SV OU Iron Crown/Araquanid Balance

[Heatranator]

| | | | |



Introduction

This team was somewhat of a pet project for me. It combines many overlooked or unorthodox strategies to attempt to win games. The main point of this team is to set up iron crown to sweep the opposing team by using the sheer wallbreaking power of araquanid and defensively checking and chipping pokemon it can't hit very well through the rest of the team. This team is very slow paced and if araquanid dies, stall can be an issue, while HO can be difficult if one of the defensive mons is Ko'd which the rest of the team can't deal with. Still, I feel like this team can at the very least, put up a good fight and emerge victorious if played well.

Teambuilding Process

So first I started off with iron crown, which was the mon I wanted to teambuild with.
| Then I remembered a post that stated araquanid could do damage similar to dracovish, so I decided to add one with a choice band to the team.
| | Then, I started to create the defensive backbone of my team. Defensive gouging fire was great because it meant it could deal decent damage while acting as a buffer against physcial attackers.
| | | Then, I chose amoonguss to complete the fire water grass core and increase my defensive backbone by stopping offensive threats with spore.
| | | | Next up was a more supportive pokemon. I chose clefable because of its access to wish and stealth rocks. Plus, thunder wave could help my offensive pokemon.
| | | | | Finally, I decided I needed some more firepower and hazard control, so I added on a protean cinderace to the team.
| | | | | However, I felt that cinderace didn't really do that much on my team, so I replaced it with assault vest excadrill.
| | | | | After a few matches, I realised that my team wasn't really weak to hazards, the only one weak to them was araquanid, which didn't want to come in too often anways, so hazard removal was not really needed. Plus, the clefable, while good, didn't really work for my team structure. So, I replaced both with a primarina and gliscor, which filled the roles of the replaced mons better and had additional tools that fit my team.

The Team


Iron Crown @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tachyon Cutter
- Psychic Noise
- Air Slash
- Agility

The pokemon that started this journey. I decided to try out iron crown because nobody really talks about this pokemon. It's mainly overshadowed by iron boulder, despite them filling different niches. Anyways, this pokemon is a sp.A booster agility set. It's best at cleaning up late game, where pokemon are chipped and it can come in on a pokemon that doesn't threaten it too much. Tachyon cutter is obvious for steel stab, but psychic noise was chosen to allow it to combat pokemon that it would otherwise struggle against that can take a few hits from it and recover off the damage. This means that stuff like empoleon and blissey can get chipped over time and crown can eventually win. Air slash is great for dealing with pokemon such as rillaboom (mainly rillaboom) and can go great with it's tera. Tera flying was chosen because I found that a lot of teams use a ground type move to deal with crown, so it can become immune to it and set up an agility, letting it outspeed everything and ko most things. The main thing it struggles with is steel types, which take most of it's hits and excluding multiple air slash flinches, can ko it back easily. Overall, definetely a sleeper pick, but if the steel is gone/severly crippled, it can dominate games.


Araquanid @ Choice Band
Ability: Water Bubble
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Leech Life
- Crunch
- Poison Jab

Funny spider go brrrrrr. No joke, this mon has actually been decent for me. The main button that will be clicked is liquidation, the others are just there for the sake of filling up the movepool. I've clicked leech life maybe once predicting a waterpon switch in, but otherwise liquidation is the move to click. Unless the pokemon quad resists the move or has boosted it with iron defense, it is going to sting. The main strategy I've found is to lead araquanid and destroy the lead or bring it down to focus sash, while they most of the time taunt you expecting sticky webs. Tera water is for the extra power to go through some mons that can barely live normal liquidation. It's main struggles is getting into the game safely, as while it does have decent bulk, it is extremely weak to passive damage. Therefore, it should be piloted with care, but in the right hands, it can dominate games. Don't believe me? Don't blame you, but check out this replay with an old version of the team.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2015761595?p2


