SS OU Help with Tapu Koko + Garchomp (hyper?) offensive team

[Gmanhoffman]

Hello! I'm pretty new to the competitive-style pokemon scene, and I'm even newer to OU in particular. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Because I didn't even know where to BEGIN with making an OU team, I found a sample one that was provided by Zneon (https://pokepast.es/420fbe9af5d39537), played a match or so with it, and then I changed it up to fit my playing style better and as well as to cover up any weaknesses I saw with it. It started out as hyper offence and has mostly remained so, although the Blissey may change that? I'm not sure. I haven't played with it THAT much, but I'd say I understand it decently well at this point. Although, these wins are all against low-ladder players because I’M a low-ladder player, so take that with a grain of salt, I guess.

Major changes I made in the sample team:
- Swapping out Landorus for Volcarona, as Volcarona allows for more type coverage and covers the team's noticeable lack of sp atk sweepers.
- Swapping out Hawlucha for Blissey, as I was never able to use Hawlucha effectively (it would always die, even when set up right), nor do I think it fulfilled a unique enough niche. Blissey fulfills a different niche, whilst also benefitting from electric terrain.
- Made it less ground/earthquake-focused, as I had a REALLY tough time facing off against flying-oriented teams. (One of my first matches was against a chicken team that was 5/6 flying, so I had a lot of trouble against that haha)


Tapu Koko @ Light Clay
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Taunt
- U-turn

Tapu Koko is usually the lead. I'll immediately taunt on turn one so that the foe isn't able to set up rocks or bulk up or anything else like that. After that, I'll set up Light Screen and Reflect--I'll try to set up both as best I can, but if the foe's mon presents a big threat to Tapu Koko, I'll U-Turn out. If I'm only able to get one wall up, I'll prioritize the the one that the foe's lead mon seems to be focused around (atk or sp atk). I'll keep coming back to Tapu Koko throughout the match as a pivot to keep setting up Reflect and Light Screen.


Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Liquidation

This started out with a standard Belly Drum sweeper set up, with Knock Off instead Liquidation. However, I ended up changing it to liquidation, as I wanted to have a more powerful SATB move than Aqua Jet handy at any given time. Additionally, I've only rarely had many chances to set up Belly Drum. Granted, I'm not super experienced with using it, so I may just not be capitalizing on chances that I don't know I have.


Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Scale Shot
- Stone Edge

On a team with multiple setup sweepers, Garchomp is the main one, I'd say. Swords Dance does a good job at making him even more powerful, but even without it, Garchomp still does a good job dealing damage. Earthquake and Scale Shot are great STAB moves, and Stone Edge gives extra coverage, allowing it to take care of things like Togekiss.


Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Dragon Claw
- Dual Wingbeat

Another sweeper. Dragon Dance to set up stats, along with Roost to heal. Dragon Claw and Dual Wingbeat are the main attacking moves, with Dragon Claw being a replacement for Earthquake from the original set, so that it can get additional STAB. I’m not 100% sure on either attacking moves—I’m wondering if I should replace them. I tried Outrage instead of Claw, but I really didn’t like being locked into it.


Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Healing Wish
- Thunder

This is kind of an odd choice, I know, but I felt like such an offensive team might benefit from having a healer/wall such as Blissey. Seismic Toss and Softboiled are the standard Blissey fare. Healing wish is a hail-Mary explosion-type move to sacrifice Blissey if she’s low on health so that I can fully heal one of the main sweepers on the team and regain some momentum. Thunder is for coverage, but it’s also supposed to benefit from the electric terrain that Tapu Koko sets. I chose Serene Grace over Natural Cure so that Thunder has a 60% chance of paralysis if it hits, so that I don't have to run Thunder Wave. This mon has a unique little niche on this team, but my guess is that if I were to change any of them out, this would be the first to go.


Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Roost
- Flamethrower
- Bug Buzz

This is basically the same fare as Dragonite. One move to bulk stats, one to heal if needed, and two STAB moves to dish out damage—pretty self-explanatory. The benefit of having both this and Dragonite is that it allows me to be flexible and set up with either one, depending on the matchups at that point in the match when I start to set up.

Some flaws/misc. things that I've noticed:
- I have no rock setters. I’ve been doing okay without it, but I guess it can’t hurt to add them in. I’ve seen some sets where Garchomp runs Stealth Rock. Should I try and add a rock setter onto the team or not worry about it?
- Reliance on heavy-duty boots. I don’t like how two of the sweepers (Volcarona and Dragonite) have to run HDB instead of a more useful item like a leftovers of life orb or something. Volcarona’s is obviously for the 4x rock weakness, but Dragonite is only 2x weak, so I feel like it’s less “necessary”, however HDB is needed so that it doesn’t get hurt by hazards on switch-in because of multiscale. But then again, they would REALLY benefit from another item. Any thoughts on that?
- No defog/rapid spin. I have no real way to remove any hazards that the opponent manages to set.
- Somewhat of a reliance on Light Screen/Reflect. It’s not so much a complete dependency, but a lot of my playing involves setting up these walls, and only a single defog takes them all down, which is super annoying, haha. But then again, it’s not like the team fails to function without the walls, so I guess it’s not really a “weakness” per say.
- Azumarill. 3/4 of the main sweepers (Dragonite, Garchomp, and Volcarona) are weak to either Fairy or Water, so Azumarill poses a problem. Electric terrain thunder helps a bit, but not too too much.
- Stall. I haven't had much luck against stall teams, although that's probably because I don't know how to take them on.

Thanks for the help!

