SV OU Garchomp HazardStack Balance

[timidate]

Hello! I am a relatively inexperienced player looking for some guidance for laddering in SV OU. So far, I have been effectively hardstuck around 1200 rating with a win loss of about 42- 35, which is quite a lot of testing to still be low ladder. I figured I'd post here to iron out the wrinkles this team definitely has to put my focus solely on improving my playstyle. Without further ado, these are the team members:

Garchomp @ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock

I chose Garchomp because of its access to both spikes and rocks paired with its crazy attack stat to threaten walls like Garganacl and Clodsire. These traits make it good both at the beginning and middle game. I typically lead off with it to get up the hazards early and will only switch out if faced with an eminent OHKO or opposing hazards (due to the fact I have no defog/spin). Max speed with jolly nature helps me outspeed mainly Iron Treads and Iron Moth. Dragon tail in tandem with tera steel is also insanely useful mid or late game to phase out some threatening setup mons, but is very prone to missing in make or break moments.

Gholdengo @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Tera Blast
- Nasty Plot

Gholdengo is a very natural choice on hazard stack teams. I am running covert cloak to switch into and threaten out Garganacl which has given me many setup opportunities. This is also one of my main stallbreaking options. Tera fighting is mainly to deal with Kingambit but it has also saved me from many an earthquake from the likes of Baxcallibur. I opted for tera blast over focus blast because of getting screwed over by the miss many times.

Rotom-Wash @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Tera Blast
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch

Rotom switches in on a lot of the tier's special attackers and can gain momentum against them with volt switch or damage with hydro pump. Will-O-Wisp can allow it to also switch into some physical moves if I catch a physical attacker on the switch. Tera steel and tera blast help me more effectively deal with Baxcallibur as long as I am above 56% HP. Heavy Duty Boots is essential because Rotom switches in a lot.

Roaring Moon @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

I find that Roaring Moon and Iron Moth work very well as an offensive core because they cover each other's weaknesses. Roaring Moon can easily clear Clodsire and Toxapex and get decent damage on Garganacl if necessary. I chose to run setup on this because the main opportunities I get to bring this in are on passive walls like the aforementioned Clodsire and the occasional Hatterene if I choose to tera.

Iron Moth @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Sludge Wave
- Tera Blast
- U-turn

Iron Moth has surprisingly high special defense which allows it to come in on attackers Zoroark and Iron Valiant or walls like Corviknight or Orthworm. Its main job is to clear out Roaring Moon stoppers like Great Tusk or Corviknight. Tera grass helps deal more with Garganacl and can put a stop to surprise offensive Great Tusk. Overall, the high special attack can punish switches and slowly chip away at the opponent's unrelated defensive threats to possibly win with Hatterene or Gholdengo.

Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 208 Def / 52 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Draining Kiss
- Psyshock
- Mystical Fire

I found Hatterene to be very useful on the team for making the opponent think twice about clicking rocks in front of my Garchomp. 52 speed outspeeds the tier's defensive poison types which Hatterene loves to calm mind in front of. Given the opportunity, Hatterene can easily switch gears and become a threatening bulky offensive threat with tera water to further solidify this. However, it is very prone to being broken down by Zoroark and sometimes Meowscarada.

The main problems I have been having are definitely stallbreaking and letting in setup threats like Baxcallibur or Dragonite. Another big issue is that my only reliable Kingambit counter is saving tera for Gholdengo in the late game and tera blasting it. Unfortunately, I do not have any replays saved with this team at the moment, but I will try to get some upon request. Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read this post. Have a good day!

 

[Motor Hawk]

Your team has good bones but some of the sets can be changed around for optimization. It seems like all of your mons would do well on their own, but fall short when it comes to playing as a team. Let's see what we can do about that...

Everything I am going to tell you is a suggestion. So remember to play around with your team to see what actually works and what doesn't :)

In this meta, you need a hazard remover. Plain and simple. And luckily for you, Bulky Tusk does everything (for the most part) that your garchomp does but better. Plus a bulky tusk will aid in your physical def department. Rapid spin, rocks, equake, knock off and you're good to go (+boots).

If your gholden go works, then I won't question it. You have switch-in options for gambit (tusk) and bax. Covert cloak is nice but tera blast might be a little wasted. I am always a fan of bulky gholdengo with recover instead of tera blast, so you might want to try it out and see if it'll work for you.

A hard suggestion is to swap the boots on rotom for leftovers because, simply put, you don't need them if you have tusk to help remove hazards. Not to mention that rotom will only be affected by rocks anyway. With your set, the leftovers will give you some much-needed longevity. And getting rid of tera blast for protect will only help in that department and give you a good scouting option as well.

Iron moth should have energy ball, not tera blast.

If you really need to get rid of bax/ dragnite, then swap out your iron moth for dragapult. It'll require some predictions/ sacrificing, but I think dragapult will do everything iron moth currently does but better + with a better ability.

The Pult (Dragapult) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- U-turn

I might be wrong but check it out and see how you like it.

A different option would be adding a def wall like dondozo (also for iron moth). And then maybe swap out rotom for a different mon that can act as a spdef sponge while covering your weak points (maybe skeledirge would be a good option here). But these are all things to play around with and see what works and what doesn't. After all, you know your team better than I do (or should, anyway).

Any-whoozer, best of luck friend-o. I wish you many dubz. And if you have any other questions, feel free to let me know!

 

[timidate]

Your team has good bones but some of the sets can be changed around for optimization. It seems like all of your mons would do well on their own, but fall short when it comes to playing as a team. Let's see what we can do about that...

Everything I am going to tell you is a suggestion. So remember to play around with your team to see what actually works and what doesn't :)

In this meta, you need a hazard remover. Plain and simple. And luckily for you, Bulky Tusk does everything (for the most part) that your garchomp does but better. Plus a bulky tusk will aid in your physical def department. Rapid spin, rocks, equake, knock off and you're good to go (+boots).

If your gholden go works, then I won't question it. You have switch-in options for gambit (tusk) and bax. Covert cloak is nice but tera blast might be a little wasted. I am always a fan of bulky gholdengo with recover instead of tera blast, so you might want to try it out and see if it'll work for you.

A hard suggestion is to swap the boots on rotom for leftovers because, simply put, you don't need them if you have tusk to help remove hazards. Not to mention that rotom will only be affected by rocks anyway. With your set, the leftovers will give you some much-needed longevity. And getting rid of tera blast for protect will only help in that department and give you a good scouting option as well.

Iron moth should have energy ball, not tera blast.

If you really need to get rid of bax/ dragnite, then swap out your iron moth for dragapult. It'll require some predictions/ sacrificing, but I think dragapult will do everything iron moth currently does but better + with a better ability.

The Pult (Dragapult) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- U-turn

I might be wrong but check it out and see how you like it.

A different option would be adding a def wall like dondozo (also for iron moth). And then maybe swap out rotom for a different mon that can act as a spdef sponge while covering your weak points (maybe skeledirge would be a good option here). But these are all things to play around with and see what works and what doesn't. After all, you know your team better than I do (or should, anyway).

Any-whoozer, best of luck friend-o. I wish you many dubz. And if you have any other questions, feel free to let me know!

Hey! Thanks for the advice!
The small set changes to rotom and gholdengo really helped me out. I ended up employing great tusk instead of garchomp and, lo and behold, it worked like a charm. It really helps the pacing of the team and it definitely helps with tera fire kingambit. I opted to keep Iron Moth in because I just liked the coverage a little more than dragapult. The only real problem I'm still facing is against tera flying kingambit (which I am encountering quite a bit) which is basically resulting in an insta loss. Not sure if there's much I can do about that, but either way, thank you so much!

 

[Poke nerd]

Hey there! This seems like a fun team, and I'll see if I can help you do better.


Side note: Hazard stacks don't always work on balance in my opinion, mainly on stalls/ HOs

Major changes :
-->

Tusk helps with hazards, as well as checks the like of gambit. Bu or boots utility can work here.
If you decide to keep rotom ( which I don't recommend) I'd at least go for protect + lefties, since after only two turns you'll regain any damage taken from hazards.

The set

I feel like you have too many tera reliant Pokémon, and tera blast on this definitely won't help. I'd change this to recover. I'd go for tera flying to set up on ground type's faces ( especially tusk) and can lead to some sweeps.

I'd go for Max HP as well since ghold won't be outspeeding a lot anyways.

---->

I feel like this is definitely a change for the better, giving you a very spamable s-ball, and can chunk walls with Draco, while can keep up momentum with u turn.
Minor changes:

-->

I don't think you'll be planning on keeping chomp around for too long, just set up hazards and then die, so the extra chip is definitely nice.
You could also try tera ghost to be able to spin block, but tera steel is fine.

That's about it for the minors honestly

here's the updated paste for easy changes.
https://pokepast.es/e3885883b0a0896d

I know motor hawk already went over most of these changes ( thanks for making my life easier) but I went over it again because I like explaining things, and so you get both of our points of views.

Anyways, that about wraps things up and I hope you find these changes useful and helps you climb the ladder!

bye for now

 

[Motor Hawk]

Hey! Thanks for the advice!
The small set changes to rotom and gholdengo really helped me out. I ended up employing great tusk instead of garchomp and, lo and behold, it worked like a charm. It really helps the pacing of the team and it definitely helps with tera fire kingambit. I opted to keep Iron Moth in because I just liked the coverage a little more than dragapult. The only real problem I'm still facing is against tera flying kingambit (which I am encountering quite a bit) which is basically resulting in an insta loss. Not sure if there's much I can do about that, but either way, thank you so much!

If you're using tera flying 252hp/ 252spatk gholden go then thats your answer to kingambit. It'll require saving your tera and a little predicting, though.

And/ or you can look into swapping your iron moth for an iron valiant variant. That would also give you good coverage and an answer to kingambit with close combat/ thunderbolt.

 

[timidate]

Hey there! This seems like a fun team, and I'll see if I can help you do better.


Side note: Hazard stacks don't always work on balance in my opinion, mainly on stalls/ HOs

Major changes :
-->

Tusk helps with hazards, as well as checks the like of gambit. Bu or boots utility can work here.
If you decide to keep rotom ( which I don't recommend) I'd at least go for protect + lefties, since after only two turns you'll regain any damage taken from hazards.

The set

I feel like you have too many tera reliant Pokémon, and tera blast on this definitely won't help. I'd change this to recover. I'd go for tera flying to set up on ground type's faces ( especially tusk) and can lead to some sweeps.

I'd go for Max HP as well since ghold won't be outspeeding a lot anyways.

---->

I feel like this is definitely a change for the better, giving you a very spamable s-ball, and can chunk walls with Draco, while can keep up momentum with u turn.
Minor changes:

-->

I don't think you'll be planning on keeping chomp around for too long, just set up hazards and then die, so the extra chip is definitely nice.
You could also try tera ghost to be able to spin block, but tera steel is fine.

That's about it for the minors honestly

here's the updated paste for easy changes.
https://pokepast.es/e3885883b0a0896d

I know motor hawk already went over most of these changes ( thanks for making my life easier) but I went over it again because I like explaining things, and so you get both of our points of views.

Anyways, that about wraps things up and I hope you find these changes useful and helps you climb the ladder!

bye for now

I definitely agree on the fact that this team has too heavy a tera reliance. I have already fixed the Gholdengo set and it works much better. Upon Motor Hawk's suggestion, I got rid of Garchomp already even though it was the gimmick of the team. Although I was sad to see it go, I am seeing much more success with the new team. As for the change from Iron Moth to Dragapult, I actually opted to use Iron Valiant once again from Motor Hawk's suggestion. The ability to check tera flying kingambit is so valuable that I can't pass up the opportunity. Finally, to address the rotom wash change to tusk, I actually feel that rotom fits the comp more than a possible replacement because of its resistance to water. It really helps me deal with walking wake which is very important considering that that guy is not getting banned any time soon. Thank you so much for your time and consideration!

 

[Motor Hawk]

I definitely agree on the fact that this team has too heavy a tera reliance. I have already fixed the Gholdengo set and it works much better. Upon Motor Hawk's suggestion, I got rid of Garchomp already even though it was the gimmick of the team. Although I was sad to see it go, I am seeing much more success with the new team. As for the change from Iron Moth to Dragapult, I actually opted to use Iron Valiant once again from Motor Hawk's suggestion. The ability to check tera flying kingambit is so valuable that I can't pass up the opportunity. Finally, to address the rotom wash change to tusk, I actually feel that rotom fits the comp more than a possible replacement because of its resistance to water. It really helps me deal with walking wake which is very important considering that that guy is not getting banned any time soon. Thank you so much for your time and consideration!

Glad it's all working out! Keep playing with it and you'll have a winning team before you know it. And remember, you don't have to switch out any mon you don't want to just because I see a potentially better option. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you can make the mons that you want to work, work.