Gen 5 BW1 OU - VoltTurning From Sierra Leone (Peaked #6)

[Zer0]

VoltTurning From Sierra Leone
a BW1 OU rmt by Zer0

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Introduction

Whats up everyone, i went on a long hiatus from doing RMTs but i am back with arguably my second RMT and one thats very unique. As many people know by now, BW1 OU was Gen5 OU before BW2 came out and with it pretty much phased BW1 OU out completely, never to be seen or played again until almost 2 months ago where i revived it entirely after figuring out the correct challenge code to make it playable for the first time on PS, and most importantly, to make it playable for the first time in 12 years. Well, today i decided that since BW1 OU Ladder was coming to an end(at least for now) and with the recent conclusion of BW1 OU Open that i would make arguably the first ever BW1 OU RMT in over 12 years of the metagame not being played. This was a team that i made right before i decided to release the format to the public, and overtime it has proven to be fire overall, with strong tournament performances and me having reached an impressive peak with it, im generally impressive with how i build this team and i hope you guys enjoy.

Peak

As mentioned in the RMT i touched a p good peak with this team. Unfortunately, the ladder was just made so top 500 doesnt start at 1500 which is a bummer, but despite the top3 only peaking at around 1400 this was still a good peak overall for a ladder that has only existed for 1 month and hopefully whenever this tier comes back there will be a higher elo peak in the top 500. With all said and done tho, lets get to the team, shall we?

Teambuilding Process

: Team starts with Deo-D, one of the few Pokemons that have been free'd into the BW1 OU metagame unlike in BW2 OU. Arguably the best Lead in the metagame and since i was building around creating Deo-D hyper offense it was obvious to auto include this Pokemon right away, since there's no other Pokemon that can do its job in this metagame.

: I decided i needed an offensive spinblocker on this team that would give me huge offensive prowess while still outspeeding most of the metagame, so Gengar was chosen over a different ghost type like Jellicent. It also synergizes pretty well with most of this team too, including Deo-D itself since it can spinblock most of the spinners with good play.

: One thing that stood out to me about BW1 OU from everything else in particular is VoltTurn. VoltTurn was completely dominate and metagame defining as a whole, so for the memories i decided to include both Scizor and Rotom on this team together since they work like a glove on this team. They appreciate Deoxys-Defense's ability to prevent hazards from going up right from turn one as well as appreciating Gengar's spinblocking support to maintain entry hazards so they can keep up the pressure throughout the game. Obviously with the influx of how people adapted by just running spikes more often than not they wont be as dominate compare to original BW1 ofc but this team can afford to run VoltTurn since it has ways of combating hazards with the help of Deo-D, no Garchomp existing also makes VoltTurn a bit better on paper as well!

: After those 2, i decided to slot in good ol Luke. It transitioned really well from BW2 over to BW1 due to multiple checks to it completely not existing or being worse, as proven by the fact that Luke currently has the most usage out of any fighting type in the most recent 2 BW1 OU tours combined with a superb winrate ontop of that! No Techloom also means that Lucario can fill Loom shoes as the role of a powerful fighting type Pokemon with access to Swords Dance and Priority too which this team wants to have overall, since SD Espeed is just that good vs a lot of the metagame. So with all of this in mind, i decided to slot in Lucario as its great on these teams in addition to it also being a superb abuser of Entry Hazards.

: Finally, Salamence rounds out this whole team. It has incredible synergy with most of this team and it makes for a fantastic pairing with Lucario and they can pivot into attacks that are aimed at each other. Its also used over Dnite incase in the event where Deo-D cant prevent hazards from going up, such as against Aerodactyl or opposing Mental Herb Deo-D that wins both speed ties in a row, and overall generally leveraging its perks that it can boast over Dragonite.

The Team

Deoxys-Defense

Deoxys-Defense @ Mental Herb
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Skill Swap

Deoxys-Defense truly is incredible, arguably my favorite Pokemon to run on weatherless since it insanely splashable and so consistent at setting hazards while having amazing versatility in such a role. With Max HP and Speed EVs as well as Taunt, Deoxys-Defense is able to beat just about every single lead slower than it while still having enough bulk to take hits in a pinch, with Mental Herb helping it against opposing Deo-D leads as well as faster leads such as Azelf and Aerodactyl that would otherwise try to Taunt it. As for my last move,v i decided to go with Skill Swap so Xatu and Espeon arent much of a problem to this team, allowing Deo-D to get up hazards vs Sun teams.

