Fossilized Assault [RU Team, can be used in UU and OU, Not Tested in Ubers]

Meet the Team Close Up:

SR Lead: Cradily

EVs: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 SpDef
Nature: Bold ( + Def, - Atk )
Ability: Suction Cups
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:
Stealth Rock
Toxic
Stockpile
Rest

Function:
This set basically serves as a set to annoy most pokemon and to set up hazards. Stealth Rock is self explanatory, the rest of the set is Toxic Stall. More of Cradily's counters are physical and that's why most of the investment goes towards HP and Def. Stockpile boosts both Def and SpDef to great levels allowing it to wall numerous pokemon. Toxic allows us to stall, and Rest is for Status and HP recover. The reason we are using Rest over Recover is because if it gets crippled with Toxic, Will o Wisp or Thunder Wave, it effectively shuts down Cradily. (Although it can sometimes work around the Burn condition since it doesn't do as much damage over time as Badly Poisoned), if you only have a trouble with pokemon using Will O Wisp, or if you don't have trouble with any pokemon with status inducing moves at all, feel free to use Recover in place of Rest.

Weaknesses:
Steel and Poison type pokemon, they cannot be hit by Toxic and both can Super Effectively hit Cradily with their STAB moves. Also, any pokemon with taunt shuts Cradily down. Dynamicpunch is one move that Cradily doesn't want to get hit by, not only does it do super effective damage, but it confuses Cradily, which more than likely will lead to it missing out on either resting or adding another stockpile / toxic, allowing the pokemon to recover flawlessly. Pokemon with the Guts ability can use the Toxic to their advantage with the right prediction.

Boosting Sweeper: Aerodactyl

EVs: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Nature: Jolly ( + Spe, - SpAtk )
Ability: Pressure
Item: Life Orb
Moveset:
Hone Claws
Aqua Tail
Stone Edge
Earthquake

Function:
To sweep, Hone Claws boosts both Aerodactyl's attack and accuracy by one. Aqua Tail and Stone Edge are the notable moves that get an accuracy boost. Stone Edge becomes a ridiculously powerful STAB move with great accuracy, higher crit ratio and just a general good offensive move to have typing wise. Aqua Tail has more base power than Waterfall and is boosted by the accuracy as well, making it a powerful move. Crunch is mostly for coverage and the occasional defense drop. Aerodactyl can set up on quite a few things, and generally has the speed to outpace even a lot of the boosted metagame. Although you can go with Crunch instead for different coverage and a chance to lower the opponent's Def stat.

Weaknesses:
Priority, Bullet Punch especially, as it does super effective damage and will OHKO Aerodactyl in almost all cases, since Aerodactyl is rather frail. Mach Punch can even OHKO Aerodactyl the majority of the time. Sucker Punch is less viable when countering Aerodactyl but is usable. Aerodactyl struggles greatly with fighting types as they resist its STAB and can fire back with powerful moves. Poliwrath should be noted as Aerodactyl's worst nightmare, easily able to come in on a predicted Aqua Tail, use Water Absorb to restore its HP if needed and proceed to either phaze it out with Circle Throw or hit it with STAB Scald and either kill it or possibly cripple it.

Choice Band: Archeops

EVs: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Nature: Jolly ( + Spe, - SpAtk )
Ability: Defeatist
Item: Choice Band
Moveset:
Stone Edge
Earthquake
Bounce
U-Turn

Function:
With 568 Attack and 350 Speed with the EV investment and Choice Band, Archeops is a speedy and offensive monster. STAB Stone Edge is no laughing matter and can seriously dent anything that doesn't resist it. Earthquake is a powerful move used for coverage. U-Turn is also for coverage and can be hella good with proper prediction. The main cornerstone of this moveset however is Bounce. It's an already powerful move, boosted further by STAB. But this isn't why it's good. What you can do if you switch in Archeops on something that you can kill with Bounce, is use the move, the opponent will switch out a counter, then Bounce hits, it may seem stupid. But it has a 30% paralysis chance, which in turn, has a chance to cripple Archeops's counter, and allow it to keep firing off Bounces as it pleases.

Weaknesses:
As with Aerodactyl, priority. Unfortunately in Archeops's case, any priority. As Defeatist will essentially cripple Archeops at half HP and below. Stealth Rock will strip away Archeops's health quickly (luckily we have a rapid spinner on the team). Fighting types aren't as much of a problem thanks to bounce. Pokemon naturally faster than Archeops can hit it as well and tank a hit from the Defeatist form usually.

