Balanced team for OU

Noob Asian

Noob Asian

I have been playing Pokemon competitively for a couple of months now (some of you may know me from PS) and from that time I have performed ok, nothing stellar but not horribly bad either. Below is my team that I use and some of the weaknesses I have identified is weather teams, if I dont execute the pokemon correctly (or even if I do sometimes) I'll lose. Stall teams and other non-weather teams I do pretty well against if I don't make dumb errors. Any help is much appreciated

Raikou @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute
- Calm Mind

Whilst Raikou may not have access to his Volt Absorb like Thundurus or Jolteon do, the reason he's in this team (aside from the fact he's my favourite pokemon) is his access to aura sphere, takes 'normal' damage to stealth rock and has a decent bulk to special attackers (not enough to be commended - just relative to the other electric types mentioned). The other reason he's here is that without him, I'd have no counter for a rain team. His main role is the special sweeper, after a few calm minds and behind a sub (and provided he isnt hit by physical attacks) he can sweep a team quite easily. I should probably also add I'm attempting to revolve this team around him.

Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Psychic
- Calm Mind
- Hidden Power [Fire]

When I see the opposition throw in a setup, that's where Reuniclus comes in, as well as being impervious to passive damage (and prevents leech seed from working). I can have a few turns to calm mind up and heal if necessary. He has a physically defensive build for obvious reasons (he needs to be able to take physical hits). He also adds support to the faster sweepers by removing some of the checks and thus enabling Raikou and/or Dragonite to clean the rest of the team up should Reuniclus be unable to.

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Punch
- Roost

My main physical sweeper in the team. What made me pick Dragonite over other dragons such as haxorus or salamence is his ability: Multiscale. Combined with his decent bulk, it allows him to get at least one dragon dance off and then able to wreck havoc on the opposition's team. I have chosen Lum Berry over leftovers because of status which will significantly halt this guy's performance. I have chosen to use Fire Punch over Waterfall, Earthquake or Extremespeed is for coverage reasons. Why try and switch when you can fire punch? The only thing that can stop this thing (even at +1) is a Heatran since Fire Punch will boost heatran's sp. atk and dragon claw doesnt do a significant amount of damage.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- U-turn

A recent change to my team, after testing my older team against a latias and reuniclus, I needed something with a punch to it. I also needed something with a fighting move since I lost Aura Sphere for Hidden Power [Ice] on Raikou. His ability to take out threats such as reuniclus, latias, ferrothorn and tyranitar (no doubt he'll be used frequently if they allow SV Garchomp back). I chose choice band over other items (say lefties or occa berry) because I immediately have that 1.5x power boost rather than requiring a turn to SD. Superpowerdude suggested using U-turn to get out of bad switches (switching into a magnezone or wobbuffet for example). I tested bug bite as well but for this set, U-turn worked better, even though I lose some power.

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Recover
- Scald
- Taunt
- Toxic

The Spin Blocker and special wall, he is a beast. He doesnt have the best special defences in the metagame but his access to recover made me prefer him over other walls such as tentacruel (cant use Deoxys since I have Reuniclus). I'm still debating on whether I should give him Will-O-Wisp or Toxic (The former's accuracy is most unsettling) and Toxic's damage builds over time which is why I have chosen it in this case.

Donphan @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock

No spinner in most teams is suicide, I believe my team is no exception. While this is only part of Donphan's role in the team, he functions as the physical wall. He is also a nice check to weakened mons with weaknesses to ice (dragons - salamence doesnt even need to be weakened) and eq to get rid of Heatrans that havent learnt to fly (if you get my drift).
 
Hey Noob Asian nice looking team!

Looking at your team i noticed that Sub+Calm Mind Latias and Calm Mind Reuniclus give you a lot of trouble. This is due to the fact that they both have great initial bulk and due to Reuniclus's Magic Gaurd and Latias's Substitute they can set up on Ferrothorn and Jellicent as well as Raikou and Victini locked into Searing Shot, Psyshock, or even Victini locked into Shadow ball if Reuniclus or Latias already have a Calm Mind or two up or in Latias's case Substitute. Although a bit rare then its Choice Specs counterpart Choice Scarf Latios looks quite painful for this team to verse with a moveset of Draco Meteor/Surf/Hidden Power [Fire]/Trick. He outspeeds your whole team and gets super effective coverage on 4 of your members and the pokemon he doesn't hit super effectively (Raikou, Jellicent) are crippled by Trick. Although Donphan's Ice Shard will do a lot of damage Donphan can't really switch in on Latios thus making him very tricky to deal with. He is not as much of a threat as Sub+CM Latias or Calm Mind Reuniclus but he is still deadly when played with properly.

To help remedy this problem i suggest Choice Band Scizor>Raikou Choice Band Scizor has Pursuit to trap and ko all three of these pokemon. With Substitute+CM Latias's only attacking move being Dragon Pulse Scizor can easily switch into Latias and Ko her with Pursuit. Scizor can live a shot from Reuniclus outspeed it and Ko it with U-turn or if you are really confident and think it is going to switch then Pursuit although U-turn is usually the prefered option because even if your opponent switched out your opponent still gets hit by a Choice Band U-turn then you get to send in the appropriate pokemon. Scizor can come in on a choice-locked Draco Meteor from Latios and Ko with Pursuit or just revenge weakend Latios with Bullet Punch. Apart from the way he helps your team with some of your threats he also is a good physical attacker and can help pick off weakend pokemon with Bullet Punch. I realise Raikou is your favourite pokemon but he is not vital to your teams success and it doesn't seem that your team was built around a Raikou sweep.

Your team also has slight troubles with Conkeldurrs carrying Stone Edge>Ice Punch this is because with Stone Edge instead of Ice Punch Jellicent and Victini can't wall him and Conkeldurr an set up on Donphan, Dragonite, Ferrothorn and to an extent Jellicent. I also don't see the need of having Psyshock on Victini as it is not going to ohko Blissey or Chansey anyway and if you predict them to switch in you can just U-turn out to the appropriate pokemon, (Scizor is very good to U-turn to if you decide to use him). So Psychic>Psyshock is a good option This gives you a way of beating Conkeldurr because after Conkeldurr boosts his defense with Bulk Up he will easily live a Psyshock and Ko back with Stone Edge but if you use Psychic and hit Conkeldurr on his weaker defense you will Ko him much easier. I don't really see why you went with max Sp Def and Hp on Ferrothorn and the same on Jellicent, Ferrothorn is better of running mixed defenses so he can Leech Seed, Thunderwave and set up Stealth Rocks easeir against your opponents team. Jellicent already gives your team a special wall so 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD>252 Hp / 4 Atk / 252 Sp Def would be the prefered ev spread. That ev spread is also the standard mixed wall evs on smogon.

Good luck with the team i hope i helped!

Sets
212.gif

Scizor @ Choice Band | Technician
Adamant | 248 Hp / 252 Atk / 8 Sp Def
U-turn | Pursuit | Bullet Punch | Superpower

Tl;dr

Scizor--->Raikou

Victini
.Psychic--->Psyshock

Ferrothorn
.252 Hp / 88 Def / 168 Sp Def



~Superpowerdude
 
Hey Superpowerdude
thanks for your reply and I can agree with your choice for Victini. However there are problems that would be opened up with the inclusion of Scizor (as powerful as he might be)
- I now have a gaping weakness for fire with 4x to Ferrothorn and Scizor (maybe using politoed may remedy the situation)
- While I have more physical attacking options, I have only 1 special sweeper so if Victini goes early with physical walls still in place, I'd be in for a long battle :\

Again I appreciate your suggestions and I'm not overlooking them, but how would you suggest I overcome the holes that have been opened up because of Scizor's inclusion?

Cheers
 
although you do get two fire weaknesses you still have three resists and Jellicent despite being a wall is also a special attacker. If you feel with 4 physical attackers you become weak to physical walls then perhaps you could try Taunt>Ice Beam on Jellicent to stop physical walls from getting up hazards phazing etc but i think that the problems you mentionend can be played around. I hope i helped!
 
That Taunt idea was great, I have seen some Jellicents with it but now I know it's awesomeness. I have been testing out Scizor a bit and I was a bit unimpressed with his usefulness thus far (maybe more my fault than anything) however when I paired him with a politoed (on a separate team) he was quite helpful in removing threats such as Latios and the weakness to fire wasnt as annoying.
 
heya

Your team looks good given the Pokemon you use, but it definitely has some room to improve. For starters, your team is really slow and if you're dead set on making use out of a weatherless team your going to have to change some sets/Pokemon around. Superpowerdude mentioned you have a weakness to Latias, Reuniclus and Psychic-types in general. Scizor is a good choice, but i'm going to go ahead and recommend Jirachi, (over Raikou).

--------------------------
Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- U-turn
- Fire Punch

Faster Dragon-types like Lati@s are ridiculously annoying. Your team doesn't have a way of punishing them, and while Ferrothorn can act as a temporary check, it isn't enough imo (especially since it lacks reliable recovery). They can just keep spamming their attacks and there isn't much you can do about it. Scarf Jirachi exists as a constant check to these Dragons AND it's also capable of checking decent portion of OU as is. The reason why i'm recommending Jirachi instead of Scarf Genesect is due to the fact your team is massively weak Tornadus-T(Since you don't run opposing weather, it has a leg up on this team by default) who can just spam Hurricane for free, and heavily dent something. If Scarf Jirachi isn't reliable enough, feel free to use the standard SpD Jirachi.

I really like your Reuniclus. It's capable of checking annoying physical attackers like Terrakion & Breloom, and HP fire means that it isn't complete fodder against Genesect or Scizor. Since it has Magic Guard, it doesn't really "waste a turn" trying to predict the switch in with HP fire, so either way its a good set. That said, have you considered using offensive Latias?

-----------------
Latias @ Life Orb
192 HP / 64 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Draco Meteor
~ Psyshock
~ Roost
~ Hidden Power Fire / Surf

Your team could always use more speed and you have a check Grass & Water attacks, as well as Thundurus-T, Terrakion & Breloom. Latias is just a damn useful Pokemon in general, really. The choice between HP Fire & Surf comes down to whether you want to tie with opposing Latios / Gengar or whether you want to wreck Scizor and Genesect switching in. Feel free to experiment and determine which set would benefit you the most.

And finally, if you're going to use DD Lum Dragonite, it should either Earthquake for Heatran (who walls you) or Extremespeed to pick off faster threats. Also, while this might sound weird try out Jolly for a bit to see if it works for you. +1 Adamant Dragonite is outspeed by Scarf Politoed (which are ridiculously common). With Jolly you can get the jump on them, though again you might not appreciate the drop in power.

And that just about covers it. My changes aren't absolute, and my intention is for you to mix & match to see what benefits you the most.
Hope I helped :)
 
PK Gaming said:
heya

Your team looks good given the Pokemon you use, but it definitely has some room to improve. For starters, your team is really slow and if you're dead set on making use out of a weatherless team your going to have to change some sets/Pokemon around. Superpowerdude mentioned you have a weakness to Latias, Reuniclus and Psychic-types in general. Scizor is a good choice, but i'm going to go ahead and recommend Jirachi, (over Raikou).

--------------------------
Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- U-turn
- Fire Punch

Faster Dragon-types like Lati@s are ridiculously annoying. Your team doesn't have a way of punishing them, and while Ferrothorn can act as a temporary check, it isn't enough imo (especially since it lacks reliable recovery). They can just keep spamming their attacks and there isn't much you can do about it. Scarf Jirachi exists as a constant check to these Dragons AND it's also capable of checking decent portion of OU as is. The reason why i'm recommending Jirachi instead of Scarf Genesect is due to the fact your team is massively weak Tornadus-T(Since you don't run opposing weather, it has a leg up on this team by default) who can just spam Hurricane for free, and heavily dent something. If Scarf Jirachi isn't reliable enough, feel free to use the standard SpD Jirachi.

I really like your Reuniclus. It's capable of checking annoying physical attackers like Terrakion & Breloom, and HP fire means that it isn't complete fodder against Genesect or Scizor. Since it has Magic Guard, it doesn't really "waste a turn" trying to predict the switch in with HP fire, so either way its a good set. That said, have you considered using offensive Latias?

-----------------
Latias @ Life Orb
192 HP / 64 SpA / 252 Spe
~ Draco Meteor
~ Psyshock
~ Roost
~ Hidden Power Fire / Surf

Your team could always use more speed and you have a check Grass & Water attacks, as well as Thundurus-T, Terrakion & Breloom. Latias is just a damn useful Pokemon in general, really. The choice between HP Fire & Surf comes down to whether you want to tie with opposing Latios / Gengar or whether you want to wreck Scizor and Genesect switching in. Feel free to experiment and determine which set would benefit you the most.

And finally, if you're going to use DD Lum Dragonite, it should either Earthquake for Heatran (who walls you) or Extremespeed to pick off faster threats. Also, while this might sound weird try out Jolly for a bit to see if it works for you. +1 Adamant Dragonite is outspeed by Scarf Politoed (which are ridiculously common). With Jolly you can get the jump on them, though again you might not appreciate the drop in power.

And that just about covers it. My changes aren't absolute, and my intention is for you to mix & match to see what benefits you the most.
Hope I helped :)
Click to expand...

I've recently changed Dragonite back to Jolly nature, it something I forgot to do when my teams were wiped (for some strange reason) and personally, I love Jolly Dragonites. When I was deciding between Latias and Reuniclus, there was two things that me prefer reuniclus over latias:
1. Magic Guard, not only does it allow me to not take toxic/burn damage (and subsequently prevents other more crippling status effects to be applied should it be burnt/poisoned). it also takes no life orb damage and does not need to waste a turn to heal before resuming.
2. The fact that it is also a dragon type increases the number of pokemon weak to ice (Dragonite is 4x in addition) so Mamoswine can be a potential threat.

Trollachi is actually quite amusing to use. Usually I've used him as a bulky attack running the annoying parahax set (U-turn/Ice Punch, Wish, Body Slam, Iron Head). I'll think about this

Back to Dragonite, when I was contemplating those moves, fire punch, extemespeed and eq. I'm completely walled by Ferrothorn (although I do have reuniclus to cover which is probably less incentive to keep fire punch - then again if reuniclus goes early, I could be in for a long run). If anything I would probably choose extremespeed over eq for priority reasons (good for picking that weakened off mamoswine who thinks it can shard me) and I already have an eqer - Donphan who also gets STAB.

Thanks for your input, I'll definitely consider Dragonite's 2nd attacking move and what to do with jirachi. I should also update the team a bit... I added in Ferrothorn with Scizor and gave the defensive role back to Donphan who also loses his rock attack so I can SR.
 
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