SM OU The Cletus OU Team USUM Version (Reached 2032)


Hello this is Cletus also known as Cletus1 (My Showdown Account). I originally made a team in the middle of Sun and Moon but now that it's Ultra Sun and Moon that means that I had to make some edits to my original team. While the team currently seems to be doing good (It has actually brought my ladder ranking the highest it has ever been) I know that multiple heads are better than one so i'd like to see what other people have to say about it.

Here is a link to proof of my rank: (Here is a link to proof of my rank that i reach with the revisions on post number 4: )

Zapdos @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Static
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
-Discharge/Thunderbolt
-Heat Wave
-Roost
-Toxic/HP Ice/Thunder Wave

I kept Zapdos on the team because i feel like it is a real consistent check to some dangerous pokemon in the tier such as Mega Pinsir, Kartana, Ferrothorn, Mega Scizor, Celesteela, Bisharp, and many more.

The EVs on Zapdos are primarily meant to take physical hits such as a +2 Z-Night Slash from Kartana (As long as Zapdos is at full health that is) while the 16 Spe is used to outspeed Adamant Bisharp. Static and Rocky Helmet are used to punish U-turn and other contact moves like rapid spin, however you can use leftovers instead if you'd prefer the passive recovery.

An electric move is needed but whether it is discharge for an increased para chance or thunderbolt for increased damage is up to you. Heat Wave is also needed to deal with the various grass types in the tier such as Tapu Bulu, Kartana, and ferrothorn. Roost is obvious but be careful of when you use it since you will be weak to ground will roosting. The last move can be either toxic, HP Ice, or Thunder Wave; HP ice is for ground types while Toxic or Thunder Wave is for the various other things that want to switch in such as Kyurem Black.


Slowbro @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD IVs 0 Spe
Relaxed Nature
-Scald
-Psyshock
-Iron Defense
-Slack Off

Slowbro is another member of the original team that i kept around because it checks a whole bunch of physical threats like Mega Charizard X, Mega Medicham, Kyurem Black, Landorus-T, and various others.

Most of Slowbro's EVs go into making his defense high enough to deal with Landorus and other Electric Terrain boosted moves but i also put some into his SpD to make stray Earth Powers from Kyurem B do less. The reason why he is relaxed instead of Bold aswell as having 0 Spe IVs is to make him outspeed Alolan Marowak under Trick Room.

Scald is ran on Slowbro because it is a spammable move that can cripple physical attackers; while Psyshock is to have a way to damage SubCM Keldeo and Toxapex. Iron Defense is used to basically negate opponents Swords Dances or Dragon Dances as well as being able to handle Mega Medicham's Thunder Punches while under Electric Terrain, while Slack Off allows you to win in the long run due to the ability to heal.


Mantine @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 200 SpD / 56 Spe
Calm Nature
-Scald
-Roost
-Defog
-Haze

While I kept Mantine i also changed its set, now it has Defog to somewhat invalidate Ash Greninja while also still checking Special Attacking Water and Fire types like Volcarona, Ash Greninja, the new Blacephalon, and others.

The EVs and nature are set for Mantine to deal with special attackers while the 56 Spe is used to outspeed Adamant Alolan Marowak and hit it with a Scald. Water Absorb is the only ability Mantine should use since an immunity to water means an immunity to scald which is always nice.

Scald is Mantines only offensive move, potentially burning a threat is always nice whether to neuter their attack or negate their Leftovers. Haze is used to keep set up sweepers like Volcarona and Manaphy in check while Defog is to negate Greninja's Spikes aswell as being able to switch in to a Defensive Landorus-T and get rid of his rocks. Finally roost is Mantines newly acquired means of reliable recovery


Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
-Moonblast
-Wish
-Protect
-Heal Bell

Clefable is the last Pokemon that I kept from my original team because it is a good cleric as well as a really good check to some physical set up sweepers such as Mimikyu, Zygarde, the various dragon types used in the tier, and some others.

Max Def and the Bold Nature with the Unaware ability are used to take care of Zygarde if it gets out of control aswell as dealing with Z Fly Salamence and Dragonite

Moonblast is STAB and a nice way to force out Mega Sableye and dragon types while Heal Bell is nice for keeping the team status free. I choose wish and protect over moonlight and some other move because i felt like wish support really can help in tricky situations especially in a metagame where you can get hit by an unsuspected Z-Move out of nowhere.


Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 152 HP / 252 SpD / 104 Spe
Careful Nature
-Earthquake
-Roost
-Defog
-Knock Off

I'm sure most of us know that Poison Heal Defog Gliscor is now legal, but i don't think as much people realize that Poison Heal Defog Gliscor completely invalidates anything a Toxapex can try to do. It is also an annoyance to pokemon that rely on status to beat their opponents and comes with a nifty Electric Immunity (But also an unfortunate 4x weakness to ice)

Gliscor has enough speed EVs to outspeed a max speed Magearna before Shift Gear while the rest go into making Gliscor take Special hits better

Earthquake is nice STAB that does decent damage to Toxapex and Tapu Koko while Knock Off is nice for removing items and hitting pokemon immune to Earthquake. I have Defog on Gliscor because it prevents Toxapex from ever getting Toxic Spikes up as well as just being a nice back up defogger in cause Mantine is in a pickle or if Bisharp is trying to deter the Defog.


Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 104 HP / 252 SpD / 152 Spe
Careful Nature
-Iron Head
-Stealth Rock
-Wish
-Protect

Jirachi is the last pokemon on my team, it is my Stealth Rocker as well as my main check to Psychic and Fairy types like Tapu Lele, Magearna, and some others.

Most of the EVs go into Jirachi's SpD but i also put enough EVs into its speed to always outspeed Tapu Bulu

Iron Head hits most of what Jirachi is used against for at least neutral damage and Stealth Rocks are nice for residual damage. I have Wish and Protect on my Jirachi because i wanted to make sure my means of dealing with such hard hitters like Lele and Magearna has a way to keep itself healthy.


Threat List:

Dark Types In general give my team a hard time especially Tyranitar and Hoopa Unbound

My Jirachi doesn't have U-Turn so i can be trapped by Magnezone which can open doors for something dangerous

If Mega Mawile has Swords Dance then not even Slowbro can handle it



Thank you for looking at my team, I am both hopeful and excited to see some feedback.
 
Last edited:
Hi, cool team. it seems to be solid tbh and grats for your peak on ladder! as you said, some pokemon are hard to deal with such as ttar and hoopa-u. they can literally grap a kill when they come in which is quite frustrating. tapu koko is also something you should take aware of, especially the specs set because nothing on your team takes two hits from it and thunderbolt / voltswitch can be quite spammable if your opp wears down your gliscor which isn't that hard since hp ice is an easily 2hko. i don't think mawile is a big threat because gliscor can still do hard damages to it and it's not generally at full when it comes. let's talk about changes now.

major change

>
i'd suggest this change because as you said, dark types are a pain and obviously, it's always a bad matchup when you face them. to fill this problem, magearna looks very cool here. its typing is very appreciated on this team because the AV set is a great check to specs hoopa-u which destroys the team otherwise. the fact that it resists the combo rock + dark can help against ttar because your opp has to use something like eq or fire punch instead and that's predictable. as you know, magearna doesn't have any recovery but i don't think it's a problem because you still have wish support which is great for magearna. lastly, i brought up tapu koko as a threat for your team and magearna is able to take two tbolts whereas jirachi isn't. magearna is also not trappable by magnezone since it has volt switch and you can later during the game heal it with wish.

minor change

calm mind > iron defense
this change allows slowbro to become a win condition which is actually great for this kind of team. it can literally win games and you don't need iron defense imo. you still check pokemons you're supposed to check such as m-lop and m-medicham. you also said iron defensive helps against setup sweepers but it's not like a lot of things can setup on it and you have unaware clefable anyway.

stealth rock > defog
since you lost jirachi and so a sr setter, i'd use sr over defog on gliscor. defog is not a big lose since you still have defog on mantine but yeah you won't be able to defog on things like ferro. i'll suggest something about it later. i keep knock off because it's always nice to remove leftovers on fat mons.

toxic > haze
i don't find haze that useful on mantine and with toxic, you're safer against things like zapdos (assuming you don't die to discharge / tbolt) or tangrowth that can be annoying for your team.

finally, if you opted for toxic over haze on mantine, then i'd use defog > toxic
. since mantine can't come in and defog on things like ferrothorn, zapdos would help for that and you could defog on almost everything which would help to not have sr on your own field. leftovers are also definitely important on this thing to take hits easier.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge/Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Roost
- Defog

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Fleur Cannon
- Iron Head
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 152 HP / 252 SpD / 104 Spe
Careful Nature
-Earthquake
-Roost
-Stealth Rock
-Knock Off

Slowbro @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD IVs 0 Spe
Relaxed Nature
-Scald
-Psyshock
-Calm Mind
-Slack Off

Mantine @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 200 SpD / 56 Spe
Calm Nature
-Scald
-Roost
-Defog
-Toxic
 
Hi, cool team. it seems to be solid tbh and grats for your peak on ladder! as you said, some pokemon are hard to deal with such as ttar and hoopa-u. they can literally grap a kill when they come in which is quite frustrating. tapu koko is also something you should take aware of, especially the specs set because nothing on your team takes two hits from it and thunderbolt / voltswitch can be quite spammable if your opp wears down your gliscor which isn't that hard since hp ice is an easily 2hko. i don't think mawile is a big threat because gliscor can still do hard damages to it and it's not generally at full when it comes. let's talk about changes now.

major change

>
i'd suggest this change because as you said, dark types are a pain and obviously, it's always a bad matchup when you face them. to fill this problem, magearna looks very cool here. its typing is very appreciated on this team because the AV set is a great check to specs hoopa-u which destroys the team otherwise. the fact that it resists the combo rock + dark can help against ttar because your opp has to use something like eq or fire punch instead and that's predictable. as you know, magearna doesn't have any recovery but i don't think it's a problem because you still have wish support which is great for magearna. lastly, i brought up tapu koko as a threat for your team and magearna is able to take two tbolts whereas jirachi isn't. magearna is also not trappable by magnezone since it has volt switch and you can later during the game heal it with wish.

minor change

calm mind > iron defense
this change allows slowbro to become a win condition which is actually great for this kind of team. it can literally win games and you don't need iron defense imo. you still check pokemons you're supposed to check such as m-lop and m-medicham. you also said iron defensive helps against setup sweepers but it's not like a lot of things can setup on it and you have unaware clefable anyway.

stealth rock > defog
since you lost jirachi and so a sr setter, i'd use sr over defog on gliscor. defog is not a big lose since you still have defog on mantine but yeah you won't be able to defog on things like ferro. i'll suggest something about it later. i keep knock off because it's always nice to remove leftovers on fat mons.

toxic > haze
i don't find haze that useful on mantine and with toxic, you're safer against things like zapdos (assuming you don't die to discharge / tbolt) or tangrowth that can be annoying for your team.

finally, if you opted for toxic over haze on mantine, then i'd use defog > toxic
. since mantine can't come in and defog on things like ferrothorn, zapdos would help for that and you could defog on almost everything which would help to not have sr on your own field. leftovers are also definitely important on this thing to take hits easier.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge/Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Roost
- Defog

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Fleur Cannon
- Iron Head
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 152 HP / 252 SpD / 104 Spe
Careful Nature
-Earthquake
-Roost
-Stealth Rock
-Knock Off

Slowbro @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD IVs 0 Spe
Relaxed Nature
-Scald
-Psyshock
-Calm Mind
-Slack Off

Mantine @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 200 SpD / 56 Spe
Calm Nature
-Scald
-Roost
-Defog
-Toxic
Hi, I agree the minor changes really helped his team out a lot but the part about replacing jirachi with magearna is something that seems off for me. I've never used hard stall much but I'm thinking here that the team is a lot weaker to tapu lele, which is one of the most capable stallbreakers, especially considering av magearna, which is more suited for offensive type teams in my opinion at least, gets worn down very easily by tapu lele's psyshock and clefable can be pressured on to the point it's gonna have trouble passing wishes to magearna and keeping itself healthy at the same time.

It's true that with jirachi over magearna his team is a lot weaker to tyranitar and hoopa-u but I think I've seen more of tapu lele, which I think is more splashable than the other 2 mons laddering wise. Considering this team is something meant for laddering, I think it would make more sense to stick with jirachi, wouldn't it? Besides, he could also speed creep it a bit to outspeed hoopa-u to make it fall victim to iron head flinches if worst comes to worst, the same applying for tyranitar.
 
After listening to feedback and testing multiple revisions to my team on the ladder, i think I've now improved it for the better.

Major Change
1513750600656.png
>
1513750633990.png

1513750678486.png

Hippowdon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
-Stealth Rock
-Slack Off
-Earthquake
-Toxic

After Simia pointed it out i realized that this team does have trouble with Choice Specs Tapu Koko, so my response to it was to get rid of Gliscor in favor of Hippowdon who can reliably take on Tapu Koko (unless they have Grass Knot).

Hippowdon's EVs and nature are meant for it to take on special attackers like Tapu Koko and Magma Storm Heatran as best as it can. I gave Hippowdon Rocky Helmet so Tapu Koko can't just U-Turn infinitely whenever Hippowdon wants to switch in as well as deterring Tyranitar from spamming crunch in hopes for the low chance to 2HKO on the switch in. Sand Force is the preferred ability but Sand Stream (in conjunction with leftovers) can make Hippowdon a great answer to Mega Charizard Y while not just losing to Tyranitar, but i don't really think that is necessary in the current metagame and prefer not chipping my team down with sand damage.

The moveset is pretty standard, i decided to use Toxic to consistently beat Zapdos and other Flying types.

Minor Changes
Defog>Toxic
1513751962719.png
I changed this for the exact same reasons that Simia suggested them, takes some pressure off of Mantine and can Defog on Ferrothorn.

U-Turn>Stealth Rock
1513752204835.png
Since Hippowdon is now my Stealth Rocker i decided to use the free slot on Jirachi to solve a problem it used to have, being trappable. With U-Turn Jirachi no longer really cares about Magnezone.

With these new revisions i was able to reach Top 10 on the ladder (Link to proof )
I am thankful for your feedback and eagerly await some more
 

Ktütverde

of course
is a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Former Smogon Metagame Tournament Circuit Champion
After listening to feedback and testing multiple revisions to my team on the ladder, i think I've now improved it for the better.

Major Change
View attachment 93784>View attachment 93785
View attachment 93786
Hippowdon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
-Stealth Rock
-Slack Off
-Earthquake
-Toxic

After Simia pointed it out i realized that this team does have trouble with Choice Specs Tapu Koko, so my response to it was to get rid of Gliscor in favor of Hippowdon who can reliably take on Tapu Koko (unless they have Grass Knot).

Hippowdon's EVs and nature are meant for it to take on special attackers like Tapu Koko and Magma Storm Heatran as best as it can. I gave Hippowdon Rocky Helmet so Tapu Koko can't just U-Turn infinitely whenever Hippowdon wants to switch in as well as deterring Tyranitar from spamming crunch in hopes for the low chance to 2HKO on the switch in. Sand Force is the preferred ability but Sand Stream (in conjunction with leftovers) can make Hippowdon a great answer to Mega Charizard Y while not just losing to Tyranitar, but i don't really think that is necessary in the current metagame and prefer not chipping my team down with sand damage.

The moveset is pretty standard, i decided to use Toxic to consistently beat Zapdos and other Flying types.

Minor Changes
Defog>ToxicView attachment 93788I changed this for the exact same reasons that Simia suggested them, takes some pressure off of Mantine and can Defog on Ferrothorn.

U-Turn>Stealth Rock View attachment 93789Since Hippowdon is now my Stealth Rocker i decided to use the free slot on Jirachi to solve a problem it used to have, being trappable. With U-Turn Jirachi no longer really cares about Magnezone.

With these new revisions i was able to reach Top 10 on the ladder (Link to proof )
I am thankful for your feedback and eagerly await some more
Imo leftovers are crucial on hippowdon because it allows it to tank uturns forever and recovering the damage dealt, while you won't risk losing hippo to magmastorm or specs hpice. Hippo does love having extra recovery in the form of lefties, which makes it harder to take down. That is still only my point of view after trying it with rocky helmet^^
 

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