ORAS OU Mega-Sableye & Mandibuzz Team

[Luce Wang]

Hi, this is my first RMT post in OU. I built a team around Mega-Sableye and Mandibuzz as my core because they are very useful and flexible for me. I had tested it out and it worked well, but certain Pokemons can still easily beat this team. Well, I would really love it if someone would help me rate my team and possibly help me make this team better. If possible, I don't want to switch Mega-Sableye and Mandibuzz, since I can't do it without them.

Beforehand, thank you very much.

Team Building Process

My core. Like I said before, they are very useful and flexible for me. Mega Sableye can cripple my Physical enemy so Mandibuzz can take their hit later. Also, if Mega Sableye can't cripple the Physical enemy, Mandibuzz could still take their hit.

Added an Umbreon! Umbreon here act as a Special Tank. He can act as a check for Gengar and Alakazam (even though both of them carries Focus Blast or Dazzling Gleam sometimes. Also, Umbreon here acts as a Cleric for my team.

Added Excadrill to help me sweep out some nasty Fairy Type. Mega-Sableye and Mandibuzz themselves are already weak to Fairy, and after adding Umbreon, half of my team are already weak to Fairy. I used Excadrill because of its typing and its utility in form of Rapid Spin.

Added Heatran because I need another Pokemon that can tank and take down Fairy Pokemon. Also, this Pokemon was added because of Flash Fire, which will help me protect Excadrill.

Added Slowbro because of Water type! 1/3 of my team are weak to Water-Type. And I think that I really need a Pokemon that can help me with it, so Slowbro is up! It help me check Mega-Lopunny and other Pokemon such as Talonflame.

Sableye (M) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Dark Pulse

The reason why I choose him as my core is because of his Prankster and Magic Bounce. I use him as a lead and he can cast Will-O-Wisp to cripple Physical Sweeper or Calm Mind to help him take Special Attack better. Recover is obvious because Mega-Sableye has no reliable Recover-y beside Recover. Dark Pulse is the only attack I have here, but nothing are immune to it.

Mandibuzz (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Foul Play
- Defog
- Roost
- Toxic

Overcoat and Defog. I always find it difficult to shave off pressure my enemy gave. Sometimes, it got even worse thanks to Stealth Rock. Although type-wise, Mandibuzz take 25% from Stealth Rock, it is more than enough to take some Physical attack. Ability-wise, she can help me escape a Spore or some other Powder move, and also she can survive in Sandstorm (which is very common thanks to T-tar. Move-wise, Foul Play is used to punish Physical Sweeper such as Landorus-T, Salamence. It can also punish Physical Set-up Sweeper like DD-Gyarados, SD-Scizor, and many more. Defog is to help me clear Entry Hazard and sometimes remove Screens on my enemy's side. Roost is the most reliable healing Mandibuzz has. Toxic is my other option to Stall Physical Sweeper in case the Sweeper isn't burned.

Umbreon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Foul Play
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Protect

As I said above, Umbreon is my Special Wall. He can take Some non-STAB Dazzling Gleam can either 3/4HKO him, still without counting Leftovers. Foul Play is to help Mandibuzz does her job, to take down those who are setting up. Foul Play also hit Ghost/Psychic type like Gengar/Alakazam for 2HKO. It can 3HKO several Pokemon such as Thundurus. Wish is to help my team, and it wouldn't harm to be healed once in a while. Heal Bell is the only move that can help me clear status condition on my team. Protect is to Wish Stall or Scout the enemy moves. It can sometimes help me Protect against Mega-Lopunny's HJK. Perhaps other Cleric are better, but I prefer Umbreon for its typing and its bulk. 95/110/130 defense is something that I love.

Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

I used Choice Scarf because I need to out-speed Pokemon such as Mega-Lopunny, and sometimes out-speed Choice Scarf Heatran. I used Mold Breaker to make Levitate and other ability useless. Iron Head is the primary STAB to take down Fairy type such as Mega-Gardevoir and non-Physical Sylveon or Clefable. EQ is another STAB to take down Pokemon such as T-tar or Gengar and Rotom (thanks to Mold Breaker breaking their Levitate). Rock Slide is to take down Flying type such as Dragonite and Talonflame. Rapid Spin is to help me clear Entry Hazard in case Mandibuzz was pressured.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Roar

Another Specially Defensive Pokemon. I used Heatran because of Fairy type. Altough it doesn't carry Flash Cannon, it is still useful because it can take Fire Blast or anything other Fire-type move directed to Excadrill. Lava Plume is the only STAB and attack that Heatran has. Toxic is to stall Unaware Clefable and many other. Stealth Rock is to put some pressure onto my enemy. Roar is the only move I have to break Set-up Sweeper such as Calm Mind Slowbro, Calm Mind Clefable, and some other Calm Mind user.

Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Toxic
- Slack Off

Another Physically Defensive Pokemon. I used Slowbro because of its Regenerator ability and Slack Off, which is another reliable recovery move. Rocky Helmet is because of Mega-Lopunny, Talonflame, and some other Physical Sweeper. Scald is used here, hoping for a burn. Psyshock is used to punish Mega-Lopunny. Toxic is another Stall that I have, since the rest of my team are already bulky. Slack Off, like said before is a very reliable recovery move.

Threat

: It's hard to guess what this fluff's move-set is. If it's Physical, then Will-O-Wisp from my lead will do. But if it's not, then my Mega-Sableye is down. But if I switch to Heatran and it used Earthquake, my Heatran's gone.

: This little guy can wreck my team, since most of my team are weak to it. Umbreon can tank a Hydro Pump, but not Sacred Sword.

: With Scrappy, it can HJK 4 of my Pokemon without even fearing that it will go down. Well, if the HJK miss, it will go down eventually. But that won't be very easy.

: Normal T-tar? Mandibuzz can take. Mega T-tar? Well, that Stone Edge do a lot to her.

: This beast is very annoying. An Iron Head did only 70% to a Physical variant. Well, I hate it!

Importable

Sableye (M) @ Sablenite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Dark Pulse

Mandibuzz (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Foul Play
- Defog
- Roost
- Toxic

Umbreon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Foul Play
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Protect

Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Roar

Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Toxic
- Slack Off

 

[big goon]

Hey, looks like a decent team, I've always really loved mandibuzz and thought he was severely underrated as well :]
Umbreon is severely outclassed in its role as a cleric/wish passer by sylveon or clefable, so I'd suggest Umbreon-->Sylveon.
Sylveon can pass wishes and has comparable special defense, but pixilated hyper voice hits a lot harder than fowl play in most situations while filling the same role.
Set:
Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SpD
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Protect
- Hyper Voice

 

[leremyju]

Your team is starting to take shape of a stall team. I immediately see six threats to your team, Mega Diancie, Mega Altaria, Mega Gardevoir, Mega Gyarados, Landorus-I and SD Gliscor. Let me go ahead and explain why they are threats. First, Mega Gardevoir beats everybody except for your two steels. However, Excadrill is worn down quickly and doesn't like taking Hyper Voices. Heatran doesn't really do anything but Toxic, and then gets hit by Focus Blasts. My point here is that every single time Mega Gardevoir comes in, something is heavily hurt or destroyed. This is the same case for Diancie, which Earth Powers your Excadrill and Heatran while Mega Altaria Earthquakes them. Next, SD Gliscor destroys this team. It sets up on everyone on your team and the SpDef set takes minimal Scal damage while healing with roost and Poison Heal. Next, Mega Gyarados. With Mold Breaker Taunt it shuts down every one of your pokemon and can Dragon Dance. Mandibuzz is a shaky and unreliable check. The only hope you have against it is that you are healthy enough to check it or you get a Scald burn with Slowbro. Last, Landorus-I destroys Sableye, Slowbro, your two steels and can Focus Blast Umbreon. If it's Calm Mind, you are pretty much dead.

It's quite easy to check non Calm Mind Landorus, simply use a 248 HP / 136 Def / 108 SpD / 16 Spe EV spread on Mandibuzz. This spread avoids the 2HKO from Landorus Focus Blast and can outspeed Jolly Azumarill, which threatens your team if it gets a Belly Drum up.

