XY OU OU: Sweet Libations

[The TurtleLord]

OU: Sweet Libations​

Introduction:
Hello, this is an ou team that I’ve had a lot of success with of late. This is a bulky offence team that I’ve been using for a while, and I’m quite proud of it. It focuses on team synergy and pivoting out of threats. While it is quite solid, there are some huge weaknesses that I would like to be fixed, so I appreciate all your suggestions in advance!

Team-building Process:

I started this team with what I consider some of the best offensive pokemon at the moment, which was sub sd Terrakion and mega gardevoir. They happened to compliment each other very well, with Terrakion taking care of things like chansey and some steel types for gardevoir and gardevoir beating the really bulky physical walls like slowbro and clefable that plague ou.

I realised that certain fat steel types, like mega scizor and skarmory, could wall the two pokemon I had. I then did the obvious and got a specs magnezone with magnet pull, which traps and kills every defensive steel bar heatran.

I wanted some defencive presence,as well as a pokemon that could set up rocks, because none of my pokemon were that good at taking hits. I went for a good defencive core in ferrothorn + slowbro. The two compliment eachother rather well, and they can often switch into attacks aimed at each other.

I realised I had no revenge killer, and I also needed a ground resist. I decided to go for scarf Landorus-t. It synergised with my team very well, especially magnezone. Magnezone and Landorus form a very potent volt-turn combo that gains momentum pretty easily and between them they resist a lot of types.

A Closer Look:

Sprite (Gardevoir) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 24 Def / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Taunt

Mega Gardevoir is one of the pokemon that benefited quite a bit from the aegislash ban, and is currently the best special nuke in ou. It’s this teams premier way of dealing with stall, as well as being the main special attacker.Its stab pixilate hyper voice does insane damage and next to nothing likes switching into it. Psyshock is the obligatory secondary stab, hitting the poisons who resist fairy very hard. I chose Psyshock over Psychic because it allows me to hit special walls such as chansey much harder if I need to. Focus blast is so I can 2hko heatran, ferrothorn and magnezone. Taunt is really cool on gardevoir, as its pretty much a fullstop to most stall pokemon when combined with Gardevoir’s insanely strong moves. The 24 defence evs are to avoid the 2hko from latios’ psyshock and the modest nature is for maximum wall breaking potential.

Red Bull (Terrakion) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge

Sub Swords Dance Terrakion is, for some reason, a really underrated set. This pokemon is probably the main sweeper of the team, and often gets the most kills. It can set up on a plethora of defensive pokemon, i.e mew, gliscor, defencive Landorus etc. and it only really needs its two stabs, as they provide amazing coverage. Air Balloon may seem like an odd choice, but it can be really helpful vs. things like Gliscor, Landorus and Tyranitar. Swords Dance boosts his attack to insanse levels and his two high-powered stabs threaten most of the tier at +2.

Pepsi (Magnezone) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 128 HP / 252 SpA / 128 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

Magnezone’s main role on this team is to trap bulky steels that give my other members trouble, like mega scizor, skarmory and ferrothorn. He has choice specs to maximise his power, and this allows him to ohko lots of common defencive mons, like, clefable, skarmory, most variants of scizors and most ferrothorns. Thunderbolt is the strongest stab, Flash cannon is for fairies like clefable, Volt switch is great for getting up momentum and works really well in tandem with Landorus’ U-Turn. Hidden Power Fire is what makes this set so effective, as it traps steels with magnet pull then does a lot of damage with HP Fire. 252 Special Attack is for the most damage possible, 128 speed evs allows him to hit 187 speed (outspeeds 0 speed mega scizor) and the rest in hp for optimal bulk.

Mountain Dew (Slowbro) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Thunder Wave
- Slack Off

Slowbro is my main physical wall, and also serves as a good pivot into strong attackers thanks to regenerator. Scald is pretty much mandatory on any bulky water, as the chance to burn physical attackers is really good. Psyshock lets me hit keldeo, Conkeldurr and M-Venu hard, Thunder Wave is to cripple threatening set up sweepers like gyarados and charizard-x, and slack off is a more reliable recovery than regenerator. Max HP and Max defence allows me to take some of the strongest physical hits. Rocky Helmet punishes physical attackers like medicham.

7up (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball Power Whip
- Protect

Designated mixed wall, this thing takes on so many threats and just doesn't die (especially in conjunction with slowbro, whos typing helps it). Stealth rock is most important move in the game, Leech Seed to make up for his lack of recovery, while also sapping health from the opponent, gyro ball is the main attack, and is chosen over power whip because it hits things like lati's way harder. Protect is to scout for choice locked pokemon and to regain health back from leech seed without taking a hit. I'm not too sure what these evs are for to be honest, but they seem to work for me and I'm pretty sure they're the standard.

