Electroshock Therapy [OU RMT]

[KimoTh3rapy]

Electroshock Therapy​

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The name is a play on my main duo and my name :) I made a RMT thread a couple days ago, with a Smeargle lead, and a Scizor instead of Electivire. My strategy of the last team was to Belly-Pass to Scizor, but not only was I able to do it very very rarely, it also was somehow still being beat. (I guess +6 Attack Scizor isn't that good lol) It was just too much of a high risk team for little reward. So I decided to throw out Smeargle and Scizor all together in hopes of finding a better lead & main attacker. I still liked the idea of a Baton Pass lead. I noticed one of the problems of my team while playing Shoddy was the lack of Speed. All my pokes have okay speed, but none of them have priority attacks or a high speed stat. So I needed a Speed Baton passer. The rest is history :)

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Ninjask @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Attack / 4 Defense / 252 Speed
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Swords Dance
- Baton Pass
- X-Scissor

What makes this team so effective is this little guy here. Don't get me wrong, the lineup can hold it's own without it, but Ninjask is the glue that brings it from a good team to a great team imo. This set here has proven extremely effective for me. Protect on the first turn, Swords Dance on the Second, Protect on the Third, Then Baton Pass. Usually when people see Ninjask, they expect me to Swords Dance on the first turn, so they try and get rid of it asap. Which means their first move is usually an Attack or Stealth Rock. If they try and Trick-Scarf me, my protect lets me know, and I can switch to a poke that would benefit from it. Usually on the second turn, my focus sash keeps me alive after their attack hits me. Now I can protect again. At this point, I'm passing a +2 Attack stat, and +3 Speed. However, countless times I've been able to get up to +4 Attack and +4 Speed if they decide to do something else than attack on the 2nd turn. I can pass the stat boosts to Electivire, which I'll explain later. Although, the beauty about this team is that the stat boost can be passed to anyone and it makes it a deadly force.

When facing Suicide leads, which usually you can tell right away, I trick them into using their Explosion on Porygon Z or Togikiss, by Baton Passing to one of them after just 1 Speed Boost. This allows me to bring back Ninjask later to set up once again.

This set also allows me to give almost everyone of my pokemon a speed boost mid-game (provided they opponent hasn't set up SR, and instead goes for Spikes or a Trick lead, which is surprisingly often). Everytime one of my poke's die, I switch in Ninjask, Use Protect and then Baton Pass the speed boost to the next Poke.

Electivire (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Motor Drive
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Cross Chop
- ThunderPunch
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake

Electivire was made for Ninjask, hell they even have all the same colors on them :P But seriously, look at Electivire's page. All over it, it mentions how he truly shines once his Motor Drive speed boost kicks in. Not only am I able to switch him in to anyone tries to take out my Suicune with another Electric Poke, but now it completely gets rid of the need for this to happen. Because of Ninjask, Electivire stats are boosted to at least 758 Attack, and 578 Speed. Combine this with it's great Movepool, and you have an amazing poke. I originally had Life Orb on him for a little more power in case I'm not able to Baton Pass to him (very unlikely) but found out that after Entry Hazards, Electivire needed all the health he could get. That's why Expert Belt is there instead.

Porygon Z @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Recover
- Tri Attack
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse

What can I say? Besides being one of my favorite pokemon, Porygon Z is a huge threat. Even though it was taken out of OU and put into BL, it still easily has the power to OHKO or 2HKO many pokemon in the OU metagame. Tri-Attack gets boosted to 288 power after Adaptability, STAB, and Silk Scarf. That combined with 405 SAtk, and PoryZ is DEADLY. Throw in a Nasty Plot and maybe a recover, and you have a pretty scary sweeper. After 2 nasty plots, Tri-Attack can even OHKO Blissy. Dark Pulse is there for type coverage. Any type weaknesses in my lineup are usually killed after switching in Porygon Z, even if normal type is not very effective.

Oh, and did I mention the speed boost? Giving the +1 Speed boost to PZ brings it up to 418. This gets one of PZ's major flaws, its mediocre speed. It now has the ability to Recover first, and becomes a much more powerful sweeper because of it's ability attack first.