EDIT: Also, this is my first RMT so apologies if I did anything wrong

 

[Ol_dragon]

Hey there I'm here to help you.

introduction

I think that sample teams are generally really good teams, built by some of the best players. The team you picked is no exception and the only downside is that since it was built the metagame has changed quite a bit. The concept of that team is to overload and eventually kill physical walls as they can't deal with so many threats at once. This then opened sweeping possibility to the remaining pokemons.
In general HO differs quite a bit from any other playstyle. It's key to always keep up offensive pressure and put your opponent in a place where he can only react to your moves. You shouldn't care too much about defensive presence in the team. You've got to find the mon that has the best chance to sweep and use the other members to kill his checks. It's Ok to sacrifice your Mons as long as you have a main and a backup plan, in case things don't go as you planned, unless facing stall. Stall is an hard matchup and you need to be really careful.
Hawlucha with terrain support is pretty common in HO, here is a great example. Check out the replays to better understand how the team works.
(If you want to try a different ho team check out my team)

All of my changes are based on the idea that you don't want to play Hawlucha.

Major changes

1. is really passive and defensive and takes away all the pressure from the opponent. Thus defeats the whole purpose of HO.
Try instead.
Mew @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Cosmic Power
- Stored Power
- Body Press
- Taunt
This set can destroy stall by taunting the opponent and then freely set up. At max defenses you can 2hko unaware spdef clefable, the main threat to HO in stall. The EVs are to outspeed adamant bisharp and defensive Lando-t, but it might need some fine tuning. Also you might consider roost over taunt/body press, if it gets worn too quickly. It can work also against balance, be wary of Dragapult and dark types though. (The set is not mine, I first saw it on a Stormzone's team)

2. Having tested quite a bit , and I think they don't really need screens to setup a couple of turns, instead, as you underlined, rocks are really useful. Thus > ; you can use the original set by Zneon or try the more common suicide lead:
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Rock Tomb

Minor changes

3. Bulky usually runs this set:
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 156 Def / 16 SpA / 88 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Roost
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
The speed lets you outspeed zeraora at +1 and the spAtk is to always kill Rillaboom with flamethrower. Psychic over Bug buzz is personal preference but I think is useful to kill toxapex.

4. Earthquake on is needed imo, as dragon doesn't add any significant coverage. Also a jolly nature lets you outspeed zeraora at +1.

5. Knock off on helps you deal with many slower defensive mons, namely the metal birds you struggle with:

calcs

+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 383-451 (95.7 - 112.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 291-343 (87.1 - 102.6%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Conclusion
This changes should solve all the flaws you underlined, bar the reliance on HDB, and make the team more effective. and really need boots to do their job.

Here's the updated team:
(click the sprites for the importable)

 

[Gmanhoffman]

Great, thanks so much for the help! I really really like the mew, I think that's a nice touch. I'll mess around with the new set and see if I can figure out how to use it effectively.

 

[Clone]

I like the premise of the team and I saw the above rate, but I'd like to offer an alternative to some of the changes ol_dragon made. Not to say I disagree with his changes or think they're bad. Rather, I feel I could help guide this team in a slightly different direction and introduce you to some more traditional mons and sets that should help guide you for future team-building endeavors.

I'm a big fan of offense, always have been, and always will be. However, this generation I don't believe screens HO is very strong, as it is incredibly match-up reliant. Some games you 6-0 with a mon, while others you fail to break teams because you don't have the right sweeper. On top of that, this team does not have rocks which makes securing KOes more difficult. I feel a few changes will help this team perform better.

The first change is Urshifu-R > Azumarill. Unfortunately, the bunny's glory days are behind it. The prevalence of things like Toxapex, Rillaboom, and Tapu Lele (psychic terrain), make sweeping through teams almost impossible. Some games you'll be playing 5v6 on preview until you eliminate certain mons which hurts the team as a whole. Urshifu on the other hand gives you a mon with immediate breaking power and pivoting ability which is much more valuable. A choice band set is what I'm gonna recommend. It's STABs give you immediate breaking power which is important when you're trying to win with a mon like Dragonite or Garchomp, as they need things like corviknight, clefable, and Landorus-T removed or weakened to sweep. Urshifu gives you an avenue to do that.

Another change I'm gonna suggest is Landorus-T > Garchomp. Garchomp is pretty redundant with Dragonite. I guess you could replace dragonite and keep garchomp but DNite has more defensive utility that is useful for your team. Anyways, Landorus-T gives you rocks, U-Turn, and a pivot into a lot of physical attackers and electric types, something this team would appreciate. You have less immediate offensive presence and lack sweeping capabilities, but I feel it's worth it for this team.

Koko should definitely be the boots pivot set on this team. Gives you consistent damage against bulky waters like toxapex, slowking, tapu fini, and also hits the steel birds hard which this team appreciates. Could also use zeraora for more speed but that's up to you. You gain speed and Knock Off at the detriment of longevity and the ability to reset opponents terrain (ie rillaboom) and consistency against Corviknight and Tornadus-T.

Finally, blissey doesn't fit on this type of team. It's too passive for an offensive team such as this. It's difficult for me to pinpoint what exactly would fit here, but I think something like melmetal might be a good fit. It give you good damage output, thunder wave support, and most importantly, can eat hits from weavile, which is otherwise a massive threat to this team. Pads is the best fit here, as you can thunder Wave shit and also not have to worry about rough skin or Rocky Helmets. EVs outspeed 4 speed toxapex while maximizing damage output and bulk.

I'll provide the sets below. Hopefully these suggestions helped. Good luck with the team.

sets

Tapu Koko @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- U-turn
- Roost

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic

Melmetal @ Protective Pads
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 240 SpD / 16 Spe
- Double Iron Bash
- Earthquake
- Thunder Punch
- Thunder Wave

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Surging Strikes
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn