XY OU Priority Punishers

[welsknight]

Hello everyone! After a 6 month or so hiatus from Pokemon, I have returned to the Smogon forums. Here, I will present you with my newest team creation, the Priority Punishers. This is my third competitive RMT team. When I build teams, I like to pick a theme or specific goal and build around it. My first, the Boosted B@st@rds, can be found here. That team made use of Mega-Kangaskhan in the early pre-Pokebank days of X/Y, when threats like Speed Boost Blaziken were still allowed. My second, Victory on a Whimsicott!, can be found here. It was a team built around using Whimsicott as a physical wall (which worked better than you might think, take a look at the set if you're interested).

This is a XY OU Team. It currently has a pretty decent record (but in the low tiers of the ladder... apparently your ladder rank disappears after months of not playing lol). Although I like the idea of the team, and am very satisfied with a few of the members, I think there is a lot of room for improvement. I like to tweak and make changes, essentially building and rebuilding, as I go. I think that an RMT thread is the best way to do that. Any kind of feedback would be greatly appreciated.

So, first: a little bit about the team. I wanted to create a team built almost entirely around priority moves. I knew it would be a pretty hyper-offensive team. I had a Weakness Policy Dragonite on my last team, and knew that it would be a great starting point. Next, I decided to go for another noted priority user: Gale Wings Talonflame. As the last member of my priority core, I chose Belly Drum Azumarill. The remaining members were a bit trickier (and honestly, I'm still not sold on them). I put in Scizor as hazard removal, for priority bullet punch, and for pursuit capabilities. Thundurus was chosen for Prankster, as I definitely wanted priority taunt and priority status, as well as some special attacking capability. Lastly, realizing that I had a nasty electric weakness, as well as 3 members weak to Stealth Rock, I decided to opt for a second hazard remover who also hits hard: Excadrill. Now that you see the general goal of the team, let's get into the meat and potatoes...

Dragonite @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

Weakness Policy Dragonite is still my favorite Dragonite set. Extremespeed is the obvious priority move, and the main reason Dragonite was chosen. Dragon Claw is the STAB because I don't like getting locked into Outrage. Earthquake is for coverage, checking threats like Aegislash and Tyranitar. Dragon Dance is usually its first move, to get that much needed speed boost so it can outspeed without Extremespeed. The EVs are meant to maximize its power after getting set up. I often lead with Dragonite if I don't think my opponent is going to lead with a hazard-setter-upper. I am very, very happy with this Dragonite.

Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Steel Wing

Talonflame, much like Dragonite, has EVs to maximize its firepower. Unfortunately, with recoil from both Brave Bird and Flare Blitz, it doesn't usually stay alive for the long hall. On a recommendation from Jirachee, I replaced its Leftovers with Choice Band for some extra oomph. U-turn forms a nice Volt-Turn core with Thundurus. Steel Wing is there as a fourth attach and anti-fairy/rock coverage move, since I don't want to get locked into Tailwind. This set works fairly well overall, but I wouldn't mind doing away with the Choice Band and going Brave Bird/Flare Blitz/Swords Dance/Roost either. With that said, I think my team has enough set-up sweepers at the moment, and it's nice to have someone who can hit hard right off the bat, so for now, I'll go with this set.

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Superpower
- Belly Drum

God, I love this Azumarill. Sitrus Berry means that I only really spend 25% of my HP for Belly Drum. The EVs in HP help make sure it stays alive long enough to use Belly Drum. Aqua Jet is the main attack move since Azumarill is outsped by... well, pretty much everything. Play Rough and Superpower are for when Aqua Jet just won't do enough, or when I predict a switch. Azumarill usually grabs a KO or three after Belly Drum, and it counters lots of nasty threats, like Dragons, Excadrill, Gliscor, Heatran, and Charizard X/Y. Plus, Choice Band Azumarill is so much more common that many opponents often assume that it has one... until Belly Drum, at which point it's often too late.

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Roost

And now, we get into the ones I'm not as happy with. I switched from my previous Defog Scizor set to this one, also on a recommendation from Jirachee. It works better than what I had before, but I'm still not very happy with Scizor/Mega-Scizor as a whole. However, after a Swords Dance or two, he hits pretty hard with priority Bullet Punch. Roost lets him recover after setting up on foes that can't touch him. Knock off takes care of pesky items and allows him to hurt some common threats. I would love to replace Scizor (honestly, I've kind of always hated Scizor), but I just don't know what to replace him with.

Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Grass Knot
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt

Thundurus is another one that I chose to fill a specific role: priority support and special attacker. Priority Taunt shuts down Smeargle, Ferrothorn, Galvantula, Scolipede, and pretty much anything else that is only around for status moves. Grass Switch is one of my Rotom-W checks, with the other being Mold Breaker Excadrill. Volt Switch is the primary STAB, as well as forming a nice combo with Scizor's and Talonflame's U-Turn. Priority Thunder Wave helps take down big, nasty threats like Weakness Policy Dragonite (if mine's dead) and to give my strong but slow members a speed advantage. I think Prankster fits beautifully with the theme of this team, but I would be willing to replace Thundurus with another Prankster user. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find out that fills this role better than Thundurus.

Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Lastly, Mold Breaker Excadrill acts as a check to Electric-types, serves as a hazard remover, and gives me a much-needed rock-type move in Rock Slide. He has no priority moves, which makes me sad, but he filled the last slot better than any other options I could think of. Would love to replace him with something that has priority. After some testing, I decided to swap its Air Balloon for a Choice Scarf and change its nature to Adamant, since it can then outspeed common threats and hit a bit harder than before. Since I have 3 flying-types, I definitely need a hazard remover, and Excadrill is the most offensive spinner I know of.




...so, there you have it. The team, version 1.0. Some weaknesses I have identified: Stealth Rocks are a huge problem for this team, as Talonflame is 4x weak to it, Thunderus is 2x weak to it, and it totally jacks up Dragonite's Multiscale ability. Luckily, I have Excadrill to try to deal with this. I really don't have a good answer to Gliscor, although Azumarill can usually power through after a Belly Drum. But if Azumarill is gone... yup, basically screwed. I also have a VERY limited amount of special attacking capabilities on this team, and I doubt my current strategy of using brute force to break physical walls will always work. I would love to replace Mega-Scizor with a Special Attacking priority user, but I can't really think of any that don't completely unbalance the team.

What are YOUR thoughts?

Importable

Dragonite @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Steel Wing

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Superpower
- Belly Drum

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost
- Swords Dance

Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Grass Knot
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

​

 

[Kacey Nu]

I think a priority team should have a stronger focus on the attacks (or prankster, if it was deliberate lol) rather than just use them - that's what it looks like to me on paper. It's like the opposing team should all be worn down first, by phazing and entry hazards, or Burn/Toxic stall. Are Thundurus and Talonf really adequate for the latter?

To help deal with Gliscor and Lando-T, you can use HP Ice on Thundurus - it replaces either Toxic or Taunt.
Because this team is all about offense, which is something I would change if it weren't far less appropriate for this forum I'll prioritize haha geddit priority team PRIORITIZE Swords Dance on Talonflame to keep that offensive pressure going. There's a possibility you'll swap out Will-O-Wisp if you use HP Ice on Thundurus, but what about U-Turn? I think you've enough VoltTurn for this particular team. My logic is that if you U-Turn when you shouldn't, you get screwed up. If you manually switch when you shouldn't, you get screwed up only a little bit more, unless you did it in front of Ferrothorn.
Hope it helps.

This video shows a Unova battle, Super Fang with priority Pokemon. The team is outdated since you can battle and use Talonflame, but I think it can give you good ideas.
This YouTuber's views DON'T reflect all of my own, just sayin'

You're encouraged to skip to 4:41 if you don't have time.

 

[welsknight]

I think a priority team should have a stronger focus on the attacks (or prankster, if it was deliberate lol) rather than just use them - that's what it looks like to me on paper. It's like the opposing team should all be worn down first, by phazing and entry hazards, or Burn/Toxic stall. Are Thundurus and Talonf really adequate for the latter?

To help deal with Gliscor and Lando-T, you can use HP Ice on Thundurus - it replaces either Toxic or Taunt.
Because this team is all about offense, which is something I would change if it weren't far less appropriate for this forum I'll prioritize haha geddit priority team PRIORITIZE Swords Dance on Talonflame to keep that offensive pressure going. There's a possibility you'll swap out Will-O-Wisp if you use HP Ice on Thundurus, but what about U-Turn? I think you've enough VoltTurn for this particular team. My logic is that if you U-Turn when you shouldn't, you get screwed up. If you manually switch when you shouldn't, you get screwed up only a little bit more, unless you did it in front of Ferrothorn.
Hope it helps.

This video shows a Unova battle, Super Fang with priority Pokemon. The team is outdated since you can battle and use Talonflame, but I think it can give you good ideas.
This YouTuber's views DON'T reflect all of my own, just sayin'

You're encouraged to skip to 4:41 if you don't have time.

Thanks for the feedback. Toxic on Thundurus can probably go, in favor of HP Ice. I suppose U-Turn could go off of Talonflame in favor of Swords Dance (Or maybe even Roost).

From watching the video, it looks like his basic strategy was to wear the opponent's team down, and then finish off with priority. The goal of this team is to use strong priority moves from Dragonite, Azumarill, and Talonflame to sweep without wearing the opponent down first. On Azumarill and Dragonite, this s done by raising the strength of those moves. Boosted Extremespeed and Aqua jet are often strong enough to OHKO opponents who aren't very bulky, or at the very least 2HKO.

 

[Kacey Nu]

Viewing the team from your perspective of priority here, I can help support its sweepers some more...
My first thought was to have Fairy counters for Dragonite, and you have two. I noted this redundancy. Then I realized the Electric-type Mega Manectric isn't countered by Excadrill. It would have to use Choice Scarf or Occa Berry to fight it.
Scarf is a standard and recommended item here, but I would remove one out of Excadrill and Mega Scizor to give this team dedicated defensive presence. The best Specially Defensive thing I can think of for Mega Manectric that can Defog/Spin are Zapdos, AssaultV Hitmontop, and AssaultV Donphan. HP Ice is weak enough for a pure Ground type to have a chance.
Edit: And Mew!

 

[Jirachee]

I think that the team itself is pretty cool but you can change stuff around to make it much more effective, very easily.

First of all, while you have a lot of priority, strong set up Pokemon, such as Gyarados or Charizard X might be very annoying. This comes from the fact they get easy set up opportunities vs things like Scizor, and then they'll be able to kill most of your stuff while still being able to tank your priority thanks to their bulk and your priority users lack of raw firepower. In my opinion, if you don't use a set up move on Talonflame, you should use the Choice Band set. This gives it a great power boost, which should be enough for it to take down those bulkier set up Pokemon, or at least weaken them enough so you can pick them off with Dragonite's ExtremeSpeed. You should also put those 4 HP EVs in Special Defense, because with 4 HP EVs you will only be able to switch in once if Stealth Rock is up.

Without Stealth Rock you'll have problems fighting Stall teams. You don't have anything that gives a lot of problem to Stall and they'll just be able to keep switching with you being unable to do anything about it. As you said, you're also weak to Electric types. Excadrill is a good start but it's always prone to being picked off. I think you should use a Stealth Rock Tyranitar instead of Thundurus. This gives you an answer to Electric types, a Stealth Rock user, and something to summon Sand for Excadrill. With that change, I suggest using Sand Rush on Excadrill; I think it fits the team's theme perfectly because of its great Speed that allows it to outspeed everything in the tier, even the fastest Choice Scarf users. It also gives you a great counter to Electric types!

