Gamer1234556
"Because... Scald is a shit Ferro answer!!!"
The Clefable Experiment Part #1: Offensive Lando Teams
Introduction
Introduction
Yes… it’s me. I’m the guy who basically dedicated all my life to Gen 5 OU for some reason. I noticed that the RMTs for Gen 5 OU have been barren for the past few days, so I decided to spice it up with a new RMT.
If you haven’t played Gen 5 OU before or are new to the metagame then the elephant in the room might immediately be apparent: why is Clefable in this RMT? Well… let me do a bit of an explanation.
Clefable’s Impact on Sand BalanceClefable for a while was sort of seen as a gimmick in Gen 5 OU. People have tried it for a bit with Calm Mind sets, but it never really saw some serious play aside the occasional sighting. Today, Gen 5 OU is a radically different metagame. Gems being banned had a huge impact with how the tier was played as it buffed a ton of defensive mons that were harder to use back then. It was then when people discovered how invaluable Clefable’s Scald Immunity and Special Bulk really was. It’s basically a mini-Blissey that sits on Scald users such as Tentacruel and Politoed while checking Volcarona. This was huge for Sand Balance as many of those teams struggled to find a proper defensive buffer against both Scald and Volc. Many attempted with various rockers with varying success, but some of them were either setup fodder for Cloyster or Volcarona, but Clefable proved to be the perfect piece against that.
In fact, Clefable was so huge to Gen 5 OU that it solved a problem that I was facing for quite a while. You see, I always wanted to build around a more offensive variant of Landorus-T for a long time, but I couldn’t really afford to since it would make fitting Stealth Rock on Sand Balance much more awkward. Celebi was proven to be an awkward choice as a rocker (unless you pair it with something like Choice Scarf Garchomp). Clefable fixes that problem as it patches otherwise glaring holes for Sand Balance. Clefable gives Landorus-T much needed flexibility and, in my opinion, a massive boost in viability.
Of course, I wanted to build around a more obscure variant of Landorus-T, I did use Smack Down Lando for a bit, but couldn’t really get the feel of it with how much it’s reliant on setup. There was, however, a set that I grew to extremely like upon testing this six however.
Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 208 Atk / 48 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Ice Beam
- Superpower / Earthquake
Ah, Scarf Tyranitar. For the longest time I wanted to see what it was like to use this set, but I couldn’t with how oppressive Alakazam was back in 2020. Now it seems like Scarf Tyranitar is slowly but surely becoming the better set when compared to it’s Chople variant. One big issue with Tyranitar is that aside from sponging hits, Chople often must trade a lot. This leads to the problem of having to conserve it’s health to do it’s other tasks, namely trying to trap Latios’ partners or trying to win the Weather War. It also has to play awkward mindgames with Starmie which is never fun. Scarf however gives you much needed flexibility and has very good synergy with Landorus-T’s U-turns. The set I chose was pretty standard but I have considered slotting Earthquake over Superpower to make the Skarmory MU a bit less annoying.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
The man of the hour. There was a very long time where people thought that Gliscor was the better Ground/Flying type in 2020-21, but now the tables have been turned to heavily favor Landorus-T. As mentioned earlier, the addition of Clefable was very good for Landorus-T as it gave it more versatility from it’s standard Stealth Rock set. People have been toying more with Swords Dance, Rock Polish, Gravity and Smack Down sets, but personally I think Choice Band is Landorus-T’s best and most underrated sets atm. Having a Band-boosted U-turn is powerful since it’s most likely the move you are clicking most of the time anyways. Not to mention how wild some of the calcs are when Lando is wielding a Choice Band:
252+ Atk Choice Band Landorus-Therian U-turn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Reuniclus: 236-278 (55.6 - 65.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Landorus-Therian U-turn vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Cresselia: 174-206 (39.2 - 46.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Landorus-Therian Superpower vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 616-726 (87.5 - 103.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Choice Band Landorus-Therian Superpower vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Skarmory: 174-205 (52 - 61.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Landorus-Therian Superpower vs. 252 HP / 168 Def Bronzong: 178-210 (52.6 - 62.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Politoed: 252-297 (65.6 - 77.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 48 Def Ferrothorn: 222-262 (63 - 74.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 124 Def Jellicent: 331-391 (82.1 - 97%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
As you can see, Landorus-T has always been a threatening mon, but with everyone using Stealth Rock people tend to forget that. I think that Choice Band is a very underrated set and deserves more usage in the future.
Excadrill (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance / Protect
- Rapid Spin
Excadrill has always been an impactful pokemon in Gen 5 OU. It’s unbanned was huge in curbing Reuniclus’ popularity back in the day. Now it is still better than ever, even moreso with Cloyster being somewhat nerfed with the Gems ban. Drill’s purpose here is straightforward: Spinning whenever it needs to and either setting up Swords Dances to break fatter teams (that have been taking off more and more overtime) or outlasting stuff with Protect. I might consider investing a bit more in bulk in case Latios becomes a bit of a problem as well as changing my nature to Jolly for Mamoswine.
Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Roost
- Dragon Pulse
- Refresh
Latias over Latios here is important for one reason: Thundurus-T. The bulk against Thundurus-T is significant as this team would otherwise really struggle against it. One of Clefable’s biggest problems is that it basically lets in Thundurus-T for free setup. It’s especially bad when one of Clefable’s most spammed moves actively benefits Thundurus-T since it heals off Stealth Rock chip. For this reason I decided to use CM Refresh Latias with some (albeit unnecessary) bulk investment. With this, Latias kind of acts like a semi-Reuniclus with a much better defensive typing against Rain teams. Reuniclus being Scald-resistant is cool and all but having that extra buffer against Keldeo and Starmie is really nice. It also proved to be an extremely deadly against Rain Balance since Ferrothorn is prone to being broken down by Clefable. When Ferro goes down, then Latias just cleans lategame. Against HO and other Sand Teams it sort of feels a bit do nothing but the massive upside against Rain Teams makes it worth it.
Clefable (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock
The Pink Pixie has found it’s way in every metagame even when those generations aren’t even being tiered anymore. Gen 5 OU was an exception… until it wasn’t.
The set is simple, setup Stealth Rock, then T-Wave anything that tries to swap into you. You are pretty much clicking Seismic Toss and Thunder Wave all the time. Clef really isn’t that difficult to use honestly. You could tech the EVs to be like Pengs if you want to outspeed Chople Tar or have some bulk to stomach stuff like Ferro’s Gyro Balls.
Slowbro (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Psychic / Thunder Wave / Fire Blast
- Slack Off
I originally had Keldeo since I thought it would be a decent buffer against Physical Attackers, but I realized that it would just be better to use Slowbro instead. Slowbro is arguably the closest to a perfect Physical Wall in this tier as it blanket checks almost every Physical Attacker in the tier. There isn’t really much to say aside from the fact that the fourth move is a toss-up between Psychic to hit Cloyster, Thunder Wave for extra support, or Fire Blast to throw off Skarmory.
Teamstyle MU Spread
This is easily this team's most favorable MU. Sand tends to have a pretty good MU against Rain as it is, but Clefable ups the antics with it's immunity to Scald. This means it sits on Tentacruel forever and forces Paralysis against anything that isn't Thundurus-T. Even then, Thundy has to dodge Knock Off, which isn't ideal either and unless you are specifically teching Thundy-T with stuff like U-turn, it's going to have a really hard time trying to break Latias. You could probably find more challenges against Mamo Rains, but Slowbro generally does a good job covering
Speaking of which, CM Refresh Latias is a huge factor that shifts the win factor heavily on this team's favor. Rain Balance has a hard time trying to stop Latias from getting so many Calm Minds off. Your best bet would be to beat it with Latios but Latios has to avoid getting trapped by Tyranitar.
Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2073749627
Teams like there are generally a massive thorn to Clefable Balance. Jellicent is generally one of Clefable's hardest counters, basically Taunting it forever and forcing Tyranitar to take a burn, thereby strengthening Latios/Zam. Some SkarmJelli teams have Scizor or Life Orb Zam, neutering any potential counterplay with Latias.
Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2077271463-g1tjzp0c4bcg7je1ienli225q1ubxvepw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2078281246-pihdqufrkbzpcje7row45fslp1yzgpppw
Now this is a weird one. At first glance, you would think this MU would be one that heavily favours one or the other but the choice of items makes a massive difference on winnability. One of the biggest factors is Volc being Lum or not. If you haven't been aware, some players have experimented with items such as Bug Plate to capture the explosive power that Bug Gem did. With the rise of Clefable, however, most of those teams have pivoted to Lum Berry since Bug Buzz just doesn't do enough to break Clef. Fire Blast's 85% accuracy can annoy some people but it generally gets the job of netting that needed 2HKO on Clefable. If Clef goes down, then the rest of the team goes down with it. This is probably one of the few teams where extra experimentation could be necessary to improve the MU.
Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2045103909
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2078081291
Credits
Props to Dice for originally creating this structure. I was originally planning to run something like Tyranitar / Gliscor / Excadrill / Celebi / Keldeo / Clefable but with some tweaking I ended up recreating his 6 with my own personal spin on it. Anyways thanks for reading my RMT. I might upload some more RMTs since I have a couple more teams that I really liked but I might need some time to create them.
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