OU DPP OU Teambuilding Competition

[fidgety]

https://pokepast.es/73fc1a14ca12e233

Similar to Raikou a few weeks ago, one of the biggest issues i have with luke normally is that it tends to require the whole team to support it. So like with Kou i'm going with an unusual set to try and fill a role, rather than just be a flawed win condition, Choice Band. Band lets me use lukes resistances to get it on the field, rather than trying to get it out cleanly then use the resistances to facilitate a setup turn. The downside is obvious, you will often just have to call your shot given the risk of gar or rotom just taking 0 from Close Combat, or your coverage moves bouncing off the wrong thing. I knew i wanted something fast paced around it so I immediately went Colbur Azelf, the EVs live ada meta mash and specs mie hydro, while hitting 332 to creep things creeping base 100s, with the rest in attack to make explosion hit harder. Mosdest Heatran with pulse is just a nice secondary breaker who doesn't need to rely on choice items, and can still potentially use leftover TR turns from zong. OTR zong was added as an anti offense mon and third steel sicne luke's defensive value is so low i really prefer to have the extra dragon resist. Scarf rotom gives speed control and does also tend to encourage things like tar to commit to moves that let luke in. Finally Gyara is probably the best setup mon in DPP right now, and twave is just great utility, especially if gyara can come in early before rocks are up and lure in something like opposing scarfers not named flygon. This team has been better than i was expecting and has good tools into offense as well as fatter stuff, though the lack of water resists in particular can be frustrating.

 

[Dridri457]

spam spikes Sr control hazards with this beautiful rotom set who spreads fire takes on breloom, and the usual ttar scarf then break teams with roar, scarf close combat and mix flygon
https://pokepast.es/fbd333eef51f81e7

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2107945803-pi04y88jtnj55lyb6j2iyjtknd2iwxbpw shit match, who plays dusknoir

 

[Planet]

I decided to mix two fringe luc sets that being agility and special. went with lead skarm to try and get rocks up as soon as possible and has spikes too which imo is essential for any non sd luc. wacan gyara to try and kill scarf lati which outspeeds modest +2 luc, mixgon to help wear down teams and shuca agiligross to help with dd tar and scarfgon as-well as function as another cleaner. The Idea I had around agi special luc was that It could maybe function ok as a breaker by luring in checks to its regular agility set after it boosts which can get some suprise ko's and also maybe help mons with similar checks like agiligross and dd tar, and also function as a cleaner like usual. problem is, as we all know focus blASS is a horrid move to depend on, but when it hits it hits even harder than lucs unboosted cc thanks to its slightly higher spA. The team actually didn't perform as bad as I thought it would but luc didn't get to anything too special that a normal agi luc couldn't do (It would have one game but my opp had trick scarf gar XD). The team obviously isn't great by any means as it has some major weaknesses like no pursuit and no priority etc, but i think it showcases an interesting dynamic that I wanted to try to build for a while.

https://pokepast.es/0a095c47f5fa154f

 

[Cubic Skunk]

https://pokepast.es/272d1804076e5f5d

This team probably is not great since I've been busy this week and haven't had time to rly flesh it out, but i digress. I've wanted to try lucario on a para spam offense team like this for some while. Azelf and gyara are both natural partners for it and fit well on ho, and can spread para on top of all that, so they were an obvious choice. Heatran has been added for some extra jirachi insurance and to add a steel that can actually switch into some things, and hp grass allows it to lure and snare swampert and quagsire. Its ev spread lets it live an eq from mixgon after rocks before blowing it up. Along with providing more paralysis, tyanitar can trap and remove rotom, gengar and latias, the former two being especially important to remove for lucario. Gliscor I added as a last sweeper to give my team another ground immune and for further reassurance against jirachi. It also does very well into opposing offensive teams, and is my teams only real switch-in to electric type attacks. Its definitely weak to starmie, but its not unbeatable between sd e speed lucario, dd d edge gyara and pursuit support.

 

[DazzlingCream]

I have been meaning to post for a while now but have always been either too busy or just forgot. So, sorry sos but here’s my submission

https://pokepast.es/db3519aa66dd2c9f

So the team’s concept is trying to build around specs emp + 4a luc, both of which appreciates spikes support so I choose to go with an offensive skarmory lead. Normally I’d go the suicide route and go with brave bird instead of roost, but I have blissey on this team and skarm’s defensive utility works in tandem with bliss well, so it may be useful to keep skarm around for a defensive core late game. Taunt + roost itself can force progress on certain mons like scizor regardless.