Lastly, I don't think you need two hazard removers. Your current Scizor set lacks any real focus and will struggle to do anything well. I think you should use a Swords Dance set instead of your current set. It would give you a great game ender and it's the best Mega Scizor variant in the current metagame, so you should definitely give it a spin. It pairs up well with drum azu.

overall:

changes

• CB > your current Talonflame set
• SR Tyranitar > Thundurus
• Sand Rush > Mold Breaker on Excadrill
• SD > your current Scizor set

sets:
Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Tailwind

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 64 Atk / 192 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 32 Atk / 16 Def / 184 SpD / 28 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Roost

 

[welsknight]

I think that the team itself is pretty cool but you can change stuff around to make it much more effective, very easily.

First of all, while you have a lot of priority, strong set up Pokemon, such as Gyarados or Charizard X might be very annoying. This comes from the fact they get easy set up opportunities vs things like Scizor, and then they'll be able to kill most of your stuff while still being able to tank your priority thanks to their bulk and your priority users lack of raw firepower. In my opinion, if you don't use a set up move on Talonflame, you should use the Choice Band set. This gives it a great power boost, which should be enough for it to take down those bulkier set up Pokemon, or at least weaken them enough so you can pick them off with Dragonite's ExtremeSpeed. You should also put those 4 HP EVs in Special Defense, because with 4 HP EVs you will only be able to switch in once if Stealth Rock is up.

Without Stealth Rock you'll have problems fighting Stall teams. You don't have anything that gives a lot of problem to Stall and they'll just be able to keep switching with you being unable to do anything about it. As you said, you're also weak to Electric types. Excadrill is a good start but it's always prone to being picked off. I think you should use a Stealth Rock Tyranitar instead of Thundurus. This gives you an answer to Electric types, a Stealth Rock user, and something to summon Sand for Excadrill. With that change, I suggest using Sand Rush on Excadrill; I think it fits the team's theme perfectly because of its great Speed that allows it to outspeed everything in the tier, even the fastest Choice Scarf users. It also gives you a great counter to Electric types!

Lastly, I don't think you need two hazard removers. Your current Scizor set lacks any real focus and will struggle to do anything well. I think you should use a Swords Dance set instead of your current set. It would give you a great game ender and it's the best Mega Scizor variant in the current metagame, so you should definitely give it a spin. It pairs up well with drum azu.

overall:

changes

• CB > your current Talonflame set
• SR Tyranitar > Thundurus
• Sand Rush > Mold Breaker on Excadrill
• SD > your current Scizor set

sets:
Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Tailwind

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 64 Atk / 192 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 32 Atk / 16 Def / 184 SpD / 28 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Roost

First of all, thanks for the feedback. The comments about Talonflame are especially helpful.

Now, yesterday I played around with a couple different things. As stated in the original post, I'm really not sold on the inclusion of Scizor/Mega-Scizor on this team at all. I tried a few things, such as swapping sets on Scizor, and replacing Toxic on Thundurus for Thunder Wave and HP Ice. At one point I even swapped Scizor for Mega-Blastoise (for Rapid Spin and strong SpA attacks), and then swapped Excadrill for Mamoswine. However, none of these changes really seemed to improve the team all that much.

I do like some of the changes you proposed. With that said, I don't really want to get rid of my Prankster, unless being swapped for another Prankster. Definitely open to replacements for Thundurus, but I kinda think that Tyranitar doesn't really fit the theme of the team, especially since Talonflame, Dragonite, and Azumarill don't like Sand Storm (especially Dragonite... don't wanna lose Multiscale on the switch). Plus, keeping Mold Breaker on Excadrill gives me a solid answer to annoying Levitaters such as Rotom-W, Gengar, and Weezing.

So, to recap:

Proposed Talonflame change: YES
Proposed Scizor change: YES, although I wouldn't mind replacing Scizor entirely if I could find one that fit the team
Proposed Thundurus -> Tyranitar: No, although I wouldn't mind replacing Thundurus with a different Prankster
Proposed Excadrill change: No

EDIT: UPDATED THE ORIGINAL POST WITH THE CHANGES THAT HAVE BEEN MADE THUS FAR.