Rating League II

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So you think you can rate as well as our badged team raters? This is your chance to prove it in our OU Rating League!​

The league will work just like our Team Rating Competitions. You will face off against one of our TRs in a rating contest. A jury will pick the team to be rated. Within a certain timeframe and under certain conditions which will be picked by the Team Rater, you will both have to finish your rates and submit them the jury. If your rate has at least the same quality as the badged rater, then you win and proceed to face the next rater in the league. This way you can test your abilities and hone your rating skills against the best! If you lose, the jury will give you feedback on your rate and advice on how you can improve going forward.

Requirements
To sign up, you have to have shown a general interest in rating, for example by rating teams on the forums or on PS, or by participating in projects such as Rating Practice Teams and Rating Basics. If you apply, we will decide whether you fulfil the requirements.

Prizes
  • Beating each league member will count as one rate towards the Team Rater badge.
  • If you have enough posts in the RMT forum and win this league, you will be honoured with the Team Rater badge
    . Performing well in general against league members will also earn you more consideration for it.
  • Beating the champion makes you the new champion and earns you an entry into the Hall of Fame!
Champion

Reymedy


The League


Jury/Subs: Enki, mil, Team Pokepals, Snowy.

You have to beat 4 league members to fight the champion.

The league will be set up differently for each challenger. You will be provided more information regarding this once your challenge has been accepted.

PM me if you're ready and believe that you fulfil the requirements! Don't PM me if the thread says "Challenge Ongoing"; please wait until signups are open.

Serious about challenging us? Go ahead and try...here is some help.

To win u must follow these steps:
1)follow ez on smogon
2)pay me 50$ via paypal and ill GHOST
3)pay me another 50$ and ill GIVE YOU MY ENERGY


you really thought someone would make it?

 
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Thanks for everyone who signed up you guys are lit!
We decided to accept Littlelucario for this round
The pairing will be:

Eutychios vs. Littlelucario

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 196 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb

I decided to build a team around Mega Venusaur due to its ability to handle many common threats in the current metagame, including Keldeo, Clefable, Mega Lopunny, and Mega Diancie. Giga Drain and Sludge Bomb are STABs that hit Water-types and Fairy-types, and Hidden Power Fire covers Mega Scizor and Bisharp. Synthesis is the last move for recovering HP.

Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pickpocket
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit

My next choice was Weavile, to threaten and remove the Psychic-types that threatened Mega Venusaur. Knock Off and Icicle Crash are STAB moves that hit hard, while Ice Shard is useful priority for weakened threats. Pursuit is essential here to punish Psychic-types like Latios that switch out expecting Knock Off.

Keldeo-Resolute @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Secret Sword
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Looking at what I had so far, I noticed that the team struggled to switch into Fire, Steel, and Dark-types, so I chose Keldeo. Rest and Sleep Talk provide me longevity to continually switch in to threats like Heatran and Bisharp, while Scald and Secret Sword act as obligatory STAB coverage.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 24 Def / 232 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Stone Edge

I realized that my current group of Pokemon had no Ground-resist, which was problematic against threats like Scarf Excadrill. Since I also wanted speed control, I chose Choice Scarf Landorus-T

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Recover
- Defog

Lacking a hazard remover, I chose to run Latios which is a water resist meaning it can take off some pressure off of Mega Venusaur. A surf variant was chosen to lure fire types like Heatran that can otherwise trouble Mega Venusaur.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Lava Plume
- Taunt
- Toxic

Finally, I noticed that the team struggled a lot versus Talonflame with its ability to easily spread Will-O-Wisp. Also, Clefable and Mega Scizor could still be problematic, since Mega Venusaur would not be able to beat either 1 v 1 if they had boosted multiple times. Heatran made sense here, having great defensive synergy with Mega Venusaur and acting as the team’s Stealth Rock setter while checking the aforementioned threats. It also switches in on Latios’ Draco Meteor, which no other team member is capable of.


Please send your rate to Enki mil or Team Pokepals. Deadline is on 10/19/16 11 pm EST.
 
Eutychios vs Littlelucario
JURY DECISION

Littlelucario does not pass.

Although the jury appreciated LL’s threat appraisal, they felt that the majority of his changes were ineffective as a direct consequence of attempting to do too much within each set. In particular, the jury was firmly against a few of his specialized sets that attempted to handle opposing threats, including Colbur Berry + Fire Punch Jirachi, which is both ineffective in the current metagame and has difficulty checking the threats that it would with Leftovers. Offensive Landorus was also a questionable choice given that the team struggled to switch in on Charizard X and Fighting-types in general, the most pertinent among those being Lopunny and Medicham.

Although Eutychios’ rate still had some notable flaws, including a large weakness to Superpower Tornadus-T and Diancie, his changes made the team functionally better against pertinent threats such as Mega Pinsir, Sand Rush Excadrill, and Earthquake Charizard-X, all of which posed a significant threat at the beginning.

Thanks for participating Littlelucario! Feel free to PM myself, ez, or others if you have any questions about the decision. We’ll post the next challenger shortly.
Hey there, this is a pretty solid team, but I think that it could use some improvements.

Threat Analysis:
First of all, your team lacks a win condition against common defensive cores, making it very difficult to break past Stall Teams. Additionally, Mega Charizard X can potentially sweep past your team very easily, with Landorus-T not being able to take it on reliably due to its lack of bulk while using a Choice Scarf and Earthquake. a very common move on it, allowing it to muscle past Heatran with ease. Latios can also pose a huge threat to your team as your only Latios switch in is Heatran, and that takes a very large sum of damage from Surf, one of its most common coverage moves. Lastly, struggle mightily with strong special attackers, primarily; MegaZam, Tornadus-T, or Starmie, as you don't have reliable switch ins to any of those three.

Changes:

Rest+Sleep Talk-->Choice Specs:
As mentioned earlier, your team struggles to break past common bulkier Pokemon and frankly lacks any consistent wallbreakers, so Keldeo really helps you with that issue, being able to break past several defensive Pokemon and whittle away at checks like Latios, Latias, Torn-T, etc. that it shares with Mega Venusaur, enabling Mega Venusaur to do a much better job being a bulky tank. A concern with Dark-types may seem to arise with this change, but your team has Mega Venusaur to check Bisharp very well. Mega Venu can also check Weavile in an emergency, assuming that it doesn't switch into Icicle Crash and proceed to get flinched the following turn, and you have Choice Scarf Landorus-T to revenge kill Weavile if need be as it tanks an Ice Shard from full.


Choice Scarf--->Bulky SD: As I have previously stated, Mega Charizard X threatens to sweep this team at team preview, and you have a very difficult time breaking through bulkier teams. The bulky Swords Dance Landorus-T set that I have provided allows you to take on bulkier teams as it has near maximum attack investment and Earth Plate coupled with Swords Dance. However, the defensive investment allows this specific Landorus-T variant to take on Mega Charizard X fairly well. Aside from beating Mega Charizard X, this bulkier EV spread allows Lando-T to take pressure off of Mega Venusaur to check Pokemon on sand teams, which is really important because sand cuts off Mega Venusaur's main method of recovery in synthesis. Lastly, the set retains U-turn because it allows Lando-T to remain a solid pivot vs offense and give you momentum, but obviously it is meant to be used in the point of the game before you set up.


Life Orb--->Choice Scarf: With Landorus-T's departure, your team lacks any method of speed control, which is critical for this sort of team, and Choice Scarf Latios offers an excellent form of speed control. Additionally, having a Choice Scarf attached adds a buffer to the team against +1 Mega Charizard X since you can overwhelm the thing in the case that it overwhelms Lando-T. Lastly, Scarf Latios can potentially revenge kill many dangerous threats to the team such as LO Starmie, LO Torn-T, and Mega Alakazam that are really annoying to deal with for the team. Aside from providing speed control, Choice Scarf Latios maintains a method of removing hazards while simultaneously posing a threat to bulky teams with its ability to cripple opposing Chansey and Skarmory with Trick.

--->
:
As mentioned earlier, you struggle to switch into many strong special attackers. Jirachi helps with this because of its naturally high bulk in conjunction with solid defensive typing that leaves it neutral to Surf and Focus Blast. Jirachi can effectively take on the listed threats due to the aforementioned reasons while replacing Heatran as the Stealth Rock user of the team. You mentioned that Heatran was your main answer to Mega Scizor since relying on Keldeo as a Mega Scizor check is a bad idea, so I placed Fire Punch in Jirachi's filler slot for that reason. Obviously this change makes it a tad more difficult to deal with Talonflame, but everything else on the team pressures Talon heavily, with it not being able to switch into anything, and the more defensive Lando-T spread can take on Wisp Talon more off the time. If you feel wary about how well Jirachi checks the aformentioned threats, I have provided calcs below to show how well it takes on some of the biggest threats to your team. Heat Wave Torn-T can be annoying to deal with after this change, but only Life Orb variants are problematic and you can pressure those to not switch into anything and you have multiple Pokemon to revenge kill it.
76 Atk Life Orb Tornadus-T Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Colbur Berry Jirachi: 99-117 (24.5 - 28.9%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO (less damage after colbur is used up)
252 SpA Life Orb Latios Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 224+ SpD Jirachi: 101-121 (25 - 29.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Latios Surf vs. 252 HP / 224+ SpD Jirachi: 95-112 (23.5 - 27.7%) -- 75.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Mega Alakazam Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 224+ SpD Jirachi: 160-190 (39.6 - 47%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Landorus-Therian @ Earth Plate
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 28 HP / 240 Atk / 148 Def / 92 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn

Latios @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Trick

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Icy Wind

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 196 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb

Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pickpocket
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit

Jirachi @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Punch
- Healing Wish/U-turn
Hi, very interesting team, after analyzing your team, i realized that Latios thanks to Surf can deal with Heatran (your only Draco switch) without much trouble, so you need to sack something to revenge kill it with Weavile, Electrics types as NP Thundurus and SubCM Raikou can be really annoying for Landorus-t, also your Weavile is the only real revenge killer for these, but we must consider Weavile is weak to rocks, and undergoes Life Orb recoil, and then his time in the field is very short, and this forces you to play a game much more hardly to answer these threats, mega Charizard x and Kyurem-B are a bit hard to deal with since you're Landorus-t can't outspeed jolly mega zard, and It takes too much damage from Flare blitz, However about your weakness to Kyurem-b, it can be scared by Keldeo, but your team don't have situational switches, finally mega Pinsir can be a really huge problem since it can kill your whole team without much trouble. my rate will try to make these threats less dangerous, always keeping to the main idea of the team.

>

First of all, since this build is weak Latios, Np Thundurus, Kyurem-b and mega Pinsir, I suggest using Scarf Tyranitar over Weavile, Scarf Ttar may help your team to deal with These threats, being able to take a wet is a good latios switch, not being weak to hazards (rocks) it has more longevity than Weavile during the game, Tyranitar, also is able to deal with +1 mega Charizard x Eqless , mega Pinsir in 1v1, Gengar, mega Gardevoir and offensive Starmie , which makes it very synergistic with the team. I'd suggest the classic moveset with a few variants in the 4th move, This should be Stone edge | Pursuit | Crunch | SuperPower / Ice Punch / Iron head , Superpower can be useful to handle Bisharp, Heatran and Ferrothorn better, Ice punch is a cool option to deal with Lando-t and Garchomp if Keldeo is gone, finally Iron head can be really useful to lure mega Diancie that can pressure a lot Venusaur since i put the sand in your team.


