[OU] The world keeps on turning.

[pokefan0]

Introduction:

In making this team I took into consideration, my play-style-etc..and while I like to play a hard-hitting heavy offensive glass cannon style, I have recently found myself leaning towards the side of speed, deception, and a relatively bulky offense.

The first thing I had to analyze when taking all things into consideration was..how can I stay one-step ahead of the opponent? The answer was extremely simple-U-turn.

Possibly one of the best moves to utilize in the game and one I love to take complete and full advantage of. The idea behind it is to come in with hard hitters and U-turn around to scout, while occassionally hitting with other moves so the opponent has no idea what's coming to him, and will have to play around my constant switches and assaults.

So at this point what you're probably wondering is-"If you switch around so much, how do you get around entry hazards?" Well here's an analysis of my entry hazard damage..

Stealth Rock:
1 Immune
2 Resist
3 Neutral

Spikes:
1 Immune

Toxic Spikes:
3 Immune

So as i'm not taking much damage from SR(the most common entry hazard) my switches are valid and not hitting my team too hard, while spikes and Tspikes rarely ever see the field when faced with my team.

Without further ado..

Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Relaxed
Ev's: 240 HP/ 216 Def/ 52 SpA.
Moveset-
~Stealth Rock
~Earthquake
~Ice Beam
~Roar

Moveset- Stealth Rock is basic entry hazard set-up, swampert does a better job at it than 99% of leads in my opinion, always setting them up outside of the uncommon roserade lead. The rocks isn't essential to the success of my team but it is invaluable to guarantee certain KO's and 2KO's that would otherwise be unreachable. Earthquake and Ice Beam are generic mixpert moves while Roar is selected over Protect to give me a much-needed phaser and cause substituters some grief.

Role: Obviously Swampert is my lead, and as the lead he starts the game off right by setting up rocks and trouncing leads like metagross-bar explosion-and jirachi in the likes. My favorite thing about this particular guy is the relative bulk he brings to the teama nd his usefullness even in the lategame.

Machamp @ Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
Nature: Adamant
Ev's: 216 HP/ 252 Atk/ 40 Spd
Moveset-
~Substitute
~Dynamic Punch
~Payback
~Stone Edge

Moveset- A subchamp I found while trolling the RMT forums, and a set I particularly love. The moves are designed to basically make him a set-up type, and when forcing a switch keeps him from being vulnerable to status that would otherwise completely kill his effectiveness. Substitute is obvious, Dynamic Punch is incredible STAB and keeping the opponent from attacking 50% of the time basically sucks for them. Payback OHKO's basically every ghost from behind a substitute. Stone Edge combined with No Guard makes some very unhappy flying type poke's and gives Machamp an advantage over other Stone Edge users given his will never miss, although his speed can disappoint.

Role: Machamp is my #1 Blissey counter, this guy turns the fat pink blob into virtual set-up fodder and makes my life that much easier. He also acts as a disrupter on my team, being able to ruin alot of strategies with his confusion factor and unusual moveset-which counters alot of his common switch-ins and can dish out the damage with ease if he gets behind his substitute.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability:Natural Cure
Nature: Modest
Ev's: 240 HP/ 220 Def/ 40 Sp.Atk/ 8 Sp.Def
Moveset-
~Recover
~HP Fire
~Grass Knot
~Thunder wave

Moveset- Originally U-turn was on this gal, but i've recently went with thunder wave which has oodles of uses in being able to completely disable switch-ins that would look to wall this set. Recover is there for instant self-recovery which is irreplacable. HP Fire is to give scizor a nice surprise, and the EV's are there to guarantee it ALWAYS OHKO's. Grass Knot handles Swampert, and can also give TTar a good shot before it proceeds to DD or crunch.

Role: Celebi can be used to lure out dragons that normally wall her set and use her for set-up fodder, and more importantly lure out the ever pesky scizor and eliminate it without mercy. Recover and Natural cure bring a recovery user that give me survivability and a pseudo-status absorber, being able to come in, take the status and U-turn out of it thanks to Natural Cure. She also has very good synergy with pert, resisting all the grass attacks thrown at him, while pert can take fire attacks aimed at celebi.

Infernape @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
Nature: Naive
Ev's: 252 Atk/252/ 6 Sp.Atk
Moveset-
~Overheat
~Close Combat
~Mach Punch
~ U-turn/Stone Edge

Moveset- Overheat and close combat combine for unbelievably powerful Dual STAB attacks + Life Orb making this guy a deadly attacker. Mach Punch is there to ensure I am never swept by lucario or empoleon which are normally an awful pest. The last slot is a toss-up, while I would normally never pass up a chance to use U-turn given this is a U-turn team, a faster and secondary Stone Edge has proven more viable in alot of the battles. Machamp can't always be depended on for that Stone Edge against Zapdos, Salamence, Gyrados, the latter 2 Pre-DD, which is where this guy comes in.

Role: Infernape acts as a priority killer and a hard hitter, He can hit extremely hard with either Close Combat or Overheat, then get out of there, or make his common switch-ins-(Hi gyrados/latias) eat dirt with a Stone Edge. He also adds a needed element of speed on the team, to balance out the bulkyness and provide backup for celebi and pert.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
Ev's: 248 HP/ 252 Atk/ 8 Spe
Moveset-
~U-turn
~Bullet Punch
~Pursuit
~Quick Attack

Moveset- This guy absorbs the beauty of dual-priority revenge killing thanks to the previous fighting STABs coming from infernape and machamp. He's the second U-turner in my trio and the one who abuses it the most coming off of STAB 591 Atk and is just a ferocious presence out there. Bullet Punch makes a nice STAB priority to eat salamence and other dragons, Quick Attack is to hit possible incoming Zapdos/Infernape, while the former is hit with U-turn. Pursuit is a necessity here, and while most wouldn't use it, the idea behind this team is trapping and switching, and a well placed pursuit cracks the game wide open for me.

Role: IMO one of the best revenge killers in the current metagame, and probably the most overused. He's an absolute beast on my team and is the staple member that keeps me in the game 9 times out of 10. Magnezone while be constantly frustrated by his U-turn, and he revenge kills salamence's that would normally give this team problems-especially DD versions, unless they carry fireblast.

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Adamant/ Jolly
Ev's: 4 HP/ 252 Atk/ 252 Spe
Moveset-
~Outrage
~U-turn
~Earthquake
~Fire Punch

Moveset: Obviously U-turn is a must here, coming off a speedy user of it. STAB Outrage is a force to be reckoned with and lategame this guy makes deadly use of it. STAB Earthquake is also just as effective and deadly, giving me a much needed ground move. While Fire Blast is generally utilized-with the advent of specially defensive skarmory's popping up fire punch is generally a little more viable.

Role: Acts as my 3rd and finally U-turner, and gives me a very speedy pokemon outside of Infernape to utilize. He easily rids latias and mixmence from the field, and a resistance to all forms of spikes, SR, and ground type moves is hard to pass up on.

Jolly Nature isn't always used on this guy, but in many cases it can be viable as it allows flygon to revenge kill salamence after one DD, although most-especially if lacking fire blast- lack the ability to KO scizor.

Closing:
While I genereally fail at teams, horribly, this has been one of my best and more useable teams out there that has netted me alot of wins in close and tight battles, and while it still needs work I find it one of my best pieces of work by far and would like to improve on it.

Please Rate :D

 

[pokefan0]

Threat List
-----------------------------

• Green means they are not a problem for me.
• Orange means they can cause a bit of trouble.
• Red means they are very difficult to take down.

Offensive Threats

Aerodactyl : A rare Pokemon to come accross these days, bullet punch takes care of it and leads are taken out by ice beam.
---

Alakazam : Not really a big problem, takes one bullet punch and down it goes.
---

Azelf : Same boat as Aerodactyl, only that he is more common as a lead. Non-lead versions fall horribly to Bullet Punch.
---

Breloom : One that is allowed to set-up subs is no fun, but celebi can absorb sleep and allow scizor to come in and slam bullet punches down it's throat.
---

Dragonite : Unless this guy is passed a ton of boosts, I can handle him with pretty much anything.
---

Dugtrio : Eh well he traps anything, except for my U-turners, and he is generally easy to handle.
---

Electivire : Well let's see..no electric attacks= No boost= Dead Electivire.
---

Empoloen : While he CAN be trouble, mach punch ensures he doesn't do much after he "sets up"
---

Flygon : Not really as common, but won't last long outside of U-turns, bullet punches, and slower ones taking outrages.
---

Gengar : Versions switching into machamp take a payback in the face, outside of that bullet punch will send this guy packing.
---

Gyarados : If he sets-up, annoying, otherwise he has to take an infernape stone edge, machamp stone edge, celebi grass knot.
---

Heatran : Outran by flygon and easily KO'd
---

Heracross : Unbelievably annoying, but is revenge killed by scizor after a CC or nape if it's not running a scarf with alot of speed.
---

Infernape : My own infernape/priority can revenge this guy, flygon outspeeds and KO's with EQ.
---

