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Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
The main goal of this thread is to archive teams that do a great job of showcasing a certain style of play / archetype that's prominent (or at least good) in the meta. This can help beginner and intermediate level players get acclimated to the meta, making the tier more accessible.
As starry blanket did with this thread last gen, I'm going to be actively looking for teams to archive I'll be consulting a variety of people when making these decisions to ensure high quality teams are added; specifically, I'll mostly be consulting the OU Council and InsideOverused.
In addition to that, this thread will definitely be used to add teams, of course. For those interested in submitting a team, the guidelines are simple:
* provide an import of your team
* provide an explanation of your team
* provide replays / some other form of success with the team
Ideally, your post should look something like this: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/oras-ou-sample-teams.3571343/#post-6809216
If you don't appreciate these teams and want more options, go to the OU BAZAAR
Heatran @ Grassium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Solar Beam
SUMO Rain w QD Mosa by NJNP
Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 116 Def / 144 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Defog
- Roost
- Scald
- U-turn
Never Been Bad (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
Story Time (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 216 HP / 252 Def / 32 SpD / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
- Soft-Boiled
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this is a team i made about a month ago based around spikes greninja and coil zygarde. i've had decent success with it in the few games i've used it in, and i think it's a pretty solid build. greninja is the spike setter, a great fit for offense, beating up on defoggers such as tapu fini while also being generally threatening with its great speed tier and coverage. originally i was running the physically-biased set, but i had to change to hp fire about halfway through building once i realised i wasn't going to be able to fit a proper mega scizor check, and also didn't want to give up momentum to ferrothorn. zygarde is the offensive coil set that i wrote about here, it's a pretty good balance breaker that also doubles as a nice late-game wincon. gengar is a pheromosa check and also a good scarfer on spikes offense as it outpaces other scarfers such as keldeo and garchomp giving it a better chance to clean up once everything has been weakened. tangrowth provides a much needed check to threats such as ash-greninja and tapu koko, while also being a soft check to offensive ground-types such as zygarde and landorus. i decided to opt for a relaxed nature in order to better deal with the aforementioned ground-types, as well as a few other threats such as mega metagross and mega gyarados. mega metagross is my mega of choice, providing a fairy, psychic, and ice resist, pursuit is pretty much a necessity unless you plan to sack a pokemon to tapu lele or latios every time they come in. swords dance landorus-t rounds out the team by providing an actual ground immunity as well as a stealth rock setter. landorus usually acts as the mid-game breaker to pave the way for zygarde and gengar. ------------- replay: ost r2 vs -snow
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this is a team i made about a month ago based around spikes greninja and coil zygarde. i've had decent success with it in the few games i've used it in, and i think it's a pretty solid build. greninja is the spike setter, a great fit for offense, beating up on defoggers such as tapu fini while also being generally threatening with its great speed tier and coverage. originally i was running the physically-biased set, but i had to change to hp fire about halfway through building once i realised i wasn't going to be able to fit a proper mega scizor check, and also didn't want to give up momentum to ferrothorn. zygarde is the offensive coil set that i wrote about here, it's a pretty good balance breaker that also doubles as a nice late-game wincon. gengar is a pheromosa check and also a good scarfer on spikes offense as it outpaces other scarfers such as keldeo and garchomp giving it a better chance to clean up once everything has been weakened. tangrowth provides a much needed check to threats such as ash-greninja and tapu koko, while also being a soft check to offensive ground-types such as zygarde and landorus. i decided to opt for a relaxed nature in order to better deal with the aforementioned ground-types, as well as a few other threats such as mega metagross and mega gyarados. mega metagross is my mega of choice, providing a fairy, psychic, and ice resist, pursuit is pretty much a necessity unless you plan to sack a pokemon to tapu lele or latios every time they come in. swords dance landorus-t rounds out the team by providing an actual ground immunity as well as a stealth rock setter. landorus usually acts as the mid-game breaker to pave the way for zygarde and gengar. ------------- replay: ost r2 vs -snow
Disclaimer: I did not build this (or even use it)
Anyways I was kinda surprised not to see this team already, a bunch of people use it on the ladder and it's also had a fair amount of success in SPL, everyone knows it and has it but I figured this would be helpful for new players looking to get into competitive mons the right way
Sableye-Mega @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 116 Def / 144 SpD
Careful Nature
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
- Knock Off
- Recover
I don't know if we're supposed to post teams we didn't build but this team has been around for a while and I'm not sure if there's exactly someone who came up with it that would post it
ps: change the title to SM to fit with the other resources n_n
This is the updated version of my Shed Stall that I RMT'd in early SM (Sart), and that has been used successfully by several people on the ladder, and has also seen SPL usage.
-Sab/Shed/Duggy is the usual WonderTrio Core, with Sab being full SpD to handle Spikes Ninja, which otherwise is a big problem. It also helps with Heatran variants that run Taunt or Rocks. The mixed walling potential from earlier spreads isn't needed at all nowadays, since the only hazard setters you effectively beat are Skarm and Ferro anyways.
-Shed runs SBall over Shadow Sneak, because of Lando being everywhere and Chomp and Ferro seeing a decent amount of usage in tournaments. The loss in power is irrelevant, the only thing that can be annoying is the lower PP if you end up in a Stall mirror. The Shed IVs are minimized to make sure you always win vs the rare Dittos if Sash is still intact, and because you can't increase your bulk anyways. Speed tier allows you to underspeed Clef by 1 point to forcefully PP stall it with Duggy and Baton Pass.
-Duggy is also the usual stuff, but I dropped Screech to run both Pursuit (Gengar, Alowak, etc.) and Sucker (M-Meta if Shed can't come in/Meta has Pursuit, and M-Maw). Screech isn't that necessary, because this team handles enemy Chanseys rather easily anyways. Duggy IVs make sure you live 2 Seismic Tosses and end up at 1 HP for max BP Reversal, and to make sure you always live a Lava Plume + Burn from Utility Heatran. All other defensive stats are minimized to make sure you get to max BP Reversal range even from weak attacks.
- Chansey is the go-to spread (im gay) to help vs mixed attackers and Pursuit trappers coming in on a forced Softboiled etc., and still don't miss out on anything you walled with the outdated spread. Aromatherapy over Heal Bell because there are no mons that can Imprison Aroma, while there are some that can imprison Heal Bell, and Soundproof doesn't matter outside of Doubles. Toxic is necessary to more easily beat things like Volc, and helps wear down switchins. Counter can be used over Seismic for Bandtar, because most will try to Pursuit you, but you live anything not named Superpower too, which nets some surprise K.O.s. Rocks were left out, which might seem odd to most people, but as I like Pink Mons explained in another thread, rocks aren't necessary anymore for Stall, and only speed up the games; plus, you want to defog a lot anyways. You can still run them over Toxic but need to be aware of having a lot harder time to beat certain things.
- Quag is the generic spread and set, with Encore over things like Toxic or Curse, so you can actually beat SubCoil Zygarde with Toxic (which you'd otherwise need HP Ice Tang or Aroma Clef for), and is an Unaware mon that handles things like Char-X, Alowak (shaky) etc.
- Skarmory is also pretty standard and sadly mandatory on any Stall team nowadays because of Godorus-Therian. Defog and Roost are selfexplaining, Counter is the only way to even have a CHANCE of beating Z-Lando, but be aware that good players can still win this, as you need to win four 50/50s. Toxic is for any non rock-z-lando and other bulky grounds or switchins. Spikes was dropped for the same reason as Rocks above.
The idea of this team is to hit your opponents as hard as possible both physical and special. I managed to use this team to reach my first 1550 elo in the OU meta.
Anyhow here's how to use this team.
Excadrill - A suicide lead to setup stealth rocks as well as to clean opponent hazards with stealth rock and rapid spin respectively. Along with Stab earthquake and iron head excadrill is capable of setting hazards on the opponents field and to deal some damage before it gets knocked out. Focus sash ensures excadrill is able to at least setup stealth rock to break opposing sturdy, multiscale and focus sashes.
Zoroark - Because of zoroark's access to coverage moves such as flamethrower to hit ferrothorns scizors as well as other steel types hard as well as sludge bomb to deal heavy damage to Tapus, Zoroark is a valuable mon to have in any team. With its ability illusion, switching it in healthy disguising it as a kartana (which will be elaborated below) is a good method to force out opponents Tapu leles and finis fearing a super effective smart strike while obtaining a free turn of setting up nasty plot. A +2 zoroark in special attack can really do some heavy damage to mons like charizard feeling that they could use it to counter kartana (which is actually zoroark in disguise) with a stab night daze which on top has a respectable 40% chance to opponents foe's accuracy. Focus sash is preferred over life orb because opponents can identify zoroark after it sets up nasty plot and attacks with night daze and hence can be revenge killed easily. Focus sash ensures zoroark can take at least one hit and either continue hitting as hard as possible with a +2 special attack or it can be saved and disgused as another mon later in the battle as it does not take life orb damage which could keep its identity hidden for a second time. Lastly for zoroark, depending on your opponent's team, it is recommended to disguise zoroark as either greninja or Kartana and potentially beedrill mega after it has already mega evolved if your opponent is centralised when battling using a Landorus Therian or Tapu fini or whatever the situation that may arrive or simply if you predict the opponent will lead of with a ferrothorn. Make that judgement wisely as once zoroark gets touched it becomes unable to façade itself for the rest of the battle.
Tapu Lele - Tapu lele's main purpose is to switch into situations when an incoming priority move is predicted as psychic terrain enables all grounded mons to be safeguarded from priority attacks. With a strong 130 base special attack on top with a choice specs and within psychic terrain is capable to do heavy damage if not ohkoing mons that either don't resists psyshock or is a dark type. While talking about psyshock, psyshock uses the foe's defense stat to calculate damage hence it will do heavy damage to chansey and blissey or any specially defensive walls your foe may send. STAB Moonblast is capable of hitting foes with a weaker special defense than defense as well as dragons and dark type mons. Hidden power fire is capable of hitting mons such as mega scizor, ferrothorn and opponent steels super effectively and focus blast is a high base damaging move with good type coverage to hit types such as ice and rock.
Mega Beedrill - Primary fastest and hard hitting physical sweeper in the team. Idea is to attack a foe with a fell stinger in attempt to gain a +3 in attack and/or switch into a predicted grass attack such as a leaf storm from serperior or a power whip from a tangrowth and then retaliate with a super effective fell stinger. If mega beedrill does manage to get an attack boost via fell stinger, adaptability poison jab and X scissor is capable of dealing heavy damage if not downright ohkoing opponent foes. Drill run is a move to hit opponents if an opponent attempts to send out a steel type physical wall which is immune and resists to poison jab and x scissor respectively. Note that Mega beedrill is nearly helpless against landorus therian so it is recommended that mega beedrill switches into Greninja or tapu lele if you feel your opponent will switch into landorus therian in an attempt to wall your mega beedrill's sweeping power.
Ash-Greninja - the Special sweeping mon. The strategy of ash greninja is to equip it with choice specs and attempt to hit everything neutral to super effective with a powerful stab hydro pump especially against mons with weaker special defences. Water shuriken is a necessity as it has both sash/multiscale/sturdy breaking capabilities and a priority move to hit faster mons such as pheromosa which itself could not take hits very well. Send greninja against an already weakened foe and knock it out in order to activate battle bond. It is recommended that opponents tapu fini as well as bulky water/fairy types are first eliminated as they are an easy wall to greninja despite its massive 153 special attack and specs equipped.
Kartana - With the third highest attack behind only mega heracross and mega mewtwo, kartana is an absolute terror to opponents that don't resist its moves or just don't have strong physical defense. Idea of kartana is to force opponents fairies/water types out and setup with a swords dance. With a +2 in Attack and potentially higher thanks to beast boost, kartana is capable of almost ohkoing anything that either isn't bulky defensively or doesn't resists its STAB moves or sacred sword. Send Kartana out as a revenge killer and setup swords dance predicting a switch. Focus sash is the recommended item here due to downright weak special defences and allows kartana to deal an extra hit to opponents. A special reminder that Kartana has base 109 speed which on its own regard is respectable but falls short to the 110 base speed tier that outspeeds kartana which is also considered to be a very crowded speed tier. This includes mons such as latios and gengar. It is also recommended that Kartana battles under psychic terrain as several slower mons such as mega mawile cannot retaliate with a sucker punch which allows a propped focus sash kartana to strike first.
Just some team built around zard y and duggy sash spam having sash rocks chomp sash qd mosa and sash duggie. Chose zard y since i never built with in sun and moon (yet). then i added duggy since there was a core that has zard y and duggy. what duggy does is pretty much trap stuff like heatran magnezone and other mons that zard is weak to. then i added fini since having hazards up pretty much cripples most the team and breaking sashes and also something to eat up some decent hits. then on to chomp pretty this thing is just to set up rocks and die or set up a sd and do something before it dies. pheromosa the win con its SO good with quiver dance and beast boost letting it sweep due to its speed and nice special attack. and i added magerna for a ac user to pretty much eat up tapu koko's hits and lele's hits and other hard hitting sp.atk users and using this for a pivot with volt switch.
Just some team built around zard y and duggy sash spam having sash rocks chomp sash qd mosa and sash duggie. Chose zard y since i never built with in sun and moon (yet). then i added duggy since there was a core that has zard y and duggy. what duggy does is pretty much trap stuff like heatran magnezone and other mons that zard is weak to. then i added fini since having hazards up pretty much cripples most the team and breaking sashes and also something to eat up some decent hits. then on to chomp pretty this thing is just to set up rocks and die or set up a sd and do something before it dies. pheromosa the win con its SO good with quiver dance and beast boost letting it sweep due to its speed and nice special attack. and i added magerna for a ac user to pretty much eat up tapu koko's hits and lele's hits and other hard hitting sp.atk users and using this for a pivot with volt switch.
Hello i'd like to present you a team that was originally made by esteemed user ABR and altered by me to its final [and maybe best] form.
This bulky offense is build around the strong defensive synergy of Scizor + Zygarde + Tangrowth. The double U-Turn Core of Lando + Scizor creates a lot of opportunity to get our main breaker Gengar in safely on Tapu Finis or our set-up sweeper Zygarde on Heatrans for example. ABR used CB on Zyg but the team was really Scizor and even more stall weak and SubCoil provided an excellent win-condition against stall and balance builds. Keldeo is a perfect fit as a revenge killer because it further adds onto the defensive synergy while still maintaining offensive pressure. Also it's one of the best pokemon to pressure standard-SM-offenses. FlyiniumLando can be changed to hp icerocky helmet but the flying stab is really useful against bulky grass types like M-Venu/Tang and you still do a decent ton on DD Landos or other mons that try to set up on you.
When using this team you always have to beware of your gameplan asap because there are a lot mons in the smou-meta that can break teams on their own if the opponent plays carelessly. But if you know what you're doing then you are guaranteed to always have a shot at winning since it gets at least neutral matchup most of the time.
Not a bad team at all but i'd rather have scald on keldeo rather than surf. Sacrifice 10bp for a 30% chance to burn is well worth it and you get to shut down physical attackers as well. Secondly a modest nature on keldeo I feel is enough because scarf modest already outspeeds pheromosa the fastest ou mon. Unless you are trying to beat scarf lando T and scarf lele ofcourse.
Not a bad team at all but i'd rather have scald on keldeo rather than surf. Sacrifice 10bp for a 30% chance to burn is well worth it and you get to shut down physical attackers as well. Secondly a modest nature on keldeo I feel is enough because scarf modest already outspeeds pheromosa the fastest ou mon. Unless you are trying to beat scarf lando T and scarf lele ofcourse.
OML guys if you notice after you post images that they are gigantic, can you please try to find a smaller version of it instead of just leaving it there? It looks so bad to a point where it almost makes people not want to read the post lol. Serebii has like all the normal size item sprites fyi.
Hello i'd like to present you a team that was originally made by esteemed user ABR and altered by me to its final [and maybe best] form.
This bulky offense is build around the strong defensive synergy of Scizor + Zygarde + Tangrowth. The double U-Turn Core of Lando + Scizor creates a lot of opportunity to get our main breaker Gengar in safely on Tapu Finis or our set-up sweeper Zygarde on Heatrans for example. ABR used CB on Zyg but the team was really Scizor and even more stall weak and SubCoil provided an excellent win-condition against stall and balance builds. Keldeo is a perfect fit as a revenge killer because it further adds onto the defensive synergy while still maintaining offensive pressure. Also it's one of the best pokemon to pressure standard-SM-offenses. FlyiniumLando can be changed to hp icerocky helmet but the flying stab is really useful against bulky grass types like M-Venu/Tang and you still do a decent ton on DD Landos or other mons that try to set up on you.
When using this team you always have to beware of your gameplan asap because there are a lot mons in the smou-meta that can break teams on their own if the opponent plays carelessly. But if you know what you're doing then you are guaranteed to always have a shot at winning since it gets at least neutral matchup most of the time.
I'd use Stone Edge>U-Turn here, the team's extremely weak to Pinsir, at +2 it OHKOs pretty much everything after rocks and it can set up with ease on Tangrowth. Your only chance of beating it is going Lando the turn after it mega evolves to get the intimidate off and live +2 Return but with Z-Fly as your only move to hit it you have to hope your opp doesn't expect Stone Edge and stays in. If you lose that 50-50 and don't attack as they stay in or attack as they switch out it's pretty much over unless I'm missing something
Not a bad team at all but i'd rather have scald on keldeo rather than surf. Sacrifice 10bp for a 30% chance to burn is well worth it and you get to shut down physical attackers as well. Secondly a modest nature on keldeo I feel is enough because scarf modest already outspeeds pheromosa the fastest ou mon. Unless you are trying to beat scarf lando T and scarf lele ofcourse.
i dont really see how scald is a good option since fini is so common. And obviously fini makes it so scald doesnt burn because of its misty terrain ability.
Scald and Surf both have solid perks over each other. Scald's ability to catches things which try to take advantage of the fact that they expect a Water-type move, such as Ferrothorn or Tapu Bulu (who overwrites Misty Terrain) can often come in clutch and help in the long run. The extra BP on Surf, on the other hand, makes it a more consistent cleaning tool by slightly improving rolls, and furthermore 10 BP is small in the short term but makes a big difference as you use it over and over--snowballing from a 10 BP increase to a net 20 BP to a net 30 BP to a net 40 BP and so on.
Hey so this is a team I made a couple of weeks ago, and has been very consistent against most common builds, but is a little bit weak to Zard Y, Bloom Doom Tran, Volcorona, and Venusaur as well as a couple of other things I am struggling to think of. I'll note that Pokeaim posted a video on youtube not too long ago with a similar team, but the sets are all different and this team was an original and independent creation. Anyways here is the team:
Defensive End:
The team uses a fairly "standard.com" Tapu Fini + Tangrowth + Landorus core (with quite a bit of speed creep on Fini and Lando) to handle a large portion of the meta, really only missing out on the Pokemon I mentioned above and some stray threats such as Specs Gengar and Skystrike Celesteela. Landorus is Leftovers instead of Rocky Helmet, because I generally feel that Helmet leaves lando worn down way too quickly, and Helmet also prevents Lando from being able to get up rocks vs stall due to a lack of recovery. Tangrowth is HP fire to help punish leech seed ferrothorn and scizor switchins; although the ladder seems to be leaning towards HP ice, HP fire fits this team much better. Fini doesn't really have anything too interesting going on, its a standard Madness / Defog / Blast / Taunt set with some nice speed for opposing fini and lando.
Offensive End: Mawile is the main breaker of the team, with Ash-Greninja and Tapu Koko acting as offensive pressure with Volt-Turn to get Mawile in on fat stuff. Mawile is running a fairly standard swords dance + sucker punch set, with Thunder Punch over Fire Fang to help deal with Toxapex and Skarmory quickly and easily, Play Rough as the STAB move of choice because fairy resists are less common than steel resists (I think...), and Sucker Punch to help clean up weakened offensive teams as well as Magnezone and Dugtrio. I feel like I don't need to explain too much of what Ash-Gren and Koko do, but basically they are the main ways to move the game forwards vs opposing balanced / bulky offense builds that Mawile has a harder time crushing; these two also decimate hyper offense if played correctly. I think that electric z-move would be pretty nice on koko to get rid of bulky stuff that doesnt resist electric moves but can eat one or two t-bolts (such as Zapdos, Scizor, and Jirachi), but generally speaking magnet is nice for the increased damage. Life Orb would leave koko worn down really quickly, but if that doesnt bother you it's plenty viable.
Synergistic notes:
Basically the team functions best when Fini is kept healthy until mid or late-game, so that you can keep intiative with Natures Madness, prevent status on Mawile, and taunt defensive pokemon. SD on Landorus works incredibly well in conjunction with the offensive core, because you can easily switch in to physical attackers without losing momentum when the opponent switches into a pokemon such as Mandibuzz, which can eat an unboosted hit but loses 1v1 to +2 Landorus.
Hey so this is a team I made a couple of weeks ago, and has been very consistent against most common builds, but is a little bit weak to Zard Y, Bloom Doom Tran, Volcorona, and Venusaur as well as a couple of other things I am struggling to think of. I'll note that Pokeaim posted a video on youtube not too long ago with a similar team, but the sets are all different and this team was an original and independent creation. Anyways here is the team:
Defensive End:
The team uses a fairly "standard.com" Tapu Fini + Tangrowth + Landorus core (with quite a bit of speed creep on Fini and Lando) to handle a large portion of the meta, really only missing out on the Pokemon I mentioned above and some stray threats such as Specs Gengar and Skystrike Celesteela. Landorus is Leftovers instead of Rocky Helmet, because I generally feel that Helmet leaves lando worn down way too quickly, and Helmet also prevents Lando from being able to get up rocks vs stall due to a lack of recovery. Tangrowth is HP fire to help punish leech seed ferrothorn and scizor switchins; although the ladder seems to be leaning towards HP ice, HP fire fits this team much better. Fini doesn't really have anything too interesting going on, its a standard Madness / Defog / Blast / Taunt set with some nice speed for opposing fini and lando.
Offensive End: Mawile is the main breaker of the team, with Ash-Greninja and Tapu Koko acting as offensive pressure with Volt-Turn to get Mawile in on fat stuff. Mawile is running a fairly standard swords dance + sucker punch set, with Thunder Punch over Fire Fang to help deal with Toxapex and Skarmory quickly and easily, Play Rough as the STAB move of choice because fairy resists are less common than steel resists (I think...), and Sucker Punch to help clean up weakened offensive teams as well as Magnezone and Dugtrio. I feel like I don't need to explain too much of what Ash-Gren and Koko do, but basically they are the main ways to move the game forwards vs opposing balanced / bulky offense builds that Mawile has a harder time crushing; these two also decimate hyper offense if played correctly. I think that electric z-move would be pretty nice on koko to get rid of bulky stuff that doesnt resist electric moves but can eat one or two t-bolts (such as Zapdos, Scizor, and Jirachi), but generally speaking magnet is nice for the increased damage. Life Orb would leave koko worn down really quickly, but if that doesnt bother you it's plenty viable.
Synergistic notes:
Basically the team functions best when Fini is kept healthy until mid or late-game, so that you can keep intiative with Natures Madness, prevent status on Mawile, and taunt defensive pokemon. SD on Landorus works incredibly well in conjunction with the offensive core, because you can easily switch in to physical attackers without losing momentum when the opponent switches into a pokemon such as Mandibuzz, which can eat an unboosted hit but loses 1v1 to +2 Landorus.
Yo I know that you said you've been pretty consistent with the team but honestly I would really try to fix your Zard-Y and Volc weakness because it's actually insane. Zard-Y gets plenty of opportunities vs your team to come in and spam Fire Blast, forcing you to sack a mon practically every time it comes in which seems like it would be often. You also have nothing to check a +1 Volcarona, and too many of your mons give it a free set up opportunity. This also goes for practically any other major sweeper as well. Gyarados is also a huge threat, being able to set up on Fini, Growth, and Ash locked into a Water move, and then proceeding to run through your 6.
Scarfers are basically mandatory in this meta unless you have solid counterplay to the common sweepers in the tier or other means of dealing with them, and outside of Ash Gren's Water Shuriken, which fails to OHKO Volcarona at +1 without a decent amount of prior damage, you will almost always have immense amount of trouble dealing with it, if not auto-losing to anyone that knows how to properly use it. Zard-Y switch-ins aren't necessarily mandatory, but on your kind of build which leans more towards bulky offense which it often capitalizes on, you definitely need something other than just Koko, because losing a mon every time it comes in is pretty bad. If I were you I would try to throw some kind of Scarfer on their like Garchomp, Terrakion, or Nihilego, because this team absolutely needs better counter play vs these mons which it is currently severely lacking in and can really make these match ups a massive headache.
Yo I know that you said you've been pretty consistent with the team but honestly I would really try to fix your Zard-Y and Volc weakness because it's actually insane. Zard-Y gets plenty of opportunities vs your team to come in and spam Fire Blast, forcing you to sack a mon practically every time it comes in which seems like it would be often. You also have nothing to check a +1 Volcarona, and too many of your mons give it a free set up opportunity. This also goes for practically any other major sweeper as well. Gyarados is also a huge threat, being able to set up on Fini, Growth, and Ash locked into a Water move, and then proceeding to run through your 6.
Scarfers are basically mandatory in this meta unless you have solid counterplay to the common sweepers in the tier or other means of dealing with them, and outside of Ash Gren's Water Shuriken, which fails to OHKO Volcarona at +1 without a decent amount of prior damage, you will almost always have immense amount of trouble dealing with it, if not auto-losing to anyone that knows how to properly use it. Zard-Y switch-ins aren't necessarily mandatory, but on your kind of build which leans more towards bulky offense which it often capitalizes on, you definitely need something other than just Koko, because losing a mon every time it comes in is pretty bad. If I were you I would try to throw some kind of Scarfer on their like Garchomp, Terrakion, or Nihilego, because this team absolutely needs better counter play vs these mons which it is currently severely lacking in and can really make these match ups a massive headache.
Thanks for the reply Gary, I definitely agree with everything you said.
I guess one easy change to fix the zard/volc issue is mantine over fini, but mantine loses a ton of initiative and is generally bad in the current meta. As far as your point about lack of scarfers, I haven't been able to find a good teamslot to replace with scarf chomp in testing, which is probably a bit better for this team than lego or terrak to prevent duggie and metagross weaknessses.
Once again I appreciate your analysis, I kind of struggle to build teams that aren't weak to one or two build styles, this team just happens to be zard y.
Small nitpick but on the 3 ATK Zapdos + Banded Zygarde Balance team the Zapdos lacks Defog or a set that abuses Pressure (SubToxic) so please change the ability to Static before people start using the wrong ability accidentally and miss on potential crucial paralyzes.
Small nitpick but on the 3 ATK Zapdos + Banded Zygarde Balance team the Zapdos lacks Defog or a set that abuses Pressure (SubToxic) so please change the ability to Static before people start using the wrong ability accidentally and miss on potential crucial paralyzes.
