ORAS OU Mega Sceptile Balance! Rmt

[Gotham Paladin]

Mega Sceptile is a pokemon I feel is very underrated in the ou meta. With it's blazing speed and fantastic coverage, I feel like its something that people should be threatened by. In fact, it can dismantle certain teams depending on the matchup. So I tried to make my own Sceptile team, here it is.

Klefki @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Magnet Rise
- Flash Cannon/fairy lock

Personally, I like to start off with my defensive cores first, and I was looking over mons that can help me with things like weavile. So I chose klefki, Klefki is a great pokemon I feel just because of how annoying it can get to take down. Ground types are shut down with magnet rise, spikes and thunder wave for obvious reasons. And Flash cannon or fairy lock for the last slot, now personally I am running flash cannon for now, but I am thinking about fairy lock. Fairy lock has great potential I feel by trapping pokemon such as heatran or even rotom wash for sceptile to come in and pick it off. I dont know...its just something I want to play with. I chose Sp def because I feel its better for the ou meta right now than phys def.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 216 HP / 144 Def / 148 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Taunt
- Roost
- Stone Edge

I wanted to pair klefki with a pokemon that can take on things like talonflame and zard x. Gliscor is a great pokemon to be my phys def because I like the typing/movepool. I run 148 speed for things like breloom and scizor to taunt them, preventing them from setting up on me. The rest goes into defenses since I want it to be bulky and take hits for me. I run earthquake for obvious reasons, taunt for the reasons i mentioned with the spread, roost for additional recovery, and stone edge to hit bird and flying types in general.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Stone Edge
I wanted something else besides gliscor to let me check flying types, so lando t was the way to go. Also, with my team comp, it looks like my rocker. Which is nice because I can surprise torn t's with the stone edge, taking them out. I ran the standard lando scarf set, which I find extremely useful. Its something I am iffy about though, having 2 ground/flying types, but for now, it seems to work out.

Keldeo @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
I wanted a way to break stall down, and also wanted something to check bisharp, Keldeo immediately sparked into my mind. The sub cm set lets me handle stall well since secret sword hits the physically defensive side. Also lets me play sucker punch mind games if my keldeo gets too low. I love this set for these reasons. Scald is there because its broken, secret sword for stab and to help me break walls, Sub to help me ease prediction and for again, stall, and Calm mind to set up.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
Theres a reason clefable is one of the best mons in ou right now. I wanted something for mega sableye and clef was the perfect answer as it gave a bunch of options against team matchup. It lets me take on electrics like manectric and thundy, as well as checks dragons. I ran the defensive spread to let me eat hits and weaken threats. Moonblast is there for the obvious stab and soft boiled for recovery. I made this my stealth rocker because it lets me take on common spinners and defoggers like lati and starmie. And the last move is knock off, I know its weird but knock off is great for me to let me wittle things like heatran who loves to switch in. Also helps against stall to knock off the blobs eviolite and things like that. Overall a great pokemon.

Sceptile @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 32 Atk / 224 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earthquake
Mega Sceptile is like I said a very underrated pokemon. With its great speed and sp attack, it can just get kills in certain team matchups. Max speed just to make sure it can be the fastest it can get, and i run 32 attack for eq just because it lets me snag some Ohkoes on things like heatran. Rest into special attack for the coverage. Leaf storm just to hit super hard and swap out. Dragon pulse for the stab plus dragon coverage. And hp fire for steels like ferro. Overall a great pokemon that gives me a reliable revenge killer.



Now, this team is FAR from perfect, which is why I want someone to criticize it, legit just tell me whats bad and how I can fix this. As you can see, I am completely walled by mega venusaur lol. It 6-0es me So please tell me what pokemon to change or what sets, etc. Thanks for listening!

 

[p2]

Hey, nice team. The first change I would make is Hippowdon > Gliscor. I wouldn't say that Gliscor is a solid Charizard X answer at all, but Hippowdon is a decent answer as Charizard loses if it Flare Blitzes into it as recoil + EQ kills it. This also gives you a switch in for Electric types. Electric types such as Manectric and Raikou are quite threatening for your team too and it's very risky switching in Sceptile and Clefable is easy to wear down. Hippowdon blocks their Volt Switches and can easily take their HP Ices and Sand Stream also hurts Mega Venusaur's recovery.

Another change I would make is Double Dance Lando-T > Scarf Lando-T. Your team doesn't struggle too much with faster threats and you already have speed control in Klefki to shut down Dragon Dancers. Double Dance lets you crush walls like Mega Venusaur, or be able to catch up with and outspeed Offensive teams and I feel this fits your team better than Scarf Lando-T.

edit: I would've suggested SR on Hippo and CM on Clefable, but I feel like Hippo kind of suffers from the lack of phazing, which can be very useful for your team.

sets

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Earth Plate / Yache Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 56 HP / 220 Atk / 232 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
- Rock Polish

Hope I could help

 

[Alastor Law]

Hello man,

I agree with you: Mega Sceptile is a threat we should take into account more in the ORAS OU metagame, specially with a lot of balanced mons like Latios, Hippo, Rotom-W, Heatran, etc, which Sceptile can handle pretty well, as well as a huge plethora of Pokemon in HO. That being said, your team looks nice as it tries to set up a lot of hazards on your opponent's side to then sweep with Sceptile, Keldeo or even Landorus, but I think some things prevent you from doing that, especially CB Azumarill, Venusaur, Skarmory, Mamoswine and opposing hazards, as your main sweepers and your Spikes setter are weak to all kind of hazards, which is lame for a late game sweep. You also have 0 Specs Keldeo switch ins, something we should combat too. That being said, in this rate I'm going to try to get rid of those threats and try to include a defogger to help you there, so we'll see how this goes :P

We'll make three primary changes here to get rid of those threats, and then we're going to optimize some of your remaining Pokemon's sets and spreads.

