Resource OU Playstyles

[MattyBrollic]

Trick Room is a criminally underrated play style that can possess the tools to beat any play style. Setting up TR is not very difficult, even against a team with multiple taunt users because by equipping one of your TR setters with mental herb, you can set up on a taunt user and throw your opponents entire game plan off course making it difficult for them to taunt you again while desperately trying to maneuver around incredibly powerful TR abusers.

Some other solid TR megas that have not been mentioned are mega heracross, one of the strongest megas with incredible coverage, and also Mega Steelix. People overlook Mega Steelix's ability to thrash offensive teams with its high powered stabs in heavy slam, and earthquake, coverage moves like stone edge ice fang and fire fang, and its ability to set up stealth rocks with ease. Another advantage to using mega steelix is that it can hard counter weavile and bisharp which typically cause nightmares for trick room. Definitely not a play style to sleep on, just check out my RMT if you don't believe me! =]

 

[Dr. Medicine]

A few setters/abusers/pokemon that work well on TR team people have left out:

Gourgeist: I'm surprised not a lot of people know about this. Possesing a monster base 122 defense and 85 HP, gourgeist is a very reliable trick room setter. And to top it all off, it gets explosion, letting you set up trick room and then nuke the opposition while alos getting a free switch-in. Oh yeah, it's explosion also hits way harder than bronzong, and unlike diancie, gourgeist has access to valuable priority in shadow sneak to pick off weakened mons.

Set

Gourgeist @ Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Seed Bomb
- Shadow Sneak
- Explosion

Slowking: At first, it may seem pointless to use slowking over slowbro, that is until you take a closer look at both of their movepools. Slowking has access to Nasty Plot, turning slowking into a trick room setter that can clean up teams. Slowking should pivot into special moves and sweep with Trick Room and Nasty Plot late-game. Slowking and slowbro have a variety of coverage options, so feel free to deviate from moves listed, however Slowking is a lot less effective than slowbro without Nasty Plot outside of taking special hits.

Set

Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Nasty Plot
- Scald
- Psyshock / Fire Blast / Ice Beam

Pangoro: Trick room teams really struggle with ghost and dark types, due to the typing of most setters. Pangoro provides resistances to both of these threatening types, while having a good movepool and hitting hard in return. Iron Fist and Scrappy make Pangoro hard to wall, and Parting Shot is a useful momentum tool. This is a pretty straightfoward mon, so I won't include a set.

Scizor: Really? No one mentioned this guy? Priority is required on trick room teams to be effective and technician bullet punch gives scizor the strongest priorty move in the game outside of Talonflame's brave bird. Scizor is also good at gaining precious momentum with u-turn. Life Orb or scizorite are your best options for items.

Mega Ampharos: Surprised no one mentioned ampharos either. Mega ampharos is great under trick room. Mold Breaker ensures no skarmory, or multiscale dragonite can stand in the way of your trick room turns. Ampharos is also great for gaining momentum with volt switch. 165 base special attack does not hit lightly either.

Set

Ampharos @ Ampharosite
Ability: Static
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch / Hidden Power [Ice]
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast

Reuniclus: Reuniclus sports an awesome 125 base special attack, unresisted coverage, and a great ability in magic guard. Reuniclus doesn't need much support to sweep under trick room and is one of the best setters.

Set

Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
IVs: 0 Spe / 0 Atk
Quiet Nature
- Trick Room
- Psychic / Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

 

[Dr. Medicine]

I should also mentuion Victini as a trick room setter. While it may seem Victini is too fast to abuse trick room, victini is very effective when utilizing the speed lowering effects of V-Create. Victini also sports solid bulk when invested, and easily catches players off guard. U-turn lets it set up trick room and switch out. It will easily be worn down with it's defenses being lowered and weakness to stealth rock, however.

Set

Victini @ Flame Plate
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
IVs: 0 Spe
Brave Nature
- V-Create
- Trick Room
- U-Turn
- Zen Headbutt / Bolt Strike

 

[Absolete]

I have been using Trick Room exclusively for three generations now. I can add a few useful tricks to the discussion:

Slowbro-- Sporting Yawn is actually huge. Using it on the last turn of Trick Room actually ensures that Trick Room will be set either by Slowbro the next round, or by your switch in if they KO slowbro and fall asleep.

