Other ORAS Good Cores

[Askeia]

Defensive core that takes care of a good portion of the top threats in the current meta, and has great type synergy in general. Provides both Spikes and Stealth Rock which is very handy for defensive teams. This core has very good defensive synergy together, resisting a total of 14/18 types, minus Fighting, Bug, Fire and Ghost (tho Chesnaught is immune to the only relevant Ghost move).

Sets

Chesnaught @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Drain Punch
- Spiky Shield
- Leech Seed
- Spikes / Wood Hammer

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic / Protect / Hidden Power Rock / Ice

Chesnaught and Bronzong both shit on sand offense by resisting a big portion of their attacks, and generally 2HKOing almost all of their members. Of the new huge threats, Bronzong beats most Salamence (minus the Refresh or Fire Blast variants) between Toxic and Gyro Ball, completely walls Metagross, Sceptile, Altaria (minus Fire Blast ones), Diancie, additionally being able to beat Stored Power Mega Latias by virtue of being able to break its sub consistently, and being able to stall it out with Toxic eventually after it has to Roost instead of sub. Chesnaught on the other hand, takes on Swampert, Sharpedo, Mega Gyarados and Lopunny really well by virtue of its great typing and physical bulk. It also takes on Kabutops, which is one of the hardest rain threats to deal with. It is recommended to use with a bulky Water to deal with Fire type attacks that both Pokemons are weak to, Slowbro, Alomomola, Tentacruel are decent Pokemons to be considered for that slot. A bulky Fire type like Charizard X or Camerupt will also provide very good sets of resistances for the core, such as dealing with Mew, Fire types, and VoltTurn. Cleric support is also recommended because both Pokemons are very prone to getting burned, or getting worn down in general.

Replays: Note I usually don't ladder so I just asked in the rooms for random people to challenge me because I don't want to deal with lower ladder scrubs

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VS sand offense: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/orasou-180327667
6-0-ing standard sand offense. Note how after Keldeo is gone, Bronzong and Chesnaught basically won this one their own.

VS Lopunny balance: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/orasou-180338561
Misplayed this one by letting Charizard get worn down too much, and letting Raikou get burned at the end. But Chesnaught and Bronzong still did a good job. Chesnaught managed to prevent Ferrothorn from wearing my team down too much, and Bronzong wore down Garchomp and Zapdos eventually, and tanking a Fire Blast comfortably to nab Zapdos with a Toxic. (and and pardon the Black Belt on Tentacruel LOL, meant to be Black Sludge but I just whipped up the team in a hurry to get the replays)

 

[I AM THE JAMAICAN BOBSLED TEAM]

Defensive core that takes care of a good portion of the top threats in the current meta, and has great type synergy in general. Provides both Spikes and Stealth Rock which is very handy for defensive teams. This core has very good defensive synergy together, resisting a total of 15/18 types, minus Fighting, Bug, and Ghost (tho Chesnaught is immune to the only relevant Ghost move). The only threat which commonly runs moves to threaten all members of the core would be Charizard Y, but that weakness can be patched up by adding a defensive Fire type like Charizard X.

Sets

Chesnaught @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Drain Punch
- Spiky Shield
- Leech Seed
- Spikes / Wood Hammer

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic / Protect / Hidden Power Rock / Ice

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Roar / Heal Bell / Ice Beam / Toxic

Chesnaught and Bronzong both shit on sand offense by resisting a big portion of their attacks, and generally 2HKOing almost all of their members. Of the new huge threats, Bronzong beats most Salamence (minus the Refresh variants) between Toxic and Gyro Ball, completely walls Metagross, Sceptile, Altaria (minus Fire Blast ones), Diancie, additionally being able to beat Stored Power Mega Latias by virtue of being able to break its sub consistently, and being able to stall it out with Toxic. Chesnaught on the other hand, takes on Swampert, Sharpedo, and Lopunny really well by virtue of its great typing and physical bulk. Vapoeron rounds off the core by providing Wish support to both of them, and providing very useful resistances to Fire. With Roar, it can phase away Mega Slowbro if it tries to set up. Other than the utility of Roar, Vaporeon has 2 other selling points over Alomomola, 1 being Heal Bell, and 2 being its ability to avoid the 2HKO from any variant of Greninja since it is lighter than Mola and takes less damage from Grass Knot. Calm Nature on Vaporeon allows it to always avoid the 2HKO from Greninja Grass Knot, and is generally more EV efficient than 252/168/88 Bold which accomplishes the same feat.

why vaporeon over alomomola

 

[Askeia]

why vaporeon over alomomola

With Roar, it can phase away Mega Slowbro if it tries to set up. Other than the utility of Roar, Vaporeon has 2 other selling points over Alomomola, 1 being Heal Bell, and 2 being its ability to avoid the 2HKO from any variant of Greninja since it is lighter than Mola and takes less damage from Grass Knot. Calm Nature on Vaporeon allows it to always avoid the 2HKO from Greninja Grass Knot, and is generally more EV efficient than 252/168/88 Bold which accomplishes the same feat.

I believed I have mentioned it in the post itself. While Regenerator is certainly useful, Greninja and Slowbro are huge threats to the core, and Vaporeon has the ability to defeat Greninja, and deter Slowbro from setting up and gives you time to wear it down + walling CroBro completely. Heal Bell is also really handy to have because Chesnaught and Bronzong are both prone to burns. Alternatively, Mola would also work if you have something to deal with Greninja and Slowbro.

 

[I AM THE JAMAICAN BOBSLED TEAM]

I believed I have mentioned it in the post itself. While Regenerator is certainly useful, Greninja and Slowbro are huge threats to the core, and Vaporeon has the ability to defeat Greninja, and deter Slowbro from setting up and gives you time to wear it down. Heal Bell is also really handy to have because Chesnaught and Bronzong are both prone to burns. Alternatively, Mola would also work if you have something to deal with Greninja and Slowbro.

252 SpA Life Orb Protean Greninja Grass Knot (60 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4+ SpD Vaporeon: 205-244 (44.1 - 52.5%) -- 78.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

i dont call that reliably taking greninja

also, having wish AND heal bell/roar AND being your greninja answer is simply too much pressure for 1 mon to handle.

 

[Askeia]

252 SpA Life Orb Protean Greninja Grass Knot (60 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4+ SpD Vaporeon: 205-244 (44.1 - 52.5%) -- 78.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

i dont call that reliably taking greninja

Add in a turn of Protect recovery and it becomes a 3HKO.

 

[I AM THE JAMAICAN BOBSLED TEAM]

Add in a turn of Protect recovery and it becomes a 3HKO.

what's vaporeon doing back

 

[Askeia]

what's vaporeon doing back

WishTect gives a nett gain of 10% HP every 2 turns, you deal about 25% back every few turns using Scald when you get enough HP back from WishTect, or if you have Toxic you can Toxic stall it to death.

 

[AM]

Do people just forget that cores have other cores/partners with it? The majority of these cores are weak to Greninja anyways so Idk why that's an argument and even then there are other partners to help handle it.

 

[Rosen]

i'm not adding the vaporeon core so there's not much reason to discuss it, change it to mola if you want it to be considered and preferably provide replays.

 

[Askeia]

Or I just removed Vaporeon and added in the comments to use with a bulky water.

EDIT: changed the core to ChestZong and added some replays.

 

[Rosen]

Or I just removed Vaporeon and added in the comments to use with a bulky water.

that works too.

 

[kiloments]

Here's a good offensive core I've been using and it's been quite effective:

This is an offensive core revolving around 3 pretty strong special attackers that work quite well with each other. Heatran is the perfect partner for M-Sceptile as it resists all of the ice, dragon, bug, flying, and fairy moves aimed at Sceptile while Sceptile resists the ground and water moves aimed at Heatran. Keldeo is also a good choice as it removes the scarf Land-T weakness to some extent by also resisting U-Turn and being able to retaliate with with a specs Scald. A pretty good core overall imo.

Sets

Sceptile @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast

Heatran @ Leftovers / Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
Modest Nature
- Taunt
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind

Sceptile behind a sub is scary to pretty much any pokemon bar Chansey as it can begin firing off powerful STABs or some decent Focus Misses. I chose a speedy Heatran spread with Taunt to beat pokemon like Clefable, Sylveon, Special Altaria, and basically to help break stall. Lefties as first choice over Air Balloon because Heatran lacks recovery and would be more easily worn down otherwise. Keldeo is there to deal with the Lando-T's and Chansey's that otherwise give this core some problems. It is also to note that this team is also kinda weak to Sand Rush Excadrill but if Sceptile is behind a Sub then it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Lemme know what you guys think.

 

[firehusky]

The above core seems pretty birdspam weak, in particular mega pinsir.

 

[Josh Morales]

The above core seems pretty birdspam weak, in particular mega pinsir.

This is true, for which you can use Thund-I as a teammate to compensate. A core just has to be a few mons that in general have great synergy and beat most things among the core itself, but every core has weaknesses. You can't expect only 3 Pokemon to beat everything.

 

[Rosen]

alright people are posting a lot of fwg sceptile cores with heatran as if that's the only fire type in ou, so here's the one i use on my personal team that after much dicking around have deemed to be, in technical terms, the tits:

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Frenship (Azumarill) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Superpower
- Waterfall

Literally Jesus (Sceptile-Mega) @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast

Yelling Bird (Talonflame) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 96 HP / 240 Atk / 172 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Roost

the problem i have with heatran/sceptile cores is that scarf keldeo wrecks that shit and venusaur walls it to hell and back. this sacrifices a slight amount of defensive synergy at the cost of much better covering your weaknesses offensively.

also i'll go back and look at other cores later but i will be adding the zong/naught core soon-ish while it's fresh on my mind as i think it is also, indeed, the tits. fuck vaporeon though.

 

[TLS]

Offensive Core: (Hydreigon + M-Metagross)

Hydreigon and Metagross create a scary core. They have near perfect synergy, both cover each others weaknesses and eliminate each others checks and counters. This core revolves around clearing Metagross' checks and counters to prepare for a sweep for Megagross. For Hydreigon you can use the mixed Life Orb set for maximum power or the Choice Scarf set for a hit an run Pokemon. Hydreigon is a great wall breaker to beat Metagross' checks. Draco Meteor beats down bulkier Pokemon like: Rotom-W, Dragonite and Manibuzz. Dark Pulse gets past Mega Slowbro and other psychic types. Fire Blast eliminates steel types like: Bisharp, Exacdrill, Ferrothorn, Magnezone, All forms of Scizor, and Skarmory. Superpower helps Hydreigon get past Heatran, Tyranitar.

Hydreigon struggles against fairy types like Azumarill, Clefable and Gardevoir. Meteor Mash from Metagross eliminates these mons with ease. Fighting types like Breloom, Conkeldurr, and Keldeo give Hydreigon hell but a Zen Headbutt will fix this problem. Once Metagross's threats are cleared you can safely Mega Evolve and proceed to sweeping your opponents teams.

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Hydreigon @ Life Orb / Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature / Hasty Nature
-Draco Meteor
-Dark Pulse
-Fire Blast
-Superpower

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake

 

[Windgrace]

This is more of a defensive core, but I think the two complement each other very well:

I haven't battled in a long long time (way before Aegislash was banned) so I am still a little rusty. This core might not be that original, but I did have some pretty solid success with it last night. I find these two complement each other defensively very well. Sylveon loves switching in on special threats like Lati@s, Thundurus, etc and Slowbro eats up a lot of physical attacks very well (and notably covers Sylveon's Steel weakness). A lot of people who lack a strong special attacker may resort to Toxic stall in order to break Mega Slowbro, but Sylveon's Heal Bell support will fix that issue right up. I am currently undecided on Fire Blast or Ice Beam for MegaBro's last move. Fireblast is good for Ferrothorn, though with enough boosts Scald will eventually wear it down and Ice Beam has solid coverage (especially with Mega Salamence out there).

Some notable threats to the team would be Greninja, the pink blobs, Gengar...and I'm sure there's a few others. I'd love some feedback on some possibly teammates for this core. I could see Conkeldurr possibly being an option, as well as perhaps Azumarill? Any feedback would be appreciated, as I am currently trying to make a team around this.

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Slowbro-Mega @ Slowbronite
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Fire Blast

Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell

 

[56k]

^

Try out slowbro(choose your own set) + physical defensive sylveon + mixed defenses porygon2 (for greninja) as a copy-paste defensive core.

Your other 3 mons can be any logical group of 3 pokemon. Hazards, boosters, phazers, wallbreakers, anything you want.

 

[.Sleepy Slowpoke]

this might not be a god core but idgaf

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 116 Atk / 48 SpD / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Roost
- Substitute
- Return
- Dragon Dance

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 56 Atk / 252 SpA / 200 Spe
Mild Nature
- Ice Beam
- Fusion Bolt
- Earth Power
- Outrage

Double Dragon time, baby! The spread on Mence is probably terrible, but the idea is to be as bulk as possible to set-up and sweep. 96 speed outpaces neutral nature base 100. 248 HP + 48 SpD lets it's sub not be broken by Rotom-W's Volt Switch. Rest goes into attack. My spread is probably bad, but meh. Kyu-B just absolutely wrecks anything that would stop Mence - Rotom-W eats an Earth Power, Ferrothorn gets worn down with Ice Beam, Zapdos eats Ice Beam. In general Kyu-B just softens the opponent up to open up a mence sweep. They can kind of switch into each other's attacks, but they both share a Rock- and Fairy-type weakness. Excadrill is a pretty swell partner to the team in that regard.

why don't you add Specs Magnezone to that core?
instead of risking Kyuub getting hit with Ferro's Gyro Ball, just trap it with Mag and HP Fire

 

[Rosen]

should update the op sometime this weekend

 

[xJownage]

That double dragon core will be scary after megabro is eliminated (or more likely, leaves the tier), but i want to ask: can kyu-b learn ice punch? if so shuckle + band kyu-b + 2 bisharp checks and a bullet punch switchin will rape every team.

Also, sub roost dd mence is the best mence period. it beats like 90% of the tier. The set runs 44 SDef Evs though, this means that rotom-w can never break your sub with volt switch.

 

[Kurona]

can kyu-b learn ice punch?

no

 

[Umirozen]

This is pretty much like Robs.' But this core is much more unpredictable than the obvious gorebyss. I've been testing out this weakness policy Togekiss and it's pretty good especially with Mgross( Thank you Josh Morales). Kiss has the bulk to withstand unboosted moves that it is weak to and Mgross resists most of Toge's weaknesses. Slap Toge with weakness policy. The goal is to aim at kiss's counters and let toge take hit ( if its unboosted and has no SR) to it like scizor, rotom wash, etc. weakness policy activates then pass the boosts to Mgross and let it sweep all the way. Defoogers/spinners are needed for kiss though. ScarfHydreigon is also a good teammate for it since it resists dark type moves such as sucker punch and knock off.

Sets

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash/BulletPunch
- Zen Headbutt
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch / Thunder Punch

Togekiss @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Serene Grace
EVS: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Baton Pass
- Nasty Plot/Heal Bell/ Thunder Wave


The last move slot for toge is any imho but i prefer NP since I toge has BP.

 

[Davon]

This is a balanced core that counters a lot of the top tier threats. Suicune is one of the few pokemon that switches into greninja pretty easily, and can even setup a calm mind on it to so it can take dark pulse easier. Mega Sceptile 4x resists both of Suicune's weaknesses and acts as a switch-in to Thundurus. Zapdos is your mandatory flying resist, which checks mega-Mence and talonflame. Mega Mence can setup on suicune and talonflame revenges sceptile, so zapdos is a perfect fit for those two. This core can have trouble with mega venasuar but I've seen 0 so far, so be sure to prepare for it with a seperate team member if you're really paranoid. Adding a special wall like clefable works pretty well with this core too. So yeah, p cool core cuz sceptile wrecks offensive teams and suicune wrecks defensive teams. It's also really colorful ^_^

sets

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Calm Mind

Sceptile @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast
- Substitute

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 192 HP / 252 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost
- Defog / Toxic

(I just gave zapdos a leftovers number then put the rest in speed if you were curious.)

 

[Takeo Otori]

View attachment 29632 View attachment 29630​

This is pretty much like Robs.' But this core is much more unpredictable than the obvious gorebyss. I've been testing out this weakness policy Togekiss and it's pretty good especially with Mgross( Thank you Josh Morales). Kiss has the bulk to withstand unboosted moves that it is weak to and Mgross resists most of Toge's weaknesses. Slap Toge with weakness policy. The goal is to aim at kiss's counters and let toge take hit ( if its unboosted and has no SR) to it like scizor, rotom wash, etc. weakness policy activates then pass the boosts to Mgross and let it sweep all the way. Defoogers/spinners are needed for kiss though. ScarfHydreigon is also a good teammate for it since it resists dark type moves such as sucker punch and knock off.

Sets

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash/BulletPunch
- Zen Headbutt
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch / Thunder Punch

Togekiss @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Serene Grace
EVS: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Baton Pass
- Nasty Plot/Heal Bell/ Thunder Wave


The last move slot for toge is any imho but i prefer NP since I toge has BP.

I really don't see the synergy between Nasty Plot Baton Pass Togekiss and a physical attacker. Even with Weakness Policy this seems meh.