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OU SM OU - Teambuilding Competition : October 2023 Revival (Week 1: Seismitoad on post #290)
- Thread starter zinnias
- Start date
I think the teams might be even better this week guys, some really cool builds & I think everyone was on point (and all relatively different ideas too, insofar as building around eject button can be, which is neat).
Found it quite difficult to pick one to vote for, and I tested out most of the teams. I think this week I will cast in for Team 7, by Alexdevi. I found it very smooth to pilot, and although the idea of Banded Bulu + Z Garchomp + offensive Psychic is not novel, eject button + Zone is a really nice spin in keeping with the theme of the week.
Quick shout outs to Clementine for the Facade Altaria (awesome set), and Proftreez for somehow using Cresselia (once again lmao
) - cool offensive team (though I found it difficult to pilot in some MU's, as offence sometimes can be).
Also also, eject button Ferrothorn/TornT + Pursuit Tyranitar is really sweet, Maktyum.
Found it quite difficult to pick one to vote for, and I tested out most of the teams. I think this week I will cast in for Team 7, by Alexdevi. I found it very smooth to pilot, and although the idea of Banded Bulu + Z Garchomp + offensive Psychic is not novel, eject button + Zone is a really nice spin in keeping with the theme of the week.
Quick shout outs to Clementine for the Facade Altaria (awesome set), and Proftreez for somehow using Cresselia (once again lmao
) - cool offensive team (though I found it difficult to pilot in some MU's, as offence sometimes can be).Also also, eject button Ferrothorn/TornT + Pursuit Tyranitar is really sweet, Maktyum.
Before voting I want to make an honorable mention to the Ausma team Lele's Handy Dandy Pocket Pex BO, it's a lot of fun to use 2 of the best trappers in the meta very safely.
I had a hard time choosing between the first 4 teams, but my vote goes to Team 1 by Vittorioso, I've always wanted to use a trapper that supports scizor, golem has a good synergy of types with scizor unlike magnezone with which it shares weaknesses, without forgetting that It hits on the physical side, finishing off the more popular Steel-types more easily.
I had a hard time choosing between the first 4 teams, but my vote goes to Team 1 by Vittorioso, I've always wanted to use a trapper that supports scizor, golem has a good synergy of types with scizor unlike magnezone with which it shares weaknesses, without forgetting that It hits on the physical side, finishing off the more popular Steel-types more easily.
Autistic Soviet
Banned deucer.
Team 6 fire
I love m-altaria, team 4 and team 7 a lot but team 5 is my favorite.
And with that, Team 9 by Proftreez wins the Week 2 of the SM Teambuilding Competition. It will be added to the Hall of Fame.
Let's move to week 3 now!
According to the survey, this week's new theme is:
A tie!
As usual, democracy is useless. So, to cut the tie, I will ask the opinion of the most relevant competitive pokemon player: Guts from Berserk!
And so it's decided! The week's new theme is:
Week 3 : Slowbro / Slowbro-Mega
/ 
Overall, Slowbro is simply a fantastic defensive tool in the metagame. Outside of its obvious role as a big physical sponge with a convenient dual-type for the like of Medicham-Mega or Charizard-Mega-X, Slowbro is also very unpredictable thanks to its huge movepool and the many possible items you can slot on it (Z-moves with Future Sight or Zap Cannon, Eject Button, Berries with Colbur for Dark or Rindo for Grass, ...). On that note, Slowbronite, although it seems like a weaker option on Slowbro (and, therefore a waste of an item), is also interesting as it gives to Slowbro much more defense and a powerful special attack stats of 130.
For this week, the goal is to build a team with Slowbro or Slowbro-Mega.
Let's move to week 3 now!
According to the survey, this week's new theme is:
A tie!
And so it's decided! The week's new theme is:
Week 3 : Slowbro / Slowbro-Mega
/ Overall, Slowbro is simply a fantastic defensive tool in the metagame. Outside of its obvious role as a big physical sponge with a convenient dual-type for the like of Medicham-Mega or Charizard-Mega-X, Slowbro is also very unpredictable thanks to its huge movepool and the many possible items you can slot on it (Z-moves with Future Sight or Zap Cannon, Eject Button, Berries with Colbur for Dark or Rindo for Grass, ...). On that note, Slowbronite, although it seems like a weaker option on Slowbro (and, therefore a waste of an item), is also interesting as it gives to Slowbro much more defense and a powerful special attack stats of 130.
For this week, the goal is to build a team with Slowbro or Slowbro-Mega.
Round shall end on Friday 24 march at 11: 59 PM GMT-5. Have Fun!
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Analytic Magnezone + Psychium Z Slowbro + Lopunny-Mega Balance
Hi everyone, KaiserKaiba here again to post some garbage. For this week, I wanted to toy with a pretty funny set of Magnezone: Analytic. While it seems like a complete waste of the said pokemon, Analytic Magnezone does have some cool applications in this metagame (moreover, it's not my original idea, I stole it from that old spl replay).
Hi everyone, KaiserKaiba here again to post some garbage. For this week, I wanted to toy with a pretty funny set of Magnezone: Analytic. While it seems like a complete waste of the said pokemon, Analytic Magnezone does have some cool applications in this metagame (moreover, it's not my original idea, I stole it from that old spl replay).
With a modest nature, the ability Analytic and Hidden Power [Ice], Magnezone is able to lure and beat the most relevant grounds of SM OU such as Gliscor, Garchomp and Landorus-Therian. Moreover, Toxic will cover the rest of this list (Gastrodon, Hippodown, ...). Iapapa Berry looks weird, but, here, with Substitute + Toxic, it allows Magnezone to actually pressure many walls such as Chansey (while, as long you don't reveal any item, you can fake a possible Z-Electric/Z-Steel). Finally, Discharge is preferred to cripple natural check to Magnezone such as Latias-Mega.
With Future Sight and Psychium Z, Slowbro can randomly pull out a 190 BP psychic move and lure the very common Toxapex. Moreover, due to the presence of the funny Analytic Magnezone, I didn't feel the need to put Ice Beam or Counter on this Slowbro. Instead, I keep the obvious Slack Off and Scald. Finally, Thunder Wave is convenient to punish CM users such as Clefable or Reuniclus and also ease the 1v1 against set-up behemoths such as Charizard-Mega-X.
The final piece of the basic core of this team. Lopunny-Mega greatly appreciate the ability of Magnezone and Slowbro to remove annoying checks such as Gliscor, Landorus-Therian or Toxapex. Even once you burn the Psychium Z of Slowbro, Future Sight is still a fantastic offensive tool that form a powerful tandem alongside Lopunny-Mega. For the set, High Jump Kick, Frustration and Fake out are all obvious options; however, Power-Up Punch allows Lopunny-Mega to pressure more easily soft-checks such as Tornadus-Therian, Clefable, Latias-Mega, Skarmory or Scizor-Mega.
The immortal bat will support the squad with its usual assets such as its ability to check Toxapex or Heatran, U-turn to ease the pivoting and Defog to constantly remove hazards on the field (especially Toxic Spikes and Spikes). Nothing much to say on that slot.
Heatran is mainly here to patch up a bit our awful MUs against the like of Tapu Lele, Magearna, Volcarona, Scizor-Mega and Bulky CM Users such as Clefable, Latias-Mega or Reuniclus (especially Latias-Mega if it's a variant with Refresh or Substitute). While I do agree that Heatran actually fail to achieve the job I mentionned just above, I value a lot its ability to force respect in early game and being somewhat annoying with the combination of Magma Storm, Toxic, Taunt and Stealth Rock to force bad sequence against defoggers such as Rotom-Wash, Tapu Fini, Tornadus-Therian or Latias-Mega. Finally, Heatran appreciate as well Magnezone's ability to lure Gliscor.
Another pokemon with a set I really dislike a lot; unfortunatly, I can't think of a better last here. The first original pick was Amoonguss. However, with Heatran and Slowbro as our sole psychic-resist, I can't afford at all the funny mushroom and, instead, slot Tangrowth. With Assault Vest and its solid HP stat, Tangrowth is able to soft-check usual threats such as Alakazam-Mega, Ash-Greninja, Tapu Koko, Swampert-Mega or Kartana. For the moveset, Leaf Storm improve our MU against Manaphy, Knock Off removes Rocky Helmet from the like of Skarmory or Tornadus-Therian and Rock Slide can catch Volcarona or Charizard-Mega-Y (and, at worst, put them in the range of Fake Out).Hope you will like the team. See you soon. S/O to Proftreez and RufflesPro for the help.
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Building a team based on slowbro is difficult, originally I wanted to use its mega evolution but I didn't get good results, so I bring this arena team inspired by this The Charlotte Family, so most of the credit goes to him, I just modified it to better distribute the roles.
- Slowbro with future sigth is one of the main reasons to take it over toxapex, future Sight is very spammable and pressures the opponent to do one of two things: go into something that can shrug off a Psychic-type attack or take considerable damage (120 BP is no joke). The rest of the team takes advantage of this fact as I'll go into later.
- Mega Lopunny is one of the best megas of the level. Its stellar speed and attack stat, as well as its incredible double STAB and priority combo make it an excellent revenge killer and a threat to most offensive teams. One of the reasons I put it on this team is that it takes advantage of the fact that Future Sight draws in Dark- and Steel-types that Mega Lopunny can break through with High Jump Kick.
- BandTar is a great wallbreaker as well as the team's sand setter. It completes the FDP (Fighting / Dark / Psychic) core with Lopunny and Slowbro. It too takes advantage of Future Sight as it also lures in Psychic-types which Tyranitar traps and easily dispatches of. Fire Punch softens up Steel-types such as Magearna, Celesteela, Skarmory and Mega Mawile which Mega Lopunny would otherwise struggle to take out.
- Excadrill fits well here as a ground type, it gives me electrical immunity and a speed control under sand, it has life sphere to compensate for the lack of Z crystal, since it does not have fast spin I use avalanche to hit zapdos.
- Ferrothorn is here for his excellent understanding of roles, granting me trap rocks and giving us a check against greninja ash and psychic spam, forming a nice defensive synergy with slowbro.
- Tornadus for the third time is my defog and kartana control, with his ability he forms a regeneration core with slowbro, helping to eliminate the plant types that bother slowbro.
I didn't spend as much time as i would have liked on this week so the team feels a bit rushed but it seems fine. I originally was going with something a bit more offensive but i didn't like it very much and there are already 2 psychium-z slowbro teams posted for this week. This is definitely more my kind of team though lol.
SD gliscor is definitely the best wincon in the tier but I've gone with a careful nature w/o speed investment. This leaves EVs to let Gliscor survive Play Rough into Sucker Punch from Mega Mawile if toxic orb has been activated while the spdef with a careful nature lets it live an ice beam from full from a non invested magearna and mega-slowbro and lives a specs psychic from timid tapu lele along with a lot of other stuff it has no right living. Building around mega-slowbro was tougher than expected tbh. It shouldn't be mega'd unless absolutely necessary as regenerator is much better as an ability. Thunder wave is there to cripple setup sweepers that cant immediately threaten slowbro and help it 1v1 pokemon like charizard x and mega-latios.
Tornadus gave us a grass switch in and pairs very nicely with slowbro and gliscor. It gives us a little bit of speed control so we don't just lose to SD kartana. I love taunt on tornadus because of how annoying it is into fatter teams while having value into offensive teams to stop hazards or setup sweepers. EVs live a ice punch from full from mega-medicham while still outspeeding scarf magnezone.
The special sponge herself. It glues the team together as it provides a great answer to the tiers many special threats such as mage-alakazam or ash-greninja. This is the teams rocks setter and I run thunder wave to cripple things like alakazam and bulky setup sweepers like reuniclus or clefable. Magnezone provides a much needed way to trap and remove things like celesteela and mega-scizor which can be very annoying for this team. Choice scarf could be a good option over sub z-move for some more speed and a safer SD kartana answer since it can't miss but I like the nuke of electrium-z to give the team some more immediate power that it seems to be lacking.
This pokemon gives us some much needed counterplay vs rain and manaphy specifically and provides spikes to wear down the opposing team. It also gives us a more reliable psychic switch in to help against tapu lele, with protect to try keep it healthier throughout the game.A random replay because why not: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-1828264740-6amepcaklpvilia0ibf160ts4ihiw6rpw
The team looks a bit weak to bulky calm mind sweepers but oh well. Just win before they do :).
Have fun with the team!
Charizard Y+Psychium Z Slowbro
(click me)
I did not have much time this week to build so I went for the nice Charizard+Slowbro pair which is fun and great in game.(click me)
: Future sight Slowbro is just a great tool at pressuring the opposition while retaining defensive utility to switch into fighting types like Lopunny or Medicham. Future Sight's main target here is Toxapex but it can overwhelm any defensive pivot for the rest of the team to shine. Counter is a really funny move in conjunction with future sight. In fact, people tend to pivot on Slowbro with u-turn to avoid the damages of f-sight only to see their mons lose health for nothing. It is also a nice emergency button vs scarf kartana (if you are really in a bad position), Weavile, or Gliscor.
: Charizard Y is a good partner for Slowbro synergizing well with it. While Slowbro pressures Toxapex, Charizard will in return punish all those switches to steel types or grass types, opening Slowbro even more. Nothing much to say, Charizard Y is just a murderous wall breaker that can win on the spot and is especially good vs those fini+ferro/rachi teams.+
: Spedef Heatran is a classic for sun teams acting as stealth rocks setter, benefiting from the sun with reduced damages from water-type attacks and boosted magma storms and is our psychic+fairy switch-in. Hydreigon is a great partner for heatran and a good choice in sun teams (where I think it shines the most) being an ash-greninja+heatran switch-in that can defog and heal itself with roost. Draco meteor to actually do some damage vs greninja while earth power targets heatran and is good enough vs other steels like magearna.
+
: Scarf Landorus is our speed control, secondary defog user, and is a nice addition with intimidate and U-turn allowing to get Weavile or Charizard on the field. Finally, Weavile is the mandatory Knock Off user and trapper vs Latias and Chansey mainly, unlocking Charizard for the rest of the game.Hope you will enjoy the team!
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https://pokepast.es/99f6cf33b629f812
Built this around Mega-Diancie + KyuB with Chansey n Slowbro as the defensive core,Double Z might be wack but Kartana was the only mon I thought of that could be the removal for this team.Rounded this team off with Lando as the ground resist + rocker.
Your msciz mu is p sucky
Built this around Mega-Diancie + KyuB with Chansey n Slowbro as the defensive core,Double Z might be wack but Kartana was the only mon I thought of that could be the removal for this team.Rounded this team off with Lando as the ground resist + rocker.
Your msciz mu is p sucky
Intro:
Welp this is hella late and I have been extremely busy, so this post won't be as in depth as the previous ones. Slowbro is one of my favorite mons to tinker with in the builder given its versatility in sets and usage, and I believe it to be one of the best pivots in the current metagame. Despite the recent popularity of Z-psychium sets utilizing future sight à la SS, I believe mega slowbro to be a heavily underrated mon, taking advantage of the immense buff in defense and substantial increase in spa. However, mega slowbro is not generally used for a reason, copounding the suceptibility of base-slowbro to special attackers and coverage/4mss, alongside the reduced longevity with the loss of regenerator upon megaing and the required use of a mega slot, I decided to pair it with a set I believe to be extremely potent in the current metagame, bulky as all fuck kyurem-b. With its defensive typing and great bulk (125/100/90 for those unaware), kyurem-b can check the majority of grasses, waters, electrics and special attacker that look to take advantage of mega slowbros comparatively middling special bulk and exploitable coverage. From there, I meshed together a pretty basic bulky offense quartet of tornadus-t, the defogger of the team and in my opinion a near necessity when using mega slowbro; magearna, resident psychic check and dark resist (allowing us to wall a-greninja alongside kyurem-b); band kartana, an additional ground check and source of offensive pressure; and gliscor, our rocker and heatran answer. The team is by no means consistent (or well, even good), but I was fucking busy, so what can you really do? Anyway, moving on to the team:
The Team:
The star of the week, mega slowbro is in my opinion a highly underrated defensive mega in the current metagame, offering a reprieve against the likes of mega swampert, mega charizard x, gliscor (the broken fuck) and mega mawile base-slowbro may otherwise struggle with. Retaining its pre-mega, slowbro is an excellent pivot in the early game as a stop against most physical attackers thanks to regenerator; disrupting the opposition with status from scald and thunder wave. Note that aggresively using slowbro early game to trade paralysis is a valid startegy thanks to regenerator, and is a saving grace in some poor matchups. Flamethrower was chosen over future sight or ice beam as I valued the chip on ferrothorn and ability to severely weaken mega scizor over the other utility options. The spread allows you to take a +1 mega alakazam shadow ball (and by extension a mega charizard y solar beam from full, 2hko standard ferrothorn pre-mega after rocks, outspeed max speed neutral base-50s once paralyzed, and hit a jump point in defense.
My specially defensive pivot and "mandatory" defensive steel, av magearna provides the team crucial resistances against dark, psychic, ice and flying while exerting offensive pressure of its own. It is in my humble opinion that pivot variants of magearnas utilizing assault vest as their item necessitate special attack investment to truly be effective, as it allows them to take the most advantage of their trading capabilities and prevent the likes of careful gliscor and ferrothorn from taking back momentum. Hp fire was chosen over focus blast as I valued pressuring mega scizor more then punishing a potential heatran switch in, and flash cannon was chosen over the more common fleur cannon in order to pressure calm mind clefable and more reliably deal with tapu lele. The evs allow you to take two +2 mega scizor bullet punches at full and hit a jump point in special attack, with the rest allocated into special defense. I chose not to reduce speed on this magearna in order to take the most advantage of flash cannon hitting clefable and mega mawile.
A set I like to refer to as "overweight" kyub, kyurem-b provides a blanket check into a majority of special attackers in the tier, trading with most of them; while being a potent breaker in its own right. In tandem with magearna, kyurem-b forms an anti a-greninja core akin to the tornadus-t + rotom-w cores utilized to answer keldeo in oras (a building approach I have become more and more fond of). At a glance the set I am using may seem very odd, but there is a method to the madness and the move choices and Z selection fit a set of criteria I wanted kyurem-b to accomplish. Electrium-Z allows me to ohko toxapex, manaphy and volcarona, a trio of extremely annoying mons for the team. Additionally, electrium baits in chipped magearnas and mega scizors, koing both around the half hp range. Dragon claw may seem like a wasted slot at first, but it allows you to pressure mega latias without icium-Z, while denting the likes of rotom-w, volcarona after burning Z, gastrodon and chansey. The evs allow you to eat a +1 fire blast from volcarona after rocks while outspeeding adamant variants of hoopa-u and hitting a jump point in attack. An adamant nature was chosen to preserve bulk and speed as I did not value the slight power increase of ice beam such natures would allot.
The defogger of the team and part two of my regen core, tornadus-t provides crucial speed control and acts as my primary "answer" to kartana. Tornadus-t compliments slowbro (and by extension gliscor) in outlasting defensive pieces thanks to the self-sufficiency provided by their passive recovery while punishing pivot attempts from the likes of landorus-t with rocky helmet. Toxic tornadus-t may seem like an odd selection, but it allows me to put mega latias, opposing tornadus-t, and other problematic mons on a timer, opening oles for the rest of the team to take advantage of, while shutting down mons that might otherwise 6-0 the squad. Heat wave was chosen over a utility move such as upturn or knock off in order to chunk ferrothorn, skarmory and mega scizor for the rest of the squad to abuse, notably making it more self sufficient as a fogger into ferrothorn. The evs allow me to take a mega medicham ice punch from full while maximizing hp investment (making it easier to play around fini, which I found to be a nuisance); while outspeeding scarf tyranitar, and by extension azelf, because I am paranoid.
My primary source of offensive pressure, kartana is an excellent wallbreaker that capitalizes on the numerous free switchins alotted by gliscor and magearna to wreck havoc with band boosted attacks, while offensively checking the likes of garchomp, mega medicham and mega swampert thanks to its speed tier and/or defensive typing and natural bulk. While scarf may seem more appealing on this structure, I found the breaking potential of band kartana to mesh better with the current six, opening up kyurem-b and magearna by dismantaling their shared checks. Evs and set are standard; it's a kartana on steriods; not much else to say.
My rocker, ground type and primary heatran answer, gliscor compresses a variety of roles thanks to it's combination of excellent defensive typing, great utility, and amazing ability in poison heal doubling as leftovers on crack and status immunity following activation. I think its far to say we all know what gliscor does at this point, it lives forever and eats everything, while being the biggest bastard the metagame has to offer. U-turn was selected over toxic in order to transform bulky grounds and grasses that may use gliscor as points of entry to set up entry hazards and the like, into offensive momentum for band kartana and kyurem-b to take advantage of. The evs are standard fare for gliscor, outspeeding modest heatran while maximizing special bulk alongside an optimal poison heal number (248 hp on gliscor often has better roles then 244 hp, so always double check the calc if your an ev fiend like I am).
Closing:
Not my best work, but hopefully the ideas presented within the structure are worthwhile to the inquisitive onlooker. It has its funny moments, but its not a team I would load in any serious setting. That's about it.
P.S.:
Don't airstrike my house KaiserKaiba ok I know it's late, ok love you byeeeeeeeeeeee
Welp this is hella late and I have been extremely busy, so this post won't be as in depth as the previous ones. Slowbro is one of my favorite mons to tinker with in the builder given its versatility in sets and usage, and I believe it to be one of the best pivots in the current metagame. Despite the recent popularity of Z-psychium sets utilizing future sight à la SS, I believe mega slowbro to be a heavily underrated mon, taking advantage of the immense buff in defense and substantial increase in spa. However, mega slowbro is not generally used for a reason, copounding the suceptibility of base-slowbro to special attackers and coverage/4mss, alongside the reduced longevity with the loss of regenerator upon megaing and the required use of a mega slot, I decided to pair it with a set I believe to be extremely potent in the current metagame, bulky as all fuck kyurem-b. With its defensive typing and great bulk (125/100/90 for those unaware), kyurem-b can check the majority of grasses, waters, electrics and special attacker that look to take advantage of mega slowbros comparatively middling special bulk and exploitable coverage. From there, I meshed together a pretty basic bulky offense quartet of tornadus-t, the defogger of the team and in my opinion a near necessity when using mega slowbro; magearna, resident psychic check and dark resist (allowing us to wall a-greninja alongside kyurem-b); band kartana, an additional ground check and source of offensive pressure; and gliscor, our rocker and heatran answer. The team is by no means consistent (or well, even good), but I was fucking busy, so what can you really do? Anyway, moving on to the team:
PAPER TRAIL
Mega Slowbro + Bulky Electrium Z Kyurem-B Bulky Offense:
(Click images for paste!)
Mega Slowbro + Bulky Electrium Z Kyurem-B Bulky Offense:
(Click images for paste!)
The Team:
The star of the week, mega slowbro is in my opinion a highly underrated defensive mega in the current metagame, offering a reprieve against the likes of mega swampert, mega charizard x, gliscor (the broken fuck) and mega mawile base-slowbro may otherwise struggle with. Retaining its pre-mega, slowbro is an excellent pivot in the early game as a stop against most physical attackers thanks to regenerator; disrupting the opposition with status from scald and thunder wave. Note that aggresively using slowbro early game to trade paralysis is a valid startegy thanks to regenerator, and is a saving grace in some poor matchups. Flamethrower was chosen over future sight or ice beam as I valued the chip on ferrothorn and ability to severely weaken mega scizor over the other utility options. The spread allows you to take a +1 mega alakazam shadow ball (and by extension a mega charizard y solar beam from full, 2hko standard ferrothorn pre-mega after rocks, outspeed max speed neutral base-50s once paralyzed, and hit a jump point in defense.
A set I like to refer to as "overweight" kyub, kyurem-b provides a blanket check into a majority of special attackers in the tier, trading with most of them; while being a potent breaker in its own right. In tandem with magearna, kyurem-b forms an anti a-greninja core akin to the tornadus-t + rotom-w cores utilized to answer keldeo in oras (a building approach I have become more and more fond of). At a glance the set I am using may seem very odd, but there is a method to the madness and the move choices and Z selection fit a set of criteria I wanted kyurem-b to accomplish. Electrium-Z allows me to ohko toxapex, manaphy and volcarona, a trio of extremely annoying mons for the team. Additionally, electrium baits in chipped magearnas and mega scizors, koing both around the half hp range. Dragon claw may seem like a wasted slot at first, but it allows you to pressure mega latias without icium-Z, while denting the likes of rotom-w, volcarona after burning Z, gastrodon and chansey. The evs allow you to eat a +1 fire blast from volcarona after rocks while outspeeding adamant variants of hoopa-u and hitting a jump point in attack. An adamant nature was chosen to preserve bulk and speed as I did not value the slight power increase of ice beam such natures would allot.
Defensive:
252 SpA Charizard-Mega-Y Focus Blast vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 276-326 (69.8 - 82.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Alakazam-Mega Focus Blast vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 296-350 (74.9 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Dark Pulse vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 151-178 (38.2 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 250-295 (63.2 - 74.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Offensive:
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Gigavolt Havoc (180 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Volcarona: 358-422 (115.1 - 135.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Gigavolt Havoc (180 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Manaphy: 504-594 (125 - 147.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Gigavolt Havoc (180 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Toxapex: 350-414 (115.1 - 136.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Latias-Mega: 288-338 (79.3 - 93.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Burger.
252 SpA Charizard-Mega-Y Focus Blast vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 276-326 (69.8 - 82.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Alakazam-Mega Focus Blast vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 296-350 (74.9 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Dark Pulse vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 151-178 (38.2 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 250-295 (63.2 - 74.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Offensive:
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Gigavolt Havoc (180 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Volcarona: 358-422 (115.1 - 135.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Gigavolt Havoc (180 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Manaphy: 504-594 (125 - 147.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Gigavolt Havoc (180 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Toxapex: 350-414 (115.1 - 136.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Latias-Mega: 288-338 (79.3 - 93.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Burger.
My primary source of offensive pressure, kartana is an excellent wallbreaker that capitalizes on the numerous free switchins alotted by gliscor and magearna to wreck havoc with band boosted attacks, while offensively checking the likes of garchomp, mega medicham and mega swampert thanks to its speed tier and/or defensive typing and natural bulk. While scarf may seem more appealing on this structure, I found the breaking potential of band kartana to mesh better with the current six, opening up kyurem-b and magearna by dismantaling their shared checks. Evs and set are standard; it's a kartana on steriods; not much else to say.
Closing:
Not my best work, but hopefully the ideas presented within the structure are worthwhile to the inquisitive onlooker. It has its funny moments, but its not a team I would load in any serious setting. That's about it.
P.S.:
SLOWBRO IS A PAIN TO BUILD AROUND
Click here no arnaque no noob
Hello! I wanted to try the challenge building around Slowbro without building your regular Slowbro + fat Psychic + steel + Gliscor stuff, but unfortunately this team structure is way too strong to not share it Click here no arnaque no noob
So here we are, sharing another team with Sd Gliscor as a win condition. Slowbro is a really cool mon in SM, but I already spammed the Future Sight set, and I wanted to explore another Z move. Z Zap Cannon looks really appealing, especially when Skype kills a Gren on the switch 
Z Zap Cannon is a good option to catch threats that would otherwise pressure Slowbro like Gren or Zard on the switch. It can even help, to some extend, removing Celesteela, opening a path for our team.
I find myself playing Kommo-O a lot recently, and it's even better with Slowbro. Those two guys complete each other really well defensively, and they can both be played to make progress. SpeDef Kommo-O gives me a Heatran, ZardY and Ashgren check on the same slot.
Our psychic, Kazam's speed tier allows him to not be played full speed, only enough to outspeed Lopunny. The remaining EVs are invested in HP, to help Zam checking special threats more effectively. HP Ice is used to pressure the likes of Gliscor, Lando and even Chomp (especially for Gliscor ngl). SD Gliscor is the best win condition in the game without a doubt. We are playing Kommo-O and Kazam, so we can make Careful Gliscor work here. It's so stupid, you can take an Ice beam from Latias and even an HP Ice from Kazam from full. If you have strong answers to Heatran in your team, you should always run Careful Gliscor. Classic Mag, having a steel is needed to check Psyspam and CM users with Heart Swap. It can even give some momentum thanks to Volt Switch. To finish our team, I needed a defog, and also a Kartana check. Tornadus came naturally. His moveset is easily changeable, you can go for taunt to break through passive teams, or Heat Wave for Scizor.Hope you'll enjoy the team!
approved by the forum moderators
Hello SM community, I'm AcneAutist and I will be running the Teambuilding Competition as of now. The last round of the competition was quite long ago, so I think it would be better to start fresh with a new round instead. For my first week of running this competition, the theme will be...
Week 1: Seismitoad
Seismitoad, albeit rare, has considerable merit in OU which has been reflected by usage in big tournaments and the high ladder. It has a useful defensive typing alongside Water Absorb, and some great utility moves like Knock Off, Stealth Rock and Refresh. It has even been known to run a creative lure set, utilising Infestation along with Groundium Z in order to trap and eliminate passive Pokemon. I feel like there is lots of room for experimentation with this Pokemon, therefore I have chosen it as the subject for this week's competition.
The round will end on Sunday, 29th of October, at 11:59 pm GMT-5. Have fun!
Hello SM community, I'm AcneAutist and I will be running the Teambuilding Competition as of now. The last round of the competition was quite long ago, so I think it would be better to start fresh with a new round instead. For my first week of running this competition, the theme will be...
Week 1: Seismitoad
Seismitoad, albeit rare, has considerable merit in OU which has been reflected by usage in big tournaments and the high ladder. It has a useful defensive typing alongside Water Absorb, and some great utility moves like Knock Off, Stealth Rock and Refresh. It has even been known to run a creative lure set, utilising Infestation along with Groundium Z in order to trap and eliminate passive Pokemon. I feel like there is lots of room for experimentation with this Pokemon, therefore I have chosen it as the subject for this week's competition.
The round will end on Sunday, 29th of October, at 11:59 pm GMT-5. Have fun!
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Gastrodon is better.
I've tried it in the past but I have never really been a big fan of seismitoad, so this week was an interesting challenge. The one thing I do like about it is its access to such a good utility movepool so I thought I would try it on a bulkier team that could allow it more chances to use it.
- Gastrodon but it traded reliable recovery for rocks and knock off. Unfortunately, this means I cant just throw it into any and every attack I want but here it does act as a check to greninja along side my 2 fairy types to resist dark pulse as well as switching into many other pokemon such as tapu koko, pivot magearna, magnezone, zapdos and rotom-wash. Knock off lets it remove items and refresh means it doesn't fear toxic or wisp crippling its longevity. The spread outspeeds mega scizor and lives a +2 sucker punch from mega-mawile.
- This teams bulky setup wincon. I liked the idea of having a calm mind clefable with seismitoad to sit on the common answers such as heatran, magearna and toxapex while also having thunder wave to annoy them. I originally had knock off > thunder wave so I could actually remove items from these pokemon as well as chansey and celesteela but ended up valuing thunder wave more as it was more helpful vs offensive teams. The speed means you outspeed paralyzed jolly medicham.
- I chose latias as the mega to give the team a bit more speed while having an answer to swords dance gliscor and swords dance kartana. Thunder wave is great for crippling the steel types that like to switch in while also making offensive threats easier to deal with. I have been convinced that draco meteor is one of the best last moves on latias as it does lots of damage to medicham and greninja - something I valued for this team- but it also OHKOs charizard-x, kyurem and kommo-o at +0.
- A niche pick but another pokemon I have wanted to try. Hurricane with flyinium-z makes it much less passive, however there are still many pokemon capable of walling its stab combination such as rotom-wash, heatran and tyranitar. The first two are usually walled by seismitoad so it seemed like a pretty nice pairing. Pressure is great for long games since it removes 2 PP off of hazards and can defog them away too. In theory it checks volcarona too which the team is weak to. The spread lives +2 sucker punch from mega-mawile from full and OHKOs the standard defog/stealth rocks gliscor set from full with z-hurricane. The speed creeps 254. - I wanted another defogger along side moltres and gliscor seemed like a good option to help against heatran since seismitoad isn't running earthquake. 44 attack and 68 defense means gliscor always lives +1 flare blitz from full from charizard-x and OHKOs back with earthquake after recoil damage. - I needed a psychic resist quite badly and I thought magearna was a good choice since it also beats bulky special setup sweepers like reuniclus and clefable with heart swap. The 72 defense lives a +2 high jump kick from hawlucha from full.I hope you like the team!
Refresh Seismitoad + Bulky Mega Charizard X Balance
I chose Seismitoad as it is an awesome recent (sort of) development to the tier that would baffle anyone to see for the first time. When I first played against Seismitoad on the ladder, I was frustrated by how it could just do so much each time it was in, and had such an annoying typing. It was slinging up rocks, knocking off items, curing its own status, and that's when I first realised I wasn't playing against some bored guy slotting on a Pokemon he liked onto a team. Seismitoad is a serious mon. I believe it fits best on balance teams with Wish support, and with the limited time I could afford this week, I got to work on fixing up some appreciative teammates for Seismitoad's utility.
The main character of this team. I was considering different ways to run it, but I ended up going with the Refresh variant because of how well it can handle Toxapex's bullshit status moves. It is the team's rocker, easily setting up rocks on electric types and others that are threatened out. Scald is there because it hits things like Landorus-Therian and you can fish for burns on switchins. Although I would love to run Knock Off for Tapu Fini, I am using Earthquake on this Seismitoad because I wanted a way to actually hit Mega Mawile/Magearna hard. I also didn't want my answer to specs Koko to be death by a thousand knocks, so Earthquake seems necessary. I was looking through the tier to see which Pokemon would benefit from what Seismitoad does (shuts down volt switches and snaps electric types) and Tornadus-Therian came to mind. It brings hazard removal to the table and with this spread it can live a MMedi ice punch from full. I mostly just like the speed it brings to the table and the removal though, and it also forms a nice regen core with Alomomola! Hurricane is for some good stab, knock allows Torn to remove Leftovers, Eviolite from Chansey, Helmet from Skarmory, etc. Taunt allows Torn to be a pest and block healing/status moves from passive Pokemon like Chansey, Clef, Pex. A nice thing you can do with rocks up is click taunt predicting Zapdos, blocking their roost, which is even more annoying when its been knocked by Seismi or Kart. It is one of the most splashable Pokemon in the tier so it wasn't too hard to fit. Magearna is here to use its great defensive typing to help against threats like Mega Alakazam and Kyurem-Black. It uses Heart Swap to prevent bulky setup Pokemon, which I would otherwise have to rely on something like Charizard for. Not ideal. Ice Beam and Volt Switch are there to be a dollar store bolt beam coverage, but also to threaten out Lando and Gliscor from blocking volt switches. Flash Cannon could also be run over Ice Beam if you would like to hit harder neutrally and hit Kyurem-Black and Clefable super effectively. Heal Bell is here to help this team shrug off constant barrages of status, as although I have my Refresh Seismitoad, there is shit like Static/Flame Body and also status users that can 1v1 Seismi, so it gives me a security blanket. I also feel Bulky Zard X doesn't really work without Heal Bell, I just feel scared to get it out else. The Normalium Z links up with Heal Bell to give Magearna some self healing in a pinch, and I'll only need it in a pinch realistically, since I have maybe the best wish passer to ever do it.
Another unconventional water type on this team, I singled it out for how its able to pass huge wishes to the likes of Seismitoad and Kartana, while also pairing with Tornadus-Therian for a regen core which helps out against passive things. The combination of both Scald and Toxic is rather unpleasant to switch into, as the steel and poison types immune to poison like Ferro and Pex, do not want to get burned. I'm using Scald over Knock Off here because I want to be able to threaten Mega Mawile and Mega Sableye with burns. Wish and Regen is an incredible combo, because Alo doesn't need to worry about itself as much and can focus on being generous.
Max HP Charizard X is something I was shown as a defensive Pokemon with status, but I feel like it benefits from the bulk even better while using Dragon Dance. 0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 4 SpD Charizard-Mega-X: 141-166 (39.2 - 46.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO I think this calc is all you need to see in order to know why I think this, although it also comes with the ability to take about 60 from an uninvested Magearna fleur cannon and just roost it off. This thing will be a menace to common offense teams after boosting up, since even after investing so much in HP, you're still faster than Lele and strong enough to OHKO Celesteela unboosted. In a pinch it takes about only 55% from a Gliscor EQ, allowing for a second boost if needed. Once you scout out any potential bullshit like Thunder Wave from Rotom-Wash/Magearna using Seismitoad as the canary in the coal mine, you have some set-up targets that are super common. Not to mention the HP helping out with priority like Lopunny fake out + quick attack or Gren's shuriken. Banded Kartana is the chosen strike partner for Charizard here, because they have good type synergy, beating eachother's checks, but also sharing checks, with Kartana being able to slam defensive Landorus-Therian with annoying Leaf Blades until it falls over, defeated, leaving a +1 Charizard unchecked. I chose Choice Band because it gives the immediate power that this Charizard may lack due to its set. It gets 2HKO's on Landorus, Gliscor and Toxapex with Leaf Blade. I also love the strength of its coverage moves, with Kart being able to 2HKO Zapdos after rocks with Knock Off and has an 81% chance to OHKO max HP Tornadus-Therian after rocks.I don't know how good or bad this team actually is, but it was fun to make and fun to use from the matches I've played with it. Make sure to submit your teams before the deadline!
Edit: I changed a move, Earthquake > Knock Off on Seismitoad. S/O to CM Reuniclus for the suggestions.
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Rest toad and curse mega-scizor (better than gastrodon cmon)
: I tried Seismitoad quite a lot on the ladder/tournaments, and I really fell in love with it. Here, it acts as a Water/Electric immunity, Fire resistance, status spreader, status resilience, and offers nice utility moves with Stealth Rocks. Rest allows it to heal itself and adds longevity to the team. All these properties make it a valid choice for a Ground type over Landorus or Gliscor, while it is one of the safest Electric immunities in the tier alongside Gastrodon. I also enjoy how hard it is to prevent Seismitoad from placing rocks during a game with Pokémon that can threaten typical Ground types.
: Seismitoad pairs naturally well with Steel types like Magearna, Mawile, or Scizor. I chose Scizor this time because I had already tried the other two, lol. Scizor also adds much-needed priority to a team that is already super slow. The Curse set is often forgotten, as it is not that great against a significant portion of the meta when compared to Swords Dance sets, which perform better. However, in this case, I needed it to deal with Swords Dance Gliscor while serving as a sturdy answer to Kartana and easily incorporating a Knock Off user.: As a Defog user, Tornadus helps with longevity and serves as the team's first Fighting resist and Ground immunity. Tornadus acts as a glue that pairs well with Seismitoad and Scizor. Taunt Tornadus can be quite frustrating to face and significantly improves the matchup against "do nothing teams" and prevents some setup attempts. The Z-Move also complements the Taunt set by providing a power boost when needed.
: I didn't want to rely solely on Tornadus to win against Medicham before I could set up with Scizor at +1. . Reuniclus helps against Toxapex as well. As for the rest, it's pretty standard; Reuniclus performs its usual role and often ends up winning games almost single-handedly.
: Ttar and Reuniclus make up a classic combo. Ttar provides a Pursuit user, a Psychic/Dark resist, and serves as an emergency response against boosted Z Kartana with Foul Play. Ttar also capitalizes on mind games against Ash-Greninja, and, if played correctly, can deliver free Pursuit damage to the poor frog. The same logic applies to Tapu Lele using Psyshock/HP Fire in tandem with Chansey/Scizor. Sandstorm, combined with Taunt Tornadus and Reuniclus, creates significant pressure on the opposition quite easily.: the much needed special sponge. Aromatherapy is the final piece to the team, allowing toad to rest safely and just supports the rest of its team-mates.
Submissions are now closed, and the voting stage will begin! The method to vote is by making a comment referring to which team you would like to vote for, for example: "I vote for team 1." You can also add reasoning why you liked the team, but please refrain from making negative or harsh comments about teams. The teams are as follows:
Team 1 by CM Reuniclus
Team 2 by AcneAutist
Team 3 by Maktyum
Thank you for your interest in this thread, and to those who posted teams. Let's now nominate the winner of this week. You have until 11:59 pm GMT-5 on Wednesday, the 1st of November. Vote for your favourite team by leaving a reply that mentions either Team 1, Team 2 or Team 3.
Team 1 by CM Reuniclus
Team 2 by AcneAutist
Team 3 by Maktyum
Thank you for your interest in this thread, and to those who posted teams. Let's now nominate the winner of this week. You have until 11:59 pm GMT-5 on Wednesday, the 1st of November. Vote for your favourite team by leaving a reply that mentions either Team 1, Team 2 or Team 3.
Maktyum ttt
Autistic Soviet
Banned deucer.
t2
team 1