Dragonite-- Sporting huge attack, not amazing speed, and a strong priority attack, Dragonite is very useful.

Conkeldurr-- possibly one of the best abusers of trick room, he also offers a resistance to status through a Toxic Orb Guts set.

Nidoqueen-- With a useful typing and an amazing movepool, Nidoqueen hits hard from the special spectrum despite only 75 base Special Attack. Sheer Force + Life Orb gives her decent bulk and great damage potential.

Tyranitar-- Another huge attack power, coming with its own large amount of bulk. Setters like Diancie, Reuniclus, and Bronzong can sluff off the sandstorm and benefit as well.

Bisharp-- A strong Sucker Punch is always good. Bisharp happens to come with the added bonus of dismal speed.

 

[Tressed]

Week #5 - Rain
​

Rain teams, as the name might imply, take advantage of the effects of rain in order to defeat opposing teams. Rain is typically used in an offensive fashion, as there are plenty of uses for it, including boosting the power of Water moves, increasing the accuracy of Hurricane and Thunder, and activating Swift Swim. Of course, there are plenty of defensive merits to using rain, as it can help neuter Fire type moves and and provide a source of healing for Pokemon with Hydration and Rain Dish. Most Rain teams will run Damp Rock Politoed as their rain setter, as its Drizzle ability activates 8 turns of rain for merely switching in. Which Pokemon are able to use rain effectively? What are some common cores seen on Rain teams? Are the merits of running a secondary rain setter worth the cost of a mon, or is Politoed enough to keep the rain going throughout the match?

 

[Force Majeure]

I'm going to go through this sequentially. I build a LOT of dedicated rain teams: it's often unprepared-for and can beat the crap out of all but the most bulky stall teams. Keep in mind that "dedicated" rain teams are built around supporting your Swift Swimmers and wearing down the threats to those mons by breaking them down. There are a lot of options on Rain; there's a bit of a misconception that you have to use "rain mons" and that can be pretty limiting.

Which Pokemon are able to use rain effectively?

I'm going to split this a bit: there are mons that are good as rain abusers and mons that are great with these mons/appreciate the rain in general. I'll start with the rain sweepers and do partners and team composition later b/c this is taking forever.

THIS GUY

Kingdra is fantastic and is in my opinion the best offensive mon on rain teams. This is despite having no stat above base 95. It doesn't hold Kingdra back in most situations as it has access to very high BP moves in Hydro Pump and Draco Meteor. More importantly, Kingdra is fast, fast enough to run a +SpA Nature (usually Rash) and full SpA investment, still outspeed practically everything, AND have a few EVs left to invest in Attack. I prefer Life Orb to Choice Specs because the ability to change moves is pretty important. The last move could be Signal Beam if you're particularly worried about Hoopa-U, but it's basically filler as you SHOULD be pressing Hydro Pump most of the time. Draco Meteor is devastating against most Water Resists outside of Mega Altaria and Empoleon but again, you have to be conservative with it because of the SpA drop. Kingdra goes with everything because it does not stack Electric and Water weaknesses with Politoed, Kabutops, and Omastar.

Set

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 28 Atk / 252 SpA / 228 Spe
Rash Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Draco Meteor
- Waterfall
- Ice Beam

Here's another guy.

Kabutops is my favorite physical rain mon. Like Kingdra, it is pretty fast. You can run less speed if you want IF you have a faster Swift Swimmer and/or if you have paralysis support and/or if you're running Aqua Jet. If I'm running Kabutops as part of a core with Kingdra (highly recommended), I'll drop Kabutops down to outspeed +1 Positive Base 100s in the Rain as I have below. There's some room for messing around with the EVs. The moveset is fluid depending on whether or not you want to beat Ferrothorn or have an easier time with Talonflame: Low Kick 2HKOs most Ferrothorns and Ferro is a huge problem for Rain cores. If you go this route, keep in mind that doing so will severely damage Kabutops from Iron Barbs/LO Recoil/potentially Rocky Helmet/potentially leech seed, so it might be better to deal with Ferro in other ways. Aqua Jet lets you beat Talonflame without taking heavy damage and is excellent with Swords Dance. Waterfall is fantastic under the Rain; Stone Edge is a great secondary STAB and is powerful in its own right coming off of full Attack investment, a positive nature, and a Life Orb. Rapid Spin is an option but I really dislike using it because of the popularity of TankChomp and Ferro, which can block hazard removal if Kabu dies while spinning or can substantially shorten its sweep. Missing out on Swords Dance is somewhat sad, too.

