SM OU The power of the underused

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Introduction​

The power of the Underused

Teambuilding Process​

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When I was building this team, I decided I wanted to use some more underused pokemon in it, for a bit of the surprise factor against the unprepared. For me, the lead was clear, Tornadus Therian. One of my favorite leads, he serves an indispensable role in any team he is a part of, either as an offensive assault vest, counter lead, or as a pivot set.

One important role on any team is that of the revenge killer, and for this I chose Terrakion. since he can run an effective scarf set to revenge kill or even sweep late game.

As my mega, garchomp serves an odd role, both as a rocks setter tank, and as an offensive mixed sweeper.

One thing obvious in my team later on is a clear weakness to stealth rocks, so as a counter to that, I ran a utility set with rapid spin to remove rocks.

As my set up sweeper, I run Thundurus-T with nasty plot and 3 attacks to sweep teams late game, or get early KOs. He also has built in healing with volt absorb to help setup and take advantage of our 2 electric weaknesses and counter the many electric types in the meta.

Finally, my wall breaker for this team is the infamous Black Kyurem, who, despite his lacking movepull, can still use the attacks he gets to deal massive damage with each hit.

The Team-any edits will be put in bold next to the original set.​

Tornadus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 76 Atk / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- U-turn
- Taunt
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As said before, Tornadus-T is my lead in this team. Taunt is run to stop enemy leads from using setup or hazards, U-Turn is to get out of unfavorable match-ups, Superpower is standard coverage, and Hurricane is the main stab. His EV spread is run to achieve maximum possible speed, and also to one shot most support Tyranitars as a base point. I run hasty nature to be able to handle special attackers over most priority users, and I use a life orb set over assault vest to be able to run taunt, and life orb recoil is essentially nullified thanks to regenerator.

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
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The set I run is fairly self explanatory. As a scarf user, it can out speed nearly every pokemon with its base 108 speed, so rather than run a Jolly nature for the extra speed, I decided on Adamant to maximize damage. In addition, his ability is a natural counter to any knock off users, as the possibility of giving a monster with 129 base attack +1 is fairly scary. The move pool is fairly normal, using 4 moves for maximum coverage and damage. The reason I used Poison Jab as my last attack is to handle any pesky fairies running around, rather than iron head or zen headbutt

Garchomp-Mega @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Atk /88 SpA
Naughty Nature
- Fire Blast
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
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Ah, mega Garchomp. When it was revealed that your speed would be lower than normal Garchomp, I think everyone just gave up all ideas of using you. However, I still enjoy using a bulky set, running rocks to be the team hazard setter, Fire Blast to surprise any steel types, Dragon Claw as STAB without the risk or Outrage, and EQ as secondary STAB. The spread is set up to maximize EQ and Dragon Claw damage, maximize bulk, and one-shot Ferrothorn uninvested in Sp.Def.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Recover
- Psyshock
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As I said earlier, my team had a major weakness to rocks, and my counter to this is a utility Starmie. Rapid spin is to remove rocks and still keep our own rocks up, Scald and Psyshock are the main damage dealers, and scald brings that infamous 100% 30% burn chance. Recover is the healing source, to keep Starmie up and running to make sure rocks are removed as much as possible.

Thundurus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Dark Pulse
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As stated before, Thundurus is the main set up sweeper for the team. Nasty plot and base 145 Sp.Atk is very strong, nearly hitting 800 as an offensive stat. In addition, I run my move pool to maximize coverage, hitting every pokemon at least neutrally, and the EV spread allows maximum damage and the ability to out speed the maximum number of pokemon.

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Fusion Bolt
- Stone Edge
- Iron Head
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And finally, Kyurem. I decided on a max speed and attack set over a bulky one, along with life orb to maximize damage. The attacks are the best ones in his amazing and expansive movepool he learns for coverage and damage, with the only really debated moveslots being Dragon Claw and Iron Head, Dragon Claw used over outrage for the same reason as Garchomp, and Iron head to handle fairies he outspeeds.

Conclusion​

Any help you can give for this team would be greatly appreciated. I know I said I like to use the Underused mons earlier, but I am not averse to using more meta mons as long as they have a good use for the team.

Importable

Tornadus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- U-turn
- Taunt

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab

Garchomp-Mega @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Naughty Nature
- Fire Blast
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Crunch

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Recover
- Psyshock

Thundurus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Fusion Bolt
- Stone Edge
- Shadow Claw

 

[Gross Sweep]

OK, so I really like the fact you wanted to use some creative stuff, but there are a few weaknesses the team has I'd like to address. The team is very offensive, but it lacks a sufficient number of pivots and switch ins that can make this team really successful. For instance mons like Zard-x, Lele, Pheromosa, Mega Metagross, and Koko can come in whenever and get big damage. In order to fix this issue I did have to replace a few mons with more commonly used counterparts, but I also tried to add a bit of individuality that keeps the team from looking super standard.

First off I'd like to replace Mega Garchomp with Landorus-t. I get this adds about the most standard mon in the game to the team, but it's really needed. The set I'm including allows for you to check Zard-x, soft check Mega Metagross, get up reliable rocks, switch into other Landos, and pivot around into your threats. It's also ev'd to take a LO hidden power ice from Koko so you have some extra leniency against that threat as well.

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 28 SpD / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

Next I want to look at replacing Thundurus-t. I feel like the biggest issue the team had was that it was just a bunch of offensive behemoths and a Starmie, which made it really unbalanced and hindered the teams ability to grab momentum throughout the game. So I'd like to replace Thundurus-t with a great pivot that offers you a switch into Greninja, Tapu Lele, Tapu Koko, and a lot of other threats - Magearna. Assault Vest Magearna and Landorus-t make a great volt turn core that can allow big hitters like Kyurem-b to flourish, because they'll get free switch ins where they can chunk your opponent down. The set I'm recommending is assault vested, because I feel it gives Magearna great bulk to check things like Lele and Gren who run through the team otherwise.

Magearna-Original @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fleur Cannon
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Aura Sphere

The third change I'm proposing is completely optional. I feel like it helps the teams matchup vs things like pheromosa and scarf rachi, but if you can play around them feel free to ignore this next suggestion. I think Gengar over Terrakion would be an effective swap. It lets you matchup vs fairies, Mega Metagross, and Pheromosa a lot better. I would run a scarf set, so it would act as a revenge killer like Terrakion, it just hits different things and relies on Lando-t to match up vs a lot of things Terrakion was trying to revenge. Also Gengar is pretty uncommon, so this change wouldn't completely throw off your dynamic. Also I slashed destiny bond with trick, because they both cripple teams - dbond hurts offense, and trick hurts stall, it's for whichever you personally struggle with more.

Gengar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Focus Blast
- Destiny Bond / Trick

Also I feel Starmie does better with a spread of 248 hp, 252 speed, 8 SpA timid. It allows for you to outspeed things like Metagross, which is very nice in the current meta, and get off a fast spin. Also with Lando-t and Magearna joining the team the need for a bulky Starmie starts to diminish.

Also I don't love the Kyurem-b set. I'd run something like Ice beam, fusion bolt, dragon claw, and something like hp fire to catch incoming Ferrothorn, so maybe play around with the Kyurem-b set a little.

Otherwise I really liked the inspiration behind the team, I tried not to standardize it to much even though I suggested Lando-t and Magearna. I just feel a proven volt turn core will allow your unprepared for threats to better rip through teams. I hope my critique helped, and good luck with the team - I'd love to hear about how it goes for you.