new team again!!!

[mood4food77]

Well anyways, since I'm bored, I decided to make a new team. This is the competitive version of the in-game team I'm currently using (I used this team to defeat Red in SS). It's actually a very good competitive team (all are OU, didn't cheat to get them in-game either so it's all good). Anyways, here it goes!!!

Swampert @ Leftovers
Relaxed
252/252/6 (HP/Def/Spe)
Stealth Rock
Ice Beam
Surf
Earthquake

Standard Lead Mixpert. Sets up SR, hits everything hard, punches babies, you know the deal. He's a beast, he's adorable, and he's just awesome. Great lead for anyone to use. Last bit of EVs in Spe to outrun other Swampert.

Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
Timid
252/252/6 (SpA/Spe/HP)
Overheat
Shadowball
Thunderbolt
HP Fighting/Trick

He's a pretty good team member. Works great as a revenge killer, spin-blocker, and just an overall sweeper. He has great type coverage. I don't know how much trick would help in the long run but so far, I have not run into a situation where it really could have saved me. His team work is greatly appreciated.

Salamence @ Life Orb
Naive
252/232/24 (Spe/Atk/SpA)
Fire Blast
Dragon Dance
Outrage
Earthquake

New Mixmence wasn't working out so well so I decided to try out DDmence. Works so much better. He's a bigger threat than he was before and he can gain speed now. Hits harder, with DD, he's just a lot better.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Naive
252/252/6 (Spe/SpA/Atk)
Toxic
Earth Power
Fire Blast
Substitute

Your standard Subtran. He scouts opponents quite well and hits pretty hard. Earthquake and Fire Blast give him pretty good coverage (only 6 pokes resist, 1 is a suicide lead so he's dead before Heatran comes in (Aerodactyl), 4 of them never stay in on Heatran (Dragonite, Flygon, Latias, and Salamence), and the other Heatran would never switch into (Gyarados)). He does a great job at scouting and has pulled me out of many tight situations.

Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Adamant/Poison Heal
252/208/48 (Atk/Spe/HP)
Focus Punch
Spore
Seed Bomb
Stone Edge

He works so much better with my team than Machamp did. Spore is an amazing move and he is a better status absorber than Machamp was. His resistance to SR and his other resistances are great for switching him in. Heatran covers all of his weaknesses while he covers all of Heatran's (besides fighting but I have 2 other pokes for that). Great switch and I love using this guy. An absolute beast.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Timid/Natural Cure
216/156/136 (Spe/Def/HP)
Rapid Spin
Surf
Thunderbolt
Recover

My spinner, since Salamence is weak to SR, a spinner is needed. Starmie works best here as both MixApe and Heatran give my team some trouble. Also, Gyarados can sweep after 1 DD and having Starmie helps check him. Must needed asset to my team.


Thank you guys for you help. I love you all (HUGS AND KISSES FOR EVERYONE!!!!) and the server will be running in 3 weeks, don't you worry.

 

[Gates]

What Nature is Salamence? I'm guessing Naive or Hasty.

 

[mood4food77]

sorry, fixed it though, it was naive

 

[Wave⁂]

Specially-based MixApe and Heatran are problematic. DDGyara sweeps with a Dragon Dance. Defensive Starmie helps against all of them, I'd recommend it over Magnezone, who doesn't help your team much (pesky Steel-types? What're Salamence, Machamp, and Mamoswine doing?)

 

[Circa]

Put Swampert's last 4 EVs in Speed. They carry little use being put into its Attack stat, considering it almost never even makes a percent's difference in damage.

4 Speed EVs at least lets you outspeed those who follow Smogon's EVs and tie with those who were smart enough to move them. With your set it doesn't matter quite as much, considering you're not running Roar, but it will still typically make a bigger difference than putting the 4 in Attack.

Also, for a record, I have a team that makes Salamence look like a puppy (in response to your "when isn't Salamence a beast"). :3 Funny part about it is, however, that the team has NOTHING that takes on DDMence after he gets in the DD. I just happen to have a **** load of stuff that makes Salamence never ever want to risk switching in. Ever.

 

[mood4food77]

thanks, i just looked it over and magnezone wasn't really doing much, haha

thanks both of you

 

[mood4food77]

i made a slight change to my team, whaddya think?

 

[Gates]

Playing a Heatran of your own doesn't necessarily solve your Heatran weakness, it just means you can beat Heatran if your opponent doesn't out-mindgame you. Most people who can read worth a **** these days know when you're going to switch to Heatran to absorb a fire attack and then switch to something they have that can deal with it or use an attack that is neutral or better to **** Heatran over on thw switch. If you're scarfed and don't predict correctly, you could end up being badly screwed over by this, especially if you continuously predict poorly and end up losing Heatran because of it.

SubTran is slower but much easier on prediction. Send in Heatran on something you know they'll switch out, sub when they switch, and react accordingly. The general build is Leftovers or Life Orb (and in an offensive team like yours you'll porbably want Life Orb), Sub, a fire move (Lava Plume, Fire Blast, or Flamethrower), Earth Power, and a fourth move to deal with something that other stuff can't. Explosion (more common on LO sets), Toxic, Dragon Pulse, and HP Ice/Electric/Grass are all options. I use Roar on my SubTran but I also use it in a stall team that's based heavily on phasing and entry hazards, so that might not work for you. You can also use the same nature and EV spread you have now only maybe with more in HP (unless that makes it divisible by 4).

 

[mood4food77]

i chose heatran cause of synergy, my team is weak as hell to grass so i chose the best grass counter in heatran

i gave it a scarf because my team lacks speed

i might replace mamoswine, he does his job good, but he's a pain to switch in and most of my team covers dragon types pretty well (heatran, swampert, salamence) so they aren't a big problem

but heatran is a whole lot better than togekiss, togekiss literally went out and died

 

[Gates]

The only grass pokemon used in OU are Breloom, who beats Heatran with Focus Punch, Roserade, who is almost exclusively used as a lead, and Celebi, who is not terrible common and when you do see her it's alongside Heatran. Grass Knot and HP Grass are common (and Energy Ball is seen rarely) but it would likely be better to focus on countering the users of those attacks (Namely Infernape, Heatran, Jolteon, Latias, Starmie, and Zapdos) than the moves themselves. Your team is offensive(-ish) so you should focus on what you can do to take out those pokemon before thinking about type coverage. So let's go through the list of what typically runs grass moves and what your team can counter.

Breloom - You can use Machamp to absorb the sleep, then switch to Mence to break the sub and then break him. Mamoswine and Heatran are also options but they are OHKO'd by super effective Focus Punch. In fact, it seems like what your team really needs is a fighting resistance, not a grass one.
Celebi - It depends on the build, but Mamoswine is immune to her TWave shenanigans and Heatran is immune to her Toxic shenanigans and both hit her for super effective damage. Mamo would be better against a CM Celebi though.
Heatran - You have your own Heatran, that's enough of a counter right there. Other than that, you have a bunch of ways of beating it. Every single pokemon on your team can hit it for super effective damage.
Infernape - Salamence, Heatran, and Starmie beat it.
Jolteon - If it doesn't have HP Grass, Swampert can wall it. If it does you can use Salamence, Mamoswine, or Heatran instead.
Latias - Heatran or Salamence. Machamp can nail it on the switch-in with Payback.
Starmie - Aside from your own Starmie, you really don't have an answer.
Zapdos - Swampert walls it if it doesn't have HP Grass. If it does you're going to have a much harder time with it. Mamoswine can get an Ice Shard in I guess.

So in short, I'm not telling you to ditch Heatran, just to consider using a different build.

 

[mood4food77]

subtran I should try? I'll give it a shot but you did point out that I'm pretty weak to infernape still with only salamence checking it

would zapdos work over mamoswine?

 

[Gates]

It depends on what kind of Zapdos you use, but no matter what Zapdos can't really measure up to the type coverage that's given just by using Earthquake. AgiliDos can get good coverage with TBolt, Heat Wave, and HP Grass though. You could also go with a 3 attack+Roost Zapdos for more survivability.

 

[mood4food77]

but i already have 3 pokes using ground moves (salamence, swampert, and heatran)
do i really need 4?

which is why i can afford to lose one of the earthquakes
zapdos also gives me a fighting resitance

 

[Gates]

I guess so.

I was thinking more like a Scarfed Rotom-A for your fighting resistance problem. The best kind of resistance is immunity and there's very little Infernape can do to Rotom otherwise.

 

[mood4food77]

so...

Rotom@Choice Scarf
Timid
4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Trick
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
HP Grass/Fire/Ice

 

[Gates]

Depending on the specific type of Rotom you could use Overheat or Leaf Storm. Air Slash is fine too if you use Rotom-S. HP Ground or HP Fighting are generally used over the HPs you listed since different forms have access to higher power versions of those anyway.

 

[Wave⁂]

HP Fighting rips apart all those Scarf Tyranitars. Besides that, Overheat.

 

[mood4food77]

soooo...

Rotom-A @ Choice Scarf
Timid
6 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Overheat/Leaf Storm/Air Slash
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
HP Fighting

i don't really think i need trick

so far, subtran is working great, not 100% satisfied with rotom though but it's working quite a bit better than mamoswine

 

[Gates]

Trick only lets you completely destroy pokemon that try to wall you. So while you don't NEED it, it would be very, very beneficial.

 

[mood4food77]

actually, after some testing, salamence seems to be the worst guy on the team
he's a pain to switch in

machamp is iffy, but not as much of a pain as salamence

i'm pretty much completely changing my team around

let's go through

swampert does what he needs to, no complaints here, he 2HKO's pretty much every lead, only roserade and smeargle give him troubles as leads

rotom-h is good, he hits hard and with choice scarf, he's fast. he does a great job at stopping wall breaking pokemon, i'm not 100% satisfied with him but he's definitely better than mamoswine on this team

salamence is a pain to switch in, especially with how often SR is up, he's not very bulky but he sure packs a punch. he pretty much 2HKOs the entire metagame (there are exceptions but there aren't many). i might change him to the DD set as that makes him scarier but i'm not sure, suggestions?

heatran is my MVP. he scouts and deals massive damage, he has so many resistances it's not even funny, his ground weakness is easily taken care of by rotom and salamence, his water weakness is taken care of by salamence and starmie, and his fighting weakness is taken care of by all 3, he counters so many pokes it's awesome, i love this guy

machamp is a great pokemon and i love using him, but i don't think he really fits on this team all too well, his rock resistance is greatly welcomed but i feel that someone else could fit here better, i might try breloom here as his weaknesses are either rare (flying, psychic, poison) or easily covered (fire and ice), and he does a pretty good job at countering magnezone who seems to give my team quite a bit of trouble, suggestions?

starmie is great, it spins when it needs to (which is rare) and it completely checks gyarados, the only thing is though, do i really need a spinner? i mean only salamence is weak to it and i'm not really switching him in that often, it always helps but i feel starmie actually would be more effective as a sweeper than a spinner, suggestions?

i got my final team ready, it works great, update in first post

 

[Gates]

swampert does what he needs to, no complaints here, he 2HKO's pretty much every lead, only roserade and smeargle give him troubles as leads
You have (or had) a Resttalker on your team. One of the advantages of resttalking pokemon is that you can switch to them to absorb the sleep moves of other pokemon, including Smeargle and Roserade. Sleep is a status that resttalkers aren't concerned with since they can get around it with Sleep Talk anyway. So unless Roserade is using Energy Ball on Swampert after your resttalker absorbs it and killing your lead before it can set up rocks, you shouldn't have a problem with it.

rotom-h is good, he hits hard and with choice scarf, he's fast. he does a great job at stopping wall breaking pokemon, i'm not 100% satisfied with him but he's definitely better than mamoswine on this team
Glad to hear he's working out.

salamence is a pain to switch in, especially with how often SR is up, he's not very bulky but he sure packs a punch. he pretty much 2HKOs the entire metagame (there are exceptions but there aren't many). i might change him to the DD set as that makes him scarier but i'm not sure, suggestions?
DDMence is definitely a bigger threat to most teams than what you have right now. Try it out and see how it does.

heatran is my MVP. he scouts and deals massive damage, he has so many resistances it's not even funny, his ground weakness is easily taken care of by rotom and salamence, his water weakness is taken care of by salamence and starmie, and his fighting weakness is taken care of by all 3, he counters so many pokes it's awesome, i love this guy

machamp is a great pokemon and i love using him, but i don't think he really fits on this team all too well, his rock resistance is greatly welcomed but i feel that someone else could fit here better, i might try breloom here as his weaknesses are either rare (flying, psychic, poison) or easily covered (fire and ice), and he does a pretty good job at countering magnezone who seems to give my team quite a bit of trouble, suggestions?
I suggest you focus less on your teams defensive typing and more on your offensive type coverage. What you have to ask yourself is what your team needs more: a dark attack (Payback on Machamp) or a grass attack (Seed Bomb on Breloom).

starmie is great, it spins when it needs to (which is rare) and it completely checks gyarados, the only thing is though, do i really need a spinner? i mean only salamence is weak to it and i'm not really switching him in that often, it always helps but i feel starmie actually would be more effective as a sweeper than a spinner, suggestions?
No, you generally do not need a spinner on a team. However, Starmie is a very good sweeper in addition to being a spinner. ScarfStarmie outspeeds ridiculous stuff like Gyara and Salamence after a DD. Try using it for a while and see how you like it.

i got my final team ready, it works great, update in first post

This team seems to be getting better each time I look at it.

 

[mood4food77]

breloom is much better than machamp for this team, spore is much more beneficial for team support and he actually checks gyarados fairly well, better than machamp does (who otherwise gave me a lot of problems)

i might change starmie to be a little more offensive but right now, the set is working fine

 

[mood4food77]

i thought about it but i'm deciding on keeping starmie the way it is

salamence is my weak point on this team, he's pretty much as effective as me putting caterpie there, he pretty much does nothing, any suggestions to what i should do?