XY OU Mirror Mola - semi-stall (peaked #6)

[Srn]

Just a small nitpick:
For mega manectric, 252 speed and timid nature is really unnecessary in terms of what you outspeed. A more efficient spread would be
20 hp/252 sp. att/236 speed (timid). With this, you still outspeed everything you really need to (greninja, noivern, other pokes around base 130) and just get some more added bulk.
Just a slightly more efficient spread.

Also, I'd consider running Overheat over flamethrower. Two Overheats does more than two flamethrowers and idk why mega manectric would have to stay in longer than that AND be using a fire type move. Overheat helps nabbing the KO on things like Excadrill too, where flamethrower normally would let you down.
252 SpA Mega Manectric Flamethrower vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Excadrill: 288-340 (79.5 - 93.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Mega Manectric Overheat vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Excadrill: 414-488 (114.3 - 134.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

On a separate note, if it hasn't been mentioned before, I'll say it now:
Your team is very weak to BU talonflame with taunt. Mega Manectric is the only thing stopping it, and it doesn't really even do that when talonflame can just roost to get rid of its flying type and then eat up a volt switch/tbolt.

252 SpA Mega Manectric Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Talonflame: 276-326 (76.8 - 90.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
but half of that.
So 35%-45%?

Skarmory can take brave birds all day, yes, but a taunted skarm is just easy switch ins for whatever.
So I think you could look into hp rock maybe? I think it's rare enough that you don't have to worry too much but just wanted to point it out.

Everything basically looks good other than that. Hope I helped!

 

[branflakes]

Thanks for pointing out the EV spread on Manectric. I've been investing max EVs in speed just to be cautious about some +1 threats, but it seems like I don't need to worry too much about these as long as I can beat base 130s. I came up with a new spread that outspeeds base 130 by two points by investing only 216 EVs in speed. This leaves me 40 EVs for HP.
EDIT: Nevermind, I really need the max speed investment to make the most out of Manectric's base 105 speed before evolving. Mega Pinsir is a notable threat that sits at the same speed tier.

I've decided to continue to use Flamethrower, because I've used Overheat and gotten punished badly for bad predictions. It does allow me to score the OHKO on Excadrill and Ferrothorn, but if the opponent is cautious and switches out then that puts me at a disadvantage. Furthermore, KOing something with Overheat means I'll be forced out by almost anything and/or become setup bait. Two Overheats are stronger than two Flamethrowers, but when will I ever need to hit Overheat twice?

As for Talonflame, I'm not too concerned. Nothing stops me from bringing in Manectric and spamming thunderbolt until day's end, forcing Talonflame to either roost, die or switch out. HP Rock would actually do less than Thunderbolt factoring in STAB and Roost.

Jaroda: The lack of Magic Guard isn't really appealing, but Sylveon does have a bunch of perks that the team may benefit from. I'll give it a shot. As for Soak on Alomomola, it seems really unappealing to take two turns to use Toxic on something that will probably switch out (likely into another steel type). This also makes Alomomola a sitting duck against a lot of special attackers that can simply hit and run.

Imitatia: I've seen Mirror Coat on Milotic before, and it's pretty effective. What other moves would you use on that set?

 

[Srn]

Thanks for pointing out the EV spread on Manectric. I've been investing max EVs in speed just to be cautious about some +1 threats, but it seems like I don't need to worry too much about these as long as I can beat base 130s. I came up with a new spread that outspeeds base 130 by two points by investing only 216 EVs in speed. This leaves me 40 EVs for HP.
EDIT: Nevermind, I really need the max speed investment to make the most out of Manectric's base 105 speed before evolving. Mega Pinsir is a notable threat that sits at the same speed tier.

I've decided to continue to use Flamethrower, because I've used Overheat and gotten punished badly for bad predictions. It does allow me to score the OHKO on Excadrill and Ferrothorn, but if the opponent is cautious and switches out then that puts me at a disadvantage. Furthermore, KOing something with Overheat means I'll be forced out by almost anything and/or become setup bait. Two Overheats are stronger than two Flamethrowers, but when will I ever need to hit Overheat twice?

As for Talonflame, I'm not too concerned. Nothing stops me from bringing in Manectric and spamming thunderbolt until day's end, forcing Talonflame to either roost, die or switch out. HP Rock would actually do less than Thunderbolt factoring in STAB and Roost.

Ok, so if mega pinsir is your concern, and what's holding you back from runnin 40 hp/252 sp att/ 216 spe
Then keep in mind that intimidate does activate on the turn that mega pinsir uses eq.

-1 252 Atk Mega Pinsir Earthquake vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Mega Manectric: 200-236 (68.7 - 81%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Perhaps 40 hp evs isn't worth it in the long run, but honestly, you have an aegislash, and better yet, a friggin skarmory.
Why are you even concerned about mega pinsir?
I can accept you rejecting the overheat proposal though, cuz flamethrower won't make you set-up bait, which would be bad.
Ignore hp rock proposal lol.

