ORAS OU DisAbilities - A Mega Gardevoir Offense

[TMan87]

Hello Smogon ! Here's my second RMT, and while the first focused on Mega Gallade, this time it's about his special counterpart, Mega Gardevoir.

Teambuilding Process

So I absolutely love Mega Gardevoir as a Pokémon, and logically it was the base of this team. I decided to add SD Lucario to form a core, as he can break through Steels and appreciates Garde's wallbreaking power to clean.

Weavile is a nice addition to the core by checking Psychics, removing key items like Leftovers and revenge killing with Ice Shard. It can also clean if Lucario has gone down and has an overall good damage output.

Landorus-T and Klefki seemed to make for a somewhat decent but not passive defensive backbone, with Landorus setting rocs and blanket checking physical attackers, while Klefki brings speed control (since Garde and Luke aren't super fast and Spikes to ease wallbreaking and cleaning. It's also a Fairy check.

At this point I needed a Keldeo check and a spinner, so Starmie fit the bill pretty well. Actually, its spinning prowess alone make it deserve the spot on the team. It is also used to lure Scizor and Ferrothorn thanks to HP Fire.

As a result from a quick visit on the RMT room, Klefki was replaced by Chople Berry Ferrothorn, to ease my Azu matchup. It still has TWave and Spikes, so Klefki's role isn't totally forgotten.

Now onto the team in-depth !

Misha (Gardevoir-Mega) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 16 HP / 8 Def / 232 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Hyper Voice
- Focus Blast
- Will-O-Wisp

So, Misha's role is simple : punch as many holes as possible in the opposing team. This set is fairly standard, the EV maximize speed an power while enabling to tank 2 Psyshocks from LO Latios. The only possible oddity of the set is WoW, which I use to cripple Scizors, Ferrothorns and Jirachis on the switch.​

Emi (Lucario) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Close Combat
- Iron Tail

Emi can be either a wallbreaker or a cleaner, depending on the situation. She can very well wallbreaker with a Swords Dance under her tracksuit, because Close Combat hurts a lot at +2. Iron Tail is here to ensure Clefable won't be much of a problem to her even when unboosted and has good neutral coverage as well. Extreme Speed denies the right for Talonflame to revenge kill and can come in handy vs Thundurus as well, not to mention it's a great priority to hit anything faster but frail, such as Latios. Life Orb for power with 29 HP IVs to minimize recoil damage, EVs and nature are standard.

Shizune (Weavile) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pickpocket
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Knock Off
- Pursuit

Shizune completes the core by pressuring Psychic types that can still threaten the first two, such as Jirachi or Slowbro. Also, Gengar absolutely rips the core to shreds, so Pursuit is here to make sure this won't happen (even though you can only really come in on Shadow Ball, so it's more like a check). While she's quite often the cleaner is matches, using her early-game to Knock Off things is very useful to ease wallbreaking. It's still the regular set, so not much to say here.

Lilly (Landorus-Therian) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge

Intimidate stuff, lay rocs, check birds and lure things, that's what Lilly does. It's a pretty standard defensive Landorus-T set, and everyone knows what it does, until you spot the "Hidden Power [Ice]" in the middle. This one has been recommended to me to lure mostly opposing defensive Lando-T (offensive as well), Garchomps and hits the odd Gliscor too, so that Emi isn't bothered as much and can either Iron Tail the defensive set (outspeeding it) or Extreme Speed the offensive set, meaning they are no longer checks. EVs allow to live a Hidden Power from Mega Manectric and non-Specs Raikou from full while maximizing physical bulk.

Rin (Ferrothorn) (F) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip

Rin's annoying. Well, for the opponent at least. Initially incorporated to better check Azu, Chople Berry Ferrothorn also helps most notably vs Mega Lopunny (lives HJK), Mega Alakazam and Mega Gardevoir (lives Focus Blast) and Keldeo (lives Secret Sword), while paralyzing all of them afterwards. While it can't tank twice in a row, it's still easy for it to come in because Lopunny loves Faking Out and expects rather Lando anyway, Mega Garde spams Hyper Voice, Mega Alakazam prefers using Psychic and Keldeo usually spams Scald early-game. Thunder Wave cripples opponents, Spikes is here to further pressure the opponent (it can paralyze Lati@s and Starmie if they come in too, which is nice), Leech Seed makes up for the lack of recovery, and Power Whip is the attacking move of choice since Gyro Ball is counterproductive with TWave. EVs are split for a mixed wall.

Hanako (Starmie) @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Rapid Spin
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]

The team's dedicated spinner and cheeky lure. Offensive Starmie is a cool spinner, because its fast and hard-hitting nature prevent opponents of taking advantage of it. This one's even cooler because it helps removing Slowbro (with Thunderbolt) and (Mega) Scizor/Ferrothorn with HP Fire, which is huge since Scizor is a huge stop to my three main attackers. Otherwise, not much to say about the set as is, but I was wondering if Psychic instead of TBolt would be a good idea.​

Threatlist

Still a threat if Ferro is weakened. Lucario and possibly Weavile can revenge kill it, but this thing (and particularly the BD set) is scary.

How do I stop this thing ? It sets up on Ferro, scares Weavile and Lucario out, outspeeds the whole team once boosted and destroys pretty much everyone with a single boost. Lando can tank a hit and KO with Stone Edge, but this is very shaky...

VolTurn is pretty problematic since I don't have anything to grab momentum myself, and so I end up always behind while my opponent can keep dancing around.

Pretty sure I forgot a lot, but these are the only ones I can think of on top of my head.

Importable

Misha (Gardevoir-Mega) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 16 HP / 8 Def / 232 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Hyper Voice
- Focus Blast
- Will-O-Wisp

Emi (Lucario) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Close Combat
- Iron Tail

Shizune (Weavile) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pickpocket
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Knock Off
- Pursuit

Lilly (Landorus-Therian) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge

Hanako (Starmie) @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Rapid Spin
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Rin (Ferrothorn) (F) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip

Shout-Outs

I'd like to thank Littlelucario for the HP Ice Landorus idea, as well as Mr. Surgeon (dunno if it's his/her Smogon name too) for his/her friendly advice on the RMT Room and also mah boi Dlanyer for letting me stalk him.

Bonus quote

 

[bludz]

Hi

So the first thing I notice in looking at your team is that Mega Scizor is a very large threat. I would normally recommend pairing Gardevoir + Weavile cores with Magnezone for this reason but I'll get into the actual rate in a bit. I also agree with your assessment that Volcarona can be an issue, since you don't have much for it at +1. I think you're OK against Azumarill because it can't really set up against much, and you have Ferro for Band sets. I would note that Clefable looks rather annoying; while it doesn't switch into Gardevoir well it beats non-Taunt sets 1v1, and is only checked by Lucario (shaky accuracy on Iron Tail) and Ferrothorn (can't touch it, only para). Keldeo is also a bit annoying but can be played around and beaten.

The first thing I believe that should be changed is to add some type of real Scizor check. Currently it kinda sweeps you once Starmie is weakened, which isn't the toughest considering its LO offensive with no recovery.

I think the solution is to use Talonflame instead of Weavile. Given that Weavile is your primary revenge killer and offense breaker, it seems appropriate to swap it out if we're adding another pokemon which consolidates some of these roles. It also does the least for your team defensively, stacking weaknesses with Gardevoir, Lucario, and Ferrothorn. What Talonflame does is 100% beat Mega Scizor and Volcarona both of which we've outlined are pretty problematic. It is also more effective against Clefable than Weavile, and isn't totally vulnerable to Keldeo although it can't switch in. I would recommend a fully offensive Sharp Beak SD set with Flare Blitz. Will-O-Wisp is cool and all but you need to be able to net KOs on Steel-types like Mega Scizor and Ferrothorn, no time to play around with burns. Especially if you end up T-Waving Mega Scizor with your own Ferrothorn.

Now what this does is make the team weaker to Slowbro primarily and Latios a little bit. To compensate for this, I would recommend Ice Beam > HP Fire on Starmie and Toxic > HP Ice on Lando-T. Ice Beam allows Starmie to nail Latios for super effective damage, making it an easier target to revenge kill, as well as providing some nicer all around coverage than HP Fire. I think your team isn't TOO weak to opposing Ferrothorn - sure it's annoying to switch into but between Gardevoir's Focus Blast, Lucario's CC and having Talonflame, you should be ok. While Toxic on Lando-T reduces immediate damage to opposing Landorus-T and Garchomp, it allows you to catch Slowbro off guard and also annoys other bulky mons that might switch in, such as Tangrowth or Hippowdon. The other thing to consider is that now you have Talonflame and Lucario helping each other to overload some of their common checks, which is something you didn't have with Weavile. This makes Toxic still useful for the long term while HP Ice made more sense as a lure for just opposing Landos when you had Weavile for Slowbro. Granted Gliscor gets off the hook but you have other ways to deal with it.

Last suggestion is to try Taunt > Will-O-Wisp on Gardevoir. Ultimately just helps you beat up some fatmons better like Clefable and prevents other stallers from healing up. Once again makes you a little weaker to Ferrothorn but it doesn't become an unbeatable threat by any means.

suggestions

Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

Lilly (Landorus-Therian) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge

Misha (Gardevoir-Mega) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 16 HP / 8 Def / 232 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Hyper Voice
- Focus Blast
- Taunt

I was originally thinking of swapping Lucario for Keldeo to help with the Scizor weakness but this just made things worse against Volcarona and also broke up your original core and made the team more boring. Thought I'd share anyway so you get an idea of what other things I might have thought of.

Hope this was helpful!

 

[TMan87]

Thanks for the rating !
I'll try to implement the various changes and see how it works out.
Only thing I'm concerned with is the rocks weakness of Talon, since Starmie can be worn down quite quickly, especially since it's my only Keldeo check.
But eh, Weavile also had those 25% chipped off each time, so it might not be so bad.