OU Dance Partners

[LMPVIII]

The Team in Action<----youtube video

Changes in RED

Team building process:
I had a swords dance infernape laying in my box, never really touched it. So I decided to make a team around it

Infernape's main counters are starmie, gyara, and mence. Vaporeon counters mence and gyara quite nicely.

I
I still needed a starmie counter, but I also needed a special wall and wanted a spiker to help infernape's sweeping capabilities. Roserade was the perfect choice.

The team had good synergy so far, but I wanted a ground immunity and something to keep the momentum if infernape died. Dragonite is amazing when combined with infernape. They weaken each others counters and aid each other's sweeps. Infernape can take choiced ice attacks aimed at dragonite, and dragonite can take water and ground attacks aimed at infernape.

The team lacking a little bit on the special side, so I needed a special sweeperish thing. I also needed a spin blocker. I decided on gengar because the new pain split set looked fun to play around with.

Now I needed a lead to get stealth rock up. I contemplated over popular leads like azelf, swampert, and heatran. I decided on metagross because it is bulky and gets SR up most of the time, and it also can explode on threats to dragonite and infernape.

That's the team and here are the movesets:

Metagross@Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 12 Def / 8 Spe
Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Bullet Punch
-Explosion

Standard lead metagross, but with lum berry for sleep leads. I get stealth rock up unless I get taunted, which is usually predictable and I EQ or BP. I try an save metagross for later in the game because it is monstrously powerful. THe explosion can also take down walls getting in my team's way.


Vaporeon@Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 Spe
Nature: Bold (+Def, -Atk)
-Wish
-Protect
-HP Electric
-Ice Beam

I know what you're thinking. "No surf? That's outrageous! You lose valuable coverage." Pretty much lol. I got rid of surf because with ice beam AND hidden power, vaporeon can counter gyara AND mence effectively. Wish is for recovery for my whole team. I works great when one of my pokes can't heal itself at the moment. Protect works great with wish and also helps pp stall pokemon like machamp (screw you dynamicpunch).


Roserade@Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 136 SpD / 120 Spe
Nature: Calm (+SpD, -Atk)
-Spikes
-Grass Knot
-HP Fire
-Rest

Roserade is one amazing spiker. It can take special hits more than decently, and always seems to get a couple layers up before going down. If it even goes down lol. Rest makes it hard for other pokemon to KO roserade, and it works great with natural cure. Grass knot is for STAB and is stronger than you would think. HP fire is for steel types and other grass types.


Gengar@Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
-Substitute
-Pain Split
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast

I love this set. It wreaks havoc on most walls. The only problem is if I don't predict a pursuit because then I lost my special attacker. Gengar outspeeds the standard spinner starmie, so I can swith in on rapid spin and OHKO with shadow ball.


Dragonite@Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Atk / 204 Spe
Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)
-Dragon Dance
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Roost

What a beast. He is bulky enough to take a lot of hits and then set up a DD. He can also use roost effectively and serve as a special wall. That's why I chose him over mence. He aids infernape's sweep beautifully, luring in infernape counters and weakening them, or locking a pokemon into and ice move, giving infernape a free SD. A truly loyal dance partner.



Infernape@Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -SpA)
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
-Swords Dance
-Fire Punch
-Mach Punch
-Close Combat

The star of the team. If he gets a SD in late game when all of his counters are weakened by my other pokemon, it's gg bro. All of the moves are STAB, and I chose mach punch over another move for priority because a lot of OU outspeeds infernape. The only real problem is gengar, but I can switch into dragonite and set up with that instead. I try not to reveal infernape until late game, but sometimes he has to come in and revenge kill with mach punch.

THREATS:
Bulky waters: Roserade can take most of them, but vaporeon is hard to take down with only grass knot. I usually just explode with metagross to get them out of the way.
Pursuiters: I try and predict it when gengar is out, but sometimes it is difficult. Most pursuiters are banded though, so I can send in infernape to get an SD in, but I hate revealing him early game.

That's the team. If you see any problems, please comment. This is also my first RMT, so if you would please criticize me so I can make it better that would be great :)

 

[Super Mario Bro]

Vaporeon has no business dealing with Salamence, as it is OHKO'd by a +1 Life Orb Outrage. This team has issues with Specially Based Mixape, so you may as well give Vaporeon Surf in place of Ice Beam, so it would be able to effectively deal with it. Also, change that EV spread on Vaporeon; it's outdated:

Bold Nature
252 HP/244 Def/12 Spe

With this spread, Specially Based Mixape almost never 2HKO's you with Close Combat, allowing you to switch into it, and then kill it with Surf. The Speed EVs allow you to out-speed Choice Band Scizor.

