My UU/NU team that wants a tune up

Note: I only play this team in standard, not UU. I've been using it for several months now, and has brought me quite a few wins. At first glance, it seems to be really awful, but each pokémon plays a very solid part. However, I am open to suggestions, as long as they aren't "dude you suck get scizor and blissey." I like to have functioning all uu/nu teams, and I intend to keep OUs out of them. For a while, my conservative rating estimate was around 1400 with this team.


Wailord (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Water Veil
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Hasty nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Water Spout
- Surf
- Selfdestruct
- Ice Beam

Probably the greatest success of this team. It's almost my calling card, as I have never seen anyone else lead in standard with a wailord (note: I recently changed my shoddy screen name). It is not exactly unpredictable, but people constantly underestimate it. It 2hkos SR metagross and swampert leads with water spout, can take a stone edge from aerodactyl and 2 shot with surf, or simply blow up on anything else more threatening. It also 2hkos azelf, but that's less helpful since it is faster and usually explodes anyway. Additionally, if the opponent switches, they're screwed. Once someone switched out Electivire and brought in zapdos, which is 2hkoed and slower because of scarf, then brought electivire back in and I got a crit. So basically what I'm saying here is that it's not wailord who needs fixin'.
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Nidoqueen (F) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Poison Point
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/6 Def
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Roar
- Earthquake
- Thunderpunch
- Ice Punch

This is one of the open spots. a while ago I put nidoqueen in instead of a 252hp/128def/128spdef beedrill running toxic, poison jab, protect, and U-turn. You can guess that it was a beneficial switch. Nidoqueen functions as basically a tank. It has a lot of resistances that help out the rest of the team, and carries the only electric attack and the only ground attack. It can also sometimes get ddancing gyaras and mences because they predict a switch, but I hit them for 4x with the punches and (without intimidate) usually ohko's. Now, obviously I am going to want to remake some of the rest of the team to allow nidoqueen to shine more on her own, maybe with the addition of stealth rock somewhere in there. I'm open to suggestions of ways to improve her or possibly replace her, but I feel like she fills a niche that is hard to replicate exactly with another pokemon, especially on this team.
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Houndoom (M) @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot

This was also a more recent addition; it replaced Delcatty @ petaya berry calm mind / substitute / thunderbolt / ice beam. Delcatty was a failed experiment, evident in the fact that 6 spatk boosted ice beam only does 34% to Dusknoir (or something around that) which is really saddening. Houndoom does wonders for fire types because otherwise they completely tear through this team, Then I can set up and with one or two nasty plots, houndoom is a weapon. It has been working relatively well so far, and is also my only 100% reliable bp scizor counter.
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Bellossom (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 158 HP/100 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Sunny Day
- Substitute
- Solarbeam
- Sleep Powder

I love bellossom, but honestly it has got to go. This set is usually good for taking out one pokemon and then kind of just doing nothing. one on one it kills things remarkably well, but if they have a dragon/flying, crobat, or (god forbid) blissey, it becomes really useless. Bellossom is awesome (and its name rhymes with awesome) and takes ice beams like a monster, but really doesn't do much else. So I think I either need a new special wall or I need to change its moveset. It's kinda sorta against my principles to use leech seed because it's literally impossible to put leech seed on oddish unless you have a time machine, so I can't use that. The thing is, it needs to be relatively invincible like bellossom usually is (152hp/0spdef = 66% LO starmie's ice beam wewt) and still able to kill stuff.
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Absol (M) @ Scope Lens
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Naughty nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Night Slash
- Fire Blast

Absol rocks even if it is sort of overused for underused. This set relies a little on hax, but usually gets the job done. Fire blast always seems to surprise people who send in skarmory/scizor/forretress to try to wall/kill/wall me. night slash and sucker punch seems a little repetitive, but the difference helps when you have to take out a ddanced LO mence at 50% that just destroyed half your team and then a blissey. Absol works well as both a sweeper stopper (tied most powerful priority move in the game) and a revenge killer. i could maybe drop sd as I don't use it very often, but it can come in handy against curselax because of my super duper ridiculous crit chances.
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Pinsir (M) @ Salac Berry
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 Atk/6 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Endure
- Swords Dance
- X-Scissor
- Close Combat

I basically ripped this set from the only plausible kricketune set, it is just lots better because pinsir doesn't suck as badly as kricketune. I come in on something I can sd on, then endure for salac and sweep with the amazing coverage of bug/fighting. Unbelievably, this set does a lot of damage. I've taken out gyara's and mences before with max sd. If I set up all the way, it really just goes on a killing spree.there are a couple of problems though. Pinsir can't really kill much with the afore-mentioned bug and fighting move combination. It also isn't a team player, due to its lack of ability to switch in to anything except weak fighting/earthquakes, and stealth rock isn't happy times either. Basically I need a poke with the same type of coverage (i mean the fighting move, not the terrible bug fight combo) like hitmonlee or something, that won't die all the time.
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In all honesty, I don't really know how I win. Probably prediction and surprise. I take advantage of other people's mistakes that they make because they have absolutely no idea what my pokémon are going to do. It'd be great to get any suggestions for ways to better the team, specifically in the bellossom/pinsir area, but again, don't tell me I need OUs because I obviously don't. thanks!
 
First change Bellossom for Tangrowth. Mojonbo should do, since it also puts a pokemon asleep.
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/tangrowth - First set.

Next swap Nidoqueen for Chansey or Clefable.
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/chansey - Either set.
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/clefable - Blissey weight lost.

Another thing you might wanna do is change Pinsir for a ground type, since after removing Nidoqueen you lose the ability of switching in on a Electric type move and i suggest Dugtrio to take that job. It is a brilliant revenge killer, and will help you out alot, killing the opponent's special walls, getting ready for a sweep from Houndoom.
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/dugtrio - Revenge is good.

I hope i helped, LucasFTW.
 
First change Bellossom for Tangrowth. Mojonbo should do, since it also puts a pokemon asleep.
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/tangrowth - First set.

Next swap Nidoqueen for Chansey or Clefable.
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/chansey - Either set.
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/clefable - Blissey weight lost.

Another thing you might wanna do is change Pinsir for a ground type, since after removing Nidoqueen you lose the ability of switching in on a Electric type move and i suggest Dugtrio to take that job. It is a brilliant revenge killer, and will help you out alot, killing the opponent's special walls, getting ready for a sweep from Houndoom.
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/dugtrio - Revenge is good.

I hope i helped, LucasFTW.

You did read what he first said, right?
Note: I only play this team in standard, not UU.

Therefore options such as Blissey and Celebi should be considered over Chansey and Tangrowth. I say this because a team of zero OUs being used in OU will have an incredibly hard time achieving any great feats.

EDIT: If you are so sure that your zero-OU team can take out the common OU threats you will face by playing standard, can you post a threat list explaining how each threat is dealt with? Using UU/NU pokes because they are powerful and cover a unique combination of OU threats is good. Using all UU/NU pokes simply for the sake of using all UU/NU pokes is bad. Alternatively, you could just use this team in UU instead since it will fare much better there.
 
You did read what he first said, right?


Therefore options such as Blissey and Celebi should be considered over Chansey and Tangrowth. I say this because a team of zero OUs being used in OU will have an incredibly hard time achieving any great feats.

EDIT: If you are so sure that your zero-OU team can take out the common OU threats you will face by playing standard, can you post a threat list explaining how each threat is dealt with? Using UU/NU pokes because they are powerful and cover a unique combination of OU threats is good. Using all UU/NU pokes simply for the sake of using all UU/NU pokes is bad. Alternatively, you could just use this team in UU instead since it will fare much better there.


you take pokemon too seriously.

i would advise using a jumpluff, with a subseed set.

jumpluff
chlorophyll
188 def/ 68 spdef/ 252 spe

encore
substitute
leech seed
sleep powder


i use an nu team, and i cannot tell you how many times i get swept in ou and am down 6-1 or 5-1 and win because jumpluff simply owns. 350 speed, and beats sunny day teams cause of chlorophyll.

this should replace your bellossom.



i might suggest a weezing to replace your nidoqueen, because its psychic weakness is covered by your houndoom, plus haze can really come in handy when you are facing a curselax and you're like 'lolwtf do i do now?'

i'm not an experienced weezing user, so i won't make any definite reccomendations for a set, but he seems to really have good synergy for your team. here's his smogon page: http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/weezing


good luck!
 
Alright, I did some switching for testing. Right now I have the all special weezing set replacing nidoqueen, Bellossom reworked as a wall (252 def, 100 spatk, 156 hp energy ball HP fire sleep powder toxic) and Sandslash @ lefties 252 atk 252 hp stealth rocks rapid spin EQ stone edge replacing pinsir. I haven't battled a ton yet, but I know already that I need to replace sandslash/pinsir with a sweeper. I got destroyed twice already by ddancing ttars, which pinsir can one shot under the condition that it actually gets an attack off before dying horribly to stone edge. Weezing is a little sub-par in terms of doing damage and taking special hits, but it takes physical hits well (obviously). I might switch up the set at some point. Bellossom increased its usefulness by about 20% from the previous set, but still kind of leaves something to be desired; however, it is no longer my weakest link. Now what I need is something to replace sandslash/pinsir. It should probably be immune, or at least resistant to electric, but doesn't necessarily have to be.

P.S. I just 6-0ed an all OU team. makes you feel good.
 
Houndoom is not at all a BP Scizor counter. Point of fact this team has no real scizor counter at all. BP will dent or outright ko everything you have (your counter is outright ko'd).

Taunt Gyarados is an almost auto win against this team provided nidoqueen isn't nearly at full health

You have no infernape switch in at all. If it gets in on anything not wailord. Look to lose a mon anytime it gets in safely.

Your Nidoqueen needs to be relaxed to help counter lucario (which is its main selling point)

Item choices and move selections leave room to be desired (sub petaya + flamethrower on your BP Scizor counter, and Scope Lens on your Absol instead of life orb)

You shouldn't be beating a pure stall team with those sweepers either as a very common physical wall simply will not lose to pinsir and that houndoom cannot beat a blissey even with fire blast and a life orb. On top of that, absol is pretty outclassed as a damage dealer/ sweeper in OU.
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What I'm trying to say is that this team should not function in the OU environment well at all. Not only are some selections in moves and items questionable, but the fact that you are using six UU's for the sake of not using OU's is dooming you from the get go. Im not saying run 6 cliche pokemon by any means. However, I think you should look at some good rmt's in the archive to get a feel for some good OU synergies, work with some combinations of effective pokemon and go from their.
 
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