Hello. This is the RMT of my first serious attempt at a successful team in ORAS OU. I took a break from pokemon sometime in the middle of XY, and now I'm trying to get to the high ladder again. This team recently broke the 1600s and got to the top 200 in the ladder, but I want to get higher, so I decided to post it here in hopes I can get suggestions to improve it.
The team is built on a pure Hyper Offense mentality. I wasn't sure how good that was in the current meta, but I decided to find out. I built a team around a Dragon Dance Zard X set, because it's one of my favorite megas and I had been meaning to make a team with it for a long time.
The name of the team, as well as all the pokemon nicknames, are based on the troll characters from the Homestuck webcomic, and the planet they come from, Alternia.
Terezi (F) @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 104 HP / 220 Atk / 184 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Flare Blitz
- Roost
Let's start with the winning condition. This girl is the main sweeper and late game cleaner, being able to set up on so many powerful things it's not even funny, having enough imediate power to be able to wallbreak if necessary, and enough bulk to be a safe switch-in to many things, providing rocks have been taken care of. The moveset allows her to OHKO as many threats as possible while increasing her longevity and making it easier to get multiple dragon dances on things like Bisharp and Scizor. Earthquake was ditched because, as you will see below, this team is mostly overprepared against Heatran, which would be the main reason to use EQ. The EV spread is the one that allows it to outspeed and OHKo a Scarf Lando-T, after rocks, Intimidate and Dragon Dance.
Feferi @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
Next, the obligatory spinner, to ensure Zard can come in multiple times if needed. The offensive set also makes it a great back-up sweeper, if Zard ends up failing, and forms a pretty good core with her. The powerful Analytic-boosted Hydro Pump is very hard to switch into, and can make Specially Defensive Heatrans and TTars regret coming in. Ice Beam helps it beat Gliscor, Landos, Thundurus and most dragons, while Thunderbolt provides coverage to bulky waters like Azumarill, Keldeo and Slowbro, and also Skarmory. Starmie misses Psyshock sometimes, but I don't really want want to ditch any of the other moves since they are so useful.
Vriska (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Superpower
This one was the last addition to the team, brought in with a noble mission: to stop fairies. Plus dragons and psychics, or the combination of those (a.k.a lati twins). It's the most common switch in to a lot of things, with all its resistances, and most of the time, it's U-Turning out for momentum. Choice Banded Bullet Punch makes it a very powerful revenge killer, threatening fast fragile attackers such as Lopunny, Serperior and Sceptile, and being a definite stop to Calm Mind Clefables and Sylveons, being able to deal a lot of damage even if it's killed by fire coverage afterwards. Knock Off and Superpower provide coverage, with the first adding aditional trolling on Psychics and the second covering a lot of troublesome steel pokemon who may come in, along a few others.
Karkat (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
The wallbreaker. And the SR setter. Earth Power/Psychic/Focus Blast already covers most of the walls in the meta, with Focus Blast stopping steel walls like Heatran and Skarmory even if they are flying or have Air Balloon, Psychic breaking bulky grasses like Venu and Amoongus, and Earth Power generally wrecking any wall that doesn't resist it, such as Slowbro and Mega Sableye. Stealth Rock is the bread and butter of sweeping that makes Zard and Starmie's lives a lot easier. Unfortunately, being the slowest pokemon without priority in my team, it fares badly against offensive teams, which is why using it as a suicide lead is usually worth it, specially since it can deal a lot of damage early opposing switch-ins. Though if I'm facing a more defensive team, I try to save it for later.
