Two (Eon) Tickets to Paradise
I've been away a while. And in that time RMTs went out of fashion, but are now, once again, en vogue. Full circle. Having not written a Team Report in almost 7 years, I delved into my teambuilder to pick out something cool that would be worthy of a write-up and that could stand to some critique also. This is the team I picked!
We're going back a few years now but I think the initial idea for this build started back in 2012/13. I wanted to build a consistent team built around the partnership of Latias and Latios. The reasons behind wanting to do this will be clear to anyone who has even dabbled in BW OU. Latios is comfortably the best offensive Pokemon in the format, with very few Pokemon able to withstand two Draco Meteors. In addition to this, Latios makes an excellent late-game cleaner with Dragon Pulse, or can utilise Choiced Trick + Recover to fully take advantage of its excellent defensive typing vs things like Keldeo and Breloom. For a while, Latios was also the best offensive answer to Sun teams as well as acting as a great Sleep absorber with Sleep Talk. However, Latios lacks the ability to do all of these things in a single game, not only because it would require 6 moveslots and 2 items, but also because the ever-present Tyranitar limits Latios's field time in most BW OU games. Many times in teambuilding, I would want to use two Latios - one as a Specs wallbreaker with the ability to Trick+Recover in some match-ups (rain), and another to keep reserved as a revenge killer / cleaner. We're obviously not allowed to do this within the Smogon ruleset, but pairing Latios with its weaker but bulkier sister Latias comes incredibly, incredibly close.
I remember having discussions about this with many teambuilders at the time, including BKC, Jirachee and many of my WCoP teammates, many of whom were trying to build similar teams independently. However, this teambuilding project turned into something of a holy grail for us all. There were clear merits to running both Latios and Latias in a 2013 metagame full of Sun offense, Keldeo, agility Thundurus-T, technician Breloom, Garchomp, Terrakion, and Landorus-I, but actually putting together a consistent team with this pairing proved difficult. That meta back then was so wacky and unexplored that there were some frankly cooler stuff to be building around - I was having far more fun with very eary forms of what is now Cresselia Sun and some flash in the pan stuff like Zapdos Stall, for example - but double Lati@s is something I've come back to on and off ever since.
The team that I'm presenting here is the result of these several years dabbling with Lati@s. Its not flashy, modern, or stylish - just a team with a very simple concept that stands despite rounds of bans, unbans, and metagame changes. That concept is: Latios is the best, so just use two of them.
Of course, the first two slots on the team were already decided: Latias and Latios. There are many different iterations of this team with different sets, with some having Trick + Flame Orb Latias to bait Tyranitar and set the stage for her brother. Whilst this is a cute for one-off tour games, its simply not going to come off consistently. It fluffs into both t1 Protect or t1 Scarf U-turn which are very common. The version I'm writing up here is the one I like for general use, and uses Specs (Trick + Recover) Latias paired with Scarf (Trick + DPulse) Latios. This enables Latias to act as a bit of a beater early game, weaken some checks/counters, and utilise its defensive qualities, and then keeping Latios back for a clean-up job in the late-game. For anyone wondering why I chose the items that way around, it comes down to this calc: 252 SpA Latias Dragon Pulse vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Kyurem-Black: 288-338 (73.6 - 86.4%). Scarf Latias is weak as hell and ain't sweeping DragMag, which half-defeats the point of using a Scarf Lati to begin with.
Latias and Latios work across all of Sand, Rain, and Weatherless teams, but with an eye on consistency I turned towards sand here. Recent(ish) metagame advances force your hand when it comes to deciding Tyranitar sets these days, so its just standard Chople Tyranitar. Far less risk in using this now Dugtrio is gone, which is probably a huge part of the reason why this team actually feels more comfortable to use in recent years than it did when originally built.
