Need help with OU team

[fausty616]

Changes will be in red
Things I change will be kept on the page incase I undo a change and will be underlined

Sumpex

Swampert @ Leftovers

Relaxed Torrent
252 HP 4 Atk 252 Def
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Roar
-Ice Beam
Helps me with do what ape did. Personally I'm not too fond of ape so it even helps my opinion of my team. Swampert can set up SR and then roar for a while to spread the damage around. Then I can quake people to death and ice beam will hit the flyings that dodge quake.

Herakurosu

Heracross @ Choice Scarf

Adamant Guts
252 Atk 4 Def 252 Spe
-Megahorn
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
-Pursuit
I wanted to use a heracross over a scizor. Scizors are too predictable and common. I can use hera for basically all the same purposes that scizor was there for. I will miss the wonderful move of bullet punch. However I am sick of scizor's overrated reputation.

Brutalanda

Salamence @ Life Orb

Naive Intimidate
Atk 16 Spe 252 SpA 240 252 HP 180 Def 76 Spe
-Outrage
-Draco Meteor Roost
-Earthquake
-Fire Blast Dragon Dance
Allows me to 2HKO almost everything in the game, enogh said. Also even without Roost, Mence will last A LOT longer than Vire would.
Changed him to a bulky set for a longer life. Roost will heal him and of course is needed after DDs. Then I sweep. I no longer have fire blast which means I am resisted by skarm and zong who are very common pokes.

Machomei

Machamp @ Leftovers

Adamant No Guard
252 HP 252 Atk 4 Spe 252 HP 240 Atk 16 Spe
-Rest Substitute
-Sleep Talk Stone Edge
-Payback
-Dynamicpunch
Champ is on my team with his most common set. He can switch between payback and dynamic punch when needed. Dynamic is main move because of the STAB, No guard-boosted acc and the confuse chance. When he gets low on hp then rest is used the I can sleep talk until he wakes up then repeat. Sometimes he tries to use rest in a sleep talk which loses a turn and could potentially ruin the match. Also psychic is really only seen on metagross, jirachi and celebi in OU.
Mostly the same but now he can counter Gyara and some other flying types with the new Stone Edge. Substitute allows me to scout on the switch to figure out what to use on the opponent. A perfect example would be when they switch in a TTar.

Hedrun

Heatran @ Leftovers

Modest Flash Fire
248 HP 56 SpA 204 SpD
-Lava Plume
-Earth Power
-Rest
-Sleep Talk
Heatran is perfect for my team. I loved Gengar while he was still with me but its all for the better. Heatran counters completely all of my threats. Especially Scizor, Bronzong and some other pokemon weak to fire.

Akuseuta

Starmie @ Leftovers

Timid Natural Cure
136 HP 156 Def 216 Spe 4 HP 252 SpA 252 Spe
-Surf Hydro Pump
-Rapid Spin Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Recover
My most iffy member. Very good poke but I don't know if it fits. It can easily switch into gyara and OHKO it with thunderbolt. But starmie has to watch for DDed rock slides. Also killed by pursuit all the time. He works as my spinner and also a mediocre sweeper. Surf hits rhyperior and other rock and/or grounds. Recover is my reliable healing move which can save a match sometimes.
Now he becomes yet another sweeper in my crew. He can now hit harder on neutral hits with hydro pumps. He loses the recovery move but now can also devastate dragons. Of course I may change this back as it seems everyday more dragons are banned. For the time being Mences, Flygons, Nites and the never seen Altaria have something to worry about. Plus he still gets to keep his job of spinning. I don't find spinning as necessarily needed at the moment.

I would love any ratings/suggestions/criticisms I can get. I am also new to Smogon and Shoddy. My username is fausty616 on there too. Love to battle anyone too. PM me if you want.

Team Changes

-Tried to be a little more defensively minded with Dusknoir and Magnezone for Steel killing duties.

-Exchanged Dusknoir for a more offensive ghost, Gengar.

-Tried for a short while to use Tentacruel for extra entry hazards. Didn't work because I got ripped apart by psychics specifically Metagross, Celebi and Jirachi come to my head at the moment.

-Put Starmie back in and put in Vire.

-Took out Vire as he dies too much and put in a Mence for good measures.

-Pert has been a little more helpful and appealing then ape was, however I miss fake out.

-Put in Heracross because I personally do not like scizor and want better variety.

-Switched Gengar for Heatran to deal with threats.

