Pictures and icons following soon, but I need to sleep first.
So after my nameless balanced team (I am just really really bad at naming teams... in my teambuilder they have truly creative names like "Time for ou" "finally an ou-team" or "ou team switch x for y") went pretty good for a long time, I decided to change my approach and start playing offensive again. So far this team has only been lightly tested on the new ladder, netting me a spot after 20 battles with only one loss so far (by getting paralyzed by m-manectrics tbolt and losing the turn instantly). I also use it in tournaments and aside from one will-o-miss-loss it hasn't lost any battles there so far, so I think the works down to the core. However, I am still being a little unhappy with the speed of the teams pokémon, leaving me week to m-manectric and some scarfers. But first, lets get into the team itself and the teambuilding progress:
As you can see, my team uses both Therians to provide insane momentum. Bulky Landorus-T takes on physical attackers, provides me with rocks and finally gives me slow u-turns to capitalize on. Assault-Vest-Tornadus-T on the other hand gives me fast mixed offense and the ability to take on most special attackers while having almost no save switch-in and being able to knock off eviolithes and leftovers from everyone. Keldeo, Mega-Diancie and Talonflame on the other hand can completely wreck teams when being able to come in for free and Latias is just your average offensive defogger. So lets have a look at the teambuilding process:
Now to the actual pokémon themselves:
Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Electric]
I went for the hidden power electric to take a good chunk out of Azumarill and Slowbro on the switch, making them much less troublesome to deal with later. It also wipes out Gyarados on the spot that often tries to bait Secret Sword before m-evolving, but Gyarados is already a pretty bad matchup against Keldeo, so this is not that much of a concern here.
Like I said before, I chose specs over Sub-CM or just Life-Orb because its power is just devastating. Other than the CM-Set, it almost much never finds itself being in the spot where it can outspeed, but not wipe out its target.
Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Protect
Protect obviously helps me evolving with that low speed. The rest is pretty standart, with Mega-Diancie offering me just the right combination of bulk, speed and power to take out my targets.
Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 128 HP / 160 SpA / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
The ultimate special pivot in my opinion. Heat Wave takes out Scizor, Skarmory and Ferrothorn and hits Bisharp hard without having to resort to Focus Blasts accuracy. It also helps against Klefki that normally thinks it can switch into Tornadus completely save. The sole purpose of the 220 speed is to always outspeed 216 speed Tornadus, allowing me to be the first to knock off the AV and then KO with Hurricane. With its awesome movepool, Regenerators utility, some physical bulk and blazing speed, this was my choice over Raikou.
Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
I've already talked about my hazard-removal, so I'm not going into why I chose Latias over Excadrill, Starmie, Scizor or Latios. I went for Roost over Healing Wish because even with Healing Wish being able to recover something like Keldeo, Mega-Diancie or Talonflame, most of the time the pokémon I truly want to be able to recover back is Latias itself, with Talonflame and Tornadus being held back so much by the rocks and Mega-Diancies Weaknesses to Groudon and Steel making her weak to pretty much every Stealth Rocks user in the entire tier so she can't just do a M-Sableye and bounce back every hazard. I went for full special attack just to get a harder hit on some targets, but I might use the bulkier spread.
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
My physical pivot and counterpart to Tornadus. Stealth Rocks because obvious, U-Turn too and Earthquake for quite the damage, while I went for Hidden Power Ice mostly because I don't need the other moves, with Tornadus offering a faster Knock Off, Keldeos Mystic Sword greatly overpowering Superpower and Diancies Diamond Storm making me independent of Stone Miss. The Hidden Power is especially great when other Landorus are coming in to intimidate me and take my U-Turn or Garchomp wants to make me suicide by coming into U-Turn as well. It is also great when I am leading against Garchomp. There is really nothing else I would use over Landorus.
Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp
Brave Bird on everything! I don't think there is any need for explanation on this set. Will-O-Wisp makes Chomp switchins cry. The reason I used this set over SD or Stallbreaker is because when it comes in against offense, it can just start to tear apart the opposing team one by one without any need for setup before. This is especially great as my team lacks anything faster than Tornadus-T and would be in a rather tight spot against some scarfers or just fast mons without Talonflame Brave-Birding everything into oblivion.
Weaknesses:
- Mega-Manectric: Not unstoppable, but you don't want to face it with that team. It loses to Latias, but only when Latias is full. T-Bolt does about 70% to Tornadus, giving it a chance to Heat Wave at least a bit of its HP away. Talonflame does kill at about 50% though.
- Azumarill: Scary as always, it might not be unstoppable, but the banded one sure makes it hard to even think of a switchin, as every resistance is taken out or at least heavily weakened by one of its moves.