Shell Smash: Omastar

EVs: 4 HP, 252 SpAtk, 252 Speed
Nature: Timid ( + Spe, - Atk )
Ability: Shell Armor
Item: White Herb
Moveset:
Shell Smash
Surf
Ice Beam
Hidden Power (Grass)

Function:
Omastar has enough natural power to tank a hit on both SpD and Def sides of the spectrum when setting up a Shell Smash, especially on the Def side as Omastar has 286 Def without any boosts. Shell Smash will boost his SpAtk and Spe to ridiculous levels, allowing it to outspeed and destroy most of the metagame, and it absolutely rips through most of the tiers with ease. Surf is a designated STAB move, Ice Beam is a strong move as well and works well with Surf, and HP Grass is for coverage on Pokemon such as Quagsire, Swampert, Seismitoad and Gastrodon, if you don't have any problems with those you can run Earth Power instead of HP Grass for better coverage.

Weaknesses:
Vacuum wave, bulky fighting types and such will wreck Omastar. Choice Scarf Terrakion outspeeds + 2 Omastar and can obliterate it with Close Combat. Occasionally Slowbro can survive a + 2 HP Grass and fire back with an attack, but usually Slowbro will get KO'd. Anything with ThunderWave that can either outspeed Omastar or survive a hit will be able to cripple Omastar and finish it off. Choice Scarf Rotom is another notable counter that can use Volt Switch, kill Omastar and switch into another pokemon.

Choice Scarf: Kabutops

EVs: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Nature: Jolly ( + Spe, - SpAtk )
Ability: Shell Armor
Item: Choice Scarf
Moveset:
X-Scissor
Superpower
Waterfall
Stone Edge

Function:
With great speed thanks to Choice Scarf and already good attack, Kabutops is a superb scarf user, with great coverage and strong stats. X-Scissor deals with pokemon like Celebi and other notably grass and psychic types who give the team trouble, along with dark types as well. Superpower obliterates a decent portion of the metagame. Waterfall is a STAB move that will hit quite a bit of the metagame, same with Stone Edge as well. Alternatively you could run Brick Break if the attack / defense drops from Superpower sound unappealing or you could run Night Slash if you have trouble with ghosts and also want the extra critical hit chance.

Weaknesses:
Priority, Thunder Wave users and bulky fighting type pokemon are plagues to Kabutops. Kabutops has decent defense but not at the level of Omastar, which has more of a chance to survive a priority Mach Punch than Kabutops. Sableye can use priority Will O Wisp to cripple Kabutops and proceed to set up on it.

Spinner + Polish Clean Up: Armaldo

EVs: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Nature: Adamant ( + Atk, - SpAtk )
Ability: Battle Armor
Item: Life Orb
Moveset:
Rock Polish
Rapid Spin
Brick Break
Stone Edge

Function:
383 Attack thanks to Adamant nature, a great STAB in Stone Edge and access to Rapid Spin and Rock Polish help Armaldo nail an important niche in the team, not only does it spin away hazards that plague pokemon like Archeops, but it can also set up on a whim and sweep late game thanks to its coverage. Brick Break takes down Reflect / Light Screen and hits a number of pokemon super effectively as well, and the Life Orb boost is always welcomed.

Weaknesses:
Bulky water pokemon are a problem, although they must be weary of switching into Stone Edge. Bullet Punch and Aqua Jet are other problems to be considered, and Armaldo isn't invincible in terms of bulk, so life orb will wear him down rather quickly.


Well, I hope you enjoyed my team analysis.
If you have any questions or recommendations, feel free to ask or state them!

Team looks awesome. I looooove fossil pokemon and rock types in general.
It also looks as though Scizor could basically destroy you with no trouble. Omastar and Kabutops avoid SE bullet punch, but otherwise you're kinda wide open.

le-thomas wrote:

Team looks awesome. I looooove fossil pokemon and rock types in general.
It also looks as though Scizor could basically destroy you with no trouble. Omastar and Kabutops avoid SE bullet punch, but otherwise you're kinda wide open.

Usually Omastar is enough to handle Scizor, because people either mispredict and bring him in, or just don't know that Omastar is viable in OU.

Also I decided to change Kabutops's nature from adamant to jolly, as a few key threats still outsped it.