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I started making a new team and wanted to build it around the first shiny pokemon I ever caught. Beedrill. Of course now Beedrill has a just viable mega evolution. I kind of saw the synergy these two had but is it Balance or Offense?
Boasting incredible attack and speed stats, along with a great ability, Mega-Beedrill sure is a force to be reckoned with. With this set, its U-turn is as powerful as Mega-Scizor with a Technician boost. Its 145 base speed makes it the perfect scout, and even a win condition. Knock Off hurts pesky Gengars and is helpful for ridding of items. However one of its biggest flaws is its inability to touch ground or rock types. (Also Talonflame kinda tears it apart. Screw Talonflame.)
We all know this pony. Now why is this added to the core? The reason, is because it hits ground types. Hard. It has excellent offensive synergy with Beedrill. This is pretty much a standard set, nothing here.
It could be just me but it looks like heatran was just kind of slapped on to the core and is more of a supporting mon then a member of the actual core. You might wanna move heatran to good teamates to have, over having him as a member of the core. Just pointing it out that offensive cores dont ALWAYS need defensive synergy. After all thats what other team members are for in the first place.
It could be just me but it looks like heatran was just kind of slapped on to the core and is more of a supporting mon then a member of the actual core. You might wanna move heatran to good teamates to have, over having him as a member of the core. Just pointing it out that offensive cores dont ALWAYS need defensive synergy. After all thats what other team members are for in the first place.
I started making a new team and wanted to build it around the first shiny pokemon I ever caught. Beedrill. Of course now Beedrill has a just viable mega evolution. I kind of saw the synergy these two had but is it Balance or Offense?
I would personally run Tyranitar here instead of Heatran.
Anyway, about the sets, Mega Beedrill should run Protect (it's a criminal offence to not run it). As for Keldeo, I would push for the Specs set (although it's just personal preference) because it boasts much more power and almost always forces the opponent to have Lati@s, Celebi or Slowking to take it's attacks and all of them are easy Pursuit bait for Tyranitar (well, except Celebi but it gets owned by Mega Bee so who cares). Conveniently, Tyranitar also handles Talonflame well and can lure and KO Garchomp and Landorus with Ice Beam to make life easier for Mega Bee. I don't think I need to mention Keldeo's synergy with Mega Bee. As for Ttar's synergy with Mega Bee, apart from removing the Grounds and Talonflame , it can set up Stealth Rock to make it easier to wear down the opponent's team. Just watch out for RP Landorus-I who OHKOes everything if it manages to set-up.
EDIT: Mega Aero and Mega Alakazam kinda tears this core apart so things that can handle them are recommended. Changing Keldeo's item to Choice Scarf gives you better chances against Aero but it loses a lot of power.
I would personally run Tyranitar here instead of Heatran.
Anyway, about the sets, Mega Beedrill should run Protect (it's a criminal offence to not run it). As for Keldeo, I would push for the Specs set (although it's just personal preference) because it boasts much more power and almost always forces the opponent to have Lati@s, Celebi or Slowking to take it's attacks and all of them are easy Pursuit bait for Tyranitar (well, except Celebi but it gets owned by Mega Bee so who cares). Conveniently, Tyranitar also handles Talonflame well and can lure and KO Garchomp and Landorus with Ice Beam to make life easier for Mega Bee. I don't think I need to mention Keldeo's synergy with Mega Bee. As for Ttar's synergy with Mega Bee, apart from removing the Grounds and Talonflame , it can set up Stealth Rock to make it easier to wear down the opponent's team. Just watch out for RP Landorus-I who OHKOes everything if it manages to set-up.
EDIT: Mega Aero and Mega Alakazam kinda tears this core apart so things that can handle them are recommended. Changing Keldeo's item to Choice Scarf gives you better chances against Aero but it loses a lot of power.
Does most of the stuff I mentioned above except provide Rocks, which can be done by another member. For bonus points, Pursuit hits Talonflame for 54% + if it tries to switch out.
Does most of the stuff I mentioned above except provide Rocks, which can be done by another member. For bonus points, Pursuit hits Talonflame for 54% + if it tries to switch out.
Mega Beedrill is extremely powerful and being a poison type is very useful in the current meta full of fairy types such as Clefable and Mega Altaria. Beedrill's biggest weakness comes from priority, and Rotom-W can help with Brave Bird from Talonflame and Bullet Punch from Scizor. These 2 also form a Volt-Turn core and Rotom-W's only weakness is taken care of Beedrill as it resists and murders grass types with U-turn or Poison Jab. Offensively, Mega Beedrill struggles with ground types and steel types (no Drill Run), so Rotom-W can also take those out or burn them.
