My Standard Team (OU RMT)

[ScelesticFish]

My Standard Team

Introduction
Hi! This is my very first RMT here on Smogon! I started playing competitively a little while after B/W came out, so I'm relatively new to this kind of gameplay. Being new to it, I wanted to create a team that I would find fun to play with, simple to use, and fairly effective. So after quite a lot of tweaking and testing I came up with this!

Team Building

When I started building this team I wanted a nice physically defensive core, seeing as there are a great deal of physical powerhouses running about. I went with Ferrothorn, to be an annoying stealth rock/leech seed kinda poke, and Gliscor, who can not only absorb damage, but also deal some out.

The next pokemon I had chosen was a bulky Milotic, to sponge special hits and be a water based special attacker, but I instead went with something that was a little more offensive, though could still take a hit or two. This pokemon was Starmie

Now that I had a special attacker, I no longer needed Gengar. I still wanted someone quick, powerful and with great coverage, but instead I wanted to go with a physical attacker, and following some good advice I replaced Gengar with Terrakion.

Up next I wanted another all out physical attacker who can switch in and smash things up right away. I initially picked Salamence, but I didn't want to have two of those 4x weaknesses to ice, so to keep the dragon type thing going, but lessen the ice weakness I chose Haxorus.I picked him since he's got loads of power and I can switch him in a little bit easier since Stealth Rocks do less damage to him than they do to Salamence.

Finally, I need my lead. I wanted someone quick who can scout out what other leads want to do, or perhaps even take them out. I was thinking someone who could take some damage and deal some out who can offer me good coverage especially against ice types, since I've got two ice weaknesses.
I chose Infernape to be my speedy lead at first, but would change that to a Scizor.

And with that, I had a team!


Details

Ferrothorn (Courtney) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
248 HP/ 152 Def/ 108 SpD
Nature: Impish
- Power Whip
- Stealth Rocks
- Leech Seed
- Protect

Summery: With this set I aim to annoy and stall. I chose Leftovers over Rocky Helm so that I could increase survivability in case I'm unable to get Leech Seed up. Ferrothorn is a wonderful physical defender with a pretty decent special defense on the side. Capable of walling 90% of water types and being able to survive hits from physically oriented dragon types like Dragonite is also a plus. Ferrothorn is held back slightly by only having one attack instead of having Gyro-ball as well as Power Whip, but I prefer protect since it adds to the "annoying and stall-y" factor. His EV spread boost his Defense to a monstrous level and his HP adds to survivability. The Special Defense boost is there so he can survive special attacks like Ice Beam and Blizzard with a bit more health.

Synergy
Fighting: Gliscor, Starmie
Fire: Starmie, Gliscor, Haxorus

Gliscor (Deimos) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
248 HP/ 184 Def/ 72 Spe
Nature: Impish
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Protect

Summery: Ahh Gliscor. I love Gliscor. This ones main purpose is to deal the steel, fire, and fighting types that Ferrothorn has trouble with. He functions as a status absorber thanks to the Toxic Orb-Poison Heal combo. Gliscor functions as both a stall breaker and a staller with Toxic and Protect. His EV spread give him sizable bulk, allowing him to switch into Close Combats and Flare Blitzes

Synergy
Water: Starmie, Haxorus, Ferrothorn
Ice: Starmie, Ferrothorn, Scizor

Starmie (Mr. Rager) @ Life Orb
Ability: Nature Cure
252 SpA/ 252 Spe/ 4 Def
Nature: Timid
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin

Summery: Starmie is by definition a fast and versatile special attacker. A great ability and reasonable defensive stats allow it some survivability while its speed and attacking power makes opponents cringe. Though its special attack isn't extraordinary, its speed is a huge advantage, and so is its Rapid Spin. Starmie's moveset allows for great coverage, with STAB Surf chosen over Hydro Pump for its increased accuracy, Ice Beam to hit them pesky dragons and Thunderbolt to hit opposing water types.

Synergy
Electric: Gliscor, Haxorus
Grass: Ferrothorn, Haxorus, Scizor
Bug: Scizor, Gliscor, Ferrothorn
Ghost: Ferrothorn, Terrakion
Dark: Terrakion

Terrakion (Porthos) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
4 HP/ 252 Atk/ 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Earthquake

Summery: The biggest and strongest musketeer! If I had to describe this pokemon with a movie title it'd be Fast and Furious. Its EV spread gives it massive power and massive speed, especially with the addition of a Choice Scarf. Close Combat and Stone Edge are both powerful STAB moves that aren't very easy to switch into and X-Scissor can deal some damage to those pesky psychic types.

Synergy
Psychic: Scizor
Grass: Ferrothorn, Gliscor, Haxorus, Scizor
Fighting: Gliscor, Starmie
Ground: Gliscor, Ferrothorn
Water: Starmie, Ferrothorn, Haxorus
Steel: Scizor, Ferrothorn

Haxorus (Pesterwink) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Mold Breaker
36 HP/ 252 Atk/ 220 Spe
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Brick Break
- Earthquake

Summery: The mighty Dragon Dancing Haxorus! I remember when I started playing competitive and I would come up against a Haxorus. At first I though it wasn't as good as Salamence is, or even Dragonite, but boy was I wrong. This thing is a physical powerhouse. Pretty much one DD followed by an Outrage is enough to clean out a damaged team. I've been using Haxorus the least amount of time and he's proven to be a fairly versatile attacker, if not a bit on the slow side. His moves offer wonderful coverage and Lum Berry lets him shrug off a burn, para, or sleep in case that comes his way. His maxed out attack EV spread ensure that his hits hurt. A lot. The light HP investment lets him switch into weaker attacks and his speed EVs give him a little more speed when attacking, to supplement his relatively low speed (as far as dragons go).

Synergy
Ice: Ferrothorn, Scizor, Starmie
Dragon: Ferrothorn, Gliscor

Scizor (Skeezix) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
248 HP/ 252 Atk/ 8 Spe
Nature: Adamant
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
- U-Turn

Summery: Ah, one of the most used pokemon of all time; Scizor. He leaks OU, and for a reason. His STAB, Technician boosted Bullet Punch is something nearly all teams need a plan for, and Sechnician boosted STAB U-Turn makes scouting quite effective. Superpower is a great coverage move, and a hard hitting one as well. Pursuit, though hard to use, can be devastating to more frail pokemon who are trying to switch out. Scizor's EV spread isn't all too surprising, as it highlights his attack stat and bolsters his HP a bit, so he can take a few hits.

Synergy:
Fire: Gliscor, Starmie

Threats
In this section I'll talk about the threats I've observed and miscellaneous concerns that I have with the team.

Magnazone

Bah, I don't like Magnezone. Magnet Pull screws my poor Ferrothorn over all the time. I'm really not sure how to deal with this, except for being very conservative with switching Ferrothorn and Scizor in whenever I see a Magnezone.

Venusaur

This thing in the sun is a terror. With its speed doubled it outspeeds everyone except for Terrakion, who has trouble OHKO him. Hidden Power Fire + Sludge Bomb + Solar Beam is hard to stand up to. This thing gets the chance to come in and it wreaks most of my team. Priority Bullet Punch doesn't do enough damage, and even Stone Edge doesn't quite cut it.

Skarmory

Famous defensive Pokemon of OU. Since most of my team is physical, taking Skarmory out is a bit of a hassle, especially if Starmie is out. Also, Starmie probably can't take more than 2 Brave Birds. Also, without taunt I can't force this guy out, though without Ice Fang on Gliscor, I can't hit him anyway.

Concerns:
Here is a brief list of concerns I have regarding this team that I've been having trouble with. I hope you can help me out with these as well!

A concern is my lack of pokemon who can withstand serious special hits. Ferrothorn is pretty decent in this department, except for fire attacks which I suppose could be passed onto Starmie, who has a half decent SpD, though not a stellar one. What are your thoughts?

Another Concern of mine is how physical all the attackers are. Pretty much everyone here is a physical attacker, excluding Starmie. Would this be too much of an issue, or is it something that isn't too big of a deal?

So this was my first RMT! I hope it's up to the standards of the forum, and that you guys can help me out! Thanks!
​

 

[FireArrow]

Not really a full rate, but you might want to try Ice Fang > Protect on Gliscor. This would allow you to handle the dragon types in your threat list better (as long as Gliscor can survive a +1 outrage, not sure (and I don't feel like running a damage calc.))

Another idea would be to put a rocky helmet on Ferrothorn, which would punish dragons for getting locked into outrage (stealth rocks + rocky helmet + iron barbs already takes away half their health.) Though you should note, this alone won't fix your problems, but combining it with another fix will have a pretty good effect.

My final suggestion is to put a scarf on Infernape, change his nature to naive, and then put HP Ice over either mach punch or close combat. This way, you can out-speed Salamnce and Dragonite at +1 and OHKO them back with HP Ice. You'll probably want to put more EV's into special attack if you do this though. Another noticeable thing about this set is that it out speeds +1 Volcanora, so if you can find a moveslot for stone edge, then you'll have 2 of your threats dealt with.

I don't have a fix for Magnezone or Toxicroak, though I feel gliscor should be able to handle Toxicroak (only if they don't carry ice punch.)

Pros and Cons:

Fix one: Considering that I haven't run a damage calc, I don't even know if gliscor can take a +1 outrage and OHKO with ice fang. Also, this would only work if gliscor has a reasonable amount of health left. There aren't that many pros about this besides that fact that you can hit dragons harder.

Fix two: This will not stop dragons alone, but it will help. Also, this is the only fix that doesn't need to revenge kill in order to work (so you don't have to sacrifice a poke.) Once again though, this won't work alone.

Fix three: My personal favorite. The only downside is that you can't switch in with it, so you need to sacrifice a poke. Also, if you can find a move slot for stone edge, you'll be able to revenge kill Volcanora as well.

 

[urbis]

Personally I dislike Ferathorn, the reason being it's speed, and the amount of pokemon that use fire type moves. I would go for a pokemon with good defence, which Ferathorn has, but also one with better typing like Drapion, although Drapion is RU he is really effective with his defence stats at laying down Toxic spikes. I use Drapion as my starter, even though he is weak to ground he is able to not get OHKO'd by earthquake due to it's defense stat. You may argue that Ferathorn is a great defensive pokemon, which he is. But it get's OHKO'd by most strong fire type moves.

Drapion - Leftovers
Ability - Battle Armour
Nature - Careful
Moveset - Toxic Spikes, Whirlwind, Crunch, Earthquake
EV's - 252 HP, 4 Def, 252 SpD

Another option as a starter that you could use is Azelf due to it's speed stat. Lay down stealth rocks with Azelf and the U-Turn and bring in your desired pokemon. But if you think that Ferathorn is doing well in your team keep him.

Azelf - Timid
Item - Life Orb
Ability - Levitate
EV's - 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Spe
Moveset - Stealth Rocks, U-Turn, Fire Blast or Ice Punch, Explosion

Personally if I use this Azelf I use Fire Blast, but you mentioned that you have trouble defeating dragon type pokemon so I recommend Ice Punch. With Azelf's speed you will out speed most pokemon, so basically if Dragonite or Salamence don't use DD you should be able to 2KO them fairly easily with Azelf without being KO'd first.

Your defensive Gliscor is a good asset to your team, especially with the added 252 to SpD, this makes it a great all round defender.

If you change Ferathorn with Azelf you should consider adding more water stab moves to Milotic and replacing Ice Beam, because Azelf will have Ice Punch.

I like Gengar a lot, and he is a great special attacker, the use of thunderbolt is good on your team because you don't have any other electric stabs, but another option for Gengar is to give him pain split instead of thunderbolt.

Your Haxorus has a nice versitile moveset, I wouldn't change anything about it. But if something goes wrong, and you find that you aren't using him to the best of hi ability you could consider changing his moveset, or changing to a faster dragon. 90 is not a bad base speed, but a lot of pokemon that counter it using Ice moves will have a very big advantage seeing as most people use a fast pokemon to counter dragons.

Infernape is good on your team, but if you want to counter psychic pokemon better you should consider Scrafty.

All in all you have a descent team, but to counter pokemon like Dragonite you need a fast pokemon that can destroy them with and Ice move. You also need more water stab attacks, and as I mentioned before you can do this by switching Ferathorn with Azelf, and making Milotic more water base than Ice based.

Hope my advise helped, let me know if you change anything.
Good luck :3

 

[Nachos]

Seeing as you have no scarfed pokemon, you're always gonna be going second after Dragonite etc get a boost. For that reason, put a scarfed Terrakion over Milotic as it deals with the 3 pokemon you mentioned. Milotic and other bulky waters are obselete in BW due to Rotom-W and the countless hard hitters, and you have Ferrothorn to take strong water attacks anyway.

The Gengar set you have isn't hurting anything with Timid and Lefties, change it to a SubSplit set with LO. As for your Psychic problem..CM Jirachi deals with Reuniclus and Alakazam ok, as well as fighters. Having a speedy lead isn't essential, and I have no idea what Infernape is doing (they wont be leading Ttar when they see your team in the preview), especially with the set you have currently, so replace it with Jirachi. I'd go with the Wish + CM set on the site, with the moves Flash Cannon and Thunder (although you can go with tbolt, but wrecking stuff in rain and having that 60% paralysis chance is great).

 

[happymanhappy]

I really like your team!

 

[Twinstick]

I recommend you use the sub-disable set on Gengar instead of the one you're currently using. Thunderbolt isn't that great and between focus blast and shadow ball you have perfect neutral coverage. Therefore disable would be a better option than what you currently have.

Milotic is a relatively good bulky water but isn't that great. For that reason I suggest you use Gastrodon in place of it, due to it having better typing and being generally a better option. Gastrodon fares better against both rain and sand teams with its immunity to water and electric type attacks and immunity to sandstorm.

Since you seem to be having trouble with Dragonite you should use a choice scarf Haxorus instead. Or you could also use choice specs Latios.

 

[destinyunknown]

I agree with Nachos in that you should replace Milotic with Scarf Terrakion, because it deals with most of the threats you have troubles with, and because it's in general a really solid pokemon and cleaner for any team.

Terrakion@Choice Scarf | Justified
Nature Jolly | 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Close Combat / Stone Edge / X-Scissor / Earthquake

Secondly, I think you should replace Taunt with Ice Fang on Gliscor, as it allows you to stop dragons/other Gliscor of setting up on you. To be fair, I don't see any reason to run Gengar on this team. What is it doing for you? I mean, it's not countering any threat nor doing enough damage to be worthwile. So I think you should replace it with Starmie, which is still a fast special attacker but it can Rapid Spin, which is very helpful to your team as you will probably be switching a lot.

Starmie@Life Orb | Natural Cure
Nature Timid | 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hydro Pump / Thunderbolt / Ice Beam / Rapid Spin

Why do you need Brick Break on Haxorus ? It doesn't hit anything bar Ferrothorn (which is still 2hkoed by earthquake) so there's no point to use it. Replace it with Swords Dance instead, as it's a great way of taking down defensive teams. I would also use Lum Berry over Life Orb as it allows you to set up on bulky waters that try to burn you with Scald.

Finally, I think you should replace Infernape with Choice Band Scizor, as it helps with the Psychic type problem you have (as well as other threats like Gengar, that can demolish your team easily), while also being a general extra revenge killer, which your team would really apreciate.

Scizor@Choice Band | Technician
Nature Adamant | 248 Hp / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Bullet Punch / U-turn / Superpower / Pursuit

GL!

 

[Choice Socks]

I recommend dropping thunderbolt on gengar for disable.
The amount of pokemon that can actually damage gengar, usually only carry one move that can actually hurt him, combined with disables genV accuracy buff it makes him a very hard to hit pokemon.

 

[ScelesticFish]

Alright guys! Thanks for all the advice so far! I've had some time to test some of this stuff and play around with it! I've taken some of your advice and implemented it. It seems to be working out well so far and I would love to hear further opinions on the team! I edited the page so it is up to date.