ORAS OU A Volt-Turn Balanced Team

[vynka]

A Volt-Turn Balanced Team​

This is a team I made just recently and started climbing the Ladder with it. I was trying to find a new team now that Greninja is no longer with us (rest in pepperonis), but I struggled in both pure Stall and pure Offense strategies, and then decided exploring Balanced teams until I came to the idea of doing a core of Volt-turners and the 3 most annoying stall-mons in the format. This happen to be the first iteration so the Volt-turners are not entirelly set in stone, but they seem to be doing the job quite well.

The first thing to note is that, if Greninja was out there, this team would probably be lackluster and utterly destroyed by the ninja frog, but "merry" me, he's been banned.

The Team

Volt-Turners/Sweepers

Landorus-Therian
Item: Choice Scarf
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 SpD
Nature: Jolly
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off​

This is a pretty standard set for the Genie-Cat, Choice Scarf makes him outspeed almost every other non-scarfed mon out there, so it's the ideal lead to scout and then run out with U-Turn to either a threat or a defensive counter. EQ is the obvious STAB move and Stone Edge and Knock Off add extra coverage although most of the time you'll only spam U-Turn and let the rest of the team handle them, or at least the flyers/levitators. Ice Shard users scare the crap out of him but luckily he has Rotom-W by his sade to make things better.

Rotom-Wash
Item: Choice Scarf
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 SpD
Nature: Timid
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Trick​

The washing machine is, alongside Sableye, the one to put a stop to stall strategies and setup users, and in general any defensive annoying threat. The 0 IVs in Atk are there to minimize possible Confusion status, and Hydro Pump and Thunderbolt the STAB moves for when it's free of its scarf. Biggest issue I've found is (me) being caught off guard by a Mold Breaker Excadrill, usually ends up with an usefull item like Leftovers to increase his presence in the battlefield

Manectric
Item: Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 SpD
Nature: Timid
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Flamethrower
- Volt Switch​

I've chosen Manectric as the third volt-turner because of his speed without Scarf and his excelent 3-move coverage, he's partnered with 2 turning mates that laugh at EQ (except from MB Excadrill, woops) and decent support from the other part of the team. Chosen Flamethrower over Overheat because fights tend to be prolonged in time and mons are usually crippled by Stealth Rocks and status by the time he starts sweeping, even on steel types.

And the support staff

Sableye
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP, 252 SpD, 4 Def
Nature: calm
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Taunt
- Confuse Ray
- Will-O-Wisp​

The main Stallbreaker and source of headaches for my opponents, used to have Foul Play instead of Recover and be Defensive instead of Specially Defensive to act as a mini-Ferrothorn that could kill physical assaulters with it, but the extra recovery and EV spread of the standard set proved worth enough and Ferro walls enough with a little help from his intimidating mates, so this spread minimizes surprises being able to tackle mixed offense sets like Salamence, Hydreigon and the like.

Ferrothorn
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Atk
Nature: Relaxed
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball​

Again, a pretty standard set for this one. Leftovers over Rocky Helmet to provide extra recovery that's always helpful; not having Protect can be a problem but usually a little help from Lando and Manectric helps him wall almost everything and outlast them with Leech Seed. A solid defensive staple.

Blissey
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 SpD
Nature: Bold
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Thunder Wave
- Protect​

The last slot in this team is reserved for the support machine that is Blissey. He rounds up the status set with the last one needed, to help a bold Ferrothorn to seed Heatran and leave unscatched, better pass Wish and handle fire/poison mons in general when Sableye or Ferrothorn can't. This set makes her pretty vulnerable to Taunt, but if we spot a taunter, we have Prankster Sableye to stop him.

I still have low ratings but I've noticed quite an improvement after switching to this team from the puere strategies where I was miserably failing, it seems to be a pretty solid team that can deal with sudden lost of team mates due to unpleasant surprises like the dreaded Magnet Pull Magnezone erasing Ferrothorn out of the ecuation. The defensive core seems to be well rounded and the offensive Volt-Turn strategy works just fine as a scouting method, allowing the slower members to spread status around the other team and then sweep freely.

Importable

Genie of the Lamp (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Washing Machine (Rotom-Wash) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Trick
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch

Mean Doge (Manectric) @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Flamethrower
- Volt Switch

Casper Evil Twin (Sableye) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Taunt
- Confuse Ray
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp

Mrs Nurse (Blissey) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Thunder Wave

Annoyed Pinneaple (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Toxic
- Gyro Ball

 

[Notorious544d]

The M-Manectric and scarf Landorus-T volt-turn core is a nightmare for offense but I notice that your team has no wallbreakers. With volt-turn, you maintain a lot of momentum and due to this, you get many opportunities to freely switch in a wallbreaker which will heavily dent your opponents team, especially if its stall. I suggest running a life orb Diggersby to replace Rotom-W.

Secondly, I notice the lack of hazard removal which is odd since hazards are what volt-turn teams loathe most. I suggest a Latios since it has key resistances that it can switch into and can heavily pressurise with its nuke Draco Meteor, not to mention its defog support.

