Cube

[qpie]

Hii Smogon. ~​

I said I’d RMT all of my suspect teams, so now I have to.

The team at hand is a DragMag team featuring Cube. It lacks any impressive tournament victories, but I managed to peak #5 on the Keldeo suspect ladder and top 50 on the regular OU ladder with it. While this obviously doesn’t really mean much I still believe it proves that the team works – at least to a certain extent.

Once again this is not a showoff RMT, so please don’t expect any huge animated .gifs or excessive amounts of fluff. You don’t even get Pokémon named after song names this time. Sorry. :<

Team building

There isn’t much of a team building process to be honest. The team is based on a core C05ta posted in the ‘OU Cores in the BW2 Metagame’ thread. Admittedly it also takes a little more than just a bit of inspiration from elsewhere.

Either way the team still went through a fair bit of testing. I originally planned to build a standard weatherless offensive team, but ditched that idea rather quickly and opted for DragMag instead. Mamoswine, Magnezone and Cube were already set in stone, so my first own addition was Dragonite simply because I had good experiences using it and felt like it would synergize well with Cube. Starmie was added soon thereafter to provide Rapid Spin support and at that point Jirachi was just too good to pass up.

Changes in bold.​

Mamoswine (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock

First up we have the team’s dedicated lead. Unless it is blatantly obvious my opponent is going to counter-lead with something like Scizor, Skarmory or Starmie I will generally lead with Mamoswine to set up Stealth Rock as early as possible. Mamoswine’s other three moves are standard fare. Earthquake is your generic STAB move, Ice Shard is great for checking potentially threatening dragons and picking off weakened threats in general should I manage to keep Mamoswine alive throughout the first few turns. Icicle Spear is chosen over other options like Icicle Crash or Endeavor to allow Mamoswine to – in conjunction with its Jolly nature - beat opposing Focus Sash leads such as Breloom. To be perfectly honest I wasn’t sold on Icicle Spear over Endeavor when I first read about it, but for some reason people regularly try to grab an early advantage by counter-leading against Mamoswine with their Breloom, so having Icicle Spear really pays off.

​

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SAtk / 220 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

The Mag to my DragMag. Magnezone’s primary job obviously is to trap and eliminate opposing Steel types like Ferrothorn or Scizor which can stop my dragons from sweeping, but it also puts lots of pressure on my opponent simply by showing its face in team preview. They can’t just freely pick off Mamoswine, Cube or a weakened Dragonite with Bullet Punch anymore, predicting against Jirachi becomes a pain since it suddenly has way fewer safe switch-ins since it could always just U-turn in to Magnezone and there is always the lingering threat of a double switch. Basically Magnezone applies pressure simply by existing which is pretty damn nice. Magnezone’s moves are bog-standard and shouldn’t demand any explanation and its EVs and nature should hopefully allow it to outspeed most Scizor.

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Cube (Kyurem-Black) @ Leftovers
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 56 HP / 212 Atk / 240 Spd
Lonely Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Substitute

Cube is a monster. Plain and simple. This thing dismantles defensive cores like there is no tomorrow. Jellicent came in to spinblock Starmie? Rotom-W just took out Mamoswine? Your Ferrothorn doesn’t run Gyro Ball? Congratulations, Cube just got a free Substitute and now you will have to make some sacrifices. Once this beast gets a Substitute up it will get a kill. Cube’s moves are fairly standard and allow it to 2HKO just about anything. The only one that might demand some explanation is Earth Power. It is used to allow Cube to always 2HKO Heatran and put some smaller dents into Jirachi both of which can be kind of a nuisance for Dragonite. Cube’s EVs allow it to outspeed base 80 Pokémon with a boosting nature while being able to set up 101 HP Substitutes with the rest dumped into Attack. It should also be noted that Magnezone’s presence on the team seemingly makes a lot of people suspect that Cube is not running a mixed set, but will simply spam choice-locked Outrages. This makes setting up Substitutes a whole lot easier. Furthermore Cube is absurdly bulky even without any real defensive investment and can be used as a backup check to a lot of threats in a pinch. For example it can take hits from even Expert Belt Keldeo or +1 Volcarona if it absolutely has to.

