NO OU
A SERIOUS GIMMICK
(for OU)
This is just a gimmick (a solid gimmick, with a lot of work behind) for having fun and get some players surprised.
Introduction
---------------------
It may seem like a joke, but it's real, a real OU team. I have always enjoyed building original teams, even knowing that my results would be worse than what I could get with more standard teams. The essence of this team is very simple: do not use any OU Pokémon. With this simple rule, I began to test a lot everything that UU and even NU could offer me, and although it might seem that my options were wide, they turned out to be quite limited, if not very limited. That's because the combinations of 6 exclusively UU/NU Pokémon that are viable in OU are very small. Due to this, my team could not have great pretensions or complexities, beyond covering the largest number of OU threats possible and having good synergies between the 6 Pokémon that make it up. I couldn't afford to choose between an offensive, stall, hyper offensive, or balanced team, due to the limited options available to me, so the result ended up being a rather bulky and slow balanced team. After testing a lot I think I can say that this is a pretty optimal combination of 6 non-OU Pokémon to play competitively in OU. Logically, this team is not aiming to reach high ladder positions due to its limitations, but despite it, the team has given me great wins against very solid OU teams, which is already a great achievement for a team like this.
Teambuilding process
-------------------------
Stealth rock setter. After reviewing all UU and NU I decided to run Registeel due to its typing resistances and great defenses.
Steel-type is ubiquitous in OU, and after testing other options, Houndoom surprisingly gave me the best results, due to its other qualities thanks to its Dark-typing.
I needed a spinner, and being Hitmontop the best Tyranitar counter out there, it didn't cost me anything to choose him.
Despite having Houndoom, the ubiquitous Ghost, and Psychic were still very problematic, so Spiritomb seemed to be an excellent defensive option to stop them, as well as providing immunities to Fighting and Explosion, and also blocking rapid spin.
NU has one of the strongest Water-type answers that can be used in OU, and this answer is Quagsire. Its typing combination and STAB Earthquake add a lot of coverage to my team.
This place in the team was occupied by many other Pokémon (Weezing, Mesprit, Slowbro or Yanmega), but after a lot of testing, Abomasnow allowed me to get better results than any of the other Pokémon mentioned, even though my team is not a hail one. Its unique offensive coverage throughout the metagame and its resistances helped me finish polishing this misplaced team.
Skarmory is a problem for my team, but lead Skarmory is even more troublesome, due to the impunity it has for flooding my field with hazards. Since I didn't find any other Pokemon that would make my team work better, I decided to run Houndoom as a lead (not as a suicide lead) to ensure that the opposing lead Skarmory wasn't going to give me any trouble, and surprisingly it worked quite well.
The team in depth
----------------------
Houndoom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Flamethrower
The first member of this team is perhaps the most ridiculous to any competitive player, since Houndoom is not only NU, but it doesn't even have an OU set in Smogon (unlike the rest of my team), but it has an explanation. Why Houndoom? Of all the options available in UU/NU, it is the one that has worked best for me in order to destroy Steel and Grass (especially Breloom), and thanks to Choice scarf, it also always beats Starmie, Gengar, and Azelf. Houndoom is also a good response against non scarf Latias. Why is it lead? My lead was always Registeel, but Skarmory is very troublesome for my team, since Skarmory lead gave my opponent a huge advantage, so I decided to use Houndoom lead to prevent this situation, and it ended up being a decent lead, as it's a solid response to common leads: Azelf, Metagross, Skarmory, Roserade, Breloom, or Bronzong. Its moves do not require much explanation, STAB coverage, and HP Ground to surprise and hit really hard any Heatran.
Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Atk / 88 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
This is an easy Pokémon to explain: it sets up Stealth rock, walls Latias, and gives me the great defensive benefits of the Steel type. It could be said that it is an inferior version of Bronzong, which I cannot use on my team. Its offensive coverage of Ice and Ground is essential against many threats: Tyranitar, Heatran, Dragonite, Flygon, Lucario, Gliscor, Metagross, Jirachi… Explosion works very well to eliminate setup sweepers like Gyarados, and also hits extremely hard defensive threats like the annoying and common Clefable or Blissey. Registeel can't do anything against Scizor (and Forretress), and therefore its Swords Dance versions can boost in front of it, that's why I've come to consider using HP Fire, because despite its bad Special Attack it will always 2KO non Occa Berry Scizor , although replacing any of its three offensive moves would mean losing very important coverage.
