ORAS OU The Real OU

[Jangis Roundstone]

This is my friends team he made for OU, he's been working on it for a few weeks now. Changing it, getting help from other people, and battling with it as much as he can. He wanted to get more help with his team, so I thought I'd bring it here for review!

ungiroo (Breloom) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Tomb
- Spore
- Mach Punch

Breloom is used to put anything that might threaten the team to sleep. Breloom can also be used to put mons that have set up to sleep if its sash hasn't been broken. It runs Bullet Seed to threaten Quagsire and Gastrodon.

AeroBlazer (Talonflame)
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Acrobatics
- Roost

Talonflame usually ends up being the sweeper of this team, or the revenge killer depending on the situation. Talonflame is able to kill anything that doesn't resist it's attacking moves after a boost pretty reliably, and then it can heal with Roost to keep the sweep going for as long as possible.

SilkRibbon (Sylveon) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Echoed Voice
- Calm Mind
- Wish
- Shadow Ball

Sylveon is good for covering Dark, Fightining, and Dragon Types. As well as some Psychic types, and can boost up if necessary for a sweep. Dealing with Fighting types is especially important when you have Exca and TTar.

Tyranicalsuarus (Tyranitar-Mega) @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Dance
- Superpower

Tyranitar is mainly used to set up Sand Stream to let Excadrill out speed most mons and hit them with a Choice Banded move. Not much to say here. Ttar can also set up and deal some damage if needed.

Rufus (Excadrill) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin

Excadrill is a solid mon that can deal with flying types, fairies, and so many others. With a speed boost from TTar, and an attack boost from Choice Band, he almost reminds me of Mega Ray after all these boosts! Except Mega Ray is in AG for a reason now, and Excadrill is not even Uber.

JetStream (Latios) @ White Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Roost

Latios is the defogger for the team. Latios also helps deal with Poison types and Dragon types. Latios is a really solid mon and finds a spot on most teams, and easily finds one on this team.

 

[Take Azelfie]

Hi, this a cool sand balance team that needs tweeks but I feel it has a lot of potential.

First off I would suggest changing Sylveon to Clefable. Tt can serve as a way to cripple Pokemon your team might be weak to via Thunder Wave while still dealing with Dark-types. Sylveion on your team looks like it clicks Hyper Voice 99℅ of the time so adding a mon with more utility definately helps. The moveset I would use is Moonblast, Calm Mind, Thunder Wave, Soft-Boiled.

Next I would use Smooth Rock > Tyranitarite. First of your team now has two reliable win cons and TTar is gonna have a hard time sweeping especially if it is trying to support Excadrill at the same time. It also gives you Stealth Rock which you really want. A move set would be Stealth Rock, Stone Edge, Pursuit (traps Latias), and Ice Beam (weakens Landorus.)

Choice Band is a pretty bad item on Excadrill since it wants to switch its coverage and it is forced to switch out a lot wasting Sand turns. To fix this I would add Life Orb / Air Balloon / Lum Berry. Life Orb gives it power that Exca wants, Air Balloon makes so Exca has a safety fusion and Lum Berry should only be used if you struggle versus Mega Sableyw (but you should be fine. Also Swords Dance > Rapid Spin since having 2 hazard removers is pretty redundant.

Finally I would use support Latias instead of Latios. It is a better check to Keldeo which you lack switch ins two, provides defog, and can still dish out damage to opponents. I would use Roost, Defog, Draco Meteor and Psyshock.

I hope this helps n_n

 

[celes]

Hey Jangis Roundstone, this is a solid build but your sets could use some improvement.

Starting with set issues, you should run Jolly Nature > Adamant on M-Tyranitar since you will otherwise be outsped by Choice Scarf Tyranitar, Tornadus-T, Alakazam, and Weavile at +1. M-Tyranitar sits in a middling speed tier for a Dragon Dance user, so it needs to invest in speed as much as possible to outspeed a lot of common threats in the tier after and before a Dragon Dance. Even with a Jolly Nature it still has higher damage output than an Adamant Choice Band Tyranitar, so you honestly won't be losing out on much power. I'd also say to run Earthquake > Superpower on M-Tyranitar since its bulk is one of its main strengths. For instance, it can take a Choice Scarf Landorus-T's Earthquake reliably from full, but when using a move that will drop your defense you become more susceptible to being revenge killed by Choice Band Azumarill & Choice Band Scizor's priority, which you normally can take easily. Earthquake still hits the same targets, and provides very solid EdgeQuake coverage with Stone Edge.

I get the reasoning behind running White Herb on Latios but, realistically, not suffering from Draco Meteor drops once isn't very pivotal for a Latios since a lot of the things that switch into Draco Meteor anyway like Heatran, Ferrothorn, M-Scizor, Jirachi, Assault Vest Tornadus-T, Skarmory, Chansey, etc. won't get 2HKO'd by it anyway. You should run Life Orb > White Herb on Latios since this provides you with much more consistent damage output, especially on neutral targets. Latios without a Life Orb also isn't very threatening at all, and it's not really worth it to have it to be checked much easier just for one-time convenience. Also, you don't need to run Defog since you already have hazard removal in Rapid Spin Excadrill, so I'd also say to run Hidden Power Fire > Defog on Latios so you can hit Ferrothorn and M-Scizor to support your M-Tyranitar. Lastly, you should run Timid > Modest Nature on Latios since you're slower than Base 100s like M-Gardevoir, M-Medicham, Charizard-Y, and Manaphy with a Modest Nature, as well as Keldeo, Terrakion, and offensive Garchomp. Latios' speed tier is a common benchmark in OU that helps it check a lot of the Pokemon it does, which is why you should be running max speed.

