SM OU M-Latios and Magnezone Offense

[Discharged Xurkitree]

Hi! I've made a team for this review once before, and the advice really helped me. I have played around with Magnezone + M-Latios in the past but I have returned to the core as Latios sees a surge in the meta for him. I am very open to switching around Pokemon on my team (bar the core). This is the team I'm using, and thanks in advance for the advice I can get!

Mega Latios @ Latiosite
Evs: 252 Spa / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
-Psychic
-Ice Beam
-Earthquake
-Recover
​

Ever since M-Latios got a more flexible moves, he has piqued my interest for me to use. He's a terrific wallbreaker and offensive mon in general. Psychic is his most spammable and consistent move, as well as having a STAB bonus. It has great neutral coverage, destroying Toxapex and hitting many physical walls for 2HKO's such as Lando-T, Rotom-W, and Clefable (a 23.8% chance to 2HKO). Ice Beam is great for taking out ground types, like Zygarde and the aforementioned Lando-T. It also improves his already good matchup with Zapdos, as using Draco Meteor would leave Latios vulnerable to being revenge killed with the special attack drop. Earthquake is nigh necessary to hit Tyranitar, Magearna, and Heatran for 2HKO's (for the former two) and OHKO's (for the latter). Recover is useful for the ability to heal off damage well and contributes to the respectable bulk of Latios. Generally I use M-Latios for wall breaking, and as a switch-in to physical walls. It's hard to get a direct switch on Latios, as it's hard to predict which move he is running for his second slot. He's also a respectable ground type check, useful for the other mons on my team. Overall, he is well rounded and powerful, and punches holes in the enemy team.

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Evs: 252 Spa / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Thunderbolt
-Flash Cannon
-Hidden Power Fire
-Volt Switch
​

Magnezone works amazingly well with M-Latios. Latios provides an immunity to ground, and resistances to fire and fights: the three types magnezone is especially weak too. In return, Magnezone guarentees ko's against Steels that annoy Latios like Celesteela, Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Ferrothorn. Thunderbolt is mainly used for flying types, and to get ko's against the steel birds. Flash Cannon offers a chance to catch a ground type with a secondary STAB move, such as Lando-T. HP Fire is great for destroying Ferrothorn and Scizor. Finally, Volt Switch is a great way to gain momentum against expected switch ins, such as a volt switch on Tangrowth can bring in Weavile to threaten said tan growth. Magnezone is a rather specific mon, meant to take out Steels that could annoy the Pokemon on the team. Once they are gone, the rest can wreak havoc on the opposing team. I feel he is nigh necessary to use with M-Latios, because the two make such a good pair.

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Evs: 248 Hp / 224 Spd / 36 Spe
Sassy Nature
-Fleur Cannon
-Iron Head
-Hidden Power Fire
-Volt Switch
​

When making this team, I realized I needed a good special wall, and Magearna was a great form of role compression. Being a special wall as well as a user of volt turn made Magearna pretty desirable to me, as well as it's dark resistance. Fleur Cannon deals good damage to many neutral targets, but especially to dark and dragon types. I use Iron Head above Flash Cannon for the greater damage against other Magearna using Shift Gear. it also punishes fairy types well. Hidden Power Fire is for ferrothorn trying to switch in, and Volt Switch is useful as an escape tool and to bring in another Pokemon safely. Magearna's strength lies in it's awesome defensive utility, as well as offensive possibilities. It checks the dark types that threaten the core and other special attackers as well. Good role compression and effectiveness leave Magearna a solid option in this team.

Landorus-T @ Leftovers
Evs: 252 Hp / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
-Earthquake
-Stealth Rock
-Hidden Power Ice
-U-Turn
​

Phys def Lando-T is pretty solid, and self explanatory. It is an excellent physical wall that checks ground types, can take hits from some of the hardest hitting mons in the tier, and can respond with a modestly powerful earthquake. It's pretty splashable on many teams, and this one is no different. Like Magearna it provides great role compression and excels at being a wall. On top of that, Stealth Rock is pretty useful for Lando and the team, for instance Ice Beam from M-Latios has a high chance at 2HKOing AV Bulu after stealth rock, but no chance without SR. Overall, a great, splashable mon.

