SM OU Green Kush

[Geobody]

Green Kush

The Team


Click the team for the importable

Teambuilding Process

I wanted to build a team around Tapu Bulu (a pokemon I had never used before) with teammates who could abuse the Grassy Terrain it provides. My first pick was Scarf Serperior (from gaasaa's team) because, while it starts off pretty weak, the additional power from Grassy Terrain helps it get that first unboosted KO to start snowballing.

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Zapdos brings utility as my main defogger and physical check. Static+Rocky Helmet is an amazing combination which wears down physical attackers.

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Ferrothorn is the second half of my defensive core, acting as my rock setter and special wall. Static on Zapdos and Thunder-Wave on Ferrothorn create a ParaHax core.

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Lastly, Charizard X and Zygarde are my sweepers and crucial x4 fire resists. Zygarde plays an essential role on the team countering Heatran.

Set Descriptions

Serperior @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Glare
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Defog

As I said in the teambuilding section, I took this set from gaasaa's team and it lives up to the hype.
Although there are many pokemon in the tier that x4 resist grass, once they are removed you can often sweep with your ridiculous 535 speed and boosted Leaf Storms. This thing provides amazing speed control, outspeeding and OHKOing Swampert-Mega in rain and crippling set-up-sweepers with Glare, and even serving as an emergency defogger in case Zapdos gets taken out. The main thing I have to add to gaasaa's description is that Grassy Terrain helps Serperior get certain unboosted KO's that it otherwise lacks the power to get.

Calcs

With Grassy Terrain:
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Nidoking in Grassy Terrain: 280-330 (92.4 - 108.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian in Grassy Terrain: 267-315 (83.6 - 98.7%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Medicham-Mega in Grassy Terrain: 253-298 (96.9 - 114.1%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Lopunny in Grassy Terrain: 229-270 (84.5 - 99.6%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Grassy Terrain recovery
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-Wash in Grassy Terrain: 420-494 (138.6 - 163%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Diancie in Grassy Terrain: 312-368 (129.4 - 152.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Alakazam-Mega in Grassy Terrain: 213-252 (84.8 - 100.3%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Grassy Terrain recovery
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Gyarados-Mega in Grassy Terrain: 354-416 (106.9 - 125.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Weavile in Grassy Terrain: 253-298 (90 - 106%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Grassy Terrain recovery

Without Grassy Terrain:
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Nidoking: 186-220 (61.3 - 72.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 178-210 (55.7 - 65.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Medicham-Mega: 169-199 (64.7 - 76.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Lopunny: 153-180 (56.4 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-Wash: 278-330 (91.7 - 108.9%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Diancie: 206-246 (85.4 - 102%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Alakazam-Mega: 142-168 (56.5 - 66.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Gyarados-Mega: 236-278 (71.2 - 83.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Weavile: 169-199 (60.1 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Tapu Bulu @ Life Orb
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Horn Leech
- Superpower
- Stone Edge

Bulu sets Grassy Terrain to support the rest of the team, but ironically I often find it to be dead weight. I'd love suggestions for sets that would make better use of Bulu for this team (terrain extender?). I chose this Sub-LO set over AV because I found myself missing the added power from LO and that AV Bulu was redundant with Ferrothorn. Moreover, Substitute allows Bulu to take advantage of passive opponents who try and status it, and it allows Bulu to scout and rely less on prediction. LO boosted horn leech more than makes up for the HP lost to substitute, and Superpower and Stone Edge are for maximum coverage (a theme of this team).

Zapdos @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 240 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Heat Wave
- Roost
- Defog

Honestly, this pokemon is evil. Zapdos' purpose is to paralyze opposing threats with either Static or Discharge, to keep rocks off the field for Charizard X, and to serve as a blanket counter for some of the tiers top physical threats (Lando-T, Kartana, Hawlucha, Medicham-Mega, Lopunny-Mega, Scizor-Mega, Pinsir-Mega). You really don't miss leftovers recovery because you're clicking Roost so often anyways. Discharge is your main attack for ParaHax, and Heat Wave is for Kartana, Ferrothorn, and Scizor-Mega, Magnezone, Tangrowth, and other Grass resists which block Serperior from setting up. Because Zapdos is your main defogger, its really important to keep it alive until the opposing hazard setters are gone, because relying on Serperior for defog hands momentum over to the opponent.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off
- Thunder Wave

