ORAS OU My first team

[Xayah]

So, I recently got back into Pokemon and really wanted to try and make a competitive viable team for ORAS OU. As I said, I only recently got back into Pokemon and this is my first team, so I used a few guides on Smogon, and as such, advice is more than welcome. I have not actually begun obtaining the necessary Pokemon for this: I don't want to until I am sure what Pokemon I need. As such, I chose the genders at random. So without further ado, here it comes:

Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature

• Stealth Rock
• Spikes
• Power Whip
• Gyro Ball

Ferrothorn functions as my Entry Hazard setter. Stealth Rock and Spikes allow him to hurt any pokemon who enters the field quite badly, while Power Whip and Gyro Ball give it powerful STAB to hurt even with his low Attack stat. The Careful nature makes up for its relatively weak Special Defense.

Excadrill (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 124 Def / 128 SpD
Impish Nature

• Stealth Rock
• Rapid Spin
• Earthquake
• Iron Head

Thanks to advice from a friend, I replaced Ferrothorn with Excadrill. While not quite as good as a wall, Excadrill does far more damage than Ferrothorn and also has access to Rapid Spin. The EV spread allows me to tank both physical and special. The Ground type Excadrill has also gives my team a handy immunity to Electric types.

Azumarill (F) @ Life Orb Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Adamant Nature

• Aqua Jet
• Waterfall
• Play Rough
• Superpower

I used Azumarill in my mono water team for Omega Ruby and absolutely loved its attack stat. In this team, it functions as one of the two physical attackers/sweepers. Aqua Jet not only gives it decent STAB, it also makes it great at revenge killing. Waterfall and Play Rough are its main STAB moves, while Superpower gives it coverage against Steel types that switch into it.

Gardevoir (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature

• Moonblast
• Psychic
• Thunderbolt
• Energy Ball

Gardevoir is, while not mega on this team, a great special attacker/sweeper and allows me to take out heavy physical walls. Its Choice Scarf makes up for its mediocre speed, Moonblast and Psychic give it powerful STAB and Thunderbolt and Energy Ball give it coverage. Considering switching one of the latter two out for Shadow Ball.

Hydreigon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature

• Dragon Pulse
• Dark Pulse
• Earth Power
• Flamethrower

Hydreigon is the second Pokemon to replace Gardevoir, with a Scarfed Latios coming before it. That didn't work out (didn't have access to a good Latios) and as such, this freaking awesome looking dragon takes it place. It still brings the immunity to Ground from Latios and also brings great coverage with Earth Power, Flamethrower and Dark Pulse. This last one and Dragon Pulse are his STAB moves.

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature

• Meteor Mash
• Zen Headbutt
• Earthquake
• Ice Punch

Metagross not only functions as the second physical attacker and mega evolution on this team, it is also my main physical wall. Its incredible Attack and Defense stats allow it to tank multiple attacks, while also dealing tremendous amounts of damage with STAB moves Meteor Mash and Zen Headbutt, simply destroy people with the awesome power of Earthquake or use Ice Punch for coverage. Not sold on the last one though.

Chansey (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature

• Seismic Toss
• Soft-Boiled
• Toxic
• Heal Bell

Chansey is straight up the best special wall in the game right now. Its moveset is fairly obvious: Seismic Toss allows it to deal a solid 100 or 50 damage (depending on rules of match), Soft-Boiled allows it to heal off any damage my opponents do manage to deal to me, and Toxic and Heal Bell allow me to support the rest of the team. I am however personally not a huge fan of using full tanks, so if anyone has a suggestion for a good special wall that is capable of dealing damage, I'd be more than happy.

Sylveon (F) @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature

• Hyper Voice
• Psyshock
• Shadow Ball
• Toxic

As I said, I don't like Chansey. So, here is its replacement: Sylveon. Sylveon has far higher SpA than Chansey, allowing her to perform a similar role to Metagross, but special. She will try to bring down her opponents with STAB move Hyper Voice or coverage moves Psyshock and Shadow Ball. If that doesn't work, she can put a stop to a sweeper's reign of terror with Toxic. The addition of Sylveon as a special attacker also allows me to replace Gengar for something that can deal with Talon flame, like...

