This is my first RMT since all the way when DPP OU was the current format, so please go easy on me for any bad or weird formatting.
Just to get it out of the way, here is rating proof, with the disclaimer that this was achieved back in November last year. I've played the team a bit more since then but I haven't really focused on laddering with it exclusively, and it's a team that requires you to play very well to make the most of it. That being said it's absolutely a team that has the tools to beat any other team. Without further ado, I'll go over the team.
The Team
https://pokepast.es/2838e2d1d1ed181b
Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
As my lead I wanted something that could reliably get rocks while offensively threatening and potentially having mid or late game utility if it survived. Metagross fit all those criteria. I like lum over occa, shuca or sash because Latias is happy to switch into most of the attacks those would be useful against, and start firing off draco meteors. I choose not to run EQ because most of the leads I would be using it against I'm happy to just switch out of. Leadgross isn't anything groundbreaking. It just works. This team often likes to try to preserve metagross if possible, so consider switching it out fairly proactively.
Infernape @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 64 SpA / 192 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Overheat
- U-turn
- Slack Off
This team was very much built around Infernape. Credit to BKC's video on gen4 nape from about a year ago for getting me thinking about playing with it again. I've always loved using Infernape, but bhe simple fact is, Infernape kinda sucks. It's fast but lots of meta threats outspeed it. It's powerful but it struggles to get KOs against enemies it can't hit super-effectively, and is ohko'd by almost everything in return. It's vulnerable to para, poison, hazards and sand, and really requires Life Orb for power. But what Infernape does do, is absolutely dismantle current stall builds. With CC, Overheat and U-turn, when comined with Tyranitar, it threatens to KO almost every pokemon on most stall teams. The problem is due to it's vulnerability to residual damage and obligation to run life orb, it's relatively easy for stall teams to switch around it until it keels over. That's where slack off comes in. I lost count of the number of times I used slack off on a switch and there was a long pause before my opponent conceded. Slack off enables you to bring it in the 3 or 4 times it needs to shut the door on the game. I prefer the physically based set due to the reliability of CC over Fire Blast, harder hitting U-turn, and the fact that Overheat hits more or less as hard as Fire Blast on the special set. I mentioned earlier that Infernape needed a partner to U-turn into against the pokemon that like switching into it's stabs. And what else could fill that role as much as the king of monsters.
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
Scarftar. You know it. You love it. You hate it. However you feel about it, nothing traps Latias, Starmie, and the ghosts of the tier as well as this bad boy. U-turn into pursuit cleanly KOs offensive variants of most pokemon looking to switch into a CC or Overheat, and you can play some fun little games with bulkier variants. There's a lot that can be said about scarftar but people smarter than me have already said most of it.
Latias @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 224 Def / 252 SpA / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Trick
- Recover
Now you may be asking: "What the hell is this?". This was originally added as a standard Timid Specs to switch into a lot of Infernape and Ttar's weaknesses, but I found myself wanting something that would have a bit more power, both offensively and defensively. I ended up finding a variant of this set in the interesting sets thread. Bulky modest specs Lati absolutely has the sauce, and it gets a lot of mileage out of people being somewhat forced to assume you're faster than you are, and living either of pursuit or crunch, and 2HKOing almost all Tyranitar variants after rocks with either attack. If scarftar crunches though you will almost always trade with it due to sand. 28 Speed is to outspeed Breloom and also all Metagross, very relevant as you 2HKO most variants with surf. Latias is both an offensive and defensive lynchpin of the team, providing many key resistances and immunities, and a battering ram with which to break through teams. Against stall and some balance builds, it takes on more of the defensive role, tricking it's specs onto Clefable or Jirachi, and still threatening to kill many pokemon, often creating opportunities for Infernape to come in and threaten to end the game. Recover may seem like an odd choice, but it gives Latias the longevity to keep being threatening and not get worn down as it switches in and out, in the games where it needs it, especially if it can pick up a lefties with trick (watch out for barb clef).
