ORAS OU Latin Offense

[Magermilchpuur]

Hello everybody and thank you for visiting this thread. I built this team, tested and tweaked it on a low ladder account that was around 1200. Then I went with it from around 1500 to 1700 and I really enjoyed playing with it. Since I usually play balance I am not a as secure when it comes to building a really offensive team like this one. I am sure this team has a lot of flaws and I hope that the community can help me out^^


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Teambuilding Process

I wanted to build a team around a Choice Banded Talonflame. The reason for this is that it is an amazing late game sweeper which can put in a lot of work after its counters and checks have been weakend. And priority Brave Bird is never a bad thing to have.

I decided to use a fast SD Mega Scizor because most of the mons that like to switch into Talonflame's STAB-Moves (Ttar, Diancie, Heatran, Rotom-Wash, Slowbro) do not like taking a Bug Bite, Superpower or Bullet Punch. It can also set up on a reasonable amount of Talonflame's counters. As you can see I tried to counter Talonflame's counters. I also needed something to switch in on a Knock Off (Weavile and Bisharp in general).

Defensive Garchomp with Rocky Helmet was added due to its ability to set up Stealth Rocks and being able to prevent the enemy from Volt Switching (Imunity to electric) and U-Turning (Most Pokemon which run U-turn dont appreciate losing ~ 30% from Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin). Whithout it this team would have a much harder time handling physical threats like Talonflame and Lopunny. I needed something to handle physical mons in general.

Starmie was needed to Rapid Spin away Stealth Rocks for my Talonflame. It would also offer my an excellent way to beat opposing defensive Garchomps which I otherwise could not come by. It aslo baits in Ferrothorn and Choice Scarfed Ttar on which Mega Scizor can set up.

Raikou finishes off my VoltTurn combo and was mainly added to the team to maintain momentum. In the beginning I gave it an Assault Vest so that I had something to switch into special hits but it ended up not doing too much. So i decided to give it a Life Orb and since then it was really helpful since it was now able to OHKO Gengar 100% of the time and OHKO defensive Landorus-T 87.5% of the time [Without LO: 252 SpA Raikou Hidden Power Ice vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 292-344 (76.6 - 90.2%)]

The first version of this team had a Choice Scarfed Lando-T instead of Serperior. But I am sure you can imagine that this team was not able to break Rotom-Wash with this team. So i decided to run a Grass-Type to beat Rotom-Wash. It aslo acts as a Wallbreaker since it 2HKOes almost everything (I look at you Heatran) at +4. Serperior's natural bulk allows it to switch into stuff like Manaphy's Ice Beam without taking a ton.

The Team

Milvus milvus (Talonflame) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp

Talonflame usually acted as a late game cleaner when most of its counters have been weakened throuh Stealth Rocks and chip damage. Because of this I would keep it in the back or U-Turn out to get momentum and pressure the opponent when rocks were up. Sometimes I also used it to get massive damage on 2 to 3 opposing mons if my opponent had nothing That wanted to take a hit from Talonflame and my win condition was something else. I also helped me to check threaths like Alakazam and Weavile. Jolly nature is used so that Brave Bird goes before Weavile's Ice Shard and to outspeed Raikou and KO it with Flare Blitz. The EV-spread is to speed tie with opposing Talonflames and hit as hard as possible. Brave Bird and Flare Blitz are its bread and butter moves, U-Turn to gain momentum and for chip damage and I chose W-O-W over Tailwind because my team is already fast and I'd rather get the burn on a Ttar when it tries to Pursuit me.

Solenopsis invicta (Scizor) @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bug Bite
- Superpower
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance

Most of the time it was used to set up a Swords Dance on things like Lando-T, Diancie and Slowbro after I U-Turned out with Talonflame. Since it is such a powerhouse it force my opponent to switch and this gives me the opportunity to set up and win. It also functioned as my Weavile/Bisharp switch in for which I otherwise had nothing at the time. A Jolly nature with 224 speed Ev's allowes it to outspeed max speed Ttar before Mega-Evolving and OHKO it with Superpower. It also outspeeds Jolly Bisharp, Adamant Altaria and modest Heatran after Mega-Evolving. 252 EV's were put into Atk to hit as hard as possible and the remaining 32 were put into HP for more bulk. Bug Bite was used because it is Scizors strongest move and to hit Rotom-wash for a good chunk, Superpower for Heatran, Ttar, Ferrothorn and opposing Scizors, Bullet Punch to hit fairies, especially Clefable and Diancie and for priority and Swords Dance to set up when my opponent is switching out, cant OHKO me.

