XY OU ORAS Team: Zard-Y Balance

[SleptSnorlax]

Hi guys! This is my first time in a good while posting here. I wanted to post my team so you guys could help me improving it. I'm not a great ORAS player so probably there are lots of things to be improved in my team. I hope you can help me!

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Roost

Charizard was the first choice for my team. I really like the raw power this pokemon provides, and i wanted to build the team around him.

Stats: I chose to max special attack over speed just to bring the power of his fire blast over nine thousand. Otherwise, usual EVs for a special sweeper.

Fire Blast: The bread and butter of Zard-Y. The power this attack brings is just overwhelming. It could be switched with flamthrower for accuracy, but the Fire Blast power is just too good to pass it.

Solar Beam: This attack is just great to make it through ground and water types. Its a great move for coverage.

Focus Blast: the last move to complete Zards coverage. It can be used to go through weakened Tyranitars or steel-types.

Roost: Recovery move. As Zard takes a lot of damage from stealth rock, it works pretty neatly.

Tyranitar quickly followed Zard. I think Tyranitar is one of the best teamates Zard-Y can get. It helps him by pursuit-trapping latios and latias, which are two of the few pokemon Zard cant kill. His innate bulk is very useful, even without spending EV's on his defensive side, and he hits pretty hard too. I had to pick a pursuit trapper, and Tyranitar was my choice.

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Crunch

Stats: I wanted a scarf Tyranitar to outspeed the lati twins, which were his primary objectives in this team. To max his speed i used jolly nature.

Stone Edge: His main STAB move. A bit risky with the accuracy, but still pretty good, and rock slide is too weak.

Pursuit: the reason to pick tyranitar. Used to trap gengar, the lati twins, Hoppa Unbound, Starmie...

Superpower: This move is just for coverage. Superpower wrecks other tyranitars and steel-types, which are kind of a problem to Zard.

Crunch: The other STAB move. The neutral coverage it provides is pretty good, as being locked to a moved which is resisted by many of the enemy team members is pretty awful.

Its not a secret that Zard-Y NEEDS reliable hazard control. Stealth Rock is just too destructive against the poor fire-breathing starter. I chose Excadrill because i had tyranitar to trap possible spinblockers, and, to take advantage of Tyranitar Sand Stream support, used a Sand Rush build.

Excadrill Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide

Stats: I maxed his special build because i didnt wanted to use the offensive build. Hazard removal is too importat for Zard and i didnt wanted to have a squishy spinner. I chose specially defensive to help against cleafable.

Earthquake: With mold breaker, earthquake can hit Rotom-W and Gengar. This way Gengar cant spinblock safely. Its also a powerful STAB move.

Iron Head: STAB move, super efective against faeries. The secondary mission of this pokemon was to fight faeries, so i needed Iron Head.

Rapid Spin: No comments.

Rock Slide: this move is just for coverage. Hits flying types strong.

I realized my entire team was frail to water-type attacks. Even is Zard-Y wasnt really because of Drought and Solar Beam, i thought i needed something against Keldeo and Azumarill. Talonflame was a problem too, resisting all Zard's movepool. Thundurus seemed like a fair choice.

Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Volt Switch

Stats: A usual special sweeper EV's. Not much to say.

Thunder Wave: Well. The bread and butter of Prankster Thundurus. Gotta love it.

Thunderbolt: Powerful STAB. Ready to delete any keldeo that dares to stand on its way, and very useful against flying types too.

Psychic: My only psychic-type move in the team. It really helps against Venusaur-Mega, which again, if used full special defense, can resist Zard-Y.

Volt-Switch: I know most people would include here the infamous Ice-Type Hidden Power, but i hadn't any U-Turn/Volt Switch user in the team, and with it Thundurus can work as a offensive pivot. I think it fits well in my team.

I found that i hadnt any dedicated physical sweeper in the team. Tyranitar didnt really have the power to act as a finisher against a weakened team. I chose Azumarill to fullfill this role in my team due to, again, its sheer power (i really like power). Choice Band grants me more POWER.

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Knock Off

Stats: maxing attack is obvious to make huge power work. I invest some EV's on speed to outspeed cleafable, and the rest went on HP to make it bulky enough to tank some hits.

Aqua Jet: Priority, STAB move? hell yes.

Waterfall: Perfect accuracy, decent power. Water-type main move.

Play Rough: Azumarill's main STAB move. It hits like a truck, and has a really nice coverage. Helps against dragons.

Knock Off: I hadn't any user of knock off and it felt bad. Its typing grants this move a huge neutral-hitted amount of pokemon, and when i dont know which pokemon is going to take the hit, Knock off is usually a good choice.

To finish the team i thought about a physically defensive pokemon, because my party had some good bulky pokemons on the special side already, like Tyranitar in sandstorm or Zard-Y, and obviously Excadrill. Celebi was my final choice.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 84 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Recover
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave

Stats: Honestly, I had no idea about how to spread the EV's on Celebi and just trusted smogon. Not much to say.

Giga Drain: Mandatory Stab move which also heals Celebi. Pretty nice.

Recover: When Giga Drain isnt enough recovery, Recover comes to the rescue.

Thunder Wave: The status move of choice. Cripples most switch-ins. Pretty much any sweeper will be angry of being paralyzed.

Stealth Rock: as the team uses rapid spin over defog, Stealth rock is a good inclusion in the team. Celebi, as the only dedicated wall of the team, has many oportunites to set it in the battlefield.

Exportable Version:

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
- Fire Blast
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Roost

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide

Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Knock Off

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 84 Sp.Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Stealth Rock
- Recover
- Thunder Wave


I hope you help me with your feedback! Feel free to say anything about my team!

 

[Prinz]

Hi,

I like your team concept even if tbh you could make some changes that would probably make it better. Firstly, I think with Tyranitar's support a offensive Sand Rush set is better on Excadrill as it has better chances to spin against offense teams (it also makes your matchup against offensive teams better) even if it loses much of the staying power your current Excadrill has, anyway I guess I would use a set of EQ / Rock Slide / Iron Head / Rapid Spin with Life Orb and a Jolly nature to at least have a speed tie with opposing Excadrills, although you can use an Adamant nature too. I also think your should probably change your Charizard Y and Thundurus' sets, Roost is just too good to keep Charizard healthy and you just run it instead of Substitute, you can try a Timid nature as well that would be helpful against things like Mega Gardevoir, Mega Medicham and Manaphy. On Thundurus I'd probably run something like Nasty Plot / Thunderbolt / HP Ice / Focus Blast with Leftovers, Nasty Plot Thundurus helps you a lot against more defensive buildings, and having Excadrill for offensive ones make you sure you have something for every playstyle. Life Orb sucks in sand tbh, and Leftovers allows Thundurus to have more staying power. If you have so many worries about Mega Venusaur you could also try HP Flying instead of HP Ice which lets you to hit rly hard Venusaur. Finally, I think you should consider Crunch instead of Ice Punch on your Tyranitar, as it's just a very good STAB to spam in ORAS and it helps when you think opposing Lati Twins / Starmie aren't switching out against your Tyranitar, it's true that Ice Punch helps against things like Gliscor, Landorus-T and Garchomp but guess you can beat them between Charizard, Azumarill and Thundurus and also Ice Punch isn't a really good moves to lock your Tyranitar into, as it gives free setup to things like Scizor, Azumarill, Charizard X and those things can be troublesome in lategame. I hope I have helped, good luck with your team!

 

[Alkov]

Hi there SleptSnorlax, really cool team you have there but I have some suggestion for you to help improve the team :]

1. Charizard Y has a 4x weakness to Stealth Rock and having Substitute only means it gets weaken a lot faster, instead of Substitute, consider having Roost instead especially since you are relying on a slow Excadrill for Rapid Spin.
   
   
2. A slow Excadrill with Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock isn't ideal in this metagame as there are way too many Pokemons that can take advantage of it easily. Things like Rocky Helmet Garchomp just knocks you out with Earthquake or sets up Stealth Rock on you while you lose 28% of your health trying to Rapid Spin it away. Also, with Tyranitar providing Sand Stream, it would be a lot better to have Sand Rush on Excadrill as it can potentially be your sweeper and it provides a better form of speed control to the team compared to a Tyranitar with Choice Scarf. This way, Tyranitar can be used for being a pivot and setting up Stealth Rock for the team.
   
   
3. I noticed that your team is a little weak to a Bisharp with Swords Dance as it can possibly sweep through your team on it's own. As much as I like Azumarill in this metagame, a Keldeo might be a lot more useful for your team in this situation as it helps provide your team with more defensive synergy will still capable of dealing out massive damage like an Azumarill. :[

That's all I have for now, hope it helps :]

 

[SleptSnorlax]

Thanks for your help guys! Im editing my team to show the changes i made following your aprreciations. I changed my defensive excadrill to an offensive one and adapted Celebi to the new needs of my team, as Excadrill no longer can set up rocks.
Zard-Y got roost and i changed Thundurus item to leftovers. I'm still not sure about changing thundurus to a nasty plot build, i really like priority thunder-wave. I didnt changed Azumarill with Keldeo because Keldeo would probably be too much special attack for the team, with only Tyranitar and Excadrill on the physical side. If bisharp happens to be too much of a problem i can change Azumarill's knock off with another superpower, but i haven't been too bothered by it so far.

 

[Prinz]

You can use a set of Nasty Plot / Thunder Wave / Thunderbolt / HP Ice if you want to, even if the coverage Focus Blast brings to the table is really useful.

 

[SleptSnorlax]

Posted it in exportable version!

 

[Tushar Cool]

Hi , very nice team! I really liked it I have a few suggestions to make this team more effective.

• First of all you looks kinda weak to Gyarados so I think Ferrothorn over Celebi gonna work. Ferrothorn can do the same work that Celebi does. But it also provides you a Gyarados counter but ferrothorn can't recover fast.

Ferrothorn

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave
- Power Whip

• Your team also has no switch-in to scarfed lando-t so I think you can try Air Balloon Excadrill Over Life Orb Excadrill with Swords Dance over rock slide , it's all up to you , you wanna try this change or not.

The team is good already so not much to say , btw good luck have fun for further battles. Hope this helps....