From the Inside

[jackm]

Coming down from Ubers, the first thing you notice in OU is that there's much more diversity in threats, with almost twice as many pokes posing a legitimate threat. As such, I felt my OU debut should be with an anti-metagame team, centered around the fact that using uncommon movesets on common pokemon lets you bluff one set and then destroy them with another. Honestly, there's nothing more amusing than revenging a +1 dragonite or haxorus with scarf latios and watching them swear into the chat. Nothing. So, without further ado...

(Changes in bold)

From the Inside

At a glance

Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Natural Cure​

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd​

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)​

- Thunderbolt​

- Recover​

- Hydro Pump​

- Ice Beam


3 Attacks Starmie is a seriously underrated threat in today's metagame, capable of single-handedly sweeping teams due to its excellent speed, power, and super-effective type coverage. This lets me handle a multitude of dangerous threats in today's metagame, including dragonite (multiscale broken), band terrakion, and others. This usually acts similar to what electivire always wanted to be, shredding things with its immense strength and coverage.

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Mamoswine (M) @ Life Orb​

Trait: Snow Cloak​

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd​

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)​

- Earthquake​

- Ice Shard​

- Icicle Crash​

- Stealth Rock


I love how underrated this thing is. The other day, I battled someone and swept 4 of their pokemon with Ice Shard. This thing wields so much power, it's incredible. It's one of my checks to the omnipresent dragonite, and it+latios make a great dragon-killing duo. This is really the glue to my team, which really just wouldn't work without its power. The moveset is pretty self-explanatory, so...

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Heatran (M) @ Leftovers​

Trait: Flash Fire​

EVs: 136 HP / 252 SAtk / 120 Spd​

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)​

- Substitute​

- Fire Blast​

- Earth Power​

- Hidden Power [Ice]


Yet another unorthodox moveset, substitute heatran is a very viable and unexpected threat. The idea is this, with heatran forcing a lot of switches, specifically against sun teams, there's ample time to grab a substitute and slam whatever the switchin is with a massively powerful attack. Substitute is self-explanatory, fire blast is auxilary STAB, destroying anything but resists and walls, EP is good coverage and destroys opposing heatran (which I can beat if I sub as they switch into a predicted Fblast), and HP is for dragonite and other 4x weak pokes. Unfortunately, I'm walled by Rotom-W with this set, so that's where the next poke comes in...

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Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers​

Trait: Iron Barbs​

EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 SDef​

Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)​

- Leech Seed​

- Spikes​

- Power Whip​

- Protect


This is a pretty standard set, not much to say except that this is a great check to things like Latios and Rotom-W and a solid defensive pivot. Leech Seed for much needed recovery, spikes for something to do in my spare time, power whip so I'm not completely screwed by taunt, and protect as an old Ubers favorite, recovering massive amounts of health to stick around.

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Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb​

Trait: Poison Heal​

EVs: 48 HP / 244 Atk / 68 Def / 148 Spd​

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)​

- Earthquake​

- Substitute​

- Swords Dance
​

- Ice Fang


So many people use defensive Gliscor or acrobat these days, it's hard to get variation when up against opposing gliscor. So, I decided to use a subsdscor, and use it as a stallbreaking set. This is a serious surprise for most opponents, as ferros coming in to take a toxic/earthquake combo are swiftly shut down by substitute, and gliscor walls offense from it. Gliscor's immunity to status comes in handy a lot, letting it handle skarmchans cores and lets it wall breloom, an otherwise viable threat to my team. The HP and Def let me not get 2hko'd by opposing gliscor's ice fang, the Atk lets me 2hko opposing Specially Defensive Jirachi with eq, and the rest is dumped into speed to aid me against stall.

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Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf​

Trait: Levitate​

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd​

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)​

- Draco Meteor​

- Surf​

- Hidden Power [Fire]​

- Trick

Here it is. The piece de resistance. The ninja. The destroyer. The point is, no matter what name it goes by, this thing owns things like a BOSS. Choice scarf is so out of the blue on something like latios, that surprisingly it works well. The basic premise is, you switch in to revenge kill, oh, say, a +1 dragonite. Your opponent laughs, proclaims you but a n00b, and leaves it in, to be massacred by a swift Draco Meteor to the belly, leaving your opponent crying in shame. Seriously, this thing is amazing. (Interesting note, but 4 turns after this massacre happened, the opponent left a scarf heatran in on me as well, which, hilariously got smooshed by a surf). Hp fire lets me kill Ferro, and that's about it. Even a SE coverage move doesn't hit as hard as a neutral DM, so the coverage is just to kill the steels that plight me so. Trick pretty much serves the same function as on specs latios, crippling chansey/blissey and letting me quickly switch into a cleaner by letting me switch moves.


Thanks for reading, and any suggestions would be great!​

 

[mklo14]

Hmmm, good solid team it appears. If I were to make a suggestion it would be to check out kyruem. He has overall better stats then mamo, same attack, and higher hp! Yes he's not ice ground, but he's the hard to counter ice dragon! And you could choose from sticking specs on him and going with one of these sets:

http://www.smogon.com/bw/pokemon/kyurem

Or you could be anti-metagame and band him, cause his SPA and ATK are equal at 130. And I would give the moves, glaciate, outrage, flash cannon, and stone edge. Full ATK, and SPE evs, and a nature to promoate atk, and hurt SPA. And the best part about him banded is his access to stone edge which is very good, and then the coverage of flash cannon. So I think you should definitely try him out whether with specs or band!