Protect is actually more useful besides the 1st turn to mega evolve Beedrill. It helps Beedrill defeat Mega Lopunny as Protect will nullify Fake Out and then allows Beedrill to proceed and nearly 1HKO Mega Lopunny, or at least force a switch out. Knock Off is more useful than Drill Run as Rotom-W can handle the ground, fire and rock types. Knock Off allows Beedrill to kill Gengar, which is a constant threat on most teams, and remove items.
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Standard Defensive Rotom-W set allows Rotom-W to check Talonflame and take Bullet Punch from Scizor pretty well. It can also hit Talonflame with Hydro Pump or Volt Switch, and cripple Scizor with a burn. Rotom-W can also come in to take hits from Scarfed Lando-T, Excadrill, Heatran and other ground types that Beedrill has problems with.
Good Teammates
Teammates that can remove hazards such as Latios are helpful as Beedrill taking 25% from Stealth Rocks limits it very much. Latios also helps with Mega Venusaur, something that isn't easy to kill even for Mega Beedrill, and Defensive Garchomp, which Beedrill absolutely cannot kill without being KO'd. Bisharp is also a huge threat as Sucker Punch and Extremespeed are the only priority moves Rotom-W doesn't resist. Heatran and fighting types like Keldeo help with checking Bisharp and eliminating that threat.
Updated everything, good stuff everyone! Can't believe this is already past 1000 posts lol.
Few things I noticed: astroboy On the scizor / manaphy / tyrantrum core, I think it'd be best to have Scizor be Adamant over Impish; generally the best nature for roost 3 attacks Mega Scizor from experience. Tele Really solid core, only thing I could really see being changed is maybe having Gyarados's spread be slightly bulkier, as I don't think that sub dd gyarados always needs max attack investment. There are two alternate spreads that have been thrown around as an idea described here and here, although the second should still use 196 spe.
yo what's up guys. i've been honestly just been playing around with a crap load of different squads, and some of them were ones i really wanted to share, so i want to do my little "core dump". i've been experimenting with a bunch of stuff in the past months.
Offensive Core: Manectric + Volcarona
Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain
- Quiver Dance
i made a squad around this most recently because i wanted to try volcarona, but i kept forgetting lol. everyone uses the standard mega diancie + volcarona cores, so i wanted to stray away from that. mega manectric is not only just a great partner, but happens to be one of its greatest teammates! mega manectric wears down volcarona's biggest roadblock, heatran and forces out bulky waters. the momentum manectric provides also gives volcarona more set-up opportunities. in addition to this, mega manectric checks thundurus, mega pinsir, azumarill (can come in on aqua jet), and talonflame which will want to bring a halt to volcarona's sweep. volcarona can run a bunch of items ranging from passho to life orb to leftovers to even air balloon, but i prefer lum due to consistency and so you can set up safely on slowbro for example. defog or rapid spin support is mandatory of course, so tentacruel, starmie, latias, and mandibuzz make for great teammates. hazards are vital to this cores success. hazard stack core compound nicely - chomp/hippo + skarm is perfect example. ground and water resists are vital as one can easily see, so keep those in the back.while the volc + megaman strategy seems good, it has its arch nemesis, fat hippopotamus, so something like keldeo is nice. suicune falls in this category as well because it can form a double win condition core with volcarona.
Balanced Core: Mega Scizor + Hippowdon + Rotom-W
blessings (Scizor) @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 216 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Roost
deep (Hippowdon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 148 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
outro (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 148 Def / 112 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Spe
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
nothing interesting but solid nonetheless. idea of the core is sweep with scizor. rotom-w provides momentum while taking on heatran and talonflame which will block scizor. hippowdon provides rocks and beats mega charizard x. mega scizor runs bullet punch / knock off to provide utility and paired with its great defenses, it can sweep late-game with ease. this core is a little bit passive, so something with great offensive presence and more immediate sweeping capabilities is preferred. serperior, hydreigon, kyurem-b, etc all work nicely. this core also needs a stallbreaker and by the way, mew is honestly just legit at this point in the metagame since mega sableye sucks has decreased in usage. rotom-w usually makes quick work of heatran and mew can usually knock off fire-types making them less problematic to mega scizor. other good teammates are clefable and tornadus-t which completes the volt-turn core with rotom-w. hazard support isn't really needed because the core doesn't give a crap about it, but if you're using something like stallbreaker talonflame which is a great teammate because it beats zardy unlike mew, then definitely use it.
