Four Sand friends and the Rising dragon duo
Introduction
Back in the R/S/E days, and D/P/P days to a lesser extent, I used to be a fairly active competitive pokemon player. However, in B/W era I only played seldom, but recently my passion for competitive battles rekindled and I took some time to learn about the new metagame and pokemon. So this is the first "serious" team that I put some effort to create, please rate and thanks in advance!
The team
Slowbro (Hippowdon) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpD
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind
I see Tyranitar getting sky-high usage, but one should not forget about his Sand Stream pal: Even though it can't innovate much, Hippowdon is a monster when played correctly. You just can't take it down with normally effective physical hits unless you're heavily boosted. Sometimes I get him to even tank SE hits such as Watterfalls!
STAB Earthquake hits plenty of stuff hard even without any Atk EVs, but unfortunately I can't say the same about Ice Fang (which I found to only be useful in very specific situations). So I tested it with Whirlwind and found it much more useful in general. Stealth Rock is a must, and Slack Off is also default to enhance Hippowdon's defensive capacities.
Forretress (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Leech seed
The standard Ferrothorn. I don't even like Ferrothorn, but I just couldn't find a better pokemon to fulfil its role. He's my shield against water types that cause problems to Hippowdon and also against the legion of Dragons locking himselfs into Outrage.
Tested it with Gyro Ball and found Power whip to more useful and to generally hit harder neutrally. Spikes to complement Hippo's SR, and Good grief, I never thought a powerful pokemon such as Ferrothorn would exist AND learn both Thunder Wave and Leech Seed! With the right prediction, I cripple everything that switches in to check Ferrothorn.
Dragonair (Gyarados) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 176 HP / 128 Atk / 204 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Taunt
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
I like using TankGya so much that I named him after my favorite pokemon. He's the final part of my team's defensive core, and one old friend of mine (Used him a lot in D/P/P days). His job's description says he's here to check fire types that can cause trouble to both Hippo and Ferro, but with dragon dance and taunt, sometimes he ends up just sweeping a whole unprepared team for me.
Taunt works wonders, even though sometimes Gya wishes he were faster. Dragon Dance is a must and Waterfall is the most adequate STAB. Stone miss was included because I think no other move gives better coverage, but damn, the misses do suck...
Tornadus (Landorus Incarnate) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power Ice
- Rock Polish
It would be a waste not to take advantage of Hippo's Sand Stream, So I Decided for Landorus in his Incarnate form. I love playing with him. With the right prediction, he can scout with the excellent U-Turn, launch powerful Sand-Force-boosted Earthquakes and Stone Misses, and when they think they finally checked it, here comes the HP ice to obliterate things that can avoid the other stuff it throws easily. He also check some stat-boosting pokemon for me thanks to choice scarf.
Magcargo (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
- Lava Plume
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Hidden Power Grass
Substitute is quite possibly the best move in the game, So I just couldn't afford to make a team without it. I love this set because it's really easy and effective: Substitute upon an obvious switch and then proceed to either hurt stuff with the powerful STAB Fire Blast (I love 2HKO'ing even resisting pokemon with Fire Blast after Flash Fire's activation) and *insert coverage move here*, or cripple bulky waters and other stuff with Toxic.
The "insert coverage move here" thing was because i'm considering changing Earth Power. As much as it's an excellent move and goes generally well with Fire Blast, it allows opposing Heatrans with Air Balloon to check me completely. Open for suggestions!
Golduck (Latios) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Surf
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power Fire
- Psyshock
Here is where I tried to be somewhat original. I love Latios, but just attaching a Choice Specs to him and proceed to spam Draco Meteors don't appeal to me. So I came up with this offensive Calm Mind set with Expert Belt, which is an item I really like. Calm Mind allows me to boost Latios already great SpA and then throw a REALLY powerfull Draco meteor without getting locked or very crippled offensively afterwards. Psyshock was considered for change, but I found it to be really effective OHKO'ing many dangerous fighting pokemon.
About Hidden Power, I know Fire is considered to be superior, but i'm really tired of those damn Tyranitars switching in and Pursuiting. With HP fighting I can at least do my forty-something percent damage to then. I hope Game Freak put Latios in a Dojo in order to learn Close Combat for gen VI...
Biggest Threats
I checked about the threats and I think my team has a decent sinergy in general. Ice is the attacking type that generates more problems, but i'm not completely unarmed against it since Ferrothorn checks water pokemon with ice moves and Heatran check most Ice pokemon well. The only time I got completely screwed when playing with this team was when a Sawsbuck got one Swords Dance in the sun. Boom... but I guess that's not really common in OU.
So, that's it. Thanks for reading. I hope you guys liked, please keep in mind that i'm a little rusted and just came back to competitive battling!
Suggestions and comments will be highly appreciated, see ya!
