Torkoal: Because... Fuck Scizor!

Torkoal, with a ridiculously high 140 Base Defense, is basically the only all-purpose switch-in to the universally-hated Scizor. It has the ability to come in on any attack from Scizor, taking pitiful amounts of damage, and threaten it with a special Fire-type attack in the form of STAB Lava Plume. The perk of using Lava Plume over Flamethrower or Fire Blast is the 30% chance to burn incoming Fire-resists such as Salamence, Gyarados, or Kingdra, which all threaten Torkoal's safety.

The set I will be discussing is extremely similar to the "Spin Support" set listed on Smogon with one major adjustment: the replacement of either Rapid Spin or Stealth Rock (depending on your need) with Earthquake, which allows Torkoal to hammer incoming Heatrans for 4x super-effective damage (although it is only unfortunately a 2HKO).

While Explosion OHKOs Gyarados, Kingdra, and Salamence (even after Intimidate), one must be prepared to provide counters to the following Pokemon as well as Heatran. These Pokemon are less of a threat to Torkoal, however, than specially-oriented Water-types such as Vaporeon and Suicune.

The main problem with using Torkoal as a Scizor counter, however, is finding reason to use it over Magnezone. The two main things it has over Magnezone are its ability to tank Scizor's banded Superpower and its ability to either set up Stealth Rocks or, perhaps more importantly, to spin away your opponent's entry hazards.

The following is Torkoal's best set for OU (with Rapid Spin being the preferred option):

Torkoal @ Leftovers:

EVs:
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Atk
Relaxed Nature
Moveset:
-Rapid Spin/Stealth Rocks
-Lava Plume
-Earthquake
-Explosion

Filling in the Fault Lines

The biggest threats to an OU Arbok are bulky Ground-types seeing as they resist Arbok's primary STAB-attack and can retaliate with a super-effective STAB-attack of their own. Celebi can be considered the best OU pairing with Arbok due to its access to Heal Bell (which removes a Resting Arbok's status) as well as its resistance to Ground-type attacks and the immediate threat it poses to Hippowdon and Gliscor with its STAB Leaf Storm. Gliscor, however, can strike Celebi with a 4x super-effective U-turn, which is where Suicune can potentially come in. Due to Suicune's high defense stat, it can be teamed up with a specially defensive Celebi and OU Arbok to provide adequate coverage and support to aid in Arbok's sweep. Rotom-H, however, can provide the same support as Suicune due to its spectacular defensive stats and its resistance to U-turn, but it lacks the ability to hit Gliscor super-effectively and also leaves a vast opening for Tyranitar to switch-in a sweep your defensive core. CB Scizor can alleviate this Tyranitar threat with its extremely powerful STAB super-effective priority with Bullet Punch, but one must always be careful of the occasional DD BabiriTar with Fire Punch.

Heatran can OHKO Arbok with Stealth Rock residuals and one turn of Life Orb damage, so a reliable counter to this Pokemon is useful for Arbok's sweep as well. Suicune is a great counter to Heatran, but perhaps, in this case, Vaporeon would be the better choice due to Arbok's defensive nature and Vaporeon's specially defensive nature, access to its oft-unused Heal Bell, and always useful Wish support.

In the end, a strong core of Celebi, Scizor, and Vaporeon/Suicune (depending on your Celebi's EVs) will provide your OU Arbok with the proper support it needs to stick around throughout the course of the battle and to repeatedly strike the opponent with its ridiculously powerful STAB attack.

Arbok: Defensive and Destructive

Arbok, the original terrifying snake Pokemon, can be just as deadly in OU as its venom is in the legs of unsuspecting 10-year olds. The most preferable set for OU utilizes Arbok's Intimidate ability, which aids in its ability to tank physical hits. The variation that I prefer, however, not only maximizes its defenses, but also works to make Arbok a deadly physical attacker.

Being a Poison-type, Arbok resists one of the most common attacking types in Pokemon (Fighting), and even though it is weak to the one of the other most common attacking type (Ground), it can tank an Earth Power from Heatran while OHKO'ing it back with a powerful, Life Orb-boosted Earthquake. Now, since this Arbok doesn't utilize its secondary ability, Shed Skin, and its only recovery option is Rest, it is best paired with a Pokemon that can use Heal Bell or Aromatherapy so that it can recover its HP effectively.

The Pokemon that Arbok has the biggest problems with, of course, are physically bulky Ground-types such as Hippowdon and Gliscor as well as Skarmory, so pairing any Pokemon that can take out these threats with Arbok is invaluable to aiding in a sweep.

The set that has been most effective in OU, while not as effective as Sunflora's, however, has been this:

Arbok @ Life Orb:

EV's:
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Atk
Impish Nature

Moveset:
-Gunk Shot
-Fire Fang
-Earthquake
-Rest

Even Sunflower Pokemon Need Stalks

If one wishes to use OU Pokemon to support Sunflora, one must be careful that Sunflora is not outclassed by Celebi or Shaymin. Celebi is most commonly used as a support Pokemon, utilizing Leech Seed, Thunder Wave, Grass Knot/Leaf Storm, and Recover. Since it rarely uses Psychic, an excellent partner for Sunflora is DD + 3 Atks Gyarados due to its ability to attract this specific Celebi. Sunflora can switch into almost any Celebi, barring of course Swords Dance variants, due to its resistance to its Grass STAB moves and its ability to shrug off paralysis due to its already low Spe stat. If your Gyarados switches in and is met with a Celebi, you are almost guaranteed a free Sunflora switch and Substitute.

Keep in mind, however, that Sunflora will need major support in eventually taking out this Celebi, so be sure to utilize something such as DD Tyranitar or SD Infernape, along with the Sunflora/Gyarados pairing in order to provide extreme threat to the OU Grass-types. SD Infernape is probably is the best pairing with Sunflora due to its ability to OHKO and outspeed Celebi and Shaymin and its ability to 2HKO Vaporeon, which can stall out Sunflora if given the chance.

One other thing that Sunflora greatly appreciates is paralysis support, which is most reliably provided by Rotom formes, Togekiss, Blissey, and Jirachi (with Body Slam), in OU. This paralysis support isn't necessary for Sunflora to sweep, but it is extremely helpful just in case the opponent has a surprise Heatran that doesn't automatically switch into Sunflora once it comes out.

Sunflora: Underestimated and Overpowered

Sunflora, perhaps the most overlooked Grass-type Pokemon of all-time, is one of the most useful Grass-type NU Pokemon in OU available. While its 30 Spe stat makes its "Chlorophyll" ability out-classed by even the likes of the paltry Bellossom, and even though its "Solar Power" ability makes it somewhat usable in OU (if you can pull off the extremely gimmicky 'Trick Room Sunny Day' team with a Heatproof Bronzong lead), its only real chance to be usable in OU as a singular-entity (i.e., no Sun and no TR support) is as a "Substitute + 3 Attacks" Pokemon.

As with almost any pokemon utilizing substitute, Leftovers is the recommended item to provide reliable turn-by-turn recovery. Sunflora in OU is no exception, but due to its pitiful Defense stat, it needs to utilize Giga Drain, which becomes its most acceptable STAB option due to its ability to aid in Sunflora's recovery while still maintaining its excellent type-coverage provided by its 3rd and 4th move-slots.

Besides Substitute and Giga Drain, Sunflora can demonstrate its near-perfect type coverage with Earth Power [which allows it to OHKO all variations of Infernape and Heatran (without Shuca Berry)] and HP Ice [which allows it to OHKO even the most bulky variants of Salamence]. The only pokemon this Sunflora set has trouble with are the Rotom formes, Gyarados, and, of course, the inevitable Blissey.

In order to use Sunflora to its maximum potential, one must have a Pokemon that can draw out Water-types in OU, specifically Swampert (due to its 4x weakness to Grass-types). Once behind a Substitute, Sunflora can OHKO many potential switch-ins, such as all OU Fire-types and Dragon-types as well as OU Electric-types. In order to support an OU Sunflora, as stated earlier, one must have a counter for Gyarados as well as the Rotom appliances. Sunflora is so unexpected that it will work more often than not as long as you cover its very few (as opposed to some OU pokes' *cough*Vaporeon's*cough*) counters.

Good luck! Here is the final analysis for Sunflora in OU:

Sunflora @ Leftovers:

EV's:
252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Def
Modest Nature
Moveset:
-Substitute
-Giga Drain
-Earth Power
-HP Ice

An attempt at relevance.

This blog is designed to show one how to use NU pokemon, such as Sunflora and Butterfree, in a way that it is 1) not outclassed by an OU (overused) pokemon, and 2) useful in the OU tier. Any submissions from readers are greatly appreciated and will be listed here if the user provides: 1) a proper reason to use this pokemon over any other pokemon, 2) proper team support in order to use this pokemon effectively, and 3) OU counters to this pokemon (since no pokemon, save for Mixed Salamence and, in the recent past, Specs Latias, have any exact counters).

Thanks for all your support on this blog, you guys. Don't be afraid to submit your ideas; I will always reply to you!