ORAS OU My first RMT - Sledgehammer Shenanigans

[Onderhond]

This is my first RMT as well as my first post on the forum. Been out of Pokémon for a long time. A friend introduced me to Pokémon Showdown a few months / year(s?) ago when I told him I replaced the internal batteries on my old Gold and Crystal games, been hanging around on the ladder off and on ever since. Had to learn a lot of new stuff; new Pokémon, abilities, EV's, natures, new items, movepools,... and I'm still learning.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that I've received some positive reactions while using it on the ladder (which never happened with any team I played before) and I reached my highest position yet on it (peaked 1600+, I think it was 1636 or something), so more experienced players could likely do better I guess. I thought it would therefor be good to share it and to see what the smogon-forum demi-gods think of it, and how you guys would improve it.

The team consists of Victini, Kyurem-Black, Dugtrio, Feraligatr, Magnezone and Crobat (yes, Crobat). My thought process was that I wanted to create a team that would resemble the way I play in RTS and TBS games; heavy hard-hitting raids and some traps to keep my opponent in check. The two Pokémon I absolutely wanted in my team were Victini and Kyurem-Black because they looked fun to play with. The team doesn't have a mega, I tried using some but that always meant either loss of momentum or a movepool that created a gap in the team rather than complement it.

Alright so the sets:

Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Zen Headbutt
- U-turn​

Alright so coming out of the G/S/C era my first ladder teams were all stall based, largely sporting Mega Venusaur and later Mega Sableye. Victini was the bane of my existence back then. Good coverage and it puts so much pressure on your opponent. He'll have to make plays to get around a V-create, and that's the beauty of that 4th move; U-turn on the Heatran switch, it doesn't matter if he has a balloon or not, go into Dugtrio and Heatran is history. That's usually the way it works. Been thinking of making it Expert Belt though and giving it Glaciate and Energy Ball instead of Bolt Strike and Zen Headbutt (I don't think I've used Zen Headbutt ever and Bolt Strike only sporadically), haven't tried that out yet though. But it could allow me do deal with physically defensive Rotom-W better. Thoughts?

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 32 SpA / 224 Spe
Naive Nature
- Iron Head
- Outrage
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam​

The second monster actually does the same thing as Victini in that it forces your opponent to make plays. Kyurem-Black has a ridiculous attack stat. Giving it a scarf allows it to hit twice if your opponent didn't have time enough to scout (which is probably the case when playing against this team), it also allows you to outspeed things like Lati@s or Mega Diancie late game, when your opponent will be hesitant to or can't switch out. The EV spread allows you to outspeed Scarfed Landorus-T. Iron Head is for the possible Fairy switch ins (but that rarely happens, I think I've used it more for a late game sweep), Ice Beam for Landorus-T or Gliscor. Teravolt allows you to crit Mega Slowbro which is beautiful.

Dugtrio @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Earthquake
- Reversal
- Memento
- Stealth Rock​

This thing. This thing has so much usage. I can't tell you how many Heatrans or weakened Bisharps have fallen to this. It works great in combination with Victini for the reason explained above. Memento allows Feraligatr to set up. Dugtrio is a team player, great revenge killer, having a lot of team members that hit hard make this great to finish things off. You will have to keep entry hazards off the field though.

Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 220 Atk / 36 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Punch
- Waterfall
- Crunch​

Feraligtr the monster. As said, this thing works great in conjunction with Dugtrio. But it's also awesome in combination with Magnezone. This one doesn't mess around. Most of its counters are handled by Magnezone and stall teams get handled by Victini / Kyurem-Black and the trappers. All this monster needs is a small window to set up and the damage will be grave, in fact, sometimes it doesn't even need to set up. Some players will make risky plays expecting a DD, which you can take advantage of.

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon​

Trapper number two. People seem to be afraid of Kyurem-Black / Victini or don't want to leave space for Feraligatr and this makes Magnezone shine, just like Dugtrio. In particular, it's really useful because it traps bulky steel types like Skarmory or Ferrothorn, which would otherwise be a pain to my almost exclusively physical team (especially since both Victini and Kyurem-Black are Choiced). It's also great in combination with Feraligatr because people seem to be a fan of switching in Keldeo or Azumarill on that thing.

