The Surprise Storm: Milo's steely beasts

[Milo]

This is the first revision of my sandstorm team. please critique it and let me know things I'm missing/what I can do to improve it.

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Metagross @ Occa Berry

Ability: Clear Body

EVs: 252 HP/236 Atk/12 Def/8 Spd

Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Stealth Rock

- Earthquake

- Bullet Punch

- Explosion

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This is standard lead metagross. It can get rocks in reliably, and take out other suicide leads with priority bullet punch. Earthquake is there for things like heatran or infernape that can serve as leads but resist bullet punch, and explosion is there as a last-resort move that can severely weaken anything not ghost. Occa berry was chosen to help survive special fire-type attacks, because even a hippowdon's Earthquake won't be OHing Metagross unboosted.

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Scizor (F) @ Choice Band

Ability: Technician

EVs: 248 HP/252 Atk/8 Spd

Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- U-turn

- Bullet Punch

- Superpower

- Pursuit

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Scizor replaces the Clefable I used to have on the team; I had decided that support clefable might not be the best idea for my team, which was very offensive-minded. I'm considering trying to bring back said clefable, however, because wish-passing is amazing. On the vein of Scizor himself, I chose him to support Empoleon, having the ability to hurt things like blissey or bulky waters with pursuit, should they show their face. Bullet Punch is there for reliable damage as well as a priority move. U-turn is there for scouting and utility, and superpower is really only there for filler in this set.

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Empoleon (M) @ Petaya Berry

Ability: Torrent

EVs: 12 HP/12 Def/232 Spd/252 SAtk

Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Agility

- Substitute

- Surf

- Ice Beam

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Your basic SubAgilityPetaya Empoleon. Once the other team's special wall(s) are taken out, Torrent/Petaya boosted surf will eat most things alive, and ice beam provides good neutral coverage. The idea I have here is to switch him in on something he resists, and then sub on the switch, getting in a free agility should the opponent not carry a priority move. If a priority move such as vacuum wave or mach punch shows itself, I will then move to gengar or scizor to deal with the threat, provided they are still alive.

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Hippowdon (M) @ Leftovers

Ability: Sand Stream

EVs: 252 HP/52 Atk/32 Def/172 SDef

Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)

- Curse

- Slack Off

- Earthquake

- Rock Slide

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Hippowdon is on this team to provide some physical bulk as well as starting up the sandstorm that my team (for the most part) is immune to. I chose Hippo over T-tar because of weaknesses: Fighting and ground weaknesses shared between half my team is not the best choice if I want to survive.

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Probopass (F) @ Leftovers

Ability: Magnet Pull

EVs: 252 HP/88 Spd/168 SDef

Calm nature (+SDef, -Atk)

- Thunderbolt

- Earth Power

- Flash Cannon

- Thunder Wave

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In sandstorm, this probopass breaks past 600 special defense, giving him the ability to absorb all but 4x weak special attacks fairly easily. The set also works well to reliably eliminate magnezone, who could otherwise pose a problem for my steely team. A base defense of 140 is nothing to sneeze at either and provides relative safety from anything it's not weak to. However, due to the prevalence of both ground and fighting moves, I often have to switch him out in favor of either gengar or hippowdon, depending on the counter that comes back at me. Should I run into a lead bronzong, probopass can quite easily deal with the threat: it takes roughly 25% from a bronzong's explosion and nearly nothing from its gyro ball due to sharing a low speed stat.

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Gengar (F) @ Black Sludge

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk

Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Shadow Ball

- Thunderbolt

- Trick

- Energy Ball

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Gengar was almost tossed on as an afterthought to fill in the last gaps my team hadn't answered yet. With a bit of prediction, I can switch in on the fighting or ground-type move users that would otherwise slaughter my team and do a bit of my own damage back to them. The way I've played this gengar so far has been to attack until it looked like I might be done in the next turn or two, then trick the black sludge onto an opponent's pokemon, usually taking leftovers with me and crippling said pokemon. Energy ball is there to deal with swampert, who otherwise has a lot of fun with my team. thunderbolt hits a lot of things, including other bulky waters and flying types, for super-effective damage, and shadow ball is a reliable STAB move that deals with anything not dark or steel type reasonably well (especially if you can damage them on the switch with stealth rock)

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All in all, the team has served me well for the short time I've used it. I think it could use a bit of tweaking though because I do end up relying on specific pokemon to handle the huge holes in my team too much. I'm considering going to a scarf on gengar because it will help me deal with lucario better (force lucario into one move, and either hurt it hard with gengar, or, if it's using crunch, switch probopass in to hold luke still until it can finish it with earth power, seeing as crunch doesn't pose a huge threat to the bulky probopass). If I have time before it gets RMTed, I may get the comprehensive list of threats from smogon and go through them one-by-one.

[Goldgross]

Hey there Milo. I see you use a lotta steels...... 4 of them at one time. Well i just love Steel types and ofcourse they RULE the OU metagame. Can you believe that Flying even though being a secondary and Common type is tied with the number of Psychics in OU? Both consist of 9 pokemon, whereas Steel being a Primary type has a total of 10 pokemon :eek: , all with many exotic secondary typings.....not to mention the only 3 fully evolved Steel/Psychic pokemon are all OU. That and being the only type to resist Dragon attacks just makes them more useful then they already are. Steels Rule baby!!

K nuff bout mah steel cheerleadin, on to yo team.

Metagross - Its pure pwnage right off the bat, Meta has been and will continue to be (if the 5th gen ruins it) the best lead ever. nuff said

Scizor - Well im no fan of "Zor" but hes the most used pokemon for a reason. Though seeing as Meta is already there and able to take care of Blissey (pwns all of them really, even the Charm variants:cool:) and the bulky waters actually have nothing to fear from Zor as they resist BP and will hit it with a usually faster Surf attack. On top of that its only Magnezone bait (Maggy from now on OK) which can trap and finish off 3 of your pokes if possible.

On the subject of Scarf Maggy - Meta can beat it with EQ and Empoleon wont be Ohkod at full health by Tbolt, though Discharge might paralyse you, and can agility up and sweep. But your Probopass wont be able to counter Magnet Rise versions and neither will anything else except for Empoleon so watch out for that.

You dont have a phazer on your team....but i think itll do without one.

And change Hippos set to this:

Hippowdon (M) @ Leftovers

Ability: Sand Stream

EVs: 252 HP/52 Atk/32 Def/172 SDef

Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)

- Curse

- Slack Off

- Earthquake

- Stone Edge

SE will provide you with higher power after the curse whereas the flinching chance and low power of rock slide is really of no use.

I love your Probo. Its perfect for taking out the scarf Maggys and Trans (Heatran). It can take multiple Fire blasts and 2hko back with Earth power. Just be sure not to catch it while TRAN is locked into EP. Cause that would 3hko if not 2hko you. Otherwise its great.

Gengar - Well the way i see it.......Gar is really the "Glue" which holds your team together. Immune to the fighting and ground atttacks that plague your team. The Trick black sludge is a niche that only gengar can do being the only poison type able to learn it. Its infuriating for your opponent as you heal with either the BS or lefties while they lose 12% each turn. BUT your thinking about using a scarf is right. That way you can take out a major weakness that ill say later on in teh weakness section.

OK weakness section. lol

DD Gyara sweeps this team like a Laser edged sword. Scarf on Gar will solve that.

DD salamence......pwns this team......Only if your Hippo is alive will you weather the assult of a DDmence. As for Mixmence well..........Draco Meteor will hurt Hippo plenty, whereas Hydro Pump will downright Ohko it even without specs x_x BTW use Hippo to stop Luke ok?

As for the "gluey" Gar that holds your team together.....a pursuit pokemon will finish it rather easily....and leave you with nothing to stop Gyara.

Well another thing...the reason why Probo isnt used in OU is that it cant counters Scizor, and Luke, both who pwn it with ease. Meta also ohkos it with EQ due its lesser phys def stat. But for this team i like how your using it to remove threats for your other pokes so Yay!

Now....on to the biggest threat to this team.....

Infernape!!.......Why dont people think about an Ape check before they make a team ?_?. Im always pointing that weakness out.:cool:

You should hope for a lead ape which gets pwned by Meta. But if you happened to meet the Mix set your almost doomed.......

The only thing you can do is use Gar and Shadow ball it for high damage (2hko) but the problem is switching in......if you switch in on anything but CC or Grass knot then your finished. You will lose atleast one poke. If Gar is dead already then Ape and Gyara will ravage through this team ohkoing everything in sight X_X.

Edited July 15, 2009 by Goldgross