Alright, so after getting my grades up, I decided to go back to Shoddy. I needed to make a good team fast, so I just decided to go with a completely unoriginal idea; dual screens and bulky pokemons. J/k bout the title too; I'm always analyzing my team and thinking about various threats.
REVAMP: It's not really a big change of pokemon, but the way I play is now quite different. I realized as I watche Weavile or Scizor prevent Alakazam from getting more than one screen or even a screen at all that I can't play this like a typical dual screen team (like Justinawe's) because Alakazam is not Deoxys; he is not guaranteed to get even one screen down all the time. Instead, I'm finding that Alakazam is really just here to disguise a hyper offensive team that uses screens to no.1 make transitions from pokemon to pokemon cleaner and no. 2 make this team look more defensive oriented when you actually have 4 LO sweepers and Flygon. Basically, the goal is just to get a decent sweep early game. Often, people use only 1 pokemon to counter multiple. Kill that, and the armor is broken and something can break through.
Since I now realize that this team shouldn't be played in the way I played before, I'll be changing the descriptions. And Infernape over Machamp too.
Hell, maybe I should try out an Azelf SR lead, or an Aerodactyl SR lead.
FINISHED MY REVAMP
Inner Focus
252 hp/216 Spd/40 SpD
Timid
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Psychic
-Encore
Alakazam isn't Deoxys-S. He is not guaranteed to get my screens up. He can't even get one screen up against weavile, and usually only one against Scizor. But that doesn't matter; my team functions well with or without screens. Screens just make it a hell of a lot easier, and it gives them a strange impression. Not to mention that Alakazam, against a team without Scizor, Weavile, or Tyranitar, can really wreak some havoc by himself.
Reflect and Light Screen are obvious. Getting these down mean that nothing really hits super effective against my team, and really helps water down the attacks coming from revengers. My pokemon usually only need one boost, so the screens are here to let them take attacks as they hit back. Usually, it can result in my pokemon being able to dish out just a few extra hits before dying, and that can be very important. Sometimes I can only get one down, but they are very useful, as nothing is more annoying than knowing your hits do half damage for 8 turns.
Psychic is used with Alakazam's awesome special stat, as it can 2hko and even 1hko plenty of pokemon out there, from Infernape to Gengar. I also need it just to break sashes. It gives the impression I'm tricked too when I use it right off the bat.
Encore is what separates Alakazam from Deoxys-S and makes him not that worthless. Encore makes it much easier for my team to transition, or get more screens up. Incredibly good move, especially because under screens, Alakazam can pull off plenty of encores and force switches.
I'm considering a SR lead. But there are some very subtle uses to Alakazam. The forced switches often let me see the opponent's team, and then I can figure out which of my sweepers will be most effective. Also, he can give the opponent a pretty confuzzled time; Zam leads generally look like trick leads, but then he gets screens up. And screens usually mean some kind of stall or bulky pokemon. But then Infernape comes in, and then it just looks downright strange. Then again, SR would probably quite useful for an offensive team like this. But sometimes, an extra attack can mean another pokemon dead; SR can't pull that off.
Timid and 216 EVs let me outspeed azelf, so i can kill its sash and then encore. Trick leads are rather annoying, but oh well. 252 hp EVs make Alakazam surprisingly bulky, and he is extremely difficult to kill under screens. 40 SpD to take less from attacks like Fire Blast (most common lead attack out there...), and 252/40 means he has a slight chance of taking Gengar's Timid Scarf Shadow ball, and 1hko back with psychic.
If you are playtesting, be aware that it does take a bit of practice to use him to full effect. Sometimes he dies a horrible grueling death (always to weavile), other times he basically draws out half the team and lives longer than my screens as I stall the crap out of the opposing team.
Infernape @ Life Orb
Blaze
24 Atk/252 SpA/232 Spd
Naive
-Close Combat
-Overheat
-Grass Knot
-HP Ice=
When I first tried out Infernape, I was surprised at how good he was on my team. Together with Metagross and Suicune, someone would be taking out at least 3 pokemon, depending on what was already killed. Then I realized that this is just a hyper offensive team with rocks, but instead screens. And so I got rid of Machamp, who could barely beat SkarmBliss with hax, for the big wall breaker Infernape.
Quite a choice really. Close Combat is really quite a broken move on something as fast and powerful as Infernape. As is Overheat; even waters like Starmie lose half their HP to STAB 140 BP. It's the better choice; less misses and more power. I rarely keep Infernape in for more than a few turns, and teams really only have a few pokemon that need to be hit by Overheat. Grass Knot is decent; it doesn't do too much against Gyarados or a lot of bulky waters, Vaporeon in particular. HP Ice is great; I don't even know how many people tried to kill Infernape with Salamence or Gliscor, only to get their asses kicked.
Screens make him decent; at least he doesn't drop like a fly. It also puts his useful resistences in much better light; switching into Bullet Punch especially.
Infernape's typing is quite good on my team, with 2 water resists, a flying resist, and 2 earthquake immunities. A threat like Infernape forces people to use the obvious attacks, which makes switching easy.
Infernape's primary counters are waters like Tentacruel and Starmie. Both of them are easily dealt with with a bit of maneuvering, and when I see them, I can tell that if I kill one, I will likely get a small Infernape sweep. I tend to use him less as a wall breaker and more as a sweeper (though wall breakers are really just sweepers that can kill walls I guess).
Metagross @ Life Orb
Clear Body
52 Hp/252 Atk/204 Spd
Adamant
-Agility
-Meteor Mash
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide/Thunderpunch
Metagross is probably my best sweeper. Most teams overlook him while preparing their teams. They just stick Skarmory or some bulky water or Magnezone there and assume he's covered. Which is probably why I got to great lengths to kick their ass and then watch as Metagross sweeps their team.
Metagross is definitely one of the best agility sweepers around, and sweepers in general. With Agility making faster than most scarfers, 405 attack backed up with LO, no 4x weak, and enough bulk to take super effective hits, he can easily cut through a team that is full of pokemon that are weak to his attacks.
Meteor Mash is pretty obvious; STAB and the ability to raise his attack another stage is great. Earthquake provides some good coverage, and is probably my primary sweeping move. Rock Slide and Thunderpunch is the decision I need to make; T Punch helps weaken Skarm and waters early game, so it gets a little easier to beat them later on. Meanwhile, Rock Slide hits three of Metagrosses common switch ins; Salamence, Zapdos, and Gyara, all super effective. So far, I'm liking rock slide, as killing those big three open up new possibilities for my other attackers.
Suicune @ Life Orb
Pressure
4 Hp/252 SpA/252 Spd
Timid
-Calm Mind
-Surf
-HP Electric
-Ice Beam
Very solid sweeper, if your team doesn't have Blissey, prepare to be in a world of hurt.
CM is fairly obvious as a good boosting move, which helps power up Suicune's decent move pool. Surf is obvious as a strong STAB attack, while HP Electric and Ice Beam provide Pseudo bolt beam, hitting waters and grasses that resist Surf hard. Ice Beam is a great move, 2hkoing Zapdos and Celebi, and a +1 Surf can 2hko Swampert.
Really, it is the fact that Suicune needs only 1 CM boost to decimate pokemon, and combined with his bulk, speed (295 is quite fast nowadays), and the possibility screens are up, nothing except Blissey really stops him from do ing a lot of damage. I like only having to use 1 boost, because it saves valuable screen time. Once again, the fact that Suicune is often looked upon as a defensive pokemon means that he is often overlooked as a sweepe, which is why he can be so deadly.
252 Spd and Timid nets 295 speed, enough to outspeed Jolly Mamo and Adamant Lucario as well as most of the metagame.. 252 SpA is obvious, and 4 Hp Evs just for a slight boost in bulkiness.
He is usually here as the Zapdos or Celebi killer. Considering they are the most common switch ins to Suicune and they also happen to take on Metagross fairly well, and are sometimes the only walls on a team, its a priority to kill them. I sometimes even sacrifice cune just to deal damage to them. Suicune is generally the first sweeper to come out, as he draws out many common counters to Nape and Metagross, and generally fatally damages them or outright kills them.
I personally think he is one of the premier special sweepers in the game. He has the bulk, and has just enough speed and power to get the job done very well.
Salamence @ Life Orb
Intimidate
16 Atk/240 SpA/252 Spd
Naive
-Draco Meteor
-Outrage
-Flamethrower
-Brick Break
Beastly Salamence, always finds a way on my team.
MixMence is a solid threat. With everyone thinking all Salamence are DD, Mixmence steps in to Draco Meteor stuff into a world of hurt. He is even better now with so many non-scarfed Heatran too. Anyway, Draco Meteor and Outrage wreck pokemon like crazy, 2hkoing stuff that don't resist. Flamethrower is better than Fire Blast since Mence does die fast; gotta get those SE hits in. And Brick Break over Earthquake because; can 2hko Blissey without getting locked into Outrage, and without SR, I need to at least hit levitators and fliers.
Max speed because it is just so incredibly useful to be able to kill most other Mence and Zapdos first. Really, combined with all my other pokemon, most of the common OU offensive pokemons can't switch in period. Only walls really have a solid chance.
He is also pretty good under screens, and with intimidate, he can take hits from physical attackers.
Often, I sacrifice Salamence to kill something like Skarmory, Blissey, or Swampert. When one of them dies, Agiligross and Suicune can cut straight through a team.
Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Levitate
4 hp/252 Atk/252 Spd or
Adamant
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-U Turn
-Stone Edge
I tried out Scarf Jirachi, but it did not do too well, and the lack of a ground immunity/resist really hurt hard, especially against pokemon like Zapdos and Jolteon with powerful STAB electric (possibly the best STAB)
So I went back to Flygon. Outrage is a solid STAB, and with Salamence's help, can often get me a late game sweep. Earthquake is a good STAB, though I am often unwilling to use it unless I have to. U Turn is a good way to find counters and switch to a good pokemon for the situation. U-Turn is truly a remarkable move on Scarf Flygon though, since it makes transitioning extremely easy. U-Turn to a resist, stat up, and go, or take a T-Wave and switch out (usually vs. Blissey). Stone Edge makes him a very good switch into Zapdos, and allows him to revenge Gyara very well. Still, he is a great scarfer and revenger. He isn't trapped by anything, isn't badly pwned by pursuit, and is resistent to rocks and immune to passive damage except hail. Sweet.
I guess you could say that Flygon is the knot for this team; he absorbs electric attacks and t-wave, and U Turns to help a lot of transitions. His useful resistences and immunities and the fact that passive damage doesn't bother him is what really makes him a very good pokemon for the job.
An Analysis of the Team as a whole (How I play):
My team basically runs on the idea that most people use one pokemon as a counter to many. And it is through this idea that I break the opposing team down, and it is through the most basic thing you can do in pokemon; kill.
Alakazam starts it off, confusing the opponent and usually forcing switches. How an opponent reacts to Alakazam is quite telling; does he send in something like Blissey, or does he send in Scizor? Based on that reaction, I can tell whether I'm facing an offensive or defensive team (generally). Encore and screens help get one of my sweepers in.
The starting sweep is really important. It generally forces a lot of my opponents hand, and it can make the holes I need right from the start. Suicune, Metagross, and Infernape are my primary sweepers (Salamence is too vulnerable, he is mainly there to try to hammer down a key pokemon, Flygon is the trash man). Here are some common switch ins:
Suicune: Blissey, Celebi, Zapdos, all bulky waters, Starmie, Jolteon, Electivire
Metagross: Skarmory, Forretress, Hippowdon, Gliscor, Donphan, Swampert, Gyara, Zapdos, Salamence, Magnezone, Dugtrio
Infernape: uh...Starmie, Tentacruel, Slowbro, Vaporeon. Salamence (why?!), Gyarados, and some others.
As one can see, there are numerous pokemon common among them. Suicune will beat or at least fatally damage every single thing on the list with a CM except for Blissey, which is why he is such a good starting sweeper. Once that's said and done, Salamence can try to finish off any remaining counters that I see, and from there, Infernape and Metagross can sweep. As I said before, most teams only run 1 or 2 pokemon that are meant to counter a certain block of pokemon. Once they are down, what remains is very vulnerable to certain and sweepers. And this offensive combo takes advantage of that very well.
Addressing Resid Damage
Yep...4 LO sweepers, and only 1 is immune to toxic spikes and has an immunity to Sandstorm. Hail hurts everything. Screens definitely help in terms of survivablility, but there is no doubt my pokemon don't live long. But in the end, it's fine when they can 1-2hko just about everything. Not to mention besides SR, setting up is extremely dangerous for my opponent because it gives one of my attackers a free switch in. Not to mention popular spikers like Forry and Skarmory are owned by this team.
Possible Weaknesses: It is important to remember that I do often have screens up, and that many "threats" are watered down because of them. Not to mention most threats can't switch in to just about anything.
Scizor: Seems possible that he could beat up my team, but I haven't seen too many today I didn't kill with Dynamic Punch of Surf. Infernape makes him considerably easier, as very few run Quick Attack.
Salamence: Scary stuff. With Dual Screens though, Suicune easily takes care of him and takes care of him pretty well anyway. The main reason I have no problems with him is that he can't switch into anything really, without getting his ass owned. Infernape is also pretty good, since Salamence can rarely get an actual DD up.
Mamoswine: Probably one of the scariest pokemon I face. However, Infernape and Suicune, and Metagross with an Agility can do a good job.