this core is momentum based and focuses on mega beedrill. the notion is to lure in switch-ins of beedrill all which keldeo and latios can take advantage of. latios also provides vital defog support which is important for mega beedrill to do its job. keldeo can either run a choice specs or subcm set, but i kept it simple with specs in the importable (which i use btw). the way to play the core, however, is much different. while mega beedrill brings in keldeo safely, keldeo has common roadblocks in latias, celebi, slowking, and venusaur. by switching again, not only do you receive the momentum again, but you can do even more damage to the check mega beedrill previously had trouble with. another example is tyranitar coming in on latios, but switching again allows mega beedrill to do more damage again to mega beedrill's checks. gliscor, skarmory, and garchomp remain the only outliers as mega beedrill cannot wear them down without damage itself. in these situations, spamming keldeo to wear down its counters should be done to abuse this momentum. outside of this, mega beedrill has great offensive synergy with keldeo and latios as the former takes on ground- and steel-types while beedrill can defeat fairy-types for the latter. keldeo and latios also complement each other decently as well. stealth rock support is recommended because it abuses mega beedrill's ability to force switches and once again after keldeo comes in to play. landorus-t is a good example and it has u-turn itself as well. hippowdon checks a higher portion of the metagame and is more bulky but it can take away your momentum. magnezone is a fine teammate because it completes the volt-turn core and traps steel-types. calm mind clefable is also a great teammate because it provides a win condition. other than that,a defensive backbone and the aforementioned win condition should be used in the other 3 slots.
Balanced Core: Mega Lopunny + Raikou
Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Fake Out
- Toxic
Raikou @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 232 SpA / 24 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
alright, so the core itself is offensive but its meant to fit on more balanced teams where hazard stacking takes place such as the ever so common clefable + garchomp/hippo + skarm core. toxic lopunny is a great set, idk why people knock it down but the purpose is to make hippowdon, slowbro, garchomp, and unaware clefable (252 hp / 160 def mg clef is 2hkoed by return with little dmg lel) crumble to their knees. this is when raikou comes in. hippowdon loses its ability to check raikou when poisoned and the other lop checks in slowbro and garchomp are forced to switch out while lopunny comes in later to abuse these statused 'mons. teammates are like said, spikes + sr cores like ches + tran (watch out for ground weakness tho), skarm + chomp, etc. starmie is nice for removing hazards and checking keldeo and clefable beats mega diancie while providing another win condition / even stallbreaking with knock off. there is not much to explain about raikou outside of beating lop's offensive checks in thundy, mega pinsir, and tflame. you run assault vest on raikou because its the best set and allows raikou to stay in the match much longer. raikou and lopunny also create a "vacuum cleaner" when paired with hazards because they can clean teams with ease and toxic lopunny turns counters in to cheese when hazards are paired with it. great core for balanced teams and is not hard to build around at all, especially since i gave you pretty much my whole squad in this description hahaha
Hey guys, i'd like to post a 2 mon core today that has really taken my fancy with how effective they are when paired together.
Introducing:
Balanced Core: Bronzong + Chesnaught
+
The synergy between these two is pretty godly and work very well together on a hazard stacking team or just a general balance team. Chesnaught is a very good physical tank and Bronzong is a fantastic special tank. Between them they can carry multiple movesets but here are the two im currently using:
With levitate its only weaknesses are Ghost/Dark/Fire which means it can effectively wall half the special attackers in the meta with ease. Granted it has no regeneration of its own but with leftovers and its tankiness its passive recovery is still fairly effective over the course of a match. With this setup Bronzong can provide stealth rock support, cripple switchins with toxic and take out most fairies. Earthquake is there to hit other steel types (particularly heatran) who it can actually beat if it is spdef set with no burns (2hko with earthquake vs 3hko with lava plume) but i wouldnt advise attempting that its just testament as to how tanky it really is.
Now to take care of two of its weaknesses, ghost and dark we have Chesnaught:
Chesnaught has the following weaknesses, psychic/flying/poison/ice/fairy/fire. Now all bar the fire weakness bronzong actually resists so between the two you have amazing coverage and two highly effective pivots. Given that with his ability 'naught is immune to Shadow ball and takes laughable damage from knock off with max Def/HP investment im going say that it 'relatively' covers bronzongs weaknesses but obviously not completely and things like willo/hex gengar will destroy both with ease so that must be scouted and avoided at all cost. Moveset is to provide longevity, hit hard and provide spike support. Even uninvested Woodhammer coming off from base 107 attack hits hard on neutral targets and the recoil is not too bad as you have synthesis to recover the damage.
Obviously they have one major glaring flaw in that both pack a nasty weakness to fire. But since this is only a 2 mon core i figure that is acceptable as you now have 4 other teamslots avaliable to cover said weakness. Both mons also dont like statuses so something along the lines of heal bell mAlt is a very good partner or one of the 10000000 bulky waters available such as suicune or something.
How bored can one become before building with pokemon which are commonly seen as "not viable" and that "dont fill a niche"
I found the answer. Its really REALLY bored.
So here goes: Charizard Mega Y+Heliolisk+Hippowdon Balance core also known as the Lizard,Lizard and hippo core
I was really bored one day and decided to find a niche for Heliolisk, and I found one. It checks azumarill while not losing offensive momentum. Now that we have found a niche we can build around said niche. Charizard Mega Y is here to break balance and/or walls, Hippowdon is here to set rocks, spunge hits and reset sand.
