Out of My Element: Preparing for the New

[Server_Crash]

So, I originally created this team to give myself a baseline for my generation five team, but after a little play time, I decided that I liked playing it this generation and gave it some love. I think that it has turned out pretty good, but it does have a few problems with stat-uppers. It is based off of the broken UU strategy of fire+water+grass+ghost, but, of course, modified for OU play.

This team started with a fire-water-grass offensive core.
-For my grass it came down to the fact that I dislike playing with celebi (but am open to using it) and love BreloomRageQuits. It completely ruins anything that it outspeeds.
-Heatran is a great revenge killer with a scarf and can kill anything that believes that it is faster.
-Starmie is the only offensive rapid spinner and has reliable recovery. Electric attacks are also a plus.

For my ghost, I chose Gengar, because it is more offensive than rotom-a. I prefer SubGar for the ease in prediction.

Well, originally this was a Kingdra, but it's down-to-earth cousin serves my team better. It provides a reliable counter to MixApe which causes problems for the rest of my team, and is a solid counter to other threats, while still being able to provide decent damage all around.

With a heavily offensive team, I needed a lead that could set up rocks reliably. While Metagross is too slow to get rocks up against a taunter, it can reliably weaken them for a kill and then come back in with its bulk and set them back up. He also is sacrificed to weaken pokemon to KO range in dire situations.


THE SPECIFICS:

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Adamant Nature
Clear Body
252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 Speed
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Bullet Punch
-Explosion

As a lead, Metagross is arguably the most reliable. It can almost always survive to set up stealth rock. It can pick off other leads with a combination of earthquake and bullet punch. It can kill pesky threats either off the bat or later on with explosion. Pretty straightforward, but extremely useful.

Flygon @ Leftovers
Jolly Nature
Levitate
252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4 SpD
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Roost

While the scout set may seem more useful, I prefer to use a Flygon that has reliable healing, because most of my team lacks a reliable healing source. Dragon claw and earthquake provide reliable STAB while stone edge rounds out the coverage, because nothing else on my team has a rock-type move. Roost gives Flygon survivability, while not compromising on attack.

Gengar @ Leftovers
Modest Nature
Levitate
4 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Speed
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast
-Hidden Power [Fire]
-Substitute

With the highest special attack in OU, Gengar is the most offensive ghost in play. Shadow ball provides STAB while focus blast and HP fire deal with it's two biggest counters, Tyranitar and Scizor, respectively. Substitute allows Gengar to beat ScarfTar and bullet punches from Scizor. Leftovers allow Gengar to make more subs than usual.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Timid Nature
Natural Cure
252 HP, 4 SpA, 252 Speed
-Rapid Spin
-Recover
-Surf
-Thunderbolt

Starmie gives my team relief from troublesome entry hazards with rapid spin. It can also easily heal off the damage from the not only the hazards, but from the attacks that it needs to sponge with recover. Surf and thunderbolt provide solid coverage with some STAB. It is also the water member of my triumvirate.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Naive Nature
Flash Fire
252 Speed, 252 SpA, 4 SpD
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Hidden Power [Electric]
-Explosion

Scarf Heatran is a personal favorite of mine. It can outspeed base 100s which is always nice. Heatran is useless without a fire-type move, fire blast and needs an earth-type move to beat other Heatran, earth power. HP electric OHKOs bulky Gyarados after one dragon dance, which is crucial to my team. Explosion lets Heatran go out with a quick bang on something assuming to be faster. Heatran is also a great revenge killer, because it has the surprise factor the first time, because most pokemon believe that they are faster, but they soon realize that.

Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Adamant Nature
Poison Heal
12 HP, 252 Atk, 244 Speed
-Spore
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Seed Bomb

Just look at him, he seems so happy to know that he is most obnoxious pokemon in OU. He really is, spore incapacitates his first counter and he can then hide behind his substitute and fire off a focus punch with his massive attack. Seed bomb gives Breloom some coverage, but it will be most often using focus punch. Breloom with a sub up is scary to beat, but it needs that sub to pose a threat to a large number of pokemon.

In summary, a generic formula works out quite well and any critique (positive or negative, I can take it) is welcomes, and presumably needed.

Server_Crash
​

 

[Server_Crash]

Leading Threats

How I handle to top 20 leads, as based off of the July stats:

Easy Possible Difficulties Problems


Azelf: Attempt to set up SR with metagross. Then bullet punch it to death unless it uses fire blast, in which case, switch to Heatran

Machamp: Set up SR and then switch to Gengar to set up sub and attack. Payback+Ice Punch variants cause a few problems, but I can pivot to Gengar to take the dynamic punch, switch to Heatran to take the payback, and fire blast for the kill.

Aerodactyl: Bullet punch to death (2hko), bacause most variants taunt at the start, so no point wasting the turn when I can stop their SR.

Metagross: Depending on the variation, opposing Metagross range from pushovers to easy. Earthquake sets have me set up SR and then switch to Breloom for wonderful set-up fodder. Meteor Mash causes me to switch to Heatran after SR is up.

Swampert: I love seeing swampert leads. I set up SR and then switch to Breloom to take the earthquake. I then can set up a sub hoping for the switch and then just seed bomb if they stay in and ice punch.

Jirachi: I switch to Heatran off the bat to take the trick, and then switch back to metagross on their switch to hopefully set up SR. Non-trick sets are dealt with by heatran anyways.

Infernape: As flygon counters any set not packing ice punch (and leads never do), i just switch to flygon and watch it die.

Roserade: It can't really harm metagross and lum helps with sleeppowder. I can set up SR and possibly switch to Breloom if they don't try to sleep me or stay in and EQ them with gross. However, if it does manage to sleep one of my pokes then I am in big trouble.

Heatran: Opposing heatrans can cause problems for my team if not dealt with immediately, but as a lead it is manageable. I usually set up SR while they do and then switch to my Heatran and fire off an Earth Power to scare them off. If Earth power doesn't KO after their shuca, then I am in trouble because their earth powers is an OHKO and I rely on Heatran for other things, but Flygon can handle Heatran as well.

Ninjask: I usually set up SR while they protect/sub and then fire off bullet punches until they switch. While this isn't the best strategy, I prefer to have a faster pokemon than one with a sub. Not a problem, but what it brings in can be.

Hippowdon: SR while it SRs or EQs, then switch to breloom and spore+sub. Fun to take advantage of.

Tyranitar: EQ off the bat to stop problems later, also not a problem.

Starmie: SR to see what set it has, and then either switch directly to Heatran for HP Electric of pivot to breloom and then Heatran. Slightly problematic.

Uxie: SR to see what it is doing, metagross doesn't mind a scarf too much, and I switch to breloom after anyway. Nice fodder for Breloom. Dual screens are also annoying.

Dragonite: Metagross can beat superpower dragonite one on one which is nice, but after SR is up, I can switch to flygon on a resisted attack and threaten with dragon claw.

Smeargle: Wow, is this still in OU? Bullet punch 2hko's and lum removes sleep. Not a threat or a real OU pokemon.

Bronzong: set up SR and switch to Breloom for fodder. Dual Screens are not pleasant as usually, but I can stall them out with Breloom.

Forretress: SR while they do too, and then switch to Breloom for fodder. Not a threat, because Starmie can remove any of its hazards later.

Crobat: SR to see what they do, and then switch to Heatran and OHKO with HP electric

Gliscor: Non-taunt variations are dealt with by breloom, while Heatran can threaten with Fire blast and Starmie can bluff ice beam.

While there are other leads that cause problems, they are not common enough to warrant changing my team, and I can freestyle dealing with them fairly easily.
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[DFrog]

Unless the meta-game has changed since i stopped playing OU most heatrans are scarfed and most of the time people have a check or a counter to scarftran
just saying

oh yeah props for the F/W/G/ core

 

[Server_Crash]

Yeah, I know that scarftrans are relatively common, but mine still seems to catch the opponent off guard somehow. Hopefully that lasts XD.

 

[smashlloyd20]

Ok....first, you have a Suicune weakness. I know you think this isn't true, but hear me out. So you think Starmie crushes it, but if a Suicune runs HP grass/electric/bug/dark it can outstall your Starmie and kill it. I've done it with my Suicune enough times :) . To fix this, I reccomend a Celebi. Yeah, I know you don't like Celebi, but really Breloom isn't doing much for you. Many things Breloom is supposed to check can outspeed it and kill it easily. I'd use this Celebi set:

Celebi @ Life Orb
Natural Cure
32 HP/252 SAtk/244 Spd
Leaf Storm
Earth Power
Hidden Power Ice
Recover

Yeah, I know this set is totally standard, but it does its job very well. It patches up your team's dragon weakness (Flygon's Dragon Claw just isn't strong enough) and can act as a very good status absorber.

Second, I am not a fan of Lum Berry Metagross. You hae two good status absorbers on your team, so make use of them, and not many people run Roserade/Smeargle as leads anymore. I'd simply change Lum Berry to Leftovers or Life Orb (If you want a bit of extra power on Bullet Punch).

Lastly, not a change per se, but advice. I agree with DFrog on two points. First, not saying that it's bad on anything, but everyone has a check to Scarftran, so be careful using it. (I think everyone in my current team can take a Scarftran in certain situations.) And second, Fire/Water/Grass cores are awesome.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[Server_Crash]

Yeah, I have noticed my suicune weakness, but I have had to rely on Breloom to kill specific threats once it gets its sub up. I will try celebi though. Any thoughts on starmie? When I first built this team, I had a zapdos, so I needed a spinner, but now I don't really need one. Would running ice beam on starmie be better, because it is faster than celebi, and has higher special attack? What about switching heatran to sub+lefties and making flygon a choice scarf variant?

 

[smashlloyd20]

Leave HP Ice on Celebi and Recover or Starmie. Celebi's SAtk is perfectly fine for the purposes you need it for, and pretty much whatever you use it on is 4x weak anyway. However, switching to a SubTran and Scarfgon is a very good idea. ScarfTran is way too predictable, but Scarfgon worlks very well. Here's a Subtran set:

Heatran @ Leftovers
Timid Nature
252 SAtk/252 Spd/ 4 SDef
Fire Blast
Earth Power
Toxic
Substitute

And here's a Scarfgon set:

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
252 Atk/252 Spd/ 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
Outrage
Earthquake
U-Turn
Stone Edge

Hope this helps!

 

[Server_Crash]

I was going to remove rapid spin, not recover. I have switched in scarfgon and subtran, but I am still on the fence about celebi, because I would only have metagross (who may have either died or exploded) and flygon (who isn't bulky) to kill blissey, but I could run focus punch over focus blast and switch HP fire to pain split. Thoughts?

 

[smashlloyd20]

Uh......the post still says Scarftran...and don't remove rapid spin ever, it's extremely useful. And who are you talking about for focus punch instead of blast etc.?

 

[Faladran]

Cool team. Everything looks decent, but there are a couple of changes that I'd like to make; hopefully you'll find them useful! To begin with, I just wanted to stress that Flygon is by no means a counter to Mixape, although you have listed it in this manner. Due to the fact that Flygon is not Scarfed, Infernape can easily outpace it and deal heavy damage with either HP Ice or Close Combat. Gengar is actually a much more reliable switch-in to Infernape in the majority of cases.

As others have noticed, you have a problem with certain opposing Water-types, particularly LO Starmie and Offensive Suicune. Starmie can 2HKO every member of your team, which forces you to rely on switching and either hoping to win the speed tie with your own Starmie, or somehow getting in Scarf Heatran to hit it with HP Electric. Suicune is equally if not more problematic, as it is easily able to set up a Calm Mind boost on Heatran and is bulky enough to survive super-effective hits. Your only option is to explode on it with Heatran, but this can be a very unreliable strategy, particularly if your opponent is packing a Ghost-type and manages to predict your intentions. To help alleviate these weaknesses, I feel that it would be well worth your time to try out a Passho Berry Heatran over your current set:

Heatran @ Passho Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Nature: Mild (+SpA, -Def)
- Flamethrower / Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power Grass / Hidden Power Electric
- Explosion

PasshoTran is remarkably effective at performing its function as a Fire-type sweeper, while luring out any problematic opposing Water-types. The Passho Berry will allow you to survive even attacks as powerful as LO Starmie's Hydro Pump, and KO back with Explosion. This set is still relatively uncommon, so few opponents will expect it. Flamethrower and Fire Blast are both good options for Heatran's STAB attack, so the choice depends on whether you prefer power or accuracy. Earth Power is mostly filler, but can be useful if you manage to predict and hit an opposing Heatran on the switch. HP Grass gives you a way to take out weakened Starmie and any Swampert switch-ins, although Breloom gets a practically free setup opportunity on the latter, while HP Electric can be used to lure in and kill Adamant Gyarados. However, beware of Jolly variants, as these will be able to outpace you and hit you with a Waterfall before you attack.

Good luck with your team!

 

[Server_Crash]

Thanks for the advice, since I created this team, I have starting playing on PO's 5th gen server, so I actually am trying to find 5th gen counterparts to this team. I know this isn't the right place, but does anyone have any 5th gen ideas for this team? I personally like jalorda w/perversity + leaf storm for a 140bp nasty plot in one move for breloom, any other ideas?