Thundurus-T (QC 0/3)

[PK Gaming]

Electric-types rule

Overview
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• Thundurus-T has an absurdly high Special Attack of 145, and access to solid coverage moves that let it take advantage of said Special Attack stat
  
• It's typing and ability afford the ability to actually switch into a few Pokemon, unlike most Electric-types
• Volt Absorb allows disrupt U-turn/Volt Switch chains. It can also make use out of enemy Thunder Waves.
  
• It has solid boosting moves in the form of Agility & Nasty Plot
• 101 Speed is OK, but it's still a step short before the dozens of Pokemon that exist between the 102-120 base Speed range.
• The sad truth is that Thundurus-I is better than Thundurus-T in nearly every circumstances. Thundurus-T's only niche lies in its Agility set

Agility
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name: Agility
move 1: Agility
move 2: Thunderbolt
move 3: Hidden Power Ice
move 4: Focus Blast
item: Life Orb
ability: Volt Absorb
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe

Moves
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• Agility lets Thundurus-T outspeed virtually every Pokemon in OU after use
  
• Thundurus-T's Thunderbolt's are wicked strong, but unfortunately there are no shortage of Pokemon that resist Electric-type, so you will have to leverage your coverages moves before you can really cut looses with Thunderbolt.
  
• Hidden Power Ice & Focus Blast are said coverage moves. Use them to target Electric-type resists & bulky Pokemon who are weak to Fighting (Gliscor, Landorus-T, Garchomp, Excadrill, Heatran, Tyranitar, to name a few)

Set Details
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• Can't decide on the main spread so I can't list the secondary spread*
  
• Leftovers trades a ton of power for some staying power
• Grass Knot be used over Focus Blast to target bulky Water / Ground types (as well as Tyranitar) but you also miss out on hitting Excadrill, which is a massive no-no.

Usage Tips
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• You need to look for an opportunity midgame / endgame, to set up an Agility and potentially sweep.
  
• Unfortunately, it has a difficult time setting up in this metagame.
  
• Until you can find the opportunity to set up Agility, use your coverage moves to weaken or KO checks & counters.

Team Options
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• Pokemon that can deal with bulky ground-types are great. Breloom can easily cover them, and has access to Spore, which can potentially give Thundurus-T the opportunity to setup down the line.
• Defensive Dragon-types such as Latias & Goodra can dealt with Scizor (though Scizor has to watch out Fire Blast from the latter)
• Fairy-types are generally good at dealing with the fast Dragon-types. Azumarill is solid choice; It can switch into most of the Pokemon that threaten Thundurus-T, and it can take Ice Shard's with ease. Its typing lets it draw Electric-type moves.
• Spinners/Defog users alleviate the SR weakness (Spinners: Excadrill, Starmie, Forretress) & (Defog users: Latias, Mandibuzz, Skarmory). Starmie also has the distinction of drawing in Electric-type attacks.
• Entry hazard users, such as Deoxys-S and Ferrothorn can make it easier for Thundurus-T to sweep.

Other Options
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• Choice Specs
• Choice Scarf
• Double Dance
• Expert Belt

Checks & Counters
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• Ground types with Special Defense investment: Gastrodon, Hippowdon
• Special Defense tanks: Tyranitar, Goodra, Latias, Chansey, Blissey
• Faster offensive Dragon-types: Latios, Latias, Garchomp
• Ice Shard: Mamoswine
• Faster Pokemon or Choice scarf users: Genesect, Greninja, Terrakion, etc

 

[Ash Borer]

Surely thundy-t is better as a choice scarfer, Thundurus-I is simply too weak without a boosting item. Missing KOs on things like garchomp, landorus-t, excadrill, mandibuzz, and shit just barely makes thundy-T sound way more appealing. 101 speed is still pretty good as a scarfer, not much above 100 speed is boosting their speed, and prankster is useless as a scarfer too, while volt absorb is good.

The question is, is scarfed Thundurus-T viable? idk, it looks decent on paper.

