The Dragon's Rage
An OU RMT by Minun
An OU RMT by Minun
Its creation:
All-out offensive teams were fun to try out and all, but bulky offensive will always be my cup of tea. First things first; this team was created around the unexpected, yet extremely powerful, Choice Specs Salamence. Quite often, most people misinterpret Salamence's versatility and persuade themselves that all it can do is perform a sweep with DD or a Mixed set. Don't get me wrong, those variations are most effective in today's metagame, but Choice Specs is one weapon that absolutely annihilates when wielded by a dragon that packs a 110 Base SpAtk.
When team building around this beast, I knew I needed a reliable pair of steels to give me at least 2 dragon/ice resistors. Jirachi and Scizor came to mind at first, so I stuck with those. Once I chose them though, I didn't know how to make them of use. "Should I smack them both a choice item?" I thought to myself, confused. After a few minutes of thinking up roles for these two, I decided to find other team mates for the Salamence. Celebi came into mind quickly since it can pretty much paralyze anything with Thunder-Wave (which I knew would help me out greatly to outspeed scarfers and Pokemon with a base speed higher than 100.)
After choosing these 4 Pokemon, I felt pretty confident with the results so far. I knew I wanted to run the standard T-Wave, Hidden Power [Fire], Grass Knot, Recover Celebi, so I stuck with that. One problem I found though was my huge Heatran weakness. 3 of my Pokemon were already weak to fire, so I knew the rest had to be something that could either revenge kill and/or counter Heatrans respectively. Swampert was the first choice that came to mind, so I decided to run the standard MixPert. This way I could phaze Ninjask leads as well if they ever try to set up on my Salamence. The next and last Pokemon that came to mind was Scarf Rotom. As strange and unorthodox it may sound, Hidden Power [Ground] from this guy handles Heatrans and Jolteons quite decently so I knew I had to have that as an option.
With the team building done, I still had to figure out what I wanted both Jirachi's and Scizor's jobs to be for the team. Since I already had two Choicers, I decided not to have any other. Even with this decision made, I still wanted to hit hard with Scizor no matter what, so I chose to run the standard SD set. Jirachi's role was pretty hard to decide since I honestly hate the little fellow (or at least the paraflinch/scarf variants). Interestingly enough, I chose to run the bulky Wish CM Rachi solely as a test.
So without further ado, here's my team at a glance.
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Weakness/Resistant/Immunity Chart
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Salamence (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Hydro Pump
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Salamence makes its debut here with anger and vengeance. Packed with the one of the best STAB special attack moves in the game - Draco Meteor - and an extremely dangerous choice item - Choice Specs, no counter is safe to switch in (barring Blissey perhaps if they dare to think I'm not mixed). It would be an understatement to say that SpecsMence is probably the best lead in today's metagame. To show you how powerful this beast is, Draco Meteor OHKO's standard Swamperts 98% of the time; Flamethrower OHKOs's non-Occa berry Metagross about 99% of the time while still 2HKO'ing Occa berry variants; and Hydro Pump OHKO's all Heatrans 100%. Dragon Pulse might be weird when paired with Draco Meteor, but it allows me to sweep paralayzed or weakened teams that are slower than me. To be quite frank, Dragon Pulse lands an astonishing 2HKO on Skarmory that do not invest any SpDef evs (it does about 50-51%).
Swampert (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP/4 Atk/252 Def
Relaxed nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
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MixPert, one of the most standard-est standard(lol?) Pokemon in today's metagame. As frequently used it is, it's not strange at all that it fits in my team quite perfectly. Swampert remains in my team to keep Tyranitar in check (more specifically Dragon Dance variants), set up Stealth Rocks, and phaze enemy boosters like CM Latias and SD Scizor. Ice Beam completely destroys Salamence and Flygons baddies who might give Choice Specs Mence a hard time sweeping.
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/6 SAtk
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Calm Mind
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I was very peculiar about using this little guy, to be honest. But I'm glad I fought through my doubts since it stands as a great asset to my team. Wish keeps this little guy healthy through it's journey for +6 SpAtk and SpDef. It also lets me switch my Salamence/Swampert safely against Heatrans. Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon provide decent type coverage, nailing Tyranitars and Gyaradoses hard in the throat. Calm Mind is there to try a sweep of some sort. I know this Jirachi is best paired with Toxic Spikes to take care of Blissey, but take in mind that Flash Cannon has 20%(with Serene Grace) of SpDef drop. A +6 Jirachi against a -1 SpDef Blissey does above 50% damage, enough for a 2HKO.
Rotom-h @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Trick
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Meet Rotom-H, a Pokemon that completely revolutionized the metagame since Platinum. Ever since Platinum, Rotoms and Scizors have been used quite often against each other; both having the ability to counter each other depending on what set they use. While I could continue to bore you with the history behind Rotom-h, I'll just stick to the point. Hidden Power [Ground] is used here for one thing: revenge killing Heatran. Most people don't expect/know it, HP Ground can surprisingly OHKO incoming Heatrans. Thunderbolt and Overheat are used here for type coverage and obvious STAB attack. Overheat > Shadow Ball here since it takes care of Scizors who can give me a problem if my Swampert and Celebi are weakened.
Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/220 Def/36 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Recover
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Standard Celebi. Nothing much to say here, actually. Hidden Power [Fire] is used to take care of steels, though a Scizor at full HP will never get OHKO'd sadly enough. Grass Knot helps me kick heavy guys like Tyranitar, Swamper, and Gyarados to the curb. Recover is there to heal off against health points loss, obviously. Thunder-Wave > Leech Seed since it helps both Salamence and Scizor sweep with ease.
Scizor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
EVs: 200 HP/252 Atk/56 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bug Bite
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Brick Break
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Scizor, again, always makes a nice Pokemon for a team. Ever since it was blessed with the moves Bug Bite, Bullet Punch, and Superpower, it's been widely used in the OU tier. Bug Bite is just a reliable strong STAB move that lets me tackle water types like Vaporeon, Swampert and Suicune after a SD. Bullet Punch is for the obvious quick kill. Brick Break is here to break down screens that Azelf leads might throw up. Originally I had Superpower over Brick Break, but since I'm leading off with a choicer, Dual Screeners can easily set up against me(obviously).
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