THE POWER !

[mimi]

Introduction -
I have finally come around to playing the 5th gen meta game more, and I must say, It's way better then I made it out to be. More entertaining by far, I'm still in the learning stages of the OU meta game, with my knowledge of it coming from watching other people playing. The following team I will be showing you is a sand team that I came up with in just little under 30 minutes. The team is based around having an all out offensive approach to the battle, Having many heavy hitters on the team. With entry hazard support letting them gain KO's a lot more frequently than they would without. The main sweepers are Terrakion, Alakazam, And Landorus. All of them extremely powerful in their own way.

First look -

In Depth look -

T-Tar (Tyranitar) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SAtk / 192 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam

Tyranitar is often in the lead position as it sets up my sand. Heavily invested in hp, and spdef so I can win the weather wars with no problem at all. Being able to switch on politoed or Ninetales without fear of getting smacked around. The sassy nature helps ttar's already impressive special bulk in these wars as well. Ttar's move pool is probably one of the best in the game. Mine runs Stealth Rocks, Crunch, Fireblast and ice beam. Fireblast often catches ferrothorn off guard and dealing some heavy damage to it. Crunch provides stab in the form of dark type and ice beam is for coverage. Hitting the likes of Landorus and Dragonite for some heavy damage. Tyranitar serves two purposes on this team, number 1- set up sand, number 2- Set up rocks, and he completes these every game. Being the offensive powerhouse that he is, Tyranitar is sure to get me at least one K.O a game was well. Tyranitar is one of the most important aspects of this team and he does what needs to be done.

Great Wall (Skarmory) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird

Offensive teams love to have hazards to back them up. Skarmory is here to do that job. Still being one of the best physically defensive monsters of the OU tier, It always gets me at least 2 layers of spikes up, If i play him well. I chose to use skarmory over ferrothorn because I already had a noticeable fighting Weakness with Tyranitar and Terrakion. Alakazam isn't going to take hits for long either, So I needed someone I could switch on reliable and set up hazards with. Skarmory was the one. Brave bird is here so I have an attacking move, and Whirlwind and Roost are for supporting purposes. Whirlwind is to help me stack up entry hazard damage on the opponents team, while roost, Is just to keep skarm alive till I no longer need him. Without skarmory on this team, I would have a much harder time cleaning up, and I would also be very weak to priority and physical attacks.

mc-rotom (Rotom-W) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 112 HP / 252 SAtk / 144 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Rotom is my water resist for this team. Being invested with some bulk I can come in on water attacks with no problem. Having volt switch allows to me to get switch advantage as they run away. The evs allow me to be bulk enough to live, and strong enough to kill. Having 112 hp allows me to take hits better than I normally wouldm well 252 SAtk and a modest nature allows me to hit incredible hard. will-O-wisp is for predicted switches to physical threats such as scizor and terrakion. landing a burn on these pokemon make my life a lot easier in the battle. Pain split allows me to live for much longer, and hydropump rounds out the set as another powerful stab move that rotom loves to have. Ohkoing the likes of gliscor. Rotom is one of the more versatile pokemon on the team and helps the team a lot.

1 trick pony (Terrakion) @ Choice Band
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- X-Scissor
- Stone Edge
- Retaliate

Jolly Choice Band Terrakion is one of my new favorite pokemon to use. Its just Raw power. Base 108 max speed allowing it to reach a speed of 346 well a base 129 attack allows it to reach 357 attack, With choice band, Terrakion just demolishes things as they come in, Stab on Close Combat and Stone Edge is ridiculous, Hitting things like a truck with just those 2 moves alone, X-scissor is for a little more coverage. I chose retaliate as the last move, so I could come in and hit something hard as a revenge killer. The last move slot could be used as sacred sword, but it really hasn't made a difference to me so far. Terrakion's goal on this team, is to come in, Hit things like a truck, and leave. If scarfers and bullet punch/mach punch users are gone, Terrakion just runs through everything in the late game. Can't be touched if the right pokemon are removed from the other team.

CerealKiller (Alakazam) (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

Alakazam was always a pokemon that was over looked due to its low hp stat and pitiful defense, This gen tho, He got an amazing ability in magic guard. Allowing him to come in and take no hazard damage at all, Not get hurt by weather, Not let him get hurt by status, Its just amazing. The set i'm running is a sash calm mind set. Removing priority and scarfers early game allows alakazam to out speed and kill everything in the late game. Setting up one calm mind Well it's sash is in tact and demolishing teams after. Psyshock, Shadow ball, and Focus blast are the offensive moves that this set runs for perfect neutral coverage + a stab move. With 1 calm mind alakazam hits like a truck on the special side. Reaching 369 un-boosted with a timid nature, And hitting 372 speed. Alakazam on this team also helps me take out some of the fighting types that scare t-tar and terrakion. Alakazam was in a list of psychic types that i could of chose from, Reuniclus, Celebi, ect. But I thought that Alakazam would fit best on this team.

ITS FINE (Landorus) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

The last pokemon that fills out this team is Landorus, also one of my new favorite pokemon. Landrous got an amazing ability in sand force that boosts it's already scary earthquake to higher levels, Also boosting stone edge it isn't a bad thing. U-turn allows me to get switch advantage in tandem with Rotom's volt switch and Hidden power ice is for dragons that like to switch in on the predicted earthquake. With respectable defense it can switch in one some attacks and scare them out as well, either u-turning for switch advantage of going for eq straight up to hit something hard. In my opinion, Landorus is one of the best scarf users in the game, and it fits perfectly on this team.



In Conclusion- Like i previously stated, I'm fairly new to this meta game, And there may be few problems with this team that I would like to get fixed. I haven't been able to notice to many things wrong with this team. But any advice is welcomed, In advance I would like to thank the smogon community for the help. - Shuckieee​

 

[Olympus]

Hi,

Pretty standard team you got but nevertheless it looks solid. Your team looks a little weak to drizzle teams. One thing I would like to suggest is to drop Alakazam for Nasty Plot Celebi. A set consisting of Nasty Plot / Psychic / Giga Drain / HP fire with a spread of 220 HP / 252 SAtk / 36 Spd and a Modest nature would do the trick. Celebi gives your team another water resist and takes some pressure off Rotom. It can also help you deal better with the stupid Rotom + Scizor cores that everyone uses these days. Give it try!

Olympus.

 

[Black Rain]

Hi. This is a very solid, standard, and good team, so there's not too much to be changed. However, I believe there are a few things you can patch up. Firstly, on Rotom-W, you're missing some EV's.

I second Olympus's suggestion on Celebi, but you should also try using Latias over Alakazam. Latias is able to get up Calm Minds better than Alakazam, and can also use Roar to phaze, or Sub to block status and make pursuit trapping it harder. Latias also forms a good defensive synergy with Skarmory, each resisting eachothers' SE hits, bar Ice, and she also forms good offensive synergy with Terrakion, as Fighting / Dragon is only resisted by Shedinja.

Hide

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Roost
- Dragon Pulse
- Roar

 

[AB2]

Hey, nice team. Calm mind reuniclus seems like it might be kind of an annoying threat to beat. Although you pack tyranitar, you will fail to 2hko with crunch as it will be able to recover off most damage. Tyranitar also fears focus blast and reuniclus will easily be able to 2hko with an unboosted focus blast. To make things simple, I would just run latias over alakazam. It seems that alakazam is the odd man out in this team and could be replaced most easily out of all of your other team members. You could also use a secondary water resistance, so latias fits the bill well enough. I would try a substitute + calm mind set in this situation as it allows you to win in last 'mon situations against calm mind reuniclus and substitute can scout scizor and tyranitar switch ins to ease prediction. A set with calm mind / substitute / recover / dragon pulse, leftovers, timid, and maximum hp and speed would work pretty well.

Substitute gengar may still be an issue to this team. It nets a free sub on one of your two choiced locked 'mons and can damage put huge dents into anything on this team under a substitute. Running a specially defensive spread on rotom-w might be worth a shot here. Skarmory switches into scizor with ease so the repercussions for running specially defensive rotom aren't big. A spread of 252 hp / 252 spdef / 4 spe and a calm nature would work pretty well if you want to try it out. Terrakion is probably better off with something else in the fourth slot. Although it won't get much use, quick attack is a decent filler and will probably save you in some situations. The last slot generally gets little to no use on terrakion anyways so it's just something to consider.

 

[coughing]

Hi, very solid team you have here. Although there is one glaring weakness that can be patched up easily for the drizzle teams, which has already been mentioned above: Nasty plot celebi. Everything seems to be extremely weak to water type attacks, and with any drizzle team comes rotom-w, which can mop up your team quite easy with STAB rain boosted hydro pumps and STAB thunders. Celebi sorts out this problem, however with the EV spread mentioned above, it's really not outspeeding anything. A spread of 252spa/200spe/56hp should be given, to outspeed much more of the fast paced metagame including dragonite. The moveset was spot on though.

 

[qwertybanana]

what I find wierd is when an OU RMT has Alakazam in it, about everyone suggests to drop Alakazam.

I believe that celebi gives too many weaknesses and that Alakazam should stay. I tried out this team and alakazam managed to get some sweeps even without cm.

Also, try removing Focus Blast in exchange for HP fire. It removes scizors who are a huge threat to your team. since alakazam can survive scizor's bullet punch, alakazam can strike back with hp fire. Focus Blast is just asking for misshax. Also terrakion is already your fighting type here.

 

[coughing]

what I find wierd is when an OU RMT has Alakazam in it, about everyone suggests to drop Alakazam.

I believe that celebi gives too many weaknesses and that Alakazam should stay. I tried out this team and alakazam managed to get some sweeps even without cm.

Click to collapse...

Yes, alakazam is a good, underrated pokemon. But what you're failing to take into consideration are the teams weaknesses. And saying "alakazam gets some sweeps" is completely irrelevant. Volcarona gets sweeps, as does dragonite, as does alakazam, but slapping pokemon which get sweeps onto a team doesn't make a good team. The key issue with this team is opposing rain teams, which celebi patches up, yeah, celebi has many weaknesses but many key resistances too, tyranitar has TONS of weaknesses yet its in the top 5 most used OU pokemon. So your point is stupid, for this team alakazam doesn't bring much to the table whereas celebi can do so much more.

I run the same celebi on my SS team and it is my most valued team member.

 

[qwertybanana]

i havent seen a single ou team with an effective alakazam.︶︿︶ i s there any?

 

[Yerras]

Great team s4u! Can't wait to have a battle with you.~

 

[Luketastic]

i would consider dropping alakazam. i think a cm reuniclus could get some good results on this team