The Beast of Shanghai [OU RMT]

This is a team based around the destructive completely offensive Dragon Dancing Gyarados. It's attack stats are incredible and after a DD, it's going to dent most teams.

The Sets:



Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Atk / 8 Spe
Nature: Adamant
~ Meteor Mash
~ Bullet Punch
~ Stealth Rock
~ Explosion


Changed to Metagross by Bloo/Rising Dusk for the following reasons, as stated by them:
"- You have 3 Water-type Pokemon with redundant defensive coverage.
- You are terribly vulnerable to Anti-Lead Attacker Machamp.
- You need a secondary Steel-type to help balance out the resistances of your team.
- Combines well with my above-suggested Rotom-C and your current Defensive Starmie for dealing with troublesome leads (Heatran, etc)
- Beats sleep leads, which are currently a major annoyance for your team, as nothing can take the sleep well.
- Gets up SR reliably and can also beat opposing Azelf leads, who will be unable to Taunt or Explode on you because of Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch
- Has Explosion for breaking the bulky Water-types that your team really doesn't"



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

I think it's the best mixed sweeper in the game and Salamence is one of the most broken Pokemon in the OU meta game, so I like to abuse it when I can. Standard new MixMence set, it handles a great deal of Pokemon, if not most. I also enjoy having the double intimidating thing going with Mence + Gyara.



Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit

The best priority attacker in the game, Scizor. It also handles a great deal of Gyarados's counters and it a great revenge killer and Physical sweeper for the team in general. It just felt right to use him here. Changed by Bloo/Rising Dusk.



Rotom-C @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Leaf Storm
- Trick


Changed by Bloo/Rising Dusk for the following reasons:
"- Rotom-C is a great response to DD Gyarados and can also help hit things like Gengar hard, who pose trouble for your team.
- Gives you the option to Trick and cripple something on stall teams, which outside of Mence you have a bit of trouble with.
- Gives you a Grass-type move to pound opposing Swampert into dust. Your team really needs to hit those pesky Water-types, and it also helps a bit against predicted TTar switch-ins.
- Gives you another Ground-type immunity, which is always nice.
- Gives you a primary Scizor switch-in so you don't have to reveal Gyarados early.
- Can be worn down by switching into Electric-type attacks, but helps too much, really."



Starmie (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 136 HP / 156 Def / 216 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Recover

Changed to Rapid Spinning set to handle the SR issue. Moving the Scarf onto a newly added Rotom Form. It can Rapid Spin but also has the power to take out predicted Spin blockers. Since it has defense and bulk it can also take hits, which is very helpful.



Gyarados (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

The Star of the Team is Gyarados so that's a no brainer, I really wanted to make a team around a powerful DD sweep and Offensive Gyarados is the guy for that. Fully Offensive so it runs Life Orb, and is Adamant with ATK and SPD evs. I run Earthquake and Stone Edge because I like having Earthquake more. Changed by Bloo and Rising Dusk.

The Chart:
 
I guess I'm bump it up. :( Hopefully at the least, I can get help on my decision for the Jolteon and Starmie sets I am debating on.
 
The question is do you want your Jolteon to be a revenge killer or a sweep assister? If you want a revenge killer, Specs and replacing Baton Pass and Sub wouldn't be bad. Shadow Ball is one good move, though I'm not too familiar with Jolteon to know another move. I think its fine how it is, as if you want it to come in to take, say, an Electric attack and force a switch. If you want to force a switch, Sub and then Baton Pass to Gyarados for some extra protection (as they'll probably need to switch AGAIN to get out their counter) and then get off a DD.

Changing Starmie to a spinner isn't bad, since your main Pokemon are weak to Stealth Rock.

With both of these Pokemon, remember a revenge killer needs to KO what KOd whatever its avenging. In this case, an Ice Beam user on Salamence, or an Electric attack user on Gyarados. As with any team, make these changes one at a time and see how they affect your gameplay.

In all, I like your combination of Salamence and Gyarados. Few teams are fully prepared to handle both of them, particularly since you have a MixMence. Looks good.
 
From a first glance, you appear to have a really nice team here.

Moving on, it looks like your team depends on Salamence and Gyarados to help each other pull off a sweep and ultimately win against your opponent, as you yourself said. However, I can't help but notice that Stealth Rock may make pulling this off rather difficult. If your opponent is able to repeatedly switch in a safe counter to either Gyarados or Salamence (blegh), then they will eventually be too worn out to pull off a sweep. Currently, your team has no way to prevent your opponent from laying down Stealth Rock. Swampert is one of the slowest leads and actually does not present much of a threat to most other leads, and you lack a Rapid Spinner (which is ok for now).

