Rain Fire on the Harried - OU Weatherless

[Archerdon]

Team Preview:

Changes in red, old version in white

Hydreigon@Life Orb
Levitate
Mild
252 Spe / 252 SpA / 4 HP
- Draco Meteor
- FlamethrowerFire Blast
- Superpower
- Dark PulseRoost

On my old team I use special Nidoking as an incredible damage dealer, hitting several OU threats for super effective damage. I wanted to try out Hydreigon in a similar role for my new team, for many of the same reasons. It hits equally hard (unfortunately, it takes Life Orb damage for the same amount of power as Nidoking) but has different coverage, and has more speed. The object of Hydreigon is to come in at the end after everything is weakened and end the game in my favour. The problem? Hydreigon’s base 98 speed and weakness to Mach Punch. The solution? Heavy paralysis and hazard report. Which is why I added...

Gyarados@Leftovers
Intimidate
JollyImpish
248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
- Rest
- Thunder Wave
- Sleep Talk
- Dragon Tail

This Gyarados setup is engineered so as to always outspeed Breloom, getting off a taunt or thunder wave guaranteed. New spread is for maximum physical bulk, which means maximum RestTalk survivability. Dragon tail helps to shuffle pokemon around, which will be helpful for when hazards are up and helps me spread paralysis. Waterfall is my standard STAB. Changed to a RestTalk set which has proven more effective in staying around longer to spread paralysis to the eneemy. Although I could use the coverage given by bounce, I prefer the 100% paralysis of thunder wave over the 30% chance. However, Thunder Wave can’t hit ground types, which leads me to...

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Serene Grace
Careful
252 Hp / 252 SDef / 4 Spe
- Body Slam
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Wish

EVs allow me to outspeed Breloom again (I bloody HATE Spore) As much special bulk as possible to absorb Draco Meteors and Hurricanes. I also have further paralysis support in the form of a 60% chance from Body Slam, plus Wish for healing Gyarados and my other hazard setter-upper. Stealth rocks is mandatory, I need as many entry hazards as possible. Speaking of entry hazards...

Ferrothorn@Rocky Helmet
Iron Barbs
Careful
252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip

EVEN MORE PARALYSIS SUPPORT! I seriously can’t stress its importance enough. I can see clerics (Celebi and Chansey being the most prominent) could be a problem. Anyway, Spikes for extra hazards, Leech Seed to force switches, Thunder wave because of my paralysis hard-on, Power Whip for STAB. EVs are for general mixed bulk rather than tailored to survive anything specific, and Rocky Helmet+Iron Barbs=29% damage per physical hit to really rack up the residual damage with the hazards. I don’t want all my hard hazard-setting work going to waste though so...

Gengar@Leftovers
Levitate
Timid
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Substitute
- Disable
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

Gengar fulfils the spinblocker role on the team, which in addition with subdisable stops most that would harm Gengar in their tracks. Ghost+Fighting give unresisted coverage and hit nice and hard. Immunity to Mach Punch is also very useful. However, the team is incomplete without a physical hitter as special walls cause an impass on both sides when paired with Gengar. The solution...

Terrakion@Choice Scarf
Justified
Jolly
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

Terrakion is one of the hardest hitting pokemon in OU, and its scarfed speed is just ridiculous. I know it’s advised not to use Earthquake on Terrakion but it’s great for catching Tentacruel unaware and hits incredibly hard. The rest is standard – Rock Slide over X-Scissor because there are very few pokemon that X-Scissor hurts more than Stone Edge and Rock Slide is both more accurate than SE and has the flinch chance, which is more useful with the widespread paralysis in the team.




So there's the team, please let me know if there are any glaring weaknesses you can think of, anything that you'd recommend replacing, any advice at all. Thanks!​

 

[fire r a g e]

Flamethrower isn't powerful enough to break through Pokemon that are weak to it, so replace it with Fire Blast. Dual STAB is great and all, but I'd rather use Roost > Dark Pulse so he can recover lost health and wallbreak more.

 

[Archerdon]

Flamethrower isn't powerful enough to break through Pokemon that are weak to it, so replace it with Fire Blast. Dual STAB is great and all, but I'd rather use Roost > Dark Pulse so he can recover lost health and wallbreak more.

Unless you can give me actual damage calcs to back up your statement, I'll stay with Flamethrower's reliability. People reccomend Fire Blast on Nidoking but I've found Flamethrower immeasureably better. Also the point of Hydreigon isn't to wall break but to clean up at the end, so coverage>recovery in that regard.

 

[fire r a g e]

Fire Blast has a 100% chance to OHKO Specially Defensive Skarmory with a +SpD nature, while Flamethrower only gets a 2HKO. Since you have nothing else that can beat Skarmory in one hit, Fire Blast's power advantage over Flamethrower is enough reason to use it. Magnezone is also always OHKOed by Fire Blast.