After putting Tyranitar in the team, the team has become much more fragile to sand rush Excadrill, since we give him free sand, also mega Charizard x needs to be managed better than that, then I'd suggest you to use standard defensive Landorus-t over Scarf variant, defensive Landorus-t provided a slow u-turn useful to gain momentum against others landorus and Rotom-w, also this change make the team more solid against sand Excadrill and mega Charizard x and others physical attackers like mega Scizor and mega Lopunny.

~ Small changes ~


Since your're team is really weak to Jolly BD Azumarill, i'd suggest to use this spread on you're Venusaur: 216 HP | 196 Def | 96 Speed, this spread allows to outspeed the jolly Azumarill variant thus preventing a sweep.


Finally since i put stealth rocks on Landorus, i'd suggest to use protect over stealth rocks, protect is very useful in this team to scout a lot of moves such as Superpower on Tornadus-T (which is very hard to deal with) or Surf Latios, also can scout the choice locked pokemons moves, allowing you to see and better understand the opponents's plays, at last Protect is very good to take leftovers from free heal, and allows Heatran to PPstall Clefable much better than before.

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 216 HP / 196 Def / 96 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb

Keldeo-Resolute @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Secret Sword
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 240 HP / 240 Def / 28 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 27 Spe
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Recover
- Defog

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Lava Plume
- Taunt
- Toxic

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Superpower / Ice punch / Iron head


The team after these changes has become more solid against threats that I mentioned, despite everything, this still suffers from LO Superpower Tornadus-t, but it can be played around since it can't switch into many things, that's all, hope I've helped :toast:
 
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Thanks to everyone for signing up!
For this round, we have decided to accept Millionsunz
Here are the parings.

Hector Hard Mode vs. Millionsunz

Kyurem @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earth Power

I decided to run a Specs Kyurem due to its ability to break threw defensive teams.

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Pursuit

I paired up Kyurem with Tyranitar because Tyranitar can deal heavy damage to Chansey and also trap faster threats like latios for Kyurem.

Latias @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Psyshock
- Tailwind
- Healing Wish

Looking at the team so farr, Fighting types are very problematic which is why I decided to run Latias. I chose to run Tailwind because Kyurem and Tyranitar are strong but slow. With a Tailwind however they will be very hard to revenge kill making them a bigger threat.

Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Dragon Claw
- Roost

The team struggled against steel types like Mega Scizor which is why I chose to run Charizard-Mega-X which allowed me to handle steel types and also give me another mon that could break holes into a team.

Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Swords Dance

Garchomp was chosen as my rocker with Lum Berry and Sword Dance so I can weaken bulky grounds like Landorus-therian to open up for my Mega Zard X or Fairy Types for my Kyurem.

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Heart Stamp
- Healing Wish

Looking at the team, I lacked a fairy resist and I decided to chose Jirachi with a scarf set so I can have speed control. U-turn gave me momentum and Healing wish allows me to bring back a threat on my team.

Please send your rate to Enki Snowy. Team Pokepals mil or ez Deadline is 10/27/16 11pm EST.
 
Hector Hard Mode vs Millionsunz
JURY DECISION
Millionsunz does not pass.

Hector Hard mode and Millionsunz had nearly identical rates apart from Colbur Latios, Earthquake Charizard X and Scarf Tyranitar. Both teams struggled to deal with dark types having unreliable ways to handle them. Millionsunz has scarf tyranitar to check Bisharp but still struggled versus Weavile while Hector Hard Mode's rate handled Weavile better but struggled with Sword Dance Bisharp.

What separates them apart is Hector Hard Mode's 2nd rate. He kept the concept of Tailwind + two strong choice locked hitters while also fixing a bunch of weaknesses such as dark types and ground types.

Thanks for participating Millionsunz!
Hey man, this is an interesting concept for a team but there are a lot of things in the metagame that are just going to body it at a glance. Worst three offenders are Weavile, Mega Lopunny, and Excadrill in both forms, like if Weavile has Low Kick it literally can kill every single Pokemon after Stealth Rock and even without it you're going to struggle a lot. The team also has a ton of trouble with opposing Bisharp, and handling Heatran is a major nuisance given that the team's main form of counterplay, Band Tyranitar, relies on not being burned with Lava Plume on the switch-in. The biggest trouble with the team is the insistence on retaining Tailwind + Specs Kyurem + Band Tyranitar which stacks weaknesses and makes it impossible to cover the necessary roles to not outright lose to x threat or another. I'm going to be providing a team that retains the Specs Kyurem + BandTar core, and another that attempts to retain the Tailwind concept at the end because it's frankly unviable and not a good base idea.

->
The first change that we have to make in order to be able to pivot in on Mega Lopunny and Excadrill is to use Defensive Landorus over Garchomp. Landorus will provide you with Stealth Rock while also providing U-Turn support for you to be able to pivot into your two wall-breakers in Kyurem and Tyranitar, getting kills that way. I'd also recommend using Hidden Power Ice over Stone Edge here given that Charizard-X desperately appreciates a lure for opposing defensive Landorus-T to not have to suicide itself into it, and you have strong coverage for Talonflame in Band Tyranitar as it is. Finally, 88 Spe EVs will let you outspeed Adamant Bisharp which is crucial for your team, because they're now forced to Sucker Punch instead of Knock Off which you can survive if they've only gotten the boost from Intimidate.

->
However, the team is still hopelessly weak to opposing Weavile, and they can prevent you from Defogging using your current set if you're forced into attacking say a Keldeo. Colbur Berry Latios is a better fit in this slot, retaining the ability to Defog while also luring out Weavile that try to either Pursuit or Knock Off, if you're at high enough health. Surf gives you a way to hit Tyranitar on the switch-in, as well as Diancie. You should now be able to offensively handle opposing Weavile with the combination of Colbur Latios and Scarf Jirachi.

Even with Surf Latios and Band Tyranitar, however, I'd recommend using Earthquake over Roost on Charizard-X. The reason for this is that the team simply cannot afford to be giving switch-ins to Heatran or free Toxic damage at any point, or it will almost certainly lose - especially since the team doesn't have room for a designated Water-type to switch in on Lava Plume. You'll still be fine against opposing Mega Scizor with Charizard and potential Healing Wish support from Jirachi, provided that you don't provide it with a lot of free switch-ins.

Finally, consider running slightly more HP investment on Tyranitar in order to be able to come in more consistently against Latios and usually avoid the 2HKO from Weavile's Icicle Crash before Stealth Rock. 100 HP should suffice in this regard. The increased speed on the set isn't too relevant here given that many Rotom are running at least 230 speed or more for Crawdaunt and Bisharp, and your team is more appreciative of having a more reliable Latios trapper.

This team should be far more effective in the current metagame and now has reliable win conditions in Earthquake Charizard against Bulky Offenses while also retaining strong ways to win against opposing styles. Thundurus can be frustrating to handle, but Latios and Charizard should be able to force it out and sufficiently pressure it. Best of luck with the team!

Kyurem @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earth Power

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 100 HP / 252 Atk / 156 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

Latios @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Recover
- Defog

Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 8 SpD / 88 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Heart Stamp
- Healing Wish


Now, with all of this in mind, it is still possible to make a semi-viable means of retaining Tailwind Latias + Specs Kyurem + Band Tyranitar in the following form:



This is the most viable structure for a team retaining the initial core idea, given that Mega Scizor and Keldeo and Landorus are all necessary to cover the structural weaknesses of the initial core that I outlined in the threatlist. However, doing so requires changing three members of the team, after which it's hardly the same. Mega Scizor is necessary over Charizard here to handle the otherwise unplayable matchup against Weavile and to some extent Lopunny, while Landorus is necessary for handling Excadrill and Lopunny as well as providing Stealth Rock. SD takes Mega Scizor and opposing Clefable, provided that they're running Flamethrower and Tyranitar is too low to viably check it. However, the team in this rendition is simply too slow and desperate for a Water-type against Heatran provided that Tailwind can't be put up reliably, so Scarf Keldeo is forced in the last slot. I don't recommend this as the first option, but given how unviable the three-'mon core was this is the only viable way to make it playable. I think that, given how many slots are forced to ensure a vaguely playable matchup, it should be evident that this team concept is simply unviable. I'm not going to break down the individual reasoning for this version of the team for that reason, given that it's a secondary option, but consider it as a testament to the core's non-viability. Best of luck!

Kyurem @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earth Power

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

Latias @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Psyshock
- Tailwind
- Healing Wish

Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Swords Dance
- Roost

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 8 SpD / 88 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Electric]

Here is my rate for my first round in the Rating League n_n Everything between the "===" is the rate

It'll be an honor going against HHM, we'll see what he thinks of my hard mode lol boom roasted

===

You have quite a cool team right there. I really like the use of Specs Kyurem, a very underestimated wallbreaker in today's metagame. I also liked how you paired it with Tyranitar to trap threats that can, well, threaten your Kyurem, like Lati@s. However, your team has a few major flaws. One of the biggest ones that I can see is a large weakness to Excadrill. Excadrill, with a Scarf or in sand, completely blows back your team, and you have no solid switch into it. Your everyday LO Sand Rush Excadrill OHKOes Kyurem with Iron Head, Tyranitar with Iron Head and Earthquake, and it smacks Zard X with Earthquake. It also 2HKOes Latias with Iron Head, 2HKOes Garchomp, preventing it from switching in continuously to it's attacks, and outspeeds and OHKOes Scarf Jirachi with Earthquake. This also doesn't take into account that your own Tyranitar sets up the sand for Excadrill as well. While Scarf Excadrill doesn't pick up as many kills as LO Sand Rush Excadrill, it still puts in a lot of work, being able to OHKO Kyurem and Tyranitar after a SR switch in. This still doesn't account for the fact that Scarf Excadrill still OHKOes Zard X and pretty much OHKOes Jirachi (it's like a 93.8% roll with EQ). Landorus-T, most notably Scarf LandoT, is also a big issue to your team, despite the presence of Kyurem. Scarf Landorus outspeeds every Pokemon on your team except for Jirachi, and like Excadrill, puts in a large amount of work. Earthquake slams Tyranitar, Zard X, and Jirachi. Garchomp is 2HKOed by Earthquake, and Latias does not appreciate taking either Knock Off or a U-Turn. Stone Edge 2HKOes Kyurem, and Earthquake has a 99.6% chance to 2HKO, without SR. Unlike Drill, LandoT is able to consistently take on Garchomp, being immune to it's EQ and having a good chance to be 4HKOed by Dragon Claw. Mega Lopunny also blows back your team, being able to pick up OHKOes on Kyurem and Tyranitar with HJK, and 2HKOing the rest of your team with either Return + Fake Out or Ice Punch. Jirachi is the only Pokemon on your team that takes on Mega Lop immediately with Scarf Heart Stamp, and a lot of the team's members can deal large amounts of damage to it, like Zard X, although it may never have the chance to DD up and take on Mega Lop. Your team is also rocked by Fairy Types such as Clefable and Mega Diancie, with 5/6 (83%!) members of your team being weak to their STAB attacks. While Scarf Jirachi is a good way to check to these Pokemon, it can be easily predicted and does not appreciate taking either a Flamethrower (from the rare Clef that runs it) or an Earth Power/HP Fire from Diancie. Besides Jirachi, your team has no good switches into the fairies. Diamond Storm from Diancie is able to pick up kills where Moonblast does not, most notably on Zard X. Keeping all this in mind, lets jump right in.