Gouging Fire @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Burning Bulwark
- Morning Sun
- Heat Crash
- Dragon Claw

Despite being mainly used for its offensive sets, I saw potential in it's defensive merits. The main selling point of defensive gouging fire is burning bulwark and morning sun. With this, it can burn physical attackers while having reliable recovery with morning sun. This can outstall many opponents and is especially great against sun teams, which increase the healing of morning sun. Heavy-duty boots was chosen to avoid stealth rocks as morning sun offsets lost leftovers recovery a little. Tera fairy allows it to stall out opposing gouging fire, unless they tera fairy too. Heat crash and dragon claw were chosen as stabs to at least deal decent damage so you don't run out of sun pp quite as quickly. Heat crash replaced snarl at one point because I found it didn't work too well. The main issue of this mon is against some mons, it can be passive, especially against heavy fairies. It also struggles a bit against special attackers, but that is dealt by the rest of the team. Overall, while it can be dead weight in some matchups, it can also dominate others.


Amoonguss @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spore
- Leaf Storm
- Clear Smog
- Sludge Bomb

Amoonguss was the start of the defensive component of this team but I found a more unique role for it to fill. Yes, it does wall and spore a lot of pokemon, but the addition of one move means it can seriously hurt some common pokemon. Tera steel was chosen for its defensive properties, though fire types are still a problem for this mon. Spore is an obvious choice on the shroom, allowing it to emergency check any set-up sweepers. Clear smog can also help with this and amoonguss can regen some of the damage off to come back in later. Sludge bomb is great damage to do against fairies and rillaboom, but the main star of the show is leaf storm. This move can deal insane damage in a pinch, don't forget it has the higher attacking stats then talonflame. For example, iron boulder can't usually ohko guss from full and leaf storm will deal about 90% to it, meaning with chip it can KO it outright. Amoonguss' main issue is steel types, as they can resist both stabs and when sleep clause is active, can freely switch in and not worry at all. Still though, this mon can do great things for a team's defenses, while not slacking on offense.


Primarina @ Assault Vest
Ability: Liquid Voice
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Flip Turn
- Psychic Noise
- Moonblast
- Shadow Ball

So, this pokemon is kinda a goat of this team. My team kinda needed some special bulk as while amoonguss is decently bulky on the special side, I didn't want it to be the only mon that can deal with special mons. And let me tell you, it DEALS with special mons. Like, any mon that uses special moves most likely will be completely walled by this. Tera dark was chosen because it means it does better against gholdengo, which is a wall to my iron crown, plus it helps against stored power sweepers. Flip turn allows primarina to benefit from switchs and safely get in a strong threat, while the slow speed means that if they stay in, I can still get them in safely. Psychic noise was chosen over hyper voice to chip down walls like skarmory that could potentially wall it. Moonblast is obviously a great stab type and the last moveslot is quite flexable. I chose shadow ball because it helps with destroying gholdengo more effectively. Main weakness of this mon is hazards, as it can get chipped down decently quickly with spikes + rocks, but it still is able to wall a lot of mons.


Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Knock Off

The scorpion has returned. With gliscor's reintroduction into the meta, it has shown that it is still as great as ever. So of course when I decided I needed to have hazards on my team and a ground type, I chose gliscor. Since it mainly outclasses lando (sadly), the main competitor to a ground slot is great tusk. I chose gliscor due to its longevity and ground immunity, which is great for my team as only araquanid resists ground, who doesn't want to switch in that often. I decided to choose the usual tera type of water to remove its 4x ice weakness and 2x weakness to water because it didn't make it weak to other gliscor. Protect is of course mandatory, and spikes allows for some progress against fatter teams or offensive teams that can't break gliscor. The iv's means that gliscor's earthquake can deal significant damage to gouging fire and non-air balloon gholdengo, the former is important as while primarina does decently against gouging fire, it can't do much back to it. Knock off again allows for long term progress to be made and can deal with air balloon gholdengo. Overall, gliscor can deal with a lot of physical threats quite well and can cripple the opposing team with either spikes or knock off, making it a valuable member of the team.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this team has some good points and same bad points and has managed to suprise me quite a lot. In some matchups, it can feel dominating and I can never lose a single pokemon. However, in others it can struggle and barely take some wins. Overall, it is quite great but could use some tweaking to get the most effectivness.

