A Gen 5 OU team

[tachimegun]

Hello guys, this is my current Gen 5 OU team I am using in PO.

Main Team

Standard + Lead
Ferrothorn (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 124 SDef
IV: 0 Spd
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock

Set up Stealth Rock and Leech Seed, if possible. If the Pokemon you face gonna use Taunt, attack with either Gyro Ball or Power Whip. Fire attacks can be absorbed by either Snorlax or Tentacruel, or even Gyarados. I've never seen this guy being OHKOed by any unboosted attack. Minimum speed is needed for maximum Gyro Ball power.

CurseLax
Snorlax (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 188 HP / 104 Def / 216 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Body Slam
- Crunch
- Rest
- Curse

With its special bulk, it can safely switch into a special attacker such as Starmie or Volcarona (even more Fire or Ice attacks, thanks to Thick Fat), then Curse as many as possible until you are in danger. Then do either Rest or attack the enemy. 30% Body Slam paralyze chance is very helpful, considering the fact that this Snorlax is involved in a stall war occasionally. Fighting Pokemon have always been a problem, especially if you don't have the time to Curse more. Liquid Ooze Tentacruel is there to take Drain Punches from Pokemon like Conkeldurr. Spiritomb can also take Fighting attacks freely.
On its offensive side, with only Body Slam and Crunch, Snorlax may have a tough time to remove Steel types. Magnezone has the duty to kill those steels.

Toxic Spikes
Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Surf
- Venoshock

Set up Toxic Spikes and removes any hazards that have been set up. It has a good enough bulk to absorb Fighting or Fire attacks. Liquid Ooze is to punish Drain Puncher and Leech Seeder. Surf as a main STAB. Venoshock works quite well with Toxic Spikes, if Tentacruel can stay longer.

Steel Killer
Magnezone @ Air Balloon
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SAtk / 216 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon

Magnezone traps and kills Skarmory, Forretress, Scizor, even Ferrothorn and they other friends. Thunderbolt as a main STAB, Hidden Power Fire is for Bug/Steel Pokemon such as Scizor. Flash Cannon as a secondary STAB for anyone else.

Choice Band + Trick
Spiritomb (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Pursuit
- Shadow Sneak
- Sucker Punch
- Trick

Spiritomb absorbs Fighting attacks. Each of its moves have its own role, and you will need some predictions in using its move. Note that it is choiced for more power. Pursuit if your enemy is running away. Otherwise, Sucker Punch if the enemy is attacking (in the other word, to revenge kill), or Shadow Sneak if it is not. Three of those moves, if you can predict correctly, ignores Speed so we don't need to invest Speed EVs. Alternatively, Trick can be used to render a staller or an annoyer useless.
It can also absorb the less used Psychic attacks. However it will be more often used to pursue Psychic and Ghost types such as Reuniclus and Gengar.
The bad point is that the move set has a very poor coverage. Even it should do a not very effective Pursuit to pursue the Fighting Pokemon it is occasionally switch into.

Offensive Dragon Dance
Gyarados (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Earthquake

Main sweeper. Switch into an attack it can take (e.g. Fighting and Fire attacks are both usually being targeted to Ferrothorn), and dance while the enemy is panic switches. One or two Dragon Dances are enough to sweep 2-4 Pokemon, if you're lucky enough not to face any physical wall, or until it dies because of its Life Orb. Moxie helps to make your sweeping smoother.

Substitutes
These substitutes are mainly to replace Spiritomb and sponge Fighting attacks.

Sigilyph (F) @ Flame Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Cosmic Power
- Psycho Shift
- Stored Power
- Roost
Switch into a fighting attack and Cosmic Power while the foe is switching out, or Psycho Shift to burn it. Stored Power works very well with Cosmic Power, increasing its power by 40 for every Cosmic Power.

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psyshock
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover
- Calm Mind
Switch into a fighting attack and Calm Mind while the foe is switching out. Psyshock is useful since it can hit special wall like Blissey.

Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Acrobatics
- Fling
Poison yourself and activate Poison Heal, fling the Toxic Orb since you don't need it anymore and poison the opponent while doubling Acrobatics power. Protect once in two turns to get more Poison Heal healing while the opponent suffers its poison even more.

I think the main problem with my team is about dealing with Fighting types. 50% of my team (Ferrothorn, Snorlax, Magnezone) is weak to Fighting attacks, while another 50% resists. Those who resist don't have any super effective attack against Fighting. In instance, Pokemon such as Machamp, Conkeldurr and Breloom are usually hard to deal with.
Besides Fighting, Electric and Fire may also be a problem. At least this is not as bad as Fighting weaknesses, since the Pokemon involved are the same, so they can cancel each other: Tentacruel and Gyarados are weak to Electric and resist Fire, while Ferrothorn and Magnezone are weak to Fire and resist Electric. Another problem is when the enemy has a Fire and Electric move in one Pokemon, e.g. Genesect with Flamethrower and Thunderbolt.


