UU/BL team that needs work

Hi Smogon,

I haven't posted a team in a while, but I need some help on this team. I've tested it for a week or so and made slight revisions, but I'm not sure what it needs at this point. I'm not a super-competitive player, but I play several games a day on the Pokemon Lab server.

My intent was to use UU and BL pokemon in an OU environment as I had gotten very tired of using the same pokemon over and over so I tried to be creative (The exact tiers vary because I play via PL tiers). The team is moderately gimmicky at this point, and there are definitely weaknesses, but I've been able to work around them. Not sure what my winning rate is, but if I had to guess I'd say 70% or more. My team feels like a gamble at this point because it relies primarily on set-up. It has some good defenses, but they are niche defenses (you'll see) because my walls tend to be destroyed if I don't play almost perfectly. It's a pretty simple team that is offensively oriented (I hate stall).


***The team***


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Gallade @ Life Orb
252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Defense
Adamant, Steadfast
-Close Combat
-Ice Punch
-Shadow Sneak
-Zen Headbutt

Gallade is an attacking lead that is pretty powerful, reaching 383 attack with an adamant nature. I was running jolly for a while, but it's pretty slow and can't out-speed common leads anyway so I decided to give it more power. Previously I was also using lum berry, but life orb gives it considerably more attack and nets some important 2HKOs on pokemon like Skarm and Pert with close combat. Shadow sneak is for finishing the opposing lead before it can move twice, and generally I can pull this off reliably. This is one of my favorite leads, as Gallade is only weak to ghost and flying moves which are rarely present on leads. I really only have trouble with some really bulky leads like Hippowdon, whom Gallade can't 2HKO. Steadfast is also pretty useful against flinchers, but not as much as you would think because Ambipom and Infernape usually carry sashes and can threaten to KO after they've flinched me.


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Registeel @ leftovers
252 HP, 4 Defense, 252 SpDef
Careful, Clear Body
-Iron Head
-Seismic Toss
-Stealth Rock
-Thunder Wave

This is a tanky Registeel that can absorb most hits barring powerful fire moves from Heatran or Overheat from Infernape. It's pretty bulky and makes for easy switch-ins for stealth rocks and is very hard to take down quickly without previous set-up. T-wave is to slow predicted switches, and iron head and seismic toss are usually filler, but occasionally iron head and t-wave nets me KOs on frail pokemon like Gengar who think they can focus blast Registeel to death (it does happen, but a 30% miss rate and paralysis/flinch usually comes out on top). Registeel is mono-steel however, and fighting moves are also very popular in the OU tier so it's somewhat tricky to use, but generally it's a reliable wall if I play to its strengths. I'm thinking about swapping either seismic toss or iron head for explosion for blissey and vaporeon, as the current set doesn't do very much to them.


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Mesprit @ leftovers
252 HP, 180 Defense, 76 Special Defense
Bold, Levitate
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Psychic
-Thunder Wave

-Sort of a weird Mesprit, but I needed a physically bulky pokemon to check some of the threats that Registeel and some other members of my team couldn't handle such as fighting types like Machamp or Breloom. It's also just really useful in general against Dragonite, Gyarados, Infernape, E-vires and other physically-based pokemon as it hits them with 2x or 4x super effective moves. It's bulky EVs allow it to survive several U-turns from flygons and t-wave on the switch (I am a big fan of T-wave). It does however have a large problem hitting steels like Magnezone or Metagross, but I can get at least a t-wave off and try to KO them quickly with something else. Mesprit has weak typing however so it doesn't usually stay in for long as opposing ttars or rotoms tend to force it out. Mesprit also has the invaluable levitate to switch into predicted earthquakes, which is generally a problem for my team as I don't really have much else to reliably take EQs.


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Raikou @ life orb
252 Special Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Defense
Timid, Pressure
-Calm Mind
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Hidden Power

Raikou has a pretty good niche in the metagame as far as I'm concerned with its high base 115 speed and Special Attack. Raikou's job is really just to calm mind and poke holes or KO opposing pokemon with t-bolt and shadow ball. HP grass is just there for general coverage against Swampert, and I'm thinking it should probably be hidden power something else but can't decide (maybe HP fighting for ttar to have something to hit blissey, but I don't know). After a calm mind, rocks, and life orb Raikou basically OHKOs or 2HKOs anything that can't resist a t-bolt or is specially bulky. Raikou is predictably a calm minder (as that's pretty much all it does, but as long as I can CM on switches or resisted hits it works out). Raikou is decently bulky on the switch, especially on scizors locked into bullet punch. Pretty straightforward and mostly prediction.


