Project National Dex OU Next Best Thing: Cycle 34 - Medicham-Mega (Voting)

[LORD SAGIS]

Hello everyone. I would like to announce that Sputnik is taking over this thread as the full host of the project.

 

[Sputnik]

In response to this, we will be starting a new cycle entirely!

Cycle 7.5: Weavile


​

Fast, powerful, priority, and pursuit; Weavile offers teams several different options when it comes to offensive utility combined with sheer power. The Choice Band set has seen by far the most usage in the meta to date. What else can you guys come up with?

Banned Set

Weavile @ Choice Band
Ability: Pickpocket
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Triple Axel / Icicle Crash
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit

You will have until January 25th at 11:59 PM GMT -5 to post the sets! Good luck!

 

[413X]

Reserving ground type natural gift weavile

APICOT BERRY WEAV

Weavile @ Apicot Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Natural Gift
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Swords Dance

I'll do the desc when im less busy, heres a preview calc:
252 Atk Weavile Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 392-464 (101.5 - 120.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

 

[R8]

Z Punishment

Weavile @ Darkinium Z
Ability: Pickpocket
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Punishment

I choose pickpocket over pressure on purpose, i'll explain why on the post.

Okay here is the Z punishement set.

The first question that crossed your mind when you saw that set probably was:
"Hey, why aren't you using knock off instead?"
The answer is pretty simple: Z-Knock off has 120 base power, while Z-Punishement has 160.
The goal of that set is sacrificing the utility knock off to give Weavile the possibility to have an one time nuke. The difference of power is very noticeable. Here are six calcs to let you see the difference by yourself:

Pex calcs

+2 252 Atk Weavile Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 262-310 (86.1 - 101.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
^ Punishment
+2 252 Atk Weavile Black Hole Eclipse (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 198-234 (65.1 - 76.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
^Knock off

Alomomola calcs

+2 252 Atk Weavile Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 40 HP / 216+ Def Alomomola: 424-499 (88.1 - 103.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
^Punishment (It's actually not guaranteed since alomomola has a round of lefties when it switches in, but the odds are in your favor. The calc are more about showing the raw power of the thing anyway.)
+2 252 Atk Weavile Black Hole Eclipse (120 BP) vs. 40 HP / 216+ Def Alomomola: 318-375 (66.1 - 77.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
^Knock off

Corv calcs

+2 252 Atk Weavile Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Corviknight: 363-427 (90.7 - 106.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
^Punishment
+2 252 Atk Weavile Black Hole Eclipse (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Corviknight: 271-321 (67.7 - 80.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
^ Knock off

Technicalities about the set - Why not foul play/Pressure? And about ice shard

First, i didn't choose foul play over Punishment, even if foul play reaches 175 BP and has decent chances to OHKO things like pex without rocks, because foul play is just a bad move on weavile. On the other hand, punishement still has some utility after the Z, since it still has a kind-of decent 60 base power (It's 5 less than knock off against a mon without item), and can help vs mega latias (which is always koed after 2 cm), reuniclus, or CM megabro.
I choose pickpocket over pressure, since pressure can let your opponent guess that you're using a Z set. Because of his bulk, pressure is always trash on Weavile anyway, so you don't lose anything by going pickpocket.

Ice shard is a very good move on Weavile, but i guess you could use knock off over it, if you want a set fully focused on breaking. Being revenge killed by scarf lando T is a big fat L though, so i personally wouldn't recommand it.

That's it. Have a nice day!

 

[Piley]

reserving taunt

 

[MudkipBeans]

+

Z Secret Power

Weavile @ Normalium Z
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Secret Power
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Crash/Ice Shard
- Knock Off

To be used with electric terrain support from koko. Nail things like pex, corv thinking it can take a hit, alomomola, and maybe weakened Scizor.
Havent calced anything cuz im lazy, but just assume it can ko its main targets from full.
Have a nice day.

 

[Sputnik]

Voting Time

Apicot Berry+Natural Gift by 413X
Z Punishment by R8bbit Konijn Lapin
Z Secret Power by MudkipBeans

Voting will go until January 30th at 11:59 PM GMT -5!​

 

[OverShock]

Weavile @ Groundium Z
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dig
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Swords Dance


Incase you don't know alrdy weavile really struggles to break past fat stuff with good defensive typing's stuff like mega mawhile and pex. Sure knocking the black sludge is good but it isn't enough, which is why I created this groundiumz set which in addition with sd should be able to take care of the steels it wanted to ohko(as well as that pex), and altho dig on its own is unreliable as hell, it is still cool to see, here are some interesting calcs I found:

252 Atk Weavile Tectonic Rage (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Toxapex: 190-224 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Weavile Tectonic Rage (160 BP) vs. 92 HP / 0 Def Mawile-Mega: 272-322 (103 - 121.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Weavile Tectonic Rage (160 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Magearna: 294-346 (97.6 - 114.9%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Weavile Tectonic Rage (160 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Charizard-Mega-X: 302-356 (101.6 - 119.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Anyways this is just a silly set that may never work, but hey its the thought that counts, thanks for reading!

 

[OverShock]

+

Z Secret Power

Weavile @ Normalium Z
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Secret Power
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Crash/Ice Shard
- Knock Off

To be used with electric terrain support from koko. Nail things like pex, corv thinking it can take a hit, alomomola, and maybe weakened Scizor.
Havent calced anything cuz im lazy, but just assume it can ko its main targets from full.
Have a nice day.

Hot set, you got my vote very creative way to use secret power

 

[peap]

These are all great lure sets from Mudkip, Alex, and R8. I think it's pretty feasible to get an SD up early game with the threat of Band pressure.

Voting for Z-Punishment which has the largest midground out of the three. And it revenges CM Latias.

 

[Avery]

z punishment

 

[Optify]

voting 4 natural gift

 

[Sputnik]

Congratulations to R8bbit Konijn Lapin! Your set will be added to the Hall Of Fame.

Cycle 8

Landorus-T is one of the best and most flexible Pokemon in the tier right now, as it packs invaluable offensive or defensive utility depending on what set it chooses to run. What else can you make this flexible genie do?

​

Banned Sets

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 80 HP / 188 Atk / 84 Def / 156 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge / Knock Off
- Punishment / Explosion

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

Landorus-Therian @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock

Landorus-Therian @ Flyinium Z / Rockium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fly / Stone Edge

​

You have until February 5th at 11:59 PM GMT -5 to post sets!
​

 

[413X]

reserving double dance

 

[peap]

Since offense is a strong playstyle right now, I thought I'd share the smacc down variant of lead Landorus. When played well, this Lando gets rocks up and/or kills the opponent's defogger.


Landorus-Therian (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Smack Down
- Stealth Rock

The speed EVs hit 303 to creep Jolly Excadrill (302) and positive base 85s (295) like Kommo-o, as well as all but the most offensive Zapdos variants.
The situation:

• against slower leads — Rocks are quite free. Use Swords Dance/EQ to dent the opposing team before going down;
• against faster Taunt users — for example against Azelf, Smack Down/EQ on the Taunt turn to break sash and 2HKO with EQ;
• against teams that go into a defogger — this is really fun. You might notice that the top Defoggers are birds like Corvi, Zapdos, Moltres that are "weak" to ground if they are smacced. That is, you can get Rocks up, Smack Down on the switch, and freely EQ before they can Defog. This opens up holes for other physical sweepers like Rillaboom and Kartana to clean later on.

Drawbacks: if your opponent knows you are Smack Down over Explosion, they can play around the Smack Down turns, especially with multiple ground immunities. Gliscor is the best check, but also loses to SD/Smack/EQ with good playing. In any game, Landorus has the potential to force 50/50s and hit like a dumpster truck.

 

[Avery]

God CM Lando

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Gravity

This set aims to take advantage of the free switches it often causes to get up a Calm Mind, and make use of the subsequent turns to set Gravity for itself. Under Gravity, Earth Power smashes Zapdos and Corviknight, and Focus Blast 2HKOs Blissey at +1. This doesn't offer a ton of defensive integrity and as such should be paired with Pokemon like Slowbro or Toxapex to hold off Cinderace. Ferrothorn is a particularly great partner, as HP Ice Zapdos can't touch Ferrothorn, so you'll be able to set Spikes to aid your Landorus-T in breaking.

 

[Jordy]

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Groundium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Smack Down / Stone Edge
- Substitute
- Swords Dance

Substitute + Swords Dance Landorus-T is cool because it can very easily overwhelm balance teams that use Pokemon like Body Press Corviknight to pivot into it. With a Substitute up, revenge killing Landorus-T becomes significantly harder, which is a big part of the counterplay against Swords Dance Landorus-T otherwise. Setting up a Substitute also allows you to safely Swords Dance in the face of Pokemon like Slowbro.

Smack Down is my preferred choice on this set because the safety of Substitute makes it pretty affordable to not be able to immediately pressure Pokemon like Zapdos and Corviknight. Groundium Z is a very powerful Z-Move at +2, easily OHKOing Pokemon like Slowbro and Mega Scizor.

 

[Ainzcrad]

King

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Groundium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Bulk Up
- Gravity
- Earthquake

This set just abuses the bulky steels/zap of the meta tbh, mscizor cant break ur sub at +1 same with defensive lando,gliscor doesnt break ur sub etc.