In order to allow your team to better handle Stealth Rock, I'd suggest replacing your Starmie for a Choice Scarf Roserade and making that your lead. Most people do not expect Roserade to be Scarfed, meaning you can easily put opposing leads to sleep before they set up Stealth Rock. Furthermore, Roserade can revenge kill the Pokemon you likely depended on Starmie to revenge kill, such as Dragon Dance Gyarados. Roserade is also not as weak to Pursuit users like Starmie is, although the low Defense does hurt. The fact that Roserade tends to attract Fire-types like Heatran means you can switch in Swampert to set up Stealth Rock fairly easily as well.

Speaking of Swampert, you could consider running Protect over Roar as I find scouting out Choiced users is quite handy. Roar in itself is more helpful on stall teams anyways.

Other than the Stealth Rock weakness, I don't see any other immediate problem that needs to be pointed out. One could argue that you are a bit stall weak since Salamence is your only wall breaker, but if you play smart, I don't think you should have much of a problem.

Anyways, hope these suggestions are of help.
 
So it appears that the problem is still the same, I need a Rapid Spinner. But there isn't an efficient way to do this without ruining the team. By making Starmie Rapid Spin, it makes me lose the Scarf, therefore having no answer against +1 DDers and such.

I don't know what to do but for now having Jolteon as a Gyara assister isn't bad. If I did put Specs on Jolteon I'd have 3 Choicers and I don't really like having more than 2.
 
Call me crazy, but a Scarf on Jolteon would allow you to always outspeed a DD'd Gyarados or Salamence and revenge kill them, then you could use the Rapid Spinner set for Starmie.

Or you could use the Rapid Spinner set anyway, since that makes a decent counter to Gyarados and CB Scizor 2HKOs Salamence, so Scizor will do alright once Sally's caught in Outrage.
 
choice scarf jolteon is a little fragile and once the opponent will see it, it could predict you with a EQ from gyara and OHKOing jolty.

by the way, you could use this set for starmie, who makes her a little more bulky than other starmies

if you want, look:

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Def / 28 Spd / 16 SAtk / 76 SDef
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Surf
- Thunderbolt

with this spread, starmie is quite difficult to take down. Recover is obvious, such as rapid spin and surf+thunderbolt for the spinner set. These stats allow you to take a stone edge from adamant max atk gyara after 2 ddances, but from a leftovers gyara, or you'll be OHKOed by the LO version. For the OHKO on gyara it's important the support of stealth rock, because this starmie can't OHKO standard gyara.

Actually, I'm modifying this spread
 
I would reccomend changing Starmie to a spinner, as you said, as that would relieve the pressure on Gyara & Mence, allowing you to switch more freely.

Also, if you're running Adamant on Gyarados, change the EV spread to


Adamant ; 72 Hp / 252 Atk / 184 Spe

252 Adamant doesn't outrun jolteon, so speed is lowered to 184 EV's to outpace Scarftar and +nature 115's.



I would advise you change Scizor into a specially bulky version as well, as your team lacks any real way to deal with opposing Starmie after Jolteon is gone, and even if Jolteon isn't gone, it can't switch into a hydro pump

Scizor @ Choice Band
Adamant ; 160 Hp / 176 Atk / 16 Spe / 156 SpD

160 Hp / 156 SpD gives you a reasonable amount of special bulk, allowing you to switch into Starmie and pursuit it to death.
16 Spe lets you outspeed 12 speed Vaporeon, which is the new standard.
176 Atk is remaining EV's.
 
I don't like the idea of Scarf on Jolteon TBH, it's already a speed demon as is.

But Rapid Spin definitely needs to go onto Starmie but not until I officially find a new answer to DDers.

Pink Lemonade, this Gyara is completely offensive so I'd like it to have as much Atk and Spd as possible, it's a poke I plan to use AFTER it's answers are gone, therefore meaning I shouldn't need to worry about that stuff either. The point is to get rid of his counters first, then sweep with his massive attack and strong speed.

And the Scizor set, maybe...I'm sure I could figure out other ways to deal with Starmie but Scizor is the not the best choice. Considering if you switch into it....you will take a crap ton from Hydro Pump and then you won't outspeed Starmie unless you Bullet Punch which does Jack, then by the time you Pursuit, you'd be dead. No idiot switches Starmie out of Scizor...
 
You're also running leftovers, and because there is nothing notable in OU at base 120 or 125, running 184 spe and 72 Hp gives you the same results but more bulk.

