ORAS OU Climbing the Ladder OU singles

[lillion1]

This is my Charizard Y team, it has 2 sweepers, one Special one Physical. It has a revange killer, a lead and 2 defensive pokemon (with offensive capabilities). I didn't bother noting down, what the development proces of this team was, since a lot changed during the last 2 months. The only pokemon which stayed in this consistently are Rotom-W and Charizard Y. The rest was subject to heavy changes.

I like an aggresive playstyle and this team compliments that.

Starting with the soul of this team

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Roost

The main pokemon of my team. Standard special sweeper set. Nothing particular to say about this set. 0 IV in attack is to make sure seismic toss does little dammage. On rare occasions. when I see theyr team has a lot of weaknesses against him, or they might start with rotom/ grass pokemon, I like to start with him. Use flamethrower because the other fire attack options sometimes miss, and I really hate missing. Solar Beam is coverage, Focus Blast protects me from Heatran and Tyranitar. Roost is used for healing, always appreciated with charizard.

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 240 Atk / 16 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake FIRE PUNCH
- Extreme Speed
- Dragon Dance

How the **** does he fly with those tiny wings? Anyway:
My physicial sweeper, also with a standard set. I use Dragonite because of his Bulk and his great physical attack while at +1. Lum berry is to make sure those pesky thunderwaves or Will-o-Whisps dont do much against him. And of course it helps him out of confusion. I like to play him mid to late game, or when I see an opportunity to set up a Dragon Dance and kill 2 a 3 of theyr pokemon. Extreme Speed helps me to take care of weakened pokemon. The adamant nature is for even more Attack. With +1 he outspeeds all pokemon except those who have more than 400 speed. Decided to change Earthquake to Fire Punch, because I already have 3 other pokemon that beat heatran (Excadrill, Rotom, and Charizard Focus Blast). Fire Punch gives me coverage against Iron types, though I lose coverage against Diancie and Tyranitar. Against Tyranitar I have Excadril (iron head), scizor (Rocky helmet + bullet punch), Charizard Y(if no scard my Focus Blast), Rotom-W(Hydro Pump) and Sylveon (Hyper Voice) so this doesnt matter that much. Against Diancie I have Rotom (Hydro Pump), Excadrill (Iron Head), and Scizor (Bullet Punch), so this I can handle as well. Therefore using Fire Punch is more advantagous, since it still covers the other pokemon that earthquake also covered, while giving him an options to walls like Ferrothorn, Skarmory etc. Removing the problems I had against these pokemon.

Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 20 SpD / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Brick Break RAPID SPIN

My revange killer. This pokemon is fun, Mold breaker makes sure Levitate doesnt do much vs him. Using an adamant nature to maximize attack. 20 in special defence to survive a special attack, his typing takes care of most physical attacks. Also I didnt really need maxed speed, with choice scarf and these EV's he outspeeds all onboosted pokemon, and many boosted as well. Above all, he is a great revange killer. His earthquake/Rockslide is great coverage against most types. If I use him vs Talonflame, most dont expect he will outspeed them, they use Flare Blitz, and die to my Rock Slide. This goes for most pokemon weak vs rock. Wasnt sure what to put on the 4th spot, so used Brick Break, a physical fighting move that can get rid of screens and works great vs Tyranitar. Changed Brick Break into rapid spin. A second spinner in a team where both my dedicated sweepers are weak vs Stealth Rock seemed like a good idea, especially if scizzor failed getting rid of it. Tested it out for some time and really like it (current elo raised from 1325 to 1483). He is less effective against grass, fighting and water pokemon. For grass I have Charizard ( flamethrower) and scizor (U-Turn), Dragonite (Fire Punch). Water Pokemon are beaten by Rotom W (Volt Switch) and Charizard Y(Solar Beam). Fighting pokemon are hopefully beaten by Sylveon, or destroyed by neutral coverage attacks/Will-o-Wisp. Ground types usually end up against Rotom-W, or Charizard.

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry LEFTOVERS
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 148 Def / 120 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunder Wave

My usual lead. again 0 IV in att for same reason as with charizard. EV set makes him quite bulky, making sure he survives almost everything. The berry gives him even more survivability. LEFTOVERS works better than Sitrus Berry for survivability. Tested it for a while and the changes are quite significant, so I decided to drop the selfinflicted itemclause. Love the combo of WIll-o-Wisp and Thunder Wave. If I think my opponent will switch into a special attacker I use Wave, to criple theyr speed. If they are gonna use a Physical attacker, Will-O-Wisp criples them. Thats also the reason I didnt fully invest in Physical Def, usually after a while, most of theyr physical pokemon do about half dammage. No EV's in speed because I like to hit Volt Switch last. Volt Switch is part of my Voltturn combo with Scizor, and Hydro Pump is a great Stab move. His weakness to grass is covered by Charizard en Dragonite (Fire Punch).

Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 240 HP / 172 Def / 96 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Hyper Voice

My special wall, with a little investment in def to survive psyshocks. This is a standard set from smogen. I needed a cleric in this team, cause its quite weak to status and most of my pokemon can't heal themselves. Also when my defogger is gone, I use Wish, then switch to charizard or Dragonite. Usefull for restoring multiscale in this manner. Also he is great at stalling.

Scizor @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Technician
EVs: 240 HP / 132 Def / 136 SpD
Impish Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog

My defogger. Both of my sweepers have a nasty stealthrock weakness, so its really needed. Also Voltturn core with Rotom-W. He is a secondary tank, and together with Rotom and Sylveon all weaknesses are covered. Rocky Helmet is used, cause I couldnt think of something else and because it usually supprises my opponents a lot. Bulletpunch helps with killing weakened opponents.


I like to keep myself to item clause.

Sylveon, Scizor and Rotom form some sort of defensive core in this team. Usually Sylveon and scizor on theyr own can stall a lot. Because of Roost and Wish I can use Defog multiple times in a game as well.

Charizard Y, Dragonite and scarf Excadrill are my offensive Core. Together they hit all pokemon at least neutral.

My team has resistances to almost all types and has super effective moves to almost all pokemon in OU and BL, except Mega Venusaur, who can resist fire moves because of his ability. Dont particullary struggle with him though, since flamethrower still does a LOT of dammage to him.

What I struggle with are stall teams. Yesterday I played a game for like an hour, because we couldnt break through after Charizard y and Dragonite were gone. Only had Sylveon and Scizor left. Won in the end because my opponent ran out of offensive moves first (Bullet Punch is great in that regard I guess)

A couple of pokemon that are hard to beat are:

Bisharp,
He is annoying. Dont know what to do against him, usually he can take about 2 or 3 of my pokemon. Especially once Charizard Y is gone or at half HP

Gliscor ,
Faster than Rotom, so can usually set up a substitute, then protect, while toxic destroys Rotom. While his Orb heals him, and no other pokemon of mine do super effective dammage. Of course once Ive started Sweeping with Dragonite or Charizard Y this problem solves itself.

Lopunny Mega ,
My counters to it are Excadrill and extreme speed Dragonite. The later of which cant OHKO her, and therefore gives her time to get rid of me. I usually first switch to rotom and try to either wave her or burn her.

Sableeye ,
Charizard Y and Dragonite can wallbreak him, if he doesnt use toxic/will-o-wisp first. Excadrill does little less than 50% usually, so he can just recover that.

Stall in general,
Usually Stall can outstall me hard, and once they are rid of Charizard or Dragonite, I cant really counter them anymore.

This team also does not have supper effective moves vs Mega Venusaur, but that is not really annoying, since I hit him neutrally with both of my sweepers for great dammage

Some random plays
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-235408060
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-235408527

 

[BamALam]

Hi lillion1, Cool team. Only change I would make is to replace the Sitrus berry on Rotom-W to Leftovers to get a more reliable and gradual recovery. Also, I like your idea of running dual Will o wisp and Thunder wave to surprise many Pokemon expecting only the Will o Wisp however in the long run, I would switch one of these two moves to Pain Split because otherwise you will be worn down quickly switching into attacks. Hope I helped! \(^o^)/

 

[lillion1]

Hi lillion1, Cool team. Only change I would make is to replace the Sitrus berry on Rotom-W to Leftovers to get a more reliable and gradual recovery. Also, I like your idea of running dual Will o wisp and Thunder wave to surprise many Pokemon expecting only the Will o Wisp however in the long run, I would switch one of these two moves to Pain Split because otherwise you will be worn down quickly switching into attacks. Hope I helped! \(^o^)/

Thunderwave adds too much utility, and I have more recovery thanks to my cleric in this team. Therefore Painsplit/Rest are not high on my priority listing.
I will not use a second leftovers, If i decide to use it, it will only happen when I've changed that item on Sylveon to somehing else. I know it's not neccesary, but I keep myself to item clause.

 

[Lelouch (Zero)]

I like your team a lot. However I would suggest changing Fire Punch back to Earthquake. My reasoning is some people have put Rocky Helmet on their Skarmory. Also, Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs is dangerous to multiscales. These two threats, which u want to use Dragonite to take down, elimintae multiscales which is really useful later in the battle. Since its a pain to use wish to heal a little bit of damage I would keep EQ and use Char-Y to KO those Pokémon instead. Other than that there's too not much else to say. I agree with BamALam for the second leftovers even though it goes against your preferences. Also maybe think about putting Rapid Spin on Excadrill and put Knock on Scizor incase you come up against Pokémon like Landorus-T or other walls.

 

[lillion1]

I like your team a lot. However I would suggest changing Fire Punch back to Earthquake. My reasoning is some people have put Rocky Helmet on their Skarmory. Also, Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs is dangerous to multiscales. These two threats, which u want to use Dragonite to take down, elimintae multiscales which is really useful later in the battle. Since its a pain to use wish to heal a little bit of damage I would keep EQ and use Char-Y to KO those Pokémon instead. Other than that there's too not much else to say. I agree with BamALam for the second leftovers even though it goes against your preferences. Also maybe think about putting Rapid Spin on Excadrill and put Knock on Scizor incase you come up against Pokémon like Landorus-T or other walls.

I will try leftovers, if it makes a significant difference, Ill use that item instead. Ive tried rapid spin on excadrill before. I didnt like that I got locked up into that attack, then had to switch out normally. With Scizor, I can use Volt Turn to switch into Scizor, then use Defog and switch out with U-Turn.

The reasons for Fire Punch are well thought out. It is true that Ferrothorns Iron Barbs destroy multiscale, but EQ can not OHKO him, so he usually has time to set up a Leech Seed, destroying Multiscale that way and hindering me in my Sweeping. Same goes for Skarmory, where EQ is ineffective. I would rather volluntarelly give up some HP, to be sure to get rid of them, instead of using ineffective moves and still have them on the field. Fire Punch is more of a plan B in these cases, where Charizard is dead, or Dragonite is already +1 and Switching out will cost me all my advantage. If multiscale becomes a big problem, I can always recover Dragonites HP with wish. All other threats Earthquake is supposed to cover, are covered really well by other pokemon of mine (as described in the description of Dragonite) in such an extend, that they are not really threats anymore to the team in general.
Fire Punch also covers my Ice weakness, which is great as well, while my rock weakness is covered by the rest of the team. All have at least 1 skill that works against rock types.

Without Firepunch though, Skarmory and Ferrothorn become such threats, because then my only chance of stopping them becomes Charizard. And that's a lot of responsibility for only 1 pokemon.

 

[Lelouch (Zero)]

If you really want to keep Fire Punch might I suggest putting Leftovers/Shell Bell on Dragonite instead? I use a multiscale Dragonite myself and I found that Leftovers is good to recover small bits of damage such as Stealth Rocks, Iron Barbs, Rocky Helmet, etc. I suggested Shell Bell for your item clause. True you do lose the Lum berry to help you recover from confusion but this can still be useful especially since not every Dragonite has to have a Lum berry. Status problems are not a problem since you have Heal Bell on your Sylveon.

 

[lillion1]

If you really want to keep Fire Punch might I suggest putting Leftovers/Shell Bell on Dragonite instead? I use a multiscale Dragonite myself and I found that Leftovers is good to recover small bits of damage such as Stealth Rocks, Iron Barbs, Rocky Helmet, etc. I suggested Shell Bell for your item clause. True you do lose the Lum berry to help you recover from confusion but this can still be useful especially since not every Dragonite has to have a Lum berry. Status problems are not a problem since you have Heal Bell on your Sylveon.

I will test that one out. It's intresting

 

[lillion1]

Tested both Leftovers and Shell Bell for Dragonite, did not particulary like the results. With Lum Berry Dragonite was protected against status effects for once, which gave him far more sweeping power (uninterupted). With Lum berry he could also continue using attacks without worrying about confusion. When using Shell Bell or Leftovers, Dragonite was usually shut down by a single toxic/Will-o-Whisp/thunder wave. Then I had to switch to Sylveon, use Heal Bell, go back to dragonite and use Dance again to continue the sweep. Wasting 4 turns like this.

Changed Brick Break on Excadrill to a rapid spin. Both my dedicated sweepers are weak against Stealth Rock, a second spinner solved this problem permanently. If scizor dies excadrill still can save me from these pesky hazards.

I am really pleased with the combo of Charizard y. Dragonite and scarfed Excadrill. My defensive core also does its job greatly. My ranking increased to 1483 with this team, and my winning rate went up from 53% to about 65% in the last 2 weeks. I usually play like 4 games a day.

 

[teal6]

Hi Lillion1,

The first thing I notice about your team is that you don't have any entry hazards. When using a wallbreaker like Charizard-Y, I think you absolutely need hazards to get the best out of him. Because of the large amount of threats that he forces, you want to rack up damage quickly with a cool passive 12% + whatever move you use. This eases prediction as even taking a resisted hit, combined with hazards puts pressure on your opponent.

I think in order to do this, you should drop Excadrill as he currently stands. You have enough answers to fairy types in the team currently between Scizor and Charizard Y. What I would suggest in Excadrill's place is another mon that can still deal with the Lati@s of OU while enabling you to both set and remove hazards:

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
- Defog

While Empoleon is a bit more defensive than Excadrill, you add in utility what you didn't have before. Defog remains a way to remove hazards. A Steel typing helps take Latias/Latios and Mega Altaria.

Smaller changes include removing Rocky Helmet from Scizor in exchange for Leftover (you don't want to be getting hit enough to make use of Helmet), changing Sitrus to Leftovers on Rotom-W, and my personal suggestion of using Modest Charizard Y.

If you have any questions on the reasoning behind any of these changes PM me, as I'm about to run out for a few hours but will gladly explain why I think they are beneficial to your team further.

 

[lillion1]

Hi Lillion1,

The first thing I notice about your team is that you don't have any entry hazards. When using a wallbreaker like Charizard-Y, I think you absolutely need hazards to get the best out of him. Because of the large amount of threats that he forces, you want to rack up damage quickly with a cool passive 12% + whatever move you use. This eases prediction as even taking a resisted hit, combined with hazards puts pressure on your opponent.

I think in order to do this, you should drop Excadrill as he currently stands. You have enough answers to fairy types in the team currently between Scizor and Charizard Y. What I would suggest in Excadrill's place is another mon that can still deal with the Lati@s of OU while enabling you to both set and remove hazards:

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
- Defog

While Empoleon is a bit more defensive than Excadrill, you add in utility what you didn't have before. Defog remains a way to remove hazards. A Steel typing helps take Latias/Latios and Mega Altaria.

Smaller changes include removing Rocky Helmet from Scizor in exchange for Leftover (you don't want to be getting hit enough to make use of Helmet), changing Sitrus to Leftovers on Rotom-W, and my personal suggestion of using Modest Charizard Y.

If you have any questions on the reasoning behind any of these changes PM me, as I'm about to run out for a few hours but will gladly explain why I think they are beneficial to your team further.

I forgot to note down my change in Rotom-W, I had already changed sitrus berry into Leftovers.
Empoleon gives me another thunder weakness, without giving me anything significant back.

I lose my scarfer. Excadrill makes my team far more threatening. If I have taken down the pokemon that resist or are imune against earth attacks, his insane scarfed speed allows me to take down the entire enemy team. I've won a great number of games because of that. Since a lot of people dont expect scarfed excadrill, they might let pokemon that can be ohko'd by a single attack of him in, hoping to take him out with a super effective move. The number of Latios/Latias/Rotom-W/opposing excadrills/Talonflames/Thundurus/Lopunny-Mega's etc I've taken out with him are quite significant.
I also send him in a lot when I think my opponents will use a thunder attack on charizard. I can't do the same with empoleon, giving me a significant weakness in that regard.

Ive tried stealth Rock on Excadrill before, but I didnt find it more usefull than Rapid Spin as back-up. And in most games I dont mind not having Stealth Rock. Adamant Excadrill/ Dragonite (adamant+1) and Charizard Y usually do so much dammage that it doenst matter if they lack the extra stealth rock dammage. And since I like to really abuse the Thunder Wave/Will-O-Whisp combo on Rotom, most of theyr pokemon are usually slow enough to be hit a second time when they swap or they take extra burn dammage.
(I've once won a game by burning my opponents Tyranitar and Excadrill while paralyzing my opponents Gengar and Latios before losing Rotom-W. My opponent was quite pissed off :))

Empoleon on the other hand does not give me the same thing's Excadrill does. Not only does he not give me the great immunity against electric attacks( but is instead weak against it), he also is far too slow and lacks the Earth/Rock combo of offensive moves.