Crobat @ Black Sludge
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Toxic
- Defog​

Last up is Crobat. This is basically my jack of all trades. I needed something to switch in on ground moves, a defogger and something that could handle substitutes (because sub-users were a pain in early drafts of this team, especially Keldeo if it could get one up since it could burn with scald and could deal super effective damage to both Kyurem-Black and Victini), it also resists Fairy moves and it isn't hurt by Spikes (which all other mons are, so chances are someone will try to get these things up). It doesn't have Roost but I don't really miss it. Games with this team tend to be over pretty quickly (both wins and losses). U-turn comes in handy to catch a Heatran when the opponent expects a Brave Bird or if he wants to get rocks up again. Toxic is for Rotom-W (and to a lesser extent for Landorus-T) because that's the biggest threat to this team and it's basically the only way to handle it somewhat. Toxic also allows you to outstall a Rocky Helmet Garchomp that wants to keep his rocks up. Crobat is usually the one I sacrifice to gain or keep momentum though.

Overall I really like this team a lot. It's really fun to play. It breaks stall like it's its job. It puts a lot of pressure on the opponent. There's one big gaping hole and that's Rotom-Wash but if you can keep the pressure on you can handle it, it's not an auto-win for your opponent by far. Stealth Rock is another thing: Victini, Kyurem-Black and Crobat take 25% from it and Dugtrio looses its Focus Sash. You will want to keep it off the field by any means. Luckily Crobat is fast and there are so many offensive threats and trappers on this team that your opponent will either have lost his Stealth Rocker when Crobat Defogs or won't have a chance to get them up again. Also, Pokémon with Protect are a nuisance because of the 3 choiced mons, but they're not really that much of a problem in the end. I can imagine this team being bad against sand (-rush Excadrill) but the truth is I've never had a problem with that.

I hope I did this post right and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

EDIT 1:
Crobat => Mega Latios
Victini: Adamant => Naughty, Zen Headbut => Glaciate

Importable updated team:

new

the Menace (Feraligatr) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 220 Atk / 36 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Punch
- Waterfall
- Crunch

Let's hang out (Magnezone) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon

Aaaand it's gone (Victini) @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Glaciate
- U-turn

Actually Jesus (Kyurem-Black) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 32 SpA / 224 Spe
Naive Nature
- Iron Head
- Outrage
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam

Please stay (Dugtrio) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Earthquake
- Reversal
- Memento
- Stealth Rock

Cute Dragon (Latios) @ Latiosite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock

 

[Tricking]

Hi Onderhond,

cool team, first of all, in terms of coverage, Brick Break is better than Zen Headbutt on Victini: i know you will rarely use it, but it might happen to come to a final 1v1 vs something annoying like Heatran and Brick Break can be very helpful. Other options are Trick and even Glaciate to lure tankchomp and bulky lando-t. The rest of the team is pretty solid except for the last slot which doesn't seem to fit perfectly in that role. I also noticed you aren't playing without a mega, so I think you can replace Crobat with Mega Latias. You probably haven't ever tried this mega, but it gives you a solution to all the three threats you came up with in your description: it deals with Keldeo, it checks Excadrill (Swords Dance version are threatening, but people prefer to use the standard Rapid Spin set, and it removes Stealth Rock.

This set fits best in your team, you can even try Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Roost and Defog, but this set is weaker to subCM versions of Keldeo and develop a shared weakness to Bisharp, which is pretty annoying.

Mega Latias

Latias @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spe
Bold Nature
- Roost
- Defog
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Hope I helped, good luck with your team :)

 

[Onderhond]

Hey Tricking, thanks for the reply! I'm definitely going to try out some different movesets for Victini. Mega Latias is an interesting choice, let's see how that works!

 

[OriginalOne]

This is my first RMT as well as my first post on the forum. Been out of Pokémon for a long time. A friend introduced me to Pokémon Showdown a few months / year(s?) ago when I told him I replaced the internal batteries on my old Gold and Crystal games, been hanging around on the ladder off and on ever since. Had to learn a lot of new stuff; new Pokémon, abilities, EV's, natures, new items, movepools,... and I'm still learning.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that I've received some positive reactions while using it on the ladder (which never happened with any team I played before) and I reached my highest position yet on it (peaked 1600+, I think it was 1636 or something), so more experienced players could likely do better I guess. I thought it would therefor be good to share it and to see what the smogon-forum demi-gods think of it, and how you guys would improve it.

