SM OU RMT (First Gen 7 OU Team)

[rykx]

The team itself has decent winrates overall but thats because I am super low elo in PS. I have played Gen 3 OU quite a bit and I have a good understand of teams in that bracket. Gen 7, though, is a new monster and I have tried to learn as much as I can. Here is my team:
From all my experience so far, Landorus has just been the carry and I usually find myself swapping between Ferothorn, Magnezone, Toxapex and Landorus to kill their team. I feel it is awkward to use Tyranitar and Mawile in this comp and am primarily looking to replace them. Thanks in advance!

Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
Originally who I wanted to build my team around, his primary role, as of recent is to have an unorthodox lead to where I can get the sand stream out early and threaten psychic leads with crunch/pursuit. My issue with him is that I feel I can’t swap him in without risking that he dies. I’ve also found it he rarely out speeds who he is designed to counter (Primarily Tapu Lele). Granted I may be using him wrong – I am used to Gen 3 OU T-Tar, but I feel it is just awkward to get him involved.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 80 HP / 148 Atk / 84 Def / 196 Spe
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Defog
I didn’t want to make him my defogger at first, but it isn’t the end of the world as he threatens so much with his current build. I love using U-Turn to cheese a free hit as he always seems to out-speed. He his easily the star on this team.

Mawile-Mega @ Mawilite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
I find myself using Mawile more than T-tar but in general, still a little funky. I find it hard to set up a Swords Dance – but when I do it usually just means the game is over. I feel this pokemon is extremely hit or miss and usually is a miss. The typing also doesn’t help me out as it is almost as if I’m just stacking Steel.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Protect
Main tank for almost everything except fire. I love his current build as I feel he is tanky enough and pairs extremely well with Toxapex. I would change nothing about him. There have been numerous times where I pivot between Magnezone, Landorus and Ferrothorn until I can sweep with Mawile or Landorus. Ferrothorn is just too good to not include with how I structured my team. But – again, I feel I am stacking too much steel.

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
I really like how Magnezone works with this team. He pairs so well with Landorus and threatens a lot of top tier pokemon such as Kartana at times. Volt Switch is very fun to use, and I really enjoy the flexibility it gives me. On the topic of moves – I am still not sure of Flash Cannon. I find myself not using it very much, but it still gives me nice type coverage.

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Merciless
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Haze
- Recover
- Toxic
As stated before, I love the pairing of Toxapex and Ferrothorn. They work very well together and help to stall out teams to get them in sweep range. I love the chance for Burn on scald, but it is not necessary by any means. Haze is often overlooked but I love how well it can work because often I can tank a neutral +1 or even +2. I really like this build and don’t plan on changing it.

Thanks for reading – if you’ve made it this far. I really think there is a lot of potential but am really open to any opinions you have as I am still relatively new to competitive pokemon.

 

[Gross Sweep]

Welcome to Smogon! I'm locking your RMT for the time being as the forum rules require that you provide in-depth descriptions for each Pokemon to explain their roles. Please read the rules carefully and take a look at Team Showcase to see the level of detail we require. PM me with updated descriptions and I'll be happy to unlock this.

Edit: Thread Reopened

 

[MFJK]

Hello rykx, I think your team actually has a lot of potential. However, I think this team's problem is the way it was built as I'm kind of struggling to see what the team is trying to accomplish. You said you built it around Tyranitar but CB Tar is not a mon you'd build around, but rather one that provides offensive utility for its partners. From what I can assume, I think this team supports M-Mawile quite well so my changes are gonna try and maximize that. Going into the more specific weaknesses of the team, I think the two biggest threats to this team are definitely Heatran and SD Gliscor since they can easily come in on the entirety of your team and you haven't got a reliable way to stop / switch-in on them. Ground-types in general, and especially Zygarde (Weakness Policy mainly) are very threatening to this team. Overall I think this team is gonna struggle against Bulky Offense and Offense the most since it has difficulties handling offensive pressure.

