Excalibur, Peaked #15 on Ou Current Ladder

[Dragonicwari]

Excalibur



Introduction

Hey everyone, welcome to my RMT. Something you should know is most teams I make, I only ladder to 1700-1800 mark. So take that into consideration when I tell you I got to 2325 with a deviation of +/- 158 and managed to keep my ranking high enough to get into #15 on the Ou current ladder and eventually making it to #9 after dropping into the 20's. So for me, this team has done exceptionally well. I'm going to skip the team building process since this is pretty much just 5 of my favorite ou pokes and Terrakion slapped together.

Here's a screenshot of me at #15 and #9:

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The Team

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind

So Hippowdon was the inspiration to this team. I have made a hippo sand team before and I really enjoyed it. I got this spread off of an RMT from a long time ago, and it seems to be EV'd so I almost always take 2 hits from anything. I really wish I remember who I stole this off of but the spread is really good, try it sometime. Ok, now that you have no doubt in your mind that I didn't come up with this spread on my own, time to explain the moves. Earthquake is obviously my Stab, while Ice Fang gives me really useful coverage. Slack Off is for the amazing usefulness of instant recovery. Whirlwind is useful to get some phasing momentum or stopping set up sweepers in their tracks.

Forretress @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Volt Switch
- Gyro Ball

Forretress is here because I needed a spinner, hazard layer, and a dedicated physical wall. Probably one of the biggest pros of this guy is he beats Techniloom 1v1 every time once I sac something to sleep. Techniloom happens to give about 2/3rds of my team trouble (depending on hax) so this is pretty important. Ev's are meant to maximize my physical bulkyness while having a fairly hard hitting Gyro ball. Sturdy and leftovers give me a solid way to take weak u-turns and be sure I live any switchins attack. Stealth rock and rapid spin are the main reasons why I wanted Forre in the first place. Gyro ball is a solid option to hit fast threats (especially those that boost their speed) and volt switch is a great move for gaining momentum.

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Roost
- Surf
- Psyshock

Latias is such a tank, that's the whole reason I added her. She takes fighting type moves for TTar, water type moves for TTar and Forre, fire type moves for Forre, electric type moves for Jelli, and I'm pretty sure I am nowhere near the end of the reasons I put Latias on solely for synergy. Latias also was added because I didn't really have any good ways to take on Landorus I or defensive Rotom W, so here is my best way to handle both. The EV's are pretty standard offensive Latias shenanigans, max speed for tying all base 110's and beating everything below, with max attack investment to deal as much damage as possible. Time to explain the moveset, you guys are probably wondering why I don't run HP fire. I normally would, but I needed roost and HP fire seemed to be the move with the most downfalls. For starters I now outspeed every non scarfed Lati@s running HP fire. I can now also risk speed tying with Gengar so they don't get up a sub. One of the big reasons though is if I'm in against a Landorus I, and my opponent has TTar and Scizor waiting to come in, I can use surf with next to no downside. Meanwhile if I had HP fire I would need to go for Draco to take out Landorus and if Scizor came in I would be in a really bad spot. I run Draco Meteor and Psyshock for stabs and I really like the coverage these 3 moves have given me. Roost is so Latias can be a defensive pivot into the late game.

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 Spd
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Scald
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp

Jellicent is my last defensive mon (I swear!). Ever hear of the Ferrocent defensive core? Well I have Forre so I was hoping Forrecent would work in a similar fashion. Jellicent is my main rain counter, that's pretty much the whole reason why I have him. Jellicent works well against TTar, Scizor, Hippowdon, and Politoed. Those are just things I thought of randomly that I normally use Jelli to take on, it just seems to work well synergy wise with my team. My EV's are pretty standard except I run an additional 4 spd ev's to outspeed opposing Jellicent (which is incredibly useful). I like Water Absorb more than Cursed Body since I enjoy having multiple immunities as well as taking rain boosted hydro pumps for days. Recover is a standard move on a defensive mon, Scald is my stab of choice, and Will O Wisp allows me to more reliably burn my opponents than Scald. Lastly Taunt allows me to use Jellicent as a Stall breaker, which is one of the reasons I use him over Gastrodon.

