This Means War (An OU RMT by Martini)

[MrGatr]

Introduction​

Well, since my last RMT suddenly disappeared, I've decided, to heck with Hail. It began to suck, and I couldn't work with it. So I went and started playing around in UU looking for some fun, I fell in love with one specific Pokemon. Azumarril, it's a beast in UU. I thought, well why not just add that into an OU RMT? So, I began to think, what other UU guys could work miracles, in OU. Well, Mew was the first thing that popped to my mind. Great, I can use a Swords Dance set, and Baton Pass that to a Banded Azumarrils Waterfall, oh how deadly that would be. Well, I don't wanna be to cliche, and add rain to boost it even more. Even then I can rely on having rain usually, so I just went with weatherless offense.

Spoiler

Well, as explained above, I fell in love with this guy in UU, and thought It'd make a great late game sweeper in OU. Thanks to 'Huge Power' it's attack sky-rockets, and compares with that of Groudon. It may be slow, but I found ways around that. This guy just doesn't stop partying all night long with the sweeps.

Mew makes an amazing Baton Passer. It is also the most versatile pokemon in the game. It can use Swords Dance or Nasty Plot to boost his ally's attack or special attack. This makes him an amazing support for a team that's late game sweeper requires just a little bit of a boost to finish stuff off. Mew is just another one of the guys I fell in love with during my UU time.

Venomoth is so underrated I just felt bad. I would have used Volcarona, but then I noticed that Tinted Lense is gonna be the new best ability in the game. Venomoth is fast, and a great Quiver Dance sweeper. It still has that Stealth Rock weakness but I've been using him early to spread around damage, especially on the free switches it can get.

*** I did use Politoed here and it just ruined the entire team ***

Alakazam. Yet one more underrated Pokemon that I think deserves more. it's got the same Ability as Reuniclus, but much less bulk. But his speed helps this team a lot. Sure it might get 2HKO'd but it can dish out some serious attacks when it's needed. On paper it looked terrible, in battle it has the 3rd most KO's out of the team.

*** This is wear I added Volc instead of Venomoth to test, it really sucked much much more ***

I needed some hazards. Also, at this time Volc was destroying my team, people would get the free Quiver Dance on my switch, and just Bug Buzz/Heat Wave all the way home. So I thought to myself, what has Hazards, and counters Volc. Well, Heatran was the first thing that popped into my head. I remember him from my old teams, and I started to love him again. So Smack in Heatran came to the team.

*** This is where I added Dragonite and tested, it failed miserably in the team because of all the other dragons in this format. ***

I needed a Dragon type, to deal with all of the others in this format. Well, I remember running Latios in a team and he just dominated. I remembered that I already have 2 set up sweepers, so a Ditto revenge kill was pretty nasty, so I stuck with the non set up sweeping set that I've played for a while. It turned out great, He helps a lot to get Azumarril ready for it's midnight party.

In Depth Analysis​

 
Heatran (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stealth Rock
Synergy With the Team:

Well, the fist thing you see when you look at Heatran is "Oh cliche, amazing attacker, and good lead" Well, what I see is two things, #1 <333333 #2, great, now Volc will be running down the hill screaming after I get done with it. I love it's acsess to Stealth Rock, this helps loads when I see Volc in my opponets team preview. With Kyurem on the rise, Fire Blast, and Earth Power keep it off my tail. Heatran also provides Hidden Power Ice, this makes a great counter to Grass types, as well as Dragon types. Heatran is an all around attacker, but I'm debating changing Fire Blast to something much more suiting, kinda like Heat Wave or Incinerate. Let me know what you guys think. With Air Balloon over Life Orb, I know i'm safe from Edgequake. This makes Heatran a 2HKO by Earthquake, at the least.

Mew @ Leftovers
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Baton Pass
- Softboiled
- Swords Dance
- Dragon Tail
Synergy With the Team:

I know this set sucks, I made it off the top of my head. I generally use Swords Dance to get Azumarril ready for the Baton Pass. Softboiled ensures that I can keep alive just long enough to get that Baton Pass in. Dragon Tail is if I get into a bad situation, I just force them to switch, and with Stealth Rock out, they do take damage from that, it also free's up a guy who Azumarril can hopefully resist. I honestly think this will be the first set to be removed, and the first guy to be taken off the team if I need to update, he doesn't perform that well, and when I get stuck with him, I usually lose.

Azumarill (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Huge Power
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower
- Waterfall
- Return
Synergy With the Team:

Well, Azumarril is usually left untouched until the late game. I love using her, she has massive sweeping powers. Huge Power doubles an already nice attack stat. Not to mention the boost from the Band, and the Nature. Hopefully he can get some boosts from Mew, and this makes him something not to be messed with. His Priority STAB Aqua Jet makes an amazing sweep, and he can always use Return. I chose Return Because it is a safe option to run. It has good damage when I need it to, just the Ghost Immunity does kinda hurt.

Venomoth (F) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Tinted Lens
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Quiver Dance
- Sleep Powder
- Bug Buzz
- Psychic
Synergy With the Team:
Well, I needed another sweeper, so I picked Venomoth. Tinted Lens is probably the best ability in the game, I honestly can't find a better one (unless there's one that makes OHKO moves have 100 acc I'd <3 that). Venomoth is the Volc of Under appreciated. She's amazing with her speed, elegance, and the way she can sweep with Quiver Dance. After using Sleep Powder, I can get that free Quiver Dance because of the switch. This puts me at +1. I've had people stay in, then I got to +6, and that turned it into a GG match.

Alakazam (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
Synergy With the Team:
When you look at him, you can easily say, wow, what a pethetic Pokemon. Well, that's just on paper, it's just like Amoonguss, looks horrible on Paper preforms in battle. I use Alakazam for a quick Psychic, or Shadow Ball. Rarely have I gotten it to use Calm Mind and survive. I love to mechanics to this Pokemon. Focus Blast can KO Magnezone which is a prominent threat to this team, and Resists Latios.

Latios (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Recover
Synergy With the Team:

I needed a Dragon type to counter my sweepers weakness. So I chose Latios. I didn't use the Calm Mind Set because that makes my team a super duper slow team, because I have to set up not just 2 main sweepers, but potentially another one. I generally have no issue's with this set, I do wish how ever that Soul Dew wasn't banned to Ubers it'd help a lot. Surf can get Heatran's out of my way that generally resist most of my time spare Azumarril. Latios needs some good bulk, so I used the 252 SpD and he can act like a specail wall.
​

Threat List​

Large Threat
Medium Threat
Low Threat
- Sub+Bulk Up Toxicroak I can slowly ware him out, but It does appreciate the rain help.
- LO Tornadus-T Outspeeds all my team, and can OHKO it all because of Hurricane.
- Jellicent Granted it resists most moves on Azumarril, but I can KO it eventually, and it doesn't cripple the team to much.
- Volt Turn Azumarril could hit them, but its speed is just ugh. They also hit back with Volt Switch (or something like that) and it does really hurt.



Credits:
Smogon - For the Sprites
[member] Holy Mackeral [/member] - Making the banner it's amazing
[mod] Xous [/mod] - Letting Me and Holy Mackeral use his art for the banner... Thanks

 

[Professor Palutena]

Alright Martini, let's go.

I'll start off by saying that this is a rather odd team you have here. A lot of your sets are really strange. I'd like some justification on why you built Mew that way (Bold Nature reduces attack, and you're using a Swords Dance set, which makes use of a high attack stat). Baton Passing to a Swords Dance Pokemon just doesn't work. Jellicent is immune to everything on your Azumarill. If I switch it in on your baton passed Azumarill, you now have to set up again, wasting more time that let's me set up a sweep.

I'd also like justification on why you went with Venomoth when Volcarona does the Quiver Dancing much better due to higher stats. It sounds like you picked Venomoth just because you needed a special attacker (which you already have 3 of). OU has lots of excellent special attackers, including some who don't need to set up, like Rotom-W, Hydreigon, Thundurus-T and Tornadus-T.

Why are you running Alakazam? You haven't said anything why, and it's one of your four special attackers. Why are you running the Calm Mind set? I can't tell what it does for your team (other than apparently kill Magnezone when Heatran does that already).

Why are you running special defense EVs on Latios when it is an offensive Pokemon? If you're wanting a special wall, Latias does that much better.

For some threats, you really struggle with Life Orb Tornadus-T. You're only resistance (Heatran) gets wrecked by Superpower, and it also outspeeds all of your Pokemon.

Your team also struggles with Hydreigon. Your best switchin is Latios, but it can't handle taking Dark Pulses, not to mention Hydreigon outspeeds due to the Special Defense EVs, so it gets obliterated.

Also, why are you not running Drizzle Politoed? It is Azumarill's best friend and gets it so many KOs. You say that it sucked. How did it suck? What were the problems with it? Where did it go wrong?

The biggest threat I'm noticing though is HP Ground Volcarona, who absolutely tears you apart, especially in the sun (6-0s you, no questions asked). HP Ground hits Heatran, who can't do anything to Volcarona even if the balloon is intact. Bug Buzz hits everything else, and Azumarill's Aqua Jet won't OHKO in the sun, even after Stealth Rock, not to mention you can't bring Azumarril in either.

Some other minor threats include Terrakion and VotlTurn, who can both pop in and out and nab a kill every once and a while. SubRoost Kyurem (Ice Beam and Earth Power) are also rather annoying.

Right off the bat: Mew, Alakazam and Venomoth need to leave the team. Mew is being more of a hindrance than a help, and both Alakazam and Venomoth are unnecessary. The best three replacements for your team would probably be:

- Scarf Politoed. It revenge kills a lot of things (Tornadus-T, sand sweepers [Stoutland and Sandslash] and Chlorophyll sweepers [Venusaur]). It also gives rain for Azumarill, which makes it perform even better. Having rain with Heatran doesn't mesh well, so if you also swapped Heatran with a Ferrothorn (who gives you an excellent pool of resistances at the cost of offensive performance), you'd be golden.

- Life Orb Breloom, who is an excellent Pokemon for a rain team. It gives you an additional priority attack, one that beats all of Kyurem, Hydreigon and Terrakion. It's got excellent synergy with Latios as well.

- Life Orb Tornadus-T. It's one of a rain team's best sweepers, and also works well as an answer to Volcarona when the rain is pouring (don't let Volcarona set up though).

I think that's all I have to say. I know that I've made your team into a rather standard rain team, but I honestly think that's the best route to take with your team, even if you think that is isn't. You need to stop trying to be so unique with your teams, because it ends up making your team inferior.

 

[Emvee]

Agreed with pretty much everything Bippa said. Once again, like your hail team that disappeared, this team needs some serious help.

Threats your team just can't deal with:
--------------------------------------------
- QD Volcarona with HP Ground
- Sub+SD Terrakion
- Sub+Bulk Up Toxicroak
- LO Tornadus-T
- Jellicent
- Sub Kyurem
- Volt Turn

I could name more but I think you get the idea, so I'm just going to give you a good suggestion and I really hope you decide to follow it:

Just don't keep trying to be unique. It leads to an unbalanced team and you spend more time trying to be cute rather than worrying about your threat list, which is the most important thing to consider in any kind of team building. In the end, being able to counter all threats in the specific tier you're playing in is the most important part of building a successful team. If you can put creativity and efficiency together then fine go for it bro but that's really not what I'm seeing right now.

Anyways, I recommend keeping Azumarill (replace Return for Ice Punch), and keeping Latios, and replace Mew, Venomoth, Heatran, and Alakazam for Politoed, Tornadus-T, Toxicroak, and Ferrothorn.

So in the end your team will look like:

Politoed, Azumarill, Tornadus-T, Toxicroak, Ferrothorn, Latios

Standard-ish rain team, but still, sometimes trying to be unique just leads to a not-so-good team. The team I just put together for you in 5 seconds can deal with most threats ;P

 

[MrGatr]

Also, why are you not running Drizzle Politoed? It is Azumarill's best friend and gets it so many KOs. You say that it sucked. How did it suck? What were the problems with it? Where did it go wrong?

It started sucking when I noticed he only brings Rain to the table. Granted he can attack and all, but I never picture his as an attacker. IDK it could've been the set I was using.

Venomoth is actually truly amazing. Also, him over Volc was a personal thing, With all the rain teams around Volc is so hindered, I really don't see a point to running him (Without Charcoal that is, but he could use much much better items).

I will add in Politoed and Tornadus.

The thing is with VG, unique doesn't count here, and I know it can. Unless your opponent desides to run around with a second tab and Smogon open, they don't always know how to handle unique characters. For example some guy kept switching in fast guys, that would take a lot of damage from Azu's Aqua Jet. This really made him mad to learn that it had priority.

And even at that note, if this team was unique, would it be mine, or would the mods warn me for taking an RMT and putting it up here?? Probably warn me

Thanks for the help though

 

[Emvee]

Venomoth is actually truly amazing. Also, him over Volc was a personal thing, With all the rain teams around Volc is so hindered, I really don't see a point to running him (Without Charcoal that is, but he could use much much better items).

Volcarona is definately not hindered in the rain. It actually has great potential. You obviously haven't toy'd with Hurricane Volcarona. And nobody uses Charcoal lol.

 

[Plato]

Volcarona isn't hindered by sun at all, I honestly think the Volc is more threatening in rain. Hurricane coming form Volcarona before or after a boost isn't easy at all.

Volcarona @ Leftovers
Nature: Timid
EV's: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Def
- Hurricane
- Bug Buzz
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast

It's true FB does get a bit weaker in rain, but having a Hurricane makes up for it. The set can cover way more than Venomoth ever could, and let's face it, Venomoth simply can't keep up with OU pokemon like Volc can.

 

[MrGatr]

The thing I don't like about Volc is his ability.. Honestly the reason I'm keeping Venomoth is when something has a resistence or neutral damage Tinted Lense becomes amazing.

 

[Plato]

the power of tinted lense = normal volc + more

and the fact that flame body is really useful in a lot of situations, it can burn physical attackers like dragonite and cripple u turn by switching in on scizor.

 

[PG24]

I agree with everything Emvee and Bippa said. Half of this team needs to be dropped because it just doesn't work. My suggested changes are the same as Emvee's, so I'll avoid repeating what he has already said.

Martini, do not take this as an insult, but team building is 99% threat preparation (which this team lacks). Creativity does make its way in, but only if this "creativity" actually works. Making a team full of UU mons and weird movesets is not creative; it's just bad threat preparation.

As it stands, this team is just six random Pokemon you threw together and didn't even test. I say the last part because it's what I can assume just from looking at this team; if you did test it, I'm very sure you would have realized this team's weaknesses. Stuff like Venamoth would've been dropped asap. If you actually did test, then it was not vesus good players. Go take your teams on ladder and test there. You might take this as an insult, but what I'm giving is advice.

 

[MrGatr]

I've tested this team quit a lot actually. But I just have a thing against removing Venomoth from the team, he actually works really good.

I'm also in the process of adding in Tornadus T, so most of my threats are eliminated.

 

[The Yoshi]

Venomoth is BL2 for a reason; it's there so it can be used in UU, and so Volcarona can be used in OU. Your team is very Volcarona weak, and don't expect Heatran to take it down on your own. Alakazam, Mew, and Venomoth need to go. I like how Azumarill is the star of the team, but it needs some team support so it isn't walled by Jellicent. I'll go with Emvee and say that Ferrothorn would be a good idea for the team so it can lay hazards, making it easier for Azumarill to sweep. Bippa and Emvee pretty much got everything, so I can't say much else.

And by the way, don't lie about not knowing how your previous Hail team disappeared.

 

[MrGatr]

The things I changed were:
- Alakazam
-Heatran

+ Tornadus T
+ Ferrothorn.

I'm currently debating between Venomoth, and Volcarona. I've got people on both sides (here and FB, and MT. Silver) Telling me to be unique, and telling me to stop being unique. So that will be a long debate with me.

 

[Professor Palutena]

With Tornadus, Azumarill and Ferrothorn, Politoed is an obvious addition to your team. It will make your team perform so much better. I strongly suggest putting it over Venomoth.

There is also a difference between being unique, and being inferior. Venomoth is inferior, not unique.

 

[Emvee]

The things I changed were:
- Alakazam
-Heatran

+ Tornadus T
+ Ferrothorn.

I'm currently debating between Venomoth, and Volcarona. I've got people on both sides (here and FB, and MT. Silver) Telling me to be unique, and telling me to stop being unique. So that will be a long debate with me.

That really doesn't make your team any better from how it is now, which is bad. In the end you're still Volcarona weak because you just added Ferrothorn which makes things worse for Volcarona threats and you got Tornadus-T without rain which can't suppress Fiery Dance after Quiver Dance. You really need to get over Venomoth and listen to the suggestions everyone else including me has given you. As an experienced player, take my advice: Efficiency over creativity. It's just not working out for you buddy.

 

[MrGatr]

Oh, I forgots to mention dat...

I actually had added in Poli just after I posted the RMT.