OU ADV OU Teambuilding Competition (Cycle 3: Rain)

[uppa]

approved by Hiro' | hosted by uppa

ADV OU Teambuilding Competition
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Welcome! This is a project thread hosting a weekly teambuilding competition, showcasing the many niche options available in ADV OU! Each week, participants will be given a Pokemon to include in a team, with the goal being to highlight each mon's niche, make great teams, and have fun!

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The rules are as follows:

1. Cycles will consist of 7 days for submissions and 3 days for voting, with extensions allowed for tiebreaking votes and/or insufficient activity to comprise a slate of at least two submissions.

2. Each submission must include a valid pokepast.es importable, a name for the team, and a visual representation of the team using any of the available sprite icons. A valid team submission may look something like this.

Houndoom + MagDol Curselax Setup

https://pokepast.es/3ed9a29a41baf53b

Note: Icons (also known as minisprites) can be used in forum posts with the format :name:. For example, :snorlax: results in

3. Teams will be slated on the basis of the host's judgement. Any complete team showing a clear amount of effort will be slated! Shitposts and plagiarized teams will not be slated. Put some effort into it and have fun!

4. Any changes to team submissions will not require a second post, simply edit your original post before the due date and the most recent submission will be slated!

5. Do not clutter the thread with off-topic posts!

6. The slate will have each submission labelled alphabetically. Voting will use the ranked pairs system, manually processed by the host. No specific format is required, but votes must communicate a preferred ranking of each submission. A valid ballot would look something as follows:

A>C>E>D>B

Note: If you have submitted a team, you are still allowed to vote, but not for your own submission.

Thank you, have fun, and happy building! The first cycle will be announced shortly.

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Hall of Fame
Cycle 1 (Raikou) - "Dug Weak, or am I?" by muks and Sophocles

Cycle 2 (Hariyama) - Hariyama + Celebi Offensive TSS by Go make a sandwitch

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[uppa]

CYCLE 1: RAIKOU


While not currently ranked in OU, Raikou has maintained a niche as an offensive electric-type with a distinct set of tools compared to Zapdos and Jolteon. It's main advantage over the other two is its access to Calm Mind, allowing it to setup independently of CM passers. In conjunction with Pressure, a great speed tier, and threatening electric STAB, Raikou is able to act as a potent wincon under the right conditions. Unfortunately, Raikou fell out of favor due to the extensive support it demands to function effectively. Like its sibling Suicune, it's vulnerable to sand, spikes, and all forms of status. Unlike Suicune, however, it cannot effectively slot rest into its moveset, limiting its overall value to just a few setup opportunities. In addition to this, it's horribly weak to Dugtrio, being outsped and OHKO'd by Jolly sets. It isn't always safe behind a sub either, due to its Hidden Power not necessarily OHKOing back. Raikou is often paired with Porygon2 for this reason, which is able to countertrap Dugtrio and remove it while providing a decent amount of defensive utility in its own right. In addition to this, Raikou likes being paired with a Dugtrio of its own in order to remove Blissey. A logical synergy to flesh this trio into a full team is a Special Offense build, stacking multiple mons that are able to help facilitate Dugtrio's trapping, and eventually overwhelm the opponent with fast offensive threats. While this is the most common way of using Raikou, there's plenty to be explored in what it lends to teams, and I'm excited to see what you're all able to build!

Submissions open Wednesday, April 3
Voting begins Wednesday, April 10th
Cycle closes Saturday, April 13th
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[StupidFlandrs48]

Hi! Awesome that we’re finally seeing this type of thread for ADV, it’s criminal we waited this long given OU’s popularity. I would like to mention that parts of the OP are showing up in black text for some reason on Smogon Dark, making it a lot harder to read. Screenshot attached below

 

[Go make a sandwitch]

Heal Bell!Celebi + Bulky Band Duggy

So when building this team, my thought process was that I should stick to P2 and Duggy, since they're great partners for CM!Raikou anyways. P2 was a standard set, and it does good work with countertrapping and the like, but I went with bulky band Duggy so this team can handle Blissey better. 140 SpDef lets it survive an Ice Beam from Blissey, 96 Speed with a Jolly nature lets it outspeed base 100 mons, and the rest goes into HP for general bulk. As for other teammates, I wanted to focus on how they benefit Raikou in particular. Celebi has Heal Bell, which can remove status on Raikou and its teammates, as well as Leech Seed for recovery and Baton Pass to pivot into another teammate. The EV spread is based on the Utility spread, but I reallocated the 40 SpAtk EVs to its defenses evenly because I didn't find myself using Psychic all that much. Forretress is the resident hazard dealer on the team, and with its standard set can actually have good odds at surviving HP Fire from Magneton, allowing it to KO back with EQ. Last mon I have on the team was DD!Mence, to punish Dugtrio and also have a potential late game cleaner.

