Synergy , Synergy , and yet again , Synergy.

[Rukia]

Synergy is the main point for a team's success. Synergy can be defined as two pokemon resisting each other's weaknesses and two pokemon able to take out all the 17 types in pokemon.

Without further ado , I present you the team :

Gengar @ Wide Lens
Timid Nature
Levitate
4 HP / 252 Speed / 252 Special Attack
- Hypnosis
- Destiny Bond
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

The first member of my team . Gengar serves a very important role in the team. First , it sleeps the lead. After Wide Lens, the significant increase in accuracy of its moves, Hypnosis and Focus Blast respectively , will help Gengar alot. Hypnosis is the first move I use most of the time to sleep leads. With 350 Speed , Gengar finds no problem trying to outspeed leads . Leads that Gengar are unable to outspeed include Crobat,Azelf and Aerodactyl,which I have counters for. Destiny Bond is to take down a pokemon together with it ,specifically Scizor. Scizor tends to use PURSUIT instead of BULLET PUNCH to hit Gengar , as they expect me to switch out . This is one scenario when Destiny Bond works wonders . Focus Blast helps me hit most leads , namely Metagross,Abomasnow,Lucario,Infernape,etc,after hypnotising them to sleep. Shadow Ball is the obligatory STAB move and gains perfect coverage with Focus Blast , hitting every pokemon in the OU tier for at least neutral damage.Let us take a look at how Gengar handles the common leads :

Azelf - Hypnosis on turn one to check if it has Taunt . If it has no Taunt , continue Shadow Balling it to death after hypnotizing it.Otherwise , switch out to the appropriate counter.

Aerodactyl - Shadow Ball straight as the chance of Aerodactyl not running Taunt is less than 1%. If needed,switch out to appropriate counter.

Metagross - Hypnosis it to sleep and proceed to hit it with Shadow Ball or Focus Blast. The most it can do is Bullet Punch me(if it uses it on Turn One).

Ninjask - Easiest match-up. Break its Substitutes with Shadow Ball and Hypnosis the switch-in when it Baton Passes its boosts without a Substitute when it has no HP left.

Lucario - Hypnosis on turn one and Focus Blast + Shadow Ball for the OHKO , should it have Focus Sash. Otherwise, Focus Blast does the job.

Tyranitar - Hypnosis on turn one to be safe if Focus Blast does not OHKO on Turn two.

Hippowdon - Sleep it with Hypnosis and switch out.

Abomasnow - No need to sleep it , Focus Blast it to oblivion of the North Pole.

Infernape - Sleep it with Hypnosis and continue to hit it with 2 Shadow Balls after Focus Sash.

As you can see, Gengar handles most leads easily.Gengar serves as my spin blocker late game as well,should it be able to survive.

[Synergy]

Blocks Rapid Spin
Prevents entry hazards most of the time
Cripple a pokemon
Counters Blissey

Takes Fighting moves
Takes Normal moves
Takes Ground moves
Takes Grass moves
Takes Bug moves
Takes Poison moves
Takes Toxic and Will-o-Wisp
No damage from Spikes
No effect from Toxic Spikes

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Careful Nature
Keen Eye
252 HP / 4 Defense / 252 Special Defense
- Brave Bird
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Roar

Skarmory serves as my standard phazer and wall. Stealth Rock is the obligatory move on Skarmory which may turn 2HKOs into OHKOs , and 3HKOs into 2HKOs. Roost is the recovery move on Skarmory which removes its Electric weakness. Roar enables me to scout the opponent's team. Skarmory is able to take 2 Close Combats from Pinsir ( 125 Attack , STABed ) and 1 Head Smash from Aggron ( Choice Band ) , while I Roost , causing Head Smash to be ineffective. Skarmory is your standard one and I think this explanation should be enough . The EVs allow it to wall from both sides of the spectrum.

