XY OU Seeker of Balance

[SomeKidFromJohto]

Team Preview:

So it's been a while since my last RMT, and I've been testing all kinds of things in the interim. I like testing out different things to find what works and what doesn't, and this is the most recent team I've been using. It is a very well balanced group, hosting all the elements I always like to incorporate in my most successful teams. It has a basic fire/water/grass core, a steel/dragon combo, a ground type to absorb thunder wave/electric attacks, a flash fire user to absorb and punish WoW users, a steel type to block toxic, two hazard removers, a sash lead/emergency stop to sweeps, a scarfer, and a set up sweeper, all working together in one big, balanced package. But enough ado, allow me to introduce my new team:

Azumarill (F) @ Assault Vest Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch

Basic AV Choice Band azumarill set here, with one basic exception: ice punch. Ice punch is there mainly for landorus, as after an intimidate, a combo of ice punch/aqua jet is enough to net the KO Ice punch can OHKO. I sometimes miss the power of waterfall, but most of the time aqua jet is enough for it's water STAB. Aside from that, the basic play rough and knock off round out the set, and I hope I don't have to explain why they're there.

Breloom (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Spore
- Rock Tomb

Again, a pretty basic setup for 'loom. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary here, except maybe the adamant nature. I went with it for the power boost, as I didn't find it particularly NEEDED to have max speed in it's speed tier. Basically most things breloom doesn't outspeed are getting mach punched anyway, and I haven't yet encountered a situation where a jolly loom would have won it for me but adamant wouldn't have. And since this team rarely lets rocks stay up, 'loom's sash will allow it at least one hit on faster pokes, so I really never miss the speed.

Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roar
- Lava Plume
- Flash Cannon
- Stealth Rock

I went with a SpD heatran here to add a little more defensive synergy to the team. I'm currently running lava plume and flash cannon for STAB, SR for SR, and roar to phaze and rack up SR damage. I've even been able to whittle down entire teams by simply roaring over and over, which is hilariously fun.

Dragonite (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed

Weakness Policy DDNite is a beast. Multiscale dang near guarantees at least one safe DD, and after that it's often game over, especially if the opponent tries to use a SE attack, which will activate weakness policy and raise dragonite all the way to +3 atk. A +1 ESpeed hurts like hell, but a +3 kills damn near anything, and with dragon claw and EQ rounding things out, 'nite has pretty good coverage. I've considered switching to a lum berry, but the rest of my team is able to absorb a lot of status, and if worse comes to worse, latias can emergency heal it, so I found weakness policy to be a stronger choice overall for this team.

Excadrill (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin

Scarfed Mold Breaker Excadrill. This thing ruins lives. Your rotom-W's levitate? Worthless. Your gengar's levitate? Worthless. Your talonflame? Only outspeeds w/priority BB, which does crap, then gets killed by rock slide. Your thundy? Twave doesn't work, HP Ice isn't that strong, focus miss... misses, and all the while rock slide is 2HKOing. This is again, a pretty basic setup, w/rapid spid for an emergency hazard removal in case it's absolutely necessary and latias is dead/can't switch in.

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Healing Wish

Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Roost

This Latios was suggested by casectiv, and it has functioned quite well so far. It is a great offensive defogger, and roost allows it to stay alive much longer.

THREAT LIST:

-Landorus. If azumarill can't manage to take him out, scarf lando can break through a lot of my team, or possibly even sweep me.
-Ttar. Sand is NOT fun when i really want to preserve 'loom's sash and Dnite's multiscale. I can beat Ttar itself fairly easily with 'loom, but when it costs it's sash, i'm hesitant to do so, so i usually try to use azumarill and play rough/aqua jet him. Still, Ttar coming into battle means i can't safely switch in 'loom or Dnite until sand is gone, so that's just bad news for me.
-Stall. It is really difficult to break through a good stall team. My best bet is a mix of 'doom's taunt and just keeping up enough offensive pressure between my other pokes to push through, but that's easier said than done.

EDIT: by adding latios instead of latias, i have a bit of an easier time against stall, but it's still a big threat, and since i didn't go with taunt on heatran, i'm down my taunter, so certain situations actually play out worse than before.
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So, that's the team. Please let me know what you think, and give me any suggestions you can think of. I think this team has a lot of potential, but still needs a fair bit of fine-tuning, so any input would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Just realized I didn't include an importable, so here it is:
EDIT: Updated the importable to reflect my current team:

Azumarill (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch

Breloom (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Spore
- Rock Tomb

Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roar
- Lava Plume
- Flash Cannon
- Stealth Rock

Dragonite (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- ExtremeSpeed

Excadrill (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Roost

 

[Lunistrius]

Hello! Your team is pretty interesting, and I have a few suggestions:

• First off, you have a Defogger and Rapid Spinner on the same team, so I would suggest replacing Rapid Spin with Swords Dance on Excadrill, as well as switching Choice Scarf to Life Orb. Latias is a great defogger, and you wouldn't really need Excadrill to rapid spin then. Life Orb and Swords Dance give Excadrill much more power and lets it counter the fairies that threaten your team heavily with hard-hits.
• Maybe go for Choice Band over Assault Vest on Azumarill? Choice Band will help increase your damage output, and is useful in sweeping (CB Aqua Jet is nothing to scoff at)
• A quick tip, make sure that you have 0 IVs in Attack for Latias and Houndoom. Having the lowest attack stat possible helps reduce damage done from confusion and moves like Foul Play.

Good luck on your team! =)

 

[SomeKidFromJohto]

Hello! Your team is pretty interesting, and I have a few suggestions:

• First off, you have a Defogger and Rapid Spinner on the same team, so I would suggest replacing Rapid Spin with Swords Dance on Excadrill, as well as switching Choice Scarf to Life Orb. Latias is a great defogger, and you wouldn't really need Excadrill to rapid spin then. Life Orb and Swords Dance give Excadrill much more power and lets it counter the fairies that threaten your team heavily with hard-hits.
• Maybe go for Choice Band over Assault Vest on Azumarill? Choice Band will help increase your damage output, and is useful in sweeping (CB Aqua Jet is nothing to scoff at)
• A quick tip, make sure that you have 0 IVs in Attack for Latias and Houndoom. Having the lowest attack stat possible helps reduce damage done from confusion and moves like Foul Play.

Good luck on your team! =)

Thanks for the rate! The reason I have both a spinner and a defogger is because i like to keep a one to one ratio of pokemon that need defog support to pokemon that provide it. Both breloom and dragonite require rocks to be down to preserve their sash and multiscale, respectively, so I wanted some redundancy there. That left me with the only real option of exadrill being the scarf set, with rapid spin there as an emergency hazard remover in a pinch. The reason i went with AV azumarill is so that he can act as a switch in to dangerous special moves and act as a special sponge in addition to his usual wallbreaking role, but i suppose i could make him banded, as it'd net me the OHKO on lando and i wouldn't have to finish with aqua jet. And you're right about the IV's, I completely forgot to do that. Thanks again!

 

[Lunistrius]

Rock Tomb on Breloom? WTF you noob

Rock Tomb is actually pretty helpful on Breloom. It's useful for slowing down switch-ins to it, and it gets the Technician boost as SomeKidFromJohto said.

If you had an actual suggestion for a move change, I'm more than willing to consider it, but if not, just go bother someone else.

If you don't want to use Rock Tomb, you can go for Swords Dance to raise Breloom's attack or Force Palm as a Technician-boosted STAB with the ability to paralyze the opponent (that would kind of mirror Rock Tomb).

 

[SomeKidFromJohto]

Rock Tomb is actually pretty helpful on Breloom. It's useful for slowing down switch-ins to it, and it gets the Technician boost as SomeKidFromJohto said.

If you don't want to use Rock Tomb, you can go for Swords Dance to raise Breloom's attack or Force Palm as a Technician-boosted STAB with the ability to paralyze the opponent (that would kind of mirror Rock Tomb).

I had been kicking the idea of SD around, so I'll definitely try that for a while now. I'll probably go ahead and switch loom to Jolly then, as well, since I won't be needing the nature boost from Adamant.

 

[pj]

hi buddy urs team is good but I have few suggestion
1)Try scrafed latais it may out speed many offensive mon like lando,lati twins,also have trick>defog so that in can counter stally mon like chansey.

2)like a guy said I agree with him Choice Band over Assault Vest on Azumarill since you can get damage on lando-t,mon like sand offence like tyranittar,exdradrill and many other

3)try will o wisp over destiny bond since why the hell do u want to sack a offencive mon like Houndoom-mega also it will help counter azumaril wch can be huge threat to urs team.
and good luck urs team

 

[pwnémon]

Hey I'm loving the mega houndoom team, I'll try and give you a helpful rate unlike the others.. First thing I would do is change Latias to Latios and give it roost over healing wish, this will improve your teams offensive presence and its recovery will make it more useful against bulkier teams. Secondly stealth rocks could be very beneficial for your team for reasons i don't need to mention. I feel that while Drill's rapid spin is useful Stealth Rock 3 attack garchomp/ w Life orb or Stealth rock Mega Garchomp could help you. This would give you a powerful wall breaker with Dragon+ Ground +Fire coverage and rocks support. Doing this does make you slightly weaker to birdspam so how about Scarftran> Mega Houndoom, scarftran helps with defensive synergy, being part of both your fwg and fairy-dragon-steel cores while putting pressure on fairies that look problematic for your team and keeping the Fire coverage. I feel that av greninja is necessary for greninja and your loom set is pretty optimal imo. Other options would be Fire Punch> EQ on Dnite or DD Zard X and Taunt+ 3 attacks LO Gengar. Give these a try and tell me how you go.

 

[Puralux]

Hey buddy. First , i think that if you use Ice Punch on Azumarill you need a band , but don't recommend ice punch since Waterfall is better. Houndoom is outclassed in almost everything he does and i have noticed that you don't have a Stealth Rock setter , there's actually a Pokèmon that taunts , set rocks , resists to Choice Band talonflame and is Fire type , this pokemon is Heatran. Heatran is one of the best SR setters in OU , he offers more defensive utility, he outspeeds most of the stall pokèmons and can burn with Lava Plume instead of putting Will-o-Wisp on Houndoom , well , you can use also Will-o-wisp Heatran which is still viable. I suggest Mamoswine instead of Excadrill , because he can help you against Landorus-T and Tyranitar , and can use Earthquake like Excadrill ; I prefer it scarf , but if you don't like to Switch Houndoom to Heatran , then Life orb is better , preferably with Stealth Rock. If you follow these advices , then i suggest you another: Switch Dragonite , because the DD set is outclassed by MCharizard X , then replace it Bulky DD Charizard Mega X. Tell me what do you think.

 

[Iridiscent97]

Hi! I really like your team, but I'll get tomy point right away:

1. On Latias, I think running 72 HP / 184 SpAtk / 252 Speed or even 160 HP / 96 SpAtk / 252 Speed might be better; the former guarantees an OHKO on standard Landorus with Draco meteor while the latter avoids the 2HKO from LO Thundurus' HP Ice. Both HP EVs are also Life Orb Numbers. If you prefer to use a more offensive defogger, I agree with the suggestion to use Latios, which has greater power and coverage at the expense of quick-fixing your Dragonite or Azumarill. Latios can also potentially OHKO standard Scarfed Landorus-T after stealth rock damage, and is a more potent threat to Rotom-W.

2. I fear Houndoom might be too weak to perform its job; I even question its role on the team. If you do want a flash fire user to complete your FWG core, wynaut try specially defensive Heatran? It has enough bulk to reliably lay down Stealth Rock, and can run Taunt or Roar to effectively shut down stall teams as well as prevent attempts at boosting. It is also better than Houndoom against Talonflame.