The remainder of the team is a tried and true defensive core of Skarmory + Water Immunity + Heatran, first popularised by my UK teammate tab and another user about whom we no longer speak. Here, we use Jellicent instead of the more typical Gastrodon, mostly because we don't need the defensive qualities of Gastro when you have two Latis! The core works by initially putting up and maintaining hazards, and then repeatedly putting the opponent in positions where they need to let something take a burn over and over and over again. In addition to this, the combination of Ground, Water, Normal, Fighting, (Poison lol), and Fire immunities between the three members makes pivoting easy, providing tons of opportunities to just click Will-o and Lava Plume. As shown by many well-documented Reuniclus/Alakazam teams in recent years, burn + Tyranitar weak mons is incredibly effective.
The end result is a Sand Balance team that I've been using on and off for a long time. I hope you enjoy it!
The Team:
Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 88 Atk / 172 SDef
Adamant Nature [+Atk, -SAtk]
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
Tyranitar is Tyranitar. Gets rid of Rain so I can play the game more at the pace Skarm and Heatran want to. Highly splashable Pursuit user, handily beats the best Pokemon in the format 1v1 as well as one of the most solid answers to Reuniclus / Alakazam. I really am not a fan of SR Tyranitar in modern BW, as it doesn't exactly generate many free turns in which to get Rocks down meaning that you'll often take damage in the early game; you'll very quickly regret this once Alakazam shows his face. However, as is fairly normal for Skarmory Sand, there aren't many other obvious places to put SR on this team, so here we are.
Earthquake is chosen as the coverage move here to improve the Tentacruel match-up, who otherwise gets free Toxic onto Jellicent every game. Earthquake is also hugely helpful against opposing Heatran, who can irritate double Lati and is immune to the burn spam generated by the main core.
The EV spread is the very standard, slightly more offensive version of Specially Defensive Chople Tyranitar. 88+ Atk guarantees that Crunch 2HKOs max/max Reuniclus and comfortably OHKOs Latios. EQ also has an alright roll to OHKO Tentacruel and Excadrill after SR, which helps keeps hazards up! Careful definitely works here also if you care less about those calcs and prefer a more consistent Rocker + Trapper.
Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 12 Def / 228 SDef / 20 Spe
Careful Nature [+SDef, -SAtk]
- Taunt / Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind
Skarmory has definitely fallen out of favour in Modern BW OU due to its horrific match-up against standard Rain. I think its beginning to see a small resurgence, owing largely to the widespread use of offensive Ground-types Excadrill, Landorus-T, Garchomp, and Mamoswine, which can more easily break Ferrothorn. Skarmory is the team's Spiker largely due to just how old the team is, but honestly its still a fine choice as long as you have plenty of Tentacruel counterplay.
Standard EVs and item. Helmet + SR easily chips things like Landorus-T into range of Scarf Latios Dragon Pulses, thereby making late-games really straightforward. Further, Helmet allows Skarmory to have a fighting chance against Excadrill, who wasn't OU when this team was first built and if I'm being honest, can certainly be a handful. Shed Shell is a viable item choice here, but the DragMag match-up is solid with the given Heatran set and Scarf Latios, so Helmet is by far superior. The only Magnezone teams that can be troublesome are Mag + fast Gliscor, but thankfully not seen many of these recently!
Brave Bird vs Taunt is the only dilemma here and honestly I switch between them every time I boot up Showdown. Brave Bird is arguably unneeded on paper with so many decent Breloom / Keldeo answers on the team, but its difficult to argue against its unexpected applications and sometimes it lets Skarmory solo in the late-game. Taunt, however, makes Ferrothorn's life incredibly difficult which is particularly helpful with 3 grounded Pokemon on the team. The team functions very similarly regardless of choice, so very much a personal preference thing.
Jellicent (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 172 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature [+Def, -Atk]
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Night Shade
- Recover
Jellicent is another Pokemon that has fallen out of favour in Modern BW due to the ubiquity of Toxic on Polited, Tentacruel, some Keldeo, Gastrodon - basically everything you'd hope Jellicent should beat. However, its still a great, fat Water-type that does a nice job of disrupting teams if it can get in un-statused. This is the primary Specs Keldeo switch-in, which takes additional pressure off of Latias and Latios defensively. Jellicent is also the only viable spin-blocker currently in OU so helps to keep my hazards up, though it does lose handily to Sand Force Excadrill.
