MoxieShrooms: An OU Team

[TastelessHat]

Hello there, my name is Tastelesshat. A select few may recognize that name, but regardless, it's been a while since I've done competitive battling. When I saw the release of PS on the site, I figured that was a good time to get back into competitive mons. This is one of the two teams I've used outside of just experimenting with various weathers, and I've found it to be pretty effective. It got me to #34 on the current ladder, for whatever that's worth (probably not very much). This team is based around setting up hazards with Skarmory and Tyranitar, and then sweeping with Salamence and Breloom.

In depth

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SAtk / 192 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam

The main reason I chose TTar for my 'lead' is his ability to remove other weathers such as sun and rain. Still, his massive special defense serves this team well, checking threats such as Starmie, Gengar, and preventing opposing steel types from setting up with Fire Blast. Stealth rock is also very important to wear down things like Tornadus-T (combined with residual damage). I'm considering swapping Ice Beam for Superpower or stone edge mainly to hit opposing heatran, but considering how low earth power hits for it usually isn't too much of a problem. Ice Beam does come in handy for the occasional Dragonite that tries to set up, but most people know better than to switch Gliscor in on TTar nowadays.

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 240 SDef / 16 Def
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind

The EV spread might seem a little strange, but the main purpose is to make it very unlikely for LO Mamoswine to 2KO with Icicle Drop while SR is up, while also having enough special defense to check Tornadus-T and friends. Mamoswine otherwise threatens my team heavily since Latias lacks the raw power to kill it until it's at sub 50% health. Anyway, Skarm serves as a great wall for this team against threats such as Haxorus, DDnite, and the aforementioned Tornadus. Spikes also serve a crucial role on this team as well, as they often are the key to winning many matches through repeated switching. I choose Brave Bird over taunt so that I can take out fighting types and low health enemies.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Earth Power

Subtran is great at countering almost all threats on a sun team. He can also give rain teams headaches by poisoning their walls. Considering the widespread use of jirachi and ferrothorn, it's very easy to find opportunities to sub and then whittle down opposing walls. In addition, Tran's resists come in handy for tanking U-Turns and such. Lava Plume, which never seems to want to burn as much as Scald is still my preferred option because of the accuracy and the fact that I usually don't need the extra power from Fire Blast.

Latias @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 SAtk / 252 Spd / 252 HP
Timid Nature
- Recover
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Substitute

SubCM latias works wonders against today's rain dominated metagame. With Sub, Latias can avoid getting poisoned and easily set up. It takes one CM to make Latias' subs not be broken by most uninvested ice beams, which makes sweeping from there on easy. Sub can also be used to escape pursuits from Scizor or Tyranitar. She can also act as a emergency revenge killer against low health targets with 110 base speed. While mono-attacking is stopped cold by a number of steel types, Heatran can set up on almost all of them. Breloom also does a good job of switching in a lot of Latias' counters.

Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Blast

Moxiemence is part of the offensive core I first had in mind when making this team. Jolly Moxiemence outspeeds all unboosted OU mons and hits like a truck, especially after a moxie boost. Outrage and Dragon Claw allow me to scout early without locking myself in on a scizor, and sweep with a 120 BP move once everythng is weak. Fire Blast and Earthquake hit anything that resists Dragon super effectively; fire blast in particular is very helpful against physical walls like Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Forry. As well as sweeping, he also doubles as a fantastic revenge killer. He can also work as a sort-of wall breaker with the right prediction.

Breloom @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch
- Spore

The second part of the offensive core I first came up with when building this team. I've heard sentiments that this guy should go uber, and while I don't necessarily agree with them, I can certainly understand why they think that. After a SD boost, Mach punch hits harder then a CB Scizor Bullet punching, with a much better typing. Bullet Seed complements this very well, hitting even walls such as Gliscor very hard. Spore compliments this set very well, both disabling one of the opponents pokemon and allowing a free set up turn. Getting this guy a switch in isn't the hardest thing in the world, and once he does he wreaks havok. Oftentimes he doesn't even need the SD boost to sweep entire teams; spamming Mach punch against weakened teams is devastating. An unboosted bullet seed almost always OHKOs politoad, which can often suprise players who intend to use it as sleep fodder while giving me complete control of the weather. Just a great mon all in all.


In importable format:

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Breloom @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch
- Spore

Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Blast

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 240 SDef / 16 Def
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Spikes
- Whirlwind

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SAtk / 192 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam

Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Earth Power

Latias @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 SAtk / 252 Spd / 252 HP
Timid Nature
- Recover
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Substitute

Team Building Process

Hide

I started off with Breloom, who recently got technician and is my favorite 'mon as well. I decided to combo it with Moxiemence to serve as an offensive core that is especially lethal lategame.

Next I wanted a weather inducer to combat the rampant rain teams running everywhere, and occasional sun teams as well. Tyranitar, who could act as a 'lead', set up rocks, and tank special attacks seemed like a good fit.

After this I wanted something capable of taking on Tornadus-T, as well as being specially defensive without all of Tyranitars weaknesses, so I decided to go with specially defense Jirachi.

Next I wanted something to combat sun teams as well as the omnipresent scizor and genesect. Heatran was the perfect fit for these roles.

Finally I wanted a water resist to be able to take spec hydro pumps in the rain which Jirachi would not particularly like. Jellicent seemed like a decent pick as well as walling some physical threats.

After testing I found that Jirachi tended to be the least useful member of my team and that edgequake users could decimate my team. I decided to swap Jirachi with Skarmory for the added immunities and because I usually found more opportunities in a match to set up hazards then to pass wishes, and overall I preferred the entry damage more than luck based paralysis.

For Jellicent I was disappointed with it's severe weakness to status and spikes in its ability to wall, as well as it's weakness to electric moves. I swapped to Latias as ice weaknesses on my team were not too much of a problem and the electric resist was overall more important.
Final team:

Threat list to be added later.

 

[Electrolyte]

Hi,

Really nice team you have here. I don't see any major holes, just a minor weakness to VoltTurn, which I'm sure you have the ability to play around, especially since you have so much hazard support.

On Tyranitar, I would replace Stealth Rock with Pursuit. Rocks are important, but being able to trap and KO choiced Latios is very important, because it sweeps your whole entire team (bar Ttar). With Pursuit, you can come in, take a hit, and OHKO as Latios tries to switch out.

To make up for the loss of Stealth Rock on Ttar, I would replace Heatran's Substitute with Stealth Rock. Before hand, when TTar had SR, Roar would have been a better option over Substitute to deal with Volcorona, but now that TTar has Pursuit Heatran needs to carry the hazard stacking 'burden'. Still, this is not necessarily a bad thing at all; Substitute only aids in prediction somewhat, and Heatran is immune to Toxic+WoW so you're not blocking much status anyway.

I will also suggest that you considered Draco Meteor instead of Fire Blast on Salamence- it allows you to hit non-steel type physical walls hard, and since you have Heatran / Breloom, steel types should not be a problem for you at all.

Nice team! Good luck!

 

[chimpact]

Giving Skarmory a spread of 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD with an Impish nature will give it 8 more Defense, and 3 more Spdef points. Generally if you have a weaker base stat (SpD), and want to boost that stat, you max it out, or you go with the higher base stat (Def), and boost your weaker stat to hit a certain number so that you take hits better from that pokemon.

 

[TastelessHat]

Giving Skarmory a spread of 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD with an Impish nature will give it 8 more Defense, and 3 more Spdef points. Generally if you have a weaker base stat (SpD), and want to boost that stat, you max it out, or you go with the higher base stat (Def), and boost your weaker stat to hit a certain number so that you take hits better from that pokemon.

Thanks for the set, I'll edit the description

On Tyranitar, I would replace Stealth Rock with Pursuit. Rocks are important, but being able to trap and KO choiced Latios is very important, because it sweeps your whole entire team (bar Ttar). With Pursuit, you can come in, take a hit, and OHKO as Latios tries to switch out.