Gengar

Gengar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Disable
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

The story pretty much goes like this: Gengar in BW1 OU = Insane Aura, Gengar in BW2 OU = Negative Aura. Gengar is pretty wonderful in BW1 due to the unbanning of Deo-D, making it a more viable pick compared to BW2 OU. It fits like a glove on these teams due to it being arguably the only good offensive spinblocker in the tier as well as its synergy with Deo-D and its team as a whole from the traits it brings to the table, which is having great utility as well as great offensive prowess and speed for the tier, on par with Latios to an extent statwise. Gengar's typing and ability are nice defensively for this team too, as it can pivot into Earthquakes and Close Combats that are being aimed at Gengar's teammates like Lucario and Scizor. In general, its a great answer to most of the fighting types too as most of them get outsped and hit incredibly hard by its attacking moves. For this Gengar set, i decided to run Sub + Disable on this team to: force switches, ease prediction, and to also beat reuniclus lacking thunder, as it cant beat this Gengar set if running focus blast since it will just disable reun's psychic and beat it with ease. Subsitute also allows me to do much better into Tyranitar, especially agianst Choice Scarf variants, as well as preventing me from getting revenge killed by faster Pokemon such as Alakazam, Starmie, and Choice Scarf users such as Latios, Landrous-I, and Terrakion. Disable compliments Substitute pretty well as Gengar can Disable Choiced locked moves from the likes of Terrakion and Scizor as well as Disabling Ferrothorn's Gyro Ball and Reuniclus's Psychic, allowing Gengar to do well into Slower Pokemon like them that rely on one move to hit it. Disable can also mess with Flying Gem Acrobatics Gliscor, allowing Gengar to actually beat it one on one if its moves connect.

Scizor

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Scizor is so incredible in BW1 OU that its completely ridiculous, and with it pretty much being arguably the 3rd-5th most used Pokemon in both of the most recent BW1 Tours combined its no surpised that it really does live up to this fact. It appreciates VoltTurn being more viable and also adores the lack of checks to it that are prominent in BW2 OU in addition to it being able to revenge kill every dragon in addition to every single weakened Chlorophyll sweeper in the game, thus actually giving this team a good matchup into sun surprisingly. Being able to act as a stopgap to Venusaur lacking HP Fire can be completely game changing too, as it cant break through scizor as easily without it due to its great typing and having a great Latios check on this team is completely invaluable. This team is running good ol choice band scizor since its so good against most of the metagame as a whole, being able to maximize its bulk while being able to handle Terrakion and Reuniclus incredibly well. Having a strong Pursuit for Alakazam and the Latis is very good too, as being able to pursuit them can open up avenues for a teammate like Salamence to sweep with ease. The ability to also strongly revenge kill threats such as Gengar, Dragonite, Latios, SD Lucario after a Close Combat Defense drop, and opposing Salamence with a stronger Bullet Punch is completely huge for this team as a whole too and generally this team appreciates Scizor's capacity to be an incredible Swiss Army Knife outside of VoltTurn.

Rotom-Wash

Rotom-Wash @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Trick

Rotom-Wash is just amazing as always. Its easily the best pivot in the whole tier and arguably one of my favorite Pokemon to load on teams like this. Having a nice water resistance on this team goes a long way too as well as the ability to answer ground-types on this team, which both Lucario and Scizor appreciate a lot. Answering opposing water-types such as Starmie and Gyarados can be completely huge as well, and as such Rotom is able to help this teams matchup into those 2 mons. Being able to also pivot out of mons like Ferrothorn just to bring in a teammate such as Lucario and Gengar goes a long way too as it helps them bypass their frailty as well as getting them switch in opportunities to wallbreak and cause destruction as a reuslt. This teams running Scarf Rotom for the extra speed control that this team needs, as Rotom is able to revenge kill Pokemon such as Dragonite and non Scarf Landorus Incarnate as well as being able to pivot out of faster Pokemon such as Starmie and Alakazam. Having a scarfer with Trick on this team is pretty cool too since Rotom can trick its Scarf onto bulkier Pokemon like Ferrothorn or Blissey/Chansey if its not needed anymore, thus disabling something key in a pinch for one of its teammates to abuse.

