Pre-Pokebank OU Team

[EternalDream]

Hey there! First time posting here, yet this isn't quite my first team. I've made a few decent and horrible ones in the past and now that I have a final team that seems to be working all set and done, I felt like I should ask for some criticism. So let's go!

How my team came to be (so far)

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I love gardevoir. I truly do. And i don't mean that in the "waifu" kind of way, but in the design, stats, and moves. Her gaining Fairy-type this generation as well as a Mega Evolution truly made me one of the happiest people in the world. The question was, how do I build a team around her? Well, she obviously lacks in speed and defense, so the second team member was an easy choice:

Scolipede gaining speed boost allowed him to pass both Defense and Speed to Gardevoir, stats she was severely lacking in. Him being my second favourite bug ever bar Galvantula, made him a perfect match for my team.

Just as much as I love Gardevoir, Gallade has a spot in my heart. I needed a Physical attacker, so I decided to place him on my team. So far so good. But what about support and walls?

I felt like trying out some Gen VI pokemon since, well, I didn't have any on my team yet, and I didn't want to leave the new players out on the sidebench. Klefki as Dual Screen support worked for a while, but easily got wrecked by EQ and Fire attacks. And as sad as it is, without adaptability, Dragalge just isn't that good. Once it's released though, I can definitely see myself giving him another shot. Gliscor however, after trying out the SubToxic set, quickly became one of my main members, he is just flat out amazing.

Looking more like my final team now, Espeon could handily deal with former nuisances to my team such as Ferrothorn and Skarmory, and gave me a way to kind of use hazards thanks to bounce. It's main use is putting up screens, of course. As for special tanks, I looked for things that could take everything targetting my Gliscor, mainly Ice and Water attacks. Tentacruel immediately jumped out due to a resistance to both, considerable bulk, as well as access to Rapid Spin. He quickly deserved his spot on my team.

As sad as it was for me, I simply had to let go of Gallade. As much as I like him, he just can't hold his own in the OU environment. If only he had a more useful ability, or even just slightly higher base speed.
Long story short, I never killed much with Gallade, and he got killed so many times, he was hindering my team more than helping it. Time to look for another physical sweeper! I noticed that I couldn't really handle fairies or ice types that well due to lack of steel moves or powerful poison moves (Well, Sludge Bomb on Tentacruel, but that was it) so the choice was fairly straight forward. Scizor could handle most of the things my other members couldn't, and provided me with a vital Priority move, which no other pokemon on my team had, allowing me to take care of stuff like Speed Boost ninjask (as rare as it is nowadays), as well as revenge killing in general.

What's to come of my team after this? That's what I'm here for! Hide this and check my final team below :D

Scolipede @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Atk / 124 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Baton Pass
- Megahorn
- Iron Defense
- Protect

My lead. Scolipede got Speed Boost this generation and boy does he like it. I mainly use him to pass Iron Defenses to the physically flimsy Gardevoir (Who I'll get into below), though that doesn't mean my other members don't benefit from it. It also gives my walls an immense amount of durability. After an Iron Defense, nothing physical is breaking through Gliscor at all. Protect is there to ensure I get one Speed Boost in case of a fire-type lead, so I can baton pass a boost any time he's on the field. 124 Speed EVs are to outrun neutral base 110's before a boost, most notably Espeon who won't like taking a Megahorn. It also makes his attack stat not completely worthless against neutral opponents, and averts him from being taunt-bait.

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Focus Blast
- Thunderbolt / Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Psyshock

My mega, and special sweeper. She thrives upon the speed boosts passed to her by Scolipede, hence the lack of Speed EVs. 100 Base speed isn't a lot to brag about so even with 252 Speed she wouldn't outrun any major threats to her, such as Gengar. Gengar cannot OHKO 252HP MegaGardevoir, and easily gets KO'd back by psyshock. Psyshock's main use is getting around special walls like Blissey, Tentacruel and Assault Vest Goodra. Focus Blast prevents her from being walled by steel types, Thunderbolt gives coverage for water and flying types, and Moonblast is the main STAB for anything neutral to the other attacks. I'm considering Calm Mind in place of the coverage slot, as Fighting/Fairy/Psychic hits most things neutrally already. Even without Calm Mind though she can still OHKO plenty of opponents, and at least 3HKO just about everything else. Bullet Punch and Shadow Sneak are her main downsides, but this is alleviated by Iron Defense passes and Reflect support. It also works as a special sponge in case a psychic-attack is targetting Gliscor or Tentacruel, neither of which can take one head-on.

Espeon @ Light Clay
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Hidden Power Fire
- Psyshock

Dual Screen support is never bad to have on any team. Halving damage taken from all attacks is a godsend when your main sweeper isn't very bulky. Standard EV Spread, HP Fire to take care of things like Ferrothorn and Skarmory, Psyshock as main STAB. As all Espeons, it's also a bouncer and gives me a shot at placing hazards on their side without carrying any of my own. It does get walled by Tyranitar and Mamoswine, but I have Rapid Spin support just in case they outplay me by threatening with Crunch or Ice Crash, and putting up rocks instead on the switch.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- U-turn
- Brick Break

Your run off the mill CB set. Nothing special to say here besides giving great coverage to my team, having a key resistance to Steel, which my main sweeper is dreadfully weak to. It can safely switch in and out of most pokemon threatening my others, but I am likely to leave it on the side until late game to clean out everything that's still left with Bullet Punch. After a bit of tinkering with Aerial Ace, I eventually replaced it with Brick Break as it just had far more uses.

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 40 Def / 224 Spe
Impish Nature
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Protect
- Earthquake

My physical tank and boy does it force some people to ragequit. Poison the opponent and then spam Sub and Protect until they die. Even works on special attackers if I get a Sub up on the switch or after their previous pokemon fainted. Of course, this doesn't work on Steel Types, but I have EQ for that. The main counter to this set is Skarmory as i'm utterly powerless against it, being immune to both Toxic and EQ, but that's where this guy comes in:

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 248 HP / 244 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Sludge Bomb
- Knock Off

My special tank, and perfect teammate to Gliscor. Gliscor is immune to Ground and Electric, which Tentacruel is weak to. Vice versa, Gliscor is weak to Ice, which Tentacruel is resistant to. It carries rapid spin in case i didn't manage to bounce it away with my Espeon, and Knock Off to get rid off leftovers on things like Skarmory, which then has to resort to roost as its only healing option allowing me to freely switch to Espeon to hit it with HP Fire. Knock Off is also helpful on the switch, potentially crippling a sweeper that was using Life Orb or Choice items, or even Assault Vests on dedicated special tanks. Sludge Bomb and Scald are the main STAB options, crippling an opponent with either Poison or Burn. Liquid Ooze helps deal with Leech Seeders like Gourgeist and Ferrothorn, and Rain is too uncommon in the metagame now to rely on Rain Dish at all, as pointed out by pjbball04.

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Thanks already for the (hopefully constructive) criticism!

 

[EternalDream]

Bump time!

Also considered taking Brick Break over Air Slash as my team lacks physical fighting moves. I also lacked a grass move, so considering putting Energy Ball over Thunderbolt on Gardevoir.

A few noteable issues my team has, from playing in showdown, are highly offensive fire types like Volcarona and Cosmic Power users like Sygiliph and Clefable.

 

[Ultimathunder]

Hey, pretty cool team. I think I fought something like this actually.

I feel its a shame running max hp on scolipede but giving it a sash... If you want to use sash effectively I would definitely go max speed.
Personally I would just give it leftovers because you are maxing out hp.

I'm busy right now so I will add more later.

And run brick break, not aerial ace on scizor, other wise you are walled even more by fire types.

 

[EternalDream]

I feel its a shame running max speed on scolipede but giving it a sash... If you want to use sash effectively I would definitely go max speed.
Personally I would just give it leftovers because you are maxing out hp.

I think you wrote that first line wrong. "It's a shame to run max speed on Sash Scolipede" -> "If you want to use sash effectively, max speed"?
In any case, sash has saved me a lot of times, most notably talonflames who suicided themselves on it through recoil. Although I have noticed that bar talonflame and special attackers, not much really dents +2 Scolipede. I may consider it.

And run brick break, not aerial ace on scizor, other wise you are walled even more by fire types.

I've already noticed how I use Brick Break far more often than Aerial Ace, so that's now been changed in the original post

 

[Ultimathunder]

I think you wrote that first line wrong. "It's a shame to run max speed on Sash Scolipede" -> "If you want to use sash effectively, max speed"?
In any case, sash has saved me a lot of times, most notably talonflames who suicided themselves on it through recoil. Although I have noticed that bar talonflame and special attackers, not much really dents +2 Scolipede. I may consider it.


I've already noticed how I use Brick Break far more often than Aerial Ace, so that's now been changed in the original post

My bad I meant max speed. you shouldn;t run max hp if you are trying to survive with a sash, you shouldn't run max hp.
Also, is there a reason you are running timid nature on Tentacruel? to outspeed something particular? if not you should run a SpDef boosting nature.

Also, what does thunderbolt hit for gardevoir that the other moves don't hit? Fighting+Psychic+Fairy already hits pretty much everything neutrally iirc, so since you are running bulky EVs and passing iron defense boosts to Gardevoir, why not run calm, mind so you can tank special attacks even better?

 

[blizzarddd]

consider liquid ooze on tenta, as rain is not common at all these days, especially pre-pokebank. liquid ooze allows you to switch in and damage the leech seeders (trevenant, gourgeist, venusaur)

 

[EternalDream]

My bad I meant max speed. you shouldn;t run max hp if you are trying to survive with a sash, you shouldn't run max hp.
Also, is there a reason you are running timid nature on Tentacruel? to outspeed something particular? if not you should run a SpDef boosting nature.

Also, what does thunderbolt hit for gardevoir that the other moves don't hit? Fighting+Psychic+Fairy already hits pretty much everything neutrally iirc, so since you are running bulky EVs and passing iron defense boosts to Gardevoir, why not run calm, mind so you can tank special attacks even better?

Ah, I see now. I think I'll use a Attack/Speed EV spread with Sash then, as Sash is just too helpful to pass up in favor of Leftovers, imo.

Actually, I didn't quite know how to build Tentacruel as it's my first time using it, so I really just copied the support set from smogon, replacing the two support moves with attacks that felt more helpful to me, as well as switching the Def EVs for SpDef. I suppose I overlooked changing the nature to an SpDef one though, thanks!
Would it be worth running Assault Vest on Tentacruel, considering I run no status moves? Or is Black Sludge overall a better option?

Hm, thunderbolt notably hits Flying and Water types like Skarmory, Talonflame, and Gyarados, but Skarmory is neutral to Focus Blast, Gyarados goes down from a Moonblast (especially if he's Mega due to part Dark) and Talonflame...well, I'd rather not stay in on him to begin with unless I have reflect up and an iron defense pass. Those priority Brave Birds man. D:
I suppose I could run Calm Mind without losing too much coverage...I'll have to test it out.

consider liquid ooze on tenta, as rain is not common at all these days, especially pre-pokebank. liquid ooze allows you to switch in and damage the leech seeders (trevenant, gourgeist, venusaur)

You're right about rain not being common. I have only run into a single rain team in all the matches I've played, while Gourgeist is quite common, as well as Leech Seed on Ferrothorn. I'll replace Rain Dish with Liquid Ooze.