TEAM! (With Weird Animations!)

[Yamborski]

I don't play Pokemon very much anymore because it's often luck based, frustrating, and pointless in the long term. In other words every time I play I don't end up having fun. The less I played, the more the metagame developed without me making it harder to get back into. Then one night I tried to slap together my old favorite, TEAM CHOICE BAND. With help from a few friends I updated it to suck slightly less. It seemed to be successful on the ladder, at least until Garchomp was unbanned. I'm not sure if there are any easy fixes to get this team modernized to the Garchomp meta, or if I should just retire it. On the bright side the Sand Veil ban really helped me with fucking Gliscor so it's not all bad.

@ Life Orb
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Garchomp fills all kinds of holes on this team. It lures in and cripples physical walls, tanks pretty much any hit, and can even sweep with Earthquake late game. Outrage is so strong that almost nothing that takes a neutral hit can survive a second one. Though my lead on team preview it is almost never the first thing I send out. Sandstorm + Rough Skin racks up a ton of damage, even ignoring Garchomp's Life Orb strikes. Chomp sets up Stealth Rocks for me and with its solid bulk it has a ton of chances to.

@ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Quick Attack
- U-turn
- Superpower

CB Scizor hasn't really changed at all since Platinum gave it Bullet Punch + Superpower. This is mostly a standard set. Quick Attack > Pursuit because I already have Tyranitar Pursuiting stuff. Quick Attack 2HKOs Ninetales and Volcarona who are otherwise happy to switch in. It also helps check crap like Thundurus and Gyarados and just be a general all around nuisance. 12 Speed EVs outruns other Scizor so I can remain useful against them even at low HP. Bullet Punch is a guaranteed 3HKO on Gensect after Stealth Rocks which is awesome.

@ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

I was hesitant to use CB Ttar in BW2, but it turned out to be the star of the team. With Paralysis / Sleep support from Amoonguss Tyranitar just goes to town over all weather starters and Psychics / Ghosts. It also checks and destroys frail things like Jolteon. Stone Edge hits with 94% as much power as Jolly CB Terrakion's CC which is nothing to take lightly. It is so strong that it can take Scarf Politoed down in one shot, and rip 70% off the defensive ones. Pursuit even OHKOs offensive Ninetales! Speed EVs outrun defensive base 70s like Skarmory and Politoed as well as Jellicent that invest in a lot of speed. fuck you Jellicent.

@ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Double Kick / Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Choice Scarf Terrakion is one of the best revenge killers in the game. Close Combat is easily spammable especially after the Psychics / Ghosts have been Pursuited and Gliscor is weakened or dead. Stone Edge sucks and is only really for when I NEED it, luckily that is mostly just against Gengar (at which point the accuracy becomes 30%). Double Kick OHKOs Smeargle and Tyranitar through a Focus Sash while breaking Hydreigon's Sub, then striking for ~35%. It also breaks the subs on stuff like Abomasnow, Jolteon, and Magnezone. HP Ice is really cool because it 2HKOs Gliscor and Intimidate Landorus while doing 40-50% to Dragonite without relying on Stone Edge (or in Gliscor's case, me being hard countered). Even with a Jolly nature HP Ice hurts what it has to. Not like Terrakion has many other options. Rock Slide is a possibility over Double Kick.

@ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 140 Def / 104 SAtk / 16 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost

A weird set, one which sort of seals a few holes. Zapdos counters SD Scizor, Lucario (without Ice Punch), and checks Tornadus. Rocky Helmet makes sure that Zapdos is useful against Scizor, even if it switches in on U-turn. 16 Speed EVs beats neutral base 70s like Politoed and Breloom. 248 HP avoids a point of Stealth Rock and Leech Seed damage while 140 Defense prevents +2 LO Lucario CC from OHKOing me after rocks. Modest and 104 Special Attack means Zapdos hits harder than an offensive Rotom W. I'm considering running more Special Attack to guarantee a OHKO on Ferrothorn (it gets close, but only KOs like 33% of the time at full HP). Maybe even just a simply max SA / Speed spread.

