Introduction
peak 1700+ on beta, 1 smogon tour
peak 1700+ on beta, 1 smogon tour
by GaryTheGengar
This team is centered around rock polish genesect, one of the most broken pokemon in the metagame. CTC showed me the beautiful RP giga drain set early bw2, and we never looked back. The set has almost no counters, and this team seeks to find them, and either eliminate them, or set up a sweep with one of our other dangerous sweepers. The goal of the team is to be able to set up on its counters with our other sweepers, tear holes in the opponent's team, find a successful set up opportunity, then sweep. Thanks to the extremely limited number of pokemon that actually check genesect, this is often an easy task. This team was extremely successful, peaking over 1700 on po's beta server. I laddered to second undefeated, before losing to hax. This team began to get stolen, so I stopped laddering, and decided to make a RMT. Princess Bri also used this team in the final of the recent mini ou tournament, beating yee. The ideas for this team stemmed from me and CTC thinking that genesect and terrakion complemented each other perfectly. We tried building around them with a more defensive approach, but the team was never anything more than decent. I decided to take this team in a much more offensive direction, and consulted with ctc about it. He helped me cover the large holes this team used to have, while perfecting the offensive synergy. After we'd finished, we ran the team by our friend gamester, who gave us a final, massive suggestion. CTC and I went and perfected the sets, and then began demolishing people with it.
Team Building Process
I remember back in the beginning of bw2 i started using a nite/gene core because rp gene sets up on scarfers using ice moves to revenge nite. however, that team was ditched because nite has a really hard time setting up this metagame. That is the reason we chose to forego dd nite and introduce THE biggest threat of bw1: terrakion. I run sub sd because im a bitch but the ballsy gary suggested double dance. double dance isnt worried about speed ties and also lures in scizor who gets set up on by genesect, with the added bonus of lo cc ohkoing rp gene.
After the core is settled, Gary introduced the brilliant volcarona, who sets up on zor, loom, and kills tran which opens up a gene sweep. He suggested the best lure set of quiver dance, giga drain, fire blast, and hidden power ground because the checks to gene rak: tran, tar, terak, loom, zor are all weakened/ taken care of. This stage of the team used a CB tyranitar, so no bug buzz wasn't an issue. We changed to a similar set, but with bug buzz over hp ground. As time went on, bug buzz was only useful for deo-d, which volc shat on with or without buzz. We changed to HP ice. bulky waters like cruel and toed are severly shat on. Moreover, once the opponent realizes it doesnt have bug buzz they usually have already lost a poke and will have their bulky watr/tar weakened.
After the offensive core was established, we decided starmie was the optimal spinner for its ability to spin and beat deogar barring scarfgar, but we usually psyshock gar on the switchin anyways. Not only does it have good natural bulk, but it also weakens conkeldur for the sweepers and packs power behind hydro pump. since we decided to have no weather, gary suggested a weather move to remove weather after the opponent sacrifices their weather, it was originally rain dance but i thought hail would mess with tornadus and make keldeo go for hydros to do damage.
the next pokemon was originally a regular sd fight gem breloom to demolish tyranitar, weaken zor, beat rain, and mess with trick room, but in a random chat gary mentioned a sash breloom set that he used way back. we thought it might be a good idea to make that a semi lead because it destroys rain turn 1, shuts down trick rom, spores an offensive threat turn 1 and at the same time fires off a hit on a fighting resist softening it up for terrak. This loom was a godsend to the team, and pulls off one too many mid game mini sweeps for when we saved it and kept its sash.this breloom, in our opinion, is the best pokemon in the metagame at the moment
the last pokemon was the trickiest. gary originally had a salamence to catch the dragons, pull off mini sweeps, and generally soften things for the core. however we found that the lack of rocks is painful for the sweepers, and tornadus T was simply swirling its dick in this teams gatorade tank. so in the end, we needed a catchall revenger, an sr setter, and a hurricane resist in one, so i suggested jirachi. seeing as jirachis normal switchins: rotom wash, gastro, hippo, gliscor etc force it out anyways, the scarf stealth rocks was never a problem, and it made the opponent aware that gene or terrak would be the revenger, also aiding in a bluff setup. hell, it even allows jirachi to pull off unexpected revenge kills.
