ORAS OU My First Team: M.Medicham (Peak 1658, GXE 75.4%)

[RealTM]

Mega-Medicham Team (Peak ELO 1658, GXE 75.4%)

​

Hellooo. By way of introduction, I'm just a guy that's been playing Pokemon since Red & Blue first came out in the states. I first joined the competitive scene with the release of Diamond & Pearl and consistently performed at a high level in the ShoddyBattle OU scene. After not playing Pokemon since then, I decided to pick up a 3DS and Alpha Sapphire five or six weeks ago; over the last month, I've been dabbling with the OU Showdown ladder and trying to figure out the meta. This has been my most successful team so far, but I'd like some help improving it! Thanks for taking a look.

The Team:​

More than anything, I wanted to use a team that suited my playstyle. I wanted versatile team members that could take hits if they needed to while also applying reliable offensive pressure. Many of my selections were based on my desire to simplify the gamestate with status, Intimidate, and priority.

Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Ice Punch
- Bullet Punch
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At first, I wanted to use a Mega-Pinsir team because of Aerialate Quick Attack, but I noticed that Pokemon like Thundurus, Mega-Manectric, or a well played Landorus-T could switch in and take minimal damage. I found that to be too problematic, so I started looking around for another Mega that had a priority move and could hit even Pokemon with resistances HARD on the switch-in. Enter Mega-Medicham. Even with a Jolly nature, Mega-Medicham reaches a staggering 598 Attack, and STAB High Jump Kick is ridiculously powerful. Like seriously. It's so strong.

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High Jump Kick Damage Calculations vs. Potential Switch-Ins:

252 HP/172 Def Calm Clefable - 47.2 - 55.5%
252 HP/0 Def Timid Starmie - 62.3 - 73.4%
72 HP/0 Def Timid Latias - 60.5 - 71.4%
252 HP/0 Def Calm Mew - 43.8 - 51.4%
92 HP/0 Def Hasty Tornadus-T - 73.3 - 86.3%
240 HP/176 Def Impish Garchomp - 67.1 - 79.3%
252 HP/136 Def Calm Amoongguss - 45.8 - 54.1%
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Impressive, right? Ice Punch provides coverage against Landorus-T and other Flying-types, while also potentially OHKOing Gengars that might switch-in predicting a HJK after Stealth Rocks. I decided to go with Bullet Punch over Thunder Punch or Zen Headbutt because I have a sizeable Weavile weakness after Keldeo goes down. Additionally, late game Fake Out + Bullet Punch pressure allows me to clean up so many situations. Bullet Punch surprising Mega-Diancies with an OHKO is always nice as well.

Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Sludge Wave
- Taunt
​

Hit hard and hit fast. Gengar + Mega-Medicham is a formidable offensive duo that covers so many potential threats. Gengar clears out potential walls to Mega-Medicham like Mega-Slowbro, Slowbro, Clefable, Mega-Metagross and Azumarill. Shadow Ball + Focus Blast provides perfect coverage, with the latter being able to destroy players who bring in TTar/Bisharp without thinking twice. Sludge Wave OHKOs Fairy-types and Serperior, while Taunt let's me completely wall Skarm/Bliss and handle weakened stall teams. Overall, Gengar has won me so many games--the ones I lose are typically because I don't manage its HP skillfully and get taken out by a priority move.

Landorus-T @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-Turn
- Knock Off
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Every team that I've made this Generation includes Landorus-T. It provides such a solid check to physical threats with Intimidate, fantastic typing, and natural bulk. At first, I started with a Defensive Rocky Helmet set like the ones I used on other teams, but Mega-Manectric, Thundurus, and Tornadus kept ripping through my teams. If the opposing team had two of those three or Weavile, I almost automatically lost. My friend suggested putting a Choice Scarf on Landorus-T and moving Stealth Rocks to Jirachi over Wish, and I've won so many more games since I've made the change. It serves as a really solid pivot and can lead against opposing Landorus-Ts, while also picking up surprise OHKOs on Thundurus and Tornadus. Late game, I can outspeed Choice Scarf Excadrill, Choice Scarf Heatran, Mega-Manectric, and Jolteon and OHKO with Earthquake. Knock Off lets me pick up quick kills on Latis and Gengar, and U-Turn allows me to preserve offensive momentum.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Body Slam
- Stealth Rocks
- U-Turn
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Say hello to Landorus-T's partner-in-crime. Jirachi serves as my main pivot and can soak up Special hits really well. This is a set that I used to a high degree of success, and I feel that it translates to this generation as well. Body Slam gives me a relatively reliable form of speed control, and ParaFlinch lets me take out a lot of threats. Rocks really helps pick up chip damage to let Medicham destroy everything late game, and U-Turn lets me get away from Magnezone and other threats while shielding my team members from hard switch damage.

