Bulk Up Scrafty OP OU

[asianpiglet]

At a Glance:

Forretress @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Volt Switch
- Gyro Ball
Standard Forretress lead/physical wall. Used to be Donphan but after some switching around, I no longer had a huge need for ice shard, nor did I have any steel types. At the time, I was running Volcarona so rapid spin was a MUST. Now, he still fits in nicely and I refuse to run Ferrothorn, although he's probably the weakest link at this point. Suggestions? Gliscor? Physically defensive Heatran? Metagross?

Scrafty @ Leftovers
Trait: Shed Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Rest
I love Scrafty. Dragon Dance Scrafty is great and all, but with two choiced Pokes already, Scrafty's Bulk Up set works better with the rest of the team. Takes specs Draco Meteor from Latios like a champ (around 60-70%) and can usually survive a second, although i tend to choose to rest up the first time. He's also a great status absorber, and I find he wins me a good chunk of my games.

Sigilyph @ Flame Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature
- Cosmic Power
- Psycho Shift
- Roost
- Stored Power
Sigilyph is awesome in the OU metagame. Passes high accuracy burns, 4x resist to fighting. Works really well with Gastrodon to absorb toxic/bullet seed while Gastrodon helps it back by taking electric moves and walling common switch ins like rotom-w and Latios.

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 174 SDef
Calm Nature
- Earth Power
- Scald
- Recover
- Toxic
Gastrodon is an absolute monster of a special wall in OU right now. Common rain/sandstorm and storm drain boosts only help her cause. Her true counters are Breloom and Ferrothorn, which can't do anything to Sigilyph (not even spore) and Jellicents that run Giga Drain, although if I can get the toxic off that Jellicent is severely crippled anyways. Generally Gas will only die to total powerhouses that tear through her by force like banded Tyranitar or Garchomp, and occasionally an Alakazam that surprises me with energy ball.

Dragonite @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
Banded Dragonite works great with the team, with Extremespeed nicely cleaning up unfinished kills and fire punch hitting Ferrothorn hard on switch ins. I've been happy with him as I usually have someone to switch in to take his common switch ins.

Hydreigon (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Surf
Hydreigon used to be Volcarona, and before that specs Jellicent. Jellicent didn't mesh well with the team, considering I already had a water immunity. That said, specs water spout at full health even outside of rain took half of Ferrothorns health. Volcarona did some work but ultimately didn't have enough opportunities to come in, and even less to set up. Hydreigon has worked better, though I am looking for someone maybe even better (besides Latios) and who wouldn't be a third weakness to ice on the team. Alakazam? Magnezone? Specs Heatran?

My general strategy is to start slow, try to get up rocks, and assess what my opponent is trying to do, while quickly sending off burns to whoever I can. The idea is to take out threats to scrafty/sigilyph with my choiced pokes, then set up and sweep. Whirlwind Skarmory hates a burn, and hates rapid spin. Perish song politoed is easy to toxic, as he can't do anything to gastrodon. Heatran's roar hasn't been a huge problem thanks to dragonite/gastrodon, but Bulk-Up Conkeldurr has been a huge problem, and I imagine Abomasnow as well...

Sometimes setting up doesn't work out. http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-52725568
Sometimes it kinda works. http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-52727779
Most of the time games end up looking like this: http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-52729290
Or really stally like this: http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-52758835
Sigilyph win: http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-52812864
LOLOL: http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-53182487

 

[Qualna]

Hippowdon can be taken care of by giving Hydreigon Surf. I suggest changing Dark Pulse to Surf since Dark Pulse has little use outside easing prediction. You can also give Dragonite Waterfall but it will sorely miss Fire Punch or Earthquake.

I can see your team will struggle against Abomasnow and friends, while rare, they're very dangerous in their own right.

Even Abomasnow's mere presence strikes fear in everyone on your team even Forretress because Abomasnow commonly runs HP fire, so theoretically, Abomasnow can singlehandedly kill at least one on your team. Except Scrafty, but Abomasnow hits stupidly hard when you use Scrafty to tank its hit on the switch and the fact that Scrafty's premier counter, Skarmory is a common Pokémon on hail team. Even Scrafty will get worn down pretty quick even with Rest Shed Skin because it's so slow it needs to predict correctly when using Rest.

I'm not sure who or what to change because your team is actually very good and the fact that hail teams are rare. But you might want to think about it.

 

[asianpiglet]

Thanks Qualna, I'm trying Surf out now and it's working out well. Now, if there's anything anyone could suggest for Hydration Vaporeon....

 

[Qualna]

What Hydration Vaporeon, the overrated defensive one? Or the offensive one?
Your team is actually good to go, you just don't know it.

If it's the defensive one, Vaporeon is just begging Sigilyph and Scrafty to set up, even if it has Roar, Vaporeon can't deal damage to Sigilyph and Scrafty. So just keep switching in Sigilyph and Scrafty and use Roost/Rest if need be. But Sigilyph should watch out for the occasional Ice Beam(on the switch) which deals at least 51% with your curent spread but Sigilyph has Roost anyway.

If it's the offensive one, Dragonite has a good chance to OHKO even at full health(just watch out for Ice Beam). And it tends to be worn down pretty quick due to Life Orb and poor speed. So pressuring it with strong attacks is good too.

 

[asianpiglet]

Hmm, yeah I guess I just haven't been patient enough with Vaporeon then. That just leaves Conkeldurr. I can't stop it with a burn because of guts, and mach punch takes out Hydreigon before I can OHKO with Draco Meteor. Dragonite can't break through it with a bulk up, especially if it's carrying ice punch. Scrafty loses...Gastrodon doesn't last long enough either...

 

[Iura]

Hmm, yeah I guess I just haven't been patient enough with Vaporeon then. That just leaves Conkeldurr. I can't stop it with a burn because of guts, and mach punch takes out Hydreigon before I can OHKO with Draco Meteor. Dragonite can't break through it with a bulk up, especially if it's carrying ice punch. Scrafty loses...Gastrodon doesn't last long enough either...

Not all conkeldurrs use guts, some use LO Sheer Force. You can easily find out which it is if it hurts itself or not :P