First real shot at OU balanced

[Randomdog]

I'm pretty new at making competitive teams but I thought I'd give a balanced team a shot and put it up for criticisim

Bronzong @ Leftovers

Ability: Heatproof

EVs: 252 HP/86 Atk/80 Def/92 SDef

Sassy nature (+SDef, -Spd)

- Gyro Ball

- Stealth Rock

- Explosion

- Earthquake

Standard defensive Bronzong set with a twist, its ability is heatproof instead of levitate. Most people see it as a lead an expect trick room. When it gives them rocks instead they have no idea what to do, what they DONT do is use earthquake on it as 90% of Bronzongs carry levitate.

Latias (F) @ Leftovers

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk

Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Calm Mind

- Recover

- Dragon Pulse

- Surf

I normally try and bring it in on an expected earthquake or after a double KO (usually either from explosion off bronzong or LO recoil from luke) getting it in for free is a big plus and because of its typing often forces my opponent to switch letting me get at least 1 calm mind off, If i'm lucky 2 and then Dragon Pulse or Surf has a good chance of OHKOing 90% of OU. Self healing from recover really helps

Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers

Ability: Sand Stream

EVs: 252 HP/168 Def/88 SDef

Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)

- Earthquake

- Slack Off

- Roar

- Stone Edge

One of my favourite pokemon of all time and her case is helped by being a fantastic tank. Because I already have rocks on Bronzong I've opted for stone edge in the last slot. In testing most people don't realise this and bring in a nice flying type (because that hippo will never hit it with earthquake...). Stone Edge and Earthquake also give very impressive coverage and while I've put no EVs into the area Hippowdon's base attack is actually fairly high

Lucario (F) @ Life Orb

Ability: Inner Focus

EVs: 170 Atk/252 Spd/88 SAtk

Hasty nature (+Spd, -Def)

- Close Combat

- Extremespeed

- Focus Blast

- Shadow Ball

Mixed Lucario. Ghosts attempt to wall it and get hit by shadow ball, If I can I try and use all physical or all special until my opponent is convinced that its either a physical/special luke, send out a wall appropriately and get hit by the other kind of attack. I went for a Hasty nature because I find that getting outsped is a problem and while not much does outspeed him it tends to be very damaging when he is

Breloom (F) @ Toxic Orb

Ability: Poison Heal

EVs: 44 HP/212 Atk/252 Spd

Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

- Substitute

- Leech Seed

- Focus Punch

- Spore

Annoying, yes. Unfair, yes. Verging on overpowered, probably. Do I feel guilty for using it, hell no. As if its not obvious spore starts off the set, seeds are then thrown out and the substitutes then pay for themselves (with poison heal)

Starmie @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Natural Cure

EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk

Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Surf

- Thunderbolt

- Ice Beam

- Psychic

Something new I'm trying out for added coverage. I want to find a way of getting Grass Knot on there somewhere but I'm not sure what to drop for it. Haven't really tested with it enough to make any more comments

The Team at a Glance

[Illithian]

Hello Randomdog;

At a glance, your team seems fine and balanced. I don't see any immediate synergy, but I hope there will be some in depth.

Bronzong: I love the strategy of abusing your opponent's expentancies (Heatproof > Levitate). Be mindful though that the most commonly used move against Bronzong is Fire Blast, and as soon as the Heatproof kicks in, people will start using EQ. If against Salamence, you do have some good switch-ins for the expected Earthquake. However, unlike what you seem to think, in OU Trick Room has little realistic use and Bronzong using Stealth Rock is completely expected. Although as a lead, it is an odd choice, since most everything can set up on it with impunity (DDmence and gyarados most notably), but its fairly easy to predict what it'l do. Make sure it has 0 speed IVs to maximize Gyro Ball's power.

Latias, Hippowdon: Standard

Lucario: Very interesting set. The strategy is fine, as is the EV spread and moveset, but the one thing I'd reccomend is not using a Hasty nature. A +Spd nature is just fine, but you should consider using Naive (+Spd, -SpD) instead. Many of Lucario's counters choose to attack on the physical side of the spectrum, which can cause problems if you have a -Def nature; still though, with the advent of Rotom-h, you'll probably be seeing quite a few Overheating ghosts to come in on Lucario. Just be mindful of that.

Brelooom: Change the order of that strategy to Spore > Sub > Seeds. Simply because the main way to counter Breloom is to send someone to eat Sleep, then switch in a fire attacker. If you don't have a sub up when the fire guy comes in, you aren't fast enough to survive. Anyway, otherwise its the standard poison heal spore-seed.

Starmie: Personally, I think Specs would be better for Starmie, as she's already fast enough to outspeed almost everything thats in her way. And if you opt to keep Scarf, go for Modest instead of Timid as Scarfed, she'll outrun pretty much everything either way. You won't be able to fit in Grass Knot because your team needs something to combat fighting types easily, and Psychic is the only move that can.

