Project The Next Best Thing - ORAS OU Edition V3 - FINISHED

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AD impish john

Consumed by Darkness...
Voting can begin now, and here are your choices:

Double Dance Smack Down Yache Berry Lando-T
Gravity Lando-T
Toxic Landorus-Therian
Punishment Landorus-T
Bandorus-Therian
ChestoRest Landorus-T
Sub + Bulk Up Landorus-T
Lum SD Lando-T
Fly Landorus-T
Salac Berry Lando-T
Imprison Lando-T
 
Sub + Bulk Up Landorus-T

(the set I think is quite underrated because Landorus-T can work well as an offensive tank which spams Intimidate while entering and use Bulk Up to tank hits and dish out some damage)
 
ChestoRest Landorus-T

Landorus-T's lack of recovery has always been its biggest problem - even something like RestTalk with Rocky Helmet sounds decent. Imprison's another good option but in this meta more and more SR Garchomp are running offensive sets, Hippo and defensive Lando-T are less common, etc.

Please don't vote for Punishment though - nothing at all against KidMagic but Punishment is just a bad use of a moveslot. If you need to take out a heavily boosted Slowbro, Reuniclus or M-Latias (and virtually nothing else), it's useful, but there's a massive opportunity cost involved in not running one of the many, many better options Lando-T has. At least run calcs for yourself before voting for it.
 
Don't both of these examples just Whirlwind you out? I could see it to reliably eliminate Skarm w/ SmaQuake, but I don't think using it as a setup sweeper is the best way to use the move tbh as I think it benefits much more from luring skarm and running a move w/ utility, such as turn or rocks, over SD and using Soft Sand to power up Quake as anything which it can successfully trap (most walls either get forced out by it or force it out themselves) and set up on cripples its ability to sweep w/ leech seed or something.
SD is just there, mainly for hippo (which literally never carries whirlwind lol), and not all skarms carry whirlwind. Soft Sand is an option though.
 
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AD impish john

Consumed by Darkness...
This Weeks Winner is tie, which goes to Subsitute+Bulk Up by InvisibleWater and Punishment Landorus-Therian by KidMagic. Congratz on you two for entering the Hall of Fame!

The Pokemon for Week 7 is Salamence!

Salamence is a underrated Pokemon as it gets decent abilities being Intimidate and Moxie, and also has very good stats and movepool. Salamence is never used in OU because of Dragonite outclassing it sadly.​
 

Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Aqua Tail / Iron Tail
- Earthquake / Iron Tail

So Scarf Moxie used to be a thing back before Fairies were about, taking advantage of its incredible STAB and Moxie in order to steamroll weakened teams, gaining momentum with each kill. Even though it's considerably worse since the release of Fairy types, a little teambuilding support can return Salamence to its glory days. Additionally, Salamence's presence can be a good thing for its teammates, as it puts a lot of pressure on keeping its checks healthy. This can create a lot of opportunities for Mence's teammates to set up or fire off huge attacks on switch ins, as people are unwilling to trade hits for fear of letting Mence run rampant later on.

Outrage and Dragon Claw are what you're going to hit 90% of the time. Outrage provides a lot of oomph, while Dragon Claw is the safer option to use earlier on, when checks haven't been removed yet and you could be revenge killed or set up on. Last two slots are flexible and generally don't matter very much. Aqua Tail can be used to hit bulky Grounds like Landorus-T or Hippowdon on the switch, Iron Tail can lure in Fairy types like Diancie and Gardevoir, while Earthquake can nail Steel types such as Heatran. However, there's not a lot of punch behind these moves, so it's unlikely you'll be able to sweep with them effectively.
 
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Tailwind Sally

Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Tailwind
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Iron Tail / Earthquake

Tailwind is one of Mence's better niches, allowing it to take on a more supportive role. Tailwind can set up Salamence or a teammate for a lategame sweep, and can be reliably achieved given Intimidate, fully invested speed, and useful typing.

The combination of moves is geared towards removing or weakening physically defensive stops, and so the set pairs well with things like Azumarill, M-Metagross, etc etc.
 
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Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
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Man, this is scraping the bottom of the barrel...
MixMence

Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Roost / Outrage / Hydro Pump

MixMence takes advantage of its amazing stats and offensive movepool to wallbreak sufficiently well. It faces stiff competition from just about every other dragon, but it sets itself apart from the competition with Intimidate. This allows it to switch in against physical attackers with more ease, and it takes advantage of its good typing in conjunction with this to switch in on Pokemon like Landorus-T. Draco is the STAB move, hitting anything which doesn't resist it for massive damage. Fire Blast hits Ferrothorn and Scizor, while Earthquake smacks Tyranitar and Heatran around. Your choice of fourth move comes down to personal preference and the needs of the team. Roost allows you to heal up, taking advantage of Intimidate and Mence's good natural bulk to give it good longevity. Outrage allows you to keep hitting hard after a Draco Meteor, and it allows it to function similarly to Life Orb Kingdra. Hydro Pump allows you to nail Ground-types like Hippowdon and Landorus-T without lowering you SpA stat, which can come in handy v.s. fatter teams.
 
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Salamence @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def /60 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Tail
- Roost
- Toxic/Defog
- Fire Blast

So I decided on Defensive Salamence. Since no1 uses Salamence in OU and the 1's dat do use ddance or mixed no1 expects the defensive mence. It lures mons like hippo, lando-t, slowbro, rotom-w, etc and hits them with a toxic. It has more Sp.att then Garchomp which allows it to hit skarmory,ferrothorn,Serperior harder. Dragon Tail forces mons to switch out besides fairies. The thing it has that Garchomp doesn't have is Recovery which is Roost. 160 Speed is to outspeed adamant excadrill and based 70 mons dat r jolly.

