Hello there!
So, now that the Aegislash Suspect Test has ended, after thinking about it for a while I decided to go ahead and make a RMT with the team I used to ladder in said suspect test, where I achieved the 2700 COIL requirement.
A few of the people I faced on said suspect ladder asked for me to do this, and I found quite some decent success with this team so I thought it'd be a good idea to share it with you guys so you can give me your insight on it (if you like the team itself, any changes you would make, if you think it's the worst piece of garbage you've ever seen, etc...)
Also before I go on I wanna state the fact that I have a YouTube channel, and I did a series (named MOGWAI HATES SWORDS) on me laddering through said suspect ladder with this team, i'll post the links at the end in case you're interested in seeing the team in action.
Without further ado, here's the team I used in said series:
GXE and Glicko wise, I peaked with a record of 34-5 on said suspect ladder. Faced really tough competition and such.
Anyways onto it.
THE CONCEPT
I love Mega Heracross. He is my favourite Mega. It's obviously not the first time i've used him, I tried sticky web support, bulky wallbreaker, you name it.
Once the suspect test began, since Aegislash was not allowed I decided to build a team around this beast since I would be able to effectively run dual-stab (no EQ) and not worry about being completely walled by ANYTHING.
Mega Heracross is not the most common choice when it comes to the mega slot. It has it's fair share of weaknesses: It's slow for an offensive mon and it's 4x weak to oh so popular flying type.
Once you accept the fact that it is not meant to be a consistent sweeper, you can witness it's true potential. Which is scary. He posseses the highest natural attack stat in all of OU, sitting at a base of 185. Add the fact that it's primary offensive moves all have a base power of at least 120, and you've got an absolute monster. This thing is meant to wallbreak. It's meant to punch BIG holes in the opponents team and leave it severely weakened so a faster sweeper can clean up the rest. Add the fact that he has outstanding natural bulk with a very solid defensive typing (barring the huge weakness to flying) and you got a mon that hits like a truck and can take more than 1 hit as well.
The concept of this team is to have Mega Heracross as the premier Wall Breaker, and a POTENTIAL late game suprise sweeper, i'll get onto that later.
I believe the best team support Mega Heracross can have is a solid Volt-Turn Core. Basically focus on getting switch initiative, bring Mega Heracross on bulkier threats like T-Tar, Heatran, and a long etc. Fire off a Pin Missile/CC and deal as much damage as possible to whatever wants to come in. Switch out on offensive threats, keep repeating the process, thus wearing the opponents team down severely.
THE SQUAD
Hercules (Heracross-Mega) (M) @ Heracronite
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pin Missile
- Close Combat
- Rock Blast
- Swords Dance
I run SD Heracross. Why? Cause in my humble opinion, it is the best set there is. SD Heracross demolishes stall. Gliscor can no longer wall you, Landorus-T no longer forces you to switch out. Against more offensive teams, setting up an SD and taking out a component of their defensive cores FORCES your opponent to bring an offensive mon to try and take you out. Pin Missiles and Close Combat for powerful STAB, and Rock Blast for coverage against the likes of Dragonite, Zapdos, Gyarados, and Flying types in general amongst other things.
The EV spread enables me to outspeed JOLLY BRELOOM before I Mega Evolve. Since sashed Breloom is such a common lead, many times my opponent won't expect me to be that heavily speed invested. I also outspeed the likes of Adamant Bisharp, Defensive Zapdos, Defensive Mew, Bulky Landorus-T, Defensive Rotom-W and a long etc. Things you WANT Mega Heracross to outspeed basically. Though it kind of sucks, losing out on such potential bulk, but I believe in the end... it's preferable. In this team in particular, it's a NECESITY.
I'll explain why with the next member of the team...
Kamikaze (Talonflame) (F) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Tailwind
Talonflame is the teams late game SWEEPER. Once the foe's been worn down by Megacross, talonflame comes in and cleans up shop. But of course that's not it's only role. He's one of the best revenge killers out there, and with access to u-turn he has OUTSTANDING synergy with Heracross since he lures in many mons which Mega Heracross absolutely LOVES to come in on (such as Tyranitar, Heatran, Rotom-W etc).