Lucario

Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed
- Bullet Punch

Lucario was once one of the most defining threats of Gen5 OU in the same vein as it was in Gen4 OU and it comes to no surprise that Lucario has been fairing incredibly well in this metagame as a whole on route to becoming an incredible force once again, including it becoming the most used Fighting-type in both BW1 OU Tournaments combined(as of right now at least) and boasting a superb winrate alongside its usage stats in both tournaments in addition to Ladder. It benefits pretty much most of its check's completely being absent or worse in this gen, much like Scizor but in an even better way. No competition from Keldeo and Technician Breloom as Fighting-Type competition also makes Lucario more worthy of bringing and slotting on teams as a result, especially Technician Breloom as Lucario can now fill Loom's void on offense as a good replacement for it. Apart from the success Luc has been having in BW1, its an elite sweeper on this team and probably one of, if not, the most scariest Pokemon to see at Team Preview on teams like this that have its weaknesses covered and its strength's utilize to the fullest. Once again, Lucario finds many setup opportunities that its fantastic typing affords it to grab due to the many choice locked attacks flying around and Lucario can completely end games with ease once its checks have been eliminated. Being able to, once again, take full advantage of Latios locked into Draco Meteor due to its great typing and abuse it for setup opportunities to threaten it as well as its whole team in return is completely incredible for this team's capacity to function. Said typing also grants Lucario a 4x resistance to Stealth Rock and immunity to toxic, which no other Pokemon in BW1 can boast about. ESpeed also still has its merits even when not boosted, such as being able to pick off weakened faster threats such as Volcarona and Starmie, thus contributing some offensive utility in a way or so. For the last slot after the obligatory SD/CC/ESpeed i decided to run Bullet Punch Lucario on this team, this allows Lucario to slice through Gengar, Terrakion, and Scarf Tyranitar after a Swords Dance. Running Bullet Punch on Lucario also means that it can get setup opportunities against both Terrakion and Scarf Tyranitar locked into attacks that cant hurt Lucario, such as Stone Edge/Rock Slide and Crunch/Pursuit.

Salamence

Salamence @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

Salamence is pretty dope in BW1 OU due to some of its checks such as Landrous-T and Garchomp not existing in this metagame in addition to other miscellaneous threats like Keldeo, thus making it a much better overall Pokemon as a result. Intimidate is really scarce in this Metagame thats filled to the brim with Physical Attackers such as Terrakion, Scizor, and Lucario among others, so Salamence can utilize said ability to good results overall outside of its Choice Scarf set to help its team dance around most of the dangerous threats in the Metagame. It also has great synergy with Lucario as both of them can get setup on each other weaknesses, allowing both to cause immense destruction together. This teams running Dragon Dance Salamence with Fire Blast and Intimidate to difference itself from Dragonite, said ability is much better than multiscale in the event where Deo-D somehow fails to get up hazards against Faster leads overall. So Salamence being able to leverage Intimidate in conjunction with its superior offenses and speed allows it to find a place on this team as a very good and devastating sweeper/cleaner to great results.

Threats
Just like my previous RMT this team has threats to it, however just like the previous RMT they arent completely unplayable at all when played correctly

: Gastro is kinda annoying for this team as it can be irritating to a certain extent. However, this teams not the worst into Gastro due to Lum Berry Salamence and Trick Scarf Rotom, being able to do decent into it, however it can be obnoxious if not played well.

+: Scarf Heatran has a insane MU against this team due to its typing, power, and ability to outspeed nearly the entire team. However, DD Salamence + Scarf Rotom do well into it and you just have to dance around what moves it locks into with these 2 mons on this team to have a much better MU into it.

: Believe it or not, opposing Lucario when played well is kinda a pain for this team, especially if its running BP for Gengar. Its not the worst MU cause you have Intimidate Salamence and CB Scizor, but its def annoying.

+ HP Ice: While Volc isnt much of an issue on this team, HP Ice variants of volc are incredible tough for this team to face against despite it being rare, should you lead incorrectly. However thats really just one variant of volc, outside of that the team isnt the worst into Volc due to Mence. its just incredibly rough if its HP Ice instead of Psychic/HP Ground.

Other Options
Just like my last RMT, this team can be customizable based on specific moves or Pokemon and there are many other options that you can utilize upon your likings:

+ Skill Swap -> + Night Shade: Rocky Helmet + Night Shade and Recover is perfectly viable alongside either Rocks or Spikes as your hazard of choice, said combination also allows Deo-D + Gengar to do even better vs most of the spinners as well. Basically giving up the sun match-up and dual hazards + mental herb for the ability to more consistently spinblock on this team. Unfortunately this team will souly miss Dual Hazards + Mental Herb so its way more fringe compare to mental herb + dual hazards, but Helmet + Night Shade is still viable overall, should you make the correct decision about what hazard this team wants more.

-> : Leftovers Rotom w Bulk is viable on this team and can be ran, allowing Rotom to switch moves without being locked into a Choiced Volt Switch against Ground-Types. This should only be a consideration if you decide to change Mence to Scarf instead of DD, but its 100% a viable if you go that route

Bullet Punch -> Ice Punch: If you want to improve your match-up into Gliscor with Lucario then Ice Punch can be used over Bullet Punch, allowing you to nail it with good play. Unfortunately this does give up your match-up into Terrakion, Gengar, and Scarf Tyranitar one on one which is kinda crucial for this team so Lucario doesnt get its sweep ruin. However, this option is still a decent consideration if you're certain about losing to Gliscor and being able to deal with those 3 via a different Pokemon. Crunch can also be worth running in this slot, but Jellicent, Slowbro, and Reuniclus are covered on this team in different ways so theres no point for it.

DD -> /Mixed: DD can be dropped on this team in favor of Choice Scarf or Mixed Salamence, the former acting as a revenge killer against the overall metagame and completely improving your match-ups into Volcarona and such, while the latter allows Salamence to become an immediate Wallbreaker right off the bat in addition to it doubling as a devastating Stallbreaker. Only consider Scarf if you decide to drop Choice Scarf on Rotom tho.

Replays
Finally, here are some replays throughout the past month or so of me using this team:

Spoiler

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5bw1ou-2156019442?p2 - against opposing DeoGar. Gengar and Rotom end up killing zam together and Lucario forces out Heatran after Rotom dies, allowing it to grab setup opportunities to end the game due to it having BP for Gengar and ESpeed for everything else thats faster
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5bw1ou-2153359707-1iy3glfn653fko54n5g1j8frkfnt4h3pw?p2 - against Sun. With the help of Deo-D and a bunch of switching wearing down most of the opposing team, Lucario was able to grab setup opportunity against Choiced Latios locked into Draco Meteor at -2 and win the game outright.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5bw1ou-2160001552?p2 - against Stoutland sand. Same story as above but with Stoutland locked into crunch.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5bw1ou-2153700235 - against another Sun team. Gengar was able to reek immense havoc on this entire team overall
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5bw1ou-2165048885-k72n5v5qbpbplm4z32c7itach4wr80mpw - against Acrobatics Gliscor sand, where Gengar completely 6-0d with sub + disable
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5bw1ou-2156250823?p2 - against Stoutland + Sandslash sand. Here, Salamence was able to badly eliminate Gliscor paving way for Lucario to sweep the entire game with ease
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2149869136-atbixxsn0cdggfgir29cmth6u044om0pw - against opposing Deo-D Offense. Gengar + Salamence went pretty brazy here, with Lucario utilizing ESpeed at the very end to secure the entire game against Scarf Rotom.

i sadly dont have too many others outside of this. Unfortunately i mostly forgot to save a lot of replays from ladder cause i didnt know i was going to rmt this, but i hope they were alright!

Paste
https://pokepast.es/0711f304cb09a76b

Conclusion + Shoutouts
While this team has some rough MU's, its pretty good against a lot of cores and team archetypes when played well. Every single Pokemon on this team has amazing synergy with each other offensively and together the entire core can cause immense havoc on so much of the metagame, while covering each other's weaknesses against the overall metagame too. And despite BW1 OU ladder basically ending, i still wanted to post this because i wanted to post arguably the first ever BW1 OU RMT in the last 12 years. I hope you guys thoroughly enjoyed this trip down memory lane with me, S/O Fakes and triple axel blaze for test running this team with me and S/O to all of the BW cords, you guys are truly the GOATs!

 

[TheDuckChris]

We love Black and White Overused!!!!