 

[OceanicGamer]

I'm not good at team building nor Gen 3, but I'll try



QuadRest Bulky Offense





(I probably burned the kitchen). My first thought was that I needed a Flying-type, so I believed Gyarados would be the best option. It has Intimidate to pair with Raikou's lower Physical bulk. Then there was Raikou itself, who I decided on a Rest set, but not a RestTalk set, which you will see why later. Dugtrio was a necessity, as it could trap Blissey very well. Celebi was using a standard utility set, but Heal Bell instead of Recover so that it can wake up the Pokémon resting. Regirock is there as a massive physical wall, boosted further by Rest and Gyarados Intimidate. Tentacruel was a bit of a niche option, but I decided that the conjunction of Rapid Spin and high SpDef. The reason why I didn't choose Claydol was that Claydol would mean my walls get destroyed by any Water-types, while Tentacruel adds means my walls are weak to Ground, but Gyarados offers an immunity to it. Also, Tentacruel is a better defensive partner for Celebi than Claydol. (Again, I may have burnt the kitchen)

 

[uppa]

Double Dog Boom Offense (current peak: #34 - 1678)

https://pokepast.es/5cc74dcb1e2ca73b

Wait, isn't that the name of a GSC sample?

 

[SPFunkM]

Raikou Spikes Offense
https://pokepast.es/d9fafb703b2946b2

In adv one of the most dominant and viable styles is AeroSpikes rockspam, characterized by spikes and ddtar breaking common sturdy rock resist for aero to setup the aero pivot endgame of aero clicking powerful cb moves (or vice versa, with spikes and a good double edge on a forced pert entry dealing so much to pert that it cant live the Edge as it enters on a ttar clicking dd). They tend to be very fast paced, and use the common core of TTar, skarm, swampert, celebi, and aero.

However, these teams despite their potency, these teams struggle vs quite a few specific threats:

Threats to Aerospikes

Defensive jirachi - "Fearrachi" as it's known is a wish protect toxic fire punch variant of jirachi with massive bulk on the physical end. This Rock resist with the ability to heal with instant recovery completely ruins aero teams without ddtar, and it can still enter on ddtar and tox while healing up later with wish, unlike swampert or metagross which are limited to their leftovers recovery which gets stifled by spikes. This, for many players, is considered the #1 worst matchup for aero spikes, especially if the tar isn't dd.

Fires/mixed salamence - fast special attackers who break through the celebi normally used to wall zapdos and co, and have wisp or focus punch for the tar, and while zard/mence cant hit aero too well beyond subpunch once or surprise rock slide/hydro, it also forces in aero every time for this core of 5 (unless you pivot around mence). Spike immunity means they are also difficult to take down.

gengar - similar to the fires, but uniquely even faster and able to live a aero slide in lategame and burn. Spikes immune and toxic immune, so a good tox from skarm on a predict doesn't even help.

Claydol - spins, resist rock. Skarm can be used to tox and spam spikes, so this isn't as big of a deal, but the ability to remove spikes layers and force skarm in over and over can be something to struggle with.

Raikou's biggest niche is it completely flips the script on the defensive jirachi. Entering on a wish lets you sub and cm in its face, forcing it out and making them forced to manage a huge special threat under spikes, which even blissey can struggle to do if it has taken chip and spikes are up. Raikou is normally paired with dug to trap and remove special walls, but Spikes + sand chip can severely pressure the normal blissey special walls in a similar fashion, to the point raikou can just break through them itself, or severely limit them to the point the aero who enters ohkos and forces out blissey or snorlax instead of healing (which under spikes, makes them easy to deal with for the rest of the game anyway.)

Raikou here is also built to outspeed and sub on gengar, with even the stronger variants of bulky spreads unable to break through subs, and offensive variants being outsped regardless and struggling too. It also goes without saying that raikou outspeeds and ohkos common variants of charizard and moltress, and this raikou also can sub on timid zapdos too. It is invested to live 1 claydol eq in sand and trade it, and uses hp ice to deal with mence and because the pert is also being broken by ddtar or aero anyway. Raikou also is very good at dealing 70%, something spikesand is excellent at capitalizing and pushing into range for raikou.

Raikou here is a jolteon or zapdos who completely flips the script on defensive jirachi, and helps vs other common aerospike threats, which is the justification to it's inclusion on my team submission.

 

[Zerkas]

click sprites to get paste

BLUE LIPS

holy moly. might rmt this later.

 

[Sato07]

Raikou - Sato



Import: https://pokepast.es/282e0db35d93a2b5

Explanation:

Metagross: The team's lead, it hits both TTar lead and Metagross lead, in addition to hitting many things (not necessarily effectively but it can take too much away from them, anyway, the point of CB Gross is to wear down.)

Porygon2: Answer to the team's Dugtrio, it can go in against special monster counters (Jolteon, Vaporeon) by being able to copy their ability.

Raikou: It is the wincon of the team, it suffers against common things (tyranitar, metagross, aerodactyl, dugtrio, etc.), against some mons its 1vs1 depends on its HP (Swampert, Flygon, Celebi, Salamence...)

