EE's recent Smogon Tournament 6 team

[Expert Evan]

Here was my recent Smogon Tournament team at a glance:

This was basically a last-minute team I had put together for the Smogon Tournament 6 as I was trying to focus on a lead that would mess things up at the beginning, have a dual-screen pokemon to setup for my late-game sweeper and fill ins to either remove threats to the late-game sweeper along with some defensive pokemon to wear down the opposition. While this team did not get me past round 1 and it had some success in other random matches participatomg in, I'm basically seeking as to what I could have done to improve for the next opportunity coming around.

Gengar (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Trick
- Thunderbolt
- Energy Ball

Gengar is basically there to either mess up opponent's lead or to hit it hard. I went with specs instead of scarf to mess up a possible physical or one that depended on more than one moveset. Shadow Ball for other ghosts leads, thunderbolt particularly for gyarados & energy ball for any swampert leads. Gengar even with specs can outrun a majority of non-scarfed pokemon still. It just happens it could not outrun the scarfed pokemon it faced in the recent smogon tournament.

Dugtrio (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch

I know dugtrio is weak, but I wanted something that could take care of certain threats my late game sweeper would have problems with, and that included the likes of a heatran or magnezone or even a jolteon that got trick-spec'd with thunderbolt. Dugtrio is only a safe switch-in if I can predict an electric attack. Aerial ace for the likes of breloom & heracross, stone edge for flying/ice types, and sucker punch for likes of rotom-A, gengar and other psychic/ghost types.

Azelf @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Explosion
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Taunt

While I've seen dual-screen leads as success, I inserted this mid-way so it could try and setup screens for my late-game sweeper, then explode when it did its job or if it got taunted. I realized I cannot easily switch this one in unless I was expecting a ground attack as was in the case of my recent smogon tournament match.

Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP/120 Def/136 SDef
Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Electric]

This is mainly my utility pokemon to either setup poison or remove rocks/spikes from the field and to wear down the opposition. Tentacruel is a pain for opponents to take out especially when screens are setup. Tentacruel can be switched in on heatran then setup toxic spikes or remove existing obstacles on an expected switch out. Surf is there to handle likes of heatran, infernape and other fire/ground/rock types. I probably should have gone with HP-Grass here for the likes of swampert as HP-Electric did little here.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP/76 Spd/184 SDef
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Roost
- Thunderbolt
- Roar

Provided that tentacruel successfully did its job, zapdos is there to help wear down the opposition and handle certain threats. I chose roar over Hidden Power Ice to poison the opposition but now realize that gliscor from a random match rendered this set useless so I'll probably could have used toxic or HP-Ice instead for that.

Scizor (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 32 HP/252 Atk/224 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Brick Break
- Bug Bite

Scizor is my late-game sweeper once I'm successfully able to rid of its threats. brick break to destroy any walls in place and not to lose strength from super power, bullet punch for priority and bug bite for additional stab.

At this time, I'm looking to see how I can improve on this team, or perhaps ways I could improve on using this team.

 

[DarkLynx]

Hey EE :]

I think you should rethink about your sweepers choice. Dugtrio is a good trapper to weak pokes, Susbtitute Heatrans are popping up like roaches in OU teams, so you'll lose your only real counter for it, since Dugtrio fail defenses will make it an easy pray to a mighty Fire Blast.

The other problem I see, is that you trust way too much in Scizor capabilities to sweep. People are starting to get pissed with lead Jirachis and the good old Scizor, so I've been seeing a lot of Magnezones later, and a Scarf Magnezone would ohko your ONLY setupper.

Also, Scizor without Roost fails to break the mighty TauntSkarmory (I say mighty, because I've won a weak metagame tourney because my opponent couldn't setup on him or kill it).

And I also think you should reconsider your Tentacruel, besides being a great spinner, Toxic Spikes isn't very useful on OU metagame, because most sweepers don't care about poison, since most of them are steel type/flying type/levitate/rest talker (Latias, Heatran, Scizor, Salamence, Dragonite, Jirachi, Azelf, Zapdos, RestTalkSuicune, Lucario, Breloom).

As you can see, most sweepers don't care about toxic spikes, so you should consider spikes (with that, steel types will have lots of problems).

May I suggest:

Tentacruel ---->
Skarmory@Shed Shell
- Taunt
- Spikes
- Roost
- Brave Bird

Why? It would scout your opponent for Magnezone threats, so that way you'll be able to get a Scizor setup without worrying being trapped by a nasty Magnezone.

