(OU) A Dirty Job For a Dirty Group

[ToastTyrant13]

Hello smogon! This is Tyrant626, excited for the coming of 5th Gen to the U.S. I've been using this team to climb into the 900's of the ladder(would be higher, but I've been busy) with great success. I've been extremely happy with this team since I win about 75% of the time, roughly. Well, seeing as I'm not a fan of long monologues, let's present the team!

Hippowdon @ Lum Berry -Relaxed 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def (Sandstream)

-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang
-Slack Off

You guessed it! I'm running Hippowdon to support a Sandstorm Team! Many people complain about those who use weather, especially sand, but I digress. Sand has gotten a lot of new toys to play with this gen, while admitedly, Hippowdon did not. I'm using him to set up my sand and wall the monsters like normal T-Tar, Doryuuzu(sometimes), Blissey, Chansey, and more. His EVs and bold allow him to be a formidable tank, while his SpD is a bit lackluster. Stealth Rocks allows me to protect my team from constant switch ins, while Slack Off lets me shrug off some hits. Earthquake and Ice Fang give me some good coverage to fend off against my opponent, especially things like TH Gliscor and other Hippowdon. As long as he hide him from Special Attackers, I'm easily ablt to keep him and the sand alive.
E:Relaxed ensures that my weather gets set up when confronted with other auto-weather lead, since it takes speed into consideration when deciding what the final weather is.

Nattorei @ Rugged Helmet -Relaxed 252 HP / 104 Atk / 152 Def (Iron Thorns)

-Protect
-Leech Seed
-Gyro Ball
-Power Whip

Oh my God, this is officialy my favorite pokemon of 5th Gen. While he may be overhyped, it is for a long list of reasons. His typing neuters the power of Water, Grass, and sometimes Ice attacks, along with the likes of Paralysis/Poison. Protect allows me to take full advantage of Sand and Leech Seed by racking up a lot of residual damage, especially if I have Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock set up. Gyro Ball and Power Whip allow me to hit a large amount of threats in this metagame including Tyranitar, Burungeru, Vaporeon, Blissey, Chansey (the last two are difficult, but he can manage), Hippowdon, dragons (besides Sazandora. I rarely ever see Fire type attacks on the dragon types anymore), Politoed, Abomasnow, and many other pokes that would bother my team. Rugged Helmet allows me to rack up even HIGHER amounts of damage with SS+SR+Leech Seed+Iron Barbs+Rugged Helmet+Poison (if possible). The EV spread allows me to be more of a Tank rather than a deadset wall.

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge -Calm 252 HP/ 4 SpA / 252 SpD (Liquid Ooze)
-Boil Over
-Rapid Spin
-Hail
-Toxic Spikes

While being seen as rather downsized this gen, he sure gets the job done. He serves as my spinner, a good Special Tank, and a Toxic Spike user. I don't usually need to keep him alive TOO long since my team rarely has trouble with hazards, although opposing Toxic Spikes or Spikes upset my Hippowdon and Doryuuzu respectively, which in that case gives me a reason to keep him around. He works similarly to Burungeru wheras he takes Fire and Fighting attacks for him(although fighting is now 1/2 rather than immune). I've been debating whether or not to replace Toxic with Evil Eye to deal with Spin Blockers. I can likely spread a few burns to annoying things that are immune to poison such as Scizor, Nattorei, Forretress, Skarmory, and Doryuuzu, while Hail ruins the attempts of Doryuuzu and Landlos sweeping well(against my team, that is).

Rankurusu @ Toxic Orb -Bold 252 HP/ 252 Def / 4 SpA (Magic Guard)

-Calm Mind
-Psychic
-Focus Blast
-Recover

Rankurusu. Where do I start? This thing is a monster. Thanks to Magic Guard, Rankurusu can easily CM in the Sand, while countering Roobushin for Dory. His high HP and decent bulk allow him to easily get a few calm minds with proper prediction. Psychic and Focus Blast provide similar coverage to ShadowBlast, while I hit Fighting types for SE damage instead of Ghosts. I hesitate to replace Psychic with Shadow Ball to hit other Psychics, but I don't want to miss out on the amazing power and strength against Fighting types. Recover allows me to ready myself to progress through my sweeps, or straight out wall. Flame Orb was the most appealing item to me. Poisoning prevents me from being crippled by paralysis, frost, or sleep. It also seemed more appealing than Flame orb since my team is heavily immune to poison. (Except Hippowdon)

Doryuuzu @ Life Orb -Jolly 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe (Sand Throw)

-Swords Dance
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-X-Scissor

I, myself, am afraid of Doryuuzu. He reaches 604 speed with Sand Throw in the sand with 252 Jolly, along with a nice 369 attack. While many may complain about his overpwereness(whatever you want to call it), it isn't really broken. He's unfortunately countered by any strong Mach Punch/Aqua Jet, along with resistant phazers like Hippowdon, Skarmory, and Swampert. However, if I get a Swords Dance or two, I can lay waste to almost anything else. Earthquake+Rock Slide and provide nice coverage, a long with STAB and a flinch rate. X-Scissor seems to be a better option, seeing as I can hit Rankurusu, Sazandora, Zuruzukin, and Espeon/Xatu for a good chunk of damage, if not for a KO. Gliscor is of course a big problem, but that is why he's a Dory counter.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb -Impish 252 HP/ 4 Atk / 252 Def (Poison Heal)

-Protect
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang
-Toxic

Come on. How could you not have seen this coming? Gliscor is an excellent tank, if not a physical wall, with Poison Heal. His typing gives me some great resistances to Fire, Electric, Fighting, Bug, Poison, Ground, Steel, and Flying type attacks that all negatively effect my team in on way or another. Protect works like Nattorei where I try to rack up damage on the foe while I regain HP. Earthquake and Ice Fang give me great coverage, like Hippowdon, whenever I need to deal some quick damage. Gliscor works well with Tentacruel since I can lure in bulky/offensive water types or Ice Beamers that allow him to set up easy Toxic Spikes. Toxic allows me to stall other tanks/walls that try to outstall me or eliminate me overall.



Well, while I've been ranting on (sorry if I was missong something. I'm still new to using RMT. I'm usually in Smeargles Studio), I felt that I should point out a few of my teams weaknesses.

Skarmory has a big tendancy to make me want to throw my computer at the wall. While Rankurusu can usually 2-3 ko with Focus Blast (without any boosts), my team has very little along the lines of beating Skarm. Tentacruel, however, does help with some Special damage, and an occasional burn.

A love-hate relationship. While he is one of my biggest assets, he is also one of my biggest problems. He resists most of my team with little to no damage, while he can either SD ot Toxic like mad. Again, Rankurusu and Tentacruel sometimes come to the rescue, while the latter has trouble against EQ.

Yes. Other weathers. Sun is rarely a problem since I can easily rid them of ninetails, while Rankurusu and Tentacruel (sometimes even Gliscor) can deal with the sun. Rain, on the other hand is...ugh! Politoed messes with everything except, AGAIN, Rankurusu and Tentacruel, along with Nattorei. Even then, he just switches to a Swift Swimmer to proceed through a sweep of my team. Even sandstorm can be annoying since everything on a sandstorm team is resistant to itself.

I just...I hate Starmie. He hits everything on my team for neutral or super effective damage. Surf kills Doryuuzu, Gliscor and Hippowdon. Ice beam destroys Gliscor and Hippowdon, while dealing good damage to Nattorei and Doryuuzu (even though Doryuuzu outspeeds and usually gets the KO first). Thunderbolt destroys my last safe member, Tentacruel It's just...wow.


Well, thanks for reading! Rates? Opinions? Movesets?

Even comments about the prsentation would be nice.

E: Thanks to Argornbird for the animated sprites.

 

[kc4444]

Just a few little nitpicks. You have left out the abilities.

Leftovers on Hippowdon, mainly because her only purpose is to set up weather, and hang around for a while. You might want to run 0 speed Iv's and relaxed nature to make sure it gets outspeeded by other weather starters. I'm not entirely sure to what the number should be.

Nattorei should probably have t-wave over protect, so that you can cripple poison types and steel types.

If Tentacruel has Rain Dish, Surf over Boiling Water. If Tentacruel has Liquid Ooze, Surf over Boiling Water or Magic Coat over Toxic. Having Boiling Water and Toxic on the same moveset is quite redundant. However Boiling Water is useful. Magic Coat, when used correctly, can set Spikes and Stealth Rock etc. when set up pokemon, such as Nattorei, try to set entry hazards. Magic Coat cannot be usewith Rain Dish.
If you are worried about getting tricked, switch Black Sludge with Leftovers.

Rankurusu should hold Toxic Orb. I do not see why not. If you are worried about getting tricked, it doesn't matter. Only Hippowdon doesn't like getting poisoned. The Toxic Orb is going to hurt the opponent more than it will hurt you.

Doryuuzu should have Brick Break over X-Scissor to hit opposing Balloon Doryuuzu, but this is up to you.

For Gliscor, just stick with the standard Gliscorb. Its more effective.

 

[ChaosNebula]

For Gliscor I recommend a Landlos somewhere. HP ICE 2KOs it, and pretty much covers Gliscor.

For Skarmorys you could run a Choiced Latias over Rankeresu

 

[ToastTyrant13]

Just a few little nitpicks. You have left out the abilities.

Leftovers on Hippowdon, mainly because her only purpose is to set up weather, and hang around for a while. You might want to run 0 speed Iv's and relaxed nature to make sure it gets outspeeded by other weather starters. I'm not entirely sure to what the number should be.

I use Lum Berry to ensure I get the rocks up early in the game. Sleep, Freeze, Paralysis, and Confusion are all a burden on the first turn.

Nattorei should probably have t-wave over protect, so that you can cripple poison types and steel types.

Gyro Ball would then be redundant with T-Wave, as it deals good damage to Poison and Steel types otherwise.


If Tentacruel has Rain Dish, Surf over Boiling Water. If Tentacruel has Liquid Ooze, Surf over Boiling Water or Magic Coat over Toxic. Having Boiling Water and Toxic on the same moveset is quite redundant. However Boiling Water is useful. Magic Coat, when used correctly, can set Spikes and Stealth Rock etc. when set up pokemon, such as Nattorei, try to set entry hazards. Magic Coat cannot be usewith Rain Dish.
If you are worried about getting tricked, switch Black Sludge with Leftovers.

Hmmm...I could try Magic Coat>Toxic. Wouldn't I be walled by Water Absorb Burungeru as a spin-blocker though? I mean, Toxic allowed me to stall it, and other walls out. If you think they're redundant, I could test it out.

Rankurusu should hold Toxic Orb. I do not see why not. If you are worried about getting tricked, it doesn't matter. Only Hippowdon doesn't like getting poisoned. The Toxic Orb is going to hurt the opponent more than it will hurt you.
Hmm. I never thought of it that way. I'll probobly do that.

Doryuuzu should have Brick Break over X-Scissor to hit opposing Balloon Doryuuzu, but this is up to you

Hmmm. I'll have to ponder that thought. On one hand, X-Scissor lets me hit the dreaded Rankurusu, Bronzong, Hippowdon, and water types in general with a nice amount of damage. On the other hand, brick break would allow me to hit Doryuuzu, Kabutops, Cloyster, Nattorei, and T-Tar alot harder. I'll have to think about this one.


For Gliscor, just stick with the standard Gliscorb. Its more effective.

Okay, I'm EXTREMELY sorry if I sound like a noob right now, but what would be his standard set?

Abilities added.

originally posted by ChaosNebula
For Gliscor I recommend a Landlos somewhere. HP ICE 2KOs it, and pretty much covers Gliscor.

For Skarmorys you could run a Choiced Latias over Rankeresu

With Landlos I have 3 weaknesses (2 quadruple weaknesses) to ice, and 4 to water. IDK about that...

Rankurusu does fine against Skarmory, along with Magic Guard and Calm Mind, so I'm iffy towards Latias.

 

[kc4444]

Gliscor's more standard set is
Poison Heal, Toxic Orb
Jolly, 4HP/252 Att/252 Speed
Fling/Earthquake/Acrobat/Protect

Flinging Toxic Orb statuses them, then acrobat's base power is doubled. Acrobat hurts the fighting types a lot. Protect stalls and heals
I think you can change the evs to make it more bulky, and protect can be substituted for any useful move such as Swords Dance or Taunt (Roost and Stealth Rock cannot be used.

 

[Jaroda]

He might be referring to the acrofling set, but I'm not sure if it's the standard or not. Anyways it's Earthquake, Acrobat, Fling and Protect.

Personally I'd outright relace Dory for Landlos, who is a far bigger threat overall thanks to better coverage, typing and stat layout. Life Orb and Sand Power give you amazing initial power helping Rock Slide and EQ, and HP Ice takes care of Gliscor like was mentioned and some other things. Rock Polish as your boosting move makes you even faster than Dory.

 

[ToastTyrant13]

Hmm. When I first planned this team, I used Landlos to test him out. My only problem was its complete let down in type synergy. He presented the problem of 3 ice (2 x4 ) weaknesses, and 3 Water weaknesses. Doryuuzu, on the other hand, made it just 2 ice weaknesses and 3 water. It may not seem like much, but it severely matters when I'm confronted with things like Starmie, one of the biggest threats to my team (I need to put him in my OP). Landlos is always KOed by Ice Beam, while Doryuuzu outspeeds and usually OHKOs with X-Scissor (another reason why it works over Brick Break).

The GliscOrb set seems like it would work well. Does fling only work once though (I've never used it) ? And wouldn't that spread of Jolly 252/252 make him a lot less bulky?

 

[Benlisted]

If you have a large issue with Rain, why not try using Hail on Tentacruel over Toxic, perhaps? You can reset the weather to Sand with Hippo once you're done, and it simply forces Politoed in more for you to accumulate damage on it. As a last ditch thing, you can also use it cripple enemy Doryuuzus, if say your own is dead (somehow). T-Spikes and Toxic seem somewhat redundant, especially as other team members run Toxic too. Rank can still be set up in it fairly easily, and Gliscor/Tentacruel can avoid damage with their Lefties.

I'd advise Lefties>Black Sludge for Tent, perhaps, since Tricks could give them a weapon to use against the rest of your team (it damages non-poison types, not those not immune to poison).

 

[Roger Fox]

You Say that gyro ball on nattorei deals good damage tosteel types. But they resist it and usually have high defense and low speed. Go with thunder Wave over protect, it lets you cripple tons of things and once your opponent knows you have protect they can take advantage of it for free turns of set up or easy switches. Go with Thunder Wave.

 

[ToastTyrant13]

@Benlisted-
I actually like that. I've noticed that when I face other SS teams, Doryuuzu is the main problem. I'll drop Toxic for Hail.

@Roger Fox-
Gyro Ball does actually deal good damage with his awfully slow speed. Thunder Wave is useless with Gyro Ball, and Power Whip by itself provides terrible coverage. If Thunder Wave seems much more important (I actually wanna' use it. I'm hesitant though) I could run...hmmm...I suppose either Iron Head or Power Whip, IDK.

 

[Benlisted]

Glad you like the idea :). Oh, also, something to consider over Lum on Hippo is Mental Herb, which now protects against Taunt. (check if it's coded in on PO first though, if using it there). You lose the ability to take sleep, sure, but now Darkrai's gone how many people run Sleep leads? Lum tends to work better on sweepers, anyway, for when they need a single extra turn of setup, whereas a tank will simply get statused the next turn.

I wouldn't try T-Wave if you have T-spikes, though I suppose you could use it on fast levitators. Gyro Ball/PW seems fine anyway.

 

[ToastTyrant13]

Glad you like the idea :). Oh, also, something to consider over Lum on Hippo is Mental Herb, which now protects against Taunt. (check if it's coded in on PO first though, if using it there). You lose the ability to take sleep, sure, but now Darkrai's gone how many people run Sleep leads? Lum tends to work better on sweepers, anyway, for when they need a single extra turn of setup, whereas a tank will simply get statused the next turn.

Wow! I didn't know Mental Herb was upgarded so well! I'll test it out. My only concern is Dyamichamp, and Hypnosis from Politoed/Ninetails. It still seems like a good idea though.

E: I think I'm gonna keep my set for now, in order to make him bulky since this is more so a semi-stall/semi-offensive sand team.

 

[Roger Fox]

Im not saying gyro ball dosn't do good damage i am just saying that you specify metal types and no matter how slow nattorei is its still not going to do much to metal types that is why I suggest Thunder Wave.
One other thing Maybe it really helps but it seems a little redundant to me to run toxic spikes and then have toxic on 2 other pokes. If you really need it fine but i would suggest you replace toxic on gliscor with taunt I have found it really useful for shutting down walls and such.
Then just a nitpick gliscor dosnt resist fire, steel or flying.

