XY OU Medicham and Friends

[Jonny7]

Introduction

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My name on the smogon server is Jonny7777777. I don't post on forums very often and normally just lurk, but I was inspired by tele's Balanced Team to make my own RMT. I've had some success with this squad. I've been playing Pokemon since since gen 1 and learned about battling competitively during gen 4. I started spending a lot more time battling in Gen 5, then took a break before playing again when XY came out. I've never played in any of the Smogon tournaments and have only tried laddering. With this team I managed to get #1 on the Pokemon Showdown OU ladder although I was quickly passed by Call me a god. I find that while this team has a fighting chance against almost every team, it has many favorably lopsided match-ups. This is probably why this team does well on the ladder. The majority of matches are very easy to win, even if a few Pokemon cause this team a lot of trouble.

Team Building Process
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I don't actually remember all of my reasoning for the changes I made, but this is the path I took to get to my final team. My basic team building strategy was play games, figure out what I was losing to, and make a change to respond to that weakness. There are some flaws to this strategy and I would sometimes replace 1 Pokemon and find I was now weak to another Pokemon that I never realized was a big threat...

Early on during 6th gen I threw this team together.

(Mega-Lucario)
The basic premise of this team was to throw the most overpowered Pokemon together and win. I ended up being pretty successful and hit #1 in the ladder. Eventually Mega-lucario got banned and I needed to find a replacement. I tried a few mega-evolutions but nothing really worked as well as lucario. So I eventually abandoned the team.

I was playing around with some other teams and I faced a few opponents who were using mega-medicham. Every time I faced him I would lose badly. I decided to dust off my old team and try him out in Mega-Lucario's place.

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Medicham turned out to be an absolute beast.

Next, I swapped Landorus out for a swords dance Landorus-therian. I don't really remember why I made this change, but I think I was facing a lot of stall at the time and wanted a stronger wall breaker.

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Next, I decided I needed a better way to deal with baton pass, which was a huge threat at the time so I tried a number of Pokemon in aegislash's place and eventually decided on a mixed greninja with taunt.

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For a short while, I tried Deoxys-speed in the place of Conkedlurr to act as a revenge killer/clean-up crew.

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This turned out to be a terrible idea as my team's Aegislash weakness became even more evident.

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Next, I swapped Landorus-Therian for Garchomp, because I needed another Pokemon that could outspeed base 100 Pokemon like Charizard. Also, Garchomp is just really good.

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Finally, I swapped Greninja back for Aegislash. Baton pass was no longer a threat and I needed a Pokemon that would help me deal with Tele's Balanced Team which I was seeing all over the place and Aegislash seemed like a better stall breaker than Greninja.

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That brings me to my current squad:

Overview​

Medicham @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature

-Fake Out
-Drain Punch
-Psycho Cut
-Bullet Punch

This guy is really really good. Very few Pokemon can beat this one on one. The combination of Fake out and Bullet Bunch lets him kill many Pokemon once they've been weakened. Drain Punch is the best attack to spam because even if the opponent resists his attacks it helps heal some HP. Psycho cut helps to kill Venusaur. However, this set has some pretty major disadvantages. It's coverage is terrible and is ineffective against many psychic types. The biggest problem is probably Aegislash. Luckily, many opponents don't realize how important Aegislash is to stopping this monster and will let Aegislash die.​

Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Swords Dance
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Poison Jab

Garchomp is a very good offensive Pokemon. After one swords dance he wrecks a huge portion of the meta-game. The main reason I use him is to beat or weaken many of the Pokemon that rely on status like Breloom. Generally Garchomp is pretty disposable as he is easily revenge killed by many faster Pokemon with ice type or dragon type attacks. Poison Jab may seem like a strange choice, but it does a little extra damage to fairy types and the high poison rate often comes in handy.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
-Hydro Pump
-Volt Switch
-Will-O-Wisp
-Pain Split

Rotom-w is a beast. There are so many things that this thing walls and threatens. Combined with heatran, this thing forms the teams defensive core. This and Heatran act mostly as pivots and rarely actually end up doing a lot of damage against opposing teams. The burn on Rotom is particularly useful for this team because it allows my offensive Pokemon to 2hko many threats that would usually wall them.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
-Stealth Rock
-Lava Plume
-Toxic
-Roar

Heatran pretty much sets up rocks walls a few things and then is sacrificed. Roar prevents opposing Pokemon from setting up on him and toxic and lava plume wear down opposing switch ins. Many opposing Pokemon can safely set up on Heatran, so I try to avoid keeping him in for very long. Often times I will switch in Heatran and switch out before something like Charizard or Gyarados can come in to set up.

Conkeldurr @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
-Drain Punch
-Mach Punch
-Knock Off
-Ice Punch

Conkeldurr might seem redundant with Medicham but he is slightly more bulky and once medicham has worn down conkeldurr's counters he can come in to finish the job. This is a pretty standard set and beats a lot of things.

Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Shadow Sneak
-Flash Cannon
-Sacred Sword

This was the last addition to the team and is very powerful. This acts as the teams wall-breaker since it can 2HKO just about everything. Most people don't expect Aegislash to be fast even though this is the first set listed on Smogon's Strategy Pokedex.

