Old School...plus Reuniclus
With all of the genies, jirachis, and musketeers running around the current metagame, I thought it'd be nice to make a team with no legends and mostly pokes from the first few generations because of nostalgia. "Can't compete with the fast-paced metagame" you say? Well I beg to differ.
I wanted my team to include my favorite pokes - Dragonite and Arcanine - while also being viable in the current metagame. I took a peek at the threads, and stumbled upon metagross66 RMT and saw a very interesting team. Link here for his RMT: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3451799.
I decided to build my team around a powerful offense while having some bulk built in as well.
So I love Arcanine, and Gen V gave him some nifty tools that differentiate him from some other fire pokes that would be otherwise just left in the dust of RU/NU. Namely, Wild Charge and Close Combat. With these two moves on this beastly poke, and a decent Attack and Speed stat, I decided he would be my revenge killer.
The next poke I really wanted on this team was Dragonite. With Mence, Hydreigon, and Garchomp (banned) introduced in the past generations, poor old dragonite was neglected. And as the other guys all had sweet abilities and could basically do anything he could do better, it seemed pointless to use the big ol' lug. But with the introduction of his dreamworld ability, Multiscale, dragonite has come back into prominence.
On previous teams that I made, I found that they were all extremely weak to Thundurus. But with Quagsire on my team, I believe that the genie can be neutralized easily.
I never really liked reuniclus because of its looks, but I guess you can't judge a book by its cover. I never really understood what the hype was until I read a few RMTs and found that this guy is just ridiculous. This guy alone can beat a bunch of pokes with its trick rooming and magic guard ability.
After watching MTGXerxes on youtube, I loved this guy. Yggdrasil as it was called, would often give xerxes the edge on battles that he otherwise would've lost. However, I wanted a different type of breloom. Sure, focus punching a blissey is always fun to do...but on this team, breloom will serve a different purpose.
Vaporeon was my initial choice for the sixth slot because it had an ice move, could roar out phazers, and would be extremely useful for wish-passing. Also, it would be my primary physical wall. But I looked at my team, and realized that quagsire should be sufficient to deal with stat-uppers. And ice moves can be used by many different pokes. Sure, I will miss the wish-passing to my arcanine who abuses recoil...but I realized that rapid spin was probably a better choice for me. If toxic spikes and SR were to go up, that would ruin my arcanine and my quagsire. So I looked for a spinner with a grass move (for gastrodon/swampert/slowbro/etc) and found...
Tentacruel!
I always liked this guy...even though he and his underlings infested the waters of Kanto like no other. The jellyfish would be bulky and fast so that he could spin away hazards and set up his own toxic spikes. Ice beam and giga drain would be ways to deal with dragons and the ground/water pokemon. But I looked at my team and I saw only one guy had an electric attack...and it was a recoil abuser who probably wouldn't last long. Also, I saw that tentacruel's S.Atk stat was quite mediocre, and toxic spikes wouldn't be too beneficial for my team of hard hitters.
Enter Starmie. One of two remaining OU veterans since Gen I. Starmie was always a beast and continues to be a force to be reckoned with.
Spin support and natural curing from toxic is really nice. And its numerous powerful coverage moves makes the opponent keep guessing what they can and can't switch into this starfish.
EDIT
After looking at my team some more, I decided it probably wasn't competitively at its full potential because of the huge weakness to latias and latios. I didn't really have an effective way to counter them...so I decided to make some substitutions. First, I decided that Arcanine, as awesome as he was, would be replacable by infernape. Ape would be scarfed to revenge kill weakened pokes. He also will have mach punch for the sole purpose of taking out excadrill or other pokes that abuse weather to outspeed other teams. With Ape having mach punch, it would mean that I could take out Breloom and replace him with a poke to take out the lati twins.
This is Bisharp. He's a power ranger that fights dirty. I saw his massive attack stat and his dark/steel combo to resist draco meteor/outrage and at the same time hit back with a STAB sucker punch. Right then, I realized that this was the missing link in my team.
And now, a closer look...
Infernape @ Choice Scarf
Iron Fist
28 HP, 252 Atk, 228 Spe
Jolly
-Flare Blitz
-U-Turn
-Mach Punch
-Close Combat
The main reason why I chose ape over arcanine is because he's just better competitively in all aspects (except for extremespeed). I gave him enough EVs to outspeed scarfed pokes in the 120 speed tier (with non speed-boosting natures). His main purpose is to finish off weakened pokes, so being able to outspeed is definitely more valuable than hitting harder. Therefore, I chose to use Jolly instead of Adamant. Mach Punch is great for Excadrill and U-turn is for scouting. I decided not to put on thunderpunch or stone edge because I'd much rather have his two most powerful STAB moves that provide excellent coverage. The 28 extra EVs just went into HP because with his flare blitz recoil, you never know when you might need an extra point or two of HP. Putting them into Def, S.Def, and S.Atk would be pointless.
Dragonite @ Life Orb
Multiscale
252 Atk, 252 S.Atk, 4 Hp
Quiet
-Draco Meteor
-Fire Blast
-Earthquake
-Extremespeed
I got this set from metagross66 and found it very intriguing. As a lead, dragonite seems to be very effective. Taunting it will get you killed, and trying to 1v1 it will end in a nasty extremespeed, something the other dragons wished they had. Speed is irrelevant as it is mostly just for hard hitting and possibly stall-breaking. It would be a one-time use poke as multiscale only works at full HP and I have no wishes on this team. I could give it roost, but that would compromise this set's effectiveness. After getting hit with a powerful draco meteor, the opponent may stay in and expect a weak fire blast or a switch, only to get spiked by a powerful Earthquake.
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Unaware
252 HP, 4 Def, 252 S.Def
Careful
-Curse
-Recover
-Earthquake
-Ice Punch
This is my ace for the stupid genie. Nasty plot all you want, you won't be getting past this guy without a critical hit. Cursing will patch up its defense while recover improves its survivability. The only thing that can kill this guy is a powerful physical attack before it gets to curse up, or a grass move.
Earthquake is obvious for a reliable STAB move. Waterfall is the other STAB move. Rather than using stone edge, I chose waterfall because of its reliable accuracy and its ability to hit gliscor for super effective damage.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Magic Guard
192 HP, 64 Def, 252 S.Atk
0 Spe iv
Quiet
-Trick Room
-Focus Blast
-Psychic
-Shadow Ball
This alien fetus covered in jello is pretty damn effective.
Trick Room was always something that was very risky, but reuniclus with trick room is probably one of the best things in this new generation. It can deal with weather teams that rely on speed boosting from the rain/sand/sun. Its bulk also helps with dealing with sucker punches when at full health. Shadow ball is a great coverage move along with focus blast. It destroys steels, fighting, dark, ghost, and opposing psychic pokemon. Its main purpose on this team is to gain back lost momentum by screwing up the field with trick room. I considered using psyshock over psychic, but I realized that conkeldurr's special defense is much lower than its defense. And with most fighting types having bulk up, it would be better to stick with psychic.
Bisharp @ Occa Berry
Defiant
132 HP, 172 Atk, 204 S.Def
Adamant
-Sucker Punch
-Pursuit
-Thunder Wave
-Brick Break
Lati-twins, meet Bisharp. This guy is pretty much my counter to Latios and Latias. I took the EVs from an analysis as it stated that it's enough to make sure he can take a draco meteor or some neutral special hit. I gave him the occa berry instead of balloon because I'll be primarily switching him into draco meteors. And if the lati twins think that they can finish me off with an HP Fire, I can just beat them out with pursuit after taking the weakened fire move. I'd think that balloon would be pointless because his main purpose is to sponge Draco Meteors for the team, and once he takes a meteor (or an outrage), his balloon will pop and leave him with no item. Brick break is a nice utility to have if fighting an espeon or any screener.
Starmie @ Life Orb
Natural Cure
4 HP, 252 S.Atk, 252 Spe
Timid
-Rapid Spin
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Hydro Pump
Gen I just did it right. It's got a mediocre base-stat total, but everything was distributed perfectly for this starfish. Rapid spin is necessary for removing entry hazards that would otherwise bother this team. BoltBeam is for dragons, fliers, waters, and basically perfect coverage. Grass knot is there for swampert, gastrodon, quagsire, and the heavyweights. I chose Hydro Pump over psychic and psyshock because reuniclus has the fighting types covered. Starmie is my only water move on this team, and can be useful to countering some rain teams.
I hope you enjoyed my team. I'm sure you can find some obvious flaws in it, and I welcome all constructive criticism.
Thanks!
