OU Cores in the BW2 Metagame

Versatile Defensive core



Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Body Slam / Wish / Thunder wave !? / Fire punch !!
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock/ Wish


Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 200 HP / 56 Atk / 252 Spd
Naughty Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice] / Stealth Rock
- Rock Slide / Stone edge / Superpower !?


Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp / Thunder Wave

I don't know if this has been posted but I find this core to really cover a huge majority of the metagame. The only pokemon you are outright losing to is a +1 volcarona. Other than that I can't think of a standard pokemon that can break this core easily. With some hazards up (2-3 layers of spikes) this core becomes way more powerful and easier to play with. Jirachi covers the hurricane spammers and most lati@s sets. Land-t covers most physical sets with ease. Garchomp and terrakion would love to go one on one with rotom and jirachi but it has a difficult time KOing land-t. Land -t also has the speed to be quite a late game threat with jirachi or rotom's paralysis. Rotom covers some awkward threats that would kill jirachi and land-t like mamoswine and rain teams. Pokemon like ferrothorn can give this core some trouble due to its unpredictability but you can throw on superpower or fire punch on land-t and jirachi respectively . Also you have to watch out for scald as a burned rotom isnt really productive. Scald in general is just a scary move.

That core is very similar to the Gliscor/Rotom-W/Jirachi core that was popular in mid-BW1, but with Landorus-T instead of Gliscor. Their typing combinations are renowned for possessing good synergy, and hence this core still works well today.

Personally, I'd use a more defensive Landorus-T spread though. I don't see why you need to run max Speed, and with no Defense EVs you'll struggle to tank CB boosted Stone Edges and Outrages. To be honest, I just like to go Impish w/ 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def, but if you want a faster spread to outspeed Adamant Lucario, try Jolly w/ 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 Spd, hitting all the same benchmarks as your spread whilst being sturdier in general. Investing in Attack isn't necessary from my experience; Landorus-T hits hard enough even with no EVs and a neutral nature.

landy-t's SDef is pretty bad and we have 2 special tanks in the core. why not max out Def before investing in HP, since that increases physical bulk, besides it is using a naughty nature

Adamant @Leftovers
200 HP / 64 Atk / 246 Def
~ Stealth Rock
~ Earthquake
~ U-Turn
~ Stone Edge


Calm @Leftovers
252 HP / 222 Sp. Def / 36 Speed
~ Giga Drain
~ Recover
~ Baton Pass
~ Perish Song

Didn't bother to read the past 15 pages to see if this was posted before, so bare with me if this has been posted. This combination makes for a usable defensive pivotal core, Which works great with Hyper Offense teams, or teams that revolve around offensive momentum. While this core is given trouble by mixed Landorus, Mamoswine, and hard-hitting Ghost/Fire-type, it often can keep momentum, especially when paired with the likes of Scizor and/or Rotom-W. The Speed EVs for Celebi allow it to outpace standard defensive Gliscor, and all variants of CB Ttar, and can Baton Pass out safely of Pursuit trappers such as Scizor and Tyranitar to an appropriate check.

Lulz said:

Adamant @Leftovers
200 HP / 64 Atk / 246 Def
~ Stealth Rock
~ Earthquake
~ U-Turn
~ Stone Edge

Calm @Leftovers
252 HP / 222 Sp. Def / 36 Speed
~ Giga Drain
~ Recover
~ Baton Pass
~ Perish Song

Didn't bother to read the past 15 pages to see if this was posted before, so bare with me if this has been posted. This combination makes for a usable defensive pivotal core, Which works great with Hyper Offense teams, or teams that revolve around offensive momentum. While this core is given trouble by mixed Landorus, Mamoswine, and hard-hitting Ghost/Fire-type, it often can keep momentum, especially when paired with the likes of Scizor and/or Rotom-W. The Speed EVs for Celebi allow it to outpace standard defensive Gliscor, and all variants of CB Ttar, and can Baton Pass out safely of Pursuit trappers such as Scizor and Tyranitar to an appropriate check.

