Team my Rate (first venture into gen V OU)

[Samosael]

First of all you should know that I'm an annoying person. I have lots of stupid little rules I impose upon myself when it comes to Pokemon. I get into my my head bros I want to use and am reluctant to change them (so I'd rather see modified sets than replacement pokemon). I steer away from legendaries of any kind. I'm OCD about not using more than one pokemon of the same type in a team.

BUT
All that said I'm willing to make some exceptions for the purposes of bettering myself in this thread. If you really feel that switching out one of my pokemon for Heatran or whatever is a great idea, I promise to at the very least consider it, even if I don't necessarily follow through with the changes.

Now that's done, on with the team:

Roserade (M) @ Focus Sash Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Leaf Storm
- Venom Shock
- Sleep Powder
- Toxic Spikes


Le standard toxic spikes lead. My team (particularly the toxic stall Gliscor that doesn't have toxic) really needs those toxic spikes. Fortunately (barring sleep powder misses, Espeon, and pesky spinners and poison types) this set still works pretty well. You may have doubts about venom shock, but a 130 power STAB move (when activated by t-spikes) is nothing to scoff at. I particularly enjoy those Brelooms that switch in thinking they're so great with their toxic heal only to be OHKOed. That said, it leaves Roserade horribly useless against steel types, so I'm certainly considering HP fire. Nevertheless my team is fairly scared of Breloom and HP fire isn't enough to OHKO it, I believe, though it can stop it subbing (and Roserade can lose the sleep by just switching). Thoughts appreciated.



Darmanitan (Hihidaruma) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Encourage
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Flare Blitz
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Superpower


Scarfmanitan was introduced to make up for a severe lack of speed on my team, as well as a lack of a powerful stone edge. I've found him to be quite effective, particularly against the ever dangerous Volcarona (resisting both STABs and OHKOing with stone edge). On occasion he has even outsped the moth after a quiver dance, making him a perfect counter, though I'm unsure on how regularly this can be relied upon. Flare blitz has even the most defensive steels shuddering a little, and u-turn is there for scouting (though an SR weakness limits this), and superpower is for rock types, though it sees little use. Better suggestions for that last slot are welcome.



Scrafty (Zuruzukin) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Earthquake Spiral
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 128 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Drain Punch
- Payback
- Ice Punch
- Bulk Up


Bro of bros all bros. Once the special threats (especially anything with the deadly focus miss) are out of the way, Scrafty can come in for a late game sweep. A few bulk ups let's Scrafty suck up even stab fighting moves (though he fears Conkledurr, Gliscor handles him). I run moxie over shed skin because I find it helps with sweeps, and since his healing comes from drain punch attack helps his bulk. Paralysis doesn't matter since he's slow as hell anyway, and even deadly poison (unless up against a staller) can get its damage healed off easily with a few boosts behind you. Burn is dangerous but if you have time boosts can negate even that. Sleep is always dangerous, but it's never permanent anyway. Still, if you really think I need shed skin, make your case. Finally, I've been pondering switching payback for crunch, for the sake of Reuniclus alone. Thoughts?



Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Atk / 100 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Protect
- Ice Fang
- Taunt


I often find myself wishing I had 10 more moveslots on Gliscor. A great physical wall that pairs up really well with Jellicent, and as mentioned before uses toxic spikes support to stall with protect. Taunt obviously to stop recovery, working quite well on psycho-shock Reuniclus even without the toxic support by wearing it down with EQ. Ice fang for dragons, bulky grounds, grass types, and flyers that make earthquake cry. I have occasionally wondered if I'm using poison heal for the sake of newness and would be better off with a traditional roost set (also gaining access to SR), but as mentioned before I hate Breloom and so having that toxic orb (provided it's been activated) can be vital.



Galvantula (Denchura) (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Compoundeyes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder
- Volt Change
- Bug Buzz
- Hidden Power [Ice]


Hits like a goddam truck. An electric one. Not much that doesn't resist thunder isn't 2HKOed, and with prediction plenty of those can be OHKOed on the switch with HP ice. With the team preview function you can count up the ground types and when they're gone open fire until everything is a charred mess. I don't find myself using volt change very much because, unlike u-turn, it can be blocked. Therefore I could switch it out for energy ball for Swampert. Alternatively, advice on using volt switch would be helpful.



Jellicent (Burungeru) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Taunt


A fantastic special wall. And brilliant toxic staller alongside Gliscor; their dual taunts have caused many a ragequit. Will-o-miss is great for hitting steel type switch ins like Scizor that shrug off toxic spikes, as well as enemy walls like Ferrothorn and Skarmory (who the EVs allow Jelly to outspeed). Combined with taunt and those walls are made completely useless and can even be burn stalled with recover. Hydro pump over scald because it never seemed to do much damage and the burn was too unreliable. Hydro pump can hit those physical switch ins hard, and is the final weapon in the arsenal against Skarmory. Cursed body is fantastic as Jellicent just takes all water hits with ease anyway. Someone can be spamming their stab at you (because of Jelly's bulk, they will be spamming) and suddenly have to switch to a move that's resisted or switch, letting Jelly get a free move. Having only one attack move does hurt sometimes, but on the whole Jellicent has no trouble switching because of the myriad ways it can force butthurt and switching in the opponent.






So there's the team. Like I say, this is my first gen V team and I've been working on it for a while, but I'm painfully aware of how bad at teambuilding I am. As previously stated, any comments are much appreciated and I will always consider them. Even if they make me cry inside.

 

[wacky tabaky]

For scrafty I would run crunch as it can lower defence as well as being stronger. Substitute instead of ice punch because your not running shed skin and it gives you a chance to set up and heal with drain punch. For jellicent I don't mind the set but I would have hex over taunt as toxic/burn makes it very strong. I would have ice beam instead of hydropump as it has better offensive typing and still deals reliable damage.

 

[Samosael]

Substitute is a neat idea, I'll be sure to try it out (though it will make Scrafty a little more scared of stuff like Gliscor). I used to have ice beam over will-o-wisp on Jellicent but I actually found that it hardly got used since it gets so many steel switch ins. Although it's still reliable damage it ends up being just a little over half as powerful as Hydro Pump is, so I'm not sure it's worth it. Might try it out anyway. I'd love some ghost stab to wreck Reuniclus and the Latis (he can shrug off a draco meteor with recover), and hex would be perfect... I'm loath to lose taunt though... But I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the reply!

 

[Downf4ll]

Good team, but I'd suggest putting rock slide over stone edge on darmanitan. Because of the sheer force boost, you lose about 1 BP in exchange for 10 more accuracy; not a bad deal if I say so myself.

Also, energy ball is superior to Volt Change on Galvantula; you'll be wishing you had it more often than you'll be wishing you had volt change. The only real point in using volt change/U-turn is to safely bring in a counter (the voltchanger/U-turner is supposed to get hit instead of the counter you're bringing in) , but since Galvantula outspeeds a lot of things, it's next to useless in comparison to energy ball.

Another suggestion is Shed Skin over Moxie, and I second Crunch over Payback. Payback is weak as hell on the switch, so it's just not worth it, and according to your description you like to stall with Scrafty, so it'd be better to lose crippling status rather than a boost that'll go away once someone switches in their [insert fighting type here] or their [insert Phazer here].

One final note, you don't have anything that can deal with dragons, especially Hydreigon, since he can OHKO your galvantula and Roserade with fire blast (while they can't do anything back, since HP ice isn't a KO), OHKO your Gliscor and your Darmanitan with Surf (he outspeeds Gliscor too, and might not die to Darmanitan's superpower, which is just the icing on the cake), and might OHKO Jellicent with Dark Pulse (guaranteee with SR support). On top of all this, he has levitate so you can't toxic stall him. Granted, he can't do too much to Scrafty (Only DM is something to worry about, doing 90-109%, but this is negated once you drain punch him for like all his health), and this is all with choice specs so it's almost impossible to 6-0 you, but even then it's kinda scary to see that this poke can do so much to your team almost effortlessly.

I wish I was better at suggesting pokemon, but I can't think of anything at the moment that would work better with what you already have. You definitely need a steel type or a pokemon with a strong ice move (HP ice and ice fang just aren't good enough)