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
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Keldeo reminds me of Mega-Medicham in a lot of ways. Once a few threats are removed, nothing can reliably switch into Choice Specs Hydro Pump. Keldeo lets me get rid of annoying Pokemon like opposing Landorus-T, MegaZard-Y, Bisharp, Hippowdon, and Tyranitar while also inflicting crucial burns to safer switch-ins like Rotom-Wash, Sableye, Skarmory and Ferrothorn. I've found Icy Wind to be incredibly useful late game, as it allows me to bring in a fast Medicham to clean up with High Jump Kick. Keldeo's also my only reliable switch-in on Scizor.

Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power Fighting
- Defog
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The ever-so-crucial Defogger. Latias is fast and hits hard, but also packs enough bulk to serve as a solid switch-in against Pokemon like Mega-Manectric and Thundurus. Defog lets me get rid of hazards that would otherwise limit Gengar's ability to survive certain priority attacks; in some late game situations, I sacrifice Latias to Defog the opponent's last Pokemon and drop their evasion so that I don't lose to annoying High Jump Kick misses. HP Fighting lets me OHKO Bisharp (unless it's AV, but that's not that common anymore) on the switch in. Even if they don't hard switch Bisharp in, most of them won't go for Sucker Punch on Latias so you can fire off an HP Fighting pretty safely. I've actually never even been hit by a Bisharp with this team. Latias, Gengar and Keldeo destroy it if played correctly.

Final Thoughts:
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Through my testing, I've identified some problem areas with my team. I'll detail the broader issues here, and provide a short list of specific threats below. Stall is definitely the biggest threat for me. I have a really hard time dealing with non-Mega Sableye, especially if it has synergy with its teammates. In addition to stall, particularly fast teams (or teams with priority) tend to give me problems. I can usually play around speedcreep by concealing the Scarf on my Lando until the right time or by picking up chip damage through timely switches, but I find it really hard to win when a team has 3 or more Base 110+ Pokemon. And finally, a lot of times I lose just because I miss Focus Blasts or High Jump Kicks. Nothing we can do about that.

Some threats that I find myself losing to repeatedly:
- Slowbro
- Sableye
- Gengar
- Serperior
- Mega-Lopunny
- Tornadus
- Mega-Scizor
- WoW Talonflame

All in all, I'd like to preserve the team composition. I want to find a way to counter my threats by using the same Pokemon, but altering EVs, items, or movesets. Some things that I've tested are Tailwind/Roost/Healing Wish on Latias, Wish on Jirachi (which I kind of miss), Hidden Power Electric on Keldeo, Bulky Landorus-T, Choice Scarf Keldeo, and Latios > Latias. Let me know what you think!

Proof of Peak:​

 

[Dank Sorcerer]

First off, cool team! Just mentally going through some common threats, your team seems to deal with a lot of them. One thing I'd recommend though is going for Hidden Power Fire > Focus Blast on Gengar. Yes, you lose the ability to speed tie with other 110s, but with a much more reliable move you get almost the same coverage, plus the ability to bop Mega Sciz and Ferro (minus Heatran and Ttar, but you stuff to deal with those). Mainly it prevents Sciz from being able to eat up a shadow ball and go for SD. Also, it doesn't miss. Which is you know, nice.

Side note: I'm seeing Fighting type coverage on 4 mons, and Fire type coverage on none, so you should definitely consider a fire move on something, if not Gengar, to better deal with the aforementioned threats. Even Fire Punch > Body Slam on Jirachi unless you find that the paralysis is useful and consistent enough.

Side Side Note: The reason I consider Ferrothorn a threat in spite of Medicham is the strong possibility of a protect set, which could basically shut Medicham down under the right circumstances.

