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Resource ORAS OU Teambuilding Competition 2025

This means Mega Charizard X can find itself on a variety of teams that differ from hyper offense to stall.
https://pokepast.es/1b7234443c8b10a5
:Charizard-Mega-X: :Slowbro: :Gliscor: :Zapdos: :Clefable: :Ferrothorn:

Hope I'm not too late! It's not quite stall, but it's bulky enough :row:

When building Charizard, there are a few checks I had in mind I wanted to build around. Bulky Water-types like Slowbro, Alomomola, and Quagsire are rather irritating to deal with given the standard DD set. Any Electric- or Grass-type can force them out, but you would want the partner to make progress itself; forcing out Slowbro only to bring in Heatran doesn't necessarily solve the problem, seeing how you haven't done much to the opponent's team. Other builders have already approached this with a number of other mons, such as SubCM Keldeo, which abuses those bulky Water-types and helps break down a team.
You either put it on HO and just try to brute force your way through or you make a BO team where its basically ZardX+Cress+Drill+Super strong dark type+grass+moth/weavile check or a rocker if its not drill.
Guess I'm not doing Keldeo, then :smogduck:


Zard-X has a wide movepool, though! Will-o-Wisp really spoke out to me, as it allows Zard-X to play the role of a Dark-type check, a valuable trait for any bulky team; Weavile and Bisharp often prove to be problematic matchups, especially given their nasty 30% flinch chance. After messing around in the builder, I decided that I didn't want a purely defensive EV spread, though. Adamant, even on a Wisp variant, still allows Zard-X to play an important role in breaking down teams with its STAB moves. With Wisp, you can spread burns, especially on the bulky Ground-types that check most other Charizards, something made easier given how Flare Blitz scares away Clefable and Gliscor, common status absorbers. The EV spread survives CB Knock from Weavile, one in base form and the other after mega evolution, allowing you to pivot in a pinch.

I wanted to use Slowbro as a partner, as it serves as a strong defensive pillar against most of the tier. With Zard-X covering the Dark-types relatively safely, it can more easily set up. This is made easier if aggressive players attempt using their Mega Tyranitar or SD-boosted Bisharp to take down Charizard, as the rare Wisp will leave them as Slowbro fodder. The Slowbronite allows Slowbro to pivot in on Choice Band Weavile, comfortably absorbing its Knock Off and giving me the opportunity to switch out. For example, you can do this early in the match with this particular Charizard. Calm Mind lets it serve as another endgame wincon, especially as Charizard can catch out predicted Electric- and Grass-types coming in. Depending on matchup, you could opt to use this as the mega evolution over Charizard!

Gliscor is among the best Heatran checks in the game, so I chose to go with it here. I appreciate Zard-X landing crucial burns on the likes of Slowbro and Quagsire, as that gives Gliscor an easier time breaking them down. In turn, Gliscor can always pivot in on Heatran, with the Speed EVs allowing it to outspeed all Modest Heatrans, the main ones that might pose a threat; Timid ones are seldom powerful enough to break it. The set is otherwise standard enough, with Gliscor serving as a solid Clefable check for the former two, who struggle against the CM variants. I considered dropping Earthquake due to Zard-X handling Dark-types, but nailing Tyranitar-Mega and always hitting Heatran seemed valuable; that said, you could entertain dropping Earthquake for Knock Off if this doesn't seem like an issue.

Zapdos serves as the important hazard control for the team. Hidden Power Ice allows Zapdos to more comfortably Defog away hazards from setters like Garchomp and Landorus-T. It also serves as our best Gliscor check, as I opted to drop Ice Beam on Slowbro. This is made easier with Speed EVs, giving us a better chance at outspeeding most SD Gliscor sets. Stealth Rock Excadrill naturally loses to Zapdos, so losing Heat Wave isn't that important in terms of stopping hazards from it. Of course, missing out on the hit on Ferrothorn is annoying, but it coming in gives Zard-X an excellent chance to break. Ideally, Charizard can also burn Hippowdon, thereby allowing Zapdos to Defog against it too, but even the threat of Wisp means that Hippowdon can't lead T1 for Stealth Rock. Losing Heat Wave also means you can't check Mega Scizor or Bisharp with this Zapdos, but you have Charizard for that! It never dies to +2 Bullet Punch from even the strongest Scizor after rocks, and it has the Speed to outspeed all Bisharps and burn them first.

