I built and laddered up to around 1400’s with this team focused around Gyrados and HEAT. The team is arguably standard HO but I added scarf Alolan Ninetales for weather support. It has some match up flaws but I will go over my thoughts in selection.
Gyarados @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bounce
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
Started as my mega but Mega Gyrados is mildly underwhelming. I was running a Sub DD set with ok results but often times he would be a sacrifice for 30%. Not what you want your mega doing. Moving his item from mega crystal to z crystal was brilliant honestly. One DD and you can sweep, with two you blow away their entire team. With Z Bounce and EQ you aren’t walled by anything common and with boost behind you the opponent is looking for a counter. He takes advantage of anyone running Heatran, Defensive Lando, Toxapex, Gliscor, etc.
Greninja-Ash (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Hydro Pump
- Spikes
- Water Shuriken
Its Ash Gren…Dark Pulse goes BRRRR. One thing I will note is that I debate going surf sometimes, but I am sure everyone who plays mons debates between Hydro and Surf. It would honestly be fair to swap spikes for Surf since clicking spikes is such as hard call out that could easily lose your Gren…but it is such a power play.
Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Roost
Brings a bit of balance to the force. The team is pretty frail and often times needs a sacrifice to slow the enemy down for our heat to kick in. The slow U-Turn is great for bringing in a hungry Gyrados or Gren. Scizor also makes sure that Rillaboom doesn’t turn the team sideways and bend ‘em over his knee.
Tapu Koko @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Defog
Defog offensive Koko is pretty clutch honestly. Tbolt and Gleam are nearly forced and while running defog on Scizor might be more consistent. Koko doesn’t have another move that the team needs and since we are running HO defog is an after thought. Keeping webs off the field and clearing terrain against other Tapus/Rillaboom. Stuck with offensive EVs because the focus is making sure that mons die because we don’t have walls to switch to. U turn over volt switch because we can’t afford to have a mon block us.
Ninetales-Alola @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Moonblast
- Aurora Veil
Easily my favorite tech. Scarf blizzard blows teams back and Freeze Dry makes Ninetales the perfect mon for dealing with weather on HO without building for weather. You don’t need many turns of Aurora Veil since whoever you switch into will end the game after two turns of set up. Dropping in Ninetails just to change the weather is more than worth it, having Aurora Veil to support the team is great and the scarf let’s her outrun most of the meta game
Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
- Fire Blast
Classic suicide lead Azelf. Might as well be a force on an HO team. I don’t know why smogon wants to auto the evs to fast bulky support. Azelf is here to get rocks up, kill the lead, do +40% to any mon with the gall to be in the same turn as it. Fire Blast to cover steel types and hopefully a couple of grass types. Explosion so that Gren can start running train early. Most teams don’t run both a Azelf and Gren counter, so at least one mon will be overloaded when it comes to switching.
Most of my losses I felt that I was outplayed but notable mons are:
Gren // We don’t have switch ins. Koko tries to be a counter but he is easily over loaded. While you are trying to learn the set he is my personal bait of choice.
Espeon // Surprisingly lead Espeon is a problem with Z Celebrate and HP fire. She walls the rocks and sets up on switch to 6-0 the team not a good time.
Lele // Scarf and Specs Lele can blow holes in the team is you don’t play around terrain. Again Koko is my bait of choice.
Rillaboom // Literally what Scizor is for, but it opens up VoltTurn to run train on you.
Honorable Mention:
TTar // Scizor wasn’t the original mega and I think that he would be able to change your team structure. Run Mega TTar as a more balanced lead freeing up Azelf to be another mon. Also running TTar instead of Alolan Ninetails was the original plan but I couldn’t identify when to use him since I don’t play him often.
Please let me know if you think the team could run the game plan faster and teams that would outright counter it.
Gyarados @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bounce
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
Started as my mega but Mega Gyrados is mildly underwhelming. I was running a Sub DD set with ok results but often times he would be a sacrifice for 30%. Not what you want your mega doing. Moving his item from mega crystal to z crystal was brilliant honestly. One DD and you can sweep, with two you blow away their entire team. With Z Bounce and EQ you aren’t walled by anything common and with boost behind you the opponent is looking for a counter. He takes advantage of anyone running Heatran, Defensive Lando, Toxapex, Gliscor, etc.
Greninja-Ash (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Hydro Pump
- Spikes
- Water Shuriken
Its Ash Gren…Dark Pulse goes BRRRR. One thing I will note is that I debate going surf sometimes, but I am sure everyone who plays mons debates between Hydro and Surf. It would honestly be fair to swap spikes for Surf since clicking spikes is such as hard call out that could easily lose your Gren…but it is such a power play.
Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Roost
Brings a bit of balance to the force. The team is pretty frail and often times needs a sacrifice to slow the enemy down for our heat to kick in. The slow U-Turn is great for bringing in a hungry Gyrados or Gren. Scizor also makes sure that Rillaboom doesn’t turn the team sideways and bend ‘em over his knee.
Tapu Koko @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Defog
Defog offensive Koko is pretty clutch honestly. Tbolt and Gleam are nearly forced and while running defog on Scizor might be more consistent. Koko doesn’t have another move that the team needs and since we are running HO defog is an after thought. Keeping webs off the field and clearing terrain against other Tapus/Rillaboom. Stuck with offensive EVs because the focus is making sure that mons die because we don’t have walls to switch to. U turn over volt switch because we can’t afford to have a mon block us.
Ninetales-Alola @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Moonblast
- Aurora Veil
Easily my favorite tech. Scarf blizzard blows teams back and Freeze Dry makes Ninetales the perfect mon for dealing with weather on HO without building for weather. You don’t need many turns of Aurora Veil since whoever you switch into will end the game after two turns of set up. Dropping in Ninetails just to change the weather is more than worth it, having Aurora Veil to support the team is great and the scarf let’s her outrun most of the meta game
Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
- Fire Blast
Classic suicide lead Azelf. Might as well be a force on an HO team. I don’t know why smogon wants to auto the evs to fast bulky support. Azelf is here to get rocks up, kill the lead, do +40% to any mon with the gall to be in the same turn as it. Fire Blast to cover steel types and hopefully a couple of grass types. Explosion so that Gren can start running train early. Most teams don’t run both a Azelf and Gren counter, so at least one mon will be overloaded when it comes to switching.
Most of my losses I felt that I was outplayed but notable mons are:
Gren // We don’t have switch ins. Koko tries to be a counter but he is easily over loaded. While you are trying to learn the set he is my personal bait of choice.
Espeon // Surprisingly lead Espeon is a problem with Z Celebrate and HP fire. She walls the rocks and sets up on switch to 6-0 the team not a good time.
Lele // Scarf and Specs Lele can blow holes in the team is you don’t play around terrain. Again Koko is my bait of choice.
Rillaboom // Literally what Scizor is for, but it opens up VoltTurn to run train on you.
Honorable Mention:
TTar // Scizor wasn’t the original mega and I think that he would be able to change your team structure. Run Mega TTar as a more balanced lead freeing up Azelf to be another mon. Also running TTar instead of Alolan Ninetails was the original plan but I couldn’t identify when to use him since I don’t play him often.
Please let me know if you think the team could run the game plan faster and teams that would outright counter it.
