ORAS OU pepe's charizard team

[pepe g.]

introduction:

Hello my name is Pepe and today I am posting a very nice team I made recently and have had some great matches with. This team is quite simple but I am really proud of it since making good teams was something I struggled with before. (sorry if my english here is not so good i do not usually write big things like this)

how the team was made:

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First off I was looking up current trends in the meta-game and a lot of teams seemed to have forgotten about Charizard X, so I decided to use a Swords Dancer Charizard since they can manage Dragon Dance variants but Swords Dance overpowers them and also gives troubles to stall builds that do not use Quagsire.

Next I wanted something to remove Stealth Rocks since even with Roost, Charizard would be very annoyed by them. Starmie was used since not only can it remove hazards but give a nice switch in to dangerous things like Keldeo and Metagross.

For balanced builds having a good defensive is very important, so I put on the Tornadus + Hippowdon combo since they not only give a good way to take hits but they also are able to wear down the enemy enough to the point where Charizard can clean up.

The team seemed quite weak to Fairy attackers now, so Ferrothorn was added. It works really well here since it makes a Fire-Water-Grass core with Charizard and Starmie, helps Tornadus with Spikes support, and beats up Gyarados who would be quite dangerous otherwise.

Finally, the best choice seemed like Clefable since it could support the whole team with Wish, as well as stop Weavile who is starting to be popular. It also gives me a nice way to stop boosting sweepers and another way of dealing with Sableye.

Each Pokemon's sets and what they do:

Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 176 HP / 220 Atk / 112 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Dragon Claw
- Roost

Charizard is the kind of Pokemon I really enjoy using since the enemy can never be sure what it will do and that is played to my advantage here, as most players if they saw a Charizard X would send a Landorus or another Pokemon with high defense, but with Swords Dance, it only takes a little prior damage and they cannot take on Charizard as they were intended to. Examples are below. Sometimes I like to mix it up a bit and use Tailwind over Roost giving a better win condition against offensive teams, but no Roost means that Clefable will be pressured much more. I am not so great with EV spreads but I did my best on this one. I run enough attack to knock out clefable with 2 Flare Blitzes, enough speed to reach 264, which is faster than Pokemon that speed creep Bisharp by 1 point (Rocky Helmet Garchomp for example) and the rest is put into HP so Charizard can set up easier.

Damages:

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+2 220+ Atk Tough Claws Mega Charizard X Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 391-462 (93 - 110%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

+1 220+ Atk Tough Claws Mega Charizard X Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Landorus-T: 328-387 (85.8 - 101.3%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO

+2 220+ Atk Tough Claws Mega Charizard X Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 252-297 (63.9 - 75.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

+2 220+ Atk Tough Claws Mega Charizard X Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 177-209 (45.8 - 54.1%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

+2 220+ Atk Tough Claws Mega Charizard X Flare Blitz vs. 240 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 338-398 (84.2 - 99.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 220+ Atk Tough Claws Mega Charizard X Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Altaria: 189-223 (53.3 - 62.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

220+ Atk Tough Claws Mega Charizard X Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Clefable: 246-291 (62.4 - 73.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

With a bit of prior damages all of these except Heatran fail to take on Charizard.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Psyshock
- Recover

Starmie is a nice support for Charizard, able to remove annoying Stealth Rocks and Spikes and take on big threats like Keldeo and Metagross. Scald is a good move here since scoring a burn on things like Sableye can be very helpful. Psyshock is not used so often but it does knock out Breloom and stops Keldeo from setting up Calm Mind against you. I think a more defensive Starmie would be very helpful, but I do not know how fast it should go. Right now there is enough to go before Serperior, but Tornadus handles him so maybe I can slow down Starmie to go before Keldeo.

NotSoBraveBird (Tornadus-Therian) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 114 HP / 160 SpA / 236 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Knock Off

I think Tornadus is one of the better Pokemons today since it is quite fast, can take many special attackers like Gengar and Keldeo without Choice Specs, and thanks to Knock Off and U-turn it can be very disruptive to the opponent's team. Spikes support is what makes Tornadus so good since whenever a counter like Jirachi switches in it has to take the chip damage as well as U-turn, making it very hard to gain momentum. You could run Focus Blast with a Timid nature here, but I think Superpower is better for it will not miss. The EVs are so that Hurricane will always knock out Keldeo and the speed is to go before adamant Lopunny, the rest is in HP to take hits better.

Hippowdon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge

Hippowdon is very reliable, since he can fight against the physical attackers that Tornadus cannot. He gives me the important Stealth Rocks and is generally quite hard to break through. Stealth Rocks along with spikes mean the opponent will be very pressured to keep their team healthy through the match. Stone Edge is there so that Talonflame and other birds cannot get a Swords Dance up against Hippowdon. Rocky Helmet is used here to make annoying U-Turners think twice since the extra damage will wear them down really quick. Lopunny too does not want to take Rocky Helmt + Sandstorm damage every time it uses Fake Out. I was thinking about using Garchomp here instead, but I am not sure yet, any input on this would be very helpful!

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball

The 2nd part of the team's Dragon+Fairy+Steel combination, Ferrothorn is a big help with being able to take on a big big number of things such as: Diancie, Manaphy, Latias, Raikou, almost every defensive water type, Gyarados, Landorus-T and many more. Spikes is what makes this team great I think, since it not only makes Charizard a nightmare to switch into, it also makes the team's defensive all the more dangerous. Leech Seed helps Ferrothorn get his health back, while Power Whip and Gyro Ball actually do more damage than you would think. Sometimes I run just Gyro Ball and use Protect or Power Whip with Thunder Wave.

Clefable (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell / Ice Beam

The last team member and a wonderful support, Clefable is really great in that it acts as a blanket check for almost every boosting sweeper and even is able to heal the others. If Charizard is weakened also, or Sableye is using Toxic, Clefable can deal with it easily. Protect has other use outside of Wish too, since it can check for choiced moves, let Clefable gain extra leftovers recovery and waste the PP of stronger moves. Clefable can also handle Dark types except Bisharp, which the rest of the team appreciates. This team is quite annoyed by Specially Defensive Gliscor, so if it ever does start to become popular again I would use Ice Beam over Heal Bell, although this would mean you would have to be much more careful of status moves.

conclusion:

I think this team is for sure one of the best I have made for a very long time and it's a blast to use. I hope I can get some good suggestions to improve this team here since maybe I can apply that to future teams I make.

I also want to give a big thanks to my tutor Leftiez for helping me a lot with learning how to make strong teams and giving examples on how to improve them, this team would not be what it is without your help, you are a really cool guy and I hope we stay in touch!

 

[Leftiez]

My tears flow T_T, as i said to you i really don't see major weakness in your team, im very proud of you my tutee, keep up the good work bro :D
Lord pepe

 

[Gorechomp]

So. Much. Bulk.

Pretty solid. team can't find any inherent weaknesses to it.

 

[vladpesh]

Hello pepe nice team you've got there, looks very solid, but I'd like to give you some suggestions:

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You should change the Hippo's spread to 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD and you should give him Leftovers over Rocky Helmet for taking better Thundurus and you could give him Sand Force over Sand Stream so your team won't get useless residual damage for nothing.

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You could decrease the Evs in Speed on Tornadus to 236 EVs so you can outspeed Adamant Lopunny while having extra bulk (not many evs but it's still bulk that can help).

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Reflect Type over Psyshock on Starmie for dealing better with Keldeo+PursuitTrapper cores.

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In the end you could run a DD set on Charizard because even if lose a lot of power, it became more difficult to revenge kill.

Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Roost
- Dragon Dance
- Flare Blitz

Hope I helped :]

 

[Ryfi110]

Great team so far!
I agree with the Hippowdown changes suggested by @Vladphesh in addition to the Tornadus changes. The Charizard and Starmie changes are up to you.

I will be testing out this team to see if I can see any flaws in practice. This post will be edited later with a more formal rate.

 

[pepe g.]

thank you very much to both for your help i appreciate it very much thanks. i would like to use dragon dance on charizard but i think sword dance helps more versus balance teams which are common today. reflect type on starmie maybe could be nice, i will try it out for sure. for the other two ideas i will lower the speed of tornadus and try special defense and sand force on hippowdon, i think rocky helmet though is good since the extra damage stops u-turn teams and lopunny from being too annoying. thanks.

 

[Ryfi110]

thank you very much to both for your help i appreciate it very much thanks. i would like to use dragon dance on charizard but i think sword dance helps more versus balance teams which are common today. reflect type on starmie maybe could be nice, i will try it out for sure. for the other two ideas i will lower the speed of tornadus and try special defense and sand force on hippowdon, i think rocky helmet though is good since the extra damage stops u-turn teams and lopunny from being too annoying. thanks.

If you are expecting Hippowdown to power through these Volttturn teams, Leftovers is extremely appreciated. The amount of frequent switches means it is hard to choose when to Slack Off. You are slower (usually) and will end up Earthquaking air or Stone Edging Ground. You can slack off, but then they swap to a counter. Leftovers ensures consistent passive recovery, even when attacking.

 

[pepe g.]

yeah i see where you are coming from leftovers for sure does have its uses over rocky helmet and i think with stealth rocks and spikes they would probably not want to switch too much anyway, i will use leftovers for a while and see if it does any better, thank you very much for the help !

 

[MANNAT]

Nice team you got here pepe, and I think I that there are a few things that could help it out.

Charizard

Considering that you want to use an SD set, you might want to use Tailwind over Roost so that zard can deal with offensive teams better and not just balance. If you prefer having the ability to heal off the damage, then you should go for fire punch over flare blitz, but the drop in power is very noticeable and I recommend just having Flare Blitz and Dragon Claw as your attacking moves.

Starmie

For Starmie, I recommend using more of a defensive set as it can take hits a lot better and handle certain threats very well. It also allows Starmie to become a bulky pivot/status absorber with natural cure. Here is the set I recommend:

Defensive Starmie

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 16 SpA / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Scald
- Reflect Type/Psyshock

Reflect Type Allows Starmie to outspeed threats and change its typing so that it can take a hit as most mons resist their STAB moves. After the type change, Starmie can threaten out the opposing Pokemon and smack something with a scald or heal off prior damage on the switch. The speed is really just there to outspeed Serp, but it can probably be optimized.

Tornadus-T

The set is pretty much optimized, but I recommend that you use this spread instead: 96 hp / 160 spa / 252 spe timid so that you can tie other Tornadus-Ts (they're pretty common now) and outspeed regular Alakazam.

Hippowdon

The set is pretty good, but I recommend that you change to this set for a couple of reasons:
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 184 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Slack Off / Ice Fang
- Stealth Rock
The EV spread helps Hippowdon take hits significantly better from both sides of the spectrum, but I don't remember exactly what hits it takes. Also, Whirlwind lets it shuffle around the opponent's team and do a ton of damage when used in tandem with Stealth Rock from himself and spikes from Ferrothorn and can really wear down stall and balanced teams if used correctly. You can also use Ice fang over whirlwind if SpD Gliscor continues to be a problem for you.

Ferrothorn

The Ferrothorn set looks fine to me. and I liked how you mentioned the mono-attacking sets as other options to use.

Clefable

Use flamethrower as a slash over ice beam because it provides much better coverage in tandem with moonblast and use ice beam on starmie instead of RT/Psyshock if SpD Gliscor is such a big problem for the team, but I don't recommend using it.

 

[pepe g.]

thank you very much for your reply i appreciate it a lot

charizard: i would switch over to tailwind charizard if offensive becomes a big problem but for now i think i will keep him how he is.

starmie: i am already using defensive starmie, ice beam sounds a good choice but i think it is better used on clefable since gliscor likes to switch into clefable and if gliscor lives the attack starmie does not appreciate a knock off, thank you though. reflect type is something i am trying now and it seems quite nice for bisharps ferrothorns and more.

tornadus: i am not so sure about what speed to use on tornadus since i am not so great with evs but if the spread suggested above does not work for me i will switch to that one.

hippowdon: like i say i am not so great with evs but if the ones i am testing now do not work i will try these next, ice fang could be a good attack but i think whirlwind is more useful for me.

clefable: flamethrower could be a good option for sure but i think it is better for calm mind sets and i have not much reason to lure them in since they are usually free switch ins for charizard.

thanks.

 

[Ryfi110]

After playing with the team, I find myself tearing my hair out at the sight of Rotom-W. Once Ferrothorn goes down, this thing can Twave nearly everything, and 2HKO the immunity. It actually drives me mad. If you get ferrothorn in, congrats, but then it switches out.
How to fix this I do not know, but I wanted to point it out.

 

[pepe g.]

sorry for the late response, i fight rotom-w often but never with thunderwave so it could be annoying, but i would try to make good use of charizard x (is not as bad if he gets paralyzed since relies less on speed than dragon dancers) clefable's heal bell and if it is still being a pain i would use toxic on hippowdon maybe. thanks

 

[YUNG GOAT]

I have been using this team for a bit and it is actually really good in that no single pokemon comes in and tosses your salad you, the only problem i have had so far is with hyper offensive teams. I have found that although swords dance gives Char a niche in destroying balanced and stall it lacks the speed to set up earlier meaning that if the opposing stealth rocker is still alive it becomes hard for Starmie to keep the field clear for Char. My only suggestion for the team would be running Dragon Dance>Swords Dance so offensive teams give you less trouble.

Hope i helped