There's no better team name than this and nobody else listens to me when I suggest that so I'm using it myself. Also sorry if there are any font tags or formatting problems, I previewed this a few times and didn't see any though. There might be some I missed since I copied from Word/Notepad.
Alright I’ve had this team for probably close to 2 years now and decided to finally post it. I doubt I’ll be using it much anymore especially since it got a little worse ever since Platinum came out (it was originally made pre-platinum). Anyway, this team has been pretty good the whole time, and focuses on somewhat offensive pokemon who can still take hits. It’s gone through tons of changes and I’ve never found the “perfect team” but this is probably as close as I have gotten with it. I haven’t gotten to the top of the ladder or whatever since I don’t do a ton of battles at a time.
Also, I don’t use regular 252/252/4 EV spreads. I actually enjoy calcing everything (I do it manually, I don’t need any silly damage calculators) and make spreads based off that. I don’t remember what specific things I had EV’d this stuff for anymore but I know it was all for a good reason. Everything is pretty well thought out so I would appreciate if your replies are something better than “lol poliwrath sucks” please.
Another weird thing about my team is that most of my team is actually not OU pokemon. I don’t use the lower tier pokemon just for the sake of using them, I use them because they are the best at what I need them to do.
Team at a glance:
Notice how I have 3 Stealth Rock resists and also 4 Bug resists. I really don’t care about Stealth Rock and Scizor.
Gallade @ Life Orb
Adamant, 8HP/252Atk/144Def/104spd
Close Combat
Psycho Cut
Leaf Blade
Shadow Sneak
Everyone always says Gallade sucks or whatever but it is an amazing lead. It basically 2HKOs almost every lead and comes back later on to kill Starmie, Azelf, and others who all think they’re faster, and just weakened pokemon in general. I use him mainly for these reasons, although his great movepool and good stats definitely help also. 279HP/202Def/266SpDef is very good for such an offensive pokemon, with 383Atk also. The defenses let me live through something but I forgot what. He is pretty slow though, at 222.
When I first decided to use Gallade, I knew I needed his STAB moves. After that though I had no clue. Did I want status or 2 attacks or Swords Dance or what? I didn’t bother deciding until the team was done and realized I couldn’t do much to Swampert, so Leaf Blade was added. I couldn’t find any other big problems so I went with Swords Dance in hopes of getting a lategame sweep. The only things I couldn’t really hurt were Celebi and stuff like Xatu (Latias wasn’t allowed back then). I recently went to Shadow Sneak and it is amazing. Revenge kills a bunch of weakened pokemon and I desperately needed a priority move somewhere; as I said I don’t use 252/252 spreads and therefore don’t have max speed on anything.
Against the top 10 leads:
Metagross: Close Combat is a 2HKO but they usually try to Explosion on turn 2 so I go to spiritomb.
Azelf: Shadow Sneak is a 2HKO, but I always Leaf Blade first. I want him to think I’m slower so he stays in and then gets killed turn 2. One time I went to spiritomb turn 1 and he used Explosion instead of setting anything up so that was cool.
Jirachi: Gallade doesn’t mind getting tricked a Scarf, or if they try to flinch me I get Steadfast boosts. But if they’re doing that I just go to Magnezone since he resists Iron Head/Zen Headbutt and traps Jirachi.
Swampert: Leaf Blade is an OHKO and I have never seen anyone switch Swampert out here.
Aerodactyl: Psycho Cut + Shadow Sneak is a 2HKO and they get Taunt OR Stealth Rock. I love Aerodactyl, I am instantly up 6-5 in exchange for 20% on my Gallade and occasionally Stealth Rock down. Great pokemon!
Infernape: Psycho Cut is an 2HKO (because of Focus Sash) but I Shadow Sneak on the second turn. I actually don’t see many of these leading.
Hippowdon: Leaf Blade/Close Combat are a 3HKO in any combnation while he Stealth Rocks and anything else. If he doesn’t Slack Off turn 2 he dies.
Bronzong: Gallade loves being tricked a Choice Band and Close Combat is a 2HKO without it. My only worry is occasional Hypnosis but I can’t afford to use Lum Berry here.
Ninjask: Psycho Cut will OHKO, Shadow Sneak does 43% minimum. I normally Psycho Cut until he’s at a point where Shadow Sneak will kill him, or if I can predict the Baton Pass right and priority him there. Ninjask doesn’t really bother me.
Tyranitar: I’m faster than Adamant ones and Close Combat is a OHKO.
