RMT (no legendaries) Counterweighted

[iSharingan]

I spent about a month refining this team on PO before a tournament I went to at the release of Black 2 and White 2. I did fairly well, but there's obviously room for improvement. When selecting these pokemon, I tallied the top 15 threats I faced on OU matches on PO's main server and I developed counters for them. Wen this new team was swept, I would attempt to close that weakness. This is the team I ended up with. I RNG abuse, so this list perfectly matches what is currently on my game.

As stated in the thread title, ALL legendaries (except Rotom, who GF doesn't consider legendary in any regard) were forbidden in the tournament this was designed for, so I do not have them in my team and I did did with out counters for them to hopefully focus on other major threats that could appear. As pointed out, the main counter I need right now is a Gastrodon/Swampert counter that won't drag the team into a massive type weakness. I am willing to switch out several pokemon in various degrees to achieve this.

Mamoswine (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Snow Cloak
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard

This is my main lead and ultimate weather counter. The only real threat is a scarfed drizzle Politoed since it will outspeed me before I can 2HKO it. Since Snow Cloak was allowed, I have no trouble flinching Abomasnow to death and avoiding what does get through.

Magnezone @ Air Balloon
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 80 HP / 240 SAtk / 188 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Discharge
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]

This was my steel type counter. It OHKOs Skarmory and can deal with Forretress, and CB Scizor with HP fire (outspeeding both). Substitute blocks Ferrothorn's Leech seed (which is practically guaranteed to be the first move). Flash Cannon lets me deal deal at least decent damage Rock and Ground types.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Thunder
- Psyshock
- Surf

This is my main revenge killer. Rapid Spin cleans up after Magnezone deals with Ferrothorn. Surf and Psyshock are the obligatory STABs with Thunder for coverage. I also use Starmie to absorb status when the need arises. The only reason I selected it was that I needed a Spinner that wouldn't be restricted to purely support. It would mean certain doom if a purely utility Spinner was the last one standing on my team. While it does work in some situations, it often drags the team down with its weakness to several common move types. I hope to be able to get another Spinner to replace it, but I'm open to other options as well. This is my first choice to be replaced by another pokemon and I may put Techniloom here if I can't find any better replacements. If I do use breloom here, Scizor may or may not be replaced as well.

Reuniclus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

I selected this as a late game sweeper. I had Alakazam here before, but that left me wide open to Trick Room teams. Blast-Ball provides perfect coverage with a nice STAB Psychic thrown in, although Focus Blast's lack of accuracy often hurts against Steel types when Magnezone is already KO'd. This is second in line to be replaced. I am looking for a good trick room counter with sweeping potential.

Scizor (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SDef / 232 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
- U-turn

As is usual for this set, I use her to soften up teams for a sweep. A good phazer might work with this if I can safely switch back and forth, but that's usually impractical. This is third in preference for a replacement, most likely with a Techniloom set.

Salamence (F) @ Dragon Gem
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang

I know this set is a tad unusual, but I usually alter commonly used sets to fit my needs and make them less predictable. I chose the Dragon Gem to give me an effective +3 Outrage (after a DD) to help set up the first Moxie boost. Many opponents would expect a Lum berry, so they would hesitate to potentially waste a turn with a status move. It was a tossup between this and Dragonite, but I chose this set for it's superior base speed and access to additional ATK boosts

When it comes to building teams, I'm quite good at building one if I am given a core of 2-3 Pokemon, but when starting from scratch like this, my ADD takes over and I miss important weaknesses, so after I finalize my plan and train it, it's too late.

I tried to use [animate] tags, but most of the pokemon are missing...

 

[One Approved]

*Approved* If you could add a bit more to Starmie and Reuniclus's descriptions that would be awesome. Otherwise this looks good to me. I'll be back for a rate later

 

[MrGatr]

It'd be super helpful to have pictures, I'm suprised TPO3 didn't ask you for that like he does with others lucky you.

KK, so I'm gonna start by showing your Pokemons specific threats, and then we can see who handles who, giving you a threat list.
Mamoswine
Scizor hits hard with Bullet Punch
Jirachi has Iron Head
Gyarados sets up with Dragon Dance
Ferrothorn and it's immense defense
Bronzong ^
Politoed and Scald
And all the other water types

As you can see all of Mamoswines counters are faced with Magnezone keeping it alive, this isn't something I'd recommend, because if they KO Magnezone, you have nothing to switch in safely for Mamoswine which will cost you games.

Magnezone
Blissey absorbs attack
Shaymin ^
Swampert resists metal, immune to lightning, and roars/EQ's it
Landorus-I Switch in on Thunderbolt/Volt Switch, and EQ it
Landorus-T ^
Jolteon absorbs electric attacks
Electivire ^ and hits with Cross chops/Fire punch/EQ
Tyranitar absorbs attacks

Swampert is in BOLD because it absorbs all attacks from your team, and can wall majority of it, you need a grass type for this, but I will get to that later.

Starmie
Blissey absorbs attacks
Chansey ^
Gastrodon ^
Lanturn resists Ice Beam, takes Lighning Bolt like a boss, and fires back
Anything with Pursuit

Gastrodon has the same deal as Swampert, can wall your team, and take water hits like a pro.

