SM OU ScoobyDoom [A Mega Houndoom Team]

[DatFreshBoi]

ScoobyDoom
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Introduction​

So Mega Houndoom is Mon I've loved for a long time, when I found out about its release I knew I wanted to build with it, so this is the current version of the team after several changes and improvements.

Teambuilding Process​

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I started with Mega Houndoom as it was well, what I wanted to build around, nice speed, good spa, great offensive typing, in my opinion and a great design personally.

I knew I wanted to build with a FWG core and Keldeo seemed to fit perfectly do deal with many counters for Houndoom, as well as bring icy wind support to help against faster threats.

When I got to this point I wanted to finish my FWG core and bulu seemed very strong, being able do be a bulkier mon which would make it easier to help both Keldeo and Houndoom to its fullest.

With Magearna (And Lando) I knew I wanted some bulk on the team so that I wasn't ran straight through, and a way to bring in my FWG mons with voltturn would be great to have, Magearna helps me with lele in particular.

With Lando (And Magearna) I knew I wanted some bulk on the team so that I wasn't ran straight through, and a way to bring in my FWG mons with voltturn would be great to have, Lando helps me with other landos, zygarde, sand and Physical Attackers in general.

When it got to this point, I originally had Scarf Latios for Speed and an extra FDS core, but after having a friend use it on the ladder for a bit he recommended Zygarde, this was a perfect fit, at least to me, helping with Baton Pass, setup mons in particular as well as adding my own setup.

The Team​

Houndoom-Mega @ Houndoominite
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Nasty Plot
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I chose mega Houndoom as my first mon as well, I love the mon, I felt like in the current meta it could be a big threat, as it is it has a real nice speed tier, not amazing but quite nice, with its SpA it could be a deadly mon. I chose Fire Blast for a high damage STAB output, with Dark Pulse for dual stab. Nasty Plot is for set up to boost the pretty nice spa even further. The final move has caused a lot of debate with those who've seen it, I opted for HP Grass over Sludge Bomb in this case as I feel it hits more than Sludge Bomb would, HP Grass allows me to deal with mons such as Keldeo or Tapu Fini after they are weakened.

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Icy Wind
- Hidden Power [Electric]
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I wanted to use Keldeo for a few reasons, apart from being a fun mon to use it helps to deal with some major threats for Houndoom which could otherwise be problematic, I was told to use Specs over Scarf as most people expect scarf on the ladder as it is, which means you can do heavy damage to a predicted wall, because of this, mons that would aim to wall both, particularly Fini or Chansey take more than usual, making, in particular Fini, more susceptible to both Keldeo and Houndoom. Secret Sword is key for hitting spd walls such as magearna or chansey, hydro pump is used for more power than scald or surf. Icy wind allows me to deal with Landorus or Zygarde for Houndoom, as well as catch mons like Koko or Greninja and slow them for the rest of the team. Finally HP Electric allows me to do heavy damage to other Keldeo's or Fini's.

Tapu Bulu @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Horn Leech
- Zen Headbutt
- Superpower
- Megahorn
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To complete my FWG core and patch final weaknesses, bulu was my go to, I originally ran swords dance tapu bulu but later changed it when Zygarde was added, I chose to opt for Choice band to create a heavy hitting pair with Keldeo on both the Physical and Special side. I felt Horn Leech was stronger than Wood Hammer right now as a lack of recovery could cause problems against more hazard focused teams. Zen Headbutt was my next choice as I didn't like how much of a problem Toxapex could be for my team, and so I can deal with pex easier thanks to zen. Next I chose to use Superpower so that I wasn't walled by Ferrothorn or Potentially Heatran, this helped to patch up further weakness. Finally I opted for Megahorn as I felt Houndoom wouldn'y be bulky enough to be my Tangrowth answer, especially with hazards, and with the popularity of ToxaTang I could have been stopped hard by the core.

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 128 SpA / 132 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Fleur Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Aura Sphere
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When it came to this point, I knew I was easily rolled by a Lele if it had the required support, so I added Magearna hand in hand with Landorus. Magearna provides some Specially Defensive bulk so that I can manage to not automatically lose against Lele. I chose assault vest with the specific EV investment to bulk Lele more while not becoming too weak. Flash and Fleur cannon are mandatory stab; while Volt switch gives me a slow turn into my frailer mons. Aura Sphere was then added for further support against Ferrothorn and Heatran.

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 48 HP / 216 Def / 28 SpD / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn
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I added Landorus at the same time as Magearna, I wanted an answer to the odd sand team, as well as another defensive pivot. Rocky helmet punishes u-turn from my opponents, paired with Stealth rock I can easily whittle down opposing members. Earthquake is mandatory stab, while HP Ice deals with Other Landorus' and Zygarde's. U-Turn is there for a volt turn core. This lets me get Keldeo and Houndoom in particular in on the opponents who pivot themselves.

Zygarde @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
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Finally came Zygarde, this slot has changed the most, between 3 different mons, Lele, Latios and Zygarde. Lele and Latios were two prime scarfers to give the team some speed, but as pointed out by Fantastic_Fuego the team can't really handle Baton Pass. So Zygarde was a key mon, Dragonium Z is a nice nuke which helps Zygarde sweep against Landorus-T or Tangrowth for the main examples. Dragon Dance is a form of setup for Zygarde and gives me a primary win con. Extreme Speed is key against setup mons or frail agile threats to finish them off. Thousand arrows and Outrage are key stab moves.

