XY OU RMT: Ice Shard All the Things

[Me Dicen Wera]

So, this is my first RMT publication, probably my first publication ever, and so I hope to know what you guys think about the team, I'll explain briefly how the conception was, and I hope to get some nice criticism cause this are the interwebs.

So, this team was born when I decided to use Weavile on a team, I hadn't seen it at all before... yesterday when I made this team and I figured out Pursuit + Ice Shard is never bad, you also get the useful Knock Off once in a while.

Weavile (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Ice Shard
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance


That was the basic idea on the team, honestly just to have a Weavile, then I figured out if I was going to be switching in and out pursuing and Ice Sharding all the things, I might as well have a spinner, but after a lot of thinking I was like, meh, I want a Defog Latios, so of course, I got a Latias. Also, I originally had Icicle Crash instead of Swords Dance, not worth it, Ice Shard is already great and the Swords Dance against lots of Pokes turned battles into sweeps.

Latias @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Defog
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock

And I mean, she really does her job, kinda. I decided for Latias really because of the extra bulk she had over Latios, I wasn't trying to punch holes and defog at the same time, and she's kinda cute. After that I was like, ok, so now I need to make Weavile worth it since I'm placing Latias, I need rocks to make it easier for him, so I tried to look for something that walled the fairies these other two don't enjoy, and could set up rocks.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 240 HP / 240 SpD / 28 Spe
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power

I swear to god, Heatran is so ugly as a Pokemon, it's amazing as a Stealth Rocker. The set is pretty standard, Earth Power and the speed investment had at first the intention to kill any opposing Heatrans, now I'm considering changing them for Flash Cannon and SpA just for...reasons I guess. After these three I wanted something that hitted hard and fast and also had some decent coverage in four moves, so...

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Iron Head

I would marry this thing if I could find a safe hole in it. It really hits hard even with a choice scarf, and 102 Spe means it's faster than DDD-nite and DD Gyarados after +1, so fuck those guys, really. I had Rock Slide Instead of Rock Blast originally, but honestly a super effective Rock Slide hits as hard as Neutral E-Quake, it need to be 4x effective to pull it's weight, Iron Head means gg Gardevoir, Mega Diancie, etc. Next up is something that could switch into many resisted hits, then screw up the Pokemon switching in.

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 108 HP / 252 SpA / 148 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Substitute

At first this was a Choice Specs Volt Switch Magnezone, but OMG, this one is so much better. People just expect that so often you get a free Substitute everytime you switch this in a Latias, etc. That is also how I like to play this thing, you make a move that forces your opponent to go into something that cant hurt Magnezone and have a nice time. You can S-Rocks with heatran, expect the Latios, Latias, Scizor switch in even, and play around with them so often it's weird. It's coverage it's also pretty good, eally HP Fire since it's nerf is kinda meh, but it's neccesary. So, for the final member...

Slowbro @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 4 SpA / 96 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Calm Mind
- Psychic

Look at that face. That down syndrome... eh... beach memento glues this team together somehow, being overall pretty bulky on the physical side, resisting Fighting, and Water which otherwise are kinda bad for this team. Also, I don't know how, but the combination of normal Slowbro, Regenerator and the Slowbronite are perfect, they offset knock off bonus, since it cannot... knock off the item, and allow me to switch out to heal instantly. How is this so perfect? It's beautiful. Really I only Mega-Evolve when I know I don't need to keep switching out, and start to Calm Mind. Even If I dont sweep with it, between the damage it does after CM Scald or Psychic, it's pretty great.

So really, the main purpose of this team is to between everyone chip the health away of my opponent's party, between SRocks, Magnezone and Garchomp they slowly do it, and it's been pretty great till now. Its now at like 1340 ranking, so I mean, it's been doing great.

I think problems with it are the fact that Garchomp either locks into Outrage or Earthquake too often, and Levitators, fliers, fairies and steels, make it complicated sometimes, so I depend on Magnezone and Heatran more than I wished to counter them, otherwise, smart play and predicting make it for me almost always.

So, what you guys think? Btw, not an english native, so even when I have a Cambridge saying I master the language, I know I can make errors here and then, so sorry about that.

 

[Krusaider]

Hey! I like the set-up of your ten so far! For a first attempt at making an OU team I think you’ve done a fairly decent job. The things that stuck out to me though was your weakness to ground type moves. With Earthquake being a popular move among many pokemon you may have a few problems switching into something that can take the hit since Weavile, Heatran, and Magneton are all susceptible targets. What I would recommend is giving one of them an Air Ballon. Of all thee pokemon you have I think your Heatran would benefit the most from an item like Air Balloon. Magneton could as well, but with Substitute as one of its moves, I think you’re better off with Leftovers, and Weavile is too fragile anyways to gain much benefit from an Air Balloon.