@ Black Sludge
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 28 SAtk / 216 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stun Spore

My lead probably 80% of the time, and a lead 100% of the time against teams with Genesect (who does no more than 40% with any move). Most of the time Amoonguss just Spores, then Stun Spores a Heatran or Skarmory switch in. Giga Drain is very weak but lands the killing blow on stupid Rotom W I guess. HP Ice 3HKOs Thundurus and Tornadus while 2HKOing Gliscor and Breloom. 216 Sp Def EVs hits a jump point. 12 Speed outruns other Amoonguss, Reuniclus, and Slowbro. 28 Special Attack guarantees a 2HKO on Terrakion and Keldeo, 3HKO after a CM / Sandstorm, and if Keldeo manages to CM twice Giga Drain will break its Substitutes still.


Anyhow this team has a reeeeaally easy time with Rain and Sun (at least against bad PO players) and it does ok against stall. What I have the most trouble with is...

Scizor. Not really an issue if I can figure out what set it runs. This is an issue as it can be the difference between Rotom burning a SD Scizor and taking a CB U-turn to the face. Then again Will-O-Wisp will miss so the end result is usually the same.


Art credit goes to Blue Harvest from Serebii.

 

[Neliel]

Hi there, nice team!
I think that you should change your terrakion set, first of all stealth rock is too important to rely on a scarfed pokemon to set up it, also Hidden power ice is pointless. If you fear the miss rate of Stone edge, you can try Rock slide instead of hp ice, and then X-scizzor instead of Stealth rock. X-scizzor hits psichic types harder and can do a lot of damage to celebi. Now, you lack of a stealth rocker, for this reason i would suggest you to change your tyranitar to a specially defensive one. It can setup stealth rock easier and thanks to Chople berry can baitkill Tornadus and Thundurus.
Also, i dont think that Choice band Dragonite is really good under sand, i know that with the choice band it can almost always kill one pokemon thanks to Multi scale, but the sand here will break it. For this reason i think that Gliscor can help you here, being a better switch-in for Lucario and Scizor and a better abuser of the sand. The main is problem is that if im not wrong Sand veil will be banned soon so you will have to change it again, however here is the set.
Gliscor

Hide

Gliscor (F) @ Flying Gem
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Earthquake
- Acrobatics

Terrakion

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Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide

Tyranitar

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Tyranitar (F) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 180 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit

 

[Jimbon]

hi there,

pretty cool team you got here, i really don't see as much scizor or dragonite as i did before genesect, so good job on that. anyways, the main problem this team has is the big lack of a physically defensive wall. 'mons like terrakion, scizor and most importantly lucario cause big problems for you as you have no switch-in, meaning something is taking a big hit anytime one of these switches in. rotom-w is gonna be 2hko'd by any of these, while amoonguss with it's weaker physical defense cannot continually switch in again and again. even dragonite who resists the fighting / bug combination is taking 25% from sr upon switching in, heavily limiting its effectiveness in checking these three. to help with this, i'd suggest changing amoonguss over to a physically defensive set, bold natured with 216 def evs > sdef evs. i think this change will help you out a lot, namely because with defensive bulk + regenerator amoonguss effectively beats all three of these, as they all fail to 2hko with their stab options. it also helps out greatly against dragons such as opposing dragonite or salamence, as your only dragon resist cannot reliably beat these dragons. amoonguss can tank an outrage, remove dragon with hp ice and recover it all with regenerator, easily paving the way for your sweepers. while you may think this hinders you against rain teams, i think rotom-w + ttar should be more than enough to deal with common rain threats.

if you decide to go with this amoonguss change, you may find that your weakness to keldeo is a lot more frightening. it can deal a whole lot of damage to pretty much everything on your team while you can only hope to revenge it. amoonguss's effectiveness as a keldeo counter becomes a lot more shaky under rain, as specs keldeo 2hkos physically defensive amoonguss in rain meaning you can't switch in. one small change you could make to help with this is to change your rotom-w's moveset slightly. given that this is a pretty offensive team, you will be volt switching a lot with rotom, and you can bluff a scarf or specs easily if you're opponent doesn't see leftovers. i think you'd benefit from running chesto berry on rotom, as well as also trying out rest > pain split. running this means rotom forces a lot more switches which is great for an offensive team such as this, as well as having a lot more freedom to switch into choiced keldeo / choiced politoed / mons with status that annoy your current rotom set. it gives you a much more reliable answer to tornadus-t in the long run aswell, who does seem to be the premier rain abuser.

