Hi guys.
I like themed-teams, and I've been a little frustrated by the aegislash/talonflame/gliscor/rotom +mega +utility core that's so common. So the motivation is to try to get a set centered around Azumarill's new access to belly drum. While I've occasionally had ability to get a full sweep once azumarill has the opportunity to set up, there are a handful of common pokemon in the meta that totally stop azumarill's sweep in its tracks. This team is an attempt to be able to handle the pokemon that Azumarill can't handle particularly well, and it has mixed results.
Azumarill + Politoed
Politoed seems like a natural partner for drumjet azumarill, giving a 50% boost to her +6 jet.
Given that this is a rain team, mawile and scizor are considered because of their pivoting potential and increased defensive presence in rain. After some testing, mawile seems to be the superior choice mostly because of it's offensive typing (unlike scizor who's bug+steel offensive typing runs into the same issues as azumarill and ludicolo).
Ludicolo's grass typing is a great offensive pair with azumarill. x4 resist to water gives it a lot of opportunities to switch in and threaten bulky waters with a stab giga drain/energy ball. Additional STAB in rain hydropump oneshots common threats like gengar and scizor.
So at this point we have two glaring weaknesses: aegislash and talonflame. Aegislash can kings shield gamble against azumarill and megamawile. Talonflame on the other hand loses to azumarill in general, but can OHKO after azumarill sets up the bellydrum.
Gliscor and Meloetta were chosen to handle these two threats. Assault Guard Meloetta functions as a very good special wall, but also is immune to shadowsneak and takes neutral damage to sacred sword. She can survive a +2 sacred sword and score a 2HKO with shadow ball.
Gliscor on the other hand threatens aegislash with earthquake, and handles talonflame with stone edge.
Additionally, gliscor's access to defog gives it great utility, and meloetta's serene grace thunder synergizes well with drizzle.
So here's the team:
Azumarill @ Mystic Water
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 124 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
Getting off a belly drum on a predicted switch is not impossible. And if you manage to get it off in rain, suddenly you are looking at a potential 6-0.
With 124 SpD EVs, Azumarill outspeeds neutral Scizor and Aegislash, allowing it to OHKO them with +6 (and pretty much everything else on their team).
One fun gamble is to predict an Aegislash's kings shield with belly drum, retaliating with a +6 sweep outspeeding threatening priority users.
With Mystic Water, Waterfall is an appropriate choice over Superpower.
It's tempting to run Superpower instead of Waterfall for Ferrothorn, but +6 Waterfall has a 60% chance of ohko'ing max defense Ferrothorn anyway.
As said earlier, certain threats must be eliminated before attempting a drum sweep: Talonflame and Rotom-w being at the top of the list.
Politoed @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Encore
- Hypnosis
A defensive set to complement scald's burning chance. Politoed + Gliscor + Meloetta are an interesting defensive core. Politoed typically baits a volt switch from rotom, which gives gliscor a free switchin, and this allows ludicolo to get in under the hydropump to get in under the rain safely. Additionally, politoed takes ice moves well, allowing it to help out gliscor and provide it an opportunity to set up rain. Since this is an offensively focused team hypnosis's risk is worth it because it provides ludicolo/azumarill a much appreciated switchin.
Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 104 HP / 252 SAtk / 152 Spd
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball
Energy Ball is admittedly a strange choice. I switched it from more traditional rain dance because of rotom-w's presence. Rotom is a nuisance for the team, and having that situational boost in power is enough to get the OHKO against all rotoms that aren't fully invested in SpD.
Despite Hydro Pumps recent nerf, Ludicolo still can outspeed and OHKO some of the most prominent sweepers without the need to setup with Hydro Pump.
Ludicolo in rain can get away with only having 152 spd EVs while still outspeeding jolly +1 dragonite (allowing it to 2kho it safely).
Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Play Rough
With intimidate and decent pre-evolved defenses, mawile can usually come in on a physical attack and immediately threaten the opposing pokemon. This allows mawile to mega evolve and swords dance to give the opposing counter a pretty hefty sucker punch. Admittedly sucker punch is unreliable and against aegislash the game reduces to a coinflip, and does nothing against defensive responses to mawile. But the combinative power and bulk of mega mawile allows it to trade blows with almost anything in OU currently.
Meloetta @ Assault Vest
Ability: Serene Grace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Thunder
- U-turn
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
Meloetta, as said earlier is here to help handle aegislash, which is strange because this is a specially defensive set. Meloetta doesn't need defense EVs to handle a +2 aegislash's sacred sword and 2HKO it, so investing in physical bulk really only hinders her ability as a special wall.
