Flygon used U-Turn!

[Smiles]

Introduction

This is my 4th RMT. My CRE is usually not below 1300, so I'm not a noob. (:

I dont remember exactly when I made this team, I believe it was around the time when Latias was announced Uber.

I used this team for a very long time, and it proved to be quite effective. Only slight changes had been made.

I occasionally use stall teams, but even though I win less with offensive teams, I find them more fun to play.
After all, Pokemon should be about having fun, right?

Team Building

Well if this team is up against an offensive team, it often shits all over them, which is VERY fun (:

It's hard to say exactly how I came up with this team, let's just say it had something to do with this:

That is a good offensive U-Turn core. Scizor packs the power while Flygon packs the speed, which allows them to deal with a vareity of threats.

That perfectly allows Skarmory and Hippowdon to shit all over me.
Azelf was my favorite lead at the moment, and I lead pretty much every team with Azelf. Azelf's role is not mainly to get up Stealth Rock, it's to deal damage / cripple the opponent from the beginning of the match. Azelf is without an ounce of fear, as it can deal with almost every lead except for Machamp, which the rest of my team can deal with once Azelf gets its job done.

Oh and about those physical walls, Infernape and Suicune will do just fine.

No proper fighting resist? Offensive ghost types it is. Gengar was my choice because of its fantastic SubSplit set.
A choice locked Pursuit or Bullet Punch would mean a lot to Suicune if Gengar could lure it.

From experience, I know very well that this team is weak to Gliscor, Zapdos, Vaporeon, and stall.
It also has no way of quickly removing Swampert.
Maybe some other minor things, too.

I can probably change mixed Infernape to Nasty Plot to deal with these threats.

In Depth

Azelf

Item: Choice Scarf
Nature: Naive (+Spe -SpD)
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Ability: Levitate
- Trick
- Stealth Rock
- Flamethrower
- U-Turn

Ever seen a Trick Azelf? I hadn't when I made this team. I didn't face a Trick Azelf until months after making this team. Apparently Jirachi and Uxie would outclass Azelf, which is exactly why Azelf can catch the opponent off guard. But now it's more expected than before, as I assume, before, some people didn't even know Azelf could learn Trick.

Blah blah, too frail, use Jirachi, omg. Shut up. This is the only set that can effectively deal with Machamp (well not exactly killing Machamp, but making it next to useless). How sad would it be for Machamp to be locked into Payback against Suicune? You will not believe how many teams I have swept 6-0 with Suicune, just because Azelf can trick a scarf and let Suicune come in unharmed while Machamp switches (or is stupid enough to stay in). Sure Payback is 100 power, but Suicune is so bulky that, even without any investment in its defenses, Machamp is still helpless.

A fire type move is so important for a Pokemon in the lead slot to get rid of Forretress and Skarmory and Metagross, etc.

Against Ninjask, the three moves it will usually use are Swords Dance, Protect, and Substitute.
Unless Ninjask uses Protect first turn, it gets Choice Scarf.
If Ninjask uses Protect, I switch to Scizor who can break the substitute and stop Ninjask from using Swords Dance.

U-Turn is just a great move for scouting, and allows a quick 2HKO in conjunction with Flygon's U-Turn on opposing Azelf.


Scizor

Item: Choice Band
Nature: Adamant (+Atk -SpA)
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Ability: Technician
- U-Turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Oh how Scizor was a beast.

Sadly, for some reason, Scizor is not as effective anymore. Heatran and Gyarados were running around everywhere anyway before Salamence was moved to Ubers, but now they just seem to get in Scizor's way too often.

However, Scizor has saved my ass so many times with its Bullet Punch late game. With all the Tyranitars switching in to Gengar and Azelf, Scizor's U-Turn weakens the opposing team quite quickly as Tyranitar is helpless against Scizor with its 4x resisted dark type STAB.

Superpower can catch Magnezone and Heatran switching in. It's so useful.

I don't usually end up using Pursuit, but it occasionally helps me beat Gengar.


Flygon

Item: Choice Scarf
Nature: Jolly (+Spe -SpA)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Ability: Levitate
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- U-Turn
- ThunderPunch / Dragon Claw

I can put Substitute in the last slot of this choiced Pokemon and it probably won't matter. ThunderPunch can revenge kill Gyarados, while Dragon Claw is to kill off weakened Pokemon without the risk of not being able to switch.

The rest is self explanatory. Outrage and Earthquake for STAB and phenomenal coverage, while U-Turn is used to scout the opponent's team.

U-Turn + Earthquake is also great for mind games against opposing Heatran.


Infernape

Item: Life Orb
Nature: Naive (+Spe -SpD)
EVs: 192 Atk / 64 SpA / 252 Spe
Ability: Blaze
- Close Combat
- Overheat
- Mach Punch / Hidden Power [Ice]
- Hidden Power [Electric] / ThunderPunch / Hidden Power [Ice]

Close Combat and Overheat for STAB, Mach Punch to finish off weakened Heatran and Tyranitar, as well as to stop Lucario and Empoleon sweeps. Hidden Power Ice is for Gliscor and Dragonite, while an electric move is for Gyarados. Hidden Power Electric is preferred for the OHKO on Gyarados without the need for Stealth Rock, but ThunderPunch is used if Hidden Power Ice is used.

