XY OU Let's Ignore Stealth Rocks for a sec...

[Expert_Occultist]

Hello, Expert_Occultist here. Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm here to share a balanced team I've had some decent success with. This team is built with long term strategy in mind and as a result some of my item choices are not standard (mostly Leftovers on offensive mons). Before I get right into it I should preface by mentioning that I like to have a copy of my teams on both Showdown and on my cartridge (yes, I found 5 iv HP fire Latios and HP Ice Thundurus and 6 iv Heatran on the GTS. Holy crap.). That being said, please criticize my team as if it were on Showdown alone. I will take all your suggestions to heart. Also, bonus points if you can figure out my obscure nickname references :) Anyways, here's the team.

Badass Bug (Heracross)

Heracronite, Guts/Skill Link, Adamant

4 Hp, 252 Atk, 252 Spe

Pin Missile

Close Combat

Bullet Seed

Rock Blast

I'm happy to say I played with this guy before he was cool :) Some Megacrosses set up with Swords Dance but not this one. Just predict what your opponent is going to do, click the appropriate coverage move, and paint the walls with your opponent's brains. Badass beats common leads such as Mamoswine, Breloom (adamant Heracross outspeeds jolly Breloom before mega transformation), and lead Rotom (252+ Atk Mega Heracross Bullet Seed (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-W: 280-330 (92.1 - 108.5%) -- approx. 37.5% chance to OHKO, eh pretty good). He's also pretty renown as a wall breaker but you already knew that.

Defensive Synergy:

Fire- Heatran, Latios, Azumarill

Flying- Heatran, Thundurus

Psychic- Heatran, Ferrothorn, Latios

God Monster (Heatran)

Leftovers, Flash Fire, Modest

40 Hp, 252 SpA, 216 Spe

Lava Plume

Flash Cannon

Earth Power

Taunt

Part one of the Ferro/Tran core. Monster's set may look strange what with Leftovers and Lava Plume being on a Modest set but I have my reasons. Monster is designed to be a switch in to various threats to my other team mates. With that in mind I want him to last as long as possible, hence the Leftovers. Lava Plume also does respectable damage while also threatening a burn. I gave him classic Heatran coverage options although Flash Cannon is the easiest to replace. Taunt is to cripple walls and Talonflame's roost. I'm not sure what speed benchmarks I should be hitting but my current evs allow me to outspeed standard Zapdos , Mew, and everything slower. People get caught off guard by this set's speed and power enough but I'm just not sure where the speed should be.

Ground- Heracross, Latios, Thundurus

Water- Latios, Ferrothorn, Azumarill

Fighting- Heracross, Latios, Azumarill, Thundurus

Goo Goo Muck (Ferrothorn)

Leftovers, Iron Barbs, Relaxed

252 Hp, 4 Atk, 252 Def

Gyro Ball

Leech Seed

Protect

Stealth Rock

Heatran's other half. I know what you're saying; "but Occultist, this core is sooo weak to Fighting!" Good thing the rest of the team resists Fighting. Anyway, Goo Goo walls a ton of things. The moves and item are there to make him live as long as possible. Gyro Ball is usually his hardest hitting attack while the rocks are there, well, because rocks :P

Fire- Heatran, Latios, Azumarill

Fighting- Heracross, Latios, Azumarill, Thundurus

Drug Train (Latios)

Life Orb, Levitate, Timid

4 Hp, 252 SpA, 252 Spe

Draco Meteor

Psyshock

Hidden Power- Fire

Recover

The nuke. Train is meant to be as fast and offensive as possible. Meteor and Psyshock are pretty standard on any Lati@s set while HP-Fire is there to lure opposing Ferrothorns and Scizors (make sure you don't reveal it too early, kids). Recover is there to keep him going as Life Orb recoil quickly wears him down (and I don't get why you would use Roost on something fast enough to actually get hit by Earthquake).

Dragon- Azumarill, Heatran, Ferrothorn

Dark- Azumarill, Heracross

Fairy- Heatran, Ferrothorn

Ice- Heatran, Azumarill

Ghost- Uhhmmmm... huh. This was going great so far... Oh well, at least there's only one ghost in OU :P

Wet Nightmare (Azumarill)

Assault Vest, Huge Power, Adamant

252 Hp, 252 Atk, 4 SpD

Play Rough

Waterfall

Superpower

Aqua Jet

Such nice glue right here. Nightmare can take all kinds of hits and beat a lot of the metagame 1 v 1. Many teams would fall apart without this guy and mine is no exception. The moveset is pretty standard with Superpower allowing me to break Ferrothorn switch ins. Some alternate ev spreads are welcome though. I see all sorts of weird and wonderful spreads out there that frankly, I just don't get.

