TEAM DESPERADO [AN OU RMT]

[SinZ]

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INTRODUCTION​

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This is team is basically a variation of another team i used a while ago and has nabbed me a reasonable amount of wins. I used this team and got it up to around the mid 1400s on the smogon ladder, a titanic achievement for me. The style of this team is highly offensive, with every poke capable of achieving a sweep on the opponent's team, however, most of the time i try to set up a lucario sweep by weakening the opponent's team and its counters with my other pokes.

This team has no glaringly obvious weakness that i have noticed during the time that i have used this team and as a result of the lack of strategy if one key poke has fainted as a result of a misprediction i am not totally screwed. If any of you guys notice any weaknesses that have to be addressed please feel free to point it out to me.
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TEAM BUILDING PROCESS​

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I knew i wanted an offensive team loosely based on setting up for a lucario sweep so lucario was the obvious addition.

Then i wanted something to take earth, fighting and fire attacks aimed at lucario and also address some wallbreaking duties, being able to attack efficiently from both sides of the attacking spectrum was also necessary. You all know wats comming next.

With my mix-mence taking care of wallbreaking duties i wanted something to provide some early game scouting and sweeping. It had to be fast and reasonably powered to scout and damage as much as it can during the early stages of the game. Hmmm, fast and powerful....Ah, i know.

Im planning to use stone edge on my lucario so the lack of crunch means that i have no way to get past bulky ghosts. I also added another earth weakness with jolteon so i needed another earth resist. Having another fighting resist wouldnt hurt as well, so i settled with a life orb gengar.

I used to think stealth rock wasnt really important, because the damage it does is hard to track over time. But recently i discovered the lack of SR really makes a difference over time and especially on an offensive team, which is going to be switching around a lot. I didnt really want a rapid spinner on an offensive team so i was kinda stuck. Then i saw one of those aerodactyl leads that have declined in usage during these last few months and realized it utilizes a super-fast taunt to keep hazards off the field, it also has access to stealth rock itself so it was an excellent choice for my lead role.

The nature of highly offensive teams make them very susceptible to a strong sweeper that has managed to set up (DD salamence and Gyarados), being able to take care of those pokes was crucial. I also needed a fast revenge killer to pick off weakened pokes. I then realised i had nobody to take status very well so a natural curer or aromatherapist was also needed. I have used a scarf starmie to great success in past teams and realised it fit every single requirement stated above.

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TEAM DESPERADO​

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IN DEPTH​

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I WONDER WHY THIS GUY HAS DECLINED IN USAGE...

Sirocco (Aerodactyl) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

A pokemon built perfectly for this job, setting up stealth rock and stopping the opponent doing the same. And if the need arises, It can fire off EQs and Stone Edges off a decent 105 base attack. Just because this guy isnt seen very often anymore dosent mean its worse at what it does. Taunt is the perfect move for a lead and can be used to prevent SR, Sleep powder/hypnosis, rain dance etc., and is almost always going to be used before the opponent can set up due to aerodactyl's jaw dropping base 130 speed. SR is obvious and the other moves are just to damage the opponent as much as possible if given the chance.

With stealth rock off the field, my team will have a much better time switching in and out of trouble, especially the guy comming up.
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WALLS BEWARE!!

Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 16 Atk/252 Spd/240 SAtk
Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Draco Meteor
- Outrage
- Flamethrower
- Earthquake

The beast that walls have nightmares of, mixmence. This guy can cause a heck of a lot of damage, with 0 turns of set up. This guy definitely appreciates the lack of stealth rock and can abuse intimidate to the max. Has great synergy with lucario and helps get rid of many of its counters. 252 speed evs help outrun most other mixmence and ensures that very few walls manage to outspeed it. Draco Meteor is just broken and the spdef drops dont really matter when you have another stab 120 base attack that runs off a monstrous 135 base attack stat. If blissey switches into draco meteor it is OHKOed by outrage and stealth rock. Flamethrower and Earthquake just annihilates anything that resists its super-powered stab attacks. It definitely deserves to be one of the most overused pokes of all time.
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Blink and you'll miss him...

Roxxy (Jolteon) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Charge Beam

I used to use a specsjolt here but i have grown to love this set better. The basic gist of it is: come in on something that have been weakened and finish it off with charge beam, if you manage to grab a spatk boost then combined with life orb jolteon is basically operating on an 80% boost to all its moves (more than choice specs). Charge beam is obviously the crust of the set and i use it whenever i can. Thunderbolt is my main damaging attack and and totally pwns bulky waters that try to wall my other pokes. Shadow ball is there for ghosts and psychics that plague lucario. HP grass is used over HP ice because the dragons are hit hard enough by thunderbolt, and i just love it when swampert comes in looking to wall me.
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I SWEAR SCIZORS ARE JUST BUILT TO KILL ME =_=

WHYsoSERIOUS (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 40 Atk/252 Spd/218 SAtk
Hasty nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Explosion

This guy is my bulky psychic and ghost destroyer and with explosion even blissey is not safe from him. Shadow ball is obviously my stab main attack, and rips chunks off the aforementioned bulky psychics/ghosts. Thunderbolt is there to hit bulky waters and gyarados for decent damage. Focus Blast is a powerful move and gives me unresisted type coverage, however is rarely used unless absolutely necessary, thanks to its 70 base accuracy. Explosion is my finisher attack and with the 40 atk evs OHKOes blissey after stealth rock. This guy draws CBed scizors, weaviles and tyranitar like a magnet, which usually means the end of gengar, due to pursuit. But choice banded pursuit are my next poke's cue to set-up and wreck havoc.
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IF YOU HAVENT BEEN SWEPT BY ME U HAVENT PLAYED POKEMON...

Anakin(Lucario) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Extremespeed
- Stone Edge

The best late game sweeper in the game, if my opponent's team have been weakened, they dont stand much of a chance. Gengar and stamie provide me perfect opportunities to set up, and after a swords dance ,prayers are the only thing between my opponent and this monster. If a swords danced life orb base 180 powered fighting move didnt get u, the other two moves will. Extremepeed picks off anything faster than lucario, whom are usually frail enough to be OHKOed. Stone edge is chosen over crunch and ice punch for the following reasons: (a) crunch is only used for bulky ghosts and psychics, who if arent already dead thanks to jolteon and gengar, then crunch wont really KO the really defensive ones, except maybe dusknoir, and stone edge will 2KHO them anyway. (b) Ice punch is only used for gliscor (who outspeeds and KOes anyway) and the dragons (salamence also outspeeds and KOes). (c) Stone edge takes care of bulky fliers such as gyarados and zapdos, which are most people's presumed check to lucario, and also provides good neutral damage when i dont want to receive the defense drops from close combat. All in all lucario is a beast of a pokemon and wins me the match much more often than not.
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chainsaw (Starmie) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump

The reason im using this over latias is natural cure, which helps absorb status (a must on offensive teams), and a 120 base power stab move that dosent drop ur spatk by 2 stages. This thing is so fast with a scarf it outruns gyarados and salamence running max speed with a DD, and OHKOes with tbolt and ice beam. This thing basically performs the role of revenge killer and picks off the last stragglers of the opponent's team. This guy is also a pretty decent check against rain dance teams, and can probably sweep with its blistering speed and a rain boosted hydro pump. Like gengar, this guy also draws pursuit users for lucario to take advantage of.
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CONCLUSION​

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Thank you for going through this RMT for me, it took ages to complete. Any advice is appreciated and if there is anything that would make this team better than it is then by all means tell me how to do so. Thanks again.​

 

[franky]

Problems:

Petaya Empoleon

How to fix:

I think Gyarados and Salamence isn't much of a problem because its unable to set up on anything on your team. I think the only thing I would change is a Life Orb Starmie instead, which not only prevents Empoleon to set up easily, you can have more freedom in your moves while still maintaining a good offensive move pool.

Starmie
@ Life Orb
Timid Nature (Spe+ / Atk-)
6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Recovery

A solid replacement, giving more flexibility for Starmie. Thunderbolt smashes Empoleon trying to set up. No one can set up on your team now, not even Empoleon because it gets smashed by Thunderbolt. Hydro Pump is your STAB move while Ice Beam covers dragons, especially Salamence. Recovery for survivability to entire match. Although Surf might be a better option to beat Infernape without the bad accuracy gl.

 

[august]

I think Gyarados and Salamence isn't much of a problem because its unable to set up on anything on your team. I think the only thing I would change is a Life Orb Starmie instead, which not only prevents Empoleon to set up easily, you can have more freedom in your moves while still maintaining a good offensive move pool.