Starting with your Kyurem, I only have a minor change to suggest. Running Focus Blast over Hidden Power Fire on Kyurem allows it to hit Pokemon like Tyranitar (in sand) while still retaining coverage for Ferrothorn. Focus Blast also OHKOes Excadrill, should it be slower than you and not KO you first. Running Focus Blast opens the door for Mega Charizard to spam it's extremely powerful attacks. This coverage on Excadrill can come in handy, especially when the sand setter of your opponents team is removed. Keep in mind, while this isn't really the most pressing change to make on your team, its good to know what your options are.


Moving on to your Tyranitar, I would suggest changing it from a Choice Banded set to a Choice Scarf set. After playing around with your team with the suggestions I made below, I discovered that Bisharp was a huge problem for the team. Running a Scarf Tyranitar mitigates the threat that is SD Bisharp, as it is fast enough to outspeed and OHKO with SuperPower, all while avoid the OHKO from a +2 Sucker Punch. Running a spread of 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe with an Jolly Nature maximizes Tyranitar's attack and still allows it to outspeed positive Speed natured base 111s like Thundurus, Latios, and both Mega Charizard formes. ScarfTar also comes in handy when revenge killing Pokemon, as it hits 364 Speed and can KO threats like Lati@s, Zard X/Y, and Talonflame. While the Scarf set looses out on some of the offensive power the Banded set has, running the Scarf set ultimately improves the team's chances against threats like Latios, Latias, and Bisharp, who has the easy potential to sweep the team.

-->

Next up in line we have your Latias. Tailwind Latias is a cool concept, but in reality, Tailwind isn't very viable in a Singles Format like OU. I would suggest replacing Latias with a Utility Starmie. Starmie is very nice on your team, providing most of Latias does while lowering the total amount of Fairy weaknesses on your team. Starmie provides hazard control in the form of Rapid Spin, which is an absolute necessity on your team, as it has both Kyurem and Zard X, two Pokemon weak to SR. Starmie also improves your teams defensive capabilities, retaining Latias' ability to switch into Keldeo, and 2HKO back with Psyshock. Starmie also has access to Recover, which not only increases it's longevity but allows it to beat and repeatedly switch into multiple threats, like Keldeo, Non TPunch Mega Metagross, and Volcanion. Starmie is also able to outpace Excadrill outside of sand and 2HKO with Scald, but it must be wary of the 2HKO that EQ is on it from both Sand Rush Drill and Scarf Drill. Starmie also has a few nice options it can run outside of the above moves, including Reflect Type, which allows it to beat Ferrothorn and Magnezone 1 on 1, and Thunder Wave, which provides nice Speed control for Kyurem to net KOs more easily. Starmie also has the capability to beat Mega Diancie, hitting it hard with Scald. However, with running Starmie over Latias, you lose the nice double Healing Wish support that can bring back either Kyurem and/or Zard X, but I don't really see a situation where you need to heal both back up to full.

-->

Moving on to your Garchomp, I would suggest replacing it with defensive Landorus-T. Your team lacks a certain flair of defensiveness, and LandoT is the premier answer to that issue. Unlike Garchomp, Lando is able to cover most of the threats I outlined in the beginning of the rate, being able to take on both forms of Excadrill and opposing LandoTs. What separates Defensive LandoT and the popular TankChomp is it's immunity to Excadrill's EQ, which is able to 2HKO TankChomp after a SR switch in. LandoT is also able to take on Mega Lopunny, Clefable, and Mega Diancie to an extent, being able to take a few hits from each mon and retaliate back with some decent damage. LandoT still provides your team with Stealth Rock support, which can be useful to both Kyurem and Zard X. Landorus is able to OHKO all offensive forms of Excadrill with Earthquake, and is immune to EQs of their own, only being 4HKOed by Adamant LO Excadrill's Iron Head. EQ also hits Clefable for decent damage, and is able to OHKO Mega Diancie from full. Access to U-Turn makes LandoT a very valuable member of your team, as it can easily pivot out and in to Kyurem to easily net a KO, and it forms a nice core with Jirachi, being able to pivot out against threats like Clefable, should it get too many CMs up. The last moveslot is a little malleable, as it can go to Stone Edge, to hit Flying Types like Zapdos and Talonflame hard, or HP Ice/Fire, to hit opposing LandoTs or Mega Scizors respectively. Leftovers is run over Rocky Helmet in order to take on threats like Mega Lopunny, Excadrill, and Jirachi, as Leftovers is the only reliable recovery LandoT gets access too. Rocky Helmet can be run to punish physical attackers, should you think it provides more support to the team. Unfortunately, running LandoT over Garchomp looses out on some of the offensiveness of your team, but it's overall utility and defensive ability that it provides to your team outweighs this lost offensiveness.

I think that is all! I'm pretty sure I hit everything I wanted to talk about, and I believe I covered all the threats that I stated in the beginning. Although the team had a few structural flaws at the beginning, most of them should be patched up by now, using LandoT as a blanket check. I also tried to keep the focus on Kyurem as a wallbreaker and Zard X as a late game cleaner, using LandoT to pivot Kyurem in to get KOs and weaken opposing walls very easily. The team is still a little shaky when in matches against Bisharp, but Scarf Tyranitar should be able to keep that in check for the most part, barely being OHKOed by a +6 Sucker Punch. Be wary though of switching in to Bisharp, as Iron Head can take out Tyranitar without any SDs. The matchup against CM Clef is a little better, but you'll still be relying on Zard's Flare Blitz to deal overwhelming damage to Clef. Mega Lopunny still remains a large threat to the team, but Leftovers Landorus-T can handle it in a respective way.

Enjoy n_n
Kyurem @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast / Hidden Power [Fire]

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Psyshock
- Recover / Thunder Wave

Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Flare Blitz
- Roost

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge / Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Heart Stamp
- U-turn
- Healing Wish


R1: This is the replay that made me switch your Banded Ttar to a Scarfed one. Thankfully, my opponent choked against Zard X, but his Bisharp would've been able to sweep the team with Sucker Punch.

R2: While only 6 turns long, this little replay shows how volatile the UTurn core with Kyurem can be, being able to complete circumnavigate the opp's team and get Kyurem in for a kill.

R3/R3.5: These two replays show how powerful Zard X becomes after the team in it's entirety weakens it's checks. In both replays, Zard X is able to sweep the opponent's team in what appears to be a loss for myself. Though a bit of smart playing, your team can handle a majority of threats that the OU tier has, like Mega Diancie, Heatran, Keldeo, and Latios.

R4: Here we have a fourth replay against a team I'm pretty sure I've seen in the RMT section but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, I decided to include this replay to show how well the team is able to handle bulkier teams, and can even work around each other's counters, like Kyurem being able to wear down Slowbro for Zard and Tyranitar being able to bop Cresselia with a Pursuit.

Hopefully you can find these replays useful, and pick up on certain things that the team does and does not handle well, and how to work around what it doesn't handle well. Maybe you won't find these replays useful at all, but hopefully you do :toast:


===

I also wanted to thank you both in advance for how much you both have helped me. When I first joined Smogon seriously (I think my first post was a Doubles Trick Room team 7-8 months ago lol so after that) I wanted to help people with their teams, but I didn't really know how. Thankfully, you both were there to show me the correct way to rate teams, and now I've won ROTW, and I've even been accepted into the rating league. You both have been invaluable resources to my disposal, and I wanted to thank you for that. Cheers to both of you. You should both get Tutor badges already lol. Maybe one day I'll join your ranks of the Official Team Rater team, but for now, I've set my eyes on the champ, Reymedy >:D We'll see how it goes.

Stay spicy my memes (ez is still a meme no matter what he says)
 

Sun

Who cares if one more light goes out? Well I do...
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Thanks to everyone for signing up!
For this round, we have decided to accept Panther-T
Here are the parings.

ez vs. Panther-T

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Leaf Storm
- Focus Blast

I decided to build around mega Sceptile, a very interesting pokemon in this time of the metagame due to its ability to put a lot of problems to the most commons pokemons rn, like Keldeo, Latios , Rotom-w, Landorus-t, the set is classic, Leaf storm and giga drain to hit water types and ground types, dragon pulse as dragon stab, useful to hit pokemon fire types such as Charizard x, and Focus blast as 4th slot move to hit the annoying Heatrans and Ferrothorns.


Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 216 HP / 228 Def / 64 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 7 Spe
- Thunder Wave
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Calm Mind

Then, since Sceptile suffers Weavile and latwins, I added Cm Clefable.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 192 HP / 240 Def / 44 SpD / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Defog
- Roost
- Heat Wave

After that, i see how mega scep suffers hazard stack teams and flying types as AV Tornadus-t, mega Pinsir and Talonflame, so i put zapdos, which also generate momentum for increase the Scep's wallbreaking opportunities.


Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Focus Blast
- Scald

The team was still weak to weavile and bisharp, my choice here was specs keldeo, which can threaten fire types, and steel types as heatran and mega scizor, and also because can kill chansey, which is hard to break for Scep.


Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Toxic

I noticed that i lack rock setter and a fairy switch in, heatran was my best choice here, it is able to cripple bulky waters/ground using toxic, and can use taunt to deal better with clefable, a max speed nature is prefferred to outspeed all mega Scizor variants.

Krookodile @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Earthquake

Finally, since my team needed a Pursuit trappers and a revenge killer, i choose Scarf Krookodile, which can outspeed scarf excadrills that can be hard to deal with, also i chosen Superpower as 4th slot for hit the likes of mega Lopunny.

Please send your rate to Enki Snowy. Team Pokepals and mil Deadline is 11/06/16 11pm EST.
 
JURY DECISION
Panther-T passes to the next round!

Both ez and Panther-T had good formatting for their rates. The distinguishing factors between the two raters’ rates were the relevant changes that they made. Due to the nature of the team provided, significant changes were necessary to cover all of the defensive vulnerabilities imposed by the team structure. Panther-T’s rate left the team with a significant weakness to Keldeo in any form, which posed a significant threat provided that it was given room to attack. However, ez’s rate had a similar weakness to Sand Rush Excadrill, effectively relying on Zapdos to avoid being flinched and retaliate to check it. Because of the restrictive team structure, the jury agreed that ez and Panther-T’s rates were of similar quality and thus Panther should be passed to the second round.

