Durant? You rant battling against this team for sure!

[Celever]

So here is my 3rd rmt and my second RU rmt! I thought, after having a bit of fun and using this in OU, to find out that I actually won 7 times out of 18 with the team (over a third!), that I should share my team with you guys! Don't believe me? This is the battle which I saved the replay for (my friend said sun would rape the team, hah!) http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou8518565 Any modification will be very much appreciated (not necessarily used though :P) but I would not like to change any pokemon species themselves (except for the one that I say you can in the description). Without further budew (bad puns are funny!) let's go!

@ Lum berry
Ability: Sturdy (OMG so good on Crustle)
-Shell smash
-Rock slide Rock blast
-X-scissor
-Earthquake
HP - 4
Atk - 252
Spd - 252
Nature: Adamant

Shell smash Crustle is a beast. That is all Seriously though, this guy can get rid of the first 3 pokemon on my opponents team, especially if the opponent goes for the rocks first turn thinking I will do the same; he is my lead because of this. To be fair, there isn't that much more to say, it's the standard shell smash crustle set but boy does it work!

@Life orb
Ability: Swarm
-Iron head
-X-scissor
-Superpower
-Stone edge
HP - 4
Atk - 252
Spd - 252
Nature: Jolly

The main thing wrong I can see that's wrong with my pokemon is it's name. Seriously, I type durant into google images to get a picture and every picture is of Kevin Durant... Anyway, in terms of my durant there are actually 2 things out of the ordinary, jolly nature and it's ability, swarm. Jolly nature is just to outspeed adamant scolipede and durant which it would otherwise be tied with, but the main thing here is swarm, and I'm just going to say it. Hustle is bad. It's too unreliable (unless you aerial ace spam with hustle delibird!) and it just makes moves miss too much! Take this as an example, skipping to 7:40, it completely screwed this guy over! http://www.youtube.com/watch?annota...&feature=iv&src_vid=_XyuXu7x2Gw&v=t_R1xz1hsFI

@Life orb
Ability: Pressure (flash fire when it comes out!)
-Flare blitz
-Iron head
-Stone edge
-Extreme speed
HP - 4
Atk - 252
Spd - 252
Nature: Adamant

Entei, believe it or not, is actually fairly low in terms of use on my team, but that isn't to say it is not great! It is so standard (don't worry, the team gets more exciting later...) that it hardly even needs a description...

@Normal gem Life orb
Ability: Pure power
-Fake out Hi jump kick
-Bullet punch
-Drain punch
-Ice punch Zen headbutt
HP - 4
Atk - 252
Spd - 252
Nature: Adamant

Ok, medicham used to have a completely different set using completely different moves with a completely different tactic, but thanks to shiranai medicham has been improved so bad it's not funny. Seriously, I bring in medicham and everyone predicts a fake out so they bring in a bulkier pokemon to take it, I use hi jump kick (which it didn't used to have!) and I just OHKO the bulkier pokemon. This thing completely rapes half the tier with hi jump kick alone, but then you have zen headbutt for the poison types that resist hi jump kick, drain punch helps for longevity whereas bullet punch is for priority. The set is solid at the least (imo) and I really need to thank shiranai for it!

@ leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
-Nasty plot (it really does work)
-Ice beam
-Surf
-Psychic
HP - 252
Sp Atk - 252
Def - 4
Nature: Modest

Yes, this does work. Nasty plot no-sub Slowking works like mad, and without sub it frees up a slot for ice beam, and since no one expects you to have ice beam they bring in a pokemon weak to ice but that is generally good on dual STAB (like druddigon) and then BAM! Easy KO. It works so well as well though, just because you can bring it in on so many pokemon and pretty much ensure a switch, which you would usually use nasty plot on and sweep one or two of your opponent's pokemon, unless they have a massive threat you think is coming in in which case you want to hit it hard with a SE hit obviously :P. Everything else is pretty simple here, it's a simple set-up and sweep set with great coverage and great bulk, also regenerator and leftovers gives it this brilliant longevity throughout the battle which really helps with it's amazing coverage. Anyway, onto what is practically essential for any RU team, my scarfer!

