Hisuian Zoroark + Lokix Bulky Offense (yes, this is an OU team)
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1.0 Introduction
2.0 Proof of Peak
3.0 Teambuilding Process
4.0 Pokémon Breakdown
5.0 Difficult Matchups
6.0 Conclusion
Click here for the pokepaste
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1.0 Introduction
When the Teal Mask dropped, despite being Zoroark's number 1 supporter, even Ihad to admit that it could not keep up at all with all the pace of the meta, however fast forward a month and the number one thing on everyone's mind is Gholdengo hazard stack, with webs/veil HO as a close second. At first I tried building around Slither Wing realising how valuable strong priority could be without having the 50-50 aspect of sucker punch Kingambit or having a little bit of a slow start and reliance on tera with extreme speed Dragonite (it's also worth noting that the team was built with Roaring moon still in the tier, although I've found the final version to be strong even in the current meta). After being underwhelmed by the moth though I tried with a more aggressive approach: what I like to call monoturn, my favourite playstyle featuring 6 U-Turn users as well as a plethora of ways to punish opposing pivots, which is perfect for strong but frail mons such as today's star of the show, Lokix.
2.0 Proof of Peak
3.0 The Teambuilding Process
Unsurprisingly if you know me, I started with Hisuian Zoroark
. Building with this mon is tricky, as it's very specific basically requiring building around it despite acting more akin to a support mon: while the choice specs 
set fell off hard imo, hdb 
caught my eye for being able to lure and remove Gholdengo 
when paired with Corviknight 
, which will be its main role here, as the real centrepiece of the team, Choice Band Lokix 
, not only hugely appreciates its help against Great Tusk 
, Dondozo 
, Zapdos 
and physically defensive Gliscor 
, but it also hates hazards, making reliable removal a must have on cb Lokix teams.My next concern was to punish opposing pivots, as my team wasn't gonna be as fast as the Hyper Offense dominating the tier, so after giving a rocky helmet
to Corviknight to deter U-turn, I added specially defensive Gliscor and Ogerpon Wellspring 
to block Volt Switch and Flip turn respectively.Finally to round out the last few bad matchups I had, choice scarf Sneasler
looked like a perfect fit to provide a way to revenge kill Iron Valiant 
and provide a one time cripple to some potentially very bad matchups such as Iron Press Zamazenta 
and variants of Dragon Dance Dragonite 
carrying Fire Punch.4.0 Pokémon Breakdown
Zoroark-Hisui @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Illusion
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot
- U-turn
I'll be the first to admit that in some matchups Zoroark can feel like dead weight, however in a similar vein to ADV Magneton
, whose job is to remove certain specific metagame staples for its teammates to go to town, in the matchups where it does matter, Zoroark shines as a very important tool to disrupt slower cores. Heavy-duty boots allows it to disguise as usually either Corviknight or Lokix to lure in a Gholdengo trying to block a Defog or a Great tusk , a Dondozo , a Corviknight , a Moltres 
, a Zapdos , an Alomomola 
or a Garganacl 
trying to absorb a First Impression with STAB Shadow Ball or a strong supereffective Grass Knot. U-Turn is present on all members of this team and it's crucial in being able to have a positive matchup into whatever is on the field as much as possible, and Focus Blast can catch a Heatran 
or Kingambit 
on the switch as well as potentially catch the latter by surprise if your opponent thinks you're locked into another move as the specs set is still by far more popular. An important aspect of Illusion to keep in mind is how it interacts with switching: when switching Pokémon, the mon switching out replaces the one switching in in the team order, which means that, since Illusion copies the last mon in your party, you can change which one to disguise as mid game; don't account for this and it'll come back to bite you, be aware of it and it'll prove a useful tool. Zoroark should almost never tera, but in a pinch tera fighting gives stab to Focus Blast while letting it resist its only weakness.Corviknight @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
- Body Press
As hazard removal, many players tend to look down on Corviknight as it's food for Gholdengo
. However, if you're able to overlook this, it performs extremely consistently against the rest of the meta, being the only remover in OU with reliable recovery granting it far better longevity than most other options which not only lets it Defog more comfortably but also take great advantage of its slow U-Turn in combination with very good bulk and amazing typing, finding entry on a great portion of the metagame, including Great Tusk , all forms of ogerpon Ogerpon 
, physical Dragapult 
variants, Iron Valiant variants lacking Thunderbolt, Kingambit , Rillaboom 
and Gliscor , chipping them down with rocky helmet and swinging momentum right back in its favour. Pressure allows it to stall out various defensive mons very effectively, even being a very risk free out to Gliscor once Gholdengo is taken care of and potentially open up a way for partners like Ogerpon or Zoroark through checks by baiting in counterplay like Toxic and quickly draining its PP. It is important to note though how Pressure is revealed on switch in, which means that if you're not comfortable luring in Gholdengo before revealing it on the real Corviknight, Mirror Armor is an alternative to better bluff Zoroark. Tera is once again usually not a good option on Corviknight, but Dragon allows it to resist all of its weaknesses and notably making the Ogerpon Wellspring matchup more comfortable. 30 speed IVs allow it to always lose the speed tie against opposing Corviknight to have the slower U-Turn.Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ivy Cudgel
- Horn Leech
- Encore
- U-turn
As the best offensive Water Absorb mon, Wellspring was a natural pick here, as the team otherwise really struggles against water types, especially against rain or Scald, which Ogerpon instead provides an easy out to, even being helpful against Walking Wake
sun taking advantage on Protect on Gliscor to scout for which move they lock themselves into; it's a reliable out to the likes of Alomomola variants not carrying Acrobatics, the always threatening Manaphy 
and even Iron Moth 
after tera in a pinch. While most Ogerpon sets run Swords Dance with the aim of sweeping through teams, however I found Encore to be a better fit for this team: not only, as the only offensive check to Gliscor here, is it safer on it to scout for tera or just to make sure you don't get punished if you don't ko, but it's more importantly an important too against slow and bulky set up like Garganacl , Kingambit , especially as this team has no real Kingambit counters but a variety of soft checks, and Dondozo , making the manaphy matchup more comfortable too. ogerpon also provides another much needed way to attack Zapdos , Moltres and Corviknight without making contact with Ivy Cudgel.Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Protect
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Earthquake
Gliscor will be your tank for any special attack not named Ice Beam; its longevity really needs no introduction. It provides much needed hazard support to the team and another way to safely pivot from one threat to another, and it's a great asset against Zapdos
, Zamazenta , Iron Moth , Iron Valiant , Cinderace 
, gholdengo , Glimmora 
, Heatran , Sneasler , Galarian Slowking 
and Toxapex 
, as well as any choice item users 
thanks to Protect. Tera water allows it to resist all of its weaknesses to buy a turn of Poison Heal or get a slow pivot off, but once again it's unadvisable to spend your terastalization on gliscor. Similar to Corviknight , 30 speed IVs allow you to always lose the speed tie against opposing Gliscor to safely pivot out.Lokix @ Choice Band
Ability: Tinted Lens
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Axe Kick
Lokix is honestly a drug to use. Tinted Lens First Impression is one of the most premier methods of revenge killing, being extremely difficult to switch into and even dealing more than 50% to quadruple resists like Iron Valiant
or Iron Moth with tera bug, which is very feasible to pull off given how the rest of the team doesn't rely much at all on terastalization, managing to pick up a surprising amount of OHKOs like on utility Dragapult or bulky Cinderace , both of which will stay in on it a lot of the time to burn it expecting it to either use Sucker Punch or to live the following hit. Tinted lens also means that you can't avoid getting revenge killed with tera, which is a big issue with other similar methods like Extreme Speed Dragonite , Grassy Glide Rillaboom and Sucker Punch Kingambit , ensuring that you'll never get overwhelmed by fast and strong set up sweepers, since it's easy to get the necessary chip on the ones that might survive FI from full hp on their turn of set up or even passively: for example, Swords Dance Grassy Seed Sneasler might look like a problematic matchup for this team, however all it takes for it to drop to Lokix is to either tera out of its quadruple bug resistance, as it's very eager to do, or to use Close Combat into Rocky Helmet Corviknight once. knock Off and U-Turn are both great ways to capitalize on the switches Lokix forces dealing heavy damage to mons such as Great Tusk (~40%) with great added utility, Knock Off in particular being great for getting rid of Rocky Helmet on various mons that could prove difficult to deal with for this team. The fourth slot is flexible: this set uses Axe kick for heavier damage on Kingambit and Heatran , but other viable options are Leech Life, for a more standard bug move and a little bit of longevity, or Sucker Punch for dark type priority, that may prove useful against max speed Gholdengo (unless you'd want to change the nature from adamant to jolly, but I personally value the damage boost more) or choice Dragapult sets if you want to preserve tera.Sneasler @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Poison Touch
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Dire Claw
- U-turn
- Switcheroo
The final piece of speed control, this Sneasler set may be unable to touch Gholdengo
, but it's the glue that holds the team together in some matchups nonetheless, in particular Choice Scarf Enamorus 
, Iron Valiant , FIre Punch Dragonite , Iron Press Zamazenta and weirdly enough lead utility Dragapult . It's one of the very few ways to revenge kill the speed boosting fairies and the only real offensive check to them this team has (while laddering I like taking a long time to select Sneasler after U-Turning on them making them think I'm not scarf), whilethose fast and bulky set up sweepers can prove extremely difficult to deal with without giving them the scarf; as for the Dragapult matchup, it's usually not a problem through the course of a match thanks to Lokix and Gliscor with all the pivot support, however the story changes on lead, as leading Lokix is often far too risky and were you not to be comfortable leading Gliscor, you wouldn't want to switch it into Will-O-Wisp. You could go Corviknight for slow U-Turn, but you'd risk giving Pult a free Substitute and letting it potentially cripple a good part of your team, so here's where Sneasler comes into play: damage output isn't usually what its usefulness consists of, and inflicting Pult with any of the three statuses possible will allow you to play around it much more comfortably, which factoring in poison touch is a 65% chance each turn. Considering Sneasler eats one hit even from offensive variants, letting it potentially get burnt for a combined chance of 87.75% over two turns of making the matchup much easier is almost always a good trade, especially since you still have the utility of trick scarf.5.0 Difficult Matchups
As stated earlier, Dragonite variants carrying Fire Punch can be very hard to deal with if you can't Switcheroo Sneasler's scarf
onto it, as Corviknight is supposed to be this team's answer to it. You need to consistently outplay your opponent with U-Turn to get Sneasler in on it safely, otherwise, since Extreme Speed has the same priority as First Impression so revenge killing with Lokix is out of the picture, you'll have to disguise Zoroark as Lokix and win the 50-50 of Extreme Speed vs Earthquake.
The only other set up sweeper Lokix
can't revenge kill this team is afraid of, once again has to be dealt with through precise play with U-Turn and Sneasler ; alternatively, you'll need to PP stall Body Press and/or Crunch with Corviknight and Gliscor .When playing on ladder, most of my matches against stall resulted in a tie since the team lacks breaking power, although switch stalling between Corviknight
and Gliscor is usually enough to at least secure a draw. Ogerpon is probably your best bet if you want to break through, but you'll need a lot of patience and careful positioning; so far I've found baiting Toxic from Toxapex into Pressure Corviknight to let Ogerpon win the 1v1 and subsequently the game (taking care of Dondozo with Zoroark too if they opt to use terastalization on it) to be most effective.6.0 Conclusion
I haven't really been saving replays, oops.
Overall, this team requires Really precise play and it's definitely not beginner friendly. It's definitely gonna be outdated as the meta develops into a less fast paced state with all the tiering action needed, but as of now I think U-Turn spam is an extremely strong playstyle that, if piloted well (so not by me lmao, I'd actually be very interested to see how far an actually competent player could take it), has the tools to beat any matchup.
I would like to thank Albret, Finchinator, viivian and pretty much the whole of my twitter following for downplaying Zoroark thus pushing me to bring it to new hights.
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