ORAS Ubers Defensive leaning Balance

[khazit]

Despite being a member for a while, I don't really battle frequently, and thus is not really in-touch with the meta game. This is my attempt at Uber, and currently sitting at 1540 Elo- GXE 76. The idea behind the team is packing at many soft checks for at many threats at possible, since hard checking a single threat in Uber can be hard, and if possible, set up a baton pass for Groudon to sweep.

Scolipede @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Baton Pass
- Pin Missile
- Protect
The Anti Lead Deoxys - Mewtwo/Y - Darkrai. Pin missile to break Sub/ Focus sash. Protect to get a speed boost, combine with the EV and Nature, to outrun Darkrai, Mewtwo and Deoxys A; against Deoxys S better just use Pin missile twice. Maximum attack to allow Pin to hit as hard as possible. Baton Pass and Swords dance to pass boosts to P-don if the opportunity arise. Against Pokemon without phasing or a way to deal too heavy damage to P-don like Primal Kyogre without significant calm mind boost or Mewtwo both X and Y, or choice locked into resisted move or none super effective physical moves, it can use them as set up fodder for P-don by taking a moves with Focus sash and then pass. The Speed boost can also be passed to other Pokemon like Arceus Rock, Gliscor or Kyogre because I see that people tend to bring either Yveltal, Salamance, or Primal Groudon in after their suicide lead faint. In case the opposing team doesn't have/use the lead, it's best to save Scolipede for later.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 248 HP / 188 Def / 72 Spe
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Toxic
I choose Gliscor because of its immunity to status, good synergy with the other defense cores, and reliable recovery in roost. Against Physical Don, or Lava Plum Don (when the sun is down with smart use of Kyogre switch in), it can wall them reasonably well. It can also wall Girantina A/O (although Draco Meteor variant require some good predicting to Roost at the same turn of DM), tank an Extreme Speed from +4 Extreme Killer to Toxic it in a pinch, deal with the Anti Xerneas steel type like Aegislash, Lucario, Mawile, Klefki; stalemate Mega Sabeye, and some other situational uses. Need a better EV spread, this one taken straight out of Showdown suggestion.

Kyogre-Primal @ Blue Orb
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Roar
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Special Defensive P-don to go with Physical Defensive Gliscor. Rest and Sleep talk to deal with status in general. Can stalemate almost all Lugia, phase Geomancy Xerneas while tanking anything it can throw at thus making it useless, absorb Dark Void, tanking special attacker in Diagal and Palkia, though Kyogre need a burn on those 2 to effectively fight back, and combine with Gliscor making a good defensive duo with burn and toxic to stall for passive damage. It can also weaken opposing P-don fire type to help Gliscor tanking them with nigh impunity.

Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 60 Atk / 200 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Pursuit
- Toxic
Standard Uber Scizor. Because both the Primal and Gliscor tend to draw out Lati@s and Gengar, the Red Menace can simply come in and trap them with Pursuit. The EV to maximize effectiveness against Xerneas, with Toxic over U-turn because I find that slapping a timer into an obvious Primal/Yveltal/Ho oh switch in is more useful than grabbing momentum. Also server at yet another soft check for Extreme Killer with Toxic and Bullet punch. It can also help Scolipede deal with Mewtwo and Darkrai by a suicide priority when it's no longer needed. And it's pretty much the only reliable way to deal with Whimsicott and Shaymin S.

Arceus-Rock @ Stone Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Defog
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
The Ho-oh switch in, yet another Extreme killer check, Yveltal check, Rayquaza check, Mega Kanga check, and the most solid check for Mega Salamence. Timid and max speed to at least speed tie unboosted Salamence and opposing Arceus, Judgment Rock to do His spammable Judging thing, minimum amount of Spec Attack to always OHKO standard Salamance after Stealth Rock. Defog because that move must be somewhere.

Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 192 HP / 252 Atk / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Fire Punch
- Hone Claws
The EV and Nature is to allow it to outrun most Scarf user at +2 Speed (aka the speed boost that Scolipede will most likely pass), maximum attack to ... maximize attacking power, the remaining EV into HP to maximize survivability. Stone Edge to deal with Ho-oh, Yveltal (though at +2 and after Stealth rock, Fire punch is enough), Lugia and Salamence. Earthquake (chosen over PBlades because of better accuracy) and Fire punch is the 2 main STAB that, when combine with Stone Edge, hit the majority of the tier for OHKO at +2. Hone Claws to play around Intimate switching while patch up Stone Miss accuracy. Still will NOT run PBlade in any circumstance because most of the time there won't be an opportunity to use Hone Claws.
THREATS:
-Primal Kyogre: while technically, there's no check for P-Kyogre in the team, it is a perfect setup fodder for Scolipede to Baton Pass.
-Mega Mewtwo X with Ice Beam: while Scizor can deal good damage to it, I still find it hard to deal with this guy.
-Ferrothorn: with only 1 fire move, this guy can be a pain in the ass. Though he can't do much against Scizor and Gliscor in return.
-Sticky Web: with Arceus and Scolipede heavily depend on being able to outrun the enemy, Sticky Web can be a nightmare to play against.
-Irregular move set: because this team depend a lot on prediction, I find it very hard to play against utterly weird move set (Like Fire Blast Ice Beam Low Kick Earthquake Mewtwo X, or scarfed Darkrai).
-RNJesus: With Pin Missile, Will-o-wisp, Rest Talk, Toxic, Stone Edge all can miss, a particularly sadistic RNJesus can screw me over so bad it's not funny.
So yeah, this is my feeble attempt at Uber, suggestions are welcome.

