Originally, I created this team to battle my friends. Heeding Karen (of the Elite Four)'s advice, I decided I would try to "win with my favorites": prehistoric pokemon. I've been a fossil collector ever since I was a little kid, as a child playing pokemon I was super excited when I got my first aerodactyl and tyranitar. To test my team idea out, I decided to get in some random OU battles on the smogon server.
Fast forward a bit... my team has won 15 out of 20 random OU battles, and I've realized that I may have managed to hit an actual competitive, balanced team. Or maybe I'm just getting lucky, and am too new at this to realize. Here's what I have:
Aerodactyl (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
---
Standard Aerodactyl lead. Ridiculously high speed + focus sash ensures I get to use taunt + stealth rock against everything except metagross. With earthquake + stone edge, also a powerful physical threat, although it tends to wind up dying early (and is a suicide lead more often than I would like it to be).
Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Band / Life Orb
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 160 HP/252 Atk/96 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Pursuit / ?
---
Sand stream is extremely useful in a rock-heavy team, boosting the special defenses of almost all my pokemon and causing decent residual damage.
Not sure if I want to keep pursuit, as it hasn't been useful in any battles so far; could try dragon dance, or another move for coverage; perhaps aqua tail or an elemental punch.
The ridiculous quantities of power choice band provides have served nicely, although life orb means not having to keep popping tyranitar in and out of his pokeball.
Mamoswine (F) @ Life Orb / Choice Band
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Ice Shard
- Superpower
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
---
A mixed physical sweeper; mamoswine's ice shard lets me assassinate dancing dragons and breloom. Superpower is useful for its surprise value, as well as handling threats like blissey and tyranitar. Snow cloak doesn't do much, but is a nice silver lining if the weather gets switched to hail.
Stone edge hasn't proved too effectice, as I've got three other, stronger users of that same move on my team; but I haven't yet found anything better to replace it with.
Since superpower (and a plethora of weaknesses) means I'll be switching him out often, Choice Band may be the better item choice, although life orb has worked for me pretty well.
Yanmega (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Tinted Lens
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Bug Buzz
- Solarbeam / ?
---
A special sweeper, and the only special attacker on the team. Yanmega is great revenge killer, and HP Ground makes it an effective counter to two of this team's major threats, scizor and lucario: it will OHKO lucario and 2HKO scizor. Solarbeam is a novelty--a nice surprise if the weather gets switched to sun--but I can't find a more useful move to replace it with, as tinted lens means I don't care about neutral coverage. Yanmega's big downside is its weakness to stealth rock, which cripples it severely if I can't rapid spin. Alas, its speed is not quite high enough to beat jirachi, which is a major pain.
Kabutops (M) @ Leftovers / Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 72 HP/252 Atk/184 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Rapid Spin
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor / Stealth Rock
---
Yet another pokemon that proves useful due to its moveset's surprise factor. As a rapid spinner, very effective, because the opponent will rarely realize this and switch to a ghost in time; in sandstorm, it's bulky enough to shake off plenty of resisted attacks, and can do a decent job cleaning up slower opponents. While this team is built for sandstorm, swift swim allows Kabutops to shine in rain as well (in case an opponent throws up rain hoping to counter sandstorm).
X-scissor is to take care of plant switch-ins; so far, however, I haven't found it to be useful (but can't think of what else to put here). Having a second stealth rock user on my team might or might not be useful, as I have no spin blocker and aerodactyl tends to die quickly.
Kabutops' principle liability has been that it often doesn't survive long enough to use rapid spin. Leftovers helps extend his life span, but not by much; life orb provides some needed extra power.
Cradily (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Suction Cups
EVs: 252 HP/200 Def/52 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stockpile
- Seed Bomb
- Swords Dance
- Recover
---
If the other pokemon on the team can take out the major threats to cradily, it can be painfully effective. With sandstorm up, cradily's defenses are already stellar; three stockpiles boost its defenses to around 375/750/1000. I chose swords dance over toxic because I use cradily mostly in the late game, and because +6 seed bomb lets me take out things like salamence (and charizard with stealth rock damage). I picked seed bomb over stone edge because I've already got plenty of stone edge on the team, and because by the time I'm finished setting up my opponent will have taken about 50% HP damage from sandstorm alone; keeping seed bomb hidden creates enough fear that they tend to be hesitant about what they send out against cradily until it's too late.
Alas, scizor, jirachi, and lucario will all tear through cradily, and even with three stockpiles it still tends to fall to explosion.
Other pokemon I've considered that didn't make the cut, but might be viable replacements for ones I've picked:
Omastar as a spiker/special attacker (too slow), Relicanth (head smash seemed too redundant), Rock Polish Aggron (didn't want redundant x4 weaknesses), Rapid Spin Arnaldo (too slow, not as versatile as kabutops), Sub-seeding Venusaur (cradily seems to do the job better)
Here's what I've observed in matches using this team (I'm sure there are threats I don't mention; that's probably because either they don't pose a threat to much of the team or I just haven't seen them in action at all—OU teams tend to be rather uncreative).
The most obvious weakness of this team is its restricted possibilities and redundant typing; priority fighting and steel moves each pose a major threat to most of the pokemon on the team. Yanmega is tough enough to switch in on these, as long as there is no stealth rock, and can counter lucario easily (or scizor with luck). Mamoswine will easily pick off weakened dragons, and ice shard's priority makes it a good revenge killer (much of this team, it seems, revolves around revenge killing), while close combat will let it end scizors if it starts at full health.
However, lack of support moves also poses a problem--no heal bell, aromatherapy or wish support, as well as no phazers or pseudo-phazers (or even status-inducing attacks). A few will-o-wisps could easily cripple the team, due to its physical nature--luckily, in today's hard-hitting metagame, status effects seem to be rather rare.
Cradily deals with bulky water types pretty well, as long as they don't have any counters to switch to. Levitate bronzong and skarmory are a pain, although mamoswine's close combat can take a bite out of them, and yanmega's tinted lens attacks can cut through them in a few hits. Gyarados would also be a threatening sweeper, although so far I've managed to take out gyaradoses before they dragon dance, which may just be lucky. Agility Empoleon has on occasion swept the entire team, and Serene Grace Jirachi is driving me insannnne. Perhaps it would be beneficial to teach fire or thunder punch to tyranitar to counter some of these threats, although tyranitar is slow enough that I don't know how much it would help.
Fast forward a bit... my team has won 15 out of 20 random OU battles, and I've realized that I may have managed to hit an actual competitive, balanced team. Or maybe I'm just getting lucky, and am too new at this to realize. Here's what I have:
Aerodactyl (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
---
Standard Aerodactyl lead. Ridiculously high speed + focus sash ensures I get to use taunt + stealth rock against everything except metagross. With earthquake + stone edge, also a powerful physical threat, although it tends to wind up dying early (and is a suicide lead more often than I would like it to be).
Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Band / Life Orb
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 160 HP/252 Atk/96 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Pursuit / ?
---
Sand stream is extremely useful in a rock-heavy team, boosting the special defenses of almost all my pokemon and causing decent residual damage.
Not sure if I want to keep pursuit, as it hasn't been useful in any battles so far; could try dragon dance, or another move for coverage; perhaps aqua tail or an elemental punch.
The ridiculous quantities of power choice band provides have served nicely, although life orb means not having to keep popping tyranitar in and out of his pokeball.
Mamoswine (F) @ Life Orb / Choice Band
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Ice Shard
- Superpower
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
---
A mixed physical sweeper; mamoswine's ice shard lets me assassinate dancing dragons and breloom. Superpower is useful for its surprise value, as well as handling threats like blissey and tyranitar. Snow cloak doesn't do much, but is a nice silver lining if the weather gets switched to hail.
Stone edge hasn't proved too effectice, as I've got three other, stronger users of that same move on my team; but I haven't yet found anything better to replace it with.
Since superpower (and a plethora of weaknesses) means I'll be switching him out often, Choice Band may be the better item choice, although life orb has worked for me pretty well.
Yanmega (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Tinted Lens
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Bug Buzz
- Solarbeam / ?
---
A special sweeper, and the only special attacker on the team. Yanmega is great revenge killer, and HP Ground makes it an effective counter to two of this team's major threats, scizor and lucario: it will OHKO lucario and 2HKO scizor. Solarbeam is a novelty--a nice surprise if the weather gets switched to sun--but I can't find a more useful move to replace it with, as tinted lens means I don't care about neutral coverage. Yanmega's big downside is its weakness to stealth rock, which cripples it severely if I can't rapid spin. Alas, its speed is not quite high enough to beat jirachi, which is a major pain.
Kabutops (M) @ Leftovers / Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 72 HP/252 Atk/184 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Rapid Spin
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor / Stealth Rock
---
Yet another pokemon that proves useful due to its moveset's surprise factor. As a rapid spinner, very effective, because the opponent will rarely realize this and switch to a ghost in time; in sandstorm, it's bulky enough to shake off plenty of resisted attacks, and can do a decent job cleaning up slower opponents. While this team is built for sandstorm, swift swim allows Kabutops to shine in rain as well (in case an opponent throws up rain hoping to counter sandstorm).
X-scissor is to take care of plant switch-ins; so far, however, I haven't found it to be useful (but can't think of what else to put here). Having a second stealth rock user on my team might or might not be useful, as I have no spin blocker and aerodactyl tends to die quickly.
Kabutops' principle liability has been that it often doesn't survive long enough to use rapid spin. Leftovers helps extend his life span, but not by much; life orb provides some needed extra power.
Cradily (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Suction Cups
EVs: 252 HP/200 Def/52 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stockpile
- Seed Bomb
- Swords Dance
- Recover
---
If the other pokemon on the team can take out the major threats to cradily, it can be painfully effective. With sandstorm up, cradily's defenses are already stellar; three stockpiles boost its defenses to around 375/750/1000. I chose swords dance over toxic because I use cradily mostly in the late game, and because +6 seed bomb lets me take out things like salamence (and charizard with stealth rock damage). I picked seed bomb over stone edge because I've already got plenty of stone edge on the team, and because by the time I'm finished setting up my opponent will have taken about 50% HP damage from sandstorm alone; keeping seed bomb hidden creates enough fear that they tend to be hesitant about what they send out against cradily until it's too late.
Alas, scizor, jirachi, and lucario will all tear through cradily, and even with three stockpiles it still tends to fall to explosion.
Other pokemon I've considered that didn't make the cut, but might be viable replacements for ones I've picked:
Omastar as a spiker/special attacker (too slow), Relicanth (head smash seemed too redundant), Rock Polish Aggron (didn't want redundant x4 weaknesses), Rapid Spin Arnaldo (too slow, not as versatile as kabutops), Sub-seeding Venusaur (cradily seems to do the job better)
Here's what I've observed in matches using this team (I'm sure there are threats I don't mention; that's probably because either they don't pose a threat to much of the team or I just haven't seen them in action at all—OU teams tend to be rather uncreative).
The most obvious weakness of this team is its restricted possibilities and redundant typing; priority fighting and steel moves each pose a major threat to most of the pokemon on the team. Yanmega is tough enough to switch in on these, as long as there is no stealth rock, and can counter lucario easily (or scizor with luck). Mamoswine will easily pick off weakened dragons, and ice shard's priority makes it a good revenge killer (much of this team, it seems, revolves around revenge killing), while close combat will let it end scizors if it starts at full health.
However, lack of support moves also poses a problem--no heal bell, aromatherapy or wish support, as well as no phazers or pseudo-phazers (or even status-inducing attacks). A few will-o-wisps could easily cripple the team, due to its physical nature--luckily, in today's hard-hitting metagame, status effects seem to be rather rare.
Cradily deals with bulky water types pretty well, as long as they don't have any counters to switch to. Levitate bronzong and skarmory are a pain, although mamoswine's close combat can take a bite out of them, and yanmega's tinted lens attacks can cut through them in a few hits. Gyarados would also be a threatening sweeper, although so far I've managed to take out gyaradoses before they dragon dance, which may just be lucky. Agility Empoleon has on occasion swept the entire team, and Serene Grace Jirachi is driving me insannnne. Perhaps it would be beneficial to teach fire or thunder punch to tyranitar to counter some of these threats, although tyranitar is slow enough that I don't know how much it would help.