You can run this core in about two different ways, one is with Solar Power heliolisk and the other is with Dry Skin, I prefer Dry Skin personally but Solar Power is also pretty decent. Heliolisk is to grab momentum or to take water type attacks if Dry Skin/Put out some powerfull hits if Solar Power.
As usual i will now go a bit more in dept
Charizard Mega Y
Charizard Mega Y has been around since XY and is still as big of a threat as it was back in the first days of Mid XY. With 159 Spatk and the sun to boost its STAB fire attacks, its a monster that is both feared and loved by many, you do not want to this thing in team preview. This is my best Weather and Balance check on the core, taking down Sand to check Excadrill and taking down rain to check threats like Swampert Mega, kinda reminds me of BW. In other news it runs Roost to help negate the Stealth Rock damage, Flamethrower is a strong STAB attack, Focus Blast is to hit pokemon like Tyranitar and Solarbeam is just too good of a coverage move to give up.
Heliolisk
Heliolisk is being hated on so hard that it makes Donphan's life look easy. It however DOES fill a niche, however small it may be. But seeing as you can run this core in two seperate ways i will tell you a bit about both Heliolisk sets
Set number one, Dry Skin: This set runs a Choice Scarf, Why a Choice Scarf you ask? Well glad you asked, it lets it outspeed pokemon like scarfed Keldeo and scarfed Landorus Therian, or it just simply lets it outspeed stuff like Lopunny Mega. It runs Volt Switch to grab momentum, Focus Blast to hit pokemon like Heatran or Ferrothorn, Hyper Voice as a decent secondary STAB option and Hidden Power Ice to take care of pokemon like Gliscor or Landorus Therian. This also serves as my Azumarill check.
Set number two, Solar Power: This set runs either Choice Scarf or it runs a Choice Specs, whichever one you prefer. With Choice Specs it fires off powerfull hits while it can get sweeps if it runs Choice Scarf, it still runs the same moveset as it would run with the Dry Skin set but i will repeat it anyway, Volt Switch, Hyper Voice, Hidden Power Ice and Focus Blast.
Hippowdon
Hippowdon is my spunge and Stealth Rock setter while also resseting the sun for Charizard, it also has good defensive synergy with Charizard. It runs Slack Off to regain its HP, Earhquake is its best STAB option while Stone Edge provides it with edge-quake coverage, Stealth Rock is for setting Stealth rock. Everybody should know what hippowdon does in general by now but i will explain it a bit anyway, it walls DD Charizard Mega X and Modest Flamethrower Charizard Mega Y while also stopping Volt-Turn and actually walling Jolly Excadrill. It walls alot more then just this but if i were to list all the things it can do it would take too long, and seeing as this is a Core thread and not a RMT...
Well i hope youll enjoy using this core, cya around
Importable:
Capri Sun (Charizard) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 48 HP / 252 SpA / 208 Spe
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Roost
The Rude (Hippowdon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 240 HP / 148 Def / 120 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
Manetric-Mega + Hydragion Offensive Core
This core is pretty cool on volt-turn teams. While being very basic this is a very effective momentum based core. Also Mega manetric is REALLY good right now. So the way this core works is that you got your mega in mega mane and scarf dragion. These two can be really annoying to overall switch into as with scarf hydra becomes one of the fastest mons in the ou tier! Mega mane has massive speed and is really annoying for more frail teams to handle as often times their best answer to him is a lati or a ground type. While the latis do annoying mega mane from doing any damage look no further as hydra can handle those pesky latis thanks to his nice dark typing while also smashing things like lando with STAB draco meteors. Hydra can also dent heatran for mega mane as sp.def variants can be a pain while mega mane can take care of azu which annoys hydra. This core has a ton of trouble breaking past cm clefable and possibly unaware variants so a offensive steel types such as jirachi, Heatran or scizor can function well with 2/3 having u-turn to continue the momentum while tran can set rocks. hazard removal is important for these two as they lack recovery so starmie, excadrill and tentacruel can work pretty nice. Fat ground types like hippowdon can be a annoying mon for this core as hp ice does next to nothing while hippo can sponge dark pulses and draco and recover his hp up at the same time. This Makes Azumaril, manaphy and keldeo a great partner as they help remove grounds while mane and hydra have coverage moves to hit steels, the latis, starmie. Finally pokemon such as volcarona and diggersby work as solid wallbreakers to help mega mane and hydra clean the game. Right on the top of my head the biggest threat to this core is clefable and hippo (both mons are common on stall) So make sure you bring a steel or water type that was mentioned to prevent the two from shutting you down.
Zinogre (Manectric) @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Gore Magala (Hydreigon) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Earth Power
- U-turn
How bored can one become before building with pokemon which are commonly seen as "not viable" and that "dont fill a niche"
I found the answer. Its really REALLY bored.
