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Welcome! The purpose of this thread is to archive successful XY OU teams, intended to help new players get acclimated to the metagame and different playstyles. Seeing as how gaining knowledge about teambuilding and the OU metagame in general can be hard and complicated, having a foundation to work from can prove to be very helpful. Here, you can post your own team for archiving for new OU players to use.
GUIDELINES
Anyone is welcome to submit a team they believe to be worthy, as long as you submit a post that contains the following:
An importable of your team
A brief explanation of each member's role and an overview of how the team works.
We also urge eventual posters to include proof of tournament or ladder success, as well as high level replays which showcases your team. Selecting which teams will be archived will be done by myself and the OU Moderators. Here is an example of what a correct submittion should look like:
Shiver (Tyranitar) @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 156 Atk / 104 SpA
Brave Nature
- Ice Beam
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock
Such a Rush (Excadrill) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
The Scientist (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
High Speed (Latios) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Roost
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
This team is based around Mega Gardevoir, which currently is one of the strongest win-conditions against defensively oriented teams. After the banning of Aegislash and Mawile, it has few to none switch-ins, which grants it the ability to tear apart most teams. Keldeo makes the perfect teammate for Mega Gardevoir, as it's capable of taking on the Steel-types that threaten Gardevoir. It is also great for taking common priority attacks such as Sucker Punch and Aqua Jet, both whom Gardevoir hate. Tyranitar + Excadrill gives the team a way of taking on big threats such as Latios and Latias, as well as a way of revenge killing set-up sweepers like Mega Charizard X and Mega Tyanitar. Ferrothorn acts as the team's main Water-resist and "glue-Pokemon", as it takes on a lot of threats that threathen the other members of the among. Among these are opposing Mega Gardevoir, Azumarill, Mega Gyarados, and opposing Excadrill. Latios is a stample on offense in the current metagame, and is the member that rounds the team off. It gives it a much-needed way of taking on opposing Keldeo, Mega Charizard Y and Lanodrus. In additon to this, it does a great job of cleaning against defensive teams after Gardevoir has done its job.
I made this team a while back when the post Mawile Meta was still relatively new, and when balance ran the meta. A mon that I really wanted to try out was Magnezone, since he got really good after the Aegi ban. So I decided to build a squad around the now infamous PinsirMag core with a balance approach. When it came to hazard setters, there was no better setter than Ferrothorn. His defensive prowess was amazing, and the ability to wall multiple threats reliably throughout an entire match was simply too good to pass up. He also spreads around Leech Seed, which gives both him and his teammates much appreciated recovery, especially when used on high HP mons. With Ferrothorn, I decided to create a S/D/F core, and Latias and Azumarill seemed to fit perfectly with what I had. It gave me a powerful wallbreaker with excellent typing and bulk, and another strong hitter with great bulk and the ability to remove hazards reliably throughout an entire match. Seeing as Zard X, especially DD, was an issue, Scarf Lando T was added to check him as well as giving me a safety net against BirdSpam and Sand. Intimidate is also really useful, as using Lando as a pivot witch is invaluable to soaking up hits from physical attackers with my other mons. U-Turn is also very much appreciated to allow me to retain momentum. Finally, I added PinsirMag. Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Skarm were really annoying, and BirdSpam was still a bit of an issue. Scarf Meganezone beats all these threats reliably (bar SpDef Ferro that gets 3 Protects off in a row .-.) while also forming a nice VoltTurn cor with Lando T. Dual Scarfer isnt seen very often, but it works well. Pinsir is the late game cleaner, sweeper, and wallbreaker all in one explosive package. Due to the more defensive approach with this team, its not uncommon to wear down the opposing team to the point where a +2, and sometimes even unboosted, Pinsir cleans up handily. Hes an excellent stallbreaker if you opt for Sub, as it blocks the inevitable status from the likes of Slowbro / Chansey / whatever youre about to set up on.
Seismitoad @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 232 HP / 252 SpA / 24 Spe
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Knock Off
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 132 HP / 160 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Heracross @ Heracronite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Pin Missile
- Close Combat
- Rock Blast
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 156 SpD / 100 Spe
Careful Nature
- Thunder
- Iron Head
- Wish
- Protect
Ok so first things first, my Politoed spread is important since theres no Lati@s on this team, so it's EVd to OHKO Zard Y 100% of the time in rain. You shouldn't go around changing it, as you'll probably make it worse. Scald > Surf because scald burns lol, and Rest is important. Hypnosis is pretty shitty i should probably change it to toxic. Also i forgot what 84 speed outspeeds but it was on the analysis so i put it there. But yeah Politoed is pretty important because rain team, lol. Next up we have the primary swimgod, aka Kingdra. Feel free to name it Ruben den Boer after the real life demigod. Its EVs are to outspeed Scarf Lati@s, because I played against Tele on the ladder once, and almost lost thanks to his gay dual Scarfer team. It still tanks a bunch of shit like Bisharp's Sucker Punch and Banded Talonflame's Brave Bird, so I believe it's more than bulky enough for its role. Kingdra also switches in and beats Greninja if rain is up which is handy. PS; Kingdra > Kabutops, fuck you all Kingdra is the best swimmer. Now we have the main attraction of the team, Seismitoad. I'm giving everyone this team now because ORAS is coming and Swampert is gonna be a thing, but I dont think it will ever top Seismitoad. I'm not even joking, why is it not like B- rank on the viability ranking? Anyway, EVs + moveset courtesy of Rhaegar, my fren. SR is there because no room for it on Jirachi, Life Orb for damage output, and Knock Off means Kingdra will eventually break Chansey. The other two are obligatory STABs. EVs are to outspeed Greninja in rain and KO after rocks with Earth Power. Seismitoad also is the primary switch-in to any Electric-type ever (Rotom-W is a special case, you usually go to Seismitoad first to set up SR, as they Will-O-Wisp next turn, then go into Kingdra to absorb the Hydro Pump and KO with Draco Meteor), Scizor (OHKOs offensive versions with Hydro Pump, and a good chance to OHKO 252 HP / 100 SpD after rocks) and some other stuff I'm not remembering. Seismitoad is seriously good in this meta; it also 2hkoes Lati@s with Hydro Pump + Knock Off, which is super cool too. I chose Modest so i dont take away from any of my bulk, as it gets worn down real quick with Life Orb recoil.
Anyways, next 'mon is probably the only reason this team works. Assault Vest Tornadus-T is the best glue ever, as it can tank Hydro Pump from Keldeo in rain, pivot into Zard Y, and random Earthquakes etc. U-turn gains sweet momentum. Originally I had Latias here, but I honestly hate giving an invitation for TTar, a weather changer, to come in - it's not a good idea. The way this team is set up, I have minimal issues vs Sand Offense since TTar never has opportunities to switch in. Knock Off also helps vs. Chansey, like mentioned previously on Seismitoad. Hurricane helps break stuff like Ferrothorn, and perhaps most importantly, Torn-T switches into Mega Venusaur without taking a scratch, as Venu is like the first switch into Seismitoad. Next is Heracross, I don't even have to explain this, do I? Hera is a staple on rain as it takes on Bisharp who can be an issue, as well as hitting hard on the physical side. It's pretty much impossible to switch into, and draws out stuff like Gliscor and Clefable which I dont really have problems with so it has neat synergy with the rest of the team. Finally Jirachi, I would probably benefit more from using Ferrothorn in this slot honestly, but that would make it super standard and i wanted to abuse that gay parahax. In addition to that, Ferrothorn would cause me to be much weaker to Talonflame. Anyways, 'rachi takes on Mega Alakazam decently, and Mega Gardevoir super fucking well, both of which are two big threats to rain. It also comes in on Lati@s really easily. Thunder lures and hits stuff like Vaporeon for decent damage, and I know stuff like Vaporeon would be nowhere near relevant, but when you're playing with a rain team, it kinda... is relevant.
