The Best Gimmick In The World! Death to the Pink Egg Nurse!

Come one, come all, see the show!

OK, so the basic goal of this team is to keep entry hazards off at the start while putting and keeping offensive pressure on the opponent, and looking for an opportunity to set up for the real sweep.

This team at a glance:
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~~~Now for the full team description.~~~


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Starmie @ Life Orb
4 Def/252 SpAtk/252 Spe
Timid nature
Natural Cure

Grass Knot
Ice Beam
Hydro Pump/Surf
Rapid Spin

I fell in love with Starmie as a pokemon in rby, and she remains a powerful, but varied offensive threat. It's also a nice blissey lure (if the other team has one), which is crucial information to have. It has decent matchups vs. a lot of leads, but most of these depend on luck as much as they depend on anything else (surf decidedly lacks the power to deal with things as well. Surf can deal more reliably with some leads but will lose to a couple others as well as not being solidly powerful enough to muscle through more defensive switch-ins like defensive rotom-A.

Vs. Top 10 leads as of January:

Azelf: Hydro pump->rapid spin. All depends on how the speed tie turns out, best case I take only life orb recoil and have spun rocks away, worst case they get rocks up and explode vs. me. Surf doesn't do enough damage for rapid spin to finish it off afterwards.
Metagross: Hydro pump is a 2hko. Surf is a 2hko as well with LO. Usually hydro pump->spin, then scout their next move.
Swampert: Grass knot for the ohko.
Jirachi: Surf is a 2hko on average, depending on how much damage my first attack does decide what to do from there. If I get tricked a scarf (rare) 2hko is impossible, so switch out as they put rocks up to Gliscor. Hydro pump is a guaranteed 2hko regardless of item (if it hits, of course).
Aerodactyl: Surf/hydro pump will both bring it to 1 hp, rapid spin to catch it staying in.
Infernape: Ice beam predicting a switch. Will break the sash and also scout for the rare EndeavorApe lead as well as common switches to absorb water hits like scarfed latias.
Roserade: Ice Beam for the powerful hit, if it spores switch to yanmega and bug buzz (basically guaranteed to outspeed because almost all lead roserade carry hp fire).
Heatran: Surf/hydro pump and scout for switch.
Tyranitar: Be scared shitless since most leadTar run a lot of spdef. Try to switch out to gliscor.
Gliscor: Surf/hydro pump, too often people will bring in a steel to cushion the expected Ice Beam. plus LO surf will ohko 252 hp gliscor.


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Magnezone @ Light Clay
252 HP/96 Def/160 SpDef
Relaxed nature
Magnet Pull

Reflect
Light Screen
Explosion
Thunderbolt

I'm not 100% sure on this Magnezone set, but dual screens are very helpful for my frailer pokemon like yanmega, starmie, and smeargle. I wanted a nice way to deal with scizor while also giving myself the support my baton pass pokemon need as well as cushioning blows to yanmega and Starmie.



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Latias @ Choice Scarf
4 Def/252 SpAtk/252 Spe
Timid nature
Levitate

Draco Meteor
Surf
Thunderbolt
Trick

This is so bog-standard it doesn't need to be explained. Keeps me safe from various set up pokemon, and is generally pursuit bait for scarftar. This fits into my plan though for the instant they bring out a scarftar and lock it into pursuit/crunch I can bring in magnezone and begin my dual screen support. ;(


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Yanmega @ Choice Specs
4 Def/252 SpAtk/252 Spe
Timid nature
Tinted Lens

Bug Buzz
HP Ground
Air Slash
U-turn

This is the first real sweeper this team has. Yanmega is a forgotten threat, particularly with specs and Tinted Lens allowing it to 2hko things like Zapdos and Gyarados with Bug Buzz. He also benefits from knowing whether the opponent has a Blissey or not and keeping stealth rocks off of the field (Thank you Starmie!). Even so, the goal isn't to lure out Blissey and other specially defensive pokemon to kill her, but to lure her out for the real setup. Bug Buzz and Air Slash are both Stab, HP Ground deals with dumb stuff like Heatran, and U-turn is just for Blissey so that an advantageous switch-in is there for...

