Hey everyone! Synthetic Frost here, looong time player here. I played competitively back in the days of R/B/Y/G/S/C winning several local tournaments, but got out of the game as I got older and went through college. But I always kept playing the games for fun.
However, I've recently found myself in a position with a lot of spare time, so I've been working on reviving my old team. However, needless to say, the metagame in OU has changed pretty significantly, so I needed to give my team a new breath of life, swapping out sub-par pokemon for their current equivalents, while keeping my old favorite staples, and trying to preserve the core goal of my team.
So, here we go:
________
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
Item: Scizorite
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Sp.D
Bug Bite
Bullet Punch
Superpower
Swords Dance
My Breaker. Pretty standard set, honestly. I realize he's been played to death in the OU metagame over the years, but I had Scyther as part of my main team in Generation 1, and naturally his Gen 2 evolution kept the same spot. He's been a part of my team since day one before I'd ever heard of Smogon, and honestly I'm just thankful Scizor has held up so well all this time. obviously his moveset and the way I've used him have changed dramatically since Gen 1, but this set is so effective there's really not much to improve on at this point. The only real change I could think of that'd work with the rest of my team's synergy would be to use a defensive set on him.
infernape
Ability: Iron Fist
Nature: Naive
Item: Expert Belt
EVs: 212 Atk / 44 SpA / 252 Spe
Overheat
Close Combat
Thunder Punch
Mach Punch
My late-game mixed sweeper and counter to my team's inability to handle steel and dark types. Ever since R/B/Y, I've LOVED the concept of fire types, but never the role they ended up serving. My old Charizard was immune to earthquake, but weak to what seemed like everything else. Infernape doesn't completely solve this problem, but he's got what are in my mind, the perfect stats for what a fire-type pokemon "should" have. He's fast, he's extremely versatile on both the physical and special side, and he's got about the best move pool I've ever seen on a fire pokemon. Plus, I'll admit, I love the Chinese Zodiac/Journey To The West "wise ape" theme he's got going on.
I give him Mach Punch for priority. Thunder Punch helps very much with my team's weakness to the rising popularity of flying types, as well as stave off any water type that dares to switch in.
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Timid
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Surf
Ice Beam
Psychic / Thunderbolt
Rapid Spin / Recover
Ah, my old Starmie. Starmie was on my team very early on in R/B/Y, and single handedly won me the tournaments of the time. I noticed his absurd speed and special stats before I'd even finished the game for the first time. Only later on did I find out he was by far the fastest water pokemon. He's been with me ever since. As of now, he serves as my rapid spinner. I very frequently change his last two move slots back and forth, depending on if I think I'll be dealing with a lot of entry hazards and/or fighting types.
Starmie is also my dragon killer, though this requires a lot of switch prediction, as he is far too frail to switch in without revenge killing.
If anyone on my team is at risk of being switched out, It's Starmie. I've been prepping a Gardivoir that'd serve much better in the role as a dragon counter. It's still in the testing phase, but i'll put her specs at the bottom of the page.
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Thunderbolt
Hydro Pump
Will-O-Wisp
Pain Split
For the longest time, I used Jolteon for this slot. And while I do begrudge having a generally slower team overall without him, Rotom-W and his special defensive girth have made up for it time and time again soaking up attacks aimed at Scizor, Hippowdon, and Infernape. Will-O-Wisp then takes the fight out of anyone that threatens the frailer members of my team. The only real downside, aside from the trade-off in speed, is that my team now has a growing weakness to Grass.
I chose Thunderbolt over Volt Switch because Volt Switch was slowly killing him over time with Sandstorm in play, even with the weather nerfs. And it rarely 2HKO'd what it needed to.
Ability: Sandstream
Nature: Impish
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Earthquake
Ice Fang
Stealth Rock
Slack Off
Hippowdon is my physical wall for all the fighting types that fill the OU metagame. He's also able to set up stealth rock pretty early in the game. And with the new threats like Mega Charizard and Talonflame, SR is just that much more important. He actually works fairly well as a back up dragon killer. Since physical variants of dragon types are fairly common, Hippowdon can switch in, take a couple hits from outrage, and then proceed to break them up.
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 232 HP / 168 Sp.D / 108 Spe
Leaf Storm
Psychic
Heal Bell
Recover
My special wall and cleric. For a long time I resisted having a legendary on my team. But with my old Umbreon weak to so many fighting types, and half of my team being physical hitters, I just can't take burns. I also needed a cleric that was going to last more than one turn. And Celebi has proven herself time, and time again on my team. She's very often the last Pokemon standing, and has won many, many matches for me.
_____________
As I said earlier, right now, Starmie is probably the weakest link on my team. Despite being the oldest member of it, the ONLY original member left from R/B, I feel that he's just frail as a reliable dragon check. Especially against the Latias twins. So I've been working on this Gardevoir as a test replacement:
Ability: Trace
Nature: Calm
Item: Gardevoirite
EVs: 128 HP / 128 Sp.Atk / 232 Sp.D / 20 Spe
Hyper Voice
Psyshock
Focus Blast
Wish
This moveset is actually pretty temporary. I was going for a sort of defensively based bulky offensive attacker and dragon counter to replace Starmie. My biggest concern with this is that I lose Ice Beam and Rapid Spin. I'd also be losing Mega Scizor in favor of Mega Gardevoir.
Thoughts?
However, I've recently found myself in a position with a lot of spare time, so I've been working on reviving my old team. However, needless to say, the metagame in OU has changed pretty significantly, so I needed to give my team a new breath of life, swapping out sub-par pokemon for their current equivalents, while keeping my old favorite staples, and trying to preserve the core goal of my team.
So, here we go:
________
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
Item: Scizorite
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Sp.D
Bug Bite
Bullet Punch
Superpower
Swords Dance
My Breaker. Pretty standard set, honestly. I realize he's been played to death in the OU metagame over the years, but I had Scyther as part of my main team in Generation 1, and naturally his Gen 2 evolution kept the same spot. He's been a part of my team since day one before I'd ever heard of Smogon, and honestly I'm just thankful Scizor has held up so well all this time. obviously his moveset and the way I've used him have changed dramatically since Gen 1, but this set is so effective there's really not much to improve on at this point. The only real change I could think of that'd work with the rest of my team's synergy would be to use a defensive set on him.
Ability: Iron Fist
Nature: Naive
Item: Expert Belt
EVs: 212 Atk / 44 SpA / 252 Spe
Overheat
Close Combat
Thunder Punch
Mach Punch
My late-game mixed sweeper and counter to my team's inability to handle steel and dark types. Ever since R/B/Y, I've LOVED the concept of fire types, but never the role they ended up serving. My old Charizard was immune to earthquake, but weak to what seemed like everything else. Infernape doesn't completely solve this problem, but he's got what are in my mind, the perfect stats for what a fire-type pokemon "should" have. He's fast, he's extremely versatile on both the physical and special side, and he's got about the best move pool I've ever seen on a fire pokemon. Plus, I'll admit, I love the Chinese Zodiac/Journey To The West "wise ape" theme he's got going on.
I give him Mach Punch for priority. Thunder Punch helps very much with my team's weakness to the rising popularity of flying types, as well as stave off any water type that dares to switch in.
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Timid
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Surf
Ice Beam
Psychic / Thunderbolt
Rapid Spin / Recover
Ah, my old Starmie. Starmie was on my team very early on in R/B/Y, and single handedly won me the tournaments of the time. I noticed his absurd speed and special stats before I'd even finished the game for the first time. Only later on did I find out he was by far the fastest water pokemon. He's been with me ever since. As of now, he serves as my rapid spinner. I very frequently change his last two move slots back and forth, depending on if I think I'll be dealing with a lot of entry hazards and/or fighting types.
Starmie is also my dragon killer, though this requires a lot of switch prediction, as he is far too frail to switch in without revenge killing.
If anyone on my team is at risk of being switched out, It's Starmie. I've been prepping a Gardivoir that'd serve much better in the role as a dragon counter. It's still in the testing phase, but i'll put her specs at the bottom of the page.
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Thunderbolt
Hydro Pump
Will-O-Wisp
Pain Split
For the longest time, I used Jolteon for this slot. And while I do begrudge having a generally slower team overall without him, Rotom-W and his special defensive girth have made up for it time and time again soaking up attacks aimed at Scizor, Hippowdon, and Infernape. Will-O-Wisp then takes the fight out of anyone that threatens the frailer members of my team. The only real downside, aside from the trade-off in speed, is that my team now has a growing weakness to Grass.
I chose Thunderbolt over Volt Switch because Volt Switch was slowly killing him over time with Sandstorm in play, even with the weather nerfs. And it rarely 2HKO'd what it needed to.
Ability: Sandstream
Nature: Impish
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Earthquake
Ice Fang
Stealth Rock
Slack Off
Hippowdon is my physical wall for all the fighting types that fill the OU metagame. He's also able to set up stealth rock pretty early in the game. And with the new threats like Mega Charizard and Talonflame, SR is just that much more important. He actually works fairly well as a back up dragon killer. Since physical variants of dragon types are fairly common, Hippowdon can switch in, take a couple hits from outrage, and then proceed to break them up.
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 232 HP / 168 Sp.D / 108 Spe
Leaf Storm
Psychic
Heal Bell
Recover
My special wall and cleric. For a long time I resisted having a legendary on my team. But with my old Umbreon weak to so many fighting types, and half of my team being physical hitters, I just can't take burns. I also needed a cleric that was going to last more than one turn. And Celebi has proven herself time, and time again on my team. She's very often the last Pokemon standing, and has won many, many matches for me.
_____________
As I said earlier, right now, Starmie is probably the weakest link on my team. Despite being the oldest member of it, the ONLY original member left from R/B, I feel that he's just frail as a reliable dragon check. Especially against the Latias twins. So I've been working on this Gardevoir as a test replacement:
Ability: Trace
Nature: Calm
Item: Gardevoirite
EVs: 128 HP / 128 Sp.Atk / 232 Sp.D / 20 Spe
Hyper Voice
Psyshock
Focus Blast
Wish
This moveset is actually pretty temporary. I was going for a sort of defensively based bulky offensive attacker and dragon counter to replace Starmie. My biggest concern with this is that I lose Ice Beam and Rapid Spin. I'd also be losing Mega Scizor in favor of Mega Gardevoir.
Thoughts?
