SM OU OU Team - Advice Really Appreciated

[Brembo]

Hey guys, I posted up a team a few days ago, which I didn't get any responses on.

This is a different team, it is essentially unchanged from the team I used in Gen 6, however it has had relative success in Gen 7, however 3 of my sets have slipped into UU this gen. I have made several changes to improve this team, however none of them seem to work.

As with my previous team, this will get me into the 1500's but again, not any further.

I would ideally like a way to work protean greninja into this team, without sacrificing anything critical.

I would say that this teams biggest issue is with dedicated stall teams, it can struggle to break through them. Unaware Clefable causes a problem as Charizard is often used to break walls.

I would really appreciate any advice or feedback.

Chuck Norris (Breloom) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Spore

Breloom's job is rather straight forward. He adds priority to my team, to help deal with revenge killing stat boosted pokemon. He is extremely useful at dealing with Bisharp, using spore to avoid sucker punch and then killing with mach punch. He is also great for powering through bulky waters, and is even capable of taking on clefable after a spore with some luck.

Sash can help secure a swords dance boost, or provide insurance against certain situations. Obviously hazard support is required to keep its Focus Sash intact.

Breloom can be taken out quickly if played poorly, but this thing has also single handedly turned a losing situation into a victory on a fair few occasions.

Charizard (Charizard) (M) @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Dragon Claw
- Roost

Charizard adds further offence to my team, straight forward set. This simply comes in on things that are terrified of it, such as Ferrothorn and Dragon Dances. Flare Blitz provides enormous power, and dragon claw is a safer option that Outrage. I usually alternate between roost and Earthquake on the last slot. Heatran will shut this down without earthquake.

Spin 2 Win (Starmie) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Reflect Type
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

My spinner. I like to bring this in against things such as ferrothorn, use reflect type and proceed to spin hazards away. If Ferrothorn proceeds to stay in, I attempt to burn it with scald. Unfortunately this thing doesn't stand up quite as well as it has done previously, however I prefer this over Excadrill mainly because of its access to refelct type and recover, as well as Natural Cure.

I also like Starmie because it can make Mega Medichan think twice.

Band Hero (Scizor) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Similar to Breloom this adds priority, however is able to hit fairy types for super effective damage. Bullet punch can hit things for very significant damage assuming they don't resist it. Superpower is used to catch Heatran or Ferrothorn on the switch in, and Pursuit is used to trap Latios, or revenge kill Mega Alakazam. U-Turn is used to rack up damage and to get out of battle if I think Magnezone is likely to be switched in.

Buu (Chansey) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Soft-Boiled
- Aromatherapy
- Seismic Toss
- Thunder Wave

Chansey is used to add Massive special bulk to my team. Aromatherapy is used to heal unwanted burns to scizor, Breloom and to a lesser extent, Landorus. Thunder Wave is used to catch Scizor on the switch in, as well as causing a lot of pokemon problems. Seismic toss is used to wittle away anything it walls, and Soft Boiled is used for longevity.

Rock N' Troll (Landorus-Therian) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Toxic

Landorus is Used to bolster my physical defense, with its ability intimidate and its defensive spread, as well as it being a very solid stealth rock user. Knock off is used to remove items such as Eviolite or left overs. Earthquake for ground coverage, and toxic to catch things out such as Rotom W.

 

[Rol3x]

Hey Brembo :]

A few things

- What sort of archetype are you looking to build? Your team seems to be very offensively orientated, and the chansey seems glaringly out of place. Instead of using a catch all check to everything on an offensive build, I'd suggest some other kind of utility such as mew. This way you can drop starmie as hazard support, which struggles with a substantial majority of the meta, from ferro to magearna to koko etc. If you're looking to add longevity, there are better ways to do so. The pinkman doesnt really do anything for you, and chansey offense is a meme for a reason. However this only worsens your offensive magma tran weakness.

- Your Lando spread (and set) are somewhat sub optimal. Run about 16 to 20 EVs in speed as well as HP ice over knock off to deal withh opposing lando and zygarde to an extent. Toxic over uturn is fine, although if u want u can run a lefties/protect set. Spdef to take dracos from lati isnt really that relevant as nowadays they're all scarfed rather than LO so you should be fine there.

- Loom is kinda ass in this meta for a few reasons, namely speed tier and the omnipresent electric terrain preventing spore from possessing the utility it did back in ORAS. As for banded sciz, Lele and steela really hinder offensive sciz this Gen, which is why it left the tier. If you insist on keeping either mon that is cool too, although there are a plethora or more potent offensive threats that u could use as replacements. Ash gren for example keeps some priority on the team and pressures tran, lati etc. Kartana provides a similar dynamic to offensive scizor and is capable of snowballing. Also makes good use of your z slot or can also sweep late game/ revenge kill if scarfed.

- Finnally, AV mag wouldnt do you any harm, and works as a check to a variety of special threats in the meta.Also isnt so passive like chansey

Anyway, really cool team man and I hope I kinda helped. Really tired rn so sorry if its ass.

Edit: If you're having trouble breaking stall, taunt mew, SD fcharge Zard or Zfly lando can all help. As for protean Gren, u could work it into your team over ashG or even use a happy hour set to dismantle HO.

 

[Brembo]

Many thanks for taking the time to respond. Pretty much everything you have suggested makes sense, which is unfortunate, because it basically means the team needs totally rebuilding.

The initial idea for the team was to build something that was offensive, but had safe switch ins to poor match ups. Chansey and Landorus are great in this regard. The obvious issue is that Chansey in particular can cause a significant momentum loss. In addition, unfortunately Magma Tran is now a huge problem for Chansey. Last Gen I was able to reliably paralyse Heatran, but now Chansey has to run.

Unfortunately I am aware that Loom has seen better days, as has Starmie, however the team seemed to work to a degree, and every time I had tried to switch things up, I would lose something that I previously liked or relied on.

I have made several adjustments based on your advice and am going to see how it works. Once again thank you.

 

[Indigo Plateau]

Hey Brembo, cool team, but it could definitely use some help. I see that you mentioned that you wanted to build something offensive while still having switch-ins to metagame threats, so I'll try to orient my rate in such a way to improve your team both offensively and defensively. Rol3x gave some good advice and hopefully I can add onto that. I see that you're using some outdated and UU mons that don't really have a niche in OU atm. Breloom, Starmie, and regular Scizor are all a bit unviable in the current meta. The point of RMT isn't to change the team, but I don't see any way to make this team better without replacing those, and hopefully this rate will both improve the team and help you push past the 1500's.

Replacements and Suggestions

This is what your team looks like right now:

Your team really struggles to with synergy besides a basic FWG core. I'll have a couple versions below: One where I replace most of the members and try to achieve the best team possible with your wants, and one where I try to maintain as many members as possible.

Let's build around Zard-X, and cater the offensive, balanced team you want around its needs. First and foremost, hazard control is essential. You have Starmie as a spinner, but it really isn't a viable spinner this gen and your team would appreciate defog due to Zard's crippling hazard weakness. To keep a water type, let's try:

Mantine gives you a very solid switch-in to a lot of things that threaten Zard, such as Greninja, Lando-T, Latios, and rain. On the flipside, Zard-X can also deal with mons that tend to annoy Mantine (to a certain extent) such as Koko, Magearna, grass types, and so on. Mantine also provides Defog and Toxic support to make Zard's job much easier.

I was tempted to opt for Ferrothorn here, but since you liked Breloom because it served as an offensive presence vs water types, I added Kartana instead. Kartana provides good speed control, helps deal with bulky waters, and has really good offensive type synergy with Zard. Kartana tends to bait in things like Celesteela and situationally other steels when choiced locked, which is a free switch for Zard, while they both can simultaneously wear down Landorus.

I still needed a solid answer to fall back on when Mantine was overwhelmed as well as a ground type and rocks, and why not add Lando-T? You initially had this one on your team, and it forms a solid defensive backbone with Mantine, as Mantine can help with the likes of Greninja and other water types, whereas Lando can help Mantine with Koko.

I needed to have something that could threaten stall and Scizor wasn't doing much of anything for your team, so I thought Tapu Koko fit the bill nicely here. Tapu Koko provides a secondary answer vs waters since a choice locked Kartana can't do it by itself. It also helps immensely in the stall mu with Taunt + Z-Wild Charge.

Mantine seemed to be taking too much stress from physical attackers, and this wasn't good as it is the primary defogger of the team. This is where you originally fit Chansey, but that is a bit too passive for the team. Magearna provides the second steel for the team and competes a good SWG type. Volt Switch allows it to not be a momentum drainer and is also neat to have under Electric Terrain. Magearna and Tapu Koko provide a VoltTurn core and allow Zard more opportunities to come in.

New team:

Importable

Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Roost

Mantine @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 124 SpD
Calm Nature
- Roost
- Scald
- Toxic
- Defog

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Return / Aerial Ace

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 24 SpD / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power Ice
- U-turn

Tapu Koko @ Electrium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Wild Charge
- Hidden Power Ice
- Taunt
- U-turn

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Fleur Cannon
- Iron Head
- Hidden Power Fire
- Volt Switch

Team Description

I'm including this just in case you needed help getting used to or playing with the team. I think this is a pretty good offensive based team with a good backbone to fall on, like you wanted. The main strategy is straightforward: you want to try and use Koko / Magearna to get in Zard-X safely, and a vast amount of the metagame doesn't appreciate taking a hit from it due to its coverage. Mantine is usually a very reliable defogger, so make sure hazards are off the field too. Depending on the mu, you generally want to tear as many holes as possible on the opposing team with Zard/Koko/Kartana until one of them is in a position to clean up.
Threats

Make sure you keep Zard-X healthy for Mega Venusaur because it walls the rest of your team. I gave Kartana Aerial Ace for this very reason as an emergency check, and at the very least you can waste Tapu Koko's Z move on it as well. This thing is a huge pain in the ass for the team and one thing you can do is run Tapu Lele over Tapu Koko, as it also does a decent job at breaking stall. You can also try running Brave Bird on Koko if you feel like this weakness is too severe.

In general, Tapu Koko + Kyu-B are a huge nuisance to balance teams, and this is no exception. You have Magearna as a somewhat solid Kyu-B answer, but it's almost always going to be killing something with Z-Ice. I would recommend trying to play as aggressively as possible with Zard-X/Kartana (a bit hard to do with Koko's U-Turn) and break whatever Kartana resists they might have in the back so that scarf Smart Strike is able to clean up later.

Again, for offensive balance squads like these, Medicham is usually going to walk all over them unless you pack something like Mew. Medicham in general is a nuisance since it speed ties with Zard-X if Jolly (unlike Kyu-B, for example). Thankfully this isn't everywhere and you still have the likes of Koko/Kartana to scare it out and Lando-T to try and play around it, but there's not much else you can do.

Offensive Lando-T is, in general, annoying to almost every team. Your own Lando-T does a good job at getting an Intimidate off and it also doesn't really wnt to come in vs anything on the team since it's offensive. Once it uses its Z-Move it's also much easier to contain, but if it comes in safely, then one of your mons is probably going to die.

Stallbreaker Heatran is one of the most common mons lately, and for good reason. Nothing in the tier really appreciates the likes of Magma Storm + Taunt/Toxic. Try and predict this on the switch with your Kartana and play aggressively with Magearna as well. Luckily, a vast majority of your team threatens this out, but like in Lando's case, it will deal some heavy damage if it comes in for free against something slower.

The stall matchup looks pretty tough as well. Some suggestions are using Tapu Lele or Tapu Bulu over Tapu Koko. I really haven't ran into stall as of late, however, so I would keep Tapu Koko for the better matchup against offensive teams and the VoltTurn core (unless you really run into stall a lot). In all honesty, I would also try Tapu Lele / Tapu Bulu here and see what you like better!

Conclusion

I know the team was changed severely (sorry) and I'm usually not a big fan of this, but your initial three pokemon aren't viable in OU, and if you practice with the improved version of the team I am confident that you will start seeing changes and better perfomances. It might take a while, but the only way to get better with a team is to practice. Let me know if you have any questions about the new team (like some sets, for example) or even if you want to try and build a team with one of your initial three UU mons there, like Breloom. Gl!