My team at a glance:
How the team came to be:
I haven't played much of gen 5 since the release of Black 2 and White 2, so the first thing I did was research what Pokemon were doing well recently. I wanted to make a non-weather team, so I began with the basic idea of a Grass-Fire-Water core. I read in some discussion threads that Keldeo was a major threat to many teams, and that he was decent in non-weather teams against rain or sun teams, so I started with him. For my choice of a Grass Pokemon, I went with Breloom because I always loved the move Spore. Heatran was an obvious choice as the Fire type in the core because of his Steel typing, to resist the weaknesses that double Fighting types brought. Scizor and Landorus-T are there to bring some fluidity to my team with switches with U-Turn, and the latter also serves as a Stealth Rock setter. Two users of U-Turn also help reduce my weakness to Celebi, who walls Breloom and gives Keldeo trouble too. I was considering Garchomp and Dragonite for the final slot as my heavy hitter Dragon, but went with Dragonite for the ExtremeSpeed. Garchomp wouldn't help me get rid of an enemy sweeper if it got some boosts up, but Dragonite could do so in combination with one of the other two priority users, Scizor or Breloom.
And here's the team:
Breloom @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Spore
- Swords Dance
Breloom will prevent slower leads from setting up rocks if they lack protection against Spore. His Jolly nature means non-Scarfed Politoed leads can't stay in fearing Bullet Seed KO. Bullet Seed also gives Substitute users a hard time keeping up their protection. Mach Punch is a very reliable tool for revenge killing. I hit a Latios that switched in with Low Sweep, and he lost over 60%, and was an easy KO after that. Many Pokemon also have a hard time switching into Breloom, but the ones who can do so easily should be manageable with the rest of my team.
EDIT: No longer Jolly. Replaced Low Sweep with Swords Dance. Uses Spore to set up an opportunity to sweep.
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Dragonite @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
Dragonite generally wants to wait until tanky Steel types like Skarmory or Ferrothorn are severely weakened by the rest of my team before using Outrage. Until then, he can help revenge kill with ExtremeSpeed if needed. I have to switch him in sparingly because there's no Rapid Spin user on the team, and those Stealth Rocks will wear away at him. In the 5-6 battles I've used this team for so far, I wait until pretty late into the game to use his Outrage. The Choice Band makes it 2HKO on almost anything other than very bulky Steel types.
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Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Dragon Pulse
He'll basically be revenge killing. Not sure of the choice between Fire Blast and Flamethrower at the moment. Flamethrower gets some easy KOs on important things like Ferrothorn and Scizor and doesn't need any more power, but Fire Blast might hurt switch-ins more.
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Keldeo @ Expert Belt
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
- Icy Wind
I really love Keldeo. Hydro Pump coming off of his great SpA is unrivaled in OU I think. Icy Wind takes care of the 4x weak Pokemon easily with Expert Belt, but even when they switch out, the Pokemon coming in gets its Speed lowered. It becomes very manageable for Keldeo or whoever I decide to send out to fight the enemy switch-in. I went with HP Ghost so I don't get walled by Jellicent. The rest of my team doesn't have a great answer to the Water/Ghost, so it helps to have a way to 2HKO with Keldeo. Celebi isn't a problem because I have several Pokemon to take care of it.
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Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 204 HP / 64 Atk / 240 Def
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
Landorus-T feels a lot weaker than I thought it would be. A Salamence survived HP Ice with 6% once, and a Jirachi with Leftovers didn't get 2HKO'd by Earthquake. I think he survived with around 10%. I do however like how easy it is for him to set up Stealth Rocks. He gets a lot of opportunities to switch in and not be threatened for a turn.
EDIT: No longer Naive. Replaced HP Ice with Stone Edge. Should be able to KO a Dragonite or Salamence with prior damage and hit some other Pokemon harder too.
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Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spd
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Scizor somewhat softens up enemy team with his U-Turn, and helps set up favorable matchups for my other Pokemon. If I notice a Choiced Latios/Latias used a move like Draco Meteor or Psyshock, Scizor freely picks it off. He can also situationally catch out Starmie or Genger. This helps a ton because nothing in my team is naturally above the 108 Speed tier.
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Closing thoughts:
According to my friend, the team is a hodgepodge mixup of "metagame" Pokemon, which I can understand. I do think the Pokemon cover each other's bases well, but there are some issues. Pokemon with full HP and above 110 base Speed are difficult to deal with unless Scizor does some work with repeated use of U-Turn or catches one out with Pursuit. I don't have any way to "cancel" weather with a weather of my own, but instead have to play under the opponent's field.
I'm open to any suggestion other than "run weather" basically. If it's going to improve my team, I'd love to know the suggestions. Thanks!
How the team came to be:
I haven't played much of gen 5 since the release of Black 2 and White 2, so the first thing I did was research what Pokemon were doing well recently. I wanted to make a non-weather team, so I began with the basic idea of a Grass-Fire-Water core. I read in some discussion threads that Keldeo was a major threat to many teams, and that he was decent in non-weather teams against rain or sun teams, so I started with him. For my choice of a Grass Pokemon, I went with Breloom because I always loved the move Spore. Heatran was an obvious choice as the Fire type in the core because of his Steel typing, to resist the weaknesses that double Fighting types brought. Scizor and Landorus-T are there to bring some fluidity to my team with switches with U-Turn, and the latter also serves as a Stealth Rock setter. Two users of U-Turn also help reduce my weakness to Celebi, who walls Breloom and gives Keldeo trouble too. I was considering Garchomp and Dragonite for the final slot as my heavy hitter Dragon, but went with Dragonite for the ExtremeSpeed. Garchomp wouldn't help me get rid of an enemy sweeper if it got some boosts up, but Dragonite could do so in combination with one of the other two priority users, Scizor or Breloom.
And here's the team:
Breloom @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Spore
- Swords Dance
Breloom will prevent slower leads from setting up rocks if they lack protection against Spore. His Jolly nature means non-Scarfed Politoed leads can't stay in fearing Bullet Seed KO. Bullet Seed also gives Substitute users a hard time keeping up their protection. Mach Punch is a very reliable tool for revenge killing. I hit a Latios that switched in with Low Sweep, and he lost over 60%, and was an easy KO after that. Many Pokemon also have a hard time switching into Breloom, but the ones who can do so easily should be manageable with the rest of my team.
EDIT: No longer Jolly. Replaced Low Sweep with Swords Dance. Uses Spore to set up an opportunity to sweep.
-----
Dragonite @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
Dragonite generally wants to wait until tanky Steel types like Skarmory or Ferrothorn are severely weakened by the rest of my team before using Outrage. Until then, he can help revenge kill with ExtremeSpeed if needed. I have to switch him in sparingly because there's no Rapid Spin user on the team, and those Stealth Rocks will wear away at him. In the 5-6 battles I've used this team for so far, I wait until pretty late into the game to use his Outrage. The Choice Band makes it 2HKO on almost anything other than very bulky Steel types.
-----
Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Dragon Pulse
He'll basically be revenge killing. Not sure of the choice between Fire Blast and Flamethrower at the moment. Flamethrower gets some easy KOs on important things like Ferrothorn and Scizor and doesn't need any more power, but Fire Blast might hurt switch-ins more.
-----
Keldeo @ Expert Belt
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
- Icy Wind
I really love Keldeo. Hydro Pump coming off of his great SpA is unrivaled in OU I think. Icy Wind takes care of the 4x weak Pokemon easily with Expert Belt, but even when they switch out, the Pokemon coming in gets its Speed lowered. It becomes very manageable for Keldeo or whoever I decide to send out to fight the enemy switch-in. I went with HP Ghost so I don't get walled by Jellicent. The rest of my team doesn't have a great answer to the Water/Ghost, so it helps to have a way to 2HKO with Keldeo. Celebi isn't a problem because I have several Pokemon to take care of it.
-----
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 204 HP / 64 Atk / 240 Def
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
Landorus-T feels a lot weaker than I thought it would be. A Salamence survived HP Ice with 6% once, and a Jirachi with Leftovers didn't get 2HKO'd by Earthquake. I think he survived with around 10%. I do however like how easy it is for him to set up Stealth Rocks. He gets a lot of opportunities to switch in and not be threatened for a turn.
EDIT: No longer Naive. Replaced HP Ice with Stone Edge. Should be able to KO a Dragonite or Salamence with prior damage and hit some other Pokemon harder too.
-----
Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spd
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Scizor somewhat softens up enemy team with his U-Turn, and helps set up favorable matchups for my other Pokemon. If I notice a Choiced Latios/Latias used a move like Draco Meteor or Psyshock, Scizor freely picks it off. He can also situationally catch out Starmie or Genger. This helps a ton because nothing in my team is naturally above the 108 Speed tier.
-----
Closing thoughts:
According to my friend, the team is a hodgepodge mixup of "metagame" Pokemon, which I can understand. I do think the Pokemon cover each other's bases well, but there are some issues. Pokemon with full HP and above 110 base Speed are difficult to deal with unless Scizor does some work with repeated use of U-Turn or catches one out with Pursuit. I don't have any way to "cancel" weather with a weather of my own, but instead have to play under the opponent's field.
I'm open to any suggestion other than "run weather" basically. If it's going to improve my team, I'd love to know the suggestions. Thanks!
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