Click to expand...

You don't want to run Baton Pass with Perish Song. Perish Song will be passed to another one of your 'mons. You could run U-turn so you can still escape on the switch in from trappers. For the rest it looks like a solid core if you add a steel type to take Dragon attacks.

Tabuu said:

Breloom @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP | 252 Attk | 252 Spe
Moveset: Low Sweep | Mach Punch | Bullet Seed | Spore​

AND

Keldeo @ Expert Belt
Ability: Justified
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP | 252 SpA | 252 Spe
Moveset: Secret Sword | Hydro Pump | Hidden Power Bug | Icy Wind

How it works​

Hide

Simply put Offensive Breloom and Expert Belted Keldeo go together so well. Breloom struggles to break past heavy physical walls due to the lack of coverage, Choice Band and/or Swords Dance. Pokemon such as Celebi, Gliscor, Volcarona and Dragonite trouble Breloom. But here comes Keldeo. Expert Belted Keldeo. With Hidden Power Bug, Icy Wind and a heavy SpA stat, Gliscor, Celebi, Volcarona, Dragonite and such will simply collapse to this pony. But it gets better. Keldeo is EBelted. Many will think he's Scarfed and send in Heatran after you KO'd Gliscor with Icy Wind or Celebi after you KO'd Heatran with Hydro Pump. This is where you can simply click Hydro Pump or Hidden Power Bug respectively and watch them take a sh*t ton of damage. These guys will work pretty well along with the likes of Tyranitar, Latias and Heatran. Honestly, it's experimentation!

Click to expand...

I love this core, used it a lot before. Imo EB Keldeo is an amazing partner for a lot of pokes, and Breloom and Lando are the biggest benefitors of this. That core helps smash the other' counters' so well that the opponent can do nothing but admit defeat. Personally I ran SubPunch Loom but that's purely up to preference and team, but overall a good offensive core.

Sorry, this is my first post in this thread/subforum so if it's stupid I apologize. I just wanted to show off a great little weather stablizing core I use in my latest Sun team which works to amazing effect. It revolves around the combination of Eject Button Ninetales and Custap Berry Wobbuffet. By using them together, the player can claim their dominant weather and trap an opposing Pokemon in for their demise. Here are the sets:


Ninetales @ Eject Button
Trait: Drought
EVs: 16 Spd / 240 Def / 252 HP
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Sunny Day
- Will-o-Wisp
- Roar


Wobbuffet @ Custap Berry
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Def
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Destiny Bond
- Counter
- Mirror Coat
- Encore


While substitutable for another weather setter, I believe this works to best effect with Ninetales due to its access to the fastest actual weather inducing move (in this case, Sunny Day) out of all of the weather inducers. The trap can be executed in two main ways. In the first method, you can simply send out Ninetales against an opposing weather inducer, e.g. Politoed, off an expected attack. The sun goes up and then Ninetales immediately gets the option to switch out. The other method is to use Sunny Day when both weather inducers are in and the weather is not in your favor. If Ninetales outspeeds, it will claim weather, get hit by a reduced damage attack and then be sent out to Wobbuffet.

It must be highlighted that this only works against weather inducers which will readily attack Wobbuffet, so Trick support is heavily recommended. I use Chandelure to Trick support but any method is fine. Afterwards, Wobbuffet gets sent out, in the Sun, against the opponent and is free to use Destiny Bond (which is set to a higher move priority when under 25% of its health) or CounterCoat to kill off the opponent. Finally, Ninetales can jump back into the fray to bring up eternal sunlight provided the opponent has no method of reviving their weather.

