SkarmJelliLuc
a sand ho team by Zer0
a sand ho team by Zer0
Hello to everyone, this is my first rmt(tho expect this to be updated overtime incase if I end up peaking even higher on ladder, such as this team achieving #1) and i hope you guys enjoy this!
For the last couple months ive been laddering with this team a lot, with me constantly adjusting this team in terms of the sets the mons have or just the Pokemon in general. Now since i finally made the final adjustment, i thought it was time for me to go on a really great streak to finally get this team to at least 1500+ and man did i really go on arguable one of my best streaks of all time(in terms of playing BW), sadly I didnt hit higher(in terms of elo) because I've been very burnt out from Mons but maybe someday in the future that can very much happen. So anyways, after over 3+ months of me constantly laddering with this team and changing it to the point where its basically all set as well as me succeeding this amazing run, i shall present: SkarmJelliLuc. So, lets go!
Skarmory @ Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Taunt
Starting off, we have Skarmory. Since this team is supposed to be a sand ho team i decided to use Custap Berry Skarmory as my lead for this team and generally its an the best lead on this team since it can just stack hazards uncontested in a lot of MU's due to its insane typing and decent speed, at worse Skarmory can get me at least 2 layers of spikes or 1 rock + 1 spike. it having a fast Taunt to deny hazards from slower Pokemon, such as Hippowdon, Ferrothorn, opposing Skarmory, and even Tyranitar, is all really appreciated, as in addition to also being able to self KO itself with Brave Bird in attempt to block Rapid Spin from Pokemon such as Forretress, Excadrill, and Starmie. It generally also provides some nice chip against any target in general which can be pretty cool for one its teammates such as Lucario or Alakazam to break through later in the game. There isnt much i can say here other than that its an extremely good lead on SkarmJelli teams and as a result it is a key component to this teams success since theres no other Pokemon in that game can do what Skarm can on this team!
Jellicent @ Air Balloon
Ability: Water Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 136 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Shadow Ball
Jellicent is our next team member and forms the classic SkarmJelli combination, but in a very unique way on this team! Jellicent operate as more of an aggressive spinblocker on this team that is capable of beating most, if not all, of the spinners(including Excadrill if played well), while also still giving me a nice backup tool vs Rain as well as being able to dominate bulky cores with Taunt + Wisp. This Jellicent is also running Shadow Ball since it can let Jellicent surprise chip Starmie as well as do more damage to Reuniclus, which can help Tyranitar trap it more easily.
Air Balloon is being used on this team to give me a way to deal with Excadrill more easily, as well as being able to act a punisher to choice ground moves from pokemon such as Garchomp and opposing Landorus-T, should Jellicent keep his Balloon in tack. As a result of all of these traits, Jellicent is also a crucial component to this team success, consistently being able to deny spin if played well while also still giving me extra security vs Rain teams.
Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed
- Crunch
Next up is the main star of the show which is of course, Lucario, arguably the most unique and most devastating Pokemon on this team alongside Alakazam, as the two completely abuse hazards and Lucario is one of the best hazard abusers in the entire tier, thanks to entry hazard damage pushing its Close Combats and Extreme Speeds over the edge against Bulkier and Faster Pokemon, respectively. Lucario in BW has gone through some rough times and mostly has been forgotten due to how much competition/issues it had to deal with when BW2 came out(mainly from Keldeo and Breloom as well as Lando-T being introduced), But as of recently, Lucario has been seeing an uptick in viability and i decided that i myself, felt like it was time to put this dude to the test, a test in which it completely shined and it showed throughout the whole entirety of this teams existence, that it is still capable of completely ending games on the spot with good play and positioning just like in Gen4 OU. Lucario has amazing typing, granting it a 4x resistance to Stealth Rock and an immunity to both sandstorm and Toxic, as well as being extremely loaded with resistances. This all completely makes it very resilient to all of the passive damage flying around BW OU which are great traits in general. Combined this all with Lucario's access to SD, Extreme Speed, and STAB CC alongside amazing coverage(be it Crunch for Reuniclus and Jellicent, which this team is running, or Ice Punch for Gliscor as well as being able to deal with all of Dragonite, Lando-T, and Garchomp) and you got a Pokemon that completely shreds through so many teams once its checks have been weakened/eliminated from the game. Lucario is very notable as to abuse and take full advantage of Latios as -2 Latios cannot brute force through Lucario's frailty thanks to its fantastic typing that gives it a nice Dragon resistance, which is really really good to have against arguably the scariest Pokemon in the entire metagame, even if its defenses arent rocking the house down.
