SM OU Stockaz's Defensive Team.

[AndreC97]

Hi guys! My name is Stockaz and this is my first RMT. I'm not an experienced player at all, and I would define myself a below average casual player, but I like trying to come up with something good every time I start playing. So, after quite a good amount of time studying the metagame as good as I could do, I tried my best to create a team that has a decent amount of answers to the most prominent threats in SM OU. Of course, it's absolutely impossible to counter everything, but I managed to do decent with this team, and I think that it can do even better if played by a better player then me.

Teambuilding process:
As I just said, my original idea was to create a team that has a reasonable amount of answers to the most prevalent Pokémon in the OU meta: Landorus-T, Greninja, Koko, Fini, Heatran, and so on. I realized that non-Z-Fly Landorus, Koko, Fini, and Greninja, as well as Keldeo, have hard time against AV Tangrowth, so this was my first pick.

Then, I needed a mon that was good against Zard-Y, and there were a decent amount, but only one resist both Zard megas, and his name is Toxapex.

After that, I decided to add a trio that gives offensive capability, defog support and SR, putting in Heatran, Mega-Scizor, and Mamoswine. This trio gives me good matchups against most steel types thanks to Heatran's Magma Storm, the ability to trap and taunt some annoying walls, and thanks to Mamoswine he can run Z-Solar Beam instead of SR, to bait out and kill the likes of Tapu Fini and Rotom-W. Mega-Scizor can deal some good phisical damage and has Defog, while also forming a good core with Heatran thanks to his fire immunity. Mamoswine has SR, destroyes Chomp, Zygarde and Landorus-T, and also can deal massive damage with STAB EQ.

Last but not least, I picked Rotom-W, that makes a good VolTurn core with Scizor, gives WoW support to distrupt opponent's phisical sweepers, and is another good choice against Lando.

There are the sets:

Tangrowth @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 28 Def / 228 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earthquake

Standard AV set. HP-Ice to hit Chomp, Zygarde and Landorus (provided that's not running Z-Fly). Giga Drain gives some consistent healing paired with Regenerator and deals good damage to Water-Types, Knock Off is pretty self-explanatory, EQ almost kills the Heatrans that try to switch into you.

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Haze
- Recover
- Toxic Spikes/Toxic

The most annoying mon in the team. It can take hits by so many enemies, and has access to a lot of healing tools such as Recovery, Black Sludge and Regenerator. Scald can burn physical attackers, Haze is very good because Toxapex's passive nature lets set-up sweepers set-up on him, so it negates all of this. Toxic Spikes are deadly if your opponent's defogger/spinner is down and he has no Poison-Types, that are not that common, but Toxic is a more reliable tool to cripple opponent's mons.

Heatran @ Grassium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Solar Beam

Max SpA for damage, max Spe for good reasons. Is task is to trap and taunt walls, and to bait out some water types and kill them on the switch with a 190 BP BloomDoom. Earth Power is the best non-Z coverage tool he as access to and also threatens other Heatrans.

Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Defog
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Roost

Standard utility set. Defog and U-turn are mandatory, as well as Bullet Punch. Roost is for recovery.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Stealth Rock

This is the only pure-offender I have. SR are mandatory, Ice Shard compensate his low speed and allows him to OHKO Chomp, and 2HKO both Zygarde and Landorus-T. Icicle Crash is stronger but slower. EQ is basically a must-have.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

The second member of the VolTurn. Volt Switch to grab momentum, Hydro Pump is his only water STAB, Pain Split both heals him and damages the opponent. and WoW cut's opponent's physical attackers firepower. 60 Evs in Speed to outspeed Defensive Landorus-T, and almost killing him.



How do you guys think this team can be improved? Thanks for your tips and sorry for my not-that-good English.

 

[temp]

Hi AndreC97! I like the team, featuring underrated threats like Mamoswine and Rotom-W. Unfortunately, there's no real win condition outside of pure chip damage, when isn't paramount on a Balance team like this. Anyways, let's hop into the rate!

OVERVIEW

Looking at this team from a first glance, VoltTurn combinations, particularly featuring Tapu Koko, are absolutely destructive. Your only Electric immunity is Mamoswine, which is a poor one at that. Mamo gets too easily worn down due to its sub-optimal 110/80/60 bulk and Life Orb. 3 Attacks + Roost Charizard has the ability to shred through this team with a little bit of prior damage / Toxic on Rotom and some chip on Toxapex. Tapu Lele, especially Calm Mind Psychium Z, gives this team trouble as well. No fast Pokemon means that anything faster and somewhat of an offensive presence, i.e Latios, Greninja, Tapu Lele, etc., can give the team trouble. I'll try to patch up the slow-nature of this team while still maintaining the concept of a bulkier build.

