HO Attempt~

[Rhonder]

Hello, and welcome to my new HO team’s RMT I’ve been using variants of this team for a few months now, and it’s done pretty well so far, but I feel that it has a lot of room for improvement still. Any help or comments are appreciated. Full rates are nice too, if you have the time/know what to suggest. If you have any clarification questions about any part of the team also, don’t hesitate to ask! Here’s the team:



Changes in Bold


Uxie @ Light Clay
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

Uxie is my current lead of choice. It fits very nicely with this team because of its pretty much perfect move set. Not only does it get Dual Screens, but it can also set up rocks, and on top of all that it also has access to U-Turn, allowing a free-ish switch out to my first sweeper after it's done setting up. I chose to use Uxie over something like Azelf because of its greater defences. All it's really losing over Azelf is some speed which it doesn't really care about, and some attack, which again it doesn't care about.

Besides just being my lead, I also use Uxie as a pivot during the match. If there's some situation where I'd have to make a blind switch and Uxie's still alive, I'll switch her in, set up another screen if need be, and U-Turn out to a sweeper that is suitable for the situation. This helps to keep my momentum, as well as prevent some of my more frail members from taking unnecessary damage. Uxie's pretty bulky, so as long as she's not getting nailed by STAB super effective hits, she can usually take quite a few.

The only thing that I'm really missing is not having a taunt user for nuisances like Hippowdon or Gliscor. Those 2 in particular often give me trouble because they're very bulky, have easy healing, and I can't usually 1HKO. Also things like again Hippowdon or also Skarmory are hard to take down and phase me as I try to set up.


Haxorus (M) @ Lum Berry/Chesto berry?
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Swords Dance/Rest?
- Earthquake
- Outrage

I used to have a Dragonite in this slot, but I swapped it out for Haxorus because I wanted something that hit a little harder, even at the cost of being more frail. I try to put him in situation's where he'll survive a turn to use usually DD (only SD if I'm confident he's fast enough) and then go to work as much as possible. Most people are aware of how hard he hits, and he can usually even 2-3HKO steels that switch in to stop him. It's still problematic though if it's something like Scizor that'll nail him with a Bullet Punch while he's locked like that. Also, though Outrage/Earthquake gives pretty good coverage, I can't express how many times a Haxorus sweep has been stopped cold by Skarmory. Haxorus simply can't do anything against it even if it's not locked in Outrage, which is a real problem.

I'm currently testing the "resto chesto" set, but I find that the opportunities to use rest are slim, as I'm usually locked into Outrage when it would be useful. I don't think Rest is the right thing to put in that slot personally. Ideas?


Infernape (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SpDef)
- Hidden Power Ice
- Overheat/Fire Blast/ Flare Blitz/ Other physical fire move?
- U-turn
- Close Combat

I used to use a LO Infernape with pretty much the same move set, but I changed him to Scarfnape because My team had serious trouble with Genesect. His main moves are CC and U-Turn. HP Ice is coverage against things like dragons and gliscor. Can also be used against various flying types as well. The fire move is there for STAB, but fire's also a good offensive type, hitting steel, ice, and grass types hard.

I've been considering either changing up his set or replacing him, potentially with some pokemon who knows taunt, because I've begun learning how to work around Genesect with Conkeldurr better, but alas this is what I have at the moment.


Gyarados (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake/Substitute/Taunt?
- Ice Fang

Gyarados is quite simply a beast. After 1 boost he's fast enough to out speed tons, and if I can get 2 in that's even better. I use Leftovers for longevity, especially since he doesn't have Intimidate to sponge attacks. I like Moxie a lot more though. After he starts a sweep, he's quite hard to stop. He resists most common priority moves which is extremely helpful. I use Ice Fang over Bounce because it seems like a much better move, and I like the coverage over dragons and Gliscors better. Waterfall is good stab, and EQ is another great coverage move.

The only thing I have issues with for gyarados is his... inconsistencies with taking out Gliscors when he switches into them, instead of the other way around. If they're a stall set with Toxic/Sub/Protect there's not much he can do against them, and he's my only pokemon who can hit them hard enough to consistently KO them soooo idk.

Currently testing Sub/DD Gyarados, not really benefiting much since he doesn't usually have issues setting up, and no EQ takes away my ability to hit Water types. Also considering going bulky and putting Taunt on him for Gliscor/Hippowdon/Skarmory/etc. to stop their antics and/or force a switch. That'll be next to test.


Conkeldurr (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Guts
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch/Payback

Conkeldurr is by far my MVP. He's so incredibly bulky and hits so incredibly hard. Behind screens he's pretty much guaranteed to get set up, and he often does even when not behind screens. Leftovers and Drain Punch provide a good combination of offense and defense, hitting hard, while also healing him to keep him around for quite a while. As long as he survives the hit, he's pretty much solid and can come back from even a ~80% blow in no time. Mach Punch is good for finishing off targets he can't quite 1HKO.

Replaced Stone Edge with Ice Punch, since it's more accurate and gets similar coverage. Considering going Payback though, for Ghost/Psychic types, and since I already have plenty of ice moves on my team.


Terrakion @ Air Balloon/Salac Berry?
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Rock Polish/Substitute/??
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide

Terrakion is a behemoth as well, but he functions best as a mid-late game sweeper. The air balloon occasionally saves him for a hit or 2, but I often don't rely on that. He's good for switching into dark attacks, as well as ripping through things with CC. Rock Polish makes him very fast, and SD makes him very strong. Depending on the members of the opposing team that're left, it's easy to choose which one to use. SE has been replaced with Rock Slide for accuracy. Considering replacing RP with another coverage move, or maaaaaybe substitute.

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Some closing comments:

-As mentioned before, I have issues with super bulky pokemon and stall teams. The only solution I can think of would be maybe Cloyster and/or a taunt pokemon. Cloyster for breaking the Subs of Pokemon like breloom or gliscor, and a taunt user to stop hazards, whirlwind/roar, and/or Slack Off/Recover, Wish, boosting moves, etc.

-Also offensive rain teams kind of wreck me a lot of times it seems. Most common offensive rain pokemon (Tornadus, Politoed, Keldeo, etc) rip huge holes in my team, and often, if they're carrying an electric move of some sort, I don't really have anything good to take those either.

[Magicmonkey]

a few sets I might try here which you may find better:
Resto chesto haxorus instead of swords dance. Use super power as coverage instead of earthquake. It still hits most steels equally hard, but ferrothorn, balloon tran and skarm all take more, although rachi takes less, rachi nromally won't want to tke many outrages from oyu at +2. If you run resto chesto they think your safe when burned as well. finally the HP recovery is lovely, and you can put extra EV's into bulk if you aim to boost at least twice.

Infernape should be naive not adamant, as A you want to outspeed scarf moxie mence and genesect, and B you have over heat which is special. I may recommend flare blitz or fire blast instead though. HP ice (30/31/30/31/31/31 spread) might work for infernape as well, letting you more reliably hit dragonites.

For terrakion try sub swords dance salac berry instead perhaps?
Cinkeldurr probably wants payback as his coverage move unless your really araid of dragons, then ice punch .Stone edge is only for volcarona and gyarados really, although if you don't get rocks up volc could sweep you. if rocks are up flare blitz from nape kills 50% volcarona.

[patthecat11756]

Hey the team looks good, just a few suggestions:

Gyarados, try a sub/dd set, it'll beat gliscor one on one and maybe waterfall and bounce/eq for coverage, id recommend bounce since water/flying have good coverage overall.

Try deoxys-d over uxie. It has superior defenses plus pressure and has access to taunt, magic coat, spikes and stealth rock. The changes your ho team will force will benefit from more hazards.

Conkeldurr, would you want to try flame orb guts set on conkeldurr? You can run mach punch, drain punch, ice punch and payback and you're not stopped cold by gliscor and gengar with no set up needed.

also, I may have to try that sub salac berry on terrakion. Most people run the sub/sd with rock gem to hit gliscor hard, but between gyarados and conkeldurr if you chose to run ice punch, gliscor is handled.

But overall, good team!

[That Crazy Russian™]

rock slide on terra. it hits the same things, and there isnt all that much of a difference between them. you might lose the chance to ohko tornadus without rocks, but meh.

you can try taunt on terrakion over rock polish, or taunt over earthquake on gyarados. earthquake doesn't really hit anything harder than STAB waterfall does anyway, imo. actually, try using the bulky gyarados set. the intimidate factor will really help, and the extra bulk is amazing. if not, well, bounce can also work on it over ice fang, being able to possibly paralyze gliscor on switches, as well as being an all around great STAB late game.

rock polish, well, it just doesnt seem as good. base 108 speed is already fast, and after a sd, nothing can really switch in reliably.

ice punch>stone edge on conk. definitely. ice punch is a guaranteed ohko with rocks up on all those pokes you mentioned, except maybe yache berry parashuffler dnite.

also, to deal with your gliscor+hippowdon problem, try dual screens bronzong to wall both from hell and back.

nice team

[Skamory7]

A Gigasect could swipe through 4 of your Pokemon, and hit the other two realtively hard, so watch out for that. In an attempt to stop this beast, I'd recommend either using Heatran or Jirachi. I'm not a guy who rates like with 5 paragraphs but other than that the team is pretty decent.

[Magicmonkey]

to combine on what others have said, a sub dd gyara with intimidate and decent bulk (EV it to 264 speed, max attack, rest in HP jolly nature)

[Soul_Fly]

Well the above rates have covered all your counter problems but if you're still having problems with your Uxie lead I suggest replacing it with Dual Screens Espeon it does everything better (except rocks) and laughs at phazers and taunters. Since you're HO rocks shouldn't matter much but will lead to crucial OHKO misses so if you are fitting in a Heatran/Jirachi as suggested above you can find space for a stealth rocker there....

Espeon @Light Clay
Timid
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
~ Reflect
~ Light Screen
~ Psychic / Psyshock
~ Baton Pass / Hidden Power Fire

[Magicmonkey]

Well the above rates have covered all your counter problems but if you're still having problems with your Uxie lead I suggest replacing it with Dual Screens Espeon it does everything better (except rocks) and laughs at phazers and taunters. Since you're HO rocks shouldn't matter much but will lead to crucial OHKO misses so if you are fitting in a Heatran/Jirachi as suggested above you can find space for a stealth rocker there....

Espeon @Light Clay
Timid
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
~ Reflect
~ Light Screen
~ Psychic / Psyshock
~ Baton Pass / Hidden Power Fire

the point of rocks is HO often forces switches. Additionally, you don't want a sash dugtrio or a multiscale dragonite stopping your sweep.

[Rhonder]

a few sets I might try here which you may find better:
Resto chesto haxorus instead of swords dance. Use super power as coverage instead of earthquake. It still hits most steels equally hard, but ferrothorn, balloon tran and skarm all take more, although rachi takes less, rachi nromally won't want to tke many outrages from oyu at +2. If you run resto chesto they think your safe when burned as well. finally the HP recovery is lovely, and you can put extra EV's into bulk if you aim to boost at least twice.

Infernape should be naive not adamant, as A you want to outspeed scarf moxie mence and genesect, and B you have over heat which is special. I may recommend flare blitz or fire blast instead though. HP ice (30/31/30/31/31/31 spread) might work for infernape as well, letting you more reliably hit dragonites.

For terrakion try sub swords dance salac berry instead perhaps?
Cinkeldurr probably wants payback as his coverage move unless your really araid of dragons, then ice punch .Stone edge is only for volcarona and gyarados really, although if you don't get rocks up volc could sweep you. if rocks are up flare blitz from nape kills 50% volcarona.

Hey the team looks good, just a few suggestions:

Gyarados, try a sub/dd set, it'll beat gliscor one on one and maybe waterfall and bounce/eq for coverage, id recommend bounce since water/flying have good coverage overall.

Try deoxys-d over uxie. It has superior defenses plus pressure and has access to taunt, magic coat, spikes and stealth rock. The changes your ho team will force will benefit from more hazards.

Conkeldurr, would you want to try flame orb guts set on conkeldurr? You can run mach punch, drain punch, ice punch and payback and you're not stopped cold by gliscor and gengar with no set up needed.

also, I may have to try that sub salac berry on terrakion. Most people run the sub/sd with rock gem to hit gliscor hard, but between gyarados and conkeldurr if you chose to run ice punch, gliscor is handled.

But overall, good team!

rock slide on terra. it hits the same things, and there isnt all that much of a difference between them. you might lose the chance to ohko tornadus without rocks, but meh.

you can try taunt on terrakion over rock polish, or taunt over earthquake on gyarados. earthquake doesn't really hit anything harder than STAB waterfall does anyway, imo. actually, try using the bulky gyarados set. the intimidate factor will really help, and the extra bulk is amazing. if not, well, bounce can also work on it over ice fang, being able to possibly paralyze gliscor on switches, as well as being an all around great STAB late game.

rock polish, well, it just doesnt seem as good. base 108 speed is already fast, and after a sd, nothing can really switch in reliably.

ice punch>stone edge on conk. definitely. ice punch is a guaranteed ohko with rocks up on all those pokes you mentioned, except maybe yache berry parashuffler dnite.

also, to deal with your gliscor+hippowdon problem, try dual screens bronzong to wall both from hell and back.

nice team

A Gigasect could swipe through 4 of your Pokemon, and hit the other two realtively hard, so watch out for that. In an attempt to stop this beast, I'd recommend either using Heatran or Jirachi. I'm not a guy who rates like with 5 paragraphs but other than that the team is pretty decent.

to combine on what others have said, a sub dd gyara with intimidate and decent bulk (EV it to 264 speed, max attack, rest in HP jolly nature)

Well the above rates have covered all your counter problems but if you're still having problems with your Uxie lead I suggest replacing it with Dual Screens Espeon it does everything better (except rocks) and laughs at phazers and taunters. Since you're HO rocks shouldn't matter much but will lead to crucial OHKO misses so if you are fitting in a Heatran/Jirachi as suggested above you can find space for a stealth rocker there....

Espeon @Light Clay
Timid
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
~ Reflect
~ Light Screen
~ Psychic / Psyshock
~ Baton Pass / Hidden Power Fire

the point of rocks is HO often forces switches. Additionally, you don't want a sash dugtrio or a multiscale dragonite stopping your sweep.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. So far, from what I've tested I'm getting:

-I'm not so sure about the resto chesto Haxorus. I don't really find myself having that many opportunities to use Rest... because usually when I /would/ use it, I'm locked into Outrage or something. On that note, it might be worth checking out like... Dragon Claw or something, so that those opportunities would open up. I'll look into that next. As for Super power for coverage... I dunno, that just seems kind of counter productive, since it lowers your attack every time you use it. You wouldn't want to use it more than like... once in that case. Though Skarmory stops Haxorus cold with EQ, you're free to use it again and again and only have to swap when Skarmory shows up. I dunno,

-On Infernape I definitely like the idea of using HP Ice over Stone Edge, as they hit the same things but HP Ice is much more accurate, and the 4x on winged dragons and gliscor is definitely nice. Still trying to decide on my Fire move. Flare Blitz hits hard, but it makes Infernape die way too fast. That leaves... like Fire Blast or Blaze Kick maybe?

-I've tried Moxie Sub DD Gyara from the current suggestions so far, though it doesn't really seem to be working more effectively than my current set. HOWEVER I'm seriously considering taking Darklord's suggestion and putting Taunt on Gyarados over Earthquake or Substitute.

-Ice punch is great on Conkeldurr! Though, I'm not sure if it's better than Payback, I've never tried out Payback yet. I'm thinking that'd be nice for like... Jellicent and Slowbro and stuff. It will require testing.

-I definitely approve of Rock Slide on Terrakion. I'm not sure if Salac Berry's really the right item though. Kinda like with the Rest on Haxorus, it doesn't seem to get used that much. Then again, the Air Balloon doesn't either. Maybe a completely different item is in order? If I were to get rid of Rock Polish though I'd probably want to go for another attacking move for coverage, any good ideas for this? I see people using X Scissor sometimes, is this a good option? I also see Quick Attack though, and another priority move might be nice as well.

-And finally, an Espeon/Heatran combo sounds pretty nice... but I'm not sure about it on this team exactly. I'm thinking about building a new team somewhat soon that would have Breloom on it (since it's one of my favorite pokemon ever and I haven't used one for a while) So I think that I might factor this combo into that team. For now though I like the combo of screens/rocks on 1 pokemon.

Thanks for all the feedback though, keep it coming. This team can only get better~

OP Edited with current changes/possibilities