SV OU Screens Offense ft. Light Clay Zamazenta⁉️ (peaked top 200)

[SushiSlice]

Proof of peak

Pokepaste

Intro
I am not a very good teambuilder (or player), but I figured I would try to build a team for the Moon suspect test just for fun. I have been trying to make this Light Clay Zamazenta team work for an embarrassingly long amount of time now, and I think the tweaks I made to it this time make it feel pretty solid (I got reqs, so it can't be that bad right?!).
I'd also like to stress that the two coolest sets on this team aren't even mine lol; I stole them from RMTs and just kinda jammed them on this team (credited below). Still, I think this team has a bunch of properties that make it stand out enough from those teams (I hope).

Team members
Sahar (Zamazenta) @ Light Clay
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Close Combat
- Roar

What's in the box? This fucking nonsense!! Zamazenta as a Screens lead seems kind of insane, and it started with me just throwing it on a team on a whim, but it has a bunch of cool traits that make it viable (I hope lol). Its bulk is excellent, allowing it to come in 2-3 times per game, and its Speed makes it outspeed pretty much any non-Scarfer/Booster/Pult, meaning your ability to get Screens up is second to none. Most relevant to this team, though, is its ability to serve as deterrence against threats this team really hates dealing with, like Cinderace and Samurott-H, hitting them really hard with Close Combat even uninvested.

Zam's excellence as a defensive switch-in to refresh Screens is unfortunately kind of hindered by the fact that a lot of mons it otherwise is unconcerned about (like Tusk, Treads, and Darkrai) can carry Knock Off to permanently cripple you. Still, it feels like a good fit for this team, and I don't think any other setter can replicate the defensive and offensive utility it offers.

Boudica (Gliscor) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 192 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Agility
- Dual Wingbeat
- Earthquake
(taken from SDK03's Double Dance Gliscor Screens Hyper Offense)

I love this set so much lol. A lot of what makes this set so cool is already said on the RMT I took this from, but to reiterate: it's a hazard-resilient, status-absorbing setup mon that can quickly snowball out of control, especially if your opponent is anticipating the normal SD Gliscor set and doesn't expect the ability to boost Speed. This thing crushes teams that don't have phasing/disruption/huge immediate power to stop its setup, turning mons like Lando-T (and a lot more with Tera) into fodder and then just clicking STAB until everything dies.

Corviknight is one of few infallible checks to this mon, which is what Tera Ghost is for, goobing any set that isn't carrying Brave Bird. It also comes with a few other fun benefits, notably making you immune to Extreme Speed. The weakness to Gambit can really suck, but non-Glasses Sucker Punch will never kill with 1 or 2 Overlord stacks and is a roll in your favor at 3, so spending Tera can still earn a lot of kills before the revenge kill is guaranteed.

Reynauld (Kingambit) @ Leftovers
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Kowtow Cleave
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance

It's a Kingambit. Aside from threatening the classic Kingambit Reverse Sweep™ with a bunch of Overlord stacks, Kingambit is also valuable on this team for its defensive utility, being the team's only Dragapult switch-in and source of priority damage to answer runaway sweepers. Investing in Max HP allows Gambit to absorb a lot of nonsense behind Screens, allowing it to force progress even in front of would-be checks. Being so slow really sucks, but there aren't many other mons that combine Gambit's defensive utility and offensive prowess.

Paracelsus (Hatterene) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Draining Kiss
- Psychic Noise
- Mystical Fire

Hatt bundles the role of hazard control and setup sweeper into one. Alongside discouraging hazard clicks, Magic Bounce is great for denying setup disruption like status/Taunt/Encore/phasing, and Hatt has a better matchup against mons that frequently carry these moves than Ghold (Moltres, Gliscor, Lando-T, etc.). In particular, Hatt is really good into Ting-Lu, who otherwise stops your teammates from getting off the ground via Whirlwind.

I considered the Eject Button Healing Wish set for the momentum swings and safer pivots, but you lose out on a sweeper with good matchups into a bunch of problematic mons for this team, so idk.

Alhazred (Gholdengo) @ Salac Berry
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 20 HP / 236 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
(taken from leng loi's Screens Terrain with a Twist)

Gholdengo provides a good mix of offensive and defensive utility, providing your only Fairy resist and blocking Defog while also threatening to Nasty Plot up and start killing stuff. Salac turns Ghold into a surprise sweeper, as a lot of mons that ordinarily check it suddenly get outpaced. Substitute can allow you to trigger your Salac while also punishing pivoting, but a lot of normally lethal attacks also put you into Salac range behind Screens after a Sub (like Tusk's Headlong), allowing you to pick up a Nasty Plot boost and immediately start sweeping from there.

