SM OU Psychic Spam is still really good (1950 on multiple occasions, recently got to 2018 (top 20))

[Yang Liu]

Introduction​

This team has gotten to 1950 on SM OU during multiple different times, through many meta changes. The goal is to spam Psychic or other special attacks. Depends a lot on having speed control throughout the game.

Teambuilding Process​

The Team

Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
​

Hits like a truck when Dark types / Steel types are eliminated. Comes in on things that it OHKOs and clicks Moonblast / Psychic. Psyshock is mostly to break Chansey, and HP Fire in times of dire need (for Scizor, Ferrothorn, Celesteela which should be taken care of by Magnezone anyways).

Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
​

Benefits from Psychic terrain a lot. Has great coverage; if scarfers are removed from the opponent's team this can essentially sweep them with super effective coverage. Energy Ball is to stop rain teams using Trace. Similarly, it can stop Sand Rush and Chlorophyll sweeps with Trace.

Magnezone @ Assault Vest
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 136 HP / 192 SpA / 180 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
​

Provides the little bulk that this team has. Pivots into a few hits per game, and fires off pretty strong STAB moves. Traps and eliminates steel types for Lele, Alakazam, and Lando-T.

Landorus-Therian @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Fly
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
​

Can often take out one annoying defensive mon per game with SD and the proper other move. Knock Off is to prevent stall teams from pivoting int it freely. For example, knocking Skarmory's Shed Shell lets Magnezone trap it and knocking Eviolite from Chansey makes Chansey much easier to break. In general this destroys some Stall builds and OTR teams. Also, if kept healthy it is a very consistent check to Hawlucha, as it can live a +1 Acrobatics and OHKO Hawlucha back with SSSS.

Greninja @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 176 Atk / 80 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Low Kick
​

Essentially prevents me from being swept by setup sweepers. Can OHKO Volcarona, Zygarde, Zard Mega-Y, Kartana. Can U-turn on Ash-Greninja. Kind of just provides a little more speed and coverage.

Mew @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 156 Def / 112 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Soft-Boiled
- Defog
​

Very consistent check to Zygarde, and consistent Defogger. Can set up rocks if the time is right. I stopped running Will-O-Wisp because I needed more hazard control. This team isn't very defensive anyways so I'm depending on OHKOs for the most part.

Conclusion​

This team is pretty fun to play with and dismantles a lot of standard builds. The things it struggles a lot with are things like SG Magearna though generally Magnezone or Mew can stop it (depending on the set). Double Dance is more annoying. Zard Mega-X is annoying if it has DD, otherwise it isn't a huge threat.

Can someone help me find Tapu Lele pictures? Thanks.

Importable

Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Landorus-Therian @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Fly
- Earthquake
- Knock Off

Magnezone @ Assault Vest
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 136 HP / 192 SpA / 180 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon

Greninja @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 176 Atk / 80 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Low Kick

Mew @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 156 Def / 112 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Soft-Boiled
- Defog

 

[runningO]

this team is great! I also run a tapu lele, and its the same set but i run focus blast instead of hp fire. also, how will u deal with trapper tran? the only one on this team that can resist and ko is gren, and mew has no good way of killing tran

 

[Yang Liu]

also, how will u deal with trapper tran? the only one on this team that can resist and ko is gren, and mew has no good way of killing tran

If Alakazam is Mega-evolved then Heatran can’t really touch it (it traces Flash Fire). Lele lives a hit, and Specs Psychic takes out a big chunk. I think there’s no good answers but enough things on this team can hurt Heatran that it’s generally fine.

 

[Anish]

gratz on the peak and cool team!

couple of things i noted though. i feel ur kinda weak to mons like dd zygarde and zard x, because of using mew. also think thaat av magnezone isnt super solid, which means ur weaker to ash gren and z fight lele. couple of suggestions to help with that.

>

id suggest using heatran over av magnezone. heatran functions as a similar role, not trapping as magnezone but putting massive pressure on steels because almost nothing wants to switch in to it. it acts like a breaker. also puts pressure on av bulu which could otherwise reset terrain and be a issue, esp if running heavier spd. you lose a durable koko check though. this also helps w cm magearna

>

id suggest using av magearna over mew. av magearna gives u a buffer against the aforementioned gren and lele, as well as helping vs koko. volt switch is great to pivot into zam/lele too. this means u lose a durable sponge to pokemon like cb zygarde and hawlucha, as well as defog

id suggest running defensive lando over off lando. with heatran, you now have a strong breaker, so you can afford lando to take on zygarde and hawlucha. i think you could run hp ice + toxic + uturn + eq to avoid losing to lucha or sub zyg, but if u want you could run rocks over hp ice and run smthing like steel z tran to lure zygarde, plus gren helps vs it too. you can speed creep heatran too with landot.

• you can run z fight lele here to wear down steels for alakazam. not being locked also helps you maintain momentum and also helps pressure stall. cm + z psychic could do something similar but it means you sometimes have to sack lele to wear down steels, which removes terrain from zam

• i think you could run spikes on greninja over low kick. spikes helps you wear down many steels like av magearna, and is great on psychic spam. it also compensates for the lack of defog on this team, since you can pressure him to defog. this makes you weaker to tran, but other changes such as fast defensive lando and z fighr lele help with that.

overall, i think i did change a lot of the team, especially since the original team was very solid to begin with, but i still strongly advise you to try it out since i think i kept the same ideas

sets

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 120 HP / 248 Def / 140 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stealth Rock

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Taunt
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fleur Cannon
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Greninja @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 176 Atk / 80 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Spikes

Tapu Lele @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Focus Blast
- Psyshock
- Moonblast