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Smeargle @ White Herb(other item choices wanted, I know that white herb is crap in general)
252 Def/4 HP/252 Spe
Jolly nature
Own Tempo

Spore
Dragon Dance
Taunt
Baton Pass

This is pokemon 1 of my dynamic sweeping duo using an unusual set solely for the element of surprise. Taunt stops phazing and fast taunters as well as sleep-talkers coming in to absorb the spore, and at +1 there is no phazer/taunter that outspeeds him. If he can spore a natural cure pokemon, then DD as it switches out spore becomes free to use again because of natural cure curing its sleep status...this is pretty much a guaranteed re-spore/DD, and with dual screens up smeargle will be able to take the single hit it needs to take before it passes out. White Herb is the best item I can come up with right now, simply because it stops things like tauntgyara's intimidate from ruining the pass scheme to Metagross. After smeargle gets to +2/+2, which is all he really needs to do, he passes out to...


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Metagross @ Life Orb
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 Def
Adamant nature
Clear Body

Meteor Mash
Zen Headbutt
Thunderpunch
Earthquake

This coverage is just ridiculous. Meteor Mash is there for the times when metagross doesn't have an SE hit vs. something. the 20% chance to raise attack +1 further is too good to pass up and will definitely break walls beyond repair if for some reason my sweep is stopped (to be cleaned up by Yanmega).

There's my team. Rate/comment whatever, but keep in mind its goal (baton pass to Metagross).
 
I would suggest replacing Yanmega, If your starmie goes down you have no rapid spin protection and It is just too frail to be a good sweeper. I agree with alfonze your team lacks a good wall or bulky poke. To fix it I would replace Yanmega with Tyranitar. T-tar offers both bulkyness and strong attack. You can also baton pass a dragon dance to this as well.
I would go with this set the Tyraniboah run off:

Quiet @ Leftovers
EVs- 252 Hp, 176 Attack, 80 Speed
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Crunch
-Earthquake

You can check the strategy pokedex for other options.
 
I'm suggesting replacing Smeargle with Gliscor for a few reasons: Gliscor has much more bulk and won't die instantly to, say, a Scizor's Bullet Punch. He can also (theoretically) pass the same amount of Attack and Speed boosts to your sweeper that Smeargle could over 2 turns (Smeargle DD's twice, Gliscor Rock Polishes and Sword Dances). So give this set a look:

Gliscor@Yache Berry
Impish Nature
Hyper Cutter/Sand Veil (Sand Veil could net you more boosts if you use Tyranitar like shinygrowlithe suggested)
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Spe / 196 SpD
-Baton Pass
-Taunt
-Swords Dance
-Rock Polish

Pretty self-exlanatory. Taunt stops pHazers and anything trying to set up on you, Yache Berry ensures that, under Light Screen, no Ice Beam from an OU pokemon will OHKO you (in fact, due to Yache it's pretty likely no Ice Beam will even 2HKO you. Cool, eh?)
I really think Gliscor would benefit your team through likely netting more boosts than Smeargle. Good luck!
 
Well your team lacks a real wall. Your dual screen protection is your only defense, and that won't last forever.

The purpose of the team more than presenting a standard style of play is just to set up for a key sweep. The prevalence of stall, semi-stall, and bulky offense (varying degrees of defensive play) all teach that you have to have resistances to every attack, but this isn't really the case :P

Take the example of heatran. Half of my team is ohko'ed by fire blast. The first time I reveal yanmega though I can instantly u-turn out to something better to take the blow. If I discover heatran, I can bring in latias or starmie and scare it off, weakening their water resist that comes in. The next time Yanmega comes in, I can just predict heatran coming in again and ohko it with HP ground. If I discover Blissey, I can bring in smeargle and start setting up. If I discover Lucario I can panic and go back to starmie again. This is all theorymon but with proper scouting of threats I can keep on-top of most common threats that would rip through this team if I weren't careful.

