GSC OU Fast GenII team of mixed att. ideology

So looking at this sub forum I see a lot of gen1 teams but not a lot in the GSC dept. I've just made this one, not had much of a chance to test it yet so I figured I'd add it to the mix for some scrutineering: Come at me bro!

(Attach Leftovers all round under normal rules; Item Clause rules carry the following):

Electabuzz @ Scope Lens
Thunder, Ice Punch, Meditate, Cross Chop

(This can be easily changed for sleep talk Raikou, probably better too but for T.tar coverage it's very easy to justify Electabuzz, it may not be a legendary electric but this thing can seriously catch a lot of players out; very hard to check once it starts setting up. Also worth noting; Lax is a better starter if you're using this Buzz)


Cloyster @ Polkadot Bow
Spikes, Surf, Toxic, Explosion

Exeggutor @ Mystery Berry
Sleep Powder, Psychic, Giga Drain, Explosion

Snorlax @ Pink Bow
Curse, Double Edge, Rest, Sleep Talk

Aerodactyl @ Leftovers
Ancient Power, Earthquake, Fire Blast, Whirlwind

Gengar @ Miracle Berry
Thunderbolt, Ice Punch, Destiny Bond, Explosion


So yah let me know opinions, guys are welcome to use this team too if they're struck for ideas, I'd be interested to hear how people make out with it, only had a couple of battles with it but it seems easy to use and solid from the limited testing.

 

Haha that looks very exciting, not heard of electabuzz/aero being used in GSC before, but it looks like a very fun variant of boom offense. (I'm better with stall though :/)

I'll have to test it out some time but I don't think I can say anything whatsoever useful in a rate, I'm still so new to this tier.

 

Yeah fast n fun is really the idea here, trying to stay ahead of the opponent rather than defending. Electabuzz and Aerodactyl are the potential late game sweepers, not demolishing entire health bars in one hit like a belly drummer or Marowak, rather predicting opponents next move and using their speed and broad movepools to land 2 super effective hits before they get a chance to strike. Advantage is they're always mobilised to do that without relying on a setup move, downside is you need to get some damage on their team first. Nice thing about this structure is you can afford to lose pokemon without it crippling the functionality of the team.

 

Raikou's better than Buzz for Ttar defenses. Many don't run EQ and Raikou is guaranteed to live 3 Rock Slides after Lefties (unless you're HP Water, and even then it's a far cry from a guaranteed 3HKO and you have decent odds to PP stall). CC is nice, but unless you can switch in, that only helps if you see Ttar as a wall (which you shouldn't, he takes neutral damage from Thunders).

Buzz is super quirky and fun to catch people with, but if the aim is to be semi-serious with this team, it probably needs to be Raikou unless you want to part with Aero.

Speaking of Aero, you should be a MAN and run a fourth attack (e.g., Double-Edge) on him. With Berserk Gene. Make Raikou the team Phazer.

Egg could stand to be quirkier. You've got a spinblocker and (as with most quirky teams) Lax issues, so Leech Seed Egg might find a good home here with the semi-reliable Spikes and need for a pest that Lax can often struggle to deal with. I've never known what moveset is best for a Seed Egg, though. Psychic and Seed are givens, but what status is best? Is there room for Explosion? I find Sub to be disappointing, but at the same time find it can be a bear to play against, and it's what gives Lax the most trouble. HP Fire lets you keep other Egg and Skarms out of your face, the latter typically being super annoying for a Seed Egg to deal with. And of course there's Thief... Egg's got too many options and I've never been good at using him, so take my specific suggestions here with a grain of salt I guess. But one point still stands: you should totally make your Egg weirder.

Gengar has room to play with his set. Pulling off Ptrap could be fun. As could running Hypnosis or Dpunch to take Ttars out of matches without needing to sac. Don't settle on one set (the same advice probably applies to Egg, too).

Grounds are nice to have. Really nice. I anticipate opposing Raikou being pretty annoying for you to deal with given your lack of a Ground. A Ground would also help somewhat with the Ttar issues inherent in a team prominently featuring Egg + Gar. Maybe Marowak > Aero would be better (albeit less fun, because it's not as quirky). Or, if you still want to quirk out, maybe Rhydon with Curse + Zap Cannon (or maybe even Berserk Gene?) Or maybe a boring Roar set if you want to free that moveslot on Raikou for ST or being able to freely use Electabuzz over Kou. If you go the ultra-boring route with Roar Rhydon + ST Raikou, at least run something weird like Scope Lens on the Kou; it seems silly, but Thunder crits completely change matches.

Oh, and with a Ground, Zapdos > Raikou is an option. Scope Lens Zapdos is even deadlier, as you're more likely to catch Laxen than Grounds with your Thunders, and you don't have to worry about Spikes making your lack of Leftovers a huge deal. Not to mention that because you're more able to spam Thunders, Magnet might be a good item, too, to guarantee a 4HKO on Lax even without Spikes, provided all your Thunders hit. With Zapdos, you are less solid against opposing Zapdos, but more solid against Nidoking, and I've found that possible Nidoking problems tend to be a lot harder to play around than possible Zapdos problems.

