Gyarascor:an anti-stall OU RMT

[avdc90]

Hello dedicated members of the best competitive pokemon battling site on the internet! I have posted some teams before and received outstanding feedback from the experienced and gracious members of the smogon community. Recently, however, i have been in a huge slump due mostly to the loss of mence. Now my team did not contain a mence, but his absence has caused great changes in the OU metagame that I am still trying to figure out. In my opinion, the biggest change is the dramatic increase in incredibly insipid stall teams closely followed by the uprising of exciting hyper offensive teams. I have come to the conclusion that i hate stall, and i like hyper offensive but its hard to deal with unless you're running a stall team. This team focuses on taking care of both of these increasingly popular types of teams, while still holding its own against the standard bulky offensive/semi-stall teams that most of us starting out using. Please excuse me for rambling and lets get to the team...

Ideas Behind the team

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Team Building Process

First off, i wanted to get rid of any chance a stall team would have to set up. Be that subseeding/toxic protecting/skarmbliss, or whatever other disgusting evil stall thoughts young shoddy battlers could conjure up. I thought the move stall teams cant stand is taunt since it stops their hopes at making battles take hours (on wifi anyway). At first I just used gyarados as my taunter bc i have since the release of Dppt, and it worked like usual but i felt that after it died there were still fortress and skarmory that wanted to set up fancy spikes and rocks. So i knew whatever i needed had to be somewhat bulky and able to avoid the electric attacks that make gyara cry. On this thought, the stall breaking duo "Gyarascor" was created.

Since i wanted gliscor to help gyarados out with electric attacks i knew it couldnt be my lead. But i liked the idea of a gliscor lead and wanted something close to it. I wanted to get rocks up and i wanted a priority on my lead. After minutes of ruffling through the now 48 OU pokes, i found one that was immune to the both types of weather that cause damage. I also found a way to capitalize on this unique typing with a unique move. Its also a little bonus that it is not hit by electric moves.

Now that i have two bulky pokes to take electric attacks, i thought it would be okay to splurge on the water types. i need speed, so i chose starmie. This epic boltbeamer is only outsped by 4 pokes in OU and speed ties with only 1 other than itself. It has amazing coverage and enough brute force to smash almost anything with neutral hits. The rest of the team already helped it out alot with counters, it was just my job to be sure it didnt get pursuited.My previous teams were always wrecked by starmie, and its always so hard to tell what variant it is, barring LO of course. i really like starmie and i wondered if there was anyway to enhance its survivability and power.

Here comes the fast yet frail eevolution to surprisingly help out its specially strong partner. I need greasy fast speed and jolteon can certainly catch its share of barnyard chickens. Jolteon truly eats lightening and craps thunder. Its only downfall is priority moves and the obese pink fairy known disdainfully as blissey, which is easily handled by 'gyarascor'. I went with a helping jolteon (my idea you'll see later) to boost up starmie while still causing important damage for the rest of the team.

I thoguht i had my guys pretty well balanced and checked, granted my team didnt have a counter or super effective hit for everything, but it did what i wanted it to do. At the end i thought, oh i usually have some kind of scarfer on my team. Habitually, i use scarf flygon and i really like it, but i couldnt bring myself to have two x4 ice weaknesses on one team. i thought of other physical powerhouses i can attach a scarf to and i came across one with amazing coverage and the unpredictability that fuels my team. I found jirachi to not only be able to take more hits than flygon, but also its able to switch into things like DD dragonite, metagross, DD gyarados, and gliscor and slap any one of a vast array of cracks on their faces that no other single poke can provide.

In All Their Glory

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Mamoswine @ Focus sash
Jolly | Snow Cloak
252 speed/ 252attk/ 4def
~ stealth rock
~ earthquake
~ ice shard
~ endeavor

Ive played around with alot of leads and while mamoswine is not always 100% effective (thanks trick scarfers and smeargle) it is always fun to play with and usually gives me some kind of advantage early in the game. If the lead is obviously slower than me ill SR and if i can tell im up against a fast anti lead, ill just endeavor first turn. EQ is a great stab filler as it 2HKO's lead metagross, shuca tran (i win with sash), lead ttar, and lead machamp even with the jolly nature. of course machamp's confusion needs to be considered but then ill just take my chances with gyarados. Ice shard is a 3HKO on azelf which seems bad against HO teams but we'll get to that. My team really appreciates SR, starmie in particular. Jolly nature is just to assure that i get rocks up if i so desire and it also helps if mamo manages to survive into the late game. Against leads like skarm, forry, swampert mamo really only gets up rocks then lets "gyarascor' take over.

Gyarados @ Intimidate
Jolly | leftovers
168speed/252attk/88HP
~ taunt
~ dragon dance
~ bounce
~ waterfall

This is definitely my favorite poke ever; it has been since September of 1998 when i got the game for my 8th birthday present. I have watched its use change over the years and i feel that this current Dppt metagame is the most flattering to this incredible monster fish. It can taunt walls like blissey, of course, and fortress, skarm, hippo, and registeel and continue to DD up then waterfall the world. The EV's are special, one of my battling tutors a long time ago told me to use it and it has been the ken to my barbie ever since. at jolly nature with 168 speed, this gets to 264 then 396 after one DD. this is impossible with adamant nature and look, 396 > 394 so jolteon and gengar go away, always. the only problems with it are starmie and rotom, which i have learned to deal with thanks to jolteon mostly. I went with bounce over stone egde (another one of my tutor's suggestions) to more easily handle brelooms, heracross, and bulky waters minus HP electric. Sometimes tho, bounce is bad bc ppl know im gonna get hit when i come back down, so thats a problem but we're managing.

Gliscor @ leftovers
Jolly | sand veil
252HP/252speed/ 4 attk
~ earthquake
~ toxic
~ taunt
~ roost

Sadly sometimes you must fight fire with fire. this stallbreaker gliscor is the closest you'll see me to a stall poke. This stops the thunderbolts that eat up gyarados and can stop almost anything with a toxic/roosting session. Being ground/flying i have to be weary of things like suicune, vaporeon, mamoswine, and even jolteon that could pack potentially critical ice moves (or the obvious water moves with the former two). everyone knows the purpose and use of this set and it has worked surprisingly well against everything except water, steel, poison types and breloom. well steel isnt that horrible to deal with thanks to EQ but its hardly ever a OHKO. Also this set especially draws in pokes like breloom, suicune, vaporeon, gengar, shaymin, starmie who are all easily dealt with by my next combo of lightening fast gunners.

Jolteon @ leftovers
Timid | volt absorb
252 spA/252spe/4 HP
~ charge beam
~ shadow ball
~ substitute
~ baton pass

This is my first team to incorporate jolteon, and i have no idea why i never though of it sooner. while it gets KO'd by many neutral attacks, its speed and uncanny ability to help the team are unsurpassed. shadow ball is so it can switch into rotom thunderbolting gyarados and RK with shadow ball. i had HP ice in this slot, but then i considered jolt's role and decided to put shadow ball in there to quickly dispose of gengar, rotom, dusknoir that could otherwise really put a damper on my team. here is where the magic comes in, i switch into an electric attack or whatever and sub on the switch. if the next poke is not a ground type, i charge beam and hope for the boost. then next time i have a sub that stays i switch to starmie for the sub, + 1 LO sweep. this is my idea of dealing with HO teams; as theyre stating up and passing, im subing up and passing and then its just a matter of who can 2HKO first. im not crazy this has worked on multiple occasions.

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Starmie @ Life Orb
Timid | Natural Cure
252 speed/ 252spA/4 HP
~ ice beam
~ surf
~ thunderbolt
~ psychic

Even without a subcharge pass from jolteon, this smart starfish is deadly. It has so many super effective hits, i was considering expert belt like to try to fake a scarf but that didnt work bc i couldnt sweep with one move. Also even without a boost it can easily deal with bulky waters, poison types,and grass types that give gliscor so much trouble. the only thing that truly stops this in its tracks is blissey, then its hello Gyarascor =]. also pursuiters like tyranitar, scizor, and metagross cause problems but surf is a 2HKO on them all. this is also my check to alotta status conditions thanks to natural cure. psychic also helps me deal with rotoms that threaten my beloved gyarados as well as gengar that get past the DD gyara. Not to mention everything i just said here is that much better at a +1,2 boost from jolteon.

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Jirachi @ choice scarf
Jolly | serene grace
252 attk/ 252 speed/ 4HP
~ iron head
~ thunderpunch
~ ice punch
~ fire punch

The wish fairy from outer space glues my team together and complements starmie with its physical boltbeam and other supporting moves. Fire punch is what i need for scizor, ice punch helps out mamo in the fight against dragons, and thunderpunch takes down any DD'ing gyarados. iron head is great neutral damage and it carries that n00by flinch hax that ppl always yell at me for. i really dont think one move could be considered noobish, unlike SD scizor (which btw is handled by mamo's endeavor + ice shard). this is my "be all, end all'' poke as it outspeeds virtually everything boosted, barring rain, and ties with scarf flygon and then its really just up to luck. if i predict right, i can finish up a battle with this bc its so fast and i have so many type options from which to choose.

