Hello Smogon, this is my first RMT. I've been on Smogon's PO server for quite a while now but I haven't been able to get passed the low 1300s. I personally don't like playing with weather, and that's the theme of the team; to be weatherless and not be at a disadvantage.
Since I don't really like stall, I wanted to base my entire team around allowing 1 of 2 pokemon to have a clean sweep at the end. Right off the bat, Offensive DD Dragonite and Life Orb Starmie came to mind; great coverage,two different sides of the spectrum, and Starmie can provide rapid spin support for dragonite and the rest of the team.
Dragonite is the core of this team; as an extremely powerful sweeper with great coverage, if its appropriate counters are at low health/out of the picture, Dragonite can pull off a clean sweep. The rest of my team is centered around defeating the threats that plague DDNite ranging from defensive to offensive threats.
Next up is Starmie; at max speed, it can outspeed CB/unboosted Terrakion, and kill it with Hydro Pump; a pokemon that is very threatening to Dragonite. It also provides spin support, allowing Dragonite to use it's multiscale more often. With BoltBeam, it can take out many defensive & offensive threats such as Intimidate Gyarados, Gliscor, Salamence, and other multiscale Dragonites.
With Starmie & Dragonite, I noticed I had a big weakness to opposing Starmie,
rain sweepers, and Draco Meteor users. Ferrothorn provided a check for this; Choice Specs Jolteon proved to be a big threat, along with water/ice/hp rain attackers. With good special defense and great resistances, Ferrothorn can take hits, paralyze fast sweepers with T-Wave, and set up spikes.
Now I needed a sun team counter; Heatran fit perfectly. With a resistance to grass & immunity to fire, Air Balloon Heatran was a perfect counter. Along with setting up stealth rocks, it can also bait Gliscors with Air Balloon + HP Ice. This Heatran's also a great Landorus/Dragon Killer for the same reason. Heatran also brings many, many useful resistances to the table.
Quagsire was my more recent addition the team. I noticed my team has a MAJOR problem with Sub CM Jirachi; if it can come in on my Ferrothorn, it can set up, while one member of my team has to risk getting paralyzed by thunder+ hit for heavy damage. Not only does Quagsire resist Iron Head, immune to T-Wave, WANT paralysis (since burn & toxic are worse) from body slam, it's also immune to thunder, resistant to flash cannon, and neutral to Water Pulse; a specially defensive Unaware Quagsire sealed this hole quite well.
Yes; Heracross as my fighting type. This wasn't necessarily a glue to the team, it was simply a convenient poke to have. If my Ferrothorn is in against a Breloom, one guy on my team will be forced to sleep and get set up on; with choice scarf sleep talk guts, I can both activate sleep clause, get a DD imitation boost, wall Breloom's Stone Edge/Dual Stab, and fire off any of my 3 coverage moves; Heracross is just simply useful is so many other ways as a scarfer.
My usual lead is my scarf Heracross, as with its coverage, I can usually outspeed + 1hko/2hko many common (chosen) leads. The goal of the team is to weaken any walls and kill any threats as quickly as possible, save my Starmie to make sure rocks are gone by the end of the match, then hopefully come in with my full HP Dragonite with multiscale and Lum Berry intact to boost up and sweep.
Now, onto each individual team member.
"Like A Bosh." (Heracross) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Guts
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sleep Talk
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
As stated earlier, the point of this Heracross is both to outspeed and KO psychic threats such as Mew, Espeon, Latios & Latias, other threats such as Terrakion, Salamence, and Dragonite at +1. It's also a perfect Breloom counter, who, with this generation's crippling sleep effects, I find is a MUST to counter. Heracross is my primary means to clear threats for Dragonite.
TO THE DOME! (Starmie) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
This Starmie was meant to both act as a Choice bluff, bulky spinner, and the hard-hitting Starmie everybody fears. Using a standard set with an expert belt twist, this set attempts to satisfy all of those needs. With expert belt, 2hkos on Specially defensive Tyranitar are still guarenteed with Hydro Pump, along with 2hkos on spinblocker Jellicent with T-Bolt. Expert Belt also allows the bluffing of a choice item, and saves me HP when I have to rapid spin. With great coverage, rarely will Starmie ever be doing neutral damage AND want more damage.
