ORAS OU Plz Rate My ORAS OU Balanced Team

FuriousGeorge999

I am new to the competitive scene, but here we go.

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This was edited. I replaced tenta, absol, clefable with chansey, magna, and gyarados.

Chesnaught (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Drain Punch
- Stone Edge
- Wood Hammer

My Physical Wall. Stone Edge is there to suprise Charizard Y, Talonflame, Staraptor, etc. on the switch as fast pokemon really are troublesome for me. I might change it for spikes though. Drain punch can weaken ferrothorn as well and I can finish it with fire blast from goodra or with emboar. I rarely, if ever, lead with this mon.

Goodra (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Bomb
- Muddy Water

Fantastic Special Wall. EV spread makes it good wall, but in a tight spot deals great damage too. Earthquake is really only for heatran so I opted for Muddy Water instead because it hits more pokes that give me trouble such as tyranitar, zard Y, talonflame. I got EV spread straight from Smogon and 16 Speed EVs to outspeed adamant azumarill. I toyed with it by distributing EVs to HP, but honestly the boost was not significant and assault vest already gives it enough boost so I left EVs as is.

Emboar (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Wild Charge
- Sucker Punch

Wallbreaker. Require some tricky switches sometimes to use him properly. Almost any special attack kills it. Works great on any special wall and kills gengar because of sucker punch. Unfortunately like all 3 of the pokemon above it gets killed by gardevoir mega. I started using him recently so I'm still working on the kinks. EDIT: I really did remove it for a while and played with it. I'm really getting better at using him. sure its not the fastest, but most psychic types underestimate it and die. Obv. talonflame sucks.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss
- Stealth Rock

I went ahead and switched out tentacruel and clefable for Chansey. Great special wall, but more importantly it cripples special attackers (like gardevoir) with thunder wave and can set up rocks to help emboar, magnezone or mega-gyarados sweep. As for physical fairy attackers like Azumarill, scarfed magnezone usually takes care of them after stealth rock assistance from chansey.

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt

Special Sweeper and the fairy stopper. I mostly volt switch in the beginning because I usually have to switch out after I use a move (scarf) and I figure volt switching doesn't guarantee to everyone I'm scarfed, while switching out from every move in the beginning most certainly will. I had clefable as my special sweeper before, but honestly it was too slow and I would switch into it too much and it would die too quick. I never switch into this pokemon. HP Fire is not the strongest move, but with rock support it does decent damage. They key is for me to hit first and kill right away. Magna can't take a hit.

Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Crunch
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang

First off, thank you Psycho Cat. I love this poke. Great physical sweeper. I had absol as my previous physical sweeper. Terrible choice and it did not work well. Pokemon with fighting type moves such as mega-medicham love to go after this guy because they assume I will mega evolve off the bat, but I'll go for a DD regular form instead. Setting up is not always easy though because I have no more hazard removers (tenta was replaced). I didn't think it was a great idea to have 2 water types because rotom would really hurt me as would mega-manectric.

Overall I have been doing a lot better with this team than the one I first posted (chesnaught, goodra, emboar, tentacruel, absol, clefable).
 
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Hey how exactly do you struggle with Excadrill? Also your Unaware can handle gardevoir especially since you have Moonlight/CM considering they don't got taunt which in most cases from my experience they don't. Also You should add some images for the pokemon in your thread to lighten it up a bit :)
 
Put the sprites and images in. Thanks :)


Fast Excadrill has been running through my team after Chesnaught is gone and if it gets a SD up I'm a goner. Gardevoir is a killer once Clefable is gone. I have a major psychic weakness.
 
Hi, welcome to competitive Pokemon! There are some flaws with this team (which I'm obviously here to help with) but, for someone new, it is definitely a good start! Before I get into detail with the sets themselves, I'd just like you to know that Absol is not a Fairy type. When you are teambuilding Pokemon Showdown always tells you your Pokemon's type when you look it up, so if you are unsure of what type a Pokemon is, just check. It'll show it.

