Schopenhauer's Six [OU RMT]

[Silfen]

This is my first post on the forums, but I am by no means new to competitive battling. I played a lot back when garchomp was legal and scizor didn't have bullet punch. Then I took a break for a while. This was my first team in the platinum metagame that I put a lot of time and effort into. So far it's gotten me to a CRE of about 1400, which is a little bit mediocre, but I know I can do better. Also, the nicknames are just for fun. I like to be just a little bit different.

At a glance:

The idea behind this team, originally, was to test the viability of my lucario set (below) as a revenge killer. The rest of the team was built around this idea. Jirachi and Roserade set up entry hazards, Dusknoir spin blocks, Salamence puts big dents in walls, and Lucario cleans up the pieces. Oh, and Suicune does something. That's how it's supposed to work in theory, anyway. Here's the team in detail:

Jiracheese (Jirachi) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 80 HP/252 Atk/176 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Trick
- U-turn

I'm a big fan of leadrachi. Trick can devastate many common leads, like Aerodactyl and normal Azelf. As my CRE has gotten higher, though, I have found that it's often better to get rocks down on the first move, since most people will have a trick counter planned out. One advantage to this approach is that Jirachi can act as a pretty good revenge killer, while still retaining the ability to cripple something with trick or pick up a gain in momentum with U-turn. I don't like to spam Iron head, but the number of things it can kill with RNG is astounding. My friend and I were talking just the other day about how 5th gen needs a bulky ground type with inner focus for just that reason.

Top 10 leads:
Azelf - Trick it, then U-turn if taunted, switch to Suicune if it uses fire blast, set up rocks otherwise.
Aerodactyl - Trick it, Iron head if taunted, rocks otherwise.
Swampert - Trick it, then set up SR if it did, or switch to Salamence and set up if it EQ'd
Metagross - This is a little harder to say. I'll often set up rocks and switch to something that can deal with most metagross, like dusknoir.
Machamp - Trick, then switch to dusknoir so that 3/8 dynamicpunches are wasted.
Jirachi - Rocks and switch.
Infernape - U-turn to break its sash, then switch to suicune.
Ninjask - Lol, ninjask.
Tyranitar - U-turn, probably to suicune.
Heatran - U-turn to suicune.

Lucraio (Lucario) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Ice Punch

I'm pretty surprised, actually, that there's no choice scarf set in the smogon analysis for Lucario. There's no mention of it under optional changes, either. Of course, the element of surprise is part of why this guy works so well. The number of heatrans that stay in (or switch in!) is hilarious, especially since, with this EV spread and nature, you will always outspeed choice scarf heatran. Close combat is still massively powerful, although not like it is with SD luke. Ice punch covers dragons, but +1 speed salamence out speeds, and +1 speed dragonite with a typical EV spread isn't OHKO'd (I think). This is one of the places where residual damage becomes very important. Crunch helps to revenge kill rotom forms, which is a good thing since this team lacks a hard counter for them.

Suicoon (Suicune) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Surf
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

'Cune is this team's glue. With Roserade and Jirachi out early, and Lucario switching in and out all the time, the team is in desperate need of a fire resist with some serious bulk. Suicune plays that role extremely well. The fact that it can also sweep unprepared teams late game doesn't hurt, either. After a couple calm minds, there are very few things that can put any kind of dent in this beast. I also personally like the fact that I have two pressure users on my team. There is an element of stall to how I play, and so I like to see 8 PP moves like heatran's fire blast and machamp's dynamicpunch, because I know that I can get rid of 2-3 PP in a couple turns. Anyway, Suicune counters a number of mons that would otherwise give this team serious trouble.

Salaments (Salamence) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 80 Atk/176 Spd/252 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake

If there's any reason to ban Salamence, this might be it right here. If I play my cards right, I can seriously dent at least two pokemon if I don't kill them. One DD + entry hazards, and I can probably kill two members of my opponent's team. This mence can sweep late game, or it can come in early to break some walls. If I bring it out early enough, most people guess MixMence and I will occasionally get a chance to dragon dance. Very little in the OU metagame compares to Salamence in terms of its ability to deliver hard hits from both the physical and special sides.

