Weatherless OU

[stent83]

So, here is my team. I'm relatively new to playing OU (usually just play Ubers, LC and doubles), because I always felt that OU was just pretty much the same every time with weather being so predominant in this meta-game. The first thing that came to my mind when creating my team was rain, so I began creating a generic, rain team. Then I got pretty bored of it, and turned it into a balanced team, then offense dominant and finally settled on what I have here. I'm currently at 27W:15L with a ACRE of 1652, which although is not great, is better than anything that I have managed in the past. Anyway, here is the full team.

Jirachi @ Air Balloon
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SDef / 32 Spd
Careful Nature
- Body Slam
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Punch

First off, here is my Jirachi. When I was originally creating this team, I had ferro as my lead, but disliked him due to the lack of use after rocks/spikes were set. After looking at all of my options, I decided to give Jirachi a go. Usually, I use him or starmie as a lead. Air balloon is there to prevent any earthquakes from ohko'ing him before rocks are set up. Body slam and Iron head are pretty normal on jirachi, body slam the opponent until they are paralyzed, and then flinch them to death with iron head. I also have fire punch, so that I do not get completely walled by any steel types. The EV's are there so that he can live as long as possible (to get rocks up reliably) and still have a decent speed.

Dragonite @ Yache Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Dragon Dance
- Superpower
- Earthquake

Next up is dragonite. I chose him because I needed something that could just destroy anything that is threatening to the other members of my team. He holds a yache berry because, when combined with multiscale, he rarely gets killed by ice beam, which is obviously a big threat to a Dragon/Flying type. It also allows him to get at least one dragon dance up before attacking. Outrage is my main attack, as at +1 it hurts pretty much anything a lot. I also have superpower and earthquake to deal with steel types that resist outrage, and wall him. (Although, looking at it now it seems pointless running two moves to do the same job, so I will probably change that)

Starmie @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Trick

I chose starmie next for my team because I needed something with rapid spin (since Honchrow, dragonite and volcarona are all weak to it) and something with ice beam for dragons and flying types. He is holding a choice scarf and using trick because when I am not leading with jirachi, I can lead with starmie, and if they are using some sort of spikes lead like ferrothorn, I use trick to cripple them. The rest of the moves are pretty self-explanatory, rapid spin for support, hydro pump as the main STAB and ice beam for extra coverage.

Volcarona @ Focus Sash
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain

I've always liked volcarona, and when you manage to get a quiver dance up, you can almost guarantee a KO or two. The set that I am using is nothing especially interesting, but it does its job. Focus sash is there so that you are guaranteed to get up a quiver dance. Fiery dance is great as just an all round attack, and the occasional boost in SpATK is nice. Bug Buzz is used as the second primary attack, to deal with any psychic types and Giga Drain is there for recovery and for water/ground types.

Honchkrow @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Sucker Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Next, I wanted some sort of revenge killer, and I discovered Honchkrow. I honestly don't understand why this guy is in UU. Once you get a kill using sucker punch, the rest of their team will also begin falling to it. Usually, I send him out and use sucker punch straight away. This either; a) KO's them and Honchkrow gets an attack boost to help against the other opponents, or b) they don't use an attacking move and when they switch out, I just pursuit then and do a good deal of damage to them anyway, if not killing them. Life orb is simply there just for some extra damage, jolly nature so that when not using sucker punch, it has a decent speed. Brave bird is used for another STAB which I can use against most things and superpower for anything that resists the other moves.

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

The final member of my team is magnezone. Now, I'm not too sure about this guy but I have been trying with him on the team and he seems alright. I needed someone to deal with water and other steel types, so I have thunderbolt and volt switch (should tbolt be changed since volt switch does the same job?) to deal with the water types, and HP Fire to deal with the steel types. Choice specs are there to give him that extra damage, to help with KO'ing everything reliably, and Magnet Pull traps the steel types so I can just beat them with HP Fire. I might end up changing him for something else, but I'm not too sure what I could use instead.


So, there is my team. I am open to any suggestions that you have and thanks for taking the time to give me a rate.

 

[coltsdaman]

I actually faced this exact team on showdown yesterday, maybe it was you? But anyways whoever it was I used a terrakion which tore through this team. A well timed pursuit trap on starmie pretty much secured the game, since after rocks volca, dnite, and honch die to stone edge, magnezone is ohkod by close combat, and jirachi an starmie were dealt with earlier. To combat that huge threat i would make 2 suggestions:
Either use a physically defensive skarmory as your rock setter/lead. Or use a rapid spinner that wont be easily pursuit trapped by the likes of tyranitar or scizor, which both see a lot of usage in the metagame.

I hope this helps, its my first post ^.^

 

[Asek]

Cool team. First off I think that you should change your item on Dragonite. Yache Berry won't be as useful as some other items that you could utilize in that slot. The only use i can think for it is blocking some random ice move on a scarfer you didnt see coming. Other ice moves that dragonite are scared of such as ice shards and scarfed HP [ICE] users should be taken care of your team before you pull out dragonite to sweep. I think using Leftovers would help a lot in this case. Leftovers will keep your multiscale up when the opponent has residual damage such as sandstorm or hail up. This can lead to Dragon Dance set ups that wouldn't be possible before. Also is there anything important you need superpower for that earthquake doesn't cover? The only situation I can think of that you would need it for is when the opponent has an air balloon heatran or for hitting skarmory (its damage wouldn't be enough to break him though). I overall think that ExtremeSpeed would be more useful in that slot. This allows you to pick off squishy revenge killers such as jolteon and opposing scarf starmie and continue to sweep.

Now, I like the use of honchkrow in this team, but I don't think that it is the best option for that slot. Honchkrows dark STAB priority that he uses to revenge kill is situational as it is, but it is also resisted by a fair amount of pokeon. This makes it hard to get a succesful revenge kill off and snowball off it. I think a better option for this slot would be Choice Scarf Salamence. You have magnezone to remove steel types, so Choice Scarf Salamence can sweep the opposing team with steels removed after getting a revenge kill off. A set like this:
Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SAtk
Naive Nature
Outrage / Dragon Claw / Fire Blast / Earthquake
Could really work for your team. It does what Honchkrow was doing previously, but better. Salamence can easily clean up matches for you like honchkrow can, but synergizes better with your team and is definitly worth at least trying out

Finally, I think you should change your Jirachi EV's. Specially Defensive with that moveset won't be walling that much as it is very easy to wear down. Instead, I think you should try out a more offensive orientated spread. Try out using 56HP / 252Atk / 200Spe with an Adamant nature. The speed EV's let you outspeed +nature mamoswine and dragonite, both of which are pretty large threats to your team. The attack EV's are meant to make you hit harder and the health is thrown in for a bit more durability. I also think you should try using U-turn / Ice Punch > Body Slam. U-turn can help you gain momentum and forms a nice Volt - turn combo with magnezone. Ice Punch on the other hand allows for easier killing of Dragonite , Lati@s etc.

GL with the team

EDIT: Change Starmies item to a life orb and use Psyshock > Trick. LO gives starmie the damage it craves and allows you to switch moves so your not set up bait when locked into a weak move. Psyshock allows you to beat terrakion under sandstorm consistently and CM keldeo among other things

 

[Buonomo]

Three problems:

1. Your team is really fucking slow, Starmie is your only speed invested poke that cracks base 100 and you have no scarfers, something like Keldeo, Terrakion, Garachomp, Thunderus-T could sweep your entire team no questions asked if Starmie dies.
2. You have multiple setup sweepers, IMHO a recipe for disaster, setup sweepers are typically an all or nothing proposition (especially when one of them is Volcorona) typically the safer team you run the better, gambling on your opponent being bad and letting you setup is as stupid as it is disrespectful, any player worth their salt will no let that Volcorona set up
3. You are using Pokemon that are straight up bad or outclassed, Honchkrow and Magnezone fit this category for sure and even Volcorona and D-Nite tread this ground. There are somethings that are OU purely because they are too good for UU, but that does not make them strong pokes in OU, similarly Honchkrow is UU for a reason and its not even used much there, if a poke fails to make much of an impact in a metagame where the big threats are Mienshao and Heracross, it will not be a strong big contributor in OU.

As the guy above said Honchkrow isn't really a good revenge killer, even if Sucker Punch hurts its extremely unreliable and choice scarf revenge killers typically work better. Terrakion, Infernape, Garachomp, Thunderus-T and the aforementioned Salamence are the tier's premier scarfers, due to the teams already crippling weakness to rocks, I can't agree with the choice of Mence, but Kedeo and Terrakion is are excellent revenge killers and function as a good lategame sweepers as well due to great coverage with Close Combat or Hydro Pump.

I also don't understand the use of Volcorona on this team, I assumed that you were using it as a lead, taking the turn where rocks were setup to quiver dance and sweep, however, if it is not used in this manner then Focus Sash does in no way guarantee a QD. Residual damage is so common in OU, with the presence of sand teams, that even if you get rid of rocks Volcorona will have a hard time setting up safely. If you don't get rid of rocks Volcorona won't set up unless your opponent goes full retard. As I mentioned earlier, having multiple set up sweepers is not a plan for success and noting the fact that you only have one defensively orientated poke in rachi, I would recommend adding a second one to form a defensive core, Rotom-W would not be a bad option.

Magnezone just isn't very good. Thunderus-T would be a decent Choice for a Specs user who can take out Waters and Steels, but if you don't like Focus Miss you can run something like Specs Latios instead.

To reiterate:

• Scarfer over Honchkrow, Keldeo or Terrakion IMO
• Defensive Rotom-W over Volcorona
• Specs Thunderus-T or Latios over Magnezone