SM OU New Team ~ New Competitive Player

[PeekoTheBirb]

Hey guys! So I'm fairly new to the competitive component of Smogon and Pokemon, but I have been watching VGC and Showdown for quite some time, I've only really used the Console for battling and that's where I became interested the most, but now I really wanna get into the Showdown aspect of battling.

I've made a fairly new team and I've been using it a bit, about 10 battles and I'm 6-4 W-L so far. I was hoping I could get some insight and criticism. I also do not mind if you suggest I revamp my team to suit the current meta-game. Any tips, comments, and perspective insight is gratefully appreciated.

Team for OU:

Lando Squad (Landorus-Therian) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

Landorus-T is my initiating defensive crippler. Mainly my usage for Intimidate and Stealth Rock. Lando has proven to easily cripple physical sweepers on opposing teams, while giving me a nice hazard for those FocusSash users out there as well. I've been able to cripple the likes of Mega Garchomp, Mega Medicham, Bisharp, Kartana, etc. The usage between U-turn and Intimidate alongside my other Pokemon's Volt Switch gives me gradual momentum and pivot in my game setting and presence, at least as a newbie.

Cortana (Kartana) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Knock Off

A huge important factor of my team as a Physical Sweeper is Kartana. I make sure to keep the hazard field safe and clear by utilizing Defog, or switching in after a death or free U-turn or Volt Switch.Kartana has huge presence on my team, hitting very hard, utilizing Beast Boost for attack boosts, and strong STAB moves along side Knock Off, which clears walls/tanks with Leftovers or other helpful items.

Manny (Mamoswine) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Superpower

Another focused physical attacker, Mamoswine. My main and biggest threat to Dragon types, and opposing Landorus-T.Thick Fat allows it to survive quite a few Fire Type moves from many Fire types, except for the likes of Mega Charizard Y.Icicle Crash and Earthquake are it's best STAB moves for my team, and Ice Shard is utilized as a free revenge killing move, picking up anything on red health, many things on orange, and Mega Garchomp on 60%-70%. I included Superpower in case of any Rock/Steel type bulky walls, Dark type stalls, or Blissey/Chansey (using Kartana to Knock Off the Eviolite first for an easier kill.)

Static Shock (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 240 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Roost
- Heat Wave
- Toxic

Zapdos was a little modified to fit an opinion I came to liking. It isn't the common Timid set you see on Smogon. I made it very Specially Defensive bulky and gave it Toxic and Volt Switch over Thunderbolt. I mainly use Zapdos as a special wall, pivot with Volt Switch, and a great Toxic stall while using Roost to negate the Flying typing, ridding it of Ice and Rock weaknesses.

Daenerys (Charizard) (F) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Roost

My biggest wall breaker with huge threat presence, Char Y. I think its suffice to say what his job is here and what he does, huge wall breaker, big damage, coverage on water types with 50% damage reduction from water moves, etc.

Jet Blue (Latios) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Trick

Latios is used as a Choice Scarf Trick crippler. At times, I use the Scarf to my advantage to take out any threats or possible Pokemon that I can with Draco Meteor and Psyshock, if not, I try to lock walls/hazard setters into a single move with Trick, crippling their set up and forcing a switch or sacrifice.

This is the basic team I have used since I started Showdown a few days ago, and it has done fairly well. Any revamps, suggestions, or criticism is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you all!

