Bringing Zapdos back!

Hello everyone this is my first RMT post.

I've been using this team for a while and now feel like i need some changes so i figured who better than the great people of smogon community!

I am relatively new to pokemon gen 5 since i have not played since gen 1 and have recently gotten back in to the complete swing of things yet. So i apologize in advance if i am completely wrong or something i said didnt make sense. =)

First Look!

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Gen 1 Pride (Dragonite) (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Dragon Dance
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake

Starting off with probably my favorite pokemon, he is one of my main sweepers along with kingdra.
After one dragon dance he can really wreak havoc on opposing teams. Earthquake is for heatran and jirachi and e-speed for priority but steel types not weak to eq can wall to an extent.
Maybe a change in moves?


[pimg]212[/pimg]
CrimsonCzar (Scizor) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- U-turn

Ahh scizor, hes been on most of my teams i've made.
hes just so good at forcing things out and then maintaining momentum with u-turn.
Standard set on him with sd, bp, superpower for heatran.
i've been debating whether to put superpower or pursuit? which would be better?


[pimg]230[/pimg]
HerpDerp (Kingdra) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 228 Spd / 96 Atk / 152 HP / 32 Sdef
Adamant Nature

- Outrage
- Dragon Dance
- Rest
- Waterfall

My secondary sweeper, Kingdra is an underrated threat and can smash through unprepared teams.
Kingdra is also one of my main checks to all the rain teams running around. After a dragon dance or two waterfall is very spammable.
Outrage is for all steels have been removed and rest is to ensure that kingdra gets some time to setup.

[pimg]145[/pimg]
Like a Sir (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 224 SDef / 36 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Ice]

My special wall and secondary check to rain teams, zapdos does a bit of everything for my team.
Heatwave is for steel types and t-bolt for hard hitting neutral coverage, hp ice to kill of lando-t and gliscor thinking they can switchi in safely.
Most people think zap carries either heat wave or hp ice so its a surprise to people to see both moves on him.


[pimg]121[/pimg]
SpinStar (Starmie) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump

My rapid spinner, Starmie is vital to my dragonite success if he is to keep his multiscale in tact. I dont really like spinners as i feel sometimes they are only on my team to spin and i could use something else. Starmie is one of the only spinners i feel can still do more than just spin. I had starmie as my scarfer with trick but switched it. seeing as my team has no scarfer should i switch it back???

[pimg]385[/pimg]
Dragoon (Jirachi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 248 HP / 108 Spd / 154 Def
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Flash Cannon
- Psyshock

Finally my newest edition to the team, Jirachi is my physical wall and dragon check. I rotated alot of pokemon thro this spot and find jirachi to work the best so far. Coming in on pokes who cant do anything to jirachi is not difficult and this thing becomes deadly when it gets a few calm minds up. kind of just put the ev spread my self and wondering if i need more speed or if there is a better spread i could be using.

CONCLUSION

I've really enjoyed this team so far and like all the pokes in it. I'm starting to feel like all my sweepers need to set up to start cleaning up. I was thinking maybe i should switch in someone who can punch holes immediately without having to setup? Also i dont know if i should put a scarfer back on my team or not? Not quite sure what i should do, any suggestions would be greatly appreicated!!!

EDITS IN RED

Thanks guys
 
First off, Kingdra no longer has hp fire ( i can read minds) so fix the ivs. put 0 atk ivs on your special attackers, and starmie has zapdos's ivs.

Once you fix that, looks decent, except no hazard control whatsoever, which your sweepers would appreciate for those extra kills. I recommend fire punch on dnite and physically defensive jirachi. ( 248 hp, speed for jolly loom, rest in defense, impish. t wave, ice punch, iron head, wish).

Good luck have fun =)
 

Dr Ciel

Banned deucer.
Hey man, nice team.​

This is a very solid team, with great use of underrated threats in the OU metagame, such as CM Jirachi, DD Kingdra, and an extremely underrated threat in Special Defenseive Zapdos, so props. With every team that I see, there are flaws that it has, and hopefully, my rate can help iron out those flaws. With that said, let's get to the rate. Alright, first up, I recommend running an Adamant Nature on your Dragonite in place of your current choice of a Jolly Nature. With an Adamant Nature, Dragonite's power is increased significantly, and the threats that you are outspeeding are insignificant, in my opinion. Staying on Dragonite, I recommend running Fire Punch over Extremespeed. Fire Punch helps you against Skarmory and Ferrothorn, as that wall this completely if you don't run it, so give it a shot. Next, I would like to suggest running an Adamant Nature on Scizor over your current Jolly one. An Adamant Nature helps Scizor KO the bulkiest of walls with Life Orb, STAB, and Technician. Also on Scizor, I definitely recommend running Bug Bite over your current choice of U-Turn. Bug Bite helps get the 2HKO on opposing Hippowdon and U-Turning after an SD isn't really a good idea. Finally, I suggest running a spread of 152 HP / 96 Atk / 32 SpD / 228 Spe over your current one. Now, this set may seem odd, but it allows Kingdra to have some bulk while outspeeding Jolteon after 1 DD and opposing Scarf Latios (quite common nowadays) after 2. Well, that's all I have to say for now. I hope my advice helped. Have fun and good luck in your future endeavours!​


