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I tried putting Magnezone as a main special sweeper with substitute. I decided that magnet pull would help it counter common steel types like Kartana and Ferrothorn. I put hidden power fire, again to counter common steel types. However, I also thought about Volcarona as it also has an amazing special attack and more speed. However, I thought that Magnet pull would be a valuable ability in the current OU metagame. Then again, there are lots of ground types that can easily counter Magnezone.
Tangrowth
Instead of assault vest, I wanted to use Tangrowth as a physical tank with the grass type to help resist Earthquake from Landorus-T and Leaf blade from Kartana. I put Leech seed and Leftovers along with Regenerator for (hopefully) an adequate passive recovery. I am reluctant on putting 2 Knock off pokemon on a team. I am wondering if there are any better physical tanks than Tangrowth.
Sableye-Mega
I wanted to try using Mega-Sableye for magic bounce and the annoying stall with Will-o-wisp, Protect, and Recover. I wanted Mega-Sableye to actually be a sort of special tank with the decent type combination and adequate(?) special defense. I am still looking for a better special tank for this team as Mega-Sableye can be countered by many of the commonly used pokemon like Magearna and the Tapu Guardians.
Rotom-Wash
I was reluctant on if I should put Rotom-W on this team, but I tried it out anyways. I put volt switch for the electric STAB and perhaps some momentum. I put Hydro pump because I feel that the power was necessary for the lack of special attack investments I have on this Rotom-W. I am still reluctant about letting Rotom-W be the defogger. I wish to get some advice on the choice.
Garchomp
I felt that Garchomp would be a good lead for the team with its high speed. I did not put Choice scarf/band on it due to it being a stealth rock lead with swords dance for a potential early sweep. I put Rockium z to help get more power on Stone edge. I’m wondering if I should use Groundium z instead. I am still reluctant on using Rocky helmet on Garchomp and I wish to get some advice.
Clefable
I decided that Clefable would provide support to the team with moves like Aromatherapy, and Wish. It also has Magic guard to switch in on entry hazards. I wanted Clefable to be very bulky to guarantee a turn or 2 on the field. I put thunder wave to cripple fast sweepers like Kartana and Ash-Greninja. I decided that Leftovers would give it a bit of passive recovery while on the field.
Welcome to Smogon! I'm locking your RMT for the time being as the forum rules require that you provide at least 3 lines of descriptions for each Pokemon to explain their roles. Please read the rules carefully and take a look at Team Showcase to see the level of detail we require. PM me with updated descriptions and I'll be happy to unlock this.
Before addressing the specific mons on your team, what kind of team are you aiming for? You kind of have a hodgepodge of pieces here with none of the corresponding wincons. It looks like you're leaning more towards stall, but are missing a couple key pieces of that.. Or are you trying to do bulky offense? Once we settle on what you want to do, we can go from there.
Before addressing the specific mons on your team, what kind of team are you aiming for? You kind of have a hodgepodge of pieces here with none of the corresponding wincons. It looks like you're leaning more towards stall, but are missing a couple key pieces of that.. Or are you trying to do bulky offense? Once we settle on what you want to do, we can go from there.
What's good, figured I'd take a crack at some suggestions here. Given you want a balance team, I've tried to construct around that:
Pokemon swaps
I really like Rockium Z Garchomp right now, I think it's an exceptional and threatening Pokemon. I wanted to keep this as is like you have it, Jolly SD Rocks Edge Quake all look good, then use this as a building point.
There's a relatively new Magearna set out there that can handle a lot of what balance needs to stop well featuring Heart Swap. It provides one half of a team's necessary counterplay to Ash-Greninja, can handle other Magearna sets well, and is able to stay healthy enough to reliably handle threatening Psychic-types like Tapu Lele. I'd like to slot this in over your Clefable, as it performs a similar role of crippling sweepers and can support the team well with momentum through Volt Switch.
With a few tweaks, Rotom-W and Tangrowth can perform valuable roles on the team, so I'd like to keep these Pokemon as well. I'd like to swap out Mega Sableye and Magnezone to help cement your team as a solid balanced one. Over Sableye, I'd suggest using Mega Alakazam. With Recover and Trace, it can handle Heatran quite well, taking defensive pressure off of Rotom-W, and it can answer Toxapex, taking pressure off of your Garchomp. Its Speed is very useful as an offensive presence, so it can strike the balance between offensive and defensive roles well.
Finally, over Magnezone, the team would like another way to play around Kartana, Mega Medicham, and even more insurance versus Lopunny while still handling Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor. For this, I'm recommending a Rocky Helmet Tornadus-T, specifically one with Heat Wave over U-turn to be able to hit Ferrothorn, which could otherwise be annoying to the team, and to give another out to Mega Mawile, which is very threatening to builds like this. The team has a strong enough defensive backing where it will be able to succeed without relying on U-turn.
Like I said before, I'm a big fan of your Garchomp set, so I won't be changing that at all.
For Rotom-W, I've got a slight tweak. Since Tornadus-T is now on the team as a Defogger and we've replaced Clefable with Magearna, Rotom-W can run Thunder Wave over Defog. This is very useful, both for Speed control, as the team lacks a Choice Scarf user, and as an emergency stop to Mega Charizard X, which could be very threatening if it were a Dragon Claw variant (which aren't run with Tapu Fini, improving the chance you can Thunder Wave it). With this, Rotom will need a more physically defensive spread, and I'm recommending Leftovers over Wiki Berry so it can stay consistently healthy throughout the match.
As for Tangrowth, I recommend using an Assault Vest set. This forms the other half of the Ash-Greninja counterplay you need I mentioned earlier, a Regenerating Water-resist that can take a Dark Pulse if necessary. It also acts as a nice answer to Tapu Koko, can give you additional ways to play around Kartana, and can tank a hit or two from opposing Garchomp. Since Tornadus-T is running Heat Wave, you can run Hidden Power Ice over Hidden Power Fire on this Tangrowth, both to help with opposing Garchomp and to take pressure off of Rotom-W (both health-wise and Hydro Pump PP-wise) in dealing with certain Landorus-T variants and Gliscor. Giga Drain is usually better over Energy Ball for the recovery it provides.
->
Tangrowth @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake
Threats
One thing this variant of the team can struggle with is stall. Likely, you won't run into stall often until higher ladder, so this team should be good for getting you well above 1200. However, once you start running into stall more often, here's a change you can make:
Replace Shadow Ball on Alakazam with Knock Off, then replace Knock Off on Tangrowth with Payback. If played well, Knock Off Zam can help versus stall by potentially removing Eviolite from Chansey and stripping Leftovers off of mons, especially removing Leftovers from Celesteela even outside of the stall matchup. Without Shadow Ball, Mega Latis become more threatening--luckily, because Zam has Knock Off to hit Celesteela's Leftovers, Tangrowth can choose to drop the move for Payback to hit Mega Latis harder. The stall matchup will still be hard, but you shouldn't have to worry about that for a bit. You could also try messing around with your Magearna set if you run into it too often, like using a Calm Mind set for Magearna over Heart Swap, though this will naturally weaken your matchup against opposing Magearna.
Mega Mawile can be extremely annoying when it gets in, especially as the version of the team I've recommended has Thunder Wave over Will-O-Wisp on Rotom-W to be able to stop Mega Charizard X and for additional speed control. You've got ways to play around it offensively with Garchomp and even your Torn if need be, but be mindful that you'll have to be aggressive when you come up against it.
What's good, figured I'd take a crack at some suggestions here. Given you want a balance team, I've tried to construct around that:
Pokemon swaps
I really like Rockium Z Garchomp right now, I think it's an exceptional and threatening Pokemon. I wanted to keep this as is like you have it, Jolly SD Rocks Edge Quake all look good, then use this as a building point.
There's a relatively new Magearna set out there that can handle a lot of what balance needs to stop well featuring Heart Swap. It provides one half of a team's necessary counterplay to Ash-Greninja, can handle other Magearna sets well, and is able to stay healthy enough to reliably handle threatening Psychic-types like Tapu Lele. I'd like to slot this in over your Clefable, as it performs a similar role of crippling sweepers and can support the team well with momentum through Volt Switch.
With a few tweaks, Rotom-W and Tangrowth can perform valuable roles on the team, so I'd like to keep these Pokemon as well. I'd like to swap out Mega Sableye and Magnezone to help cement your team as a solid balanced one. Over Sableye, I'd suggest using Mega Alakazam. With Recover and Trace, it can handle Heatran quite well, taking defensive pressure off of Rotom-W, and it can answer Toxapex, taking pressure off of your Garchomp. Its Speed is very useful as an offensive presence, so it can strike the balance between offensive and defensive roles well.
Finally, over Magnezone, the team would like another way to play around Kartana, Mega Medicham, and even more insurance versus Lopunny while still handling Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor. For this, I'm recommending a Rocky Helmet Tornadus-T, specifically one with Heat Wave over U-turn to be able to hit Ferrothorn, which could otherwise be annoying to the team, and to give another out to Mega Mawile, which is very threatening to builds like this. The team has a strong enough defensive backing where it will be able to succeed without relying on U-turn.
Like I said before, I'm a big fan of your Garchomp set, so I won't be changing that at all.
For Rotom-W, I've got a slight tweak. Since Tornadus-T is now on the team as a Defogger and we've replaced Clefable with Magearna, Rotom-W can run Thunder Wave over Defog. This is very useful, both for Speed control, as the team lacks a Choice Scarf user, and as an emergency stop to Mega Charizard X, which could be very threatening if it were a Dragon Claw variant (which aren't run with Tapu Fini, improving the chance you can Thunder Wave it). With this, Rotom will need a more physically defensive spread, and I'm recommending Leftovers over Wiki Berry so it can stay consistently healthy throughout the match.
As for Tangrowth, I recommend using an Assault Vest set. This forms the other half of the Ash-Greninja counterplay you need I mentioned earlier, a Regenerating Water-resist that can take a Dark Pulse if necessary. It also acts as a nice answer to Tapu Koko, can give you additional ways to play around Kartana, and can tank a hit or two from opposing Garchomp. Since Tornadus-T is running Heat Wave, you can run Hidden Power Ice over Hidden Power Fire on this Tangrowth, both to help with opposing Garchomp and to take pressure off of Rotom-W (both health-wise and Hydro Pump PP-wise) in dealing with certain Landorus-T variants and Gliscor. Giga Drain is usually better over Energy Ball for the recovery it provides.
->
Tangrowth @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake
Threats
One thing this variant of the team can struggle with is stall. Likely, you won't run into stall often until higher ladder, so this team should be good for getting you well above 1200. However, once you start running into stall more often, here's a change you can make:
Replace Shadow Ball on Alakazam with Knock Off, then replace Knock Off on Tangrowth with Punishment. If played well, Knock Off Zam can help versus stall by potentially removing Eviolite from Chansey and stripping Leftovers off of mons, especially removing Leftovers from Celesteela even outside of the stall matchup. Without Shadow Ball, Mega Latis become more threatening--luckily, because Zam has Knock Off to hit Celesteela's Leftovers, Tangrowth can choose to drop the move for Punishment to hit Mega Latis harder. The stall matchup will still be hard, but you shouldn't have to worry about that for a bit. You could also try messing around with your Magearna set if you run into it too often, like using a Calm Mind set for Magearna over Heart Swap, though this will naturally weaken your matchup against opposing Magearna.
Mega Mawile can be extremely annoying when it gets in, especially as the version of the team I've recommended has Thunder Wave over Will-O-Wisp on Rotom-W to be able to stop Mega Charizard X and for additional speed control. You've got ways to play around it offensively with Garchomp and even your Torn if need be, but be mindful that you'll have to be aggressive when you come up against it.
