SV OU Belly Drum Cetitan Snow HO (1700+)

[morph in sandbox]

Hello everyone.

After I got my suspect reqs, I was a little burned out and wanted to have some fun. I was playing with some very silly Pokemon like Slaking, Cryoganal, and other other awful options. While screwing around with some questionable teams and Pokemon, I was so impressed by Cetitan's sweeping potential that I wanted to give Snow a shot. I've been floating around 1650-1750 with the team, which is a bit lower than where I usually sit with a polished meta team, but it has been a blast and I see a lot of potential. I would really appreciate some help from some smart teambuilders, as I have been enjoying myself a lot with the team. Perhaps snow isn't going to get much better, but I believe there is definitely something here. My teambuilding skills are not as honed as some of you, so any advice would be very appreciated.

Link to the original team: https://pokepast.es/1375fe53d1a01b05
Edit: LINK TO THE CURRENT TEAM- https://pokepast.es/898a4286fbdf1b96

Baxcalibur @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Thermal Exchange
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Glaive Rush
- Icicle Spear
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

A pretty obvious choice for a snow team. Baxcalibur gives the team a fighting chance against Skeledirge, with Thermal Exchange to stop Will-o-Wisp and Earthquake coverage to hit back. I choose to run a DD Bax over a banded one, because I feel there is a bit too much momentum loss with the banded set for this team once the Eject Button is used. DD boosting is just a better use of the snow + Aurora Veil than hitting one Pokemon hard and switching out. I opted to run a Loaded Dice over HDB, as I like the damage + Icicle Spear to bust sashes when sweeping, and if my opponent does get rocks up, it's usually gg with the rest of the team anyway. I choose to run Glaive over Ice Shard for now, but I have been alternating back and forth fairly frequently. I like Ice Shard against priority users when sweeping and the option of killing a chipped speed boosted sweeper with Adamant Bax damage, but have decided on Glaive Rush anyway to help wallbreak.

Cetitan @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Slush Rush
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 76 Def / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Tera Blast

Usually the star of the show. Belly Drum Cetitan is a criminally underrated Pokemon. With this EV spread, Slush Rush brings its speed up to 452, and its unboosted Speed is still a fairly formidable 226. With 452 boosted speed you outrun almost anything in the metagame, and anything you can't wouldn't make a difference even with 252 Speed EV's (such as Booster'd Iron Valiant or +1 Timid Volc). Perhaps there is some tweaking I can still do with the Speed/Def EV's, but it has been very good. Tera Fire is a great defensive typing, giving it an option to stop offensive Steel and Fire moves behind Aurora Veil to Belly Drum. A solid belly drum is usually gg. Tera Blast adds some additional STAB coverage. Been seeing a lot of Tera Water Tusk dealing with this set well, so I might rethink the typing a bit.

Abomasnow @ Icy Rock
Ability: Snow Warning
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Aurora Veil
- Swords Dance
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake

I chose to run Abomasnow over Slowking as my Snow setter. I like the idea of Slowking, and having a Water/Psychic type compliments the team very well. But, in practicality, having the ability to immediately get up Snow is a much more consistent option for the team. It also can run Aurora Veil, which helps Cetitan and Baxcalibur set up and win. Abomasnow is suprisingly useful on its own, with STAB Ice Shard being a great option to have, letting you come in, set snow, and threaten a Pokemon such as Meowscarada or Dragapult. Swords Dance lets you threaten Pokemon trying to set up on you, and Earthquake is just generally a good option, threatening Kingambit with coverage for both Tera Fire and Flying with the Ice / Ground coverage. EQ+Shard has been great to catch opponents switching in Cinderace predicting the Aurora Veil (they would like to Court Change it). Properly predicting the swap with an EQ, then Sharding, KO's. Tera Water is great to soak Fire hits and is generally just a good defensive option, and needed to help the team deal with Quaquaval. I tera this mon in probably half my games.