if you decide to go with the physically defensive amoonguss change, you may find that your reliance on terrakion for dragons / gliscor etc is much lower. given that physically defensive amoonguss beats p much every gliscor set due to sand veil being banned, you don't really need hp ice on terrakion to beat gliscor, so i'd go with Neliel Tu Oderschvank's suggestion of rock slide + x-scissor > stealth rock + hp ice. rock slide helps terrakion against mons such as +1 volcarona and scarf thundurus-t, both are situations where terrakion needs to hit and stone edge does not always provide the accuracy you need. rock slide is more of a fail-safe against these with the better accuracy, while x-scissor is there for celebi who commonly switches in vs terrakion.

but yeah, this is a pretty solid b/w2 team that matches up okay against the more common team archetypes. there are a couple things that you could also change around that i haven't pointed out to help deal with other types of teams. focus sash lead terrakion with stealth rock could also work over your current set as a more reliable lead and guaranteed hazards vs most leads. more importantly you immediately stop deo-d offense teams which are rising in popularity right now. you could also try something like scarf landorus / rock polish landorus over scizor. i'm thinking that's kind of the weak link in this team, while landorus helps vs sun. scarf landorus would go better with the focus sash lead terrakion suggestion as you regain a scarfer, whereas rock polish special landorus just gives you a great answer vs sun who looks annoying when paired with dugtrio, just other things to consider though.

good luck!

 

[Yamborski]

Hi there, nice team!
I think that you should change your terrakion set, first of all stealth rock is too important to rely on a scarfed pokemon to set up it,

I'll admit Scarf Terrakion is not the best Poke to set up rocks but I really don't have any other options. Band Tyranitar is even worse at it.

also Hidden power ice is pointless. If you fear the miss rate of Stone edge, you can try Rock slide instead of hp ice, and then X-scizzor instead of Stealth rock. X-scizzor hits psichic types harder and can do a lot of damage to celebi.

HP Ice hits the things I described in the description. Things I am fairly weak to, things that having a solid way to 2HKO them with is really useful. X-scissor is useless on a team with CB Tyranitar and CB Scizor. It would give me no useful additional coverage.

Now, you lack of a stealth rocker, for this reason i would suggest you to change your tyranitar to a specially defensive one. It can setup stealth rock easier and thanks to Chople berry can baitkill Tornadus and Thundurus.

No. Choice Band Tyranitar is why I have an easy time with weather teams. It also rips holes in anything it hits. Chople Berry TTar works but on this team it is dead weight.

Also, i dont think that Choice band Dragonite is really good under sand, i know that with the choice band it can almost always kill one pokemon thanks to Multi scale, but the sand here will break it.

Sand breaks multiscale at the end of the turn so it can still switch in on an attack and revenge kill. It can also come in when sand isn't up, something that is fairly common in weather dominated OU.

For this reason i think that Gliscor can help you here, being a better switch-in for Lucario and Scizor and a better abuser of the sand.

Gliscor is an option over Dragonite, but then I lose Extremespeed and I lose another water resist and end up even more destroyed by Tornadus.

The main is problem is that if im not wrong Sand veil will be banned soon so you will have to change it again, however here is the set.
Gliscor

Hide

Gliscor (F) @ Flying Gem
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Earthquake
- Acrobatics

Sand Veil was recently banned.

Terrakion

Hide

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide

Tyranitar

Hide

Tyranitar (F) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 180 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit

The problem with these is that while those two changes may make me set up rocks easier it makes me run a less offensive Tyranitar and cripples my Terrakion against Landorus and Gliscor, two things I have real issues with. Also by losing Choice Band Tyranitar can no longer handle Politoed quickly enough nor can it beat Ninetales in one shot.

SD Lucario and SD Scizor aren't guaranteed 6-0s so I'm looking for changes that will improve the team as a whole, not options that involve random Smogon sets that look nice and sort of check what I'm weak to, yet make the team weaker overall.

Thank you for the rate!


Edit: Oh I picked a bad time to reply lol. Thank you for the rate Jimbon, I'll reply after I get back from work!

 

[Agent Gibbs]

Yo, Yambroski. Loving the Scizor pic, 'cause you know, Duck Hunter was amazing.


So I'm sure you know already that your team has problems with SD + Bullet Punch Lucario, and SD Scizor is a headache as well. SubDisable Gengar is also an insane jerk to this team, which is kinda expected when you're running 4 Choice users. Of the two non-Choiced Pokemon, only Rotom-W can consistently break its subs, and it kinda doesn't help that one of the two moves it can hit Gengar with is Volt Switch. Oh yeah, and your team doesn't really like random stuff like Mamoswine and Terrakion, but neither do most teams, and you have Scizor and your own Terrakion to play around that kind of stuff.

I have one piece of advice, something you could run over Rotom-W to help deal with this stuff without changing the purpose of that slot too much. Perhaps a mixed defensive Zapdos?

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 16 SDef / 16 Spd
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Roost
- Substitute / Toxic / whatever

Zapdos does a lot of the same stuff Rotom-W does for the most part, and it handles the main problematic Pokemon pretty well. Scizor is obviously shut down and OHKOd by Heat Wave. You can be OHKOd by a +2 LO Adamant Lucario if it's running Ice Punch, but the Bullet Punch variants (the ones you seem to have trouble with) usually run it over Ice Punch instead of alongside it, so you still shut down those variants just fine. Extremespeed and Close Combat can 2HKO, but that's what Roost + Pressure is for. You can also beat SubDisable Gengar pretty easily as well. If it Disables TBolt or Heat Wave, you just attack with the other. You can also stall out Shadow Ball with Roost + Pressure as well (I think it does < 40% at max), bar random SDef drops.

As for the EVs, 248 HP is for reducing SR damage, 16 Spd beast neutral base 70s, 16 SDef + Calm hits a jump point and is a little more than enough to ensure that Specs Tornadus-T will never 2HKO with Hurricane after SR, and the rest is piled into Def to help with Lucario/Scizor/Breloom/etc. This set is actually about .9% less specially bulky than your Rotom-W, much more physically bulky, and overall more offensive. It also has Roost, which beats Pain Split by a mile. That last slot can be used for Sub or Toxic, the standard defensive Zapdos stuff, or you could perhaps throw on Volt Switch if you miss that utility from Rotom-W. HP Ice would be nice as well, if you need a backup check to Garchomp or something.

Running Zapdos would give you an extra Fighting resist, but it would make you a little more Rock weak, since you'd be adding one more weakness and Terrakion would still be your only resist. You would also lose a Water resist (although Amoonguss can usually handle those if you play it carefully). That said, you might be able to look into replacing Amoonguss with Gastrodon. It handles Rain and stuff like Keldeo in the same way Amoonguss does, won't be worn down by Rain-boosted Hydro Pumps and whatnot over time, and it gives you an extra Rock resistance. Not super important, but something to keep in your back pocket.

At the very least, run 32 SAtk EVs on Amoonguss. I know people say that 28 EVs is enough to break a +2 0/4 Keldeo's Subs, but I've ran this on Honko's damage calculator, the Smogon calculator, and the calculator at cherubi.com, and each one has said that Keldeo's Sub actually has a small chance to survive Giga Drain with just 28 EVs (around 9%, I believe). 32 takes the minimum from about 24.77% to 26.01% or something, which ensures you'll break the Sub plus a little.

Just a few tips. Hope they help! ^_^

 

[Yamborski]

hi there,

pretty cool team you got here, i really don't see as much scizor or dragonite as i did before genesect, so good job on that. anyways, the main problem this team has is the big lack of a physically defensive wall. 'mons like terrakion, scizor and most importantly lucario cause big problems for you as you have no switch-in, meaning something is taking a big hit anytime one of these switches in. rotom-w is gonna be 2hko'd by any of these, while amoonguss with it's weaker physical defense cannot continually switch in again and again. even dragonite who resists the fighting / bug combination is taking 25% from sr upon switching in, heavily limiting its effectiveness in checking these three. to help with this, i'd suggest changing amoonguss over to a physically defensive set, bold natured with 216 def evs > sdef evs. i think this change will help you out a lot, namely because with defensive bulk + regenerator amoonguss effectively beats all three of these, as they all fail to 2hko with their stab options. it also helps out greatly against dragons such as opposing dragonite or salamence, as your only dragon resist cannot reliably beat these dragons. amoonguss can tank an outrage, remove dragon with hp ice and recover it all with regenerator, easily paving the way for your sweepers. while you may think this hinders you against rain teams, i think rotom-w + ttar should be more than enough to deal with common rain threats.

if you decide to go with this amoonguss change, you may find that your weakness to keldeo is a lot more frightening. it can deal a whole lot of damage to pretty much everything on your team while you can only hope to revenge it. amoonguss's effectiveness as a keldeo counter becomes a lot more shaky under rain, as specs keldeo 2hkos physically defensive amoonguss in rain meaning you can't switch in. one small change you could make to help with this is to change your rotom-w's moveset slightly. given that this is a pretty offensive team, you will be volt switching a lot with rotom, and you can bluff a scarf or specs easily if you're opponent doesn't see leftovers. i think you'd benefit from running chesto berry on rotom, as well as also trying out rest > pain split. running this means rotom forces a lot more switches which is great for an offensive team such as this, as well as having a lot more freedom to switch into choiced keldeo / choiced politoed / mons with status that annoy your current rotom set. it gives you a much more reliable answer to tornadus-t in the long run aswell, who does seem to be the premier rain abuser.

if you decide to go with the physically defensive amoonguss change, you may find that your reliance on terrakion for dragons / gliscor etc is much lower. given that physically defensive amoonguss beats p much every gliscor set due to sand veil being banned, you don't really need hp ice on terrakion to beat gliscor, so i'd go with Neliel Tu Oderschvank's suggestion of rock slide + x-scissor > stealth rock + hp ice. rock slide helps terrakion against mons such as +1 volcarona and scarf thundurus-t, both are situations where terrakion needs to hit and stone edge does not always provide the accuracy you need. rock slide is more of a fail-safe against these with the better accuracy, while x-scissor is there for celebi who commonly switches in vs terrakion.

but yeah, this is a pretty solid b/w2 team that matches up okay against the more common team archetypes. there are a couple things that you could also change around that i haven't pointed out to help deal with other types of teams. focus sash lead terrakion with stealth rock could also work over your current set as a more reliable lead and guaranteed hazards vs most leads. more importantly you immediately stop deo-d offense teams which are rising in popularity right now. you could also try something like scarf landorus / rock polish landorus over scizor. i'm thinking that's kind of the weak link in this team, while landorus helps vs sun. scarf landorus would go better with the focus sash lead terrakion suggestion as you regain a scarfer, whereas rock polish special landorus just gives you a great answer vs sun who looks annoying when paired with dugtrio, just other things to consider though.

good luck!

tl;dr

Yo, Yambroski. Loving the Scizor pic, 'cause you know, Duck Hunter was amazing.


So I'm sure you know already that your team has problems with SD + Bullet Punch Lucario, and SD Scizor is a headache as well. SubDisable Gengar is also an insane jerk to this team, which is kinda expected when you're running 4 Choice users. Of the two non-Choiced Pokemon, only Rotom-W can consistently break its subs, and it kinda doesn't help that one of the two moves it can hit Gengar with is Volt Switch. Oh yeah, and your team doesn't really like random stuff like Mamoswine and Terrakion, but neither do most teams, and you have Scizor and your own Terrakion to play around that kind of stuff.

I have one piece of advice, something you could run over Rotom-W to help deal with this stuff without changing the purpose of that slot too much. Perhaps a mixed defensive Zapdos?

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 16 SDef / 16 Spd
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Roost
- Substitute / Toxic / whatever

Zapdos does a lot of the same stuff Rotom-W does for the most part, and it handles the main problematic Pokemon pretty well. Scizor is obviously shut down and OHKOd by Heat Wave. You can be OHKOd by a +2 LO Adamant Lucario if it's running Ice Punch, but the Bullet Punch variants (the ones you seem to have trouble with) usually run it over Ice Punch instead of alongside it, so you still shut down those variants just fine. Extremespeed and Close Combat can 2HKO, but that's what Roost + Pressure is for. You can also beat SubDisable Gengar pretty easily as well. If it Disables TBolt or Heat Wave, you just attack with the other. You can also stall out Shadow Ball with Roost + Pressure as well (I think it does < 40% at max), bar random SDef drops.

As for the EVs, 248 HP is for reducing SR damage, 16 Spd beast neutral base 70s, 16 SDef + Calm hits a jump point and is a little more than enough to ensure that Specs Tornadus-T will never 2HKO with Hurricane after SR, and the rest is piled into Def to help with Lucario/Scizor/Breloom/etc. This set is actually about .9% less specially bulky than your Rotom-W, much more physically bulky, and overall more offensive. It also has Roost, which beats Pain Split by a mile. That last slot can be used for Sub or Toxic, the standard defensive Zapdos stuff, or you could perhaps throw on Volt Switch if you miss that utility from Rotom-W. HP Ice would be nice as well, if you need a backup check to Garchomp or something.

Running Zapdos would give you an extra Fighting resist, but it would make you a little more Rock weak, since you'd be adding one more weakness and Terrakion would still be your only resist. You would also lose a Water resist (although Amoonguss can usually handle those if you play it carefully). That said, you might be able to look into replacing Amoonguss with Gastrodon. It handles Rain and stuff like Keldeo in the same way Amoonguss does, won't be worn down by Rain-boosted Hydro Pumps and whatnot over time, and it gives you an extra Rock resistance. Not super important, but something to keep in your back pocket.

At the very least, run 32 SAtk EVs on Amoonguss. I know people say that 28 EVs is enough to break a +2 0/4 Keldeo's Subs, but I've ran this on Honko's damage calculator, the Smogon calculator, and the calculator at cherubi.com, and each one has said that Keldeo's Sub actually has a small chance to survive Giga Drain with just 28 EVs (around 9%, I believe). 32 takes the minimum from about 24.77% to 26.01% or something, which ensures you'll break the Sub plus a little.

Just a few tips. Hope they help! ^_^

Running Zapdos is a REALLY cool idea. It would check or beat basically everything I'm weak to and it would give me a slightly more offensive version of Rotom W. Probably Discharge / Heat Wave / HP Ice / Roost with your EVs, though I might run a more offensive spread... who knows.

Only one problem... It would make me super-weak to rock. So what about if I ran Zapdos and put a Stealth Rocking Garchomp > Dragonite.


Garchomp @ Life Orb
Jolly
speed / attack / 4 sp attack
rough skin

stealth rock
outrage / Dragon Claw
earthquake
fire blast

Chomp's goal would be to lay rocks, then do as much damage as possible. LO Outrage 2HKOs Gliscor and does 100% minimum to scarf Rotom W. Chomp could slow down / beat Volt Switch spam with good enough prediction.

If I had rocks on Garchomp I can throw something else on Terrakion, maybe Rock Slide or some other random standard filler. One downside to Garchomp is it leaves me basically fucked against Mamoswine. It could OHKO 5/6 of my Pokemon with a STAB move. Granted I have a few ways to revenge kill it...

I'll take your word for it on Amoonguss's EVs. I'll just run 8 Speed instead. Not like 8 Speed Slowbro and Reuniclus are particularly common...

 

[Red3mpti0n]

Mamoswine's not OKHOing Rotom-W with either of its STABs anytime soon. Levitate + Water-type...not to mention it can burn Mamo and Pain Split its HP away.

But if you are still concerned about it, YacheChomp takes 65% max from Adamant Mamo's LO Ice Shard. So set up SR as they switch in their Mamo. Then switch out and save Chomp for when they've racked up a bit of LO recoil/hazard damage on their Mamo. YacheChomp's Outrage does 65% min.

 

[BlankZero]

You probably shouldn't tl;dr someone who's trying to help you.

Just saying.

 

[Present]

Garchomp over Dragonite will serve you quite well, so you should definitely try it out. One of the reasons to run dragonite is multiscale, but as you do not have a spinner, it won't be up with Stealth Rock in play anyway. Rough SKin Garchomp will also help you against U-turn spam, because Scizor does not like takin gthat and stealth rock damage, as it will be losing way too much HP.

Zapdos over Rotom-W will also help you with Tornadus-T, because it does way too much to your current team with the correct move, and Pain Split on Rotom-W is not really the most reliable way to keep switching into it, as it can just switch out to regain health.

 

[Yamborski]

Mamoswine's not OKHOing Rotom-W with either of its STABs anytime soon. Levitate + Water-type...not to mention it can burn Mamo and Pain Split its HP away.

But if you are still concerned about it, YacheChomp takes 65% max from Adamant Mamo's LO Ice Shard. So set up SR as they switch in their Mamo. Then switch out and save Chomp for when they've racked up a bit of LO recoil/hazard damage on their Mamo. YacheChomp's Outrage does 65% min.

Mamoswine might be a problem if I drop Rotom W for Zapdos though. But in testing Mamoswine hasn't been as big a threat as I thought.

