Cause Ah Riot

[TomX159]

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CAUSE AH RIOT

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Introduction:

So here we have my favorite offensive team I’ve made to date. I’m sorry if some of the descriptions are short because it’s a bit hard to talk about how each team member when all they do is fire off fast and strong attacks rather than check or wall specific pokes. Like most offensive teams these pokes aren’t meant to take powerful hits (aside from Forretress), rather they are able to switch in on weak resisted hits from walls. I’ve been floating around the 1300 mark on the PO ladder with this team and would really appreciate it if I had some constructive criticism to help me push past that and reach my goal of 1400 points…Also, epically major cookie to whomever gets the team name reference.


At a Glance:

(Heatran has replaced Scizor)​

Team Building Process:

Hide

Bear with me as constructing an offensive team doesn't really share the same deep team building process that a balance or stall team has. The first thing I did was take the most threatening poke in the game, Terrakion. I’m running Choice Scarf on this team.

The most common switch-ins to Terrakion are Gliscor, Forretress, Jellicent, Slowbro and Landorus-T. I decided to add Life Orb Alakazam to eliminate these threats. However, I can’t just rely on one fragile poke to take out a lot of these threats as most of them can work together on a single team. I added Nasty Plot Celebi who can also take care of these threats (outside a Scarf Landorus-T).

Now I added my weather inducer, Tyranitar. 90% of the Tyranitars I run are Choice Scarfed because it’s a great revenge killer and wrecks sun teams. Celebi would also help out against the rain teams.

To keep the offensive pace going, I added Starmie as my Rapid Spinner. I made Starmy bulky with Recover and Leftovers.

For my last poke I wanted a physical based attacker with access to Stealth Rocks. I settled on Gliscor with Sand Veil.

After working with this team I really wanted to get more entry hazards to bring more pokes into KO range. I replaced Gliscor with Skarmory. Another nitpick was putting Focus Sash on Alakazam.

I fiddled around with a lot of pokes with the Skarm/Starmie position. The poke that ended up working the best was Forretress who could set up all the hazards I needed and Rapid Spin others away. Another important thing about Forretress was that it opened up a slot for another offensive heavy poke. I added the extremely threatening Swords Dance Scizor.

After peer review, I decided to replace Scizor with Heatran.

And with all that said here’s the final version of the team.

In Depth:

Riot (Tyranitar) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Rock Slide
- Superpower

My favorite Tyranitar is the Choice Scarf variant because it is one hell of a surprise that almost guarantees an unplanned death for the enemy team. And even when the surprise is out, Scarf Tyranitar still rips massive holes in the enemy teams. It’s very important to keep sandstorm up not only to keep the weather on my side, but to render things like Tornadus-T much less effective. Crunch handles Reuniclus/Starmie/Espeon/Celebi/Gengar/Lati’s…and it’s reliable STAB for hitting anything that doesn’t resist it. Pursuit is in the same vein, trapping the mentioned and other weakened pokes so that they can’t escape to fight another day. You’ll notice that I run Rock Slide on both Tyranitar and Terrakion. I absolutely HATE missing Stone Edges and I’ll gladly trade the lower damage for better accuracy and a small flinch rate. Rock Slide is what really makes this Tyranitar awesome. When it’s paired with Terrakion both of their scarf Rock Slides run through almost every sun team. Superpower is for things like Ferrothorn and other Tyranitars. It’s also for Heatran who is a huge threat offensive-wise to this team. While I’m on threatening offensive pokes to this team, things like Infernape and Darmanitan (especially scarfed) that have U-Turn and fire attacks on the same set can be a little tricky to get around until I can bring in Scarf Terrakion or Alakazam with his Sash intact.

TNT (Forretress) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Volt Switch

My only non-offensive poke. Forretress’s main job is to lay down as many entry hazards as possible and Rapid Spin the others away. The only other thing Forretress is used for is as a defensive pivot. I decided to run regular Spikes and Toxic Spikes because Heatran has Stealth Rock and I need as much entry hazards as possible to keep the pressure on. Volt Switch is for easing prediction as well as taking a hit to give another team member a free switch-in. Leftovers > Shed Shell because Magenzone/Magneton switch-ins are easy as pie to see coming, and they won’t get a free switch in unless they fodder something out to entry hazard damage. If it comes to that, so be it. I can afford to lose Forretress as long as it has some entry hazards up. On a side note, the nickname on this thing is so hilarious since I don't actually have Explosion, and people switch out a lot not wanting to risk keeping in one of their more fragile sweepers especially after I have my hazards up.

