Standard OU Team (RMT)

Alright this is my first post on smogon but dont think im completly new to competative battling as ive been in the metagame for some time. Before we get started i just want to say that this team is in the format of 4OU 1UU and 1NU pokemon so if you suggest a replacment poke make sure it is from the same tier as the one you think i should replace.OK here is the team.

The Lead
Aerodactyl@ focus sash
Ability:pressure
Nature:jolly
Evs:252spe 252att 4def
Moveset-
-Stealth rock
-Taunt
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
This is lead dactyl that has a little different set than the basic lead aerodactyl.Edgequake takes on almost any lead.Not much to say for this guy.

The Pysical Sweeper
Honchkrowl@ Choice Band
Ability:Super Luck?
Nature:Adamant
Moveset-
-Sucker Punch
-Brave Bird
-Pursuit
-Superpower
Originally going to absol but after taking a look at what honchcrow could do for this team i just couldnt say no.Hits most walls hard with Brave Bird or superpower.Honchcrow also draws in electric type moves to give electivoir a nice boost before he gets HIS action.

The Special Sweeper
Magnazone@ Life Orb
Ability:magnet pull
252SpAtt 252spe 4 def
Nature:Rash
Moveset-
-Substitute
-Thunderbolt
-Explosion
-Hidden Power(Grass)
Not everyday you get half of your team sweeped by a magnazone but up against this will make today one of those days.After thinking of some of the threats to absol i came up with this this covers absol and holds its own against its own threats. Thunderbolt is reliable STAB while explosion even without much power still does its job if magnazone needs to go. He outspeeds most bulky ground types and usualy gets OHKO with HP since many of them focus more on defense than SP def.

Sweep Control
Dusknoir@leftovers
Ability:pressure
Nature:impish
Evs: 152Hp 252def 104 sp.def
Moveset-
-Will-o-wisp
-Confuse Ray
-destiny bond
-Fire Punch
I would like see to machamp attempt to mess up absol and magnazone with this guy hanging around. If lead machamp gets past aerodactyle and starts screwing with my sweepers dusknoir can come in and stop him cold with either stalling out with willowisp or waiting for the right chance to use destiny bond dusknoir keeps fighting types like machamp in their place.

Cradily@leftovers
Ability:suction cups
nature:Careful
Evs:4att 252def 252 sp def
Moveset-
-Recover
-Rock Slide
-Stealth Rock
-Toxic
Since i needed to fit an NU in somewhere (and i definately wasnt going to use sweeping NU) Idecided to use the most reliable support i know in NU.If aerodactyl gets in over his head cradily can still put rocks up and defend quite well.Recover is instant healing which is valuable to a poke like this.cradily kinda fills the gaps left behind in the team so far by providing excelent resistance to most of their weaknesses.

Gap Filler
Electivoir@Life Orb
Ability:Moter Drive
Nature:Jolly
Evs 252spe 128att 128sp.att
Moveset-
-Thunder Punch
-Cross Chop
-thunderbolt
-HP(Ice)
Not very original but he gets the job done as far as coverage goes.Hitting almost all OU threats with at least neutral damage is what he does best.Mixed attacks allow him to hit any form of pokemon. After the enormous amount speed he gets he outspeeds even weavile if it doesnt have extra speed.

Thats the team and also if someone could tell me how to put pictures into the posts that would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hi.

Interesting little team you have here. I got a few things you should consider.

Firstly, you have Absol which is pretty much outclassed in so many similar ways by Honchkrow. It is faster and has many similar moves to that of Absol, plus more! On Magnezone, because Flash Cannon is not really that good coverage wise, especially since it will be switching into many Steel types, you should change it to Substitute and change your nature from Modest to Rash, so then Explosion can hit harder whilst still boosting your Special Attack stat. Crunch is not really a great move on Aerodactyl coverage wise, especially since it is not a STAB, so why not change it to Stone Edge? With that, your Aerdactyl will possess the infamous Edgequake combo, a nearly unresisted duo with STABs mind you.