Edit and Side Side Side Note: Adamant on Medicham is a personal preference of mine, allowing you to land a guaranteed 2HKO on some of those mons you need a roll for. I advise paying close attention to the kinds of things you're outspeeding on a Jolly set over Adamant to see if it's really worth it.

Definitely a cool team all around!

 

[RealTM]

Thank you for the advice! Main reason I ran Focus Blast was for Bisharp, but I've honestly never even let Bisharp get an attack off against this team because of aforementioned fighting coverage haha. I'm switching to HP Fire right now; I never win speed ties anyways. The Body Slam on Jirachi is too useful for me, especially because I switch in on Latis often and I'd lose the Lati-tie otherwise. I was also considering Dazzling Gleam for Sableye. What do you think? Sableye has been a bigger problem to me than Mega-Scizor and Ferrothorn, even though they're pretty big threats. As for Medicham, I actually ran Adamant for a long time and recently switched to Jolly. I'll switch back right now though, because I haven't really outsped anything with Jolly.

 

[Sobi]

hi there man, really cool team here, i like the use of mega medicham since it's a personal favourite of mine. the first thing i notice when i look at the team is the crippling weakness to dark types, namely weavile. weavile can pretty much take care of all your pokemon, provided mega cham and keldeo are all weakened--they can all take care of weavile, although they don't like switching in to icicle crash / knock off. weavile makes easy work of lando-t, gengar and latias as well, which is something i'll try to prevent with the changes i'm about to suggest.

<<THREAT:

>>

firstly, i would suggest using scarf jirachi > spd set as this allows you to outspeed weavile and OHKO it with Iron Head, allowing your team to have an easier time seeing as a big threat has been eliminated. choice scarf jirachi also acts as an efficient late-game cleaner, outspeeding most pokemon thanks to its scarf, and can also provide good offensive momentum with u-turn. since you lose a valuable stealth rocker with this change, i think you should try out a defensive landorus-t set over the current one, as it gives you another way to eliminate weavile, which, as i said earlier, looks like a really big threat to your team. lando-t with this set can also handle sand as well, which seems to be an increasingly popular playstyle atm, as well as excadrill who can be quite annoying to medicham if it runs a scarf.

<<

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next, to help with this dark-type weakness, you should try out rest talk keldeo > choice specs keldeo. since keldeo is your main mon to take out the aforementioned dark-types, it will most likely get worn down by their coverage moves, and if it ends up dying, your team will really struggle against these dark-types, which is why i think you should try out rest talk keldeo. though it isn't as powerful as specs keldeo, it can still deal a great deal of damage while still being able to recover off any damage taken, unlike the specs keldeo set.

<<

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finally, this is a minor change, but i think you should go for healing wish over hp fighting on latias. the support provided by healing wish is ever so appreciated by mega medicham, keldeo and gengar, giving them a chance to sweep again, so this is why i would recommend it. ohko'ing bisharp with hp fighting is nice, but that's all it really hits notably and healing wish is a much better move imo.

<<

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hope i helped, good luck :)

Sets

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Fire Punch
- Healing Wish

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock

Keldeo @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

shoutouts to Team Pokepals for being a great rating mentor :]​

 

[Dank Sorcerer]

I was also considering Dazzling Gleam for Sableye. What do you think?

I definitely like Dazzling Gleam. I now see that Sableye pretty much destroys this team haha. But with that, and the great advice Sobi gave regarding Scarf Jirachi w/ fire punch and SR Def Lando, you're definitely more equipped to handle Mega Sableye, Mega Sciz, and Weavile.

 

[RealTM]

If you look more closely, you'd see that I already tried defensive lando + scarf jirachi haha. It didn't work. I get destroyed by raikou and mega-manectric without scarf lando. I can handle Weavile with my fighting coverage, but manectric is a different story. Keep in mind this team plays like a hyper offensive team even though I didn't explicitly call it that; thank you for the suggestions, but based on my testing they don't seem to work in practice! I may test the healing wish again, but in about 20 battles with it I actually never used it. HP fighting seems to be the better move for me right now. It lets me commit one moveslot to combatting weavile effectively as opposed to making the 3 major changes that you suggested. I'll test the healing wish again and let you know how it goes!

