SM OU Rate and Critique my Balanced Mega Zard X Team

[jimmymaddox44]

Thundurus T@FightiniumZ: 252 SpA/ 4 SpD/ 252 Spe
Volt Absorb
Timid
Thunderbolt
Focus Blast
Hidden Power Ice
Nasty Plot
I usually Lead with Thundurus T to possibly punch some holes or get some damage off. I like to catch people off guard with All Out Pummeling and punish opponents for switching in Rock and Steel types. If I dont like the match up then I will either switch into my Ferrothorn or Rotom Wash depending on what the current opposing pokemon is. HP Ice for ground and dragon types.

Latios@Choice Scarf: 252 SpA/ 4 SpD/ 252 Spe
Levitate
Naive
Psyshock
Earthquake
Draco Meteor
Trick
Latios is my Dragon Dance or setup sweeper counter. As soon as a dragon pokemon switches in that could know Dragon Dance or other setup moves that could potentially sweep my whole team, Ill send in Latios immediately and go for Draco Meteor. Earthquake is there for Heatran and Trick is for putting a choice scarf on wall pokemon such as Ferrothorn or Blissey if all setup sweepers have been removed.

Rotom Wash@Leftovers: 252 Hp/ 200 Def/ 56 Spe
Levitate
Bold
Hydro Pump
Volt Switch
Will-o-Wisp
Defog
Rotom is my defensive pivot. I like to use him to absorb damage and get off a burn perhaps and volt switch out into Charizard X or Kartana if its a good matchup. I especially find him handy against Gliscor because of Levitate and Hydro Pump. I opted for Defog instead of Pain Split to get rid of entry hazards. This works well with Charizard X to get rid of SR.

Charizard@Charizardite X: 252 Atk/ 4 SpD/ 252 Spe
Tough Claw
Jolly
Dragon Claw/Earthquake
Flare Blitz
Dragon Dance
Roost
Charizard X is my setup sweeper that I usually try to get going after my Thundurus T has gone down. As I mentioned before I like to use Rotom to somehow get Charizard in for free or at least at a low cost. If I like what I see then the Dragon Dance setup begins and if not I will either swap out or attack as normal and Roost later. Flare Blitz as the main attack and Dragon Claw for other dragons but sometimes Ill run earthquake if dragons havent really been an issue. Latios can cover that.

Ferrothorn@Leftovers: 252 Hp/ 24 Def/ 232 Def
Iron Barbs
Careful
Stealth Rock
Power Whip
Protect
Leech Seed
I like to send out Ferrothorn onto pokemon that he checks and get a free Leech Seed or SR off if the opposing team doesn't have a pokemon with Magic Bounce, then possibly get off the other hazard if the new switch in isn't an immediate threat. In that case I would use protect to get a little healing and to scout the opponents moveset or switch out. Power Whip is there if I get everything set up nicely and goes smoothly just for some extra salt in the wounds.

Kartana@Choice Band: 252 Atk/ 4 Def/ 252 Spe
Beast Boost
Jolly
Leaf Blade
Sacred Sword
Smart Strike
Knock Off
Kartana is my late game sweeper. After all my other pokemon have whittled down the opposing mons Kartana comes in to clean up. If I can somehow fudge him to switch in nicely midgame to get a free hit or some momentum going with Beast Boost then I will. But normally I find I always use him near the end of a match. If I do well a lot of the times he wont even get put in. Leaf Blade for STAB, Sacred Sword for good coverage, Smart Strike for fairies and Knock off for punishing forced switch ins and coverage.

 

[GMars]

Hi there,

Really big fan of the core of Rotom-W + Mega Charizard X + Ferrothorn that your team has. I'd like to keep that intact while offering a few suggestions to improve your team's consistency overall.

I'd like to start off with a shift from Thundurus-T to Thundurus-I. This improves your Speed tier and lets you outspeed and OHKO offensive Garchomp, which has been running around and can be really threatening to your current build with Rockium Z. Life Orb is needed to recoup the power drop and ensure you OHKO Garchomp, and it also opens up the Z-slot for a later change.

→

Thundurus

Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast

Next, I'd like to consider swapping Latios out. With an incredible wallbreaking core of Zard X and Thundurus, Trick Scarf is often unnecessary. Additionally, the team punishes Ground resists very well, so I'd like to introduce Choice Scarf Lando-T. This provides a synergistic cleaner for your team as well as providing a backup Defog, which is very helpful with a Thundurus + Zard core, though you could at this point switch Rotom-W over to Pain Split for better recovery if you'd like, or even Thunder Wave for support. The trio of Lando-T + Ferrothorn + Rotom-W also checks a large majority of the meta defensively, helping balance out your team.

→

Landorus

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 Atk / 68 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Defog

To round out the offensive and defensive sides of your team, I'd like to suggest replacing Kartana with Fightinium Z Magearna, specifically a physically defensive Calm Mind variant. Lando-T handles the cleaner role you had Kartana on the team for, and Kartana's redundant typing with Ferrothorn provided little defensive synergy. This Magearna set helps out versus opposing Ferrothorn, which you don't want to leave Zard alone to deal with, and provides good help versus Mega Alakazam, Greninja, and a few other potentially troublesome fast-mons should another member of your defensive backbone fall, like Scarf Kartana. Fightinium Z is here for consistency to ensure you hit it when you need to, though you could also run Leftovers on this set and try Fightinium Z out on Thundurus.

→

Magearna

Magearna @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Pain Split
- Fleur Cannon
- Focus Blast
- Calm Mind

One final tweak you could make is Thunder Wave over Protect on Ferrothorn to provide your team with better Speed control and to punish Heatran switching in, though Protect does help in playing around Ash-Greninja, Mega Lopunny, Scarf Lando, and Mega Medi, so that's up to your preferred playstyle.

With these changes, there's still a few mons you have to be careful playing around. Heatran is hard to switch into since Rotom lacks good recovery (again, you can swap to Pain Split over Defog if you find the double Defog redundant), and Zard is vulnerable to either Stealth Rock or Earth Power depending on whether or not you've Mega Evolved it yet. This is a reason you want Earthquake on Zard over Dragon Claw on this version of the team, which I've included in the final importable. Focus Blast from Magearna can catch it if it tries to switch in, and as mentioned earlier, Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn is another way to punish its switch ins.

Swords Dance Garchomp is another mon to watch out for, especially Rockium variants. This is one of the reasons I suggested the change from Thundurus-T to Thundurus-I, so you can outspeed and OHKO it. Try to keep Rotom healthy as well to burn it if you can.

Hope that helps!

Final importable:

Importable

Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 Atk / 68 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Defog

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Defog / Pain Split

Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
- Roost

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Protect / Thunder Wave

Magearna @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Pain Split
- Fleur Cannon
- Focus Blast
- Calm Mind

 

[GeoffT]

What is exactly the resoning behind Thundurus? I mean, I understand its purpose, but why Thundurus? It's neither the fastest or the hardest hitting one of similar mons. If you want a relatively fast, hard hitting Specially offensive Z-User, then why not Blacephalon/Gengar/Greninja/Volc?

 

[RaikouLover]

Thundurus is cool? Idk. I’d use the Defiant mixed set and drop Leech Seed on Ferro for Spikes. Thundurus-I is mediocre as a set up breaker. Defiant anti Fog is probably its best Niche and the new version of the team could use Knock Off.