And Jirachi Sweeps Again!

Hello everyone. This is a team that I've been using for the past few weeks or so, and I can say that it is by far the most successful team I've used. When I was building it, I decided that I wasn't going to use the same pokes/sets that everyone uses on every team, like CB Scizor, MixMence, and so on. So, the idea that this team is based on is allowing Jirachi a sweep, which is something hardly anyone ever sees. With that, I give you the team:



CHANGES ARE IN BOLD

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Uxie @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/104 Def/152 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Trick
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
---

In my mind, I don't possibly see how Uxie is UU. It has defenses that rival Cresselia (and we all know how that went in UU), and a much better movepool. On this team, he serves his role as both a lead and an anti-lead. Basically, on the first turn I trick, which already cripples most of todays leads. Next, I will either set up stealth rocks or use T-wave on the incoming switch. (I noticed that many people like to send in set-up sweepers against Uxie). Thunder wave is a very important support move for this team, as it allows Jirachi to outspeed things that it normally doesn't. If my opponet switches in a poke that I can't really do anything to, or Uxie has already done its job, then I can easily U-turn to a reliable counter. As far as the EVs go, they are the standard EVs, which provide Uxie with plenty of bulk.
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Forretress (M) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/112 Atk/144 Def
Relaxed nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball
- Payback
---

Next up is Forretress, my second and last supporting/defensive poke. Forretress is a very valuable member to my team, since it can set up entry hazards, and also spin them away. I chose toxic spikes over spikes, because I never seem to have time to set up 3 or sometimes even 2 layers, and toxic gives much better support to Jirachi. I have had some problems as far as the rest of the moveset goes, however. Originally, I had T. spikes/rapid spin/spikes/gyro ball. I found that too many sweepers could come in and set up on me, and I never could get up both forms of spikes, but I appreciated even 1 layer of regular ones. I could use some help here. Changed earthquake to payback.

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Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 156 HP/72 Atk/96 Def/184 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Taunt
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
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Gyrados serves as a secondary sweeper, and a very good one. He is a great counter to Scizor and Lucario, stops defensive teams with taunt, and can even pull of some sweeps of its own. There's not much left to say about him; it's pretty much your basic bulky gyrados. One problem that I have been having, though, is deciding on a secondary attacking move. It seems that I always lose some important coverage with either, so I could use some of you opinions. Decided on stone edge instead of earthquake.
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Latias (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Surf
---

Latias is probably the MVP of my team. I smile every time I see a Scizor switch into her. It bluffs a choice item so well, that it even nets a few other surprise kills other than Scizor every game. Besides this role, she also serves as a great switch in to the electric, fire, and ground attacks that are aimed at Gyrados and Jirachi. However, similar to Gyrados, I just can't decide whether to use surf or thunderbolt. Surf provides excellent neutral coverage, while thunderbolt is my teams only good option to deal with opposing Gyrados. I could use some help. Replaced draco meteor with thunderbolt.
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Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Earthquake/Superpower
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Scarf Tyranitar, like Latias, is amazing at getting some surprise kills off an unsuspecting opponet. It is perfect for trapping Azelf leads, Latias, and almost all other Psychics and Ghosts. (bar WoW Rotom). Besides this, it provides sandstorm, which really benefits Jirachi and its job as stalling other pokes out while it sets up. Tyranitar is also my only real revenge killer, which every team should have. Currently testing superpower over earthquake.
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Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP/176 Spd/80 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
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Last but not least, Jirachi. I am personally a big fan of Jirachi, since it has great stats, and a ton of viable sets it can use. I love how it can easily catch the opponet off-guard. All the support from my other teamates start to fall into place here. Since I don't have any speed EVs, thunder wave from Uxie is necessary. With both toxic spikes and sandstorm hopefully up, I can stall out an opponet with substitute. I can't tell you how many 6-0s and 5-0s this this has gotten me, and it is a real momentum changer once I start to set up. However, since nothing is perfect, I had some troubles deciding which moves I should use. I found that flash cannon and thunderbolt give me the best neutral coverage, but then I am beaten by Swampert. Help is appreciated.

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So thats the team. The 2 biggest problems I am aware of so far are:

-Lack of phazer
-Lack of spin blocker

I would love to put these in somewhere, but I am unsure of which team members to replace, seeing as they all have important roles.

Thank you in advance for the rates :)
 
First of all, not a fan of both Draco Meteor and Dragon Pulse on an Expert Belt Latias. One or the other.

Draco Meteor hits harder, but then shuts down your attacks, anyway. Dragon Pulse hits everything Draco Meteor hits, and with Expert Belt it OHKOs the majority of Salamence, only narrowly misses a OHKO on a Bulky DDNite, but is always a OHKO with Stealth Rock. This means that you can use Dragon Pulse to hit for STAB, neutral and reliable coverage, and still hit a Scizor with HP Fire without missing a KO because of the Sp.Atk drop (with -2, Scizor will pretty much always live your HP Fire and will hurt you back). With this, you now have the ability to run both Thunderbolt and Surf, holding beautiful coverage.

I'm quite happy to see you using this Latias set, it's one of my favourites and doesn't leave her open to Scizor if you use another move. <3

Flash Cannon and Thunderbolt on Jirachi, otherwise you're letting Tyranitar ruin your sweep attempt. Swampert may be an issue, but he wouldn't like facing your team too much as it is.

When Gyarados taunts Swampert, it's unable to Protect/Phaze/Status you, in any way. If Uxie still has the Scarf (you're not always going to Trick early, or you know, you might face a Swampert lead) Swampert is crippled when given that Scarf. Like I said, Gyarados taunts Swampert and sets up on him. This is massive as a lot of Swampert come out early, around the same time Gyarados will be introduced.

I'd go with Stone Edge over Earthquake. Earthquake hits Rock, Steel, Poison, Fire mostly. Fire and Rock are hit by Waterfall, a STAB. Stone Edge actually hits flying-types, other Gyarados and Salamence. Earthquake has its merits, but I much prefer the thought of using Stone Edge.

I'm liking the idea of your team, and wish you the best of luck, if you take any of my suggestions into consideration. Sorry I couldn't give you any other Pokemon suggestions, but this team is looking nice as it is.
 
I would use Psychic/Thunderbolt on Jirachi. Contrary to popular belief, this combination provides better neutral coverage in OU. If I recall correctly, it's only resisted by Celebi, Latias, and Magnezone. Your Tyranitar handles these three with ease. Opposing Tyranitar are troublesome for this combination, but Gyarados can take advantage of most Tyranitar. Flash/Tbolt are resisted by just about any electric type (Rotom forms in particular) and Swampert.

I would use Stone Edge on Gyarados since you are rather weak to opposing Gyarados. Otherwise, I would suggest Bounce to beat Celebi/Breloom.


For Forretress, I would use Payback over Earthquake or Gyro Ball to hit incoming Spin Blockers.
 
How do you stop dd gyrados? It looks like a life orb version can do a real number on this team. I suggest moving forteress to the lead position and getting rid of uxie all together. Another option is to move gyrados to the lead position to stop sr attempts and pose an early game threat. Azelf and aerodactl will both shut you down but you have scarftar for azelf and forteress for aerodactl so they wont be too much trouble. This opens a slot for a spin blocker and gyrados counter. Your 2 options are dusknior and rotom though personally i'd use rotrom. Good luck with the team.

Edit: And as for the moveset dilemma on jirachi i'd use flash cannon so ttar cant set up on you. Your extremely weak to ddtar as well as scarfar so i feel that will benefit your team most. You wont really miss psychic too much since swampert is worn down by toxic spikes and rotom is setup bait.
 
First of all, not a fan of both Draco Meteor and Dragon Pulse on an Expert Belt Latias. One or the other.

Draco Meteor hits harder, but then shuts down your attacks, anyway. Dragon Pulse hits everything Draco Meteor hits, and with Expert Belt it OHKOs the majority of Salamence, only narrowly misses a OHKO on a Bulky DDNite, but is always a OHKO with Stealth Rock. This means that you can use Dragon Pulse to hit for STAB, neutral and reliable coverage, and still hit a Scizor with HP Fire without missing a KO because of the Sp.Atk drop (with -2, Scizor will pretty much always live your HP Fire and will hurt you back). With this, you now have the ability to run both Thunderbolt and Surf, holding beautiful coverage.

I'm quite happy to see you using this Latias set, it's one of my favourites and doesn't leave her open to Scizor if you use another move. <3

Flash Cannon and Thunderbolt on Jirachi, otherwise you're letting Tyranitar ruin your sweep attempt. Swampert may be an issue, but he wouldn't like facing your team too much as it is.

When Gyarados taunts Swampert, it's unable to Protect/Phaze/Status you, in any way. If Uxie still has the Scarf (you're not always going to Trick early, or you know, you might face a Swampert lead) Swampert is crippled when given that Scarf. Like I said, Gyarados taunts Swampert and sets up on him. This is massive as a lot of Swampert come out early, around the same time Gyarados will be introduced.

I'd go with Stone Edge over Earthquake. Earthquake hits Rock, Steel, Poison, Fire mostly. Fire and Rock are hit by Waterfall, a STAB. Stone Edge actually hits flying-types, other Gyarados and Salamence. Earthquake has its merits, but I much prefer the thought of using Stone Edge.

I'm liking the idea of your team, and wish you the best of luck, if you take any of my suggestions into consideration. Sorry I couldn't give you any other Pokemon suggestions, but this team is looking nice as it is.

I see your point with draco meteor, although I like the added power with non SE hits. But, I like a good way of dealing with Gyrados better, so I think I'll try this. With Jirachi, I'm currently using flash cannon + thunderbolt, which is doing pretty well. As far as Gyrados goes, I'm using stone edge right now, which I'm starting to realize is the better option.

I would use Psychic/Thunderbolt on Jirachi. Contrary to popular belief, this combination provides better neutral coverage in OU. If I recall correctly, it's only resisted by Celebi, Latias, and Magnezone. Your Tyranitar handles these three with ease. Opposing Tyranitar are troublesome for this combination, but Gyarados can take advantage of most Tyranitar. Flash/Tbolt are resisted by just about any electric type (Rotom forms in particular) and Swampert.

I would use Stone Edge on Gyarados since you are rather weak to opposing Gyarados. Otherwise, I would suggest Bounce to beat Celebi/Breloom.


For Forretress, I would use Payback over Earthquake or Gyro Ball to hit incoming Spin Blockers.

If my only answer for Celebi, Latias, and Magnezone is switching to Tyranitar, I would hate to lose potentially a sub and a few CMs just for one poke. The only common electrics I can think of are the rotoms, Jolteon, and Magnezone. None of these can really do much to me after a few CMs, and Jolteon is fairly frail. The others I can simply overpower, so I think I'm goin to stick with flash cannon + thunderbolt.

How do you stop dd gyrados? It looks like a life orb version can do a real number on this team. I suggest moving forteress to the lead position and getting rid of uxie all together. Another option is to move gyrados to the lead position to stop sr attempts and pose an early game threat. Azelf and aerodactl will both shut you down but you have scarftar for azelf and forteress for aerodactl so they wont be too much trouble. This opens a slot for a spin blocker and gyrados counter. Your 2 options are dusknior and rotom though personally i'd use rotrom. Good luck with the team.

Edit: And as for the moveset dilemma on jirachi i'd use flash cannon so ttar cant set up on you. Your extremely weak to ddtar as well as scarfar so i feel that will benefit your team most. You wont really miss psychic too much since swampert is worn down by toxic spikes and rotom is setup bait.

I really, REALLY don't like using Forretress as a lead. So many leads, such as Heatran, Infernape, Jirachi, Azelf, and Dragonite usually carry fire moves, so I don't think I'm going to put him there. However, I do like the idea of using payback, so I think I'll start testing that. Since you say I am very weak to Tyranitar and Gyrados, do you have any suggestions?

Thanks everyone for the good rates so far! Any others?
 
Hi Purple Fingers,

Decent team you have here. Uxie is a decent lead in OU for the most part if you're using it at as screener, but that current Uxie lead doesn't do much other then Trick the other player and sets up Paralysis. Which isn't really needed if that's what your trying to do as a lead. The popular LeadRachi does a similar thing to that, but more effectively with the percent chance of causing flinches. Since you said below on your rate you needed a Phazer well what you might want to change your Uxie into is Swampert provides Phazing by using Roar and is just an overall great Lead to setup Stealth Rock, also it's defenses are fine which is the category you were following on Uxie, here's the Set you might want to try out:

Swampert @ Leftovers
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Moveset: Stealth Rock, Earthquake, Ice Beam, Roar


Offensive threat: Also by the way, your offensive problem was Dragon Dancing Salamence And Gyarados, Swampert will be dealing fine with them, so no more worries about that.

Now what I see on your team currently is a problem is that you have a Spiker, but you don't have an anti spinner, which doesn't work. You'll just get wasted on while you'll be setting up Toxic Spikes for no reason. Now what I recommend you change is Latias into Sub ChargeBeam Rotom. It provides you with not getting spinned and it's also a great special sweeper that works very will with the addition of Toxic spikes. What I don't think you need Latias that much is because you already have a decent Sp.attacker which is Jirachi which takes care some of the dirty work. Latias doesn't provide insulation with Toxic spikes it is easily pursuited by an Scarf Tyranitar which is the 2nd currently on the OU list. Now here's the Moveset I'm sure you should definitely try out if you'd like to:

Rotom-H
@ Leftovers
Nature: Timid
EVs: 128 HP / 168 SpA / 212 Spe
Moveset: Substitute, Charge Beam, Thunderbolt
, Shadow Ball

Now the explanation for this set is to overall stall out the other player while Toxic spikes in play so you can even get damage in while setting up, Substitute is to stop any statuses and of course help the stall of Toxic to continue if the other Pokemon is affected by it which isn't that much of a big deal. Charge Beam is to help the possible sweep while gaining a +1 in Sp.Att and having a 70% chance to do so. Shadow Ball is to deal with any thing that resists the Electric attacks or more likely to hit any incoming ghosts. Thunderbolt is currently your strongest move, and it will help you tremendously against Bulky waters, and self-explanatory on that part.

A Minor nitpick you might want to be changing is on Tyranitar I recommend you to change Earthquake into Super Power reason being is that you currently have 2 Pokemon with Earthquake which are Forretress and Gyarados, and it deals with those kinds of problems while Superpower could actually deal with Blissey and other types of Pokemon who are affected harshly by fighting.

Good luck and hoped my analysis on your RMT helped.
 
Hi Purple Fingers,

Decent team you have here. Uxie is a decent lead in OU for the most part if you're using it at as screener, but that current Uxie lead doesn't do much other then Trick the other player and sets up Paralysis. Which isn't really needed if that's what your trying to do as a lead. The popular LeadRachi does a similar thing to that, but more effectively with the percent chance of causing flinches. Since you said below on your rate you needed a Phazer well what you might want to change your Uxie into is Swampert provides Phazing by using Roar and is just an overall great Lead to setup Stealth Rock, also it's defenses are fine which is the category you were following on Uxie, here's the Set you might want to try out:

Swampert @ Leftovers
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Moveset: Stealth Rock, Earthquake, Ice Beam, Roar

Offensive threat: Also by the way, your offensive problem was Dragon Dancing Salamence And Gyarados, Swampert will be dealing fine with them, so no more worries about that.

Now what I see on your team currently is a problem is that you have a Spiker, but you don't have an anti spinner, which doesn't work. You'll just get wasted on while you'll be setting up Toxic Spikes for no reason. Now what I recommend you change is Latias into Sub ChargeBeam Rotom. It provides you with not getting spinned and it's also a great special sweeper that works very will with the addition of Toxic spikes. What I don't think you need Latias that much is because you already have a decent Sp.attacker which is Jirachi which takes care some of the dirty work. Latias doesn't provide insulation with Toxic spikes it is easily pursuited by an Scarf Tyranitar which is the 2nd currently on the OU list. Now here's the Moveset I'm sure you should definitely try out if you'd like to:

Rotom-H @ Leftovers
Nature: Timid
EVs: 128 HP / 168 SpA / 212 Spe
Moveset: Substitute, Charge Beam, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball

Now the explanation for this set is to overall stall out the other player while Toxic spikes in play so you can even get damage in while setting up, Substitute is to stop any statuses and of course help the stall of Toxic to continue if the other Pokemon is affected by it which isn't that much of a big deal. Charge Beam is to help the possible sweep while gaining a +1 in Sp.Att and having a 70% chance to do so. Shadow Ball is to deal with any thing that resists the Electric attacks or more likely to hit any incoming ghosts. Thunderbolt is currently your strongest move, and it will help you tremendously against Bulky waters, and self-explanatory on that part.

A Minor nitpick you might want to be changing is on Tyranitar I recommend you to change Earthquake into Super Power reason being is that you currently have 2 Pokemon with Earthquake which are Forretress and Gyarados, and it deals with those kinds of problems while Superpower could actually deal with Blissey and other types of Pokemon who are affected harshly by fighting.

Good luck and hoped my analysis on your RMT helped.

Thanks Abutorn!

Well, I don't think I'd want to change Jirachi's set and make it a lead, seeing as it is the "foundation" for the team. However, I will start testing Swampert, even though I like trickscarf leads.

Now about Rotom. I don't think I'm willing to get rid of Latias, since like I said, she can easily get a few surprise kill, even besisdes Scizor. You say Jirachi is already my special attacker, but since it has no speed and only 80 special attack EVs, I don't think I'm going to get many KOs without a few CMs. Also, you say Latias is easily pursuited by ScarfTar. Isn't Rotom pursuited as well? Anyways, thanks for the suggestions.
 
Thanks Abutorn!

Well, I don't think I'd want to change Jirachi's set and make it a lead, seeing as it is the "foundation" for the team. However, I will start testing Swampert, even though I like trickscarf leads.

Now about Rotom. I don't think I'm willing to get rid of Latias, since like I said, she can easily get a few surprise kill, even besisdes Scizor. You say Jirachi is already my special attacker, but since it has no speed and only 80 special attack EVs, I don't think I'm going to get many KOs without a few CMs. Also, you say Latias is easily pursuited by ScarfTar. Isn't Rotom pursuited as well? Anyways, thanks for the suggestions.

No, but Rotoms set is able to hide behind a substitute, while Latias is wide open for a Pursuit. The other thing, is you need Rotom, you might want to change your other Pokemon, But you need Rotom as an Anti-Spinner or your team won't work correctly at all while you have to change of getting Spinned easily. Plus I'd never said to change Jirachi into a lead, You honestly need to read my whole rate then just skimming through.
 
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