What’s up guys, thank you for accepting my application to the rating league! Shoutouts to all the cool people in the RMT room on PS and to EZ for being a meme in all our hearts. Let’s get into the rate.


I really liked the basis on which the team was built around – either cleaning late game with Mega Sceptile, or setting up and winning with calm mind Clefable. The appearance of two UU Pokémon in particular is refreshing for me to see as well because UU is my favourite tier to play. Anyways let’s get into the rate. I’m going to break down the rate into a threats list (defensive and offensive), a summary of changes with explanations for each and finally an importable of the new team.

Threats List

Excadrill and Sand Offence: This team really has nothing to fight sand offence; its matchup against it is nearly an auto-lose due to the fact that Keldeo just gets worn down by Tyranitar for Excadrill to clean, and that this team has no reliable ground immunities against sand teams. (Zapdos dies to rock slide if it switches in, and can get whittled by toxic as well). While Krookodile can easily revenge kill Excadrill outside of sand or if it is scarfed, it gets 2HKOd on the switch anyways, and is not a reliable enough answer for any sort of balanced team. In terms of its ability to come in, it is a GSI on this Clefable variant, and can come in on Zapdos on a predicted defog or roost. This is an issue now especially due to the popularity of this playstyle.

Mega Gardevoir: No switch-ins; everything is 2HKOd. In addition to this, it has significant opportunities to come in against this team: it can come in on Keldeo locked into a fighting move, Mega Sceptile at -2 or on a predicted dragon pulse or on Zapdos to get its kill. However, due to the rise of specially defensive Jirachi as a pivot on bulky offence, this monster is not as popular as it once was, thereby making it not as significant of an issue as sand offence.

Stall: This team has nothing to adequately take on stall. ‘Stallbreaker’ Heatran is trapped by Dugtrio, which is becoming increasingly popular. Clefable is phased out by Skarmory and walled by Amoonguss, Krookodile simply lacks the power to break through Quagsire, and Zapdos and Mega Sceptile are countered by Chansey.

Mega Charizard X: Heatran is a decent check, but completely loses to earthquake variants and can only win one on one if healthy due to the reliance on toxic to actually take it down. Also outruns Krookodile at +1, and essentially wins if Heatran is weakened in any way/has earthquake. It has decent switch in opportunities against this team as well: it can come in on Zapdos easily and Krookodile locked into Knock Off or Pursuit.

Mega Charizard-Y: 2HKOs everything with fire blast and this Heatran variant can’t really touch it aside from hoping for consecutive focus blast misses to toxic stall it. Heavily pressured by this team, however, as Clefable can T-Wave it on the switch, and cannot really come in on anything besides a -2 Mega Sceptile (aside from double switches or after something has died).

Mega Diancie: Comes in for free on Clefable, Zapdos, Heatran and Krookodile locked into a dark type move. From there it essentially kills everything, as Heatran is 2HKOd from 252 attack diamond storm; the team has to literally sack something every time this Pokemon comes in to revenge kill it with Mega Sceptile. Due to how easily it can come in against this team, Mega Diancie is a significant threat.

Terrakion: This Pokemon gets a kill everytime it comes in; however, it does not get many switch-in opportunities against this team. It can only really get to fire off an attack after an opposing teammate has died, or through double switches. There is nothing that really invites it in, and thus I do not see it as large of an issue compared to the aforementioned ones.


Now that we have gone over the main issues facing this team, it is time to change the team to help mitigate these issues.


Recommendations


->

The first major change is in regards to Krookodile. While Krookodile certainly is a good Pokemon, being able to clean up weakened teams late game and provide pursuit support, it is not a good fit on this team. While pursuit support is nice to remove the lati twins for Keldeo, the team pressures the lati twins sufficiently with Mega Sceptile, Clefable and Heatran. They can only really come in on Zapdos and Keldeo, from which the former can gain momentum off of through volt switch. Mega Sceptile and Keldeo have an excellent matchup versus offensive teams, and thus the team does not struggle against those builds; Krookodile is not needed to improve that matchup. My point is that while the benefits Krookodile provides are nice, there are far better uses for this team slot to help address more pressing issues, namely the matchup versus an incredibly popular playstyle: sand offence.


The first major change, therefore, is to change from scarf Krookodile to defensive Landorus-T. Defensive Landorus provides the team with a much more effective Charizard-X check, and most importantly, provides the team with a defensive backbone to better check sand offence (Excadrill in particular). Landorus also needs a rocky helmet to wear down and outlast Excadrill. Landorus is also nice on this team to ease offensive pressure off of Keldeo, as it can now check Tyranitar with ease. It also helps in the matchup versus Terrakion. Furthermore, Landorus provides the team with a source of offensive momentum courtesy of U-Turn, and allows us to better optimize Heatran’s spread to combat other issues with this team. This Landorus is also naturally supported by the rest of the team: Clefable can take on Mega Lopunny and Mega Medicham (and other offensive fighting types) meanings that Landorus-T is not forced to eat an ice punch and be weakened enough for their Talonflame, for example. I recommend running a standard defensive spread with stealth rocks, U-turn, stone edge and earthquake. U-Turn is preferred over HP Ice/Fire in this case, as Keldeo, Clefable and Mega Sceptile pressure opposing Landorus-T and Garchomp sufficiently, and Heatran and Keldeo easily handle bulky SD Mega Scizor. Plus the ability to get Mega Sceptile and Keldeo in for free is invaluable, as they do not really have many switch in opportunities (especially Keldeo as this team heavily relies on it to check Bisharp and Weavile, meaning that recklessly switching it in is ill-advised).


Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge




|
->

Utility Heatran is nice to check Pokemon such as Mega Scizor, Clefable, Heatran, Serperior, Charizard X/Y and a myriad of offensive threats. However, adding Landorus-T removed the need for rocks on this set, and a lot of the Pokemon Heatran is relied upon to check simply destroy it with a coverage move, and/or Heatran lacks the means to fight them back. Notably against Diance, it is 2HKOd and cannot really touch it back; against Charizard-Y it is 2HKOd and has to rely on focus blast missing to toxic stall it; against Charizard-X it has to rely on toxic stalling as well; and against Clefable it just gets paralyzed and consequently becomes setup fodder. Running earth power over rocks is a possible solution. However, since Heatran is either 2HKOd on the switch or is setup fodder, this relies on predicting perfectly (forcing you to predict and risk a 50/50) to get Heatran in on a heavily resisted move. For example if against an opposing Diance, Heatran is forced to risk switching into a diamond storm to actually check Diance and is 2HKOd. A wrong prediction means that Heatran is essentially sacked, which means that these threats -- Diance, Zard X/Y, Gardevoir -- can run through the rest of the team with ease

However, running a choice scarf gives Heatran the ability to actually offensively check and revenge kill Pokemon like Diance. Since this team relies on Heatran to check Pokemon like Charizard-Y, a set which can offensively eliminate those threats is preferred. With a choice scarf it can eliminate Pokemon like Mega Gardevoir, Mega Charizard-Y, Mega Diancie, Mega Charizard-X and Clefable-- all of which greatly threaten the team. In addition, it provides the team a way to handle Clefable more efficiently. Even if Heatran is paralyzed (although always scout for the T-Wave), it can still easily 2HKO 212 defense, bold Clefable (most common Clefable at the moment), and unlike the previous set, is much less likely to lose if paralyzed. In general, a scarfed Heatran provides the team with the defensive utility Heatran provides with its typing in its ability to check Mega Scizor, Serperior, Talonflame, etc., but actually gives the team a more reliable way to take on some of the team's most threatening opponents (Mega Gardevoir, Charizard Y, Mega Diancie, Serperior, CM Clefable) due to the coverage and speed this set provides. For the EV spread, 252 in speed and special attack is advised with a timid nature to outrun everything up to Weavile. For the moveset I recommend overheat (to OHKO 0/0 Tornadus-T variants after rocks), flash cannon (to actually touch Clefable), earth power (for opposing Heatran and Charizard-X) and stone edge (to actually OHKO Charizard-Y). HP Ice is not needed – most ground types to not appreciate a fire blast, and as mentioned, the team handles Garchomp and Landorus-T well enough already.


Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Overheat
- Flash Cannon
- Stone Edge
- Earth Power





->
/

Looking at the team now, we have answered some of its most formidable offensive and defensive threats. However, this change is to address this team's poor matchup versus stall. As mentioned this team has very little counterplay versus stall: you fish for a scald burn on Amoonguss with specs Keldeo, or cheese your way through Skarmory or Amoonguss with Clefable and its yellow magic. Given how prominent stall is as a playstyle in OU, this team is inadequately prepared to handle the vast majority of current stall builds.


Thus I felt that replacing Zapdos with LO Stallbreaker Tornadus-T OR mixed Thundurus is needed. While hazard removal is nice on any team, this team does not have any Pokemon particularly weak to stealth rocks, and the only Pokemon that is spikes bait on this team is Clefable (and Landorus-T if their spiker is Ferrothorn or Skarmory). Thus I felt that replacing hazard removal with something to improve the stall matchup was highly needed.


If Tornadus-T is chosen, a mixed set with taunt, knock off, hurricane and superpower is needed to significantly weaken the majority of Pokemon found on stall – Chansey, Amoonguss, Quagsire (removing leftovers), Sableye and Dugtrio. This set had issues in the past due to the prominence of ABR stall (featuring Weavile); however, ABR stall is not as popular now due to the rise of alternate stall builds (Dugtrio and Shedinja stall. Taunt is superior to U-Turn in this case to beat Chansey and Skarmory 1v1, and in general preventing Pokemon on a stall team from recovering. This makes it easily able to break down passive teams. In terms of the EVs, a standard spread is fine.


Tornadus-T is a more effective stallbreaker thanks to regenerator: it can easily pivot out of bad situations and recover its health; it is much harder to wear down. On a team without hazard removal you must play much more carefully with Thundurus in order to not let it get worn down by passive damage, as in a battle against stall, Thundurus will play a large role. Life orb is the preferred item here to ensure that knock off plus superpower kills Chansey. I recognize that by removing Zapdos, Tornadus-T (AV and LO) is significantly more threatening to this team, as AV variants can offensively check Keldeo and M-Sceptile, and LO variants grab a kill everytime they get to attack. Thundurus is a compromise between the defensive utility Zapdos provides and the stallbreaking utility LO Tornadus-T provides. If you do chose Thundurus, a mixed set with HP Ice, thunderbolt, superpower and knock off is needed. Knock off and superpower serve to surprise Chansey. Grass knot is an option, but Keldeo and Mega Sceptile both appreciate having Amoonguss weakened. Standard EVs are fine as well.


Both Tornadus-T and Thundurus-I serve to lure in Pokemon such as Chansey, Amoonguss (Thundurus-I only) and cripple them, paving the way for Keldeo or Mega Sceptile to clean up. In a stall matchup these Pokemon are critical to breaking your opponent's team, and as such need to be played extremely carefully in those matchups.