Chopin (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Stealth Rock
- Soft-Boiled
This team was built around Starmie and Weavile, which are fairly uncommon but remain extremely underrated threats. I don't like predicting switches whenever I can avoid it, so the focus of this team was to punish those that frequently switch in and out willy-nilly by abusing Starmie's great coverage and obscene power boosts provided by Analytic paired with Weavile's also good coverage and excellent STABs (such as Ice Shard and Knock Off) to leave gaping holes in the opponent's team. This best describes the general concept of the team (copied from the RMT) - "So I've been wanting to do a fancy RMT for a while, but I always ran into some obstacles. Namely, the teams were shitty and not worth the effort, or unoriginal, or boring, etc... SO, with that in mind, I set out to make some teams that didn't posseses those qualities, and after dicking around for a good while I came up with a few good ones, this being my current favorite. The team is composed almost entirely of very strong, but very frail, all-out offensive mons. It can be difficult to use at first, I've found, but once you get the hang of it (aka when to do what with what mon depending on the opposing team), it practically plays itself. It's nowhere near perfect, but it's perfectly usuable even up in the 1900+ rankings , plus, it's fun as hell and utilizes two fairly uncommon (and extremely underrated) threats in Starmie and Weavile, so hey, why not?"
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 8 SpD / 88 Spe
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
This is a team daftmau5 and I made recently that has proven to be extremely effective. It showcases a heavily under-appreciated mega, as well as a set on it I haven't been seen used much. Jolly sd mega chomp is ridiculously effective. The beauty of the set is that it can not mega evolve untill it needs to, and it can abuse its good speed pre Mega, out speeding things like Landorus, Mega Gardevoir and Mega Medicham, then when it needs to fill a more wall breaking role, it can mega evolve, abuse sand and wreck defensive teams. Unless you are using the Rest-Talk Dragon Tail set, Mega Garchomp only really functions with sand. Hippowdon shared an Ice weakness with 'Chomp, but TTar and 'Chomp have completely different weaknesses, so TTar was our go-to sand setter. Only later, did we realise that pokemon like Mega Pinsir and Thundurus were really dangerous, so we changed it to a Choice Scarf set. Mega Garchomp is an excellent wall breaker under sand, so we realised we wanted a pokemon that could abuse it and be a great late game cleaner. SD Sharp Beak Talonflame is ridiculously good, heavily punishing teams like italian offense and is a great cleaner once Garchomp has punched holes. We then realised we would need hazard control if running Talonflame. Keldeo was a really dangerous mon to the team, so Starmie really fit the bill. We needed rocks, a good sand and secondary bird check, a good Azumarill check and an all round glue. Spikes Ferrothorn and defensive Leftovers Landorus-T worked really well. Talonflame and Chomp work amazing with hazards, and dual hazards are really strong in XY.
The team proved really effective. With the two sweepers, one that could wallbreak, and one that could clean, and our 4 other mons, used to provide excellent defensive synergy, hazard stacking and spinning, proved really effective. Another good thing about the team is people really struggle to predict the sets of the pokemon. People don't always expect 'Chomp, Choice Scarf TTar and Leftovers Lando-T, which can be used to your advantage. Unfortunately, daft was the person who used the team most. And his replays were cleared ;_;. But both of us were able to get a lot of wins with the team against good players. The biggest threats to the team overall are Greninja and Unaware Clefable. Unaware Clefable can be 2HKOd by 'Chomp in sand, and Talonflame with hazards, but it puts a lot of pressure on the team and is very dangerous. Greninja, with the right coveredge, can prove to be extremely annoying, and the best way to deal with it is pivoting between Starmie and Ferrothorn and forcing it out with Talonflame.
Shiver (Tyranitar) @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 156 Atk / 104 SpA
Brave Nature
- Ice Beam
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock
Such a Rush (Excadrill) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
The Scientist (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
High Speed (Latios) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Roost
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
This team is based around Mega Gardevoir, which currently is one of the strongest win-conditions against defensively oriented teams. After the banning of Aegislash and Mawile, it has few to none switch-ins, which grants it the ability to tear apart most teams. Keldeo makes the perfect teammate for Mega Gardevoir, as it's capable of taking on the Steel-types that threaten Gardevoir. It is also great for taking common priority attacks such as Sucker Punch and Aqua Jet, both whom Gardevoir hate. Tyranitar + Excadrill gives the team a way of taking on big threats such as Latios and Latias, as well as a way of revenge killing set-up sweepers like Mega Charizard X and Mega Tyanitar. Ferrothorn acts as the team's main Water-resist and "glue-Pokemon", as it takes on a lot of threats that threathen the other members of the among. Among these are opposing Mega Gardevoir, Azumarill, Mega Gyarados, and opposing Excadrill. Latios is a stample on offense in the current metagame, and is the member that rounds the team off. It gives it a much-needed way of taking on opposing Keldeo, Mega Charizard Y and Lanodrus. In additon to this, it does a great job of cleaning against defensive teams after Gardevoir has done its job.
Aerodactyl @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Stone Edge
- Ice Fang
- Fire Fang
Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Protect
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
When thinking about the idea of the team, I wanted a team where each pair of team members would perform the specific rolls of covering stall, covering offense, and providing a decent defensive core. Mew and SD Lum Berry Garchomp are the main breakers, with Mew being able to shut down most stall m'ons and 'Chomp able to set up SD's easily thanks to Lum Berry and rip through slower teams. Mega Aerodactyl is in charge of closing out offensive teams, which it does phenomenally due to its great coverage and better speed against most viable offensive mons. Teams based around Pinsir, which are rampant on the ladder, are almost completely shut down by Mega Aerodactyl. Fast Choice Band Azumarill is to pressure sand offense with strong priority, outspeed other azu, and just hit things extremely hard in general. Ferrothorn helps check Gyarados and opposing Azumarill, wears down Landorus-T's, and just does Ferrothorn related activites. Air Balloon max Speed Heatran was chosen to get up rocks against lead Landorus's or 'Chomp's, outpeed Scizor and Mega Heracrosses, and be a switch in to opposing Heatran's. If I had to summarize the team function quickly, you sweep offensive teams with Mega Aerdaactyl or wear down bulkier teams with Mew.
This team is part of the classic Volt-Turn combo with Landorus and Manectric. Double Intimidate is fantastic with threats like Charizard X flying around the upper ladder these days. Landorus and Manectric also cover their weaknesses fantastically well. Manectric runs Overheat for the guaranteed kill on Ferrothorn and Mega Heracross after Stealth Rocks. Scarf Landorus is Scarf Landorus. Jolly allows you to outspeed Charizard X after a boost. Greninja is the glue that holds this team together. It deals with threats that the rest of the team would struggle with. HP Fire deals well with Ferrothorn that would otherwise wall it. Extrasensory can be used over Dark Pulse if Venusaur gives you problems. Heatran is the obvious Stealth Rock setter, and deals with Talonflame fantastically, as long as it doesn't have Natural Gift. Healing Wish Latias could be used over Latios, since recovery is always great if you're going to constantly be switching into Stealth Rocks or something. Breloom helps deal with Tyranitar and sweepers that lack priority.
