OU Lucario Based Offensive Team

[Randomdog]

The goal of the team

Sweep with lucario after revealing and clearing out counters using the other pokemon

Uxie @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP/106 Def/152 Spd

Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)

- Trick

- Stealth Rock

- Yawn

- U-turn

The lead for this team was a tough decision. Nothing on the team is weak to stealth rock, so stopping it wasn't a priority. Setting up my own stealth rock on the other hand is almost necessary as lucario misses several key OHKOs without it. Another thing I wanted to achieve with my lead is scouting, so uturn would also be great. Statusing an opposing pokemon would also be really handy.

All that considered I went for a scarf uxie. Not a common set but very effective in this team.

EV'd to outspeed Aero and scarfloom. Against both of these I just SR and take the sleep/wasted taunt

Against a lead which is going to use SR i'll trick, forcing them to switch and I can SR on the switch. If they switch in something that is going to set up i'll yawn, and uturn next turn to scout, just like that I either know half their team or they have a sleeping pokemon

Its EV'd for bulk and it has one hell of a lot of it, theres not much that can OHKO it (especially not moves run by the common leads) So, a lot of the time uxie survives these initial exchanges, but has limited use in the later stages of the game. Sometimes I use him to yawn some more and rack up switches, sometimes he just becomes death fodder and allows me a free switch. However, his main use later in the game is to play 'mess around with the items'

Lucario (M) @ Life Orb

Ability: Inner Focus

EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd

Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Swords Dance

- Close Combat

- Crunch

- Extremespeed

The main sweeper and general focus of the team. Chosen because of its power to OHKO things after SR even if they resist its attacks (e.g. skarmory) In order for the team to achieve its goal, Lucario's counters need to be removed.

Usage should be fairly obvious, swords dance and then CC/Crunch things which are slower than you, ES things which are faster than you and proceed to win the game

Common counters for this set are

- Gliscor

- Gyarados

- Celebi

- 'Mence

- Magnezone

- Heatran

All 5 of these counters are also drawn out by Scizor, which has U-Turn access for scouting, so along comes...

Scizor (M) @ Choice Band

Ability: Technician

EVs: 244 HP/252 Atk/14 Spd

Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Bullet Punch

- Superpower

- U-turn

- Pursuit

Once again, another pokemon with fairly obvious and standard usage. The switch-ins against lucario and scizor do tend to be very similar so bringing in scizor and immediately using U-Turn tends to draw out a counter, most of which are either dealt with by the following 2 pokemon.

Scizor can also act as a backup sweeper in the late game. with bullet punch mopping up for things that Lucario didn't manage to take out

Starmie @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Natural Cure

EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk

Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Hydro Pump

- Ice Beam

- Thunderbolt

- Trick

Gliscor, Gyara and 'Mence are all weak to one side of boltbeam, my personal favourite way of boltbeaming is choice scarfed starmie. Who also has the added advantage of trick to cripple a wall and hydro pump for an exceedingly powerful STAB.

Nothing enjoys a scarfed hydro pump, even with things that double resist it sometimes taking as much as 20%. While this isn't the best method of scouting it has proved effective, sometimes even scoring a 2HKO (easy to pull off because of the scarf)

Heatran (M) @ Leftovers

Ability: Flash Fire

EVs: 4 Atk/252 Spd/252 SAtk

Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Substitute

- Fire Blast

- Earth Power

- Explosion

The second 'Luke counter killer' is this adorable little puppy.

Celebi not only commonly carries HP Fire but is also weak to fire itself, heatran makes so much sense for this team especially as Will-O-Wisp is also used commonly against lucario/scizor and heatran's synergy with scizor is amazing

I've opted for the substitute version of heatran, as its going to cause switches and can even act as a decent backup sweeper when behind a substitute

Rotom-h @ Leftovers

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP/168 Def/88 Spd

Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)

- Thunderbolt

- Shadow Ball

- Overheat

- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Having 3 steels makes magnezone a pretty big problem (even though scizor can U-Turn away) The double earthquake weakness from Heatran/Lucario is also something that needs to be dealt with. So for this slot I was looking for something that either resisted or was immune to ground attacks AND can take out magnezone

This came in the form of Rotom-H, it is immune to earthquake, resists all of magnezone's common attacks and can OHKO the magnet with overheat.

When Magnezone isn't on the other team Rotom is also useful for the handy resists, loads of bulk and coverage support

[memjee]

This is a well thought out team.

And it has a good stradegy revolving around Lucario I like it.

Uxie - is a great original (I'm guessing) set.

Lucario - Be on the look out for Hidden Power Fire gengar, it will end your Lucario sweep streak.

Scizor - though it can u-turn off a magnezone, it's doomed if magnezone is scarfed

Starmie - Scarfed Starmie is ok, but it can get set up on, it's thunderbolt is a one way ticket to a sub petaya Empoleon fully setting up, by agilitying that turn and getting it's health just low enough to activate torrent and petaya, then fire a grass knot. switching out just lets it agility.

- Never tried sub heatran, it looks good to me. That stradegy should work

- rotom looks fine.

GJ on your team!

Edited October 26, 2009 by memjee

[randomspot555]

Uxie @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP/106 Def/152 Spd

Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)

- Trick

- Stealth Rock

- Yawn

- U-turn

It's fine. I've never found Trick-Scarf to be too useful in the early game. Just don't ALWAYS trick right away. You might want to SR first and switch out, or U-Turn.

Lucario (M) @ Life Orb

Ability: Inner Focus

EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd

Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Swords Dance

- Close Combat

- Ice Punch/Crunch

- Extremespeed

Luke is standard, but look at the list of counters you yourself posted.

Ice Punch picks up a SE hit on Gliscor and Mence while still knocking around Celebi. You can at least pick up a revenge kill on Gyarados with Extreme Speed

Scizor is fine and standard, but don't play it too early or you'll get mauled by Magnezone.

Hydro Pump can easily become stalled out due to low PP. Try it if you want, but I really think Surf is the better option.

I don't really know what Heatran is doing. Smogon's page on it says it benefits from Wish support, and I agree with taht theory. Without HP or defensive investment, it's bulk isn't enough to scare Pokes away.

The only Heatran set I've ever had trouble with is the Torment-Sub set. I'd say try that out. Any Pokemon can run a sub-attack set, but not many others can Torment.

Rotom-h @ Leftovers

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP/168 Def/88 Spd

Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)

- Thunderbolt

- Will O Wisp/Reflect/Light Screen/Shadow Ball

- Overheat

- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Don't worry about hitting other ghosts. This gives you some needed team support.

Okay, so, let's go through some sort of a check list:

You recognize a ground and fire weakness and on first looking at it, you have it covered.

Status is covered by Starmie, along with a handful of individual immunities from other Pokes.

Gyarados can be countered by Rotom, and Mence and Gyara can eb revenge killed by Starmie. However, you lack a good Swampert counter. I don't see them too often outside of leads, but they could give you a hard time. Changing Rotom to Mow could solve that.

My gut instinct is that you'll probably want to modify Starmie either into it's standard spin set and Heatran to it's standard scarf set, or swap them out altogether.

How are you doing against Tyranitar?