MAJOR CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE SINCE THE TIME OF POSTING
Yeah okay so that title sucked big time, but it's the quality of the team that counts, not what it is called =D, oh and Smith if you are reading this, I am listening to How Soon is Now by The Smiths lol one of your favorite songs =P
So, this team of mine is my first competitively viable gen 5 team that was originally supposed to be a team composed of Choice Band Ononokusu and Swords Dance Garchomp as my offensive core who could break each others counters and eventually allow one of them to clean up the remains.
After a couple days I decided that the team was average at best (the team at that time was Skarmory, Ononokusu, Garchomp, Nattorei, Burunkeru, and Heatran) as there were quite a few Pokémon that I had a hard time with, such as Doryuuzu (but who doesn't have problems with Dory seriously?), the Electric/Flying Genie thing among others. I also lacked a Rapid Spinner so opposing stall teams ended up winning in the end most of the time.
I planned on rearranging the team when I realized that Ononokusu was quite difficult to get into battle without taking some hefty damage, as it is not very bulky, and that Garchomp was too slow in many cases to sweep. I was relying on Choice Scarf Heatran so much to check certain threats that it became predictable when he would come in. Other things went wrong with the team too, such as lack of survivability on Nattorei's part, and too much reliance on Burunkeru severely weakened my defensive prowess as well.
I decided that the only way to fix these problems was to revamp the team majorly, discarding Ononokusu as well as a few other Pokémon so that I had other team options to take the burden off of Burunkeru and Nattorei so much. You can see the revamping process below if you care to read about it.
Team Building Process:
My original team consisted of :
Changing the team around, I switched Garchomp to a Scarf variant, as I wanted to turn this into more of a stall team than two wall breakers with four Pokémon to fall back on. Scarf Chomp is completely amazing at taking out threats to stall teams such as opposing Dragons and Steels as well as boosting sweepers in general.
Ononokusu was going to leave my team, as he isn't bulky enough for a stall team and on every other team I have placed him on he just seems underwhelming in general.
No that Garchomp was Scarfed, I didn't see much use in keeping Heatran scarfed as well, so I looked into a bulky set. Sadly, I ended up trashing Heatran too because his popular SpD Sleep Talk set in gen four has been nerfed, with Rest now lasting 3 turns and the sleep counter reseting when you switch out.
At this point I decided that I wanted Toxic Spikes in the team, as I have never used them before and I figured that they may be useful to stall out both offensive Pokémon and bulky Pokémon in general. After looking at who could set up Toxic Spikes in OU effectively, I came up with Tentacruel, Forretress, and Roserade. Tentacruel was out because I disliked the fact of having two bulky waters on the same team, and since Burunkeru was also my spin blocker and had access to instant recovery, I figured that he was more valuable to keep. That left Roserade and Forretress. Roserade was meh as it is even less bulky this generation, and having two Grass types was also a bit unnerving. Nattorei has proven its worth previously, giving my team support with Leech Seed and Stealth Rock, as well as spreading paralysis with Thunder Wave. His Steel typing was also way to useful to be replaced by a Poison typing (Yuck!). Therefore, Forretress was left. I figured that replacing Skarmory with Forretress was the best move.
I had two spots left to fill from Heatran's and Ononokusu's leave, and I thought long and hard about which Pokémon should replace them. After thinking for a while, I decided that a bulky Latias would fit perfectly, providing me with many good resistances such as Ground, Water, and Fighting, among others.
At this point I was really stuck. I knew I wanted a check to Doryuuzu as well as a few other Pokémon such as Lucario. After a long time of pondering, I decided to go with an extremely bulky form of Roobushin. You may ask why it took so long to decide this, and the reason is that I wanted so badly to have another Steel type on the team, as Forretress gets worn down quickly, and Nattorei has no reliable recovery. However, all Steels except Skarmory and Bronzong are vulnerable to Doryuuzu, and both of their places on the team would not have much use outside of countering Doryuuzu and a couple of other Pokémon because I already had all of my hazards. I decided that I could have no more Steels and went with one of the best checks to Doryuuzu available, Roobushin.
The final team as of now:






Changing the team around, I switched Garchomp to a Scarf variant, as I wanted to turn this into more of a stall team than two wall breakers with four Pokémon to fall back on. Scarf Chomp is completely amazing at taking out threats to stall teams such as opposing Dragons and Steels as well as boosting sweepers in general.
Ononokusu was going to leave my team, as he isn't bulky enough for a stall team and on every other team I have placed him on he just seems underwhelming in general.
No that Garchomp was Scarfed, I didn't see much use in keeping Heatran scarfed as well, so I looked into a bulky set. Sadly, I ended up trashing Heatran too because his popular SpD Sleep Talk set in gen four has been nerfed, with Rest now lasting 3 turns and the sleep counter reseting when you switch out.
At this point I decided that I wanted Toxic Spikes in the team, as I have never used them before and I figured that they may be useful to stall out both offensive Pokémon and bulky Pokémon in general. After looking at who could set up Toxic Spikes in OU effectively, I came up with Tentacruel, Forretress, and Roserade. Tentacruel was out because I disliked the fact of having two bulky waters on the same team, and since Burunkeru was also my spin blocker and had access to instant recovery, I figured that he was more valuable to keep. That left Roserade and Forretress. Roserade was meh as it is even less bulky this generation, and having two Grass types was also a bit unnerving. Nattorei has proven its worth previously, giving my team support with Leech Seed and Stealth Rock, as well as spreading paralysis with Thunder Wave. His Steel typing was also way to useful to be replaced by a Poison typing (Yuck!). Therefore, Forretress was left. I figured that replacing Skarmory with Forretress was the best move.
I had two spots left to fill from Heatran's and Ononokusu's leave, and I thought long and hard about which Pokémon should replace them. After thinking for a while, I decided that a bulky Latias would fit perfectly, providing me with many good resistances such as Ground, Water, and Fighting, among others.
At this point I was really stuck. I knew I wanted a check to Doryuuzu as well as a few other Pokémon such as Lucario. After a long time of pondering, I decided to go with an extremely bulky form of Roobushin. You may ask why it took so long to decide this, and the reason is that I wanted so badly to have another Steel type on the team, as Forretress gets worn down quickly, and Nattorei has no reliable recovery. However, all Steels except Skarmory and Bronzong are vulnerable to Doryuuzu, and both of their places on the team would not have much use outside of countering Doryuuzu and a couple of other Pokémon because I already had all of my hazards. I decided that I could have no more Steels and went with one of the best checks to Doryuuzu available, Roobushin.
The final team as of now:






New Team Building Process
You can see what the new old team looked like up ^there^ if you are a visual person and need to see pictures. Anyways, the new old team was much much better than the crappy Ononokusu/Garchomp team. However, it still had many flaws. I still had major weaknesses to both Rain and Sun teams, even with Nattorei and Burunkeru on the team. Roobushin, Scizor, among others were also big threats since I lacked the proper super effective moves to deal with them properly. Anyways, here is how I arrived at the new new team that you see below.
After playing at least 35 games, I realized that Latias wasn't pulling her weight in the majority of my battles. Burunkeru was also quite lacking, due to its inability to switch in on common Bulky Grounds and other Pokémon that Bulky Waters should be able to wall because of his low Defense.
So I started to address the weather issue. I decided that Choice Scarf Abomasnow could actually counter rain, sun, and sand teams effectively (although it was hard to switch in safely on sun teams) with a moveset of Blizzard (Sun-Grass) / Giga Drain (Rain) / Earthquake (Sun-Fire) / Focus Punch (Tyranitar mainly). I didn't want two Scarfed Pokémon on one team, so I eventually had to let Garchomp go, as Abomasnow was more useful at the time.
Next, I wanted to trash Burunkeru in favor of another Spin Blocker. Sadly, would need two slots to cover both the Spin Blocker and Bulky Water roles. Therefore, I also got rid of Latias and put in Evolution Stone Dusclops and an offensive Suicune to abuse Toxic Spikes and provide a good switch into most Fire types.
Last, I ended up getting rid of Roobushin for a Dragon because I needed some more resistances than Roob had to offer. I ended up going with a bulky Wish-Mence, and it was working fantastically, providing Wish support and being a great switch into many Pokémon.
The first couple of games I played I realized that I had made great changes and that the team was terrific (Forry, Nattorei, Suicune, Dusclops, Abomasnow, Salamence). Sadly, that glory and self confidence was short lived, as the more games I played, the more I realized that this team had even bigger wholes than before. There were also many problems with the team members themselves. Dusclops just plain sucked as he could do no damage outside of Night Shade and it was never guaranteed that Toxic Spikes were up. He was mainly death fodder in most games who occasionally spread around some confuse rays. Abomasnow worked for a while, checking Doryuuzu, Kabutops, and others pretty well, but in the end his lack of use outside weather teams, as well as his many many weaknesses such as Stealth Rock and a 4x weakness to Fire made me get rid of him. Suicune was okay I guess, but overall its lack of utility in a stall team was underwhelming, as it just didn't fit very well in the team. I thought about Restalk instead, but Rest got nerfed this gen, so it wasn't that appealing.
At this point, the team was Nattorei, Forry, and Salamence. Salamence actually worked amazingly well in almost all of my games, as it could come in on Water, Grass, Ground and Fire moves without a sweat and force the opponent out, them thinking that she was much more offensive than she actually was.
In the end, I realized that having a Ghost and a Bulky Water was a little pointless when Burunkeru still could do both, so I added him again, but changed his EV spread to make him take physical hits much better.
I still needed a check to weather, as well as Pokémon like Gengar and the embryo Psychic thing among others, so I went with a very bulky CB-Tar, who has served me well so far.
Last, I added Roob again for his ability to check Doryuuzu and opposing Tyranitar, who I am still a bit weak to if the opponent plays their T-Tar cautiously until Roob is weak.
Therefore, the team as of now is...
After playing at least 35 games, I realized that Latias wasn't pulling her weight in the majority of my battles. Burunkeru was also quite lacking, due to its inability to switch in on common Bulky Grounds and other Pokémon that Bulky Waters should be able to wall because of his low Defense.
So I started to address the weather issue. I decided that Choice Scarf Abomasnow could actually counter rain, sun, and sand teams effectively (although it was hard to switch in safely on sun teams) with a moveset of Blizzard (Sun-Grass) / Giga Drain (Rain) / Earthquake (Sun-Fire) / Focus Punch (Tyranitar mainly). I didn't want two Scarfed Pokémon on one team, so I eventually had to let Garchomp go, as Abomasnow was more useful at the time.
Next, I wanted to trash Burunkeru in favor of another Spin Blocker. Sadly, would need two slots to cover both the Spin Blocker and Bulky Water roles. Therefore, I also got rid of Latias and put in Evolution Stone Dusclops and an offensive Suicune to abuse Toxic Spikes and provide a good switch into most Fire types.
Last, I ended up getting rid of Roobushin for a Dragon because I needed some more resistances than Roob had to offer. I ended up going with a bulky Wish-Mence, and it was working fantastically, providing Wish support and being a great switch into many Pokémon.
The first couple of games I played I realized that I had made great changes and that the team was terrific (Forry, Nattorei, Suicune, Dusclops, Abomasnow, Salamence). Sadly, that glory and self confidence was short lived, as the more games I played, the more I realized that this team had even bigger wholes than before. There were also many problems with the team members themselves. Dusclops just plain sucked as he could do no damage outside of Night Shade and it was never guaranteed that Toxic Spikes were up. He was mainly death fodder in most games who occasionally spread around some confuse rays. Abomasnow worked for a while, checking Doryuuzu, Kabutops, and others pretty well, but in the end his lack of use outside weather teams, as well as his many many weaknesses such as Stealth Rock and a 4x weakness to Fire made me get rid of him. Suicune was okay I guess, but overall its lack of utility in a stall team was underwhelming, as it just didn't fit very well in the team. I thought about Restalk instead, but Rest got nerfed this gen, so it wasn't that appealing.
At this point, the team was Nattorei, Forry, and Salamence. Salamence actually worked amazingly well in almost all of my games, as it could come in on Water, Grass, Ground and Fire moves without a sweat and force the opponent out, them thinking that she was much more offensive than she actually was.
In the end, I realized that having a Ghost and a Bulky Water was a little pointless when Burunkeru still could do both, so I added him again, but changed his EV spread to make him take physical hits much better.
I still needed a check to weather, as well as Pokémon like Gengar and the embryo Psychic thing among others, so I went with a very bulky CB-Tar, who has served me well so far.
Last, I added Roob again for his ability to check Doryuuzu and opposing Tyranitar, who I am still a bit weak to if the opponent plays their T-Tar cautiously until Roob is weak.
Therefore, the team as of now is...