Back to the theme of abusing grassy terrain, Ferrothorn benefits in two major ways: additional passive recovery and weakened Earthquakes. Between Leftovers, Grassy Terrain, and Leech Seed, Ferrothorn has a max 24% passive recovery if played right. Grassy terrain makes a big difference in matchups against pokemon that rely on Earthquake (notably Landorus-T and Excadrill). Ferrothorn is also my Koko and Greninja check.
I often lead with Ferrothorn because it is normally the safest matchup against common leads, and because I can often paralyze an opponent early. I don't need to run Power Whip because I already have 2 strong grass attackers, and Knock Off and Thunder Wave provide key utility.

Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flame Charge
- Dragon Claw
- Thunder Punch/Swords Dance
- Roost

Charizard-X is the first of my late game cleaners. Its main benefits from Grassy Terrain are reduced damage taken from Earthquake and passive recovery.
I use this unconventional Flame Charge set because Flare Blitz kills momentum by requiring constant Roost recovery and Dragon Dance reduces the number of coverage moves. Grassy Terrain combined with not using Flare Blitz allows me to keep Charizard-X healthy throughout the game. Charizard-X provides secondary speed control because it often acts as a revenge killer with Flame Charge (speed tying with +1 base 100s), though because it lacks the power of DD or Flare Blitz sets it is better used as a cleaner than a breaker. Swords Dance can be used over Thunder Punch if you want, but I prefer the extra coverage for dealing with Toxipex, Greninja, Tornadus-T, and Tapu Fini. Defensively, Charizard-X serves as my burn immunity, Ground immunity pre-mega, and x4 fire resist for a team that is very weak to fire.

Zygarde @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 240 Atk / 56 SpD / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows
- Iron Tail
- Outrage

Zygarde is a bulky sweeper and Heatran check. Thousand Arrows is your main STAB, Iron Tail is for fairies, and Z-Outrage is a nuke mainly for dealing with bulky grass pokemon like Venusaur-Mega and Tangrowth that give this team problems. The EV spread is to from the OU creative sets thread, with speed EVs to outspeed Heatran.

Threats:

Volcarona: Volcarona can run through my team if allowed to boost, but I have some ways of checking it. Volcarona will often switch in and try to set up on Ferrothorn, which can paralyze it with Thunder Wave and then switch to Charizard-X. The back up solution is for Serperior to paralyze it with Glare before it gets to +2, and then let Charizard-X or Zygarde finish it off.
Kyurem-B: 4 of my pokemon are weak to ice, and 2 take neutral damage. Ice generally is a problem for this team.
Lati@s: My only answers to the Lati's are my own dragons, who when are outsped when unboosted. Scarf Latios fucks me up.
Ninetales-Alola Veil: I don't have any lead that can stop Ninetales-Alola from setting up Aurora Veil up, although at +1 Zygarde can outspeed and OHKO with Iron Tail if it tries to set up a second time.​

 

[DKM]

Hey dude, nice team. Serperior is a cool terrain abuser, although I think the SubSeed set fits better on this team than scarf.

The team also has a few weaknesses that you mentioned. along with them I could see M-Venusaur being a threat. It walls most of team and the Sludge Bomb poison chance makes it hard for Charizard to switch in.

The team may also struggle with some stall teams, Charizard is pretty much walled by Clefable and Quagsire. Bulu also struggles without SD. I'll suggest some changes to try and help improve the team.


Major Change

> : The first change I suggest is Scarf Greninja over Charizard. To me Charizard seems a bit too similar to Zygarde for this team and is probably the one that should be replaced. Greninja gives you a more reliable scarfer than Serperior. It can revenge-Kill things like Volcarona and Zygarde with Ice Beam and Rock Slide respectively. It has U-turn to gain momentum and T-spikes in the last slot. T-spikes are effective paired with SubSeed Serperior (which I'm adding next), Leech Seed + Toxic wears things down really quickly.

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Minor Changes

> : Next I suggest using SubSeed Serperior instead of Scarf. This set is much more effective, being able to stall out and weaken alot of things that wall the Choice Scarf set. Leech Seed + Substitute on their own can weaken most things into Leaf Storm or HP Fire range, then adding a possible T-spike that could be up makes this set a pain for alot of teams. This set also beats Chansey 1v1 making the stall matchup easier.


