The Scientist

[GRB1]

The Scientist
(Coldplay fuck yeah)

Hey guys, GRB1, or S-Matrix from Showdown here. I have been working on this team for a really long time, around the offensive SpecsOgre + ScarfZek core. I have been letting the metagame develop and adapting accordingly. While I believe this team to be one of my best, it is still very improvable. Changes are in red. Without any further adieu, here's the team:

The Scientist (Xerneas) @ Leftovers
Ability: Fairy Aura
252 HP / 252 SpDef / 4 Def
Calm Nature (+SpDef, -Atk)
-Rest
-Sleep Talk
-Moonblast
-Aromatherapy


Oh man. The cover pokemon just don't disappoint this generation, do they? Dragon immunity is very nice, and of course, and this team has proven weak to heavy status bombardments and other threats like Dialga. This set helps to round out those problems, while simultaneously providing for the team solid resistances, cleric support, and the amazing ability to wreck most Darkrai sets. It's a great pokemon for any balanced/offensive team to be sure.

Ronald Reagan (Kyogre) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Surf
- Thunder
- Ice Beam

The nickname is all too appropriate. Reagan is the president of his respective domain, just as Kyogre is the president of Ubers. Also, Reagan destroys walls (played integral role in tearing down Berlin Wall, for those who didn't get it), just as SpecsOgre destroys walls. Xerneas at +2 certainly is frightening, however, the Blobs (Chansey/Blissey), don't give a flying fuck how jacked up your stats are, and will stall you the fuck out. But with this guy... that doesn't fly. The set is basic SpecsOgre. Modest is because if something threatens, you don't need to out-speed, just to switch.

Hentai (Giratina-Origin) @ Griseous Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 220 HP / 32 Atk / 252 Def
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Tail
- Wil-O-Wisp

Giratina Origin replaces Lando-T, and does his job a thousand times better. With larger overall defensive bulk than Arceus Himself, and offensive stats to match His, Gira is one hell of a threat. No longer shall EKiller waltz all over my team. Giratina will make sure of that. Ho-oh is also difficult to deal with, and so, Giratina carries Stone Edge. The EV's are standard physical wall Giratina, with enough attack to OHKO 252/0 Ho-oh. Shadow Sneak provides a good source of priority, while Dragon Tail helps to phaze burned attackers.

Renewable Badassery (Zekrom) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Bolt Strike
- Sleep Talk
- Outrage
- Volt Switch

Scarf Zekrom is laughably good in this meta-game. He helps constitute my "2U-Turn" core and works extremly well with SpecsOgre He destroys the flying-types that dominate this tier, OHKO's Kyogre, and 2HKO's Xerneas with Bolt Strike. Outrage is admittedly much harder to spam than in Gen. 5, but once Xerneas is removed from my opponent's team, it may be useful. Sleep Talk allows me to (albeit shakily) check Darkrai. EV's are pretty standard for Scarf Zekrom.

Guido (Scizor-Mega) (M) @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Pursuit
- Roost
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn

Mega-Scizor completes the "2U-Turn" core which both Kyogre and Xerneas enjoy, and destroys all fairies. While steel is not a fantastic offensive typing, Bullet Punch provides a nice source of STAB priority for a team otherwise without. The EV's provide me with a Xerneas destroyer and a Dragon-move tanker. The moves are great for coverage on multiple types and knock off is an all-around great move this generation.

Botany Swag (Arceus-Grass) @ Meadow Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 160 SDef / 96 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Defog
- Roar
- Recover

Groudon and Kyogre can't be allowed to run around and squash my team. This guy makes sure that doesn't happen. The moveset is really standard support-ceus. Arc-Grass also fucks up Smeargle leads. He defogs against Web Smeargles and isn't affected by the spore of SmashPass Smeargle and can phaze it out. Also, if Lando is gone, it provides a solid Zekrom check. Defog is for matches that require a good deal of switching and there are hazards up. EV's are tanky defensive Grassceus.



Welp, that's the team. Rate, hate, and steal if you liked!
Credits:

Fireburn: Helped the team's success rate drastically with his helpful suggestions.

Hack: Helped to optimize some of my sub-optimal sets, and also gave me some really great suggestions in general.

n00b: You helped me test an earlier version of this team many times. Thanks dude.

