SS OU (New and Improved) My first HO / Bulky Offense Kartana Team (1600+)

[yesusermane]

Note : Just to clarify the title, I am a beginner, and not well-versed with the jargon. I don't know if this team is hyper offense or bulky offense, although that doesn't really matter.
Now that that's out of the way, Here's the team.
p.s. The team is based on Kartana .

Special Thanks to Ironwater and UmarPro for the improvements!

New Team:​

Kartana:

Kartana @ Adrenaline Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Sword
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike​

I decided to go with Sacred sword instead of knock-off because I felt it was more useful under most scenarios. Life orb was too problematic as even with screens/Aurora Veil, the opponent can chip it down to 20-30% and life orb usually was the one that took it out. Adrenaline orb for Landorus-T, though a Chople Berry can be used. My ideal scenario is to setup one Swords Dance, on pokemons like:
etc
and get one beast boost, after which it can sweep with ease, unless a faster pokemon knocks it out.

Moltres - Galar:

Moltres-Galar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane​

To quote Ironwater,

This Pokemon is extremely good in screens team because of its access to both Nasty Plot to boost its SpA and Agility to boost its Speed. It is also rather bulky and thus can easily setup both a Nasty Plot and an Agility when Aurora Veil is up. Having a fast lead with Taunt (Lycanroc-Dusk) also means that you can prevent the opponent from setting their Stealth Rock, and thus use a Weakness Policy on Moltres (over the classic Heavy-Duty Boots) making it even more threatening as it can take most super effective hits with the Veil and gain an extra SpA boost... The EV spread allows it to outspeed max Speed Regieleki when at +2... and the offensive moves are its two STABs with Air Slash being an option over Hurricane if you are afraid of missing too much. Moltres Galar is also a very good fit in this kind of teams, because it can easily switch-in into Dragapult’s Shadow Ball, and Dragapult is known for being annoying for screen teams as it bypasses the screen boost with Infiltrator and outspeed most of the screen abusers.

Hazard-Setter and Screens - Lycanroc - Dusk and Ninetales - Alola:

Lycanroc-Dusk @ Focus Sash
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Accelerock
- Endeavor​

252+ Spe Lycanroc-Dusk is my lead is most games. Other than setting stealth rocks, it can taunt the opponent's hazard setter, and prevent early toxics and stealth rock. Accelerock is useful as priority. Focus sash Endeavor can grab a kill or two before Lycanroc eventually falls.

Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
-Aurora Veil
-Encore
-Freeze-Dry
-Moonblast​

Alolan Ninetales usually follows Lycanroc-Dusk, and sets up Aurora Veil. Encore is very useful in stopping setup sweepers or forcing a pokemon to switch as it is now stuck in a useless move. Hail helps to pick up 1 HP opponents (after Endeavor), plus allows use of Aurora Veil.

Garchomp:

Garchomp @ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Scale Shot​

Another deadly sweeper in screen teams with Swords Dance to boost its Attack and Scale Shot to boost its Speed. Like Moltres Galar, Garchomp is relatively bulky and hard to pressure when screens are up. It also pairs pretty well with Kartana, as they can both weaken their shared checks to allow one of the two to sweep.

Changed Fire Fang for Rock Slide for Rock-Type coverage.

Volcarona:

Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
- Roost​

Flamethrower is its main STAB, while Psychic is an important coverage you’ll need to threaten Fire resists like Toxapex. Last slot could be either Roost or another offensive move like Giga Drain or Bug Buzz. Heavy-Duty Boots are still mandatory, even with a lead like Lycanroc-Dusk, because of the huge 4 times weakness to Stealth Rock Volcarona has.

Changes from Previous Team:​

Minor Changes:
Kartana has an adrenaline orb instead of an aguav berry.
Ninetales - Alola has Freeze-Dry instead of Blizzard, Moonblast instead of Dark Pulse.

Major Changes:
Removing , , , for , , .

This is the team. Any advice for improving the team is appreciated!
Have a good day :)

 

[UmarPro]

NICE TEAM!

 

[yesusermane]

NICE TEAM!

thanks!

 

[UmarPro]

thanks!

want to have a battle?

 

[yesusermane]

want to have a battle?
[/QUOTE

With this team? Sure, I am yesusermane on showdown as well

 

[UmarPro]

With this team? Sure, I am yesusermane on showdown as well

i sent challenge

 

[UmarPro]

Mew needs some more defense

 

[ironwater]

Hey yesusermane, welcome to the RMT section. I’m here to help you with your team and suggest changes to improve it.

If you want to use Ninetales-Alola and base your team on screens (or here Aurora Veil), the kind of team you want to run would be an Hyper Offense. Hyper Offense is often one or two leads who aim at supporting the rest of the team with either hazards or screens, and four to five breakers/setup sweepers who benefit from these hazards or screens. Breakers are hard hitting offensive Pokemon who can force a lot of switchs and thus a lot of hazard damage and who can beat down defensive Pokemon with the extra chip damage from hazard. A good example of breaker for a team based on hazards in Galarian Zapdos, who hit extremely hard and can use its ability Defiant to punish the use of Defog. When you run dual screens or Aurora Veil, you rather have multiple setup sweepers who will make use of your precious screen turns to boost themselves and threaten the opposing team.

If we go over your team, you seem to have chosen two separate leads, one to set hazards in Lycanroc-Dusk and one to set Veil in Ninetales-Alola. Most Hyper Offense run a single lead, but two separate leads can be fine too, so these two can be kept as your support options. Now, according to what I said before, you want to run deadly setup sweepers in the four remaining slots to make the best use of the 8 turns of Veil you will have. Kartana is a great setup sweeper and fit well in this kind of team. However, Tapu Fini, Clefable and Mew are bad options here. Tapu Fini and Clefable can run a Calm Mind set to have some form of setup, but they are generally a bit too weak offensively for these kinds of very offensive teams. Mew can fit in this kind of team with its nasty Cosmic Power + Stored Power set, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re beginning in the tier. In my opinion, an easy way to improve the team is to replace these three Pokemon by more threatening setup sweepers who will fully utilize the Veil turns.

Also, if you don’t really know the moves or EVs spread to run on a Pokemon, feel free to use this link: https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/formats/ou/ (it’s a Pokedex with recommended sets). For instance, here, Tapu Fini, Clefable and Mew sets are not really what you want to play on these Pokemon, and even if I’ll propose a team without them, keep in mind that you can use this resource when you’re building in a format you don’t know well.

With all that said, let’s dive into the possible changes:


Major Changes

-> As I said in the intro, these three Pokemon don’t fit well in a screen offense team because they are not threatening enough offensively to utilize screens. There’s plenty of good options to replace them, and the three that I will propose are staples in screens-based teams, because they are all three super scary setup sweepers.

: The first Pokemon of the trio is Moltres Galar. This Pokemon is extremely good in screens team because of its access to both Nasty Plot to boost its SpA and Agility to boost its Speed. It is also rather bulky and thus can easily setup both a Nasty Plot and an Agility when Aurora Veil is up. Having a fast lead with Taunt (Lycanroc-Dusk) also means that you can prevent the opponent from setting their Stealth Rock, and thus use a Weakness Policy on Moltres (over the classic Heavy-Duty Boots) making it even more threatening as it can take most super effective hits with the Veil and gain an extra SpA boost. The Spread is a classic one (enough Speed to outspeed max Speed Regieleki when at +2) and the offensive moves are its two STABs with Air Slash being an option over Hurricane if you are afraid of missing too much. Moltres Galar is also a very good fit in this kind of teams, because it can easily switch-in into Dragapult’s Shadow Ball, and Dragapult is known for being annoying for screen teams as it bypasses the screen boost with Infiltrator and outspeed most of the screen abusers. Here is the set:

Moltres-Galar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane / Air Slash


: Another deadly sweeper in screen teams with Swords Dance to boost its Attack and Scale Shot to boost its Speed. Like Moltres Galar, Garchomp is relatively bulky and hard to pressure when screens are up. It also pairs pretty well with Kartana, as they can both weaken their shared checks to allow one of the two to sweep. Earthquake is your main STAB and Fire Fang is used mainly to hit Corviknight. Here is the set:

Garchomp @ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Scale Shot


: Last but not least, Volcarona is infamous for its incredibly good setup move in Quiver Dance and is often a nice addition to a screen based team. Flamethrower is its main STAB, while Psychic is an important coverage you’ll need to threaten Fire resists like Toxapex. Last slot could be either Roost or another offensive move like Giga Drain or Bug Buzz. Heavy-Duty Boots are still mandatory, even with a lead like Lycanroc-Dusk, because of the huge 4 times weakness to Stealth Rock Volcarona has. Here is the set:

Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
- Roost / Giga Drain / Bug Buzz


Minor Changes

: Kartana is indeed pretty cool in this kind of team, and I think you should just change two things. First, you can run Knock Off over Smart Strike, as even though Smart Strike is a STAB move, it brings the least useful coverage among all Kartana common moves. Secondly, you should change the item, as Aguav Berry is a pretty bad item and if you want to avoid running a Life Orb to reduce potential chip, there’s other options like Chople Berry or Adrenaline Orb (to get a Speed Boost on Landorus-T coming in and intimidating) who are way more useful than Aguav Berry.


: Would just change Dark Pulse for Moonblast, you rather have a STAB on this thing as you won’t hit hard, and Moonblast helps against Weavile. Freeze Dry can also be considered over Blizzard.


Set is fine.



That’s all for the suggestions, feel free to try the new version of the team, or even to test other setup sweepers here.

The Paste

Kartana @ Chople Berry
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Sword
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off

Lycanroc-Dusk @ Focus Sash
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Accelerock
- Endeavor

Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Encore
- Freeze-Dry
- Moonblast

Moltres-Galar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane

Garchomp @ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Scale Shot

Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
- Roost

Hope this was helpful, have a nice day!

 

[yesusermane]

Hey yesusermane, welcome to the RMT section. I’m here to help you with your team and suggest changes to improve it.

If you want to use Ninetales-Alola and base your team on screens (or here Aurora Veil), the kind of team you want to run would be an Hyper Offense. Hyper Offense is often one or two leads who aim at supporting the rest of the team with either hazards or screens, and four to five breakers/setup sweepers who benefit from these hazards or screens. Breakers are hard hitting offensive Pokemon who can force a lot of switchs and thus a lot of hazard damage and who can beat down defensive Pokemon with the extra chip damage from hazard. A good example of breaker for a team based on hazards in Galarian Zapdos, who hit extremely hard and can use its ability Defiant to punish the use of Defog. When you run dual screens or Aurora Veil, you rather have multiple setup sweepers who will make use of your precious screen turns to boost themselves and threaten the opposing team.

If we go over your team, you seem to have chosen two separate leads, one to set hazards in Lycanroc-Dusk and one to set Veil in Ninetales-Alola. Most Hyper Offense run a single lead, but two separate leads can be fine too, so these two can be kept as your support options. Now, according to what I said before, you want to run deadly setup sweepers in the four remaining slots to make the best use of the 8 turns of Veil you will have. Kartana is a great setup sweeper and fit well in this kind of team. However, Tapu Fini, Clefable and Mew are bad options here. Tapu Fini and Clefable can run a Calm Mind set to have some form of setup, but they are generally a bit too weak offensively for these kinds of very offensive teams. Mew can fit in this kind of team with its nasty Cosmic Power + Stored Power set, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re beginning in the tier. In my opinion, an easy way to improve the team is to replace these three Pokemon by more threatening setup sweepers who will fully utilize the Veil turns.

Also, if you don’t really know the moves or EVs spread to run on a Pokemon, feel free to use this link: https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/formats/ou/ (it’s a Pokedex with recommended sets). For instance, here, Tapu Fini, Clefable and Mew sets are not really what you want to play on these Pokemon, and even if I’ll propose a team without them, keep in mind that you can use this resource when you’re building in a format you don’t know well.

With all that said, let’s dive into the possible changes:


Major Changes

-> As I said in the intro, these three Pokemon don’t fit well in a screen offense team because they are not threatening enough offensively to utilize screens. There’s plenty of good options to replace them, and the three that I will propose are staples in screens-based teams, because they are all three super scary setup sweepers.

: The first Pokemon of the trio is Moltres Galar. This Pokemon is extremely good in screens team because of its access to both Nasty Plot to boost its SpA and Agility to boost its Speed. It is also rather bulky and thus can easily setup both a Nasty Plot and an Agility when Aurora Veil is up. Having a fast lead with Taunt (Lycanroc-Dusk) also means that you can prevent the opponent from setting their Stealth Rock, and thus use a Weakness Policy on Moltres (over the classic Heavy-Duty Boots) making it even more threatening as it can take most super effective hits with the Veil and gain an extra SpA boost. The Spread is a classic one (enough Speed to outspeed max Speed Regieleki when at +2) and the offensive moves are its two STABs with Air Slash being an option over Hurricane if you are afraid of missing too much. Moltres Galar is also a very good fit in this kind of teams, because it can easily switch-in into Dragapult’s Shadow Ball, and Dragapult is known for being annoying for screen teams as it bypasses the screen boost with Infiltrator and outspeed most of the screen abusers. Here is the set:

View attachment 396711
Moltres-Galar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane / Air Slash


: Another deadly sweeper in screen teams with Swords Dance to boost its Attack and Scale Shot to boost its Speed. Like Moltres Galar, Garchomp is relatively bulky and hard to pressure when screens are up. It also pairs pretty well with Kartana, as they can both weaken their shared checks to allow one of the two to sweep. Earthquake is your main STAB and Fire Fang is used mainly to hit Corviknight. Here is the set:

View attachment 396709
Garchomp @ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Scale Shot


: Last but not least, Volcarona is infamous for its incredibly good setup move in Quiver Dance and is often a nice addition to a screen based team. Flamethrower is its main STAB, while Psychic is an important coverage you’ll need to threaten Fire resists like Toxapex. Last slot could be either Roost or another offensive move like Giga Drain or Bug Buzz. Heavy-Duty Boots are still mandatory, even with a lead like Lycanroc-Dusk, because of the huge 4 times weakness to Stealth Rock Volcarona has. Here is the set:

View attachment 396710
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
- Roost / Giga Drain / Bug Buzz


Minor Changes

: Kartana is indeed pretty cool in this kind of team, and I think you should just change two things. First, you can run Knock Off over Smart Strike, as even though Smart Strike is a STAB move, it brings the least useful coverage among all Kartana common moves. Secondly, you should change the item, as Aguav Berry is a pretty bad item and if you want to avoid running a Life Orb to reduce potential chip, there’s other options like Chople Berry or Adrenaline Orb (to get a Speed Boost on Landorus-T coming in and intimidating) who are way more useful than Aguav Berry.


: Would just change Dark Pulse for Moonblast, you rather have a STAB on this thing as you won’t hit hard, and Moonblast helps against Weavile. Freeze Dry can also be considered over Blizzard.


Set is fine.



That’s all for the suggestions, feel free to try the new version of the team, or even to test other setup sweepers here.

The Paste

Kartana @ Chople Berry
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Sword
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off

Lycanroc-Dusk @ Focus Sash
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Accelerock
- Endeavor

Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Encore
- Freeze-Dry
- Moonblast

Moltres-Galar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane

Garchomp @ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Scale Shot

Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
- Roost

Hope this was helpful, have a nice day!

Thanks a lot Ironwater for your suggestions. All of these are so helpful. I didn't know Moltres Galar had such a threatening prescence in the meta. THank you! Though I am a little worried about chip damage to the team, the only pokemon capable to heal is Volcarona , although I can't really speak on it, till I test it out on the showdown ladder, it probably does not matter that the team does not have healing due to the sheer offensive pressure.

 

[yesusermane]

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