Gen 3 New to OU 3

[SquidGuts1994]

I'm new to OU 3 and I've been trying to get into it, but I'm not sure how to counter various threats. One thing I know is that I love Ninjask. Here is my team, but I'm having a lot of trouble against Metagross and Salamence. I'm still really new, so if you see any other big problems with this team, please feel free to let me know!


shiny kk vlieg (Ninjask) @ Leftovers
Ability: Speed Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Toxic

torretje (Heracross) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Guts
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brick Break
- Megahorn
- Swords Dance
- Rock Slide

water hond (Suicune) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Roar
- Surf
- Rest

pig pappa jiba (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Leech Seed
- Psychic
- Recover

fat chunges (Magneton) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Protect
- Toxic

fat man (Snorlax) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Immunity
Shiny: Yes
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Curse
- Frustration
- Shadow Ball
- Rest

 

[jat2980]

Hey Welcome!
Ninjask offense is a tough way to learn the format as it is a bit of a "matchup fish" (a team that does well against specific teams but loses pretty much immediately to others). If you want some great constructive feedback on the architetype as a whole I would recommend taking a look at this post by a respected teambuilder
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ninjask-pass.3701914/post-9216647

One general tip I would give you with ninjask is that normally it is paired with pokemon that have immediate power rather than setup sweepers. Why? Because ninjask shores up a core weakness that these pokemon often have, being slow.
The most common pokemon is Swords Dance Marowak (which, yes is a setup sweeper but one that setsup purely for attack and sets up quickly unlike curse/rest lax or cm suicune both of which don't really benefit from the speed)
SD Heracross is also a common threat which uses ninjask instead of salac berry for speed

If you are having trouble with metagross and salamence it is probably because they are generically powerful "wallbreakers" (especially mixed mence which can attack into anything at least neutrally). That being said, speed pass generally has a decent matchup into each of these, so it is likely that your "sweepers" don't sweep effectively enough into them. +2 attack (one swords dance), marowak easily one shots both of these.

 

[SquidGuts1994]

Hey Welcome!
Ninjask offense is a tough way to learn the format as it is a bit of a "matchup fish" (a team that does well against specific teams but loses pretty much immediately to others). If you want some great constructive feedback on the architetype as a whole I would recommend taking a look at this post by a respected teambuilder
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ninjask-pass.3701914/post-9216647

One general tip I would give you with ninjask is that normally it is paired with pokemon that have immediate power rather than setup sweepers. Why? Because ninjask shores up a core weakness that these pokemon often have, being slow.
The most common pokemon is Swords Dance Marowak (which, yes is a setup sweeper but one that setsup purely for attack and sets up quickly unlike curse/rest lax or cm suicune both of which don't really benefit from the speed)
SD Heracross is also a common threat which uses ninjask instead of salac berry for speed

If you are having trouble with metagross and salamence it is probably because they are generically powerful "wallbreakers" (especially mixed mence which can attack into anything at least neutrally). That being said, speed pass generally has a decent matchup into each of these, so it is likely that your "sweepers" don't sweep effectively enough into them. +2 attack (one swords dance), marowak easily one shots both of these.

Hey man, thanks for your reply. I was starting to think no one was going to respond.

Yeah, I see what you are saying. My rating at the moment is around 1250-1300, and I'm only using a Ninjask team. It's hit or miss—sometimes I win super easily, and other times it's almost impossible depending on the matchup. I also encounter a lot of angry people; apparently, Ninjask teams are something the OU3 community hates?

But yeah, thanks for sharing your tips and tricks, and for that forum post. Very helpful stuff!

 

[jat2980]

Ninjask teams are often won or lost at team select which is why people dislike it. It removes a lot of the counterplay from the game. Post your next team and keep learning! Good luck

 

[IllidanStr]

Hey Squid!

I just want to impart this information to you and since your playstyle revolves around ninjask you would encounter wall breakers such as Metagross and Salamence which is really annoying to face against on Hyper offense and their main goal is to break your momentum. As you have mentioned you're new to "ADV OU" I will give you this sets of mons that does not require to much changes in your team set up. Bear in mind you can tweak around this pokemons to your liking or the frequency of choke points on certain match ups.

Jolteon is a decent mon to chunk a lot of HP to the mons you're struggling with. With the help of HP ICE you can threaten Salamence right away and with Thunderbolt on Metagross you can chip some decent amount of HP. The role of Jolteon is just to chip or KO those mons and giving your team a nice momentum to set up and without worrying Jolteon would be KO'ed on the process.

Jolteon @ Lum Berry
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 76 HP / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Grass] / Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Roar/Baton Pass

Gengar is also a decent mon that can threaten Salamence and deal great chip damage to Metagross without the fear of getting outspeed with Salamence

Gengar @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Fire Punch
- Explosion


In summary you can choose between the two that fits your playstyle and those 2 mons share a common trait. Their are Special Attackers which means metagross does not like very much and HP ICE in which always OHKO'es Salamence or any present dragons that share the same X4 weakness to ice, and you can use this mon as a suicide attacker which ones it gets its job done removing 1 or 2 mons that hinders you you can just deal more damage regardless of the consequences. Last but not the least these two mons have the best Speed which Jolteon has 394 Max and 350 Max for Gengar which you can outspeed almost any mons that have 328 max speed and deal significant damage before getting KO'ed.

 

[SquidGuts1994]

Ninjask teams are often won or lost at team select which is why people dislike it. It removes a lot of the counterplay from the game. Post your next team and keep learning! Good luck

Thanks for the motivation speech :). and also thanks for the tips and insight. for now i will keep on grinding and tweaking my teams. once i hit a wall again i'll be sure to come back and post the team and ask the questions!

 

[SquidGuts1994]

Hey Squid!

I just want to impart this information to you and since your playstyle revolves around ninjask you would encounter wall breakers such as Metagross and Salamence which is really annoying to face against on Hyper offense and their main goal is to break your momentum. As you have mentioned you're new to "ADV OU" I will give you this sets of mons that does not require to much changes in your team set up. Bear in mind you can tweak around this pokemons to your liking or the frequency of choke points on certain match ups.

Jolteon is a decent mon to chunk a lot of HP to the mons you're struggling with. With the help of HP ICE you can threaten Salamence right away and with Thunderbolt on Metagross you can chip some decent amount of HP. The role of Jolteon is just to chip or KO those mons and giving your team a nice momentum to set up and without worrying Jolteon would be KO'ed on the process.

Jolteon @ Lum Berry
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 76 HP / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Grass] / Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Roar/Baton Pass

Gengar is also a decent mon that can threaten Salamence and deal great chip damage to Metagross without the fear of getting outspeed with Salamence

Gengar @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Fire Punch
- Explosion


In summary you can choose between the two that fits your playstyle and those 2 mons share a common trait. Their are Special Attackers which means metagross does not like very much and HP ICE in which always OHKO'es Salamence or any present dragons that share the same X4 weakness to ice, and you can use this mon as a suicide attacker which ones it gets its job done removing 1 or 2 mons that hinders you you can just deal more damage regardless of the consequences. Last but not the least these two mons have the best Speed which Jolteon has 394 Max and 350 Max for Gengar which you can outspeed almost any mons that have 328 max speed and deal significant damage before getting KO'ed.

Thank you so much for the in-depth explanation this was the set of jolteon and or gengar are exactly what i was looking for in my team! so thanks fot sharing you knowledge! As a new ADV OU player its sometimes really frustrating to find a answer you know that is out there.
anyways thank you one again for sharing the tips! i will go back to the grind with this new knowledge :)