ORAS OU A Beginner's attempt at Hyper Offence with Hoopa Unbound

[Melic]

A long time lurker and rather inexperienced battler tries his hand at building HO. Here's the result:

Hoopa-Unbound @ Life Orb
Ability: Magician
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Dark Pulse
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast

Talonflame @ Ganlon Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Natural Gift
- Acrobatics
- Swords Dance
- Tailwind

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge

Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 28 HP / 32 Atk / 252 SpA / 196 Spe
Naive Nature
- Rock Polish
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power

Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Taunt
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave

Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Taunt

Each Mon in Detail:

Hoopa Unbound
Before smogon decides to ban it This is the star of the show and the mon whom this team is centered around. Hoopa Unbound is more or less unadulterated POWER with the coverage to back it up. Psyshock and Dark Pulse for STAB. Focus Blast for bulky darks (t-tar, mega-gyra, etc) and forms perfect coverage with Dark Pulse. Gunk Shot for them stinken fairies. EV's and nature max out SpAtt at the expense of some SpDef while retaining enough speed to tie with the rest of the neutral nature base 80's. Life orb is there to speed up the game because pokemon is trash and you should spend as little time on it as possible. All in all this thing almost always gets a KO every time it comes in. 2hkoing the likes of Chansy (after rocks), mega-Scizor and mega-Sableye. Ohkoing the likes of Unaware Clef (12.5% after rocks), ferrothorn and mega-Venasaur.

Talonflame
This is one of the enablers for Hoopa's addiction to murder. It runs are rather gimmicky unorthodox SD set with Ganlon berry natural gift and acrobatics. EV's and nature maximizes Att the rest in speed because reasons. I'm using acrobatics over brave bird because my team has awful hazards control and I don't want Talonflame to drown in the recoil from smashing against phat. The natural power turns into a 100 BP ice type move when equipped with Ganlon berry ohkoing tank-Chomp and defensive-Lando after a SD. But be warned, this set is really weak without an SD. Natural power also consumes the berry, giving me a 110 Bp flying move without recoil. The tailwind is what makes this team work as it allows Hoopa Unbound to out speed everything and potential sweep or allows Diancie a quick mega-evolution. Talonflame most of the times serves as lure or suppport; killing its would be counters and setting up tailwind.

Garchomp
Here we see the mighty land-shark the fierce scavenger and fashionista. This is a pretty standard scarf-chomp set nothing really to say. Outrage and d-claw for dragon STAB. Earthquake and Stone edge for QuakeEdge. This guy does it job pretty well, helps me revenge kill thing and cleans up late game, especially when talonflame takesout one of its counters.

Mega-Diancie
This crystal gnome(?) princess thing is basically a more self-sufficient version of Hoopa-Unbound (or Hoopa-Unbound is a more specialized version of it IDK) and serves as my late game setup sweeper. I'm using the rock polish set with an altered EV spread. Naive nature with 196 speed EV's allows Diancie's base form to out speed Maxspeed Mega Lopunny after a rock polish, thus allowing my Diancie to tank a Fakeout plus Highjump-kick in base form and then retaliate in Mega-form. 32 Att EV's for defensive Zapdos, 252 in SpAtt for power, the rest in Hp. Moon-blast and Earth-power for perfect coverage. Diamond-storm for phat flyers. Most of the times this mon picks up after Hoopa Unbound and continues the destruction. Diancie kinda goes hand-in-disembodied-hand with Hoopa Unbound as they frolic/float through a field of dead pokemons.

Thundurus
This mon is the one who makes this whole operation work, he is the guy that sneaks into the Olympic runner's home and breaks their knee cap before the big race. This is basically the standard thundurous set with taunt instead of knock-off with adjusted EV's and nature since I'm no longer using knock-off. Thunderbolt and Hp ice are standard for this set. Thunder-wave is really important since it helps to cripple faster-mons that would otherwise run circles around me. Taunt is for stallbreaking so that phat mons can no longer recover and for preventing some hazard setters.

Terrikon
The newest addition to the team and most likely the weakest link. This is the sash Stealth-rock Terrikon lead who's job is to put as much offensive pressure on the opponent from the get go. Taunt is there to prevent opposing rockers. Close-combat is there so I can smack something. But I'm using Iron-head over Stone-edge for fairies that try to set up turn one (specifically for Rock-polish Diancie or Calm-mind Clefable) and for the hax because I'm a horrible human being.
​

 

[Melic]

Reserved for threat list, potential changes and other miscellaneous things

Threats:
Weavile: This thing sweeps my team since its Ice shard plus hazard damage can ko my thundurus and thus no t-wave to cripple it. Must set up with Diancie or tailwind if I want to beat it

Mega-Lopunny: It outspeeds and 2hko's everyone. Fakeout hurts and stalls out turns of tailwind. Best bet is to t-wave it.

Scizor: Hoopa Unbound can eat a Bullet-punch at 3/4 health does 80% damage to offensive set and 60% to defensive Mega variations. Outside of that my only choice is to revenge kill them with chomp/thundurus. its really bulky and hard to deal with since I have no fire STABs on my team.

Raiko: Can't t-wave it so it can volt switch around freely barring Garchomp. The AV set is espically hard to deal with since it can tank one hit from my Hoopa-Unbound. Garchomp is my only check.

Mega-Manetric: Same as Raiko, its 2fast2furious plus it has intimidate to cripple Garchomp.

Talonflame: Band and stall breaker types especially

Weather sweepers: Like all HO teams, this them has trouble when it faces faster monster on the opposing team. Excadrill gets a special mention since I can't t-wave it. Only choice is tailwind or rock polish with mega-Diancie

Trick room: Haven't faced one yet but I bet it will give me hell since all my fast mons become slow.

Sticky web: If the web gets setup I have to rely on talonflame and thundurus to pull through since the rest of my team can no longer sweep.

Keldeo: My team has no real switchins to this thing especially the non-scarf variations since my talonflame is not that strong when it still has the berry. Only choice is to t-wave it or set up with talon/Dianie before it comes in

Starmie: Scald plus rapid spin kills my sash lead and removes my rocks. Its also very fast and can smack my team with powerful water moves

Mamoswine: Beats my terrakion in the lead game since I can't taunt it and offensive version can pickoff my pokes with Ice Shard. Luckly it can't really take a hit so I can KO it if I have the momentum

Mega Metagross: I rely on Garchomp check the 4 attacks set while a set with Rock polish and Ice punch can sweep my team if I don't t-wave it

Landours-T: If my lure Talonflames fails to take it out the scarf set will make it really hard for my mons to setup late game

Mega Gardevior: Can tank hits from most of my team and KO with Hyper voice. Need to keep offensive pressure to wear it down


Possible Changes:

Scarf on Hoopa Unbound: I've seen a lot of ladder players use it and I honestly don't like it. Being choice locked makes Hoopa a really easy setup fodder, wastes its wonderful move pool and misses out on crucial Ohko's. In addition, scarfed base 80's really isn't that fast. IMHO, I prefer the life orb wall breaker set.

Scarf Victini in place of Garchomp: Better check for Scizor and Mega-Gardevoir. Packs a really powerful V-create but makes my team even weaker to electric types and stealth rocks.

Lead Azelf in place of lead Terrakion: recommended by Lelouch(Zero). Gonna have to test this out. My only concern is lead Bisharps and T-Tars, outside of that it seems to be a overal better lead than terrakion

Salac Leichi berry in place of Ganlon berry on Talonflame: Salac berry allows me to take out Rotom-w and T-Tar and has better utility once I get to low heath since it gives an Attack boost in place of a defense boost. But I feel Tank Chomp and Landours-T are bigger threats

Lead Infernape over Terrakion: I might use lead Infernape for the simple reason that it beats lead Mamoswine with fakeout plus Close Combat. It also has taunt and stealth rocks so it basically does the same job as Terrakion

Defensive Rotom-W over Thundurus: I feel like I need some sort of defensive pivot considering how weak my team is to fast attackers. Rotom-W is slower and weaker then thundurus but it checks a lot of mons that threaten my teamand can also t-wave things for hoopa

Other things:

• How to do make those drop down menus? I would like to have the team export in order to save space
• Is there any constructive critism on the style or format of the RMT? First RMT not sure if I'm doing it right

 

[Lelouch (Zero)]

Hey there welcome to smogon. While I'm not the biggest fan of Hoopa-U right now I will offer you some advice for your team. I'm not the most experienced in Hyper Offensive play but I wont let that stop me.