So here goes: Charizard Mega Y+Heliolisk+Hippowdon Balance core also known as the Lizard,Lizard and hippo core
I was really bored one day and decided to find a niche for Heliolisk, and I found one. It checks azumarill while not losing offensive momentum. Now that we have found a niche we can build around said niche. Charizard Mega Y is here to break balance and/or walls, Hippowdon is here to set rocks, spunge hits and reset sand.
You can run this core in about two different ways, one is with Solar Power heliolisk and the other is with Dry Skin, I prefer Dry Skin personally but Solar Power is also pretty decent. Heliolisk is to grab momentum or to take water type attacks if Dry Skin/Put out some powerfull hits if Solar Power.
As usual i will now go a bit more in dept
Charizard Mega Y
Charizard Mega Y has been around since XY and is still as big of a threat as it was back in the first days of Mid XY. With 159 Spatk and the sun to boost its STAB fire attacks, its a monster that is both feared and loved by many, you do not want to this thing in team preview. This is my best Weather and Balance check on the core, taking down Sand to check Excadrill and taking down rain to check threats like Swampert Mega, kinda reminds me of BW. In other news it runs Roost to help negate the Stealth Rock damage, Flamethrower is a strong STAB attack, Focus Blast is to hit pokemon like Tyranitar and Solarbeam is just too good of a coverage move to give up.
Heliolisk
Heliolisk is being hated on so hard that it makes Donphan's life look easy. It however DOES fill a niche, however small it may be. But seeing as you can run this core in two seperate ways i will tell you a bit about both Heliolisk sets
Set number one, Dry Skin: This set runs a Choice Scarf, Why a Choice Scarf you ask? Well glad you asked, it lets it outspeed pokemon like scarfed Keldeo and scarfed Landorus Therian, or it just simply lets it outspeed stuff like Lopunny Mega. It runs Volt Switch to grab momentum, Focus Blast to hit pokemon like Heatran or Ferrothorn, Hyper Voice as a decent secondary STAB option and Hidden Power Ice to take care of pokemon like Gliscor or Landorus Therian. This also serves as my Azumarill check.
Set number two, Solar Power: This set runs either Choice Scarf or it runs a Choice Specs, whichever one you prefer. With Choice Specs it fires off powerfull hits while it can get sweeps if it runs Choice Scarf, it still runs the same moveset as it would run with the Dry Skin set but i will repeat it anyway, Volt Switch, Hyper Voice, Hidden Power Ice and Focus Blast.
Hippowdon
Hippowdon is my spunge and Stealth Rock setter while also resseting the sun for Charizard, it also has good defensive synergy with Charizard. It runs Slack Off to regain its HP, Earhquake is its best STAB option while Stone Edge provides it with edge-quake coverage, Stealth Rock is for setting Stealth rock. Everybody should know what hippowdon does in general by now but i will explain it a bit anyway, it walls DD Charizard Mega X and Modest Flamethrower Charizard Mega Y while also stopping Volt-Turn and actually walling Jolly Excadrill. It walls alot more then just this but if i were to list all the things it can do it would take too long, and seeing as this is a Core thread and not a RMT...
Well i hope youll enjoy using this core, cya around
Importable:
Capri Sun (Charizard) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 48 HP / 252 SpA / 208 Spe
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Roost
The Rude (Hippowdon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 240 HP / 148 Def / 120 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
How bored can one become before building with pokemon which are commonly seen as "not viable" and that "dont fill a niche"
I found the answer. Its really REALLY bored.
So here goes: Charizard Mega Y+Heliolisk+Hippowdon Balance core also known as the Lizard,Lizard and hippo core
I was really bored one day and decided to find a niche for Heliolisk, and I found one. It checks azumarill while not losing offensive momentum. Now that we have found a niche we can build around said niche. Charizard Mega Y is here to break balance and/or walls, Hippowdon is here to set rocks, spunge hits and reset sand.
You can run this core in about two different ways, one is with Solar Power heliolisk and the other is with Dry Skin, I prefer Dry Skin personally but Solar Power is also pretty decent. Heliolisk is to grab momentum or to take water type attacks if Dry Skin/Put out some powerfull hits if Solar Power.
As usual i will now go a bit more in dept
Charizard Mega Y
Charizard Mega Y has been around since XY and is still as big of a threat as it was back in the first days of Mid XY. With 159 Spatk and the sun to boost its STAB fire attacks, its a monster that is both feared and loved by many, you do not want to this thing in team preview. This is my best Weather and Balance check on the core, taking down Sand to check Excadrill and taking down rain to check threats like Swampert Mega, kinda reminds me of BW. In other news it runs Roost to help negate the Stealth Rock damage, Flamethrower is a strong STAB attack, Focus Blast is to hit pokemon like Tyranitar and Solarbeam is just too good of a coverage move to give up.
