ORAS OU First Team in a while: RMT

[Jirachi9000]

Hey guys, I haven't played competitive since 2011, so it's most certainly been a while. My university is doing an upcoming tournament and has asked me to be one of the "Gym Leaders" due to my past tournament experience (since no one else really has been to one before), and in the process of training and doing BattleSpot-related shenanigans, it really got me back into the spirit to play competitive once again! So, I'm shaking off the dust (since I haven't logged into this account since April 2009, woah), and I present you with my first team. Feedback is highly appreciated.

Talonflame (KFC)
EVs: 4HP/252Atk/252Spe 248HP/244SpD/16Spe
Nature: Naughty (Atk+, SpD-) Careful (SpD+, SpA-)
Ability: Gale Wings
Held Item: Leftovers
Moves: Brave Bird/Overheat/Will-O-Wisp/U-Turn/Flare Blitz/Roost

Talonflame is an all around good Pokémon, even with its Attack stat being rather lackluster. The Naughty nature contributes for me to get the most out of my Special Attack stat for a beefy Overheat, as well as retaining my amazing damage with +1 priority Brave Bird. As for Will-O-Wisp, burning is extraordinarily powerful, especially in the current metagame, and can literally make physically offensive Pokémon useless without a proper counter to it, and U-Turn is for the free damage alongside a switch.

Azumarill (Exile)
EVs: 172HP/252Atk/84Spe/84SpD
Nature: Adamant (Atk+, SpA-)
Ability: Huge Power
Held Item: Assault Vest
Moves: Play Rough/Knock Off/Aqua Jet/Waterfall

Azumarill is just plain strong, and super adorable. Especially when shiny! Huge Power makes it what it is; double attack too stronk. Play Rough is a strong move in a metagame controlled heavily by physical offence, joining the ranks of Intimidate and Will-O-Wisp at the apex of awesome, and the nice STABonus is neat, too. Knock Off is there to back to opponent into a corner by removing their item, and giving me a nice extra bit of bonus damage on the side whenever that happens, as well as dealing with all the pesky tanky Ghost types that Fairy and Water can't hit very well. Waterfall is added for some extra STAB power, and Aqua Jet is the go-to priority move that is amplified to the high heavens with STAB and Huge Power. The EV investment into HP makes Azumarill deceptively tanky, and the Assault Vest gives Special Attackers a hard time against this adorable ball of fun.

(Note beforehand: Due to the casual nature of the tournament, Stealth Rock is banned, so my Ferrothorn does not know Stealth Rock.)
Ferrothorn (Satori)
EVs: 252HP/88Def/168SpD
Nature: Relaxed (Def+, Spe-)
Ability: Iron Barbs
Held Item: Leftovers
Moves: Thunder Wave/Gyro Ball/Power Whip/Leech Seed/Toxic (Toxic=Stealth Rock outside of tournament)

Before I start, what would you guys say would be good to replace with Stealth Rock? I wouldn't know where to begin (my rust is showing), so I'd love to see what you would have to say. Anyway, Ferrothorn: Pretty self-explanatory, since it's one of the best field utility Pokémon, and generally a massive tank. Huge movepool, though not that most of those moves matter, and the ability to whittle your foe down with ease. Leech Seed for extra sustain, Power Whip and Gyro Ball to hit like a truck and not be Taunt bait, and Thunder Wave to slow those speedy Pokémon right down. The only massive counter here is (Mega) Manectric, and most Fire types, but aside from that she's a brilliant tank.

Roserade (Yuki Asakura)
EVs: 252SpA/4SpD/252Spe
Nature: Timid (Spe+, Atk-)
Ability: Technician
Held Item: Life Orb
Moves: Magical Leaf/Sludge Bomb/Sleep Powder/Hidden Power (Fire)

I know this is a UU Pokémon (according to the Smogon Dex), but bear with me, most of this team is OU, but I just like to be the low tier hero, sometimes. Being a huge source of Special Attack, as well as a counter to the dominant Fairy type, Roserade covers a lot of options, as well as soaking up Toxic Spikes. Her biggest weakness is Heatran (from the top of my head), but the rest of the team has coverage options. Technician, and Life Orb, synergise with Magical Leaf and Hidden Power, pumping their base power up nicely, and causing Roserade to be a huge threat, and the Timid nature causes Roserade to have a stat total of 305 at level 100, making it outspeed quite a number of Pokémon, and having some surprising bulk in its Special Defence, to boot.