I would suggest replacing Yanmega, If your starmie goes down you have no rapid spin protection and It is just too frail to be a good sweeper. I agree with alfonze your team lacks a good wall or bulky poke. To fix it I would replace Yanmega with Tyranitar. T-tar offers both bulkyness and strong attack. You can also baton pass a dragon dance to this as well.
I would go with this set the Tyraniboah run off:

Quiet @ Leftovers
EVs- 252 Hp, 176 Attack, 80 Speed
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Crunch
-Earthquake

You can check the strategy pokedex for other options.

The only reason I use lead-starmie is to have a leg-up on most SR leads. Most teams use their lead to put up SR, it's rare to find a dedicated anti-lead in the first slot that won't be handled by starmie (except something like fake out weavile which starmie would almost definitely lose to lol). This team doesn't really need SR to sweep either, it will weaken its own counters enough while scouting to break through (the closest shave is probably +2 LO zen headbutt vs. 252/168 bold rotom-H which does 89% minimum). Yeah this team could use stealth rocks but I'm not really comfortable fitting it in since it's very easy to sweep without them anyway. Either way, if metagross fails, another of my sweepers can pick up the slack, just because of the nature of my sweepers. Yanmega is great at weakening/cleaning up the few things that metagross might have trouble handling like defensive Zapdos while keeping a nice fighting/grass/bug resist as well. If worst comes to worst yanmega can switch in on scizor's CB u-turn and take 20% max as it switches out, then u-turn/attack based on what comes in.

BoahTar is a good option but not really one that would fit very well with the goal of the team. Yes, if I changed to gliscor for the SD+RP pass combo it would be a great fit (either ability would help the pass a lot) but what I really like about Smeargle over Gliscor is the fact that spore will incapacitate their primary counter as well as (ideally) granting metagross a free switch that can't be hampered by prediction. Besides, prediction is the main thing to think about: gliscor+metagross is a pair that has great synergy, and battlers KNOW that. Smeargle lures out different pass interrupters than gliscor does, and bringing him out after a sacrifice can lure out the opponent's scizor/priority user/phazer just so I can double switch into magnezone and begin my dual screen setup.

Also I'm just playing favorites with yanmega. :P It gets no love because it's x4 weak to SR but it's critical in weakening walls that metagross would need a bit of help dealing with like rotom-h. It can sweep itself if the other guy doesn't have any priority.


I'm suggesting replacing Smeargle with Gliscor for a few reasons: Gliscor has much more bulk and won't die instantly to, say, a Scizor's Bullet Punch. He can also (theoretically) pass the same amount of Attack and Speed boosts to your sweeper that Smeargle could over 2 turns (Smeargle DD's twice, Gliscor Rock Polishes and Sword Dances). So give this set a look:

Gliscor@Yache Berry
Impish Nature
Hyper Cutter/Sand Veil (Sand Veil could net you more boosts if you use Tyranitar like shinygrowlithe suggested)
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Spe / 196 SpD
-Baton Pass
-Taunt
-Swords Dance
-Rock Polish

Pretty self-exlanatory. Taunt stops pHazers and anything trying to set up on you, Yache Berry ensures that, under Light Screen, no Ice Beam from an OU pokemon will OHKO you (in fact, due to Yache it's pretty likely no Ice Beam will even 2HKO you. Cool, eh?)
I really think Gliscor would benefit your team through likely netting more boosts than Smeargle. Good luck!

I considered this gliscor since they both have essentially the same purpose, but I kinda covered this earlier. Smeargle triggers a panic response (go to X to absorb the sleep, go to scizor, etc.). The real reason I didn't use gliscor earlier was because I HAD a gliscor on this team and really just didn't like the feel of it and being essentially checkmated by suicune/swampert. The only reason I feel like smeargle works better is just because he brings out a different response from the other player (priority or a slower phazer) vs. a gliscor and has the ability to spore what will probably be the only obstacle in my sweep (the bulky phazing wall, or something that will still outspeed metagross after a +2/+2 like scarf flygon and jirachi).
 
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