[Synergy]

Takes most physical hits like a champ
Phazes away stat uppers
Sets up Stealth Rock
Walls Head Smash Aggron

Takes Normal moves
Takes Dark moves
Takes Grass moves
Takes Ghost moves
Takes Ground moves
Takes Bug moves
Takes Steel moves
Takes Poison moves
Takes Dragon moves
Takes Toxic
Absorbs Thunder Wave
Resists all of Latias's and Kingdra's weaknesses
No damage from Spikes
No effect from Toxic Spikes

Latias @ Life Orb
Bold Nature
Levitate
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
- Thunder Wave
- Recover
- Dragon Pulse
- Charge Beam

My own variant of Latias. Physically oriented to take one U-Turn from Scizor(max 80% iirc) from CB Scizor. Thunder Wave paralyses foes and makes up for the lack of 248 EVs in Speed. Recover to negate Life Orb damage. Charge Beam serves as Calm Mind , but it does damage. Dragon Pulse as the STAB move that has the same power as a +0 Draco Meteor after one Charge Beam boost. Dragon Pulse and Charge Beam,if I am not wrong,has perfect coverage together. Latias finds no problem trying to survive a +0 Outrage / Draco Meteor from Salamence, Dragonite or Flygon without Choice Band whilst it OHKOs with Dragon Pulse should they not be Specially Defensive oriented. Dragonite may survive,though. This variant of Latias easily breaks stall as it is capable of 2HKOing Blissey after Stealth Rock and prior damage with Dragon Pulse. It does a minimum of 39.5% damage to max HP / max SDef +Nature Blissey that is only prominent in Ubers. In OU,it is max HP / max Def neutral Nature,therefore it does a minimum of 52.2% damage , capable of OHKOing it out if it has taken 36% of damage beforehand excluding Stealth Rock. If there is a Critical hit , it is OHKOed before prior damage + Stealth Rock. Latias is a very important member of the team.

[Synergy]

Takes Will-o-Wisp
Spreads paralysis
Can stall Blissey out

Takes Psychic moves
Takes Fighting moves
Takes Ground moves
Takes Fire moves
Takes Water moves
Takes Grass moves
Takes Electric moves
No damage from Spikes
No effect from Toxic Spikes
Resists all of Empoleon's and Skarmory's weaknesses

Empoleon @ Petaya Berry
Modest Nature
Torrent
12 HP / 8 Def / 236 Spe / 252 SAtk
- Substitute
- Agility
- Hidden Power [ Dragon ] / Grass Knot / Ice Beam Ice Beam
- Surf

Empoleon,the world's most famous and the best special sweeper. Agility + Substitute + Petaya Berry. The best and infamous set of Empoleon. With Agility , Empoleon reaches 430 Speed iirc,outspeeding all base 90 scarfers.
Surf is the STAB move that reaches 137.5 power before Torrent activates which easy wipes out all pokemon should Petaya Berry and Torrent be activated.It does ~70% to Salamence IIRC.As for the 3rd moveslot , I am having troubles with.If I run Hidden Power [ Dragon ] , I can hit all Grass,Dragons and Waters, who resist Surf. If I run Grass Knot, I hit the Waters only.If I run Ice Beam,I hit the Grasses and Dragons only.But,the power difference,between Hidden Power [ Dragon ] and Ice Beam is 25 , a significant difference , if you count in Petaya Berry. Therefore, I need some suggestions on what move to use.The EVs allow 312 HP, enough to set up 3 Substitutes and for the Petaya Berry to activate. 236 Spe allows me to reach 430 Speed and max SpAtk to maximize power.I am not sure why the 8 Def EVs are there.I have went with Ice Beam to take down DDing Mence after 1 Agility.

[Synergy]
Outspeed Scarfers base 90s after one Agility
Able to OHKO Head Smash Aggron ( CB , Stuck in Head Smash ) .

