The Breaker of Spirits [OU RMT]

[Ice-eyes]

This team was created based on the light shed by April’s round of statistics. One thing I noticed was that Gengar usage was higher than in recent months, which seems at odds with the #1 and #2 in usage both being threatening Pursuit users. I hadn’t seen many myself on the ladder and was looking for a new team to test – I had the perfect excuse to utilise the absurdly powerful Specs Latias and try out Gengar.

Over the last few days I’ve been scoring win after win and I would appreciate any advice. Let’s take a look.

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Metagross @ Lum Berry
Clear Body
Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)
252 HP/236 Atk/8 Def/12 Spe
Meteor Mash
Bullet Punch
Stealth Rock
Explosion

Metagross is one of the most potent leads around at the moment and really helps my team with its great spread of resistances and ridiculous power. When building the team, I needed a strong lead capable of taking on a large swathe of the lead metagame and getting up SR. A large part in my choice of Metagross as a lead, rather than the Swampert I normally favour, was the recent upswing in Azelf and Aerodactyl shown in April’s stats. Gross’ excellent bulk and typing also helps it later on in the game should it survive, when it can use its spread of resistances to come in, do damage, and Explode.

The set is tailored to both my team and the current lead metagame. Any Heatran or Infernape I see are easily handled by Latias (and my Heatran to a lesser extent), while without the need for Earthquake or Occa Berry, Lum and Meteor Mash can be used to deal with the majority of leads as well as destroying Sleepers like Smeargle and Roserade.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Technician
Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)
248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spe
Bullet Punch
U-Turn
Quick Attack
Superpower

Scizor is a great choice (pardon the pun) on any team – it’s one of the only pokes that can serve in an offensive capacity and yet still check things like Dragon Dance Salamence and Tyranitar without being a weak and easily trappable Scarfer. Add that to its resistances, typing and ability to scout and weaken the opponent with strong U-Turns and you come up with the perfect poke for this team, much as every offensive team.

Perhaps Pursuit might be useful – Scarf Rotom-H can be pretty annoying – but Quick Attack helps against Gyarados since I don’t have a specific designated counter to it.

Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)
44 HP/252 Atk/212 Spe
Focus Punch
Seed Bomb
Spore
Substitute

Breloom functions as the glue of my team. It provides useful resistances, especially Rock (to which I have no other resists if Metagross is down). It also provides strong physical presence and can set up on Scizor locked into Pursuit as well as basically any of Scarf Tyranitar’s moves. Both tend to attempt to trap Latias and Gengar, so this is by no means an infrequent occurrence. Spore is an incredible asset to this team – if they let that locked Tar or Scizor take the sleep, it can really help my sweepers, and even if not the holes Breloom rips in the opposing team are likely to give one of my sweepers an easier time.

The set itself is pretty self-explanatory – 212 Speed EVs make me one point faster than the typical 208 Adamant Breloom, while still achieving a max HP divisible by 8 and so optimising recovery from Poison Heal. I’m considering throwing 8 more EVs on to beat anything else aiming to beat the typical Breloom as well as Bold 88 EVs Rotom-H.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Flash Fire
Naïve (+Spe, -SpD)
4 Atk/252 SpA/252 Spe
Fire Blast
Earth Power
Dragon Pulse’
Explosion

Standard Scarftran is a brilliant fit on this team, a fast revenge-killer that can check troublesome threats and do huge damage to the opposing team. While threats like Lucario and Infernape are checkable using Latias and Gengar, Heatran is a great option to take them down without risking allowing Scizor or Tyranitar in for a free Pursuit. Explosion provides a way to deal with Blissey that switch in – my other sweepers really appreciate the removal of the fat pink blob.

Heatran’s brilliant typing, especially its Fire immunity, complement the rest of my team nicely – Earthquakes aimed at it help Gengar get in for free and bypass its fragility.

Latias @ Choice Specs
Levitate
Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Draco Meteor
Surf
Dragon Pulse
Trick

This is the set that’s pushing Latias towards Uber and it really is incredibly powerful. The trick (again, pardon the pun) to using Specs Latias is to use it to create holes for other powerful pokes – its good spread of resistances lets it come in easily and launch boosted Draco Meteors and Surfs, weakening the opponent’s switch-ins – Steels and Scarf Tyranitar can all be weakened, leaving the opponent open to Gengar. Trick can cripple Blissey and other special walls, also helping the mischevious Ghost when it comes in to clean up. Alternatively, if Latias weakens Steels and Gengar can Explode on Blissey, it can use Dragon Pulse as a strong STAB to finish off a weakened opponent.

