Ok, I scurried through my folders and I found something which probably should have been posted here way before but as the saying goes, sooner better than later. But now that the game is a year old, this probably won't have as much impact as before but if you are interested then I welcome you to read on what I have written back when I was playing the game back in 2010.
I was initially going to have this up as a word document via a link so you could download and read being as it is 15 pages long...
But I will take the time to make a post so you can read it without having doubts, or deterrence on the denoted subject.
This was the team I found to be pretty staple and to work for me a lot, keep in mind at this time I didn't have access to many fifth generation pokemon.
Please note that I may have missed out one or two errors because I had to rename/update all sorts of names, most noticeably of them being:
- A pokemon name being spelt in Japanese Romanji.
- An item being in the same scenario as the above.
- An ability name that was in its japanese romanji state.
(2010 sand team) (I will make another post with an updated team for rating very soon, I just want to post my previous one here and then chronically make the new one).
Hippowdon
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Roar
Nature: Impish
Ability: Sand Stream
Ev’s: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Atk
Purpose: Well, seeing as sandstorm seems to be rising up to be the dominant weather effect, Hippowdon seems to do that job very well. Tyranitar used to be the more popular choice but is now considered the more offensive choice but also the worse choice of the two which I will explain:
Hippowdon has massive defences and tanky Hit Points designed to take heavy physical blows all day long, has access to a reliable recovery and has decent attack to retaliate with a STAB move such as Earthquake. It’s also noteworthy that the new Drill Mole Pokémon, Excadrill is a new sand threat to any team. When you see Tyranitar or a Hippowdon, that mole is never too far behind, it will literally dig a hole through your unprepared team as it prepares to Swords Dance and proceed to sweep with a metal broom and put your team in a sandy bin. The nice niche that Hippowdon has is that it can help or even defend against Excadrill depending on whether you’re using it or you’re planning to counter it. According to calcs, a Hippowdon can live a +2 Earthquake without Stealth Rock or Spikes damage which is impressive. Although, it is not the only counter to Excadrill, rather there are a lot of checks to him. First off, its defences, both of which are BASE 60, which are paper thin according to most people and due to its somewhat good typing, it is unfortunately weak to both priority moves such as Aqua Jet and Mach Punch/Vacuum Wave. Noticeable users are: Azumarill, Conkeldurr and Lucario which scare the mole and often force it to switch out.
Now on what Hippowdon usually does:
It will set its rocks almost right away as that is its primary goal. After that, it will either start EQ’ing almost immediately depending on what it is facing or it will roar with its huge mouth to scout the opponents team...if that was the case due to the fact that this game acts upon the bases of Pokémon Battle Revolution allowing you to see your opponent’s team but still, Roar is still a good move due to the fact it may drag out an unwanted Pokémon into play to receive Stealth Rock damage (and Spikes damage if you have set down any). Slack Off is to heal Hippowdon of any damage it has taken throughout the battle.
Counters: Specially based Pokémon that hit really hard such as Pokémon with Leaf Storm or Surf/Hydro pump, Bulky waters could cause a problem as well. Toxic users cripple its bulk in the long run and specially based dragons that often let loose Draco Meteors on it could heavy damage Hippowdon as well and also due to the fact that most dragons aren’t hit by Earthquake so Hippowdon can’t touch them.
Excadrill
(Sadly, this guy has been banned a long time ago which removes the majority of this thread's purpose. I plan to post another team in this thread as my updated team to give this thread some meaning).
Item: Life Orb / Air Balloon
Moveset:
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Sand Throw
Ev’s: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Purpose: It is designed to be one of the most dangerous sand sweepers in this generation, in my opinion it gives me the impression of a glass cannon yet it can set up with Swords Dance (or Claw Sharpen which raises attack and accuracy by one stage) it holds the title of a sweeper.
Without the sand, which is NOT what a Excadrill often prefers it can still be a powerful Pokémon and deal some damage, it’s just that WITH the sand, Excadrill can be one hell of a monster, already boasting a 135 BASE attack which ties with the likes of Metagross and Salamence and a Base 88 Speed which is 2 points of 90 which is the benchmark short of the BASE 90 Pokémon such as Lucario and Moltres, Porygon-Z and Roserade (Assuming they’re all max speed in a Timid/Jolly nature). But due to its ability Sand Throw which doubles speed in a Sandstorm, Excadrill outspeeds virtually every viable Timid scarf Pokémon in existence which is a scary thought. Life Orb only helps Excadrill in its sweeping capabilities or alternately you could use a new item called Balloon which gives the user ground type immunity but any direct attack can pop it and unfortunately substitutes don’t block it so take note of that. But the item does give Excadrill an edge because of the item’s properties.
Counters: When sweeping (usually with a +2 boost from Swords Dance) it is very irritating when a Pokémon that uses priority moves such as Mach Punch Conkeldurr, Vacuum wave Lucario or Aqua Jet Azumarill/Basculin which are checks, proper counters such as Brongzong or Hippowdon who can take Excadrill’s moves and then hit back with Earthquake or even in Brongzong’s case a Gyro Ball and thanks to the speed Excadrill is in to its ability in the sand, Gyro Ball will hit harder on those BASE 60 defences. Physical walls more or less give Excadrill something to think about whether to stay in and hope to K.O the opposition depending on how much health the defender has or to switch out possibly being countered. Note that some Excadrill’s may pack Return or Shadow Claw based on their experience.
Reuniclus
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:
- Psychic/Psyshock
- Recover
- Reflect
- Focus Blast
Nature: Modest
Ability: Magic Guard
Ev’s: 252 HP / 252 HP SpA / 4 Def
Purpose: Reuniclus is probably an underrated Pokémon (It's not anymore), it is actually amazing. It doesn’t get damage from Stealth Rocks, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Leech Seed and weather damage to cripple its bulk (Indirect damage). It has very good special attack to hit back and has access to reliable recovery.
Reuniclus helps by countering Conkeldurr, a popular new 5th generation fighting type which is a more physically defined based Pokémon than Machamp. And at the time I had Psyshock but for some odd reason, they always stay in and Payback (which actually does less damage due to the fact that Reuniclus has an appalling speed stat) or Conkeldurr will Bulk Up which is bad due to the fact that my Reuniclus at the time had Psycho Shock which is a move that acts off your special attack stat but deals physical damage; it was initially for Chansey and Blissey as to prevent being walled but because this certain situation has happened to me more than twice...I have switched back to using Psychic. Also it helps taking Mach Punches from Conkeldurr whenever I’m trying to get a Excadrill sweep of my own.
Recover is a reliable recovery move, surely it needs no in-depth.
Reflect is to help block physical attacks more better which can help against Payback Conkeldurr who unusually stays in and Bulk Up thinking they’re the incredible Hulk, Outrage Dragons, Earthquaking pokes. Infact, most of the Pokémon I face often use physical attacks so I use Reflect. Usually the choice of screens is purely based on experience and I have chosen one of the two based on mine.
Focus Blast may have shoddy accuracy but when it hits, it feels so good. Primarily it is used for coverage. Most of the times I have used Focus Blast was when it mattered to hit...hit. Focus Blast does around 56%-66% against Skarmory (imagine if it roosted on you) and does around 70%-80% to Ferrothorn. It’s also funny that I get hit by taunt a lot in some cases where it hardly hinders me or I don’t intend to use a non-attacking move or it’s just too obvious.
