LUCARIO SWEEP! SD Luke ftw

[Lightsabre]

Hey guys. It's been a while since my last RMT had any posters, so I figured it would be ok to start a new one. This team is focused around weakening SD Luke's counters and then letting him finnish them off. I've been laddering with it for a few days, and I've found a couple of weaknesses that I'd like to remove. So I'll post here for some help

I have 3 sections. this post will be the actual RMT. the next post will be the team building proccess. and then the last post will be a threat list.

Team at a glance
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In depth action​

Aerodactyl

Item: Focus Sash
Nature: Jolly
EVs:252ATK/6DEF/252SPEED​

Earthquake
Rockslide
Taunt
Stealth Rock​

Starting things off on the right foot, most of the time. Aerodactyl has his way with many common leads. He can usualy stop them from getting up Stealth Rock, and then set up some rocks of his own. His high speed makes him the fastest, bar scarf, lead that there is. The only lead he has problems with is ScarfRachi, but the only two times I've run into it I didn't get haxed, so I haven't fealt the force of that problem.​

Why Aerodactyl?
My team enjoys the ability to switch freely, which means SR needs to stay off the field. Aerodactyl is pretty much guaranteed to do that, unless taunt wears off the turn that he dies.​

I am currently testing Metagross in this spot, so Aerodactyl could be leaving the team soon. ​

Salamence

Item: Life Orb
Nature: Naive
16ATK/240SPATK/252SPEED​

Earthquake
Outrage
Draco Meteor
Fire Blast

Salamence is on the team to deal with various walls that attempt to get in my way. I used to have Latias in this spot, to get rid of DDmence, but after a rate from Snorlaxe I gave Salamence a go, and he hasn't let me down. With this guy I won't have to worry about Blisseys switching in, and very few pokemon can switch in without taking serious damage, which means Lucario can come in later and laugh at a seriously weakened team.

Why Salamence?

First of all, because he was suggested, but after some testing he has earned his keep. There are no more walls that can safely switch in, and anything not called a wall will just have to wait for a sacrifice. Salamence is not a sweeper on this team, and will not become one. He is here to blow holes in the opponents defense. I have been considering the old MixMence in this slot, and will willingly give it a go if someone suggests it.​

Flygon

Item: Choice Band
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 6HP/252ATK/252SPEED​

U-Turn
EarthQuake
Outrage
Stone Edge​

Flygon is my scout, and is very useful. Early game I almost always U-Turn out, no matter what my opponent is. Flygon also serves as my go to guy for predicted double switches or double KOs. I thought about Scizor here, and I'm still open to the idea, but for now Flygon holds a spot on my team.​

Why Flygon?
I needed a scout early on. someone who could U-Turn out without fear. At first I thought of scizor, but the low speed didn't apeal to me. Flygon was my second pick, and it's been doing well so far. Flygon's U-Turn makes for easier prediction, and Lucario resists all of his weaknesses, so Luke can make a good switch in.​

Tyranitar

Item: Choice Scarf
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 6HP/252ATK/252SPEED​

Pursuit
Stone Edge
Super Power
Crunch
Tyranitar has always been a force to be reckoned with. Lately ScarfTar has been a fad, so I thought I'd try it out. Tyranitar has helped against various Latias and Rotom. I'm having trouble deciding between Pursuit and crunch. Right now, I'm using Crunch, but I want imput on the pros and cons and basically which do you think is better?
EDIT: put pursuit>EQ since EQ+super power was redundant coverage​

Why TTar?
I used to have Jirachi in this spot, and I had a HUGE weakness to Rotom, and particularly Rotom H. TTar seemed like a good answer, and then I realized that 4/6 of my team(when including TTar) are immune to SS, so I fealt like he'd be a good match. TTar is probably my weak link, so if you have another option(has to beat rotom) then feel free to suggest it.​

Rotom-H

Item: Leftovers
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252HP/168DEF/90SPEED​