So, first off: Chesnaught. A solid Pokemon all around, and your set is mostly decent, so I wouldn't recommend too much change. But one Problem I do see is Stone Edge. This move, at least in the way you use it, is not great on Chesnaught. All the threats you say it's for are faster than Chesnaught and will almost always OHKO it with their STAB Flying type moves, and you will only ever be able to hit them on a switch, making it fairly situational. It also hits Fire types, which is arguably a plus, but most of those are also fast and specially offensive, so you'll usually only hit them on the switch, too. A better option is Spiky Shield. This move can really benefit Chesnaught, giving it free turns of Leech Seed recovery and a way to deter physical attackers. It's also a great scouting tool for unpredictable Pokemon who can run multiple sets.

Next is Goodra. I don't have much to say about this guy, other than that he's a little redundant with Clefable, especially if you struggle with Mega Gardevoir. I would suggest Chansey, but Chansey is very passive and cannot dish out damage like Goodra, making it a little unfitting of your suggested playstyle. Chansey CAN, however, counter the ever popular Fairy type better, as well as cripple the other team with Toxic stall or Thunder Wave. Whether you use Chansey or not depends on how bad you need to counter Ice and Fairy types, and whether you can play passive Pokemon well or not. If you do keep Goodra though, why the 16 speed? Unless you are trying to speed creep a specific threat, those EVs would be better spent on your HP stat.

Then there's Emboar. Emboar is, well, overall not great in the OU meta. It's slow and easily gets revenge killed by a tier dominated by Pokemon who hit fast and hard. The nail in its coffin, though, is the Lati twins. Both very common Pokemon who can make short work of Emboar. This is not even counting the numerous other Psychic types and EQ abusers. If you want a good offensive Fire type, try Heatran, Entei, or Darmanitan. Heatran is your best bet and, with an Air Balloon, can check both Excadrill and Gardevoir. Entei is still physical, like Emboar, but with the added bonus of much better bulk and a great move in Sacred Fire, which will earn you plenty of free burns. In addition, it also gets Extreme Speed, which is great for picking off weakened threats. Last is Darmanitan, who is pretty much just Emboar, but better. In addition to being far faster, it also has a much better attack stat. In addition, Darminitan's ability, Sheer Force, not only gives moves a higher boost than Reckless, but it also doesn't increase the damage of recoil moves, so it won't die from just constantly smashing into things. All three of these Pokemon are great, and you can choose one depending on the needs of your team. Here are some sets to give you a better idea of how to run them.

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature / Modest Nature
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Roar / Taunt
- Protect / Toxic

Entei @ Choice Band
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Bulldoze

Darmanitan @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Earthquake / Superpower

Your Clefable set is decent, but Unaware isn't great for the set you're running. Magic Guard is better and turns Clefable from an average wall to a specially defensive titan. Softboiled is better than Moonlight because it isn't crippled by rain teams. Also I'd recommend Flamethrower over Heal Bell not just because of Steel types, but also because it gets better coverage in general. On the other hand you could also run Stored Power, which is lethal after a few CM boosts and compliments Clefable well. Just be aware that while after a few turns of setting up it can be good, Flamethrower required little to no turns to start doing damage. So when choosing between the two consider how often you'll be able or need to use one over the other. Of course, if neither of these suit you, Clefable has a pretty wide movepool with plenty of coverage options, so you can always browse for more options if these moves end up not working out.

Tentacruel is rather standard, can't say much about him. A decent Pokemon all around who does its two jobs well. The EVs are a little wonky though. Tentacruel won't be surviving many physical attacks, even neutral or resisted ones, so you're better off putting everything into special defense and just not trying to stay in against physical attackers. Again, 16 speed EVs seems a little arbitrary and a waste of 4 stat points. Is there anything you're trying to speed creep?

Last but not least is Absol. Again, Absol is not a Fairy type. The reason it's dying to Poison and Steel type attacks is probably because it has ass defenses and can't stand attacks of any type, not because it's weak to them. However, looking at your team and playstyle, Absol is probably not a great Pokemon for your team anyways. It's frail, glass canon nature is atypical of your team and lacks good synergy. If you're looking for a powerful, Dark type mega who can take a hit, I strongly recommend Mega Gyarados. It can handle all sorts of threats simply by smashing them to pieces with sheer power, and with great 95/109/130 defenses, it won't be easy to take down, either. It's Dragon Dance set is the best to run, and for good reason.

Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature / Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Crunch
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang / Earthquake

Overall I think this is a decent team for someone new to Smogon, even though it could use improvements. I hope the suggestions I have made were helpful and can let you be more successful in battle!
 
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Thank you Psycho Cat. You have been a tremendous help. I went through some trial and error (had espeon and cryoganal at one point, had skarmory), but after some tweaking I came to the edited team. The sheer power of emboar PLUS the sucked punch has really saved me from some tight spots. I did try darmanitan, but no SP and I figured it would be better scarfed anyway. I definitely want to put a scarfed darmanitan on another team though. That thing is ferocious. Excadrill and Gardevoir are not really an issue anymore. The biggest threat so far has been zard X, but with decent timing I can take it down., and if I got rocks up, its not even a threat anymore. I have not changed anything on chesnaught yet, but I will try spiky shield.
 
Psycho Cat said:
Hi, welcome to competitive Pokemon! There are some flaws with this team (which I'm obviously here to help with) but, for someone new, it is definitely a good start! Before I get into detail with the sets themselves, I'd just like you to know that Absol is not a Fairy type. When you are teambuilding Pokemon Showdown always tells you your Pokemon's type when you look it up, so if you are unsure of what type a Pokemon is, just check. It'll show it.

So, first off: Chesnaught. A solid Pokemon all around, and your set is mostly decent, so I wouldn't recommend too much change. But one Problem I do see is Stone Edge. This move, at least in the way you use it, is not great on Chesnaught. All the threats you say it's for are faster than Chesnaught and will almost always OHKO it with their STAB Flying type moves, and you will only ever be able to hit them on a switch, making it fairly situational. It also hits Fire types, which is arguably a plus, but most of those are also fast and specially offensive, so you'll usually only hit them on the switch, too. A better option is Spiky Shield. This move can really benefit Chesnaught, giving it free turns of Leech Seed recovery and a way to deter physical attackers. It's also a great scouting tool for unpredictable Pokemon who can run multiple sets.

Next is Goodra. I don't have much to say about this guy, other than that he's a little redundant with Clefable, especially if you struggle with Mega Gardevoir. I would suggest Chansey, but Chansey is very passive and cannot dish out damage like Goodra, making it a little unfitting of your suggested playstyle. Chansey CAN, however, counter the ever popular Fairy type better, as well as cripple the other team with Toxic stall or Thunder Wave. Whether you use Chansey or not depends on how bad you need to counter Ice and Fairy types, and whether you can play passive Pokemon well or not. If you do keep Goodra though, why the 16 speed? Unless you are trying to speed creep a specific threat, those EVs would be better spent on your HP stat.

Then there's Emboar. Emboar is, well, overall not great in the OU meta. It's slow and easily gets revenge killed by a tier dominated by Pokemon who hit fast and hard. The nail in its coffin, though, is the Lati twins. Both very common Pokemon who can make short work of Emboar. This is not even counting the numerous other Psychic types and EQ abusers. If you want a good offensive Fire type, try Heatran, Entei, or Darmanitan. Heatran is your best bet and, with an Air Balloon, can check both Excadrill and Gardevoir. Entei is still physical, like Emboar, but with the added bonus of much better bulk and a great move in Sacred Fire, which will earn you plenty of free burns. In addition, it also gets Extreme Speed, which is great for picking off weakened threats. Last is Darmanitan, who is pretty much just Emboar, but better. In addition to being far faster, it also has a much better attack stat. In addition, Darminitan's ability, Sheer Force, not only gives moves a higher boost than Reckless, but it also doesn't increase the damage of recoil moves, so it won't die from just constantly smashing into things. All three of these Pokemon are great, and you can choose one depending on the needs of your team. Here are some sets to give you a better idea of how to run them.

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature / Modest Nature
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Roar / Taunt
- Protect / Toxic

Entei @ Choice Band
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Bulldoze

Darmanitan @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Earthquake / Superpower

Your Clefable set is decent, but Unaware isn't great for the set you're running. Magic Guard is better and turns Clefable from an average wall to a specially defensive titan. Softboiled is better than Moonlight because it isn't crippled by rain teams. Also I'd recommend Flamethrower over Heal Bell not just because of Steel types, but also because it gets better coverage in general. On the other hand you could also run Stored Power, which is lethal after a few CM boosts and compliments Clefable well. Just be aware that while after a few turns of setting up it can be good, Flamethrower required little to no turns to start doing damage. So when choosing between the two consider how often you'll be able or need to use one over the other. Of course, if neither of these suit you, Clefable has a pretty wide movepool with plenty of coverage options, so you can always browse for more options if these moves end up not working out.

Tentacruel is rather standard, can't say much about him. A decent Pokemon all around who does its two jobs well. The EVs are a little wonky though. Tentacruel won't be surviving many physical attacks, even neutral or resisted ones, so you're better off putting everything into special defense and just not trying to stay in against physical attackers. Again, 16 speed EVs seems a little arbitrary and a waste of 4 stat points. Is there anything you're trying to speed creep?

Last but not least is Absol. Again, Absol is not a Fairy type. The reason it's dying to Poison and Steel type attacks is probably because it has ass defenses and can't stand attacks of any type, not because it's weak to them. However, looking at your team and playstyle, Absol is probably not a great Pokemon for your team anyways. It's frail, glass canon nature is atypical of your team and lacks good synergy. If you're looking for a powerful, Dark type mega who can take a hit, I strongly recommend Mega Gyarados. It can handle all sorts of threats simply by smashing them to pieces with sheer power, and with great 95/109/130 defenses, it won't be easy to take down, either. It's Dragon Dance set is the best to run, and for good reason.

Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature / Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Crunch
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang / Earthquake

Overall I think this is a decent team for someone new to Smogon, even though it could use improvements. I hope the suggestions I have made were helpful and can let you be more successful in battle!
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I don't really agree with the statements about replacing Emboar. Darmanitan may have quite a bit more power than Emboar, but I want to correct that Reckless does NOT increase recoil of moves, it just increases the POWER (and technically yes the recoil too :P). So actually, both have about the same durability. In addition, the major thing all those Fire types don't have is Fighting STAB, which is pretty major and allows it to easily break through Heatran, T-tar, and Bulky Waters in particular. So I think Emboar should say.
Edit: In addition, he doesnt really have a big weakness to Lati@s because Chansey
 
FuriousGeorge, I'm glad I could be a help! That's what I'm here for, after all. My initial reaction to removing Tentacruel and Clefable was mixed, but your replacements essentially do the same jobs, but better, so I'm not going to say you shouldn't have done it. All I can really say is it is that now you're missing out on Rapid Spin support
and because not one of your Pokemon is immune to entry hazards (bar Gyrados before mega evo, but it trades a spikes immunity for a SR weakness), you'll have to find a different way to deter your opponent from setting up. Otherwise phasing and residual damage alone will be taking a big chunk out of your team's health. Oh and just a quick nitpick, bold only gives Chansey a minor boost in defense because of its already low defense. You'll see a bigger difference giving it a calm nature. I still want to try and talk you out of Emboar though. In today's meta, it may be good in its home tier of RU, but it just doesn't fare well in OU. I'll try to highlight why below.

Spin Da Pig, I don't think I was really paying attention to what I was saying when I said Emboar's recoil was increased, but I still don't think it's all that good of a Pokemon. Darmanitan also gets Superpower, which OHKOs all the same threats you say Emboar does (bar bulky water types, but I'm dubious that a Superpower from either Pokemon, STAB or not, would KO one of these, depending on the Pokemon. Neither Emboar or Darmanitan should really be taking one of these on in the first place, anyways though). And yes, the Lati twins most certainly are a problem for it, with or without Chansey. Both commonly carry Psyshock, which puts a good dent in Chansey's health. What's even worse about this, though, is that since Emboar is a Fighting type, and because they're going to see Chansey on the team, 99% of the time that's the move they're going to use. And even if they're not carrying Psyshock, their presence is enough of a threat to scare Emboar out, so no matter what they do you'll be stuck either sacking Emboar, losing lots of health on Chansey, or giving them a free turn as you switch out. Anyways, my original recommendation was not squeeze Darmanitan on the team, (and definitely not now seeing as how FuriousGeorge didn't like it, and it is his team after all. What doesn't work doesn't work) but simply to replace Emboar. Many Pokemon wall it in OU meta, many Pokemon can revenge kill it, and a lot of top tier threats really just aren't going to be that scared of it. Not to say it's dead weight, and it can do some neat tricks like completely crushing Bisharp, combating the omnipresent Heatran, firing off strong Sucker Punches in a game with plenty of Psychic types, and probably some other stuff I'm missing. I just think you should try some other options before settling with it. If you really, really want that fighting coverage, use Infernape. It's much faster and its stats and movepool are better adapted to the OU metagame. With Nasty Plot and SD, it can run both special and physical sets. Or, it can also run good mixed sets with Life Orb or a scarf. And I still think Heatran and Entei deserve a shout out, too, because they're also good and synergize with your team well.

