ORAS OU Bulky Serperior's God (reach 1680~1700 on ladder)

[lbq]

Hi everyone! I'm lbq, and I proudly present you my first RMT! This is my most recent team and I had a lot of fun with it. It was built around the MegaAltaria + Sand core, then paired with a FWG core. Let's have a look at the team:

Detail analysis and team building process:

Slab the Killer (Excadrill) (M) @ Life Orb


Ability: Sand Rush

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly/ Adamant Nature

- Iron Head

- Earthquake

- Rock Slide

- Swords Dance

El Gringo (Tyranitar) (M) @ Smooth Rock

Ability: Sand Stream

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
EVs: 88 HP/ 252 Atk / 168 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Pursuit

- Stone Edge

- Superpower /Ice Punch

- Stealth Rock


I started to build the team by adding the classic Sand Abuse core, Excadrill and Tyranitar. This core is great in the current metagame and the two members alone cover many roles: Tyranitar provides a Stealth Rocks setter, a Pursuit-trapper and a Talonflame check, while Excadrill can act as sweeper and revenge killer, while retaining a good wallbreaking ability by having SD

Tyranitar, with its incredible bulk, has many chances to come in during even on a neutral move during the match to set up rocks and summon Sandstorm for Excadrill to abuse. I run max Speed Timid as I don't think the extra bulk is necessary, and I prefer to be able to outspeed or speed tie with certain mons. With 252+ 168+ speed, Tyranitar outspeeds defensive Mandibuzz, Zapdos and Togekiss, threatening the 2HKO with Stone Edge, and can manage to set up SR before getting taunted by the likes of Heatran or Gliscor. Pursuit is obviously for trapping the Latwins, as well as some other Psychic types like Gothitelle. Trapping the Latwins isn't my priority, though, as the team deals pretty well with them. When facing stall, instead, Tyranitar MUST trap Goth as soon as possible in order to be able to play more freely. For the 4th slot, the choice between Superpower or Ice Punch depends on your way of playing and on the threats you feel you cannot handle well enough. Superpower hits Ferrothorn, Heatran, Empoleon, Chansey, Adamant Bisharp supereffectively and can catch the foe T-Tar or Excadrill on the switch. Ice Punch, on the other side, does more damage to Gliscor, Landorus-T and Garchomp, which can be crucial.

P/S: Tyranitar's spread changed to 88HP/252Atk/168Spe+, which outspeeds upto 44Spe Rotom and has 88% chance to avoid 2HKOed by Latios' Draco after rocks (the old spread cannot reliably tank 2 Draco afer SR)

Excadrill's set and role are quite straightforward. Equipped with LO it is insanely powerful, and under Sandstorm it's insanely fast too. I chose Jolly to lessen the pressure in mirror match-ups: this way I can outspeed Adamant Excadrills (the most common set) under Sand; the Jolly nature also allows me to take down RP Landorus-I. I preferred SD to rapid Spin as I have another spinner, and anyway in this team the sweeping and wallbreaking (to an extent) ability the swords Dance gives Excadrill is inavluable. You must consider that Adamant Excadrill scores many important OHKOes after Rocks that Jolly does not, so feel free to change it to Adamant if you wish (to have an high chance of 2HKOing Slowbro, Ferrothorn, Celebi, specially defensive Gliscor and Landorus-T, and 12.5% chance to OHKO Keldeo after SR). Please note that Excadrill can come in freely in any Rock or Electric-type attack aimed to Talonflame or Starmie, and that it helps in breaking down many Talonflame counters and checks such as Rotom-W, Tyranitar, Slowbro, etc.


Then I added Talonflame, probably my favourite Pokèmon in this team (though it gives me a huge weakness to Waters):

Lucky Duke (Talonflame) (F) @ Leftovers

Ability: Gale Wings

EVs: 248 HP / 88 Def / 156 SpD / 16 Spe

Careful Nature

- Taunt

- Roost

- Will-O-Wisp

- Brave Bird


This is a stallbreaker set which EVs I tweaked personally. The EV spread lets Talonflame survive Choice Band Aqua Jet from Azumarill after Sand damage and burn it, or live an LO Draco from Latios in Sand to Roost up and force it out. Talonflame also avoids being OHKOed by burnt Landorus-T's Stone Edge. The 16 speed EVs are there just to outspeed opponent's stallbreaker Talonflame, as this set is freaking annoying (try to use it and see how amazing it is). Talonflame acts as my main Fairy check of choice (bar Mega Diance), as it can comfortably come in on Clefable, Sylveon and M-Altaria, Taunt them and then proceed to wear them down through Status and Brave Bird damage. Also, with Serperior being a thing now, Talonflame helps in dealing with it by countering it perfectly well. As I already stated, Talonflame's weaknesses to Electric and Rock synergize well with Excadrill's resistences and make Scarfed Pokèmons reluctant to fire off Stone Edges or to Volt Switch against Talonflame.