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Feraligatr @ life orb
252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Defense
Jolly, Torrent
-Aqua Jet
-Earthquake
-Swords Dance
-Waterfall

It seems like the poor man's gyarados, and it kinda is, but Feraligatr's access to swords dance is actually really useful. Originally this was a dragon dancer, but DD is boring and I needed a priority move so this is where aqua jet comes into play. At torrent range it's absurdly powerful and has a chance to OHKO some counters like Zapdos or Gengars who switch in thinking they'll outspeed and t-bolt. Feraligatr is walled by the same pokemon who wall gyarados, including defensively bulky pokemon, and dragonite/zapdos, but Mesprit is pretty useful against those. Waterfall is the basic STAB move that hits a very high base power after an SD, and EQ is for coverage against steels and electric types, though I don't get to use it that frequently on the latter unless it is a predicted switch-in as electric types tend to out-speed Feraligatr.


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Heracross @ choice scarf
252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Defense
Adamant, Guts
-Close Combat
-Megahorn
-Night Slash
-Stone Edge

Standard scarf heracross which I use for revenging or late-game sweeping with CC or Megahorn. I should try to capitalize on predicted burns or toxics more frequently as guts is a useful ability as it boosts hera's attack to a really high level, but it's risky. Heracross is pretty un-usable with a scarf mid to late game as it just gets killed by faster pokemon, but with one it hits 403 speed, enough to outpace the vast majority of other pokemon. I feel like close combat is really strong as it hits everything barring ghosts fairly hard, and the use of a scarf ensures that I can keep hitting with it unless Heracross is revenged with a bullet punch or opposing scarfer that is faster. Despite its fragility, Heracross does sport some useful resistances in the OU tier against fighting and ground moves, which is pretty useful because I can take an EQ or close combat before dying usually.


***

OU Matches/problems: green indicates lack of a threat, black is neutral, and red is problematic.

Aerodactyl: not that bad as they'll just SR and suicide into a shadow sneak.

Azelf: same as aerodactyl

Blissey: generally not a problem as I can swap into Mesprit or Regi to take t-waves or toxic, and feraligar/hera clean up

Breloom: Mesprit counters pretty hard

Bronzong: will probably get 1 to 2 turns of setup depending on how bulky it is, but not a problem

Celebi: Can give me some problems if it has recovery and tries to stall me out, but worse case scenario I try to megahorn or shadow ball it

Dragonite: not a problem as long as mesprit is alive

Dusknoir: ghosts are an issue as Gallade and Mesprit are susceptible to their moves, but even a non boosted shadow ball still deals with noir well

Electivire: (try to avoid giving it an obvious motor drive if I see a gyarados switch into Raikou or something) Mesprit can take t-punches and psychic for usually a 2HKO.

Flygon: sort of hard to take down with an ice beam unless I predict it switching in. Is immune to t-wave, and usually comes in with outrage after registeel is dead, and outspeeds all of my team with a scarf. If mesprit can't kill it, I end up aqua jetting on feraligatr most of the time.

Forretress: ends up walling a lot of pokes and setting up. Lack of a fire move hurts my team.

Gengar: Raikou outspeeds, Feraligatr revenges

Gliscor: can be problematic because usually they are bulky, but Feraligatr and Mesprit can generally deal with it

Gyarados: Mesprit hard counters

Heatran: pretty easy to deal with

Hippowdon: a problem if it's a lead. I can usually get a large amount of damage onto it with a waterfall or even an unboosted HP grass.

Infernape: mix apes are powerful in general, but can't OHKO registeel or hurt mesprit too much. Aqua jet and outpacing it is how I deal with infernape

Jirachi: A pretty potent threat on any team due to its lack of predictability, but I haven't had problems

Jolteon: registeel walls forever, and I can revenge it

Kingdra: have problems with kingdras for some reason, as they tend to switch in and sub on registeel or DD on mesprit. It then proceeds to outspeed and KO or damage the rest of my relatively frail team.

Lucario: I actually haven't seen luke very much these days, but when I do I just bring in mesprit which can wall it pretty well, even if it has a boosted crunch.

Machamp: Problematic for all teams if it subs, but mesprit walls and I outpace with others.

Magnezone: easy to deal with even if its trapped my registeel, who t-waves and s-tosses while walling tbolts or HP fires pretty well.

Metagross: seems like a problem due to lack of fire moves on my team and a STAB earthquake. Agiligross gives me particular problems.

Ninjask: I hate ninjask leads and usually just leave. It's not even that my team is particularly weak against it as it is that I just hate ninjask and leave all games that start with him as an opposing lead.

Roserade: Seems outdated as I don't see people leading with it anymore (part of the reason why I rid my gallade of lum berry for sleep leads)

Rotoms: Can give me problems if I don't switch out right. I try to figure out what kind it is with registeel, and rarely do they carry overheat but I can live a couple of those anyway.

Scizor: not a problem with Feraligatr and Raikou resisting BP and outspeeding.

Shaymin: bulky variants can be a problem, but heracross can megahorn it to death.

Skarm: don't usually run max defense nowadays so CC is a 2HKO

Smeargle: not usually a problem

Snorlax: Curse laxes can be a problem but I have enough physical attackers to deal usually

: walled by registeel and mesprit, t-waved, finished off by raikou or hera

Swampert: is generally a problem as I don't have any direct checks and my team is mostly physically based

Tentacruel: one of my largest problems as I don't have a spin blocker or anything to threaten an OHKO so it gets to setup

Togekiss: status variants can be a problem, but they generally switch out of raikou for a free CM

Tyranitar: checked by Feraligatr (useful in this case over gyara for lacking a stone edge weakness). Hera/gallade can also deal with it

Umbreon: CC'ed usually

Vaporeon: Raikou threatens out

Weavile: Regi and mesprit check; brick break and night slash aren't powerful enough to OHKO before a t-wave and iron head or tbolt

Zapdos: bulky variants can be problematic, and leads are problems at times. Raikou can generally CM and force a switch.

I feel like too much of my team centers around raikou.
 
Pretty solid team, but I have a few suggestions.

First off, Dragon Dance is used for a reason on most Feraligatr sets. True, you don't have quite as much of an attack boost, but usually +1 speed is more than enough to allow Feraligatr to spam the much more powerful Waterfall. You may want to consider Return over earthquake as well; Water/Normal is resisted by virtually nothing except Empoleon.

Second, I personally am not a huge fan of Mespirit. Personally, I'd rather go all-out defensive (Uxie) or all out offensive (Alakazam). In the current metagame, well-balanced pokemon are unfortunately either too weak to break walls or to frail to stop sweeps. You have enough fire-power as is, so I would recommend another wall, such as Uxie.

Third, I would consider using a Zap Plate or Expert Belt as Raikou's item. I use Raikou frequently, and the lack of recoil damage has saved me more than a few times.
 
I tried using DD before, but my team needed priority (via aqua jet), and Feraligatr can't learn both aqua jet and DD. I actually like SD aqua jet as it frequently comes in handy, especially when it nets surprise OHKOs. At 280 speed Feraligatr isn't that slow, and the pokemon who outspeed it are pretty fragile, i.e. geng, ape. I think DD would help against Starmie, but I don't think a DD EQ/return would KO anyway, and Registeel is a very reliable switch into Starmie anyway.

Mesprit has saved my ass so many times against DD gyarados, dragonite, flygons, or any other boosting dragons who would otherwise pose a major threat to my team.

I don't think anything but LO is viable on Raikou.

I'm actually bumping this because I'm doing fairly well on the Pokemon Online 4th gen OU ladder (sitting at around 1250-1300), and I want to improve it. I'm fairly surprised I've climbed this high actually as normally I'd be sitting in the low 1200s or high 1100s using pretty much all OUs.

Still think one of my biggest problems is bulky grass right now, as shaymin and celebi are problems unless they stupidly stay in for a Hera megahorn (as switching into something that walls megahorn is not that hard). Ninjask is also a major threat, but nobody uses it at this level.
 
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