ORAS OU Halcyon & Rancor (Peaked #8)

[Galom]

“Halcyon & Rancor” (Peaked #8) An RMT by Gallade Lv. ✘
​

Edit (11/8/14): Team re-peaked at #11 on a more mature ladder, so I guess the team still works. Same roster, slightly changed movesets (SD Gallade, Heal Bell Sylveon).

Edit (11/11/14): Team was featured in a video by PokeaimMD (I'm a big fan). I lost 0-2.

Teambuilding Process

As soon as Mega Gallade was announced, I decided to start building a team in preparation for it. Since at the time I only expected it to have 100 base Speed to match Mega Gardevoir's, I figured that Medicham would make a nice testing surrogate.

I knew from experience with Mega Medicham that if there were two Pokemon that gave you hell as a frail Fighting-type in OU, they were Talonflame and Mega Pinsir. Despite sharing an Electric-typing, I added Rotom-Wash and Zapdos to counter the two Pokemon respectively. Even though they share a type, they are both immune to that type's only weakness, so I thought it was OK.

Next, I just started looking at Medicham's other weaknesses. Not only would a Steel-type cover his Fairy weakness, it would also cover Zapdos's Rock weakness. I was on the fence for a while between Ferrothorn and Scizor, but I finally chose Ferrothorn for the ability to set hazards and heal teammates with Leech Seed, as well as the aforementioned resistance to Rock.

Though in retrospect it was a bad idea, I decided to run Toxic on Zapdos and thus needed a different Pokemon to clear hazards. In my eyes, Mandibuzz would be great since it had access to Defog and could protect Medicham from Ghost-type attacks.

I lacked a Special Attacker, so I decided on Gengar to hit walls like Slowbro that would commonly come in on Mega Medicham. Once again, I really don't think this was the best idea, but it seemed like a good teammate at the time, since in my eyes it could protect Ferrothorn from Fighting-types as well. I took the team up on the OU ladder and met moderate success, reaching around 1500. In the end, though, I was unsatisfied with the results and set the team aside.

However, sooner than I expected, the new Mega Evolutions were released into Showdown. Eager to give my favorite Pokemon a try, I simply slapped Gallade into my team and started doing challenge battles, since there was not yet a ladder for ORAS OU. I started to quickly realize just how weak the team was to Choice Scarf Magnezone. It hit everything on the team for big damage and could Volt Switch away from Mega Gallade's Close Combat.

The revisions began. It was obvious that the quick-fix to the problem was "get a Ground-type," so I did just that. My hazard-setter was changed from Ferrothorn to Landorus-Therian. I had just about had it with Mandibuzz, so finding it to be dead-weight, I switched it to Scizor and started running Defog on Zapdos. This variant was somewhat successful, but I found myself getting torn to shreds by special attackers, especially Thundurus.

And so I made the last change, Gengar to Sylveon. I was on the fence between Sylveon and SpD Clefable for quite a while, but I finally settled on the less-used Sylveon for more immediate power thanks to Pixilate.

Meet the Pokemon

Gallade (M) @ Galladite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance

As you could probably guess by my username, Gallade is my favorite Pokemon, so I decided to build the team around his new Mega form. While Mega Gallade is not necessarily the “star of the show,” he is my only fast Pokemon, and therefore finds a lot of use as a late-game cleaner once his counters have been removed. Close Combat is chosen to do ridiculous damage to anything that dares to step in front of it. Psycho Cut does well as a secondary STAB, and though at neutral its damage is disappointing, at +2 it becomes a viable option against things that resist Close Combat. Knock Off is for the annoyance factor and for hitting Psychic-types (it usually OHKOs Slowbro at +2), and Swords Dance is for picking up dat Big +2 to sweep teams into the floor.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-Turn
- Knock Off
- Superpower

Since most of this team is based on protecting Mega Gallade, Scizor was the Steel-type of choice to protect him from Fairy-types. The set is more or less the usual Choice Band Scizor, and it forms a nice Volt-Turn core with Rotom and Landorus. I've specifically found Scizor quite useful for OHKOing most Mega Altaria, which will often try to Dragon Dance against the likes of Zapdos. Besides that, there isn't any new technology here. Choice Band Scizor performs just as well in OR/AS as it did in XY, if not better, since a lot of the new big threats do not carry priority.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-o-Wisp
- Pain Split

When you’re building a team around a Fighting-type, you’re obviously going to need a stop to Talonflame. Defensive Rotom-Wash does just that — and it simultaneously allows me to build momentum with Volt Switch, or predict a switch-in with Will-o-Wisp or Hydro Pump. It is also a nice switch-in for Choice Band Scizor’s Bullet Punch, who would love nothing more than to revenge kill Gallade after a few Close Combat drops, but that play is quite predictable and you will often find yourself getting U-Turn’ed. Makes a decent stop to Mega Salamence unless it is running the Substitute set, and is the team’s best counter to Mega Metagross.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Discharge
- Roar
- Defog
- Roost

Another obvious threat that I wanted to be ready for when building around a Fighting-type was Mega Pinsir. Defensive Zapdos is one of its best counters in OU, and finds extra utility in being a nice counter to Sub-Roost Mega Salamence (Discharge breaks a sub, and spamming it will inevitably result in a Paralyze, effectively neutering it). Though Heat Wave is an alluring option, Roar is taken instead in light of the multitude of annoying things that run around OU based on stat passing / stacking such as Mega Slowbro, Baton Pass + Memento teams, and finally, Mega Salamence, which will generally try to set up a Sub and end up just wasting a turn as it is forced out, only to come back in on Stealth Rock for even more damage.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- U-Turn
- Stealth Rock

Landorus-Therian only got more useful in ORAS OU since there are so many new fearsome Physical attackers to Intimidate. It provides Stealth Rock and Knock Off support for the team and can form Volt-Turn chains with Scizor and Rotom at the added bonus of Intimidate activating every time it switches in. Earthquake, even with only 4 Attack EVs, hits quite hard. It is also notable that Landorus is a great counter to the popular Mega Beedrill, and can set up Stealth Rock to antagonize it as it helplessly U-Turn’s away.

Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Protect

You’ve probably noticed that this team is pretty thin on the Special Defense side. In order to even this out, I chose Sylveon, since it fit my needs and hits switch-ins super hard even uninvested in SpA thanks to Pixilate. Alternatively, and probably more usefully, you could Wish on the switch and simply pass to an appropriate counter for whatever comes in. Toxic has been changed to Heal Bell, thanks to thenewguy22. The cleric move allows me to play much riskier with my sweepers, especially Mega Gallade, who is not 100% sunk if he gets burned by Mew or paralyzed by Thundurus.
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Recognized Threats

Greninja is a massive threat, since it now often packs Gunk Shot to smash past Sylveon, a would-be wall. My best bet, given that it has Gunk Shot, is to fodder something then force it out with Rotom-Wash. Alternatively, if I manage to predict an Ice Beam, I can switch in Scizor and OHKO with a Bullet Punch if my opponent forgets Greninja is still an Ice-type and stays in to try and hit me with Hidden Power [Fire], which happens more often than you would expect.

Gengar is also a considerable threat, but only when he’s at high HP. Shadow Ball will do at least 60% to Gallade if I lose the speed tie (assuming that I am already Mega) and Shadow Sneak will not OHKO. Scizor can switch in on a Sludge Bomb for free and threaten back with Bullet Punch, but the play is usually incredibly easy to predict and I’ll end up catching a Shadow Ball and losing a lot of HP.

Latios and Latias both hit most of my team for big damage and have Psyshock to smash my only SpD wall. My best workaround is to switch in Scizor (given they lack Hidden Power [Fire], of course) to take a Psyshock or Draco Meteor, then start a Volt-Turn chain or Knock Off a switch-in. Of course, I can only do this so many times as my Scizor gets worn down, so I can try to speed tie with Mega Gallade’s Knock Off. They are a big problem if they come in fresh, but if I can Volt-Switch lasso them in, I can keep forcing them out with Scizor.

Keldeo can be a problem, since my only Water resist is Physically defensive. Specs Hydro Pump does a good 30%, meaning I won’t want to keep switching in over and over again, but this is partially compensated with by predicting his switch with Pain Split. If I don't have Gallade up and running before this thing comes out to have a hay-day, I'm in for some damage.

Clefable pretty much has free reign on my team if Scizor is dead, and even with a Choice Band, Scizor fails to OHKO some variants. I've considered many a time forgoing Knock Off for something like Poison Jab on Mega Gallade just to stop this thing.
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Importable

Gallade (M) @ Galladite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance

Scizor (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Superpower

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Discharge
- Roar
- Roost
- Defog

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Sylveon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Protect

Even though he doesn't know it, a PSPL II parnter Cheek Pouch pretty much formatted this RMT for me, since I used his Turn Back the Clock RMT as a close reference. Thanks to him.

And, of course, thanks to you for sticking around with this RMT! I know this team can definitely improve, I just need you to help me.

 

[mcpallday]

Change Lando-T spread to Choice Scarf>Lefties as it succesful.y eliminates all the mons on your threat list. (Bar Keldeo, thought it is 2Ohkod by eq)

Landorous-T @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
Evs: 252 Attack 24 Def 232 Speed
- Earthquake
- Knock off
- U-turn
- Stone edge

PS I realize that now you have no Stealth rock user. I would suggest a specially defensive mon that could also use SR so maybe Utilitar (Tyranitar)

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Sassy Nature
Evs: 252 HP 4 Spa 252 Spdef
- Ice beam
- Stealth Rock
- Pursuit/Thunder Wave
- Stone Edge

Glhf battling

 

[Galom]

Change Lando-T spread to Choice Scarf>Lefties as it succesful.y eliminates all the mons on your threat list. (Bar Keldeo, thought it is 2Ohkod by eq)

Landorous-T @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
Evs: 252 Attack 24 Def 232 Speed
- Earthquake
- Knock off
- U-turn
- Stone edge

PS I realize that now you have no Stealth rock user. I would suggest a specially defensive mon that could also use SR so maybe Utilitar (Tyranitar)

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Sassy Nature
Evs: 252 HP 4 Spa 252 Spdef
- Ice beam
- Stealth Rock
- Pursuit/Thunder Wave
- Stone Edge

Glhf battling

Hey, thanks for the advice. I'll give these two a try. It's going to be a bit awkward to decide which Pokemon to replace with Tyranitar, but I'll see what I can do.

 

[thenewguy22]

Hey Gallade, you might remember me xD, but just letting you know, for me the formatting is layed out very strangely above the teambuilding process. Might be because im on my phone, but just thought I'd let you know.

I would also agree with mcpallday to change Lando T to scarfed, because as of now you have three pokes running max physical defense, only one poke capable of outspeeding even base 70s. Idk what to do about SR tho... Ill post better suggestions, kind in a hurry. Nice team tho:)

 

[Galom]

Hey Gallade, you might remember me xD, but just letting you know, for me the formatting is layed out very strangely above the teambuilding process. Might be because im on my phone, but just thought I'd let you know.

I would also agree with mcpallday to change Lando T to scarfed, because as of now you have three pokes running max physical defense, only one poke capable of outspeeding even base 70s. Idk what to do about SR tho... Ill post better suggestions, kind in a hurry. Nice team tho:)

It must be your phone; it looks just fine to me. And yeah, I'm working on finding a new Rock-setter since I'm looking to run the Choice Scarf Landorus that both you and mcpallday suggested. If anyone has a suggestion of who to replace with utility Tyranitar, or what other hazard setter to use, I'm interested to hear it.

Thanks for the rate. ^_^

 

[thenewguy22]

Another thing i noticed is that lando t and rotom W are pretty decent bird spam checks on their own, and zapdos doesn't really seem like it is necesary. Maybe you just go with life orb latios or excadrill for hazard removal, and keep lando t as a defensive set? Or keepthe scarf and put sr on exca? Ill try and test some of these later tonighy

 

[Galom]

Another thing i noticed is that lando t and rotom W are pretty decent bird spam checks on their own, and zapdos doesn't really seem like it is necesary. Maybe you just go with life orb latios or excadrill for hazard removal, and keep lando t as a defensive set? Or keepthe scarf and put sr on exca? Ill try and test some of these later tonighy

The whole reason for Zapdos even being here is that it hard-walls almost every Mega Pinsir. However, I've been seeing absolutely none of this Pokemon, so that is definitely considerable. Besides, it's not like Rotom-Wash is a bad Mega Pinsir stop, Zapdos is just better.

The only thing that I fear with that is that it could leave me exposed to Mega Salamence, since my strategy against it is just to spam Discharge until I get a paralyze. (lol)

 

[thenewguy22]

Yeah mega mence is a problem, but Lando deals with it very well. A couple more things I'd suggest are stone edge>knock off on lando. Stone edge will hit mence hard, it also helps deal with mega pinsir and talon.

Heal bell>toxic on sylveon. Just a fairly minor nicpick, but Heal bell just seems to always come through. And when you have it, you can play much riskier with gallade, like you can stay in on rotom and switch into heatran.

Also I would replace zappy with a defog latias. Latias is one of the best defoggers in the metagame and can provide healing wish support for gallade/landorus. When i was testing, i went with life orb healing wish/defog/draco/psyshock, but use whatever you feel best suits your teams needs.

Im not sure how well your team deals with breloom, but if it becomes a problem, you could try Sleep talk over knock off or superpower on scizor. Very situational, but it is something i sometimes like to run.

That's about all I've got! Gl with the team, and sorry for the sloppy rate XD

 

[Galom]

Yeah mega mence is a problem, but Lando deals with it very well. A couple more things I'd suggest are stone edge>knock off on lando. Stone edge will hit mence hard, it also helps deal with mega pinsir and talon.

Heal bell>toxic on sylveon. Just a fairly minor nicpick, but Heal bell just seems to always come through. And when you have it, you can play much riskier with gallade, like you can stay in on rotom and switch into heatran.

Also I would replace zappy with a defog latias. Latias is one of the best defoggers in the metagame and can provide healing wish support for gallade/landorus. When i was testing, i went with life orb healing wish/defog/draco/psyshock, but use whatever you feel best suits your teams needs.

Im not sure how well your team deals with breloom, but if it becomes a problem, you could try Sleep talk over knock off or superpower on scizor. Very situational, but it is something i sometimes like to run.

That's about all I've got! Gl with the team, and sorry for the sloppy rate XD

Tyvm, then ^_^ I've been working with Defog Latias and Scarf Landorus. The Scarf definitely does help with taking out a lot of things that give me problems. I still lack Stealth Rock, which is really not good at all, but I'm still working on a solution.

 

[eden]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/orasou-176460567
Replay of me going god mode on somebody using this team. M-Gallade stacks so MUCH pressure on the oppoenent. But one thing your team is set up fodder for that gay-ass Sub/Roost Salamence. Maybe run Regenator Slowbro>Zapdos becuase you don't REALLY need two birdspam checks. js. Mega Mence for Ubers yo

 

[thenewguy22]

Tbh, id stick with defensive lando and defog latias over zappy, i tested that out for a while and it worked really well. Lando is kind of nesecary because its your only counter to exca, sr are always nice, and your team has enough revenge killers for a scarf to mot be needed

 

[thenewguy22]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/orasou-176460567
Replay of me going god mode on somebody using this team. M-Gallade stacks so MUCH pressure on the oppoenent. But one thing your team is set up fodder for that gay-ass Sub/Roost Salamence. Maybe run Regenator Slowbro>Zapdos becuase you don't REALLY need two birdspam checks. js. Mega Mence for Ubers yo

P sure hyper voice breaks through the sub pal

 

[eden]

yeah but Sylveon dies to Aerilate Return, @ +1. The situtaion is like you switch in on the DD,and get blasted by Aerilate Return,set Substitute on Rotom,sweep.

 

[Galom]

Sadly, Slowbro is sort of out of question since it doesn't have any way to remove hazards. Unless you have another teammate to accompany it, I need to either go with Zapdos or Latias for Defog.

Then again, my team is not exactly weak to SR at all, but not having Rapid Spin / Defog is really not a good idea. I'll start testing with Latias and update the OP with it in the official team if I find it successful. Thanks for the input, you two. ^_^

 

[Galom]

After testing, I can confirm that Latias with Defog and Choice Scarf Landorus both fit the team very well. The only problem left is finding where to put Stealth Rock on the team, since I'm lacking them without Defensive Landorus.

Any ideas?

 

[thenewguy22]

it might not be a great idea, but you could try a SR life orb bisharp over scizor

Bisharp Life Orb
252 atk 252 spd 4 def
Adamant Nature
-Knock Off
-Sucker punch
-Iron Head
-Stealth Rock

again, maybe not the best idea because you lose the bulk, typing and U turning ability that scizor has, but its the only thing i could think of

 

[Geopolitics]

Hey gallade lv. x, pretty cool team. I recall playing you a few times (I think 3) in the first few days of oras ou but we've both been a bit inactive lately haha. Here's a mon that I think could work well for you:

Thundurus > Zapdos

Thundurus @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Nasty Plot

Thundurus and Zapdos share similar types, and when I played with this team a bit earlier, it sucked to lose a lot of offensive pressure that I'd accumulated by having to go to Zap to Defog. To be honest, rocks don't hurt your team that much, so while a defogger is nice, it's not nessecarily nessecary (lol) for the structure of your team, I'd say. I chose Twave + NP thundy here w/ boltbeam because it gives you a good check to mence. While Zap can fish for paras, putting the game in the hands of the rng isn't nessecarily a great check tbh. Twave has priority w/ Thundy, meaning that it helps you to stop mence before it breaks your team. Also, NP gives you a neat secondary win condition because you have your mon to get momentum (rotom/sciz), a hard hitting mon to soften walls (zor) and now two mons to set up and sweep. Priority NP is really nice, and it can win you a lot of games after you've weakened some checks n stuff. Plus, Gallade weakens Ferro/Chans which is a huge plus, and Thundy gets rid of Skarm :]]

Also not sure if I really got my point across on Defog, but you only have 1 mon weak and you also have wish support, I don't really see the need for defog tbh. With some of my previous ho laddering teams, I don't use defog even w/ Thundy just because leftovers makes it a pretty sustainable mon and plus wish support is p cool for your team.



Overall, great work, and good luck laddering :]

 

[Galom]

I'll experiment with it, thenewguy22, but I really don't feel like Bisharp (especially one with Stealth Rock, lol) is going to fit then team very well. I'll get back to you eventually on it.

I'll also try Thundurus. This, in my opinion, looks a bit more promising, and I'd actually considered it before, but never really gotten around to trying it out. If it works out well, I'll update the OP.

Thank you both for the rates. ^_^

 

[Galom]

Quick update, I re-peaked at #11 on a more mature ladder, so I'd say that rank has more credibility than the #8 on a young ladder.

I tried Thundurus and Bisharp. Thundurus did not counter Mega Salamence the way Zapdos does, and lacks Defog. Even if my team really isn't weak to SR, the damage started racking up quickly. As for SR Bisharp... it simply was not helpful. Stuck with Defensive Landorus rather than Scarf, just better results overall.

Would still appreciate rates, if anyone wants to offer some input. Thanks to those who already have.