SpDef Clefable serves as a solid Alakazam check, as well as being a general utility bot. Some threats like Volcarona and Dragon Dance Mega Tyranitar can be narrowly checked via its paralysis, so it can be an emergency tool against them. It also helps to secure our matchup into all Calm Mind Clefable variants, as some carry Ice Beam specifically to drop Gliscor.

Ferrothorn as the last slot gives us Stealth Rock, which we desperately needed. Neither Clefable nor Gliscor would want to lose their respective movesets, nor did I feel the need for Spikes on this team, so I slotted them here. Ferrothorn crucially checks threats like Serperior and Manaphy, which the rest of the team doesn't particularly care for, assuming Rocks are up. I took Iron Head to complement Thunder Wave Clefable, allowing for decent damage into Serperior and paralyzed Clefable. You can also poke at a paralyzed Mega Venusaur, though the matchup will be rough regardless. I don't think Ferrothorn's inability to set Stealth Rock into Defog Zapdos matters too much for me here, seeing how Zard-X gets free entry on the Defog.

BONUS:
I also considered running Earthquake Zard X + U-Turn Gliscor as the alternative sets. That allows you to swap to a bulkier Gliscor set, which can run U-Turn as the second attack. Zard-X is now more autonomous in terms of spreading burns, and its Adamant Flare Blitz still deals quite a lot to the likes of Rotom-W even without Dragon Claw. In fact, you can actually 1v1 both the fast utility variants and the slower ones, assuming neither are carrying Thunder Wave. You aren't able to beat Latias as easily, but you can burn it on switch, something that eases up Gliscor later on. This is compounded with hazard damage and the damage of its U-Turn. You might also invest some defense EVs into the Gliscor; similar to how Charizard can pivot into Weavile, an extra 44 defense EVs (pulled from SpDef) allows Gliscor to do the same even with hazards up. It goes without saying that the Toxic Orb should have activated, but Gliscor would be able to serve as a secondary pivot at full HP. Since Ferrothorn and SpDef Clefable aren't great switches to such a strong Knock Off, this can give the team a bit of extra security—here is the proposed alternative:
https://pokepast.es/a9cef2ce0bfdd0b8

That's all! Lots of typing, I hope it reads well enough! Hope the team serves you well :sphearical:
 
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As far as enabling Charizard-X goes, I think that team 2 does the best job. Rather than relying on partners to wear down or otherwise take advantage of the Water-types, Outrage muscles past them anyways. The team has a solid enough of a stall matchup, an issue that the other teams seem to have. It's a relatively safe build, but it works well enough! :woop:
 
Voting period is over! Congratulations to Waffleztastegood for winning this week!!!
Next up, we Have Mienshao!
:mienshao:
While Mienshao is not high up on the list of fighting types you might consider for a team, it has its certain interesting traits to think about. First off, it has a speed base stat higher than 100, meaning that it is able to outspeed volcarona at +1 with a choice scarf, even if the volcarona is using a timid nature and max speed. Besides, Mienshao has a nice enough movepool, featuring moves like Knock off or Poison Jab, but more importantly U-turn, making it a very interesting pick for volt turn teams. In addition to the interesting moves, Mienshao also has interesting abilities to boot. On the one hand we have Regenerator, which pairs amazingly well with U-turn (tornadus-Therian shares this exact combo of traits). Regenerator + U-turn allow Mienshao to regain health quite quickly and it lets it take some hits it wouldn't otherwise. On the other hand, however, we have Recless. Recless allows Mienshao's High Jump Kick to do insane amounts of damage, so you could treat it as a frailer but faster Mega Medicham that can have momentum. Recless works well with a Choice Band to take advantage of the High Jump Kick damage best. Other items to consider for mienshao could be Assault Vest, or any others you can come up with!
Deadline this time will be 10th November 8 pm gmt +1.
I hope to see great creations this week! Happy building!
 