Reuniclus
Scizor hits hard
Victini resists and U-Turns for a huge amount of dmg
Spiritomb unnaffected by everything Reunc has to throw at it

Scizor
Skarmory sets up
Gyrados ^
Heatran hits hard and resists
Keldeo ^

Salamence
Dragons

With this all done, you can now see the specific threats to your team. For example, Swampert and Gastrodon wall the whole team, easily taking an outrage from Salamence and roaring it out then finishes walling, or racking up Stealth Rock damage.
Large Threats:
Swampert-
Easily takes your hits, and fires back with EQ, Waterfall, or Roar, making your team really annoyed and not prepared to deal with it
Gastrodon-
Walls the team really nicely, and can take out several key threats such as Magenzone, and Salamence

Medium Threats:
Lanturn-
Easily takes your only Electric type attacks, absorbs Ice Beam hard, and hits back to KO
Spiritomb -
This is here assuming your smart enough not to let it set up on you, because if it does, you are going to have some issue's dealing with it making it a massive threat.
Keldeo -
Keldeo resists most of your team, and hits back to get a few KO's, Hydro Pump in the rain will do it's fair shair of Damage to anything switching in that doesn't absorb water with an ability.

Small Threats/Annoyences.
Blissey & Chansey -
These guys are serious walls, Reuniclus takes care of them if caught on the switch, but they can easily switch to Scizor and hit with U-Turn or something for large amounts of damage.
Shaymin -
I know you think this little hedgehog is plenty countered, but its not, Subseed is the most annoying thing this team could face, trolling all of Shaymins switch ins, making it hard to KO
Electivire & Jolteon-
These guys are quickly able to KO most of your team, especially Electivire. Thank goodness they are slow, allowing a predicted Magnezone EQ to work well
Skarmory-
This guy walls the team, sets up Spikes and Stealth Rock, and then Roars you away.

Now that you have your threat list, you need to counter your main threats, Swampert & Gastrodon. You need a grass type for this. My suggestion would be to Remove Reuniclus, because Breloom does its job and some. Breloom counters everything Reuniclus does, and goes on to counter Swampert, and Gastrodon.
[animate]breloom[/animate] @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 12 HP/244 Atk/252 Spe
Moveset:
-Spore
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
-Seed Bomb.

I'll leave the rest to Equinox and TPO3, and TDL, and Bippa and SL to finish because I don't wanna take all the work

Welp I don't know why the tags are broken, but its in your teams order... Sorry I'll fix it when I figure it out,

 

[Uralya]

Well, not to knock his suggestion (you left out my rating capabilities, Martini XP), but I would use a Technician Breloom instead. Double (triple counting Mamo) priority is nice (with Scizor) due to your large Terrakion weakness if Scizor goes down. It also gives you another set-up sweeper.

Breloom @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SAtk)
- Mach Punch
- Swords Dance
- Spore
- Bullet Seed

Now that you have that monster, I'll say that DD Salamence is relatively outclassed by its Scarf counterpart, and since you lack a Scarfer, why not? I think you would benefit from it.

Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spe
Naive Nature (+Spe, -SDef)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Dragon Claw

Next, I'd change Magnezone's spread to 32 HP / 252 SAtk / 224 Spe. This maximizes its attacking capacity while outspeeding max Speed SD Scizor and speedcreeping other Magnezone by 1 point so if worse comes to worse you can HP Fire them first.

Lastly, could you explain your Scizor spread? It's interesting, but its tanking capabilities are wasted with such a spread. i would go 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SDef unless there's a special threat to outspeed.

Pictures too please. It's a pretty decent team, but as you said, your ADD skipped a few weak points. Best of luck.

~AoH

 

[iSharingan]

[member]Martini[/member]: Yes. Thank you for pointing that out. I really did need a counter for Sawmpert and Gastrodon, I just nixed the Breloom set I had in the first version of the team when I added Scizor since they weren't that common. I appreciate you pointing out the legendaries that could wall me, but this team was designed for PLAY! Pokemon tournaments where ALL legendaries are banned (including the Regis which can't even compete in most OU settings). Also, with Spiritomb's low speed, I usually send in Mamoswine. I believe Mamoswine could outspeed Sucker Punch with Ice Shard (they're both +1 priority iirc). If it's running a CM or RestTalk set, Mamoswine usually flinches it to death with Icicle Crash, exploiting it's unboosted DEF in the process. If they skip boosting all together and go straight for Shadow Sneak, Mamoswine still weakens the Spiritomb enough for Scizor to OHKO with Bullet Punch, so I can't say I see it as much of a threat. As you pointed out I really need a replacement for Starmie and that is currently the number one pokemon I want to switch out. I'm still a little reluctant to replace Reuniclus though since most pokemon that set up Trick Room wall my pokemon with priority moves. If a better trick room counter is suggested, I'll gladly switch it out.

[member]AoH[/member]: That breloom set is actually exactly what I had on the first versions of this team. It kept being KOed by flying moves usually from Gliscor (when Mamoswine was out already). I replaced it with Scizor since it did the same thing, only with less weaknesses. I'll try the EV spread for Magnezone again, but the only reason I changed it to it's current values was that my substitutes were often broken by about 5 points, so I left enough SpA to still OHKO Skarmory while giving me a slightly stronger Substitute. That Scizor spread is one I borrowed from another PO user. I was using the defualt CB set from [a certain competitive recommendation site], but I found this one effective in more circumstances. It may forfeit the speed tie with other Scizor, but it still has enough speed to outrun most of the priority users it needs to. An added benefit is that with the SpD investment it can survive some weaker HP fire sets that would otherwise survive the first Bullet Punch and OHKO my Scizor. I'll switch it back for the Breloom set if a good replacement is found since I'm still a little too vulnerable to Fire attacks with Scizor adding it's double type weakness to Mamoswine's weak SpD with neutral damage and Magnezone's normal type weakness. I believe Scarf Typhlosion swept this team a time or two because my Starmie fainted from an early crit. Regarding Salamence, I chose not to use a Scarf set so I could switch attacks as needed. When I do run a scarfed Dragon, I usually use Flygon.