Do or Die (Terrakion) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Earthquake

The center poke of the team. Terrakion can just bulldoze his way through teams that don’t have a few checks to him. His main move, Close Combat, is basically is the “Click me and win!” button after all the threats that I mentioned before are taken care of. Rock Slide is another STAB move that, in my opinion, much better than Stone Edge (see mini-rant in Tyranitar’s description). Paired with a Choice Scarf, Rock Slide reliably kills two of the most threatening special attackers, Tornadus-T and Volcarona even after one Quiver Dance. X-Scissor is just there for coverage to hit some Psychic types like Alakazam and bringing Slowbros into 2HKO range on predicted switch-ins. This last slot is kinda meh. I used to run HP Ice to 2HKO Gliscors that would switch in after taking some prior damage, but changed to Earthquake because Jirachi is a bit of a problem.

Erupt! (Alakazam) (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

Alakazam is perfect for this team because he can take out just about any poke that walls Terrakion. I used to run Life Orb but switched to Focus Sash and haven’t looked back since. Alakazam’s ability, Magic Guard, keeps his sash intact and lets him absorb status moves. With an intact sash, Alakazam is guaranteed to get at least one big hit off on anything even if the opposing poke outspeeds. From there I can revenge kill with Scarf Terrakion or Scizor's Bullet Punch (even Terrakion's Quick Attack if it has to come to that). The first move I decided to put on him is HP Ice because it takes care of Terrakion’s main counters, Gliscor and Landorus-T. HP Ice also hits the dragons hard even if they have a Dragon Dance under their belt because of Focus Sash. Focus Blast and Shadow Ball defeat the other common Terrakion counters in Forretress and Slowbro. They also cover things like Heatran/Ferrothorn and the Lati’s. A STAB Psychic backed by a monstrous base 135 SpAtk is a force to be reckoned with. It’s my go-to move for a lot of situations and takes out Terrakions, Venusaurs, Tentacruels, and Amoonguss’s with super effective damage.

Ragga Warfare (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Recover
- Giga Drain

Very, very, very, very important poke on this team. Celebi holds my only Fire move which is crucial in taking down Scizors. Celebi lures Scizor in sooo well and takes it out the next turn. I really don’t understand it because I will always scout HP Fire on Celebi when I bring my Scizor in the first time. Giga Drain is all powerful. It stops things like Gastrodon in their tracks and provides recovery for Celebi. I switched from Nasty Plot to Recover (credit to Jirachi) so I can keep taking resisted hits and Recover back my health on a free turn. I went with Psychic as the final move, and it works pretty much the same way as Alakazam. I chose Leftovers over something like Life Orb because of the sandstorm Tyranitar brings.

Metal Warfare (Heatran) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]

I replaced Scizor with Choice Scarf Heatran (from a mix of suggestions from Jirachi and Novaray). Even though running 3 scarfers on the team may be a bit risky, but it helps outspeed a lot of things and keep the momentum on my side. I had Air Balloon before but it was being broken a lot and, like Novaray mentioned, I need a solid counter to Lucario. Heatran also helps tremendously against sun teams as Jirachi pointed out. Flamethrower is the main STAB and I use it over Fire Blast for the more consistent accuracy. Earth Power is the second STAB move that will hit opposing Heatran without Air Balloon and other things for super effective damage. Stealth Rock may seem weird on a Scarf poke, but it really helps fake the enemy out and lets Forretress run Toxic Spikes. HP ice is nice for the dragons, and is a nice surprise for a Dragonite that thinks it can outspeed after one Dragon Dance.​

Past Team Members:

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And with that…
Lighter crew, one thing I wanna know…ARE YOU ENTERTAINED!?



Closing Comments:

Hey thanks to you for taking the time out to read about this team! Yeah you! Well whoever YOU are, if you have some input please feel free to leave a comment! I’d really like to improve this team as much as I can and I’d appreciate your help! More exclamatory sentences! Yay!