:Mienshao: :Volcanion: :Zapdos: :Diancie-mega: :Weavile: :Ferrothorn:
This team was interesting to make, I found it fun to build, but unfun to play due to hax. Either way, set details:
:mienshao:: I decided to go with scarf as it can be a nice pivot and late game cleaner, the twist is in it's nature and last move. While being adamant makes it not outspeed scarfers in the 100 speed tier, it gives it a decent increase in power, especially considering that we're running regenerator. WIth rock slide as the last move, we have a "reliable" rock move to hit :tornadus-therian: and :zapdos:, with :tornadus-therian: rock slide always picks up the 2HKO, while on :zapdos:, it's a guaranteed 2HKO after rocks. It's worth mentioning that, u-turn has a 50% chance to OHKO :alakazam-mega:, which I find funny
:Volcanion:: I wanted to add something to handle stuff like :volcarona:, and :volcanion: is my over all favourite mon to do so. We're running a phys def set with protect here, as :medicham-mega: can be quite annoying for the team.
:Zapdos:: The hazard remover of choice, running spdef for :serperior:, :keldeo: and more. I feel like it compliments the team decently fine.
:Diancie-mega:: This mon has been carrying the team on the tests I ran, it handles non bp :medicham-mega:, :mega-lop:, and most dragons. I feel like this is the glue of the team.
:Weavile:: On the tests I ran, :latias-mega: was annoying for mienshao, and so I added :Weavile: to pursuit trap them and free the way for :mienshao: to clean up.
:Ferrothorn:: I needed a rocker and something to just annoy most other mons, so I added :ferrothorn:, we're running 2 attacks be able to hit :volcanion:, and hit the lati twins for some decent damage.
Threats:
:lopunny-mega: and :medicham-mega:: We don't have a reliable switch in to any of them, :volcanion:'s protect should help a bit if they don't expect it.
:thundurus:: if it sets up a NP, it can be quite troublesome to switch into, :Zapdos: should be able to do decently against it if it doesn't have NP.
:charizard-mega-x:: if this thing sets up a dragon dance, it may be straight up over. try to have hazards up to chip it on entry and try to put it in range of ice shard from :weavile: if it's dd.
I feel like this team is decent, but it kinda loses to a lot of stuff so you have to be careful, as :mienshao: can't revenge stuff like :charizard-mega-x: because it's adamant. Hope you enjoy the team and happy building to other contestants!
 
https://pokepast.es/686fbe58522bbca1
:Alakazam-Mega: :Mienshao: :Tyranitar: :Excadrill: :Landorus-Therian: :Volcanion:

You can make anything work on sand, so here's my take on Mienshao with it :totodiLUL:

Mienshao has a solid set of support moves with U-Turn + Knock Off. I tried thinking of an offensive build for all of two minutes, but I gave up since the utility seemed much more compelling. With the Assault Vest and Regenerator, Mienshao can trade Knock Off into all sorts of bulky mons like Tornadus-T (risky!) and Clefable if needed. The defensive EVs allow it to survive a Hurricane from the mainstream Tornadus-T with offensive investment, allowing it to remove its AV in the lead matchup. Additional investment would be needed to always survive attacks from non-AV variants like Life Orb or Rocky Helmet, but those don't check Alakazam anyways, so I didn't bother making that change.

What better to abuse itemless Clefable and Tornadus-T than Alakazam! I would've gone with an ordinary set, but I was curious about Future Sight + Protect. Unlike most other Fighting-types, Mienshao doesn't care much about its HP. You can thus be more Reckless (!!) in positioning it against mons like Toxic Chansey, and the decreased power of its Fighting-type STAB is less important given the powerful support of Alakazam's Future Sight.

