Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Slurmz and Der Twist you could use the team below that I posted in this thread, just swap Heracross for Diggersby, and Garchomp for Latios. Be sure to put Stealth Rock on Celebi after removing Garchomp.
Slurmz and Der Twist you could use the team below that I posted in this thread, just swap Heracross for Diggersby, and Garchomp for Latios. Be sure to put Stealth Rock on Celebi after removing Garchomp.
I didn't make the team, but I suggest making the Celebi moveset to rocks / Giga drain / recover / healing wish, as opposed to the nasty plot set. Rock Polish mega Diancie doesn't need max speed since it's going to be doubling its speed, and really only needs enough for base 100s.
I didn't make the team, but I suggest making the Celebi moveset to rocks / Giga drain / recover / healing wish, as opposed to the nasty plot set. Rock Polish mega Diancie doesn't need max speed since it's going to be doubling its speed, and really only needs enough for base 100s.
Gonna tell you straight up friend, M-Glalie is pretty trash and brings down whatever team it's on, however I'm known to use trash myself that reflects my terrible playing so I'm use to it by now. I tried out different things like Lando + Ttar, Toxicroak + Hippowdon, just to give you some ideas. In the end I just picked a two mon defensive core in Celebi + Clefable with some hazard removal in the form of Latios to provide some resists to M-Glalies issues. I chose Dragon Dance Feraligatr cause you definitely wanted something to improve your matchup against offense and Swords Dance wasn't gonna come close to doing that. Earth Power Celebi to handle Heatran instead of relying chip damage to accomplish that. Teams a bit Talon and Gengar weak so play carefully around that or try out SR Lando + Scarf Ttar combo to alleviate the pressure from those two. Also had brokenwings provide some advice in using M-Alakazam paired up with Dragalge for Toxic Spikes support. Something to think about really.
Read through all the problems you previously had and tried to give you a basic foundation in how you would overcome some of those issues. Rocky Helmet Endure Chomp helps with your matchup against contact attackers, including birdspam, such as Mega Lopunny, Talonflame, and Mega Metagross, the Endure aspect found on the creative sets thread by TFL so thank him for that. The hazards provided by Chomp + Ferro allows you to pressure some of offensive Fairies that annoyed you. Knock Off / Twave Ferro is for general utility and putting pressure on Latis. Gengar is the offensive check to Fairy types that has good synergy with M-Gyarados in handling both sides of the defensive and typing spectrum. I went EQ > Crunch on M-Gyarados so you're not a free Keldeo switch in all the time and can handle Rotom-W a bit easier than just relying on Gengar + Liechi Talonflame. With that being said I think a regular SD or Bulk Up set with Talonflame + Roost instead of Natural Gift can provide you a bit more leniency in setting up with Talonflame. So there it is.
Gonna tell you straight up friend, M-Glalie is pretty trash and brings down whatever team it's on, however I'm known to use trash myself that reflects my terrible playing so I'm use to it by now. I tried out different things like Lando + Ttar, Toxicroak + Hippowdon, just to give you some ideas. In the end I just picked a two mon defensive core in Celebi + Clefable with some hazard removal in the form of Latios to provide some resists to M-Glalies issues. I chose Dragon Dance Feraligatr cause you definitely wanted something to improve your matchup against offense and Swords Dance wasn't gonna come close to doing that. Earth Power Celebi to handle Heatran instead of relying chip damage to accomplish that. Teams a bit Talon and Gengar weak so play carefully around that or try out SR Lando + Scarf Ttar combo to alleviate the pressure from those two. Also had brokenwings provide some advice in using M-Alakazam paired up with Dragalge for Toxic Spikes support. Something to think about really.
Read through all the problems you previously had and tried to give you a basic foundation in how you would overcome some of those issues. Rocky Helmet Endure Chomp helps with your matchup against contact attackers, including birdspam, such as Mega Lopunny, Talonflame, and Mega Metagross, the Endure aspect found on the creative sets thread by TFL so thank him for that. The hazards provided by Chomp + Ferro allows you to pressure some of offensive Fairies that annoyed you. Knock Off / Twave Ferro is for general utility and putting pressure on Latis. Gengar is the offensive check to Fairy types that has good synergy with M-Gyarados in handling both sides of the defensive and typing spectrum. I went EQ > Crunch on M-Gyarados so you're not a free Keldeo switch in all the time and can handle Rotom-W a bit easier than just relying on Gengar + Liechi Talonflame. With that being said I think a regular SD or Bulk Up set with Talonflame + Roost instead of Natural Gift can provide you a bit more leniency in setting up with Talonflame. So there it is.
Something like this, I was messing around with the team before AM posted it and didn't like how weak the Glalie version was to Mega Lopunny and Weather teams (mostly sand) in general, so I changed Glalie out for Mega Alakazam, and it feels much more solid overall. Protect is mandatory to Mega Evolve safely against Sand Rush Excadrill and Lopunny, Shadow Ball is the preferred filler but Encore is a possibility too. The original version of the team had Latios in the last slot, Dragalge was just something I was experimenting with at the end; I wanted a Keldeo switch-in and Dragalge was appealing because it can threaten fairies and steels and isn't weak to pursuit. A Choice Specs set could probably work well here too, but I kinda like how well Toxic Spikes work with Scarf Tyranitar. I think NP Celebi, CB/AV Azumarill, or Healing Wish Latias could potentially work over Dragalge in that last slot too, I'd definitely try different stuff out and see what you prefer the most. I didn't really have the time to test every possible option.
Thanks a lot AM :] I know that M-Glalie isn´t a great mega in OU, but I find him really fun to use. By the way, I changed Earth Power on Celebi for HP Fire since M-Scizor was a problem and Roost on Latios for Surf to deal with heatran and bulky ground types. Also considering replacing Choice Specs for AV on Raikou, but the lack of power is just bad.
Something like this, I was messing around with the team before AM posted it and didn't like how weak the Glalie version was to Mega Lopunny and Weather teams (mostly sand) in general, so I changed Glalie out for Mega Alakazam, and it feels much more solid overall. Protect is mandatory to Mega Evolve safely against Sand Rush Excadrill and Lopunny, Shadow Ball is the preferred filler but Encore is a possibility too. The original version of the team had Latios in the last slot, Dragalge was just something I was experimenting with at the end; I wanted a Keldeo switch-in and Dragalge was appealing because it can threaten fairies and steels and isn't weak to pursuit. A Choice Specs set could probably work well here too, but I kinda like how well Toxic Spikes work with Scarf Tyranitar. I think NP Celebi, CB/AV Azumarill, or Healing Wish Latias could potentially work over Dragalge in that last slot too, I'd definitely try different stuff out and see what you prefer the most. I didn't really have the time to test every possible option.
I have a tiny request. Is it possible to link the teams in the OP to the explanation given by the creator in the thread? It would really make it easier so members don't have to scroll through all of the pages just to find the team in the thread.
The slashes I put on the Sceptile and Excadrill set I believe are more beneficial in practice however that's up to you and whoever uses it if they want to use that. My general thought process more or less was how to not get completely screwed over by stuff like water offense such as Azumarill and Keldeo, Talonflame, Hippowdon, Clefable, and so forth. To help with some of the bulky waters and more bulky fairies I went ahead and put Toxicroak in to the mix. Helps with offense due to Sucker Punch + SD as well as dealing with the bulky Fairies that M-Sceptile has issues with. Talonflame was a problem and I needed a glue to help get the team-mates in more safely so Rotom-W was a pretty basic fit on there. I originally had Clefable as the third team-mate of the mons needed to be added but it made the team too M-Venusaur weak and to an extent weak to Lando-I. Went ahead and added Reuniclus, put together some spread for a 3HKO from Hyper Voice M-Gardevoir along with the slight speak creep for Slowbros, basically just trying to cover the defensive spectrum adequately, and called it a day after some testing.
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Calm Mind
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 208 SpD / 56 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Roost
- Swords Dance
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 240 HP / 248 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Knock Off
- Toxic Spikes / Haze
- Rapid Spin
So this is my take on a SubPuP Tini team. Really I just focused on using some fun stuff I thought would work out such as Toxic Spikes Tentacruel to wear down stuff like Hippowdon and Keldeo or Haze to deter Belly Drum Azumarill and defensive set up sweepers. Suicune was added as a defensive back bone in breaking down bulky steels such as Heatran and can pass around burns with Scald for those not affected by Toxic Spikes. If Torn-T and Talonflame annoys you though feel free to use Rotom-W over it with the spread posted in the acam team. DDance M-Altaria cause the meta has few good answers that don't lose to that + Victini + Suicune. A casual discussion with The DragonKnight revealed to me the power of Double-Edge M-Altaria for wall-breaking purposes so I put that in there to try out which is an option. Specially Defensive Gliscor for the simple fact it's amazing and covers so much ground in the meta. I just put enough for Adamant Bisharp in terms of speed since I think speed creeping is a preference thing and wanted to focus on as much bulk as feasibly possible with out too much compromising. Ferrothorn is for rocks, Latios switch in, Gyara checks, the usual stuff really.
Thanks a lot for the team AM. After some testing I decided to run Rotom-Wash over Suicune, though Quagsire becomes a big threat if I make this change. I felt like a 2nd ground immunity helped the team a lot more if Mega Altaria already mega evolved and a more solid Talonflame switchin was really needed. Haze / Toxic Spikes is something I am not entirely sure about yet, but at the moment I think Toxic Spikes is better. Haze was not really needed as BD Azumarill gets burned by Rotom and Altaria and Tentacruel can both take a hit. CroBro is definitely annoying (CM Slowbro loses because of T-Spikes + Leech Seed) but with enough offensive pressure (and lucky rolls on the sleep talks) I can defeat it.
I know you like offense just from reading about your undying love for Bisharp so here's some offense with none other than Bisharp itself. I changed out Rotom-W for Keldeo so you have a Bisharp check on this team instead of just dying to +2 Bisharp and M-Scizor 100% of the time. Expert Belt on Keldeo is to bluff Choice items so take advantage of that or be typical and change it out. Lead Skarmory was put as a HO offensive Lead not weak to Pursuit Tar unlike Azelf and lets you stack up some hazards. Scarf Lando-T not too much to say other than it's your way to not get floored by every Talonflame in existence. Kyurem-B is just the set you provided really so not a whole lot to be explained there other than HP Fire more than likely being better so Ferrothorn isn't a pain, this would be replaced by Earth Power btw. Bullet Punch M-Metagross to improve your matchup against offense and foes such as Rock Polish M-Diancie, M-Aerodactyl, weakened targets, etc. Aerial Ace Bisharp is to lure Chesnaught and Keldeo which can more or less become problems if you let them get free turns all the time. If it was me personally and I had to change out a lot of stuff I would use Life Orb Kyurem-B instead as a more legitimate wall-breaker with 4 attacks such as Ice Beam, Fusion Bolt, HP Fire, Iron Head / Roost. There's a lot of room for variations on this team honestly but most of this worked pretty well during the testing phase so I guess it's a bit player dependent for what you want and how weak or strong you want certain match-ups to be. Make your own win-con is pretty much the design behind this one so again, feel free to experiment.
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 232 SpD / 28 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Taunt
- Roost
- Defog
Dual BD is kind of silly cause it makes you really dependent on setting up and the threats they break down is somewhat redundant. I kept it Choice Band Azumarill for immediate wall-breaking capabilities instead. Hippowdon is a solid glue for checking Talonflame, setting up rocks, lando-t, etc. Rock Slide over Stone Edge just for some consistency in accuracy mostly. ScarfTar is extremely basic and is used to break down the Latis which hinder BD Chesnaughts set up along with some base 110 speed tier mons like Gengar that can make setting up a burden. Specially Defensive Skarmory is for a more consistent M-Diancie check. You needed a secondary win condition to pair up with BD Chesnaught and BD Chesnaught can break down a lot of the checks that Mega Latias had so I went with two attacks Calm Mind Mega Latias. I didn't opt for Stored Power M-Latias because I think it's a set that emphasizes more preparation than should be necessary for a win condition. So pretty basic just apply enough pressure, try not to reveal your hand too early with Latias and Chesnaught and you should be good.
This is a pretty basic layout and what I would call "the boring version", as the other has AV Slowking, M-Manectric, Air Balloon Cobalion, and Reflect Type Latias but in the context of this thread I didn't want to put teams that are sort of difficult to use. If you want to try that out let me know and I can provide an import for that. Anyways my focus more or less was to use the core provided to help M-Altaria to clean up at the end late-game. ScarfTar is there once again for the sake of removing the Latis to enhance hazard stacking and help Heatran out a bit due to the lack of coverage against Roost / Recover variants of them. Starmie is mandatory Keldeo check paired along side M-Altaria. Shed Shell Ferrothorn is so the team isn't so Magnezone + M-Altaria / M-Diancie weak, which could be a problem if playing carelessly. Set hazards, wear down the checks and counters of the 2 set up sweepers of Lando-T + M-Altaria is the premise of this team. Play carefully around Lando-I + TTar Cores.
When I was building and I pondered that option my issue was that Gengar and M-Venusaur would have even more of a field day if I used Overgrow, in particular certain Subsplit variants on Gengar and with M-Venusaur just the fact that M-Latias is the sole answer to it if I use Overgrow. Also in practice a lot of times you have Overgrow and you just end up recovering health back from Drain Punch. Scarftar helps with the Latis already and you also need to take into consideration the Rocks damage and Azumarills presence alone. It's an option if you want to use it but there are some issues to using Overgrow with this particular build when Bulletproof alleviates some of the problems it has.
I know you like offense just from reading about your undying love for Bisharp so here's some offense with none other than Bisharp itself. I changed out Rotom-W for Keldeo so you have a Bisharp check on this team instead of just dying to +2 Bisharp and M-Scizor 100% of the time. Expert Belt on Keldeo is to bluff Choice items so take advantage of that or be typical and change it out. Lead Skarmory was put as a HO offensive Lead not weak to Pursuit Tar unlike Azelf and lets you stack up some hazards. Scarf Lando-T not too much to say other than it's your way to not get floored by every Talonflame in existence. Kyurem-B is just the set you provided really so not a whole lot to be explained there other than HP Fire more than likely being better so Ferrothorn isn't a pain, this would be replaced by Earth Power btw. Bullet Punch M-Metagross to improve your matchup against offense and foes such as Rock Polish M-Diancie, M-Aerodactyl, weakened targets, etc. Aerial Ace Bisharp is to lure Chesnaught and Keldeo which can more or less become problems if you let them get free turns all the time. If it was me personally and I had to change out a lot of stuff I would use Life Orb Kyurem-B instead as a more legitimate wall-breaker with 4 attacks such as Ice Beam, Fusion Bolt, HP Fire, Iron Head / Roost. There's a lot of room for variations on this team honestly but most of this worked pretty well during the testing phase so I guess it's a bit player dependent for what you want and how weak or strong you want certain match-ups to be. Make your own win-con is pretty much the design behind this one so again, feel free to experiment.
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 232 SpD / 28 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Taunt
- Roost
- Defog
Dual BD is kind of silly cause it makes you really dependent on setting up and the threats they break down is somewhat redundant. I kept it Choice Band Azumarill for immediate wall-breaking capabilities instead. Hippowdon is a solid glue for checking Talonflame, setting up rocks, lando-t, etc. Rock Slide over Stone Edge just for some consistency in accuracy mostly. ScarfTar is extremely basic and is used to break down the Latis which hinder BD Chesnaughts set up along with some base 110 speed tier mons like Gengar that can make setting up a burden. Specially Defensive Skarmory is for a more consistent M-Diancie check. You needed a secondary win condition to pair up with BD Chesnaught and BD Chesnaught can break down a lot of the checks that Mega Latias had so I went with two attacks Calm Mind Mega Latias. I didn't opt for Stored Power M-Latias because I think it's a set that emphasizes more preparation than should be necessary for a win condition. So pretty basic just apply enough pressure, try not to reveal your hand too early with Latias and Chesnaught and you should be good.
This is a pretty basic layout and what I would call "the boring version", as the other has AV Slowking, M-Manectric, Air Balloon Cobalion, and Reflect Type Latias but in the context of this thread I didn't want to put teams that are sort of difficult to use. If you want to try that out let me know and I can provide an import for that. Anyways my focus more or less was to use the core provided to help M-Altaria to clean up at the end late-game. ScarfTar is there once again for the sake of removing the Latis to enhance hazard stacking and help Heatran out a bit due to the lack of coverage against Roost / Recover variants of them. Starmie is mandatory Keldeo check paired along side M-Altaria. Shed Shell Ferrothorn is so the team isn't so Magnezone + M-Altaria / M-Diancie weak, which could be a problem if playing carelessly. Set hazards, wear down the checks and counters of the 2 set up sweepers of Lando-T + M-Altaria is the premise of this team. Play carefully around Lando-I + TTar Cores.
So that's basically it for now, different things can be changed around and as always open to interpretation so enjoy.
Wowow, thanks so much! Could you pm me the other version of the team, it sounds really interesting lol. I will test the team out soon, thanks so much again! n_n
When I was building and I pondered that option my issue was that Gengar and M-Venusaur would have even more of a field day if I used Overgrow, in particular certain Subsplit variants on Gengar and with M-Venusaur just the fact that M-Latias is the sole answer to it if I use Overgrow. Also in practice a lot of times you have Overgrow and you just end up recovering health back from Drain Punch. Scarftar helps with the Latis already and you also need to take into consideration the Rocks damage and Azumarills presence alone. It's an option if you want to use it but there are some issues to using Overgrow with this particular build when Bulletproof alleviates some of the problems it has.
I have a tiny request. Is it possible to link the teams in the OP to the explanation given by the creator in the thread? It would really make it easier so members don't have to scroll through all of the pages just to find the team in the thread.
I've taken the liberty of doing this to save Trini/AM/whoever else the time of doing it themselves. I'll leave it here if they want to update the first post with the explanations. It is in the order of appearance of teams in the first post. I started to add the newer teams that aren't in the OP but stopped because I realized it will be easy to add them when the teams themselves are added. I gave those teams generic names I came up with that may not reflect the actual core requested so sorry if that is the case. This post is full of a ton of words so it may be split into two or three posts, forgive me :(
Mega Pidgeot Offense by rob.
First I started off using M-Pidgeot and Dugtrio like you requested. Dugtrio was decent but it lacks power and longevity. Dugtrio couldn't live long enough to check multiple threats to M-Pigeot. Keldeo fills in this role perfectly. Keldeo places constant pressure on Rock and Steel type mon's thanks to its incredible Special Attack and it has the added benefit of a great defensive typing. Next up was Rotom-Wash. Rotom-Wash didn't fill any immediate weaknesses. It's such a great pivot and I wanted to pair it with Mega Pidgeot so they can easily bring their teammates in and out of the match. Rotom-W also checks a bunch of threats like Scizor, M-Pinsir, Talonflame, Excadrill, Landorus-T, and others. At this point the team had weaknesses to Electric, Psychic, Grass, and Fairy types. I also wanted a Specially Defensive Pokemon that could easily pivot in and out. Celebi filled in perfectly. Instead of the common supporting Celebi, I chose the Nasty Plot + Baton Pass variant so it can potentially pass boost to M-Pidgeot or Keldeo. I was now in need of a hazard remover. I didn't want to stack too many weaknesses so I decided against Latias + Latios and went with Excadrill. Mainly because it's immune to Electric and Poison type moves and it resists Flying and Fairy type moves. Tyranitar was the last choice. It's an excellent supporting Pokemon that sets up Stealth Rock, it traps and maims Psychic-types that pressure Keldeo, as well as supplying Excadrill with Sandstorm. Optional: Scizor is definitely worth considering instead of Celebi. While Celebi does provide few nice resistances it's a bit of a liability offensively and can open opportunities for opponents to setup. Tyranitar could easily pick up the slack and absorb a few more Special Attacks. This change would bolster the teams offensive capabilty a ton while opening a weakness to Rotom-W. Also note that the loss of Celebi leaves the team with a neutrality to Fighting type moves.
Rain Offense by TheEnder
Okay, when i was first trying to build around Choice Band Scizor + Kingdra, I kept on getting mediocre results. They were, however, very fun, as I could use some underused Mega Evolutions, such as Mega Ampharos. But, to make it a better team, I decided to go with Mega Scizor instead of regular Scizor, as I found the regular version to be kind of lackluster. The set i decided on was the Swords Dance + 3 Attacks one, as it goes well along with rain becuase it gains momentum rather than giving it away. It is also great for weakening Ferrothorn, which the rest of the team loves to have gone. On Politoed and Kingdra I only changed up one thing, which was exchanging Perish Song for Encore, which lets it pressure Dragonite and Mega Charizard X, both of which can otherwise switch up moves and be problems. To compliment the core, I added Ferrothorn. My reasoning behind this choice is that it takes care of Azumarill, Mega Gyarados, and Mega Gardevoir, all of which are really annyoing for Kingdra to deal with. To further compliment the main core, I added Choice Scarf Landorus-T. It deals with Mega Gallade, Mega Lopunny, and Mega Beedrill. These Pokemon outsped the entire team outside of rain, and I had no good switch-ins to them, so I found Landorus-T to be a good fit. I chose to run Adamant with Superpower. This lets it pressure Mega Sableye and Clefable on the switch, and has a way of heavily damaging Ferrothorn. For the last slot, I went a back and forth a lot. First off, I wanted to use either Keldeo or Terrakion, as they checked Bisharp. I found them kind of redudant though, and Lati@s were pretty annoying to deal with. Next up I tried Life Orb and Assault Vest Tornadus-T, but AV was too weak to function like I wanted it to. LO is still a decent option though, as it lures in Ferrothorn and does a ton with Hurricane. The Pokemon I decided on was Raikou, as it gains a lot of momentum for the team. It draws in Ferrothorn and Mega Venusaur, so I get a lot of set-up opportunities with Mega Scizor. I went with Choice Specs over Assault Vest, and Thunder over Thunderbolt, which actually makes it pretty strong. There you have the team, I'm not sure on Kingdra's moveset, but it is pretty cool, so I've decided to keep it for now.