As you can see Gallade is pretty good against most of the leads and gets me in great position early game. Unfortunately I can’t really capitalize on this which is one of the reasons I’m posting this here. I would love something besides Lucario or something who can take advantage of my early game success.
Salamence @ Choice Specs
Rash, 16Atk/136Def/252SpAtk/104Spd
Draco Meteor
Fire Blast
Hydro Pump
Earthquake
When I first made the team, this was a Dragon Dance/Outrage/Fire Blast/Earthquake lead that I was trying to build the team around. That didn’t work so I moved him and tried out Specs and it was much better. Draco Meteor kills everything and a lot of times I don’t even bother trying to predict, especially early game. I currently outspeed Gyarados and everything slower without a positive nature (Heatran, Dragonite, etc). The 16Atk lets me kill something, the rest is in Defense to go with Intimidate to make me a little bulkier.
I’m thinking about using Dragon Pulse instead of Earthquake but nothing besides Draco Meteor actually gets used often. Earthquake was originally there to make the opponent think I had a Choice Band (they were popular at the time) and come back later to kill something with Draco Meteor. I don’t bother with that anymore and all it does now is beat opponents who would try to switch between Empoleon and Heatran in an attempt to wall me, or something like that.
Lately I have been thinking about changing this to Dragonite with Superpower instead of Earthquake, or maybe Thunderbolt instead? A “bulky” Salamence is probably not as good here. I could easily EV it to have the same or better stats in everything except Special attack and speed, and I obviously don’t have speed as my main priority.
Spiritomb @ Leftovers
Calm, 248HP/52Def/88SpAtk/120SpDef
Hidden Power Fighting
Shadow Ball
Will-o-Wisp
Calm Mind
Spiritomb without Rest/Sleep Talk? Spiritomb instead of Rotom? Yes, say what you want. I do not believe that Rotom instantly outclasses Spiritomb like people suggest. They counter completely different things and aren’t really too similar at all. For example, lategame Azelf and Tyranitars are a lot more threatening if I use Rotom instead. I have tried Rotom and it just did not fit here.
Spiritomb was EV’d to survive Life Orb/252/Adamant Outrage or Choise Specs/252/Modest Draco Meteor from Salamence. That’s kinda silly at this point though especially without Pain Split, but I can’t decide if I want physical or special bulkiness more. I want to be able to beat Tyrantiar better but there’s a ton of things Spiritomb needs to switch in on. I probably will take out the 88SpAtk and put them in defenses.
Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Impish, 140HP/48Atk/252Def/68SpDef
Hypnosis
Substitute
Ice Punch
Focus Punch
This guy is definitely the MVP of the team. Despite having only 218 Attack he tends to do more damage than everyone else in addition to crippling something with Hypnosis. Also, before you suggest it, this is NOT a worse Breloom. Poliwrath has the typing and stats to switch in on a ton of pokemon and force them out. 90HP/95Def/90Spdef is very good, especially considering this thing went into NU, especially with 6 resists (Steel/Bug/Ice/Fire/Rock/Dark) and an immunity to water. Notice Scizor’s STAB being there, as well as the 4 moves on most mixed Tyranitar. When I first used this people were also still using 1 attack Suiciune and Gyarados too (Surf/Waterfall with Rest, Sleep Talk, and either Calm Mind or Dragon Dance respectively). The only thing mixed Tyranitar can do is Earthquake really, and if they want to try that I’ll bring in Salamence (or ideally Dragonite if I use that instead). Poliwrath is also an amazing Empoleon/Suicune counter. Some of the RMTs I look at say that they have problems against them but they do absolutely nothing to Poliwrath.
This movepool is more or less based on throwing around as many Focus Punches as I can. Hypnosis something to put it to sleep, then Substitute. If they switched out I get a free Focus Punch, if they didn’t I get at least 2 usually. I chose Ice Punch as the final attack, but not for the freeze chance. Although Focus Punch almost always does more damage, it lets me beat things like Salamence and Water/Fighting isn’t as good coverage as Ice/Fighting imo. The freeze chance of Ice Punch gives me even more opportunities to Focus Punch.
Magnezone @ Leftovers
Modest, 12HP/252SpAtk/160SpDef/84Spd
Thunderbolt
Hidden Power Ice
Substitute
Explosion
When I first made the team, based on Salamence, I chose Magnezone to go with it, since it is similar to the Salamence/Metagross combination typewise. Magnezone isn’t as good as it used to be imo, since back then Gengar didn’t use Focus Blast all the time and Lum Berry Magnezone could beat them. It’s still great at trapping steels though. Scizor can’t do much, Jirachi just tries to flinch me until I can get a sub up, Skarmory dies without Shed Shell (haven’t seen any use it), and depending on the situation I can beat all the other ones (Scarf Heatran stuck on Hidden power/Dragon Pulse, Lucario if I have a Sub up and he switched in for some reason, Metagross/Bronzong without Earthquake, etc).
