ORAS OU Summer Time Fun

[AceSat]

Hey everyone! As a bio major at a research university, I haven't really had time for games at all. My pc and ps4 are getting dust while I am taking tests, lab reports. and honor societies one day at a time. As a result of this, I have had no time to play Pokemon at all. The last time I've played competitively was around December. So it has been about three months now that I've been gone, and I see that the metagame has changed significantly over that period of time. That is why I am making this RMT, to see how I should alter a team I created way back in order to adapt to the current metagame. I plan to play frequently again, especially during my "summer break". Thanks for your time! Now onto the team:
Note: Credit to pkparaiso for the images used in this RMT.

Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Rock Polish
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
So the team is based around a Mega Diancie and Talonflame offensive core. This is the standard mixed Diancie with Moonblast and Earth Power being the main attacks with Diamond Storm used for coverage to hit Talonflame and Thundurus. Rock Polish is used here in order to set up and compete with faster pokemon after forcing out a switch. A hasty nature is used here so Diancie is able to take common special attacks, such as thunderbolt, more reliably and as a result come in easier.

Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 88 HP / 252 Atk / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
The second part of the offensive core is Talonflame. Priority Brave Bird is still useful in the current metagame. It is an excellent revenge killer, especially if your opponent has a vulnerable pokemon out. This can lead to an opponent having to take a significant portion of damage on a defensive pokemon, or let something faint. Like Diancie, is also the standard set with Swords Dance to boost with roost to heal off stealth rocks and recoil damage. Jolly nature is used here in order to out-speed adamant Talonflame running the same spread.

Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Trick
So looking at the team so far, Talonflame necessitates a way to get rid of Stealth Rocks. My team also has a huge gap with leading with speed after Talonflame is dealt with. Enter Latios, which is able to fit both of these roles. Draco Meteor and Psyshock are two STAB moves that are able to hit hard on anything that wants to come in. Defog gets rid of the before mentioned Stealth Rocks. Trick is a useful utility, as it is able to cripple a bevy of defensive Pokemon. Latios completes the offensive coverage of the team with Diancie and Talonflame.

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Recover
- Giga Drain
- U-turn
- Thunder Wave
Staying true to balance, I wished to have a special defensive and defensive tank on the team. Celebi fills the special defensive tank role. The team at this point in making it couldn't really deal with repeated hits from Rotom-W and Keldeo. Max special defense along with Giga Drain allows Celebi to heal a large amount and take water attacks with ease on the switch in. U-turn is used to keep offensive momentum against my opponent. Recover is used to get Celebi back to optimal health. Thunder Wave is a great utility status move, as Celebi would be able to cripple any offensive threat trying to switch in and set up on it.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off
In order to finish a balanced team, a defensive Pokemon is needed. Here is standard defensive Landorus-T, which offers great synergy with celebi. Landorus-T is able to take hits from Pokemon that can give Celebi trouble, and Celebi is able to do the same for Landorus-T. Landorus-T is also here to set up hazards. Earthquake, U-turn, and Knock Off are all standard moves that allow it to perform its role well. Knock Off is great at crippling opposing Pokemon with choice items and defensive Pokemon dependent on leftovers.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 212 Atk / 48 Def
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Looking at the final spot on my team, I need a strong physical attacker.The team before Scizor is has a lot of focus on speed and defense. Scizor is here in order to pull off a late game sweep or in order to take out threats with varying hp. Choice Band allows Scizor to hit like a truck. Bullet Punch and U-turn are Scizor's STAB moves. Bullet Punch is boosted further by technician, and is the best move for an endgame sweep. Superpower is here for coverage, allowing Scizor to hit other Steel types. Knock Off is always a useful utility move that can do neutral damage on a lot of Pokemon in OU, as well as KO psychic types such as the Lati twins.

Importable

Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Rock Polish
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power

Talonflame @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 88 HP / 252 Atk / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz

Latios (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Trick

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Recover
- Giga Drain
- U-turn
- Thunder Wave

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 212 Atk / 48 Def
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- U-turn

So this is my team. I will happily take all suggestions. Hopefully this team can blossom into a powerhouse. Any/all input is loved, I need to gain a better understanding of how the metagame is today. Thank you for reading/rating this team!

 

[Justintown11]

Hi AceSat, First of all this team has good amount of potential; however, there are definitely some ways of optimizing it to make it better.

Let's start off with Diancie, you have determined the goal of this team which is to setup a Rock Polish, and clean up offensive teams. This is good but I recommend Changing Hasty Nature to Naive, generally speaking, it's better to have a nature that lowers your Special Defense rather than physical as it means tanking priority attacks better. Next up I feel as though you're going to have trouble breaking up defensive cores as outside of Talonflame you no way of boosting any of your attackers and Talonflame, despite having great STABs, doesn't have a very high base Attack stat. Secondly Talonflame's ability to move first with Brave Bird already means you have the potential of sweeping offensive teams which is one of its main selling points. Considering this and considering that Diancie can already help out against defensive play with its ability and its great mixed stats and STABs, I recommend changing Rock Polish to Calm Mind.

Diancie @ Diancite | Magic Bounce
Naive | 16 Atk / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Moonblast | Diamond Storm | Earth Power | Calm Mind

Then there is Talonflame, who helps you beat offense teams and Mega Diancie + most fire types was definitely a great choice considering that they check some of each others counters like how Talonflame can beat opposing Scizors as well as the utility of potentially keeping hazards off the field while maintaining a good offensive presence.

This one is a relatively simple adjustment, change the Jolly nature to Adamant. You need to committed to towards sweeping, and a speed boosting nature only helps you beat opposing Talonflame, which I'll address relatively soon.

Next up is Latios, who defogs away the Stealth Rocks your Talonflame gets destroyed by without; because you have a Talonflame and I've already recommended a way of breaking up defensive cores, there is no longer a need for tricking away somethings item anymore. Change Choice Scarf to Life Orb and replace Trick with Roost, your going to want your Talonflame to have staying power, so you'll want t make that sure you don't have a latios that is taking damage and being locked into a non-damaging attack, something your opponents will easily take advantage of.

Latios @ Life Orb | Levitate
Timid | 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Draco Meteor | Psyshock | Defog | Roost

Now on to Celebii, this one is far less obvious than the few topics covered in this rate, but so far Choice Scarf Magnezone / Magneton is looking like a threat towards your team as there is very little on your team that really wants to take a Flash Cannon from it, bar Talonflame which gets annihilated by T-bolt; add Earth Power to Celebii in order to mitigate this by a small margin. Replacing which move is up to preference.

Celebii @ leftovers | Natural Cure
Calm | 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Giga Drain | Earth power / U-turn | Earth Power / Thunder Wave | Recover

You mentioned that you wanted to check opposing Talonflame. This is simple, add Stone Edge to your Landorus-T because without is you really don't have too many options for opposing ones as roost variants will be able to beat you if played well enough on predicted Roost vs. other move plays.

Lastly, Gengar and latios / Latias are huge threats to your team; M-Diancie doesn't enjoy taking hits from them and neither does anything else so in order to mitigate this try changing knock Off to Pursuit on Scizor because other wise these three threats will be able to seriously hinder your teams performance.

Good effort, AceSat, good luck with battling and school :)

 

[supermoospower]

Hey I really like your team however the diancie spread should be changed because you are running rock polish, you do not need max speed if you do use rock polish so may I recommend mild nature, for maximum damage and 184 SPD to out speed scarf users after one rock polish and dump the rest of the evs into hp for bulk
Keep 252 sp atk
:)

 

[Disciple_1]

Yo pretty nice team. But this team looks pretty weak to steel types in general, with bisharp and megagross leading the pack. Granted, Talonflame can handle them, but it puts too much pressure on it. So the change I would recommend is making lando-t your scarfer and giving SR to celebi. Celebi already has a pretty reliable recovery move in giga drain, so I would remove recover for SR. I would then give latios LO over scarf so that it can abuse it's monstrous power. And change trick to either Eq or Hp fighting / fire. The scarfed lando-t will ensure that you are able to KO most steel pokes without much problem and tflame can take care of the rest .

Hope I helped glhf battling :)

 

[AceSat]

Hi AceSat, First of all this team has good amount of potential; however, there are definitely some ways of optimizing it to make it better.

Let's start off with Diancie, you have determined the goal of this team which is to setup a Rock Polish, and clean up offensive teams. This is good but I recommend Changing Hasty Nature to Naive, generally speaking, it's better to have a nature that lowers your Special Defense rather than physical as it means tanking priority attacks better. Next up I feel as though you're going to have trouble breaking up defensive cores as outside of Talonflame you no way of boosting any of your attackers and Talonflame, despite having great STABs, doesn't have a very high base Attack stat. Secondly Talonflame's ability to move first with Brave Bird already means you have the potential of sweeping offensive teams which is one of its main selling points. Considering this and considering that Diancie can already help out against defensive play with its ability and its great mixed stats and STABs, I recommend changing Rock Polish to Calm Mind.

Diancie @ Diancite | Magic Bounce
Naive | 16 Atk / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Moonblast | Diamond Storm | Earth Power | Calm Mind

Then there is Talonflame, who helps you beat offense teams and Mega Diancie + most fire types was definitely a great choice considering that they check some of each others counters like how Talonflame can beat opposing Scizors as well as the utility of potentially keeping hazards off the field while maintaining a good offensive presence.

This one is a relatively simple adjustment, change the Jolly nature to Adamant. You need to committed to towards sweeping, and a speed boosting nature only helps you beat opposing Talonflame, which I'll address relatively soon.

Next up is Latios, who defogs away the Stealth Rocks your Talonflame gets destroyed by without; because you have a Talonflame and I've already recommended a way of breaking up defensive cores, there is no longer a need for tricking away somethings item anymore. Change Choice Scarf to Life Orb and replace Trick with Roost, your going to want your Talonflame to have staying power, so you'll want t make that sure you don't have a latios that is taking damage and being locked into a non-damaging attack, something your opponents will easily take advantage of.

Latios @ Life Orb | Levitate
Timid | 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Draco Meteor | Psyshock | Defog | Roost

Now on to Celebii, this one is far less obvious than the few topics covered in this rate, but so far Choice Scarf Magnezone / Magneton is looking like a threat towards your team as there is very little on your team that really wants to take a Flash Cannon from it, bar Talonflame which gets annihilated by T-bolt; add Earth Power to Celebii in order to mitigate this by a small margin. Replacing which move is up to preference.

Celebii @ leftovers | Natural Cure
Calm | 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Giga Drain | Earth power / U-turn | Earth Power / Thunder Wave | Recover

You mentioned that you wanted to check opposing Talonflame. This is simple, add Stone Edge to your Landorus-T because without is you really don't have too many options for opposing ones as roost variants will be able to beat you if played well enough on predicted Roost vs. other move plays.

Lastly, Gengar and latios / Latias are huge threats to your team; M-Diancie doesn't enjoy taking hits from them and neither does anything else so in order to mitigate this try changing knock Off to Pursuit on Scizor because other wise these three threats will be able to seriously hinder your teams performance.

Good effort, AceSat, good luck with battling and school :)

Thanks for the rate! I had no idea gengar has gained more usage. During the beginning of OR AS OU it was rarely on teams. Guess that Greninja being gone and lJohnny getting less prevalent made it more common. Noted. And thanks school is rough lol.

Hey I really like your team however the diancie spread should be changed because you are running rock polish, you do not need max speed if you do use rock polish so may I recommend mild nature, for maximum damage and 184 SPD to out speed scarf users after one rock polish and dump the rest of the evs into hp for bulk
Keep 252 sp atk
:)

Going to be trying calm mind as suggested by justintown11. However, the next time I try to make a team with rock polish diancie I'll definitely have this in my thank you.

Yo pretty nice team. But this team looks pretty weak to steel types in general, with bisharp and megagross leading the pack. Granted, Talonflame can handle them, but it puts too much pressure on it. So the change I would recommend is making lando-t your scarfer and giving SR to celebi. Celebi already has a pretty reliable recovery move in giga drain, so I would remove recover for SR. I would then give latios LO over scarf so that it can abuse it's monstrous power. And change trick to either Eq or Hp fighting / fire. The scarfed lando-t will ensure that you are able to KO most steel pokes without much problem and tflame can take care of the rest .

Hope I helped glhf battling :)

I can also try this out, it will make my team more hyper offense oriented. Maybe I should look at Joey's Celebi Evs for a more balanced Celebi and try this hyper offensive team after all.

TL;DR
I will test suggestions from justintown11 and Disciple_1 hopefully in the next few days, and update the team and maybe get some more rates. Time to get some rest.