Skarmory: It helps me keep some things in range, he can't do anything offensively, he's too passive.

Dugtrio: Raikou needs to take out Blissey and Dugtrio can do that, plus he can take out some things (DD TTar, Heracross/Breloom, Metagross, Jirachi, Celebi, maybe I'm skipping something.)

Gengar: The spin block, helps vs Body Slam Rachi which can complicate Raikou's sweep (ToxRachi doesn't break Raikou's sub easily.)

PS: Sorry if it is poorly written, Google Translate is not perfect.

 

[muks]

Dug Weak? Or am I? >=] by ThisGuyMuks and Sophocles


https://pokepast.es/120d5c74d41a3678

The idea behind this team was one that Cdijk16 (hope I got that right) posted in their team cores idea in a post a few months back. If you stack up mons that are non-eq dug bait, then you can trap it with your own dug once it’s locked into HP Bug or Aerial Ace. This frees you up from using Porygon2 which is obviously a great Raikou partner.

With Dug out of the way, I thought of the other problems Raikou has, the fat normals Blissey and Snorlax. I chose to stack two fighters as opposed to going HeraBi or LoomBi (I’ve already trademarked those abbreviations so don’t even try it). Breloom helps against Tar, another Raikou enemy. Hera is my status absorber on the team. If I were to drop one for Celebi here, it’d probably be Hera, but they do work pretty well together.

I’m leading with an offensive Milo to check DDMence/Aero which the team needs a lot of help against. I initially had it with the defensive Milo ev’s but I kept finding myself wanting more punching power against neutral targets. The benchmark I used is it 3 hits Bulky Celebi with Ice Beam which I dunno, could probably find a better one tbh but felt like the targets I was hitting pump were getting hit appropriately.

Claydol is Claydol. 5 other grounded mons need the spin support. Classic physically defensive synergy with Milo. Boom when you need it.

The Dug has special dug ev’s for Blissey which this team easily clears with Beat Up with how much total attack it has. Also gives you a chance of speed tieing and clearing opposing jolly dug if all else fails.

The Raikou set is just standard but I’ve been toying with just making it modest so that it 2-hits Tars after a CM.

 

[Redless]

goofy lil kou



https://pokepast.es/b4f129ee0d0581be

Raikou's niche as a special check is that it owns Skarmory and has a fantastic offensive presence to boot. The "spike control" plan for a Raikou team is natural: load up on threats (including Raikou) that threaten Skarmory to proactively deny spikes, instead of including something reactive like a spinner or Magneton. Having "six hitters" also facilitates gameplay at the extremely quick pace that Raikou prefers. Read below to learn how I built a mixed offense team that exploits Raikou's strengths while covering its weaker matchups into Dugtrio, Blissey, Claydol, and Aerodactyl.

Full Teambuilding Process

I opt to handle Dugtrio via "matchup division" (see Vapicuno's teambuilding guide) rather than bringing a countertrapper. Dugtrio is rarely paired with Swampert. Thus, teams with Dugtrio can be targetted in broad strokes simply by running threats that Swampert's alternatives (Suicune, Starmie, Jirachi, Milotic) struggle with. For this, we have bulky ddtar, a Tyranitar that preys on the Jolly Dugtrio that stymie Raikou. Bulky ddtar also chips Claydol for Raikou (or can sweep through a Claydol that Raikou chipped) and sets up on Blissey, especially Calm Mind Blissey, that Raikou forces in.

Salamence, on the other hand, can exploit Dugtrio's EQ lock to either chip an answer or set up Dragon Dance after Dugtrio gets a trap. Furthermore, ddmence shares checks (Swampert, waters in general) with ddtar, meaning that one can chip a check so that they other can sweep. Salamence also appreciates the way that Raikou chips enemy Tyranitar and Metagross. Because spikes teams are reliant on getting spikes up early, the rest of the team can chip Skarmory early so that ddmence can sweep through it later.

I see this team right now as overloading Claydol -- all three threats so far are "soft checked" by Claydol, and yet Claydol will be hard pressed to take out more than one of them. Jirachi adds to this theme. I've chosen a very bulky spread with 36 defense EVs because this spread allows Jirachi to always live Jolly Dugtrio EQ from full, creating a situation where Jirachi can be used to dispatch Dugtrio to enable a Raikou sweep. 248 HP also gives Jirachi a winning matchup from full against Blissey. This bulk is useful for checking Aerodactyl -- I don't really like Swampert so I want Jirachi to be able to function as a rock resist.

The next member is Metagross, who is able to explode on waters to enable a sweep from Salamence or Tyranitar. Because I'm running the mixed set, I don't need Magneton or a spinner to handle Skarmory.

The final member is Suicune. The team didn't have a strong check to fire types or Salamence, and Suicune fixes that problem defensively, and provides additional ddtar insurance to boot. Offensively, Metagross often explodes on Zapdos or Celebi, and Suicune can sweep many teams after that happens.

 

[uppa]

Submissions closed! Here is the slate.

A. Heal Bell!Celebi + Bulky Band Duggy by Go make a sandwitch

Heal Bell!Celebi + Bulky Band Duggy

So when building this team, my thought process was that I should stick to P2 and Duggy, since they're great partners for CM!Raikou anyways. P2 was a standard set, and it does good work with countertrapping and the like, but I went with bulky band Duggy so this team can handle Blissey better. 140 SpDef lets it survive an Ice Beam from Blissey, 96 Speed with a Jolly nature lets it outspeed base 100 mons, and the rest goes into HP for general bulk. As for other teammates, I wanted to focus on how they benefit Raikou in particular. Celebi has Heal Bell, which can remove status on Raikou and its teammates, as well as Leech Seed for recovery and Baton Pass to pivot into another teammate. The EV spread is based on the Utility spread, but I reallocated the 40 SpAtk EVs to its defenses evenly because I didn't find myself using Psychic all that much. Forretress is the resident hazard dealer on the team, and with its standard set can actually have good odds at surviving HP Fire from Magneton, allowing it to KO back with EQ. Last mon I have on the team was DD!Mence, to punish Dugtrio and also have a potential late game cleaner.

B. QuadRest Bulky Offense by OceanicGamer

I'm not good at team building nor Gen 3, but I'll try



QuadRest Bulky Offense





(I probably burned the kitchen). My first thought was that I needed a Flying-type, so I believed Gyarados would be the best option. It has Intimidate to pair with Raikou's lower Physical bulk. Then there was Raikou itself, who I decided on a Rest set, but not a RestTalk set, which you will see why later. Dugtrio was a necessity, as it could trap Blissey very well. Celebi was using a standard utility set, but Heal Bell instead of Recover so that it can wake up the Pokémon resting. Regirock is there as a massive physical wall, boosted further by Rest and Gyarados Intimidate. Tentacruel was a bit of a niche option, but I decided that the conjunction of Rapid Spin and high SpDef. The reason why I didn't choose Claydol was that Claydol would mean my walls get destroyed by any Water-types, while Tentacruel adds means my walls are weak to Ground, but Gyarados offers an immunity to it. Also, Tentacruel is a better defensive partner for Celebi than Claydol. (Again, I may have burnt the kitchen)

C. Raikou Spikes Offense by Funkybeangamer

Raikou Spikes Offense
https://pokepast.es/d9fafb703b2946b2

In adv one of the most dominant and viable styles is AeroSpikes rockspam, characterized by spikes and ddtar breaking common sturdy rock resist for aero to setup the aero pivot endgame of aero clicking powerful cb moves (or vice versa, with spikes and a good double edge on a forced pert entry dealing so much to pert that it cant live the Edge as it enters on a ttar clicking dd). They tend to be very fast paced, and use the common core of TTar, skarm, swampert, celebi, and aero.

However, these teams despite their potency, these teams struggle vs quite a few specific threats:

Threats to Aerospikes

Defensive jirachi - "Fearrachi" as it's known is a wish protect toxic fire punch variant of jirachi with massive bulk on the physical end. This Rock resist with the ability to heal with instant recovery completely ruins aero teams without ddtar, and it can still enter on ddtar and tox while healing up later with wish, unlike swampert or metagross which are limited to their leftovers recovery which gets stifled by spikes. This, for many players, is considered the #1 worst matchup for aero spikes, especially if the tar isn't dd.

Fires/mixed salamence - fast special attackers who break through the celebi normally used to wall zapdos and co, and have wisp or focus punch for the tar, and while zard/mence cant hit aero too well beyond subpunch once or surprise rock slide/hydro, it also forces in aero every time for this core of 5 (unless you pivot around mence). Spike immunity means they are also difficult to take down.

gengar - similar to the fires, but uniquely even faster and able to live a aero slide in lategame and burn. Spikes immune and toxic immune, so a good tox from skarm on a predict doesn't even help.

Claydol - spins, resist rock. Skarm can be used to tox and spam spikes, so this isn't as big of a deal, but the ability to remove spikes layers and force skarm in over and over can be something to struggle with.

Raikou's biggest niche is it completely flips the script on the defensive jirachi. Entering on a wish lets you sub and cm in its face, forcing it out and making them forced to manage a huge special threat under spikes, which even blissey can struggle to do if it has taken chip and spikes are up. Raikou is normally paired with dug to trap and remove special walls, but Spikes + sand chip can severely pressure the normal blissey special walls in a similar fashion, to the point raikou can just break through them itself, or severely limit them to the point the aero who enters ohkos and forces out blissey or snorlax instead of healing (which under spikes, makes them easy to deal with for the rest of the game anyway.)

Raikou here is also built to outspeed and sub on gengar, with even the stronger variants of bulky spreads unable to break through subs, and offensive variants being outsped regardless and struggling too. It also goes without saying that raikou outspeeds and ohkos common variants of charizard and moltress, and this raikou also can sub on timid zapdos too. It is invested to live 1 claydol eq in sand and trade it, and uses hp ice to deal with mence and because the pert is also being broken by ddtar or aero anyway. Raikou also is very good at dealing 70%, something spikesand is excellent at capitalizing and pushing into range for raikou.

Raikou here is a jolteon or zapdos who completely flips the script on defensive jirachi, and helps vs other common aerospike threats, which is the justification to it's inclusion on my team submission.

D. BLUE LIPS by Zerkas

click sprites to get paste

BLUE LIPS

holy moly. might rmt this later.

E. Raikou - Sato by Sato07

Raikou - Sato



Import: https://pokepast.es/282e0db35d93a2b5

Explanation:

Metagross: The team's lead, it hits both TTar lead and Metagross lead, in addition to hitting many things (not necessarily effectively but it can take too much away from them, anyway, the point of CB Gross is to wear down.)

Porygon2: Answer to the team's Dugtrio, it can go in against special monster counters (Jolteon, Vaporeon) by being able to copy their ability.

Raikou: It is the wincon of the team, it suffers against common things (tyranitar, metagross, aerodactyl, dugtrio, etc.), against some mons its 1vs1 depends on its HP (Swampert, Flygon, Celebi, Salamence...)

Skarmory: It helps me keep some things in range, he can't do anything offensively, he's too passive.

Dugtrio: Raikou needs to take out Blissey and Dugtrio can do that, plus he can take out some things (DD TTar, Heracross/Breloom, Metagross, Jirachi, Celebi, maybe I'm skipping something.)

Gengar: The spin block, helps vs Body Slam Rachi which can complicate Raikou's sweep (ToxRachi doesn't break Raikou's sub easily.)

PS: Sorry if it is poorly written, Google Translate is not perfect.

F. Dug Weak? Or am I? >=] by muks and Sophocles

Dug Weak? Or am I? >=] by ThisGuyMuks and Sophocles


https://pokepast.es/120d5c74d41a3678

The idea behind this team was one that Cdijk16 (hope I got that right) posted in their team cores idea in a post a few months back. If you stack up mons that are non-eq dug bait, then you can trap it with your own dug once it’s locked into HP Bug or Aerial Ace. This frees you up from using Porygon2 which is obviously a great Raikou partner.

With Dug out of the way, I thought of the other problems Raikou has, the fat normals Blissey and Snorlax. I chose to stack two fighters as opposed to going HeraBi or LoomBi (I’ve already trademarked those abbreviations so don’t even try it). Breloom helps against Tar, another Raikou enemy. Hera is my status absorber on the team. If I were to drop one for Celebi here, it’d probably be Hera, but they do work pretty well together.

I’m leading with an offensive Milo to check DDMence/Aero which the team needs a lot of help against. I initially had it with the defensive Milo ev’s but I kept finding myself wanting more punching power against neutral targets. The benchmark I used is it 3 hits Bulky Celebi with Ice Beam which I dunno, could probably find a better one tbh but felt like the targets I was hitting pump were getting hit appropriately.

Claydol is Claydol. 5 other grounded mons need the spin support. Classic physically defensive synergy with Milo. Boom when you need it.

The Dug has special dug ev’s for Blissey which this team easily clears with Beat Up with how much total attack it has. Also gives you a chance of speed tieing and clearing opposing jolly dug if all else fails.

The Raikou set is just standard but I’ve been toying with just making it modest so that it 2-hits Tars after a CM.

G. goofy lil kou by Redless

View attachment 623578
goofy lil kou



https://pokepast.es/b4f129ee0d0581be

Raikou's niche as a special check is that it owns Skarmory and has a fantastic offensive presence to boot. The "spike control" plan for a Raikou team is natural: load up on threats (including Raikou) that threaten Skarmory to proactively deny spikes, instead of including something reactive like a spinner or Magneton. Having "six hitters" also facilitates gameplay at the extremely quick pace that Raikou prefers. Read below to learn how I built a mixed offense team that exploits Raikou's strengths while covering its weaker matchups into Dugtrio, Blissey, Claydol, and Aerodactyl.

Full Teambuilding Process

I opt to handle Dugtrio via "matchup division" (see Vapicuno's teambuilding guide) rather than bringing a countertrapper. Dugtrio is rarely paired with Swampert. Thus, teams with Dugtrio can be targetted in broad strokes simply by running threats that Swampert's alternatives (Suicune, Starmie, Jirachi, Milotic) struggle with. For this, we have bulky ddtar, a Tyranitar that preys on the Jolly Dugtrio that stymie Raikou. Bulky ddtar also chips Claydol for Raikou (or can sweep through a Claydol that Raikou chipped) and sets up on Blissey, especially Calm Mind Blissey, that Raikou forces in.

Salamence, on the other hand, can exploit Dugtrio's EQ lock to either chip an answer or set up Dragon Dance after Dugtrio gets a trap. Furthermore, ddmence shares checks (Swampert, waters in general) with ddtar, meaning that one can chip a check so that they other can sweep. Salamence also appreciates the way that Raikou chips enemy Tyranitar and Metagross. Because spikes teams are reliant on getting spikes up early, the rest of the team can chip Skarmory early so that ddmence can sweep through it later.

I see this team right now as overloading Claydol -- all three threats so far are "soft checked" by Claydol, and yet Claydol will be hard pressed to take out more than one of them. Jirachi adds to this theme. I've chosen a very bulky spread with 36 defense EVs because this spread allows Jirachi to always live Jolly Dugtrio EQ from full, creating a situation where Jirachi can be used to dispatch Dugtrio to enable a Raikou sweep. 248 HP also gives Jirachi a winning matchup from full against Blissey. This bulk is useful for checking Aerodactyl -- I don't really like Swampert so I want Jirachi to be able to function as a rock resist.

The next member is Metagross, who is able to explode on waters to enable a sweep from Salamence or Tyranitar. Because I'm running the mixed set, I don't need Magneton or a spinner to handle Skarmory.

The final member is Suicune. The team didn't have a strong check to fire types or Salamence, and Suicune fixes that problem defensively, and provides additional ddtar insurance to boot. Offensively, Metagross often explodes on Zapdos or Celebi, and Suicune can sweep many teams after that happens.

Thank you for the submissions!!! Again, you can vote in this thread by posting your preferred options in a ranked pairs order.
Voting ends April 13th.

 

[Go make a sandwitch]

F>D>E>G>C>B

 

[Redless]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-760409

I am now in top 8 of seasonal thanks to goofy lil kou : )

 

[flome]

I'm not much of a builder, but I figure I would try to vote. I played a few dozen games with these teams on ladder. I've not got the knack of analyzing teams at a glance. Normally, I have to stick with a team for a while in order to feel like I know what's going on with it. But I just thought I'd try something different and run a handful of games with each of these. So understanding that I'm going to be missing some of what's cool about each of these, here's my vote:

F > G > A > C > D > E > B

I'm sure that order would flop around given a few more games with each. A lot of my reticence around posting a vote is because I don't want to rank somebody last hah. I value the explanations of a team's objectives, and tried to see an interesting gameplan more than unique inclusions.

Probably cheesy to say a few words for each but I figure since I spent the time

F) The Aerial Ace bait counter trap idea sounds the single note of my monkey brain. I'm a Heracross-loving ladder hooligan, keep it coming. People seem more often prepared for Hera to go for his precarious game-ending setups, which is great cover for the "just hit them" sets. And every Guts Focus Punch landed today is cover for the Salac sweep I will make tomorrow. If he gets dugged, that's just part of the plan.

G) Matchup division is above my pay grade, but I did try to engage with that. I can see the usefulness of an idea like "Dugtrio is not often seen with Swampert" but I'm not comfortable making that observation in the first place. Mostly I just had fun using five boosting sweepers concurrently. Love that this got brought to a tournament game. The team makes me think about how much pressure it takes to keep Skarmory from all over.

A) I love SubSeeding Celebi's Leech with another Pokemon. Leeching a special wall, then passing to Raikou flips the matchup in Raikou's favour one time. They can't stay in and get subseeded to death, so they have to switch out and back in to reset the Leech. That takes advantage of spikes and gives Raikou free turns to set up.

C) All my homies hate Jirachi. The rockspam archetype threatlist, and how Raikou solves one of those problems was good reading.

D) I can never get too much out of Cloyster, that paper SpDef. I switch in on a Swampert or Skarmory, spike, boom, and hope that's enough.

E) I'm thinking of Porygon2 teams like weather clear--I'm spending turns and teamslots for the chance to let certain otherwise strong Pokes live in their dream world where Sand Stream doesn't exist. Or in this case, Dugtrio.

B) The thought of a big four-Rest Heal Bell was very distracting for me, haha. I kept going for it when it probably wasn't the wisest option. I think I let Skarmory get the better of me too many times with this. It was fun using Tentacruel.

(Was Uppa's submission not votable? I definitely also got distracted trying to set up Petaya Charizard lol. Every Zard has it's Zay)

 

[dorado]

newer to adv but my general rating for these teams
f<c<d<g<e<a<b
think this is a great idea. didn't have a great team or brew that felt like it treaded new ground with raikou but love to see such a healthy selection of teams here.

 

[uppa]

forgive my lateness, I wasn't given any notifications from this thread for some reason. ty all for voting!!!

Winning this week (by a lot) is "Dug Weak, or am I?" by muks and Sophocles

congrats on our first winners!

