SS OU Phantom Justice

[SLDR]

TEAM PREVIEW

​

Hi Smogon, welcome to my first RMT on this forum. Having played BW/BW2/XY/ORAS but not SM/USUM, I approached the SS metagame with a lot of knowledge on old pokémons and mechanics, but very little on the newest ones, most notably the inexplicable loss of pursuit and hidden power. I noticed a trend towards a bulkier metagame than what I was used to in the weather spam generation and the megaevolution breakout generation. This metagame is still incomplete due to restricted pokedex and absence of mega, though, so things might change in the future. Until the full meta is underway, I figured I try to build something I'd like. This team of course isn't experimental by any means, it's just composed of pokémon I really like apart from the last one which is a necessity due to a certain fishy water move.


Being a non-stall player myself, I started out with the offensive core of SD Terrakion + CB Aegislash. These two powerhouses pressure physical walls really well while helping each other against their check. Hippowdon, Toxapex, Corviknight, Mandibuzz are heavily pressured to switch in and eat attacks, with Terrakion terrorizing slower teams and Aegislash being capable of denting any switch-in with the right move and picking off ghost types like Dragapult or Gengar with a powerful banded shadow sneak. Power-wise, this core is undoubtedly incredibile, but speed-wise isn't really awful either. Even though the average speed of this meta isn't particularly high, especially outside of weather, it's still nice to have an offensive core with a 108 base speed to creep heavy hitters like Kyurem and NP LO Hydreigon, and a strong priority to threaten faster threats. Lastly, while sharing a ground weakness is something to be taken care of, these two share a usable type sinergy, mostly for Dark, Fairy and the occasional Psychic type.

Since these two can weaken the opposing team a lot, I don't need another wallbreaker nearly as much as I need a form of speed control, so here comes Scarf Modest Dragapult, one of the fastest mon in the tier, capable of outspeeding everything under weather other than jolly drill and barraskewda. Dragapult sinergyzes well with my original core because it provides free switchins with u-turn, the aforementioned speed control and a late game cleaning tool outside of the unreliable shadow sneak. Of course it doubles up on a couple key weakness, but so does for resistances and immunities, plus the speed control it provides in unparalleled in reliability and effectiveness. Scarf Dragapult is probably my most used set of any pokemon so far in this meta.

At this point I figured it was time to look a bit more towards the defensive/support side, so I added in SpDef Corviknight to be a blanket check to threats like excadrill and dragapult. I will discuss the set later, but basically this thing is my defogger and one of my go-to pokèmon to alleviate pressure and gain momentum just by its ability to wall or pp stall a lot of things.

The next addition to the team is Rotom-H, as I really started to worry about Zeraora and Cinderace, plus acting like a bulky wallbreaker thanks to nasty plot and its ability to set up on things like clefable, which terrakion requires prediction and scouting for thunderwave for. It provides momentum and checks togekiss well apart from substitute sets (the last slot is really tough)

Last and definitely least, an otherwise uninteresting pokèmon that's just in the team for his ability... water absorb. This team really gave away kills to any dracovish, and I really wanted to improve my rain match-up as well as make sure that people actually need to predict fishious rend rather than just spamming it. The existence of that move is the premier reason to use this toad in the first place. Fortunately, it gets useful moves like scald, knock off and stealth rocks so I guess it's good enough.

Terrakion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance

The true wallbreaker, Terrakion hits every relevant defensive pokémon with neutral damage thanks to his stab alone, while earthquake rounds up the coverage by allowing terrakion to check boosted aegislash and hit toxapex hard. Sd specifically allows terrakion to abuse all the players spamming protect with clefable and once sd is up, only a miss can save their clefable. Even max def hippowdon gets blown up by stone edge on the switch + close combat. Even without swords dance, terrakion terrorizes balanced team that don't have many pokèmon who outspeed it.

Aegislash @ Choice Band
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Claw
- Iron Head
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat

This beautiful thing wears down a lot of pokèmon that like switching into terrakion, mainly hippowdon, toxapex and corviknight, iron head demolishes fairies and hits hard mandibuzz, shadow sneak is mandatory to pick off weakened offensive threats. Close combat is useful when you're able to hit ferrothorn because it eases up prediction for the next turns for both my wallbreakers and dragapult. Overall, aegislash is immensely valuable and is guaranteed to have an impact in every game due to its good typing and stats, both on offence and defence

Dragapult @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- U-turn
- Fire Blast

Nothing crazy here, just a fast, moderately powerful 'mon who takes advantage of the holes created by his two friends while helping them with uturn. Fire coverage is here to hit steel types on the switch + ohkoing venusaur. Flamethrower is more reliable for the latter though, so it's a very good alternative. It's particularly useful against sticky web teams because more often than not it's still able to outspeed everything unboosted. it has the best matchup against faster teams due to its ability to clean up with shadowball lategame.

