Resource BDSP OU Sample Teams

igiveuponaname

A face in a cloud no trace in the crowd.
is a Community Contributor

Been meaning to post this team here for a while, just never got around to it until now I guess. Ever since Latios was banned there haven't been haven't been any DragMag teams posted here so I thought that I should post this team. I'm currently ranked 109 on the ladder as of the time that this is written, and I used this team to qualify for BDSP Ladder Tour during cycle 3. Also I'd like the thank the people on Discord for helping me build this team back in August, especially Xilefi, I appreciated the advice a lot.

Overview
It's DragMag. You want to be able to spam your Dragon STAB as much as possible, so you're going to want to get rid of Steel and Fairy types. You use Magnezone to trap Steel types and eliminate them, while also threatening huge damage on Fairy Types with Flash Cannon. Afterwards, you let your dragons run wild. The team is very offensive and tries to end games as quick as possible, so you're going to need to be smart with positioning your team members.

Team Members

:latias:: The team's primary breaker, Latias' specs Draco Meteor threatens pretty much everything that isn't a Fairy type, specially defensive Steel type, or Blissey and Slowking. Specs Psychic gives Latias a spammable STAB option to hit Fairy types and other Psychic-weak mons without the drawback of Draco Meteor. Surf is mainly on this set to hit Heatran, as even SpDef Heatran gets 2HKO'd by specs Surf after rocks. Surf also gives Latias an option to hit Tyranitar without dropping its SpAtk. Lastly, Sleep Talk is on this set to take advantage of Breloom's Spore which would otherwise greatly annoy this team.

:garchomp:: The team's cleaner, Scarf Garchomp's main role is to revenge kill faster threats and to clean up against a weakened team late game. Outrage and EQ hit everything not named Skarmory or Togekiss for at least neutral damage, and will be the moves of choice when you come in late game to clean up. Dual Chop is for a mid-game Dragon STAB option that breaks Focus Sash and Substitute while also avoiding being locked into the attack for multiple turns like Outrage. Fire Blast is to try and hit Steel types like Scizor and Skarmory on the switch so you can force them into an uncomfortable position of either trying to heal and let Magnezone come in for free or switch out to avoid getting trapped by Zone and not being able to take future hits as well.

:dragonite:: The team's sweeper, DDance Dragonite can easily break through teams after getting the opportunity to boost once or twice, so long as there isn't a healthy Clefable or Quagsire on the other team. Extreme Speed also gives the team some valuable priority, which can help against Weavile, as it dies to +1 ESpeed after rocks. Lum Berry is the item of choice to give Dragonite setup opportunities on mons like Rotom-Wash who would want to status Dragonite.

:magnezone:: Magnezone does Magnezone things. You try and bring it in with a double switch or U-turn on a steel type like Skarmory or Scizor coming in, and then proceed to KO them. Zone also provides the team a powerful STAB Flash Cannon to demolish Fairy Types, as well as pivoting with Volt Switch. Not much else to say about Magnezone really.

:jirachi:: The team's 'glue' so to speak, Jirachi provied many things for the team. It provides Stealth Rocks, safe pivoting with U-Turn, speed control with Thunder Wave, and a way to deter Fairy types from switching in a Dragon type attack with Doom Desire. It generally acts as a buffer between the opposing teams threats (mainly special attackers) and the rest of its teammates.

:azumarill:: The final member of the team, I wanted something that could handle Weavile yet still pose an offensive threat, so I chose Azumarill. I chose your standard Band Azu moveset, but with Facade over Superpower to let Azu be a threat even if it were to get burned. For its EVs, I chose to invest enough speed to outspeed uninvested Tyranitar and put the rest into HP so Azumarill could take hits slightly better.

Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1657585207
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1657587653


Please stop using this lmao
 
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Mew @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 56 HP / 252 SpA / 200 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Aura Sphere

Scizor @ Metal Coat
Ability: Technician
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- X-Scissor
- Brick Break

Porygon-Z @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Tri Attack
- Dark Pulse
- Hyper Beam

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Zen Headbutt
- Meteor Mash
- Healing Wish

Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Meteor Mash
- Extreme Speed

With BDSP being officially dead, I felt like sharing this team that I really enjoyed using when there was still some activity on the ladder. The inspiration for the team goes back to the Manaphy era where I saw how broken fat Manaphy + Scarf Hwish Jirachi was. So I wanted to capitalize on a similar strategy by pairing Scarf Rachi with what I consider the two best sweepers in the tier, Lucario and Scizor. They complement each other nicely and it was very easy to create an endgame where either one of them swept.

Porygon Z is a very underrated breaker in such a ghostless metagame, being able to easily spam Tri-attack and get kills. It helped me solo most stall teams with +2 Hyper Beam one-shotting Blissey. They failed to use the free turn to knock me out and I could just Hwish it back up and finish up from there. I also enjoyed Hyper Beam just one-shotting random mons from full and the free turn never really bothered me with 2 strong priority users on the team.

Latias has been an amazing glue. I found this set in a team dump somewhere and it has been incredibly effective at filling the holes in this team and providing valuable Thunder Wave support. Lastly, the Colbur 3 attack Mew lead has to be the x-factor. Not only it baited and took out Weaviles turn 1, but also it served as a pivot that could also pressure the opposing team. It served as a buffer against mons that gave Lucario/Scizor pair troubles like Gliscor, Donphan, Tran, and allowed me to adjust momentum my way. Aura Sphere'ing Trans, especially with Twave support/Tbolt damage from Lati often made it easy to take out Heatran for Scizor to clean up late game.

It has been fairly successful, helping me maintain #1 on the ladder for a while, although it was still a pretty inactive meta. But rather than the peak, what really made me feel like this team was solid was the fact that I was always confident in being able to take on and beat any squad while having an especially good match-up vs the standard volt turn BOs that populate the tier.

Ladder Peak (BDSP OU).png

 
7G.JPG


Moon Sliver Valley Balance

Silver (Suicune) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Acid Angel (Lucario) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed

Undying (Clefable) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Moonlight
- Calm Mind

Gold Leaf (Latias) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Healing Wish
- Defog

Drink Blood (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Giga Drain
- Nasty Plot
- Skill Swap

Crimson & Clover (Heatran) (M) @ Power Herb
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Solar Beam
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt

Peak c 7G.jpg


Sadly I only found my way back to PS 1,5 Weeks ago, in the very final stage of this meta. I'm honestly sad because I think this meta is very balanced and a lot of fun. This is the team I used to peak number 1 with on the ladder a couple of times the past few days. It is true balance, which isn't that common in this meta dominated by Bulky Offense and stall. It features Skillswap Nasty Plot Celebi, which beats stall by stealing Clef's unaware ability, can beat Flashfire Heatran, some Swiftswim Mons etc. It also features my favorite mon of all time: Suicune, Crocune Variant. Solarbeam Heatran removes or weakens common checks for Lucario and Suicune. Scarfed Healing Wish Latias can enable a second try if you messed up somewhere. The team is very good against most stall teams.

I think this team can handle any matchup, some very offensive teams rocking a lot of big guns can be very tough tho. Vs Voltturn it is important to establish a certain rythm in the first third of the match, then make a aggressive play that disrupts the rythm and shifts momentum. I usually do this with some sort of Heatran play. This team applies pressure best by "fake" setting up with any of the 4 mons that can do so and thus forcing a response which can be taken advantage of.

I hope fellow balance players can get as much joy out of playing this team as I did <3
 
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TyCarter

Tough Scene
is a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributor
Moderator
Mew + Nidoking Balance
:xy/Mew: :xy/Nidoking: :xy/Staraptor: :xy/Scizor: :xy/milotic: :xy/Clefable:
https://pokepast.es/63ec4be72b163076

This post was a long time coming. I designed this team for OLT and I was able to get pretty far with it during the ladder phase. I still play with this team a good bit whenever I feel like laddering. This is a team designed around Mew and Nidoking primarily who act as wall breakers with Staraptor thrown into the mix.

:mew: Mew's expert belt set serves to take advantage of the tremendous coverage it has access to and forces the opponent to try and scout out their moveset. Earthquake is there for Heatran who generally comes in on Mew for free and serves to delete Heatran instantly which I replaced over Focus Punch for those who remember me using it during OLT, it also instantly deletes Magnezone which flamethrower does not. Energy Ball beats water types primarily and Ice Beam hits a lot of things super effectively. Flamethrower is for Scizor mainly. Mew also has an extremely customizable moveset where it can change up the coverage it wants to run or even run Nasty Plot. Mew can also be a great attacking lead with this set since the opponent has to try and scout out its moveset. Ebelt also means opponents can not hope to simply let it wear itself down. This set, unfortunately, struggles against Unaware Clefable but this is where some of its teammates come in.

:Nidoking: Mixed Nidoking does what it does best which is to break bulky cores and force guesses from opponents. It's not the easiest thing to use or bring in but it is very rewarding when you can get it in on a double. Ice Beam is pretty self-explanatory, Sludge Wave OHKOs Clefable and Earth Power is reliable ground STAB. Focus Punch is mostly for Blissey which otherwise walls it. Unfortunately, Focus Punch requires prediction because Nidoking isn't able to get Superpower for some reason but it will allow Nidoking to kill Blissey with Sludge Wave afterward.

:Staraptor: The Choice Scarfer for this team that does a great job at revenge killing and punching holes into the opposition. It 2HKOs most clefable and gliscor variants and many offensive mons can not come in safely. However it's major flaw is that Staraptor will wear itself down over the course of a game and is best used as a cleaner. However, it can also be a good lead that can pivot to safely scout or dent a hole early on.

:Scizor: The team's primary Latias switch-in and defogger. While it is passive, it is there to pivot around a lot and occasionally pick off weakened mons at low health. It also serves as a defensive Zam check in some capacity.

:Milotic: I loved using this in UU where it acts as a good check to a lot of setup sweepers and in OU it can do that decently well. Given that Cosmic Power Clefable can threaten a lot of teams on Team Preview, Milotic is one way of dealing with it thanks to Haze, it's also ev'ed to outspeed Adamant Azumarill that has setup Belly Drum to stop its sweeps short. It also enables it to deal with slower setup sweepers like Suicune. It's also a good scald switch-in since getting burnt means activating Marvel Scale. It is one of two defensive glues on this team that can help win PP stall wars if needed.

:Clefable: The classic Unaware Clefable that has been a staple in this metagame forever. It is the rocker of this team and wish-tect is standard stuff. Clefable is mostly there to deal with the dragons of this tier like Dnite and Garchomp, it's the other glue of this team and can provide cleric support. to give teammates like Mew and Nidoking extra longevity on switches.

It's a decent team that is fairly easy to use but also rewards good prediction and aggressive switches. While there are a few things that threaten this team such as Lucario and Raikou, it's a team that can generally overcome most matchups if played right. This team is comfortable and easy enough to use for the most part.


Edit March 2023: With the current seasonal ongoing, for anyone who wants to use this team, Sludge Bomb over EQ for certain matchups on Mew is a pretty valid option since it lets you beat Clefable but gives you one less Heatran option and leftovers are an ok alternative item over ebelt although you may end up missing kills. Once again, the Mew was designed to be highly customizable.
 
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yonitet

Banned deucer.

ScizorGarchompTyranitarFlygon Bulky VoltTurnAzelfFlygonRotom

https://pokepast.es/1f26d8068873e06f
The premise of this team is a simple one. Garchomp breaks walls to let Flygon clean lategame. Of course, the team is much more complex in practice, but the general idea still stands as the concept for this team. This team is extremely strong at forcing in Heatran Switchins, and blowing up whatever swaps in.

ScizorScizor is an extremely important backbone of any VoltTurn team thanks to it's numerous useful resistances like Dragon, Psychic, and Fairy, making it a perfect partner for a Double-Dragon core. Specially Defensive Scizor is extremely key to handling many threats in the meta, supporting teammates, and revenge killing with Bullet Punch. As I'll get into later, Scizor isn't the defogger in the team, which lets it freely run the much more threatning Swords Dance and potentially sweep weakened teams lategame, or simply fire off incredibly strong U-Turns to keep up momentum for it's teammates.
GarchompGarchomp is the team's main wallbreaker, or rather - stallbreaker. With Substitute, Garchomp is capable of baiting Status from many prominent pokemon in the tier, like Rotom-Wash, Tangrowth and Heatran. The main use of SubChomp however, is setting up a substitute on a momentum losing play from the oponent; such as Wish + Protect. With a sub up, Garchomp is capable of beating even max physdef Clefable thank;s to poison jab's additional power and chance of poisoning. This also applies to walls like Tangrowth, who do not enjoy being poisoned as they rarely even have Leftovers at hand. With the deminishing popularity of Skarmory, this set is becoming more and more effective as a way to deal with bulky stall cores. As stated previously, the team's goal is to bait in Heatran, and destroy it. Garchomp is absolutely free to switch into Heatran, set up a Substitute and minimize prediction if the opponent still has a Ground immune pokemon in the back- such as Latias. Because of the lack of Swords Dance however, This garchomp can sometimes lack in power against certain walls like Milotic and Suicune, which is why it's Adamant in nature.

TyranitarTyranitar is the team's main backbone against special attacks, and is a generally great damage spunge that deals great damage back. Tyranitar's goal on the team is to spread residual damage with Stealth Rocks and Sandstorm, while also having the benefit of scaring out every form of hazard control in the tier. Not a single form of OU hazard control can contest Tyranitar's Stealth Rocks, as Togekiss, Gliscor, Dragonite and Donphan are all dropped by an invested Ice Beam, Starmie and Latias are deathly scared of Crunch, and Scizor and Skarmory fear Fire Blast. Sandstorm is an extremely key aspect of the team, as a majoraty of the members are immune to it, and nullifying leftovers recovery on walls like Milotic geatly helps in breaking them down.

AzelfAzelf is arguably the most important member of the team. Using a uniquely constructed set, Azelf can support its fellow wallbreakers with Future Sight barrages. Fire Blast lets Azelf easily dispach of the tier's most common Psychic resist: Scizor, and U-Turn lets it keep momentum against potential switchins like Crawdaunt, and of course; Heatran. Protect Lets Azelf scout out the intentons of Choice Locked pokemon, rack up leftovers recovery, and use up turns until the arrival of Future Sight. Future Sight also helps out greatly with the support of the team. No Fighting type will want to swap into Tyranitar with a FS up, and Breloom will not dare switch into Rotom-Wash. Future Sight makes many pokemon that generally handle the team well into sacrafices. Clefable can generally deal with the team alright, but with a future sight up, both it and Gliscor fear swapping into Garchomp and Flygon.
FlygonFlygon is the team's main pivoter and revenge killer. U-Turn lets it easily handle Psychic Types like Alakazam, Latias and Starmie, while keeping momentum and potentially chaining the U-Turn into a Volt Switch from Rotom-Wash. It easily revenge kills setup threats like Feraligatr, Lucario and Dragonite thank;s to it's great Scarf Speed tier. It's Immunity to Ground, Stealth Rock and Fire resistence also makes it a great switchin to Heatran whos capable of grabbing momentum off whatever the opponent might go. With Future Sight support from Azelf, It can break walls like Clefable, Gliscor and Tangrowth, while also forcing Skarmory to roost. Since Skarmory and Togekiss are quite rare, this Flygon is opted to use Defog on it's last slot, letting it get more than just a U-Turn off if the situation calls it.
RotomRotom Wash is a classic in VoltTurn teams. It's defensive profile lets it effortlessly swap into many pokemon that threaten to annhilate this team. With a bulky spread, its easily capable of staving off even monsters as strong as Garchomp, Azumarill, and Feraligatr. Will-O-Wisp is used to let it more safely pivot into teammates. For example; Garchomp can safely set up a Substitute on a burnt Scizor without having the sub broken. Same applies with pokemon like Breloom which can usually give this archetype a lot of trouble.