Counters: Dark type Pokémon with STAB moves can still hit Rankurusu very hard and STAB Bug and Ghost type moves still do a shed load even with its bulk, it’s not the bulkiest Pokémon so don’t think it can take every hit like that at full HP. In short, pretty much STAB super-effective moves or very high attack power Pokémon using super effective moves.
I’m also trying out its pre-evolved form with the eviolite and with some testing it’s roughly even plus I wanna see how some people react to it. The only reason I’m using it is because they actually have the same base special attack, funny isn’t it?
Chansey
Item: Eviolite
Moveset
- Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Aromatherapy
- Toxic
Nature: Calm
Ability: Natural Cure
Ev’s: 252 Def / 252 SpD / 4 HP
Purpose: Special wall, pretty obvious just looking at it.
Chansey is an incredible Pokémon in this generation for one thing only: Evolution stone, which basically boosts a not fully evolved Pokémon defences by 50% meaning it overtakes Blissey like this: 49% more specially bulky than 252 HP / 252 Def Bold Blissey while still being about 13% more physically bulky. Compared to the 252 Def / 252 SpD Calm Blissey, Chansey can take physical hits 35% better and special hits 23% better.
So you can see how well Chansey is ahead of Blissey, sure you’ve lost leftovers recovery but you’ve got more bulk support. I feel that some people will still use Blissey because of the leftovers and the fact that it is fully evolved anyway.
Due to Chansey not being fully evolved, it will have very low special attack which means its only means of attack is Seismic Toss which does set damage. Which is ok, it gives you the chance to invest all your ev’s into pure bulk.
Softboiled is a reliable yadayadayada. Wish, which now heals 50% of max HP from the user, it can pass over 300 HP to the next Pokémon, in most cases almost healing the Pokémon right up even from the red bar of HP which can be an alternative option if it floats your Wishboat but if you are running Wish then the other move should be Protect and they come hand in hand plus the adding scout effect of Protect allowing you to see what move they would try to use on you especially if you can see that they are choiced (Banded, Scarved or Specs) in some way. This does mean you have to drop either Toxic or Aromatherapy.
Toxic is useful to breaking down walls not namely Steel or Poison types that would otherwise give you a lot of trouble.
Aromatherapy is a very good move which would give Chansey the title of a Cleric.
Counters: High power STAB physical moves, whether super effective or not will give Chansey trouble, Steel types like Metagross and Aggron aren’t nice to her either.
I admit, my previous set was a 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD but after doing some research to see if I can increase my bulk I found that my current set could still be better, all it takes is better EV investment.
Hydreigon
Item: Wise Glasses/Choice Scarf
Moveset
- Draco meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Surf
Nature: Modest/ Timid
Ability: Levitate
Ev’s: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Purpose: Fast special attacker fit for purpose based on this team.
Reunclus is a Psychic type. And a good partner would be a dark type right? (though they both share bug weakness, Conkeldurr can fit in for that) Hydreigon does a good job of going out there and wrecking stuff with its huge special attack. With choice scarf he outspeeds a lot of things whereas Wise Glasses can help bluff a scarf and then surprise the foe while still getting a boost from the said item.
Draco Meteor is like a let-loose attack that you want to throw at anything and hopefully dent the incoming Pokémon should you choose it.
Dark Pulse is for STAB dark attacks that you want to dish and and the rare odd flinch should you be blessed by the hax gods.
Fire Blast takes care of steels types and 85% accuracy isn’t too bad. If you are the unlucky type then stick to flamethrower though you may miss out on kills.
Surf is the last coverage move you can use to hit Heatran and Hippowdon. You could use Focus blast also if you prefer it.
Counters: STAB Dragon, Fighting and bug types will pretty much send this dragon to the ground. With scarfers and flying Mach Punches all over the place (I’ll include Scizor’s Bullet Punch also). Sazandra is going to be switching out pretty often, which is why most guys go for scarf but that means they have to be great in prediction skills to use him (and pretty much every scarfed Pokémon. He’s more a less a hit and run Pokémon and has to be played well with a scarf in order make good use of him.
Conkeldurr
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:
- Drain Punch
- Bulk Up
- Mach Punch
- Stone Edge
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Guts
Ev’s: 204 HP / 208 Atk / 96 SpD
Purpose: Be a boss.
He’s more or less the overused hyped up upgrade of a Machamp...and he can pretty much prove that. He is much more physically defined than him and right now the only thing Machamp has over him is D-punch confusion, more special bulk and no-miss whatsoever. But it seems that people prefer the raw power that he can dish out, figures :/
Well let’s get on with the moves:
Drain Punch eventually became more popular over the early used hammer Arm to match the base power of Machamp’s DynamicPunch but soon realized that Drain Punch granted staying power and thanks to the base power increase of 60 > 75, Drain Punch is now considered to be a great move on bulk up sets especially with Gallade due to his very high natural bulk in Sp.Def.
Bulk up is to grant attack and defense power, know when to use this move and become a tank.
Mach Punch is probably the deal sealer for using Conkeldurr. STAB Priority on top of a free bulk up should you think of taking that power into Mach Punch on the next turn. This also makes up for his slow speed.
Stone Edge I realized to be the much better choice due to flying types and bug types wanting to switch into his incoming STAB fighting moves. Payback is still used although Stone Edge has proved to be the better option. You’re not going to be staying in on Psychics and Stone Edge still wrecks Ghosts regardless on not being super effective. The funny thing is most Conkeldurr are running careful nature now as to grant more staying power over power but I still prefer Adamant because I don’t want to lose too much power for him to be overtaken by Machamp.
Counters:
I’ll keep this short: STAB psychic and flying types hurt it. High repeated special attacks and can also resist Conkeldurr’s attack make him not wanna struggle through them.
That's it for the team part.
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This is an extra part if you still want to read on.
Pokémon that I see being used a lot so far:
This is a list of Pokémon I have seen being used frequently and they are in no particular order.
Ferrothorn
This guy is used on like every 4/5 teams, it is a very popular Pokémon due to its similarities to Forretress having a pure/x4 Fire type weakness except this Pokémon is so much more bulky, it can go either way on defences but some tend to add some special defence investment, it can even live un-boosted STAB HP fires all day long while it’s sucking your health with Leech Seed as its form of recovery and can also set rocks and spikes (It should be noted that you can’t have both Spikes and Steal Rocks so pick your poison). It also has Steel Thorns which is the equivalent to Rough Skin which was introduced in 3rd gen which only adds more damage to its opponents and it can use Gyro Ball and Power Whip to damage its foes as well. You will have trouble dealing with this Pokémon if you don’t have any boosted fury in some way whether it’s a Nasty Plot or Swords dance or a super effective move.
Hydreigon
So called “The new Mence” Thing is, it kinda is but on the special side because of its Base 125 special attack stat which basically spells Draco Meteor. It also has access to U-Turn, Fire Blast, Surf and Earth Power which are most commonly seen. Sets range from a Life Orb set to a Choice set which can either be specs or more commonly scarfed. But because of its benchmark Base 98 speed, it does suffer under the hands of Flygon and the original Salamence, and also Garchomp should they all be scarfed themselves.
