Team Home Row

[Blazer]

Team Home Row​

​

Preview​

This is yet another offensive team that I have made. Yes I know, it is very OU and boring but I guess that is what works. Personally I think that it is the best one that I have made (not saying much) but its a pokemon team, and therefore has weaknesses. The team generally sweeps with either Jolteon or Scizor the majority of the time. I have tinkered with it a lot and have played with it a little bit with some success. The name, home row, comes from the way I saved it in my computer by naming the file, asdfjkl; (the home row keys). So without furthur blabbing from me, here is Team Home Row! ​

Metagross@ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
EVs: 252 HP/244 Atk/12 Def

- Explosion- Used as a last resort when Metagross is about to die, or against something that doesn't go down easily. Generally
won't explode right away after setting rocks up unless I am faceing something my team has trouble with.
-Meteor Mash- Main STAB move used to hit hard. Still poses a threat even unboosted coming off 400+ attack. Can be especially dangerous if it gets the occasional attack boost.
- Bullet Punch- Used to pick off weaker leads like Azelf and Aerodactyl after surviving with focus sash. Also nice to hit Mamoswine with, who causes my team trouble.
- Stealth Rock - To get rocks up to help my other sweepers, especially useful for hampering things like Zapdos and Gyarados on
the switch.

EVs- Max HP to make Metagross bulky helping it survive pretty much anything that comes its way. 12 Def EVs to ensure it survives CB Dugtrio's EQ. The rest in attack to hit hard.

Description- Metagross gets the ball rolling for this offensive team. Originally had Azelf here, but I wanted something that could do more after setting up rocks, and aside from occasionally missing Taunt, Metagross has been a much better lead. Metagross's overall bulk is what really helps the team out. Being able to take hits and dish them out with the best of them. Priority and a strong explosion also help the team out tremendously, helping to save me from being swept at times or taking out something that can stall me out. Lum Berry helps with sleep leads and also makes meta a nice one-time status absorber if the berry has not been used later in the game.

Gyarados@ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
EVs: 74 HP/252 Atk/184 Spe

- Stone Edge - To hit Bulky Waters that resist Waterfall, especially useful for other Gyarados (especially all the restalk
ones who don't carry SE themselves).
- Waterfall - Main STAB move, Rock/Water provides good coverage, the flinch rate is nice as well after a DD.
- Dragon Dance - Boosts Speed and Attack to help Gyarados sweep, makes Gyarados a dangerous pokemon late game (if it lasts).
- Taunt - Maybe Gyarados' best move. Blocks stuff like Thunder Wave and Toxic, as well as attempts to phaze from stuff like
Skarmory. Alows Gyarados to sweep teams that rely on indirect damage to deal with it.

EVs- 184 Speed to outrun base 115s after a DD and Max Speed Jolly Ttar without a DD. Max attack to help sweep, the rest in HP for more bulk.

Description- Originally had a Bulky Gyarados spread. Went with more offense because I simply wanted something that hit harder. Taunt remained as it is still an amazing move and is sometimes more helpful to Gyarados sweeping than a third attacking move is. While the team is not designed to get a Gyara sweep, he is still very capable of sweeping once his counters (Celebi) are taken out. Has nice synergy with Metagross taking ground and fire moves directed at gross.

Jolteon@ Choice Specs
Ability: Volt Absorb
Timid Nature (+Speed, -Atk)
EVs: 4Hp/252 SpA/252 Spe

- Thunderbolt - For STAB. Hits stuff hard resisted or not. Once the opposing ground/Blissy is eliminated this move is
extremely dangerous.
- Shadow Ball - Mainly used to hit Rotom. Also hits celebi who resists Thunderbolt.
- Hidden Power Grass - Used to hit bulky grounds like Swampert, Mamoswine, and Rhyperior. Was HP Ice, but Swampert gave the team too much trouble.
- Baton Pass - Used to scout for counters. Also because Jolteon really does not have many other options.

EVs- Fairly simple. Max Speed to take advantage of Jolteons massive 130 base speed and Max Special attack to hit has hard
as possible.

Description- Works very nicely with Gyarados taking obvious electric moves aimed at the sea monster. This thing is simply amazing once the opposing ground/blissy is eliminated. Not much else to say other that with amazing speed and STAB thunderbolt coming off 479 Special Attack Jolteon is a great asset to the team.

Flygon@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
EVs: 4HP/252 Atk/252 Spe

- Outrage - Powerful STAB move. Has the drawback of getting locked in, but is extremely useful for hitting hard and fast.
Can also sweep lategame.
- Earthquake - Secondary STAB. Dragon/Ground has stellar coverage. Great for taking out ScarfTran and hitting other rocks
and steels hard.
- Stone Edge - Revenge kills flyers like Gyarados and Zapdos without getting locked into Outrage. Considering a fire move
in this slot for Scizor but I'm still not sure.
- U-turn - Great move for scouting counters, the fact that it hits Starmie, Celebi, and Cresselia (kinda) hard is nice as well.

EVs- Just went Max speed to outspeed other Scarf Flygons/Salamences that invest more into HP or Special Attack. Max attack
to hit hard.

Description- Flygon works well with both Gyarados and Jolteon, taking electric and rock attacks aimed at Gyarados as well as ground attacks aimed at Jolteon. Makes a great check on top threats like Gyarados, Jolteon, Infernape, etc. Has a number of great resistances and immunities that are extremely valuable to the team. U-turn is a great move that makes Flygon even more useful giving him great flexibility.

Salamence@ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Naive Nature (+Spe, -SpD
EVs: 16 Atk/240 SpA/ 252 Spe

- Draco Meteor - Amazing move that hits really hard. Great to hit stuff like Swampert and Gliscor that switch in expecting
to take a physical move or com in on a DD.
- Outrage - Used to hit special walls that come in after something gets hit by Draco Meteor. Getting locked in sucks but
Outrage is such a powerful move so it is worth it.
- Fire Blast - Used to hit steels like Metagross, Forretress, and Skarmory. Went with this over Flamethrower for extra power against stuff like Celebi.
- Brick Break - Great for hitting Tyranitar and Blissy (without getting locked in). Also hits Heatran fairly hard. Also nice
for breaking screens.

EVs- Max Speed to outspeed things like Zapdos and other Salamence that don't run as much speed. Special attack to make Draco
Meteor more powerful.

Description- My main wall breaker. Draco Meteor is the move of choice here. Even if Salamence does not kill something with DM, it will come extremely close, crippling that wall and allowing my other sweepers to, well sweep. Often times Mence can only afford one switch in with SR, SS, and taking hits, so after I DM, lots of people go to a special wall like Togekiss, only to get smacked by Outrage. Brick Break is nice for breaking screens and hitting Ttar and Fire Blast hits Celebi harder than DM (without the SpA drop) along with roasting steel types.

Scizor@ Life Orb
Abitlity: Technician
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe

- Superpower - Used over Brick Break for extra power, hits steels that resist Scizor's STAB moves.
- X-Scissor - STAB move that takes out stuff like Cresselia and Celebi. Used to hit slower bulky pokemon that don't die from
a BP.
- Bullet Punch - This is the move that made Scizor the most used Pokemon in OU. 90 BP Priority move coming off 394 Attack
with life orb. Great for both revenge killing and sweeping.
- Swords Dance - Used to raise Scizor's attack to incredible levels. After an SD not much can stand up to Scizor's Bullet
Punch, even if they resist it.

EVs- Went with Max Speed again to outspeed everything that I can (including other Scizor). Max attack for power. May lower speed
in favor for more HP though, not sure yet.

Description- The other main sweeper on this team. Normally try to save this guy until late game, even though its hard to sometimes due to the revenge killing capabilities with Bullet Punch. After an SD this guy is hard to stop and has saved me many times. Superpower and X-Scissor are also nice for eliminating Blissy/Lax and Celebi who would otherwise halt Jolteons sweep.

Changes:
Changed HP Ice to grass on Jolteon.
Used Metagross lead over Suicide Azelf.
Changed Flamethrower to Fire Blast on Mence

 

[Blazer]

24 hour bump

 

[Matthew]

On your Azelf lead I might suggest Taunt over Fire Blast, so you can then stop slower pokemon from setting up what their team wants. With that you should survive thanks to Focus Sash and be able to put rocks down (unless it is a faster pokemon)

Your team, in general, doesn't have much of a physical "uumph" to it. It's mainly just somewhat strong attacks coupled with Specs Jolteon. So I would like to put forth replacing your bulk Gyarados for the normal Sweeper Gyarados. This will allow your team to get a very powerful sweep set up and then possibly win you the game.

Gyarados @ Life Orb
Adamant Nature
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 6 HP
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

This is the normal and extremely powerful Gyarados set, after a Dragon Dance he'll outspeed most of the non scarfed OU game and be able to OHKO quite a lot of pokemon. Waterfall is the STAB move that is required on a set like this, it handles levitating steels like Bronzong, and any type that won't be hit for SE damage from Stone Edge or Earthquake. Stone Edge is to hit flying pokemon in for Super Effective damage, and possibly even the KO. Earthquake is to hit electrics and everything that isn't covered by the other two. Celebi is the main counter to this set, coming in resisting his attacks and then getting you paralysed. This shouldn't be a problem since you're carrying both Jolteon and Flygon to absorb the electic attack and it back with Super Effective damage.