Strengths
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This team features many absurdly powerful attackers that constantly threaten opponents Pokemon and can even cause major damage to their switch ins. Even though Medicham is actually bulky and doesn't have ice or fire punch most opponents will play as if he is fast and does have good coverage. Furthermore, this team has a huge amount of priority and ways to wear down opponents. The combination of Fake out, mach punch, shadow sneak, bullet punch and rough skin provides very good insurance against many sweeps. On the other hand, the variety of powerful attackers allow this team to wear down stall.

Weaknesses
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This team has only one Pokemon with a ground immunity, Rotom-wash. Thus, pokemon like Landorus or choice scarf mold breaker Excadrill are very scary to face. Rotom is the team's only switch in against a huge number of threats and it often becomes necessary to sacrifice Pokemon to prevent sweeps. Furthermore, the team is very slow and as a result dragon dance sweepers such as Gyarados and Charizard x are very annoying to face. Luckily, most of the Pokemon on this team are threatening enough that opponents don't get an opportunity to set-up. Heatran is not very threatening but makes up for it somewhat with roar.

Threat List​

I'm lazy and don't want to address every threat, so here are the Pokemon that cause the most trouble.

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Landorus: landorus can 2HKO anything on my team. Medicham, Conkedlurr Garchomp, and Rotom-W can all beat him at full health but it is very hard to switch in if he comes in on aegislash or heatran.

Aegislash: It is the strongest counter to Medicham. Heatran and Conkeldurr are the best Pokemon to switch in against it. Luckily, every other Pokemon on my team can do considerable damage to Aegislash.

Charizard-Mega X: After a dragon dance this thing wrecks me. I normally just try to get up stealth rocks and wear it down with priority. The offensive version is horrible to face. The defensive will-O-wisp version isn't as scary because rotom absorb and hit and volt switch into garchomp.

Gliscor: Toxic stalling Gliscor is unbelievably annoying. Garchomp can abosrb toxic with lum berry, but once the the opponent is sitting behind a substitute you probably have to sacrifice one pokemon to break it.

Gyarados-Mega: After a dragon dance this thing is really powerful. This guy is especially dangerous because it can switch in to Conkeldurr and Medicham because of intimidate. Mold breaker allows it to hit Rotom hard. Luckily, if the Gyarados is not adamant, Rotom can survive a +1 earthqauke and do enough damage that another pokemon can ko it with its priority.

Breloom's attacks are strong and spore is annoying. Medicham can fake out to break its sash and Garchomp can stop spore with its lum berry.

Azumarill: Rotom-w can switch although play rough can hurt. Aegislash, Medicham and Garchomp are all faster and can do a good amount of damage. Medicham can sometimes KO with Fake out and psycho cut.

Clefable: This guy walls Rotom-w and Conkeldurr and the combination of moonblast and flamethrower threatens most of the team. Heatran can wall Clefable all day and can set up rocks but can't actually do anything to it.

Rain Teams: Rain teams in general are very challenging to face. Aegislash and Conkeldurr both survive a specs Hydro Pump and can hid back hard. However, many rain teams use light screen and reflect which turn 2HKOS into 3HKOs or more.

Excadrill: Any pokemon with earthquake is a threat to this team. Mold Breaker allows Excadrill to damage Rotom-W. Excardill is very good at spinning away rocks set up by Heatran. Luckily, Conkeldurr, Medicham and Garchomp KO it.

Importable​

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Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Poison Jab
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump

Conkeldurr @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch

Medicham @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Psycho Cut
- Drain Punch
- Bullet Punch

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Lava Plume
- Roar
- Toxic

Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Shadow Sneak
- Sacred Sword
- Flash Cannon

Alternate:​

This is the Greninja set I was using instead of Aegislash.

Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
Dark Pulse
Surf/ Hydro Pump
U-Turn
Taunt

This set might seem really odd. It has awful coverage. However, what I have found while playing Grenina is that people will almost always switch away from him so it is usually safe to spam U-turn. Greninja has a very diverse movepool and a wide variety of sets. Thus, most players will try to figure out which moves it is running before they try to confront it. I tried ice beam instead of taunt but people never actually stayed in so I switched back to taunt to annoy all the Chansey or Ferrothorn switch ins. Right now I think Aegislash is better but this set helped to revenge kill a lot of faster Pokemon like Landorus.

Possible Changes​

I might give Garchomp a choice scarf to help out with revenge killing, but I've always hated locking myself into a move. Also, I might replace poison jab with stone edge. Many online players have made fun of me for using that attack. I might also try a faster Heatran set with Will-O-Wisp instead of toxic and earth power instead of lava plume. I'd like to try a balloon but I'm worried this will put more of the damage absorbing burden on Rotom.

Conclusion​

So this is my team. Let me know what you think. I think it's definitely not perfect but it does have a lot of really good match-ups. Also, Medicham is really underrated. If Aegislash is banned it will be unstoppable unless more people start using Slowbro. Also, since I don't post very often, let me know if I committed any horrible crimes with this post. Feel free to use this team if you want to try it out.


*every pokemon that doesn't have a physical move has it's attack IV set to 0
*Big sprites taken from XY Sprite Project and little images taken from Threat list in XY OU RMT

 

[zerowing]

i would change the set around on medicham give him zen headbutt over psycho cut and high jump kick over drain punch and ice punch over either fake out or bullet punch. it really doesnt have the hp or defense to take and hit with out taking alot of damage you should be using him as a wall/stall breaker to just come in and destroy either whats in or whatever switchs in. And if your having trouble with set up sweepers you can try switching something out for an unaware clefable set.