Gen 7 I tried making Salazzle OU viable :p

[FlyingCactus]

Heya! I had been brainstorming what would be a pokemon that is almost never seen in OU that would still be interesting, and Salazzle is what I came upon. With her decent speed and SpA stats I saw the potential in her to be a great revenge killer. I decided to make a Semi-stall team because of the mons I had in mind to work with her, this archetype seemed like it would work best.


Salazzle (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Ice]

At the start of teambuilding I had to think about what Salazzle can deal with in the meta, and what its biggest weaknesses are. Salazzle is able to check many common Steel, Fairy, and grass types. I realized that with a scarf and its great speed stat, it was able to outspeed almost everything besides faster scarfers. This is very useful as Salazzle is able to revenge kill almost every common scarfer besides gren and victini. With sludge bomb Salazzle is able to OHKO Koko and Bulu, and even Lele after rocks damage. Fire blast is used over flamethrower because it guarantees the 2HKO of Celesteela as well as giving Salazzle even more firepower. Fire blast guarantees either an OHKO or 2HKO against all common steel types besides Heatran and AV magearna. Hidden power ice is great to catch ground type switch ins off guard, and also be able to revenge kill them if needed. The last move, toxic, seems strange on a scarf set but it makes use of Salazzles corrosion ability. With toxic Salazzle is able to cripple the likes of Heatran, AV mag, and Toxapex… all mons that counter Salazzle. Salazzle works as the speed control, revenge killer, and if set up correctly, a sweeper. It should be preserved till the end of the game, and you will often find yourself not even needing to bring it out, but it is a great insurance to have late game.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Defog
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hydro Pump

The first mon I picked to aid Salazzle was a no brainer in rotom-w. Rotom is immune to ground, which is what Salazzle is weakest too. Rotom also eats up water attacks for Salazzle. Defog is needed to get spikes and stealth rock off the field, so that Salazzle can remain healthy and is able to switch in on some steel types if needed mid-game. Volt Switch is very useful for being able to gain and maintain momentum for the team, as well as have some electric type coverage. Will-O-Wisp lets Rotom-W punish switch ins like Lando-T and Garchomp by halving their damage and pretty much putting them out of business for the game. Lastly, Hydro pump is a strong hitting water move that gives Rotom-w the ability to hit fire type attacks that rotom will often have to switch into. The speed investment allows Rotom to most notably outspeed Adamant Ttar. The rest is dumped into Def to better check physical attackers.

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 6 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 22 Spe
- Volt Switch
- Fleur Cannon
- Focus Blast
- Iron Head

Magearna was my pick to check the powerful psychic types that run rampant in OU. With an assault vest, Mage is able to easily stomach resisted moves for the team, as well as letting it avoid KOs from super effective moves. Volt switch is Mage’s main utility, as its meant to come into battle, scare out a mon, and get tf back out of there. Fleur Cannon is Mage’s hardest hitting move, with a power of 130 plus stab it is very terrifying to have to play against. Focus blast is Mage’s coverage move for steel types who come in to shut down its Fleur Cannon. Iron head is used over Flash Cannon as its able to beat CM set up mons such as Zam, Latias, and Clef. 22 speed ivs with a sassy nature makes it so Mage underspeeds Celesteela, so that it can take a leech seed and then pivot out. Without means of recovery, Mage should be kept healthy so it can do its job with its checks, so keeping hazards off the field is wise to avoid residual chip.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake

Landorus-Therian works well with the aforementioned mons, as he is immune to ground types for Mage and Salazzle, and is a strong physical wall to compliment Mage, our special wall. Lando-T works in tandem with Rotom and Mage to form a defensive volt-turn core that gains momentum very easily. Lando is our rocker for the team which is sometimes necessary for Salazzle to find some of its OHKO’s. Hp ice is great for checking opposing Lando-t as well as garchomp, and other ground types. EQ is Landos main hard hitting stab move that lets it deal with fire and steel types for the team. 144 speed evs are invested for Lando to outspeed timid Mage and modest heatran.

Latias-Mega (F) @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Roost
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock

M-Latias is the set-up sweeper for the team, but she is also useful to switch into and eat up attacks that scare the rest of my team. I chose M-Lati for the main reason of being able to take on Garchomp, but she ended up fitting onto the team very nicely. Psyshock is used instead of Psychic to hit special walls like Chansey if needed. Ice beam is a great coverage move to hit ground types that M-Lati can check. Roost is needed so that M-Lati has longevity if its brought in before late-game, as well as ensuring that she can use some mons as set-up fodders without taking too much damage.

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Recover
- Haze
- Scald

Toxapex felt like the perfect fit for the final mon of the team, as it works very well with M-Lati and Mage. Toxapex has almost no fear of tanking any water move for Salazzle, and has no trouble getting the chip back with its insane ability to regain health with recover, regenerator, and black sludge. T-spikes are used to support my late game sweepers and spread toxic around my opponents team. Haze is great to get rid of stat boosts from set up sweepers so that I don't find myself getting 6-0’d. Scald is used less for its power and more for its ability to burn the likes of M-Scizor, Kartana, and other threats.



