ORAS OU Mega Sceptile balance

[nrp8598]

When Oras OU was first released I, like many others, rushed to play with the new megas. After trying a few megas out i decided to try mega sceptile out. i began building a team around it and have had some pretty good success with it. BTW this is my first RMT
-Team Overview-

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 76 Atk / 252 SpA / 180 Spe
Naive Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earthquake

This monster... when mega sceptile was first announced i was a bit skeptical at first. When i saw its stats and abilities i wasn't sure how good it would be. I was very wrong. This pokemon serves as the primary sweeper of the team and i usually save it for late game as it can completely wreck late game. I chose sceptile because i liked its sweeping potential. I chose an all out mixed attacker set to allow it to have wide coverage. the speed is enough to out-speed 252+ base 110s before megaing, and to outspeed timid mega manetric after megaing. leaf storm and dragon pulse for dual stab. Earthquake is for heatrans that come in thinking they can wall you. hidden power fire is to hit skarmory and ferrothorn. this set is amazing for late game against weakened teams

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Protect
- Toxic
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
this is your standard specially defensive heatran. i added it as a way to help cover mega sceptile's huge ice weakness. it also helps counter most latios/latias sets. It gives mega sceptile switch ins with its ground/water weaknesses. the set is really standard, stealth rock support, lava plume for stab, toxic for chip damage, and protect for scouting + lefties recovery

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

Choice Scarf Landorus provides us a mega beedrill counter and a good momentum changer. With its intimidate it allows it to come in on physical attackers and u-turn on the opponents switch. Earthquake is its primary stab and can do a lot of damage. u-turn for offensive momentum. Stone edge and knock off for coverage.

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 112 HP / 144 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Healing Wish
When making this team i knew i needed a keldeo switch in, and what is better than mega latias at that job. It also provides defog support and has a lot off offensive presence. i chose a Life orb defog set as i liked what it added to the team. draco meteor and psyshock for stab coverage. Defog is for hazard control. Healing wish is very important as it allows latias to heal up mega sceptile if it gets statused or is too low.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

this spot was originally held by slowbro, as i need a way to counter salamence and mega metagross. while rotom may bot be as good as bro at those jobs, the utilit it adds for this team is great. It helps counter birdspam, and it creats a volt turn core with scizor and lando. the evs for the set provide physical bulk with enough speed to outspeed jolly azumarill. hydro pump is a strong stab move. Volt switch is a secondary stab that allows you to keep offensive momentum. will o wisp cripples physical attackers and provides chip damage. pain split allows you to gain some health when at low hp

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Superpower

when making this team there was 2 problems, 1- i was weak to clefable and mega audino. 2- I had no priority users. Choice band scizor fixed both those problems (kinda). scizor is my primary switch in to clefable, but can backfire if hit by a predicted flamethrower. usually i will switch to tran first than go to scizor as it reduces the risk of that happening. On to the set it is la pretty standard banded scizor. Bullet punch as Stab/priority. U-turn as Stab/momentum. Pursuit allows it to pursuit trap the latis that dont run HP fire. superpower allows me to hit chansey hard.


-Threat List-
Greninja- I dont know if theres a single possible team without greninja in the threat list. if my sceptile hasn't megad yet greninja usually takes a lot of switching and playing around.

Mega sableye- this thing is very hard for my team to take down if it can set up.
more to come...

-Importable-
Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 76 Atk / 252 SpA / 180 Spe
Naive Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earthquake

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

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

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 112 HP / 144 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Healing Wish

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Superpower

 

[Alfalfa]

Healing Wish is not needed on a balanced team - Latias prefers access to Recover so your team does not get steamrolled by Zard Y (Heatran flat out loses to it. A bulkier spread of 112 HP / 144 SAtk / 252 Spe allows it to tank Zard Y and Keldeo much easier, while avoiding an OHKO from a Life Orb Knock Off from Landorus-I after Stealth Rock.

Slowbro would be better with a spread of 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SDef, which allows it to avoid a 2HKO from Choice Specs Keldeo's Hydro Pump after Stealth Rock. The loss in physical bulk is negligible, and Keldeo is one of the key Pokemon Slowbro beats.

These changes are small, but they should make your team a little more efficient. Good luck.

 

[nrp8598]

Healing Wish is not needed on a balanced team - Latias prefers access to Recover so your team does not get steamrolled by Zard Y (Heatran flat out loses to it. A bulkier spread of 112 HP / 144 SAtk / 252 Spe allows it to tank Zard Y and Keldeo much easier, while avoiding an OHKO from a Life Orb Knock Off from Landorus-I after Stealth Rock.