Lastly, I question the use of Blissey. Chansey is usually the superior choice but more importantly, a volt-turn team should have Pokémon that continually force switches. Blissey is a momentum sacker and gives the opponent a free switch to set up sweepers or dangerous fighting types.

Other than that, your team looks pretty cool. Using standard Prankster Sableye is also awesome so props for using it :)

 

[vynka]

I've tried changing Blissey with Latios and Rotom with diggersby but either the sets or the mons themselves don't convince me, Diggersby seems slow but then again, maybe a Choice Scarf would be better.

I find Heal Bell support more useful than Defog support, since most of the time I'm siwtching to the defensive mons with recovery, plus huge Wishes help me recover even my volt-turners

 

[oryxslayer]

I've tried changing Blissey with Latios and Rotom with diggersby but either the sets or the mons themselves don't convince me, Diggersby seems slow but then again, maybe a Choice Scarf would be better.

I find Heal Bell support more useful than Defog support, since most of the time I'm siwtching to the defensive mons with recovery, plus huge Wishes help me recover even my volt-turners

You should probably try his suggestions a little more, as they have a lot of merit. Diggersby doesn't have to be fast as he has an incredibly powerful quick attack, and he is a wall breaker, beating down on defensive pokemon that could stop your team other wise, such as amoonguss. Latios is also very good on HO teams, because as he said, you NEED defog support with a volt turn team. You said you would be switching into your defensive mons, which you really shouldn't have on an HO team, but the thing is, what happens then? Do you stall out the whole team with your healing blissey? You will need to switch back into your offensive mons with no recovery and they will loathe the stealth rock damage. Ferrothorn also seems very out of place on an HO volt turn team, as you don't need to take hits, you force switches. That is why I would recommend switching ferrothorn for a lead garchomp with stealth rocks, swords dance, earthquake, and fire blast, holding a lum berry. Currently, with your team, you autolose to any decent stall build, especially mega sableye and mega venusaur. The suggestions Notorious and I made help you deal with these problems, as diggersby beats stall, latios can stop venusaur, and garchomp stands a chance at beating sableye, by absorbing 1 will-o-wisp with the lum berry, setting up an sd, and 2hko/1hkoing mega sableye. Please consider the suggestions and not outright reject them, but I think with a few changes, your team could be very successful.

 

[vynka]

This is not a HO team, the volt-turners are the only offense often needed. Dunno how well can Diggersby serve as wallbreaker if said wall is Slowbro, which with those changes would most likelly wall me to no end without Toxic and Leech Seed (which Ferrothorn provides). That plus losing Heal Bell support makes me extremelly weak to opposing Toxics, Will-O's and the like. Sableye and Rotom-W can shut down stall with Taunt and Trick (maybe Trick-Support Latias would be a nice change) and slowly grind my way to victory with status and keeping tempo with my volt-turning trio. The biggest problem I've encountered is called Lopunny, which takes down all my defensive mons and gives a hard time to the other half of the team

 

[oryxslayer]

This is not a HO team, the volt-turners are the only offense often needed. Dunno how well can Diggersby serve as wallbreaker if said wall is Slowbro, which with those changes would most likelly wall me to no end without Toxic and Leech Seed (which Ferrothorn provides). That plus losing Heal Bell support makes me extremelly weak to opposing Toxics, Will-O's and the like. Sableye and Rotom-W can shut down stall with Taunt and Trick (maybe Trick-Support Latias would be a nice change) and slowly grind my way to victory with status and keeping tempo with my volt-turning trio. The biggest problem I've encountered is called Lopunny, which takes down all my defensive mons and gives a hard time to the other half of the team

The fact that your team is balanced or bulky offense only makes it more important that you use a defogger. You really don't need heal bell support, especially if you decide to keep chansey/blissey, because chansey/blissey can just switch in on all types of status, and switch back out to heal. Trick scarfing rotom is not a threat to stall at all, nor is sableye, as they both get completely annihilated or stalled out by any type of stall mega such as altaria, sableye, or venusaur. Your team has no answers to these and you basically autolose if venusaur comes in and has leech seed/hp fire or if sableye gets to +2 or higher. Diggersby is also a very good wallbreaker, and if slowbro isn't mega, wild charge can nab a 2hko. If slowbro is mega, You have mega manectric which gets a guaranteed ohko after rocks damage. I have no idea how slowbro would wall your team if you put diggersby on it. The point of an RMT is to receive suggestions about how to improve your team, and if you just completely reject our suggestions without trying them, it makes people want to not rate your team. Please at least try what I suggested, and see if it works. If it doesn't, go right ahead and reject it, but please at least try the pokes before rejecting them.

 

[MadMayMason]

I know it's been a while since original post but I'm looking into building a balanced ou team on showdown and my ds for online battles :) i love using mega man. I tried this team out and found special defensive sylveon was a better cleric and with a rise of mega lopunny (my online experience), sylveon deals with it better as well as shutting down unprepared dragons :) i also ran a defensive sableye with taunt, will o miss, recover and dark pulse so im not taunt bait.
If only ferrothorn got rapid spin :) i do struggle with hazards too.
Nice team tho :)