SM OU Mega Camerupt Team

[drnb]

Howdy everyone,

This is my first post so if there's anything Im doing wrong with regard to formatting, etiquette, etc. please lmk.

I've played showdown on and off for the last four years (mostly random battle with friends), but I decided to get serious about 1 week ago and here we are. I've been trying to learn the OU metagame by borrowing other people's teams, but honestly winning games with my own team is extremely satisfying and I've found that I've really enjoyed trying to put together my own teams (despite the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing lol).

This team is based on Mega Camerupt. I played Alpha Sapphire, so this was one of the Pokemon that I missed out on. While I'm not quite sure how to classify this team, or really what the overall game plan is, I will say that this team does well against slow durdly Pokemon. I think I'll just explain my reasoning/justification for including each Pokemon and hopefully y'all can can help me out :)

Team:

Mega-Camerupt
Tapu Koko
Tapu Bulu
Hoopa-Unbound
Landorus-Therian
Greninja-Ash

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Camerupt @ Cameruptite
Ability: Magma Armor
EVs: 216 HP / 168 SpA / 124 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Nature Power
- Stealth Rock

This guy makes the team spicy. This Pokemon absolutely annihilates Magearna, Ferrothorn, Mega Scizor, Skarmory, Mega Mawile, and defensive Celesteela. It also destroys Heatran and Toxapex on the switch with earth power; Camerupt is faster than Toxapex and can OHKO most of the time, and Heatran dies whey switch in to try and eat a fire blast. Finally, it's pretty nice against Blacephalon and Kartana, but only before they get beast boost. Basically it's great for taking out beefy defensive Pokemon that hold teams together. My favorite move is nature power. Tapu Bulu gives this thing energy ball, which can OHKO Mega Swampert or gastrodon as it switches in, while Tapu Koko proves thunderbolt allowing Camerupt to OHKO Pelipper, Gyarados (and sometimes Tornadus) as they switch in. I don't love stealth rock, but something on this team needs it and Camerupt often forces switches. EV's are taken from https://aminoapps.com/c/pokemon/pag...-mega-camerupt/Lzh8_ueKnqlnK2V5Z80jXRlL2QYPpj which is the inspiration for this team.



Tapu Koko @ Leftovers
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic
- Roost

Tapu Koko forces out water types and brings in Camerupt with u-turn, or brings in Landorus against ground types. Toxic can snipe most pokemon that switch in (people generally do not bring in Celesteel or Skarmory), and roost can stall out some pokemon that annoy this team like Rotom-Wash. This Pokemon is also REALLY fast and revenge kills plenty of pokemon. It also helps against Tapu Lele and Tapu Fini. I wish this had 5 moves so I could run defog.



Tapu Bulu @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Horn Leech
- Superpower
- Synthesis
- Swords Dance

Another Tapu on the team, this one shuts down water types. It also beats pokemon like Garchomp, Mega-Diancie, and honestly lots of other random Pokemon because it's so hard to kill. Can often stall out pokemon that get poisoned by Koko. Not much else to say, this guy switches into water types and forces them out (as well as giving Camerupt the all important energy ball via grassy terrain).



Hoopa-Unbound @ Choice Band
Ability: Magician
EVs: 32 HP / 224 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hyperspace Fury
- Gunk Shot
- Fire Punch
- Drain Punch

Hoopa-Unbound is great with Camerupt because it destroys special walls like Mega-Venusaur and Chansey, while also muscling through Celesteela. Gunk shot is there for enemy Tapus. This set is from smogon, so I've kept fire punch for now, but I basically never use it because it doesn't hit Mega-Venusaur as hard as Hyperspace Fury; however, it can be nice against Kartana. This Pokemon is also a reasonable way to beat certain variants of Serperior, but only before it gets a +2 SpA boost from leaf storm, maybe I should tweak the EVs to let it survive this hit?



Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 Atk / 68 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Defog

This is the standard choice scarf Landorus set from smogon. I usually lead with this because it's pretty safe and can cheese out KOs on the first turn (killing greninja with a turn 1 earthquake is my favorite). Hidden power ice can hurt common opposing leads like Landorus, Garchomp, or Gliscor. U-turn is generally great, but is often used to bring in Camerupt against Ferrothorn and Tapu Koko against Pelipper. I'm not thrilled with defog here, but it is necessary. I would like to fit this move on another Pokemon, as choice scarf defog is a huge momentum killer.



Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Water Shuriken
- Dark Pulse
- Scald

This is the teams revenge killer and priority user. Ice beam kills tons of Pokemon, and dark pulse is almost a guarunteed KO on most weakened Pokemon hovering around 30% hp. It also forces out fire types for Tapu Bulu.

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Major Weaknesses (there are probably loads more, but here's what I've noticed):

- This team gets destroyed by choice scarf Serperior. Once it gets a leaf storm boost, I usually can't win. My only hope is to weaken it with stealth rock and u-turns enough to kill it with battle bonded water shuriken.

- Setup pokemon like Dragonite and Mega-Charizard X. This team has the awkward combination of being slow while not very bulky. Once something gets a dragon dance off, it's over. I straight up lose to Dragonite every time if it sets up (otherwise ice beam greninja gets it), but Charizard-X isn't completely unbeatable; people often switch Charizard into Camerupt and dragon dance, expecting Camerupt to switch out, only they then die to earth power.

- Toxic spikes. If landorus dies, I have no way to defog away toxic spikes and lose from there.

That's the team, questions/critiques/criticisms welcome :) Thanks!

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I'd replace Scald on Gren with Hydro Pump, or at the very least Surf. Gren needs all the power it can get to score KOs, especially pre-transformation.

 

[Beppe Bim]

Choice Band on Hoopa might not be the best Idea. Hoopa has a very meh speed and has terrible physical bulk which leaves it dead before it van do anything. A effective choice band user must have at least a base 105 speed stat, otherwise you're just a sitting duck.

Just throw a choice scarf on Hoopa.

 

[Gross Sweep]

Choice Band on Hoopa might not be the best Idea. Hoopa has a very meh speed and has terrible physical bulk which leaves it dead before it van do anything. A effective choice band user must have at least a base 105 speed stat, otherwise you're just a sitting duck.

Just throw a choice scarf on Hoopa.

Just going to comment on this, and say that there are no speed requirements for a good Choice Band user. Several Pokemon in the tier manage to run the item effectively under base 105 speed including Hoopa-U (80), TTar (61), and even Tapu Bulu (75) has seen some success holding CB over the generation. While faster Pokemon like Kartana (109) have shown the strength of hitting hard and fast with a CB, users below the benchmark you supplied are far from bad or sitting ducks. Choice Band users tend to take over the role of breaker, which means they try and force their way through fatter mons, which tend to have less than impressive speed stats. Meaning that while having a higher speed stat never hurt anybody, it's a little ignorant to say it's by any means required for a Choice Band user.

 

[drnb]

Choice Band on Hoopa might not be the best Idea. Hoopa has a very meh speed and has terrible physical bulk which leaves it dead before it van do anything. A effective choice band user must have at least a base 105 speed stat, otherwise you're just a sitting duck.

Just throw a choice scarf on Hoopa.

Thanks for the input. I agree with what Gross Sweep said above, Hoopa's job is to get past slower walls, specifically Mega Venosuar, Chansey, Blissey, Porygon, etc., so it's speed doesn't matter too much. I could see Tapu Lele w/ fightium z in this slot instead. It's faster, and better against Toxapex, but not as good against Celesteela IMO.

This team definitely lacks speed though, and I would like a choice scarf user somewhere. I also just realized that this team does not have a z-move, so ideally I could get both in 1 pokemon. Any ideas?

 

[Fatty Rabbit]

Yea I agree, choice scarf is an even worse choice lol. Damage output from Scarf hoopa is very underwhelming, especially with resisted moves.

I personally use life orb bulky adamant hoopa, so much less prediction is required. The heath drop might make hoopa even more vulnerable to being revenge killed but who cares. The 252 HP EVs allow it to sack up focus blasts from mega alakazam with ease and smack it back.

As you mentioned, hoopa is mostly used for munching through bulkier teams, so the ability to freely switch between moves is invaluable. Though not quite as terrifying as choice band, the damage output is good enough. Not sure why nobody uses life orb hoopa lol, give it a try.