Shadow Ball
Discharge
Reflect
Overheat​

Rotom-H gives me a good amount of support, and a good switch-in to his various immunities. He's sort of a transition pokemon that I can go to when I need to stop a Scizor and then set up reflect. That's another problem though, Reflect or Will-O-Wisp; and by extention discharge or Thunderbolt? The first set is what I'm using right now, but imput would be nice.​

Why Rotom?
I needed someone to take fight-type attacks, and since Latias isn't really going to stay in there for a while, and can be easily walled once I use an attack, I chose Rotom.​

Lucario

Item: Life Orb
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 6HP/252ATK/252SPEED​

Swords Dance
Close Combat
Extreme Speed
Crunch​

SD Luke, the star of the team. With a Swords Dance under his belt he can, and has swept entire teams and left me with a 5-0 win. Lucario is the pokemon that the entire team is striving to set up, and he never disapoints. I do my majority of sweeping with Close Combat and Extreme Speed, so Crunch might be uneccisary; however, I don't feel like being walled by Rotom, so Crunch remains.​

Why Lucario?
Lucario was my favorite addition of the 4th Generation, and sits at number 2 on my list of favorite pokemon. Since Charizard(my number one favorite) can't do very well in OU, LUcario was the way to go​

That's my team. A lot of the synergies that I used to choose my pokemon will be explained in the Team Building section.​

 

[Lightsabre]

Team Building process

Team Building Process

I started out with the desire for a team that'll let SD Lucario show off its amazing powers, so naturally I needed Luke

I looked over his weaknesses, Fire, Ground, and Fight. Latias resists all of these, and already gives me a check to the biggest threat out there, known as Salamece.

Then I wanted a lead that would keep SR off the field, because this will be a Hyper Offense team, and therefore will be switching around a lot. I thought of ChoiceScarfJirachi, but in the end I went with Aerodactyl

OK. Now I need a scout. Something that'll let me check out threats on the opponents team. I looked at Scizor, but dropped him for the low speed. Then I found Flygon, and I was hooked.

Then I was stumped for a while. I thought of Heatran, since I've got three weak to ice, but I didn't think I needed another Scarfer. I mentioned the team to a friend of mine, Jiovaine11, and he asked me to give CM Jirachi a try

Then I noticed that I had an anoyying weakness to Fight Types once Latias went down, and since she's supposed to be pursuit bait, she'll be going down a lot. So I added Rotom-H

I played a couple of matches, but wasn't getting past opponents rotom-H, so I traded in the lack luster Jirachi for Choice Scarf TTar.

This is Version 1.0, but it has changed since then. After a rate from Snorlaxe, I have given MixMence a go, and he has earned his spot>Latias, so now the team is

Version 2.0 is ready to rate :)

Now you'll notice a couple of things. 1) No SR weakness of consequence(not really gonna be switching 'dactyl out much) 2) only 1 member of my team is effected by Toxic Spikes, and only two and effected by Spikes.
I also have a resistance to every type, and only 2 4X weaknesses.
Those facts are immportant to HO teams, as they allow for easier switching

 

[Lightsabre]

Threat List

I'll put my threat list in here. so you can see my big problems now

RestTalk Machamp can pretty much eliminate the entire team, and is my biggest threat as far as one single pokemon goes.

Baton Pass teams have swept me twice, so I'm having some problems with them

OK. I'm just going to take the top fifteen pokemon in the latest statistics for this.



Scizor- Go straight to Rotom. Overheat can kill, but I usualy set up a reflect first

TTar- Usualy comes in on Latias, and this is where I shout for joy and switch to Luke. Pursuit won't hit Lucario, and nobody in their right mind is keeping TTar in against Luke, which means a free SD.

Salamence- switch to Latias on the DD and proceed to launch a Draco Meteor

Heatran- TTAr can come in without worries, and Latias can take anything bar dragon pulse/HP[ice]

Latias- TTar is the definition of a latias counter

Rotom-a TTar can handle these guys really easily

Gyarados- Rotom comes in and set up reflect and then fires off discharges

Jirachi- see Gyarados, though Overheat might be used>discharge

Swampert- 'Pert could be trouble, but I haven't had too much trouble with it so far. leads are stopped from setting up by 'dactyl, though I usualy lose my lead with only SR up as a reqward

Lucario- Rotom can take a hit, latias can dent it with surf, and Flygon can KO with EQ

Infernape- Latias comes in and laughs. Rotom can also do well, but dies to a couple of fire blasts

Starmie- LO can run through me if I'm not careful, but Latias can take anything bar ice beam and deal a ton of damge via draco meteor

Blissey- Flygon for the immunity to thunder wave. pretty much everything lols at this

 

[I Abuse Smeargles]

Just a quick nit-pick... CB Mamoswine is going to have a FIELD DAY with your team the second Rotom goes down. This is the only thing I could see right off the bat.

I am not very good at fixing OU problems, as I am a NU player myself, but if you know any Mamoswine counters, feel free to add them to your team.

Here is the Rotom-H Picture you asked for.

Good luck!

 

[jc104]

Hello. This looks like a solid team. However, I think I can see a few simple changes that would imprive it further.

First of all, I would suggest you slightly change your Moveset for ScarfTar. ScarfTar usually wants both Crunch and Pursuit. Crunch is necessary for some KOs, but pursuit is geat for when Rotom/Latias is locked into Trick or something. It seems to me as though both EQ and Superpower are doing the same job. I would replace Earthquake if I were you, since Superpower is necessary for dealing with DDtar.

Band Flygon seems kind of unnecessary for your team; three choice users is a little excessive, giving too many free setups, and it adds to a serious ice weakness. What you really need at the moment is to be able to remove or weaken Gliscor, Salamence, Gyarados and Swampert, who are obstacles to a lucario sweep along with some scarfers such as Heatran, Magnezone and Tyranitar (Rotom being dealt with). I usually find this best way to do this is to run bait or trapper sets. Flygon itself can run such a set running Haban berry. It should run Earthquake and U-turn, but the last 2 slots can be used to kill various different pokemon. Ice punch is an option to nail Salamence and Gliscor (edit - no it isn't - Flygon gets thunder and fire punches but not ice for some reason), but misses out on Gyarados. Stone Edge works well but misses out against Gliscor. Outrage is a powerful option, and Fire Blast can be used to hit Skarm/Forry.

Trapper Heatran is a great way to remove Swampert, and would cover your ice weakness well.

Just a few ideas. Good luck.

 

[Lightsabre]

Just a quick nit-pick... CB Mamoswine is going to have a FIELD DAY with your team the second Rotom goes down. This is the only thing I could see right off the bat.

I am not very good at fixing OU problems, as I am a NU player myself, but if you know any Mamoswine counters, feel free to add them to your team.

Here is the Rotom-H Picture you asked for.

Good luck!

Thanks for the picture. CB Mamoswine is extremely rare, and if it does show up then I can usualy play around it with its locked move.

Hello. This looks like a solid team. However, I think I can see a few simple changes that would imprive it further.

First of all, I would suggest you slightly change your Moveset for ScarfTar. ScarfTar usually wants both Crunch and Pursuit. Crunch is necessary for some KOs, but pursuit is geat for when Rotom/Latias is locked into Trick or something. It seems to me as though both EQ and Superpower are doing the same job. I would replace Earthquake if I were you, since Superpower is necessary for dealing with DDtar.