Exportable Version:

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Riot (Tyranitar) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Rock Slide
- Superpower

TNT (Forretress) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Volt Switch

Do or Die (Terrakion) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Earthquake

Erupt! (Alakazam) (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

Ragga Warfare (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Recover
- Giga Drain

Metal Warfare (Heatran) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]

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[Jirachee]

Hi

Sun teams could be really difficult for your team to deal with, especially those with Venusaur. Venusaur can really do a lot of damage to any team without the proper checks and I think your team is one of them. Basically, it can heavily dents Tyranitar, Alakazam and Terrakion with Giga Drain (could be a boosted one), and the rest of your team is dealt with by +2 Sun boosted Hidden Power Fire. It's extremely easy for Venusaur to set up on Forretress as it isn't threatning at all and from there it could smash your team to pieces. While Alakazam could live its attacks using Focus Sash and then retaliate with Psychic, if it's only slightly weakened before, or if it's hit by Sleep Powder, it loses its check status. I really think you could use Heatran instead of Scizor on your team. Heatran is the best counter to Venusaur there is since it's immune to Hidden Power Fire and isn't threatened by the x4 resisted Giga Drain, while it can strike it back with an insanely powerful Fire Blast which OHKOes it. Heatran is also able to set up Stealth Rock very reliably which means you can use another move in that slot for Forretress. I'd go for Toxic Spikes, since it puts a lot of pressure on defensive teams who don't want their walls to get crippled by Toxic poison, making them more likely to bring their Rapid Spinner in giving you plenty of opportunities for your sweepers to come in and wreck stuff. It's also very useful in long battles. Defensively, the change to Heatran isn't that big from what you've had with Scizor before, as it's another Steel type, except it helps you a lot against opposing Scizor and Sun teams in general.

Also I'd really use Recover instead of Nasty Plot on Celebi, because it seems like it is your main pivot against Rain teams, and threats like Rotom-W. These can really hit uninvested Celebi hard even though it resists their Hydro Pumps, and not having reliable recovery outside of Giga Drain will make Celebi easy to beat because of how powerful Hydro Pump is. It is your only Water resist so I'd probably change it's EV spread a bit too. Using a bulkier spread helps you a lot against more powerful threats and those you want to outspeed (like Scizor) will still be slower than Celebi even though you take most of its Speed investment. You don't have to sacrifice power for that though. Since you think Celebi is so important, I think this new spread will help you a lot.

Here are the sets you should use:

Heatran and Celebi

@ Air Balloon
Flash Fire
Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Hidden Power Ice
-Stealth Rock

@ Leftovers
Natural Cure
Modest
EVs: 224 HP / 252 SpA / 32 Spe
-Giga Drain
-Hidden Power Fire
-Psychic
-Recover

Good luck!

 

[mklo14]

So the team looks purty good from here but I have a change in mind for you!

Switch foretress back to starmie.

This isn't an easy switch, your gonna lose your entry hazards if you do this, but it will help balance out the team soooo much. It will really help against strong fire attackers, and keep up the offensive momentum. I think foretress can be easily killed/ setup on and just forces you to lose momentum, while starmie is a scary special attacker.

Hope I helped a little, I think it'd be a good idea to give starmie one more shot for the final cut!

 

[LilOu]

Your team is really really really weak against Infernape.

He OHKO tyranitar with close combat, forretres with fire blast (2HKO), sizor with fire blast or another fire attack, alakazam with u-turn, celebi with fireblast adn terrakion with close combat.

Try using Gastrodon, Tentacruel, or another counters to it.

 

[AB2]

Hi, pretty cool team. At a first glance this seems to be a pretty solid offensive team with few problems. Although you have a few 'mons that can take advantage of spikes and stealth rocks, I think that forretress is not the right pkmn to set them up. If you wish to create an offensive team, then something like forretress is too slow paced for this team. I think that you should give something like deoxys-d a shot over forretress. While you do lose your rapid spinning utility, I don't think that defensive teams will be threatening to this team if you can play correctly. Deoxys is also much more versatile than forretress being able to be a suicide spiker lead or being able to stick around for a longer period of time. I'd try out a set with spikes / stealth rock / taunt / night shade, rocky helmet, max hp and speed, and a timid nature. This deoxys is more of a suicide spiker, but you can always tweak the spread / moveset to your liking.

Landorus seems kind of annoying to this team. Even with forretress, nothing can take repeated hits from the expert belt or choice scarf set. I think it may be worth your while to test a defensive rotom-w over celebi. At the moment, celebi is probably the weakest link in this team. Rotom-w and celebi have some of the same resistances, so luring in / checking stuff like scizor won't really be that big of a deal. I'd try a spread of 248 hp / 252 def / 8 spe, leftovers, bold nature, and a set with volt switch / hydro pump / will-o-wisp / pain split. Lastly, it might be worth your while to test an iron plate scizor with u-turn instead of bug bite. This way, you can feign a choice set earlier on in the match and keep the momentum up with rotom-w more easily, and force your opponent to take more entry hazard damage. Once your team eliminates annoying steel types such as skarmory and jirachi, either alakazam or scizor can get a late game sweep in much easier.

 

[PDC]

hey! this looks like a pretty solid team, and i always love the use of celebi forretress ttar too. so lets get this rate started. first i suggest you remove choice scarf tyranitar and instead use chople berry. this is much more effective as it no longer can check tornadus, and you already do have choice scarf terrakion. you have some trouble with landorus, so i suggest trying rotom-w over alakazam as you do need a bit more defense against landorus and acrobatic gliscor. a defensive spread like ab2 suggested is best. you can remove celebi also, but you did state it was a vital member of your team. i can also suggest Heatran over scizor so you can more easily defeat sun.

some smaller changes are recover on celebi as it is a very vital member of the team. good luck!

 

[TomX159]

Thanks everyone for the rates! I just want to say that I'm definitely going to be testing out the suggestions, but as of now I've only messed around with Jirachi's suggestions. Alrighty, lets get into things...

@Jirachi
I tested your suggestions for about 10~ matches today, but I still need to play some more before I get fully used to the changes you suggested. To be perfectly honest, I've fought maybe...5 Venusaurs with this team. They aren't as much of a problem as you might think as I can usually take out Ninetails early game as most of them try to WoW Tyranitar to be hit by a Rock Slide first. With no sun up, Venusaur is handled plenty well. The only thing that would scare me would be a Sunny Day Venusaur. I'd have to sack off a few guys if Alakazam doesn't have his sash intact, then bring in a counter when the sun is gone. It's worth noting that in a lot of situations I was telling myself "I could really use a Bullet Punch right now" or "I could just set up a +2/4/6 here and sweep the rest of his guys." But I still believe I need to play more matches before I decide what to do with Heatran.
I also want to say that having Toxic Spikes on Forretress was really, really nice. Also the Celebi set was absolutely perfect. Thanks a great ton for that.

@mklo14
Entry hazards are absolutely crucial to this team. Setting up entry hazards > having a rapid spinner if you're going to have one or the other. Plus all Starmie was doing was coming in and getting forced right back out since it couldn't break down walls like the rest of the team. I couldn't afford to be put on my heels when I have an offensive team.

@LilOuOn
Yep, fully aware. Good thing half my team can threaten it back and OHKO unless it runs a scarf. And if it does run a scarf I can work my way around it, forcing switches and racking up entry hazard damage until I can Bullet Punch it.
Here's another reason Infernape doesn't give me nightmares:
| Rank | Pokemon | Usage | Percent | RealUse| RealPct |
| 34 | Infernape . | 301 . | 4.822%. | 234 . | 4.351% . |

@AB2
Just reading that Deoxys-D set really gets me excited. Definitely gonna give that a go.
Landorus can be very annoying sometimes. I don't really try to hard counter it with Forretress though. Instead I use it as set up fodder for entry hazards or rapid spin. Most of the ones I see nowadays are Expert Belted, which means that Alakazam can take him out. If his sash is intact then it doesn't really matter if he's scarfed or not. But if Alakazam's gone.....sadface. In saying that I'll test out the Rotom-W set for sure. The Iron Plate Scizor looks interesting, but'll probably be less effective. Nevertheless, it never hurts to try it out, and hey, maybe it'll be some hidden jem :p.

@PDC
Eh....I honestly don't think Chople is the best option on Tyranitar. From my experiences using him I'm killing far more pokes because I can outspeed than needing to live a Fighting move. From the looks of it, the next testing I'll be doing with it is replacing Celebi with Rotom-W rather than Alakazam, which I think is the superior option since Alakazam is more threatening poke. And I'm testing Heatran right now so I'll need more time to work around with him.

Keep the suggestions coming, guys! :D

 

[Nova]

Hi Tomx159,

Solid offensive team you have here. Now looking at your team, two major threats to it are Venusaur under Sun and Swords Dance Lucario. Venusaur hits your entire team for super effective damage with Giga Drain and Hidden Power Fire and is difficult to bring down as it can now heal with Giga Drain in Black and White 2. Swords Dance Lucario is also formidable to your team as they often carry dual priority nowadays with Extremespeed and Bullet Speed which allows him to defeat your albeit faster Pokemon, Tyranitar, Terrakion, and Alakazam. Alakazam can revenge these threats with Focus Sash intact, but if he has taken some prior damage then he will be unable to check them. For these threats I recommend replacing Scarf Terrakion with a Choice Scarf Heatran with a moveset of Fire Blast / Earth Power / Hidden Power Ice / Flamethrower. Heatran can check Venusaur, 4x resisting Grass and being immune to Fire type attacks, after you have let one of your other Pokemon fall asleep. Scarf Heatran outspeeds and wrecks SD Lucario with Fire Blast whose only option is hitting you with a pitifully weak ESpeed or Bullet Punch. Heatran also gives you a counter to the standard Dragon Dance Dragonite who can barely touch you with its typical moveset of Outrage / Extremespeed / Fire Punch. Fire Blast is your main STAB attack while Flamethrower is used in the last moveslot for a reliable Fire attack when the extra damage is not needed.

Next, I would replace Forretress with a Suicide Lead Deoxys-D with a moveset of Stealth Rock / Spikes / Thunder Wave / Taunt. Deoxys-D fits the offensive nature of your team better due to his much higher speed than Forretress, giving him the ability to Taunt slower Pokemon and prevent them from setting up, using status moves, and laying entry hazards. Thunder Wave is used to cripple fast sweepers that rely on speed to overcome the opposition. Losing Forretress does mean that you will not have Rapid Spin support, but the loss is not extremely detrimental as none of your team members are weak to Stealth Rock. Lastly, I would replace Psyshic on Alakazam with Psyshock. Psyshock lets you hit Chansey/Blissey hard as well as dealing more damage to Specially Defensive Amoonguss as damage output is calculated using the defending Pokemon's physical defense stat.

Hope I helped and good luck with your team!


Sets:

Hide

Heatran (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Hidden Power [Ice]
-Flamethrower

Deoxys-D @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
-Stealth Rock
-Spikes
-Taunt
-Thunder Wave

tl;dr

Hide

Choice Scarf Terrakion ----> Choice Scarf Heatran
Forretress ----> Suicide Lead Deoxys-D
Psychic on Alakazam ----> Psyshock

 

[TomX159]

@Jirachi (updated) and Novaray
Heatran makes the cut. Thanks a lot. I find Novaray's Choice Scarf Heatran to be the best fit. I also switched Celebi's EVs to the ones I had before, but kept Recover. It still has a decent amount of bulk to it but I get to keep the speed that I really missed.

@AB2
Tried the Rotom-W set. Even though it was nice against Landorus, outside of that I'd much rather have Celebi on the offensive side and Gastrodon was a pain.

@Novaray and AB2
Switched to Psyshock on Alakazam. I didn't really have too much trouble with Amoonguss's before, but I guess I was fighting physically defensive ones with my Psychic. I don't really fight a whole lot of pink blobs either, but it helps on the switch-ins. Played a lot of games with Deoxys-D. I was running Stealth Rock / Spikes / Taunt / HP Fire Timid max HP/Speed and Rocky Helmet because people like to bring in their Scizors. Speaking of which, when I didn't run Forretress, I had nothing, absolutely nothing, to switch in safely to Scizor. He absolutely wrecks. Seeing as Scizor is the most common poke in OU now, that could pose as a problem. I've been using both back and forth and I'm really considering keeping Forretress just for that reason.

Another thing I changed was Earthquake > Quick Attack on Terrakion. This is mainly because I was practically never using Quick Attack and Jirachi was a huge pain in the ass.

I updated the OP with the current changes if anyone would like to re-evaluate the team. Thanks for the rates! ...and a Luvdisk?! o: I'm honored lol.