To make up for the loss of Stealth Rock on Ttar, I would replace Heatran's Substitute with Stealth Rock. Before hand, when TTar had SR, Roar would have been a better option over Substitute to deal with Volcorona, but now that TTar has Pursuit Heatran needs to carry the hazard stacking 'burden'. Still, this is not necessarily a bad thing at all; Substitute only aids in prediction somewhat, and Heatran is immune to Toxic+WoW so you're not blocking much status anyway.

I will also suggest that you considered Draco Meteor instead of Fire Blast on Salamence- it allows you to hit non-steel type physical walls hard, and since you have Heatran / Breloom, steel types should not be a problem for you at all.

As far as latios goes I haven't really found him to be too much of an issue; scarf is too weak to seriously threaten TTar or Skarm, and specs can be outsped by mence. Both are really weak to residual damage anyway. Sub on heatran isn't for steels; it's so I can spread poison on the enemies tran counters, or kill them (depending on the counter). Sub also helps in stalling for the poison to do it's damage.

As for Draco Meteor, I don't really think it's worth it on a scarf set because most physical walls taking large damage on the first turn will be able to heal when I switch out because I'm locked into it. Fire blast is mainly filler but I prefer hitting skarm, forry, and ferro rather than being able to slightly hinder gliscor or whatever.

 

[Superpowerdude]

Hey there nice team!

It seems to me that this team doesnt like Starmie at all. Starmie can hit all your pokemon super effectivly with a moveset of Hydro Pump / Thunderbolt / Ice Beam / Rapid Spin while Tyranitar can live a hit and Ko back as well as Salamence can out speed and Ko another problem it brings is the ability to rapid spin your hazards quite freely and avoid getting caught by Tyranitar and Slamence by switching. How ever you can use your Starmie weakness as an advantage if you change Pursuit>Crunch after all with all the hazarads your team spreads and your numerorous pokemon Starmie can hit super effectvly it will often be pressured to switch in only to be trapped and Ko`ed by Tyranitar. Pursuit is a move I beleive all Tyranitar should have unless you are running a really wierd set like subpunch, because of the ability to trap Starmie, Latios and Latias

Good Luck with your team!

tl;dr

Hide

Tyranitar
.Pursuit--->Crunch

 

[bluewooper]

Hey there Tasteless hat. I have to say, this team that you ahve put together here is pretty good. It took me a very long time to think of something that I could change to improve your team. However, I think I finally have a recommendation that I believe could help your team accomplish your goal: a Breloom or a Salamence sweep.

The Problem:

It took me a long while to realize this, but I am not quite sure that your Latias set is really helping your Breloom and your Salamence to sweep. It seems to me that this set is almost a late-game sweeper/cleaner set. Since you already have both of those covered in the names of Breloom/Salamence, you really shouldn't have this set on your team. So, I figured that you could use a really good physical attacker that can draw in many of the physical walls that really make their sweeps more difficult. Ultimately, you will want this pokemon to be strong enough to actually deal a lot of damage to these pokemon when you "force" them in. I think that the replacement of Terrakion over Latias would really help your team get off a clean sweep with either Salamence or Breloom. Check out its set, and I will tell you a bit more about it.

The Solution:


Terrakion @ Rock Gem
Jolly: 4hp/252Atk/252Spe
~Close Combat
~Stone Edge
~Swords Dance
~Substitute

Benefits:

This set really works for your team. If you are unfamiliar with this set, Terrakion subs up on a fleeing pokemon, allowing him to either attack or set up (depending if the other pokemon is a wall or is a speedy pokemon). If you use only Close Combat early in the game, you will be able to bluff using a Choice set, which are rather popular options. This will allow you to surprise the opposition using a substitute. you will be able to draw out pokemon such as Skarmory, Ferrothorn (expecting a Stone Edge), and Gliscor, all of whom make the jobs of Salamence and Breloom a bit harder. Even without a boost, you should be able to deal 41.91 - 49.7% to Skarmory (the best pure physical wall of the bunch) with a rock Gem Stone Edge, as he phazes you, which should be enough for you to break through with a variety of different fiery attacks. Also, Terrakion gives you another winning condition as he is quite fast enough that he can sweep entire teams with a +2. Finally note that a +2 Rock Gem Stone Edge will KO Gliscor, which is always key for this team. Also, you will be able to have a solid revenge killer for Mamoswine (otherwise a problem for this team)

Downsides:

Besides the obvious loss of a levitator, you will lose a few other things with this change. the most important of which would be your loss of a clean counter to Keldeo. Pokemon on your team should still be able to check it, like Breloom and Salamence, but you may have a bit of trouble with it.