Mega Sableye + Dragalge Stall by rob.
Alright Jaroda here's the team. I was a bit excited to start this because the core intrigued me, mostly because of their great defensive synergy. Now lets get to it. A stall team build was obvious because of the choices. The goal of the team is to spread around Toxic and Spikes to wear the opposing team down in preparation for a Bisharp, Sableye, or Hawlucha sweep. A semi-stall featuring offensive Dragalge was intriguing at first but I chose a Special Defensive moveset due to the teams inability to adequately handle Charizard-Y + Keldeo cores. I also went with Hidden Power [Fire] instead of Scald or Dragon Pulse because Ferrothorn and Skarmory were to hard to handle. Next up was Alomomola. I wanted a proven defensive Pokemon that could easily switch in and out while replenishing its teammates HP with Wish, nothing really does that better than Alomomola. Alomomola covers a ton of physical threats because of its incredible defenses, it can easily toxic + wish + protect stall almost all of them. I then added Chansey to help the team with Special Attackers. There's nothing I could say about Chansey that isn't common knowledge. It walls a ton of Special Attackers, spreads Toxic, and heals the team of any status ailments. Bisharp was added to deter Defog since the team heavily relies on hazard damage. Most players think twice about Defogging just because Bisharp is on the team which gives the team a step up on Defog users. But at the same time the Bisharp Defog blocking tactic is obvious so some teams will be well prepared for Bisharp. Hawlucha could be used over Bisharp since Choice Scarf Landorus-T, M-Gyarados, and some other threats I can't remember that Hawlucha can easily handle. Both are great Pokemon and both have great merit.
Mega Beedrill Offense by Trinitrotoulene (please dont kill me if I mispelled this)
this is just your basic mega bee squad (shouts to am for providing the base). i started with bee + mag, but i changed mag from a specs set to a scarf set because the extra power specs offered wasn't as necessary as having the ability to outrun most smogonbird talonflame. garchomp is just your generic rocker that beats heatran and shares some offensive synergy with magnezone, reducing the need for fire blast and enabling the use of swords dance to provide a momentum grabber / back-up sweeper. jolly knock off diggersby (thanks for this set, am!) is here to make trapping skarmory even easier by acting as a lure so it can knock off the potential shed shell. it also acts as a hard hitter that complements mega beedrill by taking out heatran and other grounded steels that impede mega beedrill. latias is here to check things like thundurus, provide hazard removal support, give a teammate a second chance at sweeping again. azumarill is filler that keeps tyranitar, heatran, keldeo, and a few other notable threats in check. having another source of priority and a lure for ferrothorn is another neat little thing about this team. overall, this plays like a standard offense team, and i'm sure there are plenty of options that can work over some of the existing slots. while it may be vulnerable to the standard offensive threats, i'm confident that good plays can overcome them.
Keys + Landorus-T Offense by rob.
An entry hazard stacking core pushed me to build an offensive team. Instead of Calm Mind Klefki I chose the Ubers Specially Defensive moveset to easily pivot in and out (mainly against Greninja). Greninja is a huge nuisance to offensive teams. It's a nuisance to all teams because its broken but offensive teams lack defensive backbones to rely on. I also chose Rock Polish + Swords Dance Landorus-Therian because it's criminally underrated and it has the ability to destroy teams late game because most teams are unprepared. Keldeo was added because it's insanely strong and it's even better with Choice Specs equipped. Keldeo also covered the cores weakness to Fire, Ice, and Water-type moves. The team had no glaring type weaknesses at this point, so I added Bisharp to help prevent hazards from being removed with Defog. Now I needed Stealth Rock support. Garchomp is probably the best / most popular Stealth Rock setter for offensive teams because of its versatility, bulk, and defensive typing. The team had a Fairy and Ice-type weakness so I thought to add a powerful pokemon that was able to take a resisted ice or fairy attack. Mega Metagross was the mon' for the job. It's performed extremely well in tandem with Keldeo and Garchomp. All three do a great job of eliminating and weakening walls so Landorus-Therian can sweep late-game. I'm interested to read your thoughts on this team.
Secondary take on the team / suggestions by AM:
@LeoLancer this was another one of the teams that Rob had me test out and if I remember correctly was the one who suggested Heal Block on Klefki to help the issue it had with some recovery pokemon such as M-Slowbro incase you're wondering. I interchanged between that and Safeguard as I found Safeguard gave me a bit of breathing room in letting my partners not have to worry about status. I wasn't exactly too fond of Double Dance Landorus-T because after some testing I found the set up sweeper that had more consistency was M-Metagross as it secured me a handful of wins with its Agility/Rock Polish set. If going this route Scarf Lando-T is a suitable replacement. I think in theory the team had issues with a lack of a very strong special attacker especially those to break M-Slowbro and M-Sableye more easily outside of Keldeo who can only break the latter. Some other options include Gravity Earth Plate Lando-T to further enhance hazard damage, Magnet Rise Klefki, and Pursuit Bisharp. Anyways I did have ton of fun with this team and this is coming from a guy who doesn't particular enjoy playing offense.
SubCM Keldeo Offense by Trinitrotoluene
this is a variant of one of my megagross offense squads. i started with the megagross + subcm keldeo core you requested. this was a nice n powerful core, but it tended to have problems when facing off megabro, which could tank literally anything the core threw at it and set up for free. other faster threats, such as genger and greninja, posed additional problems due to their ability to outrun both core members (assuming metagross has not mega evolved yet in genger's case) and threaten them with the 2hko at worst. to resolve these issues, i decided to use a twave + np + hp flying thundurus as the team's third member. this decision also gave the team a semi-reliable means of taking out mega venu and amoonguss. afterwards, i added scarf landoge in to give the team a reliable revenge killer and excadrill check. intimidate helps the team switch around, which is rather convenient overall. bisharp was added to pursuit-trap the lati twins, which checked keldeo and dgaf about anything thundurus could throw at them besides a boosted hidden power flying or thunder wave. lum chomper is this team's sr setter and momentum grabber due to its ability to reliably beat sableye (+2 earthquake ohkos 252 / 252+ sableye and 2hkos 252 / 252+ mega sableye).
the nicks came from mistabishi's album drop, which i was listening to while building this team.
Fast FWG Offense by Trinitrotoluene
your two requests were extremely similar, so i consolidated both of them into one nice n bulky offense team. i started with the combined talonflame / azumarill / mega jukain core, which i tweaked a bit from your original requests. this core's use of 2 powerful priority sources and a fastmon allow it to do quite some work against offense. while the original two versions of the core faltered a bit against stall, i fixed that issue just by making the talonflame a bulk up variant. from looking at these 3 mons, i found that they appreciated having a safer way to get into the game than directly switching them into attacks, so i elected to use landorus-t and cobalion, which formed a fast volt-turn core between themselves, which is pretty handy. landorus-t gives the team some insurance against boosting sweepers and sand offense, while cobalion gives the team a much-needed steel-, rock-, dragon-, and dark-type switch-in, as well as a sneaky pebbles setter and tyranitar / bisharp check. finally, due to the team's use of volt-turn and talonflame, i needed a way to remove the pebbles from the field. enter latias: with defog, she fits the bill, but she also gives to the team healing wish support, which can mean the difference between a victory and a loss. also, with cobalion on the team, i don't need to worry as much about bisharp.
nickname system for this team is: brave [descriptor term]
Mega Gallade + Bisharp Offense by Trinitrotoluene
the gallade / bisharp core is best fit on offense rather than balance, so i made you a bulky offense team. as for the mons themselves, they're simple enough. the gallade + bisharp core does work against many team archetypes, so it provided a great starting point for the rest of the team. however, i found myself not using pursuit all that often, so instead, i replaced it with swords dance to give bisharp the ability to trash mega slowbro and mega sableye, which would otherwise wall mega gallade. since flyspam would otherwise be a problem for this core, i added in rotom-w to give the team a pivot that can beat up on common flyspam mons while retaining momentum for the rest of the team. i followed that up with genger, which gave the team immediate power against stall and the predominant oras mega evolutions found on these kinds of teams (sableye, slowbro, altaria). i understand that you preferred not to have legendaries on your team, but when i was building this team, i found no better alternative than landorus-t for the role of this team's choice scarfer thanks to its wonderful combination of speed, power, and bulk (thanks in no small part to intimidate). u-turn access and a ground immunity is another perk that made choosing it a natural choice. clefable takes up the last slot here because it's one of the few sr setters that boasts the ability to beat mega sableye (read: an issue for mega gallade) 1v1. having the ability to check so many pokemon because of its fairy-typing is just icing on the cake.
the nicks originate from john b's album light speed.
Mega Altaria Sand Offense by TheEnder
Going out from the original core and the given sets, I decided to change as little as possible. I kept all the movesets, and thus, Steel-types were a huge problem to face, especially Ferrothorn and physically defensive Mega Scizor. Another big threat to the core was Greninja, due to me wanting to run a lot of investment in Speed on Tyranitar. Outspeeding most Heatran and Mega Venusaur is a pretty huge feat for Smooth Rock Tyranitar, as it allows it to beat the former 1v1, and set up Stealth Rock against the latter. To patch up the Greninja weakness, and incorporate a way of beating Steel-types offensively, I added Assault Vest Kyurem-B. Not only is it a great switch-in to Greninja, but with Hidden Power Fire, it is one of the best lures to Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor. To further patch up the Greninja weakness, and get a defensive clue capable of beating most offensively oriented Pokemon, Ferrothorn was added. It is one of the best defensive glue for offensive teams, as its great typing and bulk allows it to come in on even the stronger neutrally effective attacks. It is also capable of setting up Spikes, which allows the team to pressure bulkier teams. The last moveslot was hard to choose; the team had a serious weakness to Fighting-types, and needed a way of tearing apart Full Stall. My choice was Talonflame; while it doesn’t have nearly enough bulk to come in on the strong Fighting-types in the tier, it has the ability to take advantage of them, by using them as setup fodder with Swords Dance. However, I didn’t go with the standard dual STAB + SD + Roost set. To further pressure Full Stall, I opted for Taunt over Flare Blitz, as it stills beats most Steel-types 1v1
Dragalge + Mega Gyarados Bulky Offense by rob.
Here's bulky offense featuring Dragalge + M-Gyarados. Because of Drag's low speed it's forced to come in and force out defensive Pokemon like Clefable. Choice Specs forces you to rely heavily on prediction which isn't that bad because it'll force switches 90% of the time. Besides its low speed it's capable of functioning as an incredible nuke even at -2. M-Gyarados recieved Crunch so it's destructive power increased quite a bit because it has two STABs. It's an excellent wallbreaker that can weaken teams alongside Dragalge. M-Gyarados is easily able to eliminate special walls like Chansey, opening holes for Dragalge to decimate the opposing team. From here I decided to add some defense. The Ferrothorn + Slowbro defensive core is great and extremely easy to use because they cover each others weaknesses well, they also cover a ton of threats. From here I decided to add some offense. RP Landorus is criminally underrated, the extra speed allows it to challenge a bunch of Pokemon that should check/counter it. Azumarill is a staple on bulky offensive teams and for good reason. It's able to come in on many different threats and setup. I chose the Belly Drum moveset because it enables Azumarill to act as an unstoppable late-game cleaner. It has the perfect support in Landorus, Dragalge, and M-Gyarados, all mon's who should be able to weaken the opposing team enough for Azumarill to clean.
Secondary take on the team / suggestions by AM:
canman98 Ok so rob. had me test this team out when he hit me up on PS which I'm more than happy to since Robs chill and all n_n. I'm still testing but I'm going to just speak on the initial build and what changes I tried out so far.
I couldn't even use the initial build what so ever. It's this team that relies on extremely lucky plays with cores that sound great in theory but fall apart in practice. It's also a team that provides way too much momentum for your opponent from the likes of Rotom-W, M-Manectric, BP Celebi, etc. Also the team gets swept by M-Sceptile, well played Thundurus, a bunch of other stuff and just goes back to overlapping typing and lack of hazard removal :s. If you do drop hazard removal you need to have cores that can build off momentum and hazard damage so think hazard offense and bulky offense. I've been using SubPass Celebi + SR Speedy Heatran over Slowbro / Ferro so far and it feels a bit more consistent in relieving pressure with SubPass allowing your set up sweepers some freedom to set up more easily. I also used Aqua Jet, Knock Off, Play Rough, Belly Drum over the initial set which allows to bluff AV sets and just demolishes so many builds and conventional checks to the sets that is being currently used with much more ease after Belly Drum. Haven't had a single scenario where Waterfall was useful on BD Azu tbh and M-Gyarados covers the offensive water type role anyways. Been playing with Knock Off Lando-I as well with EP, knock off, focusblast/psychic, rock polish which gives you a secondary lati check for when they switch in and when you've gained rock polish but it's been sort of redundant and I'll probably be using HP Ice and possibly will be testing out EP, HP ice, knock off/coverage/focus blast, rock polish sometime in the future. Other ideas would be Spikes Chesnaught/Ferrothorn + secondary SR setter such as Air Balloon Heatran to alleviate the Sand Offense issues and emphasize some more pressure since you lack hazard removal, Clear Smog Amoonguss so you aren't floored by M-Altaria, and scarf Magnezone paired with a Knock Off attacker to ease the elimination of Ferro and Skarmory, something M-Gyarados wants. There's a lot of rooms to change stuff but you definitely need stuff to maintain momentum consistently so for now that's all I can say.
Lucario Offense by rob.
Instead of Lucario + M-Charizard I went with M-Latias + Lucario. Mega-Lopunny was a bit of a pain which is why I swapped M-Charizard for the extremely bulky M-Latias variant. But you could replace Scizor with M-Charizard X and still have a team with the original core you posted. I added Gengar as well since you wanted a team with Gengar + Lucario. I needed to plug some weaknesses and I needed a proven defensive Pokemon so Clefable was the first mon added. I chose Unaware because setup sweepers like M-Gallade and M-Loppuny are extremely popular so Clefables ability to ignore their boost is important. Next was Tyranitar. It was chosen because it's a proven defensive mon that can fill a few supporting roles. Ttar traps Latias and Latios, it's a soft bird-spam check, sets up Stealth Rock, and provides defensive support. I chose Hex + Will-O-Wisp Gengar to pick apart stall teams, especially those that rely on M-Altaria. It's also great at spreading status which can be useful because M-Metagross, Scizor, and Azumarill could cause alot of problems. Scizor was thrown in as a secondary check to Fairy that wasn't weak to Rock, Ice, Steel, or Psychic. It provides much needed priority since the team isn't fast and it can double as a late-game cleaner. n_n!
Venusaur + Heatran Bulky Offense by rob.
VenuTran was a solid core from XY and it still is. M-Venusaur, Rotom-W, and Heatran share little weaknesses and they provide the necessary backbone for the teams offensive core. CB Heracross + RP Landorus is great. Heracross does a great job of breaking down a bunch of common walls such as Ferrothorn, Chansey, and Slowbro, along with a few others. Mid - Late game Landorus can take advantage of Heracross' ability to pressure the aforementioned walls with Rock Polish. Or you can choose to use Calm Mind and break walls alongside CB Heracross. Latios appreciates Heracross and Landorus' ability to beat its common checks (Azumarill, Ferrothorn, Heatran, Tyranitar). It's a daunting force when unchecked and given proper support. I still gave Latios Earthquake to lure Heatran but it can be used to hit Tyranitar and Bisharp if necessary.
Sylveon Balance by rob.
Choice Specs Sylveon intrigued me and it turned out to be a great lure since most players assumed it was a special defensive variant. It did a great job of pressuring a few unsuspecting defensive mons like Mew and Rotom-W, two mons that could give M-Metagross some problems. M-Metagross isn't the best partner for Sylveon because they share some of the same checks/counters. But it's all good because M-Metagross is much more capable because it has some decent coverage options (i.e grass knot and hammer arm). I went for balance so I added Clefable and Chansey, two great defensive Pokemon that cover a quite a few threats. Keldeo was added because it does a great job of cleaning / revenge killing and picking off a few of M-Metagross' biggest checks. Latios thrives when its checks (Ferrothorn, Tyranitar, Heatran, ((some fairy type)) etc) are eliminated. Keldeo, Sylveon, and M-Metagross are more than capable of eliminating Latios' checks giving it free reign to nuke teams with Draco Meteor.
Mega Sharpedo Offense by rob.
M-Sharpedo is extremely strong, its only problem is that it only has one opportunity to sweep because it obviously can't take advantage of Speed Boost after it M-evolves. Instead of using Victini I chose Talonflame because it's much faster and provides much more utility because of its ability to abuse priority attacks. Jolly + SD + Sharp Beak so it can clean up alongside M-Sharpedo if need be. Clefable + Ferrothorn is a decent defensive core that works well. Assault Vest Raikou is a decent secondary check to Azumarill, Latios, Latias, and some other threats I can't think of atm. It's still pretty good offensively can does a great job of pivoting with Volt Switch. Latios offers several resistances while providing excellent offensive pressure. The team is okay despite being weak to a few common threats like Tyranitar.
Mega Altaria Stall by AM
Trinitrotoluene reached out to me to help you out with this one. Went ahead and built you a semi-stall team with the original M-Altaria, Tentacruel, and Chesnaught core you provided. The thing about stall is that you still need some sort of offensive pressure so you're not dependent on match-up so some of the EVs and a couple of moves are changed in a way to provide that such as Tentacruel hitting a speed jump point to outpace Jolly Diggersby and Chesnaught hitting up a jump point for BD Azumarill and to a lesser extent Rotom-W. Core at that point needed a rock setter that wasn't Lando-T since you didn't want that and would be able to cover some threats such as Thundurus, M-Diancie, the Zards, and Talonflame so I added in Hippowdon to provide that. The spread has a little more special defense to handle Char-Y a little more effectively something that the team sort of hates at the moment. From there team was extremely weak to most hard hitters that would hurt stall such as Mamoswine and Landorus. I originally thought about using Cresselia but it also comes down to being M-Gardevoir weak which is a big no no so Bronzong was able to fit in better. Colbur Berry is to improve your matchup against Pursuit Trappers which comes back to having some offensive presence so you're not completely floored by these, think Weavile, Bisharp, and Tyranitar. Last slot was a bit tough to choose but team sort of lacked any sort of stall-breaker along with being 6-0'd by M-Gallade at that point. I went ahead and added Sableye to remedy this a bit. Feel free to change whatever you would like as this is really just a foundation to go off of.
Mega Diancie Offense by AM
You provided mostly offensive sets so it was pretty obvious you wanted something more offensive in regards to playstyle with this build. The core right off the bat was weak to Bisharp, Gyarados, fast paced offense, and to a lesser extent Scarf Lando-T so went ahead and added Scarf Keldeo to alleviate that problem a bit. So from there you were pretty much weak to general Fairy types, Gengar, M-Gardevoir, M-Diancie, and a majority of bulky psychic types so implemented Assault Vest Scizor with a speed jump point to outrun standard M-Venusaur spreads. Rock Setter was needed and Lando-T fit the bill with Yache Berry to provide you some relief against HP Ice Thundurus, Weavile, Ice Punch M-Lopunny, and Mamoswine in the worst case scenario that you're forced to deal with those and to not over rely on Keldeo too much for Weavile and Mamoswine. You considered an answer to bulky water types before with TG RD Energy Ball Manaphy but realize that this adds on to Mega Diancie's Water weakness already along with decreasing the power of HP Fire on Latios to lure and beat M-Scizor, Ferrothorn, and Skarmory the targets of that move. In order to preserve the check to bulky water types I went ahead and added Choice Specs Raikou which helps with the biggest potential problem being Mega Slowbro. Shadow Ball is on Raikou for this particular build to hit Magnezone and M-Gallade a bit more effectively against it. Extrasensory can be used to make handling M-Venusaur a bit easier as well so see what preferences you have. Maintaining pressure through the use of grabbing momentum with the bottom half of the team will help in pressuring various builds you come across so know that much.
