ORAS OU Adjusting the Core

[Golden Piloswine]

So I'll begin with, I'm not super experienced with OU. I used to only play doubles, but after having so much fun doing random battle on Showdown I decided to start playing Singles. For me, a natural starting place was OU.​

A few years ago, some friends created an OU team for me. This was for Gen 5, before black/white 2 was released. I really had no idea where to start in team building so I used that team as a base.

So after using this team in a couple battles I decided to edit it a few times. This included using a Mega T-tar, among a few other mons. (Sorry I don't remember much about what I used.) Eventually I decided on a core as the mons that still worked well, imo, in gen 6 OU, and then add to it. The core is:

​

Accelgor was removed because it didn't do enough, and I kept running into trouble of not being able to make Latias work so she was also removed. I ended up replacing Latias with my fav mon and a bulky offensive option in Dragonite. Accelgor was replaced with a mon I thought brought the team together in Scizor. Scizor eventually replaced Tyranitar as my mega.

Anyway here is what the team currently looks like. :)
​

Najenda (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance​

Latias was a bulky, use Calm Mind to set up mon. However in her set it had only one damage dealing dragon move, and with the advent of fairy types, Latias' set just wasn't as good as it was before. So Dragonite took her place. I think this set works real well, I sometimes use her as a lead or late in a battle to finish up/get the edge on my opponent using D-Dance. All in all, I still like using Dragonite and it's easy & fun to use. :)​

Esdeath (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Icicle Spear
- Ice Shard

Mamoswine was one of the core mons from the original team. I like to use her early in the battle to set up rocks or I'll bring her out for priority, Ice coverage, or to deal some good physical damage. There's not much else I can say about Mamoswine other than I'm not happy that she can't outspeed as much as I thought she'd be able to with the 252 investment.

Akame @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Recover

Starmie ended up replacing Latios who replaced Gengar. Starmie was added due to it being able to do what Latios did. (Removing Hazards/Dealing with Keldeo/Lopunny, although to a lesser extent.) The main reason was that it wasn't weak to ice, and late in battles it was useful being able to switch into HP Ice. I'm still not sure about Starmie as it just feels a little off, but that's prob because he's a newcomer to my team and I just need to practice more. :)

Bols @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Again another Core member, Magnezone deals a ton of damage and I'm also comfortable leading b/c Volt Switch. I love using both of it's STAB's as they are very powerful and another weapon to use against Fairies. HP Fire is great coverage and OHKO's Ferrothorn often.

Tatsumi (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Beam
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower

The last core member I brought over was T-tar. It originally had Crunch over Ice Punch Ice Beam but I prefer the coverage rather than the decent power STAB. I am definitely a fan of scarf tar as it allows me to catch many things by surprise which makes him very easy to use. The Scarf also allows me to lead with him comfortably.

Wave (M) @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 16 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Roost

Scizor replaced Accelgor and I am so happy he did. Scizor's typing is amazing for being defensive as well as it's stats so I'm comfortable switching it in to take hits/removing hazards and striking back with priority. Scizor is one of the most valuable members of my team along with Dnite. Swords Dance has come in clutch very often, and on the switch, Knock Off has proven to be very useful as well.


Threats:
Keldeo and Mega Lopunny seem to be some of the biggest things I struggle with. This team has peaked around 1300 on Showdown and I'm not sure if more threats lie further up the ladder. If they do please let me know! My relatively low peak could be either the team just can't do better, I'm not that experienced of an OU player or a combination of both so please rate my team and let me know what you think. :)

One more thing, I absolutely want Dragonite to stay on this team no mater what!​

 

[Dark G]

Hey Golden Piloswine, pretty solid team you've built there especially considering your primarily a doubles main. I have a few suggestions for your team that I strongly believe will optimize its potential. As you've stressed at the end of your post not to remove Dragonite for any reason, I will only include suggestions suited for more offensive-inclined teams as it is by far the archetype Dragonite does best in.

1. The first suggestion I have for your team is to replace Mamoswine for Garchomp. The specific set is the standard, but extremely effective defensive set known as TankChomp. Garchomp's stellar natural bulk combined with Rough Skin +Rocky Helmet is enough of a deterrent for mons to attack it with a contact move (i,e Talonflame, M-Scizor,etc). TankChomp also fixes your M-Lopunny issue you addressed since most M-Lop lack ice punch in the current meta and even then it will never OHKO this variant of Chomp at full health.

