Introduction:
This is a team I created at the beginning of XY, when I was messing around with some of the new Megas. I decided to mess around with Mega Banette, since no one was really exploring it, or people didn't try it because theorymonned how bad it was. Roserade is also my favorite Pokemon, so I slapped it on the team. I thus tried to build around their (many) weaknesses, (stubbornly) trying to show that Mega Banette has some niche uses. What ended up happening is creating a team centered around Bellyzurill. The goal of this team is to eliminate or cripple as many checks to Bellyzurill as possible, and then sweep when the time is right. Considering how nonstandard this team is, I've managed to be surprisingly successful with it (in my opinion, anyhow; i'm not super competitive), and I was ranked 1730 ELO on Showdown with the team as of yesterday (under alias Ogreenworld317). It unfortunately benefits a lot from surprise factor, with good prediction being a necessity, and is something of an anti-metagame team. As such, its weaknesses are starting to become more apparent to me, and so I was hoping I could get some input on it: if it can be finely tuned, or if it's simply too unreliable. At the very least, I thought I'd showcase this team before it retires if it can't be fixed.
The Team:
Ghost (Banette) @ Banettite
Ability: Insomnia
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Claw
- Will-O-Wisp
- Destiny Bond
Roles: Physical Attacker, Crippler with Will-o-wisp, Safety net with Priority bond, Revenge Killer
Mega Banette is here because I was bored and wanted to try it. It can be a real annoyance to offensive teams, and is a useful revenge killer. Shadow Sneak 2HKOs Latios, and almost always OHKOs Alakazam and Gengar, to show its strength. Revenge Killing, by the way, is also M-Banette's most effective way of getting a turn to Mega Evolve outside of Protect. Shadow Claw is there for extra power, especially on predicted switches. Shadow Claw + Shadow Sneak can 2HKO many threats, including Charizard and Thundurus. It can also do a lot of damage to Aegislash, but it puts M-Banette into a mind game situation, which is never desirable. Shadow Claw can be substituted for Knock Off, but then it gets walled by Conkeldurr and some Mega Evolutions (especially Charizard). Priority Will-O-Wisp is good, to cripple physical attackers, but Priority Destiny Bond + Will-O-Wisp is even scarier. It puts them on a timer, so they have to attack you at some point; if they stall for too long, they get shadow sneaked with a still alive Mega Banette. EV spread allows you to take one hit from many things. In theory, you should always able to cripple one mon, and trade off another mon with priority bond (hopefully a threatening one), which is a good trade in the scheme of the entire battle. This doesn't always work in practice, especially against stall, but most of the time it does, crippling a couple, revenge killing one, and trading off another.
Plant (Roserade) @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spd
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sleep Powder
Roles: Fast sleeper, special attacker, Rotom-w counter, the only solid Clefable counter
Offensive Roserade is very underrated in OU, but I wouldn't call it very good either. Nevertheless, this Pokemon actually has some pretty awesome offensive presence at times, and is occasionally surprisingly fast. It's viability is also increased quite a bit by the fact that it solidly counters Rotom-w outside of volt switch. The worst that Rotom-w can do to it is trick it, and Roserade doesn't even mind too much. Scarf Roserade after being tricked has won me some battles. M-Venusaur outclasses Roserade but obviously cannot be run here because of Mega Banette. Giga Drain + Life Orb is great, since it hits many things very hard (even some resists), and regains back some of the life orb recoil damage. Life Orb Sludge Bomb is great for the fire types that think they can safely switch in on Roserade (Charizard, Talonflame, Volcarona) and easily 2hkos them. For example, if Talonflame gets poisoned after taking Sludge Bomb on the switch, it dies. If one wants to play it "safe", they can try to Sleep Powder on the predicted switch, so that if the opponent doesn't switch, Roserade doesn't take damage. It's not actually a safe option though, since Sleep Powder is only 75% accuracy. Sludge Bomb + HP Fire is a very deadly combination. Sludge Bomb lures out steels, and because they're immune, they can't even see that its running life orb, and so they will probably be eating up an HP Fire on the next turn. In particular, Forretress, Scizor, and Ferrothorn are nearly OHKO'd after HP Fire (I could run Technician instead of Natural Cure to ensure the kills, but they're both good abilities... its tough). They can also be slept with Sleep Powder, in the case of Bisharp and Mawile, both of which are outsped by Roserade and have no priority outside of Sucker Punch. Despite all these positive traits, Roserade can occasionally be useless against teams full of faster threats, and as such, will be the first to be used up as death fodder if necessary. It also gets completely walled by Heatran, but luckily it can be put to sleep.
