Project Pokémon Matchmaking - Not hosted anymore

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I'll take Trapper Fini!

:ss/tapu-fini:
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Whirlpool
- Nature's Madness
- Moonblast
- Taunt
​
Tapu Fini remains as one of the best glue Pokémon in OU thanks to its ability to check a handful amount of threats like Weavile, Urshifu-R and Dragapult. However, one of its sets involves Whirlpool and Nature's Madness, allowing it to beat some of its checks like Toxapex and Blissey. This, paired with Heatran's great Special bulk (as Fini isn't running SpD investment), hazards, and trapping move can result in a very effective core to break down fat teams and force progress against the opponent.

Here's a replay where this core takes action and weakens my opponent's team with Magma Storm + Whirlpool, allowing my Weavile to clean late-game: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1396025607
 
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:ss/Rillaboom:

Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- Wood Hammer
- U-turn

Serves as a nice lure to steel types to bring Heatran in with U-turn. Also weakens Earthquake and provides extra healing with Grassy Surge.
 
:ss/Landorus-Therian:

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Defog / Stone Edge/ Gravity
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic / Knock Off/ Imprison

Heatran's accomplice since gen5, Lando is historically one of the best partners to Stealth Rock Heatran.

Since Lando invites in defoggers like Corviknight and Tornadus-T, it can simply U-turn on them to bring in Heatran safely. Then, these birds have 2 options - stay in and get debilitated (or killed in Corv's case) by Magma Storm, or switch out while Heatran sets up Rocks.

Heatran, on the other hand, frees up a slot on Lando, enabling it to run some other move like Defog. Defog Lando also helps Heatran win the hazard war vs opposing Rocks Heatran by switching into it, threatening it out and using that opportunity to defog. If Lando runs imprison, it can also ensure that defogger don't blow away Heatran's Stealth Rock. If Heatran-Lando are a part of hazard stack team, Lando can drop Defog altogether and run something like Rock coverage, or Gravity to ensure Spikes damage on airborne Pokemon.

Lando can also switch into Heatran checks like Garchomp, and tank a Fighting hit from Urshifu-R, Kartana aimed towards Heatran. Heatran, in return, switches into Ice type attacks from Kyurem, Weavile aimed at Lando-T. They also alleviate the pressure on each other to check Special attackers like Dragapult, Volcarona, Tapu Koko.
 
:SM/Zapdos:
Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 220 Def / 40 Spe
Timid Nature
- Discharge
- Hurricane
- Roost
- Defog

What does heatran like? Seizing momentum, never taking chip because 89.3% of attacks in game do 4% to it, so without hazards, it’s basically always at full.

What does heatran not like? Lots of physical mons (urshifu, lando as two examples), pivoting out on it and therefore ceding momentum.

What does Zapdos do? Remove nasty hazards, check many things that check tran, and best of all, provide a really strong discouragement against pivoting on tran because of the risk of Static.
 
:ss/Toxapex:

Toxapex @ Shed Shell
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 80 Def / 180 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Knock Off
- Haze
- Recover​

name a mon that does not go well with pex. heatran is weak to mons such as shifu, weavile, buzzwole, barraskewda, as well as opposing heatran. they both are weak to ground, but other teammates can easily make up for that weakness.
 
Hello there! I’ll be helping Abhi and Tysonslayer to host OU Matchmaking from now on and will thus be a co-host for this project (approved by Abhi and Tyson).

With that saying, let’s start the voting phase for :Heatran:, here are the submissions we have:

:Life Orb: :tapu bulu: by Katy

:Rocky Helmet: :buzzwole: (physically defensive) by D5405

:Leftovers: :tapu fini: (trapping set) by Windingsss

:Choice Band: :rillaboom: by HiddenPower23

:Leftovers: :landorus-therian: (specially defensive) by agslash23

:Heavy-Duty-Boots: :zapdos: (physically defensive) by THKNKG

:Shed Shell: :toxapex: (mixed def) by cardinal silver


Vote for who you think are the two best Heatran’s partners (you can’t vote for your own submission).
You have 3 days to vote.​
 
Thanks to all the voters, our winner is :buzzwole: by D5405, congratulations and thanks for all the submissions!