But that will make you weak to fire type moves, so may I suggest:

Heatran@Shucca Berry (I think it's that berry...It's the one that weaks ground type moves)
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Explosion/Substitute

With Heatran as your lead, you'll make your opponent wants to kill it with Earthquake, giving you a free switch to Azelf to setup even further.

Hope my suggestions helps.

 

[Snorlaxe]

Hello EE! Cool team, but there are a few things that I would consider if I were you. To be honest I'm not really seeing the purpose for Dugtrio on this team. At the moment Dugtrio is your counter to threats such as Heatran, Magnezone, and Jolteon (you didn't mention Dragon Dance Tyranitar in Duggy's description but I can also see him being a huge bitch to your team). I'm also seeing a bit of a Swords Dance Lucario weakness on the team (ones with Stone Edge anyway). Lucario can easily set up a Swords Dance against anything that Tentacruel throws at it, as well as Gengar or Dugtrio locked into the wrong move. The Dual Screens help, but Lucario could certainly cause problems for your team. It can then OHKO everything on the team with the appropriate move (Stone Edge / Close Combat / Extremespeed) after a Swords Dance, barring Gengar. Another problem I see with the team is the lack of Stealth Rock. In order to fix all of these problems, I think that you may want to consider changing Dugtrio to a Gliscor and putting him in the lead position. Try this set:

Gliscor @ Leftovers | Sand Veil
Jolly | 252 HP | 40 Def | 216 Spe
Earthquake | Stealth Rock | Roost | U-turn

Earthquake allows Gliscor to have a good STAB move and is useful against Metagross, Heatran, Jirachi, and Tyranitar leads (among others). Stealth Rock is a huge asset on this team, as I feel that this team's more defensive nature causes a lot of switches. Stealth Rock is a nice source of residual damage that I feel is very important on your team. Roost allows Gliscor to heal off any damage that it may have taken from the opponents attacks, and is especially useful against a more defensive Pokemon such as Gliscor. U-turn is used in the final slot so that Gliscor can escape to a fresh teammate in order to scout the opposing team and create favorable matchups. The EV spread allows Gliscor to outspeed and OHKO all forms of Lucario, even Jolly ones, and OHKO with Earthquake. As far as other options go, Taunt could be used over U-turn if you feel that you are going to want dual-Taunt users on the team. That could help a lot against stall, but I feel that one Taunt user is enough. You could also run 88 Attack EVs on Gliscor so that it is guarenteed to 2HKO opposing lead Metagross, but more often than not these EVs are better off being placed in Gliscor's defenses. Should you decide to use Gliscor as your lead, then simply change Gengar's set to a Life Orb Gengar.

If you are aiming for Scizor to sweep, then I can think of some ways in which to better accomplish this. I currently think that Tentacruel seems sorta out of place on this team, as its only real purpose is to Spin, absorb Toxic Spikes, and set up your own Toxic Spikes. While Toxic Spikes would be helpful on the team, I feel like Tentacruel isnt doing much else in the meantime; the only other thing it does for you that helps is Spin away Rocks to stop Zapdos from losing chunks of health on the switchin. Azelf's Taunt and stallbreaking nature do contribute to stopping Rocks quite a bit however, and so I feel like an Offensive Calm Mind Suicune would be a great addition over Tentacruel. Offensive Calm Mind Suicune is great for this team, as it is a great way to wear down physical walls that trouble Scizor. In addition, it provides the team with a more solid defender than Tentacruel. The great thing about Calm Mind Suicune on this team is the Dual Screens. If you thought Tentacruel was a pain for your opponents behind Dual Screens, Suicune is easily two times worse. Use this set:

Suicune @ Leftovers | Pressure
Timid | 4 HP | 252 SpA | 252 Spe
Calm Mind | Surf | Ice Beam | Hidden Power Electric

Calm Mind is a great boosting move as it makes Suicune both more deadly and more bulky all in the same turn. The best part about it is, thanks to Dual Screens, Suicune will be nigh-impossible for the opponent to stop. At the very least, Suicune should get two Calm Minds under Dual Screens, provided you play intelligently. Surf is the obligatory STAB move as it is a great combination of power and reliability. Ice Beam gives Suicune a nice weapon with which to hit Salamence and friends, all of whom fail to significantly damage Suicune after a few Calm Minds / when behind Dual Screens. Hidden Power Electric allows Suicune to break past fellow bulky Waters such as Vaporeon and Gyarados after a few Calm Minds, as well as just round off the type coverage nicely (Ice Beam + HP Electric = psuedo-BoltBeam). For other options you could use Life Orb as the item if you really want Suicune to hit hard, but generally Leftovers is superior for survivability. A plus to Suicune is that it can counter Sub+Petaya+Agility Empoleon well, who would threaten this team pretty badly should any other Pokemon be used in Tentacruel's spot.