Dragon Tales (Dragonite) (F) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake
Dragon Tales, Dragon Tales.. The crux of this entire team. It just works so much better than Salamence; if I work hard to keep it's multiscale intact, essentially Dragonite has a Focus Sash + immunity to status for one turn at least; this allows me to get enough boosts to sweep. Outrage is chosen just for the extra power, this set absolutely needs it. Fire Punch is a must, and Earthquake is chosen over E-Speed / Roost because of the nature of this game-ending sweeping style; it also helps majorly vs Heatran and other pokes when I don't want to lock myself into Outrage just yet.
The Power. (Ferrothorn) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
This Ferrothorn's job is to set up the ubiquitous spikes that plague rain & sand teams. Along with that, a timely T-Wave on fast sweepers such as Choice Scarf Terrakion can easily save me the game; Leech Seed is for standard healing and Power Whip is a MUST to defeat Water/Grounds. As for the nature & EV Spread, I'm still deciding as to what would be better for my team; physically or specially defensive.
umadbreh? (Quagsire) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Curse
- Recover
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
Unaware is a truly amazing ability; the ability to set up all 3 layers of spikes on my Ferrothorn, ALLOW my opponent to set up all day, then switch to this guy. At that point, I either whittle them down slowly or reverse set-up on them. Once all grass moves are gone, this set can actually be the sweeper of this team. A major role in stopping boosting sweepers that threaten this relatively frail team. Specially defensive because its a curse set, duh (unless defensive stats must be reached for curse numbers?).
ALLA DAT! (Heatran) (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Setting up stealth rocks consistently, this Heatran can come in on many pokemon and do it's job well. Assuming its Air Balloon is intact, it can check many Dragons as they set up on the switch, Gliscors, and Choiced Landorus'.
Fire stab is never a bad idea to roast opposing Ferrothorns/Forretress; this Heatran can even sweep once fire resisters are gone and if it was able to nab a Flash Fire boost.
And that is my nonweather offensive team; and approach to the OU metagame without resorting to stall/weather. I hope you enjoyed reading this. Thanks for taking your time to improve it in any way if you can; feel free to change a pokemon or swap it out entirely. Any criticism is appreciated.
Team Building Process
Since I don't really like stall, I wanted to base my entire team around allowing 1 of 2 pokemon to have a clean sweep at the end. Right off the bat, Offensive DD Dragonite and Life Orb Starmie came to mind; great coverage,two different sides of the spectrum, and Starmie can provide rapid spin support for dragonite and the rest of the team.
Team Structure
Dragonite is the core of this team; as an extremely powerful sweeper with great coverage, if its appropriate counters are at low health/out of the picture, Dragonite can pull off a clean sweep. The rest of my team is centered around defeating the threats that plague DDNite ranging from defensive to offensive threats.
Next up is Starmie; at max speed, it can outspeed CB/unboosted Terrakion, and kill it with Hydro Pump; a pokemon that is very threatening to Dragonite. It also provides spin support, allowing Dragonite to use it's multiscale more often. With BoltBeam, it can take out many defensive & offensive threats such as Intimidate Gyarados, Gliscor, Salamence, and other multiscale Dragonites.
With Starmie & Dragonite, I noticed I had a big weakness to opposing Starmie,
rain sweepers, and Draco Meteor users. Ferrothorn provided a check for this; Choice Specs Jolteon proved to be a big threat, along with water/ice/hp rain attackers. With good special defense and great resistances, Ferrothorn can take hits, paralyze fast sweepers with T-Wave, and set up spikes.
Now I needed a sun team counter; Heatran fit perfectly. With a resistance to grass & immunity to fire, Air Balloon Heatran was a perfect counter. Along with setting up stealth rocks, it can also bait Gliscors with Air Balloon + HP Ice. This Heatran's also a great Landorus/Dragon Killer for the same reason. Heatran also brings many, many useful resistances to the table.
Quagsire was my more recent addition the team. I noticed my team has a MAJOR problem with Sub CM Jirachi; if it can come in on my Ferrothorn, it can set up, while one member of my team has to risk getting paralyzed by thunder+ hit for heavy damage. Not only does Quagsire resist Iron Head, immune to T-Wave, WANT paralysis (since burn & toxic are worse) from body slam, it's also immune to thunder, resistant to flash cannon, and neutral to Water Pulse; a specially defensive Unaware Quagsire sealed this hole quite well.
Yes; Heracross as my fighting type. This wasn't necessarily a glue to the team, it was simply a convenient poke to have. If my Ferrothorn is in against a Breloom, one guy on my team will be forced to sleep and get set up on; with choice scarf sleep talk guts, I can both activate sleep clause, get a DD imitation boost, wall Breloom's Stone Edge/Dual Stab, and fire off any of my 3 coverage moves; Heracross is just simply useful is so many other ways as a scarfer.
The Team
My usual lead is my scarf Heracross, as with its coverage, I can usually outspeed + 1hko/2hko many common (chosen) leads. The goal of the team is to weaken any walls and kill any threats as quickly as possible, save my Starmie to make sure rocks are gone by the end of the match, then hopefully come in with my full HP Dragonite with multiscale and Lum Berry intact to boost up and sweep.
Now, onto each individual team member.
An In-Depth View
"Like A Bosh." (Heracross) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Guts
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sleep Talk
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
As stated earlier, the point of this Heracross is both to outspeed and KO psychic threats such as Mew, Espeon, Latios & Latias, other threats such as Terrakion, Salamence, and Dragonite at +1. It's also a perfect Breloom counter, who, with this generation's crippling sleep effects, I find is a MUST to counter. Heracross is my primary means to clear threats for Dragonite.
TO THE DOME! (Starmie) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
This Starmie was meant to both act as a Choice bluff, bulky spinner, and the hard-hitting Starmie everybody fears. Using a standard set with an expert belt twist, this set attempts to satisfy all of those needs. With expert belt, 2hkos on Specially defensive Tyranitar are still guarenteed with Hydro Pump, along with 2hkos on spinblocker Jellicent with T-Bolt. Expert Belt also allows the bluffing of a choice item, and saves me HP when I have to rapid spin. With great coverage, rarely will Starmie ever be doing neutral damage AND want more damage.
Dragon Tales (Dragonite) (F) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake
Dragon Tales, Dragon Tales.. The crux of this entire team. It just works so much better than Salamence; if I work hard to keep it's multiscale intact, essentially Dragonite has a Focus Sash + immunity to status for one turn at least; this allows me to get enough boosts to sweep. Outrage is chosen just for the extra power, this set absolutely needs it. Fire Punch is a must, and Earthquake is chosen over E-Speed / Roost because of the nature of this game-ending sweeping style; it also helps majorly vs Heatran and other pokes when I don't want to lock myself into Outrage just yet.
The Power. (Ferrothorn) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
This Ferrothorn's job is to set up the ubiquitous spikes that plague rain & sand teams. Along with that, a timely T-Wave on fast sweepers such as Choice Scarf Terrakion can easily save me the game; Leech Seed is for standard healing and Power Whip is a MUST to defeat Water/Grounds. As for the nature & EV Spread, I'm still deciding as to what would be better for my team; physically or specially defensive.
umadbreh? (Quagsire) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Curse
- Recover
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
Unaware is a truly amazing ability; the ability to set up all 3 layers of spikes on my Ferrothorn, ALLOW my opponent to set up all day, then switch to this guy. At that point, I either whittle them down slowly or reverse set-up on them. Once all grass moves are gone, this set can actually be the sweeper of this team. A major role in stopping boosting sweepers that threaten this relatively frail team. Specially defensive because its a curse set, duh (unless defensive stats must be reached for curse numbers?).
ALLA DAT! (Heatran) (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Setting up stealth rocks consistently, this Heatran can come in on many pokemon and do it's job well. Assuming its Air Balloon is intact, it can check many Dragons as they set up on the switch, Gliscors, and Choiced Landorus'.
Fire stab is never a bad idea to roast opposing Ferrothorns/Forretress; this Heatran can even sweep once fire resisters are gone and if it was able to nab a Flash Fire boost.
Conclusion
And that is my nonweather offensive team; and approach to the OU metagame without resorting to stall/weather. I hope you enjoyed reading this. Thanks for taking your time to improve it in any way if you can; feel free to change a pokemon or swap it out entirely. Any criticism is appreciated.