Choice Band isn't the best item to run on Sand Rush Excadrill since it has access to boosting moves, and it also likes being able to take advantage of its solid coverage to be able to switch up moves and not have to play a prediction game, unlike Choice Scarf Excadrill. Normally I'd say to run either Air Balloon or Life Orb on Excadrill, but since your only check to Latios is M-Tyranitar (your Sylveon gets 2HKOd by Psyshock), and you also don't fare well against M-Diancie or M-Gardevoir, I actually recommend you run Assault Vest > Choice Band on Excadrill. This normally isn't a very viable item on Excadrill at all, but since M-Tyranitar generally likes to preserve its bulk for when it sets up, it would be better to use Excadrill as your primary Latios check rather than M-Tyranitar.

While Breloom does have utility on Sand offense in being able to beat bulky grounds and water types reliably, I feel like this team is far too weak to Azumarill and opposing Sand Rush Excadrill. Your Fairy resists are Excadrill and Talonflame, both of which lose to Azumarill's Water moves, and your counterplay to Sand Rush Excadrill, which your Tyranitar provides Sand for, is to either sack something and go into Breloom or hard switch into it in hopes it doesn't Iron Head. With that being said, you should run Rotom-W > Breloom. This also provides you with a much needed switch-in to Choice Scarf Landorus-T, which your team struggled to pivot into safely, a check to Talonflame that isn't M-Tyranitar, as well as an answer to Weavile. M-Tyranitar in general shouldn't be switching into Talonflame these days since they commonly carry Will-O-Wisp. I'd also say that Swords Dance would be a better option for Breloom to be running rather than Rock Tomb on this build since it allows you to dent into stuff like Landorus-T, Garchomp, and Skarmory much better.

Your team lacks a Stealth Rock setter, which is a necessity for all competitive teams to help in breaking down opposing teams and limiting their switches, so there's a few options you have to remedy this. You could should run either defensive Landorus-T or Swords Dance + Earth Plate Landorus-T > Sylveon for your hazard setter. With defensive Landorus-T you have a safe pivot that can help check M-Lopunny, Mold Breaker Excadrill, and offensive Garchomp, as well as either form a Volt/Turn core with Rotom-W, or run Toxic to wear down stuff like Slowbro, Hippowdon (a Toxic'd Hippowdon gets 2HKO'd by M-Tyranitar's +1 Ice Punch), Rotom-W, opposing Landorus-T, defensive Garchomp, Gastrodon, Quagsire, Mandibuzz, etc.. Earth Plate Landorus-T helps immediately break down all of the aforementioned Pokemon at the cost of bulk, and doesn't check M-Lopunny or Terrakion nearly as well. It does have crazying firing power however, and has an easier time setting up Stealth Rock against M-Sableye teams than defensive Landorus-T does. I'll leave imports to both versions below so you can try them out and see which you prefer, but I think defensive might be the better option for this build since Choice Band Terrakion and M-Lopunny can definitely be nuisances. Also, on a bit of an unrelated note, your Sylveon set is one that works better in theory than practice since Fairy resists are on virtually every team, so you won't be able to actually go for Echoed Voice continuously until it becomes strong enough to warrant use over Hyper Voice. By running Wish without Protect, as well as not running Leftovers, your Sylveon doesn't have reliably recovery or any actual staying power. Generally when using Calm Mind users, outside of on fast Pokemon like Keldeo and Latios, you should run a physically defensive spread to be able to take physical hits better while you boost your Special Defense and Special Attack. You had the right idea with running Bold Nature, but you shouldn't be running max Special Attack. In general, Sylveon is outclassed by Clefable as a Calm Mind user since Clefable isn't affected by Toxic or burns, and it has an instant recovery move in Soft-Boiled. If you were to run Calm Mind Sylveon, a set of Wish / Calm Mind / Hyper Voice / Protect with Leftovers would be better than the one you're currently running.

Onto the last suggestion, you should move the 4 HP EVs on Talonflame into defense since running an even HP number causes Pokemon to take more hazard damage. This means Talonflame will take 50% from Stealth Rock rather than 49%, and will faint if it switches into Stealth Rock twice rather than three times. The same applies for Pokemon such as M-Pinsir and Charizard. Pinsir and Charizard-X on the other hand have a similar situation where they faint if they switch into Stealth Rock four times rather than five without fainting if you run an even HP number. To avoid this you have to either run an even EV spread in HP spread (ie, 248 HP rather than 252 HP) or run no HP EVs at all.

Updated Team with Defensive Landorus-T

AeroBlazer (Talonflame)
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost

Tyranicalsuarus (Tyranitar-Mega) @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Punch

Rufus (Excadrill) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Atk / 208 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 240 Def / 8 SpD / 12 Spe
Impish Nature
- Toxic / U-Turn
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

JetStream (Latios) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Recover

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Updated Team with Earth Plate Landorus-T

AeroBlazer (Talonflame)
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost

Tyranicalsuarus (Tyranitar-Mega) @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Punch

Rufus (Excadrill) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Atk / 208 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Landorus-Therian @ Earth Plate
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock

JetStream (Latios) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Recover

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

A different set you can try out for Talonflame would be Natural Gift + Liechi Berry. This is a one time use Base 100 Grass type move that allows you to dent into common checks like Rotom-W, Slowbro, Hippowdon, and Tyranitar after a Swords Dance, as well as beat Quagsire and Gastrodon which annoys your offensive core. This does come at the cost of losing out on Roost however. I'll leave that set below if you're interested in using it.

Natural Gift Talonflame

Talonflame @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Natural Gift

Hope i was able to help!