Some OU Team I Tested

[TheWorm55]

So I decided to build a team around a really solid defensive core then add a couple of relevant sweepers/support Pokemon at the end and it has turned out really well. I was trying to ladder with it on an alt and got to over 2000 rating and at its peak I was 12-1 with it, but then I started playing against much better players who could find and take advantage of holes in my team, so it obviously isn't perfect. which is why I am here.

So, firstly, the defensive core I was talking about is Hippowdon, Jellicent and Ferrothorn.

This is one of the most solid defensive cores I have used, as they can all take each others hits and can each counter what the other is weak to. However, both Hippowdon and Jellicent are weak to Grass and Ferrothorn has an enormous Fire weakness, so I needed something to balance that out as well as be more offensive, because all these 3 Pokemon so far are very defensive, so enter Heatran.

There, all the weaknesses are covered and I now have a decent Special sweeper as well, so I need a strong Physical attacker with good synergy, so I went with Choice Scarf Garchomp as it deals with a hell of a lot of things and adds a bit of speed to this so far very slow team.

The last slot on this team was a tricky one and I originally had Conkeldurr to be a bit of a wallbreaker and he was pretty good, but I kept on losing games because I didn't have a Spinner. I decided to replace Conkeldurrrrr with the slightly more obscure Hitmontop, but running an offensive build to keep some of the wallbreaking power while still having a Rapid Spinner. He has tested out well so far and has taken out some things that would have been a threat to my team otherwise, like Lati@s, for example.

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Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind

This is just your standard Hippo set really, and it is usually what I lead with to get weather and rocks up, then stop things setting up that might switch in with Whirlwind. He is an amazing physical tank and has reliable recovery, so he is the most important part of the team, really.

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Def
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp
- Shadow Ball

Jellicent has near perfect defensive synergy with Hippowdon as it can take the Water and Ice attacks aimed at him. Jellicent also walls Keldeo, which my team would otherwise have issues with. The spinblocking capabilities are also very useful as it can help maintain the hazards set by Ferro and Hippo. Will-O-Wisp is there to cripple things that try switching in on Jellicent. I'm not sure whether I should use Taunt over Shadow Ball because they are both good against different things. Shadow Ball proves especially helpful against Starmie, which is very relevant.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Power Whip

Rounding up my defensive core is Ferrothorn, who again has amazing synergy, being able to take the Grass-Type attacks aimed at the other two. He can also set up the hazards that Jellicent can they maintain by blocking Rapid Spins. Thunder Wave is to cripple sweepers and Leech Seed is obviously for healing and residual damage. Protect is to ease prediction and get more healing/damage from Leech Seed. Power Whip is so Taunt doesn't wreck as hard and to actually do proper damage to things.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Substitute

Heatran is here to be a good special attacker and to take Fire-Type attacks aimed at Ferrothorn to get the Flash Fire boost. Roar is the only really non-standard thing here but its just to get rid of pesky stally things like Gliscor if Hippowdon dies and to phaze. There wasn't really anything better to put on Heatran anyway. Substitute helps me as I can set it up on the Steel-Types that will switch out on me and then I will be able to KO things switching in next turn as I will not die to an Earthquake. The EV spread is for maximum offence as a lot of my team is very defensive.

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Blast

Garchomp is the revenge killer here and can sweep once the threats are eliminated. I'm tempted to change the nature to Adamant but outspeeding other Choice Scarf Dragons is useful, though I sometimes miss the lack of power. Still, Garchomp is a the main powerhouse of the team and is very useful in getting those all important revenge kills.

Hitmontop (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Close Combat
- Foresight
- Sucker Punch

This is probably the only remotely interesting thing about this team as the rest of it is standard as hell. As stated, I originally had Conkeldurrrrrrrrrr here and I liked him quite a lot, but I still lacked a Rapid Spinner so I ended up replacing him with Hitmontop. Hitmontop still has some wallbreaking capabilities, though not as much as Conkeldurrrrrrrrrr, but Rapid Spin and Intimidate are extremely useful, and Hitmontop also gets rid of Lati@s with Sucker Punch, which is very useful. The EVs give good offence and bulk, which is really what Hitmontop wants on this team, so hey.


As I said, this team is not perfect, so I will be thankful for any advice :)

 

[Moonclawz]

Hi TheWorm55,

I think you have a pretty solid bulky offensive team here.

I would keep Shadow Ball on Jellicent, as you said, it helps a lot against Starmie. I also recommend a spread of 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SpD, preventing Starmie's Psyshock from 2HKOing Jellicent.

On Ferrothorn, I think the lack of an attacking move makes it complete set-up fodder for many Pokemon, including Sub CM Latias, Sub SD Garchomp. In addition, having an attacking move will allow Ferro to check bulky waters like Politoad and Gastrodon, will prevent it from being completely shut down by Taunt/Substitute. For these reasons, I recommend that you run Power Whip over Protect or Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn. I would also give it a slightly more specially defensive spread of 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD, to allow it to tank Hydro Pumps better in case Jellicent goes down. You could also run Gyro Ball, to allow it to check Kyurem-B.

