SM OU Mega Garchomp Hyper/ Bulky Offense

[aogalicia]

Introduction: This is my first rmt and the team I've created peaked over 1500, not the best for most but the highest for me. My reasoning for posting this rmt is to get feedback from the Smogon community which will be very helpful. Anyways I've created it after a failed sticky webs, sand team i've made. The team is built around Mega Garchomp, yes Mega! In my opinion one of the strongest hitting physical pokémon. This rmt is created on an ios device so it might not look the best btw. Let me get right to the team now.


The Team :

• Alolan Ninetales @ Choice Scarf

Ability : Snow Warning
Evs : 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Moonblast
- Roar

I chose Alolan Ninetales is for a few reason. For starters, it's able to get rid of apossing weather which can destroy this team. Also another reason for choosing this pokémon is because it learn Freeze-Dry. Freeze-Dry will severely hurt water types. Rain support pokémon like Pelipper will always fall to a Freeze-Dry, unless it is max HP and Max SpD, which most likely no rain team run or anyone, if so it has a 68.8% chance to be an OHKO. Kingdra will fall to a Freeze-Dry too all the time. The reason for the choice scarf is for other choice scarf mons that are base 108 Spe or below such as Garchomp or Landorus-Therian or Greninja (not scarf ones). Blizzard is for a strong stab move move that few resist unless you're Mega Scizor also will never miss, so be the hail is still up. Moonblast will always OHKO Greninja. Finally Roar is for set up mons that get cocky and set up on Ninetales and for Baton Pass. Alolan Ninetales will acts as a revenge killer, so be that the mon doesn't resist Ice or Fairy moves.

• Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet

Ability : Sturdy
Evs : 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Impish Nature
-Spikes
-Roost
-Defog
-Whirlwind

Next I needed a hazard setter/ remover. Skarmory is the bulky part of this team. The Evs are Smogon suggested, so I don't really know what they do. I chose Skarmory as my hazard setter due to it being such a defensive mon. Skarmory can't be OHKO in one turn, unless it gets hit with a move that is able to hit multiple times, which I don't really think there is a move that hits multiple times that is able to knock out Skarmory. Defog is for getting rid of enemy hazards, unless they have a Serperior or Bisharp that will benefit from defog. If so, I have to be careful defoging. Roost is just for keeping Skarmory alive and annoying and Whirlwind is for set up sweeper mons, they won't be able to OHKO Skarmory out of its at full health.

• Volcarona @ Psychium Z

Ability : Flame Body
IVs : 0 Atk
Evs : 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Quiver Dance
- Hidden Power Ground
- Psychic

Volcarona is on my team because I need a Sweeper that is able to boost it's SpA and Spe at the same time, also it's SpD too which can be very helpful. Volcarona hits mons in the OU tier like a truck. It has very few switch in, but has few counters which can be whittled down by other members on this team. Volcarona is a sweeper either early / mid / or late game (so there be no hazards on my side of the field). Fire Blast is for stab and heavy damage dealing, so be it doesn't miss. Quiver Dance is so it can set up for a whole game sweep or just damage the opponent's team. Hidden Power Ground is for pesky Heatran that switch in into Volcarona thinking they are a wall. Psychic is for my Z-Move which hits decent damage for not being stab. Z Psychic is many for Sub Protect Scolipede, break it's substitute, then try and guess when your opponent will use protect, then use the Z-Move one it's Protect, which will go through and damage Scolipede for massive damage.

• Staraptor @ Choice Band

Ability : Reckless
Evs : 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Double-Edge
- Close Combat
- U-Turn

I know now why this monster is in the BL tier, it hits crazy hard (Unless you're locked in Brave Bird and your opponent sends in a defensive Zapdos). I needed a Ground move switch in that isn't Thousand Arrows and a Phsyical hitter, so I chose Staraptor. Due to it's base 100 Spe, Staraptor can be OHKO but pretty much anything that is above base 100 Spe and have a super-effective move, leaving it in a Tier above UU but not quite OU. Brave Bird and Double Edge is for hard hitting stab moves that few resist. Close Combat is for steel, rock, ice, and normal types, hitting them with massive damage. U-Turn is for momentum if you can predict when your opponent will switch out.

• Tapu Lele @ Shed Shell

Ability : Psychic Surge
Ivs : 0 Atk
Evs : 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
-Moonblast
-Hidden Power Fire
-Taunt

I needed a mon that is able to stop any type of non-damaging moving (Ex: Hazards, Boosting moves, etc.) , priority moves, and acts as a bluff choice scarfer. Tapu Lele prevent priority moves which can be annoying at times (Except prankster boosted moves I think). Tapu Lele is to either finish off mons that other members of my team couldn't or just to damage whatever is in front of it. Psychic is for strong stab move that is boosted by Psychic Surge. Same goes for Moonblast except it isn't boosted by Psychic Surge. Hidden Power Fire is for steel types that switch into Tapu Lele. Taunt is for preventing non-attacking moves. And Shed Shell is for preventing it to be trapped by Dugtrio's Arena Trap and revenge killed.

• Mega-Garchomp @ Garchompite

Ability : Rough Skin
Evs : 252 Atk / 80 SpA / 176 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Fire blast
- Hidden Power Ice

Here I needed a mega for my team, and so i chose to use an underused mega from the OU tier and one of my favorite megas. You might be wonder about the Ev spread and what it does, I initially put 252 Atk on Mega-Garchomp to get the most out of it, then I found out messing around the Spe Evs trying to find a spot to out speed Adamant 252 Spe Zygarde . 180 Spe Evs Naive Nature out speeds Adamant Zygarde 252 Spe by one point, and if for some chance your opponent has a Mega-Garchomp on the field, un-Mega-Garchomp will out speed a max speed jolly 252 Spe Mega-Garchomp by one point, hitting 312 speed which will always out speed Mega-Garchomp. Dragon Claw and Earthquake are for strong stab moves to severely damage opponent's mons. Fire Blast is for steel types, mainly Skarmory and Ferrothorn. Fire Blast has a 12.5% chance to OHKO 252 HP / 168 Ferrothron. Hidden Power Ice is for Zygarde, Garchomp, but mainly for Landorus-Therian. Most of the time when ever you have your Garchomp out, your opponent will send out their Landorus. If you predict it right and HP Ice on their switch in to Landorus, they'll take about 65 to 78 percent of their health. Also you'll be faster then Defensive Landorus so it'll be a 2hit OHKO.




Threatlist : Just a few threats I've found while using this team :

Nihilego : if this mon is scarf and Mega-Garchomp and Skarmory are knocked out, it just presses sludge wave and destroys the team.

Stall : In general stall isn't the easiest archetype to play against. Let alone that their team just consists of walls after walls.

Celesteela : If it's at plus 2 Spe and start to going SpA boost, then the game is over.

Kartana : This thing can do serious damage if it's banded and starts to gain Spe boosts.

Greninja : This busted mon can run over the team if Alolan Ninetales is knocked out. Both protean and battle bond.





Conclusion :
This team needs needs work done to it, and I would appreciate it very much if you could give me some suggestions to better improve this team. Thank You for taking the time for reading my first rmt here on the Smogon forms, and I'll continue to try and create more teams in the future.





Importable:
Garchomp-Mega (M) @ Garchompite
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 80 SpA / 176 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Defog
- Roost
- Whirlwind

Volcarona @ Psychium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Psychic

Staraptor @ Choice Band
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Double-Edge
- U-turn
- Close Combat

Ninetales-Alola @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Moonblast
- Roar

Tapu Lele @ Shed Shell
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Taunt
- Hidden Power [Fire]

 

[Empress Mobile]

Hey! Interesting team. Personally, I explored running a choice set on Ninetales-A earlier in the metagame and I found a Choice Specs set to be capable of pulling off some surprises. I am not sure about the viability of Ninetales-A as a revenge killer, though I see how it could be useful in outpacing some of the scarfed threats you mentioned. Still, I would recommend switching around your choice users, with Ninetales-A having Specs and Staraptor having a Scarf. That is of course unless you're open to the idea of running the standard Ninetales-A set to give Volcarona a better setup opportunity with Aurora Veil. To me Ninetales-A simply lacks the power to revenge kill reliably except for in a few cases which you did highlight in your post.

However I think that regardless of whether you make the above changes, Roar has no place on Ninetales-A, especially when you already have a reliable phazer in Skarmory. Roar would require a great deal of prediction with Ninetales-A, for many of the attackers that would want to set up on it can easily KO it (esp. if Ninetales has taken prior damage) without boosts. So you click Roar, and if they choose simply to attack, you've lost your only revenge killer. Not to mention that for the most part, your opponent is going to bring in their setup sweeper on a free switch, at which point Ninetales-A would likely already be choice-locked into one of its attacking moves. Roar is also going to put you in a bind if it brings out something that can KO Ninetales-A without any boosts. I'd recommend running some kind of HP move in that spot - HP Fire, Ground or even Water would be better than Roar - but again without Specs your HP move is going to be incredibly weak.

 

[aogalicia]

Hey! Interesting team. Personally, I explored running a choice set on Ninetales-A earlier in the metagame and I found a Choice Specs set to be capable of pulling off some surprises. I am not sure about the viability of Ninetales-A as a revenge killer, though I see how it could be useful in outpacing some of the scarfed threats you mentioned. Still, I would recommend switching around your choice users, with Ninetales-A having Specs and Staraptor having a Scarf. That is of course unless you're open to the idea of running the standard Ninetales-A set to give Volcarona a better setup opportunity with Aurora Veil. To me Ninetales-A simply lacks the power to revenge kill reliably except for in a few cases which you did highlight in your post.

However I think that regardless of whether you make the above changes, Roar has no place on Ninetales-A, especially when you already have a reliable phazer in Skarmory. Roar would require a great deal of prediction with Ninetales-A, for many of the attackers that would want to set up on it can easily KO it (esp. if Ninetales has taken prior damage) without boosts. So you click Roar, and if they choose simply to attack, you've lost your only revenge killer. Not to mention that for the most part, your opponent is going to bring in their setup sweeper on a free switch, at which point Ninetales-A would likely already be choice-locked into one of its attacking moves. Roar is also going to put you in a bind if it brings out something that can KO Ninetales-A without any boosts. I'd recommend running some kind of HP move in that spot - HP Fire, Ground or even Water would be better than Roar - but again without Specs your HP move is going to be incredibly weak.

Thank you for your feedback Empress Mobile, i do agree with taking out Roar off of Alolan Ninetales, but taking of the scarf would make me weaker to scarf Garchomps. And by putting a scarf on Staraptor, I wouldn't be able to out-speed Garchomps.

Choice specs Ninetales would mean I would be doing more damage, but I feel like Ninetales jobs is to come out and OHKO anything that's weak from the previous turn. Mainly to catch my opponent off guard. I'll try out using HP Ground and Fire to see how it'll work for Ninetales.

But again thank you for your feedback, I'll have to try it out.

 

[Empress Mobile]

Thank you for your feedback Empress Mobile, i do agree with taking out Roar off of Alolan Ninetales, but taking of the scarf would make me weaker to scarf Garchomps. And by putting a scarf on Staraptor, I wouldn't be able to out-speed Garchomps.

Choice specs Ninetales would mean I would be doing more damage, but I feel like Ninetales jobs is to come out and OHKO anything that's weak from the previous turn. Mainly to catch my opponent off guard. I'll try out using HP Ground and Fire to see how it'll work for Ninetales.

But again thank you for your feedback, I'll have to try it out.

Yeah, the weakness to Scarf Garchomp is definitely problematic. I definitely see the appeal of using a scarf to catch opposing revenge killers by surprise. But definitely let me know how running HP fire/ground works out for you!

 

[12Ike]

Hi!, u have a interesant team , u can stop easy a scarf Garchomp with Skarmory . I equal think Ninetales-A works best with Choice Specs but with Scarf can be a surprise for dragon dance sweeper Other Scarf variants or jolly Kartana. I think what Garchomp Hp Ice can be changed for Rock Slide or Poison Jab. And Finally Roar with Ninetales-A Roar with Scarf dont works good try to change it for Hp Fire , Earth, Psyshock or Aurora Veil. Good Luck with your team Friend!