Sphyrnidae (Garchomp) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
248 HP / 160 Def / 100 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock

My Garchomp was my Stealth Rocker and my lead of choice if the opponent had nothing to OHKO me. It played an important role in chipping away my opponent's physical attacker's health and was used to beat ZardX which would 6-0 my team at +1 and full HP (If Garchomp was not on this team). Rocky Helmet in combination with Rough Skin does around 30% to most physical attackers which would put them in range for Talonflame's Brave Bird. An Impish nature makes Garchomp even tankier. I ran 248 HP EV's to be as tanky as possible and survive most of the hits that were not Ice Beam/ Icicle Crash. 100 EV's into speed would allow me to outspeed most variants of bulky ZardX and do enough damage to every ZardX with Dragon Tail, Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin that it would not be able to tank a Banded Brave Bird from Talonflame (Calc will be provided down below). The rest was put into defense to take physical hits better. Earthquake provides a powerful STAB and Dragon Tail is used to phase out Pokemons and let them take damage from Stealth Rocks. Toxic to cripple things like Hippo and Stealth Rock = best move in the game.

Asteroidea (Starmie) @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IV's: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

Starmie's main job was to spin away rocks and threaten bulky Ground-Types. It also acted as Pursuit bait for Choice Scarf Ttar on which Mega Scizor could get to +2 and close the game from there. It also gave me a way to force out Air Balloon Heatran and get big damage on the mon that switches in. It also was my #1 Gengar check. Imo it complements Talonflame very nice because it can do big damage to Heatran, Ttar and phisically defensive Zapdos. 29 HP IV's to take less from Life Orb and 0 Atk to take less from Foul Play. Since this is an offensive Starmie it has Analytic as an ability and carries a Life Orb. The EV spread is also simple. Max SpA to hit as hard as possible and max speed to speed tie with other base 115's. Hydro Pump is the strongest water move it gets, Psyshock is on it because it gets STAB bossted and hits Gengar, Conk and Venusaur for big damage. It also does around 40% to 50% versus 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey. Ice Beam was for Garchomp and to have a 100% accuracy move against Lando-T. Rapid Spin is there to spin away rocks for my Talonflame.

Smilodon (Raikou) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IV's: 29 HP / 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power Ice

Raikou is on this team to get the VoltTurn combo going and pressure (nice joke) the opponent to prevent him from spinning/defoging. In addition it gives me a better mach up against rain and checks Mega Pinisr very well. I used to run Assault Vest over Life Orb so that I would have a switch in for Mega Manectric and Manaphy. But it did not do much for me and so I decided to try out Life Orb and it worked much better for me. And since this is offense I dont really mind not being able to switch into every move. Imo AV is really good on Raikou (In theory even on this team) but it just didnt work out for me. 29 HP IV's for less Life Orb Damage, 2 Atk IV's for less Foul Play Damage (You can not put 0 IV's in it because Hidden Power gets calculated in another way if you have 0 IV's IIRC and 30 Def IV's for HP-Ice. The reason I run Life Orb is because it acts as a Mega Manectric without using up my Mega slot. I run a Timid nature with 252 Ev's into speed to speed tie with other base 115's (especially Starmie). 252 SpA for max damage and the rest got bumped into SpD. Thunderbolt for STAB, Volt Switch to keep up momentum, Shadow Ball to hit Lat@s harder and HP-Ice for Garchomp, Lando-T, Gliscor and to 90% to 107% to Breloom.

Ahaetulla nasuta (Serperior) @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
12 Def / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
Timid Nature
IV's: 29 HP / 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power Fire

I decided to put Serperior over Lando-T because I could not beat Rotom-Wash reliably and got rekt by rain teams.. I used it mainly to break walls and to free up my other sweepers. The nice thing about Serperior is that it is able to come in on a lot of things like Hippo, Manaphy, and defnsive Starmie.
I decided to run Life Orb because it helps me to get some important KO's without having Stealth Rocks up (Manaphy and Rotom-Wash come to mind). Leaf Storm is used to bosst its special attack, Giga Drain is on it to sustain itself up when it is at +2 or +4, Dragon Pulse kills Latias at +2 after rocks and HP-Fire is for Ferrothorn and Scizor which could give my team trouble if rocks are up on my side and I cant bring in Talonflame without almost losing it.


Playstyle

The way I play this team is that I try to get rocks up as soon as possible. When I've achieved this I either start my VoltTurn combo or try to break my opponent's core with Serperior/Raikou and Mega Scizor/Talonflame. I like to preserve my Starmie until the enemy rocker is gone so that I always can spin my oppnent's rocks away. I do this because with my VoltTun combo i am forced to switch a lot and my Talonflame isn not as effective when it comes in at 51%. When my opponents defensvie core is weakend I try to set up with Serperior or Mega Scizor and sweep from there. If my opponents team is rather frail I will straight up go for Brave Bird and kill everything after Stealth Rocks are up and the mons that potentially could take a hit got weakend.

Threats

ZardX is a big threat to this team. The only way it can deal with it is by getting up rocks so that it can not come in at 100% and let it take Rocky Helmet + Rough Skin damage so that Talonflame can KO it afterwards. If it is at 85% and already used Dragon Dance and Garchomp is gone it will sweep.
Here are the calcs I was talking about:
0 Atk Garchomp Dragon Tail vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Charizard: 100-118 (33.6 - 39.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Mega Charizard X: 195-231 (65.6 - 77.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I can beat it but I need to play flawless.

There is nothing that can switch into Hoopa-U. Every mon except Garchomp gets KOed by one of its moves. The only way to reliably check it is with Talonflame.

If you notice other glaring weaknesses please tell me.

Replays

Here are some replays so that you can see how I played with this team (And how bad I am)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-253859755

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-253861580

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-253876009

Importable

Milvus milvus (Talonflame) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp

Solenopsis invicta (Scizor) @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bug Bite
- Superpower
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance

Sphyrnidae (Garchomp) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
248 HP / 160 Def / 100 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock

Asteroidea (Starmie) @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IV's: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

Smilodon (Raikou) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IV's: 29 HP / 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power Ice

Ahaetulla nasuta (Serperior) @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
12 Def / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
Timid Nature
IV's: 29 HP / 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power Fire

This is my first RMT so if I did something wrong please tell me and I will fix it. If you have any questions regarding everything just ask.
Thanks for helpng me :)​

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[p2]

Hey, nice team. Not gonna lie, Choice Band Talonflame really isn't a good set anymore because of how the meta adapted to it back in XY, it's so heavily pressured by Stealth Rock and with more fat Pokemon such as Hippowdon running around, CB Talonflame has really suffered. That's why I'd change it to Swords Dance. SD Talonflame is still an effective late game cleaner and actually has longevity as it can now run Roost, which CB Talon can't run very effectively. Another change I would make is Assault Vest Raikou > Life Orb. AV allows Raikou to check Thundurus and Manectric more effectively, both of which you really want the longevity against as they can be very troubling for your team if Raikou faints. The final change I would make is Glare > Giga Drain and Leftovers > Life Orb on Serperior. As you mentioned, you have a pretty big Charizard X weakness and Glare allows you to punish Charizards that think they can set up for free on Serperior. This means you would need to drop Giga Drain and so, Leftovers should be used to compensate for the lack of recovery.

talonflame set

Talonflame @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Flare Blitz / Will-O-Wisp

 

[Magermilchpuur]