Jellicent is the first burn-spreader on the team, and does a good job of putting burns on Ferrothorn, Rotom-W, Tyranitar, opposing Latios, and so-on. With a combination of Taunt and Night Shade, Jellicent is also a great anti-cheese Pokemon and efficiently shuts down things like Reuniclus, Volcarona, Substitute Keldeo etc who are typical balance-breakers.
The speed here is for 4 Speed base 70s like Skarmory and Politoed. This gets bumped up depending on how much creeping is going around; up to around 116 EVs you don't see a huge different in bulk but past that point Jellicent does start to feel very frail! Also using physically defensive here just as a relic of the past - you could definitely make an argument for more special defense. Also please use male Jellicent, the girl one looks like miss piggy and makes me uncomfortable.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 148 HP / 116 SpA / 244 Spe
Timid Nature [+Spe, -Atk]
- Substitute
- Protect
- Lava Plume
- Hidden Power [Ice]
The final part of this defensive core isn't even that defensive, considering the EV spread here, but has the defensive typing to play that role even with little investment. Heatran nicely complements Skarmory and Jellicent from a type-chart point of view but, more importantly, works really well to rack-up chip damage. Substitute Heatran forces switches like little else, and this set only has opposing Heatran or Chansey as a truly safe switch-in; everything else in the game hates a Lava Plume burn or can't stomach a Hidden Power [Ice] (mostly Gliscor). Speed is for Adamant Excadrill.
Substitute + Protect Heatran with burn support beats out many Pokemon 1v1 that Heatran should have absolutely no business beating - far too much to go into significant detail here. If you haven't used this set, its about time you tried. Rotom-W doesn't have a chance of beating you here, for example, especially if it misses even a single Hydro Pump. Even stuff like Politoed hates this set if it doesn't pack Refresh. Just a rage-inducing set that forces switches, spreads burns, drains PP and against many bulky offense / DragMag teams, sometimes this guy becomes a win condition itself.
The EV spread outspeeds Adamant Excadrill. It might look weird to go all the way to 244 Spe and not to just max it, which on paper looks like a better use of the meagre 2 points. However, deliberately underspeeding opposing fast Heatran is pretty important for keeping the EV spread, and by extension Hidden Power [Ice], hidden. In the early game, this Heatran near exclusively comes in things like Ferrothorn and clicks Protect or Lava Plume, so you can bluff specially defensive before revealing fast Hidden Power [Ice] against Gliscor or Dragonite. The SAtk investment just gives you an overall good shot at beating both extreme variants of Gliscor - max/max Careful is always 2HKOd after Protect, whereas 244/0 always gets OHKOd after SR. Most variants of SubDD Dragonite also get 2HKOd if you're faster.
Latias @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature [+Spe, -Atk]
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Recover
- Trick
Lati #1. Its been a long time since Latias has been a good standalone offensive Pokemon, but on this team it has a very specific job that it executes perfectly. Lure the Latios answers, and either Trick them or cripple them so that they can't do much against Latios later on. Against sand, I will happily trade Latias in order to get hazards damage and a Specs Meteor/Surf on Tyranitar, which makes Scarf Latios tough to handle late-game. This opens up several avenues to victory, either through Scarf Latios (Tricking Ferrothorn or just burning it and breaking through it with Pulse) or, very often, through Heatran. Against rain, the gameplan can be quite different. Generally you'll want to swap your Trick Specs onto Ferrothorn, giving you Leftovers in return. With Leftovers + Recover, Latias is a very sturdy answer to opposing Keldeo and Thundurus-T, and you'd have to mess up pretty badly to lose from that position!
The moveset is standard for Specs Lati@s. Meteor is your nuke button - its not as strong as Latios', but we only need it to chunk Tyranitar and Ferrothorn and not actually threaten to beat them solo, so its a fine replacement. Surf is the more consistent guaranteed damage option that doesn't drop SAtk and can't miss - its also important coverage against Heatran, Excadrill, Skarmory and others that may want to switch into Meteor, and is decently strong against Jirachi under Rain. As previously mentioned, Recover lets Latias completely change in function after Trick and allows you to adapt hugely into different match-ups particularly Thundurus/Keld Rain. This used to have Sleep Talk over Recover prior to the Sleep Ban, although of course thats now unnecessary and the uptick in Thundurus-T usage makes Recover the best option here. Healing Wish could work but not my style.
