SS OU First team, moderately bulky and specially offensive

[W4llace]

This is entirely my first time attempting to build a competitive team so as much advice as possible is greatly appreciated to point out any flaws. The first 3 I'm fairly attached too but the final 3 I added since it seemed like they helped the team out
If the final 3 don't fit then what would you recommend replacing them with? Thanks

slipNslide (Shuckle) (F) @ Red Card
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Sticky Web
- Stealth Rock
- Infestation
- Toxic

Dedicated lead in Mon, Sticky web to help teammates specifically Volcarona, stealth rock is a given for a set-up semi-bulky mon, infestation and toxic to stop him from being set-up on. The red card to get more value out of toxic. I've considered switching infestation out for reversal to use him more like a suicide lead after he gets the entry hazards out. His bulk allows him to safely set up his entry hazards and I feel it's necessary to have a way to stop sweepers from using him as setup fodder

CoronaV (Volcarona) (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Bug Buzz
- Fiery Dance
- Quiver Dance
- Psychic

This set is what I would consider a standard Volcarona special sweep set. Heavy-duty boots so it can switch in without fear of entry hazards. Quiver Dance is obvious, this Volcarona being a sweeper, I chose Fiery dance over other options because of its chance to raise special attack if Volcarona doesn't get time to fully set-up. Psychic to cover Toxapex

Load Lad (Rotom-Wash) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp

This is a physically bulky Wash set to cover for the team in general being very weak to physical attackers as well as to cover the weakness of Ferrothorn and Volcarona. Wash is also very useful to pivot to other mons

Prick (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Toxic
- Power Whip

Ferrothorn is serving as a mixed wall to stall with toxic and cover for some of the type weaknesses on this team. Its bulk and coverage against other mons is something I felt this team needed

Unable (Clefable) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Flamethrower

A bulky win-con. Clefable is on the team to be able to deal with many of the meta sweepers along with being able to clean up the team afterward or even sweep if it can get set-up. Flamethrower can deal with an enemy Ferrothorn, moonblast is STAB and just a good move, soft-boiled to recover when low thanks to life orb as well as to get more value out of the bulk

Hydration (Hydreigon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 164 HP / 92 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Dark Pulse
- Earth Power
- Roost

This Mon is on here almost entirely to cover for Clefable and to be of general assistance with defog

 

[Smashburn]

Typically, Shuckle doesn't need to be in a team like this, and to be frank it really only works in webs teams that can abuse the speed and potential entering defogs with Gapdos and other partners. Also, I wouldn't really use Rotom-W or Volcarona in the team with that secondary core of Hydreigon, Clefable, and Ferrothorn. I would change it up so that the synergy matches more with a defensive Hydreigon (not referring to Def, just overall defense value), CM Clef (Not LO since that never works given it will come in and out so much, giving the opportunity for free rock), and Ferrothorn, who can be ran with either Spikes or Rocks instead of PW or GB, because you will never need both to be real, it has a stall job, not a wall breaker job. Also, 128 mixed defenses with Sassy is awful for Ferro's team aspect, I feel like a lot of people get confused with Ferro and just throw whatever they think is even on there, but you should be running 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD with Sassy.

 

[musiquepkmn]

Shuckle doesn't really fit on this team. It has a very good defensive backbone, which means it's a little more passive which means the opponent often gets a chance to defog after shuckle has gone down. Consider this pokemon:

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Jolly Nature
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 12 Def / 244 Spe
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock

Scarf lando provides you with an electric immunity, speed control, rocks, and a backup defensive check Cinderace, Excadrill, and Garchomp. It's very popular and for a good reason.

Another suggestion is consider changing Sitrus on Rotom to Lefties or Heavy-Duty Boots. Since you are max defense, having that extra longevity is great. Lefties allows you greater longevity when trying to sit on things like Garchomp or excadrill that may decide to set up on you, and Heavy-Duty Boots makes your job of pivoting easier, since Rocks out-damage one turn of lefties. Also, to help with the longevity issue, change thunderbolt to Pain Split. Most of the time, it's more handy to click Volt Switch than Thunderbolt to deal a comparable amount of damage and bring an offensive threat. Pain Split takes advantage of common Rotom switch-ins like Blissey and Slowking-Galar and abuses them for healing.

