XY OU Sting: Volt-Turn Shenanigans

[big goon]

Hello smogon, today I'll be bringing you not only my first rmt but also my first post on the forums. I've been a lurker here for around two years and have been playing showdown for longer. I hit a wall with this team and haven't been able to get above 1400, which is unusual for me. Which brings us to the team!

Teambuilding

I really wanted to use mega beedrill for its ability to out speed the entire unboosted metagame and absolutely punch holes in anything not named talonflame, so he's The obvious first member

Rotom-w seemed like a perfect partner to Mbeedrill, helping check priority users like mamoswine and talonflame that threaten beedrill, as well as forming a volt turn core.

I wanted hazards and hazard control, and I got that in the form of tyranitar and excadrill. These guys are monsters, even offensive tyranitar can take a special hit really well, and exca is usually the cleaner at the end of the game.

I wanted more u-turn and landorus-I seemed to fit the bill really well, checking ferrothorn that otherwise walls this team to hell and back as well as grabbing me some momentum.

Clefable is the last member of my team that seems to find its way in to all of my teams, it just provides so much this generation. It provides an extra check to setup sweepers, is a cleric and gives another win condition.

Beedrill @ Beedrillite
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- U-turn
- Poison Jab
- Drill Run
Mega beedrill dies to everything. Seriously. It's also ridiculously slow before mevolving, and while sometimes you can predict stealth rock or something and just mega and then u-turn out, the vast majority of the time you'll need to protect to get the speed boost so you can u-turn without dying. Once mevolved, beedrill packs a real punch, u-turn doing over half of max defense rotom-w's health while also grabbing important momentum. Poison jab does a ton of damage and is what I use when I don't wanna switch out, and drill run is mainly for heatran and magnezone as it doesn't do much damage otherwise without the adaptability boost.

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 156 Atk / 104 SpA
Brave Nature
- Ice Beam
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock
Tyranitar is a monster. It can tank all special attacks not named focus blast and hit back hard, especially if it's a lati twin, speaking of which, it's even easier to trap them with the volt-turn core. Tyranitar sets up rocks, checks talonflame and can catch lando-t and gliscor off guard with ice beam. The smooth rock gives excadrill ample opportunities to set up while also breaking sashes. The spread is from TheEnder's rmt "Magic", special attack to ohko max HP lando-t after rocks, and the HP to live earthquake from max atk adamant landy. Checking talonflame and setting rocks are two very important things to mega beedrill and tyranitar gives all that in one package.

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
This is a pretty standard excadrill set, but it certainly does the job. Excadrill out speeds everything in the sand and hits them for tons of damage while also getting rid of rocks which beedrill appreciates greatly. Iron head takes care of fairies and earthquake gets everything that doesn't have levitate or flying typing, which is what rock slide is here for. I've been wanting to find out if running return over rock slide is worth it but I haven't gotten the chance to test it yet. Ev's and nature are to hit as hard and fast as possible.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Wash-rotom is just another Pokemon that checks the stuff beedrill hates: it checks lando, as tyranitar doesn't like straight switching in to it, it's another talonflame check and it handles mamoswine decently, although it can't just keep switching in to the big pig. Will-o-wisp cripples priority users that give beedrill headaches, volt switch grabs momentum and hits politoed, who gives my team a hard time if it switches in to tyranitar. Hydro pump is a decent stab although the shaky accuracy sucks. Pain split is cool and lets rotom live a lot longer. Not really sure what the Ev's do, they've been working though. IVs so that it takes as little damage as possible from foul play and confusion.

Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- U-turn
- Earth Power
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
Prior to this team I had never successfully used a genie, but man this guy hits like a ton of bricks. This guy breaks ferrothorn, something that walls my whole team otherwise. I originally was running HP fire over psychic but I found out that focus blast does more (lol) so I replaced it. Lando is the third and final part of the volt-turn core and he works really well in this slot. Naive so that it doesn't take power from u-turn and to live priority moves better, and Ev's in the same line as exca, hits harder and faster.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Heal Bell Flamethrower
- Moonlight
Clefable does a few things for this team, it's a cleric, which I think is very important in the current metaI noticed I hadn't been using Heal Bell barely at all, so I changed it to Flamethrower to hit Ferrothorns or other steels thinking they can switch in. Clefable also kind of checks fighting types and stops setup sweepers. Moonlight is a good recovery move but it's really annoying with the sand up not to be able to get the full amount of health. Clefable can switch in to lopunny but it only does around 75% with moonblast. Having exca or beedrill burned is really annoying, so Clefable is really useful and helps hold the team together.

Threat List
Mamoswine

Probably the biggest threat to this team, as noted above: the only reliable switch-in is rotom who gets worn down pretty quickly.
Greninja

Thankfully beedrill out speeds, so I can volt switch rotom in to it usually, but it takes chunks out of my team. Honestly what does comfortably switch in to greninja in the current meta.
Mlopunny

If Clefable dies I'm gonna have a hard time. Beedrill out speeds but it can't ohko so it needs some prior damage.

Shoutouts:
Stole TheEnder's Ttar, although I've never talked to him (lol)
It really bothers me that I couldn't get gen one style sprites for all of them, but it is what it is I guess. Hope you liked the team and leave a rate please!

Importable

Beedrill @ Beedrillite
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- U-turn
- Poison Jab
- Drill Run

Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 156 Atk / 104 SpA
Brave Nature
- Ice Beam
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock

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

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- U-turn
- Earth Power
- Psychic
- Focus Blast

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Heal Bell
- Moonlight

 

[Pent]

Hi! Welcome to Smogon fellow veteran! Thanks for reading the RMT Rules, I'm used to people skipping over it then Copy and Paste an importable from Showdown.

Onto the rate.

This is a good team, but no team is perfect, and there are always changes to be made. Here they are.

Since you have a problem dealing MLopunny, Greninja, and Mamoswine, I would change your Rotom to a Resto-Chesto set so you can get back HP easily. Run Rest > Pain Split and a Chesto Berry instead of Leftovers. I feel this would be a bit more beneficial, and help you with your threats.
I would change Ice Beam to Thunder Wave on Ttar, since this seems more helpful for crippling Greninja and other threats. Then change your EV Spread to 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 Sp Def. On a set up Ttar, attack EVs really don't matter in the situation.
I would run Jolly on Excadrill, to outspeed MLopunny in the Sand.
Everything else is fine.

Hope it helps.

 

[big goon]

Thanks for the suggestions! I changed the rotom, but changing excadrill to jolly seems unnecessary since it won't ohko lopunny anyways. I like ice beam on tyranitar as it's the only ice move I have, but I'm testing the tyranitar spread. What do your suggested Ev's help it live?

 

[whiteycm]

I just tried this team out on a nice run, I must say i'm very impressed.

ou1318731686 ± 70--1640

Went on a 16-1 run from 1000 and having a nice team helps. Lost my last 3 games.

It's a very nice volt/turn core, beedrill hits so hard on everything that switches into a u-turn.

It's hard to nit-pick this team, other than to suggest some things to try. I didn't find myself using Heal bell very often, I was able to counter most T-waves/Toxics with proper predictions switching in drill or lando, so if I were to do anything I might try out flamethrower on Clefable just to give him some coverage against magnezone/scizor/ferrothorn switch ins. I did find unaware useful as well, but magic guard could come in just as handy as well at certain times... It's all personal preference.

I suggest newer/beginner players looking for a decent team to use (if your like me you have had difficulty building your own) to give this one I try I liked it a lot.

 

[big goon]

Thanks, I'll definitely test flamethrower over heal bell on clefable, as I'd noticed that as well.