SS OU Crawdaunt OU Team- New to SS OU, Need Help w Teambuilding

[fa500]

What's up guys, pretty new to showdown and I'm trying to get better at teambuilding, so I'm just looking for tips to help improve this team. So far it relies pretty heavily on Magearna, and is in desperate need of some better fire/fighting resist IMO.

Crawdaunt @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Crabhammer
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance

Despite the title of this post, I don't think Crawdaunt 100% has to be on this team. It's threatened pretty heavily by both forms of Urshifu, Rillaboom, and Zapdos, which are pretty common, and is walled pretty heavily by Pex. It does very well against sand teams, which are fairly common in OU, as aqua jet can do heavy damage to sand setters, and priority will negate the sand rush bonus given to Excadrill. I am definitely open to suggestions on replacing it or improving my set, however.

Ferrothorn @ Chople Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Knock Off
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Spikes

Ferrothorn with Chople Berry is a decent switch in to Urshifu's close combat, in my opinion, but unless you have something else to go into after, the Urshifu can KO with another hit. I mostly use this as a physical damage sponge, and getting the knock off into the opponent's switch ins is always nice. I decided not to run protect on this set so I could have a little more coverage, and because I found that I didn't end up using protect too much when I actually was using Ferrothorn. I just found the power whip more useful, especially in the case of sand teams as mentioned before. However, Tyranitar, Zapdos with heat wave, and Cinderace can KO this pretty easily.

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

Landorus is always useful for the earthquake immunity, and access to earthquake itself threatens pokemon like Magearna, Tyranitar, Nidoking, and can do OK damage to Pex. I tend to use it as a pretty solid pivot, and can get a decent amount of value from it with scarf, as it outspeeds most non-scarfed mons. It is definitely vulnerable to Ice Beam, which is something to watch out for when using it against Magearna, Tyranitar, and Nidoking.

Pheromosa @ Choice Band
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Triple Axel
- U-turn
- Close Combat
- Rapid Spin

Pheromosa is on my team because of it's access to rapid spin and it's general utility as a start and to threaten mons like single strike Urshifu. Triple Axel also does decent damage against flying types that may pivot into it, however it may be better to run ice beam to avoid the 3x vulnerability to static or flame body on Zapdos and Moltres. Despite how fragile it is, it outspeeds pretty much anything that isn't scarfed as well, except for Regieleki, and Ninjask who I didn't think was worth mentioning.

Blacephalon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- Trick

Blacephelon is a good alternative to the specs/scarf Spectrier, with access to fire type moves that will easily take out mons like Corviknight and Ferrothorn. Trick works pretty well if you can get it on a mon that depends on it's coverage or utility, and it's always nice if you can steal a leftovers or life orb. Despite it's high speed and special attack, it is also vulnerable to both forms of Urshifu, and pokemon with sucker punch. It does work well in taking out physically defensive mons that wall Crawdaunt, though, which is appreciated.

Magearna @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick
- Fleur Cannon
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch

Choice Scarf Magearna is probably the pokemon that I have been able to get the most use out of on this team. Trick effectively walls the stored power magearna set if you see it setting up, volt switch is extremely useful with scarf to bait out moves that other team members can tank, and flash cannon + soul heart has been a free ticket to a bunch of comebacks I've made. Very vulnerable to sand teams, however, as an earthquake will generally take it out pretty easily.


No preferences on anything that I think needs to be kept in, just looking for ways to make it better and things I might have missed.

I have linked the pokepaste for anyone who wants to try it out here.

 

[Smashburn]

Hey! I like the idea of the team, but I would agree Crawdaunt is not needed for this position. Personally, I would do something bulkier with more resistances, like Azumaril. I would reconstruct it some for that reason. Also, I would use CS Mind Blown Blacephalon over your current set. Blacephalon already has a high base SpA, but its speed can be outdone by many threats in the OU and the access to CS is much better. Plus, you can get a strong Mind Blown if they thinking you are running a separate kind of set. To add to this, I would give an ever bigger surprise factor and go with Pain Split on the set, as Priority mons that beat it can be answered by the likes of Ferrothorn in this team already. It just makes Blacephalon a pain for them to deal with. In general, I don't feel like saying much else today on Blacephalon than I am already going to say, but try making that change and see how its utility goes.

To add one more thing, Balcephalon is similar to Spectrier in power, but it has the ability to function more in the team to cover threats and offers more surprises including Mind Blown into a pain split, or a Trick (which is usually unexpected) onto setup answers like Heatran, Shuckle, Blissey, and Clefable. What's more, Balcephalon's typing + moveset and surprise factors on CS will really make things difficult for your opponent, and after you are done with Blacephalon you just go into your core of Azumaril with stall mons that cover well to really kick the current OU Meta's butt HARD.

Blacephalon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick
- Mind Blown
- Pain Split
- Shadow Ball

I would also say to not use Scarf Lando-T, it just makes things so difficult to navigate especially without some strong attack or rocks so I would play Sash suicide lead with Rock Tomb in it, I think it is a good idea bc it also slows down fast threats first turn in so if you go Jolly, depending on your situation and their set, you can also use Lando-T to kill Pheromosa on switch-ins or at least knock its speed stat down to Jolly Landorus outspeeding.

I don't need to really give you the set, it is on the Smogon Site.

Also, as far as Ferrothorn is concerned, I wouldn't use Chople Berry, I would go Leftovers. You have a lot of Coverage for Urshifu in the team already (at least by what I am thinking for a rebuilt team) so you are good. With Mandibuzz and Toxapex in the core, I would think you are freed up to use a more offensively set Ferrothorn (still the same stats) to check the likes of Tapu Koko, Fini, and Lele. I would say Gyro Ball, Power Whip, Leech Seed, and Spikes is better because it already pairs up well with suicidal Landorus-T's Stealth Rocks. Oh, also if you don't want to get EZ Capped by Kapdos which is already annoying, use Toxic instead of Gyro Ball and Careful over Sassy so you can just leave it in or check threats. I think the Toxic option works better against the Tapus and Kapdos, but if you really feel like having another hard-counter to Spectrier, be my guest and go Sassy Gyro ball, it still covers well.

I would also use a Defog / Rapid Spin mon, like Mandibuzz, which covers threats like Banded Urshifu under Foul Play and has good resistive typing. Plus, it covers Toxapex's Psychic weakness and gets Knock Off to pair with Toxapex's Knock off as well so it frees up Ferrothorn to be more offensively based, although defensively given stats. Plus Toxapex can run Rocky Helmet under a Recover, Scald, Toxic, Knock Off set.

To summarize the team, it should consist of:

Ferrothorn, Azumaril, Blacephalon, Mandibuzz, Toxapex, and Suicidal Ladorus-T.

Hope this team works for you as best I think it does!

Hate to put more stuff in here, but PS the team has a lot of advantages and doesn't really need Phero, plus you have at least one answer between Belly Drum Azumaril and Toxapex. Also, I thought it over some and I would say Zapdos only becomes an issue if your opponent has Zapdos + Pheromosa on the same team which isn't common. Otherwise, leading with suicidal Landorus is usually best I'd say.