Hitmontop (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Close Combat
- Rapid Spin
- Sucker Punch
- Toxic
The best Tyranitar counter in 4th gen (resists both of its stabs, intimidates it, and always OHKOes Tyranitar). That alone is a reason to include it in my team, but Hitmontop also gives me Rapid spin and great physical defensive capabilities along with Intimidate. Hitmontop can pivot around many physical threats to intimidate them (Machamp, Scizor, Lucario, Infernape…), it is able to hit very hard the annoying Clefable and Blissey quite easily, and as previously stated, is the safest switch in against the ubiquitous Tyranitar. This set is the typical spinner for OU, but it features two differences: instead of Foresight and Stone Edge it uses Sucker Punch and Toxic. This is because I almost never managed to execute the Foresight+Rapid spin strategy, and also thanks to Toxic I can seriously annoy many bulky Pokémon that are switched in response to Hitmontop (Swampert, Zapdos, Latias, Rotom, Suicune…).
Spiritomb @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Ghost and Psychic are extremely common types in OU. Immunity to Fighting is very useful against the dangerous Machamp, and being immune to the abundant Explosion is an advantage to consider. Spiritomb fulfills all these functions and some more. I've used it previously in OU, and the special defensive version seems like one of the strongest answers out there in OU against Gengar, Starmie, Latias, Azelf, Rotom, or Celebi. Shadow Ball and Shadow sneak are its best offensive STAB options, and one of them gives me priority. Will o Wisp allows me to cripple all kinds of physical sweepers, and it also really annoys any wall that isn't Clefable. Hidden Power Ground is just fantastic, as no one expects Heatran (arguably the most common switch to Spiritomb) to get 2KOed. It is also very useful against Magnezone, another frequent switch to Spiritomb.
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Encore
- Recover
- Toxic
Quagsire is a Pokémon that has been used more and more in OU over the years (at least that's my impression), and there are good reasons for this. Quagsire is an excellent response to Electric, Fire, and above all, Water. This Pokemon is one of the best answers out there against Starmie and Suicune, and it also works great against any other Water-type (except Grass Knot Empoleon). Thanks to its excellent typing, good movepool and decent resistance Quagsire allows me to stop and annoy many different threats: Zapdos (without HP Grass), Swampert, Heatran, Rotom, Kingdra, Starmie, Empoleon (no HP Grass Knot), Suicune, Gyarados (without Taunt)... It should be mentioned that despite its low Attack, its STAB Earthquake is always welcome to stop Tyranitar, Heatran, Lucario, Jirachi, or Infernape. Quagsire is a Pokémon of extremes: it is extremely useful on many occasions, but in certain situations it becomes absolutely useless, requiring a switch ir inmediatly. These threats are Gengar, Breloom, Skarmory and Forretress, since it can't do anything to these four Pokémon (it can't touch Gengar, it can't do anything against Breloom and Encore is a bad idea against Skarmory and Forretress, because they will fill the field with hazards anyway).
Abomasnow @ Leftovers
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 Atk / 172 SpA / 84 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Blizzard
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
Even though my team doesn't benefit from hail, Abomasnow was a great addition after testing other Pokemon (Mesprit, Slowbro, Weezing, Yanmega). Thanks to its unique coverage and typing throughout the meta, I can cover a large number of threats, especially certain Pokémon that I found problematic or dangerous, even though I already had coverage to deal with them: Zapdos (with HP Grass destroys Quagsire), Empoleon (with Grass Knot Quagsire disappears), Suicune (if Quagsire wasn't around it could sweep my team), or Breloom. With Ice Shard I take out Dragonite and Flygon, and thanks to the combination of Wood Hammer and Blizzard I can hit the annoying SkarmBliss combination quite hard, a core that was previously impenetrable for me. It is true that with the addition of Abomasnow my team has a triple weakness to Fighting (Registeel, Houndoom and Abomasnow), but it is not really a problem for me thanks to Spiritomb and Hitmontop.