:buzzwole: 4
:tapu bulu: 3
:tapu fini: 2
:rillaboom: 2
:landorus-therian: 1


For the next round, we will be featuring the fearsome Zapdos Galar.

zapdos-galar.gif

Zapdos-Galar @ Choice Band
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stomping Tantrum / Thunderous Kick
- Brave Bird
- U-turn​

Even if it’s still in UUBL, this legendary bird shouldn’t be underestimated. With its amazing Fighting Flying typing and very high-power STAB moves in Close Combat and Brave Bird, this beast is extremely hard to handle and can break through almost any defensive wall in the tier. Stomping Tantrum is a nice coverage move to hit foes like Aegislash or Tapu Koko. An alternative could be its signature move Thunderous Kick which is a spammable move that drops the enemy’s Defense stat (instead of dropping yours). Lastly U-turn is used on a Choice locked set to keep the momentum while still doing decent damage to most things that comes in thanks to the Choice Band boost and Galarian Zapdos high Attack stat. However, Zapdos Galar is rather easy to chip down because of its lack of recovery and the recoil of moves like Brave Bird and relies a lot on good predictions to wallbreak efficiently. Its bulk, while decent doesn’t really allow it to come freely on the field and its Speed tier makes it not that hard to be revenge killed. Thus, you will need to support it with great teammates in order to use its full potential. Speaking of which, who do you think are the best teammates for this powerful Fighting bird?

Submission phase will end on next Friday. ​
 
:dp/Slowbro: @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Future Sight
- Body Press

Slowbro can provide future sight support and can lure in weavile which is a big pain for choice band zapdos-g to deal with. While zapdos-g takes advantage of pokemon like ferrothorn, tangrowth, tapu bulu which take advantage of slowbro and can use them for free hits on the enemy. Scald can also pressure pokemon that annoy it such as ferrothorn, toxapex, and opposing slowbro with burns
 
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Reserving Ferrothorn
--------------------------------
:bw/ferrothorn:
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 SpD
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Body Press / Iron Head / Power Whip / Gyro Ball
(spread is customizable)

Ferro is an amazing partner to Zapdos. Ferro provides spikes support which helps Zapdos break past its checks, especially with Defiant further boosting Zapdos' attack to ridiculous levels. Zapdos can deter defog to ensure spikes stay up for as long as possible. Ferro also acts a a defensive switchin to many Pokemon that threatens to revenge kill Zapdos such as Tapu Koko, Dragapult, and Weavile. Leech Seed can force an enemy pokemon to switch out, thus allowing Ferro to double into Zapdos so Zapdos gets a free switch. Knock-Off helps Zapdos aswell by knocking Boots , Rocky Helmet, and Leftovers so Zapdos can break even more. Ferro appreciates Zapdos' breaking power, being able to break Pokemon that threatens it such as Heatran, Urshifu, and Buzzwole. Overall, both of them have great synergy.​
 
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Skarmory
:SS/Skarmory:
Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
Skarm is a nice spiker, it pairs well with zapdos-g too, firstly because it has the all mighty spikes which can help Zapdos-g a lot with breaking down it’s checks such as Tapu Fini and Zapdos-g’s Defiant let’s it deter defog. Skarmory has quite a lot of good traits that other spikers don’t possess, one of these is being able to check Kartana and ground types, Ferrothorn doesn’t love eating a sacred sword from kartana which can really be a pain when running zapdos-g as it’s faster than it and can revenge kill it quite well, skarm can completely wall Kartana unless it’s sd, but running whirlwind can help against SD kart, although grounds aren’t as annoying to Zapdos-g it can help against a boosted Garchomp and non smack down offensive Lando-t a bit. Unlike Ferrothorn Skarmory basically checks almost every physical threat in the tier or can eat a big hit from them and retaliate, even things like CB melm,Weavile, SD Rillaboom, SD Bish and SD Tapu Bulu can’t do enough to skarmory while they can quite easily ohko Ferrothorn or pressure it a lot. Zapdos-G likes the fact that Skarm can also switch into scarf lele, but it takes too much from specs to actually switch into it.​
 
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:ss/blacephalon:

Blacephalon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- Trick​

Blacephalon is a great partner for Galar zapdos, because both are really scary to face and can easily overwhelm a lot of Pokemon in the current metagame. Galarian Zapdos can abuse Landorus-T as setup option due to its ability Defiant giving it a boost on its Attack making it a scary wallbreaker, whereas Blacephalon can break through the likes of Slowbro, Clefable, and can weaken Heatran and Tapu Fini with Shadow Ball for Galarian Zapdos Brave Bird spam. Blacephalon can also give Galarian Zapdos and the rest of the team some speed control. Both can handle a large amount of Pokemon by their own and a a great, scary wallbreaking couple combined and hard to check. in the longterm, as both are hard hitting wallbreakers with their respective sets, so these two fit well together.
 
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:ss/Garchomp:

Garchomp @ Roseli Berry/Yache Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang/Stone Edge
- Scale Shot​

Garchomp is a solid partner to G-Zapdos, as it pressures G-Zap checks like Zeraora, Toxapex, OG Zapdos naturally. Moreover, if using Roseli Berry, it can lure and eliminate Fairy types that G-Zap hates, most important one being Tapu Koko (resists G-Zap's dual STABs and RKs it with ease). It could alternatively run Yache Berry to eliminate Weavile after a speed boost, a mon that can RK both. Garchomp also baits in Lando-T, thus offering G-Zap with a defiant boost (coz intimidate) on a predicted double, making G-Zap even more difficult to wall.