After a bit of testing, however, we found that rain and gyarados were big problems. Also the lack of a good matchup with rotom wash, especially the twave version, was troublesome. Therefore, taking gamesters advice, we changed volc to the old dd dragonite set. I mean, if it was very successful before, why ditch it. Also if dragonite isnt the win condition, it is still a good pokemon for bashing holes, since its role as a win condition has diminished a bit. Even so, dragonite has still swept one too many teams than it gets credit for. With starmie spinning and posing an offensive presence(if they see hydro pump they dont set up on starmie with nite) and the effectiveness of loom as a lead, any huge threat that hasnt been checked (tornadus, thunderus, toxicroak, landorus, wash etc)
dragonite will most always come out without a scratch and patch up whatever the opponent has left as offensive presence. Dnite is one of the best 'Oshit' buttons in ou barring alakazam, ditto, and maybe tr reuniclus. I suggested a band set, but Gary proved that dd was much much better.
The final version of the team ended up looking like this:
After the core is settled, Gary introduced the brilliant volcarona, who sets up on zor, loom, and kills tran which opens up a gene sweep. He suggested the best lure set of quiver dance, giga drain, fire blast, and hidden power ground because the checks to gene rak: tran, tar, terak, loom, zor are all weakened/ taken care of. This stage of the team used a CB tyranitar, so no bug buzz wasn't an issue. We changed to a similar set, but with bug buzz over hp ground. As time went on, bug buzz was only useful for deo-d, which volc shat on with or without buzz. We changed to HP ice. bulky waters like cruel and toed are severly shat on. Moreover, once the opponent realizes it doesnt have bug buzz they usually have already lost a poke and will have their bulky watr/tar weakened.
After the offensive core was established, we decided starmie was the optimal spinner for its ability to spin and beat deogar barring scarfgar, but we usually psyshock gar on the switchin anyways. Not only does it have good natural bulk, but it also weakens conkeldur for the sweepers and packs power behind hydro pump. since we decided to have no weather, gary suggested a weather move to remove weather after the opponent sacrifices their weather, it was originally rain dance but i thought hail would mess with tornadus and make keldeo go for hydros to do damage.
the next pokemon was originally a regular sd fight gem breloom to demolish tyranitar, weaken zor, beat rain, and mess with trick room, but in a random chat gary mentioned a sash breloom set that he used way back. we thought it might be a good idea to make that a semi lead because it destroys rain turn 1, shuts down trick rom, spores an offensive threat turn 1 and at the same time fires off a hit on a fighting resist softening it up for terrak. This loom was a godsend to the team, and pulls off one too many mid game mini sweeps for when we saved it and kept its sash.this breloom, in our opinion, is the best pokemon in the metagame at the moment
the last pokemon was the trickiest. gary originally had a salamence to catch the dragons, pull off mini sweeps, and generally soften things for the core. however we found that the lack of rocks is painful for the sweepers, and tornadus T was simply swirling its dick in this teams gatorade tank. so in the end, we needed a catchall revenger, an sr setter, and a hurricane resist in one, so i suggested jirachi. seeing as jirachis normal switchins: rotom wash, gastro, hippo, gliscor etc force it out anyways, the scarf stealth rocks was never a problem, and it made the opponent aware that gene or terrak would be the revenger, also aiding in a bluff setup. hell, it even allows jirachi to pull off unexpected revenge kills.
After a bit of testing, however, we found that rain and gyarados were big problems. Also the lack of a good matchup with rotom wash, especially the twave version, was troublesome. Therefore, taking gamesters advice, we changed volc to the old dd dragonite set. I mean, if it was very successful before, why ditch it. Also if dragonite isnt the win condition, it is still a good pokemon for bashing holes, since its role as a win condition has diminished a bit. Even so, dragonite has still swept one too many teams than it gets credit for. With starmie spinning and posing an offensive presence(if they see hydro pump they dont set up on starmie with nite) and the effectiveness of loom as a lead, any huge threat that hasnt been checked (tornadus, thunderus, toxicroak, landorus, wash etc)
dragonite will most always come out without a scratch and patch up whatever the opponent has left as offensive presence. Dnite is one of the best 'Oshit' buttons in ou barring alakazam, ditto, and maybe tr reuniclus. I suggested a band set, but Gary proved that dd was much much better.
The final version of the team ended up looking like this:
Team In Detail
Commentary in Gray = CTC
Blue = GaryTheGengar
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Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch
First off its the lead breloom. It matches up very well vs rain because it sashes a scarf icebeam and kills the toed, allowing for me to change the weather with starmie. Moreover, its a free kill on slow toeds that try to become sleep fodder. if they switch to stalk tornadus, bseed does a huge chunk, and then you can either kill or sd depending on the threat level of big bird and the number of fight resists on their team. Against terrakion, just kill it with bullet seed on the cc. if they sr thats a free kill. on aero, also a free kill. Against sun teams, I have terak in the lead spot so donphan is lured out, so u just bseed right away the ninetails fodder and finish with mpunch if u happen to get a good roll. if not spore/sd on ur sash.