Coca-Cola (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Landorus-T, when equipped with a choice scarf, becomes a revenger, a pivot and a strong cleaner all in one. I mainly use landorus to switch into resisted hits and pivot out early game, giving me momentum, and then late game i tend to just spam earthquake with that 145 base attack. Earthquake is a strong, reliable stab, Stone Edge hits most things that eq can't, Knock off is mainly to cripple things like chansey and landorus-i (sort of) who rely on their item. U-Turn, probably the most important move, allows me to scout and pivot out of various things. For example, when the opponent has a skarmory, they'll want to bring it on landorus. But if landorus uses U-Turn, then he can just go straight into magnezone and that skarmory is dead as a doorknob.

How I use it:
First, I look at the opposing team and try to figure out which pokemon has stealth rock. Most rocks setters are pressued out by landorus-therian, so about 90% of the time I'll lead with him. If the situation isn't in my favour, then i can easily U-Turn out. Generally, I'll try and set up sr early, then pressure the opponent with volturn and try to get gardevoir in for free. Gardevoir has tonnes of offencive presence, and normally when it comes in something dies. If the opponent has a bulky steel that can go into gardevoir, then I'll try and get magnezone in on them with double switches and trap them. I generally save Terrakion for a late game sweep.

Importable:

Hide

Sprite (Gardevoir) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Taunt

Red Bull (Terrakion) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge

Pepsi (Magnezone) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 128 HP / 252 SpA / 128 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

Mountain Dew (Slowbro) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Thunder Wave
- Slack Off

7up (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Protect

Coca-Cola (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Threat-List:



-Wall breaker megas:

I have no safe switch ins for these guys, and only really have 1-2 good checks for each of them

-Fast special attackers with coverage:

These pokemon outspeed my whole team sans lando, and because of their wide coverage they can hit my whole team super effectively.

Ok so that's the team! Thanks for reading, and any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[Merkur_Lampe]

This team is probably the best team I have ever seen..
Being a fan of Mega Gardevoir, I love this team. I can hardly make a suggestion.
For your threat list, there are almost no switch ins for the wallbreaking megas anyways. The three fast special attackers will revenge kill many offensive teams. Those are probably almost every teams' problems.
Anyways, for my suggestion:
How about using Psychic over Psyshock on your Slowbro?
0 SpA Slowbro Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Venusaur: 168-198 (46.1 - 54.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA Slowbro Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Mega Venusaur: 110-132 (30.2 - 36.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
I am pretty sure people run physically defensive Mega Venusaur more often than the specially defensive ones. Although it won't make you win 1vs1, this will hit things harder.
0 SpA Slowbro Psychic vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Keldeo: 212-252 (65.6 - 78%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 SpA Slowbro Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Keldeo: 188-224 (58.2 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
It looks irrelevant, but it will get into OHKO range after you
252 Atk Landorus-T U-turn vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Keldeo: 45-53 (13.9 - 16.4%) -- possible 7HKO
expect a Keldeo switch-in and you have your Stealth Rock set. It's not guaranteed, and yes it will switch out, but also there is a chance that you will be able to OHKO after two SR damages. Most of Keldeos are Choice-locked, so it will switch in and out often.
The bad thing about this is it will hit conkeldurr weaker. So basically, it hits Keldeo, Amoonguss, Physically Defensive Mega Venusaur harder, and hits Assault Vest Conkeldurr and Gengar weaker.

It generally hits harder.
0 SpA Slowbro Psychic vs. 40 HP / 0 SpD Mega Heracross: 186-222 (59.8 - 71.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA Slowbro Psyshock vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Mega Heracross: 152-182 (48.8 - 58.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

0 SpA Slowbro Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Terrakion: 212-252 (65.6 - 78%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA Slowbro Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 188-224 (58.2 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
I just read it from the Pokedex, and only Psychic will break Kyurem-B's subs consistently while Psyshock will not.
Now come to think of it, hitting Conkeldurr looks pretty important.. I guess it's up to you.

 

[The Bravest Bird]

Hey The TurtleLord nice team! I think there's definitely room for improvement, so here's some suggestions you could consider.

• Mixed Attacking Jirachi over Magnezone

Jirachi @ Expert Belt | Serene Grace
132 Atk / 156 SpA / 220 Spe | Mild
Healing Wish | Iron Head | Icy Wind | HP Fire

This is a pretty odd change, but I think it could work. Instead of trapping Steels, you lure them in. You deal with everything Magnezone did, while countering Mega Gardevoir and checking Greninja. HP Fire allows you to nail Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Scizor. Icy Wind nails the ground types that Terrakion struggles with. Healing Wish is awesome, and lets you heal up Terrakion, Gardevoir or Landorus-T when need be. You probably want to be clicking Iron Head to bluff other sets.

• Power Whip Ferrothorn over Gyro Ball

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers | Iron Barbs
252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD | Impish
Stealth Rock | Leech Seed | Power Whip | Protect

I understand your reasoning for Gyro Ball, but Power Whip nails Mega Gyarados, an otherwise nuisance to your team. Ferrothorn's EVs are pretty easy to customize, but this spread allows you to live 2 Ice Beams from +3 Manaphy. You could probably put a lot of emphasis on Defense to take on Mega Gyara even better.

This is all I have so far. I'll come back later to see if I can fit Volt Switch onto your team again. Hope I helped :]

 

[The TurtleLord]

This team is probably the best team I have ever seen..
Being a fan of Mega Gardevoir, I love this team. I can hardly make a suggestion.
For your threat list, there are almost no switch ins for the wallbreaking megas anyways. The three fast special attackers will revenge kill many offensive teams. Those are probably almost every teams' problems.
Anyways, for my suggestion:
How about using Psychic over Psyshock on your Slowbro?
0 SpA Slowbro Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Venusaur: 168-198 (46.1 - 54.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA Slowbro Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Mega Venusaur: 110-132 (30.2 - 36.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
I am pretty sure people run physically defensive Mega Venusaur more often than the specially defensive ones. Although it won't make you win 1vs1, this will hit things harder.
0 SpA Slowbro Psychic vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Keldeo: 212-252 (65.6 - 78%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 SpA Slowbro Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Keldeo: 188-224 (58.2 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
It looks irrelevant, but it will get into OHKO range after you
252 Atk Landorus-T U-turn vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Keldeo: 45-53 (13.9 - 16.4%) -- possible 7HKO
expect a Keldeo switch-in and you have your Stealth Rock set. It's not guaranteed, and yes it will switch out, but also there is a chance that you will be able to OHKO after two SR damages. Most of Keldeos are Choice-locked, so it will switch in and out often.
The bad thing about this is it will hit conkeldurr weaker. So basically, it hits Keldeo, Amoonguss, Physically Defensive Mega Venusaur harder, and hits Assault Vest Conkeldurr and Gengar weaker.

It generally hits harder.
0 SpA Slowbro Psychic vs. 40 HP / 0 SpD Mega Heracross: 186-222 (59.8 - 71.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA Slowbro Psyshock vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Mega Heracross: 152-182 (48.8 - 58.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

0 SpA Slowbro Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Terrakion: 212-252 (65.6 - 78%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 SpA Slowbro Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 188-224 (58.2 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
I just read it from the Pokedex, and only Psychic will break Kyurem-B's subs consistently while Psyshock will not.
Now come to think of it, hitting Conkeldurr looks pretty important.. I guess it's up to you.

Yeah I have been switching between psychic and psyshock a bit, but i like psyhshock because it also makes suicune and the (very rare) cm keldeo easier to deal with, but I'll probably try it again because of the slightly higher damage.

Hey The TurtleLord nice team! I think there's definitely room for improvement, so here's some suggestions you could consider.

• Mixed Attacking Jirachi over Magnezone

Jirachi @ Expert Belt | Serene Grace
132 Atk / 156 SpA / 220 Spe | Mild
Healing Wish | Iron Head | Icy Wind | HP Fire

This is a pretty odd change, but I think it could work. Instead of trapping Steels, you lure them in. You deal with everything Magnezone did, while countering Mega Gardevoir and checking Greninja. HP Fire allows you to nail Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Scizor. Icy Wind nails the ground types that Terrakion struggles with. Healing Wish is awesome, and lets you heal up Terrakion, Gardevoir or Landorus-T when need be. You probably want to be clicking Iron Head to bluff other sets.

• Power Whip Ferrothorn over Gyro Ball

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers | Iron Barbs
252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD | Impish
Stealth Rock | Leech Seed | Power Whip | Protect

I understand your reasoning for Gyro Ball, but Power Whip nails Mega Gyarados, an otherwise nuisance to your team. Ferrothorn's EVs are pretty easy to customize, but this spread allows you to live 2 Ice Beams from +3 Manaphy. You could probably put a lot of emphasis on Defense to take on Mega Gyara even better.

This is all I have so far. I'll come back later to see if I can fit Volt Switch onto your team again. Hope I helped :]

That Jirachi set seems like a really cool idea, definitely gonna try that out!
Yeah, if Mega Gyarados has a sub, hes really hard for me to beat. I'll definitely try running power whip > gyro ball and I'll try those evs to see if they make any difference.

thanks for the rates!

