Since i have no hw tonight!

Let's talk defensive teambuilding cores - since I'm a proponent of improving everyone's game, etc.

I guess this will be that doc. Yeah. How to build OU teams with defense in mind or something.

Building a team around a defensive core is good because it means that you have a 80% safe switch around 90% of the time. How do those percentages work out? Well, 80% because people generally run a mixed attacker who can wreck your day like crazy if you're using a defensive core, and 90% of the time because they might *gasp* outpredict you! (It happens even to the best players out there. fuckihitsomeone'stornawithstoneedgeandistilllostthatbattleANGRYYY).

The most common, famous, and hard to beat (in previous metas, at least) core would be the infamous SkarmBliss. Skarmory and Blissey represent checks or even counters!! (imperfect counters, mos. def, yeah) to the majority (like, 95%+) of the metagame even today.

    Skarmory, who has huge defense and a typing only weak to fire and electric (special attacks, because it's THAT boss), can check nearly 100% of all physical threats and set up Spikes/Srocks on things. It can even whirlwind away dragons who have picked up DanceBoosts - in fact, it might be one of the, like, three reasons that DDnite is still in OU and not ubers (the others would be srocks and flinchrachi XD). Blissey, who has epic spe. D and health and a typing only weak to fighting moves that are physical in nature represents nearly 100% notveryeffective dmg for the majority of moves out there.
    Problems with this defensive core:

    Infernape isn't just a bigass threat (shofulololol) but THE bigass threat. Flamethrower will OHKO Skarm/Blast will OHKO Skarm in the RAIN D: and CC will OHKO Blissey while slamming Skarm for that 44% dmg, and EVEN with the defense drops, it can take a Brave Bird from an uninvested Skarm for a 2HKO.
    Terrakion (one of the most popular pokes in the meta because fuck it's so good I barely ever make a team without it) will hit Skarm for 52% if it's Jolly and LO'd. That's a 2HKO on your Skarm before you can Roost off the dmg, and it would OHKO blissey if you came in with an intimidate from gyarados or something (which would be OHKO'd by sedge lol). Band Terrakion is even more of a problem, hitting for a clean 78% on Skarm and most definitely outspeeding. If you don't have an answer to it on any team, you'll most likely be defenestrated (that means thrown through a window at high speeds XD) reallll quick.
    Smack Down Lando, which is one of Chris Kim's things, because it's fucking bossssssss for killing shitting things like Volting Rotoms and Skarms, will 2HKO Blissey with EQ or even OHKO with Hammer Arm, as well as Smacking your Skarmory down for a 2HKO with this SmackQuake thing. Thank god only pro players run this >_> (I run a variant with Turn/Slide/HPice(lolgliscors)/Quake)
    Scarf/Specs Rotom deserves a mention because it can trick its specs or scarf to your blissey and turn it into stallfodder at best and setupbait at worst. Also, it 2HKOs Skarm (scarf) with Pamp, and clean OHKOs Skarm (scarf) with switch, while it can cuntpunt your Skarm for OHKO juice with Pamp if it's spec'd. Spectom is awesome gais. >_>
    Dnite, too deserves a mention, though it's an imperfect check. Sure, it can OHKO skarm with Fire Punch, but that will just 3HKO a leftoversBlissey unless it's boosted. But like, if you have a boosted Dnite, on your hand's you're like, fucked 80% of the time anyway. Gyarados will fuck yo shit up if it's banded or if it's boosted. Latios running Psyshock will give you tribbles like crazy. Other Skarmories might fuck you up, etc. Gengars with Subs and FocusPunch (which are super rare because they're farrrrr too specialized) might rape you a little, especially if you're expecting a normal ShadowBall/Fblast variant.

There's got to be other stuff, though I'm certainly not going to go THAT in depth. I'm like, 1000 words in already.

Okay! Since I'm stillnotbusy.jpg

Now let's go to something that's far less popular, but probably far more utilitarian. This fits much better on a bulky offense team than most 'defensive' cores. Of course, I'm a voltturnbulkyfense fag, so this would one of my favorites. I'm talking about Celetran, of course! Celebi and Heatran. You would not think that two pokes with such weaknesses would be good on a team. So let's take a look at their defenses.

Heatran:4x Weaknesses: Ground 2x Weaknesses: Fighting, Water4x Resists: Grass, Ice, Bug2x Resists: Normal, Flying, Psychic, Ghost, Dragon, Dark Not Affected By: Fire, Poison

Celebi:

4x Weaknesses: Bug

2x Weaknesses: Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying, Ghost, Dark

2x Resists: Water, Electric, Grass, Ground, Fighting, Psychic

Hey look! Celebi resists all of Heatran's weaknesses, and Heatran resists all of Celebi's weaknesses! In addition, they have bulk to spare!

Celebi: 100/100/100

Heatran: 91/106/106

But even better, they can both hit really hard. Celebi is 100/100/100 for attack/spe.atk/speed, and Heatran is 90/130/77. While its speed leaves something to be desired, Heatran functions as a super good switch in anyway - forcing switches is Heatran's priority in a battle.

Requirements to use Celetran include a good knowledge of the meta, and what checks it, because there is a shitton of things that can wreck your day - so many that it'll be impossible to post here.

Honorable Counters:

    Gengar. Because oooooohshit - ShadowBall/FocusBlast will wear you down, unless you seriously outpredict them. Somehow >_>
    Terrakion. Because CloseCombat and X-Scissor. D:
    Scizor, if they predict a switch in and go for the superpower, though if you run HPfire on your Celebi, that shit is so toast.
    Mamoswine (unbanded), though outspeeding Celebi is generally a problem for it.
    Tornadus and Landorus, because either Hurricane and Focus Blast or EQ and U-turn respectively.
    Physical DDnites (and maybe other Dragons). Because Fire Punch and EQ. D: Also, if it's danced, Extremespeed can give you a headache on celebi.