Sceptile Late Game Sweep

BreTran

This is my first RMT and after some experimenting with this team on shoddy I decided to post it on the RMT section for reviews.


At a Glance:

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In depth:

Lead

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EV's: 252Hp 164Atk 92SpD 19Spe IV
Ability: No Guard
Nature: Adamant
Item: Lum Berry
Moveset:

Dynamic Punch
Stone Edge
Payback
Substitute

Machamp works perfectly as a lead. I decided to drop encore for another attack move because i wanted more coverage and SR doesn't bother my team. Dynamic Punch is for STAB, SE is to hit aero's and gyara's, Payback takes care of azelf and starmie. Machamp not only acts as my lead, but also as a physical attacker when the need arises. Machamp is a good soldier and knows that sometimes I have to sacrifice him to win the game. I am though debating on whether or not to use BP instead of sub to finish off weakend pokes. Machamp always takes out 1-3 pokes before going down.

How i deal with other leads:

Aero: Stone Edge

Azelf: Payback 2HKO's meaning they will choose entry hazourds or taking out machamp

Gliscor: Switch to Suicune

Starmie: Take the scarf and proceed to KO it with Payback

Jirachi: Take the scarf and KO with Dynamic punch

Roserade: Take the sleep powder and set up a sub thanx to lum and dynamic punch it to death

Metagross: Dynamic Punch

Heatran: See Meta

T-Tar: See Meta

Nape: Go to rotom-h for the fake out and and 2HKO with t-bolt

Weavile: See Nape

Lucario: Go to Donphan

Dragonite: See Lucario

DEFENSE:

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EV's: 252Hp 188Atk 24Def 44Spe
Nature: Adamant
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:

Ice Shard
Earthquake
Protect
Stealth Rock

Now before you people tell me to use gliscor or bornzong, let me explain why i chose donphan, 1. Donphan has more atk than zong or gliscor 2. Donphan has higher hp than zong or gliscor 3. Donphan has a priority move. Donphan sets up the ever so important SR for my team. I decided not to run rapid spin becasue SR doesn't give my team problems. EQ is STAB and for coverage. Ice shard is for priority and to take down a weakend mence of flygon. Protect lets me scout the opponents move and switch to a appropriate counter. Donphan is capable of taking down an entire zapdos by himself, even if it carries hp grass. Donphan also acts as a physical wall on my team and sponges physical hits aimed at my sweepers.

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EV's: 252Hp 252Def 4Spe
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:

Substitute
Toxic
Surf
Calm Mind

Now some people may find this set weird, but to me this set works very well with my team because sub+toxic+pressured+leftovers+CM=Badass staller. Sub lets me take hits and also to toxic my opponents as well as fire off some CM's. Although vaporeon gives me problems, toxic and a sub is usually enough to force it to switch which gives me a free turn to CM. CB zors are litterally set up bait for me, a BP is not enough to break a sub which lets me CM once and thats already enough for me to 2HKO zor, assuming SR is in play. Suicune is my all around wall with its fantastic 100/115/115 defenses and acess to pressure and CM makes it all the harder to take him down. Suicune also provides great synergy with donphan because Suicune resists 2/3 of donphan's weaknesses.

Offense:

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EV's: 64Hp 252Spe 192SpA
Nature: Timid
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:

Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
Substitute
Wish

This is my wish passer as well as my main water type counter. t-bolt r@pes any water type that dare to switch in or stay in. Shadow ball keeps ghosts and latias in check. Sub lets me scout for atks and safely pass or use wishes on teammates/myself. Jolteon works great with suicune, by keeping suicune alive as well as taking some electric atk and gaining back hp. He keeps gyara at bay and he's also my favourite eveelution and he still lives up to that name.

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EV's: 4Hp 252Spe 252SpA
Nature: Timid
Item: Choice Scarf
Moveset:

Overheat
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
Trick

A pretty standard set. He blocks rapid spins, roasts scizors and celebis, attacks water types, owns gengar, and cripples walls. Yes this is simple but non the less i still love this set, because it takes care of all the pokes my jolt the rest of my team cant cover. Overheat lets me deal with scizor and breloom, who has been giving me team trouble up until now. With a choice scarf on he is a potent revenge killer checking big OU threats.

