Introduction
Ok so I kept running into more and more relevant threats until it felt like every new team i made autolose to at least 1 huge threat. It was really hard to prepare for Zygarde in screens, koko, lele, lucha, pinsir, kartana, magearna, medi, volc, ash gren, heatran, lega latis, mawile, and so many others. this metagame is all about what kind of team you are facing because you ultimately cant cover everything in a team. But this was my goal, to have a team that had a really good matchup vs every playstyle, and guarantee as many matchup autowins as possible. I really like 2 Offense + 2 Defense + 2 mix right now because it gives you a lot of options of maneuverability in a game and you can adapt the team to all sorts of matchups.
Teambuilding Process
I started the team by thinking of a really good Pokemon that can be mega and also provide really good offense. Pokemon that came to mind were like mawile, scizor and medicham but in the end I chose Loppuny. Lopunny is really fast and can revenge kill lots of threats like Greninja and tapu Koko with Fake out to help as priority vs low pokemon. It could also do a lot of damage to all types of offense because it is a perfect mixture of speed and power vs offensive teams.
Lopunny is really good at cleaning because it punishes low health pokemon by outspeeding and dealing enough damage to 2HKo a lot of things. I really wanted a reliable way to chip down opponents so that lopunny could in the end win the battle. The obvious answer is hazards like spikes and stealth rocks. Lopunny also struggles with psychic and fairy type pokemon, so ferrothorn seemed like a really good partner for it. Ferrothorn has both spikes and stealth rocks and doesnt have a hard time setting them up. Also it will be able to beat tapu fini and use clefable as an easy way to set up hazards. If I utilize hazards as early as possible, by the end of the game lopunny will have a path cleared for it to win.
With a core that relied a ton on ferrothorn getting up spikes and stealth rock I immediately was faced with the problem of mega sableye and stall in general. Mega sableye is a big pain to ferrothorn because it cant do anything versus it and you cant use hazards without them being put on your side by magic bounce. On top of that, I wanted something that just 6-0s stall in general LOL because its a really annoying team to deal with and I would rather not have to deal with it. I was looking a lot for pokemon that can just 6-0 stall and a bunch of pokemon came to mind like mawile, heatran, hoopa, lele, and also calm mind magearna with flash cannon but these all are things that stall was adapted to and they were not reliable. I wanted a surefire way to beat stall quickly and easily. I thought past doing a lot of damage and more into the gimmicky side of pokemon. Something that I had experimented before with was perish song, which basically stall cant do anything against i realized. Azumarill is the most common user of perish song right now but that set is predictable and it cant beat sableye. I looked for other pokemon that had trap moves and perish song that could possibly beat sableye. The only one that i found was politoed LOL. With z hydro pump it breaks through sableye easily and then can basically handle any stall team that doesnt have some weird counter like tapu koko stall LOL. Politoed becomes a underrated pokemon that can actually do a lot of damage with max spa hydro pump z in rain to a lot of stuff including celesteela which seems to beat loppuny abd ferrothorn pretty well. Perish song can also literally put a timer on setup sweepers which i can force them out with.
Ok next pokemon I chose was unaware clefable because its the best anti metagame pokemon right now. It 100% beats hawlucha and zygarde so thats 2 biggest threats covered. I felt a lot safer running this thing because of that lol. Its also how to beat lopunny and setup sweepers like volcarona so so many threats just check off the list. It also beats most ho teams so that was nice.
then i put a zygarde
Last pokemon was hard to pick to be truthful. Im pretty sure that it was different at first but I dont really remember what it was although I think it may have been zapdos. I needed a ground immune that could provide fire coverage and defog because zygarde and clef especially didnt like toxic spikes in particular, and a majority of my pokemon doesnt have recovery so hazard damage should be kept to a minimum. I added tornadus because it works extremely well with ferrothorn and clefable. It has powerful moves, defog and uturn. Also regenerator comes in handy alot. It was also fast and my team didnt have a scarfer so speed was needed. I also needed offensive pivots to bring in lopunny.
The Team
Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Power-Up Punch
- High Jump Kick
- Fake Out
- Return
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 24 Def / 224 SpD / 12 Spe
Careful Nature
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Power Whip
Politoed @ Waterium Z
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Whirlpool
- Hydro Pump
- Perish Song
- Rest
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-755163899
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-752825040 nuff said here
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Healing Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
Clef is one of the best pokemon right now up there with ninetales and zygarde and magearna. it handles so many threats so reliably that i have found myself using it on so many teams lol. This is just the standard physdef spread with lefovers unaware so it can beat weakness policy zygarde and zygarde behind veil as well as beat hawlucha. I used Heal Bell in the last slot until I found out that Healing Wish was better for lpunny and zygarde and it lets them recover from hax like burns para etc or crits. Its also really good for ferrothorn if clef isnt doing anything more in the game and ferro is too low to switch in and get wish. Other than that its standard smogon set.
Zygarde @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 240 Atk / 88 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Dragon Dance
- Iron Tail
- Extreme Speed
If I really need to explain Zygarde here you guys are in the wrong place. Its main role here though is to lure landorus bulu clef and tapu fini as well as serve as an electric immune/zapdos switch
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Metronome
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Heat Wave
- Defog
Lastly is one of my favorite sets metronome tornadus therian. This set i found is so good because with hurricane and heat wave you can beat clef celesteela toxapex and lele and even sweep teams. Metronome does not reset if you miss so it is fine. Tornadus is the defog user of the team because like i said my team hates hazards so its kind of a hypocrisy lol because this team relies on hazards. Uturn is to bring in other pokemon and also of course gaining momentum. This set is really easy to use and trust me you wont miss hurricane that much at all. Just the important ones. Hurricane is also spammable after politied comes in and activates rain, so that is really nice synergy
Conclusion
Conclusion
this was my second rmt and i will probably not write another one for a while since i have done 2 in the past week. I was really happy with my last one though so thanks :1 for dat. I was also informed that I need to do shoutouts so FINE I WILL
First shoutout is probably the most obvious. AnnaKartanna is easily the worst user on showdown shes amazing. But actually tho im being held hostage in her basement and i have to basically make her teams LOL
Next VerlisifySetsSuck actually rated this live in the rmt room and gave some good suggestions some if which are in the final draft
Then probably robopoke5. We havent talked much but i wont forget when we purposefully caused an endless battle clause to activate by both using aqua ring ingrain 6+ def baton pass into leftovers gliscor which got toxoced and then spammed detect until we ran out and then constantly struggled but recovered back to full hp lol fun times
Ok who is philosophyspammer he kept asking if i was a girl what my age is etc it was weird as fack
Next is dethreallycool because hes BY FAR the best user on smogon and hes hilarious
And then the discord with juuls and ak and jojo in it because its mad funny and i always feel comfortable saying whatever in there because i know ill have a good time
Then last shoutout to SMOGON because u guys are awesome (except for you ak u succ) i love you all ;))))))
Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Power-Up Punch
- High Jump Kick
- Fake Out
- Return
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 24 Def / 224 SpD / 12 Spe
Careful Nature
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Power Whip
Politoed @ Waterium Z
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Whirlpool
- Hydro Pump
- Perish Song
- Rest
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Healing Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
Zygarde @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 240 Atk / 88 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Dragon Dance
- Iron Tail
- Extreme Speed
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Metronome
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Heat Wave
- Defog
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Power-Up Punch
- High Jump Kick
- Fake Out
- Return
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 24 Def / 224 SpD / 12 Spe
Careful Nature
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Power Whip
Politoed @ Waterium Z
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Whirlpool
- Hydro Pump
- Perish Song
- Rest
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Healing Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
Zygarde @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 240 Atk / 88 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Dragon Dance
- Iron Tail
- Extreme Speed
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Metronome
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Heat Wave
- Defog
I just got milk in my microphone.
Thank for reading. I think i got high like half way through writing this though. Also i was getting really excited to post this towards the end of the in depth part so my apologies if some descriptions seem lazy or rushed
Ps. Storm Zone + AnnaKartanna best smogon couple <3
The cores you used in this team 