Togekiss (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Thunder Wave
- Nasty Plot

While running the standard Togekiss set in Shoddy Battles, I found that I was using Aura Sphere very rarely. I would only ever use it if I needed to finish off a pokemon with a little more damage than Air Slash. Because of this, I switched it out for Nasty Plot. I found this to be much more effective, as I can often halve the number of moves it takes to kill someone. Plus with the possible speed boost, the risk of being killed by another Serene Grace user like Jirachi is a lot less likely. The speed boost allows me to set up Thunder Wave, or in some cases, not even have to use it.

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Surf
- Rest
- Calm Mind
- Sleep Talk

In my other RMT thread, I stated I wasn't completely satisfied with this set. But after running it with this lineup, I completely take back that statement. With or without the speed boost, it's main threats are taken care of before hand with this lineup. And If they try and switch in an electric poke, I have Electivire.

This allows CroCune to fully set up 9/10 times. I use Calm Mind first, which allows me to Survive the first hit. Based on that, I either use CM again or Rest. At this point Suicune becomes at least a 3 hit KO, but since Rest only lasts for 2 turns, I can just keep on Rest + Sleep talking and fully set up. Seriously guys, with the speed boost, CroCune is incredible.

Breloom (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Seed Bomb

The Ace in the hole. Time and time again, Breloom has saved me from defeat, or even swept an entire team. The speed and possible attack boost make Breloom so fearsome it almost always takes out 3 pokes after receiving it.

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Closing thoughts:

There are a good amount of pokemon that do some of these roles a little better, but I'm glad I chose who I did, It's been pretty effective in Shoddy Battles. I like the fact that I made this team and it's been as effective as it has while not choosing the Most Common OU threats. The team's Synergy is amazing. One of my problems is that I don't have any priority moves. The speed boost helps, but sometimes you just need an ExtremeSpeed or Bullet Punch ya know?

I'm sure I missed something, which is where you guys come in. Feel free to rip the lineup apart and tell me I'm an idiot, I don't mind criticism as long as it's accompanied by some help :B

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[KimoTh3rapy]

*Reserved for Threat List*

 

[Cherub Agent]

in my opinion, there are far better baton pass recipients than electrivire. Metagross and marowak come to mind. Meta has more bulk but marowak has more power and can come in on electric attacks aimed at ninjask, although very few, if any, leads use electric moves. So i recommend using metagross with a moveset of iron head, earthquake, zen headbutt and thunder/ice punch

 

[SJCrew]

1.) You have absolutely no plan against Taunt and phazers.
2.) Breaking out Electivire early is a bad idea because Rotom and Swampert wall it incredibly hard. Plus, if you do somehow manage to pull off SD, you're going to want Fire Punch so that you can actually hurt Forretress and Brozong.
3.) Electivire is just a bad BP recipient in general. He doesn't have anything in the way of a haymaker, is susceptible to Intimidate, vulnerable to priority, and a set like this gives him no chance to exploit his signature ability, Motor Drive.
4.) Your team has no Stealth Rock, pitiful coverage, and almost no synergy. You're not sweeping anything anytime soon.

I don't think you have a good enough grasp of the OU metagame in general, let alone what makes a good Baton Pass team. My advice is to head back to the drawing board and create a new team from the ground up. Stick to the basics and learn the rest as you go. Once your CRE is in the 1300s, then you can start experimenting with team ideas like these and not cause so much of a headache for the people rating them.

 

[.Diclonius]

Metagross is a much better recipient of boosted Attack and Speed. With +2 in Attack and Speed, the moveset ThunderPunch/Zen Headbutt/Meteor Mash/Earthquake OHKOs practically the entire metagame, the only thing it can't OHKO is Rotom-A (the bulkiest of the bulky only), Scizor, and Swampert. Metagross has Clear Body, which prevents Intimidate from completely raping your set-up and sending you to +1 Attack, and Metagross is just better overall compared to Electivire. The only thing Electivire really has going for it is Motor Drive.

Metagross isn't weak to any Priority that's currently available (hint hint, Scizor and Lucario), and only takes Neutral damage from Sucker Punch. Metagross resists Stealth Rock, is immune to Toxic Spikes, with normal Spikes being the only thing that manages to hit it.

tl;dr

Electivire is terrible, so use Metagross.