@Choice scarf
Ability: Lightningrod
-Thunderbolt
-Volt switch
-Flamethrower Overheat
-Hidden power (ice)
HP 4
Sp atk: 252
Spe 252
Nature: Timid (but can switch to modest if recommended)

I used to have problems with Manectric, but after once again taking shiranai's help switcheroo takes down all kinds of walls whereas overheat packs the punch that manectric lacked with flamethrower. Anyway, HP ice over HP grass for druddigon, and yeah... pretty simple again. A standard scarf set for anything, the STAB, 2 coverage moves/other STAB one coverage and the switch-out-of-there move.


Portable:

Hide

Crustle:
Item: Lum berry
Ability: Sturdy (OMG so good on Crustle)
-Shell smash
-Rock blast
-X-scissor
-Earthquake
HP - 4
Atk - 252
Spd - 252
Nature: Adamant


Durant:
Item: Life orb
Ability: Swarm
-Iron head
-X-scissor
-Superpower
-Stone edge
HP - 4
Atk - 252
Spd - 252
Nature: Jolly


Entei:
Item: Life orb
Ability: Pressure (flash fire when it comes out!)
-Flare blitz
-Iron head
-Stone edge
-Extreme speed
HP - 4
Atk - 252
Spd - 252
Nature: Adamant


Medicham:
Item: Normal gem
Ability: Pure power
-Hi jump kick
-Bullet punch
-Drain punch
-Zen headbutt
HP - 4
Atk - 252
Spd - 252
Nature: Adamant


Slowking:
Item: leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
-Nasty plot (it really does work)
-Ice beam
-Surf
-Psychic
HP - 252
Sp Atk - 252
Def - 4
Nature: Modest


Manectric:
Item: Choice scarf
Ability: Lightningrod
-Thunderbolt
-Volt switch
-Overheat
-Hidden power (ice)
HP 4
Sp atk: 252
Spe 252
Nature: Timid

 

[shiranai]

You have a quite offensive team, but there are a few things you could change in it:

Crustle: I guess you're using Rock Slide for accuracy issues, but since you don't want to run Stone Edge, I guess you could ran Rock Blast instead. Yeah, sometimes it may not deal the same damage Rock Slide would, but with it you could bypass Focus Sash leaders, specially the one named Smeargle, and Substitute users. With Rock Blast Crustle can deal quite easy with Smeargle, Shell Smashing the turn it would be hit by Spore, and KOing it next turn.

Durant: Indeed, Hustle's accuracy drop really sucks, but without it Durant will lose a lot of power; actually X-Scissor may get the boost back later with Swarm, but, well, a lot of pokes misses KOes by lacking the 30% bonus from Life Orb, and Durant won't nail many KOes without Hustle. If you don't like the accuraccy drop you could try a Hone Claws set instead, but a 50% attack bonus is something most pokes can't let pass, and Durant is one of them.

Medicham: what's the reason in running Normal Gem in Medicham? What happens here is something like what happens with Durant: Normal Gem is only helping a single move of the whole set, the same way Swarm does with Durant. Actually, I think Medicham isn't a great Fake Out'er at all: Hitmonlee uses it to freely activate Unburden, while Hariyama uses it as a way to get Guts started with its orb. But Medicham, at least with Normal Gem, isn't doing a lot of damage, even with Pure Power. If you want to keep both Medicham and Fake Out, Life Orb would be a better option, since Medi isn't one of the bulkiest sweepers around, while Drain Punch may recover some of the recoil damage. Also, unless Ice Punch is hitting with a 4x weakness, Hi Jump Kick will simply do more damage (2x Ice Punch BP=150, STAB HJL=180), so Thunderpunch has a better coverage, hitting anything that HJK can't hit, unless it is named Golurk, while Zen Headbutt can be another STAB option, hitting most ghosts harder..

Manectric: What is the role you want to give to Manectric? Scarf Manectric is one of the best scarfers of the tier, so if it isn't working maybe it isn't a scarfer you're needing at all. Anyway, if you keep Manectric, some changes on the moveset is needed: Overheat is slight better than Flamethower because you can nail some OHKOes that Flamethrower wouldn't, and as a scarfer Manectric will, most of the times, do a hit-and-run strategy. Also, you could give up of one of eletric moves (more preferable Thunderbolt) to run Switcheroo. Such an offensive team can have some problems with some walls, and Switcheroo, even being even more predicable than Medicham's Fake Out, can damage every non-sweeper poke on the tier.

This is what I rate on your team. I don't like suggesting other options for the team, since I'm not so good at it (this is one of the main reasons I post my teams in Smogon), so by now I will not suggest any. Best luck with your team!

 

[Celever]

Thanks for the rate!
In terms of Crustle I think I will use rock blast, seems to make sense.

For Durant, I'm not sure what I would want to give up for hone claws... I mean the set it has right now has such good coverage (as well as it's weaknesses!), and then with swarm in the earlier stages of the battle you can use iron head for the flinch chance and in the later you can use boosted swarm. It does work great, but if you give me a move to test hone claws over then I definitely will!

For medicham, I first off want to give you a damage calculation:
252Atk Normal Gem Pure Power Medicham (+Atk) Fake Out vs 0HP/0Def Sceptile (Neutral): 44% - 52% (124 - 147 HP). Guaranteed 3HKO. 7% chance to 2HKO.
Sceptile is flinched, then if sceptile wants to kill medicham next turn then fine, manectric can revenge kill it, but then if sceptile uses swords dance or something he can hit it with ice punch! It has great synergy with others on the team too, such as weakening the pokemon enough for entei to switch in and espeed. Also I have to post this calc that happened once:
252Atk Normal Gem Pure Power Medicham (+Atk) crit Fake Out vs 252HP/4Def -1 Hitmonchan (Neutral): 104% - 123% (318 - 376 HP). Guaranteed OHKO.
It was so funny :P I also have to note though, that the only thing thunderpunch hits that drain punch or HJK doesn't are flying types, which ice punch does already :/ I don't know why, but when I've used life orb on medicham I've been quite annoyed with it, for some reason it doesn't seem to work very well not doing enough to get the OHKOs it should get, but without life orb it takes 10% recoil. However, I do like the idea of HJK so I will be using it over fake out on a lo set for a test day or few hours, just because HJK should be able to pack enough of a punch! I just wanted to share the calcs so I don't look like a nub :P

Overheat seems nice, but surprisingly I haven't been having that much trouble with walls. Usually the opponent sends them in against boosted crustle at the start thinking they can wall him only to get KO'ed very quickly, and the wall I have the most trouble with, Uxie, is extremely guilty of this (X-scissor OHKO'es boosted up).
252Atk +2 Crustle (+Atk) X-Scissor vs 252HP/4Def Levitate Uxie (Neutral): 103% - 122% (368 - 434 HP). Guaranteed OHKO.
So I will use overheat but not switcheroo right now.

Thanks for the rate!

Edit: The new medicham works great, and overheat is awesome on manectric too! Thanks. Rock blast hasn't quite seen much use yet, but I'll update the OP with rock blast nevertheless, thanks!

 

[Verminator]

You gave me a good, even, battle earlier (even if that stone edge crit at the end was nothing short of infuriatingwbdwwdwaopsaffffffff) and you asked me to give you a rate, so it's only fair that I do so.

It's pretty clear that you're running an offensive team, and it's got a couple of nice surprises in store. I was unpleasantly surprised to discover that Crustle was all-out offensive, and that Durant wasn't running Hustle. (when you see Durant, you always assume it's going to set up with Hone Claws first) You obviously miss out on some power thanks to that, but it doesn't seem like you miss it that badly.

Overall, your team is pretty good, but if I had to pick out a weak link in the chain, it would be Slowking. Without an NP under its belt, it doesn't hit hard enough to kill most threats, and then they can simply outspeed and kill or severely damage you with a strong physical attack. However, if you switched from an NP set to a Choice Specs set, you get some more power off the bat, enough to kill or severely damage anything that switches in, and you can run an extra coverage move, such as Signal Beam or Flamethrower for specific threats like Dark types or Escavalier respectably. It does mean that you have to switch a lot more, but Slowking loves to switch thanks to Regenerator. It's true that you have to worry about Pursuit trappers, but again, you can kill most of those as they switch in with a little good prediction, or you can just hit them with Surf, and then stay in and Surf again as their unboosted Pursuit fails to do enough damage to KO.

Those are my 2 cents. It's a solid team overall, and you beat me, so it's hard for me to suggest too many improvements.

 

[Celever]

Thanks for the rate, and to be fair, I only just beat you! :P
Specs slowking never actually crossed my mind, you know! But it actually sounds really good! As in, a brilliant idea! I love it how the changes people recommend on here are all so good! :P
Anyway I will test it with, like you said, flamethrower for the pursuit trappers; if it works then I will update the OP.
I'm happy I asked you to rate me now :P

Edit: After testing it, I do actually find nasty plot more useful. I'm kind of borderline here but I do think nasty plot just edges it.
Thanks anyway.