OU SS OU Teambuilding Competition - Week 15 : Blacephalon

[Macaco Socialista]

Blacephalon Bulky Offense Ft. Rillaboom







I built this team around Choice Specs Blacephalon Because It’s one of those Pokémon that can completely take over games if you give it the right support — Specs-boosted Flamethrower and Shadow Ball are insane, and Trick just makes defensive cores crumble.

To make it shine, I paired it with Future Sight Slowbro, which has amazing synergy with Blacephalon. Together they put a lot of pressure on common pivots like Toxapex, Tornadus-T and Heatran. (trick can also be used against chansey and tyranitar which is somewhat useful but doesn't exactly put pressure on them) Once those are weakened, Rillaboom comes in as the team’s physical breaker and cleaner. The SD + Drain Punch set helps it outlast bulkier teams while still threatening offensive ones with Grassy Glide priority.

The backbone of the team is pretty classic but really solid. Heatran handles special attackers and traps stuff like Corviknight or Clefable with Magma Storm + Taunt, Garchomp sets up Rocks and spreads Toxic, and Tornadus-T keeps hazards off and keeps momentum flowing with U-turn. Everything ties together really well — it’s the kind of team where you’re constantly making progress without ever feeling like you have to sit back.

Overall, it’s a bulky offense that plays fast without being fragile. You’ve got Blacephalon nuking holes early, Rillaboom cleaning late, and a defensive trio that can handle pretty much anything in etween, Just a small detail, this team doesn't have safe switches for ghost types, so be careful against dragapult specs and enemy blacephalon specs. (It's my first rtm so sorry for any mistakes or anything like that)

 

[Octiosling]

Double Ghost Grassy Terrain
I'm aware that this is a known structure, but when talking about this team over on the SwSh discord, someone brought up a really unorthodox Blace set that's worked out really well in practice.

The set in question is Specs Blace with only 20 SpA EVs. With this spread, you get a speed boost from Beast Boost, which can really throw offensive teams that rely on naturally fast mons (Torn, Pult, Weavile) to answer Specs Blace in for a loop. Plus, with not investing as many EVs into SpA, you can instead invest in defense, which can help Blace live some weaker physical attacks, like a grassy terrain-nerfed Lando EQ, or a +2 Rillaboom Grassy Glide. Heck, you even have a coin flip chance of living a banded Urshifu Aqua Jet from full. Psychic is chosen over a second fire move because it lets you OHKO Urshifu and it's your best source of damage vs Pex. You can definitely feel the lower power compared to regular specs Blace, but you still hit quite a bit harder than modest scarf Blace and its access to Trick means it can still put in work vs bulkier structures.

As for the rest of the team, I paired Blace with Pult since having a second specs Ghost type allows them to overwhelm their shared checks. Rillaboom is also a great partner for Blace as it weakens EQ for it and grants it passive recovery, allowing it to stay healthy enough to put that extra bulk to use. You can probably run bulky SD Rilla instead, but personally, I prefer CB Rilla for the more immediate power.

The rest of the roster serves to round out the team defensively. SpDef Lando with Knock Off allows me to have a good switch-in for my opponent's specs ghost types and Defog keeps rocks off for Blace. SpDef Rotom provides a good switch-in to Heatran, Volcanion, and Nidoking, with Toxic being run over Wisp because without it, Gastrodon is kind of an issue. Physdef Heatran ensures the team doesn't auto-lose to Weavile, and also helps against Melm and other Rillas. Despite not being specially defensive, it can still switch into Clef and scarf Lele quite well, so Heavy Slam is run to better threaten those mons.

 

[Itoshiflwr]

Blacephalon Substitute 3 Attacks Balance

so, this team is a quite uncommon set in blacephalon substitute + 3 attacks, substitute is a personal favorite option, being able to hold off a hit and status on some passive walls like clefable, makes so that its a solid option, and even is an option against bisharp, seeing as it is unexpected.
while on that about priority, scarf tapu lele is in the team for two things, speed control, and to support blacephalon and kartana (we'll get onto that later) to break some common walls with future sight, also helping Blacephalon psychic 2hko Pex under psychic terrain, and saving it from Urshifu aqua jet.
As for kartana, it is the main physical attacker and wallbreaker with future sight support, it also has knock off for solid progress option, banded +1 kartana is simply very strong, and can tear holes in defense cores easily after one kill, and even if it doesnt sweep, the aforementioned holes in the defensive core open up blacephalon or lele for cleaning.
As for the resident defensive core in this team:
Spdef clefable is here to soak up undesired status such as burn and toxic easily with magic guard, stealth rock + twave support, and a consistent answer against specs pult. that can make progress on switch-in with rocks.
slowbro is the physical wall tasked with taking some relevant pokemon, mainly garchomp, dragonite, urshifu rapid. it has teleport for keeping momentum up, scald for solid stab + burns, while also having toxic to scare off/cripple some mons that can't really take that status.
The last pokemon is the typical spdef landorus-t, being here for defog, item removal with knock, and just the other solid things landorus adds to a team, such as a being an electric immunity, intimidate user and slow pivots on some threats.
Overall it's a solid team with a knack for tearing holes in defensive cores, which can spiral out fast, it tends to struggle with rain, but otherwise most of the matchups against offense are winnable, it's also pretty flexible in its gameplan, as lele, blacephalon and kartana are mons that can put up work both in early game and late game cleaning.