Without Shadow Ball, you'll want something strong to hit Psychic-types. Enter CB Tyranitar! Obliterate all the Slowbro and Reuniclus that stand in the way of your Mienshao, especially with the latter's pivot support. Ice Punch is the filler coverage to hit Gliscor, which sucks to deal with. It has additional use into bulky Ground-types like Garchomp, Hippowdon, and Lando-T, which our next slot appreciates.

Excadrill is the best form of hazard control, so it gets a place here. Sand Rush means he can provide some additional speed to compliment Alakazam and Mienshao. The EVs aren't that complicated: I chose to grab as many SpDef EVs as I could while retaining a jump point in attack. I'd be willing to drop the Speed down to where this Excadrill still outspeeds the occasional Scarf Garchomp in sand. Remaining EVs give us a small boost in SpDef, a useful quality considering how the rest of the guys don't do all that much defensively. Toxic nails the likes of Zapdos and bulky Water- and Ground-types, giving us a far easier time against them; Tyranitar can't do it all, with something as seemingly vulnerable as Zapdos having significant room to maneuver around it.

With the many (many) weaknesses the first four slots have, Lando-T is a nice blanket check to all the physical threats like Mega Lopunny and Mega Metagross that annoy us. It is also our rocker, since we can afford to move to hazards here. Smack Down and the Speed investment are fillers, but I'm sure you can experiment with other slots or EVs here.

We have Volcanion last to give that crucial water immunity slot. It's AV so that we can pretend we can play against opposing Alakazam, though we'll always have a rough time there. You can run Scarf if you are sure that Alakazam won't show up, but this is probably a safer choice. The defensive boons afforded by the sample set are always appreciated against other mons, of course, but that's the main reason I run it here. Make sure to use the Mienshao in the Electric-type matchup, especially against Zapdos and Thundurus-I. If it takes paralysis from them, it will get the slower pivot out of both. Volt Switch from either Zapdos or Thundurus-I isn't too threatening, so Mienshao serves as a decent check to them.

Closing thoughts? Be cautious around Mega Metagross, as we don't have the greatest time into its powerful Zen Headbutt. Unlike Mega Lopunny, Protect Alakazam doesn't slow it down much, so we'll be relying on Lando-T to buy us enough time for the rest of the team to win before it can. Metagross taking Helmet damage is less relevant when we don't have Shadow Ball to pick it off, so take caution! Mega Alakazam is also a threat, outspeeding and scoring OHKOes on most of the team. It'll be a hard matchup dependent on Focus Blast accuracy. Try your best to prevent the mega evolution so that you can keep it in the weak base for. If you have low HP mons like Lando-T active on the field, these are typically the best chances the opponent has. By minimizing these interactions, you might force them to risk the 70% accurate Focus Blast, if not denying them the opportunity altogether.


For alternate sets, you might consider dropping Future Sight to run Shadow Ball, allowing Zam to neutralize Metagross with Shadow Ball, though this gives up one of the strongest (and flashiest :pimp:) breaking tools in the game. Choice Band Tyranitar isn't always enough to win those fat matchups, so having the additional support is always appreciated. Admittedly, such a change would free you up to run Taunt, giving you a somewhat easier time into Thundurus without entirely losing out on the fat matchup. Chople Tyranitar would alleviate the Zam matchup enough to where Scarf Volcanion might be viable, a change I wouldn't be exactly opposed to. I will use a placeholder set in the meantime to illustrate what that might look like. This gives you a better out into Metagross, as well. All in all, these changes are probably the objectively better way to run the team, but you're using Mienshao because you're too cool to run mainstream sets... I'll still link that version so you can compare and see how boring it is

https://pokepast.es/32784ed95883ac04 - only if you're boring :worrywhirl:


That's it! I tried to cut down on the typing, but I can't help it :eeveehide:
 
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:mienshao: :Scizor-Mega: :volcanion: :Landorus-Therian: :thundurus: :Serperior:
https://pokepast.es/c70d922c43ab2f50

