ORAS OU Stag & Mole - Mega Pinsir Sand (HO, currently in 1500s)

[sexy_ampharos]

Hey Guys! After quite a while, I now created another Team worth uploading. I still have some minor issues and I would be glad to hear your opinion on some things. It is mainly about changing some sets. To be clear, these are the issues, I am not sure about:

1. Pursuit vs. Crunch on Tyranitar?
2. Nasty Plot vs. HP Ice vs. Taunt on Thundurus?
3. HP Grass vs. Sludge Bomb on Volcanion?
4. Adamant vs. Jolly on Excadrill?
5. Swords Dance vs. Rock Slide on Excadrill?
6. Hyper Cutter vs. Moxie on Pinsir pre-Mega?

But now to the team - and a big thank you to everybody taking the time to review this team :)!

With all those Bulky Offense teams running around, I tried to build a Hyperoffense team that would actually put in work in the current metagame. And I could not think of a Mega that is more offensive than the one and only:

Mega-Pinsir

Pinsir-Mega @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter/Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Close Combat
- Quick Attack
- Swords Dance

Mega-Pinsir puts in so much work with its pure offensive power and its great ability Aerilate! It often serves as the main late-game cleaner with priority Quick Attack, but also puts holes in teams for the other mons to shine. It is pretty much the standard set, but I am not quite sure if Moxie would be a better Choice, because it does not beat the common Intimidate users with or without Hyper Cutter. Also I discussed running Jolly, but I feel like, it loses too much power and some faster mons can be dealt with by priority.

The biggest thing that Mega-Pinsir fears, are Stealth Rocks, so I needed a Spinner/Defogger and my choice was:

Excadrill

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant/Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Swords Dance/Rock Slide

Exadrill, I first thought, would also be my Scarfer, but later on, I decided to pair it with Ttar - making it my secondary physical Sweeper. I decided not to bring Rock Slide because of my defensive Ttar that is my Bird Check. The SD Setup helps with Will-Os and bulkier mons in the way of Excadrill. It pretty much outspeeds everything in the Tier barring Jolly Sand Rush Excas which often gave me problems. But then again, I would have to rely on a speed tie. So, I decided to run Air Balloon. That allows me to win against those, if I manage to keep my Balloon intact.

After I had my offensive core with Exca and Pinsir - both synergize extremely well - it was obvious that I needed a big special hitter and something to absorb Will-o-Wisps. Also, a water-absorber is a good thing to add, as Scald was almost as scary as Will-O. So I added the new star of the OU Tier:

Volcanion

Volcanion @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA
- Steam Eruption
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]/Sludge Bomb

Specs Volcanion just gets kills. You send it in, you kill a mon and then switch out. As I already had priority and a very fast mon, I could live with a slow hitter in Volcanion. Also. the necessary Hazard-removal was already there. The two STAB moves, I think, are self-explanatory. Earth Power was added in case I see another Volcanion I have to beat 1-on-1 and then the problems began. I always see myself facing Belly Drum Azu, when I run HP Grass and facing Quagmire when I run Sludge Bomb. But as I have so much setup in this team, I'd rather kill the Unaware threat. And I have more things to kill Azu than Quag.

After adding Volc, i realized that Rocks would be my next priority:

[changed]

Tyranitar

Tyranitar @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Stone Edge
- Ice Beam
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock

But when I actually played, my offensive SR Ttar that lead to my Exca-change did not put in that much work and I often lost to Scarf Landorus-T. So I chose a lure Ttar with max Defense and Shuca Berry to eat up EQs and kill the Landos with an Icebeam. It may seem very 2013, but since this change I lost no game to Scarf Lando. The lack of Smooth Rock is problematic sometimes, but as I have other strong hitters than Exca, I can run Shuca. The bigger question is, if I should change Pursuit to Crunch. As Latias is the primary check to Volcanion on most teams, it would be nice to trap it, but almost nobody lets it in. And as I need Ttar to set sand and Stealth Rocks, it seems like giving it this third role is too much sometimes and I feel like the added power of Crunch would help.

After that, I needed a Ground resist and some Speed control in case i cannot do any work with my Sand Rush Exca, so I added:

Thundurus

Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Nasty Plot/HP Ice/Taunt
- Thunder Wave

I tried out Defiant Thundurus, but it did not put in any work besides catching some people off guard and I lacked Speed control. So, I changed it to Prankster T-Wave 3 attacks. I ran HP Ice for about one week, but really had no reason to click it anytime as my lure Ttar took care of Garchomps and Landos. So I threw it out for Nasty Plot and only had Focus Blast as coverage, which is inaccurate, but gets the job done, if T-Bolt doesn't. Also, using Focus Blast lures in some checks that could beat unboosted Thundy. So a well-timed Nasty Plot put in more work than HP Ice. Another idea, which I have yet to try out is Taunt, but I keep that for higher parts of the ladder, when Stall gets more common. Of course, this mon also deals with water threats that give problems to most offensive team, especially Manaphy and Azu are big problems without Thundurus, as they can have good coverage for Volcanion, whose pure presence prevents Scald from being clicked.

At this point, the team was already very solid, but I needed at least some kind of switch-in for big threats and Sableye still was a problem because it is so hard to kill. Therefore I added:

Clefable

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled

This mon is S-ranked for a reason. You really can put it on any team you want and it will put in work. Also after I realized that I already had Stealth Rock and T-Wave, I could use the rare Flamethrower set, which beats or at least weakens some of its checks. It's also a prefect status absorber and after being burned or toxiced, it even beats every Klefki - even Flash Cannon Klefki, if you manage to boost up before the switch in. Clef was the perfect addition and helped me with many common threats to HO.


So this was the short breakdown of the team. Feel free to make some suggestions or ask questions! Especially concerning the problems I listed, but I am glad to try out some completely different ideas, if they make sense

Thank you and feel free to steal the team!

Importable

Volcanion @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA
- Steam Eruption
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]

Tyranitar @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Stone Edge
- Ice Beam
- Pursuit
- Stealth Rock

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Swords Dance

Pinsir-Mega @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Close Combat
- Quick Attack
- Swords Dance

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled

Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Nasty Plot
- Thunder Wave

 

[ez]

Hello this is a nice Pinsir + Sand team. I notice some threats to your team. First I noticed how dark types can really threaten this team. Things like bisharp/weavile are major threats as nothing appreciates switching into them. Keldeo also gives this team some problem as it can 2ko or oko everything on this team. Heatran also do a lot of work to your team as your water type can get outspeed and hit with a earth power and get okoed if rocks are up. Charizard Y, Gengar and Alakazam-Mega also give this team some problems due to their fighting coverage that can hit your tyranitar. Excadrill can also give this team alot of trouble, the coverage of earthquake/ironhead and rock slide hits everything on your team for super effective damage making it hard to switch into. I have a few ideas in mind on how to improve the team while keeping the main goal of using your other members on the team to allow Pinsir to win.

First, to fix the Dark weakness that this team has. I recommend you run keldeo over volcanion. Keldeo can resist and take on anything from weavile and bisharp and attack back with a secret sword. Keldeo also acts like the hard hitting special attacker that you wanted on this team. Keldeo also deals with heatran a bit better as Volcanion can get outspeed and hit with a earth power while keldeo does not mind earth power and also faster giving more speed control for your team.

My 2nd recommendation is to run tangrowth over thundurs. This change helps versus water types better. Things like keldeo, rain and azumarill became a bigger problem as i removed volcanion. This change also helps versus ground types like excadrill as tangrowth can eat a hit and hit back with a sleep powder or giga drain. Tangrowth provides a grass type meaning things like breeloom cannot freely spam spore.

Next I recommend you run a chople berry over shuca berry on tyranitar. This allows tyranitar to eat up focus blast from things like charizard y, Gengar and alakzam-mega and then proceed to kill them off with stone edge. You should also run just 80 def and throw the rest in Spd. You do not need so much def,80 def allows you to take things like +1 Dragon Claw from Charizard X after rocks. Running Spd can allow you to take hits better from charizard y, alakazam, latios etc.

You should definitely run pursuit over crunch on tyranitar. Pursuit really helps keldeo as you remove the bulky psyhic types like latios/latias allowing keldeo to have more room to spam its stab moves.

My last recommendation is to take out 84 evs from def and put them in Spd. This allows clefable to take 2 ice beams from kyurem while still allowing it to take on physical hits from things like lopunny-mega/gyarados-mega/psyshock from latios.

team with my changes with sets explained

Keldeo @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 24 HP / 232 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Secret Sword
- Scald

I chose rest talk keldeo to allow keldeo to be a reliable fire and dark check to things like bisharps/heatrans/weavile as other sets will get widdled with the knock off spam/hazards and status meaning keldeo wont be able to check them as reliable.

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 80 Def / 180 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Ice Beam

Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Swords Dance

Pinsir-Mega @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Close Combat
- Quick Attack
- Swords Dance

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled

Tangrowth @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Rocky helmet is good for punishing things like azumarill/lopunny-mega/excadrill. 60 Spd to better take on speical attacks from water types like kingdra/keldeo. Sleep powder can help catch things like talonflame/tornadus resulting in one less revenge killer for pinsir. I chose hidden power ice to wear down ground types more. Things like Landorus and garchomp that can take hits from pinsir and excadrill.

 

[sexy_ampharos]

Hey! Thanks for replying! Your changes make total sense, but this is supposed to be a hyperoffensive team and doing all that gives me a team that can better switch into moves but loses much of its offensive pressure! The biggest problem I see with all of that is switching out Volcanion. You switch out Volcanion, replace it with Keldeo and then say I have a water weakness.
I also never saw myself having a problem with weavile or bisharp or any dark type at all, because Drill is almost always able to revenge kill them.
Same with Tangrowth! It loses me so much momentum and is not offensive enough. The biggest problem aside from that is that I lose out on T-Wave, which I absolutely need for scarfers in case Exca can't get rid of them. I also lose another T-Wave absorber and lots of speed.
Chople Berry I had on Ttar for a long time, but Shuca proved to be more effective. It's a lure Ttar and proved to be much more helpful. The change in EVs I absolutely see. But then I double with the Chople for just the move Focus Blast. I'd rather take the Sp.def. and the Shuca, so it takes on Gengar as well as scarf Lando.
Clefable I also see the reasoning behind, but I can even take Iron Head from Bisharp, which you identified as a threat, and hit back with Flamethrower with that investment and my Sp.def. can always be boosted by Calm Mind.

However, the Ttar I will definitely change to more Sp.def, but the rest of the changes just seem like they slow my team down, and as I said, this is supposed to be hyperoffensive and is therefore bound to not have a switch-in to everything. Nevertheless, I am very thankful for your help and your changed team is already saved in my Teambuilder as a bulkier alternative to this!

Thank you! Very much appreciated!