SM OU (24-2 ratio, 1474 ELO and rising) Lele-zam psychic spam, feat. adamant band zygarde!

[Marigold]

A common trash tier argument for trying to keep megagross in OU was "herp derp lele will become OP!!!!!"

No, lele will not become OP... right? I set out to see if that's really the case. Sat in the lab, remembered hearing whispers of psychic spam back in early OU days, slapped a team together and got it rated a few times, and now here I am, an easy 1474 ELO so far and with plenty of room to rise. Without further ado but with more psychic spam than RBY, let's get into this...

Teambuilding process

We begin with they powerhouse duo of lele and alakazam, two of the hardest-hitting psychic types in the OU tier that wear out each other's checks quite nicely and can pressure all styles. However, the likes of spdef jirachi, celesteela, muk-a, and magearna all make this core cry. To exploit all of these checks and further make stall look like the worst playstyle in the game, we add...

Zygarde acts as the powerful wallbreaker for this team, weakening lando-t down into psychic spam range while forcing the opposing team to choose between preserving their psychic spam check, or letting it die to preserve other teammates. This, in tandem with lele and zam, can run through stall like a specs hydro pump in rain through offense.

Now, the three premier scarfers in OU were looking scary, as lele, gengar, and keldeo could do work to the former three if inevitably chipped. AV magearna is a consistent, non-passive answer to these three that can also bait in heatran and friends... only to volt switch and bring in ground-spam the pokemon.

No hazards yet, no physical pivot, no ground immunity/resist for magearna... In a stroke of ingenuity, I came up with adding lando-t to form a "skarm-bliss"-esque core with magearna that can also pivot to bring in the powerful psychic spam or zygarde.

We needed speed control, so a scarfer looked nice. Keldeo fit the bill with its useful resistances and ability to spread scald burns, as well as revenge kill zard-y and volcarona in a pinch.

The Team

Raging waves (Keldeo) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Stone Edge

Hydro pump vs scald lets me choose between power or spammable accuracy/burn rate. Secret sword is a great fighting stab and stone edge lets me revenge 4x rock weakness mons like zard-y and volcarona. Hasty nature to ensure the ohko on fires.

Lando's 'R' Us (Landorus-Therian) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 28 SpD / 28 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Standard bulky lando-t with rocks, STAB, u-turn to gain momentum on switch-ins, and hp ice to prevent 4x ice weakness setup mons like zygarde, opposing lando-t, dnite, mence, etc. from screwing me over.

Lele-chan (Tapu Lele) @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast

The first member of the psychic spam core, calm mind tapu lele can weaken switch-ins with powerful psyshocks, or kill/severely weaken psychic spam checks with a +1 pummeling. Always scores a kill against stall.

Tranquility... (Alakazam-Mega) @ Alakazite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock / Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
- Taunt

The second member of the psychic spam core, alakazam can wreak havoc if under the psychic terrain. Shadow ball lets us opposing psychics, and dazzling gleam is for really hurting dragons and dark types, notably sableye-mega who otherwise walls. Taunt is obligatory on offense to not autolose to webs.

Armageddon (Zygarde) @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Toxic

The groundspam wallbreaker, adamant banded thousand arrows has very few switch-in's and can rip through stall in combination with psychic spam. Toxic looks questionable, but is very good at ensuring zygarde checks like tangrowth, slowbro (lol), unaware clefable, and quagsire struggle to do their job through the remainder of the game.

o.o (Magearna) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fleur Cannon
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]

With an assault vest and max hp, magearna can consistently come in on opposing lele, keldeo, and gengar, while retaliating with powerful fleur cannons or pivoting out with volt switch. Hp fire is for 4x fire weaknesses like scizor and ferrothorn.

Threatlist (haven't found much, but still adding as I ladder)

A well-played bulu can take down my teammates one-by-one, banded, scarfed, or swords dance.

Players who think legendaries are op: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-576743401

Importable: http://pokepast.es/d8d5ac0f511d349d

Will add replays as I ladder more. Thanks for taking a look, and until next time~~
KuraiTenshi26

Looking back, this team is fairy spam...
but lele-zam psychic spam has a nice ring to it

 

[xyclone147]

Dugtrio is another thing to watch out for. I run a Sash Dugtrio with Sucker Punch, for example, and it can knock out Mega Alakazam and Magearna before fainting if I predict right. My main team is prediction-reliant though, but Dugtrio is something to watch. I've run through half a team before with him-he's a bit ridiculous.

He's not common, but Gengar can also be a major pain with Shadow Ball if it's Choiced or similar. Granted that's not likely, unless they manage to time it well.

Last thing I would note is Poison coverage. I have two who have poison moves on my team, a Protean Greninja and a Scarf Nihilego. While they won't last against MegaZam, be careful.

Add: These are just warnings of weaknesses I'd be trying to use with my team. My team is the M!Pinsir team on the front page of the RMT here, which pretty much requires accurate predictions to win on quite a few.

 

[Marigold]

Dugtrio is another thing to watch out for. I run a Sash Dugtrio with Sucker Punch, for example, and it can knock out Mega Alakazam and Magearna before fainting if I predict right. My main team is prediction-reliant though, but Dugtrio is something to watch. I've run through half a team before with him-he's a bit ridiculous.

He's not common, but Gengar can also be a major pain with Shadow Ball if it's Choiced or similar. Granted that's not likely, unless they manage to time it well.

Last thing I would note is Poison coverage. I have two who have poison moves on my team, a Protean Greninja and a Scarf Nihilego. While they won't last against MegaZam, be careful.

Add: These are just warnings of weaknesses I'd be trying to use with my team. My team is the M!Pinsir team on the front page of the RMT here, which pretty much requires accurate predictions to win on quite a few.

Hi, thanks for the rate! While dugtrio can trap lele and zam, psychic terrain blocks sucker punch for lele and potentially zam if the terrain sticks around. It is a noteworthy threat to this team though, thanks for pointing that out! I can't think of any counterplay to that aside from shed shell stallbreaker lele however, which I don't really need on this team as I have a lot of ways to deal with stall. Duggy is sorta just broken in these regards lol.

Gengar could be a threat, but I have av magearna to come in on it. If it's scarf, magearna can come in several times. If it's specs, zam can revenge kill it and magearna can come in once.

In terms of dealing with poison coverage, I have three resists/immunities, and answers to common poison types like muk-a and nihilego. Greninja doesn't have much defensive counterplay, but magearna and zam can both offensively check it, which is fine as it forces psychic spam checks to come in and get worn down.

 

[xyclone147]

But yeah, I can't think of other things mostly. This is a pretty well-handled team, I like it. I'm really tempted to play it myself, especially since it'd be nice to use something that doesn't require me guessing everything the other guy will do. It's just not worth it at times, lol.

I do apologize though, some of my earlier post was a bit...odd. Looking back, anyway.

 

[Chokepic]

Hey! Cool team.

Shed shell Tapu Lele (with taunt) >> figtnium z lele. Since zygarde does not break stall at all, this will help you in 1600+ if u want to go onto the 1600.

Iron tail zygarde > Toxic. You are saying that you struggle with bulu, so this helps with this thing.

That's all :)

 

[Marigold]

Hey! Cool team.

Shed shell Tapu Lele (with taunt) >> figtnium z lele. Since zygarde does not break stall at all, this will help you in 1600+ if u want to go onto the 1600.

Iron tail zygarde > Toxic. You are saying that you struggle with bulu, so this helps with this thing.

That's all :)

Hey, thanks for taking a look! Iron tail sounds great for patching up my bulu problem, but then i struggle with tangrowth. Shed shell lele sounds great too, as it frees up a z-move for someone else and zam doesn't have to go taunt. What do you suggest should be my z-move user and final moveslot for zam, and what counterplay should I add for tangrowth?

 

[Chokepic]

Hey, thanks for taking a look! Iron tail sounds great for patching up my bulu problem, but then i struggle with tangrowth. Shed shell lele sounds great too, as it frees up a z-move for someone else and zam doesn't have to go taunt. What do you suggest should be my z-move user and final moveslot for zam, and what counterplay should I add for tangrowth?

I have found an answer, but if you do not like it/see it very random you do not have to put it obviusly. The idea is using a flynium-z set but using the same spread, so you can kill tangrowth. Rocky is not as important as in gen 6 and you can replace it in this gen without being bad, since right now a lot of landos use yache berry for example.

0 Atk Landorus-Therian Supersonic Skystrike (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tangrowth: 426-504 (105.4 - 124.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

 

[CoolOrigami]

Hey, thanks for taking a look! Iron tail sounds great for patching up my bulu problem, but then i struggle with tangrowth. Shed shell lele sounds great too, as it frees up a z-move for someone else and zam doesn't have to go taunt. What do you suggest should be my z-move user and final moveslot for zam, and what counterplay should I add for tangrowth?

Maybe Lando with Flyinium Z + Fly over U-turn and Focus Blast on Alakazam for the random Pursuit Tyranitar