ORAS OU Slash and Burn

Cobalt314

Cobalt314

Hey, guys. I'm back with another OU team for analysis. This time, it will incorporate the new Steam Pokémon, Volcanion, along with a few other favorite members of my cast. I put together a team I thought would do rather well initially, but with no real foundation or expectations for the team to succeed. As I battled with it more and more, however, I saw that the team was giving consistently good results, but with much room for improvement. As such, I put it up here for you guys to critique.

At a glance:
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In-Depth Analyses:

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Pinsir-Mega (M) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Quick Attack
- Earthquake
- Return
- Swords Dance

After having played with the Stag Beetle Pokémon for a few matches, I can safely say Mega Pinsir is one of the most underrated Pokémon in OU. If you do not prepare for it, prosopocoilus inclinatus can and will tear entire teams to shreds with only its two mandibles. Prose aside, after one Swords Dance, Return deals enough damage to put at least a significant dent in almost every Pokémon in the tier. Quick Attack is a good priority move to outpace and KO threats that would otherwise outspeed Pinsir. For Pokémon that resist Return, like Rock- and Steel-types, Earthquake provides good coverage, dealing super effective damage to all Pokémon that resist flying-type moves except Skarmory and Thundurus. An Adamant nature on Pinsir guarantees maximum damage output for any given stage of its attack stat, while Hyper Cutter prevents any Intimidation from opponents on the switch before its Mega Evolution.

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Volcanion @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 6 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Steam Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb

Volcanion, with Choice Specs, becomes a fearsome wallbreaker, and when Pinsir is not the most suitable to take on the opponent's team, becomes the next go-to win condition. Steam Eruption destroys everything, Flamethrower destroys everything Steam Eruption doesn't (and is more accurate than Fire Blast), Sludge Bomb handles Fairies, and Earth Power wrecks opposing Volcanion. A Modest nature gives Volcanion maximum power to its moves, and it's not fast enough to need more speed with a Timid nature.

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Serperior (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Dragon Pulse
- Glare

Serperior is one of those Pokémon that somehow manages to synergize well with and find a spot on all my teams, and being my first and favorite Pokémon ever caught, I saw no reason to exclude it. Of course, all Serperior run Leaf Storm alongside Contrary for offensive Special Attack boosts and Dragon Pulse for coverage, but this Serperior is used not so much for its ability to maintain offensive momentum, but for a more desirable and more subtle attribute: Glare. With Glare and base 113 Speed, Serperior is able to swiftly and preemptively paralyze any Pokémon that can be paralyzed, including Ground-types. Of course, many Ground-types are weak to Grass and can therefore be dispatched with one or two Leaf Storms, but due to the prevalence of Pokémon like Landorus-Therian, immune to Hidden Power Ground and posing a threat to the team in general, Glare is invaluable in crippling said threats. Speaking of Hidden Power Ground, while most Serperior run Hidden Power Fire to take care of Steel-types, Hidden Power Ground is useful in knocking out Heatran that Serperior has managed to lure in. While it does not do well against Skarmory, HP Ground deals at least neutral damage to most other Steel-types, so I consider it the better alternative.

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Garchomp (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

Defensive Garchomp is my preferred Stealth Rock setter. Between Rough Helmet and naturally high stats, Garchomp manages to possess just the right amount of annoyance for the opponent at any given moment. As long as it still has health, it can diminish the utility of opposing Fake Out users, ruin momentum gained by setup sweepers, and lay the fundamental entry hazard all in one set. Other than that and what is listed under its SmogonDex write-up, not much needs to be said about it.

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Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]

With both my main and secondary win conditions being weak to Stealth Rock, I needed a way to get rid of them. I didn't want to exacerbate my Fire-type weakness, so I forewent Excadrill, and given my already large weakness to Ice, I thought one more wouldn't hurt. So I settled on the most specially offensive Defogger in OU, and it helps out a lot with opposing Dragon-types. The one move that is potentially variable is Hidden Power Fire, but I decided that having a way to deal with Steel-types is preferable on this set. I am susceptible to Heatran, but half of my team already has an answer for it, so it doesn't concern me as much.

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Clefable (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Aromatherapy

Ah, Clefable. You love it, and you hate it. It's everywhere, and it has a plethora of movesets, along with great stats and abilities. For this very reason, I chose to use it as a cleric. Wish and Protect provide recovery for both itself and any Pokémon on my team low on health. Aromatherapy heals off unwanted status conditions from my entire team, giving more life to my sweepers. Unaware and Defense investment allow Clefable to shrug off Calm Minds and powerful, physically-oriented attackers.

Conclusion:

I am writing this at 0300 hours (3:00 AM), meaning I wrote only the bare bones description of my team with not much further thought into its playstyle. However, I hope to have provided a sufficient description of the team for a proper and educated evaluation of the team's strengths and weaknesses. I feel that this team has a lot of potential to succeed, and with enough feedback from the community, that success can and will be achieved. Thank you for your time, and good night. Importable below.

Pinsir-Mega (M) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Quick Attack
- Earthquake
- Return
- Swords Dance

Volcanion @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 6 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Steam Eruption
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Bomb

Serperior (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Dragon Pulse
- Glare

Garchomp (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Clefable (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Aromatherapy

EDIT: New Importable:
Pinsir-Mega (M) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Quick Attack
- Earthquake
- Return
- Swords Dance

Heatran (M) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Toxic

Serperior (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Dragon Pulse
- Glare

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 240 HP / 156 Def / 24 SpD / 88 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Psychic

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
 
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yo Cobalt314 this team's pretty interesting because it has a surprising number of sets that you normally don't expect to see, but in all honesty this team is going to struggle against a variety of threats in the current metagame. tyranitar usage is immensely high with both scarf and band tyranitar posing immense threats to the majority of the mons, and given the lack of overall speed something like life orb tornadus is just going to roll right through once rocks go up unless it misses like every hurricane because you don't have anything to come in on it. unaware clefable also doesn't particularly boost the team given that it's another free switch for say boltbeam mega metagross which cleans house after stealth rock and isn't checking the mons that it needs to be checking like manectric and even manaphy because it can just burn you and beat you down, doing too much because you don't have spdef investment. even aside all that, running five offensive mons plus a cleric clef is just asking to have any of the offensive pressure that you were trying to apply go down the gutter. the squad is really susceptible to hazard stacking in general because of the aforementioned tyranitar that can pursuit latios and an overall lack of means to kill skarmory which is really exacerbated by running hp ground serperior and unaware clef; every time that clefable comes in that's another layer of spikes for skarmory which is worsened by the use of unaware clefable, which takes spikes and stealth rock. you also suffer quite a lot against excadrill with sand or mold breaker as scarf drill can sweep fairly easily late game once garchomp has been whittled and sand drill really doesn't have anything to come in, for real garchomp is just going to drop to two orb earthquakes from it. that's probably enough nitpicking though so let's move into the rate.

-> i think the first change that we make is replacing garchomp with defensive landorus. defensive landorus is much better able to handle excadrill while still handling mega lopunny for your team, and provides your team some form of pivoting between members w/ uturn while still punishing physical attackers w/ rocky helmet. you can also consider yache berry if you'd prefer to tank ice punch from mega metagross once from full.

to help handle tornadus and be less susceptible as a build to spikes, spdef calm mind clefable is a better option for your team over your unaware cleric set. specially defensive clefable is able to check life orb tornadus more reliably while still handling the fallover from weavile and mega lopunny / latios psyshock. it also provides your team another win condition which can help to pressure grounds like landorus for pinsir to potentially win. consider using ice beam to lure landorus for pinsir or thunder wave to reduce your opponents speed for pinsir.

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->at this point, your team is really desperate to ensure that you get rid of common spikers like skarmory and ferrothorn. scarf magnezone accomplishes this by trapping and killing skarm, ferro, and scizor and can also force damage on mega metagross, should you decide against yache berry landorus. it also provides some semblance of a draco check if you absolutely need to have it. trapping the aforementioned steels also gives you the liberty to use hp ground serperior more freely to help set up clefable as a win condition.

latios would also appreciate having thunderbolt to easily take out azumarill after stealth rock or a bit of chip damage because nothing's really coming in freely and keeping up constant pressure on common anti-offense threats is important on a team like this. additionally it doesn't mean you're entirely reliant on magnezone to take out skarmory and can let you check setup waters like manaphy and slowbro.

finally, with the change of specially defensive clefable you're slightly weaker to mons like weavile and talon that carry super effective priority, so feint is a good option over quick attack to outprioritize said priority users and kill them after a swords dance boost. i'd also recommend close combat over earthquake to take out rotom-w after return damage and a swords dance boost to easily take it out, and it lets you check band tyranitar even if you don't have a swords dance boost.

so i know it looks like a lot of changes, but my rate keeps the general idea of a mega pinsir sweep largely intact and greatly improves the matchup against the global threats that your team faced. if you're more concerned about darks like weavile and bisharp, you can also consider using keldeo but that's an option to use only if you're willing to change half the team.

best of luck broski n_n

Pinsir-Mega (M) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Shiny: Yes
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Frustration
- Feint
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon

Serperior (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Dragon Pulse
- Glare

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet / Yache Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 240 HP / 156 Def / 24 SpD / 88 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Thunderbolt
- Recover
- Defog

Clefable (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Ice Beam / Thunder Wave
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled


 
So, after a bit of experimentation with Hector Hard Mode's advice and my own ideas, I have made the following changes:
  • Garchomp has been replaced with Defensive Landorus-T. HHM provides solid reasoning for this.
  • Quick Attack has been replaced with Feint. +2 Priority is more desirable on this team than ten extra damage in most cases. I still left Earthquake on my moveset due to personal preference.
  • Latios has been replaced with Starmie. I feel like there are too many Ice-type weaknesses on my team, and I felt a Rapid Spinner would serve my team better than a defogger. I've also never tried to use Starmie before, and after playing around with it I feel it has a lot of utility for my team.
  • Volcanion has been replaced with Magnezone. This is perhaps my hardest change to have made, but HHM's advice and the need of a Steel-type check led me to replace Volcanion. Volcanion also held a lot of weaknesses common to my team, and combined with its rather slow speed meant having to ditch it for a more suitable teammate.
  • Clefable has been replaced with Wallbreaker Heatran. I don't know why I did this. Maybe I wanted a Fire-type Wallbreaker. Whatever the reason, it's on my team.
Here is a new importable, and I'm bumping this thread for new ratings of the modified team.

Pinsir-Mega (M) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Quick Attack
- Earthquake
- Return
- Swords Dance

Heatran (M) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Toxic

Serperior (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Dragon Pulse
- Glare

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 240 HP / 156 Def / 24 SpD / 88 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Psychic

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
 
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