SV RU Kleavor+Lucario HO

[Heatranator]

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Pokepaste:

Introduction

I recently just qualified for RULT playoffs, and I thought I would share the HO team that helped me get there. This was a team that I originally made back in Cycle 2 I believe after I was just bummed out about how my teambuilding was going, with the full intention of it probably not being good. However, I soon realised, the team was actually good. It was getting wins mostly consistently, and felt like it just needed some fine-tuning.
I didn't use this team for all the cycles, since I did use stall quite a lot and some spikestacks, but it did help me immensly in the final stretch.
This team had minor alterations throughout the whole run (tera dark bulky mence to beat sableye stall and endure armarouge are some of the alterations), so if there are differences from this team in the replays, thats why.
The Team


Kleavor @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Axe
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Trailblaze

The lead of choice for this team, Kleavor isn't necessarily a 'good' lead, but it isn't horrible like some people say and has its good points. Primarily, it absolutely demolishes opposing HO leads that don't run rock blast (which only terrakion leads run rn and even then with 2 hits it never OHKO's and 3 hits is a chance). This means the typical mew or lycanroc form leads, which are common rn, are not able to prevent stealth rocks from going up and will probably have a semi-full Kleavor at +1 staring them down, which is incredibly difficult for them to deal with. An adamant nature is used since kleavor typically is getting outrun by most scarfers even at +1 and most Pokemon between the adamant and jolly range are switching out of kleavor immediately. It also guarentees that Quagsire is 2HKO'd by trailblaze and kleavor is able to as much damage as possible. Close Combat is mandatory on Kleavor so it can threaten steel types reliably, while Trailblaze makes Kleavor an insanely scary sweeper if necessary alongside SD. Dropping X-Scissor is unfortunate as it can threaten Pokemon such as Slowbro, Hippowdon and Chesnaught much more, but typically you still will be doing large damage to them, which the physical sweepers appreciate.


Mimikyu @ Life Orb
Ability: Disguise
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Claw
- Play Rough
- Shadow Sneak

The first of the anti-bs Pokemon, we have Mimikyu. Mimikyu I believe rn is one of the best HO pokemon in the tier and an almost necessary inclusion on the playstyle (pinging Canard for no reason in particular). Its ability to answer any non multi-hit sweeper (which is rare these days) and revenge kill them, while still having usecases against defense and still being a pain for offense once disguise is broken is invaluable. This is a primarily standard set here, with LO being almost neccesistated so Mimikyu can do damage against defense (though Red Card is fine on spikestack HO's), and Tera Fire allowing Mimikyu to setup on Geezing and Talonflame easily, turning two of its hardest MU's into easy pickings.


Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Meteor Mash
- Extreme Speed

The second of the anti-bs Pokemon, next up is Lucario. Lucario isn't great and even I will admit, it was the weakest member of this team, but it did have its moments where it popped off incredibly hard. Lucario's Extreme Speed is amazing against offense if it can find an opportunity to SD, with it cleaning these teams after the Ghost type is removed. It also can naturally check Bisharp, as only Low Kick variants threaten it, which are ofc much worse against Raikou and to an extent Armarouge (has to play the sucker game more). I went with an Adamant nature here, as it means that Lucario can do better against defense and also increases its power output such as allowing CC to also 2HKO Quagsire and +2 CC having a small chance to OHKO Chesnaught after rocks chip. Meteor Mash I prefered as the attack raise and STAB boost can be nice against Pokemon such as Geezing and Fez, but Crunch is a good alternative to help into Ghost types such as Basculegion-F.


Raikou @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Thunderbolt
- Scald
- Aura Sphere

Raikou is the main fast Pokemon on this team, and is the primary Gapdos switch-in. LO Raikou is something I've used in the past and still attest to be good rn, with LO making up for Raikou's usually underwhelming initial damage output. Raikou is able to trade immensly well into special walls such as Umbreon and Hoodra, with them usually being too low to deal with Armarouge afterwards. +1 Aura Sphere can 2HKO both Umbreon and especially Hoodra. Raikou is also able to offensively check Pokemon such as Maushold and Gengar, allowing it to contribute against both offense and defense. Tera Fighting not only boosts the power of Aura Sphere, allowing +2 Raikou to 2HKO Chansey if necessary, but also allows Raikou to resist Sucker Punch from Bisharp.


Armarouge @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Weak Armor
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Armor Cannon
- Psyshock
- Energy Ball
- Calm Mind

The special wallbreaker of the team, Armarouge is a fantastic (read: Broken) Pokemon as always. Initially on this team, I had endure to help in the offense MU, but after realising mmq+lucario+raikou covered that, I decided to go with Calm Mind to help in the defense MU, and it was an absolute destructive force. I went with HDB here as Kleavor cannot keep off opposing rocks and thus Stealth Rock chip was going to be a death nail otherwise. Psyshock is ofc standard to hit special walls such as Chansey hard, but it also is much more consistent then Stored Power. Tera Dark is incredibly useful on Armarouge, and something I found that I will be using more on the Pokemon. Tera Dark removes the Ghost and Dark Weakness Armarouge has, allowing it to take on Gengar and the multiple Knock Off Users in the tier incredibly easily. It also can be useful in a pinch against opposing Mimikyu, allowing it to easily take Shadow Sneak. Overall, Armarouge does what it does best, being a wallbreaker that still works against offense.


Salamence @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Moxie
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 64 HP / 248 Atk / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Facade
- Earthquake
- Roost

Finally, we have Salamence. Salamence I think has to be the star of this team, which is wild as it was the Pokemon I slapped on last. Salamence both helps defensively being the main Water resist of the team, while also doing immensly well offensively by brute forcing its way through defense. The EV spread captialises on mence's damage output, allowing it to do stuff such as always 2HKO Tera Poison Quagsire with Earthquake, while having enough speed to outspeed base 80 scarfers such as Gardevoir after a DD, with the rest going into HP to make mence a bit bulkier. Heavy-Duty Boots is ofc neccesary to allow Salamence to get in safely without Stealth Rock chip. Facade can take advantage of the many burn spreaders in the tier by making it even stronger, with Roost allowing Salamence to potentially get multiple DD's in a row. Tera Normal gives mence a good natural defensive typing, allowing it to easily take Ghost-type moves, while boosting the power of Facade up to the extreme, such as +2 Facade having a chance to OHKO Slowbro and Geezing. I would be lying if I said Salamence wasn't great, it clutched out so many battles that I thought were lost.

Replays
Here are some replays from the RU Ladder Tour in which I used this team (sorry to anybody who got clipped lol, you can post your replays beating this team below)

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2389854446
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2388971708
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2386281111?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2383257441
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2381196311?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2376804883-nbwuulaeka52wo3wlbn967046wy52cbpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2376747951?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2376645307
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2375657367

Conclusion

While RULT for me had its ups and downs (almost qualifying some cycles only to get a rough MU and tilt), I would say in the end, it was an enjoyable series. I think this team is probably one of the better unique teams I made, and I hope you guys reading it will enjoy it. Also thank you to everybody who encouraged me to continue going on to try and qualify when I was down in the dumps, there are too many of y'all to mention, but it really did help me qualify.

 

[Remedy4brokenh3art]

luke ho

 

[Canard]

mmq as an "almost necessary inclusion on the playstyle" when bish does the bulky rkiller job better while actually being a useful mon outside of that niche, if that's an auto-include what isn't, mmq needs 2 tera and 7 move slots for a job (answering sweepers) that can be done with positioning, offensive pressure and actual mons, i fail to see what even comfortably sets up into HO and can't be punished better than with mmq, other than mence, the dual wingbeat mon (and even then the team has an okay matchup into mence already?????) (yes i saw the bait and instantly fell for it, i regret nothing)

 

[Heatranator]

mmq as an "almost necessary inclusion on the playstyle" when bish does the bulky rkiller job better while actually being a useful mon outside of that niche, if that's an auto-include what isn't, mmq needs 2 tera and 7 move slots for a job (answering sweepers) that can be done with positioning, offensive pressure and actual mons, i fail to see what even comfortably sets up into HO and can't be punished better than with mmq, other than mence, the dual wingbeat mon (and even then the team has an okay matchup into mence already?????) (yes i saw the bait and instantly fell for it, i regret nothing)

Bisharp when it tries to revenge kill a faster Pokemon (it will lose sucker games despite having the supposed advantage):

Yes, bisharp is great. But generally bisharp somehow struggles to wallbreak even more then mmq due to the number one Pokemon in the tier, gapdos, just generally screwing it over, and many other top tier defensive Pokemon causing it immense struggle such as hippo and chesnaught. Mmq also does not need any more then tera fire and maybe the decision between drain punch or shadow claw (you still do well into most things, tera ghost or wood hammer are not necessary on it at all to make it function, they are more niche options that wreck normal counterplay such as quagsire if the team normally struggles with it). Which funnily enough, bisharp needs way more tera types then mmq, with tera ghost, fire and flying being incredibly necessary for it to function against multiple great Pokemon (no tera ghost, autolose to registeel, no tera fire autolose to talon and tera geezing, no tera flying autolose to hippo).
Mmqs ability to be a full stop to any setup sweepers, whether that be a DD mon, a boosted armarouge, a Gengar which has sniped a bisharp on the switch with focus blast or a random ass PU shitter that set up which you didn't expect is incredibly valuable. Yes, you can try to out offense them, but sometimes that is not possible and you will be reversed swept. Mmq gives an extra layer of security that means that if something goes wrong, there is always a backup.

 

[Canard]

my problem with it is that most of the time well nothing goes wrong, so having a backup mon who's purpose is going that and basically nothing but that falls flat