Gen 2 [RMT] GSC OU Team

[Xeze]

This is my current OU team and I've been doing pretty well with it. Opinions are welcome.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Thunder
Reflect
Whirlwind
Rest

The lead of this team. Prevents early Spikes from Cloyster and heavily damages Foretress. Not the usual RestTalk set but Reflect + Whirlwind makes it a nice emergency phazer and it's unexpected on Zapdos. Rest to keep it healthy and usable later. Unable to touch ground-types with this set, that's a fact, but Thunder hits everything else pretty hard (except Blissey of course).

Cloyster @ Leftovers
Spikes
Surf
Ice Beam
Explosion

The main purpose of Cloyster on this team is to set up Spikes. Surf is standard. Ice Beam is pretty good for Zapdos switch-ins, Exeggutor and the occasional Dragonite. Explosion to take something down with it.

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Pursuit
Rock Slide
Earthquake
Fire Blast

Mixed attacker with Pursuit support. Since I'm running a mono-lax, as you will see below, sniping Ghosts with this guy is pretty important. Rock Slide for STAB and EQ for extra coverage. Finally Fire Blast hits Steel-types for tons of damage.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Rapid Spin
Thunder Wave
Psychic
Recover

Starmie provides Rapid Spin and Thunder Wave support for the team. Marowak in particular loves when Spikes are removed from my side of the field. Thunder Wave is always nice to have and benefits Marowak too as well as other Pokémon on my team. I've choosen Psychic over Surf to hit Gengar and Machamp harder. But let me know if you think that Surf would be more beneficial for it. Recover is mandatory on Starmie IMO.

Marowak @ Thick Club
Swords Dance
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Hidden Power [Bug]

Marowak provides the main offensive power. The set is the stardard one and it works well. With Starmie's Thunder Wave and Spin support and after its main counters are weakened, statused or out of the way, this guy can wreck.

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Curse
Lovely Kiss
Double-Edge
Rest

Finally Snorlax. Curse allows him to be an offensive tank. Lovely Kiss is very cool to put something out of comission, like a phazer or Miltank trying to growl-stall it. Double-edge as the STAB move because of its raw power and can tear heavy holes in my opponent's team. Rest to keep Snorlax healthy and usable. Pursuit support from Tyranitar is really helpful for this one, since it's hardwalled by Ghosts.

Tell me what you think of it and eventual improvements to make.

 

[Jorgen]

Honestly, not bad. The reliance on that janky mono-Zapdos to avoid being destroyed by Snorlax is a pretty gaping flaw, though. Once he's Resting, Curselax just has his way with you. To avoid this you might consider running Roar on Ttar (over either EQ or Fire Blast). This, in turn, will give Zapdos the ability to run Hidden Power over Whirlwind so it can actually abuse its Flying-type against Grounds.

What comes below is more food for thought than "you should definitely change this".

Your lack of a Sleep absorber is somewhat problematic. You're basically playing 5-v-6 against an Exeggutor or Nidoking, although I suppose your own LK Lax can sleep whatever he damn well pleases to even the score. Regardless, I'd say that running Sleep Talk Curselax might be a good idea if sleepers consistently give you trouble. Or Sleep Talk Zapdos, but I kinda like seeing Reflect on it for this team.

I'd probably also recommend trying Toxic over Ice Beam on Cloyster for two reasons:
1) It wears down Starmie and other Cloyster to help you win the Spikes war faster
2) It can hit a Curselax and force it to Rest so you are more able to Explode at your leisure and not be forced into it

Ice Beam is great for Zapdos/Egg coverage and going for freezes against Miltank or something, but I see it more as a convenience whereas Toxic actually does a better job of letting Cloy keep its Spikes. The choice is yours, though.

Psychic Starmie is ok, especially with another Water to pick up the slack against Grounds/Ttar. That being said, if those threats give you a lot of trouble, consider running Surf, especially as Surf keeps Twave-immune Grounds out of your face (although they'll probably stay away to begin with anyway because Starmie almost always has Surf). Also note that Starmie without Surf becomes vulnerable to Ttar Pursuit, which, granted, shouldn't be too much of a problem until Ttar figures out your lack of Surf. Toxic Cloy could help ensure you win the Spikes war before that happens, too.

Another thing to consider is maybe Machamp over Marowak. He synergizes better with Cloyster, still loves Starmie's paralysis support, and performs better against Lax and Ttar. Electrics become more of a problem, though, especially if you use Roar over EQ on Ttar.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Sleep Talk Lax switches in on Starmie and annihilates you, same with Marowak switching in on Zapdos. This is kinda a problem. Aside from that, it's decent.

 

[Mr.E]

No real reason to use Zapdos over Raikou with a mono-attack set, since much of what makes Zapdos godly is the fact it doesn't get dunked by Marowak/Nidoking. The best you can do against Marowak here is... hope it doesn't flinch you on the Whirlwind and bring in something you can Rest against, then needing to find the time to wake up again sometime later. Starmie doesn't even have Surf. Marowak runs over this team.

Building off of Jorgen's musings, letting T-Tar handle phazing duties so Zapdos can do its thing is a good idea. Machamp over Marowak is a decent plan, since you do have some weakness to other T-Tar and Snorlax. Sleep Talk Marowak could also do it without having to switch mons. That keeps Electric immunity on the team, gives you a sleep absorber and it still hits generally harder and more accurately than Machamp. Snorlax will have to keep LK here to ensure you can get around Skarmory, since unboosted Marowak does poor chip damage to it.

Alternatively, ST Curselax would give you a real sleep absorber and you're already packing T-Tar to snipe Ghosts for support. Better to have a sleep absorber and no sleep than the other way around. (Your opponent will likely have a sleep absorber of their own, meaning you lose more having something asleep.) That will also strengthen you against enemy Snorlax, since you can just bring yours in and beat any two-attack sets while Roar T-Tar easily handles mono-Lax. Machamp would pair better with it here, as it deals with Skarmory better on its own and is less fragile without a Sleep Talk set.

tl;dr
T-Tar should take Zapdos' pseudohazing duties so Zapdos can pack Hidden Power.

ST Marowak will give you a sleep absorber and shore up weaknesses that otherwise arise due to its fragility, while allowing Snorlax to keep a sleep move for disabling Skarmory and avoiding the "5v6."
-or-
Machamp over 'wak will fix weaknesses similarly while being less dependent on the rest of your team to get shit done. Snorlax can handle sleep absorption.

If you have balls of steel you can roll with LK Drumlax instead of LK Curselax.

 

[Xeze]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Based on all your opinions I've made some adjustments to see how they will work out:

1 - Zapdos now is a RestTalker with Thunder/HP Ice.
2 - Replaced EQ with Roar on Tyranitar

Keeping Ice Beam on Cloyster for now but I will try Toxic too. Also, I don't like to run RestTalk Curselax because Growl Miltank and Charm Umbreon can easily wall it and it doesn't threaten Skarmory like LK variants.
Jorgen - As for Machamp over Marowak, I like the instant offense that Marowak provides. Also, as you said, without it Electrics can be a problem since they could recklessly spam Thunder.
Mr. E - I tried LK Drumlax before but then I went with this because it also allows me to use Snorlax more defensively, while still be able to keep the pressure on my opponent.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Also, I don't like to run RestTalk Curselax because Growl Miltank and Charm Umbreon can easily wall it and it doesn't threaten Skarmory like LK variants.

That's kinda not the point of RestTalk CurseLax. RestTalk CurseLax isn't a sweeper, it's a wall, and an extremely potent one. It stops Zapdos and Raikou cold, and it laughs rather hard at mixed attackers - Nidoking's walled, Gengar's not accomplishing anything unless it Explodes, and MixTar/MixNite need DynamicPunch to have a ghost of a chance (CurseRoarTar wins, though).