SM OU Fun and Balanced Team with Mega-Lopunny

[Beyond Raw]

Introduction​

While Mega-Lopunny isn't the monster it was in ORAS, it can still pick apart teams that aren't prepared for it. Now that the power of Mega-Lopunny has been established, I'll be going through the quick but informative process of how I made this team. Feel free to try the team out for yourself and/or leave suggestions on how to improve the team!

Team Building Process

Mega-Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber (Prior to Mega-Evolving)
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Power-Up Punch
- High Jump Kick
- Frustration
- Ice Punch
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Mega-Lopunny has always been one of my favorite megas, so that's why I wanted to build a team around it. With a base speed of 135, the only non-scarfed OU Pokemon that naturally out speeds Mega-Lopunny is Mega-Alakazam. Very few Pokemon can switch into Mega-Lopunny's attacks without being 2-hit KO-ed, especially if rocks are up. Because of this fact, I opted to go for power-up punch instead of fake out. Since fake out was so common in ORAS, most of your opponents will instinctively expect you to have it, so they'll switch in their common answers like Landorus, Mew, and Rotom. Your opponent will get hit with a power-punch to the jaw upon switch in, and then will usually get obliterated by Mega-Lopunny's follow up attack. High jump kick is Mega-Lopunny's strongest stab move that not even ghost-type Pokemon can avoid due to the useful scrappy ability. Frustration was chosen over return to avoid any random encounters with Dittos that may occur on the ladder. Finally, ice punch was chosen to pressure Pokemon like Gliscor, Landorus, Zapdos, or any other annoying wall that doesn't appreciate ice-type moves.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Power Whip
- Protect
- Spikes
-Leech Seed
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Ferrothorn was chosen for my team because I needed a reliable wall that prevented me from getting completely destroyed by rain teams. Apart from rain teams, Ferrothorn will also help defend you from most Pokemon that don't have fire-type or fighting-type moves. Pokemon that lack the necessary type coverage to take Ferrothorn out will become frustrated by its constant spamming of leech seed, spikes, and protect. Spikes will pressure your opponent to defog them away, either giving you an opportunity to leech seed them, or switch into a different Pokemon. Power whip is the stab move of choice for this particular Ferrothorn set, because it hits water-type Pokemon hard, and deals decent chip damage to non-water-type Pokemon. Protect also prevents you from getting pummeled by Pokemon with high jump kick like an opposing Mega-Lopunny, or the equally threatening Mega-Medicham.

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power Ice
- U-turn
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Let's face it, Landorus is a damn good Pokemon; that's why it's on nearly every standard OU team currently in the meta-game. Unless you get haxed by a "good player," Landorus will never fail to set up first turn stealth rocks on your opponent's side of the field. Stealth Rocks prevent flying-type Pokemon from repeatedly switching in on you, pressuring them to defog the stealth rocks away. Stealth rocks also prevent powerful setup sweepers like Charizard and Volcarona from incinerating you. Earthquake is an amazing 100/100 stab move that will hit any Pokemon not blessed with wings or the levitate ability with chip damage, or just knock them out entirely. Hidden Power Ice is used to combat an opposing Landorus, as well as common dragon-type Pokemon that are 4 times weak to ice like Dragonite, Garchomp, and Zygarde. Finally, U-turn is a momentum giving move that should be used on your opponent when you predict him or her to switch out on your expected stealth rocks or earthquake.

Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Extrasensory
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken​

Ash-Greninja is the perfect foil for Mega-Lopunny. Any team you face that doesn't have a reliable answer for an Ash-Greninja equipped with a fashionable pair of choice specs will often just forfeit the match, usually after complaining in the chat about how broken Ash-Greninja is for a couple of minutes. Not only does it hit like a truck, having an Ash-Greninja on this team is like essentially having 2 mega Pokemon; one that deals physical damage, and the other who deals special damage. Although hydro pump only has 80% accuracy, the reward of having and using this devastating move greatly outweighs the risk of potentially missing. Pokemon like defensive Landorus and specially defensive Heatran will instantly drop to the ground, unconscious, after being hit by a specs hydro pump. I originally had ice beam on this Ash-Greninja set, but I had to switch that move out in favor of extrasensory, because I quickly realized that Mega-Venusaur was a huge threat to this team. With rocks up, Mega-Venusaur will for sure be 2-hit KO-ed with extrasensory upon switch in. Zapdos can also be used to pressure stall Mega-Venusaur until your opponent eventually switches out, or just forfeits the game due to frustration. Dark pulse will make quick work of common, defensive Mews, as well as chip away at teams that have very few, or no dark-type resisting Pokemon. Water shuriken is a great priority and stab move that can revenge KO fast Pokemon that try to sweep the team, as long as they don't resist water of course.