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor

Scarf Terrakion has singlehandedly saved my bum almost as many times as Hippowdon. Biggest pros to this guy? He beats just about every Dragon Dance and Quiver Dance user around. Volcarona? No problem. Dragonite? It better hope it has it's scales unbroken. Haxorus? Lol. I think I'm just going to stop here, this guy is really standard I know, but he works. Well, his EV's and 3 of his moves as really standard. Most people are against EQ on Terrakion, but that moveslot that EQ is taking up doesn't really matter. All you will run in place of it is a third Stab move. All EQ does is save me. I'm facing an opponent who has Jirachi and Tentacruel dying to switch in? Suddenly I don't need to predict and I can just go for the SE move. I feel like the people that say don't use EQ, haven't tried it out against rain teams late game. Once their flying type or levitating mon is gone, EQ can be a life saver with taking away pointless prediction.

Magnezone @ Life Orb
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SAtk / 84 Spd
Modest Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Magnezone is almost exclusively here for weakening Jirachi and killing Ferrothorn. Thankfully it provides good synergy with my team and that's all I really needed out of my last member. I pretty much just took the specs set and replaced the item with a life orb. Ev's maximize my special attack and bulk while allowing me to outspeed neutral Scizor I believe. Flash Cannon is there almost exclusively for hitting TTar and Landorus I in fear of them setting up. T-bolt is my hardest hitting Stab move while Volt Switch is good for getting momentum. HP fire is there for hitting steel types hard. The only other thing I can think of using Magnezone for is taking U-Turns and Volt Switches late game when it has no other use.


Replays

Note: most of my losses were caused by just really poor plays, not my team. That's why most of them aren't posted. I tried to pick matches that were close that would show potential holes in my team, as posting a match where I beat someone 6-0 is about as helpful as posting a match where I switch a Latias into a Draco Meteor in my opinion.

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent-34759320 narrow 1-0, luckily my planning in battles makes it so I don't always need to play the prediction games

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent-34874613 A match against a good friend of mine and clan mate, leads to another 1-0

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent-34901972 Hippowdon showing his worth and bringing me to 2325

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent-35503942 match comes down to a hit or miss move

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-35707526 check my screenshot, this guy was #1

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent-36058129 Another match for fun against a top 100 ranked player, comes down to a 1-0


Threatlist

Defensive Rotom W: I have only one real switch in to this (Latias) so wearing it down is a pain. The only real reason it's a threat is it can switch moves so nothing in my defensive core really wants to be up against it. Not to mention it is normally paired up with Scizor which my Latias does not want to face.

Starmie: only leftovers variants give me much trouble. Life orb variants are easily worn down while choices variants are predictable. It's pretty much the same as Rotom W except Terrakion is my best bet instead of Latias.

Thanks for Rating
​

 

[Rosez66]

Hey firstly cool team but this will have to be a short rate my team.

On hippowdon I would personally ditch ice fang for stealth rocks. He in your own words can survive a single hit from anything ( or something like that) so why not use him as your stealth rocker.

This then frees up forre to use and abuse spikes. Now onto forre, after recently making a hail team and having experience with sand in the past I would advise one of two sets, a full hazard set with spikes,stealth rocks and maybe toxic spikes, and red card, this can work when paired with sturdy for a full set of hazards. Or anothe route for more longevity with overcoat, because really how many times are you at full health? Pain split over gyro ball for semi realible recovery spikes, rapid spin and volt switch personally that is probably the best set.

My last shout out is use a more special defensive spread on jelicent, the reason is he already has decent special defense and you are using will o wisp which cripples physical attackers anyway, also on jelli use either scald or wisp not both I personally find both somewhat redundant use either toxic or surf spending on what one you see fit. Lastly if you decide on a more special defensive spread then change hippowdons to a pure physical defensive spread to again abuse his natural bulk.

 

[swwaaggeerr]

leftovers dusnt seem rite on an offensive latias if u feel it works best thn fine but life orb gives u the much needed power to kill threats lik keldeo.Mayb even expert belt to bluff a choice set. leftovers also seem redundant wit roost

 

[Dragonicwari]

I like breaking up posts so I don't miss anything.

Hey firstly cool team but this will have to be a short rate my team.

Thank you :) and any suggestions are welcome

On hippowdon I would personally ditch ice fang for stealth rocks. He in your own words can survive a single hit from anything ( or something like that) so why not use him as your stealth rocker.

Hippo has 4 MSS really badly, that's why he isn't my rocker. Ice fang saves me from threats such as various dragons and Landorus I. My main issue is Landorus I since I pretty consistently find myself using Hippo as a Landorus counter.

This then frees up forre to use and abuse spikes.

Spikes sound so nice, but I don't think dropping ice dang on Hippo is a good move. RP Landorus tears through my team late game and Hippo is normally my savior from that

Now onto forre, after recently making a hail team and having experience with sand in the past I would advise one of two sets, a full hazard set with spikes,stealth rocks and maybe toxic spikes, and red card, this can work when paired with sturdy for a full set of hazards.

