The best special sweeper

[Darkvirus]

Warning there is a long teambuilding process you may wish to skip


Team building
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After Sweeping with lucraio for a long time i made a team baised around an Special sweep rather then a physical one meaning i had to find someone who is able to do this which bring me onto the top special sweepers in OU.

The sweepers

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I chose these 6 due to thire power and speed and movepools but the problem is the frail ones are instantly out due to the amount of priority and amount of scizor.

Now heatran without a scarf is too slow i have found same with togekiss and trying to make sure para is spead about means more set up so they out and infernape is out becuase i would want to run NP fireblast GK and CC after a few CC drops he would be a kill for scizor.

I have had a team before where i tryed running an agilidos it was effective but stoped far too easerly and has no way to boost his special attack without a pass meaning that left.

Sub agili empoleon i have used before to a great sucess and with the torrent and petaya berry boost can do a huge amount of damage to anything that dosent resist/not named blissey. and due to his huge amount of resistances he can set up easerly and sweep a team at a moments notice along with being resistant to bullet punch and the ever common sandstorm.

Counters of empoleon

Strong electric/grass attacks + taunt to stop wish protect healing.

Any physical attack scares it off.

Super effective dark/bug/ghost/ice moves.

Strong electric/grass attacks but rarely seen these days.

Same as above and never seen in OU.

Fast U-turn can hurt this thing.

Dark/Bug/Dragon or switch as resist in a locked in move.

Same as rest of the bulky waters + taunt for resttalkers.
now i have identifted the main threats i got to make a team to take them down so my empoleon and sweep.

The team

So far i have established that emplo is my main sweeper so 1st of all i need something to set up SR on the feild and has good synergy with emplo which lead me to.

Thats SR on the feild along with a lucario counter and asolid physical wall. Now a way to do some real damage to some of emplos main counters it needs to be fast able to hit hard and that poke jsut happens to be one of my favorites.

Now i need something to take care of the ever present scizor along with still being able to hurt emplos counters my choice here might not seam like a scizor counter but you will understand soon enough.

I thought yo myself i need to be able to shut down wish passing and sleep talkers the biggest being suicune so who resists water and has access to a fast taunt.

Now lastly i need something to lead this off and get the momentium on my side. making the final team look like this.

In depth look


NEW LEAD

Roserade@focus sash
nature: timid
EVs: 4 HP \ 252 SpA \ 252 Spe
-toxic spikes
-sleep powder
-leaf storm
-hidden power fire

This new lead works very well against the top 10 leads and benefits empoleon well with toxic spikes aswell as have a Very strong special attack who also is a great recipent of scarf/specs later on in the game after someone been put to sleep and TS are up

Straight to Ttar

this ones tricky due to alot have startef to run lum berrys so i go the the Sleep and switch is lum to Gyra if not set up TS if sleeping

Sleep the switch as it wont stay in against roserade

Sleep 1st turn incase it dosent taunt then Leaf storm as it Sr ( if taunted) and then go to glis or set up TS

Sleep then TS

Switch to gyra

Risk the speed tie and sleep it then HP fire as it will soak up TS so no point laying till its dead

Sleep then set up TS if miss then sleep again if tran not subbed otherwise to gyra or Ttar

Sleep itif miss take the spore and try sleep again for the wakeup to scout the switch and its next move

Sleep as it will run againt a rose then TS

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Gliscor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/40 Def/216 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Roost

The best luciaro counter standerd Ev's to outspeed luc and get the EQ kill U-turn for scouting SR for well SR and roost to add to its life to wall longer. Beucase of his immunities to ground/electric and ability to take physicals hits very well he causes alot fo switch giving him chance to roost or u-turn, giving me more of a chance to set up empoleon for a sweep.


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Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Stone Edge

Max speed and attack to make as fast as possible and hit as hard as possible U-turn on something so fast and that can hit so hard is a great move Earthquake and Outrage are great moves for coverage along with Stab and stone endge finishes off the QuakeEdge combo. Again U-turn if perfect for scounting a chance for empoleon to set up as well as do alot of damage with the ability to outspeed non scarf latias and non scarf/DD salamence and speed tie with jolly scarf/dd earn him a spot on this team

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Empoleon (M) @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 12 HP/12 Def/232 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Agility
- Surf
- Grass Knot

The one i decided that was the best special sweeper in OU with his ability to set up with a turns notice and sweep unprepaird teams WAter+grass offers great coverage and i chose grassknot over ice beam is because with flygon and Ttar(for lati) dragons shouldent be a problem along with celebi with the 2 u-turners i have meaning when hes set up can 3HK0 vaporeon and suicune and with petaya and torrent boost can OHKO so many common pokes.