I hope that my suggested change helps your team, Tasteless Hat. It is definitely a team that I was proud to have rated, since it seems to handle itself so well against hte most common threats in the game. Good Luck!

 

[Wizarus]

^To add to the post above it also helps against Lucario without BP, because if it gets a free turn(Mence locked into DC for example) and SRs are up, your team is getting swept.

 

[TastelessHat]

Hey there Tasteless hat. I have to say, this team that you ahve put together here is pretty good. It took me a very long time to think of something that I could change to improve your team. However, I think I finally have a recommendation that I believe could help your team accomplish your goal: a Breloom or a Salamence sweep.

The Problem:

It took me a long while to realize this, but I am not quite sure that your Latias set is really helping your Breloom and your Salamence to sweep. It seems to me that this set is almost a late-game sweeper/cleaner set. Since you already have both of those covered in the names of Breloom/Salamence, you really shouldn't have this set on your team. So, I figured that you could use a really good physical attacker that can draw in many of the physical walls that really make their sweeps more difficult. Ultimately, you will want this pokemon to be strong enough to actually deal a lot of damage to these pokemon when you "force" them in. I think that the replacement of Terrakion over Latias would really help your team get off a clean sweep with either Salamence or Breloom. Check out its set, and I will tell you a bit more about it.

The Solution:


Terrakion @ Rock Gem
Jolly: 4hp/252Atk/252Spe
~Close Combat
~Stone Edge
~Swords Dance
~Substitute

Benefits:

This set really works for your team. If you are unfamiliar with this set, Terrakion subs up on a fleeing pokemon, allowing him to either attack or set up (depending if the other pokemon is a wall or is a speedy pokemon). If you use only Close Combat early in the game, you will be able to bluff using a Choice set, which are rather popular options. This will allow you to surprise the opposition using a substitute. you will be able to draw out pokemon such as Skarmory, Ferrothorn (expecting a Stone Edge), and Gliscor, all of whom make the jobs of Salamence and Breloom a bit harder. Even without a boost, you should be able to deal 41.91 - 49.7% to Skarmory (the best pure physical wall of the bunch) with a rock Gem Stone Edge, as he phazes you, which should be enough for you to break through with a variety of different fiery attacks. Also, Terrakion gives you another winning condition as he is quite fast enough that he can sweep entire teams with a +2. Finally note that a +2 Rock Gem Stone Edge will KO Gliscor, which is always key for this team. Also, you will be able to have a solid revenge killer for Mamoswine (otherwise a problem for this team)

Downsides:

Besides the obvious loss of a levitator, you will lose a few other things with this change. the most important of which would be your loss of a clean counter to Keldeo. Pokemon on your team should still be able to check it, like Breloom and Salamence, but you may have a bit of trouble with it.

I hope that my suggested change helps your team, Tasteless Hat. It is definitely a team that I was proud to have rated, since it seems to handle itself so well against hte most common threats in the game. Good Luck!

I probably misspoke in the description of Latias, but her primary role really isn't sweeping. She is more of an offensive pivot; calm mind is just as good for the special defense buffs as the special attack buffs half the time. But anyway, if I swap for Terrakion, then I have no safe switch in to Keldeo or specs [water type]; the water resist latias provides this team is very valuable, and Mence and Breloom are too frail to take many hits. I have been experimenting with CM Virizion in this slot; it makes Tornadus-T more threatening and makes Tran more difficult to deal with, as well as being weak to status. It does deal with Lucario much better, though. I'm considering swapping ice beam on TTar for pursuit; generally I've found that Tran gets less opportunities to set up rocks than TTar, but that may just be coincidence. However this makes DD Mence/DDnite much harder to deal with since many of them run fire blast. Pursuit trapping starmie is certainly helpful though.