ORAS OU The Queen and Her Army

[Dragongroudon9]

The Queen and Her Army

Hello people, DG9 here. Today I bring to you the squad so elegant your eyes will begin to sparkle like any good anime and you will be blessed with forever elegance. Anyway, this is a team I made around Mega Gardevoir, the queen herself. It seems solid enough but getting advice from the community seems to help my teams grow, so feel free to leave suggestions.

The Pokemon that this team is around. I wanted to build around Mega Gardevoir because even though this mega is extremely hard hitting, people tend to doubt its power allowing me to pick up free damage and/or KO's on switch ins.

The next member of the team I decided to add was Tornadus-Therian. Tornadus-Therian is arguably one of the best mons in the ORAS metagame right now, one of the reasons is because of how splashable it is. Another reason is because of its speed tier, and that is why I am using it on this team.

Ah, yes. The chubby wall of a Hippo we have all come to either love or hate in the ORAS metagame. Hippo is a great switch in to a lot of the metagame and provides Stealth Rock support which is almost completely necessary on every ORAS team. It also gives you a ground type (bulky one at that) that most teams need.

Ferrothorn was what I decided on for my next member. Ferro helps switch in to a lot of things in the metagame along with Hippo and it provides a decent rain answer and Spikes support. It also has decent type synergy with Gardevoir so that is an added bonus.

Starmie, one of the many mons that became good after Aegi ban. Starmie got even better in the ORAS metagame because of Rapid Spin, hard hitting offensive potential, and great speed tier. This is basically why I am using Starmie, as Rapid Spin doesn't get rid of Spikes.

Talonflame is thee final member of this Garde team. I originally had Clefable, but Talon provided a better switch in to a lot of threats and a great wincon. Talon is also a great stallbreaker, which this team already had but Talon is better than Garde in some scenarios.

Averna (Gardevoir) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 24 Def / 232 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Taunt

The queen herself, Mega Gardevoir. One of the better megas in the ORAS metagames. Hyper Voice is Mega Gardevoir's best STAB because of the Pixilate ability making the power outstanding. Psyshock is Gardevoir's secondary STAB, being able to hit poison types and fairy types which Hyper Voice cannot do. Focus Blast is used to hit what walls the Psychic/Fairy coverage the Gardevoir brings to the table, mainly being steel types. For the final slot I have picked Taunt to allow Gardevoir to be an even better stallbreaker. The ev spread on Gardevoir allows it to live a Psyshock from a LO Latios's Psyshock. The points are taken from SpA because this does not show much of a difference in the attacking power.

Upana (Tornadus-Therian) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 132 HP / 160 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Tornadus-Therian is probably one of my if not my most favorite mons to use in ORAS. It is so splashable and its speed tier is so amazing for the metagame. Here I am using the Assault Vest set to be able to switch in to multiple attacks and retreating to regain health with the Regenerator ability. The ev spread is standard Assault Vest. I could run max speed, but so far I have liked having the slower U-Turn versus other Tornadus or speed tieing to reveal that the opponent is using an Assult Vest Tornadus too. Tornadus is my main way to beat offense, along with Talonflame. I have the standard Hurricane due to it being Tornadus-Therain's best STAB move by far. I chose Heat Wave over Focus Blast because this team can definitely have some trouble with Ferrothorn and Scizor, so getting rid of these allows Garde to perhaps spam Hyper Voice a lot more freely. I have Knock Off there for the sake of it just being there I guess. There could be a better option for this move slot based on my team but I haven't looked much in to it. U-Turn is a great momentum grabber on Tornadus-T and can give me a free switch into a mon on my team that can threaten the opponent.

Hippopotamidae (Hippowdon) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge

Another one of my favorite mons to use in ORAS. Hippowdon is a great switch in to a ton of threats in the tier including Charizard X and Lopunny. I have decided to use the mixed wall set as it provides the best team support for this specific team. I am using Sand Force over Sand Stream because sand would hurt my team more than it would help. Not only would it cause residual damage on 4 of the Pokemon, but it would also make Torn-T's already hard-to-hit Hurricane even less accurate. Earthquake is Hippo's main STAB hitting decently hard against some of the metagame. I am using Hippowdon as my Stealth Rocker as it is arguably one of the best in the game. Slack Off provides reliable recovery on Hippo which is definitely something it needs if it wants to continuously switch in to attacks. The last move slot I am kind of torn on. Hippo is my main bird counter and I would like to be able to hit Talon hard with Stone Edge. However my team has problems with some set up sweepers so Whirlwind could also really help, I guess I'll leave that up to you guys.

Durian (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip

Ferrothorn is the 4th mon on the team. One of the best steel types in the game being able to provide a lot of support to a team. One of the main reasons I am using Ferrothorn is because up until now, my team is lacking something crucial that every ORAS team should have. A reliable Lati switch in. Ferrothorn is amazing at that roll, which is why it is so good. I have Spikes over Stealth Rock because I already have Hippo as my rocker. Spikes provides something to punish my opponent for switching in on my Torn's U-Turn. I have Leech Seed because Ferro likes more recovery than just Lefties and it helps alot. For the last two spots I have dual STAB which is something Ferrothorn really appreciates in the ORAS metagame. I feel like it was a very nice fit to the team.

Acamar (Starmie) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 16 SpD / 244 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

Starmie was a wonderful fit to the team because of the support it provides. First of all, it is a much needed Keldeo switch in and is a great hazard remover. I wanted Rapid Spin support so every time I had to Defog I didn't get rid of Spikes that I had potentially stacked up. I chose the bulky Starm set to let it switch in to Keldeo a lot easier which is one of its biggest roles. I chose Psyshock over Reflect Type for what I have said many times, Keldeo. Scald is the main STAB move on the bulky spin set having basically a 90% chance to burn the opponent which is very helpful. Recover is there for being able to switch in multiple times and getting reliable recovery off.

Harcourt (Talonflame) (M)
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
- Acrobatics
- Roost
- Bulk Up
- Taunt

Talon takes up the final slot on the team. Like I said earlier I did originally have Clefable in this slot, but ended up replacing it with Talonflame after losing once to stall and another to Charizard Y. While Talon may not be the best answer for Chary, it can switch in multiple times as long as there are no rocks and Talon gets Roosts up. I went with the standard stallbreaker set here. I have always liked Acro over BB on SpDef Talon cause the damage output is within the same range and I like not having the Knock Off weakness. I chose Bulk Up to help set up along with other physical setup sweepers so they don't get any advantages on me. That is paired with WoW to help beat other things such as Altaria. This does give me a better matchup againsts most stall teams.

- Mega Charizard Y is definitely one of the biggest threats to this team. I do have Talon has a switch to it, I can't do much back. And if rocks are up I honestly have no real way to handle this. I am always open up to suggestions to try to fix this.

- Sand can cause a huge threat to this team. If an Excadrill set up an SD I either try to stall out the sand or click x. Ferro and Hippo are pmuch my answers, Hippo can check it which is decent, but sand is just really hard to play around.

There probably are some other weaknesses to this team, but those are the most glaring ones I have found. Hazard stack + a spin blocker can be annoying at times but Gardevoir beats most spin blockers so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Importable

Averna (Gardevoir) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 24 Def / 232 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Taunt

Upana (Tornadus-Therian) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 132 HP / 160 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Hippopotamidae (Hippowdon) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge

Durian (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip

Acamar (Starmie) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 16 SpD / 244 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

Harcourt (Talonflame) (M)
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
- Acrobatics
- Roost
- Bulk Up
- Taunt

I hope you guys enjoyed this RMT. It took a lot of work so hopefully everything looks nice. Leave your suggestions below and I will definitely look over them and try them out. If you are looking to use the team, go right ahead! I would like to ask that you keep the nicknames though. If you do use this squad, let the queen and her royal subjects send your to victory!

*Note*: The font I used may disappear so I may have to edit this after this thread is posted.​

 

[power]

Great Team, DG. Very solid, although sand offense can be annoying.

May I suggest Knock Off -> Focus Blast on Tornadus-T? It prevents ttar and heatran from coming in for free on Tornadus-T.
U-turn already bops the lati twins and allows you to bring in ferro to set up more spikes.

Additionally, may I suggest Will O Wisp -> Taunt on Talonflame? Taunt allows talonflame to set up all over pokemon such as heatran without a rock move, twave fable, and ferrothorn. Talonflame is an important check to Mega Charizard Y, Clefable, and Mega Sableye. All three of these are immune to will o wisp anyway. While WoW cripples pokes like bisharp, talonflame already sets up all over them, and taunt makes it easy to set up on heatran and ferro, who can't para/toxic you or leech seed you.

 

[BreloomMyHomie]

I think he should keep Knock Off on Tornadus-T. It allows him to knock off other Tornadus-T's assault vest. Furthermore, if a T-Tar or Heatran comes in on a Torn T, they will probably get their item knocked off, and then Torn-T will just U-Turn out into Starmie or Hippowdon, depending on which pokemon he U-Turns off of.

However, I do agree with sedertz's suggestion on Taunt over Will-O-Wisp. Taunt being able to prevent Heatrans from crippling it with Toxic, which is always nice. Furthermore, one of the reasons why you said you have Will-O-Wisp in the first place is to deal with Mega Altaria. Taunt also cripples Mega Altaria, preventing it from setting up a Cotton Guard or Dragon Dance. You're also risking the possibility of Altaria having Facade, which can do a decent amount of damage if Talonflame hasn't setten up any Bulk Ups yet. In addition, if you switch your Talonflame into a potential Thunder Wave from Clefable, you're Talonflame won't be able to get the Will-O-Wisp first on pokemon such as Bisharp without taking a huge hit from their STABs.

Hopefully, you take my changes in to consideration. GL with the team bro :]

 

[Clone]

this team is honestly really solid, so i don't really think there is much to change without opening up a hole to something else. however, since you say you have a problem with zard y, might i suggest sand stream over sand force on hippo? this lets you remove zards sun and lock it into a piss weak 60 bp solarbeam should your opponent go for it (either predicting an unrevealed hippo or if starmie is on the field), or just reduce its power drastically. between a spdef talon and a way to remove zards sun, i think that should mitigate your weakness to it to a sufficient level. but other than that, the team looks crisp. hope this helps.

 

[celes]

Hey Dragongroudon9, not much to recommend except running max speed on Tornadus-T and Starmie, and running Taunt > Will-O-Wisp on Talonflame.

You should aim to speed tie with opposing TornT and Starmie (and base 115s in general) since they generally run max speed, and since you have Bulk Up on Talonflame you don't need Wisp to check M-Scizor. Taunt allows you to use Heatran as setup fodder (assuming no Stone Edge / Ancient Power), and it allows you to check Clefable better by preventing it from recovering, boosting, and trying to status you. Preventing status in general is great since a simple Toxic could shut you down.

You should also run Sand Stream > Sand Force on Hippowdon to get rid of Zard Y's Drought to make it easier for Talonflame to check it. This also lets Starmie Recover stall it out of Fire Blasts without sun up if your Talonflame isn't healthy enough to take it on (252+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Starmie: 130-153 (40.2 - 47.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery).

Sets

Upana (Tornadus-Therian) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 96 HP / 160 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Knock Off
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
- U-turn

Hippopotamidae (Hippowdon) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Slack Off

Acamar (Starmie) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

Harcourt (Talonflame) (M)
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SpD / 16 Spe
Careful Nature
- Taunt
- Bulk Up
- Acrobatics
- Roost

It's not much, but i hope i was able to help!

 

[Dragongroudon9]

Thank you for all of the suggestions guys! To wake up and see all of these is just amazing. So as you guys suggested, I will change WoW to Taunt on Talonflame. After looking everything over again, I do believe that Taunt is the best option allowing me to set up on more things. I was thinking of Sand Stream to cover up the Chary weakness, but never really tried it out. I will be sure to give it a shot to see what I think. I think I will be keeping Knock Off just because of the utility it brings to the team. And the last suggestion was max speed on both Starm and Torn-T. I'll try it out to see what I think, but as Starmie goes the not being 2HKO'd by a Scarf Keldeo's HP Electric could really come in handy.

