Hello and welcome to my very first RMT! This is a team that I've been working on over the past few months, and I've had a lot of fun with it on the ladder. I'm relatively new to the OU scene -- I started battling in the early days of SM OU -- but I figured that the best way to improve my understanding of the metagame would be to build my own teams. This is probably the best team I've built yet, at least for my playstyle, and I've found that it performs pretty well against the vast majority of teams and styles I find on the ladder. As with any team, however, it has some particularly tough matchups against specific threats, which is why I would love to hear your input on how I can make this team better.
Here's some Elo proof:
With that out of the way, let's get into...
The Team
Swords Dance (Scizor) (M) @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Roost
This is the mon that I wanted to build the team around. Scizor is, in my opinion, the best mega in the metagame right now, because of its incredible defensive utility and offensive presence -- this scizor is designed primarily to make use of the latter. After messing around with several different EV spreads and switching between knock off and u-turn, I've settled on this fairly straightforward build. Max attack allows scizor to OHKO tapu koko at +2, and generally spend as few turns setting up as possible, while max HP allows it to make use of its excellent defensive stats and typing and force out the likes of defensive landorus-t. I prefer knock off over u-turn, since it denies opposing heatran/zapdos/celesteela/etc their passive recovery and allows scizor to sweep through ferrothorn, toxapex and other bug-resistant mons. Scizor typically serves as the primary win condition on this team.
Zygarde sux (Garchomp) @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
I originally had an offensive DD Zygarde on this team, but as you can tell by Garchomp's nickname, I didn't like it very much. I mostly found myself using it as a breaker to weaken or eliminate physical walls with its Z-move, rather than as a sweeper; in this particular role, it is completely outclassed by SD Garchomp. Garchomp complements Scizor extremely well, both offensively and defensively. It's able to switch into heatran, non hp ice zapdos and the vast majority of fire types, and it heavily pressures/completely eliminates landorus, zapdos, heatran, pex, etc. which makes scizor's job easier. At +2, it forces out almost the entire metagame, and with some prediction it can OHKO/2HKO nearly everything thanks to its fantastic unresisted coverage. It also complements the rest of the team really nicely, threatening pex and pressuring bulu to help gren, and eliminating steels for nihilego. I opted for dragonium z over groundium to threaten landorus-t and deal heavy neutral damage to things like zapdos, rotom-w and fat grass types.
Flexicution (Greninja-Ash) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Water Shuriken
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Spikes
Ash gren is a staple on almost all of my teams now, and for good reason. I find this thing to be just as splashable (sorry) as lando-t, and it always puts in work. On this team (much like the other members) it was selected because of how well it synergises with scizor and garchomp. It's able to keep pex on the defensive, set up spikes to help a potential sweep, eliminate fire-types and most physdef mons, and act as a secondary cleaner. The set needs no explanation, it's as standard as they come. This thing is so much fun to use because it rewards aggressive play, and it's an absolute monster once hazards are up.
R34 Lusamine (Nihilego) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
From the bottom of the OU viability rankings comes this long-forgotten threat, ready to wreak havoc once again. Seriously though, I have no idea why Nihilego fell off so hard after cementing itself as a premier scarfer in early SM. It has always had problems with ground and steel types, but once those are out of the way its combination of speed, SpA and beast boost often allows it to act as a potent win condition. I chose Nihilego because of its ability to naturally check fire and flying types (particularly 3 attacks zapdos, which would otherwise destroy my team) and its amazing special bulk, which allows it to repeatedly switch into mons like Tapu Koko and LO KB, and being a tspikes absorber is really nice in the toxapex metagame. The set is fairly self explanatory, thunderbolt revenge kills greninja after rocks and deals neutral damage to most steels, HP Ice to hit landorus/zygarde/chomp.
Bodak Yellow (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 240 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Roost
- Heat Wave
- Defog
This is where the Yellow Magic™ comes in. Zapdos is amazing right now, it's a solid blanket check to OU's strongest physical attackers like kartana, M-scizor, landorus-t, and of course the ladder's favourite setup sweeper, Hawlucha. It also heavily pressures or completely shuts down many defensive mons like ferrothorn, toxapex and celesteela. I chose static as the ability over pressure since the Yellow Magic has been super clutch on multiple occasions. Again, the set is super standard, lots of def investment to check things and a little bit of speed to outpace bisharp and breloom.
Whips don't lie (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
The other half of the defensive Yellow Magic core. I don't know why people have stopped using this set, because twave ferro is still the devil to play against. People always switch in their kartana/volc/zard/etc. thinking it's a free setup opportunity, only to realise with shock and horror that they've been paralysed. Other than spreading paralysis, ferrothorn serves a number of roles on this team: it sets up rocks reliably, it switches into koko, gren and most fairy types, it's my answer to rain, and it generally serves as a solid defensive backbone alongside zapdos. I've opted for a more physically defensive spread to relieve some of the pressure of checking physical attackers like lando and gyarados from zap, and to have a better matchup against mega swampert, non-coil zygarde and subzero slammer kyurem-b. This does come at the cost of not being able to check ash-gren as well, but I've generally been able to play around that.
Threats
The two biggest threats to the team that I've encountered are Zygarde (especially Choice Band variants) and Magnezone. Banded Zygarde can potentially 2HKO everything on this team with some chip damage, and DD Zygarde cannot be revenge killed by Nihilego from full HP. Magnezone traps both scizor and ferrothorn and forces me to play more aggressively than usual, which my opponents can always take advantage of. Other threats to the team include Heatran, Kyurem-B and Mega Sableye stall. Most stall teams get destroyed by SD 3 attacks chomp, but mega sableye in particular is difficult to break through -- I usually have to spam discharge with Zapdos and then hope that the Yellow Magic kicks in.
Conclusion
This is a very offensively inclined team, which I think is a good representation of how I like to play and the kind of teams that I like to use. It has served me well on my journey up the ladder, and it's been a lot of fun to play with. If you've read this far, thank you :) Feel free to use the team, make changes, and let me know what you think.
Bodak Yellow (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 240 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Roost
- Heat Wave
- Defog
Zygarde sux (Garchomp) @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
Flexicution (Greninja-Ash) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Water Shuriken
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Spikes
R34 Lusamine (Nihilego) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
Whips don't lie (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
Swords Dance (Scizor) (M) @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Roost
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 240 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Roost
- Heat Wave
- Defog
Zygarde sux (Garchomp) @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
Flexicution (Greninja-Ash) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Water Shuriken
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Spikes
R34 Lusamine (Nihilego) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
Whips don't lie (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
Swords Dance (Scizor) (M) @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Roost
Additional thoughts: I've realised, as I'm writing this RMT, that it might be a good idea to replace ferrothorn with AV Bulu and have Garchomp set rocks. This would help vs zygarde and ash-gren and reduce my weakness to magnezone, but I feel like I might miss twave and the balance breaking prowess of 3 attacks chomp. Regardless, I will give it a try and let you guys know how it works.
