Nuking with SpecsTran is Fun! - OU

infringement153

------Introduction------


Hello, Smogon. I came here from Gfaqs after realizing that the people there aren't precisely stellar at giving rates. So I come here, hoping to tap in to your vast reserves of knowledge.


So, here in all it's glory is my team. =)
​






-----At a Glance-----



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uxie.png

Uxie @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/106 Def/152 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Trick
- Thunder Wave
--


Uxie is underrated. People expect Uxie to be only somewhat fast, and more of a supporting Pokemon. With this, I usually trick on the first turn, unless it's something like a Jirachi that obviously has a scarf of their own. If they taunt, I Uturn to see their switch in, gaining momentum. If they SR, I do, too on the switch, then go to the appropriate counter. This also has the handy function of locking sleep leads into sleep clause limited moves. Overall, I usually end up starting the match with a lot of momentum. One final advantage of this set is that I can scout attacks with its great dual defenses, and so helps retain my momentum mid-game. I replaced Yawn with Thunder Wave.


latias.png

JetLag (Latias) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 82 HP/176 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Draco Meteor
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
--

This is what prevents Salamence/Gyarados/infernape/Heatran and others from tearing through me unimpeded. In addition, it fufills the role of a revenge killer. With Timid nautre, 176 speed, and Choice scarf, Latias is Guarenteed to outspeed the once-mighty One dragon dance max speed Salamence, and OHKO with Draco Meteor (it also outspeeds all base 100 Speed pokes with a scarf). Surf is there to take care of Heatran, Infernape and even Gliscor, managing a 2HKO on Most Heatran, and OHKOs on Infernape and Gliscor. TBolt is there to take care of Gyarados, who otherwise rampages through me unchecked. Trick is there to hamper any walls or things that think I'm going to be calm minding. Because of the important role of Latias in keeping threats from tearing through me, I always am sure to preserve her until I've seen most of the adversary's team.


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Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
--

Scizor is the best user of Choice band in my opinion. In the early game, I usually uturn out as expected, scouting for Magnezones and other odds and ends, dealing surprising damage in the process. Bullet punch is for obvious revenge killing when it's too early in the game to bring latias out, superpower is for predicted Heatran and Magnezone switch ins, and Pursuit, is there to keep Starmie from rapid spinning my rocks away, and taking care of other Latias' (in addition to being an all around good move). Bullet punch can also "sweep" late game when everything is suffeciently weakened. In addition, this is my answer to revenge killing Gengar, OHKO most of them after SR (or, if I'm gutsy, I come on on a shadow ball).


heatran.png

lol (Heatran) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 40 HP/218 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Overheat
--



The great thing about specs tran is that he can Force most things out that Scarf can because of Feigning it (before first attacking), allowing him to have the psychological advantages of a scarf, and practical advantages of specs. Seriously, this thing is underrated. It can come with it's base 130 special attack, and cripple all but the bulkiest of pokemon. With a flash fire boost....this thing is off. Earth power is there to take care of other heatrans, and predicted Magnezone/tentacruel. HP Grass is there so I can outspeed and ki-I mean, faint Swampy, and do a bit more damage to bulky waters. Overheat may seem redundant with flamethrower. But I added it because Heatran is unfortunately walled alot (Read: You can see a fire attack coming from miles away, so they switch in a resist or something that can OHKO). With overheat, I can deal as much damage before switching out (I mean, for an example, It does over 50% to 4/0 Timid Latias, even with it's monstrous special defense and resist). I switched out Fire Blast for Flamethrower, for cleaning up/sweeping late game.


salamence.png

Intimidation (Salamence) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 42 Atk/252 Spd/216 SAtk
Mild nature (+SAtk, -Def)
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Roost
- Brick Break
--


This is my stallbreaker, allowing me to muscle through Skarmbliss, and others. Roost adds to my survivability, becuase of SR LO and possible sandstorm. Draco Meteor hits everything that even resists it hard, with 210 Base power after STAB. Fire blast takes care of Scizors that like to bullet punch me, and helps my team break through Forretress and the like. Brick break is to handle Blissey, OHKOing after SR and any prior damage (though I need to watch out for ice beams if I can't one shot it). Changed the EVs as locopoke suggested.


lucario.png

Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Extremespeed
- Crunch
--


This may be bog standard, but it's effective. You see, I can often get this guy in after a kill, or a quad resist (like a choice band Scizor's pursuit that killed my Latias), and after a SD, clean up most things that my other team mates left behind (ES also gives my team handy double priority). Crunch is to hit the ghosts with surprising power who try to switch in to my CCs, Close combat is for Most cleaning up, and ES is there for picking faster, frailer things off (Like infernape).




