Stop cleaning, Suicune!!!!

[Lady Alex]

Team at a Glance

When I made this team, I wanted to utilize baton pass without having a team that crumbles without it, but immensely benefits from it. I've never really liked baton pass teams, since they are usually gimmicky and fall apart if no stats get baton passed, but I've had great success with this team so far.
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Azelf@light clay
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Jolly
Evs: 252 hp, 252 speed, 4 atk
-Light Screen
-Reflect
-Explosion
-Stealth Rocks

Azelf is an amazing lead for setting up reflect/light screen. It's always able to set up at least one reflect or light screen, and is usually able to set up both without dying. explosion is used mid-late game for revenge killing after im confident they wont switch in a ghost. With my original team, I had a lot of trouble with lead machamp, but after a reflect, I can switch into gliscor with ease and machamp becomes setup fodder. The only lead I've struggled with is lead ambipom. I'm usually forced to switch because fake-out + pursuit takes azelf out. with the investments in hp, even choice banded tyranitar (which isnt likely to be a lead anyway), only 2hkos with crunch, allowing azelf to set up both screens.

vs top ten leads:
Azelf- Hope to win the speed tie and set up a screen before switching out to gliscor

Aerodactyl- Usually the best option is to simply switch out.

Swampert- set up stealth rocks and screens and switch to breloom, who is fine with taking an ice beam with screens up.

machamp- usually just set up reflect and switch to gliscor, who can set up pretty easily on lead machamp, even with being confused.

metagross- set up reflect (setting up both would sacrifice azelf) and switch to gliscor, who can take anything lead metagross throws at it.

jirachi- trickscarf jirachi might be problematic. the only thing i could do is set up reflect and switch out.

infernape- not much of a problem. fakeout only does an average of 13% to azelf and then i can set up light screen/reflect.

ninjask-i think switching to breloom is my best option, who can spore whatever it switches into, as long as i predict the turn they baton pass.

roserade- set up at least light screen and switch to breloom if roserade puts azelf to sleep. it will use spikes/toxic spikes and breloom can come in and take an hp fire the next turn and
spore roserade.

hippowdon- set up reflect and light screen and switch out to gliscor or suicune.

Gliscor@yache berry
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 hp, 196 spD, 60 spe
-Taunt
-Baton pass
-Rock Polish
-Swords dance

with screens up, Gliscor is an absolute tank. when switching into gliscor, i am almost ALWAYS able to set up rock polish. after a rock polish, gliscor reaches 530 speed, where only choice scarfed max speed azelf/starmie, +2 kingdra, and +1 ninjask outspeed it in OU. Gliscor lures in ice and water type attacks, which is great for baton passing to metagross and suicune, who take minimum damage, especially with light screen up. changed leftovers to yache berry so that gliscor can have an additional turn of setup, increasing my chances for sweep. ice type attacks dont faze gliscor with yache berry + light screen. The occasional crobat could possibly give this set trouble, but it isn't as if im going to be switching gliscor in on crobat. if crobat switches in on gliscor, ill already have a rock polish set up.

Suicune@leftovers
ability: Pressure
Nature: Timid
Evs: 252 sp atk, 252 spe, 4 hp
-hp electric
-hydro pump
-ice beam
-calm mind

I chose suicune because of its natural bulk, fairly good type coverage and access to calm mind. After receiving a rock polish from gliscor, suicune reaches 590 speed, outspeeding... almost everything realistic. Since i usually switch suicune in on something not very effective WHILE reflect/light screen is up, suicune is usually able to set up 2/3 calm minds, giving it 556/717 sp atk. Blissey, of course walls this set, and suicune is forced to switch, usually to breloom. I picked leftovers over life orb because its vital to suicune's survivability. After suicune has already been warn down, leftovers turns many 1hkos into 2hkos. Snorlax and the rare lanturn also give this set trouble. hydro pump only 3hkos snorlax at +2 (has a chance of 2hkoing if stealth rocks are out) and lanturn isnt going down from suicune.

breloom@toxic orb
ability: toxic heal
Nature: Adamant
Evs: 252 atk, 252 spe, 4 hp
-Focus punch
-spore
-substitute
-seed bomb

Standard spore puncher. Able to come in on anything it resists and wreaks havoc. having screens up gives it more liberty as to what it can switch in on, which is always nice. Usually used mid-late game, after I know the opponents team and they have no counters left. It also greatly appreciates a rock polish from gliscor, allowing it to outspeed and set up on many of its counters. giving it a swords dance isnt really worthwhile since typically metagross wants it more than breloom, but is always an option.

