The Team I Like

[Ulver]

A team...
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Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Fire Blast
- Psychic
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Azelf gets me ahead in a lot of the games I play. True it has its flaws, but one shouldn't forget how many other leads it gets a straight up advantage against. Taunt in my opinion makes Azelf worth it. With it Smeargle leads aren't an issue and lots of other pokemon are stopped in their tracks. Also between taunt and explosion I rarely have to worry about my opponent getting a set-up against me by forcing me to switch out. Heatran can come in and set up a sub on the switch but I'll probably have stealth rock up by then and if I see Heatran has leftovers then I taunt to prevent a sub, followed by switching out to Suicune to get a free calm mind boost. If they explode then it's 1 for 1, otherwise I have rest to get rid of any toxic I might absorb. Fire blast is Azelf's special attack of choice as, afterall, it is the best special attack move in the game pretty much. It is also capable of 2HKOing a Rotom-A on the switch which is incredibly useful. I only ever use explosion when my opponent resists fire blast but is vulnerable to explosion, and both conditions 1) they don't switch out and 2) my Azelf survives their single attack are fulfilled. In that case I go for explosion and it is quite fool proof. Scarf Tyranitar can take me out right after setting up stealth rocks but in such cases I can switch to my own Tyranitar for a free dragon dance (or Lucario but he's better suited as an end game sweeper IMO).

So as I said, not fool proof, but a superb lead that gives me the upper hand many times. Ninjask and Yanmega leads can be annoying to deal with.

Explosion replaced with psychic.
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Tyranitar (M) @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
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My bulky sweeper. Dragon dance Tyranitar is great. First of all he gets a jolly nature because in my opinion the speed is worth it. Earthquake over stone edge is my own flavor to the set...I just find the ability to more reliably take out steel and rock pokemon, especially Heatran, to be invaluable. Between babiri berry and fire punch Scizor is taken down leaving me with some health to hang onto. Crunch is my strong STAB move. This guy is very good for being the first one to rip through the opponent's team and do some damage. His typing gives him some useful resists often allowing him to switch in on scarf, band, and specs users.

Stone edge put in over fire punch.
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Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Extremespeed
- Stone Edge
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Lucario here is my strong late sweeper pokemon. He does best mid-game or late game when my opponent has at least a couple pokemon down. Crunch is more common to take care of Rotom-A but I gave him stone edge to be less expected and the move is useful for all those other pokemon like Zapdos and Gyarados. Jolly nature once again because speed is useful. A pretty standard Lucario really but he usually gets at least one opportunity to set up in a game in which case he can cause some real pain to my opponent. Extremespeed is a valuable priority attack that can be used to save my life sometimes.
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Rotom-H @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 128 HP/212 Spd/168 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Charge Beam
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Shadow Ball
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Now we are getting to my favorite part of the team. This Rotom-H is amazing. He kills Tyranitar a good number of the time. He can kill Blissey one on one. He kills so many things it is simply amazing. He wins me games by himself many times because a lot of teams simply aren't prepared to deal with a Rotom-H behind a substitute once it already has one special attack boost under its belt. Charge beam is used whenever I can use it to get boosts while shadow ball serves as my main stab. Other than the boosting and sweeping this guy does, he is a Rotom-A and as such he offers amazing utility to my team.
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Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP/224 Def/32 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Calm Mind
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
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This guy is the other favorite part of my team. Once again he often wins games by himself. I once faced a Latias and switched to this guy. On the switch the enemy Latias used calm mind and I thought I was dead but it ended up being a 6-0 because flash cannon lowered Latias' special defense. I was able to survive boosted surfs to set up. Maximum defense make Jirachi a useful counter to DD Gyarados and DD Salamence. After one calm mind Jirachi is very tough to take down or chase away. I've found specs Heatran can do the job but not much else. The moves offer great coverage. Wish is useful for my team many times besides all of this.

32 Speed EVs added over 32 Defense EVs.
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Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Recover
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Looking at my team I needed a sponge to take a lot of the attacks that were mostly neutral on my team, like water and fire attacks. I decided a bulky water pokemon would work and went with this Suicune. It may be a little old by now but this thing is still an MVP in many games. I find myself mostly using it to force my opponent to switch out but sometimes I'll get a set-up and sweep game with Suicune. This is my Heatran counter.

Sometimes I wonder if Latias with life orb and 3 attacks might go better here.

Replaced with Latias.
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So that's my team. I find it is pretty fun to play and packs a lot of stardom. However I feel like there might be better pokemon to put in it that I'm simply overlooking. My physical duo of Tyranitar and Lucario is strong but maybe there is some better combination. Also I'm wondering if Latias might go on the team over Suicune as it would pack a lot more offense while keeping my resistances up (but less defenses and set-up potential perhaps).