I don't see why you wouldn't switch, you're not losing any attacking power, just gaining bulk at the cost of nothing


If someone realizes that Starmie gives your team a shit ton of trouble, and you can switch scizor in on an ice beam aimed at Salamence, then Starmie is dead, no matter what they do.
 
I would have to agree with Pink Lemonade that running Specially Defensive Scizor and bulkier Gyarados. Starmie really gives your team hell, constantly forcing Salamence and Gyarados to switch and you can't even get a sweep up due to the threat of Scarf Starmie.

Also Gyarados doesn't outspeed anything notable with 252 Speed and you need to run bulk as with you taking Stealth Rock damage Heatran can do a lot of damage, with Salamence and Gyarados being damaged a lot by Stealth Rock and Starmie is 2HKOed iirc and also it can't OHKO with Surf, so then Swampert is your only reliable check. I think the extra bulk on Gyardos would really help with handling Heatran.

I think maybe you should run a spinner or run recovery on Salamence because one of the problems this team has is lack of recovery so hazards are a very large problem. If you want to keep Starmie scarf, run Rapid Spin over Trick maybe, but know that that is only a last resort if you absolutely HAVE to keep Scarf and that Blissey stalls you out a lot easier.
 
Why run a Scarf on the already super fast Jolteon? I think that Scarf Starmie would be better, and you can still run Rapid Spin which is what I would do. If you don't run Scarf on Jolteon then Hidden Power Grass is an option because Thunderbolts nail dragons anyway.
 
Why run a Scarf on the already super fast Jolteon? I think that Scarf Starmie would be better, and you can still run Rapid Spin which is what I would do. If you don't run Scarf on Jolteon then Hidden Power Grass is an option because Thunderbolts nail dragons anyway.
What is the Scarf set you recommend for Starmie and what set do you recommend for Jolteon?
 
Got your PM.

I was suggesting to run Scarf on Starmie with Rapid Spin so that you can switch on a Gyarados DD, Rapid Spin as they switch and then go to your counter for their switch in. The reason for Rapid Spin >>> Trick is because rocks ruin your mence and gyara.

Then you could run something other than scarf on Jolt, LO or Specs because Jolteon is already really fast.

You said that if you made the suggested change then you would have trouble with Blissey. If you are really worried about this then you can run Taunt on Gyarados so you can set up on it. The opponent (if it were me) wouldn't t-wave in fear of Jolteon getting a free heal as long as I have seen it or Swampert's immunity and Scizor doesn't mind t-wave either and wouldn't Toxic in case Scizor came in to smash it, so Blissey can't really status you either.

Hope that cleared up a few problems.
 
Someone recommended a Donphan over Swampert since it does most of the same things however Donphan has Rapid Spin. Though Swampert was the lead, would I make Donphan the lead...I'm assuming it would be running something like Earthquake, Rapid Spin, Stealth Rock and maybe Assurance.


Eh Eh Eh? :O That way I can run maybe a Life Orb Jolteon and the normal Scarf set on Starmie. I don't like having more than 2 choicers, that's why I don't want to give Jolteon Specs, however I could also run the Baton Passing sub set (to make an easier set up for Gyarados), thoughts everyone?

Donphan seem solid?
 
The problem with Donphan is that the most common spinblocker (Rotom-A) completely has its way with Donphan. I'm not sure how much Assurance does to Rotom, but once burned, Donphan will be doing ass damage, lol.
 
The problem with Donphan is that the most common spinblocker (Rotom-A) completely has its way with Donphan. I'm not sure how much Assurance does to Rotom, but once burned, Donphan will be doing ass damage, lol.
Yeah but aren't spinblockers always gonna give spinners problems? Starmie, Donphan, Forretress, whatever else spins.

I dunno then, but I'm not sure if I like the idea of replacing Trick with Rapid Spin on Starmie because being locked in Rapid Spin sucks and not having Trick gives my team a problem.

Back to Square 1. Lol....great. This team is an infinite loop.
 
Starmie as a Spinner works great if you run it right. Try a max-Spa Life Orb Hydro Pump out to OHKO Rotom-A, also beats out Gengar and Noir, taking out the most common spinblockers, which makes it easier for you to spin.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Timid Nature- Natural Cure
252 Spa/ 252 Spe/ 4 Def

Hydro Pump
Ice Beam/Thunderbolt
Rapid Spin
Recover

The second move depends on whether you struggle more with Gyarados or dragons on your team.

I also recommend either LO or Specs Jolt>> Scarf because Scarf Jolt is pretty bad: Pursuit weak etc. so I honestly prefer the versatility of Life Orb or the ability to scout with Baton Pass on the specs set. Pick one of those and it can help out with a lot of revenge killing oppurtunities. (and run HP Grass for pert)
 
Starmie as a Spinner works great if you run it right. Try a max-Spa Life Orb Hydro Pump out to OHKO Rotom-A, also beats out Gengar and Noir, taking out the most common spinblockers, which makes it easier for you to spin.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Timid Nature- Natural Cure
252 Spa/ 252 Spe/ 4 Def

Hydro Pump
Ice Beam/Thunderbolt
Rapid Spin
Recover

The second move depends on whether you struggle more with Gyarados or dragons on your team.

I also recommend either LO or Specs Jolt>> Scarf because Scarf Jolt is pretty bad: Pursuit weak etc. so I honestly prefer the versatility of Life Orb or the ability to scout with Baton Pass on the specs set. Pick one of those and it can help out with a lot of revenge killing oppurtunities. (and run HP Grass for pert)
That still doesn't really solve my issue. I need a reliable Scarfer and a reliable spinner, hopefully not molding it into one Pokemon.

So far the suggestions have been:
1. Run Rapid Spin on Scarf Starmie
2. Run Scarf on Jolteon
3. Run Donphan

and quite frankly, none of those sound promising for the reasons stated above.
 
Yeah but aren't spinblockers always gonna give spinners problems? Starmie, Donphan, Forretress, whatever else spins.

I dunno then, but I'm not sure if I like the idea of replacing Trick with Rapid Spin on Starmie because being locked in Rapid Spin sucks and not having Trick gives my team a problem.

Back to Square 1. Lol....great. This team is an infinite loop.
Donphan can't beat Rotom-A. But Starmie smashes incoming Rotom-A, Gengar and Noir with a STAB Hydro Pump. That's why Starmie is the best spinner in OU.

As stated before, if you use Rapid Spin on Scarf Starmie then you can Rapid Spin on the switch in as long as you switch into something that will switch out, Hydro Pump if you predict a spinblocker or Pursuiter (TTar and Scizor take huge damage from Hydro Pump) and then switch out if it isn't a Pursuiter, because preumably their Starmie switch in will force you out no matter what move you use, so it doesn't make a large difference anyway.

EDIT: If you really don't want to use Rapid Spin on a Scarfer, then go with Scarf Jolteon, but I'm just saying that Scarf Jolteon isn't good.
 
Hi there,

This is a pretty cool team, and I do enjoy running both Mence and Gyarados on the same team myself for the serious firepower. There are a few standing issues, though, and my suggestions will help with them a bunch.

First, Choice Scarf Jolteon needs to be replaced for Choice Scarf Rotom-C for the following reasons.

  • Rotom-C is a great response to DD Gyarados and can also help hit things like Gengar hard, who pose trouble for your team.
  • Gives you the option to Trick and cripple something on stall teams, which outside of Mence you have a bit of trouble with.
  • Gives you a Grass-type move to pound opposing Swampert into dust. Your team really needs to hit those pesky Water-types, and it also helps a bit against predicted TTar switch-ins.
  • Gives you another Ground-type immunity, which is always nice.
  • Gives you a primary Scizor switch-in so you don't have to reveal Gyarados early.
  • Can be worn down by switching into Electric-type attacks, but helps too much, really.
Try the following set:

Rotom-C @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
~ Thunderbolt
~ Shadow Ball
~ Leaf Storm
~ Trick

Also, I will suggest lead Lum Berry Metagross over your current Swampert for the following reasons:

  • You have 3 Water-type Pokemon with redundant defensive coverage.
  • You are terribly vulnerable to Anti-Lead Attacker Machamp.
  • You need a secondary Steel-type to help balance out the resistances of your team.
  • Combines well with my above-suggested Rotom-C and your current Defensive Starmie for dealing with troublesome leads (Heatran, etc)
  • Beats sleep leads, which are currently a major annoyance for your team, as nothing can take the sleep well.
  • Gets up SR reliably and can also beat opposing Azelf leads, who will be unable to Taunt or Explode on you because of Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch
  • Has Explosion for breaking the bulky Water-types that your team really doesn't like.
Try the following set:

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Atk / 8 Spe
Nature: Adamant
~ Meteor Mash
~ Bullet Punch
~ Stealth Rock
~ Explosion

I also have some lasting issues with EV spreads on some of your Pokemon as listed below:

  • Run a 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe EV spread on Scizor. You really want Scizor hitting as hard as possible in order to deal with opposing DD Salamence that might get a turn to setup somewhere. LO Starmie troubles the core of your team fiercely, and weakening Scizor to try to help with it isn't really any help at all.
  • Run a 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe EV spread on Gyarados. As you're switching this thing in and going for the kill, you really want it to be as powerful and as fast as possible.
Your team, because of its foundations as a Mence + Gyara offensive core, has mad troubles with opposing Life Orb Starmie. You're going to have to play around it seriously in order to beat it, but Rotom-C can KO it. (Just be very careful of Choice Scarf Tyranitar switch-ins) Anyway, I think my suggestions will help your team against as many threats as possible without opening up holes to others. Good luck with the team!
 
Hi there,

This is a pretty cool team, and I do enjoy running both Mence and Gyarados on the same team myself for the serious firepower. There are a few standing issues, though, and my suggestions will help with them a bunch.

First, Choice Scarf Jolteon needs to be replaced for Choice Scarf Rotom-C for the following reasons.

  • Rotom-C is a great response to DD Gyarados and can also help hit things like Gengar hard, who pose trouble for your team.
  • Gives you the option to Trick and cripple something on stall teams, which outside of Mence you have a bit of trouble with.
  • Gives you a Grass-type move to pound opposing Swampert into dust. Your team really needs to hit those pesky Water-types, and it also helps a bit against predicted TTar switch-ins.
  • Gives you another Ground-type immunity, which is always nice.
  • Gives you a primary Scizor switch-in so you don't have to reveal Gyarados early.
  • Can be worn down by switching into Electric-type attacks, but helps too much, really.
Try the following set:

Rotom-C @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
~ Thunderbolt
~ Shadow Ball
~ Leaf Storm
~ Trick

Also, I will suggest lead Lum Berry Metagross over your current Swampert for the following reasons:

  • You have 3 Water-type Pokemon with redundant defensive coverage.
  • You are terribly vulnerable to Anti-Lead Attacker Machamp.
  • You need a secondary Steel-type to help balance out the resistances of your team.
  • Combines well with my above-suggested Rotom-C and your current Defensive Starmie for dealing with troublesome leads (Heatran, etc)
  • Beats sleep leads, which are currently a major annoyance for your team, as nothing can take the sleep well.
  • Gets up SR reliably and can also beat opposing Azelf leads, who will be unable to Taunt or Explode on you because of Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch
  • Has Explosion for breaking the bulky Water-types that your team really doesn't like.
Try the following set:

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Atk / 8 Spe
Nature: Adamant
~ Meteor Mash
~ Bullet Punch
~ Stealth Rock
~ Explosion

I also have some lasting issues with EV spreads on some of your Pokemon as listed below:

  • Run a 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe EV spread on Scizor. You really want Scizor hitting as hard as possible in order to deal with opposing DD Salamence that might get a turn to setup somewhere. LO Starmie troubles the core of your team fiercely, and weakening Scizor to try to help with it isn't really any help at all.
  • Run a 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe EV spread on Gyarados. As you're switching this thing in and going for the kill, you really want it to be as powerful and as fast as possible.
Your team, because of its foundations as a Mence + Gyara offensive core, has mad troubles with opposing Life Orb Starmie. You're going to have to play around it seriously in order to beat it, but Rotom-C can KO it. (Just be very careful of Choice Scarf Tyranitar switch-ins) Anyway, I think my suggestions will help your team against as many threats as possible without opening up holes to others. Good luck with the team!
Wow, that works out incredibly perfect.

Thank you so much for this. It really does patch up everything.

*makes changes*

Also, thanks to Bloo as well.

EDIT: One thing though, as I look at my updated Weakness/Resistance chart. My only reliable switch into T-Bolt is Rotom, same to be said about Ghost and Dark attacks with Scizor. So that is a little bit of a worry having a low resistance on Electric and Ghost. Do you think it will be fine?
 
I wanted to fit Flygon into your team, since he'd really benefit you a lot with his Electric-type immunity, ability to seriously dent Starmie with U-turn, and pinch sweeping ability as needed. The issue is that there just isn't room for him between Scizor and Starmie (who is necessary). He also brings a lot of similar weaknesses to the table, which is very dangerous. This is the trouble of GyaraMence cores, though, so it's tough to avoid without totally changing your team. If you want to try Flygon, the best place to put him would be over Scizor, for their similar ability to scout. You really do want the Steel-type, though, as otherwise you lack a mid-game resistance to Ice-type attacks and other things, but Flygon is worth a try if you're worried about Electric-type attacks and Starmie, who give your team a sizable chunk of trouble.

Try the following set if you do:

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
~ Outrage
~ Earthquake
~ Stone Edge
~ U-turn
 

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