Sash breloom is absolutely amazing. I almost always lead with this thing, and it just shits on common archtypes. The only playstyles I don't lead with this guy are against sun or deo-d, as I lead with terrakion in both situations. Loom almost always puts a pokemon to sleep, and gets at least one kill. He also kills weather starters, allowing me to neuter the common weather reliant sweepers that dominate the meta today. His priority saves my ass against some sweepers that I let get out of hand, such as rock polish terrakion. Loom matches up amazingly vs. many common leads. Against lead terrakion, you can tank anything he throws at you thanks to sash, while ohkoing with bullet seed. Same with mamoswine, azelf, aerodactyl, any common suicide lead. Starmie can come in later and spin away rocks. He also 6-0's the newly popular trick room teams that have started to become common.
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Trait: Download
EVs: 24 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 228 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Rock Polish
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower
Rock polish genesect needs very little explanation, as it kills off a large portion of the metagame with ice/fire/grass coverage alone. My motto is don't set up too early and don't set up on something that can kill you. Because of the threat of rp genesect, most good players leave in something that can't ohko genesect to at least deal damage to it. Therefore, I like to kill off things earlygame if the opponent has hard counters like heatran or wobbafet lurking around. When facing an opponent team who is cleanly swept by it after a bit of damage, I always find the poke that I can 100% set up on(dugtrio, choiced lati, -2 lati with no hp fire, defensive toed, scarfed resist moves etc)Those teams are most likely offensive and will willingly fodder off pokes for powerhouses. In that case, I will often try do things like switching dragonite into a latios to bait the draco/ scout if choiced, or send out terrak to bait dugtrio etc. By sacing a poke I ensure a set up opportunity, and since the sacs are enormous threats themselves, the opponent is put in a tough spot to either let dnite/terrak set up or let genesect set up.
Rock polish genesect is one of the most dangerous sweepers in the metagame. When given a +1 boost, he sweeps through teams like nothing. Giga drain looks strange, but its absolutely amazing. Props to CTC for giga drain, as hes the first user I've ever seen using it. It removes common RP genesect checks such as terrakion, gastrodon and rotom-w, while losing essentially no coverage by using it over thunderbolt. Genesect is the perfect partner for terrakion. They set up on each others counters, and remove their respective checks. Genesect gets a safe rock polish as well as a special attack boost on two of terrakion's biggest counters, gliscor and hippowdon. The evs, courtesy of CTC, allow genesect to outspeed base 80s with a positive speed nature, while speed creeping 286 speed genesect. Evs have been changed to outspeed neutral base 95s such as Kyurem-B and Gliscor without a boost, and reach a life orb number. Thanks to gr8astard for the gr8 suggestion!
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*terakion's face when he just got sacked to scizor*
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 248 Atk / 4 SpDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
terrakion was THE biggest threat of BW1 bar none, and he returns in BW2 as the savage destroyer of stall alongside breloom. Sub salac is much easier to utilise than the dancing rak, not only simplifying prediction but also being protected from priority and status. To be honest, since terrakion is more easily walled/revenged than genesect, I often sac it after weakening the opponents team paving way for genesect if I know it won't sweep. For example, it does a great job of severly crippling tentacruel/ bulky waters and jirachi/bulky steels, luring in skarmory/scizor, and forcing out the scarf revenge killer after setting up. It is the perfect segue into one of the other 2 sweepers and it either dies early game or sweeps lategame.
Terrakion is the perfect partner for genesect. He sets up on heatran, chansey and rotom-h, some of the only checks to rock polish genesect. He also baits in scizor, which is forced to revenge him, allowing genesect to reach +1 spatk /+2 spe. Tera is also capable of sweeps of his own. Setting up on Deo-D can often result in a 6-0, as common deo-d teams have nothing for a +2 terakion behind a sub. At the very least, I prevent them from getting more than stealth rock, which is easily spun away later. I previously had a dual dance set in this slot, but didn't like the life orb recoil. It was nice being able to fire off what was essentially a banded cc, but this set pulls off sweeps with ease. 4 evs in hp give it an even hp stat, allowing three substitutes to take us down to salac range instead of four, while 4 evs in sp. def give genesect an attack boost.
