Project SS OU - Victim of the Week - Not hosted anymore

[haxlolo]

Melmetal @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 244 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Double Iron Bash
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Melmetal can easily switch-in on any of Glowking's attacks bar Flamethrower and risking a Scald burn, and it threatens it out thanks to Melmetal's massive Attack stat and very good STAB in Double Iron Bash. This set can also help against other stuff like Pult and etc. Nominating this as a check thanks to Flamethrower clearly damaging it a lot and the risky burns that can come out of Scald plus not having recovery.

252+ Atk Iron Fist Melmetal Double Iron Bash (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Slowking-Galar: 336-396 (85.2 - 100.5%) -- approx. 6.3% chance to OHKO

176 SpA Slowking-Galar Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 244 SpD Melmetal: 105-124 (25.5 - 30.1%) -- 0.5% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

176 SpA Slowking-Galar Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 244 SpD Melmetal: 170-202 (41.3 - 49.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

 

[Steel With It]

Blissey @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunder Wave / Toxic / Stealth Rock
- Teleport

No Psyshock? Here comes the blob. Blissey counters damn near every special attacker without Psyshock, Fighting coverage, Substitute, Taunt or Trick and this one's no exception. Chip Glowking down with SToss, throw around status, set up Rocks, pivot to something that can OHKO it but doesn't want to switch in, whatever - and thanks to Natural Cure, even Sludge Bomb poisons and Scald burns don't matter. (I know Blissey vs special attackers is basically cheating, but this fucker is 80% of why I do run Psyshock.)

 

[Katy]

Lets get the Voting going with Week 20s Victim Of The Week being:

We have a lot of sbumissions again with:

Counters:
Swampert by Windingsss
Reuniclus by Yourwelcomethanku
Blissey by Steel With It

Checks:
Hydreigon by Tysonslayer
Heatran by TailGlowVM
Excadrill by ViZar
Weavile by Vengeance417
Bisharp by InvisibleWater
Melmetal by Lolito


Vote for 1 Counter and 2 Checks!
Voting will end in 48 hours, happy voting everyone! ​

 

[ViZar]

Counters:
Checks: &

 

[Yourwelcomethanku]

Blob

Hydreigon Excadrill

 

[Tysonslayer]

Counters: big mudkip
Checks: WCOP Ice/dark mon and Lava Frog

 

[InvisibleWater]

Counter:
Check:

 

[Katy]

Week20s of the Victim was Galarian Slowking and without further addo, lets dive into the results, which are the following:

Winners:
Counters:
by Windingsss

Checks:
by TailGlowVM
and Tie between:
by Tysonslayer
by ViZar

Lets get to the next Week with Week21s Victim, which is the following pokemon:

Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword​

Kartana is a small, tiny Pokemon, but it can do alot of damage due to its natural 181 Attack, which is even 1 point higher than Primal Groudons Attack Base. Kartana coupled with Swords Dance and Life Orb alongside a great Speed tier in 348 is a terrifying Pokemon to deal with, as its great coverage in Knock Off and Sacred Sword grants it a way to go past its checks with ease. Moreover its strong Leaf Blade is a really good STAB option on Kartana.
This Pokemon has almost everything given by Game Freak to give anyone trouble, especially on offensive oriented OU Teams it always finds a way even with partners in Rillaboom and Magnezone. But what are some ways to handle this sharp paper pokemon? lets figure it out this round!

