SM OU Mega Diancie + Icium Z Manaphy Team

TheBloodborn

First of all, let me give a little introduction. This is my first SM OU - and in general first "real" - competitive team, so don't be shy to give any constructive criticism or tell me when I'm plain wrong, chances are I'll need it. Secondly I'd really like to make my team on cartridge, as well as online. This comes with only one real restriction; some legendary event pokemon are (currently) unavailable to me. Primarily Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Keldeo, Victini, Hoopa and Zeraora. Now onto the team!

Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Rock Polish

Diancie is a pokemon I really love to play with and I'm surprised doesn't see that much competitive play. I primarily use her as a mixed sweeper and for her utility in the form of Magic Bounce as Mega Diancie. Normal Diancie has amazing defensive stats, aside from her health, which let you Rock Polish with relatively little danger against a lot pokemon. Once mega-evolved, with +2 speed, she out speeds everyone except for scarfed Zeraora. She's my answer to some common bulky offences like Zapdos, (Diamond Storm), Garchomp (Moonblast) and Heatran (Earth Power). Alternatively I could run Earthquake or HP Fighting instead of Earth Power, but I feel like I'm not familiar enough with the meta to know which of the three is best.

Manaphy @ Icium Z
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tail Glow
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Psychic

Manaphy is my special sweeper. One or two Tail Glows and she's ready to sweep a team. I've opted for HP instead of SpA EVs since it complements her natural bulk really well and let's her take a hit from faster pokemon and survive an extra tick of Toxic when facing a wall. Besides, Tail Glow giving +3 SpA is more than enough damage in my opinion. The move set is relatively standard, but I've opted for Icium-Z as opposed to Waterium-Z since STAB Scald with Tail Glow tends to be more than enough damage against most pokemon weak to it and Subzero Slammer can deal with some common walls used against Manaphy like AV Tangrowth and Defensive Tapu Bulu.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Heat Wave
- Roost
- Defog

My wall to a lot of threats like (Ash-)Greninja, Charizard-Y, Keldeo and Mega Mawille. She's also my primary fire damage against pokemon like Ferrothorn and Celesteela that wall the rest of my team exceedingly well and my Defogger that's immune to spikes as well as ground. Static and Discharge both having 30% chance to paralyze can cripple pokemon like Kartana, Keldeo and Heatran as well. I feel like she's what keeps the rest of the team together.

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Knock Off

The revenge killer. Scarfed Kartana gets out sped by very few pokemon and with her whopping 181 attack she's my check on damaged pokemon, fairy pokemon like Tapu Bulu and Tapu Fini and slower opposing (fast) sweepers like (non-scarfed) Greninja, Swampert and Excadrill. She also has a niche use as a breaker against normal type walls like Chansey and Snorlax with Sacred Sword, although Giga Impact might be better against checks like Tornadus. With Beast Boost she can also be used as an endgame physical sweeper.

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fleur Cannon
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

Magearna is my backup for everything. She's my secondary fairy, steel, fire and electric damage, as well as being able to take most hits fairly well due to her amazing typage and assault vest enhanced stats. This defensiveness and Volt Switch also allow her to be an amazing pivot for the team, as well as a check on a lot of other sweepers I haven't mentioned yet, such as Kyurem-B and Mega Alakazam.

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast

Last but not least, Garchomp. My bulky Stealth Rocker and electric immunity. Rough Skin with Rocky Helmet causes a ridiculous amount of recoil damage to opponents (especially frail revenge killers) while Earthquake and Fire Blast finishes them off. This third fire user might be overkill but I've found it very useful against Ferrothorn, who completely walls all my sweepers, as well as Magearna, Celesteela and Mega Mawille. Full speed and Dragon Tail quickly pushes away checks and Swords Dancers as well for added utility.

I've tested this setup a fair amount on Showdown (albeit being in somewhat low rankings) and did fairly well, but I want my team to be as good as it can be of course! I tend to have issues against stally setups, especially pokemon like Chansey and Gastrodon seem to be troublesome for me, as well as ice moves for which I don't have good switch-ins. Any comments, tips or criticism is greatly appreciated!
 
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The HP investment in Manaphy I personally don't think is necessary - nor is the icium z, a lot of sets run rain dance as hydration removes any status meaning you dont REALLY need hp investment ((for the toxic threat you mentioned)), scald is a great move w potential burn but I feel as a sweeper, surf is probably more viable even tho it only has 10 more bp - ofc im not very experienced so good luck regardless! Toxic also doesnt do flat amounts of HP as you might have thought but scales up in %% - so hp investment to counter toxic isn't actually a thing - the damage just increases by 1/16th each turn... so 1/16 then 1/8 then 3/16 then 1/4 etc..
 
Deee-Lite said:
The HP investment in Manaphy I personally don't think is necessary - nor is the icium z, a lot of sets run rain dance as hydration removes any status meaning you dont REALLY need hp investment ((for the toxic threat you mentioned)), scald is a great move w potential burn but I feel as a sweeper, surf is probably more viable even tho it only has 10 more bp - ofc im not very experienced so good luck regardless! Toxic also doesnt do flat amounts of HP as you might have thought but scales up in %% - so hp investment to counter toxic isn't actually a thing - the damage just increases by 1/16th each turn... so 1/16 then 1/8 then 3/16 then 1/4 etc..
Click to expand...

First of all Thank you for the advice. The Icium-Z is - in part - also there so I can deal some damage even without setup, but if I invest into SpA instead of HP, that will probably be remedied. I'm somewhat at a loss about what other item to take on Manaphy however. Would you suggest something like Life Orb (however that might cost me valuable health while setting up, not sure) or maybe something more defensive like Leftovers or a berry? I personally didn't like the Rain Dance set since I feel like it's an extra (perhaps unnecessary) turn of setup and it removes Ice Beam, which is my Landorus-T and grass wall check, but to be honest I've never tried using it so I'll definitely test it out and decide afterwards. Similarly I felt like Surf was overkill and Scald has the extra side effect of potentially burning a pokemon that resists it, but again, testing might very well change my mind. You're right of course about the Toxic, it was more being able to resist more chip damage while setting up that lets me survive Toxic for perhaps an extra turn, but it's definitely not the most efficient way to counteract it.

All in all I'll try a set like this and see if it's better!

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tail Glow
- Scald
- Rain Dance
- Psychic
 
the scary thing about teambuilding is ev's, i'd suggest trying different sets of ev's to properly kill mons - e.g most landos run around 254/255 speed or they're scarfed so you could easily run just a casual 256 speed and invest in hp but idrk - in any case surf/scald is still supereffective and a viable means to kill,, +3 stab kills most mons due to manaphy having those already good all 100 stat, especially in rain... id recommend if youre having troubles w manaphy against certain mons (something like ferro and gastro wall) you save it for a late game sweeper ? it's really good at cleaning up into the game after all mons have been weakened thru hazards and whatnot! keep at it tho, im sure it'll work out
 
Deee-Lite said:
the scary thing about teambuilding is ev's, i'd suggest trying different sets of ev's to properly kill mons - e.g most landos run around 254/255 speed or they're scarfed so you could easily run just a casual 256 speed and invest in hp but idrk - in any case surf/scald is still supereffective and a viable means to kill,, +3 stab kills most mons due to manaphy having those already good all 100 stat, especially in rain... id recommend if youre having troubles w manaphy against certain mons (something like ferro and gastro wall) you save it for a late game sweeper ? it's really good at cleaning up into the game after all mons have been weakened thru hazards and whatnot! keep at it tho, im sure it'll work out
Click to expand...

Ok I've done some testing and the SpA EV's are definitely far better than the HP. I'm currently also running a Rain Dance set with Waterium-Z, which is really working out for me, although is still think Ice Beam is an equally valid option. Rain Dance lets me set up really easily against walls like Toxapex, while Ice Beam takes away certain enemy checks, mainly grass pokemon like Tapu Bulu, Tangrowth and Serperior, so I still need to figure out which of those two is more important for me. I have also become entirely sold on Surf as opposed to Scald since the role of this pokemon is to one-shot, not inflict status conditions, and the additional damage is noticeable, especially for the Z-move, which can also take down most walls with a +3 or +6 from Tail Glow. So well, thank you!
 
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