2. Secondly, I agree with your criticism of your team's Keldeo Weakness and would suggest running Latios > Gengar in pursuit of fixing this issue. Latios helps your team deal with common water types that love spamming scald the duration of the match and can wallbreak similarly to Gengar.

3. Swords Dance > Defog on M-Scizor. The Latios set I've included inside the spoiler tag entitled "Suggested Sets" at the bottom of this rate has defog and two defog users on the same team is often regarded as a wasted moveslot on one of the mons. SD bulky M-Scizor is one of-if not the best mid-late game cleaners in the entire tier that gives you another sweeping option if your D-Nite fails to do the job or even take out fairy types that Dragonite struggles with.

4. I suggest going for an entirely offensive Dragonite with 252 ATK/252 Spe to maximize damage output. Bulky Dragonite is pretty mediocre in the current metagame and is hard pressed by the many fairy types that plague OU.

5. Regarding Magnezone, you were unclear of what the EVS accomplished; They allow Magnezone to outspeed Mega Scizor with no speed investment. You may opt to run 92 spe evs just to speed creep bulkier M-zors that run 8 spe evs but its generally not worth it as most of them only carry superpower when running full speed investment.

Suggested Sets

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 240 HP / 176 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Roost
- Defog

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 16 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake

Hope I could help, best of luck on the ladder.

 

[Golden Piloswine]

Hey Golden Piloswine, pretty solid team you've built there especially considering your primarily a doubles main. I have a few suggestions for your team that I strongly believe will optimize its potential. As you've stressed at the end of your post not to remove Dragonite for any reason, I will only include suggestions suited for more offensive-inclined teams as it is by far the archetype Dragonite does best in.

1. The first suggestion I have for your team is to replace Mamoswine for Garchomp. The specific set is the standard, but extremely effective defensive set known as TankChomp. Garchomp's stellar natural bulk combined with Rough Skin +Rocky Helmet is enough of a deterrent for mons to attack it with a contact move (i,e Talonflame, M-Scizor,etc). TankChomp also fixes your M-Lopunny issue you addressed since most M-Lop lack ice punch in the current meta and even then it will never OHKO this variant of Chomp at full health.

2. Secondly, I agree with your criticism of your team's Keldeo Weakness and would suggest running Latios > Gengar in pursuit of fixing this issue. Latios helps your team deal with common water types that love spamming scald the duration of the match and can wallbreak similarly to Gengar.

3. Swords Dance > Defog on M-Scizor. The Latios set I've included inside the spoiler tag entitled "Suggested Sets" at the bottom of this rate has defog and two defog users on the same team is often regarded as a wasted moveslot on one of the mons. SD bulky M-Scizor is one of-if not the best mid-late game cleaners in the entire tier that gives you another sweeping option if your D-Nite fails to do the job or even take out fairy types that Dragonite struggles with.

4. I suggest going for an entirely offensive Dragonite with 252 ATK/252 Spe to maximize damage output. Bulky Dragonite is pretty mediocre in the current metagame and is hard pressed by the many fairy types that plague OU.

5. Regarding Magnezone, you were unclear of what the EVS accomplished; They allow Magnezone to outspeed Mega Scizor with no speed investment. You may opt to run 92 spe evs just to speed creep bulkier M-zors that run 8 spe evs but its generally not worth it as most of them only carry superpower when running full speed investment.

Suggested Sets

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 240 HP / 176 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Roost
- Defog

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 16 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake

Hope I could help, best of luck on the ladder.

Thanks for your suggestions I like them a lot.

I have a few questions about them though. In Singles is there any major concern about many pokemon on the team being weak to the same type. The additions of Latios and Garchomp would make 3 members of my team weak to ice (2 quad weak), and four weak to fairy. If that's not really a competitive concern then I'm ok with it!

Also how does Latios get Defog in gen 6?

And what does Light Metal actually do, I was under the impression in made Scizor lighter which I wasn't sure why that would be better over Technician.

Thanks again for the suggestions and if you could answer my questions I would appreciate it. :)

 

[Dark G]

Thanks for your suggestions I like them a lot.

I have a few questions about them though. In Singles is there any major concern about many pokemon on the team being weak to the same type. The additions of Latios and Garchomp would make 3 members of my team weak to ice (2 quad weak), and four weak to fairy. If that's not really a competitive concern then I'm ok with it!

Also how does Latios get Defog in gen 6?

And what does Light Metal actually do, I was under the impression in made Scizor lighter which I wasn't sure why that would be better over Technician.

Thanks again for the suggestions and if you could answer my questions I would appreciate it. :)

In singles, a team being somewhat weak to a single type should be considered in the teambuilding process but isn't nearly as crucial as it is in doubles. Most teams deal with threats on an individual basis (i,e what are the most common mons in the meta that I need to have an answer for?), as oppose to focusing on single type weaknesses.

Latios gets defog in 4th gen as an HM move and then gets transported to 6th gen through Pokebank

Light Metal is only considered for pre-mega-evolution. It reduces the damage of rare Low Kicks and Grass Knots. Scizor will obtain Technician once it mega evolves anyway, so giving it a different ability in its regular form just gives it another option.

 

[Golden Piloswine]

In singles, a team being somewhat weak to a single type should be considered in the teambuilding process but isn't nearly as crucial as it is in doubles. Most teams deal with threats on an individual basis (i,e what are the most common mons in the meta that I need to have an answer for?), as oppose to focusing on single type weaknesses.

Latios gets defog in 4th gen as an HM move and then gets transported to 6th gen through Pokebank

Light Metal is only considered for pre-mega-evolution. It reduces the damage of rare Low Kicks and Grass Knots. Scizor will obtain Technician once it mega evolves anyway, so giving it a different ability in its regular form just gives it another option.

Ok thank you, I'm gonna test my team and post any updates I have :)

 

[p2]

hi, nice team. i agree with most of dark gs changes but i think that defensive landorus-t would benefit your team more than tankchomp. lando-t is a better answer to charizard x which your team can be quite weak to as it can potentially dragon dance on 3/6 members of your team. this also gives you extra insurance against sand teams and helps out scizor if it ends up being crippled or too overloaded in checking threats on your opponents team. the only downside to lando-t is that it makes your team a little weaker to bisharp, but scizor covers it fine if it has superpower. another change i would make is ice beam > ice punch on ttar. ice beam is capable of 2hkoing lando-t and garchomp even with a jolly nature, but comes with the benefit of avoiding intimidate and rocky helmets and other contact move punishing abilities

set

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 32 SpD / 12 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock

changes in short:

landorus-t >

dark gs suggestion of garchomp

ice beam > ice punch

that's all i got and i hope i could help!

 

[Golden Piloswine]

hi, nice team. i agree with most of dark gs changes but i think that defensive landorus-t would benefit your team more than tankchomp. lando-t is a better answer to charizard x which your team can be quite weak to as it can potentially dragon dance on 3/6 members of your team. this also gives you extra insurance against sand teams and helps out scizor if it ends up being crippled or too overloaded in checking threats on your opponents team. the only downside to lando-t is that it makes your team a little weaker to bisharp, but scizor covers it fine if it has superpower. another change i would make is ice beam > ice punch on ttar. ice beam is capable of 2hkoing lando-t and garchomp even with a jolly nature, but comes with the benefit of avoiding intimidate and rocky helmets and other contact move punishing abilities

set

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 32 SpD / 12 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock

changes in short:

landorus-t >

dark gs suggestion of garchomp

ice beam > ice punch

that's all i got and i hope i could help!

Thanks for your suggestions! I'm currently testing Chomp and Lando and seeing which one I'm more comfortable using. About Ice Beam on Tar, do you think that giving it a -SDef +Sped nature would have any positive benefit in terms of damage Ice Beam can do. (Like potential one shots) Or do you think the bulk is more important?

Also I've updated my team. Late in battles I ended up having Dnite/Latios/Chomp a few times, and I kept getting HP Iced by a few different mons and I was having trouble with the switch due to the fact that they were all weak to it. So I am trying a Utility Starmie to take Latios' place, thoughts?