I haven't been playing pokemon for a really long time. I used to be a very good player during the black/white (2) era, but when XY came out I really fell off the boat. I know SuMo isn't that far off and I really wanted at least one strong "me" team. I often lose these days and I'm not sure if it's due to my poor playing or my poor teambuilding, but I'd much prefer it was always the former, so I just want some team I can rely on to be able to win any match, as long as I play it right.
I used to use a whole lot of max speed speedy mons and scarfs everywhere way back in the day, and a lot of speed boosting set up moves like dragon dance, or SD on very frail fast mons. I'd usually run a taunt+healing kind of stallbreaker but if opposing stall teams had a good answer to it I'd lose, though I ran through most balanced/offense teams. As a result I really hate seeing most stall mons and I feel really satisfied beating those teams, so I wanted a team that would be really strong against stall.
Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge
Mega chomp was fairly obvious for me. This thing has insanely high attack especially after mega evolving, while still having a great speed tier (especially pre-mega) and respectable bulk with a useful typing. In my mind, this is THE tank mon. This set is pretty much perfect for me and I'd rather base the team around it than change anything here. I decided not to run a fire move and instead opted for stone edge, largely motivated by the facts that it wasn't that common and it was powered up by sand force. Speaking of...
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Crunch
I picked Ttar over hippowdon because it has less typing overlap with garchomp. I never used to like ttar that much, I ran primarily rain back in the day. Scarf Ttar provides invaluable sand for chomp while also removing Lati's, two of the few dragons which can force garchomp out even before it megas. I tried to make it so my moves didn't overlap much with chomp's, and there's a lot of stone edges on this team at the end of the day, so I'm willing to change its item or moveset quite a lot if there's something more optimal. I don't like tyranitar as a rock setter though, I think it has too much trouble with opponent's momentum if it has to come in repeatedly and I usually can't make it work. Even with just these two mons I began to realize I was gonna be struggling a lot with fairies and I wanted to add a mon that would be able to take on the likes of clefable REALLY well.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave
This guy's a beast, I've used him on so many teams and he never ever dies. I was going to run stealth rocks on it but I ended up deciding spikes instead after I put a later member on my team. Thunder wave seems like it'd be really good against offensive teams, and would help garchomp perform its role later down the line, but in practice I rarely get to thunder wave the RIGHT things, even though there's decent surprise value on that move. Because I run twave I didn't run gyro, and because I don't run gyro I end up not being able to really scare out most fairies, so I think this set could use a bit of work. It's really not quite performing its intended function, though setting up spikes on most fairies is usually good enough and it feels great to twave a togekiss which is public enemy #1 for chomp.
By now my team is feeling really really weak to fighting, and I have no hazard control. I want a resist that can switch in again and again. I consider the two best hazard control mons in the tier to be latis and mole, but they didn't synergize well, contributing ice/dragon/fairy weaknesses from the former and excaberating my fighting weakness with the latter. But there was a mon who looked great on paper.
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Psyshock
Originally this was my mon with thunder wave, but I decided if it was gonna be coming in on a lot of fighting mons it really ought to have a move to beat them. This thing is AMAZING at spinning. Unfortunately it's not amazing at much besides spinning. It's pretty damn pathetic most of the time, it can't really fear out anything at all. I went for maximum survivability (you'll understand why when you see my last mon) and though it's worked out okay I feel like I'd much rather have life orb and spin+3 attacks with SPA instead of speed, maybe analytic, in 9/10 times it comes in. Its speed is very helpful on my otherwise slooow team. Ice beam would be a nice move on it, but I'm kind of afraid to change it.
My team now has weaknesses to ground, fighting, and bug, and I wanted something that resisted those without being weak to rock.
Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
This is straight up the best OU mon in gen 5 and 6, maybe not in a vacuum but for the team support it provides. I swear it is impossible for me to make a team without this thing going somewhere on it. Overlap with garchomp in function and a quad weakness, but in practice that really gives my team a bit of leniency and stability when one of them goes down. An amazing stealth rocker, an amazing fighting/ground resist, keeps up momentum with uturn, all around very annoying and useful. I don't remember why I ran stone edge on it, retrospectively that looks like it could be better as knock off. I hate running scarfed moves that mons could be immune to but this thing was almost my scarfer, which could allow ttar to run stealth rocks instead. I'm not sure if that would be better or worse for my team. I feel like Lando T is the better scarfer, but Lando T is also the better stealth rock setter. I'd be willing to change this set quite a lot, and the tyranitar in conjunction, or even axe this mon for something else?
My typings are looking really good now. My biggest weaknesses are grass, ice, fairy, and bug. If there was only a single type that resisted all four... Well, there is, but the number of viable fire type pokemon in OU is pretty damn short.
Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Giga Drain
- Bug Buzz
I feel that this is really a mon you should be building a team around, not adding at the last second. Yet it offered SO much for my team. I had no speed boosting, I appreciate its typing a lot, I have a fast spinner to reliably keep rocks away, and it's a powerful special attacker that I otherwise lack, while I have other pokemon that already thrash its main checks and counters (lando-T for terrakion, garchomp and ferro for dragons, ferro for bulky waters, a bunch of powerful physical attackers for special walls, and pretty much every other mon for heatran). I decided to run the standard QD 3 attacks set because I wasn't trying to get cute or fancy with this guy, with fire blast over fiery dance so I can punch holes early on which seems to be where he does best. And I LOVE switching him in on fake-out/etc and getting the flame body burns. This mon is really unique and adds a bunch of original flavor to my team, but really he doesn't do a whole lot most games. Other contenders for this position include talonflame, volcanion, scizor, rotom-heat, and chandelure. Scizor feels the best here, it's not a fire type but it's a much better fairy resist and I still struggle a lot with those, but I must emphasize I do really want a team that's kind of unique and I'll be willing to sacrifice just a little bit of well-roundedness to sneak a good lower-tier mon on there that's supported by my other guys.
My current problems are mostly fairies, and some speedy mons. Splash plate Azumarill with superpower pretty much runs a train on me. Flamethrower clefable and togekiss are extremely annoying and problematic to switch into, not to mention clefable is still hard to break. I also don't have any priority, which makes speed boosting mons insanely hard to stop even if they only go +1. I also really struggle to switch into powerful fighting type moves from mons with ice coverage, especially mega lopunny who kills lando T with ice punch, outspeeds starmie, and slams every other member of my team with powerful neutral/super effective attacks. Talonflame or Scizor in the last slot would help against fairies, lack of priority, and lopunny, so I'm kind of between them, but I'm wondering what other sets I can tighten up to really make this team strong.
Thanks for reading, I appreciate it a lot.
I used to use a whole lot of max speed speedy mons and scarfs everywhere way back in the day, and a lot of speed boosting set up moves like dragon dance, or SD on very frail fast mons. I'd usually run a taunt+healing kind of stallbreaker but if opposing stall teams had a good answer to it I'd lose, though I ran through most balanced/offense teams. As a result I really hate seeing most stall mons and I feel really satisfied beating those teams, so I wanted a team that would be really strong against stall.
Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge
Mega chomp was fairly obvious for me. This thing has insanely high attack especially after mega evolving, while still having a great speed tier (especially pre-mega) and respectable bulk with a useful typing. In my mind, this is THE tank mon. This set is pretty much perfect for me and I'd rather base the team around it than change anything here. I decided not to run a fire move and instead opted for stone edge, largely motivated by the facts that it wasn't that common and it was powered up by sand force. Speaking of...
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Crunch
I picked Ttar over hippowdon because it has less typing overlap with garchomp. I never used to like ttar that much, I ran primarily rain back in the day. Scarf Ttar provides invaluable sand for chomp while also removing Lati's, two of the few dragons which can force garchomp out even before it megas. I tried to make it so my moves didn't overlap much with chomp's, and there's a lot of stone edges on this team at the end of the day, so I'm willing to change its item or moveset quite a lot if there's something more optimal. I don't like tyranitar as a rock setter though, I think it has too much trouble with opponent's momentum if it has to come in repeatedly and I usually can't make it work. Even with just these two mons I began to realize I was gonna be struggling a lot with fairies and I wanted to add a mon that would be able to take on the likes of clefable REALLY well.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave
This guy's a beast, I've used him on so many teams and he never ever dies. I was going to run stealth rocks on it but I ended up deciding spikes instead after I put a later member on my team. Thunder wave seems like it'd be really good against offensive teams, and would help garchomp perform its role later down the line, but in practice I rarely get to thunder wave the RIGHT things, even though there's decent surprise value on that move. Because I run twave I didn't run gyro, and because I don't run gyro I end up not being able to really scare out most fairies, so I think this set could use a bit of work. It's really not quite performing its intended function, though setting up spikes on most fairies is usually good enough and it feels great to twave a togekiss which is public enemy #1 for chomp.
By now my team is feeling really really weak to fighting, and I have no hazard control. I want a resist that can switch in again and again. I consider the two best hazard control mons in the tier to be latis and mole, but they didn't synergize well, contributing ice/dragon/fairy weaknesses from the former and excaberating my fighting weakness with the latter. But there was a mon who looked great on paper.
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Psyshock
Originally this was my mon with thunder wave, but I decided if it was gonna be coming in on a lot of fighting mons it really ought to have a move to beat them. This thing is AMAZING at spinning. Unfortunately it's not amazing at much besides spinning. It's pretty damn pathetic most of the time, it can't really fear out anything at all. I went for maximum survivability (you'll understand why when you see my last mon) and though it's worked out okay I feel like I'd much rather have life orb and spin+3 attacks with SPA instead of speed, maybe analytic, in 9/10 times it comes in. Its speed is very helpful on my otherwise slooow team. Ice beam would be a nice move on it, but I'm kind of afraid to change it.
My team now has weaknesses to ground, fighting, and bug, and I wanted something that resisted those without being weak to rock.
Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 8 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
This is straight up the best OU mon in gen 5 and 6, maybe not in a vacuum but for the team support it provides. I swear it is impossible for me to make a team without this thing going somewhere on it. Overlap with garchomp in function and a quad weakness, but in practice that really gives my team a bit of leniency and stability when one of them goes down. An amazing stealth rocker, an amazing fighting/ground resist, keeps up momentum with uturn, all around very annoying and useful. I don't remember why I ran stone edge on it, retrospectively that looks like it could be better as knock off. I hate running scarfed moves that mons could be immune to but this thing was almost my scarfer, which could allow ttar to run stealth rocks instead. I'm not sure if that would be better or worse for my team. I feel like Lando T is the better scarfer, but Lando T is also the better stealth rock setter. I'd be willing to change this set quite a lot, and the tyranitar in conjunction, or even axe this mon for something else?
My typings are looking really good now. My biggest weaknesses are grass, ice, fairy, and bug. If there was only a single type that resisted all four... Well, there is, but the number of viable fire type pokemon in OU is pretty damn short.
Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Giga Drain
- Bug Buzz
I feel that this is really a mon you should be building a team around, not adding at the last second. Yet it offered SO much for my team. I had no speed boosting, I appreciate its typing a lot, I have a fast spinner to reliably keep rocks away, and it's a powerful special attacker that I otherwise lack, while I have other pokemon that already thrash its main checks and counters (lando-T for terrakion, garchomp and ferro for dragons, ferro for bulky waters, a bunch of powerful physical attackers for special walls, and pretty much every other mon for heatran). I decided to run the standard QD 3 attacks set because I wasn't trying to get cute or fancy with this guy, with fire blast over fiery dance so I can punch holes early on which seems to be where he does best. And I LOVE switching him in on fake-out/etc and getting the flame body burns. This mon is really unique and adds a bunch of original flavor to my team, but really he doesn't do a whole lot most games. Other contenders for this position include talonflame, volcanion, scizor, rotom-heat, and chandelure. Scizor feels the best here, it's not a fire type but it's a much better fairy resist and I still struggle a lot with those, but I must emphasize I do really want a team that's kind of unique and I'll be willing to sacrifice just a little bit of well-roundedness to sneak a good lower-tier mon on there that's supported by my other guys.
My current problems are mostly fairies, and some speedy mons. Splash plate Azumarill with superpower pretty much runs a train on me. Flamethrower clefable and togekiss are extremely annoying and problematic to switch into, not to mention clefable is still hard to break. I also don't have any priority, which makes speed boosting mons insanely hard to stop even if they only go +1. I also really struggle to switch into powerful fighting type moves from mons with ice coverage, especially mega lopunny who kills lando T with ice punch, outspeeds starmie, and slams every other member of my team with powerful neutral/super effective attacks. Talonflame or Scizor in the last slot would help against fairies, lack of priority, and lopunny, so I'm kind of between them, but I'm wondering what other sets I can tighten up to really make this team strong.
Thanks for reading, I appreciate it a lot.
