ORAS OU "Wait, what's the mega?"

[pzykhomancer]

Looks fun right?

So, a friend of mine wanted to make a M-Chomp team. I hadn't given it any thought since ORAS was introduced so I wanted to give it a go too. 10 minutes later the team was ready :D

The Team

Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Iron Head

The heart of the team. An absolute monster. Uninvested, this thing hits 376 Atk. Combined with 339 SpA it punches (tears?) holes in everything. Obligatory STAB hits most things, Fire Blast OHKOs Ferro and Skarm with prior damage/favourable rolls/rocks. Iron Head hits Fairies (a guaranteed 2HKO on max Def Clef and Togekiss, OHKOs M-Gardevoir and outspeeds it if it's not running a speed boost nature) and flinches things at the worst of times (for the opponent). Sand Veil is the preferred pre-Mega-Evo ability to take advantage of the sand (especially since mega-evolving isn't necessary as soon as it is sent out).

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off

Supporting Garchomp with sand, tanking hits, setting rocks and phazing set-up sweepers. A mixed defense EV spread provides the best utility considering the rest of the team being able to support Hippo in taking hits.

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

With Hippo taking hits (and possibly being taken down in the process) a back-up was needed to set-up sand to help Chomp destroy things. ScarfTar specifically deals with the Lati@s and Kyurem-B variants who outspeed and OHKO Chomp. STABs are a given on this set. The last slot is up for debate, Superpower was chosen simply because I couldn't think of anything else.

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

CroCune. The timeless legend. If this god gets a chance to set up not much has a chance to break it. However it's not key for it to set up. More than anything it's used as a water/ice resist and a status absorber.

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Waterfall
- Bounce
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt

The other part of my defensive core. The set is something I've been trying to fit onto a team for a while. It's probably the best check to Keldeo (unless it's running HP Electric), walls Weavile (who demolishes the sand core of the team) and cripples things with paralysis for Chomp to later KO. Outside of Waterfall and Thunder Wave, I'm not to sure about the moves for Gyarados. Bounce is useful because flying-STAB is easily spammable (but the charge turn and accuracy are an issue.) Taunt stops defensive mons from doing stuff in general (this is more of a move for M-Gyara but it has application on a defensive set too.

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Roost

Defog support, good defensive typing, more hole-punching with strong STAB options. What more can be said about it? Latias can be run instead for a slightly bulkier option, and for Healing Wish support, but ouside of Gyara getting knocked off I haven't found a need for it.


So that's the team. Test it if you feel like it's interesting. Any helpful criticism is welcome. Any unhelpful criticism will be lol'd at XD

Importable:

Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Iron Head

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Waterfall
- Bounce
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Roost​

 

[BreloomMyHomie]

Hey man! Very nice and unique sand team there, especially since most sand cores consists of Excadrill and Hippowdon/Tyranitar. Also, I like Mega Garchomp getting some usage, it's a very scary mixed attacker with a deadly movepool. Anyways, I have a couple of suggestions that might make the team better.

• First of all, I noticed that your team doesn't have a fairy resist/switch-in, so pokemon such as Banded Azumarill, Mega Gardevoir, and Mega Altaria all threaten your team. The only way you can really beat those fairies is with Garchomp before it mega evolves so you outspeed Gardevoir and ohko it with an Iron Head. This is why I'm suggesting Scizor>Tyranitar. The reason being is that after reading your description as to why you picked Tyranitar as a teammate, I realized that Scizor can also beat most Lati sets(except for HP Fire Latioses) and Pursuit trap them so that Mega Chomp has an easier time vs your opponent's team. Furthermore, Scizor also is a great Fairy killer, something that your initial team lacked.

Scizor

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Superpower

• Another threat on your team I saw was Serperior. Serperior is a problem for your team because it just freely Leaf Storms on Hippowdon and Suicune, and then just clicks Leaf Storm again, Dragon Pulse, or HP Fire depending on the pokemon you switch into. You don't really have a counter and just one soft check being Gyarados. This is why I'm suggesting Rest over Bounce and Sleep Talk over Taunt on it. Rest gives Gyarados semi-reliable recovery so it can spam T-Wave on fast mons(like Serperior) so Mega Chomp's speed tier weakness is covered and Sleep Talk lets Gyarados not become set up fodder to Charizard X and Talonflame.

Hope I helped!

 

[pzykhomancer]

Thanks for the input :D

I saw the weakness to Serp and lack of Fairy resists when I was building this and wanted to test the team before I made any changes to see how I could handle it.

The Gyara set will be changed but I may have to change the Suicune set as having 2 mono-water attacking Rest-Talkers (especially with the rolls I get on Sleep Talk) isn't looking very good, but we'll see what happens after the changes are made.

Regarding the Fairy check, Scizor is a good option but AVGross was the first thing that came to mind. Generally bulkier than Scizor and less susceptible to trappers, Metagross seems like it would fit the team a little better. I'll test both Scizor and Metagross and post my thoughts on them later.