Set

Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 36 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Def / 204 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Low Kick / Aqua Jet
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Waterfall

Oh, yeah! Omastar!

This guy is cool. As with Kingdra, it has an insanely powerful Hydro Pump. Unlike Kingdra, it can 2HKO basically everything with it because it generally carries Choice Specs. It's slow, though: base 55 means that it won't be outspeeding much; it's better to go Modest for the extra power: the boost is substantial. With Stealth Rock and one layer of Spikes, you can 2HKO Ferrothorn in the Rain. It's hard to get those stars to align sometimes, though. Regardless, you'll be pressing Hydro Pump and things will generally die. The other attacks are there because you might need them, but using them is generally discouraged. Ice Beam hits dragons, easily 2HKOing M-Alt. Knock Off is for Chansey. Note that Knocking Off Chansey's Eviolite is an integral part of whether Rain cores are able to break through Stall cores. Removing other stuff from switch-ins not named Chansey sounds nice, but remember: you can kill them with Hydro Pump so item removal isn't that important. Scald is typically used for its accuracy vs Hydro Pump. The burn effect is nice, but if you're stacking this with Kingdra and some other great Rain mons you might find yourself regularly tearing your hair out over the comparatively low accuracy of Hydro Pump, Stone Edge, and Focus Blast. If you're using Omastar to clean up, use Scald because it's powerful enough most of the time.

Set

Omastar @ Choice Specs
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Knock Off

You can go double-amphibion!

Seismitoad is a nice special Rain Sweeper. One problem with all of the above Rain sweepers is their crippling susceptibility to paralysis via Thunder Wave. Seismitoad's immunity to Thunder Wave is fantastic and is the #1 reason to use it because it's a bit weaker than Kingdra offensively. It does have a fat HP stat, though, which is nice. I don't use this one quite as much but it does have its merits. I use a mixed variant with Knock Off as its able to deal with Latios and Latias who can be troublesome especially if you're stacking hazards. If so, you might as well 2HKO them, so the EV spread is a bit different. Either way, Sludge Wave is for fairies and Focus Blast hits Ferrothorn occasionally.

set

Seismitoad @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 60 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 192 Spe OR EVs: 64 Atk / 252 SpA / 192 Spe
Modest Nature OR Rash Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Focus Blast / Knock Off

I guess this one's an amphibion, right?

Mega Swampert, that is, but the small amount of time that it isn't Mega Swampert makes it a more difficult to get started than Seismitoad or some of the other Rain Sweepers. It also takes up a Mega Slot, which is fine until you consider that many Megas like the rain and are quite interesting to use in conjunction with Rain cores. Just a thought. Waterfall gets the Rain boost and is pretty powerful in the Rain. Earthquake and Ice Punch round things out, and you have a very flexible fourth moveslot. Stealth Rock is my favorite because Mega Swampert is naturally bulky enough (and slow enough on turn one) that it's a pretty natural fit. Rain Dance works if you want to provide 5 turns of rain, but that's usually not ideal if you have Damp Rock Klefki or something as your secondary setter. Power-Up Punch is OK but I find it somewhat underwhelming given that Rain has you on a bit of a timer. Superpower is probably better but you'll have to switch soon after which can mess up the cycle a bit sometimes. Oh and yay T-wave immunity.

set

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock / Superpower / Power-Up Punch

I generally pick two of these, add Politoed, and then try to build around that core to beat common threats to Rain.