Gengar (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature

• Shadow Ball
• Sludge Wave
• Focus Blast
• Icy Wind

Replacing Heatran for convenience sake, Gengar in Mega form is one of if not the best special attacker in the game. He is, however, in Uber. As such, I'll have to stick with the Life Orb and destroy people with STAB moves Shadow Ball and Sludge Wave, wreck a switching in Bisharp with Focus Blast or one shot Landorus with Icy Wind.

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

• Stone Edge
• Crunch
• Low Kick
• Protect

Tyranitar! Talonflame's #1 counter. Its Stone Edge will make quick work of the sweeping bird, while Crunch functions as another powerful STAB move. Low Kick provides coverage against the likes of Heatran, opposing Tyranitar and Bisharp. The introduction of Tyranitar also allowed Excadrill to have a very viable option in the Sand Rush ability.

 

[Afro14ajaja]

Hey there! Great team. Just a quick suggestion, you could try scarfed latios instead of garde as it is faster and hits harder. I agree that it ruins the fairy steel synergy but it gives you an immunity to ground type moves, which your team lacks and is pretty vital if you are running heatran and megagross. Further more, it outspeeds +1 mega gyarados which is pretty useful and also does the same to +1 mega zard x if it is a bulky variant. It can be a pseudo mixed attacker as it has access to psyshock, although gardevoir has access to it too. I used to run scarfed garde but then someone suggested this change and it's proven to be pretty helpful for me.

 

[Xayah]

Afro14ajaja Thanks for the advice! At first, I had shied away from Latios due to already having a Mega, but Scarf Latios could work. Also, I already have the Fairy/Steel synergy thanks to Azumarill, so that's also not much of a loss. I will edit the post now.

 

[Afro14ajaja]

Afro14ajaja Thanks for the advice! At first, I had shied away from Latios due to already having a Mega, but Scarf Latios could work. Also, I already have the Fairy/Steel synergy thanks to Azumarill, so that's also not much of a loss. I will edit the post now.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Azumarill. Hope it helps.

 

[Snowy]

Hey AD Thunderboy, congratulations on your first rmt and welcome back to our community! I'll try and give you the most optimal advice and recommendation possible to try and mold your team to the current meta as best as much as possible. Without further a do, let jump right into it!

Firstly, your Ferrothorn is really pressured as a hazard setter, seeing as its your only designated Spike Setter and Stealth Rocker. To help do it's job more effectively I believe you could make the following simple changes:

1. Leech Seed > Power Whip, Power Whip is primarily used to provide a better means of checking bulky offensive waters like Mega Gyarados and Manaphy, both in which can be handled by Azumaril (amazing Mega Gyarados check) and Chansey (Easily counter Manaphy even at +6), so you really do need Power Whip. So why run Leech Seed? Because it allows you to gain that important recover that Ferrothorn needs to complete its job of, eat up hits and setting up hazards.

2. Protect > Stealth Rocks, considering that it is unlikely that this one Pokemon with no reliable recovery will be able to provide both Stealth Rocks and three layers of Spikes, it is better to pass the role on to another Pokemon in order to gain the ability to scout out your opponents move set or next move if their running a Choice Item, and be able to gain more health from the combinations of Leftovers and Leech Seed. With these factors in mind, your Ferrothorn will be able to complete its role and duty a lot better.

Secondly, your Azumaril is really worn down by the combination of Hazards and Life Orb recoil, and considering it has a really important job in checking things like Keldeo, Mega Gyarados, and Conkeldure (Not really relevant, but nice to check any ways), you really need to try and keep it healthy. So there are two optimal choices I believe you could make here, which I will list in order of relevancy to your team;

1. Assault Vest > Life Orb, although Assault Vest has lost a lot of its past perks, I believe it would still hold some major significance to your team, as it lets you take a bunch of special hits like Mega Manectric, Spec Raikou and Life Orb Thunderus Thunder Bolt or even Life Orb Gengars Sludge Wave! This can allow you to get some very clutch damage in against these and other Pokemon a like, to either win a game, take out their win condition or provide an easy time for your own win condition.You might want to change your spread slightly if you do decide to implement this to 240 HP / 252 Atk / SpD 16