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TEAM CHANGES

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- Mew fulfills a solid role as a Stealth Rocker (as Mamoswine is going to later be replaced) and solidly answers the likes of Latios, Scarf & Specs Lele, etc. Its awesome 100/100/100 bulk coupled with Will-o-Wisp and reliable recovery allows it to replace Tangrowth. Unfortunately, Tangrowth's job on this team is somewhat overshadowed by the likes of Toxapex. Mew functions better in conjunction with Pex and Heatran, crippling mons with its status and acting as a status punisher (Synchronize) vs T-wave and Scald burning Pokemon like Keldeo.

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/

Unfortunately, this team lacks a reliable Ground-immunity (and is completely missing one with the removal of Rotom later on). To make up for this, you can opt for either Air Balloon or Shuca Berry. Air Balloon completely disregards Ground attacks outside of Thousand Arrows, but it makes Heatran miss out on the Grassy Terrain recovery. To fulfill both the role of weakening Ground attacks and gaining recovery, Shuca + Grassy Terrain ensures that Heatran is barely ever fainting to an Earthquake.
See: 252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Shuca Berry Heatran in Grassy Terrain: 186-218 (57.5 - 67.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
Considering that Grassium Z Solar Beam isn't being used any longer on this set, I'd suggest Metal Sound > Solar Beam. It sounds gimmicky at first, but it works fine. After Heatran traps something— let's say a Clefable, it can then Metal Sound, lowering its SpDef. Unaware doesn't ignore SpDef drops of the Pokemon it's being used on, so Magma Storm can then OHKO even after it heals with Wish + Protect. It's a pretty decent stallbreaking tool that Heatran has in its disposal, but Substitute can work just fine if you're still skeptical.

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- Garchomp solidly revenge kills a weakened Tapu Lele, non-boosted Mega Diancie, Volcarona and more with a Choice Scarf set while still maintaining the Electric-immunity that Mamoswine took use of. It keeps the ability to be an offensive, Ground-type menace, but is a lot faster at the cost of being weaker. Garchomp's Rough Skin is also particularly useful for punishing U-turns. You can opt for Fire Blast > Dragon Claw and a Naive Nature for Scizor, but Heatran already handles it solidly.

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- To compensate for the loss of AV Tangrowth, I'm going to put SD Tapu Bulu over Rotom. You already have access to a bulky Water-type in Toxapex, so running the two is a little redundant. Tapu Bulu's Grassy Terrain heavily benefits the likes of Heatran and Toxapex, providing residual recovery overtime. It offers somewhat of a decent win condition and threatens slower, bulkier builds with its massive attack stat. On this team, it's used to bait out its checks like Scizor or Celesteela and pivot into Heatran, which gives you the offensive momentum. Then, you can play accordingly by either attacking or predicting their switch, and so on.

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v2

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- Scarf Keldeo remains one of the premier revenge killers in the meta, because it can also act as a solid lategame cleaner given enough Pokemon are chipped down. Keldeo stuffs out non-Charti Berry Volcarona, Mega Diancie, etc. with its respective coverage and STAB moves. It switches in decently well to both of Ash Greninja's STABs and appreciates slow recovery from Grassy Terrain (yes, Tapu Bulu is being included in this version as well) to stay in the game.

- SubToxic > Trapper Heatran allows it to benefit from Grassy Terrain a lot more than the latter set. It becomes very annoying and very hard to tackle Heatran when it's behind a Substitute, because it's still bulky and dishes out solid damage with Magma Storm.

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- Because Tapu Bulu is also remaining on this build, you have to keep in mind that Grassy Terrain weakens Earthquake from Mamoswine. As mentioned in the Overview, this team suffers from being unbelievably slow. To make up for it, I'd like to suggest a Stealth Rock + SD set with Rockium Z. Terrakion at +2 becomes a ridiculous force, being able to OHKO defensive titans such as Tangrowth, Landorus-Therian and Celesteela.

>

- [It offers somewhat of a decent win condition and threatens slower, bulkier builds with its massive attack stat. On this team, it's used to bait out its checks like Scizor or Celesteela and pivot into Heatran, which gives you the offensive momentum. Then, you can play accordingly by either attacking or predicting their switch, and so on.] Tapu Bulu, on this team, can opt for a SubSD set to set up on passive Pokemon like Pex or Mantine. Those two are the most notable out of many, because they wall Keldeo. Tapu Bulu benefits from its own terrain in that it hits harder and it heals overtime.

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original team:

v1 rated team:
v2 rated team:

Both versions turned out decently similar to each other and to the original. I hope that my edits are helpful and that you enjoyed the rate!

 

[AndreC97]

Well, I couldn't ask for anything better then that! Thank you so much for your rate. I'm gonna try those teams and let you know.