Takes Normal moves
Takes Ice moves
Takes Dragon moves
Takes Dark moves
Takes Ghost moves
Takes Bug moves
Takes Poison moves
Takes Flying moves
Takes Rock moves
Takes Water moves
No effect from Toxic Spikes
Absorbs Toxic
Resists all the weaknesses of Latias and Kingdra

Electivire @ Expert Belt
Naive Nature
Motor Drive
188 Attack / 252 Speed / 68 Special Attack
- Cross Chop
- Ice Punch
- Thunderbolt
- Earthquake / Fire Punch

Electivire absorbs Electric attacks for the team , and uses it for a nice Speed boost . Cross Chop hits Blissey for Super Effective damage and with a nice boost from Expert Belt , OHKOing max HP / max Def +Nature IIRC.Thunderbolt OHKOs Skarmory and is something that Thunderpunch cannot do. Earthquake hits Jolteons and other Electric types , but Fire Punch hits Scizor. It is very hard to choose between these two as my team is slightly Scizor weak. I need suggestions on this. Electivire gains perfect coverage with the moves, hitting every pokemon for neutral damage and Expert Belt is a good item as most pokemon get hit for Super Effective damage,lest Neutral damage.The EVs allow max Speed,and the rest are just pumped into Attack and Special Attack.

[Synergy]
Has Super Effective on more than 10 of the 17 types
Uses Electric moves to its advantage
Mixed Sweeper

Takes Electric moves
Takes Steel moves

(>,< not really much but his ability to hit Super Effective on most types make up for this)

Kingdra @ Lum Berry
Adamant Nature,
Swift Swim
4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Outrage
- Substitute

SubDD Kingdra is a beast when it gets to set up. Able to deal 38% damage(Waterfall) to Salamence after +1 not counting in Intimidate is a great deal if it switches in.Kingdra is also able to outspeed Scarf Latias after +2 Speed. Substitute is the main gist of the set.Switching in on a Water-typed move or tank,namely Forretress,Blissey, and set up Substitute. Forretress can only use Explosion to hit me as Gyro Ball does not break my Sub before 1 Speed boost.Blissey can only use Seismic Toss to break my Subs but most Blissey run DoubleStatus + Softboiled + Ice Beam / Thunderbolt nowadays. Therefore , Kingdra finds many opportunies to set up with only 1 weakness and 95/95/95 defenses . Dragon Dance allows Kingdra to sweep more effectively , boosting its Attack and Speed. Waterfall and Outrage provides me with perfect coverage. Kingdra is also my Rain team counter with Swift Swim.Lum Berry negates the Confusion from Outrage and allows it to attack more effectively. The EVs are the standard EVs.

[Synergy]

Takes Fire moves
Takes Steel moves
Takes Water moves


Overall Weakness / Resistant / Immunity Chart :

Weaknesses

Normal - 0
Grass - 0
Electric - 2
Dragon - 2
Ice - 2
Water - 0
Ghost - 1
Dark - 1
Bug - 1
Poison - 0
Ground - 2
Rock - 0
Flying - 0
Fire - 1
Steel - 0
Fighting - 1
Psychic - 1


Resistances

Normal - 2
Electric - 1
Water - 3
Grass - 3
Fire - 2
Ground - 0
Dragon - 2
Fire - 2
Poison - 0
Dark - 2
Ghost - 2
Steel - 4
Flying - 3
Rock - 1
Bug - 3
Ice - 1
Fighting - 1

Immunity

Normal - 1
Fighting - 1
Poison - 4
Bug - 0
Fire - 0
Electric - 1
Water - 0
Ground - 3
Dragon - 0
Steel - 0
Water - 0
Grass - 0
Flying - 0
Ice - 0
Rock - 0
Dark - 0
Ghost - 0

There you go , my synergy team . I am particularly short of Ice resistances now as I have one Pokemon only ( Empoleon ) who resists Ice.