So in addition to functioning as a check against aegislash, Meloetta serves as a bulky special wall that excels in using serene grace to wreak havok.
Meloetta can take on practically any special attack and retaliate with a 100% accurate thunder (with a serene-grace-boosted 60% change of paralyze). When rain is up, thunder is almost always the optimal choice, but psyshock provides an opportunity to hit on the defensive side hurting things like blissey. U-turn's function is strictly to allow an opportunity for a free switchin for azumarill and ludicolo when faced against something faster than Meloetta, which, as mentioned earlier, is critical for sweeping.
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stone Edge
- Defog
- Roost
- Earthquake
Defog Gliscor will certainly be the new standard for hazard removal. Gliscor opts for StoneEdge/Earthquake instead of a more traditional toxic stall set because of such a strong presence of steel types in the meta. Additionally this team is offensively focused so toxic isn't exactly appreciated by gliscor's teammates. Instead Gliscor functions as a powerful physical wall, checking lucario and talonflame, while being helpful against khangaskhan and aegislash. While Stone Edge mostly for talonflame, it provides necessary coverage against pokemon with levitate or ground immunities. In the mid to late game, if all special sweepers have been eliminated, sometimes earthquake+stone edge+roost is all that's needed for a win condition.
I've been scratching my head with this team for a while now, and I think it's about time to throw in the towel and try something else. Mega Khangaskhan is a particularly frustrating threat and I typically have to trade two pokemon to kill it.
I've played around with switching out meloetta with a lead multiscale weakness policy dragonite to emphasize the offensive focus of the team and to weaken some of the walls for azumarill. Additionally, I'm considering switching out meloetta for sableye strictly for the emergency will-o-wisp for khangaskhan and aegislash. I've also thought about switching gliscor/meloetta for a xatu/espeon to set up screens for more opportunities to setup the drum sweep. Prankster encore whimsicott seems like a decent way of allowing ludicolo and azumarill a safe switchin, but I think that's outweighed by whimsicott's poor defenses and weakness to uturn and prioritytalonflame.
Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts!
I like themed-teams, and I've been a little frustrated by the aegislash/talonflame/gliscor/rotom +mega +utility core that's so common. So the motivation is to try to get a set centered around Azumarill's new access to belly drum. While I've occasionally had ability to get a full sweep once azumarill has the opportunity to set up, there are a handful of common pokemon in the meta that totally stop azumarill's sweep in its tracks. This team is an attempt to be able to handle the pokemon that Azumarill can't handle particularly well, and it has mixed results.
Azumarill + Politoed
Politoed seems like a natural partner for drumjet azumarill, giving a 50% boost to her +6 jet.
Given that this is a rain team, mawile and scizor are considered because of their pivoting potential and increased defensive presence in rain. After some testing, mawile seems to be the superior choice mostly because of it's offensive typing (unlike scizor who's bug+steel offensive typing runs into the same issues as azumarill and ludicolo).
Ludicolo's grass typing is a great offensive pair with azumarill. x4 resist to water gives it a lot of opportunities to switch in and threaten bulky waters with a stab giga drain/energy ball. Additional STAB in rain hydropump oneshots common threats like gengar and scizor.
So at this point we have two glaring weaknesses: aegislash and talonflame. Aegislash can kings shield gamble against azumarill and megamawile. Talonflame on the other hand loses to azumarill in general, but can OHKO after azumarill sets up the bellydrum.
Gliscor and Meloetta were chosen to handle these two threats. Assault Guard Meloetta functions as a very good special wall, but also is immune to shadowsneak and takes neutral damage to sacred sword. She can survive a +2 sacred sword and score a 2HKO with shadow ball.
Gliscor on the other hand threatens aegislash with earthquake, and handles talonflame with stone edge.
Additionally, gliscor's access to defog gives it great utility, and meloetta's serene grace thunder synergizes well with drizzle.
So here's the team:
Azumarill @ Mystic Water
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 124 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
Getting off a belly drum on a predicted switch is not impossible. And if you manage to get it off in rain, suddenly you are looking at a potential 6-0.
With 124 SpD EVs, Azumarill outspeeds neutral Scizor and Aegislash, allowing it to OHKO them with +6 (and pretty much everything else on their team).
One fun gamble is to predict an Aegislash's kings shield with belly drum, retaliating with a +6 sweep outspeeding threatening priority users.
With Mystic Water, Waterfall is an appropriate choice over Superpower.
It's tempting to run Superpower instead of Waterfall for Ferrothorn, but +6 Waterfall has a 60% chance of ohko'ing max defense Ferrothorn anyway.
As said earlier, certain threats must be eliminated before attempting a drum sweep: Talonflame and Rotom-w being at the top of the list.
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Encore
- Hypnosis
A defensive set to complement scald's burning chance. Politoed + Gliscor + Meloetta are an interesting defensive core. Politoed typically baits a volt switch from rotom, which gives gliscor a free switchin, and this allows ludicolo to get in under the hydropump to get in under the rain safely. Additionally, politoed takes ice moves well, allowing it to help out gliscor and provide it an opportunity to set up rain. Since this is an offensively focused team hypnosis's risk is worth it because it provides ludicolo/azumarill a much appreciated switchin.
Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 104 HP / 252 SAtk / 152 Spd
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball
Energy Ball is admittedly a strange choice. I switched it from more traditional rain dance because of rotom-w's presence. Rotom is a nuisance for the team, and having that situational boost in power is enough to get the OHKO against all rotoms that aren't fully invested in SpD.
Despite Hydro Pumps recent nerf, Ludicolo still can outspeed and OHKO some of the most prominent sweepers without the need to setup with Hydro Pump.
Ludicolo in rain can get away with only having 152 spd EVs while still outspeeding jolly +1 dragonite (allowing it to 2kho it safely).
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Play Rough
With intimidate and decent pre-evolved defenses, mawile can usually come in on a physical attack and immediately threaten the opposing pokemon. This allows mawile to mega evolve and swords dance to give the opposing counter a pretty hefty sucker punch. Admittedly sucker punch is unreliable and against aegislash the game reduces to a coinflip, and does nothing against defensive responses to mawile. But the combinative power and bulk of mega mawile allows it to trade blows with almost anything in OU currently.
Ability: Serene Grace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Thunder
- U-turn
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
Meloetta, as said earlier is here to help handle aegislash, which is strange because this is a specially defensive set. Meloetta doesn't need defense EVs to handle a +2 aegislash's sacred sword and 2HKO it, so investing in physical bulk really only hinders her ability as a special wall.
So in addition to functioning as a check against aegislash, Meloetta serves as a bulky special wall that excels in using serene grace to wreak havok.
Meloetta can take on practically any special attack and retaliate with a 100% accurate thunder (with a serene-grace-boosted 60% change of paralyze). When rain is up, thunder is almost always the optimal choice, but psyshock provides an opportunity to hit on the defensive side hurting things like blissey. U-turn's function is strictly to allow an opportunity for a free switchin for azumarill and ludicolo when faced against something faster than Meloetta, which, as mentioned earlier, is critical for sweeping.
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stone Edge
- Defog
- Roost
- Earthquake
Defog Gliscor will certainly be the new standard for hazard removal. Gliscor opts for StoneEdge/Earthquake instead of a more traditional toxic stall set because of such a strong presence of steel types in the meta. Additionally this team is offensively focused so toxic isn't exactly appreciated by gliscor's teammates. Instead Gliscor functions as a powerful physical wall, checking lucario and talonflame, while being helpful against khangaskhan and aegislash. While Stone Edge mostly for talonflame, it provides necessary coverage against pokemon with levitate or ground immunities. In the mid to late game, if all special sweepers have been eliminated, sometimes earthquake+stone edge+roost is all that's needed for a win condition.
I've been scratching my head with this team for a while now, and I think it's about time to throw in the towel and try something else. Mega Khangaskhan is a particularly frustrating threat and I typically have to trade two pokemon to kill it.
I've played around with switching out meloetta with a lead multiscale weakness policy dragonite to emphasize the offensive focus of the team and to weaken some of the walls for azumarill. Additionally, I'm considering switching out meloetta for sableye strictly for the emergency will-o-wisp for khangaskhan and aegislash. I've also thought about switching gliscor/meloetta for a xatu/espeon to set up screens for more opportunities to setup the drum sweep. Prankster encore whimsicott seems like a decent way of allowing ludicolo and azumarill a safe switchin, but I think that's outweighed by whimsicott's poor defenses and weakness to uturn and prioritytalonflame.
Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts!
Politoed @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Encore
- Hypnosis
Azumarill @ Mystic Water
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 124 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball
Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Play Rough
Miku (Meloetta) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Serene Grace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Thunder
- U-turn
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stone Edge
- Defog
- Roost
- Earthquake
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Encore
- Hypnosis
Azumarill @ Mystic Water
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 124 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball
Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Play Rough
Miku (Meloetta) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Serene Grace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Thunder
- U-turn
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stone Edge
- Defog
- Roost
- Earthquake
Last edited by a moderator:
