ORAS OU Balanced OU team, I'm pretty new so any advice is much appreciated

cmitts93

Hey ladies and gents, here is my Mega-Scizor centered OU team. I've battled a few times with it and have done fairly well so I'm just looking for any advice on common threats that I'm overlooking. Thanks in advance!

Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Whirlwind
- Roost

Skarmory acts as my lead the majority of the time as depending on how many steel-types the opposing team has I'll lead off with a Toxic-SR combo. I went with a primarily physically defensive set to take advantage of his huge bulk in that stat and roost to make him last as long as possible. After some play-testing I went with whirlwind over spikes because I've had trouble in the past with people setting up on me and Whirlwind helps with getting them out before they can do major damage. Skarmory is also my only mon that resists Dragon types which I've found to be absolutely essential due to their prevalence (at least the people I've played with.)

Raikou @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 32 SpD / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Grass]

I needed a pokemon that could take SpD hits since after making my team I realized that I was really physically focused but also do damage against bulky water types that would otherwise wreck my team with Starmie being the only one with a real shot at taking them out. He forms a really nice VoltTurn combo with both Scizor and Lando-T that allows me to switch around and get the matchups i want a decent majority of the time. The Shadow Ball I put there because the Lati twins have given me a lot of trouble so far with this team and HP Grass is for the predicted Swampert/Quagsire switch-ins expecting an Electric attack.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Knock Off

Nothing really too special here, just the standard Scarfed Lando-T set. I chose him specifically, along with the Stone Edge, to deal with Talonflame who has caused a lot of trouble for me in the past. I went with the Scarfed over the Bulky because I already have a reliable Stealth Rocker with Skarmory who will lead off with the hazards the majority of the time.

Gengar (F) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 28 HP / 148 SpA / 80 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Substitute

Gengar functions as a Revenge Killer/Burner and specifically to deal with Fairy-types as other than him I have no super effective moves against their type other than Scizor who is switched out of the vast majority of the time. Bisharp specifically is destroyed by this set which is why I went with WoW over Taunt or some of his other moves where I can get a burn off (fingers crossed) and then drop a Sub on the switch out that usually comes afterward from the opponent.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure (would Analytic work better with this set?)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump (Scald?)
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock
- Rapid Spin

I needed someone to clear hazards and I really didn't want to go with a defogger so it was either Excadrill or Starmie. With the rest of my team already formed at this point Starmie fit in much better overall. Went with Hydro Pump as a strong STAB attack over Scald since if I need to get a burn off I figured that Gengar is much more reliable. Ice Beam is to deal with Garchomp and Gliscor specifically and Psyshock is for the big pink blobs that are Chansey and Blissey.

Scizor-Mega (M) @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Atk / 16 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn (X-Scissor?)
- Swords Dance
- Roost

Finally, my M-Scizor. The Bullet Punch/Technician combo can be devastating with a Swords Dance involved and I ultimately went with U-Turn just for the versatility of getting him out of there but as he's going last due to his slow speed I'm not really sure if I should go with this or X-Scissor to have a strong Bug type move that doesn't require a switch. The set is specifically to survive being 2HKO'd by Lando-T EQ, OHKO'd by Clefable Fire Blast, etc.
 
The one thing i see right away is you should use bug bite on M-Scizor. Its the strongest bug move that it gets because its tech boosted. That is if you want to use the SD set. U-turn with SD isnt really worth it since you would be losing momentum if you have to SD and then U-turn. I would even suggest running superpower over roost to hit steels.

Another option would be to use a Magnezone because that would be able to come in and trap bulky steels and kill them so M-Scizor would have an easier time sweeping
 
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Hey there! Great team. You could try using heatran over landorus. Heatran effectively walls talonflame and can come in on fire attacks aimed at skarm and scizor. Here is the damage done by talon's swords dance, sharp beak set:
252 Atk Sharp Beak Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 12 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 81-96 (24.8 - 29.4%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
It can KO every variant of talon with ancient power except the bulk up one, which it easily 2hkoes. You might also get lucky and get a boost from ancient power. Here area a few sets:

Heatran @ Air Balloon
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast/ Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power
- Stealth Rock/ Hidden Power Ice/ Flash Cannon/ Toxic

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
EVs: 28 HP / 252 SpA / 228 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast/ Lava Plume
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power

You could also run a sp. def set but you already have raikou. The reason for lava plume over fire blast is because of the higher chance to burn your opponent. You might also consider changing Gengar's Shadow Ball into Hex. This is so as you have two status inducers (Gengar and Skarmory) and a potential one in heatran through lava plume or if you wish, toxic. A poisoned or burnt foe will increase hex's base power to 130 compared to shadow ball's 80.

