's; your team is designed to be more specially leaning than physical, so 252 SpA and Rash maximizes its attacking potential. 164 Spd lets you outspeed +1 pos natured based 100s in the rain, so you don't lose out to scarfgon. The remaining EVs go to Atk to improve its attacking stats. Dragon Pulse is used over draco meteor because you can't afford the SpA drop; switching out makes you lose offensive momentum and staying in means you can't do as much damage specially. Also, Dragon + Water is unresisted coverage except for empoleon and shedinja.

This set has three benefits. First, it lets you deal huge damage to blissey - In the rain, waterfall does 45%-53%, which means you have a good chance of 2KOing bliss. If you want a guaranteed 2KO, you can lower the speed EVs to 16 and dump the rest in Atk, as 16 EVs let you outspeed scarftran in the rain. Second, rain benefits both starmie and empoleon, as it gives hydro pump extra power. You'll have to be careful not to bring Infernape out in the rain as fire's power drops, but that's easy to do. You also get the benefit of removing sandstorm which otherwise greatly decreases the longevity of your sweepers. Third, the opponent may bring out ttar to stop the rain, allowing you to heavily damage another special wall.

 

[Shizzle]

wowowoowow, I think you took the term offense a little too far.

What does 4 Life Orbs mean? Firstly, If a team has any sort of hazards and sandstorm up, its game over almost right away. Especially since Blissey walls have your team.

Considering you have 4 pure special sweepers, please change Infernape to a pure Physical set, or change it to another Physical sweeper.

Starmie looks nice :P, I love LO starmies.

With Jolteon, I am a bit iffy about using it, I mean Starmie fills basically the same role, Jolteon seems to be doing the same thing. Perhaps a Sub Baton Passer with Thunderbolt and HP Ice and lefties would work better.

Not much else to say, but once Infernape is down, its game over if they have Blissey. Also against stall, you lose badly. :(, good luck with the team though

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

@coolguy31337: I see what you mean. One of the reasons why I have Starmie is for after ScarfTar or SD Scizor KO it with Pursuit, I can come in with Infernape, set up +2 and start causing havoc. I'll leave LO Starmie in as it does come in very handy in some situations.

I'm a bit iffy about using the Kingdra set that you recommended because I'm not very good at using weather moves and tend so send out a Fire Pokemon in the rain :p However, Rain Dance Kingdra would be very helpful to the team, because Starmie, Empoleon, and Jolteon (I think) all get a boost for their STAB moves. Is there another Pokemon that you could possibly recommend? If not, I'll practice getting use to playing in the rain.

 

[coolguy31337]

Jolteon doesn't get a boost from rain unless you decide to use Thunder, which becomes 100% accurate in rain - however, outside of rain, it has 70% accuracy so you probably won't want to use it. Playing in the rain shouldn't be too significant a change, since only infernape packs a fire move.

The problem with beating blissey is still there, so the best other option is an exploder, as other mixed sets don't pack enough speed to deal heavy damage. Substitute heatran can sub on the switch and pack explosion to beat blissey, as most people don't expect you to explode from behind a sub. You might want a LO though, just for the extra power. You'll want to replace jolteon if you use heatran, as you don't need four pokes weak to ground, and for celetran. I still think that Celebi needs to use a more offensive set, as you're not going to be sweeping with tinkerbell.

Another idea is CroCune, which appreciates bulky waters being eliminated (vaporeon in particular). blissey can't stop CroCune, but a +6 surf will do less than 50% damage.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Would is also be some what viable to have Mixed Dragonite to KO Blissey? I'm not sure how well it would work, but it seems promising since my opponent will probably think I'm all specially offensive and not expect it.

 

[GaRgAnt]

GUYS. I ASK YOU TO KNOW WHAT HYPER OFFENSE MEANS BEFORE YOU RATE THIS TEAM.

1. It begins with screens. His team does just that.

2. Everybody- Almost- carries Life Orbs. Suicide offense, very costly, but in the end very rewarding if you can break down the right walls, is another name for hyper offense. Sometimes, certain berries are carried to ensure longer survivability/ensure that sweeps aren't interrupted (Lum Berry/Babiri Berry/Wacan Berry/Yache Berry, ect.)

Now that we've got that covered:

Blisseys will switch into Infernape once they know it's a Nasty Plot set. Thinking to cripple it, taking into account Blissey's base 135 Special Defense and base 255 HP. And Focus Blast is notorious for its base 70 accuracy, guys. When the puffball comes in, it's met with a Close Combat to the face.

I'm not really the biggest fan of Jolteon, since Jolteon's base 60 defense is screaming for it to be nailed with any physical priority move. Scizor, I'm looking at you, bud. But you do need that electrical immunity due to having two water-types on the team.

Now, if everyone here is so worried about Blissey, I'm going to say replace Starmie with Sub/Pain Split Gengar. While this is falling back on Focus Blast's accuracy issues...

You could have Gengar use Focus Punch instead; Focus Punch is still hellishly strong, even though it's coming from a base 65 attack stat. Using a Hasty/Naive nature is the best way to achieve the KO on Tyranitar, and you're hitting Blissey in its weak point for massive damage. Pain Split for the LoLs while it Softboils/Wishes away. I know this will cost coverage, but I see you prefer Ice Beam on Empy, so Surf and Ice Beam will just be used on Empy.

