SS OU First attempt at competitive team

[Nightshade Aran]

Dragapult (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-Turn

Mimikyu (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Sword Dance
- Play Rough
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak

Togekiss (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Air Slash
- Flamethrower
- Substitute

Hydreigon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute
- Dark Pulse
- Nasty Plot

Excadrill (M) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Sword Dance
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake

Corviknight (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 SpD
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Body Press


General thoughts on what/who I could change to have more coverage to any glaring weaknesses I'm not seeing?
I do feel I lack entry hazard setup, so thinking of giving Stealth Rock to Excadrill but not sure...

 

[chimp]

Hey!
Your team is looking OK. All the Pokemon on it are good, though its lacking a bit of structure. Just because you have good coverage and a team of 6 of OU's best doesn't mean its a good team in practice, its important to look at, specifically, which Pokemon are strong in the metagame, and how your team will stack up against common archetypes. On top of that, when posting an RMT, it is required that you post atleast 3 lines of description for each Pokemon. This is just to explain the reason the Pokemon is on your team and the purpose its intended to accomplish.

Right now there are a couple of large weaknesses on your team and a couple of sub-optimal sets. The biggest threats I'd expect would be Darmanitan-Galar and Life Orb Clefable. With no Choice Scarfer of your own, Darm-G is able to outspeed everything, and it will hit everything ridiculous with its STAB Icicle Crash. In fact, you have 3 Pokemon weak to Ice, and no resistances. For that reason, my first recommendation would be to swap Togekiss with Rotom-Heat. Specifically, the following set:

Rotom-Heat @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 156 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch

This set will give you a much needed defensive pivot, and its able to avoid being OHKO'd by Darmanitan-Galar's Icicle Crash. Its funny, I feel like I've been recommending this Pokemon A LOT, and thats just a testament to how great Darmanitan-Galar is, and how important it is to have a solid answer to it.

This Rotom-Heat will also give you a workable answer to LO Clefable, who generally runs Moonblast / Flamethrower / Thunderbolt - all of which Rotom-Heat resists.

I suggest replacing Togekiss because you already have Mimikyu as a Fairy-type, and I haven't been super big on Togekiss ever since dynamax was banned. If you really want Togekiss, then you can also get away with swapping out Mimikyu.

My other major suggestion would be to swap Hydreigon with a Darmanitan-Galar of your own. Your team could use some speed control and a revenge killer, and Darmanitan-Galar is the best in the business. I'm recommending you remove Hydreigon because Dragapult + Mimikyu seems like a decently interesting Ghost-spam core, with one being able to pick apart the checks for the other. The most common Darmanitan-Galar set is:

Darmanitan-Galar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Gorilla Tactics
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
- U-turn

After both changes, your team would go from:

to

Its a little bit more standard, which might not be to everyone's taste for sure, but I do think it could get the job done.

A couple of minor changes:
Replace Swords Dance for Stealth Rock on Excadrill and the Air Balloon for Focus Sash. This will make a good lead set. As of right now you do not have any way to set up Stealth Rock, and while SD is great on Excadrill, I think your team will benefit quite a bit from hazard damage.

Also, change Dragapult's item from Expert Belt to either Life Orb or Choice Specs. Special Dragapult really needs as much damage as it can get. Specs really hits hard- even if it requires some prediction. Life Orb makes it hit from all sides but racks up damage over time, which can be problematic. However, I still think the damage rolls that LO hits are more useful overall- for example, LO near guarantees a 2KO on physical Toxapex with Thunderbolt, where Expert Belt is only a 32.8% chance.

Hope this helps!

 

[Nightshade Aran]

Hey!
Your team is looking OK. All the Pokemon on it are good, though its lacking a bit of structure. Just because you have good coverage and a team of 6 of OU's best doesn't mean its a good team in practice, its important to look at, specifically, which Pokemon are strong in the metagame, and how your team will stack up against common archetypes. On top of that, when posting an RMT, it is required that you post atleast 3 lines of description for each Pokemon. This is just to explain the reason the Pokemon is on your team and the purpose its intended to accomplish.