At the same time, Talonflame packs the one move that has won me so many games it's absolutely ridiculous. TAILWIND. The reason I run Sharp Beak over Choice Band is precisely because of this. Multiple times my opponent ensures that even late game he has a mon able to tank my T-Flame and take it out so I can't sweep them. Talonflame is very fast and has a powerful priority but his own power and durability are not that great at all. The thing is tailwind is my "plan B" (though sometimes I think it really is my plain A haha). You will see in a lot of my matches, how I pull off the tailwind late game, then Mega Heracross (with the amount of speed EVs he has) outspeeds any non-scarfer (and scarfed mons with up to 100 base speed I believe) in the tier (now that Deoxys-S is gone).
Like I said Sharp Beak is preferable since I can spam Brave Bird late game until i'm about to go down, then I can SWITCH to tailwind (being locked into it just isn't worth the extra power for me). Plus, bluffing the Band has rewarded me with several suprise, easy OHKOs on the likes of Bisharp, Keldeo, etc.
The EV spread is as standard as they come, Adamant with max speed investment. Nothing new there.
GODZIRRA!!! (Tyranitar) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Brave Nature
- Ice Beam
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
Tyranitar is one of the best comrades Mega Heracross can have, period.
He can tank hits from Talonflame, he can also switch in on Lati@s and pursuit trap them, amongst other things.
Tyranitar's role in this team is to come in on heavy attacks, set up hazards, pursuit trap certain fast threats, and suprise kill a few others with ice beam. I really like this set, it's by no means nothing new, but it works really well. Tyranitar is mostly a pivot in this team. I find the ability to pursuit trap the most useful out of him, since he does forces so many switch outs. He also lures many threats as well, and i'm not gonna lie, it's lead me to struggle a bit on certain occasions. But overall he puts in tremendous work and is a valuable asset to the team.
Scizorsome (Scizor) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Defog
- Knock Off
This is a classic spdef defog Scizor. He can also come in on the likes of Lati@s, Greninja, Mega Gardevoir... basically fast special attackers which threaten Mega Heracross. He's there to get rid of hazards since I do run a talonflame, and he does a pretty damn good job at that. Priority is always nice, especially when its STAB technician boosted, and Knock Off cause... you know. Knock Off.
Another great selling point is the stab, slow U-Turn. He's the second component of my Volt-Turn core, and since he does force so many switch outs, he can help me get momentum and find the right moment to bring Megacross in to tear shit up.
Freedomeon (Vaporeon) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Scald
- Icy Wind
Vaporeon has always been an underrated mon in OU, imo. Excellent stat distribution, fanstastic bulk and suprising power, even with no investment... make this pokemon a huge asset to the team.
Why Vaporeon?
Vaporeon functions as a cleric, and at the same time as a physical wall which can take down and potentially cripple offensive threats. It's extremely reliable both against offense (taking hits and firing off scalds) and against stall (wish passing onto Heracross and curing the team from status). It's also a great response against Choice Specs Keldeo (due to Water Absorb), forcing it to resort to Secret Sword, thus enabling me to respond better to it with Mega Heracross.
I also run Icy Wind which has proven to be suprisingly helpful in multiple scenarios. Slow down threats such as Keldeo, Latios, Thundurus, etc So they can be outsped by the likes of Mega Heracross once Vaporeon goes down. Also set up DD mons will never have their speed up, so they can be revenge killed easier. It's overall a very useful move that obviously lacks the power of ice beam but helps with regaining momentum quite often.
Nimbus (Thundurus) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 ATK
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Thundurus is the last component of my Volt-Turn core. It obviously forces many mons to switch out and probably helps the most with gaining said switch initiative and keeping the pressure on the opponent.
He's fast, he's very powerful and extremely versatile (due to the fact that this thing is pretty much BROKEN imo, but oh well that's another issue) and of course he packs the priority prankster t-wave to ensure that I don't get swept by set up mons like Char X, T-Tar, Gyarados, etc.
I messed around with HP Flying but at the very end decided that HP Ice was more useful to the abundant amount of landorus switch ins and such. Bolt-beam coverage is just way too good to pass out on.
He also resists fly spam, can slow down certain threats for Mega Hera and you know, overall is a fantastic component of the team.
THREATS
This team has trouble dealing with certain mons, i'll proceed to list them:
Obviously Aegislash. If this thing does not get banned, my ability to punch holes into the opponents team every time Mega Heracross comes in, becomes somewhat hindered. This mon walls the current Mega Heracross set I run, and at the same time I don't really have anything to OHKO this thing, so basically I would have to wear it down little by little to eventually take it out. So yeah this would have to be threat nº 1.
This guy is an issue. He's so versatile and so powerful that he's very difficult for me to handle, especially since I do lack a "genie killer" on my team. I've seen most of them run superpower, so Tyranitar is not my main response to this. I basically rely alot on Scizor to take this thing on, and my own Thundurus... What I do is I wear it down (which is not really THAT difficult to do) but i'm gonna be honest here, I due take some solid damage overall in the whole process. The fact that I lack an electric inmunity in the team also doesn't help.
This is the one mon that Mega Heracross doesn't reliably 2HKO. Meaning when facing stall, if my opponent runs this I have to find a way to weaken it A LITTLE BIT before I can start setting up with Megacross. Also, calm mind Clefable is dangerous, I can never let this thing start setting up for free, otherwise, its gg.
Now THIS, can be a problem. I can deal with it with talonflame but it can come in on MOST of my mons and proceed to wipe something out, kind of what I attempt to do with my own Mega Heracross. It's really dangerous cause it outspeeds my own wallbreaker and kills it with psychic STAB. Even though I consider Mega Heracross to be a far superior wallbreaker, that doesn't change the fact that this thing is a huge problem and I need to be extra careful when facing it.
Both Mega forms mean trouble. They have a free safe switch in onto my Heracross and unlike them birds (pinsir and talonflame) I don't have an inmediate way of dealing with them. Mega Charizard Y is more of an issue than X for this team in particular, since most of them like carrying focus blast, rendering Tyranitar as a potential counter... kinda not.
The rest of top tier threats are more manageable.
CONTENT
So as I mentioned previously, I own a YouTube channel and I uploaded a series on my suspect laddering experience. I'll leave said links down below:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MegaaMogwai
And here I will leave a link to the playlist of the series:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_NQ1VZHmIfYXjcmVu3d_bZMeeKwk5YPT
For those of you who want more, OR don't care to watch my channel :P here are some showdown replays "off camera".
vs Lord Outl: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-143850156
vs Doge Ebinest http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-143787939
vs mega grass-type http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-142792696
vs Mob Barley http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-143742147
CONCLUSION
So yeah for those of you who read this, thanks! I'd love to hear your opinion, thoughts on what changes I could make to improve this team and all that good stuff.
Overall I feel like this team functions really well against any kind of playstyle, it shuts down stall quite effeciently, and it deals well with offense too. The fact that I have multiple win conditions is also a positive trait imo.
But of course, this is all my own opinion, i'd love to hear your own insight!
So, now that the Aegislash Suspect Test has ended, after thinking about it for a while I decided to go ahead and make a RMT with the team I used to ladder in said suspect test, where I achieved the 2700 COIL requirement.
A few of the people I faced on said suspect ladder asked for me to do this, and I found quite some decent success with this team so I thought it'd be a good idea to share it with you guys so you can give me your insight on it (if you like the team itself, any changes you would make, if you think it's the worst piece of garbage you've ever seen, etc...)
Also before I go on I wanna state the fact that I have a YouTube channel, and I did a series (named MOGWAI HATES SWORDS) on me laddering through said suspect ladder with this team, i'll post the links at the end in case you're interested in seeing the team in action.
Without further ado, here's the team I used in said series:
GXE and Glicko wise, I peaked with a record of 34-5 on said suspect ladder. Faced really tough competition and such.
Anyways onto it.
THE CONCEPT
I love Mega Heracross. He is my favourite Mega. It's obviously not the first time i've used him, I tried sticky web support, bulky wallbreaker, you name it.
Once the suspect test began, since Aegislash was not allowed I decided to build a team around this beast since I would be able to effectively run dual-stab (no EQ) and not worry about being completely walled by ANYTHING.
Mega Heracross is not the most common choice when it comes to the mega slot. It has it's fair share of weaknesses: It's slow for an offensive mon and it's 4x weak to oh so popular flying type.
Once you accept the fact that it is not meant to be a consistent sweeper, you can witness it's true potential. Which is scary. He posseses the highest natural attack stat in all of OU, sitting at a base of 185. Add the fact that it's primary offensive moves all have a base power of at least 120, and you've got an absolute monster. This thing is meant to wallbreak. It's meant to punch BIG holes in the opponents team and leave it severely weakened so a faster sweeper can clean up the rest. Add the fact that he has outstanding natural bulk with a very solid defensive typing (barring the huge weakness to flying) and you got a mon that hits like a truck and can take more than 1 hit as well.
The concept of this team is to have Mega Heracross as the premier Wall Breaker, and a POTENTIAL late game suprise sweeper, i'll get onto that later.