​

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- ExtremeSpeed
- Dragon Dance

Just like Cube Dragonite is a total beast. Unlike Cube however Dragonite isn’t meant to punch holes and dismantle cores, but rather fills the role of a full-on win condition. In a lot of matches its mission is simply to clean up what Magnezone and Cube have left of the opposing team. Dragonite also fills the role of my speed-boosting sweeper which I personally believe is all but mandatory for offensive teams in a metagame where speed is king. Dragonite also provides a bunch of key resistances for my team. Most importantly it is the only Pokémon on the team that can safely switch into Earthquakes. I used to run double dance Haxorus in place of Dragonite and while it was incredibly fun to use it made my team absurdly weak to threats like Scarfchomp. I also tested double dance Landorus-T in place of Dragonite for a bit, but the team’s version with Dragonite ultimately proved to be the most consistent one by far. This might be because of its key resistances, its ability to act as a backup check to just about any threat as long as Multiscale is intact or the additional priority moves it brings to the table. Either way Dragonite adds a lot to the team.

​

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Healing Wish
- U-turn

When stacking dragons you will eventually find yourself in need of a Pokémon that can switch into a few Outrages, Draco Meteors and Ice Beams.Jirachi fills this role on my team. It also acts as my team’s Choice Scarf user. In a sense it is my safety net and my initial switch-in to a lot of threats. Its moves once again are standard fare. Iron Head is its obligatory STAB move and thanks to its 60% flinch chance occasionally allows Jirachi to beat Pokémon it has no business beating. Ice Punch provides additional coverage. U-turn allows it to scout potentially gaining switch advantage and makes trapping things with Magnezone that much easier. Finally Healing Wish allows me to sacrifice Jirachi to give one of my sweepers a second chance at doing their job. Seeing how many attacks Jirachi has to switch into I opted for a bulkier EV spread. It still outspeeds Choice Scarf Landorus-T, but the remaining EVs were used to increase its bulk. It should be noted that in match ups where Magnezone’s trapping abilities aren’t crucial I will generally try to use it to take some pressure off Jirachi’s back.

​

Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Analytic
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

Seeing how both Cube and Dragonite don’t particularly enjoy switching into Stealth Rock adding a spinner to the team was kind of a no-brainer. Of course Starmie’s usefulness extends beyond simply providing Rapid Spin support. Analytic and Life Orb turn it into a force to be reckoned with that has next to no safe switch-ins. It should also be noted that quite a few of the limited safe switch-ins it has are easily taken care of or even abused by the rest of the team. Ferrothorn is trapped, Jellicent is setup fodder for Cube and Dragonite, you get the idea. Furthermore Starmie adds a much-needed second Fighting resistance and another Water resistance to the team. Most importantly these allow it to check Terrakion and Keldeo which have proven to be huge threats to my team.

​

Importable

Mamoswine (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SAtk / 220 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

Cube (Kyurem-Black) @ Leftovers
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 56 HP / 212 Atk / 240 Spd
Lonely Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Substitute

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- ExtremeSpeed
- Dragon Dance

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Healing Wish
- U-turn

Starmie @ Life Orb
Trait: Analytic
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

Threats

Seeing how this is an offensive team without any solid defensive core there are obviously quite a few Pokémon that can spell trouble for it. A lot of speed-boosting sweepers in particular can spell trouble for it, but some Choice Scarf users and a handful of defensive cores are also hard to play around. Point is, the team has a lot of weaknesses. Just like in my last RMT I will however try to keep this section brief and only list threats that stand out.

- Terrakion & Keldeo
Even with Starmie both of them still do a number to my team. A well-played SubSalac Terrakion pretty much 6-0s me, scarfed versions outspeed my whole team, Expert Belt Keldeo can be a bitch. Truth is nearly all of their sets are a threat to my team in one way or another.

- Tyranitar
Some sets completely wall Cube. Some sets trap my Starmie so Cube and Dragonite have to take Stealth Rock damage for the remainder of the match. All of them set up Sandstorm and break 'nite's Multiscale. Point is some Tyranitar sets can be fairly tricky to play around.

So, that's my latest team. Thank you for reading! I'm looking forward to any feedback, rates, questions or criticism you may have.

Feel free to use the team if you like it. Test it, fix it, tear it apart, do whatever you want with it. ~

Pokemon sprites from Pokemon Showdown. Wallpapers from PLDH.
I'm not a native speaker, feel free to point out any grammatical mistakes and I'll fix them ASAP.

 

[Plus]

Hello,

This is a pretty solid dragmag build; the threats that you listed are probably best checked rather than countered so I don't think too much needs to be changed with this team. However, I would consider making Cube specially based as opposed to physical, as I generally find Ice Beam and Earth Power to be used pretty often, while Fusion Bolt is still 2HKOing bulkier threats in rain while still hitting frailer things like Starmie and Keldeo just fine. Just switch Lonely to Mild and move the Attack EVs to Special attack.

Use Healing Wish over Fire Punch on Jirachi. This will allow heavy hitters such as Starmie, Cube, and even Dragonite to sweep teams for another round as they all lack recovery. Fire Punch isn't that necessary considering you run Magnezone to trap Scizor and Ferrothorn in the first place.