Comments, advice, etc. are welcomed and appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[palkia the ultimate being]

hey dude. this team looks awsomely cool.but you need a few improvements. first, since that azelf is great with sp attack, i think that you should get rid of fire blast and put psychic instead. you should also add calm mind too or nasty plot to increase its sp attack or defense. next is rotom h. he is a good pokemon with sp attack trust me i know. you should add at least give him one fire type move like fire blast, over heat, or even flamethrower. you should also give him a electric attack to make him good against water types like milotic, kingdra or even starmie and you also have to increase its speed for the starmies that you might encounter. next is lucario. this guy is good with attack, sp attack and speed so i suggest giving it aura sphere since tha its like its signature move. also against fire types you should give it EQ. finally is tyranitar. the only thing that you need to improve is too get rid of fire punch for outrage or dragon claw to defend against dragon types. the sand stream is also a good call. and thats all you need. your team is good just needs improvements. good luck dude.

 

[franky]

Hello Ulver,

Good presentation, straight to the point. The only problem I would watch out for are Dragon Dance users such as Gyarados, Salamence, and to a lesser extentt, Tyranitar itself. Salamence and Gyarados could set up on crocune with ease. The best thing to do is limit their set-ups. Are there any drawbacks from dropping Rest and Sleep Talk on Suicune? I don't think so, add Hidden Power Electric and Ice Beam to broaden your coverage and to limit the aforementioned threats' set up. Ice Beam is the most convinient move Suicune could have right now since you can reliably hit Latias now.

Minor tweaks here and there: Stone Edge over Earthquake would probably be best. A reliable move to hurt Flying-types for super effective damage. Especially Salamence and Gyarados who can easily come in and soften your Crunch with Intimidate. Earthquake isn't really hitting anything significant that Stone Edge isn't. Also Jirachi likes its EVs to be 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spe to ensure you outpace Tyranitar - meaning you smack it with Flash Cannon before it hits you with something like Earthquake.

As for other options, you could always try out a dual screen variation of Azelf to help these guys sweep easily. Something like Reflect / Light Screen / Taunt / Stealth Rock would be cool. You can reverse Taunt with Explosion so you can dent Hippo leads early, thus allowing Lucario to sweep without any troubles. overall gl.

 

[AlphaJolt]

Nice team overall, but there are a few things.

Azelf needs Psychic, no question about it. Either take out Fire Blast or Explosion. Psychic gets STAB and is still very strong. If you ditch Explosion, give it Timid nature and take the 4 EVs from Atk and put them in Def.

Tyranitar is pretty good. Possibly take off Fire Punch for Stone Edge just because you can get a very strong STAB move and it is awesome for taking out dragons. I agree that you want Earthquake.

Lucario is perfect. He is one of my favorite physical sweepers. I disagree with "Palkia the Ultimate Being" about giving him Aura Sphere. Close Combat is his strongest move and should not be replaced also because he is a physical Lucario, not special. Close Combat does more damage against an opponent nuetral against fighting than a different super effective (2x) attack would just becaues of his STAB and it's 120 base power. Don't get rid of it.

On Rotom, take off HP Fighting and put a Fire Attack on. Lucario already takes down Tyranitar with Close Combat. Other than that Rotom is good.

Jirachi is great.

Suicune is a good idea but I personally think that you would benifit more from the Latias. I think an Ofensive Latias would be nice so here is a suggestion.

Latias @ Life Orb
Timid Nature (+spd, -atk)
EV: 4HP, 252 SpAtk, 252 Spd
-Dragon Pulse/Draco Meteor
-Surf
-Surf/Grass Knot
-Recover

This set will let you special sweep and Recover lets you remove the negative effects of Life Orb.

I like your team quite a bit. Overall it is pretty strong, there are only a few things. Hope this helps you out!

 

[Ulver]

palkia the ultimate being: I might replace fire blast with psychic since it is more powerful and accurate. Calm mind and nasty plot won't be used because Azelf won't sweep very well with priority users around early game and this Azelf is just designed to suicide lead.
Rotom-H would use a fire attack well but I'm just not sure what move to replace. He already has charge beam for an electric attack. Really he is more of a Rotom-A than a Rotom-H, but Rotom-H is more distracting to the opponent and can lure in Heatran for the kill. Starmie will die from shadow ball because I'll have a substitute up.
Lucario needs close combat since it does more damage and he is physical based. Earthquake is nice but close combat covers most of the things earthquake covers and I need the other slots.
If I want Tyranitar to take care of dragons I'll give him stone edge, which I might do.
Thanks for the comments and advice.

j. franky: The Suicune set change sounds reasonable. I'll probably try out Jolteon17's Latias first though and if that doesn't work out too much I'll change Suicune. Good suggestion on Suicune. I think I finally realized the importance of stone edge when I remembered that it gets STAB and is neutral against Scizor. According to my calculation it does 80%-95% to Scizor which should justify its usage over fire punch, and I'll keep the earthquake. I'll change Jirachi's EVs thanks for pointing that out. A dual screen set with Azelf sounds interesting actually I might try that.
Thanks for the comments and advice.

