My First RMT (OU)

[agiyr]

I’ve looked at others RMTs for quite a while now, and I thought that it might be time for me to make my own. This is the team I currently use for Shoddy Battle and it’s my first team in the fourth generation as I took a really long break from Pokémon, so don’t be too hard when you rate. Also, this isn’t any really good team witch brings me to the top ranks, neither is it a team that I’ve put so much thought in. Now onto the team:
At a glance:

In depth:

Metagross @ Occa Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/236 Atk/12 Def/8 Speed
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Earthquake
- Bullet Punch

Choosing a lead for this team wasn’t so difficult, as Metagross is one of my favourite leads. This one will guarantee me to get Stealth Rock up, while also dealing with the most common leads in the current metagame. Bullet Punch is for dealing with Focus Sash users such as Azlef, while Earthquake deals damage to Heatran, Infernape, Jirachi and other Steel and Fire types. Heatran in particular is a problem, but I usually just set up Stealth Rock and switch into Suicune. As I don’t have Latias in my team, Swampert and Hippowdon are problems as well. However, Zapdos can deal with Swampert and Hippowdon is easily countered by Suicune.
The item choice wasn’t so difficult either, as the most common Counter Leads for Metagross are fire types.

Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Def/ 4 HP/252 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Aromatherapy
- Seismic Toss
- Thunder Wave
- Softboiled


This is the classic Cleric Blissey witch can both counter almost, if not all Special Attackers, while it also can paralyze opponents and heal my own Pokémons status conditions. Basically switch in on the Special Attacker, as he probably is going to switch out you can use Aromatherapy, and then simply switch back. This is pretty easy to predict though, so you can stay in and use Thunder Wave. The normal Cleric carries Ice Beam, but as my Suicune handles Dragons, I prefer using Seismic Toss for this one.
Oh, and she’s also the only one in my team that can affect Status Conditions on opponents.

Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 Atk/40 Def/216 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance



This one is some kind off “Defensive Attacker”. Because of Gliscors high base Defence he can Wall most Physical Sweepers, while he also can attack and KO a couple of Pokémon. With the gives Speed EVs, you can outspeed all base 90s. Also, this guy covers up for electric attacks witch Suicunes Defensive capacities can’t handle. Most special attacks are covered by Blissey, but Pokémon such as the fairly rare Electivire would be a problem for my team if it wasn’t for Gliscor.
Ice attacks targeted at Gliscor can simply be redirected to Suicune or Metagross, so Yache Berry isn’t really an option here.

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Surf
- Roar
- Calm Mind
- Ice Beam


Suicune both carries Roar, and works as a Tank/Wall. If you switch in against a Physical Attacker and he Switches, you can get a Calm Mind or two in and start sweeping. I have thought a lot about switching this one with a Wish Passing Vaporeon with Toxic, but then I would lack roar. I’m not so sure about if I should choose Vaporeon or Suicune.

Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 16 HP/240 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Grass]


My Special attacker and Swampert counter. This is usually a switch in at start if Metagross gets up against a ground type he can’t handle; Swampert in particular is dangerous for Metagross. This one carries Hidden Power grass and is therefore a very important part of my team. Also, Heat Wave can take care of grass types witch are rare, but yet pretty dangerous for my team. I usually use Heat Wave against Steel types as they are more common, though.

Heracross (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Guts
EVs: 96 HP/252 Atk/160 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit


My one and only Physical attacker, excluding Metagross as he usually dies at the start. This guy really helps me handle Blissey; witch is otherwise dangerous for my team. Also, Stone Edge deals with Flyers such as Gyarados when Zapdos is out of the way (They usually don’t reveal Gyarados before that if they have scouted Zapdos). Megahorn, together with Heat Wave, is really my only ways to deal with grass types, but Megahorn can also kill Celebi. His most usual weaknesses are Flying and Fire, witch are countered by almost all Pokémon on my team, so I don’t see that as a Problem.

 

[tab]

Hey.

The problem that I can see here is that your team is a bit too defensive - it doesn't really have the ability to threaten opposing teams enough to break them reliably. You're going to have to lose a bit of your defensive core in order to make things more offensive, but as long as you choose resistences that work well with the rest of the team, then it should still be bulky enough to work well.

Metagross is a decent lead here, although something that might be worth trying is:
Jirachi @ Occa Berry / Leftovers
80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe (you can go bulkier, but that's the spread I've been using)
Jolly
-Iron Head
-Body Slam
-Fire Punch
-Stealth Rock

That Jirachi set is one that I've been using lately, and it's a fantastic lead for this kind of team. It does pretty much the same thing as a Metagross lead, apart from exploding, but it is great at sticking around until later on, especially with Leftovers, and paralysis support from Body Slam is extremely useful for a slow, bulky team like this. Using a lead that sticks around longer would be extremely beneficial here, as currently your only steel-type is your lead, so once it's gone, MixMence can destroy you.

IMO, Blissey is more or less dead weight on this team. Seeing as the rest of the team is already pretty bulky, you should be ok against the vast majority of special attackers without Blissey.
At the moment, your team struggles against Gyarados, Salamence and Latias, so you should include something that deals with them. CB Scizor would give you a good answer to Salamence and Latias, as well as providing you with some useful resistences, including a second dragon resist. Scizor would also mean that you have a way of revenge killing a huge amount of weakened pokemon, which takes quite a bit of strain away from the rest of your team.

On Gliscor, I'm not sure how useful Swords Dance is really going to be. Your team needs Gliscor to be fairly defensive in order for it to work, which means that Gliscor will be too slow and weak to sweep properly. You would be better off replacing Swords Dance with Taunt or U-turn, both of which are extremely useful on defensive Gliscor. There's also the option of using both, replacing Swords Dance and Stone Edge.

With Blissey gone, you're going to need something can absorb status for you, as well as a general bulky pokemon to take hits. Making Suicune into a Crocune with a Bold nature, an EV spread of 252 HP/252 Def/4 Spe and Surf/Sleep Talk/Rest/Calm Mind would give you a good check for a lot of the pokemon that give you trouble, as well as an extremely dangerous late-game sweeper. CroCune would also mean that you can beat stall much more easily once Celebi has been taken out, as stall is currently going to be very hard for you to break.

Offensive Zapdos doesn't really fit into this team imo, as it's a bit too frail to provide the resistences that your core currently needs to work well. Seeing as you're still weak to Gyarados should it get a Dragon Dance, a defensive Celebi with 252 HP/224 Def/32 Spe, a Bold nature and Grass Knot/HP Fire/Thunder Wave/Recover would work well. Grass Knot and HP Fire cover the main things that you need from Zapdos, but Celebi fits in with the rest of the team a lot better.
Alternatively, a Tinkerbell Celebi would work well if you want to keep a more offensive pokemon in Zapdos' slot, although it's slightly less reliable than defensive Celebi when it comes to countering threats.

If you decide to go with my CB Scizor suggestion, then CB Heracross is going to be a bit redundant. A Swords Dance Lucario would give you a powerful sweeper to finish the opponent off after you've weakened them, as well as doing a similar job to Heracross before then if necesarry.

I hope you found this useful, and good luck with the team.

 

[agiyr]

Firstly, Jirachi will be tested as a lead. However, I don't really like Body Slam as all it really does is to paralyze. Against a neutral damage foe, I would prefer using Iron Head. If I want to paralyze, I would prefer 100% chance. Therefore, how about changing Body Slam against something else, such as Thunder Wave?

The Celebi you suggested will be tested in exchange for Blissey. I don't really have a comment on this one.

About Scizor, as he doesn't have a chance outspeeding either Salamence or Latias, how about using a bulky build for him, such as 252 atk/252 hp/4 spd? Either way, he will be tested.

Crocune will be tested as well, but I don't know if I will keep him.


One more thing, do you have a suggestion about what I should replace Zapdos with?