So, why specs emp + 4a luc? They form a scary offensive core against stall, and weaken each other’s checks well. Empoleon can potentially bait in and weaken water types such as suicune and gyarados, both of which are annoying for luc to handle, as well as latias and even defensive rachi. In turn, jolly luc baits in rotom and gliscor, which would otherwise be offensive checks and obstacle to a late game emp cleanup. A lucario lacking swords dance also makes skarmory a nuisance, and nothing punishes a skarm switch in quite like a specs empoleon double. Although, this also makes the prospect of facing spikes quite unsavoury, especially since blissey is also in this team. The user should take care to not let opposing skarm have an opportunity if possible.

Gyarados is one of the few mons that can stand up to either of these two, and thus your own stone edge gyarados is a great way to take advantage of that. It also handles infernape well mostly and makes the team less flimsy against heatran and flygon especially. It can also answer gengar in a pinch.

Of course, giving all these defensive duties to gyara is not feasible to say the least and Blissey rounds the team out well, being able to absorb specs lati draco without having to sacrifice health on emp, as well as answer things like mixgon and calm mind jirachi. Ice beam makes it a valid answer against rt rotom and especially gengar which are both otherwise hard to handle for the team. Alternatively double rocks can be used here if you’re not confident in skarm’s ability to set up rocks securely.

Finally, scarf rotom is there to provide spinblocking opportunities and a modest nature is run there for more pressure against things like zapdos and opposing rachi, and more importantly the extra defense allows it to have a better chance of taking an outrage from scarf flygon after 2 rocks switchins.


Side note: 4 attacks lucario is an underappreciated set, mostly because people really would only look for lucario because of how threatening it is with sd. However, swords dance is quite hard to click in a given game and being able to hit both rotom and gliscor (on the switch) is a very valuable trait especially since people usually only expect one of these coverage attacks. It’s worth noting that scarf lucario is still a great set despite the mechanics change, as it is the scarfer with the most raw power out of anyone else (other than heracross), especially if you’re running adamant which you can afford to, achieving feats such as 2hkoing offensive swampert switchin.

 

[Student of Sinnoh]

The teams :



From Blåhaj Blast



From fidgety



From Dridri457 Noctunoiiiiir



From Cubic Skunk



From DazzlingCream



From Planet

- Votes start from now on! Deadline: Next Monday

 

[Rubyblood]

Dridri team for sure, my goat

 

[Dridri457]

thanks ruby, i'll go for fidgety, CB lucario is so degenerate i cannot not love it, personnally i'd put some kind of pursuit in the team, but i like the idea.

 

[Blåhaj Blast]

cubic

 

[fidgety]

thanks ruby, i'll go for fidgety, CB lucario is so degenerate i cannot not love it, personnally i'd put some kind of pursuit in the team, but i like the idea.

i so wanted to, but space was too tight and the team needed more defensive utility from the steels than i could rely on from scizor and the non-steel spots needed to achieve specific goals that i couldn't with tar. The solution is probably changing out azelf for a lead with more staying power and working from there, but i wanted something faster, thanks tho man

since i'm not voting for myself (lol) this comes down to Cubic and dridri for me. I'm picking Dridri on the more balanced concept rather than going offense like all the others, and taking some interesting ideas into the team along the way.

 

[Le Don]

planet, luc set is heat as f and it's a spikes HO, wonderful

 

[Planet]

blahaj blast

 

[Oatmon]

Voting for Dridri's team using the secretary problem.

 

[DazzlingCream]

dridri, adamant scarfluc is the only correct answer

 

[badabing]

dazzlingcream

 

[AngryPidgeon]

Blahaj's team: This is very biased towards physical offense. There isn't a single special attack on this team. I think this isn't necessarily workable. You could overwhelm an opponents physical walls. When I build defensive I run RestTalk Rotom and Skarmory. I worry this team would struggle against that wall core but maybe not. Sash Lucario is an interesting take for sure.

Fidgety's team: I run TR Bronzong more than just about anything else and I dont do so on teams that run heavy speed EVs on all 5 other mons. Zong can of course be a powerful sweeper in its own right but I think its slightly out of place with the rest of the team being so fast. Its not easy to know when to set the TR to flip the script on your opponent especially when the team is fast. I like the Azelf and Lucario sets. Colbur is unserused on lead Azelf and band is probably how I'd build Lucario.

Dridri's team: I've had trouble running lead Swampert in the past. It doesn't threaten things like Skarmory/Azelf too well and it gets shut down by taunt. Intereting Chesto set on Rotom which I think could catch a lot of people by surprise. Roserade and Swampert form a wall/pivot/hazard core which is neat. I also like the Flygon set which bluffs a scarf.

