GSC OU Super Special Sunday Squad

Haven't posted any teams in a while so I thought i'd share something a little alternative as i've had a couple of players on Showdown display some interest in the team. It was designed more for fun, just for the sport of teambuilding with an anti stall approach to try and mimic the philosophy of the "calm mind" special boost approach of some of the newer gens. In practise is hasn't been an entire flunk against serious teams and I honestly didn't expect it to cut it; the alt name I've been testing it under made it to rank 2 using this team and without using stall which we know to be fairly bullet proof in gen 2. Anyway without further ado here's the team:

1. Jolteon @ leftovers
Growth, Thunder , Hp Water, Baton Pass

Straight down to business fron turn 1; this is a boosting & attacking team and thats what this guy came to do. Growth is always what you want to be shooting for, then when your Jolteon check comes in you either hammer it with Thunder if its a roarkou, baton pass if its a threat, or make use of the highly effective HP water if you suspect a Steelix switch in, or are confident they'll draw for a roar assuming its a mono jolty. Its biggest weakness is it doesn't like taking status's, especially paralysis so awkwardly leaving it in to trade blows with a raikou or zapdos may not be the best approach if you can avoid it. Thunder over t.bolt as it can 2 shot blissey when fully boosted and helps spread paralysis to those annoying raikous.

2. Vaporeon(f) @leftovers
Growth, Acid Armour , Surf , Rest

Really wanted her to be the sleep talker as they're just way easier to use, tested both varients and it turns out acid armour just works way better for this team. The philosophy is not phaze out setups as you're just wasting turns, rather you use those turns to counter set up in a way that leaves you on top, this is how the team makes for faster games. As snorlax is the most common switch in for jolteon this set works awesome for taking the baton pass; you just counter set up with acid armour first and snorlax is trumped. It doesn't deal with lovely kiss lax obviously but Zapdos can be a solid alternative to answer that.

3. Forretress @leftovers
Spikes, HP Fire, Toxic, Explosion

Spiker. Because if you want an aggressive team in gen2 you need a Spiker no matter how much the team is based on sweeping setups *imho. Not many spikers to pick from and i've already got a water type and needed a steel type with some Toxic offense and immunity, forretress just fits really nice, offers a quick kill with explosion, combined with defensive attributes can be a pinch solution for lax or marowak etc. Poison immunity can help keep spikes down against cloyster. Hp fire is great coverage move on forretress to compliment Toxic & Explosion and can cash in on a growth pass, which is what this team is all about.

4. Zapdos @leftovers
Thunder, Hp Ice , Rest , Sleep Talk

The most popular special type do all of gen 2. Provides the team a much needed answer for Nidoking & Heracross, bounces status's, has the bulk to try and spam paralysis which vaporeon & exeggutor love. Has a ridiculous special attack stat of 522 with only 1 growth pass which confidently 3 shots lax and gives you the much needed ability to break his rest loop. Thunderbolt is an option as this team has a slight weakness to sunny day, but I prefer the go big or go home approach, if you want safe & passive use a different team. Thunder makes the difference between being a 2 or 3 shot KO on blissey when fully boosted and that matters because Softboiled.

5. Snorlax @ leftovers
Curse, Double Edge, Flamethrower, Rest

Curselax because drumlax isn't defensive enough for this team and sweepage is supposed to come from the specials. Firelax works great on this; steel types tend to be more kitted up for stopping curselax and tend to carry the phaze moves more commonly than rock types so it really works well for enabling you to just keep lax in play and try and break the phaze check. Flamethrower over Fire Blast because f.blast just has inadequate pp, I know that means you cant 2 shot skarmory but a good player will just try and burn your pp out on an f.blast lax. Also Flamethrower lax can beat non perish trap Gengar, plus theres always the growth pass to boost the fire power, can make a very powerful mixed attacker.

6. Exeggutor @ leftovers
Sleep Powder, Leech Seed, Psychic, Giga Drain

Sleeper & special attack monster with the same 348 Sp. Attack stat as Zapdos meaning this is another poke than doesn't need a lot of special boosts before it becomes seriously threatening. Initially I used Gengar with Hypnosis & Destiny Bond over this guy just because I felt it kept up the pace better and covered its weaknesses better. I actually don't like Exeggutor that much, it can wreck an ill prepared team but cant counter its checks that well unlike Gengar and when you're weak to pursuit that matters. For this reason Explosion may well be a better option than Giga Drain, i've just found Giga Drain to be more useful as Leech Seed forces a lot of switches and with broader type coverage you can really punish that switching heavily. The main reason for taking out Gengar was that one of Gengars roles was to lure in Raikou which is the biggest problem for this team, and blow up on it. During testing I found the team to be pretty hard walled by Reflect Roar Raikou which is not uncommon. Reflect roar Raikous however are pretty much always mono attack and lacking a ground type I really needed an answer for that Raikou and Exeggutor fits the slot on the team wonderfully. The sleeper also had to be a confident opponent for snorlax as lax is what forces most the switches in GSC and I feel this eggy does that well, especially with a Growth pass.

Notes: "What no phazer?! How do you deal with Mean Look Umbreons?" Switch in Jolteon, real easy. You get a turn to use Growth as Umbreon Baton Passes, then you utilise Jolteons speed advantage on everything to Baton Pass out to whatever you need to, with the bonus of transferring the +1 Sp. Att while you do it. The Charm most Umbreons carry shouldn't really be able to impede the teams offense much as its mostly articulated around special stats. The biggest risk is Jolteon eating a Toxic but in all honesty you just gotta accept thats better than a paralysis for this guy and it wont be getting paralysed once its poisoned and Umbreon is super passive so even a poisoned Jolteon should have enough breathing space to do his thing, for a while anyway. Perish trapper can end up costing you a Pokemon, but thats the case on any team, even with phazers, you just pound them with attacks then shoot for a revenge kill, I haven't found perish trappers to be too much of a problem. Sunny day Houndoom is probably one of the biggest threats to this team with both electrics carrying Thunder, that was one thing the Destiny Bond Explosion Gengar was good for and the team isn't exactly hard walled by it. Nor do I believe its that much weaker against Houndoom than a lot of other teams out there; Houndoom is just a threatening poke with weak defense, just attack and accept losing a poke if you have to then try and use a revenge kill to take it down, this team can seem to shed Pokemon and still function ok.
Raikou is the other main threat, but in honesty I think Raikou can be a problem for almost any team in GSC, it is just that good. A roarkou is a big problem though because it breaks the Growthers, so the best bet is to use Jolteon & Zapdos to land paralysis then switch in Lax to force it out, then Raikou will be harder to bring into play against Vaporeon & Exeggutor who will most likely be able to kill it if its carrying paralysis and some damage. A Reflect roarkou may not be forced out by Snorlax unfortunately and thats when Exeggutor would be useful.

I'd welcome any input here, especially with regards to slot 6 as thats the one i'm least sold on.

 

I've seen you play this several times (in fact, quite early in the year as well). Earlier in the year, I didn't realize that your other alt was you.

On your last slot, with eggy being a good recipient for a growth pass, I would probably keep that set as is, or change Leech Seed to Explosion. Or if you decide to not play Explosion, nickname your Eggy something to suggest that it does have Explosion.

Overall it looks like a solid team. The issue I've seen from gameplay is that this team has difficulty handling some of the odd meta choices. Against more conventional teams, I've seen you win quite handily with this. It's the weird shit that pops up on the ladder that can be bothersome.

 

Yeah I think I remember you beating me actually lol. I think your roarkou was one I had trouble with. That was the Gengar version of this team right? I think I may have used that Thunderwitch name earlier in the year but the team I think must have been a month or 2 ago when I first started using it?

Yes, I think any team without a Skarm has the potential for things like jolt wak to run away on them. Helps if you can predict well which I can't to save my life lol

 

You're thunderwitch as well? You really have this gen in the bag. I thought it was your other name.

Yeah, it was the Gengar version. I remember back when I played against your earlier versions, I made some stupid explosion plays. Roarkou is something I've clung to as of recent. So good on the ladder.

I know who you're talking about. He's way too active right now to not take into consideration when building a team. Or even for entering for a ladder game. I've seen that team rob some high ELO players who didn't have a good answer.

 

Haha who else did you think I was talking about when I said no. 2? That's the alt names advantage; the server can't remember who to screw over lol. I swear I can use that team with my real name and miss 9/10 thunders, use a psuedo name and everything works like a Swiss clock! I swear that thing is rigged sometimes

I didn't actually have a specific player in mind tbh but jolt/wak agility, agility lax etc. are just the kind of thing other aggresive teams tend not to have good answers for.

 

I see. I thought you were referring to Second Guess. But that wouldn't make complete sense. I remember playing many games vs Second Guess early in the year which is what I was referencing (See: "Roostur 3")

I was referencing Oldnostalgiccrook for the Jolt-Wak team. I thought you'd know it was him for sure. You're always on at the same time.

 

Ah yeah he's not bad actually. I can't say I remember his teams if i'm being honest. Dice is pretty much the only guy I'm paying attention to right now for teams; watching replays for some reason he stands out to me, I have a sly suspicion he may well be Jorgen?

 

I haven't been around long enough to recognize them by those names. Chances are that if you got a feeling about it, you're probably right.

 

Dice certainly isn't Jorgen, I can say that much.

He's a very capable player in a bunch of other tiers and generations, so that's probably how he can come to the GSC meta, play well, and bring his own approach to it.

 

Oh yah? You'd have a better idea than me mate, I'm not really down with the whole smogon crowd. He's bloody good though; watched a load of replays with him in lately & he was just tearing up some names i know to be very good at this gen. I thought it might be Jorgen as he used that swagger team he posted; that team was baller! He kicked ass with it