Conkeldurr
This Pokémon is on like 90% of teams and is also known as “The new Machamp” It is basically a more physically defined version of it. It’s popular because of its amazing stats in HP, Attack and Defence with moves such as Bulk Up to abuse it. It can also learn Hammer Arm although recently Drain Punch (since the generation shift its Base power is now: 60 > 75) which adds as a form of survivability as well as dealing damage, it can also use moves such as Payback and Stone Edge and Rock Slide with Payback being the most common. Now Conkeldurr’s real selling point after the Bulk is access to Mach Punch; which is probably its definitive selling point, and that can literally destroy certain sweepers such as Shell Break Cloyster and Abagoora, Lucario, Excadrill, Rock Polish Aggron and Sazandora etc. which Machamp wasn’t able to do. So compared to him, Conkeldurr is going to be throwing cinderblock concrete at every Pokémon he can take on including Machamp himself.
Blissey
For those who still like using this fat fairy and for its the leftovers gain (I’ll tell you now, Chansey is much better in terms of bulk thanks to the Evolution Stone) But anyway, she is still used a lot due to those who don’t understand what Chansey is capable of. But yeah, most of you already know what she does; she’s been around for 4 generations so surely she needs no in-depth explanation.
Excadrill
(This guy at this present time has been banned a long time ago)
The Sand Mole Excadrill, feared in the sand. This guy is seen quite a lot and is a Pokémon you should really look out for or otherwise it WILL sweep you off your feet. Awesome Base 135 attack and Base 88 speed (Doubled in Sandstorm) equipped with Swords Dance, it’s a dangerous poke to deal with; so pack counters just in case. On a side note: people are a little saddened due to the fact that it can’t learn Stone Edge.
Thundurus
This guy is like an offensive Zapdos, more speed but less pretty much everywhere else. Yet he has access to Grass Knot and Nasty Plot which Zapdos doesn’t have so it makes it very viable to use and thanks to its Mischievous Heart Ability, it can blow a Thunder Wave at a foe while ignoring how fast they may be at the time which can be helpful. Zapdos is now usually the bulky option whereas Voltolos is considered the offensive option...because it has its arms folded, it means business.
Landorus
The ground type variant of the Rajin Trio, Landlos can boast some powerful stuff in the Sandstorm thanks to its Sand Throw ability which makes people equip a Choice Scarf to it and since it has access to U-turn, only the more reason to. With STAB Earthquake and SS powered up Stone Edge, it’s a very good Pokémon to have on a Sandstorm team. (He remind me of a court judge)
Suicune (in random battles)
Now I’ve usually see this Pokémon in Random battles via the GBU in Pokémon Centers. It was a beast in 3rd gen, a little bit more easy to handle in 4th gen and now in 5th gen it’s pretty much the same; if you let it get too many calm minds up then you’re kinda screwed.
Mienshao
Usually these are leads but in my opinion, the Choice Scarf variant is much more deadly, High Jump Kick had its power boosted from 100 > 130. And a 90% isn’t so bad plus if you miss you now get ½ of your max HP stripped off (which is better when against high HP Pokémon) and it has the Regeneration ability which heals a third of the Pokémon when switched out so that would be its form of staying healthy or even compensation. It also has access to U-turn to abuse that ability, access to Drain Punch if needed as a secondary fighting type move, and has access to Stone Edge and with a Base 125 attack and a Base 105 speed; it can use a choice scarf very nicely.
Darmanitan
I’ve seen a lot of these guys at the first few weeks, another Pokémon that is used with a Choice Scarf, An amazing Base 140 attack with a Base 95 speed it really has potential, although it’s more of a glass cannon with those Base 55 defences. Its ability Sheer force boosts attack that have a secondary effect such as Burn and Paralysis so it increases Flare Blitz’s Power beyond STAB. It has access to Earthquake, U-turn, Superpower and Stone Edge.
On the special side it’s not too great however, thanks to Daruma Mode as a Dream World ability it can tend to sway that way; it is legal as you can catch one in-game. The best way to use of it is to make your opponent think your scarfed as most tend to automatically think as you send it out, then Substitute on the switch. Then at the time your HP goes below 50% then Daruma Mode activates. Which has much better defences and sports a Base 140 special attack as well as a temporary Psychic type addition so it’s pretty cool but I think in most cases you would be used the physical version with choice scarf.
Archeops
This is more or less a stronger but slightly slower offensive version of Aerodactyl. It’s a powerful Pokémon but it’s within that class of Pokémon with a hindering ability. Archeos’ one is called: Faint hearted which if its HP drops below 50%, the attack stat also suffers a 50% drop. So it is best used at full HP without receiving Stealth Rock damage. It has Base 140 / 112 / 110 in Attack, Special attack and Speed respectfully so you can somewhat see why is has a hindering ability. Most might tend to be mixed should a thing ever happen, probably with a Naive or Hasty nature. You can go Jolly if you want the speed or go Adamant if you want that power but be careful not to fall under half HP so early.
Terrakion
They mostly Swords Dance to perform a sweep and with STAB Sacred Sword or Close Combat with Stone edge, it has good coverage, it can also hold X-scissor for grass Pokémon though STAB Close Combat will often do much better damage. With its Justified ability most people abuse it and purposely switch into an incoming Dark-type move and then proceed to sweep from there or Swords Dance to get up at +3 with a speed stat that ties with the previous exclusive Infernape.
Gigalith
This Pokémon is usually seen only as a lead and thanks to Sturdy it can take a hit and always get up a Stealth Rock then with Custap Berry, it will either use Stone Edge to get a hit in, Earthquake or explode if deemed appropriate and with a Base 85 135 and 130 in HP, Attack and Defence respectfully, it can do very well physically but not specially but that doesn’t matter due to Sturdy.
Zoroark
The Joker of all Pokémon, its ability Illusion can masquerade a Pokémon in your 6th slot of your party which can be used to your advantage, even if the person knows you have a Zoroark he/she still has to second guess whether the Pokémon sent out is actually a Zoroark or if it’s the real thing. Zoroark is a bit slow for a powerful sweeper only reaching 339 in speed but has very good special attack reaching 372 and access to Flamethrower, Focus Blast, Grass knot, Hidden power (Ice or Electric) and Nasty Plot, the movepool is very decent. Don’t forget its signature move Night Burst is a slightly more powerful version of Dark Pulse (Night Burst: 85 acc. 95) and has a chance to lower accuracy rather than to flinch an opponent.
Rotom-W
Rotom-W is used specifically as a more offensive Lanturn and due to levitate it can dodge a weakness and I mentioned Lanturn because in this generation it is now an Electric/Water type, that’s right. The Rotom appliances replace its Ghost typing (which could resemble void of secondary type) and gains the type of its forme: Grass, Fire, Ice and Flying. Rotom-W has the least weakness of the two basically only having a Grass weakness and it has good defensive abilities and special attack. Now Hydro Pump can get STAB which can work with Thunderbolt and Will-o-Wisp to burn foes and cripple their attack while getting residual damage.
Porygon2
Is now much more defined thanks to the Eviolite and is also one of the few NFE’s that is very good in OU.
Bisharp
Base 125 attack and Base 100 defence may sound good but its 65 Base HP doesn’t support it and even with a very good typing, its more designed as a sweeper and not as a wall, Fighting, Ground and Fire moves are common types and Kirikizan is weak to all of them. It gets STAB Sucker Punch. Night Slash and Swords Dance which sounds nice and with STAB Iron Head, it’s sure to deal some damage. But typing gives its movepool non-STAB moves so it doesn’t hit hard without a Swords Dance boost and it isn’t very fast; Base 70 Speed is too slow to keep up with most genuine sweepers out there, then again, STAB Sucker Punch compensates for that.
Gothitelle
Not really much of a good Pokémon in my eyes, I personally like Gardevoir better, it’s just that it can use Magic Room and has slightly better physical defence. Not much to say about this one.
Jellicent
“I say...” For those who get the British pun for the male version of Burungeru, others may refer to him as the Pringles Jellyfish. That aside, Burungeru is used a lot on teams, as much as Nattorei infact, it has that 404 HP and has great special defence, Cursed Body ability and access to STAB Shadow Ball and since it’s a Ghost type it can block Conkeldurr’s Mach Punches, although it will use Payback on you next turn. It’s similar to Tentacruel but not in every aspect. Tentacruel is a utility Pokémon that uses Toxic Spikes and Rapid Spin whereas Burungeru comes in on a special attack and predicts a switch to a physical attacker and burns it with Will-o-Wisp and it also has access to recovery only furthering its favour in trainers wanting to use it.
Lucario
Pretty much the same except I think most now run Adamant nature if physical and Modest is specially based and it now has access to Nasty Plot so you can’t really tell off the bat what type it may be. (reminds me of a nodding dog)
Serperior (because of its dream world ability)
Serperior is mainly used because of the Dream World Ability, Contrary, which reverses stat changes towards the Pokémon so for example if you use coil, rather than gaining an attack, defence and accuracy rise, rather you get -1 Attack, defence and accuracy. Now for the main reason it is used. Say you use Leaf Storm; you know that it gives you a -2 drop. Well...you know what would happen then. But the ability isn’t legal yet but because it is so broken and easy to access, people won’t really care to use it. The good/bad thing is, it that its movepool is so bad it can’t really do anything but use Leaf Storm and a Hidden Power to attack and with a speed stat of 357, Pokémon like Ambipom and Starmie (and other scarf based Pokémon) can take it out fairly well.
Samurott
Just another Bulky Water wannabe. Although, when physical based STAB Water moves and Megahorn have great coverage. He has access to Grass Knot, Encore and STAB Aqua Jet, he has the movepool to create a strategy around it.
Keldeo
There’s a reason why this Pokémon is used quite a bit, it is because of these two links (shown below). That is pretty much why, it does have very high special attack and good speed so it can be used a special sweeper with Base 91 HP, Base 129 special attack and Base 108 speed, another Pokémon to the Infernape speed group. (Robot Unicorn attack anyone?)
Scolipede
A good fast Spiker with a speed stat reaching 355 and has access to STAB Megahorn, that’s all I’ve seen it do for now.
Krookodile
I’ve seen Choice Scarf variants being used with the Moxie ability which raises attack upon knocking out a foe. It can be a very good late game sweeper with STAB Earthquake and STAB Trickery, although Crunch is the safer option as Trickery can sometimes do less damage that the standard Crunch. It also can learn Stone edge and Outrage.
Cinccino
This isn’t seen too often but with the Skill Link ability and Life Orb, it can utilize moves such as Bullet Seed (Which is now Base power 10 > 25), Rock Blast (which got an accuracy increase) and its signature move Tail slap which gets STAB; it’s quite deadly as it can technically dish out Base power 125 moves and each move could land a Critical Hit. It has a Base 115 Speed and a base 95 Attack which is decent. It also has access to U-turn should it need to hit and run.
Amoonguss
Let me say this Pokémon is deceptively bulky. It has a Base 114 / 70 / 80 Defences and both times even with a Modest Latios Draco Meteor and a Zapdos Fire Jewelled Heat Wave failed to OHKO the damn shroom then it just Spores me to sleep, Syntheses up and Giga Drains and Sludge Bombs the hell out of me. I dislike this Pokémon very much and I say this now, you need a hard hitting STAB using Pokémon with a super effective move to take down this thing easily.
(This was where I started getting tired)
Virizion
A Pokémon with high special defence with access to Swords Dance.
Braviary
A Flying type that has access to Bulk Up, Claw Sharpen, Brave Bird, Rock Slide, U-turn and Superpower, it’s not very fast so some tend to scarf it.
Eelektross
An Electric type eel Pokémon that is used quite a bit due to its Levitate ability giving it no natural weakness. They are often mixed with life orb or leftovers.
Haxorus
A Dragon type with an insanely Base 147 attack power, some variants are Dragon Dancers and Scarfed.
Chandelure
A Pokémon with very high special attack (Base 145) and is often scarfed, another noted sense of usage was from its forbidden dream world ability which was previous exclusive to Wobbuffet
Volcorona
A Pokémon with stat spread of 135, 105 and 100 in special attack, special defence and speed respectfully with Quiver Dance with ups all those mentioned stats by 1 stage. Its STAB moves give very good coverage but with x4 SR weakness, the possibility of it being broken is not so there.
Golurk
A Ghost/Ground Pokémon with physical properties, it has STAB Shadow Punch along with the Iron Fist ability and STAB Earthquake, some abuse the ability with the Sub-Punch combo.
Meloetta
A Psychic type Pokémon with high special Bulk. It’s Fighting type counterpart/forme focuses more on Attack and Speed and is surprisingly fast.
Ditto
A Pokémon that went from joke to the perfect check and scouter in the upcoming metagame. With its Dream World ability Imposter, it an auto-transform into the Pokémon it is sent out on revealing their moveset, and also if you’re in trouble you can come in on a + Dragon dancer for example, you’d copy their current stat changes and equipped with a choice scarf, you’re always going to get the advantage over your opponent and could even provide a late-game sweep. (Vote for ditto!)
Accelgor
A Bug type Pokémon that has the fastest speed in the OU metagame with Base stat of 145 and special attack stat of 100 which is decent, it also holds the fastest Spiker in the game and has access to Recover but with Base 40 defence and Base 60 special defence, it can’t take hits very well.
Galvantula
A Bug/Electric type Pokémon that has the Compoundeyes ability which basically spells Thunder reaching over 90% accuracy along with STAB bug buzz and access to Energy Ball, it’s a pretty hard hitter. Though, being a Bug type, its defences aren’t so good.
Politoad
I ALWAYS have to bring an umbrella with this guy around. With its Dream World ability Drizzle, it’s basically an excuse not to use Kyogre and you know that a rain team is coming along with a steel type. (Didn't see too much Ninetales because Sand and Rain were dominant at the time because of Excadrill and Swift Swim still being legal)
Seismitoad
Another addition to the Water/Ground family, it is usually seen with leftovers and aqua ring while being able to use Drain Punch for extra recovery
Alomomola
In competition with Vaporeon since it has better HP and defence, though it lacks in special properties.
Carracosta
Either seen as a Curser or a Shell Breaker. Quite dangerous in VGCs also.
And that's pretty much it. I wish I had posted this a year ago. I even wrote a 3 page document on how I bred a luxray to get all or 2/3 fangs, I can't remember at this time. I'll add by saying i've seen scrafty a lot but I won't do an analysis on him, i'm sure there's lots of them done somewhere.
Well I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed sharing this with smogon (finally...) Hope this gives a bit of nostalgia along the lines.
I was initially going to have this up as a word document via a link so you could download and read being as it is 15 pages long...
But I will take the time to make a post so you can read it without having doubts, or deterrence on the denoted subject.
This was the team I found to be pretty staple and to work for me a lot, keep in mind at this time I didn't have access to many fifth generation pokemon.
Please note that I may have missed out one or two errors because I had to rename/update all sorts of names, most noticeably of them being:
- A pokemon name being spelt in Japanese Romanji.
- An item being in the same scenario as the above.
- An ability name that was in its japanese romanji state.
(2010 sand team) (I will make another post with an updated team for rating very soon, I just want to post my previous one here and then chronically make the new one).
Hippowdon
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Roar
Nature: Impish
Ability: Sand Stream
Ev’s: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Atk
Purpose: Well, seeing as sandstorm seems to be rising up to be the dominant weather effect, Hippowdon seems to do that job very well. Tyranitar used to be the more popular choice but is now considered the more offensive choice but also the worse choice of the two which I will explain:
Hippowdon has massive defences and tanky Hit Points designed to take heavy physical blows all day long, has access to a reliable recovery and has decent attack to retaliate with a STAB move such as Earthquake. It’s also noteworthy that the new Drill Mole Pokémon, Excadrill is a new sand threat to any team. When you see Tyranitar or a Hippowdon, that mole is never too far behind, it will literally dig a hole through your unprepared team as it prepares to Swords Dance and proceed to sweep with a metal broom and put your team in a sandy bin. The nice niche that Hippowdon has is that it can help or even defend against Excadrill depending on whether you’re using it or you’re planning to counter it. According to calcs, a Hippowdon can live a +2 Earthquake without Stealth Rock or Spikes damage which is impressive. Although, it is not the only counter to Excadrill, rather there are a lot of checks to him. First off, its defences, both of which are BASE 60, which are paper thin according to most people and due to its somewhat good typing, it is unfortunately weak to both priority moves such as Aqua Jet and Mach Punch/Vacuum Wave. Noticeable users are: Azumarill, Conkeldurr and Lucario which scare the mole and often force it to switch out.
Now on what Hippowdon usually does:
It will set its rocks almost right away as that is its primary goal. After that, it will either start EQ’ing almost immediately depending on what it is facing or it will roar with its huge mouth to scout the opponents team...if that was the case due to the fact that this game acts upon the bases of Pokémon Battle Revolution allowing you to see your opponent’s team but still, Roar is still a good move due to the fact it may drag out an unwanted Pokémon into play to receive Stealth Rock damage (and Spikes damage if you have set down any). Slack Off is to heal Hippowdon of any damage it has taken throughout the battle.
Counters: Specially based Pokémon that hit really hard such as Pokémon with Leaf Storm or Surf/Hydro pump, Bulky waters could cause a problem as well. Toxic users cripple its bulk in the long run and specially based dragons that often let loose Draco Meteors on it could heavy damage Hippowdon as well and also due to the fact that most dragons aren’t hit by Earthquake so Hippowdon can’t touch them.
Excadrill
Item: Life Orb / Air Balloon
Moveset:
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Sand Throw
Ev’s: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Purpose: It is designed to be one of the most dangerous sand sweepers in this generation, in my opinion it gives me the impression of a glass cannon yet it can set up with Swords Dance (or Claw Sharpen which raises attack and accuracy by one stage) it holds the title of a sweeper.
Without the sand, which is NOT what a Excadrill often prefers it can still be a powerful Pokémon and deal some damage, it’s just that WITH the sand, Excadrill can be one hell of a monster, already boasting a 135 BASE attack which ties with the likes of Metagross and Salamence and a Base 88 Speed which is 2 points of 90 which is the benchmark short of the BASE 90 Pokémon such as Lucario and Moltres, Porygon-Z and Roserade (Assuming they’re all max speed in a Timid/Jolly nature). But due to its ability Sand Throw which doubles speed in a Sandstorm, Excadrill outspeeds virtually every viable Timid scarf Pokémon in existence which is a scary thought. Life Orb only helps Excadrill in its sweeping capabilities or alternately you could use a new item called Balloon which gives the user ground type immunity but any direct attack can pop it and unfortunately substitutes don’t block it so take note of that. But the item does give Excadrill an edge because of the item’s properties.
Counters: When sweeping (usually with a +2 boost from Swords Dance) it is very irritating when a Pokémon that uses priority moves such as Mach Punch Conkeldurr, Vacuum wave Lucario or Aqua Jet Azumarill/Basculin which are checks, proper counters such as Brongzong or Hippowdon who can take Excadrill’s moves and then hit back with Earthquake or even in Brongzong’s case a Gyro Ball and thanks to the speed Excadrill is in to its ability in the sand, Gyro Ball will hit harder on those BASE 60 defences. Physical walls more or less give Excadrill something to think about whether to stay in and hope to K.O the opposition depending on how much health the defender has or to switch out possibly being countered. Note that some Excadrill’s may pack Return or Shadow Claw based on their experience.
Reuniclus
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:
- Psychic/Psyshock
- Recover
- Reflect
- Focus Blast
Nature: Modest
Ability: Magic Guard
Ev’s: 252 HP / 252 HP SpA / 4 Def
Purpose: Reuniclus is probably an underrated Pokémon (It's not anymore), it is actually amazing. It doesn’t get damage from Stealth Rocks, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Leech Seed and weather damage to cripple its bulk (Indirect damage). It has very good special attack to hit back and has access to reliable recovery.
Reuniclus helps by countering Conkeldurr, a popular new 5th generation fighting type which is a more physically defined based Pokémon than Machamp. And at the time I had Psyshock but for some odd reason, they always stay in and Payback (which actually does less damage due to the fact that Reuniclus has an appalling speed stat) or Conkeldurr will Bulk Up which is bad due to the fact that my Reuniclus at the time had Psycho Shock which is a move that acts off your special attack stat but deals physical damage; it was initially for Chansey and Blissey as to prevent being walled but because this certain situation has happened to me more than twice...I have switched back to using Psychic. Also it helps taking Mach Punches from Conkeldurr whenever I’m trying to get a Excadrill sweep of my own.
Recover is a reliable recovery move, surely it needs no in-depth.
Reflect is to help block physical attacks more better which can help against Payback Conkeldurr who unusually stays in and Bulk Up thinking they’re the incredible Hulk, Outrage Dragons, Earthquaking pokes. Infact, most of the Pokémon I face often use physical attacks so I use Reflect. Usually the choice of screens is purely based on experience and I have chosen one of the two based on mine.
Focus Blast may have shoddy accuracy but when it hits, it feels so good. Primarily it is used for coverage. Most of the times I have used Focus Blast was when it mattered to hit...hit. Focus Blast does around 56%-66% against Skarmory (imagine if it roosted on you) and does around 70%-80% to Ferrothorn. It’s also funny that I get hit by taunt a lot in some cases where it hardly hinders me or I don’t intend to use a non-attacking move or it’s just too obvious.