Now you know the rest of the story...

After months of trial and error, here we are. With new ideas and tactics to take on the new age of the metagame. This is not always 100% effective, as much pressure is on the player as is the teams synergy. In a great many battles i can say i have consistent trouble with things that i dont know have spec's or band's. just bc i switch in hoping to take <50% and im down to 30% before i can blink. also hardcore stall teams still grind my gears, like teams with fortress,blissey, dusknoir,suicune i just wanna say, 'oh my god just move it!". also beating a HO team does take the right prediction but i seem to know what im doing there. On a side note, 2 members are unaffected by spikes, only 1 is weak to rocks, 1 is immune to toxic spikes, 3 unaffected by sandstorm, 1 not by hail.

Thank you for reading and i ask you please give your honest opinion and offer any and all replacements/ improvements you can think of. I am always open to the wonderful ideas spewing out of this scholarly community daily. I love pokemon, i will play it until i develop some kind of crippling disease, I also want to be able to accomplish great feats within the game. Thank you for your time =]
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[jc104]

Hi there. This looks like a pretty good team, although I must disagree with you about stall (it's great, really!). I like the concept of your team; a combination of anti-stall pokemon and fast pokemon to clean up offensive teams. It is bulky offense I see giving you the most trouble however as I have found with my similar teams. I can see some problems with things like LO Shaymin and Zapdos, but I am not entirely sure what to do about them.

First of all, there is little reason to use Psychic on Starmie. Almost everything is hit harder by one of your other moves, and it offers a free swich-in for Tyranitar (and Weavile) allowing you to be trapped by Pursuit. You have two very decent Machamp switchins already in Gyarados and Gliscor (very few Machamp run Stone Edge and Ice Punch together), so you don't need to worry about him. I have two suggestions to replace it: Rapid Spin and Recover. LO Rapid Spin Starmie provides you with an almost guaranteed Rapid Spin, as it easily KOes the common spin blockers with Hydro Pump; this particulat Starmie is hell to face for stall as it is impossible to maintain their hazards without perfect prediction. Recover is reasonably obvious, as it keeps Starmie alive so that it can continue to wreak havok.

Your Jolteon is lacking a powerful STAB move, which somewhat limits its abilities. Your team is not the best suited to the strategy of subpassing, but if you do want to do it you should do it properly, without Charge Beam as it leaves you far too weak. If you merely want to pass subs without offensive presence, Jolteon is not the best option. It is very unlikely that you will be able to pass a Charge Beam boost to Starmie without Starmie taking a hefty hit. Starmie will also be easily revenged, as most teams, even stall teams, carry something faster than it. Jolteon should run one of two sets: a Life Orb sweeper set, or a Specs set. Specs Jolteon is famed for its speed and power; Specs Jolteon with prediction is incredibly difficult to switch into. The set should be the same spread, but with specs and Thunderbolt/Shadow Ball/Hidden Power [Grass/Ice]/Baton Pass. The choice of hidden power determines by whom you are walled (with the exception of Blissey and Snorlax); with HP Ice you are walled by Swampert and Mamoswine, and with HP grass you are walled by Flygon, for example. Baton pass gives you a highly advantagous switch as you scout your switchin; you are not actually passing anything.

The Life Orb set requires less prediction but is less powerful and more quickly worn down. The set consists of Thunderbolt/HP grass/Shadow ball/Filler. The last move really is a filler, but the best moves are probably Charge beam, which you use to hopefully get a boost as you finish something off, and Wish, which can be used on a predicted switch to heal the team.

Good luck.

 

[Smith]

Hey I got your message, this team actually looks fairly solid. Stall is mostly kept under control, except for Rotom forms- this team simply doesn't like them. This goes as well for Gengar. You don't really have a ghost or dark resist, so Specs Rotom-w and SubSplit Gengar can be problematic, as well as CB Tyranitar, as nobody can switch into his might crunches over and over. I think a scarftar of your own would be very beneficial for the team, and I'll tell you why- Tyranitar and Gyarados just work well together. Gyarados' natural counters are Rotom and Starmie. Well, by trapping and killing them with Tyranitar, Gyarados has a much easier time. If you really want to break stall, I'd go for Rapid Spin over Psychic on Starmie. With Rotom indisposed, Starmie can spin away and make stall weep.