Thanks for reading! Any good and harsh words are appreciated!

 

[The Knights of Wario Land]

Nice team! Here's my positive and negative list for your team.

PROS:
-An all-around good team that is effective against most types
-Great natures and EVs
-A lot of defensive and attacking Pokemon

CONS:
-Abscense of Stealth Rock. A Poison or a Flying type might have a lot of strength against most of your Pokemon
-Your Snorlax has nothing to help with its Rest. A move like Sleep Talk or a Berry would help a lot
-Overabuse of Leftovers. I think your Tentacruel could be holding something a bit better.

Overall, though, it's a fine team. It'll definitelly give mine a whoopin'!

 

[Our Wasted Years]

You could give Gyra Bounce over EQ or Ice Fang and it could deal with the Fighting types. Only downfall to this is Conkledurr can Bulk Up for an extra turn, and Breloom can Sub down and kill you with your own Life Orb recoil. So I think you might wanna try Latios or Latias(I just don't know what it would replace). They both resist fighting and can OHKO the threats with either Draco Meteor or Psychic / Psyshock.

Also I'm curious, does your team do well against Sandstorm teams? I could see Snorlax and Ferrothorn doing well, but it looks like SD Excadrill could cause you problems.

 

[tachimegun]

Nice team! Here's my positive and negative list for your team.

PROS:
-An all-around good team that is effective against most types
-Great natures and EVs
-A lot of defensive and attacking Pokemon

CONS:
-Abscense of Stealth Rock. A Poison or a Flying type might have a lot of strength against most of your Pokemon
-Your Snorlax has nothing to help with its Rest. A move like Sleep Talk or a Berry would help a lot
-Overabuse of Leftovers. I think your Tentacruel could be holding something a bit better.

Overall, though, it's a fine team. It'll definitelly give mine a whoopin'!

Thanks for your thoughts!
- I am not a big fan of Stealth Rock. Pokemon like Charizard are rarely being seen after all. Oh anyway, you're right I guess. How if I replace Ferrothorn's Spikes with Stealth Rock?
- Yes. I just can't find a slot for Sleep Talk and a Berry would cut its longevity with Leftovers. Most of the time when it uses Rest, it has done like 3 or 4 Curses, and thus at that time both its special and physical bulk are great enough to hold for 2 turns sleeping.
- Hmm, maybe. But there are no rule against it, right? If such rule exists, what do you suggest to my Tentacruel? For Ferrothorn I can give it a Rocky Helmet I guess. I won't take the Leftovers off from my Snorlax. xD

Great, thanks once more!

You could give Gyra Bounce over EQ or Ice Fang and it could deal with the Fighting types. Only downfall to this is Conkledurr can Bulk Up for an extra turn, and Breloom can Sub down and kill you with your own Life Orb recoil. So I think you might wanna try Latios or Latias(I just don't know what it would replace). They both resist fighting and can OHKO the threats with either Draco Meteor or Psychic / Psyshock.

Also I'm curious, does your team do well against Sandstorm teams? I could see Snorlax and Ferrothorn doing well, but it looks like SD Excadrill could cause you problems.

Thanks for your thoughts!
Bounce seems to be a good idea. I'll try it. Yup, I'll keep that downfall in mind.
Oh yes, Latios. I wonder why I've never considered Latios for my team. Maybe I can replace Spiritomb? Since one of the main roles of my Spiritomb is to take Fighting attacks, and Latios definitely can. The downfall is that instead of having a Pursuit user, now I have a Pokemon that is vulnerable to Pursuit.

Oh, Excadrill with Sand Rush, right? I see. Is it weird that I've never encountered that kind of Excadrill before? Or maybe I've encountered it before and have killed it before it set its Sword Dance.. Sorry, I can't recall! Do you have any suggestion to counter such Excadrill?

 

[coolking503]

Excadrill cant touch magnezone, provided it has its baloon intact (barring brick break). Also, If you plan on using a Lati to sponge fighting attacks, use Latias, since its bulkier. Yes, it hits slightly weaker, but you need bulk instead. Also, if you need a good fighting resist, both sygilyph and Xatu are good and can be made bulky. Also, sygliph can use psych shift to burn them or try to KO with air slash/psychic, and xatu can also try to KO, but has the benifit of magic bounce.

