Hello, welcome to my "vanilla" SSOU balance team. This is a bulky team that specializes in statusing and wearing threats down gradually, either doing full kills that way or simply accumulating chip damage for my cleaner to sweep. I've peaked 1804 in OU, and want to know if with some tweaks, I might be able to hit 1850 or even 1900! Let's get right into it:
Teambuilding:
I started with Tornadus-T, I love what this thing brings to any team. Excellent speed tier, Knock Off and U-Turn support, and an inaccurate but powerful STAB Hurricane. I went with the AV set to start as I last played in gen 6, when it was the most common set. It makes Torny weak to rocks, but it also makes for an excellent soft blanket check to all special attackers.
Slowbro was next, as I wanted a solid Regenerator core and a physical tank in Slowbro made sense to me. Slowbro can also provide a variety of status support to go with Torny's Knock Off support.
Next up was Hippo, a solid bulky ground that can eat electric type attacks that both Torn and Slowbro disliked. It also provided Stealth Rock to my team, and helped me contest weather against rain teams, although Torn tends to deal with those pretty decently.
Heatran has always been a great special tank, and I remembered loving this nasty anti-stall monoattacking set. My team was looking a bit weak to pure stall or very defensive squads, and also needed a steel type, so it made sense to fit it in.
When checking out all the new pokemon in gen 8, I saw this blistering fast Dragon clean up a couple battles from my spectator's chair. And it was Dragon/Ghost type? And it gets U-Turn? I had to try it, and went with the specs set for punching power.
I still lacked a defogger at this stage, and noticed I had an obvious weakness to Earthquake and other ground spam. So I went with another new pokemon, one that seems like an iron wall that could also provide defog support.
When I first tried this team out, the cores seemed solid, but I noticed that Weavile was kicking my butt. Still, not wanting to change too much from a formula that seemed close to working, I pivoted from Slowbro to Toxapex. Toxapex exerts even less offensive pressure and locks me into a generally passive approach in battles, but it deals with physical threats well, and the extra burn and knock off support is appreciated.
I then settled in on the team for a while, and had success in climbing to the 1600-1700 range. Things seemed to be working for the most part, but in quite a few battles, I painfully felt my lack of strong physical attackers. Fat specially defensive setup pokemon like Clefable or Reuniclus were tearing me apart unless I played around them perfectly, and Dragapult wasn't quite tearing the holes in teams it was supposed to. So I decided to go back to the drawing board, and settled on Scarf Kartana. It's a bit faster than Dragapult, provides nice Steel and Grass type stabs against Fairies and bulky waters/grounds respectively, and is quite capable of cleaning a weakened team with Beast Boost.
Sets:
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 36 HP / 220 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Heat Wave
The captain of the team, the glue that brings it all together. Torny is almost never dead weight in any matchup due to its Knock Off and U-turn support, great speed, and special tank. The EVs are a bit strange, but I enjoy the special attack investment to give this thing a bit more teeth than a full HP/Speed investment. After all, Torny is supposed to switch in, deal some damage, and U-turn out - it's not a wall! I've sometimes contemplated running Superpower over Heat Wave to deal with Heatran better, but Heat Wave is just too good against Ferrothorn, Melmetal, Corviknight, and others.
Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
The defogger of my team. EVs are standard smogon set. It annoys me how little offensive pressure Corviknight gives out, but it can U-Turn away if a set up mon is brought in, and Body Press can deal with Bisharp, Tyranitar, and other steels well, and wear down other walls. Pressure comes in handy against stall teams or 8 PP monstrous moves like Volcanion's Steam Eruption in conjunction with Heatran's Protect. I prefer Body Press to Brave Bird for the lack of recoil damage and the fact that I deal with Zapdos-Galar better than Bisharp in general, and Buzzwole is usually handled by Toxapex or Hippo.
Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword
- Smart Strike
The newest member of the squad and notable for being the only proper physical attacker around. Deals with fat fairies like Clefable well, and can scare out most offensive pokemon if pivoted to or on the revenge kill. Sometimes the team can't wear the walls down properly, though, and Kartana won't contribute much to a given match. I prefer running 4 attacks, since Corviknight tends to be a pretty reliable defogger on its own.
Toxapex @ Shed Shell
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Knock Off
- Scald
- Haze
Everyone knows Toxapex by now, love it or hate it - mostly hate it. It shuts down setup sweepers, takes strong physical attacks, and provides team support with Knock Off and burns. I run Shed Shell to help my team with Magma Storm Heatran and Whirlpool Tapu Fini, which would otherwise be quite dangerous. If I see these mons in team preview, I try to avoid switching it into Knock Offs. Otherwise, I'm free to switch Toxapex in whenever and recover with Regenerator.
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Earthquake
Hippo is an extremely solid pokemon, I'm always surprised how little I see it on the ladder. It provides great Stealth Rock support, controls weather, and isn't worn down like Lando-T, Garchomp, or Swampert are. The standard specially defensive Smogon set helps against things like Zapdos and Dragapult. Sometimes I wonder if a bit of physical investment to help against things like Garchomp and Dragonite might be a good upgrade, though. Hippo using Toxic against those Dragons and then pivoting to Corviknight is how I deal with them, but sometimes it gets a bit sketchy if Hippo is worn down at all.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Taunt
- Protect
- Toxic
Heatran is one of the best pokemon in OU right now and I definitely feel that here. When Heatran is healthy, it causes terror in opposing teams, generating progress by poisoning key targets, getting chip damage from Magma Storm, or simply trapping and killing walls with Magma Storm + Taunt. The lack of recovery means I have to play around threats intelligently, but Protect helps quite a bit with that, and also is great for scouting and accumulating more chip damage. Full special defense investment helps Heatran against threats like Zapdos and Tapu Lele, and I don't find the lack of speed matters too much when I don't run Earth Power for other Heatrans anyway.
Major Threats:
I know I run Shed Shell on Toxapex just to deal with Heatran better, but the plethora of dangerous sets it can run is still terrifying. Eruption sets do a ton of damage to Torny if it tries to pivot, Magma Storm + Earth Power sets still force Toxapex out and can end up doing a lot of damage that lets the next sweeper make progress.
Weavile is maybe the most dangerous mon in OU, so most balance teams struggle with it, sure. Band Beat Up 2HKO's my entire team, and is incredibly hard to play around. SD sets are generally handled OK by Toxapex, though, and Kartana is a very competent revenge killer that's difficult to predict around with Leaf Blade, Sacred Sword, and Smart Strike all being plausible moves.
/
/
These slow but powerful physical attackers are capable of blowing big holes in my core and don't have natural switch-ins. Bisharp is the scariest at +2, but it doesn't have many opportunities to set up against my team. Crawdaunt can muscle through Toxapex and anything else, but Kartana can at least revenge kill it or force it out. Melmetal is a monster in general, tearing up a lot of the ladder, but it suffers from 4MSS and generally can be played around if Hippowdon is healthy.
Volcanion breaks balance pretty well, and this team is no exception. Specs sets hurt a lot, with Steam Eruption being able to cleanly 2hko Toxapex in the rain. Boots sets tend to end up being predicted around, with Tornadus helping a lot as it can come in on any non-Steam Eruption move and U-Turn out, or kill with Hurricane if Volcanion has been worn down sufficiently.
/
Arctozolt's STABs hit my entire team for neutral coverage, and Bolt Beak in general kills anything that isn't Hippo. Heatran being an amazing answer to Alolan-Ninetails helps a lot, but I still have to very careful when this can outspeed Kartana and Torny. Dracozolt is more consistently walled by Hippo, but if Hippo is low or poisoned enough to get muscled through, I might just lose on the spot since I don't really have any good revenge kill candidates if Dracozolt is still healthy.
Replays:
A couple random replays that were generated in an afternoon:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1557715968-zlkegpkvs6rgurcdsp3sh96b4elvlukpw (Vs Aurora Veil BO)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1557719414 (Vs BO)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1557729464-nqquq1qo82k5vjn9y2duj7g36byn83qpw (Vs Stall)
Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/4bf2e389f96b0775
Thank you for reading! Any feedback, questions, or comments are appreciated.