Scald might be beneficial for your team if you are using hex but then you might want to go for this ev spread, EVs: 248 HP / 16 SpD / 244 Spe, with natural cure and leftovers. However, if you want to keep up pressure then stick with your set, with hydro pump/ surf and analytic.

I think you shouldn't take out U-turn as that enables Scizor to come in and switch out, giving you the momentum, creating switches and racking up passive damage through stealth rock.

I hope my suggestion help. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the suggestions! I'll definitely keep U-Turn on then since I think I'm going to do as you suggested and switch Lando-T for Heatran, just debating on which set I want to run...would you have any suggestions on which works better with the rest of the team? I'm leaning towards the Scarfed set right now just because I like having the reliability of an attacker that is going to outspeed the majority of opponents it's facing. The thing that makes me want to go otherwise is if I switch Starmie to Scald and Heatran inflicting burns here and there with Lava Plume.

I completely forgot about Hex to be honest but that totally makes sense with the status inflictions I'll most likely be hitting with. Probably going to end up taking your suggestion and switching to the LO Starmie set to take full advantage of that.

We'll see though, I'm probably going to end up experimenting between the sets you suggested and finding what works best. Thanks again!
 
I'm glad I could be helpful! The thing is, if you run a scarfed set then you should make sure that skarmory is alive until the opponents premier ground users are knocked out for obvious reasons. That might mean changing its item to shed shell if you start encountering too many magnezones. The balloon set helps in allowing you to switch into these ground attacks so if necessary you could sack skarmory in the middle of the battle. But frankly speaking, skarmory generally lasts for a really long time on top of which the balloon is also just a one time thing. So you should probably, like you said, go for the scarf set as it outspeeds a decent chunk of stuff and hits equally hard.
 
Oh, I was just thinking, quite a drastic change though. Replacing Landorus with ttar gives you another solid counter to tflame. Furthermore, ttar can be a set up sweeper or you can run an av set in sand which is ridiculously solid on the special defensive side. This also allows you to mess with weather teams, mainly rain, which might cause a bit of trouble. Also, it gives you a very effective way of dealing with the lati twins. You could then replace starmie with excadrill as an incredibly hard hitting sand rush sweeper who hits those fairy types really hard and gets rid of hazards. As I said, it's quite a massive change :P
 
I might end up just making two teams out of it at this point, lol. One with T-Tar and Excadrill and the other with Starmie and Heatran in their place because both sound pretty good actually.

Do you have sets you'd recommend for the two of them?
 
Here's what I ended up going with for the two:

Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Swords Dance

The core of both teams is now: Skarmory, Gengar, Raikou, M-Scizor, with team 1 being filled out by Starmie and Heatran and 2 being T-Tar and Excadrill. Have to say, I just played my first match with the second one and absolutely loved the team, synergy worked really well.

Oh, and I also switched Shadow Ball for Extrasensory on Raikou for T2.
 
Haha fair :P Here are a few ttar sets.

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Crunch/ Ice Punch
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Stone Edge/ Rock Slide
- Fire Punch/ Fire Blast
- Earthquake

If you are using Fire Blast then you might want to change the jolly nature. You could run an AV set with Pursuit, Fire Blast and the quakedge combo.

With Exca:

Excadrill @ Air Balloon/ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide/ Stealth Rock/ Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin

Stealth Rock seems a bit weird, it probably is, but it allows Skarmory to run spikes.
 
Yeah, the main reason I had Shadow Ball on Raikou was for the Lati twins and with T-Tar I really have a much better option using Volt Switch and then Pursuit trapping afterwards so it kind of became redundant.

I'll have to mess around a little bit with the LO and Air Balloon sets but so far the other two have been working out fine, thanks for the help!
 
I don't have a lot of time rn and will edit more later, but the biggest problem I see is with Scizor's set-seeing as you want to run a bulky SD set, the most optimal EV spread is 248 HP/84 Attack/176 Sp.Def with an Impish nature.
The spread allows you to live 2 Mega Gardevoir Focus Blasts after Stealth Rock and be 3HKOd by Lando-T's Earthquake after Rocks. You should also replace X-Scissor with Knock Off. Knock Off provides amazing coverage alongside Steel, and is in general very useful against things like Chansey and Ferrothorn. Bug and Steel is REALLY bad coverage and should never be ran without extra coverage.
 
cmitts93 said:
Yeah, the main reason I had Shadow Ball on Raikou was for the Lati twins and with T-Tar I really have a much better option using Volt Switch and then Pursuit trapping afterwards so it kind of became redundant.

I'll have to mess around a little bit with the LO and Air Balloon sets but so far the other two have been working out fine, thanks for the help!
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Great choice! Glad I could help :D
 
Good to know, I'll switch up my EV's and slap Knock off on. I honestly haven't been using Bug Bite/U-Turn that much and I still get the x2 vs Psychic which is crucial along with the versatility of taking out their item from play.
 
Well, as a big Mega Scizor user, I can definitely tell you that Knock Off is usually the best option for Scizor's secondary attack. There are team designs in which Superpower can be a better option, but for the most part, Knock Off is the best choice (and Steel/Bug gives terrible type coverage anyway). So yeah, make that change. Don't take the advice to change Scizor's spread. Et3RN4M is wrong about the set he gave being the most optimal set for Mega Scizor. The analysis was recently updated to the spread that you're using right now because the old spread's defensive capabilities didn't take Stealth Rock into account, in a meta in which Stealth Rock has a very good probability of being up. The set you're using actually is really helpful at keeping Scizor alive, though I will admit that I have been missing that extra 40 Atk EVs lately. Once you do that, you may want to consider changing the Knock Off on Lando to Superpower, as you currently lack any Fighting moves, and that might cause problems. Specifically, it could allow Lando to revenge kill Mega Lopunny who think it'd be safe to stay in and use Ice Punch. Also, Starmie is definitely not completely optimized. Right now it seems closer to the offensive than the defensive hazard removal set. So, in order to get the best use out of it, you'll need Analytic. While Starmie has never stopped being useful, 100 SAtk isn't quite what it used to be. It really needs both the Life Orb and Analytic to maximize the damage it causes.

Those are the obvious changes I see. I'm not great with Balanced teams, I tend more towards the offensive side of Bulky Offense when using Bulky SD Mega Scizor, so I'm not gonna try and offer advice about the other team members, because I don't want to give bad advice. However, I would advise you of a couple more things that may seem minor but are actually significant. First, when you're running full investment sets, and you have 4 EVs left over, it is generally not a good idea to add it to HP. The reason is, you take less damage from SR if the HP total is not evenly divisible. It's a little complicated, because not every even number is going to cause this problem (it is based on the Pokemon's type advantages/disadvantages vs. Rock), but you'll never take more damage if you have an odd number, so unless the specific HP total in question is necessary for some reason (Berries triggering, maximizing Leftover recovery, etc.), it's generally a better idea to just put the 4 EVs in something else. Secondly, pertaining to some Life Orb users, which is relevant because Starmie is one, having certain numbers can reduce the amount of recoil LO deals after each hit, which basically increases the number of attacks a Pokemon can make while holding LO (not factoring in any damage from other sources or any form of recovery) from 10 to 11. To do this in this case, just drop Starmie's HP IVs from 31 to 29. Finally, when dealing with any special attackers that don't use any physical moves as part of their standard attacking moveset, it's a good idea to reduce their Atk IVs to 0 to reduce the damage they will take if they ever get hit with Foul Play or become confused. None of your special attackers have any notable physical moves (Rapid Spin doesn't really warrant leaving Atk IVs in), so I'd do this for all of them.

Hope this helps.
 
I've actually been experimenting a bit with Superpower lately and am liking that a bit more because like you said, I currently don't have any fighting type moves. A fair amount of Steels switch in on M-Scizor so having Superpower on there to do some heavy damage is really nice.

Huh, I never really thought about that with the spreads but that totally makes sense. For Starmie I really like having the offensive set so I'll keep the LO and Analytic on there and roll with that.

And I actually went back and changed the Attack IV's to 0 on all my Special Attackers, I just forgot to mention that XD
 
cmitts93 said:
I've actually been experimenting a bit with Superpower lately and am liking that a bit more because like you said, I currently don't have any fighting type moves. A fair amount of Steels switch in on M-Scizor so having Superpower on there to do some heavy damage is really nice.
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Yeah, that's a pretty good option. I generally prefer Knock Off on Scizor and Superpower on Lando when I run the two together, but if you're finding the reverse to be more effective for your team and playstyle, then definitely go with that.

cmitts93 said:
Huh, I never really thought about that with the spreads but that totally makes sense. For Starmie I really like having the offensive set so I'll keep the LO and Analytic on there and roll with that.
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Yeah, honestly, I think the offensive Starmie set is better in general than the bulky set. It's one of the best hazard removers right now, IMO.

cmitts93 said:
And I actually went back and changed the Attack IV's to 0 on all my Special Attackers, I just forgot to mention that XD
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Ah, my mistake.
 
Since on my second team I have no Fire-type attacks, having that added insurance of Superpower on M-Scizor to deal with Ferrothorn and the like is really clutch.
 
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