If you still find trouble with Terrakion and Keldeo, this might be a gimmicky idea -- but it nets a ton of surprise kills due to its ability to survive hits. Chople Cube is one way where you can deal with Terrakion and Keldeo by tanking a Close Combat / Secret Sword, then retaliating with Fusion Bolt / Earth Power. If you do choose to go that route, I'd probably opt to keep it physically based with Outrage over Substitute so you can OHKO them more reliably with rocks up. However, Kyurem does die faster due to the lack of recovery, and it is more susceptible to status because of the lack of Substitute. Nonetheless, if you aren't satisfied with Jirachi and Starmie serving as your checks for these Pokemon, this is always an option to consider.

GL with the team, hope I helped

 

[qpie]

Tried to post this yesterday, but the forum died or something...

Hello,
This is a pretty solid dragmag build; the threats that you listed are probably best checked rather than countered so I don't think too much needs to be changed with this team. However, I would consider making Cube specially based as opposed to physical, as I generally find Ice Beam and Earth Power to be used pretty often, while Fusion Bolt is still 2HKOing bulkier threats in rain while still hitting frailer things like Starmie and Keldeo just fine. Just switch Lonely to Mild and move the Attack EVs to Special attack.
Use Healing Wish over Fire Punch on Jirachi. This will allow heavy hitters such as Starmie, Cube, and even Dragonite to sweep teams for another round as they all lack recovery. Fire Punch isn't that necessary considering you run Magnezone to trap Scizor and Ferrothorn in the first place.
If you still find trouble with Terrakion and Keldeo, this might be a gimmicky idea -- but it nets a ton of surprise kills due to its ability to survive hits. Chople Cube is one way where you can deal with Terrakion and Keldeo by tanking a Close Combat / Secret Sword, then retaliating with Fusion Bolt / Earth Power. If you do choose to go that route, I'd probably opt to keep it physically based with Outrage over Substitute so you can OHKO them more reliably with rocks up. However, Kyurem does die faster due to the lack of recovery, and it is more susceptible to status because of the lack of Substitute. Nonetheless, if you aren't satisfied with Jirachi and Starmie serving as your checks for these Pokemon, this is always an option to consider.
GL with the team, hope I helped

Hi Plus, thanks for your rate.

Making Cube specially based is an interesting idea I admittedly hadn't considered yet. It is true that Ice Beam and Earth Power are used a lot more often than Fusion Bolt, but to be perfectly honest they usually hit hard enough to get the job done already. Then again the same is true for Fusion Bolt, so I'm definitely gonna give a more specially offensive Cube a try.

Fire Punch on Jirachi must've been something I added out of frustration over a single loss or something and I definitely agree with you that Healing Wish is a lot more useful.

Chople Cube looks interesting to say the least, but I'm not sure if having an additional check to Terrakion and Keldeo really is worth giving up the only source of recovery Cube has. I'll definitely give it a try for at least a few matches though.

Once again thanks for your rate, much appreciated.

 

[Joeyboy]

Cool team man, you've got a pretty great dragmag team, who works off that super solid core of Mamoswine/Magnezone/Kyurem-B.

Anyway my rate will be fairly short as your team really is quite polished. First I think you should look into changing your Jirachi's EVs to 212 Spd / 252 Atk / 44 HP. The extra speeds ensures you can always outspeed +1 Jolly Haxorus. Now while this is definitely a fairly rare threat if it can set up a DD on you its pretty much gg. It can set up easily on Magnezone not locked into Flash Cannon, which should be happening as you trap steels, and even Mamoswine can't revenge it due to Haxorus only having a x2 weakness to Ice. So that's kind of a quality of life difference, as it also lets you revenge Jolly CS Kyurem-B who can again be a threat as you don't have a ton of bulk on your team. The extra speed really shines against rival DragMag teams. Also you can put 8 extra EVs to outspeed +1 Timid Hydreigon, but I mean even I can't justify that :)

You should also think about replacing Psyshock with Thunderbolt on Starmie. I see Psyshock a lot on Analytic Starmie and to be honest I don't see the point. The main draw of Analmie is 2HKOing Jellicent on the switch with Thunderbolt, thus making Starmie nigh-unspinblockable(yeah). Psyshock is used for Terrakion and primarily Keldeo but you've already got Hydro Pump for Terrakion and LO Thunderbolt KOs Keldeo after very little extra damage. And those are just bonuses as, again, the real reason why Analytic Starmie is used it to get past Jellicent more reliably. One of the main reasons you have Starmie on your team is to spin, which greatly helps your two dragons, so why neuter that ability. At the moment Jellicent has no fear coming in to your Starmie all game blocking those crucial rapid spins.

Good Luck!

 

[MCBarrett]

Hey man, thanks for the request :] Very nice team, like others have said that Kyub/Zone/Mamo core is very solid and you provided some great support and Offensive Pressure with the rest of your team so there's really not too much to change. I do agree with Plus' suggestion of making Kyub more specially biased since Fusion Bolt does enough to the stuff that it has to hit anyways like Skarmory and bulky Waters. The only thing I'm going to suggest is changing your Jirachi spread to outspeed all Scarf Lando-T. Outside of Mamoswine you basically get destroyed by Scarf Lando-T. If Rocks are up you have no safe Switch-in (outside of Dragonite whose Multiscale gets broken) and Starmie can't spin. You can use a Jolly Nature with 72 HP Max Atk and 184 Spe to do this. Other than that awesome team, great job! Hope I helped!

EDIT: I played with the team a little bit and I think having Superpower over Fire Punch on Dragonite would be a good idea to help deal with Heatran. You already have Magenzone to take out opposing Steels anyways.

 

[qpie]

Cool team man, you've got a pretty great dragmag team, who works off that super solid core of Mamoswine/Magnezone/Kyurem-B.

Anyway my rate will be fairly short as your team really is quite polished. First I think you should look into changing your Jirachi's EVs to 212 Spd / 252 Atk / 44 HP. The extra speeds ensures you can always outspeed +1 Jolly Haxorus. Now while this is definitely a fairly rare threat if it can set up a DD on you its pretty much gg. It can set up easily on Magnezone not locked into Flash Cannon, which should be happening as you trap steels, and even Mamoswine can't revenge it due to Haxorus only having a x2 weakness to Ice. So that's kind of a quality of life difference, as it also lets you revenge Jolly CS Kyurem-B who can again be a threat as you don't have a ton of bulk on your team. The extra speed really shines against rival DragMag teams. Also you can put 8 extra EVs to outspeed +1 Timid Hydreigon, but I mean even I can't justify that :)

You should also think about replacing Psyshock with Thunderbolt on Starmie. I see Psyshock a lot on Analytic Starmie and to be honest I don't see the point. The main draw of Analmie is 2HKOing Jellicent on the switch with Thunderbolt, thus making Starmie nigh-unspinblockable(yeah). Psyshock is used for Terrakion and primarily Keldeo but you've already got Hydro Pump for Terrakion and LO Thunderbolt KOs Keldeo after very little extra damage. And those are just bonuses as, again, the real reason why Analytic Starmie is used it to get past Jellicent more reliably. One of the main reasons you have Starmie on your team is to spin, which greatly helps your two dragons, so why neuter that ability. At the moment Jellicent has no fear coming in to your Starmie all game blocking those crucial rapid spins.

Good Luck!

Hey there.

While playing this team Starmie actually more often than not managed to break through Jellicent with just Psyshock and minimal prior damage. A quick damage calc however showed me that I must've just gotten extremely lucky and Thunderbolt is definitely the way to go for the reasons you mentioned.

As for the additional Speed on Jirachi, I don't think I've seen a single Haxorus while using this team so I'm probably gonna roll with MCBarrett's suggestion and only speed creep up to Choice Scarf Landorus-T.

Thanks for your rate, much appreciated.

Hey man, thanks for the request :] Very nice team, like others have said that Kyub/Zone/Mamo core is very solid and you provided some great support and Offensive Pressure with the rest of your team so there's really not too much to change. I do agree with Plus' suggestion of making Kyub more specially biased since Fusion Bolt does enough to the stuff that it has to hit anyways like Skarmory and bulky Waters. The only thing I'm going to suggest is changing your Jirachi spread to outspeed all Scarf Lando-T. Outside of Mamoswine you basically get destroyed by Scarf Lando-T. If Rocks are up you have no safe Switch-in (outside of Dragonite whose Multiscale gets broken) and Starmie can't spin. You can use a Jolly Nature with 72 HP Max Atk and 184 Spe to do this. Other than that awesome team, great job! Hope I helped!

EDIT: I played with the team a little bit and I think having Superpower over Fire Punch on Dragonite would be a good idea to help deal with Heatran. You already have Magenzone to take out opposing Steels anyways.

Hey there, thank you for your rate, much appreciated. :3

I've already played a few test matches with a specially based Cube, but I'm not quite sold on it yet. Somehow it performs almost exactly as good as my current one, so I might just keep jumping between the two sets.

I've already implemented your suggested Jirachi spread, since Choice Scarf Landorus-T really looks like a huge threat.

As for Superpower on Dragonite, I can see where you're coming from and I'm definitely gonna try it out.