ORAS Ubers A Different Xerneas!

[Mysterious M]

Hello and welcome to my RMT. This time i wanted to showcase a Pokemon that is not used that much in the tier of ORAS Ubers, but it can prove itself to be useful. The one and only Choice Specs Xerneas! Lets see the team:

Team Building Process:

Of course i started building around Xerneas.

Then i added Primal-Kyogre, because of their great synergy.

Needed a rock setter that will help Xerneas,while check oppoent's Xerneas as well.

Added Ho-Oh to destroy weakened Pokemon that Xerneas hit.

Needed a defogger, and a Primal-Groudon check. Arceus-Water fullfils both!

Wanted an answer for E-killer, but a physical wall as well, Skarmory was the choice.

Team At A Glance:

Team Analysis:

Xerneas @ Choice Specs
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Moonblast
- Thunder
- Aromatherapy
- Focus Blast
​

The star of the team. Well the most amazing feature of this Pokemon is the fact that it can deal amazing amounts of damage to it's checks. Moonblast can 3HKO Primal Groudon, while 2HKO Klefki. Focus Blast is there to hit some steel types harder, like Bronzong or Klefki, or even Ferro (if anyone still uses it). Thunder is there to 1HKO Ho-Oh if rocks are up and 2HKO Lugia. Aromatherapy is pretty much self explanatory and helpful in many situation against more stallish teams with status spams.

Kyogre-Primal @ Blue Orb
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
- Scald
- Toxic
​

Primal-Kyogre really likes Specs Xerneas as teammate. Since Xerneas can damage hard Primal-Groudon and help take it out of the game, Kyogre will have a lot of fun spamming the boosted water moves. I chose the rest sleep talk set over the regular calm mind three attacks, in order to keep Kyogre longer in the field. Ice Beam can be used over Toxic in order to hit harder Mega Salamence or Rayquaza.

Groudon @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
EVs: 240 HP / 32 Atk / 148 SpD / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Precipice Blades
- Thunder Wave
- Stone Edge
​

As i explained above, Xerneas benefits a lot from Stealth Rocks being up, so which is a better setter than Primal Groudon itself. Apart from setting rock, it can deal with Xerneas with the usual mexican way, Twave & Hit. Stone Edge to hit Latios, Yveltal etc.

Ho-Oh @ Choice Band
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 192 Atk / 4 SpD / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird
- Earthquake
- Sleep Talk
​

Another offensive touch of my team. Choice Band to hit hard with stab Brave Bird and Sacred Fire, and finish off the weakened pokemon that Xerneas left. One can also run full speed. I have sleep talk to help the team deal with Darkrai. Darkrai can be a pain for the team, but it will be explained later. Earthquake is there to hit some Ho-Oh "switch ins" like Arceus-Rock or Tyranitar.

Arceus-Water @ Splash Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Recover
- Defog
​

One of the most solid support Arceus formes. It is the team's defogger, Primal-Groudon check. It can help as well against Rayquaza/Mega Salamence, since it has Ice Beam, and it can as well switch in safely into Ho-Oh and toxic it. It is important though to keep it in the game since defog is necessary to keep rocks away from Ho-Oh.

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Spikes
- Toxic
- Roost
- Whirlwind
​

Last but not least, Skarmory is my E-killer check and my second physical wall. It can be a backup for Rayquaza or Mega Sala, while at the same time it pressures the opponent with Spikes. Whirlwind is there to avoid setuping mons, or just to get the cheap hazard damage with pokemon switching in and out.

Threats List:

Darkrai: The LO variant of Thunder Darkrai can be a huge pain for the team. Mainly sleep fodder is Ho-Oh and it can do some damage to it. Otherwise, Kyogre can take a thunder from +2 and Primal-Groudon a +2 Dark Pulse. Darkrai can be handled though.