The only other suggestion I have for you is to replace X-Scissor with Roost on your Scizor set. Scizor is bulky enough to survive and roost off attacks and it allows you to get more Swords Dances in. Bug isn't taht helpful of an offensive move, hitting Darks and Physics for Super Effective damage isn't really worth it. Superpower is generally the worse choice of Brick Break on the Swords Dance set since it lowers your attack, exactly what you were trying to boost using Swords Dance. It also lowers your defensive and with that your general ability to survive as a sweeper.

Hope this helped,
Empoleon

 

[Blazer]

Thanks for the rate. I am actually considering leading with a metagross over azelf, adding some bulk and still getting rocks up but I need opinions. I have thought of offensive Gyarados, the problem is that I use Gyarados to switch into a lot of tough physical attackers, and using an offensive spread would limit that ability.

 

[Matthew]

Intimidate is something that you should always remember. It lowers attack, making Dos' live longer

 

[Blazer]

Even with Intimidate, taking leftovers away and giving Gyarados life orb really hurts its lasting power, also lowering defensive EVs does not help. It is a lot harder switching Dos in knowing it will be taking 10% every time it attacks rather than recovering 6% every turn.

 

[Imran]

I always liked Fire Blast > Taunt on lead Azelf. I preferred the coverage than stopping things like Bronzong who would generally Iron Ball, KO after youve set up rocks and then come back in later to set them up anyway lol. So I think Fire Blast is cool there. I would chage the EV spread to 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP as with suicide Azelf, the move you will find yourself using most is Explosion so that is the one you want to power up. Expecially to put large holes in opposing Steel / Rock-types that may come in to "absorb" the blow. If you want to keep some semblance of SpA then an alternative set is: EVs: 212 Atk / 252 Spe / 44 SpA which will allow you to keep a little more of your special attacking power, but still allowing for a hard-hitting Explosion.

I don't know too much about Bulky'Dos' viability in today's metagame, but If you tell mw that it is working for you, I will believe you. I fell it might get beaten down too easily in today's heavily offensive metagame. I guess it can come in on things like Scizor and set up, and it is your best answer against Stall, so why not go for it! Maxing Speed on Flygon is great, but it makes me question why you have Hidden POwer Ice on Jolteon. To be honest with you Thunderbolt is going to hurt any Dragons that come in on you to set up anyway and you have Flygon who poses a huge threat to you anyway. I'd be much more scared of something like a cursepert if I were you, as it can handle most of your team, Gyarados can taunt, but risks getting smacked around by Stone Edge. Personally I would go with Hidden Power Grass on Jolteon, I made the transition from HP Ice to HP Grass on all my Electric types since Garchomp went, and I really think it is something to think about, especially for this team. On that note also Fire Blast on Flygon and a Rash nature might not be too bad an idea, gives you at least something to do on the predicted Skarmory switch :P Keep Brick Break on Mence, you can deal with Heatran easily using Gyarados and Flygon.

Overall I really do like this team, it has a clear goal wich is to get rid of Bulky Water types and then sweep with Scizor or Jolteon. Salamence will put paid to physical walls that might get in Scizors way, now we have Fire Blast on Flygon we have made it easier to deal with Steel types too. I don't really want tp replace any team members, first off because theres no need too and secondly it might upset the synergy of the team. I will assume this team has been reasonably succesful for you on the ladder? I sahll leave it at that for today unless there are any more specific problems that you haven't told us about (lol) A small list of problematic 'mons might be a good idea, but apart from that I will bid you goodbye and check later to see what you think.

 

[Blazer]

Bulky Gyarados has been working out nicely so far, the right mix of offense and defense that I wanted (LO dies too quickly, Restalk doesn't have enough coverage unless it sacrifices DD). Still considering a change to a more offensive set, but I feel I would need to add more bulk somewhere if I did (Scizor maybe??). I'm going to play around with the more physically EVed Azelf, considering there are times I am disappointed when Explosion doesn't KO, and when do, I will put Fire Blast on Flygon to help with steels.


I have had issues with Cursepert if Mence doesn't already cripple it with DM or Azelf doesn't explode on it (and both are likely to be gone late game. I think that HP Grass on Jolteon would probably be my best way to solve that, changing that to better deal with Swampert.

The other Poke I have had issues with is Agiligross with EQ/Ice Punch/Thunderpunch, as it Sweeps my whole team after an Agility.
The team has been doing fairly well, last I checked it was 1472 I think, probably won't play as much now considering school is starting again, but I appreciate all the help!