Threats
----------
Swords Dance Scizor: Scizor can boost with impunity in front of pretty much my entire team, except from Houndoom (and if Houndoom is locked in Dark Pulse it can also boost too). Quagsire can Encore it and Spiritomb burns Scizor, though it can still boost into to its face and make up for the burn’s attack drop.
Breloom: a menace for any team in OU (I believe Spore shoud have been banned in the past, for the sake of the meta). Houndoom and Abomasnow destroy it but Breloom always puts someone to sleep, and if it gets into a substitute it's literally hell.
Agility Metagross: Not as dangerous as SD Scizor, but if it does get a boost, my only answer is Quagsire, but most of the time my opponents use AgilityGross in the late game. Registeel and his Earthquake doesn't even 2KO it.
Clafable: Hitmontop, Registeel (Explosion), and Abomasnow (Wood Hammer) are good answers, but the other half of my team can do almost nothing to it, so if my opponent plays it well it can give me a headache.
Well Covered Steels: Skarmory, Forretress, Scizor... they all get OHKOed by Houndoom, but no one else in my team hits them super effective, so if they're well covered it's very hard to beat them.
Conclusion
---------------
It's very fun and satisfying to win in OU using this team, because despite the huge limitations imposed to build it, my team has safe switches against a great portion of the OU metagame, which is a great merit considering that I don't use any OU Pokémon. It is not easy to rank in the ladder with this team but it is possible, and thanks to its solidity it can surprise a decent amount of solid and competitive OU teams.
PokePaste and other teams
--------------------------------
https://pokepast.es/fc0886d71ff4e8bf
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-machamp-substitute-nightmare.3728246/#post-9790599
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-a-very-original-hail-semi-stall.3680040/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/balanced-sunny-day-bdsp-ou-team.3696418/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-a-pretty-solid-sinergy-balanced-team.3722318/
(for OU)
This is just a gimmick (a solid gimmick, with a lot of work behind) for having fun and get some players surprised.
Introduction
---------------------
It may seem like a joke, but it's real, a real OU team. I have always enjoyed building original teams, even knowing that my results would be worse than what I could get with more standard teams. The essence of this team is very simple: do not use any OU Pokémon. With this simple rule, I began to test a lot everything that UU and even NU could offer me, and although it might seem that my options were wide, they turned out to be quite limited, if not very limited. That's because the combinations of 6 exclusively UU/NU Pokémon that are viable in OU are very small. Due to this, my team could not have great pretensions or complexities, beyond covering the largest number of OU threats possible and having good synergies between the 6 Pokémon that make it up. I couldn't afford to choose between an offensive, stall, hyper offensive, or balanced team, due to the limited options available to me, so the result ended up being a rather bulky and slow balanced team. After testing a lot I think I can say that this is a pretty optimal combination of 6 non-OU Pokémon to play competitively in OU. Logically, this team is not aiming to reach high ladder positions due to its limitations, but despite it, the team has given me great wins against very solid OU teams, which is already a great achievement for a team like this.
Teambuilding process
-------------------------
Stealth rock setter. After reviewing all UU and NU I decided to run Registeel due to its typing resistances and great defenses.
Steel-type is ubiquitous in OU, and after testing other options, Houndoom surprisingly gave me the best results, due to its other qualities thanks to its Dark-typing.
I needed a spinner, and being Hitmontop the best Tyranitar counter out there, it didn't cost me anything to choose him.
Despite having Houndoom, the ubiquitous Ghost, and Psychic were still very problematic, so Spiritomb seemed to be an excellent defensive option to stop them, as well as providing immunities to Fighting and Explosion, and also blocking rapid spin.
NU has one of the strongest Water-type answers that can be used in OU, and this answer is Quagsire. Its typing combination and STAB Earthquake add a lot of coverage to my team.
This place in the team was occupied by many other Pokémon (Weezing, Mesprit, Slowbro or Yanmega), but after a lot of testing, Abomasnow allowed me to get better results than any of the other Pokémon mentioned, even though my team is not a hail one. Its unique offensive coverage throughout the metagame and its resistances helped me finish polishing this misplaced team.
Skarmory is a problem for my team, but lead Skarmory is even more troublesome, due to the impunity it has for flooding my field with hazards. Since I didn't find any other Pokemon that would make my team work better, I decided to run Houndoom as a lead (not as a suicide lead) to ensure that the opposing lead Skarmory wasn't going to give me any trouble, and surprisingly it worked quite well.
The team in depth
----------------------
Houndoom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Flamethrower
The first member of this team is perhaps the most ridiculous to any competitive player, since Houndoom is not only NU, but it doesn't even have an OU set in Smogon (unlike the rest of my team), but it has an explanation. Why Houndoom? Of all the options available in UU/NU, it is the one that has worked best for me in order to destroy Steel and Grass (especially Breloom), and thanks to Choice scarf, it also always beats Starmie, Gengar, and Azelf. Houndoom is also a good response against non scarf Latias. Why is it lead? My lead was always Registeel, but Skarmory is very troublesome for my team, since Skarmory lead gave my opponent a huge advantage, so I decided to use Houndoom lead to prevent this situation, and it ended up being a decent lead, as it's a solid response to common leads: Azelf, Metagross, Skarmory, Roserade, Breloom, or Bronzong. Its moves do not require much explanation, STAB coverage, and HP Ground to surprise and hit really hard any Heatran.
Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Atk / 88 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
This is an easy Pokémon to explain: it sets up Stealth rock, walls Latias, and gives me the great defensive benefits of the Steel type. It could be said that it is an inferior version of Bronzong, which I cannot use on my team. Its offensive coverage of Ice and Ground is essential against many threats: Tyranitar, Heatran, Dragonite, Flygon, Lucario, Gliscor, Metagross, Jirachi… Explosion works very well to eliminate setup sweepers like Gyarados, and also hits extremely hard defensive threats like the annoying and common Clefable or Blissey. Registeel can't do anything against Scizor (and Forretress), and therefore its Swords Dance versions can boost in front of it, that's why I've come to consider using HP Fire, because despite its bad Special Attack it will always 2KO non Occa Berry Scizor , although replacing any of its three offensive moves would mean losing very important coverage.
Hitmontop (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Close Combat
- Rapid Spin
- Sucker Punch
- Toxic
The best Tyranitar counter in 4th gen (resists both of its stabs, intimidates it, and always OHKOes Tyranitar). That alone is a reason to include it in my team, but Hitmontop also gives me Rapid spin and great physical defensive capabilities along with Intimidate. Hitmontop can pivot around many physical threats to intimidate them (Machamp, Scizor, Lucario, Infernape…), it is able to hit very hard the annoying Clefable and Blissey quite easily, and as previously stated, is the safest switch in against the ubiquitous Tyranitar. This set is the typical spinner for OU, but it features two differences: instead of Foresight and Stone Edge it uses Sucker Punch and Toxic. This is because I almost never managed to execute the Foresight+Rapid spin strategy, and also thanks to Toxic I can seriously annoy many bulky Pokémon that are switched in response to Hitmontop (Swampert, Zapdos, Latias, Rotom, Suicune…).
Spiritomb @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Ghost and Psychic are extremely common types in OU. Immunity to Fighting is very useful against the dangerous Machamp, and being immune to the abundant Explosion is an advantage to consider. Spiritomb fulfills all these functions and some more. I've used it previously in OU, and the special defensive version seems like one of the strongest answers out there in OU against Gengar, Starmie, Latias, Azelf, Rotom, or Celebi. Shadow Ball and Shadow sneak are its best offensive STAB options, and one of them gives me priority. Will o Wisp allows me to cripple all kinds of physical sweepers, and it also really annoys any wall that isn't Clefable. Hidden Power Ground is just fantastic, as no one expects Heatran (arguably the most common switch to Spiritomb) to get 2KOed. It is also very useful against Magnezone, another frequent switch to Spiritomb.