This is the slot on the team that I've changed up the most. At first I had a different (worse) DD Mence, then CB Dragonite, and then the current model. If Salamence does end up in the Uber tier, I will probably go back to CB Nite. He's not as good for many things, but I do miss his extremespeed.

Roseraid (Roserade) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/120 Spd/136 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Spikes
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Stun Spore

Spiker Roserade is kind of awesome. A lot of people (although this might just be a result of where I am on the ladder) have no idea what to do with Roserade if it's not a lead. With this EV spread, it takes special hits like a champ. I'm always surprised when people think that ice beam with defensive vaporeon is a good way of dealing with this guy (I get to lay down three layers of spikes). Stun spore and HP fire are for Scizor and Salamence, not respectively. If I've seen either of those guys earlier in a battle, I will often predict the switch by firing off stun spore, then switching for mence (the switch depends on a few things, like whether Jiracheese still has his scarf) or using hidden power for Scizor.

Dosknoir (Dusknoir) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/28 Atk/228 Def
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Will-o-wisp
- Pain Split
- Earthquake
- Thunderpunch

Dusknoir is my spin blocker. It's a job he does fairly well, although he does lose to most Starmie. The thing is, he can prevent them from spinning, get at least one thunderpunch in, and then I can revenge kill Starmie with Lucario, so I won't lose my entry hazards once they're laid down, provided Dusknoir is healthy. Dusknoir can also counter most Gyarados (I've found that they almost universally taunt), since thunderpunch is a 2HKO on typical gyaras. People also try to pursuit trap with Scizor sometimes, which is fun because after a will-o-wisp, pursuit is like a 3-hit KO, so Scizor usually ends up dying. That opens the door for a Salamence sweep, which is always welcome.


So, that's my team. I've put a bunch of time in here, so I would appreciate any constructive criticism. I'd also be happy to answer any questions or elaborate on any of the statements I've made thus far. This was a fun first post.

 

[Eggbert]

Solid, but in order to abuse spikes, why not run a shuffler suicune? You use suicune to counter things, so switching it to that would give you phazing and spikes abuse.

DDmixmence is probably one of the most effective ways to completely trick and destroy your opponent. After you use DM and outrage, your opponent will be much less conservative with their DDmence counter. The one thing I would suggest is to max speed. Basically all salamence besides the physically/specially bulky ones are running max speed.

I looked at the calcs for lucario, and while it is surprising (I only saw one other in some old RMT) it just misses out on some important KOs. Since you are playing OU, not suspect, having a faster revenge killer would be more necessary. Jirachi would be great for this role, but you have him as a lead.

This last part isn't necessary, but a sub punching dusknoir can beat most starmie (Sub punch, shadow sneak, and punch/wow) and contribute more to offense.

 

[Workers Comp]

You have an interesting semi-stall team, with some clear old school influences (dusknoir) with some newer influences that combine to make a unique team.

First of all, I recommend making a threat list, partially to help us rate your team, but mostly to help yourself as you plan for improvements. Second, I agree with some of the things said above me. A CM shuffle suicune would really help rack up the spikes damage, and replacing dusknoir with rotom-h would give you a pseudo fire/water/grass core, as well as a fire attack and a good electric attack.

I question the effectiveness of a trick jirachi lead on your team because as you pointed out most suicide leads have a trick absorber and bulky leads are usually set-up bait for roserade or suicune anyway. Heatran seems like a good fit, and if you switch dusknoir to rotom, then metagross would work well. I especially like metagross because it gives you a priority move that your team lacks.

Why stun spore over sleep powder for roserade? Sleep pwder gives you guaranteed spikes if it hits, and it has the same accuracy as stun spore iirc.

As dangerous as mence is, you really need a revege partner for lucario, and he's the most expendable one. The scizor/lucario combo is infamous for sharing the same counters, which suicune happens to counter. If you don't want to use scizor, heatran could also work, but not as well as scizor.