It doesn't matter, bulky DDMence can still set up a DD on Lucario and not get 2HKO'd by +2 Extreme Speed to proceed to sweep him if he runs Life Orb Starmie. Gyarados can also DD on -2 Mence if he doesn't want to Outrage early. Either way, Scarf Starmie absolutely needs to stay without a better replacement. Speaking of replacements, Scarf Latias IS a perfectly viable alternative to Starmie and fits the highly effective double dragon combination built to break down walls. The only reason Natural Cure would help on Starmie is against Thunder Wave, seeing as Latias is immune to Toxic Spikes and doesn't really care _that_ much about Toxic/WoW because it generally only stays in for 1 turn. I have also found Latias to be much more effective as Pursuit bait because teams often absolutely need to Pursuit Latias, and I can't really say the same goes for Starmie.

In general I think you should try Latias over Starmie to see how it works.

Lastly, Aerodactyl is not used because of the prevalence of Lead Metagross. Lead Metagross also rips your team a new hole if you don't Earthquake straight out with Aerodactyl, because after that you have to predict around the Explosion and get Gengar in on the Explosion, which is not safe at all since Gengar is OHKO'd by Meteor Mash and it takes a chunk (50+% i believe) from Bullet Punch. If you want to use a lead that beats Metagross then you may be stuck with Heatran. SpecsTran is an excellent lead to keep Stealth Rock off the field and beat common leads. I suggest Overheat / Hidden Power [Grass] / Earth Power / Stealth Rock with a Modest nature. Stealth Rock is crucial to your team for the extra residual damage that it provides for Salamence and Lucario. Overheat also OHKOs Hippowdon a large percent of the time which is excellent news for Lucario, because after that stall has to rely completely on Gyarados + Rotom to beat Lucario and no longer has the backbone support that Hippowdon provides. Heatran also provides an answer to random Will O Wisps since Flash Fire Specs Overheat is absolutely ridiculous.

Good luck!

 

[SinZ]

franky: As august pointed out salamence and gyarados still have plenty of opportunites to set up (althought none of them can set up on lucario thanks to stone edge). Petaya Empoleon is also killed by a scarf stamie locked on thunderbolt so that isnt a problem either. But thanks for the help anyway.

August: Starmie's natural cure comes in very handy when facing blissey. If the pink blob comes out then i instantly switch to starmie to take the status. If its running toxic, i switch to lucario while it attacks. If its thunder wave, i dont really have anything to switch in either so i just go with lucario again, and pray it attacks instead of status. Since starmie is able to run modest instead of timid and still outrun the dragons after a DD, it runs a bit more power than latias, whose only advantage is better defenses. And lastly running latias would give me a huge ice weakness. However, i will try ur suggestion and see if it works.

As for specstran, i dont really understand how that is going to help against metagross, who can OHKO specs tran with earthquake, unless overheat can hit through the occa berry. Specstran also does nothing to suicide leads such as aerodactyl and azelf, as it is forced to overheat and then be a sitting duck after they die, and they still manage to SR. but again, you've probably been playing the game longer than i have so i will take ur advice.

thank u both of u for ur excellent suggestions.

 

[august]

Well Specs Overheat OHKOs through Occa Berry. Azelf can't do anything outside of Explode. Only worry tbh is Aerodactyl and you can be risky and Overheat it as it Stealth Rocks and then go to Starmie on the Earthquake or just go to Starmie first in general.

Also now that i'm looking at it from a different perspective I think ScarfStar is much better in this case since you have a pretty large Mamo weak without it.

 

[SinZ]

I followed august's suggestion and tried out the specstran lead but the first thing i noticed was that it was only effective against a bulky lead. Infernape, Aero and Azelf (all popular leads) can take 2 overheats thanks to focus sash and set up stealth rock in addition to damaging heatran (azelf however is limited to explosion). Once someone eats an overheat the game is pretty much up and they probably realise its specsed and just send someone in to revenge kill heatran a -2/-4 spatk heatran. After heatran has used two overheats the opponents can just send in anyone they want to set up on the weakened heatran. Heatran is also very slow without the scarf and can then opponent can easily exploit its common weaknesses.

Overall, at the job of setting up SR and preventing the opponent doing the same, i can pretty much safely say that aero is better than tran at doing that.