Froslass @ Choice Scarf
Timid, 24HP/44Def/12SpAtk/252SpDef/176Spd
Ice Beam
Shadow Ball
Thunderbolt
Trick
Maybe I should explain this one… Froslass, max SpDef, 12SpAtk, and Choice Scarf on something that only has speed at 80+. Why? I actually added this recently, when I put shadow Sneak on Gallade, when I realized I needed to be a little faster. I tried so many things here as a “fast pokemon to beat other fast pokemon”. Infernape worked for a little while, then I tried Scarf Gengar which didn’t work for me. At the time I was trying to use both a Choice Scarf AND a priority move on the pokemon, so I had Sucker Punch Gengar. Maybe I’ll try again with a more standard set sometime. I like Froslass’s slight defenses though, as it does something important that I’ll get to in a minute. I also thought about Scarf Scizor (standard moveset I think) and Magmortar. After choosing Froslass I found out about Scarf Ice Shard Mamoswine that I want to try too.
Anyway, this was EV’d to take any attack, except Fire Blast, from a 252Atk/4SpAtk Life Orb Salamence. I’m faster than all Salamence even after a Dragon Dance. Ice Beam is an OHKO even with almost no SpAtk.
I can also Trick to mess up walls. Froslass is a very specific pokemon. It can’t switch in on very much but kills everything it can get it on because of its speed and a super effective move. It does little damage when hitting neutral and can’t change moves, combined with a Rock weakness, so it’s only getting in 2 times usually, maybe 3. I make sure to get the most out of it though and kill off most problematic non-Tyranitar pokemon.
I really don’t know what to use here. This 6th spot has never been great for me. I normally either win with the other 5 or lose regardless of who’s here.
Threat list is in the next post because it’s so long and thorough. I don’t have the “team building process” thing because I made this forever ago and don’t remember the thought processes anymore. I know I was building it around DD salamence/Magnezone and it didn’t work out like that. Sorry if you were hoping for a whole big thing.
Thanks for reading and (hopefully) rating!
Alright I’ve had this team for probably close to 2 years now and decided to finally post it. I doubt I’ll be using it much anymore especially since it got a little worse ever since Platinum came out (it was originally made pre-platinum). Anyway, this team has been pretty good the whole time, and focuses on somewhat offensive pokemon who can still take hits. It’s gone through tons of changes and I’ve never found the “perfect team” but this is probably as close as I have gotten with it. I haven’t gotten to the top of the ladder or whatever since I don’t do a ton of battles at a time.
Also, I don’t use regular 252/252/4 EV spreads. I actually enjoy calcing everything (I do it manually, I don’t need any silly damage calculators) and make spreads based off that. I don’t remember what specific things I had EV’d this stuff for anymore but I know it was all for a good reason. Everything is pretty well thought out so I would appreciate if your replies are something better than “lol poliwrath sucks” please.
Another weird thing about my team is that most of my team is actually not OU pokemon. I don’t use the lower tier pokemon just for the sake of using them, I use them because they are the best at what I need them to do.
Team at a glance:
Notice how I have 3 Stealth Rock resists and also 4 Bug resists. I really don’t care about Stealth Rock and Scizor.
Gallade @ Life Orb
Adamant, 8HP/252Atk/144Def/104spd
Close Combat
Psycho Cut
Leaf Blade
Shadow Sneak
Everyone always says Gallade sucks or whatever but it is an amazing lead. It basically 2HKOs almost every lead and comes back later on to kill Starmie, Azelf, and others who all think they’re faster, and just weakened pokemon in general. I use him mainly for these reasons, although his great movepool and good stats definitely help also. 279HP/202Def/266SpDef is very good for such an offensive pokemon, with 383Atk also. The defenses let me live through something but I forgot what. He is pretty slow though, at 222.
When I first decided to use Gallade, I knew I needed his STAB moves. After that though I had no clue. Did I want status or 2 attacks or Swords Dance or what? I didn’t bother deciding until the team was done and realized I couldn’t do much to Swampert, so Leaf Blade was added. I couldn’t find any other big problems so I went with Swords Dance in hopes of getting a lategame sweep. The only things I couldn’t really hurt were Celebi and stuff like Xatu (Latias wasn’t allowed back then). I recently went to Shadow Sneak and it is amazing. Revenge kills a bunch of weakened pokemon and I desperately needed a priority move somewhere; as I said I don’t use 252/252 spreads and therefore don’t have max speed on anything.