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EV's: 4Hp 252Atk 252Spe
Nature: Jolly
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:

Swords Dance
Leaf Blade
Earthquake
Dragon Claw

Here is the star of the show! Sceptile was my favourite poke but with the changing metagame i needed to use a different approach, so i decided to use and SD version. SD is for boosting my atk when i anticipate a switch from my opponent. Leaf Blade is for STAB and with an SD and overgrow boost leaf blade will OHKO any version of blissey. EQ takes care of fire types and lucario who usually stays around late game thinking they can get a free SD cuz they underestimate my Sceptile. EQ also hits T-Tar and Zone. Dragon claw will OKHO mence and will OHKO non-choiced scarf flygon. I used these moves to maximize coverage in OU.

END OF RMT
 
Reserved for threat list

Threat list:

Defensive Threats

Blissey - Machamp, maybe sceptile, donphan

Umbreon - Machamp

Bronzong - Rotom-h

Celebi - Rotom-h Jolteon

Cresselia - Rotom-h Jolteon Machamp

Forretress - Rotom-h, and Suicune set up.

Gliscor - Suicune

Tentacruel - Sceptile Jolteon Rotom-H Donphan

Dusknoir - Machamp Rotom-h Jolteon

Gyarados - Rotom-h Jolteon Machamp

Hippowdon - Suicune

Jirachi - Rotom-H Donphan Sceptile

Rotom-A - Rotom-h Jolteon Machamp

Skarmory - HRotom-h Jolteon

Snorlax - Sceptile Machamp

Suicune - Rotom-h Jolteon Sceptile

Swampert - Sceptile

Tyranitar - Sceptile Suicune Machamp Donphan

Vaporeon - Rotom-h Jolteon Sceptile

Zapdos - Machamp Donphan

Offensive Threats

Azelf - Machamp Rotom-h Jolteon

Breloom - Rotom-H

Gengar - Rotom-h Jolteon Machamp

Gyarados - Rotom-h Jolteon

Heatran - Suicune, Machamp

Dragonite - Suicune Donphan Sceptile after SD

Aerodactyl - Machamp DOnphan

Infernape - Suicune Donphan

Jolteon - Donphan

Ninjask - Donphan Suicune Machamp

Porygon-z - Machamp

Rhyperior - Suicune Machamp Sceptile Donphan

Smeargle - Donphan Machamp

Heracross - Rotom-H

Latias - Rotom-h Jolteon Machamp Sceptile

Kingdra - Rotom-h Jolteon zap it to death

Lucario - Rotom-H Sceptile

Machamp - Rotom-H if it doesnt carry payback Donphan

Magnezone - Donphan Machamp

Mamoswine - Machamp Rotom-h

Metagross - Machamp Rotom-h Sceptile

Salamence - Suicune, Machamp Sceptile Donphan

Electivire - Sceptile Donphan

Flygon - Donphan Suicune

Togekiss - Rotom-h Jolteon Machamp

Weavile - Machamp Rotom-h Jolteon Donphan

Scizor - Rotom-h Suicune

Starmie - Rotom-h Jolteon Sceptile

Tyranitar - Suicune Machamp Donphan Sceptile

Zapdos - Donphan Machamp

Alakazam - Rotom-h Jolteon
 
Wow....
I LOVE THE SUICUNE!
My only thought would be consider switching donphan for mamoswine
stab on ice shard, same moveset roughly
And you seem to be missing a tank with reliable recovery, jolteon is the only one with a recovery move...
 
ok thanx for the rate and thanx on the comment on suicune i too love its moveset ^_^
The only reason i didnt use mamo is because of its weakness to fire and ground which i dont like and besides donphan has worked better because i have tried mamo before donphan
 
Or that it's not interesting. LOL sorry it took me a while.

Okay first off Imma suggest that you not run SD Sceptile, as he's hugely outclassed in OU. Instead, I'd suggest Specstile with Leaf Storm / Grass Knot / Focus Blast (or Punch, if you can predict Blissey) / HP Ice.... this, in my opinion, is Sceptile's best set, and is probably the most useful in the OU environment. He can this way serve as another revenge-killer alongside Rotom, or you can unscarf Rotom and make him more bulky... but I think you're fine with Scarf and Specs, since Rotom likes to Trick its Scarf away.

Machamp is pretty decent, but I'd recommend dropping one of its non-STAB moves for Bullet Punch to finish off Sash leads.

I think you should swap Jolteon for Vaporeon. Vappy can fill all the roles that your Jolty wants to (counter Gyarados, pass Wish, pass Sub) better than his faster cousin can. It gets HP Electric for Gyarados, passes bulkier Subs, and is great at using Wish.

Try the following set with a regular bulky spread:
- Surf
- HP Electric
- Wish
- Protect

Or, if you still want to pass Substitute (IMO, not necessary), do this:
- HP Electric
- Sub
- Wish
- Protect
...yes, I know not having Water STAB is weird. But it still gets all these jobs done better than Jolty did, trust me.

Nothing much to add on the others... Good luck and see how that Vaporeon works out for you.
 
Banryu said:
Or that it's not interesting. LOL sorry it took me a while.

Okay first off Imma suggest that you not run SD Sceptile, as he's hugely outclassed in OU. Instead, I'd suggest Specstile with Leaf Storm / Grass Knot / Focus Blast (or Punch, if you can predict Blissey) / HP Ice.... this, in my opinion, is Sceptile's best set, and is probably the most useful in the OU environment. He can this way serve as another revenge-killer alongside Rotom, or you can unscarf Rotom and make him more bulky... but I think you're fine with Scarf and Specs, since Rotom likes to Trick its Scarf away.

Machamp is pretty decent, but I'd recommend dropping one of its non-STAB moves for Bullet Punch to finish off Sash leads.

I think you should swap Jolteon for Vaporeon. Vappy can fill all the roles that your Jolty wants to (counter Gyarados, pass Wish, pass Sub) better than his faster cousin can. It gets HP Electric for Gyarados, passes bulkier Subs, and is great at using Wish.

Try the following set with a regular bulky spread:
- Surf
- HP Electric
- Wish
- Protect

Or, if you still want to pass Substitute (IMO, not necessary), do this:
- HP Electric
- Sub
- Wish
- Protect
...yes, I know not having Water STAB is weird. But it still gets all these jobs done better than Jolty did, trust me.

Nothing much to add on the others... Good luck and see how that Vaporeon works out for you.
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Yeah... i tried Vappy and it didn't work out because everyone knows its set and the moves it carries, but jolteon worked better because of its high speed and unpredictablility. And for sceptile, i didnt want another special attacker, so can you suggest another physical Grass type thats not named breloom

@BlueEye: Thanx
 
I'm not quite sold on the suicune set. By which I mean I'm not sure if Leftovers is enough to stall.

Since you arn't investing in any Speed or Special Defense EVs, that means your opponent is going to hit you first. With the abundance of powerful electric pokes/moves in the metagame, you'll probably lose more than 50% health, at which point Putting up a substitute wouldn't be wise. Any other move at this point would also be futile, as they would just finish you off next turn because of your lack of speed.

Even if you were able to put up a successful Substitute, You still wouldn't be able to do much with it. It takes 4 turns of you not taking any damage and using Leftovers to account for the health it takes to set up 1 substitute. And if you plan on stalling, you are definitely gunna have to set up more than 1.

If you insist on keeping that moveset, I would change the EVs up a bit. try:

4 HP / 252 Def / 252 Speed

this allows for you to set up a lot easier thanks to your speed. Now you can set up CM's BEFORE getting hit, thus improving your stalling power.

If it were me, I would try and get rest in there somewhere. All great stallers have some sort of recovery move, and leftover's by itself isn't enough, especially when so many pokemon use it.

Hope that helps :)
 
A good UU sweeper over sceptile is toxicroak, toxicroak works much like lucario, but with the ability to use succer punch, which OHKO's gengar and rotom, and gives great coverage with cross chop. Toxicroak also has the ability dry skin which allows him to set up on water types. The I use poisen jab as it OHKO's gyrados, zapdos, and spiritomb. Who are potential threats to the set and stone edge has bad accuracy, and I don't like having 2 inaccurate moves on a sweeper.

But an OU sweeper, obviously the main one is lucario, the best sword dancer in OU by far. Scizor is also good and has more of a surprise factor. Then there are many dragon dancers, such as tyranitar, salamence, dragonite, kingdra and gyrados.

Hope i helped
 
I take it you read Smog #8 and saw the article about how Sceptile could be dangerous in the current metagame. :)

Anyways, I think that Donphan should run rapid spin not because of stealth rock but of spikes, which hit every member of this team except Rotom-H. Protect strikes me as the replaceable move here.

Thats actually it, lol... You really know the metagame, and this team, despite using UU, beats it. Good job.
 
george182 said:
But an OU sweeper, obviously the main one is lucario, the best sword dancer in OU by far.
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I was under the impression that Scizor was, but then again, that's just me.

Your team is pretty nice; I like the suprise factor with Sceptile. I would reccomend dropping Jolteon for Latias who can still wish-pass, but packs more bulk and/or more offence. As for Gyarados, Rotom-H should do it. with a scarf it should outspeed the overweight psuedo-dragon.

The fact that you are using Sceptile is not a problem, you just have to be sure to eliminate everything that gives it problems. sadly, that's alot.

*Rotom-H can overheat it and goes virtually unchallenged by your team.
*Infernape can force it to either switch or die due to Flare Blitz, Overheat, Flamethrower and Fire Blast.
*Swords Dance Scizor can use Bug Bite
*Anything that can use U-turn is a little bit of a problem. Most notebly Flygon and Scizor.

You mentioned that you wanted the name of any other swords dance grass type that wasn't brelloom. Ironicaly, Brelloom is what you'd want. It can also spore, focus punch, and other what-not.

Hope I was helpfull. I probably wasn't XD.
-Marble101
 
I would consider dropping Substitute for Bullet Punch to finish off leads with Focus Sash. (The main concern being Azelf, which would 2HKO Machamp with Psychic otherwise.)
 
Ok thanx for the help guys

@george182: i like the idea of Toxickroak, buts its lackeluster speed is why i chose scpetile over it even though it has SP but ill give it a go again

@Marble101: Latias! Why didnt i think of that! Thanx for that one, I'll try it out right away.

EDIT: Latias is tested and im gonna stick with jolt
 
Well most things have already been said but since you asked...

Their are better wish passers than jolteon. Jirachi is one and so is Vaporeon. Jolteon is too fragile for my taste to pass wish's especaily as Jirachi can do the same thing better. Also I too like the suicune set however have you tried the very similar Latias set over Suicune.
Substitute, CM, Recover, Dragon Pulse. Personally I like it as it gives greater longativity than your suicune but its an option. I also think that specsTile is bether than SDTile in OU. The main reason as other pokemon do it better than Tile as already pointed out

have a Nice Day!
 
ginganinja said:
Well most things have already been said but since you asked...

Their are better wish passers than jolteon. Jirachi is one and so is Vaporeon. Jolteon is too fragile for my taste to pass wish's especaily as Jirachi can do the same thing better. Also I too like the suicune set however have you tried the very similar Latias set over Suicune.
Substitute, CM, Recover, Dragon Pulse. Personally I like it as it gives greater longativity than your suicune but its an option. I also think that specsTile is bether than SDTile in OU. The main reason as other pokemon do it better than Tile as already pointed out

have a Nice Day!
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Thanx for the rate! I'll think about jirachi and latias was not chosen because it adds another T-tar/Scizor weakness to my team. Jirachi, though, not a bad idea
 
Your team is fairly easy to set up spikes on, which is a problem, so you may want to put Rapid Spin > Protect on Donphan and Assurance/Odor Sleuth > Ice Shard. Lets you spin away pesky spikes/toxic spikes that will wear down most of your team.
 
The problem with Sceptile is that it's complete Scizor bait. Scizor comes in and can UTurn with impunity, dealing nearly 50% to all of your pokemon while you can do nothing about it. Specially based Sceptile with HP Fire could solve this, especially if you run Protect to be a pseudo mysticGar. The set would be GK(or Leaf Storm), Dragon Pulse, HP Fire, Protect. You could run what Banryu posted and try to predict Blissey switches with FP if you wanted.
 
I would suggest changing your Machamp to the more offensive lead set:

Machamp @ Lum berry
Adamant 240hp 240atk 16spdef 12spe
-Dynamicpunch
-Payback
-Ice punch
-Bullet Punch

Bullet punch is to allow you to take out sashed leads like Azelf, Aerodactyl and Roserade. Ice punch is chosen over Stone Edge because it hits Gliscor the hardest and Roserade and Aerodactyl hard enough, though Stone Edge is still good for Gyarados and Zapdos. The Evs gurantee you to survive naive azelf'd psychic 100% of the time, whilst providing good attacking power, and enough speed to outrun most other Machamp (machamp has become so common that my 8 speed machamp is regularly outrun.)

Special sceptile as mentioned above is a true anti-metagame threat. Go for Timid 28hp 252spatk 228spe with a LO. This outruns Scarf Tyranitar, which is all you need considering how uncommon other Sceptile and Alakazam are. I would suggest Leaf Storm, Hp fire, Dragon Pulse, Protect. You must have either Leaf Storm or Focus Blast to prevent you from being destroyed by Tyranitar. HP Fire is necessary for Scizor, along with Protect to find out what it locks itslef into. The only other thing I should say about it is that its actually better as an early-game sweeper.

Your team is fairly easy to set up spikes on, which is a problem, so you may want to put Rapid Spin > Protect on Donphan and Assurance/Odor Sleuth > Ice Shard. Lets you spin away pesky spikes/toxic spikes that will wear down most of your team.
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This isn't true really. Common spikers like Skarmory dont much like Jolteon, Rotom, or even Sceptile and nothing likes setting up on Machamp. In fact, Donphan itself is the main setup bait, and since you don't have a huge entry hazards weakness, I would remove him.

As you don't have a steel type, you will have big problems with Dragons. Though Donphan packs ice shard, Mixmence and specs latias destroy your team with Draco meteor. I think your team would benefit from a Heatran to help deal with this:

Heatran @ Shuca berry
Naive 4hp 252spatk 252spe
-Fire Blast
-Earth power
-Explosion
-Stealth Rock

This heatran could also help you to catch out Blissey with explosion, who walls your predominantly special-attacking team. Strong fire attacks will help to wear down your opponents much more than Donphan did.

As for weaknesses to jolly DDgyarados and DDmence, I think a Calm Mind + attacks versionof suicune would be best. The spread should remain similar, though a little speed might be of use, but the moveset should be Surf/CM/HP Electric/Ice beam. This set will also bring significant offensive advantages, bashing its way through stuff that normally walls you like Vaporeon and Latias

Substitute is probably a little pointless on Jolteon unless you intend to baton pass it, or have 3 coverage moves with the intention of easing prediction. Jolteon is not the most vulnerable to status (immune to Twave most notably.) Therefore I would suggest adding HP Grass or Hp Ice over Sub for improved coverage. I would admit though that as said previously, there are better wish supporters out there than Jolteon.

Good luck
 
I have a Sceptile(in pearl) that has a Lonely nature and uses a physical and special STAB move in Leaf Blade and Energy Ball. I gave it EQ and Rock Slide so i could hit all of its weaknesses and gave it the Expert Belt for boosted moves
 
I think that you should run a defensive suicune with rest as your team lacks recovery for the most part (Jolteon's fragile anyways) and you may not be weak to stealth rock, but toxic spikes are sure a problem. That previous heatran suggestion seems great as it runs in tandem with Scizor to stop Scizors and fire attacks.
 
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