3.If you choose to replace Houndoom, you have room to replace Dragonite with Mega Charizard X or even Dragon Dance Mega Tyranitar. While it is less common, Mega Tyranitar has excellent bulk and power, being able to almost certainly set up one, maybe even two, dragon dances. It can also viably run Ice Punch or Fire Punch to take care of Landorus-T (which cannot KO back with Earthquake) as well as steel types. The sand it provides can help Excadrill as well, which can comfortably run Sand Rush with Swords Dance + 3 attacks as a potent revenge killing set (since Latias already has defog).

4. If you choose Tyranitar, Breloom becomes quite irrelevant, since Sandrill can outspeed most anything and revenge kill easily. Breloom also doesn't like its Sash being broken by sand. You might want Choice Scarf Keldeo in its place; it becomes a potent revenge killer which can easily dispatch Scarfed Landorus-T as well as Bisharp, Greninja, Thundurus and Gengar, which may threaten the rest of your team. Keldeo is also an excellent teammate to mega Tyranitar for similar reasons.

5. Sometimes you can turn a weakness into a strength. By employing your own Landorus-T, preferably a physically defensive one, you can counter other, Scarfed Landorus-Ts as well as check birdspam to an extent. Landorus-T can also run Stealth Rock, allowing Heatran to run Earth power or Flash Cannon or even Ancient Power for coverage. Landorus-T also pairs up well with Tyranitar, almost certainly laying down rocks to ease its sweep. If you choose Keldeo, you can replace Azumarill with a bulky Landorus-T, which can also have Knock Off to cripple Chansey and U-Turn to safely bring in Excadrill.

That's all. Thanks for having the patience to read all this; I realize that these are not minor refits, and that your team (should you make all the changes I suggested) will turn into a quasi-Sand one, and I'm aware that you mayn't want that. Nevertheless, I have suggested to you what I feel can help solve all the issues you mentioned in your threatlist; I do hope I could have been of some use. Wish you all the best!

 

[SomeKidFromJohto]

Wow, I got a lot of rates today, thanks everyone! So, after taking everyone's suggestions into consideration, I have made a few decisions. First, I had actually already switched azumarill to banded over AV, so yeah; Everyone who suggested that was spot on, I was hurting for power and the extra SpD wasn't THAT important. Next, swapping doom for heatran. That one I struggled with a bit, but at the end of the day, all doom had on tran was dark STAB and more speed, which still wasn't quite enough to really make it worth it. I'm still waffling between scarftran and SpD tran (i started with SpD, and I have liked it so far), so any further suggestions on which of those sets to use would be appreciated. Next, the one I struggled with the most: swapping latias for latios. I originally had that decision to make in team-building, and in the end i went with latias for healing wish. Healing wish has saved my butt so many times, but with latios, my butt doesn't NEED saving as much, so it balances out. I'm still undecided on swapping drill out for chomp, though. I've tossed around the idea of actually running mega chomp since my mega slot is back open again, but that seems kinda meh. As of right now, i've still got excadrill in that slot, but i'm still considering my other options. Here's a replay of the very first match i had with my updated team: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-177174509 (i use an alt when i'm playtesting things, hence the clever name) It definitely shows off every pokemon's role on the team. I'll keep testing this team the way it is for a while, but I'd still love to hear any more suggestions people have, as this is still very much a work in progress. Thanks again everyone who rated, I really appreciate it!

 

[killbuzzer]

I'm not seeing a heatran description. Maybe add it? Otherwise, it looks gr8 m8. R8 8/8. :]

 

[SomeKidFromJohto]

I'm not seeing a heatran description. Maybe add it? Otherwise, it looks gr8 m8. R8 8/8. :]

Added, thanks for pointing that out, hadn't noticed i forgot that when i updated.

 

[SomeKidFromJohto]

Okay, small update: Since I'm still minus a mega, i've been kicking a few things around, and I was hoping for some of your guys' opinions. I think I need to replace dragonite and excadrill. I'm thinking of Replacing excadrill w/ scarf lando, as kind of a 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' kind of thing, so at first i was thinking i'd go mega manectric and complete a little volt-turn core. But then i thought that i still wanted a boosting sweeper like dragonite, and the only one that fit the same bill (good boosting 'mon with strong priority) sufficiently was mega scizor. So I'd like your guys' thoughts on whether replacing dragonite and excadrill w/ SD mega scizor and scarf lando is a good move, or if there's a better pairing that you guys think would work out. Thanks!

 

[The Grim Garchomp]

From what I see, u are leaning a bit on the physical attacking side, and lack a bulky special attacker. So, I suggest replacing Breloom with Offensive Mega Venusaur. With Mega Venu in the mix you can now have a balanced bulky offense team, have a nice defensive core with Heatran (and Azumarill works well in the middle <3) and completely destroys TTar, and scarfed Lando (assuming we talking about the physical scarfed Landorus-T). Since Stall is becoming a problem to you, I suggest replacing Dragonite's Weakness Policy to a Lum Berry. With a Lum Berry you can fool dem stallers and cure the will-o-wisp/toxic you take and boost (bulky will-o-wisp users in stall (most common) are bulky mega chari x and heatran. Rotom-W is a bit uncommon, but Mega Venu deals with that bugger so it's out of the picture :p) then KO with Earthquake and Dragon Claw. Also, what DOESN'T want a boosted Extremespeed? Anyways I'm on my phone I'll rate more once im on my PC.

 

[SomeKidFromJohto]

From what I see, u are leaning a bit on the physical attacking side, and lack a bulky special attacker. So, I suggest replacing Breloom with Offensive Mega Venusaur. With Mega Venu in the mix you can now have a balanced bulky offense team, have a nice defensive core with Heatran (and Azumarill works well in the middle <3) and completely destroys TTar, and scarfed Lando (assuming we talking about the physical scarfed Landorus-T). Since Stall is becoming a problem to you, I suggest replacing Dragonite's Weakness Policy to a Lum Berry. With a Lum Berry you can fool dem stallers and cure the will-o-wisp/toxic you take and boost (bulky will-o-wisp users in stall (most common) are bulky mega chari x and heatran. Rotom-W is a bit uncommon, but Mega Venu deals with that bugger so it's out of the picture :p) then KO with Earthquake and Dragon Claw. Also, what DOESN'T want a boosted Extremespeed? Anyways I'm on my phone I'll rate more once im on my PC.

Venusaur is something to consider... but I am definitely not getting rid of breloom. Breloom has won matches for me 6-0 on occasion and I just can't deny those kind of results. No matter what kind of match i'm in, 'loom always puts in work, either slamming threats with mach punch/bullet seed, putting something dangerous to sleep, or slowing something down with rock tomb to give either itself or another poke the chance to outspeed and KO. Heck, a lot of times, 'loom does ALL of that in a single match. I could still run both pokes though, no rule against having two grass types, especially since they're like night and day with what they cover and what checks them. Two grass types would make me more vulnerable to birdspam, but with heatran there, that's barely even an issue. As for dragonite... I could see switching to a lum now that i have fewer teammates that absorb status and no more healing wish... but i'm probably switching dragonite out for something else (maybe scizor?) so it's not really an issue anymore. Either way, I'll go ahead and give venusaur some playtesting and see what i think.

 

[Iridiscent97]

I think switching Excadrill to LandorusT makes eminent sense, as LandorusT is a better user of Choice Scarf due to Intimidate and UTurn; as I had said earlier, sometimes you can turn a weakness into a strength. You might even try a bulky LandorusT which can lay Stealth Rock, check birdspam somewhat well and also bring other members in safely with a slow UTurn.

As for your Dragonit issue, I agree that Mega Scizor is a good choice as it can form a good UTurn core with Landorus and even support with defog, allowing latias to free up a moveslot for Roost or coverage.

But by far the best set for Mega Scizor would be a bulky SD set with Roost, Bullet Punch and Superpower or Knock Off; you have Heatran to absorb burn for you anyway, and it would help with glueing your team together.