SS OU Rate my team and help me improve it

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower

I use Dragapult as a special offensive in addition to using its high speed, Shadow Ball and Draco Meteor I use to sweep psychic, ghost, darkness and dragon pokemons from the enemy team, U-turn in case another pokémon is needed to hit the opponent and obviously besides damage psychics, Flamethorower in case of steel and leaf pokemons like Kartana and Ferrotorn, as a Choice Specs item to further increase its power.

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn

attacking pokemon with speed and strength, to eliminate fire and flying pokemons in addition to steel type with fighter attack

Kartana @ Choice Band
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword

Capable of putting pressure on the enemy team with great speed and strength, and getting stronger with each elimination in addition to eliminating water and fairy timis

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Foul Play
- Spore

Amoongus is a support used to take damage and use spore to make the opponent sleep to make way for the other Pokémon on the team, Giga Drain to recover health if necessary.

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Tomb

Excadrill uses Focus Sash to be able to add its Stealth Rock on the field, and Mold Breaker to break "barriers" created by ability, thus managing to open space for its attacks like Earthqueke and Rock tomb in case of flying type.

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic

and finally Landorus-Therian which to be honest is less used since my Excadrill can usually do the same role as him, but the difference is that he can do a quick change and use Toxic, but I would accept suggestions to improve him or from another pokemon to replace

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1521640101
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1521621976
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1521626221-hgn4aqvr0wksmsfgq8f7fgwientuesqpw

rate my team
 
Last edited:
Hey Vyctorag, welcome to Smogon. I’m here to rate your team and suggest changes to improve it.

Overall, the team has some good ideas, but you also made some questionable choices. For instance, I’m really not convinced by this suicide lead Excadrill as you have a balance-oriented kind of team. This set with Rocks and a Focus Sash is more useful in hyper offense teams where you can constantly pressure opposing defoggers and keep your hazards up. Note that you’re using two Rock setters and lack ways to remove opposing hazards (can be particularly annoying when you’re facing things like Ferrothorn who can stack Spikes and weaken all your breakers). I also don’t really like Amoonguss in the tier. This Pokemon has an interesting typing but fails to check a lot of OU staples. This team structure leaves you completely open to huge metagame threats such as Weavile, or as BeastyJ mentioned it Dragapult. I would keep your offensive Dragapult + Urshifu + Kartana core as I think it’s pretty good and rework a bit the rest of the team to make it a more efficient.

Major Changes

:excadrill: -> :heatran:: This Excadrill set only fits in some specific Hyper Offense teams (and Excadrill is overall not that great in OU). Here you better have something with more defensive utility and that can pressure common defensive cores more easily. Heatran is a cool choice to have a Steel type and a pseudo Tapu Lele answer, while being able to set Stealth Rock. You can run either an offensive or a more defensive set. Offensive Heatran is great to pressure Landorus-T and force Rocks on the field (as unlike Excadrill you can beat Landorus-T and Coviknight who are the two most common defoggers). Here is an example of an offensive Heatran set and of a defensive one (if you find yourself too much Tapu Lele weak):

Offensive Heatran

heatran.gif

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

Defensive Heatran

heatran.gif

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 232 SpD / 24 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock


:amoonguss: -> :toxapex:: Toxapex would do a way better job than Amoonguss here and would greatly help dealing with things like Weavile while being a better Urshifu-R/Barraskewda counter. There’s a wide variety of spread and move combination for Toxapex. Here is one with some SpD to scout things like Dragapult when needed:

toxapex.gif

Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Relaxed Nature / Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Recover
- Haze
- Scald / Toxic


Minor changes

:landorus-therian:: I know that this spread is the teambuilder one, but it hasn’t been updated in a while and it’s pretty outdated. You don’t really need Speed investments on defensive Landorus-T anymore, and you rather use Landorus-T with a specially defensive spread to deal with mons like Heatran. Also, as Heatran replaced Excadrill in the Rock setter role, you can run Defog over Rocks on Lando-T. Here is the set I would run:

landorus-therian.gif

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic / Knock Off


:kartana:: You could try running a Swords Dance set over a Choice Band one to have some sort of wincon. You could also run another Swords Dance user in that slot like Weavile for instance. Here is the SD Kartana set (Life Orb is not the only option and you could consider things like Adreline Orb):

kartana.gif

Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword


With all that saying, here are two examples of teams you could run:

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn

Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword

Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Recover
- Haze
- Toxic

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

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn

Weavile @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Triple Axel
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard

Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Knock Off
- Recover
- Haze
- Scald

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 232 SpD / 24 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic

This team has a rather classic structure. You still need to play carefully against some threats you struggle to beat like Garchomp (if you chose Kartana over Weavile) as you don’t want to let it Swords Dance and Scale Shot, opposing Kartana who can be annoying, especially when running Swords Dance as in this case, Toxapex is not really a good answer. Tapu Lele is also a big threat, especially with offensive heatran and you don’t want to let it have free turns. In particular, when your opponent is running Scarf Tapu Lele, don’t let Heatran get weakened too much or Tapu Lele will clean your whole team.

Hope this was helpful, feel free to ask me questions and have fun testing these changes.
 
Hey Vyctorag, welcome to Smogon. I’m here to rate your team and suggest changes to improve it.

Overall, the team has some good ideas, but you also made some questionable choices. For instance, I’m really not convinced by this suicide lead Excadrill as you have a balance-oriented kind of team. This set with Rocks and a Focus Sash is more useful in hyper offense teams where you can constantly pressure opposing defoggers and keep your hazards up. Note that you’re using two Rock setters and lack ways to remove opposing hazards (can be particularly annoying when you’re facing things like Ferrothorn who can stack Spikes and weaken all your breakers). I also don’t really like Amoonguss in the tier. This Pokemon has an interesting typing but fails to check a lot of OU staples. This team structure leaves you completely open to huge metagame threats such as Weavile, or as BeastyJ mentioned it Dragapult. I would keep your offensive Dragapult + Urshifu + Kartana core as I think it’s pretty good and rework a bit the rest of the team to make it a more efficient.

Major Changes

:excadrill: -> :heatran:: This Excadrill set only fits in some specific Hyper Offense teams (and Excadrill is overall not that great in OU). Here you better have something with more defensive utility and that can pressure common defensive cores more easily. Heatran is a cool choice to have a Steel type and a pseudo Tapu Lele answer, while being able to set Stealth Rock. You can run either an offensive or a more defensive set. Offensive Heatran is great to pressure Landorus-T and force Rocks on the field (as unlike Excadrill you can beat Landorus-T and Coviknight who are the two most common defoggers). Here is an example of an offensive Heatran set and of a defensive one (if you find yourself too much Tapu Lele weak):

Offensive Heatran

View attachment 411249
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Eruption
- Stealth Rock

Defensive Heatran

View attachment 411250
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 232 SpD / 24 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock


:amoonguss: -> :toxapex:: Toxapex would do a way better job than Amoonguss here and would greatly help dealing with things like Weavile while being a better Urshifu-R/Barraskewda counter. There’s a wide variety of spread and move combination for Toxapex. Here is one with some SpD to scout things like Dragapult when needed:

View attachment 411251
Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Relaxed Nature / Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Recover
- Haze
- Scald / Toxic


Minor changes

:landorus-therian:: I know that this spread is the teambuilder one, but it hasn’t been updated in a while and it’s pretty outdated. You don’t really need Speed investments on defensive Landorus-T anymore, and you rather use Landorus-T with a specially defensive spread to deal with mons like Heatran. Also, as Heatran replaced Excadrill in the Rock setter role, you can run Defog over Rocks on Lando-T. Here is the set I would run:

View attachment 411252
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic / Knock Off


:kartana:: You could try running a Swords Dance set over a Choice Band one to have some sort of wincon. You could also run another Swords Dance user in that slot like Weavile for instance. Here is the SD Kartana set (Life Orb is not the only option and you could consider things like Adreline Orb):

View attachment 411253
Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword


With all that saying, here are two examples of teams you could run:

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn

Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword

Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Recover
- Haze
- Toxic

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

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn

Weavile @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Triple Axel
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard

Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Knock Off
- Recover
- Haze
- Scald

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 232 SpD / 24 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic

This team has a rather classic structure. You still need to play carefully against some threats you struggle to beat like Garchomp (if you chose Kartana over Weavile) as you don’t want to let it Swords Dance and Scale Shot, opposing Kartana who can be annoying, especially when running Swords Dance as in this case, Toxapex is not really a good answer. Tapu Lele is also a big threat, especially with offensive heatran and you don’t want to let it have free turns. In particular, when your opponent is running Scarf Tapu Lele, don’t let Heatran get weakened too much or Tapu Lele will clean your whole team.

Hope this was helpful, feel free to ask me questions and have fun testing these changes.
thanks for the review but there is only one change that left me in doubt because Amoongus was an excellent pokémon on this team because it has happened thousands of times that he was my last pokémon and managed to take up to three enemy pokémons what do you think? should I really change?
 
thanks for the review but there is only one change that left me in doubt because Amoongus was an excellent pokémon on this team because it has happened thousands of times that he was my last pokémon and managed to take up to three enemy pokémons what do you think? should I really change?
Amoongus overall is rather mediocre in OU, and Toxapex should be able to do a similar job, but more efficiently and helping with Weavile is super valuable for this team. You can refer to the Viablity Rankings here to see how well each Pokemon do in the tier overall: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...ranking-thread-see-page-78-post-1948.3674058/

Now, if you were playing in low ladder, I'm not surprised that Amoonguss often put a lot of work because people in low ladder don't really know how to deal with most defensive Pokemon. You can keep if you really want, but I strongly recommand to at least test with Toxapex and see how it goes.
 
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