I'd actually prefer an Expert Belt because it makes it harder to predict if it's Zoroark. If Zoroark runs Life Orb, the opponent will immediately be on his guard if he sees LO recoil and essentially forced Team 1 to pick something else with Life Orb AND masquerade as it to keep our bluff up, while Expert Belt allows us to masquerade as Choiced Pokemon as well as ther EBelts on the team.Okay, voting will start in a couple of hours so make sure to submit your set if you don't have already, or to leave your feedback if any.
Just a quick question, wouldn't be better to just go all out offensive with Life Orb and both Focus Blast and Flamethrower? Life Orb boosts your Dark moves regardless of their effectiveness, which can be very helpful against things like weakened Scarfers (or faster pokemon) not weak to Dark (Jirachi, Landoruses, Thundurus, Dragons, many others I guess). Expert Belt loses its bluffing potential since the set is known, and its boost looks quite situational, especially without Fire coverage. Almost any Jirachi can take advantage of the set right now, while a Life Orb-boosted Flamethrower 2HKOs almost all of them (bar SpD Jirachi, which takes minimum 80%, so any prior damage would likely result in a KO).
That's completely assuming that there will be enough choiced pokes on the team to bluff as, and because we already know the set he really isn't bluffing anything. Not many Pokemon run Night Daze. Another thing is some players should realize they aren't hitting fast/strong enough if the moves do somehow link between the bluffed Poke and Zoroark. LO all out offensive would be better only because of the nature of how this project works.I'd actually prefer an Expert Belt because it makes it harder to predict if it's Zoroark. If Zoroark runs Life Orb, the opponent will immediately be on his guard if he sees LO recoil and essentially forced Team 1 to pick something else with Life Orb AND masquerade as it to keep our bluff up, while Expert Belt allows us to masquerade as Choiced Pokemon as well as ther EBelts on the team.
I added Thunderbolt so we can use this set outside of rain as well. The great thing about this set is that it hardly has any hard counters, and the only counters to this set in OU, Ferrothorn and Gastrodon, are easy to wear down or take advantage of and both force a passive play, which is exactly what we want. U-turn is a great move for this concept too, and Thundurus-T is a great user of it.alexwolf said:Here is my favorite Thundurus-T set:
Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Thunder / Thunderbolt
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Superpower
Mixed Thundurus-T is an excellent wallbreaker and i don't get why so few people use it. This beast is walled by only two Pokemon in OU, Ferrothorn and Gastrodon, and Ferrothorn is easy to wear down and takes 41.47 - 49.14% from Superpower. U-turn allows Thundurus-T to scout Ground-type switch-ins, and beat three of its most common switch-ins, Latios, Latias, and Celebi. Here are calcs of U-turn against those three:
Not only this, but U-turn build up damage to other common switch-ins to Thundurus-T, such as Mamoswine, Chansey, and SpD Hippowdon. Mamoswine is OHKOed by Superpower after a U-turn with SR up, Chansey is 2HKOed by Superpower after taking a U-turn with SR up, and SpD Hippowdon is 2HKOed by HP Ice after taking a U-turn with SR up. Blissey is easily 2HKOed by Superpower even without SR up. Superpower also always OHKOes 252 HP Tyranitar and has perfect accuracy unlike the god awful Focus Blast, which makes me want to hit my head in the wall every time i have to depend on it. All in all this is a great set that needs more love and solves most of Thundurus-T's problems (low accuracy of Focus Blast, SR + LO build up fast, Volt Switch blocked by Ground-types on choiced sets, Celebi walls most other Thundurus-T sets and the same is true for Chansey and Blissey).
- 4 Atk Expert Belt Thundurus-T U-turn vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Celebi: 254-302 (62.87 - 74.75%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 4 Atk Expert Belt Thundurus-T U-turn vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Latios: 154-182 (50.99 - 60.26%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 4 Atk Expert Belt Thundurus-T U-turn vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Latias: 139-166 (38.18 - 45.6%) -- Always 2HKOes followed by HP Ice with SR up
Choice Band Scizor with Pursuit is an excellent partner to this set as it can trap and kill Lati@s and deal with every other Pokemon that would want to switch into Thundurus-T, OHKOing Ferrothorn and getting momentum against Gastrodon.
Fixed Life Orb, and the main use is to use offensive support with strong priority, a nice chance of an accuracy hindrance, and momentum.Okay, voting will start in a couple of hours so make sure to submit your set if you don't have already, or to leave your feedback if any.
Just a quick question, wouldn't be better to just go all out offensive with Life Orb and both Focus Blast and Flamethrower? Life Orb boosts your Dark moves regardless of their effectiveness, which can be very helpful against things like weakened Scarfers (or faster pokemon) not weak to Dark (Jirachi, Landoruses, Thundurus, Dragons, many others I guess). Expert Belt loses its bluffing potential since the set is known, and its boost looks quite situational, especially without Fire coverage. Almost any Jirachi can take advantage of the set right now, while a Life Orb-boosted Flamethrower 2HKOs almost all of them (bar SpD Jirachi, which takes minimum 80%, so any prior damage would likely result in a KO).
Well, sure, a phazing Heatran would work well. Except if Heatran gets worn down at all, a 2x STAB Psychic isn't exactly going to feel pretty even with the resistance. Heatran also has no reliable recovery and can't phaze forever, while Mew can just hit it for some damage and take the Roar or play games and Baton Pass. Meanwhile, Heatran is very easily counter-picked, itself.Not that keen on Mew. All Team #2 needs to do is pack a phazer (ie Heatran) and its worse than useless. Likewise, I dislike Starmie, since its pretty easy to chuck in a Ferrothorn, and laugh. its not even running Rapid Spin either, so Team #2 could be free to spam Hazards with Ferrothorn, giving us a large problem that we would NEED to deal with.
I agree that it would be nice to have a "not so common" Pokemon, but I don't think that this is the right project for that, since the team will analyse every pick into detail, effectively neutering every uncommon/surprising trait it had going for it. The creativity part hopefully comes into play, when the teams will be picking their last two Pokemon. Right now and especially for the first pick it is important to pressure the opponent as hard as possible. What could serve this role better than U-turn Landorus?Tabuu i completely agree with you that U-turn Sheer Force Landorus is one of the most difficult Pokemon to counter and pretty self-sufficient, making it a perfect pick for this project. However, my problem with this set is that it is already very popular and everybody already knows how to counter it and deal with it. I would prefer us to pick a Pokemon that is both hard to counter and not so common in general, meaning that the ways to deal with it haven't been fully explored, giving us more things to discuss in this thread and allowing for greater creativity (this is not necessary, it is just something that i like).
An Ice Shard user like Mamoswine or Weavile would simply get picked to combat that. Neither of those would be hard to counter since all that would have to be chosen is Scizor or a Mach Punch user not named Breloom.I agree that it would be nice to have a "not so common" Pokemon, but I don't think that this is the right project for that, since the team will analyse every pick into detail, effectively neutering every uncommon/surprising trait it had going for it. The creativity part hopefully comes into play, when the teams will be picking their last two Pokemon. Right now and especially for the first pick it is important to pressure the opponent as hard as possible. What could serve this role better than U-turn Landorus?
On a sidenote, you said "everybody already knows how to counter it". Am I missing something? I thought Sheer Force Landorus with U-turn was pretty much uncounterable.
He means that it has been picked to death in the suspect threadOn a sidenote, you said "everybody already knows how to counter it". Am I missing something? I thought Sheer Force Landorus with U-turn was pretty much uncounterable.
I don't think so, it's not that easy. Having an Ice Shard user on your team (example: Mamoswine) doesn't mean that you are not going to struggle against Sheer Force Landorus, it can easily come against a poke that can do much to it and fire off an Earth Power. Obviously, you can't switch your mamo on that attack, so you have to sacrifice something and send the mammoth next turn. Then, your opponent can easily switch-out to skarmory, for example.An Ice Shard user like Mamoswine or Weavile would simply get picked to combat that. Neither of those would be hard to counter since all that would have to be chosen is Scizor or a Mach Punch user not named Breloom.