Against the top 10 leads:
Metagross: Close Combat is a 2HKO but they usually try to Explosion on turn 2 so I go to spiritomb.
Azelf: Shadow Sneak is a 2HKO, but I always Leaf Blade first. I want him to think I’m slower so he stays in and then gets killed turn 2. One time I went to spiritomb turn 1 and he used Explosion instead of setting anything up so that was cool.
Jirachi: Gallade doesn’t mind getting tricked a Scarf, or if they try to flinch me I get Steadfast boosts. But if they’re doing that I just go to Magnezone since he resists Iron Head/Zen Headbutt and traps Jirachi.
Swampert: Leaf Blade is an OHKO and I have never seen anyone switch Swampert out here.
Aerodactyl: Psycho Cut + Shadow Sneak is a 2HKO and they get Taunt OR Stealth Rock. I love Aerodactyl, I am instantly up 6-5 in exchange for 20% on my Gallade and occasionally Stealth Rock down. Great pokemon!
Infernape: Psycho Cut is an 2HKO (because of Focus Sash) but I Shadow Sneak on the second turn. I actually don’t see many of these leading.
Hippowdon: Leaf Blade/Close Combat are a 3HKO in any combnation while he Stealth Rocks and anything else. If he doesn’t Slack Off turn 2 he dies.
Bronzong: Gallade loves being tricked a Choice Band and Close Combat is a 2HKO without it. My only worry is occasional Hypnosis but I can’t afford to use Lum Berry here.
Ninjask: Psycho Cut will OHKO, Shadow Sneak does 43% minimum. I normally Psycho Cut until he’s at a point where Shadow Sneak will kill him, or if I can predict the Baton Pass right and priority him there. Ninjask doesn’t really bother me.
Tyranitar: I’m faster than Adamant ones and Close Combat is a OHKO.
As you can see Gallade is pretty good against most of the leads and gets me in great position early game. Unfortunately I can’t really capitalize on this which is one of the reasons I’m posting this here. I would love something besides Lucario or something who can take advantage of my early game success.
Salamence @ Choice Specs
Rash, 16Atk/136Def/252SpAtk/104Spd
Draco Meteor
Fire Blast
Hydro Pump
Earthquake
When I first made the team, this was a Dragon Dance/Outrage/Fire Blast/Earthquake lead that I was trying to build the team around. That didn’t work so I moved him and tried out Specs and it was much better. Draco Meteor kills everything and a lot of times I don’t even bother trying to predict, especially early game. I currently outspeed Gyarados and everything slower without a positive nature (Heatran, Dragonite, etc). The 16Atk lets me kill something, the rest is in Defense to go with Intimidate to make me a little bulkier.
I’m thinking about using Dragon Pulse instead of Earthquake but nothing besides Draco Meteor actually gets used often. Earthquake was originally there to make the opponent think I had a Choice Band (they were popular at the time) and come back later to kill something with Draco Meteor. I don’t bother with that anymore and all it does now is beat opponents who would try to switch between Empoleon and Heatran in an attempt to wall me, or something like that.
Lately I have been thinking about changing this to Dragonite with Superpower instead of Earthquake, or maybe Thunderbolt instead? A “bulky” Salamence is probably not as good here. I could easily EV it to have the same or better stats in everything except Special attack and speed, and I obviously don’t have speed as my main priority.
Spiritomb @ Leftovers
Calm, 248HP/52Def/88SpAtk/120SpDef
Hidden Power Fighting
Shadow Ball
Will-o-Wisp
Calm Mind
Spiritomb without Rest/Sleep Talk? Spiritomb instead of Rotom? Yes, say what you want. I do not believe that Rotom instantly outclasses Spiritomb like people suggest. They counter completely different things and aren’t really too similar at all. For example, lategame Azelf and Tyranitars are a lot more threatening if I use Rotom instead. I have tried Rotom and it just did not fit here.
Spiritomb was EV’d to survive Life Orb/252/Adamant Outrage or Choise Specs/252/Modest Draco Meteor from Salamence. That’s kinda silly at this point though especially without Pain Split, but I can’t decide if I want physical or special bulkiness more. I want to be able to beat Tyrantiar better but there’s a ton of things Spiritomb needs to switch in on. I probably will take out the 88SpAtk and put them in defenses.
Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Impish, 140HP/48Atk/252Def/68SpDef
Hypnosis
Substitute
Ice Punch
Focus Punch
This guy is definitely the MVP of the team. Despite having only 218 Attack he tends to do more damage than everyone else in addition to crippling something with Hypnosis. Also, before you suggest it, this is NOT a worse Breloom. Poliwrath has the typing and stats to switch in on a ton of pokemon and force them out. 90HP/95Def/90Spdef is very good, especially considering this thing went into NU, especially with 6 resists (Steel/Bug/Ice/Fire/Rock/Dark) and an immunity to water. Notice Scizor’s STAB being there, as well as the 4 moves on most mixed Tyranitar. When I first used this people were also still using 1 attack Suiciune and Gyarados too (Surf/Waterfall with Rest, Sleep Talk, and either Calm Mind or Dragon Dance respectively). The only thing mixed Tyranitar can do is Earthquake really, and if they want to try that I’ll bring in Salamence (or ideally Dragonite if I use that instead). Poliwrath is also an amazing Empoleon/Suicune counter. Some of the RMTs I look at say that they have problems against them but they do absolutely nothing to Poliwrath.
This movepool is more or less based on throwing around as many Focus Punches as I can. Hypnosis something to put it to sleep, then Substitute. If they switched out I get a free Focus Punch, if they didn’t I get at least 2 usually. I chose Ice Punch as the final attack, but not for the freeze chance. Although Focus Punch almost always does more damage, it lets me beat things like Salamence and Water/Fighting isn’t as good coverage as Ice/Fighting imo. The freeze chance of Ice Punch gives me even more opportunities to Focus Punch.
Magnezone @ Leftovers
Modest, 12HP/252SpAtk/160SpDef/84Spd
Thunderbolt
Hidden Power Ice
Substitute
Explosion
When I first made the team, based on Salamence, I chose Magnezone to go with it, since it is similar to the Salamence/Metagross combination typewise. Magnezone isn’t as good as it used to be imo, since back then Gengar didn’t use Focus Blast all the time and Lum Berry Magnezone could beat them. It’s still great at trapping steels though. Scizor can’t do much, Jirachi just tries to flinch me until I can get a sub up, Skarmory dies without Shed Shell (haven’t seen any use it), and depending on the situation I can beat all the other ones (Scarf Heatran stuck on Hidden power/Dragon Pulse, Lucario if I have a Sub up and he switched in for some reason, Metagross/Bronzong without Earthquake, etc).
Froslass @ Choice Scarf
Timid, 24HP/44Def/12SpAtk/252SpDef/176Spd
Ice Beam
Shadow Ball
Thunderbolt
Trick
Maybe I should explain this one… Froslass, max SpDef, 12SpAtk, and Choice Scarf on something that only has speed at 80+. Why? I actually added this recently, when I put shadow Sneak on Gallade, when I realized I needed to be a little faster. I tried so many things here as a “fast pokemon to beat other fast pokemon”. Infernape worked for a little while, then I tried Scarf Gengar which didn’t work for me. At the time I was trying to use both a Choice Scarf AND a priority move on the pokemon, so I had Sucker Punch Gengar. Maybe I’ll try again with a more standard set sometime. I like Froslass’s slight defenses though, as it does something important that I’ll get to in a minute. I also thought about Scarf Scizor (standard moveset I think) and Magmortar. After choosing Froslass I found out about Scarf Ice Shard Mamoswine that I want to try too.
Anyway, this was EV’d to take any attack, except Fire Blast, from a 252Atk/4SpAtk Life Orb Salamence. I’m faster than all Salamence even after a Dragon Dance. Ice Beam is an OHKO even with almost no SpAtk.
I can also Trick to mess up walls. Froslass is a very specific pokemon. It can’t switch in on very much but kills everything it can get it on because of its speed and a super effective move. It does little damage when hitting neutral and can’t change moves, combined with a Rock weakness, so it’s only getting in 2 times usually, maybe 3. I make sure to get the most out of it though and kill off most problematic non-Tyranitar pokemon.
I really don’t know what to use here. This 6th spot has never been great for me. I normally either win with the other 5 or lose regardless of who’s here.
Threat list is in the next post because it’s so long and thorough. I don’t have the “team building process” thing because I made this forever ago and don’t remember the thought processes anymore. I know I was building it around DD salamence/Magnezone and it didn’t work out like that. Sorry if you were hoping for a whole big thing.
Thanks for reading and (hopefully) rating!