-I think your Talonflame set is interesting but very situational. Without Flare Blitz, Pokémon like Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Scizor are very threatening. I would recommend changing Natural Gift for Flare Blitz and change its item to a Sitrus Berry if you want to run Acrobatics and since you have no way to recover. Imo you don't really need Tailwind with Scarfed Hoopa-U and if you were to change it, I would recommend Roost because of Flare Blitz.

Talonflame

Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost

-Since you don't have a reliable way to deal with Lando and Chomp I would recommend changing Hoopa-U to a more Physical attacker. I was looking at other threads and I heard that a set with Hyperspace Hole, Ice Punch, Drain Punch, and Gunk Shot has plenty of coverage for the metagame right now. If you don't want to run this set then I would change Hoopa-U's nature to Hasty/Naïve to maximize its speed.

Hoopa-U

Hoopa-Alt @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Punch
- Hyperspace Fury
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch

-Finally, you said that Terrikon was your weakest link, right? Well I would suggest swapping it out with a Dedicated Lead Azelf. This set allows you to quickly set up Stealth Rocks and attack you opponent too. It can also help against leading Ferrothorns too with Fire Blast and Taunt. The last trick this thing has up its sleeve is Explosion. This does lots of damage to other leading Pokémon and makes Azelf a useful suicide lead.

Azelf

Azelf @ Focus Sash
EVs: 196 Atk / 60 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Fire Blast
- Taunt

I hope this helped you a little. Good luck out there.

 

[Melic]

Hey there welcome to smogon. While I'm not the biggest fan of Hoopa-U right now I will offer you some advice for your team. I'm not the most experienced in Hyper Offensive play but I wont let that stop me.

-I think your Talonflame set is interesting but very situational. Without Flare Blitz, Pokémon like Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Scizor are very threatening. I would recommend changing Natural Gift for Flare Blitz and change its item to a Sitrus Berry if you want to run Acrobatics and since you have no way to recover. Imo you don't really need Tailwind with Scarfed Hoopa-U and if you were to change it, I would recommend Roost because of Flare Blitz.

Talonflame

Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost

-Since you don't have a reliable way to deal with Lando and Chomp I would recommend changing Hoopa-U to a more Physical attacker. I was looking at other threads and I heard that a set with Hyperspace Hole, Ice Punch, Drain Punch, and Gunk Shot has plenty of coverage for the metagame right now. If you don't want to run this set then I would change Hoopa-U's nature to Hasty/Naïve to maximize its speed.

Hoopa-U

Hoopa-Alt @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Punch
- Hyperspace Fury
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch

-Finally, you said that Terrikon was your weakest link, right? Well I would suggest swapping it out with a Dedicated Lead Azelf. This set allows you to quickly set up Stealth Rocks and attack you opponent too. It can also help against leading Ferrothorns too with Fire Blast and Taunt. The last trick this thing has up its sleeve is Explosion. This does lots of damage to other leading Pokémon and makes Azelf a useful suicide lead.

Azelf

Azelf @ Focus Sash
EVs: 196 Atk / 60 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Fire Blast
- Taunt

I hope this helped you a little. Good luck out there.

Thanks for the feed-back, gonna have to try these out

 

[Perennial]

have you considered using Keldeo in place of Terrakion? you lack a water resistance, which is a big issue since you have 3 pokémon weak to the type. she adds even more power to your team and her resistances go a long way with helping you deal with several pokémon you say are troublesome, like Weavile, Mega Scizor, Landorus-T and Mamoswine.

replacing Terrakion with Keldeo removes your rocker. to make up for the loss, I recommend swapping Garchomp over to a bulky SR setter. with more bulk and Rocky Helmet + Rough Skin, your team gains a better way to handle even more pokémon mentioned in your threat list, such as Mega Metagross, Mega Lopunny and Talonflame. you also gain a back up answer to Mega Scizor and can punish U-turns from Landorus-T via recoil. here are the sets I recommend on both Keldeo and Garchomp:

Hide

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Icy Wind

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast

these two changes lead up to my next one. your team has unreliable hazard control. Mega Diancie can't prevent SR against things like Hippowdon and Ferrothorn. Taunt Terrakion and Thundurus-I aren't sound ways to keep rocks off the field either. to lessen the pressure SR places on your team, I recommend using Scarf Jirachi over Talonflame. this makes up for the loss of Scarf on Garchomp and introduces a fairy resist to help your team with another problem you mention: Mega Gardevoir. the Talonflame you're using is situational and nothing on your team is benefiting much from the things being lured. considering the above changes and how well your team already covers threats Talonflame checked, like Charizard-Y and Pinsir, losing her doesn't look too bad.