Okay, so from what I can see, you have a big Machamp weakness in that none of your pokemon can eat a Dynamicpunch without taking some serious pain (except Hippowdon). You also can't really deal with any fighting types and have nothing that can even remotely touch Scizor. Zapdos can rip through all of your team (except Bronzong) regardless whether it runs HP Grass or Ice. Personally, I think Breloom isn't doing near enough for your team, regardless how useful it is. Furthermore, I think Starmie can do what Latias is doing just fine, and you don't need both.

So as per replacing Breloom, I think Rotom might just do the trick. I think you should seriously consider a Rotom-S parafusion set in the place of Breloom, as it can take care of Grass and Fighting types that you have no good counter for and can play hell with your opponent's mind. If not, Togekiss is also an excellent option for a paraflinch or nasty plot set. If neither of those options appeal, defensive Zapdos can use its excellent movepool with HP Grass to deal a lot of significant damage.

For replacing Latias, I'll be extremely quick in mentioning the ever popular and useful DDmence that has served me quite well in the past. For the last slot, use Fire Blast. I think CBmence would work aswell. A few other notable options include Gyarados, Kingdra, Mamoswine, Flygon, and possibly Dragonite (although for the most part he's an inferior Salamence). Try to use a physical set so you can be varied between physical and special.

As far as shared weaknesses, your team is quite balanced the way it is. You have a fair number of Ice weaknesses, but Starmie can suck up Ice moves with no trouble, as can Bronzong assuming he's alive. You have a bug weakness that only Lucario can cover, and none of your pokemon can particularly retaliate.

You are dangerously missing in Dark, Bug, Poison, Grass, and Fire attacks, most notably Grass and Fire which are both important types. You have only one Ice attack, which is too little considering the amount of dragons and ice weaknesses there are in today's Standard metagame.

Cheers.

[Randomdog]

Thats all very helpful but I would be against replacing Breloom as 90% of the time it gets me at least two kills.

I might replace Latias with the Rotom-S set you suggested or another Ghost as it would

1. Remove one of my ice weaknesses

2. Negate the dynamic punches you mentioned

Frosslass can learn psychic so I might go with her to be a perfect counter to fighting types and then allow me to drop Psychic for Grass Knot on Starmie.

What would you think to that?

[Illithian]

Thats all very helpful but I would be against replacing Breloom as 90% of the time it gets me at least two kills.

I might replace Latias with the Rotom-S set you suggested or another Ghost as it would

1. Remove one of my ice weaknesses

2. Negate the dynamic punches you mentioned

Frosslass can learn psychic so I might go with her to be a perfect counter to fighting types and then allow me to drop Psychic for Grass Knot on Starmie.

What would you think to that?

Froslass is an interesting idea, although I think Rotom-S is a better choice. In retrospect, Rotom-h would also give you access to a fire move which you desperately need to take out Scizor, Skarmory, and Bronzong, so that might be the best choice.

As far as most fighting types, you should be able to take them out with some sort of a powerful attack; still though, Machamp can cause problems. With a ghost though thats all gone.

Froslass probably isn't worthwhile; using Psychic on her is a waste and a Trick Specs set is most likely the only usable set she has for the role you want her to play.

[randomspot555]

At first glance, this team really isn't that bad. Despite using Hippowdon, the only ones who really suffer from it are Latias and Starmie. Breloon recovers more than enough even in sand. That's not to say there aren't viable replacements for Hippow (or the other two guys), but it proves that a sand storm user is possible without a sand storm team.

Bronzong @ Leftovers

Ability: Heatproof

EVs: 252 HP/86 Atk/80 Def/92 SDef

Sassy nature (+SDef, -Spd)

- Gyro Ball

- Stealth Rock

- Explosion

- Earthquake

There's nothing inherently bad about this set, but oh god you are going to be so disappointed at Earthquake's power at everything not named Heatran and Lucario.

If you're catching enough people off guard by using Heatproof, keep doing so. But when you start getting knocked around by Earthquake and the opponent figures it out, you might want to switch out.

Anyway, I think you should just forget about going on offense and just keep playing defense with it.

Explosion is fine. At least Earthquake should go. Maybe Gyro Ball too, depending on how determined you are at exploding early instead of later.

Here's a list of team player moves that Bronzong can use:

Hypnosis: Omgzers 60%?!?!?!?! Yeah, but Bronzong is one of the few users wo can afford to miss.

Confuse Ray: Handy if you want to force a switch.

Safeguard: This move is so amazing and so underutilized. It PREVENTS STATUS. Your team is actually pretty fine off as far as preventing status with Starmie and sub Breloom, but if you ever ditched one or both of them, this is worth considering.

Light Screen/Reflect: Might wanna use Light Clay in this case. Do one or the other. I've rarely been able to use both before having to switch or explode.

Bronzong gets a ton of other moves that are horribly underutilized (Calm Mind, Trick, Iron Defense, Rock Tomb), but aren't really going to fit onto yours.

And unfortunately, I have real world stuff to take care of. I'll rate the rest later, maybe.