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Evs: 252 Atk / 4 Hp / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Leaf Blade
-Sacred Sword
-Smart Strike
-Defog
​

At first, I felt cs Kartana was a bit redundant with cs Magnezone, but I realized the two played very different roles. Kartana is best at sweeping, while Magnezone is more about trapping and eliminating. That being said, cs Kartana is a ridiculous sweeper, with it having two great moves in Leaf Blade and Sacred Sword, which covers the other nicely. Leaf Blade is the catch all STAB move of Kartana, dealing absurd damage after a boost. Sacred Sword, as previously mentioned, is a great coverage move, being able to hit the steel types that Leaf Blade can't hit. Smart Strike is useful to knock out fairy types and deal neutral damage to grass types and flying types. Kartana is the sole defogger of the team, being an amazing emergency option if needed. Kartana works fairly well with the other members of this team, as M-Latios is capable of creating holes in the opposing team, and Lando sets SR to turn 2HKO's into OHKO's. A great sweeper In general.

Weavile @ Choice Band
Evs: 252 Atk / 4 Spd / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Knock Off
-Icicle Crash
-Pursuit
-Ice Shard
​

Weavile is the primary physical wallbreaker in my team. He has great dark type STAB that threatens the majority of the meta game. Knock Off is his primary dark type move, being able to deal loads of damage and remove/scout an item from the opponent. Icicle Crash works well with Knock Off, despite a chance to miss, has great power and threatens the grass and ground types of the tier. Pursuit is really useful, it destroys the Mega Latis, which would otherwise wall Kartana. Finally, Ice Shard is the only form of priority on the team and can punch faster sweepers.

Leave a comment on what my team would need to improve! I look forward to some advice!

​

 

[MFJK]

Hello Discharged Xurkitree, that's a pretty cool team you've got there. M-Latios Bulky Offense is a pretty popular archetype and this team has a lot of potential. From what I can see, this team uses Scarf Magnezone, Weavile and M-Latios to break through Scarf Kartana's checks to ease its sweep so that's what I'm gonna work with and maintain. Although I really like the team, it's got some flaws. First off, this team's only means of gaining momentum are Magnezone, Magearna and Landorus-T which all get walled by the Tornadus-T+ Gastrodon core, which is pretty common on many balance builds. Also, this team is really weak to Fire-types like Heatran and Charizard X/Y since your only Fire- resist is M-Latios which can get trapped by a Tyranitar or a Weavile. Other threats to this team include fast wallbreakers like M-Alakazam, Greninja and Tapu Koko which can all wear down AV Magearna.

Overall, I think this team can get bodied a lot due to its lack of any reliable defensive wall on this team. I also don't like the choice of AV Magearna as your special check because of how easily it gets worn down. Here are some changes to solve those issues:

→

- As I said above, I didn't like the choice of Magearna on this team since it gets worn down pretty quickly, can't grab momentum against Ground-types and also can't reliably check pokemons like Greninja, meaning they can still threaten your team heavily. That's why I believe Tapu Bulu fits a lot better in this team since it provides you a much more reliable check to these pokemons as well as Grassy Terrain support which is useful for Kartana. It also makes your matchup against Gliscor and Zygarde more manageable. Here, I would go for the classic Assault Vest set with Horn Leech | Wood Hammer | Megahorn | Nature's Madness which also helps vs M-Lati@s and Reuniclus.

→

- This change is moreso a personal preference and might seem a little weird since it would mean giving up on Weavile's ability to trap Lati@s, Reuniclus, as well as Ghost-types and other pokemons like Tornadus-T. Now, the reason why I believe this change would be beneficial to this team is because I think Greninja fits the team's dynamic more by providing it a solid cleaner that can set-up Spikes and abuse the team's ability to wear down Grass-types while still maintaining the Offensive pressure against the pokemons I outlined. The set I'm proposing is the Choice Specs set with Hydro Pump | Dark Pulse | Water Shuriken | Spikes.

: This change is optional but I would really suggest you to run an SD Flyinium Z set on Landorus-T over your current one. This set really fits your team imo because it can lure Grass-types which is great for Greninja and also improves your matchup against Tornadus-T + Gastrodon, and just balance in general since it's gonna have troubles dealing with this set. The set I'm proposing is Earthquake | Fly | Swords Dance | Stealth Rock.

Importable

Hope I helped!

 

[freegiveaways]

"I use Iron Head above Flash Cannon for the greater damage against other Magearna using Shift Gear."

Is Calm mind I suppose.
Don't like the 36 evs in speed in magearna, a good point to magearna is the slow volt switch.

Two scarfeds is (in general) bad idea unless you have good stallbreakers or wallbreakers (but it's not the case). Try the changes suggested by MFJr King.

 

[Felixx]

"I use Iron Head above Flash Cannon for the greater damage against other Magearna using Shift Gear."

Is Calm mind I suppose.
Don't like the 36 evs in speed in magearna, a good point to magearna is the slow volt switch.

Two scarfeds is (in general) bad idea unless you have good stallbreakers or wallbreakers (but it's not the case). Try the changes suggested by MFJr King.

36 speed is for outspeeding CM Clef and hitting it with Iron Head, being faster is important since you don't 2HKO and have to rely on flinching it down

 

[Discharged Xurkitree]

Hello Discharged Xurkitree, that's a pretty cool team you've got there. M-Latios Bulky Offense is a pretty popular archetype and this team has a lot of potential. From what I can see, this team uses Scarf Magnezone, Weavile and M-Latios to break through Scarf Kartana's checks to ease its sweep so that's what I'm gonna work with and maintain. Although I really like the team, it's got some flaws. First off, this team's only means of gaining momentum are Magnezone, Magearna and Landorus-T which all get walled by the Tornadus-T+ Gastrodon core, which is pretty common on many balance builds. Also, this team is really weak to Fire-types like Heatran and Charizard X/Y since your only Fire- resist is M-Latios which can get trapped by a Tyranitar or a Weavile. Other threats to this team include fast wallbreakers like M-Alakazam, Greninja and Tapu Koko which can all wear down AV Magearna.

Overall, I think this team can get bodied a lot due to its lack of any reliable defensive wall on this team. I also don't like the choice of AV Magearna as your special check because of how easily it gets worn down. Here are some changes to solve those issues:

→

- As I said above, I didn't like the choice of Magearna on this team since it gets worn down pretty quickly, can't grab momentum against Ground-types and also can't reliably check pokemons like Greninja, meaning they can still threaten your team heavily. That's why I believe Tapu Bulu fits a lot better in this team since it provides you a much more reliable check to these pokemons as well as Grassy Terrain support which is useful for Kartana. It also makes your matchup against Gliscor and Zygarde more manageable. Here, I would go for the classic Assault Vest set with Horn Leech | Wood Hammer | Megahorn | Nature's Madness which also helps vs M-Lati@s and Reuniclus.

→

- This change is moreso a personal preference and might seem a little weird since it would mean giving up on Weavile's ability to trap Lati@s, Reuniclus, as well as Ghost-types and other pokemons like Tornadus-T. Now, the reason why I believe this change would be beneficial to this team is because I think Greninja fits the team's dynamic more by providing it a solid cleaner that can set-up Spikes and abuse the team's ability to wear down Grass-types while still maintaining the Offensive pressure against the pokemons I outlined. The set I'm proposing is the Choice Specs set with Hydro Pump | Dark Pulse | Water Shuriken | Spikes.

: This change is optional but I would really suggest you to run an SD Flyinium Z set on Landorus-T over your current one. This set really fits your team imo because it can lure Grass-types which is great for Greninja and also improves your matchup against Tornadus-T + Gastrodon, and just balance in general since it's gonna have troubles dealing with this set. The set I'm proposing is Earthquake | Fly | Swords Dance | Stealth Rock.

Importable

Hope I helped!

I agree with all of these, my one question is if I use Flyinium Z Lando what should I have for a physically defensive wall, or do I already have one in the team I’m forgetting?