The EVs on Ninetales are definitely open to be edited to fit the needs of the team and also to combat other weather inducers to a larger scale. I mainly use Roar and Will-o-Wisp after the button has been activated so that Ninetales is not completely useless. Currently the EVs make sure that Ninetales outspeeds 252+ Spe Politoed so that it can set up Sunny Day first. It's also worth noting the usefulness of Roar on Ninetales in conjunction with Encore on Wobbuffet to phaze Pokemon that try to set up on the team. It also helps outspeed Heatran in a Roar vs. Roar play-off. I use a Timid nature as I believe if you bother to boost any stat, since natures work off positive percentages, it is more beneficial to boost the largest stat to get the biggest gain and then I can simply dump the rest of its EVs to help its physical bulk. Ninetales already has sufficient special bulk and should not rely solely on Will-o-Wisp.

The EVs that were placed on Wobbuffet are to maximize its special bulk to survive Hydro Pumps and the like more easily. It also helps defeat RP Landorus, a large threat to my team. As some of you may know, I disagree heavily with Smogon's suggested EV spread for Wobbuffet. This is because it is important to realize that by not giving Wobbuffet the HP EVs that it needs, you are limiting its potential to KO with CounterCoat. CounterCoat works off actual numbers of damage dealt to Wobbuffet's HP - doubled. The more HP you have to sacrifice, the more you can payback with. Wobbuffet loses approximately 60 HP if it doesn't fully invest into its HP stat. In the long run, that can mean 120 less damage dealt to your opponent.

Thanks.

Joeyboy said:

Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SDef / 36 Spd
Gentle Nature
- Stealth Rocks
- U-turn / Baton Pass
- Psychic
- Recover

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Trick

Pretty standard core I think but I've been using it a lot recently and wanted to share it in case anyone doesn't know it yet :) The core is a nice balance between offensive and defensive, Celebi being the primary defense and Jirachi being the primary offense, and both share great synergy. The dual use of U-Turn is awesome as they usually have no problems U-Turning back and forth on their respective switch-ins. Celebi also sets up the rocks that are huge on any U-Turning combo as you'll be forcing switches left and right and can rack up some impressive hazards damage.

Honestly try it out, this pair is extraordinarily solid and are very easy to build around. I have multiple teams at the moment that utilize these two 'mons. They work especially well on Rain teams where their shared Fire-type weakness is nullified.

Click to expand...

This core is scared silly by Volcarona

+1 Volcarona goes and spits on this core. It OHKOs Celebi with Bug Buzz even with no boosts, or can boost to +1 and Celebi can't do anything back. Even in the rain Jirachi is OHKOed by +1 Fire Blast. But if u run Heatran specifically for Volcarona, you will add another ground weakness, and ur now more susceptible to Landorus Incarnate.

Breloom (F) @ Fighting Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Focus Punch/Low Sweep/SD
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch

Dragonite (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Claw
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- ExtremeSpeed

Mamoswine (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Superpower

I think someone may have posted this before but idk.
Mamoswine kills fast Dragons that beat Breloom/Dragonite. Breloom kills bulky Waters that are a pain for Mamoswine. Dragonite punches holes so that Breloom/Mamoswine can usually clean up with priority moves. It also beats Celebi which is one of the best Breloom counters right now. You want to have a scarfer and something to beat Skarmory.

My core consists of defensive magnezone, bandranitar and specs gengar. These three cover echother's weaknesess perfectly. Only two pokemon i struggle with are conkeldurr and gliscor, which is y i have teamates reuniclus and vaporeon

Dablackchuggaaconroy said:

My core consists of defensive magnezone, bandranitar and specs gengar. These three cover echother's weaknesess perfectly. Only two pokemon i struggle with are conkeldurr and gliscor, which is y i have teamates reuniclus and vaporeon

Click to expand...

All three of those are at least 2HKO'd by Scarf Keldeo's Hydro Pump, which is definitely one of the most common threats to face. Plus Specs Genar is awful, and is too easy to set up on, since it's STAB is resisted by Steel types, which are everywhere. Life Orb or SubDisable would probably be better.

Latias @leftovers
252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid nature
-Substitute
-Calm Mind
-Roost
-Dragon Pulse


Tentacruel @Black Sludge
252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Protect

Two standard sets; we all know what they do. Tentacruel is a great pokemon to wear down Latias's biggest enemies, Tyranitar and Scizor since toxic spikes ensure the former won't be around for too long and Tentacruel can take any hit Scizor wants to use and hit back with Scald (and hopefully burn). Tentacruel can take toxics aimed at Latias which could stop its sweep. If you really want to remove Scizor and other steel types you could add in a Magnezone. While this pairing does wear down opponents, its offensive presence isn't particularly strong, so its better suited to semistall or balanced teams. For this reason it might pair well with Landorus T or another bulky pivot to regain momentum and check physical (particularly set-up) sweepers.

While Tentacruel obviously appreciates the rain for extra recovery, this core is fairly versatile. It checks sand/rain threats like RP Landorus and Keldeo as well as double resisting both water and fighting type attacks. For this reason it can work on rain, weatherless and sand teams.

Dablackchuggaaconroy said:

My core consists of defensive magnezone, bandranitar and specs gengar. These three cover echother's weaknesess perfectly. Only two pokemon i struggle with are conkeldurr and gliscor, which is y i have teamates reuniclus and vaporeon

Click to expand...

Scizor says Hi.


Band Scizor OHKOs Even 252 HP/252 Def+ Magnezone with Rocks up, OHKOs Gengar and Ttar with Bp, and Ttar also gets OHKOEd by Superpower.

I'd say get rid of defensive Magnezone and swap it for Scarf Magneton. Outspeeds Dnite and Gyarados, even when they are at +1.

Replace Specs Gengar with SubDisable or Life Orb Sweeper variants,

BandTar is fine as it is.


Anyway a new core ive been working on.

Landorus (Preferrably Sand Force, but Sheer Force works too)


Empoleon (AgilityPetaya set)

Great defensive synergy and if Sandorus is used, hits both sides of the attacking spectrum.

victinivcreate1 said:

Scizor says Hi.


Band Scizor OHKOs Even 252 HP/252 Def+ Magnezone with Rocks up, OHKOs Gengar and Ttar with Bp, and Ttar also gets OHKOEd by Superpower.

I'd say get rid of defensive Magnezone and swap it for Scarf Magneton. Outspeeds Dnite and Gyarados, even when they are at +1.

Replace Specs Gengar with SubDisable or Life Orb Sweeper variants,

BandTar is fine as it is.


Anyway a new core ive been working on.

Landorus (Preferrably Sand Force, but Sheer Force works too)
EMpoleon (AgilityPetaya set)

Great defensive synergy and if Sandorus is used, hits both sides of the attacking spectrum.

Click to expand...

Actually ranitar is not ohko by bp. Zone can switch in on banded bp and trap and kill scizor. Zone id better then magneton due to its higher special attack
Magnezone: modest nature, leftovers, max defense max special attack with sub, t-wave t-bolt hp ice

Ur core is destroyed by keldeo and conkeldurr. With icy wind, hydro pump and focus blast, say bye bye. Keldurr has its new toy ice punch and also has mach punch and drain punch. A good teamate would be ammongus

Dablackchuggaaconroy said:

Ur core is destroyed by keldeo and conkeldurr. With icy wind, hydro pump and focus blast, say bye bye. Keldurr has its new toy ice punch and also has mach punch and drain punch. A good teamate would be ammongus

Click to expand...

Lol Ammonguss weak to Ice Punch and Icy Wind. BTW u mean Secret Sword. Focus Blast on Keldeo is stupid.

Dablackchuggaaconroy said:

No dummy focus blast is special stab. Plus amoongus mite be weak to ip but it still wont do much plus it has great bulk

Click to expand...

Secret Sword is also a special STAB, and it's far better than Focus Blast. Not only does it not have terrible accuracy, but it lets Keldeo blow past Blissey and Chansey much more easily. Besides, while Amoonguss is a great answer to Keldeo, it is outsped by Adamant Conkeldurr and has a 31.25% chance to be OHKO'd by its +1 Ice Punch, so it doesn't make a good check to it at all.