 

[KimoTh3rapy]

o_O maybe I will after that

oh and @SJCrew, Taunters are easily delt with. Just Protect the first turn, then baton pass the second to PZ.

 

[SJCrew]

Really, have you played anyone competent at all? I can picture any team save for HO destroying your shit. Any team.

For instance, your PZ set is completely walled by Steel types. Evire is walled by Rotom and nothing on your team can kill it. Once your opponent gains any momentum (and I guarantee they will since your team has poor coverage), they win the match. I mean, Lucario gets an SD and your entire team is dead. Gyara gets a DD and your entire team is dead. If your opponent has Salamence at all, you're going to lose the match. There's no principle idea behind this team other than "pass speed to something that's extremely easy to wall", so there's really no way to salvage it save for making a new one entirely.

 

[KimoTh3rapy]

Relax man, no need to get mad.

I've been playing Shoddy all night, and not 1 Taunt attempt has been successful. Probably because they've mostly been Froslass's, but still.

I see what you're saying about the other team setting up. How does Gyarados getting a DD kill my entire team when I can easily switch in Togekiss after a speed boost and Hax him to death?

And salamance hasn't done jack squat to my team thanks to the speed boosted Crocune.

listen, I'm not saying your wrong. My team does have poor type coverage, and if a pokemon like Gyarados were to get off something like 2 DD's, then yes I would be in trouble. but that's the beauty of the speed boost (so I've found); is that setting up something like that against me is a lot harder when I attack first, and am able to get a Spore, Thunder Wave, CM, or Boosted attack in.

 

[ginganinja]

I also agree with Metagross being used over Electivire, I also agree with much of what SJ said. A also fail to see how a speed boosted Cro Cune handles a Salamence (eg a DD version) as surf does squat, and Salamence can freely DD up, outspeed CroCune and then Outrage for the KO, how does suicune beat this again?
Your Team also auto loses to a well used Swampert. It can set up SR and then Roar your team around. Ninjask will die after the second switch in and it cannot bass any boost dues to t being shuffled. After Ninjask is gone you lose. Also even when Ninjask is gone you have trouble, swampert beats Electivire, Can Roar Togekisss and is immune to Thunder Wave, can handle Porygon Z with difficulty but Z has trouble switching in with its piss-porr defenses, And CroCune gets roared out as well.

Taunt Gyarados can come in on half of you team, Taunt them, DD up and then cush you team.

Your counter to any pokemon is "its all good, Ninjask can just pass speed and I can counter anything!", sorry to break to to you buster but that an't happing against a player with any degree of skill.

Therefore you many need to at LEAST give Porygon Z a scarf to it can revenge things but Latias and even scizor revenges better than it does.

 

[KimoTh3rapy]

I also agree with Metagross being used over Electivire, I also agree with much of what SJ said. A also fail to see how a speed boosted Cro Cune handles a Salamence (eg a DD version) as surf does squat, and Salamence can freely DD up, outspeed CroCune and then Outrage for the KO, how does suicune beat this again?
Your Team also auto loses to a well used Swampert. It can set up SR and then Roar your team around. Ninjask will die after the second switch in and it cannot bass any boost dues to t being shuffled. After Ninjask is gone you lose. Also even when Ninjask is gone you have trouble, swampert beats Electivire, Can Roar Togekisss and is immune to Thunder Wave, can handle Porygon Z with difficulty but Z has trouble switching in with its piss-porr defenses, And CroCune gets roared out as well.

Taunt Gyarados can come in on half of you team, Taunt them, DD up and then cush you team.

Your counter to any pokemon is "its all good, Ninjask can just pass speed and I can counter anything!", sorry to break to to you buster but that an't happing against a player with any degree of skill.

Therefore you many need to at LEAST give Porygon Z a scarf to it can revenge things but Latias and even scizor revenges better than it does.

Degree of skill has nothing to do with the speed boost lol. Like I stated in the RMT, I can't come in and speed boost if SR is set up. If they don't have SR or a priority move, that means I give a speedboost. Surprisingly enough, SR is set up like 2/5 times for me. If facing a Swampert lead, I just pass the stat's to Breloom.

