SV OU dondozo + clodsire [returning player pls halp]

[pecheux]

Hey!
I used to play on Gen 6 and 7 (peaked top 50 during early gen 7, I guess) and am returning now.
I am starting to play again and this is the first team I made. I can feel it can get better, but I don't know exactly how...
Maybe I need a better mix of offensive and defensive stuff. I mean, half of the team seem fast paced, and half are bulky and slow. idk

The team


Main core. I just liked their sprites and felt like the synergy was good enough.


I added Rotom-Wash because back in the day it was busted.


Back in the day my favourite 'mon was regular Greninja with spikes and this is the closest I could get.


Since I am running Spikes, Gholdengo feels natural, and Dragapult makes a good core too.


The members


Dondozo @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Careful Nature
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Liquidation
​

Just a regular set, really.
Good against rain teams and is usually the wincon after opponent is chipped enough, or the sweepers are burned.
Usually it stays out until later in the match to wall whoever it needs, or freely setup. The exception is using as a pivot early to absorb an attack from Quaquavel, or a annoying burn or toxic - but only if I feel I won't be hard pressured later in the game, and can rest comfortably.
Tera Water because it is an amazing typing and

Clodsire @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover
​

Another standard set.
It is here over Ting-Lu because of toxic and to help the team deal with Toxic Spikes and Glimmora and general.
Heavy-Duty boots is used since I am currently running no hazard control and Clodsire pivots a lot, but Leftovers would be equally good.
Tera Water in case I need to neutral damage from a crucial ground-type attack.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
​

My main answer to Great Tusk.
Without burning physical attackers running ground coverage, this team suffers a lot, because no one else is immune, my resistance is frail, and Dondozo do not have reliable recovery.
I miss pain split, but protect is good enough to get a bit of health back...
Tera Steel because is a good defensive typing and in case I need to avoid a crucial Toxic.

Meowscarada @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Protean
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Spikes
- U-turn
- Flower Trick​

I wanted a Grass-Type because Water seems to be prevalent, so I wanted a good matchup against rain and opposing Dondozos.
I am running Spikes to help chipping stuff for my ghosts and Dondozo. I also really need a dark type on the team to get better synergy. The other options were Brute Bonnet and Wo-Chien, but I wasn't so sure about them.
For this spot, I considered Breloom, Aamoongus, SD Chien-Pao, Iron Moth (in that case, I would go with Ting-Lu over Clodsire), or even Iron Hands, but haven't tested them yet.

Gholdengo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Trick
- Dazzling Gleam​

Since I am running spikes, Gholdengo felt like a natural fit.
Running scarf with trick to cripple Garganacl and other defensive annoying stuff, to revenge sweep Roaring Moon, and to just hit hard in general, since ghost/steel is an amazing offensive typing.
Tera ghost is here to hit even stronger, but fairy and flying would work to lure its checks.
I am also considering a more bulky variant with recover and Nasty Plot with Leftovers or Air Baloon and Tera Normal, but I couldn't figure the EV spread yet to test it.

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Thunder​

No secrets here.
Fast, hit hard and its offensive moves are hard to switch into.
Still not sure if Band or Specs is better, though. I Am testing both, but haven't decided yet.
One of my mainly wincons, along with Dondozo. I usually try to get rid of Normal and Dark types as soon as possible to just spam Shadow Ball.
Fairies haven't been a problem, really, not sure why. Maybe I didn't face the most threatening ones enough times to notice, but I can pressure and worn them down enough with shadow ball + u-turn.
Shadow Tera for maximum damage on Shadow Ball, if needed.

Threats


Very annoying.
Hard walls almost everything and resists ghost.
When facing it, I try to keep Meowscarada healthy and preserve Dondozo for an eventual setup.


Very hard to face and pivot around, especially if I am not able to burn it. If
If I don't know what is agoing to Tera into, it is even worse.
Dondozo is the best answer, but more often than now, it is too worn down in the end of the game to counter the fallen allies boost.

I'm pretty sure there are more, I am just not seeing them right now. :]

Importable

https://pokepast.es/a4bd5a32f87aed44


​

 

[Soosthemoose]

Hello! This team is pretty good, but there are a couple of changes I would make. First of all, in my opinion, dondozo and washtom on the same team is a bit redundant, as they both fulfill the role of a bulky water. In my opinion, you should put Iron Valiant over dondozo. It’s perfect to switch into sucker punch or kowtow cleave from kingambit, and salt cure or body press from Garganacl, and it can hit them both back with huge damage. I would recommend a mixed booster energy set with close combat, Moonblast, and 2 coverage moves of your choice, maybe shadow ball and thunderbolt. Secondly, I would replace Clodsire with great tusk . You can keep stealth rocks, and you get hazard removal with rapid spin, making the Glimmora matchup much better, and it’s good against kingambit and garganacl, as well. You can decide wether an offensive tusk or a defensive tusk is better, but for the other 2 moves lots, make sure you have ground stab and something to hit opposing air balloon gholdengo with. Test these changes, and good luck with your future endeavors

 

[SetsuSetsuna]

Hey, this looks fairly alr actually. The Clod + Dondozo core is strong enough for offensive threats to not be apparent right away. On the other hand, you can argue that those 2 with Boots (at least Boots on Clod) + your own hazards + Knock Off Meowscarada are fine enough to deal with defense. There are however 2 threats I see atm:

• Espathra, specially behind a sub, shouldn't have much trouble winning since Stored Power ignores Unaware.
• Choice Band Dragapult just gets to click both Dragon Darts and Tera Blast Ghost. Note that Pult gets chances to click moves vs this team rather often vs Meowscarada, Dondozo that gets overwhelmed, Clod that has to sacrifice itself for some chip, chipped Rotom-Wash, and both ghosts locked into an inconvenient move. In addition to that, the Dragon switch in (Gholdengo) and the Ghost switch in (Meowscarada) don't have recovery.

Without changing the structure of the team the 2 changes you can try are Tera Fairy/Dark Dondozo and Tera Dark Clodsire. I think I would rather go for Fairy on Dozo since Darts hits stronger. Tera Dark Unaware Clodsire should deal with Espathra fine enough. Note that Glimmora + Espathra teams tend to put hazards early game, so Clod will still be able to get rid of TSpikes and then Tera if it needs to.

The final thing I would try is Corviknight > Rotom-Wash. Mainly cause it's a ground immunity with Defog, both things that you kinda need, and can still help you pivot around Great Tusk. On a personal note I would also put HDB > Leftoves on Dondozo to make the hazard game easier, but just my taste.

 

[awyp]

Hello,

Weird compliment but I love your text size and font a lot actually, very aesthetically pleasing.

Threats: As Setsu said above Espathra with a substitute infront could be problematic, you don't have much to stop it (You would have to have Dondozo out and keep Wave Crashing until you're able to kill it). I also think Chi-Yu (Specs variant can also give this team problems, it could Overheat / Fire Blast your entire team without much answer)

So to just preface I think this team is pretty well built and just needs some fine tuning.

Suggestions:

For Dondozo I would follow this set below, change Tera into Fairy as well as become physically defensive, Clodsire is your SpD wall so I think you're lacking from the physical defensive end when it comes to Dondozo. Moves will be the same:

Dondozo set

Dondozo @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Wave Crash
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Clodsire go with Tera Type Dark is the only small change I would fix since Dondozo is already a water type and you can't have your 2 walls be the same type.

I feel like Rotom-W is the weakest link on this team in my opinion. I use the Dondozo + Clod combo before I did not need to have Wisp, because Unaware kind of does the job of not worrying about stat boosts. You have other Iron Tusk answers on this team like Dondozo and if no speed boost, Gholdengo to take it out. To address your problem, which is to try to handle Chi-Yu as well as give yourself some breathing room for Sub Espartha and outspeed it I recommend in this slot to go with Dragonite. This set will be a bulky roost set, which will allow you to take anything Chi-Yu can throw at you offensively, and you'll be able to take at least 2 hits of anything Espartha throws at you.

Dragonite (Bulky) set

Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 192 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Roost

I can suggest you a bulky Gholdengo set but I feel like trick works real well on this team, like you said to cripple certain walls. I would say if you don't use Dazzling Gleam, have Recover as the back up. Up until recently I've been running Trick Nasty Plot but realized there's a lot of unaware Pokémon so I went with Focus Blast for Chi-Yu. So IMO go with Focus Blast / Recover > Dazzling Gleam.

For Dragapult, I guess my only question any reason to run Thunder > Fire Blast? is it for rain teams and it hits Corviknight regardless?

Aside from that, good team and I hope some of my suggestions help!

 

[pecheux]

Hey!
I've been sick this holiday, so got a lot of time to mess around on Showdown and test the suggestions :)

over
over ​

These changes make a lot of sense, but:
1. Right now I really feel like playing the don.
2. I am facing way more Ting Lus than Glimmoras, and Toxic help me cripple them.
3. When I tested Great Tusk, I found it quite hard to spin with so many ghosts around.

However, I saved a draft with these suggestions and plan to use them later, as Iron Valiant looks like a lot of fun! :]

Tera Fairy
Tera Dark ​

The Fairy Don worked like a charm!
I changed Clodsire to dark too, but I haven't found a Espathra yet - maybe because I am not high on ladder.

over on ​

this worked really well too!

over
​

That one I didn't like that much. :(
It may be my fault, but more often than not, I felt like I had to click u-turn over defog way more than I really liked.
I mean, momentum is always good, but it didn't really improved my hazard game that much because of .
The team felt smoother than with Rotom, though.

Def. over sp.def ​

This one helped me a lot! :D Really made the team feel less redundant.

over ​

I like this one better than . Haven't got time to test it that much, but I think it will be the final choice.
Either with the DD set, or maybe a support with defog + encore.

fire blast over thunder on
focus blast or recover on ​

To be honest, I haven't got the chance to click these moves. :P
I made the changes but am yet to see how they work.

on a final note:

Weird compliment but I love your text size and font a lot actually, very aesthetically pleasing.

Hey, thank you for that!
Now I just need to improve my spelling and am all set. :D


on a side note...
I was experimenting with the changes and tried a version more focused on hazard stacking.
Team members changed a lot, but structure felt the same.

This v.2 has
​

Importable and explanations

- Dondozo's role is the same.
- Ting-Lu is there for more reliable Spikes.
- Gholdengo's role is the same.
- Hatterene helps Gholdengo pressure opposing hazards.
- Dragalge felt like the most synergic Toxic Spikes setter.
- Annihilape is another win-con, spin blocker and emergency defog answer.

https://pokepast.es/a172b5d3aed2771f

Thanks, everyone! <3