The next thing I noticed is that you don’t have an answer to Dark Type pokemon which could potentially do a lot of damage against your Latias and Slowbro even if they are walls. Knock-Off bind a common dark-type attack as well. So I would recommend Heatran carrying maybe Hidden Power Fighting instead of Earth Power, since you were thinking of switching that out. But that’s up to you. Even without an answer to Dark Type pokemon, most of the OU ons are dual-typed so you should be fine anyways.

The only other changes I would recommend is Garchomp caring Fire Fang instead of Fire Blast. The reasons being you have him set as a physical attacker. Also Fire Blast doesn’t have the highest accuracy in the world. So landing a direct-hit might be crucial at times. Other than that I think you have a solid team. Fighting types may give you trouble since 3 of your pokemon are weak to them, but with your two Psychic pokemon that serve as walls, perhaps you *may* be okay, but just think about balancing your team out a bit more. Maybe a Salamence instead of a Garchomp.

 

[everybody]

Hey! I like the set-up of your ten so far! For a first attempt at making an OU team I think you’ve done a fairly decent job. The things that stuck out to me though was your weakness to ground type moves. With Earthquake being a popular move among many pokemon you may have a few problems switching into something that can take the hit since Weavile, Heatran, and Magneton are all susceptible targets. What I would recommend is giving one of them an Air Ballon. Of all thee pokemon you have I think your Heatran would benefit the most from an item like Air Balloon. Magneton could as well, but with Substitute as one of its moves, I think you’re better off with Leftovers, and Weavile is too fragile anyways to gain much benefit from an Air Balloon.

The next thing I noticed is that you don’t have an answer to Dark Type pokemon which could potentially do a lot of damage against your Latias and Slowbro even if they are walls. Knock-Off bind a common dark-type attack as well. So I would recommend Heatran carrying maybe Hidden Power Fighting instead of Earth Power, since you were thinking of switching that out. But that’s up to you. Even without an answer to Dark Type pokemon, most of the OU ons are dual-typed so you should be fine anyways.

The only other changes I would recommend is Garchomp caring Fire Fang instead of Fire Blast. The reasons being you have him set as a physical attacker. Also Fire Blast doesn’t have the highest accuracy in the world. So landing a direct-hit might be crucial at times. Other than that I think you have a solid team. Fighting types may give you trouble since 3 of your pokemon are weak to them, but with your two Psychic pokemon that serve as walls, perhaps you *may* be okay, but just think about balancing your team out a bit more. Maybe a Salamence instead of a Garchomp.

I would agree how your team is quite open to earthquake spam. Your title brings up a pokemon you might have trouble against: LO Mamoswine. It picks off your team with its stab combination.
240 Atk Life Orb Mamoswine Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 348-421 (97.4 - 117.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
240 Atk Life Orb Mamoswine Ice Shard vs. 72 HP / 0 Def Latias: 187-221 (58.6 - 69.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
16 SpA Life Orb Mamoswine Freeze-Dry vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Mega Slowbro: 164-195 (41.6 - 49.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Really only slowbore can shrug off its hits but if it gets a freeze dry on you before it can mega evolve you could be in some hurt. Do put a air balloon.

As for fire fang on garchomp: DONT USE IT. Fire blast hits skarmory harder, and doesn't trigger iron barbs on ferrothorn

 

[Krusaider]

Yeah. Mamoswine would definitely be a problem for your team as everybody pointed out. Though one thing I don't quite agree with is:

As for fire fang on garchomp: DONT USE IT. Fire blast hits skarmory harder, and doesn't trigger iron barbs on ferrothorn

While it is true that Fire Blast would hit Skarmory better and deal with Ferrothorn as well. I figured Heatran covered that niche better with his typing and having Lava Plume. Switching into Heatran when those two show up wouldn't be risky either as he resists pretty much everything they can dish out.

 

[Sanger Zonvolt]

Yeah. Mamoswine would definitely be a problem for your team as everybody pointed out. Though one thing I don't quite agree with is:

While it is true that Fire Blast would hit Skarmory better and deal with Ferrothorn as well. I figured Heatran covered that niche better with his typing and having Lava Plume. Switching into Heatran when those two show up wouldn't be risky either as he resists pretty much everything they can dish out.

