ORAS OU Mega Sceptile Balanced [Peaked 1795]

SteelSun · Nov 17, 2016

Edit:peaked 1795 in the meantime lol

Hi everyone :) needed some suggestion with a team i built up some time ago. After a lot of testing the result is quite satisfying and i've had much fun with it in the ladder, but i still need improvements.

As the title says, the team is centered around MScep. Pretty underrated mega, still it can be very effective even with talon running all over the place and weavile being even more common than before.

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 36 Atk / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Naive Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earthquake

I tried many sets, this one does the job for me. EQ over FB any day of the week, HP fire to rape ferrothorn and the scizors who wanna switch in.
Now about the EV spread, before this i was using 76 atk and 180 spe, but after a couple bad experiences i decided outspeeding the base 115s before mega evolving was necessary. Still EQ does shit-ton of damage to heatran, who usually comes on the switch, so i'm always able to manage that.

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 88 HP / 220 Atk / 4 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Waterfall
- Bounce
- Dragon Dance

Next i wanted a sweeper who could sinergize well with mega sceptile and could benefit from it.
Again very standard but effective set. BounceGyara can handle pretty well some grass-types that trouble sceptile, provides water STAB, and is a very good sweeper in general. Also it appreciates sceptile's work of taking away keldeo and rotom, who are omnipresent.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Stone edge

After this i still need more answers to ferrothorn, but that could have been done by various pokemon. The reason why i choose heatran is only because of Talon. I still consider it one of the the only surefire counters to talonflame, given the omnipresence of the WoW set.
Not very certain about the EV spread of this one, i mainly use it to shut down the damn clefable and other stally mons, and to set rocks. Here i could need a bit of fine-tuning on the EVs.

I also tried the Magma storm stall breaker set, but after a while i simply couldn't stand MS accuracy. But it was an amazing set and it would help me a lot with chansey.

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Brave Bird
Skarmory was chosen next as the physical wall of choice, and someone who could mitigate the pressure put by Lando-T and, to a lesser extent, weavile. it originally had defog, but after a while i found hazard stacking to benefit this team a lot, so i put spikes on.

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Roost

Latios was put next since i really needed some other keldeo and Volcanion switch-in, not to mention it helps a lot with MVenusaur and Amoonguss, which walls sceptile to hell and back. He's also the defogger of choice.

Bisharp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch

Finally, i tought about bisharp since i have fair chances of taking away keldeo and some of its other counters, and after that he can freely sweep. It also does a very good job against fat mons who trouble Sceptile (namely chansey and clef), overall bisharp is stupidly good in this gen; for the same reason i choose the Lum berry adamant instead of jolly, i need it to hit as hard as possible.
I recently tought about replacing it with Scizor, to have a better chance against things like Kyurem-B and Weavile; it also doesn't share weaknesses with heatran, while bisharp does.

Overall the team performs quite well. Offensive teams are handled pretty well by sceptile, which can perform well as a late-game sweeper or ease the sweeps for Gyara and Bisharp.

Biggest threats:

- Weavile. Only skarmory can switch into it, and it still takes an absurd amount of damage from Knock off.

- Kyurem-B. even tho i have ways of killing it 1v1 i still shit my pants everytime i see one, as i have basically zero switch-ins. (well, not very much switches into it but)
As i said, scizor would ease up the work with those two. There are also other threats, like the Zards, mega gyarados, mega zam, and others.

Here are some replays (some are tries with scizor, but overall the backbone stayed the same)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-478420238 vs Mega manectric offense
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-480278990 vs Mega diancie offense
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-480276337 vs Mega lop + banded azu
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-477587666 MScep cleaning like a madman

First RMT, i accept and encourage every critique and suggestion. :)

Alakalando · Nov 17, 2016

What does the suggested EV spread accomplish on gyarados (over standard max attack max speed jolly)?I also noticed that earth power instead of earthquake does significantly more on heatran,any thoughts on that?

SteelSun · Nov 17, 2016

Alakalando said:
What does the suggested EV spread accomplish on gyarados (over standard max attack max speed jolly)?I also noticed that earth power instead of earthquake does significantly more on heatran,any thoughts on that?

Sceptile doesn't learn earth power o_O
The spread on gyara is to outspeed base 135 at +1, the rest is for bulk.

Alakalando · Nov 17, 2016

SteelSun said:
Sceptile doesn't learn earth power o_O
The spread on gyara is to outspeed base 135 at +1, the rest is for bulk.

Omg im the worst,didnt really bother to check if it learns the move :p im just thinking that focus miss offers better overall coverage,but i guess perfect accuracy and the prospect of eliminating the ever-so-popular heatran is just as good

SteelSun · Nov 19, 2016

ericaroselia · Nov 20, 2016

Great team! As you know, i am using it and love the Mega Scep + Gyara core but just to recap the changes.

Stone Edge over Ancient Power on Heatran because it deals more damage to spD Talon and Charizard Y.

Spikes > Defog on Skarmory because Defog Skarm is way too passive on offense and that team appreciates spikes support, Mega Sceptile forces many switches and it can also weaken Bish checks pretty well. After doing that put Defog on Latios over a coverage move, i'm currently using it over Tbolt/Surf because Psyshock is a consistent STAB.

I'd also consider Lum Berry over Life Orb on Bisharp because LO recoil is annoying, already hits hard due to Adamant and curing status from pokemon such as Clefable, Mew and Rotom-W is precious.

So, that's it, the team is really cool but the team could probably be improved even further but just try these changes for now.

SteelSun · Nov 20, 2016

Tried matches with your changes, you're right :) hazard stacking really seem to work for the team. Thank you!

ORAS OU Mega Sceptile Balanced [Peaked 1795]

SteelSun

Alakalando

SteelSun

Alakalando

SteelSun

ericaroselia

SteelSun

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