> | Swords Dance > Substitute: Next I suggest using a SD Bulu variant with Rockium Z and an Adamant nature. SD Adamant helps with breaking through bulkier teams which Bulu is really good at. +2 Adamant Horn Leech in terrain has a chance to OHKO Toxapex and 2HKO M-Latias. Z-Stone Edge can suprise Zapdos, but more importantly has a chance to OHKO M-Venusaur at +2 which makes Serperior's job alot easier.


> : Next I changed Zygarde to a Sub DD set with Protect. This set abuses T-Spikes and Grassy Terrain well. With T-Spikes up you 1v1 defensive answers like Bulu and Tangrowth easily. You setup on passive things like Ferrothorn, Toxapex and Amoonguss thanks to Sub, so you still act as a bulky setup sweeper that checks Hetran. The EV spread is standard, the HP allows the sub to not be broken by Chansey's Seismic Toss. Losing Dragonium might make Landorus more annoying, but it's still easy to wear down.


Gyro Ball > Knock Off, Protect > Thunder Wave: Lastly I suggest a moveset change on Ferrothorn. Gyro Ball is a better attacking move because it hits Lele, which Ferrothorn is your only answer to. Protect is something you can try over T-Wave, it lets you scout for Z-moves like Fightinium Z Lele and Icium Z Kyurem. It also avoids HJK from Medicham and Lopunny, both of which are annoying to the team.


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The team definetely isn't perfect and still has some weaknesses but hopefully I made it more effective while keeping the main idea of the team.

Threats to watch out for would be M-Medicham, Kyurem and CM M-Latias. When I used this team I usually tried to get Serperior going as early as possible, pressuring the opponent with Sub and Leaf Storm/Leech Seed. Being faster than the offensive threats I mentioned makes it easy to sub as they switch in, then Leech Seed and keep subbing until they're in Leaf Storm range.

I hope this rate was helpful and good luck :]

Importable

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[Geobody]

DragonKnightmaster thanks for the rate! I'll try out your changes and get back to you later. There are a couple of points you raised that I want to address, including a couple of pokemon listed as potential threats that the team can deal with pretty easily.

Venusaur-Mega: Venusaur-Mega isn't that big of a threat because it gets hard walled by Ferrothorn. I can freely switch Ferrothorn in on Sludge Bomb or Giga Drain, and HP Fire does max 47%. Meanwhile I can paralyze it with Thunder Wave and then switch to Charizard-X or Zygarde who can both 1-v-1 paralyzed Venusaur-Mega. As I said in the description, Zygarde's Z-Outrage can take out a damaged Venusaur-Mega, especially if it took damage switching in on Thousand Arrows.

Calcs

Defensive:
0 SpA Venusaur-Mega Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 208+ SpD Ferrothorn: 140-168 (39.7 - 47.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Offensive:
240+ Atk Zygarde Devastating Drake (190 BP) vs. 248 HP / 88 Def Venusaur-Mega: 219-258 (60.3 - 71%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
240+ Atk Zygarde Thousand Arrows vs. 248 HP / 88 Def Venusaur-Mega: 103-123 (28.3 - 33.8%) -- 0.6% chance to 3HKO

Chansey: You recommend changing Serperior to SubSeed in part to deal with stall and Chansey. Ferrothorn already hard walls Chansey, only being hit by seismic toss while being able to Knock Off Eviolite, set up rocks, restore health with Leech Seed, or catch the switch in with either Knock Off, Leech Seed, or Thunder Wave.

Latias-Mega: Again, another pokemon which can't touch Ferrothorn and who gets crippled by Thunder Wave and Leech Seed. Sets that don't carry a dragon move also get 1-v-1ed by Charizard-X

Medicham-Mega: I've never had problems against this pokemon because Zapdos 1-v-1 it, Roost-ing off Ice Punch damage and wearing down Medicham-Mega with Rocky Helmet and ParaHax from Static/Discharge.