Infernape is a great wall breaker, defeating one if its biggest checks (Gyarados) while threatening to OHKO SkarmBliss and take down many other walls.

Infernape usually doesn't last a long time, as sandstorm, entry hazards, and Life Orb will wear it down extremely quickly. However, if I predict correctly, the pay off is great.


Suicune

Item: Life Orb
Nature: Timid (+Spe -Atk)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Ability: Pressure
- Calm Mind
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Electric]

The early game sweeper / hold puncher.

I understand that neutral attacks will OHKO a lot more often with Hydro Pump, but I hate low accuracy. I'm even only tolerating Overheat's 90 accuracy! Call me paranoid, but missed Stone Edges and Megahorns have cost me entire matches. Life Orb makes up for damage loss, and gets some KOs that otherwise would not happen, such as against Magnezone, whose power is deadly.

This Suicune was so effective back when no one knew about it and CroCune was the standard.
Breloom, Heatran, defensive Celebi, etc. would all outspeed CroCune, but would inevitably fall to this Suicune. After one Calm Mind, 95% of the time something is going down with it. This is not that hard to accomplish, as lead Azelf can immediately lock Machamp into Payback, Swampert into Ice Beam / Waterfall / Stealth Rock, and Metagross into Meteor Mash. With two Calm Minds, in my experience, usually 2 or 3 of the opponent's Pokemon are going to die.

With just +1 Special Defense, only a few can come close to OHKOing Suicune.

Lead Roserade Leaf Storm vs. +1 Suicune: 77.2% - 91.2%
Timid Choice Specs Jolteon Thunderbolt vs. +1 Suicune: 62% - 73.7%
Modest Life Orb Sceptile Leaf Storm vs. +1 Suicune: 97.1% - 114.6% (rare)
Timid Life Orb Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. +1 Suicune: 68.4% - 80.7% (uncommon)
Adamant Expert Belt Electivire ThunderPunch: 100% (rare) (outsped and hit hard by Suicune, OHKO if had been weakened.

And Suicune is still a reliable check to Gyarados.

+1 Life Orb Offensive Gyarados Stone Edge / Earthquake vs. Suicune: 58.8% - 69.3%


Gengar

Item: Life Orb
Nature: Timid (+Spe -Atk)
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Ability: Levitate
- Substitute
- Pain Split
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

Gengar can switch in and easily set up a substitute with its three immunities to Ground, Fighting, and Normal. It can even switch in on Tyranitar locked into Earthquake. Shadow Ball and Focus Blast provide unresisted coverage, while both incredibly strong.

Substitute also blocks Thunder Wave from Blissey, and is a safety pillow for if Focus Blast misses, allowing Gengar to try again.

Focus Blast OHKOs Tyranitar and Weavile, which is very handy from behind a substitute. Focus Blast will do significant damage to Scizor, KOing weakened ones.

Pain Split allows Gengar to heal itself at low HP, and even stall against Blissey. Focus Blast will take away approximately 1 third of Blissey's health, forcing her to waste her valuable Wish PP.

Machamps who received a Choice Scarf coming back to use DynamicPunch on the rest of my team will be surprised by Gengar, who usually isn't revealed until late in the game where it can shit on everything.

Please give constructive criticism. Try not to be rude, and please give me suggestions (:

Threat List

Well I haven't posted even one threat list for any of my RMTs yet, but until the team has been approved by many people and seems to be a very successful team, I will not waste my time with a threat list.

​

 

[Boondocker]

This is a very good team. Sub roost zapdos gives you problems though. It can come in on flygon or scizor and procede to mess you up badly. Infernape and gengar take a crapload of damage from thunderbolt and neither can 1hko. Flygon can be roost stalled while scizor doesnt have a chance. Suicune obviously cant counter. This can be fixed by using a rest talk rotom over gengar. Zapdos is often paired with breloom, scizor, or ttar (going from experience here) so you want to be able to beat those too. Rotom is also a much better spin blocker then gengar and any gengar that switches in can be trapped by scizor. Against stall it outstalls anything not named tyranitar. Switching to ttar is a liability though since the rest of your team destroys it. Try a set of

Rotom-any except normal
252hp 156def 80spD 20spe Bold
~shadow ball/thunderbolt
~wil o wisp
~rest
~sleeptalk

Shadow ball is for those damn brelooms who try to sub up on you and for other rotoms. Without thunderbolt you cant counter gyrados or hit heatran but you have enough counters to those 2 pokes. Thunderbolt can be used to hit skarm and forteress though. If it wernt for the zapdos weakness i would reccomend a sub/painsplit/shadowball/thunderbolt life orb rotom. Hydro pump is nice but not hitting shaymin is bad.

If you ask me both azelf and scarfrachi are fail (ds azelf is ok). Scarf celebi does that set alot better. It learns trick, u-turn, stealth rock and can force out swampert, hippowodon, and vaporeon (whom you have no counter to). 2hkos gliscor. Can counter breloom after something is slept. Leech seed helps vs curselax. Earth power hits heatran and metagross. Does alot more for your team then azelf, IMO.