Crocune cuts down on the tempo of the team far too much for it to be called a HO team; sure, you could say the Celebi set I gave him is cutting on it as well, but with paralysis support it's paving the road for renewed assaults.

Right now, changing Starmie for Pain Split/ Sub Focus Punch Gengar is what I'd call the best route for defeating Blissey.

 

[coolguy31337]

Blissey probably wouldn't switch into/would switch out of dragonite, as most dragonite run physical attacking sets (higher base Atk).

You could try some other nasty plot sweeping pokemon, as you can plot the switch to blissey, then plot again as bliss attacks/twaves, then proceed to hit with an extremely hard attack. You could try a subplot mismagius, which 2KOs bliss at +6 with HP Fighting, can sub to block status/escape ttar, and make subs blissey can't break in one turn.

Edit: I know what HO means, and use a special HO team myself. Even +2 Focus Blast KOs blissey, which means that even when blissey knows that infernape is using nasty plot, it's unlikely to switch in.

I agree that Gengar is a good choice to help cover blissey. However, why replace starmie, which has decent offensive synergy with the main sweepers, nape and emp?

In retrospect, yeah, Crocune is too slow for HO.

 

[GaRgAnt]

Oh, Mixnite.

Mixnite, though uncommon, has one advantage over Mence that Mence would kill to have- Superpower. And that's something that would surely scare off any Blissey player.

Just by using- Repeat, using Nasty Plot on Infernape acts like a lure for Blissey. Close Combat shuts them down instantly.

Also, I should add- Empy easily covers for type coverage loss, while Gengar allows for better dealing with Blissey/Snorlax.

And the "offensive synergy" you are talking about is called "doubling up." However, with Special-based HO it's a lot harder to execute this principle, as Vaporeon is staying up all day as nobody here has Grass Knot. With Gengar, Vaporeon's disgustingly high HP becomes its weak point thanks to the magic of Pain Split. Thunderbolt from Timid LO Starmie only does 50% around, which is enough to Wish/Protect stall out Thunderbolt's 24 max PP. I admit that Suicune will be a bit harder to deal with, but then that's what Jolteon is there for.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Hmm, well do note that I will be using this team mostly on wifi, so I doubt I'll be facing many Blisseys and stall-like Pokemon.

However, I think I'll stick with the idea of luring in Blissey with NP Infernape and Close Combating it to death.

Anything else?

 

[c.falcon-arrgh]

Just by using- Repeat, using Nasty Plot on Infernape acts like a lure for Blissey. Close Combat shuts them down instantly.

lmao, a +2 infernape's Focus Blast does 94.40% - 111.20%, which is like 66% OHKO chance. And anyway, a good amount of Nasty Plot Infernape has Close Combat to deal with Blissey, so Infernape never act as a lure for Blissey.

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Just changed Ice Beam on Empoleon to Grass Knot. It becomes much more useful, plus Starmie rids the Dragons for me.

 

[BloodyRoutin]

Wow that Infernape is horrible fodder.. But it's probably fine, I dislike special infernape for the most part anyway.

May I suggest Raikou? It's underrated, base 115 speed, and base 115 sp.att is great. It works well with Ape since you can remove Scarftar etc.

Raikou @ Life Orb
EVs: 252 SpA/252 Spd/4 HP
Nature: Timid
Ability: Pressure
- Calm Mind
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Shadow Ball

Calm Mind is a much more relieable way of boosting your SpA. You should honestly give Raikou a try.

I recommend this for Azelf:
Azelf @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 16 HP/188 Def/252 Spd/52 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Reflect
- Light Screen

Lets you take hits MUCH better behind screens.

Also I dislike Recover on Celebi. HO is just keeping pressure, recovering is meh.

I'm also wondering where Gengar is. SubSplit (Or any varietion of sub, really) is one of the most beastly special attackers in OU.


Gengar @ Life Orb
EVs: 252 SpA/252 Spd/4 HP
Nature: Timid
Ability: Levitate
- Substitute
- Pain Split
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

Unlike Recover PS damages the opponent, and it does good amount because of crappy base HP. Also lures in tar so ape can set up on pursuit.

Secondly may I suggest Calm Mind Lucario? It can also overcome Blissey with STAB SE special attacks.
I was running Leftovers to setup on bulky waters like vappy etc. But LO is still useful.

Lucario @ Leftovers/Life Orb
EVs: 252 SpA/252 Spd/4 HP
Nature: Modest
Ability: Inner Focus
- Calm Mind
- Aura Sphere
- Shadow Ball
- Vaccum Wave

That's it.. not experienced much with special heavy offense..

 

[Jukain-Arashi]

Alright, I'm thinking of making these changes...

SubSplit Gengar >> Celebi
CM Lucario >> Jolteon?
Reconfiguring Azelf's EVs

Not sure about the latter, but Jolteon and Starmie to similar things. The loss of Jolteon's speed might be a hinderance.

 

[george182]

I would defintaely use ice beam on empoleon. You have infernape to lure in bulky waters and you have celebi/Jolteon to take them out. While dragons are not lured out by this team and will give you some trouble.