Right now there are a couple of large weaknesses on your team and a couple of sub-optimal sets. The biggest threats I'd expect would be Darmanitan-Galar and Life Orb Clefable. With no Choice Scarfer of your own, Darm-G is able to outspeed everything, and it will hit everything ridiculous with its STAB Icicle Crash. In fact, you have 3 Pokemon weak to Ice, and no resistances. For that reason, my first recommendation would be to swap Togekiss with Rotom-Heat. Specifically, the following set:

Rotom-Heat @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 156 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch

This set will give you a much needed defensive pivot, and its able to avoid being OHKO'd by Darmanitan-Galar's Icicle Crash. Its funny, I feel like I've been recommending this Pokemon A LOT, and thats just a testament to how great Darmanitan-Galar is, and how important it is to have a solid answer to it.

This Rotom-Heat will also give you a workable answer to LO Clefable, who generally runs Moonblast / Flamethrower / Thunderbolt - all of which Rotom-Heat resists.

I suggest replacing Togekiss because you already have Mimikyu as a Fairy-type, and I haven't been super big on Togekiss ever since dynamax was banned. If you really want Togekiss, then you can also get away with swapping out Mimikyu.

My other major suggestion would be to swap Hydreigon with a Darmanitan-Galar of your own. Your team could use some speed control and a revenge killer, and Darmanitan-Galar is the best in the business. I'm recommending you remove Hydreigon because Dragapult + Mimikyu seems like a decently interesting Ghost-spam core, with one being able to pick apart the checks for the other. The most common Darmanitan-Galar set is:

Darmanitan-Galar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Gorilla Tactics
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
- U-turn

After both changes, your team would go from:

to

Its a little bit more standard, which might not be to everyone's taste for sure, but I do think it could get the job done.

A couple of minor changes:
Replace Swords Dance for Stealth Rock on Excadrill and the Air Balloon for Focus Sash. This will make a good lead set. As of right now you do not have any way to set up Stealth Rock, and while SD is great on Excadrill, I think your team will benefit quite a bit from hazard damage.

Also, change Dragapult's item from Expert Belt to either Life Orb or Choice Specs. Special Dragapult really needs as much damage as it can get. Specs really hits hard- even if it requires some prediction. Life Orb makes it hit from all sides but racks up damage over time, which can be problematic. However, I still think the damage rolls that LO hits are more useful overall- for example, LO near guarantees a 2KO on physical Toxapex with Thunderbolt, where Expert Belt is only a 32.8% chance.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for taking your time to reply!
Sorry that I didn't follow the complete guidelines, I haven't really played competitively since X/Y, when I used to be really active in all forums and what not, so I've been out of touch for quite a few years with all the forums and all that comes with it.

I thought I was looking a bit into coverage and I saw I had a weakness to ice, but having a couple of steel type users thought I could manage it, guess not. When I was looking into each of their pages here on Smogon I looked through the ones they recommend they pair up with, which is where I got all of them from, from each others suggestions.

Hydreigon is my all time favorite pokemon but I do not like his current built so he was one I was thinking of replacing, I'll work on a Darm-G and swap the two, definitely sounds like an upgrade.
I'll make the changes to Excadrill which were along the lines of what I was thinking about already, just kinda wanted a second opinion as well as give Dragapult some Choice Specs.

I've never been a fan of the Rotoms though I vaguely remember using Rotom-W way back when, but I'll give it a go with the first suggested team and if I see a lot of Darm-G giving me issues I'll definitely change to the other one to give me more protection vs it.

Thanks again!

 

[Twilight]

Hi, welcome to Smogon! I'm locking your RMT for the time being as the forum rules require that you provide at least 3 lines of descriptions for each Pokemon to explain their roles. Please read the rules carefully and take a look at Team Showcase to see the level of detail we require. PM me with updated descriptions and I'll be happy to unlock this.