INTRODUCTION:
hai everyone (: this is my team. its been extremely successful for me, achieving #3 on ladder with 2016 ELO and 87 GXE. it has a w/l ratio of 81-29 out of 110 games. attached is a screenshot showing proof of peak and gxe.
offense is perhaps one of the best playstyles to use right now, with so many different variants that its impossible to cover all of them without being weak to some form of offense. rain, sash spam, tr, hailveil, screens, webs are all so prominent and decently common that its not even fair to call any one of those "gimmicky" or "cheese" anymore; they're essentially standard. i knew that i wanted to use offense to climb the ladder, and i was sick of all those different variants of offense being spammed on ladder. i set out to make a team that didnt need to waste time or moves/mons to set up rain/tr/screens/hail/webs or whatever, just all out standard offense. this team coincidentally enough has a very good matchup vs opposing offenses being spammed, due to me utilizing three outstanding forms of speed control sweepers (unburden hawlucha/tr magearna/scarf serperior). it also has some what of an unpredictability factor, as when people initially glance through this team they may assume its typical koko screens offense, with bulky double boosting zygarde + magearna behind screens, or glare spam with screens with zygarde + serp, but that isnt the case and opponents may pay the price drastically if they dont realize this quickly enough.
moveslots/items that are not standard will be in RED and BOLD
TEAM AT A GLANCE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Ice]
First up is tapu koko. it has several primary functions that it serves in conjunction with the rest of the team members. 1) it provides insane pivoting and momentum grabbing abilities with volt switch and the 2 most used ground types dont really want to switch in for fear of being ohkoed 2) it provides electric terrain support necessary for hawlucha to get its crucial unburden speed boost and defense boost, as well as powering up magearna 3) it breaks through fat and offensive shit alike with specs thunders/dazzling gleams.
everything here listed is standard and no i will not be changing thunder to thunderbolt. this koko set was chosen because upon glancing at my team during team preview a lot of players assume its some bulky taunt koko with screens to support the bulky set up mons such as magearna and zygarde. specs is a nice surprise for people who assume this and blasts huge holes in the opposing team very early in the game.
honestly, i initially had thunder > thunderbolt here as a mistake, as i wanted thunderbolt but accidentally clicked thunder in the teambuilder. however after using thunder by accident in the first game, ive never once looked back. ik the low accuracy turns a lot of people off but the HUUUUGE damage difference, as well as the 30% paralysis chance is definitely worth it to me. for instance, thunder ohkoes offensive heatran from full, ohkoes max hp heatran after sr (this one is big, because once the heatran dies, my serperior and magearna can wreck the remainder of the team), ohkoes defensive clefable, ohkoes defensive zapdos, ohkoes offensive magearna, and does sufficient damage to av magearna and weakens it enough to the point where it can no longer check my own magearna. it also 2hkoes latios on the switch
thunder calcs:
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Heatran in Electric Terrain: 309-364 (95.6 - 112.6%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Heatran in Electric Terrain: 310-366 (80.3 - 94.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Clefable in Electric Terrain: 357-420 (90.6 - 106.5%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Zapdos in Electric Terrain: 357-420 (93.2 - 109.6%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Magearna in Electric Terrain: 288-339 (95.6 - 112.6%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
Hawlucha @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- High Jump Kick
- Acrobatics
- Roost
Hawlucha is the first cleaner out of the three primary sweepers I have on my team. hawlucha, in a nutshell, just wins games. with the defense boost it gains from electric seed and unburden it can set up on so much shit such as kart and bulu as well as scarf lando-t since this set utilizes roost. it can also act as a nice one time revenge killer since its speed is doubled so it can outspeed +1 volcarona/+2 mega ttar/+1 zard-x (you cant kill zard-x but hjk + flare blitz recoil pretty much means dead zard-x). hawlucha is one of the toughest sweepers to revenge kill for opposing offense teams, since its immune to sticky webs, outpaces scarf ditto, and is faster than all swift swimmers under rain. because ppl tend to utilize mimikyu on sticky webs to handle hawlucha, you can sacrifice hawlucha to get rid of mimikyu's disguise, and then they will have no way to stop the tr magearna/serperior later on.
hawlucha has a handful of checks and the remainder of the team seeks to weaken them sufficiently/remove them entirely to assist hawlucha's sweep. clef is perhaps the most splashable one since it lives +2 acrobatics and moonblasts back, which is why the zygarde set later on is designed to 2hko clef at +1 and kill it so it can longer stop the hawlucha. skarm/zapdos are common ones for defensive/balanced teams, which is what sd mega pinsir is there for so you can weaken those two enough that hawlucha can sweep later on if you have sr up. acid armor reuinclus is another one thats recently gaining popularity, and the zygarde set you see later on deals with that as well. mega latias with psychic is one of the ones where hawlucha cant kill it, but it weakens it enough with +2 acrobatics that it can no longer handle the scarf serperior later on.
this spread has 188 speed EVs to outpace the vast majority of other hawluchas. the hp evs in conjunction with the defense boost means you have enough bulk to set up on a plethora of pokemon such as kart, bulu, non z-fly lando-t, and mega gyara.
Pinsir-Mega @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Return
- Close Combat
pinsir has several roles on this team. first off, its the rock setter which is very uncommon and throws off many opponents. it also aims to weaken the opponent's team early on, specifically, many mons that hawlucha has trouble dealing with so that hawlucha can sweep later on.
i put sr on mega pinsir just cuz rocks are pretty much mandatory on every team and no other mon here can learn SR, but sr mega pinsir is actually legitimately good. pinsir can switch in on a handful of mons in the current meta and set up rocks while they're forced out, such as tang/bulu/non z-fly/stoneedge lando-t/chansey/clef.
i dont have quick attack here because although it would help out a bit vs offensive teams, sd + sr just breaks through so much bulky shit and pressures stallier teams way more that sd was too much to pass up. its not like this team has trouble dealing with opposing offensive teams anyways.
this set pressures the hell out of defog skarm/zappy. since those mons are found on more defensive teams, you get pinsir in on something that it forces out, such as tang. you then sr as they switch out, in this case skarm. you can then sd up as they defog, sr again as they brave bird you which doesnt kill. now you have rocks up and a +2 mpinsir vs a skarm that just took hefty recoil from BB, so you can threaten it with +2 CC which does 60. they have two options: 1) let skarm fall to mpinsir to defog and get rid of rocks 2) kill the mpinsir with a 2nd BB, and let rocks stay up on their side of the field while their skarm is now at around 20% health, and is by all intents and purposes, death fodder for the remainder of the match. if its non BB skarm and counter instead, they cant even pressure you so you can literally keep SR'ing/SD'ing as they counter/defog and then bring them to 1% with +6 CC with rocks still up.
vs zapdos, its the same concept. you sr on the switch, they defog as you sd up. you can then set up rocks again while they fail to ohko you with discharge. if you're feeling ballsy, you can even stay regular form for this so discharge does even less. now you have a +2 mpinsir thats about to die vs a zappy and sr up on their side of the field. you can now do 55% dmg to the defensive zapdos (if its fast zapdos it does like 75%) and they again have 2 options 1) defog to clear rocks and let zap fall to mpinsir the next turn 2) kill the mpinsir with around 40% of their health remaining, and sr up. you can then force out zapdos the next turn, and after sr, the zap is pretty much death fodder later on and is in no condition to handle hawlucha.
mpinsir 2hkoes every single defensive unaware pokemon found on stall. CC > EQ on this team to pressure the hell out of skarm for hawlucha.
Zygarde @ Soft Sand
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Dragon Tail
although this zygarde set can potentially sweep, and it has a handful of times, thats not the ultimate purpose for it. its main use is as a durable fire and electric resist which are both mandatory for my team, and to blow holes in the opposing team for the 3 main sweepers. special shoutout to robopoke for coming up with this during olt and it becoming a very rare but somewhat discovered set.
this is a very offensive zygarde set thats only handled by a couple of things in OU: tang/bulu, and defensive unaware mons. in the case of tang/bulu, and you can make a case of buzzwole here as well, hawlucha and pinsir are supposed to pressure those heavily enough. this zygarde has soft sand so it can 2hko MG clef at +1 so it dies and they dont have a clef for the hawlucha anymore. soft sand in general makes zygarde's 1k arrows extremely strong, and an unboosted soft sand 1k arrows + extreme speed the next turn ohkoes practically the vast majority of offensive pokemon, such as mega latios after SR. it also beats scarf lando-t, since you can DD on the switch, dd again as they hp ice/eq, then ohko them with soft sand 1k arrows after sr.
dragon tail is primarily there for curse mega scizor and acid armor reuniclus, as those two are getting much more popular as of late and numerous people are using those as their primary zygarde check. with this set, you can boost alongside with them and then dragon tail them out, so now you're at +2 or +3 so they can no longer take you on after coming in a second time. dragon tail also has several other uses, such as fucking up opposing hawluchas which can be pretty dangerous since mpinsir doesnt have quick attack. with zygarde having dragon tail, opposing hawlucha can never find an opportunity to set up vs my team (other than scarf serp which is usually only revealed at the very end game). dragon tail also allows you to beat opposing coil zygarde 1 v 1, and intimidate gyarados looking for an opportunity to set up. oh, plus it outpaces skarm's counter so counter skarm is absolutely useless vs you.
Magearna @ Fairium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick Room
- Fleur Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Magearna is the second primary sweeper on this team and turns over speed control completely. Although its only temporarily, these 4-5 turns can absolutely break opposing offensive teams that have no way to stop magearna from steamrolling through and getting spatk boosts along the way.
i personally think SG magearna is shit. i would never use a SG magearna + 3 atks. the only time i would ever run SG magearna in general is if its paired with calm mind, since TR doesnt have the time to be setting up CM and that usually requires veil/screen support. i like tr > SG because it allows you to run max hp and have an absurd amount of bulk, so you can live stuff that uninvested SG cant such as lando-t/chomp eq, +2 hawlucha hjk, +1 gyara eq, and specs ash gren hydro pump, and then proceed to own all of them. ignoring the bulk, TR magearna also deals with a lot of other things that SG has trouble with, such as faster swift swimmers, sand exca, scarf kartana, sticky webs, and scarf ditto.
with specs koko thunders destroying heatran and weakening av magearna enough, tr magearna literally just wins vs most opposing offensive teams. with z-fleur picking up a kill and you getting a spatk boost, you can get 1 z-fleur and 1 +1 spatk fleur without lowering your spatk at all. hp fire > focus blast/flash cannon in this case primarily for curse/sd mega scizor which is an absolute bastard. it also has 100% acc vs ferro
Serperior @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Dragon Pulse
- Defog
serperior is the third and last of the primary sweepers on this team. scarf serperior is definitely unconventional, as most people would rather just utilize scarf kartana in this slot or something else. however, imo, scarf serp isnt even bad at all once you get rid of the grass resists on the opposing team and it has several key advantages in comparison to scarf kartana:
1) as a scarf grass type one of the most basic things i'd expect for it to do is to outspeed and check ash greninja which is a nightmare for offensive teams. scarf kartana definitely cant switch in on ash gren, so then your team has 0 switch ins to the specs gren and you have no way to stop it from changing into ash forme. scarf kart can force it out once maybe, but it can just switch out and specs water shruiken literally does 90% to kartana. scarf serp at least switches in on gren decently, can tank hydro, prevent gren from going ash forme, and even if it does go ash forme later on in the game, scarf serp outspeeds and forces it out (or grabs a surprise kill) and water shruiken does pitiful damage to you.
2) its actually slightly faster than kart, which means scarf serp can outspeed jolly pert in rain and kart cant. speaking of rain, scarf serp handles water shruikens in rain a lot better than kart and doesnt take rh dmage from torn-t
3) leaf storm boosts twice as fast as kart's beast boost and you dont even need to get a kill for that to happen
4) sticky webs neutralizes kart's scarf but for serp you get an additional +1 speed
ive played 110 games with this team and i think ive used a move other than leaf storm on serp maybe around 5 times. leaf storm is obv the main spammable move here that cleans up and boosts simultaneously vs opposing teams and is used 98% of the time. hp fire is for ferro/sciz/skarm, defog is there if a team overloads this team with hazards and i need to remove them in a pinch, and i honestly havent used dragon pulse ever but hypothetically it can be used as a last ditch option to somewhat damage +1 zard-x, kyub, and lati@s.
scarf serperior also has another major role for this team and thats severely weakening av magearna so that my own tr magearna can sweep. leaf storm the av mag switch, +2 leaf storm again while they fail to kill with fleur/ice beam, and finally +4 leaf storm again as they kill you. this does around 62% dmg to the av magearna altogether, so after rocks they only have around 25% of their health left which means tr magearna later on has a field day. of course, the av magearna can just volt switch out, but that just makes things worse for them since you just keep on boosting.
THREATLIST:
i just want to say that MG clef is by no means a threat to this team at all, as every single pokemon on this team either beats it or pressures it heavily. specs koko ohkoes with thunder, zygarde 2hkoes it at +1, and hawlucha does 80% to it with +2 acrobatics and moonblast doesnt even ohko all the time. unaware clefable with wish + protect, however, is one of the worst threats for this team as it ignores every boost, meaning zygarde and hawlucha are utterly walled by it. serp's contrary boosts and mag's soul heart boosts are ignored as well, and wish + protect have 2 PP which means it drains out the 8 pp that fleur cannon and leaf storm has incredibly quickly. the only way to threaten unaware clef is through specs koko and mega pinsir, and mega pinsir usually doesnt live that long enough for it to do that consistently since its 4x weak to sr and is your rocker as well.
hai everyone (: this is my team. its been extremely successful for me, achieving #3 on ladder with 2016 ELO and 87 GXE. it has a w/l ratio of 81-29 out of 110 games. attached is a screenshot showing proof of peak and gxe.
offense is perhaps one of the best playstyles to use right now, with so many different variants that its impossible to cover all of them without being weak to some form of offense. rain, sash spam, tr, hailveil, screens, webs are all so prominent and decently common that its not even fair to call any one of those "gimmicky" or "cheese" anymore; they're essentially standard. i knew that i wanted to use offense to climb the ladder, and i was sick of all those different variants of offense being spammed on ladder. i set out to make a team that didnt need to waste time or moves/mons to set up rain/tr/screens/hail/webs or whatever, just all out standard offense. this team coincidentally enough has a very good matchup vs opposing offenses being spammed, due to me utilizing three outstanding forms of speed control sweepers (unburden hawlucha/tr magearna/scarf serperior). it also has some what of an unpredictability factor, as when people initially glance through this team they may assume its typical koko screens offense, with bulky double boosting zygarde + magearna behind screens, or glare spam with screens with zygarde + serp, but that isnt the case and opponents may pay the price drastically if they dont realize this quickly enough.
moveslots/items that are not standard will be in RED and BOLD
TEAM AT A GLANCE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Ice]
First up is tapu koko. it has several primary functions that it serves in conjunction with the rest of the team members. 1) it provides insane pivoting and momentum grabbing abilities with volt switch and the 2 most used ground types dont really want to switch in for fear of being ohkoed 2) it provides electric terrain support necessary for hawlucha to get its crucial unburden speed boost and defense boost, as well as powering up magearna 3) it breaks through fat and offensive shit alike with specs thunders/dazzling gleams.
everything here listed is standard and no i will not be changing thunder to thunderbolt. this koko set was chosen because upon glancing at my team during team preview a lot of players assume its some bulky taunt koko with screens to support the bulky set up mons such as magearna and zygarde. specs is a nice surprise for people who assume this and blasts huge holes in the opposing team very early in the game.
honestly, i initially had thunder > thunderbolt here as a mistake, as i wanted thunderbolt but accidentally clicked thunder in the teambuilder. however after using thunder by accident in the first game, ive never once looked back. ik the low accuracy turns a lot of people off but the HUUUUGE damage difference, as well as the 30% paralysis chance is definitely worth it to me. for instance, thunder ohkoes offensive heatran from full, ohkoes max hp heatran after sr (this one is big, because once the heatran dies, my serperior and magearna can wreck the remainder of the team), ohkoes defensive clefable, ohkoes defensive zapdos, ohkoes offensive magearna, and does sufficient damage to av magearna and weakens it enough to the point where it can no longer check my own magearna. it also 2hkoes latios on the switch
thunder calcs:
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Heatran in Electric Terrain: 309-364 (95.6 - 112.6%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Heatran in Electric Terrain: 310-366 (80.3 - 94.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Clefable in Electric Terrain: 357-420 (90.6 - 106.5%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Zapdos in Electric Terrain: 357-420 (93.2 - 109.6%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Magearna in Electric Terrain: 288-339 (95.6 - 112.6%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
Hawlucha @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- High Jump Kick
- Acrobatics
- Roost
Hawlucha is the first cleaner out of the three primary sweepers I have on my team. hawlucha, in a nutshell, just wins games. with the defense boost it gains from electric seed and unburden it can set up on so much shit such as kart and bulu as well as scarf lando-t since this set utilizes roost. it can also act as a nice one time revenge killer since its speed is doubled so it can outspeed +1 volcarona/+2 mega ttar/+1 zard-x (you cant kill zard-x but hjk + flare blitz recoil pretty much means dead zard-x). hawlucha is one of the toughest sweepers to revenge kill for opposing offense teams, since its immune to sticky webs, outpaces scarf ditto, and is faster than all swift swimmers under rain. because ppl tend to utilize mimikyu on sticky webs to handle hawlucha, you can sacrifice hawlucha to get rid of mimikyu's disguise, and then they will have no way to stop the tr magearna/serperior later on.
hawlucha has a handful of checks and the remainder of the team seeks to weaken them sufficiently/remove them entirely to assist hawlucha's sweep. clef is perhaps the most splashable one since it lives +2 acrobatics and moonblasts back, which is why the zygarde set later on is designed to 2hko clef at +1 and kill it so it can longer stop the hawlucha. skarm/zapdos are common ones for defensive/balanced teams, which is what sd mega pinsir is there for so you can weaken those two enough that hawlucha can sweep later on if you have sr up. acid armor reuinclus is another one thats recently gaining popularity, and the zygarde set you see later on deals with that as well. mega latias with psychic is one of the ones where hawlucha cant kill it, but it weakens it enough with +2 acrobatics that it can no longer handle the scarf serperior later on.
this spread has 188 speed EVs to outpace the vast majority of other hawluchas. the hp evs in conjunction with the defense boost means you have enough bulk to set up on a plethora of pokemon such as kart, bulu, non z-fly lando-t, and mega gyara.
Pinsir-Mega @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Return
- Close Combat
pinsir has several roles on this team. first off, its the rock setter which is very uncommon and throws off many opponents. it also aims to weaken the opponent's team early on, specifically, many mons that hawlucha has trouble dealing with so that hawlucha can sweep later on.
i put sr on mega pinsir just cuz rocks are pretty much mandatory on every team and no other mon here can learn SR, but sr mega pinsir is actually legitimately good. pinsir can switch in on a handful of mons in the current meta and set up rocks while they're forced out, such as tang/bulu/non z-fly/stoneedge lando-t/chansey/clef.
i dont have quick attack here because although it would help out a bit vs offensive teams, sd + sr just breaks through so much bulky shit and pressures stallier teams way more that sd was too much to pass up. its not like this team has trouble dealing with opposing offensive teams anyways.
this set pressures the hell out of defog skarm/zappy. since those mons are found on more defensive teams, you get pinsir in on something that it forces out, such as tang. you then sr as they switch out, in this case skarm. you can then sd up as they defog, sr again as they brave bird you which doesnt kill. now you have rocks up and a +2 mpinsir vs a skarm that just took hefty recoil from BB, so you can threaten it with +2 CC which does 60. they have two options: 1) let skarm fall to mpinsir to defog and get rid of rocks 2) kill the mpinsir with a 2nd BB, and let rocks stay up on their side of the field while their skarm is now at around 20% health, and is by all intents and purposes, death fodder for the remainder of the match. if its non BB skarm and counter instead, they cant even pressure you so you can literally keep SR'ing/SD'ing as they counter/defog and then bring them to 1% with +6 CC with rocks still up.
vs zapdos, its the same concept. you sr on the switch, they defog as you sd up. you can then set up rocks again while they fail to ohko you with discharge. if you're feeling ballsy, you can even stay regular form for this so discharge does even less. now you have a +2 mpinsir thats about to die vs a zappy and sr up on their side of the field. you can now do 55% dmg to the defensive zapdos (if its fast zapdos it does like 75%) and they again have 2 options 1) defog to clear rocks and let zap fall to mpinsir the next turn 2) kill the mpinsir with around 40% of their health remaining, and sr up. you can then force out zapdos the next turn, and after sr, the zap is pretty much death fodder later on and is in no condition to handle hawlucha.
mpinsir 2hkoes every single defensive unaware pokemon found on stall. CC > EQ on this team to pressure the hell out of skarm for hawlucha.
Zygarde @ Soft Sand
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Dragon Tail
although this zygarde set can potentially sweep, and it has a handful of times, thats not the ultimate purpose for it. its main use is as a durable fire and electric resist which are both mandatory for my team, and to blow holes in the opposing team for the 3 main sweepers. special shoutout to robopoke for coming up with this during olt and it becoming a very rare but somewhat discovered set.
this is a very offensive zygarde set thats only handled by a couple of things in OU: tang/bulu, and defensive unaware mons. in the case of tang/bulu, and you can make a case of buzzwole here as well, hawlucha and pinsir are supposed to pressure those heavily enough. this zygarde has soft sand so it can 2hko MG clef at +1 so it dies and they dont have a clef for the hawlucha anymore. soft sand in general makes zygarde's 1k arrows extremely strong, and an unboosted soft sand 1k arrows + extreme speed the next turn ohkoes practically the vast majority of offensive pokemon, such as mega latios after SR. it also beats scarf lando-t, since you can DD on the switch, dd again as they hp ice/eq, then ohko them with soft sand 1k arrows after sr.
dragon tail is primarily there for curse mega scizor and acid armor reuniclus, as those two are getting much more popular as of late and numerous people are using those as their primary zygarde check. with this set, you can boost alongside with them and then dragon tail them out, so now you're at +2 or +3 so they can no longer take you on after coming in a second time. dragon tail also has several other uses, such as fucking up opposing hawluchas which can be pretty dangerous since mpinsir doesnt have quick attack. with zygarde having dragon tail, opposing hawlucha can never find an opportunity to set up vs my team (other than scarf serp which is usually only revealed at the very end game). dragon tail also allows you to beat opposing coil zygarde 1 v 1, and intimidate gyarados looking for an opportunity to set up. oh, plus it outpaces skarm's counter so counter skarm is absolutely useless vs you.
Magearna @ Fairium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick Room
- Fleur Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Magearna is the second primary sweeper on this team and turns over speed control completely. Although its only temporarily, these 4-5 turns can absolutely break opposing offensive teams that have no way to stop magearna from steamrolling through and getting spatk boosts along the way.
i personally think SG magearna is shit. i would never use a SG magearna + 3 atks. the only time i would ever run SG magearna in general is if its paired with calm mind, since TR doesnt have the time to be setting up CM and that usually requires veil/screen support. i like tr > SG because it allows you to run max hp and have an absurd amount of bulk, so you can live stuff that uninvested SG cant such as lando-t/chomp eq, +2 hawlucha hjk, +1 gyara eq, and specs ash gren hydro pump, and then proceed to own all of them. ignoring the bulk, TR magearna also deals with a lot of other things that SG has trouble with, such as faster swift swimmers, sand exca, scarf kartana, sticky webs, and scarf ditto.
with specs koko thunders destroying heatran and weakening av magearna enough, tr magearna literally just wins vs most opposing offensive teams. with z-fleur picking up a kill and you getting a spatk boost, you can get 1 z-fleur and 1 +1 spatk fleur without lowering your spatk at all. hp fire > focus blast/flash cannon in this case primarily for curse/sd mega scizor which is an absolute bastard. it also has 100% acc vs ferro
Serperior @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Dragon Pulse
- Defog
serperior is the third and last of the primary sweepers on this team. scarf serperior is definitely unconventional, as most people would rather just utilize scarf kartana in this slot or something else. however, imo, scarf serp isnt even bad at all once you get rid of the grass resists on the opposing team and it has several key advantages in comparison to scarf kartana:
1) as a scarf grass type one of the most basic things i'd expect for it to do is to outspeed and check ash greninja which is a nightmare for offensive teams. scarf kartana definitely cant switch in on ash gren, so then your team has 0 switch ins to the specs gren and you have no way to stop it from changing into ash forme. scarf kart can force it out once maybe, but it can just switch out and specs water shruiken literally does 90% to kartana. scarf serp at least switches in on gren decently, can tank hydro, prevent gren from going ash forme, and even if it does go ash forme later on in the game, scarf serp outspeeds and forces it out (or grabs a surprise kill) and water shruiken does pitiful damage to you.
2) its actually slightly faster than kart, which means scarf serp can outspeed jolly pert in rain and kart cant. speaking of rain, scarf serp handles water shruikens in rain a lot better than kart and doesnt take rh dmage from torn-t
3) leaf storm boosts twice as fast as kart's beast boost and you dont even need to get a kill for that to happen
4) sticky webs neutralizes kart's scarf but for serp you get an additional +1 speed
ive played 110 games with this team and i think ive used a move other than leaf storm on serp maybe around 5 times. leaf storm is obv the main spammable move here that cleans up and boosts simultaneously vs opposing teams and is used 98% of the time. hp fire is for ferro/sciz/skarm, defog is there if a team overloads this team with hazards and i need to remove them in a pinch, and i honestly havent used dragon pulse ever but hypothetically it can be used as a last ditch option to somewhat damage +1 zard-x, kyub, and lati@s.
scarf serperior also has another major role for this team and thats severely weakening av magearna so that my own tr magearna can sweep. leaf storm the av mag switch, +2 leaf storm again while they fail to kill with fleur/ice beam, and finally +4 leaf storm again as they kill you. this does around 62% dmg to the av magearna altogether, so after rocks they only have around 25% of their health left which means tr magearna later on has a field day. of course, the av magearna can just volt switch out, but that just makes things worse for them since you just keep on boosting.
THREATLIST:
i just want to say that MG clef is by no means a threat to this team at all, as every single pokemon on this team either beats it or pressures it heavily. specs koko ohkoes with thunder, zygarde 2hkoes it at +1, and hawlucha does 80% to it with +2 acrobatics and moonblast doesnt even ohko all the time. unaware clefable with wish + protect, however, is one of the worst threats for this team as it ignores every boost, meaning zygarde and hawlucha are utterly walled by it. serp's contrary boosts and mag's soul heart boosts are ignored as well, and wish + protect have 2 PP which means it drains out the 8 pp that fleur cannon and leaf storm has incredibly quickly. the only way to threaten unaware clef is through specs koko and mega pinsir, and mega pinsir usually doesnt live that long enough for it to do that consistently since its 4x weak to sr and is your rocker as well.