Conclusion​

Overall I've had a lot of fun using and building this team, support is always nice as the team can never be perfect, but this is for sure my best build yet. Huge thanks to my man Bubbles, aka Fantastic_Fuego, as well as Tash, Wolf, Pred and others over on discord and kik.

Threatlist

When it comes to these four mons its pretty much a gg, especially with magearna fainted.

Importable

Houndoom-Mega @ Houndoominite
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Nasty Plot

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Secret Sword
- Hydro Pump
- Icy Wind
- Hidden Power [Electric]

Tapu Bulu @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Horn Leech
- Zen Headbutt
- Superpower
- Megahorn

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 128 SpA / 132 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Fleur Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Aura Sphere

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 48 HP / 216 Def / 28 SpD / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

Zygarde @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage

 

[DatFreshBoi]

yo DatFreshBoi ,

mega houndoom is one of my all-time favourite pokemon, i made my first rmt around mega houndoom way back in oras. i'm really happy to see there are some people out there showing it some love n_n

->

| change zygarde to zapdos| zapdos gives your team a reliable answer to the likes of mega pinsir, celesteela, and mega scizor, while also wearing down roadblocks for mega houndoom such as heatran. i've run max speed and spa on the variant in the importable because it outspeeds the likes of heatran, landorus-t, tapu lele, and speed ties with mega medicham, while still providing many of the same defensive traits as its bulkier counterpart. however, if you'd prefer the reliability of the defensive spread then feel free to change it. you can even opt to run defog on zapdos if you find that you're really struggling with hazards since zapdos is obviously a good defogger.

other tweaks/comments​

• 
  | change mega houndoom to hidden power ice | honestly if you're not 100% sold on running sludge bomb then i think hidden power ice is the next best choice. i think it might even be better on a team that lacks hazard removal hidden power ice ohkos landorus and garchomp, while also 2hkoing spd zygarde (ohkoing at +2). catching something like choice scarf garchomp on the switchin will remove one of the main checks to mega houndoom, while removing landorus will stop stealth rock from being set up meaning that mega houndoom will have more room to operate. if you find yourself not liking hidden power ice then i'd probably just run sludge bomb instead.
• | change keldeo to choice scarf | without a choice scarf user your team lacked speed control making it considerably tougher to handle threats such as volcarona and protean greninja. switching to choice scarf keldeo is a good choice for this team in my opinion since houndoom blasts through keldeo checks such as tangrowth, amoonguss, and latios, while also wearing down defensive pokemon such as tapu fini and toxapex so that keldeo has a better chance to sweep in the late-game. in return keldeo checks fire-types such as the aforementioned volcarona as well as heatran.
• | change tapu bulu to grassium z | your team lacked a stallbreaker, so swords dance + grassium z tapu bulu was a good fit here. grassium z enables tapu bulu to bust past unaware clefable, something that would otherwise stand in its tracks on hard stall teams. however, if you'd prefer to run something like fightinium z to hit mega scizor and celesteela harder then that option is also available to you. the choice between substitute and zen headbutt comes down to personal preference. substitute can open up some opportunities for tapu bulu to fire off free attacks when facing offense, while also protecting it from status and counter when facing stall. zen headbutt, on the other hand, hits amoonguss and mega venusaur which would otherwise hard wall this set.
• 
  | change magearna to hidden power fire | this is a smaller change, but running hidden power fire over aura sphere allows for magearna to 2hko the likes of scizor and ferrothorn, which can prove very useful since this team, despite having a houndoom, can somewhat struggle to reliably wear down the two of them. the only target you miss out for with aura sphere is heatran, but you'd be better off volt switching or hard switchin when facing heatran in most instances anyway.

importable

Thanks for the reply! It's nice to see others with love for Doom, looking over the recommended changes, it's nice to see where they could work.

Firstly, changing Zygarde to Zapdos is very interesting, Zygarde was originally the priority user / setup answer / setup user. It was my main answer to baton pass, zapdos brings a new perspective to this, as Robopoke himself said the most recent baton pass team he made struggled against zapdos, and with talk of banning baton pass, it would be nice to try something other than Zygarde, and with the change to run swords dance Tapu Bulu like I used to, lacking in setup wouldn't be an issue.

With running HP Ice on Mega Houndoom it's a move I never thought about, I did notice how if I let hazards come into play after Houndoom was weakened then it would be tough, I'll definitely have to try HP Ice.

With Choice Specs > Choice Scarf on Keldeo I'm on the fence, I used to run Scarf, but felt I wasn't dealing enough damage, and always liked the surprise factor, as it was I didn't really notice a lack of speed, running bulk, but it's definitely a nice choice to try with other changes.

Bulu's set: yes, love the set, just didn't have enough balls to use it.

Magearna was definitely one I need to try more, I've yet to actually battle a tran, having lost to a Scizor team already, with Scizor opting to u-turn most of the time, and coming in for free on my Magearna most of the time, it's definitely overdue to try this.

Thank you for the recommendations, I'll hop on and test them out now.