Gengar @ Life Orb
Levitate
Naïve (+Spe, -SpD)
4 Atk/252 SpA/252 Spe
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Thunderbolt
Explosion

This Gengar is one of the strongest cleaners in the OU environment, hampered only by its inability to get through bulky, Focus Blast-neutral Steel-types and its utter destruction at the hands of ScarfTar. Once Latias weakens Steels (especially Scizor), Tricks Blissey or takes out Tar, it can easily tear through the opponent, running off its brilliant 130 SpA and great coverage. However, it can also perform a supporting role. Gengar itself can batter Blissey with Explosion, leaving the opponent open for a Latias sweep.

The set is pretty standard, though it foregoes Hidden Power Fire for Explosion and Thunderbolt. The imperfect Speed IV is really important right now – tying with Latias and other Gengar is a necessity and it’s always fun to beat both if they’re equipped with their own 30 IV.

 

[Abutorn]

Hey Ice-eyes,

Decent team you have here, First suggestion I'd like to make is you won't really fix your problem that much by changing Pursuit into Quick attack but you could keep it if it's really that big of a problem you seeing it, since you have Metagross with explosion you deal with Blissey fairly well or even more better you have Breloom, so what I recommend you change is Superpower into Pursuit or you get demolished by Ghosts and they could just set up on you.

Since I see offensively you're majorly weak to Dragon Dancing Salamence and Gyarados it could be quite a problem for you to handle, so what I recommend you to change which isn't a big move since you already have enough fire power in special attacks is replacing Choice Specs into Choice Scarf providing you to outspeed Salamence and Gyarados with +1 when added a Dragon dance. Also to add to that if you're wanting to beat Gyarados you have to change Dragon pulse which isn't useful anymore due to you not needing to have power since you're usually going to switch in and out since you're a scarfer. Dragon Pulse into Thunderbolt to deal with Gyarados and some bulky waters if you weakened them enough, it'll help.

On Gengar you're totally opened up to Pusuiters namely Scarf Tyranitar to come in and pursuit you quite easily with that moveset, what I recommend for you to be ahead in every play and keep Gengars powers is to replace most useless move on that set currently Thunderbolt and replace it with Substitute so you can usually see the common switchins. Subsitute and Life orb could be quite annoying on the same set so what I recommend you to change is Explosion (which you putted in the role for Blissey) into Pain Split reason being you won't have Blissey problems since if Blissey switches in you'll be at full health while it continues to get drained by Pain split, plus it's very useful in gaining those Hit points you'll be losing using Substitute and Life orb combined together.

Good luck and I hope my analysis for your team helped you.

 

[Marble101]

Your team is quite well rounded, but it fails to address the a few quirks. The first is Salamence. While Latias may be able to OHKO, Salamence can outspeed it and deal massive damage with a +1 Outrage. Also, Infernape and Lucario can lay waste to your team once Heatren is out of the way.

On the Special side, your team needs to be wary of Rotom-A. It can Shadow ball Latias and Gengar, Burn Metagross and Scizor, fry Brelloom with Overheat / Airslash / Blizzard (The latter being uncommon outside of Hail teams). An Azelf with +2 Sp. Atk is also a problem. As are opposing Gengar and Latias.

These problems may be big, but can easily be fixed. Use a Swords Dance Scizor instead of the Choice Band one. this will allow you to deal more damage with Bullet Punch and other moves as one Swords Dance surpassess the CHoice BAnd's POwer.

Besides that, nothing really stands out. You have built a nice team. Congradulations!
-Marble 101
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Rate my OU Team: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71080

 

[toshimelonhead]

Hi Ice,

Just a nitpick here:

I agree with the other suggestions to change Dragon Pulse to Thunderbolt on Latias. Keep Specs, though. It's a monster, isn't it? I'm trying to remember if I even used a Modest nature in the past for more power, but Timid works.

I might do a full rate later, but I like this team. Good work.

 

[Ice-eyes]

@ Abutorn: l could definitely change Scizor's Superpower for Pursuit; however, that would leave me unable to hit things like Heatran on the switch-in as well as losing coverage on other Scizor. That said, I rarely use SP and I will definitely try Pursuit over it.

I am pretty weak to DD Gyarados, because I don't have anything that can outspeed at +1 and OHKO, but Mence is less of a problem because Scizor can Bullet Punch it. Gyarados is the main reason that Scizor has Quick Attack - I can 2HKO almost all variants of Gyarados with SR. Many Gyarados also can't OHKO Latias, allowing her to Draco Meteor them into oblivion. Heatran can Explode on it as well. Specs Latias is really important for this team because she has to batter through Steel-types and Pursuiters like Scizor and Tar - the extra power is necessary to do this and support Gengar.