Submission deadline is on Wednesday 07. July!​

 

[romanji]

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power

Heatran is only a check because it is is KOed by Sacred Sword, but Heatran outspeeds Kartana with a Choice Scarf and obviously melts to Eruption or Flamethrower

 

[ViZar]

Buzzwole

Buzzwole @ Rocky Helmet / Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Atk / 132 Def / 104 Spe
Impish Nature
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
- Bulk Up
- Roost

Buzzwole is a counter to Kartana. It lives every hit from even with lower health, with Leaf Blade doing a maximum of 21.5% unboosted. Buzzwole can OHKO Kartana with a Drain Punch at +1 and thanks to the Defense raise from Bulk Up it can 1v1 Kartana, since a +4 Leaf Blade or Sacred Sword won't even come close to a 2HKO against a +1 Defense Buzzwole. Ice Punch is coverage for Garchomp and Landorus-T, which it checks too, and Roost helps it to be healthy. Knock Off from Kartana can annoy it and thus Rocky Helmet is probably a better item, since you wrack up the residual damage.

As a bonus, Buzzwole can check Garchomp, Landorus-T, Rillaboom, Urshifu-R, Bisharp, Zeraora, Scizor and Weavile.

Calcs

+4 252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Leaf Blade vs. +1 248 HP / 132+ Def Buzzwole: 152-179 (36.4 - 42.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+4 252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Sacred Sword vs. 248 HP / 132+ Def Buzzwole: 152-179 (36.4 - 42.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

+1 20 Atk Buzzwole Drain Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kartana: 260-308 (100.3 - 118.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO


+6 252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 248 HP / 132+ Def Buzzwole: 303-357 (72.6 - 85.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

20 Atk Buzzwole Drain Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kartana: 174-206 (67.1 - 79.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (guaranteed OHKO after LO and RH recoil)

 

[TailGlowVM]

Tangrowth @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Knock Off
- Sleep Powder

Countering Kartana is difficult to do without using something that isn't heavily crippled by Knock Off, but Tangrowth is one of the few Pokemon that can do it, as long as you switch in on the turn it sets up:

+2 252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Knock Off vs 252 HP / 252+ Def Tangrowth: 218-257 (53.9 - 63.6%) - guaranteed 2HKO
0 SpA Tangrowth Focus Blast vs 0 HP / 4 SpD Kartana: 444-524 (171.4 - 202.3%) - guaranteed OHKO

 

[haxlolo]

reserving zapdos

 

[Tysonslayer]

Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 248 HP / 52 Atk / 52 Def / 152 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dual Wingbeat
- Earthquake
- Roost

So Dragonite serves as a check against Swords Dance Kartana while you do hate switching into boosted Knock Off, especially losing Heavy-Duty Boots, but outside of that you resist Leaf Blade and Sacred Sword this gives Dragonite an opportunity to force it out or get free opportunity in setting up Dragon Dance which you can then beat Kartana on your own and can Roost of any damage getting your Multiscale in order to realiably check Kartana.

 

[SLDR]

Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 232 HP / 72 Def / 36 SpD / 168 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Taunt ​

I submit Support Tornadus-Therian as a CHECK to Kartana. This set brings the full disruptive potential in Tornadus-T's moveset: between Taunt, Knock Off and U-turn, it always finds use and forces progress throughout a game, especially when aided by Regenerator.
When it comes to Kartana, Tornadus is as good of a check as one can be, in my opinion. With this spread, it doesn't die to any single attack from CB Kartana, 2HKO'd only 40% of the time by Scarf Smart Strike and lives anything but +2 Knock Off from SD LO Kartana; and it does this while outspeeding non-scarf variants and easily OHKOing with Heat Wave, chosen over Hurricane as a set staple because of its much better accuracy and neat supereffectiveness against Steel types. Knock Off is as much as a staple and, while U-turn and Taunt are my favourite options, STAB Hurricane and the ever-annoying Toxic definitely have value.

