SALMAGUNDI time!

Horndrill11

Ok... here we go again. I used several basic strategies here for a staple team I call…

Salmagundi.
It means “put together with a little bit of everything” Don’t ask me what language.

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Naïve Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure


Moveset
~ Stealth Rock
~ Taunt
~ Earthquake
~ Rock Slide
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe


Aerodactyl makes a darn good lead. TAUNT outlaws entry hazards by outrunning a fair amount of the OU leads, then follows up with an entry hazard of its own (STEALTH ROCK). And, if it survives the initial few hits of battle, it can cause significant damage with Earthquake and STAB’d Rock Slide (which often causes the opponent to flinch, a nice benefit.) Given its fragile defense, though, I gave it a focus sash so it can taunt and stealth rock safely.

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Adamant Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal


Moveset
~ Spore
~ Focus Punch
~ Seed Bomb
~ Substitute
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spe

Breloom is my main physical sweeper. SPORE is an obvious choice, putting the foe to Sleep 100% of the time. SEED BOMB can ruin Swampert along with a few other popular pokes such as Starmie. SubPunching (using Substitute to set up a risk-free Focus punch) is a strategy I try to use as a factor in all of my teams, and it does well here. And even if the foe is resistant/immune to Focus Punch, I can always make a substitute to Poison Heal for a few turns while SeedBombing away at the opponent.


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Naïve Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate


Moveset
~ Draco Meteor
~ Earthquake
~ Flamethrower
~ Dragon Claw
EVs: 16 Atk / 240 SpA / 252 Spe


The new MixMence makes an amazing late game sweeper. Good EVs let it excel in both offensive categories. Good attacks help it exploit that. Flamethrower is pretty reliable, as is Earthquake (one of my favorite moves) , and any STAB dragon move is amazing for both of my choices, though Draci Meteor is saved for the final moments of battle. Tried to avoid the standard DDmence (dragon dance) because I didn’t want to use up any precious attack slots.



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Naïve Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull

Moveset
~ Thunderbolt
~ Hidden Power Fire
~ Flash Cannon
~ Explosion
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe


After some consideration I decided that Magnezone would make an O.K. revenge killer. Any steel type that could pose a threat (cough, Scizor……cough) I could easily switch in Magnezone to blast it with HP Fire, and then I’d switch out to one of my more powerful hitters so it can abuse Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon later, with Explosion as a last resort. Choice scarf so it can outrun a fair amount of steel types.

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Bold Dusknoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure

Moveset
~ Will-O-Wisp
~ Pain Split
~ Earthquake
~ Ice Punch
EVs: 252 HP / 28 Atk / 228 De
Dusknoir can can function splendidly as a tank and a spin blocker. Will-o-Wisp can be shaky but useful overall. Earthquake is no surprise, it’s a prominent feature on all of my teams. Pain Split is a bit tricky as a recovery move, but I can usually get satisfactory results thanks to Dusky’s ridiculously low HP (the EVs don’t hurt, either.) Ice Punch is a nice staple move that can be used frequently with Dusknoir’s impressive attack stat, too.


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Bold Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure


Moveset
~ Softboiled
~ Protect
~ Seismic Toss
~ Toxic
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe


I freakin’ love Blissey. Seriously. It is, and will always remain, the special wall to end all special walls. And by “end all special wall”, I mean A) badly poisoning all of your opponents to add to the pain of Aerodactyl’s SR, B) stalling with Protect while Toxic eats away at the foe, C) using Seismic toss to do a reliable amount of damage with each hit, and D) passing Wish onto any of my teams’ valuable sweepers. At the risk of repeating myself, I freakin’ love this thing.
 
While teams that mix together offense and the ability to switch into hits are perfectly viable, you're simply not going about it the right way here. By including Blissey and Dusknoir (which really isn't great in OU), youre basically allowing your opponent to take advantage of them, and gain free turns to set up on you. You're much better off going with what's known as bulky offense, where all of your pokemon are capable of contributing offensively, while still being bulky enough to allow you to switch around and absorb damage where necesarry.

I'll start off with Blissey. You seem to have included her simply as a solution to the problem "I can't really switch into special attacks". The most common and dangerous special attacks at the moment are dragon- and fire-type ones, which means either a bulky water capable of helping out offensively, such as offensive Suicune with Calm Mind/Surf/Ice Beam/HP Electric, or a Heatran would be a good choice of pokemon to help bolster your resistences. I'd suggest trying out Suicune here for the first change.

Next up, Dusknoir. As I mentioned, Dusknoir isn't the best pokemon to be running in OU, and I'd suggest trying out a different ghost type instead, such as a Rotom-H. There's two sets that would work well here, being a Choice Scarf set with Trick/Overheat/Thunderbolt/Shadow Ball, or an offensive Substitute/Pain Split/Thunderbolt/Shadow Ball set, both of which will give you a perfectly good spin blocker and a check to quite a few of the pokemon that could otherwise give you trouble, while contributing a lot more to the teams offenses. If you want to go a bit more defensive with your ghost, Rotom's analysis has several sets which could be of interest. Despite Rotom's lower defenses, you'll probably find the defensive sets more useful than Dusknoir from a general perspective.

I'm not really sure what Magnezone does for this team other than give you an easy way to deal with Scizor. As your steel type, Magnezone needs to be able to pose a threat to pokemon like DDMence, so that you can't be swept as easily by them. Not only that, but none of your pokemon currently really benefit from having a steel trapper, with the two main pokemon, Salamence and Breloom, being able to beat a lot of steels when played properly, and my two suggested pokemon, Rotom and Suicune, able to deal with most of them too.
I think you'd be better off simply going with a CB Scizor of your own, in order to give you a way of dealing with the likes of Salamence, while still being able to contribute offensively.

Finally, if you're using MixMence, you need to be using Outrage, or at least Brick Break instead of Dragon Claw, which simply isn't powerful enough. However, with this team, I'd recommend going with an old MixMence with Roost/Brick Break/Fire Blast/Draco Meteor, as you're going to be relying on Mence heavily to weaken teams to the point where Breloom (and Suicune if you go with that option) are capable of sweeping, and Roost makes that job a lot easier. Roost also means that you can effectively use Salamence as a switch into resisted attacks, or that you can use its Intimidate to make physical sweepers easier to handle without having to basically sacrifice Salamence in the process.

Sorry for suggesting so many changes, but I think you really need to rework your defensive core in order to make this team work properly. Good luck!
 
Not bad, but i prefer TrickJirachi as a lead, i like your use of duskinoir. I have to say that I really hate magnezone, not just on your team, on any team :)
 
Very nice use of Dusknoir. I am running a similar set on my new team.
As stated, he is a great user of pain split with his low HP. WoW stops physical attackers well, aswell as breaking down walls. One problem is that he takes hits from earthquake which is not a problem for rotom. However, he is a very capable wall...
 
Yay! People like my dusknoir now.
But what can TrickRachi do that Aerodactyl won't!
The last time I used a trick lead, the opponent had a trick counter team and i was stuck holding a flmae orb.
And why deos everyone hate magnoezne? It's more or less the only thing on my team that can kill scizor.
 
Is this a Wi-fi team? If not, change Aerodactyl's nature to Jolly and Dusknoir's to Impish. There's no point in lowering Aerodactyl's defenses, as crappy as they may be, when you have no special attacks, and Bold on a physical attacker makes Dusknoir even bigger setup bait than usual.
 
No, this is not a wi-fi team. It's mainly for Shoddy. But alas, I have outgrown OU and have descended into the world of little cup. Now, because of moderators (Especially Bloo) I'll be back in two weeks to discuss my Little team. Ciao !
 
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