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Major Change

View attachment 115507> View attachment 115508: The first change I suggest is Scarf Greninja over Charizard. To me Charizard seems a bit too similar to Zygarde for this team and is probably the one that should be replaced. Greninja gives you a more reliable scarfer than Serperior. It can revenge-Kill things like Volcarona and Zygarde with Ice Beam and Rock Slide respectively. It has U-turn to gain momentum and T-spikes in the last slot. T-spikes are effective paired with SubSeed Serperior (which I'm adding next), Leech Seed + Toxic wears things down really quickly.​

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My main concern with switching Charizard-X for Scarf Gren is that it makes the team significantly more fragile. The two main differences between Charizard-X and Zygarde on the team (other than that they threaten different opponents) is that Charizard-X has a consistent recovery move in Roost and it provides speed control with Flame Charge (and Zygarde isn't running Extreme Speed). You recommend this switch for dealing with Volcarona and Zygarde, but Tapu Bulu already hard checks Zygarde and I already describe my semi-functional way of dealing with Volcarona in the threats section.

On the positive side, I really like the idea of running Toxic Spikes on a Grassy Terrain team (especially with Sub-Protect Zygarde) and I'm trying to think of other ways of fitting it in.

 

[DKM]

DragonKnightmaster thanks for the rate! I'll try out your changes and get back to you later. There are a couple of points you raised that I want to address, including a couple of pokemon listed as potential threats that the team can deal with pretty easily.

Venusaur-Mega: Venusaur-Mega isn't that big of a threat because it gets hard walled by Ferrothorn. I can freely switch Ferrothorn in on Sludge Bomb or Giga Drain, and HP Fire does max 47%. Meanwhile I can paralyze it with Thunder Wave and then switch to Charizard-X or Zygarde who can both 1-v-1 paralyzed Venusaur-Mega. As I said in the description, Zygarde's Z-Outrage can take out a damaged Venusaur-Mega, especially if it took damage switching in on Thousand Arrows.

Calcs

Defensive:
0 SpA Venusaur-Mega Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 208+ SpD Ferrothorn: 140-168 (39.7 - 47.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Offensive:
240+ Atk Zygarde Devastating Drake (190 BP) vs. 248 HP / 88 Def Venusaur-Mega: 219-258 (60.3 - 71%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
240+ Atk Zygarde Thousand Arrows vs. 248 HP / 88 Def Venusaur-Mega: 103-123 (28.3 - 33.8%) -- 0.6% chance to 3HKO

Chansey: You recommend changing Serperior to SubSeed in part to deal with stall and Chansey. Ferrothorn already hard walls Chansey, only being hit by seismic toss while being able to Knock Off Eviolite, set up rocks, restore health with Leech Seed, or catch the switch in with either Knock Off, Leech Seed, or Thunder Wave.

Latias-Mega: Again, another pokemon which can't touch Ferrothorn and who gets crippled by Thunder Wave and Leech Seed. Sets that don't carry a dragon move also get 1-v-1ed by Charizard-X

Medicham-Mega: I've never had problems against this pokemon because Zapdos 1-v-1 it, Roost-ing off Ice Punch damage and wearing down Medicham-Mega with Rocky Helmet and ParaHax from Static/Discharge.

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My main concern with switching Charizard-X for Scarf Gren is that it makes the team significantly more fragile. The two main differences between Charizard-X and Zygarde on the team (other than that they threaten different opponents) is that Charizard-X has a consistent recovery move in Roost and it provides speed control with Flame Charge (and Zygarde isn't running Extreme Speed). You recommend this switch for dealing with Volcarona and Zygarde, but Tapu Bulu already hard checks Zygarde and I already describe my semi-functional way of dealing with Volcarona in the threats section.

On the positive side, I really like the idea of running Toxic Spikes on a Grassy Terrain team (especially with Sub-Protect Zygarde) and I'm trying to think of other ways of fitting it in.

The point on M-Latias is true, although regardless of t-wave the cm stored power set is still annoying. Something I definetely should've mentioned aswell was M-Latios who could be carrying HP Fire which makes it quite a threat.


Zapdos isn't really a Medicham counter unless you get a para on the first turn. It outspeeds and 2HKOs with Ice Punch, has a decent chance to KO with HJK into Ice Punch and that isn't counting rocks.


I didn't really find losing Charizard to be that bad, I usually played quite aggresive with the team which usually results in quick games.

I'm glad you like the t-spikes idea. Good luck with the team, whichever version you use :]