 

[Tressed]

Week #6 - Sand
​

Unlike Rain teams, Sand teams tend not to rely on the weather condition itself, but rather on the sand setters, Tyranitar and Hippowdon, and the support they bring to the team. Tyranitar based teams tend to use Pokemon that appreciate Pursuit trapping their counters, such as Mega Charizard Y and Keldeo, in order to tear apart defensive cores. Hippowdon based teams tend to stick to be defensive in nature, taking advantage of the passive damage that Hippowdon brings to the table. True Sand abusers are few and far between, though Excadrill and Mega Garchomp are incredibly effective at their respective roles. What cores are commonly seen on Sand teams? Which Pokemon threaten them?

 

[Shadow_Sneak]

Common seen cores included on sand are usually hippo/tar + drill/another sand abuser? Mega charizard y excadrill and tyranitar/ hippo (dual weather) Also when it comes down to the most effective play style when using sand my favorite is a sand balance team, these are still really decent in this metagame as the sand rush core is still a really powerful core. Sand offense isn't as good as it used to be with the banning of certain mons although I have found that mega pinsir and azumarill can really work on those builds. Although usually there may be a mega chomp in that spot.

 

[Tressed]

Week #7 - Bulky Offense​

Bulky offense teams rely on both defensive synergy and offensive power in order to push through opposing teams. These teams generally will attempt to pack switch ins to common offensive threats, making use of Pokemon such as (but not limited to) Tornadus-T, Tyranitar, and Conkeldurr for their useful resistances and bulk. Of course, bulky offense is not a defensive playstyle, as the win condition for most matches is rarely through attrition, but rather to break down your sweeper's checks and counters through offensive means.

• What sort of cores are typical on this style of team?
• What kinds of Pokemon and cores give these teams problems?

 

[TSR]

I suppose I can start

This thing sports massive 80/123/120 defenses, making it one of the hardest things to break in the tier. It stands with 122 base SpAtk, making it a key member of many bulky offense lineups in OU. With resistances to three of the most potent offensive types in OU, Electric, Fairy, and Water, it stands out as one of the few counters to (non-Psychic) Manaphy as well. With its stats and fairy, it provides massive defensive support on offensive pressure, due to being able to counter things that usually give offensive or fatter teams problems, like Azumarill, Manaphy, Thundurus, Keldeo, Unaware Clefable, Serperior and Weavile. Due to Thick Fat, it only is very weak to Talon, Kyu-B, and Alakazam, as offensive Starmie is losing popularity and M-Garde can't safely switch in. It reliably checks many offensive threats due to insane bulk and only effectively two weaknesses. It also has semi reliable recovery in Synthesis, and it ususally beats the weather cores that hinder Synthesis recovery. STAB Giga Drain also lessens the pressure that Venusaur recieves from Taunt users. It also makes a decent status absorber, being immune to Toxic, and not minding burns too much due to being a fat special attacker. It is a superb example of a blanket check mon that can fill multiple roles for one team, and is usually never a bad choice for bulky offense.

Set

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 144 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power Fire

or

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 232 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power Fire
- Synthesis

sorry for ripping sets off of the venu page too lazy for calcs and like midnight in colorado.


Thoughts on Bulky Offense:

Bulky Offense usually has a good matchup vs standard offense style due to it still having good offensive pressure but having more defensive capabilities to abuse. It also plays pretty evenly with Balance and Semi-Stall due to the almost even split of offense and defense between team members, with Bulky Offense being of course more inclined to offensive synergy and the other styles in question. Bulky Offense struggles more with Stall than other styles due to the limited amount of wall/stallbreakers that fit well on this archetype. Offensive threats such as Kyurem-B, Mega Gardevoir, and Mega Diancie are usually problems due to these mons being faster than some of the fatter attackers and being able to hit ridiculously hard on both physical and special sides. Additionally, Bulky Offense usually lacks the amount of powerful setup and coverage that other offense teams have due to slight reliance of defensive capability. Pokemon like Suicune, Reuniclus, and CM Rain Dance Manaphy fit very well on this archetype compared to HO for example, for they do not fear stall in the slightest, while being able to invest into defense and use boosting moves (CM in all three cases) in conjunction with status recovery or immunity to eventually break down stall. Also a strength of Bulky Offense teams is to counter specific threats to the core of the team. More fragile offense has to rely on the six teammates being able to check or pivot on the majority of the metagame and use unexpected coverage moves to lure in threats to the team. Bulky Offense's defensive capability lets the archetype have a more reliable answer to the team's threatlist. Unfortunately, this answer usually leaves the team with a more passive approach to dealing with the threats and can cause a loss of momentum. Like the HO and standard offense archetype, I believe Bulky Offense has a high skill cap and will reward players that can know how to use aggresive plays to create momentum and safe, but also more passive plays to keep the opponent's offensive capability in check.