 

[Omastar68]

I like Araquinid. I don't play OU, and anyways it might not fit well on my team w/ being another slow rock weak, but it's cool. You say the other 3 moves ar efiller, this is largely true. I do se ethe point of Crunch and Leech Life, but I'm not sold on Poison Jab. If they're switching in Ogerpon, maybe use Lunge to drop their Attack. Goes good w/ spikes to a degree. Mirror Coat would be too weird I guess on CB, but if you care more to drp SpA, Skitter Smack could even work, though you get 10 less BP and acc so it's only if you really hate special attacks, if you get both and you do.

But yeah, you seem to cover fairies w/ tachyon cutter and sludge bomb, I don't know that you need poison jab. Maybe though, since Araquinid is slow and takes a hit before lowering their Attack/SpA. I just thought I'd post cause nothing hardly happens in my meta, BSS, and no one else(presumably beter suited,) has posted here.

 

[Roller K]

I like this team a lot! I haven't run into SpA-boosting or Choice Band on ladder, and I know they would both scare me. While I have not tested the team yet, I made some tweaks to help out.

My version:

Changes:

1. > : While I love the water spider's surprise factor, you said yourself that passive damage hurts it. For a team as bulky as yours, I feel like hazard removal is quite necessary, even if you have two knock absorbers in and . I wanted to put a more consistent breaker that could remove hazards. I was deciding between Choice Band or , but considering you already have strong Water coverage with , I decided would be the better option for the team. With 252+ Attack, it hits a whopping 595 Attack with Choice Band. Tera Stellar works very well with this set as it wants to retain its defensive typing for and the like while firing off powerful hits. 240 Speed is to tie 252+ Speed base 60 Pokemon and ensure you outspeed mid-speed Pokemon like . 405 HP is for Seismic Toss purposes. While I recommend Rapid Spin for this particular team, you could easily tweak the moveset to include Temper Flare, Supercell Slam, Knock Off, and/or Stealth Rock.

2. Calm Mind > Air Slash on : I did not want to change the concept of SpA booster for , as I find that very neat. I just don't like Air Slash on something trying to apply pressure with set-up. I want the Crown to shine, and Calm Mind will let it become a more potent sweeper, as your team currently does not have a set-up Pokemon. I considered Focus Blast since that would punish , , and much better, but realistically, this is your late-game sweeper that should only come in once those threats are weakened or fainted. Calm Mind lets force awkward positioning from the opponent, as after one Calm Mind, your Special Attack will be 735, and that Tachyon Cutter will be stinging.

3. Dragon Tail > Dragon Claw on : Phazing moves are so good right now with such an offensive set-up metagame. Dragon Tail still lets you retain your Dragon attack, but it will also punish Pokemon trying to set up as you use Burning Bulwark. It synergizes very well with Spikes from , as you can chip down Pokemon over time. I also like Temper Flare > Heat Crash on defensive as it lets you spam Burning Bulwark and get rewarded for it not working, but Heat Crash is likely the more consistent pick, so that's not too important.

4. Draining Kiss > Shadow Ball on : Draining Kiss will help stay alive throughout the game. You already handle very well with Liquid Voice Psychic Noise (which I didn't even realize worked that way, super cool tech!). Draining Kiss is a much more consistent option, and it will win you more games.

5. EV Changes
a. : I wanted to keep some offense on because I often face the same issue of setting up on and winning the exchange. To start, I tried to slot in Swords Dance on the set, but needs all its moves. Instead, I put the Attack at 280 so it guaranteed 2HKO's max defense . The rest was pumped into Special Defense to make it a more well-rounded wall for the team.
b. : 4 Speed EVs ensure you outspeed Jolly .
c. : 4 Defense EVs may help with priority moves.

Let me know how these changes work for you! I really like the FWG core and double Psychic Noise, I will try out the team some time :)

 

[Heatranator]

I like this team a lot! I haven't run into SpA-boosting or Choice Band on ladder, and I know they would both scare me. While I have not tested the team yet, I made some tweaks to help out.

My version:

Changes:

1. > : While I love the water spider's surprise factor, you said yourself that passive damage hurts it. For a team as bulky as yours, I feel like hazard removal is quite necessary, even if you have two knock absorbers in and . I wanted to put a more consistent breaker that could remove hazards. I was deciding between Choice Band or , but considering you already have strong Water coverage with , I decided would be the better option for the team. With 252+ Attack, it hits a whopping 595 Attack with Choice Band. Tera Stellar works very well with this set as it wants to retain its defensive typing for and the like while firing off powerful hits. 240 Speed is to tie 252+ Speed base 60 Pokemon and ensure you outspeed mid-speed Pokemon like . 405 HP is for Seismic Toss purposes. While I recommend Rapid Spin for this particular team, you could easily tweak the moveset to include Temper Flare, Supercell Slam, Knock Off, and/or Stealth Rock.

2. Calm Mind > Air Slash on : I did not want to change the concept of SpA booster for , as I find that very neat. I just don't like Air Slash on something trying to apply pressure with set-up. I want the Crown to shine, and Calm Mind will let it become a more potent sweeper, as your team currently does not have a set-up Pokemon. I considered Focus Blast since that would punish , , and much better, but realistically, this is your late-game sweeper that should only come in once those threats are weakened or fainted. Calm Mind lets force awkward positioning from the opponent, as after one Calm Mind, your Special Attack will be 735, and that Tachyon Cutter will be stinging.

3. Dragon Tail > Dragon Claw on : Phazing moves are so good right now with such an offensive set-up metagame. Dragon Tail still lets you retain your Dragon attack, but it will also punish Pokemon trying to set up as you use Burning Bulwark. It synergizes very well with Spikes from , as you can chip down Pokemon over time. I also like Temper Flare > Heat Crash on defensive as it lets you spam Burning Bulwark and get rewarded for it not working, but Heat Crash is likely the more consistent pick, so that's not too important.

4. Draining Kiss > Shadow Ball on : Draining Kiss will help stay alive throughout the game. You already handle very well with Liquid Voice Psychic Noise (which I didn't even realize worked that way, super cool tech!). Draining Kiss is a much more consistent option, and it will win you more games.

5. EV Changes
a. : I wanted to keep some offense on because I often face the same issue of setting up on and winning the exchange. To start, I tried to slot in Swords Dance on the set, but needs all its moves. Instead, I put the Attack at 280 so it guaranteed 2HKO's max defense . The rest was pumped into Special Defense to make it a more well-rounded wall for the team.
b. : 4 Speed EVs ensure you outspeed Jolly .
c. : 4 Defense EVs may help with priority moves.

Let me know how these changes work for you! I really like the FWG core and double Psychic Noise, I will try out the team some time :)

I played around with your revisions and I have to say that it's quite great. CB great tusk fills that niche of an extreme wallbreaker quite well, calm mind on Iron Crown works quite well for more late game scenarios and draining kiss on primarina helped immensly and has made it truely shine on the team.
Some points that I found was that sometimes Iron crown really wanted air slash for the flinches and great damage, though I do believe that calm mind is the better option over it, and that tusk's tera probably is needed to be something more defensive, like steel, to fully maximise it's opportunities.
Still though, this is a major improvement, especially for the ev's, which is something that I'm not the best on so far but I am improving on, 218 speed is now burnt into my brain to outspeed gambit. Thank you for all your help. :)