Jolteon17: Psychic isn't really that much stronger than fire blast, assuming it hits. It's 120 BP vs. 135 BP. On the other hand fire blast has far better usage than psychic does. With that said...accuracy is a factor, and it is more powerful. I might try using both psychic and fire blast and throw out explosion. It's a hard choice to make but explosion doesn't always see good usage so I just might.
After realizing stone edge gets STAB on Tyranitar I'll definitely replace fire punch with it. I did the calcs and found it does 79.9%-94.5% to CB Scizor which should justify its usage although I will get screwed on it some of the time, it'll be worth it.
Rotom-H I'm not sure if I would want to replace HP Fighting since it is pretty much the move that will royally screw over my opponent if they try to switch in a Blissey and it has good coverage alongside shadow ball. I might, instead, replace shadow ball with a fire move but I'm not sure. In the games I've played I never really yearned for a fire move but HP fighting has been very useful in just about every game I've played. It really does feel like a perfect move set, able to deal with whatever I'm against. I think ghost/fighting is an extremely good coverage combination, and one of the moves is STAB.
I'll give that Latias a try with dragon pulse, surf, and thunderbolt. Latias is a very useful pokemon.
Thanks for the comments and advice.

Azelf Changes:
Psychic > Explosion TESTING
(w/ correlating EV and nature changes)

Tyranitar Changes:
Stone Edge > Fire Punch PERMANENT

Lucario Changes:
None

Rotom-H Changes:
Considering overheat over one of the moves to sacrifice utility for sheer power.

Jirachi Changes:
32 Speed EVs to outrun Tyranitar PERMANENT

Suicune Changes:
Life Orb + 3 Attack Latias PERMANENT but may change back if it doesn't work out.

 

[butterfingers158]

Here's why you would consider Psychic over Fire Blast:

The only really common leads fire blast hits harder are metagross, jirachi and other azelf. Metagross will KO you with Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch before you can KO him with Fire Blast, and against other azelf you're better off setting up your rocks and getting the hell out or exploding. So one lead that you're going to wish you had fire blast for. Running Fire Blast leaves you walled by Swampert, and even aerodactyl can shrug off a couple of fire blasts. Psychic also hits Hippowdon harder than Fire Blast. I personally run:

Azelf@ Focus Sash
Naive
4 Atk/252 SpA/252 Spe

Psychic
Explosion
Taunt
Stealth Rock

I used to run flamethrower, but I've found Psychic much more useful overall.

 

[Quickster]

Time for a good ol' rate. Before I begin, there's a nitpick. Timid lower Atk, not SpD on Azelf. On with the rate!

Azelf looks like it could do with a bit of improvement. Explosion is pretty valuable to it, with its high Speed stat it can easily pull off an Explosion against a lead without SR. It's also a fantastic desperation attack; dealing massive damage to anything without high investment or resisting. I would take out Psychic as it does practically nothing other than hurting Hippowdon. You would rather stop them getting SR and get your own up, that's the point of Azelf.

Tyranitar looks fine although I question whether you should use Adamant>Jolly or not. Adamant gives it an extreme power boost and a Dragon Dance Speed boost lets you outspeed quite a bit so...Well just test it out if you want.

Lucario is great. Just a small problem, your team is a bit weak to Gengar. Maybe Bullet Punch is in order here, over Stone Edge.

Rotom-A I have no problems with. I don't think you should put a Fire-type move on it. Just my opinion :)

Jirachi's good to go.

Latias. One of my favorite pokemon. You haven't got a decent revenge killer on your team so maybe chuck a Choice Scarf on her and replace Recover with Trick. If you don't want to, then I have no problems with it.

Good Luck with your team.

~Quick

 

[Ulver]

I've played quite a few games with the team and I'm going to say I like it like it is right now. Psychic and fire blast instead of one or the other and explosion is actually working out really well. I can take a chunk out of a pokemon's health before going down and then that gives me the advantage because I get to choose who to switch in...and I think that's the key thing that makes it a considerable option over explosion. The other reason it works well is because my opponent always assumes I have explosion and in doing so they become vulnerable to whatever secondary attack I may have.

Right now Azelf, Tyranitar, Rotom-H, and Jirachi have been serving me very well. Lucario and Latias have been doing pretty good. The team has a pretty high win ratio at times and a pretty consistent feel to it.