Project OU Theorymon

Alright well I promised to be quick about this, so if you're yet to submit any ideas you may have had I apologise, but you'll now have a couple days to vote on the final team.

You can Vote Between:

The OG:


Magma's Toyz R'us:


Akumeoy's (Toyz R'us Variation):




My vote goes to Akumeoy.
 
Okay, as promised, this brings us to the conclusion of the OU Theorymon CCAT, with the finalised team looking like this:


Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Fake Out
- Power-Up Punch

Porygon-Z @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Modest/Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Tri Attack
- Shadow Ball

Landorus-T @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
- U-Turn

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Ice Punch

Thundurus @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power Ice
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave

Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Volt Switch
- Rapid Spin


Thank you to everyone who contributed. The team will be added to a Sample Teams section in the OP, for anyone looking to play the meta on Showdown, and I will see to getting a description for it to support the import.

Recreant will now make a separate post to begin the next traditional slate when she gets the time!
 
Whew, that was quite a journey. Pretty snazzy team! I'll be editing the second post with good cores and sample teams when I wake up in the morning.

Now before I get on to the slate, I have an announcement to make. Upon discussion with the council, I will be locking this project after this slate until Sun and Moon. With the whole forum dipping in inactivity and the project in general getting kinda stale, I feel like now would be a good time to give it a short break. Now don't worry, no council members are changing and the thread will stay the same. Once the project returns, we'll have new, tweaked rules and a whole bunch of new abilities to discuss. You're free to continue discussion in the theorymon room about possible submissions for the reopening of course. I'm hoping, when the thread reopens, we'll have a much larger connection to the PS room with possible tournaments and games which I don't think was obtained in this version.

Anyways, here's the final slate until the new gen:
+ Flying / Fighting-typing
+ Drizzle and Wish

+ Desolate Land and Fire / Ground-typing

+Regenerator and Head Smash

Have fun discussing!~
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
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Staraptor: I don't know what to think of this honestly. On the one hand it has an SR neutrality and STAB on CC, but on the other hand it loses the Reckless boost on it's secondary STAB, which results in it losing out on a number of OHKOs that mean it can't come in on and beat various Pokémon such as Rotom-W regardless of their health (252+ Atk Choice Band Staraptor Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-W: 210-247 (69.3 - 81.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery; 252+ Atk Choice Band Reckless Staraptor Double-Edge vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-W: 252-297 (83.1 - 98%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock). I think it's good for SubRoost, but on the flipside SubRoost loses out on Reckless Brave Bird which is a problem.

Lanturn: Also unsure of thoughts. As a wish passer it faces competition from Alomomola's significantly bigger Wishes, but it does benefit from Regen+Volt Switch (although you do need to consider that it's current niche comes from Volt Absorb). It is very pressed for moveslots if it runs Wish, because realistically it wants all of Heal Bell, Volt Switch, Scald, Wish, Protect and Toxic on one set, whereas Alomomola only has to choose between Toxic and KOff (although nowadays it's a no-brainer that you use Toxic).

Torkoal: Nice defensive 'mon. Has only one weakness, an immunity to burn, two type immunities in water and electric and a really nice set of resistances. It's sheer existence invalidates non-BD Azumarill 'cause it's immune to Waterfall, resists Play Rough and has sky high defenses while being able to burn it with Wisp or Plume. It's a nice defensive spinner, although it does suffer from being unable to really touch spinblockers which is kind of an issue, but it provides lots of defensive utility which is huge. Lacks reliable recovery though.

Armaldo: While it's a p. okay buff, it doesn't really do much to solve a lot of Armaldo's key problems. It's typing sucks ass defensively and it just doesn't fare that well vs a lot of stuff due to it's low speed. Regen's cool though and Head Smash hits like a truck.
 
Okay so I intend on getting around to all the mons on the slate at some point, but given that it's kind of a weird one I'm gonna try explain the specific use I intended for Armaldo while I have a spare moment.
Armaldo is a bad pokemon and has far too many flaws and weaknesses to turn it into a good pokemon as a general statement with just two buffs. So it was my intention to give Armaldo a buff that allowed it to have a specific niche in the meta.