CYCLE 2: HARIYAMA


Outside of the incredibly fringe Banette and Armaldo, Hariyama stands out as the only viable user of Knock Off in the tier! Like in later generations, the move makes guaranteed progress, disabling the target's item for the rest of the game. In a tier dominated by chip damage and chip-healing, the removal of a Swampert or Skarmory's leftovers can massively cut into their longevity! The only mons that can "comfortably" absorb Knock Off (along with yama's coverage options) are defensive variants of Jirachi and Starmie, which can be exploited by certain teammates. Many teams will be hard-pressed to deal with Knock Off, often losing the leftovers on their Zapdos or Celebi in the process of removing Hariyama. Due to it being relatively hard to position, Hariyama usually functions best as a lead on bulkier teams, and is often paired with a Rapid-spinner. Hariyama's moveset can be adapted to the needs of your team, but Knock Off and a fighting STAB are all but mandatory. Some viable options for its last two moveslots are HP Bug, Rock Slide, Earthquake, Whirlwind, and even Counter! I hope you all have fun building with Hariyama, and I'll see you at the end of the week!

Submissions Close Monday, April 22nd
Voting Closes Thursday, April 25th

​

 

[OceanicGamer]

Yama+Skarm Hazard Stack ft. Donphan


https://pokepast.es/988cdb34b2d02ada

Good heavens, it's time to burn down the kitchen again!

When I saw Hariyama, two things stood out to me. Knock Off and Whirlwind. I felt like this would work on a Hazard Stack team because Knock Off can get rid of Boots of Leftovers, and Whirlwind can do Whirlwind things and phase things pretty well. Next we needed a Spiker, and this was an obvious choice, it had to be Skarmory. Skarmory has a pretty standard set if I do say so myself, but it sets up Spikes and does Skarmory things. I needed a Spinblocker next, and to be honest, the only real option is Gengar. It has coverage for all OU spinners, and Wisp for more utility. Donphan? You may be asking, why Donphan? Donphan is the only "decent" Pokémon with both Rapid Spin and Roar (no Pokémon has both Rapid Spin and Whirlwind). Donphan is running a bulky set that is a bit standard to what I could find. Aerodactyl has a standard Choice Band set that is meant to go to town after the opponent has been chipped down. I was also considering SubSalac or SubLiechi, but decided to just use Banded because that was a bit "easier" to use. And finally, Vaporeon. What does that one do? It provides a Water and Ice switchin for Donphan and Aerodactyl, while also providing Wish support and spreading Toxic.



I think this team is better than my last lmao, and at the very least, it's not that crazy

 

[Go make a sandwitch]

Hariyama+Celebi Offensive TSS

Team Explanation

With how ADV is fairly chip reliant due to perpetual sand, my idea was to put Hairyama on a TSS (Toxic, Spikes, Sand) structure to capitalize on forcing away leftovers and the like. I went with the standard Knock Off set, since I believe it to be serviceable enough. Guts + HP Ghost can surprise Gengar and Starmie, and I think that can be silly enough to viably function. Next up is Tyranitar, who I opt for a fast DDance set, since the big thing for TTar to do on this team is to set up sand. Stealing 2 memes with one download, I added Skarmory to set up Spikes and spread Toxic. While protect could have been used here for racking up extra damage, I decided on Drill Peck so Skarm wouldn't be completely passive. After that, I wanted Celebi, since it can handle Starmie without Ice Beam, and it also threatens Swampert. Aside that, Leech Seed adds another form of chip damage that the rest of the team can exploit. Aerodactyl is just for late game cleaning, and Gengar is a spinblocker, and with effective BoltBeam coverage + Boom-ability, is also wonderful at forcing progress.

 

[uppa]

Submissions closed! Voting ends April 25th.
A. Yama+Skarm Hazard Stack ft. Donphan

Yama+Skarm Hazard Stack ft. Donphan


https://pokepast.es/988cdb34b2d02ada

Good heavens, it's time to burn down the kitchen again!

When I saw Hariyama, two things stood out to me. Knock Off and Whirlwind. I felt like this would work on a Hazard Stack team because Knock Off can get rid of Boots of Leftovers, and Whirlwind can do Whirlwind things and phase things pretty well. Next we needed a Spiker, and this was an obvious choice, it had to be Skarmory. Skarmory has a pretty standard set if I do say so myself, but it sets up Spikes and does Skarmory things. I needed a Spinblocker next, and to be honest, the only real option is Gengar. It has coverage for all OU spinners, and Wisp for more utility. Donphan? You may be asking, why Donphan? Donphan is the only "decent" Pokémon with both Rapid Spin and Roar (no Pokémon has both Rapid Spin and Whirlwind). Donphan is running a bulky set that is a bit standard to what I could find. Aerodactyl has a standard Choice Band set that is meant to go to town after the opponent has been chipped down. I was also considering SubSalac or SubLiechi, but decided to just use Banded because that was a bit "easier" to use. And finally, Vaporeon. What does that one do? It provides a Water and Ice switchin for Donphan and Aerodactyl, while also providing Wish support and spreading Toxic.