In the end, I'm not saying Emboar is bad, but it just doesn't do great in OU. I can see why you'd use it, and I'm not saying you have bad judgement for using it, but as far as I can see but there are better options. This obviously isn't my team and I can't force you to change it, but I really think you should test out more options than Darmanitan before you set your heart on it.

Okay that was definitely longer than I intended. I guess I just don't like to leave one stone unturned, which apparently leads to long, wordy posts.
 
You cannot deny Emboar's sheer power though. I think "many Pokes wall it" is an overstatement, as it has almost UNWALLABLE coverage aside from Mega Alt :P:
-1 252 Atk Life Orb Reckless Emboar Wild Charge vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Gyarados: 478-567 (121.6 - 144.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO boom
252 Atk Life Orb Reckless Emboar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 207-243 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
In conclusion, a lot of Pokemon wall it is a gross understatement. I agree that while many Pokemon CAN take it hit and OHKO back, but I just wanted to clarify that Emboar is not in fact near "easy to wall" and is probably harder to wall than Infernape in fact, outside of the few Pokemon that resist its hits and are walls, everything will take a lot of damage.
Emboar has enough unique traits to differentiate itself, but it's a rather mediocre Poke outside of that I guess.
As for the lati twins chansey takes about 40% from Psyshock lol
I don't understand at all your logic of Chansey running Calm. It works both ways: If Chansey has so much special bulk, why run Calm? Basically the only special attacker w/o Psyshock or Secret Sword that can break through Chansey is Manaphy and that 2hkos calm or not unless you have 252 hp. Thus, Calm isn't worth it. Besides, Chansey has pretty great physical bulk with Bold, Eviolite and that HP stat.
he also has a weakness to Mega Alt outside of Chansey, which takes roughly 44% unboosted; however the whole team dies after 2 DDs + rocks.
 
40% is a lot for Chansey, who lacks lefties recovery. Especially against mega Latias (or mega Latios, if anyone actually runs that), who'll be doing even more. Maybe not if it's already out, but if you're switching Chansey in it'll be down by 80% and be forced to spend a turn healing. Besides, that's assuming that Latis are the only Pokemon who carry psyshock, which they're not. Every Psychic type and their mother gets this move. And I've already explained why a calm nature is better. Bold gives a very small boost in comparison to calm, making calm a better investment over all. A Chansey with a hardy nature and 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpD will have a defensive spread of 704/109/247. A Chansey with a Bold nature will have a stat spread of 704/119/247. That is a measly ten points being added to defense, 15 when factoring in evio. Compare that to a Calm Chansey, who has a spread of 704/109/271. That's a much higher boost of 23, which becomes 34 with an evio. You are getting more out of calm than bold.
 
Psycho Cat said:
40% is a lot for Chansey, who lacks lefties recovery. Especially against mega Latias (or mega Latios, if anyone actually runs that), who'll be doing even more. Maybe not if it's already out, but if you're switching Chansey in it'll be down by 80% and be forced to spend a turn healing. Besides, that's assuming that Latis are the only Pokemon who carry psyshock, which they're not. Every Psychic type and their mother gets this move. And I've already explained why a calm nature is better. Bold gives a very small boost in comparison to calm, making calm a better investment over all. A Chansey with a hardy nature and 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpD will have a defensive spread of 704/109/247. A Chansey with a Bold nature will have a stat spread of 704/119/247. That is a measly ten points being added to defense, 15 when factoring in evio. Compare that to a Calm Chansey, who has a spread of 704/109/271. That's a much higher boost of 23, which becomes 34 with an evio. You are getting more out of calm than bold.
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Same point: You're getting more, but do you NEED it? (the reverse is true for bold as i THINK it doesn't help in any kos, but it's more helpful)
As I said before, only 5 or so special attackers are able to break through Chansey. Against all of them, this boost doesn't even matter. So why even bother?
He can run Calm, but it won't make any difference.
 
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