 

[Jaxon]

Try Choice Specs with Psychic, Shadow Ball, Dark Pulse, Trick and modest on Spiritomb. Psychic can beat down on those fighting types and tricking a band on conkeldurr would be pretty bitter-sweet.

 

[coolking503]

First off, no sane roobishin stays in on spiritomb. Second off, why in the world would you run Band on a special set? There are choice specs, you know. Lastly, that type combo leaves you walled by every dark AND Steel type in the game. That is particularly incredible when considering that dark + fighting has perfectcoverage minus heracross, and ghost fighting is perfect without exception. USe HP fighting, Shadowball, and a coverage move if you are running a special set.

that being said, if you stic with spiritomb, stick to a CB set or one with leftovers and will o wisp. More of a wall, you know?

 

[Angad]

First off, no sane roobishin stays in on spiritomb. Second off, why in the world would you run Band on a special set? There are choice specs, you know. Lastly, that type combo leaves you walled by every dark AND Steel type in the game. That is particularly incredible when considering that dark + fighting has perfectcoverage minus heracross, and ghost fighting is perfect without exception. USe HP fighting, Shadowball, and a coverage move if you are running a special set.

that being said, if you stic with spiritomb, stick to a CB set or one with leftovers and will o wisp. More of a wall, you know?

He said Specs.

 

[coolking503]

My bad, misread, that being said, the rest of the post remains true.

 

[Jaxon]

but why wouldnt conkeldurr stay in on spiritomb? Its not like hes afraid of WoW, since most ppl give him guts and he can beat him down w/ payback or stone edge. That being said, spiritomb needs to take durr down ASAP. Preying on his weak SpDef wud let him do that, right? Still, youre right about the coverage. You caould replace Dark Pule with HP fighting.

 

[coolking503]

Conkeldurr usually has the role of revenge killer or late game sweeper/tank. A revenge killer has no buiness staying in on something it cant kill, especially if its already choiced. Thanks to team preview, a late game sweeper wouldnt even come in until its counters (spiritomb) are defeated. Not to mention that it would switch out because it cant do sufficient damage to spiritomb when other pokemon can. Same with the Tank. yes, it may kill tomb before tomb kill sit normally, but not in this case. However, If I was the person with conkeldurr, I would switch out to something which threatens Spiritomb. Why do you want your sweeper to get weakened significantly (assuming you havent yet used psychic anc your opponent doesnt know you have it) when you could save its health and still threaten Spiritomb out. THis is a situation where you are looking at it from your perspective (I wand that pokemon to stay in) and not the opponent's (OK, so roobishin CAN kill spiritomb, but will take quite a hit. On the other hand, Voltos KO's it faster and isnt hurt. hmm...) You have to look at it from a more in depth perspective from the other team. Chances are, if you like a matchup, they dont.

Also, a good battler will usually try to find out what set you are running before deciding to suicide bomb with roobishin. As such they probably will switch out and get hit with an unStab'd, base 92 spA psyichic nuetrally, and realize why they shouldnt stay in. Chances are, it wont work.

Also, I think tentacruel should use surf over scald. You are running toxic spikes (to poison the opponent) and Venom Shock (which hits like a wet paper bag without poisoning), yet still want to burn the opponent. Chance are, the opponent is poisoned and scald is just a weaker surf at that point. Otherwise, the pokemon is a flying, levitating, or steel type. Of which, Gliscor and Flygon KO you, Skarm does what it does, sets up for pretty much free, As does ferrothorn. Scizor has no buisness switching in, since it cant touch you anyways. Surf will just hit it harder or hit the switch in harder (more likely). Lati@s doesnt care for a burn and is probably walled anyways, and shouldnt be switching in. Exadrill just KOs you first. Heatran cant get burned. Jirachi is one advantage, but only if its a cosmic power or calm mind set. Other sets would switch out. Rotom-w Will do much more damage to you and you shouldnt try to burn it anyways. Dnite is a possible advantage, though you are better off switching to gyarados off the bat (to avoid EQ and KO with ice fang). Voltos kos you or sets up, and doesnt care for a burn. Gengar has no problem being burned, and will probably use substitute and disable anyways. Gyarados is a pro, but you probably are better of switching to magnezone in case it doesnt burn, they set up and KO you, getting a +3+2 gyarados. etc. You get the idea.

 

[g3rgni]

For the most part, Psychic is a terrible attacking type. I would be reluctant to give an attack of that type to anything that doesn't receive a STAB boost from it.

Anyway, I think the topic creator should replace his Snorlax with an SD Gliscor because it has good synergy with the rest of his team and, unlike Snorlax, it does not become set-up bait for Pokemon like Terrakion. Here's the moveset:

Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang / Facade

 

[tachimegun]

Sorry for being away for a while. Anyway, many thanks for the responses, coolking503, Jaxon and Heathcliff Huxtable!