Washing Machine (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Roles: Pivot, Crippler with Will-o-Wisp.
Rotom-w is amazing and everyone knows it, so there isn't really much to say here. Will-O-Wisp is here to cripple many threats alongside Mega Banette, although T-Wave might be useful to cripple the common switch-in, Latios, especially seeing as we already have a Will-O-Wisper. Nevertheless, Will-O-Wisp deters many would be dangerous switch-ins to Spdef Rotom-w, so I've chosen Will-O-Wisp here. Rotom-w synergizes surprisingly well with M-Banette to take down Alakazam and more importantly, Gengar. Rotom-w can eat up a hit and a Volt Switch + M-Banette's shadow Sneak together always kills Alakazam or Gengar, and breaks their focus sashes as well (if they don't have sash, Shadow Sneak kills by itself). EVs are full HP/spdef to eat up as much special hits as possible, like to check Gengar, as previously mentioned.
Airplane (Latios) (M) @Choice Specs Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
IVs: 0 Atk
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
-Trick Roost
Roles: Special Attacker, Chansey crippler.
Latios is here to kill stuff as hard as possible. In particular, Charizard had presented a serious threat to this team in the past, and so Latios (and Lando-T), were added to check the two. It also checks dangerous dragons such as Garchomp and Dragonite since it is naturally faster. Draco Meteor and Psyshock are self-explanatory STAB attacks that hit very hard. Shadow Ball is here to 2HKO the Aegislash that love switching in on Latios.Trick is here to cripple the Blisseys and Chanseys that also like to switch in on Latios. Trick was replaced with Roost, to give it some longevity, and Life orb is generally powerful enough, especially with Fairies running around punishing choiced Dracos. Defog is definitely something I can run over Roost, but this team doesn't really care too much about hazards.
Rabbit (Azumarill) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Belly Drum
Roles: Physical Attacker, Sweeper, the only solid Conkeldurr check.
Azumarill is the sweeper of this team, and one of the reasons why this team can often win against stall. It also functions as this team's main Conkeldurr counter/check. This is a bread and butter Bellyzurill set. However, it needs quite a lot of set up to work. In particular, this Bellyzurill hates Aegislash, M-Venusaur, Ferrothorn, Garchomp, Dragonite, and faster Rotom-w's. M-Venusaur and Ferrothorn are not too bad, they need to switch in repeatedly and so they will probably get burned/worn down at some point by my team, at which point, Bellyzurill can put in some work. Aegislash is a huge problem (more on that later). Faster Rotom-w are always a problem, but they are even easier to wear down than M-Venusaur and Ferrothorn. The opponent's Rotom-w's speed should be scouted beforehand, although one doesn't always have the time with this team. Garchomp and Dragonite are problems. They can't be OHKO'd by Bellyjet and are rarely brought in early enough to be worn down for Azumarill to kill. Luckily they are somewhat checked by Latios and Mega Banette.
Tiger (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
-Explosion Stealth Rock
Roles: Physical Sweeper check, Pivot
Landorus-T is the latest addition to this team. It functions as a Talonflame/Aegislash/Garchomp check, and can also scout along with Rotom-w. Earthquake is there for obligatory STAB, and dents anything that doesn't resist it. Rock Slide easily OHKOs Talonflame, Charizard Y, and Mega Pinsir. U-Turn is there for scouting, and between Lando-T and Rotom-w, can be very annoying for the opponent. It also hurts the few Psychics that think they can outspeed Lando-T, as well as anything that takes neutral damage from it.Explosion is filler, but is occasionally useful in very close battles. Explosion was replaced with Stealth Rock, SR is sometimes simply too useful to not use, even if it's scarfed.
The Top threats in OU:
Aegislash is a problem. Aegislash often gets paired with Pokes that don't care about being burned (or can't be burned), and mispredicting their switch means something is taking a Shadow Ball. This means that it's hard to kill before Bellyzurill can sweep. Although Azumarill can still win if they win the mindgame (Belly Drumming again on their predicted King's Shield), it's a 50/50. Actually it's not even a 50/50 since they can try to King's Shield again. Either way, Aegislash is a problem. Luckily, Rotom-w can deal with Aegislash fairly well, and can try and attempt a double down against Aegislash. Landorus-T can also kill it, but being locked into Earthquake sucks, and they can always scout with King's Shield. Roserade can put it to sleep if they want to switch in, and will 3HKO with HP Fire if in shield forme. Latios can hit it with Shadow Ball on the switch if lucky. Mega Banette can Priority Bond it if necessary.
Mega Charizard Y is checked by Latios' Draco Meteor/Psyshock in combination with scarf Landorus T. Rotom-w can take one Solarbeam if absolutely necessary. Azumarill can do substantial damage with aqua jet, and will ohko if at +6. Mega Banette can priority bond it if necessary.
Mega Charizard X is checked by Latios' Draco meteor and scarf Lando-T's earthquake if it hasn't dragon danced. While Charizard X isn't as common as Y, so I don't really mind it as much, it can still present quite the threat. Often times, the team relies on punishing it hard for trying to set up (every mon on the team can hit it hard for neutral damage except for Rotom-w), and then either revenge killing through priority or having it kill itself with flare blitzes. Mega Banette can priority bond it, but it can't do burn stalling + priority bond strategy, so it's unreliable.
Mega Pinsir is countered by Rotom-w if it lacks Close Combat. It is checked well by Landorus-T (I wouldn't use it to counter, since I see more and more Hyper Cutter Pinsirs), and it can't set up Swords Dance easily on any of my pokemon without getting hit hard or being burned.
Thundurus-I is checked/countered by Latios and Rotom-w, both of which can eat up hits and hit back pretty hard. Scarf Lando-T, Mega Banette, and even Roserade can check it because they can eat a hit and hit back hard. Mega Banette 2HKOs Thundurus with Shadow Claw and Shadow Sneak, but if the opponent is smart, they will paralyze it before going down.
Specific Threats:
Garchomp is really strong. It can be checked by Latios, Banette, Lando-T, Azumarill to a certain extent, but something will get hurt.
Kyurem-B is the exact same thing.
Latios is almost the same thing, but with even shakier checks, only being vaguely checked by Rotom-w (pain split, burn), Azumarill if it's specs Draco, Banette (which can 2hko Latios or Priority Bond), Lando-T (which can u-turn... I guess).
Landorus-I is something I don't see very often, so I don't have enough experience to say. In the past, I've checked it with Latios (can kill it) and Rotom-w (can eat hits) and Banette (priority Bond), but it is a dangerous poke for this team.
Ditto. Ugh, this thing. Obviously, it prevents the possibility of belly drumming, but in addition to that, it can recover itself using pain split by copying Rotom-w, can copy Latios (which as I said before was quite the problem to my team), and can copy my M-Banette which is actually pretty scary. M-Banette's Shadow Claw is very strong and with scarf becomes decently fast too. Copying Roserade can also be problematic, since nothing on my team completely walls Roserade.
Clefable can only be solidly checked by Bellyzurill and is countered pretty well by Roserade (if it's not carrying Flamethrower, although it can live one). However, if Roserade goes down, Clefable becomes a massive threat to this team. Lando-T may have to explode on it if Roserade is dead.
Mega Gyarados is really scary, and nothing on my team can really destroy it without getting hurt after it dragon dances. This team NEEDS to figure out what set it is first (mispredicting sleep talk is gg for this team).
Politoed sets up rain. This team is not well prepared for rain. It can win, but it's difficult.
Specs Sylveon is super powerful. Granted I've only seen it once, but it wrecked my team.
Toxic Orb Breloom is really hard for this team to take down. It can set up substitutes really easily on Rotom-w (the main pivot of this team), and everything on this team does not enjoy taking hits. Roserade will OHKO with sludge bomb, but life orb recoil + Breloom's substitutes is a losing battle.
Playstyles:
Against Hyper Offense: This team does well against HO. Burning everything, D-Bonding the big threats, 2HKOing Deoxys-D and S (it barely lives LO psycho boost from Timid Deo-S, btw) with M-Banette and using the beginning turn to Mega Evolve on them... fighting HO is a good thing.
Against Semi-Stall: About equal. This too is a semi-stallish team, so it's a pretty even battle.
Against Bulky Offense: Same as Semi-Stall. Possibly in this team's favor.
Against Stall: Stall is annoying for this team to take down and is only saved by trick Latios, Bellyzurill, and Roserade sleeping Chansey to prevent heal bell, and threaten Bellyzurill set up. I usually win against stall, but I'm not certain its in my favor.
Against Baton Pass: Fighting against Baton Pass is pretty much gg, unless they let you set up Bellyzurill at the beginning... but even then you can lose if they carry the right Poke.
Against Dragon Onslaught cores: Bad. This team does not handle the offensive pressure terribly well, and a scarf dragon will kill Latios.
Against Swagplay: gg. Especially if they have a ditto, this team does not cope well. It's not as bad as baton pass, but its not in your favor if the opponent knows what they're doing or if they get lucky.
Against Weather: This team is not particularly prepared for weather in mind. However, the only weather that is really bad is Rain, since rain cannot be stalled out with their powerful attacks and occasional Hydration.
Other notes:
Overall, I think this team does surprisingly well, but is probably hampered by the stubbornness that caused me to use a Mega Banette and Roserade in OU. Nevertheless, I like it, and it very cleanly pulls apart many standard teams. I could post my teambuilding process if anyone's interested, but it was mostly a ton of trial and error, and I think this post is already pretty long. I've also thought about replacing Shadow Ball with something else on Latios, and stealth rock instead of explosion on Lando-T (even though its scarfed). Might help with the whole wearing down thing?
This is a team I created at the beginning of XY, when I was messing around with some of the new Megas. I decided to mess around with Mega Banette, since no one was really exploring it, or people didn't try it because theorymonned how bad it was. Roserade is also my favorite Pokemon, so I slapped it on the team. I thus tried to build around their (many) weaknesses, (stubbornly) trying to show that Mega Banette has some niche uses. What ended up happening is creating a team centered around Bellyzurill. The goal of this team is to eliminate or cripple as many checks to Bellyzurill as possible, and then sweep when the time is right. Considering how nonstandard this team is, I've managed to be surprisingly successful with it (in my opinion, anyhow; i'm not super competitive), and I was ranked 1730 ELO on Showdown with the team as of yesterday (under alias Ogreenworld317). It unfortunately benefits a lot from surprise factor, with good prediction being a necessity, and is something of an anti-metagame team. As such, its weaknesses are starting to become more apparent to me, and so I was hoping I could get some input on it: if it can be finely tuned, or if it's simply too unreliable. At the very least, I thought I'd showcase this team before it retires if it can't be fixed.
The Team:
Ghost (Banette) @ Banettite
Ability: Insomnia
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Claw
- Will-O-Wisp
- Destiny Bond
Roles: Physical Attacker, Crippler with Will-o-wisp, Safety net with Priority bond, Revenge Killer
Mega Banette is here because I was bored and wanted to try it. It can be a real annoyance to offensive teams, and is a useful revenge killer. Shadow Sneak 2HKOs Latios, and almost always OHKOs Alakazam and Gengar, to show its strength. Revenge Killing, by the way, is also M-Banette's most effective way of getting a turn to Mega Evolve outside of Protect. Shadow Claw is there for extra power, especially on predicted switches. Shadow Claw + Shadow Sneak can 2HKO many threats, including Charizard and Thundurus. It can also do a lot of damage to Aegislash, but it puts M-Banette into a mind game situation, which is never desirable. Shadow Claw can be substituted for Knock Off, but then it gets walled by Conkeldurr and some Mega Evolutions (especially Charizard). Priority Will-O-Wisp is good, to cripple physical attackers, but Priority Destiny Bond + Will-O-Wisp is even scarier. It puts them on a timer, so they have to attack you at some point; if they stall for too long, they get shadow sneaked with a still alive Mega Banette. EV spread allows you to take one hit from many things. In theory, you should always able to cripple one mon, and trade off another mon with priority bond (hopefully a threatening one), which is a good trade in the scheme of the entire battle. This doesn't always work in practice, especially against stall, but most of the time it does, crippling a couple, revenge killing one, and trading off another.
Plant (Roserade) @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spd
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sleep Powder
Roles: Fast sleeper, special attacker, Rotom-w counter, the only solid Clefable counter
Offensive Roserade is very underrated in OU, but I wouldn't call it very good either. Nevertheless, this Pokemon actually has some pretty awesome offensive presence at times, and is occasionally surprisingly fast. It's viability is also increased quite a bit by the fact that it solidly counters Rotom-w outside of volt switch. The worst that Rotom-w can do to it is trick it, and Roserade doesn't even mind too much. Scarf Roserade after being tricked has won me some battles. M-Venusaur outclasses Roserade but obviously cannot be run here because of Mega Banette. Giga Drain + Life Orb is great, since it hits many things very hard (even some resists), and regains back some of the life orb recoil damage. Life Orb Sludge Bomb is great for the fire types that think they can safely switch in on Roserade (Charizard, Talonflame, Volcarona) and easily 2hkos them. For example, if Talonflame gets poisoned after taking Sludge Bomb on the switch, it dies. If one wants to play it "safe", they can try to Sleep Powder on the predicted switch, so that if the opponent doesn't switch, Roserade doesn't take damage. It's not actually a safe option though, since Sleep Powder is only 75% accuracy. Sludge Bomb + HP Fire is a very deadly combination. Sludge Bomb lures out steels, and because they're immune, they can't even see that its running life orb, and so they will probably be eating up an HP Fire on the next turn. In particular, Forretress, Scizor, and Ferrothorn are nearly OHKO'd after HP Fire (I could run Technician instead of Natural Cure to ensure the kills, but they're both good abilities... its tough). They can also be slept with Sleep Powder, in the case of Bisharp and Mawile, both of which are outsped by Roserade and have no priority outside of Sucker Punch. Despite all these positive traits, Roserade can occasionally be useless against teams full of faster threats, and as such, will be the first to be used up as death fodder if necessary. It also gets completely walled by Heatran, but luckily it can be put to sleep.
Washing Machine (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Roles: Pivot, Crippler with Will-o-Wisp.
Rotom-w is amazing and everyone knows it, so there isn't really much to say here. Will-O-Wisp is here to cripple many threats alongside Mega Banette, although T-Wave might be useful to cripple the common switch-in, Latios, especially seeing as we already have a Will-O-Wisper. Nevertheless, Will-O-Wisp deters many would be dangerous switch-ins to Spdef Rotom-w, so I've chosen Will-O-Wisp here. Rotom-w synergizes surprisingly well with M-Banette to take down Alakazam and more importantly, Gengar. Rotom-w can eat up a hit and a Volt Switch + M-Banette's shadow Sneak together always kills Alakazam or Gengar, and breaks their focus sashes as well (if they don't have sash, Shadow Sneak kills by itself). EVs are full HP/spdef to eat up as much special hits as possible, like to check Gengar, as previously mentioned.
Airplane (Latios) (M) @
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
IVs: 0 Atk
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
-
Roles: Special Attacker, Chansey crippler.
Latios is here to kill stuff as hard as possible. In particular, Charizard had presented a serious threat to this team in the past, and so Latios (and Lando-T), were added to check the two. It also checks dangerous dragons such as Garchomp and Dragonite since it is naturally faster. Draco Meteor and Psyshock are self-explanatory STAB attacks that hit very hard. Shadow Ball is here to 2HKO the Aegislash that love switching in on Latios.
Rabbit (Azumarill) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Belly Drum
Roles: Physical Attacker, Sweeper, the only solid Conkeldurr check.
Azumarill is the sweeper of this team, and one of the reasons why this team can often win against stall. It also functions as this team's main Conkeldurr counter/check. This is a bread and butter Bellyzurill set. However, it needs quite a lot of set up to work. In particular, this Bellyzurill hates Aegislash, M-Venusaur, Ferrothorn, Garchomp, Dragonite, and faster Rotom-w's. M-Venusaur and Ferrothorn are not too bad, they need to switch in repeatedly and so they will probably get burned/worn down at some point by my team, at which point, Bellyzurill can put in some work. Aegislash is a huge problem (more on that later). Faster Rotom-w are always a problem, but they are even easier to wear down than M-Venusaur and Ferrothorn. The opponent's Rotom-w's speed should be scouted beforehand, although one doesn't always have the time with this team. Garchomp and Dragonite are problems. They can't be OHKO'd by Bellyjet and are rarely brought in early enough to be worn down for Azumarill to kill. Luckily they are somewhat checked by Latios and Mega Banette.
Tiger (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
-
Roles: Physical Sweeper check, Pivot
Landorus-T is the latest addition to this team. It functions as a Talonflame/Aegislash/Garchomp check, and can also scout along with Rotom-w. Earthquake is there for obligatory STAB, and dents anything that doesn't resist it. Rock Slide easily OHKOs Talonflame, Charizard Y, and Mega Pinsir. U-Turn is there for scouting, and between Lando-T and Rotom-w, can be very annoying for the opponent. It also hurts the few Psychics that think they can outspeed Lando-T, as well as anything that takes neutral damage from it.
The Top threats in OU:
Aegislash is a problem. Aegislash often gets paired with Pokes that don't care about being burned (or can't be burned), and mispredicting their switch means something is taking a Shadow Ball. This means that it's hard to kill before Bellyzurill can sweep. Although Azumarill can still win if they win the mindgame (Belly Drumming again on their predicted King's Shield), it's a 50/50. Actually it's not even a 50/50 since they can try to King's Shield again. Either way, Aegislash is a problem. Luckily, Rotom-w can deal with Aegislash fairly well, and can try and attempt a double down against Aegislash. Landorus-T can also kill it, but being locked into Earthquake sucks, and they can always scout with King's Shield. Roserade can put it to sleep if they want to switch in, and will 3HKO with HP Fire if in shield forme. Latios can hit it with Shadow Ball on the switch if lucky. Mega Banette can Priority Bond it if necessary.
Mega Charizard Y is checked by Latios' Draco Meteor/Psyshock in combination with scarf Landorus T. Rotom-w can take one Solarbeam if absolutely necessary. Azumarill can do substantial damage with aqua jet, and will ohko if at +6. Mega Banette can priority bond it if necessary.
Mega Charizard X is checked by Latios' Draco meteor and scarf Lando-T's earthquake if it hasn't dragon danced. While Charizard X isn't as common as Y, so I don't really mind it as much, it can still present quite the threat. Often times, the team relies on punishing it hard for trying to set up (every mon on the team can hit it hard for neutral damage except for Rotom-w), and then either revenge killing through priority or having it kill itself with flare blitzes. Mega Banette can priority bond it, but it can't do burn stalling + priority bond strategy, so it's unreliable.
Mega Pinsir is countered by Rotom-w if it lacks Close Combat. It is checked well by Landorus-T (I wouldn't use it to counter, since I see more and more Hyper Cutter Pinsirs), and it can't set up Swords Dance easily on any of my pokemon without getting hit hard or being burned.
Thundurus-I is checked/countered by Latios and Rotom-w, both of which can eat up hits and hit back pretty hard. Scarf Lando-T, Mega Banette, and even Roserade can check it because they can eat a hit and hit back hard. Mega Banette 2HKOs Thundurus with Shadow Claw and Shadow Sneak, but if the opponent is smart, they will paralyze it before going down.
Specific Threats:
Garchomp is really strong. It can be checked by Latios, Banette, Lando-T, Azumarill to a certain extent, but something will get hurt.
Kyurem-B is the exact same thing.
Latios is almost the same thing, but with even shakier checks, only being vaguely checked by Rotom-w (pain split, burn), Azumarill if it's specs Draco, Banette (which can 2hko Latios or Priority Bond), Lando-T (which can u-turn... I guess).
Landorus-I is something I don't see very often, so I don't have enough experience to say. In the past, I've checked it with Latios (can kill it) and Rotom-w (can eat hits) and Banette (priority Bond), but it is a dangerous poke for this team.
Ditto. Ugh, this thing. Obviously, it prevents the possibility of belly drumming, but in addition to that, it can recover itself using pain split by copying Rotom-w, can copy Latios (which as I said before was quite the problem to my team), and can copy my M-Banette which is actually pretty scary. M-Banette's Shadow Claw is very strong and with scarf becomes decently fast too. Copying Roserade can also be problematic, since nothing on my team completely walls Roserade.
Clefable can only be solidly checked by Bellyzurill and is countered pretty well by Roserade (if it's not carrying Flamethrower, although it can live one). However, if Roserade goes down, Clefable becomes a massive threat to this team. Lando-T may have to explode on it if Roserade is dead.
Mega Gyarados is really scary, and nothing on my team can really destroy it without getting hurt after it dragon dances. This team NEEDS to figure out what set it is first (mispredicting sleep talk is gg for this team).
Politoed sets up rain. This team is not well prepared for rain. It can win, but it's difficult.
Specs Sylveon is super powerful. Granted I've only seen it once, but it wrecked my team.
Toxic Orb Breloom is really hard for this team to take down. It can set up substitutes really easily on Rotom-w (the main pivot of this team), and everything on this team does not enjoy taking hits. Roserade will OHKO with sludge bomb, but life orb recoil + Breloom's substitutes is a losing battle.
Playstyles:
Against Hyper Offense: This team does well against HO. Burning everything, D-Bonding the big threats, 2HKOing Deoxys-D and S (it barely lives LO psycho boost from Timid Deo-S, btw) with M-Banette and using the beginning turn to Mega Evolve on them... fighting HO is a good thing.
Against Semi-Stall: About equal. This too is a semi-stallish team, so it's a pretty even battle.
Against Bulky Offense: Same as Semi-Stall. Possibly in this team's favor.
Against Stall: Stall is annoying for this team to take down and is only saved by trick Latios, Bellyzurill, and Roserade sleeping Chansey to prevent heal bell, and threaten Bellyzurill set up. I usually win against stall, but I'm not certain its in my favor.
Against Baton Pass: Fighting against Baton Pass is pretty much gg, unless they let you set up Bellyzurill at the beginning... but even then you can lose if they carry the right Poke.
Against Dragon Onslaught cores: Bad. This team does not handle the offensive pressure terribly well, and a scarf dragon will kill Latios.
Against Swagplay: gg. Especially if they have a ditto, this team does not cope well. It's not as bad as baton pass, but its not in your favor if the opponent knows what they're doing or if they get lucky.
Against Weather: This team is not particularly prepared for weather in mind. However, the only weather that is really bad is Rain, since rain cannot be stalled out with their powerful attacks and occasional Hydration.
Other notes:
Overall, I think this team does surprisingly well, but is probably hampered by the stubbornness that caused me to use a Mega Banette and Roserade in OU. Nevertheless, I like it, and it very cleanly pulls apart many standard teams. I could post my teambuilding process if anyone's interested, but it was mostly a ton of trial and error, and I think this post is already pretty long. I've also thought about replacing Shadow Ball with something else on Latios, and stealth rock instead of explosion on Lando-T (even though its scarfed). Might help with the whole wearing down thing?
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