Gen 3 Can you help me rate my team again?

[737373elj]

Hi everyone!
Some of you may have seen my thread for Gen 4 OU, and know what I want is actually suggestions more than ratings. That said, I’ll just go to the team straight. (P.S.. I’m a total noob here so I don’t know much here. )

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 216 Atk / 156 SpA / 136 Spe
Mild Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Drill Peck
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Substitute
Zapdos is meant to counter Water-types. Celebi is meant to be a cleric and small Psychic-type attacker, so I need Zapdos instead. However, it can double up as a Flying or Grass-type attacker instead with Drill Peck and HP Grass. Substitute is to give it a little breathing space.

Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 232 HP / 136 Def / 98 SpA / 42 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump
- Protect
Swampert is my Water- and Ground- type attacker with Hydro Pump and Earthquake respectively. Ice Beam is for killing dragons. Blissey can do the same job, but it is meant for a staller and therefore not exactly sent out to kill dragons. Protect makes Swampert into a sort of staller too, but I usually use it for scouting an opponent’s moves.

Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 106 HP / 252 Def / 152 SpA
Modest Nature
- Aromatherapy
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss
- Ice Beam
Blissey is my staller, and with Soft-Boiled, it can make any opponent frustrated. Aromatherapy heals teammates, especially handy in a place where status conditions are very common. So much so that my Celebi has Heal Bell, another move that cures status conditions. The other two moves help whittle down an opponent’s health while stalling.

Houndoom @ Leftovers
Ability: Early Bird
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 56 HP / 252 SpA / 12 SpD / 188 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Crunch
- Will-O-Wisp
Houndoom was meant to counter Ghost types like Gengar, but I have found it particularly useful in destroying Steel- and Psychic- types like Skarmory, Metagross and Celebi. Will-O-Wisp is for burning the opponent and speeding up the battle, Fire Blast for STAB Fire-type move and Crunch and Pursuit for STAB Dark-type moves (Puirsuit is particularly useful; there was once I OHKOed a full health Dusclops when it was being pulled back).

Metagross @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Agility
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
Metagross fulfills my need for a Steel-type and generalist. Agility raises its speed, Meteor Mash for STAB Steel-type move, Earthquake for Metagross to double up as a back-up Ground-type and Rock Slide for hitting Flying-types hard, as well as possible causing the target to flinch.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Leech Seed
- Heal Bell
- Recover
Last of all, Celebi is my cleric, helping me cure Pokemon of status with Heal Bell, allow for passive recovery with Leech Seed, and healing itself with Recover. It also has Psychic to attack opponents as well.

Thanks for reading and do give helpful comments!

Replay
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-892533445P.S. Thanks vivalospride for being so understanding, I know I was a bit rude just now :) .

Edit: I just realized I need a threat list. If you could add Pokemon, I would be most grateful. A few Pokemon include Choice Band Heracross that I only defeated with my boosted Meteor Mash Metagross, and Tyranitar, which I only defeated after a very close Hydro Pump from Swampert, and even then I only had 2% health left.

 

[Cowboy Dan]

The team has a pretty solid defensive backbone but I think its main problem is lack of offensive synergy and a way to break down opposing stall builds. There are some redundancies on the team that I think would be better filled with some things that offer more offensive pressure.

Your two main offensive threats here are probably the Zapdos and the Metagross, both sets you have are quite strong, agiligross in particular is a very potent threat in the current metagame however they do require some forms of support.

Both would appreciate sand stream, this really helps to wear down some of the common checks these pokemon face such as Suicune, Zapdos and Milotic in the case of metagross, and Snorlax, Blissey and Celebi in the case of Zapdos. Mixed Zapdos in particular really needs sand up to work imo as without it blissey and celebi aren't pressured hard enough by drill peck which is the whole point of running the set.

I also think both would appreciate spikes, for similar reasons as sand however in metagross' case it has the added benefit of helping wear down swampert who is unaffected by sand.

Finally Metagross really appreciates some extra methods of wearing down skarmory, so some ways of trading damage on it would be really beneficial. The slightly invested hydro pump on swampert is a good first step but a little bit more help in this department would definitely be appreciated.

1. Houndoom--> Tyranitar
Houndoom is a very cool pokemon however this team isn't really the best fit for it. It's generally used on teams that really appreciate the removal of Gengar which this team doesn't really care about too much. Furthermore it's hard walled by blissey which is a pretty big road block for this team already. Personally I think a bulky physical attacker that's able to bully bliss in the midgame would be a lot more useful here. It also adds sand which as I mentioned previously is really helpful for your offensive threats. Personally I would recommend the following moveset:

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Bug]
- Focus Punch

This has a great midgame match up vs blissey and is good at wearing down metagross counters like swampert and skarmory with focus punch.

2. Celebi --> Skarmory
Celebi doesn't hurt this team but it doesn't provide a whole lot either. Double heal bell is extremely redundant. Most teams are generally better off trying to play around status than using heal bell in the first place in my opinion as it's a move that gives up a lot of tempo. Defensively Celebi is also a bit redundant here, the blissey + zapdos combo covers most of the threats that celebi is designed to counter outside of snorlax. Spikes aren't as necessary as sand on this sort of build but they will help your offensive threats a lot, particularly zapdos who as I mentioned really appreciates the extra chip on Celebi, Blissey and Snorlax to allow it to muscle past them. It's also a good answer to opposing celebi and snorlax, who are the two main pokemon you lose coverage on by removing houndoom and your own celebi. As for what set to use, id probably run a taunt set to minimize the pokemon on your team that get spikes set up on them by opposing skarm.

3. Blissey: Aromatherapy --> Fire Blast
Blissey is a great pokemon that provides a lot for this team however I believe the set isn't the best fit here. Like I mentioned previously with heal bell, aromatherapy is never a bad thing to have but often times it takes up the slot of more important moves. Fire blast would be a huge help on this team as it gives bliss a great way of chunking skarm (great support for agiligross and prevents spikes from being set up on you) while also preventing metagross from coming in for free on it. You could also opt to run toxic>seismic toss to prevent opposing tyranitar from freely switching in but this does make opposing subcune and raikou harder to deal with so I'd probably still keep stoss personally. I would also shift some of those HP evs into spA and maybe a bit of speed creep.


I know these changes turn the team into something a bit more boring and standard looking but it will really help in the long run as you'll be able to pressure opposing stalls and balances a lot more effectively.

Some other more optional/personal preference things I might change:
Agility>Sub on zapdos, sub is a fine move on that set for easing prediction although the fact that it takes out 25% of zap's hp definitely stings. I think Agility is a really cool option on that set as it allows you to late game clean without being forced out by aero/starmie/gengar etc.

Explosion>Rock Slide on Metagross. Beating opposing zapdos is nice but it's really hard for me to give up explosion on metagross, it's just such a great move and a huge part of why metagross is as good as it is.

Swap Zapdos out of the lead spot. Zapdos is normally a great lead however the mixed set is a lot more effective in the late game when its checks are worn down. Personally I think you'd get a lot more value out of saving it for this stage of the game. Skarmory and ttar are both solid leads for this sort of team.

Finally just a small tip from watching the replay, all those turns you kept missing against the ttar in the end game were annoying I'm sure but could have been easily avoided if you had just clicked earthquake with either swampert or Metagross. +1 eq from metagross would have straight up ohkod it from the HP it was at and there was really no reason to go for the less accurate moves.

Hopefully this helps you out and welcome to the ADV community!

 

[737373elj]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into them. Thanks!