SS OU Cleaner Kartana(First Team Gen8 OU)

[Nevelion]

Hi! New player here, after 2 weeks of games with teams stole from this beautiful section (Love for Smogon Community) I tried my best in team buiding after a brief study section. Do not destroy me plserino, I really want some tips to improve.

All started from Kartana, I love this Pokemon(? UC?), in the past two weeks it helped me in every hostile situation of PS. Kartana's ATK is simply ridiculous, and If I succeed in a SD this thing is quite unstoppable with BB, I use Kartana mainly as a final sweeper cleaning the rest of the enemy team after the other five.

Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword

Toxapex is litterally a wall and usually my lead, toxic as first move, haze to avoid pokemon too into strange things like Calm Mind and Dragon Dance. Ofc, this pokemon was my first choice, Kartana is made of paper...

Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Merciless
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Haze
- Recover

After my "core" I was worried about strange fire choices, so I went with a little strange choice, TF SpA with Surf, Moonblast to cover Dragon, Fighting and Dark, Trick seemed a good idea to lock wall with just one move and it's the same for taunt, mainly against horrible walls like cleffa

Tapu Fini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Moonblast
- Trick
- Taunt

After these three picks, and after being traumatized from all the Tapu around I thought that would be a good idea to cover fairy tipe with this strange version of Magnezone, Flash Cannon for them, Thunderbolt for the Toxapex and other horrible things around and ID+BodyPress to free me from special walls

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Iron Defense

At this point I tought about having a wall and defogger, and CK I think is a good choice

Corviknight @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost

In the end a SpA Dragapult to outspeed problems like BB Nite and SubGengar or other substitute.

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp

 

[ironwater]

Hello Nevelion, welcome to Smogon! I’m here to rate your team and suggest some changes to improve it.

The team has a nice offensive basis with the deadly Kartana + Magnezone duo. Dragapult is a great addition with this offensive core for the speed control it brings, its ability to pressure most Kartana switch-ins and its pivoting capacities. However, your defensive core has two big flaw which are that you lack an Electric immunity and a good Special Wall. Tapu Fini is intended to be used offensively here, but I still dislike having both Tapu Fini and Toxapex in the same team as they are supposed to deal with pretty much the same threats. I think you would rather have a defensive Tapu Fini or a Toxapex here and replace the other one by an Electric immunity to avoid being annoyed by Pokemon like Zeraora and Tapu Koko . Corviknight is a great Pokemon here for its defensive utility and its slow pivot role which is always great alongside breakers like Kartana and Dragapult. Most balance teams need a bulky Flying type and Corviknight is often the prime choice.

Thus, I don’t think you need to change many things here, and I will propose changes that keep this idea of breaking with Magnezone + Kartana. Let’s dive into the suggestions:


Major Changes

-> : Keeping Toxapex and removing Tapu Fini would be fine too and Toxapex can give you a stronger defensive backbone with its reliable recovery. I think I would still replace it and keep Tapu Fini because the latter is able to threaten a lot of unprepared teams and could be a good win condition. As you are using three defensive mons with an Electric weakness and are thus extremely weak to Zeraora and Tapu Koko, I would suggest using Landorus-T here, as it will not only give a good answer to these threats, but you will also be able to setup Stealth Rock and thus help Kartana and Dragapult. Landorus-T brings a lot of utility in most balance teams (which explains why its usage are so high) and seems to be the perfect pick here. I would rather go for a specially defensive set to help with Dragapult as you don’t have a reliable Pult answer. Here is the set (classic one with Def invest swap in SpD, you could also test some mixed spreads with no Speed):

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 164 SpD / 92 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off / Toxic


Minor Changes

: Swords Dance Kartana is fine, but I think you rather have a Banded set in this kind of balance. This is because you don’t like getting chipped by Life Orb when most of your teammates can’t keep the pressure on the opposing team, and most of the time you will have little room to attempt a sweep with Swords Dance. You rather maximize your wallbreaking power, especially with Magnezone removing Corviknight, and can still attempt to sweep late game thanks to Beast Boost. Here is the set:

Kartana @ Choice Band
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword


: I think Dragapult and Kartana give a decent Speed Control for a team that has a good defensive structure. I would rather use a Calm Mind set here, as you want to be able to come multiple times on Weavile, Urshifu-R and Heatran and thus rather have some Defensive investment. Calm Mind Tapu Fini could also be a great win condition, as some teams struggle to prevent it from setting up. If you find that Dragapult is too much of an issue and rather have a revenge killer, Scarf Tapu Fini could work, but I’m pretty sure that you will be way more pressured by common offensive threats considering how easy it is to weaken offensive Tapu Fini. Here is the classic Calm Mind set:

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
- Draining Kiss
- Scald


: You don’t really need to have a max SpA investment as even no SpA Magnezone leaves Corviknight in range of Kartana. Flash Cannon is not that much useful as it doesn’t hit many threats but could be an option if you find yourself struggling against Clefable. Otherwise, you rather have Substitute to take advantage of Ferrothorn and easily setup on it. I would also use some Speed investments to outspeed 0 Speed Skarmory. Here is the set:

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Def / 84 Spe
Bold Nature
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute / Flash Cannon


: Just change Will-O-Wisp for Flamethrower, you don’t want to lock yourself on Will-O-Wisp most of the time and it’s not the best move to use with Fini’s terrain. Flamethrower helps a lot against bulky Steel types like Melmetal, Scizor and Corviknight.


And that’s all for the changes, here is the new version of the team, feel free to try it out:

The Past

Kartana @ Choice Band
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 164 SpD / 92 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
- Draining Kiss
- Scald

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Def / 84 Spe
Bold Nature
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost

Hope this was helpful. Wish you to have a nice day.

 

[Nevelion]

Hi ironwater and thank you very much for the team review!! I am going to try in the following days and I will report here the results