Now let's fix your weakness to SD Gliscor. I see two options. First, you could drop Toxic for Taunt on Mandibuzz. Mandibuzz has decent natural speed to taunt slower hazard users, and Foul Play does a lot to a +2 or +4 Gliscor, which only touches you with Knock Off or Facade. An alternate option is to run WishPass Clefable over your Umbreon. It helps lessen your weakness to Fairy types and makes you ignore the Gliscor boosts. It also serves as a Mega Heracross check(a stallbreaker that isn't really used tho). You also mentioned that Keldeo was a threat, which Clefable checks as well

You have an extreme weakness to fairies. What I'm thinking is that you could change Excadrill to a SpDef Set. This set can reliably check any one of Mega Altaria, Mega Diancie, or Mega Gardevoir. It also improves your chances against Mega Sabeleye because with Mold Breaker you can use Toxic. This gives you some insurance as a backup fairy check for Heatran.

Last, Mega Gyarados is a huge threat. Celebi isn't actually too good of a check while Unaware Clefable is, ignoring the Gyarados boosts via Dragon Dance. Clefable is a nice check to both Keldeo and Mega Gyarados, along with Mega Lopunny. Overall, Clefable is the best to answer a variety of threats.

tl;dr Fairies threaten you and SpDef Excadrill helps with that. Change Mandibuzz's spread and use Taunt and use WishPass Clefable.

sets

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Rapid Spin

Mandibuzz (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 108 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Foul Play
- Defog
- Roost
- Taunt

Clefable (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Protect

 

[Luce Wang]

First of all, thanks for the responses. Special thanks to Leremyju for pointing out the threats. I've tested all of it. Mandibuzz's bulk is somewhat diminished, so I use 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe EV instead. It is still able to out-speed Azumarill, and it can punish it for using Belly Drum. Though it's true that surviving 2HKO Focus Blast would be nice, I think I need more bulk in Physical side to abuse Foul Play better, and it suits my style better. I haven't gotten the chance to use Taunt though.

I have tried Bold Sylveon, but that doesn't suit me at all, since Flash Cannon did a lot more than I expected. And to tell the truth, I feel Calm Umbreon is better than Bold Sylveon defense-wise. I tried Calm Sylveon, and it's quite good (and fit me better). But it can't take Physical attack well.

Also, seeing that it is indeed necessary to do something to stop a Special Setter (Calm Mind or Manaphy's Tail Glow for instance), I used Special Tank Clefable. With just Heatran as a Special Tank, I found it difficult to stay steady from Special pressure, especially when Heatran doesn't has any reliable healing move.

By the way, this is Clefable's set I'm using

Clefable (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Protect

For Excadrill, I think it's a bit slower, and it can't take a Fairy Type by surprise. Whenever I let Excadrill out, he couldn't destroy the said threat, and instead he was beaten. For example, when I switched to Excadrill to take a Hyper Voice from Mega Gardevoir, I couldn't out-speed it and it took Excadrill down using Focus Blast. Perhaps it's me using Excadrill the wrong way, but that might also mean this Excadrill doesn't suit me. So for now, I'm sticking with Choice Scarfed Excadrill to take down Mega Gardevoir, Mega Diancie, and probably Mega Altaria. Sorry.

About SD Gliscor and Taunt M-Gyarados. Well, for SD Gliscor, I think I'm able to take it down with Mandibuzz. For DD M-Gyarados, I can use both Mandibuzz and Slowbro.

 

[Scotti]

Hey cool team, but I have some suggestions that might help.

I really think you should replace excadrill with Spdef Jirachi. Your team is really weak to mega altaria, mega gardevoir, and mega diancie. Spdef Jirachi does a great job at taking on all 3 of them, and does great against dragons that can defeat heatran. Another thing you can do is run scarf jirachi, but it doesn't have to bulk to take hits aswell, but is still a pretty great check to all 3 threats. I also agree with Lerem, that you should run unaware clefable over umbreon. Your team is incredibly weak to physical dragon dance mega altaria, and unware clefable patches that up well. Unaware clefable also does great against set up sweepers like sd gliscor and zard x. It also patches up your mega tyranitar weakness, which is very nice. I also support lerem change with the mandibuzz spread, however another thing you can do is run zapdos over mandibuzz. Zapdos helps against birdspam, which is not as common, but is still a thing. Zapdos also is a great counter to landorus-I, mega scizor, and can check mega dos or dos in general relatively well.

sets

sets

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Body Slam
- Protect
- Iron Head

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 144 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Defog

I hope I could help.