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Encore
- Recover
- Toxic
Quagsire is a Pokémon that has been used more and more in OU over the years (at least that's my impression), and there are good reasons for this. Quagsire is an excellent response to Electric, Fire, and above all, Water. This Pokemon is one of the best answers out there against Starmie and Suicune, and it also works great against any other Water-type (except Grass Knot Empoleon). Thanks to its excellent typing, good movepool and decent resistance Quagsire allows me to stop and annoy many different threats: Zapdos (without HP Grass), Swampert, Heatran, Rotom, Kingdra, Starmie, Empoleon (no HP Grass Knot), Suicune, Gyarados (without Taunt)... It should be mentioned that despite its low Attack, its STAB Earthquake is always welcome to stop Tyranitar, Heatran, Lucario, Jirachi, or Infernape. Quagsire is a Pokémon of extremes: it is extremely useful on many occasions, but in certain situations it becomes absolutely useless, requiring a switch ir inmediatly. These threats are Gengar, Breloom, Skarmory and Forretress, since it can't do anything to these four Pokémon (it can't touch Gengar, it can't do anything against Breloom and Encore is a bad idea against Skarmory and Forretress, because they will fill the field with hazards anyway).
Abomasnow @ Leftovers
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 Atk / 172 SpA / 84 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Blizzard
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
Even though my team doesn't benefit from hail, Abomasnow was a great addition after testing other Pokemon (Mesprit, Slowbro, Weezing, Yanmega). Thanks to its unique coverage and typing throughout the meta, I can cover a large number of threats, especially certain Pokémon that I found problematic or dangerous, even though I already had coverage to deal with them: Zapdos (with HP Grass destroys Quagsire), Empoleon (with Grass Knot Quagsire disappears), Suicune (if Quagsire wasn't around it could sweep my team), or Breloom. With Ice Shard I take out Dragonite and Flygon, and thanks to the combination of Wood Hammer and Blizzard I can hit the annoying SkarmBliss combination quite hard, a core that was previously impenetrable for me. It is true that with the addition of Abomasnow my team has a triple weakness to Fighting (Registeel, Houndoom and Abomasnow), but it is not really a problem for me thanks to Spiritomb and Hitmontop.
Threats
----------
Swords Dance Scizor: Scizor can boost with impunity in front of pretty much my entire team, except from Houndoom (and if Houndoom is locked in Dark Pulse it can also boost too). Quagsire can Encore it and Spiritomb burns Scizor, though it can still boost into to its face and make up for the burn’s attack drop.
Breloom: a menace for any team in OU (I believe Spore shoud have been banned in the past, for the sake of the meta). Houndoom and Abomasnow destroy it but Breloom always puts someone to sleep, and if it gets into a substitute it's literally hell.
Agility Metagross: Not as dangerous as SD Scizor, but if it does get a boost, my only answer is Quagsire, but most of the time my opponents use AgilityGross in the late game. Registeel and his Earthquake doesn't even 2KO it.
Clafable: Hitmontop, Registeel (Explosion), and Abomasnow (Wood Hammer) are good answers, but the other half of my team can do almost nothing to it, so if my opponent plays it well it can give me a headache.
Well Covered Steels: Skarmory, Forretress, Scizor... they all get OHKOed by Houndoom, but no one else in my team hits them super effective, so if they're well covered it's very hard to beat them.
Conclusion
---------------
It's very fun and satisfying to win in OU using this team, because despite the huge limitations imposed to build it, my team has safe switches against a great portion of the OU metagame, which is a great merit considering that I don't use any OU Pokémon. It is not easy to rank in the ladder with this team but it is possible, and thanks to its solidity it can surprise a decent amount of solid and competitive OU teams.
PokePaste and other teams
--------------------------------
https://pokepast.es/fc0886d71ff4e8bf
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-machamp-substitute-nightmare.3728246/#post-9790599
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-a-very-original-hail-semi-stall.3680040/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/balanced-sunny-day-bdsp-ou-team.3696418/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-a-pretty-solid-sinergy-balanced-team.3722318/
Last edited:
