Amateur Hour "Superman" Balance
I'm having a lot of fun watching SPL this year and one tier I've always been vaguely interested in but never actually pulled the trigger on learning is ORAS OU, and I figured this is the perfect time to do so. PJ recently brought a really cool balance team with my favorite defensive core of all time in Heatran + Rotom-Wash, so I was inspired and ended up trying to build around that. I ended up peaking top 500 which I've never done in any tier ever, so I figured I'd get my team checked up by some people who know the metagame better than I.
Teambuilding Process
I'm having a lot of fun watching SPL this year and one tier I've always been vaguely interested in but never actually pulled the trigger on learning is ORAS OU, and I figured this is the perfect time to do so. PJ recently brought a really cool balance team with my favorite defensive core of all time in Heatran + Rotom-Wash, so I was inspired and ended up trying to build around that. I ended up peaking top 500 which I've never done in any tier ever, so I figured I'd get my team checked up by some people who know the metagame better than I.
Teambuilding Process
I started with these two because I wanted to. I really like how they're both immune to Toxic Spikes, have the longevity to not care about rocks (and Spikes in the case of Heatran) long-term and are collectively immune to Toxic, Thunder Wave, and Rotom's Will-O-Wisp.
Clefable is seemingly the best glue for balance in this tier, she just solves so many problems in just one team slot that it felt really silly to not bring her. She also does not care about hazards, keeping up the trend of the team of matching well into hazard stack, and is a general purpose Knock absorber for the whole team and absorbs status for Heatran and Rotom-Wash.
At this point I was super weak to Mold Breaker Excadrill which is the other primo gluemon in this tier (I swear it was on like 80% of the competent teams in midladder), so I opted for a robust physically defensive EQ immune Pokemon(without Levitate for obvious reasons) to come in and answer it consistently. I chose this over Gliscor because while it's not living forever with double Lefties recovery like Gliscor is, Intimidate makes the other three mons' lives easier with dealing with the ridiculously strong physical threats in the tier that destroy my balance core like Bisharp, SD Superpower Mega Scizor, Mega Pinsir, and Mega Charizard-X. Hippowdon was also tried here, but ultimately removed because it matched horrendously into hazards. Now the team is offically in the "Superman" style, with three Spike immunes and four T-Spikes immunes.
I needed a revenger killer and sweeper in the Mega slot to properly deal with any fast sweepers or like Weavile or Mega Alakazam or serve as an emergency check to anything that gets out of hand with double priority. I'd prefer something that actually doesn't care that much about hazards being up which is why I liked Mega Zam on PJ's squad, but I think donking Weavile is really nice considering how popular it is right now.
I opted for Tyranitar as the primary wallbreaker because sand is extremely nice to chip walls and finish off weakened sweepers against offense like a Cloyster down to its Sash or Weavile, and because half my team doesn't care about sand chip. Sending Volcarona into the stratosphere is also nice because HP Ground Volc also destroys my defensive core which I think is one of the more common sets, and trapping Gengar and the Latis can open up Lopunny for a potential late game sweep.
The Sets
steely tran (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Taunt/Protect/Roar
SpDef Heatran sets rocks, checks the special attackers that don't carry Focus Blast or Ground coverage like Zapdos, Mega Charizard-Y without Focus Blast, some Thunduruses and Thundy-Ts, and most Serperior sets, and gets in sneaky Toxics on Slowbro, Calm Mind Suicune, defensive Scald Starmie, and Volcanion and Gastrodon on the switch. You could run a lot of things in the last slot, I opted for Taunt to target Clefables lacking Knock Off and to stop Blissey and Chansey from clicking Soft-Boiled, and because Lopunny stops egregious setup well enough to warrant it over Roar or Protect.
UB40 (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp
SpDef Rotom-Wash is my mandatory Volcanion and Specs Keldeo switch-in and carries Will-O-Wisp to cripple physical attackers permanently. It ended solving a fair bit of my Excadrill problem because the stuff it comes in on rarely want to take a Volt Switch, so you just Wisp it on the switch and start whittling it down little by little as it tries to prevent Heatran's rocks from getting up. Pump is self-explanatory, Pain Split gives it reasonably good longevity against opposing bulky offense and balance, and really good longevity against stall, since you tend to just switch it in against a lot of stuff that has a move to touch it like Toxic Volcanion and other Rotoms.
pink (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpD
Bold Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled
- Knock Off
- Moonblast/Ice Beam
Fairly standard Bold Clef, here to sit there and look pretty while crippling everything remotely threatening with Thunder Wave status for Lopunny or Tyranitar to revenge kill later. The 92 SpDef EVs make it always live a +3 Modest Surf from Manaphy from full HP while getting most of the same calcs against Weavile and some other physical attackers, and Knock Off is primarily to catch Excadrill on the switch because I need him chipped if Lando takes too much damage from something else. You can run whatever attacking move you need in the last slot; I tried Ice Beam for SD Gliscor and Lando and Garchomp for a while but I ended up revealing it long before it became relevant vs like another Clef or a Heatran most of the time and so they never tried to set up on Clefable.
tusk (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off/Taunt/Toxic(?)
As stated earlier, Leftovers Lando walls physical attackers while having the longevity to check Mold Breaker Excadrill throughout the game even with hazards up. It has enough speed for Adamant Bisharp and the rest is in Def for blanket checking the rest of the physical threats. Having rocks on Heatran freed up a moveslot for coverage, U-turn, and a 4th move, and this is the slot I'm having the most trouble with; I like Taunt for the slow setup mons like Belly Drum Azumarill and SD Crawdaunt but this could literally be anything.
bad bunny (Lopunny-Mega) @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Quick Attack
- High Jump Kick
- Return
The second this mon comes in the opponent has to respect the free damage Fake Out + Quick Attack gives you. Unfortunately this has to be Jolly to outspeed Weavile because if I could afford to Adamant on a bulky team like this I would. Ice Punch was tried but since I don't outspeed +1 Dragonite and never kill Lando from full it felt quite Sisyphean.
rolling stone (Tyranitar) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 88 HP / 252 Atk / 168 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Standard CB Tyranitar breaks apart stall like no one's business and comes in on weak special hits on offense like Ice Beam on the Latis, Hurricane or Heat Wave on Torn-T, or knocked Chansey Seismic Toss or Soft-Boiled and kills them or whatever switches in(Stone Edge 2HKOs Bold Clefable, SpDef Skarm and Slowbro). Also Pursuit traps the Latis and Focus-less Alakazam and other random Psychic types for Lopunny. Superpower is technically for other Tars and Ferrothorn but I've never clicked it once in the 90-ish games I've played so far and I have a Heatran for Ferrothorn so this could conceivably be something else like EQ or Ice Punch or something. Outspeeds Adamant Azumarill and rest is in HP.
If the Blue Meanies get a boost you probably have to sacrifice something, if you see one at team preview be ready to start double switching aggressively with Rotom-Wash or Clefable to catch them on the switch and force them out.
Bring Rotom in on a move that is not Zen Headbutt and force it out with Wisp.
Specifally Specs Keldeo. If Rotom ever takes more than two Hydros be prepared to sac something and revenge kill it with Lopunny.
Extremely dangerous if Clefable gets paralyzed or Knocked, and requires some smart play to get the kill but otherwise not too bad if rocks are up. Conclusion
And that's it! I would love to hear any feedback on this team I've concocted, as I think the sets are very variable and subject to change.
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