I believe the best team support Mega Heracross can have is a solid Volt-Turn Core. Basically focus on getting switch initiative, bring Mega Heracross on bulkier threats like T-Tar, Heatran, and a long etc. Fire off a Pin Missile/CC and deal as much damage as possible to whatever wants to come in. Switch out on offensive threats, keep repeating the process, thus wearing the opponents team down severely.
THE SQUAD
Hercules (Heracross-Mega) (M) @ Heracronite
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pin Missile
- Close Combat
- Rock Blast
- Swords Dance
I run SD Heracross. Why? Cause in my humble opinion, it is the best set there is. SD Heracross demolishes stall. Gliscor can no longer wall you, Landorus-T no longer forces you to switch out. Against more offensive teams, setting up an SD and taking out a component of their defensive cores FORCES your opponent to bring an offensive mon to try and take you out. Pin Missiles and Close Combat for powerful STAB, and Rock Blast for coverage against the likes of Dragonite, Zapdos, Gyarados, and Flying types in general amongst other things.
The EV spread enables me to outspeed JOLLY BRELOOM before I Mega Evolve. Since sashed Breloom is such a common lead, many times my opponent won't expect me to be that heavily speed invested. I also outspeed the likes of Adamant Bisharp, Defensive Zapdos, Defensive Mew, Bulky Landorus-T, Defensive Rotom-W and a long etc. Things you WANT Mega Heracross to outspeed basically. Though it kind of sucks, losing out on such potential bulk, but I believe in the end... it's preferable. In this team in particular, it's a NECESITY.
I'll explain why with the next member of the team...
Kamikaze (Talonflame) (F) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Tailwind
Talonflame is the teams late game SWEEPER. Once the foe's been worn down by Megacross, talonflame comes in and cleans up shop. But of course that's not it's only role. He's one of the best revenge killers out there, and with access to u-turn he has OUTSTANDING synergy with Heracross since he lures in many mons which Mega Heracross absolutely LOVES to come in on (such as Tyranitar, Heatran, Rotom-W etc).
At the same time, Talonflame packs the one move that has won me so many games it's absolutely ridiculous. TAILWIND. The reason I run Sharp Beak over Choice Band is precisely because of this. Multiple times my opponent ensures that even late game he has a mon able to tank my T-Flame and take it out so I can't sweep them. Talonflame is very fast and has a powerful priority but his own power and durability are not that great at all. The thing is tailwind is my "plan B" (though sometimes I think it really is my plain A haha). You will see in a lot of my matches, how I pull off the tailwind late game, then Mega Heracross (with the amount of speed EVs he has) outspeeds any non-scarfer (and scarfed mons with up to 100 base speed I believe) in the tier (now that Deoxys-S is gone).
Like I said Sharp Beak is preferable since I can spam Brave Bird late game until i'm about to go down, then I can SWITCH to tailwind (being locked into it just isn't worth the extra power for me). Plus, bluffing the Band has rewarded me with several suprise, easy OHKOs on the likes of Bisharp, Keldeo, etc.
The EV spread is as standard as they come, Adamant with max speed investment. Nothing new there.
GODZIRRA!!! (Tyranitar) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Brave Nature
- Ice Beam
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
Tyranitar is one of the best comrades Mega Heracross can have, period.
He can tank hits from Talonflame, he can also switch in on Lati@s and pursuit trap them, amongst other things.
Tyranitar's role in this team is to come in on heavy attacks, set up hazards, pursuit trap certain fast threats, and suprise kill a few others with ice beam. I really like this set, it's by no means nothing new, but it works really well. Tyranitar is mostly a pivot in this team. I find the ability to pursuit trap the most useful out of him, since he does forces so many switch outs. He also lures many threats as well, and i'm not gonna lie, it's lead me to struggle a bit on certain occasions. But overall he puts in tremendous work and is a valuable asset to the team.
Scizorsome (Scizor) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Defog
- Knock Off
This is a classic spdef defog Scizor. He can also come in on the likes of Lati@s, Greninja, Mega Gardevoir... basically fast special attackers which threaten Mega Heracross. He's there to get rid of hazards since I do run a talonflame, and he does a pretty damn good job at that. Priority is always nice, especially when its STAB technician boosted, and Knock Off cause... you know. Knock Off.
Another great selling point is the stab, slow U-Turn. He's the second component of my Volt-Turn core, and since he does force so many switch outs, he can help me get momentum and find the right moment to bring Megacross in to tear shit up.
Freedomeon (Vaporeon) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Scald
- Icy Wind
Vaporeon has always been an underrated mon in OU, imo. Excellent stat distribution, fanstastic bulk and suprising power, even with no investment... make this pokemon a huge asset to the team.
Why Vaporeon?
Vaporeon functions as a cleric, and at the same time as a physical wall which can take down and potentially cripple offensive threats. It's extremely reliable both against offense (taking hits and firing off scalds) and against stall (wish passing onto Heracross and curing the team from status). It's also a great response against Choice Specs Keldeo (due to Water Absorb), forcing it to resort to Secret Sword, thus enabling me to respond better to it with Mega Heracross.
I also run Icy Wind which has proven to be suprisingly helpful in multiple scenarios. Slow down threats such as Keldeo, Latios, Thundurus, etc So they can be outsped by the likes of Mega Heracross once Vaporeon goes down. Also set up DD mons will never have their speed up, so they can be revenge killed easier. It's overall a very useful move that obviously lacks the power of ice beam but helps with regaining momentum quite often.
Nimbus (Thundurus) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 ATK
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Thundurus is the last component of my Volt-Turn core. It obviously forces many mons to switch out and probably helps the most with gaining said switch initiative and keeping the pressure on the opponent.
He's fast, he's very powerful and extremely versatile (due to the fact that this thing is pretty much BROKEN imo, but oh well that's another issue) and of course he packs the priority prankster t-wave to ensure that I don't get swept by set up mons like Char X, T-Tar, Gyarados, etc.
I messed around with HP Flying but at the very end decided that HP Ice was more useful to the abundant amount of landorus switch ins and such. Bolt-beam coverage is just way too good to pass out on.
He also resists fly spam, can slow down certain threats for Mega Hera and you know, overall is a fantastic component of the team.
THREATS
This team has trouble dealing with certain mons, i'll proceed to list them:
Obviously Aegislash. If this thing does not get banned, my ability to punch holes into the opponents team every time Mega Heracross comes in, becomes somewhat hindered. This mon walls the current Mega Heracross set I run, and at the same time I don't really have anything to OHKO this thing, so basically I would have to wear it down little by little to eventually take it out. So yeah this would have to be threat nº 1.
This guy is an issue. He's so versatile and so powerful that he's very difficult for me to handle, especially since I do lack a "genie killer" on my team. I've seen most of them run superpower, so Tyranitar is not my main response to this. I basically rely alot on Scizor to take this thing on, and my own Thundurus... What I do is I wear it down (which is not really THAT difficult to do) but i'm gonna be honest here, I due take some solid damage overall in the whole process. The fact that I lack an electric inmunity in the team also doesn't help.
This is the one mon that Mega Heracross doesn't reliably 2HKO. Meaning when facing stall, if my opponent runs this I have to find a way to weaken it A LITTLE BIT before I can start setting up with Megacross. Also, calm mind Clefable is dangerous, I can never let this thing start setting up for free, otherwise, its gg.
Now THIS, can be a problem. I can deal with it with talonflame but it can come in on MOST of my mons and proceed to wipe something out, kind of what I attempt to do with my own Mega Heracross. It's really dangerous cause it outspeeds my own wallbreaker and kills it with psychic STAB. Even though I consider Mega Heracross to be a far superior wallbreaker, that doesn't change the fact that this thing is a huge problem and I need to be extra careful when facing it.
Both Mega forms mean trouble. They have a free safe switch in onto my Heracross and unlike them birds (pinsir and talonflame) I don't have an inmediate way of dealing with them. Mega Charizard Y is more of an issue than X for this team in particular, since most of them like carrying focus blast, rendering Tyranitar as a potential counter... kinda not.
The rest of top tier threats are more manageable.
CONTENT
So as I mentioned previously, I own a YouTube channel and I uploaded a series on my suspect laddering experience. I'll leave said links down below:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MegaaMogwai
And here I will leave a link to the playlist of the series:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_NQ1VZHmIfYXjcmVu3d_bZMeeKwk5YPT
For those of you who want more, OR don't care to watch my channel :P here are some showdown replays "off camera".
vs Lord Outl: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-143850156
vs Doge Ebinest http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-143787939
vs mega grass-type http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-142792696
vs Mob Barley http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-143742147
CONCLUSION
So yeah for those of you who read this, thanks! I'd love to hear your opinion, thoughts on what changes I could make to improve this team and all that good stuff.
Overall I feel like this team functions really well against any kind of playstyle, it shuts down stall quite effeciently, and it deals well with offense too. The fact that I have multiple win conditions is also a positive trait imo.
But of course, this is all my own opinion, i'd love to hear your own insight!
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