- (Mega-)Slowbro: Resisting the double-STAB from my wallbreaker and being able to just kill it makes this thing very dangerous for the team. Though it doesn't mean the end, it can still trouble my team heavily.
Propable Replacements:
Import Code:
So after my nameless balanced team (I am just really really bad at naming teams... in my teambuilder they have truly creative names like "Time for ou" "finally an ou-team" or "ou team switch x for y") went pretty good for a long time, I decided to change my approach and start playing offensive again. So far this team has only been lightly tested on the new ladder, netting me a spot after 20 battles with only one loss so far (by getting paralyzed by m-manectrics tbolt and losing the turn instantly). I also use it in tournaments and aside from one will-o-miss-loss it hasn't lost any battles there so far, so I think the works down to the core. However, I am still being a little unhappy with the speed of the teams pokémon, leaving me week to m-manectric and some scarfers. But first, lets get into the team itself and the teambuilding progress:
As you can see, my team uses both Therians to provide insane momentum. Bulky Landorus-T takes on physical attackers, provides me with rocks and finally gives me slow u-turns to capitalize on. Assault-Vest-Tornadus-T on the other hand gives me fast mixed offense and the ability to take on most special attackers while having almost no save switch-in and being able to knock off eviolithes and leftovers from everyone. Keldeo, Mega-Diancie and Talonflame on the other hand can completely wreck teams when being able to come in for free and Latias is just your average offensive defogger. So lets have a look at the teambuilding process:
This team actually started with the idea to use a somewhat balanced core in an otherwise offensive team to be able to use some rather hard to use wallbreakers like hoopa-u, kyu-b or crawdaunt. For this, I used both therians as somewhat balanced mons who can check a ton of offensive and defensive mons alike and just let me switch into the appropriate pokémon, preferrably a speed-demon or priority-mon against offense and a wallbreaker against defense.
Now, before deciding for the mons to use, like the wallbreaker, I first needed a reliable hazard-removal that fits into the team to have my switch-core even work. For offensive hazard-removers there sure is a good deal of pokémon to choose from. However, Scizor, despite offering priority and even more u-turn, lacked too much in terms of speed and raw power. Excadrill offered speed and Mold Breaker, but either lacks a bit in speed or forces himself to lock into rapid spin. Starmie is a good candidate, offering me a valuable ice-resistance my team truly needs and is able to burn foes (especially pursuit-trappers) with scald. I even thought about using reflect type to protect myself from pursuit as well. However, I finally decided to go for the raw power of a latis meteor, going for the Latias as the extra power from Latios is not needed so much with all that power coming from the wallbreakers.
With 3 ice-weaknesses (one double weakness) and no reliable Bisharp-Check, Keldeo was just mandatory, being my first wallbreaker. I went for the specs-set over the sub-CM-set, as it offers absolutely insane power from the get-go and due to my 2 pivots, being locked into a move is never troubling at all.
As a partner for Keldeo, I went for yet another choiced pokémon: Talonflame. Offering great priority in brave bird (and having 3 other moves as well), Talon just rips through teams when brought in at the right situation. Talon also capitalizes on some of Keldeos counters, abusing Celebi, Amoonguss and Venusaur to the fullest whenever it can. It also lures in Tyranitar for Keldeo to wreck havoc again and Rotom-Wash, allowing Latias to come in and defog.
My final slot is arguably the one I'm least sure of. For a mega, I went for Diancie as a mega to abuse its mixed offense capabilities as well as magic bounce. This combination takes out bulky-chomp for me and pressures many teams hard, as its mixed powers make it hard for a good deal of pokémon to come in and it offers just enough speed to stand its ground against many otherwise dangerous offensive pokémon.
Now, before deciding for the mons to use, like the wallbreaker, I first needed a reliable hazard-removal that fits into the team to have my switch-core even work. For offensive hazard-removers there sure is a good deal of pokémon to choose from. However, Scizor, despite offering priority and even more u-turn, lacked too much in terms of speed and raw power. Excadrill offered speed and Mold Breaker, but either lacks a bit in speed or forces himself to lock into rapid spin. Starmie is a good candidate, offering me a valuable ice-resistance my team truly needs and is able to burn foes (especially pursuit-trappers) with scald. I even thought about using reflect type to protect myself from pursuit as well. However, I finally decided to go for the raw power of a latis meteor, going for the Latias as the extra power from Latios is not needed so much with all that power coming from the wallbreakers.
With 3 ice-weaknesses (one double weakness) and no reliable Bisharp-Check, Keldeo was just mandatory, being my first wallbreaker. I went for the specs-set over the sub-CM-set, as it offers absolutely insane power from the get-go and due to my 2 pivots, being locked into a move is never troubling at all.