I think this team is better than my last lmao, and at the very least, it's not that crazy

B. Hariyama + Celebi TSS

Hariyama+Celebi Offensive TSS

Team Explanation

With how ADV is fairly chip reliant due to perpetual sand, my idea was to put Hairyama on a TSS (Toxic, Spikes, Sand) structure to capitalize on forcing away leftovers and the like. I went with the standard Knock Off set, since I believe it to be serviceable enough. Guts + HP Ghost can surprise Gengar and Starmie, and I think that can be silly enough to viably function. Next up is Tyranitar, who I opt for a fast DDance set, since the big thing for TTar to do on this team is to set up sand. Stealing 2 memes with one download, I added Skarmory to set up Spikes and spread Toxic. While protect could have been used here for racking up extra damage, I decided on Drill Peck so Skarm wouldn't be completely passive. After that, I wanted Celebi, since it can handle Starmie without Ice Beam, and it also threatens Swampert. Aside that, Leech Seed adds another form of chip damage that the rest of the team can exploit. Aerodactyl is just for late game cleaning, and Gengar is a spinblocker, and with effective BoltBeam coverage + Boom-ability, is also wonderful at forcing progress.

 

[PolarisADV]

B > A

found A hard to play, had struggles with skarm and when my gengar was gone

B is more forgiving to mistakes and bad luck

here are replays for each team

A: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-2111201041
B: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-2111220002

 

[vapicuno]

A suggestion from ABR was to offer unique pairs rather than individual Pokemon as the challenge.

 

[uppa]

Congrats to Go make a sandwitch for winning Cycle 2!
Hariyama + Celebi TSS

Cycle 3: RAIN!
or

Unlike in later generations, rain is used less for its damage-dealing capabilities, but more-so to enable threats that appreciate a lack of sandstorm. Kingdra and Ludicolo's Rain Dance enables a variety of threats for more offensively-inclined teams. Notably, pinch berry users like Salac Heracross are able to set up more consistently without dying to sand. Bulky setup sweepers like Snorlax, Suicune, and Gyarados also appreciate this lack of chip damage. While weather clear is sometimes relegated to a free moveslot on Magneton or Dugtrio, the immediate power of Kingdra or Ludicolo's rain-boosted STAB brings out the best of the mechanic. While powerful in the right matchup, these two are hopelessly weak against Blissey and Celebi. A logical solution to this may be pairing them with Dugtrio, which naturally serves a larger mixed offense build.

Submissions don't necessarily need to use either of these mons, but will need to justify weather clear being the central idea of the team, one way or another. happy building, and apologies for the hiatus!

submissions close may 10th​

 

[Go make a sandwitch]

Scep + Aero Rain

Team Explanation

​

I started with offensive Ludi as a lead because I value the attacking power while getting off Leech Seed if they switch to Blissey. 88 Speed EVs lets it outpace Aerodactyl after Rain.

​

Next up is Kingdra, who is synonymous with Rain in this generation. Much like Ludi, I tweaked the speed EVs, but in the opposite direction from standard, with 228 Speed EVs to outspeed Breloom before Rain, letting it safely switch in on Spore and KOing it with Ice Beam. Also HP Grass helps deal with Pert.

​

Now that the rain core was established, I needed a way to handle Blissey and Celebi, since they are a massive thorn in their side. That's where I came across Snorlax, a bulky set-up sweeper that benefits from sand being absent and also beating Blissey and Celebi. Additionally, I can bluff Self-Destruct as long as I don't reveal Curse.

​

Forretress was added for 2 overlapping reasons, in possibly bluffing Boom and potentially beating Celebi with HP Bug, but more importantly, it contributes by setting up spikes. When talking about already mentioned team members, Spikes help Kingdra and Snorlax with chip, and spin increases longevity of the mons without leftovers like Kingdra. Additionally, thanks to Rain, it reliably wins the 1v1 against Magneton.

​

Now I wanted a mon that could threaten spinners alongside making use of a pinch berry, which is where SubPetaya!Sceptile comes in. Petaya gives Sceptile a little extra oomph, and substitute also works as a boom shield alongside getting Scep into Petaya range. Leaf Blade is somehow best STAB option for grass types in Gen 3, and it wins the 1v1 against Duggy. Pursuit is decent at trapping spinners like Starmie and Claydol, while also having HP Ice to get damage against Mence, if not outright KO it. You could probably go HP Dark + Thunder Punch if you really hate Gengar and/or want more insurance against Skarm, though I don't think it would be necessary.

​

To top it all off, I went with Choice Band Aerodactyl as a lategame cleaner. The idea was that with Lax+Kingdra being heavy hitters alongside spikes from Forretress, Band!Aero can clean up whatever stragglers were left behind.

 

[Shadowys]

Sharing my ADV rain team:


Medicham lead plays very well into most matchups except mixed zap and mence leads, the main threat of this team is the less common vaporean def tank and blissey. The team is structured as a dual end game either to aero or suicune, with kingdra+medicham forming the early/mid game offensive cores instead of being the end game sweeper. Dugtrio is specifically used to eliminate blissey after surf chip from Kingdra once its safe to switch it in. Ludicolo blocks celebi leech seeds and also can be used to force blisseys to switch for a free rain dance turn.