Why Can't I hold All These Hazards?

[GCSChris]

Hello all, the following is a team I made with my good friend TheJaiho. When the Keldeo Suspect Test started, Jai and I sought out to create a great, consistent, and quick team to ladder and acquire reqs with. It turns out that two heads are usually better than one, and this turned out to be quite a good team, with both of us achieving OU (Current) reqs. The team, as with all the teams I make with Jai, was a HO team. Hyper Offense provides a quick, straight-forward laddering experience, and doesn't require as much time slaving on PS!

Skarmory @ Custap Berry

Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Taunt

The bread and butter of every HO team. Does what it does extremely well; set hazards. Usually, you get at least two hazards up, which of course allows switches to be punished, and provides the needed residual damage to help the rest of the team acquire KOs more easily. Brave Bird does a lot of damage against common leads such as Breloom, Terrkaion and Infernape(lol), as well as hurting Starmie and Donphan (also lol) before they spin. If Skarmory is at low health, which is pretty easy thanks to Sturdy, it can spinblock by killing itself before Rapid Spin is used.

Keldeo @ Expert Belt

Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
- Hidden Power [Bug]

Quite frankly, E-belt Keldeo is a monster. In Jai's opinion as well as my own, this is easily the best Keldeo set.
"It's the best variant; it's gotta be."
~ TheJaiho
Hydro Pump is the obligatory STAB move, as is Secret Sword. Icy Wind wishes it was Ice Beam, but it still hits pesky Dragons and hits (and relevantly slows down) Venusaur. HP-Bug hits Celebi and Lati@s, which otherwise counter it. Otherwise, Keldeo is a pretty straight forward 'mon. Bluffing a choice item can be pretty easy and can even swing a game in your favor; the ability to switch moves allows Keldeo to more easily lay waste to the opponent's team.

Latias (F) @ Life Orb

Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Surf/Hidden Power [Fire]
- Roost
Latias is insanely good in this meta. It provides somewhat of a defensive back-bone, which the team would lack otherwise. However, this thing hits surprisingly hard. While Jai preferred Surf, I found that HP Fire was more useful, especially against Venusaur. Jai preferred to beat Heatran, and wanted Latias to be the only thing switching into it. Latias provides, bulk, speed, and power in one adorable package.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb

Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Spear
- Earthquake
- Superpower

"Mamoswine is MVP"
~TheJaiho
I strongly agree with Jai. There are so many games that looked like losing battles, and then I realize, "Wait, I have Mamo; he can just pull out the W like a monster!" A priority, STAB Ice-type attack with base 130 attack is nothing to scoff at. Jai and I decided on Icicle Spear over Icicle Crash in order to break Substitutes as well as the notorious Multiscale. The team needed some priority as well as some swag, so we slapped on a Mamoswine and called it a team. Mamo holds the team together, and quite frequently puts it on his back.

Gengar @ Black Sludge

Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Disable
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
Gengar is amazing on HO. He's a great substitute attacker that forces tons of switches as well as providing needed spin-blocking. The standard Sub-Disable set allows it to force out many of the mono-attacking pokemon in the tier. He also beats Forretress, Tentacruel, and especially Donphan one on one. Perfect coverage alongside the ability to force out threatening pokemon like Conkeldurr, Ferrothorn, and Heatran was too tempting to pass up. Put all of this on top of it's 3 immunities, and you have a great HO Pokemon.
Also Gengar is my favorite Pokemon.

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf

Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Dual Chop

We needed a scarfer and found it hard not to pick Garchomp; it just fit so well on the team. It acts as a revenge killer of course, but also ends up clean-up sweeping many teams to end the battle. Dual Chop is a great move that allows it to take care of Dragonite and Alakazam, and it nice when you don't want to get locked into Outrage quite yet.

Threat-List

Venusaur

Cresselia

Gyarados

Vaporeon

Toxicroak

Amoonguss

Stoutland

Starmie

This team was a blast to ladder with, and is one of my best OU teams to date (Jai too!). This is a fun, fast, and effective HO team. I enjoyed building this team with TheJaiho, and who knows? We might be back again with another team of ours.

Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Any suggestions for a Keldeo replacement (for the suspect ladder) would be appreciated :]
​

 

[Reymedy]

Hello, that's a cool HO Custap team. However, to me, you lack some tools. For instance, I'm not sure your Gengar can really spin block, as Starmie won't be too worried about him. Worse, you can't Pursuit kill the Starmie. Talking about Pursuit, how can you kill a Jellicent ?

So, let's talk about the weaknesses :

- I check your list, and I can see why Venusaur/Cresselia are hard to handle. With no way to control the weather, those are always annoying.
- I'd add Jellicent. Walling completly your Keldeo, he can switch with ease and WillOWip people... and you don't like that.
- Scizor SD can be an issue if Keldeo is weakened, and he can get this SD on Mamo, Chomp or on a switch.
- Keldeo Scarf, especially under Rain. Yes I know you got Latias, but it's also kinda shaky when you know that HP Ice can 2HKO the offensive versions after SR. You can find yourself pressured REALLY fast since you'll have to use Latias to tank Toed Specs HPumps. EBelt is also pretty tricky to deal with.
- I can see Ferrothorn being annoying. Under Rain it can wall Chomper easily, and surprisingly enough the Gyro/Whip combo threaten many members of your team. On top of that, you dont have any Grass/MCoat user to soak up the Leech Seed.
- Scarf Tios, even if no one plays this set anymore.
- Volcarona, an offensive version could totallly set-up on Gengar, or when forcing out the Latias.