 

[Penance]

This team looks nicely rounded out and solid, I see no glaring weaknesses other than an Ice weakness if a Magnezone comes in and traps Ferro and Heatran or they die in general.

You have no solid weakness to Ice that isn't a Steel type that can get trapped by Maggy other than Starmie but we all know that Starmie isn't exactly the bulkiest mon in the world. I wouldn't ponder among it too much just because Latios will probably outspeed and Mamo only takes neutral damage from Ice attacks.

I fear changing something will hurt the synergy this team possesses though but if you do wish to patch the weakness up I would consider changing Gliscor to a SubSD or Double Dance Terrakion possibly but it's all up to you.

Good luck to you in the future and I hope you have further success with this team in the future.

 

[Moo]

Hey, I've got a few suggestions for your team

Your team is really well equipped to deal with Ferrothorn, so I don't think Hidden Power Fire is really necessary on Starmie. This is because you can either shut it down with Gliscor, or double switch and set up on it with Heatran and Subtsitute. I suggest replacing Hidden Power Fire with Recover / Rapid Spin. Either move would be fine, although they have different purposes. Recover gives Starmie great survivability (especially when combined with Natural Cure), whereas Rapid Spin keeps the field clear, and helps out your whole team in general.

Mamoswine is really underrated, but Choice Band sets are very easy to take advantage. This is because if your opponent predicts right, Mamoswine is now basically set-up fodder. I suggest changing the set to a Life Orb variant.

Mamoswine (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Snow Cloak
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock

Although it's not as powerful, Life Orb Mamoswine is definitely more threatening than Choice Band Mamoswine. This is because it has the ability to switch attacks, making it a lot harder to wall. Pokemon like Landorus, Dragonite and Latios won't be able to switch in on an Earthquake and set up, because you can just smash them with Ice Shard. Also, Stone Edge is really just a filler move, because there isn't much you can't hit with its fantastic STAB attacks, so use Stealth Rock in the last slot. This will really help your team, alongside Spikes.

Your Gliscor set is cool, but I'd definitely run Swords Dance over Toxic. The reason for this is because with Swords Dance, you can still stop Stall, but you can set up against stall based Pokemon, rather than just poisoning them. After a few attack boosts, your opponent will have a hard time taking Gliscor down, because it's so bulky. The only Pokemon that you miss out on hitting without Toxic is Rotom-W, which you have well covered with Ferrothorn / Latios. So, with Swords Dance, you'll be able to turn the tides of the game and sweep if your opponent has something like Ferrothorn or Skarmory at their disposal.

Good luck with the team, I hope I helped!

 

[bluehoundoom]

Hey there! I've noticed that half your team is weak to Fighting and the other half is not however, they don't seem to to have any moves to counter the omnipresent Fighting types. I love your Gliscor set and it's very creative indeed but I believe that Gliscor on this team should run the Acrobatics set:

Gliscor @ Flying Gem
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 4hp/252atk/252spe
Adamant nature (+Atk, -Sp.Atk)
-Acrobatics
-Earthquake
-Swords Dance
-Ice Fang/Toxic
Flying Gem helps boost the power of Acrobatics to deal damage to those Fighting types. And your last move slot can either have Ice Fang (to deal with the Dragons) or Toxic (if you want to stall while you set up).
Hope this helps!

 

[GARCHOMPZILLA]

Good but like many other teams ive seen in the past: too many common weaknesses
(dark and ghost and bug for latios and starmie, fire AND fighting for mamoswine and ferrothorn, ice for gliscor and latios, and thats just a few.) First i would reccomend mamoswine have thick fat (DW) to protect it from fire, and you dont have a decently fast phyical attacker who has a lot of attack. I would try:
Infernape@ life orb
jolly (+speed,-sp.atk) (note that adamant could work too)
252 speed/252 attack
-fake out
-close combat
-earthquake/stone edge
-flare blitz

This would take out most of the above mentioned weaknesses you have, and its not only a sash depleter but it can hit with 234 power with both close combat and flare bllitz, killing a lot that it normal effects as well. Also I would go with on gliscor:
Gliscor@toxic orb
-impish/adamant/careful
200 defense/56 attack/252 hp
-earthquake
-swords dance
-stone edge
-ice fang
I notice you didnt have protect, which is good because it lets you set up being poisened and then restore later without being hit, which is good when the opponent doesnt have statboosting moves, and substitiute is good also but I tried to go wth your no protect idea, but its still a good idea to have swords dance for opposing gliscors to portect or someting else to switch in/etc, then raise your attack and kill them next turn. adamant or impish is nice, but there are a lot of situations where the extra sp.def boost could save you.

 

[jackm]

Thanks for all of the rates, first of all.

After sifting through all of the ideas, I found 3 that really improved my team:
Moo's suggestion to change my mamoswine to a life orb version w/ stealth rock really helped me maintain offensive pressure against offensive teams, instead of giving turns of setup.
Another of Moo's suggestions to change HP fire out for rapid spin/recover on starmie helped as well. I went with recover and it worked miracles, increasing its longevity substantially.
Finally, Penance's suggestion to switch my gliscor to a subsd version really helped, letting me set up on stall as opposed to being walled by skarm.

Thanks for all the posts, and any more would be greatly appreciated!