 

[BobDrunk]

Well, it's a very balanced team, but i recomend you another Latias:

Latias @ Life Orb/Soul Dew
- Psychic
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover
- Thunder Wave

And if you can change it EVs and Nature(xD)
Modest, 252 SpA, 168 Spe, 88 HP

That's it. See you next time!

 

[Darkvirus]

Well, it's a very balanced team, but i recomend you another Latias:

Latias @ Life Orb/Soul Dew
- Psychic
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover
- Thunder Wave

And if you can change it EVs and Nature(xD)
Modest, 252 SpA, 168 Spe, 88 HP

That's it. See you next time!

one small note soul dew is banned on the OU ladder with psychic being a very poor attacking type with all the steels and Ttar running about and personaly i have found

Latias @ leftovers
Timid 4HP/252Spe/252Satk
Sub/CM/Recover/Dragon pulse
to be very effective you can come in on something you threaten or resist like heatran set up a sub and CM away no special attacker will break your subs with any ease and if you pair it with a magnezone if scizor comes in and trys to bullet punch you can ellimante him or this gives Empoleon a chance to set up and the same with Ttar.

 

[cmurph]

hp dragon shouldnt even be an option on emp. neutral damage doesn't mean shit if you're using a 70 bp non-stab attack. I think I would go with ice beam if I were you cause if a bulky mence/nite set or a cm latias set got a set-up turn on your emp it would not go well for the rest of the team

 

[Rukia]

@cmurph : I will run Ice Beam on Empoleon since what you justified was really a huge problem.Thank you.

@ the two other posters : I will test out your Latias sets and see if they are better than mine as currently , mine works well.

 

[fmsYEAH]

Your Gengar loses out to Azelf leads, due to the fact that Azelf outspeeds you, Taunting prevents you from using Hypnosis, Focus Sash makes Shadow Ball a 2HKO, and Psychic OHKOs you since you lack a Sash.

Metagross that run Lum Berry over Occa likewise run over your Gengar. Even with Wide Lens, Hypnosis has a paltry 66% accuracy, so it may not even need the berry.

Lead Tyranitar is made to take a Focus Blast from a LO'd Gengar, so it easily survives this one. Likewise, Lum Berry saves it from Sleep, where it proceeds to KO you with Crunch.

You fail to mention Jirachi, who is used as a lead more than 6x as often as Lucario is used as a lead (as well as being the third most popular lead in general). The Scarf variants take care of you easily, as Jirachi outspeeds you and Iron Head has a 60% chance to flinch you. Combined with Hypnosis' shaky accuracy, the chance of you not getting flinched and landing the Hypnosis is 26.4%.

For what it's worth, CB Aggron has a 41.03% chance of OHKOing your Skarmory after SR. Most Banded variants will likewise run enough Speed EVs to outspeed Skarmory, so Roosting to negate Head Smash would only be met with failure. A more common case would be CBtar, as it 2HKOs and outspeeds Skarmory with Stone Edge.

Naive MixMence rips through your entire team, as it outspeeds every single one of your Pokemon and can OHKO all of them. Agiligross gives similar problems. Tyranitar is a nuisance if it gets in a DD as well. Behind a Sub, SubCharge Rotom sets up on your team and sweeps. SDLucario rips through your team, as it outruns all of your guys except Gengar, and it OHKOs Skarmory after an SD with CC. The list of things that can sweep through your team with relatively little effort goes on.

Which leads me to believe you haven't even tested this team, have you?

 

[Rukia]

What makes you think I have not tested this team before.

Stealth Rock / Explosion / Taunt / Fire Blast are what I see on Lead Azelfs now.

Most Metagross I encounter run Occa Berry.

Tyranitars I see usually run Chople Berry / Leftovers. It usually has Stealth Rock / Stone Edge / Pursuit / Earthquake.

I shall switch out of Jirachi to the appropriate counter. Even though Jirachi is 6x as common as Lucario, I dont see it nowadays.

