SM OU Rate my first team (and post)!

[LearningLonk]

Hello! I am new in the competitive community and wanted to play some OU! I sometimes played Showdown in gen 6,but very casually! I hope you can help me make my team better! (my english is not very good,I hope you can forgive me if I did some mistakes) Thanks for helping and reading!
I played this team for 3-5 hours and got 1350 Elo,I guess that isn´t much but can´t hurt if I write it down!

Greninja-Ash @ Life Orb
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam
- Water Shuriken

I picked Greninja because I really liked him in gen 6 and wanted to try his new ability,Battle Bond. I put a Life Orb on him because I wanted to be flexible.
His task is to sweep through low hp targets,most of the time with his prio Water Shuriken. I don´t really know if the Grass Knot is really necessary on Greninja,I thought about using Spikes instead,but against Rainteams my team required some grass moves (e.g. Mega-Swampert). Ich beam is there for coverage and Dark Pulse as a second and safer killoption.

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

Guess there isn´t much to say here. A versatile pivot with one of the strongest abilities ever! EV Spread is there to outspeed Mega-Alakazam,with enough bulk to survive a boosted Hawlucha. Of course I looked up some (if not all) sets on Smogon and saw that it is mostly played with Defog while holding scarf. I chose Stone Edge,because I already have Defog(Rotom-Wash),and it gives me an option against most flying types. Explosion for tankier Mons,who already took some damage (e.g. Clefable) and U-turn to pivot into a better MU.

Rotom-Wash @ Wiki Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
- Defog
- Hydro Pump

Rotom-Wash is my Physically Defensive Wall. Rotom is there to get rid of Hazards with Defog and cripple Physical Sweepers with Will-O-Wisp. It can also keep momentum with Volt Switch. Sadly,this is my only Physically Defensive Wall,I would like to have a tankier team but I like all of these Pokemon and I dont really now which one I should kick out. Another question would be,if Wiki Berry is more effective than Leftovers,I guess its better! (The Burstheal seems more useful on Rotom-Wash). Hydro Pump helps finishing off some low-hp targets.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 128 SpD / 128 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Taunt
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock

This is an odd choice,not because it´s heatran but just because I didn´t thought that it would work with this set. My team lacked some resistances,a
Stealth Rock user and a Specially Defensive Wall. Heatran got all of that and I chose him as a lead,to stop setups and Rocks,and as a counter to Serperior. This thing gives me nightmares,and heatran can stop them. The EV Spread stops Adamant Choice Band Tyranitar and Modest Magnezone. Lava Plume as a nice damage option overall,and specially against Serperior. Earth Power for other Heatrans.

Hawlucha @ Power Herb
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sky Attack
- High Jump Kick
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics

Hawlucha is one of my favourite Pokemon and while I played Pokemon in gen 6,Hawlucha was permanently used. In my opinion,Hawlucha is one off the best Sweepers in OU. I don´t have any Tapu in my Team,thats why I´m using some old strats,I know it´s leaking defensive stats and the ability of
having it´s speed turn 1. Maybe I should switch it because of this fact,maybe something else does the job as a Setup-Swepper better. Sky Attack triggers my Unburden (in combination with Power Herb) and has some nasty Damage output. Swords Dance as a setup option and High Jump Kick and Acrobatics as your primary Damage source.

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Play Rough
- Thunder Punch

One of the hardest hitters in OU and my favourite Mega. I really like the Combo of Knock Off and Sucker Punch,Play Rough is the important STAB and Thunder Punch. I had no space for Swords Dance,but I don´t think its important. If I could choose a Mega, it would be Mawile. Sucker Punch is just a great Move, Knock off is important for Pokemon like Chansey and Tangrowth not to mention the 678 Attack this thing has with huge power!
Thunder Punch is there to cover my lack against water pokemon and Play Rough is my STAB.

Importable: https://pokepast.es/1612b54b4e74bb4a

​

 

[HOPf]

If you want a tapu in your team I would switch heatran for maybe tapu fini for the fire resist . I think it would be better

 

[LearningLonk]

If you want a tapu in your team I would switch heatran for maybe tapu fini for the fire resist . I think it would be better

Ty for replying! Sounds like a great idea, then I need to give my Landorus-Therian Stealth Rocks and maybe a Z-Move for not locking myself into rocks!
My first idea would be:

Landorus-Therian @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 112 Def / 148 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Fly
- U-turn

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 12 SpA / 40 SpD / 192 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nature's Madness
- Defog
- Scald
- Taunt

Hawlucha @ Misty Seed
Ability: Unburden
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Acrobatics
- Swords Dance
- High Jump Kick
- Iron Head

Now that Tapu Fini has Defog,Rotom-Wash could get Thunder Wave or Pain Split

The Problem now is that my team can´t deal enough damage :/ (Atleast it seems like that)
What would you say?

 

[TheTapDancer]

Just a comment, but Iron Head doesn't really do enough work to justify a slot on Hawlucha. I assume it's there for Koko but as you see from this it's not worth it:

(Against defog pivot Koko). I would advise Substitute or Roost, or Stone Edge for Zapdos.

 

[LearningLonk]

Just a comment, but Iron Head doesn't really do enough work to justify a slot on Hawlucha. I assume it's there for Koko but as you see from this it's not worth it:

View attachment 174233

(Against defog pivot Koko). I would advise Substitute or Roost, or Stone Edge for Zapdos.

Ty for replying! Guess I would switch it for Stone Edge or Sub!

 

[Sickist]

Alright, hello! Welcome to USM OU, which is far different and far more broken the ORAS. Your team kinda lacks in checking ,well..everything, to put it bluntly. Anyways, let's get into the rate! I'll be breaking this down into 4 sections: What went wrong, Major Changes, Minor Changes, and Closing Thoughts/Importable.

I. What went wrong

Okay, so you had a nice starting idea with Ash Greninja + Landorus Therian. However, your first mistake was making Landorus Choice Scarf instead of Fly Z. The whole point of the Greninja+Lando core is for Landorus to break fat grasses like Tangrowth with Z Fly. The next problematic choice in my eyes was adding Hawlucha. Hawlucha does literally nothing for your team, and the set can't even do what Hawlucha is supposed to do in OU, which is to abuse terrains with the respective seeds, to gain the defense boost and set-up. Finally, the last major mistake here was adding Mega Mawile. While this helps the stall matchup?, there's literally no reason to have it here, and it's kinda just slapped on there. Overall, the team has little to no synergy, as well as crumbling to major metagame threats, such as Ash Greninja and Kartana.

II. Major Changes

-->

While your team did enjoy a stealth rock user, as well as the check to Tapu Lele and Mega Alakazam, as well as Magearna, the team lacked an actual Water resist. The team was also really weak to Kartana, which adding Tangrowth over Heatran patches for the most part. Tangrowth gives you a solid pivot into the likes of Ash Greninja, non-Z-Fly Landorus-T, Garchomp (watch out for +2 Rockium or Toxic on tank chomp), as well as Kartana locked into Leafblade, as well as Tapu Bulu. Tangrowth packs Sludge Bomb on this set to nail said Tapu Bulu, as well as Earthquake to snipe incoming Heatrans.

-->

As previously stated, Hawlucha does nothing here. With Heatran being gone, the team really needed an answer to Lele/Zam/Magearna. The team also didn't have that great of a stall matchup anyways. That's why I opted to go for CM+Painsplit Magearna. However, since Landorus will end up holding the team's Z Crystal, Magearna has a Wiki Berry, allowing it to better check said Lele/Zam/Magearna. This also gives it another blanket against being worn down, at the cost of being able to muscle through fatter things like Tangrowth. CM Painsplit Magearna greatly improves the Stall matchup, as it 1v1's things like Chansey for the team, which teammates like Ash Greninja appreciate.

-->

As similar to Hawlucha, Mega Mawile is really awkwardly placed and doesn't fit here. The team also needed a primary Kartana check, as well as a defogger, and a general fastmon, due to lack of a scarfer. Tornadus-Therian fit this slot quite nicely, as it defogs, checks Kartana, has a great speed tier, and also has the benefit of being able to annoy things like Rotom Wash and Celesteela with Knock Off. Tornadus' access to U-turn also lets it form a solid VoltTurn core with Rotom Wash. Overall, Tornadus-Therian fits this last slot quite well, and rounds off the team quite well as well.