Heliolisk
Heliolisk is being hated on so hard that it makes Donphan's life look easy. It however DOES fill a niche, however small it may be. But seeing as you can run this core in two seperate ways i will tell you a bit about both Heliolisk sets
Set number one, Dry Skin: This set runs a Choice Scarf, Why a Choice Scarf you ask? Well glad you asked, it lets it outspeed pokemon like scarfed Keldeo and scarfed Landorus Therian, or it just simply lets it outspeed stuff like Lopunny Mega. It runs Volt Switch to grab momentum, Focus Blast to hit pokemon like Heatran or Ferrothorn, Hyper Voice as a decent secondary STAB option and Hidden Power Ice to take care of pokemon like Gliscor or Landorus Therian. This also serves as my Azumarill check.
Set number two, Solar Power: This set runs either Choice Scarf or it runs a Choice Specs, whichever one you prefer. With Choice Specs it fires off powerfull hits while it can get sweeps if it runs Choice Scarf, it still runs the same moveset as it would run with the Dry Skin set but i will repeat it anyway, Volt Switch, Hyper Voice, Hidden Power Ice and Focus Blast.
Hippowdon
Hippowdon is my spunge and Stealth Rock setter while also resseting the sun for Charizard, it also has good defensive synergy with Charizard. It runs Slack Off to regain its HP, Earhquake is its best STAB option while Stone Edge provides it with edge-quake coverage, Stealth Rock is for setting Stealth rock. Everybody should know what hippowdon does in general by now but i will explain it a bit anyway, it walls DD Charizard Mega X and Modest Flamethrower Charizard Mega Y while also stopping Volt-Turn and actually walling Jolly Excadrill. It walls alot more then just this but if i were to list all the things it can do it would take too long, and seeing as this is a Core thread and not a RMT...
Well i hope youll enjoy using this core, cya around
Importable:
Capri Sun (Charizard) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 48 HP / 252 SpA / 208 Spe
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Roost
The Rude (Hippowdon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 240 HP / 148 Def / 120 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
Fairly simple core, pretty much stack hazards with roserade = profit. Lots of teams, from my experience, aren't running SR-weak 'mons anymore and so ditch their hazard removers, and basically all poison types are meh in this meta (except for bae gengar but he floats and stuff), so it really isn't hard to keep tspikes down. Another benefit of this core is that it wrecks people who like to lead with tankchomp, so it synergizes with stuff that likes him gone.
252 SpA Life Orb Technician Roserade Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 76 SpD Garchomp: 525-619 (125 - 147.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
In addition, hexgar is freaking insane.
SpA Life Orb Gengar Hex (130 BP) vs. 64 HP / 0 SpD Altaria: 265-312 (86.3 - 101.6%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
Kills after 1 round of poison damage 14/16 times.
248 SpA Life Orb Gengar Hex (130 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Mega Diancie: 282-333 (117 - 138.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Lol. Sub on the protect = win.
248 SpA Life Orb Gengar Hex (130 BP) vs. 244 HP / 192+ SpD Gliscor: 253-300 (71.8 - 85.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Poison Heal
Eh, good enough, I guess.
248 SpA Life Orb Gengar Hex (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 112 SpD Hippowdon: 312-368 (74.2 - 87.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery and toxic damage
2hkos are lame but whatever.
248 SpA Life Orb Gengar Hex (130 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Keldeo: 300-355 (92.8 - 109.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
248 SpA Life Orb Gengar Hex (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Manaphy: 274-325 (67.8 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery and toxic damage
248 SpA Life Orb Gengar Hex (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Sableye: 243-289 (79.9 - 95%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after toxic damage
And so on.
Av bisharp is also crazy underrated, it beats and ohkos non-hp fire Latios 100% of the time and Latias 62.5% of the time. He also loves being a part of this core, because Roserade and Gengar get tons of dracos/psyshocks aimed at them.
Good partners for this sexy core:
Clefable
MGCM Clefable is a lord. It handles so many things, mainly Sableye-Mega (only magic bouncer that gives the core trouble) and basically every unboosted attacker ever. MGCM Clef is love, MGCM Clef is life.
Physically Defensive Gliscor
Core struggles with excadrill, pdef gliscor handles excadrill. Pdef Gliscor also handles other ground/dark coverage things, like non-lure Tyranitars and Lando-T's.
Blastoise-Mega
So OU basically has four good rapid spinners available: Starmie, Excadrill, Tentacruel, and Blastoise. I think Starmie is overrated, the reflect type set is too passive and offensive sets are frail AF. Excadrill is really frail, too, and compounds the fighting/ground/fire weaknesses of the core. Tentacruel is really passive and kinda bad, so that leaves blastoise. Blastoise has insane power, crazy coverage, decent bulk, and rapid spin, so he wins.