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Def / 160 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 29 Spe
- Body Press
- Roost
- Defog
- Brave Bird

SpDef corviknight is here to check things on both side of the spectrum, mainly excadrill and opposing scarf dragapults. Brave bird over uturn exclusively for dragapult and conkeldurr. Body press 2hkos excadrill and ohkos bisharp. 29 ivs in speed even without uturn because there is no point in being faster than other corviknights and maybe being able to hit body press supereffectively on their roost may prove to be valuable. this mon sustain a lot of pressure for the team so keeping it healthy is key

Rotom-Heat @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Nasty Plot
- Discharge

Here's a standard nasty plot rotom-h, with a little twist in 4th slot in discharge, which allows this rotom to actually wall any togekiss set, because you can't consistently break substitutes with neither voltswitch nor overheat, making it easier to play around. Discharge not only allows you to do that but can potentially punish hard switches into dragons like hydreigon or dragapult. Nasty plot is necessary to pose some major offensive pressure and allows repeated uses of overheat. since it does not reliably spread status, this mon should be used to generate momentum by taking advantage for example of fairy types.

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 236 Def / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

This set is role compression at its finest. With rotom-h taking on gknot zeraora, i'm allowed to run leftovers over rindo berry to improve longevity. Scald fishes for burns, earthpower hits zeraora, toxapex and fire types supereffectively, while knock off provides good utility by removing items and stealth rock is mandatory to break pesky sashes and weaken things like torkoal, cloyster and kyurem everytime they enter the battlefield. EV in speed allows me to outspeed max speed adamant conkeldurr which might prove to be useful and doesn't cut into the bulk at all.

IMPORTABLE

Terrakion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance

Aegislash @ Choice Band
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Claw
- Iron Head
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat

Dragapult @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- U-turn
- Fire Blast

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Def / 160 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 29 Spe
- Body Press
- Roost
- Defog
- Brave Bird

Rotom-Heat @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Nasty Plot
- Discharge

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 236 Def / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

DISCUSSION
First of all, let's address the elephant in the room here: this team lacks a pure ghost resist. During team building I faced many challenges in regard to the defensive backbone of the team, but also on the scarfer of choice. If I went with gknot zeraora for speed control I would probably be having issues against weather abusers as well as bulk up variants of zeraora himself, which is why I have scarf dragapult. I also considered scarf gengar as a ghost spammer who can pressure togekiss and fairies in general while still retaining the ability to revenge kill either omniboost or subsalac kommo-o with dazzling gleam. I also considered scarf hydreigon for his dark type, which would allow me me to actually have a ghost resist on my team. I'm not really sure what to do here. Trace Gardevoir would be a pretty niche choice as a weather abuser check as well as abusing conkeldurr, but it's unreliable against some of them and doesnt provide me any form of speed control.
The scarf ghost of choice actually influences my decision for the defogger because, mandibuzz is best alongside gengar whereas corviknight is best alongside dragapult for the fairy matchup, but the first is only great for ghost types and the latter is only great for excadrill/bisharp, but no-one is for the two. Ultimately I went for corviknight for his access to leftovers and pressure, which would allow me to try and go for pp stall against some scary ghost moves. Rotom-h could be my defogger but he already has problem in the 4th slot between discharge, toxic and will-o-wisp, that defog it's kind of a waste.

Another option is going for corviknight+bulletproof kommo-o to have another shadowball counter which would possibly allow me to get rid of seismitoad in favour of a gastrodon, who still absorbs fishious rends but is more capable than seismitoad at handling zeraora by himself due to gknot having half the power against it and clear smog nullifying bulk up. Utility or WishTect Clefable might be a shout as well, but you tell me. Conkeldurr of course is another threat because it's impossible to switch into for every team but for mine i specifically need to mantain momentum against it. having two ghost types faster than conk helps a lot, but Brave bird on corviknight is purely for him and dragapult.

any suggestion or criticism will be welcomed and appreciated.

 

[Cri]

Looks balanced. But weak to Zeraora generally, I usually use w/ bulk up. 1 of that and it may ohko all mons. I suggested using more scarf and (u-turn/volt switch spam) to keep your opponent confused.

 

[SLDR]

Looks balanced. But weak to Zeraora generally, I usually use w/ bulk up. 1 of that and it may ohko all mons. I suggested using more scarf and (u-turn/volt switch spam) to keep your opponent confused.

Thanks for the insight, although I disagree with it. Unless I build a team specifically to counter just Zeraora, I don't know what more I can do to keep it in check: seismitoad deals with bulk up variants that typically don't run gknot, rotom-h deals with 4 attacks variants, even more so if they run life orb, scarf dragapult can revenge kill any variant (even crazy bulkup+gknot) being a special attacker and I also have a last resort priority in shadow sneak. the only things I could feasibly do to improve my match up against zeraora are running willowisp>discharge on rotom and run rindo berry>leftovers on seismitoad. the first one I might agree with, but given the circumstances the second one is mostly unnecessary.

 

[Cri]

you know it's safe to protect your team from the OU top used sweepers. But it's up to you,

 

[airfare]

#1. specs kyurem, especially when it's modest nature, completely demolishes your team. you don't have any good switchin to a specs ice beam and your limited checks at the moment (aegislash, rotom-heat) get chipped extremely easily and can't even recover their hp easily because none of them have reliable recovery or a wishpasser in the back.

#2. like you mentioned, you don't have a ghost resist. in this meta, this is EXTREMELY problematic... considering how much of a threat mons like dragapult, gengar, and aegislash are extremely prevalent in this meta, and your team falls flat to any of them.

the change that would help this team most imo is changing either aegislash or dragapult for clefable. you can replace aegislash if you still want any semblance of speed control, and replace dragapult if you would prefer to keep your offensive core. this change will definitely help your matchup vs ghost types and kyurem, in addition to letting you give your defensive mons (room, seismitoad) more hp effortlessly.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 28 Spe
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Teleport

 

[Jordy]

What's up, this is a pretty decent team to begin with, but I think there's a couple changes that you could consider making here.

Major Changes

Terrakion → Clefable

→

Just like the above poster, I agree that the lack of Clefable is rather concerning; Clefable's so good on these kinds of teams that you really never want to drop it. The fact that it can check Pokemon like Dragapult and Hydreigon's really useful, and the support that it provides with Wish is really vital to prevent Seismitoad and Rotom-H from getting worn down too quickly. It can also provide you with easy opportunities to get Aegislash and Dragapult into play.

However, I disagree with the suggestion that Aegislash would be the easiest to drop for it, as it's vital towards this team's gameplan against Calm Mind Clefable. In my eyes, dropping Terrakion makes much more sense, as it doesn't really interfere with any important matchups, besides Bisharp, which you can cover through different means.

Rotom-H → Incineroar

→

Adding onto that, the lack of a Ghost-resistant Pokemon is definitely concerning too; Clefable is prone to getting overwhelmed by Hex Dragapult in long-term games. To keep the Ghost spam idea intact, I believe this is the best way to go about fixing that. Incineroar provides you with a Ghost-resistant Pokemon, which greatly helps against Dragapult and Aegislash, and still provides you with a Fire-type, meaning you don't give up too much of your Ferrothorn matchup. Beyond that, the pivoting support it can provide is really useful and the fact that it can force a Knock Off onto Pokemon like Toxapex is very useful for Aegislash in particular. I generally prefer Will-O-Wisp on this team as it helps with Terrakion, but you could also use Taunt to situationally shut down Pokemon like Snorlax and Clefable.

Here's a little rundown of the EV spread. The Speed EVs allow Incineroar to outspeed Corviknight, which can be useful in certain matchups; it may prevent Corviknight from potentially wearing you down even further before you use Flare Blitz or Parting Shot. I've found this to be really convenient as Incineroar relies on Clefable to stay healthy very often. The Defense EVs are for Zeraora's Close Combat. I like to dump the rest of the EVs into Special Defense alongside a Careful nature to further solidify Incineroar's matchup against Pokemon like Dragapult.

Minor Changes

There's really no place for Choice Scarf Dragapult in this metagame. It's really unnecessary in general and I don't see what it really provides for your team in particular that makes it so important. Hex Dragapult makes much more sense here; it still satisfies the need for general Speed control alongside a strong priority user, in this case Aegislash, and has a much stronger wallbreaking prowess. I also think it synergizes much better with Aegislash as it can force a Thunder Wave onto Pokemon like Mandibuzz pretty handily, which ultimately gives Aegislash the opportunity to overwhelm it.

I think you should run a different Corviknight spread here; physically defensive Corviknight makes much more sense, as the current spread that you're using can be OHKOed by +2 Bisharp rather easily.

Final Comments

I believe this team is pretty good with these changes in mind, but there's a couple additional things that you could consider. First of all, you could definitely consider running Swords Dance Aegislash on this team, as that has a much better matchup against sand teams, though you do trade some consistency as a wallbreaker overall for this. Choice Specs Aegislash is another option that you could definitely consider; it's a much more consistent wallbreaker against teams that lean on Pokemon like Toxapex or Hippowdon to check physical Aegislash. I also think it may be worth it to consider running U-turn on Corviknight instead of Brave Bird, as it could provide you with even more opportunities to get Dragapult and Aegislash into play. Obviously the downside of not being able to directly deal with Conkeldurr hurts, though.


Importable

 

[SLDR]

What's up, this is a pretty decent team to begin with, but I think there's a couple changes that you could consider making here.

Major Changes

Terrakion → Clefable

→

Just like the above poster, I agree that the lack of Clefable is rather concerning; Clefable's so good on these kinds of teams that you really never want to drop it. The fact that it can check Pokemon like Dragapult and Hydreigon's really useful, and the support that it provides with Wish is really vital to prevent Seismitoad and Rotom-H from getting worn down too quickly. It can also provide you with easy opportunities to get Aegislash and Dragapult into play.

However, I disagree with the suggestion that Aegislash would be the easiest to drop for it, as it's vital towards this team's gameplan against Calm Mind Clefable. In my eyes, dropping Terrakion makes much more sense, as it doesn't really interfere with any important matchups, besides Bisharp, which you can cover through different means.

Rotom-H → Incineroar

→

Adding onto that, the lack of a Ghost-resistant Pokemon is definitely concerning too; Clefable is prone to getting overwhelmed by Hex Dragapult in long-term games. To keep the Ghost spam idea intact, I believe this is the best way to go about fixing that. Incineroar provides you with a Ghost-resistant Pokemon, which greatly helps against Dragapult and Aegislash, and still provides you with a Fire-type, meaning you don't give up too much of your Ferrothorn matchup. Beyond that, the pivoting support it can provide is really useful and the fact that it can force a Knock Off onto Pokemon like Toxapex is very useful for Aegislash in particular. I generally prefer Will-O-Wisp on this team as it helps with Terrakion, but you could also use Taunt to situationally shut down Pokemon like Snorlax and Clefable.

Here's a little rundown of the EV spread. The Speed EVs allow Incineroar to outspeed Corviknight, which can be useful in certain matchups; it may prevent Corviknight from potentially wearing you down even further before you use Flare Blitz or Parting Shot. I've found this to be really convenient as Incineroar relies on Clefable to stay healthy very often. The Defense EVs are for Zeraora's Close Combat. I like to dump the rest of the EVs into Special Defense alongside a Careful nature to further solidify Incineroar's matchup against Pokemon like Dragapult.

Minor Changes

There's really no place for Choice Scarf Dragapult in this metagame. It's really unnecessary in general and I don't see what it really provides for your team in particular that makes it so important. Hex Dragapult makes much more sense here; it still satisfies the need for general Speed control alongside a strong priority user, in this case Aegislash, and has a much stronger wallbreaking prowess. I also think it synergizes much better with Aegislash as it can force a Thunder Wave onto Pokemon like Mandibuzz pretty handily, which ultimately gives Aegislash the opportunity to overwhelm it.

I think you should run a different Corviknight spread here; physically defensive Corviknight makes much more sense, as the current spread that you're using can be OHKOed by +2 Bisharp rather easily.

Final Comments

I believe this team is pretty good with these changes in mind, but there's a couple additional things that you could consider. First of all, you could definitely consider running Swords Dance Aegislash on this team, as that has a much better matchup against sand teams, though you do trade some consistency as a wallbreaker overall for this. Choice Specs Aegislash is another option that you could definitely consider; it's a much more consistent wallbreaker against teams that lean on Pokemon like Toxapex or Hippowdon to check physical Aegislash. I also think it may be worth it to consider running U-turn on Corviknight instead of Brave Bird, as it could provide you with even more opportunities to get Dragapult and Aegislash into play. Obviously the downside of not being able to directly deal with Conkeldurr hurts, though.


Importable

Thanks for the suggestions! I would have liked to keep Terrakion but I can absolutely see your thought process. I've realised that most of the teams have 2 offensive mons + 4 fat mons (3 of which most of the time are exactly clef-corviknight-seismitoad) and it doesn't seem like there's any alternative for balance teambuilding attempts. I can also see why clef is a necessity, as much as I hate it when a single pokèmon is so polarizing. This meta needs DLCs and expanded pokédex. I'll definitely out your version of the team. conk is more manageable when there are two faster ghost types, one of which has hex to turn his flame orb against him, so I think I can afford to run body press on corv to improve my bisharp matchup.