Jirachi : Flinch Hax is annoying, but as he usually tricks the first turn I always EQ to take care of him.
---

Jolteon : Two electric resists turn this guy inside out.
---

Kingdra : Celebi completely walls every set and can return KO it with grass knot, flygon outspeeds and Ko's with Outrage. Bullet Punch hurts.
---

Latias : With all my U-turns flying around and dual-priority on Scizor, this guy is a breeze.
---

Lucario : Mach punch saves the day.
---

Machamp : Non-defensive versions can't stand up to priority moves and his speed is taken on extremely easy.
---

Magnezone : U-turns can prevent him from trapping scizor which would be a very very bad situation, even in that case infernape handles him with ease.
---

Mamoswine : Scizor's bullet punch should be more than enough.
---

Metagross : Certainly annoying, but behind scarfed earthquakes and priority I don't see it getting around much.
---

Porygon-Z : ?, Don't see them much, 2 STAB fighting attacks take it on.
---

Rhyperior : Never let it set up also. Grass Knot takes it down, although celebi fears megahorn, also CC, Dynamic Punch, and Bullet Punch.
---

Salamence : Troublesome-yes-but I can revenge kill him with ease and non DD versions are outsped by flygon.
---

Scizor : Hi celebi.
---

Starmie : Hard to see this guy switching in on any of my U-turns.
---

Togekiss : Two T-wave resists, air resists, and no fighting weaks make this guy hardpressed to severely damage me.

---

Tyranitar : Mach Punch, Machamp, And Bullet Punch.
---

Weavile : Bullet Punch, Mach Punch.
---

Yanmega : ? Never faced it.

Defensive Threat List:

Blissey : Machamp turns the blob into set-up fodder.
---

Bronzong : Overheat from infernape turns this guy inside out, and fire punch is always a 2HKO.
---

Celebi : U-turns, Pursuit, Payback, HP Fire, Overheat, a number of things.
---

Cresselia : U-turns genereally hit her hard but she is very annoying.
---

Donphan : Doesn't threaten any of my time.
---

Forretress : Overheat is an easy KO.
---

Gliscor : Not usually much of a threat, takes alot of damage from any special attacks and even physical attacks.
---

Hippowdon : Slow, fat, doesn't appreciate confusion.
---

Skarmory : Overheat, S.Def versions take a fire punch.
---

Snorlax : With all my strong physical attackers this guy is meat.
---

Suicune: Annoying, but can't take many grass knot's, and non defensive versions get hit hard by CC.
---

Swampert : Celebi
---

Tentacruel : Hello flygon
---

Vaporeon : Doesn't take alot from grass knot, which sucks, but even optimal defensive versions won't last forever.
---

Zapdos : Quick attack from Zapdos hits very hard, all the priority and stone edge from infernape handle him quite well.

 

[Dormin]

I must say this team is very solid, and with U-turn, Roar, and Substitute, your opponent is going to have a hell of a time trying to gain some kind of initiative. To be honest there really isn't much to say, but I think a few tweaks are in order.

First off, Flygon. I strongly recommend that you go back to an Adamant nature simply for power's sake. You really shouldn't be too worried about Salamence as long as rocks are up and Scizor can Bullet Punch. Overall the loss of power is not worth checking one specific threat.

As for Celebi, I'm at odds about the set. If U-turn is working well, then by all means keep using it, but I would also recommend testing Thunder Wave and Baton Pass (bear with me on this one). While it is common, Thunder Wave with a little prediction can help your team a lot by slowing down the opponent's team to help Machamp wreak havoc. The only reason I recommend dry-passing on Celebi is that it bypasses Pursuit from the likes of Tyranitar. The only tradeoff is that small hit on the switch in with U-turn for the ability to escape from traps with Baton Pass.

I must be missing something, because this is the shortest RMT I've made in awhile. I was struggling to make suggestions lol. Really this team is great and I think it should bring you a lot of success if you use it well. Good luck!

 

[pokefan0]

Very appreciated :D Yes I do run adamant on flygon 99% of the time because, as you said, scizor will always KO DDmence after rocks. I'm interested in that Baton passing set, can you show me the set? I'll make any minor tweaks necessary.

 

[Cerulean21]

Hey there. First of all, pretty great team, it seems you have most threats more or leass covered. Just some minor suggestions I'd like to point out

On Celebi: I don't really see what this EV spread is doing for you, epsecially the 8 SpD EVs. You might want to consider the standard 252 HP, 216 Def, 40 Spe (since HP Fire lowers your Speed). This gives Celebi amazing physical bulkyness with enough Speed to outrun Max Speed Jolly Tyranitar, which is great, since Celebi can hit it first and if you get lucky (depending on his EV spread) you can 2HKO with Grass Knot. U-turn is a great move, however, you might still want to consider Thunder Wave in this spot. It can help a lot against Salamence who otherwise switches in for free (and sets up), resisting every move you got.

