ORAS OU First Competitive Team "Exploud and friends"

[Mr_Grimmer]

So this is my first real attempt at building a competitive team in a Pokemon game, I've tested it out quite a bit in Pokemon Online and it seems to work quite well so far, just wanted to hear some feedback on it and advice to help me optimise it etc.

One thing I will say first off is that my team has somewhat of a gimmick in that it exclusively uses Gen 3 Pokemon, just for the nostalgia factor as Ruby was my first ever Pokemon game. So that might explain why I made some of my choices. Anyway my team is as follows:

1) Sableye "Mischief"

Item: Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Defence / 4 Special Defence
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Confuse Ray
- Foul Play
I run Sableye as my lead, pretty self explanatory really. He lives up to his name by creating mischief, stopping enemies from setting up with Prankster Taunt, and spreading burn status among the enemy team as much as possible. I chose Focus Sash and Confuse Ray because it helps him deal with special attackers, which seem to be his biggest weakness.

2) Crawdaunt "Admiral"

Item: Focus Sash
Ability: Adaptability
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
- Dragon Dance
- Brick Break
- Crabhammer
- Knock Off
This guy hits extremely hard right off the bat and given an opportunity to pull off a Dragon Dance he can sweep quite well. Crabhammer and Knock Off are the obvious STAB choices and I chose Brick Break for some extra coverage.

3) Volbeat "Buzz"

Item: Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Defence / 4 Special Defence
- Tail Glow
- Baton Pass
- Thunder Wave
- Confuse Ray
I find this adorable little guy to be quite underrated. Access to Prankster, Tail Glow and Baton Pass lets him turn ally special attackers into terrifying sweepers. Volbeat was basically my answer to how to work an Exploud into a competitive team, as I really love Exploud. The plan is to Baton Pass a Tail Glow or two towards either Exploud or Flygon and watch them decimate everything. Prankster Thunder Wave and Confuse Ray can also throw a spanner into enemy plans. The Focus Sash gives him an extra turn to work his magic.

4) Exploud "Bass-Cannon"

Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Scrappy
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Special Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
- Boomburst
- Flamethrower
- Surf
- Focus Blast
I built this team around this awesome looking Pokemon. Basically the idea is to receive a massive special attack boost from Volbeat and then Boomburst your way through everything, even Ghost types thanks to Scrappy. Timid nature, Choice Scarf and Speed EVs are to make him as fast as possible, which is also helped by any Thunder Waves Volbeat has been able to dish out. Flamethrower, Surf and Focus Blast give great coverage alongside Boomburst, allowing Exploud to still be quite formidable even without Volbeat's setup.

5) Flygon "Superfly"

Item: Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 Special Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
- Flamethrower
- Roost
- Dragon Pulse
- Earth Power
Most people run Flygon as a physical attacker, but I chose to run him as a special attacker because he really has quite a good movepool for it, having great coverage and power with Flamethrower, Dragon Pulse and Earth Power. Its also quite nice for the surprise factor, where enemies find burning Flygon to be ineffective. The Life Orb is there to give him some more power, and Roost helps compensate for the health loss. Flygon is there to be another receiver of any Tail Glow passes, but he is a lot more capable on his own than Exploud is.

6) Altaria "Songbird"

Item: Altarianite
Ability: Doesn't matter
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Return
- Earthquake
I chose Mega Altaria because he is my absolute favourite Mega Evolution by far in terms of design, but also adds a very powerful physical attacker to the team. Pixilate Return and Earthquake are two extremely powerful attacks with great coverage and Dragon Dance offers the chance to set up and sweep. Roost is there to take advantage of Mega Altaria's great defensive stats and typing.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to hearing any feedback!

 

[Mr. Degradation]

A few issues...

1. Talonflame rips through the team quite handily because of it's priority, speed and SE STABs, ontop of simply outspeeding your Pranksters.
2. Being so setup based means that your team auto-crumples to paralysis or quicker setups like Volcorona, Alakazam, Gyarados etc. because Baton Pass costs a turn of tempo.
3. Focus Sash isn't the answer to everything. If your opponents use any hazards whatsoever, you have 3 mons with virtual empty item slots- and given that Greninja teams want to soften up your mons before Gren sweeps, you're very likely to run into them.

Consider also...

1. Mixgon is better in almost every conceivable fashion to Specialgon, Aside from it obviously having a better Atk than SAtk, being able to cross up and go under multiple walls is a huge utility that only a few mons get to do well.
2. How difficult it is for this team to deal with Greninja and Landorus-T, the premier threats of ORAS OU.
3. Volbeat is squishy, WITH a rock weakness. It's highly reliant on the utility of it's movepool- which at times makes it very unreliable (hence why it i underrated.) Even with defensive EVs, getting off a Baton Pass is still a gambling proposition.

 

[Jojobobo]

I would go with Encore over Confuse Ray on Volbeat, if you can switch in whilst something is setting up (or using a recovery move or Stealth Rock for example) next turn you can priority lock them into that move with Encore and then Tail Glow and Baton Pass to Exploud - priority Thunder Wave already heavily nerfs powerful pokemon so you don't really need Confuse Ray in addition. Also, run Frustration on Altaria in case of Dittos.

Plus, all of what Mr. Degradation said.