SM OU The Chronic - A USUM Bulky Offense Team

[APimpNamedSlikback]

So I built this team not too long ago, wondering how well I could make Hydreigon work in OU, as it's always been one of my favorite mons. I was expecting an okay but ultimately less than ideal team, but lo and behold, with this team my alt managed to make it into the 1600s on the OU ladder, a place I haven't been before with any other team. So before I go further and fight what I presume to be better players with stronger teams, I thought I might post the team here to receive feedback.

Dr. Dreigon (Hydreigon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon

It seems sometimes that OU forgot about Drei, but this G ain't outta the game yet. Choice specs turns hydreigon into a brutally powerful special attacker that can rip teams apart with the right prediction. Even assault vest magearna stands a very good chance of being 2HKO'd by fire blast after rocks, and so the only really reliable counter to hydreigon is Tapu fini and Chansey, but Tangrowth easily nails fini and Chanety is easily dealth with by the rest of the team. The mere threat of eating a specs boosted dark pulse or draco meteor is enough for many defensive teams to make some very obvious plays, which I can take advantage of with a solid prediction or doubling out to a counter. Offensive teams typically make life more difficult for hydreigon, but it's numerous resistances, 2 immunities, and respectable bulk give it a myriad of safe switch-in opportunities, leaving offensive teams terrified and scrambling to find a switch in for the hydra. Hydreigon forms a very solid dragon-steel-fairy core with heatran and mawile, who together can threaten virtually the entire metagame together and complement each other defensively as well.

Pull my hair daddy (Mawile-Mega) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance

Mega mawile is one of if not the best mega evolution in USUM OU and it's swords dance set is the bane of defensive and offensive teams alike once lando and heatran are out of the picture. After a swords dance this twin-tailed beast can rip through even the most defensive of mons like toxapex and celesteela, and can easily get the drop on faster offensive threats with a boosted sucker punch. With hydreigon naturally bringing in many defensive mons like tapu fini, mawile is free to switch in and start setting up. I only mega evolve when I need to as to preserve intimidate for easier future setup if I'm forced out or intimidate cycling between landorus and mawile.

MtFire (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Toxic

Heatran is the best pokemon in the metagame right now, and that isn't just opinion, it's fact. It simultaneously provide amazing defensive utility against the likes of specs tapu lele, mega mawile, shift gear magearna, and more, while also hitting quite hard with magma storm and earth power even without investment. Through a combination of trapping, taunt, toxic, earth power, and residual trapping damage from magma storm, utility-tran is the best stallbreaker and balancebreaker in OU right now, even able to take out would-be counters like chansey and toxapex, which hydreigon really appreciates. Play your cards right and nothing, barring tapu fini, comes in for free on this mon, even the likes of gastrodon, swampert, and quagsire risk getting hit by toxic.

The Senate (Zygarde) @ Steelium Z
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Iron Tail
- Dragon Dance

Zygarde forms an alternative dragon-fairy-steel core with mawile and heatran, providing valuable (and reliable, unlike sucker punch) priority and the ability to hit everything in the meta with thousand arrows. Whereas our other dragon Hydreigon is a wallbreaking menace who's only consistent answer is fairy types, zygarde is an offensive setup sweeper who has a little surprise for many of it's so-called "counters". Z-iron tail is an absolutely devastating lure to the likes of tapu bulu and clefable, who are usually there to counter zygarde. Even without an opposing fairy type, corkscrew crash is still quite powerful and with extremespeed and thousand arrows offers great neutral coverage and unlimited power.

Pubes (Tangrowth) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 28 Def / 228 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake

There's no such thing as a viable OU team without an answer to the likes of ash-greninja, keldeo, and zygarde, and that's what tangrowth is here to fulfill. With the coveted regenvest combo, tangrowth can consistently come in on and shut down offensive threats multiple times throughout the match while not being overly-passive itself. Not much else to say, Tangrowth is a blanket check to an enormous variety of threats and has excellent synergy with almost any team archetype, and this team is no exception.

SmogonKitty (Landorus-Therian) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Defog
- Stealth Rock

Ah good ol' Lando-T, smogon's beloved little kitty, and the second best mon in OU right now. Landorus is a secondary blanket physical check to many mons and provides the role compression this team needs to function, namely having both stealth rock, defog, and u-turn for pivoting. Such a set would be suboptimal, but the fact that it enables the rest of the team to remain as it is makes it invaluable. Much like Tangrowth, Lando-T's usefulness does not need much explaining.

Importable

Dr. Dreigon (Hydreigon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Flash Cannon

Pull my hair daddy (Mawile-Mega) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance

MtFire (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Toxic

The Senate (Zygarde) @ Steelium Z
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Iron Tail
- Dragon Dance

Pubes (Tangrowth) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 28 Def / 228 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake

SmogonKitty (Landorus-Therian) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Defog
- Stealth Rock

 

[curiosity]

Hey, this is a pretty cool team. I really like the structure of the team and I find the pairing of Mawile and Hydreigon to be really cool. However, I'm not particularly fond of this team's lack of speed control, especially considering how slow this team is. The combination of the aforementioned and the lack of defensive counterplay versus mons such as swords dance Kartana, Mega Alakazam, Tapu Lele and protean Greninja to be incredibly threatening. I also think that flying types such as Tornadus, Hawlucha and Mega Pinsir are immensely threatening due to their ability to break past your dedicated flying resists with their fighting stab / coverage, which can be particularly troublesome once Mawile has mega evolved. This team is also relatively weak to Heatran, as both of your dedicated switch-ins are incredibly susceptible to chip damage. In order to resolve these issues, I'd like to suggest the following changes to improve the general matchup versus them.

>

While Tangrowth + Zygarde is a fantastic defensive core and Hydreigon + Zygarde is an equally as impressive offensive core, it doesn't really address the issue versus the aforementioned Flying types, so I think runnning Rotom over Zygarde is a better option. This change provides the team with a much more reliable flying resist, which improves the matchup versus Tornadus and Pinsir, while also providing the team with a reliable protean Greninja check and a Flyinium Gyarados counter. The spread I will be recommending will allow you to avoid the 2hko from Greninja's Dark Pulse and generally helping out with the Heatran matchup, which removes the pressure off of Tangrowth and Hydreigon to check Heatran and Tangrowth respectively. Finally, Rotom provides this team an improved stall matchup through the use of Pain Split, which allows you annoy walls such as Chansey and Zapdos, while Volt Switch allows you to bring in Mawile and Hydreigon safer in many situations. Now this change means you're ironically weaker to Heatran and Ash Greninja, which the next change aims to address.

>

So as I said earlier, this team lacked a reliable Heatran answer, so I wanted to address this issue by changing Hydreigon's set from its current specs set to that of a Darkinium wallbreaker. This change grants you the ability the ability to take on Heatran and Ash Greninja more reliably, as you now have the ability to simply roost of any damage that these two throw out. This change also improves your balance matchup, as you now have the ability to simply sit in front of defensive threats such as Toxapex lacking Toxic, Celesteela, Tangrowth and Specially Defensive Heatran and freely spam its stab and coverage with very little consequences. A Darkinium is used to provide Hydreigon with an incredibly powerful nuke, while also providing the team with a knock off switch-in, which can be problematic for a build like this.

>

So I opted to change Landorus' set here from a defensive set to an offensive scarf variant. This change not only provides this team with an incredibly crucial form of speed control, but it also provides the team with a consistent form of hazard control. Additionally, this change provides the team with a method to pivot into and revenge pick Alakazam, while also helping out with the Pinsir, Tornadus and Charizard matchups through Stone Edge. Landorus also forms the second half of the Volt-turn core that I created with Rotom, which grants this team with a fast form of momentum.

specially defensive > utility
Since I had removed your stealth rocker, I decided to change Heatran's set from a utility stallbreaker set to a specially defensive spread. This change not only improved your matchup versus Alakazam, Tapu Lele and Mawile, but it provided this team with a reliable method to spread burns with Lava Plume to cripple usual switch ins such as Mega Tyranitar, Gliscor, and Mega Latios but also provided this team with crucial toxic support, which aids this team's matchup versus the likes of Alakazam, Volcarona, Charizard and Moltres to name some threats.

Since this team is rather weak to Hawlucha and Alakazam, i'd suggest running a bulkier spread, which will allow you to survive one High Jump Kick from a +1 Hawlucha and check Alakazam more consistently. Additionally, I'd recommend running Thunder Punch over Knock Off to help Hydreigon break past Celesteela, Toxapex and Pyukumuku. The latter is particularly important, as it means that your stall matchup can be somewhat hindered.

Optional Change, but I like Sludge Bomb Tangrowth here, as it helps the Tapu Bulu, Seperior and Tapu Lele matchups, which can be incredibly troublesome for this build to handle, although this change means that you're putting more pressure on Heatran to check Shift Gear Magearna and lack a way to punish offensive Heatran. I would also opt to run Grass Knot + Hidden Power Fire to better take on Kartana, which is also quite annoying.




Hope this rate is helpful, good luck!

edit: you can also opt for a mixed defensive Tangrowth set here (set import here), since you're not awfully weak to Ash Gren and Alakazam. This change lets you take on Zygarde and Kartana more consistently, which is nice