Learning Gen 5 OU ...

[Varment]

Hey Smogon, its been a while since I was here. I've been really busy with school, but figured that I should look into 5th Gen OU. I still want to be able to play (even if it is only on PO for now) when I'm not too busy.

I made this team quite a while ago ... like months ago. I started playing with it again the other day, and I have a 27-3 record. Hasn't been a lot of crits, or hax at all. I figure that I should get other peoples opinions, because I will not see weakness/etc. I have only really played 2 weeks worth of battling total (about 5 matches a day) in 5th Gen OU. HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

So here we go ...

Summary:

Past Members:
Gliscor, Excadrill.

In Depth Analysis:

Adamant Donphan (Sturdy) w/ Leftovers
252 HP/ 128 Atk/ 128 Def
~ Stealth Rock
~ Ice Shard
~ Stone Edge
~ Earthquake

Reasoning: I use Donphan for its suprising bulk, unexpected priority/ability, to set up SR, and because I can use it to do some damage later on. Unless there are obvious reasons not to (e.g. Politoad/etc.) I usually send him in right away. I can hit lots of things pretty hard between SE and EQ. People also NEVER seem to expect the Ice Shard ... I assume that nobody really uses him in OU, so most people don't bother to learn sets.

Bold Jellicent (Water Absorb) w/ Leftovers
248 HP/ 216 Def/ 44 Speed
~ Scald
~ Taunt
~ Will-o-Wisp
~ Recover

Reasoning: One of the first things I heard about when I started Gen 5 OU was the Jellicent/Ferrothorn combo. I tried it, loved it, and added it to this team. Water absorb is used here because 3 members of my team are water weak. I find that I can outspeed a lot of other bulky/stall pokemon and get the Taunt in. Anything physical is crippled by WoW, and its also a decent choice when I can predict a switch. Scald is used for water attacking versatility, and for the burn rate. Defensive, compliments team members well, and can cripple/wall many opponents.

Relaxed Ferrothorn (Iron Barbs) w/ Leftovers
252 HP/ 48 Def/ 208 SpDef
~ Gyro Ball [TESTING PROTECT]
~ Power Whip
~ Leech Seed
~ Spikes

Reasoning: As mentioned above, I initially put Ferrothorn on this team with Jellicent and liked the combination. I'm not sure if Spikes is good or not, but when I initially planned this I know that I wanted to do a lot of entry hazards (if possible). Most people I battled didn't have a spinner. Attacking options seem surprisingly valid to me, and I often get a KO off of a good prediction. Looking at my team, you can see most of the obvious typing advantages that Ferrothorn provides defensively. Leech Seed is usually necessary if I want good recovery, and I can use it on switch ins to restore a little health before I switch out (or otherwise reap the benefits if they stay in).

Timid Latios (Levitate) w/ Life Orb
4 HP/ 252 SpAtk/ 252 Speed
~ Hidden Power Fire
~ Dragon Pulse
~ Surf
~ Recover

Reasoning: To be honest, I was thrilled when I learned Latios was only OU. I use it as a multi-purpose attacker, and it can also take some resisted/immune hits for others on my team. HP Fire is for Ferrothorn, Scizor, and the likes. Dragon Pulse for STAB, and Surf to Balance my options. I do find that it can die a little too quickly from LO recoil, but maybe thats just how I'm playing it (not getting recovers in very often). Overall helps me to keep the offensive momentum that I need to have to be successful.

Timid Heatran (Flash Fire) w/ Choice Scarf
4 HP/ 252 SpAtk/ 252 Speed
~ Dragon Pulse
~ Earth Power
~ Fire Blast
~ Hidden Power Ice

Reasoning: This Heatran was one of my Gen 4 favourites. I added HP Ice alongside Dragon Pulse because I wanted good moves for dragons/gliscor/etc. I don't like using a Balloon (like most people seem to do) because after you get hit its gone. The Scarf usually catches people off-guard at first and gets me an initial KO. Set is otherwise fairly easy to understand. Heatran is a large part of my offense, but usually doesn't see any action until mid-late game. He is vital to defeating Venusaur and Sun teams.

Naive Landorus (Sand Force) w/ Life Orb [TESTING SCARF]
252 Atk/ 4 SpAtk/ 252 Speed
~ Earthquake
~ Stone Edge
~ Hidden Power Ice
~ Rock Polish [TESTING U-TURN]

Reasoning: This is the pokemon that I am least certain about. When I get to use it, it works well, but a lot of the time I either dont use it, or it dies quickly. LO recoil is a large part of the problem, combined with no real recovery ... Stone Edge and Earthquake have good coverage, and HP Ice is there to hit other Landorus/Gliscor/Dragons. The Sand Force is meant to take advantage of Sand Teams; when combined with a Rock Polish, he can be pretty deadly.

 

[Kuuga]

Looks like a pretty solid team to me!

 

[Xav]

It is quite sturdy.

But let him edit in the whole thing before you comment, this is clearly a accidental posting/WIP.

 

[Varment]

I am done editing for tonight. That should be a good basis for anybody to start with. If you want more information, or opinions/etc then just ask and I will post/edit for you.

 

[Braseg257]

good team, i suggest you to try Landorus with this set:
Landorus @choice scarf
naive
252 atk 252 spe 4 sp atk
earthquake
stone edge
hp ice
brick break/u-turn

this is a classic mixed set, with the scarf you can outspeed everything except for scarfed pkmn or deoxys S. edgequake is a good combo, hp ice for dragons, u turn for scouting or brick break for coverage. give it a try

 

[King John]

Forretress does hazard laying a lot better than Ferrothorn or Donphan, and it can spin them away too. Try this set:

Forretress @ Leftovers
Nature: Impish
252 HP/252 Def/4 SpDef

Trait: Sturdy

Stealth Rock
Spikes
Gyro Ball
Rapid Spin

 

[kd24]

there are some good things about this team but you are going to have a ton of trouble vs stall - a combination of chansey/skarmory/spinner would absolutely shut down many pokemon on this team because they are either focusing solely on one attacking spectrum or they just cant touch the opponent altogether. your only safe answer is jellicent, which is good, but thats all but over when you either cant spin away tspikes or you end up relying on jellicent for everything.

to ease the pressure vs stall and give you a solid replacement for landorus, the member you are most shaky about, id replace him with sd lucario with close combat, extremespeed, and ice punch. this handles stall pretty well, ohkoing many of the common factors.

you mentioned you don't recover often with latios at all, so how about replacing it with calm mind so you can handle cm reuniclus a bit better - you are still very weak to trick room reuniclus though. to handle this, make the obvious change of power whip over vine whip (accident?) and then protect > gyro ball. this gives you some general healing frrom leech seed (not reuniclus tho) and stalls out those trick room turns.

with donphan id replace stone edge with rapid spin, its one of his big niches and it helps this team out vs stall even more so.

watch out for dual screen :S - if gorebyss gets that shell smash, you could be pretty much done. it doesnt help they carry things this team is usually weak to like dd scrafty. i dunno how much of a problem it is for you, but you could switch latios and heatran's roles, making latios the scarfer with trick, to still revenge sun pokemon but to outspeed and knock back gorebyss/latios too, and then heatran can be the life orb attacker. its just a thought to consider, because these teams are really hard for anyone to beat but in your case, they hurt a lot

hope i pointed out some things and suggested things you can work on, and good luck

 

[Nova]

Why vine whip and not power whip?

 

[Varment]

Firstly, I meant Power Whip, not Vine Whip, on Ferrothorn.

Braseg257: I like that suggestion, I think I'll try it out and see if Landorus survives better. I like using U-Turn and this will also give me a scout. I'll update with results of this test later. Thanks for the suggestion.

King John: I think I like the attcking potential of my other two pokemon too much to try this. Forretress would halt any offensive momentum I had going. Plus, its set up fodder for many pokemon while I have more options otherwise. Thanks anyway though.

kd24: I like this idea for Lucario instead of Landorus, but I think I will wait to try that after I try the new Landorus set mentioned above. I will certainly try Protect on Ferrothorn though, for obvious recovery/stall/scouting reasons. Most people haven't had entry hazards, but if it becomes a problem then I will make the change on Donphan. I might also try BB on the Landorus set to help with screens. I also very much like the Trick Latios, but I'll have to test a few other things first. Thanks a lot for the suggestions.

 

[HardCore]

This is a pretty solid team except you are swept by +1 hp ground volcarona. The only way I can see preventing this is to make sure you never get spun on so just play well with jellicent. I would like to encourage you to make scarf landorus a permanent part of the team.

I would like to suggest running 108 speed on jellicent so you outspeed most of that speed tier.