 

[PeekoTheBirb]

Bump

 

[stuuful12]

Pretty solid team you got there, but I have a couple of suggestions

1. Give Mamoswine Knock Off instead of Superpower

This one is a bit of personal preference, but seeing as Superpower and Earthquake have redundant coverage together, I think you should drop Superpower for Knock Off. With Knock Off, you can remove items from pokemons like Celesteela and Rotom Wash who really appreciate their items as well as harass other walls. Superpower only hits Ferrothorn, as every other time, Knock Off or Earthquake is the better option. And seeing as your team does not have a problem with Ferrothorn, I'd suggest running Knock off

2. Give Kartana a Grassium Z instead of the Focus Sash, and replace Smart Strike with Swords Dance

Seeing as you don't have any other Z-move users, giving Kartana a Z-move is a good idea. Focus Sash is only really usable for leads to survive a hit, which Kartana is not, so giving Kartana the role of a breaker is much more useful. Equipped with Grassium Z, you can plow through would be checks with ease. Focus Sash is easily broken via priority or hazards, and often times you would want to switch-in on hazards to pick up a free kill, rendering the Focus Sash useless. Finally Swords Dance allows you to propel your attack into monstrous heights allowing for you to easily clean afterwards, and is much more useful than Smart Strike, which doesn't actually target that much compared to Leaf Blade or Sacred Sword.

Btw here's the set
Kartana @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Knock Off

 

[Indigo Plateau]

Hey PeekoTheBirb! Welcome to Smogon; glad to see that you're already looking for feedback on your team. Your team contains some of the most common Pokemon in the metagame, like Lando-T, Kartana, and Zapdos, while using lesser common Pokemon such as Zard-Y and Mamoswine.

Let's talk about some issues that I see with your team from taking a quick glance at it.

In order to make Zard-Y succeed in the current meta, you need a way of reliably dealing with Toxapex and the Lati twins, seeing as MLati@s have seen a fair amount of usage recently, and both can wall it with ease. You have ways of pressuring these threats with the likes of Zapdos and Mamoswine, for example, but they can always switch out.
Moreover, in a metagame full of hazard stacking, it's imperative that you reliably keep hazards off the field for Zard-Y. Defog on Latios is alright, but you're trying to fit too many roles on your Latios for it to be effective on a Zard-Y team. It's your only form of speed control, your defogger, and it's Pursuit bait.
Something else that I noticed is that in the meta, it is crucial that you have a Steel- type on your team. You do have Kartana, but it's very frail and won't be tanking many hits.
Lastly, your team folds to offensive waters. Ash-Gren gets to spam Dark Pulse pretty freely and then cleans up very easily after Latios goes down or is weakened.

Without further ado, let's get into the rate and try to patch up the most holes possible.

Threats

/ Waters
As I mentioned above, Water- types, especially Ash-Greninja, have a very easy time getting past your team. Considering that Latios is choice locked and your only way of outspeeding Ash-Greninja, it finds many opportunities to come in and spam its Water/Dark STAB. After Latios is weakened and/or goes down, Ash-Greninja can sweep with ease with either Specs or Water Z.

Seeing as Lando-T is defensive and is outsped, Heatran (especially in the Sun) gets to fire off Magma Storms whenever given a chance vs the majority of your team. Nothing really wants to take these, as Latios and Lando are easy to wear down, and Zard-Y isn't necessarily the best switch-in given that Heatran can use any move bar Earth Power on the switch to pressure it.

Both Mega TTar and regular TTar can pressure your team with SR, Stone Edge, and accessibility to Ice and Fire type coverage. Removing the Sun from Zard-Y also greatly hinders it. Your team does have ways of pressuring both of these with the likes of Lando, Kartana, and Mamoswine, but that doesn't prevent them from applying a ton of pressure whenever they can come in for free. If either of these come in on Latios and trap it, it makes the game incredibly tougher for you.

Your initial team greatly struggles to deal with Volcarona after a single QD. For example, if it manages to come in against Latios locked into anything outside of Psyshock, it can get up a QD and proceed to very easily clean up with a simple combination of Fire Blast/Bug Buzz (not even taking the Z move into account).

No defensive Steel- types means that Psychic spam is extremely effective against your team. Both Tapu Lele and Alakazam click Psychic pretty effortlessly, and your only way of outspeeding Alakazam is Latios, which can't do much of anything vs Tapu Lele. In fact, Tapu Lele holding any item does significant work against your team, so having a Steel- type that can at least take a couple hits is an absolute must.

