My first RMT! (XY OU Balanced Offense)

[boltsandbombers]

Hi everyone, welcome to my first RMT!

Until now, I have been more of a lurker here on the smogon forums, mostly just reading up on strategies and individual pokemon analyses - I have recently decided to become more active in the community. I started playing competitive this generation, and I have enjoyed it quite a bit so far. Here is a balanced offensive team that I made the other day, which is by far my favorite play style. This team incorporates the defensive / offensive type cores of fire - water - grass and fairy - dragon - steel.
Also, I cannot give this team a specific peak ladder rating, as I usually use lots of different teams, but as of writing this I am around 1350 on the ladder.

So, onto the team:

Lil' Mac (Breloom) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Mach Punch
- Spore
- Rock Tomb
- Bullet Seed

Breloom is the grass component to the FWG core, and has great offensive pressure as well as team support. He is often my dedicated lead, unless I see my opponent has a grass type / pokemon with overcoat to stop my spore based on team preview. Although his defenses and speed are not that great, they can be taken care of by using a focus sash to guarantee a spore or an attack on the opponent as well as having a powerful STAB technician boosted priority move in mach punch. For a pokemon with very stubby and short arms, breloom packs a very hard punch from its base 130 attack.

Mt. Vesuvius (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 220 SDef / 40 Spd
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Protect
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock

Heatran is the special tank of this team, as its typing and ability grants it 2 immunities as well as a plethora of resistances. Heatran synergises very well with breloom, as it absorbs the fairy, psychic, fire, and ice moves aimed at breloom, while breloom can take care of bulky waters and ground types that trouble heatran. The EVs are to out speed anything slower and including adamant max speed mega mawile, and hit them with a lava plume or toxic before they strike.Heatran is also my stealth rock setter, as it has enough bulk and offensive presence to force switches. Lava plume prevents it from being complete taunt bait, as well as having a nifty 30% chance to punish physical attackers.

Kung Pao (Gyarados) @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate -> Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 36 Def / 220 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang / Taunt
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

Gyarados completes the FWG core started by the previous two members, and has decent synergy with the rest of the team. Gyarados is also a great pivot switch in on many physical attackers, due to intimidate prior to mega evolving as well as its resist to fighting, one of the most powerful attacking types in the tier. The speed evs are enough to outspeed anything up to and including timid noivern after one dragon dance, and the rest are put into defense, but could be moved to HP if that is more efficient.
Waterfall is the main STAB move, and hits ridiculously hard even without a dragon dance up. Earthquake rounds off the coverage, making good use of mold breaker to hit targets like rotom-w and gengar with levitate. Taunt is to stop walls from inflicting status to stop its sweep, and it also bypasses espeon's magic bounce to stop it from setting up on baton pass based teams.

woosh (Latios) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Defog

Latios has always been one of the most powerful special attackers in the tier, coming off of a whopping base 130 special attack as well as 110 speed. The EVs are straightforward, maxed speed and special attack to increase its offensive power. Latios synergizes well with heatran, as it is immune to the ground types attacks that heatran despises, as well as the fighting types it cant handle well. Draco meteor is the main attack on this set, as latios is generally a hit-and-run attacker. Psyshock hits many special walls that would wall latios on their weaker side such as blissey and chansey, while thunderbolt hits many important threats on the switch in the tier such as mandibuzz, azumarill, and greninja. Defog is to support mega gyarados, as it needs to be at as high HP at possible before I attempt to sweep or set up.

Fluffy (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard / Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled / Moonlight
- Flamethrower / Heal Bell
- Calm Mind

Clefable finishes off the dragon-fairy-steel core that I feel works well on many teams. I have been using both unaware and magic guard clefable interchangeably, and they both have their merits. Unaware can stop dangerous sweepers like dragonite that can rip through my team fairly well after a DD, whereas magic guard can act as a status absorber for teammates. The evs are to maximize clefables decent physical bulk, while its special bulk will be boosted with a calm mind or two. Moonblast hits fairly hard, even without a calm mind up, and flamethrower hits the steel types that would wall clefable otherwise.

IceIceBaby (Mamoswine) @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 244 Atk / 12 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Freeze-Dry
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake

Mamoswine is the last member of the team, and provides additional physical power along with breloom and gyarados, also coming off a base 130 attack - just like breloom :P
The EVs are so that rotom-w is 2HKOd by Freeze-dry (a very interesting new move which is extremely helpful for mamoswince in taking out physically bulky water types) on the switch after stealth rock damage. Ice shard is to provide useful priority for the team, as breloom usually doesnt last very long in the match. Icicle crash and earthquake are 2 powerful dual STAB moves that have great offensive coverage, and the former having a nice 30% flinch chance.


So, thats my team! Please let me know any feedback you have regarding EV spreads, moves, team replacements, etc.


