Hey everyone! Synthetic Frost here, looong time player but new to the forums. I played competitively back in the days of R/B/Y/G/S/C winning several local tournaments, but got out of the game as I got older and went through college. But I always kept playing the games for fun.
However, I've recently found myself in a position with a lot of spare time, so I've been working on reviving my old team. However, needless to say, the metagame in OU has changed pretty significantly, so I needed to give my team a new breath of life, swapping out sub-par pokemon for their current equivalents, while keeping my old favorite staples, and trying to preserve the core goal of my team.
So, here we go:
________
Scizor
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 Atk /4 SpD / 252 Spe
Bug Bite
Bullet Punch
Superpower
Swords Dance
My Breaker # 1. Pretty standard set, honestly. I realize he's been played to death in the OU metagame over the years, but I had Scyther as part of my main team in Generation 1, and naturally his Gen 2 evolution kept the same spot. He's been a part of my team since day one before I'd ever heard of Smogon, and honestly I'm just thankful Scizor has held up so well all this time. obviously his moveset and the way I've used him have changed dramatically since Gen 1, but this set is so effective there's really not much to improve on at this point.
Hippowdon
Ability: Sandstream
Nature: Impish
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Earthquake
Ice Fang
Stealth Rock
Slack Off
Hippowdon is my physical wall for all the fighting types that fill the OU metagame. He's also able to set up stealth rock pretty early in the game. His sandstream works beautifully to countermine all the Politoad rain teams that dominate OU at the moment. Because he's slower, Sandstorm always kicks up after Drizzle on battle start. He has great synergy with Scizor too.
He actually works fairly well as a back up dragon killer. Since most people use Salamance or physical variants of Dragonite, Hippowdon can switch in, take a couple hits from outrage, and then proceed to break them up.
Starmie
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Timid
Item: Expert Belt
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Surf
Ice Beam
Psychic / Thunderbolt
Rapid Spin / Recover
Ah, my old Starmie. Starmie was on my team very early on in R/B/Y, and single handedly won me the tournaments of the time. I noticed his absurd speed and special stats before I'd even finished the game for the first time. Only later on did I find out he was by far the fastest water pokemon. He's been with me ever since.
As of now, he serves as my mid-game special sweeper/rapid spinner. I very frequently change his last two move slots back and forth, depending on if I think I'll be dealing with a lot of entry hazards and/or fighting types.
Starmie is also my dragon killer, though this requires a lot of switch prediction, as he is far too frail to switch in without revenge killing.
Rotom-W
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Thunderbolt
Hydro Pump
Will-O-Wisp
Pain Split
Rotom-W is a brand new addition to my team. For the longest time, I used Jolteon. And while I do begrudge having a generally slower team overall without him, Rotom-W and his special defensive girth have made up for it time and time again soaking up attacks aimed at Hippowdon and Infernape. Will-O-Wisp then takes the fight out of anyone that threatens the frailer members of my team. The only real downside, aside from the trade-off in speed, is that my team now has a growing weakness to Grass.
I chose Thunderbolt over Volt Switch because Volt Switch was slowly killing him over time with Sandstorm in play, and it rarely 2HKO'd what it needed to.
Infernape
Ability: Iron Fist
Nature: Naive
Item: Life Orb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Overheat
Close Combat
Thunder Punch
Mach Punch
My late-game sweeper and counter to my team's inability to handle steel and dark types. Ever since R/B/Y, I've LOVE the concept of fire types, but never the role they ended up serving. My old Charizard was immune to earthquake, but weak to what seemed like everything else. Infernape doesn't completely solve this problem, but he's got what are in my mind, the perfect stats for what a fire-type pokemon "should" have. He's fast, he's extremely versatile on both the physical and special side, and he's got about the best move pool I've ever seen on a fire pokemon. Plus, I'll admit, I love the Chinese Zodiac/Journey To The West "wise ape" theme he's got going on.
I give him Mach Punch for priority. Thunder Punch helps very much with my team's weakness to flying types late game, as well as stave off any water type that dares to switch in.
Umbreon
Ability: Syncronize
Nature: Careful
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Payback
Curse
Heal Bell
Wish
My special wall and cleric. Now, I know, I know, Umbreon has no place in OU. I've known that for a long time. But the truth is I just can't find that perfect pokemon for my 6th slot. I realize that Umbreon is outclassed by many others as a special wall, especially with all the new fighting types in Gen 5, and truth be told my team has real weakness to fighting types and strong physical attackers. If something like Lucario gets lucky with a set-up, the moment Hippowdon goes down, I've already lost. So I need a cleric to keep toxic and burns off him. Normally I'm able to predict when it's safe to switch Umbreon in, but that added risk is something I'd like to avoid.
I've tried running without a cleric at all, and the difference was astounding. My team just didn't survive long at all. I NEED a cleric on my team.
I'm very aware my team has a hard time with dealing the Lati Twins and Volcarona, and my weakness to HP Grass doesn't help either. As much as I love Umberon, she's holding my team back. I've tried replacing her with Latias, but Latias was 10x as frail in the sense that she's much more common, and people have counters exclusively for her. Umberon's obscurity has saved her more than once. Few people have active counters for her planned.
As always, any help, suggestions, or criticism is welcome and appreciated. Thank you for your time.
However, I've recently found myself in a position with a lot of spare time, so I've been working on reviving my old team. However, needless to say, the metagame in OU has changed pretty significantly, so I needed to give my team a new breath of life, swapping out sub-par pokemon for their current equivalents, while keeping my old favorite staples, and trying to preserve the core goal of my team.
So, here we go:
________
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 Atk /4 SpD / 252 Spe
Bug Bite
Bullet Punch
Superpower
Swords Dance
My Breaker # 1. Pretty standard set, honestly. I realize he's been played to death in the OU metagame over the years, but I had Scyther as part of my main team in Generation 1, and naturally his Gen 2 evolution kept the same spot. He's been a part of my team since day one before I'd ever heard of Smogon, and honestly I'm just thankful Scizor has held up so well all this time. obviously his moveset and the way I've used him have changed dramatically since Gen 1, but this set is so effective there's really not much to improve on at this point.
Ability: Sandstream
Nature: Impish
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Earthquake
Ice Fang
Stealth Rock
Slack Off
Hippowdon is my physical wall for all the fighting types that fill the OU metagame. He's also able to set up stealth rock pretty early in the game. His sandstream works beautifully to countermine all the Politoad rain teams that dominate OU at the moment. Because he's slower, Sandstorm always kicks up after Drizzle on battle start. He has great synergy with Scizor too.
He actually works fairly well as a back up dragon killer. Since most people use Salamance or physical variants of Dragonite, Hippowdon can switch in, take a couple hits from outrage, and then proceed to break them up.
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Timid
Item: Expert Belt
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Surf
Ice Beam
Psychic / Thunderbolt
Rapid Spin / Recover
Ah, my old Starmie. Starmie was on my team very early on in R/B/Y, and single handedly won me the tournaments of the time. I noticed his absurd speed and special stats before I'd even finished the game for the first time. Only later on did I find out he was by far the fastest water pokemon. He's been with me ever since.
As of now, he serves as my mid-game special sweeper/rapid spinner. I very frequently change his last two move slots back and forth, depending on if I think I'll be dealing with a lot of entry hazards and/or fighting types.
Starmie is also my dragon killer, though this requires a lot of switch prediction, as he is far too frail to switch in without revenge killing.
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Thunderbolt
Hydro Pump
Will-O-Wisp
Pain Split
Rotom-W is a brand new addition to my team. For the longest time, I used Jolteon. And while I do begrudge having a generally slower team overall without him, Rotom-W and his special defensive girth have made up for it time and time again soaking up attacks aimed at Hippowdon and Infernape. Will-O-Wisp then takes the fight out of anyone that threatens the frailer members of my team. The only real downside, aside from the trade-off in speed, is that my team now has a growing weakness to Grass.
I chose Thunderbolt over Volt Switch because Volt Switch was slowly killing him over time with Sandstorm in play, and it rarely 2HKO'd what it needed to.
Ability: Iron Fist
Nature: Naive
Item: Life Orb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Overheat
Close Combat
Thunder Punch
Mach Punch
My late-game sweeper and counter to my team's inability to handle steel and dark types. Ever since R/B/Y, I've LOVE the concept of fire types, but never the role they ended up serving. My old Charizard was immune to earthquake, but weak to what seemed like everything else. Infernape doesn't completely solve this problem, but he's got what are in my mind, the perfect stats for what a fire-type pokemon "should" have. He's fast, he's extremely versatile on both the physical and special side, and he's got about the best move pool I've ever seen on a fire pokemon. Plus, I'll admit, I love the Chinese Zodiac/Journey To The West "wise ape" theme he's got going on.
I give him Mach Punch for priority. Thunder Punch helps very much with my team's weakness to flying types late game, as well as stave off any water type that dares to switch in.
Ability: Syncronize
Nature: Careful
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Payback
Curse
Heal Bell
Wish
My special wall and cleric. Now, I know, I know, Umbreon has no place in OU. I've known that for a long time. But the truth is I just can't find that perfect pokemon for my 6th slot. I realize that Umbreon is outclassed by many others as a special wall, especially with all the new fighting types in Gen 5, and truth be told my team has real weakness to fighting types and strong physical attackers. If something like Lucario gets lucky with a set-up, the moment Hippowdon goes down, I've already lost. So I need a cleric to keep toxic and burns off him. Normally I'm able to predict when it's safe to switch Umbreon in, but that added risk is something I'd like to avoid.
I've tried running without a cleric at all, and the difference was astounding. My team just didn't survive long at all. I NEED a cleric on my team.
I'm very aware my team has a hard time with dealing the Lati Twins and Volcarona, and my weakness to HP Grass doesn't help either. As much as I love Umberon, she's holding my team back. I've tried replacing her with Latias, but Latias was 10x as frail in the sense that she's much more common, and people have counters exclusively for her. Umberon's obscurity has saved her more than once. Few people have active counters for her planned.
As always, any help, suggestions, or criticism is welcome and appreciated. Thank you for your time.
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