SM Ubers Mega Lucario and friends beatdown

[blergsid]

Introduction​

This is a team I've been working on for a while, it started as a VERY different team with Lucario, Groudon, Arceus-normal, Xerneas, Deo-speed, and Giratina, but over the course of many edits it changed to this team. I've been having some trouble with it so I wanted to post it here to see if i could get some help.

Teambuilding Process​

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Lucario is only on this team because he's my favorite pokemon. He was my first choice for this team for that reason, and a large part of my choices in the team building process.

Pdon is probably the best mon in the entire tier, and for good reason. On this team, I used the offensive rocks set, partially as a hazards setter and also to help threaten some Lucario threats like Toxapex.

Next, I chose Arceus-water(not normal despite what the sprite above shows) as a utility wall that also helps to counter some ground types that treaten Lucario.

Yveltal is a great tank and wallbreaker in the tier and helps out against marshadow, who this team has a tough time against., as well as being a good anti-lead against some teams with taunt.

Deoxys-A is a wallbreaker, revenge killer and lead, which are all things this team lacks, unless you count yveltal or lucario priority attacks.

Clefable is my only way of handling most setup sweepers on this team, letting me clean up xerneas, groudon and other without needing to risk a death on switch.

The Team​

Lucario-Mega @ Lucarionite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Ice Punch
​

As stated above, Lucario is here mainly because he's my favorite pokemon. His role is as a late-game sweeper, once enemy checks are handled. After a swords dance boost, he manages to take out most of the tier, so his main worries are anyone who outspeeds and lives a bullet punch, Ho-oh, tanky Xerneas builds, walls that live his coverage moves like Toxapex and Lugia, and most ghost types. Most sets I see run iron tail, but I usually find it to be too unreliable to hit at critical moments, as well as lacking on coverage that ice punch provides.

Groudon @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
EVs: 144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Stone Edge
​

I need hazards supports for my team, and so I decided to choose Pdon. This is the standard offensive rocks set, straight from smogon, with a few adjustments to ev's. I increased the speed IV's to 112, allowing him to outpace anything up to a fully invested Ttar. I already have a counter to geomancy Xerneas, so I didn't need the specific investment to live a Xerneas HP ground and instead opted for maximum attack and hp investments.Stealth rocks is obviously a must for any rocks-setting sets, and for the other 3 moves, I used earthquake over Precipe Blades because I always find 15% miss too high. Dragon Tail is used for its phasing ability to prevent Groudon from being setup fodder for some mons, as well as helping to spread damage for a late game Lucario sweep with rocks damage. Stone edge is mainly coverage, especially against Ho-oh who often shuts down sweeps late-game.

Arceus-Water @ Splash Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 40 SpA / 192 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Defog
- Ice Beam
- Judgment
​

For this team, i needed a supportceus rather than an offensive one, so I chose water, since that is one of the better ones alongside fairy, and I already have a fairy type support mon. The set I chose is fairly standard, recover for healing, defog for hazards removal, and ice beam+judgement for damage. 192 Spd and Timid nature are to outspeed mex speed M Lucario and anything lower. 40 SpA EV's gives it a 100% chance of OHKOing a 44 HP investment megamence. The HP and Def investments max out tankiness.

Yveltal @ Life Orb
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Oblivion Wing
- Dark Pulse
- Taunt
- Sucker Punch
​

Yveltal is the standard life orb attacker, focusing on stallbreaking while also being able to take a hit. Taunt is run to achieve this goal, stopping walls from healing, setting up hazards or other shenanigans. Dark pulse is the primary attack, 2HKOing nearly anything that doesn't resist, and Oblivion wing as a secondary stab as well as for sustaining Yveltal, keeping him safe from both life orb recoil and attacks with residual healing. For the last slot, it was a competition between U-turn, knock off, sucker punch or some coverage move. Yveltal already gets near-perfect coverage with his dual STAB, leaving only bad matchups he wouldn't like to stay in on anyways, and dark pulse with a SpA investment will generally do more than knock off, so I considered U-turn or sucker punch. In the end, I chose sucker punch due to its ability to finish off anyone left with low hp after a dark pulse, as well as defeat many frail mons that would otherwise threaten him.

Deoxys-Attack @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Psycho Boost
- Superpower
- Ice Beam
- Knock Off
​

Deo-A is a very simple mon, just give him a life orb and 4 moves, and watch as all your enemies fall like flies. He often makes an effective lead, getting a free kill against any non-sash leads. He effectively revenge kills anyone that is too high hp to handle with Lucario or Yveltal, at well as switching in and killing hazard setters and status users. Using Rash over Naive only leaves me weak to Mewtwo Y and a scarf Lando-T, both of which I already have effective counters for. Extreme Speed is usually run in the last slot to handle enemy priority or scarf users, but if an enemy uses either of those and is low enough hp for Deo-A to kill with e-speed, Lucario or Yveltal would also be able to handle them, so I opted to use knock off to boost coverage instead. The rest of the moves are standard coverage and high-power attacks which allow Deo-A to do a better job of his wallbreaking.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Wish
- Toxic
- Aromatherapy
​

Clefable is my anti-setup-sweeper mon, effectively checking the likes of Xerneas, Groudon and Salamence. Toxic is the main way to wear down opponents, allowing Clefable to sit and wishtect while the enemy slowly dies, and it also ensures they can't use recovery moves except rest to stay safe. For healing, I run wishtect since it allows me to toxic stall more effectively and use wish to heal off Groudon and Yveltal if needed, or possibly Arceus in a pinch. Since the rest of my team is incapable of inflicting status aside from freeze, and keeping Clefable in on an enemy steel type would be a bad idea, toxic will usually be enough to wear down threats, allowing me to use another support move. In this case I chose aromatherapy, since the other main options are rocks, other status move, and setup moves which aren't helpful for this utility Clefable set with other rocks support on the team. In the end, I chose aromatherapy since it was the only option left and superior to heal bell. The EV's and nature are standard for a defensive set to maximize bulk.


That's the team and although it usually does well, I see its main flaws being enemy Marshadow and the lack of a dedicated lead. Feel free to leave any feedback you can and thanks for reading.

Importable

Lucario-Mega @ Lucarionite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Ice Punch

Groudon @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
EVs: 144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail​

- Stone Edge

Arceus-Water @ Splash Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 40 SpA / 192 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Defog
- Ice Beam
- Judgment

Yveltal @ Life Orb
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Oblivion Wing
- Dark Pulse
- Taunt
- Sucker Punch

Deoxys-Attack @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Psycho Boost
- Superpower
- Ice Beam
- Knock Off

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Wish
- Toxic
- Aromatherapy

I made a couple of minor edits while writing this, so tell me if the exportable team doesn't match the one shown above. I'm pretty sure I made the proper edits, but it's possible I may have missed something.

 

[Minority]

Clefable is a Pokemon that doesn't work here. At first glance it looks like you've slapped it onto the end of an offensive team in order to try and check X, Y, and Z. Upon closer inspection, that's exactly what is said in the teambuilding section. There are a number of reasons why this is a problem.

First, it shows that your team has curtailed its potential for a cohesive offensive synergy. This is especially problematic when the team you're building is hyper offense. Clefable simultaneous reduces your options for breaking balance and kills all momentum whenever it comes into play. As a result, the team will perform worse against both balance and opposing offenses. The second problem is that it doesn't actually compensate for the team's general lack of reactive options - things that shouldn't be on a true offense team because the point of offense is to be proactive. Reactive defensive Pokemon typically don't mesh alongside offensive Pokmeon with no defensive utility such as Deoxys-A. The reason, in short, is that any reactive defensive synergy you try to create can't possibly be solid enough since its being impaired by offensive teammates.

Clefable itself is already suspect. This Pokemon is hard to justify even on the types of teams it can fit on, due to there usually being better options, or its weaknesses simply outweighing its benefits for the application. Under no situation can that Clefable be considered to check Primal Groudon. Its not a Ground resist, not a fire resist, not anti-hazard, is slower than all P Dons, and is OHKOed by its most common move. That set is not a Mence check either, as it's outsped and OHKOed by Double-Edge. It's a poor Xerneas check. What it can do is check Yveltal, except Taunt is a thing. The result is a team that gives the opponent setup ops and is weak to several common threats.

Clefable should be replaced with some kind of proactive Fairy-type. Mega Diancie can't be used with Mega Lucario, so the main option is Xerneas. You could potentially use Arceus-Fairy and then replace Clefable with some kind of RP Primal Groudon check like Gira-O, or go for something with more options vs. Ho-Oh like Primal Kyogre. I don't get why Arceus-Water is here or why a Toxic-less set is being used. Offense should strive to check Ho-Oh by winning the hazard war + offensive synergy. The cost in your momentum also isn't worth Defog as far as I'm concerned - there are much smarter ways for offense to play the anti-hazard game.

A lot of the other sets are questionable too. I don't see how Ice Punch is justified on Mega Luke, and the Primal Groudon set doesn't seem like a good fit. I'm not sold on the inclusion of Deoxys-A either. Any explanation you provide is superficial and doesn't actually hit at the heart of any issue. You justify Deoxys-A as a "lead", but its obvious that you're mobilizing empty rhetoric. Teams in SM Ubers don't need dedicated leads. Nor do they need "tanks" or whatever terms people try to assign. What teams need are options - options vs. threats X, Y, and Z. Options in the hazard war. Options for taking the opponent's moment. This team has weak options vs. defensive teams considering it's offense, and has lackluster anti-ho options too. What Pokemon here can consistently take momentum from an opposing offense?

A team with Xerneas over Clefable could work, but it'll be up to the details. The details with Yveltal and Xerneas are what will decide if the team has good anti offense options. The details in the Primal Groudon and Mega Luke sets will determine if it can force itself past good balances. For example, a Scarf Yveltal will be better at taking momentum from opposing offense, while a Life Orb + Knock Off set will be better at messing with defensive teams. A good balance of these choices in the details will create a team that has a number of tricks to help handle a variety of opposing teams.

Since it's your team, it'll be up to you to make those detailing choices. Remember this isn't the only structure either - I also briefly discussed use of Arceus-Fairy, Gira-O, or Primal Kyogre. I could've easily just handed off an importable of one of my Mega Luke offenses that use these Pokemon, but then it'd be impossible to consider it your team. With all of that said, good luck, building good teams requires lots reworking and testing.