Any future changes to the team will be in red.
​

---

Also, I've included this handy threat list for you:

Aerodactyl: Scizor/Latias
Alakazam:Scizor/latias/lucario
Azelf:Scizor/latias/ heatran/lucario
Blissey:Lucario/scizor/trick lati/
Breloom:Scizor/Salamance/lucario
Bronzong:Heatran/Scizor/Lati(trick)
Celebi:Heatran/Scizor(although being safe of hpfire)/Mence
Cress:Scizor/Heatran(cress really can't do much and i think it's a 2ko)
D-Nite:Latias/scizor/double priority
Dusknoir:Heatran(watching eq)/ Lucario(if its at low)
Electivire:Scarf lati(always outspeeds)/double priority
Empoleon:Latias(outspeeds after the agility)/Lucario
Flygon:DOuble priority/latias
Forre:Heatran/Mence
Gengar:Scizor/latias
Gliscor:Latias/Mence
Gyarados:Latias/priority
Heatran: Latias/Heatran(if its locked into a fire attack)
Hera:Latias/double priority/ mence
Hippo: Latias/ heatran(OHKO w/ fireblast iirc)
Infernape: lati/double priority
Jirachi:HEatran/Mence(slightly)Luc(slightly)
Jolteon:Latias, double priority
Kingdra: Latias outspeeds after a dd, scizor can take the hit and uturn/ lucario extreme speeds
Latias:Scizor/Lati/luc
Lucario: Mence/priority
Machamp: Mence/Lati/heatran/lucario(none can switch in though)
Magnezone:Heatran/Lucario/mence
Mamo: scizor/Lucario
Metagross:Heatran/Lucario/scizor
Ninjask: Scizor/ heatran
Porygon-z:Lucario/Latias/scizor
Rhyperior: Lati/Mence/Heatran
ROtom-a:Heatran/Mence/Lati
Salamance:SCizor/Lati/Luc
Scizor:Heatan/Lucario(off of pursuit/bp)
Skarm:Heatran/Salamance/lati
Smeargle: Lucario/Scizor/heatran/lati/mence
Lax:Trick/Lucario/Scizor
Starmie: Scizor/Lati/
Suicune: Lati/Heatran can predict a switch in and 2ko/
Swampert:Lati/heatran/Mence
Tenta: Lati/heatran(to a slight extent)
Toge:Latias/heatran/lucario/scizor
TTar:Scizor/lucario
Umbre:Scizor/lucario
Vappy:Lati/Hetran can 2ko/lucario can set up on
Weavile:Scizor/lucario
Zappy: Mence/Lati/Heatran

---



Well, that's it. I hope the Smogon community can take this team from good to great.


Thanks! Bye! :toast:​
 
interesting team, specstran is very rarely used

At first glance I notice that you have a pretty big bulky gyara weakness. If Latias goes down early then you're pretty defenseless against him. I'm going to suggest changing Choice Scarf to Leftovers on Uxie and using Thunderbolt over Trick. With that said it's also smart to change Uxie's nature to Relaxed and use the spread 252 HP / 252 def / 6 SpA so that you can take more physical hits from stuff like Gyarados and attack with Thunderbolt. Also, to help against your Gyara weakness you can also try Stone Edge on Lucario. This will help you against stall since most stall teams use Gyarados as the Lucario counter and +1 LO Stone Edge from Adamant Luc is an easy OHKO.

Old Mixmence doesn't work as well in today's metagame imo. Change his nature to naive and run 252 speed / 216 spA / 40 attack with roost, fire blast, brick break and draco meteor.