Peak: (used to be higher but didn't screenshot :( ) This is rn

1663556316538.png


Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1667698414
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1667690503-ii7u9cn2fxap9ge0a45oji00tg6fzd9pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1667512003
 
Thanks for the new samples!!!

I have a suggestion for a tiny improvement. In "Entei Offense by Savouras", Scizor instead of

EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 SpD
Careful Nature

should have

EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
Impish Nature

as it yields all stats the same but 1 more point in Def.
 
I don't want to criticize the decision and also don't want to ride TyCarter s dick in any way or fashion but I think Mew + Nidoking Balance should be posted in the sample teams as it can't be overstated how intuitive it is to play and how easy it is for an intermediate player to learn and make progress with it. It's members also teach a great way on different aspects of this meta like the viability of "surprising" versatile sets like the mew or the defensive core the team can fall back on if things look grim.

I also rly like Psyspam + Defensive Shaymin by dex (I may or may not have gotten my ass beaten by it twice lmao) and Specs Heatran by Savouras
 
I don't want to criticize the decision and also don't want to ride TyCarter s dick in any way or fashion but I think Mew + Nidoking Balance should be posted in the sample teams as it can't be overstated how intuitive it is to play and how easy it is for an intermediate player to learn and make progress with it. It's members also teach a great way on different aspects of this meta like the viability of "surprising" versatile sets like the mew or the defensive core the team can fall back on if things look grim.

I also rly like Psyspam + Defensive Shaymin by dex (I may or may not have gotten my ass beaten by it twice lmao) and Specs Heatran by Savouras
We considered that team for the samples but main thing with sample teams is that you want well structured, overall consistent teams that will be able to perform decent in most scenarios with as little surprise factor as possible and ideally to have tournament usage or overall being used by the players of the tier. The tycarter team we felt lacked in some of these like for example how difficult it is if u expecting the focus punches to break through blissey defensive cores and in general how much this mew set relies on surprise factor. Overall its a great team, i use it myself but we didn't feel its a right pick for the samples. Might reconsider if it gets too popular for upcoming samples
 
We considered that team for the samples but main thing with sample teams is that you want well structured, overall consistent teams that will be able to perform decent in most scenarios with as little surprise factor as possible and ideally to have tournament usage or overall being used by the players of the tier. The tycarter team we felt lacked in some of these like for example how difficult it is if u expecting the focus punches to break through blissey defensive cores and in general how much this mew set relies on surprise factor. Overall its a great team, i use it myself but we didn't feel its a right pick for the samples. Might reconsider if it gets too popular for upcoming samples
thank you for elaborating on that. I think I wasn't fully aware of all of your criteria and totally agree on the focus punch point.
 
Inspired by older gens where Phasing used to be a crucial part of the meta Introduce u to the hazards team. Peaked 1650s with it. In my testing it does well versus all playstyles, HO, Offense, Balance and even yes the Copy pasta Stall:

HAZARD SAND PHASING (and burn)
Ze Team: https://pokepast.es/109b4f58bd4a1a5d

Replays of destroying copy pasta stall: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1672854851-qruyns4roglp3a3clvnjhzxqwj3bwexpw


User/abuser of Roar has Plume to spread burns, enough speed evs to deal with Breloom an opposing Tran. Flash Fire to help with Skarmory. Protect for Leftovers and potential hp chip from burn and sand.


Bread and butter of the team as well the glue that keeps it together from many treats. Stealth Rock and Ground / electric immunity. Spams knock off for days and with protect it can stall Rotom-wash for hydro's making it much more predictable especially if its scarfed. It has lots of spdef evs to tank a hit from standard Rotom wash, so with Protect u can easily activate toxic orb + rocks without risking burn too much damage. be careful with offensive rotom wash as that thing still obliterates Gliscor. Also with the amount of passive damage in sand and burns protects let u chip away at the opponents HP creating great Synergy there.


Bulky starmie rapid spin. Enough speed to outspeed Garchomp, dropped the speed as I have Scarf TTar for speed tiers that bulky starmie at the usual 352 speed deals with. Lowered to speed to invest in bulk as even with 352 and everything in bulk I feel like starmie is still too squishy. And even at the evs I use its still faster than most treats and stuff that are faster don't kill it especially now it can tank hits from u-turn Infernape. Natural cure is also very handy. Also another burn spreader with Scald


Pink blob Unaware CM sweeper Clef. Wish Protect to provide aditional healing should the team need it as well as the deadly CM which ends games. Due to hazards stacking and roars, checks to clef such as tran get often quite chipped allowing this blob to cleanup alot of games.


I love this mon. Anyway as u can see this team is quite slow and you would think looking from the line up it has a hard time switching into the 350+ special attackers such as Specs lati/starmie or has trouble dealing reliably dealing with gliscor. In comes Scarf Ttar. With SR or sand it 1hko Latias dealing 97.6% MINIMUM to it and offensive Starmie or dealing 94% min to bulky max hp 0 defense starmie. Gliscor is a switchin? Not anymore as Beam is a guarenteed 2hko after poison heal and with Scarf no more outspeeding roosting (or it has to carry the niche protect set). Beam + Neutral Spatk Nature is preferred at ttar can stay in on gliscor and 2hko and tank an EQ, Neutral Sptak nature as with 4evs it guarenteed 2HKO while with (-)Nature its a 85,9% roll
4 SpA Tyranitar Ice Beam vs. 244 HP / 244 SpD Gliscor: 240-284 (68.1 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Poison Heal
Sand+ SR needs little to kill for the slower bulky Starmie with decent odds: 252 Atk Tyranitar Crunch vs. 252 HP / 44 Def Starmie: 290-344 (89.5 - 106.1%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
Close to OHKO chompers: 4 SpA Tyranitar Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Garchomp: 284-336 (79.5 - 94.1%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
Outspeeding+killing Latias: 252 Atk Tyranitar Crunch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Latias: 290-344 (96.3 - 114.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
Tangrowth rolls:
4- SpA Tyranitar Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Tangrowth: 192-228 (47.5 - 56.4%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after sandstorm damage and Leftovers recovery
4 SpA Tyranitar Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Tangrowth: 214-254 (52.9 - 62.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage and Leftovers recovery

SCARF TTAR IS underrated, eventhough it benefits from the surprise factor. Aside from the few treats to this team (see "Threats!!" below) its has quite some natural bulk to take most hits even with a -spdef nature (as sandstream makes still gives it a respectable 300+ spdef with its high base hp) and the def is nice to take EQs in 1v1 scenarios with a healthy Gliscor. As I said earlier, Scarf TTar benefits crazy from all the chip damage it teammates provides allowing it to clean up in the end game as suddenly everything gets into range of Scarf TTars attacks. Mon's that usually scare out TTar like Gliscor and Garchomp (non scarf, but if scarf team provides switchins + knock off support for it) are now instead being scared out of it by it and if the suprise factor is still there just faint in front of TTar.

Also forgot to mention TTar even has it's own Passive damage spreading every time it comes in with SAND stream. On top of Burn, it suddenly can drop mons HP like crazy if no sand immunity.



What do I need to say about this thing. Physical wall, Spikes whirlwind. Roost is mandatory and Although i would love to pair protect in its set Brave Birb Bird is too crucial imo.

Treats!!:
This team doesnt like treats that carry strong water moves and coverage to beat the only water resist in the team Starmie, such as:
Offensive starmie: Tbolt, Beam, Hydro is rlly hard for this team to pivot around, it basically relies on ttar revenge killing. This thing basically 6-0s the team. Clef is A check and even tho the team isnt that vulernerable to hazards SR i particular, it does not like switching into a SR analytic boosted life orb hydro.
Offensive Rotom-wash: Similar reason to starmie, not many reliable ways to switch into its water stab and electric combo. If its choices it can be worked around, but these sets carry trick so if not on a protect team member could be hard to pivot around.
Feraligatr Adamant lifeorb: Jolly feraligatr? just throw clef into it, but Adamant and it still has life orb with rocks up? Clef doesnt like that and Skarmory gets chunked after one DD boost and is forced to phase it out, leaving quite a chunk into Skarms HP. If its in on Gliscor for this reason even tho its slower I always recommend knocking its life orb so clef can deal with it.​
 
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igiveuponaname

A face in a cloud no trace in the crowd.
is a Community Contributor
The generation ends in little over a week so I figured I'd drop one last team here that I've had a lot of fun using and let me reach the top of the BDSP OU ladder.
peak.PNG

Future Sight + Heracross Balance
:ss/heatran: :ss/heracross: :ss/clefable: :ss/garchomp: :ss/scizor: :ss/slowbro:
https://pokepast.es/cb1f03bd2c37a3e5

Overview
Heracross with Future Sight support from Slowbro is capable of smashing through most, if not all, defensive cores in the tier, which lets SD Garchomp run wild once its defensive counters are gone. The rest of the team is there to help support and enable that core idea.


Team Members


:heracross:: The team's big breaker, it can already cleave through many teams defensive cores alone. Even offensive mons who are slower than Heracross get smashed hard, letting it have some sort of use against any team with a bulky wall or slow pivot. Being able to destroy Slowbro and Tangrowth with Megahorn, as well as being able to cleanly 2HKO Skarmory with CC and Clefable with Facade makes it easier for Garchomp to sweep late game. It can have trouble against more offensive teams, however, and can be straight up deadweight against full blown HO.

:slowbro:: Heracross' favourite partner on the team, Future Sight Slowbro is a great pivot that enables its wallbreaking capabilities even further. Future Sight also helps in breaking Heracross' best answer on stall, the (albeit rare) Neutralizing Gas Weezing. Being able to counter and check a lot of physical attackers in the tier, namely Infernape, Staraptor, and Garchomp, while healing with Regenerator is also really nice for this team. Calm Mind lets Slowbro bolster its weaker SpDef stat to let it help check more mons in the tier while also letting it become a potent win condition in its own right.

:garchomp:: The main beneficiary of Heracross' breaking potential, SD LO Garchomp is the team's late game sweeper. Stone Edge was chosen as a fourth move after SD + STAB moves in order to hit Togekiss which Garchomp would otherwise have trouble with, and the team can already pressure Skarmory plenty enough with Heatran, Heracross' CC, and CM Slowbro. In longer games where it gets worn down moreso by Life Orb recoil rather than opposing attacks, it appreciates WIsh support from Clefable.

:clefable:: Another good partner for Heracross on this team, Clefable's Wish support give Heracross and Garchomp longevity that they would otherwise lack. Thunder Wave support helps Heracross outspeed mons it would otherwise get outsped and KO'd by, such as Heatran and Latias. Also serves as a check/counter to most setup sweepers.

:scizor:: SpDef Scizor for dealing with Latias and Zam, while also providing Defog support with U-turn pivoting to bring Heracross and Garchomp in as safely as possible. Bullet Punch gives the team some priority to pick off faster threats. Pretty standard stuff.

:heatran:: The team's rocker, standard SpDef Heatran sort of stuff. Flash Fire was chosen to deal with opposing Heatran better and totally not because I forgot to change it to Flame Body originally. Still provides pressure with Magma Storm and Taunt.


Weaknesses

:Nidoking:: Nothing on the team really wants to take a hit from Nidoking, and Garchomp is the only team member that outspeeds and threatens it. Definitely requires some good positioning in order to prevent it from getting in for free. Slowbro can deal with it if it already has a Calm Mind set up once Nidoking (without Thunderbolt) comes in however.

:Starmie: (with Thunderbolt): Starmie without Thunderbolt can be dealt with rather easily by a healthy Slowbro. But a Starmie that carries Thunderbolt can be quite the threat, and needs to be played around carefully with some good pivoting.

:azumarill:: Once it reveals the set it can be handled quite easily, but it can be a threat before it does so. Clefable doesn't want to switch into Choice Band while Slowbro doesn't want to give Belly Drum a free turn to setup.

:rotom-wash:: More of an annoyance than an actual threat to the team, Trick Scarf shenanigans can be annoying for the team since nothing really wants to be tricked a Scarf.

Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1706897148-my7kl5ay7qfyu8j5bplxgdzvrhh2lb8pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1706623085-fh89t4pcm519jzi84okra8g9uuyja9fpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1695567471-u5lnh94xhyvffke0673b6q1nu34f0irpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1688191835-m0jvpnvdr72kwp66tsywyb47lxaotpopw (could have played this one better)

morbing.PNG

 
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I Have a Team of my own, Its not very type diverse, but it was in my first platinum run as an 8 year old, so cut be some slack.
Emporer (Empoleon) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Defiant
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Grass Knot
- Surf
- Ice Beam
Obliterate everything in existence

Toxis (Gliscor) (F) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Acrobatics
- Swords Dance
Swords Dancer

Steelsands (Steelix) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Rock Head
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Dragon Tail
- Head Smash
- Gyro Ball
- Double-Edge
A Steelix

Alakaboom (Alakazam) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Focus Blast
- Future Sight
- Dazzling Gleam
- Energy Ball
A fast sweeper

King of Carry (Nidoking) @ Quick Claw
Ability: Sheer Force
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
- Focus Punch
- Shadow Claw
Pure Coverage is the name of the game

Reaper of Souls (Dusknoir) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
- Trick Room
He's a Trick Room Sweeper
 
Wanted to build around Aggron, ended up winning a tournament set with it.


Para Spam Aggron Volt/Turn BO

:ss/Nidoking: :ss/Blissey: :ss/Rotom-Wash: :ss/Zapdos: :ss/Aggron: :ss/Infernape:
https://pokepast.es/10a8d0b6762a50b8



Overview
Aggron is an underexplored sweeper in BDSP with rock polish and speed investment allowing it to wipe most of its would-be checks off the face of the map. The combination of thunder-wave and discharge/static from Zapdos slow down offensive threats to the team such as Lati and opposing physical Infernapes to allow Nidoking and our own Infernape to break cores to the point of allowing Aggron to rock polish up and clean with its hard-hitting coverage.


