National Dex - My Platinum Team dominates Sinnoh -

[colour7]

> Sinnoh's summoned Seven <

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Hi and welcome fellow Trainers! :)
In this thread, I want to present my so called ''Sinnoh's 7 Team'',
which is a Pokemon Platinum (reimagined) story team.

How this Team started off
A few weaks ago, I stumbled on a Video, called rating every Champ's Team competitively. When the Youtuber presented Cynthia's team, I thought to myself how I would face her competitively.
And then it began.

I started off with Empoleon, because he was my first and foremost Starter back in the Pearl Edition. I wanted him bulky and a bit annoying which is why i chose Roar.

Followed by Infernape, because I love all three Starters and I wanted at least two in my Tean.

Then I added Rotom, since I always choose him for my team in Platinum.

Same with Gliscor.

So I almost had a solid Team together. Only missing part: a strong special Sweeper.
I thought of Espeon or Porygon-Z first, but then chose Alakazam over them, mainly because I never used Abra in Platinum, so it was time too show his powers.

All set, I just added Azelf because I felt like adding a Sinnoh Legendary and also to have a safe lead option.

I enhanced and upgraded the Team over two weeks of use.

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The Team itself

Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt/Explosion/Psychock
- Thunder Wave
- U-turn
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(Sacrifice) Lead

Azelf is our Lead and will start most of the time with the Stealth Rocks. If you are opposing a fast enemy or simply a Sweeper,
feel free to use Thunder Waves to slow the threat.
Azelf holds the Sash. Mainly because you wanna put out Stealth Rock/Thunder Wave safely.
Most of the time I use U-Turn after; other times you wanna explode (if weakend too much). Feel free too play a different move than Explosion, for example
Taunt too mock the enemies entry hazard, sword dancers or light screens.
(However if you don't let Azelf die (Explosion/kill after setting up, you can use him
as a safe-switch-in or to annoy your opponent with Taunt or Thunder Wave Attack during battle) .
Look out for stacked attacks like Bullet Seed or Dragon Darts etc.

Empoleon @ Shuca Berry / Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Toxic / Defog
- Stealth Rock
- Roar /Defog
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Bulky Defog / Toxic Roar

Next up is Empoleon. He acts as a Defogger and sets up Stealth Rocks (e.g. he defogs or Azelf dies).
However, I like playing Roar and Toxic together which often confuses enemies and gives interesting opportunities to switch in, or simply weaken enemies by hazards
and then getting them sweeped by Infernape.
And with Hydro Pump, Empoleon can even become a threat to some Pokemon, especially to Ground Types, since he hold's the Shuca Berry.
Look out for Fighting Types, Electric Physical like Zeraora

Infernape @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz / Blaze Kick
- U-turn
- Gunk Shot / Stone Edge
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The Fast and Mighty Physical
Your boy Infernape is our physical Sweeper and damn he's fast.
The Flame Pokemon comes with a Speed of 519 and kills pretty easy at around ~67% (no weakness)
He is great for:
-cleaning up weakened enemies
-Revenge Killing
-Pivoting
-1 hits enemies with weakness
all in all a great physical Sweeper.
(You can play different sets like Iron Fists on him too of course, I recommend the Choice scarf for this Team though!)
Look out for prio users, all weaknesses (Ground, Fly, Water etc.)


--- (a stronger alternative would be Libero Cinderace,
since he has a similar move pool. But he isn't a Sinnohmon, so get him out of here

) ---

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 16 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Pain Split / Will o Wisp
- Hydro Pump / Scald
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Special Wall
Rotom-W is the special Wall and I really really like him.
It can pivot out of battle or heal itself after tanking a attack.
Also, it does dangerous damage with Thunderbolt for certain Pokemon.
Look out for Grass attacks and physical ones.

Alakazam @ Focus Sash / Life-Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Nasty Plot
- Hidden Power [Ice]
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The Wise and Powerful Special
First of all, Rest in Peace M-Alakazam.
Secondly, Sash.
Yes, Alakazam is as strong as he is fragile so using a Sash is a must! (except you are crazy)
Alakazam, if well played, can become a very dangerous threat. Well, maybe only until faster Pokemon or a prio kills him.
So use him wisely!
Look out for everything that hurts or has priority, also stacked attacks are your doom.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Roost
- Toxic
- Detect
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alternative:
-Knock Off
-Roost
-Sword Dance
-Earthquake
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Physical Wall
Lastly we have Gliscor, who has the honorful Job of the Physical Wall.
Gliscor comes with a 383 Def, 354 HP and a 227 Attack; which makes her not only hard to kill.
But also provides a decent strong Knock Off. (I really like to clear away low-HP Mons with her Knock Off Attack too.)
With Roost and Detect she can stall out opposing Monsters, or you can set her up with Sword Dance to become a real threat or a late game option.
I prefer the Detect set, because it resonates more with the style I play Empoleon (Toxic and Roar).
Look out for Ice moves, special attacks.
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Conclusion

The Team provides a wide Range of different attack types and easy pivot options into the three bulky Mons.
Getting Damage on your opponents is easyby toxing them, Roar through their Teams
and setting up deadly attacks by Infernape, Alakazam or any other teammate afterwards
(since everyone has at least a decent amount of attack-power).
I should warn you, that Stone Types can become a threat if Empoleon isn't played well or dies too early.
I fought along with this Team for almost two weaks now and I'm pretty surprised how strong it is for a ''story team''.
I'm open to any other Ideas and Feedback (You can also suggest Team variations, Sinnoh Dex Mons are preferred though^^).
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​

 

[theotherguytm]

Ok, hi! As a fellow Gen 4 enthusiast... I'm not sure how you would want me to rate your team. You have several members of your team that are outclassed, the team doesn't really fit together and pretty much all of them have issues in their sets. With the exceptions of Gliscor and Alakazam, your entire team is UU legal. So I guess I'll just try and fix the mons individually for OU and you can tell me where you want to go from there.