As a partner for Keldeo, I went for yet another choiced pokémon: Talonflame. Offering great priority in brave bird (and having 3 other moves as well), Talon just rips through teams when brought in at the right situation. Talon also capitalizes on some of Keldeos counters, abusing Celebi, Amoonguss and Venusaur to the fullest whenever it can. It also lures in Tyranitar for Keldeo to wreck havoc again and Rotom-Wash, allowing Latias to come in and defog.
My final slot is arguably the one I'm least sure of. For a mega, I went for Diancie as a mega to abuse its mixed offense capabilities as well as magic bounce. This combination takes out bulky-chomp for me and pressures many teams hard, as its mixed powers make it hard for a good deal of pokémon to come in and it offers just enough speed to stand its ground against many otherwise dangerous offensive pokémon.
Now to the actual pokémon themselves:
Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Electric]
I went for the hidden power electric to take a good chunk out of Azumarill and Slowbro on the switch, making them much less troublesome to deal with later. It also wipes out Gyarados on the spot that often tries to bait Secret Sword before m-evolving, but Gyarados is already a pretty bad matchup against Keldeo, so this is not that much of a concern here.
Like I said before, I chose specs over Sub-CM or just Life-Orb because its power is just devastating. Other than the CM-Set, it almost much never finds itself being in the spot where it can outspeed, but not wipe out its target.
Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Protect
Protect obviously helps me evolving with that low speed. The rest is pretty standart, with Mega-Diancie offering me just the right combination of bulk, speed and power to take out my targets.
Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 128 HP / 160 SpA / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
The ultimate special pivot in my opinion. Heat Wave takes out Scizor, Skarmory and Ferrothorn and hits Bisharp hard without having to resort to Focus Blasts accuracy. It also helps against Klefki that normally thinks it can switch into Tornadus completely save. The sole purpose of the 220 speed is to always outspeed 216 speed Tornadus, allowing me to be the first to knock off the AV and then KO with Hurricane. With its awesome movepool, Regenerators utility, some physical bulk and blazing speed, this was my choice over Raikou.
Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
I've already talked about my hazard-removal, so I'm not going into why I chose Latias over Excadrill, Starmie, Scizor or Latios. I went for Roost over Healing Wish because even with Healing Wish being able to recover something like Keldeo, Mega-Diancie or Talonflame, most of the time the pokémon I truly want to be able to recover back is Latias itself, with Talonflame and Tornadus being held back so much by the rocks and Mega-Diancies Weaknesses to Groudon and Steel making her weak to pretty much every Stealth Rocks user in the entire tier so she can't just do a M-Sableye and bounce back every hazard. I went for full special attack just to get a harder hit on some targets, but I might use the bulkier spread.
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
My physical pivot and counterpart to Tornadus. Stealth Rocks because obvious, U-Turn too and Earthquake for quite the damage, while I went for Hidden Power Ice mostly because I don't need the other moves, with Tornadus offering a faster Knock Off, Keldeos Mystic Sword greatly overpowering Superpower and Diancies Diamond Storm making me independent of Stone Miss. The Hidden Power is especially great when other Landorus are coming in to intimidate me and take my U-Turn or Garchomp wants to make me suicide by coming into U-Turn as well. It is also great when I am leading against Garchomp. There is really nothing else I would use over Landorus.
Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp
Brave Bird on everything! I don't think there is any need for explanation on this set. Will-O-Wisp makes Chomp switchins cry. The reason I used this set over SD or Stallbreaker is because when it comes in against offense, it can just start to tear apart the opposing team one by one without any need for setup before. This is especially great as my team lacks anything faster than Tornadus-T and would be in a rather tight spot against some scarfers or just fast mons without Talonflame Brave-Birding everything into oblivion.
Weaknesses:
- Mega-Manectric: Not unstoppable, but you don't want to face it with that team. It loses to Latias, but only when Latias is full. T-Bolt does about 70% to Tornadus, giving it a chance to Heat Wave at least a bit of its HP away. Talonflame does kill at about 50% though.
- Azumarill: Scary as always, it might not be unstoppable, but the banded one sure makes it hard to even think of a switchin, as every resistance is taken out or at least heavily weakened by one of its moves.
- (Mega-)Slowbro: Resisting the double-STAB from my wallbreaker and being able to just kill it makes this thing very dangerous for the team. Though it doesn't mean the end, it can still trouble my team heavily.
Propable Replacements:
- Keldeo -> Kyurem-Black: Though the lack of an ice-resistance and true bisharp counter has to be compensated elsewhere, Kyurem just offers insane wallbreaking capabilities, nuking away entire defensive cores on its own. The one factor thats making Kyurem unattractive for my team right now is his speed that just falls short a little bit.