Thanks again for the suggestions, and I will try them out and change the sets if I like them. :]

 

[eden]

Hey DG9 :). Sweet team,I just have a few tweaks you can get around to implementing at one time or another. I actually think that inspite of having Ferrothorn you're actually a little weak to Azumarril especially the variants that carry Belly Drum. One quick fix is trying out Chople Berry Ferrothorn which gives you an extra Keldeo check,primary Mega Gardevoir check,and a better Azumarril check.

One way that you can tech the team to play around Belly Drum Azumarril is with Life Orb Thunderbolt Starmie,which will retain the ability to check Keldeo and gains the ability to snipe 75% Azumarril after one round of SR,especially if you add some Special Attack EVs.

Another thing I'd like to ask you to try out is Leftovers Special Defense Talonflame,with Brave Bird. If only because leftovers recovery is so essential to what it does. Now that Talonflame is specially defensive and has Leftovers,its quite a nice check to most special attackers that you'll be facing in OU,that makes me curious as to what Tornadus-T does here.

Another relevant thing that I probably should mention is that,with how rare stall is Taunt isn't gonna be that useful on Mega Gardevoir,so you could probably get away with using Substitute/Will-o-Wisp/Calm Mind instead of Taunt. Or if you really wanna be offbeat SUbstitute+Calm Mind Mega Gardevoir,is something that I've seen be put to good use.

Sand Offense can be a pain though if Hippowdon is not healthy so in those remember to prioritize keeping Hippowdon healthy above all else because that's pretty much all that's keeping you from being cleaned up. Could a more physcially defensive EV spread work on Hippowdon maybe?

I'm actually tempted to say that Clefable possibly with Unaware is something you can try over Tornadus-Therian. But slow balance isn't the best stuff to use in today's metagame so something cool is, Life Orb Tornadus-Therian,which will give you some extra wall-breaking power,which is fantastic to be honest. Just some musings. It's obviously a very solid team of course,because of that amazing Talonflame+Ferrothorn+Hippowdon+Starmie core you got there! It is a tiny bit weak to Manaphy though if it carries the right set but that's honestly just nitpicking.Nice team again and dropped a like for your efforts!

EDIT: WoW/BU Talonflame is also nice here to be honest :)

 

[Alkov]

Hi Dragongroudon9, really nice team you have there that's really similar to one I made near the start of ORAS. I had all the same Pokemons except Kyurem-B > Tornadus-T but anyway, I've a few suggestions for you to improve the team n_n

1. Like my team, I struggle a lot with Mega Scizor since it's capable of setting up against half the team (Ferrothorn, Gardevoir, Hippowdon) and then sweep easily as long as Starmie doesn't burn with Scald and Tornadus-T dies to a +2 Bullet Punch after Stealth Rock damage. What I'll recommend for the team is Will-O-Wisp on Talonflame along with a Reflect Type Starmie. With Will-O-Wisp on Talonflame, it's still fully capable of stall-breaking while the change from Psyshock to Reflect Type means you can Rapid Spin easily against the likes of Ferrothorn, Bisharp and Scizor while fish for a burn with Scald. The change from Psyshock to Reflect Type may make you a little weaker to Keldeo but you have an Assault Vest Tornadus-T as your secondary check so it's not an issue.
   
   
2. I'll actually recommend running max speed on your Tornadus-T just so that you can outspeed the likes of Alakazam and U-turn/Knock off them. The speed also allows you to speed tie against opposing Tornadus-T and Knock Off + Hurricane to win them.
   
   
3. Lastly, it's just a preference of mine, I'll use a Modest nature Mega Gardevoir due to the immediate power it can provide and how threatening it is against stall teams. There's very few based 100 speed Mega used in the metagame anymore anyway so the opportunity to fight for a speed tie have dropped compared to the metagame back in XY.
   
   

Hope I helped n_n