ORAS OU Mega Venusaur Team

[Druddi]

Hi everyone, this is my first attempt at building a team around Mega Venusaur. It has worked very well so far, but I'd like to know your opinion to see if you'd change any details.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Role: Lead and Status Absorber
Ability: Poison Heal
Careful Nature
EVs: 8 Def / 58 Spe / 200 SpD / 244 HP
-Knock Off
-Facade
-Stealth Rock
-Roost

Gliscor sports very respectable bulk and excellent typing, allowing it to make a perfect lead. Knock Off, besides of its main use, allows it to seriously damage Ghost and Psychic types. Facade is a great resource of power thanks to Toxic Orb; this item also provides a useful recovery and it cripples foes who use Trick. In addition, combined with Roost, makes Gliscor very annoying and hard to beat.

Cofagrigus @ Leftovers
Role: Physical Wall and Rapid Spin Blocker
Ability: Mummy
Bold Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SpD
-Toxic Spikes
-Will-O-Wisp
-Hex
-Pain Split

Will-O-Wisp cripples physical attackers such as Mega Medicham and Mega Heracross, making them almost useless and greatly lowering their ability to threaten my team. Pain Split is Cofagrigus's only source of recovery outside of Leftovers. Toxic Spikes support also has the added bonus of powering up Hex. My doubt here is: should I invest more EVs on Special Defense?

Volcarona @ Life Orb
Role: Special Sweeper
Ability: Flame Body
Modest Nature
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
-Quiver Dance
-Fire Blast
-Bug Buzz
-Giga Drain

Quiver Dance allows Volcarona to set up for special sweeping. Fire Blast lacks accuracy, but it's a very powerful option. Bug Buzz deals great damage and bypasses substitute. Giga Drain is mandatory, as it's Volcarona's only option for recovering of the LO drawback, and it gives it great coverage against Rock, Ground and Water types. Some people recommended me to invest more EVs on HP, but I don't see why, since I need to outspeed my foes.

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Role: Mixed Wall
Ability: Intimidate
Careful Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 156 SpD
-Waterfall
-Roar
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

This beast is really hard to beat. Waterfall is the best option as the only damage dealing move, since it's STAB and has good power. Rest allows it to recover its full HP and getting rid of any status. Roar is excellent to force switches and get my foes crippled by Gliscor's and Cofagrigus' entry hazards.

Bisharp @ Assault Vest
Role: Defog blocker and late game sweeper
Ability: Defiant
Jolly Nature
EVs: 204 Atk / 52 SpD / 252 Spe
-Pursuit
-Iron Head
-Sucker Punch
-Low Kick

As I lack a defogger, I thought: "let's use Bisharp to, at least, annoy defoggers", getting a free 2x Attack boost to sweep without needing to use Swords Dance so it can comfortably hold an Assault Vest to compensate its weak Special Defense. Pursuit is a great move because most people will switch out to Bisharp. Low Kick deals great damage to common threats, such as Ferrothorn and Heatran. Iron Head and Sucker Punch for STAB.

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Role: Tank
Ability: Thick Fat
Bold Nature
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def/ 144 SpD / 20 Spe
-Sludge Bomb
-Giga Drain
-Synthesis
-Leech Seed

Mega Venusaur is blessed with its amazing ability, allowing it to take less damage from super effective Fire and Ice moves. Sludge Bomb is a great STAB and Fairy killer. Giga Drain, Synthesis and Leech Seed are the moves which make MV very hard to take down.

 

[celes]

Hey Druddi, i have a few suggestions for your team to try to help improve it.

For one, you need a Rapid Spin user or a Defogger. Your Volcorona is your win condition and you don't have proper support for it.

So I think you should change your Gyarados to Defog Latios, which will also help you deal with SubCM Keldeo and Zard Y much better, while still providing a Ground immunity and a water resist.

Now you need something to reliably switch into Bisharp at +2, as well as an answer to Zard X which is a massive threat to your team, so i think you should replace your Gliscor as with Hippowdon. This provides you with a reliable Talonflame answer to support your M-Venu and Volcarona, as well as a replacement Stealth Rocker setter. You can run Sand Force to prevent Venusaur's Synthesis recovery from being cut in half.

Seeing as though your team lacks offensive presence outside of Volcorona, i think you should replace Bisharp with Choice Band Tyranitar. This gets off extremely strong Pursuits on Tornadus-Therian, Talonflame, Heatran, and Latis to support your M-Venu and Volcarona, as well as nab surprise kills on Chansey with Superpower.

You should also run either Earthquake or Hidden Power Fire on your Venusaur over Leech Seed. Earthquake supports Volcarona by luring in Heatran and being able to 2HKO it, and HP Fire helps mitigate your Scizor weakness since your only answers to it are Cofagrigus which doesn't have reliable recovery and can miss Wisp, and Volcarona which has no recovery at all outside of Giga Drain, is weak to Stealth Rocks, and has to nail a Fire Blast for the kill.

Lastly, you should run Timid Volcarona with Lum Berry. This allows you to outspeed Scarfers like Landorus-Therian and Excadrill, plus bypass T-Wave from Klefki, Thundurus, and Clefable to help with your sweep. Also, for future reference, you shouldn't run an even HP number on Stealth Rock weak Pokemon since it makes them take more damage from hazards. So if you were running a max/max Talonflame for instance, you should put the 4 extra EVs in Defense or SpDef instead of HP.

In short:

Defog Latios > SpDef Gyarados

Sand Force Hippowdon > Gliscor

Choice Band Tyranitar > AV Bisharp

Earthquake / Hidden Power Fire M-Venu > Leech Seed M-Venu

Timid Lum Berry Volc > Life Orb Modest Volc

Sets

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

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 216 HP / 252 Atk / 40 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
- Crunch

Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Quiver Dance
- Giga Drain

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Slack Off

Hope i was able to help!

 

[FlamingVictini]

Hello Druddi,

The thing that I really like about this team is cofagrigus, as it has a unique ability and provides tspikes + spinblocking while you also have a bisharp to punish defog. Although cele's recommendations make your team more sound and solid, they really fail to bring out this unique niche of cofagrigus, so I want to suggest an alternate route that embodies the use of Tspikes. Gliscor is extremely potent at stalling out the opponent when they are poisoned or badly poisoned. I don't feel like SubToxic fits well, however, so I am rather going to suggest a running Taunt > Facade as with roost, this can be extremely hard to beat. I also have some EV optimizations for Toxic Orb recovery and to outspeed pokemon that you commonly want to outspeed and Taunt such as Tank Chomp so i will leave the modified set below. Finally, EQ > Knock Off is a more consistent option that allows gliscor to also check opponents such as Bisharp which trouble cofagrigus (you do, however, need to activate your poison before you switch in on a knock off though).

For cofagrigus, you may want to consider Rest > Pain Split and Chesto Berry > Leftovers. Despite being only one time recovery, it is effective at fully restoring your health and removing any status. In my experience, Pain Split is useful but cofagrigus still manages to get worn down very easily which pain split does not mitigate as well as rest. This has the added bonus of weakening the opponent's knock off if you use up your chesto berry before they have a chance to knock you off, decreasing the damage they can deal.

For your Bisharp I recommend running Knock Off > Low Kick as we've removed this from Gliscor and its bisharp's best STAB. Low kick, although useful, is not worth running over any other move on your team and the pokemon you can no longer hit can be covered with modifications to the other slots. I also recommend Adamant > Jolly Nature as your bisharp is more of a bulky trapper and needs all the power it can get as it lacks Dread Plate or Life Orb. Jolly nature is better suited for an SD set that's main goal is to sweep the opponent.

For your gyarados, I recommend running Dragon Dance > Roar and going fully specially defensive. This will best allow you to still kind of cover your weakness to Talonflame by intimidating it while better handling Charizard Y and providing a reliable scald switchin as you can slowly set up similarly to a crocune, but with a ground immunity and intimidate.

Finally, there is no room for a Volcorana on this team I feel despite the fact that it would be wonderful to include it. I simply cannot see a way to fit any other hazard remover bar a lati considering your Zard Y weakness (otherwise I would have suggested defensive starmie > gyara), but defog doesn't really suit your team as it fails to bring out cofagrigus' solid qualities. Nothing can completely redo volcarona's job, but I feel NP Infernape can try to replace it fairly well. This helps with your Kyurem B and Bisharp weakness while providing solid Fire / Fighting / Grass coverage with priority while completing your FWG core and still only taking 12% from stealth rocks. This isn't a perfect replacement though so there's probably room to fiddle around with options here. One last minor thing I will add is that for any fully special attackers, you should run 0 Atk IVs to minimize damage from confusion and foul play. I've made the full team below for you to try immediately. I've also fixed some HP numbers to minimize hazards damage and made venusaur's ability chlorophyll so that if you haven't mega'd you can be faster while sun is up against Zard Y teams.

New Team

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 200 SpD / 64 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Taunt
- Roost

Cofagrigus @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Mummy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hex
- Rest

Infernape @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Vacuum Wave
- Grass Knot
- Nasty Plot

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 164 SpD / 96 Spe
Careful Nature
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Bisharp @ Assault Vest
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 192 HP / 216 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 144 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain
- Synthesis
- Leech Seed