SV OU Shed Tail Offense

[gman1992]

Hey all,

Would appreciate getting some advice on a team I've been trying to come up with based on Bax, Valiant, and Orthworm. There are some changes I've considered and I'm sure many more I haven't thought of yet. Thanks for all your help!

Orthworm @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Earth Eater
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Atk
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Body Press
- Shed Tail

Enough said about him really. Have considered maybe getting rid of Stealth Rock or Heavy Slam to include Iron Defense but I prefer the extra moveslot on Tusk and Iron Defense sounds great in theory but I dont plan on keeping Orthworm in for long anyway. Spikes is also an option which I would then have to decide if I want Stealth Rock on Tusk. Wondering if it's too ambitious to have Stealth Rock and/or Spikes and Shed Tail on this mon though. Is there too much role compression? Not often am I able to reliably set up rocks and get a shed tail where I'm satisfied by the outcome. But that could also be my own bad play. Would love the insight of more experienced players.

Baxcalibur @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Thermal Exchange
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Glaive Rush
- Earthquake
- Icicle Spear

Fantastic breaker. Changes I've considered are: replacing Icicle Spear for Ice Shard and Loaded Dice for either Heavy Duty Boots or Life Orb. Otherwise he does his job extremely well. I do like Icicle Spear being great stab if I match up Dragon to Dragon as they often never Tera to an Ice resist. 2HKOing Corviknight after a DD is really nice too. I do miss having some priority on this team and it would be nice to get that small boost either with Life Orb or escape hazard damage. I like Tera Fairy bc it allows a free DD often times when matched up with a dragon while also resisting stray Mach Punches and Sucker Punch. Would also be nice to have a Tera type resistant to Fire to better take advantage of his ability. Tera Dragon keeps popping in my head for this. I do see Tera Ground being recommended as well but not sure what 2HKOs it turns into OHKOs. The resistance to Twave would be nice though.

Iron Valiant @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 248 SpA / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aura Sphere
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Thunderbolt

Another star of the team. Folks tend to not assume this set is Calm Mind Valiant. Often clean sweeps on his own. Love Tera Electric defensively and offensively for him. Not sure how to feel about Aura Sphere vs something like Psyshock. I rarely use Aura Sphere, its there for reliable Stab besides Moonblast though and coverage works out pretty well.

Great Tusk @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 232 Atk / 24 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Knock Off

Just a great mon on the team. Have debated taking out Knock Off for either Ice Spinner (meh) or Stealth Rock if I remove that from Orthworm. Also not sure on Earthquake or Headlong Rush here. Another option is making it a more defensive variant of Tusk. Not sure if it would slow down the team too much or not though.

Gholdengo @ Air Balloon
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Recover

I want to like this mon so much. Ghost/Steel is one of my favorite typings and he has a unique ability. His defenses and immunities are crucial to this team and synergize pretty well. That being said I feel like I can never make the best of this guy. Maybe another set would work better but this does give the team a little slower, bulkier special attacker. I hate that I'm considering putting Focus Blast on this guy but thats an option too.

Iron Moth @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 64 HP / 60 Def / 132 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Energy Ball
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam

This slot has changed many times and this is the latest option. Rotom-W gives the best resistances needed for my team while giving me status options and a pivot move. Like Gholdengo he just never works out as well as I expect. Sub mons scare the crap out of me too, but I could be overreacting. Volcarona gave me an awesome late game sweeper but I personally don't like using mons who rely on Tera'ing and Tera Blast to be fully effective. Feels restrictive in game. He also opens up a few extra weaknesses that I wasnt too fond of. Mainly adding another Flying weakness. So I went with Iron Moth as somewhat of an in between option. He still provides alot of pressure while having pretty great coverage offensively and defensively. This guy really misses out on Quiver Dance. Though he might be Uber if that was the case. Debating between Psychic and Sludge Wave. Booster Energy works great with my lack of priority but I do miss having Heavy Duty boots or Choice Specs with Overheat for extra oomph. Also not sure if the loss in momentum is worth specs here.

I'm really not so great at team building and sometimes I tend to fixate on having a certain amount of resistances or not too many weaknesses in one area and can lose sight of the forest amongst the trees. So any extra eyes on this would be awesome and greatly appreciated. Any and all criticism is welcome positive or negative. Big thanks to Smogon forums and the strategy dex as a source of info and team building help.

 

[Poke nerd]

Your team's looks pretty good, but the last two Mons look like they need a small change.


On np ghold, I personally prefer max HP and SpA, but you could experiment with max HP and Speed, since ghold's already going to be pretty strong after a few NPs.

You could also consider covert cloak since you've got tera flying, but this is just up to personal preference.


This thing is in an awkward spot, but I'd run either boots or a specs pivot. I'd run something like this:

Iron Moth @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Fiery Dance / Overheat
- U-turn
- Energy Ball

And the boots set:
Iron Moth @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fiery Dance
- Morning Sun
- U-turn
- Sludge Wave

Tbh wasn't entirely sure what tera to stick on this

I'm not the best rater but I hope the above advice helped

 

[Motor Hawk]

Give bax ice shard -> equake
Gholden go cloak/ lefties -> balloon

Some build change suggestions:

The Iron (Iron Valiant) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Moonblast
- Close Combat
- Thunderbolt
- Psyshock

The Tusk (Great Tusk) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Protosynthesis
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin

The Deng (Gholdengo) @ Leftovers
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Nasty Plot
- Recover

I would also swap out your iron moth for a spdef wall since you don't have that and need it. I personally prefer clod but slowking might work better synergistically...

The Clod (Clodsire) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Recover

Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Psychic
- Slack Off
- Chilly Reception

Sorry for the lazy reply but hopefully something of what I said helps. Just play around with your team and different teams and see what works and what doesnt. Slowly start to tweak things and before you know it you'll have a team worth bragging about.

Best of luck to you, friend-o. I wish you many dubskees.

P.S. I always find it best to make a team that will focus on winning MOST of the time. You CAN'T win all of the time, you can't account for every weakness/ different build, and you will have to accept a loss here and there. So the quicker you learn to accept that, the better. Don't be switching your team after every single loss because you don't know if it truly was something wrong with your team or because you just misplayed/ the opponent got lucky. Only switch your team up after consistent issues. And above all else, you actually have to play with your team. Do this before making changes.

:)

 

[LOOR]

disclaimer lol: during the writing process of this, shed tail got banned. the rate is partially incomplete, however, the team should function fine if you're playing in tournaments this week.

hi, just gonna fix up what you got here since I feel you're on the right track to a semi-optimal shed tail build but just need some direction so I'm going to just dive into it since I have some fun ideas to round this out.

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theres no real use for gholdengo on shed tail builds that take a similar direction to this since you're not stopping defog anyway. kingambit has better defensive utility for shed tail since its able to check pult which can be a big nuisance as well as being a switch in to other guys such as gholdengo. im going to run jolly lum gambit. I'm using tera dark to help your fat mu long term. pretty straight forward change, gambit good on shed tail xd. jolly gambit also helps in the event that you're playing a fast dirge.

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unless you're using lead tusk, theres no real point of tusk on shed tail. part of the issue with this team currently is that its way too weak to valiant i am swapping out tusk for volcarona. volcarona is an okay pseudo check to valiant and prevents it from running through you completely. I'm running tera ground to help make progress on dirge and pex for other sweepers you have in the back, though, you may be able to find something else tera blast wise between iron moth and volcarona that can accomplish this but better. off the top of my head you could consider tera water w/ psychic > buzz as well to have a bonus water resist while still pressure dirge.

notes:
-i made valiant tera ghost with aura sphere. tera ghost helps vs dnite. aura sphere helps with gambit and midgrounds on corv. steel is an option too for opposing valiant and make it rain but the double fire core might be enough.
-i made orthworm spdef to take hits better from valiant, ghold, pult etc.... if you dont wake spdef worm feel free to change it back
-i made iron moth tera fairy with sludge wave. tera fairy helps vs gambit as you resist sucker and sludge wave is good into some mus like scream tail balance and is good after you force a tera fairy on dirge. there might be some other options to consider or try here but i like fairy right now for its ability to resist sucker.

https://pokepast.es/5d309375378af015