Suggestions

Let's build around Zard-Y, with the first focus being getting rid / being able to pressure the Lati twins and pressure other Zard-Y switchins.

>

Mamoswine is a cool threat in the OU metagame due to its mostly unresisted STAB, but Weavile fits better here in supporting Zard-Y. Weavile is a better fit for your team because it can trap relevant switchins such as the Lati twins. With Knock Off, it can also potentially cripple common switchins such as Toxapex, Heatran, and Chansey, all which Mamoswine threatens too. Weavile also helps vs the psychic spam matchup because it can Pursuit trap Lele (bar scarf Moonblast) and it makes Zam rely on FB to beat it (as opposed to freely using Psychic vs your team).

Next, we'll try to fix Latios as you're trying to fit too much role compression (speed and only hazard control) on a Pokemon that has really taken a hit in viability. We'll do this with a couple changes, the first being:

>

Heatran is a superior option here because it is a defensive Steel- type for your team, which is almost always a necessity in OU, and can also provide fantastic utility in trapping the likes of Toxapex & Chansey for Zard-Y. Magma Storm + Taunt really shuts them both down and makes Zard's job that much easier in spamming Flamethrower. On top of that, Heatran also provides a much needed Psychic resist for your team. It can also reliably get rocks up most of the time, freeing up a spot for Lando-T:

Defog > Stealth Rock,

With Latios gone, you need a Pokemon to reliably remove hazards from the field for Zard. Instead of trying to find another Defogger to add to the team, I felt like the most appropriate step here was changing Lando's set to Defog + SSSS. Although this change might seem strange at first, you'll see in a bit that I'll replace Zapdos to give you a better matchup vs Water- types. By changing Zapdos, the team becomes setup bait for Hawlucha, arguably the best sweeper in the tier atm, whenever a Grass- type is in. Defensive SSSS Lando prevents Hawlucha from sweeping your team and deals considerable damage to opposing Lando-T's regardless; plus, you don't lose much since your team doesn't have a Z crystal to begin with.

The team is still weak to Water- types, and although the team does have Kartana, it isn't exactly the best answer as it can't switchin vs them. This change was probably the hardest for me to make, but below is what I came up with.

>

Zapdos is definitely a great Pokemon in the current metagame, but it doesn't accomplish much for your team. Instead, Tapu Bulu can be used to counter the likes of Ash-Greninja, Keldeo, and Zygarde, all which can do hefty work vs your team if used properly. Tapu Bulu also provides Grassy Terrain support to help out the likes of Heatran and Kartana and is just a great pivot overall vs the likes of Koko.

Although Weavile has Ice Shard, you still need some sort of reliable speed control for your team after getting rid of Latios.

>

Outside of dedicated leads in HO builds such as Excadrill, Focus Sash really isn't all too viable of an item. Choice Scarf is a superior option here, turning Kartana into a scary late game cleaner and providing the speed control that your team needs. Alongside Bulu, Kartana is going to be hitting hard under Grassy Terrain and has very good offensive synergy with Zard-Y. Zard-Y takes advantage of Steel- types that like to come in vs Kartana, giving it more chances to clean up late game. Aerial Ace > Knock Off here helps beat Volc after one QD.

Conclusion

New Squad

http://pokepast.es/f463f0fcca9676ad

Above you'll find the new team after the changes. The purpose of the team is to use Weavile and Heatran to trap/weaken switchins for Zard-Y, and then take advantage of Zard's incredible power to potentially allow Kartana to clean up late game.

Overall, I do believe this team is more consistent than your initial version, but that's not to say it doesn't have weaknesses. A core of Tapu Koko + Kyurem-B can put in a ton of work vs the team, seeing as Kyu-B blasts both of the team's answers to Koko. Hawlucha is a bit scary to play around at +1 defense, so make sure to keep Lando healthy enough to be able to rk it with SSSS. Offensive Water- types still pressure the team, so make sure you keep Tapu Bulu and Kartana healthy enough to be able to take them on. HP Ground Volcarona sweeps after one QD if Kartana goes down. Lastly, SD Kartana is pretty threatening, as the team relies on its own Kartana & Weavile to outspeed and rk.

Test out the squad and let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to also make changes if you don't like something. Hope I was able to help & gl with the new team

 

[PeekoTheBirb]

Hey PeekoTheBirb! Welcome to Smogon; glad to see that you're already looking for feedback on your team. Your team contains some of the most common Pokemon in the metagame, like Lando-T, Kartana, and Zapdos, while using lesser common Pokemon such as Zard-Y and Mamoswine.

Let's talk about some issues that I see with your team from taking a quick glance at it.

In order to make Zard-Y succeed in the current meta, you need a way of reliably dealing with Toxapex and the Lati twins, seeing as MLati@s have seen a fair amount of usage recently, and both can wall it with ease. You have ways of pressuring these threats with the likes of Zapdos and Mamoswine, for example, but they can always switch out.
Moreover, in a metagame full of hazard stacking, it's imperative that you reliably keep hazards off the field for Zard-Y. Defog on Latios is alright, but you're trying to fit too many roles on your Latios for it to be effective on a Zard-Y team. It's your only form of speed control, your defogger, and it's Pursuit bait.
Something else that I noticed is that in the meta, it is crucial that you have a Steel- type on your team. You do have Kartana, but it's very frail and won't be tanking many hits.
Lastly, your team folds to offensive waters. Ash-Gren gets to spam Dark Pulse pretty freely and then cleans up very easily after Latios goes down or is weakened.

Without further ado, let's get into the rate and try to patch up the most holes possible.

Threats

/ Waters
As I mentioned above, Water- types, especially Ash-Greninja, have a very easy time getting past your team. Considering that Latios is choice locked and your only way of outspeeding Ash-Greninja, it finds many opportunities to come in and spam its Water/Dark STAB. After Latios is weakened and/or goes down, Ash-Greninja can sweep with ease with either Specs or Water Z.

Seeing as Lando-T is defensive and is outsped, Heatran (especially in the Sun) gets to fire off Magma Storms whenever given a chance vs the majority of your team. Nothing really wants to take these, as Latios and Lando are easy to wear down, and Zard-Y isn't necessarily the best switch-in given that Heatran can use any move bar Earth Power on the switch to pressure it.

Both Mega TTar and regular TTar can pressure your team with SR, Stone Edge, and accessibility to Ice and Fire type coverage. Removing the Sun from Zard-Y also greatly hinders it. Your team does have ways of pressuring both of these with the likes of Lando, Kartana, and Mamoswine, but that doesn't prevent them from applying a ton of pressure whenever they can come in for free. If either of these come in on Latios and trap it, it makes the game incredibly tougher for you.

Your initial team greatly struggles to deal with Volcarona after a single QD. For example, if it manages to come in against Latios locked into anything outside of Psyshock, it can get up a QD and proceed to very easily clean up with a simple combination of Fire Blast/Bug Buzz (not even taking the Z move into account).

No defensive Steel- types means that Psychic spam is extremely effective against your team. Both Tapu Lele and Alakazam click Psychic pretty effortlessly, and your only way of outspeeding Alakazam is Latios, which can't do much of anything vs Tapu Lele. In fact, Tapu Lele holding any item does significant work against your team, so having a Steel- type that can at least take a couple hits is an absolute must.

Suggestions

Let's build around Zard-Y, with the first focus being getting rid / being able to pressure the Lati twins and pressure other Zard-Y switchins.

>

Mamoswine is a cool threat in the OU metagame due to its mostly unresisted STAB, but Weavile fits better here in supporting Zard-Y. Weavile is a better fit for your team because it can trap relevant switchins such as the Lati twins. With Knock Off, it can also potentially cripple common switchins such as Toxapex, Heatran, and Chansey, all which Mamoswine threatens too. Weavile also helps vs the psychic spam matchup because it can Pursuit trap Lele (bar scarf Moonblast) and it makes Zam rely on FB to beat it (as opposed to freely using Psychic vs your team).

Next, we'll try to fix Latios as you're trying to fit too much role compression (speed and only hazard control) on a Pokemon that has really taken a hit in viability. We'll do this with a couple changes, the first being:

>

Heatran is a superior option here because it is a defensive Steel- type for your team, which is almost always a necessity in OU, and can also provide fantastic utility in trapping the likes of Toxapex & Chansey for Zard-Y. Magma Storm + Taunt really shuts them both down and makes Zard's job that much easier in spamming Flamethrower. On top of that, Heatran also provides a much needed Psychic resist for your team. It can also reliably get rocks up most of the time, freeing up a spot for Lando-T:

Defog > Stealth Rock,

With Latios gone, you need a Pokemon to reliably remove hazards from the field for Zard. Instead of trying to find another Defogger to add to the team, I felt like the most appropriate step here was changing Lando's set to Defog + SSSS. Although this change might seem strange at first, you'll see in a bit that I'll replace Zapdos to give you a better matchup vs Water- types. By changing Zapdos, the team becomes setup bait for Hawlucha, arguably the best sweeper in the tier atm, whenever a Grass- type is in. Defensive SSSS Lando prevents Hawlucha from sweeping your team and deals considerable damage to opposing Lando-T's regardless; plus, you don't lose much since your team doesn't have a Z crystal to begin with.

The team is still weak to Water- types, and although the team does have Kartana, it isn't exactly the best answer as it can't switchin vs them. This change was probably the hardest for me to make, but below is what I came up with.

>

Zapdos is definitely a great Pokemon in the current metagame, but it doesn't accomplish much for your team. Instead, Tapu Bulu can be used to counter the likes of Ash-Greninja, Keldeo, and Zygarde, all which can do hefty work vs your team if used properly. Tapu Bulu also provides Grassy Terrain support to help out the likes of Heatran and Kartana and is just a great pivot overall vs the likes of Koko.

Although Weavile has Ice Shard, you still need some sort of reliable speed control for your team after getting rid of Latios.

>

Outside of dedicated leads in HO builds such as Excadrill, Focus Sash really isn't all too viable of an item. Choice Scarf is a superior option here, turning Kartana into a scary late game cleaner and providing the speed control that your team needs. Alongside Bulu, Kartana is going to be hitting hard under Grassy Terrain and has very good offensive synergy with Zard-Y. Zard-Y takes advantage of Steel- types that like to come in vs Kartana, giving it more chances to clean up late game. Aerial Ace > Knock Off here helps beat Volc after one QD.

Conclusion

New Squad

http://pokepast.es/f463f0fcca9676ad

Above you'll find the new team after the changes. The purpose of the team is to use Weavile and Heatran to trap/weaken switchins for Zard-Y, and then take advantage of Zard's incredible power to potentially allow Kartana to clean up late game.

Overall, I do believe this team is more consistent than your initial version, but that's not to say it doesn't have weaknesses. A core of Tapu Koko + Kyurem-B can put in a ton of work vs the team, seeing as Kyu-B blasts both of the team's answers to Koko. Hawlucha is a bit scary to play around at +1 defense, so make sure to keep Lando healthy enough to be able to rk it with SSSS. Offensive Water- types still pressure the team, so make sure you keep Tapu Bulu and Kartana healthy enough to be able to take them on. HP Ground Volcarona sweeps after one QD if Kartana goes down. Lastly, SD Kartana is pretty threatening, as the team relies on its own Kartana & Weavile to outspeed and rk.

Test out the squad and let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to also make changes if you don't like something. Hope I was able to help & gl with the new team

Hey man! I love the insanely detailed help, and I am definitely going to make the changes and test it out, I appreciate all the help you gave me and all the changes you made, must have been quite some effort, I really do appreciate it man, I'll be switching the Team today and testing it out soon!

I'll reply again maybe next week or something! Thanks man! :D

 

[PeekoTheBirb]

Hey PeekoTheBirb! Welcome to Smogon; glad to see that you're already looking for feedback on your team. Your team contains some of the most common Pokemon in the metagame, like Lando-T, Kartana, and Zapdos, while using lesser common Pokemon such as Zard-Y and Mamoswine.

Let's talk about some issues that I see with your team from taking a quick glance at it.

In order to make Zard-Y succeed in the current meta, you need a way of reliably dealing with Toxapex and the Lati twins, seeing as MLati@s have seen a fair amount of usage recently, and both can wall it with ease. You have ways of pressuring these threats with the likes of Zapdos and Mamoswine, for example, but they can always switch out.
Moreover, in a metagame full of hazard stacking, it's imperative that you reliably keep hazards off the field for Zard-Y. Defog on Latios is alright, but you're trying to fit too many roles on your Latios for it to be effective on a Zard-Y team. It's your only form of speed control, your defogger, and it's Pursuit bait.
Something else that I noticed is that in the meta, it is crucial that you have a Steel- type on your team. You do have Kartana, but it's very frail and won't be tanking many hits.
Lastly, your team folds to offensive waters. Ash-Gren gets to spam Dark Pulse pretty freely and then cleans up very easily after Latios goes down or is weakened.

Without further ado, let's get into the rate and try to patch up the most holes possible.

Threats

/ Waters
As I mentioned above, Water- types, especially Ash-Greninja, have a very easy time getting past your team. Considering that Latios is choice locked and your only way of outspeeding Ash-Greninja, it finds many opportunities to come in and spam its Water/Dark STAB. After Latios is weakened and/or goes down, Ash-Greninja can sweep with ease with either Specs or Water Z.

Seeing as Lando-T is defensive and is outsped, Heatran (especially in the Sun) gets to fire off Magma Storms whenever given a chance vs the majority of your team. Nothing really wants to take these, as Latios and Lando are easy to wear down, and Zard-Y isn't necessarily the best switch-in given that Heatran can use any move bar Earth Power on the switch to pressure it.

Both Mega TTar and regular TTar can pressure your team with SR, Stone Edge, and accessibility to Ice and Fire type coverage. Removing the Sun from Zard-Y also greatly hinders it. Your team does have ways of pressuring both of these with the likes of Lando, Kartana, and Mamoswine, but that doesn't prevent them from applying a ton of pressure whenever they can come in for free. If either of these come in on Latios and trap it, it makes the game incredibly tougher for you.

Your initial team greatly struggles to deal with Volcarona after a single QD. For example, if it manages to come in against Latios locked into anything outside of Psyshock, it can get up a QD and proceed to very easily clean up with a simple combination of Fire Blast/Bug Buzz (not even taking the Z move into account).

No defensive Steel- types means that Psychic spam is extremely effective against your team. Both Tapu Lele and Alakazam click Psychic pretty effortlessly, and your only way of outspeeding Alakazam is Latios, which can't do much of anything vs Tapu Lele. In fact, Tapu Lele holding any item does significant work against your team, so having a Steel- type that can at least take a couple hits is an absolute must.

Suggestions

Let's build around Zard-Y, with the first focus being getting rid / being able to pressure the Lati twins and pressure other Zard-Y switchins.

>

Mamoswine is a cool threat in the OU metagame due to its mostly unresisted STAB, but Weavile fits better here in supporting Zard-Y. Weavile is a better fit for your team because it can trap relevant switchins such as the Lati twins. With Knock Off, it can also potentially cripple common switchins such as Toxapex, Heatran, and Chansey, all which Mamoswine threatens too. Weavile also helps vs the psychic spam matchup because it can Pursuit trap Lele (bar scarf Moonblast) and it makes Zam rely on FB to beat it (as opposed to freely using Psychic vs your team).

