My Best Team; Final Touches

[Moozle]

Hi guys. I've been playing competitive pokémon for a long time, but I just got into the OU metagame. This is my third try at a team, and so far it has been my best. It has a few problems, though, so I'd like some comments/help. Thanks!

Heatran@Shuca Berry
Flash Fire / Naive
252 Sp. Attack / 4 Sp. Def / 252 Speed
~Stealth Rocks
~Fire Blast
~Taunt
~Explosion

Lately I have been loving this lead. The biggest problem is that a lot of opponents switch into their own Heatran to counter. I might decide to get Earth Power, but Explosion helps me so much, especially when it's time to come back in (It's very rare that I die at the beginning, so I'm able to bring Heatran back later). HP Grass would help for Swampert, but I've seen barely any in the last few weeks. Maybe it's just the people I'm playing? I need suggestions for the last move slot.

Empoleon@Life Orb
Torrent / Modest
24 HP / 252 Sp. Attack / 234 Speed
~Agility
~Hydro Pump
~Ice Beam
~Grass Knot

I LOVE this set. Empoleon is very underrated in my opinion. It's very easy to come in on things with as many resistances as Empoleon has, so getting up an agility isn't hard. Once it's up, I hit with some awesome power, and have great coverage.

Celebi@Leftovers
Natural Cure/Bold
252 HP / 220 Defense / 36 Speed
~Leech Seed
~Thunder Wave
~Grass Knot
~Recover

Celebi is one of my favorite defensive pokémon. It has great synergy with Empoleon, and really just helps my team survive against the offensive threats that seem to be everywhere. I prefer having leech seed and thunder wave for the extra support.

Rotom-W@Leftovers
Levitate/Bold
252 HP / 168 Defense / 88 Speed
~Discharge
~Hydro Pump
~Will-O-Wisp
~Light Screen

Rotom is awesomely annoying. It stops a ton of physical pokémon in their tracks, helps clear the way for Empoleon to sweep, and helps Snorlax with his special tanking. I originally had a Rotom-H here, but I changed it to Rotom-W to help with my Infernape problem. I have light screen as my last move because I don't really know what else to put in. It has helped in some situations, though.

Snorlax@Leftovers
Thick Fat/Adamant
4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Sp. Defense
~Body Slam
~Earthquake
~Crunch
~Selfdestruct

Snorlax is one of my favorite Pokémon. It is probably the most consistent and reliable of my whole team. It's an awesome special tank that works really well with Celebi and Rotom. Infernape has been my biggest problem so far, due to the fact that neither Celebi nor Rotom-H can really deal with him all that well.

Heracross@Choice Scarf
Guts/Adamant
252 Attack / 4 Defense / 252 Speed
~Megahorn
~Close Combat
~Stone Edge
~Shadow Claw

This is a spot that has been up for debate recently. I originally had a Scizor, but then Blissey was a huge problem. I tried Machamp, but so far Heracross has done a better job at helping my team. Heracross gives me a good option to revenge kill, and works well with my 3 defensive pokémon sitting ready to sponge the hits directed towards him. Plus Heracross is just plain cool



The biggest problems that I've had so far on my team are Blissey, Heatran, and Infernape. I pretty much took care of the Blissey problem with the addition of Heracross, but Heatran and Infernape still give me trouble (Infernape more so than Heatran). I just realized that I could change my Rotom to Rotom-W. That would help my Infernape problem, right?

Thanks for the help!

 

[RuNNing Riot]

Couldn't you just simply switch in Heatran and Explode on Blissey to deal with her instead? It'd be easy enough to bring it in on a Toxic.

 

[Moozle]

Yeah, but every Blissey I've ran into has had thunder wave, not toxic. Either way, Heracross has been working really well.

I changed my Rotom-H to Rotom-W. I've been able to take care of Infernape a little better, and Scizor isn't as huge of a problem as I thought it was going to be without my Rotom-H. I've been running into a ton of Heatran leads, but every one of them has tried to Earth Power me. I just set up SR, live with ~36% and then switch to Snorlax. I did, however, just get decimated by a lead Togekiss. It had Lum berry, aura sphere, air slash, ominous wind, and something else. It was scary. I ended up having to go into snorlax and selfdestructing after it took out 3 of my pokes.

Edit: This is the rotom-w set i've been running.

Rotom-W@Leftovers
Levitate/Bold
252 HP / 168 Defense / 88 Speed
~Discharge
~Hydro Pump
~Light Screen
~Will-O-Wisp

It feels a bit limited sometimes, but Light Screen has really helped.


Edit2: And substitute zapdos...omg. Heracross works if I can catch it out of a sub, but if it's in a sub im dead. Pressure sucks.

 

[Gates]

If you changed your team, edit the OP.

How has Light Screen helped exactly?

 

[Moozle]

It helps in situations like if I have my Snorlax out and they send out Machamp. I switch to Rotom because Rotom>No Guard Machamp. Most of the people I've played so far switch to a special attacker/wall in that situation because they know my next move is going to be Will-O-Wisp. If I set up light screen on the switch, I mess up the common Heatran, Jirachi, Magnezone. I've even seen a lot of people switch in Suicune, hoping to set up on me, but then I can just switch in to Celebi, who easily beats Suicune when behind a light screen.

In most situations im better of just Will-O-Wisping, but having the option of becoming a short term special wall really helps sometimes.

 

[ss118]

I thought I was the only one who utilized the WoW+Light Screen combo. Good ****, dude!

SD Lucario seems like an issue: after SR and an SD it KOs all six of your members I believe, especially if it's combined with SS. It can set up after you try to revenge something like DD Dragonite with Heracross: my solution would be to simply run more speed on rotom.

 

[Moozle]

Sorry I took so long to respond.

I've only run into 2 Lucarios so far, but how would raising the speed on my rotom help with one? I'm never going to out-speed it, so I need the extra bulk when i try to switch in and WoW it. Am I missing something?

Breloom has also been a bit of a problem for me since I don't have Rotom-H. What's a good way of dealing with him?

 

[UltiMario]

Running Timid with enough speed invested to outpace Adamant 252spe Luke.

Very Few lukes run Jolly.

 

[Circa]

Sorry I took so long to respond.

I've only run into 2 Lucarios so far, but how would raising the speed on my rotom help with one? I'm never going to out-speed it, so I need the extra bulk when i try to switch in and WoW it. Am I missing something?

Breloom has also been a bit of a problem for me since I don't have Rotom-H. What's a good way of dealing with him?

SD Lucario usually runs Adamant, so if you just change your nature to Timid and run 188 Speed EVs, you can outpace it. This is obviously at the cost of bulk though, and Jolly variants will still rip straight through your team. Solving this issue basically requires you to either change a set entirely or change a Pokemon entirely.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

One way to possibly beat Breloom is to give Heracross Sleep Talk over one of its moves.

 

[Moozle]

Oh okay, I didn't even think of changing the nature :embarrass Maybe I'll try timid with some extra speed to see how it works out. It's not like I need a ton of bulk with Will-O-Wisp anyways.

I think I'm going to give Heracross sleep talk since I haven't used shadow claw once. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Moozle]

Sorry for the double post, but it's been 20 days This is still my best team, but I have one problem that I seem to run into consistently. As I said above, the only way I can really get rid of machamp lead is to sacrifice my rotom. This leaves me almost completely open to teams who have both Machamp and Infernape. I don't recall it happening, but I'm sure an Infernape Lead + non-lead Machamp combination would mess me up too. So my question is, how can I fix this? Is the only way to fix the problem to change my lead to something that can deal with Machamp and Infernape? Slowbro lead perhaps? lol, thanks for the help.

I might also edit my OU+ team that is based off of this one into the OP

 

[IceArrow]

Celebi could handle Machamp if you gave him Psychic. Leech Seed isn't good unless you have Substitute.

 

[Niiro]

Celebi could handle Machamp if you gave him Psychic. Leech Seed isn't good unless you have Substitute.

Not really. Leech seed is in effect for as long as the pokemon it is used on is out, so it basically forces a switch. =) I might rate this team later, but my rating skills aren't great.

 

[IceArrow]

Well I think Psychic would help him more then leech seed.

 

[Niiro]

Well I think Psychic would help him more then leech seed.

Sorry, I didn't mean to quote your whole post, just the part about Leech Seed not being good without Substitute. Psychic could help him against Machamp of course, but Psychic isn't really a good attacking move because it is resisted by so many types. It really only hits the (rare) poisons and (generally) defense-lacking fighting types.

 

[mood4food77]

really, the only thing you could do is to put a 4 attack LO starmie on the team which would run through any problem your team faces, as that covers all machamp, infernape, and heatran

but it doesn't have great synergy with your team

you actually can replace heracross with staraptor

scarfraptor covers blissey, machamp, infernape, and a bunch of stuff while serving as a revenge killer

 

[Niiro]

you actually can replace heracross with staraptor

scarfraptor covers blissey, machamp, infernape, and a bunch of stuff while serving as a revenge killer

Scarfhera does the same, while not being weak to SR.

 

[mood4food77]

scarfhera doesn't OHKO machamp and isn't as fast

 

[Zankoku]

How fast does it need to be? Scarfed base 85 is pretty quick already, and at least he won't be putting himself on a clock with recoil.

 

[Wave⁂]

1. OH MY GOD MOOD4FOOD IS RECOMMENDING STARAPTOR WHAT A BIG SURPRISE

2. Staraptor is 2HKOed by DynamicPunch

3. Staraptor is confused

Okay, for completion's sake, let's say you break through confusion and OHKO with Brave Bird. Good job! You are now dead from recoil.

 

[mood4food77]

it's the only time i've done it....

he said he needs something to check machamp, infernape, and heatran while countering blissey, staraptor actually does all that

 

[Zankoku]

I don't see Staraptor checking Machamp nor Infernape. Even with Intimidate, Staraptor has an absurdly high chance of getting 2HKO'd by DynamicPunch, and is guaranteed 2HKO'd after Stealth Rock, meaning your "check" has a 50% chance of not actually accomplishing anything due to confusion. Infernape's Flamethrower is a clean OHKO after Stealth Rock and Close Combat still hits pretty hard (2HKO). Going for Brave Bird is also not an amazing STAB - go to Zapdos or something and laugh, and Staraptor's only real option at that point is to sacrifice, because it's not going to survive a switch-in again (25% from SR plus 50% from CC/DP plus recoil from Brave Bird means if it doesn't outright die from SR, even priority's got a good chance of taking it apart). If you're using it as revenge, good job, you're losing a third of your life on each Brave Bird.

 

[mood4food77]

i don't really see any other poke being able to cover all of his problems, staraptor pretty much comes the closest

 

[Niiro]

i don't really see any other poke being able to cover all of his problems, staraptor pretty much comes the closest

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If Machamp is such a big problem, the Aerial Ace could replace that 4th slot move that Hera is using now. Starptor is weak to SR, which to super common. The problems that OP stated, Blissey, Heatran, and Infernape, are all revenged by Hera (though Hera should run Jolly to outrun Scarftran, Snorlax counters Heatran well enough). Heracross can also switch in easier and more often thanks to bulkier defenses, and not being weak to SR. Staraptor really is outclassed by pokemon like Heracross, because the only reason Staraptor isn't UU is because of the fortune of having Close Combat. Unfortunately, it doesn't have STAB on that, which is a reason he isn't OU.