The first thing to learn about National Dex OU at the moment, is there is only two viable playstyles: Hyper Offense and Stall. The reason being that there is too many wallbreakers for a balance team to cover while having an offensive presence. So you have to either run an entire team of walls to try and halt the opposing progress or just abandon the idea of running walls altogether. Your team has a suicide lead in Azelf, which clearly suggests Hyper Offense, but then you add walls and tanks like Empoleon and Gliscor, and the end result is pretty much a balance team with a suicide lead, which only works against teams that don't run hazard removal, and even then is inferior to just using a normal Stealth Rock setter that doesn't die getting them up. So I'd like you to tell me how you'd like to resolve this. Would you like me to do a full HO conversion? Or try and just upgrade the outclassed mons?

Azelf's only niche over other suicide leads is its Speed and Taunt, and even then Aerodactyl outclasses it in every way bar Explosion access. So your set must have Rocks, Explosion and Taunt to not just be straight-up outclassed. To avoid being overly passive, Ice Punch (for the Therians), Knock Off (generally crippling things and scouting Z-moves) or Fire Blast (roasting Steels) should be good in the last slot. U-turn should be avoided due to Azelf's high speed, which forces the mon it is bringing in to take the hit Azelf would.

Empoleon's lack of recovery is a huge issue for it, so it 100% needs Leftovers. If you keep Azelf as your only Stealth Rock setter, then Defog is bad since it clears your Rocks and you will likely have no means of resetting them. I have no idea what Empoleon could do on this team that something else isn't doing 100 times better (ie:with a way to restore its HP). I was thinking about the old Sub Agility Petaya set, but wow that hits like a wet noodle and is outsped by every scarfer ever. So probably the nearest thing to not completely outclassed it has is a Stealth Rock set:
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Defiant (so your Knock Off might mildly annoy something that Defogs on you)
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Scald (the move every bulky Water carries to burn things and not be Taunt bait)
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off (lets you punish things by removing items)
- Toxic (cripples things trying to set up on it)
However, including any passive set like this on the same team as Azelf as asking for trouble because it is far too slow for the teamstyle that Azelf demands. So one of them is going to have to go.

Infernape is one of my favourite mons, but the years have not been kind to it since its Gen 4 glory days. Ever since Gen 5 it has struggled to keep up with powercreep, with walls capable of halting it dead popping up left right and centre to exploit its average power, and its previously exclusive speed being swamped by better attackers. A scarf set that doesn't use its unpredictable mixed offenses isn't doing it any favours, as it is outclassed by the Swords of Justice pretty comprehensively (and they aren't even OU viable). The nearest thing Infernape has to not being totally outclassed is to exploit its two unique traits in mixed attacking and a deep movepool. However, Infernape is depressingly weak as a mixed attacker by OU standards. It just doesn't hit hard enough without a Nasty Plot or Swords Dance that it struggles to get off (believe me, I've tried making Work Up sets work so it can be a decent mixed sweeper. It's bad. Don't ever try it. Ever.) So that reduces it to a Nasty Plot/Swords Dance sweeper that struggles to ever set up and suffers from severe 4MSS.
Infernape @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Gunk Shot
- Earthquake
This set tries to differentiate itself from Terrakion and others by access to Gunk Shot to hit Fairy types (Earthquake is a must to hit Toxapex), but metagame staples like Magearna, Slowbro and Garchomp have no issues dealing with it. Not recommended.
Infernape @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Vacuum Wave
This set tries to sweep with Infernape's STABs on the special side with Vacuum Wave to make Infernape harder to revenge kill, but it relies too heavily on its Z-move to break certain common checks and ensure Focus Blast hits at the critical moment. Staples like Tapu Fini and Toxapex have no issues eating a boosted hit and KOing it with Scald. Also not recommended.

Rotom-Wash is mostly outclassed by Rotom-Heat in the current environment, due to the latter being able to check Fairy and Grass types while still being able to exploit bulky Water types and not being weak to Kyurem's Freeze-Dry. (Also, Rotom-W doesn't get Scald). This is the standard set:
Rotom-Heat @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 216 HP / 68 SpA / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Toxic
- Hidden Power [Ice]
However, it doesn't keep well with Hyper Offense teams in general.

If you're running Sash Zam, Counter is a must. It allows Alakazam to check one dangerous sweeper in an emergency, which is invaluable on the types of Hyper Offensive teams suicide leads encourage.
Alakazam @ Focus Sash/Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Counter/Hidden Power Fire
Running Life Orb does make Alakazam hit massively harder and saves a moveslot that would otherwise be used on Counter, but it requires VoltTurn or Teleport support to come in safely.

Finally, Gliscor. Another Pokemon that is somewhat out of place on Hyper Offense. While its breaking sets are hugely powerful and it is an amazing Stealth Rock setter, I'm not sure your team needs those qualities. The best option is probably the Swords Dance set:
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 24 Atk / 36 Def / 184 SpD / 20 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Facade
- Roost
Facade allows Gliscor to hit its checks very hard at +2. This set will more often than not aim to outlast checks rather than outright 1v1ing them, so it is usually suited to balanced or Bulky Offense teams, which can afford to invest 20 or so turns into Gliscor coming in, boosting up, hitting a check and switching out. Teams with a suicide lead tend to not be able to do this.

Hope this has provided some food for thought. Let me know what you'd like to change on your team, so I can put a bit more synergy into it (and Garchomp, how can you build a Gen 4-style team that not only doesn't have Garchomp, but is Garchomp-weak too...). Thanks for reading!