[OU RMT] Attrition

[Ankoku]

Hi, I'm somewhat new to this game (I pretty much started around the beginning of May) and I've been playing a bunch of different teams on Smogon's ladder. Here's my latest one, which is pretty much a Toxic stall team.... with a Lucario.

Kirtar (Skarmory) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP/40 Spd/216 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind

Skarmory's really funny as a lead. It can survive and set up hazards on the defensive ones, and it lets me bait an action from the offensive ones. Choice Scarf Jirachi? Switch to Tentacruel. Aerodactyl? Go Cresselia and prevent him from accomplishing much more than setting up Rocks. Azelf? Switch to Spiritomb for the same effect. Later on, it can safely set up hazards and play some Whirlwind shuffling.

Oriss (Blissey) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Def/252 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Shadow Ball

Apparently SkarmBliss is a pretty big combo for their obvious interactions between each other. Blissey's equipped with Toxic to catch anything that flies or levitates, and when I saw Shadow Ball in someone else's RMT I realized how effectively it gave me a counter to Sub Gengar, which I had be heavily afraid of earlier. Blissey can easily take a Focus Blast for only 30% of its life, using Wish/Protect to get itself back in health after switching into an attack and then Wish/Shadow Ball to put the pressure on. Tending to bait in physical Steel types, Blissey now runs Heal Bell to keep the rest of my team in good condition as well as enabling Rest as a viable recovery tool.

Szadek (Tentacruel) (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP/120 Def/136 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Surf

Standard Toxic Spikes Rapid Spin Tentacruel. Black Sludge makes him a very good scapegoat for Trick.

Teysa (Spiritomb) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Will-o-wisp
- Dark Pulse
- Rest
- Taunt

Spiritomb's in as my spin-blocker as well as being the best way to wall a Machamp. With maximum defenses, a Dark type, and being so slow, Payback is actually not Machamp's best option. Meanwhile, Spiritomb is free to just Will-o-wisp twice until Machamp gets crippled. Will-o-wisp also doubles as a damaging status that can hit any Steel-types except for Heatran. Taunt is in as another way to deal with Baton Pass teams, in case they sent in a Smeargle to block out Whirlwind with Ingrain. I wish I could say I didn't lose to this strategy.

Isperia (Cresselia) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 122 HP/252 Def/136 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Charge Beam
- Rest

Physically-based mixed wall that can come in against a lot of different attacks. Cresselia has access to Toxic in order to hit the ones that Blissey cannot safely come in for. She is also able to withstand most physical attacks from Dragons, taking only 23% damage at most from a Choice Scarf Flygon's U-Turn, and retaliate with Ice Beam. Psychic is a relic from when I used her to tank Machamp and attack back, so I might remove it for something more useful, or add in Charge Beam. Cresselia is specifically speed EV'd to outrun max speed EV neutral-speed-natured Breloom, so that she can immediately threaten it once someone else was put to sleep by Spore.

Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Agility
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Ice Punch

Lucario is my answer to opponents who try to stall me right back. Because of the nature of a lot of stall and balance teams, I prefer the Agility build, as it allows me to cut through Choice Scarf revenge killers and seriously damage any teams that don't run priority. STAB Close Combat is also great for taking down many walls that can't otherwise be broken through stalling means - Blissey, Snorlax, Clefable, etc.
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Obviously, the main objective of the team is to slowly whittle down the opponent with damage status and entry hazards, but in the case of another stall designed to handle status, it can also bring in a Lucario to get things moving forward. A lot of somewhat non-standard movesets are in to shut down common anti-stall threats, like attacking lead Machamp, Sub Gengar, SubPunch/SubSeed Breloom, Infernape, Choice Scarf Tricksters, most forms of Salamence, and other stall teams. I think I might have a problem with AgiliGross.

 

[tab]

Hey, welcome to Smogon. While stall teams with a sweeper such as Lucario to clean up at the end of the game are extremely viable, yours needs quite a bit of work to be really effective in my opinion, as it's currently lacking a way of dealing with a lot of the biggest threats.

First things first, you're lacking a way of dealing with Tyranitar properly, as Skarmory will usually get outsped and 2HKOed by CB Stone Edge, and nothing else on your team can switch into it. Fortunately, there's a really simple change that will fix that, which is using a Swampert. Running a set of Stealth Rock/Ice Beam/Earthquake/Roar will give you an extremely solid Tyranitar counter, as well as another means of phazing to shuffle about and weaken teams through spikes damage. Swampert will also give you a more effective lead, as Skarmory isn't really a good lead unless it has Taunt and a Lum Berry.
I'd drop Cresselia for Swampert, as is it considerably less effective than usual in the current metagame with Tyranitar and Scizor everywhere, but in general it's not the most effective of pokemon, giving plenty of opportunities for pokemon to set up on you, causing you a lot of problems.

You've got the right idea in using a Specially Defensive Skarmory, however you need to sort its nature and EV spread out a bit. I'd run 40 Speed EVs, which lets you outspeed almost all CB Tyranitar, letting you roost on Stone Edges if necesarry. The EVs can be taken out of Special Defense. Then I'd use a Careful nature instead of Impish. Especially with Swampert in to help Skarmory out, you'll be able to handle what you need to without the +Def nature, and the +SpD nature is extremely important in letting Skarmory tank special attacks to set up Spikes reliably.

