Midnight Marauders v2 (OU)

[Midniiight]

This is my second OU RMT here at Smogon, and hopefully I will be able to do a better job at both posting it and maintaining it. My favorite Pokemon of all time is Tyranitar, and as such his place on the team is non-debateable, everyone else is fair game. I WILL be testing suggested changes and posting back results, so feel free to come back and see how your suggestions were taken into consideration. Changes will be in Bold. Without further ado, one of the most OU teams I've ever created...

MetaKnight (Metagross) @ Occa Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/232 Atk/12 Def/12 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Bullet Punch
- Meteor Mash
---​

A slight deviation of what has become the most popular lead in the current metagame. Stealth Rock is a standard for OU play. Earthquake helps me beat Heatran and Infernape leads when coupled with Bullet Punch. Most people expect Metagross leads to expode on them now, and this was my main method of dealing with Swampert leads. Now everyone Protects or switches to a Rotom form. So I've replaced Expolsion with Meteor Mash. This allows me to beat Azelf leads 1v1 and stops me from being down 1 poke from the start of the battle.​

Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Extremespeed
- Crunch
---​

One of the most well-known sweepers in OU. This is the incredibly standard SD Lucario, so instead of talking about his EV's and etc. I'll talk about why is here and what he does. Normally Lucario is reserved for late-game sweeps, but my Lucario is the bust the mid-game open. Lucario also makes the life of Tyranitar much easier later in the game. Because Lucario is such a threat, whatever physical wall the other team has will be lured out. That means that said wall will be weakened, making it easier for Tyranitar to pick off later. Lucario also shares weaknesses with Tyranitar, so I can see where the enemy ground and fighting users are. Lucario works with some other members of my team that I will explain later. And of course if the other team is under-prepared, Lucario can sweep on his own. ​

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Latias (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk/4 Def/252 Spd
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
---​

Scarfed Revenge Killer. While writing this RMT team I just noticed that she had 252 EV's in attack instead of special attack. This is encouraging, because I was liking what she was doing before the correct EV's. Draco Meteor is because I dont like being swept by Salamence after a DD. Thunderbolt is because I dont like being swept by Gyarados after a DD. Surf is pretty much just filler. Trick has it's uses, especially after I've destroyed one of Latias' targets. Also helps deal with predicted Blissey switch ins. Now running Timid because Modest didn't outrun positive nature Salamence after DD. I used to run a scarfed Flygon but Latias does it better, having 10 more base speed, and the ability to nuke the switch in, and still maintaining Levitate. ​

​

Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 16 Atk/252 Spd/240 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Outrage
---​

MixMence for wallbreaking. Salamence is another poke that comes in and instantly scares people causing switchs because people fear DD. Usually, that poke that gets switched in is promptly nuked by Draco Meteor. That train of thought has the handy advantage of killing scarfed dragons that think they are coming in on a DD. Salamence is big part of winning against stall teams. Because he is such a part of beating stall I've considered replacing Earthquake with Brick Break for wrecking SkarmBliss as well as being a true "wall-breaker". ​

Right now I would like to take a break and point out that so far I have 2 steel types and 2 dragons immune to Earthquake. Because Metagross no longer has Explosion he lasts longer and gets to stick around and eat ice attacks. And Latias and Salamence both can switch in on ground attacks and fire aimed at Lucario and Metagross. Anyway, moving on...​

Gengar (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 40 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd/212 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Focus Blast
- Explosion
---​

Standard Life Orb Gengar. Gengar is yet another poke that is immune to Earthquake, he is also immune to fighting to round off resistances that Lucario and Tyranitar benifit from. Gengar is nice to have because he hits hard, is fast and causes switches. It is a well know fact that Gengar is ruined by things with Pursuit, but I've found a way to make that somewhat benificial. But I'll talk about that later. On another note, does anyone know how many EV's in attack would be needed for Gengar to OHKO Scizor with Fire Punch? ​

Jesus Christ (Tyranitar) (M) @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Fire Punch
---​

The star of the show. I absolutely love the things I can do with this Tyranitar. With Latias and Gengar running around people cant help but want to Pursuit them, and most Pursuit users are choice item users. After Latias or Gengar get Pursuited, Lucario and Tyranitar are free to come in and start setting up. I chose a Jolly nature because it allows me to outrun Starmie and Azelf after 1 DD. Tyranitar can come in after most special attackers kill one of my pokes and take the hit or use the switch because of his Sand Stream bonus to Special Defense. Babiri Berry makes the set even more special to me because it allows me to kill Scizor. Tyranitar can come in on Scizor after he Pursuits something, and DD. When Scizor comes back thinking to kill Tyranitar with Bullet Punch he gets the misfortune of only doing a max of 52% and getting a Fire Punch to the face. After Scizor is gone, everything else is usually easy pickings, seeing as most people see Scizor as a check on Tyranitar. ​

NOTES:
Swampert is a pain in the ass... considering adding Giga Drain or Energy Ball to Gengar to deal with him now that Metagross can no longer expode on him.​

Mamoswine does work on nearly all of my team, hitting everyone for Super Effective Damage except for Gengar who still gets maimed by Ice Shard. Not too common, and dont remember it happening but just saying.​

I have no form of a Status Absorber, not even a Ground type for Thunder Wave.​

5 Members of this team are immune to Toxic Spikes, 3 immune to Spikes, and only 1 member is weak to Stealth Rock.​

Well, that's it. Happy Rating. (Try to post productive comments, thank you)​

 

[Midniiight]

Um, bump?

 

[Luxormaniac]

Not a bad team. Looking at it, I see Gengar/Ttar synergy; together, they are a highly effective combo. I'll do you one better than giving you Fire Punch EVs- I'll give you a better sweeper set that lures and destroys Scizor, freeing Ttar to sweep in peace.

@ Life Orb
4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
Levitate
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast
-HP Fire
-Substitute

Substitute is the core of this set. Come in on EQ, Close Combat, or Lucario anything, and Sub up. While you're subbing, Scizor or another convenient Gengar counter comes in. If its Scizor, simply HP Fire- its Bullet Punch will merely break your Substitute. The Sub gives Gengar plenty of room to maneuver. Like most, this Gengar has Bliss troubles; I usually pair it with a Pursuit Tyranitar. You could change Ttar's set and use Luke as a late-game sweeper, if you want.

I like how Luke/Ttar can abuse Choiced Pursuits off of Gengar and Latias. In addition, I see Metagross/Salamence synergy- both of them lure out physical walls, potentially weakening or KO'ing them.

But dealing with Swampert is the biggest issue I see- and since nearly all my teams are Pert weak, I'm not the best person to fix it. However, if you're willing to sacrifice SR on Metagross, you could run Grass Knot for an unexpected KO. The only other possibility I see would be to switch Latias for Scarf Jirachi with Grass Knot; I'm really at a loss as to how to help you here.

Good luck anyway, hope this helps.

 

[Screaming Angel]

To sart off I would strongly suggest you change your nature with Latias. You say you revenge kill Salamence with it, but how about a Naive 252 speed evs salamence that just dragon danced? Your best option to stop it would be lucario and hes pretty frail. You might want to change your evs on the salamence and go with 16 att/240 sp. attack/ 252 speed with a naive nature so that you can at least speed tie with other Salamence and oposing base 100 pokemon.


Luxormaniac has already given you the set for Gengar. Swampert is not that hard to deal around seeing as a Draco Metero from salamence does considerably alot of damage and gengar can shadow ball it while it gets hit by a surf. You might want to consider dropping Fire Punch off and changing to an adamant nature and in place adding Aqua Tail or Earthquake, since a +1 Stone Edge from adamant tyranitar KOed Scizor after Stealth rock damage.


Another issue I see is a big AgiliGross weakness. Latias is the only one who outspeeds it and Surf does pitifull damage. My suggestion would be changing lucario to swampert, or metagross to swampert. Lucarios just seems like you added it there because he can SD and stuff. And even though it has great synergy with Latias it can help your team. This is just a suggestion.



Hopefully I helped good luck with this team.

 

[Midniiight]

@Luxormaniac: Thanks for the Gengar set, I'll try that next time I get a chance to get on Shoddy. That set and strategy completely nullifies Scizor's advantages. And I guess the imperfect speed IV's wont matter seeing as I seem to loose every speed tie anyway. This would also help deal with scarfed Rotoms and other Gengars that come in, forcing them back out after seeing they have to take a Shadowball to break a sub.

@GF-Toxicity: I'm not sure whether or not positive nature Salamence outspeeds neutral nature Scarfed Latias after one DD. If anyone can clarify that it would be good enough reason to me to change Latias nature. Same kinda goes with the Salamence change, although I can see the obvious advantages of atleast tieing with other positive natured base 100. I'll try out the Salamence change next time I'm Shoddying, but I'll wait for numbers on the Latias.
Most of my Swampert problems seem to be with the lead variety, seeing as Swampert is like the only lead that beats Metagross. Relying on Salamence to be my Swampert check seems like a bad idea because quite a few Swamperts carry Ice Beam. Tyranitar needs to stay Jolly to be able to outrun the positive nature base 115 crowd, notably Starmie and Azelf. So Jolly Tyranitar needs Fire Punch and Babiri to stop a suprise Scizor.
I do agree that I have a problem with AgiliGross and he sweeps through this team rather easily. I'll test using what I assume you meant the standard MixPert instead of Lucario. And if Swampert carrys rocks, I can use Grass Knot on my Metagross lead as Luxormaniac suggested, so I can deal with Swampert. That seems like a possible solution to a couple problems.

 

[Midniiight]

Changed the nature on Latias.

Changed Salamence's nature and EV's as per the suggestion of GF Toxicity.

HP Fire + Sub Gengar is currently being tested.

Any more rates/suggestions??

 

[Midniiight]

Wow, where is the fabulous rating coummunity I've come to expect at Smogon? (Bump)

 

[LoVeee]

LOL are you serious?
The team is the normal cookie cutter OU team.
There's nothing to change.
Before even looking at this RMT I had already made this same EXACT team.