Also, on Ferrothorn, change Power Whip to Knock Off and Toxic to Spikes. Knock Off is almost a no-brainer on every Ferrothorn due to the immense utility it provides, even in matchups where Ferrothorn is supposedly losing. Spikes here is paramount because two of your teammates (clef and volc) are utterly walled by Heatran, so being able to punish it every time it tries to switch in with spikes damage helps in the greater effort of chipping it down.

In general I think this team is pretty solid. Volc + Clef + Spikes is a mean way of luring in and chipping down Tran throughout the match. This team may appreciate Hippowdon over rotom to have a more solid defensive backbone against mons like Cinderace and to dissuade Nidoking, but I like the offensive presence that Rotom brings.

 

[W4llace]

Typically, Shuckle doesn't need to be in a team like this, and to be frank it really only works in webs teams that can abuse the speed and potential entering defogs with Gapdos and other partners. Also, I wouldn't really use Rotom-W or Volcarona in the team with that secondary core of Hydreigon, Clefable, and Ferrothorn. I would change it up so that the synergy matches more with a defensive Hydreigon (not referring to Def, just overall defense value), CM Clef (Not LO since that never works given it will come in and out so much, giving the opportunity for free rock), and Ferrothorn, who can be ran with either Spikes or Rocks instead of PW or GB, because you will never need both to be real, it has a stall job, not a wall breaker job. Also, 128 mixed defenses with Sassy is awful for Ferro's team aspect, I feel like a lot of people get confused with Ferro and just throw whatever they think is even on there, but you should be running 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD with Sassy.

Thanks, what would you advise to replace Volcaron and Rotom Wash with?

 

[glava222]

it would be good to hear how you want the team to play, I agree with others that your first three mons and last three mons dont fit well together, as the last 3 signal stall while shuckle is more of an offense fixture and you said you care more aboit the first three mons, so would you say which of these is more important to you so people know in which way to take your team

 

[W4llace]

it would be good to hear how you want the team to play, I agree with others that your first three mons and last three mons dont fit well together, as the last 3 signal stall while shuckle is more of an offense fixture, so would you say which of these is more important to you so people know in which way to take your team

Thanks for the advice, the first three mons were the ones I actually thought through, but not having built any competitive teams before I was unsure of what to do with the final 3 slots and what my team was missing

 

[glava222]

ok in the interest of preserving your first three teamembers i would actually recommend swapping rotom to a choice item with trick, if you are running sticky web preferably specs, and also running trick, as this allows it to both act as a decently strong pivot, as well as crippling a some nasty special walls such as blissey that wall volcarona since volcarona will probably be your win condition on this team.i would also swap volcarona to a roost setup set, as that handles spectrier quite well, and as such would free up your hydreigon spot

 

[W4llace]

ok in the interest of preserving your first three teamembers i would actually recommend swapping rotom to a choice item with trick, if you are running sticky web preferably specs, and also running trick, as this allows it to both act as a decently strong pivot, as well as crippling a some nasty special walls such as blissey that wall volcarona since volcarona will probably be yoir wn condition on this team

Thanks, what roles or specific mons should I be thinking about for the three open slots? Thanks for the help, it's a little bit of work to get into my head what works and what doesn't so getting any info is a big help

 

[glava222]

Thanks, what roles or specific mons should I be thinking about for the three open slots? Thanks for the help, it's a little bit of work to get into my head what works and what doesn't so getting any info is a big help

its no problem, i think that the actual thing that most new builders tend to do is to try to cover way too many bases and not focus their team on what its actually trying to do, so we gotta ask ourselves, we have volcarona which is a wincon here, how do we clear a path for it? since we used trick to remove passive walls like blissey and pex, that leaves stuff like ttar. and just so happens i saw a premier league game today that paired rilla with volc, and rilla also benefits immensely from webs, so thats a thing to consider. another thing to note here is that rilla, volca and wash make whats called a fire water grass core, a balanced typing core that tends to be well equipped to deal with the meta

 

[musiquepkmn]

its no problem, i think that the actual thing that most new builders tend to do is to try to cover way too many bases and not focus their team on what its actually trying to do, so we gotta ask ourselves, we have volcarona which is a wincon here, how do we clear a path for it? since we used trick to remove passive walls like blissey and pex, that leaves stuff like ttar. and just so happens i saw a premier league game today that paired rilla with volc, and rilla also benefits immensely from webs, so thats a thing to consider.

So far I really like how Rotom-Wash is synergizing with the rest of the team. It can switch in on some tougher-to switch in to foes like Brave Bird Corviknight and Scarf Lando-T and fire off super-effective stab attacks. Tricking a Choice Specs onto opposing Slowking-Galar and taking their AV is great too. That being said, you could consider a Bisharp or a Scarf Zapdos-Galar to dissuade opposing Defog. Dragapult should be considered for its ability to spinblock and speed-tie other Dragapult too.

 

[glava222]

and since we are on webs, need another way to possibly take out glowking, as well as an electric immunity, i think nidoking will work great with the rilla volc wash core, as it benefits a lot from webs, gives an electric immunity, takes out slowking which can greatly annoy volcarona, and is a ground type that doesnt get weakened by grass terrain, and in fact likes how it helps it survive earthquakes and the recovery while not lowering the power of its own earth power. but volc is still weak to rocks if it ever gets knocked, so we need a defogger/spinner. my mind is a bit blank rn so maybe someone else can come in and help
edit: oh also dont get discouraged, i actually think webs have synergy with volcarona, since it enables it to get a quiver dance in before it gets hit, greatly reducing its survivability against some fast special threats, like koko,spectrier...
edit n2: you said you wanted your shuckle not to get set up on, and probably the best way to do that is to run encore since it absolutely dunks on set up sweepers if you guess it
edit n3(THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT): volcarona runs 248 hp EVs, so it would have odd number of HP, which means it can switch into rocks twice without dying

 

[W4llace]

and since we are on webs, need another way to possibly take out glowking, as well as an electric immunity, i think nidoking will work great with the rilla volc wash core, as it benefits a lot from webs, gives an electric immunity, takes out slowking which can greatly annoy volcarona, and is a ground type that doesnt get weakened by grass terrain, and in fact likes how it helps it survive earthquakes and the recovery while not lowering the power of its own earth power. but volc is still weak to rocks if it ever gets knocked, so we need a defogger/spinner. my mind is a bit blank rn so maybe someone else can come in and help
edit: oh also dont get discouraged, i actually think webs have synergy with volcarona, since it enables it to get a quiver dance in before it gets hit, greatly reducing its survivability against some fast special threats, like koko,spectrier...
edit n2: you said you wanted your shuckle not to get set up on, and probably the best way to do that is to run encore since it absolutely dunks on set up sweepers if you guess it

So something like this as the final 3?

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam

Chimchar 2 (Rillaboom) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Knock Off
- U-turn


For the Defogger/spinner I think I could edit the Hydreigon I already had, or run Regieleki
I don't think Regieleki would add anything I don't already have other than screens, in terms of coverage it overlaps with rotom which would mean I would only switch into it for rapid spin whereas Hydreigon could provide me with more utility but defog isn't as good as rapid spin I might be missing a more useful spinner though

 

[glava222]

unfortunately you are not missing a better spinner as there just aren't many good spinners, the only spinner with a spinning niche in OU is excadrill, and it is redundant with some of the others members of the team. Hydreigon can work, the only thing is that leaves you at a bit of a pickle of what to bring into a magearna thats already out, but I think it can be played around. this iteration of the team also depends quite a bit on volcarona to check some dangerous enemy threats like mage and cinderace, which it can do relatively well since flame body prevents cinderace from uturning willy nilly and bulky volc takes mage hits decently well, but is not ideal since you dont want to risk your wincon that much in a game. So a defogger that can help a bit here would be nice, but im kinda tired now and blanking out on what that could be. Hydreigon however does take a lot of the load of volc when it comes to spectrier and that is very nice
another edit lol: I would actually say that being good against cinderace is more important than magearna, since your team handles magearna better than cinder as is

 

[glava222]

ok im going to throw a bit of a crackpot set out there, but this might help out with cinderace and defog, while also helping with heatran that might be slightly problematic otherwise

Dragonite @ Heavy-duty boots
Adamant Nature
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Defog
- Roost

while multiscale is up, you tank their hits comfortably, and can threaten them with EQ, and you can get in extreme speeds against cinderace, which do 40% so it will be worn down fast if it attempts anything but a u turn,and damaging it enough that it can't switch in easily after even one espeed, it also has longevity with multiscale abuse and roost, but watch out for status

this might serve your defog needs, I ran something similair but with ice punch instead of defog, and it worked very well for me

 

[JackPilotF2]

Fire team!