I started with Tornadus-T, I love what this thing brings to any team. Excellent speed tier, Knock Off and U-Turn support, and an inaccurate but powerful STAB Hurricane. I went with the AV set to start as I last played in gen 6, when it was the most common set. It makes Torny weak to rocks, but it also makes for an excellent soft blanket check to all special attackers.
Slowbro was next, as I wanted a solid Regenerator core and a physical tank in Slowbro made sense to me. Slowbro can also provide a variety of status support to go with Torny's Knock Off support.
Next up was Hippo, a solid bulky ground that can eat electric type attacks that both Torn and Slowbro disliked. It also provided Stealth Rock to my team, and helped me contest weather against rain teams, although Torn tends to deal with those pretty decently.
Heatran has always been a great special tank, and I remembered loving this nasty anti-stall monoattacking set. My team was looking a bit weak to pure stall or very defensive squads, and also needed a steel type, so it made sense to fit it in.
When checking out all the new pokemon in gen 8, I saw this blistering fast Dragon clean up a couple battles from my spectator's chair. And it was Dragon/Ghost type? And it gets U-Turn? I had to try it, and went with the specs set for punching power.
I still lacked a defogger at this stage, and noticed I had an obvious weakness to Earthquake and other ground spam. So I went with another new pokemon, one that seems like an iron wall that could also provide defog support.
When I first tried this team out, the cores seemed solid, but I noticed that Weavile was kicking my butt. Still, not wanting to change too much from a formula that seemed close to working, I pivoted from Slowbro to Toxapex. Toxapex exerts even less offensive pressure and locks me into a generally passive approach in battles, but it deals with physical threats well, and the extra burn and knock off support is appreciated.
I then settled in on the team for a while, and had success in climbing to the 1600-1700 range. Things seemed to be working for the most part, but in quite a few battles, I painfully felt my lack of strong physical attackers. Fat specially defensive setup pokemon like Clefable or Reuniclus were tearing me apart unless I played around them perfectly, and Dragapult wasn't quite tearing the holes in teams it was supposed to. So I decided to go back to the drawing board, and settled on Scarf Kartana. It's a bit faster than Dragapult, provides nice Steel and Grass type stabs against Fairies and bulky waters/grounds respectively, and is quite capable of cleaning a weakened team with Beast Boost.
Sets:
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 36 HP / 220 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Heat Wave
The captain of the team, the glue that brings it all together. Torny is almost never dead weight in any matchup due to its Knock Off and U-turn support, great speed, and special tank. The EVs are a bit strange, but I enjoy the special attack investment to give this thing a bit more teeth than a full HP/Speed investment. After all, Torny is supposed to switch in, deal some damage, and U-turn out - it's not a wall! I've sometimes contemplated running Superpower over Heat Wave to deal with Heatran better, but Heat Wave is just too good against Ferrothorn, Melmetal, Corviknight, and others.
Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
The defogger of my team. EVs are standard smogon set. It annoys me how little offensive pressure Corviknight gives out, but it can U-Turn away if a set up mon is brought in, and Body Press can deal with Bisharp, Tyranitar, and other steels well, and wear down other walls. Pressure comes in handy against stall teams or 8 PP monstrous moves like Volcanion's Steam Eruption in conjunction with Heatran's Protect. I prefer Body Press to Brave Bird for the lack of recoil damage and the fact that I deal with Zapdos-Galar better than Bisharp in general, and Buzzwole is usually handled by Toxapex or Hippo.
Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword
- Smart Strike
The newest member of the squad and notable for being the only proper physical attacker around. Deals with fat fairies like Clefable well, and can scare out most offensive pokemon if pivoted to or on the revenge kill. Sometimes the team can't wear the walls down properly, though, and Kartana won't contribute much to a given match. I prefer running 4 attacks, since Corviknight tends to be a pretty reliable defogger on its own.