Another option for Swampert over Roar could be Protect, which is extremely useful on a lead set. It helps you scout for Trick users (Jirachi and some Metagross) as well as avoid Explosion (it doesn't work as well without a Ghost type though, if Metagross decides to blow himself up on the second turn). But Roar is certainly more useful late game, so this is mainly up to preference.

Since you've got Celebi to counter Gyarados already, I'd recommend going for U-turn instead of Stone Edge. It hurts two of Apes most common counters (Latias and Starmie) for SE damage. This might be especially crucial since many Latias are paired up with Magnezone to get rid of Scizor easily.

I see kind of issues with the Rotom formes. Bulky versions easily outstall Celebi, counter Scizor and can severely hurt Flygon and Machamp with Will-o-Wisp. Rotom is rather hard to counter depending on his sets. Prediction usually helps a lot (or a Flash Fire Mixed Houndoom, but I don't think this would suit the team). Speaking of Flash Fire a Celebi/Heatran combination (if supported well, e.g. with Vapy for Infernape and Flygon) can really hurt this team too, so be vary of that.

Apart from that (and the Salamence problem you've already lined out) i don't see any major weaknesses in this team. Pretty well done. Hope I helped.

 

[pokefan0]

Ahh I should explain the celebi set, celebi's ev's there always OHKO scizor with HP fire, so it doesn't have a chance to U-turn out on celebi and give it a shot. Protect is great on swampert, I agree, but my main purpose for roar is that alot of meta leads don't explode much anymore, or don't carry it, so it generally helps with phazing and given jirachi does decide to trick-which it does about 99% of the time, it's just giving me a faster, deadlier pert, and it also has to take an earthquake in the face.

Also @ Celebi, I have been considering that(thunder wave), and as you said giving ape U-turn would just add to the mayhem since gyrados is already covered.

Rotom-yes-very annoying, but from most of my battles they end up switching into a champ payback which is obviously no good for them, so I haven't had a whole lot of issues dealing with them, but obviously it's impossible to have them completely covered.

Thanks for your help!- I'll edit some changes when I make them.

 

[Dormin]

When I suggested Baton Pass I meant it to simply replace U-turn on your current set to avoid pursuit, but it comes down to your preference, and you really shouldn't have to worry too much about Celebi getting taken out by Pursuit when you have Stone Edge on Infernape and a Choice Scarf Flygon. I know the evs are standard for your Infernape, but I could never really figure out what the SpA evs were for--I assume most things you'd KO with Overheat with the 64 evs would also be KOed without the extra 16 stat points. I usually just max speed to outrun opposing infernapes, which isn't a bad thing with Infernape sitting at the 6th most used OU pokemon according to May's stats.

As for U-turn vs Stone Edge, its another preference thing as far as I'm concerned, and I'd test both to find out what works better for you. On one hand you hit Latias/Starmie hard on the switch in, and on the other you are able to take down Gyarados and Salamence. Worth trying both I guess.

 

[iKitsune]

You may want to consider CM on your celebi in that filler slot. Ive used CM celebi to great effect for a long time and it functions as a great response to what i feel are some of the most dangerous threats in the game ie CM Jirachi, Empoleon Agility variants and Rain Dance teams if you can manage to get enough boosts. Calm Mind on celebi has worked excellently for me it can even take on stall fairly well. Normally when i use it i run 76 spe evs and a timid nature the rest in defenses with these evs it outspeeds neutral base 80s. It may be worth considering for this team.

On celebi you may want to run this spread 252 hp/220def/36spe with calm mind but run bold celebi is far more durable and with CM it still easily takes on Scizor and with bold can just take on even bounce Gyarados.

Hope this helps.

 

[pokefan0]

Hmm @ Dormin, i'm looking into all those celebi variants, with infernape max speed is probably going to be the better option especially to outrun those other infernapes that can be annoying in a bad way. I've honestly come down to throwing in U-turn lately as stone edge's accuracy is a let down, and it's already being utilized on another pokemon, and gyrados is handled easily. U-turn, as you said, hits latias and starmie hard, which can be potential problems and also adds on to the "what do I do now?" effect of the U-turn core :D

@ Ikitsune. I'll definitely try that, never really considered it but I have been wrecked before by CM celebi's.

 

[pokefan0]

Bump!