SV OU Amoonguss Spikes (DLC1)

[vampere]

Amoonguss Spikes (DLC1)

Analysis

Amoonguss @ Red Card
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Tera Type: Steel
Bold Nature
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Clear Smog

Amoonguss rose back up to OU recently, so I wanted to use it in the Teal Mask metagame. It matches up well against physical attackers like Ogerpon, Great Tusk and Rillaboom, while providing a semi-reliable switchin against special attackers as well. It's also very useful to have a sleeper to passively threaten offense and defense alike. Regenerator makes it a useful pivot for threats that its team can't otherwise deal with. Red card is my personal favorite item on Amoonguss, further boosting its disruption factor and giving it even more value as a pivot.

Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Tera Type: Ghost
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Stealth Rock

Ting-Lu is a useful hazard-setter and fazer with great defensive value. Lu is able to set up hazards relatively easily to facilitate offense, while adding a good defensive profile to the team. It mostly acts as a glue, helping the other team keep its synergy on both offense and defense. Tera Ghost also gives it immunity to Rapid Spin, allowing it to sit on many Great Tusk sets and prevent the removal of its hazards.

Ogerpon-Wellspring @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Tera Type: Water
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ivy Cudgel
- Power Whip
- Zen Headbutt

Ogerpon-Wellspring is one of the most potent offensive threats in the tier. Its high speed and attacking power make it a staple on offense and balance. Its SD boosted Ivy Cudgels and Power Whips can cut through most of the tier on their own, but Zen Headbutt can help it beat almost everything that can otherwise check it defensively, such as Amoonguss and Toxapex.

Gholdengo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Good as Gold
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Tera Type: Fighting
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Trick
- Focus Blast

Scarf Gholdengo has long been a staple in Scarlet and Violet OU. It is very powerful on its own, of course, using its fast Shadow Ball to pick off weakened opponents, but it also blocks most hazard removal. If Gholdengo weren’t on this team, Corviknight could remove hazards as much as it wanted, but Ghold can easily switch in without consequence and prevent hazard removal.

Great Tusk @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Tera Type: Fighting
Jolly Nature
- Bulk Up
- Headlong Rush
- Close Combat
- Rapid Spin

Great Tusk is one of the most useful Pokemon in OU. Its Rapid Spin provides easy hazard removal while being relatively difficult to punish due to Tusk’s capacity to offensively threaten the Ghost-types of OU. This offensive Bulk Up set can easily get out of hand and threaten a sweep.

Hatterene @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 Spe
Tera Type: Water
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Draining Kiss
- Psyshock
- Mystical Fire

Hatterene is sometimes seen as a more fringe and inconsistent option for dealing with hazards, but I found it to be a very reliable Pokemon on its own. Magic Bounce is quite valuable, but Hatterene also has some offensive capabilities. I’ve even had a few Hatt sweeps with this team, something that many players don’t consider when building teams. Calm Mind Hatterene is an underrated sweeper and Magic Bouncer with a lot of potential.


Weaknesses

Cinderace

If Cinderace gets a free turn, it can be problematic. If you can’t position around Court Change, it’s usually worth it to allow Tusk to be burned in order to get a spin off. Assess the opponent’s team before considering this, though.

Dragonite

This team can be ruined by Dragonite if you let it set up. Try to go into your answer (Amoonguss, Hatt, etc.) before it gets a DD in order to check it more immediately.

Iron Moth

Iron Moth can get out of hand sometimes. Unfortunately, this team can’t do much against it. Your best bet is to sacrifice something to it and deal with it 1v1.

 

[vampere]

would you like me to rate this? i'm not sure if it even matters as DLC 2 is dropping in a few days...

I know it’s soon, but it would still be nice to see a rating. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.

 

[chuggachuggachooo]

maybe swap sludge bomb out on amoongus for foul play, better for rillaboom and ogerpon-w, with it u dont need red card and can go helmet or lefties

 

[YNM]

Considering that we still have some time left before the DLC changes are updated on the PS servers, I'm gonna quickly rate your team based on the DLC1 meta first, and then give you some suggestions for what I believe could threaten your team in the DLC2 meta as well. Regarding the current meta, your team seems overall pretty fine as a standard H-stack team. I'd still like to suggest a few changes that could optimize your strategy and matchups though:

Big changes

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As you said, Cinderace can be quite a problem for you as it will try to Court Change your Hazards on your own side of the field. Cinderace is also pretty troublesome since it outspeeds every single mon on your team besides Booster Tusk, which could still be forced out earlier by your opponent with its own Hazards, making you want to send it out to clear them with Rapid Spin. You also lack a true Fire resistance in your team, turning the opposing Ace's Pyro Ball into a very threatening move. Besides from Cinderace, you also said that you find some trouble dealing with both Moth and Dragonite from time to time, which is why I believe that replacing Hatterene with Dragapult could be the optimal move for you.


Dragapult @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Thunder Wave
- Hex
- Draco Meteor

This Utility Pult set allows you to threaten the opponent's team by spreading Thunder Wave around, enabling your own offensive threats and allowing them to outspeed their foes. Pult also happens to provide you with a valuable resistance to Fire, Poison and Normal, allowing you to deal more easily with Cinderace, Iron Moth and Dragonite's Extreme Speed. You can pivot into your Pult and use Infiltrator Thunder Wave to bypass potential Substitute attempts from the likes of Moth and Zamazenta, or simply to disrupt your opponent's Set Up attempts with DD Dragonite. Thunder Wave also allows your Gholdengo, Tusk and Waterpon to outspeed Cinderace more consistently, to further improve their Sweeping potential. With Max SpA EVs, Pult is also able to hit quite hard itself with Draco and Hex. I've opted for Tera Fairy as it is a quite solid Defensive Typing for this particular Pult set, which mostly relies on its Utility to make your game progress. Finally, Dragapult provides you with one more Ghost-type to block potential Spinners attempting to clear your Hazards, which is really valuable for your H-stack strategy.

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Small changes


Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Foul Play

Nothing worth mentioning besides swapping Clear Smog with Foul Play. You already have Ting-Lu's Whirlwind to deal with potential Set Up Sweepers, as well as Dragapult's T-wave, so running Clear Smog on Amoonguss feels like a waste of a slot. Foul Play, on the other hand, is much better and more consistent for dealing with Physical Set Up Sweepers, as you can deal quite a lot of damage to them by using their boosted Attack. It also fits the best on your already Physically Defensive Amoonguss set, which functions as your main Physical check, and it gives you a chance to deal damage to opposing Dengo trying to switch into you. Since, as I said, you don't need further answers to Set Up, you can also replace Red Card with Rocky Helmet, which improves your Walling capabilities.

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Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ivy Cudgel
- Wood Hammer
- U-turn/Encore

Again, this set is pretty much identical to yours, but I really don't think that you need to run Zen Headbutt on Waterpon to deal with opposing Amoonguss/Pex, since you already have Gholdengo which perfectly counters and threatens both of them. I suggest you to run instead either Encore, which provides you with yet another way to deal with Set Up mons and most importantly Kingambit, or U-turn to increase your team's momentum and switch out of incoming Rillaboom/other Ogerpon.

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Gholdengo @ Air Balloon
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Recover

I've opted for a Wallbreaking set for Dengo, instead of your Scarf variant. While Scarf is really good on Gholdengo, your access to Dragapult for Speed control allows you to instead opt for a more poweful set that can potentially Sweep the opponent after one Nasty Plot. This set is also more durable due to the presence of Recover, which is pretty important considering that Dengo is your main mean to prevent your opponent from clearing your Hazards. Furthermore, H-stack teams such as yours often have trouble dealing with Stall/Semi-Stall strategies that like to run Heavy-Duty-Boots on all of their mons, and Nasty Plot Gholdengo with Tera Flying happens to be quite possibly the best answers to them. Tera Flying also allows you to Set Up in front of opposing Clodsire/Ting-Lu, as they have no way to hit you since they mainly run Earthquake as their only attacking move.

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Great Tusk @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bulk Up
- Headlong Rush
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin

Your set is fine and you could honestly just run that, but I personally believe that Knock Off provides you with a more valuable Utility option for Tusk, as it allows it to get rid of your opponent's Heavy-Duty-Boots to enable your Hazard strategy. Your Ground+Fighting+Normal coverage also gets completely walled by Air Balloon Gholdengo, so it's nice to have an answer for it in order to potentially OHKO it after a couple of Bulk Up Boosts. And since you're not running Close Combat you don't really need Tera Fighting, so I've opted fo Tera Dragon as it is one of the best Defensive Teras for Tusk, allowing it to completely ignore opposing Ogerpon/Rillaboom and just use them as an opportunity to set up and potentially Sweep.

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And these were my changes for your team in the current meta, here's a link to the PokePaste: https://pokepast.es/ee9eb46f5a243b83

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DLC2 Suggestions

Now onto DLC2: while we don't know yet how the meta will shift as it is too early to give predictions, it's pretty clear that your team happens to be extremely weak to Triple Axel + 2 STABs Meowscarada . To avoid getting 6-0d by it, I'd suggest you to fully embrace the Hazard-stacking strategy and opt for a more Semi-stall approach to your team. For example, instead of running Ting-Lu you could try running Gliscor , which is also an incredibly good Spikes-setter with fantastic durability and access to Toxic. Since Gliscor is also pretty vulnerable to Meowscarada, I would pair it with Max Def Clefable which can set up Stealth Rock and also threaten Meowscarada back with Moonblast, while also having access to Knock Off for Utility and to get rid of your opponent's HDB. If you still wanna run Amoonguss, I would perhaps try a team similar to this one: https://pokepast.es/f6c95b933ecec833
Once again, it's still pretty early to provide you with a full-on Rate, but at the very least I'd like to give you some heads-up. I hope I could help you! Enjoy the ladder :)