Electric- Latios, Ferrothorn

Grass- Latios, Ferrothorn, Heracross, Heatran, Thundurus

Poison- Heatran

Dr. Fucker M.D. (Thundurus)

Leftovers, Prankster, Timid

4 Hp, 252 SpA, 252 Spe

Thunderbolt

Focus Blast

Hidden Power- Ice

Thunder Wave

The other glue. While Dr. Fucker's frail defenses do not allow him to do much switching in (and therefore don't allow him to fit into my team's various defensive synergies as much as I'd like) his power and ability to check Dragon Dance users are greatly appreciated. Usually I save Dr. Fucker for the late game and usually he paralyses a setup mon then dies horribly. In the off chance he lives he can make a great cleaner. I'm currently torn between Focus Blast and Nasty Plot. While Nasty Plot may allow Dr. Fucker to be a more effective cleaner Focus Blast allows me to finish mons that I would normally be unable to touch (think Excadril, Heatran, Ferro, and Ttar). Leftovers helps to mitigate his Stealth Rock weakness and help him come in many times in a match.

Ice- Azumarill, Heatran

Rock- Heatran, Ferrothorn

Threats:

Gengar- As you probably guessed by reading Latios' entry, Gengar is a pain. I can check him with Azumarrill and Thundurus but I can't switch in.

Medicham- Fuck this guy. Even with 4/6 of my team resisting fighting this guy still takes out chunks with High Jump Kick then switches out. Grrr...

So that's my team. Like I said, I feel like I have the bases covered but critiques are always welcome. Thanks for reading :)

 

[Expert_Occultist]

Bump

 

[Pikachu42]

put 4 evs from tundys hp into def, same with latios and heracross
no hazard removal lol

 

[AM]

So this is an alright team but there's generally just some things you're overlooking. You have no real answer to status problems, as you put in the threat list m-cham kind of screws you over =/, and while you're at it, go ahead and add on thundurus and m-gardevoir on your threat list. Anyways.

M-Heracross:

There's not much of a need to run Bullet Seed on M-Heracross with the three coverage moves you got.

Just predict what your opponent is going to do, click the appropriate coverage move, and paint the walls with your opponent's brains

Cool story.... when it's actually working in practice that is. One of the issues with M-Hera is the prediction factor within itself, but this actually can be mitigated by going Substitute > Bullet Seed and Jolly Nature > Adamant Nature. Substitute will allow you to avoid the burns from Rotom-W, Spores from Breloom, and if this is being used as a lead against opposing Mamoswines, gives you a free turn when they set up rocks or can be used as a buffer in the case of EndeavorSash Lead Mamos as well. Substitute also relieves some of the pressure M-Heracross has to rely on, especially against more offensive teams or just opponent switches in general. Status is the bane of M-Heracross and because more and more people are taking advantage of this, Substitute could work in your favor. Jolly nature allows you to outrun things like M-Cham before the mega evolution, outrun Breloom, outrun M-Garde before it mega evolves, and lets you get the jump on base 70s and below. At the cost of losing 10% attack power you outpace much more relevant threats that can cause you harm either to M-Heracross itself or through breaking its substitute, while still maintaining your offensive presence. Adamant is better when you need a more consistent answer to things like Skarm and Clefable anyways, but you already have an answer to those. 4 EVs should go into defense as well.

Heatran:

This one just needs general changes. Timid > Modest and 12 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Speed so that you don't get outpaced by stuff like M-Heracross, which is another dangerous threat to your team. Also for this as well go Stone Edge > Flash Cannon, Fire Blast > Lava Plume, and Air Balloon > Leftovers. It's obvious you're going for a more offensive Heatran so it should be built as such. Stone Edge for a more consistent answer to opposing Talonflames, Charizard Y, and in the rare case Volcarona as well. Flash Cannon is only hitting stuff you either already beat with Taunt + Fire Blast like Clefable, or just lose to anyways like Azumarill, so not a huge need for it. Air Balloon over Leftovers because it's an offensive Tran and Air Balloon is nice so you don't auto lose to stuff like Excadrill, especially considering sand offense is pretty big right now. Air Balloon is just great for avoiding KOs from ground moves anyways so it's something to consider.

Ferrothorn:

You might as well just go and put the 4 that is into attack into special defense. I personally would use Power Whip > Gyro Ball with an Impish Nature > Relaxed Nature with that set. The idea behind that is Ferrothorn is for the most part going to be walling M-Gyarados, Gyarados, Excadrill, Mamoswine. In terms of M-Gyarados you have a much better match up against Sub version of both Gyarados if you're running Power Whip over Gyro Ball, while Power Whip will hit things like Excadrill much better. Also stupid that if you're running Gyro, Quag can come in and just wall you, a water/ground walling a grass type (._. ). Impish is for the fact you wouldn't need to lower your speed investment in terms of nature and IVs since you wouldn't be running Gyro Ball. An optional spread of 252 HP /+88 Def/ with the rest in special defense can be used for more general bulk but some physical hitters as mentioned do pose a problem so in your case defense is the way to go.

Latios:

This is actually one of the bigger changes I'm going to suggest for three reasons. 1. You don't have hazard removal 2. You have no answer to general status afflictions 3. The change with Sub Heracross loves the support that it will get from this change and so will the team.

I'm going to propose you use Latias > Latios with the importable spread in the hide tab.

Latias

Latias (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Healing Wish

EVs allow it to avoid 2HKOs from HP Ice Thundurus, a problem for your team so that helps that out a bit as well. Healing Wish allows you to maintain Sub Heracross as well as give a second chance to your more offensive mons that will get worn down due to damage, hazards, and status. Latias' bulk is more appreciated as it has a better match up against M-Cham, barring switching into Ice punch of course, and has the bulk to maintain offensive presence if necessary. Defog is for hazard removal which is pretty much a necessity especially for your team.

Azumarill:

Considering all the other changes I've suggested, the standard 16 HP / 252 Atk /240 SpD EV spread would be more optimal for your AV Azumarill. This allows you to not only form a somewhat defensive core between Azu and Ferro, but due to the investment will allow you to handle M-Gardevoir a bit better at least enough to 2HKO it when Azu is healthy. Specially defense investment gives it a better opportunity to beat things such as Thundurus and Gengar as well, so it's generally more appreciated. Knock Off > Superpower as your logic behind this is to hit Ferro but you already have 2 consistent answers for it in the form of Heatran and M-Heracross, even more so with Sub Hera as Ferrothorn pretty much loses to that variant. Knock Off is much more useful as well, since it allows you to knock off items such as Life Orb, Eviolites, and whatever items that opposing mons are dependent on to pull there weight against you. Overall better utility that will help your team out in the long run.

Thundurus:

Pretty minor, the 4 extra goes into defense, to reduce Stealth Rock damage. Otherwise, this is ok but Life Orb > Leftovers will net you a lot more kos and in tandem with Healing Wish will allow you to maintain offensive pressure while still checking set up sweepers.

So that's basically all I have to say, hope that helps and good luck.

 

[pwnémon]

One suggestion I have is superpower>focus blast on thundy and naive>timid nature. Superpower is a more reliable option for dealing with drill, ttar and heatran and hits pretty hard with life orb. Good team and have fun!

 

[Pikachu42]

the problem is with superpower, is you have to put in attack EVs just to kill them. the only mon out of the 3 ones you said that dies to superpower is ttar. heatran tanks it and so does drill.

 

[pwnémon]

the problem is with superpower, is you have to put in attack EVs just to kill them. the only mon out of the 3 ones you said that dies to superpower is ttar. heatran tanks it and so does drill.

Drill doesn't tank it and heatran does as well as spdef tanks focus miss with 4evs, drill never runs any bulk investment

 

[Pikachu42]

0- Atk Life Orb Thundurus Superpower vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Excadrill: 341-403 (94.4 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
not guaranteed OHKO
0- Atk Life Orb Thundurus Superpower vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 218-257 (56.6 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

 

[pwnémon]

Naive life orb... It kills afformated pokemon and is more reliable at the cost of bulk.

 

[Pikachu42]

oh i forgot, still doesn't OHKO heatran though, and i guess the stat drops could be annoying too. I guess it works if you want to kill excadrill without the risk of focus miss.

 

[Expert_Occultist]

Thanks for the great replies :) I have a 6iv Latias in game as well that I'm eager to try out and that Azumarill spread looks sweet. Does Life Orb on the Latias net some KOs that Leftovers wouldn't?