That's it for now, good luck with the proccess! Also, when you post a new thread, there is a symbol of a mountain and a sun; that is the upload a picture button.

Thanks, bye!
 
Hi, if you find having crunch over stone edge then why change it, if you like it and have been having a fun time using it.
I agree with Vaz in which Honchkrow is a better option than absol.
You should probably run hp fire on mag so to OHKO or 2HKO bulky steels, and set up a substitute as well in the process. Use sub over Explosion prob, and hp fire over hp grass. Should run lefties as too get hp back.
It'd be better to run a stockpile set on cradily over SR's because you can just wall teams with that and just toxic stall.
Very interesting Gyarados set. A bulky set and a sweeping set for Gyara (DD sets) are the most popular and for good reason. They really are the best kind of Gyara sets, and once they set up, they can be untouchable. I suggest you use a hyper offensive set with waterfall, dd, stone edge/taunt, and EQ as to hit good coverage, have stab, and prevent roar/whirlwind and things of that nature.

GL, hope this helped!
 
Thx for the feedback (i like this much better than neoseeker) ok well if i do run the honchkrow would this be an effective set?Also yes the HP fir on magnazone was a good suggestion

Honchkrow@choice band
ability:super luck
nature:Adamant
Evs:252att 252spe 4hp
Moveset-
-Night Slash
-superpower
-Brave bird
-Pursuit
I made this a banded set since the extra speed evs will allow it to outspeed most things in OU without scarf.The reason i dont want the posted life orb set is that a team like this needs OHKO's whenever possible since some of the pokes are from lower tiers.Ill make the changes tommorrow since it is getting late.
 
Pictures would make this much easier to read, just drag the pictures to your desktop, go to tinypic.com, upload them, copy/paste the code.

With that said, your team is weak to a multitude of threats like Infernape, Lucario, and Tyranitar. Also defensive teams will be able to wall you rather easily. For this reason, the Gyarados mentioned would work incredibly well here over Magnezone, although the bulky set will provide more safety against Infernape and Lucario. The next change would be electivire; it really can't do much in a metagame filled with Flygon and Shaymin/Celebi. Scarf Rotom-w can help alot with checking dragon dancing threats and it can trick more defensive teams. Lastly, to fix the ttar weakness, just run a substitute Machamp over Dusknoir. It checks TTar, is a good Blissey switch, ect.
 
Hi,

You have a rather interesting team that utilizes some under-appreciated Pokemon. However, it seems fairly open to some of the top threats in the current metagame. While you may not be completely new to competitive battling, there are several threats unaccounted for. With due respect, I'm a little bit reluctant to rate, because I feel I might have to change half of your team in order to let it better deal with many threats. I'll go for it anyway, though.

First things first, why are you using a format of 4 OU, 1 UU, 1 NU? While it's great to challenge yourself by incorporating a set of rules for your own team, I would suggest getting a little bit more experience using a team that's not "gimmicky". Lower tiers can be great for filling specific niches in the in your team, but without that niche, it may very well be outclassed by an OU.

With that out of the way, on to your team.

Individually

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Aerodactyl
- I actually don't see him doing a whole lot for your team; he is by no means an anti-lead, which I think is what you may be going for. He is a suicide lead, meant to quickly gain momentum for an offensive team by setting Stealth Rock, and preventing slower leads from laying down their own. He gets KO'd really soon in the match. With things like Cradily and Dusknoir on your team, you'd be better off with a lead that can survive a little longer than the first several turns of a match, and provide some synergy for the rest of your team. Since you've got Cradily with Stealth Rock (though I'd recommend changing it, but I'll get to that later), I'd suggest an anti-lead such as LO Starmie, Scarf Jirachi, or maybe even Machamp. Or, if you decide to get rid of Stealth Rock on Cradily, you can use something like Shuca Berry Heatran or Metagross as a lead to set up Stealth Rock.

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Honchkrow - I suppose this is what your team is centered around. In response to your latest post, Choice Band Honchkrow is usable, but if locked into the wrong move (and if your opponent figures out its choiced), it can become setup fodder for a sweeper. Also, it comes no where near outspeeding most of OU without a Scarf, especially without a Scarf itself. Honchkrow sits at 71 base speed, and you're using a speed neutral nature, so anything with 72 or higher base speed, or things with slightly a lower base speed, but using a positive speed nature (and enough Speed EVs, of course) will outspeed Honchkrow. I highly recommend trying out the Life Orb set to allow more versatility, or at least a Choice Scarf to boost its mediocre-at-best speed (though once again, locking yourself into the wrong move makes Honchkrow easy setup fodder).

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Magnezone - A solid teammate for Honchkrow, as it resists Honchkrow's three weaknesses (though Honchkrow still has trouble taking neutral hits :/), and traps steels like Sczior who can be a problem. However, steels lacking priority, enough speed, or enough bulk to take a Superpower / Heatwave can be handled by Honchkrow. For this reason, I think keeping HP Grass is fine for taking out stuff like Swampert, as the Steels who can pose a problem are hit hard enough by Thunderbolt. Metagross with Earthquake can be an issue, especially if it has Bullet Punch to hit Honchkrow with, but HP Fire does around the same damage as Thunderbolt anyway. I do second Leftovers over Life Orb, as well as Substitute, though over Flash Cannon, not Explosion.

477.png
Dusknoir - In and of itself, not bad, but you're not really using it to its full potential. One of the bigger reasons to use Dusknoir is to spin block-- to prevent your entry hazards from being spun anyway. However, you're only using Stealth Rock, which isn't exceptionally hard to re-setup, and it only takes a turn for full potential, as opposed to two for Toxic Spikes, or three for Spikes, not to mention all three hazards used in conjunction. If he's just there to check some specific Pokemon, you may be better off using something else that can check said Pokemon, but also benefit the team in a different way. The burns may help Honchkrow take a hit (...maybe...), and it can be a last-ditch-effort to KO something that has set up, but at the same time, it could just be setup fodder, especially for something with Taunt that resists your lone attack. If I remember right, Destiny Bond isn't affected by taunt, but it can be stalled out of PP, despite Dusknoir's Pressure, as many non-attacking moves have tons more PP than Destiny Bond. If you like Dusknoir, you may want to get a second attacking move over Confuse Ray (unless that has worked out for you) or even Pain Split for recovery. You may also want to consider either of those two mentioned options over Destiny Bond. Also, does that EV spread do anything specific for you?

346.png
Cradily - If you're going to use Cradily, take advantage of its qualities. Thanks to Suction Cups, it can't be phazed, and therefore it's harder to get rid of its stat boosts. It'll have to either force it out by threatening it with a powerful attacker, KO it straight out (though that's essentially the same as the last thing with the only difference being whether you switch Cradily out or not), or Taunt it to prevent set up in the first place. Therefore, I'd suggest either running Stockpile, as Eon suggested, or possibly a Curse set, but I think Stockpile fits better. If not, you're probably better off replacing Cradily with something else.

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Gyarados - Gyarados is Gyarados. A threatening part in the metagame. I do second using a Dragon Dance set over your current one, both the bulky version and offensive version can work for you; pick your poison. Also your current spread is unusual; you max Speed, and split HP and Attack. Aim for a certain amount of HP, be it for a Leftovers or Life Orb number, or to tank a certain hit. Go for a speed benchmark, and dump the rest in attack (though in some cases, you may want some defenses to take certain hits). Oh, also, Gyarados doesn't learn Crunch; it has access to Bite, but that has significantly less base power.

As A Whole

Threats to your team:
-LO Starmie
-Offensive CM Suicune
-Possibly Waters in general.
-SD Lucario
-Being outsped
-Stealth Rock

Just looking at that list explains my introduction. Very commonly used Pokemon, and even moves, can be problematic for your team.

LO Starmie wrecks stuff up. Your whole team is completely outsped, and at least 2HKO'd (most are OHKO'd), except for Cradily, who has a chance of surviving a second hit. So long as it can get in safely, your Cradily can stall out Hydro Pump (and rack up Life Orb damage), but Starmie is free to switch out and cause more havoc on a later turn. For this reason, I highly suggest running Stockpile, so that you can at least take advantage of it switching out. Also if it gets in safely, Dusknoir can try to Destiny Bond Starmie, but once again, it can switch out, or possibly stall with Rapid Spin. (xD) Honchkrow is outsped, but if you run Sucker Punch, you can beat it to the punch. (//pun) Being locked into Sucker Punch is very dangerous though, so again, I recommend the Life Orb set. However, for each of these, you'd probably have to sacrifice a Pokemon, though you can bait a Thunderbolt by sending out Gyarados, which Cradily can switch into.

Suicune's very simiar to Starmie, except that it can setup Calm Minds, making it potentially more dangerous. After a single Calm Mind (which can easily be setup on against Gyarados, possibly Dusknoir, though Confuse Ray could mess Suicune up (but that's an unreliable strategy), and possibly Honchkrow, with proper prediction). Again, Cradily is probably your best bet, as Toxic severely cripples Suicune, but you have to get in safely.

A funny little thing is that your Gyarados is your lone water resist, but Gyarados has problems against opposing waters (particularly bulky ones). Starmie has Thunderbolt, Suicune has HP Electric, Vaporeon has HP Electric or Toxic or even Roar, and the list goes on. After taking out Gyarados, water types are free to rain down on you with Surfs and Hydro Pumps and Waterfalls. Cradily can take hits to an extent, and has Toxic to cripple waters, but your opponent can simply switch into a hard-hitting Fighting or Bug user, or reply with a Toxic of their own.

Swords Dance Lucario can set up on Cradily or Choice-Locked Honchkrow (again, go LO), and rip through your entire team. Actually, for four of your members, it doesn't even need to set up to OHKO. The two that do require setup are Dusknoir and Gyarados. If setup, and depending on whether it has Crunch or Stone Edge (the rare Bullet Punch variants will be easier for you to handle, since both Dusknoir and Gyarados can deal with it), either could be KO'd as well. Not to mention, Lucario is often paired with teammates who can take out Flying types and Ghosts.

Also, outside of Aerodactyl, who's not lasting long, your fastest Pokemon is Gyarados, who sits at 81 base. That's not very fast, which means you're very prone to getting revenge killed, and on your own side, you lack a dedicated revenge killer. A scarf user, or strong priority user is essential for finishing off weakened foes.

And finally, Stealth Rock. Quite possibly the one move that nearly every team has in common. Baton Pass chains and some weather teams may forgo it, but take an average team at random, and it probably has Stealth Rock. For good reason too; it hits nearly every (grr, Magic Guard) Pokemon for at least some damage for just switching in! The Pokemon that are arguably your main sweepers, Honchkrow and Gyarados, are both weak to Stealth Rock, meaning they take 25% damage switching in. Moreover you have very little to prevent Stealth Rock from being up on your side of the field. Sure, early game, Aerodactyl can Taunt to prevent it from being set up, but it won't be there mid game to stop it, and you've got no Rapid Spin support.

What to Change?

That looks like a lot to cover, but with the following two changes, I think it can work out:

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Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Hydro Pump
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Rapid Spin

Put Starmie over Aerodactyl in the lead spot. It has the ability to beat many other leads with its powerful attacks, and can Rapid Spin away any hazards, particularly stealth rock which can hamper your team. Starmie also helps against the likes of Infernape, and Scizor to an extent. Hydro Pump is an obligatory STAB, and it hits like a Starmie's Hydro Pump. Serious stuff. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt for the famed BoltBeam combo, which provides excellent coverage alongside water. Rapid Spin to of course spin away hazards.

And...

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Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Overheat
-Thunderbolt
-Shadow Ball
-Trick

Use Rotom-H over Dusknoir. This gives you a much needed revenge killer, and allows you to check the likes of SD Lucario and DD Gyarados, among other things. Overheat is Rotom-H's signature move, and it deals with Lucario, Scizor, and other steels. Thunderbolt is a good STAB that can help you with water types. Shadow Ball is mostly filler, but it's a secondary STAB, and has its uses. Trick can cripple walls like Blissey.

There are a couple of smaller things to consider.

As mentioned I don't know how many times in this post, I'd try out the LO Honchkrow set, because switching attacks is invaluable, and Honchkrow can actually act as an effective mixed attacker.

Mentioned this before too, but Gyarados will probably serve you better as a Dragon Dancer as opposed to your current set.

Also previously mentioned, you might want to use Stockpile over Stealth Rock on Cradily. This makes it more effective at walling and stalling. Of course, that means you're without Stealth Rock. So...

Magnezone is a bit redundant with the Starmie and Rotom-H, and Scizor, who would probably be the biggest threat to your team Magnezone beats, is well covered already. You might want consider another steel, such as Metagross, who can set up Stealth Rock. Having a Steel is important because it's the only type that resists Dragon, and Dragon is a very popular, not to mention strong, attacking type. Metagross has great synergy with Starmie, beating the leads that Starmie can't, such as Machamp and Roserade, while also setting up stealth rock.

TL;DR

Normally I hate summarizing, people should read the whole post to know why what was said, was said. But with all I typed, I think it was necessary to make a little list of all the suggestions so something isn't missed.

Major Changes:
-LO Starmie over Aerodactyl in lead.
-Scarf Rotom-H over Dusknoir.

Lesser/Changes to Consider:
-DD Gyarados variant over current set.
-LO Honchkrow over current set.
-Stockpile on Cradily over Stealth Rock.
-Metagross over Magnezone.

Wow, looking over this, I think I went overkill. x_x
If anywhere in the post I sound rude, I apologize, that's not what I mean by any of it, I'm just trying to help you out, which, by the way, I hope this post helped.
 
Holy hell, I typed a wall of text, and during that time, Eggbert posted a rather succinct post and noticed a weakness I didn't in the form of Tyranitar, and the TS edited his team adding an Electivire. The Metagross I suggested checks Tyranitar, but won't necessarily beat it.

@Eggbert: Small nitpick, but replacing Magnezone means he lacks a Steel, and by extension, a Dragon resists. Cradily can sponge hits to an extent, but it can't do too much back. Maybe it can stall them out with Toxic, but it'd probably need Stockpile as suggested.

Also, small nitpick, Eos:
Eos said:
A bulky set and a sweeping set for Gyara (DD sets) are the most popular and for good reason. They really are the best kind of Gyara sets, and once they set up, they can be untouchable.
There isn't necessarily a universally better set. A set being popular just means it's highly effective in the current metagame. A completely different set could work very well in a team because it fills a specific niche. Also, DD Gyarados are nowhere near untouchable. :P

I had no idea it was sooooooooooooooo long.
Q_Q
 
Ok now that so many changes have been suggested im not going to change the team on the thread but i will use all of your suggestions in the team itself,i greatly appreciate all of your help especially flamesaber with his unusually long post. :nerd:
 
Ok now that so many changes have been suggested im not going to change the team on the thread but i will use all of your suggestions in the team itself,i greatly appreciate all of your help especially flamesaber with his unusually long post. :nerd:
Yeahh, sorry again about that, I don't know what got into me.
 
I'm by no means an expert; infact I'm still relatively new to competitive battling myself (it's only been a few months now), but there are just a couple of basic concepts that have to be grasped when building a team.

My eyes are still bleeding at how long I made that post...
 
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