Hey, nice team. Not gonna lie, Choice Band Talonflame really isn't a good set anymore because of how the meta adapted to it back in XY, it's so heavily pressured by Stealth Rock and with more fat Pokemon such as Hippowdon running around, CB Talonflame has really suffered. That's why I'd change it to Swords Dance. SD Talonflame is still an effective late game cleaner and actually has longevity as it can now run Roost, which CB Talon can't run very effectively. Another change I would make is Assault Vest Raikou > Life Orb. AV allows Raikou to check Thundurus and Manectric more effectively, both of which you really want the longevity against as they can be very troubling for your team if Raikou faints. The final change I would make is Glare > Giga Drain and Leftovers > Life Orb on Serperior. As you mentioned, you have a pretty big Charizard X weakness and Glare allows you to punish Charizards that think they can set up for free on Serperior. This means you would need to drop Giga Drain and so, Leftovers should be used to compensate for the lack of recovery.

talonflame set

Talonflame @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Flare Blitz / Will-O-Wisp

Thanks for your input. I will adjust the team and test it. But I am not 100% sold on the AV Raikou since I already used it with this team and it did not do too hot. But with SD Talon and a new Serperior set it might do better this time around. But I am more than convinced that the other points that you have mentioned will grately improve my team.
Thanks a lot and I really appreciate that you helped me^^

 

[Tricking]

Hi Magermilchpuur,

you can try a different coverage on Starmie, as Ice Beam is kinda useless for the targets you have stated so far (Landorus-Therian is OHKOed by Hydro Pump and, in a 1v1 scenario, Hydro Pump wins as well vs Garchomp and generally both Starmie and Serperior force Garchomp to switch out), therefore you could replace Ice Beam with Hidden Power Fire, as this allows you to hit Ferrothorn and have an answer to Heatran at the same time provided this core walls your whole team except for Scizor). Then you can even try Thunderbolt over Psyshock to hit bulky Waters (especially Gyarados which is annoying to your team after having set up), but you have already Serperior for the other bulky waters in your team and Psyshock is cool against Venusaur.

Then, what about putting U-Turn over Bug Bite on Scizor? By replacing Band Talonflame with the other set, you lost part of your Volt-Turn core and Scizor forces a lot of switches (e.g. Weavile), so U-Turn could be a cool option. Despite of this I might understand that Scizor might suffer from this move when facing things like Slowbro because it's forced to switch out, I think it's a double edged sword which should be helpful in most cases, try it out imo to see what works better in your opinion.

Then, I like the rest of the team, good luck with it :)

 

[Magermilchpuur]

Hi Magermilchpuur,

you can try a different coverage on Starmie, as Ice Beam is kinda useless for the targets you have stated so far (Landorus-Therian is OHKOed by Hydro Pump and, in a 1v1 scenario, Hydro Pump wins as well vs Garchomp and generally both Starmie and Serperior force Garchomp to switch out), therefore you could replace Ice Beam with Hidden Power Fire, as this allows you to hit Ferrothorn and have an answer to Heatran at the same time provided this core walls your whole team except for Scizor). Then you can even try Thunderbolt over Psyshock to hit bulky Waters (especially Gyarados which is annoying to your team after having set up), but you have already Serperior for the other bulky waters in your team and Psyshock is cool against Venusaur.

Then, what about putting U-Turn over Bug Bite on Scizor? By replacing Band Talonflame with the other set, you lost part of your Volt-Turn core and Scizor forces a lot of switches (e.g. Weavile), so U-Turn could be a cool option. Despite of this I might understand that Scizor might suffer from this move when facing things like Slowbro because it's forced to switch out, I think it's a double edged sword which should be helpful in most cases, try it out imo to see what works better in your opinion.

Then, I like the rest of the team, good luck with it :)

Grazie mille per la tua risposta :]
I like the idea of putting HP-Fire over Ice Beam on Starmie, but without Psyshock I feel that this team would be very vulnerable to LO Gengar and I dont think that Gyara can set up on too much (except Talonflame). I will try it out though^^
I've never used SD U-Turn Mega Sciz but I can see it working, especially on this team.
Thanks for helping me out :)