Gen 2 Make it work with double rock! (gen 2 OU offense)

[Maître Apagnan]

I've been playing gsc for 8 months now , and this tier is really cool! I wanted to show you guys a cool team which i think is pretty good. A dual Rocks spikes offense with an all out attacker tyranitar set , I am of course aware that this 6 has already been played (not with exact sets) but I wanted to share you my version of it!

Team Overview :


​

This team follows 2 principles:
- Firstly, Golem allows Tyranitar to not run roar, and to not come on lax at the beginning of the game and thus to be played in a more offensive way, taking advantage of the raw strength of the pokemon with an incredible base attack of 134 and a special attack of 95.
- Secondly, both Golem and Tyranitar forces a lot of zapdos weak pokemon to come in ;(aka bulky waters or skarmory), giving you free zapdos entry everytime, (sometimes you will need to double switch to be effective tho) and offensive pressure.
- The rest of the team is quite simple to understand, spikes and anti spin + the formidable snorlax which acts more as defensive asset, and mitigates the weaknesses of the team

let's go into the sets and details of the team:

Sets and comments:

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
IVs: 26 Def
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
-Sleep talk
- Rest​

Zapdos is great. both offensively and defensively. he provides raw strength, a kind of support by 30% chance to paralize at every thunder hit, and is a switch in to many offensive threats in the tier. just use it. this mon is just strong , big bird clicking big thunder and winning.

In this team Zapdos shines because he will take full advantage of the switch that Golem and Tyranitar can provide (if Skarmory , Cloyster , or Suicune want to come for example). He will also be a useful check for Nidoking and Exeggutor, and in a certain measure, to the grounds that can come and threaten the team.
However, when you are using it for defensive purposes, you have to be careful that it is not overwhelmed in this role or you will lose your ability to attack the opponent.

Alternate options: HP Water is an option , but personally I don't like it, because exeggutor can quickly become annoying, hp ice is also more reliable vs opposing zapdos.

Cloyster @ Leftovers
Ability: Shell Armor
- Spikes
- Surf
- Toxic​

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Explosion

Spikes offense means you need... bingo! spikes! And da Cloyster got everything you want here! first of all , spikes which chip pokemon when you force them to switch, help you to 2hko/3hko to Zapdos and Tyranitar; spikes is also your main tool to beat stall teams.
For example with spikes now Zapdos has a 38.2% chance to 2HKO golem , 91.5% chance to 2HKO Rhydon, guaranteed 2HKO Marowak with HP ice, (which are kinda threat to this team because you have 3 ground weak pokemons).
With spikes Tyranitar got has great chances to 2hko Cloyster , and with minimal chip , puts rock-types in range of 2hko by earthquake.

But here Cloyster role is not only limited to putting spikes , he is also solution for the ground types that threaten our teams , because they really don't want to take surf , with his massive 180 defense stats he can come a lot of times in physical attackers. Be aware of potential rockslide from grounds , thunder lax, thunder king , hp elec opposing cloyster. ; if possible try to avoid having your cloyster toxic in this team , but its not always easy to do and sometimes you will just trade toxic with spikes.

Speaking of toxic , you can toxic starmie and opposing cloyster with it , and its VERY USEFULL, since starmie will have a harder time taking hits from golem and Tyranitar,
and golem will easy spin vs a toxic Cloyster.
The last move is the obvious boom , strong moove that nearly kill any pokemon that don't resist it, you will aim to boom starmie , suicune , or snorlax in endgames situation.

Snorlax @ Leftovers
- Double-Edge
- Thunder/Earthquake
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
​

I am not going to explain for an hour why Snorlax is powerful in gsc. In this team Snorlax fills the defensive weaknesses of the team while remaining an offensive threat.
Sleep talk to deal with the annoying Jynx and Nidoking and be more resilient vs broken Zapdos.
Double-edge main stab hitting hard and you could either run thunder or earthquake, one allows you to bait Cloyster and then remove spikes for life, in addition to creates sometimes useful para for your Tyranitar; the other shifts your team into a kind of ground spamming move team (eq on lax/lem/tar) adding more offensive pressure + earthquake is better for Gengar/ Jynx/ King/Lix and rocks.

Golem @ Leftovers
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Roar
- Explosion
​

Golem is incredible here, with spin support and checking lax in the early game and booming things that annoy Tyranitar. He can put a lot of work short or long term. You need to be carefull to use him wisely because Golem's health can go down quickly. Do not forget to scout hp water , surf tyranitar , giga drain forre. Don't click spin unless its usefull ; if the enemy cloyster is not toxic and you dont have spikes , clicking spin is useless since your opponent will just put Cloyster and spikes for free. This mon is the pinacle of role compression : it does everything decently giving us many options : to play long term with spin and roar , or short term with boom and big earthquakes.

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Dynamic Punch​

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fire Blast/pursuit

Here is the goat and the main piece of the team, All Out Attacker Tyranitar, i will explain why i choosed every single move :
-Rock slide : stab, good reliable damage , hitting hard especially Zapdos and Cloyster,plus there is always that chance of flinch who can win games.
Earthquake: perfect coverage with rock slide , and punish ground type who think you will rock slide , if you revealed fire blast earlier in the game , people will usually assume that you dont have earthquake (same for fireblast if you revealed eq) , earthquake tyranitar is particulary useful not to struggle against nidoking and raikou.
-Dynamic Punch: a dynamic punch that comes out of the blue at the right moment can really be a game changer ,but you need to use it wisely and do not spam it like a retard, dont rely on it too much , you usualy want to use it to catch a forced switch , or to surprise snorlax. Its a really good move that can solo win games but you have to know when to click it and also need to have a little bit of luck to hit it.
Fire Blast: Fireblast is the final coverage you need, hitting steels very hard so you are not hard walled by them , it hits Exeggutor and even Cloyster doesn't like it. You may catch forre early on if you revealed eq since your opponent won't expect eq +fb.

