Team Cain [OU]

[Jedgi]

First I need to point this out that this is not my team. This team was constructed by my friend, Cain, I am just submitting it for him. The commentary in blue was done by him, anything in red was done by me.

An preview...

While this team has not been tested on the ladders of Smogon, it has been around many sites and truly has wrecked and crushed almost all opposition. With a winning rate of over 90% in the hands of Cain, this team is a force to be reckoned with. Now, let's begin with...

"Lead/Physical Defensive:
Metagross (Ragnarok)
Type: Steel/Psychic
Nature: Adamant
EV: 252 Att, 129 Def, 129 HP
Ability: Clear Body
Item: Lum Berry
-Bullet Punch
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Explosion

This is my lead but it also can double as a physical sponge if needed. The main idea is to get SR down as quick as possible. Pretty standard. With high defense it can take most all EQ's thrown at it and Lum soaks up status. Its main fear is fire, but Vaporeon and Heatran and to a lesser extent Salamence that are also on this team do a good job of protecting it from that. I like to keep it alive as long as possible, its priority move is a great asset to the team. But in dire situations or to stop a sweep, Explosion can be used to turn the tides."
The great Metagross lead, bulky enough to set up stealth rock, strong enough to pack a punch when it's done. Simple and powerful make the perfect combination to create this lead.

"Physical Sweeper/Sleep Inducer:
Breloom (Morpheus)
Type: Grass/Fighting
Nature: Jolly
EV: 252 Att, 252 Spd, 4 Def
Ability: Poison Heal
Item: Toxic Orb
-Focus Punch
-Spore
-Substitute
-Seed Bomb

Perhaps the most feared Pokemon in my lineup, Morpheus alone has won me more battles then any single Pokemon. Most people favor an Adamant Breloom; I do not. For this Breloom the most crucial stat is speed. If Breloom has the speed to set up spore and a sub there's almost no stopping it. 359 attack score is more then enough to get the job done with FP and seed bomb from behind a sub and sleep status. I use Seed Bomb over Leech Seed mainly for dealing with Ghosts. You may think that Gengar would still have an easy time, but Seed Bomb can do a good amount of damage to it as well.

"Physical Sweeper/Revenge Killer:
Salamence (Zangetsu)
Type: Dragon/Flying
Nature: Naughty[typo] corrected to Naive
EV: 252 Att, 252 Spd, 4 HP
Ability: Intimidate
Item: Choice Scarf
-Outrage
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake
-Fire Blast

I hardly have to use FB though as its mainly for skarm and scizor. This Pokemon is meant as a revenge killer. Very fast, very strong. The strategy is fairly self explanatory.

In essence Salamence is the glue of this team, it cleans up everything with it's choice scarfed speed. Outrage was chosen over dragon claw here is because revenge killers enjoy power, and outrage has more power than dragon claw. When you take into a account they would be switching after they see outrage, you're talking about at most one free attack on Salamence, who probably has more than capable defenses as long as it isn't an ice attack. And most steel pokemon who resist outrage aren't running that many ice attacks.

"Special Defensive/Support:
Vaporeon (Marumasa)
Type: Water
Nature: Bold
EV: 252 HP, 184 Def, 68 Sp Def
Ability: Water Absorb
Item: Leftovers
-Surf
-Toxic
-Wish
-Protect

I listed it as special defensive but it really can take hits from both sides of the spectrum. The main strategy with this is to toxic stall. Wish and Protect combo help greatly with that. It also passes Wishes to the rest of my team should they need them. A very tough little Pokemon."

"
Special Sweeper:
Gengar (Erebus)
Type: Ghost/Poison
Nature: Timid
EV: 252 Sp Att, 252 Spd, 4 HP
Ability: Levitate
Item: Life Orb
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Focus Blast
-Destiny Bond

This guy was added to my team to deal with threats from Pokemon like Lucario. A swords dance life orb Lucario had the ability to rip up my entire team at one point. Not anymore. Gengar can stop it with Focus Blast or if it wants to be safe it can try Destiny Bond to end the sweep. All in all this guy wasn't built to stick around too long. Life Orb adds to the punch it can deliver while its in play. Then when its health is low it can try and use Destiny Bond to take one more Pokemon down with it."

"Special Sweeper:
Heatran (Amaterasu)
Type: Fire/Steel
Nature: Timid
EV: 252 Sp Att, 252 Spd, 4 HP
Ability: Flash Fire
Item: Shuca Berry
-Flamethrower
-Dragon Pulse
-Earth Power
-Taunt

A great addition to the team due to his typing which compliments the rest of the group quite well. The ability to Taunt is helpful to the rest of the team, the rest of its attacks are rather straight forward. Timid makes it fast enough to still out speed some key competition, though its not too terrible since Heatran certainly can take a hit."

Threat list coming in the next post.

 

[Jedgi]

Offensive Threat List

Aerodactyl: Metagross, Vaporeon, Salamence revenge kill. Aerodactyl is no threat,

Alakazam: Salamence can outspeed it with the scarf and destroy it with outrage.

Azelf: See above.

Breloom: Heatran, Salamence fire blast.

Dragonite: Salamence, enough said.

Electivire: Really anything, but Vaporeon.

Empoleon: Gengar, Breloom, Metagross.

Flygon: Salamence.