PHP: Thanks for the ScarfZek + SpecsOgre suggestion. It's godly lol.

Importable:

The Scientist (Xerneas) @ Leftovers
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy

Ronald Reagan (Kyogre) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Surf
- Thunder
- Ice Beam

Hentai (Giratina-Origin) @ Griseous Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 224 HP / 32 Atk / 252 Def
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Tail
- Will-O-Wisp

Renewable Badassery (Zekrom) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Bolt Strike
- Sleep Talk
- Outrage
- Volt Switch

Guido (Scizor-Mega) (M) @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Pursuit
- Roost
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn

Botany Swag (Arceus-Grass) @ Meadow Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 160 SDef / 96 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Defog
- Roar
- Recover

 

[orch]

One of more solid team on here, but it's so generic and boring tbh. The lack of ekiller check is worrying, and no, support land-t and WoW are not "checks" lol. There's eleceus and general cm arc weakness too. There's severe stall weakness, despite of specsogre due to status spam (hint, toxic spikes own you nice n ez). Geo xern honestly feel like out of the place on this team. Sticky is a complete bitch for you to overcome too.

So, you need:
cleric
eleceus check
ekiller check

Firstly, get rid of u-turn on land-t. I don't like u-turn on slow land-t, since its role is to tank, not to act as a pivot IMO. Swap it for toxic, and this kinda helps with your arc weakness (not really).
Then, change your scizor set to: defog, bp, roost, pursuit and use 248 hp 252 atk 8 spe/spd. I know that defog on scizor is kinda taboo but your team isn't really desperate for hazard control, and dedicating arc for it is a waste IMO.
Change geoxern to spd aroma xern (rest, sleep talk, aroma, moonblast and hp/spD evs)
Change grassceus into cm ghostceus (WoW, judgment, cm, and recover) to check ekiller and act as your endgame condition, also doubles as a palkia, kangaskhan, mmy, and mmx checks.

I do realize that these changes make you kinda more vulnerable to kyogre, but you can use your own kyogre to switch in and scare away with thunder. Zekrom is also your other kinda shaky check vs it. Just make sure that you get SR up, and when ogre is weakened enough, ghostceus can recover spam the surfs. Eleceus is still an issue, but most of other forms should be dealt by specsogre i guess.

My best attempt to improve your team without restructuring or changing too much stuff.

 

[Inspirited]

You explained what it does for your team well imo, but Grasseus's description needs to be longer

i would hate to see this locked

 

[Hack]

This is a quite solid build, defintely one of the better RMTs I have seen around here this generation. However, some of your spreads and sets are still slightly suboptimal, which I will adress later on. First I'll attempt to analyze the general throught process concerning some choices. Firstly, I feel the combination of Landorous-T and Grassceus with a pursuit Scizor should imply that the team is going in a more stallish direction. Grassceus is a good mon if you support it properly, mostly because of the fact that it compresses team slots quite well.
With that said, when building Defog Balance you need to be extra cautios of way to deal with the holy trinity that is Ho-oh, Gengar and status. Pay extra attention to these aside from the usual mons that needs to be covered (like Kyogre, Arceus-Normal, Xerneas) whenn building, imo. For this team I think Ho-oh and Gengar are covered quite well, the Scizor set is not optimal but that is an easy chance that doesn't disturb the dynamic of the team, and a change I will get to later. Status absorbtion is the big issue for this team, along with no clear way to deal with Extremekiller Arceus in the long run.

Changes I'd suggest based on my thougths are:
Defensive RestTalk Cleric Xerneas > current Xerneas
This change adds a bigger physically defensive presence to the team, which is helpful as it can take a hit from a boosted Arceus-Normal, something that is always helpful. It also checks MMX, Yveltal and of course deals with status well.
248 HP, 16 ATK, 244 SDEF, Adamant Scizor with Bullet Punch, Pursuit, Roost and Toxic
An optimiziation allowing you to bait in Ho-oh, Toxic CM Arceus as well as performing your usual duties well.
After these two changes, further optimization includes fitting a stallbreaker, a secondary Xerneas check (important) and a more reliable way of handling Arceus-Normal. However, at this point I'm getting quite close to duking some of my own builds to you, so I will leave it here and hope that you can complete further improvements by taking own action now that I gave you some tips. Good luck!

 

[Reviver]

I have seen so many of these teams already and although it does work fairly well, I do believe high predictions are needed to be successful dues to these teams' suboptimal checks to main meta threats. For instance, I once used an Arceus-Water in a similar team to this and it struggles against opposing Kyogre as it was a shaky check. Furthermore, a Extreme Killer Arceus with access to Recover (or even just a Lum berry) spells complete threat if played correctly by your opponent. That said, you need Toxic or Superpower or even Explosion on Landorus-T with more attack investment obviously to significantly check Normal Arceus better. Toxic can be helpful even if Arceus has Lum berry since it opens it up for a burn later on.

Moreover, I think a banded scizor would be better here as it deal way more damage to Xerneas to avoid any problems. Ho-oh can also be problematic if you don't get SR up in time.

 

[GRB1]

One of more solid team on here, but it's so generic and boring tbh. The lack of ekiller check is worrying, and no, support land-t and WoW are not "checks" lol. There's eleceus and general cm arc weakness too. There's severe stall weakness, despite of specsogre due to status spam (hint, toxic spikes own you nice n ez). Geo xern honestly feel like out of the place on this team. Sticky is a complete bitch for you to overcome too.

So, you need:
cleric
eleceus check
ekiller check

Firstly, get rid of u-turn on land-t. I don't like u-turn on slow land-t, since its role is to tank, not to act as a pivot IMO. Swap it for toxic, and this kinda helps with your arc weakness (not really).
Then, change your scizor set to: defog, bp, roost, pursuit and use 248 hp 252 atk 8 spe/spd. I know that defog on scizor is kinda taboo but your team isn't really desperate for hazard control, and dedicating arc for it is a waste IMO.
Change geoxern to spd aroma xern (rest, sleep talk, aroma, moonblast and hp/spD evs)
Change grassceus into cm ghostceus (WoW, judgment, cm, and recover) to check ekiller and act as your endgame condition, also doubles as a palkia, kangaskhan, mmy, and mmx checks.

I do realize that these changes make you kinda more vulnerable to kyogre, but you can use your own kyogre to switch in and scare away with thunder. Zekrom is also your other kinda shaky check vs it. Just make sure that you get SR up, and when ogre is weakened enough, ghostceus can recover spam the surfs. Eleceus is still an issue, but most of other forms should be dealt by specsogre i guess.

My best attempt to improve your team without restructuring or changing too much stuff.

Thanks for the great rate Orch. Yup, Lum EKiller is a bitch to this team, and I have to be extremely careful playing around it. I don't know about changing Grassceus though, because being Kyogre weak is worse than being Ekiller weak imo. Maybe Phys. Def Giratina-O > Landorus? Still provides a ground immunity while also being a more solid check to EKiller, Ho-oh and the like. ClericXern seems really cool though, I'll definitely give it a try. Thanks again.

You explained what it does for your team well imo, but Grasseus's description needs to be longer

i would hate to see this locked

Fixed :) Thanks Wreck.

This is a quite solid build, defintely one of the better RMTs I have seen around here this generation. However, some of your spreads and sets are still slightly suboptimal, which I will adress later on. First I'll attempt to analyze the general throught process concerning some choices. Firstly, I feel the combination of Landorous-T and Grassceus with a pursuit Scizor should imply that the team is going in a more stallish direction. Grassceus is a good mon if you support it properly, mostly because of the fact that it compresses team slots quite well.
With that said, when building Defog Balance you need to be extra cautios of way to deal with the holy trinity that is Ho-oh, Gengar and status. Pay extra attention to these aside from the usual mons that needs to be covered (like Kyogre, Arceus-Normal, Xerneas) whenn building, imo. For this team I think Ho-oh and Gengar are covered quite well, the Scizor set is not optimal but that is an easy chance that doesn't disturb the dynamic of the team, and a change I will get to later. Status absorbtion is the big issue for this team, along with no clear way to deal with Extremekiller Arceus in the long run.

Changes I'd suggest based on my thougths are:
Defensive RestTalk Cleric Xerneas > current Xerneas
This change adds a bigger physically defensive presence to the team, which is helpful as it can take a hit from a boosted Arceus-Normal, something that is always helpful. It also checks MMX, Yveltal and of course deals with status well.
248 HP, 16 ATK, 244 SDEF, Adamant Scizor with Bullet Punch, Pursuit, Roost and Toxic
An optimiziation allowing you to bait in Ho-oh, Toxic CM Arceus as well as performing your usual duties well.
After these two changes, further optimization includes fitting a stallbreaker, a secondary Xerneas check (important) and a more reliable way of handling Arceus-Normal. However, at this point I'm getting quite close to duking some of my own builds to you, so I will leave it here and hope that you can complete further improvements by taking own action now that I gave you some tips. Good luck!

Thanks Hack. Like I said, I'd definitely like to try ClericXern, which seems really cool. The Scizor set is interesting as well. Though I don't know about forgoing U-Turn, as it often proves invaluable in games like this one: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-104960234. However, your experience >>>>>>>>>> mine, so I may just be acting ridiculous. Thanks for the great rate!

I have seen so many of these teams already and although it does work fairly well, I do believe high predictions are needed to be successful dues to these teams' suboptimal checks to main meta threats. For instance, I once used an Arceus-Water in a similar team to this and it struggles against opposing Kyogre as it was a shaky check. Furthermore, a Extreme Killer Arceus with access to Recover (or even just a Lum berry) spells complete threat if played correctly by your opponent. That said, you need Toxic or Superpower or even Explosion on Landorus-T with more attack investment obviously to significantly check Normal Arceus better. Toxic can be helpful even if Arceus has Lum berry since it opens it up for a burn later on.

Moreover, I think a banded scizor would be better here as it deal way more damage to Xerneas to avoid any problems. Ho-oh can also be problematic if you don't get SR up in time.

Yes, as said earlier Lum EKiller really hurts this team. However, I don't know if Explosion Lando-T is the way to go, and may replace with some form of Giratina. Thanks for the suggestion though. And Banded Scizor still doesn't OHKO StandardXern with Bullet Punch, and does only 10% more than MegaZor.

 

[GRB1]

What is this?:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-105232381

I'm assuming someone imported this team and made some terrible changes since without Gira, Ekiller slayed even harder. I can't really judge the team though since what I played against was not this team.

Lol dude that wasn't me playing you. But yeah the team was super EKiller weak before Gira was added. I went Gira > Lando eventually because it essentially does the same thing but better. lol @ that replay though

 

[Hack]

Why on earth are you replacing your SR user? Not a great way to go, the team was better with Lando-T.

 

[GRB1]

Why on earth are you replacing your SR user? Not a great way to go, the team was better with Lando-T.

I thought about that too. Also about losing a source of U-Turn. However, I was simply too EKiller weak to progress much further.

 

[Hack]

Look elsewhere, you absolutely need SR, and Lando-T is an excellent mon.

 

[Haruno]

In the process of checking ekiller, you've opened yourself to threats that have a wide array of coverage moves (think dialga/palkia) and not to mention that thanks to the changes in your teams the descriptions no longer match the actual team.

 

[GRB1]

Look elsewhere, you absolutely need SR, and Lando-T is an excellent mon.

He is definitely a excellent mon, but the only thing I lose out on is U-Turn/SR (and electric immunity but I have electric type pretty much covered by other parts of the team). Putting Lando-T back on the team really opens a bunch of holes in the overall structure. Ghostceus > Grassceus still leaves the team open to assault by Lum EKiller and adds an absolutely devastating Kyogre weakness. Maybe SR > Roar on Grassceus? Plus, it's 2 A.M. here, and this may just be the tiredness talking, but SR hasn't seemed super crucial for the team's success tbh (and this is pretty high up on the ladder)...

But, you are Hack, and I might just be making myself look like an idiot by refuting your suggestions...

 

[GRB1]

In the process of checking ekiller, you've opened yourself to threats that have a wide array of coverage moves (think dialga/palkia) and not to mention that thanks to the changes in your teams the descriptions no longer match the actual team.

Thanks, I'll fix the descriptions soon. In my experience, RestTalk Xern has handled those two perfectly fine.

 

[Haruno]

Thanks, I'll fix the descriptions soon. In my experience, RestTalk Xern has handled those two perfectly fine.

Doesn't offensive dialga 2hko it easily?

 

[bbg]

Uhm when did Giratina-O get intimidate?