Really? I thought it was mentioned that Skarm gets 2HKOed by CB Aggron. Fine,whatever.

Naive MixMence's Outrage fails to OHKO Latias after SR based on my own experiences. It does max 86% iirc for Outrage.Likewise I can switch out to Skarmory / Empoleon if I predict Outrage. Agiligross usually runs Explosion / Meteor Mash / Earthquake / Ice Punch. Skarmory counters it as Ice Punch fails to 2HKO.

SubCharge Rotom is not as common now. Besides,SubCharge Rotom sets up on my team? Electivire is there for what it does.Swords Dance Lucario. I am weak to it,but if I change a pokemon, the whole team synergy is ruined. Swords Dance Lucario is not commonly seen nowadays anyways. Plus it finds very little opportunities to set up. If it SDs on Kingdra , Kingdra DDs too and it survives one Extremespeed and OHKOs with Waterfall.If it sets up on Latias , Latias Thunder Waves it and all my pokemon outspeed it and can OHKO it with ease. Gengar survives till late game most of the time anyway.

Which leads me to ask : Which team is not weak to SDCario / MixMence anyways?
Or rather,which teams have the BEST counters for MixMence ?

FireBlast / Outrage / Earthquake / Brick Break . Every pokemon in the OU tier is hit by at least Neutral damage by Salamence and it is usually backed with Scizor.

Let us see the counters for Salamence(usually):

Skarmory - Fire Blast OHKOs it after Life Orb.
Bronzong - Fire Blast OHKOs it after Life Orb after some prior damage done.
Blissey - Maybe the best counter. But as I said before, MixMence teams usually have Scizor too that counter Blissey.
Latias - Scizor in the team.
.... What else?

 

[Crudkip]

What makes you think I have not tested this team before.

Which leads me to ask : Which team is not weak to SDCario / MixMence anyways?
Or rather,which teams have the BEST counters for MixMence ?

FireBlast / Outrage / Earthquake / Brick Break . Every pokemon in the OU tier is hit by at least Neutral damage by Salamence and it is usually backed with Scizor.

Let us see the counters for Salamence(usually):

Skarmory - Fire Blast OHKOs it after Life Orb.
Bronzong - Fire Blast OHKOs it after Life Orb after some prior damage done.
Blissey - Maybe the best counter. But as I said before, MixMence teams usually have Scizor too that counter Blissey.
Latias - Scizor in the team.
.... What else?

SDCario is easily counterable, not by anyone on your team, but still Gliscor/Zapdos/Rotom make good counters to him.

Counters to MixMence: Cressalia, Bronzong (when EVed correctly and used with prediction) ScarfRachi can come in on Draco Meteors and KO, Latias is not a counter to MixMence whatsoever. Draco Meteor fucks Latias up completely, your latias may be able to take an outrage, but that is a stupid EV spread, as you will just be outrun and then KOed >.<.

You clearly haven't taken the common threats of the metagame into account when creating this team, and your EV spreads are pretty terrible. Kingrdra doesn't need a Lum Berry as well as Substitute, give him Leftovers. Thunder Wave won't help Latias, as most common switch ins are: CBScizor and CBTyranitar, who really don't mind Paralysis as they are very slow anyway.

 

[fmsYEAH]

Azelf you meet not running Psychic=/=Azelf will never run Psychic. Hell, going by what happened in September, Psychic is the common sight to see, as more than 50% of all Azelf used were leads, and 62.5% of all Azelf used Psychic, compared with just 20.7% of all Azelf using Fire Blast. Of course, this doesn't mean all Azelf use Psychic, but it's a fact that it's more likely to see an Azelf with Psychic than an Azelf with Fire Blast, and Fire Blast only lets Azelf do something against Metagross, who runs Occa Berry making running Fire Blast almost pointless.

