Introduction
Hello there. I'm a new player, in both the smogon fourm community and the competitive scene. But, I've started a few weeks ago because I was interested in what the competitive scene is like. As I've been playing for these weeks, I eventually decided to try out the OU metagame. As a result, I've decided to build a balanced team around Charizard, particularly the his X mega form. Anyways, the team. This team is built to deal chip damage, or kill off threats all together, until the team has been weakened enough to where Megazard X can sweep. This happens either through a combination of Stealth Rocks and constant phasing, or pressuring them through VoltTuring for hard damage and momentum. While I'm still new to the competitive scene, this team so far has been very successful, but most of all, very fun. Both to build the team itself, and to test and see how it fairs with the current meta. Before I continue on to the next section, keep in mind that there are still certain teams I haven't been able to encounter yet with this build. (Ex: A team around Mega Sableye)
Team Building Process
I started with Charizard himslef. I will get more in-depth details about the build itself. But, I wanted to have my Charizard to be a Dancing set. As most people know, Megazard X is weak to Rock x2, Ground x2, and Dragon x2.
So where do I go from here? Well I decided I wanted a Pivot with U-turn. I decided to go with possibly a non-standard set. This is when I added my scarfed Scizor. Their typing goes well with each other. Scizor only has a x4 weakness to Fire. However, Charizard x1/4 resists Fire. In exchange, Scizor has a resistance to Dragon x1/2.
At this point, I needed some form of Hazard Control, especially since Charizard will still be susceptible as it will start of with his normal Fire/ Flying typing. I decided to go with Starmie. Starmie is weak to Bug x2, Ghost x2, Grass x2, Electric x2, and Dark x2. However, here's how he works with the current team. Both Charizard and Scizor, resist Bug x1/2, Starmie adds a second Fire resistance, Charizard and Scizor resist Grass x1/4, and Charizard resists Electric x1/2.
I now wanted a Physical Tank. Someone that would be able to take damage, and serve it back harder. This is where Conkeldurr comes in. He has a wide movepool to choose from and has good enough bulk to take a hit or two. He has an unfortunate Fairy weakness, but I found something to sorta make up for that in case Scizor is lost.
Since I had Scizor with U-Turn, I figured that I'd go with a VoltTurn Combo. I decided to go with a Speced Raikou. Raikou is not only one of the hardest hitting Electric type Mons in the tier, but is also one of the fastest. this is why I felt Raikou would be a great Volt Switch partner for Scizor.
So to finally to finish off the team, I realized that I didn't really have an actual Wall. So I decided to add a Mon that I'm personally glad I got to try out, Hippowdon. Hippowdon is the Physical Wall of the group, but is also my lead when I see a good opportunity to set up Rocks. However, Hippowdon can also help against rain based teams with his Sand Stream ability. Not only taking their enhancements away, but withering the health down more. So who wants to see the members themselves eh?
Team In-Depth
Credit for the image goes to DangerJumP at Devian Art.
http://dangerjump.deviantart.com/art/Badly-Animated-Badly-Drawn-Mega-Charizard-X-414083304
Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze (Tough Claws)
EVs: 40 HP/ 252 Atk/ 216 Spe
Jolly Nature (+ Spe, - SpA)
- Dragon Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Outrage
- Roost
The main Sweeper of the team. Charizard has finally found his spot in the meta game... and I think it has earned its OU tier placement. This thing, while sadly has lost his ground immunity and did not receive the Levitate ability, has something much better to make up for that... Tough Claws! For those of you newer to the Competitive side as I am, Tough Claws boosts the power of contact moves by x1.3. (30%) This means with the Tough Claws ability, and the stab boost from Charizard's new Fire/ Dragon typing, that means Flare Blitz and Outrage are going to get boosted up to a power of 234! Charizard with STAB Outrage brings on insane amounts of damage! This guy with a Jolly nature has been able to either 2HKO or 3HKO a Mega Metagross... Now you might be asking yourself. "Why Roost and Outrage?" Well... Roost is to mainly recover damage from Flare Blitz's recoil damage, and possibly even Stealth Rock damage if needed. And I know people usually use Dragon Claw over Outrage, as it does not lock you into it and get you confused after use. But here's the thing. Like I said, Charizard's role in this team is suppose to be a Sweeper, and I don't know how most people view them, but to me and from what I have observed, a Sweeper (Special or Physical) is meant to basically wipe out whatever is left on the opponents team. Whether boosted or unboosted. Outrage was picked with that mindset in mind. As for the EVs, the reason I put 216 into Speed, is so I am able to outspeed a scarfed Lando-T with one DD setup, possibly one of the most common scarfers I've seen, and to initially outspeed a Jolly Kyurem-B.
Credit for this image goes to JHALLpokemon at Devian Art.
http://jhallpokemon.deviantart.com/art/Scizor-260748827
Scizor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk/ 4 Def/ 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+ Spe, - SpA)
- Bullet Punch
- U-Turn
- Knock Off
- Aerial Ace
I'm going to try to explain this as best as I can, but Scizor was not built with sweeping in mind. That is suppose to be Charizard's role. Scizor I made to be more as an Offensive Pivot.
Now I'm sure many people would frown upon a Scarfed Scizor, due to his low base Speed of 65. But I thought, Smogon has displayed that there are Scarfed Magnezones that run around, so why not Scizor? Despite his low base speed, with a Jolly Nature, and a Choice Scarf, Scizor actually outspeeds a huge portion of the unboosted meta game. Scizor outspeeds the Lati twins with a timid nature. He outspeeds Cincinno, which has been a huge pain in the past. Serperior? Outsped. Gengar? Outsped. Mega Metagross, Mega Gallade, Thunderus, Tornadus, Alakazam!!? All outsped by this guy. This guy even outspeeds both a Timid nature Tornadus-T and Mega Pidgeot. Unfortunately... this is his peak... We've got to remember that Scizor's base speed is low, so pretty much any Mon with a base 123 Speed Stat (Maybe 122 if it exists.) will outspeed our pair of scissors here... :,( This is somewhat remedied though with Bullet Punch though, especially if they have a naturally low Defense Stat and have taking prior damage, like Mega Beedrill and Mega Alakazam. U-Turn allows us to get momentum, along with his Volt Switch partner in crime, Raikou. Knock Off is good for dark type coverage and having opposing Mons lose their items. Like Lefties for lost recovery or Rocky Helmet so saving us HP later on. Finally, Aerial Ace is for Flying coverage and is boosted by Technician. Acrobatics just felt to situational for this set, and you never know, that extra bit of power could make a difference. Now just to clear something up. "What about Scarfed Lando-T?" I did debate him with Scizor, but I ultimately picked Scizor, because of access to priority with STAB Bullet Punch, and I felt Scizor's typing made him a better fit for Charizard. You can let me know what you think, but so far I haven't had many issues with him.
Credit for this image goes to pokemonxniccage at Tumblr.
http://pokemonxniccage.com/post/91539557604/121-starmie
Starmie Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA/ 4 SpD/252 Spe
Timid Nature (+ Spe, - Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot
- Scald
Starmie is my Hazard Control in the team. Starmie is the one I think I've debated with the most, but I decided to make a Offensive Pivot aswell. Natural Cure is so if Starmie gets Burned, Toxiced, or Paraed, then I can switch him out and he'll lose his status. Dazzling Gleam is there for Fairy coverage and to cover Mega Sableye............. F@#$ Sableye. That's it. Grass Knot is mainly for Quagsire, Seismotoad, and Swampert in general. Finally, Scald is water STAB and also can help against opposing Physical Mons if getting Burn Hax. I'm honestly definitely open for suggestions for this one as, like I said, this one is the one i had the most debate with in terms of roles other than Hazard Control and EV spreads.
Credit for this image goes to Muigu at Devian Art.
http://muigu.deviantart.com/art/Chuckles-the-Conkeldurr-413801072
Conkeldurr @ Roseli Berry
Ability: Guts
EVs: 248 HP/ 252 Atk/ 8 SpD
Adamant Nature (+ Atk, - SpA)
- Stone Edge
- Drain Punch
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
Conkeldurr... the Pokemon that punches with cinder blocks in his fists! But nah seriously, Conkeldurr can take some punishment and dish some back. Especially with a Roseli Berry. Remember when I said that I had something for him to make up his Fairy weakness? That's what the Roseli Berry is for. Because I don't think I've seen a set involving this berry, I'll explain. This berry Halves Super effective damage from Fairy type attacks. The main reason for my Conkeldurr having this berry, is so my opponent with any fairy type, like Mega Gardevior or Clefable, think they just got an easy kill... But in reality, it's us who just got a free kill. ):) That's mainly why i also pack Poison Jab. I decided to go with Drain Punch for recovery, EQ for Ground coverage, and Stone Edge for Rock coverage. Assault Vest would probably be nice, but I'd like to have a back up for Fairies, in case my Scizor gets killed off.
Credit goes to Mearii-chi at Devian Art.
http://www.deviantart.com/art/Raikou-Squishable-457478322
Raikou @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA/ 4 SpD/ 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+ Spe, - Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power (Ice)
- Extrasensory
Raikou is the other member of our VoltTurn core with Scizor. This one you can possibly say that this fits the role of a Special Sweeper. But, like Scizor, I'm ussually letting the Charizard do the Sweeping. Choice Specs allows Raikou to hit extra hard on everything, boosting his already high SpA stat by x1.5. (50%) Thunderbolt is for Electric STAB if Volt Switch is not going to kill. HP Ice is for the likes of Lando-T, Gliscor, Garchomp, and most other Dragon types with either the Ground or Flying typing. Finally, to make for the lack of Psychic coverage, due to me wanting a counter to S&*^bleye, Extrasensory is to make up for that. I could've gone Shadow Ball instead, but I already had Dark type coverage on Scizor, so I really couldn't find a good reason to run Shadow Ball over Extrasensory.
Credit for this art goes to PsychoZoid at Devian Art.
http://psychozoid.deviantart.com/art/Hippowdon-456313475
Hippowdon Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP/ 8 Atk/ 252 Def
Impish Nature (+ Def, - SpA)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind
Hungry, Hungry Hippo! Hungry, Hungry Hippo! The F%$^ing Wall for the team. He's meant to do several things. First off, is set up Rocks when given the chance. This is so the opposing team overall starts to weaken. Second off, is Mr. Hippo's Whirlwind. This is meant to constantly force switches to leave a large dent in the opposing team, making it a clean sweep with Charizard. Finally, as you probably guessed, sit there soak up damage! Hippowdon has a good Defense Stat and a large amount of HP.
Slack Off is to give Hippowdon Recovery options. Sadly, the only downside I found with him is the only real useful ability for a team like this, is Sand Stream. It does add more chip damage, and can counter rain teams, to an extent, but I just wish Hippowdon had a better ability for him to better fit in every team. But, he still gets the job done.
Conclusion
And that's the team! Overall I've had fun making this team, testing it out, and making this RMT for you guys to see for yourself. Suggestions for EV spreads and Move Set changes are always welcome. I do have a rule though.
- As I said, suggestions for changes for the team are welcome. However, I don't want half of my team replaced. At that point it's just not the same team I had fun with. I'll welcome a change for one of my team mates. Two maybe questionable, but I can let it slide if it's absolutely needed. No more though.
With all that said and done, I hope You've enjoyed this thread. Suggestions are welcome. Ask me questions if you have any. But most of all, thank you for your time. Have a nice night, this is Spiderp-Man rowing to the ocean on his mattress!
