I'm not sure if anybody will answer here, and honestly I'm not sure if I'm doing the formatting correctly either. But I needed help with a team, and thought I may as well ask. I made this really fun volt turn team, revolving around my favorite pokemon in OU at the moment: Gengar. It's kind of a strange mix between balance and offence, but it has worked well enough for me to have an enjoyable time on the ladder. There are several flaws with the team however, and I was hoping to get some advice. Anyhow, I'll jump into the team.
Gengar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 144 HP / 108 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- Substitute
- Disable
The star of the team, or at least what the team was built around. Before you laugh at the set, let me explain. Gengar's excellent defensive typing allows it to hard wall several things in the OU metagame right now. Hex is used over shadow ball because I find nine times out of ten, I'm clicking will o before attacking anyway. Will o wisp of coarse to spread my own status. And sub+disable because in my humble opinion sub+disable is one of the best gengar sets in this meta. The EVs mean mega venusaur and defensive stealth rock clefable can't break my sub, and neither can bulky garchomp with dragon tail or breloom with bullet seed (both after a burn). The missing special attack EVs aren't usually missed due to the sheer power of hex. I've been considering sludge wave over disable, but with disable gengar can wall ferrothorn, heatran, any breloom set, any gliscor set (which is one of the most important things for hex gengar to do), specs keldeo, defensive landorus-t and scarfed lando-t if a sub was set up prior, specs magnezone, mega heracross (pin missile can't break sub with 5 hits, and rock blast can be disabled), and sylveon. It's also very important to note that it's a semi-reliable way of escaping pursuit busharp and tyranitar. Gengar serves this team not just to spam hex, as you might imagine, but it does well in being able to burn, and survive a hit from, most physical attackers that threaten the team.
Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
Keldeo completes the offensive core with gengar. These two monsters cover each others back so amazingly, I can't think of any reason to use anything else. Keldeo checks dark types that scare gengar like tyranitar, bisharp, and weavile, while also being able to check strong priority users like scizor (and when I say "strong priority users like scizor", I pretty much mean exclusively scizor), and lastly beats the best specially defensive walls in the tier that gengar can't touch: chansey and freaking heatran, both of which are technically immune to status. Speaking of status, scald burns only make gengar stronger. Gengar in turn sets up on mega venusaur and clafable, as previously mentioned, as well as picks up the ohko on slowbro after a burn, unless I've missed something with my math, and speed tying with the lati twins. I originally used scarf, and one of the things I'm unsure about is the item on keldeo. I still thing scarf might be the best option to be able to out speed electric types like manactric, thunderous, and raikou, and most importantly mega lopunny (a pokemon that destroys my team), but life orb calm mind+3 attacks seems intriguing, as does specs. Scarf is also nice to outspeed zard x and dragonite after a DD, and of coarse just so I have a scarfer on my team for a bit more speed control...
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 248 HP / 188 Def / 72 Spe
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Toxic
Gliscor is the first half of the defensive core. Its typing works nicely with umbreon, and it's vital to the team for its ability to spread status for Gengar to spam hex. It's also my rocker and best check to heatran outside of keldeo, while also being a good status absorber as my team lacks heal bell support. I originally ran roost over u-turn, but as my team relies on momentum, I thought u-turn would be better. Plus I have wish support and toxic heal, so I thought it was justified. The speed is for jolly tyranitar, as they like to carry ice beam these days.
Umbreon @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Baton Pass
- Foul Play
The other half of the defensive core. Again, great typing for the team, check sash alakazam as well as LO or mega zam with dazzling gleam over focus miss. Baton pass for momentum, as I mentioned momentum is fairly important on this team, foul play notably smacks talonflame after surviving a hit, or OHKO's it if they try to SD in my face, which is important as talonflame is stupid and smacks my team around. Wish and baton pass are also one of the reasons bulky gengar is viable on my team, plus often I can hard switch gengar in on a fighting move. Wish also keeps the rest of my team healthy. And of coarse, Synchronize passes status from scald so gengar can continue his rampage (looking at you, keldeo and slowbro).
Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Overheat
The best mega option for my team. Keep in mind, I have a leviatator and a flying type. Nine times out of ten, my opponent is not clicking earthquake. There's no way. This mentality gives mega man a huge advantage. The EVs are pretty standard, overheat because power, volt switch for initiative, HP ice for lati twins and things quad weak. This is my only brave bird resist on my team, I thought I should mention. But it's ok because I outspeed talonflame's flare blitz, and can volt switch freely.
Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Defog
- Superpower
Banded scizor is my favourite scizor set, and quite frankly the best set when utilizing U-turn. Choice band is 100 percent needed so I don't get six ohed by calm mind clafable. Banded defog, because knock off isn't needed (I mean it's very nice, sure, but STAB plus superpower gives more than enough coverage), and I'd rather have defog in case hazards start to stack (better to be safe than sorry), because I'm going to be clicking u-turn and volt switch so often, hazards really hurt the team. I'm considereing running speed for heatran, but bulk is really nice, especially when bullet punch is the move to go for.
So that's the team. You'll notice that my Azumarill and keldeo counters are non-existant.... and my water resist is keldeo lol. It's worth mentioning that gengar beats sub calm mind keldeo 1 on 1 though, and if Azumarill scares me I can always burn it and survive a hit (barring freaking knock off, but come on they all run superppower.....right?)... You'll also notice that I struggle with mega sableye and clefable if they pack the almighty calm mind. Bolt-beam hurts my team, as do the lati twins, any physical water or ice types, and a plethora of other things. All the teams weaknesses are played around though, with the ever important momentum that I mentioned before. The main things I'd like advice on are these: should I run sludge wave on gengar? What should keldeo's item be? Should I run roost or U-turn on gliscor?
Any help would be great!