Skunk's team:
> Untitled 815
LOL, name your teams my man or delete the ones you dont use. I called the Hoarders show and they are coming to help you clean out your teambuilder ;).
Thunderfang on Gliscor is unusual but may punish Gyarados who think they are safe against it. I like the Twave spam. I try to build TWave setup teams a lot myself (and with limited success). Twave TTar I think is very underexplored in DPP. Four resist berries on one team is definitely not my style but if you're going to run Lucario I guess committing to the part is the way to go.

Dazzling Cream's Team:
All these Gyaras and only this one runs Stone Edge. I feel like Edge on Gyara is great for the mirror match. No setup move on Lucario in favor of 4 attacks, interesting. I like it and it would punish my Resttalk Rotoms. My main gripe here is Ice Beam on Blissey. I feel like thats an ADV thing. It could clap a Flygon or Gliscor who thinks they are safe to come in on Blissey perhaps. I like seeing Specs Empoleon as well, under explored set for sure.

Planet's Team:
The Agility Lucario set is unique for sure. Focus Blast and Dark Pulse have good coverage together. The Dark Pulse actually has a guaranteed OHKO on Scarf Rotom after Stealth Rock damage. Gengar probably similarly gets wrecked by that. Aside from the Lucario set this seems like the most "standard" / "solid" team to me.

Overall I am going to vote for Dazzling Cream. Nice team

 

[aubury]

voting DazzlingCream
Ran into him on ladder and jolly luc completely ran over me (this was a common theme for the team i was running)

Overall nice team, beautiful skarm offense

 

[awyp]

dazzlingcream

 

[Sevenor3]

Voting fidgety (what happened to the thread?)

 

[Student of Sinnoh]

So this is a tie between Dridri457 and DazzlingCream, congratulation to both players! The teams : https://pokepast.es/e9d48c5ce2051789

Now, you'll build around Aggron :

Very interessing and unique pokemon in my opinion : quite bulky, awesome movepoll, a lot of diversity in terms of sets... Not the easiest one to build around but there's definitely something to do, it can't be bad. Have fun!

Deadline : Wednesday 9pm gmt+1

By the way sorry for being late this week, it won't happen again.

 

[DazzlingCream]

https://pokepast.es/4c90fa58cc9a23d4

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2120646111
This replay was so good I instantly gave my team the pass cuz I couldn’t believe it functioned so well. Thank you Togaquest for letting me use this replay to demonstrate the team in action.

Some other replays (to be updated):
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2120929283
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2121008843 (this one showcases how useful heracross is here)

This is the most insane team I’ve ever built. The mon with the highest vr on the team is magnezone for god’s sake. So the premise is using aggron which imo isn’t as customizable as its ownself in the lower tiers, with cb and twave being the only sets I found to reasonably be helpful. So my idea is to build a paraspam with aggron as the breaker over something like rhyperior, with the advantage of being able to spread paralysis on its own instead of relying on others.

The main obstacles to aggron would be skarm and bronzong, so I paired it with mrise mag to get rid of those. It also very helpfully removes metagross for aggron which needs to hit eq on the switch, twice, otherwise. It additonally paves the way for heracross and lucario to potentially clean up late game. I’ve fit this specific magnezone with twave to trap and land a paralysis on rachi which is immensely helpful for aggron.

Here comes the even more interesting part though as we have Sleep Talk Heracross, which is here because it’s the only mon that doesn’t (potentially) lose momentum to anything loom tries to click (except for facade or stun spore ig). Shadow Claw is picked here over night slash to clock more damage on breloom should it stay in and attack if sleep talk picked it. It additonally helps check threats like suicune and rotom in a pinch. Normally I like adamant but outspeeding tran is mandatory here.

To round out the team defensively, I need a switch in to heatran and a spinner really helps with the spikes weakness the previous 2 have. Normally this would be starmie but I’ve chosen Tentacruel instead, as tspikes cripples hippo and swampert and even celebi are which would all be very difficult to handle otherwise, and tspike pushes the issue enough that heracross can potentially break through these defensive threats. Icy Wind is the slot 4 here as I can’t afford to let something dance on tentacruel for free. It’s additonally helpful for speed control and can potentially let aggron come in for another huge hit. The allotted evs allows guaranteed survival of 2 scarf rotom tbolts after black sludge and rest is put into defense to help against stuff like loom and jirachi.

For our scarfer I need something that can consistently deal with all the dders as they are huge threats to our team, so it’s either scarf flygon or scarf lucario on this one. I chose luc bc it doesn’t need to lock into outrage which can potentially lose against ddspam and lucario helps dealing with opposing lucario and is better off against something like swampert, clefable and especially gliscor which this team lacks proper ways to deal with otherwise other than hitting it on the switch with ice punch.

Finally I need a rocker, initially I was thinking blissey which strengthens my mu against strong special attackers like specstias, suicune and starmie, though in the end I thought tentacruel was sufficient for this and chose trick scarf mesprit instead, which can potentially land a very warranted healing wish towards the endgame and can get up rocks decently consistently. Rocks Recover Celebi can be used here instead for a much better mu overall into gyarados, gliscor, and flygon but in return you use a more boring mon and have less avenue vs heatran and ape potentially. (Please use celebi instead)

I will have to say this team sucks into gliscor and lum agility metagross specifically, with gliscor needing to be hit by aggron on the switch or after surviving eq, or be dealt with with scarfluc, and lum agility metagross you have to keep heracross / aggron in pristine shape to hit it back after taking an attack.

 

[Sevenor3]

rock spam HO counterHO (pokepast.es)

teambuilding process:
Aggron: the star of the show, the main man, other favourable descriptors creating a rule of three. head smash is non optional. i decided that having aggron be the stealth rock user of the team would be unceremonious, so i gravitated towards rock polish. aggron is fortunate enough to *barely* be able to outspeed the cluttered low 390s (think adamant dd gyara, adamant dd nite, scarf magneton, scarf metagross, aerodactyl, jolteon) without needing a speed boosting nature. i went with shuca berry and decided that aggrons role would be to completely turn the tables on mons like gyara and dragonite. eq seemed obvious as a 3rd move, but after that, it was less so. Both taunt and ice punch have their uses, ice punch allows you to beat flygon and gliscor even before fancy rock polish shenanigans thanks to shuca berry. taunt on the other hand lets you break through defensive walls and prevent skarmory from... doing anything really. in the final version, i opted for ice punch, since most of taunts targets are dealt well with by either breloom or magnezone, but taunt is still valid if you want to run it

magnezone: second mon i chose was magnezone, to deal with mons that wall the head/eq combo. opted for zone over ton, as aerodactyl can be an emergency check to dders, and i really wanted to trap bronzong. still decent when they don't show up to deal with enemy waters that can otherwise really tick the team off

tyranitar: spdef boost is really nice for aggron, and i recognised that this was likely going to be a hyper offence team. very standard set. should be noted that this guy is your main latias answer

Aerodactyl: originally this was azelf, but i realized two things crucial.
1. this is meant to have a winning MU into enemy HO
2. marketability>viability
do you know how marketable "three rock types" is when people can only give their vote to one thing? its the obvious choice, gosh.
anyway, the team needed a rocker in the lead slot. azelf could be here, sure, but aerodactyl being our third rock type doesnt matter much when aero doesn't take hits well in the first place. plus, I'm very unfamiliar with aerodactyl and wanted to actually get the chance to build with him. Also has the distinction of knocking up enemy.
wanted to run roost on this guy so badly as a way of trolling defensive structures thanks to roost+taunt+pressure+spdef boost but its just not in the budget to do so since we really wanna keep the guy doing other things

gyarados: very obvious inclusion. beats ground types, #1 ho mon and this is a ho team, supports the rocks defensively very well. not sure on the item, but gyarados itself is non optional.

breloom: definetely the "6th guy", this guy is janky as hell (but arent all brelooms). mach punch deals with sub pataya emp, and breloom in general deals quite well with defensive structures that use shit like swampert who this team otherwise STRUGGLES with. breloom doesnt really have any dead weight matchups or even bad matchups on the basis of spore. set is jank, but kind of works? the alternative to swords dance is focus punch, and i felt that nobody who would be not attacking breloom + not statusing breloom would really enjoy a swords dance. dont be afraid to switch this guy out after an SD (or aggron that hasnt had its shucha used yet, for that matter), lot of this guys role is baiting skarm.

 

[fidgety]

https://pokepast.es/cb3856a84b086b51

Well, maybe the worst mon we've been asked to build with thus far, so of course after sos finally updated, Dppcord started trying to figure out what we were using in our builds, mostly focusing on band. As you can see, that is not the route i went, instead i looked at Sub-punch and realised most things that will come into head smash don't want to take the punch. Additionally, many of those mons are going to be using ground moves to break the sub, so magnet rise could suddenly allow aggron to blank those mons and with the coverage afforded by rock and fighting i could get away with running rise as my last move. Hippo was chosen as a sand setting since i feel aggron kinda has really bad synergy with Ttar, and hippo fits a more balanced structure. I then went to Zapmie since zap is a win condition on its own and aggron would also just generally appreciate the support inherent in paraspam. Celebi i realised has incredible type synergy with aggron, dealing with all 3 of its weakness while baiting some moves aggron can exploit for entry, and additionally giving another source of paralysis. Heatran is probably the most easily changed slot, but i felt i needed a second steel and a mon who could additionally help blank fire move, and heatran also just gives me another big breaker with modest fire blast and explosion

replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2121035681

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2121033273

i've had a lot of fun with this one (besides trying to write this while my cat is on my chest). Team is a bit incinsistent, but that is to be expected with something like Aggron, but can be a blast to play.

