Overview: Parasect has held a place in my heart since the days of Red/Blue/Yellow. It's design from a non-metagame standpoint, interesting typing, and (at the time) unique access to Spore just made it stand out. In BW, Parasect got access to dry skin, an ability that allows him to take fullest of full advantage of his stalling, drain killing potential. It became clear to me that I needed to take this little mushroom all the way into the peaks of OU.
The truth is, Parasect is a fun guy (get it? I'm such a card), but he's got a ton of weaknesses. He melts away in the sun, he dies by most decent super effective physical moves (well, mine does), and he's incredibly vulnerable to toxic and burn. For him to prosper I can't just send him in flying. I need to have my team ready to set the stage properly. To block out the threats so that I can safely drain my opponents into oblivion. To this, I need a lot of help, actually.
Special Rules: I absolutely refuse to abandon Parasect. Otherwise I'm playing by the OU rules presented by Smogon and used on Pokemon Online and Pokemon Showdown and such. I don't think I could ever be convinced to use genesect or heatran. But I could maybe be persuaded towards anything I suppose.
The Team:
Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Protect
- Ice Beam
- Scald
- Encore
Politoed makes it rain, and is required in all rain teams, which, I hate to admit, this ultimately is. In the past I used to lead with it, but I keep finding that this too predictable to be a good move. I went with scald over hyper beam because threatening to burn tends to scare some things away. The bad? Admittedly I see less use out of ice beam than I used to, given it lacks STAB or rain boost. I almost never end up using encore. I've been thinking of replacing it with perish song? I definitely want to tweak this guy
Parasect @ Leftovers
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Careful Nature
- Spore
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- X-Scissor
This set is a lot stronger than people realize. Spore puts them to sleep, which eliminates a lot of the things they might switch into, while leech seed does some consistent damage, heals parasect (and he's already gaining from rain and leftovers.) Leech seed drains their health, which is nice, and gives Parasect health back, which is great. Protect gives another turn to gain health, which can really make all the difference. X-Scissor is his offensive move, which I picked over seed bomb for the sole purpose of taking out the occasional Espeon, which most people believe will wall parasect.
Xatu @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Def
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Confuse Ray
- Night Shade
- Thunder Wave
Xatu is chosen pretty much entirely because of magic bounce. Magic bounce helps deal with ferrothorn, who is a menace to everyone just all the time in rain. The truth is, spikes and stealth rock are amazing for the team, because leech seed and a constantly healing parasect is pretty good incentive for people to switch. It's hard to get those things out myself, though, so Xatu comes in handy. Wish is supposed to be really helpful but so far it's not. I like the whole paralyze confuse combo though. You'd think Paralyzation would get in the way of spore, but to be honest it's all about leech seed anyway.
Volcarona @ Leftovers
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Quiver Dance
- Hurricane
Volcarona is an awesome lead when dealing with sun teams or other teams that are expecting politoed. Its set is really self-explanatory: buff once with quiver dance and go to town. Hurricane is an awesome move to have in the rain. Fiery dance is a valuable move in sunlight or in ordinary weather, and can work well enough against a pokemon with low health in rain due to its chance to rain Special Attack.
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 224 SDef / 252 HP / 32 Spd
Careful Nature
- ThunderPunch
- Body Slam
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
Jirachi serves as an excellent counter to those hurricane spamming genie sorts. Its excellent defensive abilities, when backed by serene grace, do all sorts of good. Thunder punch exists because I realized I had 0 electric attacks, and it has some nice coverage when I remember I have it. Jirachi really bites hard into Tyrannitar, so it's a perfect lead against most sand teams, especially when switching risks paralysis.
Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide
Everyone makes mistakes. When this happens, Terrakion is there to clean up. With his choice scarf he is fast enough to serve as a revenge sweeper, piercing through the well laid plans of opponents. Close Combat is the name of the game here, gaining stab and impacting stats that I'm not too concerned with at this point. I went with rock slide for the slightly better accuracy but I might switch it up.
...
Anyway, I guess I'm looking for some advice on how to both improve the overall power of the team, and also to get more mileage out of Parasect in particular. I will not tolerate the words Ludicolo or Toxicroak unless those words are in the context of "Ludicolo is definitely inferior to parasect on an OU team" or "Toxicroak may be able to provide benefit to someone using a parasect." Or any variation thereof.
Right now my greatest enemy seems to be toxic, because it limits Parasect's staying power significantly. Parasect is too weak and slow to use substitute, but perhaps I could baton pass for this? Seems sort of like a weird way to baton pass but maybe? I was also considering replacing something with a user of heal bell. Wish seems less necessary. Also considering getting my own entry hazards, as leech seed can be eliminated by a switch and the sleep clause makes spore something I can't always rely on.
Thoughts?