Team Members

:Nidoking:: Nidoking is a notoriously difficult mon to switch in on in BDSP. Guessing correctly can either claim KO's or force the opponent to play defensively. This set is standard quadruple special coverage, though 4 Attack naïve nature with focus punch over flame is an acceptable switch to punish Blissey switch-in without doubling to Infernape. It's primary role is to threaten physical walls that might feel safe coming in on Infernape to weaken them for the Aggron sweep.

:Blissey:: A relatively reliable rocker, Blissey may be a momentum loss but stops Alakazam from completely running over the team. Despite being a para spam team this set does not run T-wave but rather healing wish to revive crucial mons depending on the matchup. Most often this is Infernape as it does not appreciate coming in on rocks and killing itself with flare blitzes, though you could just as easily store it for later or revive Nidoking or one of the electric walls, namely the recovery-lacking Rotom-wash.

:Rotom-wash:: One of the most standard pivots in the tier and for good reason. Electric typing with ground immunity serves this team well given the amount of ground-weak mons and lack of fire resist. Thunder-wave is not as common as wisp on defensive washtoms but is a crucial move on this team as rotom so often allows in Latias, giving rotom the ability to slow it down and volt switch out to Blissey before it attacks rather than hard switching and having the opponent predict the incoming Blissey. Protect is an excellent scouting option that also allows rotom to heal from leftovers and stall weather turns. The 8 speed EVs will allow it to outspeed Crawdaunt while investing as much in physical bulk as possible to compensate for the other rocks-weak physical wall on the team.

:Zapdos:: While not as common in BDSP as it is in SwSh due to the lack of heavy duty boots, defensive Zapdos is still a reliable pivot and utility mon. A high base speed allows Zapdos to outspeed jolly Breloom with little investment and punish it by threatening to paralyze it with discharge or static contact. Being speedy also allows Zapdos to quickly u-turn out after defogging on switch-ins that Zapdos cannot touch like Gliscor or Blissey.

:Aggron:: You should not bring Aggron out until mid-game at the earliest, but once it is in, and it can set up on a respectable amount of the meta, Aggron instantly becomes very threatening to many teams, even if their checks are still healthy due to its powerful dual stab and earthquake coverage. Usually, you will be setting up on the likes of Clefable, Scizor, Blissey, Azelf, Jirachi, Celebi, and occasionally Latias (especially after it draco's something else) or even Staraptor if it's not locked into Close Combat. 204 speed EVs allows Aggron to outspeed the likes of Alakazam after a rock polish and begin threatening KOs. I'll leave some calcs below.

252+ Atk Life Orb Aggron Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tangrowth: 192-227 (47.5 - 56.1%) -- 82.8% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Aggron Head Smash vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 211-250 (53.6 - 63.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Aggron Head Smash vs. 244 HP / 132+ Def Gliscor: 211-250 (59.9 - 71%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Poison Heal
252+ Atk Life Orb Aggron Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cresselia: 265-313 (59.6 - 70.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Aggron Head Smash vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 214-253 (70.6 - 83.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Aggron Head Smash vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Mew: 224-265 (55.5 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Life Orb Aggron Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Latias: 270-320 (89.7 - 106.3%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO


:Infernape:: Banded Infernape is a great way to gain momentum in a game and keep opponents trapped in volt/turn hell. Banded u-turns, blitzes and close combats primarily weaken checks to Nidoking and Aggron, and punish paralyzed Latias hard. It is also the offensive check for offensive threats to the team like Weavile and Breloom, making it the most common benefactor of Healing Wish. Due to an otherwise general lack of priority and speed on the team without setup, I would not recommend losing mach punch for thunder punch coverage.


Weaknesses

:Weavile:: While Weavile does not want to lock into crash vs. rotom or throat chop vs. zapdos, it still forces an uncomfortable position as rotom lacks recovery and infernape lacks bulk.

:Alakazam:: Both faster than every member of the team and able to apply serious pressure, especially with life orb psyshock sets since Blissey will not appreciate this.

:Mamoswine:: Keep rotom alive. Just keep it alive at all costs.

:Breloom:: While both Infernape and Nidoking outspeed and threaten to KO it, you should be careful to not allow it to come in on the likes of Blissey or Rotom. Zapdos will almost always beat it due to its resistance of both STAB but you will likely have to sac something to spore in order for it to win the 1v1.


TL;DR: spread paralysis, get chip, and don't miss head smash with Aggron.
 
This team took a game in both of my sets of the BDSP LCQ Finals so I thought it was worthy of being posted.


Fire Water Grass + Dragon Spam

:ss/Heatran: :ss/Kingdra: :ss/Celebi: :ss/Donphan: :ss/Dragonite: :ss/Scizor:
https://pokepast.es/16d0668bef4eef2e


Overview
FWG (fire water grass) has always been a solid core in Pokemon due to both defensive and offensive synergies. This team focuses mainly on their offensive synergy and sweeping power of two very powerful dragons in BDSP - one more explored, the other less so - and either breaking with one to enable the other to sweep or just flat out sweeping upon setup.


Team Members

:Heatran:: On team preview, the opponent will most likely not be able to tell what Heatran's set is on this team as both sp. def investment, taunt, offensive or even choiced offensive can potentially fill this slot. Sub + 3 attack has probably been my favourite Heatran set in all of BDSP due to it's ability to force out so many Pokemon and being behind a set lets you stay in freely on Gliscor to scout for speed investment.

Flash cannon is mostly to deal with aura sphere Togekiss without risking a miss but feel free to run taunt as Heatran will beat fairy types any day of the weak anyway and this will further enable the weakening of threats like Blissey or Slowking.

:Kingdra:: Despite the sniper set being the obvious choice from team preview, sniper Kingdra still fits well into the current BDSP meta and is capable of muscling through almost any team other than full stall. Often times you might not even need to double dance, as agility will help you break through or at least weaken offensive teams and focus energy is often all that is needed for fatter/balance teams. Kingdra also has a good defensive typing and natural bulk that allow it to freely set up in front of the likes of Heatran, Rotoms, offensive water types (especially choice-locked ones), and even Clefable, as a sniper crit Hydro Pump has a 93.8% chance to OHKO standard phys. def sets and Moonblast will do max 83%.

:Celebi:: Standard scarf Celebi set tbh. Gains momentum, baits in Heatran, deals damage with leaf storm, cleans up weakened teams with psychic but mostly provides healing wish support to this team. Often times I will set up with Kingdra early to break and once it's either weakened or status'd healing wish into it to allow it to set up again and sweep.

:Donphan:: Ol' reliable. Tanks physical hits for days, gets up hazards and is one of 2 hazard removers for the team. Knock is also crucial for removing choice scarfs from Washtoms who might come in on it so that they cannot trick Kingdra or Dnite when they try to set up.

:Dragonite:: Another standard set, but one that the meta can never forget. Thanks to the amount of support for removing hazards or healing wish Dnite will likely always be healthy on this team, enabling it to do the Dnite thing and setup late-game to sweep. Outrage/EQ/Espeed offers good coverage and does not let Weavile revenge kill it after it takes rocks damage.

:Scizor:: Yet another standard set, this one being sp. def Sciz. While not the best defogger in the tier, it checks Alakazam and Latias which would otherwise pulverize the team and can be sac'd for a defog that will allow a Dragonite sweep. The team also lacks strong momentum moves and even defensive Scizor punishes a good amount of switch-ins with u-turn chip and can allow them to be forced out by one of the many threats on the team.


Weaknesses

:Nidoking:: Very hard to switch into for this team. You can pivot around into something that will force it out like Celebi but otherwise you'd really hate to see it. If Nido is not flame that scizor can kind of check it but not really because it's Nidoking.

:Blissey:: Blissey is very hard to kill on this team, especially on a full stall team since they can always pivot into checks for Dnite or not allow themselves to take knock off or EQ chip from Donphan. Best way of dealing with it is chipping and keeping rocks up so it can be 2hko'd by draco crits or changing the Heatran set to taunt to be able to keep it low.

:Azumarill:: Keep Celebi very very healthy when you see this thing. BD Azu has potential to 6-0 this team easily.

Honorable mentions to things that are annoying.

:Clefable:: Unaware Clef will literally always check Dnite but you can dance in front of it with Kingdra and hope you hit a hydro for the OHKO.

:Heatran:: Not really that offensively threatening but fast taunt heatran can stop setups and switch to something that will wall one of the dragons if they aren't boosted. If you know it's taunt just attack it right away so you can try to set up later.


TL;DR: Annoy things with Heatran, use one dragon to break and the other to sweep or just do both with the same one thanks to healing wish. Also I'm not proof-reading this so if you see a typo or grammar error that's on you for being a try-hard.
 
With the next OU tour looking to be in August and my time in PL over, I figured I'd dump some teams that I had built. I wanted to talk about my thought process for each of the teams at least a little, so this post will be extremely long, since there are 9 different teams here. Think of this as 9 consecutive mini-RMTs. The teams will be listed in chronological order from when I had built the team, click the mons to see the Pokepaste

S/o fellow morbers (igiveuponaname Skitty (Skittyrox) Boopi_Bappi Alley Cat Xilefi TyCarter) for playing and testing w/ me even when BDSP OU didn't have a ladder and only we played all those months :sphearical:

Pert Tar Balance:
:tyranitar: :breloom: :scizor: :latias: :rotom-wash: :swampert:

One of the first teams I had built for OU (alongside the Choice Band Tyranitar teams from the previous post), I wanted to build teams with Tyranitar, on a whim. The set I gave it was the Offensive Stealth Rocker, so I thought of Pokemon that supported Tyranitar well. Tyranitar is nice since it's a Stealth Rock setter that threatens common Defoggers (Scizor and Gliscor) with a 4x super effective attack. I personally don't like Fire Blast's miss chance, but getting the OHKO on Scizor is very nice to have.

First I wanted a Water and Ground-resist, so I went with Poison Heal Breloom. With Poison Heal, Breloom still heals in Sandstorm and becomes a serious nuisance to defensive teams. Breloom is EV'd to outrun Adamant Azumarill and fire off its powerful STAB Seed Bomb. The rest of its EVs are used to enhance its bulk. This makes it very good at taking advantage of opposing Gliscor:
0 Atk Gliscor Earthquake vs. 108 HP / 8 Def Breloom: 61-72 (21.1 - 25%) -- possible 7HKO after Poison Heal
0 Atk Gliscor U-turn vs. 108 HP / 8 Def Breloom: 58-69 (20.1 - 23.9%) -- possible 8HKO after Poison Heal
Additionally, Breloom being Poison Heal means that Rotom-Wash detests seeing it, and it can outrun and hit it with the super effective STAB move to boot. Thus, teams that use Gliscor and Rotom-Wash to pivot around will find themselves in an uncomfortable situation when dealing with Breloom.

With Tyranitar holding Leftovers instead of an item that helps it check opposing Alakazam, I knew I'd need backup to deal with it and Weavile. Scizor was the most condense solution, while also providing a Fairy-resist for Tyranitar and Breloom to fall back on. Unfortunately, it being a defensive set means that if I face off vs a Calm Mind Clefable, things can get hairy, but with the combination of Breloom's Spore and passive damage, I feel that can be played around.

I also wanted more of an instant threat for this team, so I went with Specs Latias. Its resistances were helpful to have, as it was a secondary Water, Ground, and Fire resist, and also provided a nice resistance to Fighting. What's more, it responded with offense, instead of ceding momentum to the opponent.

For speed control, I went with Scarf Rotom-Wash. It can provide switches to my team with Volt Switch, and also had Will-O-Wisp to continue putting on passive damage on the opponent. When I played this team on the ladder, I'd frequently just throw out Scarfed Wisps just to burn opposing threats for my team to capitalize on. For instance, burning an opposing Garchomp switch benefits Breloom and Scizor since they can take its attacks better.

Finally, I wanted a Ground-type so that I could absorb Electric moves from the opponent. I didn't want to leave myself too weak to Clefable and didn't want to use two teams that had Tyranitar, Scizor, Rotom-Wash and Gliscor, I tried Swampert as the last Pokemon and it went OK. I think its slot could definitely be improved, as I don't really need two Stealth Rock setters on this team. Scald, Earthquake, and Protect are all fine moves to have, but sometimes I kinda wish I had Roar so that I could force residual damage on the opponent while also recovering some on my own.

The Breloom set on its own became one of my favorites, and this was one of my favorite teams to use for a while now. It doesn't have the sheer breaking power my other teams have, but it allows me to play more methodical and break down the opposing team with passive damage and smart switching.

Lead Aerodactyl Hyper Offense:
:aerodactyl: :crawdaunt: :lucario: :blastoise: :dragonite: :jirachi:

Probably the most evil team here, you need only see this to see why:

1689629245816.png

The idea of a Life Orb Crawdaunt in Tailwind probably still appears in the nightmares of the morbers that it has been unleashed upon. I would apologize to them but they've been banned from Smogon. Some would say the trauma from facing this led to their deterioration, leading them do an oopsie and become a banned deucer.

Anyway, this team is so bad into Clefable that it's legit a MU fish. I thought Lucario would be the savior into Clef that I needed but it just didn't mesh with Crawdaunt, Dragonite, and Blastoise. Maybe Doom Desire on Jirachi or something should be used to remedy that.

Wish Spam Balance:
:jirachi: :heatran: :clefable: :garchomp: :staraptor: :mantine:

At some point I got it into my head that Jirachi was the second-worst mon in OU (behind Donphan) and wanted to build around it to see how it would fare. I thus started with Wish Calm Mind Jirachi to see what it could do. I deliberated about its last move and ultimately decided on Energy Ball for... some reason. Thunderbolt is probably just better overall but I guess I really hated Rotom-Wash for some reason.

I then went with Specially Defensive Heatran so that it check opposing Clefable (since this Jirachi kinda thuds into Unaware Clef) and scout for Ghost coverage on opposing Psychic types. Additionally, it would benefit from Jirachi passing it Wishes so that it could stay healthy throughout the battle.

With two Steel types, I wanted recourse against Ground moves. I decided upon Wish Clefable so that I would have double Wish support and also to be a good check into Garchomp and SD Gliscor. Flamethrower was the last move so that I could smack Scizor, though with Heatran and Jirachi's support, it honestly isn't that bad. I just wasn't sure about Calm Mind in the last slot and didn't know what else to put onto it.

Next, I wanted speed control, so I just went with Scarf Garchomp. This one is mixed and has Fire Blast for Skarmory and Scizor, but in hindsight something like Poison Jab or Iron Head for Fairies is better since as it is, Banded Azumarill is a massive problem for this team. Other than that, the moves are standard.

For some power, I wented with Band Staraptor. This thing is ludicrously strong, and only needs to come in one or two times to be a menace. In theory, I can pass Wish to it if I think my opponent will click Ground moves on Jirachi, but Staraptor is so frail that I've never attempted to do so. It's good to have to support my core that otherwise struggles with dealing immediate damage.

I realized that my last slot put me in a predicament: I needed a Water resist, and also hazard removal. After experimentation with Starmie and Blastoise, I took the suggestion of a friend and went with Mantine, who's probably the biggest meme on this team. It's a good Wish recipient, and it's annoying to handle, though looking back, Defog Latias is a better replacement that isn't Stealth Rock weak, and also gets its weak matchup to Steel and Fairy alleviated by Heatran.

This team is really annoying for the opponent to break through, especially if their strategy relies on breaking through Heatran with repeated attackers or something like Calm Mind Latias. However, Mantine's presence (and the overall team construction) leaves me hesistant to call it the most consistent team here.

Mismagius Hazard Stack Balance:
:hippowdon: :roserade: :raikou: :scizor: :mismagius: :starmie:

The goal of this team was to lay down hazards and let my abusers go to work. I wanted to use Hippowdon as my Stealth Rocker, since it had great longevity with Slack Off and set up Sandstorm to complement the hazards that I would be throwing down. It's not fully Physically Defensive, since I had heard that giving it some Special Defense gave it some flexibility in taking Special attacks, and the 4 moves are fairly explanatory. Maybe I could've dropped Whirlwind for something like Ice Fang for Gliscor, but Whirlwind was fine for me.

To complement Hippowdon, I went with Roserade since it was a good Water-resist that also sets up Spikes. I went with a bulkier set on it so that it could take various attacks throughout the game. Aside from Sleep, Spikes, and Sludge Bomb, I went with Leech Seed as the last move since it pairs well with Sludge Bomb while forcing more passive damage on the opponent, as well as providing Roserade (and the rest of the team) some form of recovery.

Next, I wanted something that abused the Spikes that I would set down. From what understanding I had of old gens, the two best ways to abuse Spikes were Electric moves (since they target Flying-types), and Pokemon carrying switch moves. Fortunately, because Volt Switch exists, many Electric types can do both at the same time. I went with Specs Raikou since it's the fastest Electric type available (outside of Scarfed Pokemon). I could run Leftovers on it instead of Specs so that I could actually switch moves while staying in, but Specs Volt Switch is also fine to work with.

I also needed something for Weavile and Alakazam, so Scizor was a natural addition here. Its U-turn is also good for taking advantage of Spikes in the same way Volt Switch does for Raikou.

Now, spinblocking in BDSP OU is not common since there aren't great spinblockers to Starmie (not to mention that Defog is far more common), but I wanted to experiment with Scarf Mismagius as my speed control since it has a nice speed tier (outruns Garchomp and base 100 Scarfers) and its Levitate ability gives me both a Ground immunity and lets it play in Spikes wars more courageously. Its last move is kinda up for debate; I went Energy Ball so that the team doesn't get super messed up by Crawdaunt, who doesn't care about Shadow Ball or Mystical Fire.

Finally, I wanted hazard control to support the bulkier Pokemon on the team. I didn't want to use Defog on Scizor since that would also remove the Spikes I wanted to set on my opponent's side of the field. Thus, that meant using Rapid Spin, and the best spinner in the game was Starmie. I tweaked with Starmie's EVs for a while. At first I made it bulky, then I made it more offensive. In the end, it leans mostly offensive with a touch of bulk and it is fine.

Overall, this team can put a lot of pressure on the opponent, but can struggle with bulky setup sweepers since the team lacks a real wallbreaker, but it more so relies on hazards to make up for that. As a result, stuff like Gliscor can be annoying for this team but it isn't something that cannot be overcome (especially since Gliscor is generally passive enough to where it can be played around).

Sand Semi-Stall:
:hippowdon: :tyranitar: :starmie: :skarmory: :breloom: :latias:

I wanted to run a more defensive Sand team that used the ultra-bulky Hippowdon to stand in the way of opposing physical attackers. I wanted to use Hippowdon again since it was super bulky and was super reliable, though on this team, it wasn't supporting threatening attackers that played off its Sandstorm and hazards as well.

Next, I added Tyranitar to act as a sceondary Sand setter. It also uses the offensive Rocks set, but I figured that with Hippo being the Rocker, Tyranitar had an open team slot which I used for Thunder Wave. It also holds a Chople Berry so that it can take Alakazam's Focus Blast and paralyze it. Funnily enough, this Tyranitar is only fast enough to outrun min Speed Scizor, so it will still get outrun by paralyzed Alakazam. That's probably an area where I could move EVs around to improve Tyranitar's efficacy.

The rest of the team are just Pokemon that I thought would fit well with Sandstorm. To a degree, I was correct, but my emphasis on giving the team longevity in Sandstorm made it passive and unable to check certain threats in the late game (for instance, that's why Latias is Scarf instead of something that would be more threatening). Starmie is hazard control and a Water-resist in one slot, Specially Defensive Skarmory is my primary Weavile and Alakazam check while also setting Spikes, Specially Defensive Bulk Up Breloom is meant to boost through slower teams and also annoy Rotom-Wash, and Scarf Latias is the all-in-one check to opposing attackers that the team desperately needs. In particular, earlier iterations of this team got ripped apart by 4 attacks Azelf and I realized that the team was a bit too passive.

Overall, the team has many points where it can be improved (namely Tyranitar, Starmie, and Breloom to an extent), and isn't the team I immediately reach to when choosing a team to load.

Life Orb Starmie Offense:
:starmie: :scizor: :empoleon: :alakazam: :garchomp: :nidoqueen:

The first half of this team is promising. I wanted to build around Life Orb Starmie since it's such a massive threat whenever I face it, and is also so fast that even the fast offense I like to bring tends to get ripped apart by it. Good luck switching into it with Latias when it has the Life Orb Hydro Pump, boosted by Analytic so it has a second Life Orb on top of it. Scizor is solid on any team, and deals with the two Pokemon that naturally outrun Starmie: Weavile and Alakazam. Additionally, it helps that now Starmie doesn't need to deal with Latias on its own, since Scizor can come in and U-turn around it. Next, I wanted Agility Petaya Empoleon, whose goal is to soak up one powerful STAB attack, or a weaker super effective attack, get into Petaya/Torrent range, and start blasting with Hydro Pump. It's an absolute monster of a set and the double Water assault is very fun to use.

However, I couldn't tell you what I was thinking with the back half of the team. Alakazam, 4 Attacks Garchomp, and Shuca Nidoqueen? I'm guessing that Shuca was for Gliscor and Garchomp, but they're not Pokemon that needed to get lured. Sash Zam is fine, but Life Orb is strictly better, and the two Water-types collectively get shut down by the numerous Water-resists of the tier. This team should probably entirely be redone, or just not be used if you want a team that can be consistent in serious battles.

TL;DR, don't use this team in its current state.

Triple Choice Offense:
:latias: :celebi: :weavile: :heatran: :clefable: :nidoking:

I happened to build a very similar core to this when I first got into the tier, but I had just left it in my builder. One day I revisited it and noticed it had promise and decided to try tweaking it to get this.

The star of the team is Specs Latias, which has a phenomenal offensive-defensive typing that allows it to spam its STABs all game long. Very little needs to be said, it takes advantage of Rotom-Wash and other Water-types quite nicely.

I then opted to overload a common counter to Latias, Scizor, with the combination of Choice Band Weavile and Calm Mind Clefable. Weavile handles opposing Psychics well while both handle Dragons well. I went Assurance on Weavile mostly because it was the funny STAB move, but Low Kick or Poison Jab could also help for opposing Clefable.

Speaking of, I went with a faster Specially Defensive Heatran to handle Clefable, offensive Scizor, and to a lesser extent, Weavile. Its Speed investment is for Adamant max Speed Scizor (so that it can't Life Orb Brick Break my Heatran), plus a little bit of creep for opposing Heatran trying to hit the same target. Roar is my anti-Clefable move, as well as a general anti-setup move, and also lets Heatran force damage on opponents trying to switch into it. Earth Power is the last for opposing Heatran, and is the reason I've speed-crept other Heatran.

Celebi is the Scarfer, since I wanted a second Water-resist as well as something that could U-turn. Rotom-Wash fit the bill fine, but Celebi could also Healing Wish into Weavile or Latias, who get worn down by Stealth Rocks as they come in and out of the battle.

After doing some testing with earlier variations, I felt that the first 5 Pokemon were solid on their own, and I just wanted a bit more to beat down stall teams. I decided on Focus Punch Nidoking since it was a wallbreaker that was also plenty fast on its own and could annoy Clefable (unlike something like CB Tyranitar or Crawdaunt which are slow and are tough to use vs offensive teams).

The core, to me, seems pretty standard so I had to think to give it some thought as to what it should be called (oh wow Specs Latios offense how creative), but I enjoy teams that don't give the opponent the opportunity to breathe and keep the pressure on.

Mixed Infernape Offense:
:infernape: :clefable: :celebi: :rotom-wash: :scizor: :garchomp:

I built this team in order to use Mixed Infernape, which is a very threatening attacker, even if the combination of Skarmory and Blissey isn't as popular. With good play, Infernape threatens nearly the entire tier with the combination of Fire Blast, Close Combat, and Grass Knot. The last slot is up for debate since there's no HP Ice for opposing Dragons. The last slot is a choice between U-Turn for smacking Starmie and Latias or Slack Off for a sustained assault.

Next, I wanted something that could handle Dragons that would use Ape as fodder for setup. Clefable fit the bill. I also fitted it with a Calm Mind set to make it more threatening to the opposing team.

Next, I needed a Stealth Rocker as well as a Water-resist. Celebi did the job while also providing U-Turn for supporting Infernape. I went the fully offensive route with Psychic and Leaf Storm because a) Steel-types aren't the largest concern with this team and b) leaving a massive hole in cocky bulky Waters is useful for Ape to go to work.

However, switching into Heatran would be a concern, so I elected to go with a Specially Defensive Rotom-Wash instead of the more common Physically Defensive set. This let it take attacks from Heatran more comfortably, as well as emergency hits from Alakazam, non-Specs Latias, and other Special Attackers. The last, Protect gives Rotom flexibility in stalling out turns (of weather perhaps), scout Choice, and get Leftovers recovery, though Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, and Thunder Wave are all considerations.

Next, Weavile is a massive pain for this core, so Scizor was a must here. If you compare it to my prior teams, it's more physically bulky to handle those Weavile hits, though it can still take Psychic and Dragon attacks when needed.

Lastly, this team needed a Scarfer to handle opposing offense, so I just went with Scarf Garchomp since it was the most solid Scarfer in the builder, and can check opposing Infernape.

This team is all about in-your-face aggression (with the Infernape that wears itself down and only one/two recovery moves on the team). It requires good prediction but it is super fun to destroy opposing teams with Infernape.

Power Herb Heatran Offense:
:heatran: :feraligatr: :scizor: :latias: :garchomp: :rotom-wash:

This team might be familiar to some attentive people. I built this team with help from igiveuponaname and later passed to Isza for the last week of BDSP PL. The focus of the team was the combination of Power Herb Heatran trapping unsuspecting Water-types and Clefable for the benefit of Dragon Dance Feraligatr. Heatran is running a Modest nature here so that it can OHKO max HP Starmie, as well as really stinging opposing Water-types in general once I pop the Beam. I figured that Timid Heatran wasn't super common anyway, so I was fine with not going with a +Speed nature. If anything needs to be changed, Flash Fire on Heatran is probably better than Flame Body since it won't have the longevity to try and proc it on attackers. I initially went with a Jolly nature on Feraligatr so that it would outrun the greatest number of opposing threats, but Isza modified it so that it would have a Naive nature and Ice Beam to hit Tangrowth (which did end up appearing). However, if you favor the strength of a +Attack nature then an Adamant or Naughty nature is preferred.

I followed up with Scizor since Heatran wasn't defensive enough to handle Weavile and the Psychics, as well as providing U-turn support for the rest of the threats on my team.

Next was the dual-Dragon assault of Calm Mind Latias and Mixed Garchomp. Latias was good since she provided me a good switch-in to opposing Heatran and opposing Water-types. I went Leftovers on her over Soul Dew for more longevity, and I initially tried using Surf as my second attacking move to hit Heatran, but after testing I switched back to the second STAB move in Psychic for opposing Waters so that I wasn't forced to Draco to hurt them. I also needed a Stealth Rock setter here that also wasn't super annoyed by Rotom-Wash, so instead of something like Gliscor (which I'm not super fond of), I used Garchomp to put serious pressure into Rotom-Wash. The last move could definitely be something like Poison Jab or Stone Edge instead of Fire Blast, since my team isn't particularly weak to Skarmory, but the team also isn't particularly weak to Clefable or Togekiss either, and is mostly a matter of preference. I appreciate Garchomp's ability to weaken Clefable for the benefit of Feraligatr.

In the last slot, I wanted speed control, so I went with the same Scarf Rotom-Wash as before: give it enough Speed to outrun opposing Jolly Feraligatr and give it some bulk.

This team was largely experimental, but I'm happy with the way it turned out, and gave me a good reflection of how my teambuilding skills had developed from when I had first got into the tier.
 
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This team aims to overload checks for each other early game, such that Weavile can clean up late game. It seems solid atm.

Standard HO so not much to explain

Since many more HOs are being built by fellow players, let me explain what makes this team unique.

:Azelf: - Screen Setter. Fast Taunt. Perfect Lead. This one, however has U-turn instead of Explosion, so that it can set up Screens multiple times instead of a 1-time nuke (Beta Screens Koko).

:Gengar: - Gengar retains Nasty Plot, which can let it shred slower stuff after set up. Ghost resists are far and few, and none of them like Focus Blast. Sludge Wave helps with the Unaware Clef MU

:Garchomp: - With Lando out of the picture and Gliscor being an HO misfit, Chomp is the primary ground type a.ka. the lord of role compression on HOs. Here, it is a rocker as well as wincon with Salac Berry (No Scale Shot :( ). While no Yache means it can be RKed by Ice Shard from Mamo or Weavile, Salac Chomp with Rocks exerts a lot of pressure on opponents such that they have to choose whether to kill the Chomp, or to clear rocks that benefit the other sweepers.

:Cloyster: - Cloyster simply clicks Shell Smash and sweeps, as simple as that. Since it shares checks with Weavile like Steels etc., they form a great Ice Spam core. Razor Shell helps with Unaware Quagsire MU coz Defense Drops.

:Weavile: - Though a Shadow of its SS OU self (bye Knock Off and Triple Axel :( ), Weavile can still act as a menacing speed control option, a Ghost and Psychic punisher (improves Gengar and Scarf Lati MU) and a deadly late game cleaner after an SD boost.

:Togekiss: - Mon chosen to punish the resurgent Dragons in the tier, Togekiss additionally provides speed control with TWave, as well as a Steel lure with Flamethrower. And as we all are well aware of, anything it doesn't 2HKO, it ParaFliches to death.

Replays :

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1457240227-3k2rg3quigs6qynuki2gm79phqlqexbpw - Weavile Cleans Late Game
Is this team still viable? If yes, which Pokémon to replace Gengar? Could Latias work?
 

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