Introduction
Back in the R/S/E days, and D/P/P days to a lesser extent, I used to be a fairly active competitive pokemon player. However, in B/W era I only played seldom, but recently my passion for competitive battles rekindled and I took some time to learn about the new metagame and pokemon. So this is the first "serious" team that I put some effort to create, please rate and thanks in advance!
The team
Slowbro (Hippowdon) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpD
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind
I see Tyranitar getting sky-high usage, but one should not forget about his Sand Stream pal: Even though it can't innovate much, Hippowdon is a monster when played correctly. You just can't take it down with normally effective physical hits unless you're heavily boosted. Sometimes I get him to even tank SE hits such as Watterfalls!
STAB Earthquake hits plenty of stuff hard even without any Atk EVs, but unfortunately I can't say the same about Ice Fang (which I found to only be useful in very specific situations). So I tested it with Whirlwind and found it much more useful in general. Stealth Rock is a must, and Slack Off is also default to enhance Hippowdon's defensive capacities.
Forretress (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Leech seed
The standard Ferrothorn. I don't even like Ferrothorn, but I just couldn't find a better pokemon to fulfil its role. He's my shield against water types that cause problems to Hippowdon and also against the legion of Dragons locking himselfs into Outrage.
Tested it with Gyro Ball and found Power whip to more useful and to generally hit harder neutrally. Spikes to complement Hippo's SR, and Good grief, I never thought a powerful pokemon such as Ferrothorn would exist AND learn both Thunder Wave and Leech Seed! With the right prediction, I cripple everything that switches in to check Ferrothorn.
Dragonair (Gyarados) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 176 HP / 128 Atk / 204 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Taunt
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
I like using TankGya so much that I named him after my favorite pokemon. He's the final part of my team's defensive core, and one old friend of mine (Used him a lot in D/P/P days). His job's description says he's here to check fire types that can cause trouble to both Hippo and Ferro, but with dragon dance and taunt, sometimes he ends up just sweeping a whole unprepared team for me.
Taunt works wonders, even though sometimes Gya wishes he were faster. Dragon Dance is a must and Waterfall is the most adequate STAB. Stone miss was included because I think no other move gives better coverage, but damn, the misses do suck...
Tornadus (Landorus Incarnate) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power Ice
- Rock Polish
It would be a waste not to take advantage of Hippo's Sand Stream, So I Decided for Landorus in his Incarnate form. I love playing with him. With the right prediction, he can scout with the excellent U-Turn, launch powerful Sand-Force-boosted Earthquakes and Stone Misses, and when they think they finally checked it, here comes the HP ice to obliterate things that can avoid the other stuff it throws easily. He also check some stat-boosting pokemon for me thanks to choice scarf.
Magcargo (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
- Lava Plume
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Hidden Power Grass
Substitute is quite possibly the best move in the game, So I just couldn't afford to make a team without it. I love this set because it's really easy and effective: Substitute upon an obvious switch and then proceed to either hurt stuff with the powerful STAB Fire Blast (I love 2HKO'ing even resisting pokemon with Fire Blast after Flash Fire's activation) and *insert coverage move here*, or cripple bulky waters and other stuff with Toxic.
The "insert coverage move here" thing was because i'm considering changing Earth Power. As much as it's an excellent move and goes generally well with Fire Blast, it allows opposing Heatrans with Air Balloon to check me completely. Open for suggestions!
Golduck (Latios) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Surf
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power Fire
- Psyshock
Here is where I tried to be somewhat original. I love Latios, but just attaching a Choice Specs to him and proceed to spam Draco Meteors don't appeal to me. So I came up with this offensive Calm Mind set with Expert Belt, which is an item I really like. Calm Mind allows me to boost Latios already great SpA and then throw a REALLY powerfull Draco meteor without getting locked or very crippled offensively afterwards. Psyshock was considered for change, but I found it to be really effective OHKO'ing many dangerous fighting pokemon.
About Hidden Power, I know Fire is considered to be superior, but i'm really tired of those damn Tyranitars switching in and Pursuiting. With HP fighting I can at least do my forty-something percent damage to then. I hope Game Freak put Latios in a Dojo in order to learn Close Combat for gen VI...
Biggest Threats
I checked about the threats and I think my team has a decent sinergy in general. Ice is the attacking type that generates more problems, but i'm not completely unarmed against it since Ferrothorn checks water pokemon with ice moves and Heatran check most Ice pokemon well. The only time I got completely screwed when playing with this team was when a Sawsbuck got one Swords Dance in the sun. Boom... but I guess that's not really common in OU.
So, that's it. Thanks for reading. I hope you guys liked, please keep in mind that i'm a little rusted and just came back to competitive battling!
Suggestions and comments will be highly appreciated, see ya!
