National Dex Substitute + Calm Mind Tapu Lele Top 500 Natdex OU Ladder

[wooperdude69]

hey hey hey, I know it looks bad, calm down and read please :)
Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Games + Ladder
3. Teambuilding
4. Weaknesses/Counters
5. Conclusion

Introduction:
Hello! I'm Wooperdude69 and i've been playing Pokemon for most of my life, but I've never really gotten into the more competitive scene until I had it pop up in my YouTube. I'm not by any means a serious player who EVs all of their mons to survive really specific calcs and barely 2HKO certain checks at +1 or something, but I think i'm alright for how long I've been playing (top 500 randbats blitz gen 9 also idk if that's good) and so I'm posting my first top 500 team! Is it good? Probably not. Is it funny? Heck yeah.

Based on that first paragraph, maybe you think this RMT is gonna be really really crazy. You're welcome to step out if you want! If you would prefer a more professional sounding RMT, feel free to check out my friend's Magnezone trapping team!

Games + Ladder:
I play randbats mainly (and i'm not very good at it), so there are some weird plays...

Some games I played (probably low quality gameplay)

top 500 game, not proof of peak cuz i'm chicken and stopped after reaching it

VS Rain (6-0)

VS Sun

Other top 500 person

s t a l l

idk this game

HP ice Lando-T saves me

Teambuilding:
TL;DR Have the Pokepaste lol

As Karen from Johto once said:

"Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites."

That is how I take most of my teambuilding. I don't get very far most of the time (~1500?) but I have a blast. If you ever find me on the ladder, you'd probably see me running something random, like when I took Tapu Bulu to almost 1600 (is that impressive? I hope that is)


But one of the mons I love using the most is Tapu Lele, and that isn't because it's very viable. Most of the time, I run specs for the raw damage and surprise factor over the commonly seen scarf (which KOs a lot less than I would like). However, I realized that (at this point) 19.65% of Tapu Lele users are just like me, so I wanted to be different and prove my friend wrong that I could take some "bad coverage" up to top 500 (I'd never actually made it before, my last team that was 1 game away was before Baxcalibur got banned.

Lele was the first mon I picked on my team.
...Why is it the sixth team member on my replays?
I was bored and shuffled them around while thinking. (You may step out of the RMT now :D )

Tapu Lele @ Leftovers
Ability: Psychic Surge
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Psychic
- Moonblast

This is like really standard Lele EVs and Tera type (I find the psychic power boost better than getting a defensive tera type - something you probably wouldn't end up using anyway), it's not actually that bad not having hidden power fire or psyshock or focus blast (miss) as I ended up noticing.



Next, I decided I wanted some core to help with both offense coverage (which lele lacks) and defense (which lele kinda lacks physically)

Good thing I had just been playing ROM hacks (Radical Red, which is a great game you should play) and had been using Meowscarada and Cinderace to cheese all of the gym leaders with high speed and U-turn pivoting.

Meowscarada @ Protective Pads
Ability: Protean
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flower Trick
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Triple Axel

This is a pretty standard Meowscarada set (I would know, it's from Smogon sample sets) but it gets the job done! Good speed tier to outspeed scary things like Roaring Moon and Iron Valiant (with specs) which saved me a few times. Triple Axel is somehow a menace in mid ladder as I guess people forget it exists? Protective Pads is to have an easier time not dying against Ferrothorn or rocky helmet users like Corviknight switching in but I think boots is also okay. Do watch out for scarf Landorus-T leads which could potentially give you depression if you forget the possibility.

Cinderace @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Libero
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pyro Ball
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Court Change

Guess what guys? I didn't copy the Smogon sample set for this one! Rather than the regular sucker punch in the fourth moveset, I replaced it for court change to beat sticky web users that came unprepared and for hazard stack users. I used to have sucker punch, but replaced it after 2 matches in low ladder after realizing 1. psychic terrain is up a lot and 2. I had no hazard removal. I don't know how common offensive Cinderace is compared to the "bulky pivot" one, but like people don't know HJK exists...



With FG out of the FWG core, I decided I needed some bulk, because like, well... my team wasn't gonna live anything currently. I picked Alomomola because I thought wish passing would be more useful than a really passive stallmon like Toxapex . My team would appreciate some heals back to full because I knew I was probably gonna have to make some switches into the squishy guys in games. Plus, a bulky slow flip turn is great for getting the three offense mons in.

Alomomola @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Flip Turn
- Wish
- Scald
- Protect

Pretty standard set I suppose, however I opted for scald over the common toxic to help cripple the damage output because at this point I had no bulk! Plus I just prefer it in scary setup sweeper cases with swords dance or dragon dance. Alomomola makes a good switch-in to many common physical attackers either way and does a good job of being slower than pivots like Corviknight and Landorus-T to get momentum. Having a mix of fast and slow pivoting moves is a lot more useful than I originally thought.



I don't know when I decided popular kid Lando was funny to use, but I needed a electric/ground immunity to block volt switches and strong EQs from offense mons, so I picked it. I decided against Gliscor because I thought it was too boring for me, plus having 3 pivot mons clearly wasn't enough for me.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Wow, hidden power ice! That's what I hope the other Showdown players see when they take a huge amount of damage on their own Lando-T or Gliscor . Rather than going for the standard stealth rock 4th moveslot, I went for the funnyman play and did the equivalent of grass knot sets in Gen 9 OU, but tailored for Natdex where hidden power still exists. I'm not the only person who's done this to my knowledge, but it works, clearly. Rocky helmet helps be annoying to u-turners especially with intimidate, and the lack of leftovers if fine because of alomomola. Other than that, yeah this is just regular Lando-T doing regular Lando-T things.



Guess what happens when a user 1. named wooperdude69 2. needs a spdef mon, 3. has no idea what to put as their 6th slot, 4. and his friend just insulted clodsire ? You gotta know I take this baby to top 500 with the gang.

Clodsire @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover

Clodsire does well enough as a spdef mon on a team like this, doing clodsire things and spreading toxic if it needs to. To start off, I took the regular unaware set from Smogon like the unexperienced player I am, however I quickly realized that if I wanted to take my boy to the top 500, I couldn't just put random stuff. Despite my Cinderace's court change, sometimes the opponent is a "low ladder cringe kid" (according to my friends) and don't have hazard removal! Then, clodsire can go spam chip on them cuz why not. That was the first change. The second change was swapping from unaware to water absorb. As a less defensive team that has no weather of it's own, I decided upon water absorb to give me a better shot against the prominent rain all over the place, a counter to scarf Urshifu rapid strike or other sets of it. Because of this, I didn't need to contemplate running tera water over dark which I used to run.



Well, that's my teambuilding, I guess. I put in more work than I thought I did, huh.

Weaknesses/Counters:

TL;DR Physical attackers go bye bye (mostly), special attackers (faster than Meow/Rachi) go brr

So, as a team with no "bombers" as in choice band or choice specs mons, this team is just as well going to be killed by frail mons of higher speed tiers and bulky attackers that can outlive my bulkier mons.


Weaknesses are fun, but first I'd like to talk about some things that I honestly expected to be more threatening, but aren't actually... you can exclude this from the group weaknesses below. Of course, if my team collapses, these may be threatening.

• Mega Lopunny As a fast, frailish mon, this seems like one of the counters to my team! However, Lando-T and Alomomola can wall it with intimidate + wish. Of course, depending on their teammates, you could still struggle. Watch for ice punch on Lando-T switchins!
• Gouging Fire This mon is very very funny with its crazy sweeping potential with dragon dance and decent bulk. However, Lando-T and Alomomola wall this pretty well! Just don't get crit or something haha... (watch my replay against sun above lol)
• Stall For a team with no immediate power, I thought I'd die instantly when some guy loaded up stall against me in the 1400s. Nevermind, because this team made them forfeit in 8 turns. (Check replay up there pls) (To be fair they forgot Triple Axel existed)

You probably noticed, my team is very, very physical oriented! That's probably why... but Lele doing the heavy lifting is kinda good for proving your friend wrong.

Here's how to beat my team! (pls no)

• Tapu Koko For a team with 2 ground types in a intimidating land spirit and a derpy mud boi, an electric fairy doesn't seem threatening... or is it? Depending on the team's ability to break down ground types for a Koko that isn't dual screens, my team struggles due to no speed boosting and therefore a glaring weakness to a speedy birb that volt switches all over the place after my ground types die. Plus, unlike my Lando-T , hidden power ice is not uncommon on these.
• Darkrai This guy might be mid enough to be OU now, but its access to special attacks and a max speed over 379 means that I die. Both scarf sets and nasty plot sets beat up my team, except for the occasion in which my lele somehow gets behind a sub at + something spdef.
• Volcarona Water absorb clod saves you most of the time, but not against certain sets of hot bug! Clod can maybe get off a toxic or something, but tera ground blast sets absolutely will eat my team up. If sets only include fire resisted moves, Cinderace can live one big hit at +2. (Eg Flamethrower)
• Insane surprise factor. You want a "surprise"? I'm bad at Pokemon! My clod is not unaware, meaning that if there's a set that I mispredict and they cook up to +4 or something, I die instantly. This is mainly talking about the rarer (I think?) sub swords dance Urshifu-R that I thought was scarf.

That's probably the main weakness of my team, which now that I think about it is the only ways I've lost. Easiest way to circumvent this? Play better.

Conclusion:
I hope you had a good read of this team!! I've had a great time using it and I'm pretty sure I'll keep using it for a bit longer. Please (very much) give me feedback because this team has some very clear flaws but due to my inexperience I am unsure of how I can change this team without completely throwing the idea out the window. I hope you might try using this team for yourself, the subcalm Lele will carry you to victory!

...or maybe just subcalm lele by itself, I don't think that this team will go that much further than where I got tbh, this team is quite gimmicky.

 

[Oculars]

Hey congrats on top 500 ladder! I like the concept of the team but you might want to consider a few changes or adaptations to push this team to its fullest potential without changing too much and losing the flavour of the team.

Potential Downfalls

Speed Control

The first issue I see with this team is the lack of speed control or priority, higher up on the ladder most teams offensive teams will quickly be able to identify a win condition where any form of speed boosted mon will outspeed your entire team at +1 and threaten a sweep. There is very little counterplay to setup sweepers such as and even which can sweep you even after a scald burn. High ladder players will often save for when your team is chipped and theres no counter play available. A majority of the sweepers in the tier are adapted to and so they often run defensive teras and substitute to turn them into setup fodder. Some options for maybe fixing this are making choice scarfed to be able to out speed the majority of these mons at +1 and dropping U-turn on for sucker punch to have some priority available, another recommendation I would to help speed tiers is to switch for and its four attack or choice banded set which will provide consistent value in almost every matchup and offer counterplay vs faster sweepers as it typically has the bulk to take a booster hit, or even better drop it for scarf which fits well on this pivot heavy team style and helps fix two of your worst matchups, being stall and hyper offense.

Defensive Utility
Id also recommend switching back to unaware, while water absorb may seem like it helps more with rain, you actually fall victim to mons such as on rain which unaware clodsire is extremely useful in checking, along with most stored power sweepers such as which you would otherwise wall and iron defense + body press which flat out 6-0's your team off lead when you drop unaware, water absorb is generally considered unviable at high levels of play in national dex. Your should be running toxic over scald 100% of the time as otherwise one of the most centralizing mons in the tier will come in for free. Id recommend changing tera fire on for flying as this will help you get off emergency court changes and flip matchups against ground types. cant really slot hidden power ice in this metagame and is better off carrying stealth rocks to help with your matchups.

Lack of Immediate Power
Another issue you will find with the team is its lack of immediate power, the team relies heaviliy on its coverage and super effective moves to deal damage and lacks a reliable way of dealing massive damage right away. This can lead to matchups where you bump up against stall and find yourself consistently clicking weak moves and unable to make progress. One workaround for this could be adding psychium Z to to offer a one turn boosted move that can break past several defensive answers and help make progress vs fatter teams, a second solution to this matchup is dropping substitute on for taunt which also helps break past these teams and stop them from using utility. A better workaround in my opinion would be entirely dropping for something like which offers you better momentum, future sight support and doesnt overlap with as much as does.


New Pastes
Heres two versions of the team ive slightly adapted to fit the meta better

Minimal Changes -
This version aims to keep the original team fully intact with out switching any mon and stay as true as possible to the original vision.

Meta Adapted -
This version aims to offer a build more centralized around the current meta, drops for to help greatly with your matchups at both ends of the extremes: vs stall teams and hyper offense, the quadruple pivot structure will offer plenty of chances to bring it in, substitute on lele is dropped for taunt as you often dont want to waste turns setting up sub with . It also switches for to offer future sight support along with a better defensive core with more longevity from regenerator that is less passive and doesnt overlap in utility with as much, which is also changed to defog on this version now that court change was dropped.

Cool team and good luck laddering!

 

[Miyoko]

Hi! I like the team a lot and I'm glad to see taou lele being used in a new way but few things to be noted in ur team that u need to perform better in the ladder.
1. Hazard Control
Your team has very limited Heavy-duty-boots users that can have good my vs hazard stack teams and u have no defog / rapid spin to remove them. Btw I am talking about the meta updated version. So I would suggest u to run heavy-duty-boots on some of the mons. U must switch Protective Pads into Heavy-duty-boots on Meowscarada

Meowscarada @ Heavy-duty-boots
Ability: Protean
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flower Trick
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Triple Axel
2. Always try Grassy Knot on
I would suggest u to always keep Grass Knot in place of toxic since Grass knot with low speed and good defense helps u break through opposing Great Tusk and use Special Attacking set on Lando. SpA set means that u don't fear Wil-o-wisp and can get free Earth Powers and U-turns. This is very useful as slow Lando can sometimes prove to be the best defensive Pokemon. Also u have given 4 SpA but u don't have any Special Attacking moves so ig that was a mistake.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- U-turn
- Grass Knot
My suggested set
3. Replace with /
Always try using some defog users in the team. I suggest Corvinight the most since it's slow and gives u u-turn to bring ur mon safely in.
Skarmory can help u set up spikes, the one thing that corv lacks. This will help u threaten oppo to defog and waste a turn.
Also both has access to Brave Bird or other things that can hit Ogerpon-Wellspring hardly, one mon that has good mu vs this team.

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 244 HP / 128 Def / 136 SpD
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
//

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Iron Defense
- Spikes
- Roost
- Body Press
4. (Optional) Use some megas
Your team fits well with Pokemon like Mega Lopunny once u have hazard control so I think Mega Lopunny can replace Meowscarada and perform better actually. However this is optional, u can have ur own reasons of using it. But this is just a suggestion.

Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Close Combat
- Quick Attack

The final team structure looks like this
https://pokepast.es/759d1e1a4bcc2fed
I changed lele set a bit from Psychic into Psychock to hit Pokemon like Blissey , Clodsire , Galarian Slowking :slowking-galar and Heatran and changed Taunt into Hidden Power Fire to hit Pokemon like Mega Scizor , Scizor and Ferrothorn . Rest changes are mentioned above

Overall, the team is pretty balanced and I like this a lot. Try following my suggestion, this will make the teams work better and can help u a lot. Thanks and good luck laddering!
Bye

 

[wooperdude69]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm happy to see that my team was "interesting" and yeah, I'm aware of the crazy weaknesses of my team
I'm surprised I didn't think of choice scarf ditto... that guy does fit well for this kind of team.

Taunt over sub was probably better... i'll use that. I also didn't put HP fire on purpose because I had cinderace that could get in and dodge bullet punch bc of psychic terrain.

2. Always try Grassy Knot on
I would suggest u to always keep Grass Knot in place of toxic since Grass knot with low speed and good defense helps u break through opposing Great Tusk and use Special Attacking set on Lando. SpA set means that u don't fear Wil-o-wisp and can get free Earth Powers and U-turns. This is very useful as slow Lando can sometimes prove to be the best defensive Pokemon. Also u have given 4 SpA but u don't have any Special Attacking moves so ig that was a mistake.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- U-turn
- Grass Knot
My suggested set

My 4 spa EVs were for hidden power ice... idk if u missed that. I ran that over grass knot because I wanted to prank other lando/gliscors (which I saw a lot more of) but yeah grass knot is better for specifically great tusk. Special lando looks fun though.


I did think of glowking for my spdef mon over clod, but remember that the main purpose of this team was to prove to my friend that I could pull up with my clodsire and get top 500.

This goes for my reasoning for why I chose those mons in the first place, but for future laddering I'll use these edited ones (or I'll make another goofy team to RMT), and see which one I like more.

I'll check back here every now and then for any other suggestions. Hopefully i'll have another silly top 500 team to show you guys someday :)