Featured RMT: End of All

This is a team centered around Mega Lopunny and the recently banned Hoopa-Unbound. This team was great at abusing Hoopa-U's many great aspects and synergizes well around it. Thanks to Rotom-W and Mega Lopunny, Hoopa's big weaknesses and issues were, for the most part, taken care of. This was one of my first serious Hoopa-U teams and got the most thought out of any of my Hoopa-U teams; I wasn't a big advocate of Hoopa-U until mid-SPL, and come Week 7 I decided it was time to use it.

This team was originally built around Mega Lopunny, specifically the Ice Punch set. I was playing Sweepage for SPL, and noticed he had a tendency to rely on Landorus-T and Garchomp to handle Lopunny. Neither of these are adequate Lopunny answers, so I decided I would see what I could do with it.

The first real teammate I added was Rotom-Wash. Rotom is a great teammate for Lopunny, especially on Bulky Offense teams. Lopunny obviously finds itself struggling with some bulky Pokémon such as Clefable and Slowbro, the former is commonly going to switch into Rotom and get put into Lopunny 2HKO range via Volt Switch and the latter gets highly annoyed by Rotom. Rotom is also very nice as it helps the team and Lopunny in particular with Talonflame and Scarf Landorus-T, two Lopunny checks.

Knowing I had started off with Lopunny and Rotom, a 'Mon that troubles offense and a great momentum grabber, a good balance breaker was something this team would really appreciate. At the time, I really never used Hoopa-U; I recognized the 'Mon but never really attempted to fit it onto a team. This team in particular opened me up to how amazing this 'Mon truly is. Hoopa-U is pretty much the premier balance breaker and it just fits alongside this core extremely well. Rotom-W is such a great teammate for Hoopa-U, as, similarly to Lopunny, it finds itself struggling with Talonflame and Scarf Landorus-T, as well as Tornadus-T, all of which Rotom-W handles. Hoopa-U also really appreciates the free switchins Rotom provides; coming in on Ferrothorn, Amoonguss, Mega Venusaur, Clefable, Mega Latias and then immediately threatening the opposing side with any one of its attacks and practically guarantee a kill is fantastic.

Generally speaking it's hard for me to truly explain my teambuilding process for teams; I can justify why each Pokémon is on my team but I typically add multiple at once or just don't remember the order. When I add multiple Pokémon I'll recognize what I need in my team and then see the suitable last few members. I'll be explaining what the last three members do, but the real core to the team is Lopunny + Rotom + Hoopa.

Clefable isn't here to do anything out of the norm; it's here to help the team handle a ton of very threatening Pokémon while also providing the team with a win condition in practically every matchup. Mega Lopunny, Mega Diancie, Mega Alakazam, and Latios are all handled by Clefable and would otherwise pose as some very troubling threats for this team to handle. Clefable is really another Pokémon on this team that's hard to replace.

Heatran and Latios are basically required glue at this point; everything they cover are very threatening to my team. Latios has a bit of versatility with what it can run, but the lure set is probably the most optimal, as I dislike running both Stealth Rocks and Earth Power on Heatran, and I really need something to hit Heatran with other than just Rotom-W and Lopunny.

After making the original team some of my biggest gripes with the team was speed and the matchup vs Mega Gardevoir. The team really doesn't have any speed and will struggle with some set up 'Mons as well as 3 Atks Charizard. Mega Lopunny provides the speed needed to handle every non-Scarfer aside from Mega Alakazam and Mega Aerodactyl, which are both handled by the rest of the team. The Gardevoir matchup, to be blunt, isn't good. The team is highly susceptible to getting dismantled, as the team relies on the defensive backbone of Rotom and Heatran a lot, both of which fail to pressure Gardevoir enough to deter it from coming in. The easiest fix is to add Tornadus-T over Hoopa, which not only helps with Gardevoir but really helps the team vs Keldeo + Pursuit teams. However, without Hoopa, the team becomes unable to break teams virtually at all; it relies on Hoopa so much that its the most irreplaceable member of the team.

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Ability: Magic Guard
Nature: Calm
EVs: 248 HP / 184 Def / 76 SDef
IVs: 0 Atk / 18 Spe
Calm Mind | Thunder Wave | Moonblast | Soft-Boiled

I'm not going to repeat what I said while talking about how I built the team. Clefable is here to check a ton of threats and pose as a win condition. A lot of people mindlessly slap Clefable onto teams where there are better alternatives or when it's just not needed. On this team, Clefable is best option considering all of the threats this team would otherwise struggle with.

Clefable greatly helps the team's matchup vs more offensively oriented teams; not only does the speed control from Thunder Wave help, but Clefable checks a multitude of offensive threats that the rest of the team can't handle. Clefable handles the majority of Megas seen on more offensively oriented teams aside from Charizard X, Pinsir, and Scizor, which are handled by Heatran and Rotom-Wash. Clefable also pulls more than just its own weight in games against other playstyles; plenty of times you'll run into scenarios where Clefable is the thing that wins you the game in the end, because that's just what Clefable does.

Clefable's moveset is the standard one; the team really appreciates the speed control from Thunder Wave and really can't afford to not run it, while the rest of the moves are required while running Thunder Wave. The EV spread is an optimization off of the on-site spread, bettering my odds vs Mega Lopunny Returns and Weavile's Icicle Crash after Leftovers are Knocked, while decreasing them vs LO Kyurem-B. The speed IVs greatly reduce the damage Ferrothorn does with Gyro Ball to the point it gets PP stalled while still outspeeding Brave Tyranitar. Further lower speed IVs wouldn't be recommended as you still want to outspeed slow variants of Azumarill, Dragalge, and every paralyzed Choice Scarf 'Mon.

Ability: Levitate
Nature: Hasty
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 29 HP / 30 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
Draco Meteor | Hidden Power [Fire] | Earthquake | Recover

Latios is here for many a reasons, most notably acting as the teams primary switchin to Keldeo. Keldeo is an extremely potent threat to many teams, thus Latios is a very commonly seen 'Mon in OU. This set, however, is an unorthodox one that's usage has died down in the last year or so. At the time, I knew I wanted to use Earthquake because Masterclass really liked using Heatran, but the team really does need this set in most games. Heatran is quite an annoyance should it get in on Clefable while not getting paralyzed by Thunder Wave or without Earthquake, Latios. Earthquake prevents anything on the team from inviting Heatran in and also providing the team with a lure for it, which is greatly appreciated

I really dislike using Latios without HP Fire; so many times you'll run into scenarios where you'll much rather have HP Fire to scare out all the Steels seen in OU, most notably Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Mega Scizor, all of which are neutral or immune to Earthquake and thus laugh at the damage it does. Defog is a really important move, but preventing these threats from coming and setting up Spikes in the first place is going to be more beneficial in a lot of matchups. Defogging and then inviting in their Spiker/Rocker to come back in won't be that beneficial unless it's a long game or you heavily rely on Heatran or Lopunny in a certain matchup. Recover and Draco Meteor are both super important on Latios and this team in particular. Without recovery, you only switch into Keldeo once, and thus become an easily workable check even without Pursuit support. Draco Meteor is a necessity on every set.

Ability: Limber -> Scrappy
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe
Fake Out | Return | High Jump Kick | Ice Punch

Lopunny's a great 'Mon at threatening offensive builds, especially with Ice Punch. When this team was made, a lot of people only relied on Garchomp or Landorus-T for Lopunny, thus getting troubled by Ice Punch variants. Masterclass in particular, as I prefaced in the opening, had a tendency to rely on Landorus-Therian or Garchomp as his go-to check for most physical attackers, and many other people were guilty of having the same trend. These dual Ice weaks aren't able to handle Mega Lopunny and require people to

Fake Out alongside Lopunny's great speed tier allow Lopunny to alleviate the teams issues with speed and faster Pokémon. While it doesn't exactly replace a Scarf 'Mon, Lopunny provides the speed needed for this team. Some people try to get cute with the moveset, but Lopunny really needs all four of these moves. The only thing remotely justifiable is Toxic over Ice Punch as means to not autolose to CM Slowbro, but this team handles Slowbro well enough to keep Ice Punch. There's no reason for Lopunny to bother with any kind of fancy EVs when all it needs is the power and speed.

Ability: Levitate
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 SDef
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Spe
Hydro Pump | Volt Switch | Will-O-Wisp | Pain Split

Rotom-W's primary purpose on this team is to check a multitude of 'Mons that greatly threaten the teams two offensive threats, Mega Lopunny and Hoopa-Unbound, while also grabbing momentum vs a large majority of the metagame. Rotom-W alongside Hoopa-U was a pretty killer core, as virtually every thing that switched into Rotom-W granted Hoopa-U a free switch and then a free kill. Rotom-W is also a great 'Mon to throw onto offensive teams, as it checks a lot of threats that are difficult to cover without using Rotom. The biggest issue with Rotom is that it will typically be a team's primary Ground switchin, and thus opening a weakness to Mold Breaker Excadrill. I hate to just ignore certain 'Mons, but Mold Breaker Excadrill is a really uncommon and Scarf is really only seen on the ladder.

Nothing unorthodox in terms of moves or EVs; the moves are needed and I'm not going to consider Thunder Wave. Charizard X with Earthquake is a big concern but the loss of Pain Split is really bad for this team, threats such as Heatran and Talonflame become too much to handle without even the unreliable recovery from Pain Split. The EVs let Rotom live a Latios Draco Meteor 100% of the time while also helping with rolls vs Life Orb Tornadus-T. The lowered Speed IVs allow me to underspeed most opposing Rotoms and Volt Switch after they switch out.

Ability: Flash Fire
Nature: Timid
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SDef / 252 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Stealth Rock | Lava Plume | Taunt | Toxic

The reasons why Heatran is here are pretty obvious; it gets Rocks up, handles Mega Scizor, and check Mega Charizard X and Clefable. This team is pretty weak to all of these threats even with Heatran around, but its the best option available and suppresses these weaks quite well. Mega Charizard X and Clefable are obviously not guaranteed when Heatran is your primary answer, as both have ways to get around Heatran, however this team will allow you to fight your way out of tough matchups, largely thanks to Hoopa's presence.

Max Speed Heatran is crucial to a lot of teams, as offensive Mega Scizor otherwise will steamroll past slower Heatrans and proceed to beat the remainder of the team. Max Speed has a lot of other uses as well, but obviously has its own set of issues. Being able to outpace Adamant Excadrill, Bisharp, and Mega Heracross all can prove to be very beneficial in some game scenarios, while also being able to outspeed some opposing Heatran and tie with others can be very nice against non-Earth Power variants.

When Hoopa was first released, the primary set used was Life Orb. I found there to be a lot of issues with Life Orb Hoopa; the LO recoil was pretty killer for Hoopa, as it put it into range of a lot of KOs after a round or two or just one round + rocks. Even though it had no guaranteed switchins, it could be played around to an extent. As time went on, people started using Choice Band, which, while better than Life Orb, wasn't quite enough to place Hoopa as an extremely potent threat in the metagame. Come SPL time, a lot of people started using Choice Specs on Hoopa. To put it bluntly, Choice Specs Hoopa was broken. It traded the ability to switch up moves, which made it far more prediction based, for the ability to OHKO so many Pokémon. It also had the edge over Band as the defense drop from Hyperspace Fury proved to be pretty awful at times and the fact there are 'Mons with Intimidate that can prove to be annoying. Specs Hoopa is far more prediction based, but the reward of getting a correct prediction was so much higher than when Life Orb or Band was used. Hoopa's absurdly high power granted it the ability to either 2HKO every slower Pokémon with one of its 3 primary attacks (Dark Pulse / Psyshock / Focus Blast) and to OHKO every faster Pokémon aside from Garchomp.

On this team in particular, Hoopa shines brightly thanks to the momentum grabbed from Rotom-W and the offensive synergy Mega Lopunny and itself share. Hoopa is capable of threatening more balanced builds extremely hard thanks to its absurd stats while Mega Lopunny threatens more offensive teams thanks to its great speed. Obviously the main 3 moves are mandatory, but I opted with Trick over any other move just to have a safety net vs some bulky set up Pokémon. Suicune and Clefable both could be very threatening to this team without Hoopa around, but Hoopa can thankfully mitigate the damage done by those two Pokémon.

Hoopa in particular was a pretty absurd 'Mon; this description really points out how Specs was superior to the other sets, but not really any about how Hoopa was flat out broken. After pushing the council to make something happen about Hoopa, I wrote up the reasoning for its Suspect Test, in which it eventually got banned in a close margin. This suspect happened pretty fast after Hoopa started being seen as a really potent threat and some people have said that the council didn't give the metagame anytime to adapt around the somewhat new Choice Specs set. To put it bluntly, there was no way to adapt around Hoopa without exclusively using an offensive team where the majority, if not all, of the Pokémon on your team outsped Hoopa or be forced to run Pursuit on every team and be prepared to sac a Pokémon whenever they get Hoopa in. No possible Pokémon could reliably switch into this thing; there were niche sets and 'Mons that could handle some of our past bans in Landorus-I and Greninja, but none existed for Hoopa.