SS OU Polteageist, Clefable & Friends

[EliaMartell]

Introduction

This is my first team post-dynamax for Gen 8 OU. It mostly started with a desire to use Life Orb Clefable. I never really got to fit it into teams late gen 7 OU, but I felt in gen 8 it is quite insane. Then I found Polteageist to be really fun in random battles, and added Seismitoad in to deal with physical threats. Initially I had many different Pokemon in the team, such as Excadrill, Hatterene, or Corviknight, but I found the current group to do a lot of good work and got to around mid 1500's.

The Team

Clefable (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Moonlight

Clefable does some incredible stuff in Gen 8. It can deal with stall teams, can take out Dragapult and get huge damage on Excadrill, Thorn, Tyranitar, Bisharp, and a lot of other Pokemon with some prediction. Modest and Life Orb for maximum damage output with the amazing coverage of Thunderbolt, Flamethrower and Moonblast. Clefable can get worn down though and is then susceptible to getting revenge-killed. Clefable is my favourite Pokemon this Gen and I'm really satisfied with how it turned out. It can be lacking in bulk with the EV spread, but I like outspeeding other Clefable consistently.

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Protect
- Stealth Rock
- Scald

Seismitoad deals with a lot of physical threats fairly reliably, like Dracovish, Excadrill and (sort of) Darmanitan-Galar. It also provides rocks and can dish out burns. Toxic can cripple opposing Seismitoad or Corsola-Galar and prevent Seismitoad from being total bait. Sometimes the momentum loss is hard to handle though, and Hydreigon especially can abuse it hard. I thought of switching Scald for something else, but a Scald burn sometimes is the difference I need and I find the other moves hard to remove.

Mandibuzz (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 108 Def / 152 SpD
Impish Nature
- Roost
- U-turn
- Defog
- Foul Play

Mandibuzz serves as a secondary physical wall to take some pressure of the Seismitoad and help the team's squishiness. The special defense investment is because I felt the team was very weak to special attacks. It also helps dealing with Specs Dragapult and special/mixed Aegislash. Mandibuzz is the only defogger on the team and the only Pokemon with U-Turn. Hydreigon can abuse Mandibuzz by setting up a sub, but I found that Foul Play followed by U-Turn usually breaks the sub while even a +2 Draco Meteor does not OHKO Mandibuzz.

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flash Cannon
- Flamethrower

Hydreigon is decent speed control and can threaten to revenge Darmanitan. It also threatens other Hydreigon and can do good damage on fairy switch-ins with flash cannon. Non-scarfed Dragapult are also not an issue and Flamethrower helps deal with Excadrill, Bisharp and Ferrothorn. Hydreigon is also another way of dealing with annoying Corsola-Galar and can revenge a huge amount of Pokemon after some chip damage. Perhaps U-Turn would be a good choice over Flamethrower. Without the speed Hydreigon provides it is often hard to revenge-kill threats with the team.

Polteageist @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shell Smash
- Shadow Ball
- Stored Power
- Giga Drain

Polteageist is really gimmicky but it's super fun to use. Once priority, weather and hazards are gone, polteageist can easily shell smash up and begin a sweep. It can punish physical attackers like Dracovish, Conkeldurr or Excadrill by Shell Smashing up coupled with Weak Armor. Polteageist's movepool is a little lacking though, as it has no reliable way of dealing with Dark types. Mandibuzz or Grimmsnarl (which also knows Sucker Punch) can counter Polteageist well, but they can be dealt with earlier on.

Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Throat Chop
- Swords Dance

Bisharp can deal with fairies and punish defogging. It's my only reliable way of dealing with Clefable and other fairies like Sylveon. It can also kill Darmanitan after some chip and generally provides some much needed priority. Iron Head and Throat Chop are strong STAB moves with good coverage. Sucker Punch OHKOs Dragapult, does a good amount to Darmanitan and might even finish off weakened Conkeldurr or similar. Bisharp hits really hard, though it can be hard to get in since its primary targets hit hard.

Threats

Darmanitan-Galar is very hard to deal with. Usually Seismitoad can do enough chip on it so that Bisharp or Hydreigon can threaten to kill it. Still, it often claims many kills throughout the game.

Clefable threatens the entire team. The best ways of dealing with it are Bisharp or Clefable, but both are unreliable. Hydreigon can revenge it after some chip damage too, but it's tough to get there.

Cinderace can do a lot of damage and be really annoying with U-Turn. Scarfed variants outspeed the entire team and can be especially hard to deal with when Seismitoad is gone.

Bisharp can be hard to deal with unless I get a lucky Flamethrower on the switch-in or similar.

Grimmsnarl can also do some work unless Clefable and Hydreigon smash it.

Togekiss is an absolute nightmare. The only hope is revenge-killing it with Hydreigon.

Thoughts

I think a huge issue of the team is the lack of pivots. It can be tough to get momentum back. I find it hard to identify suitable pivots that fit the team's structure, and also find it hard to figure out which Pokemon would best be replaced.

Overall this team has been really fun to use though. Clefable has been as enjoyable as expected and is my favourite Pokemon on this team. The team can deal with many common threats in OU and generally smashes stall. I find dealing with Pex and Thorn particularly easy most of the time which is great. It can definitely still be improved though.

I would love to hear suggestions of possible improvements.

Importable

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Protect
- Stealth Rock
- Scald

Clefable (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Shiny: Yes
Happiness: 160
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Moonlight

Mandibuzz (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 108 Def / 152 SpD
Impish Nature
- Roost
- U-turn
- Defog
- Foul Play

Polteageist @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shell Smash
- Shadow Ball
- Stored Power
- Giga Drain

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flash Cannon
- Flamethrower

Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Throat Chop
- Swords Dance

 

[chimp]

Looks like a solid all around team! Glad to hear you had some success with it.
Question: How do you typically fare against opposing bulky/offensive Fairies? To me it would seem this team struggles quit a bit vs. other Clefables, Specially bulky Sylveons and Hatternes. Bisharp is your only super-effective STAB, though it is prone to being worn down quickly by powerful Moon Blasts. Its not surprising to me that 3 of the 5 threats you mentioned are Fairy-types.

Would you consider swapping Polteageist for Aegislash? Aegislash gets pretty good synergy with your team and can run a variety of set-up sweeper sets, so you won't be missing out there. I'd recommend either of these sets:

Aegislash @ Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shadow Claw
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Autotomize

or

Aegislash @ Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield
- Close Combat
- Iron Head

I hesitate to recommend a special set since Mystical Fire is often thrown around, and ideally this Pokemon would be a more reliable answer to Fairys, but a specs set could also work quite well.
This change would, of course, give you two Steel-types, but I don't think thats a huge problem given that you have 2 immunities and a Seismitoad.

Other options include Rotom-Heat, Corviknight (both of which would help you with the pivot problem you cited) or a bulky Sylveon of your own (which would give your team a Wish support, improving its overall longevity.)

Hope this helps! Pretty cool team, you're right, LO Clefable does slap!

 

[EliaMartell]

Looks like a solid all around team! Glad to hear you had some success with it.
Question: How do you typically fare against opposing bulky/offensive Fairies?

Not well :P Bisharp can't switch into most of the fairies and they hurt my team hard.

I really like the Aegislash suggestion! It would also remove any big need to remove hazards, which I really like. I will try it out for sure!

Rotom-W and Sylveon also sound like nice ideas (I don't really like Corviknight haha). Would you recommend either one of them over Polteageist as well or Aegislash + one of them?

Thank you for your suggestions!

 

[chimp]

Not well :P Bisharp can't switch into most of the fairies and they hurt my team hard.

I really like the Aegislash suggestion! It would also remove any big need to remove hazards, which I really like. I will try it out for sure!

Rotom-W and Sylveon also sound like nice ideas (I don't really like Corviknight haha). Would you recommend either one of them over Polteageist as well or Aegislash + one of them?

Thank you for your suggestions!

I would recommend either Rotom or Sylveon over Polteageist, but they can definitely be run with Aegislash as well. If you're running Aegislash over Polteageist, you could probably make due without Bisharp, so replacing Bisharp with Rotom/Sylveon would probably serve your team well.