The first thing I'd suggest is to put Skarmory>Klefki, since it just does pretty much the same job of checking Weavile and setting up spikes, but it can also phaze away these threats and get some chip damage on them, while you don't need T-Wave on that team with a Sceptile and a Keldeo. It also takes care of CB Azu (most of the time), Mamosine, Lopunny and non HP Fire Diancie (this will be a bit harder to combat, but not much as you'll see) and physical attacking threats in general. The set will be down below, along with all the others I'll suggest you during this rate.

Now, I don't really feel that you need these two ground-flying guys, so we'll change Landorus-T for Heatran. Heatran takes care of the Latis, Zard X without EQ, Venusaur, sets up rocks, kills Talonflame, kills Skarmory, kills Ferrothorn and can shut down the faeries Skarm doesn't. It can also spread some status around, which your team would definitely benefit from, wearing down Sceptile's walls. This double steel core I've suggested will take care of every single Dragon out there and so, the next change will be Clefable.

Finally, Clefable needs to go simply because Latias does the job you've given to it much, much better, and it can defog away hazards if you feel uncomfortable with them on your side of the field. Latias is the premier electric type counter (baring Knock Off LO Thundy, which is not that common anyways) and Specs Keldeo counter, and it can get rid of Venusaur if Heatran is somehow weak. Don't worry about losing that Knock Off support; we'll fix that later. This Latias also adds some of the speed we removed when we changed Landorus for Heatran, so we kind of balance that right here.

Moving onto the sets, Keldeo and Sceptile look good, but Gliscor needs to change to the SpDef, SD Set with Knock Off to have a solid physical sweeper on the wings. Knock Off punishes the opponent dealing some damage and removing their item, and EQ smashes almost everything at +2. Gliscor let's you deal with Heatran early game and sweep late game if your other wincons are down, so I guess the change is worth it. The set will be the standard SpDef one, and it'll be down below with the others.

Hide

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 192 SpD / 68 Spe
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 188 SpD / 76 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Roost
- Swords Dance

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 236 Def / 24 Spe
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Defog

Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Roost

And that would be all. Hope you like the changes and win more games with them, as I think the matchup issue will be mitigated for you if you fix this. See you around!

 

[celes]

Hey SheWentToJarod's, i think i can help with that M-Venu weakness as well as provide some general recommendations to try to improve your team.

For one, your team is extremely stall weak. SubCM Keldeo is your only way to pressure stall, but it's easily trapped by Gothitelle and is outright walled by Unaware Clefable. To try to help with stall some more, i recommend you run Tail Glow Rain Dance Manaphy > Substitute + Calm Mind Keldeo. With Psychic you can take on Amoonguss and M-Venusaur that annoy your M-Sceptile and team in general.

My next suggestion is something that has great offensive synergy with Manaphy. Since Manaphy alone isn't going to solo balance, semi-stall, etc, i think you should change your Clefable to Calm Mind, which provides you with a secondary win condition. The stuff that revenges Manaphy like Thundurus, Latios, Raikou, Celebi, and Tornadus-T are all free Calm Minds for Clefable. It's the same the other way around since Steel types like Heatran, Scizor, Skarmory and Bisharp that may take on Clefable aren't taking on Manaphy 1v1. They also weaken M-Venu and Ferrothorn for each other.

Next, i recommend fast Heatran > Klefki since Scizor and Serperior at +2 threaten you a lot. Klefki can status Serperior but it can't do much back to it, especially if you run Fairy Lock. You have to rely on Landorus-T's U-Turn to revenge it, which doesn't even OHKO it after Flash Cannon damage from Klefki. The only thing you have to OHKO Scizor is M-Sceptile which can't take a +2 Bullet Punch, so the only way you can deal with it is to pretty much just rely on Keldeo to Scald burn it. It can easily set up on Lando-T or Clefable before your Gliscor can Taunt it, so it poses a big threat to you. Heatran directly shuts them down and takes them out without having to sack something. This also provides a safe switch-in to Venusaur before Manaphy lures it in to take it out, as well as a reliable answer to SpDef Skarmory which outright walls over half of your team. It also provides a reliable check to opposing CM Clefable which can set up on your M-Sceptile and cause a problem, as well as a solid answer to Zard X which isn't checked too well by Gliscor.

I think you should run Ferrothorn > Scarf Landorus-Therian since having two Ground/Flying types to check physical attackers is redundant, and Azumarill is pretty hard for you to play around. This also helps patch up the weakness to water type boosters like Gyarados and Feraligatr that replacing Keldeo leaves you with, while also giving you a new hazard setter and an answer to opposing Manaphy.

Lastly, i think you should run Focus Blast + Rock Slide > Earthquake + HP Fire on M-Sceptile. Focus Blast allows you to still hit Ferrothorn and Heatran like your previous coverages moves did, and Rock Slide allows you to lure in and OHKO Zard Y + SpDef Talonflame. It's a small change but it helps a lot in supporting Manaphy and Clefable.

In short:

Calm Mind Clefable > Stealth Rock Clefable

Tail Glow + Rain Dance Manaphy > Sub CM Keldeo

Fast Heatran > Klefki

Ferrothorn > Landorus-Therian

Focus Blast + Rock Slide M-Sceptile > EQ + HP Fire M-Sceptile

Sets

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Thunder Wave / Stored Power
- Soft-Boiled

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 32 HP / 252 SpA / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tail Glow
- Rain Dance
- Psychic
- Scald

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Toxic

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast
- Rock Slide

Hope i was able to help!