• Damage Calcs

  [*]252 SpA Life Orb Thundurus Thunderbolt vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Assault Vest Azumarill: 291-346 (72.5 - 86.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  [*]252 SpA Mega Manectric Thunderbolt vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Assault Vest Azumarill: 236-282 (58.8 - 70.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  
  [*]252 SpA Choice Specs Raikou Thunderbolt vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Assault Vest Azumarill: 320-378 (79.8 - 94.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  
  [*]252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gengar: 388-458 (149.8 - 176.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

2. Choice Band > Life Orb, although this doesnt give you the same bulk as Assault Vest, it allows you to have the similar intentions of running Life Orb, without having to take recoil damage and gain access to more power. It also gives you a high chance to kill Ferrothorn with Superpower after Stealth Rocks, which Life orb wont provide, as well as gaining access to the ability to kill other things! Yet again your going to want to change your spread to 88 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe.

• Damage Calcs

  [*]252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Superpower vs. 252 HP / 88+ Def Ferrothorn: 320-378 (90.9 - 107.3%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
  
  [*]252+ Atk Life Orb Huge Power Azumarill Superpower vs. 252 HP / 88+ Def Ferrothorn: 278-328 (78.9 - 93.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
  
  [*]252+ Atk Life Orb Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Garchomp: 346-408 (82.3 - 97.1%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
  
  [*]252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Garchomp: 398-470 (94.7 - 111.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

Thirdly, your team is looking really weak to Swords Dance Bisharp, a great way to fix this is my implementing Scarf Keldeo > Scarf Gardevoir, as it still gives you a great reliable scarf user, whilst also being able to take any one of Bisharps + 2 Attacks, which is something the rest of your team cant do, especially after rocks.

• Choice Scarf Keldeo Set

  [*]Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
  [*]Ability: Justified
  [*]EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
  [*]Timid Nature
  [*]- Scald
  [*]- Secret Sword
  [*]- Hydro Pump
  [*]- Hidden Power Ice

• Damage Calcs

  [*]As you can see Bisharp at plus 2 destroys your entire current team
  [*]+2 252+ Atk Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 24 Def Gardevoir: 382-451 (137.9 - 162.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  [*]+2 252+ Atk Bisharp Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Azumarill: 334-394 (97.9 - 115.5%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
  [*]+2 252+ Atk Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 448-528 (69.7 - 82.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  [*]+2 252+ Atk Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 265-313 (82 - 96.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  [*]+2 252+ Atk Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 24 Def Gardevoir: 382-451 (137.9 - 162.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  [*]+2 252+ Atk Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Mega Metagross: 438-516 (145.5 - 171.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  [*]Now as you can see here Keldeo can live and revenge Kill Bisharp with ease
  [*]+2 252+ Atk Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Keldeo: 152-179 (47 - 55.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  [*]+2 252+ Atk Bisharp Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Keldeo: 152-179 (47 - 55.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  [*]+2 252+ Atk Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Keldeo: 183-216 (56.6 - 66.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Finally, since removing Stealth Rock from Ferrothorn you need a new rocker, but who should it be? Considering you basically have a free move slot on Heatran, you should use Stealth Rock > Protect. Protect really doesn't add any scouting benefits on Air Balloon Tran, as you already have a free swap in with your Air Balloon to any ground attack and your not gaining extra recovery from protecting due to not having Leftovers. With Air Balloon and Heatrans great type though, you are provided with many great and simple opportunities to set up your rocks from free, making the perfect addition to not only the Pokemon itself, but the team.

Hope you were able to get something out of my rate and I wish you a warm welcome back to our community here on Smogon! All the best with you and your teams future endeavors as well!

Edit: Please mind any bad spelling and the dots included in the box. It was lae when I wrote this and my mind was finding it hard to do anything at the time.

 

[Xayah]

HeiDoe Thank you so much for all of your tips! Ferrothorn has actually already been replaced by Excadrill as a hazard setter, simply because I needed the immunity to Electric and the Rapid Spin. Also, Gardevoir has been replaced by Latios now. I will not be using Scarf Keldeo for one simple reason: convenience. I am planning to make this team using only OR and Y, so Keldeo is far too difficult too obtain for me. Plus, I hope Azumarill's Superpower can take care of Bisharp. I will be implementing the Assault Vest set onto Azumarill as you recommended. Once again, thank you so much for all of your tips.

 

[Xayah]

One thing with your damage calculations, is that Bisharp cannot one shot my Mega Metagross, due to me using him as a physical wall and as such equipped him 0 HP/252 Def. This Metagross is my main why of at least tanking out Bisharp, and Azumarill can one shot if I get lucky enough to survive Iron Head

 

[Xayah]

I just found out that the Latios that I already had in my finished game of OR has perfect IVs in HP, Def and SpD. Not sure how good its other IVs are, but those are by no means ideal stats to be perfect. Do you guys still recommend keeping and using this Latios, try to get one from somewhere else, restart my game or even use Gardevoir anyway? Or maybe even a different special sweeper?

It is also highly probable that I'll have a similar problem with Heatran, so if any of you have suggestions, they are more than welcome. Maybe Starmie or Gengar could replace these two.


Thinking more about it, I will indeed not be using Latios and Heatran on my team for convenience sake. For now, I will change them into Scarf Gardevoir and Life Orb Gengar respectively.

 

[Afro14ajaja]

I just found out that the Latios that I already had in my finished game of OR has perfect IVs in HP, Def and SpD. Not sure how good its other IVs are, but those are by no means ideal stats to be perfect. Do you guys still recommend keeping and using this Latios, try to get one from somewhere else, restart my game or even use Gardevoir anyway? Or maybe even a different special sweeper?

It is also highly probable that I'll have a similar problem with Heatran, so if any of you have suggestions, they are more than welcome. Maybe Starmie or Gengar could replace these two.

You absolutely do NOT want to replace heatran with either Gengar or Starmie. If you do, banded Talonfalme will OHKO or 2HKO your entire team. If you want I can give you the calcs.

If you still want to, then you could use a scarfed mixed ttar. This will also help with your bisharp problemThis would be beneficial if you changed excadrill's ability to sand rush. You can play around with this and give ttar the rocks and excadrill rock slide.

For Latios, it would be ideal if you had access to a good thundurus as then you would have access to priority twave, which would prevent the likes of mega gyarados and zard x from sweeping. However, if you don't have access to it then you should probably go for gengar as that will give an immunity to ground types.

 

[Afro14ajaja]

You could potentially use scarfed chandelure or hydriegon. But they will add to your ground and fighting weakness, respectively. You could try a scarfed togekiss, maybe. Helps a but with bisharp. Serene Grace Air Slash is annoying and it gets decent coverage in flamethrower, aura sphere, shadow ball, psychic, grass knot, etc

 

[iZallen]

Looks fine to me.

 

[Xayah]

You could potentially use scarfed chandelure or hydriegon. But they will add to your ground and fighting weakness, respectively. You could try a scarfed togekiss, maybe. Helps a but with bisharp. Serene Grace Air Slash is annoying and it gets decent coverage in flamethrower, aura sphere, shadow ball, psychic, grass knot, etc

I have considered all of your suggestions and this is what I think I'll do:
Keep Gengar is it set up now, and replace the Gardevoir I currently have with a Hydreigon. I personally love both the Dragon and Dark types so it should be fine to use it. My fighting weakness is pretty big, so I will try to find something to try and deal with that. For now, Azumarill will be the main way to deal with the type, as she resists it.

Edit: I just realized I also have Metagross's Zen Headbutt to take care of Fighting types. I hope these two will be enough to keep me safe, but we'll see.

 

[Afro14ajaja]

I have considered all of your suggestions and this is what I think I'll do:
Keep Gengar is it set up now, and replace the Gardevoir I currently have with a Hydreigon. I personally love both the Dragon and Dark types so it should be fine to use it. My fighting weakness is pretty big, so I will try to find something to try and deal with that. For now, Azumarill will be the main way to deal with the type, as she resists it.