I hate running Focus Blast as much as the next guy, but it’s kind of needed to exert enough offensive pressure to take advantage of your limited Screens turns. It surprises a lot of ordinary Ghold checks expecting a free switch as you Sub up, giving you a great opportunity to remove threats like Kingambit and Samurott-H that your team hates dealing with. FB plus Tera is also your main way to break through stall, picking up the kill on Blissey with a little bit of chip.

Junia (Manaphy) @ Salac Berry
Ability: Hydration
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 12 HP / 244 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tail Glow
- Surf
- Substitute
- Alluring Voice

On a team with really low Speed values before boosts and reliance on spending multiple turns setting up to become threatening, Manaphy's solid base Speed and ability to go nuclear with a single Tail Glow are very appreciated. Salac is on this set for much the same reason as it is on Ghold; 328 speed is usually good enough when against bulkier balance threats, but the ability to tank big hits behind Screens/spam Sub to go +1 makes even the fast mons that feel comfortable switching into it much shakier checks.

You could probably dump some EVs into bulk, but investing in max Speed allows you to speed tie offensive Zapdos, and outspeed key matchups like Tinkaton, Modest Iron Moth, Iron Crown, and Pecharunt. Leftovers/Boots are options over Salac that might be more consistent.

Bad matchups
With Hatt as your only hazard control, you have to walk on eggshells in this matchup or Webs go up forever. Hatt has no trouble sitting in front of the physical Araq set, but the special set does too much damage for her to keep up with. Gliscor is the most valuable mon on the team here with its Webs immunity and ability to boost Speed on demand, but a well-positioned Ghold or Manaphy can also threaten to punch huge holes in their team, as long as they are on the battlefield as Webs go up and are able to proc Salac at some point.
While Ghold allows you to break down Blissey, Unaware Clod is basically impossible to break through, as even Manaphy doesn't 2HKO it, and getting chipped over time means it's unlikely to be able to stall out its 8 Recovers. You can opt for Hydro Pump over Surf for a chance (~60%) at a 2HKO, and even then it can Tera Steel, which means Ghold has to come in and gamble on Focus Blasts killing.
Bulky, high-damage breakers give this team a lot of trouble, as it doesn't really threaten to KO them without setup and they can do huge damage even through Screens in return. Spending Tera early and being willing to sacrifice teammates for chip will be necessary to force your way through them.

Closing thoughts
Thanks for reading, any recommendations are appreciated! This is my first time doing this so I'm sure the team is pretty flawed lol

 

[Crocodile1673]

Nice team but whats the gameplan vs sun?

 

[Porygone-Z1]

this the type of sheist my friends who dont play comp cook up, nice team though and gz on the peak

 

[DaRotomMachine]

->

 

[Just A Shroom God]

we are reaching levels of peak that shouldn't even be possible

goat team will definitely steal

 

[SushiSlice]

Nice team but whats the gameplan vs sun?

Yeah in particular can just smoke this shit's entire pack before it can get anything done lol. If it's bulky Assault Vest it's a little easier to deal with, but the Specs set does like a bajillion even through Screens and it becomes a 50/50 whether they lock themselves into Draco or Hydro Steam (which Hatterene and Manaphy can come in on). is also a big threat, since it pretty much is impossible to switch in on since it threatens the +1 boost. In both cases, getting or in early, setting up boosts, and being willing to spend Tera early is probably the play, since once they're dead (or majorly weakened) it becomes way easier to set up a sweeper.
I played against kittenlaser's Sun team a lot during reqs, and I honestly cannot remember if my win rate against it is positive lol; I'll try to get replays next time I play this stupid team

 

[SushiSlice]

UPDATE ft. top 70 peak, replays!
Hello! IDK if this is allowed (I don't think my last post is a bump?) but I've been messing with this team for a while now and made a few changes to team members. I managed to peak a lil higher with this new team (top 100):

By the low gxe you can probably tell that it still isn't that consistent, and at this point I can't tell if it's because I'm playing poorly, or the team still has glaring flaws, or some combination of both. I didn't get any super concrete feedback last time, so I'd love to get some here (but thank u for the compliments on this stupid ass team!).
New pokepaste

-> Bulk Up
Dismas (Great Tusk) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bulk Up
- Headlong Rush
- Ice Spinner
- Rapid Spin

I think Hatt felt alright on the team, but oftentimes struggled to exert offensive momentum. Great Tusk is a lot better at maintaining pressure with its immediately high Speed, while also serving the same role of a boost sweeper which doubles as hazard control; being able to Spin away "un-bounceable" hazards like those from / MB / feels really nice. Also serves as a much safer / answer that can turn them into fodder.

: Tera Flying -> Tera Fire, 252 HP / 252+ Atk / 4 SpD -> 112 HP / 252 Atk+ / 144 Spe

Screens mean you need Tera Flying way less than I thought you would originally. Like you can straight up just beat sometimes by coming in on some weak attack, SDing as they switch Tusk in, Iron Head on the Headlong, and then threaten Sucker to force them out. Fire offers very little defensive utility, which can suck in endgames where they have a healthy or something in the back and Zam is dead, but the ability to set up in the face of / / non-Roar is pretty nice.
144 Speed creeps uninvested to give this team another way to break that stupid bird. You still need +2 and 2-3 Overlord stacks as Corv comes in to beat Rocky Helmet / Lefties, but Corv represents such a huge barrier to your physical sweepers' progress that sacrificing the bulk (and sometimes Gambit's life) for this interaction feels worth it to me.

: Tera Ghost -> Tera Water/Ice

Tera Ghost was a bad idea, a weakness to is really bad and Corv sets that carry both Brave Bird and Idef are way more popular than I thought they'd be. You have a few choices for alternative defensive Tera Types, but I think Water is generally the best, resisting Ice and Water to open up some pretty nasty setup opportunities. It does unfortunately leave you unable to Tera against teams with in the back, however, and banded applies similar pressure. Tera Ice leaves you neutral to both while also providing Ice resistance, but Ice also loses to stuff like CC , and is susceptible to other forms of priority ( / VW / ).

/ : Slight EV optimizations

Just shifted around EVs so they still outspeed their most crucial matchups, but now have extra SpA EVs which definitely matters in certain matchups (ex. a +3 Tera Fairy Alluring Voice from Manaphy will not kill Rillaboom all the time without 252 SpA). The weird HP EVs are to make their health divisible by 4, which makes getting a Sub easier. Not much else to comment on here
I've also been playing around with Pump over Surf on Manaphy. It's super risky (since you're often going to have to spam it to break through balance), but alters a few matchups, like 2HKOing AV and having a slim chance to OHKO . Surf is probably safer, but I have Pump in some of these replays (although I don't think it ever ends up mattering).

Some bad matchups I didn't mention in the original post:
Really good into most of your physical threats, can Defog through Gholdengo to deny Screens, makes Gliscor kill itself sometimes. Even your special threats have to be careful around it, as carelessly switching into a burn means you will not have the longevity to beat through a well-played balance team.

Hazards bad. Phasing bad. Chipping it down over a few Surfs with Manaphy is an option, but most sets won't even die to +3 Surf and the resulting switching will probably cost your team a lot of hazard chip.
The other option is to get it to switch in against Ghold at +2, then exhaust and click FB; this always kills every Ting-Lu except max spDef, which also dies ~80% of the time. Spending Tera early can be risky, but seeing this thing gone is a huge relief for the rest of your team and their ability to set up. (You can also just go to +4 and kill it without Tera, but you become a lot more prone to just dying to EQ, and it becomes way more predictable.)

You pretty much can't break it if it decides to spend Tera, so if they have Dirge in the back you should hold your Tera for Kingambit. Even then, if it's Tera Water, Kingambit isn't super threatening to it without a few Overlord stacks. Really scary mon to see overall

REPLAYS:
vs. Trick Room

Trick Room is a very bad matchup for this team with how many bulky breakers they can carry, but I managed to squeeze a win through here. A previous matchup against this player (which is kind of lame but whatever lol) means I know their special-attacking carries Psyshock as its only Psychic STAB, allowing me to get an insane trade of Tusk into Hoopa. gets packed up by Manaphy, and from there Kingambit is their only threat left; Zamazenta threatening Close Combat forces the Tera, allowing the rest of my team to clean it up.

vs. Webs HO

Kingambit finds a chance to get in early against , and then beats through Iron Moth with Pure Skill (could have eaten a Fiery Dance behind Screens if it wasn't Sub tho). Valiant exhausts Tera against Ghold, making me feel comfortable to exhaust Gambit's against the Vacuum Wave. Them assuming my Zam is completely passive gets their Kingambit goobed, and from there Kingambit breaks the rest of their team pretty trivially.

vs. Balanced Offense

Frankly I'm not sure how I won this, early crits against Zamazenta and Manaphy are extremely crippling. However, Gliscor is able to 1v1 Great Tusk and they panic Tera their Rillaboom to respond to it (which they didn't even need to do). Ghold then comes in and forces out both of their Kingambit checks; with them gone, Kingambit has a straight shot to victory.

vs. Balance

Really showcases the potency of Manaphy against balance; even after my all-in Tera on Ghold goes wrong (which admittedly was VERY risky), I'm able to bring in Manaphy and win that way. 's EQ just barely will never break Manaphy's Sub without Screens, allowing me to go to +a million. It definitely was better for my opponent to Tera Ting-Lu instead of Garg, but I guess they weren't expecting a second Sub-Salac sweeper lol

 

[tick_tackplayz]

These sets are so sheist, glad to see more usage of double dance Gliscor