SM OU Hey, can you help me?

[faketuit]

Introduction​

Hi, I'm new around here. I discovered smogon like 2 months ago and since then I was very interested in learning competitive Pokémon. My primary focus was obviously OU since it was the only tier completely "finished" at that moment in Gen 7 versions. I was thinking of entering myself into Battling 101 so other person with experience could teach me 1v1 as my only previous experience was VGC and they are definitely 2 completely different metagames. However, it is closed so I had to gain a little experience by myself and learn teambuilding and some basics by playing and losing and changing mons until I found the team and play style that I like. Recently I made this team and Peaked at 1300 points on the ladder so I decided to post it here to see if it was just luck or my teambuilding is improving. And after this introduction...

Teambuilding Process​

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I always liked Tyranitar and since I can't use it this year on VGC I decided that I would just use it here.

Everyone's favorite Kanto starter! However I thought that Y mega was a better fit so I could choose which weather was better for me in a specific moment and it has sinergy with Tyranitar since he can kill grass mons like Ferrothorn, Tangrowth, Tapu Bulu... that counter Tyranitar as well as steel types.

Lele was added to the team to be a late game sweeper or a fast revenge killer since his special attack and his terrain are super super strong.

I thought that I was fairly weak to water type Pokémons so I needed a grass type to counter them, as well as a dedicated lead and Ferrothorn provided all.

Even with Ferrothorn on the team so I decided to put Koko here since I love him and how it looks and he can counter Smeargle leads with spore that were a concern to me. However, as I'll explain later, he wasn't my first idea for the team.

Initially, I thought to put here a water type to have an initial types core, but then I found that it wasn't really necessary and I put Excadrill since I needed a spiner and it sinergizes perfectly with Tyranitar and the rest of the team.

The Team​

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch
- Pursuit
- Crunch
​

How I said earlier I love Tyranitar and I wanted to do a team with him since I couldn't use him in VGC. His set is a basic Choice Band one. Pursuit is so underrated on VGC and I found that here is so useful picking many surprise OHKOs that even surprised myself. Stone Edge is probably the best rock type attack in 1v1 format, although it has 20% chance of missing but combined with Choice Band it can deal several amount of damage even to Pokemon that resist it. Finally I put Ice Punch because as you will see later my main concern is to get rid of Landorus by any means.

Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Solar Beam
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Overheat
- Flamethrower
​

I chose him because changing the weather in my advantage seemed like a big deal for my team, he sinergizes well with Tyranitar with both of them capable of dealing with the other one threats and honestly, who doesn't love Red's Charizard? HP Ice is there for taking out Landorus as it gives me too many troubles and is so popular and I like too have many ways of dealing with him and Garchomp so I dont have to rely too much on a Pokémon to take him out.

Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt
​

The reasoning behind Lele is the following: hit fast, hit hard. Lele has 130 base Special Attack, if you combine it with Psychic terrain you have one of the best Psychic mons on the whole game. Normally I would delete its checks or lower their hp so Lele can spam Scarfed Psychic or Moonblast to finish the game. I really like this mon. HP Fire is for surprise and OHKO opposing Ferrothorns under sun, Thunderbolt is there just for coverage.

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Power Whip
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
​

The first grass Pokémon that I used was Choice Specs Contrary Serperios, however it just didn't the team and wouldn't pick the KOs I wanted him to take so I decided that a bulkier mon was better for this position so I went with Ferrothorn and it is just a beast. He can tank almost every hit and can easily switch into water types that hurt both Tyranitar and Charizard and take almost any physical attacker down with the combination of Iron Barbs, Rocky Helmet and Leech Seed. Since I have Excadrill I didn't feel like I needed Gyro Ball, so that's the reasoning behind Leech Seed if you were wondering.

Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Ice]
​

Tapu Koko is my favorite Tapu. His typing is almost perfect with only two weakness and a great offensive typing. With Choice Specs, Electric terrain and Thunderbolt a 90 base Special Attack seems like much more. Volt Switch is there for pivoting since it allows me switching Koko into a more favourable mon while still dealing damage. Dazzling Gleam is there for taking out dragons like Garchomp or dark types. Dear HP Ice, OHKOing Landorus is so important to me. Lmao.

Excadrill @ Steelium Z
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
​

My first Pokémon in this last slot was a Focus Sash Greninja-Ash, since I felt that having a water-grass-fire core was important. However it didn't fit the team at all and I needed a spinner, Charizard is so so countered by Stealth Rocks so I needed to remove them in order to win the game if Charizard was needed in the game. So the answer was this little scary mole. It sinergizes so well with Tyranitar making a core that in VGC is known as Japanese sand. He hits hard and since I didn't have any Z move I went with Steelium Z because it can pick surprising KOs in Pokémon like Tornadus, Fairy types, etc.

Conclusion​

This is my first post here and I couldn't find Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko's icons... but I hope it doesn't matter! I don't have any replay to show, however thank you so much for reading! Down here is the importable of the team so you can try it and tell me any weakness that it may have by playing it as I'm not an experienced player I will probably not have noticed them...
PS: Sorry if I had any mistake in my writing... English is not my main language and I'm not used to write on it.

Importable

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch
- Pursuit
- Crunch

Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Solar Beam
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Overheat
- Flamethrower

Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Power Whip
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock

Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Excadrill @ Steelium Z
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Iron Head

 

[PsychoCut42]

Hey man, if you're only 2 months or so into competitive mons and this is the first team you build, you're definitely on the right track. Team looks solid honestly, i'd suggest roost over overheat on zard y though. Flamethrower in sun is already hitting hard enough, and on that note, if youre running flamethrower, you could definitely afford to run a Modest nature instead. Another change is making that Ferrothorn a spread of 252 HP/88 Defense/168 Special Defense with an Impish Nature. The investment in spDef lets you handle things like Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko better, as well as give you a Gengar check. Another thing im seeing is a potential weakness to stall, even though Zard Y and Banded Ttar can do the trick. The staller could potientally work around your Koko locked into a specific move, etc. This is just an option, because stall will become more common as you climb up ladder, so you could try out twisted spoon tapu lele, and substitute thunderbolt for Taunt or Calm Mind. Again this is your choice, it will definitely give you a better matchup but Scarf also works on this team as a late game cleaner. Great work though man, good luck with the team and pokemon in general fren. :]

 

[faketuit]

Hey man, if you're only 2 months or so into competitive mons and this is the first team you build, you're definitely on the right track. Team looks solid honestly, i'd suggest roost over overheat on zard y though. Flamethrower in sun is already hitting hard enough, and on that note, if youre running flamethrower, you could definitely afford to run a Modest nature instead. Another change is making that Ferrothorn a spread of 252 HP/88 Defense/168 Special Defense with an Impish Nature. The investment in spDef lets you handle things like Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko better, as well as give you a Gengar check. Another thing im seeing is a potential weakness to stall, even though Zard Y and Banded Ttar can do the trick. The staller could potientally work around your Koko locked into a specific move, etc. This is just an option, because stall will become more common as you climb up ladder, so you could try out twisted spoon tapu lele, and substitute thunderbolt for Taunt or Calm Mind. Again this is your choice, it will definitely give you a better matchup but Scarf also works on this team as a late game cleaner. Great work though man, good luck with the team and pokemon in general fren. :]

Thank you so much for the comment I will definitely try those ideas specially the Tapu Lele one since I'm truly weak to stall. I hope I can climb up the ladder while having fun and improving my teambuilding! :)

 

[faketuit]

Hi, this team actually seems really competitive and has a very good composition which tells me you put a lot of thought into this team. there are a few changes to enhance it though. choice band Tyranitar + Charizard Y is a pretty good combination that was among one of the best and most effective cores last generation. so i'll be using it as the basis of your team. I will also provide two different teams because I feel that both are very solid ways to go.

Swords Dance > Rapid Spin
The first major change i'll like to suggest is to implement a different form of hazard removal so Excadrill can function as a wincon, a Pokemon that can actually win the game, with Swords Dance. Reason being, your team doesn't have a real set goal aside from using the dual wallbreaking core of Charizard y and Tyranitar. the addition of Swords Dance Excadrill gives you a pretty solid sweeper that also functions as a good revenge killer for incredibly dangerous threats such as Volcarona and Mega Charizard X + Y. Swords Dance + Steelium-Z is also really cool for breaking past Excadrill's would be counters like Defensive Tangrowth (AV gets smashed) and Defensive Landorus-T.