And your scenario of roaring swampert has me not doing damage to him for what...4 turns lol?

I am thinking about giving PZ a scarf, would help me revenge kill for sure. And I'm currently trying out Metagross instead, although I originally wanted to make a team with no one in the top 15 used pokes, it's very hard not to see why metagross would be better for this

 

[SandslashPWNS]

I see what you're saying about the other team setting up. How does Gyarados getting a DD kill my entire team when I can easily switch in Togekiss after a speed boost and Hax him to death?

Most Gyarados run Taunt, and unboosted Air Slash against +1 Speed Gyarados fails miserably, while Stone Edge does massive damage, if not killing it. You have Gyarados issues.

 

[ginganinja]

Degree of skill has nothing to do with the speed boost lol. Like I stated in the RMT, I can't come in and speed boost if SR is set up. If they don't have SR or a priority move, that means I give a speedboost. Surprisingly enough, SR is set up like 2/5 times for me. If facing a Swampert lead, I just pass the stat's to Breloom.

And your scenario of roaring swampert has me not doing damage to him for what...4 turns lol?

I have to lol at this. Do you not know what a swampert lead does????
It will set up SR as you protect and then use Roar, you lose you speed boost and another pokemon is switched out.

Here is the senario
Ninjask uses Protect, Swampert used Stealth Rock
Ninjask used Swords Dance/baton Pass, Swampert used Roar

You fail

or your best case senario
Ninjask used Swords Dance, Swampert used Stealth Rock.
Ninjask used Protect, Swampert used Roar-but Ninjask is protecting itself
Ninjask used Baton Pass---> Breloom, Swampert used Roar-Brellom is switched out, you have lost all stat boosts and SR is up therefore Ninjask will lose 1/2 its heath when it switch's in and its sash is useless.

You fail

Also I have to laugh when you say that you will hurt swampert when it is roaring.
eg Swampert used Roar, electivire gets dragged out.
Electivire used Cross Chop, Swampert used Earthquake-Electivire faints

or Swampert vs Togekiss, Swampert just trades blows with Ice Beam and Air slash. If you boost up Swampert just Roars you out and you lose 25% coming back in.

And Ninjask....
Swampert wins but I will do the calcs anyway

Ninjask vs Standard Mixpert
X-scissor does 21.29% - 25.25%

X Scissor with a +6 boost is 84.65% - 100% or a 2.56% chance of a OHKO.

Togekiss vs Swampert
Air slash does 25.25% - 30.2% to swampert or a 4KO so yes Togekiss wins that one

Electivire vs Swampert
Cross Chop does 37.62% - 44.06% or in other words a 3KO on a Mixpert- and that Calculation is with a LO which gives a stronger boost in power when compared with an Expert Belt

Therefore 1/2 of your team fails against Swampert. Suicune cannot dent it either unless it has a few boosts and it gets Roared out anyway.

Your best answer is breloom and by then you opponient as seen a Ninjask and twigged that you have a Baton Pass team (they may have also seen that you have an elecitivire or that most of your team is bulky set up) and think "hmm keeping swampert alive really f**ks up his team"

Even Porygons Tri Attack's only has a 60% chance to OHKO swampert while it KO's you with Earthquake.

I apoligise if I am being to hard on you but your team is very underprepared for the standard Mixpert and you underestimate what the main OU threats can do to your team and perhapes you overestimate what your team members can do.

 

[TSi]

There are better Baton Pass recipients than electivire. To be honest, metagross really does outclass it. I think this is a big change that needs to be addressed. Also, you plan is very susceptible to phazing, and so, the strategy is a bit weak, i would suggest reformatting the team.

 

[SJCrew]

Relax man, no need to get mad.

Man, if you thought that was anger then you might as well not get any more teams rated or bother playing this game. People are going to come at you a lot harsher than that and you have to learn to take it with a grain of salt.

But onto the team, I think you admitting that you're seeing a lot of Froslass leads in OU is a huge indicator that your CRE is low and you're up against some pretty bad opponents. Even when I'm on late night ladder runs where there's a lower chance of me being matched with someone of a similar CRE, I haven't seen a single Froslass used on a non-hail team, as a lead, or otherwise. When you get to higher levels of play, you're going to discover the many holes your team has in it and that your core strategy is unstable.

if a pokemon like Gyarados were to get off something like 2 DD's, then yes I would be in trouble. but that's the beauty of the speed boost (so I've found); is that setting up something like that against me is a lot harder when I attack first, and am able to get a Spore, Thunder Wave, CM, or Boosted attack in.

