XY OU Mega-Altaria

[pod137]

This is my first RMT, as well as my first shot at serious ORAS team building. The team got me to around 1350 on the ladder, but then I started making some less than optimal plays. Trying to learn the current metagame, so let me know what you guys think.

Altaria-Mega @ Altarianite
Ability: Pixilate Pre-Mega: Natural Cure
EVs: 64 HP / 192 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Dragon Dance

Comes in and sets up, usually as a late game sweeper. This team revolves around trying to remove things like bulky fairies so Altaria can come in and clean up. I ran sub over roost for a while, but sub recoil and opposing attacks wears down Altaria too quickly.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 56 SpD / 200 Spe
Calm Nature
- Toxic
- Roar
- Earth Power Heat Wave
- Stealth Rock

Fairly standard Sp. Def Tran, here to take hits from the Latis and set up rocks. Also serves as the phaser. I chose Earth Power over Lava Plume to hit opposing Heatrans and Magnizones, though this means I get walled by Ferrothorn. I chose to run Heat Wave over Earth Power because I lacked a Fire-STAB, especially once I took HP Fire off Gengar. Lado, Rotom, and Altaria all deal with Heatran, so I have no reason to waste a move slot to deal with it on my own Heatran. It synergizes well my defensive Rotom-W to cover most OU threats. I put 200 speed on to outspeed Adamant Bisharp per Nova's recommendation.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp

Normal Defensive Rotom-W, mostly around to counter Azumarill, Lopunny, and Gyarados. Has the Volt Switch to keep my Volt-Turn core solid, and Will-O-Wisp to help deal with Lopunny or just get residual damage on a threat.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off

I use this Landorus mainly to keep momentum with U-Turn and to get prior damage on things like Clefable, Slowbro, and Mamoswine so that Altaria can easily KO them later. I mostly just U-Turn out to keep offensive pressure up. I also use it as a last ditch attempt to deal with Bisharp, since I don't want to give it a Defiant boost.

Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Fire] Substitute

Gengar usually stays in the back for teams Altaria won't be able to break through late game. It occasionally is used as another fast threat to help take care of Scizor, Clefable, Jirachi, or Azumarill. It's also good to catch Bisharp on the switch with Focus Blast, since my team is pretty Bisharp weak. I'm running substitute to be able to take a hit from a Bisharp and KO with Focus Blast and to maximize my speed.

Latias (F) @ Leftovers Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe
Modest Nature
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Roost Healing Wish
- Defog

Offensive Defog Latias to help as a middle ground in my defenses. Keeps rocks off my side of the field and can nuke things with Draco. 16 speed EVs to speed creep, modest nature to hit as hard as possible. I'm considering running Healing Wish over Roost, but I'm not sure how much that would help my team. Changed to max speed and timid nature to get more speed. Healing Wish support to heal up Altaria for a late game run. EV spread hits a life orb number to deal maximum damage. I don't need the bulk since I almost only use this as a Rotom-W wall.

 

[astroshagger]

I really think Timid is better than Modest on Latias.

Latias is your Defogger and utility switch in, it's not meant to provide raw power. If that's what you want, go with Latios. Timid allows it to reach 350 spe which is a crucial benchmark right now. This allows you to tie M-Gallade, Gengar, M-Meta, Lati@s etc

 

[Sato52]

I think too that your Latias should be timid for to be your team's deffoger. And absolutelly 252 spe is better than evs in hp. For this distribution of evs could be better calm nature, but you would lose offensive power.

 

[pod137]

Thanks for the insight; I updated the team. Any other thoughts?

 

[Nova]

Hey pod137

Solid bulky offense team, just some quick ideas to help improve it. I would try out Heal Bell over Earthquake on Mega Altaria. Mega Altaria is your primary win condition but it really gets hindered if it gets crippled by status. Heal Bell helps prevent this from happening while offering team support for your other members. You can do without Earthquake because the things that it is hitting such as Heatran and Ferrothorn can be handled by Rotom-W and Landorus-T.

You should run some speed on Heatran, the amount depends on how much bulk you are willing to sacrifice. 200 Speed EVs would let you outspeed Max Speed Adamant Bisharp and get some nice damage off with Earth Power. A lot of Specially Defensive Heatrans run 68 Speed EVs for Mega Venusaur and Mega Scizor so running a little more than that could let you outspeed them and Earth Power first. If you want to maintain as much bulk as possible, I would run 8 Speed EVs just to outrun Heatran that are not running any speed.

I would consider Substitute over HP Fire on Gengar. Sub helps ease protection and also gives you the benefit of not having to be reduced to 30 Speed IVs which is annoying vs other Base 110s. Shadow Ball/Focus Blast/Sludge Wave is already amazing coverage regardless. This could make you really weak to Mega Scizor though without Lava Plume on Heatran so try out what better fits your style, if you are able to predict well with Gengar.

Lastly, Healing Wish over Roost on Latias is definitely a nice option. You probably could stick with Earthquake on Altaria if you do decide to use Healing Wish since it'll most likely be the recipient of the Healing Wish and that would serve as a way to remove status.

 

[astroshagger]

Thanks for the insight; I updated the team. Any other thoughts?

If Latias seems to be too frail for you, you can try some bulkier spreads of 152 HP / 252 Spe / 104 SAtk or 72 HP / 252 Spe / 184 SAtk, both with Life Orb. These spreads give you 339 and 319 HP, respectively. Both of these HP values are Life Orb numbers (satisfying 10n-1 or any HP stat ending in 9) to minimize recoil and allow 1 extra attack for 11 instead of 10.

You should also specify which pre-Mevo ability you're using on Altaria. If your team is having trouble with Char Y (which it shouldn't really if you make Latias bulkier) go with Cloud Nine so you have a reliable switch in. Since you're running DD though, I would opt for Natural Cure becasue status like Toxic/ Willowisp/ T-Wave stops you much harder than it would a hit and run Mixed Altaria set.

 

[pod137]

You should also specify which pre-Mevo ability you're using on Altaria.

I'm running natural cure to help block status. It lets me make a few riskier switches without fear of status. It's also why I'm running EQ overv heal bell, as Nova suggested. I want to keep EQ so Altaria doesn't get walled by Steel or Fire types, and since it's a late game sweeper, I can always sack Latias for a healing wish if I need. I don't have a large Zard-Y problem cause Latias more or less walls it and Lando outspeeds and O-KOs with Stone Edge. I think I'll try the more offensive Latias, cause I mainly use it to wall Rotom-W and get off a nice hit before switching out, and with Healing Wish it makes more sense. I'll update the team. Any more tweaks?

Edit: After a day on the ladder, I feel like the biggest issues with the team are now that it lacks priority and struggles with strong water attackers. If anyone has any thoughts on a mon to switch out to fix that, that'd be great.