Trying to Counter Some Megas

[Ms. Sysbit]

Introduction:
So I kind of left competitive play a few months back and took a long break. Today I decided to try and get back into it a bit and threw together 6 mons for RU I thought might work well together to counter what I remember as threats and two of the megas I knew could wreck shop: Lopunny and Pidgeot. I like this team and so far am like 11-1 with it(got me to 343, not amazing by any stretch so going to aim for higher soon but tired.) I would most like help with ideas to tweak the team. Current threats I enoucntered are mega sceptile and mega shapedo both of which I only beat with escavalier near 3/4(sharpedo) or 1/2(sceptile). So tweaks to handle them and help with Evs(something I suck with) would be wonderful. So without further Adieu here is the team

Team:
Tyrantrum
Item: Choice Band
Ability: Strong Jaw
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 52 Hp/ 252 ATK/ 204 Speed
Crunch
Outrage
Earthquake
Ice Fang

This just happens to be one of my favorite mons in the tier so I went for it first. Banded set I used in the past(minus outrage which was d-claw as unavailable then). It hits like a truck and not very much can swap in on it. A better EV spread would be desired as I forget what this even lets you outspeed that matters.

Slowking
Item: Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Nature: Modest
Evs: 252 HP/ 252 Spec Atk/ 4 Spec Def
Scald
Psyshock
Ice Beam
Flamethrower

Nothing too special here. Just an effective set that is only walled by other water types(especially mega sharpedo). this thing can take a hit, dish off a big one while forcing a swap out, then come back with 1/3 its Hp recovered to do it all over again. Not a wall breaker but great for handling sweepers and its coverage is fantastic

Escavalier
item: Assault Vest
Ability: Overcoat
Nature: Brave
EVs: 252 Hp/ 252 Atk/ 4 Spec Def (
Iron Head
Drill Run
Knock Off
Megahorn

Honestly Team's MVP. Nothing ground breaking but this thing saves my butt all the time from the aforementioned megas and from aromatisse making me insane. Knock Off is the ultimate move for a switch and you can nail incoming mons with his lower powered but solid coverage in drill run. Just very solid and reliable; its bulk and power means something is going down. And its fire weakness is mitigated by Tyrantrum, Slowking, and a member later on. I am running 0 speed and hindering nature as it is so slow already and was hoping might be a surprise to a trick room team when I outslow them. But that could very well be a silly hope.

Gligar
item: eviolite
Ability: Hyper Cutter?
Nature: Impish
Evs: 252 Hp/ 252 Def/ 4 Atk
U-Turn
Defog
Stealth Rocks
Roost

This is my answer to most physical threats as well as total hazard dominance. When suicide hazards lead teams see this they swap into braviary on the predicted defog to get the defiant boost; instead you can U-Turn out and go into rotom to force them out and maintain momentum. He can be total set up fodder but he does his job well walling crap like ambipom and cincino. He is the first of my three Volt-Turn mons for this team to allow momentum for banded tyrantrum to just strike fear into foes.

Lantern
item: Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
Nature: Calm
Evs: 136 Hp/ 120 Spec Atk/ 252 Spec Def
Volt Switch
Heal Bell
Scald
Toxic

This mon definitely needs work but has potential. its Evs are wonky(honestly i typed random numbers so it would have power and bulk) but a few calcs as to this mon was put on mainly to counter Mega-Pidgeot

252+ SpA Pidgeot Hurricane vs. 136 HP / 252+ SpD Lanturn: 87-102 (20.4 - 24%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery

That's a modest Mega Pidgeot adjusted to have base 135 special attack as the calc doesnt have the new megas in yet.

120 SpA Lanturn Volt Switch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pidgeot: 186-222 (60.5 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

That's Lanturn in retaliation.

Like I said the EVs NEED tweaking but I think Lanturn might have a very viable place in RU as it is a counter to mega pidgeot. You can just scald it until its low enough(hopefully get a burn as it fails to roost stall you out) then kill it with a volt switch or maintain momentum as you go after it. Heal bell is so that a stray will-o-wisp or weak scald burn doesnt cripple Tyrantrum/Escavalier. Scald is for Burns and STAB while toxic allows you to pressure mons who might otherwise stall you out like alomola.

Rotom-C
item: Choice Scarf
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 Spec Atk/ 252 Speed/ 4 Spec Def
Volt Switch
Leaf Storm
Hidden Power Fire
Trick

Nothing too special here. I needed speed, wanted a fast volt turn, and another ground immunity. He synergizes well with the team and so here he is. Hidden Power Fire and Trick are defintiely moves I would consider swapping as: Hidden Power Fire is so weak. trick sounded great on paper but almost anything I want to trick(Alomola, Aromatisse, Audino, etc) all run protect so they scout then get the upper hand. He is great for volt switching to pick things off and as my only fast mon he is essential to not getting swept.

Acknowledged Weakness:
No Priority on the team.
Overall very slow.
Not much to handle Mega-Sharpedo and Mega-Sceptile
Doublade
No recovery barring Gligar's Roost, leftovers, and Regenerator allows the majority of the team to be chipped away if the game goes on too long

Thanks for reading this. In addition to any feedback for the team this is my first RMT and anything you think I could do to help improve it would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

[Lemonade]

Hi there, cool team. CB Dino is a scary thing indeed, so I'm going to try to tailor my rate around this mon. Honestly I think you could just run max speed since that few HP EVs won't do too much, but IMO you want at least 232 to be faster than Modest Exploud, since it can do a ton of unnecessary damage to you.

I don't have much experience with Lanturn, but I think it can work here since the slow Volt Switch (plus Gligar's U-turn) lets you bring Tyrantrum in safely and destroy things. Escavalier is a good choice as well, since Tyrantrum's Outrage will bring in Fairies, and Escavalier wrecks them.

Anyway, on to actual changes. At the moment I think Lopunny can really wear your team down since it outspeeds everything except Rotom and whittles everything down HJK and Return (some also carry Ice Punch for Gligar, which is a little problematic). One option is to replace Rotom-C with Scarf Moltres instead. Instead of trying to Trick things, you can just take them down with your powerful STAB moves. It also gives you a solid mon to revenge Mega Lopunny and Sceptile, since even if it switches out, not many things want to take on Moltres.

Next, a different Lanturn spread could help against (Mega-) Sharpedo. 104 HP / 252 Def / 152 SpD avoids the 2HKO from normal Sharpedo's LO Crunch, which is a fairly safe benchmark. Unfortunately this is not the case for Mega Sharpedo, but Lanturn can just switch in to Waterfall and then Crunch, which it will survive (this works because you don't need to switch out vs. Mega Sharpedo unless you have Gligar or Moltres in, in which case it will be using Waterfall. I'm going to suggest a change for Slowking). You don't lose much by not investing in Special Attack, so I think this is fine.

You'll want a bit faster Escavalier to outspeed Slowking and KO it, 84 Spe taken out of HP accomplishes this.

Now, IMO AV Slowking and Lanturn are redundant together. Both check Mega Pidgeot / Moltres similarly (AV King worries a bit more about Hurricane Molt), both are bulky Water-types. While Regenerator is nice, I would stick with Lanturn since you don't really need another AV user. A cool mon you could try is Mega Camerupt, since you don't have a Mega of your own. I would use the bulky Stealth Rock set and replace Gligar's Stealth Rock with Earthquake. Having Defog and Stealth Rock on the same set is a bit counterproductive, and Mega Camel is a pretty good setter. Your slow VoltTurn also brings it in safely so it can do a ton of damage. A standard Stealth Rock / Fire Blast / Earth Power / Ancientpower with max HP and Special Attack would probably work fine. Admittedly this compounds your Water and Ground weaknesses, but Water-type attacks are not that common and Escavalier can brush them off with AV (as well as Lanturn ofc, also can heal Scald burns), and Gligar comes in on EQ.

 

[g]

Hi Mr.Sysbit

To improve your team you should definitely follow Lemonade's suggestion of changing Tyrantrum Spread to Max Speed and change your Lanturn Spread to what he suggested for the reasons he already mentioned (outspeeding certain threats+increase on overall bulk). Looking at how to fix your team i feel like Rotom-C is the most expendable member. An option to replace it would be using Fletchinder in its place. While it might look ridicolous if you are unexperienced in the tier Fletchinder is an awesome priority user for a team like yours and it easily revenge kills scary threats you mentioned like Sharpedo and Sceptile (and Mega Lopunny) while enjoying Gligar's Defog. Another Pokemon i see being very redundant on your team is Slowking. Slowking's role as a special tank is kinda redundant and i would definitely use some Stealth Rock setter over it (as you need Earthquake on Gligar). Some options would be Cobalion and Rhyperior (mostly Cobalion) which both help with Doublade via Taunt or simply by hitting it very hard. Mega Camerupt is also a very cool suggestion :]

set

Fletchinder
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 92 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Acrobatics
- Swords Dance
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost

Cobalion @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 160 HP / 96 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Volt Switch
- Taunt

 

[Molk]

Hey Ms. Sysbit, this is a pretty interesting team you have here! However, i believe there are a few ways you could make it better.

First off, i'm going to agree with the above two posters that some of your EV spreads are gonna need a little bit of work. I'd definitely change Tyrantrum's EV Spread to max Speed (this lets you tie at worst with other Tyrantrum as well as outspeed Max Speed Modest Exploud and Magneton), and i'd also add at least 84 Speed evs to your Escavalier and run an Adamant Nature>Brave to ensure that you outrun base 30s such as Slowking, Amoonguss, and Reuniclus consistently. I'd also suggest running Stone Edge over Crunch on Tyrantrum, this gives you a method to cleanly 2HKO Aromatisse on the switch regardless of its EV spread, something your current Tyrantrum set fails to do. Although i guess Crunch *does* hit Bronzong, but you shouldn't have much trouble with it either way imo.


I also agree with replacing one of Lanturn or Slowking to free up a moveslot on Gligar. Lanturn and Slowking are quite redundant together imo (what with them checking pretty much the same threats and all), and running both Stealth Rock and Defog on Gligar is a pretty big no-no imo because you simply don't have enough moveslots to do it while remaining effective imo (at the moment you can't even fit EQ on Gligar which really opened you up to Doublade, you gotta admit that's kinda sucky ;-;). There are two ways you can go about this.

1) remove Stealth Rock on Gligar and replace one of Lanturn or Slowking with a Stealth Rock setter. Some good examples of bulky SR setters you could try here include Rhyperior, Druddigon, Bronzong, Registeel, Cobalion, and Mega Camerupt.

2) remove Defog on Gligar and replace one of Lanturn or Slowking with a Rapid Spin/Defog user. Some Pokemon you might want to try include Hitmonlee, Shiftry, Kabutops, Golbat, and Skuntank.

You can find more examples of good SR/Defog users here if you wanna experiment: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ru-viability-ranking-oras-edition.3523627/

One example of how you could go about doing this is to put Reckless Hitmonlee over either Slowking or Lanturn then put Earthquake over Gligar's Defog. Reckless Hitmonlee gives you some of that priority you wanted in the form of STAB Mach Punch that'll be really helpful against Sharpedo, and gives you another powerful Wallbreaker to help you break through defensive cores/back up Tyrantrum. Aromatisse, Golbat, and Gligar are pains, but Escavalier can deal with the former while simply Knocking off the latter two is still really helpful to help the rest of your team take them down. Lastly, Hitmonlee is also of course a good offensive Rapid Spinner that can help keep hazards off your side of the field.


From there you can easily fit in the Scarf Moltres/Fletchinder that Lemonade/Galbia suggested above, both of whom should be able to help you out against Mega Sceptile and Mega Lopunny a bit. Either one of them should fit in just fine, and Hitmonlee/Tyrantrum should do an excellent job of wallbreaking for them to ensure they can clean up easily.

Sets

Hitmonlee (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
- Mach Punch

Moltres @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Hurricane
- Flamethrower
- U-turn

Fletchinder
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 92 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost

EDIT: OH, i almost forgot, if you decide to go with SR Gligar, (whether you decide to fully implement my particular rate or not), you should be using Immunity on any Gligar that lacks Defog, the only reason Defog Gligar doesn't use Immunity atm is because it's impossible to get them on the same set legally, if you aren't using Defog on your current Gligar there's really no reason not to give yourself a free immunity to Toxic.

Hope i helped! :x

 

[Ms. Sysbit]

Thank you so much for the help. At the moment I am tinkering with stuff. The Lanturn EV spread still strikes me as weird but it looks effective so I am gonna give it a try. Thanx for the base speed knowledge benchmark suggestion for Tyrnatrum. And Fletchinder was just an awesome idea(thank you!) all around. I get what you mean by slowking being a bit redundant but not too crazy with the idea of mega camerupt replacing it as 3 electric immunities seem a bit much to me. Also I like the idea of outpseedsing slowking with escavalier but he really needs that HP investment to handle mega sceptile's HP fire, no?

Was thinking this for Fletchinder:
248 Hp/ 252 Atk/ 4 Def
Adamant
Acrobatics
Tailwind
Roost
U-turn/swords dance

I was thinking that Fletchinder's tailwind could help tyrantrum seal the deal with an out of the blue speed boos that lets it wreck shop. The priority was greatly needed and not something I would have thought of but I have the support to take the electric, water, and rock weaknesses as well as the defogger to let him not die to stealth rocks so he fits well. Any help for fletchinder? Or does that look pretty solid? I am not running speed as all but u-turn/swords dance are priority so it seemed redundant.

Also is there any huge reason gligar NEEDS Earthquake? I mean it would definitely help but so far I havent needed it as tyrantrum and escavalier both have great non-stabbed ground coverage with more bite.

 

[Molk]

Also I like the idea of outpseedsing slowking with escavalier but he really needs that HP investment to handle mega sceptile's HP fire, no?

252 SpA Sceptile Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Escavalier: 184-220 (53.4 - 63.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Mega Sceptile Hidden Power Fire vs. 172 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Escavalier: 184-220 (56.7 - 67.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Actually the difference in damage from removing the HP investment is pretty small, you should be fine against Mega Sceptile 1v1 either way :)

Was thinking this for Fletchinder:
248 Hp/ 252 Atk/ 4 Def
Adamant
Acrobatics
Tailwind
Roost
U-turn/swords dance

I was thinking that Fletchinder's tailwind could help tyrantrum seal the deal with an out of the blue speed boos that lets it wreck shop. The priority was greatly needed and not something I would have thought of but I have the support to take the electric, water, and rock weaknesses as well as the defogger to let him not die to stealth rocks so he fits well. Any help for fletchinder? Or does that look pretty solid? I am not running speed as all but u-turn/swords dance are priority so it seemed redundant.

Personally, this is the Fletchinder set i like best (it's in the hide tags of my above post too).

Fletchinder
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 92 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost

Overall the set is pretty similar to yours if you choose to run Swords Dance over U-turn. However, there's one big difference, and that's Will-O-Wisp. I really like Will-O-Wisp on Fletchinder since it lets you cripple a lot of the common Flying-type resists that'll switch in to try and check you, such as Rhyperior, Doublade, Bronzong, Tyrantrum, Registeel, etc. Fletchinder can't break through these with brute force easily, but what it can do is just burn them on the switch and get out of there asap. The chip damage on these Pokemon is absolutely invaluable, softening them up over the course of the game so that they eventually end up in the KO range of a +2 Acrobatics, letting Fletchinder sweep unimpeded later on in the match. On top of this, a lot of RU's Rock/Steel-types (Such as Rhyperior and Doublade), happen to be physical attackers, meaning they hate being burned all the more. Outside of this, the combination of Will-O-Wisp and priority Roost really helps Fletchinder stay alive/set up Swords Dance despite its squishy defenses.

 

[g]

Also is there any huge reason gligar NEEDS Earthquake? I mean it would definitely help but so far I havent needed it as tyrantrum and escavalier both have great non-stabbed ground coverage with more bite.

Earthquake lets Gligar avoid being setup bait by pretty much anything as it does enough damage to 3HKO setup sweepers not resistent to hit most of the time. Examples of setup Pokemon that are checked by Gligar ares Doublade, Cobalion, and Drapion, which all beat non attacking variants through multiple boosts. In addition to setup sweepers Earthquake is needed to wear/down beat Pokemon it defogges against like Rhyperior so that they cant simply set up hazards infinite times and non boosting Pokemon it walls such as some Fighting types like Hitmonlee and Electric types as well as at least bothering offensive Pokemon switching in that are not immune to the move like Meloetta not to mention the great coverage it gets that makes it worth running n_n.

RU stuff hit super effectively by Earthquake

Houndoom
Dragalge
Camerupt
Cobalion
Doublade
Rhyperior
Drapion
Emboar
Jolteon
Kabutops
Magneton
Qwilfish
Registeel
Skuntank
Heliolisk
Tyrantrum
Lanturn
Delphox
and some more...

You could probably say that U-turn "beats" some of those regardless but it is pathetically weak and relying on teammates to beat stuff you are supposed to is just a waste in my opinion, especially when your STAB is such a nice move n_n

Anyway i really like Molk's suggestion of Hitmonlee to support Fletchinder (or Moltres) considering the strong priority it provides and the additional wallbreaking power.