I'll think about changing Gengar to a Sub set - it's a good idea - but Latias' main job is to eliminate Scizor and Tar so I often don't need it. Then again, I often don't need T-Bolt, so I'll definitely test SubSplit.

@ Marble: On paper, Rotom-A looks like a weakness, but you have to remember that it can't outspeed the majority of my team without being Scarfed, which means it can be easily switched into. Heatran is capable of taking anything Rotom throws out as well.

Scizor's Bullet Punch really helps me check Mence, so it's not too much of an issue.

Are you seriously suggesting that SD Scizor is a better revenge-killer than the Choice Band variant? Remember, it doesn't come in at +2 and LO Bullet Punch is weaker than a CB one.

@ Toshi: I'm thinking about changing Dragon Pulse to Thunderbolt, but without D-Pulse Latias can't clean up effectively late-game. Modest Latias, despite the extra power, is almost never worth it - it really sucks to miss out on beating Mence and tying with other Latias and Gengar, especially as Latias is one of my main ways of killing MixMence.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.

 

[Setsuna]

Dragon Dance Gyarados is definitely the threat this team doesn't want to encounter while playing, but there a few things that could be done in order to lighten the way this Pokemon is threatening your team. The first thing to mention (and the most obvious) is to consider ScarfLatias, which could be a plus to deal with the likes of DD Salamence and DD Kingdra as well. But since it looks that you built this team with SpecsLatias in mind, I will just tell you to bear in mind the utility that Choice Scarf could have on Latias and thus the team in general. On the other hand Heatran seems to be one of your main responses to Gyarados, which is not too bad, and seeing that the things have to be like this, I then recommend you to try out HP Electric instead of Dragon Pulse. Dragon Pulse on the Scarf set of Heatran has the single purpose of revenge killing the common Dragon-type Pokemon in OU, but the fact is that unless Heatran faces these dragons 1v1 (with free election of moves), it won't be able to knock them down, for several reasons: 1) Salamence outspeeds Heatran after a DD and OHKOs him back with EQ | 2) Latias will never be 2HKOed after a Calm Mind by this sort of Dragon Pulse, or OHKOed in normal conditions, while Heatran can be taken down with Surf | 3) 4 HP / 0 SpD Kingdra is not OHKOed by Dragon Pulse, and the same applies to min HP Dragonite, which is not even KOed after SR. Obviously, Dragon Pulse is the first recommended move for the Scarf set of Heatran, but as for your particular set in which you're experiencing such large troubles with the set up user Gyarados, I encourage you to give HP Electric a shot and see how it goes ;) In addition to this, as long as Gyarados doesn't pack either Bounce or Ice Fang, Breloom can switch in and threaten him with Seed Bomb, or Spore if you're sure Gyarados is not running Lum Berry or knows Taunt.

Apart from all the aforementioned details, I would also like to point out something else. Latias and Gengar are two Pokémon that nowadays need to take care of themselves pretty well or otherwise they can be easy preys of the common Pursuit users in OU. What I'm saying is that you need to play wisely with them two, and also reduce all the weak links that each set may have -- in this case, I think Gengar's set needs a tweak. Gengar, as it is right now, can't do "anything" to either Scarf Tyranitar or CB Scizor (at full health, or if Scizor has invested EVs in SpD, Gengar's Focus Blast won't be able to eliminate him). By changing a bit the moveset, specifically using HP Fire and Protect instead of Thunderbolt and Explosion, Gengar will definitely have more opportunities of surviving against the above mentioned Pokemon. Once Thunderbolt has been removed from the set, you don't need to worry too much about Gyarados setting up on Gengar (that's kind of insane anyway), since a LOed Shadow Ball deals around 51~60% of damage to min HP Gyarados, putting him that way into Scizor's Bullet Punch KO range after SR. That being said, I also encourage you to remove Quick Attack from Scizor and using Pursuit instead, for obvious reasons, though if you really want to keep this card in case Gyarados manages to set up, then feel free to do so.

Good team overall, gl.

 

[Ice-eyes]

Thanks for the detailed and intelligent rate, Setsuna. I'll definitely test out HP Electric on Heatran, it definitely sounds like a good idea. I am of the opinion that Gengar really needs to tie with Latias (and other Gengar) at the moment. However, I'll try MYSTICgar - a Sub set might actually be the best option, as it will allow Gengar to scout Scizor's move as well as giving it a 70% chance to kill ScarfTar. This will also help support Latias better.

So many things to test, so little time - guess I'd better hit the ladder.