Willy the Kid (Starmie) @ Life Orb

Ability: Analytic

EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Thunderbolt

- Hydro Pump

- Psyshock

- Rapid Spin


I chose Starmie for an obvious reason: it is the best spinner (along with Excadrill) in the OU tier right now. It's pretty fast and it spins rather reliably, being able to threaten out most Stealth Rocks setters. It also checks Keldeo and OHKOs Landorus-I and Gliscor, whch is great as all of them can trouble the Sand core. I went with Thunderbolt to better check other Water types such as Slowbro, Manaphy, Starmie, Suicune, which can cause great problems to my team. A defensive set can be used as well to be able to Spin multiple times during the match and to form a more balanced FWG core with Talonflame and Serperior but, without LO and SpAtk investment, Starmie cannot even 2HKO SpD Gliscor (Starmie, you are so weak), and this means that SpD Gliscor can set up SD and proceed to sweep the team.

Vunture Sam (Serperior) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 196 Def / 64 Spe
Timid Nature
- Taunt
- Synthesis
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]


Serperior is such a huge and new threat in the metagame right now. It steamrolls through most unprepared teams thanks to it's ability, Contrary, which lets him boost rather mediocre Special Attack by using Leaf Storm - it boosts and kills at the same time, what a beast! I opted for a bulky set as I already have Sand Rush Excadrill and Starmie as fast attackers and I have priority on Talonflame. The 64 EVs in speed and the Timid Nature let me outspeed TL RD Manaphy (a huge threat) and everything else up to Jolly Excadrill. With 248/196 bulk investment, it lives 2 Outrages from Scarfed Garchomp and also avoids being OHKOed from Latios's Draco Meteor, while being able to heal up and then keep spamming Leaf Storm. The main purpose of this set is to break stall: after Heatran, Goth and possibly Zapdos are gone, it just steamrolls stall teams all by itself (Mega Sableye can only burn it then switch out, taunted Chansey is harmless, defensive Mega Scizor and Skarmory get killed by HP Fire, and so on). In addition, Serperior does its best against Rain and is usually the MVP of this match up.

Last but not least, my mega of choice, Mega Altaria

Calamity Janet (Altaria) (F) @ Altarianite
Ability: Cloud Nine/ Natural Cure
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Roost

This is the basic mixed set and it's the best set to pair with a Sand core. Balanced teams have few things being able to switch into her safely (the coverage lets you hit almost anything hard with the right dose of prediction). Hyper Voice + Fire Blast + EQ provide perfect coverage that helps in weakening stuff to make Excadrill's sweeping job easier. Timid is to outspeed Bisharp, and the -Atk nature isn't a big deal as EQ 2HKO Heatran anyway and that's all you need. I usually use Cloud Nine to have an extra tool to check Rain offense (Timid M-Altaria outspeeds Kingdra and Kabutops and OHKOes them), but Natural Cure is an amazing ability too, allowing M Altaria to counter Slowbro, Rotom and Keldeo without fearing the burn.

And that's the team for you. The team should have decent match up against all playstyle (oh, i forgot to tell you that Serp fucks up the cancer baton pass team so hard with its Contrary XD). If you guys have any comments to improve the team, please tell me. Thanks and enjoy.

P/s: My english is quite bad though, sorry if there are grammatical errors here and there :)

P.P.S.: Thanks to Ende for the rewrite!

Some replays:
vs. Rain http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-219139997
vs. Balance http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-219092179 (Serp is too bulky for Latios)
vs. Balance http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-219060680 (Mega Altaria + Sand core is so good)
vs. Offense http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-218832089 (Serp checks M-Altria)
vs. Balance http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-219333882 (Serp sweeps)

Ladder proof:

 

[Nelson Tangela]

How to use pokemon sprites? I am new here so I don't know T.T Anyone helpd me pls

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[Lilligant for OU]

Just a couple of suggestions

Without dragon pulse on your Serperior, you can't hit dragons which may force you to switch, interrupting your potential sweep.
Swords Dance on excadrill should only be a thing if your team doesn't have any Stealth Rock weaknesses, but you have Talonflame, so you should rapid spin over SD.
Running a timid nature on Mixtaria decreases the power of your Earthquake too much, so run hasty or naive to keep the power

I hope these help :]
But then again you got really high on the ladder so what do I know?

 

[Scotti]

hey cool team but i have a few suggestions. also i am on my phone so dont judge me on spelling mistakes or capitilization. so any way i am not a huge fan of running your tyranitar set. latios is pretty annoying to this team as tyranitar takes a hell of a lot from draco meteor. that is why i recommend you run spdef tyranitar over your current set. spdef tyranitar is a lot bulkier which leads to you keeping sand up longer. this also mean talonflame and latios have a harder time breaking apart your team. on starmie i prefered a more bulky spread when using this team. defensive starmie allows you to check keldeo, mega metagross, talonflame, and heatran alot better than your current spread. imo it fits your team a lot better. i will post spread when i get back room. if you run bulky starmie, that means scald > hydro pump and recover > thunderbolt and leftovers > life orb for obvious reasons. i actually really like the serp set, it was pretty cool to use. finally i recommend change your alt spread to 252 spatk | 176 spe(i believe) | and put the rest in hp. the spread allows you to outspred bisharp, who is pretty annoying for this team.

i hope i helped

 

[lbq]

Just a couple of suggestions

Without dragon pulse on your Serperior, you can't hit dragons which may force you to switch, interrupting your potential sweep.
Swords Dance on excadrill should only be a thing if your team doesn't have any Stealth Rock weaknesses, but you have Talonflame, so you should rapid spin over SD.
Running a timid nature on Mixtaria decreases the power of your Earthquake too much, so run hasty or naive to keep the power

I hope these help :]
But then again you got really high on the ladder so what do I know?

Thanks for the reply.
For Altaria, Earthquake with negative nature 2HKOs Heatran and deals more than 55% to Talonflame on roost, that's enough for me. Saccrificing bulk fo power in this case is not worth it imo.
I have Rapid Spin on Starmie, and SD Excadrill rekts hyper offense, which is everywhere on ladder now.
As for Serp's moveset, Taunt is used to stop Stealth Rocker and is valuable for Talonflame, also Serp wins 1v1 against Bulky DD M-Altaria, Lati@s (if they fire off a Draco without knowing that my Serp is bulky). Moreover, my team doesn't mind dealing with Dragon type though, so using Taunt is acceptable.

 

[lbq]

hey cool team but i have a few suggestions. also i am on my phone so dont judge me on spelling mistakes or capitilization. so any way i am not a huge fan of running your tyranitar set. latios is pretty annoying to this team as tyranitar takes a hell of a lot from draco meteor. that is why i recommend you run spdef tyranitar over your current set. spdef tyranitar is a lot bulkier which leads to you keeping sand up longer. this also mean talonflame and latios have a harder time breaking apart your team. on starmie i prefered a more bulky spread when using this team. defensive starmie allows you to check keldeo, mega metagross, talonflame, and heatran alot better than your current spread. imo it fits your team a lot better. i will post spread when i get back room. if you run bulky starmie, that means scald > hydro pump and recover > thunderbolt and leftovers > life orb for obvious reasons. i actually really like the serp set, it was pretty cool to use. finally i recommend change your alt spread to 252 spatk | 176 spe(i believe) | and put the rest in hp. the spread allows you to outspred bisharp, who is pretty annoying for this team.

i hope i helped

Thanks for your comment. You was right, Bisharp is really annoying for this team, that's why I have to tun Timid on my M-Altaria in the first place. I'm sure will try out your recommended M-Altaria set soon xD

When I first built the team, I used to have the SpD TTar as you mentioned. However after testing, I much prefered the speedy TTar set for several reasons. It scores surprise KO on Heatran, Zapdos, Mandibuzz (who think I'm slower) and sometimes Adamant Bisharp. In addition, I only summon sand when I feel like Excadrill can sweep or punch hole in opponent's team, thus I usually summon sand 2 times a match at max (except playing against Rain) and Tyranitar is not meant to take a Draco from Lati@s (M-Altaria is a better switch in) and I only switch TTar in when pretty sure a Psyshock coming.

As for Starmie, the defensive set is just too weak to be useful (it fails to 2HKO SpD Gliscor with a STAB Scald) and running defensive thread would leave my team vulbarable to SpD SwordDance Gliscor and really hard to break Mega Venusaur. Thunderbolt is much valuable here for the reason that my team is very weam to bulky water type (such as Manayphy, Slowbro, Suicune ...). Mega Metagross is a pain actually, and defensive Starmie in fact still lose to Pursuit/ Grass Knot, so I'd rather use offensive pressure to take him down (If Mega Metagross get a boost from Meteor Mash when Starmie switches in, you just lose your Starmie for nothing)

All of the above is just my opinion though, at least they fit my play style :]

 

[Leftiez]

Hey man, cool team here, i used to know Altaria+Serperior since im using it in a team i made.
Well your team is solid but you could meet some problems during a game, so i'll give you some tips.

- You're pretty weak to Excadrill and other bulky ground like Gliscor SD since your only answer is talonflame which can get rock slided or stone edge'd and it doesnt beat gliscor after one SD since gliscor can just spam knock off/facade then EQ on roost (same for serperior especially under sand), and you cant really switch in with starmie cause of knock off. Thats why i'd suggest to swap Excadrill in Air Balon + Rapid spin and Rotom-W over starmie, actually you don't really need a wallbreaker as you said before, i mean you got talon/serperior taunt that can do it very well, plus with air balon you can still have a good chance to check lando-i and revenge kill it, even if thats not what you can call a check it's still safer and you still can revenge kill thing like lopunny/Gallade/Altaria assuming u're adamant.
For Rotom thats simple, rotom-w is a solid check against bulky ground and make you better against thing like hippowdon/gliscor (in addition to give you momentum with volt switch) than Serperior , especially when it can only synthesis 25% under sand, plus hippowdon may have toxic and fuck serperior on the switch.
Now you're safer against Landorus-T and u wont risk to take an uturn if you send serperior or a stone edge if you send talonflame and you're safer against Metagross that can sweep you if it has zen headbutt for talon (which is pretty common)

- My final change would have been to swap synthesis with leech seed on serperior, i mean you're playing sand with synthesis user which is bad i guess, you cant rlly wallbreak as you said without a good staying power and you can run out of synthesis cause of that, while with leech seed you can still cover it and since you got hp fire + leaf storm bulky grass shouldnt be a big deal.

I Hope i helped gl man in next ;]

Rotom-W

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 172 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

 

[lbq]

Hey man, cool team here, i used to know Altaria+Serperior since im using it in a team i made.
Well your team is solid but you could meet some problems during a game, so i'll give you some tips.

- You're pretty weak to Excadrill and other bulky ground like Gliscor SD since your only answer is talonflame which can get rock slided or stone edge'd and it doesnt beat gliscor after one SD since gliscor can just spam knock off/facade then EQ on roost (same for serperior especially under sand), and you cant really switch in with starmie cause of knock off. Thats why i'd suggest to swap Excadrill in Air Balon + Rapid spin and Rotom-W over starmie, actually you don't really need a wallbreaker as you said before, i mean you got talon/serperior taunt that can do it very well, plus with air balon you can still have a good chance to check lando-i and revenge kill it, even if thats not what you can call a check it's still safer and you still can revenge kill thing like lopunny/Gallade/Altaria assuming u're adamant.
For Rotom thats simple, rotom-w is a solid check against bulky ground and make you better against thing like hippowdon/gliscor (in addition to give you momentum with volt switch) than Serperior , especially when it can only synthesis 25% under sand, plus hippowdon may have toxic and fuck serperior on the switch.
Now you're safer against Landorus-T and u wont risk to take an uturn if you send serperior or a stone edge if you send talonflame and you're safer against Metagross that can sweep you if it has zen headbutt for talon (which is pretty common)

- My final change would have been to swap synthesis with leech seed on serperior, i mean you're playing sand with synthesis user which is bad i guess, you cant rlly wallbreak as you said without a good staying power and you can run out of synthesis cause of that, while with leech seed you can still cover it and since you got hp fire + leaf storm bulky grass shouldnt be a big deal.

I Hope i helped gl man in next ;]

Rotom-W

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 172 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Thanks, I will try out your recommendation soon :]

But my team has more trouble with Gliscor more than Lando T and Hippo since those bulky Ground is the most common switch in to Talon and I would get a burn on them sooner or later. About replacing Starmie with Rotom-W, would it even make my team more vulnerable to Gliscor (Rotom-W cannot beat SpD SD Gliscor 1v1)? Also, without Starmie, killing Mega Venusaur will be much more troublesome (Talonflame does not exactly scare out MVenu as Brave Bird only deals ~40% and I risked getting poisoned from Sludge Bomb, Excadrill would be dead after killing MVenu as he has to take 2 hits from Giga Drain + LO damages)

As for Serperior, leech seed recovery is sometimes not enough imo (for example, after switch in to Azu's Play Rough, it needs Synthesis to be healthy again) and leech seed cannot help me get pass bulky Grass such as Ferrothorn or Chesnaught. Moreover, I don't summon sand very often, only send in TTar for Stealth Rock or when I feel like Excadrill can sweep, so Synthesis often works well as it should be.

 

[Leftiez]

Thanks, I will try out your recommendation soon :]

But my team has more trouble with Gliscor more than Lando T and Hippo since those bulky Ground is the most common switch in to Talon and I would get a burn on them sooner or later. About replacing Starmie with Rotom-W, would it even make my team more vulnerable to Gliscor (Rotom-W cannot beat SpD SD Gliscor 1v1)? Also, without Starmie, killing Mega Venusaur will be much more troublesome (Talonflame does not exactly scare out MVenu as Brave Bird only deals ~40% and I risked getting poisoned from Sludge Bomb, Excadrill would be dead after killing MVenu as he has to take 2 hits from Giga Drain + LO damages)

As for Serperior, leech seed recovery is sometimes not enough imo (for example, after switch in to Azu's Play Rough, it needs Synthesis to be healthy again) and leech seed cannot help me get pass bulky Grass such as Ferrothorn or Chesnaught. Moreover, I don't summon sand very often, only send in TTar for Stealth Rock or when I feel like Excadrill can sweep, so Synthesis often works well as it should be.

Actually Mvenusaur wont rlly be that annoyed by mie, giga drain will just cover the damage he took from psyshock, plus rotom can force the will o wisp and weaken it pretty much with sand that can prevent him from healing. Well rotom can beat gliscor 1v1 you just need no miss, and even if you miss you still can rotate with taunt talon + rotom while starmie cant do it cuz no recovery and knock off.

For leech seed as i said you're playing sand with smooth rock so most of time you will be under sand, how will you be able to wall with only 25% and 8 PP, that kinda suck, and you cant rlly be blocked by grass type since you got leaf storm + hp fire that can them away.

 

[lbq]

Actually Mvenusaur wont rlly be that annoyed by mie, giga drain will just cover the damage he took from psyshock, plus rotom can force the will o wisp and weaken it pretty much with sand that can prevent him from healing. Well rotom can beat gliscor 1v1 you just need no miss, and even if you miss you still can rotate with taunt talon + rotom while starmie cant do it cuz no recovery and knock off.

For leech seed as i said you're playing sand with smooth rock so most of time you will be under sand, how will you be able to wall with only 25% and 8 PP, that kinda suck, and you cant rlly be blocked by grass type since you got leaf storm + hp fire that can them away.

I understand your point, it's actually very solid argument though. However, if you watch my replays, you will see that I rarely send TTar in early game (unless I face HO, which means I need rock asap for those flying types and Excadrill should sweep successfully and end game within ~15 first turns and Serperior shouldn' t need to tank hit or health with Synthesis). I mostly use M-Alt + Talon + Serp + Starmie to weaken opponent team first, then use Excadrill to sweep late game. I also don't find myself having my own sand trouble Serp that often. But I surely will try your recommendation though, the idea of using Rotom-W is definitely awesome.

P/s: however, without SD, 8 turns of sand maybe a little bit redundant for Excadrill imo as Excadrill fail to OHKO many offensive threats without boosting

 

[Gilbertosaurus]

you are missing 4 evs on Starmie and that team looks insanely annoying. Also i just saw what a shiny serperior looks like and u should definitely change it lol