Lastly, I don't see why you're running 40 HP/218 Spd/252 SAtk on Heatran, especially with a Modest nature. You're not outrunning anything with those EVs, you're better off using a bulkier spread, that's really the only way to go about using specstran. I suggest running 252 SpA / 176 HP / 80 speed. The extra HP gives you better defenses to take neutral hits better from Pokemon like rotom and it lets you outrun rotoms and gyarados' of the restalk variant. Also, most Swamperts are leads nowadays so I don't think they'll be seeing much mid-game or late-game play. As of now Heatran cannot damage dragons very well so I'd suggest trying out Dragon Pulse or HP Ice in place of HP Grass? Just a thought.
 
locopoke said:
interesting team, specstran is very rarely used

At first glance I notice that you have a pretty big bulky gyara weakness. If Latias goes down early then you're pretty defenseless against him. I'm going to suggest changing Choice Scarf to Leftovers on Uxie and using Thunderbolt over Trick. With that said it's also smart to change Uxie's nature to Relaxed and use the spread 252 HP / 252 def / 6 SpA so that you can take more physical hits from stuff like Gyarados and attack with Thunderbolt. Also, to help against your Gyara weakness you can also try Stone Edge on Lucario. This will help you against stall since most stall teams use Gyarados as the Lucario counter and +1 LO Stone Edge from Adamant Luc is an easy OHKO.

Old Mixmence doesn't work as well in today's metagame imo. Change his nature to naive and run 252 speed / 216 spA / 40 attack with roost, fire blast, brick break and draco meteor.

Lastly, I don't see why you're running 40 HP/218 Spd/252 SAtk on Heatran, especially with a Modest nature. You're not outrunning anything with those EVs, you're better off using a bulkier spread, that's really the only way to go about using specstran. I suggest running 252 SpA / 176 HP / 80 speed. The extra HP gives you better defenses to take neutral hits better from Pokemon like rotom and it lets you outrun rotoms and gyarados' of the restalk variant. Also, most Swamperts are leads nowadays so I don't think they'll be seeing much mid-game or late-game play. As of now Heatran cannot damage dragons very well so I'd suggest trying out Dragon Pulse or HP Ice in place of HP Grass? Just a thought.
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Saying if ___ pokes goes down than ___ can sweep your team means you can find flaw in any team. Although I agree that gyara can be a problem, he doesn't have to change anything if he doesn't want to.

Using stone edge on luc is acceptable, by all means, but again he doesn't have to.

I agree w/ changing the mence.

The heatran's speed is to outspeed bulky base 100's that run 36 speed, iirc. That pretty big because it allows you to ohko the zapdos's/celebi's/jirachi'. It also lets you outspeed ttar.

Overheat ohko's salamance after sr, and fireblast has a chance too, after sr and having a -sp.def nature of course(IIRC to both of those). Dragon pulse could be used for those lati switch ins, but if he forsees a lati switch he could double switch to scizor.
 
locopoke said:
interesting team, specstran is very rarely used

At first glance I notice that you have a pretty big bulky gyara weakness. If Latias goes down early then you're pretty defenseless against him. I'm going to suggest changing Choice Scarf to Leftovers on Uxie and using Thunderbolt over Trick. With that said it's also smart to change Uxie's nature to Relaxed and use the spread 252 HP / 252 def / 6 SpA so that you can take more physical hits from stuff like Gyarados and attack with Thunderbolt. Also, to help against your Gyara weakness you can also try Stone Edge on Lucario. This will help you against stall since most stall teams use Gyarados as the Lucario counter and +1 LO Stone Edge from Adamant Luc is an easy OHKO.

Old Mixmence doesn't work as well in today's metagame imo. Change his nature to naive and run 252 speed / 216 spA / 40 attack with roost, fire blast, brick break and draco meteor.

Lastly, I don't see why you're running 40 HP/218 Spd/252 SAtk on Heatran, especially with a Modest nature. You're not outrunning anything with those EVs, you're better off using a bulkier spread, that's really the only way to go about using specstran. I suggest running 252 SpA / 176 HP / 80 speed. The extra HP gives you better defenses to take neutral hits better from Pokemon like rotom and it lets you outrun rotoms and gyarados' of the restalk variant. Also, most Swamperts are leads nowadays so I don't think they'll be seeing much mid-game or late-game play. As of now Heatran cannot damage dragons very well so I'd suggest trying out Dragon Pulse or HP Ice in place of HP Grass? Just a thought.
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Allright, I'll change Mence.

The reason I'm not all that eager to use stone edge over crunch is that, being a late game sweeper, having a move miss could mean the end of my last line of defense. Normally, I'd only use it on Gyara then, but then it becomes the only move to hit ghosts.

And, ya, mudkip explained Tran's Evs, though, considering Tran's low speed, I may switch to your suggestion, because I often find myself switching into Rotom's and the like. And really, with 2 opposing viewpoints on the subject, I can't really tell which to go with, as I'm still new to this. I'll probably wait for more opinions.

As for changing Uxie, I really like the momentum that she grant's me early match. SR, best switch in, maybe even sleeping is something that non scarf can't do. Given, when taunted all Scarxie can do is get the advantegous switch, but that's still better than a lot of leads. Changing Uxie would help against Gyarados, yes, but I'd imagine changing it would be unwise overall. Just a thought.
 
Hello, I've received your pm, so I'll see what I can do to help you out.

Firstly, I notice that you have a pretty bad Dragon Dance Salamence weakness, as you really only have Latias to kill it off (which is not good due to its Pursuit weakness) or hope that Salamence is in KO range for Scizor's Bullet Punch or Lucario's Extremespeed. I do have one slight suggestion you can try that may help you in this weakness, that being Gyarados. I suggest you try using Gyarados because it still offers basically the same amount of resistances Salamence has and has excellent synergy within the team, but it also helps you against DDSalamence thanks to Intimidate and its decent physical bulk. You can try using the standard TauntDos, as TauntDos generally beats many walls, especially the SarmBliss combo. The set looks like this if you don't know about it:

Gyarados @ Leftovers | Adamant
156 HP / 108 Atk / 100 Def / 144 Spe
~Dragon Dance
~Taunt
~Waterfall
~Stone Edge

I also have a slight nitpick on your Heatran set. Now, I don't really mind the fact that you have two Fire-type moves in one set, but I really think you should fix up Fire Blast. I suggest you use Flamethrower instead. Overheat is an excellent attack to severely hurt almost anything that is not immune to it, and it allows Heatran to attempt a sweep with just using Flamethrower that has perfect accuracy. Having two really high powered STAB attacks with the same type is a bit redundant in my opinion, so Flamethrower needs to be used as a good sweeping move.

On Uxie, I suggest you use Thunder Wave instead of Yawn. The reason for this is because if you successfully use Trick and your opponent receives a Choice Scarf, you can then proceed to cripple it with Thunder Wave, nullifying it's Speed increase, or you can cripple a switch-in if you use Trick as the opponent used Stealth Rock or some other move.

That's all I can really think of right now, well done on the team and I hope I helped!
 
I see bulky water in general as your team, not just gyarados. I would actually recommend possibly putting in a bulky water there somewhere in your team. If you are interested, I put my vote on vaporeon with HP-Electric. The pokemon will pose a huge threat to your bulky water problems (including gyarados) and also be able to wish for your teammates as you lack wish support, which helps tremendously.
 
Change bolt on Latias to Pulse, it makes Latias a viable option to sweep late game. I can't think of anything that you really NEED Bolt (exception of Empoleon) over Dragon Pulse. Pulse/Surf gives great coverage and cleanup ability late game. And buddy. SkarmBliss is out. Bulky offense in. Might want to switch you team to fix that, maybe Salamence set?
 
lordkira said:
I see bulky water in general as your team, not just gyarados. I would actually recommend possibly putting in a bulky water there somewhere in your team. If you are interested, I put my vote on vaporeon with HP-Electric. The pokemon will pose a huge threat to your bulky water problems (including gyarados) and also be able to wish for your teammates as you lack wish support, which helps tremendously.
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Meh, since he's trying to sweep w/ lucario, he really doesn't have to use a counter to bulky waters, as most are ohko'd after an sd. Even if he really needs the bulky water killed, a flash fire'd fire blast 2ko's alot of them and hp grass 2kos most too. Also vaporeon wouldn't fit into the team. It's really more of a hyper offense team.
Thats my two cents at least
 
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