Tornadus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 68 Atk / 188 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- Taunt
- Knock Off

OR

Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 72 Atk / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Knock Off
- Superpower



For the last change...

On Keldeo
>
Icy Wind>Focus Blast

Teams that struggle with Rotom-W and AV Tangrowth appreciate having focus blast to OHKO and 2HKO each of these threats respectively. However, Clefable uses both as setup fodder, and Heatran and Sceptile take on Rotom-W and Tangrowth respectively. There is really no need for focus blast here. I feel that due to the Tornadus-T weakness this team now has, icy wind is essential in order to not grant AV variants free switches.


Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind


See the importable of your new team below!

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Leaf Storm
- Focus Blast

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 216 HP / 224 Def / 68 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled
- Moonblast

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Stone Edge
- Earth Power

Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 68 Atk / 188 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Taunt
- Knock Off
- Superpower
- Hurricane

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Leaf Storm
- Focus Blast

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 216 HP / 224 Def / 68 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled
- Moonblast

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Stone Edge
- Earth Power

Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 72 Atk / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Knock Off
- Superpower
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Other Options

· Encore/Fire blast>T-Wave on Clefable to handle opposing Clefable more effectively, i.e. not being forced into scouting for T-Wave to get Heatran in safely. Plus this team already has Pokemon that excel versus offensive builds (Keldeo and Sceptile, so speed control isn’t needed. Fire blast specifically allows Clefable to break through Skarmory more effectively in a stall matchup. If you do run encore make sure to run 12 speed EVs on Clefable to speed creep other Clefable

· Earthquake>Focus blast; HP Fire>giga drain on Sceptile: Earthquake+HP Fire allows Mega Sceptile to hit the majority of steel types without having to rely on focus blast. However, given that Sceptile is this team’s only scald switch-in, I feel that the recovery giga drain provides is more valuable.

· Yache berry>rocky helmet on Landorus-T: Since the team relies on Clefable to check offensive electric types, and is unfortunately 2HKOd by a few of them (LO Thundurus I/T, specs Raikou), a yache berry is an option on Landorus-T to help 'lure' and kill fast electric types. While the team has Mega Sceptile, the existence of HP Ice makes Sceptile a shaky check at best, meaning that a lure is something to consider here.

/!\ New Threat /!\

By removing Zapdos, Tornadus-T becomes extremely threatening to the team. Opting to use the version with Thundurus helps to mitigate this weakness, but it is still nonetheless a threat that can come in relatively easily against this team. When playing against a Tornadus you need to play much more aggressively in order to not allow it in for free. For example if you're in with specs Keldeo and you've deduced that their Tornadus-Therian is likely an AV variant, pulling a double switch into Heatran (if you opt to use LO Tornadus-Therian) or Thundurus and 2HKOing with stone edge or thunderbolt is needed. Also clicking icy wind with Keldeo frequently is smart in order to nail it on the switch.


Despite this new threat, the team now has a significantly better matchup against two popular playstyles in OU: sand offence and stall. In addition, the team does far better against previous threats (Gardevoir, Diancie, Zard X/Y, Terrakion, Excadrill, etc.) so the opportunity cost of being weaker to Tornadus-Therian is worth it in my view.

-----

That is it for all of the changes for the team! I hope that you found this helpful, and if you have any questions feel free to let me know. Good luck with testing n_n!
Nice team. I notice your team struggled to switch into Keldeo which can come in on choice locked Krookodile and Heatran. Also, Sword Dance Excadrill is problematic which can switch in and set up on clefable while also being very hard to revenge kill in sand. Dianice-Mega also troubles this team with its amazing coverage and ability to hit everything super effectively. I have a few suggestions to improve this team.

->
My first suggestion is to run Slowking over Clefable. This allows you to have a way to check things like Keldeo and Dianice-Mega. Slowking can also help versus Calm Mind Clefable and other CM users(in case heatran cannot beat it by being thunder-waved on the switch etc) by Calm Minding up with Clefable and using Psyshock to beat it.

My next recommendation is to run Hidden Power flying over Focus Blast on Keldeo. Hidden Power Flying on Keldeo can lure bulky grass types like Venusaur-mega/Ammongous and wear them down so Sceptile-Mega has a easier time. Losing Focus Blast means you cannot hit Rotom-W, however Rotom-W can be dealt with Mega Sceptile and cannot gain momentum with Volt Switch due to Lightning Rod.

Excadrill
is still problematic due to how powerful the life orb set is. However with the replacement of Clefable for Slowking, Excadrill cannot get a free switch into anything because everything on this team has a way to hit Excadrill. If Excadrill does get a free switch in, Zapdos can check Excadrill if Excadrill uses Rapid Spin over Rock slide, If Excadrill does have rock slide then you have to pivit around Excadrill with Slowking/zapdos.

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse

Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Slack Off

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 192 HP / 240 Def / 44 SpD / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Defog
- Roost
- Heat Wave

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Scald

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Toxic

Krookodile @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Earthquake
 

Sun

Who cares if one more light goes out? Well I do...
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Thanks to everyone for signing up!
For this round, we have decided to accept Tinberz
Here are the parings.

Team Pokepals vs. Tinberz

The team is built around setting up Spikes and Rocks, while trying to keep offensive pressure either trough fast and hard hitting mons or though boosting moves. The idea is to have a solid steel/water/ground core coupled with an offensive part consisting of Diancie, Keldeo and Kyurem.

With its decent speed tier and great coverage, Diancie acts as a breaker and sweeper in this team, while creating mind games with hazards. With HP Fire it lures dangerous Steel types like Ferrothorn and Scizor which are a bit problematic to the team. If hazards are up though, they will take a lot of damage switching in, thus getting ohkod by diancie after one or two switchins into hazards. Max attack 2hkos mixed standard clefable and gives Chansey and other SpD walls a hard time.

Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Protect

Scarf Keldeo in combination with slowking spam scalds on the opposing team, thus weakening mutual checks, like grass, dragon and water types. It has standard coverage but with HP Fire, to deal a lot more damage to Scizor, as it gives the team a hard time. It can clean up late game if the opposing team is sufficiently weakend.

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Scald
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Fire]

The team struggles a bit with balance and mons like Amoonguss, Tangrowth, Rotom, so Kyurem was chosen to exploit their switchin. Keldeo and Diancie force in Amoonguss for example, switching directly into Kyurem on their obvious switch creates momentum and "free" Ice Beams or other coverage moves from Kyurem. It also checks electric types without fighting coverage, which would otherwise give this team a very hard time. All in all this Kyurem needs to be used as a breaker and it should come in whenever there is an opening.

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Ice Beam
- Iron Head
- Earth Power
- Fusion Bolt

Slowking is the first part of the defensive backbone, it comes in on resisted hits due to its great mixed defenses and then follows it up with scald, giving it a chance at burning to switch out later gaining health due to Regenerator. Nasty Plot can break through or weaken water resists, for example trading Slowking against a Tangrowth, that way Diancie and Keldeo have a better shot at winning.

Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Nasty Plot

Klefki sets up Spikes and is valuable to the team due to its ability to utilize common Dragon and Fairies presence, while setting up spikes and spreading paralysis. Heal Block can surprise the opponent, for example prevent Clefable from going for Softboiled late game or Talonflame/latios on Roost, that way Keldeo or other mons can do their job better.

Klefki @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Flash Cannon
- Heal Block

Lando sets up Rocks and the max speed variant actually gets some surprise hits off, as the opponents assume a defensive set. SD breaks balance and stall a bit more, helping out Kyurem doing that job. It serves as a "pivot for everything" and can be thrown in on some strong physical attacks to dish out heavy damage right after that with EQ or SD and bring the opponent in a gambling situation with EdgeQuake coverage if they run a rather defensive team.

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock


Please send your rate to Enki Snowy. and mil Deadline is 11/19/16 11pm EST.
 
JURY DECISION
Tinberz passes to the next round!

Both changes had good formatting as well as solid changes. Tinberz makes the change of Rotom-W over Slowking to ease matchup versus pokemons like Azumarill while also giving momentum. With the removal of Slowking, the team was weaker to fighting types like Keldeo so he made the smart change of Latios over Kyurem. He then turns Landorus-therian into a defensive set helping the team with mons like Lopunny-Mega, Excadrill and much more. Team Pokepals makes the change of Tornadus-Therian over Keldeo helping the team deal with grass types better. With Keldeo removed, the team was weaker to Dark Types like Bisharp. Thus TPP makes the change of Garchomp over Landorus-therian.

The jury felt like tinberz had the same quality as a tr in his rate thus, he moves on to the next round
Hi. Nice team you have got!

Some major threats to your team include Azumarill and Sand Driller (Sand Rush Excadrill).

Azumarill threatens your team most, as its Band set, albeit rare, is able to deal significant damage to your team, OHKOing 4 members and 2HKOing the other two. Its Belly Drum set, while being less threatening, can effectively sweep your team late in the game, granted the things that can stop it tend to get worn down easily, It isn’t hard for it to set up either, being able to do so on resists such as Keldeo and Slowking - as long as Scald doesn’t burn them.

Sand Driller is super threatening to your team too, outspeeding the entirety of it and OHKOing everything after Rocks at +2 (+1 against Lando-T). You don’t have a way to damage it either other than LO recoil and entry hazards.


To complement your hazard stacking, I have decided to run
Rotom-W > Slowking
, owing to its access to Volt Switch. With Volt Switch, you can gain momentum on your opponent, giving you a good match-up against them often in a specific turn. This is extremely useful as it forces your opponent to switch more and in turn take more damage from your entry hazards. In addition, Rotom-W is a great check to both aforementioned threats, being able to survive a hit from Azumarill before burning it with Wisp or Pain Splitting back its health while taking little from Sand Driller’s attacks and retaliating with Hydro Pump. As a Water type, it retains the original Steel-Water-Ground core while having multiple similar resistances as Slowking, which means you don’t exactly lose out much. The downside of this change, however, is that you now lack a Fighting (MMedicham, MLop and Keldeo mainly) and Psychic switch-in, which I will fix afterwards. I decided to run 128 Speed EVs on your Rotom-W as DarkSpam looks rather threatening to your team. The Speed EVs allow you to outspeed Jolly Crawdaunt and Adamant Bisharp, giving you the chance to burn them with a Wisp before they deal more damage.


Needless to say, my next suggestion would be to change
Lando-T to a PhysDef set
. PhysDef Lando-T blanket checks a whole myriad of threatening physical attackers in the tier, ranging from MLop to opposing Lando-T. Although it doesn’t exactly deal with MMedicham, it can switch in on a predicted Fake Out/High Jump Kick, forcing the MMedicham to take 17% chip damage from Rocky Helmet and going to another mon like Rotom-W afterwards on the expected Ice Punch/switch. In addition, PhysDef Lando-T has access to U-Turn, forming a VoltTurn core with Rotom-W, allowing you to take advantage of your hazard stacking even more. I decided to run a slightly unconventional set of Stealth Rock / Earthquake / U-Turn / Swords Dance. Swords Dance is there to somewhat fill up the void of lacking a set-up attacker after the replacement of Slowking. It’s pretty important on this Lando-T for beating Clefable, which otherwise threatens the team to quite a degree. I don’t see a need for Stone Edge as you already have MDiancie and Rotom-W for BirdSpam; EQ is probably more important for some power on bulky mons.

After these changes, your team remains pretty weak to Keldeo. To fix this issue, I think you should change
Kyurem-Black to CM Latios
. While Kyurem-Black has really impressive coverage in its moves, making it a great Balance breaker. However, it’s a Rocks-weak mon without recovery - meaning it gets worn down rather quickly, especially with LO recoil. CM Latios, on the other hand, has reliable Recovery in Recover, allowing it to heal off damage from Keldeo’s Scalds, Rotom-W’s Volt Switch, etc. It helps that it isn’t weak to Rocks. The reason why I chose to run CM over another coverage option is that you already have teammates covering the things you hit with the common coverage options of Surf and HP Fire. TTar, Ferrothorn and MZor can be dealt with by Rotom-W and Keldeo, hence there’s nothing to worry about them at all. CM allows you to power-up Latios, giving you a fearsome wallbreaker that can even sweep teams late in the game, enabling you to threaten Balance and Stall more.

Here is your team after my changes:
Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Protect

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Scald
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Calm Mind
- Recover

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 132 Def / 128 Spe
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Klefki @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Flash Cannon
- Heal Block

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Swords Dance

That’s it for my rate. Hope I helped, thanks for reading and have a nice day! n_n
✧✧✧✧Team Pokepals here!✧✧✧✧ Hopefully I'm not too rusty, so here goes!

One of the first things I noticed with the team is that while it does try to wear down grass types (and probably water types like Slowbro), Regenerator makes it much more difficult as if you aren't able to get spikes up, then putting that opposing grass or water type into range for Diancie to kill makes it much more difficult. Just for grass types in general, Tangrowth and Amoonguss can both switch directly into Keldeo and Lando-T (probably on the turn it clicks Stealth Rocks) and then put them or something else to sleep. Kyurem is the only team member that can actually 1HKO both of them, and that places a ton of pressure on Kyurem, who is already limited by the Stealth Rock weakness, along with being the main answer for offensive electric types like Mega Manectric.

On the other hand, Slowbro (and probably Suicune as well) itself can potentially 6-0 the team as they can set up against Keldeo and PP stall Fusion Bolt (Slowbro spamming Slack Off and Suicune using Pressure or protect + sub if it's the Vincune set). That basically leaves Diancie to try and KO them, though both of them would have to be in range for that to happen. Also, if the team does come across one of them, there's a good chance that Klefki's Heal Block would be utilized in stopping them from healing up, which is great, but it also prevents you from wanting to set up Spikes initially. Slowking can win the war against Suicune but it'll get stuck against Slowbro (Psyshock barely does any damage and Slowbro can use Calm Mind to raise its Special Defense to lower Scald damage).

Finally, Sub Leech Seed Serperior (or even just regular Serperior) really puts a ton of pressure on this team. It can come in against Keldeo and Slowking and it could also be used to force out those 2 along with Mega Diancie and Lando-T. Kyurem could be sent in to break subs and try to KO it, but in the end it would just get worn down extremely quickly and fail to leave a dent in Serperior. That leaves Klefki, who would have to be sent out to take the leech seed and then be forced to spam Flash Cannon to break subs while getting worn down.

Almost forgot, but Latios can be annoying as well. If it has Surf, then that leaves Klefki and Slowking as the main switch ins, and one issue with Slowking (and Keldeo), is that Latios can click Defog against them without losing much (Keldeo would be forced out and Slowking could get a Nasty Plot/Calm Mind up (depends if the opponent can afford to let Slowking set up)). Basically what I'm trying to say is that it can theoretically have an easy time removing hazards, which for a hazard stacking team isn't good news.

So with those threats in mind, here's some suggestions to better combat them:

>
(Torn-T over Keldeo)

Torn-T is able to act as another pivot that can easily KO Amoonguss and Tangrowth, which lessens the pressure on Kyurem to do that, and it is also able to help with wearing down mons via Knock Off (this would help decrease the amount of recovery for some mons like Rotom-Wash, Slowbro and Suicune). Torn-T being able to outspeed Serperior allows it to force it out, and thanks to Regenerator, it won't be able to be worn down as quickly. Finally, Torn-T is able to pressure Latios from clicking Defog as it most likely wouldn't risk the 2HKO from Knock Off + U-turn/Hurricane (unless it decides to heal up the same turn as Knock Off), and assuming it does click Defog while taking damage from Torn-T, it leaves itself in a position to be easily KO'd after with Stealth Rock damage. Otherwise it can force Latios out while gaining momentum or knocking off an item, both of which can be good plays. Also, Zapdos can be another target for Torn-T as there's a good chance of it switching into Torn-T, and in that turn Torn-T can Knock Off Leftovers and force Zapdos to have to use Defog + Roost essentially every time it wants to remove hazards.

So with the loss of Keldeo, dark types, most notably Bisharp, Weavile and Crawdaunt become much bigger threats. Mega Scizor would also be a bit more troubling if it is able to set up, as Keldeo would normally be the best option to go and try to revenge kill or force it out. Torn-T can pack Heat Wave to deal major damage to hopefully KO and Mega Diancie can also try and lure it out for an easy KO. Luckily Klefki can handle Weavile to an extent (limit it to 1 attack and then force it out unless Klefki is in range of Ice Shard or gets KO'd). That leads to this next suggestion:

>
(Garchomp over Lando-T)

The Garchomp set in mind would most likely be the Tank Chomp set as it acts as one of the best answers to Mega Scizor, and Bisharp, while being able to absorb some hits from Crawdaunt and BD Azu (takes an Aqua Jet and can at least force the double KO) and wear them down simultaneously. Pairing that with hazard stack ideally should make it easy to wear down physical attackers in particular. Garchomp also maintains Stealth Rock on the team and can additionally act as a phazer to force in mons to get weakened/worn down by hazards. Finally, Garchomp could opt for Toxic over Fire Blast in order to help out more against Slowbro, though Mega Scizor could be a pain if it happens to be the final mon remaining as you will be unable to phase it out with Dragon Tail. Heal Block on Klefki can help out with preventing Scizor from using Roost, making it easier for Garchomp to win the 1v1, so you got that going for you as well.

(EV Spread change)

This is minor, but running 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe on Klefki will allow Klefki to outspeed Mega Scizor without speed investment, and in situations like the one mentioned above regarding Heal Block, it'd be worth the investment.

As for threats after the addition of Garchomp, Excadrill (Sand Rush with LO) can be tough to play against as Garchomp has a good chance of being 2HKO'd after rocks. Slowking also gets 2HKO'd, but if possible, try to keep it healthy enough to force Excadrill out. But before that, it's helpful to know that Tyranitar doesn't exactly have an easy time getting in as pretty much anything on the team can KO or cripple it barring Torn-T (Tyranitar has to be careful as Superpower is a common choice on Torn-T and will hesitate to switch in unless you've already revealed your set). Otherwise it would switch in after one of its teammates gets KO'ing and then would most likely switch right out if the matchup is unfavorable for it (which it more than likely will be). Klefki is the only mon that could allow Excadrill to switch in directly, so if it happens to be in, then be aware as there's a chance that Excadrill could switch in the next turn, and if you go Garchomp or Slowking, then you'll be fine against it. Hazard stack can help wear it down in addition to its Life Orb, so you can make use of that as well.

So yeah that's it. Hopefully I was able to improve the team and if you have any questions or concerns regarding my rate, I'd be more than happy to discuss it with you. Take care and have a good rest of the day :)

Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Protect

Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
- U-turn
- Knock Off

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Ice Beam
- Iron Head
- Earth Power
- Fusion Bolt

Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Nasty Plot

Klefki @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Flash Cannon
- Heal Block

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 240 HP / 176 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Toxic / Fire Blast
 
Rating League is finally back and ready for Sun and Moon! That being said, the league members have decided that the teams provided for rating will be obtained from the SM OU Teams fourm. This way, we can provide help for those users while also using it for our competition. Now let's get into the exciting stuff!

Panther-T has made it to round 2!
mil vs Panther-T

You guys will be rating this team. Please send you rate to Snowy., Team Pokepals, and Enki Deadline is on 2/11/17 11:59pm EST
 
Last edited by a moderator:
mil vs Panther-T
JURY DECISION
Panther-T does not pass.

The Jury felt that panther's rate changed the playstyle of the team by making it more offensive. Also, panther made the team more vulnerable to steel types such as Heatran and Mega Metagross (with the removal of Rotom-W) and both Charizard Forms as Scarf Latios is not a reliable answer. The jury came to the conclusion that Mil's rate was more simple and focused more on improving the team. As a result, panther-t does not pass.

Thanks for participating Panther-T! PM us if you have any concerns.
Thank you for accepting me into the rating league's second round. I appreciate the opportunity to test my abilities against the best raters in competitive battling. Let's get into the rate.

----------------

Sup Dazzling Gleamstar, here is my rate of the S/M OU team you posted the other day. I will break this rate down into the following categories: threats list and issues noticed, major and minor changes, and closing thoughts. With that said, let's get into some of the problems I noticed with your team initially.


Threats List and Issues


  • Major issues in red
  • Relatively minor issues in orange

General Inefficiency and Role Overlap:

The first thing I noticed when looking through your team is the fact that there are multiple Pokemon/sets which file similar, overlapping roles and essentially accomplish the same thing. The issue here is that having two pokemon that share the same purpose means that a team slot is essentially wasted on something whose role is redundant.

This is mainly seen here with Mega Venusaur and rest-talk Marowak. Mega Venusaur already hard checks many of the mons that this Marowak spread intends to check (offensive electric types, kartana, pheromosa, magearna, etc.), meaning that this spread really doesn't accomplish much and can be put to better use. This is also somewhat true with Rotom and Skarmory, as both serve the purpose of hard checking Metagross, Landorus, Salamence, Pinsir, and other offensive flying and ground types. While it can be argued that each of these mons helps to ease pressure of its partner, this skarmory can't afford to switch into the aforementioned physical attackers because it's this team's only reliable answer to tapu lele.

Finally, modest scarf Tapu Lele with psyshock is alright in theory to help break down stall, but is not only a lot less effective against those builds compared to a more standard twisted-spoon set, but sacrifices its ability to revenge kill mons on offense like scarf drill, Porygon-z after conversion, scarf landorus, etc. Overall, there is a lot of role overlap on this team, which makes certain threats over-accounted for (offensive electric types for instance) while failing to properly take into account other builds (psychic spam).


Charizard

As mentioned in the original threat list, Charizard in both forms is a significant challenge here. Charizard-X easily finds setup opportunities against Skarmory (especially since this variant lacks roost), Venusaur and Rotom-W. The only counterplay is to keep rocks up, click toxic on rotom-w (you are still forced to sack though to either let it kill itself or put it in range of water shuriken), and/or keep Greninja alive to revenge kill it. Similarly, zard-y easily comes in on skarmory, venusaur, and even lele locked into Moonblast (which you will be clicking a lot because it's the only way the team really revenge kills offensive dark types) and kills something.

