The Process:
I have loved Mawile since gen 3, so imagine my excitement when mega evolution happened and she suddenly became a relevant threat. The team essentially started off as a necessary effort to build around Mega Mawile. She can tear through teams like butter, but she needs support to get her checks and counters out of the way first.
After a lot of research and trial-and-error, I found a great core in Conkeldurr, Mandibuzz, and Sylveon. Everybody covers each other pretty well here. Mandibuzz eats EQs, tanks physical hits, and provides defog support. Sylveon absorbs all thunderbolts and ice beams aimed at Mandibuzz with ease, as well as providing wish support and curing status for the rest of the team. Speaking of status, Conkeldurr absorbs status like a pro, punishing any Rotom-W that dare throw out a will-o-wisp.
At this point, I realized that my team was a bit weak on the special side of things. I went to a friend of mine for some suggestions and after putting our heads together for a bit, we came up with Latios and Manaphy. Not only do these guys have amazing synergy with the rest of the team by covering up almost all it's remaining weaknesses, but it also rounds the team out rather nicely. With their addition I have a tank, all-out attacker, and sweeper on both the physical and special sides.
After testing out some suggestions, I made a few changes to the makeup of the team. Physically defensive Hippowdon replaces Mandibuzz, and defog Latias replaces Latios. I'll explain the changes in red below.
The Team:
The Urge (Mawile) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Play Rough
- Fire Fang
I love her so much. Any team that's unprepared for a Mega Mawile sweep gets obliterated by this little she-devil. EV spread is pretty standard, maximum attack with a little bulk thrown in, and the rest put into speed. She functions as a late game cleaner. If she's able to get a free swords dance, there's not much a weakened team can do to stop her. Sucker punch is there for needed priority since she's a little slow on her feet. Play rough is the obligatory STAB move and at x2 will eat pretty much anything that doesn't resist it. Fire fang is a necessary coverage move, as it allows her OHKO pokes that would otherwise wall her. She is definitely not an easy sweeper to use. There's a lot of prediction mind-games and sucker punch baiting involved, but there's few things more satisfying than watching a Dragonite or Scizor attempt to set up in my face only to take a super-effective 0HKO right in the eye.
Trash Boat (Conkeldurr) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 8 Def / 248 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch
- Knock Off
Salty vest Conkeldurr is the new standard, and for good reason. I have seen this guy take a psychic from Latios at 100% and survive, OHKOing back with knock off. He's ridiculous. I have his special defense almost maxed out, so he can take a lot of punishment. He is an efficient answer to pretty much every special wall in the meta (barring fairies), plus he laughs at Heatran, which is extremely important considering how big of a threat Heatran poses to Mawile. Moveset is pretty standard, and god I love knock off. I love knock off. Knock off is so good.
Hawk Daniels (Hippowdon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind
Hippowdon is my bulky physical tank, replacing Mandibuzz as my go-to for nearly every physical threat in the tier. He does everything Mandibuzz did, and several things she couldn't. With his addition I now have stealth rocker, and a fairly strong earthquake user. EVs maximize physical defense, and he's actually still pretty serviceable on the special side even with no investment. Max sp.atk Aegislash's shadow ball is a 2HKO, and since Hippowdon is slower than Aegislash, he'll pretty much always KO back with earthquake, making him a solid check to that dumb pointy asshole. As for the rest of the set, I'm running sand force because sandstorm hinders my team as much as it does my opponents, slack off is for reliable recovery, and whirlwind is for phazing out those pesky set-up sweepers.
Scratch (Sylveon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 SDef / 244 HP / 12 Spd
Calm Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
The other half of my defense/support core. I'm honestly surprised anyone bothers to use Florges with specially defensive Sylveon floating around. She passes big wishes, and keeps detrimental status off the rest of the team (Conkeldurr being the lone exception, of course.) Pixilate hyper voice is also surprisingly powerful, even with no investment. It easily 2HKOs or even OHKOs some frailer attackers, like Greninja and Thunderus-I, and forget about dragons.
Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Healing Wish
- Psyshock
This lovely little lady replaces Latios as the all-out special attacker on my team. She's a little bit weaker, but has a lot more bulk, and quite frankly has superior utility. She's not one of the best defoggers in the tier for no reason. The EVs are pretty bog-standard. Just a simple spread for an offensive defogger. Draco Meteor hits pretty hard with life orb backing it up, but it's not really used that often. Psyshock does a number on Megasaur and most of those nasty specially defensive fairies. Defog is usually used on forced switches, and once hazards are out of the way, I can use healing wish to bring one of my sweepers or walls back from the brink. It's a dirty, awful tactic and it wins games.
Manaphy @ Wacan Berry
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Tail Glow
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
And here she is folks, the most underrated special threat in all of OU! Why don't people use her??? She's bulky, fairly fast, has access to tail glow, gets nearly perfect neutral coverage i mean come on. What more do you want in a late game cleaner? EVs are there to maximize speed and power, while a wacan berry allows Manaphy to lure in a single thunderbolt and (usually) KO back. Psychic is there to lure in the omnipresent Mega Venusaur, as I can usually grab a tail glow on a forced switch. A surprise OHKO on Megasaur also usually opens up a sweep, as it tends to be a team's only real answer to Manaphy.
Drawbacks:
No team is without it's issues, and this one is no exception. I lack status affliction, barring a lucky ice punch freeze. There are certain walls that are incredibly difficult to play around (unaware clefable AUGH), and certain set-up sweepers that can rip my team apart once their single check is gone (gdi azumarill).
For better or for worse though, that's my team! What do you guys think?
(Here's a replay if anyone is interested, there are some lucky hax but I manage to use both my sweepers):
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-94969343
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