252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 220 Def Zapdos: 354-416 (92.4 - 108.6%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
0 Atk Technician Scizor-Mega Bullet Punch vs. +1 104 HP / 0 Def Landorus-Therian: 67-81 (19.4 - 23.4%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Corviknight: 372-440 (93 - 110%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO

 

[sanguine]

Is the breeze strong enough, baby?
Leave you so high your feet won't touch the ground

PINEAPPLE SKIES (Landorus-Therian) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Happiness: 0
EVs: 220 Atk / 44 Def / 244 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Knock Off

This set abuses Landorus’ wide array of options that can be used to force advantage states. Whether it be pivoting, item removal, or just use of its insane attack stat, this set places you in the driver’s seat against the innumerable amount of fat teams in the metagame right now, given aggressive positioning. Pair this with some Wish support and breakers that can take advantage of these qualities, and you’ll be seeing some pineapple skies. The EVs aren’t set in stone, and can be customized to hit whatever combination benchmarks depending on how defensive you want your Landorus to be.


+2 220+ Atk Landorus-Therian Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 334-394 (84.7 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
+2 220+ Atk Landorus-Therian U-turn vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Latias-Mega: 304-358 (83.5 - 98.3%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
-1 252 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 0 HP / 44 Def Landorus-Therian: 126-148 (39.4 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

 

[thegarbodr]

https://pokepast.es/040c25bfeb4b42f2 is a cool one that u could beat other landos and other flying types like gliscor and zap that pretty cool its a new ho sucide lead rathern then just explidoing it also kills lando cov and zap and gliscor that is pretty nice i hope u have fun with this

 

[LORD SAGIS]

Imprison

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Imprison
- Explosion

Imprison is cool tech that improves your match up against other HO leads. Other lead Landorus' will either be prevented from exploding or flat out unable to to setup rocks entirely.

 

[Mamoo]

I AM THE LAW!!!

Judge Dredd (Landorus-Therian) @ Yache Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 136 HP / 224 Atk / 4 Def / 144 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Smack Down/Rock Tomb

Landorus-Therian is one of the premier Pokemon in the tier, providing great offensive & defensive utility.
This particular set is a favourite of mine that I'd been using since early SM OU. It's a lead but not your typical one. This set aims to pressure other leads & removers a lot more than standard ones.

Set

Stealth Rock & Earthquake are standard. Toxic cripples annoying mons like Zapdos, Kommo-o & other Lando-T.
The last move is a toss up b/w Smack Down & Rock Tomb, both have their utility.
Smack Down can pressure mons like Corviknight & other levitating/flying types, allowing them to get OHKOd by Earthquake after.
Rock Tomb on the other hand, can be an effective speed control against faster leads or things switching in, allowing you to exert further pressure with a follow-up Toxic or a lot of damage.

Yache berry is my item of choice, allowing it to live Ice Beams from Protean Greninja & any Magearna barring Specs. It also allows you to take out or heavily punish most of the Electric type HP Ice users such as Tapu Koko & Zapdos.

I used to have U-Turn & this set may look weird without it, but I dropped it in favour of Toxic.
On the bright side, avoiding Static & Flame Body is something nice.
(Also because Chad Double > Virgin U-Turn) x{D

The EV spread with an Adamant nature allows it to outspeed everything up to Modest Heatran, live Protean Gren's Ice Beam after taking rocks damage & have a really good chance to OHKO even AV Magearna after rocks if they decide to be cheeky. The HP also still provides it defensive utility against physical attackers.

Calcs

80 SpA Protean Greninja Ice Beam vs. 136 HP / 0 SpD Yache Berry Landorus-Therian: 260-308 (73.6 - 87.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
224+ Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Magearna: 338-402 (93.1 - 110.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
Other calcs from the gravity/smack down sets that others have posted also show just how dangerous this spread can be to mons like Zapdos & Corviknight.

There are better breakers, scarfers & purely defensive pokemon in the tier & I firmly believe this particular set almost fully realizes Landorus-Therian's true potential as a Jack of all trades.
Feel free to use the set & provide feedback if you choose to test it.
Enjoy! :{D

 

[Sputnik]

It's Voting Time!

Smack Down Lead by sigmatecture
Calm Mind by Sevelon
Substitute+Swords Dance by Jordy
Bulk Up+Gravity by Ainzcrad
Utility Swords Dance by faded love
Gravity Lead by thegarbodr
Imprison by Sagisolar
Yache Berry by Mamoo


Voting will go until February 8th, 11:59 PM GMT -5. Good Luck!​

 

[Solaros & Lunaris]

Jordy’s SubSD

 

[Ainzcrad]

Sev cm