Doesn't change that Garchomp shouldn't be running Fire Fang. If you aren't running Fire Blast, then you should be running Dragon Claw. Fire Fang is never a good a idea because its base power is too low to matter and the things that that you'd hit with it tend to have a much higher Physical Defense than Special Defense:

252 Atk Garchomp Fire Fang vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 82-98 (24.5 - 29.3%) -- 76.6% chance to 4HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
4 SpA Garchomp Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Skarmory: 176-208 (52.6 - 62.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Garchomp Fire Fang vs. 248 HP / 0+ Def Mega Scizor: 196-232 (57.1 - 67.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
4 SpA Garchomp Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 176 SpD Mega Scizor: 224-268 (65.3 - 78.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

I also wouldn't be running Iron Head. Earthquake hits Fairies hard enough that the extra power won't matter:

252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 144-171 (36.5 - 43.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Garchomp Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 154-182 (39 - 46.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

If I get a chance I'll give you a more in-depth rate, but your Garchomp should definitely drop Iron Head for either Rock Slide or Stone Edge, and if you decide to drop Fire Blast (not saying you need to) swap your nature to Jolly and run Dragon Claw

 

[everybody]

Sorry for the double post, I was rushing in my first one. So I told you that mamoswine can hurt your team, but I know just what you can do to help your team get past it and more. Have you thought of Low Kick > Swords Dance on your Weavile? This allows it to muscle through many heavy OU pokes that it couldn't really touch with its given moveset: Mamoswine, Tyranitar, Heatran, Bisharp, Terrakion, Kyurem-B, and Magnezone all get mauled by low kick. It is also hard finding the time for weavile to set up SD given its frailness and the number of priority users running around. It can only set up by forcing switches, but isn't that what pursuit abuses?

Now I remember how fun it is to use Weavile

I also noticed your team could have a little problem with rotom-wash, having no way to deal significant damage except for outrage, knock off(losing its item is big), and toxic on your heatran. Other than that, it will damage/cripple one or two of your team members with relative ease. Perhaps Scarf Excadrill > ScarfChomp because excadrill has a teeny bit stronger earthquake, and a much meaner iron head. With Mold Breaker, Excadrill can spam EQ much more freely than Garchomp, hitting rotom-w and the latitwins for great damage at the same time. Your Garchomp was all about speed, so Jolly would be an ideal nature for excadrill, as it can still outspeed +1 Dnite, +1 Adamant MzardX, and +1 Gyara. You could try a EQ /Iron head/ Rock Slide / filler(usually rapid spin) set. Be warned though, it adds to your fighting weakness.

EDIT: On the other hand, Garchomp has lots of defensive advantages going for it so take this suggestion lightly.

 

[Me Dicen Wera]

So, updating this thread on my Team, I made some changes since the original post

First, I changed Garchompy to Outrage, Earthquake, Dragon Claw, Iron Head, it works great till now.
Then, Heatran got ballon thank you all for your advice on that, it has... worked, to an extent, it's nice still
Latias changed Ice Beam for Healing Wish, and changed Psyshock to Draco Meteor, I gotta say, both have their usses, Psyshock was better for Tentacruel, but Draco is amazing still
More importantly, you guys were right, Ground was a problem, also, I figured I needed grass and fighting moves and something to still hit hard slowbro so I got a life orb, Calm Mind Virizion, not what I expected to end up putting on this team, but it works amazingly

 

[Sanger Zonvolt]

So, I mentioned this before, but Iron Head on Garchomp is bad. The only Fairy that can't be 2HKO by Earthquake, which does a near identical amount of damage, is Togekiss. If you need something for that, use either Rock Slide or Stone Edge. I guarantee you that you are not missing out on any vital KOs by dropping Iron Head on Garchomp.

Also, CM Virizion is not that great in OU, but before I come up with a solution, can you mention why you need Grass and Fighting moves? I know you need something for Slowbro, but I wasn't sure if you just needed swith-ins to Ground-types and something that handles Slowbro.

 

[n0000000b]

Hi!

I'm trying your team on ladder right now. Still haven't played many matches, but I made some changes that are working quite well until now.

First: Low Kick > Swords Dance. Weavile unboosted attack usuallty does his shit fine, and Low Kick helps dealing with Heatran and Tyranitar.

Second: Switched members to put a Mega Evolution. Tried two things: First, MegaGross over Magnezone and Dragalge > Garchomp. Raw power, since MegaGross works everywhere and specs Dragalge hits hard too. But it leaved the team umbalanced, since Earthquakes became easily spammed. Then, brought back Magnezone and switched Garchomp over Mega-Altaria. It's working better and I strongly recommend it. I'm using a standard Dragon Dance set, but you can try something else if you want to.

And as you suggested, Virizion > Slowpoke. Thought it would not go well, but it's a interesting surprise factor. Here a quick example (on very low ladder and against a very strange team, but I think it's worth watching): http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-216465854. 252 SpATK /252 Spe with a timid nature. Calm mind/Focus Blast/Giga Drain/Substitute

That's it, I think. You have a really nice team here, bro. Hope it helped, and sorry for any mistakes, english isn't my native language.

Peace, man.