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Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 232 Atk / 24 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- ExtremeSpeed
Dragonite has lost so much of its glory from the BW1 days because of a pokemon that is on half of all teams -___- Yes, its the (i'm calling it) next ubers suspect candidate Genesect. I mean, if you can't beat them join them right, that is why we run our own genesect. Genesect and dragonite are best buds, but only when they are on the same side of the playing field. Dragonite sponges genesect's nasty weakness while genesect returns the favor and sets up on the choiced ice moves used to revenge kill dragonite. Iron man does its avenging best when dragonite has set up and ravaged through half the opponent's team with a +1 outrage, denting resists like celebi and ferrothorn so they can't live genesect and terrakion's hits later on. The dragon's powerful priority is also tremendously useful in many situations, from weakening revenge killers to finishing off low health pokes. Fire funch is chosen to deal with rain max special defense ferrothorn who is a huge pain, but I like to run earthquake to immediatly kill heatran and tentacruel.
Dragonite was the last addition to this team, but is quite possibly the important member. In additon to being one of the most dangerous offensive threats in the metagame, he acts as our stop to opposing set up sweepers that can't be handled by jirachi. Before dnite was added, we had large weaknesses to random sweepers that jirachi couldnt' revenge, such as rock polish landorus and scarf salamence locked into earthquake. Dragonite is utilized to its best effect in this team. Hazards are rarely ever down due to the offensive nature of the team, and when they do get down, starmie can reliably spin them away. I can also remove opposing weather with hail, and set up without dragonite's multiscale being broken by sand after the hail ends. 24 Special defense evs guarantee the survival of a modest genesect's life orb'd ice beam.
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Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Hail
- Psychic
- Rapid Spin
Starmie is pretty much the best deogar counter barring scarfgar. Its good bulk and blazing speed along with the handy ability to change weather is invaluable for the team. Starmie is the epitome of a team player, as it almost guarentees that rocks will be clear and usually clears weather to preserve dragonites multiscale. often times we would sac it to a ttar and set up with terrakion from there, which loses us the weather war but snatches a great opportunity for the biggest physical threat to set up. We decided that leftovers is all the recovery that we needed, because starmie may become set up fodder should a gyarados or dragonite learn of its forth move, so it usually does the 2 things it needs to do and dies, simple as that.
Starmie was chosen because of volcorona's reliance on a rapid spinner, but it remained after volc itself was removed from the team. Starmie is a very important member of the team, spinning rocks away, letting dragonite be used to its full potential. Hail removes the opponent's weather, and cuts the threat level of many dangerous pokemon such as venusaur, keldeo, and tornadus-t. Most people will sac their weather starter, as I don't have a weather inducer of my own. I then switch in Starmie, and use hail. Hail can also remove sandstorm, allowing me to set up dragonite without multiscale being broken once hail wears off. I ran rain dance, with thunder over psychic originally, but CTC showed me that hail was better to cut the threat level of popular rain sweepers such as keldeo and tornadus-t. Psychic is chosen over psyshock solely for conkeldurr. I used to run hydro pump, but got tired of missing, and switched to surf.
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Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Iron Head
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock
Jirachi is part two of the utility blue-collar core. It comes in on hurricains and dracos, sets up rocks, and fakes the opponent out with surprise revenges. Many a times it has even scored a first turn genesect kill. The idea is simple, come in and set up sr, then switch out anyways because the opponent will likely bring in a counter/ bslam absorber. Jirachi's flinching tactics have also saved us many times, and its revenge killing capabilities have been proven over 2 generations.
Jirachi holds this team together. The combination of rachi and dnite check essentially every offensive poke together. Jirachi sets rocks, allowing us to get through opposing dragonite, as well as breaking sashes and sturdy. Jirachi switches in on something it checks, such as latios, sets rocks, and switches out. Later in the game, when the opponent's iron head resists have been removed, rachi can switch back in and sweep. Rachi can tear through common offensive teams, as even their resists are 4-5hko'd by iron head, meaning that with a small amount of prior damage, they can't stand up to rachi unless I miss the flinch chance multiple times.
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Conclusion
by GaryTheGengar
This team was very fun and effective to use, but unfortunately, was spoiled thanks to teamstealing and the like. Shoutouts to big MOET for the format, chimpact for helping with pictures and just being a cool guy, gamester for helping with the team, jasonpwns and problems for asking on skype for a shoutout, kyle and steve for being cool, nitro and joey because they're badass, Hugo for being one of the best players i've seen, john for never letting me see him battle, bri for being a strong princess and of course CTC for helping me make this happen. Another shoutout to shurtugal, for not only reaching top 10 with this team, but for nominating it for the rmt archive!