Importable: http://pastebin.com/nZ0Em7GW

 

[MaxGemini]

This is an excellent team you have, although there are a few things. For one, I would drop freeze-d or crash for stealth rock, since having both is somewhat redundant. Also, I would drop rock slide for sd on breloom, because of how well it works with spore. A Sylveon or other wish passer might be nice to stay healthy, but it's not necenecessary.

 

[Zibbity]

Also, I would drop rock slide for sd on breloom, because of how well it works with spore.

It's Rock Tomb. Breloom needs it to hit faster Pokemons and fire types.

Adamant nature > Jolly nature
Power-up Punch > Swords Dance

P-up Punch is really underrated and suits Breloom perfectly with Mach Punch. Take away Swords Dance and Spore and Breloom is no longer a victim of Taunt.

Your Heatran is hard countered by other Heatran. I think Protect is not worth the moveslot when you could go for Substitute or another attack.

I prefer Gyarados to be as fast as possible. With Jolly nature it could outspeed a Jolteon after one Dragon Dance. Adamant nature is still the prefered nature for potential OHKO's. Ice Fang is a good move for coverage and hax.

Latios is fine, but it's going to lure Bisharp.

Your Clefable is hard countered by other Heatran. Magic Guard is recommended for that set.

Mamoswine is fine if it's not a lead otherwise give it a Focus Sash.

 

[Lonely Parrot]

Well, there really is not much of a problem with your team, though I would like to suggest using Eviolite Tangela instead of Breloom, it will provide a GREAT physical wall. A Dragon Dance M-Gyarados does like 25% with Ice Fang and then you can put him to sleep and then Giga Drain him to death, You could run Leech Seed which will help your other pokes recover some health. Now that speaking of Leech Seed, You could use Magma Storm on Heatran to trap and continuously deal damage with Leech Seed and the Inferno damage and plus you could burn/poison him. Your team's good otherwise :D

 

[boltsandbombers]

It's Rock Tomb. Breloom needs it to hit faster Pokemons and fire types.

Adamant nature > Jolly nature
Power-up Punch > Swords Dance

P-up Punch is really underrated and suits Breloom perfectly with Mach Punch. Take away Swords Dance and Spore and Breloom is no longer a victim of Taunt.

Your Heatran is hard countered by other Heatran. I think Protect is not worth the moveslot when you could go for Substitute or another attack.

I prefer Gyarados to be as fast as possible. With Jolly nature it could outspeed a Jolteon after one Dragon Dance. Adamant nature is still the prefered nature for potential OHKO's. Ice Fang is a good move for coverage and hax.

Latios is fine, but it's going to lure Bisharp.

Your Clefable is hard countered by other Heatran. Magic Guard is recommended for that set.

Mamoswine is fine if it's not a lead otherwise give it a Focus Sash.

Alright, thanks for the input - I don't think it's worth taking away spore from breloom, as it's one of the few pokemon that can abuse that move. Yeah, it's taunt bait but that's not too much of an issue. I totally understand that my heatran is walled by other heatrans, but I have EQ on gyarados and mamoswine to deal with them. Yep, I realize that Latios lures bisharp - but what can I really do about that? I could use HP fighting, but that's a bit too situational IMO. Again, there isnt much a Clefable can do to a heatran anaways, so I just made sure I had other team member to scare away heatran.

 

[Lonely Parrot]

Tangela can easily wall Physical hits from any OU pokemon, but it's up to you in the end.

 

[Fix up]

Tangela can easily wall Physical hits from any OU pokemon, but it's up to you in the end.

why are you suggesting tangela? no offence intended but there are way superior options

 

[Darnell]

Tangela can easily wall Physical hits from any OU pokemon, but it's up to you in the end.

why are you suggesting tangela? no offence intended but there are way superior options

^^^^Deoxys-D, Ferrothorn, Chansey, Mandibuzz, Skarmory, Zapdos, Quagsire, Scizor and many more.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Heal Bell
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Flamethrower
Soft-Boiled > Moonlight due towards Soft-Boiled having 16 PP to help you more throughtout the whole match rather than Moonlight which only has a total of 8. Moonight is also much less unreliable due towards not knowing when the weather will help you or cost you the loss in any form of way. The reason for Flamethrower > Calm Mind is because you don't want to give the satisfaction of Pokemon such as Scizor, Aegislash or Ferrothorn coming in freely and giving them a chance to set up hazards or a Swords Dance. Aegislash can cause problems if Mega-Gyarados has already evolved.

 

[boltsandbombers]

yeah considering that breloom(to an extent) and gyarados check the steels (mamo can as well, but takes SE damage, so it's situational), flamethrower would be needed only for a 1v1, which you won't let happen. Also, calm mind makes for 0 EVs in SpDef, so i agree that calm mind>flamethrower for clefable in this team

Out of the 3 you mentioned, gyarados probably checks steels the best. I think I'll go with heal bell, as flamethrowers coverage is already provided by the other team members.

 

[megabackingengar]

This team is really execellent,i don't see anything to change.Congrats!