 

[Archerdon]

Skarmory is still a 2HKO, as is Magnezone, and both are slower. I appreciate the input but I really hate missing Fire Blast - It's better to do slightly less damage than none at all IMO

 

[PokèManiac Livio]

Hi there,
The team is solid and does not need more changes, first thing, i d suggest u to give roost>dark pulse on hydewigon and Fblast>Fthrower as said u Fierage, u have to spam only dracometeor, the rest is for steel and recover. You also need a spinner if u want to use that set on Gyarados, i d use starmie>gengar or i d change Gyarado s set in Sleeptalker, so you hace a pseudorecovery move and have a status absorber, that u can send versus your hated breloom xD. Now u can change jirachi s evs spread and give protect>Srocks, give sr to ferrothorn on leech seed, cause u can wisg on it. Sorry for my bad english, hope i helped u see ya

 

[PlatypusVenom]

This is a great team and stick with it. A Parashuffling Gyarados hasn't occured to me befor, and is worth a shot. I can tell that you are the only one here who knows what your talking about, so disregard fire r a g e and Uomo Solo and stick with it. The only thing I would change is Superpower into Surf because the SpAtk is much better on Hydreigon. If you wanted to use a Choice Scarf to take care of that speed problem, you should use U-Turn rather than Superpower. As for the rest, Jirachi, Ferrothorn, Gengar, and Terrakion have amazing sets. Tell me if your Gyarados set works, and if not, what the problem is. Great job!

 

[BlankZero]

This is a great team and stick with it. A Parashuffling Gyarados hasn't occured to me befor, and is worth a shot. I can tell that you are the only one here who knows what your talking about, so disregard fire r a g e and Uomo Solo and stick with it. The only thing I would change is Superpower into Surf because the SpAtk is much better on Hydreigon. If you wanted to use a Choice Scarf to take care of that speed problem, you should use U-Turn rather than Superpower. As for the rest, Jirachi, Ferrothorn, Gengar, and Terrakion have amazing sets. Tell me if your Gyarados set works, and if not, what the problem is. Great job!

Pretty much what I was going to say, except that if Gyrados doesn't work out, try the same basic set out with ParaShuffler Dragonite. Multiscale and roost with tWave and DTail makes it a tough nut to crack.

 

[PDC]

Hi

It is very cool to see Hydreigon on a team nowadays, it really deserves recognition with the fall of Genesect. It has access to the strongest Draco Meteor in overused and is simply an amazing Pokemon in the metagame right now. It fits very well on most offensive teams too, and it is really something cool. Nice to see somebody using that instead of the standard Latios for a change. However, because Hydreigon sadly get's worn down very fast with a Life Orb I suggest trying out Roost over Dark Pulse too make sure it stays alive. Dark Pulse doesn't offer too much additional coverage and is overall outclassed by most of it's other moves. And with the prevalence of Keldeo and Terrakion Dark Pulse is not the best move to be throwing around.

This team is quite solid, but it does have some problems with certain Pokemon. It has a relatively large problem with hazards, lacking a spinner and having decently vulnerable Pokemon to hazards. You also have a decent sized Expert Belted Thunderus - T weakness. You will have a hard time switching into something that can safely revenge kill it, as Terrakion has trouble dealing with practically everything it has in it's arsenal aside from a weak Hidden Power Ice. It is hard to find a solution for both Pokemon, as I don't want to alter your team too much. What I suggest doing is changing up Ferrothorn for a Bulky Offensive Latias in place of it. It still acts as a fine check to Keldeo, Rotom-W, and bulky waters. It also acts as a better Breloom and Sun sweeper check which your team would appreciate greatly.

Hide

Latias @ Life Orb | Levitate
Timid Nature
76 HP / 176 SAtk / 252 Spe
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Surf / Psycho Shift / Refresh
- Recover

Good luck!

 

[Archerdon]

Thanks for the responses, in particular the last few.

I tried out the RestTalk suggestion because Gyarados was dying far too quickly to be effective, but kept its role as a parashuffler. It's proven much, much more effective in its role now. I might try out the Parashuffling Dragonite at some point, but I'm apprehensive about losing Intimidate and my new-found status absorption.

I also changed Dark Pulse to Roost, which has been a boon to Hydreigon's survivability, especially since, as you quite rightly pointed out, there was no situation to use Dark Pulse instead of Draco Meteor anyway. I also put Fire Blast on after I found specially defensive Jirachi and Celebi to be troublesome, and Fire Blast turns a 3HKO into a 2HKO.


PlatypusVenom: If I don't use Superpower, Tyranitar becomes problematic. Draco Meteor is guaranteed minimum 51% Damage but it's just not enough if I haven't managed to whittle it down already, and those extra turns of Life Orb and Sandstorm damage add up. The new Gyarados set is working brilliantly at the moment though, as explained above.

BlankZero: Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely give Dragonite a try and see if it works better than Gyarados or not and let you know!

PDC: I'm a little put off by the removal of my own hazards but I'll definitely give the Latias a try and get back to you.

Thanks again, and if anyone has any other suggestions I'd love to hear them!