Ability Exchange (AE)

[kumiko]

Smeargle with Teravolt for un-Bounce-able hazards and Spore. Very nice concept there. (well, I don't know about hazards, but I'm pretty sure about Spore)

Yeah, I typically give it Teravolt and just pick the other three on whatever I want Pokemon, but I left it like as 'Filler' because sometimes you might want to give it Sturdy and/or give something else Teravolt.

Hazards and Spore would have the same mechanics, and Teravolt prevents hazards and Spore from being Magic Bounced.

 

[AquaAdmin]

To clear the air, I did mean rotom-fire/heat
but now that i think about it, rotom-fan could use a not levitate ability
rotom form spam time go go

 

[Michael91]

I've been having a lot of success using no-guard Gengar with hypnosis, focus blast, thunder, and shadow ball. However, the only problem is to use it I'm stuck with either a Machamp or Golurk without no guard. So far the Machamp I've been using has been the LVP on my team. Anyone have any good ideas for a good ability to give Machamp?

 

[Ash Borer]

sheer force gengar would be significantly stronger and confer you a conkeldurr, or darmanitan
focus blast still sucks with sheer force, though

 

[Michael91]

sheer force gengar would be significantly stronger and confer you a conkeldurr, or darmanitan
focus blast still sucks with sheer force, though

True, but the best thing about my Gengar is its 100% accuracy hypnosis. I think I'll stick with the Gengar I have; I just want to figure out how to make Machamp usable.

 

[Mygavolt]

Just found out recently, Sturdy+Endeavor Swinub with Shell Bell in Hail is legit. So long as Ghost- and Ice-types are out of the way (though most Ice-types can be dispatched with a layer of Toxic Spikes), it can do work to teams. Skill Link isn't all too common in this tier, but I can see status preventing a sweep. Oh, and Red Card. First battle I went into with a team centered around Sturdeavor Swinub had a Red Card Espeon. What are the odds?

For reference, the team I threw together is:
- Sturdy Swinub
- Snow Warning Cryogonal
- Flash Fire Abomasnow
- Levitate Heatran
- Thick Fat Forretress
- regular Specs Keldeo

EDIT: You have a point, porky. Even though I have two spinners for hazards and haven't seen Explosion or Final Gambit anywhere in the tier, you have a point. I mean, I just threw it together in under a minute. It's nothing to be proud of, really.


Michael91 — How to make Machamp useful? How about Analytic because of its below average speed? You could even run Levitate Magnezone alongside it.

 

[Ash Borer]

most teams have magic guard leftovers, poison heal, a toxic user, any hazards, ghost types, explosion, final gambit, etc in this tier. FEAR shit is a pretty lame gimmick to try and build a team around. Also unaware is hilarious when people dont expect it, but they will eventually

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/abilityexchange-54689149

Levitate magnezone isn't really that useful, it still gets wrecked by fighting and fire, and no one is dumb enough to run a ground move in this meta when they have a good fighting move into their movepool. All the steel kings of OU arent even weak to weak to ground in the first place so in regular OU fighting and fire is preferred, in this meta it's inflated. Superpower Dragonite, etc, plus mold breaker is a great anti meta. For those trying to play this like balanced hackmons and using mold breaker as anti magic bounce, there's really no point when the sleep clause is in play, mold breaker crushes heatran, ferrothorn, magnezone, and all the pokemon that try and patch up their biggest weakness with abilities

 

[nimbosa]

Michael91 — How to make Machamp useful? How about Analytic because of its below average speed? You could even run Levitate Magnezone alongside it.

i've heard about analytic subpunch machamp but i haven't tried it yet. seems interesting, though.

one thing i've noticed on the ladder: although some abilities such as serene grace are not allowed to be swapped, you CAN do something like this: [ability] jirachi -> serene grace togekiss -> hustle [pokemon]. so it seems that you can swap the banned abilities around so long as nothing ends up with one if it could not already have it. not sure how useful this actually is, but if you've been wanting to try jirachi or something with a different ability then there is a way to do it.

 

[Golemman]

Updated my old team -
TTar: Levitate
Landorus-T: Sand Stream
Conkeldurr: Intimidate
Mamoswine: Technician
Roserade: Thick Fat
Gengar: Sheer Force

And here's a new team I'm working on.

Alakazam: Sheer Force
Kyurem-B: Magic Guard
Jellicent: Water Absorb
Nidoqueen: Teravolt
Drapion: Levitate
Terrakion: Battle Armour

Wanted to use LO Magic Guard Kyu-B with Roost + 3 attacks, so Zam was obvious. Sheer Force would be a good ability for Zam so I just grabbed Nidoqueen, because of its good bulk. Put Teravolt on it so SR could get past Magic Bouncers. Jellicent is filler but it does provide a lot of defensive synergy. Also wanted to try out my Drapion set (bulky fast support). ScarfTerrakion fixes up some of my problems with special walls.

Still a lot to work on compared to my first team.

Also, are unreleased abilities allowed?

Switch water absorb on jelly for terrakion's battle armor. Jellicent hates crits and terrakion gets an immunity along with potential recovery. Much better.

 

[Ash Borer]

Im thinking mag guard archeops is in the OP territory. Its head smash with no boosts is capable of 2HKOing titans like max defence suicune, skarmory, and cresselia. With a life orb it's not even a contest, and it takes no damage from it. YOu have to run something like intimidate or multiscale on your best physical wall to deal with it. OR flash fire if youre running ferrothorn because heat wave. ALso its imperative you have something faster than it too, but at base 110 speed most scarfers do the job. FIghting types are the best check to archeops head smash, because it lacks a good flying STAB without acrobatics, and no one is running that with a recoilless life orb, or choice item. Intimidate conkeldurr probably can do alright, archeops is capable of 3HKOing it with its life orb set, but drain punch + mach punch is a guaranteed kill, and nets you a lot of health back. That is with a 252 hp/252 atk/4 def adamant leftovers set up.

here is why you want some serious investment into anti archeops

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/abilityexchange-54792985

 

[CactusCacti]

Are hidden abilities suppoused to be released on this?
Cause I just ran to a shadow tag chandelure.

 

[Klang]

Are hidden abilities suppoused to be released on this?
Cause I just ran to a shadow tag chandelure.

They are but they're not supposed to be, so meanwhile things like Chandelure and Serperior run around freely.

 

[Arcticblast]

That's a problem you should be tagging Joim for because he can fix it, js

 

[BLOOD TOTEM]

Analytic CB ferrothorn is the tits, firing off gyro balls all day erry day.
Other notes:
Unburden / Dragon Gem often sweeps easily late game
Mold Breaker / Fire Type wrecks Flash Fire sets
Suicide lead Accelgor is a godsend to dump useless abilities on
Unaware is hilarious
Marvel Scale / Rest-talk is hnnnnnnngg on Reuniclus

 

[Ash Borer]

Can confirm that analytic ferrthorn with CB is indeed the tits, It rekt my team pretty bad last time

 

[ReddyGo]

Mew @ Expert Belt
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Zap Cannon
- Hypnosis
- Blizzard
- Nasty Plot

Ya. Rock Polish is an option too, but Nasty Plot makes pretty much everything a OHKO. Also maybe something like white herb / lum would be better than expert but this ladder isn't that competitively consistent so it's hard to really test things. Anyway, this is destructive and makes having a shitty Machamp on my team worth it.

Just to put with rest of team:

Intimidate Machamp
Synchronise Staraptor
Moxie Kyurem-b
Unburden Honchkrow
Teravolt Hitmonlee
No Guard Mew

 

[metagamesecrets]

seems like a lot of people currently playing the ladder forgo traditional teambuilding archtypes in favor of strategies that are powerful, dont get me wrong, but leave them vulnerable to very common threats in OU that are normally checked by teams almost without thinking

i've been seeing a TON of heatran -> 4x fire weak -> levitator combos along with alakazam -> archeops/volc -> sheer force offensive cores (sometimes on the same team!)

and while those cores are definitely effective in this meta, it leaves a lot of doors open for simple ideas like rain offense to completely dominate them, since they're lacking the jellicents/celebis/latis that they would typically deem vital on a team with no water resists

i'm currently #1 on the AE ladder running the above-mentioned rain offense, simply because most teams seem stunned by the fact that their flash fire ferrothorns and magic guard archeops cant handle a tornadus and keldeo on the same team

 

[Golemman]

Heatran is WAAAY too popular, especially paired with scizor/ferro and a levitator. I always try to go original, like Magnet Pull Garchomp who sets up on choice magnezone and forretresses. Nice rain combo

 

[Ash Borer]

mold breaker darmanitan rips right through flash fire levitate cores, and unsurprisingly scizor without technician is entirely underwhelming.

ALso, weavile is probably the best alakazam check right now, that or sdef jirachi. Sheer force life orb alakzam rip roars through the enitre meta, most rely on scarfers to beat it, but weavile outpseeds, is immune to main stab, breaks through subs with beat up, pursuit kills it if its not behind a sub. Too bad weavile isnt all that useful otherwise, but priority and scarf users beware, the sub set can get past you.

now that I think about it tech weavile is probably a bit better than tech mamo, because then a mispredicted pursuit is buffed, beat up is buffed, ice shard is buffed, faint attack becomes a viable dark STAB, low kick is better against the lighter enemies it needs to hit, I guess thats the way to make weavile viable.