Counters: Dark type Pokémon with STAB moves can still hit Rankurusu very hard and STAB Bug and Ghost type moves still do a shed load even with its bulk, it’s not the bulkiest Pokémon so don’t think it can take every hit like that at full HP. In short, pretty much STAB super-effective moves or very high attack power Pokémon using super effective moves.
I’m also trying out its pre-evolved form with the eviolite and with some testing it’s roughly even plus I wanna see how some people react to it. The only reason I’m using it is because they actually have the same base special attack, funny isn’t it?
Chansey
Item: Eviolite
Moveset
- Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Aromatherapy
- Toxic
Nature: Calm
Ability: Natural Cure
Ev’s: 252 Def / 252 SpD / 4 HP
Purpose: Special wall, pretty obvious just looking at it.
Chansey is an incredible Pokémon in this generation for one thing only: Evolution stone, which basically boosts a not fully evolved Pokémon defences by 50% meaning it overtakes Blissey like this: 49% more specially bulky than 252 HP / 252 Def Bold Blissey while still being about 13% more physically bulky. Compared to the 252 Def / 252 SpD Calm Blissey, Chansey can take physical hits 35% better and special hits 23% better.
So you can see how well Chansey is ahead of Blissey, sure you’ve lost leftovers recovery but you’ve got more bulk support. I feel that some people will still use Blissey because of the leftovers and the fact that it is fully evolved anyway.
Due to Chansey not being fully evolved, it will have very low special attack which means its only means of attack is Seismic Toss which does set damage. Which is ok, it gives you the chance to invest all your ev’s into pure bulk.
Softboiled is a reliable yadayadayada. Wish, which now heals 50% of max HP from the user, it can pass over 300 HP to the next Pokémon, in most cases almost healing the Pokémon right up even from the red bar of HP which can be an alternative option if it floats your Wishboat but if you are running Wish then the other move should be Protect and they come hand in hand plus the adding scout effect of Protect allowing you to see what move they would try to use on you especially if you can see that they are choiced (Banded, Scarved or Specs) in some way. This does mean you have to drop either Toxic or Aromatherapy.
Toxic is useful to breaking down walls not namely Steel or Poison types that would otherwise give you a lot of trouble.
Aromatherapy is a very good move which would give Chansey the title of a Cleric.
Counters: High power STAB physical moves, whether super effective or not will give Chansey trouble, Steel types like Metagross and Aggron aren’t nice to her either.
I admit, my previous set was a 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD but after doing some research to see if I can increase my bulk I found that my current set could still be better, all it takes is better EV investment.
Hydreigon
Item: Wise Glasses/Choice Scarf
Moveset
- Draco meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Surf
Nature: Modest/ Timid
Ability: Levitate
Ev’s: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Purpose: Fast special attacker fit for purpose based on this team.
Reunclus is a Psychic type. And a good partner would be a dark type right? (though they both share bug weakness, Conkeldurr can fit in for that) Hydreigon does a good job of going out there and wrecking stuff with its huge special attack. With choice scarf he outspeeds a lot of things whereas Wise Glasses can help bluff a scarf and then surprise the foe while still getting a boost from the said item.
Draco Meteor is like a let-loose attack that you want to throw at anything and hopefully dent the incoming Pokémon should you choose it.
Dark Pulse is for STAB dark attacks that you want to dish and and the rare odd flinch should you be blessed by the hax gods.
Fire Blast takes care of steels types and 85% accuracy isn’t too bad. If you are the unlucky type then stick to flamethrower though you may miss out on kills.
Surf is the last coverage move you can use to hit Heatran and Hippowdon. You could use Focus blast also if you prefer it.
Counters: STAB Dragon, Fighting and bug types will pretty much send this dragon to the ground. With scarfers and flying Mach Punches all over the place (I’ll include Scizor’s Bullet Punch also). Sazandra is going to be switching out pretty often, which is why most guys go for scarf but that means they have to be great in prediction skills to use him (and pretty much every scarfed Pokémon. He’s more a less a hit and run Pokémon and has to be played well with a scarf in order make good use of him.
Conkeldurr
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:
- Drain Punch
- Bulk Up
- Mach Punch
- Stone Edge
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Guts
Ev’s: 204 HP / 208 Atk / 96 SpD
Purpose: Be a boss.
He’s more or less the overused hyped up upgrade of a Machamp...and he can pretty much prove that. He is much more physically defined than him and right now the only thing Machamp has over him is D-punch confusion, more special bulk and no-miss whatsoever. But it seems that people prefer the raw power that he can dish out, figures :/
Well let’s get on with the moves:
Drain Punch eventually became more popular over the early used hammer Arm to match the base power of Machamp’s DynamicPunch but soon realized that Drain Punch granted staying power and thanks to the base power increase of 60 > 75, Drain Punch is now considered to be a great move on bulk up sets especially with Gallade due to his very high natural bulk in Sp.Def.
Bulk up is to grant attack and defense power, know when to use this move and become a tank.
Mach Punch is probably the deal sealer for using Conkeldurr. STAB Priority on top of a free bulk up should you think of taking that power into Mach Punch on the next turn. This also makes up for his slow speed.
Stone Edge I realized to be the much better choice due to flying types and bug types wanting to switch into his incoming STAB fighting moves. Payback is still used although Stone Edge has proved to be the better option. You’re not going to be staying in on Psychics and Stone Edge still wrecks Ghosts regardless on not being super effective. The funny thing is most Conkeldurr are running careful nature now as to grant more staying power over power but I still prefer Adamant because I don’t want to lose too much power for him to be overtaken by Machamp.
Counters:
I’ll keep this short: STAB psychic and flying types hurt it. High repeated special attacks and can also resist Conkeldurr’s attack make him not wanna struggle through them.
That's it for the team part.
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This is an extra part if you still want to read on.
Pokémon that I see being used a lot so far:
This is a list of Pokémon I have seen being used frequently and they are in no particular order.
Ferrothorn
This guy is used on like every 4/5 teams, it is a very popular Pokémon due to its similarities to Forretress having a pure/x4 Fire type weakness except this Pokémon is so much more bulky, it can go either way on defences but some tend to add some special defence investment, it can even live un-boosted STAB HP fires all day long while it’s sucking your health with Leech Seed as its form of recovery and can also set rocks and spikes (It should be noted that you can’t have both Spikes and Steal Rocks so pick your poison). It also has Steel Thorns which is the equivalent to Rough Skin which was introduced in 3rd gen which only adds more damage to its opponents and it can use Gyro Ball and Power Whip to damage its foes as well. You will have trouble dealing with this Pokémon if you don’t have any boosted fury in some way whether it’s a Nasty Plot or Swords dance or a super effective move.
Hydreigon
So called “The new Mence” Thing is, it kinda is but on the special side because of its Base 125 special attack stat which basically spells Draco Meteor. It also has access to U-Turn, Fire Blast, Surf and Earth Power which are most commonly seen. Sets range from a Life Orb set to a Choice set which can either be specs or more commonly scarfed. But because of its benchmark Base 98 speed, it does suffer under the hands of Flygon and the original Salamence, and also Garchomp should they all be scarfed themselves.
Conkeldurr
This Pokémon is on like 90% of teams and is also known as “The new Machamp” It is basically a more physically defined version of it. It’s popular because of its amazing stats in HP, Attack and Defence with moves such as Bulk Up to abuse it. It can also learn Hammer Arm although recently Drain Punch (since the generation shift its Base power is now: 60 > 75) which adds as a form of survivability as well as dealing damage, it can also use moves such as Payback and Stone Edge and Rock Slide with Payback being the most common. Now Conkeldurr’s real selling point after the Bulk is access to Mach Punch; which is probably its definitive selling point, and that can literally destroy certain sweepers such as Shell Break Cloyster and Abagoora, Lucario, Excadrill, Rock Polish Aggron and Sazandora etc. which Machamp wasn’t able to do. So compared to him, Conkeldurr is going to be throwing cinderblock concrete at every Pokémon he can take on including Machamp himself.
Blissey
For those who still like using this fat fairy and for its the leftovers gain (I’ll tell you now, Chansey is much better in terms of bulk thanks to the Evolution Stone) But anyway, she is still used a lot due to those who don’t understand what Chansey is capable of. But yeah, most of you already know what she does; she’s been around for 4 generations so surely she needs no in-depth explanation.
Excadrill
The Sand Mole Excadrill, feared in the sand. This guy is seen quite a lot and is a Pokémon you should really look out for or otherwise it WILL sweep you off your feet. Awesome Base 135 attack and Base 88 speed (Doubled in Sandstorm) equipped with Swords Dance, it’s a dangerous poke to deal with; so pack counters just in case. On a side note: people are a little saddened due to the fact that it can’t learn Stone Edge.
Thundurus
This guy is like an offensive Zapdos, more speed but less pretty much everywhere else. Yet he has access to Grass Knot and Nasty Plot which Zapdos doesn’t have so it makes it very viable to use and thanks to its Mischievous Heart Ability, it can blow a Thunder Wave at a foe while ignoring how fast they may be at the time which can be helpful. Zapdos is now usually the bulky option whereas Voltolos is considered the offensive option...because it has its arms folded, it means business.
Landorus
The ground type variant of the Rajin Trio, Landlos can boast some powerful stuff in the Sandstorm thanks to its Sand Throw ability which makes people equip a Choice Scarf to it and since it has access to U-turn, only the more reason to. With STAB Earthquake and SS powered up Stone Edge, it’s a very good Pokémon to have on a Sandstorm team. (He remind me of a court judge)
Suicune (in random battles)
Now I’ve usually see this Pokémon in Random battles via the GBU in Pokémon Centers. It was a beast in 3rd gen, a little bit more easy to handle in 4th gen and now in 5th gen it’s pretty much the same; if you let it get too many calm minds up then you’re kinda screwed.
Mienshao
Usually these are leads but in my opinion, the Choice Scarf variant is much more deadly, High Jump Kick had its power boosted from 100 > 130. And a 90% isn’t so bad plus if you miss you now get ½ of your max HP stripped off (which is better when against high HP Pokémon) and it has the Regeneration ability which heals a third of the Pokémon when switched out so that would be its form of staying healthy or even compensation. It also has access to U-turn to abuse that ability, access to Drain Punch if needed as a secondary fighting type move, and has access to Stone Edge and with a Base 125 attack and a Base 105 speed; it can use a choice scarf very nicely.
Darmanitan
I’ve seen a lot of these guys at the first few weeks, another Pokémon that is used with a Choice Scarf, An amazing Base 140 attack with a Base 95 speed it really has potential, although it’s more of a glass cannon with those Base 55 defences. Its ability Sheer force boosts attack that have a secondary effect such as Burn and Paralysis so it increases Flare Blitz’s Power beyond STAB. It has access to Earthquake, U-turn, Superpower and Stone Edge.
On the special side it’s not too great however, thanks to Daruma Mode as a Dream World ability it can tend to sway that way; it is legal as you can catch one in-game. The best way to use of it is to make your opponent think your scarfed as most tend to automatically think as you send it out, then Substitute on the switch. Then at the time your HP goes below 50% then Daruma Mode activates. Which has much better defences and sports a Base 140 special attack as well as a temporary Psychic type addition so it’s pretty cool but I think in most cases you would be used the physical version with choice scarf.
Archeops
This is more or less a stronger but slightly slower offensive version of Aerodactyl. It’s a powerful Pokémon but it’s within that class of Pokémon with a hindering ability. Archeos’ one is called: Faint hearted which if its HP drops below 50%, the attack stat also suffers a 50% drop. So it is best used at full HP without receiving Stealth Rock damage. It has Base 140 / 112 / 110 in Attack, Special attack and Speed respectfully so you can somewhat see why is has a hindering ability. Most might tend to be mixed should a thing ever happen, probably with a Naive or Hasty nature. You can go Jolly if you want the speed or go Adamant if you want that power but be careful not to fall under half HP so early.
Terrakion
They mostly Swords Dance to perform a sweep and with STAB Sacred Sword or Close Combat with Stone edge, it has good coverage, it can also hold X-scissor for grass Pokémon though STAB Close Combat will often do much better damage. With its Justified ability most people abuse it and purposely switch into an incoming Dark-type move and then proceed to sweep from there or Swords Dance to get up at +3 with a speed stat that ties with the previous exclusive Infernape.
Gigalith
This Pokémon is usually seen only as a lead and thanks to Sturdy it can take a hit and always get up a Stealth Rock then with Custap Berry, it will either use Stone Edge to get a hit in, Earthquake or explode if deemed appropriate and with a Base 85 135 and 130 in HP, Attack and Defence respectfully, it can do very well physically but not specially but that doesn’t matter due to Sturdy.
Zoroark
The Joker of all Pokémon, its ability Illusion can masquerade a Pokémon in your 6th slot of your party which can be used to your advantage, even if the person knows you have a Zoroark he/she still has to second guess whether the Pokémon sent out is actually a Zoroark or if it’s the real thing. Zoroark is a bit slow for a powerful sweeper only reaching 339 in speed but has very good special attack reaching 372 and access to Flamethrower, Focus Blast, Grass knot, Hidden power (Ice or Electric) and Nasty Plot, the movepool is very decent. Don’t forget its signature move Night Burst is a slightly more powerful version of Dark Pulse (Night Burst: 85 acc. 95) and has a chance to lower accuracy rather than to flinch an opponent.
Rotom-W
Rotom-W is used specifically as a more offensive Lanturn and due to levitate it can dodge a weakness and I mentioned Lanturn because in this generation it is now an Electric/Water type, that’s right. The Rotom appliances replace its Ghost typing (which could resemble void of secondary type) and gains the type of its forme: Grass, Fire, Ice and Flying. Rotom-W has the least weakness of the two basically only having a Grass weakness and it has good defensive abilities and special attack. Now Hydro Pump can get STAB which can work with Thunderbolt and Will-o-Wisp to burn foes and cripple their attack while getting residual damage.
Porygon2
Is now much more defined thanks to the Eviolite and is also one of the few NFE’s that is very good in OU.
Bisharp
Base 125 attack and Base 100 defence may sound good but its 65 Base HP doesn’t support it and even with a very good typing, its more designed as a sweeper and not as a wall, Fighting, Ground and Fire moves are common types and Kirikizan is weak to all of them. It gets STAB Sucker Punch. Night Slash and Swords Dance which sounds nice and with STAB Iron Head, it’s sure to deal some damage. But typing gives its movepool non-STAB moves so it doesn’t hit hard without a Swords Dance boost and it isn’t very fast; Base 70 Speed is too slow to keep up with most genuine sweepers out there, then again, STAB Sucker Punch compensates for that.
Gothitelle
Not really much of a good Pokémon in my eyes, I personally like Gardevoir better, it’s just that it can use Magic Room and has slightly better physical defence. Not much to say about this one.
Jellicent
“I say...” For those who get the British pun for the male version of Burungeru, others may refer to him as the Pringles Jellyfish. That aside, Burungeru is used a lot on teams, as much as Nattorei infact, it has that 404 HP and has great special defence, Cursed Body ability and access to STAB Shadow Ball and since it’s a Ghost type it can block Conkeldurr’s Mach Punches, although it will use Payback on you next turn. It’s similar to Tentacruel but not in every aspect. Tentacruel is a utility Pokémon that uses Toxic Spikes and Rapid Spin whereas Burungeru comes in on a special attack and predicts a switch to a physical attacker and burns it with Will-o-Wisp and it also has access to recovery only furthering its favour in trainers wanting to use it.
Lucario
Pretty much the same except I think most now run Adamant nature if physical and Modest is specially based and it now has access to Nasty Plot so you can’t really tell off the bat what type it may be. (reminds me of a nodding dog)
Serperior (because of its dream world ability)
Serperior is mainly used because of the Dream World Ability, Contrary, which reverses stat changes towards the Pokémon so for example if you use coil, rather than gaining an attack, defence and accuracy rise, rather you get -1 Attack, defence and accuracy. Now for the main reason it is used. Say you use Leaf Storm; you know that it gives you a -2 drop. Well...you know what would happen then. But the ability isn’t legal yet but because it is so broken and easy to access, people won’t really care to use it. The good/bad thing is, it that its movepool is so bad it can’t really do anything but use Leaf Storm and a Hidden Power to attack and with a speed stat of 357, Pokémon like Ambipom and Starmie (and other scarf based Pokémon) can take it out fairly well.
Samurott
Just another Bulky Water wannabe. Although, when physical based STAB Water moves and Megahorn have great coverage. He has access to Grass Knot, Encore and STAB Aqua Jet, he has the movepool to create a strategy around it.
Keldeo
There’s a reason why this Pokémon is used quite a bit, it is because of these two links (shown below). That is pretty much why, it does have very high special attack and good speed so it can be used a special sweeper with Base 91 HP, Base 129 special attack and Base 108 speed, another Pokémon to the Infernape speed group. (Robot Unicorn attack anyone?)
Scolipede
A good fast Spiker with a speed stat reaching 355 and has access to STAB Megahorn, that’s all I’ve seen it do for now.
Krookodile
I’ve seen Choice Scarf variants being used with the Moxie ability which raises attack upon knocking out a foe. It can be a very good late game sweeper with STAB Earthquake and STAB Trickery, although Crunch is the safer option as Trickery can sometimes do less damage that the standard Crunch. It also can learn Stone edge and Outrage.
Cinccino
This isn’t seen too often but with the Skill Link ability and Life Orb, it can utilize moves such as Bullet Seed (Which is now Base power 10 > 25), Rock Blast (which got an accuracy increase) and its signature move Tail slap which gets STAB; it’s quite deadly as it can technically dish out Base power 125 moves and each move could land a Critical Hit. It has a Base 115 Speed and a base 95 Attack which is decent. It also has access to U-turn should it need to hit and run.
Amoonguss
Let me say this Pokémon is deceptively bulky. It has a Base 114 / 70 / 80 Defences and both times even with a Modest Latios Draco Meteor and a Zapdos Fire Jewelled Heat Wave failed to OHKO the damn shroom then it just Spores me to sleep, Syntheses up and Giga Drains and Sludge Bombs the hell out of me. I dislike this Pokémon very much and I say this now, you need a hard hitting STAB using Pokémon with a super effective move to take down this thing easily.
(This was where I started getting tired)
Virizion
A Pokémon with high special defence with access to Swords Dance.
Braviary
A Flying type that has access to Bulk Up, Claw Sharpen, Brave Bird, Rock Slide, U-turn and Superpower, it’s not very fast so some tend to scarf it.
Eelektross
An Electric type eel Pokémon that is used quite a bit due to its Levitate ability giving it no natural weakness. They are often mixed with life orb or leftovers.
Haxorus
A Dragon type with an insanely Base 147 attack power, some variants are Dragon Dancers and Scarfed.
Chandelure
A Pokémon with very high special attack (Base 145) and is often scarfed, another noted sense of usage was from its forbidden dream world ability which was previous exclusive to Wobbuffet
Volcorona
A Pokémon with stat spread of 135, 105 and 100 in special attack, special defence and speed respectfully with Quiver Dance with ups all those mentioned stats by 1 stage. Its STAB moves give very good coverage but with x4 SR weakness, the possibility of it being broken is not so there.
Golurk
A Ghost/Ground Pokémon with physical properties, it has STAB Shadow Punch along with the Iron Fist ability and STAB Earthquake, some abuse the ability with the Sub-Punch combo.
Meloetta
A Psychic type Pokémon with high special Bulk. It’s Fighting type counterpart/forme focuses more on Attack and Speed and is surprisingly fast.
Ditto
A Pokémon that went from joke to the perfect check and scouter in the upcoming metagame. With its Dream World ability Imposter, it an auto-transform into the Pokémon it is sent out on revealing their moveset, and also if you’re in trouble you can come in on a + Dragon dancer for example, you’d copy their current stat changes and equipped with a choice scarf, you’re always going to get the advantage over your opponent and could even provide a late-game sweep. (Vote for ditto!)
Accelgor
A Bug type Pokémon that has the fastest speed in the OU metagame with Base stat of 145 and special attack stat of 100 which is decent, it also holds the fastest Spiker in the game and has access to Recover but with Base 40 defence and Base 60 special defence, it can’t take hits very well.
Galvantula
A Bug/Electric type Pokémon that has the Compoundeyes ability which basically spells Thunder reaching over 90% accuracy along with STAB bug buzz and access to Energy Ball, it’s a pretty hard hitter. Though, being a Bug type, its defences aren’t so good.
Politoad
I ALWAYS have to bring an umbrella with this guy around. With its Dream World ability Drizzle, it’s basically an excuse not to use Kyogre and you know that a rain team is coming along with a steel type. (Didn't see too much Ninetales because Sand and Rain were dominant at the time because of Excadrill and Swift Swim still being legal)
Seismitoad
Another addition to the Water/Ground family, it is usually seen with leftovers and aqua ring while being able to use Drain Punch for extra recovery
Alomomola
In competition with Vaporeon since it has better HP and defence, though it lacks in special properties.
Carracosta
Either seen as a Curser or a Shell Breaker. Quite dangerous in VGCs also.
And that's pretty much it. I wish I had posted this a year ago. I even wrote a 3 page document on how I bred a luxray to get all or 2/3 fangs, I can't remember at this time. I'll add by saying i've seen scrafty a lot but I won't do an analysis on him, i'm sure there's lots of them done somewhere.
Well I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed sharing this with smogon (finally...) Hope this gives a bit of nostalgia along the lines.
