SS OU Triple Choice Balance

[Pokemon Trainer Zain]

Hello I am Zain and I am here to share my team with you all. This team is a gen 8 ou team. It was really fun making it. It took me like an hour to make it I think I wasnt looking at the time. But still it took me a pretty long time to make it. I have to say Iam pretty happy with how it came out

The Team

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
Evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 spe
Timid nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower

So when I first wanted to create a team I decided to look at the viability rankings and see what was the best and I found out that it was dragapult. So I wanted make the team surrounding it. Since choice specs was a common set I decided to go with the choice specs set. Dragapult is gonna be the spacial attacker on the team.

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn

So while looking for a partner that could go with dragapult I found Urshifu. Urshifu is a good pokemon in ou so I decided to partner it up with my dragapult. I decided to go with the choice band set since dragapult got the choice specs set and is the spacial attacker then why not have urshifu with choice band and make it a physical attacker. just like this I got my core and its an offensive core.

Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty-Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Volt Switch
- Knock Off
- Close Combat

So next I wanted some one that was a fast attacker. So far I have choices. I wanted a Mon that was fast on its own. While I was searching I found Zeraora. So decided take it. It has excellent speed and has decent attack. So I decided to take it. I went with the Heavy-Duty-Boots set because I didn't want Zeraora to get damaged by stealth rocks, spikes and toxic spikes. These are some stuff that it has to worry about since I haven't invested any HP EVs.

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic

So in every team that I built I alway like to include a rocker and a defoger. Now that the offensive side off my team was complete I wanted focus on defence. When thinking about who I wanted as a rocker the first thing that came into my mind was landorus. Landorus is a great stealth rocker. I have used landorus on many teams as a stealth rocker. So of course I went with the stealth rocks set.

Blissey @ Heavy-Duty-Boots
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunder Wave
- Teleport

So looking for anouther defencive mon I mean like defence is necessary on a team I saw blissey the most balkiest Mon I have ever seen. Blissey is very good at tanking hits with that legendary HP. It was great so I decided to take it on the team. The reason I gave blissey defence was because it had hardly any defence and a good wall has to or atleast need both defenive stats. This is why I gave it the defencive set.

Tapu Fini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Moonblast
- Defog
- Trick

So for last Mon like I said I wanted a defoger. While I was looking I found out that I did not have a urshifu check. Sure I have Zeraora but If it dies Urshifu Can kill 2 members of my team those being Landorus and blissey. Then I saw tapu Fini. Its a fairy and can be a secondary check to urshifu when my Zeraora dies. I wanted to with choice scarf + trick this is usefull when fighting walls such as chansey or Shuckle. As they will be choice locked and it will be very annoying to deal with that. And tapu Fini can also defog.

Pokepaste of the team
: https://pokepast.es/b1561dedfe6ef9c5

Conclusion
I have Won a couple matches with this team sadly I didn't save any replays but I did win 3 times in a row with this team but Idk if its any good or not on high ladder its pretty good on low ladder. I really like this team if it can be improved I need all the help I can get I really love laddering.
Thank You

 

[ironwater]

Hey there, welcome to Smogon! I’m here to rate your team and suggest some changes.

This team has a really good basis and I don’t think you need to change much things here. Dragapult and Urshifu-R are an awesome offensive duo, able to pressure a lot of defensive cores. On the other hand, Blissey and Landorus-T form a strong defensive duo, providing slow pivoting option that can help Dragapult and Urshifu-R. Tapu-Fini is a good pick, being able to deal with the troublesome Heatran , Urshifu-R , Dragonite and Weavile . However, I don’t think that a Choice Scarf variant is the best choice here, mainly because I don’t feel that you need more Speed control in this team as it is more of a balance build. I think the main issue is actually that you lack defensive answers to huge threats like Kartana (scarf Kartana can easily smack this team) and an offensive Tapu Fini will get overwhelm way too quickly if it needs to deal with several threats at once (like Weavile + Heatran). Thus, I think you could just rework a bit the defensive options in the team in order to make it more solid on the defensive side. I won’t propose a lot of changes as the sets you are using are already great and will just focus on addressing the few points I mentioned above.


Major change

-> : Zeraora is indeed a cool fast pivot, but I don’t think it’s much needed here. In my opinion, Dragapult Speed and Blissey ability to slow down things with Thunder Wave are enough forms of Speed Control for this type of balance build. However, you need, something to deal with Grass type breakers (like Kartana for instance) and Swords Dance users like Bisharp . A proper Defogger would also be a great addition as Choice Scarf Tapu Fini can’t defog entry hazards easily and get chipped way too fast. Corviknight seems to be the perfect candidate for this role. You can use the classic Smogon spread with some Spe Def investment even if you have a Blissey as it can help to switch-in on Tapu Lele . Here is the set:

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost


Minor change

: As I said it in the previous part, I don’t think you need that much Speed control, and considering how much threats Tapu Fini is supposed to check, you rather have a more defensive spread, with some recovery. Thus, a Calm Mind set with Leftovers seems to fit better in this team. This will not only give you a more reliable way to deal with Urshifu-R , Weavile and Heatran , but will also grant you with a great win condition that can shine in a lot of matchups. Here is the set:

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
- Draining Kiss
- Scald


Other things you can try (but may not be great changes):

- using Wish instead of Thunder Wave on Blissey as Thunder Wave can be impractical to use with Tapu Fini’s terrain and Wish can help healing most of Blissey’s teammates. However, getting ride of Thunder Wave makes Blissey much more passive and Urshifu-R really like this Thunder Wave support. Moreover, Wish may be difficult to properly use in a lot of matchups where Blissey get pressured too hardly.

- keeping Thunder Wave on Blissey and using Hex on Dragapult instead of Flamethrower to benefit from Blissey and Landorus-T ability to spread status. However, Flamethrower is very valuable to beat Corviknight or catch a Weavile/Rillaboom and you probably rather keep it, but Hex is a nice option to keep in mind.


That’s all for the suggestions, here is the past with the two changes I explained above, don’t hesitate to try them out:

The past

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- U-turn

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Aqua Jet

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic

Blissey (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss
- Teleport
- Thunder Wave

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
- Draining Kiss
- Scald

I have tested the team (with these changes) around 1600-1700 on the ladder and here are some replays:

Against of Sticky Web Offense:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1376757022-vl3rc2tn1ldhoq7f3bwm4s98ewcjtjapw

Against a balance with Rotom Wash (where I made a very bad play staying withDragapult on a potential Scarf Kartana):
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1376750396-616j6atptp2nz2kjrq3hypollq6nocxpw

Against another balance team where Dragapult shows all its potential:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1376743553-9lwjafnpa3mi4qi22t7acfdrfr1uncjpw

Against a pretty scary offensive team:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1376738907-swma1nrmn74spaxxdz25q35in8z6ljtpw


Hope this was helpful, have fun laddering and have a nice day.

 

[Pokemon Trainer Zain]

OK really appreciate the help. I know no team is perfect. In fact their can never be a perfect team all you can do is try to make it as good as you can and then ask other their opinion and help to make it better. I will try it out on ladder now.