Gen 2 [Gen 2 OU] machump + lightning typespam

[Lojh()]

I kinda quit the game for like 3 years and now im playing it again and its pretty fun, been messing around on ladder a bunch and ive been using this offensive core i made before i quit that was kinda mid but i renovated the zapdos and snorlax sets and now its actually really fun to play with

Pi¢hu (Raikou) @ Leftovers
IVs: 26 Def
- Thunder
- Sleep Talk
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rest

Team runs boomlax so an electric check is a must, and Raikou along with Zapdos can run amok through teams once snorlax is handled, effectively acting as a secondary, more defensive zapdos. Checks a whole bunch of random pokemon and is the designated sleep talker.

Arti¢uno (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
IVs: 14 HP / 28 Atk / 26 Def
- Thunder
- Drill Peck
- Hidden Power [Water]
- Whirlwind

Zapdos is a must have on most offensive teams, and here it forces switches and loads of spike damage, especially if opposing electric checks have been taken care of by snorlax/cloyster/machamp. Runs drill peck and hidden power water to hit eggy and golem and all the other annoying mons, makes sure that it can threaten a lot of pokemon. Restless tho so be careful as always.

Laxative (Snorlax) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Immunity
- Double-Edge
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Self-Destruct

The mon that enables offensive to function, this snorlax wears down important walls like skarm/gar/whatever, often times can easily blow up opposing lax if ur in a position where kou + zap can go ham. Fireblast on snorlax gives it synergy with champ, champ breaks for snorlax and snorlax breaks for champ, depending on gameplan. Boom also hits stuff like skarm / zapdos sometimes to enable the rest of the guys.

Ti€ Ta€ (Tyranitar) (M) @ Leftovers
- Rock Slide
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Roar

Tyranitar is the most interchangeable mon on the team tbh, golem and rhydon also work, ive been using tyranitar because fireblast + pursuit + rock slide helps it wear down switchins to machamp like gengar/eggy. Fireblast on both ttar and snorlax make skarm's life hell. None of the moves are set in stone this is just whats been working so far, sometimes I run crunch or eq or ib depending on mood.

Unbelievable (Machamp) @ Leftovers
IVs: 22 HP / 26 Atk / 28 Def
- Cross Chop
- Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
- Curse

Centerpiece of the team, completely destroys some matchups, and along with the double electrics, can completely overwhelm teams with enough momentum and spikes up. HP ghost is nice bc after a pursuit read on gar and egg its an ohko on switch in, curse helps it break stuff for mixlax if that is the gameplan. Sometimes trades with zap so ww zap can obliterate a team with spikes up.

$pikes (Cloyster) (M) @ Leftovers
- Surf
- Toxic
- Spikes
- Explosion

Standard cloy sets up spikes and blows up mons for the electrics and machamp, designated starmie/zapdos bait. Blowing up other cloy if youve scouted out the rest of the team is nice too if you're going for a lategame win with champ or lax. Has a hard time keeping spikes up against some spinners, but with enough momentum those spinners end up losing to champ or 2 elecs if you play aggressive enough.


Anyways yeah its a fun team and with declining raikou on offense usage its fun to use it outside of generic kou/skarm/lax cores yfm. This team was kinda the reason I came back to the game in the first place, because kou was like undisputed #2 or #3 on the VR back when I was in high school, and its been tanking in usage ever since.

 

[Siatam]

While overall I think your team can be successful, it seems to be pulled in too many directions. All of your mons do things, but it isn't clear why they belong together. Using spikes and offensive momentum to win games is good, but it's also a valid gameplan for just about every offense team out there. If you ever lose the initiative this team will struggle to regain it.

Using Raikou as your only mon with longevity leaves you very vulnerable when you are on the defensive. Doubly so if the opponent has spikes up. Solo Sleep Talk Raikou is also quite exploitable by Sleep Powder Exeggutor and Lovely Kiss Nidoking. Raikou is your only safe switch in to Exeggutor before it has used Sleep Powder. It won't be too difficult for an experience opponent explode on Raikou, leaving you in an awkward position with no longevity. Additionally, this team has 0 safe switch ins to a Nidoking that has not revealed Lovely Kiss. While you can outplay these mons, its just not possible to do so consistently.

For the reasons above, I recommend changing your Zapdos set to:
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
IVs: 26 Def
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

This will help your Exeggutor and Nidoking matchups and is less passive if you are forced on the defensive. (Read: does more damage than Raikou) I think using WW Zapdos for the purpose of Spike shuffling is borderline unviable when you don't have a ghost type to block Rapid Spin. You cite using Cloyster to Starmie bait, which is a fine strategy, but it almost guarantees you will be playing without Spikes. In these scenarios a WW Zap set is almost deadweight. In most matchups I think you will find RestTalk Zapdos to be more valuable. You could also make Raikou HP Water with the change, but it's really personal preference.

If you would like to keep WW Zapdos, I would recommend replacing Tyranitar with Gengar. The team already struggles to comfortably switch into Eq Snorlax so you won't lose much defensively. Gengar obviously helps WW Zapdos as a spinblocker, but also helps mesh your two styles of physical offense and special offense. A lot of your team success relies on removing the opponent's Snorlax, which won't always be possible with your own Snorlax. This doesn't even account for special walls like Raikou or Blissey that your base team will struggle to dislodge. Gengar's Explosion will help with both. Gengar's set isn't particularly important, but be sure to include Explosion. This version would still be vulnerable to Nidoking, but its is a bit easier to manage the matchup when you have an extra boom.

Something you may also want to explore is RestTalk Zap combined with Curse Roar Ttar. It is a nice tool to take advantage of RestTalk + 2 attack Snorlax that your team might otherwise struggle to remove.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Rock Slide
- Fire Blast / Surf / Earthquake
- Curse
- Roar

Its funny that you mention Raikou's declining usage on offense. While Raikou in general has been on the decline, Raikou has recently seen a big resurgence offense, particularly in SPL. People appreciate its ability to take on some of Snorlax's special walling duties and helps Snorlax not run a Sleep Talk set, something that you have obviously picked up on.

 

[Lojh()]

I think youre right about ttar, it has always seemed to be the weakest link, and its job of pursuiting gar and eggy have been completed with questionable efficiency recently.

Youre definitely right about gengar, giving me another explosion to work with and playing really well with the rest of the team. Im considering thief boltbeam boom gar, as gar usually thiefs elecs or lax, which enables either champ or zap to break easier. The trade off is that it makes me pretty susceptible to monolax and 2attk rest, but tbh most offensive teams are anyways and half the fun of the game is playing around that. Maybe i could run clamp boom cloy for extra insurance? might be a bit gimmicky though.

I sometimes also run twave 3attks zap instead of whirlwind, which helps me break certain offensive teams much faster, and isnt spikes reliant. I think that might be the play, as your criticisms about losing the spikes war often make a lot of sense.

I guess the team’s inherent problems with losing the initiatve are a product of how the team was built, i made it back when century express exclusively used stall on ladder and it was a straight counter-team 3ish years ago.

current updated 6 is:
talkkou / twavezap/ champ / boomlax / thiefgar / standard cloy

 

[Siatam]

I would caution against using Thief Gengar on this team. Thief Gar is the easiest set for Tyranitar to Pursuit trap, something you will find frequently paired with Monolax. Seeing how Cross Chop crits and Gengar are your only answers to a Curse boosted Monolax I think it would be better to make Gengar difficult to Pursuit trap.

Using Dynamic Punch or Hypnosis are good ways to make Tyranitar's life more difficult. (As well as Umbreon and Houndoom to smaller extents) On this team I think Hypnosis would be preferable. The team does not have a Sleep user, which is nice but not mandatory role on offense. Additionally Hypnosis is a good way to stall out Monolax using Rest without dealing damage. Monolax will still win the PP war, but Hypnosis gives Gar more opportunities to fish for Ice Punch freezes on a Snorlax who cannot spam Rest at 100% HP.

 

[Lojh()]

Testing it out, hypnosis does seem to be giving me more value than thief, seeing as cloy has more value as an explosion user than a spiker on the team. Gengar is a very flexible pokemon and ive gained a deeper understanding of its versatility in this generation through rebuilding this team. As an offensive team, ive currently enjoyed playing gsc with this team more than any other, pure offense just gives me that adrenaline rush that i so loved in pokemon in the first place. Updated team is:



Raikou @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Zapdos @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Water]
- Drill Peck
- Thunder Wave

Snorlax @ Leftovers
- Double Edge
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Self-Destruct

Machamp @ Leftovers
- Cross Chop
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
- Rock Slide
- Curse

Cloyster @ Leftovers
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Spikes
- Explosion

Gengar @ Leftovers
- Explosion
- Hypnosis
- Ice Punch
- Thunderbolt

 

[Jame$ G]

I prefer Rhydon to T.tar on this roster. Only reason I see for running Tar is to check Jynx if you don't have sleep talk on Raikou or Lax (and you do on Raikou), or to scout ghosts if you're running a mono and you're not? ‍

Move sets don't make a lot of sense to me, you've got no sleeper, no sleep talk on Zapdos or Lax so I don't really understand how you deal with Nidoking with this team?

 

[Rubiaa]

I kinda quit the game for like 3 years and now im playing it again and its pretty fun, been messing around on ladder a bunch and ive been using this offensive core i made before i quit that was kinda mid but i renovated the zapdos and snorlax sets and now its actually really fun to play with

Pi¢hu (Raikou) @ Leftovers
IVs: 26 Def
- Thunder
- Sleep Talk
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rest

Team runs boomlax so an electric check is a must, and Raikou along with Zapdos can run amok through teams once snorlax is handled, effectively acting as a secondary, more defensive zapdos. Checks a whole bunch of random pokemon and is the designated sleep talker.

Arti¢uno (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
IVs: 14 HP / 28 Atk / 26 Def
- Thunder
- Drill Peck
- Hidden Power [Water]
- Whirlwind

Zapdos is a must have on most offensive teams, and here it forces switches and loads of spike damage, especially if opposing electric checks have been taken care of by snorlax/cloyster/machamp. Runs drill peck and hidden power water to hit eggy and golem and all the other annoying mons, makes sure that it can threaten a lot of pokemon. Restless tho so be careful as always.

Laxative (Snorlax) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Immunity
- Double-Edge
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Self-Destruct

The mon that enables offensive to function, this snorlax wears down important walls like skarm/gar/whatever, often times can easily blow up opposing lax if ur in a position where kou + zap can go ham. Fireblast on snorlax gives it synergy with champ, champ breaks for snorlax and snorlax breaks for champ, depending on gameplan. Boom also hits stuff like skarm / zapdos sometimes to enable the rest of the guys.

Ti€ Ta€ (Tyranitar) (M) @ Leftovers
- Rock Slide
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Roar

Tyranitar is the most interchangeable mon on the team tbh, golem and rhydon also work, ive been using tyranitar because fireblast + pursuit + rock slide helps it wear down switchins to machamp like gengar/eggy. Fireblast on both ttar and snorlax make skarm's life hell. None of the moves are set in stone this is just whats been working so far, sometimes I run crunch or eq or ib depending on mood.

Unbelievable (Machamp) @ Leftovers
IVs: 22 HP / 26 Atk / 28 Def
- Cross Chop
- Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
- Curse

Centerpiece of the team, completely destroys some matchups, and along with the double electrics, can completely overwhelm teams with enough momentum and spikes up. HP ghost is nice bc after a pursuit read on gar and egg its an ohko on switch in, curse helps it break stuff for mixlax if that is the gameplan. Sometimes trades with zap so ww zap can obliterate a team with spikes up.

$pikes (Cloyster) (M) @ Leftovers
- Surf
- Toxic
- Spikes
- Explosion

Standard cloy sets up spikes and blows up mons for the electrics and machamp, designated starmie/zapdos bait. Blowing up other cloy if youve scouted out the rest of the team is nice too if you're going for a lategame win with champ or lax. Has a hard time keeping spikes up against some spinners, but with enough momentum those spinners end up losing to champ or 2 elecs if you play aggressive enough.


Anyways yeah its a fun team and with declining raikou on offense usage its fun to use it outside of generic kou/skarm/lax cores yfm. This team was kinda the reason I came back to the game in the first place, because kou was like undisputed #2 or #3 on the VR back when I was in high school, and its been tanking in usage ever since.

Looks good, eggy looks annoying tho honestly if u run into it, and opposing electrics and double electrics teams. Forces u into a likely stall war with raikou since zappy isnt rest

 

[Lojh()]

Raikou @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Zapdos @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Water]
- Sleep Talk
- Rest

Snorlax @ Leftovers
- Double Edge
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Self-Destruct

Machamp @ Leftovers
- Cross Chop
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
- Rock Slide
- Curse

Cloyster @ Leftovers
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Spikes
- Explosion

Gengar @ Leftovers
- Explosion
- Mean Look
- Ice Punch
- Thunderbolt


Updated some of the movesets after some testing and advice: Zapdos is now standard sleep talk as lead nidoking is much more of a problem than random Heracross, and outplaying heracross is much easier than outplaying nidoking. Mean Look on gengar has been more useful than hypnosis, as it allows me to play more agressively (which i like) where the tradeoff is a worse ttar machup, but its manageable. lmk thoughts!