A Bulky Rapid Spinner with Recovery and Offensive Presence.

Now "bulky" may seem a bit unlikely given Armaldo's lackluster 75/100/80 defences and lack of resistances, but if you play Armaldo's typing to its strength it actually works quite effectively. Its strength being very few weaknesses. This doesn't necessarily apply to physically defensive sets because Stone Edge is a strong coverage move, but for Assault Vest sets, Rock, Steel and Water coverage moves are pretty much non-existent on special attackers. Literally the only special attackers you are afraid of are Water types and the very few Steel types (Magnezone and Heatran), with max SpD and AV letting you take neutral special hits from almost anything else like a champ. This makes Armaldo quite a handy blanket check to have around, beating mons like Gengar, Mega Manectric, Thundurus-I, Tornadus-T, Mega Alakazam, etc, etc.

252 SpA Life Orb Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Armaldo: 95-113 (26.8 - 31.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Thundurus Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Armaldo: 103-122 (29 - 34.4%) -- 4.2% chance to 3HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Armaldo: 105-125 (29.6 - 35.3%) -- 14.8% chance to 3HKO

Regenerator and Head Smash help it to fulfil the role better in a variety of ways. Regenerator allows Armaldo to pivot around to regain health in order to greatly increase its life span, and importantly counteracts the damage Armaldo takes from its Stealth Rock weakness, making it a much more viable Rapid Spinner. Regenerator also has pretty cool synergy with Head Smash as you can heal off the recoil. Head Smash is also important because it allows you to run the max SpD AV set that I mentioned earlier and still maintain a fantastic offensive presence, nuking opponents with no need of investment.
Importantly, Head Smash also encourages the tier's two most common spin blockers to stay the hell away.

4 Atk Armaldo Head Smash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gengar: 297-349 (114.6 - 134.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
4 Atk Armaldo Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 112 Def Mega Sableye: 148-175 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Finally Armaldo has decent synergy with a few other Regenerator mons for some cool cores. Defensive Slowking in particular strikes me as a really good partner thanks to its ability to take on the special attackers that Armaldo still struggles with such as Water types, Psyshock users and more (Keldeo, Mega Gardevoir, Mega Diancie and Heatran to name a few). In return I'm sure Slowking would appreciate Armaldo's ability to take on Gengar and Electric types.

So yeah I hope that that submission makes a bit more sense now, and I'll try comment on the rest of the slate soon.
 
I dunno about Staraptor. Its overreliance on recoil moves is what's keeping it in check currently; STAB Close Combat gives it staying power that I find iffy in combination with its offensive prowess. Losing the ability to OHKO Rotom-W is about the only way I can imagine it as a downgrade, and if Staraptor's being used on birdspam teams (like it normally is) then that Rotom-Wash can be worn down anyways.

Lanturn already has a niche as an Electric-type counter with Heal Bell, and Wish is just another tool for teams that want it more than, say, Toxic. Drizzle is what makes it stand out here -- a rain setter with a slow pivot move and Electric neutrality is not to be underestimated, even if you don't have room for it to pivot AND cripple opponents two ways AND safely heal itself AND cleric. That's 4mss, sure, but on a support mon, 4mss just means versatility.

Torkoal is my own submission, and was basically a way to create a non-overwhelming version of Pdon in OU. It's not the best at spinning, but it has a lot of defensive utility, being able to set rocks and/or spin for your side. I'm not going to plow through the viability rankings and list everything it checks, but I will highlight some things. Rotom-W comes to mind immediately, and will probably have to run Toxic if Torkoal sticks around, because it can't touch the tortoise otherwise. Impressive for a Fire-type. Mega Charizard X is kinda checked, but what's interesting is that unlike Hippowdon, Torkoal isn't hindered by the WoW set. Mega Sableye needs toxic or Calm Mind to even touch it, though Torkoal doesn't enjoy the Knock Off. Slowbro needs Psyshock+Calm Mind to do anything, and Torkoal can still pull off double switches against it. Rare is a mon that Slowbro can't even annoy. Megagross needs the suboptimal Earthquake to touch physically defensive sets. Every weather setter is irritated by it, including Tyranitar, which is usually a good Fire-type check. Rest sets can PP stall Suicune. If you want to be a meme, run solar Beam. Tl;dr Torkoal iz gud

Isa Simple covers most of my thoughts on Armaldo. The submission is basically meant to legitimize a SpD AV Spinner set, and I think Knock Off is the tool that will let Armaldo pull its weight as a defensive spinner. It just seems like a good tool for teams that want a durable, specially bulky spinner with offensive presence. It could be a pretty funny pick for sand teams, using the SpD buff to just neutralize most every special attack.

+3 252 SpA Manaphy Scald vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Armaldo in Sand: 204-240 (57.6 - 67.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO <== lol
 
Well last theorymon slate so i might as well comment on it.

Fighting/Flying Staraptor: Seems like a double edged sword. It trades its Reckless Boosted Double Edge for a STAB Close Combat And final gambit. Now it does loose its niche as a bird spammer that could deter electric switch in due to Reckless DE destroying any electric type switch in, but it does gain amazing Dual STAB coverage, and the drops from close combat dont matter because Staraptor was never taking a hit anyway. Arguably, it gains a better defensive typing, with a quad resist to bug (yay?), a dark resist that may be utilized for switch in opportunities, and a neutrality to rock, namely stealth rocks, as well as a new nifty fighting resist . A fairy, flying and psychic weakness does suck, but nothing comes to mind that staraptor would outspeed and want to stay in against anyway. I see choice band/scarf working well, but i think an expert belt would do it great, due to it having the ability to hit most things super effectively, but maybe thats just me. Move sets i would go with would be CC, BB, U-Turn, and a toss up between Quick Attack (no stab anymore :[) and i personally like Roost as i think part of the reason Raptor never used roost was because of its terrible defensive typing, but i would look foward to playing around with the birds new defensive typing.

Plus anything that shits on Chansey is always welcome.

Drizzle + Wish Lanturn: The main reason i like this one is because not only does it enhance Lanturns original role, but creates a completely new role for it. Lanturns niche was sharing Rotom-W typing, but trading a ground immunity for and electric immunity. Lanturns main drawback is the lack of recovery, but with wish and a nice fat 125 Base HP, not only can it heal itself, but it can also heal its teammates. Volt Switch only helps as it can slowly pivot out to the designated mon for healing, or it can simply stay in and protect and receive its own wish. This helps it wall the electric types it would want to with volt absorb or if you really hate scald, run water absorb. Even though electric types are really bad in this meta, having a nice counter to them is always welcome that can wish pass as well. Now for the new role, Drizzle lets it not give rain teams another automatic rain setter, it also can slow pivot out and get the swift swimmers in safely and unharmed so they can wreck havoc. Rain also boosts scalds power so Lanturn is not as passive as it usually is. Overall i like this one alot, and who doesn't love something with scald.

Desolate Land + Fire/Ground Torkoal: Basically a balanced Primal Groudon. With only one weakness and unless your name is golduck, water moves aren't touching this guy. With 70/140/70 defenses, this guy is taking plenty of physical hits and a couple weaker special hits. The thing i like about this is while Primal Don has WAY better stats, it has zero recovery, Torkoal at least has lefties to get some passive recovery back. Torkoal also sports a decent support move pool with rapid spin, SR and yawn. The newly added ground typing not only gives it STAB earth power, which with fire typing gives it decent neutral coverage, but makes it neutral to stealth rocks so spinning is much easier to pull off. Part of Torkals problem was it was slow and lost a quarter of its health coming in to spin the rocks, but now it has a much easier time switching it. Desolate land also gives torkoal a boost to its fire moves, so it is even more annoying to switch into lava plumes because now you risk a burn as well as a sun boosted attack. Also, when looking for a defensive fire type, you are pretty much stuck with Heatran (who is no means terrible) Zard X, who is a mega, and bulky Nape, so a new defensive fire type is always welcome. Overall this fixed Torkoals issues alot and made it able to do the job it was intended to do.

Head Smash + Regenerator Armaldo: The post before me basically covered what Armaldo should be doing, being a bulky spinner with offensive presence. I am actually suprised how bulky Armaldo is with AV, but i would like to try a more offensive tank set with Armaldo vs a full spdef set. Im not sure how well it would work, but maybe a set of Max HP, Max Atk and Stone Plate with Head Smash/Rapid Spin/X-Scissor or EQ/Knock Off would work well considering 125 Attack isn't too bad, especially with Head Smashes huge base power. Regenerator also helps with the head smash recoil Armaldo will be taking, but if you use Armaldo as your spinner, between Head Smash and potential rocks, plus being slow so youll take a hit, regenerator can only heal so much until Armaldo eventually goes down quicker than he can heal. In a way it suffers from how Torn-T does in that its AV set can only really check alot of Special Attackers without rocks because rocks off set regenerator, and having to take an attack means that Tornadus can no longer switch in or risk the 2HKO. The fully Spdef set is probably better than the one i have thought of, and i will try it out, but i just wanna experiment cause this is a Pokemon i personally like design wise, and i find the typing unique.

This is a great slate to go out on before Sun and Moon comes out and im pretty deadlocked on which one i will vote for.
 
I think Lanturn with drizzle and wish would be almost the ultimate pivot for rain teams:

Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Wish
- Volt Switch
- Ice Beam / Protect

As for torkoal, there's something everyone forgets it has: shell smash:
Torkoal @ White Herb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Sludge Bomb / stone edge
- Earth Power
- Shell Smash

Sure, it isn't exactly terrifying, but it can OHKO like half the tier after a boost and (preferably) stealth rocks. getting this boost may be a little difficult, but it does have decent enough defences.
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
My key gripe with Shell Smash Torkoal is that even at +2 with a timid nature it only hits 304 speed. This means that it is outpaced by timid base 90s and below, which is a big deal considering that this involves sacrificing a modest nature. With modest it ties with timid Heatran, thus forcing a 50:50 with Earth Power variants to not die on the spot and also losing to Jolly Driller and a number of other 'mons.
 

G-Luke

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Fighting/Flying Staraptor: Even though its a typing match made in heaven, my thoughts on it are varied. Reckless might less usage in favour for Intimidate, which isnt bad, but the Raptor doesnt have the stats to abuse it efficently. While the offensive and defensive potencial of its typing is alot better, it just can't get the KOs and 2HKOs that burdspam teams need anymore. Not to mention its weakness to Fairy isnt good. But its VERY solid none the less.
 
Staraptor: The flavour is perfect for this pokemon. The loss of Reckless Double-Edge is really bad for birdspam and now this thing has to compete with Hawlucha in OU regarding the offensive set. The defensive one has to compete with Talonflame, which has WoW and priority recovery and attacks ===> Staraptor is outclassed. It needs another buff to distinguish itself from Hawlucha and Talonflame.

Lanturn: Really nice as a Rain setter. It wants to have 8 moveslots, but even with 4 moves it is quite unpredictable because can offer a slow Volt Switch, a Wish Passer, Heal Bell support, Ice coverage, and so on... It is not broken thanks to its stats (aside from HP) and Ice Beam is not able to OHKO too many target weak 4x to Ice, so ====> funny to use, but underwhelming (it is as playing with one less pokemon if the opponent has an Earthquake user) because is very passive even for being a pivot.

Torkoal: My favourite monster of this slate. This is a new spinner for the OU environment with only one weakness (thanks to Desolate Land), an immunity to burn, two type immunities (Water and Electric) and a really nice set of resistances. Too bad it is weak to Earthquake that many Stealth Rockers run. Shell Smash + a full invested Spe + a beneficial nature seems mandatory to rectify that Spe.

Armaldo: Good buffs, but this pokemon wants one more upgrade to be OU material. Its typing is bad defensively (i.e. being weak to SR it is supposed to switch into) and its poor Spe leaves it prone to be worn down quickly (not to mention WoW spam). UU material, but not OU in my opinion.
 
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Staraptor: I'm really just re-iterating what everyone else said at this point, but losing STAB on Double-Edge is rough. However, being an okay switch-in to Dark-types and a neutrality to SR is quite helpful, and might move it away from birdspam teams and closer to general offense, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself. The problem is that if it moves away from the birdspam archetype and its niche as a 'mon capable of handling common birdspam checks, it faces stiff competition in non-birdspam teams by things like Talonflame, Torn-T, even Hawlucha to a minor extent due to its far superior speed. I love Fighting/Flying, but it's most likely not enough to give it a niche outside of birdspam.

Lanturn: Juicy. Pairing this up with something like Torn-T, Tangrowth, or something else that doesn't care too much about Ground moves could revive Rain teams as we know it. I'd even go so far and say that its utility even inches out things like Politoed due to Wish, Thunder Wave, Heal Bell, and Volt Switch coupled with its better typing. While Politoed has Encore and Perish Song to screw over setup sweepers, Lanturn satisfies more of a cleric role rather than self-contained utility because of the sheer value of its momentum between Wish and Volt Switch. It wants to run like 6 moves instead of 4, but on a defensive 'mon, it's not as important because you generally pick movesets to your team's strengths, and that approach doesn't run into the 4MSS problem nearly as often. The main reason I'm not immediately 100% on this train is because its defensive stats outside of HP are terrible, and its SpA is crap as well. Max/max spreads will be pretty much the only way to run this, and even then, it might not be enough to push it up to the point where it can fulfill a wider defensive role.

Torkoal: I love defensive Fire-types that aren't Heatran. Talonflame is unique, Infernape is hilarious, and theorymon Moltres makes my nipples hard. More Rapid Spin users, which is always nice, PDon's typing (and a lifesaving neutrality to SR), PDon's delicious ability (which was wasted on the removed Camerupt slate IMO), Skarmory-level stats, and decent status capabilities in Yawn and Lava Plume. Still slow as sin, and still doesn't have enough firepower to break through important Subs like Gyarados's (it can break through Keldeo if it runs EQ/Earth Power), but the typing and utillity alone make this a top contender. Even with Ground being ubiquitous in OU (cough cough Lando), its Defense and typing together might be enough to give Torkoal a really solid niche. My vote goes to this.

Armaldo: Incredibly cool, especially as a Rapid Spinner that can threaten M-Sab and isn't Mold Breaker Exca with Toxic. Max SpD with Assault Vest is a hell of a lot bulkier than I though it would be, and it makes for an amazing generalist special wall with Rapid Spin utility and an above average offensive presence by defensive 'mon standards. My only issue with this is that the things it wants to threaten often run utility, the most dangerous of which are WoW and Knock Off. Between being weak to SR, its susceptibility to status, the bulk it loses to something like Clef or Alakazam packing Knock Off, and the recoil from Head Smash, Regenerator has a really hard time keeping Armaldo topped off. It needs to be used carefully, and preferably with Heal Bell support, and its typing isn't very great either considering it really only gets by due to raw stat value and AV, so that constricts teambuilding quite a bit. I think this is one of the most innovative submission to OU Theorymon yet, but it just falls short of my vote.
 
I'd love some voting please '^'/
(Yes I believe this Lanturn was suggested a long time ago. I could have sworn it had been slated already, it's certainly good enough to slate again though)
+ Flying / Fighting-typing
+ Drizzle and Wish

+ Desolate Land and Fire / Ground-typing

+Regenerator and Head Smash


My vote:
Lanturn + Drizzle and Wish
 

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