Shadow Ball isn't really a very useful attack on Blissey. While it lets you deal with SubGar, there's a lot of other ways of getting around it, and it doesn't need a dedicated attack. As a single attack, Seismic Toss is probably the best option, and I'd consider dropping Toxic for Ice Beam, so that Blissey can deal with MixMence if need be. If you want to keep Toxic, you could also try out Softboiled instead of Wish+Protect, which frees up a moveslot. I'd also suggest going with a Bold nature, and 252 HP EVs instead of SpD EVs, which goes a long way towards helping Blissey tank the odd physical attack, while still allowing her to be a perfectly good special wall.

You're going to want to use a RestTalk Rotom-A instead of Spiritomb, which is pretty much better in every way. Access to Thunderbolt gives you the Gyarados counter you're lacking, and Levitate makes it much easier to deal with certain teams. It also means you have a way of dealing with Skarmory, which you're going to struggle to get into KO range for Lucario otherwise. If you play Rotom well, it also gives the the advantage of having a way to lure Pursuit/Crunches from the likes of Scizor and Tyranitar, which will give you an easy opportunity to set up Lucario and finish the game.

Finally, while Tentacruel is decent here, I'd probably go with a Starmie instead, which will give you a spinner capable of beating Rotom-A spin blockers, as well as a more reliable Infernape counter. I don't think you really need Toxic Spikes on this team, as your aim should be to get teams to the point where Agility Lucario can sweep, and Spikes+Stealth Rock alone manage that extremely well. There's a few sets you could try out. Life Orb offensive Starmie will give you a way to make it extremely difficult for teams to spin block you, a secondary way of clearing up along with Lucario, and a way of checking Gengar. You could also try out the same set but with Leftovers if Life Orb recoil is unappealing to you. Alternatively, a defensive Starmie with Surf/Reflect/Recover/Rapid Spin would give you a solid spinner and Infernape counter, as well as having a way of avoiding being so easy for ScarfTar to deal with, while helping to boost your teams defense at the same time, which can be extremely useful.

Good luck!

 

[Ankoku]

I do need a solution to Tyranitar, but taking Cresselia out for Swampert means I'll no longer have a solution to Breloom, which is a ridiculously annoying Pokémon to deal with otherwise. Are there any alternatives?

I didn't have much trouble with Gyarados through Taunt to stop its DDing and Will-o-Wisp to let it eventually kill itself, but I haven't met the bulky variant yet. Skarmory and Gyarados is giving me extra reason to put a Charge Beam on Cresselia as well...

Also, I typically don't bring out Lucario as a sweep, as I'm often content to just stall out the game and let entry hazards and status just kill everything for me. I'd actually like that kind of strategy to stand alone, with Lucario as more or less a catch-all to break up dedicated anti-stalls.

I'm curious as to how a Starmie beats a Rotom. Could you elaborate on that?

I'll look over the rest of the suggestions as well as the EV spread on Skarmory. Thanks for the advice!

 

[tab]

Breloom is going to be problematic for any stall team, but I wouldn't say it's worth taking a Cresselia over a better all-round pokemon simply because of that. You can beat Breloom by making smart choices about what takes the Spore (Rotom is a perfect choice if you use one), Whirlwind/Roaring switches to weaken it, and, if necesarry, using Skarmory to Brave Bird it (I think I forgot to mention that it can replace Stealth Rock if Swampert is used).

As for Gyarados, the set I was referring to in particular is the Taunt set, which can occasionally almost guarentee a win against stall if you're caught without a direct means of beating it.

If you're not too bothered about Lucario being a focus of the team, you might want to look into extra defensive pokemon to help you stall more effectively. However, I'd suggest keeping an open mind with regards to focusing your play around letting Lucario sweep - Agility Lucario is incredibly effective with Spikes support at the moment.

By Starmie beating Rotom, I meant that the threat of Hydro Pump makes it incredibly risky for Rotom to try and spin block, as against a 248 HP/136 SpD Rotom, which is about as bulky as you'll get, it does 58.6% - 69.1% with a Life Orb, and 44.7% - 53.3% without.

 

[Ankoku]

Brave Bird only removes the SubPunchBomb set, while it strictly loses to the SubPunchSeed set, which is why I specifically EV'd Cresselia to have speed. I'm pretty sure Charge Beam would allow her to wall and counter Gyarados, as well.

If I absolutely had to remove a Pokémon for Swampert, I would probably take out Tentacruel, forgoing the Toxic Spikes and Rapid Spin support. Or I can dip even more into UU and run Donphan, for both the STAB Earthquake and the Rapid Spin. The biggest problem with this is that I'd be losing my easy Trick target for those obvious Scarf Jirachis/Starmies/whatever.

As I also mentioned earlier, Spiritomb is pretty much the best thing around to stop the lead Machamp that's been going around lately, able to null its most devastating attack and not worry about Payback, which is a trait that is rather unique among all the Ghosts I was checking through. Rotoms also are unable to Taunt.

 

[Ankoku]

Bump. I'd like some more comments about this team. I've made a few changes throughout, but am otherwise pretty happy with it.

Charge Beam on Cresselia happens to work well enough to beat most Gyarados.