Hatterene (F) @ Eject Button
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Nuzzle
- Healing Wish
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam


This team pretty much instant loses to hazards, because Ice is an awful typing to have with Stealth Rocks. Hatterene gives your opponent pause when setting them, and gives you an option to prevent them. Eject Button is great with this team, as you can set snow + veil on Abomasnow, hard switch hat into button, and proceed to sweep behind Veil + Snow on either Bax or Cetitan. Standard Hatterene but very useful for the team.

Great Tusk @ Focus Sash
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin

This is a very functional set for this team. As mentioned previously, the team has a really tough time with hazards and Focus Sash Great Tusk is a great option to dismantle Glimmora leads, with Headlong + Spin. Having a Focus Sash Pokemon is also generally useful to dispatch speed boosted threats, as you can take a hit with sash, HLR or CC and finish them off with an Ice Shard on Cetitan or Abomasnow.

Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

I feel this Pokemon is probably going to be the first to be cut, but for now, it is often your lead. Unless you see a Pokemon such as Glimmora, or you are concerned about chipping it early, then I would lead with another option. Chomp is generally just a super strong option against most leads in the meta, such as Meowscarada (except Play Rough CB). This lets us establish some momentum out of the gate instead of leading Abomasnow and wasting our Eject Button early. Additionally, the Life Orb damage helps break Pokémon like Dondozo which can be a real problem for the team. This was originally a Specs Walking Wake to fulfill that function, which helped against competing weather teams. However, I've just found it to be too easy for teams to deal with WW at the moment, and being choice locked was losing me a lot of momentum. I definitely see a universe where this Pokemon gets changed out for a stronger special threat (maybe Volcarona, Hydreigon, even Killowattrel or Sandy Shocks perhaps) as the team is in dire need of a powerful special wallbreaker. It's losing hard to Water Garg.


So, the team has some flaws. It can definitely use some work, but it is a lot of fun if you are looking for a change of pace.

I will edit the post with some replays shortly.

Edit: I'll update replays accordingly as I get them, team is changing so expect some changes
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1826894416

Thank you, and I hope some of you will have fun with the team.

 

[Motor Hawk]

I'm surprised you have an ice team and didn't want to mess around with eiscue

 

[SirSly720312]

I'm surprised you have an ice team and didn't want to mess around with eiscue

Agreed. It might be a little redundant though, because the best set is generally the belly drum sitrus berry set which they already have. Might be best to do something else.

On special sweepers, it might be good to use a Mon with blizzard, as that is boosted in snow. I would recommend frosmoth, because even though it has a horrible defensive typing it is a great snow setup sweeper, as it benefits from the defense boost and ice scales in conjunction with aurora veil to boost itself.
Volcarona (Frosmoth) @ Heavy-duty Boots
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Grass/Ground
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Blizzard/Ice Beam
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain/Tera Blast
This set turns it into mimic Volcarona with quiver dance and blizzard if snow is still up or ice beam if you want it to be reliable no matter the weather. Bug Buzz and Giga Drain add excellent coverage with Tera Grass, however you can also go Tera Ground Tera Blast to annihilate fire types. This team is excellent, and you should be proud. Hopefully we can help you get even higher!

 

[morph in sandbox]

Incorporating a Blizzard user is a great idea, thanks for that. I had tested Frosmoth a bit in an earlier rendition, my biggest gripe is that my team struggles very bad with Garganacl, and despite one of its abilities literally being Covert Cloak, Salt Cure still hits Frosmoth for like 75%. Have a bit of a busy day, but if I'm able to sneak some games in tonight I'll still test it. Maybe in Garganacl matchups it will just be necessary to save Tera for the moth.

I'll try that, and perhaps I try something like this as well, I think it may help my defensive Tera Water problem.

Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Protean
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Hydro Pump
- Spikes
- Grass Knot

 

[Baloor]

hi, i don't normally give suggestions to more gimmicky styles such as snow or trick room but I wanted to give a few suggestions here.

->
right now the team is ran over by steels, yes I know you have tera blast fire on titan but not having something immediately threatening to steels makes this match up annoying. volcarona fixes this hole while benefitting from veil in its own right. I have sub tera grass rona on this team to add a back up water resist in some matchups that might come up like azu. Sub is obviously super annoying behind veil and can also help out play sucker punch since gambit might still be a headache. having a pseudo check to goldengo is also beneficial here. tera grass also gives you something to get past dozo

close combat / knock -> stealth rock
pretty obvious why im doing this, you need a rocker and tusk is already your suicide lead. Steel tera is fine if you are going knock but i'd consider ghost tera to be immune to espeed if you lean towards CC.

tera steel -> tera flying
this won't come into play too often but with the team having no ground immune i'd really suggest tera flying on hatterene, being able to troll some mons who spam eq like tusk in a endgame might end up being incredibly helpful.

tera ice + ada -> tera ground/fairy/dragon + jolly

i feel tera ice is the most useless tera on bax personally and all its other teras have more potential here. ill run down what each will do for you and you can just pick

tera fairy: dragon immune lets you check opposing bax as well as come in on a locked draco/darts from pult. tera fairy also lets you resist sucker which is helpful in endgames vs gambit

tera ground: helps you blow up steels and pex. stronger eq never hurt anybody.

tera dragon: helps check opposing volcarona, turns glaive into a absolute nuke and helps vs dondozo a little bit.

also i'd always run joly on bax because i feel having a bax slower than ghold is lowkey unviable.

consider grass move over sd
having another option for dozo + water garg + water dirge might be beneficial but i'd try it out

hopefully these suggestions help out

https://pokepast.es/4e99fcc47a35115d

 

[morph in sandbox]

quote

hi, i don't normally give suggestions to more gimmicky styles such as snow or trick room but I wanted to give a few suggestions here.

->
right now the team is ran over by steels, yes I know you have tera blast fire on titan but not having something immediately threatening to steels makes this match up annoying. volcarona fixes this hole while benefitting from veil in its own right. I have sub tera grass rona on this team to add a back up water resist in some matchups that might come up like azu. Sub is obviously super annoying behind veil and can also help out play sucker punch since gambit might still be a headache. having a pseudo check to goldengo is also beneficial here. tera grass also gives you something to get past dozo

close combat / knock -> stealth rock
pretty obvious why im doing this, you need a rocker and tusk is already your suicide lead. Steel tera is fine if you are going knock but i'd consider ghost tera to be immune to espeed if you lean towards CC.

tera steel -> tera flying
this won't come into play too often but with the team having no ground immune i'd really suggest tera flying on hatterene, being able to troll some mons who spam eq like tusk in a endgame might end up being incredibly helpful.

tera ice + ada -> tera ground/fairy/dragon + jolly

i feel tera ice is the most useless tera on bax personally and all its other teras have more potential here. ill run down what each will do for you and you can just pick

tera fairy: dragon immune lets you check opposing bax as well as come in on a locked draco/darts from pult. tera fairy also lets you resist sucker which is helpful in endgames vs gambit

tera ground: helps you blow up steels and pex. stronger eq never hurt anybody.

tera dragon: helps check opposing volcarona, turns glaive into a absolute nuke and helps vs dondozo a little bit.

also i'd always run joly on bax because i feel having a bax slower than ghold is lowkey unviable.

consider grass move over sd
having another option for dozo + water garg + water dirge might be beneficial but i'd try it out

hopefully these suggestions help out

https://pokepast.es/4e99fcc47a35115d

These are great suggestions. You are 100% right about putting a grass move on Abomasnow, I think I'm going to ditch the Adamant set for a Special one, for one of Grass Knot/Leaf Storm/Giga Drain + Blizzard. Should help my team with its Garganacl problem. Reflecting on what I was playing with, there is just too much redundancy with type coverage with 3 of 6 of my Pokemon teching Ice Shard / EQ. That being said, I wanted additional non-tera coverage so changed my Cetitan set to:

Cetitan @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Slush Rush
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 76 Def / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Superpower


I'll try some of these tera's out on Bax, and I really like the substitute suggestion for Volcarona. I'm going to circle back after some testing but this was very helpful and I appreciate you giving your opinion on a bit of a gimmicky team.