An Attempt at a Weatherless Team

[doominic77]

Hello Smogon, today I'll be showing you my OU team (currently 8333rd on the PO ladder). It is a team I made trying to not use weather, and frankly it works pretty good (ignoring the ladder rank as I'm not a very good battler in the first place). Hopefully you can help my team get better.

Volcarona (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Morning Sun


Volcarona is good special sweeper on my team, but truely I have no idea what he is doing on my team. I have no Rapid Spinner and most of my team isn't Stealth Rock weak anyway. It's probably the first pokemon I'll get rid of.

Azumarill (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Huge Power
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower
- Ice Punch
- Waterfall


Azumarill is used to revenge kill the likes of Terrakion, Heatran and Volcarona. I put it on my team as a replacement for Scizor (need your opinion on which is better). The set is pretty self-explanitory.

Espeon (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Shadow Ball


Espeon is the Pokemon I use to generate offensive pressure and (surprisingly) counter Blissey. Magic Bounce can bounce back all the status and entry hazards I come across and after a Calm Mind or two can dish out quite a bit of damage. Hidden Power Fighting is used as a surprise for Tyranitar.

Heatran (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 96 SDef / 160 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Pulse


Heatran is used to absorb Fire-type attacks and counter Volcarona and Reuniclus along with alot of other Special Attackers. Fire Blast is for STAB, Earth Power is for other Heatran. Stealth Rock is for offensive pressure and Dragon Pulse is for Lati@s (though slightly ineffective).

Virizion @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Leaf Blade
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance


Virizion is probably the MVP of my entire team. It takes out about as much pokemon as the rest of my team combined. CC and Leaf Blade are for STAB, Stone Edge is for anything that CC and Leaf Blade don't cover. Swords Dance is to power up my attacks. At +2 Virizion can counter alot of my teams counters. It can absorb Electric attacks aimed at Jellicent and is just generally awesome.

Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Scald

Jellicent is so great at what is does it's not even funny. It can stall people out of their minds. It counters Blissey and alot of other stallers while being a staller itself. Immunities to Water, Normal and Fighting are awesome and it can cripple Tyranitar and other physical sweepers with ease (though Will-O-Wisp doesn't have the best accuracy. Jellicent is the number two MVP on my team.

Thanks for (hopefully) rating my team and maybe I'll do better than 8333rd.

 

[doominic77]

[IMG]http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/dpicon/dpicon142.png[/IMG] Aerodactyl - Stalled by Jellicent or Aqua Jet'd by Azumarill
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/7/7e/Ani286MS.png[/IMG] Breloom - Espeon can reflect Spore back at it and hopefully cripple it for  a while
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/534.png[/IMG] Conkeldurr - Jellicent can take a Payback or two, generally I forget about Guts and screw myself like an idiot  
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/555-normal.png[/IMG][IMG]http://pldh.net/media/pokecons/555.png[/IMG] Darmanitan - Walled to high hell by Jellicent. 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/386-speed.png[/IMG] Deoxys-S - Aqua Jet should kill and SR breaks Focus Sash.
[IMG]http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/dpicon/dpicon149.png[/IMG] Dragonite - Although I have not faced many times it can usually rape my team after a Dragon Dance 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/3/37/Ani395MS.png[/IMG] Empoleon - Virizion kills with Close Combat. 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/a/a7/196MS.png[/IMG] Espeon - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/530.png[/IMG] Excadrill - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/1/18/Ani094MS.png[/IMG] Gengar - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/d/d1/Ani130MS.png[/IMG] Gyarados -  
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/612.png[/IMG] Haxorus - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/0/03/Ani485MS.png[/IMG] Heatran - 
[IMG]http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/dpicon/dpicon214.png[/IMG]  Heracross - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/635.png[/IMG] Hydreigon - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/7/74/Ani392MS.png[/IMG] Infernape - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/7/77/Ani385MS.png[/IMG] Jirachi - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/1/14/Ani135MS.png[/IMG] Jolteon - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/d/d8/Ani230MS.png[/IMG] Kingdra - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/646.png[/IMG] Kyurem - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/645.png[/IMG] Landorus - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/381.png[/IMG] Latios - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/549.png[/IMG]Lilligant - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/b/b0/Ani448MS.png[/IMG] Lucario - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/c/cc/Ani068MS.png[/IMG] Machamp - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/d/d8/Ani462MS.png[/IMG] Magnezone - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/6/67/Ani473MS.png[/IMG] Mamoswine - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/4/49/Ani376MS.png[/IMG] Metagross - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/620.png[/IMG] Mienshao - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/579.png[/IMG] Reuniclus - 
[IMG]http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/dpicon/dpicon407.png[/IMG]  Roserade - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/373.png[/IMG] Salamence - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/586.png[/IMG] Sawsbuck - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/b/b4/Ani212MS.png[/IMG] Scizor - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/560.png[/IMG]Scrafty- 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/492-land.png[/IMG] Shaymin - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/561.png[/IMG] Sigilyph - 
[IMG]http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/dpicon/dpicon235.png[/IMG] Smeargle - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/1/19/Ani121MS.png[/IMG] Starmie - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/639.png[/IMG] Terakion - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/642.png[/IMG] Thundurus - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/641.png[/IMG] Tornadus - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/5/59/Ani248MS.png[/IMG] Tyranitar - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/d/df/003MS.png[/IMG] Venusaur - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/494.png[/IMG] Victini - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/640.png[/IMG] Virizion - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/637.png[/IMG] Volcarona - 
[IMG]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/a/a0/Ani461MS.png[/IMG] Weavile - 
[IMG]http://veekun.com/dex/media/icons/571.png[/IMG] Zoroark -

 

[Jmaculas]

There is a lot of things wrong with this team. Example if your opponent runs a water team, 2 of your pokemon are useless, if they run a sun team 2 of your pokemon are useless.

Dragons destroy this team because of the resistance to 5 STABS on your team. Mainly multiscale dragonite is the worst problem since with no stealth rocks, it can easily switch on 5 of your pokemon (all of them including azumarill locked into aqua jet and except virizion with stone edge) at full health and setup 1 or 2 dragon dances and proceed to sweep your team with earthquake and dragon claw/outrage.

 

[doominic77]

Any suggestions for something to counter dragons?

 

[Shurtugal]

Big problem, where is your lead? Where are your tanks and/or walls? Mostly sweepers here. I will help come up with some idea tomorrow, did like 3 RMTS already like 2 pages long and my heads throbbing, sorry.

 

[doominic77]

I have Jellicent and Heatran is specially defensive(ish). Looking foward to your advice tomorrow. :P

 

[BurtonEarny]

because you have several water resists, you should consider running cursed body on jellicent. Its nice facing a 2hko only to disable the only move the opponent had to hit you with.

 

[Euphonos]

Greetings, doominic!

Good try in making a weather-less team. However, I want to see the purpose of the team here, aside from having a weather-less team, and from having a Fire-Water-Grass Pokemon combination. Good thing that I can help you out there.

=> You wanted to get rid of Volcarona, right? I wanted to know what lead you're going to use to open the game, like, setting up Stealth Rocks immediately, Tricking up a Choice Item on someone, etc.

=> Second, more often than not, Steel-type Pokemon are staples of building the team in terms of resistances. More often than not almost all teams pack a Steel-type Pokemon (yeah, Heatran's there, but not enough.)

Since I'm not very sure of the purpose of the team, I can't suggest anything yet, for now...

 

[Shurtugal]

Ok, your team is full of sweepers (some ish sweepers, but still). So I feel I should first show you your team format:

3 Special Sweepers
2 Physical Sweepers
1 Special Tank

NO way is this gonna work out. SO lets clean it up a nit.
2 Special Sweepers
1 Physcial Sweeper
1 Physcial Tank
1 Special Tank
1 Lead

Pokemon Keeping:
Volcarona or Heatram (Pick One, don't use 2 special fire sweepers)
Espeon
Virizion
Jellecint


Getting rid of
Volcarona or Heatran (Whichever one you didn't pick above)
Azumarill


here are my reccommended pokemon to use with this team.

Lead: Metagross @ Leftovers
Nature: Relaxed
Effort Values: 252 Hp/204 Def/48 Atk

Toxic/Stealth Rock
Meteor Mash/Earthquake

This lead is solid for your team as it sets up your teams stealth rocks and can provide toxic. Always a good choice to use Toxic on other leads or sweepers as it will eventually force a switch and that is always a good thing as it keeps chipping away health (espec. on sweepers). Meteor Mash is STAB power and earthquake for some ground pokemon on sandstorm teams


-Jellecint-
Just wanted to add before going on that you should keep water absirb as you will have to face weather teams and the two most common are Sand and RAIN. So keep it on water absorb espceially sine your running a fire type sweeper.



Physical Tank: Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Nature: Impish
Effort Values: 252 Hp/180 Def/72 Atk (or speed, depends on prefference)

Protect/Earthquake
Toxic/Substitute (Or Facade)

Gliscor provides defense walling. So I thought a poision heal/poison stall Gliscor would work best. Protect spams your healing and their poison destruction. Earthquake for STAB, and toxic for starting poison. Substitute is for more stalling, or Facade is to hit things with balloon or levitate.

Lead: Metagross
Sp.Sweeper: Volcaronoa/Heatran
Sp.Sweeper2: Espeon
Physical Sweeper: Virizion
Special Tank: Jellicent
Physical Tank: Gliscor

I hope this team works out for you!

~Freak


I hope this helps.

 

[New World Order]

May I suggest using a Bronzong over Azumarill to check sand teams? Bronzong can also carry SR so Heatran can run HP Ice/ Grass for better coverage. You have Jellicent taking most fire types, so Azumarill is pretty redundant. Bronzong also becomes your best answer to many dragons such as the Latii twins and Outrage locked DNite/ Mence.

Secondly, you've committed the sin of not having a reliable answer to Thundurus. I suggest dropping Virizion for a Gastrodon, which also helps you against pokemont that look troublesome pokemon like Rotom-W and Starmie. Unlike Virizion, Gastrodon doesn't even take damage from electric moves, making it a better choice than Virizion.

As for Volcorona, you don't even need a rapid spinner. You've got one of the very best hazard preventers in the game already, its name is Espeon. Although I would suggest running a more offensive variant since in sand/ rain, morning sun is pretty useless. Either the Chestorest or Offensive QDer with HP Ground/ Rock would fit.

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Levitate
Sassy
252 Hp/ 84 Atk/ 80 Def/ 92 SpD/ 2 Speed IVs
Stealth Rock
Gyro Ball
Earthquake
Hidden Power Ice

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Storm Drain
Calm
252 Hp/ 252 SpD/ 4 SpA
Scald
Earth Power/ Ice Beam
Toxic
Recover

 

[doominic77]

Ok, just to clear things up this team's purpose is to win, I would take your advice even if you told me to turn my team into a weather team. I'm gonna out Anthonias' changes first and then go from there. Thanks for the help.

 

[Angel Eyes]

Looks pretty good. Keep in mind, however, that you may not find a need for SR on Heatran if you have Magic Bounce Espeon. With some smart prediction, you can bounce back enemy SR and even Spikes and status moves that would otherwise stop your team cold. Just some food for thought. Good Luck!

 

[Righteousguy]

first off anthonias has a great rate, i'll just say thank you for him, thanks anthonias. Now that, that is settled. All and all Azumarill seems like a waste seeing as jellycent will do most of what Azu would be there for further more, just a little suggestion, I don't like virizion as a physical sweeper there are many more equivalent/better physical sweepers out there that may fit your team, but thats a preference issue. All in all listen to what anthonias said....

 

[Acatia]

Should you retain Heatran, I like HP Grass over Dragon Pulse.
The reason behind it is that you're not likely to outspeed a dragon, basicly anything not named Druggigon or Altaria will outspeed and wreak Heatran a new one. HP Grass on the other hand allows you to make quick work of folks like Quagsire and Swampert (and the lesser used Gastrodon and Rhyperior). It also does a nice amount on switching water types that you could then switch to your Jelli.

I'd probly switch his EVs though if i were you cuz that build seems like a Calmless TormenTran (which potentially works... but no wonders either)

 

[afterburn]

Nasty Plot Thundurus, Life Orb Starmie, Swords Dance Toxicroak, have the potential to rip through your team when given the chance to come in and set-up (bar Starmie, who doesn't need set-up), especially on Azumarill Choice-locked into the appropriate move, and potentially OHKO-2HKO your team outright. The three are common on Offensive Rain teams, and are further problematic under the rain, though even being capable to sweep you without the weather effect.

Trying Choice Scarf Terrakion over Volcarona should help you with your issues against these threats. Terrakion is able to revenge kill the aforementioned threats with Stone Edge / X-Scissor / Earthquake respectively, and also helps against DD Scrafty, who also seems problematic if it forces a switch and sets-up. You said yourself, Volcarona was just thrown in there, and since all the other members handle important threats, I feel like you could be using this slot more wisely.

Change Heatran to the Specially Defensive set as it will help you take on Trickroom Reuniclus better, you can take a Focus Blast a lot better, and stall turns with Protect, and eventually end it with a revenge kill with one of your other 'mons. Change Psyshock to Psychic on Espeon to beat Conkeldurr efficiently, as without it, it may stand a chance against Psyshock after a Bulk Up.

Movesets

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf | Justified
Jolly | 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Stone Edge / Close Combat / X-Scissor / Earthquake

Heatran @ Leftovers |Flash Fire
Calm | 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Stealth Rock / Lava Plume / Roar / Protect

 

[VERAKS]

nice team but you seem a little weak to thundurus, otherwise a very nice team :D you could try a cb dragonite over heatran?