So your suggesting I choose to lose my momentum move, ability to burn grounded threats, and my ability to revenge fast threats with Forre? Your also suggesting I lose one of my main counters to Breloom. I might compromise with what you are saying and drop volt turn for spikes, but all 4 of my moves are incredibly useful May be changing volt turn to spikes, thanks for the suggestion

Or anothe route for more longevity with overcoat, because really how many times are you at full health?

Overcoat won't help me at all... Steel types aren't hurt by sand... I also find myself at full up quite often

Pain split over gyro ball for semi realible recovery spikes, rapid spin and volt switch personally that is probably the best set.

Once again, losing Gyro Ball means I lose to a bunch of faster threats and Breloom.

My last shout out is use a more special defensive spread on jelicent, the reason is he already has decent special defense and you are using will o wisp which cripples physical attackers anyway,

You aren't the first person to suggest this, once I have some time and my damage calculator is working I will work on the EV's some. Making Jelli net more specially bulky

also on jelli use either scald or wisp not both I personally find both somewhat redundant use either toxic or surf spending on what one you see fit. Lastly if you decide on a more special defensive spread then change hippowdons to a pure physical defensive spread to again abuse his natural bulk.

I plan on going half way for you, I will make Jelli slightly specially bulkier. For me scald and will o wisp serve 2 different functions. Scald is more for when I don't need a burn, but getting one would be nice. Will o wisp is for when I need a burn. Scald's accidental burns often give me momentum to heal up one of my walls or tanks while will o wisp will make it so I barely make it out of certain match ups.

leftovers dusnt seem rite on an offensive latias if u feel it works best thn fine but life orb gives u the much needed power to kill threats lik keldeo.Mayb even expert belt to bluff a choice set. leftovers also seem redundant wit roost

Ummm it's an offensive spread, but Latias is used more like a tank.. I thought I said that. It's offensive enough for me tbh and leftovers mixed with recovery moves are never redundant :p also, if Keldeo is a problem for my Latias then I'm doing something very wrong since it hasn't been yet

 

[tcr]

Hey man, as I told you, I'm kinda tired right now, so I'll keep it short, and expand later/ tell you later.

I would strongly recommend SpD Jellicent. Right now you have a rather large specially oriented mon weakness. Seeing as Ttar+Keldeo+filler 4x is common, you cant really rely on latias to always take care of it, especially as without any bulk it can be weak to ebelt variants. Namely ghettobeam sets. With SpD Jelli running balls out, you relieve a lot of pressure from latias, and seeing as latias is a threatkiller by the looks of it, you cant afford to lose her. SpD Jelli also helps against non-sub Latias, rotom-w, and landorus-i, three pokemon who seem to give you trouble. Also, since I brought up beating those, go for Toxic>Will-o-wisp as it allows you to beat said threats, and weakens and cripples politoed, etc, etc. Toxic overall seems like it would help you better than a 75% accurate move. And like I've said before, there seems to be a rise in stall right now, and seeing ad you mention jelli being a great stallbreaker, toxic would help better.

Good luck with your team, Ill try and expand on my rate later drag :] <3

Jellicent set

Jellicent @Leftovers
- Water Absorb -
Calm
252 hp/ 204 SpD/ 52 Speed
- Scald
- Taunt
- Toxic
- Recover

Everything fairly standard and already mentioned before, but here goes nothing. Scald is the main STAB and helpful for just damaging things, though the 30% burn chance is immensely helpful. Recover allows you to carry on sandstalling, and allows you to recover lost health and be an effective spinblocker. Taunt is great for wallbreaking and whatnot, and IIRC the evs outspeed both ferrothorn and standard jellicent(? if not change them so one point faster than jelli) allowing you to taunt them before they do you, and hardwalling jellicent altogether. Watch out for power whips though.

 

[Saphi]

Hey there,

I agree with minime1164 on using a SpD Jellicent for dealing with the likes of Landorus-I, Lati@s and even rare E-Belt Keldeos better. However, I would definitely keep WoW on Jellicent, because it is so important to burn Tyrannitar on the switch. I would also change Scald to Ice Beam. You dont need the Burn-Chance when u have WoW and Ice Beam makes Jellicent a nice Landorus check + hits Celebi on the switch harder.

As we can see from your battles, you have trouble dealing with Mixed Walls such as your own Hippowdown-Set. To deal with that, I would strongly suggest Toxic over Ice Fang on Hippowdown. Ice Fang deals too less Dmg overall and I feel as if you have no trouble dealing with Ground-Dragons/FlyingDragons. You also don't need Ice Fang anymore in dealing with Landorus since u have Jellicent.