If you do choose to run Tyranitar, I'd put him over Mamoswine. He's great and all, but you don't need 3 electric immunities and 2 ground types. Of course, Tyranitar's not much of a lead, and having two scarfers is a little much- so I think Jirachi with Wish, Stealth Rock, Iron Head and Fire Punch could become your new lead.

That's all I got, hope it helps.

 

[360Swampert]

got you Vm so here goes

Ok i really like your team and i like the synergy between the pokemon so my main nitpicks will just be with the movesets

First i would advise a swap to a gliscor lead and a mamoswine Physical attacker this is really because whilst a good team i find that the gliscor set once killed leaves you without a way to ohko blissey.

Gliscor
Jolly leftovers
EVs 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
~ Stealth Rock
~ Earthquake
~ Roost
~ Taunt / U-turn

Practically giving you the same set as before but allowing your mamoswine to do the dirty work on Koing Blissey with this setup


Mamoswine
Physical Attacker
Choice Band Jolly

EVs 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
~ Earthquake
~ Ice Shard
~ Stone Edge
~ Superpower

The second is basically to agree with jc104 Give your starmie rapid spin over physic as a way to really ruin a stall teams run. and that your team is not really set up for a jolteon baton pass so a much nice Scalf/specs/lo jolteon would be useful as its power and speed really works as its main counters in stall teams such as blissey can be killed.

hope this helped

 

[ginganinja]

Hey I got your PM. This looks like a really solid RMT and i cannot find much to change. I do agree with jc104's suggestions (actualy I pretty much agree with everything he said except the part when he said stall is great) in that Jolteon should be Specs or LO. Personaly I prefer Specs but U guess its up to you. Also seconding the removal of Psychic on Starmie. I would prefer Rapid Spin since then (as Jc104 said) stall find it far too difficult to keeep their hazards up of their spinblocker alive. I can attest to this difficulty since I have tried my hand at a semistall team and Rapid SPin starmie was so annoying to get rid of.

But I don't see much else that can fixed. having only 1 grass resist on your team hurts but I guess you can always work around that. Props on making a great team!

 

[NeoSeth]

I really like the idea of this team. Screwing stall over is something I really appreciate, since stall teams are my sworn enemy. I hate it. Especially Blissey (Whore). I don't really see the counter to HO teams here, although I give props for using catch-all Jirachi on your team.

You say sub-passing Jolteon works, and while I don't doubt you, I don't see the merit in using it over, say, Specs or LO. If it works, use it, but Specs T-Bolt 2HKOs Tyrannitar that don't invest significantly in bulk, such as ScarfTar and DD Tar. Speaking of which, Jolly DD Babiri Tar can clean up if Gliscor is down, basically requiring you to depend on that Iron Head flinch with Jirachi, and if that doesn't work you're done. Jirachi dies to EQ, Starmie is outsped and dies to Crunch, Gyarados dies to Stone Edge even after Intimidate, and Jolteon dies to EQ. True, it outspeeds Tar and hits it with Charge Beam, but it dies to EQ without KOing and doing any real damage. Considering that a skilled Tar player with a well-built team could easily remove Gliscor with a lure or something, that's a serious threat. LO Sceptile is a worthy mention, as it cleans up rather well and revenges Tyrannitar amazingly, but I wouldn't want to ruin your synergy. It hits hard and breaks apart some key cores, so it's something worth testing.

Gengar with Sub/Pain Split or the Rotom forms on a stall team seems like it could give you problems, especially since Gengar doesn't give a crap about Gliscor for the most part. Catching it with Taunt, though, makes it much easier to handle.

I'd also have to say replace Bounce on Gyara with something else. It's a move that's never been useful to me.

Finally, I'd recommend replacing Psychic on Starmie with Recover/Rapid Spin. It's just not worth it, since switching into Machamp's Dynamic Punch confuses you anyway and hurts a lot. I'd recommend Recover. Hydro Pump also can be used over Surf for more power, but I'm sure you knew that. It does help against Rotom, though.

PLUG: Agility Dragonite has a field day here, cleaning up EVERYTHING without a problem if Mamoswine's dead. No one uses it but me as far as I know, but I felt like promoting it. It's really solid and legit, so use it. It let's Dragonite exercise it's versatility over Mence to counter it's own counters and sweep. So check it out.