 

[RaxelPepi55]

Aggron, Head Smash The Keyboard!
https://pokepast.es/f4e1753a67f8ad90

Before starting i want to say that this is my first attempt at teambuilding for this kinds of competitions, i tried my best and it's likely my low skill level and lack of experience in the tier made some serious mistake slip by.

I will go pokemon by pokemon on why i decided on them for the team.

My general strategy is to spread status, force switch situations and chip damage with the team and use Aggron to place a lot of pressure by being faster due to status or placing the foes in OHKO range due to stealth rock and allowing the teammates to pull off a sweep of their own, specially Togekiss.

Replay 1: Pokemon is a luck based game
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2122661012
A close battle that showcases Togekiss' strength in this team and how 1 crit and some mistakes made me lose. Aggron also failed like 3 Head Smashes...

Replay 2: Ideal Aggron match
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2122678315
This is what happens when you play to this team's strenghts. I got a win thanks to leaving statused pokemon and some nice switches, allowing Aggron to do some heavy lifting.

Replay 3: Breloom & Togekiss carry
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2122703123-r2eajb3c5onpsg0cqnl4nf5m1o1dm8zpw
Breloom's good start and Togekiss' bulk made the match not even require Latias on the field.

Replay 4: Don't underestimate Swampert. Was this BKC or an impostor?
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-2122711525-ehm6kx73v8g643cb30d3fz9d7jcibsmpw
Swampert managed to weaken the entire enemy team with little help, making the enemy forfeit.


Aggron:

Aggron is quite the hard mon to use, clearly honoring his ability, Rock Head. He is slow and he always sticks his head on the right place, if he even lands the hit.

I decided to go and use his Choice Band set, but instead of using Jolly i went with Adamant because in one of my battles i head smashed a paralyzed Lucario and it survived with 1%, making me lose the match (i lost the replay).
Aggron needs extensive support and he doesn't always makes the difference. I had lots of matches were things went completely south for me because he just decided he was going to miss a key Head Smash.

But when he as things set up, he will place some serious damage in the oposing team and all it takes is one wrong move from the rival for a KO. Aggron really goes hard.

Breloom:

I went with this fun guy (ha! get it?) because of him filling two key roles in one slot. The status with Spore and Effect Spore (as it uses Focus Sash) and the Lead slot.

His job is to try guarantee momentum for the team, by sleeping someone and depending on how you feel things, either a powerful attacking move or switching out to take advantage of the sleeping beauty or whatever comes in the switch.
In the case he survives the initial phase of the game, he can repeat this sleep gameplan or play mindtricks with the rival.
You know Breelom, he is quite the menace.

Latias:

These past two are some slower, physical juggernauts, but you know what they lack? Speed and Special.

Latias Scarf comes to the rescue to provide momentum to the team, while still hitting hard enough when needed with Draco Meteor. She can do crucial damage to some foes that slow or disable this team down like Bronzong, Lucario (it depends), Rotom or Gyarados. It also lures in Tyranitar, something that can get abused by Breloom and Aggron.
Trick is her best trick, as it can give a free turn to place the fragile Aggron or Breloom in the field.

Starmie:

If you didn't notice already, this team does some heavy switching and they want to stay as healthy as possible to asnwer future threats.

Starmie provides spinning and it helps spread that sweet, sweet Thunder Wave. It also brings some speed to this otherwise slow team.

Togekiss:

I needed another paralysis spreader that didn't share the same weaknesses as Aggron. Thankfully, Togekiss not only does that, but it is the setup sweeper of the team.

This is the menace that makes the team work.
It shares the advantage of abusing status like Aggron and it has enough bulk to do risky fights with her checks.
Togekiss can also move more freely thanks to the status support, Starmie spinning the hazards and punish with a Nasty Plot or further paralysis.

Swampert:

Defensive Aggron.

Swampert is the glue mon, it can answer and debilitate most problems the team has trouble with, like Metagross or Scizor. It sets the rocks and it can suplant Aggron against threats that would leave it too damaged or that outrun and destroy it.
It works best by being a solid base that the rest of the team can use to pull off their best work, playing well into the switching game this team uses and clearing up foes that check the offense of this team.