Stranger in a Strange Land (My First OU RMT) FINALLY COMPLETE!

[Hawkflight]

Hello, peoples. First off, I'm new to the competitive scene (hence the team name), so please don't bite my head off about anything. I might be willing to replace one or two of my Pokemon, but I prefer not to use legendaries, with the possible exception of Jirachi. Note, this is a future team, to be assembled once I complete Heart Gold, so I'm not yet locked into anything. Even Natures are malleable, as I intend to breed for the perfect team. So egg moves are welcomed as well. (Chain breeding is half the fun, after all.) Also ... I really don't have a clue about IVs or how they work, so any advice on that it more than welcomed. I now present to you, Stranger in a Strange Land.

P.S.: All credit for the images goes to these guys: http://www.arkeis.com/pokemonfactory.htm

P.P.S.: Please see my latest update below.

P.P.P.S.: Help composing a Threat List would be appreciated as well.

'Stranger in a Strange Land' at a glance:

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Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 240 HP / 216 Def / 52 SpD
-Stealth Rock
-Earthquake
-Ice Beam
-Protect / Roar

A Bulky Water / Stealth Rock user, and my lead Pokemon. His typing covers several of my weaknesses, and his severe grass-type weakness is covered by the resistances on four of my other teammates, especially his backup lead Scizor. His primary functions are to counter common leads such as MixApe and lay down Stealth Rock. Earthquake is a given, and Ice Beam protects against opposing Dragonite and Flygon. I'm indecisive about the last slot, as Protect could be used to survive suicide leads, but Roar could help me scout the opposing team from the beginning of the match.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Sp. Def
-U-Turn
-Bullet Punch
-Superpower
-Pursuit

My favorite Revenge Killer / Tank, and my backup lead. Resisting 10 types with only 1 weakness, he can switch in on grass types which give Swampface trouble. U-Turn is for scouting, and for dealing with Starmie. Bullet Punch and Superpower are a given, and Pursuit is a powerful option if you predict right. His EVs allow him to deal massive damage with Bullet Punch, and high HP gives him more survivability on account of lacking Roost.

Jirachi @ Expert Belt
Ability: Serene Grace
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
-Iron Head
-Ice Punch
-Grass Knot
-HP Ground

This half of my JiraNite core was inspired by an edition of Smog, in which they writer detailed some underrated movesets. Its diverse movepool allows it excellent type coverage, while still granting it the ability to abuse flinchhax. I put Hidden Power Ground over Fire Punch for better coverage, an important factor when it comes to using Expert Belt Jirachi (though I admit HP gives me doubts about my current EV spread). Maxed out Speed EVs give Jirachi an edge when using flinchhax.

Dragonite @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Nature: Rash
EVs: 116 Atk / 192 SpA / 202 Spe
-Superpower
-Draco Meteor
-Fire Blast
-Roost

Typical MixNite, and half of my JiraNite core. I wasn't sure what to do with this one, so I went with a standard build from Smogon. However, I replaced Flamethrower with Fire Blast for more power against a SkarmBliss core. Superpower and Draco Meteor are for pure power, though I have my doubts about the latter. Roost gives him survivability, which is important considering he's also carrying a Life Orb.

Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP / 254 Atk / 252 Speed
-Swords Dance
-Close Combat
-Extremespeed
-Stone Edge

Lucario is probably the most unfocused member of my group. He's a powerful, effective Pokemon, but I'm not entirely sure how he fits into the team dynamic. That said, his primary function is the standard Swords Dance sweeper set. I'm sure most of you are familiar with this Pokemon by now. His last move is Stone Edge over Crunch, to counteract fliers such as Gyarados, whom might try to switch into Lucario.

Dusknoir @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 Atk
-Will-O-Wisp
-Earthquake
-Pain Split
-Ice Punch

My wall. This Pokemon counteracts not only opposing walls such as Blissey, but also physical sweepers, which are the most common kind in the OU tier at the moment (by my research). It cripples Pokemon like Lucario and Scizor by inflicting them with a burn. Earthquake is for Pokemon who would otherwise be immune to burn, like Heatran. Pain Split is a healing move, which is particularly effective against enemies with high HP, and Ice Punch is for coverage.

EDIT (9/6/10, 8:12 PM EST): I have put Togekiss and Umbreon on the chopping block, and brought up stats for their potential replacements. Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT (9/8/10, 12:18 AM EST): Whew, finally done I think. I have made the replacements official, and solidified their movesets. Comments are appreciated.
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[Faladran]

Hello,

First of all, for more information on EVs, this is a good article for reference.

I like how you're using some less common Pokemon as team members, but there are a couple of suggestions I'd like to make.

While Agility Empoleon is an excellent sweeper, its lead set functions better with different moves. I think it's best to just go with the analysis page's options in this case. Here is the set below:

Empoleon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Torrent
Modest nature (+SpA, -Atk)
EVs: 156 HP / 252 SpA / 100 Spe
-Stealth Rock
-Hydro Pump
-Aqua Jet
-Grass Knot

Hydro Pump is Empoleon's obligatory STAB attack, dealing heavy damage to just about any opposing lead. Aqua Jet is vital on an Anti-Lead set, as it allows you to get that crucial kill on suicide leads with Focus Sashes by finishing them off with a priority move before they can attack. Grass Knot is useful for hitting bulky Water-types, and deals a large amount of damage against opposing Swampert.

Also, Lucario's item should ideally be Life Orb. The extra power boost it provides is invaluable, and along with Stealth Rock is required to net the kill on several opposing Pokemon. While Aura Sphere is a creative idea, Lucario is best off running a full physical set in this situation. In the context of your team, Stone Edge is probably the best option in the final moveslot, as it allows you to OHKO Gyarados who switch in while you set up Swords Dance, even after the attack drop caused by Intimidate. Other options include Crunch and Bullet Punch, but these moves are primarily used to hit threats that your team already deals well against. Umbreon in particular fares decently against most Ghost-types that cause Lucario trouble, so I would keep it instead of using Dusknoir.

Good luck with your team!

 

[Hawkflight]

Thank you Faladran (awesome name btw). That's very helpful advice. The only thing I have reserves about is running Life Orb on Lucario - I'm rather wary about the 10% life cost per attack. I'll edit my post with some changes when I have the time.

 

[nesan]

K huge Sub Machamp weakness. If Togekiss is down it will go wild. Also Togekiss won't enjoy a 394 powered Stone Edge in it's face. I'd replace Dragonite with a Scarfed Rotom-H. It can handle DD Gyarados, Lucario and possibility Machamp to a limit. Once you deal some damage Machamp can be revenge killed.
With one Swords Dance, Lucario will sweep your entire team. I'd also suggest that you replace Umbreon for a Scarfed Tyranitar. Helps against other Ghost type dudes. In that case you can change Rotom-H to a bulky set with Will-O-Wisp. That should fix few problems and give Lucario and Scizor a chance to sweep. Life Orb on Lucario.

 

[Aqueos]

You have wish support so that's not to big of a worry, especially because lucario takes little damage from sr and none from sandstorm.

 

[Rakan]

Once Togekiss is down, MixApe can go to town with your team: Powerful Close Combats for your Umbreon, Lucario, and Empoleon, any fire attack for Scizor, and HP Ice for Dragonite. I suggest switching your Empoleon lead for Anti-Lead Life Orb/Scarfed Starmie, which provides Fire and Fighting resists useful to your team. I would also suggest replacing Umbreon with a stealth rocker such as MixPert which really balances out your team's weaknesses (Resists fire and rock and is immune to electric, synergizes well with Dragonite, Togekiss, Scizor and Starmie). The added Grass weakness shouldn't be much of a problem since you have four resists, and one of them a 4x resist.

 

[Hawkflight]

Edited. Replaced Empoleon with Swampface. Considered replacing Dragonite's Thunderbolt with Aerial Ace, but didn't want to leave myself vulnerable to Starmie. Also considered replacing Umbreon with Starmie, but voted against it due to the invaluability of Wish support.

 

[Hawkflight]

Okay, the more I learn about Pokemon teams, the more I realize my own is . . . lacking. The thing I notice immediately is that while my team works okay defensively, accounting for each others' weaknesses, it lacks a real core. A couple of my Pokemon work together okay, like Swampert and Lucario, but there are still noticeable weaknesses (Breloom, Celebi), and none of my other Pokemon are well-incorporated into the team. How can I fix this?

 

[avroillusion]

Hm...Scarfed Starmie can still take care of Dragonite even if it Dragon Dances on the switch.

Well, there's a topic in Battling 101 that states that every sucessful team has three parts: A lead and its supporting lead, three pokemon with high synergy to make up the core and a complimentary pokemon to the team made up so far.

So we have our lead: Swampert. Scizor is supposed to be able to take out Celebi and Shaymin, so he can help support Swampert. Now, I don't think the rest of your pokemon have the typing to form a synergy high core. So you might want to pick one and choose partners according to its needs. The last will depend on what you choose for your core. May be a sweeper/revenge killer.

If Celebi and Breloom are your problems, you'll need to pack more fire/flying moves, or a pokemon of that type that's fast enough to not get spored...

 

[Hawkflight]

Okay, edited. Partially inspired by a featured OU RMT I read in Smog, along with what I already have, I'm heavily considering replacing Togekiss with Jirachi. I know I said I wouldn't use any Legendaries, but I think I can make an exception in this case. Maybe. I'm just not too happy about sacrificing 20 SpA and Nasty Plot.

 

[afterburn]

Threats

-Jolly/Adamant Lucario (SD)
-Dragondance Gyarados
-Offensive Suicune
-Infernape(NP)
-Jolteon
-SkarmBliss Core
-Lack of flying type-resist

How they're threats
Lucario can come in on Umbreon with relative ease, grab a Swords Dance boost, and proceed to at the very least, 2HKO your entire team between Close Combat and ExtremeSpeed. More of a problem if its Jolly, because then, you have to risk a speed tie with your own lucario. Offensive Suicune is yet another threat that can come in on Scizor, Swampert, and force Dragonite out due to ice beam, grab a Calm Mind boost and 2HKO or OHKO your entire team between Ice Beam and Hydro Pump. Only Togekiss stands a chance but after SR, and little prior damage, it risks getting KOed by +1 Ice beam. Infernape can force Umbreon, Scizor and Lucario out due to the threat of Fire Blast and Close Combat, grab a Nasty Plot or Swords Dance, and 2HKO your entire team with its STABS, Fire Blast and Focus Blast, or Fire Punch and Close Combat. Its even more threatening with something like mach punch to get past Lucario's Extremespeed. Jolteon, although not as threatening as the other threats, puts a huge dent in all your team members with Specs/LO boosted ThunderBolt, which only Swampert resists, which is taken down by Hidden Power Grass. Finally, the famous Skarmory+Blissey combo can wall your entire team to death and just stall it out with entry hazards, status, etc. Skarmory walls Scizor, Umbreon, Swampert and Dragonite. Blissey takes care of Togekiss. Only Lucario has a chance, and when considering other members stall carry, such as Rotom-A and Hippowdon, Lucario is handled by them.

Solutions
I've suggested this so many times that its not even funny. Choice Scarf Rotom-W works wonders for this team, stopping Lucario, Infernape, Suicune from sweeping you outright, while also giving you a very handy Electric- resist. I suggest Rotom-W specifically as he dents Tyranitar very hard with Hydro Pump, who loves switching in on Rotom formes. Put rotom-W over Umbreon, as the only thing it does for your team is allow set-up from dangerous sweepers. Jolteon is also hit very hard by Hydro Pump, should it switch in expecting ThunderBolt, it can then be picked off by Lucario's Extremespeed

Here's the rotom-A set:

Rotom-w @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 40 Def/216 SAtk/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Trick/or Will-O-Wisp

Now we just need to handle the Skarmory+Blissey weakness, probably with a Stall Breaker of sorts. The obvious choice is to remove Aerial Ace on Dragonite and replace it with Fire Blast. Now Dragonite has the ability to handle Skarmory and Blissey with relative ease, as it fries Skarmory with Fire Blast, and can KO Bold Blissey with SuperPower, roost to alleviate the SR weakness.

As for other options, try brick break over U-turn on Scizor, as u-turn only erases your precious boosts. Brick Break also hits incoming Magnezone and Heatran incredibly hard. Scrape Muscle band off of Lucario, and give it Life Orb for a better damage boost, as lucario is already very frail, the life orb damage really doesn't matter. Give Leftovers to Swampert for consistent 6% recovery, as its meant to tank hits from the likes of DD Dragonite, and wide lens is just useless as it doesn't boost the accuracy of anything on swampert. Also, consider changing Scizor to the Choice Band variant, to revenge threats such as Dragonite with Bullet Punch if Swampert has been weakened. Choice Band Scizor and Swords Dance Lucario also make a very potent combination, as both share the same counters, and Scizor weakening Lucario's counters with repeated U-turns, will end up with Lucario plowing through the foe's team with boosted Close Combats

Thats all I got, GL!

 

[Blatreutka]

If you want to use Scizor as a both a scout and a sweeper i would suggest using superpower over roost. Before people start calling me crazy, i've used the set and it works just fine. Superpower works over brick break against Magnezone, getting a clean OHKO. Scizor can come in as an early scout, then come back late game for a sweep with bullet punch. Other than that, I agree with The LegendKiller's suggestions.

Most mixed Infernape use grass knot specifically to take down Swampert, so you can't really consider it a counter.

Hope i helped

 

[Griiifin]

Hello! Team's looking pretty good, but I wanted to interject with a couple of things. First of all, with scizor you're going to want superpower over U-Turn to break walls that are switched in, and 2, you said you were going to build this team on HeartGold, but you can only get Bulletpunch on a Scizor in Platinum. That's all, and I hope I helped for now.

 

[Hawkflight]

Hello LK, thank you for your response. Please allow me to respond to your points. My responses are in red, inside the quote.

Solutions

I've suggested this so many times that its not even funny. Choice Scarf Rotom-W works wonders for this team, stopping Lucario, Infernape, Suicune from sweeping you outright, while also giving you a very handy Electric- resist. I suggest Rotom-W specifically as he dents Tyranitar very hard with Hydro Pump, who loves switching in on Rotom formes. Put rotom-W over Umbreon, as the only thing it does for your team is allow set-up from dangerous sweepers. Jolteon is also hit very hard by Hydro Pump, should it switch in expecting ThunderBolt, it can then be picked off by Lucario's Extremespeed

Here's the rotom-A set:

Rotom-w @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 40 Def/216 SAtk/252 SAtk (Did you mean Speed?)
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Trick/or Will-O-Wisp

How do I get my hands on the -W variant? I don't have the secret key, or Platinum, so I can't get my hands on it I don't think. Or is this a Pokemon for ShoddyBattle? If so, is there an alternative for DS play?

Now we just need to handle the Skarmory+Blissey weakness, probably with a Stall Breaker of sorts. The obvious choice is to remove Aerial Ace on Dragonite and replace it with Fire Blast. Now Dragonite has the ability to handle Skarmory and Blissey with relative ease, as it fries Skarmory with Fire Blast, and can KO Bold Blissey with SuperPower, roost to alleviate the SR weakness.

I see, I'll do that.

As for other options, try brick break over U-turn on Scizor, as u-turn only erases your precious boosts. Brick Break also hits incoming Magnezone and Heatran incredibly hard.

Are you sure? I put that on to give Scarfed Starmie second thoughts. Although I understand Rotom can fill that role, if I'm gonna switch out anyways, shouldn't I bring some pain on the switch? Or am I just being a noob here?

Scrape Muscle band off of Lucario, and give it Life Orb for a better damage boost, as lucario is already very frail, the life orb damage really doesn't matter.

Well, I can see Life Orb being useful here. But just a thought, what about Choice Scarf, to make it a good revenge killer? I am actually considering changing Lucario, or even the possibility of replacing him with someone more durable, a better revenge killer.

Give Leftovers to Swampert for consistent 6% recovery, as its meant to tank hits from the likes of DD Dragonite, and wide lens is just useless as it doesn't boost the accuracy of anything on swampert

It doesn't boost the accuracy of Hydro Pump? It seems I misunderstood, thanks.

Thats all I got, GL!

Sorry for the double post, but I missed a couple of posts while I was posting my reply.

@Griiifin: Thanks for the suggestions, I'll take it into consideration. FYI, two things: One, you can get Bullet Punch on Scizor in HG/SS, same as in Platinum. I dunno where you got that information, but my sources (serebii.net and bulbagarden) say otherwise. And two, well, even if it is true, I can trade it over to my friend's Platinum to learn it. ;-p

@Both: I believe I inadvertently responded to you in my above post. See my piece about replacing U-Turn

 

[afterburn]

@HawkFlight:

Didn't realize this was for DS play, I suggested Rotom-W for ShoddyBattle, but I will think of something else, as I don't have time right now.

Yes I meant 252Spe :)

As I mentioned, U-turn is pretty useless on a Stat-upper, as it erases the boosts you earned. If you want boosted yet consistent damage, try Choice Band Scizor over your current one, as it already has plenty of power, and so won't need any boosts, and gives you an early game scout.

Wide lens boosts the accuracy of Hydro Pump, but you don't have that on Swampert, so I don't know where you're getting that from, lol.

 

[Hawkflight]

*facepalm*

I forgot . . . that was on Empoleon. . . . >_<

I was considering Choice Band Scizor, but that kinds messes with the synergy with Swampface, doesn't it? Since Scizor can go in on Swampface's major weakness and set up that Swords Dance.

EDIT: Just a question, but wouldn't the enemy see Rotom-W and notice it has Hydro Pump? Why would he switch into a Pokemon with a move he knows will kill him?

 

[Hawkflight]

@TLK: Maybe Dusknoir instead of Rotom?

 

[JellyOs]

Tip: it's better not to flinch, than get a speed boost from it. Cause' if you're up against paraflich, the speed boost may get you no where. So run Inner Focus instead of Steadfast on Lucario. The team looks good though.

 

[Hawkflight]

Ah, thanks for the catch.

 

[Hawkflight]

EDIT (9/6/10, 8:12 PM EST): I have put Togekiss and Umbreon on the chopping block, and brought up stats for their potential replacements. Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Hawkflight]

Updated. Comments are appreciated.