Sollux (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Tomb
I know at least one of you is planning on posting to suggest Focus Sash. And the answer is no. LO Breloom is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated sets in the meta. The boosted Mach Punch is an incredibly powerful priority move that can deal high damage even to pokemon who resist it, and also make it the Bane of Sand Cores, since every Excadrill user expects to survive it at full HP, which would be true if it was Sash set. Bullet Seed makes Breloom a fearsome wallbreaker, the Bane of Bulky Waters, destroyer of specially defensive fairies who think they are safe just because of the type advantage, and depending on the luck even some would be physical walls like Lando-T and Gliscor. Rock Tomb is to troll bird switch-ins other fast threats like Gengar and the Latis, and Spore places an enormous pressure on anything slower than Breloom, and may provide a free switch in to Zard for setting up, or Starmie/Landorus for hazard management. This pokemon works best when used with an hyper-offensive, suicidal mentality, predicting switch-ins and firing attacks until half of the opposing team is KO'd and they are still wondering how.
Kanaya (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower
Do you know what is the only thing that is better than priority? MOAR PRIORITY. And what's better than Choice Band? MOAR CHOICE BAND. You get the idea. With half my team being powerful priority attackers, I get lots of options to revenge kill enemy sweepers and fast attackers. Well, Azumarill has this job, and also many others, being a very versatile all around pokemon. It can break walls with its insane power and great water/fairy stab, it can act as an extra pivot with its good bulk, and it checks a lot of important things, such as opposing Mega Zard X, Mega Gyarados, Garchomp and other dragons. This pokemon has a favorable match-up against a crapload of things, so it's a good option to save for late game and decide it. A good all around pokemon that has carried my team many times before.
So this is it. The team has proven to be pretty good at the task of dealing as much damage as possible, and Zard X tends to be able to set up fairly easily. My biggest problem, however, is very fast attackers who are specialized on fighting offensive teams. The worst offender is Mega Lopunny, which, although my team has a lot of priority options, seems to have no trouble coming in, using fake out on my fragile mon, attacking again as I switch and coming out before I get to attack. Mega Manectric can also be annoying for similar reasons, though at least this one doesn't have Fake Out and is countered by Zard. Other fast attackers such as Thundurus, Tornadus-T and Talonflame can be troublesome, but I usually deal with them by setting rocks earlier and spamming priority (or in the case of the later one, letting a bulkier mon like Zard or Azu take some damage to take it down). If the opposing team has a lot of fast attackers though, I start havng serious match up problems, since there is only so much sacking I can do. I accept suggestions for improving my team in this sense, specially against mega-lop, though I'm not looking for walls since I want to keep the HO philosophy.
Thank you for reading.
The team is built on a pure Hyper Offense mentality. I wasn't sure how good that was in the current meta, but I decided to find out. I built a team around a Dragon Dance Zard X set, because it's one of my favorite megas and I had been meaning to make a team with it for a long time.
The name of the team, as well as all the pokemon nicknames, are based on the troll characters from the Homestuck webcomic, and the planet they come from, Alternia.
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 104 HP / 220 Atk / 184 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Flare Blitz
- Roost
Let's start with the winning condition. This girl is the main sweeper and late game cleaner, being able to set up on so many powerful things it's not even funny, having enough imediate power to be able to wallbreak if necessary, and enough bulk to be a safe switch-in to many things, providing rocks have been taken care of. The moveset allows her to OHKO as many threats as possible while increasing her longevity and making it easier to get multiple dragon dances on things like Bisharp and Scizor. Earthquake was ditched because, as you will see below, this team is mostly overprepared against Heatran, which would be the main reason to use EQ. The EV spread is the one that allows it to outspeed and OHKo a Scarf Lando-T, after rocks, Intimidate and Dragon Dance.
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
Next, the obligatory spinner, to ensure Zard can come in multiple times if needed. The offensive set also makes it a great back-up sweeper, if Zard ends up failing, and forms a pretty good core with her. The powerful Analytic-boosted Hydro Pump is very hard to switch into, and can make Specially Defensive Heatrans and TTars regret coming in. Ice Beam helps it beat Gliscor, Landos, Thundurus and most dragons, while Thunderbolt provides coverage to bulky waters like Azumarill, Keldeo and Slowbro, and also Skarmory. Starmie misses Psyshock sometimes, but I don't really want want to ditch any of the other moves since they are so useful.
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Superpower
This one was the last addition to the team, brought in with a noble mission: to stop fairies. Plus dragons and psychics, or the combination of those (a.k.a lati twins). It's the most common switch in to a lot of things, with all its resistances, and most of the time, it's U-Turning out for momentum. Choice Banded Bullet Punch makes it a very powerful revenge killer, threatening fast fragile attackers such as Lopunny, Serperior and Sceptile, and being a definite stop to Calm Mind Clefables and Sylveons, being able to deal a lot of damage even if it's killed by fire coverage afterwards. Knock Off and Superpower provide coverage, with the first adding aditional trolling on Psychics and the second covering a lot of troublesome steel pokemon who may come in, along a few others.
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
The wallbreaker. And the SR setter. Earth Power/Psychic/Focus Blast already covers most of the walls in the meta, with Focus Blast stopping steel walls like Heatran and Skarmory even if they are flying or have Air Balloon, Psychic breaking bulky grasses like Venu and Amoongus, and Earth Power generally wrecking any wall that doesn't resist it, such as Slowbro and Mega Sableye. Stealth Rock is the bread and butter of sweeping that makes Zard and Starmie's lives a lot easier. Unfortunately, being the slowest pokemon without priority in my team, it fares badly against offensive teams, which is why using it as a suicide lead is usually worth it, specially since it can deal a lot of damage early opposing switch-ins. Though if I'm facing a more defensive team, I try to save it for later.
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Tomb
I know at least one of you is planning on posting to suggest Focus Sash. And the answer is no. LO Breloom is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated sets in the meta. The boosted Mach Punch is an incredibly powerful priority move that can deal high damage even to pokemon who resist it, and also make it the Bane of Sand Cores, since every Excadrill user expects to survive it at full HP, which would be true if it was Sash set. Bullet Seed makes Breloom a fearsome wallbreaker, the Bane of Bulky Waters, destroyer of specially defensive fairies who think they are safe just because of the type advantage, and depending on the luck even some would be physical walls like Lando-T and Gliscor. Rock Tomb is to troll bird switch-ins other fast threats like Gengar and the Latis, and Spore places an enormous pressure on anything slower than Breloom, and may provide a free switch in to Zard for setting up, or Starmie/Landorus for hazard management. This pokemon works best when used with an hyper-offensive, suicidal mentality, predicting switch-ins and firing attacks until half of the opposing team is KO'd and they are still wondering how.
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower
Do you know what is the only thing that is better than priority? MOAR PRIORITY. And what's better than Choice Band? MOAR CHOICE BAND. You get the idea. With half my team being powerful priority attackers, I get lots of options to revenge kill enemy sweepers and fast attackers. Well, Azumarill has this job, and also many others, being a very versatile all around pokemon. It can break walls with its insane power and great water/fairy stab, it can act as an extra pivot with its good bulk, and it checks a lot of important things, such as opposing Mega Zard X, Mega Gyarados, Garchomp and other dragons. This pokemon has a favorable match-up against a crapload of things, so it's a good option to save for late game and decide it. A good all around pokemon that has carried my team many times before.
So this is it. The team has proven to be pretty good at the task of dealing as much damage as possible, and Zard X tends to be able to set up fairly easily. My biggest problem, however, is very fast attackers who are specialized on fighting offensive teams. The worst offender is Mega Lopunny, which, although my team has a lot of priority options, seems to have no trouble coming in, using fake out on my fragile mon, attacking again as I switch and coming out before I get to attack. Mega Manectric can also be annoying for similar reasons, though at least this one doesn't have Fake Out and is countered by Zard. Other fast attackers such as Thundurus, Tornadus-T and Talonflame can be troublesome, but I usually deal with them by setting rocks earlier and spamming priority (or in the case of the later one, letting a bulkier mon like Zard or Azu take some damage to take it down). If the opposing team has a lot of fast attackers though, I start havng serious match up problems, since there is only so much sacking I can do. I accept suggestions for improving my team in this sense, specially against mega-lop, though I'm not looking for walls since I want to keep the HO philosophy.
Thank you for reading.
