Première équipe (OU)

[End Fashion]

Summary:

The first team that I am willing to post after playing competitively for an impressive two days.

Aerodactyl (Jolly) @ Focus Sash
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Designed to get the stealth rocks out at the very least, and deal some damage after that. Whirlwind is there to stop any set-ups that I might foresee depending on the Pokemon that they open with.

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Empoleon (Modest) @ Petaya Berry
- Agility
- Hidden Power Fire
- Substitute
- Surf
28 HP / 228 Spe / 252 SpA

'Agility Torrent Sweeper' build that is the workforce of the team. Once it's out and set up it's a real force. For the most part it's pretty easy to get out and get rolling too. Surf is for the percentage hits, and HP Fire is for... well I don't know haha. HP Ice or Grass Knot are recommended, but I think I have most of my Ice-needing threats sort of covered in other areas. At full power Surf seems to cut through most Pokemon. I also heard that Rain Dance has been getting around a bit, which can work in my favor so long as Empoleon stays conscious.

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Infernape (Jolly) @ Life Orb
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Flare Blitz
- U-Turn
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Standard mixed-bag physical attacker. I'll U-Turn may be a little bit of a waste since a lot of psychics would outpace me, but on the off chance that a slower one pops out I might as well use it. I'm considering using Heatran here instead. Thoughts?

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Cresselia (Modest) @ Leftovers
- Calm Mind
- Ice Beam
- Moonlight
- Thunder Wave
20 HP / 252 Def / 236 SpA

This and the following slot were originally occupied by Breloom and Weaville, but this left me way too open to fire attacks, with basically nothing to switch in effectively. That said, I felt the need for something squishy and annoying - not to mention fire retardant. So, Cresselia fills this role. It's not designed to be a fire-fighter (that was just an example) but to be the team's go-go creature in the face of adversity (ie. big, giant, superpowered monstrosities).

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Heracross (Adamant) @ Choice Band
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
104 HP / 252 Atk / 152 Spe

Heracross. Choice Band. Enough said.

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Alakazam (Timid) @ Choice Specs
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power Ice
- Psychic
- Signal Beam
4 HP / 252 Spe / 252 SpA

Get in, blow something up, and get out. More of a mixed-bag revenge killer than anything else. I'm a little bit iffy about how limited this role is though, so any suggestions for this spot would be appreciated and noted. A scarfed Tyranitar has caught my attention for the sheer surprise value, options, and durability.
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[Orion]

You know, with Aerodactyls Speed, you're much better off using Taunt rather than Whirlwind, which has negative priority, on any setuper. Only Ninjask can setup faster, but when you Taunt, at least it can't BP out.

For Empoleon, Grass Knot is the better choice, as you have a lot of stuff that has Ice-moves already, but nothing that can OHKO Swampert. HP Fire is only needed to OHKO Scizor, which you'll do with Surf with Petaya + Torrent anyway.

Infernape should, when all physical, carry either Thunderpunch or Stone Edge, imo, for Gyarados. Stone Edge if you want to hit Salamence as well, but is weaker on Gyara. Things you hit better with EQ than with CC/FBlitz usually takes some heavy damage from Thunderpunch as well (Tentacruel, Empoleon, etc), meaning you don't really need EQ. A neutral Flare Blitz is only 20 BP weaker than a Super Effective EQ anyway.

The rest is fairly standard.
Now, your Alakazam doesn't really seem to be doing much. As a revengekiller, a Scarfed Pokémon would be better off since it actually can outspeed and revengekill things that set up. Scarfed Gengar or Azelf is premiere examples of that.
Secondly, anything with Setup and a priority-move is dangerous. Scizor and Lucario in particular. Scizor, after a Swords Dance OHKOs all of your Pokémon, while Lucario does pretty much the same, only falling short of the OHKO on Cresselia, but Cress can only hope to cripple it with Thunder Wave.

Therefore, I would switch Cresselia with a defensive Gyarados.
@Leftovers
[Impish]
252 HP, 216 Def, 40 SpDef
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
it effectively counters Lucario and Scizor, and also doing an amazing job at stopping Infernape and Heatran. He does what you want Cress to do, basically.
Then, I would replace Alakazam with a Scarfed Flygon. It gives you some speed, is a great revengekiller, and has a buttload of good resistances for you to abuse. If you have Adamant nature and Stone Edge / Outrage / Earthquake / U-Turn or Fire Blast, that should pretty much be a beast. Oh, and give it 252/252 EVs in Speed/Attack.

Good luck with your team! ;)

 

[Legacy Raider]

Agreeing with Orion that an Aerodactyl lead will be much better off using Taunt over that Whirlwind - being able to stop most opposing leads from setting up their rocks with a fast Taunt is one of Aerodactyl's biggest selling points. Whirlwind has negative priority, and Aerodactyl is far too frail to be an effective phazer. You may also want to consider running Rock Slide over Stone Edge because of its more reliable accuracy and flinch chance, which can go a long way to make up for its loss in power. It will still 2HKO the likes of Azelf and Gengar, and more reliably too as you only have a 64% chance of hitting with two consecutive Stone Edges.

On Empoleon I would replace Surf and HP Fire with Hydro Pump and Grass Knot. The reason behind this is that on an Empoleon you generally want either Surf/Ice Beam or Hydro Pump/Grass Knot, as with Torrent, a resisted Hydro Pump will easily outdamage a neutral Ice Beam, and a resisted Hydro Pump has around 70% the power of a super effective Ice Beam. Since you have some other Ice Moves on your team already, and have no reliable way of hitting Swampert hard, I would go for the latter Hydro Pump / Grass Knot choice.

I think you should definitely make space on your Infernape for Stone Edge, to let you hit Gyarados and Salamence, both who currently wall your Infernape set. I would drop Earthquake, as Fighting + Ground has rather redundant coverage, and there are actually very few Fighting types that opt to use that Ground move. Also, if you are willing to give up U-turn, I think Swords Dance would be an excellent option in the last slot to make Infernape much more of a threat. Without a Swords Dance boost you won't be KOing Salamence or Gyarados with Stone Edge after Intimidate, even with SR. It also means that you can OHKO Vaporeon, one of MixApe's most reliable counters, with a Close Combat after you've danced once.

Apart from that, Orion has really said all I wanted to say. On a small note, if you do choose to go with a ResTalk Gyarados, use an EV spread of 252 HP, 224 Def, 32 Spe. It will let you hit 309 after 1 Dragon Dance and let you outspeed all Jolly Lucario, as well as the majority of Salamence and Zapdos, meaning you can take out these weakened pokemon without having to suffer an attack.

Good luck with your team.

LR.

 

[USEAGAIN DIE]

Taunt would be much better for aerodactal than Whirlwind as it dosent just stop set-ups it stops setting up Rocks T-spikes Spikes and other moves as well i also think the Gyra would work decently as well

 

[End Fashion]

Thanks guys. Here's what I've done so far:

Aerodactyl's Whirlwind -> Taunt; Stone Edge -> Rock Slide
Infernape's Earthquake -> Thunderpunch
Empoleon's Hidden Power -> Grass Knot

I'll test out your move suggestions also, Legacy Raider. I tried the Gyarados/Flygon out, but the results didn't swing my way. That said, I won't completely abandon the idea since it most likely came down to me not playing them correctly. In the interim, I've switched Alakazam out for Tyranitar, who feels much more comfortable to bring out.

Tyranitar (Hasty) @ Choice Scarf
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
120 Atk / 252 Spe / 136 SpA

EDIT: Looking at it, it makes Infernape look sort of redundant.

 

[End Fashion]

Sincerest apologies for bumping this, but I've made some substantial changes that I wish to share:

Refreshed team at a glance:

The basic premise behind the changes is to allow safer and more effective switch-ins on a range of opposing Pokemon. A couple more days competitive experience opened my eyes to a range of attacks that once set up, ravaged my team. I'll keep the first post as a reference, and changes will be marked in blue. If I get the chance I'll come back and try my hand at making a detailed thret list. Thanks in advance to anyone who checks out this team.

In-depth breakdown:

Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Role: Anti-lead Lead
Ability: Pressure
Jolly Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt

Taunt/Focus Sash means that I can at the very least thwart an opposing set up attempt, and get rocks up of my own. If I can hang around beyond that, it's a bonus. Rock Slide is for the accuracy and potential flinch, and Dragon Claw replaces EQ to take a chunk out of Kingdra. Credit to Orion for making this vastly superior than before with the Taunt recommendation alone. I mostly play this thing to the death, unless I see a window of opportunity to bring something else in.

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Empoleon @ Petaya Berry
Role: Special Sweeper
Ability: Torrent
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
EVs: 28 HP / 228 Spe / 252 SpA
- Agility
- Grass Knot
- Substitute
- Surf

Changed HP Fire to Grass Knot. I'm iffy on Hydro Pump because I tend to have poor luck and the 20% chance of missing scares the living daylights out of me. Other than that, the description stays the same: Empoleon is my main workforce and the one that I aim to set up the most. A lot of the time I'll be making switches until I see a safe window to bring him out. Admittedly if he gets KO'd, I get very nervous.

On a side note, the 0 Atk IV is something that I do to my special attackers if their nature/HP allows me to do it on the off chance that I get confused. No point in harming myself any more than I need to.

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Ludicolo @ Leftovers
Role: Intermediate Attacker and Switch-in
Ability: Swift Swim
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spe / 252 SpA
- Energy Ball
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rain Dance

New adddition to the team. I just like its coverage and typing. I try to hold off on using Rain Dance until I've scouted most of the team, since I don't want to be faced with a nice old switch in to screw me over. So Ludi's role is to switch in, and either duke it out or get the opponent to switch out.

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Cresselia @ Leftovers
Role: Wall; Special Attacker
Ability: Levitate
Bold Nature
EVs: 20 HP / 236 Def / 252 SpA
- Calm Mind
- Hidden Power Electric
- Moonlight
- Thunder Wave / Psychic

Slightly more offensive, but bulky enough IMO. Opposing Gyarados' were becoming a real pain, as its typing pretty much neutralised all of my attacks. Since I had some ice type attacks come in the form of Ludicolo's Ice Beam and Donphan's Ice Shard, I figured HP Electric would fill a lot of gaps. I'm not sure about Thunder Wave or Psychic: On one hand I have a decent STAB move, but on the other I have the ability to slow down those awful swift swimming Kingdras. Either way, I tend to use Cresselia to scout and tank. Calm Minds can make the opponent think twice about duking it out one-on-one.

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Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Role: Physical Sweeper; Revenge Killer
Ability: Guts
Adamant Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge

Switched from Choice Band to Choice Scarf just to ensure hits. He's obviously no longer the ultimate power house that he was, but at least if I get left with him late-game I'm ensured some damage. His man uses are still OHKOs, and otherwise it's down to my best prediction.

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Donphan @ Leftovers
Role: Backup Muscle
Ability: Sturdy
Impish Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Rapid Spin
- Stone Edge / Gyro Ball

I use Donphan to spin, clean up, and chip away. I don't have much to say about him at all really. He just fills a hole to take on the likes of Zapdos, Rotom etcetera.
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