Latios @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature [+Spe, -Atk]
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf
- Trick
Lati #2. For many years, Choice Scarf Latios was considered a waste of a Latios. It doesn't pack the sheer strength of Specs, CM+Gem, or old-school Life Orb. However, in return Scarf Latios becomes one of the best late-game cleaners in the format, and is now increasingly popular. 110 Base Speed + Scarf is unrivaled in the common metagame, and Dragon Pulse deals a solid 45-60% to almost all non-resists. The gameplan therefore becomes simple. Chip everything to 60%ish with Specs Latias, Burns, hazards, and helmet, and then go to town with the Scarfer. The only thing that can stop Latios at that point is priority (Mamoswine and Scizor, but both are easily worn down) or other, almost non-existant faster Scarfers like Tornadus-I.
The above set is the reverse variant to the Latias set. Whereas the Latias set wants to turn into a Tank with Recover+Leftovers following a Trick, this set is all about consistent damage with accurate attacks in the late-game. Against some teams, Latios is fast enough that it doesn't even need its Choice Scarf, so the gameplan may be switched to instead use Latios as the Tricker and keep Specs on Latias - indeed, this is pretty common against Rain balance. Further, Tricking away the Scarf also works really well against teams that have easily chipped opposing Scarfers such as Landorus-T, which typically won't survive into the late-game to revenge-kill the Latis anyway.
As I mentioned in the introduction, Latios is the scarfer here purely down to the strength of 130 SAtk Dragon Pulse against opposing Dragons, which Latias cannot match. Latios can very often just lock into Dragon Pulse against DragMag teams as soon as Jirachi is weakened and guarantee the win; Latias, however, is not guaranteed the KOs against Kyurem-B or Garchomp after a single round of Rocky Helmet. Thats basically the only reason!
/
: Double Psychic Sand - Substitute Heatran does a really nice job here of sitting in front of things, spamming Lava Plume and Protect, and gradually chipping down the team. These teams typically lack a spinner, meaning that Skarmory can have a field day particularly with Heatran generating a lot of free Earthquakes from Landorus-T. Latios does an excellent job at chipping Tyranitar and/or Ferrothorn, therefore setting up for a Scarf Latios endgame. Sash Alakazam is frustrating but it fails to OHKO any team member and has to hit a lot of Focus Blasts in this match-up. If its a Reuniclus variant then a combination of Double Trick, Taunt Jellicent, Whirlwind Skarm, and Adamant Tyranitar makes the match-up very straightforward.
Stacking Grounds Sand - Showing the Mamoswine variant here because its the most annoying to face. Regardless, Skarmory has a good intrinsic match-up and if the Grounds aren't +Spe nature, then Timid Heatran also has tons of chances to be annoying. Protect Excadrill is not that pleasant to face but without Magnezone support then at least we have Skarmory.
Magnezone Sand - Probably the roughest of the Sand match-ups. Magnezone + Excadrill / Glicor can be very frustrating to face, especially if the grounds are faster than Heatran. These teams also reveal a general weakness of the team - Protect spam + Water immunities, which prevent the Latis from freely clicking Surfs into Glisc/Drill. Taunt Jellicent + lots of Ground immunes make the Gliscor match-up playable in the absence of Skarmory. Certainly not unsurmountable, but generally need to preserve both Latis and play more aggro with Jellicent / Heatran to weaken Tyranitar instead. Having 2 Latis in the lategame vs weakened Tyranitar + burnt Gastrodon is a nice position to find yourself in!