Mega Altaria Balance by AM
Alright so you two had pretty similar concepts in regards to M-Altaria and you both provided two partners that naturally work together with M-Altaria so went ahead and consolidated this one. I kept Earthquake for M-Altaria so the set isn't so dependent on every Steel type being taken out before it can do anything. You have a status absorber in the form of Starmie and with Hippowdon + Magnezone blocking Thunder Wave and the two steel types blocking Toxic. Terrakion + Mag is what you both provided and kept it as such. Wasn't sure of what you guys had preference towards in terms of playstyle so just to be safe I kept it Balanced for consistency purposes. You have Reflect Type Starmie to remove hazards off the field, emphasis on hazard stacking offense, and status absorbing was previously explained. Gives you a water resist primarily a secondary Keldeo resist to pair up with M-Altaria along with Reflect Type to provide its usual traits of handling Bisharp in most 1v1 cases. Ferrothorn provides spikes support, checks to both Gyarados forms, and also has Knock Off utility to lure in Scarf Magnezones for M-Altaria to take care of with EQ or just Terrakion to clean it up with Close Combat. Knock Off also gives you an asset to remove Shed Shells on Ferrothorn and Skarmory for Magnezone to trap and eliminate and removing Life Orbs from various attackers such as Weavile and Thundurus. Hippowdon is the rock setter and more or less takes off a bit of pressure from Scarf Tyranitar from a defensive aspect, Gengar, Thundurus, for the most part the usual stuff Hippowdon is able to provide in terms of effectiveness so nothing too crazy with this one. Also if you're wondering why Starmie is at max speed and not the usual 224 that a lot of people run it's to Reflect Type on Scarf Magnezone to avoid reduce the damage from its Electric attacks.
Mega Gardevoir Offense by Trinitrotoluene
no, it is not the dungeonmaster's guide, and it is not my standard hyper offence. so, this team was a bit of an unorthodox way of exploiting mega gardevoir's and bisharp's ability to trash many common stall builds. since i had these two in place, i decided to include subcm keldeo due to its ability to completely demolish balance and exploit the duo's ability to remove mons like the lati twins that would otherwise stop keldeo's sweep short. since this core was weak to birdspam, i included a double intimidate core in landoge and gyarados, which provides the team with a secondary sweeper, a rocks setter, and answer to mons like mega scizor, excadrill, and talonflame. garchomp is here to give the team much-needed speed and a back-up cleaner to remove things once gyarados and keldeo are done. it also gives the team a semi-reliable answer to speed boosters. rock polish sweepers such as diancie and landorus are a little bit of a problem if you let them set up, but the offensive pressure and sub + boosting sweepers this team uses should keep them (and other sweepers) from setting up. again, this is just a quick team meant to exploit the wallbreaking prowess of mega gardevoir and bisharp's ability to remove the lati twins from play and as such, there probably is quite a bit that can be done to improve this team.
nicks come from lenzman's album looking at the stars. feel free to remove / change them.
Mega Gallade + Manaphy Offens by AM
Ok so I took some time testing this one with a couple of different things like Serperior, Heatran, Scarf Lando-T, etc. while staying away from Bisharp as per your subliminal request lol. I hated Heatran on this core cause it was way too slow to me from an offensive standpoint and in practice did very little. Serperior was a nice cleaner but got worn down way too quick and had a mediocre typing. Everything else I felt had issues of being too susceptible which forced me to revamp the second half of the team to what you see now. Rindo Berry Manaphy is to improve your match-up against threats such as M-Venusaur and M-Sceptile. Mamo worked better in practice with this team cause of its ability to sets rocks effectively with Oblivious along with Endeavor to break down opponents that Scarftar can pursuit trap out of the way or just have something else clean up. Speaking of ScarfTar it was implemented as a check to TFlame, M-Pinsir, along with alleviating the pressure from the Lati Twins to enhance the hazard stacking portion of the team. Defensive Calm Mind Clefable I feel is way too passive on hyper offensive builds and Healing Wish helps your team provide a partner a second wind on the off chance you're forced to deal with status afflictions. Thunderbolt is to hit TFlame which most people will just leave in on the assumption that they're safe to set up while Fire Blast nets the KOs on Skarmory, Bulky Scizors, Adamant Bisharp, and Ferrothorn. Klefki provides Spikes support with Magnet Rise to set Spikes on Hippowdon, Garchomp, and Lando-T. Thunder Wave is sort of obvious but lets you beat Jolly Bisharp a bit better than you would now. Foul Play is so you're not Char-X, SD Talonflame, and M-Metagross food. Haven't had much time to test some optional things but Flash Cannon gets a mention for hitting M-Diancie with Klefki, and a set of Moonblast, Focus Blast, Psychic, Healing Wish / Support move such as Thunder Wave or Calm Mind lets you hit both of Clefables traditional checks such as the VenuTran core all in one basket without relying too much on M-Gallade so it's something for you to think about and play around with. Names courtesy of Trinitrotoluene from syncopix's album icarus.
smogonbird Balance by AM
Kept your names for your original core, the other stuff feel free to change the nicknames. I know from your request you didn't want to use the typical lando rotom-w core which is perfectly understandable as well as something more balanced. Right off the bat I needed a check to Gyarados, Char-X, Lando-T that Rotom-W would provide and Slowbro fit the bill with the luxury of its utility and coverage options. I needed a status absorber of sorts, a rock setter that threatened M-Sableye, and something to pair up with Slowbro from a defensive standpoint and Clefable I felt was a good option for this and provided a necessary second Dragon resist / immunity that was able to work well in practice. From there I sort of just needed a glue to tie it all in that provided some offensive and defensive traits. The team was sort of weak to Thundurus, Lando-I, Charizard-Y, M-Gardevoir, mostly your specially offensive wall-breakers. I also wanted to take care of stuff like Clefable without the potential to get bopped by Flamethrower variants when switching Scizor in. Assault Vest Kyurem-B helped with a lot of this and the spread is built off of calcs based on Stealth Rock damage and hitting certain offensive and defensive benchmarks with said damage so the spread was sort of just built on the idea that you have the ability to threaten these mentioned threats without auto-losing to them with Focus Blast or whatever coverage they have. You also have the option of running Acrobatics over Brave Bird on Talonflame with no item which is a perfectly legitimate and efficient set that removes the recoil effect at the cost of a little less power. I just haven't had time to actually test that one out but once again another aspect to consider. Teams a bit Bisharp weak so maintaining some offensive pressure through M-Scizor and Talonflame is important so there's your heads up now.
First off if you're gonna use Dragspam nobody has time for Roost on M-Altaria. Set up rocks and get to work, which can be said for just about any build reliant on pressure, more so in this case in order to not get floored by M-Altaria and M-Diancie. My basic concept for Dragspam is usually Dragons with at least 2 Steel types and a Fairy Type in the mix somewhere if possible, which M-Altaria provides. Lum Berry is on Garchomp to set up with Swords Dance more easily however Focus Sash works as well to help you get Stealth Rock up a bit more easily. Lucario adds a cleaning aspect to help with offensive Fairy types and paired up with Magnezone to break down other Fairy types such as Clefable. Hydreigon set is pretty standard so not much else to say other than it's EV'd to hit a Life Orb number and outpace neutral speed nature Kyurem-B. M-Altaria is standard offensive as well with both coverage moves in EQ and Fire Blast. If M-Venusaur and Talonflame become a pain you have the option of fitting in Dragon Claw somewhere, more than likely over Earthquake since you have the tools to beat Empoleon and Heatran anyways. Tailwind Latios is to mitigate the speed issues against common scarfers such as Lando-T and gives you a little breathing room against offense. Considering it's a team building shop just to give you some other ideas of offensive steel types that go well with Dragspam is Bisharp, Scizor, Magneton (which I like on this build over Magnezone to help with Weavile and Talonflame so feel free to try that out as well), and Heatran just to name a few. You would just have to type out Magneton on the import from here to get your change in mons. Oh and the team is primarily blue so obviously that's the best part about it.
Mega Pinsir + Manaphy Offense by rob.
First, I started off with your original offensive core. Offensive Manaphy is good but it lacks the speed to consistantly pressure offensive teams, therefore it's easily revenge KOed. I then decided to use a full defensive spread with Calm Mind / Rest / Rain Dance + Hydration to recover health and remove status. The change has worked wonders, mostly because people assume Manaphy is offensive. If you play well you should get two free turns to set up after it's initially switched in. M-Pinsir is one of the best mega formes, it really doesn't need an explanation. I added Breloom next because Rotom-W is a pain for both Manaphy and M-Pinsir. Instead of using the common Life Orb + Technician moveset I chose Toxic Orb + Poison Heal to give it longevity; so it can check Rotom-W throughout the entire match. Next was Rotom-W, it's such a great Pokemon right now because it does a great job of checking a bunch of common Pokemon, so adding it was a no brainer. Heatran was added next because I needed a specially defensive Stealth Rock supporter that could get rid of Steel types, especially Ferrothorn and Skarmory. The team was also in dire need of a second Flying resist, so Heatran so added. Lastly I needed a Pokemon that resisted Electric, Psychic, and Ground type moves; that could also get rid of hazards. I started with Latios but Latias is more useful because of its improved bulk and support with Healing Wish. Although I prefer Roost, Healing Wish allows the team to play aggressively early game or against a well played Rotom-W, if Breloom is gone. The team has a hard time dealing with Fighting types, mainly Mega Gallade. But it's easy to play around that weakness since M-Pinsir's Quick Attack is a clean OHKO. After building the team I thought it looked weird but it's surprisingly decent.
Mega Diancie + NastyPass Celebi Offense by rob.
I tried to keep the original core together but I felt that Heatran was pretty much useless since it could be stopped by some of the same mon's as Mega Diancie. Their roles were also a bit redundant. Mega Diancie is a great late-game cleaner with Rock Polish and thanks to Magic Bounce, it can't be worn down by status ailments or slowed by Thunder-Wave. Specially Defensive Celebi is perfect for it, because it eats up the Water, Fighting, and Ground type attacks aimed at Mega Diancie. It's also an excellent special wall. Try not to keep it in too long though because it can become set up bait for mon's like Mega Latias. So instead of using Choice Scarf Heatran I chose to use Choice Scarf Heracross because it's a Fighting type that can threaten Psychic types, especially Slowbro. It's also largely unprepared for. Moxie allows it to next a KO and possibly severely injure another mon'. I needed to sure up the team's Flying type weakness so I added Rotom-W, which also happens to be a great defensive pivot; that's capable of checking multiple Pokemon. Next I needed a Stealth Rock setter that could provide pressure early. Swords Dance + Lum Berry Garchomp does a great job of setting Stealth Rock and pressuring teams early. Lum Berry also gives it the ability to setup on mon's that rely on status to KO it, like M-Sableye and Rotom-W. Belly Drum Azumarill is a certified offensive threat that needs no explanation. It worked so well with the team because it covered the teams need for more offense while covering several weaknesses. That's pretty much it, the team is fun to use.
Mega Sableye + Volcarona Balance by AM
One of the problems with Toxic M-Sableye in catching its usual checks on the switch-ins is that in the end you still lose to them in the case of Char-X and Talonflame primarily. Foul Play gives you the advantage against SD and Dragon Dance sweepers such as the two mentioned previously. Volcarona is the set you provided but with Passho Berry to help ease pressure against Keldeo and Azumarill, two things the core hates. Rotom-Wash is pretty basic as a glue to not get floored by Talonflame, M-Pinsir, and compliments Ferro + Gliscor to put a stop to Lando-T. Gliscor provides some stall-breaking utility against threats like Clefable and provides you 1 of 2 checks to M-Diancie which, which is important to have as M-Diancie demolishes the core you provided in practice. Ferrothorn gives you the second check to M-Diancie along with alleviating pressure from M-Altaria, while setting up rocks and punishing physical attackers with a Rocky Helmet variant, think U-Turn Lando-T, and both Gyarados forms. Latios is hazard clearance and runs a Heal Block variant so your match-up against Double Dance Mega Slowbro and Char-Y isn't complete garbage. There's an original version of this team with Defensive Empoleon > Rotom-W, AV Tangrowth > Ferrothorn, and Calm Mind Latios however I didn't feel comfortable putting that here because that build required more meticulous playing to handle certain checks and counters. Just thought I would make you all aware in case you want to practice with that in theory.
Mega Lopunny Hyper Offense by AM
Azelf is better at setting up screens than Espeon is because of a somewhat higher speed tier, ability to stall-break with taunt, and can set up rocks while setting screens as well. It's your standard Azelf screens set so nothing too special. I went Adamant M-Lopunny because team needed a really strong physical attacker that can just punish switch ins much better like Scarf Lando-T, just to give you an idea HJK does about 30% on the switch in factoring in Intimidate boosts. I personally like Quick Attack > Ice Punch because it gives you some extra priority in dire situations against offense however Ice Punch is there to nail Gliscor and Lando-T a bit more effectively and is basic anyways. Azumarill has Knock Off > Waterfall on its Belly Drum set because it turns would be checks in Amoonguss and Ferrothorn into liabilities and is much more spammable before a Belly Drum boost. Thundurus is there to provide some added offensive presence and runs HP Flying to nail M-Venusaur and Breloom which can be annoying for the team. I went with Nasty Plot + 3 attacks to dedicate Thundurus to a wall-breaking role which I felt was more efficient however Thunder Wave is an option just to check set up sweepers like Charizard-X and M-Gyarados. Choice Scarf Tyranitar picks apart the bulky Psychic types that can stomach a hit from the the previous offensive core with Pursuit trapping utility and Fire Blast to help with M-Scizor and Ferrothorn a bit. Jirachi is to give you a way to pass around Paralysis with Body Slam, provide Healing Wish support for a weakened team-mate along with its usual moves of Iron Head and U-Turn.
Mega Pidgeot + Togekiss Offense by AM
In my short time playing on the RU suspect ladder there is one thing I realized, M-Pidgeot likes hazard support and as such makes it more potent to face with said support. Also it's really hard to use a core that's primarily offense and using Roost for recovery when both M-Pidgeot and Togekiss need a way to threaten problems to the team and not murder momentum. HP Ground M-Pidgeot is to nail Venutran cores because to be frank the Duggy + Pidgeot thing is seen a mile away and easy to play around where as HP Ground isn't and as such lets you not be so dependent on Dugtrio who has the defenses of a wet piece of toilet paper. Aura Sphere on Togekiss gives you a secondary way to beat Bisharp outside of Keldeo, which can be a problem if it sets up a Swords Dance in your face and Air Slash > Dazzling Gleam is a necessity to stall-break effectively. Dugtrio sets rocks, punishes with Reversal, Sucker Punch to hit weakened scarfers, and an HP IV value for Seismic Toss and to improve its match-up against Chansey. AV Raikou helps with Thundurus and a bit of Charizard-Y which could potentially be problems. Ferrothorn has Shed Shell to mitigate the Magnezone issue to not lose momentum, with Thunder Wave to enhance the builds capabilities against general offense with Spikes support for Keldeo and or M-Pidgeot to clean. Keldeo is pretty standard but its pretty important for the teams matchup against Tyranitar and Weavile primarily. Feel free to fit in Icy Wind there or change whatever you feel like as most of the choices can be switched around to suit needs and preference. Also consider using something like Healing Wish Latias since M-Pidgeot / Latias / Dugtrio is a pretty efficient M-Pidgeot core to begin with and provides some hazard removal in the form of Latias.
Mega Houndoom + Toxicroak Balance by Halcyon.
I've wanted to build a tea with both of these mons for a long time now, so this was a good excuse for me to do so. When I build, the first thing I do is look at the goal of the core I've created and think how, in an actual battle, does the core achieve that goal. In this case, I have two setup sweepers in Houndoom and Toxicroak, and both of them have a few common Pokemon that they either force out or set up on. So to give the an opportunity to do so, I would need to lure in those Pokemon. For Houndoom, Pokemon it can set up on include Clefable, Mega Sableye, Heatran w/o EP, and Mew. For Toxicroak, it can also set up on Clefable, Mega Gyarados, Tyranitar, Bisharp, and also Keldeo (especially with SubCM becoming so popular). Latias seemed like the perfect partner to these Pokemon, since it lures in Ttar, Bisharp, Heatran, and Clefable, which will give plenty of opportunities to set up for Doom and Croak. Healing Wish and Defog support as also really useful, as it prevented Houndoom from being worn down by Rocks and gave each of them a possibility to sweep a second time. Next, I thought the team had trouble with powerful ground types. Scarf Lando and Excadrill in particular looked really annoying. I also wanted to pair Houndoom with another stall breaker since it's a pretty shaky one at best (Chansey can pretty easily beat it with smart playing). And since the only mon that really gives Gliscor trouble on stall is Mega Sableye, it seemed to me that either Houndoom or Gliscor would be able to wear down opposing stall teams effectively. Next the team looked really weak to Dragon types, most notably Latios and Latias. While Houndoom might be able to win 1v1 versus these Pokemon, it absolutely cannot switch in. I also wanted a Pokemon that could take Fair moves more reliably, as well as set up Stealth Rock. Jirachi seemed like a pretty great choice. Gliscor covered its weaknesses to bulky ground types like Landorus-T and Hippowdown, and it supported the sweepers by spreading Paralysis and wish support to Latias since it has no recovery. Finally, the team needed something more substantial for Flying types and Azumaril, since both are rising in popularity. I decided Rotom-W was a great last pick, spreading burns, providing momentum necessary for my sweepers to get in safely, and checking the threats I mentioned before. I know some people used to choose not to run 44 speed on Rotom, but BD Azu is making a comeback, and its only a matter of time before people start running Jolly as well, so I wanted to be safe.
Serperior + Mega Lopunny Offense by Halcyon.
Serperior is on of my favorite Pokemon to use right now, and for good reason. It isn't too difficult to eliminate its checks, with the exception of Heatran, which has always been a pain to wear down, and it has a field day against certain stall teams (ones with Amoonguss can be problematic if you aren't prepared). On the flip side, Lopunny man handles offense. With access to Fake Out and 135 Speed after evolving, Lopunny is an absolute monster. So offensively, they already have decent synergy. Not specific to Pokemon, but to the different general playstyles. But I did notice that the core has some trouble dealing with bird Pokemon. on top of that, neither Lopunny nor Serperior can OHKO the Latis without prior damage or a boost in Serps case. So I thought Choice Scarf Tyranitar would fit well in the next slot. It checks Talonflame and Pinsir, which otherwise force out both Lopunny and Serperior, and can Pursuit trap them if needed. Looking at the core I had so far, I knew that momentum would be incredibly important to maintain, and would make achieving the team's goal much easier. I've used Tornadus-T in the past as a partner to Serperior, as it is one of the best teammates for it imo, and decided it fit in well here. Tornadus checks keldeo, for which I have no switch-ins at the moment (Serperior hates the residual damage from burn), and it also lures in Rotom-W for Serperior, while U-turn provides general momentum and works well with a Pursuit trapper and fast hard hitters like Lopunny and Serperior in general. Next, I wanted something that could not only check Heatran, but take advantage of the fact that it will almost always switch into Serperior. I thought Keldeo worked perfectly here. Keldeo is also a pokemon that pairs very well with Serperior, but also checks Scizor, which absolutely destroys the team so far if Serp gets worn down even a little. Finally, I noticed the team had some issues with Landorus-T, especially Scarf variants. I also lacked Stealth Rock (an unfortunate habit of mine is building teams that work perfectly together, but forgetting Stealth Rock in the process). I thought Offensive Landorus-T fit well here. It provides Stealth Rock, while also being both a secondary bird check and a Lando-T check, should I need it. It also can help buffer the massive weakness most offensive teams naturally have with Metagross, Lopunny, and Gallade, which all give the team some issues even with Lando-T if they carry Ice Punch. Watch out for these Pokemon when playing. It takes smart moves with Lando-T and Tornadus-T's momentum in addition to Lopunny's speed and Tyranitar's trapping abilities to beat a well played Metagross. Other than that, certain Dragon-types can be really difficult to play around since the team lacks any Steels of Fairy types. Although Zard X and Lati are pretty easily dealt with, Mega Altaria can be very problematic if Landorus or Lopunny get too low. Remember, the team is offensive in nature, so you have to carefully calculate your game plan and constantly be thinking about risk vs reward to use it well. Otherwise Pokemon like the ones I just mentioned will blow this team back. But in general, pay smart and this team will be very rewarding.
EDIT: Also, I know I changed the moveset of Lopunny, but it seemed more suited to beating stall and I thought the best part of this pair was that one handled stall and the other offense :/ sorry
EDIT2: It was pointed out to me that Mega Lopunny gives the team a lot of trouble. Admittedly it is a big issue for the team, and if you find that it is too much so, you can change Keldeo to Scarf. The combination of Lando-T and Scarf Keld should be enough to keep it at bay, if not, it will take smart switching and not relying on Ttar too much (it's the only mon on the team that Lop can switch in on). So just be careful.
Mega Lopunny Balance by TheEnder
Mega Lopunny is a really cool and good Pokemon, but building around it isnt the easiest task, as a lot checks it. Personally, I am not really a fan of the given set, but against offense it's cool becuase you can pivot out on the incoming Landorus-T or Clefable. To take care of these on the Baton Pass, as well as other Lopunny checks, such as Celebi, Chesnaught, Suicune, Hippowdon, and Gliscor, Life Orb Gengar was added. It is also a great stallbreaker, and most Stall teams struggle to take it on, especially if you manage to pass it a Healing Wish. Next, I added the defensive core of Starmie + Ferrothorn + Hippowdon. Thanks to great defensive synergy, not a lot is capable of breaking through it. Keldeo, Hidden Power Fire Latios, Gliscor, and Stallbreaker Talonflame are some of the Pokemon capable of doing so, though, so Starmie was added. Not only does it check all of these Pokemon, but it also offers greatly appreciated Rapid Spin support. At the moment, the team is looksing really solid, and has no major issues. However, the last slot can fiulfill many roles. For example, running Assault Vest Tornadus-T fixes the minor weakness to Landorus and Gengar, while the option i finally landed on, Unaware Clefable, gives the team a way of reliably beating Mega Gallade and Calm Mind Clefable, whitout having to rely on Gengar, of which is easily worn down. Wish is also really cool for healing Gengar or Lopunny in a pinch, against passive Pokemon such as Hippowdon or Alomomola.
Second take on the team / suggestions by Jukain
I would definitely replace one of your fillers (BPass/HW) for Ice Punch on Lopunny considering that the team has a hard time against Gliscor on the whole. Taunt Gliscor can be a major annoyance in and of itself and so can SD, as it can PP stall Clefable and you have nothing else for it. Ice Punch at least dents Gliscor and get SpD variants (the most common ones right now) out of the way. Also, Hippowdon is missing its Leftovers and I would run 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD Impish so you can handle Thundurus and LO Gengar with it, the latter being a sort of due to Taunt but at least you can sort of deal with it.
The other major problem with this team is that it's really, really Mega Slowbro weak. I would run Calm Mind over Heal Bell on Clefable in order to take care of this. With this in addition to Gengar, I think it's possible to manage Mega Slowbro. I would absolutely consider Fake Out on Lopunny because it can really help Mega Lopunny in Mega Evolving, which is especially needed as Gengar is a major pain, though you could also run Toxic in order to help more with Slowbro. You pretty much have to run Gyro Ball over Protect on Ferrothorn because you need the kill against Gengar and Mega Gardevoir as well as actually pressuring the Defog from Latios, which you fail to do currently. Some minor notes are 29 HP IVs for Gengar in order to hit the LO number and max Speed on Starmie because there is literally no reason not to outspeed Serperior and Scarf Magnezone as well as tie with Raikou, which has the potential to win or lose you games.
Mienshao + Raikou VoltTurn Offense by TheEnder
Actually spent quite a long time on this core, as building around it was pretty hard, especially when it has already been used in other successful teams (looking at you ben gay and tokyo tom). However, I am happy with the final result. U-Turn Mienshao + Choice Specs Raikou is great versus balance and stall relying on Pokemon such as Heatran and Chansey to take Raikou on, ad they're easily worn down by Mienshao. Over Jirachi, which was suggested as first, I decided to use Ferrothorn as a Stealth Rock user. It is a huge thorn (you see what i did there I'm just too funny) in offense's side, and it also great versus balanced team of which lack an immunity to Grass moves. However, dealing with Mega Sableye, which is the face of stall teams in the current metagame, is very hard for Ferrothorn. After a couple of Calm Mind boosts, Raikou isn't capable of touching it, either. For that reason, Calm Mind Clefable was added. Acting as a great pivot and check to dangerous threats such as Mega Lopunny, but also a great stallbreaker with Stored Power. To further limit Sableye's ability to threaten the team, and to deal with wallbreakers such as Mega Beedrill, Landorus, and opposing Calm Mind Clefable, specially defensive Gliscor with Swords Dance was added. The duo of Clefable and Gliscor, coupled with Raikou and Mienshao, is hard to deal with for even the bulkiest teams. The last emember of the team, Mega Altaria, was added to handle Mega Charizard X and Mega Gyarados with Substitute defensively, and threaten offensive builds with its strong STAB. All in all, the team turnt out well, and has a really amazing color scheme :O
Second take on the team / suggestions by Jukain
The first thing that jumped out at me with this team is that it's 6-0'd by Jolly SD Talonflame. Another problem looks to be Mega Metagross, which is an issue amplified by the fact that you're running dual Fairies. What I'd do in this case is run Slowbro over Clefable in order to handle these threats and give your team an overall more solid defensive backbone. I don't know that Clefable really does too much for your team other than being obviously a good win condition with Calm Mind, which is nice and all but you need to cover threats and you already have stuff for the things Clefable deals with. It also means that Altaria isn't forced to deal with Zard X, which it doesn't really want to do. I'd make sure to run Toxic so you can cripple Mega Slowbro, which again look to be rather annoying though less so than the previous team due to the sheer power and greater consistency than Gengar which Specs Raikou possesses.
Kyurem-Black + Mega Gyarados Balance by TheEnder
Gyarados + Kyurem-B is surpringsly threatening, and most balanced teams can have a really hard time coming in on either of the threats. Even though the offensive nature of the core may invite to a more offensive playstyle, I decided to take it to my preferred style, which is balance. I added the defensive core of Unaware Clefable and Ferrothorn; these two together are incredibly hard to break through, outside of dedicated wallbreakers, such as Landorus and Mega Charizard Y. I decided to make Clefable Unaware + Calm Mind + Heall Bell rather than Magic Guard + Calm Mind + two attacks, becuase the utility of Heal Bell is incredibly useful against full stall teams. Calm Mind with Unaware is also capable of winning Calm Mind wars versus Magic Guard Clefable and Suicune, which is a nice feat to pack. To deal with the Pokemon capable of breaking through the core, specially defensive Talonflame was added. In additoion to being able to come in on some of the hardest hitting wallbreakers in the metagame, it hits really hard even without investment, and with Swords Dance, is can prove to be a pain for bulkier teams. Thanks to Taunt, you can set up on Alomomola, Heatran without Ancient Power or Stone Edge, defensive Starmie, and Tentacruel, all of which would otherwise force Talonflame out. Lastly, the team desperately needed a was of removing hazards. Having three Pokemon weak to Stealth Rock, and a defensive core reliant on being healthy is no good without a Rapid Spin or Defog user. In the end, after going back and forth between the likes of Latios, Excadrill, and Zapdos, my choice fell on defensive Starmie. It is perhaps the most reliable Rapid Spin user right now, and in bwtewwn Scald burns and hazard damage, not even Mega Sableye is calable of spinblocking it. In addition to spinning it also provides a great switchin to Keldeo and Metagross, both of which can prove to be annoying depending on their sets.
Mega Diancie Balance by TheEnder
We decided to stick your two requests together, as your cores were very similar. The idea of Diancie backed up by a solid defensive core is really nice, and there is a lot fo room for building. Teh first thing that stands out is the wekness to Clefable and opposing Ferrothorn. But, instead of adding a Heatran, which would force them out, I decided to add a couple of offensive lures, which might end up in a Daincie sweep. The lures of my choice were Adamant Earth Plate Landorus-T, and Hidden Power Fire Latios. These two Pokemon are also incredibly solid outside of luring in Daincie's checks, so I found fitting to run both of them. Latios comes in on Keldeo, Landorus, and Mega Chariard Y, and Landorus-T, even when Adamant, is still a solid switch-in to many physical attackers, such as Mega Lopunny, Mega Charizard X, Mega Gallade, and Mega Beedrill. In addition to this, due to Landorus's poplarity sinking, people are less prepared for it, and pack less Ground-resist in general. I put Stealth Rock on Landorus-T, and changed Sthealth Rock to Spikes on Ferrothorn. This way, you are able to set up rocks versus Mega Sableye teams, as Landorus-T is capable of 2HKOing after just a little bit of damage with the given EV spread. A major problem to the team at the moment is Calm Mind Clefable; even though Landorus-T 2HKOs with Earthquake, its not granted you are able to deal with it. Therefore, I chose to add Dragalge as the final Pokemon. With Adaptability, you are able to 2HKO Clefable through as much as two Calm Mind boosts, while comfortably taking its Moonblasts. I chose to go with its Draco Plate set with Toxic Spikes, due to its ability to pressure stall teams. You still hit plenty hard with Draco Meteor and Sludge Wave, and the added utility I found more valuable than the sheer power Chocie Specs offers. Dragalge is also bulky enough to check wallbreakers such as Gengar and Thundurus, both of which are otherwise annoying n_n
Mega Altaria + Talonflame Offense by rob.
I obviously started with the original core of M-Altaria and Talonflame. I added Emboar because it's able to beat almost everything that M-Altaria has trouble dealing with, which includes Ferrothorn, Skarmory, Scizor, Bisharp, Heatran, Magnezone. I wanted to try Emboar out because of its newly released Reckless ability and it has worked extremely well in conjunction with Fairy types because of its ability to beat almost all Fairy-type checks. You could possible swap M-Altaria with M-Gardevoir and M-Diancie and still be successful. Emboar was given 220 Speed Evs to outspeed Rotom-Wash and 2HKO it on switches. Adding Emboar allowed me to be able to preserve Talonflame for late-game cleaning. M-Altaria can be an extremely dangerous threat because of its bulk, amazing typing, and ability. Believe me when I tell you that no one will expect you to use Agility since the most common set uses DD. Agility gives M-Altaria all the speed it needs to beat conventional Scarfers and speedy Megas (Lopunny, Alakazam). Next up was Rotom-W, who was added for its ability to check M-Metagross. It's also able to deal with Flying-Spam and it's a great pivot in general. I needed a hazard remover so of course I had to add Latias or Latios. I chose Latias because of Healing Wish, a support option that can be extremely helpful in some situations. Garchomp was added last. It's an excellent reliable hazard lead that's even better with a Lum Berry and Swords Dance. Allowing the team to get off to excellent starts because it can pressure teams early.
Mega Lopunny + Gengar Offense by rob.
