Introduction
Since the release of the Teal Mask DCL, I've been struggling with building a balance team in this super offensive meta, but I finally got a team that's half decent. I wanted to build around Garchomp as a sweeper. Garchomp is quite strong late game in some matchups, but can also serve as a breaker and provide defensive utility. I paired it up with Greninja as another strong wincon that can start rolling through teams in an instant. Empoleon, Clefable, Heatran, and Great Tusk provide all the necessary support and utility while dealing with most of the threats in the OU metagame right now.
Team Breakdown
Garchomp @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Rough Skin
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Scale Shot
- Earthquake
- Tera Blast
- Swords Dance
Garchomp hits most of the metagame with just Scale Shot + Eq for at least neutral damage. Tera Fairy Blast hits Great Tusk and more importantly Zamazenta, while also allowing you to resist Sucker punch from Kingambit. Loaded dice is an obvious choice as an item, as is Rough Skin as the ability. I'm running a standard spread with max attack and speed, but with an Adamant nature. This is because Garchomp sits at a pretty interesting speed tier just under threats like Enamorus, Walking Wake, Ogerpon, etc. but also outspeeds max speed Great Tusk even with a neutral speed nature. The only mons that you don't outspeed that you normally would with a Jolly nature is max speed Lando-T, Zapdos, and Manaphy. I judged that the extra wall breaking potential from Adamant was worth that trade.
Often times, Garchomp is used as a breaker. With an Adamant nature it doesn't need an SD to hit hard and with LD, Scale Shot becomes a strong spammable STAB move. In the late game, Tera Fairy Garchomp is hard to KO and can roll through if the right mons have been taken care of. The biggest threats to this set is Enamorus, who is immune to both your stabs. I've experimented with switching Tera Blast for Poison Jab and even changing the Loaded Dice to Roseli Berry to help deal with it but they both make concessions against other Pokemon. I've thought about making the Garchomp Tera Electric to help deal with Enam and other threats like Corv and Dozo, but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet.
Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Battle Bond
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Water Shuriken
Greninja is another great sweeper with Battle Bond + Life Orb that can roll games. Surf + Ice Beam + Dark Pulse is good coverage and Water Shuriken is much needed priority to pick off low HP targets. Tera Water is just for extra power on Shuriken if needed. The spread is standard, just max SpA and Spe with Timid to maximize speed and power.
Greninja is a cleaner and provides a lot of good coverage. Its hard to get in all the time consistently and gets chipped down hard by LO + Hazards. Other than that, it usually does a decent enough job forcing switches and spreading damage.
Clefable @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Thunder Wave
- Moonlight
Clef serves as check to Roaring Moon (when it was legal), Dragonite, Zamazenta, Manaphy, and Iron Valiant. Unaware means that it can check most set up mons. Other than that, Clef is good at spreading paralysis and can even be dangerous late game with Calm Mind. With Boots, Clef can come in on hazards repeatedly. The EV spread is max Def, max HP Bold for the most physical bulk.
Clef is somewhat passive by itself so it relies on paralysis and unaware to wall mons or cripple them for the rest of the team to deal with. Its biggest weakness is that it allows in Gholdengo for free. Gliscor takes nothing from moonblast and can toxic back. Sneasler and Zamazenta with Heavy Slam are also threats that break through Clef.
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
Heatran is a glue mon with a very useful defensive typing. With an Air Balloon, it can come in on standard Spikes Gliscor that only run EQ + Toxic for free. It also walls Cinderace and Iron Moth and checks mons like Rillaboom, Kingambit, Enamorus, and Great Tusk. With 252 speed, you catch a lot of people by surprise by outspeeding things like no/little investment Gliscor and Great tusk, and with 8 SpA EVs and a Modest nature, you hit back hard. Taunt serves to help against the Stall matchup, specifically against Blissey, and Will-O-Wisp is for Kingambit. The Grass Tera type flips a lot of your bad matchups and can be useful in trapping and eliminating important threats like Enamorous.
Heatran is a decent lead into a lot of HO teams with Webs Rihbombee or Veil Alotails, being able to deal with them using Magma Storm. The biggest threat to Heatran is Magma Storm's horrendous accuracy. The trapping capacity and damage is too good to pass up but man does this move suck. The low PP is also an issue and you can find yourself running out of Magma Storms, especially in Stall matchups or in those games where you can't seem to hit the move to save your life (I can recall a game where I managed to miss all 8 Magma Storms. At that point I couldn't even be mad, like that's just unbelievable).