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New set

Tyranitar (M) @ Choice scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit

From haunter

Scarf TTar is an amazing Pokemon capable of checking several threats in the current metagame and will almost always take care of scarf-Rotom and Latias which may end prematurely your Empoleon sweep, it also pairs well with Roserade lead as Roserade has problems with Azelf leads and scarf Tar outspeeds and kos them before they can do anything.

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Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 156 HP/108 Atk/100 Def/144 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Taunt

Should my Ttar have taken too much damage this is a perfect cheak ot scizor along with most bulky waters not carrying HP electric and most of the time when you switch in they switch out to a scarf rotom form and they recive 48.8% - 58.3% meaning they need to think twice about switching in and with intimidate helps keep a few threats at bay

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A quick reminder

Closing statment
1st of all if you read all that well done, if you dident i dont blame you and thankyou for taking a look at my team and hopefully you will be able to help me out alot with it. This team for me has been fairly sucessful but would be ncie to see what improvements people can suggest.

 

[Darkvirus]

Borrowed(stolen <,<) from
http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55936

Threat List
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• Green means they are not a problem for me.
• Orange means they can cause a bit of trouble.
• Red means they are very difficult to take down.

Offensive Threats

Aerodactyl : as a lead i expained how i deal with and enver see outside that
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Alakazam : Ttar( not that you see many)
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Azelf : Never see outside lead and have said how i deal with it with frostlass ubt otherwise
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Breloom : if frostlass is alive then its immune to FP if not fast u_turns work well
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Dragonite : Flygon can revenge and Emplo can set up on choiced ones
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Dugtrio : Never see them
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Electivire : No electric attack (wow thats rare) not going to set up
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Empoleon : scarf flygon outspeed even after 1 agility
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Flygon : Gyrados
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Gengar : If Ttar gets hit by focus blast then i have a real problem
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Gyarados : Flygon and my gyra
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Heatran : Heatran Ttar
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Heracross : Never see but could cause problems
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Infernape : Gyra
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Jirachi : Gliscor can switch into certian ones and KO with EQ
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Jolteon : Ttar.
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Kingdra : Flygon If only got 1 DD or Empol
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Latias : Flygon if not scarfed and work around resistances and Ttar
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Lucario : Glisgor
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Machamp : Gyra, Gliscor
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Magnezone: Gliscor flygon
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Mamoswine : Gyra Ttar
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Metagross : outside lead this things a real problem
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Porygon-Z : Never see
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Rhyperior : Never see
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Salamence : flygon Gyra(intimidate) outrage locked empo
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Scizor : Ttar Gyra
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Starmie : chice ones i can work around with resistancesw Lo are alot harder and i need to get flygon in for free for the u-Turn
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Togekiss : Ttar Gyra flygon
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Tyranitar : Gliscor
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Weavile : Gyra
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Yanmega : never see

Defensive Threat List:

Blissey : not a problem
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Bronzong : Never see but with taunt gyra wont be doing much

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Celebi : U-Turn Ttar.
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Cresselia : Never see but Ttar
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Donphan : Never see
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Forretress : Ttar Gyra
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Gliscor : Gyra
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Hippowdon : Never see outside lead but Gyra and Empo
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Skarmory : unless empol set up it can be a problem as i have a very phisical attack base
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Snorlax : Ttar can hurt it alot gyras talk stop resttalkers
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Suicune: gyras taunt otherwise its a problem
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Swampert : Emplo
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Tentacruel : Never see
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Vaporeon : Emplo if its low enough health, if not carrying HP electirc gyra
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Zapdos : Ttar, Flygon
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[jc104]

It seems to me as though you will have trouble actually removing dragons for your Empoleom sweep. You counter them all, but they will all simply switch out. You need either to lure or to trap them. Normally empoleon teams pack spikes and/or toxic spikes (good vs Blissey) to remove bulky waters such as Swampert, Suicune and Vaporeon, and use ice beam on Empoleon for dragons. I'm not sure what you should actually run, but I suggest you think about this.

Come to think of it, maybe if you ran a CBtar with pursuit you could trap and kill latias, and trust the rest to be hurt enough by stealth rock and empoleon's surf.

 

[Darkvirus]

heres my bump to try get some more rates common guys this team cant be perfect

 

[MrIndigo]

There are two things you need to take care of extremely effectively to set up SubPetaya Empoleon.


The first is Dragons, specifically Latias. Latias is bulky enough that a +1 Ice Beam can't OHKO and it can outspeed and KO easily with Thunderbolt (Other dragons can normally be dealt hefty damage from +1 Torrent Surf, so Grass Knot is often the superior option to Ice Beam). Steel revenge killers and Scizor particularly is a worthy support.

The second is bulky waters, especially Gyarados, Suicune, and Vaporeon. Grass Knot can handle Suicune and Gyarados reasonably well, but Vaporeon can be a bit difficult. The easiest way to handle those is Toxic Spikes.

I don't think your team is supporting Empoleon as well as it could be, lacking these two things.

 

[Darkvirus]

so what shall i do to fix this? i thought the idea if for people to suggest how to fix things not just point out problems? i mean you suggest toxic spikes yet who whould i use and who should i replace

 

[haunter]

As others have stated sub-petaya Empoleon highly benefits from having toxic spikes support, so replacing your Froslass lead with a standard Roserade seems the obvious choice here:

Roserade@focus sash
nature: timid
EVs: 4 HP \ 252 SpA \ 252 Spe
-toxic spikes
-sleep powder
-leaf storm
-hidden power fire

Also, to solve most of your Latias problems, I suggest that you switch your TTar to a scarf variant:

Tyranitar@choice scarf
nature: jolly
EVs: 4 HP \ 252 Atk \ 252 Spe
-stone edge
-earthquake \ superpower
-pursuit
-crunch

Scarf TTar is an amazing Pokemon capable of checking several threats in the current metagame and will almost always take care of scarf-Rotom and Latias which may end prematurely your Empoleon sweep, it also pairs well with Roserade lead as Roserade has problems with Azelf leads and scarf Tar outspeeds and kos them before they can do anything.

If you decide to have TS on your team, then you might as well opt for a spin blocker, and in this case I suggest to replace Flygon with a defensive Rotom-A:

Rotom@leftovers
nature: bold
EVs: 252 HP \ 168 Def \ 88 Spe
-thunderbolt
-reflect
-shadow ball
-will o wisp

you might also opt for a sleep talk variant with just WoW and thunderbolt, it's up to preference. In any case, if you decide to keep Flygon, then switch to jolly as with a +Spe nature you'll be at least able to speed tie with a +1 Salamence or a scarf Jirachi.

Finally, I'd probably replace Gyarados with a good priority user like Scizor or Mamoswine, currently DD-Mence can literally decimate this team as nothing is capable of revenge killing it even when locked into outrage. A standard CB Scizor might be a good choice (I'm sure that you already know the set), and I just wanted to point out this problem.

I think that's all for now, good luck.

 

[The SPrinkLer]

Hey, I like this team, but there's a few things I notice. Latias is really going to fuck up your team, particularly the Scarf variant, because NOTHING on your team likes its strong attacks. Tyranitar can take a couple of Surfs, but Latias can just easily switch out. What I would do with this team is change your Tyranitar to a Choice Band variant. This will enable you to Actually counter Latias, and to an extent check Gengar. I would use a spread of 252 HP, 40 Att, and 216 SpD with a Careful nature. This will allow you to survive Life Orb Gengar's Focus Blast and kill it. It will also increase your overall special bulk. Tyranitar easily paves the way for Empoleon by killing Rotom and Latias, two problems to your team. Oh, forgot to mention to use a moveset of Crunch, Pursuit, Earthquake, and Stone Edge. I hope this helps, and good luck with the team!

 

[Darkvirus]

Roserade@focus sash
nature: timid
EVs: 4 HP \ 252 SpA \ 252 Spe
-toxic spikes
-sleep powder
-leaf storm
-hidden power fire

Also, to solve most of your Latias problems, I suggest that you switch your TTar to a scarf variant:

Tyranitar@choice scarf
nature: jolly
EVs: 4 HP \ 252 Atk \ 252 Spe
-stone edge
-earthquake \ superpower
-pursuit
-crunch

Going to test these today and rotom a bit later will update the main post after i decide


Edit: so far the lead and scarf ttar have been a great addition ( expect sleep power missing about 75% of the time rather then hitting 75%