The Outraging Dragons

[zachmac]

I've come back to Smogon with my second RMT here yet. This team has turned out to be one of my best teams yet, usually hovering at about 1300 points on the ladder. I hope to reach the top 100 with this team someday, so I decided that it'd be best if I brought it here.

The Dragon type. In my opinion, it is the most powerful of all pokemon types. It's nearly un-resisted coverage all by itself. However, as we all know, as long as your team has a steel type, it won't be losing to Outrage users any time soon. Thankfully, there are two pokemon who can help to solve that problem; Dugtrio and Magnezone.

Dragonite (F) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- ExtremeSpeed/Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
How can it learn Fly with such tiny wings? Anyway, it's pretty much a suicide lead, trying to lure out steel types early in the game. Outrage isn't actually expected on Dragonite, so it gets me a lot of surprise KOs. Fire Punch is the perfect move to use on Ferrothorn or Skarmory who try to sponge an outrage later on. I gave it extreme speed to handle revenge killers, but I've been considering EQ. In the lead position with Multiscale, almost nothing can stop it from setting a dragon dance up. Lead Ninetales can't burn it thanks to Lum Berry, and Lum Berry also helps it get over Outrage's confusion. It does a lot of damage early game.

Salamence (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
Though not a very original idea, I've been using this before it was a Smogon set. Now, two thinks about this set may of caught your eye. First, there is it's nature, Jolly. Most Salamence run +att, but the jolly nature makes it into both an effective revenge killer and sweeper, being able to take out most Dragon Dancers or other Scarfed Dragons, besides Latios. The second is Rock Slide. I originally used Stone Edge, but I only ever found myself using it against Volcarona, so I decided to drop it for it's more accurate brother.

Dugtrio (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Reversal
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Sucker Punch
There is a steal type that Magnezone can't handle, known as Heatran. If Magnezone comes in on one of those, it is likely to see a Lava Plume or Earth Power coming it's way. Dugtrio handles that quite well, thanks to Arena Trap and high speed. Assuming that stealth rock isn't up, Dugtrio also give me a pokemon to handle revenge killers like scarf Terrakion, thanks to the focus sash and it's resistance to rock. Reversal often finds itself useful for taking out Tyranitar, who could be a pain for my Kingdra later on.

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 144 HP / 252 SAtk / 112 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Magnezone allows me to keep offensive pressure with Volt Switch and trap annoying steel types. The reason I gave it choice specs was to handle enemy Magnezone and Jirachi at the time, but now that I've added Dugtrio, I might swap to SubChargeBeam.

Haxorus (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Dragon Dance
With the Lum Berry, he can either set up on a pokemon who knows a status move, Lava Plume, Scald, or get a shot at Outrage without having to worry about confusion. It's actually not all that rare for him to get both a Dragon Dance and a Swords Dance up at the same time, and when he does, he's nearly unstoppable. Though not exactly Dragonite when it comes to bulk, I've had plenty of battles where it survived Ice Shards and Choice Band Bullet Punches, and even Conkeldurr's Mach Punch.

Kingdra (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 24 HP / 252 SAtk / 220 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Rain Dance
- Dragon Pulse
- Draco Meteor
So, what if this team somehow fails to defeat Skarmory or Forretress? What if there is still a Scarf Terrakion or Choice Band Mamoswine out on the loose? I have one pokemon who can bypass those problems, and even counter weather teams while it's at it. After a single rain dance, it has massive speed, and Hydro Pumps that can destroy anything that doesn't resist them. And when all else fails, Draco Meteor is always there to punch a hole right through Celebi.
​

 

[SkullCandy]

Wow quadruple Dragons, that's a throw back to DPP if I ever saw one.

My only problem with this team is that you'll probably lose a lot to teams that run Lati@s. Scarf Lati@s can take out your whole team (Latios OHKOs everyone, barring a full health Dragonite or Magnezone) and, even if rain is up, they can both (Latios has a chance to be OHKOd) take a Dragon Pulse from Kingdra (assuming you don't want to miss with Draco Meteor). If Mence is down any Speed boosting Dragon can run through your team quite easily so you need to make space for another Steel-type. I would recommend Scizor. It can get lots of residual damage thanks to U-turn and its ability to force switches as well as checking the Lati twins very well (especially if its raining). I would suggest removing Dragonite for this. Dragonite is pretty redundant with Salamence as they have very similar stats, the same typing and a similar offensive movepool. With Scizor you have a good check to Lati@s as well as strong priority in the form of Bullet Punch, should Salamence (your fastest pokemon barring Kingdra in the rain) be KOed. Usually I would suggest the Swords Dance set as it is my recent favourite but I think the standard Choice Band set is more useful in this scenario due to its power right off the bat and its ability to Pursuit Dragon-move locked Lati's to death.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spe (to get the jump on other Scizor)
Adamant Nature
-Bullet Punch
-U-Turn
-Super Power
-Pursuit

The only other thing that I don't quite like is double dance on Haxorus (and its nature). You already have Kingdra and Salamence to plow through offensive teams, so I would suggest making Haxorus a pure Swords Dancer with Swords Dance, Outrage, Earthquake,Taunt. This gives you a great answer to stall. Haxorus can set up on a variety of walls such as Blissey/Chansey, Forretress and defensive Brave Bird-less Skarmory and has a huge Attack that even Steel-types won't want to switch into after a Swords Dance. Also you should change Haxorus' nature to Adamant if your using the EVs you set. 224 is good for Speed as you can outrun opposing Haxorus. As this Haxorus is more of a stall breaker I would say Adamant is the way to go to bolster Haxorus' Attack even more.