SM OU Kamado Tanjiro no Uta (Samurott BO)

ScalchopFren

is my name really that hard to read?
is a Smogon Discord Contributor
Naming your teams after songs is the cool kid trend, right?
Team import: https://pokepast.es/ad27dd77915c84ce

If it wasn't clear by my username and pfp, I'm kind of a huge fan of the Oshawott evo line. Maybe it's just because White was my first Pokémon game and Oshawott was my first Pokémon, but I've always had a soft spot for them. For all intents and purposes, Dewott is TECHNICALLY my favorite of the three, but I can't bring myself to not give them a 3-way tie for first place. And what better way for a competitive player to honor their favorite Pokémon than by building a team around it? Now, are there Pokémon that fulfill Samurott's role more effectively? Absolutely - Feraligatr comes to mind almost immediately - but I wanted to build around my favorite at least once, and OU is the tier I'm most familiar with by far.

As for the music choice, I also consider myself a huge weeb (despite having only watched ~20 anime lmao), so when the team was finished I tried thinking of samurai from the shows I'd watched to name my Samurott after. Then it hit me that Tanjiro Kamado is a perfect fit for a Water-type swordsman, and that not only inspired the song choice, but it also inspired my naming conventions for the whole team. Every single team member's name is in some way related to Demon Slayer! I don't think I have anything else to get out of the way at this point, so let's just start on the team.

Teambuilding process (team members at a glance)

samurottparty.png

The first step to building a team around Samurott would be, obviously, to put the Samurott on the team. I knew I wanted to go full physical, so I decided to make it a Swords Dance set. SD and Liquidation were basically a given, in that case, and Fighting coverage seemed like a logical option as well to deal with some of the Steel types running around. The last move was left blank for a while, as I was debating back and forth between Z-Move options. A Fighting Z-Move was my first thought, but I also considered the prospect of Z-Dig for Pex or Z-Iron Tail for Fairy-types (Bulu especially). I eventually decided to stay with three moves until I had built a bit more of the team, coming back to it later on.

samurottparty.png
tapukokoparty.png

Regardless of what the last move ended up being, I realized very quickly that bulky Water types would be an issue. In the case of Fini or Pex, I could run Z-Move coverage for one of them at the expense of coverage for the other, while the less common (but still problematic) options -- Alomomola, Mantine, and ESPECIALLY Slowbro -- would be able to shrug off most coverage options fairly easily. Grass Knot was always an option, though as I already mentioned I wanted to go fully physical on this set. I came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't worth trying to pile that coverage onto Samurott, so I looked for some potential answers to opposing Water-types. Koko was my first thought, and I stuck with it. It gave me a powerful response to every Pokémon I just mentioned, while also offering momentum through VoltTurning.

samurottparty.png
tapukokoparty.png
jirachiparty.png

I'll be honest, Jirachi didn't have a great reason for being put on the team; I just arbitrarily decided that I wanted Wish support and put the most offensively based Wish user in OU on the team. However, being a Steel-type, it does also give me some handy resistances that I otherwise wouldn't have had. The most notable one is Psychic spam from the likes of Lele and Zam, since it quad resists their powerful STAB options (Zam runs Shadow Ball, of course, but a Psychic resist is important for any team in this day and age). It can also act as a soft check to something like Kartana, who can really only touch it with Knock Off or a boosted Sacred Sword (or a Z-Sacred Sword).

samurottparty.png
tapukokoparty.png
jirachiparty.png
kommo-oparty.png

It was at this point that I decided I needed to put a rocker on the team, though which one I wasn't sure. Initially I turned to Heatran as a way of dealing with the likes of Ferro, but I was already severely weak to Lando with two Ground weaknesses, and I didn't want to accentuate that weakness even further. My next thought was to use a Lando of my own, which would serve the hazard setting purpose while simultaneously offering a Ground immunity to lessen the weakness to it; however, this left me VERY vulnerable to AshGren. That's where Kommo-o comes in. Kommo-o has become one of my favorite Pokémon to use in OU, because I feel like it's so applicable to a lot of teams and can fulfill multiple roles. It can set up rocks, act as an AshGren check, AND run a Z-Move all on the same set. Although I didn't run the Z set myself, since I was already planning to have a Z-Crystal on Samurott, so I decided on the specially defensive variant. And speaking of Samurott's Z-Crystal, I decided around this time that Fightinium Z was the way to go, since it greatly helped my ability to hit Ferro.

samurottparty.png
tapukokoparty.png
jirachiparty.png
kommo-oparty.png
landorustherianparty.png

I tried not to run a Scarf Lando. I really did. I feel like a lot of the teams I've been building lately are best suited to having their scarfer be a Lando, so I wanted to avoid including it on this one if at all possible. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that all the roles it filled -- being a Ground immunity, hazard control, a momentum generator with U-turn, AND a scarfer -- were extremely useful to my team in its current state. So, here we are: another team with a Scarf Lando. Nothing much to say beyond that.

samurottparty.png
tapukokoparty.png
jirachiparty.png
kommo-oparty.png
landorustherianparty.png
megascizorparty.png

Having decided on Samurott's final move at this point, and realizing that that decision left me deathly weak to Bulu, I thought a Grass check was in order. I originally considered something with Flying coverage, but I then realized that very few of those could also beat Lele, another mon I would struggle with. Technically I could've chosen Skarm or Celesteela, but Skarm's role as a hazard setter was already filled, and Celesteela didn't seem like a great option to me at the time. However, thinking about those two options did help me realize that the best way to resist both Grass and Psychic was another Steel-type. I also didn't have a mega at the time, so Scizor it was.

A closer look at the sets

samurott.gif

Tanjiro (Samurott) (M) @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Liquidation
- Superpower
- Knock Off

Nickname origin: Our hero, Tanjiro Kamado!

Here's the "big reveal" of the last move, I suppose: I chose Knock Off. It seemed like a good utility option for me at the time of building, as well as a way of hitting Psychic-types with fairly strong coverage, so I stuck with it all the way up until starting this thread. Oh, and the Fighting coverage I mentioned was Superpower. I wanted to run Sacred Sword so I didn't have to lower my stats, but it lacked the damage output that Superpower gives me, especially in Z-Move form. 224 Speed EVs with a Jolly Nature allows me to outrun standard defensive Lando (and Timid Magearna and Modest Tran, by extension, since that's what Lando is EVd for). Max Attack is pretty much a given for this kind of set, and I just put the remaining EVs into HP. Will it help me live anything? Probably not, but you never know.


tapukoko.gif

HEKIREKI (Tapu Koko) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 32 HP / 88 Def / 172 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch
- Roost

Nickname origin: HEKIREKI ISSEN (aka Thunderclap and Flash), Zenitsu Agatsuma's signature move. I didn't name it Zenitsu because I wanted a badass Pokémon to have a badass nickname, and if you've watched Demon Slayer you know Zenitsu is not much of a badass yet.

I don't have much more to say on this set, to be honest. As I already mentioned, it's mainly here to deal with the bulky Water-types that Samurott could struggle with. I went with the Shuca Berry set because it was the only one on Koko's SmogDex page that had was guaranteed to have all three of Tbolt, HP Ice, and a switching move. I went with Roost over Defog to improve longevity and also because I didn't want this to be my hazard control. Otherwise, not much to say here; it's just a standard Shuca Berry Koko.


jirachi.gif

Yahaba (Jirachi) @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 248 HP / 188 SpD / 72 Spe
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Iron Head
- Body Slam

Nickname origin: Yahaba, the arrow demon with eyes on his hands. I chose this name because Jirachi also has an eye in an unexpected place.

Jirachi serves the valuable purpose of resisting the attacks of several common Pokémon, most notably the Tapus (except Koko), Kartana/other Grass-types, and Magearna. Having Protect also provides great defensive utility with Wish, as its analysis explains, helping it play mindgames with Lucha and Mega Medicham or just get the healing for free. I decided that running Body Slam was a better option than U-turn for this team, since a slower Pokémon like Samurott would benefit greatly from the paralysis chance.


kommo-o.gif

Kyogai (Kommo-o) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 240 SpD / 16 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Tail
- Earthquake
- Protect

Nickname origin: Kyogai, the tsuzumi demon. Chosen because of their associations with sound.

As I said earlier, I put this on the team largely to function as a check to AshGren. However, it does also help significantly against Pokémon like Heatran and Blacephalon, against which my defensive matchup is otherwise not great aside from Samurott's Fire resistance. I was originally going to run a variation on the specially defensive set that I saw in a PokeaimMD video -- with Drain Punch and Toxic over Dragon Tail and Protect -- but I reverted back to the standard because I thought it would be better for me overall. Clearing out setup sweepers would be very important to me, so I wanted to preserve Dragon Tail; that wasn't enough coverage by itself, of course, so I decided I needed to keep EQ as well to check a greater number of boxes overall. Though it should be noted that my primary reason for wanting Fighting coverage was because my team can have serious issues with Ferro on paper, and it's for that reason that I've considered potentially changing to a variation of the offensive rocks set. It wouldn't be quite as bulky, but something like a physical DDance set with Close Combat could still check the aforementioned threats and provide me with that coverage I need.

landorus-therian.gif

Urokodaki (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 232 Atk / 68 Def / 208 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Explosion
- Defog

Nickname origin: Sakonji Urokodaki, Tanjiro's teacher in the ways of swordsmanship and Total Concentration Breathing. Lando may not have Water moves, but his mustache certainly makes him look like an old man.

There's not much I can really say about this choice that hasn't been said by myself or Smogon already. Scarf Lando is one of the most basic choices I could make, but its aforementioned utilities are too good for my team. Perhaps the only difference between my set and what most would run is having Explosion over Stone Edge. Despite the obvious self-KO aspect, I've always preferred Explosion on Scarf Lando for whatever reason. While it does leave the set more vulnerable to Celesteela, it also can't miss and does a hell of a lot more to certain Pokémon (Serp, Bulu, Lucha, Mega Venu) that Stone Edge is incapable of accomplishing. I usually have options for Celesteela on the team anyway, so I'm not quite as concerned.


scizor-mega.gif

Rui (Scizor-Mega) (M) @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 244 SpD
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Superpower

Nickname origin: Rui, the spider demon and…
member of the Twelve Kizuki, the most powerful servants of the original demon Muzan Kibutsuji.
Scizor is obviously not a spider, but Rui is the character from the show with whom I would most closely associate this Pokémon.

Once again, I can't say that much about this set that hasn't been mentioned already. Mega Scizor is a fantastic defensive check to several Pokémon, though, including the Psychic- and Grass-types that could otherwise give me troubles. It's pretty much the standard option aside from having Superpower over Knock Off, simply because I'm paranoid about Steel-types with this team.

Speaking of Steel-types...

Threats/issues

Technically I haven't even used this team yet, so I don't know what its big issues would be in practice. This section is just for me to list some things that could give me trouble in theory, so I could maybe get some ideas for what to do about them.

Rain: When I look at this team by itself, rain kind of seems to demolish it. Swampert can OHKO or 2HKO everything with either of its STAB options, and I can't really do much in response because of Swift Swim. Unfortunately, I think my balance is pretty good otherwise, so I'm at a loss for what to use as a replacement. Please send help :[

Bulky Steel-types: Technically I could SD with either of Samurott or Scizor and OHKO Ferro with Superpower, but aside from those options I'm somewhat starved for coverage against some of the Steel-types in the tier. Superpower from either Pokémon will absolutely NOT OHKO opposing Scizor, Magearna, or Celesteela. And while Lando can at least hit the first two with EQ, Celesteela is obviously immune to it. I do have Koko for Celesteela, but my options against it are otherwise fairly limited. The idea I had of swapping to a more offensive Kommo-o might suit me better against a couple of them.

Stall(?): I'm not 100% sure how well I would do against stall teams, but based on my offensive presence (or lack thereof) it seems like they might be an issue.

So that's all I've got! I'm open to any suggestions for improvements, as long as they don't include removing the Samurott (for obvious reasons).
 
Last edited:

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top