Here it is. Mienshao volt-turn:
:Mienshao: he's the reason we're here. Having regenerator on a volt-turn teams makes happy things happen in my brain so that's what we did. It can add to the u-turn spam fest to help generate momentum for your squad allowing you to keep pressure going to keep switches happening to let rocks damage accrue etc. I went adamant because mienshao feels like a wet noodle to me otherwise. You still do out speed modest base 100s after +1 ( Looking at you :volcarona: ) I get it scouting for that is not always a simple thing, but we do have another volc option later to mention. Anyways adamant stone Edge almost always gets that 2hko on zap, and we need all the help we can get for zap on this team unfortunately. Knock and HJK round out it's moves for reliable buttons to click. The EV spread is cuz my brain wants perfect numbers for regenerator, you can go 252 speed if you wanna fight scarf lando's for the speed tie, but otherwise your aren't missing on any speed tiers that 252 neutral speed Mienshao's achieve.

:Scizor-Mega: To further fuel our volt-turn spread we have the Red Menace himself. Having u-turn, defog, and can stand up to weavile and mega Alakazam are excellent starts to a team. He keeps the skies clear (those who know, know) for his comrades allowing us to volt-turn with less hazard penalties.

:Volcanion: Smogon will not let me use the words I want to use to describe this behemoth, but the sheer damage it does in addition to being pretty much impossible to ohko with some very good resistances. I opted for a leftovers set due to wanting some regen in the event sciz can't keep the hazards off. I have toxic Roar, I think there is potential for 3 attacks and taking earthpower for volcanion 1v1s, but this man is back up weav and timid volcarona killer which frequently plague teams. it's set can be marginally optimized more for volcarona, but it's currently a balance of handling weav and volcarona.

:Landorus-Therian: Since we have a defogger we want an aggressive animal that can replace rocks pretty consistently and can come in on a lot of things. You could go rocky helmet, but I once again opted for lefties incase sciz struggles keeping hazards off. uturn for turning and stone edge to help with miscellaneous fliers. It has enough speed to creep the "typical" zapdos spread, but I feel like more and more people are experimenting with different speed numbers so scout before you blindly try to stone edge into a zap and get blasted for you entire life from HP ice.

:Thundurus: I think this man is on every volt-turn team ever just because he does damage, he cleans up games, has good speed, going knock over twave might be controversial and you can go twave if you want. Chansey + Cofag is a quite annoying core and if you can't knock on chansey you struggle to gain progress sometimes. being that Thundurus is a beacon to chanseys it seemed like an opportunity to have. We have another fast para user in the back so having twave could be a little redundant for some match ups.

:Serperior: Slippery snake does snake things. Taunt to help cut down on hazards and make the things that hate taunt sad. Volcanion and other things to hit steel types make HP rock > HP Fire here imo. You could maybe go the rest-chest serp over HP rock to help vs rotom wash matchups and stomach status a little bit better. Glare is goated speed control. There is a world where maybe you want knock on serp over glare and twave on thund, but that world is not one I exist in. if you do. that's all you.

Things to consider that suck for this squad:

:zapdos: and :Rotom-Wash: you have to tools to be annoying, but you don't have a straight up switch into them without them making decent progress on you. you got edge on lando + mienshao, and serp deletes rotom. Best I can say is keep rocks up and try to abuse zap when it goes for defog.

Other issues are spikestack structures with mega zam: sciz is your most reliable mzam switch, but he needs to be decently healthy if hazards are up, and he can be worn down if he can't roost up. The fact that he needs to keep HP for zam while clear hazards for everyone else has proved to be quite a burden in some matchups

:cofagrigus: I hate this thing. negates healing for mienshao with mummy, burns plague everyone except volcanion, uturn tickles it, Best I can say is keep rocks up, knock off it's leftovers and try to have volcanion sit on it. or just zap is really hard with thundurus.
 
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this is the first oras team ive built myself so i'd appreciate any feedback
:mienshao::weavile::landorus-therian::heatran::latios::alakazam-mega:
im an lc player so decided to take inspiration from a set i like, reckless scarf hjk foo. scarf shao fits really nicely on pivot spam teams that allow it to come in, threaten hjk on something, and bait in defensive answers for its teammates to prey on.

:mienshao: he is a ferret-haru and he kick very fasto. this mon is really funny to use if u dont miss. used jolly because hjk is really strong anyways and the extra speed is useful vs +1 base 100s. stone edge as a last move beats volcarona, but hp ice is also a cool option to snipe lando.

:weavile: this mon is insane, basically threatens a kill on almost everything bar ferrothorn if you click right when it comes in safely. pursuit is invaluable for trapping psychics and ghosts for shao latios and zam.

:landorus-therian: the ever reliable landot checking every physical threat there is. switches into lopunny, excadrill, pinsir and many more. nothing much to say here just the goat holding this team and every other offense team together.

:heatran: needed a fairy check and a stallbreaker and heatran helps with both. magma taunt flash cannon helps immensely with clef which sits on this team forever otherwise and i figured i could drop wisp since i didn't find myself clicking it much.

:latios: needed a defogger and a keldeo check and washtom doesnt get defog in this gen for some reason so i went with latios. its a nice check to heatran too which washtom wouldve done as well but whatever as fire ground coverage is really difficult for my team to handle. almost nothing switches into the combinaton of draco + surf.

:alakazam-mega: someone in the oras cord recommended this, endgame cleaner vs offense with coverage that beats most of the tier, with taunt to make the mu vs fat a lot better. complements latios nicely to make the team a psyspam pivotspam hybrid

threat list_
:keldeo: team has 1 switchin and it kills itself with lo lol. u need to make sure this guy has little to no switch in opportunities without the opponent losing something high value in return especially if its specs because latios can only switch in once.
:excadrill: with sand up this guy threatens almost everything, make sure to keep lando healthy.
:bisharp: i lowk forgot it uses defiant because i mostly play gen 9 and just thought that lando would keep it at bay while building lmao. just play aggressively and guess right between ihead and knock when it comes in tbh
:clefable: u need to trade it down using either heatran and zam and they don't like getting para'd by twave variants.
:scizor-mega: all of my offensive guys can lose to it but heatran and lando do a very good job of checking it while theyre alive.
:weavile: no true switchins but it doesn't get many opportunities to get on the field and u can keep it in check with heatran + lando when u guess right.

couldnt be bothered to ladder so here are some test games i played with t.t
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen6ou-2476035991-bocx7s9sc9aboqa1pete3jd1qigeo3mpw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen6ou-2476039082-j0wpifuuxyyp098fr35a1mk707g3blspw
that's all folks!
 
Team 4 accomplishes the most out of what I would want out of a team. I don't think it's perfectly sound against something like opposing Weavile, but it has enough strong Pokemon to cover most matchups. Heatran is a strong compliment to Mienshao, I think, and the Psychic-type core of Latios and Alakazam will surely keep Clefable under pressure for it.

Team 1 is a close second! I do think Mienshao is a bit odd here, but it's supported by a strong cast. If I had to complain, I feel we need something stronger to abuse Fairy-types, namely Clefable, one of the main stops to Mienshao here. Diancie and bulky Volcanion similarly dislike Clefable, so I'd be careful!

My main gripe with team 3 is the lack of offensive tools. Dancing around with Volt-Turn only goes so far when you have no offensive mons to back it up; what does the team do against something like Clefable? Beyond that, other defensive fixtures like Gastrodon seem to sit on the team forever, so I'd probably recommend adding some stronger breakers.

But I do appreciate all the writing the builders put into their posts; they always make for interesting reads! I hope this small review wasn't too offensive; it's all in good fun, and I'd love to hear your own thoughts, too! My team is hardly perfect either; I can identify a ton of issues just by looking at it, so hearing some friendly discourse would be nice. More importantly, it seems I'm the only one to neglect nicknames on my post...:smogduck:
 
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