Importable:

Importable

Xerneas @ Choice Specs
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Moonblast
- Thunder
- Aromatherapy
- Focus Blast

Kyogre-Primal @ Blue Orb
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
- Scald
- Toxic

Groudon @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
EVs: 240 HP / 32 Atk / 148 SpD / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Precipice Blades
- Thunder Wave
- Stone Edge

Ho-Oh @ Choice Band
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 192 Atk / 4 SpD / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird
- Earthquake
- Sleep Talk

Arceus-Water @ Splash Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Recover
- Defog

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Spikes
- Toxic
- Roost
- Whirlwind

Shoutouts:

The guys who helped me adjust and made me feel welcome in Smogon! They know who they are. Special one to Lord Outrage for helping me get better in the tier since i was in PO, and to Pohjis & Gunner Rohan who supported me since day 1.

Conclusion:

I Rmted this team not because it was a beast and helped me win tours or something. I just wanted to show a team with Specs Xern. Every feedback appreciated.

 

[Squilliam]

I really like this team, but would like to make the recommendation of sleep talk over aromatherapy on specs Xerneas. In order to better deal with the LO Thunder Darkrai Variant you struggle against.
Primal Kyogre and water arceus also are running very similar sets at the moment. I like Roar on Primal Kyogre over toxic in order to phaze setup mons and take advantage of the spikes from skarmory and the rocks from pdon.


Specs Xerneas is definitely a underrated set that lets you get unexpected 2HKOs when opponents expect geomancy.
Overall a solid team :)

 

[Take Azelfie]

Hi, this is a really nice team that features a Mon I've been thirsty to try out. I don't have any major changes but maybe some tweeks that you could try out.

Xerneas
Sleep Talk > Aromatherapy
While I understand that leaves Arceus to no way of removing Toxic I think this helps you versus the one threat you stated which would be LO Thunder Darkrai.

Skarmory
Iron Head > Toxic or something
This may sound like a weird change but I think your team is extremely probe to EPower Diancie as it threatens the majority of your team. While you have checks Iron Head might help you give a better answer to EPower Diancie.

 

[Cynara]

I dont think a 3rd sleep talker is the solution to this team, especially with a sleep talk ho-oh + kyogre already absorbing sleep and you either drop team support from aromatherapy or coverage since you want to be rolling moonblast 100% of the time with sleep talk xerneas. You could try Grass knot as Xerneas Coverage to OHKO Groudceus/rockceus after rocks while hitting groudon harder without having to bank on focus blast.

I dont honestly know how Darkrai was the only thing that fell into your threats list, on top of darkrai, your team has very little to circumvent Swords Dance varaint Primal Groudons, skarm can't even switch in reliably and your only practical answer is status + phazing with whirlwind, especially if it's the Jolly rocks Set. Breakers in general tend to cause a nuisance to the team, due to the configuration being a specs xern balance.

The Speed creep on kyogre is just paranoia to me, you lose alot of bulk for little benefit for a defensive kyogre which can be a hinderance. Consider running 80 defense Evs, taking from speed (max speed doesnt really benchmark anything) on xerneas to live a double edge from adamant Mega-Salamence unboosted after 1 round of stealth rock 100% of the time.

Similar goes for Ho-oh, I would honestly run the standard set with 248 HP / 196 Attack / 52 Spdef / 12 Speed to improve your matchup vs xerneas slightly better, you can take some evs out of attack to creep standard if you wish.

Offensive Psychics also seem like a problem for this team, like mewtwo/deo-a/latios since skarm isnt really a switch into either of these , I feel like this is the kind of build that would require a niche yveltal set like defensive charti berry or Scarf foul play Yveltal (which provides a better matchup vs psychics while still dealing with E killer etc) over Skarmory and mon that is capable of at least revenging Darkrai, your fastest pokemon is 290 speed at the moment.

Scarf Yvetal set

Yveltal @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 72 HP / 4 Def / 236 SpA / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Oblivion Wing
- U-turn
- Foul Play

Aside from that, I dont think balance is the strongest playstyle for a specs xern set, due to the offensive nature of the set I feel Bulky offense teams lead to the strongest configurations for Specs Xerneas in the current metagame from my personal experiences of building/playing with set myself.

Good luck with your team.

 

[Minority]

The reason why this team is struggling to role compress despite building around an S rank Pokemon is because you're using Primal Kyogre along with Arceus-Water. It's so redundant to have two defensive Water-types, especially when one of them also has a redundancy with Ho-Oh; a sleep absorber that struggles against Thunder Darkrai. You're probably looking at replacing the Arc forme for a SD or a different support set, or replacing Primal Kyogre. If going the SD Arc route you'd start by getting Defog onto some Dragon-type with a Ground immunity. Also keep in mind that you haven't used a Mega slot yet, which greatly increases the number of choices you have available here.

I agree that Speed management is a problem here because this squad has no priority and nothing faster than an Adamant Kangaskhan, but Scarf Yveltal is not a quick fix. This opens this build up against EKiller about as much as it helps against offensive Psychics and Darkrai. It also doesn't really make you much better against Thunder Darkrai since you have to pivot from your sleep absorb into a Thunder-weak Pokemon. I guess it's a step in the right direction but it doesn't fix the core problems of this build at all. I'd consider builds that feature Ho-Oh + EKiller or EKiller + Darkrai especially problematic, but if you need something that checks both offensive Psychics and EKiller then Giratina-O fits here, extra bonus for being a Ground immunity and getting Defog off of Arc. This alone doesn't fix you're problems however, this team is still very weak to Darkrai, somewhat annoyed by Fairy-types, and wants the defensive attributes of a Steel-type. This is where replacing Primal Kyogre would come into play, with the option of changing the Arc forme to some SD set as well.

If you do stay with Primal Kyogre I agree that it should be running high Def investment, probably max, then the rest for 12 Speed and HP. The added SpD on Ho-Oh is also good to help offset the Fairy annoyance, but if you fit a Steel-type it might not be needed. Adding 80 Defense EVs to Xern from Speed is no good because you've made yourself slower than 252 invested base 90s. It's better to invest the 80 Defense, run at least 184 Speed so you beat the 90s Speed tier, and then dump the rest in Special Attack which hits 244 EVs. If you don't need the perks of Aromatherapy you can run a more efficient and reliable spread of coverage moves that features Grass Knot.

 

[Mysterious M]

Thanks everyone for the rates, i will look more into them.

 

[Inspirited]

Howdy MM, I'm sorry I didn't see this before, but I do like what you are trying to do here. I too have worked with Specs Xerneas ever since Omfuga's tear in UPL IV with it and I do believe Ho-Oh balance is the correct way to go with it. That is where the similarities end though. What I got from using Specs Xerneas was a strong sleep absorber that freed up Ho-Oh to run Life Orb and Thunder Wave for a Hex Gengar (Which also serves as one "off" Ekiller checking method out 3 on that team). One thing I did notice about the team was a lack of purpose of sorts; it has 3 mons that deal insane damage but will hardly ever end the game on their own. In your case, this also led to the team being very slow which is where your Darkrai problems come from in particular. As far as I can see, you fell into the trap that most builders (including myself at times) do fall into which is building with an overly defensive mindset. Your team in particular will spread status and Moonblasts to do its damage, but you don't have anything to apply pressure or take advantage of that damage afterwards which is something balance needs in my opinion at least.

I am not going to suggest hardline changes as I want you to make your own and see where it takes you, but I will say that what minority pointed out between Kyogre and Arceus-Water is where I would start looking. I hope to see a better team and many more come out out of you after reading this and I really don't want to interfere with that development other than give it a boost. I will show the six mons I use on my own Specs Xerneas team so you can try to decipher why I use them by both looking at the structure and taking what I said above into account.

Just a note that this is all stuff I wish I would have picked up on eons ago but have only really had for about half a year now. I look forward to what you can do with it.

 

[Mysterious M]

Thank you WreckDra, and i agree with everything you said. I rmted this so i could get opinions like yours or the rest of people who posted. I will work more on that team and you never know the outcome :) (mega gengar w/ hex is a really solid option)