My Second Team (For lack of a better name)

Rancid

My Second Team (For lack of a better name) *Updated*

Hello Smogonites,
Here is my second (Heavily Offensive) team:


The Lead
Roserade @ Focus Sash
Ability: Natrual Cure
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Spec. Atk, 252 SPD
Nature: Timid
- Leaf Storm
- Leech Seed
- Toxic Spikes
- Sleep Powder​

Roserade's has a few purposes, the first and most obvious one is to set up Toxic Spikes which helps this team immensely to break down some of the tougher walls in the OU metagame. Secondly Roserade serves as a check to quite a few of the most popular leads in the metagame, it can counter swampert (Who 99.9% of the time isn't sashed.), and check other common leads like Lum Berry Azelf. The one lead so far that Roserade has had trouble with it Anti-Lead infernape. The third reason Roserade is here is that he serves as a counter to bulky waters, and support against other walls and tanks with Leech Seed. It may seem odd that this Roserade doesn't pack HP or an other move like that, I have two reasons for this, the first reason is simply that this is going to be a in-game team and I refuse to grind out for just the right HP, nature, and IV's. Secondly I have play tested on Shoddy and discovered that Leech Seed works just as well if not better then HP. Roserade is a sucker for fire types, but luckily Heatran can come in on that switch and get his Flash Fire boost.​


The Firewall
Heatran @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Hp, 252 Spec Attack, 252 Spd
Nature: Naive
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Explosion​

Heatran is here to absorb Fire attacks and hit back hard. He is quite often the switch in as soon as something threatens Roserade, he can normally threaten pretty much anything be it Blissey with Explosion, a Breloom with Fire Blast, or another Heatran with Earth Power. After a flash fire boost heatran becomes very threatning.​


The Enforcer
Staraptor @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Attack, 252 Speed
Nature: Jolly
- Close Combat
- Brave Bird
- U-Turn
- Return​

Staraptor acts as the cleaner for this team, taking down faster pokemon that the rest of my team can't handle, and dealing huge damage to walls. Close Combat serves as this teams only fighting move and thus is very important for coverage.​

The Metal Man
Metagross @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs:
Nature: HP 112, 252 Attack, Defense 12, 132 Speed
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Agility
- Ice Punch
Staraptor's buddy, the two work well in tandem as Staraptor can take Eq's and a few choice other attacks that Metagross can't handle intimidate them, the send Metagross right back in. Metagross is my main late game sweeper, he is able to clean up very well. He also attacks as a physical wall and is pretty good at it with Staraptors help. Meteor Mash is there for the stab and attack raise, Earthquake gives great coverage, and Ice punch is for those pesky dragons and grass types that try to bother Metagross.​

The Support
Mismagius @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Hp, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed
Nature: Timid
-Substitute
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Nasty Plot​

Here is my new supporter Mismagius so far she has been working out great so far. She is able to take down faster sweepers, and is able to set up on pokemon like Blissey without problem. With T-Spikes she can even beat get +6 on Blissey and then preceed to KO. If she is behind a sub nothing can stop her. She can also serve as a Gyara counter forceing a switch or OHKOing.
The Tank
Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Special Attack, 4 Speed
Nature: Bold
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Reflect
- Moonlight​

And here it is my only real wall on the team, and even she is a sweeper. The main idea is simple calm mind up when you can, Psychic away your opponents, use Moonlight to heal when nessicary, Reflect is there to give her some more Physical Bulk . Single Attack Cress is odd especially since Dark is completely immune to it, but I can't find any slot to get rid of, calm mind is the whole strategy behind the set, Moonlight is needed for recovery, and without Reflect Physical hits would be hard to take.. If you guys have any idea let me know.​


Well there it is, so far it has done very well, I am 15-3 on Shoddy, and in one of those battles I got haxed, and in another I just made a million mistakes. Anyway R&R!​

Changes in Red​
 
i'm not sure how much you want to change but i honestly think you would be much better off with choice band scizor over staraptor, as it still provides cb u-turn (stronger), an answer to fast sweepers (bullet punch), and that strong fighting-type attack in superpower. staraptors main point would be to hurt grass-types and give good offensive coverage, but i honestly think you do this well enough with heatran and scizor just won't ruin the flow of the team.

nidoking looks way out of place, I would really just use MixMence or Infernape over nidoking, giving you that fast sweeper needed to clean up. roserade is fine at absorbing toxic spikes (although i suggest sludge bomb over leech seed if you don't want hidden power, it gives you a very nice stab attack tbh and a little bit better coverage) and nidoking just doesn't have the raw power and speed to break through teams sadly enough.

as far as cresselia, goes, you might as well use reflect over protect, as it is just as good at surviving physical attacks rather than just scouting them out, and also helps support the team such as tran and agility metagross. cresselia should also be running bold 252 hp 252 def to be honest, you want as much survivability as you can (consider special defense too in order to better deal with mixape). with metagross, i'd think you would want jolly, life orb, and thunder punch (for suicune/gyarados who could be troublesome otherwise) over meteor mash which, although provides stab, has that high rate of miss and doesn't really help the team much more than the other attacks would. with jolly, you outspeed scarf jolly base 100s after an agility, definitely worth it so you don't fall victim to scarf flygon or something.

tried not to change too much but seemed like a lot of the team was just being outclassed with what you were doing, so hopefully, changing only 2 pokemon and adjusting a few isn't too bad =[

good luck with the team.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, reflect is a good idea, but I'm not sure I like Bold 252 Hp/252 Def Cress, I could see switching to bold though.

I'm not a big fan of switching Straptor for Scizor, as then I lose the ability to beat fighting types like Machamp and Breloom, also I lose speed, that bullet punch can't always make up for.

I can see switching out Nidoking for something, though I'm not loving the other options you put forward. I am thinking of maybe something like scarf rotom-h.

Metagross doesn't have to many problems with Gyara, suicune poses a problem, but honestly Metagross is never the best counter anyway failing to 2HKO even with LO Thunderpunch. I can't really see giving up Lefties as I lose alor of survivablity, but I can see switching to Jolly.

Thanks for your advice, I'll be sure to test your ideas out
 
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