Gen 4 RMT: Gen 4 OU DDTar

[Jbnf]

Hello friends! Been lurking here for a month or so after starting to play Showdown Gen 4 OU a month before that, and I wanted some help tweaking a team I've made centered around DDTar, hazards, and two Custap users just because the idea seemed fun to sneak some kills, usually on potential threats to Ttar. The only things I am wedded to on this team are using DDTar and at least one Custap user.

Metagross @ Custap Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Explosion

Every Gen 4 team needs rocks, and I chose a somewhat standard lead Metagross to do this job for me. I elected to give it a Custap Berry rather than a Lum Berry despite causing it to lose some lead matchups for the surprise factor, especially when I need a surprise boom on a big threat. I swapped the standard Bullet Punch for EQ since I have Custap for priority and this gives me better coverage. So far, I've had decent success with this lead, but I feel like it might make a better mid-game mon with another coverage move instead of rocks. Have been considering switching out for a standard Machamp lead because I like the high pressure playstyle. Which brings us to...

Machamp @ Custap Berry
Ability: Guts
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Payback
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge

This set is admittedly a novelty I was messing around with. Functions as a status absorber, and I try to hide Close Combat for when Custap activates. I've had a lot of fun with it, the Guts boost gives it great damage capabilities and makes TSpikes somewhat beneficial rather than being heavily detrimental to most Machamps. It is unfortunate missing out on confusion from DynamicPunch but he still gets the job done.

Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Fire Punch

The star of the show, I picked a standard Lum Berry DDTar set to do my lategame cleanup. Dragon Dance sweepers are probably my favorite mons to use (especially offensive DD Gyarados, and SubSplit Gengar, which are typically staples of my teams), but I haven't used Ttar that much in this role. That being said, I love it when it gets going. Not sure what other sets might be worth considering, but I've thought of using Jolly (1 DD still feels pretty slow with Adamant), Chople/Shuca for different set-up opportunities, and Rock Slide for the flinch rate, better accuracy, and higher PP.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover

Starmie functions as a Heatran check for me, and also a special wallbreaker. LO Starmie has really great damage, and Recover lets me switch in multiple times, and deal with entry hazards and LO recoil better. I opted to leave Rapid Spin off as my entire team is SR neutral at worst, with two users also being immune to both spikes variants. Starmie has Recover and Natural Cure, Machamp has Guts and Metagross is immune to TSpikes, and since both have Custap, the switch-in damage from spikes isn't always a bad thing, and both are also SR resistant. Only issue is that Ttar is rather susceptible to all 3 entry hazards, but I usually don't switch it in until I'm ready to clean up with it.

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Thunder Punch

Scarf Flygon is probably my favorite revenge killer, so I decided to use it here. It acts as a pivot and lets me scout with U-turn, and also gives me another way to threaten Heatran, which I feel is one of the mons this team is weakest to. Not sure what else to say, except that I'm not sure if it does a whole lot else for the team. Does not do much in the way of helping deal with the stall teams I've been struggling with. Despite having Machamp and offensive Starmie, I've been having rather notable issues with Blissey, Clefable, and Skarmory on defensive stall teams.

Skarmory @ Shed Shell
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Brave Bird

The final member of my team, and definitely the one I'm least sure about. Functions as a defensive pivot vs physical threats, gives me a phazer, and also helps enable the Ttar sweep by setting spikes to soften those grounded pokemon up. Has good value but I sometimes feel like I lose my momentum when I switch him in. Any alternative suggestions here would be appreciated.



I've been thinking of swapping Flygon out for a Scarf Rotom variant, because I've sorely been missing having a Ghost type on my team, and Tricking a Scarf onto any of the aforementioned three mons would definitely cause issues for them (bar Clefables running Trick). Alternately, swapping Skarm for a defensive Rotom would help out with my damage mix (Starmie is currently the only special mon), and would still give me the Ghost I've been looking for.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated. Cheers!

 

[GaryTheGengar]

Hey, nice to see a gen 4 rmt posted.

First off, I'd definitely run jolly on tar. The speed is huge for outrunning stuff like latias and starmie after a dd, and scarfers outside of + spe base 100s with 2. I think earthquake is important coverage to get the hardest hit possible on jirachi, who can survive a +1 fire punch pretty comfortably. I'd try out the standard ice punch/eq/stone edge coverage, as ice punch+eq targets most of what fire punch does, and crunch doesn't really have many targets after a boost. Earthquake also helps a bit with your heatran problem. I'd also change to shuca berry to help vs scarf flygon and other earthquakes.

I think your idea of scarf rotom -> flygon is valuable, as you're a bit limited on fighting resists, and trick can help facilitate some offense vs stall teams. I'd run a set of trick/overheat/thunderbolt/shadow ball, which will also help vs lucario and scizor. Without an electric resist, I think leftovers is more valuable on skarm, as you don't have much to switch into magnezone.

I'd change machamp's set to include substitute over stone edge, as you've got gyarados covered pretty well. Substitute can help ease prediction, and can put you within range of your custap berry without requiring opponent interaction. I'd also run the standard dynamicpunch -> close combat with no guard, as guts seems very situational. Half of the threat of machamp is its confusion chance. To help with the loss of two status absorbers, I'd run spin -> recover on starmie, and drop the life orb for leftovers or a colbur berry (for ttar) to help offset the lack of recover. Finally, I'd change to a standard metagross set, with bullet punch over earthquake and a lum berry, for much better lead matchups. The main target of earthquake, opposing metagross and jirachi, are covered decently well by skarmory.

Best of luck!

 

[Jbnf]

Thanks! I've been testing the changes and so far they have been great! Jolly Ttar and Scarf Rotom in particular have both been stars for me. Metagross has also been functioning much more smoothly as well. Switching lefties in over shed shell on Skarm has been a nuanced, but very useful change as well. Thanks for your insight!