Wobbuffet Setting up the Special Attackers Sweep

[Purple Jesus]

I despise Wobbuffet being considered for OU play, and I decided to center a team around Wobbuffet so I could beat some common special walls (Heatran, Blissey, Bronzong) to help setup the rest of my team to wear down opposing teams without their special walls. I went with a pretty bulky team that abuses special attacks to wreck havoc when the other teams special wall is down. The team has been highly successful on shoddy battle and I turned my brother's side account from a lowly 900 rating into a 1500 over the past 2 days with this team.

Yanmega (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 Def/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Bug Buzz
- Air Slash
- Hypnosis
- Protect
---
Yanmega is the most questionable member of the cast right now. I keep wanting to pull the trigger and change him out for a Gengar or Azelf, but I just kept winning and never did it. Sooo many teams lose to Yanmega after Blissey goes down its not even funny (Of course, the same goes for Gengar/Azelf which is why I probably will put one of them in this slot sooner or later). I open with him because of a lack of anyone better for the most part - and I can stop the stealth rock leads (Bronzong, Swampert, etc) with his ability to sleep them and then hit them hard with the Bug Buzz/Air Slash combo. I don't like Protect, but its proved more valuable to me than HP:Ground as opposing Heatran's have been easily shut down by my smart usage of Wobbuffet.

The only thing stopping me from going to gengar is a fear of opening CB Weaviles. Most of my team falls to CB Weavile and Yanmega at least can change that around and beat him with the ability to protect and then threaten with Bug Buzz.

The final awful part on him is his obvious huge stealth rock weakness and my team lacks a spinner. The few times I lost over the past few days was because I didn't eliminate the pokemon walling Yanmega soon enough and swapped him in stupidly into stealth rock too soon and pretty much forced him to say in until he died because he dropped below the 50% health mark. Any suggestions for a new lead or any other ideas to use over him are definitely appreciated.

Wobbuffet (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 200 Def/192 Spd/118 SDef
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Counter
- Encore
- Mirror Coat
- Safeguard
---

The core of the team. The spread looks stupid because it is stupid. I slapped it together without much thought but it has worked somehow. The only key element of the spread is the 192 speed - it gives me enough to outspeed blissey (by a few points since I found someone who used 8 speed EV's on blissey and screwed me with it as I was slower and lost my effectiveness of the faster encore PP stalling). Wobbuffet has 3 main targets that Yanmega usually drags out early in the match: Blissey, Heatran, Bronzong (The most common special walls people use). The speed EV's on Wobbuffet allow me to outrun blissey and Encore whatever move it uses and Encore stall it into a struggle death or Encore an attacking move and Mirror Coat it to death. Bronzong also works similary. Whenver I see Bronzong I almost immediately bring in Wobbuffet - he doesn't care about the sleep and Bronzong can screw around with Stealth Rock/Earthquake/Gyro Ball while I calmly wait to wake up, use safeguard, Encore whatever they feel like doing (I hate people that decide to use stealth rock - PP stalling 32 PP just sucks). The common ResTalk Heatran is also beat pretty handily - with smart switching and picking my spot right I can Encore Rest/Sleep Talks or Mirror Coat Earth Power's/Lava Plume's and get free switches to Starmie/Zapdos/Heatran.

He also serves as an excellent revenge killer on Choiced pokemon if I kill off Blissey or Bronzong through struggle. He can encore other stat-uppers too (If you use the move Curse you are just going to struggle yourself to death - Ive done it to a couple Snorlax and a ResTalkCurseWaterfall Swampert). Most stall teams get at least one, if not two members eaten up by Wobbuffet's Encore - and when Stall teams are so tightly built losing one or two key walls can open them up to sweeps they are supposed to stop. (Hippowdons are always fun and easy to kill, Gliscor's are pretty easy kills, Swamperts can't handle him well, etc - even though most of my team doesn't allow them to swap in anyway with all my special attacks going around).

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 160 HP/216 Spd/132 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
---

If your team doesn't have Blissey then Starmie just rips you apart - even with this defensively built setup he is usually my main sweeper with Yanmega throwing in some help too. With smart predictions Starmie just mows teams down with Life Orbed STAB Surfs, and then gets Life Orbed BoltBeam which is always dead useful.

Why Life Orb you may ask? Well Life Orb helps stop any bulkydos EV spreads(sometimes TBolt won't kill them in one shot without Life Orb), the Careful +Special Defense CB Tyranitar that some people use can't swap into Starmie using Surf with Life Orb (without Life Orb that TTar could be 3-shotted by Surf which would spell the end for Starmie! with Life Orb hes a guarenteed 2HKO). Some Celebi's EV spreads are special defense cheaters and I can catch them with Ice Beam hoping I was using Surf and get a 2HKO on them (some were 3HKO range with Ice Beam without stealth rock in play). Life Orb recoil doesn't bother me with the ability to Recover off damage also.

Why the bulky spread? I'm a more defensively orientated player and it helps stop Gdos/Mixape/Garchomp/Salamence/etc etc and is just too useful of a set to pass by. The ability to swap into threats and wall them and then threaten with Surf/Ice Beam/TBolt possibility is awesome. Other walls just don't give you such an offensive upside like Starmie.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/220 Def/36 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic
- Roost
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
---

I'll try to limit my thoughts on Zapdos since it is such a basic set (well, so was Starmie and Yanmega but that didn't stop me from typing way too much anyway!) Hes there to toxic opposing Zapdos since my team has a problem with special defense orientated Zapdos (Ive only run across one and I burned it on a Lava Plume switch in so I got around it - but it made me realize I need a way to shut them down and my own Toxic Zapdos can stop opposing Zapdos.) He also walls some other basic threats (He can help Starmie with some of the things like Mixape, Salamence, etc).

Heatran (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP/96 Def/100 SAtk/60 SDef
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
---

I'm not too sure on Heatran anymore. My lack of a solid special wall to stop Azelf/Yanmega/Opposing Heatrans was blatant so he fit a nice niche on my team to cover Bronzong's fire weakness (and formerly Celebi). I used to have Celebi over Zapdos for the nice Celebi/Heatran combo - but too many teams are built smartly to have pokemon to get through that solid defensive combo so I scrapped it. I haven't moved to remove him yet because hes such an awesome utility role player with the sleep absorb and random garbage chance of burn (which gets people to complain incessantly because the pokemon gods must hate them for a 30% burning them!)

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/128 Atk/128 SDef
Sassy nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
---

My best answer to Gengar - ideally Heatran can take the sleep if I predict well. He also stops Mamoswine, Deoxys-E, blah blah blah this is standard I don't need to explain it that much.

Problems: Ive ran across a couple teams with Blissey AND Zapdos - which just means Yanmega is dead weight for most of the battle (just another reason I should swap him out for Azelf/Gengar). CB Heracross can give me fits, but if I predict right Im ok as Heatran can cover Megahorn - and Wobbuffet can revenge kill ones locked into Close Combat/Stone Edge too. I'm also shaky on countering Swords Dance Lucario - but who does he swap into safely to setup is always what I ask? He can't setup on Wobbuffet with threat of Encore, he can't setup on Yanmega because of the threat to Sleep/Air Slash, Starmie Surf can put a severe dent in him, Zapdos is my best counter to him at the moment, but if stealth rock is up then Life Orb Swords Dance Extreme Speed will beat Zapdos in 2 hits - but Lucario won't willingly swap into him either, can't swap into the Fire/Ground combo of Heatran, and Earthquake on Bronzong also stops him from swapping in. If I let one get setup Im in trouble, but it does have a hard time getting set up on any of my guys. If Tyranitar gets a dragon dance Ill be scrambling too - but I haven't run across one yet and Bronzong can at least deliver a blow before falling to him.

Any help, comments, or concerns is appreciated. Thanks

 

[kd24]

It looks thought out only a few problems I see. But first I want to comment on Starmie. I don't see why rapid spin couldn't find its place there as spikes and stealth rock really kill you as well as render wobb somewhat useless. Rapid spin just gives you too much support to pass up. It also gives yanmega a few chances to come in more which is really helpful. If you keep him that is and I will add more on that later on.

The main threat to this team is Heracross right now. He is able to ohko everything (and without rapid spin yanmega and zapdos will be easily taken care of. just another incentive to add it in). Wobbuffet is your best bet to come in on a predicted close combat but what if he megahorns predicting your switch? you are in trouble.

Rapid Spin on Starmie allows more time for Zapdos to come in and threaten him. I would also consider dropping yanmega for the much more effective crobat or Gengar. Fast sleeper but arent as weak to stealth rock and can do some other things. Gengar may be your best bet but he wont ohko with shadow ball, while crobats air slash will ohko. The choice is yours but yanmega isnt doing much right now.

The team is rather slow to be honest. Whoever the lead is (gar, corbat, or yanmega) + starmie will be your fastest things. Everything else is gonna be hitting less then 270 speed. So what to do about that? My suggestion is give Zapdos thunder wave. this can cripple their team better then toxic will as your slow beefy walls will be their slow attackers.

I guess it is obvious that Mixnape is the second biggest weakness but starmie should be able to deal with it. Just consider however giving zapdos a calm nature to totally shut it down is starmie isn't working.

The team looks good though with no need of big changes. I would think about adding weavile for more speed as well as tickle on wobbuffet but that is entirely your choice. If you do add weavile then I would do so as a lead and have him come later game, as well as ditching explosion or earthquake on bronzong for hypnosis now that you lose sleep. however the choice is yours when it comes to the lead.

 

[Purple Jesus]

All right, a great response! Thank you for your time. I'm not going to jump the gun on any changes in the main post until a couple more people weigh in with their thoughts (or I go test it on shoddy for a little bit and determine it is a worthwhile change).

I find it hard to fit Rapid Spin on Starmie - even though it does benefit my team quite a bit. TBolt is the only thing I find I don't use often - but as soon as I drop that I'm sure Ill see full attack Dragon Dancing Stone Edge Gyarados everywhere to murder Zapdos. Ill try to playtest a few ideas out later tonight during hockey game intermissions. Im pretty sure Yanmega is getting the boot - Ill mess around with Gengar and Crobat a bit too see how I like them - Thanks again for the response

 

[bmbownz]

purple I definitely think you should leave yanmega in, i always seem to lose at least one poke to it when i face him. oh and by the way, could you rate my front page team Kingler and Purple?

 

[kd24]

bmbownz I rated your team but for the future it isn't generally a good idea to advertise your team in someone elses thread.

 

[Jigo]

i'd also recommend rapid spin on starmie. a forretress can do pretty much the same thing as your bronzong. on my team, i run the exact same yanmega (except with wide lens) and i find it to work very well with a spinning forrestress. just something to consider.

 

[Bourbon]

I reccomend Tickle somewhere on that Wobbuffet. If you can Encore a non-status attack, you can Tickle several times, and then use Pursuit to kill the wall. After a few Tickles, Blissey will die whether it switches out or not.

Tickle + Pursuit can even help you beat other non-walls as long as you catch them trying to set up. Ttar is probably the best pursuiter. I don't know who to replace though.