Hide

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Zen Headbutt
- Healing Wish

I really like how U-turn gives you the momentum to bring in your offensive powerhouses. Healing Wish is also really cool to support Hoopa-U and Diancie. Scarf also gives you more ways to check threats like Weavile, making Jirachi a sweet addition to the team.

one final change to consider after these modifications is Knock Off over Taunt on Thundurus with 76 Atk / 180 SpA / 252 Spe and a Naive nature. without Talonflame, Taunt isn't needed as much while Knock lets you lure in and kill the Lati twins for Keldeo. Nasty Plot is another option over Taunt to give the team another scary win condition or Focus Blast for coverage against the likes of Tyranitar and Ferrothorn.

liking this team a lot, great job!

 

[Melic]

have you considered using Keldeo in place of Terrakion? you lack a water resistance, which is a big issue since you have 3 pokémon weak to the type. she adds even more power to your team and her resistances go a long way with helping you deal with several pokémon you say are troublesome, like Weavile, Mega Scizor, Landorus-T and Mamoswine.

replacing Terrakion with Keldeo removes your rocker. to make up for the loss, I recommend swapping Garchomp over to a bulky SR setter. with more bulk and Rocky Helmet + Rough Skin, your team gains a better way to handle even more pokémon mentioned in your threat list, such as Mega Metagross, Mega Lopunny and Talonflame. you also gain a back up answer to Mega Scizor and can punish U-turns from Landorus-T via recoil. here are the sets I recommend on both Keldeo and Garchomp:

Hide

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Icy Wind

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast

these two changes lead up to my next one. your team has unreliable hazard control. Mega Diancie can't prevent SR against things like Hippowdon and Ferrothorn. Taunt Terrakion and Thundurus-I aren't sound ways to keep rocks off the field either. to lessen the pressure SR places on your team, I recommend using Scarf Jirachi over Talonflame. this makes up for the loss of Scarf on Garchomp and introduces a fairy resist to help your team with another problem you mention: Mega Gardevoir. the Talonflame you're using is situational and nothing on your team is benefiting much from the things being lured. considering the above changes and how well your team already covers threats Talonflame checked, like Charizard-Y and Pinsir, losing her doesn't look too bad.

Hide

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Zen Headbutt
- Healing Wish

I really like how U-turn gives you the momentum to bring in your offensive powerhouses. Healing Wish is also really cool to support Hoopa-U and Diancie. Scarf also gives you more ways to check threats like Weavile, making Jirachi a sweet addition to the team.

one final change to consider after these modifications is Knock Off over Taunt on Thundurus with 76 Atk / 180 SpA / 252 Spe and a Naive nature. without Talonflame, Taunt isn't needed as much while Knock lets you lure in and kill the Lati twins for Keldeo. Nasty Plot is another option over Taunt to give the team another scary win condition or Focus Blast for coverage against the likes of Tyranitar and Ferrothorn.

liking this team a lot, great job!

Then would you recommend that I replace Hoopa-Unbound since I no longer have tailwind support? I mean specs Keldeo serves as the well breaker in this situation, making the thing unnecessary. Would you also recommend I swap out some mons for a counter to Raiko and Mega-Manetric since Jirachi can't revenge kill them like scarf Garchomp can.

On another topic, how important are resistence on a hyper offense teams? This might be a noob question, but I was always under the impression that it is usually better to sake something then to switch around a lot since most of my mons are 2hkoed by any reasonably powerful move.

