Standard OU team #3

[Rapetime]

Ok so this is gonna be my third RTM to post on smogon. This team has to be on of my favorites but theres a problem. Theres a huge hole in my team that I am missing. This team has been winning me alot of games but only to a point. Ussually around the 1300 stage on the ladder I seem to be losing more often then I ussually do. So here it is.

At a glance:

Metagross @ Occa Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/232 Atk/12 Def/12 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
- Meteor Mash

I decided to keep this as my lead considering how well it serves. Gets up rocks almost always and with its arcenal of moves it can pose as a serious threat to my oppenets team late game. No explosion here because I personally dont think its worth suicide. The pokemon handles MOST leads with success although has some trouble with Swamperts and Hippowdon. Other than that, props to Metagross lead :)

Machamp (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/6 Def
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Dynamicpunch
- Stone Edge
- Payback

Once I get a sub up I can cause hell for my oppenet. After Dynamic much there chance of attacking me is reduced so I may even get to set up another sub. StoneE is for Zapdos,Gyarados and Salamence. Payback is for those Gengars and Rotom-A thinking there about to wall me. Machamp is also my best bet againts Blissey who will be causing me some major troubles.

Heatran (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Dragon Pulse
- Earth Power
- Explosion

Heatran pairs perfectly with Celebi in terms of synergy. And with the scarf he is my teams main revenge killer. Fireblast here for obvouis reasons. Dragonpulse for salamence and kingdra mainly and Earthpower for other heatrans coming in. Explosion as my last ditch move and works great when Im at low health and are faster than my oppenent anyways.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/220 Def/36 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Psychic
- Recover

Celebi is here is my defence wall and counters most gyarados quite nicely. Thunderwave for speed support since most of my team is slow. Leechseed so reduce damage aswell as zapping some of there HP. I choose Psychic over grass knot mainly to have something to hit Breloom with. And Recover duh

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/6 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Surf
- Ice Beam

Heres my Late game sweeper. CM suicune is amazing after you get a few CM's up. Getting them up is the bigger problem though. Substiture is here to eliminate all attempts to poisen or paralyze suicune. Icebeam to hit Salamence extreamly hard and does a decent amount to gyarados. The best way I use this is to come in on something that really has no choice but to switch to easily give me one boost or sub, for example Dusnoir. Behind a sub he cant really do much to me.

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/52 Def/200 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Thunder Wave
- Reflect
- Recover

Heres my one and only Special defence wall, and shes great at it too. She can spread Status around and set up reflect in T-tar and scizors faces. Dragonpulse as my solo attack and boosted by stab. She is my only true counter to Heatran and Infernape and can Threaten with T-wave. Overall this dragon is good at taking special attacks for my team. Although she doesnt like boosted SE attacks.


CLOSING COMMENTS
Yea I know alot of legends but yea heres my team. I know that there is a big hole in this team somewhere that im missing simply because im not winning as much as I used too. Please comment or PM your opinions/suggestions and things that can overall improve this team to make it play better. Thanks.

Yea I know this RTM is a bit rushed compared to my other 2

 

[tab]

Hi.

Obviously, there's not much wrong with Metagross, it's one of the most common leads for a reason. However, you should really be using Explosion on it. Just because Explosion is in the set doesn't mean you have to suicide with it early on, it can be just as effective a lot of the time to save it for later, which can be potentially game changing.

On Machamp, you should be using 216 HP and 40 Speed, which allows you to outspeed a few key pokemon (I can't remember the list off the top of my head, but its definately worth doing).
Otherwise, Machamp its self is OK, although from the looks of things, you're placing too much strain on it. Using a purely special team with Machamp as your only means of breaking stall, Blissey in particular, is asking for trouble, especially as it's not going to be switcing in anywhere near often enough with Sub, Spikes, SR, and Sandstorm.

Heatran should be using a Naive nature, as the +Speed allows it to outspeed a number of key pokemon that could give you a lot of trouble otherwise, and using Naive rather than Timid powers up the Explosion.

Celebi would be better off with Grass Knot and HP Fire rather than Psychic and Leech Seed. Leech Seed isn't really going to be very useful for you outside of a last ditch attempt at beating stall - which it's only going to be a minor annoyance for, and HP Fire is required to prevent Celebi from being destroyed by Scizor. Grass Knot is a much better choice of STAB in OU than Psychic, and most significantly, it gives you an answer to Swampert (CursePert could 6-0 the current team fairly easily) and Gyarados (currently you're going to be forced to Explode with Heatran).

I'd prefer a CroCune with Rest/Sleep Talk/Calm Mind/Surf to a SubCM Cune here, as you're going to be relying on Suicune quite a bit to take hits for you, and you're pretty stall weak. CroCune can set up on and sweep any stall team without Perish Song Celebi or Curse Spiritomb if you save it until the rest of your team is dead, as it can easily PP stall Blissey and then OHKO/2HKO the entire team. Obviously, it's not a perfect solution, as you can't really deal with Celebi, but it's a good start to fixing your stall problem.

Finally, such a defensive Latias set isn't really the best choice here. With CeleTranCune, you've got a really solid defensive core already, with the only real problem pokemon being Infernape, which doesn't really need Latias to be dealt with, as you have a ScarfTran.
If you want to keep Latias, a CM set with Dragon Pulse/Recover/Calm Mind and Refresh/HP Fire/Reflect would be the best way to go, giving you another answer to stall teams if you go with Reflect, as well as being an extremely useful pokemon against any other kind of team, especially if you use HP Fire or Reflect.
Alternatively, a good replacement would be a CB Scizor, which covers all of your remaining weaknesses nicely. Currently, DDMence and CM Latias in particular can destroy your team fairly easily, as even Heatran is 2HKOed if it comes in on a +1 Outrage. CB Scizor would give you Pursuit, which is incredibly useful on a team like this, giving you a way to take out problem pokemon to open the way for a Suicune sweep.