Team Synergy and Such

Ugh I hate writing transitions... I'll just make like RWJ and say:
Cool Transition


EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Nature: Calm... +SpD, -Atk
Moves: Toxic Spikes / Stealth Rock / Rapid Spin / Volt Change
Summary:
Supposed to be my lead, however, in wifi mode you can rearrange your team once the team preview comes up, so Forry doesn't always lead my team. If there is a Borutorosu lead, it is kind of obvious that it has Taunt, so I will most of the time just make Tyranitar my lead to counter it effectively. One of the huge perks to seeing the other lead is that when you create an RMT it isn't really necessary to show your lead vs. the top ten leads! Hooray less work for me!
Moves and EVs:
Toxic Spikes are the main reason I am using Forry, as well as Rapid Spin. Toxic Spikes lets me stall out threats that I would otherwise have a tough time defeating such as Blissey and Garchomp once I have two layers down, which really isn't that hard to do with Forry's great typing and her EV spread. Max Special Defense allows Forry to switch in on random Draco Meteors much easier, as well as Shadow Balls from Gengar and Psychics from Espeon. It makes better use of Forry's resistances, his EV spread, in my opinion. Stealth Rock is used instead of Spikes because having to find 5 free turns to set up T-Spikes and Spikes is hard without recovery, and I didn't want to rely too much on one Pokémon for obvious reasons. You may be looking at me like, Volt Change? Seriously? Well, it actually is pretty useful. Volt Change isn't supposed to deal heavy damage (although it does do an average of 41% to offensive Gyarados lol), but rather act just as U-Turn did in gen 4 - to scout on a predicted switch. Sure, you get to see the team previews and all anyways, however, giving their Lucario their own chance to set up a Nasty Plot as I switch is dangerous. It sucks that it actually is electric typing, though, because Gliscor really shuts me down and I am forced to switch. Nonetheless, a great Pokémon in general that gets two layers of Toxic Spikes up about 80% of the time.


EVs: 252 HP / 120 Defense / 136 SpD
Nature: Impish... +Def, -SpA
Moves: Leech Seed / Protect / Spikes / Power Whip
Summary:
An amazing part of any defensive core, Nattorei provides many resistances and a completely unique typing to the table, as well as a great support movepool. Wow that sounded like a sales pitch haha. Nattorei is used as a great Dragon check, and in Lati@s' case, counter. She (I make all my Pokémon female in case of Rivalry and Attract, which are more common than you think!) helps me greatly in setting us Spikes and stalling with Protect. As a side note, I hate how Nattorei's sprite hangs much higher than your typical sprite, so it looks like the Leftovers are on a different level than the sprite >=/
Moves and EVs:
Leech Seed works great for supporting the team, draining the opponent's HP more quickly, and recovering lost HP on Nattorei. Protect works well on three levels.
1.) Gaining free HP from Leech Seed and Leftovers
2.) Stalling out more Toxic damage
3.) Scouting whether Banded Hihidaruma will U-Turn or Flare Blitz and such.
Spikes have replaced Stealth Rock from my previous team because Forretress shouldn't be placed responsible to set up Toxic Spikes and Spikes, and Nattorei has many opportunities to set them up. Power Whip is the obligatory STAB move and is much more useful than Gyro Ball because it is super effective against a wider range of opponents and has much more reliable power. When using only Gyro Ball Pokémon whom Nattorei is supposed to counter, mainly Bulky Waters, actually cannot be countered that easily, as they wall your only offense. The EVs are not anything specific, that is they do not allow me to survive and particular attack from any particular Pokémon, however, they have served me well so far. The EVs give me stats of 352 HP / 360 Def / 302 SpD, which is great for a Pokémon who easily takes advantage both defenses. I find myself switching into Special Attacks much more often than Physical Attacks, however, as my other Steel gets worn down quickly and cannot take repeated Outrages, I think that the excessive Defense EVs are necessary. If I could get some suggestions on this I would greatly appreciate it!
1.) Gaining free HP from Leech Seed and Leftovers
2.) Stalling out more Toxic damage
3.) Scouting whether Banded Hihidaruma will U-Turn or Flare Blitz and such.
Spikes have replaced Stealth Rock from my previous team because Forretress shouldn't be placed responsible to set up Toxic Spikes and Spikes, and Nattorei has many opportunities to set them up. Power Whip is the obligatory STAB move and is much more useful than Gyro Ball because it is super effective against a wider range of opponents and has much more reliable power. When using only Gyro Ball Pokémon whom Nattorei is supposed to counter, mainly Bulky Waters, actually cannot be countered that easily, as they wall your only offense. The EVs are not anything specific, that is they do not allow me to survive and particular attack from any particular Pokémon, however, they have served me well so far. The EVs give me stats of 352 HP / 360 Def / 302 SpD, which is great for a Pokémon who easily takes advantage both defenses. I find myself switching into Special Attacks much more often than Physical Attacks, however, as my other Steel gets worn down quickly and cannot take repeated Outrages, I think that the excessive Defense EVs are necessary. If I could get some suggestions on this I would greatly appreciate it!


EVs: 252 HP / 136 Def / 120 SpD
Nature: Calm... +SpD, -Atk
Moves: Surf / Ice Beam / Protect / Recover
Summary:
Wow this thing is so incredibly UGLY!!! Seriously, aren't kings supposed to be at least decent looking? And what's up with the mustache that wraps all the way around his head? And the female version of Burunkeru is just unimaginably horrifying. Anyways, Burunkeru serves as my Bulky Water as well as a very reliable Spin Blocker. Burunkeru has amazing synergy with Nattorei that it isn't even funny... for the other team =P
Burunkeru does have problems, however. It really cannot make great use out of its Fighting immunity because it takes so much damage from common moves that Fighters run alongside their STAB such as Stone Edge and Payback. But, it does make a useful pivot in situations, such as taking a Close Combat from Lucario, switching to Roobushin on the Crunch, and then taking Luke out with Mach Punch. Overall, a reliable Pokémon that can dish out some damage, but it does have flaws like all Pokémon do.
Moves and EVs:
Hmm... Surf is used instead of Boil Over because Boil Over's burn rate is not as effective with Toxic Spikes down. Protect is always useful for any Pokémon, but especially useful on this team to accumulate for Toxic Spikes damage on the opponent. Burunkeru used to have max SpD, but his failure to be able to switch into things like Gliscor effectively was a big letdown, especially for a Bulky Water. Thus, I gave him 136 Def EVs, and although they aren't for anything specific, I have definitely noticed the increase in my ability to take physical hits.


EVs: 252 HP / 180 SpD / 76 Spe
Nature: Timid... +Spe, -Atk
Moves: Draco Meteor / Flamethrower / Wish / Protect
Summary:
I chose Salamence to provide extra key resistances and immunities to the team like Fighting and Ground, respectively, among other resistances. I also wanted a Wish user because only one member of my team has instant recovery, and Forretress has a hard time setting up two layers of Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock at the same time. Therefore, with Salamence's support, Forry can easily regain 50% of its HP using the great synergy they have between each other. But it isn't just for Forry; it is for Nattorei, Roobushin and all the other members of my team too.
Moves and EVs:
Draco Meteor is obvious STAB and is used over Dragon Pulse because I rarely find myself staying in for more than a few turns. I mainly just switch in, fire off a Draco Meteor or Flamethrower and then use Wish to heal myself, then Wish again if I need to to heal another Pokémon. Wish, Toxic Spikes, and Leftovers pair very well with Protect, which is why it is there. I am contemplating using Dragon Claw and Earthquake over Draco Meteor and Flamethrower, but then I have no super effective moves to hit Skarmory with, and Dragon Claw is much weaker than Draco Meteor. However, one of the Pokémon I am supposed to wall, Heatran, actually walls me due to the lack of Earthquake. Is there any way that another one of my Pokémon can work in a Fire move or something to hit Skarmory with? Feedback appreciated!
The EVs allow me to outspeed max Speed Adamant Lucario so I can take it out with Flamethrower. 280 is also a good benchmark to hit in general. Max HP and 180 SpD EVs make great use of my resistances to Water, Fire, and Grass moves. I don't really need to invest any into Attack because Intimidate shoots my Defense up to 294 which is pretty good when paired with 394 HP.
The EVs allow me to outspeed max Speed Adamant Lucario so I can take it out with Flamethrower. 280 is also a good benchmark to hit in general. Max HP and 180 SpD EVs make great use of my resistances to Water, Fire, and Grass moves. I don't really need to invest any into Attack because Intimidate shoots my Defense up to 294 which is pretty good when paired with 394 HP.


EVs: 68 HP / 192 At / 248 SpD
Nature: Adamant... +Atk, -SpA
Moves: Bulk Up / Mach Punch / Stone Edge / Drain Punch
Summary:
So many teams have Roobushin on them, and for good reason. The ability to check Doryuuzu, provide powerful priority, and last a long time with Drain Punch is incredible. Roobushin was chosen mainly to check Doryuuzu, but also because I wanted some form of priority, as well as a Pokémon who could put on the offensive and defensive pressure. You would be surprised how well Roobushin works with Toxic Spikes support, turning many 3HKOs into 2HKOs. The ability to heal herself with Drain Punch while the enemy goes down progressively from Toxic Spikes leaves Roobushin with over 2 thirds of HP by the time the enemy is KOed, which is incredible when paired with Wish support from Latias to replenish her HP. In conclusion, a very bulky Pokémon who can dish out the damage and abuse Toxic Spikes excellently.
Moves and EVs:
The moves are very obvious indeed, but since I am supposed to explain them...
Bulk Up = Great boosting move with Roob's great bulk (bad pun intended).
Mach Punch = Amazing priority move for a Pokémon with base 45 Speed.
Stone Edge = Great coverage alongside his Fighting STAB, and hurts things like Salamence who think they can set up on me
Drain Punch = Healing purposes
Wow that was fun wasn't it =D
The EVs give Roob incredible bulk on the special side so he can set up on weaker special attacks. The reason his SpD is so high is because so many people think that they can switch in their Special Attackers willy nilly (wow what a stupid saying) and everything will be all fine and dandy (yet another awful saying).
Bulk Up = Great boosting move with Roob's great bulk (bad pun intended).
Mach Punch = Amazing priority move for a Pokémon with base 45 Speed.
Stone Edge = Great coverage alongside his Fighting STAB, and hurts things like Salamence who think they can set up on me
Drain Punch = Healing purposes
Wow that was fun wasn't it =D
The EVs give Roob incredible bulk on the special side so he can set up on weaker special attacks. The reason his SpD is so high is because so many people think that they can switch in their Special Attackers willy nilly (wow what a stupid saying) and everything will be all fine and dandy (yet another awful saying).


EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Nature: Adamant... +Atk, -SpA
Moves: Crunch / Pursuit / Stone Edge / Aqua Tail
Summary:
Bulky Choice Band Tar is incredible. The ability to switch in on many Pokémon who abuse the weather with just a little prediction and shut down their entire team with Sandstorm is just awesome. Okay so that was a little exaggerated, but as long as T-Tar is alive with 1 HP left, no Rain, Sun, or Hail team is going to take out my team. Tyranitar also has pretty good synergy with my team, as it can take many attacks which plague my other Pokémon. Examples are Shadow Balls aimed at Burunkeru, Psychics and Brave Birds aimed at Roobushin, and Fire Blasts aimed at Nattorei and Forretress.
Moves and EVs:
The moves are fairly standard on CB Tar. I do need some advice on the last move, however. I have yet to use Aqua Tail at all, and am wondering if I should replace it with Superpower, Earthquake, or even Fire Blast with a Brave Nature. You may be wondering what is up with all the SpD EVs, and I'll tell you what's up with the SpD EVs. They are there because I rely onT-Tar to check a variety of Pokémon including but not limited to Jolteon, Heatran, the Electric/Flying Genie thing whose name I can never remember, Gengar, and Espeon. Plus, I am not trying to break walls with T-Tar; Toxic Spikes are there to help that cause. Anyways, yeah! SpD T-Tar ftw =)
~ Threat List ~
Challenging, but not impossible
Help Me Jesus!!!
Why list the easily handled Pokémon? lol























Defensive threats coming soon!