SM OU MEGA ZARD X! Bulky Offense



Introduction


This team focuses on paving the way for one of 3 breakers to sweep. The strong defensive core is able to answer to almost everything in the meta game to keep the breakers healthy, stop checks deal a bit of damage and keep momentum. All 3 breakers pressure each others checks (most notably tapu fini) to the point they can no longer answer to one of them. They are all capable of heavily denting a team and/or sweeping it.

Team Building Process

When I started building this team I was looking for a defensive core that can check most of the current meta game. I found there was a lot of tapu and ash gren spam so i decided to begin with assault vest tangrowth. AV tang takes nothing from koko hpi or specs ash gren dark pulse. Specs lele is a problem but it can take a hit and knock off its item. The standard set is being ran although sludge bomb could be used to hit lele harder.

Tangrowth @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]

I now had a special sponge for the team but I also found a lot of physical threats were being used like Mega Beedrill, zygarde, dual dance lando and garchomp. I felt that defensive landorus-t was a sufficient check to these threats with intimidate, helmet damage and hard hits and also sets up rocks.

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 24 SpD / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power Ice
- U-turn

Even though this was a strong defensive core I thought I needed a bulky defoger. Hazard damage can be annoying for bulky pokemon. I also wanted something that could soak, up status. Stall was also quite common at the time of building so I thought tapu fini was the best fit. Also gyara was a big threat to the core.

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Nature's Madness
- Defog

Now that I was satisfied with my defensive core I wanted to bring an offensive presence to the team that can overwhelm the majority of the meta. A new Mon I was wanting to try out was ash greninja. It's buff in stats +specs makes it sort of a stronger Keldeo. Ash gren is hard to switch into and also carries priority to clean late game.

Note: I chose surf instead of hydro because I needed consistency over power to weaken switch ins like AV magearna and 80% isn't reliable enough.

Greninja-Ash (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Water Shuriken
- Surf
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn

I now thought I needed a set up sweeper on the team. I also wanted it to be able to have enough bulk to set up easily. I found that Mega Charizard X filled that roll and also can severely threaten one of greninjas main checks, Chaney. Dd allows Charizard to sweep entire team setting up with ease against weak hitters like zapdos.



Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Flare Blitz
- Roost

The last slot needed to be something that could deal heavy damage while living hits.I also wanted something with strong priority as I only had one priority Mon. After watching 'banded zygarde the movie' by pokeaimmd I saw how much damage zygarde can do to a team and how much abuse it could take. It also had e speed wich helps it take on weakened fast threats

Zygarde @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Toxic

I would like to know of any weaknesses in the team and how I can improve against the growing meta. I will take any suggestions and try to answer questions.
 
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I was using volc instead of zard and metagross instead of gren before the ban and it functioned well. Haven't used gyara yet but I know it is very strong, might have to give it a try. Thanks for replying
 
You can swap tapu fini for mew instead. Mew checks Mega Medicham better and burns most physical attackers in the tier.

Mew @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 72 Def / 140 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
- Psychic / Ice Beam
- Will-O-Wisp
- Soft-Boiled
- Defog
 
It's possible to use Tapu Fini just a defogger. Swap Dragon Claw out for Earthquake on your ZardX. There's too many Fairy types running around in Gen 7 anyways and ZardX won't lose out too much missing Dragon Claw.

Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Flare Blitz
- Roost

Try running max speed on Fini with Scald instead of Nature's Madness. If you are going to be using something like ZardX which is 4x weak to rocks, you should aim to have as many ways of scaring off common stealth rockers like Landorus-T, Heatran and Garchomp. Scald gives you the chance to hit Landorus-T & Heatran hard if they choose to stay in and SR on Fini. Max speed with Taunt allows you to potentially stop Stealth Rocks from going up as well if need be.

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Taunt
- Nature's Madness
- Moonblast
- Defog

Swap your Ash-Greninja for Protean Greninja with Spikes. I know you are running a 4x SR weak ZardX but I'll explain further down.

Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Spikes
- Hydro Pump
- Gunk Shot
- Ice Beam


Hydro Pump & Ice Beam is key on this set, you want to force out Heatran, Landorus-T & Garchomp because you definitely don't want rocks going up as mentioned above and potential spike on their switch.

Swap Zygarde out for scarf Nihilego. Swap out Thunder for Toxic Spikes, yes Toxic Spikes scarf Nihilego. This will give you a revenge killer. Speed control is pretty much a must have nowadays unless using stall. The Toxic Spikes will pave the way for the final change which I am going to suggest.

Nihilego @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power Fire
- Toxic Spikes


Swap Tangrowth out for Shift Gear Magearna. ZardX, to be very honest, isn't as good as it once because its counters are everywhere now and they wall it to Narnia and its base Speed is only 100. Lots of players nowadays run scarfers over base 100Spe so ZardX can easily be revenge killed and rarely will you get a chance to set up 2 DD's. This Magearna will give u a 3rd win con, the other 2 being ZardX and Nihilego.

With SR, Spikes and Toxic Spikes support from Lando-T, Gren and Nihilego, Magearna will find it a lot easier to sweep late game. Also, Magearna can act as a 1-2 time emergency checks to dangerous mons like Tapu Lele and Mega Zam if need be.

Magearna @ Steelium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Shift Gear


I actually put effort into this, hope you liked it and found it helpful. Also, I'll actually be playing a bit with the edited team.



Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Flare Blitz
- Roost

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Scald
- Moonblast
- Defog

Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Spikes
- Hydro Pump
- Gunk Shot
- Ice Beam

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

Nihilego @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Toxic Spikes

Magearna @ Steeliium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Shift Gear
Thanks for the feed back man i really apreciate it. This improved version looks really solid and seems to function rather well. Eq on zard is a much needed change and shift gear magearna functions as a good 2nd win con. (Also i just realised i didn't have a z- move lol)I see its more focused on hazard stack for weakening rather than wallbreaker reliant which is different to how i normally play.

I also found the speed on fini unneccisary as its bulk is needed to be a consistent pivot and bulk benifits it alot more than speed does.

One thing I found this team lacked was straight offensive power. Nothing on this team does any wall breaking w/o a boost so keeping pressure was hard.
With 2 wallbreakers and a set up sweeper I found it easier to keep momentum and pressure my opponent to allow a sweep.

Anyway that was just my opinion on the team, it played well and was easy to use. Thanks so much for the feedback, these suggestions help me alot.
 
You can swap tapu fini for mew instead. Mew checks Mega Medicham better and burns most physical attackers in the tier.

Mew @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 240 HP / 72 Def / 140 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
- Psychic / Ice Beam
- Will-O-Wisp
- Soft-Boiled
- Defog
I thought about using mew as it can deal with medicham, lele, and almost any physical attacker. What stopped me using it was its lack of offensive presense. Mew tends to burn things and sit there throwing off weak hits. With fini using natures madness i found it allowed me to quickly weaken a defensive mon for a wall breaker. This allowed me to bring in a breaker to start punishing my opp.

In short, fini helped keep pressure on my opponent more than mew did.
 

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