So, for the changes, I'll try to keep intact the pokemon you seem to appreciate in your team, while fixing one/two major weakness :

- I'm not sure why there is a Scarf Chomp. So instead, I'd really encourage the use of a Scarf Tyranitar. It could help a lot when fighting for the weather (getting rid of the Rain/Sun), and you're not , but also to RK Gyarados since the most common version is the bulky one, you can outspeed him at +1. I don't feel like you need that much a revenge killer for the dragons, since you have Mamoswine already, but a Trapper could really help when you have to get Starmie out of the way.
Another resistance to Stoutland Return could be life saving by the way. Trapping Ti@s, Jellicent should be really valuable. He's less easy to wall for Ferrothorn, because you can throw a Superpower, but I have to admit that it's not the best answer (although, now that Chomp is gone, it will be really harder for Ferrothorn to come in).
- I'd make your Latias a bit bulkier. Something like 192 HP / 252 Spe / 64 SpA. It should help you to tank what you need to tank, you won't even notice the power drop. Should help against Gyarados aswell. You sjould also consider Twave as third move in order to lure Volcarona and cripple it. I don't see many other solutions to manoever around it sadly (keeping SR on the field should be enough if you don't let any window for a sweep).

By the way, I don't feel like you're really weak to Toxicroak or Amoonguss but whatever. About SD Scizor, you could consider Specs on Keldeo, or Wise Glasses because you could appreciate the power boost in this case (checked the calc, it does give you a clean OHKO on the offensive version after SR and helps alot if Spikes are down for the bulkier versions).

I hope I helped.

 

[asterat]

How is multiscale an argument to use icicle spear over icicle crash when LO icicle crash from jolly mamoswine does a minimum of 377 to multiscale dragonite. Also if you are losing to sub gliscor or subDD dragonite you are seriously messing up. never use icicle spear.


Also the bigger your pictures are the bigger your dick is.

 

[GCSChris]

Thanks for the suggestions Remedy, I'll try out T-tar

Also Asterat I'm sorry for the huge pictures, but it's really not that big of a deal.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

Hi GSCChris, I'm here to rate your team. So far I really like it, and the objective is simple. Lay down as many hazards as possible and sweep with Keldeo. Latias / Mamoswine wall break nicely, while also check a lot of threats, and Garchomp is your scarfer. Gengar spin blocks and forces switches, ranking up hazards damage. I only really have a few suggestions for your team.

Firstly, although I love that Gengar set, I feel it's outclassed on HO teams by this set here.

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Destiny Bond
- Thunder

So this Gengar is used to beat all common spinners, since Starmie can be a huge dick to these kinda teams. Focus Sash allows you to live any hit at full health, since you usually keep hazards off the field with that Skarmory set. Shadow Ball is general STAB and hits neutral threats for decent damage, while also nailing Starmie thinking they can OHKO with Hydro Pump / Psyshock. Focus Blast has perfect coverage with Shadow Ball, hitting everything for neutral damage. Destiny Bond is used to KO spinners that try to attack you, like Forretress with Gyro Ball and Tentacruel with Scald. Finally, Thunder is used to nail Tentacruel in the rain, since it's other attacks don't do that much to Tentacruel. This Gengar is designed to beat Rapid Spinners, and that's really Gengar's main role in this team.

My next suggestion would be to replace Mamoswine with Scizor. Scizor shares great synergy with the rest of the team, as well as revenge killing most of the threats Mamoswine did (like Latios, Venusaur, and Dragonite). However, Scizor shares much better synergy with the team, and checks more threats like Alakazam and opposing Gengar. Here's the set.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

So hopefully this helped you with your team. Good luck in the future.

 

[GCSChris]

Thanks so much, I'll definitely try out these suggestions

EDIT: Also, any suggestions for a Keldeo replacement (for the suspect ladder) would be appreciated :]

 

[Halcyon.]

Just a quick suggestion for the suspect ladder, but Analytic Starmie does serious work. And your team doesn't really need spin support, so you could actually opt for a 4 move all-out attacker set in place of Keldeo. I'll try to do a full rate for this team later, so look out for that.

 

[Shurtugal]

side note

I don't look for teams to search, usually, but if you want a rate don't be shy to ask!

So I didn't get a request, but I've seen you lurking enough that I wanted to rate your team! :)

So this is standard HO (my favorite kind!) so I am more than happy to give a rate.