Other than that, I can't see too many issues with this team. Good luck!

 

[LMPVIII]

Thank you. I'll change the EVs on vaporeon, but I'm keeping hp electric for gyara. Dragonite handles NP mixape pretty nicely already, as long as it doesn't carry HP ice (which most don't).

 

[Shizzle]

You have a huge Starmie and CSJolteon weakness. The only thing that is resisting Thunderbolt is Roserade, who can't do much back. Starmie pretty much OHKOs or severely cripples everything with Surf/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt

I would probably change Spikes with Toxic Spikes. Reason being you don't have any phasers (roar), and to be honest, not much here demands switches, Toxic Spikes can work really well with Vaporeon's Protect/Wish, allowing it to stall out so many pokemon.

You messed up the EVs, you currently have more than 510, but I did use a very similar set not too long back, I didn't even use LO and I still did huge damage, but LO is probably the better choice. As the set says, you will want to run 204 Spe EVs. So the set would be 252 HP / 52 Atk / 204 Spe. The moves are fine, the same that I use :D

Also what are the details on infernape, nature? EVs?

 

[Sy123]

I suggest you give Dragonite a CB Set with:

Dragonite@ Choice Band
252 Atk/200 HP/58 Def
~Extremespeed
~Outrage
~Earthquake
~Thunderbolt/Thunder/Fire Punch

This is designed to come in, after Infernape is unsuccesful in its sweep. This will just Extremespeed everyone, you should know where the steel and rock types are thanks to Infernape. Thunder/bolt is for Skarm, where everything else is to sweep

 

[cheexyn]

Hey,

I've used a team based around an SDnape sweep before and I am not quite sure the purpose of spikes here. Granted, your team turns to Dragonite who can benefit as a secondary sweeper, but if your primary objective is to set-up an SDnape sweep I'm not too sure whether spikes will be all that helpful.

I ran exactly the same set and as you have already mentioned the counters to this SDnape include Starmie, Gyarados and Salamence. Starmie outspeeds you and easily 1HKOs, while a resisted Mach Punch puts a slight dent in it (20~30% depending on the set). Gyarados and Salamence don't get affected by spikes and will not net you a 1HKO before either kills you.

For this I recommend Celebi over Roserade. I am inclined towards the tinkerbell set, however the standard defensive set works as well. Celebi, with any form of grass STAB plus thunder wave, deals with the bulky waters, checks Gyarados and beats Starmie 1v1. It also provides a much more reliable resistance to electricity. Heck, it can even be a choiceTar lure to allow frail Infernape the one valuable turn it needs to set-up.

Hope I helped, have a good day!

 

[LMPVIII]

You have a huge Starmie and CSJolteon weakness. The only thing that is resisting Thunderbolt is Roserade, who can't do much back. Starmie pretty much OHKOs or severely cripples everything with Surf/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt

I would probably change Spikes with Toxic Spikes. Reason being you don't have any phasers (roar), and to be honest, not much here demands switches, Toxic Spikes can work really well with Vaporeon's Protect/Wish, allowing it to stall out so many pokemon.

You messed up the EVs, you currently have more than 510, but I did use a very similar set not too long back, I didn't even use LO and I still did huge damage, but LO is probably the better choice. As the set says, you will want to run 204 Spe EVs. So the set would be 252 HP / 52 Atk / 204 Spe. The moves are fine, the same that I use :D

Also what are the details on infernape, nature? EVs?

Starmie is still a big problem, but jolteon is not a big problem. Both dragonite and roserade can deal with it. Thanks for telling me about the messed up evs on dragonite and I now have details on infernape.

I suggest you give Dragonite a CB Set

I'm not a big fan of this set because the whole locking myself into a move makes me set up fodder, which this team hates. I also lose bulkiness, and bulkiness is why I like dragonite.

For this I recommend Celebi over Roserade.

Thanks. I'll try it out. Can roserade learn spikes and leaf storm? If it can, then that would be amazing. If it can't, I will replace it.