 

Haha, yes, spot on Jorgen; Buzz is really on here for novelty values, just if you wanted a non legendary electric he fits this team well and isn't a bad UU poke but there is no escaping the fact that Raikou is better, considerably better, I just wanted an excuse to break the legendary cliche of gen2.

If I was going to omit Whirlwind for an attack on Aerodactyl it would be HP Flying or Wing Attack for Machamp and Heracross but tbh this move set feels right to me, I just can't have a team without Whirlwind and he phazes Lax quite nicely as well as being able to damage ghosts. I also like spike shuffling those annoying water types when the opponent keeps bringing them in, especially as his speed allows him the finishing strike without taking one. Berserk gene, I like it! So much so that I've tried it many times on Aerodactyl and I can conclusively say it doesn't work, the recoil damage is massive and disrupting his rythem to hit reliably takes away his defense; a sleep talk set is probably the only way to make that work on Aero but in all honesty I can only ever get Berserk Gene to work on bulky pokes with recover moves (Miltank and Lugia are the only ones that have ever worked for me).

Yes, I think you are right with Exeggutor, Leech Seed would be very nice for those curselaxs, it's just justifying which move to take out; Giga Drain is the obvious choice but it gives me another T.tar problem I don't need. I have actually had great success with; Sleep Powder, Psychic, Giga Drain, Leech Seed, in fact I'd say this IS the best Exeggutor set, but y'know Explosion, fast team, the way I see it, it's a choice between those 2 moves and Explosion is useful on a team that isn't supposed to be about switching out.

I don't agree with you on Gengar, this set works very well on this team, he is the wild card, and with Destiny Bond the ultimate tempo equiliser too if your opponent starts running away on you or has something you can't kill. I like Perish Song on Gengar, just not on this team, this team is about constantly attacking and giving them even 1 move to breath is not the idea here, I can't afford to be switching out to stuff if they start setting up, I'd rather have the option of just killing them with explosion.

Yeah, I love my ground types too, STAB Earthquakes just feel like the hub of genII damage to me, but I've got loads of teams that use Nidoking and Rhydon, I just don't feel that any fit on this. Aerodactyl is fast and has Earthquake so in a sense he's taking that role, in that situation I'd probably land an E.Q. and let him die then I can bring something in without taking switch damage, again not a defense based team so losing something when I have to shouldn't cripple the team too much, it's all about maintaining the speed advantage.

Tyranitar is a weird pokemon to deal with; with his stats and insane move pool there really is nothing in the game that gets a garunteed easy switch in, he can potentially hit everything. His dowfall is that his STAB moves aren't very high damage so he doesn't annhilate stuff like Rhydon would, usually I try and just keep whatever I have in against T.tar and try and tank him out while I figure out his move set, and like you say Raikou can actually beat most T.tars up pretty good, my lax can too providing it doesn't get too many special drops or luck with D.punch. I've just found that switching out against tar (unless you have Suicune or Vaporeon) is the worst thing to do.

And Zapdos over Raikou? Not a chance, it would make the team weak against Gengar, a little against Zapdos and Raikou too. I guess that's why you specified *with a ground a type but they still don't cope with the above mentioned any where near as well as Raikou does; too much Ice/water damage to potentially take on the switch. Scope Lens Raikou is cool actually, I scope him for Prime Cup battles and I do feel that Raikou seems to need Leftovers less than any other poke in the game, just leftovers gives you so much bulk in this gen. So what's with mixing the items up? Is this the approach to countering these new Theif teams I'm starting to see a lot?

 

Nah, Lefties are still king, it's just that Berserk Gene is a cool item I wish worked, plus I've come to realize that Crit Thunders really are THAT gamebreaking.

Forgot about Gengar tbh (as I often do, embarrassingly enough), yeah he'd be a bit of a bug. I still feel like I'd rather have that problem than a potential Nido problem, though (granted, ST Lax is a perfectly fine answer to it).

 

Yeah man you're absolutely right, crit thunders from the legends are game breaking, it pretty much makes the difference between them beating snorlax or not, and when I suspect Theif, Raikou is the one I bring in to take it, maybe I should try Scope, after all the Theifers are normally banking on grabbing lefties for their own recovery strategy.

And with Aerodactyl, you should try him out. I think he has way more potential than his useage would suggest, its just a case of figuring out how to use him. He has very unique attributes with regards to his typing and speed, moves etc and fast physical attackers are always scary. But he's a "technical" pokemon rather than a hard hitting brute, I find trying to set him up for big damage is counter productive. He doesn't get stab on the e.q. and A.P. is very low base damage so you're never gonna 1 shot key pokes like lax. Now normally I lean on stuff like Rhydon and Marowak for getting those key big hits in, but on this team that is what the Explosions are for. I prefer to just let him do what he does and fish for the a.p. boost or wait for the right oppertunity to put them in check mate, and trust me that opportunity comes sooner than you think with this guy. I also find that leftovers and whirlwind play a vital role in his longevity and recovery, he does feel very frail without leftovers. Substitue could be a very good move for Aero too.

 

if you insist on pretending item clause is a thing, put leftovers on snorlax because it needs the extra hp if you're spamming double-edge, potentially not purposefully due to sleep talk. i support jorgen's suggestion of berserk gene aerodactyl. man up

 

Item clause is a thing in Prime Cup and I prob play more that than P.O. Lax would just have Return over D.Edge