When I first built this team, I knew one Pokemon that I immediately wanted to use: RD TG Manaphy. After watching all the WCoP matches, I noticed that all the stall teams being used were all tremendously weak to this thing. At the time this team was built, sand balance was also really really popular, and manaphy handily beats that playstyle too, so that was another reason why I wanted to use it. So then I began searching for teammates. Manaphy despises fast electrics, mainly Thundurus, Raikou, and Mega Manectric. It also has problems with some mons such as Ferrothorn and AV Azumarill. So my next member was pretty obvious: offensive Mega Venusaur. Both Manaphy and Mega Venusaur were bulky enough to tank some hits, and they had good offensive presence as well. Seeing as how the Lati@s were going to be a problem for both members, I knew I wanted a pursuit member. I decided against Tyranitar, because for one, the sand would limit Mega Venusaur's effectiveness greatly. Second, Landorus-T was EVERYWHERE at this point and I really hate losing momentum. I decided to add pursuit Bisharp for this reason, it punishes any Intimidate user, can still Pursuit trap the Lati@s, and its godly Sucker Punch has proven to be incredibly useful, leading to mindgames vs Mega Gardevoir and Mega Alakazam etc. It also was another way to beat Clefable if god forbid it got too many CM boosts. Now, I noticed that my team was particulary weak vs hard hitting special attackers. Landorus, Charizard Y, and even Keldeo could be very problematic if Venusaur was weakened which isnt unlikely at all. So I eventually gave in and added Latias. It was a solid option vs all of those aforementioned mons, and it also provided crucial defog support. I also added CM Raikou to the team because it also checked all those mons, as well as providing me with another solid win condition. Pinsir + Mag teams at this time were very popular, and CM raikou beat these teams soundly, as well as destroying dual genie offense. Finally, Landorus-T was added because it gave me a solid switch in to all the Mega Heracross's running about who love switching in on Venusaur, a CharX switch in which is important because those always love setting up on Raikou, a Scarf Landorus-T switch in to take all those stupid U-turns and EQs, and it was proven to be an exceptional Stealth Rock user.
This team was created to illustrate the incredibly underrated but effective Mega Alakazam. Taunt + 3 attacks is by far my favorite set, and imo, the most effective, since it allows you to be a menace to both offensive and defensive teams. Mega 'Zam shines the most on very offensive teams, and so I wanted my team to be hard hitting from the start to pressure my opponent. Choice Band Azumarill hits like a truck, tearing holes into many balanced and defensive teams. HO teams simply don't have a switch in to it. It can be used as a lure, since you bop Ferrothorn on the switch in with Superpower, allowing Mega 'Zam to have an easier time. Thundurus is an all around solid poke, providing crucial twave support eliminating deadly sweepers, while being a check to bird spam and hits incredibly hard himself. SD Talonflame was added as another win-con. Its great vs both offensive and defensive teams. Taunt allowed it to set up on things such as Gliscor + Hippo without a Rock-type move. Mamoswine was added as my primary lead because it matches well against the most common SR lead found on offense, Garchomp. Mamoswine can check those annoying Scarf Landorus-T as well. Finally, Latios was added as my defogger, since 2 of my mons are weak to SR. Hidden Power Fire was added on it to ensure that SD Bisharp and SD Scizor can not set up. As an added bonus, it bops Ferrothorn.
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
My goal with building this team was to make hyper offense around Jolly DD Mega Charizard X as a win condition. Jolly DD intrigued me because it outspeeds Scarf Lando-T and KOes after rocks with +0 Flare Blitz. Many offensive teams are built in such a manner that Scarf Lando-T is their only check, making the Jolly DD set a potent sweeper against those teams. My first thought when considering Zard X was Greninja, simply because Greninja with Grass Knot can weaken the likes of Keldeo, the two have good offensive synergy. Greninja also has HP Fire, which is a bit shielded by the partnership of Zard X, too, so I can often catch Ferrothorns for Mamoswine. Plus, Greninja is pretty much the best offensive mon in the tier. So I went with that and decided to add some sort of SR lead. I went with Mamoswine because it offers the best matchup against opposing SR leads while not being Defogged against for free by the Latis, like Terrakion, and having that great priority Ice Shard that's really critical in picking off threats, unlike Azelf. At this point, I realized that my team was pretty weak to a few mons, Scarf Keldeo being a big one, and I needed a hazards remover for Zard X and Mamoswine's sash if I don't choose to lead with it. So I added Latias, which covers Keldeo and also provides Healing Wish support to heal up something like a weakened Greninja and generally allow me to play more aggressively. Landorus-T is the typical Choice Scarf user to revenge kill threats like Mega Gyarados and Adamant Mega Charizard X while crucially outspeeding threats like Latios and Greninja. It's also my primary check to bird spam, as it can revenge kill Mega Pinsir and Talonflame pretty well, even switching into SD Talonflame once if I really need it to. Bisharp fills the last slot as anti-Defog and to improve my team's matchup against stall, as it really puts in a lot of work combined with my other mons. Other than Quagsire which is kinda screwing with this team, but is altogether very rare, I feel this team has a good matchup against most styles, including common offense and balance in late XY. If you feel Quagsire is that much of a problem I guess you can throw Taunt on Bisharp, which could also be nice for preventing Ferro SR and stuff, but I just prefer the sweeping potential of Jolly SD Bisharp and somewhat surprise factor of that.
Ill post one of my teams. Its /kinda/ outdated, but it still works quite well in the current meta. Not recommended for ORAS tho. One of my most successful balance squads Ive made:
Not impressive by any means, but then again Ive been known to choke away games quite a bit
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Protect
Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Knock Off
Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 16 HP / 252 SpA / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch
I made this team a while back when the post Mawile Meta was still relatively new, and when balance ran the meta. A mon that I really wanted to try out was Magnezone, since he got really good after the Aegi ban. So I decided to build a squad around the now infamous PinsirMag core with a balance approach. When it came to hazard setters, there was no better setter than Ferrothorn. His defensive prowess was amazing, and the ability to wall multiple threats reliably throughout an entire match was simply too good to pass up. He also spreads around Leech Seed, which gives both him and his teammates much appreciated recovery, especially when used on high HP mons. With Ferrothorn, I decided to create a S/D/F core, and Latias and Azumarill seemed to fit perfectly with what I had. It gave me a powerful wallbreaker with excellent typing and bulk, and another strong hitter with great bulk and the ability to remove hazards reliably throughout an entire match. Seeing as Zard X, especially DD, was an issue, Scarf Lando T was added to check him as well as giving me a safety net against BirdSpam and Sand. Intimidate is also really useful, as using Lando as a pivot witch is invaluable to soaking up hits from physical attackers with my other mons. U-Turn is also very much appreciated to allow me to retain momentum. Finally, I added PinsirMag. Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Skarm were really annoying, and BirdSpam was still a bit of an issue. Scarf Meganezone beats all these threats reliably (bar SpDef Ferro that gets 3 Protects off in a row .-.) while also forming a nice VoltTurn cor with Lando T. Dual Scarfer isnt seen very often, but it works well. Pinsir is the late game cleaner, sweeper, and wallbreaker all in one explosive package. Due to the more defensive approach with this team, its not uncommon to wear down the opposing team to the point where a +2, and sometimes even unboosted, Pinsir cleans up handily. Hes an excellent stallbreaker if you opt for Sub, as it blocks the inevitable status from the likes of Slowbro / Chansey / whatever youre about to set up on.
