SV OU Commencement - Roar Zamazenta Balance Ft. Trapper Volcanion (PEAK ELO 2007 #15)

[Quizzy]

Commencement

​

Introduction:

Hey all, it's Quizzy aka F0XHOUNDD back again with another RMT. With the advent of the Indigo Disk DLC, there have been a lot of new toys running around the metagame, however recently I’ve reached the 2000s on the ladder for the first time without using any of the new Pokemon. Regardless, this team has some cool sets I’m sure you all will enjoy!

Proof of Peak

I’ve been playing a lot of Risk of Rain 2 recently so this team is named after its final stage, Commencement, which I thought was fitting since I was itching to graduate into that 2000 elo placement since the start of Gen 9 OU. Nicknames are inspired by a few of the many items in my current favorite roguelike (everyone should play it!)

The Team:

https://pokepast.es/f257b2763257f0b6

Teambuilding Process:

This team was one I sort of stumbled into unintentionally. My friend Leng Loi approached me asking to build with a

Zamazenta set that caught my eye. It was a standard Iron Defense set with Body Press and Crunch, but with a unique last move option: Roar. I found this particularly interesting since I haven’t really enjoyed the more standard Substitute as of late, and as Leng pointed out to me Roar allows Zama to beat balance cores with common physical check Skarmory by forcing it out and continuing to set up. With that win condition in mind, I began building. Balances carrying Toxapex, Dondozo, and Galar Slowking can shut down Zamazenta, influencing the use of a trapping

Volcanion to lure and neutralize those threats.

Weavile was added for its useful priority and offensive synergy with Zamazenta, who struggles to pin down ghost types. I wasn’t going to use a Roar win condition without hazards, so the defensive core of

Ting Lu for spikes and

Clefable for stealth rock were added.

Corviknight’s steel/flying typing synergizes excellently with both Ting Lu and Clefable, rounding out the defensive core. Corviknight is in an interesting spot as a defogger now due to a reduced amount of Gholdengo on hazard stacking balance, and even HO teams at the moment. In this metagame, the bird can commonly clear hazards for Zamazenta, which uses Leftovers instead of Heavy Duty Boots. Its secondary role as another Iron Defense win condition allows me to check physical threats like Kingambit and Dragonite without allowing Zamazenta to get chipped.

The idea for Iron Defense Roar Zamazenta came to Leng from Srn, and I know MAVERICK SHOOTERS has also been playing with the idea since Finch debuted 3 attacks Roar as a concept in DLC1. I don’t know the true origin, but I wanted to shout all of these great players out.

Zamazenta

Tougher Times (Zamazenta) @ Leftovers
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Def / 152 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Body Press
- Crunch
- Iron Defense
- Roar​

Zamazenta is the primary win condition of this team. With immense physical bulk that is bolstered further through its ability Dauntless Shield and move Iron Defense, it is an excellent late game cleaner and check to the many physical and/or dark type powerhouses running around in the Indigo Disk DLC, including but not limited to Weavile, Darkrai, Meowscarda, Dragonite, and Kingambit. Iron Defense Zamazenta already wins setup wars with insane ease against basically any physical threat, but the use of Roar in the last slot alongside a steel tera type allows Zamazenta to beat and bully structures relying on physical checks like Gliscor + Skarmory on balance, as it no longer fears Gliscor’s toxic after terastallization. Zamazenta also excels into current HO structures, which commonly attempt to use multiple physical sweepers such as Great Tusk, Kingambit, Roaring Moon, Rillaboom, Iron Boulder, etc., all of whom hate being forced into the battle early, and equally despise being forced out and neutralized during their setup turns. There is something so satisfying about hitting a successful Roar into setup threats attempting to beat you. I have done this to Great Tusks, Skarmorys, Kingambits, Hawluchas, and even Volcaronas. To portray the feeling one gets when successfully pulling off a Roar turn, I’ve prepared a visual aid:

152 Speed EVs on a jolly nature outspeeds Darkrai and Weavile, but 168 could be considered to outspeed +1 Adamant Dnite. Max defense EVs make your Body Press as strong as possible (which is extremely relevant when trying to break past Gliscor/Clefable), with the remainder being put into HP.

Weavile

Her Biting Embrace (Weavile) (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Triple Axel
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Swords Dance​

Weavile finally got back access to Triple Axel in Scarlet and Violet’s second DLC, allowing it to become a premier threat once more. Weavile serves as a great form of secondary speed control alongside Zamazenta, notably outspeeding Meowscarada in order to give you a consistent lead into balance featuring the cat. A standard max attack, max speed Swords Dance set is used in order to cleave through bulkier balances or clean up late game vs offense. Weavile is notable for beating or chunking huge damage into ghost types which Zamazenta fears, such as Dragapult and Gholdengo. It also excels at forcing progress via removing items on common switch-ins like Kingambit, Skarmory, opposing Zamazenta, and Dondozo, which can pave the way for hazard stacking and Roar/Whirlwind shenanigans in the mid/late game. An ice tera type allows for your Triple Axel to turn into a nuke while also getting more mileage out of Ice Shard, which is valuable priority against Roaring Moon, Dragapult, and Volcaronas which have used Tera Grass or Ground.

Volcanion

Shattering Justice (Volcanion) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Steam Eruption
- Earth Power
- Fire Spin
- Taunt​

Volcanion sports my second favorite set on the team. Dropping the traditional Flamethrower for Fire Spin opens up many opportunities to catch switch-ins off guard and pick them off. Volcanion is your most immediately powerful Pokemon, and its trapping ability can set up opportunities for both Zamazenta and Corviknight as well as itself. Common Volcanion answers like Toxapex and Galar Slowking are shut down and can be subsequently removed via the use of Fire Spin and Taunt, making life much easier for your Body Press wincons. Tera ghost is a very neat tech on this set, allowing you to resist the Sludge Bombs of Galar Slowking, which can potentially 1v1 Volcanion if you get a taunt turn wrong and/or they get a lucky poison. More notably, tera ghost’s fighting immunity makes you untouchable by standard Keldeos, Dondozos, and Barraskewdas which are currently running water/fighting coverage (save for rare eq and avalanche on Dozo). It also grants immunity to Blissey's seismic toss, preserving health or outright avoiding damage. This set in general absolutely shreds a majority of Stall and Balance structures, which struggle to find a proper switch outside of tera water Gliscor or the occasional Hydrapple. The fighting immunity of tera ghost can also help in a pinch against opposing Zamazenta and give you free switches into Skarmory which commonly use Body Press as their only attacking move. Against offense, Volcanion’s naturally high bulk allows it to take a hit and trade for huge damage, burns, or kills into key threats such as Iron Valiant, Iron Boulder, opposing Weavile, and Kingambit, none of whom can OHKO you from full health without the use of a boosting tera type. 220 Speed EVs allow you to outspeed Gliscor with some wiggle room in case of slight investment. After a max special attack investment, the rest of the EVs went into HP.

The idea for this set came from a player DaVinci in the traineraid discord as well as Heileone who recently used this Volcanion alongside Specs Kyurem to remove Glowkings in his team recently featured in SV OU teams of the week.

Ting Lu

Mired Urn (Ting-Lu) @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Whirlwind
- Spikes​

A fairly standard Ting Lu set does what Ting Lu does: check 70% of the special attackers in the tier while setting up hazards. Spikes support is very much appreciated on this team: Weavile will enjoy picking up easier KOs and both Ting Lu and Zamazenta have a field day phasing entire teams out. Ting Lu is a great blanket check to Pokemon like Gholdengo, Dragapult, Zapdos, Heatran, and most notably Raging Bolt which can otherwise wreak havoc against your remaining members. Tera poison allows you to take reduced damage from common fighting, fairy, grass, and even bug moves headed your way, the former two being extremely relevant when facing Volcarona. This Ting Lu packs Stone Edge over the more commonly seen Ruination to snipe unsuspecting Volcarona, which will otherwise give the team a hard time. Tera poison additionally allows Ting Lu to stand up to Archaludon in rain, which is difficult to handle otherwise, while additionally denying healing to Hatterene in a pinch. Max HP and special defense with leftovers give you as much special bulk as possible.

Corviknight

Safer Spaces (Corviknight) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Roost
- Defog​

Corviknight is Zamazenta’s partner in crime and the team’s secondary wincon while also providing the defensive benefits of a bulky steel type and ground immunity. Corv soaks up hits from common threats such as Rillaboom, Weavile, Meowscarada, Excadrill, Great Tusk, and many more. While you may raise your eyebrows at the lack of U-turn on the Pokémon used over Skarmory almost exclusively for that move, the role compression of Iron Press alongside Defog is needed to keep Zamazenta and Ting Lu in the game for prolonged periods of time, while simultaneously checking Roaring Moon, Great Tusk, and Iron Boulder among others. Dropping any of these moves to fit U-turn in my eyes is not feasible. While the prospect of playing a team without pivoting moves is scary to many, I’ve found that the team has enough of a defensive backbone to allow safe switch-ins and pivoting without an over reliance on prediction as you might expect. Tera flying makes you even safer into CC Great Tusk variants and opposing Iron Press users, which are pretty scary for the team. Odd number HP and max defense maximize physical bulk while giving you a theoretical extra stealth rock switch-in. Rocky helmet provides valuable chip damage on contact, which is particularly good for punishing Rapid Spin.

Of course I’m talking about the merits of Defog when Corviknight has been historically oppressed by Gholdengo throughout the entirety of Gen 9, but as far as I’m concerned Corviknight is the best it's ever been. A preference towards more immediate threats on HO structures and the need for role compression alongside sturdier spikes setters on balance means that Ghold isn't the overbearing presence on the hazard metagame it once was. Corviknight gets the opportunity to defog a LOT these days even with the stack of coins running around. Against teams with Ghold, you just set up your own hazards and wear them down. You have four spikes immune Pokémon so it never feels like too terrible of a matchup, and realistically Zamazenta still gets opportunities for late game cleaning even with max layers up.

Clefable

Little Disciple (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock
- Moonlight​

Clefable rounds out the team with a SpDef Knock Off set giving you a valuable long term answer to common Pokemon such as mixed Deoxys Speed, Dragapult, Darkrai (without tera poison Sludge Bomb), Iron Valiant, Hydrapple (without Nasty Plot), and most notably Kyurem. None of Clefable’s switch-ins enjoy being Knocked Off, and those Pokemon are oftentimes obstacles in Corviknight and Zamazenta’s late game sweeps such as Toxapex, Galar Slowking, Volcarona, Clodsire, and Skeledirge. On this team, Clefable is often the engine with which you start making progress against fatter structures, whose more defensive oriented staples cannot do enough immediate damage to avoid the onslaught of Moonblasts and item removal caused by Clef, which also packs stealth rock to pressure Gliscor, Skarmory, and all the victims of its Knock Off. Clefable being a Sassy nature with reduced speed was initially an accident, but I actually came to appreciate the increased damage of Knock Off on Galar Slowking, which does around 20-25% even after item removal, enough to prevent Regenerator recovery alongside stealth rocks. Realistically you don't need to be faster than or speed tie with other Clefables or Primarinas, since with max SpDef you should beat opposing Clef anyway, and Primarina is a bit too strong for you to beat without Moonblast drops (you always lose to CM). Tera water gives you a resistance to water, fire, and ice type moves in a pinch against Kyurem, Weavile, Walking Wake, etc.

Common Threats:

• 
  
  
  
  Sun in general is probably the worst matchup for this team. Between attack boosted Gouging Fire and Great Tusk as well as Walking Wake you have an incredibly hard time staving off all 8 sun turns. This is the only matchup I would consider especially poor, but there are still things you can do. If you manage to trap an unsuspecting Torkoal with Fire Spin, you can tera ghost on Volcanion so they can’t Rapid Spin out. You can even waste a sun turn or two with taunt before taking them out. If Corviknight or Zamazenta can get started with Iron Defense, likely into choice locked Roaring Moon, they can do big damage. Any damage on Moon, Torkoal, Gouging Fire, and Wake and you can potentially get a late game Weavile sweep. You may need to make some aggressive doubles to keep yourself in the game, and make sure you pressure the Hatterene early so you can start getting up hazards.
• On that note:
  
  Hatterene represents another very annoying threat to this team. You don't have anything to immediately damage CM draining kiss sets for too much damage, so you may be forced to tera poison on Ting Lu for some extra chip, before switching out to Volcanion to finish the job. Make sure Volcanion comes in before too many CMs snowball, if Hatt gets a couple boosts in you may have to go into Weavile and pray Triple Axel hits.
• 
  Raging Bolt is very scary to this team. You pretty much have to go hard into Ting Lu when it comes out, but a +1 booster special Draco Meteor does over half before they get to switch out and do it again. You can pivot into Clefable first if you think a dragon move is coming out, but that also gives Bolt an essentially free set up turn. You have to play smart against Raging Bolt by racking up chip damage, as once it terastallizes into a fairy type you have no way to cleanly OHKO it (almost nothing can). Force it in with Volcanion to hit Steam Eruptions or predicted Earth Powers for big chunks of health. It's also a good idea to get up your hazards ASAP to limit the amount of times it can come back in, as they do not often opt for Heavy Duty Boots.
• Tera water (and fairy for that matter)
  
  Skeledirge are very scary into this team. The first time Dirge comes in is always the toughest. Your best bet is to knock it off with Clefable and then phase it out with Ting Lu, as once it terastallizes into a water type you have no good way of killing it beyond hazard chip. If you’ve forced the tera on another Pokemon on Skeledirge’s team: congrats! Your life is way easier. Base Dirge can be picked off by Volcanion easily or by Weavile after a little prior chip damage.

Usage Tips:

• Just like last time: Don’t be afraid to bring in
  
  Zamazenta early and take some damage if the situation calls for it. On that note, with two Iron Press sweepers you can often overwhelm enemy teams that rely on the same checks for both Zamazenta and Corviknight.
• This team does well to force in ghost types, so use that to your advantage. For example, when you see
  
  Dragapult as the only ghost on an opposing team, a well timed Crunch from Zamazenta opens many doors, allowing Weavile to pick up an Ice Shard KO or just Crunching again to secure the kill and setup Corviknight for a sweep. On opposing Balance, Dragapult may offer the enemy one safe pivot into Volcanion, but Pult taking 45% from Steam Eruption is a won exchange for you. In a similar vein, Corviknight, Zamazenta, and Clefable all invite in
  
  Gholdengo, which can be punished by a clever double into either of your dark types. You may be tempted to Knock off Ghold with Clefable as you can live a hit, but I generally avoid that so Weavile can more easily threaten the KO.
• Into
  
  Glimmora HO I like to lead Clef or Ting Lu. Ting can just tera poison off the bat and not really care about what Glimmora does, and Glimm does not commonly pack poison moves these days so Clef straight up beats any non Meteor Beam variants. If the Clef switch-in is Volcarona just take your free Knock Off and/or go into Ting Lu to hit the Stone Edge or Whirlwind.

Replays:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028136412-obuoij7b1zu0t6bt38u9vlusv2ppthxpw vs. Pinkacross Screens HO
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2030595855-wnazvvqsizpn6a7qi1v6aptl10e6n8fpw?p2 vs. Grassy Terrain
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2029588238-qbw6f55zm1y741hr15sl44o2xlxxarvpw vs. NJNP rain
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2031083959-v96pzhllw8g9fuwubaz2zr1k0z8ezqupw?p2 vs. Xavgb Volcarona balance
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2028379267-ivesmwc8jyqlqx3v3ksmyxbocw9dt7cpw vs. Mimikyu Stardust HO
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2031087863-3ts8wk82j34e9jc3m3y6in6ukkyur2bpw?p2 how to play around Ghold/Raging Bolt
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2031076138-egkx4hw4ih2z3veylyt55usc8hwcki6pw?p2 another example vs. Raging Bolt. Probably could be cleaner.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2030473885-1qe9rvku1752h5z37tt93o7s33hemxwpw’ vs. Stall (very hard MU for Stall player)

Here's that Zama image with the whole team for giggles. Thanks for reading/using everyone!

 

[DaRotomMachine]

Here's that Zama image with the whole team for giggles. Thanks for reading/using everyone!

A kindergardener is going to have nightmares, not giggles.

Anyway, nice team, congrats on the peak.
Its always nice to see a stall player reach the top of the ladder, am i right......

 

[CrispyFries]

Incoming 1LDK corviknight rant

Tera ghost Volcanion is a really cool idea. The most cooking I've done with it so far was tera fairy on some balance squad that was ridiculously weak to weather teams, but I never even thought of spinblocking Torkoal to be able to get a guaranteed KO after fire spin.

 

[1LDK]

Incoming 1LDK corviknight rant

Honestly, tho, I'm angrier at the fact that I did not get a shoutout or anything for being the biggest hater of this thing in the planet
I swear to god, I fight everyone on the trainer aid sv over this fucking thing

 

[quacc]

Haters gonna hate Corviknight is the good stuff, don't let the Gholdengo apologists say otherwise

Nice peak and yeah stall MU is kinda brutal (first hand experience lol)

Weavile is cool though, maybe try pickpocket over pressure, you could really own some Meowscaradas if you really wanted to with a prediction, I find that pressure isn't that good of an ability on Weavile anyways unless you get serious predictions right (plus you have a Corviknight)

 

[waffle04]

I got on one of the replays yay. Trapper volcano was heinous and I probably should have axel'd more with meow. Regardless, really sheist build.

As far as possible suggestions go, I like the idea of stone edge of ting but ruination is going to be doing the same thing vs most fliers anyways by forcing them to roost and eat a se eq. Also maybe cm over rocks on clef to help vs raging bolt? Moonblast drops + moonlight should let you win 1v1 since ting being broken down makes it very close to an auto-lose.

 

[heileone]

A powerful team for a powerful player… grats on the peak.

 

[Quizzy]

I got on one of the replays yay. Trapper volcano was heinous and I probably should have axel'd more with meow. Regardless, really sheist build.

As far as possible suggestions go, I like the idea of stone edge of ting but ruination is going to be doing the same thing vs most fliers anyways by forcing them to roost and eat a se eq. Also maybe cm over rocks on clef to help vs raging bolt? Moonblast drops + moonlight should let you win 1v1 since ting being broken down makes it very close to an auto-lose.

Thanks man! Stone Edge on Ting is pretty much strictly for Volcarona. You either force tera on the whirlwind or straight up kill them, which you cant do with ruination + eq. It happens to help vs fliers but that's not the intended purpose. CM on Clef is a great suggestion i'll look into, rocks just makes your life much easier vs regen cores and Skarm/Gliscor, so I went all in to that matchup.

Haters gonna hate Corviknight is the good stuff, don't let the Gholdengo apologists say otherwise

Nice peak and yeah stall MU is kinda brutal (first hand experience lol)

Weavile is cool though, maybe try pickpocket over pressure, you could really own some Meowscaradas if you really wanted to with a prediction, I find that pressure isn't that good of an ability on Weavile anyways unless you get serious predictions right (plus you have a Corviknight)

Stall goat telling me its brutal is high praise. Also Corv enjoyers rise up (sorry 1LDK). Pressure is strictly to make my life against Raging Bolt slightly less stressful (4 thunderclaps vs 8), and I usually just throw in Corv against Meow anyway, but Pickpocket is a cool suggestion for that matchup, especially since I have no U-turn on the team. I'll look into it.

 

[Conflux123]

Grats on the peak, but man why did you have to post this in a public RMT lol. Literally today I ran into two of these teams with stall and got destroyed.