Started off with two of my favorite mon's Lopunny and Gengar. Since you wanted an offensive team I gave M-Lopunny Fake Out so it can use it to break potential sashes on common leads like Garchomp and Terrakion and force them out with an impending Ice Punch or High Jump Kick. You can also use it to scout for Scarf Landorus-T's and CM Keldeo, two big threats to the team. Next up was Air Balloon Heatran. The Air Balloon allows it to safely combat Sand Offense and Scarf Landorus-T (one lacking Superpower). It's mainly used for Stealth Rock but it can net a KO or two with proper usage. I chose to use LO Sub-Split Gengar with Sludge Wave + Focus Blast to have something that can reliably deal with defensive teams. I chose Sludge Wave instead of Shadow Ball because Fairy-types (mainly Clefable) were somewhat troublesome to deal with. Next I needed a proven Choice Scarf mon that could reliably revenge kill as well as provide opportunities for a teammate to sweep (mainly BD Azumarill), so Landorus-Therian was chosen. Latios is pretty dangerous when given support. By support I mean when it's surrounded by mon's that can beat its checks (Tyranitar, Bisharp, Clefable, etc). After Lopunny, Heatran, and Gengar beat its checks Latios is able to freely nuke opposing teams with powerful Draco Meteor's. I've given it Roost to recover from residual damage and Hidden Power Fighting to OHKO Bisharp, 2HKO Tyranitar, and KO a weakened Ferrothorn if it needs to. Last is Belly Drum Azumarill, which is probably my favorite mon to use right now because it's so easy to set up and clean with it. When I build offensive teams I try to add a counter lead, this team lacks a dedicated lead but you can attempt to counter lead during team preview to get a jump.
wobboffense by AM
This team went through a couple of phases of testing from trying out different things that worked along with some cool things these past weeks that I've found pretty effective. M-Manectric came about from different mega changes from M-Gross then to M-Diancie that required a cleaner and revenge killer that wouldn't be completely susceptible to both T-Flame and Ferrothorn, M-Manectric consolidated a lot of roles at once that I felt Wobb and Keldeo appreciated. Let's you clean up as well as grab momentum on the entire team which all have options depending on the match-up. Keldeo is pretty standard with SubCM to help you stall-break against your common defensive cores. Wobbuffet is well....Wobbuffet. It traps stuff and makes it annoying to face. Choice Band Tyranitar is the wall-breaker and is an extremely underrated threat. After a good amount of testing I came to the conclusion Adamant is more useful since it nets you KOs on stuff like Defensive Slowbro and Ferrothorn that you might miss out on when running Jolly. Jolly does have the benefits of outpacing Adamant Bisharp though so feel free to try out whichever you prefer. Ferrothorn is part of the build like M-Manectric that took me a bit to figure out. I had stuff like Mamoswine and Lando-T originally but made my matchup against Rain Offense absolutely garbage, thanks Ox the Box, from a lack of an extra Water resist and still made me Bisharp, M-Gyarados, M-Metagross and Azumarill weak, hence the Rocky Helmet. I interchange between Gyro and Leech Seed, Gyro giving it more of an offensive feel for the team which I do prefer and I feel works better. I needed something to improve my match-up against fast offense, a secondary Bisharp check to help the team, ground immunity, and the most important part something that wasn't weak to rocks since the team lacks hazard removal. These roles were being figured out amongst different mons I tried before and sort of fell flat on its face. Hawlucha was able to provide a lot of traits I was looking for and worked well in practice so there it is. Teams a bit Fairy weak so play carefully around these, there's your heads up.
Bisharp + Crawdaunt Heavy Offense by AM
So for those who are newer to building teams and feel distraught when something in paper doesn't work as well in practice, don't worry it happens to all of us. This team went through like 4 drafts lol, with the help of WCAR doing some initial testing. Originally the core had Double Genie of Lando and Thundurus but had issues with general electric types and Thundurus providing very little to team in practice as WCAR pointed out. Heatran came into play as a rock setter that could cripple M-Sableye, offset the weakness to fast electric types such as M-Manectric, trap with Magma Storm, along with all the utility it usually provides. Chople Berry was put in there to help the match-up with M-Lopunny, Hammer Arm M-Metagross, Focus Blast Thundurus, Gengar, Char-Y to name a few with the last one getting hit with Stone Edge coverage. M-Gross is the mega cause it's strong as hell, pairs up with the original core of Bisharp and Crawdaunt really well to help handling various fighting types such as Keldeo and Conkeldurr. Set is standard and it's Jolly nature since Grass Knot still nets you all the KOs and 2HKO's necessary on what it's intended to hit anyways. Latios is a CM variant to provide a set up sweeper and wall-breaker that breaks down physical walls such as Skarmory and Chesnaught much more easily, gives you a Keldeo switch in as well which is necessary. The team was another one that originally had hazard removal but due to the nature of its build just murdered its momentum and was only there to supplement Thundurus at the time. Torn-T I decided to put in there since Regenerator was able to offset its SR weakness along with a speed tier that didn't get me destroyed by Scarf Tyranitar. The first three moves are standard while Heat Wave is there to not get destroyed by every M-Scizor in existence and making Ferrothorn a bit more easier to handle. After some discussion with Jukain we both agreed that offense can be a bit of a challenge to handle so you have the option of using Scarf Lando-T over Tornadus-T to help with some revenge killing aspects. I personally like Tornadus-T a bit better cause I felt Lando-T in practice made the team too physically oriented for my liking however it's to make you all aware. I've considered optional stuff like Lum Berry on Crawdaunt along with Taunt or Pursuit over SD on Bisharp or something like a lure with Aerial Ace for Conkeldurr or Keldeo switch-ins cause I never found a single opportunity where I could set up SD, WCAR that's something to think about if you want to give that a shot in your free time.
Houndoom + Tornadus-T Offense by AM
Thanks to StarmeiTheGod for helping a bit with this build and providing me that lord Jirachi set a week before he posted it in underrated sets. I knew Heatran was primarily an issue in M-Houndooms sweeping capabilities and the Natural Gift set gives it the ability to lure it in instead of using an obvious conventional check that is easily read. Speed is brought up to help handle Mamoswine a bit better. I slashed body slam cause the Zards are pretty annoying right now and who doesn't like Serene Grace Body Slams. Rotom-W is to help with general threats such as Talonflame that hinder the cores effectiveness along with providing momentum that many of the team-mates can take advantage of. I went Rest-O-Chesto cause I felt a more offensive team designed on momentum wants to focus on faster recovery than one offered by Pain Split. Conkeldurr helps with general offense especially those that utilize Gengar and provides some relief against certain aspects of Hyper Offense. Latias is basic Defog support and the set is pretty standard along with its ability to check Keldeo instead of relying on Torn-T to do that job. Torn-T nothing much else to say. I originally had Taunt over Heat Wave which you're free to change out however I felt was nice to help with Scizor and Ferrothorn a bit better. M-Houndoom is standard as well so not too much else to say. Rain Offense is an annoyance to the team but that's sort of a given for most offensive teams anyways.
Nothing too crazy here. You have an EV spread that provides Togekiss both some offensive and defensive aspects in regards to missing some 2HKOs by a marginal amount such ones from M-Gallade and M-Lopunny. Scarf Heatran provides you a secondary cleaner paired up with M-Sceptile along with a Lati switch in. Hippowdon is for Stealth Rocks and a buffer for threats such as the Zards, Bisharp, Thundurus, and Lando-T. Starmie is hazard removal and your Keldeo switch in / check. I have Recover for longevity reasons since you wanted something more balanced but if that doesn't work out you can always try a coverage option like Ice Beam for the Latis. Scizor is to help with offensive Fairy types such as M-Diancie and M-Altaria without getting 6-0'd by them. Certain set up sweepers like Rock Polish Lando-I and DDance Gyarados can be annoying so just tread carefully around these. Sand Force is on Hippowdon to help you not supply sand to your opponent for Excadrill to clean you.
Edit: Amy Sorel's Suggestion here. You also can run Ancientpower as well if you still want the benefits of Nasty Plot boosts.
Physical Venusaur + Power Herb Heatran by AM
This team took awhile to test simply cause I was trying stuff out and the usual builds were just way too predictable and could never maintain consistency. After awhile I decided I need some lure sets to get the ball rolling. You have physically offensive M-Venusaur to take on and threatened some of the usual checks and counters to its standard set such as Heatran and Psychics type that try to switch in such as the Latis taking a hefty amount from Knock Off along with speed to outpace Heatran and everything below that. This also came back to an issue I had with some specially defensive walls such as Chansey which was another reason why this set was being used. Gliscor is simply the set you provided me so not too much to say here. Heatran is Power Herb Solarbeam to catch Keldeo switch-ins along with Magma Storm to trap threats such as Slowbro, Alomomola, Suicune, your usual defensive water types. You have Starmie with Psyshock for CM Keldeo and its defensive spread for status absorption and hazard removal. Klefki is one of the main players on this team because it stops set up sweepers such as M-Gyarados and Charizard-X from flooring you, along with Spikes support to maintain pressure on a variety of builds. Heal Block is so that you're not 6-0'd by every M-Bro, defensive cores, and defensive set up sweeper reliant on recovery in existence. Had Raikou originally until once again MKSlayer saw that it was a team that was 6-0 by his favorite thing to use Sub DDance Gyarados. As such Rotom-W was added to help with this threat.
Charizard X + Sand Offense by AM
You like Offense, so here's some basic Sand Offense. Went ahead and kept the sets you chose because they worked out pretty nicely in practice. Starmie is for hazard removal and a Keldeo switch in primarily along with cleaning aspects with Analytic Life Orb. Sand Offense duo with Ttar / Excadrill and just a basic support set for Ttar, Ice Beam to help with Gliscor and x4 Ice weak mons such as Garchomp and Lando-T as well. Jolly Swords Dance Life Orb Excadrill for general cleaning and a secondary win condition paired up with Char-X. Frustration is over Rock Slide to ease the prediction to traditional switch ins to Excadrill's STABs and does a bit more damage to Rotom-W which I found nice, feel free to use Rock Slide if you feel it's a necessity. Char-X is pretty standard with the option of going double dance with SD + Dragon Dance. I had some success with the double dance aspect for breaking defensive cores more but I know that isn't everyones thing and there are times where I liked having that recovery from Roost so choose what you prefer.
Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off
- Belly Drum
Gonna tell you in my honest opinion Salamence is better off going Scarf or just being replaced by Kyurem-B or Dragonite. Scarf is the merit to Salamence or if being "creative" a special set of Hydro / Fire Blast / Draco / Roost or Coverage due to its faster speed tier over Kyurem-B but even then Kyurem-B is vastly superior, however for the sake of your core I kept DDance but with slight adjustments. Some Dragmag for you as the core was pretty offensive and the balance team I originally tried this on just murdered the momentum of the core and build. In all honesty everything is pretty standard I tried out Rocky Helm Garchomp originally but I didn't enjoy getting outpaced by stuff like M-Gardevoir and lacking some offensive presence. I chose BD Azumarill because Belly Drum has a really great match-up against sand offense and general offense if you find a good opportunity to set up, priority helps as well. Rock Polish M-Metagross is the win condition along side the core you provided to break down its usual checks and counters with enough speed to outpace Jolly Sand Rush Excadrill in sand after a boost. I went Scarf Magnezone cause it's much better to help check some base 110 speed tier Pokemon and below, important on a build that requires set up before you're able to outpace some of these. For the sake of blanket checking from an offensive stand-point a bunch of threats I went with M-Metagross but offensive M-Scizor is an optional choice for mega as well with Bullet Punch, Bug Bite, Superpower, Swords Dance if that's a preference along with making you less Bisharp weak. Just considering the pros and cons, pick your preference, play aggressively and you should do well.