Firstly, sun teams look kinda challenging to beat (especially those sun stall kind; Bronzong + Venu + Cress looks so scary to face, doesn't it?). Additionally, LO Starmie is such a huge threat, but I feel that after you get hazards up and suicide Skarm (predict the switch to Mie and BRAVE BIRD THINGS) then Garchomp should lure it to Ice Beam i.e. baited and OHKO'd by Outrage. Still, it's a long shot so I am a bit worried. Volcarona also looks kinda intimidating (imagine +2 in sun!). CB Scizor is annoying as hell too since it gets a free switch and practically forces you to go into Keldeo, whittling it down with hazards + U-turn to put into priority kill range (which sucks!).

Anyway, otherwise this team is fairly solid.

1.) I like how Scarf Garchomp can be used to lure so many threats to the team that I don't even want to replace it for TTar, even though it's a good pick! (Luring Starmie and Latio@s makes them easier to pick off for the team due to the sheer surprise factor, but TTar is a good option so I'm not shunning it by any means). However, I still got threats to cover. I'm going to, firstly, suggest you remove HP Bug on Keldeo for Rain Dance, as sun teams are eager to sack Ninetales when they see you don't have a weather inducer (which helps immensely for beating these kinds of teams!).

2.) I'd change Gengar to @ShootinStarmie 's Focus Sash Gengar, but with HP Fire over Destiny Bond to eliminate the CB Scizor issue that is really glaring. On Latias, a bulkier spread of 112 Hp should suffice while still being a powerful pivot. It helps with Starmie + Sun much more as well. On Garchomp, Stone Edge over Dual Chop should cover Volcarona, and CB Scizor (as suggested by @ShootinStarmie) over Mamoswine should make dragons easier to beat while effectively removing Celebis everywhere. Now that Keldeo has Rain Dance, sun should be less intimidating.

Good Luck!

 

[GCSChris]

side note

I don't look for teams to search, usually, but if you want a rate don't be shy to ask!

So I didn't get a request, but I've seen you lurking enough that I wanted to rate your team! :)

So this is standard HO (my favorite kind!) so I am more than happy to give a rate.

Firstly, sun teams look kinda challenging to beat (especially those sun stall kind; Bronzong + Venu + Cress looks so scary to face, doesn't it?). Additionally, LO Starmie is such a huge threat, but I feel that after you get hazards up and suicide Skarm (predict the switch to Mie and BRAVE BIRD THINGS) then Garchomp should lure it to Ice Beam i.e. baited and OHKO'd by Outrage. Still, it's a long shot so I am a bit worried. Volcarona also looks kinda intimidating (imagine +2 in sun!). CB Scizor is annoying as hell too since it gets a free switch and practically forces you to go into Keldeo, whittling it down with hazards + U-turn to put into priority kill range (which sucks!).

Anyway, otherwise this team is fairly solid.

1.) I like how Scarf Garchomp can be used to lure so many threats to the team that I don't even want to replace it for TTar, even though it's a good pick! (Luring Starmie and Latio@s makes them easier to pick off for the team due to the sheer surprise factor, but TTar is a good option so I'm not shunning it by any means). However, I still got threats to cover. I'm going to, firstly, suggest you remove HP Bug on Keldeo for Rain Dance, as sun teams are eager to sack Ninetales when they see you don't have a weather inducer (which helps immensely for beating these kinds of teams!).

2.) I'd change Gengar to @ShootinStarmie 's Focus Sash Gengar, but with HP Fire over Destiny Bond to eliminate the CB Scizor issue that is really glaring. On Latias, a bulkier spread of 112 Hp should suffice while still being a powerful pivot. It helps with Starmie + Sun much more as well. On Garchomp, Stone Edge over Dual Chop should cover Volcarona, and CB Scizor (as suggested by @ShootinStarmie) over Mamoswine should make dragons easier to beat while effectively removing Celebis everywhere. Now that Keldeo has Rain Dance, sun should be less intimidating.

Good Luck!

I definitely like hp fire over destiny bond, as usually rocks are up (no spinner), so focus sash does nothing most of the time, and that's ok, but not with destiny bond. Also I'll try stone edge over dual chop, as Volcarona is a threat. I also found ScarfChomp to be very good over t-tar as well. Thanks for the rate!

 

[alexwolf]

GCSChris you should really try out the Gengar set that ShootinStarmie posted, it is amazing for HO teams! Also, if you manage to keep SR off the field Gengar can check opposing Venusaur if you give it HP Fire instead of Thunder. You could also replace Keldeo for Rapid Spin +3 attacks LO Analytic Starmie, which is both an amazing wallbreaker and a good spinner, helping you keep Gengar's Focus Sash intact and helping CB Scizor (if you go with it) come in and out much easier. Good luck!

EDIT: Oh and definitely try to fit somewhere in ScarfChmop's moveset Stone Edge, otherwise Volcarona might be a huge bitch.

 

[Nysyr]

Gonna recommend you use a spread of 96 attack EVs, 160Spdef EVs, and 252 Speed EVs on Skarm.

This way Special Mixed Kyu-B Never OHKOs you thru sturdy turn 1.

 

[GCSChris]

My OU(Suspect) version of the team:

Suspect team

Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Analytic
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SDef
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin

Skarmory @ Custap Berry
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Taunt

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Roost

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Spear
- Earthquake
- Superpower

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Destiny Bond
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Stone Edge