Nothing To Do Here... (First B/W OU Team)

[Ralts]

Hello! Thank you for looking over my team. I based the team around Gengar; one of my favorite pokemon that can actually stand its ground in the OU envoirnment.

]Let me start off saying that this team needs a large amount of improvement. I lack a few of the most prominent attacking types in the metagame (Ground, rock, ice, fighting) and am hoping I can maneuver them into my team without making too many dramatic changes.​

My Lead:

Roserade @ Focus Sash
Timid
Natural Cure
4 HP/ 252 SpA/ 252 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Toxic Spikes
- Sleep Powder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
​

Roserade has gone down in notoriety since the introduction of Generation 5. However, I still feel like she poses as a viable and useful threat. She almost always gets off a Sleep Powder or layer of Toxic Spikes, and if the enemy has a lead of Dragonite, Aerodactyl, Politoed, or other slower pokemon, I take care of them with a STAB Leaf Storm or super effective Hidden Power Ice. Dragonite is a 2HKO with Hidden Power Ice due to multiscale, but they don't really pose as a problem until later on in the battle.​

My Stealth Rocker:

Heatran @ Leftovers
Calm
Flash Fire
252 HP/ 4 Def/ 252 SpD
- Stealth Rock
- Lava Plume
- Roar
- Protect

After using this guy, it seems he's not all that he is cracked up to be. However, he still does his job better than any other pokemon I have used as this role. I usually switch him out onto a fire-type move to get the flash fire bonus, then stealth rock if I predict a switch. Skarmory and Scizor are easily taken care of with Lava Plume (if Scizor doesn't get a lucky Superpower first) and I Roar away slower pokemon to accumulate Stealth Rock damage and poisoning the replacement with Toxic Spikes.​

My Physical Wall:

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Bold
Regenerator
252 P/ 252 Def/ 4 SpD
- Scald
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Slack Off

This guy has the only Psychic-type move on the entire team. Scald Provides a great STAB move as well as a crippler, because when it burns the opponent, his defensive prowess increases even more. Slack Off is a great move, because it allows me to toxic/burn stall and keep him alive as long as possible. He provides good resistances that the rest of my team lacks, but he is a pretty slow bro, and would like to see someone pull his job off a little better while still benefiting to the team.

My Revenge Killer:

Scizor @ Choice Band
Adamant
Technician
248 HP/ 252 Atk/ 8 Spe
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- U-Turn
- Superpower

What team lacks this powerhouse anymore? He is extremely powerful; he can revenge kill nearly any pokemon that does not resist his attacks. If I predict a switch, I U-Turn or Pursuit. Bullet Punch finishes off whatever my other pokemon could take out. Superpower OHKO's Tyranitar and steel types. A pretty straightforward and standard set.
​

My Special Sweeper:

Latios @ Expert Belt
Timid
Levitate
4 HP/ 252 SpA/ 252 Spe
- Surf
- Draco Meteor
- Recover
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Latios is amazing. He can destroy virtually every other dragon in the metagame. Recover is his main recovery move. Hidden Power Fire deals with steels like Skarmory and Ferrothorn that wall my other pokemon, and Surf gets rid of ground-, rock- and fire-types like Heatran, Terrakion, Tyranitar, and Gliscor. ​

My Favorite:

Gengar @ Leftovers
Timid
Levitate
4 HP/ 252 SpA/ 252 Spe
- Disable
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

This guy has one battles 1 vs. 6 for me before. He is just devastating in certain situations. I start off by switching in on something he resists or can take out easily, and then Substitute on the switch. Then I proceed with attacking. I use Disable after my sub is broken or when my opponent uses a move I don't want them to have access to. This allows me to set up another sub and to proceed on attacking them until their pokemon faints or they break my sub again.

I have problems with several pokemon such as Blissey, Rotom-W, and various water types if Roserade is out of the picture. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!​

 

[LighTz911]

I suggest you change your Roserade to a more defensive spread. It helps with Rapid Spinners and Poison types as you can just Toxic Spike again and tank more hits from Rotom-w, a Pokemon you have trouble with.

Roserade (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain / Leaf Storm
- Toxic Spikes
- Rest / Hidden Power [Fire]

You can use Giga Drain if you want recovery, but Leaf Storm is useful is some situations. If you go Giga Drain, you should probably have Hidden Power Fire for Steel types walling you, expecially Forretress because it can spin. Rest is a fin option, too.

Secondly, you are weak to Volcarona. If the opponent manages to Rapid Spin your Toxic Spikes or is a Chest Rest set, you'll generally lose. To help solve this problem, I suggest you use Toxic over Protect on your Heatran. Though, if the Volcarona has Hidden Power Ground, you pretty much always lose.

I'm not too sure about this, but change your Latios' item to Choice Specs. Latios is about using powerful Draco Meteors to dent your opponent. Expert Belt isn't that great on it. If you want to keep the ability to change moves, use Life Orb. It still maintains its power and switches moves. And if you're really don't like to use either, which is not really recommended, you can use Wise Glasses.

Good luck with this team.

 

[New World Order]

Hi, as promised, here's the rate.

After looking at your team, it seems you really don't have the means to abuse Toxic Spikes. Toxic Spikes works better on a stall team where you can stay in, tank hits, and let poison damage build up. Your team is more Offensively oriented and should be hitting opposing Pokes hard from the start rather than try stalling them out with poison. Your team does, however, force a ton of switches. Especially Gengar, who can force out a multitude of Pokes with Disable, and Scizor, who can scout with U-Turn and force the opponent into unfavorable matchups. As a result, your team would greatly benefit from Spikes support, which deals immediate damage to switch-ins. Since Roserade is not a reliable Spiker, I suggest Ferrothorn over Roserade. Ferrothorn acts as a rain check just like Roserade, and in fact, does it better. While 3 Steel types seem redundant, they are in fact used to check different threats, with Heatran dealing with Sun, Ferrothorn dealing with Rain, and Scizor providing powerful priority to revenge kill the likes of Salamence. Your team would also greatly appreciate Thunder Wave support, since Gengar and Latios would very much enjoy being able to outspeed everything and just dominate Offensively. Since Gyro Ball clashes with Thunder Wave, the last 2 moveslots should be dedicated to Power Whip and Leech Seed, the former which helps destroy bulky waters, and the latter which provides Ferrothorn with valuable recovery.

You claim Rotom-W as a threat when in fact, Latios is one of the best answers in existence. Latios resists both of Rotom-W's STAB moves and takes diddly shit from Hidden Power Ice, and can proceed to eradicate the washing machine with Draco Meteor. Blissey does however, seem problematic, and a way to alleviate this issue is use a Choice Specs Latios instead, and run Trick over Recover. Trick allows Latios to cripple Blissey for the remainder of the game, if it chooses to Toxic/ Seismic Toss/ whatever, you can easily make the proper response. If it chooses to recover health, you can use Blissey as set-up bait for Gengar. With Thunder Wave support, Latios outspeeds pretty much every potent threat in the metagame and can proceed to tear Pokes apart with Choice Specs Draco Meteor, using Surf or HP Fire if you predict a Tyranitar/ Scizor switch-in or something. With Spikes support, Specs Draco Meteor can be further abused because Latios forces a ton of switches, Spikes damage builds up and turns potential 3HKOs into 2HKOs, and 2HKOs into OHKOs. Choice Specs Latios also hits much much much harder than Expert Belt Latios, especially considering that Latios' best trait is its ability to hit Pokemon hard with a neutral Draco Meteor, which gets no boost from Expert Belt. While being unable to change moves sucks, Latios usually comes in and hits once or twice before coming back out anyways, so you will rarely be able to abuse Expert Belt anyways. While losing Recover does suck, being able to cripple Blissey is very valuable.

In Summary:

Hide

Ferrothorn>Roserade
pros: better check to Rain teams, Spikes is better for this team than Toxic Spikes, provides team with Thunder Wave support, better at taking on bulky Waters
cons: doesn't possess as much Offense as Roserade, does not have access to Sleep Powder

Choice Specs Latios>Expert Belt Latios
pros: much more powerful, allows Latios to cripple Blissey, can abuse Spikes/ Thunder Wave should you opt for the first change, did I mention it was much more powerful?
cons: lose the ability to change moves, lose Recover

GL

Sets:

Hide

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Impish Nature (+Def, -SpA)
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave
- Power Whip

Latios @ Choice Specs
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Hidden Power Fire
- Trick

 

[Ralts]

Thanks for the rates! So far, Roserade has been more useful with Giga Drain. I'm still playtesting Specs Latios, though.

 

[Ralts]

No more feedback? Come on, I could really use your help.