Gengar: Salamence except choice scarf version. Heatran can take a ghost ball or t-bolt or anything except focus blast if it's choiced as it comes in, then it can KO it with flamethrower.

Gyarados: Metagross can explode or Gengar can tbolt.

Heatran: Heatran or Sala.

Zapdos: Heatran can take a hit then flamethrower it. Salamence can hit it with an outrage, or, if defensively bulky, a fire blast. Metagross can explode, etc.

More to come later if you guys have any specific ones you want me to explain how to counter.

 

[Aeroblacktyl]

Omg...you're giong to have a fucking hell of a time facing DDMence. It doesn't even need Outrage to outright rape you. DC+EQ+FB will do the job alone. The best you can hope for is a speed tie with your own Mence. Honestly, just put Ice Beam over Toxic on Vaporeon. This is a highly offensive team anyways so you're not going to stall much with Vaporeon, other than other Vaporeons, whom the rest of your team does fine again.

You could also attempt to go with Scarf Gengar instead, and then slap Life Orb on your Salamence and try your own DD'er, put them into trouble, or just a Mix attacker.

 

[franky]

Problems:

Taunt DD Gyarados (mild)
Moveslot

How to fix:

I'm going straight to the point and say this team is actually pretty good. Scarf Salamence is excellent, I used it alot in the past and it can give some surprises. Well anyways, the glaring weakness to DD Gyarados with Taunt. Although Metagross has Explosion, a good player would essentially switch out to a ghost-type, therefore the explosion would be futile. Vaporeon is a great counter but with Taunt shutting down Toxic, you have nothing to check it. Hidden Power Electric for Toxic would benefit the team more, helping stop a potential Gyarados spree. Other than that, it's actually a pretty solid team. Add Naive on Salamence to speed tie with opposing Salamence and check it better.

Other noteworthy things you might want to fix is Explosion on both Heatran and Gengar. Replace its nature to Naive and replace Destiny Bond for Explosion. Explosion is still capable of taking pokemon down like Destiny bond and take a chunk out of blissey. The same goes for Heatran, Naive Nature and Explosion for Taunt. Fire Blast for Flamethrower, which can take better hits on Scarf Latias trying to come in on your attacks. Explosion essentially gives you stall-breaking and removing blissey.

 

[Jedgi]

Omg...you're giong to have a fucking hell of a time facing DDMence. It doesn't even need Outrage to outright rape you. DC+EQ+FB will do the job alone. The best you can hope for is a speed tie with your own Mence. Honestly, just put Ice Beam over Toxic on Vaporeon. This is a highly offensive team anyways so you're not going to stall much with Vaporeon, other than other Vaporeons, whom the rest of your team does fine again.

You could also attempt to go with Scarf Gengar instead, and then slap Life Orb on your Salamence and try your own DD'er, put them into trouble, or just a Mix attacker.

Most DD mence are going to have a Naughty or Adamant nature, not a speed nature, so it is most likely a speed tie. Although I see where you are coming from and I'll suggest the ice beam over toxic to him along with the scarf gengar and orb sala.

Oops, just realised naughty meant to type naive.

Problems:

Taunt DD Gyarados (mild)
Moveslot

How to fix:

I'm going straight to the point and say this team is actually pretty good. Scarf Salamence is excellent, I used it alot in the past and it can give some surprises. Well anyways, the glaring weakness to DD Gyarados with Taunt. Although Metagross has Explosion, a good player would essentially switch out to a ghost-type, therefore the explosion would be futile. Vaporeon is a great counter but with Taunt shutting down Toxic, you have nothing to check it. Hidden Power Electric for Toxic would benefit the team more, helping stop a potential Gyarados spree. Other than that, it's actually a pretty solid team. Add Naive on Salamence to speed tie with opposing Salamence and check it better.

Other noteworthy things you might want to fix is Explosion on both Heatran and Gengar. Replace its nature to Naive and replace Destiny Bond for Explosion. Explosion is still capable of taking pokemon down like Destiny bond and take a chunk out of blissey. The same goes for Heatran, Naive Nature and Explosion for Taunt. Fire Blast for Flamethrower, which can take better hits on Scarf Latias trying to come in on your attacks. Explosion essentially gives you stall-breaking and removing blissey.
__________________

Awesome advice in the second half, but I'm confused how taunt Gyara stops the team. It most likely has DD, taunt, Waterfall, Icefang/Earthquake, with only two moves it can be walled fairly easily. With Earthquake Salamence walls it specially because of intimidate, and with ice fang vaporeon walls it and creates a stalemate, and metagross isn't afraid to switch in. Same scenario with bounce.

 

[franky]

Awesome advice in the second half, but I'm confused how taunt Gyara stops the team. It most likely has DD, taunt, Waterfall, Icefang/Earthquake, with only two moves it can be walled fairly easily. With Earthquake Salamence walls it specially because of intimidate, and with ice fang vaporeon walls it and creates a stalemate, and metagross isn't afraid to switch in. Same scenario with bounce.

Most Taunt Gyarados carry Stone Edge / Waterfall.

 

[Jedgi]

Most Taunt Gyarados carry Stone Edge / Waterfall.

Oh, then you're right, XD. Well, Metagross still I think could take the hits if Gyara only had one DD, and the gyara would either switch out or eat an explosion. And people HATE to switch out of pokemon that have already set up.

 

[Jedgi]

Anymore suggestions?