 

[CrashinBoomBang]

seems like a lot of people currently playing the ladder forgo traditional teambuilding archtypes in favor of strategies that are powerful, dont get me wrong, but leave them vulnerable to very common threats in OU that are normally checked by teams almost without thinking

i've been seeing a TON of heatran -> 4x fire weak -> levitator combos along with alakazam -> archeops/volc -> sheer force offensive cores (sometimes on the same team!)

and while those cores are definitely effective in this meta, it leaves a lot of doors open for simple ideas like rain offense to completely dominate them, since they're lacking the jellicents/celebis/latis that they would typically deem vital on a team with no water resists

i'm currently #1 on the AE ladder running the above-mentioned rain offense, simply because most teams seem stunned by the fact that their flash fire ferrothorns and magic guard archeops cant handle a tornadus and keldeo on the same team

Confirming that Sheer Force Tornadus, especially in combination with Volt Absorb Keldeo, is an absolute menace right now. Only dedicated special walls can stand up to Sheer Force boosted Hurricane/Focus Blast (and Chansey takes a ton from SR + Hurricane and then gets shut down by Taunt), and very few things could stand up to Keldeo in regular OU to begin with, all of which are ripped to shreds by Tornadus.

Also, can someone tell me why Levitate Heatran is so grossly overused? You basically give up Heatran's best asset (Fire/Steel is still good, but becomes A LOT worse against many, many Pokemon without Flash Fire) for an immunity to Ground type moves which weren't even that big of a deal to begin with. Even if you give something like Scizor or Ferrothorn Flash Fire, Scizor will have a very weak Bullet Punch to work with (which was, again, its biggest thing) while Ferrothorn still can't deal with Pokemon such as Volcarona safely. Giving Flash Fire Skarmory the nod here because it's arguably the best Volcarona counter you can find.

 

[hyude]

Hello guys, I just tried a wrecking duo.

Analytic Conkeldur (0 Speed IV, Brave)
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
- Payback / Thunderpunch
- Mach Punch

with

Sheer Force Starmie @ Life Orb
- Scald
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover/ Psychic

both hit like a truck, and cover each other weakness.
Note : Scald is equal to 104 BP (stronger than surf, but weaker than hydro pump)

 

[SpeSweeperGatomon]

I've been having fun with this guy here. He's good at punching holes in some set-ups, and it's a nice use of a sturdy. Plus there are plenty of pokes that like the Tech pickup.

Hide

Smeargle @ Shell Bell
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 1
EVs: 252 Atk
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SAtk / 0 SDef / 0 Spd
- Endeavor
- ExtremeSpeed
- Spore
- Leech Seed

 

[ryan]

I saw someone mention No Guard Hypnosis Gengar a bit ago, but to be honest, I've been using No Guard Jynx to much greater effect for a few reasons. The biggest reason is Dry Skin, which is honestly such a good ability that I haven't seen anyone else on the ladder using yet. It's such a great tool for bulky rain sweepers because of the massive amount of recovery they get from rain and Leftovers, and it can even replace a weakness with an immunity, further bolstering their ability to set up. I decided to use Dry Skin on bulky rain Volcarona to compensate for its hazard weakness and give it an immunity to water, which also makes it a fantastic answer to Keldeo. You also get to pass Flame Body onto something that appreciates it much more, such as Forretress, Ferrothorn, Politoed, etc. Back to Jynx though, No Guard Sash Jynx makes for such a great lead with its perfect accuracy sleep move, powerful STAB Blizzard, and perfectly accurate Focus Blast for strong coverage. If you have a decent answer to hazards, Jynx can even be used later on in the match to check a sweeper that has gotten out of hand. No Guard Hypnosis Gengar is cool, but Dry Skin is such a fantastic ability to pass that I find Jynx to be more effective. Plus, its STAB is way stronger!

I also think that the rain offensive core mentioned above of Keldeo and Sheer Force Tornadus sounds pretty ridiculous. I'll have to try it out sometime.

 

[truedrew]

just imagine what life orb sheerforce v-create victini in the sun could do! Now add a bpass to it like shell smash then it's too invincible!
Also tries magic gourd and life orb volcarone= op as f@#k as no sure means can switch in and out easily also could abuse specs

 

[Adrian Marin]

I've been using a really effective spinner set:

Donphan @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Rest

One of the greatest problems with all physically bulky spinners is that they cannot reliably heal their health, a good way to fix their problems is to use Natural Cure alongside Rest, greatly increasing longevity. Donphan also happens take hits from Archeops reliably:

252 Atk Flying Gem Archeops Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Donphan: 181-214 (47.13 - 55.72%) -- 19.92% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Archeops Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Donphan: 107-126 (27.86 - 32.81%) -- possible 4HKO

After reliably tanking Archeops, it can Roar it out then possibly Rest, recovering all its HP on the spot, something it really wished it was able to do in the OU metagame.