Standard Thundurus-T Rain - Mostly straightforward. The early- and mid-game always looks shaky because Protect Politoed + Tentacruel can help shield Ferrothorn from Trick. However, as long as Jellicent is faster than Politoed, that defensive core has to begin taking burns eventually. Thundurus-T should never really be breaking through Tyranitar + double Latis, but of course Paralysis is always a factor when dealing with Thunder. I legit think its impossible to have a better Keldeo match-up than this team does, so there shouldn't be consistent problems against Rain if the team is played well!
Standard DragMag - Overall good match-up. Magnezone will inevitably catch and KO Skarmory, but Substitute HP Ice Heatran, along with Latias and Scarf Latios gives a great advantage in this one. Variants with Analytic Starmie with inevitably be annoying, as Starmie shreds any team without Ferrothorn. However, you have two great sacs in this match-up in Skarmory and Jellicent, meaning you can then get Tyranitar in free for the Pursuit.
Mag-less Weather-less - Another decent match-up. Skarmory gets free hazards on most variants of Jirachi, Breloom, and Landorus-T, though as mentioned above, any line-up with Protect + Spin Excadrill is going pose some issues here. Jirachi is tough to get a Trick on when paired with Protect Breloom, but thankfully you don't even really need to. Fast Sub Heatran really shines in these ones, as Rotom-W can't really beat it behind a Substitute. Its tough to cover all variations of weatherless here, but in short - no Excadrill = straightforward, with Excadrill = kinda messy.
So there we are. A very, very old double Lati@s team that was initially made for a Sun offense and Landorus-i metagame, but is built on such an obvious and effective core concept that this will probably be at least somewhat viable regardless of metagame changes: Latios is really good, so use two of them.
The team is built to my own personal playstyle, but one that should also be easy to pick-up and play. The main focus is chipping down shared answers to the Lati twins using hazard pressure, Sub + Lava Plume Heatran, and powerful Draco Meteors, therefore paving the way for Choice Scarf Latios to clean up late-game unimpinged. In many ways this is quite similar to previous Alakazam builds that use Specs Latios and a hazard core as support - however, the key difference is that playing with Alakazam often feels like you have a 5 Pokemon team + a "get out of jail free" card, whereas the amazing defensive qualities of Trick Scarf Latios definitely makes this a well rounded team of 6. Indeed, its the additional Water resistance of Scarf Latios then enables us to run Skarmory instead of Ferrothorn here, therefore hugely boosting consistency against the myriad of Ground and U-turn spam in the format.
Further, this teams leans into my own personal preference of having lots of "anti-cheese" options. Whirlwind Skarmory, Taunt + Night Shade Jellicent, and two Trickers shut down many balance-breaking, match-up fishing strats including SubDD Dragonite, most variants of Reuniclus, Volcarona, Chansey stall, etc. Its a team that can really easily change pace and adapt to the opposing team thanks to Latias and Latios able to perform different roles pre- and post-Trick.
There are several key weaknesses, some already mentioned and others that are harder to verbalise. Firstly, this team is quite heavily reliant on luring and chipping/Tricking things with Specs Latias in order to facilitate Latios, so naturally Protect alongside trick-targets can be frustrating to face. The biggest culprits here are Gliscor and Excadrill, who are particularly good at forcing you into Surf with by spamming Protect, but unfortunately these Pokemon often have Gastrodon teammates waiting in the wings. These kind of teamstyles, especially with Magnezone in tow, prove to be the toughest match-up for this team. McMeghan has a variant with Protect Gastrodon, which I think is near impossible to break for this side. I'm not sure if this is something that is fixable without a complete team overhaul, but its a poor match-up I'm happy to live with considering generally good match-ups across the rest of the metagame. Who knows, maybe Gliscor/Excadrill + Magnezone + Gastrodon sand will drop off again in future! Things like Ferrothorn and Rotom-Wash can't be given many free turns without a Ferrothorn or a Ground-type of my own as counterplay, though this is standard for the archetype. Although rare, the combination of Scarf Tyranitar + Protect Toxic Keldeo is a nightmare if well played too! Aside from these, I think the team is generally super solid against the current metagame despite 90% of it being made 7 years ago.
Thanks everyone for reading, that was certainly a way to kill some time during coronavirus lockdown! Open to suggestions!
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