Sableye [Mega] (RazzleDazzle)
EVs: 248HP/124Def/136SpD
Nature: Impish
Ability: Prankster/Magic Bounce (Mega)
Held Item: Sablenite
Moves: Taunt/Knock Off/Recover/Will-O-Wisp (Possibly replace Taunt with Foul Play)

The perfect anti-tank, and Sableye helps achieve one of my favourite things about competitive games: Getting into the opponent's head. Whilst not having the largest stats outside of its Mega, the fact that it can give priority to itself when using a non-attacking move (in Recover, which makes up for the lost Leftovers), and can even send Stealth Rocks and Sticky Web back at the opponent makes Sableye very hard to deal with, as well as being only weak to Fairy. The moveset makes it so that it's not entirely Taunt bait, whilst annoying the opponent further by removing their item. Having a second Will-O-Wisp (and the fourth status move mentioned so far) isn't too bad, and makes up for any counters, such as other Pokémon fainting, and Heal Bell.

Meloetta (Meloetta)
EVs: 252SpA/4SpD/252Spe
Nature: Modest
Ability: Serene Grace
Held Item: Choice Scarf
Moves: Trick/Psyshock/Focus Blast/Hyper Voice

I absolutely love Meloetta, so I couldn't pass up using it. The EV spread is simple, contributing towards its highest stats, and giving it a little more Special Defensive bulk. As for the nature, running a Scarf to replace the Speed lost from not being Timid makes sure that it hits hard, and it does. Trick is in place to stop walls from stalling and/or setting up, and Psyshock over Psychic for the extra damage against tanks like Blissey, and Chansey. Hyper Voice is there as another STAB move, as most people forget that Meloetta is part Normal type, whereas Focus Blast just a good Fighting move to get rid of those Steel types. I understand this moveset doesn't take much advantage of Serene Grace, but I more-or-less chose the raw damage over the added effects, which, keep in mind, are still a RNG-calculated percentage chance, even with Serene Grace in effect.

Phew, that is all. Give me feedback, guys, and I'll reply and make changes along the way! Some of the EVs may not be correct, but I'm 99.9% sure I got them right; living with Short Term Memory Loss is difficult. Also, I apologise for any spelling mistakes, as I'm quite tired, and it is 5am where I am. Please forgive me! '^'

 

[Alkov]

Hi there, really cool team you have there. However I have a few suggestions to help improve the team :]

• Firstly, it is unwise to have the remaining 4EVs on Talonflame to be placed into HP as it causes your HP to be an even number which means you can only come into Stealth Rock once and die on the second especially since you lack Roost. Also, Overheat on Talonflame is really lackluster as it does not really hit anything significant in OU, it is however only used in VGC due to the number of intimidate users in the format. It might be better to have Will-O-Wisp + Roost and Swords Dance/Flare Blitz + Brave Bird instead.
• Secondly, it might be better to have the 84speed EVs on Azumarill placed onto SpDef to help support the use of Assault Vest so that it can take on hits better.
• Thirdly, do try out Foul Play over Taunt on M-sableye so that it does not become a setup fodder to most Pokemons.
• Lastly, it might be better to Stealth Rock on Ferrothorn instead of Thunder Wave which sort of counteract with Gyro Ball and have Spikes/Toxic Spikes on Roserade so as to pressure your opponent more however keeping Roserade might make your team a little to weak to opposing Talonflame as you do not have any switch-ins for it. Instead, you can replace it with things to check it better like a Tyranitar. As a Choice Scarf Tyranitar helps to check things like Talonflame through Stone Edge/Pursuit trapping Talonflame and Lati@s too. It provides your team also with a soft check to Bisharp through Superpower.

Set for Talonflame

Talonflame @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 248 HP / 244 SpD / 16 Spe
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Swords Dance/Flare Blitz
- Will-O-Wisp

Set for Tyranitar

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower

 

[Jirachi9000]

Thank you for the feedback. You're definitely right about the Talonflame set, as yours does look a lot better, and Foul Play is something I'll give a try on M-Sableye, since it sounds interesting. I don't know what I was thinking with Azumarill's Speed EVs, I guess I was thinking about the non-priority moves, so that's something I'll change. As for Ferrothorn, I did state the reason it *currently* doesn't have Stealth Rock is due to the tournament at my university, but I'll have another Ferrothorn waiting in the wings that has Stealth Rock instead of T-Wave.

The only thing I do disagree on is the Tyranitar, for a few reasons: I already have that exact set (with Scarf) on my Tyranitar, and I don't like it. Don't ask me why, but it's never come through for me, and it's constantly let me down. Alongside this, Tyranitar can be fairly bulky, and I just think a slower, bulkier Tyranitar is better than a glass cannon, and hits just as hard. I think if I take the team for a spin around the Smogon forums and try my hand at some 6v6s, I can make adjustments as I go along and try to perfect the team where I can. Thank you for the assistance! :3

 

[Ryfi110]

So a couple things on your team are outclassed or are not as good with your current sets.

Meloetta -> Reuniclus

Reuniclus is extreme anti-meta able to hit most things for super-effective damage. He can run a CM Set with Magic Guard, VERY similar to clefable, but it retains the Psychic typing you are looking for. Pursuit trappers are left with a 50/50, as they try to figure if you will switch out or stay in predicting pursuit.

Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind/Trick Room (Your team is slow, you can try to win via trick room)
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Recover


Also, you currently have two grass types, and neither of them are particularly good, but for different reasons. Grass types have pretty horrible typing usually, and very few are viable in OU.

Assault Vest Azumarril is not bad by any means, but BD Azumarril is much scarier. Teams often only have one thing that can take a +6 Aqua Jet, and once that is gone, it is often a clean sweeping opportunity.

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Knock Off

Ferrothorn is extremely viable, and your team seems to be going for a bulkier look. Without Stealth Rocks/Spikes, this is not being used to its highest potential. Did your tournament mention anything about Spikes? Anyway I like Ferrothorn, but without entry hazards, it becomes a pretty standard wall, and can potentially be replaced with Hippowdown to give you an actual talonflame check.

Roselia is not the best option here. It is very medicore, and one of its niches is setting up Toxic Spikes, which is banned, if I understand your tourny correctly.

I would go Roselia -> Serperior. (If you want to keep a second grass type)

Serperior gives you a fast, set-up sweeper that requires no set up, thanks to contrary. This gives you a counter to Rotom-W, in addition to acting as a spore immunity, if you choose to replace Ferrothorn. Tremendous coverage leaves you walled by only heatran and spDef flame, and eliminating them is not challenging, as they should fear a potential HP Rock or HP Ground.

(If you would like more typing variety): Your team is really close to FDS Synergy, as already have a fairy and steel type. I would recommend adding a dragon in this last slot, which gives you a bunch of options. Any of these look good on paper. I will give a description for each.

Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake

This more effective on the upper ladder, whereas the Dragon Dance set seems to put in work lower on the ladder. This gives you another wincondition if you choose not to change azumarril. Band allows you to hit things at +1, allowing you to be a solid attacker. If used correctly, you can strategically use multiscale, as it usually survives any one hit from full health (Including a Greninja Life Orb Ice Beam) and offers another source of priority, in addition to high powered dragon type move. Outrage can do a great job of cleaning up late game, since opposing steel types are often forced in earlier in the game to take hits.

If Dragonite does not tickle your fancy...

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Claw

This gives you a choice scarf user if you replace Meloetta. It revenges Zard X at +1, and has fantastic coverage to OHKO most/all frail-to-mildly-bulky, fast mons, such as base 110s or base 115s. It can also take a hit from Talonflame, and OHKO back with Stone Edge.