 

[Drifloon]

You seem to be weak on the special side, mostly water types I have seen. Magnezone sounds like it could be a decent asset to your team, seeing as it always beats skarm and if you carry balloon, you can hp ice Gliscor. It also takes out Starmie and Politoed for you.
I'm not sure who you would use it over though.

Also, Rankurusu wants lefties.

 

[ToastTyrant13]

My only concern with leftovers is that I would be likely to become set-up fodder if I'm put to sleep, paralyzed, or even frozen. A Burn/Poison doesn't effect my abilities to tank and sweep while giving me immunity to the unpleasant statuses.

What I meant about Gliscor was that pokes rarely give him problems with Flying, and the pokemon that carry steel type moves can rarely deal efficient damage, while fire is....well, I derped on that one.

 

[Drifloon]

Toxic orb is doing nothing for you when you can just switch to Gliscor as a status absorber. The only common user of sleep is Breloom who you wouldn't want to stay in on anyways due to bullet seed. Paralysis is becoming less common and freeze is rare.

I'm confused on the second part. What are you trying to say about Scor?

 

[ToastTyrant13]

I'm confused on the second part. What are you trying to say about Scor?

Sorry, the guy who posted above you said that I said in the OP or something that Gliscor resists Fire, Steel, and Flying.

E: I suppose I don't usually need to worry about Paralysis because of my many immunities, and sleep since I could swith to something bulky. I'll sub for lrfties.

 

[(makeup)]

I'm not giving an actual rate, but you should never run Nattorei without Shed Shell in Dream World. Ever. Never ever.

 

[ToastTyrant13]

I'm not giving an actual rate, but you should never run Nattorei without Shed Shell in Dream World. Ever. Never ever.

What I've seen is that almost everyone fears bringing in Shandera or Magnezone since , until they see that I'm using Rugged Helmet, they usually expect me to switch out with Shed Shell to something that could easily eliminate them.

 

[Jaroda]

Yes and no. If you play on the Smogon server with team preview and you see Shandera you can plan accordingly. Leftovers is infinitely more useful against teams without a trapper. So when you see in the team preview that the opponent has a Shandera and you a Nattorei, they'll obviously wait to switch it in on that. You can play accordingly by double switching into a pursuit user or simply using Thunder Wave on their switch and their Shandera is basically a non-issue at that point. Fair trade off if you ask me. While Shandera is super common in DW, 80% of teams still don't use him, so Leftovers is more useful in the longrun given you're a capable player.

 

[ToastTyrant13]

I just wanted to point out that while I play this on DW, I hope to manifest this exactly when I get pokemon White, which is why I've been using my team. I almost always fail with teams, but this one is turning out well.

@Jaroda-Thanks! I've actually been waiting to determine how big of a threat Shanderaa/Magnezone are in DW/Wi-Fi. Both are almost non-existent actually (Shanderaa pops up occasionally, but rarely). I think I'll switch to lefties in order to maintain his longetivity.

Quick Question, Is there a big difference between Dory and Sandslash type/stat wise (I've never used 'slash.)? I've been testing, and Dory's fighting weakness tends to present a problem with Nattorei when it comes to things like Blaziken and Roobushin.

 

[Jaroda]

If you play in Wi-Fi it's a non issue. If you play in DW, Shed Shell is highly viable, moreso if you play without team preview. It CAN be worked around however if you know your opponent has a Shandera.

Sandslash weaknesses - Water, Grass
Dory weaknesses - Water, Fighting, Ground, Fire

Dory has much better stats though.

 

[Smurph]

a Quick note, Mamoswine would help against skarmory and especially gliscor while still running with the sandstorm. he can also plain out punch holes with Life orb

 

[ToastTyrant13]

@ Jaroda-Thanks! I was gonna see how his cousin did since he also got Sand Throw, but I guess 'Slash just doesn't catch up with the standards.

@ Smurph-Wow. I've recently forgot about Mamoswine. My biggest concern is fitting it onto my team. I don't know if it would work out well, espeially if it swapped with Dory.

 

[Jaroda]

I fail to see how Mamoswine is a Skarmory counter when A) it is a physical attacker and B) it doesn't carry any super effective moves. Even with Choice Band Icicle Spear/Drop and Rock Slide will do pitiful damage. Skarmory will Roost all day on you or just Whirlwind you out.