Alternate options: Pursuit is really good , the combo eq + suit destroys raikou teams with spikes , its also very good when you are hitting dynamic punch and your opponent is forced to switch out, you can just pursuit it, however you will be completly wall by skamory.
Thunder is also a solid option: hitting skarm + waters. If you are using thunder , use eqlax then , however steelix / exeg could be painful to face now , and even cune can come easily on thunder. Surf could be an option i guess? but i do not recommand it.

----------------------------------------------------

Gengar @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Ice Punch
- Hypnosis / Dynamic punch/ hp water​

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Explosion

Basic Gengar in spikes offense, anti spin , giving our team more speed control , provide support with hypnosis, can hit with beambolt all mon on the tier (exept magneton lol) and finally can boom the special walls (raikou , blissey , snorlax most likely) with explosion making Zapdos scarier than before.
But Gengar role isnt just limited to offense, his ghost typing makes him a good tool to pivot around Snorlax and and especially Machamp, having gengar + zapdos is super useful to deal with him , and is and necessary since we got 4 pokemons weak to fight moves.
Gengar is a wonderful pokemon in gsc and i love using it.


Here the pokepast of the team

Now into common threats and how to overcome them:

Snorlax with earthquake is a pain for almost every offensive team in the tier, and this one is no exception.
There is no magic solution to beat snorlax instantly, but this team has several tools to deal with him.
3 booms , dpunch Tyranitar , spikes + Zapdos. Forcing him to rest very early in the game and keeping the pressure is the way to deal effectivly with snorlax (or simply booming it)

3 weaknesses to ground on our side make those 3 mons really dangerous , however if you proceed with caution they all are manageable.
firstly : keeping your cloyster healthy helps a lot. secondly spikes annoy both Rhydon and Marowak a lot, putting them in range of zapdos for a 2hko, Golem wins 1v1 vs rhydon since hes faster (unless he curse on your first eq then he got 33% chance of winning the dual but will be really low after that), For Marowak , Zapdos/cloy healthy is the key or simply booming it, and Nidoking is walled by Snorlax/Zapdos talk, by cloyster too if he doesnt have thunder.
Having earthquake lax over thunder helps a lot vs those guys too.

With toxic only,if he is drill peck you are in a really good position since its a free spin / roar for Golem and Tyranitar destroys it. But with toxic you need to pivot around and skarmory will be really anoying to deal with , catching him on a switch with fireblast , or putting him in range of fireblast is the best way to prevent this mon to toxic your whole squad.

, ok those two are not really threats (tho nightmare mie can be pretty devastating) but you will meet them in stall a lot and Golem and Tyranitar doesnt do too well vs them.
There is 2 methods to proceed vs bulky waters in general , booming them , or double switch to Zapdos when they are forced to come in, which will force raikou/bliss/snorlax to come , and this is where this team is cool , Tyranitar and Golem can give you a lot of zapdos entry vs stall. Thunder tyranitar helps vs both of them (a lot more vs starmie than suicune) and opponent will rarely expect you to have thunder.
this thing is walling 3 of your pokemons and may also destroy your squad , if you play versus a kind of boom offense or if you are expecting vaporeon last, you need to keep your zapdos or at least your gengar and you should be fine.

Closing comments:

I really like this team and i think personally its a good or at least decent team, I think its advantages are in its flexibility and its ability to play really well long term,but sometimes it requires you to play aggressively because you may lack of direct offensive pressure, or being good at predicting with tyranitar.
Speak of Tyranitar,do not rely only on him when playing, he is not your only win condition,sometimes it will do all the work himself sometimes it won't do much. Spikes control, boom, Zapdos ,you got several options to win.


That’s all for the cool details about this team , if i missed anything feel free to comment,

Also , As you noticed english is not my native langage , so i apologize for all the mistakes and sentences formulated strangely, and don't be afraid to correct me if anything seems weird.

Special thanks to Earthworm and Quarante8 for helping me to write this RMT.

 

[Century Express]

I think this looks very good in my eyes. I like how this squad features a lot of reliable win paths - it certainly has tools to make advantage of Tyranitar's best attributes, but Zapdos and Snorlax also are excellent threats enablers on their own, and they become even better with proper support (e: Gengar bait-killing Zapdos' answers, Cloyster bait-killing Starmie for Tyranitar, Snorlax pressuring Golem's main obstacles, and so and on). Even though EQ Lax, EQ Champ & Ground-types seems to be issues in the paper, at least this team has proactive tools to play around them, which is another important element in any offensive team.

Overall I can't think too much about /optimal/ changes, since all of your movesets have a clear purpose here... it probably depends of your opponent's preferences. Thief Gengar is probably worth of a mention as a filler, especially because Golem allows you to not reveal your potential itemless Gengar too early, and it can help you with a flexible amount of support without using Explosion (e: crippling Umbreon for Tyranitar, Raikou or Snorlax for Zapdos, and so and on). If you face an opponent who prefers to spam Ground-types, Exeggutor probably can be used instead of Gengar - although you will probably need Crunch + Pursuit Tyranitar as an anti-spin measure against Starmie. Alternatively, Curse + Sleep Talk Snorlax + Pursuit Tyranitar can slightly fix your issues against EQ Lax (without compromising too much of Tyranitar's coverage), but any of Earthquake / Thunder / Curse + Sleep Talk Snorlax seems to be alright in my eyes (Flamethrower + Sleep Talk is probably okay-ish too if you don't use Gengar). Overall I think this team looks very nice and well-crafted, nice job