Celebi@choice scarf
80 hp 252spa 176spe timid
~stealth rock
~leaf storm/psychic
~trick
~u-turn/hp fire/ hp ice/leech seed/psychic/earth power

Now this looks like one of my teams ^_^

Edit-Life orb starmie is a decent option over suicune. Helps alot against stall. Against a good player it probably wont be able to spin tho so dont count on it.

 

[undisputed]

Hi Smiles,

Interesting team you have, and it sounds like you already feel comfortable with it, so good job. However, you are pretty weak to opposing Starmie. The standard LO set easily OHKOes everything with minimal damage, so you won't be able to switch Suicune and Scizor in safely. Everything else is OHKOed, which is a huge problem. The best you can do is to switch Suicune in to take the Hydro Pump from Starmie and the switch to Flygon which is only going to work a time or two before your opponent catches on and it becomes a guessing game. To remedy this, you already have a nice Infernape and Suicune combo going, and Shaymin checks Starmie effectively, so a good F/W/G core would be ideal. So, to put Shaymin on the team, I would definitely replace Gengar because it is likely your most expendable member. This Shaymin will also help you to defeat bulky waters which look like a sizable pain in the ass right now. Here is the set:

Shaymin @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Sp Atk / 180 Spe / 76 HP
Nature: Timid
-Seed Flare
-HP Fire
-Earth Power
-Rest

Good Luck with your team!

 

[Faladran]

Hello. This looks like a pretty good offensive team, and you seem to have most threats pretty well-covered in some manner. As you have stated, stall teams can be problematic to deal with. Additionally, this team has some problems with opposing Offensive Suicune, who can 2HKO just about every member of your team. LO Starmie is also a notable threat, since it possesses the same coverage but higher speed. I'm going to agree with undisputed here; a Grass-type like Shaymin would really help to patch up some of these weaknesses. I would personally replace Scizor, however. I agree with your observation that Scizor is no longer as effective in the current metagame, although it makes for a nice U-turn partner to Flygon. Scizor does have its uses, but it doesn't really check anything that Flygon or the rest of your team can't already handle. In addition, Scizor and Shaymin share a weakness to Fire, so their typing aren't totally different, which might make it easier for one to replace the other.

Just to give you a bit more firepower against stall teams, I would recommend using Shaymin's offensive Leech Seed set. This is somewhat similar to the standard LO set, with the exception of not being walled by Blissey.

[box]

Shaymin @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 76 SAtk / 180 Spd
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Seed Flare
- Hidden Power Fire [/box]
One of the nice things about this set is that it can often survive for long periods of time. Leech Seed, Protect, and Leftovers all contribute to Shaymin's durabiltiy, allowing it to stay healthy throughout the match. Seed Flare is for obligatory STAB, while HP Fire hits Scizor switch-ins and other Steel-types. Stall teams can have a pretty hard time dealing with this set, as nothing in particular likes to switch into Shaymin's attacks, and Blissey just becomes a giant source of free health due to Leech Seed. Keep in mind that Shaymin also makes for a good switch-in to some variants of Zapdos, clearing up your problems with them.

Good luck!

 

[[Chris]]

A Lead That Beats Your Azelf

My name is Chris IRL. I go to a local league to play pokemon trading card game & video card game. The "League Leader" Dan uses a lead Weavile (Jolly) Focus Sash: Fake Out (Free turn to hit you and break a sash if you had one.) {Priority & Auto Flinch} Night Slash, Brick Break, & Ice Punch. a Jolly Weavile out speeds your Azelf. That's the only thing. I can really say about your lead. Azelf can easily get 1Hk0ed by anything though.

 

[MixedCalibur]

My name is Chris IRL. I go to a local league to play pokemon trading card game & video card game. The "League Leader" Dan uses a lead Weavile (Jolly) Focus Sash: Fake Out (Free turn to hit you and break a sash if you had one.) {Priority & Auto Flinch} Night Slash, Brick Break, & Ice Punch. a Jolly Weavile out speeds your Azelf. That's the only thing. I can really say about your lead. Azelf can easily get 1Hk0ed by anything though.

I wat'd.

Thank you for describing lead Weavile, although that's a little off topic. Not all leads are perfect; they all have weaknesses to a certain Pokemon.

 

[Smiles]

My name is Chris IRL. I go to a local league to play pokemon trading card game & video card game. The "League Leader" Dan uses a lead Weavile (Jolly) Focus Sash: Fake Out (Free turn to hit you and break a sash if you had one.) {Priority & Auto Flinch} Night Slash, Brick Break, & Ice Punch. a Jolly Weavile out speeds your Azelf. That's the only thing. I can really say about your lead. Azelf can easily get 1Hk0ed by anything though.

If you think that Weavile outspeeds Azelf, you clearly have not even looked at Azelf. He carries a Choice Scarf, meaning U-Turn heavily damages Weavile and I can switch to Scizor on the 4x resisted Night Slash and U-Turn for the KO.

Azelf is not as useless as you make him sound.