Metagross+Tapu Lele (psychic spam)

Metagross+Tapu Lele heavily pressure Skarmory, and Skarmory really can't do too much back. I mean Metagross is hard for any team without a dedicated answer to deal with, but a check that can't actually force it out isn't a check at all. Metagross can stay in and fish for meteor mash boosts and literally destroy the rest of your team if Greninja is gone. This is also somewhat true with Lele, as all it needs to do is click HP Fire/thunderbolt and Skarmory is forced out and can no longer switch in. When these two are together, Skarmory just gets overwhelmed.

Nihilego

While Venusaur can take it on, scarfed Nihilego creams this team once Venusaur is weakened in any way. This is especially an issue seeing how the only form of speed control this team has is modest scarf lele.

Volcarona

Can come in easily on skarmory, and can situationally switch in on lele (if locked into moonblast) and Venusaur. At +1 it essentially runs through this team if it has HP Ground/if marowak is weakened.

Stall

Modest scarf lele works okay in theory to lure in and cripple Chansey, but this is completely reliant on prediction and can be played around fairly easily by the opponent. In addition, this lele is susceptible to being trapped by Dugtrio, so the opponent can just sack something to bring in Dugtrio to revenge kill your only 'answer' to fat teams (keep in mind that this is looking at Dugtrio as of now, if it gets banned then ignore that advice). Now we'll look at my recommendations.



Recommended Changes
1. Minor change: Tapu-Lele set change.
:
/
>


Looking at Tapu Lele, this change aims at improving the team's matchup against fatter teams, and does a much more effective job at crippling Chansey in particular, which can open up potential for Greninja to clean. The set I'm talking about runs either a twisted spoon or shed shell. The former allows Tapu Lele to 2HKO Chansey with Psyshock, while the latter allows for it to escape Dugtrio. In the event that Dugtrio is not banned, a shed shell is the preferred option, as this mon will be the team's main win condition against fat builds; therefore, keeping it healthy is critical. In terms of the moveset, running taunt over psychic is needed to prevent mons like Chansey (or any fat mon) from recovering, allowing you to weaken them to the point where another member of your team can pick them off. You also need HP Fire>Thunderbolt in order to still support the team by luring in and killing/heaving weakening Ferrothorn, Scizor, Skarmory, and Jirachi (this particularly helps Greninja clean, and also weakens fat steel types which wall Venusaur).

I will address the loss of speed control with another change. However, this set is more effective on your team because it is actually specialized in taking on fat teams whereas before the modest-scarf set was both ineffective at its revenge killing ability and its ability to take on stall. This set, therefore, specializing lele into a specific role instead of leaving it ineffective at the two roles it attempted to achieve before. Here's the set I recommend:

Top Lel (Tapu Lele) @ Twisted Spoon / Shed Shell
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Taunt


2. Major change; replaced Rotom-W.
>
;


The loss of speed control really needs to be addressed. Rotom-W is nice to provide you with a blanket check to a plethora of physical attacking ground and flying types (mainly), but honestly you have a Skarmory anyways so aside from the momentum generated from volt-switch, Rotom-W really does not accomplish much on this team. Running a scarf Latios is really useful here to provide you with a check against both Charizard forms (you can switch into Zard-Y decently and can revenge kill +1 Zard-X). It also provides you with something to revenge kill scarfed Nihiligo, and in general gives you some speed control which improves this team's matchup vs. offence.

I picked Latios specifically because it forms a nice offensive core with Tapu Lele and appreciates Lele luring in and weakening bulky steel types with HP Fire. Together, Latios and lele heavily pressure similar checks, and Latios can clean pretty easily in most matchups because of the fact that either lele lures in and cripples checks with HP Fire, or the two overwhelm their checks. Draco Meteor and Psychic are mandatory here as STAB; draco meteor is preferred over dragon pulse to actually help latios fulfil the role as a revenge killer. Psychic is needed to have something to hit the Tapus on the switch, and to revenge kill Nihiligo after some prior damage. In the third moveslot, I recommend surf or defog. It provides a middle-ground option to hit Metagross and Scizor for respectable damage (HP fire isn't needed because lele already lures in the mons it intends to hit) while still having something to dent Tyranitar and Heatran. Defog is also an option to provide hazard control for Marowak in particular. In the 4th moveslot, I recommend Memento, as it creates setup opportunities for the mon that I will recommend next. Here's the set I recommend:

Latios @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Surf / Defog
- Memento


3. Major change; replaced skarmory.
>
;


Memento on Latios is useful for this reason: I replaced Skarmory with Autotomize Celestella. Skarmory as a rocker and defogger isn't really efficient in any situation; furthermore, without roar, it is literal setup bait for the entire tier. Plus, your team didn't need hazard removal that badly, so either having poor or no removal is fine as your only rocks weak Pokemon is Marowak, and Marowak isn't really relied upon here too much to check offensive electric types due to Venusaur being here. The aim of this Celestella is to provide your team with a more reliable way to handle Metagross and Tapu Lele (and psychic spam in general) while having a win condition that directly benefits from the free turns Latios provides with memento. This mon also helps with the issues that you have against metagross, tapu lele and dark types (bisharp, weavile, tyranitar), as you can easily take a hit to setup and eliminate them thereafter (you do need good chip on Tyranitar though).

The set I recommend is standard: air slash, giga drain, fire blast and autotomize. I like giga drain over earthquake because Venusaur already lures heatran with earthquake so removing it with Celestella isn't essential, and being able to beat mons like Tapu Fini 1v1 with giga drain is more useful in my view. I also recommend running 252 speed with a timid nature instead of the standard spread; the extra 80 HP isn't too useful, but being able to outrun key mons like scarf lele, scarf lando, and pheromosa (not scarfed of course) is more valuable.

Celesteela @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Giga Drain
- Fire Blast
- Autotomize


4. Minor change: Marowak set change.


A rest-sleep talk Marowak can be useful on teams that desperately need something to handle electric types, but this team does not need to use this set at all seeing as how you are running Mega Venusaur. I recommend a set that utilizes stealth rocks seeing how we replaced out previous setter, Skarmory. I also recommend to change the EVs to allow Marowak to outrun most defensive Pokemon and actually fulfil its role as a physical wallbreaker rather than a specially defensive pivot (as this team does not require Marowak to be one). I recommend running max speed honestly to outrun base 70 speed Pokemon, and maximum attack with an adamant nature to wallbreak as effectively as possible. I'd still keep Will-O-Wisp, however, as Tyranitar is a threat to this team and being able to cripple it is important. Plus, this team handles Heatran fairly well (especially with Venusaur luring it) and shadow bone chunks it, so boomerang isn't needed. You can consider flare blitz here, but I don't like the idea of having poor hazard removal and recoil, but you can run it if you want to hit as hard as possible. Anyways, here is the set I recommend.

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Shadow Bone
- Fire Punch / Flare Blitz.
- Will-O-Wisp
- Stealth Rock

5. Minor change: Venusaur's EV spread.


The standard Venusaur spread is better on this team because 80 special defence is more than sufficient to check the special attackers Venusaur checks (fini, koko, keldeo, kingdra, etc.). The added physical defence is important to handle mons like Tapu Bulu and Pheromosa better (particularly avoiding the 2HKO from Pheromosa), which is important seeing that you only really have Marowak to handle them, and Marowak gets worn down extremely easily. I like keeping earthquake because it removes heatran for Celestella and Tapu Lele. Also, while extremely situational, chlorophyll is the preferred pre-mega ability. Here's the set I recommend.

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Bold Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain
- Earthquake
- Synthesis



Closing Thoughts


That's it for changes! I feel that the team covers the original threats I noticed, is much more efficient, and has a better matchup versus the builds it previously struggled with (stall). I do still notice that Volcarona is an issue, so in a matchup vs. it, prioritize keeping rocks on the field and keeping Greninja alive to revenge kill it. Other counterplay includes sacking Latios with memento (you outrun at +1) and brining in Marowak to kill it off. However, against zard, you now have an effective check; against stall, you have stallbreaker lele; and against offensive dark types and psychic spam, you have Celestella which can setup on dark/psychic attackers. Anyways I hope this rate helps and enjoy the new team!

Naruto Sandpai (Greninja) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- U-turn

Top Lel (Tapu Lele) @ Twisted Spoon
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Taunt

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Bold Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain
- Earthquake
- Synthesis

Latios @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Surf/Defog
- Memento

Celesteela @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Giga Drain
- Fire Blast
- Autotomize

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Bone
- Flare Blitz / Fire Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Will-O-Wisp
Hey man, it's nice to see that you are trying out a more balanced approach in the SM meta, despite bulky offense being the most prominent playstyle at the moment.
Looking at your team I see Marowak, Venusaur and Skarmory as your defensive backbone, which in theory cover a lot of common threats in the meta for each other. Rotom-W complements Fire/Water/Grass type presence and acts as the pivot, grabs momentum while bringing in the team's offsensive mons safely. Ash-Greninja and Tapu Lele are one of the best offensive Pokemon in the tier, but here is where I want to start, I have a few ideas on how to get the best out of your team.

(Sash)>

The first change I have in mind is Sash Dugtrio over Greninja.
Dugtrio provides enourmous support for your team's goals, which are winning with Venusaur with its bulk and longevity or sweeping with Tapu Lele. Duggi helps archieving those goals by trapping key defensive threats which are problematic to your team, for example Mega Metagross, AV Magearna, or Heatran. With Earthquake on Venusaur, you get the necessary damage on Metagross and Magearna, so that you can trap and eliminate them with Dugtrio. Elimination of these grounded Steels gives Tapu Lele a higher chance to sweep late game, and also removes the opponent's answers to Venusaur and Skamory. So what I did is removing one of your sweepers, Greninja, to make room for more support for your other sweeper which is Tapu Lele. Dugtrio is still very fast and a potent revenge killer or sweeper with its high speed tier and good base attack.
That's not the only thing it does for the team, Duggi can also deal with Charizard X. If it is at +1 after a DD, you have your Sash which allows you to Earthquake it, which brings it in range of Sucker Punch the next turn.
It also has the capability to trap Tyranitar as well as Bisharp and Weavile if your Sash is intact. These Dark-types threaten Marowak and Tapu Lele, if it's locked into the wrong move, so you can try to trap them with Duggi before they trap your mons. After their removal you can click Shadow Bone, as Ghost switchins are hard to fit on teams, and Psychic more freely.
With Stone Edge as the third move you can revenge Charizard-Y more easily and have at least some move to hit levitators and Flying-types.
With these moves Dugtrio covers all the threats you mentioned at the end of your rmt.
For the fourth move, I'll suggest Screech, because of its ability to weaken Chansey. You will face problems against stall with your current team, as you don't have a dedicated stallbreaker and Marowak can't touch Chansey with the current set. Screech lowers Chanseys defense by two stages, that way you can damage it severly after the drops. Removing Chansey will give Venusaur, Tapu Lele, and your other teammates a lot more room in the matchup against stall.
With Shed Shell Skarmory you now have more options, you can either hard switch into Duggi and eliminate AV Magnezone, which likes to come into Scarf Lele, or go Marowak, get Rocks or damage.
As for downsides to this change, there are not too many. You lose the strong priority move in Water Shuriken, but you can't use it in Psychic terrain late game with Lele as your second sweeper. Also, Greninja doesn't really offer any defensive support because of its frailty, and Dugtrio's role compression and support for this team exceeds what Greninja can offer to the team.