The team consists of Victini, Kyurem-Black, Dugtrio, Feraligatr, Magnezone and Crobat (yes, Crobat). My thought process was that I wanted to create a team that would resemble the way I play in RTS and TBS games; heavy hard-hitting raids and some traps to keep my opponent in check. The two Pokémon I absolutely wanted in my team were Victini and Kyurem-Black because they looked fun to play with. The team doesn't have a mega, I tried using some but that always meant either loss of momentum or a movepool that created a gap in the team rather than complement it.

Alright so the sets:

Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Zen Headbutt
- U-turn​

Alright so coming out of the G/S/C era my first ladder teams were all stall based, largely sporting Mega Venusaur and later Mega Sableye. Victini was the bane of my existence back then. Good coverage and it puts so much pressure on your opponent. He'll have to make plays to get around a V-create, and that's the beauty of that 4th move; U-turn on the Heatran switch, it doesn't matter if he has a balloon or not, go into Dugtrio and Heatran is history. That's usually the way it works. Been thinking of making it Expert Belt though and giving it Glaciate and Energy Ball instead of Bolt Strike and Zen Headbutt (I don't think I've used Zen Headbutt ever and Bolt Strike only sporadically), haven't tried that out yet though. But it could allow me do deal with physically defensive Rotom-W better. Thoughts?

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 32 SpA / 224 Spe
Naive Nature
- Iron Head
- Outrage
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam​

The second monster actually does the same thing as Victini in that it forces your opponent to make plays. Kyurem-Black has a ridiculous attack stat. Giving it a scarf allows it to hit twice if your opponent didn't have time enough to scout (which is probably the case when playing against this team), it also allows you to outspeed things like Lati@s or Mega Diancie late game, when your opponent will be hesitant to or can't switch out. The EV spread allows you to outspeed Scarfed Landorus-T. Iron Head is for the possible Fairy switch ins (but that rarely happens, I think I've used it more for a late game sweep), Ice Beam for Landorus-T or Gliscor. Teravolt allows you to crit Mega Slowbro which is beautiful.

Dugtrio @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Earthquake
- Reversal
- Memento
- Stealth Rock​

This thing. This thing has so much usage. I can't tell you how many Heatrans or weakened Bisharps have fallen to this. It works great in combination with Victini for the reason explained above. Memento allows Feraligatr to set up. Dugtrio is a team player, great revenge killer, having a lot of team members that hit hard make this great to finish things off. You will have to keep entry hazards off the field though.

Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 220 Atk / 36 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Punch
- Waterfall
- Crunch​

Feraligtr the monster. As said, this thing works great in conjunction with Dugtrio. But it's also awesome in combination with Magnezone. This one doesn't mess around. Most of its counters are handled by Magnezone and stall teams get handled by Victini / Kyurem-Black and the trappers. All this monster needs is a small window to set up and the damage will be grave, in fact, sometimes it doesn't even need to set up. Some players will make risky plays expecting a DD, which you can take advantage of.

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon​

Trapper number two. People seem to be afraid of Kyurem-Black / Victini or don't want to leave space for Feraligatr and this makes Magnezone shine, just like Dugtrio. In particular, it's really useful because it traps bulky steel types like Skarmory or Ferrothorn, which would otherwise be a pain to my almost exclusively physical team (especially since both Victini and Kyurem-Black are Choiced). It's also great in combination with Feraligatr because people seem to be a fan of switching in Keldeo or Azumarill on that thing.

Crobat @ Black Sludge
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Toxic
- Defog​

Last up is Crobat. This is basically my jack of all trades. I needed something to switch in on ground moves, a defogger and something that could handle substitutes (because sub-users were a pain in early drafts of this team, especially Keldeo if it could get one up since it could burn with scald and could deal super effective damage to both Kyurem-Black and Victini), it also resists Fairy moves and it isn't hurt by Spikes (which all other mons are, so chances are someone will try to get these things up). It doesn't have Roost but I don't really miss it. Games with this team tend to be over pretty quickly (both wins and losses). U-turn comes in handy to catch a Heatran when the opponent expects a Brave Bird or if he wants to get rocks up again. Toxic is for Rotom-W (and to a lesser extent for Landorus-T) because that's the biggest threat to this team and it's basically the only way to handle it somewhat. Toxic also allows you to outstall a Rocky Helmet Garchomp that wants to keep his rocks up. Crobat is usually the one I sacrifice to gain or keep momentum though.

Overall I really like this team a lot. It's really fun to play. It breaks stall like it's its job. It puts a lot of pressure on the opponent. There's one big gaping hole and that's Rotom-Wash but if you can keep the pressure on you can handle it, it's not an auto-win for your opponent by far. Stealth Rock is another thing: Victini, Kyurem-Black and Crobat take 25% from it and Dugtrio looses its Focus Sash. You will want to keep it off the field by any means. Luckily Crobat is fast and there are so many offensive threats and trappers on this team that your opponent will either have lost his Stealth Rocker when Crobat Defogs or won't have a chance to get them up again. Also, Pokémon with Protect are a nuisance because of the 3 choiced mons, but they're not really that much of a problem in the end. I can imagine this team being bad against sand (-rush Excadrill) but the truth is I've never had a problem with that.

I hope I did this post right and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Hello Onderhond, a really cool team you got there, i tested it out and it proved to be effective and loads of fun! I agree with Tricking about changing crobat to latios, as latios can do more damage to rotom-w and tank its attacks and providing that needed fighting and ground resistances(immunity). One thing i noticed is that Mega-Lopunny can cause this team huge problems as Lopunny has great bulk, speed and packs quite a punch and has something for every member of your team, Lopunny can be beaten, its just a tricky one, maybe giving Victini scarf and Zone specs could help? Anyways, a really fun team.

ps. the trapper combo works like a charm.

 

[Onderhond]

Glad you like it!

I changed the team around a bit, I agree a Mega Lati@s is indeed better on this team overall than Crobat (though I found that U-turn on Crobat is extremely useful, and depending on my opponent I often thought "wish I had Crobat here"), so thanks for that suggestion Tricking! However the set you proposed seems to have checking sand-rush Excadrill as its main purpose. I encounter more Rotom-Wash than I do Sand teams so I would go for Draco Meteor instead of HP Fire and some more SpA EV's. I'm currently running Mega Latios, and it's going alright (importable version of the updated team is at the bottom of the post and I also changed it at the bottom of the original post).

​

Also changed the Nature of Victini to Naughty and gave it Glaciate instead of Zen Headbut. It still has a Choice Band though. The Glaciate is mainly there for the Landorus / Gliscor switch in, it's circumstantial at best but I didn't use the Zen Headbut anyways... Didn't go for Brick Break as I have U-turn + Dugtrio for when I expect the Heatran switch in and I prefer keeping U-turn.
The main goal of Victini is dealing great physical damage so that's why I kept the Choice Band. Not a big fan of Life Orb on Victini in this team as it can still live some hits right now and do damage later on, Expert Belt is an option but you're going to V-Create a lot of things that aren't weak to it as well, the extra damage is pretty nice, so that's why I stuck to Choice Band, would you guys recommend changing the EV's a little or something?

As for Mega Lopunny. I just had a game against one and the main problem with that thing is that it is bulky. You'll need to keep rocks off the field and use Dugtrio and Kyurem-Black to deal with it. Kyurem-Black still outspeeds it. Not a big fan of giving Zone specs, since then Mega Scizor would outspeed it. Magnezone has a Scarf right now only because it got OHKO'd by Scizors in early drafts of this team. Giving Scarf to Victini is interesting but I fear that the loss of 'punch' it has right now will be a greater loss than the speed boost.

Thanks for all the feedback guys! Really appreciate it!

Importable

the Menace (Feraligatr) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 220 Atk / 36 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Punch
- Waterfall
- Crunch

Let's hang out (Magnezone) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon

Aaaand it's gone (Victini) @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Glaciate
- U-turn

Actually Jesus (Kyurem-Black) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 32 SpA / 224 Spe
Naive Nature
- Iron Head
- Outrage
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam

Please stay (Dugtrio) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Earthquake
- Reversal
- Memento
- Stealth Rock

Cute Dragon (Latios) @ Latiosite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock​