Weavile's Return to OU: A different look at Keldo/Landorus

[TheDuckChris]

Ah gen VI OU, where bulky sweepers rule, Clefable is an A+ threat, and Charizard is top 5 in usage. OU is a place where Offense is powerful and Stall is annoying. A place where the middle of the ladder and the top may as well be different tiers for how different they are. Its a place where few are successful and the rest take their teams.

When I began constructing my team, I knew I wanted to build around Keldeo and Landorus, as I felt like it was so powerful in Gen V that I wanted to try and recapture that. This led me to build this team that uses a couple of underrated threats, and eventually got me thinking about speed tiers and led me to making a discussion about them in the OU forums. I also used this team to ladder during the Swagger Suspect test and by and large it did well against swagger teams.

At a glance:

Teambuilding:

- yes keldo landorus goooooood

- Tank Zard X burns and stalls Azumarill who is a pretty solid stop to keldeo and threatens Landorus.

- Zapdos is one of the best defoggers around right now, as its probably the only one that can defog against Bisharp and get out alive.

- I needed something that takes care of Latios and Latias one on one, threatens Aegislash, and checks Garchomp and Greninja. Weavile fit the bill.
Last slot:

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Needed a steel but neither of these has been doing really what I wanted. Weakest slot right now.

In depth: So this team shares a lot of elements with Valentine's Force Of Nature in that it tries to get rid of Lati@s with the help of a pursuit trapper, to make way for the popular Landorus/Keldeo core. Zapdos and Zard X form a pretty solid defensive core, covering most of today's top threats including Azumarill, Thundurus, Bisharp and Aegislash. Weavile functions as a strong revenge killer and Aegislash rounds out the team with King's Shield and Toxic support, as well as checking Clefable.

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Scald
- Hidden Power Flying​

Keldeo is one hell of a threat right now, as its basically as powerful as it was last gen but its counters are rarer and scarf is less necessary. Specs Hydro Pump hits ridiculously hard; its almost as powerful as Charizard Y's Fire Blast. Secret sword takes care of Bisharp, Tyranitar, and Mega Gyarados, as well as netting solid damage against things like Chansey. Scald is almost as spammable as it used to be, and the burn chance always comes in handy. Hidden Power Flying is good for Mega Venusaur, opposing Keldo, Pinsir switchins, and the occasional Breloom or Chesnaught.

Landorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Stealth Rock​

Landorus is another threat that wrecks most of today's metagame, and it pairs very nicely with Keldeo. I experimented with a couple of different sets, but in the end I settled on Calm Mind. Calm mind allows it to punch through Mega Venusaur without having to run Psychic, and does a lot to everything once it sets up. Earth Power slaughters everything grounded except blobs. Sludge Wave is useful for Clefable and also hits Mandibuzz and dragons pretty hard. Stealth Rock is here out of necessity, and is one of the reasons I chose Calm Mind over Rock Polish. He's not a bad stealth rocker per se, but I often find I dont get to set it up until later than I'd like.

Joey (Charizard) @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 248 HP / 32 Atk / 188 SDef / 40 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost
- Dragon Claw​

Tank Zard X, as made popular by Joey after its strong debut in week (2?) of SPL. Nowadays its lost a little of its surprise factor, but its still a pretty great check to Bisharp, Aegislash, Talonflame, Azumarill, Thundurus, and other top tier threats. Earthquake hits steels such as Heatran and Aegislash. Will-o-wisp is a great move on Charizard and can cause a lot of frustration on your opponents side if they mispredict and switch in a physical attacker such as terrakion or Bisharp. Roost keeps you alive, and lets you stall out things that are burned or toxiced (we'll get to that later). Dragon claw is your main stab, and does a ton of damage to things like rotom-w or venusaur. Overall a great mixed wall and one of the strongest members of this team. With the members on this team looking somewhat similar to a Zard Y team, he does catch people off guard now and then.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave​

Physically defensive Zapdos is the most reliable defogger around right now in my opinion. Everything else is either pursuit bait or taunt bait. Zapdos deals with Bisharp quite well when healthy, while also checking Mega Scizor, Mega Mawile, taking care of Ferrothorn, and doing solid damage to Thundurus. Forms a pretty decent defensive core with Charizard, as long as it can keep rocks off. Roost keeps it alive, and lets it stall a bit. Pressure is a really underrated ability with the power to run Rotom-W out of Hydro Pumps in no time. Thunderbolt is your main stab and Heat Wave covers all the threats you're supposed to be checking, as well as OHKO'ing bisharp most of the time (i think).

Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Pursuit​

Weavile is a really underrated threat in OU today. Blazing fast speed, a powerful stab in Knock Off, and useful priority all make it a strong member of this team. Ice Shard picks off Scarf Garchomp, Dragonite locked into Outrage, Scarf Staraptor, and others. Knock off is your main stab, doing massive damage to most things and crippling others. Ice Punch is probably the least useful move on the set but can still be useful for OHKO'ing Mega Pinsir among others. Pursuit is a recent addition over Low Kick and can probably be changed but I was tired of Lati@s just switching out for free.

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 228 SAtk / 28 SDef
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Iron Head
- King's Shield
- Toxic​

The Crumbler, but with toxic. Pretty self explanatory, Aegislash does what he needs to and so occupies this spot right now. Shadow Ball does a lot to mostly everything. Iron Head does ~50% to clefable and helps against Mega Tyranitar and Terrakion. King's shield helps me shut down physical threats and keep momentum. Toxic punishes many usual Aegislash switch ins and sets up some good stall situations with King's shield and my Roost core. Honestly my weakest team slot, open to suggestions here.

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Things I like about this team:
-deals with a lot of top threats without forgetting that we have to ladder throught the bottom/middle of the ladder first.
-Solid Defensive core that isn't too predictable
-Has a lot of Oh-shit buttons for unexpected circumstances.

Things I don't like about this team:
-Aegislash seems kind of redundant
-Has a bit of a hard time against stall
-Chansey is still a bitch

So that's the main idea, hope you guys enjoyed seeing how I built this and I hope to hear suggestions from you. I might do a threat list later but It's 3 am and im lazy and I have homework so maybe not.
image credits from Bebe's search among others, TCG is cool

importable

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 228 SAtk / 28 SDef
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Iron Head
- King's Shield
- Toxic

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Scald
- Hidden Power [Flying]

Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Stealth Rock

Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Pursuit

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave

Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 248 HP / 32 Atk / 188 SDef / 40 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost
- Dragon Claw

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