Next, we'll try to fix Latios as you're trying to fit too much role compression (speed and only hazard control) on a Pokemon that has really taken a hit in viability. We'll do this with a couple changes, the first being:

>

Heatran is a superior option here because it is a defensive Steel- type for your team, which is almost always a necessity in OU, and can also provide fantastic utility in trapping the likes of Toxapex & Chansey for Zard-Y. Magma Storm + Taunt really shuts them both down and makes Zard's job that much easier in spamming Flamethrower. On top of that, Heatran also provides a much needed Psychic resist for your team. It can also reliably get rocks up most of the time, freeing up a spot for Lando-T:

Defog > Stealth Rock,

With Latios gone, you need a Pokemon to reliably remove hazards from the field for Zard. Instead of trying to find another Defogger to add to the team, I felt like the most appropriate step here was changing Lando's set to Defog + SSSS. Although this change might seem strange at first, you'll see in a bit that I'll replace Zapdos to give you a better matchup vs Water- types. By changing Zapdos, the team becomes setup bait for Hawlucha, arguably the best sweeper in the tier atm, whenever a Grass- type is in. Defensive SSSS Lando prevents Hawlucha from sweeping your team and deals considerable damage to opposing Lando-T's regardless; plus, you don't lose much since your team doesn't have a Z crystal to begin with.

The team is still weak to Water- types, and although the team does have Kartana, it isn't exactly the best answer as it can't switchin vs them. This change was probably the hardest for me to make, but below is what I came up with.

>

Zapdos is definitely a great Pokemon in the current metagame, but it doesn't accomplish much for your team. Instead, Tapu Bulu can be used to counter the likes of Ash-Greninja, Keldeo, and Zygarde, all which can do hefty work vs your team if used properly. Tapu Bulu also provides Grassy Terrain support to help out the likes of Heatran and Kartana and is just a great pivot overall vs the likes of Koko.

Although Weavile has Ice Shard, you still need some sort of reliable speed control for your team after getting rid of Latios.

>

Outside of dedicated leads in HO builds such as Excadrill, Focus Sash really isn't all too viable of an item. Choice Scarf is a superior option here, turning Kartana into a scary late game cleaner and providing the speed control that your team needs. Alongside Bulu, Kartana is going to be hitting hard under Grassy Terrain and has very good offensive synergy with Zard-Y. Zard-Y takes advantage of Steel- types that like to come in vs Kartana, giving it more chances to clean up late game. Aerial Ace > Knock Off here helps beat Volc after one QD.

Conclusion

New Squad

http://pokepast.es/f463f0fcca9676ad

Above you'll find the new team after the changes. The purpose of the team is to use Weavile and Heatran to trap/weaken switchins for Zard-Y, and then take advantage of Zard's incredible power to potentially allow Kartana to clean up late game.

Overall, I do believe this team is more consistent than your initial version, but that's not to say it doesn't have weaknesses. A core of Tapu Koko + Kyurem-B can put in a ton of work vs the team, seeing as Kyu-B blasts both of the team's answers to Koko. Hawlucha is a bit scary to play around at +1 defense, so make sure to keep Lando healthy enough to be able to rk it with SSSS. Offensive Water- types still pressure the team, so make sure you keep Tapu Bulu and Kartana healthy enough to be able to take them on. HP Ground Volcarona sweeps after one QD if Kartana goes down. Lastly, SD Kartana is pretty threatening, as the team relies on its own Kartana & Weavile to outspeed and rk.

Test out the squad and let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to also make changes if you don't like something. Hope I was able to help & gl with the new team

YOOOO LOL the team ROCKS. Haven't used it much after like 10 battles in Showdown but I brought it to DS and nonetheless, it puts in WORK. Thanks my dude!