A for spread, I've yet to see anything past 110 base speed use a choice scarf, so aiming to beat that is ideal. Unboosted you cant beat jolly excadrill even at max investment modest, however 200 speed evs lets you beat jolly Gyarados and Dragonite, if that is relevant.

 

[alexwolf]

What about double booster Thund-T with Lefties? More power and Electric immunity are pros over Thund-I, while the Speed difference is made irrelevant after an Agilty.

 

[dragonuser]

Yea, I think I would support the inclusion of a Double Dance set.

It is usable for many of the same reasons as the Agility set is, but it actually holds the potential to break traditional checks to the Agility set such as Specially Defensive Hippowdon or other bulky checks like SpD Zapdos

 

[Shurtugal]

Thundurus-T @ Leftovers / Lum Berry
Trait: Volt Absorb
Nature: Modest
EVs: 40 Hp / 130 Def / 252 SpA / 88 Spe
- Agility
- Nasty Plot
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice] / Focus Blast

EVs allow it to live +2 BB after SR and live to OHKO with Thunderbolt vs. Talonflame. Lives a bunch of other random things like Mamoswine's Ice Shard and QA from Pinsir and AJ from Azu, etc.

Unless someone else has any better suggestions I recommend mentioning this set.

 

[Colonel M]

Mention that Volt Absorb really opens opportunities for Thundurus-T over Thundurus-I. On top of being immune to Thunder Wave and regenerating health from it, you're also immune to Volt Switch as well - which is really fucking common.

Also - I wouldn't be too opposed to a Scarf set myself. Like others have said - its higher SpA is pretty decent reasoning despite the Speed drop.

And yeah Double Dance is good. Add it.

 

[PK Gaming]

I don't think Thundurus-T can pull of a double dance set in gen VI. It doesn't have enough coverage between 2 moves; whereas in Gen V it could just punch through checks with +2 Thunder, it just doesn't have that luxury in gen VI. Using Hidden Power Ice leaves you completely open to Excadrill & Tyranitar, and Focus Blast makes you vulnerable to ground-types. I can't see someone making use out of epulling both boosts in a match. I just don't see people pulling it off in Gen VI. Unless you guys can provide me logs or somehow convince that it's viable, then I don't see why I can't mention it in set details.

As for Choice Scarf... i'm wary of adding it. Choiced Electric-types (with the exception of Rotom forms) are a massive liability in gen V. Thundurus-T might have Volt Absorb, but Electric-type moves aren't that common, and it's complete fodder to the tons of Electric-type resists/immunities in the tier.

I'm not completely against it, but i'd like to see better arguments for adding it.

 

[alexwolf]

Shouldn't a Modest nature be slashed with Timid on the first set?

 

[Colonel M]

Actually Thundurus-I doesn't have a Scarf set (part of the reason I was going to emphasize it), so fair enough.

RE Double Booster - mainly the goal is to have Ground-types and Tyranitar off the field and clear it off the field. I mean obviously using both is hard, though. I might agree overall because the most common scarfer, Genesect, carries Ice Beam and 101 is outsped by a lot.

But yeah slashing Modest is fine on Agility since you probably want the extra power.

 

[CBManBearPig]

Personally, I feel that the Expert Belt set deserves a main set. With what the set is trying to accomplish (taking out checks), Thundurus doesn't outspeed anything that Thundurus-T doesn't and the extra power is appreciated. Celebi? Outsped and killed by U-Turn. Quagsire and friends? Outsped and killed by Grass Knot. Tyranitar and Blissey? Outsped and killed by Superpower. Just my two cents.

 

[BurningMan]

As for Choice Scarf... i'm wary of adding it. Choiced Electric-types (with the exception of Rotom forms) are a massive liability in gen V. Thundurus-T might have Volt Absorb, but Electric-type moves aren't that common, and it's complete fodder to the tons of Electric-type resists/immunities in the tier.

I'm not completely against it, but i'd like to see better arguments for adding it.

Its always bad to be locked into a move, but Electric isn't much worse in this regard compared to Fighting, Ground and Dragon if anything i would say that Electric is one of the least dangerous types to be locked into since most of the resists/immunties actually don't carry set-up moves. Scarf pokemon are always risky, but i wouldn't say that Thundurus-T is more prone to being set-up on compared to other scarfers if anything its less risky since it wants to spam Volt Switch all the time so it actually cares little if the pokemon that is coming in resists its attack.

That being said i think Thundurus-T is a wonderful scarfer in this meta game, being immune to paralysis is great since that means you are one of the few scarfers that won't get fucked over by his brother Thundurus-I. It also resists quite a lot of priority attacks most notably Talonflames Brave Bird and offers a fast and powerful Volt Switch or even U-turn if you are really concerned about Ground types. Its main downfall is its SR weakness and being reliant on the now weaker than ever Hidden Power Ice, but removing hazards is easier than ever and with Thundurs-Ts beefy SpA you still get all of the KOs you need even with the HP BP nerf. It wasn't too great last Gen since it was one of the "slowest" scarfers, but the current meta game isn't so centered around scarfers like gen 5 with all the new priority moves and it still outspeeds everything unboosted as well as some Dragon Dancers.

 

[PK Gaming]

Its always bad to be locked into a move, but Electric isn't much worse in this regard compared to Fighting, Ground and Dragon if anything i would say that Electric is one of the least dangerous types to be locked into since most of the resists/immunties actually don't carry set-up moves. Scarf pokemon are always risky, but i wouldn't say that Thundurus-T is more prone to being set-up on compared to other scarfers if anything its less risky since it wants to spam Volt Switch all the time so it actually cares little if the pokemon that is coming in resists its attack.

I don't agree with that assessment at all. Electric is a terrible type to lock yourself into because of the sheer amount of Pokemon that resist in the tier. Excadrill, Dragon-types, Ferrothorn, Celebi, Tyranitar, Gastrodon, Mamoswine,Mega Venusaur. That's too long of a list for the main STAB of a Choice Scarf user, and definitely a step below Fighting & Dragon type (who tend to have decent coverage moves). There's also a second point that needs to be considered; it's coverage moves (especially Hidden Power Ice) leave it open to too many Pokemon. I also disagree with the assertion that most of the Electric immunities don't carry set-up moves; it invites the likes Garchomp & Excadrill to set up for free, and other potent threats like Mega Venusaur (who gets to heal or use Leech Seed, which is something you do NOT want) or Dragon-types like Lati@s (who can set up, use Draco Meteor, use Defog, etc).

That being said i think Thundurus-T is a wonderful scarfer in this meta game, being immune to paralysis is great since that means you are one of the few scarfers that won't get fucked over by his brother Thundurus-I. It also resists quite a lot of priority attacks most notably Talonflames Brave Bird and offers a fast and powerful Volt Switch or even U-turn if you are really concerned about Ground types. Its main downfall is its SR weakness and being reliant on the now weaker than ever Hidden Power Ice, but removing hazards is easier than ever and with Thundurs-Ts beefy SpA you still get all of the KOs you need even with the HP BP nerf. It wasn't too great last Gen since it was one of the "slowest" scarfers, but the current meta game isn't so centered around scarfers like gen 5 with all the new priority moves and it still outspeeds everything unboosted as well as some Dragon Dancers.

Choice Scarf Rotom-W has all of those attributes, in addition to taking neutral damage from Stealth Rock (A Stealth Rock weakness on a Choice Scarf user is bad news), Trick, and a strong coverage move in the form of Hydro Pump. It loses out against Dragon Dance Haxorus & Salamence, but neither of those Pokemon are particularly relevant at the moment. Thundurus-T's high SpA is made inconsequential for the reasons stated in my first paragraph. (Its moves are too easy to take advantage of)

To put it bluntly, Choice Scarf Thundurus-T is aggressively mediocre in standard.