 

[RealTM]

I definitely like Dazzling Gleam. I now see that Sableye pretty much destroys this team haha. But with that, and the great advice Sobi gave regarding Scarf Jirachi w/ fire punch and SR Def Lando, you're definitely more equipped to handle Mega Sableye, Mega Sciz, and Weavile.

What do you think the Gengar set should be then? :o

 

[Sobi]

If you look more closely, you'd see that I already tried defensive lando + scarf jirachi haha. It didn't work. I get destroyed by raikou and mega-manectric without scarf lando. I can handle Weavile with my fighting coverage, but manectric is a different story. Keep in mind this team plays like a hyper offensive team even though I didn't explicitly call it that; thank you for the suggestions, but based on my testing they don't seem to work in practice! I may test the healing wish again, but in about 20 battles with it I actually never used it. HP fighting seems to be the better move for me right now. It lets me commit one moveslot to combatting weavile effectively as opposed to making the 3 major changes that you suggested. I'll test the healing wish again and let you know how it goes!

afaik defensive lando-t can tank a hp ice from mega mane and raikou and ohko with eq

 

[Dank Sorcerer]

What do you think the Gengar set should be then? :o

I meant for Dazzling Gleam to replace Focus Blast or even taunt on Gengar, though I can see taunt being useful for this team. You'll definitely want some way of dealing with Sableye, because your answer now is hitting 2 Hydros with Keldeo, one being on a switch. If you don't get it on a switch and it has enough health, it could just PP stall your Hydros anyway. BUT. All that being said, that's a bunch of effort to check a single mon. HP Fire would be much better coverage, provided you maintain your current Jirachi / Lando sets.

afaik defensive lando-t can tank a hp ice from mega mane and raikou and ohko with eq

This is true (excluding specs Raikou), though not entirely reliable. If Lando comes in on rocks once, it's in range. Twice? The OHKO is guaranteed. Also, you need a pretty high roll for -1 EQ to knock out Mega Mane. Quick electrics definitely threaten defensive lando. However, toss Heart Stamp on scarf rachi and that matchup will cease to matter xD
I'm a fan of that core personally, but I think I see why RealTM was having issues with it on this team.

Calcs:
-1 0 Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Mega Manectric: 236-282 (83.9 - 100.3%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Mega Manectric Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 8 SpD Landorus-T: 320-380 (83.7 - 99.4%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Raikou Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 8 SpD Landorus-T: 288-340 (75.3 - 89%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

EDIT: Just realized that double healing wish support would help out with the matchup significantly, allowing Lando to take that hit and heal up later. It could definitely be worth exploring.

 

[Gilbertosaurus]

Your team is very offensive, frail, and lacks the speed control and priority to make up for it. I'd start off by replacing yout current lando set to defensive lando-t with a yache berry to get a hard hit off or even ko fast electrics. and slightly alleviate the weakness to birdspam. You can choose to run the standard defensive spread or a spread of 176 HP/ 136 Atk/ 196 Spe for more offensive prowess.

As for speed control, choice scarf jirachi is a good option to revenge kill threats to your team. Electrics shouldnt be too much of a problem with yache lando as long as u dont switch right into an hp ice and waste the berry.

You also mention you have problems with stall. One quick fix to that is to run LO Tornadus-T over Gengar to obliterate stall. Seriously, stall teams have few real switch ins to this monster and Regenerator only serves to make it more durable vs stall teams. It also sits at a nice speed tier and can do a number to more offensive teams. A set of hurricane/ heat wave/ superpower/ taunt shoud suffice and better your odds against stall mons.

Finally, for added speed control I suggest running LO Thundy over keldeo. They're both very powerful but thundurus has the added bonus of priority twave which can let medicham stay in and ko mons who are usually faster than it without having to tank a hit and defines it as a wincon. Twave also hinders sweeps from set up mons like zard x, altaria, gyarados etc.

Thats it for now. Let me know how these changes work out for you. I've a few more ideas but these seemed the most appealing to me. Im not too set on the scarfrachi tho i just didnt want to change the team too much. Good luck!

Sets

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Yache Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 176 HP / 136 Atk / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance/U-Turn

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Heart Stamp
- Ice Punch/Fire Punch
- U-turn/Toxic/Healing Wish

Tornadus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 76 Atk / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- Heat Wave
- Taunt

Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Ice
- Focus Blast
- Thunder Wave