Slowbro would be better with a spread of 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SDef, which allows it to avoid a 2HKO from Choice Specs Keldeo's Hydro Pump after Stealth Rock. The loss in physical bulk is negligible, and Keldeo is one of the key Pokemon Slowbro beats.

These changes are small, but they should make your team a little more efficient. Good luck.

thank you, i guess i didnt realize the zard y weakness because you dont see many in the Oras tier.

 

[Cynara]

Hello! this is a good solid team, but you've indentified, Greninja as a threat, so I have a suggestion or otherwise greninja has a huge play around. This suggestion is to change Slowbro to rotom-wash. I feel you should make this change because Rotom wash is honestly more versatile than Slowbro on the team. and is a good partner for your choice scarf landorus. It also provides a better check to bird spam such Especially Talonflame. It also doesn't have Dark weakness, which is a common typing in the metagame, especially for coverage moves on pokemon, most notably, knock off. Rotom wash unlike slowbro and possess's a better typing, Water and electric with levitate (being weak to only grass, assuming mold breaker isn't in play), which also grants it a ground immunity. Rotom wash also helps with Pinsir mega and other physical attackers such as Tyranitar/Scizor and even bisharp as it has access to will-o-wisp, crippling them, Rotom wash can also deal with these 3 mentioned much more better than Slowbro, Slowbro can really struggle against tyranitar and Bisharp, as they are both have SE coverage and slowbro can get overpowered by them, especially bisharp as it's able to swords dance and 1KHO slowbro afterwards, +2 252+ Atk Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 458-540 (116.2 - 137%) -- guaranteed OHKO. Also In a pinch I feel Will-o-wisp is more reliable, than relying on Scalds 30% chance to burn and slowbro can kinda become setup bait for mons in some situations. Volt switch will also help with momentum with Landorus since you'll be using U-turn often and Im sure it will benefit your team the most, Slowbro can prevent the team build momentum and if you make a misplay with slowbro it could be damaging. Rotom will create more synergy between the team. Electric attacks also threaten greninja giving rotom a oppertunity to switch out with volt switch. Hidden power grass in the ORAS metagame is extremely unheard of amd greninja is more likely to carry grass knot/dark pulse for slowbro. So heres the set Im suggesting below.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split

With this set you have enough bulk for rotom wash to survive hits nicely and avoid 1hkos, Hydro pump does alot more than scald than slowbro would of done so it's nice for damage, 44 speed is to out speed Jolly max speed azumarrill, so you can cripple it with a burn. finally for recovery, I suggest Pain split as the 4th move as it's the superior option for recovery over rest, though the chesto rest set is used but pain split is honestly better. Pain split also allows you to take huge chunks of health from high hp walls such as chansey/Alomonola as they have high base HP. I really hope this suggestion helped!

 

[nrp8598]

Hello! this is a good solid team, but you've indentified, Greninja as a threat, so I have a suggestion or otherwise greninja has a huge play around. This suggestion is to change Slowbro to rotom-wash. I feel you should make this change because Rotom wash is honestly more versatile than Slowbro on the team. It also provides a better check to bird spam such as Talonflame. It also doesn't have knock off weakness like slowbro and possess's a better typing, Water and electric with levitate, which also grants it a ground immunity. Rotom wash also helps with Pinsir mega and other physical attackers has it has access to will-o-wisp, crippling it. Volt switch will also help with momentum with Landorus since you'll be using U-turn often and Im sure it will benefit your team the most, as it will create more synergy. Electric attacks also threaten greninja giving rotom a oppertunity to switch out with volt switch. Hidden power grass in the ORAS metagame is extremely unheard of amd greninja is more likely to carry grass knot for slowbro. So heres the set Im suggesting below.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split

With this set you have enough bulk for rotom wash to survive hits nicely and avoid 1hkos, Hydro pump does alot more than scald than slowbro would of done so it's nice for damage, 44 speed is to out speed Jolly max speed azumarrill, so you can cripple it with a burn. finally for recovery, I suggest Pain split as the 4th move as it's the superior option for recovery over rest, though the chesto rest set is used but pain split is honestly better. Pain split also allows you to take huge chunks of health from high hp walls such as chansey/Alomonola as they have high base HP. I really hope this suggestion helped!

ill definatly consider the change. im still not sure if i want to let go of slowbro, but ill test it out