XY OU Tri-type Core Team- An Update

[Expert_Occultist]

This is an update to my last team which is no doubt lost in the endless depths of the RMT forum. I'm dredging it back because I'm proud to say that in my travels I've stumbled ass backwards into something really cool. That something is an offensive team that uses all 3 famous 3 type cores! After reading the last issue of The Smog I realized that my team contains the fire/water/grass, dragon/fairy/steel, and fighting/dark/psychic cores mentioned in that article. Merely having those cores isn't enough though. How does this team do in practice?

Sex Appeal (Gardevoir) @ Gardevoirite

Ability: Trace

Shiny: Yes

EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

- Hyper Voice

- Psyshock

- Focus Blast

- Taunt

My mega of choice is Gardevoir. As my main special attacker it is her job to break things. Hyper Voice hits incredibly hard while Psyshock offers complimentary coverage to hit poison types like Venusaur. Focus Blast is a necessary evil but it's the only move in her arsenal that will do a hefty chunk to most steels. Taunt is there to shut down defensive mons and hazard layers such as Heatran on the switch. The days of Gardevoir 6-0ing stall seem to be over but she can at least try.

Don't think that Gardevoir is a mere bludgeon though. The key to using her effectively is to use her Trace ability to its fullest extent. This is why the timid nature is used over modest. This lets her outspeed adamant excadrill and modest kingdra in their respective weathers as well as speed tie Charizard-Y.

Other considerations: I really hate Focus Blast's accuracy but again, there's not much to be done about it. HP Ground is an option but it doesn't hit non-Heatran steels nearly as hard.

Witchcraft Rock (Hydreigon) @ Life Orb

Ability: Levitate

Shiny: Yes

EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Mild Nature

- Draco Meteor

- Dark Pulse

- Superpower

- Flash Cannon

A Kyurem-B that doesn't need spin support? Sign me up! I can't seem to make a team without Hydreigon lately and why not? It has an amazing movepool with an interesting set of resistances and immunities. It can switch into a lot of things and forms a mighty wallbreaking core with Gardevoir. While it's movepool is expansive I opted to go with the standard set as it offers the best coverage, breaking down common mons like Rotom and the slow ground types that infest the tier. I especially like Flash Cannon because fairy switch-ins are painfully obvious most of the time.

Other considerations: None. Hydreigon rules and should be side by side with Kyurem-B in the viability rankings. Again, this guy is mister moves so if you notice an attack I might have missed that will help my team more effectively than the standard set let me know :)

Hot Pie (Heatran) @ Leftovers

Ability: Flash Fire

Shiny: Yes

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

- Magma Storm

- Toxic

- Taunt

- Stealth Rock

Probably the member of my team that has gone through the most changes Heatran completes my fairy/dragon/steel core. His primary role is simple: rocks. Beyond that his typing and ability made him an excellent switch-in to most fairy types and with taunt and magma storm he can beat most defensive mons that give my special attackers the most trouble including Chansey and Clefable. Toxic is a new addition to help punish switch-ins and beat the things I trap more consistently.

Other considerations: My old Heatran was modest with Lava Plume and Earth Power in place of this set's offensive moves. Should I go back to those?

Snitchblade (Klefki) @ Leftovers

Ability: Prankster

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD

Impish Nature

- Play Rough

- Spikes

- Thunder Wave

- Magnet Rise

Taking my thunderus' place is Klefki. Man has this thing proven its worth. Klefki's main job is to stack Spikes and be a general bastard. It's surprisingly hard to kill. Thunder Wave is very useful for checking fast treats like Mega Lopuuny and for providing genuine paralysis support (unlike thunderus Klefki can often live to support another day). Play Rough (and Thunder Wave) help detour the most used Defoggers, Lati@s. Magnet Rise bypasses half its weaknesses and since ground types don't usually carry another coverage move for this type combo Klefki is usually free to spam Spikes for another turn. Klefki retains its spot as one of the most hated mons in OU and I couldn't be happier.

Other considerations: None. This guy patches up so many weaknesses this team had including Lopunny, Dragonite, and Gyarados and sets up on so many more. No complaints here although choosing between Play Rough and Foul Play was agony.

Opposite Day (Serperior) @ Life Orb

Ability: Contrary

EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

- Leaf Storm

- Dragon Pulse

- Hidden Power [Fire]

- Glare

This team looks a little Azumarril weak...

+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Serperior: 165-195 (56.7 - 67%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Good enough :) Serperior is my late game clear and once Talonflame and Heatran are gone very little can stop it. The set is standard and for all you snake lovers out there, yes, Life Orb is mandatory. It misses important 2 hit-kos at +2 without it. Glare provides additional paralysis support for my slower wallbreakers as well as something for Serp to do early game while its checks are still around.

Other considerations: HP Ground over HP Fire although Fire hits more things.

Prismatic Runner (Keldeo) @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Justified

EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

- Scald

- Secret Sword

- Icy Wind

- Hydro Pump

Finishing my fire/water/grass core as well as my fighting/dark/psychic core is Keldeo. I know scarf is known as its weakest set but no other mon can check lopunny, landorus-T, Weavile, Mamoswine, Mega Sceptile, and various set-up sweepers in one set. Without scarf Keld I'd be weak to all these. It's simple but effective.

Other considerations: None. Again, nothing does what this set does. If you can name another offensive mon that checks all those threats, power to you. Choice Specs is rather cool though.

Threat List:

Hazards: This team lacks hazard control. None of my mons are weak to stealth rocks and Klefki's Spikes often encourage my opponent to Defog away their own hazards to save themselves. None the less it's still a fundamental that I lack. I'll leave it up to you to decide if that is important or not.

Offensive grounds: Hydreigon is the only mon I have that can actually switch in to ground moves. While offensive ground types are becoming increasingly rare the odd ones (scarf Lando and speedy chomp) do slip through the cracks.

Breloom: Is tough to switch into and a hell of a lead against me but luckily not that common.

And that's my current team. What do you think? Is the 9 type core great or a bust? As always, feedback is very much appreciated :)

 

[Albacore]

This team looks pretty solid overall, but it is weak to a few things, mainly physical attackers like Mega Metagross, Mega Lopunny, Sand Rush Excadrill and Taunt Talonflame. While you do have Klefki to check them, it can't really take their hits too well and gets easily overwhelmed. One small change you could make would be running Foul Play over Play Rough on Klefki, this lets you deal damage to Metagross and Sand Rush Excadrill, and prevents SD Talonflame from freely setting up on you, however, you do lose the ability to break Lopunny's Substitutes which may not be for the best.

You should probably change a member of your team to fix these weaknesses. The simplest change I can think of is running Skarmory over Klefki. It deals with pretty much the same range of Pokemon, but also handles Lopunny, Excadrill and Metagross far better. It replaces Klefki's pseudo-Ground immunity for an actual immunity too. Like Klefki acts as a Spikes setter so you don't lose that either, you even have the option to run Defog if you want. You could run a SpD spread to handle opposing Gardevoir, but that removes from its ability to deal with physical attackers which is the main thing you're using it for. The only real problem with Skarmory is that it may well be too passive for your team and lacks the emergency check aspect that Klekfi provides, however it does have Whirlwind which, not only prevents it from being setup fodder, but also forces even more Spikes damage onto opponents which really helps Gardevoir wallbreak.

However, this doesn't solve the problem of Taunt Talonflame. If you're really desperate to handle it, you could run Stone Edge on Heatran, however this is a pretty desperate move which doesn't help Heatran that much. But one Pokemon which deals with not only Talonflame, but also all the other physical attackers I mentioned is Slowbro. Once again, a bit passive, but it gets access to TWave which really helps Gardevoir and Hydreigon. It also counters Keldeo which, while it is something you do have checks for, can still be very annoying to switch into. You should probably replace Keldeo for it if you want to use it, given that both are bulky Water types which are used to check fast physical attackers. This makes you weaker to Bisharp and Dark-types in general, but you already have Hydreigon as a nice check to most of them, and Klefki/Skarmory which deals with them decently (Skarmory more so than Klefki since, despite its lack of Dark resistance, it can deal with Bisharp decently by phazing it away thanks to its greta physical bulk), so it's not too bad. Another problem is that you ruin your Dark/Psychic/Fighting core which you may not want, and get rid of your main revenge killer too.

A good alternative to Slowbro is Rocky Helmet Garchomp. It's a great way to severely punish physical attackers in general, especially Talonflame, and doesn't kill momentum as hard as Slowbro can, so it's nice pick if you're afraid of yoru team becoming too defensive. As for fitting it on your team, that's a bit tricky. You could use it over Heatran, since it's presumably going to act as your SRer, but you lose your FWG core as well as your main defense against Fairies, so I don't recommend that. Running it over Hydreigon would make more sense to me: between Gardevoir, Taunt Magma Storm Heatran and Spikes, you are already very much prepared to take on balanced teams and don't really need an additional wallbreaker. However, you do lose your only ground immunity (assuming you're still running Klefki and not Skarmory), which is a problem, and Garchomp doesn't handle Keldeo at all compared to Slowbro. In any case, if you manage to fit Garchomp on your team, you can choose to remove SR off Heatran. You don't need Stone Edge anymore though, you can easily run something else like Earth Power to get rid of opposing Heatran, or Protect to rack up Toxic damage, Magma Storm damage, and Leftovers recovery all in one.

sets

Snitchblade (Klefki) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Foul Play
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Magnet Rise

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Iron Head / Brave Bird / Counter
- Roost
- Spikes / Defog
- Whirlwind / Taunt

Hot Pie (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Magma Storm
- Toxic / Stone Edge (if not running Slowbro or Garchomp)
- Taunt
- Earth Power / Protect / Stealth Rock

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 76 SpD / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock / Toxic
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast / Endure

 

[Expert_Occultist]

Thanks for the rate! I figured that, despite having multiple typing cores, some things might slip through the cracks. I'm also not above changing this team into a more bulky, balanced build. Slowbro has been great so far but I'll see how far I can go with him before I replace Klefki. I still like Klefki's ability to lay Spikes while threatening the tier's best defoggers.