Offensive Team - Climbing The Ladder

[Valvalias]

Offensive Team - Climbing The Ladder​

So this is the team I've built for the Platinum metagame. It's been doing great until recently as I've started to lose with it more often than I'd like. I cant help but feel that something is missing. I've had a few minor problems with Starmie from time to time, Suicune tends to cause a little trouble too. The main idea is to set up a sweep with Tyranitar by luring in its counters and generally creating an easier late game for Tyranitar to sweep in.

Team at a glance

Team - An in-depth look​

@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 108 HP / 200 Atk / 200 Spd
Adamant Nature

• Iron Head
• Ice Punch
• Fire Punch
• Trick

This is my favourite lead in OU. With Trick being Jirachi's new toy its opened up another door for a set to abuse and this is it. Iron Head with its 60% chance of flinching and blistering speed is amazing, although at times I do feel bad for "haxing" my opponents. The elemental punches are for the likes of Salamence and Scizor etc and provides much needed coverage. I was originally going to use U-Turn, but I preferred the coverage rather than scouting. Normally I would Iron Head suicide leads not named Infernape. Metagross and Swampert gets Tricked and then play accordingly.

@ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature

• Substitute
• Shadow Ball
• Focus Blast
• Hidden Power [Fire]

Jirachi and Gengar together is amazing. Gengar tends to come in after Jirachi's tricked Metagross and the like into Earthquaking. Substitute on the switch (which in todays metagame is usually Scizor) HP Fire OHKO's Scizor, and gets rid of one of Tyranitars main threats. Shadow Ball needs no explination, and after testing with Gengar I eventually went with Focus Blast > Thunderbolt to help deal with opposing Tyranitars/Lucarios etc. Thankfully I dont run into many Blissey's.

@ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature

• Dragon Dance
• Crunch
• Stone Edge
• Fire Punch

Tyranitar is where I expect most of my sweeps to come from. Lum Berry is so I can get what would basically be a free Dragon Dance. I've been thinking about trading Fire Punch for Earthquake or something similar. I'm unsure about running Jolly, as the increase in power is very tempting.

@ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature

• Bullet Punch
• U-Turn
• Superpower
• Pursuit

Scizor is where the power comes from, 591 Attack is nothing to laugh at, and with a Technician boosted STAB priority attack it also becomes my revenge killer. U-Turn is great for scouting and with Choice Band/STAB it does a lot more than most expect. Superpower is for those Steel pokes who resist all my other attacks. Pursuit was Quick Attack to revenge Starmie/Zapdos and the like, but Pursuit was something I was interested in testing.

@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature

• Waterfall
• Earthquake
• Stone Edge
• Ice Fang

Gyarados gives me some much needed speed, and helps support Scizor with any revenge killing. Not expected at all so it gets quite a few kills. I believe the attacks explain themselves as they give the most coverage for Gyarados out of a somewhat limited movepool. I almost get depressed over its low power, but it's meant to catch people off guard and help revenge any pokes I find troubling.

@ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpAtk
Relaxed Nature

• Earthquake
• Surf
• Hidden Power [Electric]
• Stealth Rock

And finally Swampert, acts as a physical absorber and is my only means of getting Stealth Rock into play. Surf and Earthquake give me reliable stab attacks for decent damage. Hidden Power gives me a means of fighting Gyarados whom I can usually win against 1-1.

 

[Overcast2020]

Good Team.

Definately get rid of fire punch on Tyranitar. The pokemon it hets better than the other moves are no consequence to Ttar. Replace it with either Earthquake or Aqua Tail, depending on what you want to cover.

Also with tryanitar, stay Jolly. On a team without any paralys support, you need the extra speed. The extra power is very useful though.

I know you prefer not to use UTurn on jirahis but it really svaves it from the not-too-uncommon magnezone. So give it second thought.

For scizor, consider using a little bit more defensive EV spread. Bulk is always useful and it doesnt need max speed. So move some speed into HP or Special defence.

Other than that great team.

Hope you do well.

 

[TheMantyke]

Actually Overcast, Fire Punch can be very vital to Tyranitar. Many teams will run Scizor as their lone counter to tyranitar so it could be extremely vital for Tyranitar to hit Scizor on the switch-in. Also, Jirachi doesn't need U-turn to escape magnezone when she's using Firepunch to kill it.

Your team is very solid from a distance. I might advise serious caution towards switching into Will-O-Wispers since everything but Gengar opperates with Physical Attacks. In particular, Rotom-H seems bothersome for your team so make sure you try to take him down ASAP.

 

[Overcast2020]

Good point TheMantyke. My Bad.

 

[Colloquy]

On Jirachi, U-turn will help you more than Ice Punch or Fire Punch, as it allows Jirachi to scout the opposition and escape Magnezone. If you replace Ice Punch, go with Ice Beam over Swampert to help handle Salamence. You could also use a spread of 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe, which outpaces even positive base 130 Speed Pokemon, but it's up to preference.

Tyranitar wants Aqua Tail over Fire Punch. Swampert can handle Skarmory and Forretress to some extent, and Aqua Tail already does a number on them. It also hits Gliscor, other Tyranitar, Donphan, and Hippowdon, who you can't take with Fire Punch. Adamant vs. Jolly isn't that important, but Jolly doesn't outspeed too much that's switching into Tyranitar or that you can't otherwise take on.

I'm not seeing the point behind Choice Scarf Gyarados, really. It may be a "revenge killer", but Scizor already covers that with its Bullet Punch and Pursuit. Dragon Dance Gyarados gets to the same Speed after a boost, and you can switch attacks and sweep. It's not like getting a Dragon Dance is "hard" anyway. I'd recommend using bulky Gyarados with Waterfall and Return to have great coverage and take out the Pokemon for Tyranitar. Rest Talk could also be an option I suppose to absorb status, which your team can't really take.

You shouldn't really have too big a problem with Starmie, as Tyranitar handles non Grass Knot versions pretty well, scaring them off with the threat of Crunch.

 

[lordhmm974]

i dont really like jirachi but it does help bring out some earthquakes. but if its knocked out well then its pretty useless. maybe change its attacks to wish/reflect/light screen for some wish support and dual screen support. and if it can last longer it can have more of a chance to bring out those earthquake users.

for scizor, id ditch choice band go with leftovers technician. 252hp 252Atk 4 def
bulletpunch swordsdance roost batonpass. it gives you some prioroty and makes up for the poor speed. stab + technician + priototy + scizors awesome attack + a swordsdance is killer. roost gives you some recovery to easily set up a swordsdance. and when they throw out something that you cant beat baton pass to tyranitar or another pokemon with a swordsdance to sweep. if you dont wish to baton pass switch it with brick break which will break dualscreens and doesnt lower your stats so you can continue to sweep.

definitely thunderbolt on gengar either take out focusblast HP fire or substitute, seems like you want to keep focusblast and you have a purpose with HP fire so ditch substitute. id personally set it to thunderbolt shadowball hypnosis (save that for the scizor) focus blast

switch swampert to a physical attacker, its much more effective. icepunch earthquake stealthrock waterfall. or ditch waterfall for roar to prevent your opponent to set up any of there Dragon dances or anything like that. no Hp electric especially with only 56 EV's in its SAtk. So a physical attacker you should use with this EV spread 252hp 252def 4atk. you should be fine with that

turn that gyarados into another sweeper just like your tyranitar so you have more then one way to sweep. its attacks should be
taunt waterfall stoneedge dragondance. send it in on obvious stealth rockers so it doesnt suffer from stealth rock damage, and dragon dance. when they switch predict there move and taunt crippling them and DD up and sweep. pretty simple to get with some practice. EV's are fine here.

Tyranitar is really slow and no thunderwave support makes it slower then most pokemon even with 252 spd ev's and jolly. a dragon dance solves that problem, but its threats can still take it out easily. so its best to try and exploit its weaknesses and get them out of the way for a clean sweep.
you could try:
(counter dragondance stoneedge earthquake/crunch) to counter your weaknesses by OHKO them such as a scizor with bulletpunch. but with this set you would need jirachi with wish support and also some dual screens would help as well. but keep it as it is for now and if things arnt working out you will need a pokemon to handle scizor by itself. if fire punch does the trick keep it, if you dont see a problem ever and dont use firepunch use taunt. taunt works the same was as gyarados and earthquake has nice coverage.
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Here are my own personal switches for a better team.....

since you basically focus on these pokemon, a good counter for those prioroty attackers such as lucario and scizor would be:

Magnezone ChoiceScarf Magnet Pull Naive
252spA 252 spe 6 hp (IVs 31,30,31,30,30,31)
thunderbolt
HP fire
flash cannon
explosion

traps them in and finishes them off, choice scarf makes up for its speed problems. then when your about to die off use explosion, but watch out for scizor with brick break or superpower cuse they can also OHKO magnezone. but Magnezone can knock out any scizor that doesnt invest in SDef EVs (which is rare) and its fast enough to kill it. so you will be fine. and its fills the job for jirachi and Gengar because it has a nice movepool to fill both of its duties in clearing the field of Ttar counters. it brings out ground types and flashcannon is more then enough to knock them out.

so now you have a free slot lol if you use magnezone, so try either a blissey (counter thunderwave icebeam softboiled) to stall and bring out those strong physical attackers and counter is a hugeee surprise for OHKO and thunderwave on there switch to cripple your opponent. softboiled to recover and icebeam for those that dont wish to attack lol.

or maybe a breloom(sub + seed + focuspunch + spore) there quite the annoying pokemon lol and they work like a charm!

so basically lead swampert then magnezone blissey gyarados scizor tyranitar
i think thats your best for success :) also ive tested this set and havent lost yet

 

[Scofield]

1. I hate leading with Jirachi, you are basically begging your opponent to kill you off with magnezone early. Also, your ev spread exceeds 510.

2. Has the speed drop from HP fire hurt you at all? I personally hate it, and prefer hypnosis, which makes it easier to get that first sub up than relying on your opponent to switch.

3. If you're going by the theory that gengar lures and kills scizor, ttar doesn't want fire punch, as it doesn't hit anything of note. Fire blast would hit magnezone and skarmory for ohko's guaranteed after SR if you were to opt for hasty and a life orb. If you did want the scizor insurace, I'd just opt for a barbiri berry (steel resist) as a +1 stone edge beats scizor anyways. And dd tar is useless without a plus speed nature.

4. Gyarados has no business being scarfed. If you want a scarfer, I'm positive you can find a much better pokemon for the job.

5. Swampert has hp electric why? HP electric is like a 3hko on gyarados. You can't switch into gyarados, and if you were to, your own scarf gyarados is a much better switch in for obvious reasons. If you want to beat gyarados one on one, roar is a much better option as long as you look out for taunt. Oddly enough, by worrying so much about gyarados, your set allows mence and latias to set up on you.

 

[Evil Angel]

1. I hate leading with Jirachi, you are basically begging your opponent to kill you off with magnezone early. Also, your ev spread exceeds 510.

Yes, Jirachi begs for Maggy to come in. But his EV spread is 508 @.@

200+200+108 = 508

2. Has the speed drop from HP fire hurt you at all? I personally hate it, and prefer hypnosis, which makes it easier to get that first sub up than relying on your opponent to switch.

Sure, sleeping them is nice, but that 40% will kill you enough to make it not worth it. And Gengar can scare enough things away to set up a Sub quite easily.

3. If you're going by the theory that gengar lures and kills scizor, ttar doesn't want fire punch, as it doesn't hit anything of note. Fire blast would hit magnezone and skarmory for ohko's guaranteed after SR if you were to opt for hasty and a life orb. If you did want the scizor insurace, I'd just opt for a barbiri berry (steel resist) as a +1 stone edge beats scizor anyways. And dd tar is useless without a plus speed nature.

I agree with that though, lol.

4. Gyarados has no business being scarfed. If you want a scarfer, I'm positive you can find a much better pokemon for the job.

Oh, and this.

5. Swampert has hp electric why? HP electric is like a 3hko on gyarados. You can't switch into gyarados, and if you were to, your own scarf gyarados is a much better switch in for obvious reasons. If you want to beat gyarados one on one, roar is a much better option as long as you look out for taunt. Oddly enough, by worrying so much about gyarados, your set allows mence and latias to set up on you.

Well, HP Electric is actually a 2HKO on most of the Gyara's out there.

And anyways, it's a nice team, utilizing DDTar, which isn't seen much anymore, lol. I'd say switch ScarfGyara for ScarfMence. Maybe with:

Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Naughty
252 Atk / 176 Speed / 80 SpAtk
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Fire Blast

Using Stone Edge obviously so you still have a Gyarados counter. And Fire Blast for Skarm and the like.

Also, replacing HP Electric with Roar on Pert might not be such a bad idea.

 

[Scofield]

My mistake, I thought you maxed attack on Jirachi. In that case, you should take away from HP to max attack. You need to do ever possible % of damage possible to take down Lucario, Scizor, and Salamence.