Threats

Togekiss-Personally I think Togekiss' set is a broken hack but its completely legal. With the combination of its ability serene grace which is annoying as hell and its set it is nearly unstoppable, thats supposed to be my team! Twave cripples my team and then it starts air slashing. I've had encounters where I meet a toge lead who literally air slashes 2 times. Both are flinches and a third kills my leadpert. Then it can be running aura sphere or tri attack. Both are crazy good attacks and tri atk will stop my team in its tracks with its power and the effects which are now 40%. Then most sets carry roost which them makes it invincible.

Honchkrow-Maybe I'm just a noob but I've had multiple times where I get sweeped by krow. Running Sucker Punch, Pursuit, Brave Bird and Roost just wrecks the shit out of my team. Brave Bird tears up champ immediately if he's forced in. Roost of course means this beast lasts forever. Then Sucker Punch will kill me everytime I try to kill it with stone edge, ice beam or thunderbolt. Pursuit rips my team up and always seems to destroy starmie no matter if I switch or not. Even if its running heat wave or superpower it still wrecks me.

Jolteon-So yeah, alot of people have mentioned this poke and how it can rip my team apart. Surprisingly I've only so far run across a couple jolts. However with tbolt, shadow ball, hp grass, and wish, I have very good reason to cower from it. Hp grass cripples pert. Starmie is basically not worth mentioning when there is a foe jolty. No idea how to fix this though. I can OHKO it fairly easily with a BP from Scizor. However late game if Scizor is dead due to zone or a fire then I'm screwed.

Bronzong-Of course it is double-sided. If its not running levitate I can destroy it with an EQ. If it is running levitate I'm in a bit of trouble. With the loss of ape I don't have much choices to down it. I also got rid of fire blast on mence for DD. I have HP fire on a poke but I still have trouble.

Scizor-Same as Bronzong. With loss of fire blast and ape I'm screwed if I see a scizor. Even worse is this isn't a wall like bronzong and is a revenge killer crazy mofo.

 

[firecape]

Electivire is a pretty poor pokemon...sure he has great coverage but the damage output is lacking. To make matters worse you dont have a big electric attack lure (starmie is meh....) to get a speed boost. I suggest Mixmence over Electivire to do some damage and provide completely unresisted coverage:

Salamence @ life orb
niave
240 Sp atk 16 atk 252 speed
draco meteor
outrage
fire blast
earthquake

good luck, and sorry because i didn't do a full rate.

 

[fausty616]

How about a Mence with this set:
Brutalanda

Salamence @ Life Orb

Naive Intimidate
Atk 16 Spe 252 SpA 240
-Brick Break
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Fire Blast

This set allows me to have better coverage. However I now have to worry about physical walls who resist my moves or have recovery options. I also opted for the weaker physical dragon move to stop me from getting locked in.

Fixed weakness chart for the substitution of Salamence for Electivire:

I also tried to give my Starmie a different set. How well does it look?
Akuseuta

Starmie @ Leftovers

Timid Natural Cure
4 HP 252 Spe 252 SpA
-Hydro Pump
-Rapid Spin
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam

So far in testing losing the recovery doesn't really matter. My Starmie has now gone from support spinning to a full-fledged sweeper plus his bonus spins. I opted for Hydro Pump over Surf for the extra damage on neutral hits. Ice Beam than gives him the coverage and helps me get the dragons that I previously had some trouble with. As seen I also adjusted the EVs around a bit for him to now match his new usage.

 

[ginganinja]

Well its already not a bad team. I do think that you now need an electric resist since Specs Jolt can hammer through your team. I think a swampert over INfernape gives some much needed bulk to the team and it also helps deal with CM + Wish jirachi which can tear a whole through the team. I also think that a Classic Mixmence set is better than the one you are currently using as it gives you roost for recovery so you can last longer.

Have a Nice Day!

 

[Rugaji]

Hey, I got your PM, so here goes:

First of all, Electivire may hit over 3/4's of the metagame for super effective damage, but Salamence just packs bigger power in which Draco Meteor hits everything hard. Even Steel- types so it disables them from switching in again because of Earthquake. In other words, I'll suggest one of Salamence's most devasting set that just 2HKOs almost every single Pokemon in the game:

Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 16 Atk/252 Spd/216 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Outrage

Steel types that switch into Draco Meteor take over 30% damage with Life Orb, while Earthquake goes for the KO (unless you're looking at Skarmory and Forretress - Fire Blast may KO even with the drop). Salamence also has good synergy with Scizor where in pair's can wreck opposing teams. I also would change Machamp's set:

Machamp (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP/240 Atk/16 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dynamicpunch
- Payback
- Substitute
- Stone Edge

Since this team looks mostly offense, Machamp can really help with the type coverage against opposing Gyarados, Tyranitar, even Rotom switch-ins that can really help your team by a lot. Machamp's Substitute is mostly used on Tyranitar before the forced switched, while it brings in something to "scared" off Machamp and proceed to hit before the Substitute breaks. Machamp scares off almost everything (sometimes Gliscor, depends on its defense EVs) with DynamicPunch and it's 100% rate confusion, and 50% chance of hitting itself.

The Starmie can be changed for offense as well to revenge kill stuff like MixMence, and switch-ins also get a bid deal of damage with Life Orb. The team has some overall good offense and defensive synergy. Good luck with the team.

 

[fausty616]

I like the Swampert idea helps me with electrics that I feared and may fit in better on my team. What set of Swampert could I use? Maybe a set with SR and Roar.

Sumpex

Swampert @ Leftovers

Relaxed Torrent
252 HP 4 Atk 252 Def
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Roar
-Ice Beam/Surf?

Weakness chart with Swampert/Gengar/Starmie/Salamence/Scizor/Machamp:

 

[Banryu]

....huh.... honestly, I don't really have much to add here. :0 Mostly what I specialize in is individual movesets, and I don't really see anything that I think drastically needs to be changed...

I guess I will point out that Starmie is Psychic-type in addition to Water, don't forget that... gotta remember that you have an extra Dark/Ghost-weak Poke.

Also, I'd say go with Swampert over Infernape (but that's mostly just 'cause I hate Ape, LOL xP). The set you'd be running on Swampert is the standard, so you wouldn't really NEED to change much, but you could always go with something a little more creative and less predictable. :0 Which pretty much goes for the whole team... all pretty standard textbook sets. That's okay, since you're pretty new (...right?) but once you start learning the game better, don't hesitate to try some nonstandard stuff.

Only other thing I have to add is that I like the nicknames. xP

 

[fausty616]

Thanks for the rate. I'm definately new to the forums and Shoddy but I've been playing pokemon since GSC. I'm still just not used to the whole tiers system and how some pokemon just literally are amazing and some are terrible. Yeah, I'm testing Swampert for a while I think he'll be in though. Oh and yeah the nicknames are all either the German or Japanese names for the pokemon.

Also since when was Starmie half psychic. As you can see I put him as pure water. And I always think its some bug when pursuit OHKOs him super effective. Has he always been psychic from even RBYG?
Swore he was pure water.

 

[KidX]

Ok so i got your PM so here goes:

Most have already been said but i would like to say that LO jolteon with Thunderbolt/Shadow Ball/Hp Grass/Baton Pass or Wish will seriously dent your team, although scizor can easily KO it with BP, but this thing is still a threat especially late game. I suggest that you make mence into a specially bulky mence to take a hit and OHKO back with EQ, TBH bulky mence is the best mence set i have ever used because it can tank hits and DD several times and lasts a whole lot longer. I have even 6-0 several teams because they underestimated bulky mence. Try it out.

Good Luck!

 

[fausty616]

What could I do to help counter Jolty?
Also I'm pondering bulkyMence and will be testing him later.

 

[(makeup)]

I've seen better synergy. I like what you did with Infernape and Swampert, but I'm kinda busy. I'll most likely edit this post later with a real rate.

 

[Lucien Lachance]

I got ur PM (a little late I know, sorry can't a guy sleep?) let's see what I can do...

I don't see anything wrong with Pert although I've never used it so I have no idea how it fairs against pokemon.

On your mence I would get rid of Draco Meter and run Dragon Pulse because after 1 Draco Meter your SpA is crippled which is an important part of your Mence. Although DP is lower damage, it's better in the long run than crippling your Mence entirely.

If you checked out my Machamp on my RMT, you'll notice than Machamp is a check for almost all the offensive threats in the OU environment. Although Sub allows it to stay in longer, as does leftovers, max speed with choice scarf allows it to outspeed almost anything! I would take a good look at it and then judge on what Machamp you like best.

Because Gengar is so unpredictable, try using MystiGar. He's common counters, Scizor in particular, come out and either use pursuit or bug bite or something and then you use protect. Next turn you OHKO with the appropiate move because Scizor usually carries Choice Band.

When I use Starmie, I use it has a sweeper. It's netted me quite a few kills (1-2 per battle) and I think he's really good. I use T-Bolt, Ice beam, Surf, and Recover. Rapid Spinning is important becuase SR is so annoying and cripples Mence. If you can find a better rapid spinner i.e. Foretress, then use it. I don't run rapid spinners because i've faced like 4 teams that use SR out of 20

 

[Smith]

LOL, I just read the comments, did you send out PMs to everybody?? Oh well, here to rate.

One pokemon that does well against every single one of your threats is RestTalk Heatran (provided Honchkrow doesn't run SuperPower). I would simply use the analysis set, with Roar over Earth Power over your Gengar, who really isn't doing much on this team.

That's all i can think of at the moment, hope I helped.

 

[fausty616]

Thinking of replacing scizor with heracross. I want to do this because scizor is so predictable and really common. I also really like hera as a poke. It is also a great substitute for scizor. I can still keep the bug and fighting moves. In my opinion BP is really overrated as a move. I'm not sure of which set to use. Here are two choices:

Skaraborn

Heracross @ Flame Orb
Jolly Guts
4 HP 252 Atk 252 Spe
-Swords Dance
-Facade
-Megahorn
-Close Combat

Herakurosu

Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Adamant Guts
252 Atk 4 Def 252 Spe
-Megahorn
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
-Pursuit

Also I wouldn't mind switching Gengar for Heatran for competitive purposes. I don't usually like using legendaries and I love my Gengar. However I think I'm going to at this point split my team off into 2 teams. I can use one for competition and one for fun.

 

[fausty616]

Pokemon No Longer On My Team

Panferno

Infernape @ Focus Sash

Naive Blaze
64 Atk 192 Spe 252 SpA
-Close Combat
-Fire Blast
-Fake Out
-Stealth Rock
Lead to set up SR. I use fake out at first for the minimal damage and to knock off sashes on other leads. Then once SR is up I start sweeping with close combat and fire blast. Can usually take out common leads like azelf, tyranitar, and jirachi. Do have some trouble with hippowdon and aerodactyl leads. I can also switch him out if need be to later deal with pokes weak to fire and fight or re-set up SR.

Scherox

Scizor @ Choice Band

Adamant Technician
248 HP 252 Atk 8 Spe
-Bullet Punch
-Superpower
-U-Turn
-Pursuit
Besides the fact that everyone knows that he's a common pokemon and strong moveset. I have him in to be one of the core members of the team. Bullet punch+technician+adamant+choice=super damage on many common pokemon like OHKOing gengar and almost salamence. U-turn is good STAB and provides for perfect strategic free switching to deal with predicted or already revealed threats to him. Superpower helps with heatran, magnezone and the possibility of another scizor. Pursuit then hits the many pokes that will try to run from scizor.

Elevoltek

Electivire @ Expert Belt

Adamant Motor Drive
4 HP 252 Atk 252 Spe
-Cross Chop
-Thunderpunch
-Ice Punch
-Earthquake
My poke with best coverage...I think. Has expert belt to help him with this fact. Cross chop will frequently help me deal with blisseys, clefables, slakings, snorlaxs, ursarings, and other big bulky normals. Needs to watch out for ground moves obviously and some of those normals carry earthquake. I can also deal with hippowdon, gliscor and the dragons with ice punch which is very helpful. Earthquake counters other electrics possibly switching in to get volt absorb or motor drive. Thunderpunch is STAB and deals perfectly with gyara. Replaced by Mence

Paenteom

Gengar @ Leftovers

Timid Levitate
4 HP 252 Spe 252 SpA
-Shadow Ball
-Substitute Protect
-Focus Blast
-Hidden Power (Fire)
My favorite team member. Uses substitute very well with switches to determine good move. Scarftar is stopped in his tracks by focus blast. Also allows him to effectively block status moves that would burn toxic or para him. Shadow ball, hidden power (fire) and focus blast have great coverage. Hidden power deals with scizors forretresses and skarms.

Dokukurage

Tentacruel @ Leftovers

Calm Liquid Ooze
252 HP 120 Def 136 SpD
-Toxic Spikes
-Rapid Spin
-Surf
-Hidden Power (Electric)
Used him as an alternative to starmie. He retained the water typing and could still spin. Also I could then have another entry hazard in toxic spikes. Then I had SR and toxic spikes. He can also resist other peoples toxic spikes. He loses recovery moves. He also has a worse electric move in the form of hp electric.

Zwirrfinst

Dusknoir @ Leftovers

Impish Pressure
252 HP 252 Def 4 SpD
-Pain Split
-Shadow Punch
-Will-o-Wisp
-Earthquake
Tried him before switching to Gengar. I tried a defensively minded team at first. Commonly I would see heatran counters sent in. They would try and get flash fire boosts on WoW. So I put EQ on him. I also have pain split for recovery uses.

Jibacoil

Magnezone @ Leftovers

Timid Magnet Pull
40 Atk 252 SpA 216 SpD
-Thunderbolt
-Substitute
-Hidden Power (Fire)
-Explosion
Used him before switching to vire. He is more defensive and still has the highest SpA of all electrics in OU. Of course he also is used as a steel trapper and killer. He however did not fit on my team well in my opinion.