III. Minor Changes

-

-->

With Ash Greninja, the point is not to abuse it's wide movepool like you would with Protean vairants. Power and Spikes are what Ash Greninja is all about, and that's what Choice Specs is for. Having that 1.5x boost is nice, allowing Greninja to achieve it's transformation alot quicker. But what's with being choice locked into spikes? Well, the thing about Greninja setting spikes, and what makes it a good spike setter is the fact that it forces so many switches, allowing it to consistently get up spikes in a game.

-

-->

As discussed in the "What went wrong" section, the point of Landorus-Therian + Ash Greninja is for Landorus to pressure fat Grass Types with Z Fly, which is what this change allows for. Landorus is also now the Stealth Rocker, as well as a Stallbreaker of some sorts, annoying Stall builds reliant on Tangrowth to handle Ground types and Greninja's water STABs.

-

-->

This is an entire set change, not just an item change. With defog being on Tornadus-Therian now, Rotom is free to run Pain Split. Leftovers is ran over Wiki Berry due to preventing you accidentally pain-splittling away your berry health if your berry activates before you painsplit that turn. Pain Split allows you to somewhat consistently heal yourself while chipping away at fat things like Chansey, Tangrowth, etc. Thunder Wave is chosen over Will-O-Wisp to provide more speed control, due to the lack of a scarfer. The EV spread, courtesy of my friend and fellow rater lyd, is more specially defensive, allowing Rotom to better take on the likes of Heatran, which no other member of the team currently does quite well.

IV. Final Thoughts and Importable

Alright, that should be all for this team. As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me here or catch me in the Trainer Academy room on Pokemon Showdown, and I'll be happy to answer any inquiries of yours. Click the sprites below for the importable with all of the changes, and I hope you have fun playing Gen 7 OU with this team!

EDIT: The importable still had Scarfed Landorus EV spread, fixed now.

 

[anthony64]

Alright, hello! Welcome to USM OU, which is far different and far more broken the ORAS. Your team kinda lacks in checking ,well..everything, to put it bluntly. Anyways, let's get into the rate! I'll be breaking this down into 4 sections: What went wrong, Major Changes, Minor Changes, and Closing Thoughts/Importable.

I. What went wrong

Okay, so you had a nice starting idea with Ash Greninja + Landorus Therian. However, your first mistake was making Landorus Choice Scarf instead of Fly Z. The whole point of the Greninja+Lando core is for Landorus to break fat grasses like Tangrowth with Z Fly. The next problematic choice in my eyes was adding Hawlucha. Hawlucha does literally nothing for your team, and the set can't even do what Hawlucha is supposed to do in OU, which is to abuse terrains with the respective seeds, to gain the defense boost and set-up. Finally, the last major mistake here was adding Mega Mawile. While this helps the stall matchup?, there's literally no reason to have it here, and it's kinda just slapped on there. Overall, the team has little to no synergy, as well as crumbling to major metagame threats, such as Ash Greninja and Kartana.

II. Major Changes

-->

While your team did enjoy a stealth rock user, as well as the check to Tapu Lele and Mega Alakazam, as well as Magearna, the team lacked an actual Water resist. The team was also really weak to Kartana, which adding Tangrowth over Heatran patches for the most part. Tangrowth gives you a solid pivot into the likes of Ash Greninja, non-Z-Fly Landorus-T, Garchomp (watch out for +2 Rockium or Toxic on tank chomp), as well as Kartana locked into Leafblade, as well as Tapu Bulu. Tangrowth packs Sludge Bomb on this set to nail said Tapu Bulu, as well as Earthquake to snipe incoming Heatrans.

-->

As previously stated, Hawlucha does nothing here. With Heatran being gone, the team really needed an answer to Lele/Zam/Magearna. The team also didn't have that great of a stall matchup anyways. That's why I opted to go for CM+Painsplit Magearna. However, since Landorus will end up holding the team's Z Crystal, Magearna has a Wiki Berry, allowing it to better check said Lele/Zam/Magearna. This also gives it another blanket against being worn down, at the cost of being able to muscle through fatter things like Tangrowth. CM Painsplit Magearna greatly improves the Stall matchup, as it 1v1's things like Chansey for the team, which teammates like Ash Greninja appreciate.

-->

As similar to Hawlucha, Mega Mawile is really awkwardly placed and doesn't fit here. The team also needed a primary Kartana check, as well as a defogger, and a general fastmon, due to lack of a scarfer. Tornadus-Therian fit this slot quite nicely, as it defogs, checks Kartana, has a great speed tier, and also has the benefit of being able to annoy things like Rotom Wash and Celesteela with Knock Off. Tornadus' access to U-turn also lets it form a solid VoltTurn core with Rotom Wash. Overall, Tornadus-Therian fits this last slot quite well, and rounds off the team quite well as well.