Finally, a potential problem that you're going to have is Lucario. ScarfTran means you can revenge kill it, but nothing more, as it's incredibly risky to bring a Heatran in on a Lucario. Nothing on your team really like switching into it, so you'll just have to play around it carefully, especially as having SR as your only entry hazard means that it can come in repeatedly.

Good luck!

 

[Quickster]

I agree with Tab about the Crocune. It's a much better late-game sweeper and it's also much sturdier.

 

[Rapetime]

Hi.

Obviously, there's not much wrong with Metagross, it's one of the most common leads for a reason. However, you should really be using Explosion on it. Just because Explosion is in the set doesn't mean you have to suicide with it early on, it can be just as effective a lot of the time to save it for later, which can be potentially game changing.

On Machamp, you should be using 216 HP and 40 Speed, which allows you to outspeed a few key pokemon (I can't remember the list off the top of my head, but its definately worth doing).
Otherwise, Machamp its self is OK, although from the looks of things, you're placing too much strain on it. Using a purely special team with Machamp as your only means of breaking stall, Blissey in particular, is asking for trouble, especially as it's not going to be switcing in anywhere near often enough with Sub, Spikes, SR, and Sandstorm.

Heatran should be using a Naive nature, as the +Speed allows it to outspeed a number of key pokemon that could give you a lot of trouble otherwise, and using Naive rather than Timid powers up the Explosion.

Celebi would be better off with Grass Knot and HP Fire rather than Psychic and Leech Seed. Leech Seed isn't really going to be very useful for you outside of a last ditch attempt at beating stall - which it's only going to be a minor annoyance for, and HP Fire is required to prevent Celebi from being destroyed by Scizor. Grass Knot is a much better choice of STAB in OU than Psychic, and most significantly, it gives you an answer to Swampert (CursePert could 6-0 the current team fairly easily) and Gyarados (currently you're going to be forced to Explode with Heatran).

I'd prefer a CroCune with Rest/Sleep Talk/Calm Mind/Surf to a SubCM Cune here, as you're going to be relying on Suicune quite a bit to take hits for you, and you're pretty stall weak. CroCune can set up on and sweep any stall team without Perish Song Celebi or Curse Spiritomb if you save it until the rest of your team is dead, as it can easily PP stall Blissey and then OHKO/2HKO the entire team. Obviously, it's not a perfect solution, as you can't really deal with Celebi, but it's a good start to fixing your stall problem.

Finally, such a defensive Latias set isn't really the best choice here. With CeleTranCune, you've got a really solid defensive core already, with the only real problem pokemon being Infernape, which doesn't really need Latias to be dealt with, as you have a ScarfTran.
If you want to keep Latias, a CM set with Dragon Pulse/Recover/Calm Mind and Refresh/HP Fire/Reflect would be the best way to go, giving you another answer to stall teams if you go with Reflect, as well as being an extremely useful pokemon against any other kind of team, especially if you use HP Fire or Reflect.
Alternatively, a good replacement would be a CB Scizor, which covers all of your remaining weaknesses nicely. Currently, DDMence and CM Latias in particular can destroy your team fairly easily, as even Heatran is 2HKOed if it comes in on a +1 Outrage. CB Scizor would give you Pursuit, which is incredibly useful on a team like this, giving you a way to take out problem pokemon to open the way for a Suicune sweep.

Finally, a potential problem that you're going to have is Lucario. ScarfTran means you can revenge kill it, but nothing more, as it's incredibly risky to bring a Heatran in on a Lucario. Nothing on your team really like switching into it, so you'll just have to play around it carefully, especially as having SR as your only entry hazard means that it can come in repeatedly.

Good luck!

Finally I get a rater here, thankss for the awsome suggestions. I fixed the little problems you pointed out with the nature and stuff. Also that crocune you suggested is doing great! thanks for that

The one thing thats still bugging me is what I should do with the latias slot since you pointed out that the defensive set isnt mandatory. I tried the CBScizor you suggested and it does fine expecially paired with suicune. But then wont I have a big Infernape/Heatran weakness to the team? I could also go for a CM latias but I am still not sure. What would be the best filler for the slot?

 

[tab]

Yeah, Infernape's going to be difficult to deal with if you drop Latias, however you have a ScarfTran, which can easily come in on anything except a Close Combat (and nothing on your team really attracts Close Combats) and force it out, which is a decent solution.
Heatran can be dealt with pretty easily with the rest of the team, it's just going to get tricky when a ScarfTran is getting to the point where it's going to be exploding soon.

CM Latias would cover those weaknesses for you, but it would open up bigger weaknesses to Latias and Salamence. You don't really have any way of taking out Latias, other than PP stalling it with CroCune and hoping it doesn't get a crit or Exploding with Heatran, and DDMence and MixMence can wreck your team pretty easily, seeing as your current steels can't really do anything to stop them, which is why I suggested CB Scizor. Bullet Punch and Pursuit cover Latias and Salamence very well between them, and Scizor is still an extremely useful pokemon to have outside of countering dragons.