 

[lolbro]

solid team, but could you space the rmt out a bit and add some sprites maybe? Would be a lot nicer to read that way

E: SO much better ty, may r8 l8er

 

[Minority]

Hey khazit this is a relatively solid build and is a bit unorthodox, which is why I think you haven't really gotten a rate yet. There are some choices here that I'm not immediately going to dismiss, but I think are generally sub-optimal enough to where you might want to reconsider their use. Hone Claws on Primal Groudon is the most questionable one, especially considering you aren't running Precipice Blades. As per your description you really want the reliability of Earthquake instead, completely understandable, but if that's the case you really should be running Swords Dance, which also punishes Intimidate play more (one reason why you said you run an attack boosting move). Baton Pass Scolipede is something I've played around a lot with, but I'd still say that in general it's a pretty poor set. Even with that said it's sort of an interesting prospect to build around Primal Groudon and BP Scolipede as it can actually setup and pass on Magic Bouncers, and provides some, albeit marginal, other utility. The third choice is the use of Gliscor, which we didn't give an analysis and isn't the best Stealth Rock setter around. You asked for a better EV spread but that one actually isn't bad, the 72 EVs actually creep max Speed Tyrnaitar (pretty rare) along with some other kinda rare mons and ties with 32 Speed Jirachi. You don't necessarily need any Speed creep at all though since even with 0 Speed you're faster than max Speed Diancie pre-evo and are beating all the base 90s that run minimal Speed or none at all.

With that addressed it's somewhat difficult to set the direction this team should go in when you've got mostly defensive mons and then this strange BP Scolipede + offensive Primal Groudon. If this was my team it would be more of my style to start over with just Scoli and P Don and build far more offensively, but from what you say in your RMT and think you're going for a more defensive team. With that in mind, you should drop Scolipede for a defensive mon that can more adequately cover the threats that you outlined in your threat list and a few others that you've missed such as Thunder Darkrai. Latias for example can free a moveslot on Arceus Rock, and would help cover your mentioned annoyances with opposing Primal Kyogre and Sticky Web. You could also keep Defog on Arceus Rock and run Hidden Power Fire to nail Ferrothorn, Klefki, and the rare Mega Scizor, or even run a Calm Mind set. The uncommon Hidden Power Fire Latios is actually a notable threat for this team, but it's not an easy weakness to cover unless you ran Xerneas, Clefable, or Tyranitar (requires you to make major altercations and still somewhat struggles against Grass Knot variants). You might want to try out Calm Mind Xerneas or Calm Mind Clefable, which are able to simultaneously fix your problems with MM2X, HP Fire Latios, and Thunder Darkrai. Ferrothorn helps cover opposing Primal Kyogre and brings Spikes support, but adds another Steel-type that can't really take on HP Fire Latios and has some other potential problems.

Opting to run Defense investment on Primal Kyogre instead of SpD helps against MM2X and comes with some other benefits, but makes the Thunder Darkrai problem a bit worse. In a similar vein to Clefable, Blissey has the advantage of being one of the better tools defensive teams have against Darkrai and also helps a bit against Primal Kyogre, just make sure you run the Wish set as Heal Bell can clash with Gliscor's Toxic Orb. If you really hate Ferrothorn that much you can consider running Superpower on Mega Scizor. Without some more substantial restructuring it can be challenging to fit a last mon that offers some new utility while also checking the threats you were concerned with, and this sort of stems from using Mega Scizor and Gliscor as they are more challenging to build with than other standard defensive fare. As a final point, realize that dropping one or both of these mons greatly increases the options available and leaves the team with far more potential directions to explore.

Summary:
Drop Scolipede for a more fitting teammate (see below)
- Calm Mind Xerneas or Clefable have the ability to cover your mentioned annoyances with MM2X and help cover this team's problems with Thunder Darkrai and HP Fire Latios
- Latias would patch up your concerns against opposing P Ogre and Sticky Web while being able to free a slot on Arc Rock by running Defog, or Latios can run HP Fire due to your Ferrothorn annoyance, or possibly a Calm Mind set
- Blissey is generally strong against Darkrai and offers Wish support, but doesn't really cover the MM2X or Latios problems
- Ferrothorn is strong against Primal Kyogre and offers Spikes support, but creates some problems by adding an additional 4x Fire weakness
Consider running Defense rather than SpD on Primal Kyogre
Run Swords Dance over Hone Claws on Primal Groudon
Consider running max Defense on Gliscor instead of Speed creep