SPREAD: 232 HP reaches Regenerator number (divisible by 3) while not being divisible by 4 (Stealth Rock number, in case HDB get knocked off). Timid 168 Speed outruns base 110s and Adamant Weavile. 36 SpD makes it live one Choice Specs Tapu Lele's Psychic and the rest is bumped into Defense to better take hits from Kartana and other threats like Rillaboom; it also lives Lele's Psyshock as a bonus

 

[Katy]

Hello everybody, we have a few submissions this time around, but lets vote on them now; reminder that the Victim of this Week is

The Submissions this time:

Counters:
by ViZar
by TailGlowVM

Checks:
by avg
by Tysonslayer
by SLDR

Vote for 1 Counter and 2 Checks

Lolito sorry, that i could not include Zapdos, since you didn't fill your submission out ;__;

Voting Deadline will be in 2 Days!​

 

[Plushietran]

Counters:
Checks:

 

[SLDR]

Counters:
Checks: obviously

 

[Dr Ya Yeet]

Counter : buzzwole
Checks : dragonite and torn

 

[Yourwelcomethanku]

Tangrowth
Dragonite Heatran

 

[InvisibleWater]

Counter:
Checks:

 

[ViZar]

Counter:
Checks: &

 

[agslash23]

Counter:
Checks: &

 

[Katy]

Congratulations to ViZar for winning with counters; Tysonslayer and SLDR have won with their submissions for checks!

Week 22: Victim Of The Week

Without further addo lets hop right onto the next Pokemon which found its way as a staple member on many teams:

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
- Draining Kiss
- Scald​

This Pokemon loves to use Weavile, Urshifu-R, and Heatran as setup fodder due to its great typing, access to Misty Terrain, and also reliable moves in Taunt and Draining Kiss it is able to disrupt them or use them as setup fodder. It also enjoys its recent uptick in usage, be it in tournaments such as smogons world cup or in the official ladder tour, this Pokemon is thriving as one of the rising stars currently. But its popularity comes with the expense of people finding checks and counters to this Pokemon. What could these checks and counters be? Lets get Week 22 rolling with countering / checking this fairy mermaid.

Deadline for submissions will be next Monday! And as always have fun!
​

 

[Tysonslayer]

Slowking-Galar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 124 SpA / 120 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Future Sight
- Sludge Bomb
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam

Since Galarian Slowking can lose to Tapu Fini after a few boosts its more considered of a check, you resist Draining Kiss from Tapu Fini and if it uses Taunt thats a wasteful turn for it which only has to be warry about boosted Scalds. Slowking-Galar can pressure Tapu Fini with Future Sights and Sludge Bombs, though the damage of the moves become weaker as Tapu Fini keeps Calm Minding, but Tapu Fini needs to be boosting a lot as well wasting Misty Terrain turns so it can be easier to fish for poison once it runs out, however, same thing could be said about Tapu Fini fishing for burns against Galarian Slowking making it a lot better to deal with for Tapu Fini.

 

[ViZar]

Tapu Bulu

Tapu Bulu @ Life Orb
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Horn Leech
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance

I submit Tapu Bulu as a check. Tapu Bulu can easily 1v1 Fini thanks to Fini's passive nature and its STAB Horn Leech, which is boosted further by Grassy Terrain. However, its own terrain hurts it, since removing the Misty Terrain, means that Scald can be used when Bulu attemps to switch in. The burn really cripples Bulu since the Life Orb recoil wouldn't be reduced anymore (Burn negates Leftovers) and the reduced power really stings, since this set has a Jolly Nature to outrun possible checks like offensive Heatran or Utility Zapdos. Scald is the reason why Bulu is rather a check than a counter.

Calcs

+6 0 SpA Tapu Fini Draining Kiss vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Tapu Bulu: 214-253 (76.1 - 90%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
+6 0 SpA Tapu Fini Scald vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Tapu Bulu: 171-201 (60.8 - 71.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery

252 Atk Life Orb Tapu Bulu Horn Leech vs. 252 HP / 116+ Def Tapu Fini in Grassy Terrain: 307-361 (89.2 - 104.9%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Life Orb burned Tapu Bulu Horn Leech vs. 252 HP / 116+ Def Tapu Fini in Grassy Terrain: 153-181 (44.4 - 52.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery and Grassy Terrain recovery