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
Now needing something capable of switching into physical threats, I added bulky Rotom. Standard enough set. Switches in on many of the physical threats in the metagame, and threatens to burn or chunk them with a tb. It can stall out a lot of end games due to the pp conservation rest provides. It's not the most consistent wall, and there's definitely a few pokemon you're leaning on it to wall where misfortune in either sleep talk rolling rest, wisp accuracy or crits can mess you up pretty badly. Still, it was the only thing I could find that filled the functions I needed.
Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- U-turn
- Thunder Punch
The rest of this team os absolute fodder for almost every setup sweeper. Absolutely one of the best pokemon in the meta and one of my favourites of all time. Flygon's blend of resistances, power and speed made it perfect to fill the holes in this team. It pivots and deals with a lot of setup sweepers cleanly. Rock resistant and spikes and sand immune, what's not to love. I know mixgon is all the rage, but scarf is absolutely a fantastic midgame piece and revenge killer.
Overall Strengths and Weaknesses:
With tight play, this team has the tools to beat anything. Infernape takes apart stall and many balance builds. You generally don't mind switching around too much as half the team is raw immune to spikes, and nothing is rocks weak. There's a huge amount of defensive synergy on the team, and a plethora of immunities. Infernape and Latias are incredibly immediately threatening, and ttar, flygon and metagross all can apply pressure very effectively.
The team is far from perfect though. The biggest issue is a reliance on prediction. You will have to guess right with Infernape at least once per game to win, and usually more than that. As much as slack off does help, Nape is still on a constant clock, and often is taking a risk slacking off, as most pokemon you will slack off against carry a move that would kill or cripple you if they clicked it. Bulky waters, particularly Suicune, can be quite hard to deal with, and you usually have to maneuver so that you can get nape in and threaten to 2HKO with close combat if they go to it. Base 100 or faster scarfers can be problematic, and in particular other scarf flygon are very threatening, barring just rolling the 50/50 in the mirror. Flygon deals with most setup sweepers, but SD Lucario can be a problem. Crunch variants can be killed by ttar and bullet punch can be walled by rotom, but it can take out a key piece if you read their team wrong. Anything behind a substitute can be a big pain, if rotom can't reliably wall it. Other Infernape can also be scary, as there is no way to reliably switch into it. The team relies a lot on it's synergy, so often you can lose off a single bad decision. In particular it's very hard to win if you throw away Latias or Infernape early.
Other Options:
Honestly every time I changed something it felt like it made the team worse, whether a Pokemon or a moveset. The following changes felt okay though.
Lati can drop def to invest more in hp. This lets you soak special threats better, as well as wall them after you trick away your specs. You don't live crunch from scarftar anymore and take notably more from any physical hits you switch into. It's pretty even on balance and depends what you want to be stronger against.
I tried running ex belt on nape, with both slack off and stone edge in the last slot, and the lack of power on neutral targets was really felt. It did make it a little more forgiving to play with though.
I tried runing crunch/pursuit/tw/rocks on ttar, and honestly it wasn't bad. I like preserving metagross fairly often, so having another way to get rocks was nice. You click stone edge and earthquake very rarely, but I did miss them enough to put them back eventually though.
Final Thoughts:
I cut my teeth on DPP OU and to this day it remains my favourite generation. I really enjoyed making and playing with this team. I hope you can enjoy it too. (Or tell me it sucks because holy hell is it hard to play). Huge shoutout to BKC for his great videos (even if I wish he would script them at least a little, though I know he won't) that inspired this team directly, and rekindled my interest in DPP OU. I also think he might have been the one that posted the bulky modest Lati set the first time I saw it. Speaking of bulky modest Lati with recover, I've been experimenting further with it on other teams, and I think it's ability to lure and eliminate Ttar, as well as the capactiy to be a long term game piece, is hugely valuable for a team, and it's continued to be great elsewhere. Huge thanks to the smogon comunity too. I hadn't touched DPP for over 10 years when I started building this team, and I was able to get right back into it thanks to the work off all the people who do it purely out of love for the game. Sorry if I flamed any of you on ladder. If you made it all the way here, thanks for reading. Please give me feedback or thoughts. I'm not the strongest teambuilder but I did iterate over builds a lot to get to this point, and I think I did pretty well.
Just to get it out of the way, here is rating proof, with the disclaimer that this was achieved back in November last year. I've played the team a bit more since then but I haven't really focused on laddering with it exclusively, and it's a team that requires you to play very well to make the most of it. That being said it's absolutely a team that has the tools to beat any other team. Without further ado, I'll go over the team.
The Team
https://pokepast.es/2838e2d1d1ed181b
Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
As my lead I wanted something that could reliably get rocks while offensively threatening and potentially having mid or late game utility if it survived. Metagross fit all those criteria. I like lum over occa, shuca or sash because Latias is happy to switch into most of the attacks those would be useful against, and start firing off draco meteors. I choose not to run EQ because most of the leads I would be using it against I'm happy to just switch out of. Leadgross isn't anything groundbreaking. It just works. This team often likes to try to preserve metagross if possible, so consider switching it out fairly proactively.
Infernape @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 64 SpA / 192 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Overheat
- U-turn
- Slack Off
This team was very much built around Infernape. Credit to BKC's video on gen4 nape from about a year ago for getting me thinking about playing with it again. I've always loved using Infernape, but bhe simple fact is, Infernape kinda sucks. It's fast but lots of meta threats outspeed it. It's powerful but it struggles to get KOs against enemies it can't hit super-effectively, and is ohko'd by almost everything in return. It's vulnerable to para, poison, hazards and sand, and really requires Life Orb for power. But what Infernape does do, is absolutely dismantle current stall builds. With CC, Overheat and U-turn, when comined with Tyranitar, it threatens to KO almost every pokemon on most stall teams. The problem is due to it's vulnerability to residual damage and obligation to run life orb, it's relatively easy for stall teams to switch around it until it keels over. That's where slack off comes in. I lost count of the number of times I used slack off on a switch and there was a long pause before my opponent conceded. Slack off enables you to bring it in the 3 or 4 times it needs to shut the door on the game. I prefer the physically based set due to the reliability of CC over Fire Blast, harder hitting U-turn, and the fact that Overheat hits more or less as hard as Fire Blast on the special set. I mentioned earlier that Infernape needed a partner to U-turn into against the pokemon that like switching into it's stabs. And what else could fill that role as much as the king of monsters.
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
Scarftar. You know it. You love it. You hate it. However you feel about it, nothing traps Latias, Starmie, and the ghosts of the tier as well as this bad boy. U-turn into pursuit cleanly KOs offensive variants of most pokemon looking to switch into a CC or Overheat, and you can play some fun little games with bulkier variants. There's a lot that can be said about scarftar but people smarter than me have already said most of it.
Latias @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 224 Def / 252 SpA / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Trick
- Recover
Now you may be asking: "What the hell is this?". This was originally added as a standard Timid Specs to switch into a lot of Infernape and Ttar's weaknesses, but I found myself wanting something that would have a bit more power, both offensively and defensively. I ended up finding a variant of this set in the interesting sets thread. Bulky modest specs Lati absolutely has the sauce, and it gets a lot of mileage out of people being somewhat forced to assume you're faster than you are, and living either of pursuit or crunch, and 2HKOing almost all Tyranitar variants after rocks with either attack. If scarftar crunches though you will almost always trade with it due to sand. 28 Speed is to outspeed Breloom and also all Metagross, very relevant as you 2HKO most variants with surf. Latias is both an offensive and defensive lynchpin of the team, providing many key resistances and immunities, and a battering ram with which to break through teams. Against stall and some balance builds, it takes on more of the defensive role, tricking it's specs onto Clefable or Jirachi, and still threatening to kill many pokemon, often creating opportunities for Infernape to come in and threaten to end the game. Recover may seem like an odd choice, but it gives Latias the longevity to keep being threatening and not get worn down as it switches in and out, in the games where it needs it, especially if it can pick up a lefties with trick (watch out for barb clef).
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
Now needing something capable of switching into physical threats, I added bulky Rotom. Standard enough set. Switches in on many of the physical threats in the metagame, and threatens to burn or chunk them with a tb. It can stall out a lot of end games due to the pp conservation rest provides. It's not the most consistent wall, and there's definitely a few pokemon you're leaning on it to wall where misfortune in either sleep talk rolling rest, wisp accuracy or crits can mess you up pretty badly. Still, it was the only thing I could find that filled the functions I needed.
Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- U-turn
- Thunder Punch
The rest of this team os absolute fodder for almost every setup sweeper. Absolutely one of the best pokemon in the meta and one of my favourites of all time. Flygon's blend of resistances, power and speed made it perfect to fill the holes in this team. It pivots and deals with a lot of setup sweepers cleanly. Rock resistant and spikes and sand immune, what's not to love. I know mixgon is all the rage, but scarf is absolutely a fantastic midgame piece and revenge killer.
Overall Strengths and Weaknesses:
With tight play, this team has the tools to beat anything. Infernape takes apart stall and many balance builds. You generally don't mind switching around too much as half the team is raw immune to spikes, and nothing is rocks weak. There's a huge amount of defensive synergy on the team, and a plethora of immunities. Infernape and Latias are incredibly immediately threatening, and ttar, flygon and metagross all can apply pressure very effectively.
The team is far from perfect though. The biggest issue is a reliance on prediction. You will have to guess right with Infernape at least once per game to win, and usually more than that. As much as slack off does help, Nape is still on a constant clock, and often is taking a risk slacking off, as most pokemon you will slack off against carry a move that would kill or cripple you if they clicked it. Bulky waters, particularly Suicune, can be quite hard to deal with, and you usually have to maneuver so that you can get nape in and threaten to 2HKO with close combat if they go to it. Base 100 or faster scarfers can be problematic, and in particular other scarf flygon are very threatening, barring just rolling the 50/50 in the mirror. Flygon deals with most setup sweepers, but SD Lucario can be a problem. Crunch variants can be killed by ttar and bullet punch can be walled by rotom, but it can take out a key piece if you read their team wrong. Anything behind a substitute can be a big pain, if rotom can't reliably wall it. Other Infernape can also be scary, as there is no way to reliably switch into it. The team relies a lot on it's synergy, so often you can lose off a single bad decision. In particular it's very hard to win if you throw away Latias or Infernape early.
Other Options:
Honestly every time I changed something it felt like it made the team worse, whether a Pokemon or a moveset. The following changes felt okay though.
Lati can drop def to invest more in hp. This lets you soak special threats better, as well as wall them after you trick away your specs. You don't live crunch from scarftar anymore and take notably more from any physical hits you switch into. It's pretty even on balance and depends what you want to be stronger against.
I tried running ex belt on nape, with both slack off and stone edge in the last slot, and the lack of power on neutral targets was really felt. It did make it a little more forgiving to play with though.
I tried runing crunch/pursuit/tw/rocks on ttar, and honestly it wasn't bad. I like preserving metagross fairly often, so having another way to get rocks was nice. You click stone edge and earthquake very rarely, but I did miss them enough to put them back eventually though.
Final Thoughts:
I cut my teeth on DPP OU and to this day it remains my favourite generation. I really enjoyed making and playing with this team. I hope you can enjoy it too. (Or tell me it sucks because holy hell is it hard to play). Huge shoutout to BKC for his great videos (even if I wish he would script them at least a little, though I know he won't) that inspired this team directly, and rekindled my interest in DPP OU. I also think he might have been the one that posted the bulky modest Lati set the first time I saw it. Speaking of bulky modest Lati with recover, I've been experimenting further with it on other teams, and I think it's ability to lure and eliminate Ttar, as well as the capactiy to be a long term game piece, is hugely valuable for a team, and it's continued to be great elsewhere. Huge thanks to the smogon comunity too. I hadn't touched DPP for over 10 years when I started building this team, and I was able to get right back into it thanks to the work off all the people who do it purely out of love for the game. Sorry if I flamed any of you on ladder. If you made it all the way here, thanks for reading. Please give me feedback or thoughts. I'm not the strongest teambuilder but I did iterate over builds a lot to get to this point, and I think I did pretty well.
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