ORAS RU Team Style Analysis

[Scythe.]

gorex

 

[Drangonn.]

G. Orex

 

[Kableye]

gorex is the Champion! Thanks everyone for participating! I'm going to be adding teams from here, anyone who won and some teams from around that I think are really good and breaking them down in the OP over the next few weeks (busy w finals but I'll try!). Right now I'm working on bulky offense don't forget to check it out!

 

[Kableye]

just something to organize my thoughts, the hide tags are annoying to write in. writing up stall atm, bulky offense is nearly done. feel free to correct something u think is wrong. view below as a mini viability ranking for stall, the common stuff is the things i see a lot and work very well in my opinion, uncommon are things ive seen work before but aren't too common or I need to test them more and niche are things that ive seen people use in the past that to me look bad or too niche but interesting.
common stall mons (s and a)

uncommon stall mons (b and c)

niche or fun stall mons (d)

Process:
Find a win condition (hazard stacking, set up sweeper, taunt recover) or a defensive core
Anti-stall method
Anti-Sub CM / other set up sweepers

note to self:

semistall

more dumping

Stallbreaking Guide

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A common misconception about RU is that it is a stall-filled tier. This is definitely not the case, stall has massive issues in this tier, and is one of the lesser used playstyles in actual competitive play. Why? Because of the amount of stallbreakers this tier houses. Answers include offensive set-up sweepers who just have great coverage such as SD Gallade, CM Meloetta and DD Scrafty. Defensive set-up sweepers such as SubBU Gallade, SubCM Meloetta, SubBU Braviary, CM + Psycho Shift Sigilyph, Resttalk Malamar, BU Gurdurr and SubCM Diancie all also break stall. The most signature trait of these pokemon is that each has a way to avoid status, which is how stall would otherwise beat them. Other threats are Taunt+Status+Recovery Pokemon such as Jellicent or Golbat. Pokemon that can spam an attack with 0 fear like Hoopa or Exploud also massively threaten stall. Trapper Magneton + a set up sweeper operates with Steelix gone is another common stallbreaking strategy. Obviously these won't break stall on their own, they need to be paired with the right wallbreakers or support in order to function.

Wall Breakers

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I've chosen the name Wall Breaker here, but these can also go by balance breaker or early game breakers. The Pokemon above are just some of my personal favorites, this section is so vast fitting them all would be near impossible. These are offensive Pokemon that in some cases can sweep on their own but for the most part their role is to break teams early game to make way for the late-game sweeper. They vary in how they do it as well as the support they provide. The main difference is that some are instant wall breakers like Rotom-Frost and Tyrantrum, who only need a boosting item to start doing damage, while others use boosting moves like Gurdurr and Samurott do in order to start wall breaking.

Win Conditions

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Meant to take advantage of weakened teams, these are usually the center point and main win condition of offensive and balanced teams. LG cleaners vary in how they set up and win, but usually use a speed boost or already high speed to win the game. Just because they are called late-game cleaners does not mean they are useless during the early game, many provide support even during the mid-game because they are usually decently strong and great revenge killers. Just like the early-game counter parts, these Pokemon can be all-out attackers like Sneasel or Jolteon. They can also be set up sweepers, like Tyrantrum or Vivillon. Ideally offense should strive to build around a set-up sweeper.

Hazard Removers

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The pool for hazard removal in RU is not very big at all, most hazard removers are considered not viable because they give hazard removers free switch-ins to set hazards back up. Xatu is interesting because of Magic Bounce, but beware because a good sum of Stealth Rock users are Rock types. The above 4 are sadly the most viable in RU. It's hard to build a team without hazard removal because of the amount of grounded Pokemon, but hard to build one with it because several like Blastoise face competition with other Pokemon. Overall, it's better to rebuild a team to include one than build a team without one. There are some more offensive options like Kabutops and Hitmonlee.

Pokemon to look out for

Virizion

91 / 90 / 72 / 90 / 129 / 108
Virizion's only flaw is how weak it is. Seriously if this thing was anything stronger it definitely would not be RU. Grass / Fighting typing can break the common Water + Steel cores, and comes with a great catalog of resistances. It is one of the few Pokemon that resist Ground / Rock coverage, and also has resistances to Electric and Water. Since the Durant banning Virizion's speed tier has only become better. It is not Accelgor levels of insane but the only notable Pokemon worth mentioning that are faster are Sneasel and Dugtrio, both Pokemon that aren't exactly the best Virizion switch-ins. Virizion can be physical or special, the physical set having overall better coverage. It can carry Zen Headbutt or Stone Edge, the first for Garbador, Weezing, Venusaur, etc. and the latter a not-as-common option to hit Golbat and Sigilyph harder. Special still has its merits though. It isn't crippled by status as much so it can afford to run Life Orb for a little more power. It can beat the more physically defensive inclined threats that would otherwise check it.

Drapion
Early ORAS really hated this Pokemon. Mega Steelix was introduced, and the only role Drapion could perform effectively with it around was a Steelix breaker. Flygon would later drop, so its job even harder because this time it had a counter that it couldn't check with its speed. But now that Mega Steelix is gone, Flygon is really the only thing stopping this monster from being being banned. Primarily it has 2 sets, Swords Dance and Choice Scarf.
http://pastebin.com/sjDUwLr6