On Heatran, I think that Stealth Rocks would be more useful than Roar (unless Volcarona is really problematic), since your Heatran is pretty offensive and doesn't really have the bulk to tank a hit and Roar a Pokemon out. This way, you can give Hippodown Toxic, which allows it to better check physical attacks like Dragonite, Landorus-T, and other Pokemon that are immune to Earthquake.

I would defenitely keep Jolly on Garchomp, as +Speed nature allows it to outspeed and KO Scarf Jirachi.

I feel like Toxic Stall Gliscor could be problematic, especially if it gets a Substitute up. In addition, Kyurem-B can easily set-up a Sub against Ferrothorn and Jellicent and start causing trouble for your team, espcially if it has Earth Power and if Heatran's Balloon is broken. However, these can be worked around with smart play.

Hope this helps!

 

[RotomPoison]

Hi TheWorm55,

I think you have a pretty solid bulky offensive team here.

I would keep Shadow Ball on Jellicent, as you said, it helps a lot against Starmie. I also recommend a spread of 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SpD, preventing Starmie's Psyshock from 2HKOing Jellicent.

On Ferrothorn, I think the lack of an attacking move makes it complete set-up fodder for many Pokemon, including Sub CM Latias, Sub SD Garchomp. In addition, having an attacking move will allow Ferro to check bulky waters like Politoad and Gastrodon, will prevent it from being completely shut down by Taunt/Substitute. For these reasons, I recommend that you run Power Whip over Protect or Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn. I would also give it a slightly more specially defensive spread of 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD, to allow it to tank Hydro Pumps better in case Jellicent goes down. You could also run Gyro Ball, to allow it to check Kyurem-B.

On Heatran, I think that Stealth Rocks would be more useful than Roar (unless Volcarona is really problematic), since your Heatran is pretty offensive and doesn't really have the bulk to tank a hit and Roar a Pokemon out. This way, you can give Hippodown Toxic, which allows it to better check physical attacks like Dragonite, Landorus-T, and other Pokemon that are immune to Earthquake.

I would defenitely keep Jolly on Garchomp, as +Speed nature allows it to outspeed and KO Scarf Jirachi.

I feel like Toxic Stall Gliscor could be problematic, especially if it gets a Substitute up. In addition, Kyurem-B can easily set-up a Sub against Ferrothorn and Jellicent and start causing trouble for your team, espcially if it has Earth Power and if Heatran's Balloon is broken. However, these can be worked around with smart play.

Hope this helps!

So basically, you want him to switch to Smogons EVs for no good reason. This is an RMT forum, not a forum to tell people to blindly follow Smogons sets. Nothing personal, but telling people to mindlessly use a Smogon set will lead them to using them in the future blindly as well.

Now some advice for the team would be:

1. Jellicent: Toxic > Will-O-Wisp. Scald and WillO is redundant, and Jelli likes stalling with Toxic much more.

2. Power Whip > Protect on Ferrothorn. You need an attacking move and it actually hits surprisingly hard. There is no reason to use Protect, getting some extra Leech Seed recovery is not worth a moveslot. Protect is very situational and Power Whip is much more useful

3. Fire Blast > Lava Plume on Heatran, using an Air Balloon is also a general waste of an item since you'll usually switch into a resisted attack of another type, and there you go you just lost an item. Make it Leftovers and use Fire Blast (or I guess Flamethrower) to have a better offensive presence, since it is an offensive Heatran.

4. Give Garchomp a Fire move or Aqua Tail over Stone Edge. That move is only for things that resist it's dual STAB anyway (Skarm, Bronzong)

5. Foresight over Stone Edge on Hitmontop, Stone Edge won't be useful that often (6 accuracy won't help either) and Foresight helps you spin against Jellicent or something while allowing you to CC it afterwards destroying a possible FerroCent core.

 

[TheWorm55]

Yeah I did feel Ferrothorn could kinda do with an attacking move, so I will replace Protect with Power Whip. I did hate getting Taunted and having nothing to do but struggle.

I will give Jellicent Toxic for the fact that Will-O-Wisp NEVER hits.

I'm not sure I want to give Hippowdon Toxic if Jellicent already has it, so I will keep SR on him as I usually lead with Hippo and get SR up ASAP. Also, Heatran is offensive so I don't really want to put SR on him.

Instead, I have actually decided to put Substitute on Heatran (over Roar) and give him Leftovers. This way I can set up on Ferrothorns, Forretress and Skarmory as they switch out or try to Leech Seed me (overpredicting) and then get a KO on anything trying to EQ me.

I will put Fire Blast on Garchomp over Stone Edge to kill the Steel-Types trying to switch in to a predicted Outrage. I will change the nature and EVs accordingly.

Yeah I suppose Foresight is a pretty cool idea, I will try it out, thanks :)

The EV spreads on all my things have worked fine so far so I don't think there is any need to change them, apart from Garchomp's, obviously.


Thanks for the help, it is much appreciated :)