If you want something to check Conkeldurr and Keldeo, you can always just use offensive Celebi or Lati@s. They won't like switching directly into Conkeldurr's Ice Punch, but they'll keep it from sweeping through your core if they get set up.

Rackham said:

Latias @leftovers
252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid nature
-Substitute
-Calm Mind
-Roost
-Dragon Pulse

Tentacruel @Black Sludge
252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Protect

Two standard sets; we all know what they do. Tentacruel is a great pokemon to wear down Latias's biggest enemies, Tyranitar and Scizor since toxic spikes ensure the former won't be around for too long and Tentacruel can take any hit Scizor wants to use and hit back with Scald (and hopefully burn). Tentacruel can take toxics aimed at Latias which could stop its sweep. If you really want to remove Scizor and other steel types you could add in a Magnezone. While this pairing does wear down opponents, its offensive presence isn't particularly strong, so its better suited to semistall or balanced teams. For this reason it might pair well with Landorus T or another bulky pivot to regain momentum and check physical (particularly set-up) sweepers.

While Tentacruel obviously appreciates the rain for extra recovery, this core is fairly versatile. It checks sand/rain threats like RP Landorus and Keldeo as well as double resisting both water and fighting type attacks. For this reason it can work on rain, weatherless and sand teams.

Click to expand...

I remember talking about this core on #ratemyteam a few days ago as an alternate version of the Kyurem + Tentacruel core and it is interesting to see that someone else has had the same idea I will definitely use this now because I completely forgot about it!

Rackham said:

Latias @leftovers
252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid nature
-Substitute
-Calm Mind
-Roost
-Dragon Pulse

Tentacruel @Black Sludge
252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Protect

Two standard sets; we all know what they do. Tentacruel is a great pokemon to wear down Latias's biggest enemies, Tyranitar and Scizor since toxic spikes ensure the former won't be around for too long and Tentacruel can take any hit Scizor wants to use and hit back with Scald (and hopefully burn). Tentacruel can take toxics aimed at Latias which could stop its sweep. If you really want to remove Scizor and other steel types you could add in a Magnezone. While this pairing does wear down opponents, its offensive presence isn't particularly strong, so its better suited to semistall or balanced teams. For this reason it might pair well with Landorus T or another bulky pivot to regain momentum and check physical (particularly set-up) sweepers.

While Tentacruel obviously appreciates the rain for extra recovery, this core is fairly versatile. It checks sand/rain threats like RP Landorus and Keldeo as well as double resisting both water and fighting type attacks. For this reason it can work on rain, weatherless and sand teams.

Click to expand...

I love this core myself and have been using it lately on a Rain stall team, though it gets destroyed by Toxicroak with Sucker Punch. Huge annoyance to say the least.

Defensive magnezone ends the party here. He can sup up, parahax both, 2hko cruel with t-bolt and stall out latias

I'm pretty sure that Latias could easily set up on Magnezone and demolish it with a boosted Dragon Pulse...

Dablackchuggaaconroy said:

Defensive magnezone ends the party here. He can sup up, parahax both, 2hko cruel with t-bolt and stall out latias

Click to expand...

Latias can just Sub herself not to mention she is faster, and since most Magnezone are Steel trappers for x4 weak to Fire moves it'll likely be running Hp Fire which Latias resists and just proceed to Calm Mind and Roost successfully.

How is Magnezone supposed to parahax Latias when she can easily set up a sub herself and CM boost to the moon and back? Magnezone can't boost its Special Defense or break the sub without critting (and Latias will just sub again), so it gets stalled out by Latias, not the other way around.

Even a paralyzed Latias can set up in Magnezone's face, barring extreme parahax. And cores aren't going to cover everything in OU; that's what teammates are for. You could use something like Keldeo (who also works well in rain) to slam T-tar or take a hit from Weavile and KO back.