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
Empoleon is the rocker for the team and serves as the primary special wall. It walls threats like Walking Wake, Greninja, Specs Dragapult, and Iron Moth. My problem with Empoleon this generation has been how passive it's been and how weak it was when it ran sets with Flip Turn + Knock Off. Surf + Roar mitigates that issue by using Empoleon's decent SpA and roar to phase out any attempts to set up and sweep. Tera Fairy is just a good defensive Tera if needed.
Empoleon's biggest threat is Gholdengo because its ability blocks roar. Surf doesn't do nearly enough damage and Nasty Plot + Recover sets can set up freely at the cost of losing a lot of Recover PP. Enamorus is another threat becauase Empoleon doesn't switch in very well to Earth Power. Because of this, I've been considering switching Empoleon's Tera Type to Dark to resist the Shadow Ball from Ghold while also helping versus the Enam match up. Generally Empoleon does its job but can be prone to being overwhelmed.
Great Tusk @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Spinner
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
Great Tusk serves as the spinner and Kingambit answer. Rocky Helmet chip is very valuable to chip down things like Cinderace, opposing Great Tusk, and Kingambit on contact, especially in conjunction with Garchomp's Rough Skin. EQ for stab, Ice Spinner for opposing Great Tusk, Gliscor, and Lando-T, and Knock Off for getting rid of Boots and hitting Ghold on a switch. Tera Dragon helps vs Waterpon and Sneasler.
Great Tusk can struggle vs Balloon Ghold when it comes to spinning, and Rillaboom + Sneasler is a big threat as EQ is weakened in terrain. Other than that, it does its role well.
Closing Remarks
This team feels solid in a lot of matchups, but a couple threats really pose a challenge. The biggest threats are Enamorus who just hits this team hard with Moonblast + EP, Zamazenta with Heavy Slam as it outspeeds all of my team and muscles past Clefable, and Sneasler who can be very dangerous late game if Tusk has taken damage. Any feedback is appreciated!
Since the release of the Teal Mask DCL, I've been struggling with building a balance team in this super offensive meta, but I finally got a team that's half decent. I wanted to build around Garchomp as a sweeper. Garchomp is quite strong late game in some matchups, but can also serve as a breaker and provide defensive utility. I paired it up with Greninja as another strong wincon that can start rolling through teams in an instant. Empoleon, Clefable, Heatran, and Great Tusk provide all the necessary support and utility while dealing with most of the threats in the OU metagame right now.
https://pokepast.es/3505d3ab679fa637
Team Breakdown
Garchomp @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Rough Skin
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Scale Shot
- Earthquake
- Tera Blast
- Swords Dance
Garchomp hits most of the metagame with just Scale Shot + Eq for at least neutral damage. Tera Fairy Blast hits Great Tusk and more importantly Zamazenta, while also allowing you to resist Sucker punch from Kingambit. Loaded dice is an obvious choice as an item, as is Rough Skin as the ability. I'm running a standard spread with max attack and speed, but with an Adamant nature. This is because Garchomp sits at a pretty interesting speed tier just under threats like Enamorus, Walking Wake, Ogerpon, etc. but also outspeeds max speed Great Tusk even with a neutral speed nature. The only mons that you don't outspeed that you normally would with a Jolly nature is max speed Lando-T, Zapdos, and Manaphy. I judged that the extra wall breaking potential from Adamant was worth that trade.
Often times, Garchomp is used as a breaker. With an Adamant nature it doesn't need an SD to hit hard and with LD, Scale Shot becomes a strong spammable STAB move. In the late game, Tera Fairy Garchomp is hard to KO and can roll through if the right mons have been taken care of. The biggest threats to this set is Enamorus, who is immune to both your stabs. I've experimented with switching Tera Blast for Poison Jab and even changing the Loaded Dice to Roseli Berry to help deal with it but they both make concessions against other Pokemon. I've thought about making the Garchomp Tera Electric to help deal with Enam and other threats like Corv and Dozo, but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet.
Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Battle Bond
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Water Shuriken
Greninja is another great sweeper with Battle Bond + Life Orb that can roll games. Surf + Ice Beam + Dark Pulse is good coverage and Water Shuriken is much needed priority to pick off low HP targets. Tera Water is just for extra power on Shuriken if needed. The spread is standard, just max SpA and Spe with Timid to maximize speed and power.
Greninja is a cleaner and provides a lot of good coverage. Its hard to get in all the time consistently and gets chipped down hard by LO + Hazards. Other than that, it usually does a decent enough job forcing switches and spreading damage.
Clefable @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Thunder Wave
- Moonlight
Clef serves as check to Roaring Moon (when it was legal), Dragonite, Zamazenta, Manaphy, and Iron Valiant. Unaware means that it can check most set up mons. Other than that, Clef is good at spreading paralysis and can even be dangerous late game with Calm Mind. With Boots, Clef can come in on hazards repeatedly. The EV spread is max Def, max HP Bold for the most physical bulk.
Clef is somewhat passive by itself so it relies on paralysis and unaware to wall mons or cripple them for the rest of the team to deal with. Its biggest weakness is that it allows in Gholdengo for free. Gliscor takes nothing from moonblast and can toxic back. Sneasler and Zamazenta with Heavy Slam are also threats that break through Clef.
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
Heatran is a glue mon with a very useful defensive typing. With an Air Balloon, it can come in on standard Spikes Gliscor that only run EQ + Toxic for free. It also walls Cinderace and Iron Moth and checks mons like Rillaboom, Kingambit, Enamorus, and Great Tusk. With 252 speed, you catch a lot of people by surprise by outspeeding things like no/little investment Gliscor and Great tusk, and with 8 SpA EVs and a Modest nature, you hit back hard. Taunt serves to help against the Stall matchup, specifically against Blissey, and Will-O-Wisp is for Kingambit. The Grass Tera type flips a lot of your bad matchups and can be useful in trapping and eliminating important threats like Enamorous.
Heatran is a decent lead into a lot of HO teams with Webs Rihbombee or Veil Alotails, being able to deal with them using Magma Storm. The biggest threat to Heatran is Magma Storm's horrendous accuracy. The trapping capacity and damage is too good to pass up but man does this move suck. The low PP is also an issue and you can find yourself running out of Magma Storms, especially in Stall matchups or in those games where you can't seem to hit the move to save your life (I can recall a game where I managed to miss all 8 Magma Storms. At that point I couldn't even be mad, like that's just unbelievable).
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
Empoleon is the rocker for the team and serves as the primary special wall. It walls threats like Walking Wake, Greninja, Specs Dragapult, and Iron Moth. My problem with Empoleon this generation has been how passive it's been and how weak it was when it ran sets with Flip Turn + Knock Off. Surf + Roar mitigates that issue by using Empoleon's decent SpA and roar to phase out any attempts to set up and sweep. Tera Fairy is just a good defensive Tera if needed.
Empoleon's biggest threat is Gholdengo because its ability blocks roar. Surf doesn't do nearly enough damage and Nasty Plot + Recover sets can set up freely at the cost of losing a lot of Recover PP. Enamorus is another threat becauase Empoleon doesn't switch in very well to Earth Power. Because of this, I've been considering switching Empoleon's Tera Type to Dark to resist the Shadow Ball from Ghold while also helping versus the Enam match up. Generally Empoleon does its job but can be prone to being overwhelmed.
Great Tusk @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Spinner
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
Great Tusk serves as the spinner and Kingambit answer. Rocky Helmet chip is very valuable to chip down things like Cinderace, opposing Great Tusk, and Kingambit on contact, especially in conjunction with Garchomp's Rough Skin. EQ for stab, Ice Spinner for opposing Great Tusk, Gliscor, and Lando-T, and Knock Off for getting rid of Boots and hitting Ghold on a switch. Tera Dragon helps vs Waterpon and Sneasler.
Great Tusk can struggle vs Balloon Ghold when it comes to spinning, and Rillaboom + Sneasler is a big threat as EQ is weakened in terrain. Other than that, it does its role well.
Closing Remarks
This team feels solid in a lot of matchups, but a couple threats really pose a challenge. The biggest threats are Enamorus who just hits this team hard with Moonblast + EP, Zamazenta with Heavy Slam as it outspeeds all of my team and muscles past Clefable, and Sneasler who can be very dangerous late game if Tusk has taken damage. Any feedback is appreciated!