I don't know what numbers you're running, but Naive MixMence OHKOs 252/252 +Def Latias 100% of the time with Outrage if SR is up (310 Atk vs 306 Def & 364 HP (120 Base Power): 342 - 404 (93.96% - 110.99%)).

About 10% of all Rotom-a likely run the SubCharge set; seeing as you define lead Tyranitar as "common" despite only about 13% of all T-tar are leads, I'd say it's fair to say that a SubCharge Rotom-a is "common" enough.

Lucario was the 8th most used Pokemon last month, and 74.3% of all Lucario ran Swords Dance. What this translates to is SDLucario was used more than Starmie, who checked in as the 15th most used Pokemon. Seeing as Starmie was seen on 10.9% of all teams, I'd say SDLucario is a pretty damn common sight.

Mixmence and SDLucario give trouble to almost every team, but most teams at least have a check to both of these threats, something you lack.

When Mixmence comes in, it's going to take something out; and more. It's not even easy for you to stop it; full powered Draco Meteor OHKOs Latias, -2 SpAtk Naive MixMence 2HKOs your Skarmory 100% of the time with Fire Blast with SR in play, Electivire is outsped and OHKO'd by EQ, as is Empoleon, -2 SpAtk Draco Meteor still OHKOs Kingdra and he is likewise outsped. What the hell can you do against Mixmence when it outspeeds everyone on your team bar Gengar, and can knock off 2 Pokemon at the minimum with absolutely no effort?

 

[Krommetje]

Well as were speaking about Lucario and MixMence.

Give Latias a Scarf, He is an excellent revenge killer something your team lacks. That way it can OHKO every Salemence. Outrun DDmence after one boost and OHKO. Outspeed Gyarados after a DD and OHKO. Outspeed and OHKO scarfed Flygon. And I can go on. This set is best I think
Latias/Timid/Choice Scarf
Ev's: 252 Spe/252 SpAtk/ 4Hp
Moves: Draco Meteor/Thunderbolt/Surf/Trick

And Talking about SD luke. Hes OHKO'd by Gengar Focus Blast if im right. Dont know that for sure anymore

 

[Witnessed]

I am going to make this clear: your entire team is a bunch of gimmicks. I mean, who on earth uses max defense on Latias? I am just going to go down that post you made earlier.

Stealth Rock / Explosion / Taunt / Fire Blast are what I see on Lead Azelfs now.

Most Azelf don't run Taunt with Fire Blast. Psychic is the move of choice on Azelf leads.

Tyranitars I see usually run Chople Berry / Leftovers. It usually has Stealth Rock / Stone Edge / Pursuit / Earthquake.

what? Most Tyranitar run either CB, Dragon Dance, or Tyraniboah/MixTar or Curse. Unless you are talking about LeadTar then what metagame is this tyranitar in?

I shall switch out of Jirachi to the appropriate counter. Even though Jirachi is 6x as common as Lucario, I dont see it nowadays.

You should read the September statistics..Lucario is ahead of Jirachi in terms of raw usage. I don't see you having any counters to Jirachi as Expert Belt sets tear you team apart.

Swords Dance Lucario is not commonly seen nowadays anyways. Plus it finds very little opportunities to set up. If it SDs on Kingdra , Kingdra DDs too and it survives one Extremespeed and OHKOs with Waterfall.If it sets up on Latias , Latias Thunder Waves it and all my pokemon outspeed it and can OHKO it with ease. Gengar survives till late game most of the time anyway.

Sentence one completely made me shiver in fear; SD Lucario is the most renowned late game sweeper of the fourth generation. And to be honest it has room to set up. If your (retarded) Latias is low on health you will probably switch out due to the fear of Espeed, giving your an opponent a free turn to set up a SD.

Which leads me to ask : Which team is not weak to SDCario / MixMence anyways?

They both have plenty of checks, namely Scarf users such as Rotom or Flygon.

Which brings me to the conclusion that you did not test this team. Even if you did, it was probably after two matches then you decided to make an RMT.