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Introduction
Hey readers! My intention of this team was to stupidly (although a pleasant surprise of the outcome) create a team which included both Scizor and Magnezone. Pretty much no reason behind it, other than I really like Scizor's bulk and the ability magnet pull, just trying to create a challenge for myself. Also no legends, because that's lame.
PS: This is a team for a Pixelmon server, so it my be important to note that legends aren't allowed for most purposes anyway.
Teambuilding Process
I apologise in advance for the long paragraph, just thought you may as well know how the entire team building process went down.
So obviously I started with Mega-Scizor and Magnezone, as that was my set requirement for the team. I then wanted to tackle the obvious extreme weakness being fire, and with the prevalence of special over physical fire moves, I included the not present Tentacruel (you'll find out why it is gone later). Although not entirely necessary, I wanted to use a mold breaker. Pokemon with abilities such as levitate or unaware can get really annoying to deal with, especially when you are looking to run the team's (unaware of this until final changes) sole ground move user. I would usually run Excadrill for this purpose, but considering I already have two steel types, that is 100% not an option and because most other users are lacklustre (apart from maybe Mega Gyarados) I decided to choose Haxorus, which also fills the useful slot of a dragon type. I then required a special sweeper, but one with good coverage as there was still a lot of types to be taken care of, so what better thing to use than Protean Greninja (and yes I figured out this is Uber in Gen 6, keep reading). At this point, I had two water types (Tentacruel and Greninja), and considering I had already doubled up Steel, I thought it would be best not to do the same with water, so I removed Tentacruel hoping to work out the special wall position later. Next it was obvious that I needed a physical wall, but a psychic one, as the team wasn't threatened enough by Fighting and Poison (yet) to warrant a psychic sweeper, but still enough to require one on the team. I figured Claydol would be a fantastic option, STAB Ground and Psychic and Rapid Spin! All of which have great uses on my team, however due to it's poorly distributed stats, it proved (vigorously tested in Gen 6 OU Showdown) to not be entirely worthy of the spot (however if you think it is, please let me know). Realistically, probably the only two non-mega/legendary psychic type physical walls that are able to function well in OU are Reuniclus and Slowbro. With Slowbro also being of the water typing, I decided to go for reuniclus, who although does not possess hazard removal, does a fantastic job at stall breaking thanks to magic guard, and also calm minding on setters to absolutely mop the floor. At this point there was only two things to take care of (apart from replacing the still un-noticed Uber mon), (a) Lack of Entry Hazards and (b) Lack of a Special Wall. Now with a magic guard physical wall, and two steel types, it became obvious that with the 50% special defense boost it gains through Sand Stream, Tyranitar would be a fantastic option, replacing Tentacruel for both setting hazards (although rocks this time around), and being the team's much needed fire resist. With the fighting check through Reuniclus, it only made sense to include this absolute monster who boasts 225 base Special Defense with sandstorm. At this point, after noticing the dark type double up, I also conveniently realised the Uber status of Greninja in Gen 6, so I quickly looked to replace it. With a fanastic all round sweeper in the form of Gengar, who so fantastically brings the team together through its ground check for magnezone, fighting check for tyranitar, and a spin blocker thanks to its ghost typing.
TL;DR, yes I am very indecisive and yes I talk too much, moving on.
The Team
Haxorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
Included due to the possession of Mold Breaker and therefore ability to deal with things such as Gengar or Clefable. Thanks to it's rare solo dragon typing, it can usually take a hit from a non-stab ice beam (and although uncommon, fairy and dragon as well), and has all 3 weaknesses easily checked by the steel type core. Dragon Dance to set up, especially on Unaware pokes to easily get ready to sweep. Outrage for STAB. Earthquake for great coverage and utilisation of the Levitate removal. Poison Jab for a physical option of dealing with fairy types where necessary.
Mega-Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 SpD
Impish
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- U-Turn / Knock Off
- Roost
Impish Scizor is an absolutely riveting experience, who can usually atleast 2HKO most targets in the metagame after one or two sword dances. Just an all round great inclusion, with a fantastic typing to complement it, not much else to say there. Swords Dance to easily setup on physical mons that Scizor resists. Bullet Punch for easy Technician proc and STAB. U-Turn for the same reason + pivoting with Magnezone, however up to your discretion I was wondering if I should instead replace this with Knock-Off for the usefulness over U-Turn, which although provides extra pivoting power, is really the last thing you want to do when you want to set up - also U-Turn doesn't assist in coverage whatsoever. Roost is obviously there for recovering and staying on the field as long as possible.
Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 HP / 252 Spe
Modest
- Volt Switch
- HP Fire
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
Phenomenal base special attack pretty decent typing also. Included for Magnet Pull, which allows me to trap the pesky 4x weak to fire pokemon that the team is unable to deal with appropriately without Magnezone, due to lack of fire type moves in move pools and the pokemon that can run a fire type move suffer from 4MSS. Volt Switch for momentum. HP Fire for the aforementioned (actually being able to kill trapped mons). Thunderbolt for main STAB. Flash Cannon for STAB, with fantastic coverage in conjunction with Thunderbolt (and HP Fire).
Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Energy Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
Fantastic move pool with great last-minute coverage options. Levitate and the immunities granted by the Ghost/Poison typing allow to check certain mons whilst not being a wall. Shadow Ball for STAB. Sludge Wave for STAB. Energy Ball for the much needed coverage against Water/Ground types. Dazzling Gleam for the best remaining coverage in-slot and also to deal with the otherwise relatively unaddressed dragon types.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful
- Stealth Rock
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch / Superpower
Without a doubt the best option (in this configuration) when requiring (a) more physical prowess (b) a strong special wall and (c) a hazard setter - all in one mon. Not to mention that the only thing that could possibly OHKO it is a physical fighting move, which even then is easily checked by Gengar or Reuniclus. Stealth Rock to fill the lack of hazards on the team. Pursuit for STAB and to trap ghost/psychic types, who are usually squishy and either be OHKO'd when they switch out (even with Focus Sash due to sandstorm) or 2HKO'd if they decide to stay in to hit a focus blast, which in most cases won't even bring TTar down to half. Stone Edge for STAB. Was thinking of running Superpower as the only other fighting move (which is much needed) on the team is Focus Miss on Reuniclus. However, TTar is the team's only option to include an ice type move in Ice Punch, which is the final piece to the puzzle in allowing the team to do at least neutral damage to all mons. I am leaning towards Superpower as the only mons the team would be missing out on isLandorus (unallowed due to Pixelmon server rules) and gliscor, who usually runs physically defensive anyway so Ice Punch will be to no avail. Please let me know your opinion on this though.
Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Def
Bold
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Recover
Fantastic physical wall who is effective during all stages of the game. Calm Mind for setting up on stallers. Psyshock for STAB and as opposed to psychic allows special walls who swap in as a retaliation to Calm Mind spam, to still be hit for really large amounts of damage. Focus Blast for the much required coverage that comes with including a fighting type move. Recover for keeping this massive threat healthy.
Conclusion
That's about it. There are some obvious flaws in my team, but despite vigorous testing I just can't find the right pokemon to include/replace one of the existing. These include but are not limited to:
- No water types.
- No water type moves.
- No checks for water types.
- Despite complete coverage of all pokemon, there are some moves that are really necessary, but aren't present on enough mons (Grass, Fire and Fighting for example).
- Despite Levitate Gengar, there is no natural immunity to ground, meaning that a Mold Breaker could easily destroy this team once set up.
Thanks for reading, ANY and ALL feedback is appreciated.
-LinguisticLlama
Introduction
Hey readers! My intention of this team was to stupidly (although a pleasant surprise of the outcome) create a team which included both Scizor and Magnezone. Pretty much no reason behind it, other than I really like Scizor's bulk and the ability magnet pull, just trying to create a challenge for myself. Also no legends, because that's lame.
PS: This is a team for a Pixelmon server, so it my be important to note that legends aren't allowed for most purposes anyway.
Teambuilding Process
I apologise in advance for the long paragraph, just thought you may as well know how the entire team building process went down.
So obviously I started with Mega-Scizor and Magnezone, as that was my set requirement for the team. I then wanted to tackle the obvious extreme weakness being fire, and with the prevalence of special over physical fire moves, I included the not present Tentacruel (you'll find out why it is gone later). Although not entirely necessary, I wanted to use a mold breaker. Pokemon with abilities such as levitate or unaware can get really annoying to deal with, especially when you are looking to run the team's (unaware of this until final changes) sole ground move user. I would usually run Excadrill for this purpose, but considering I already have two steel types, that is 100% not an option and because most other users are lacklustre (apart from maybe Mega Gyarados) I decided to choose Haxorus, which also fills the useful slot of a dragon type. I then required a special sweeper, but one with good coverage as there was still a lot of types to be taken care of, so what better thing to use than Protean Greninja (and yes I figured out this is Uber in Gen 6, keep reading). At this point, I had two water types (Tentacruel and Greninja), and considering I had already doubled up Steel, I thought it would be best not to do the same with water, so I removed Tentacruel hoping to work out the special wall position later. Next it was obvious that I needed a physical wall, but a psychic one, as the team wasn't threatened enough by Fighting and Poison (yet) to warrant a psychic sweeper, but still enough to require one on the team. I figured Claydol would be a fantastic option, STAB Ground and Psychic and Rapid Spin! All of which have great uses on my team, however due to it's poorly distributed stats, it proved (vigorously tested in Gen 6 OU Showdown) to not be entirely worthy of the spot (however if you think it is, please let me know). Realistically, probably the only two non-mega/legendary psychic type physical walls that are able to function well in OU are Reuniclus and Slowbro. With Slowbro also being of the water typing, I decided to go for reuniclus, who although does not possess hazard removal, does a fantastic job at stall breaking thanks to magic guard, and also calm minding on setters to absolutely mop the floor. At this point there was only two things to take care of (apart from replacing the still un-noticed Uber mon), (a) Lack of Entry Hazards and (b) Lack of a Special Wall. Now with a magic guard physical wall, and two steel types, it became obvious that with the 50% special defense boost it gains through Sand Stream, Tyranitar would be a fantastic option, replacing Tentacruel for both setting hazards (although rocks this time around), and being the team's much needed fire resist. With the fighting check through Reuniclus, it only made sense to include this absolute monster who boasts 225 base Special Defense with sandstorm. At this point, after noticing the dark type double up, I also conveniently realised the Uber status of Greninja in Gen 6, so I quickly looked to replace it. With a fanastic all round sweeper in the form of Gengar, who so fantastically brings the team together through its ground check for magnezone, fighting check for tyranitar, and a spin blocker thanks to its ghost typing.
TL;DR, yes I am very indecisive and yes I talk too much, moving on.
The Team
Haxorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
Included due to the possession of Mold Breaker and therefore ability to deal with things such as Gengar or Clefable. Thanks to it's rare solo dragon typing, it can usually take a hit from a non-stab ice beam (and although uncommon, fairy and dragon as well), and has all 3 weaknesses easily checked by the steel type core. Dragon Dance to set up, especially on Unaware pokes to easily get ready to sweep. Outrage for STAB. Earthquake for great coverage and utilisation of the Levitate removal. Poison Jab for a physical option of dealing with fairy types where necessary.
Mega-Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 SpD
Impish
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- U-Turn / Knock Off
- Roost
Impish Scizor is an absolutely riveting experience, who can usually atleast 2HKO most targets in the metagame after one or two sword dances. Just an all round great inclusion, with a fantastic typing to complement it, not much else to say there. Swords Dance to easily setup on physical mons that Scizor resists. Bullet Punch for easy Technician proc and STAB. U-Turn for the same reason + pivoting with Magnezone, however up to your discretion I was wondering if I should instead replace this with Knock-Off for the usefulness over U-Turn, which although provides extra pivoting power, is really the last thing you want to do when you want to set up - also U-Turn doesn't assist in coverage whatsoever. Roost is obviously there for recovering and staying on the field as long as possible.
Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 HP / 252 Spe
Modest
- Volt Switch
- HP Fire
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
Phenomenal base special attack pretty decent typing also. Included for Magnet Pull, which allows me to trap the pesky 4x weak to fire pokemon that the team is unable to deal with appropriately without Magnezone, due to lack of fire type moves in move pools and the pokemon that can run a fire type move suffer from 4MSS. Volt Switch for momentum. HP Fire for the aforementioned (actually being able to kill trapped mons). Thunderbolt for main STAB. Flash Cannon for STAB, with fantastic coverage in conjunction with Thunderbolt (and HP Fire).
Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Energy Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
Fantastic move pool with great last-minute coverage options. Levitate and the immunities granted by the Ghost/Poison typing allow to check certain mons whilst not being a wall. Shadow Ball for STAB. Sludge Wave for STAB. Energy Ball for the much needed coverage against Water/Ground types. Dazzling Gleam for the best remaining coverage in-slot and also to deal with the otherwise relatively unaddressed dragon types.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful
- Stealth Rock
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch / Superpower
Without a doubt the best option (in this configuration) when requiring (a) more physical prowess (b) a strong special wall and (c) a hazard setter - all in one mon. Not to mention that the only thing that could possibly OHKO it is a physical fighting move, which even then is easily checked by Gengar or Reuniclus. Stealth Rock to fill the lack of hazards on the team. Pursuit for STAB and to trap ghost/psychic types, who are usually squishy and either be OHKO'd when they switch out (even with Focus Sash due to sandstorm) or 2HKO'd if they decide to stay in to hit a focus blast, which in most cases won't even bring TTar down to half. Stone Edge for STAB. Was thinking of running Superpower as the only other fighting move (which is much needed) on the team is Focus Miss on Reuniclus. However, TTar is the team's only option to include an ice type move in Ice Punch, which is the final piece to the puzzle in allowing the team to do at least neutral damage to all mons. I am leaning towards Superpower as the only mons the team would be missing out on is
Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Def
Bold
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Recover
Fantastic physical wall who is effective during all stages of the game. Calm Mind for setting up on stallers. Psyshock for STAB and as opposed to psychic allows special walls who swap in as a retaliation to Calm Mind spam, to still be hit for really large amounts of damage. Focus Blast for the much required coverage that comes with including a fighting type move. Recover for keeping this massive threat healthy.
Conclusion
That's about it. There are some obvious flaws in my team, but despite vigorous testing I just can't find the right pokemon to include/replace one of the existing. These include but are not limited to:
- No water types.
- No water type moves.
- No checks for water types.
- Despite complete coverage of all pokemon, there are some moves that are really necessary, but aren't present on enough mons (Grass, Fire and Fighting for example).
- Despite Levitate Gengar, there is no natural immunity to ground, meaning that a Mold Breaker could easily destroy this team once set up.
Thanks for reading, ANY and ALL feedback is appreciated.
-LinguisticLlama
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