You probably shouldn't tl;dr someone who's trying to help you.

Just saying.

Thanks for the rate!

Garchomp over Dragonite will serve you quite well, so you should definitely try it out. One of the reasons to run dragonite is multiscale, but as you do not have a spinner, it won't be up with Stealth Rock in play anyway. Rough SKin Garchomp will also help you against U-turn spam, because Scizor does not like takin gthat and stealth rock damage, as it will be losing way too much HP.

Zapdos over Rotom-W will also help you with Tornadus-T, because it does way too much to your current team with the correct move, and Pain Split on Rotom-W is not really the most reliable way to keep switching into it, as it can just switch out to regain health.

I tested Garchomp + Zapdos and it seems to be working so far.

A pointless rate just to say i love the animations! Hahaha luvdiscd!

I just can't stop staring at the Amoonguss...


Ok so after a little bit of laddering I think I'm going to drop CB Dragonite for LO Garchomp.

Garchomp (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Claw / Outrage
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Gets up rocks easily enough and does enough damage to 1-2HKO virtually every Pokemon in OU. Some Pokemon like Gyarados, Thundurus, and Tornadus that would be able to switch in end up KOed by Dragon Claw after the Stealth Rocks it lays + Sandstorm. I haven't missed Dragonite's Extremespeed as much as I thought I would. Garchomp's Rough Skin on the other hand is a life saver that comes in handy almost every match.


I'm testing Zapdos over Rotom W too.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 16 SDef / 16 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost

Zapdos has been something. Not sure if its exactly what I need, but it is a little more useful than Rotom W. I was thinking of running 248 HP, Thunderbolt, and some more Special Attack. Electric STAB / Ice / Fire has really good coverage, and barring dedicated Special Walls very little in OU can take more than two hits from Modest max SA Zapdos. I'm open to other options though.

 

[Agent Gibbs]

I could see a more offensive spread working on Zapdos, if that suits your fancy. Since the majority of Tornadus-T run Life Orb instead of Specs, you may not want to worry about Specs Tornadus-T that much. Since LO Tornadus-T fails to 2HKO Zapdos with Hurricane after SR even with no SDef investment, you could put that towards SAtk. In addition, you might just want to run enough Def to help check those problematic Pokemon. For example, 140 Def EVs is enough to make sure that SD Lucario will never OHKO you with Close Combat after SR. Put that all together, and you could try a spread of 248 HP / 140 Def / 104 SAtk / 16 Spd with a Modest nature. This will actually make you a little stronger than a Modest max SAtk Rotom-W, which is nice. The extra bulk of the original spread may be important, but this will give you another option for a bulky attacker sort of thing.

 

[Yamborski]

I could see a more offensive spread working on Zapdos, if that suits your fancy. Since the majority of Tornadus-T run Life Orb instead of Specs, you may not want to worry about Specs Tornadus-T that much. Since LO Tornadus-T fails to 2HKO Zapdos with Hurricane after SR even with no SDef investment, you could put that towards SAtk. In addition, you might just want to run enough Def to help check those problematic Pokemon. For example, 140 Def EVs is enough to make sure that SD Lucario will never OHKO you with Close Combat after SR. Put that all together, and you could try a spread of 248 HP / 140 Def / 104 SAtk / 16 Spd with a Modest nature. This will actually make you a little stronger than a Modest max SAtk Rotom-W, which is nice. The extra bulk of the original spread may be important, but this will give you another option for a bulky attacker sort of thing.

Works for me. It seems to be a better spread. I still might just run max SA + 248 HP, or even max speed.

Also updated the OP!

 

[Takeo Otori]

Zapdos seems like a good addition. Leaves you pretty weak to Mamoswine though. What about Gyarados instead?

 

[Yamborski]

Gyarados can't do much against Tornadus sadly. I would run Thundurus in the Zapdos slot, but I like Zappy's ability to use Heat Wave and added bulk. It's still the teams weak link, but it is anything but useless.

 

[Yamborski]

I know this team has been off the front page for a few days but here's a mini-bump (it was that or just copy / pasting the team again).

I did some tests and Garchomp hasn't been as big of a threat as I thought. Zapdos is still the weakest team member but it certainly holds its own at times. Maybe Rock Slide > Double Kick on Terrakion?