Covering all the issues I listed is gonna need some expensive changes so I'm sorry in advance if you think I changed the team too much but I believe these are going to maximize the team's potential. Here are my suggestions:

->

- I can understand why you chose Ferrothorn for this team since it provides you both a hazard setter and an electric-resist in one, but Ferrothorn is a very passive mon for this type of team, unable to damage common hazard remover, and also has common weaknesses with the rest of your team. For those reasons, I'm suggesting Bulu as a replacement since it can still reliably check Electric-types, checks Ground-types much better and even provides you a second win condition with Swords Dance. The set I'm suggesting is Swords Dance | Horn Leech | Superpower | Synthesis along with a 224 HP / 216 SpD / 68 Spe Careful spread.

->

- Much like the change above, I understand the choice of Magnezone to trap Steel-types that annoy M-Mawile but the problem is that it stacks weaknesses with the rest of your team, offering free switchins to dangerous pokemons such as Zygarde and Gliscor. Since you haven't got a Stealth Rocker, I think Heatran fits the team better as it is still able to pressure Steel-types, appreciates Bulu's Grassy Terrain support, and is much less passive than Magnezone, and also provides a much better check to Psychic-types. The set I'm proposing is the Spdef one with Lava Plume | Earth Power | Taunt or Toxic | Stealth Rock along with a 252 HP / 100 SpD / 156 Spe Calm spread. Personally, I prefer Toxic on it to cripple Gastrodon but Taunt is also an option.

->

- Although Toxapex provides you a solid check to many special attackers, it is a very passive pokemon for an offensively-oriented team like this; and you've also got some pretty solid checks to those in Bulu and Tran so you don't need it that much. Greninja fits the team's offensive nature way better by providing a strong wallbreaker / cleaner, a spikes user, as well as something that can maintain offensive pressure on pokemons like M-Lati@s which are pretty dangerous for your team. The set I'm proposing is the Protean wallbreaker with Hydro Pump | Ice Beam | Gunk Shot | Spikes with Waterium Z as an item.

: On Tyranitar, I'd suggest a very minor tweak in Superpower > Earthquake as it still allows it to hit Steel-types but also other Tyranitars stronger and isn't weakened by the Grassy Terrain.

: Finally, as another minor change, I'd suggest Rock Slide > HP Ice on Landorus-T in order to check Flying-types like M-Pinsir better. You're missing on hitting Ground-types but with Tapu Bulu you have a fairly good matchup against them. If you feel Ground-types are too much for this team to deal with, you can put it over Defog too.

Importable

Once again, I'm sorry if I made too many changes to the team but I do think they they exploit its offensive potential better. The team is still gonna struggle against Heatran as well as Ground-types since they're still quite hard to switch into but you can still manage them easily enough. Flying-types like M-Pinsir and Tornadus-T are also threats but you can deal with them with Rock Slide Lando-T as well as CB Tar, M-Mawile and Tran under Grassy Terrain. Of course, if you have any concern, feel free to message me. Hope I helped and good luck with your team! n_n

 

[rykx]

Hey, thank you so much for your response. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said I didn't know where I wanted to take this team. It kind of just turned into a mess but I think you're right to say that Mawile was where I originally made my team work around.

I love the Ferrothorn -> Bulu changes. I honestly never would've thought to swap out Ferro because of how effective he's been on my team but Bulu does just about the same job and helps me not go back and forth from stalling to sweeping.

Not sure about the Magnezone -> Heatran solely because of how core the Magnezone was but I am willing to test it out as I trust your opinion over mine. You do make some great points with saying how Heatran can help solve a lot of the typing issues I was having.

I think the Toxapex -> Greninja is also really interesting. I like how it gives me many of the answers I only had with Scald from Toxapex.

I think overall this team is extremely threatening. I have a few questions, though. In regards to Bulu, what item would you recommend; Leftovers, just making sure.

Thank you so much I can't wait to test out this team