I just realized that I dont have very many replays, but I do have a few:
aye so thought i might post a squad that a few people have wanted me to post fsr. it peaked ~1980, which was #3 at the time i believe? idk i dont have screens since this team peaked in maw meta just take my word i promise im not full of shit
anyway behold the toad squad
Politoed @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 172 HP / 248 SpA / 4 SpD / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Rest
- Encore
- Hypnosis
Seismitoad @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 232 HP / 252 SpA / 24 Spe
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Knock Off
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 132 HP / 160 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Heracross @ Heracronite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Pin Missile
- Close Combat
- Rock Blast
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 156 SpD / 100 Spe
Careful Nature
- Thunder
- Iron Head
- Wish
- Protect
ok so first things first my toed spread is important since theres no lati on this team, it ohkoes zard y 100% of the time in rain, dont go around changing it you'll make it worse. scald > surf because scald burns lol and rest is important. hypnosis is pretty shitty i should probably change it to toxic. also i forgot what 84 speed outspeeds but it was on the analysis so i put it there. but yeah toed is pretty important because rain team lol
next up we have the primary swimgod, aka kingdra. feel free to name it Ruben den Boer after the real life demigod. evs outspeed scarf lati because i played against tele on the ladder once and i almost lost thanks to his gay dual scarfer team. it still tanks a bunch of shit like bish's sucker and banded talon i believe so its more than bulky enough for its role, also switches in and beats greninja if rain is up which is handy. ps kingdra > kabutops fuck you all kingdra is the best swimmer
now we have the main attraction of the team, seismitoad. im giving everyone this team now because oras is looming and swamperts gonna be a thing but i dont think it will ever top seis im not even joking, why is it not like b- rank in viability? anyway, evs + moveset courtesy of Rhaegar1 fren, sr because no room on jirachi, life orb for damage output, knock off means kingdra will eventually break chansey and the other two are stab. evs are to outspeed greninja in the rain and ko after rocks with earth power. also the primary switch in to any electric type ever (rotom-w is special, you usually go to seis first to set up rocks as they will o next turn, then go into kingdra to absorb the hydro and ko with draco), scizor (ohkoes offensive with hydro, good chance to ohko 252/100 after rocks) and some other stuff im not remembering. seis is seriously good in this meta, - also 2hkoes latis switching in with hydro + knock off, which is super cool too. chose modest so i dont take away from any of my bulk, as it gets worn down real quick with life orb recoil.
anyway next mon is probably the only reason this team works. the best glue ever, torn-t can tank hydro pump from keldeo in rain, pivot into zard y, random earthquakes etc. u-turn is sweet momentum. originally had lati here but i honestly hate giving an invitation for ttar a weather changer to come in - its not a good idea. the way this team is set up, i have minimal issues vs sand offense since ttar never has opportunities to switch in. knock off also helps vs chansey, like mentioned previously on seis. hurricane helps break stuff like ferro, and perhaps most importantly, torn-t switches into venusaur without taking a scratch, as venu is like the first switch into seis.
next is hera i dont even have to explain this do i? hera is a staple on rain as it takes on bisharp who can be an issue, as well as hits hard on the physical side and is pretty much impossible to switch into, draws out stuff like gliscor and clefable which i dont really have problems with so it has neat synergy with the rest of the team.
finally rachi, i would probably benefit more from using ferro in this slot honestly, but that would make it super standard and i wanted to abuse gay parahax. + if i used ferro i would be destroyed by talonflame. anyway, rachi takes on mzam decently and garde super fucking well, two big threats for rain. also comes into lati really easily. thunder hits stuff like vaporeon for decent damage and i know usually stuff like vaporeon would be nowhere near relevant but when you're playing with a rain team, it kinda... is relevant.
biggest threats
azu. bd azu can theoretically 6-0 but honestly when it comes in its super obvious its bd so i can usually get enough damage on it that kingdra can revenge. havent been swept by it, but still a huge threat.
xzard
nothing switches in lol. dd is handled but roost +3 attacks is troublesome.
random stuff like gastrodon, jellicent
dont need to explain this lol
This is pretty good example of a bulky offense team. It relies on defensive synergy to get free switches and hit incoming mons for massive damage.
This team was built around Crawdaunt and Mamoswine. Their offensive typing and longevity makes it very difficult for your opponent to take them down without suffering major consequences. With Crawdaunt's wall breaking capabilities, nothing in the meta is safe from this duo.
Venu is here to soak fighting type attacks that people like to throw at Daunt and Mamo. It also does a great job of keeping things like Azu and Keldeo in check. With HP Fire, this thing only has one true counter in Heatran. Coincidentally, Mamo and Daunt do a suberb job at beating Tran. I strongly believe that offensive Venu was and still is the best tank in the meta.
Heatran is my rock setter. As stated earlier, this team relies a lot on defensive synergy, and this is the mon glueing the defensive core together. It completes the infamous VenuTran core which is extremely hard to beat. A threat to this core is Latios, which again, Mamo and Daunt can take care of with ease.
I threw on Zapdos to take care of my BirdSpam weakness and for hazard control. A defogger on this team is vital to preserve the sashes of Mamoswine and Crawdaunt.
Rachi is the glue of this team. It beats threats like Kyube, Gardevoir, Starmie, and Medicham. It's a very reliable scarfer and usually gets a lot of momentum on your side. It's Healing Wish is great to restore sashes that could have been broken. This is very useful late-game.
This team's number 1 weakness is to Zard Y which isn't that common. Preserving Sashes is vital in beating this thing.
Mega Hera is another huge threat but is usually taken care of between Zapdos and Jirachi.
Got to 1885 with this squadron.
So replays of when I used this team all the time got deleted for being too old or something so here are some random battles I managed to find.
Chopin (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Stealth Rock
- Soft-Boiled
Time for some shameless self-promotion.
Anyway, this team was built around Starmie and Weavile, which are fairly uncommon but remain extremely underrated threats. I don't like predicting switches whenever I can avoid it, so the focus of this team was to punish those that frequently switch in and out willy-nilly by abusing Starmie's great coverage and obscene power boosts provided by Analytic paired with Weavile's also good coverage and excellent STABs (such as Ice Shard and Knock Off) to leave gaping holes in the opponent's team. This best describes the general concept of the team (copied from the RMT) - "So I've been wanting to do a fancy RMT for a while, but I always ran into some obstacles. Namely, the teams were shitty and not worth the effort, or unoriginal, or boring, etc... SO, with that in mind, I set out to make some teams that didn't posseses those qualities, and after dicking around for a good while I came up with a few good ones, this being my current favorite. The team is composed almost entirely of very strong, but very frail, all-out offensive mons. It can be difficult to use at first, I've found, but once you get the hang of it (aka when to do what with what mon depending on the opposing team), it practically plays itself. It's nowhere near perfect, but it's perfectly usuable even up in the 1900+ rankings , plus, it's fun as hell and utilizes two fairly uncommon (and extremely underrated) threats in Starmie and Weavile, so hey, why not?"
Ill post one of my teams. Its /kinda/ outdated, but it still works quite well in the current meta. Not recommended for ORAS tho. One of my most successful balance squads Ive made:
Not impressive by any means, but then again Ive been known to choke away games quite a bit
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Protect
Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Knock Off
Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 16 HP / 252 SpA / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch
I made this team a while back when the post Mawile Meta was still relatively new, and when balance ran the meta. A mon that I really wanted to try out was Magnezone, since he got really good after the Aegi ban. So I decided to build a squad around the now infamous PinsirMag core with a balance approach. When it came to hazard setters, there was no better setter than Ferrothorn. His defensive prowess was amazing, and the ability to wall multiple threats reliably throughout an entire match was simply too good to pass up. He also spreads around Leech Seed, which gives both him and his teammates much appreciated recovery, especially when used on high HP mons. With Ferrothorn, I decided to create a S/D/F core, and Latias and Azumarill seemed to fit perfectly with what I had. It gave me a powerful wallbreaker with excellent typing and bulk, and another strong hitter with great bulk and the ability to remove hazards reliably throughout an entire match. Seeing as Zard X, especially DD, was an issue, Scarf Lando T was added to check him as well as giving me a safety net against BirdSpam and Sand. Intimidate is also really useful, as using Lando as a pivot witch is invaluable to soaking up hits from physical attackers with my other mons. U-Turn is also very much appreciated to allow me to retain momentum. Finally, I added PinsirMag. Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Skarm were really annoying, and BirdSpam was still a bit of an issue. Scarf Meganezone beats all these threats reliably (bar SpDef Ferro that gets 3 Protects off in a row .-.) while also forming a nice VoltTurn cor with Lando T. Dual Scarfer isnt seen very often, but it works well. Pinsir is the late game cleaner, sweeper, and wallbreaker all in one explosive package. Due to the more defensive approach with this team, its not uncommon to wear down the opposing team to the point where a +2, and sometimes even unboosted, Pinsir cleans up handily. Hes an excellent stallbreaker if you opt for Sub, as it blocks the inevitable status from the likes of Slowbro / Chansey / whatever youre about to set up on.
I just realized that I dont have very many replays, but I do have a few:
aye so thought i might post a squad that a few people have wanted me to post fsr. it peaked ~1980, which was #3 at the time i believe? idk i dont have screens since this team peaked in maw meta just take my word i promise im not full of shit
anyway behold the toad squad
Politoed @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 172 HP / 248 SpA / 4 SpD / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Rest
- Encore
- Hypnosis
Seismitoad @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 232 HP / 252 SpA / 24 Spe
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Knock Off
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 132 HP / 160 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Heracross @ Heracronite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Pin Missile
- Close Combat
- Rock Blast
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 156 SpD / 100 Spe
Careful Nature
- Thunder
- Iron Head
- Wish
- Protect
ok so first things first my toed spread is important since theres no lati on this team, it ohkoes zard y 100% of the time in rain, dont go around changing it you'll make it worse. scald > surf because scald burns lol and rest is important. hypnosis is pretty shitty i should probably change it to toxic. also i forgot what 84 speed outspeeds but it was on the analysis so i put it there. but yeah toed is pretty important because rain team lol
next up we have the primary swimgod, aka kingdra. feel free to name it Ruben den Boer after the real life demigod. evs outspeed scarf lati because i played against tele on the ladder once and i almost lost thanks to his gay dual scarfer team. it still tanks a bunch of shit like bish's sucker and banded talon i believe so its more than bulky enough for its role, also switches in and beats greninja if rain is up which is handy. ps kingdra > kabutops fuck you all kingdra is the best swimmer
now we have the main attraction of the team, seismitoad. im giving everyone this team now because oras is looming and swamperts gonna be a thing but i dont think it will ever top seis im not even joking, why is it not like b- rank in viability? anyway, evs + moveset courtesy of Rhaegar1 fren, sr because no room on jirachi, life orb for damage output, knock off means kingdra will eventually break chansey and the other two are stab. evs are to outspeed greninja in the rain and ko after rocks with earth power. also the primary switch in to any electric type ever (rotom-w is special, you usually go to seis first to set up rocks as they will o next turn, then go into kingdra to absorb the hydro and ko with draco), scizor (ohkoes offensive with hydro, good chance to ohko 252/100 after rocks) and some other stuff im not remembering. seis is seriously good in this meta, - also 2hkoes latis switching in with hydro + knock off, which is super cool too. chose modest so i dont take away from any of my bulk, as it gets worn down real quick with life orb recoil.
anyway next mon is probably the only reason this team works. the best glue ever, torn-t can tank hydro pump from keldeo in rain, pivot into zard y, random earthquakes etc. u-turn is sweet momentum. originally had lati here but i honestly hate giving an invitation for ttar a weather changer to come in - its not a good idea. the way this team is set up, i have minimal issues vs sand offense since ttar never has opportunities to switch in. knock off also helps vs chansey, like mentioned previously on seis. hurricane helps break stuff like ferro, and perhaps most importantly, torn-t switches into venusaur without taking a scratch, as venu is like the first switch into seis.
next is hera i dont even have to explain this do i? hera is a staple on rain as it takes on bisharp who can be an issue, as well as hits hard on the physical side and is pretty much impossible to switch into, draws out stuff like gliscor and clefable which i dont really have problems with so it has neat synergy with the rest of the team.
finally rachi, i would probably benefit more from using ferro in this slot honestly, but that would make it super standard and i wanted to abuse gay parahax. + if i used ferro i would be destroyed by talonflame. anyway, rachi takes on mzam decently and garde super fucking well, two big threats for rain. also comes into lati really easily. thunder hits stuff like vaporeon for decent damage and i know usually stuff like vaporeon would be nowhere near relevant but when you're playing with a rain team, it kinda... is relevant.
biggest threats
azu. bd azu can theoretically 6-0 but honestly when it comes in its super obvious its bd so i can usually get enough damage on it that kingdra can revenge. havent been swept by it, but still a huge threat.
xzard
nothing switches in lol. dd is handled but roost +3 attacks is troublesome.
random stuff like gastrodon, jellicent
dont need to explain this lol
Added both to the archieve; also fixed Trickzio's grammar. For everyone planning to post, please use proper grammar. We don't want this thread turning into CTC's thread v2.
Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin
In this team, I have, in my opinion, created the perfect birdspam team. The birdspam strategy is fairly simple and well-known: Use two or three of the "Big 3" flying types (Talonflame, Staraptor, and Mega Pinsir) to wear down each one's checks and counters. This team uses all three of them, obviously, along with Lando-T, Rotom-W, and Excadrill to support them. The birds are pretty self explanatory, but the ones who do need explaining are these other three. I'll start with Lando, who will be your lead 90% of the time. Lando will provides rocks, and weakens any physical attackers with intimidate. Knock off also is a big help with pokemon who rely somewhat on their items, a big example being Chansey, who even with Close Combat on Pinsir and Staraptor is tough to break through. It also counters Tyranitar without Ice Beam and can check most Heatran. Rotom uses it's specially defensive set, allowing it to check mons that give this team trouble like Azumarill, Keldeo, Lati@s, Lando(-t), Thunderus, Heatran, Skarmory, and Gyarados, among others. 30 speed ivs are used to "outslow" other Rotom-Ws, as nothing else on the team wants to come in on those Rotom's attacks. Rest is Used over Pain Split so that it can be used to swallow burns for the rest of the team. Finally, Excadrill is the best spinner in OU, and this team obviously needs hazard removal. Air balloon lets it come in on earthquakes to spin, and forces it to be hit with other less effective attacks, allowing it to spin easier. It also provides a great answer to Clefable, who likes to switch in on Rotom, and Thunderus, who messes with the rest of the team a lot. It should watch out for focus blast, though.
There are a few other options on the birds' movesets. Pinsir ran EQ back when aegislash still was in OU, and it also has the added benefit of hitting both Heatran and Magnizone harder than CC, although CC generally KO's both at +2 anyways. Staraptor can run Final Gambit to lure Skarmory, but Rotom and Talonflame can generally take care of that. Double Edge is also better at revenge killing Mega Man and Thunderus. Talonflame can run any of its other common moves, but momentum from U-Turn and recovery from Roost are too hard to give up.
I'm not much of a forum presence, so if there are any criticisms or suggestions regarding my team or/and post, let me know. I probably forgot some stuff too, so I might need to add to it.
EDIT: I'm working on getting some good replays, and if someone wants to help me with that by using the team and recording their success that would be wonderful.
Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin
In this team, I have, in my opinion, created the perfect birdspam team. The birdspam strategy is fairly simple and well-known: Use two or three of the "Big 3" flying types (Talonflame, Staraptor, and Mega Pinsir) to wear down each one's checks and counters. This team uses all three of them, obviously, along with Lando-T, Rotom-W, and Excadrill to support them. The birds are pretty self explanatory, but the ones who do need explaining are these other three. I'll start with Lando, who will be your lead 90% of the time. Lando will provides rocks, and weakens any physical attackers with intimidate. Knock off also is a big help with pokemon who rely somewhat on their items, a big example being Chansey, who even with Close Combat on Pinsir and Staraptor is tough to break through. It also counters Tyranitar without Ice Beam and can check most Heatran. Rotom uses it's specially defensive set, allowing it to check mons that give this team trouble like Azumarill, Keldeo, Lati@s, Lando(-t), Thunderus, Heatran, Skarmory, and Gyarados, among others. 30 speed ivs are used to "outslow" other Rotom-Ws, as nothing else on the team wants to come in on those Rotom's attacks. Rest is Used over Pain Split so that it can be used to swallow burns for the rest of the team. Finally, Excadrill is the best spinner in OU, and this team obviously needs hazard removal. Air balloon lets it come in on earthquakes to spin, and forces it to be hit with other less effective attacks, allowing it to spin easier. It also provides a great answer to Clefable, who likes to switch in on Rotom, and Thunderus, who messes with the rest of the team a lot. It should watch out for focus blast, though.
There are a few other options on the birds' movesets. Pinsir ran EQ back when aegislash still was in OU, and it also has the added benefit of hitting both Heatran and Magnizone harder than CC, although CC generally KO's both at +2 anyways. Staraptor can run Final Gambit to lure Skarmory, but Rotom and Talonflame can generally take care of that. Double Edge is also better at revenge killing Mega Man and Thunderus. Talonflame can run any of its other common moves, but momentum from U-Turn and recovery from Roost are too hard to give up.
I'm not much of a forum presence, so if there are any criticisms or suggestions regarding my team or/and post, let me know. I probably forgot some stuff too, so I might need to add to it.
Is scarf gengar a thing? If it is, it is easily revenge killed by talonflame, and excadrill can take anything that isnt focus blast. Otherwise you are definitely right.
Is scarf gengar a thing? If it is, it is easily revenge killed by talonflame, and excadrill can take anything that isnt focus blast. Otherwise you are definitely right.
Ok I'm going to post a team here that I made quite a while ago, back when Mega Gyara was actually pretty good. I made it around the core of gothitelle + magnezone + mega gyarados because magnezone's ability to take out skarmory and ferrothorn was appreciated, while gothitelle took care of slowbro and other stuff that could check/counter mega gyarados. Anyways this team peaked around 1700 which is pretty nice.
Terrakion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
- Rock Polish
Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
So as I mentioned before, this team was built around mega gyarados sweeping, with goth and magnezone removing it's counters. Usually I will take a look at my opponents team, see who can check/counter mega gyara, use all my mons to take it out, and then proceed to sweep with m-gyarados. Lando-t is my team's rocks setter. Double dancer terrakion can be really strong against HO and stall, setting up rock polish against HO to outspeed common scarfers, and setting up swords dance on stall. It's rare to get both up, but when it does, you might as well say gg because there's not gonna be alot stopping this monster. Excadrill is my team's spinner, it basically spins away the rocks that gyarados hates. I used choice scarf magnezone over choice scarf magneton, but sometimes outspeeding greninja can be important so you can customize that. Magnezone can also give gyarados the opportunity to switch in safely. I usually lead with him because leading with scarfers that have u-turn/volt switch is cool. Gothitelle and gyarados form the center piece of the team. Goth traps stuff like mega venu, amoonguss, slowbro, skarmory, ferrothorn and pretty much everything else. It also is my main way of screwing up clefable by tricking it a specs. You can obviously customize your coverage moves, but I think my set hits everything decently hard. It also serves as my second answer to ferro/skarm if magnezone dies. My gyarados set is pretty standard, but stone edge can be ran over ice fang to hit kyu-b, which walls both goth and gyarados behind a sub. Ice fang is probably preferred because then gothitelle isn't overloaded. This team has a good time against stall, and a harder time against HO, especially greninja. Now with the rise of stallbreaker mew and annoying stuff like that, this team isn't that good anymore because everyone has adapted to mega gyarados, but of course it's still usable, just not that good.
This is a team daftmau5 and I made recently that has proven to be extremely effective. It showcases a heavily under-appreciated mega, as well as a set on it I haven't been seen used much. Jolly sd mega chomp is ridiculously effective. The beauty of the set is that it can not mega evolve untill it needs to, and it can abuse its good speed pre Mevo, out speeding things like lando i, mega gardevoir and medicham, then when it needs to fill a more wall breaking role, it can mega, abuse sand and wreck defensive teams. Unless you are using the rest talk dragon tail set, mega chomp only really functions with sand. Hippo shared an ice weakness with chomp, but ttar and chomp have completely different weaknesses, so ttar was our go-to sand setter. Only later, did we realise that pokemon like mega pinsir and thundurus were really dangerous, so we changed it to a scarf set. Mega garchomp is an excellent wall breaker under sand, so we realised we wanted a pokemon that could abuse it and be a great late game cleaner. Sd sharp beak talonflame is ridiculously good, heavily punishing teams like italian offence and is a great cleaner once garchomp has punched holes. We then realised we would need hazard control if running talonflame. Keldeo was a really dangerous mon to the team, so starmie really fit the bill. We needed rocks, a good sand and secondary bird check, a good azum check and an all round glue. Spikes ferrothorn and defensive leftovers Lando-t worked really well. Talonflame and Chomp work amazing with hazards, and dual hazards are really strong in XY.
The team proved really effective. With the two sweepers, one that could wallbreak, and one that could clean, and our 4 other mons, used to provide excellent defensive synergy, hazard stacking and spinning, proved really effective. Another good thing about the team is people really struggle to predict the sets of the pokemon. People don't always expect chomp, scarf ttar and lefties lando t, which can be used to your advantage. Unfortunately, daft was the person who used the team most. And his replays were cleared ;_;. But both of us were able to get a lot of wins with the team against good players.
The biggest threats to the team overall are greninja and unuware clefable. Unuware clefable can be 2ohko'd by chomp in sand, and talon with hazards, but it puts a lot of pressure on the team and is very dangerous. Greninja, with the right coveredge, can prove to be extremely annoying, and the best way to deal with it is pivoting between starmie and ferro and forcing it out with tflame.
So ye, thats the team, it abuses two extremey deadly sd sweepers, and in combination with stealth rock and spikes, it is generally too much for most teams to handle. :)
Chopin (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Stealth Rock
- Soft-Boiled
Time for some shameless self-promotion.
Anyway, this team was built around Starmie and Weavile, which are fairly uncommon but remain extremely underrated threats. I don't like predicting switches whenever I can avoid it, so the focus of this team was to punish those that frequently switch in and out willy-nilly by abusing Starmie's great coverage and obscene power boosts provided by Analytic paired with Weavile's also good coverage and excellent STABs (such as Ice Shard and Knock Off) to leave gaping holes in the opponent's team. This best describes the general concept of the team (copied from the RMT) - "So I've been wanting to do a fancy RMT for a while, but I always ran into some obstacles. Namely, the teams were shitty and not worth the effort, or unoriginal, or boring, etc... SO, with that in mind, I set out to make some teams that didn't posseses those qualities, and after dicking around for a good while I came up with a few good ones, this being my current favorite. The team is composed almost entirely of very strong, but very frail, all-out offensive mons. It can be difficult to use at first, I've found, but once you get the hang of it (aka when to do what with what mon depending on the opposing team), it practically plays itself. It's nowhere near perfect, but it's perfectly usuable even up in the 1900+ rankings , plus, it's fun as hell and utilizes two fairly uncommon (and extremely underrated) threats in Starmie and Weavile, so hey, why not?"
This is a team daftmau5 and I made recently that has proven to be extremely effective. It showcases a heavily under-appreciated mega, as well as a set on it I haven't been seen used much. Jolly sd mega chomp is ridiculously effective. The beauty of the set is that it can not mega evolve untill it needs to, and it can abuse its good speed pre Mevo, out speeding things like lando i, mega gardevoir and medicham, then when it needs to fill a more wall breaking role, it can mega, abuse sand and wreck defensive teams. Unless you are using the rest talk dragon tail set, mega chomp only really functions with sand. Hippo shared an ice weakness with chomp, but ttar and chomp have completely different weaknesses, so ttar was our go-to sand setter. Only later, did we realise that pokemon like mega pinsir and thundurus were really dangerous, so we changed it to a scarf set. Mega garchomp is an excellent wall breaker under sand, so we realised we wanted a pokemon that could abuse it and be a great late game cleaner. Sd sharp beak talonflame is ridiculously good, heavily punishing teams like italian offence and is a great cleaner once garchomp has punched holes. We then realised we would need hazard control if running talonflame. Keldeo was a really dangerous mon to the team, so starmie really fit the bill. We needed rocks, a good sand and secondary bird check, a good azum check and an all round glue. Spikes ferrothorn and defensive leftovers Lando-t worked really well. Talonflame and Chomp work amazing with hazards, and dual hazards are really strong in XY.
The team proved really effective. With the two sweepers, one that could wallbreak, and one that could clean, and our 4 other mons, used to provide excellent defensive synergy, hazard stacking and spinning, proved really effective. Another good thing about the team is people really struggle to predict the sets of the pokemon. People don't always expect chomp, scarf ttar and lefties lando t, which can be used to your advantage. Unfortunately, daft was the person who used the team most. And his replays were cleared ;_;. But both of us were able to get a lot of wins with the team against good players.
The biggest threats to the team overall are greninja and unuware clefable. Unuware clefable can be 2ohko'd by chomp in sand, and talon with hazards, but it puts a lot of pressure on the team and is very dangerous. Greninja, with the right coveredge, can prove to be extremely annoying, and the best way to deal with it is pivoting between starmie and ferro and forcing it out with tflame.
So ye, thats the team, it abuses two extremey deadly sd sweepers, and in combination with stealth rock and spikes, it is generally too much for most teams to handle. :)
This is pretty good example of a bulky offense team. It relies on defensive synergy to get free switches and hit incoming mons for massive damage.
This team was built around Crawdaunt and Mamoswine. Their offensive typing and longevity makes it very difficult for your opponent to take them down without suffering major consequences. With Crawdaunt's wall breaking capabilities, nothing in the meta is safe from this duo.
Venu is here to soak fighting type attacks that people like to throw at Daunt and Mamo. It also does a great job of keeping things like Azu and Keldeo in check. With HP Fire, this thing only has one true counter in Heatran. Coincidentally, Mamo and Daunt do a suberb job at beating Tran. I strongly believe that offensive Venu was and still is the best tank in the meta.
Heatran is my rock setter. As stated earlier, this team relies a lot on defensive synergy, and this is the mon glueing the defensive core together. It completes the infamous VenuTran core which is extremely hard to beat. A threat to this core is Latios, which again, Mamo and Daunt can take care of with ease.
I threw on Zapdos to take care of my BirdSpam weakness and for hazard control. A defogger on this team is vital to preserve the sashes of Mamoswine and Crawdaunt.
Rachi is the glue of this team. It beats threats like Kyube, Gardevoir, Starmie, and Medicham. It's a very reliable scarfer and usually gets a lot of momentum on your side. It's Healing Wish is great to restore sashes that could have been broken. This is very useful late-game.
This team's number 1 weakness is to Zard Y which isn't that common. Preserving Sashes is vital in beating this thing.
Mega Hera is another huge threat but is usually taken care of between Zapdos and Jirachi.
Got to 1885 with this squadron.
So replays of when I used this team all the time got deleted for being too old or something so here are some random battles I managed to find.
Even though this team has good overall synergy and seemingly works well, we have decided to reject it. Our reasiong behind this is that the composition of the team isn't very good. With Sash Mamoswine and Crawdaunt, you put a lot of pressure on the opponent, but Venusaur and Zapdos both kill all the momentum you build up with the heavily offensive 'mons. The team also has no way of dealing with Greninja outside of revenge killing with Jirachi, which puts way too much pressure on a Pokemon that is easily worn down.
Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin
In this team, I have, in my opinion, created the perfect birdspam team. The birdspam strategy is fairly simple and well-known: Use two or three of the "Big 3" flying types (Talonflame, Staraptor, and Mega Pinsir) to wear down each one's checks and counters. This team uses all three of them, obviously, along with Lando-T, Rotom-W, and Excadrill to support them. The birds are pretty self explanatory, but the ones who do need explaining are these other three. I'll start with Lando, who will be your lead 90% of the time. Lando will provides rocks, and weakens any physical attackers with intimidate. Knock off also is a big help with pokemon who rely somewhat on their items, a big example being Chansey, who even with Close Combat on Pinsir and Staraptor is tough to break through. It also counters Tyranitar without Ice Beam and can check most Heatran. Rotom uses it's specially defensive set, allowing it to check mons that give this team trouble like Azumarill, Keldeo, Lati@s, Lando(-t), Thunderus, Heatran, Skarmory, and Gyarados, among others. 30 speed ivs are used to "outslow" other Rotom-Ws, as nothing else on the team wants to come in on those Rotom's attacks. Rest is Used over Pain Split so that it can be used to swallow burns for the rest of the team. Finally, Excadrill is the best spinner in OU, and this team obviously needs hazard removal. Air balloon lets it come in on earthquakes to spin, and forces it to be hit with other less effective attacks, allowing it to spin easier. It also provides a great answer to Clefable, who likes to switch in on Rotom, and Thunderus, who messes with the rest of the team a lot. It should watch out for focus blast, though.
There are a few other options on the birds' movesets. Pinsir ran EQ back when aegislash still was in OU, and it also has the added benefit of hitting both Heatran and Magnizone harder than CC, although CC generally KO's both at +2 anyways. Staraptor can run Final Gambit to lure Skarmory, but Rotom and Talonflame can generally take care of that. Double Edge is also better at revenge killing Mega Man and Thunderus. Talonflame can run any of its other common moves, but momentum from U-Turn and recovery from Roost are too hard to give up.
I'm not much of a forum presence, so if there are any criticisms or suggestions regarding my team or/and post, let me know. I probably forgot some stuff too, so I might need to add to it.
EDIT: I'm working on getting some good replays, and if someone wants to help me with that by using the team and recording their success that would be wonderful.
We have also decided to reject this team, becuase it has a severe weakness to many top tier threats in the current metagame. Outside of revengekilling with Talonflame, Staraptor and Pinsir, almost all Water-types, Lati@s, Mega Gardevoir and Gengar are imcredibly hard to deal with. Also, having so many weaknesses to SR, but a mediocre at best hazard remover is a big no-no. The fact that SR will most likely be up most of the time, the team is just easy to play around, as long as Pinsir isn't able to sweep.
This is a team daftmau5 and I made recently that has proven to be extremely effective. It showcases a heavily under-appreciated mega, as well as a set on it I haven't been seen used much. Jolly sd mega chomp is ridiculously effective. The beauty of the set is that it can not mega evolve untill it needs to, and it can abuse its good speed pre Mevo, out speeding things like lando i, mega gardevoir and medicham, then when it needs to fill a more wall breaking role, it can mega, abuse sand and wreck defensive teams. Unless you are using the rest talk dragon tail set, mega chomp only really functions with sand. Hippo shared an ice weakness with chomp, but ttar and chomp have completely different weaknesses, so ttar was our go-to sand setter. Only later, did we realise that pokemon like mega pinsir and thundurus were really dangerous, so we changed it to a scarf set. Mega garchomp is an excellent wall breaker under sand, so we realised we wanted a pokemon that could abuse it and be a great late game cleaner. Sd sharp beak talonflame is ridiculously good, heavily punishing teams like italian offence and is a great cleaner once garchomp has punched holes. We then realised we would need hazard control if running talonflame. Keldeo was a really dangerous mon to the team, so starmie really fit the bill. We needed rocks, a good sand and secondary bird check, a good azum check and an all round glue. Spikes ferrothorn and defensive leftovers Lando-t worked really well. Talonflame and Chomp work amazing with hazards, and dual hazards are really strong in XY.
The team proved really effective. With the two sweepers, one that could wallbreak, and one that could clean, and our 4 other mons, used to provide excellent defensive synergy, hazard stacking and spinning, proved really effective. Another good thing about the team is people really struggle to predict the sets of the pokemon. People don't always expect chomp, scarf ttar and lefties lando t, which can be used to your advantage. Unfortunately, daft was the person who used the team most. And his replays were cleared ;_;. But both of us were able to get a lot of wins with the team against good players.
The biggest threats to the team overall are greninja and unuware clefable. Unuware clefable can be 2ohko'd by chomp in sand, and talon with hazards, but it puts a lot of pressure on the team and is very dangerous. Greninja, with the right coveredge, can prove to be extremely annoying, and the best way to deal with it is pivoting between starmie and ferro and forcing it out with tflame.
So ye, thats the team, it abuses two extremey deadly sd sweepers, and in combination with stealth rock and spikes, it is generally too much for most teams to handle. :)
Decent team overall, but it seems very weak to stall. Your only wallbreaker is Mega Garchomp, which has difficulty getting past Pokemon such as Skarmory and Quagsire outside of sand, which sucks because you don't have a reliable source of sand. Making Landorus-T the scarfer and giving to Tyranitar SR and Smooth Rock would alleviate this problem.
Decent team overall, but it seems very weak to stall. Your only wallbreaker is Mega Garchomp, which has difficulty getting past Pokemon such as Skarmory and Quagsire outside of sand, which sucks because you don't have a reliable source of sand. Making Landorus-T the scarfer and giving to Tyranitar SR and Smooth Rock would alleviate this problem.
seconding this, while have a personal dislike for scarf landt and a fondness for scarftar, if you're gonna rely on sand force to wallbreak, u gon want sand up as long as possible
I fail to see where you are coming from with this considering how Venusaur is one of the heaviest hitters on the team. It hits a solid 374 special attack and can put a lot of offensive pressure on the opponent. If you watched the replays you will notice that I used Venusaur's defensive typing to my advantage to force switches and nuke something as it comes in.
If you think Venusaur causes the team to lose momentum you have either
a) not actually tried out the team
or b) used the team incorrectly
I can understand the team being rejected but the reason it was rejected makes no sense.
Shiver (Tyranitar) @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 156 Atk / 104 SpA
Brave Nature
- Ice Beam
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock
Such a Rush (Excadrill) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
The Scientist (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
High Speed (Latios) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Roost
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
per TheEnder - "This team is based around Mega Gardevoir, which currently is one of the strongest win-conditions against defensively oriented teams. After the banning of Aegislash and Mawile, it has few to none switch-ins, which grants it the ability to tear apart most teams. Keldeo makes the perfect teammate for Mega Gardevoir, as it's capable of taking on the Steel-types that threaten Gardevoir. It is also great for taking common priority attacks such as Sucker Punch and Aqua Jet, both whom Gardevoir hate. Tyranitar + Excadrill gives the team a way of taking on big threats such as Latios and Latias, as well as a way of revenge killing set-up sweepers like Mega Charizard X and Mega Tyanitar. Ferrothorn acts as the team's main Water-resist and "glue-Pokemon", as it takes on a lot of threats that threathen the other members of the among. Among these are opposing Mega Gardevoir, Azumarill, Mega Gyarados, and opposing Excadrill. Latios is a stample on offense in the current metagame, and is the member that rounds the team off. It gives it a much-needed way of taking on opposing Keldeo, Mega Charizard Y and Landorus. In additon to this, it does a great job of cleaning against defensive teams after Gardevoir has done its job."
I fail to see where you are coming from with this considering how Venusaur is one of the heaviest hitters on the team. It hits a solid 374 special attack and can put a lot of offensive pressure on the opponent. If you watched the replays you will notice that I used Venusaur's defensive typing to my advantage to force switches and nuke something as it comes in.
If you think Venusaur causes the team to lose momentum you have either
a) not actually tried out the team
or b) used the team incorrectly
I can understand the team being rejected but the reason it was rejected makes no sense.
Your team is too slow and non threatening to be utilizing a dual Sash strategy. Also, your it's helpless against stall, as without LO, Crawdaunt is hard walled by Pokemon such as Quagsire, Unaware Clefable, Skarmory, and Mega Venusaur. Your team may work with good prediction or risky plays, but it's certainly not a team for new players to use.
Posting a thread I threw together at midnight a couple days ago. Apparently it's well thought out, so I might as well put it here. The original team was for the ORAS ladder, so Greninja has Gunk Shot, so I don't know if I can put that, but for now, I wont. Just call it, uhh, "Double Intimidate Volt-Turn", It's too late at night for me to think of anything better. Here's the RMT.
Until May (Manectric) (F) @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Lifted (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
Sempiternal (Greninja) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
Besitos (Heatran) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Flamethrower
- Flash Cannon
This team is part of the classic Volt-Turn combo with Landorus and Manectric. Double Intimidate is fantastic with threats like Charizard X flying around the upper ladder these days. Landorus and Manectric also cover their weaknesses fantastically well. Manectric runs Overheat for the guaranteed kill on Ferrothorn and Mega Heracross after Stealth Rocks. Scarf Landorus is Scarf Landorus. Jolly allows you to outspeed Charizard X after a boost. Greninja is the glue that holds this team together. It deals with threats that the rest of the team would struggle with. HP Fire deals well with Ferrothorn that would otherwise wall it. Extrasensory can be used over Dark Pulse if Venusaur gives you problems. Heatran is the obvious Stealth Rock setter, and deals with Talonflame fantastically, as long as it doesn't have Natural Gift. Healing Wish Latias could be used over Latios, since recovery is always great if you're going to constantly be switching into Stealth Rocks or something. Breloom helps deal with Tyranitar and sweepers that lack priority.
No replays as of yet. I haven't laddered with this team in a while, since my dad just got home from the hospital and I haven't been home a lot, but I'll make sure to get some at some point.
Gothitelle @ Leftovers
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
- Psychic
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Rock Slide
So I'm submitting a kind of old team from post Mawile meta, when the wallbreaker megas started running around, that I peaked around 1700+ in top 500 with. Also posted the RMT of this team a while ago, its in my siggy and here there are even more detailed explanations for members there. I guess you could call it Web Offense or something like that...
The way to play with this team is pretty simple. Galvantula leads most of the time, gets up web, and dies. Now send in the appropriate heavy hitters and apply a ton of offensive pressure. mega Cham and Bisharp have really good synergy and can take out a lot between themselves, with Medicham single-handdedly wrecking VenuTran and Bisharp checking Lati twins(Pursuit with Blackglasses is a good slash over Iron head). Whatever my team has problems with is usually taken care of by Goth, and it sets up on all sorts of stuff like Lati@s after a Draco, while also dismantling a ton of stall cores which trouble my team. Kyu-B is really good with Sub, destroying much of the tier and also making up for some of his below-average speed, he functions as another powerful wallbreaker. Finally Lando-T is a nice Zard X and Birdspam check, while also being a bulky pivot and SR setter. The best thing is when you can intimidate something and then go into Goth... Now you may notice I have no hazards removal. This was before Spiker Greninja became big, and also a lot of Defog-less and no spinner teams were showing up around this time. I aimed to simply make sure my opponents didn't have time to defog or spin, and punish Defog anyway with Bisharp or just KO the defoggers.
I think that this team was a decent team from the time when stall was becoming less big, while this could also be one of the better few web teams. Also IMO isn't really that hard to play with, it kind of plays itself and I remember pretty much autowinning against a ton of good teams from that era. I don't have any replays besides the haxy one I posted in the thread...been a while since I have laddered seriously. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-166278104
Ladder proof is in my RMT
Lol why did you change the names of the pokemon, that was a great cancer team
Anyways I just lost to this team on the ladder because I was running modest zard y lmao
