SM OU Rate My OU Team!

[socks]

Hello!

I've played Pokemon for a while now, and I never really played competitive battling. I dabbled in UU casually during Gen6, but I never really tried out OU. That being said, this is my first real attempt at constructing a team, and I hope that I can get some good feedback so I can learn the ins and outs of SM OU.

Teambuilding Process

To begin with, I wanted to form a team using two mons I've seen used throughout OU: Tapu Lele and Mega Charizard Y. Looking at the typings alone, I wanted to add another Pokemon that would be able to cover the common Charizard counters.

With my limited knowledge, I settled on using Excadrill, which clears out Lele's poison weakness and Zard's rock/electric weakness. Excadrill can also use Rapid Spin, which I can use to clear out potential Stealth Rocks which would check out Zard.

Next I added Magnezone, primarily for two reasons. (1) Magnezone can potentially cover Zard's and Excadrill's water weaknesses. (2) Magnezone can be a counter to Skarmory, which Excadrill can't properly be used against.

With two more spots left, I didn't really know what Pokemon to use... But eventually settled on Ash Greninja. Greninja provides good coverage over Ghost (which is a type that none of the typings do particularly well against) and Fire; and with Battle Bond and Water Shuriken, Greninja acts as a good hard hitter.

For my last Pokemon, I decided on Salamence. Salamence provides a good counter to some potential threats (i.e. Fighting types) and also acts as a nice physical attacker. Mence's Ice weakness is covered with the various Steel types (and Zard), so it seems to work out decently well.

In-Depth Look

Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power Fire

Charizard-Mega @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze / Drought
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Roost

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 128 HP / 252 SpA / 128 Spe
Modest Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Fire
- Volt Switch

Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Water Shuriken
- Dark Pulse
- Hydro Pump
- U-turn

Salamence @ Flynium Z
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Fly
- Outrage
- Earthquake

Closing Notes

And that's it! I apologize in advance if the team isn't well constructed, but I'm open to any feedback. I really like Tapu Lele and Zard Y and I wanted to form a team around them, but hopefully I can get some good feedback here to build a better team. :) Thanks!

 

[3d]

Hi there cool team! Granted you took feel da rain's advice and made his changes, there's a couple things I think would help you more than his changes.


Firstly the Excadrill change to Dugtrio wasn't the best change of them all. While Dugtrio can trap Hoopa-U and Kyurem-Black you can offensively pressure both of those with Tapu Lele by just clicking Moonblast. Salamence can also take on AV Hoopa-U if you were worried about that. So instead of changing Excadrill to Dugtrio, I would change it to Defensive Landorus-T. As you know, Landorus-T can be a huge threat vs this team and running an offensive Landorus-T to check offensive Landorus-T isn't really the best idea as you're relying on a 50/50 to win the game. Defensive Landorus-T not only provides a Stealth Rocker, but it can stop Landorus-T from setting up, via Hidden Power Ice. This makes your team much weaker to Metagross, especially since you don't have a reliable way of hitting it ( granted you made the greninja a fini) so i propose another change.


Making Salamence a Tangrowth helps this team vs Mega Metagross. With Rocky Helmet + Knock Off damage Metagross can easily be chipped away to be put in range of Tapu Lele's Shadow Ball giving you a nice way of beating it. Tangrowth also takes very little from Metagross' attacks letting it switch in multiple times, and if the Metagross was to try and stay in multiple times, it could end up in range of Tapu Lele's Psychic very quickly. Running Synthesis could also be important for this reason as since your main way of beating Metagross is slowly wearing it down Synthesis lets Tangrowth stay at a sturdy amount. This won't hurt your team as although Tangrowth can't counter fighting types, Tapu Lele can with a strong Psychic knocking out the most prominent fighting, pheromosa.

Also running Assault Vest on Magnezone is so much better than Chople Berry as AV can actually switch into Specs Lele, while Chople Berries gets 2HKOd with ease.

team w my changes

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

No switch-ins (Charizard-Mega-Y) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Solar Beam
- Roost
- Focus Blast

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 196 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Nature's Madness
- Defog

Tangrowth @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Def / 12 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Knock Off
- Giga Drain
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Magnezone @ Assault Vest
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

 

[3d]

I disagree that the changes Amoonguss made are necessarily better than mine.
First of all, let's begin with the positives. I do agree that the Change from DD Landorus to Defensive landorus was a better means to pressure an offensive landorus.

However, his claims that Lele can scare out Hoopa are partially false. First of all, your Lele is scarfed, which means that Moonblast does not OHKO unless Hoopa has taken SR damage or unless you get a lucky crit. Gunk Shot from Hoopa (even scarfed variants), however, OHKOs your Lele. As a result, I hold on to my Dugtrio change. In addition, I disagree that Fini cannot pressure Metagross. First of, players usually switch into Fini with Metagross even when the threat of Nature's Madness is obvious. I don't see why someone would switch-in on a Tangrowth. While I do see the effect of the Rocky Helmet damage on wearing down the Metagross (by switching in Tangrowth on the Mmeta), I do not see any compelling reason for the Metagross to stay in after that. If your opponent has figured out that you are Defensive, he/she will know that Ice Punch is a 3HKO, and will most probably not stay in. Even if you do decide to use Tangrowth, I believe that Sleep-powder is a much better option than Synthesis, as you have Giga Drain and Regenerator anyway. But overall, Tangrowth is a decent change because it can, indeed, pressure physical attackers a lot.

Furthermore, Dugtrio allows you to beat Chansey in a much more reliable manner, while removing the SD from Lando to make it defensive, does not contribute to that goal at all. Even if you knock off the eviolite with Tangrowth, you are not gonna achieve much.
0 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 196-232 (30.5 - 36.1%) -- 50.8% chance to 3HKO
Running Psyshock on Lele could potentially aid you against Chansey, but you will notice the damage drop, and you will not be able to pressure Finis which may decide to switch-in (they do that sometimes), as you will be hitting their physical side, which is overwhelmingly more invested.
A mistake which I made in my pastebin was not including Screech (over Stone Edge) to help you beat Chansey. Dugtrio also lets you beat Ice Beam-Gunk Shot Greninja, to which you are way too weak, granted that updated the team with Amoonguss' changes. I will acknowledge that Lele can scare it out though.

Also, AV Magnezone cannot, under any circumstances, switch into Specs Lele, while removing the 128 speed EVs from Magnezone to invest 252 in HP means that you do not outspeed Minimum Speed Scizor (which can U-Turn out).
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Magnezone: 286-338 (83.1 - 98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
(Note: 128 HP AV Magnezone has a 50% to be OHKOed).
252 SpA Tapu Lele Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Metagross-Mega: 162-192 (53.8 - 63.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
On the other hand, 252 Atk Dugtrio Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Metagross-Mega: 192-228 (63.7 - 75.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO, meaning that you will have to chip it down less than you would have to for Lele to KO.

I don't have the time to make a full rebuttal but I didn't claim that lele can scare out hoopa, hoopa can't come in on lele while mence scares out hoopa meaning he has some way to deal with it I'll edit this post when I get home for a more detailed explanation