Toxapex @ Shed Shell
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Knock Off
- Scald
- Haze
Everyone knows Toxapex by now, love it or hate it - mostly hate it. It shuts down setup sweepers, takes strong physical attacks, and provides team support with Knock Off and burns. I run Shed Shell to help my team with Magma Storm Heatran and Whirlpool Tapu Fini, which would otherwise be quite dangerous. If I see these mons in team preview, I try to avoid switching it into Knock Offs. Otherwise, I'm free to switch Toxapex in whenever and recover with Regenerator.
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Earthquake
Hippo is an extremely solid pokemon, I'm always surprised how little I see it on the ladder. It provides great Stealth Rock support, controls weather, and isn't worn down like Lando-T, Garchomp, or Swampert are. The standard specially defensive Smogon set helps against things like Zapdos and Dragapult. Sometimes I wonder if a bit of physical investment to help against things like Garchomp and Dragonite might be a good upgrade, though. Hippo using Toxic against those Dragons and then pivoting to Corviknight is how I deal with them, but sometimes it gets a bit sketchy if Hippo is worn down at all.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Taunt
- Protect
- Toxic
Heatran is one of the best pokemon in OU right now and I definitely feel that here. When Heatran is healthy, it causes terror in opposing teams, generating progress by poisoning key targets, getting chip damage from Magma Storm, or simply trapping and killing walls with Magma Storm + Taunt. The lack of recovery means I have to play around threats intelligently, but Protect helps quite a bit with that, and also is great for scouting and accumulating more chip damage. Full special defense investment helps Heatran against threats like Zapdos and Tapu Lele, and I don't find the lack of speed matters too much when I don't run Earth Power for other Heatrans anyway.
Major Threats:
I know I run Shed Shell on Toxapex just to deal with Heatran better, but the plethora of dangerous sets it can run is still terrifying. Eruption sets do a ton of damage to Torny if it tries to pivot, Magma Storm + Earth Power sets still force Toxapex out and can end up doing a lot of damage that lets the next sweeper make progress.
Weavile is maybe the most dangerous mon in OU, so most balance teams struggle with it, sure. Band Beat Up 2HKO's my entire team, and is incredibly hard to play around. SD sets are generally handled OK by Toxapex, though, and Kartana is a very competent revenge killer that's difficult to predict around with Leaf Blade, Sacred Sword, and Smart Strike all being plausible moves.
These slow but powerful physical attackers are capable of blowing big holes in my core and don't have natural switch-ins. Bisharp is the scariest at +2, but it doesn't have many opportunities to set up against my team. Crawdaunt can muscle through Toxapex and anything else, but Kartana can at least revenge kill it or force it out. Melmetal is a monster in general, tearing up a lot of the ladder, but it suffers from 4MSS and generally can be played around if Hippowdon is healthy.
Volcanion breaks balance pretty well, and this team is no exception. Specs sets hurt a lot, with Steam Eruption being able to cleanly 2hko Toxapex in the rain. Boots sets tend to end up being predicted around, with Tornadus helping a lot as it can come in on any non-Steam Eruption move and U-Turn out, or kill with Hurricane if Volcanion has been worn down sufficiently.
Arctozolt's STABs hit my entire team for neutral coverage, and Bolt Beak in general kills anything that isn't Hippo. Heatran being an amazing answer to Alolan-Ninetails helps a lot, but I still have to very careful when this can outspeed Kartana and Torny. Dracozolt is more consistently walled by Hippo, but if Hippo is low or poisoned enough to get muscled through, I might just lose on the spot since I don't really have any good revenge kill candidates if Dracozolt is still healthy.
Replays:
A couple random replays that were generated in an afternoon:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1557715968-zlkegpkvs6rgurcdsp3sh96b4elvlukpw (Vs Aurora Veil BO)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1557719414 (Vs BO)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1557729464-nqquq1qo82k5vjn9y2duj7g36byn83qpw (Vs Stall)
Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/4bf2e389f96b0775
Thank you for reading! Any feedback, questions, or comments are appreciated.
