The Power of Sweepers (mence based team) OU RMT

[vouslavous]

this is my first attempt of building a team around a salamence sweep, even though this is quite a common concept and has been done numerous times, it still proves to be an awesome team. i have played around with teams for a while just mix and matching pokemon, the teams them selfs weren't great but doing it was a good experience cause it really gave me a sense of the game and a general understanding of many pokemon move-sets and strategies out there. so this was my first real formal and thought out team. and i hope it turns out well. so without further due lets begin.

TEAM BUILDING

(i know i didnt give detailed descriptions here, i save those for the detailed analysis of my guys)

well no duh the teams centered around him. i choose him as the primary sweeper for the same reasons everyone else says, awsome base stats, good move pool, he just fits the role nicely and i have been using him since day 1 of battling so he deserved a spotlight on my team

ok, what happens every time a salamence is switched in? case 1- a steel type, magezone covers this nicely, it seems like the ultimate steel counter, it locks them in and allows you to hack away at them.

if its not a steel that switches in, its normally an ice, or less common something with rock attacks. slowbro deals with ice attacks without a problem, and slowbro's high defence resists most physical attacks (including rocks)

well i needed a lead, i choose roserade for the sleep powder to in hopes of stopping anything like smeagle or ninjask from setting up. also getting up some early spikes.

electric types seem to be occasionally to mence and slowbro, electrivire shuts that down and turns him into a backup physical sweeper in case mence starts slacking

ive always liked vaporeon's support, she can withstand attacks from a decent amount of things and patch my guys up when they start to get damaged as the game goes on.
IN DEPT ANALYSIS

Lead
Focus Sash
Natural Cure
Timid
EVs 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

~ Sleep Powder
~ Toxic Spikes
~ Leaf Storm
~ Hidden Power Fire

i choose roserade as my lead because i liked the idea of being able to shutdown the oponents lead for 2 or so turns, allowing me to get spikes up. i went with leaf storm of knot because i wanted raw power for roserade because i dont think she will be used attack wise in the long run, more of just pop in occasinally to sleep the oponent. a grass lead also shuts down the popular swampert lead which in most situations is hard to manage, assuming my sleep powder moves first i can really hurt someone who's lead has a move that revolves around their team (trick room, sunny day/rain dance)

Dragon Dance Sweep
Life Orb
Naive
EVs 232 Atk / 24 SpA / 252 Spe

~ Dragon Dance
~ Outrage
~ Earthquake
~ Fire Blast

the one and only DD set for mence, what my team is centered around, a few short notes on this set even though its kind of obvious. i went with fire blast over roost because typically i really dont have the time to waste a turn to heal him because in all honesty, mence is not built for taking hits, so in my experience roost only waste a turn. something i also like to do is DD twice on the first switch in, why?. most people expect turn 1 to be a DD then turn 2 outrage/quake. i have found on occasions the opponent using protect anticipating outrage, not expecting a second DD. i only do this if its a Pokemon i know has protect.

Waller and Sweeper
Leftovers
Own Tempo
Bold
EVs 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD

~ Calm Mind
~ Slack Off
~ Surf
~ Psychic

i needed a pokemon to take hits from ice and rock moves that are typically used against mence, slowbro does this job and so much more. slowbro's above average HP and base def stat 110 makes him a natural physical wall. after just 3+ calm minds you have your self one hell of a pokemon. the boosted SpD makes him able to handle even electric attacks with ease, and his SpA becomes deadly to almost anything turning him into an awesome Special Sweeper. Slack off is icing on the cake to make him that much more annoying to kill. the only hard part about him is building up the calm minds, as he is easy to kill before he is built up

Anti Steel
Leftovers
Magnet Pull
Timid
EVs 40 Atk / 252 SpA / 216 Spe

~ Substitute
~ Thunderbolt
~ Hidden Power Fire
~ Explosion

Magnezone one purpose in my team is eliminate any steels so that outrage can more effectively rip through the enemies pokemon. unfortuantly most steels that get trapped by magnezone are a still a threat to him, most steels have fighting and ground moves. so basiclly the plan with him is to sub and HP fire, if that doesnt work then i pray that explosion will kill the steel, at that point the steel is either dead or about dead anyway. all and all i say he does he job nicely, its just a matter of subbing correctly

Physical Sweeper
Expert Belt
Adamant
EVs 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

~ ThunderPunch
~ Ice Punch
~ Cross Chop
~ Fire Punch

i added him to the team because like i said earlier, its not uncommon to see electrics come out against mence and vire turns it to his advantage, i wanted to use the elemental punches moveset because its great for tricking all types of pokemon, common responses to vire are ground and grass types with is dealt respectively with ice and fire punch. cross chop is great if they throw a wall like blissey at me. i choose the item expert belt because it seems with this set can land a super effective against many of the pokemon, expert belt really works well with this set netting me even more damage.

Wish Support
Leftovers
Bold
EVs 188 HP / 252 Def / 68 Spe

~ Wish
~ Protect
~ Surf
~ Toxic

i have always liked vaporeon on my team, she makes for an excellent healer late game, i have to say though it is a tough decision choosing which wish set to use on vaporeon, on the one hand, i like this one because it gives her some offence to fall back on, protect can keep her around longer and she has a backup toxic incase my spikes are blown away. however im debating whether to use the acid armor baton pass version of this set. not sure ill let you guys post your opinions with that.

FINAL THOUGHTS

while this isnt my first team, this is my first planned out team that i took a good hour deciding who to use. in the end what i intended to be a team with one all powerful sweeper has ended up to be a team with 3 very unique and distinct sweepers that compliment each other, even though salamence kind of still is the main sweeper on the team. i think for the first version its not that bad but i can tell that the experts out there will have some helpful things to suggest to make it better.

thanks for reading please rate/comment

 

[vouslavous]

bump

 

[Itsuki]

Hello vouslavous.

Cool team, however I'd like to give some suggestion that hopefully could improve your team. It seems that your team lacks a reliable Tyranitar switch in but more importantly a Tyranitar counter. Dragon Dance Tyranitar is your biggest threat here as it can set up on -2 Roserade's Leaf Storm (provided that you've already put something to sleep, switch out on Slowbro (although Surf does 40.4% - 48% from Slowbro and 43.9% - 51.5% from Vaporeon its not a fullproof plan at being this variant), and Magnezone. I suggest using a Swampert over Slowbro as it can take on most Tyranitar as well as take on opposing Salamence's attacks which can be quite troublesome for your team to handle. Swampert also provides you Stealth Rock which you seem to lack and can absorb certain Electric-type attacks just like Electivire, who I'll be replacing in my next suggestion. Stealth Rock is rather necessary to achieve certain KOs with Salamence so it supports it as well.

Swampert @ Leftovers | Torrent
Relaxed | 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Ice Beam / Earthquake / Stealth Rock / Roar

I find you are rather weak to Latias and Gengar. The former is able to come in on Slowbro's attacks, Roserade, and Vaporeon (although Toxic hurts, missing hurts for you) and deliver heavy damage to it or any switch in. The latter however can 2HKO everything on your team, but it cannot switch in as easily as Latias. To fix this problem I suggest a Scarf Tyranitar over Electivire. Tyranitar is able to come in on and Crunch both or Pursuit as they switch out. Crunch is rather the safer move as it OHKOs both and Pursuit isn't a guaranteed OHKO on Latias staying in unless it has taken previous damage. It also provides you a second check to Lucario.

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf | Sand Stream
Jolly | 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Crunch / Stone Edge / Pursuit / Superpower

I suggest changing Roserade's Hidden Power to Hidden Power Ice. It will give you a decent check to Salamence and tie with other Roserade which can be helpful in shutting it down with Sleep Powder. Magnezone's Explosion is rather weak without the use of a boosting item so I suggest changing it to a Naive nature. Hidden Power Grass is also an option over Hidden Power Fire as you already beat Choice Band variants with Thunderbolt and it can help more against Swampert, a main check to Salamence as well as Magnezone lacking Hidden Power Grass. Lastly, you lack a reliable Gyarados counter, I suggest changing Toxic for Hidden Power Electric on Vaporeon. This way you can beat Taunt variants who could otherwise sweep your team.

Hope I helped!

 

[vouslavous]

ok so what your saying is to use swampert over slowbro as he as more resistance to wall mence and tyranitar aswell as putting rocks down, and switch electrvire for tyranitar because genger and latias switch ins rip through my team and he handles them well. and using grass on magnezone is for the sole purpose of stopping ground's from wrecking him

 

[watershogon94]

I agree with Itsuki..swampert will be a very good replacement for slowbro. Your currently relying alot on Calm Minds for Slowbro to work out and I don't know how many you could really get in before something took you out.