III. Minor Changes

-

-->

With Ash Greninja, the point is not to abuse it's wide movepool like you would with Protean vairants. Power and Spikes are what Ash Greninja is all about, and that's what Choice Specs is for. Having that 1.5x boost is nice, allowing Greninja to achieve it's transformation alot quicker. But what's with being choice locked into spikes? Well, the thing about Greninja setting spikes, and what makes it a good spike setter is the fact that it forces so many switches, allowing it to consistently get up spikes in a game.

-

-->

As discussed in the "What went wrong" section, the point of Landorus-Therian + Ash Greninja is for Landorus to pressure fat Grass Types with Z Fly, which is what this change allows for. Landorus is also now the Stealth Rocker, as well as a Stallbreaker of some sorts, annoying Stall builds reliant on Tangrowth to handle Ground types and Greninja's water STABs.

-

-->

This is an entire set change, not just an item change. With defog being on Tornadus-Therian now, Rotom is free to run Pain Split. Leftovers is ran over Wiki Berry due to preventing you accidentally pain-splittling away your berry health if your berry activates before you painsplit that turn. Pain Split allows you to somewhat consistently heal yourself while chipping away at fat things like Chansey, Tangrowth, etc. Thunder Wave is chosen over Will-O-Wisp to provide more speed control, due to the lack of a scarfer. The EV spread, courtesy of my friend and fellow rater lyd, is more specially defensive, allowing Rotom to better take on the likes of Heatran, which no other member of the team currently does quite well.

IV. Final Thoughts and Importable

Alright, that should be all for this team. As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me here or catch me in the Trainer Academy room on Pokemon Showdown, and I'll be happy to answer any inquiries of yours. Click the sprites below for the importable with all of the changes, and I hope you have fun playing Gen 7 OU with this team!

I noticed that Landorus’ EV spread wasn’t changed in the new version of the team, and knowing that the EV spread used is more common on scarf variants; which it was previously, I was just curious if you left it like that intentionally. Nevertheless, this was a great rate.

 

[Sickist]

I noticed that Landorus’ EV spread wasn’t changed in the new version of the team, and knowing that the EV spread used is more common on scarf variants; which it was previously, I was just curious if you left it like that intentionally. Nevertheless, this was a great rate.

whoops. make that Max Attack, 4 evs in any def/hp, and then max speed with a jolly nature. i'll go ahead and fix the importable

 

[LearningLonk]

Alright, hello! Welcome to USM OU, which is far different and far more broken the ORAS. Your team kinda lacks in checking ,well..everything, to put it bluntly. Anyways, let's get into the rate! I'll be breaking this down into 4 sections: What went wrong, Major Changes, Minor Changes, and Closing Thoughts/Importable.

I. What went wrong

Okay, so you had a nice starting idea with Ash Greninja + Landorus Therian. However, your first mistake was making Landorus Choice Scarf instead of Fly Z. The whole point of the Greninja+Lando core is for Landorus to break fat grasses like Tangrowth with Z Fly. The next problematic choice in my eyes was adding Hawlucha. Hawlucha does literally nothing for your team, and the set can't even do what Hawlucha is supposed to do in OU, which is to abuse terrains with the respective seeds, to gain the defense boost and set-up. Finally, the last major mistake here was adding Mega Mawile. While this helps the stall matchup?, there's literally no reason to have it here, and it's kinda just slapped on there. Overall, the team has little to no synergy, as well as crumbling to major metagame threats, such as Ash Greninja and Kartana.

II. Major Changes

-->

While your team did enjoy a stealth rock user, as well as the check to Tapu Lele and Mega Alakazam, as well as Magearna, the team lacked an actual Water resist. The team was also really weak to Kartana, which adding Tangrowth over Heatran patches for the most part. Tangrowth gives you a solid pivot into the likes of Ash Greninja, non-Z-Fly Landorus-T, Garchomp (watch out for +2 Rockium or Toxic on tank chomp), as well as Kartana locked into Leafblade, as well as Tapu Bulu. Tangrowth packs Sludge Bomb on this set to nail said Tapu Bulu, as well as Earthquake to snipe incoming Heatrans.

-->

As previously stated, Hawlucha does nothing here. With Heatran being gone, the team really needed an answer to Lele/Zam/Magearna. The team also didn't have that great of a stall matchup anyways. That's why I opted to go for CM+Painsplit Magearna. However, since Landorus will end up holding the team's Z Crystal, Magearna has a Wiki Berry, allowing it to better check said Lele/Zam/Magearna. This also gives it another blanket against being worn down, at the cost of being able to muscle through fatter things like Tangrowth. CM Painsplit Magearna greatly improves the Stall matchup, as it 1v1's things like Chansey for the team, which teammates like Ash Greninja appreciate.

-->

As similar to Hawlucha, Mega Mawile is really awkwardly placed and doesn't fit here. The team also needed a primary Kartana check, as well as a defogger, and a general fastmon, due to lack of a scarfer. Tornadus-Therian fit this slot quite nicely, as it defogs, checks Kartana, has a great speed tier, and also has the benefit of being able to annoy things like Rotom Wash and Celesteela with Knock Off. Tornadus' access to U-turn also lets it form a solid VoltTurn core with Rotom Wash. Overall, Tornadus-Therian fits this last slot quite well, and rounds off the team quite well as well.

III. Minor Changes

-

-->

With Ash Greninja, the point is not to abuse it's wide movepool like you would with Protean vairants. Power and Spikes are what Ash Greninja is all about, and that's what Choice Specs is for. Having that 1.5x boost is nice, allowing Greninja to achieve it's transformation alot quicker. But what's with being choice locked into spikes? Well, the thing about Greninja setting spikes, and what makes it a good spike setter is the fact that it forces so many switches, allowing it to consistently get up spikes in a game.

-

-->

As discussed in the "What went wrong" section, the point of Landorus-Therian + Ash Greninja is for Landorus to pressure fat Grass Types with Z Fly, which is what this change allows for. Landorus is also now the Stealth Rocker, as well as a Stallbreaker of some sorts, annoying Stall builds reliant on Tangrowth to handle Ground types and Greninja's water STABs.

-

-->

This is an entire set change, not just an item change. With defog being on Tornadus-Therian now, Rotom is free to run Pain Split. Leftovers is ran over Wiki Berry due to preventing you accidentally pain-splittling away your berry health if your berry activates before you painsplit that turn. Pain Split allows you to somewhat consistently heal yourself while chipping away at fat things like Chansey, Tangrowth, etc. Thunder Wave is chosen over Will-O-Wisp to provide more speed control, due to the lack of a scarfer. The EV spread, courtesy of my friend and fellow rater lyd, is more specially defensive, allowing Rotom to better take on the likes of Heatran, which no other member of the team currently does quite well.

IV. Final Thoughts and Importable

Alright, that should be all for this team. As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me here or catch me in the Trainer Academy room on Pokemon Showdown, and I'll be happy to answer any inquiries of yours. Click the sprites below for the importable with all of the changes, and I hope you have fun playing Gen 7 OU with this team!

EDIT: The importable still had Scarfed Landorus EV spread, fixed now.

Ty for the reply! This team looks great and I´m really hyped! I did not see many problems at first,but this post helped me realizing what went wrong!
I picked Hawlucha just because I liked it,but this set really lacked Power and Sweeping potential and the reason for Mawile was,that I thought that not running a mega was a misstake.
Thank you for writing all of this and have a nice day! <3

Edit: I still got a question! Why Swords Dance and not U-Turn on Lando?

 

[Sickist]

Ty for the reply! This team looks great and I´m really hyped! I did not see many problems at first,but this post helped me realizing what went wrong!
I picked Hawlucha just because I liked it,but this set really lacked Power and Sweeping potential and the reason for mawile was,that I thought that not running a mega was a misstake.
Thank you for writing all of this and have a nice day! <3

Edit: I still got a question! Why Swords Dance and not U-Turn on Lando?

Swords Dance gives it 2x it's max attack stat, allowing it to overall do more damage to anything that it attacks., which allows you to bust through bulky things like Ferrothorn.

 

[LearningLonk]

Swords Dance gives it 2x it's max attack stat, allowing it to overall do more damage to anything that it attacks., which allows you to bust through bulky things like Ferrothorn.

Ty ^^