Raikou@life orb
ability: pressure
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 sp atk, 252 spe, 4 hp
-reflect
-light screen
-shadow ball
-thunderbolt

Raikou is my mid-late game dual screener. its fast, no one expects it to set up screens, and is still able to deal decent damage. After switching it in on something that fears it, it usually attracts a pokemon with earthquake. I reflect on the switch and then switch to gliscor or breloom to take the eq and set up. It's been relatively useful to me, but I'm looking for a substitute that would fill raikou's goal more efficiently. im considering zapdos at the moment. its physically bulky and can set up light screen well. i will miss the speedy reflect/light screen that raikou gives, so im not certain whether i'll replace raikou or not. someone suggested that having two screeners was redundant and i should replace this set with a cm sweeper set, but raikou doesnt compare to suicune as a cm sweeper. since suicune has hp electric, the coverage raikou provides is pretty poor. i need for this raikou to set up reflect/light screen because it often isnt feasible to rely on azelf for reflect/light screen the entire match.

Metagross@life orb
ability: clear body
Nature: adamant
Evs:40 hp 252 atk 216 spe
-thunder punch
-ice punch
-earthquake
-meteor mash

Agiligross Evs without agility. I did this because metagross usually receives a rock polish from gliscor, but even if it doesnt, it still functions well and can force a lot of switches. forgoing agility allows me to use an additional attack, increasing coverage. in the event that im able to set up rock polish and swords dance to baton pass to metagross, it can sweep through entire teams with its monstrous attack and speed.i picked ice punch over zen headbutt for the dd dragonite/gyarados weakness my team has. if suicune is taken out, dd nite would wreck my team. ice punch can also take out flygon if i've scouted the opponent's team and predict the switch.

 

[avroillusion]

So you want a replacement for Raikou? The main site suggests Bronzong do to its more resistant typing and acess to Explosion, but you already have a steel type. Perhaps one with Heatproof? They are seldom expected since the popular sets all use Levitate. Magnezone is also a noteable Dual Screener, but it is also part steel.

Zapdos can also learn Light Screen, but not Reflect. Its stats are nicely balanced. It's typing leaves you prone to Ice Type moves, sadly. Starmie is a fine pokemon that can utilize both screens but shares weaknesses with Suicune. And Cresselia shares weaknesses with Azelf, but it might work provided Azelf already did its duty.

 

[Bogmire]

I have a great deal of experience with the dual screen>gliscor>metagross strategy. a few things

1. Gliscor NEEDS yache berry. I cannot stress this enough. without it your set up WILL be cut short by repeated ice beams from bulky waters. Yache makes it easier to taunt stuff like swampert that might roar you out, because if they decide to ice beam isntead of roar you should still have enough health left to get off a RP and SD (assuming light screen is up)

2. Ice punch is ok on metagross but not as good as zen headbutt. Zen Headbutt is much better because it lands a nice chunk on swampert, rotom, and zapdos (ice punch leaves you walled by the former two). Personally I would go with wide lens since zen failbutt and meteor miss just don't want to hit sometimes (a lot actually, potentially costing you the game). Another option is lum berry which can come in handy if you only got +2 attack and fail to OHKO something like defensive rotom or cresselia (thus getting burned or paralyzed). I'm not really a fan of life orb on BP receiving metagross because if it happens to get critted or eat a SE attack on the switch (some opponents just know you'll go to metagross and use fb/eq since the strategy isnt exactly new), the LO damage will add up fast and on top of priority moves you'll probably find it dead sooner than you'd like. If you wanted a power boosting item I recommend muscle band. So, experiment with these various items and see what suits your team best. If life orb seems the most useful then by all means keep it. Either way, Metagross' EV spread needs to be changed to 40 HP/252 Atk/216 Spe. this will allow it enough speed after a rock polish to outrun scarf rotom as well as the rare scarf porygon-z. You still can't outrun jolly scarf flygon, to that you woul dneed to use a jolly nature which I don't recommend since you lose a lot of power, also scarfgon's EQ is pretty weak and won't 1HKO anyway.

 

[TubaPride]

I'm not a good team rater but I just wanted to say I love you Breloom picture!

 

[Azlanslayer]

I'm not a good team rater but I just wanted to say I love you Breloom picture!

I think you meant Your breloom picture, and lol, you didnt even rate.

On the rate, this team looks like a Offense team, which uses Screens while setting-up. Offense doesn't rely on Prediction as well as a baton passer. Having two screeners is abit redundant, because Raikou is a Sweeper, not a screener. I would recommend you using Raikou as CM raikou, which sweeps under screens.

Solid team, Bogmire suggested using YACHE BERRY on Gliscor, its needed to survive ice attacks. On Metagross, try to use the Ev Spread Bogmire suggested, it outspeeds many stuff which the current metagross can't do.

Good Luck

 

[MissingNo.]

A fairly well balanced team, I honestly can't find a whole lot that's wrong with it, except that Gliscor would probably be a lot more effective with Yache Berry. I like Gliscor because a CB Scizor's Bullet Punch isn't even a 2HKO. I would also STRONGLY advise you to lengthen your descriptions, because the rules clearly state that describing something with Standard X just doesn't cut it. Good luck with your team!

 

[Lady Alex]

thanks guys. changed metagross ev spread to what bogmire suggested and replaced leftovers on gliscor with yache berry. i also expanded my descriptions. im going to TRY muscle band on metagross, but i think im going to stick with life orb, since i really like the added power. I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to replace raikou yet.