Edit: I just realized I also have Metagross's Zen Headbutt to take care of Fighting types. I hope these two will be enough to keep me safe, but we'll see.

I am glad I could help :) Good luck! There is one problem though. Talonfame, as I've mentioned, OHKOs or 2HKOs your entire team.

 

[Afro14ajaja]

Oh and if you don't like using chansey, sylveon can perform a similar role. This will also decrease your fighting weakness.

 

[Xayah]

I introduced Sylveon into the team, which allowed me to replace the special sweeper Gengar with a physical attacker Tyranitar. While this adds to my fighting weakness, I now have 3 Pokemon who can switch into a fighting type move. Also, Bisharp is now much less of a problem.

 

[Afro14ajaja]

I introduced Sylveon into the team, which allowed me to replace the special sweeper Gengar with a physical attacker Tyranitar. While this adds to my fighting weakness, I now have 3 Pokemon who can switch into a fighting type move. Also, Bisharp is now much less of a problem.

Ah I'm glad it worked out. Good luck!

 

[Xayah]

After trying this team out on Showdown multiple times, I noticed that I can check every single Pokemon apart from one: Serperior. Serperior easily swept everything I had and while I could easily counter this by introducing Talonflame, I really don't want to replace Azumarill (took me 7 hours to IV breed this thing) and replacing Tyranitar re-introduces the problem of enemy Talonflames sweeping me. Anyone have any advice for resolving this?

 

[Afro14ajaja]

You could try running scarfed gengar.
252+ SpA Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Serperior: 356-422 (122.3 - 145%) -- guaranteed OHKO

However, very uncommon, but I still use it, an AV serperior can take that hit a full health.
252+ SpA Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Serperior: 236-282 (81 - 96.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

So your best bet is probably Talon over Azumarill :P But understandably if you do not want to use it, Gengardoes helps in it's own way by giving you a fighting immunity. Also, it is faster and hits harder than Hydreigon. Hope I could help :)

 

[Xayah]

You could try running scarfed gengar.
252+ SpA Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Serperior: 356-422 (122.3 - 145%) -- guaranteed OHKO

However, very uncommon, but I still use it, an AV serperior can take that hit a full health.
252+ SpA Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Serperior: 236-282 (81 - 96.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

So your best bet is probably Talon over Azumarill :P But understandably if you do not want to use it, Gengardoes helps in it's own way by giving you a fighting immunity. Also, it is faster and hits harder than Hydreigon. Hope I could help :)

This seems very useful, but there is one way in which I think I can make Talonflame work:

Remove Mega Metagross for Mega Gardevoir and remove Hydreigon for Talonflame. I will still retain the special attacking force that Hydreigon had by inserting Gardevoir, and the physical power that Metagross had in Talonflame. What do you think of this?

 

[Afro14ajaja]

This seems very useful, but there is one way in which I think I can make Talonflame work:

Remove Mega Metagross for Mega Gardevoir and remove Hydreigon for Talonflame. I will still retain the special attacking force that Hydreigon had by inserting Gardevoir, and the physical power that Metagross had in Talonflame. What do you think of this?

You could do that but you might not want to have 3 fairies on one team so you should probably change sylveon as you like azumarill so much.

 

[Xayah]

You could do that but you might not want to have 3 fairies on one team so you should probably change sylveon as you like azumarill so much.

You're right, didn't think of that. I'll simply go for Scarf Gengar then, since replacing Sylveon means getting Chansey back. Besides, I like Gengar quite a bit.

 

[Afro14ajaja]

You're right, didn't think of that. I'll simply go for Scarf Gengar then, since replacing Sylveon means getting Chansey back. Besides, I like Gengar quite a bit.

Fair enough. Good luck!

 

[Xayah]

Fair enough. Good luck!

After trying the team with Gengar on Showdown often enough, I have decided that it work. My team will thus exist from Excadrill, Azumarill, Gengar, (Mega)Metagross, Sylveon and Tyranitar.