 

[Daigorolicious]

-If heracross gives you trouble. you should change timid to modest on garde. it also benefits from taunt.
-You should put scarf on zone so it does a speedy volt-turn core.
-balloon on terrak seems weird. i'd run salac sub terrak. but if you have trouble with ground (which i doubt) i'd put the balloon on magzone. and have magnet rise too (too counter excadrills)

great team, really solid. but the sets ruin it. take care bro. good luck :]

 

[The TurtleLord]

rachi wasnt that great, couldnt actually trap steels and it was kinda weak. im still using power whip > gyro however.
Daigorolicious, timid on gard isnt strong enough for my tastes and if mag were scarf itd lose alot of its staying power against things like clefable/ferro, who can set up on scarf zone. I have tried salac > balloon and it did have some helpful situations, so either is good.

 

[Daigorolicious]

rachi wasnt that great, couldnt actually trap steels and it was kinda weak. im still using power whip > gyro however.
Daigorolicious, timid on gard isnt strong enough for my tastes and if mag were scarf itd lose alot of its staying power against things like clefable/ferro, who can set up on scarf zone. I have tried salac > balloon and it did have some helpful situations, so either is good.

don't you have taunt garde for clef?
I still don't get the garde idea. i mean, you do search for power but this team straight loses to mega heracross.
or maybe you can put hp flying lando-t. jajajaja.
terrakion dies, heracross sets up an sd on ferrothorn/lando-t. ez snack wrap.
''mag were scarf itd lose alot of its staying power against things like clefable/ferro'' I didn't know ferro could set up on magnezone.
specs is acceptable but cmon now. you cannot sacrifice the team's speed for power so it loses to certain threats.

 

[The Bravest Bird]

yeah i get ya, however i think you should at least run scarf magnezone, as this gives you a nice birdspam check(teams kinda weak to a set up pinsir) while still trapping steels

as for clef

252+ SpA Mega Gardevoir Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 160 Def Clefable: 183-216 (46.4 - 54.8%) -- 9.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

you win with taunt, so you should be fine.

 

[The TurtleLord]

ok ill try scarf magnezone then, ty people

 

[Miridy]

Hey
As you said, Greninja, Manectric, Thundurus and Heracross are a big problem for your team, you don't have any solid switch ins for them, as such I would suggest you two changes that will greatly help you against them.
The first one is offensive mega Venusaur over your current Gardevoir.
Offensive saur helps you against thundurus, manectric and greninja (watch out from extrasensory, though it should be noted that ibeam, hpump, hp fire and gknot greninja is on the rise) while still doing a dent against things like ferrothorn, opposing venusaur (sludge bomb can easily stall out synthesis pp 252+ SpA Mega Venusaur Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Venusaur: 133-157 (36.5 - 43.1%) and it's also a solid answer against clefable, if you don't want to risk to take a flamethrower on your magnezone.
In a pinch situation saur can also take a psyshock from timid mega gardevoir (72-85) and attack her with sludge bomb (87-102)
Now, as for the second change, I would suggest you Unaware SR Clefable over Ferrothorn.
With venusaur ferrothorn becomes a bit redunant, and it's also magnet pull bait, which can screw up your chances against offensive 'mons that loves magnezone support, Clefable can easily stop stuff like garchomp, dragonite and latios/latias, especially the last two that are problematic for your terrakion, she can also set up stealth rocks, and if required pass wishes on mega saur/terrakion/lantherian, she doesn't also mind swords dance from mega heracross and moonblast will 2hko him.
If you plan to stay specs on magnezone (if you want to use scarfzone i'd directly reccomend scarf magneton, since he can outspeed greninja for you) I'd give it more speed evs, enough to at least surpass 44 rotom-wash, so that you can easily wear him down for terrakion, as such a timid nature with 180 speed evs, this will also help you against crocune.

Sets:

Hide

Venusaur (M) @ Venusaurite
Trait: Overgrow
EVs: 240 HP / 220 SAtk / 48 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Giga Drain

- Sludge Bomb

- Hidden Power [Fire]

- Synthesis

Clefable (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd

Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)

- Wish

- Protect

- Stealth Rock

- Moonblast

Venusaur has enough speed evs in order to outspeed suicune and attack him with giga drain before he can set up, while the satk evs allows him to get a "breakpoint", the rest goes on hp for obvious bulk.

Have fun :]

 

[MoxieInfinite]

i feel that if youre gonna rate like that, youve gotta mention the downsides too.
what does the team lose if you change gardevoir to venusaur? what does the team lose if you change ferrothorn to clefable? you might cover up the weaknesses you had, but with those changes, you gain new weaknesses. you have to mention them too, if not its not necessarily a stop forward for the team, just a step to the side.

 

[The TurtleLord]

yeah i tried out venusaur and clef, and while i liked the added bulk and such, i really missed the offencive pressure gard provides (as it has like 2-3 decent switch-ins).