 

[Perennial]

I wouldn't replace Hoopa-U. she is the pokémon you wanted to center the team around and with Life Orb she is a fantastic tool against defensive teams, which Keldeo can't break alone. that said, there are a few things you can change to address the things in your reply to my rate.

other sets aside from Life Orb can be tested. you can give Assault Vest a try if Mega Manectric and Raikou prove troublesome after my recommended changes. combined with her impressive special bulk, AV lets you check those two electrics really well, taking 26.6 - 31.5% from Manectric's Thunderbolt for example. this modification along with pivoting between Garchomp and Jirachi's resistances should be enough to handle Mega Manectric and Raikou. AV provides other neat benefits like letting you check special threats like Manaphy nicely.

another variation of Hoopa-U you can try is Substitute + Salac Berry if her low speed is concerning to you after losing Tailwind Talonflame. with Magician, you can steal your opponents item (like Leftovers) after you activate Salac and launch an attack, really cool stuff. here are the sets for AV and SubSalac:

Hide

Hoopa-Unbound @ Assault Vest
Ability: Magician
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Atk / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hyperspace Fury
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Psychic

there are many other coverage moves you can use over Psychic, such as Ice Punch, Thunderbolt, Fire Punch and Grass Knot. all of them have their pros and cons. give each a try and see which of them you prefer.

Hoopa-Unbound @ Salac Berry
Ability: Magician
EVs: 12 HP / 244 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Psyshock
- Substitute

12 HP lets you activate Salac Berry after 3 subs. Focus Blast is an alternative over Nasty Plot and you could even use a purely physical set with 3 attacks and Substitute if you'd like. Hoopa-U is very versatile and there are many viable options. go ahead and give every possible alternative a try!

other alternatives are changing Keldeo to a Scarfer and Jirachi to a bulkier variant with Wish, such as the second one mentioned in her analysis. Scarf Keldeo can surprise and deal big blows to Raikou and Manectric while fulfilling the role of a revenge killer. a bulkier Jirachi absorbs hits from those electrics and other special threats like Gardevoir well while passing Wishes to the team. I would keep LO on Hoopa-U if you go this route because you'll need a good wall breaker to prevent defensive teams from being too annoying.

these options are all equally viable. I'd encourage you to play around with everything to see what works best for you. good luck, summary of the possible combinations:

- LO Hoopa-U + Specs Keldeo + Scarf Jirachi
- AV Hoopa-U + Specs Keldeo + Scarf Jirachi
- SubSalac Hoopa-U + Specs Keldeo + Scarf Jirachi
- LO Hoopa-U + Scarf Keldeo + bulky Jirachi

 

[dsm77773]

Then would you recommend that I replace Hoopa-Unbound since I no longer have tailwind support? I mean specs Keldeo serves as the well breaker in this situation, making the thing unnecessary. Would you also recommend I swap out some mons for a counter to Raiko and Mega-Manetric since Jirachi can't revenge kill them like scarf Garchomp can.

On another topic, how important are resistence on a hyper offense teams? This might be a noob question, but I was always under the impression that it is usually better to sake something then to switch around a lot since most of my mons are 2hkoed by any reasonably powerful move.

On HO the most important synergy is offensive synergy (aka being able to take out as many threats as possible) as you could expect. So the initial idea when building a HO team is to OHKO or 2HKO as many mons in the OU threatlist as possible. If your HO team is weak to, for example, Water, a typical defensive solution is to add a Water resist (a Grass-type) whereas HO would add something to OHKO most Water-types (a Electric-type). When fixing a HO team's weaknesses you shouldn't try to cover defensively what you could cover offensively, as it defeats HO purpose by killing your momentum. Momentum is gold to HO and if it loses it it could easily lose the whole battle, so there's no sense in adding Chansey to a HO team to deal with Electric-types as it will kill all your momentum by the time she is sent to battle, when you could as easily add a Ground-type like Excadrill to drill your way past them (pun intended) by 2HKOing even the bulkiest Electric-type. With all this said, the team should have a decent team synergy, if you have five mons weak to Ice, Weavile will sweep your team. OK, so I add Infernape. Problem solved? No, of course not, because the opponent, if it's good, has paired Weavile with something that can take out Infernape so Weavile sweeps your team afterwards.
QUICK SUM-UP IF YOU FEEL LAZY TO READ ALL THIS: You should give priority to offensive synergy over defensive one on HO but still keep a bit of decent defensive synergy. Sound complicated, right? now you lazy go and read the rest of the reply