OK. I'll try that.
Band Flygon seems kind of unnecessary for your team; three choice users is a little excessive, giving too many free setups, and it adds to a serious ice weakness. What you really need at the moment is to be able to remove or weaken Gliscor, Salamence, Gyarados and Swampert, who are obstacles to a lucario sweep along with some scarfers such as Heatran, Magnezone and Tyranitar (Rotom being dealt with). I usually find this best way to do this is to run bait or trapper sets. Flygon itself can run such a set running Haban berry. It should run Earthquake and U-turn, but the last 2 slots can be used to kill various different pokemon. Ice punch is an option to nail Salamence and Gliscor, but misses out on Gyarados. Stone Edge works well but misses out against Gliscor. Outrage is a powerful option, and Fire Blast can be used to hit Skarm/Forry.


Trapper Heatran is a great way to remove Swampert, and would cover your ice weakness well.

hmm. baitGon. How well does that play. I can see it helping somewhat. And the heatran sounds interensting. I'll give both a try
Just a few ideas. Good luck.

Thanks guys. keep the rates coming :)

 

[Snorlaxe]

hello!

very cool team, it looks like it can set up a lucario sweep relatively easily, but there are a few things i would try if i were you. first, i think that you may want to try a mixed salamence set in place of your latias. while latias is useful for revenge killing pokemon like dragon dance salamence, your team really doesn't give salamence many places to set up. also, the only other notable pokemon that latias takes care of for your team is dragon dance gyarados, who is handled wonderfully by rotom-h. i know that you use latias as pursuit bait to give lucario an opportunity to set up, but that is a pretty risky strategy. mixed salamence is cool as it can smash physical walls like swampert that often easily switch in on salamence right away expecting a dragon dancer with an STAB draco meteor. it can take out some physical walls early in the game, which can only be good for your physical attackers.

alright, on rotom-h, you seem to be having a bit of a problem deciding on which moves to use. personally, i would go with discharge over thunderbolt, and reflect over will-o-wisp. here's why: discharge is almost as powerful as thunderbolt is, but it also comes with a nice 30% paralysis rate. this can make it easier for lucario to set up a sweep in the long run, as paralyzed pokemon will not be able to keep up with its attacks as easily. i would use reflect over will-o-wisp for a few reasons. firstly, will-o-wisp can be a dangerous move on rotom-h, as you run the risk of giving heatran switching in a flash fire boost. reflect also supports your entire team, and will half the damage done by all of your opponents physical attackers, not just the burned ones. also, since reflect doesn't status your opponents pokemon, they can still be paralyzed from discharge. overall i think that these moves would better support your team, but its your call.

on flygon i would definitely use stone edge over crunch. crunch is kinda redundant on flygon in my opinion, as really the only notable pokemon it hits are rotom-a and gengar, who cant switch in on an outrage anyway. stone edge allows you to hit gyarados and zapdos, which is great because those two pokemon look like they could actually be slightly troublesome for your team. also, i would use stone edge over crunch on lucario as well (weird huh). stone edge allows lucario to break past any gyarados or zapdos that survived your team's onslaughts. also, crunch is generally used primarily on jolly lucario, as it can outspeed maximum speed rotom-h. since your lucario is adamant natured however, the need for crunch is greatly reduced.

hope i helped, and good luck. let me know if you have any questions pertaining to my suggestions! ;)

 

[Lightsabre]

hello!

very cool team, it looks like it can set up a lucario sweep relatively easily, but there are a few things i would try if i were you. first, i think that you may want to try a mixed salamence set in place of your latias. while latias is useful for revenge killing pokemon like dragon dance salamence, your team really doesn't give salamence many places to set up. also, the only other notable pokemon that latias takes care of for your team is dragon dance gyarados, who is handled wonderfully by rotom-h. i know that you use latias as pursuit bait to give lucario an opportunity to set up, but that is a pretty risky strategy. mixed salamence is cool as it can smash physical walls like swampert that often easily switch in on salamence right away expecting a dragon dancer with an STAB draco meteor. it can take out some physical walls early in the game, which can only be good for your physical attackers.

OK. Mixmence sounds decent. I'll give it a shot.

alright, on rotom-h, you seem to be having a bit of a problem deciding on which moves to use. personally, i would go with discharge over thunderbolt, and reflect over will-o-wisp. here's why: discharge is almost as powerful as thunderbolt is, but it also comes with a nice 30% paralysis rate. this can make it easier for lucario to set up a sweep in the long run, as paralyzed pokemon will not be able to keep up with its attacks as easily. i would use reflect over will-o-wisp for a few reasons. firstly, will-o-wisp can be a dangerous move on rotom-h, as you run the risk of giving heatran switching in a flash fire boost. reflect also supports your entire team, and will half the damage done by all of your opponents physical attackers, not just the burned ones. also, since reflect doesn't status your opponents pokemon, they can still be paralyzed from discharge. overall i think that these moves would better support your team, but its your call.

thanks
on flygon i would definitely use stone edge over crunch. crunch is kinda redundant on flygon in my opinion, as really the only notable pokemon it hits are rotom-a and gengar, who cant switch in on an outrage anyway. stone edge allows you to hit gyarados and zapdos, which is great because those two pokemon look like they could actually be slightly troublesome for your team. also, i would use stone edge over crunch on lucario as well (weird huh). stone edge allows lucario to break past any gyarados or zapdos that survived your team's onslaughts. also, crunch is generally used primarily on jolly lucario, as it can outspeed maximum speed rotom-h. since your lucario is adamant natured however, the need for crunch is greatly reduced.


ok, I'll answer this in two parts: Flygon part. I have enjoyed SE on this and will keep it.

Lucario: It might've just been my bad luck, but the instant I took this advise every team I faced ssemed to have a Duskinoir or bulky Rotom. I miss my Crunch OKOH :/ I'll keep crunch in this case
hope i helped, and good luck. let me know if you have any questions pertaining to my suggestions! ;)

thanks for all the help. other people- feel free to rate. I've had ~420 view and 3 replies :/

 

[frogbandit]

Hi,

Solid teams, only a few suggestions here and there. First, I'll try to answer the Will-o-wisp/Reflect question. I don't see a lot of advantages of using Will-o-wisp compared to Reflect, it doesn't seem to help Lucario as much. Will-o-wisp can hit Lucario's best counter, Gliscor, hard and let it survive an Earthquake IIRC, but since your carrying crunch I don't think you'll be able to do anything back. Will-o-wisp can cripple Tyranitar if it tries to switch into Rotom, but again you can't do anything back. Reflect can be useful against all physical attackers and will probably help Lucario more.

I don't think Machamp should be that much of a problem to this team. Rotom-H is immune to its DynamicPunch, and can set up Reflect as it tries to Payback. Because of its slow speed, it shouldn't be very hard to revenge kill with Latias or Flygon. To help for your Starmie weakness, I'd suggest trying out Thunderbolt in place of Dragon Pulse. It gives better type coverage which you might need.

Thats all i have, so gl with the team

 

[Lightsabre]

Hi,

Solid teams, only a few suggestions here and there. First, I'll try to answer the Will-o-wisp/Reflect question. I don't see a lot of advantages of using Will-o-wisp compared to Reflect, it doesn't seem to help Lucario as much. Will-o-wisp can hit Lucario's best counter, Gliscor, hard and let it survive an Earthquake IIRC, but since your carrying crunch I don't think you'll be able to do anything back. Will-o-wisp can cripple Tyranitar if it tries to switch into Rotom, but again you can't do anything back. Reflect can be useful against all physical attackers and will probably help Lucario more.


ok. I'll stick with reflect then. thanks
I don't think Machamp should be that much of a problem to this team. Rotom-H is immune to its DynamicPunch, and can set up Reflect as it tries to Payback. Because of its slow speed, it shouldn't be very hard to revenge kill with Latias or Flygon. To help for your Starmie weakness, I'd suggest trying out Thunderbolt in place of Dragon Pulse. It gives better type coverage which you might need.

well, I would follow this advise except I'm currently testing Salamence in Latias's spot

Thats all i have, so gl with the team

thanks for the rate. I've been testing salamence, and it's been working pretty well. I haven't run into a DD mence yet, so idk how well my team handles it now. thats all I have to say for now. keep the rates coming

 

[SCV058]

I don't know how good I would be at this...but here goes.
When I've used SD Lucario, I personally have used Azelf. Azelf can set up Light Screen since you have Reflect, avoid Ground and Fighting attacks, and fire back at Machamp, possible one of the biggest threats.

The only other thing I might say is switch Latias for a Scarf Starmie, to deal with Ground, and to Revenge Kill Dragon-type Pokemon and Machamp.

 

[animenagai]

How is this team based around a luke sweep? The most common luke counters are scarftran, gyara, gliscor, zapdos, gengar and scarfed rotom. Your T-tar can trap the 2 ghosts but you don't really have a way of luring the other 4. Considering that 3 of them often carry healing moves such as roost or rest, I can't see how this team can systematically set up for a luke sweep.

I believe the best and easiest fix would be to replace aerodactyl with metagross and give luke stone edge > crunch. Let's get one thing straight, this is NOT a heavy offence team. HO by its nature runs frail but fast pokes that require smart suicide plays to set up sweeps. This is bulky offence which requires more prediction and switching. Aero does not work as a lead for you because your team is pretty bulky and your lead doesn't fit with the pace of bulky offence. Metagross would. More importantly, it gives you another dragon resist as well as a lure for luke counters. With metagross you can explode or trick a scarf on gliscor as a lead on the very first turn, as most gliscors are leads. Getting rid of probably the most annoying luke counter in the game. If you make the change to stone edge on luke your new gameplan would look like this:

If your opponent's luke counter is...

Gyara: SD + stone edge kills it.
Rotom: Dodge the WOW and use T-tar to crunch it (it usually stays in, thinking that it's faster and can WOW)
Zapdos: See gyara
Gliscor: Usually a lead, so blow up/trick with gross on the first turn. Blowing up would probably be the better idea.
Mence: You can try to predict this one and stone edge it.
Heatran: Definitely the most annoying of the lot but it's also the one that doesn't run a recovery move so just save luke for late game while focusing on wearing this guy out.

Once your opponent's luke counter is gone, you can usually sweep. Even if they pack 2 of the above, it's not that difficult to kill 2 of them.

Hope I helped. Good luck.

 

[Lightsabre]

ScarfTran- TTar can stop this thing, and if it gets tricky and uses a hidden power, then it's an easy switch to Mence for the damage dealer.

Gyarados- switch straight to Rotom. it's a joke, and reflect with discharge= pain for him

Gliscor- Salamence switches in on the EQ, or whatever happens with the lead.

Zapdos. TTar is one of this guys best counters

Gengar and Rotom-lol

as for the lead, I'll try the Metagross. I've been thinking about it, but I stuck with Aero so I could stop rocks from getting up. As for the SE vs Crunch issue, I've already tested it. everything that I could want to take out with SE is faster than me and OKOHing me, meanwhile now random Ghosts that I missed in the weakening stage can come in and wisp me, and my usefulness drops significantly, so I'm keeping crunch unless I get a few more people saying I should keep it.


in other news, Salamence is staying on the team, so I'll update the OP

 

[animenagai]

Dude, you don't get it. You have COUNTERS, not LURES. They can switch out. The point is not to let the game rest on a misplay by your opponent and have their luke counter die because of stupidity. Yeah, they bring in gyara, you bring in rotom, you think they're gonna keep that gyara there to be wasted by a t-bolt? The point is to PLAN the sweep and force the issue.

 

[CuddyBuddy]

You have a great team but I would go with a dual screen rotom just so that it is easier for your Lucario to set up. Also get Adamant Flygon (same moves and EV spread) but instead of CB, use choice scarf incase you need to outspeed-uturn. I don't know, thats just my opinion. Yours might be better. Other than that, this looks like a great team.