 

[Imran]

I see what you mean about that particular type of agiligross, but I really wonder how many of those you see. I'd say it's best simply to work off the one that it doesn't have, as generally Agiligross tend to be running: Agility, Meteor Mash, Earthquake, and then generally Explosion, so in theory the majority of the time you will be fine. One with Mash / EQ / Thunderpunch will give you problems still as Meteor Mash will hit Salamence and Flygon hard, although this statistic seems to indicate you won't be seeing too many too soon:

| Metagross | Move | Agility | 20.2 |

Even if you do meet an agiligross I'm sure that you have the capability to deal with it with Flygon, as it easily outspeeds and KOs said Agiligross. Overall I'd call that a small threat as you have the capability to keep pressure on it to stop it from getting the DD (In short, don't Outrage too early!) Hopefully that clears it up a bit!

EDIT: lol yeah, statistical anomalies for you. In the long term I doubt it'll be too much of a threat :P

 

[Blazer]

You are probably right, the only reason I mentioned it was because I faced the same one (same person) twice in a row and was swept by it both times. This particular gross also ran enough speed to outrun flygon after an agility, so basically it was tailor made to fuck my team up. I guess you can't hope to stop everything though, especially something as scarce as that.

 

[locopoke]

The one thing that really sticks out when I look at this team is that DDMence with one Dragon Dance boost can pretty much run through this team. With one Dragon Dance, Outrage OHKO's Gyarados, Salamence, Flygon and Jolteon. Earthquake also OHKO's Jolteon. And Fire Blast OHKO's Scizor. Azelf will most likely be dead by then but Outrage would kill him too. Maybe you could add a Life Orb or Choice Band Mamoswine to help with that, or maybe a Weavile. Those 2 easily finish Salamence off quickly and cause some switching, which is where Stealth Rock will take affect. Other than that I kinda like this team, I used one very similar to this before.


Edit: lol same post count. 202

 

[ToF]

Pretty solid team with some nice synergy. I'd just like to suggest some minor edits to help the survivability of the team.

BulkyGyara is nice, but at some point, constant switching will result in a rapid depletion of health. SpecsJolt has really nice synergy with RestTalk Dragon Dance Bulky Gyarados. This Gyarados also provides an almost guaranteed counter to Lucario and Scizor, something your team struggles with as of now. 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Sp.Def is the spread, with the moveset Dragon Dance / Rest / Sleep Talk / Waterfall. Although you are walled by bulky waters, Jolteon shouldn't have any problem at all dealing with all bulky water variants.

By the way, Jolteon definitely wants HP Grass over HP Ice. Grass deals with Swampert, who always gives teams like this problems. Ice hits dragons, who you cover with Flygon and your own Salamence anyway.

Normally, I'd suggest Fire Blast on all Azelfs. However, in your case, you have two Pokemon weak to Stealth Rock, so Taunt may not be a bad idea to prevent slower, bulky Pokemon like Bronzong from setting up on you. With the way the current metagame is going anyway, more and more Bronzongs are running Heatproof, so Fire Blast may be more of a nuisance than help.

Personally, I've never liked the Swords Dance variant of Scizor. Although it is indeed powerful, the metagame is shifting so that counters are definitely rising and viable. Consider running a Choice Band Scizor for additional synergy with Flygon (U-Turn). I've always found that in certain situations, CB Scizor is more helpful than Swords Dance; ultimately it comes down to personal preference, but its another option that might be worth considering.

Hope I helped, good luck.

 

[Blazer]

Thanks for the rate. I do not have a reliable way to stop DD mence. At this point my best way of stopping it is by revenge killing it with Flygon (as most do not run max speed) or Scizor's bullet punch, hoping that it would have at least taken SR damage.

There are times when I wish I had taunt on Azelf, at this point I am not sure which I find more useful, but will test both. Again, putting Taunt on Azelf is even more reason to run Fire Blast on Flygon.

I think Restalk Gyarados would be good. I would probably run enough speed to outrun +speed base 90s however, instead of the EVs in Special Defense.

I like SD Scizor though, especially if I go with Restalk Gyara, SD Scizor would be my only reliable set-up sweeper late in the game. I do not think I like CB on this team.

 

[locopoke]

Maybe you could use a RestTalk Gyarados with Avalanche > Dragon Dance. It's just a thought though, so idk. But anyway good luck with the team.

 

[Blazer]

That would help with Salamence, or even Stone Edge for other Gyaraods which also hits Mence, will consider it.

 

[locopoke]

That would help with Salamence, or even Stone Edge for other Gyaraods which also hits Mence, will consider it.

lol, nice. i didn't even think of Stone Edge, but yeah that would be better than Avalanche, even thought it would take an extra hit to kill Salamence. It still works.