What the team struggles against
Heatran: Most notably, bloom doom heatran. As long as Lando-T is out of the way, Heatran is a massive threat that is very hard to take care of.

Victini: Victini has such a wide array of coverage for my team that it is very easy to overwhelm me, and can even bluff having some moves to make my job even harder.

Mold breaker Excadrill: Again, with Lando-T gone, Exca can feel free to spam EQ with little fear

Final thoughts:
Of course Salazzle still isnt the greatest mon, there are so many things that beat her, and she is so frail that she can only really do well in the most ideal of situations. Im sure there are some massive holes in the team that I missed, so tips on what could be changed would be useful. Feel free to suggest any mon that might need changing, but keep in mind that the team was built around Salazzle so she is going to stay!
Thank you!
Paste: Salazzle Semi-Stall​

 

[Xirkitreez]

cool team

 

[DIYUSI]

Hi, I will just point out a few things here:

-I think you might get a wrong conception of Semi-Stall. Usually, with Semi-Stall, you play for the really long-term and, therefore, have pokemon that have enough staying power to reach this long-term gameplan. So, its really curious to see a Landorus-Therian, a Magearna AV and a rotom-wash. This kind of core suit a lot more offense/BO, because they provide immediate utility, momentum and short-term answer; but they are both inapt to play for really long matchs. So, I think the fact that you got a big misconception on the playstyle of your team make him very ankward, without a gameplan that really suit all the members of your squad.

-What I dont like overall is how your team is a true "do-nothing". I'm pretty sure you win a lot of fights on ladder only by waiting that your opponant die by himself because you got pokemon that can easily sit on them (Latios-Mega + Toxapex), but on real matchs against competent players, you will struggle to make any form of progress. Your salazzle do nothing almost against Chansey, Heatran or Toxapex; and, even without considering them, its really hard to get any form of value from this set because, due to the Choice Scarf, you have to predict correctly, which can be a huge pain between a Steel and any Fire-Resist. The only thing that can really win on this team is Latias-Mega (which is quite a threat with Calm Mind), but he can't win match by himself, esp without supports (T-spikes from Toxapex is a good beginning, but not enough imo).

Overall, I think you don't have the level to build on such an useless pokemon because It seems you don't have the fondamentals yet. Imo, just take a look to sample teams and try to someone fit Salazzle on these teams if you really want to use it.

 

[Kowasabii]

Hi, I will just point out a few things here:

-I think you might get a wrong conception of Semi-Stall. Usually, with Semi-Stall, you play for the really long-term and, therefore, have pokemon that have enough staying power to reach this long-term gameplan. So, its really curious to see a Landorus-Therian, a Magearna AV and a rotom-wash. This kind of core suit a lot more offense/BO, because they provide immediate utility, momentum and short-term answer; but they are both inapt to play for really long matchs. So, I think the fact that you got a big misconception on the playstyle of your team make him very ankward, without a gameplan that really suit all the members of your squad.

-What I dont like overall is how your team is a true "do-nothing". I'm pretty sure you win a lot of fights on ladder only by waiting that your opponant die by himself because you got pokemon that can easily sit on them (Latios-Mega + Toxapex), but on real matchs against competent players, you will struggle to make any form of progress. Your salazzle do nothing almost against Chansey, Heatran or Toxapex; and, even without considering them, its really hard to get any form of value from this set because, due to the Choice Scarf, you have to predict correctly, which can be a huge pain between a Steel and any Fire-Resist. The only thing that can really win on this team is Latias-Mega (which is quite a threat with Calm Mind), but he can't win match by himself, esp without supports (T-spikes from Toxapex is a good beginning, but not enough imo).

Overall, I think you don't have the level to build on such an useless pokemon because It seems you don't have the fondamentals yet. Imo, just take a look to sample teams and try to someone fit Salazzle on these teams if you really want to use it.

bro I think he was asking for solutions/ideas, not someone just trying to rip his team apart. I bet his team is better than anything you could build tbh. If you’re gonna criticize so hard like that atleast offer options for what’d you change bro.

 

[DIYUSI]

What I wanted to point is that it's hard to help because the goal of this team is just confused. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but, when I saw lando + rotom + AV mag and then, suddendly, Toxapex + Latias-Mega; I dont understand what he want to do with his team. As long its not clear for him, its hard to give any pertinent advice. For me, with the poke he had, he can go for two directions: a good old balance where he focus on toxa + latias + salazle; or a classic offense with lando + rotom + magearna AV + salazle.

Also, when I said he dont have the level, myself I will not be able to build something decent with salazzle because is a very, very, bad poke. And, even if we make the most optimized team possible, it will always be weak to something common in the meta because salazzle provide just nothing for any team.