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Sword
- Leaf Blade
-Smart Strike
-Defog
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Now that most people have wised up on how dangerous this Pokemon can be in the late-game, Kartana isn't as deadly as it was when gen-7 first released. However, going along with the common theme of this team, if your opponent isn't prepared for a choice scarfed Kartana, he or she is going to have a bad time during the late-game of the match. Kartana serves as this team's designated defogger and revenge killer, as well as late-game sweeper. If getting off a defog is absolutely necessary to win the match, Kartana's speed will ensure that you get the sticky webs, stealth rocks, spikes, etc. off the field. There isn't much to say about the 3 attacks chosen for this Kartana set: sacred sword, leaf blade, and smart strike. It's up to you to decide which of these 3 attacks is the best to use when picking off your opponent's remaining Pokemon. Smart Strike comes in handy for dealing with annoying fairy types like Clefable and 3 of the 4 Tapus, excluding Tapu Fini. Leaf blade can be useful for cleaning up rain teams, as long as Pelipper is no longer in the battle. Sacred sword can be used for fatter Pokemon like Chansey and any of the Porygons.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Spe / 8 Def
Timid Nature
- Discharge
- Hidden Power Ice
- Heat Wave
- Roost
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Last but certainly not least, we have the team's final member, Zapdos. Zapdos is the team's lone electric-type Pokemon, as well as the 2nd and much needed ground-type immunity. The roost + 3 attacks set may not be optimal for this particular team, but most opponents will be thrown off by this Pokemon during the team preview before the match. Most opponents will look at this team during the preview and expect Zapdos to be the team's defogger, not expecting it to have both hidden power ice and heat wave. I've caught many opponents off guard when they thought they could switch either their Landorus or Ferrothorn in on me for example; the extra speed helps too, in order to speed tie with threats to the team like Mega-Medicham and Volcarona, fishing for para-haxes with discharge. Roost ensures the longevity of this Pokemon, as well as being used to help pressure stall certain Pokemon like Mega-Venusaur like mentioned before.

Conclusion​

If you've made it this far into my RMT, I would like to say thank you. I didn't mention this fact in my introduction, but this is my first RMT, as well as first post on this website. This team was built kind of fast, but I have had a lot of success when testing the team on showdown, and I feel that I have a solid understanding of the current meta-game. Feel free to give this team a try and/or leave suggestions below on how I can improve this team! I'll leave a pastebin down below.

Pastebin: https://pastebin.com/8FUJ6iiJ







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[Chokepic]

Hi, really cool team (very standard tho).

You dont have a z, and instead of running specs extrasensory gash, I think you could try z-extrasensory protean gren, that also helps you to set-up spikes and help to sweep in late-game with kartana/lopunny.

Also, I would change protect on ferro to gyro ball, just to be able to deal with bulu 1v1 just in case you need to. Good team overall!

 

[Beyond Raw]

Hi, really cool team (very standard tho).

You dont have a z, and instead of running specs extrasensory gash, I think you could try z-extrasensory protean gren, that also helps you to set-up spikes and help to sweep in late-game with kartana/lopunny.

Also, I would change protect on ferro to gyro ball, just to be able to deal with bulu 1v1 just in case you need to. Good team overall!

Thanks for the advice! I'll give z-move Greninja and gyro ball Ferrothorn a try!

 

[Anish]

yo cool team,

pretty solid stuff, just a couple of things to not. i think ur weak to lele, and in particular scarf sets are a pain for you to deal with, since ferro is your steel type. also fires like heatran can be annoying since they can force out ferro, zap and often even kart . you also lack a breaker, and toxic toxapex can be also a pain to deal with

>

heatran is a top tier breaker. z also uses your z slot, and can punish stall with z fire busting past sableye. you also can pivot into lele, and being a ice resist is nb. you lose speed control but u have lop + gren, also tran helps with the volcarona mu, which is one mon you generally use speed control for. it can also set stealth rock. you do lose defog though.

id advise you to run a bulky scarf lando. this can also serve as an offensive check to tran, since you can come in and threaten it out really. heatran can stealth rock in this case, and it can still come in on zapdos

you can run knock off > protect. knock is a great move for this team in general, and can also remove stuff like zapdos or heatran lefties, and gain chip by knocking stuff like clef. the team is pretty fast paced so you dont need protect here tbh.

facade lop is good here since you can break toxapex thanks to it often fishing for scald burns and then you facading and breaking past it. id replace pup tbh since you wanna be able to hit lando, but u still wanna be able to lure in toxapex here.

surf gren is also nice since you dont have to risk missing pump, and means ur team is more consistent. ofc this means venu is a problem but tran can beat non eq venu w ease and venu doesnt come into tran too well either, and u can para w zap rlly. mainly bc u dont need ice beam since you have a great bulu mu, but i think with tran esens isnt obligatory.

sets

Lopunny-Mega (F) @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Ice Punch
- Return
- Facade

Heatran (M) @ Firium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock

Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Surf

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 212 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Defog

 

[Beyond Raw]

Thanks for the advice, Anish! I agree with you, Kartana needs to go and Heatran is great addition to the team. I also like your suggestion of using a bulky scarf Landorus set; I remember using a similar set when I tried one of Smogon's teams of the week awhile back. I look forward to using your improved team on the ladder!