As far as minor changes go, have you ever thought about using Heat Wave over Substitute on Zapdos? Substitute is useful for blocking status, critical hits, etcetera, but sees little use on Zapdos outside of that (except for like SubRoost stall). Heat Wave gives Zapdos a reliable way of dealing with Steel-type Pokemon (barring Heatran), especially Scizor. This is very important, as your team currently lacks a Fire-type move. As such, Pokemon like Bronzong could be a big problem for you to handle, as they can fairly easily tank your attacks. Also, I think that a Calm nature would be a better choice on your Zapdos, as with it it could more easily take hits from the specially spectrum, and then phaze out threats such as Calm Mind Latias and Jirachi with Roar. Specially Defensive Zapdos usually runs a Calm nature as it is, and while Timid and the speed EVs allow Zapdos to outpace Adamant Lucario, with Gliscor on your team (should you decide to change to Gliscor) Lucario becomes an obsolete threat.

Hope I helped, and good luck with your team Expert Evan! ;)

 

[Setsuna]

Hi.

Before starting to rate I would like to say that this team is lacking some important things, and that is probably why isn't being that effective.

First off, I can understand your idea of crippling leads with Gengar, and I like it somehow, though I think you have a better option for that role: Rotom-c.

Rotom-c @ Leftovers
Bold nature
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 58 SAtk / 76 SDef
- Leaf Storm
- Shadow Ball
- Will-o-wisp
- Thunderbolt

In my opinion, Rotom-c does a better job as an anti-lead and it will always win against the common leads but Roserade and Smeargle that put it to sleep. I made this set some time ago when I had the same purpose as you in mind, so I arranged the EVs to never loose in front of Azelf, Swampert, Metagross, Hippowdon, Aerodactyl, Bronzong.
Rotom can even be alive for late game and give the opponent some headache again with WoW or something.
Give it a try ;)

The next 'detail' that I would like to point out, is the fact that when you are using a double screen Pokémon is because you have some important sweepers that want to cover. And in this case you are just relying on Scizor for the sweeping part, so that's not good.
Forgive me if I twist your team a bit but I feel it necessary; my next recommendation will be to fit Gliscor over Dugtrio in order to counter SD Lucario, have a better check for things like Machamp, and get SR up!

Gliscor @ Leftovers
Jolly nature.
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Spd
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt / Ice Fang / U-turn
- Roost

Like I said, SD Lucario was giving you a hard time if Zapdos or the LeadGar got down, wasn't it? Besides, Gliscor offers you the opportunity of setting SR up, which are going to help a lot, and it also means support in the physical side, good support.
Use Taunt if you want to prevent Skarmory/Forretress from using Spikes. Ice Fang is there in case you don't Mence to set up on you or to get rid of a Flygon trapped in Outrage.

So now we have a good anti-lead, we have Stealth Rock, we have a sweeper and we also have a Azelf for the screens. What do we need? At least another sweeper obviously, which is gonna be Suicune in Tentacruel's spot:

Suicune @ Leftovers
Timid nature.
EVs: 120 HP / 228 Spd / 160 SpA
- Calm Mind
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- HP Electric

CM + 3 attacks Cune, works decently well paired with with screens as it allows it to use Calm Mind more than in normal conditions. I didn't see the point of running Toxic Spikes when you are only "abusing" of them with Zapdos' Roar, and that is practically nothing considering that you didn't even have SR and TS just poisons, not inflicts imminent damage like Spikes does for example. The only thing you would probably miss now is the ability to counter Infernape in all ways, though considering that LO Heatran is still troublesome, the situation hasn't changed too much.

As a last note, I think you should try out another set on Zapdos, like something with Heat Wave in order to not fail the OHKO against SD Scizor, Breloom. Roar was never a really good option in the team, so it should be replaced imo.

Good luck.