Importable
Hello everyone! Merry Christmas! Thanks for opening this RMT. This team features many regular OU Pokémon and a little bit of an odd pick: Azumarill. The inspiration for this team is many videos I've seen on YouTube of creators using Wishiwashi or Altaria with trapping moves and Soak/Toxic and Perish Song respectively. I've looked up at the mons that learn PerishSong and either Whirlpool or Fire Spin and I found Azumarill to be the best one. Also Primarina learns them, but there is a major difference between Azumarill and Primarina: Azumarill can be immune to Grass moves (and also it's physically bulkier). Furthermore, Azumarill is pretty notorious as a powerful physical attacker, so this also surprises people.
This is how the team started: physically defensive Perish Trap Azumarill and CB Rillaboom. Why Rillaboom? First of all, Azumarill is very efficient at trapping any Ferrothorn and/or Toxapex (or Tangrowth for that matter). I've also trapped quite a few Clefables lacking Teleport. This Azumarill also conveniently stone walls opposing Rillabooms and can catch an unsuspecting choiced Kartana locking Leaf Blade completely off guard. Removing all of these threats allows for Rillaboom to more easily work his way through a Grassy Glide win. Rillaboom also comes in with a very useful Grassy Terrain that can keep Azumarill healthy alongside Leftovers and Protect.
At this point this core was looking nice against some Rain teams but it's blatantly obvious that Zapdos would be tearing through it. Also Poison types attackers like Slowking-G were looking dangerous. Kyurem was also a bit concerning due to Freeze Dry. Since Azu is somewhat decent at checking Urshifu, I figured I could go Tyranitar to have Stealth Rock support, Spectrier check, Zapdos and Moltres switch in. With Tyranitar comes in Excadrill, who acts as a very interesting secondary win condition, but also helps Rillaboom by luring in the birds and smacking them with Swords Dance + Rock Slide.
Moltres itself makes an appearance on this team, initially as a physically defensive back up because... reasons? I don't know why honestly, I started to have problems with Nidoking and Tapu Lele so I made is more specially defensive and it worked better. It's a nice backbone to the team, checks the demon Heatran and that STAB Fire is really helpful because you can't always rely on Azumarill and certain mons require it. Also Mystical Fire helps containing the demon Magearna or any special attacker for that matter.
Latios entered the team for no particular reason other than it appreciates Ferrothorn being removed from the opposing team. I went with Soul Dew to bolster my special defense as well and because it provides a recoil-free boost to it's STAB moves, which is very helpful when you're also taking Sandstorm chip damage and not benefitting from Grassy Terrain.
TEAM IN DEPTH
Azumarill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Whirlpool
- Perish Song
- Protect
- Draining Kiss
Conceptually, this is the core of the team. It's the one mon I'm not willing to change. It has the bulk to win the 1v1 against the demon Urshifu, plus it's typing allows Azu to provide a decent defensive utility (living 2 CB Liquidation from Barraskewda in Rain may prove to be useful), despite being used with suck a whacky set. Whirlpool is a decent move to spam when you don't know what to do because it eases prediction and gets decent chip damage, especially if you can afford a Protect. Overall, this is a very gimmicky set that doesn't always work, but Azumarill can pull it off while being useful as a standalone defensive presence. Also, Azu would be a very nice mon against an opponent who's down to one Pokémon, but this thing doesn't offer much towards the late game, it usually works well as a well-timed sack. Perish Song also immediately stops any Magearna trying to set up and this actually happened to be a handful of times so it's worth noting. Azumarill does its job.
4 SpA Azumarill Draining Kiss vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Urshifu: 220-264 (64.5 - 77.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO. 40.9 - 49.1% recovered
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu Poison Jab vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Azumarill: 218-258 (54 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Urshifu Poison Jab vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Azumarill: 309-367 (76.6 - 91%)
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu Poison Jab vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Azumarill: 218-258 (54 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Urshifu Poison Jab vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Azumarill: 309-367 (76.6 - 91%)
Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Knock Off
- High Horsepower
Since Grassy Surge got released, this mon became a mainstay of SS OU. This is not the first time you see this thing so you know what it does. Band offers immediate power and a massive boon in both its Grass STAB, one for breaking purposes and the other for revenge killing or late game cleaning. This mon is so good yet so balanced in this metagame. If you support it well, you will be pleasantly rewarded and while this is true for every Pokémon out there, Rillaboom in extremely threatening to begin with. High Horsepower is the 4th slot because Azu removes the need for Superpower and it's nice to have for certain Steel and Poison types.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Crunch
- Superpower
Easy pick for this team, does pretty well in the meta although it invites Urshifu in. This is why it runs Superpower in the last slot. Urshifu and Spectrier are amazing partners, so having a Spectrier counter that can lure in and deal 65%-77% + sand to Urshifu on the switch is pretty neat. This Godzilla dinosaur is here to put the birds, the moth and the horse in check, messing with opposing weather strategies and providing SR support. Crunch hits Slowking-G, Slowking and Slowbro hard, while Rock Blast is a pretty nice STAB move.
Excadrill @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Horsepower
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
Tyranitar's best friend. Unfortunately I have to use High Horsepower, but this is nevertheless a great pick for this team. Emergency speed control, good breaking power, nice lure for birds with Lum Berry as a safety net against miscellaneous Scalds, Flame Body and Static bs. Again, I have to write 3 lines but you know what Excadrill does. Amazing typing, power, movepool, ability. This thing will always be good. I'm tempted by Shuca Berry since Garchomp is pretty worrysome, but this is something that needs to be tested. For now, I've managed against Garchomp.
Moltres @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 48 Def / 212 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Mystical Fire
- Scorching Sands
- Roost
- Defog
The fiery chicken makes an appearance on this team, keeping it together against miscellaneous threats, from Grass types, to Magearna, to Heatran, to Scarf Lele to any physical attacker that has to pray the gods of this game to be in the 70% rather than the 30%. This thing has some bulk to it, while being very useful when attacking, either reducing the opponent's special attack or causing burns. Defog keeps the field clear by hazards, Flame Body deters Knock Off as much as possible, while Roost keep it healthy.
Latios (M) @ Soul Dew
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Roost
- Substitute
This is kinda the odd ball in this team, but it has been quite useful. Soul Dew is the perfect item for this set, as I only use STAB. Reason one: Ferrothorn is getting trapped. Reason 2: Heatran doesn't like any other member of my team. Reason 3: Urshifu is too broken and I need Substitute to play mindgames with its Sucker Punches, or my team gets annihilated by Bulk Up - Sucker Punch sets. Psyshock might be useful here, it's up to preference. This set works surprisingly well with a dedicated trapper, firing off strong moves safely behind a Sub is very useful. This one might actually be better suited as an Heatran partner since they also cover their weakness magnificiently, but Azu is still good to have (and you can fit also Heatran on this team to be fair if you tweak it a little bit - imagine a double trapping core like that)
CONCLUSION
This team is unpolished, Azumarill can be either amazing or meh, Urshifu can still destroy this team, Garchomp is a threat and a half (thank god Scale Shot reduces defense so that Rillaboom has an easier time), sometimes Moltres and Latios feels like they almost don't belong here, and it also seems there isn't a clear win condition here. Nevertheless, this team is pretty fun to play, has some cool little strategies (basically all of them are at least in part to combat Urshifu lol ban that thing asap) and that Azumarill set is definitely gimmicky, but very usable and catches people off guard tremendously. Whirlpool, Stealth Rock and Sandstorm get chip damage suprisingly easily... until Grassy Terrain kicks in, but that's worth it. Let me know what do you think of this team, this rather quick attempt at making quirky sets work in quite the unforgiving enviroinment that is competitive Pokémon battling.