Introduction:
Good Day Smogon community! I'm back again with another variant of a HO team! Still built around Mega-Charizard-X but with the benefit of about a months worth of playing experience with him as my premier sweeper. So without further ado, here it is, the culmination of all my work with the big black dragon, my beat HO team yet!
Teambuilding Process:
So I am of the belief that a HO team is, unlike almost any other playstyle, quite formulaic. There are 6 specific roles that must be addressed when designing any HO team (imho). They are: Lead, Walbreaker 1, Wallbreaker 2, Utility, Revenge Killer and Sweeper.
I began the design of this team with Mega-Charizard-X as my sweeper. After a Dragon Dance he is one of the most potentially lethal pokemon in the current OU metagame (and he looks badass too!) However, he is in possession of some very key weaknesses! Fairies, Bulky Ground Types, Other faster Dragons (Namely Lati@s), Talonflame using priority moves, Bulky Water types, Ice, Stealth rocks and Status. So I set about designing the rest of the team to counter these weaknesses.
A Lead pokemon on a HO team has only one job. Get rocks up. Period. Nobody does this better than Azelf in my opinion. So Azelf will be my lead with a lovely explosive surprise for the unwary!
Next I considered my utility pokemon. Of all the rapid spinners in the game only one of them can deal with Status too. It also nicely deals with my bulky water problem! Enter Starmie!
Next comes wallbreaker 1. I knew I had to have a strong answer to Fairies which meant a Steel type and the first Pokemon that came to mind was Bisharp. Additional Dark typing means we have a secondary check to the Slowbros and Starmies of the world and a way of Knocking off Chanseys
Wallbreaker 2 needed to answer my ground type weaknesses very strongly and there are scant few who can do that effectively. Landorus-T does it beautifully while being a potent threat of its own.
This leaves only my revenge killer, which looking at the lack of ice coverage can only be Weavile, one of the meanest revengers in the game!
The Team:
Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
My sweeper. A fairly standard set, nothing unorthodox here. I have chosen a Jolly nature over Adamant mostly for my own psychological wellbeing that he is as fast as he can be. After a Dragon Dance there are very few things faster, all of which are specifically countered below. The slight HP investment is for worst case scenario entrys into Stealth Rocks to ensure 51% HP. Other than that its about hitting as fast and hard as possible
Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
- Flamethrower
The only purpose of this guy is to be tricky and get rocks up. EV investment is designed to make Explosion hit as hard as possible, with a little investment to SpA to make flamethrower worthwhile. The Focus Sash prevents OHKOs which are common for this frail pokemon. Taunt is for the Stealth Rock mindgames at the start of a battle and Flamethrower is a contingency damaging move for the likes of Ferrothorn.
Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Swords Dance
A fairly standard offensive Landorus set. Again, its about hitting as hard and fast as possible in regard to nature and IVs. I've included U Turn on this set to allow him to pivot out without losing momentum offensively.
Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Low Kick
Its very much the same philosophy here too, hitting as hard and fast as I can. Ice Shard is a priority move to ensure Weaviles an effective revenger, the rest of the set are strong STAB moves with Low Kick included to dissuade opposing Weavile
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
Guess what! We've got max speed and offensive investment here too... surprise surprise. I've added Sucker Punch because this move alone has ripped through entire teams when opponents were particularly dim witted. Other than that its very straightforward.
Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
- Psyshock
And last, but by no means least, my Utility. Again, its all about being as fast and powerful as possible. With this in mind, I've never understood why people run the ability that give Starmie more power if it goes second.... it almost never goes second. I favour Natural Cure and use Starmie to absorb status where I can. As Starmie is a special attacker I've dropped the Atk IVs to 0 to mitigate confusion and foul play damage. The sets fairly standard except that one of either Thunderbolt or Psyshock is used, but I've added both for a little bit of psychic coverage which has occasionally come in handy as an additional check to fighting types which can do some serious damage to 3/6 of my pokemon.
Conclusion:
So thats the team! Please feel free to comment, critique, copy, use, playtest and review. All constructive comments and suggestions are welcome. I would say that I very much want to keep the team HO, so if you could keep your suggestions in that vein I would greatly appreciate it.
Importable:
Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
- Flamethrower
Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Swords Dance
Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Low Kick
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
- Psyshock
Good Day Smogon community! I'm back again with another variant of a HO team! Still built around Mega-Charizard-X but with the benefit of about a months worth of playing experience with him as my premier sweeper. So without further ado, here it is, the culmination of all my work with the big black dragon, my beat HO team yet!
Teambuilding Process:
So I am of the belief that a HO team is, unlike almost any other playstyle, quite formulaic. There are 6 specific roles that must be addressed when designing any HO team (imho). They are: Lead, Walbreaker 1, Wallbreaker 2, Utility, Revenge Killer and Sweeper.
I began the design of this team with Mega-Charizard-X as my sweeper. After a Dragon Dance he is one of the most potentially lethal pokemon in the current OU metagame (and he looks badass too!) However, he is in possession of some very key weaknesses! Fairies, Bulky Ground Types, Other faster Dragons (Namely Lati@s), Talonflame using priority moves, Bulky Water types, Ice, Stealth rocks and Status. So I set about designing the rest of the team to counter these weaknesses.
A Lead pokemon on a HO team has only one job. Get rocks up. Period. Nobody does this better than Azelf in my opinion. So Azelf will be my lead with a lovely explosive surprise for the unwary!
Next I considered my utility pokemon. Of all the rapid spinners in the game only one of them can deal with Status too. It also nicely deals with my bulky water problem! Enter Starmie!
Next comes wallbreaker 1. I knew I had to have a strong answer to Fairies which meant a Steel type and the first Pokemon that came to mind was Bisharp. Additional Dark typing means we have a secondary check to the Slowbros and Starmies of the world and a way of Knocking off Chanseys
Wallbreaker 2 needed to answer my ground type weaknesses very strongly and there are scant few who can do that effectively. Landorus-T does it beautifully while being a potent threat of its own.
This leaves only my revenge killer, which looking at the lack of ice coverage can only be Weavile, one of the meanest revengers in the game!
The Team:
Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
My sweeper. A fairly standard set, nothing unorthodox here. I have chosen a Jolly nature over Adamant mostly for my own psychological wellbeing that he is as fast as he can be. After a Dragon Dance there are very few things faster, all of which are specifically countered below. The slight HP investment is for worst case scenario entrys into Stealth Rocks to ensure 51% HP. Other than that its about hitting as fast and hard as possible
Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
- Flamethrower
The only purpose of this guy is to be tricky and get rocks up. EV investment is designed to make Explosion hit as hard as possible, with a little investment to SpA to make flamethrower worthwhile. The Focus Sash prevents OHKOs which are common for this frail pokemon. Taunt is for the Stealth Rock mindgames at the start of a battle and Flamethrower is a contingency damaging move for the likes of Ferrothorn.
Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Swords Dance
A fairly standard offensive Landorus set. Again, its about hitting as hard and fast as possible in regard to nature and IVs. I've included U Turn on this set to allow him to pivot out without losing momentum offensively.
Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Low Kick
Its very much the same philosophy here too, hitting as hard and fast as I can. Ice Shard is a priority move to ensure Weaviles an effective revenger, the rest of the set are strong STAB moves with Low Kick included to dissuade opposing Weavile
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
Guess what! We've got max speed and offensive investment here too... surprise surprise. I've added Sucker Punch because this move alone has ripped through entire teams when opponents were particularly dim witted. Other than that its very straightforward.
Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
- Psyshock
And last, but by no means least, my Utility. Again, its all about being as fast and powerful as possible. With this in mind, I've never understood why people run the ability that give Starmie more power if it goes second.... it almost never goes second. I favour Natural Cure and use Starmie to absorb status where I can. As Starmie is a special attacker I've dropped the Atk IVs to 0 to mitigate confusion and foul play damage. The sets fairly standard except that one of either Thunderbolt or Psyshock is used, but I've added both for a little bit of psychic coverage which has occasionally come in handy as an additional check to fighting types which can do some serious damage to 3/6 of my pokemon.
Conclusion:
So thats the team! Please feel free to comment, critique, copy, use, playtest and review. All constructive comments and suggestions are welcome. I would say that I very much want to keep the team HO, so if you could keep your suggestions in that vein I would greatly appreciate it.
Importable:
Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
- Flamethrower
Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Swords Dance
Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Low Kick
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
- Psyshock