Anti-Meta Competitive (1500+)
Hey - this is my first time posting & second time making it to 1500+ with a nonstandard team. The RBY meta is obviously well established, but that allows for anti-meta teams to shine in higher levels of play.
I want to draw the distinction that there are a lot of teams where a player says “I wanted to make pinscer work” or something; that’s not what this is. This team wasn’t made to counter all 151 Pokémon, it’s designed to be a nightmare for the same 8 mon you see every high ladder game. Additionally, it wasn’t a theory craft - I’ve been grinding games & swapped a lot of builds before aggregating the culmination of my experience in this line up, which I used from 1200 —> 1508.
The Squad:
https://pokepast.es/a9cd12adabcca11b
Starmie (Lead, Sleep Target, Special Wall)
- Thunder Wave
- Blizzard
- Psychic
- Recover
The rationale for lead Star is pretty well established - it’s faster and generally counters the primary sleepers, so you have a good chance of immediately beating tempo teams. The primary thing to consider here is that you’re not leading a sleeper, so you’re likely going to get slept - and that’s OK because Star is fast & has recover to potentially return late game. Go into games with this mentality - choose which of your mons is slept so it isn’t chosen for you.
My most controversial advice here is to almost never lead with TWave. If the opponent has a paralyzed mon to block with you’ll almost never get your own sleep off.
Basically the lead flow chart is:
vs Gengar: Psychic (crit OTKO), they have 60% chance to hypno or you psychic again for the kill. If slept switch to Egg & go for sleep. If he explodes you can tank it & if he swaps that’s fine.
vs Egg: Blizzard, you want it damaged. If slept swap to Egg & sleep. Egg can’t really damage Egg, so he can explode or swap.
vs Star or Zam: Swap to Egg, if they go for paralyze you can just fish for sleep & see below. Star will not blizz vs a lead star.
vs Zap or Jolt: Swap to Rydon & see below.
vs Jynx: TWave - She’s a pain & you’re not going to get egg in here. Once she’s para’d spam Psychic until she either dies or sleeps you. Hopefully you reduce her special. Once slept rotate to Slowbro or Chancy & see below.
Exeggutor (Sleeper, Psychic Tank, Enabler)
- Sleep Powder
- Psychic
- Leech Seed
- Rest
Here’s where you start to deviate from the meta, but I assure you it’s good (vs the meta). Obviously what stands out is Leech and the lack of Explosion. I used to lead with egg, swap if vs a sleeper, and sleep vs the popular leads of zam / star. Traditionally, once you’ve actually slept Zam you’re probably paralyzed and around 50% hp, especially if he’s running toss. An Egg in that shape is pretty worthless - everybody knows you’re trying to explode. If zam sits on you asleep it’s hard to damage it, and double edge ensure that you will now be around 1/3 hp & paralyzed - you’ll never get that explosion off. Instead, drop Seeds and maybe get back to 75% hp and be useful beyond the first few turns. Also note that Seeds really messes with Seismic toss, which typically does 25%, and now takes an additional turn to kill. If your psychic drops the enemy’s special you can usually hang out in front of chancy with seeds healing you through ice beam & rest. This set up farms snorlax & is tanky enough to potentially swap into Taurus slam. Also note most slowbros run surf, so leech/rest makes egg a nightmare for it. Alternatively leech & swap to chancy.
Chansey (Special Wall)
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Soft-Boiled
Very meta build, counters starme & slowbro as well as threatening paralysis on the whole cast. Early game prioritize TWave. I don’t run sing because I don’t feel it’s necessary, this team grinds other teams down & TWave is better for that. If enemy is going to a slowbro sweep the ideal situation is you get a leech off and then swap to chancy for paralyze & bolt - don’t worry about damage just stay alive & let the leech & soft heal until he’s para’d, a crit tbolt can OTK him despite 4x special. I don’t typically fish for freeze, but beam gives great coverage.
Slowbro (Tank, Situational Sweeper)
- Thunder Wave
- Surf
- Amnesia
- Rest
Can swap into damn near anything, including Taurus. Most people play this guy all wrong - swap into most stuff with impunity & go for para’s. Understand how Amnesia works - when you boost your stats the para speed debuff is reapplied on enemies. Typically I only amnesia after twave to make the other player panic & bring in a new guy for me to paralyze. Remember amnesia also boosts your special defense, so it’s a great stall. You don’t need to (predictably) boost to 4x - that’s only like 90 more special, just let surf rip at 3x and rest often.
Rhydon (Ground Type, Situational Sweep)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Body Slam
- Rest
This guy is hard to use correctly but wildly useful; most obviously he invalidates Zapados & Jolt while being immune to TWave. Less obviously you can swap in on explosions, especially if they don’t know you have him. If you swap into a Zap or jolt and you don’t know the enemy team composition, go for Slam - you have very high attack but more importantly it can paralyze. Late game, the enemy is all para’d or you’re faster, go for quake & maybe sweep. Sometimes people will try read an EQ and bring in a flying type, and that’s where RockSlide shines, destroying articuno for example. On that note, Rock slide devastates most counters, like Jynx & cloyster.
Alakazam (TWaver, Revenge, Sweeper)
- Thunder Wave
- Psychic
- Counter
- Recover
You were right when you were 10 playing game boy, Zam is the best Pokémon in OU. Keep him in reserve, don’t let him get para’d. When to use him:
vs Dragonite: Teams with dragonite are rare but deadly for this comp, since most of your team is slow & you likely let star get slept. Let Dragonite start his wrap cycle & swap in on the second or third wrap to avoid chip damage & then TWave him and swap out: threat eliminated. It takes dragonite a long time kill anything on your team & you run a lot of rests. Edited Note: People typically hide dragonite until late, but it’s typically telegraphed; for whatever reason people who run dragonite also run other wrap style mons like Bell & Cloyster. I bring zam out to stop both these, although just OTK Bell with psychic and care for cloyster explosion.
vs Taurus: This is where Zam shines, and it requires understanding RBY mechanics. Obviously never swap into the bull; you come in once it kills one of your other mons. Most players, in 1400+, will never take a bad fight with Taurus and they know zam is faster: if they have any special wall left they’ll usually run. Now understand how counter works - if Taurus just hyper beamed a chancy for 1/2 it’s hp, swapping out on a counter will kill anything it swaps in and, even if it is just critically wounded, zam is faster than almost anything. If they body slam you & dont crit then counter puts them within an inch of death. Almost nobody tests for counter. If they didn’t do much damage last turn, or used blizz/eq, then go psychic or TWave depending on what the rest of their team looks like.
SUMMARY
I realize Taurus & Lax are considered irreplaceable and they are really good, but this team is specifically good into that meta - it might lose to some pinscer bullshit in low elo. Just some general advice, you’ll start seeing some of the same people so you might have to switch up your playstyle to be less predictable. Some people have memorable names or nicknames on mons, so be aware of people with peculiar play styles.
Edited for more Zam explanation.
Hey - this is my first time posting & second time making it to 1500+ with a nonstandard team. The RBY meta is obviously well established, but that allows for anti-meta teams to shine in higher levels of play.
I want to draw the distinction that there are a lot of teams where a player says “I wanted to make pinscer work” or something; that’s not what this is. This team wasn’t made to counter all 151 Pokémon, it’s designed to be a nightmare for the same 8 mon you see every high ladder game. Additionally, it wasn’t a theory craft - I’ve been grinding games & swapped a lot of builds before aggregating the culmination of my experience in this line up, which I used from 1200 —> 1508.
The Squad:
https://pokepast.es/a9cd12adabcca11b
Starmie (Lead, Sleep Target, Special Wall)
- Thunder Wave
- Blizzard
- Psychic
- Recover
The rationale for lead Star is pretty well established - it’s faster and generally counters the primary sleepers, so you have a good chance of immediately beating tempo teams. The primary thing to consider here is that you’re not leading a sleeper, so you’re likely going to get slept - and that’s OK because Star is fast & has recover to potentially return late game. Go into games with this mentality - choose which of your mons is slept so it isn’t chosen for you.
My most controversial advice here is to almost never lead with TWave. If the opponent has a paralyzed mon to block with you’ll almost never get your own sleep off.
Basically the lead flow chart is:
vs Gengar: Psychic (crit OTKO), they have 60% chance to hypno or you psychic again for the kill. If slept switch to Egg & go for sleep. If he explodes you can tank it & if he swaps that’s fine.
vs Egg: Blizzard, you want it damaged. If slept swap to Egg & sleep. Egg can’t really damage Egg, so he can explode or swap.
vs Star or Zam: Swap to Egg, if they go for paralyze you can just fish for sleep & see below. Star will not blizz vs a lead star.
vs Zap or Jolt: Swap to Rydon & see below.
vs Jynx: TWave - She’s a pain & you’re not going to get egg in here. Once she’s para’d spam Psychic until she either dies or sleeps you. Hopefully you reduce her special. Once slept rotate to Slowbro or Chancy & see below.
Exeggutor (Sleeper, Psychic Tank, Enabler)
- Sleep Powder
- Psychic
- Leech Seed
- Rest
Here’s where you start to deviate from the meta, but I assure you it’s good (vs the meta). Obviously what stands out is Leech and the lack of Explosion. I used to lead with egg, swap if vs a sleeper, and sleep vs the popular leads of zam / star. Traditionally, once you’ve actually slept Zam you’re probably paralyzed and around 50% hp, especially if he’s running toss. An Egg in that shape is pretty worthless - everybody knows you’re trying to explode. If zam sits on you asleep it’s hard to damage it, and double edge ensure that you will now be around 1/3 hp & paralyzed - you’ll never get that explosion off. Instead, drop Seeds and maybe get back to 75% hp and be useful beyond the first few turns. Also note that Seeds really messes with Seismic toss, which typically does 25%, and now takes an additional turn to kill. If your psychic drops the enemy’s special you can usually hang out in front of chancy with seeds healing you through ice beam & rest. This set up farms snorlax & is tanky enough to potentially swap into Taurus slam. Also note most slowbros run surf, so leech/rest makes egg a nightmare for it. Alternatively leech & swap to chancy.
Chansey (Special Wall)
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Soft-Boiled
Very meta build, counters starme & slowbro as well as threatening paralysis on the whole cast. Early game prioritize TWave. I don’t run sing because I don’t feel it’s necessary, this team grinds other teams down & TWave is better for that. If enemy is going to a slowbro sweep the ideal situation is you get a leech off and then swap to chancy for paralyze & bolt - don’t worry about damage just stay alive & let the leech & soft heal until he’s para’d, a crit tbolt can OTK him despite 4x special. I don’t typically fish for freeze, but beam gives great coverage.
Slowbro (Tank, Situational Sweeper)
- Thunder Wave
- Surf
- Amnesia
- Rest
Can swap into damn near anything, including Taurus. Most people play this guy all wrong - swap into most stuff with impunity & go for para’s. Understand how Amnesia works - when you boost your stats the para speed debuff is reapplied on enemies. Typically I only amnesia after twave to make the other player panic & bring in a new guy for me to paralyze. Remember amnesia also boosts your special defense, so it’s a great stall. You don’t need to (predictably) boost to 4x - that’s only like 90 more special, just let surf rip at 3x and rest often.
Rhydon (Ground Type, Situational Sweep)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Body Slam
- Rest
This guy is hard to use correctly but wildly useful; most obviously he invalidates Zapados & Jolt while being immune to TWave. Less obviously you can swap in on explosions, especially if they don’t know you have him. If you swap into a Zap or jolt and you don’t know the enemy team composition, go for Slam - you have very high attack but more importantly it can paralyze. Late game, the enemy is all para’d or you’re faster, go for quake & maybe sweep. Sometimes people will try read an EQ and bring in a flying type, and that’s where RockSlide shines, destroying articuno for example. On that note, Rock slide devastates most counters, like Jynx & cloyster.
Alakazam (TWaver, Revenge, Sweeper)
- Thunder Wave
- Psychic
- Counter
- Recover
You were right when you were 10 playing game boy, Zam is the best Pokémon in OU. Keep him in reserve, don’t let him get para’d. When to use him:
vs Dragonite: Teams with dragonite are rare but deadly for this comp, since most of your team is slow & you likely let star get slept. Let Dragonite start his wrap cycle & swap in on the second or third wrap to avoid chip damage & then TWave him and swap out: threat eliminated. It takes dragonite a long time kill anything on your team & you run a lot of rests. Edited Note: People typically hide dragonite until late, but it’s typically telegraphed; for whatever reason people who run dragonite also run other wrap style mons like Bell & Cloyster. I bring zam out to stop both these, although just OTK Bell with psychic and care for cloyster explosion.
vs Taurus: This is where Zam shines, and it requires understanding RBY mechanics. Obviously never swap into the bull; you come in once it kills one of your other mons. Most players, in 1400+, will never take a bad fight with Taurus and they know zam is faster: if they have any special wall left they’ll usually run. Now understand how counter works - if Taurus just hyper beamed a chancy for 1/2 it’s hp, swapping out on a counter will kill anything it swaps in and, even if it is just critically wounded, zam is faster than almost anything. If they body slam you & dont crit then counter puts them within an inch of death. Almost nobody tests for counter. If they didn’t do much damage last turn, or used blizz/eq, then go psychic or TWave depending on what the rest of their team looks like.
SUMMARY
I realize Taurus & Lax are considered irreplaceable and they are really good, but this team is specifically good into that meta - it might lose to some pinscer bullshit in low elo. Just some general advice, you’ll start seeing some of the same people so you might have to switch up your playstyle to be less predictable. Some people have memorable names or nicknames on mons, so be aware of people with peculiar play styles.
Edited for more Zam explanation.
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