>

Tapu Lele does not do much for your team. It's Scarf set isn't necessary considering Excadrill is an all around good revenge killer in it's own right, the Specs set would be very redundant with Tyranitar and Charizard Y, and the Stallbreaker set also isn't necessary as Band Tyranitar can very easily remove Chansey by using very aggressive plays to make pivoting around more imperative than healing up with Soft-boiled and from here Charizard Y can throttle stall fairly easily on it's own. So Starmie is a good addition here since it gives you a soft switch-in to Keldeo which you previously lacked as well as hazard removal in Rapid Spin. It's also a good Pokemon for being able to revenge kill pretty dangerous threats such as Gengar and Fighting-types, which are very weak to, like Medicham and Terrakion. Obviously, it can't switch into these threats but it can indeed revenge kill them, or make sure they don't devastate your team completely. Expert Belt is a decent option if you dislike the recoil you get from Rocks + LO from Spinning.

Starmie

Starmie @ Life Orb / Expert Belt
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psyshock
- Hydro Pump
- Rapid Spin

<

Another major change I believe have great benefits is AV Tangrowth > Tapu Koko. Tapu Koko didn't seem to do much for your team either aside from beating Water-types handily and being a pretty fast force, which will be missed, but smart play and preserving Excadrill and Starmie make up for this. The reason AV Tang fits here nicely is Keldeo and Tapu Koko (although not as much) is still a menace to face and offensive Ground-types such as Landorus-T and Zygarde as well as Ash Greninja were really a pain for you to deal with as you really relied on Koko and Scarf Lele to make the matchup less overbearing. You also gain an excellent overall pivot that even switch into weaker attackers like Scarf Terrakion, Mega Alakazam, and Magearna.

Tangrowth

Tangrowth @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 72 Def / 188 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake

<

Finally, my last major change would be the swapping of Ferrothorn for another Stealth Rock setter. It role sorta overlaps as a Water check with Tangrowth and a dampening on the sheer Fighting weakness and a pretty situation switch-in to Mega Medicham would be ideal. Clefable fits this role nicely. It's one of the best Stealth Rock setters in the tier right now as it beats nearly all relevant hazard setters and removers bar Starmie as well as getting up Rocks against stall so Band Tar and Charizard Y have an easier time against it. It also serves as a multipurpose blanket check to quite a few other threats if you see Tangrowth getting overwhelmed like Scarf Terrakion, Keldeo, and Mega Alakazam.

Clefable

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 SpD
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
- Soft-boiled
- Stealth Rock

/

As for smaller changes, Charizard's moveset is kinda wacky so a standard set of Roost / Fire Blast / Solar Beam / Focus Blast with a Timid Nature should be used. Losing the speed tie before it's started with Mega Medicham is a travesty as well as being worn down super fast by Mega Scizor and non-Toxic / Stone Edge Heatran, as well as stray Moonblasts and other relatively weak attacks. Also be sure to really utilize Band Tar; it can essentially threatens every single member of stall. A spread of 88 HP / 252 Atk / 168 Spe is what I'd run to outpace Adamant Max Speed Mega Mawile and a set of Superpower / Crunch / Stone Edge / Pursuit.

This team should be played with getting up Stealth Rock as soon as possible and proceeding to break the opposing team with Charizard Y and Band Tar. Pick one of them according to the opponent's team composition. For example, if Tyranitar can spam Stone Edge / Crunch with no drawback while it's risky to use Fire Blast with Zard Y, go Ttar. Similarly, if there aren't any good Charizard Y checks on the opposing team as many do lack it, utilize Zard Y. Beware of revenge killers though. Be sure to fall back on your defensive backbone of Clefable and Tangrowth when necessary and keep hazards off the field with Starmie whenever Zard Y has a chance to raze the opposition. When the opposition is thoroughly broken Excadrill should be able to clean up. Don't be afraid to use Excadrill when you need to revenge kill something either.

Admittedly, this rate has ushered many big changes but they help achieve a common goal much more efficiently while also bringing a nice amount of utility to the table. Enjoy.

Hey! Thanks for your improvements to my team I tried them out today and I reached 1400 points on the ladder. However I feel weak to Mega-Pinsir if I don't have the sand up... But it has better match ups against almost all teams I faced recently! :]

 

[faketuit]

Make sure you preserve Starmie to force out unboosted Pinsir since chip + Hydro Pump should KO it and of course Excadrill is necessary to beat it as well.

However, another cool tech would be Rock Slide > Earthquake to catch Mega Pinsir that switch in since they usually switch in safely and Heatran isn't that annoying. It only does upward 80% though but Sand chip and other should finish it. Sadly, that's what happens when you lack a fast Electric-types but it's definitely manageable with the Rock Slide change and smart play (not letting it setup so Starmie can revenge it and preserving Drill).

Yeah I usually try to predict when not to use Earthquake, but Close Combat on Mega-Pinsir is a pain in the ass anyways...