I might also consider to use a Scarf-Magnezone against MaxSpeed Scizor Variants which are drawn to Latias like a moth to light or using a defensive spread on Latias with Reflect to survive a trap attempt.

Nice team, grats on your peaks :)

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Jellicent @Leftovers
236 HP/220 SDef/52 Spd
Calm Nature
-WoW
-Ice Beam
-Recover
-Taunt

Hippowdown: Toxic > Ice Fang

Consider using: Scarf Magnezone, 252HP/252Spd Latias with Reflect > Surf

 

[Moonclawz]

Hi Dragonicwari!

After battling your team, I feel like it is really solid and I like your specially defensive Hippowdown set. As I see no real weaknesses, this will be a relatively short rate recommending only some minor changes.

SubToxic Gliscor might be problematic because it easily sets up a sub against Terrakion and Forretress, can wear them down with EQ. It can also toxic Jellicent (behind a sub) and Hippodown, canceling out leftovers and putting a timer on their use. Latias deals with Gliscor pretty well though. You should keep Ice Fang on Hippodown to help deal with SubToxic Gliscor and other Gliscor sets (like Sub+Taunt).

I also think you should keep Scald on Jellicent because it helps Jellicent deal with Terrakion and Scizor a lot better, and does more damage than Ice Beam on most pokemon because of STAB. It's also still super effective against Landorus.

On Magnezone, I feel you should use Leftovers instead of Life Orb, because with a Modest Nature, it already does enough damage against the Steels it's suppose to trap (maybe not against specially defensive Jirachi). It also gives Magnezone some health recovery as Magnezone can be worn out easily by Life Orb, residue damage, (and maybe entry hazards since you have a spinner). If you don't find yourself using Volt Switch very often, I would recommend Substitute instead as Magnezone easily can set up against many Steel type Pokemon, and most Steels cannot do much damage to Magnezone. This will give Magnezone will get a free attack/switch, once the Steel-type it traps has fainted.

 

[Piggeh]

Hello there! :D
Really nice RMT, I enjoyed reading about it and watching some replays of the team. There was nothing that immediatly popped into my head as poor choice of a move or something like that, but there's 2 things that maybe could make this team even better;

Seeing how you did not create Hippowdown's EV spread yourself, maybe you didn't notice it, or maybe you just haven't thought about it. Either way, having some Speed EV's (8 or 12) wouldn't be too bad of an Idea. When facing another Hippo, you can always outspeed, and knowing that alone, gives you a lot of momentum and .

I love using the scarf Terrakion set, it works even in Ubers! but X-Scissors has never been to any use for me, Personally, I'd replace it with Rock Slide. In my opinion, having a safe option is very usefull.

Other than that, I have to say that this team is very well structured, good job making it ;)

 

[Lady Alex]

Hi. You mentioned that Defensive Rotom-w and Leftovers Starmie were issues for your team. Have you considered using Celebi over Magnezone? I feel like, between Forretress, and Hippowdon, Ferrothorn and Jirachi respectively aren't very difficult for your team to deal with.


Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 108 Spd / 16 HP / 152 SDef / 232 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Baton Pass
- Giga Drain
- Recover
- Hidden Power [Fire]

This Celebi set would let you deal very easily with both of the main threats you listed, and would still be able to take on Ferrothorn easily. The EV spread I gave has enough Special Attack to 1hko 252/0 Scizor 100% of the time after rocks. The 108 Speed EVs allow you to outspeed max speed base 70s, like Breloom. If outspeeding Breloom isn't important for you, you could shift most of those speed EVs into HP. Good luck. Hope I helped.

 

[superstar]

I gave you a Luvdisc just for your spheal about Earthquake on CS Terrakion...Rock Slide I find more useful because of the flinch chance personally, but EQ is about 50 times better than Secret Sword, whatever the analysis says.

/endrant

 

[Senju]

I'd guess you have some troubles with Volcarona when it has Giga Drain - it can wear down Terrakion on the switch (since its your common switch in) and start setting up as soon as Terrakion is off the field - afterwards it should melt your team.

Am I wrong?

 

[HSA]

brah you should drop that Latias for a Choice Band TTar so you can Pursuit some pogeys like Latios, Latias, Gengar, and Landorus (Afraid of Scarf Ice Beam). Then, swap out that Jellibro for a Gengar so you can still keep dem hazards up but put more offensive pressure on them. Use Will-o-Wisp / Shadow Ball / Focus Blast / Substitute with max HP and Speed. It really wrecks.