In return, G-Zap deals with Garchomp checks like Lando-T, Buzzwole, Tangrowth and provides Garchomp with setup opportunities by U-turning on the aforementioned Toxapex. Both Garchomp and G-Zap also aim to overwhelm shared checks like Steel Birds, Slowbro, Physical Clefable.
 
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The god, Regieleki :ss/Regieleki:

The freest double switches youve ever seen in your life. Regi dunks all over the stuff faster than galar Zapdos, like tornadus, OH Zapdos, and other random scarf junk. In turn, Zapdos clicks brave bird and something dies. One of the freest ways to get a defiant boost off lando-T. If your opponent is foolish enough to have no ground types, then they get caught in the vortex of pivot. GG.

Regieleki @ Boots
- Volt Switch
- Electro Ball
- Rapid Spin
- Protect/ Thunder Cage / Screech / Extreme Speed / Explosion
 
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Zeraora

:SS/zeraora:
Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
- Toxic / Volt Switch​

in a similar fashion to Veez 's regieleki, zeraora offers g-zap a very easy double switch into landorus-t's intimidate. however, unlike eleki, it can make progress in other ways against those grounds throughout the game, making the switch gamble much less than a 50/50. a crafty trait is volt absorb, which creates an easy cycle of immunities with g-zap with electric and ground for offensive and defensive double switches. aside from the very viable toxic (I don't recommend bulk up specifically for a partnership with g-zap, but might be good at the end for the team as a whole), the threat of defiant g-zap allows zera to use an old tool, volt switch. it's quite good with g-zap specifically because zera grabs momentum against sturdy bulky grasses and buzzwole, all of which are easy victims of brave bird and also makes it a lot more enticing to switch landorus-t, or at the same time is more easy to click with the threat of defiant in the back.

Aside from this, zera gives much needed speed control and progress tools like knock off and toxic/volt switch. I'd argue you could use a set of plasma fists - knock off - toxic - volt switch, but the lack of close combat might create awkward scenarios vs kartana and kyurem (g-zap has matchup on both though) + it would make some chip necessary to threaten weavile.
 
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:bw/Shuckle:
Shuckle @ Mental Herb
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Sticky Web
- Knock Off
- Encore

Sticky Web has always been quite the unique archetype, dropping an opposing Pokémon's speed by 1 stage for free? That does sound quite broken doesn't it? Unfortunately for our Bug-type friends, to compensate for the broken effects of this move-- There had to be quite a bit of limiation:
-Defog was buffed in the same generation, meaning that they weren't nearly as hard to get rid of as it would've been with only Rapid Spin.
-Any Airborne Pokémon (Possesses the Flying-type, is holding an Air balloon or possesses the ability Levitate) would ignore it, which is pretty big as these Pokémon tend to carry Defog.
-Any Pokémon wearing Heavy-Duty Boots is able to ignore entry hazards, including Sticky Web.

Due to these numerous limitations, Sticky Web Offense never took off as the go-to Hyper Offense-- But rather fell off to near unviability due to the introduction of Heavy-Duty Boots in Generation 8. But who cares about that? It's quite the fun archetype to play! Which brings us to the best segway.

Punishing/Preventing Defog is quite crucial in SSOU for any Webs Offense, and it just so happens that Galarian Zapdos fit this perfectly, as its natural wallbreaking capabilities paired with a Defiant boost at the very mild cost of losing evasion is nothing anyone would want to face while it appreciated the speed control provided by Sticky Web with it's average speed tier and the insane offensive pressure output by its teammates.

Shuckle is generally seen as the best Sticky Web setter. with Smearlge being out of the Pokédex for now, it is the only Pokémon who can learn both Stealth Rock and Sticky Web: This makes it quite the setter paried with Galarian Zapdos as it can punish anti-leads like Urshifu-Rapid-Strike and Melmetal trying to prevent it from setting up, while Shuckle provides Stealth rock to help out with passive damage output, Sticky Web to control speed and occasionally Knock Off support and Encore for safe switches. I am sure they'll be the best of friends!
 
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I really do want to vote Blacephalon, because the level of strength these two would have together is stupid and I love it, HOWEVER I can't ignore Ferrothorn: spikes, defensive utility against band zap's main form of revengekilling, knock off support ecc is too perfect.
Specs blace would make it really awkward since zap really likes spikes and specs blace requires strong hazard removal to be reliable, so they kinda clash a bit.
My heart says Blacephalon, my brain says Ferrothorn.
:ferrothorn: it is

EDIT:
ironwater said:
Vote for your two favorite Zapdos Galar's partners (you can’t vote for your own submission).
Voting Phase will end on Sunday, good luck to everyone.
Click to expand...

I can vote for two so :blacephalon: you a winner anyway. apparently I can't read though
 
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