  • Dragonite
    :
  • Jolly -> Adamant
  • Extremespeed -> Fire Punch
  • Scizor
    :​
  • Jolly -> Adamant​
  • U-Turn -> Bug Bite​
  • Kingdra
    : 36 HP / 252 Atk / 220 Spd -> 152 HP / 96 Atk / 32 SpD / 228 Spe

~Dr Ciel~ (The doctor is OUT)
 
dragonite wants an adamant nature and fire punch, since your team handles heatran and jirachi relatively well, and being able to KO ferrothorn is a lot more useful for your kingdra to sweep unhindered. you don't outspeed anything in particular with jolly, and the extra power is really needed.

scizor wants an adamant nature, as once again, you aren't outspeeding anything in particular with jolly. i'd drop superpower in place of roost, which allows scizor to stay healthy in case it needs to sponge resisted attacks throughout the match. also, agreeing with dr. ciel that bug bite would be a better choice > u-turn. if you do choose to use roost, a bulkier spread can be used: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe, letting it set up on things like specs latios and roosting off any damage in the process.

i recommend replacing thunderbolt on starmie in favor of psyshock. this allows you to beat gengar, a common spinblocker, and you still get to hit keldeo super effectively. starmie only needs enough speed to outspeed timid gengar and all other positive nature 110's. actually you could even go for outspeeding tornadus, which sits at 111. an EV spread of 32 HP / 252 SpA / 224 Spe is all you need to hit 354 speed, while tornadus sits at 353 and gengar at 351.

now, i noticed one huge flaw in your team: you lack stealth rock. this is probably the most important thing for a team to have. also, your lack of a choice scarfer on such an offensive team cannot be ignored. thankfully, jirachi is your solution. choice scarf jirachi is capable of revenge killing some of the biggest threats in the metagame, including but not limited to: garchomp, dragonite, lati@s, tyranitar, terrakion, and breloom. additionally, it can set up stealth rock for your team. here's the set:

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 6 HP

-Iron Head
-Ice Punch
-Fire Punch / U-turn
-Stealth Rock


with jirachi's great speed and iron head, flinching things to death becomes very easy once things are weakened. ice punch is for the dragons while fire punch is for the steel-types. it also lets you nail ferrothorn, which can aid kingdra in sweeping. u-turn can be used if you want a good scout pokemon, but i think your team appreciates having fire punch more. finally, stealth rock. jirachi finds many chances to set up SR with the prevalence of dragon-types in the tier, and with its 100 /100 / 100 defenses, it can find many opportunities to set it up.

those are all of the changes i can think of at the moment, good luck with your team!
 
thanks for the rate,

definatley am going to try out that ev spread on starmie and will try out psyshock too but shouldnt i have thunderbolt for jellicent?

and scizor definately appreciates the extra power but he still dies very easily even with roost. so im thinking of changing him out with someone who i can scarf and use stealth rock as i really want to keep my jirachi set because i like it alot.

Any suggestions for a scizor replacement? preferably someone who is a good scarfer and can use stealth rock
 

ganj4lF

Nobody is safe from the power of science!
is a Team Rater Alumnus
Just a quick feedback but I do not like at all not running Extremespeed on Dragonite. Having a strong prority attack is very important to be resilient to revenge kills. The current metagame is not really friendly with Dragonite, since its middling speed and weaknesses prevent it from setting up multiple types; I think you should focus in weakening DNite's checks / counters first (for example, you have at least two pokemons that enjoy switching into Skarmory, so you can take advantage of that, and Ferrothorn is hit by Earthquake somewhat too, so you just need to whittle it down before attempting a sweep; to be honest, Fire Punch is going to do little damage anyway if Ferro /Skarmory are in Rain, as it's likely) and giving it all the tools to sweep once that is achieved. Removing Extremespeed means that DNite will be revenged no matter what after getting a kill, and if you switch it out it'll probably be unable to set-up again. For these reasons, I suggest reverting the change that was previously suggested and use Extremespeed over Fire Punch.
 

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