Anything that likes chip damage/tankchomp gone/lati@s gone
yo what's up guys. i've been honestly just been playing around with a crap load of different squads, and some of them were ones i really wanted to share, so i want to do my little "core dump". i've been experimenting with a bunch of stuff in the past months.
Offensive Core: Manectric + Volcarona
Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain
- Quiver Dance
i made a squad around this most recently because i wanted to try volcarona, but i kept forgetting lol. everyone uses the standard mega diancie + volcarona cores, so i wanted to stray away from that. mega manectric is not only just a great partner, but happens to be one of its greatest teammates! mega manectric wears down volcarona's biggest roadblock, heatran and forces out bulky waters. the momentum manectric provides also gives volcarona more set-up opportunities. in addition to this, mega manectric checks thundurus, mega pinsir, azumarill (can come in on aqua jet), and talonflame which will want to bring a halt to volcarona's sweep. volcarona can run a bunch of items ranging from passho to life orb to leftovers to even air balloon, but i prefer lum due to consistency and so you can set up safely on slowbro for example. defog or rapid spin support is mandatory of course, so tentacruel, starmie, latias, and mandibuzz make for great teammates. hazards are vital to this cores success. hazard stack core compound nicely - chomp/hippo + skarm is perfect example. ground and water resists are vital as one can easily see, so keep those in the back.while the volc + megaman strategy seems good, it has its arch nemesis, fat hippopotamus, so something like keldeo is nice. suicune falls in this category as well because it can form a double win condition core with volcarona.
Balanced Core: Mega Scizor + Hippowdon + Rotom-W
blessings (Scizor) @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 216 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Roost
deep (Hippowdon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 148 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
outro (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 148 Def / 112 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Spe
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
nothing interesting but solid nonetheless. idea of the core is sweep with scizor. rotom-w provides momentum while taking on heatran and talonflame which will block scizor. hippowdon provides rocks and beats mega charizard x. mega scizor runs bullet punch / knock off to provide utility and paired with its great defenses, it can sweep late-game with ease. this core is a little bit passive, so something with great offensive presence and more immediate sweeping capabilities is preferred. serperior, hydreigon, kyurem-b, etc all work nicely. this core also needs a stallbreaker and by the way, mew is honestly just legit at this point in the metagame since mega sableye sucks has decreased in usage. rotom-w usually makes quick work of heatran and mew can usually knock off fire-types making them less problematic to mega scizor. other good teammates are clefable and tornadus-t which completes the volt-turn core with rotom-w. hazard support isn't really needed because the core doesn't give a crap about it, but if you're using something like stallbreaker talonflame which is a great teammate because it beats zardy unlike mew, then definitely use it.
this core is momentum based and focuses on mega beedrill. the notion is to lure in switch-ins of beedrill all which keldeo and latios can take advantage of. latios also provides vital defog support which is important for mega beedrill to do its job. keldeo can either run a choice specs or subcm set, but i kept it simple with specs in the importable (which i use btw). the way to play the core, however, is much different. while mega beedrill brings in keldeo safely, keldeo has common roadblocks in latias, celebi, slowking, and venusaur. by switching again, not only do you receive the momentum again, but you can do even more damage to the check mega beedrill previously had trouble with. another example is tyranitar coming in on latios, but switching again allows mega beedrill to do more damage again to mega beedrill's checks. gliscor, skarmory, and garchomp remain the only outliers as mega beedrill cannot wear them down without damage itself. in these situations, spamming keldeo to wear down its counters should be done to abuse this momentum. outside of this, mega beedrill has great offensive synergy with keldeo and latios as the former takes on ground- and steel-types while beedrill can defeat fairy-types for the latter. keldeo and latios also complement each other decently as well. stealth rock support is recommended because it abuses mega beedrill's ability to force switches and once again after keldeo comes in to play. landorus-t is a good example and it has u-turn itself as well. hippowdon checks a higher portion of the metagame and is more bulky but it can take away your momentum. magnezone is a fine teammate because it completes the volt-turn core and traps steel-types. calm mind clefable is also a great teammate because it provides a win condition. other than that,a defensive backbone and the aforementioned win condition should be used in the other 3 slots.
Balanced Core: Mega Lopunny + Raikou
Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Fake Out
- Toxic
Raikou @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 232 SpA / 24 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
alright, so the core itself is offensive but its meant to fit on more balanced teams where hazard stacking takes place such as the ever so common clefable + garchomp/hippo + skarm core. toxic lopunny is a great set, idk why people knock it down but the purpose is to make hippowdon, slowbro, garchomp, and unaware clefable (252 hp / 160 def mg clef is 2hkoed by return with little dmg lel) crumble to their knees. this is when raikou comes in. hippowdon loses its ability to check raikou when poisoned and the other lop checks in slowbro and garchomp are forced to switch out while lopunny comes in later to abuse these statused 'mons. teammates are like said, spikes + sr cores like ches + tran (watch out for ground weakness tho), skarm + chomp, etc. starmie is nice for removing hazards and checking keldeo and clefable beats mega diancie while providing another win condition / even stallbreaking with knock off. there is not much to explain about raikou outside of beating lop's offensive checks in thundy, mega pinsir, and tflame. you run assault vest on raikou because its the best set and allows raikou to stay in the match much longer. raikou and lopunny also create a "vacuum cleaner" when paired with hazards because they can clean teams with ease and toxic lopunny turns counters in to cheese when hazards are paired with it. great core for balanced teams and is not hard to build around at all, especially since i gave you pretty much my whole squad in this description hahaha
Roserade really isn't all that viable. Your goal with Roserade I presume is to simply get up Toxic Spikes right? You mentioned Tentacruel and actually it does the job of getting up Spikes better due to it's defensive qualities (Water is a great defensive type, much better than Grass) and being able to spin when needed. It also reduced your Talonflame weakness by adding a Water type not weak to it. It also preserves the Mega Slot as it fulfills the role you set MegaToise upon. Heck if you don't want a passive user Dragalgae would be better than Roserade, but it loves Specs.
Tl:dr- Roserade as Toxic Spike user=no Anything else=better
Roserade is viable, it's ranked C- in the VR thread. It fits onto offensive teams better than Tentacruel because it's not passive and checks different things besides.
Also Deussol, Sludge Wave is probably better than Sludge Bomb on Gengar due to having higher damage output (Sludge Bomb's higher Poison chance is irrelevant).
KarxridaGrimoireGod yeah, I see your point. I'll change it! CakeOfTruth Tentacruel is too passive to fill Roserade's role of a lead TS setter. Your opponent can set up all over tenta and not give a shit about sleep powder. Dragalge is too slow and specs TS is stupid imho. Both lose out on sleep powder. Feel free to run what you want though. I just think Roserade is much better at leading (and more versatile in general) than what you've suggested.
FYI Rachi outruns the standard Sp Attacker Kyu-B set with the given spread. Max HP creates 101 HP Subs, allowing them to survive a Seismic Toss.
This core is probably best used on a balanced or bulky offensive team. The idea behind it is to lure and wear out Talonflame's checks and counters. Talonflame's set is the standard SD set, so there isn't a lot to worry about there. SubToxic Jirachi is something very few people expect, allowing it to bait in bulky grounds such as Hippowdon, Quagsire, and Landorus-T, Toxic them, and switch out. Jirachi is then free to set up a sub as they switch in and commence flinching them to death with Iron Head, racking up damage through repeated attacks and increasing Toxic damage. Venusaur exists mainly to lure in Heatran, which typically has nothing to fear from Venusaur. Additionally, Jirachi and Venusaur have reasonable synergy together, with Jirachi being able to handle things like Mega Gardevoir and Latios for Venu, while Venu can switch into bulky grounds for Jirachi (assuming they break through flinch hax).
FYI Rachi outruns the standard Sp Attacker Kyu-B set with the given spread. If you want to play around with a bulkier set, I'd suggest taking taking EVs from its Attack rather than its Speed, since you want to be outrunning as many things as possible given this set's lack of speed control.
This core is probably best used on a balanced or bulky offensive team. The idea behind it is to lure and wear out Talonflame's checks and counters. Talonflame's set is the standard SD set, so there isn't a lot to worry about there. SubToxic Jirachi is something very few people expect, allowing it to bait in bulky grounds such as Hippowdon, Quagsire, and Landorus-T, Toxic them, and switch out. Jirachi is then free to set up a sub as they switch in and commence flinching them to death with Iron Head, racking up damage through repeated attacks and increasing Toxic damage. Venusaur exists mainly to lure in Heatran, which typically has nothing to fear from Venusaur. Additionally, Jirachi and Venusaur have reasonable synergy together, with Jirachi being able to handle things like Mega Gardevoir and Latios for Venu, while Venu can switch into bulky grounds for Jirachi (assuming they break through flinch hax).
I get the venusaur set, but why the specific spread? It can 2hko tran w/ a modest nature uninvested, iirc., (yeah, just checked, the analysis confirms it). So unless it can ohko tran with this spread, I'd suggest moving 16 into Spe and the extra 8 in SpD. That lets you outrun max speed adamant azu. Venu is usually considered a hard counter to Azu, but bellyjet will beat you w/ knock off at +6 if it can outspeed you.
I get the venusaur set, but why the specific spread? It can 2hko tran w/ a modest nature uninvested, iirc., (yeah, just checked, the analysis confirms it). So unless it can ohko tran with this spread, I'd suggest moving 16 into Spe and the extra 8 in SpD. That lets you outrun max speed adamant azu. Venu is usually considered a hard counter to Azu, but bellyjet will beat you w/ knock off at +6 if it can outspeed you.
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