Metagross set:

Metagross @ Assault Vest
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Atk / 96 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Bullet Punch
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake / Zen Headbutt

 

[Nedor]

I do agree with some of the changes mentioned by the rates above, but I wanted to provide my insight on it. Absolutely love the use of Mega Garchomp on Balance as it is one of strongest Wallbreakers in Sand due to it's ability and I like the foundation of the build, but multiple things can be optimized to enhance the goal.

First off, prominent Fairy types such as Mega Gardevoir, Clefable and Mega Diancie aren't dealt with well as you have no check or resist. Specifically Mega Gardevoir and Mega Diancie can cause immense issues as they're more Offensively threatening, while Clefable can be pressured with Mega Garchomp and CM Suicune. Also, since Mega Garchomp's speed tier drops significantly, multiple ways of dealing with Offense or providing Speed control is mandatory. Aside from Scarf Tyranitar which isn't considered fast in the current metagame, you need something that isn't pressured or overwhelmed easily.

The first beneficial change I have is SpD Jirachi > Gyarados. This alteration would improve your match-up against the Fairies and Serperior which is threatening, provide Speed control in Body Slam, and even function as a pivot to allow Mega Garchomp free-switch ins. Jirachi commonly baits in stuff such as Heatran and TankChomp which brings in your main Balance breaker without taking damage to potentially get weakened, and continue to break teams. Fire Punch also enables you to lure in troubling Steel types, specifically Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor. This change would make you slightly more Keldeo weak, but Suicune + Latios check it efficiently.

In all honesty, I find 4 Attacks Mega Garchomp to be inferior to SD 3 Attacks because it puts way more pressure on Defensively oriented teams as many common backbones are vulnerable to it. Pokemon like Clefable would no longer be capable of stalling out Sand which makes Chomp much weaker, and it also smashes checks to CroCune, allowing it to sweep efficiently.

One small nitpick I have is a modification on your Suicune's EV spread; 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe, this enables it to creep standard M-Venu, minimum speed Rotom-W, Adamant Crawdaunt, as well as SpD Heatran to Rest before being taunted.
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Sets

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SpD / 40 Spe
Careful Nature
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Body Slam
- Fire Punch

Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Fang

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Calm Mind

I decided to rate this team because I personally have a lot of experience with Mega Garchomp Balance, and the changes I made will be advantageous. It has a bit of trouble breaking Mega Sableye Stall because of the fact that Gothitelle exists to trap Suicune, and SD Mega Garchomp may lose to Unaware Clefable or Quagsire. Hope you liked it!

 

[yuruuu]

Hey, nice team :)

Your team lacks a Fairy check, and is fairly weak to common Pokemon like Serperior. Mega Gardevoir, in particular, absolutely destroys this team. As such, you can try Specially Defensive Talonflame over Suicune. Although you can try a physically defensive spread (which allows it to wall Mega Gardevoir completely), it makes Serperior much harder to handle.

This change to Talonflame does exacerbate a weakness to water-Pokemon such as Mega Gyarados and Azumarill. I suggest you change Hippowdon to Scizor. This gives you a second fairy check, and strong priority, as well as a switch-in to Latios's Draco Meteor, since you will have to move rocks to Tyranitar / Garchomp.

I am also not sure on Iron Head on Mega Garchomp, especially since you do something like 4% more to Clefable compared to Earthquake. You could try replacing it with Stone Edge, which would allow you to check Specially Defensive Talonflame and Mega Charizard Y (although you have defensive Gyarados, but I don't like that much). This also hits Togekiss. I also don't quite like Gyarados's set (really don't think it's optimal), but Latios is easily pursuited and Keldeo becomes a huge issue, so I can see where that set is coming from.

Hide

Talonflame @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 248 HP / 228 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Bulk Up
- Will-O-Wisp

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit / Knock Off

(or SR Garchomp)
Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 80 Def / 180 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Crunch / Pursuit
- Ice Beam

Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 16 Atk / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Stone Edge / Stealth Rock

Good luck with your team!

 

[pzykhomancer]

Ok then, tested out the suggestions made (thanks for the response btw :D) and here's what I have to say about them.

Replacing ScarfTar with CBScizor as a revenge killer didn't work out as well as I liked. Random HP Fires from things you wouldn't expect it on and being weak to trappers meant it didn't put in as much work as I would have liked. As a fairy check it paled in comparison to Jirachi and AVGross (being locked is pretty detrimental when your opp is running a bunch of steel resists to back up their fairies) as it never managed to just spam steel-STAB. Gross and Rachi have advantages in being able to switch moves and not being as weak to trappers. Pairing Scizor with Talonflame (to replace Hippo and CroCune, as suggested by yuruu) meant I now had a massive weakness to offensive Lando-T variants such as Dual Dancers and Scarfers.

Replacing Gyara with Jirachi is probably the best change that was made. It was still able to spread paralysis helping with speed control, steel typing gave me a fairy check, and U-Turn gave me some switch advantage.
Will post an edited team later.