 

[p2]

Clefable is a nice mon on Bulky Offense

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled

Whenever I build BO teams, I always seem to throw this thing on because it does such a nice job of blanket checking a bunch of really threatening attackers to BO, including the likes of Weavile, Thundurus and Kyu-B. Its also one of the most consistent SR setters in the tier, being able to force out Mega Sableye and get rocks up against teams that use Sab to prevent hazards. Thunder Wave is cool for slowing down mons for your offensive core to do stuff and can even use different options like Encore or Healing Wish. Unaware can be used to check Manaphy too I guess, but I'd just prefer to use Latios, a Grass or an Electric.

ShiningFire08 summed BO up nicely, but its 3am right now so i'll probably post something on threats tomorrow :o

 

[p2]

a little later than what I expected but w/e

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Fusion Bolt / Iron Head
- Roost / Hidden Power Fire

Kyu-B is pretty retarded against BO teams. BO will have slower teams than the likes of Hyper Offense, which is what KyuB thrives against. It's great coverage shreds everything, especially with Teravolt ignoring Levitate and Thick Fat. It breaks a bunch of common mons you typically find on BO, stuff like Venusaur, Hippo, Heatran, Rotom-W, Starmie, and even Scizors with HP Fire. Though it is threatened by pretty much anything faster (stuff like Timid M-Gardevoir, Latis, Keldeo, MegaGross, Jirachi, and Fast Garchomps etc, it's still really scary to face because of how limited it switchins really are and how difficult it can be to play around without anything faster.

Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice] / Grass Knot
- Focus Blast

Thundurus just fucks everything over, no matter what you do. It's dickish speed tier screws over the crowded 108-110 tiers and it hits stupidly hard with its 125 SpA and bunch of high BP coverage moves. There are no surefire answers to Thundy, but your best bets are Mega Venusaur, Hippowdon, offensive Starmie, Raikou, Mega Manectric, and Weavile. Luckily it's held back by its annoying weakness to Stealth Rock and frailty.

Hoopa-Unbound @ Life Orb
Ability: Magician
EVs: 136 Atk / 120 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Hyperspace Fury / Dark Pulse
- Psyshock
- Drain Punch

Hoopa-U has insane offenses and coverage which make it nearly impossible to switch into, as well as being able run move such as Nasty Plot or Substitute to break BO teams more easily. However it is severely hindered by its low Speed and low defense which leaves it weak to common priority and faster Pokemon. BO has a better matchup against Hoopa-U as it runs faster Pokemon or ones with priority such as Weavile, Azumarill, Scizor, Charizard X, and Keldeo.

Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Knock Off
- Low Kick / Poison Jab / Swords Dance

125 Speed coupled with the two best types to have STAB on in the meta make Weavile a scary threat. It's really difficult for offensive teams to switch into because it's hard to prepare for Weavile and Klefki is like the only mon that can consistently counter it on BO, stuff like Clefable and Azumarill risk Poison Jab, Keldeo is really easily worn down but it works, and stuff like Terrakion and Ferrothorn risk Low Kick. Weavile is just really scary for offensive teams to face as they do not have much that can counter it.

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Superpower

Azu is pretty slow, but it hits insanely hard with its great coverage and priority. Huge Power allows Azu to reach around base 150 Atk, which means this thing is hitting as hard as Groudon. It's a risky Pokemon to play around too because one misplay can lead to it destroying your team with BellyJet and another misplay just leads to your mons dying to Banded Play Rough. Even though its ridiculous, it finds itself countered by Mega Venusaur and checked by a bunch of faster Pokemon such as Latis with Electric coverage, Thundurus, Raikou, Mega Manectric, EBall Manaphy etc.