SV OU Need a little help with my team (and my skill) also, read until end (or just skip there)

[Pando067]

Thought process when making the team:
Let's use some of the best pokemon in OU because why not!

I'm currently at ~1300 ELO but I may have been at ~1400 earlier, I forgor.

The team consists of Kingambit, Ting Lu, Glimmora, Gholdengo, Great Tusk, and Iron Valiant.

Kingambit @ Leftovers
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Kowtow Cleave
- Swords Dance
​

I chose Kingambit because it's a good priority user and it deletes common threats like Gholdengo and Dragapult. I also really like bisharp and kingambit so I wanted to use it. The EV spread is probably fairly common because the teambuilder literally recommends this to you, except it's 4 spd instead of speed, which is to outspeed no speed investment kingambits. The moveset is also fairly common, SD to take advantage of switches, sucker punch because kingambit has 50 base speed, iron head and kowtow cleave is to kill slower bulkier pokemon.

Glimmora @ Focus Sash
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Mortal Spin
​

I picked Glimmora because I like using Gholdengo, who blocks literally every hazard removal option except court change and maybe tidy up. Glimmora pairs really well with Gholdengo. Overall, this is pretty standard, max speed to hopefully move as much as possible and max sp. atk to chunk slower, bulkier tusk and treads variants. This set can take non air balloon gholdengo out fairly easily as well if it's sash stays intact.

Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Ruination
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Earthquake
​

Ting-Lu is a really great defensive wall that can eat lots of non-super effective hits and ruination means it isn't setup fodder. I invested sp. def in ting lu because vessel of ruin completely cripples many special sweepers. max hp also makes ting lu have over 500 hp!! Ting Lu is crazy. I also really like ruination because it's not as passive anymore and won't be easily setup on because the sweeper might just get revenge killed by Kingambit, valiant, or gholdengo. Spikes and whirlwind for standard phase and chip, EQ is just because I might as well give ting lu something to attack with.

Iron Valiant @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Close Combat
- Thunderbolt
- Psyshock
​

Iron Valiant is literally one of the best revenge killers in OU. This thing hits 546 speed with booster energy (which is unfortunately slower than eleki, but that's a problem for later). Mixed valiant chunks a good part of the metagame. Get rid of your opponent's cheese string man gholdengo and you kill corv and dondozo with tbolt, clod with psyshock, and cc and moonblast are great stabs.

Gholdengo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Trick
- Focus Blast​

Gholdengo is the most used pokemon in OU for a reason, it enables hazards by spinblocking and preventing defog. Scarf really helps with this monster's middling speed. Trick can cripple stall and other bulky pokemon while tera fighting focus blast chunks ting lu, OU's best special wall. Gholdengo pairs really well with Glimmora because of it's ability to keep glimmora's hazards up. Gholdengo could run tbolt or psyshock instead of focus blast or trick, tbolt for corv and dondozo and psyshock for clod, but valiant already has those.

Great Tusk @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin​

Last but not least, we have great tusk, who I have enjoyed using on previous teams because booster energy is really strong. If you get the speed boost when you spin then, depending on your situation, you can just tera ground or fighting (depends what you like) and delete a good bit of your opponent's team. Tusk has really high attack and knock off kills air balloon gholdengo and tera ground headlong rush ohko's certain hat variants while cc 2hko's corv after rocks chip.

Threats:

Gholdengo​

Late game gholdengo's on your opponent's side is very bad because valiant has trouble cleaning if cheese string man is still alive. Gholdengo also kills my gholdengo, valiant, possibly even tusk. My team doesn't like cheese string man.

Among us Amoonguss​

The imposter will wall a good chunk of my team. I don't have anything that can hit it with super effective damage which is something I probably should have considered but that's why I need help. Amongus terastalizing is also potentially problematic because it's pretty unpredictable.

My skill issue​

There are most likely more threats but I'm too tired. Unfortuneatly, I'm not very skilled and I probably need someone to teach me or give me some tips, wait, that's why I'm writing this. Anyhow, I'd appreciate any help anyone can give me. Also, I noticed that I do have lots of type overlaps on my team so I probably need to replace certain mons.

btw, here is the importable team: https://pokepast.es/6ade71f72efe13e8

 

[chimp]

Hey! Neat team! Getting to 1300s is a valid accomplishment, hopefully you can keep pushing!

First intial thought is that you may want to speed creep Kingambit to outspeed Skeledirge as so that you can hit it before it WoWs (or outright kills). 138 EVs are all you really need since Skeledirges don’t typically run any speed.

One suggestion I have is swapping Great Tusk with Chien-Pao. Chien-Pao gives you a Pokemon that can hit Amoonguss quite hard, and can revenge kill non-scarfed Gholdengo, and is generally more consistent as a breaker than a Booster Energy Pokemon.

I would suggest a Heavy-Duty Boots set since you’d be relying solely on Glimmora to spin hazards away.


Chien-Pao @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Crunch
- Sucker Punch
- Sacred Sword

This team overall does feel like itself is weak to Chien-pao. You can ease that match-up by leveraging Ting-Lu’s Tera, so if you see Chien-pao on your opponent’s team, you want to keep Ting as healthy as possible. Swapping Ting’s Tera-type to Water to block an oncoming Ice Spinner/Icicle Crash may be worth it as well. Water can help Ting-Lu vs. Gholdengo as well, since it grants a resistance to Make It Rain and Shadow Ball is only doing like ~20%. You can also change Glimmora to a scarf set to revenge Chien-pao, though watch out since Banded Chien-pao will still upwards of like 90% with Sucker Punch.

The thing about Pao is that playing around it is made much easier when you can identify its set. Keep Valiant’s Booster Energy saved up until you absolutely can make the most of it; expending it early or using to revenge kill a wallbreaker that will just switch-out and come in again later is inefficient.

That said, you may consider swapping Ting-Lu for a more offensive Pokemon. Glimmora inspires in me the desire to go full Hyper Offense, l where the goal is to hit as hard as possible as fast as possible…. and your team is basically there already.

Scizor is a valid option, as it can pressure offensive teams with its Bullet Punch which naturally threatens opposing Valiant and Chien-pao, and can lessen the threat level of opposing sweeers like Roaring Moon. Azumarill is another fine option, and it can turn Chien-pao into set up bait. Ice Punch/Spinner at +6 OHKOs Amoonguss and banded 2HKOs. Volcarona is in a similar boat; able to set-up on both Amoonguss (after something else was spore’d) and makes Gholdengo think twice about spamming Make-It-Rain.

See this team, which replaces your Glimmora’s hazard utility for Pawmot’s resurrection utility- the other 4 mons are for sweeping and hitting as hard as possible as fast as possible. The other is Ditto.

Hope this helps.

 

[Pando067]

Hey! Neat team! Getting to 1300s is a valid accomplishment, hopefully you can keep pushing!

First intial thought is that you may want to speed creep Kingambit to outspeed Skeledirge as so that you can hit it before it WoWs (or outright kills). 138 EVs are all you really need since Skeledirges don’t typically run any speed.

One suggestion I have is swapping Great Tusk with Chien-Pao. Chien-Pao gives you a Pokemon that can hit Amoonguss quite hard, and can revenge kill non-scarfed Gholdengo, and is generally more consistent as a breaker than a Booster Energy Pokemon.

I would suggest a Heavy-Duty Boots set since you’d be relying solely on Glimmora to spin hazards away.


Chien-Pao @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Crunch
- Sucker Punch
- Sacred Sword

This team overall does feel like itself is weak to Chien-pao. You can ease that match-up by leveraging Ting-Lu’s Tera, so if you see Chien-pao on your opponent’s team, you want to keep Ting as healthy as possible. Swapping Ting’s Tera-type to Water to block an oncoming Ice Spinner/Icicle Crash may be worth it as well. Water can help Ting-Lu vs. Gholdengo as well, since it grants a resistance to Make It Rain and Shadow Ball is only doing like ~20%. You can also change Glimmora to a scarf set to revenge Chien-pao, though watch out since Banded Chien-pao will still upwards of like 90% with Sucker Punch.

The thing about Pao is that playing around it is made much easier when you can identify its set. Keep Valiant’s Booster Energy saved up until you absolutely can make the most of it; expending it early or using to revenge kill a wallbreaker that will just switch-out and come in again later is inefficient.

That said, you may consider swapping Ting-Lu for a more offensive Pokemon. Glimmora inspires in me the desire to go full Hyper Offense, l where the goal is to hit as hard as possible as fast as possible…. and your team is basically there already.

Scizor is a valid option, as it can pressure offensive teams with its Bullet Punch which naturally threatens opposing Valiant and Chien-pao, and can lessen the threat level of opposing sweeers like Roaring Moon. Azumarill is another fine option, and it can turn Chien-pao into set up bait. Ice Punch/Spinner at +6 OHKOs Amoonguss and banded 2HKOs. Volcarona is in a similar boat; able to set-up on both Amoonguss (after something else was spore’d) and makes Gholdengo think twice about spamming Make-It-Rain.

See this team, which replaces your Glimmora’s hazard utility for Pawmot’s resurrection utility- the other 4 mons are for sweeping and hitting as hard as possible as fast as possible. The other is Ditto.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for some tips, I really appreciate it. I completely overhauled the team. Initially, I experimented with replacing Great Tusk and Ting Lu with Chien Pao and Scizor, which turned out fine. Right now, I'm experimenting with the completely overhauled version of the team, which replaces glimmora and kingambit with azumarill and rotom wash.
Here is the team if you want more info: https://pokepast.es/e0cf0c5bb750682a