That same typing also lets it take advantage of many Choiced locked Pokemon in the metagame from even Pokemon that naturally can check it like Keldeo locked into Hidden Power and Garchomp locked into some sort of Dragon STAB due to its typing, and you can easily pick them off if they're put in range of +2 Espeed once they come back in from hazard damage. Now Lucario still has its issues with Landorus-T and just naturally faster pokemon in the metagame, like the aftermentioned, as well as other threats like Terrakion. But with some team support from all of Lando, Tyranitar, and Alakazam, it is more than worth it to make up for those flaws in exchange of having a Pokemon that can both operate as a good wallbreaker and an extremely dangerous sweeper that is able to sweep at a moments notice once its checks have been gone. So all in all, Lucario is a very good Pokemon on this team and arguably carried this teams success entirely, being able to be an extremely good abuser of Skarmorys Hazards while, once again, also doubling as a good wallbreaker and dangerous sweeper.
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 72 HP / 140 Atk / 60 Def / 236 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stone Edge
Next up is the king himself, Landorus-Therian, who is quite excellent a glue to this team. This slot used to be Garchomp(with sd and, later on, scarf being the two sets) instead of Landorus, but as of recently i realized that this team really really needed his ground immunity to help against opposing Ground-types, such as from opposing Landorus-T in addition to Excadrill and Garchomp, as well as Intimidate to help against Physical Attackers, in addition to having U-turn and also giving this team a better MU into HO, so i decided to change Garchomp in favor of Landorus-T. As usual, Lando(or, should i say, Landot) provides great speed control for this team, just like Garchomp. as well as being able to still have an electric immunity for this team while giving a nice blend of Defensive and Offensive utility thanks to his good bulk and Intimidate as well as having sky high Attack and a workable special attack stat to deck opposing Garchomp and Gliscor, which in terms helps out Lucario a lot. In fact Lando is such a great teammate for Lucario as he can provide a great ground immunity to pivot into ground types such as from Gliscor and Excadrill, that would otherwise plague Lucario while being able to use intimidate and U-turn to pivot Lucario in on resistant attacks , sometimes he can also bait in Latios so Lucario gets free entry to threaten Latios's team, should Latios go -2 after a Draco Meteor against Lando.
But for the most part, Landorus mainly provides this team with a crucial ground immunity to help against ground spam, Intimidate to wart off physical attackers, U-turn to get his threatening teammates in, and providing great speed control as well as being offensive threatening once most of the ground immunitys are gone. Providing, once again, a great blend of defensive and offensive utility for this team. So with all of this in mind, Landorus helps this team a lot in match-ups where they struggle with while providing crucial utility and speed control for this team. Thus making it extremely great on this team.
Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 208 Atk / 48 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Ice Beam
- Superpower
Next up is Tyranitar, arguably the dawn of Gen5 OU(in my eyes at least) and one of the most important Pokemon on this team due to him providing another source of speed control while also bringing his trusty pursuit to help thrwat Latios, Latias, and Starmie. Scarf Tyranitar is arguably very good on SkarmJelli teams since it allows Tyranitar to always reliably trap and beat Starmie with good prediction to keep hazards up, something that this team needs to maintain, as they allow both Lucario and Alakazam to be extremely threatening. However, Scarf Tyranitar is very good against Latios/Latias as well. Even tho i have Lucario on this team to take advantage of both Latios and Latias, you still want a more reliable way at dealing with both of them and Tyranitar is the chief among them all as he deals with both of them just fine and makes him reliable at dealing with Both which can be good for this team in general.
Scarf Tyranitar also comes with the benefits of being able to use Ice Beam to lure and eliminate Gliscor as well as non Scarf Landorus-T and Garchomp, and with 48 special attack EV's, you always OHKO both gliscor and max hp lax Lando-T which Lucario completely appreciates in general as Tyranitar can deal with and revenge kill them, allowing Lucario to run wild and do much better in certain MU's. Overall tho, Tyranitar is extremely crucial on this team, being able to revenge kill Starmie and the Latis with Pursuit/Crunch as well as Ground-types with Ice Beam, allowing to help support Lucario, while also providing great speed control and defensive utility against a lot of Pokemon in the metagame.
Alakazam (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
And finally we get to the last member of this team, Alakazam, aka the KING of SkarmJelli teams and abusing hazards in general while also giving me a great MU into HO as well as giving me a reliable revenge killer against basically everything. Sash Alakazam is very good on this team as it allows me to answer many HO teams while being able to just taking over games like no other and revenge kill the majority of the tier. Thanks to Psyshock, Zam can reliably deal with Volcarona, which would otherwise be a very hard MU for me to face with this team, while also being able to OHKO Tenta with Psyshock which allows Alakazam's team to maintain hazards throughout the game, and with the all of HP Ice, Focus Blast, and Shadow Ball rounding out Alakazam's coverage to revenge kill and hit most of the entire tier neturally or super effectively. Shadow Ball also lets me deal with and pressure both Reuniclus and Starmie as well as other threats like Latios, Latias, opposing Alakazam, and Celebi, with Alakazam being able to revenge kill Starmie in particular to allow it to finish it off and deny spin once Jellicent goes down, in addition to Tyranitar also being able to do the same. All in all, Alakazam is insanely good on these teams since it gives me a great answer into HO as well as being a really reliable revenge killer and a superb abuser of hazards on this team.
Just like any other team out there, this team ofc has threats to it but most of them arent completely unplayable, its just a small bump in the road and just makes it more of 50/50s moreso than not.
- Scarf Keldeo is a bit annoying into this, since it just outpaces basically every single offensive Pokemon on this team and can do heavy damage to them all. However, you just have to preserve Jellicent against this since scarf keld doesnt run hp ghost/grass on scarf sets. Lucario can also get setup opportunity against Keldeo, should it lock into Hidden Power, while Alakazam can revenge kill it if you save its sash.
- Agility Thundurus in particular is probably the most rough MU into this team if he manages to get an agility since this team isnt running Chople Ttar and its also running Scarf Lando, Sash Zam into Lucario Espeed could get the job done tho so its best to utilize those 2 to take him down.
- Volc is insanely tough for this team to face due to its speed, power, and ability to outspeed Scarf Lando at +1. This team also isnt running Chople Ttar, which would otherwise be able to tank a +1 Bug Buzz from full and respond with Rock Slide. Once again tho, Psyshock Alakazam into Lucario Espeed does pretty alright so its best to utilize those 2 against Volc.
- Scarf Keldeo is a bit annoying into this, since it just outpaces basically every single offensive Pokemon on this team and can do heavy damage to them all. However, you just have to preserve Jellicent against this since scarf keld doesnt run hp ghost/grass on scarf sets. Lucario can also get setup opportunity against Keldeo, should it lock into Hidden Power, while Alakazam can revenge kill it if you save its sash. - Agility Thundurus in particular is probably the most rough MU into this team if he manages to get an agility since this team isnt running Chople Ttar and its also running Scarf Lando, Sash Zam into Lucario Espeed could get the job done tho so its best to utilize those 2 to take him down. - Volc is insanely tough for this team to face due to its speed, power, and ability to outspeed Scarf Lando at +1. This team also isnt running Chople Ttar, which would otherwise be able to tank a +1 Bug Buzz from full and respond with Rock Slide. Once again tho, Psyshock Alakazam into Lucario Espeed does pretty alright so its best to utilize those 2 against Volc.Since this team can be customizable based on specific moves or Pokemon, there are some other options that you can utilize upon your likings:
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: Salac Berry and Mental Herb are alternatives over Custap Berry, with salac allowing Skarmory to set multiple layers of hazards even after the berry has been procked while Mental Herb is godsent into opposing Skarmory mirrors.
Shadow Ball -> Night Shade: Night Shade can provide more consistent output against basically anything, including Pokemon that resist ghost such as Ferrothorn and Skarmory. This does give up the cost of the surprise factor vs starmie and being able to win one on one against other jellicent as well as apply more damage onto Reuniclus. But this is still a viable option.
Crunch -> Ice Punch/Thunder Punch: if you decide to run HP fire Alakazam, then Ice Punch on Lucario is a very viable option on Lucario which allows it to heavily damage Gliscor and Dragonite as well as being able to catch Garchomp and opposing Lando-T on the switch. Thunder Punch is similar, as it allows Lucario to deal with Gyarados and Tentacruel while still dealing with Jellicent, its also worth mentioning that if running Thunder Punch its best to run Jolly Lucario to outpace slower variants of Tentacruel. Tho this option is a bit less viable on this team considering that this team already has ways to deal with these certain Pokemon that Thunder Punch would cover. Its still a decent option tho if you wanna run it, just a bit harder to utilize on this team.
-> 
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: if you want to cover specific MU's that Scarf Lando struggles with(mainly Volc, Thund, and Scarf Keld) as a whole then one of Choice Scarf Latios or Latias can fit the bill just fine, with either one being able to fix those 3 MU's at the cost of losing Intimidate + U-turn and an Electric immunity. Latias can also provide healing wish for this team which can be quite helpful since that synergizes well with Lucario. Lando is much more preferred on this team due to him providing a great blend of offensive and defensive utility tho, despite him struggling into those 3, because this team heavily struggles with ground spam without Lando. However, Scarf Latias/Latios are both an alternative to Lando if desired.
-> 
: if running a Scarf Lati over Lando, you can also utilize Life Orb Alakazam with a moveset of Psychic/Grass Knot/HP Fire/Signal Beam, since Scarf Lati covers up the Volc weakness so the need for sash isnt needed anymore. An alternative moveset of Psychic/Focus Blast/HP Ice/Signal Beam is also usable as well on this set.
-> /: Salac Berry and Mental Herb are alternatives over Custap Berry, with salac allowing Skarmory to set multiple layers of hazards even after the berry has been procked while Mental Herb is godsent into opposing Skarmory mirrors. Shadow Ball -> Night Shade: Night Shade can provide more consistent output against basically anything, including Pokemon that resist ghost such as Ferrothorn and Skarmory. This does give up the cost of the surprise factor vs starmie and being able to win one on one against other jellicent as well as apply more damage onto Reuniclus. But this is still a viable option. Crunch -> Ice Punch/Thunder Punch: if you decide to run HP fire Alakazam, then Ice Punch on Lucario is a very viable option on Lucario which allows it to heavily damage Gliscor and Dragonite as well as being able to catch Garchomp and opposing Lando-T on the switch. Thunder Punch is similar, as it allows Lucario to deal with Gyarados and Tentacruel while still dealing with Jellicent, its also worth mentioning that if running Thunder Punch its best to run Jolly Lucario to outpace slower variants of Tentacruel. Tho this option is a bit less viable on this team considering that this team already has ways to deal with these certain Pokemon that Thunder Punch would cover. Its still a decent option tho if you wanna run it, just a bit harder to utilize on this team. -> /: if you want to cover specific MU's that Scarf Lando struggles with(mainly Volc, Thund, and Scarf Keld) as a whole then one of Choice Scarf Latios or Latias can fit the bill just fine, with either one being able to fix those 3 MU's at the cost of losing Intimidate + U-turn and an Electric immunity. Latias can also provide healing wish for this team which can be quite helpful since that synergizes well with Lucario. Lando is much more preferred on this team due to him providing a great blend of offensive and defensive utility tho, despite him struggling into those 3, because this team heavily struggles with ground spam without Lando. However, Scarf Latias/Latios are both an alternative to Lando if desired. -> : if running a Scarf Lati over Lando, you can also utilize Life Orb Alakazam with a moveset of Psychic/Grass Knot/HP Fire/Signal Beam, since Scarf Lati covers up the Volc weakness so the need for sash isnt needed anymore. An alternative moveset of Psychic/Focus Blast/HP Ice/Signal Beam is also usable as well on this set.Finally, here are some replays of this team in action. Keep in mind that i was playing on 2 different accounts and some of them had ScarfChomp over Scarf Lando-T in them because i just changed to Scarf Lando-T recently, but the team pretty much plays almost the exact same!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2131870460 - against sand. Here, Lucario utilizes its superb typing to get setup opportunity vs choiced keldeo locked into hidden power to sweep and end the game, with hazards also helping it out a lot since Keldeo and Lando were getting constantly chipped throughout the whole game to the point where they were put in range of Lucarios boosted Espeed at the end
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2132631192 - against rain. Lucario was able to abuse Latios at -2 by being able to grab setup opportunity by forcing it out and ending the game out right.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2129387824 - same as above, except against Dragmag and Lucario also acted as a wallbreaker here at the beginning, with its teammates also being able to pick up the pieces right after it died at the ending
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2132643417 - game to 1500
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2131870460 - against sand. Here, Lucario utilizes its superb typing to get setup opportunity vs choiced keldeo locked into hidden power to sweep and end the game, with hazards also helping it out a lot since Keldeo and Lando were getting constantly chipped throughout the whole game to the point where they were put in range of Lucarios boosted Espeed at the end
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2132631192 - against rain. Lucario was able to abuse Latios at -2 by being able to grab setup opportunity by forcing it out and ending the game out right.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2129387824 - same as above, except against Dragmag and Lucario also acted as a wallbreaker here at the beginning, with its teammates also being able to pick up the pieces right after it died at the ending
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2132643417 - game to 1500
Shoutouts:
wanna give huge shoutouts to Monai, marsandback, Dababy2, Fakes, and triple axel blaze for giving me fire advice for this team over the last couple months as a whole since this has been a long time coming, special shoutout to dice as well for inspiring me to run Lucario on this team since he originally used to spam Lucario on ladder.
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