- Keldeo -> Hoopa-Unbound: Basically the same as with Kyurem-Black, just with a better movepool but even less speed.
- Keldeo -> Crawdaunt: Crawdaunt basically 2hkoes literally everything and has Aqua Jet for priority, but the speed is just so low.
- Keldeo -> Staraptor and Talonflame -> Azumarill: This switches the typing of the wallbreaker and the priority attacker. Staraptor still offers good speed and either more priority or more momentum. A Scarf would also add a bit more speed to the team as well, while I don't lose my fighting coverage thanks to Close Combat. However, Aqua Jet is just not the same as priority Brave Bird and I'd lose my fairy and my stone resistance.
- Mega-Diancie -> Mega-Beedrill: More Momentum, blazing speed and great power make this thing terrifying, with just enough Momentum already there to bring it in savely as well as to offer switchins in case anybody tries to revenge-kill Beedrill. However, the lack of bulk and especially an answer to Talonflame would force me to use a rock move on lando just to prevent being Brave Birded to death.
- Mega-Diancie -> Mega-Lopunny: More Speed, Fake Out... and more Talon-weakness. It also pushes my team greatly towards the physical side just as M-Beedrill.
- Mega-Diancie -> no Mega: I might use another wallbreaker here, but this would make me lose so much speed.
- Mega-Diancie -> Mega-Manectric: There is really no downside to this actually. More Momentum, more Intimidate, blazing speed, a good Talon-Matchup and just raw strength make me favor this one over Mega-Diancie. It can also force opposing M-Manes into a fight that leaves both weakened, allowing Talon to actually check it. I would lose my dragon-immunity though, making Lati@s a dangerous threat to face as even Torn-T needs some regenerating after eating a meteor.
- Mega-Diancie -> Megagross/Megazard-Y/Mega-Gvoir: Replacing my Mega with one of those would free the original Wallbreaker-Slot for something like a scarfer or Raikou.
Latias -> Excadrill, Starmie, Latios, Scizor: Depending on other changes I make to the team, one of these might replace Latias just to give me back lost resistances.
Talonflame -> Azumarill, Bisharp, Scizor, Breloom: The same as with Hazard-Removal - get back the lost resistances.
- Keldeo -> Hoopa-Unbound: Basically the same as with Kyurem-Black, just with a better movepool but even less speed.
- Keldeo -> Crawdaunt: Crawdaunt basically 2hkoes literally everything and has Aqua Jet for priority, but the speed is just so low.
- Keldeo -> Staraptor and Talonflame -> Azumarill: This switches the typing of the wallbreaker and the priority attacker. Staraptor still offers good speed and either more priority or more momentum. A Scarf would also add a bit more speed to the team as well, while I don't lose my fighting coverage thanks to Close Combat. However, Aqua Jet is just not the same as priority Brave Bird and I'd lose my fairy and my stone resistance.
- Mega-Diancie -> Mega-Beedrill: More Momentum, blazing speed and great power make this thing terrifying, with just enough Momentum already there to bring it in savely as well as to offer switchins in case anybody tries to revenge-kill Beedrill. However, the lack of bulk and especially an answer to Talonflame would force me to use a rock move on lando just to prevent being Brave Birded to death.
- Mega-Diancie -> Mega-Lopunny: More Speed, Fake Out... and more Talon-weakness. It also pushes my team greatly towards the physical side just as M-Beedrill.
- Mega-Diancie -> no Mega: I might use another wallbreaker here, but this would make me lose so much speed.
- Mega-Diancie -> Mega-Manectric: There is really no downside to this actually. More Momentum, more Intimidate, blazing speed, a good Talon-Matchup and just raw strength make me favor this one over Mega-Diancie. It can also force opposing M-Manes into a fight that leaves both weakened, allowing Talon to actually check it. I would lose my dragon-immunity though, making Lati@s a dangerous threat to face as even Torn-T needs some regenerating after eating a meteor.
- Mega-Diancie -> Megagross/Megazard-Y/Mega-Gvoir: Replacing my Mega with one of those would free the original Wallbreaker-Slot for something like a scarfer or Raikou.
Latias -> Excadrill, Starmie, Latios, Scizor: Depending on other changes I make to the team, one of these might replace Latias just to give me back lost resistances.
Talonflame -> Azumarill, Bisharp, Scizor, Breloom: The same as with Hazard-Removal - get back the lost resistances.
Import Code:
Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Electric]
Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Protect
Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 128 HP / 160 SpA / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Electric]
Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Protect
Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 128 HP / 160 SpA / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp
