Rocking the vote!

[Silentmartyr]

Hi ya'll! I've been playing with this team for a few weeks now on the standard ladder trying to get the required numbers to be able to vote on Skymin. I have done much better than the other two suspect tests but still haven't gotten high enough yet, which is where this thread comes in. I'm not trying to rehaul the entire team just do a couple of tweaks here and there to sand down the rough edges that might cost me a match or two. Before I start I have to give credit to Brawley for giving me the basic layout of the team. Welp here she be:

At a Glance:

Team Breakdown:

"Anti-Lead"
Nature: Adamant
Ability: No Guard
Item: Lum Berry
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EV's: 252 Hp/160 Atk/96 SpD
Moves:
~ Dynamicpunch
~ Payback
~ Stone Edge
~ Substitute

She is my lead. Works fairly well what with a bunch of Azelf's running around. First move is either sub or payback based on the speed of the other fella. I might pull a dynamicpunch in special situations but usually it will be one of the two. The only real trouble I get is from hippos as I can't really damage it well but I'm not too worried about that as they usually are only around to set up SS and she can take whatever they dish.

"Toxic Wish"
Nature: Calm
Ability: Natural Cure
Item: Leftovers
EV's: 252 Def/82 SpA/176 SpD
Moves:
~ Wish
~ Toxic
~ Flamethrower
~ Thunderbolt

Special wall, wish support, poisoner. She does it all. I've been going back and forth on what is more effective with her Tbolt or blast. Also dunno about the spread, as I think I should go with full ev's in SpD? I just feel like the SpA isn't doing much. I'm still learning though so I'm probably wrong.

Edit: Decided on Bolt and switched IB for Flamethrower.

"Stealth Whirl"
Nature: Impish
Ability: Keen Eye
Item: Leftovers
EV's: 252 Hp/96 Atk/156 Def/6 Spe
Moves:
~ Brave Bird
~ Spikes
~ Whirlwind
~ Roost

Yes SkarmBliss. Cry about it. Skarm does the rocking and the hazing with defnesive wall backup as well. I don't mind brave bird cause of roost and Blisseys wish support. Whirlwind is needed for those nasty stat uppers. No one likes them. The speed ev's are for the chance Skarm speed tie avoidance.

Edit: Switched Spikes for Stones.

"Let's Dance"
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Steadfast
Item: Life Orb
EV's: 64 Hp/252 Atk/192 Spe
Moves:
~ Swords Dance
~ Close Combat
~ Ice Punch
~ Night Slash

My pure Physical Attacker. Simple plan here; come in on a (preferably) unSTAB'd Special Attack, SD on the switch and fire away. I chose Night Slash because of the Rotoms flying around and Ice Punch because well I needed a better Ice attack than Beam on Blissey.

"Sweet Revenge"
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
Ability: Limber
Item: Choice Scarf
EV's: 252 Atk/6 SpD/252 Spe
Moves:
~ Close Combat
~ Earthquake
~ Stone Edge
~ Blaze Kick

The main man of the team. I wanted to have a successful team that had Hitmonlee as a viable member. This role as a revenge killer is excellent. His coverage is viable enough to warrant the role. I go back and forth between Adamant and Jolly because while I do want to outrun a +Spe Scarftran I dislike how hard he hits Jolly. While he could be a great Twave dump I don't like throwing him in unless I know for sure he's gonna get that thrown at him. He's too frail to be guessing.

"Swiffer Wet Jet"
Nature: Modest
Ability: Serene Grace
Item: Petaya Berry
EV's: 6 Hp/252 SpA/252 Spe
Moves:
~ Seed Flare
~ Air Slash
~ Earth Power
~ HP Fire

My late game sweeper. I absolutely love this guy. He's saved me so many times and has won me quite a few games that I honestly should have lost. You might have noticed the berry and wondered what I was thinking. Since the team otherwise isn't worried about rocks I need no spinner. The berry plays into the fact that most of the time he's gonna be taking 25% on a switch in. He takes one solid hit, raises the SpA, and goes a hunting. I put HP Fire cause of all the steels running around that would otherwise wall the crap out of him. Sure I lose to another Skymin but that is not his role. Anyone else on my team can handle a Skymin.

Analysis:

The team handles most things quite well. If Hitmonlee goes down then Scarftran is basically going to sweep. That's really my biggest concern and why I am flip-flopping on Adamant or Jolly for Mr. Lee. Besides that I haven't really dealt with anything that just completely overpowered me to the point that there was nothing I could do. Most of my loses are me being dumb more than the team lacking something. Well if you made it this far thanks for reading and I hope there is some constructive critisim you can help me with.
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[Venom]

Props for using Hitmonlee, I generally don't support UU in OU, but Hitmonlee is my favorite pokemon of the UU.

So whats the game plan against MixApe? This team seriously lacks the ability to even play around it, since nothing can actually come into a Flamethrower or Close Combat without taking a bug chunk of Health on the switch in, and then possibly the KO. If you don't have any use for Magnezone, you should probably replace it with something that can handle MixApe, which Vaporeon does well. Vaporeon can also stop the possible Gyarados problem we have going on here, and still able to handle MixApe. I really don't see the point of 2 Wish passers in a team, you can can probably run Vaporeon with 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SpAtk @ Bold with Hidden Power Electric / Surf / Wish / Protect, since Vaporeon actually lacks the ability to recover unlike Blissey. Blissey can probably fit as the standard Blissey, but if you want a twist you can run Toxic / Flamethrower / Seismic Toss / Softboiled, Siesmic Toss is needed to help you with Zapdos, so it does not stall the shit out of your team, which right a smart Zapdos user can stall out this team with Zapdos only., and you can handle ScarfTran with Blissey and Vaporeon as well.

I really don't see this team taking a Sword Dance Lucario, as after a Sword Dance Lucario is ensured to 2HKO Skarmory, and from there Extremespeed really hurts after a couple of Sword Dances. My best advice will be to possibly replace Machamp with Zapdos, Zapdos makes a good lead as well, 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spe @ Bold with Thunderbolt - Heat Wave - Roost - Light Screen can handle most fighters as well as Scizor and Gengar and MixApe, providing the Light Screen support though. If you do this then Starmie over Vaporeon will be a good thing too, as you will lack a Rapid Spinner to blow away Stealth Rocks, as 2 Flying types without a Rapid Spinner is really poor.

You might want to consider Spikes on Skarmory over Stealth Rocks, as you are capable of handling most Flying type treaths, and Spikes can really wear down a team on every switching, which is very helpful. I know I switched around this team a lot but it's probably the best options to make when you have Hitmonlee as the main one of the team. Good luck.

 

[Silentmartyr]

I honestly just randomly decided to use HLee cause it was different. I'm not a big fan of running bog teams just to get high on the ladder I wanna maintain some level of surprise.

Mixape is handled by Lee, chances are he will be brought in to use flamethrower which Lee takes 66.80% - 78.84% on. Lee will then outspeed and OHKO wil Earthquake. Most won't expect the scarf and succumb to it. Honestly I have seen only one Infernape and it was a lead. But that would be my main plan.

It's not that I don't have a use for him I just don't know the best way to use with other than explosion. Like I said I want explosion on the team but I'm not sure what else I should do to make him fully rounded for the teams uses. I was thinking possibly beefing his defenses and trying a wall type set but his defensive typing is similar to skarmory so it seemed pointless.

I'm not really seeing how Zapdos stalls the team, Blissey can toxic/wish/ice beam, Lee and Champ would Stone Edge with Champ throwing in a Dynamic Punch to confuse.

I don't even know when Lucario would be able to get the SD in. The only guy that doesn't have a SE attack against him is Zone and he'd hit him pretty hard with a neutral Bolt if he tried to get the SD in. From there I'd be fine with revenge kill with either Lee or Skymin.

I prefer the stones over spikes just because I don't really keep Skarm in for that long in the first place so setting up 3 spikes would take forever. I'd rather just get the stones in and be done with it.

 

[Silentmartyr]

After trying Venom's advice and using Vaporeon I found that the team wasn't doing enough damage. With three walls that don't dish out much damage the recent wave of stall teams were making my team not win. Instead I went back to the drawing board with a Zone replacement and came up with Gallade who has been doing well so far:

"Let's Dance"
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Steadfast
Item: Life Orb
EV's: 64 Hp/252 Atk/192 Spe
Moves:
~ Swords Dance
~ Close Combat
~ Ice Punch
~ Night Slash

When I took a hard look at the team I realized it was missing a pure physical attacker. Yes I have Machamp but most of the time she isn't going to be around late game. I'm usually subpunching with paybacks on the switch until she's dead. With Hitmonlee being my revenge killer it doesn't have a surefire sweep unless it's very late game and I'm locked into CC. I figured I needed to have a hard hitting physical attacker that wasn't going to add onto my weaknesses.

After brainstorming I had it down to either Ursaring or Gallade. While Ursaring is a good Poke I was deterred by his defenses so I went with Gallade. So far I've had a pretty easy go at it and even got a couple of sweeps with him.

For the rest of the team I switched Flamethrower for Ice Beam on Blissey for those pesky steels. Also I took Venom's advice and went for Spikes over Stones. So far so good.