No, more like 1 DD. Anything with DD will kill your team because you don't have anything to wall it or kill it before they kill you.

And you're still thinking like a newbie. Think like a competitive player: there are extremely common counters to everything on your team, especially your premier sweeper, Electivire. You don't have a plan to take them out. Therefore, you're more likely to lose against better players. Not necessarily because they're more skilled than you, but because your fundamentals are flawed.

Again, I feel the need to point out exactly what you're going to do about Rotom or Swampert coming in to wall Evire. Do you have a plan for those at all? What about Porygon-Z to Blissey? What about basically any Steel type to Porygon-Z? Lucario can set up right in your face.

Then there's Roar/Whirlwind. Again, there's nothing you can do about it. If the lead has a phazing move, you've basically lost the match right there because you don't get a chance to set up and your opponent can keep the momentum on his/her side for the entire match.

Once they get an open opportunity, they can bring in anything with a stat up move and safely sweep your team. And you're going to give them that open opportunity because everything on your team is easy to force out by something commonly used on almost any OU team, while you can't counter them back because your Pokemon are either all frail nor do they have the coverage to threaten them. Let me put this in perspective for you:

Ninjask: Roar/Whirlwind, Substitute, and Explosion can potentially ruin anything you bring in. You can't stop it with anything.

Electivire: Rotom/Swampert, we've been over this. Added to that list are Hippowdon, Forretress, Brozong, and Scizor. You don't have a reliable answer to any of them.

Porygon-Z: Blissey, Lucario, Scizor, Heatran and Steel types in general will force you out or stop your sweep cold. Also, it has no time to set up due to its lack of resistances and poor defenses. Getting rid of Recover for another coverage move like HP Fighting or Fire would help a lot, but even at +1, there are a number of things that outspeed PZ, like Scarf Jirachi, Scarf Flygon, and even Scarf Latias. Even with its phenomenal special attack, there are still things that will KO you before you can, like Machamp.

Togekiss: Blissey, Rotom, Tyranitar, Magnezone, Jolteon, Jirachi, Metagross...the list goes on. You don't have a reliable way to beat any of these Pokemon.

Suicune: One of the better Pokemon on your team, but Vaporeon walls you, Gyara and Mence set up on you and...there's more, but I really don't need to add anything from there. It's bad enough you don't have an answer to any of those Pokemon as it is.

Breloom: Ghosts in general, Salamence, Heracross, Gyarados, etc. If your opponent is not prepared for Breloom, they might need to take the fall, but that means they can bring something in on the revenge and either force it out, or kill it outright.

Also, Trick can ruin literally anything on your team. Anything. That gives your opponent a free turn to set up on the recipient and sweep unhindered.

In summary, there is no way to save this team. Your premier sweeper is too easy to wall and you don't have a plan to stop the Pokemon that wall it. Everything else on your team has the same problem.

Next time you make a team based around a single sweeper, you should take into consideration how to open up set-up opportunities, what your counters are, and how you can beat them. Ninjask-based teams have a lot to worry about, so for starters, I'd like you to look at this thread, since it covers pretty much everything: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70498

Good luck and Godspeed.

 

[technomancer]

I agree with most of the above raters, and id like to add that the original problem with the ninjask lead is that your pokemon switching in is going to get hit in the face with a powerful attack, or a counter with haze/roar will just switch in turn 1 and roar. if you rinse and repeat, its going to happen again. additionally, no matter how much speed you get worked up, priority still goes first and can finish off weakened anything.

I think your problem when you built this team was that you overfocused on its damage potential and didn't playtest. good pokemon is based on winning out close calls, not overpowering and steamrolling an opponent. A tight knit team does enough damage to kill 6 pokemon, an awkward team can kill 10 but gets walled by one, or is weak to status.

your team is by no means terrible, its simply not tweaked and too many pokemon do not enough of the same thing.