See? Nothing suspicious at all... Just another ordinary, hard-hitting team that I've enjoyed dropping - over these last couple of weeks - square onto the faces of players on Showdown! Thoughtful criticisms welcome as I haven't done a RMT in awhile, there will be quite a few backslashes containing alternate items/moves that I think work just as well. Boasting two UU members that are rather extraordinary, we're about take a break from routine.
Salamence @ Life Orb / Focus Sash
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower / Fire Blast
- Outrage
- Earthquake / Dragon Dance
My typical lead, or should I say, anti-lead. It took a little experimenting before settling with Sally. The move-set is self-explanatory, purely for coverage, and does a nice job with Life Orb when combined with it's generous base stats giving it the potential to pull off its necessary mixed set well. Mind-games can come into play due to conventional wisdom stating how it's usually not beneficial to split EVs into both types of attacks. Mence makes the exception. Dragon Dance is forgone for immediate use of 4 attacks, but at one time DD was in the place over EQ. Imagine burning Mence, having it Draco and then believing you're safe... until it DD's right in your face! Good times. Moxie more than makes up for 252 into SAtk, and I haven't had any problems with the spread, but feel free to comment. Flamethrower over Fire Blast, because the last thing I need to do is miss on Ferrothorn and get hit with T-wave or seeded, even Meteor seems unreliable to me. I find Mence is typically the first to be dropped and is only there to bring the pressure early on. The last thing it needs to do is start missing anything.
252 SpA Life Orb Naive Salamence Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 168 SpD Relaxed (standard) Ferrothorn: 369-437 (104.82 - 124.14%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot
- Thunder
Out-speeding base 100 it is not only decently fast, it's other qualities include terrific special attack, volt switch for momentum, thunder for crushing stab damage, grass knot for bulky waters and ground switches hidden power ice to bang those pesky Dragons, it's only a shame TT doesn't speed tie with Garchomp. Volt Absorb and Leftovers give it surprising survivability in absence of a team spinner. Frequently I've found foes playing around this set, giving TT enough extra time to eat some leftovers switch out and live to fight another round. It loves coverage just as much as Salamence! Thunder is usually more reliable to me than focus blast, and thunderbolt just didn't hit hard enough. Since there's no shortage of rain teams, thunder was a safe bet, that has taken on Sub 1+ CM Jirachi's in rain. A very diverse threat.
(Anvil) Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Protect
- Earthquake / Bulldoze
This guy is the inspiration for the team name. It's massive SDef bulk, great typing and single full weakness (fire) usually ensure SR gets set up every game. If it weren't for the likes of spinners such as Tentecruel and Starmie, this thing would probably get them up 99% of the time guaranteed. Even as things are, it's still very reliable. Protect and toxic can weather down enemies quickly and unexpectedly by virtue of it being a plain old unpopular Pokemon. People don't usually know what to expect, and it's always fun to spread toxic around to a couple Pokemon (it likes fire types switch ins!). Protect allows Anvil to heal and scout, and even get in a few extra hits on special attackers like Alakazam, Latias, Latios, who never stand a chance (unless they're sporting HP fire) but even then it's not going to be easy for them unless Zong is already weakened. It's steel typing is also reliable when countering a plethora of OU threats from outraging dragons, shell smashing Cloysters, Landorus, choiced users. It has survive many things unexpectedly. It can slap a toxic on Jellycent, take a thunderbolt from Jolteon and return with EQ, tank volt switches, eat will-o-wisps. Same goes with Magnezone, who only has one job, countering the steel types slower than it! Anvil is usually too much for them to handle. Anvil returns with toxic on many, many things, and then it's only a matter of time until they're out of the game. Earthquake is just a great complimentary move to toxic in general and can stop things like Tentacruel and Jirachi from subbing up. It's not hard to keep Anvil alive when partnered with Milotic. Whenever Zong is out, I feel it's usually within my power to decide how the match plays out. It's solid and I can always find a way to make it fight back.
252 Atk Jolly Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Careful Bronzong: 172-204 (50.88 - 60.35%) - (at which point Anvil can usually EQ it in the ass)
252+ SpA Modest Magneton Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Careful Bronzong: 105-124 (31.06 - 36.68%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 SpA Timid Alakazam Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Careful Bronzong: 102-122 (30.17 - 36.09%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
(Ordinary) Milotic @ Leftovers
Trait: Marvel Scale
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Dragon Tail
Always liked Milotic for it's ability to increase it's defense and rest off damage at the same time. Recover is completely inferior in every single way when you can control boosting your own defense with rest and fight back with sleep talk while activating a defense boosting marvel scale. It can be thrown in, exchange a blow with a physical attacker then restalk and swallow its prey whole. A very good counter to physical types in general, since OU is filled with ground, rock and fire types. Not to mention that if it already outspeeds the defending pokemon and sleep talk chooses dragon tail, dragon tail loses it's -1 priority allowing it to go first! Great for shuffling slower things and a phazing move is usually needed anyway. Ordinary Milotic is also good for eating status like para, burn, poison, sleep, fending off adjacent water types with scald until they burn, and providing a reliable switch when it's partner Anvil is targeted with a nasty fire type attack. Its survivability to some of the harder hitting physical OU threats appears to be right on the cusp of a sweet spot that need not move any lower, otherwise it's viability might not have been enough to use at all. It's base SDef makes up for all sorts of things as well.
Banded 252 Atk Jolly Garchomp Outrage vs. Marvel Scale activated 248 HP / 244+ Def Bold Milotic: 166-196 (42.23 - 49.87%) - guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Jolly Garchomp Outrage after Swords Dance vs. 248 HP / 244+ Def awake Bold Milotic: 331-390 (84.22 - 99.23%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (yes, it can actually take an SD'd outrage from Chomp!)
Without Boosted Outrage Garchomp to Marvel Scale activated Milotic (28.24 - 33.58%) - possible 4HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Jolly Terrakion Close Combat vs. Marvel Scale activated 248 HP / 244+ Def Milotic: 165-195 (41.98 - 49.61%) -- guaranteed 3HKO (while asleep) Keeping Terrakion in at this time is risky, as scald will OHKO it no question.
(Bullmoose) Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide / X-Scissor
Not much to say about these last two bozos. Stone edge's unreliability is not something I wanna mess with, so unless it's absolutely needed, rock slide is a much safer bet. Terrakion is my go to physical revenger, potential cleaner-upper, battering ram, unexpected scarfer. Completely destroys things that think they'll be going faster then him! He's almost as hard as Anvil, but not quite. Rock, paper, standard.
Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
My special attacking revenge killer. Even without a scarf, it's base 120 is tight. Alakazam is probably my absolute favorite in Gen 5 meta right now and it's all thanks to that new ability. Alakazam comes in late and can usually clean up shop with it's agressive move pool and turn all sorts of situations over to my favor (and some luck with focus blast) hidden power ice over fire because fire makes it slower than other Alakazam's and there's really no need for it to be staying in only to get gyro balled by Forretress or something. It gets super walled by SDef Jirachi and arsed around by Scizor sometimes, but the real secret to Zam's awesome rests in knowing how to make the best use of it's focus sash, that can not be broken by residual damage. Meaning it's going to take an attack going faster than Zam itself to break it, which is few and far between considering it's speed. If it needs to live until the end, it will, and it will usually kill at least 1 or 2 things before going down. Focus sash is really like an extra life for this guy, and so like ya, he rules!