Next, I suggest to change your Marowak spread. You team needs more offensive pressure and the ability to dish out heavy damage to dent opposing teams. An Adamant nature with 184 HP/252 Atk/4 Def/68 Spe allows it to outspeed negative natured Celesteela and Hippowdown. With adamant Shadow Bone, you can pressure opposing teams a lot more, e.g. standard Tapu Fini gets 2HKOed, and Landorus can only switch in two or three times, and these two are one of the most prominent walls on bulky offense in SM OU. Fire Punch over Will-O-Wisp is a lot more useful here, since you want to be able to hit Steel types like Ferrothorn, which can otherwise set up Spikes, you can hit Chansey on Stall, and Celesteela and other Steels for super effective damage.
You should never really switch into the moves you mentioned in your calcs, you have other teammates to take those hits. The way you should use Marowak is to get it in on predicted electric attacks, e.g on Magearna or Tapu Koko. Then, if you like, with the help of Shed Shell Skarmory, or with Rotom's help. Rotom forces Grass-types like Tangrowth, Ferrothorn, and Amoonguss in, so going for Volt Switch you will keep momentum and you can bring Marowak in safely. Afterwards you can proceed with dishing out damage with Shadow Bone or Fire Punch.
I'm not so happy with RestTalk on it, but if it's your favourite set, you can keep it.
If you are willing to change that, there is an other Route for your team.
Stealth Rock over Sleep Talk on Marowak frees you a moveslot on Skarmory. You can still keep Rest if you want, but that will probably only help you for longevity against stall, otherwise I suggest running Will-O-Wisp to cripple Landorus-T or Earthquake to hit Tyranitar and Toxapex on the switchin.

Because of the balanced nature of your team, you will make a lot of defensive switches, and the opponent can keep momentum through Volt Switch or U-Turn, e.g Tapu Koko, where you switch Venu, or Landorus and you switch Skarmory. In the long run, having no momentum will chip your team down due to hazards and damage from U-Turn and Volt Switch. To punish VoltTurn teams more, you should run Spikes on Skarmory.
Spikes also helps you wear down key defensive threats such as Magearna, Ferrothorn, Heatran, Jirachi. These are all switchins to Tapu Lele, so having Spikes on the field early and mid game will chip them down, when they swich in, that way Tapu Lele has better chances of sweeping late game. After getting the necessary damage on the checks and counters, you can defog the hazards away for Duggi's Sash which helps a lot latee game.


As for smaller moveset changes, I suggest running a 232 HP/180 Def/80 SpD/16 Spe with a Bold nature on Venu . The added physical bulk takes on Pheromosa, Landorus, Tapu Bulu, Buzzwole and Charizard X better, while still doing well against special attacks from Ash and Protean Greninja, Charizard Y in Sun and Tapu Koko.


Rotom should run Pain Split over Toxic to help you pivot, keep momentum and bring in your threats throughout the whole game. You usually run Thunder Wave on Rotom for Charizard X, not Toxic, but now you have Duggi and added physical bulk on Venu to keep it in check, so it is not needed as much. The opponnent will probably use Defog on a Zard X team so your chances are good that the opponent will remove hazards before bringing it in, so the Sash on Duggi can be kept intact.


A Timid nature should be used to outspeed Pheromosa, +2 Magearna, Scarf Landorus and Excadrill, and to speedtie with other Tapu Lele. You should run HP Fire over Psyshock on Lele to beat Scizor late game in Psychic Terrain, or when predicting Steel types to come in. You can deal with Chansey with Marowak and Duggi better now. Focus Blast over Shadow Ball prevents you from getting trapped or doing no damage to Dark types and OHKOes or heavly damages them for Marowak, while being a good midground option against Steel-types.

Other threats:
Your team still weak to Specs Tapu Lele as you said, you can try to trap it with Dugtrio though, removing Psychics is important for Venusaur to win. Hoopa-U is also a threat to balance so you treat it the same way. Sub Coil Zygarde is really problematic, Lele can force it out, but you don't really want to take the damage. Venu also has defensive investment to take it on, but the Sub can only be broken with Modest max SpA, but you need the bulk on it so it's not worth it. You could run Whirlwind over Spikes on Skarmory to force it out, but then will leave Skarmory really passive and the team needs Spikes support to function optimally. If you think that your opponent will bring it in a tour game for example, you can give it a try. SD Rockium-Z Lando or Double Dance is also problematic, after an SD it will probably force you to sack a mon, so you need to be careful around it.
For Ash Greninja, you don't have a designated Dark switchin but Venusaur together with Rotom do well against it.
For Zard Y, you really have no switchins, but Venusaur can stall out the sun with Synthesis, still you generally don't want your PP wasted. Marowak OHKOes it 50% of the time with Shadow Bone, so it will force it out or kill it in a 1v1 situation, even if Marowak switched into Stealth Rock once.
Wak on Wak off (Marowak-Alola) @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 184 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Bone
- Fire Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Rest/Will-O-Wisp /Earthquake

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 232 HP / 180 Def / 80 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
- Earthquake

Not Celesteela (Skarmory) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Spikes/Whirlwind
- Iron Head
- Defog
- Roost

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Dugtrio @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Screech
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

Top Lel (Tapu Lele) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast/Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Good luck and hmu if you have questions !

Edit: just found out Dugtrio is getting suspected. There is no non-Duggi meta yet, but if it happens to get banned in two weeks you can keep Ash-Greninja, but still change all the other stuff I mentioned. I'd personally use Protean Greninja here as your team needs a bit more breaking power, but I'll leave a comment here in your thread once the suspect test result is out.
 
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busyguy

formerly mil
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JURY DECISION
Enki
vs Tinberz
Tinberz does not pass.


Enki recognized that the team had problems keeping momentum due to two scarfers in Excadrill and Nihilego, while mentioning how hard it is to break stall with its initial constellation.
He replaced Ferrothorn with Magnezone, which lowers the team's defensive capabilities, e.g against Metagross, but on the other hand Magnezone traps Celesteela, Skarmory, and other Steel-types for Pinir and Nihilego, while pressuring Ground types.
For the next change he replaced Excadrill with Black Belt Pheromosa, which can Spin without losing as much momentum as Excadrill, while still being a huge offensive threat with utility and sweeping potential.
The removal of Excadrill makes the team more frail, but at the same time more offensive and keeps the team from losing momentum.
An offensive Landorus set improves the matchup against defensive teams, while also pressuring Steel- and Ground-types for Nihilego and Pinsir.

Tinberz recognized that Heatran is a threat to the team, and the changes he made was HP Ground on Nihilego for HP Fire, and SD on defensive Lando to take on Scizor better. The team was hard to rate, there is no question, but the jury agreed on the fact that Enki put more effort into analyzing the team's structure and weaknesses, while backing up his points with more convincing arguments.
You both can go ahead and post your rates under the team.
Hey man, interesting team, I got a few tips so you can improve your team against certain threats and matchups. Having a quick look at your team I can see a double Scarfer, one being your late game sweeper and the other one a Spinner that acts like a hazard control for Mega Pinsir mainly; Spikes support with Ferrothorn that helps and supports Mega Pinsir and Ash Greninja and as last thing Landorus-T as main Stealth Rocker and ground resis. I think the whole team itself loses to more threats than you mentioned, first of all stall teams, you don't really have a way to break them, and having 2 Choice Scarfer doesn't help at all for that. The replay you posted doesnt justify that you aren't stall weak, you played vs a guy who was using stall but doing really questionable plays. I will try to keep the whole idea of the team tryin to not change it much; Your team lacks of a Z move, which can be extremely strong against stall teams. A more offensive variant of
can make a difference in that specific matchup. I could have made other changes adding in wallbreakers but that would have changed the team structure and some key members of your team. The major change I suggest here is
over
, this Pokemon in particular helps against your threat list, Scizor and Magearna, but also wearing down opposing Ferrothorn, Celesteela and Skarmory that, because it supports alot Ash Greninja and also your Mega Pinsir, since it has Earthquake, so allowing them to sweep in late game if possible.

Last minor change I recommend is Hidden Power Ice over Hidden Power Fire, because that helps against opposing Landorus-T, but also against Garchomp, since you have your trapper and don't need HP Fire anymore. My last change is
over
, Excadrill is a bad spinner in the current meta and having it locked on Rapid Spin just to support in a better way Mega Pinsir might just lose you the game, it also make your ground weakness something worse, because it is not a good answer to Landorus-T or Garchomp and you can't rely on your own Landorus-T considering you got so many ground weaknesses. Pheromosa with Black Belt might fake a few sets but it is also a very good offensive answers to those threats mentioned before and still a good and fast Spinner for your Mega Pinsir, you got a few options in Black Belt or Life Orb; you can also go greedy and run a Choice Scarf set if needed, but i doubt that. If you feel lucky run the special variant with Focus Blast and Bug Buzz.

I hope this helped, gl with the team.


Magnezone @ Assault Vest
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 216 HP / 80 SpA / 212 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]


Landorus-Therian @ Rockium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge


Pheromosa @ Black Belt
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

Hi. Nice team you have got!

Another threat to your team I noticed is
Heatran.

Heatran is really annoying in general because your switch-ins are rather frail, lacking recovery and hating status. Your main switch-ins are A-Gren, Nihilego and Lando-T but all aren’t the best switch-ins as A-Gren is your Special powerhouse, Nihilego can’t do jack back and Lando-T tends to be really important to check other stuff in your opponent’s team.


Hence, my suggestion would be to replace HP Fire on Nihilego with HP Ground. HP Ground is a relatively rare pick but it suits your team since it allows you to take out Heatran and even opposing Nihilego by surprise. HP Ground being a rare sight is good news to you to as it would be able to lure in these threats, giving you some nice kills. I don’t find HP Fire too important anyway, since you don’t exactly switch into them well. You’re probably using HP Fire offensively but right now I’m trying to give Nihilego slightly more defensive utility to help your team.


As for your weakness to MZor, I suggest to replace HP Ice on Lando-T with Swords Dance. I’m not going with HP Fire because Swords Dance is also useful for pressuring Chansey and MSab, which otherwise has a pretty good time against your team, especially TWave variants. I didn’t want to replace U-Turn, however, as VoltTurning is important in your team to wear down your threats. Also, a boosted Stone Edge doesn’t seem to be really helpful anyway.

Here are the sets:
Nihilego @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake

That’s it for this rate. Hope I helped, thanks for reading and have a nice day! n_n

Thanks for participating!
 
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