 

[branflakes]

The way I see it, my viable options are 236 speed EVs for outspeeding Garchomp or full investment. Considering I've had to speed tie Mega Pinsir at least once (see the 7th replay on the list), I prefer to have that extra leg to stand on rather than having to keep Skarmory over 50% at all times. I love allocating any unnecessary EVs to bulk, believe me, but in this situation I feel that the full speed investment is necessary. 5 more HP won't get me very far lol

EDIT: hey radianthero, I think I remember our match that I ended up losing after ~120 turns lol. I've come to the conclusion that if I run Defog on Skarmory, I might as well put SR on a mono-attacking Clefable (possibly unaware) and switch Manectric for Thundurus. I've thought a lot about this, and I've come to the conclusion that hazard stacking usually isn't the cause for any of my losses. I might experiment with a reformatted "defog version" of the team in the future, but it wouldn't be a simple change.

 

[Imitatia]

I generally run Scald, Recover, and either Dragon Tail or Ice Beam for coverage. But Toxic could work as well. Another variation I haven't tried though, is RestTalk. Once Milotic falls asleep, Marvel Scale boosts it's lower Defense to higher levels. IIRC, it effectively has 140 base Defense. Milotic could then handle Physical threats better and be a Sleep Absorber

 

[Campaign]

Great team, very strong. I played it earlier today for a few hours and went from 1000-1450 without any practice or trouble. I ended up only making a few changes which I think have already been mentioned.

- Giving heal bell to clefable instead of HP ground. It made going up against heatran a little more difficult but I'd normally force a switch with Alom or predict his first move as SR/Prot and switch in Breloom to spore, which cost me a few times but most of the time dealt with the threat. I just found myself being worn down enormously by status' and if you can let your opponent think they are getting the upperhand for the long game, bringing out a hell bell at turn 30 or so can completely turn them on their face when combined with wish.
-I also swapped Iron head to Flash Cannon because it simply does more damage in across the board, SPTank Sylveon being pretty much the only fairy pre-calm mind that it doesn't hit too hard and she's easy to outstall with this lineup.
-I swapped BraveBird out on Skarmory for Toxic because I found I just wasn't getting that much use out of it and people almost ALWAYS switch out of skarmory, so it's a free poison and since you have no WoW/Twave, it's not taking up a debuff slot that you'd otherwise use.
-Overheat over flamethrower on Manectric, yeah it misses but it can KO things that don't take much damage from lightning that flamethrower can't.
-I played around with Facade on Breloom, swapping out leech seed since a lot of people switch out of it against someone who doesn't hit that hard (re: DP breloom) but found it as expected - Extremely lackluster.
-Also, I tried swapping out sub/leftovers on Aegislash for the standard weakness policy/shadow sneak and although it doesn't really fit with the team, I found that I could take out a major threat and do serious damage to their revenge killer more often than not. I ended up swapping back because I love the feel of leftovers/sub.

Generally speaking, any improvements I could offer would only be subjective. Really good team as is.

 

[Yeller]

Ok this thread got me to create a account. If I don't have access to breloom with spore from gen 5 (which I don't) what move would you replace it with?

 

[branflakes]

Ok this thread got me to create a account. If I don't have access to breloom with spore from gen 5 (which I don't) what move would you replace it with?

I would replace it with Protect. I can see Sub/Protect/Seed being really annoying and even more difficult to deal with than substitute alone, but Breloom still kinda needs spore to be as effective as it is. You could also try Facade, which Campaign tried out, but that would need some attack investment to really be effective.

Campaign : Most of those changes are pretty viable in their own way, and this encourages me to provide an "alternative options" list for people who want to customize the team as they see fit (as you did). Flamethrower over Overheat is my own preference that I find much more effective when I want to play safely, but I believe both moves are equally viable and effective on Manectric. I've been using Flash Cannon on Aegislash in the past for the same reasons, only to find myself getting swept by Clefable after it gets a couple boosts. Clefable can easily CM while I switch to Aegislash and then CM again before I attack. Iron Head reliably deals more damage to some of its most important targets: Clefable, Tyranitar, Togekiss and Chansey.

 

[Yeller]

Ok so at work on my phone so might as well ask. Can you get spore on a gen 6 breloom? Is it a egg move or does it have to be a gen 5 breloom.

 

[branflakes]

I forgot to even consider that. Shroomish learns Spore at level 45, but Breloom cannot learn it.

 

[Yeller]

So then that brings another question. I will lose stat points by not evolving him correct until 45 or is that not xorrect. Sorry competitive gamer that just got into pokemon lol.

Edit: google said ill be fine if I don't evolve him till later

 

[branflakes]

You will not lose anything by evolving a pokemon late.

EDIT: please PM me if you have anymore questions, because this no longer has to do with the RMT

 

[Quick]

This team is great and after using it I completely fell in love with substitute Aegislash.