Excadrill cant touch magnezone, provided it has its baloon intact (barring brick break). Also, If you plan on using a Lati to sponge fighting attacks, use Latias, since its bulkier. Yes, it hits slightly weaker, but you need bulk instead. Also, if you need a good fighting resist, both sygilyph and Xatu are good and can be made bulky. Also, sygliph can use psych shift to burn them or try to KO with air slash/psychic, and xatu can also try to KO, but has the benifit of magic bounce.

I've tried replacing Spiritomb with Xatu, Latias, and Sigilyph. It seems that Sigilyph did the job the best. Xatu is just terrible in its stats, and regarding the magic bounce, I have a rapid spinner and Fighting types do not set up spikes or SR after all. I'm not very sure about Latias, I just cannot find its right role in my team, besides sponging fighting attacks, which can be done better by Spiritomb, Sigilyph or even Tentacruel. However, I think replacing Spiritomb with Sigilyph is better only if my opponent has a fighting type like Conkeldurr.

Try Choice Specs with Psychic, Shadow Ball, Dark Pulse, Trick and modest on Spiritomb. Psychic can beat down on those fighting types and tricking a band on conkeldurr would be pretty bitter-sweet.

Thanks to coolking503 for his reasoning for not running this set. Besides, my Spiritomb main role is as a pursuiter and a priority user. I also want to add that a Spiritomb using Psychic will invite another Dark type, which Spiritomb cannot really face. Lastly, I think Spiritomb is too slow to run a choice set and fortunately it is gifted with some priority moves. Why not use it?

Also, I think tentacruel should use surf over scald. You are running toxic spikes (to poison the opponent) and Venom Shock (which hits like a wet paper bag without poisoning), yet still want to burn the opponent. Chance are, the opponent is poisoned and scald is just a weaker surf at that point. Otherwise, the pokemon is a flying, levitating, or steel type. Of which, Gliscor and Flygon KO you, Skarm does what it does, sets up for pretty much free, As does ferrothorn. Scizor has no buisness switching in, since it cant touch you anyways. Surf will just hit it harder or hit the switch in harder (more likely). Lati@s doesnt care for a burn and is probably walled anyways, and shouldnt be switching in. Exadrill just KOs you first. Heatran cant get burned. Jirachi is one advantage, but only if its a cosmic power or calm mind set. Other sets would switch out. Rotom-w Will do much more damage to you and you shouldnt try to burn it anyways. Dnite is a possible advantage, though you are better off switching to gyarados off the bat (to avoid EQ and KO with ice fang). Voltos kos you or sets up, and doesnt care for a burn. Gengar has no problem being burned, and will probably use substitute and disable anyways. Gyarados is a pro, but you probably are better of switching to magnezone in case it doesnt burn, they set up and KO you, getting a +3+2 gyarados. etc. You get the idea.

Thanks for the quite exhaustive list. I agree on most parts, except for the Ferrothorn and Skarmory part. They may set up but then I'll spin them all. Ferrothorn may also set a leech seed on me but that will only suck its own life, thanks to liquid ooze. Nevertheless, I got the idea. One more Pokemon is Conkeldurr, which I really liked to scald and burn. I was not aware that Conkeldurr can have Guts. Shame on me.

For the most part, Psychic is a terrible attacking type. I would be reluctant to give an attack of that type to anything that doesn't receive a STAB boost from it.

Anyway, I think the topic creator should replace his Snorlax with an SD Gliscor because it has good synergy with the rest of his team and, unlike Snorlax, it does not become set-up bait for Pokemon like Terrakion. Here's the moveset:

Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang / Facade

Yeah.

I've used Gliscor before, and it did quite well and had a good synergy with the rest of the team, as you said. It was running a more stall oriented set, though:

Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Acrobatics
- Fling

Poison yourself, fling and poison the opponent while doubling acrobatics power. Protect to get more Poison Heal power while the opponent suffers its poison.
I was using this Gliscor in place of Spiritomb, not Snorlax. The reasons why I replaced it with Spiritomb are: Spiritomb is immune to Fighting attack (the main point of the existence of my Gliscor is to take a Fighting attack and counter it) while it can do some other role: pursuiter and priority user. It also has no weaknesses.
I'm sorry to say that I would not replace Snorlax. Snorlax is my best friend since I know competitive metagame, I grow with it and I love it. I found that CurseLax - sponge a special attack, curse until you're bored, rest off damages, and finally hit with power - is just my style.