0- SpA Garchomp Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Skarmory: 158-186 (47.3 - 55.6%) -- 21.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0- SpA Salamence Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Skarmory: 206-244 (61.6 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0- SpA Garchomp Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Serperior: 124-146 (42.6 - 50.1%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO
0- SpA Salamence Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Serperior: 160-190 (54.9 - 65.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
 
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Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus

Salamence @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Def / 160 Spe
Impish Nature
- Dragon Tail
- Roost
- Toxic
- Fire Blast

So I decided on Defensive Salamence. Since no1 uses Salamence in OU and the 1's dat do use ddance or mixed no1 expects the defensive mence. It lures mons like hippo, lando-t, slowbro, rotom-w, etc and hits them with a toxic. It has more Sp.att then Garchomp which allows it to hit skarmory,ferrothorn,Serperior harder. Dragon Tail forces mons to switch out besides fairies. The thing it has that Garchomp doesn't have is Recovery which is Roost. 160 Speed is to outspeed adamant excadrill and based 70 mons dat r jolly.

0- SpA Garchomp Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Skarmory: 158-186 (47.3 - 55.6%) -- 21.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0- SpA Salamence Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Skarmory: 206-244 (61.6 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0- SpA Garchomp Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Serperior: 124-146 (42.6 - 50.1%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO
0- SpA Salamence Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Serperior: 160-190 (54.9 - 65.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Defog is also a viable option over Toxic as it allows Mence to clear hazards for its teammates, which it does reasonably well with its typing and Intimidate.
 
Natural Gift lure Mence



Salamence @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant / Naughty Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Iron Tail / Fire Blast
- Natural Gift

As a dragon dancer, Salamence doesn't have much to distinguish itself from Dragonite. However with a natural gift grass & iron tail lure set, Salamence can lure in two of the most common set-up sweepers' hard stops in Unaware Quagsire and Clefable:
252+ Atk Liechi Berry Salamence Natural Gift (100 BP Grass) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire: 396-468 (100.5 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Salamence Iron Tail vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 216-256 (54.9 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Dragonite gets natural gift too but can't quite guarantee the KO on Quagsire and doesn't get the moxie boost after the successful lure to help continue the sweep. Adamant is necessary to secure the KOs and the moves also lure in other would-be checks such as Sylveon, M-Altaria and Slowbro.

This set is walled by steel types, so pair him with Magnezone and between them they can successfully take out the majority of mons who could under usual circumstances halt a sweep. With steels, fairies and unaware users gone Mence is then free to spam outrage and rack up moxie boosts.

Edit: another (probably better) option (thanks Clair) is fire blast over iron tail to not be walled by steels. Then you can pair it with a mon to reliably beat fairies and appreciates Quag and Skarm gone such as M-Zor. Dugtrio is the obvious 3rd member for Scizor to U-turn on and trap Heatran.
 
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Natural Gift lure Mence



Salamence @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Iron Tail
- Natural Gift

As a dragon dancer, Salamence doesn't have much to distinguish itself from Dragonite. However with a natural gift grass & iron tail lure set, Salamence can lure in two of the most common set-up sweepers' hard stops in Unaware Quagsire and Clefable:
252+ Atk Liechi Berry Salamence Natural Gift (100 BP Grass) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire: 396-468 (100.5 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Salamence Iron Tail vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 216-256 (54.9 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Dragonite gets natural gift too but can't quite guarantee the KO on Quagsire and doesn't get the moxie boost after the successful lure to help continue the sweep. Adamant is necessary to secure the KOs and the moves also lure in other would-be checks such as Sylveon, M-Altaria and Slowbro.

This set is walled by steel types, so pair him with Magnezone and between them they can successfully take out the majority of mons who could under usual circumstances halt a sweep. With steels, fairies and unaware users gone Mence is then free to spam outrage and rack up moxie boosts.
I really like the idea but I don't think the set should sacrifice its effectiveness against Steel types. Just use Natural Gift Grass and Fire Blast > Iron Tail, then pair it with something like SD M-Scizor which appreciates Quag and Skarm being removed and can deal with Fairies, rather than trying to lure both Unaware mons at once and significantly decreasing your chances of a standalone sweep. It's worth mentioning that physically defensive Unaware Fable isn't reliably 2HKO'd by Iron Tail anyway.
 
Even though I am scratching the bottom of the barrel, i pick:

ResTalk Phazer with Dragon Dance

Salamence @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 236 SpD / 24 Spe
Careful Nature (-SpA; + SpD)
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Tail

General ideas: while you are sleeping you have to click Sleep Talk, a strange status move with neutral priority which will pick one move at random and using it without taking in account its real priority (i.e. Dragon Tail has a priority of -6 but if picked by Sleep Talk it will have neutral priority). Dragon Dance boosts our attack and speed making this trick faster and faster while forcing switch-outs with hazards up in the late game.

EVs spread: Max odd HP means you take hits better while lowering Stealth Rock damage; 236 SDef alongside a Careful nature enable Salamance to tank some special hits better, while the Speed allows you to phase out fully EV'd base 115s with a +Spe nature after a single Dragon Dance (reaching 363). Intimidate should make up for the lack of EVs in Def.

Team(mates): this set is hopelessly walled by Faerie-types and Taunt so, a way to get rid of them is mandatory and some hazard support enhances the utility of this set.
 
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