Shroomisaur
Smogon's fantastical fun-guy.
Hello world! Shroomisaur here. Hopefully my avatar is a familiar sight to some of you at this point! It's hard to believe I've been around the forums for nearly 4 years now, yet this is my first RMT here on Smogon. With Pokebank exactly 2 weeks away at this point, and Mega Kangaskahn soon to be banned from OU, I decided this was the perfect time to share my most successful Pre-Pokebank OU Team.
After abusing the "best of the best" on the OU ladder for over a month (read: Mega Kanga, Lucario, Gengar), I went back to the drawing board. I could see these Pokemon being banned weeks away, so I wanted to build a team that was solid yet had nothing remotely suspect.
I tried a variety of different team styles and members, and wanted to build a well-rounded team that could counter a majority of threats in OU. This is the team I came up with! Nothing really jumps out as overpowering in this lineup, but the synergy between each member surprised even myself. The team members form dual-Pokemon cores, and each core pairs well with the others. This team holds a record of 27-2 against 1800+ ranked players on Showdown, 31-2 overall, and lifted me from 2062 ACRE to a peak of 2097 (Glicko2 of +/- 36).
Meet the team:
After abusing the "best of the best" on the OU ladder for over a month (read: Mega Kanga, Lucario, Gengar), I went back to the drawing board. I could see these Pokemon being banned weeks away, so I wanted to build a team that was solid yet had nothing remotely suspect.
I tried a variety of different team styles and members, and wanted to build a well-rounded team that could counter a majority of threats in OU. This is the team I came up with! Nothing really jumps out as overpowering in this lineup, but the synergy between each member surprised even myself. The team members form dual-Pokemon cores, and each core pairs well with the others. This team holds a record of 27-2 against 1800+ ranked players on Showdown, 31-2 overall, and lifted me from 2062 ACRE to a peak of 2097 (Glicko2 of +/- 36).
Meet the team:
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Nature: Sassy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpD
- Toxic
Brave Bird - Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
[Tyranitar + Skarmory combine to form my primary defensive core, tanking hits on both sides of the spectrum. They wear down the opponent with Sand, Rocky Helmet, and Hazard passive damage. Gen II pals for life!]
Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Nature: Calm
EVs: 248 HP / 60 Def / 200 SpD
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Light Screen
Sableye @ Leftovers
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Def / 120 SpD
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Knock Off
[Together, Rotom-W + Sableye are the secondary special and physical tanks of my team. They both pack incredible utility and each possesses Will-O-Wisp, giving me plenty of options to cripple opposing physical sweepers.]
Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Shadow Claw
- Rapid Spin
Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightningrod -> Intimidate
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power Ice
[Manectric and Excadrill are my primary offensive pair, and late-game cleaners. They pack fast, powerful hits on both sides of the spectrum.]
Well, that's the team. It fares very well against a majority of OU and it really surprised me with its success. There are so many threats in OU though that I've certainly faced some issues. Mega Lucario is the biggest one, as it's impossible to tell if it's special or physical and by then you may be 1 Pokemon down already. Excadrill was changed to Scarf primarily to revenge this thing, but special MegaLuke with Vacuum Wave is a nightmare scenario. Secondly, Gastrodon/Quagsire are major pains since I lack a Grass-type move. They aren't common, but they are still very viable in OU and give me huge problems. I've considered replacing Manectric's HP Ice with Grass for this purpose, or HP Grass on Rotom, but its so hard to give up moveslots. Stally Dual-Ghost cores also make this team sad. I would love to hear other suggestions as to how you would improve my team!
As Pokebank approaches, Lando-T is an obvious addition to this team as it complements Mega Manectric perfectly. 2 Intimidating pivots, how could you say no? I'm curious to hear other suggestions looking forward.
I hope you enjoyed my first-ever RMT, and thanks for reading!
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