(SM OU) Mega Charizard X + Tapu Lele Bulky Offense

[Goodbye & Thanks]

Introduction:
Hi everyone, I previously took a fairly long break from playing Pokemon - I played a lot of SS OU in the past but I became more and more disillusioned with the tier. After a significant amount of time away from mons, I decided to try playing SM again, since I started playing competitive mons near the end of SM's time as the current gen (I hadn't made a Smogon account then) and the variety offered by SM appeals to me. I actually had a fair amount of success laddering mostly with a slightly modified version of the Mega Medicham team built by Empo (this is what I used); I know that laddering doesn't really mean much, especially for some older gens, but I was proud that I managed to make it to a peak of 1701, which was 38th on the ladder (proof here). However, part of me didn't feel as accomplished because I wasn't using a team that I built, so I decided to try building more. After many unsuccessful attempts (maybe it's just me, but building in SM felt way harder than building in SS did), I settled on a team that I like. I want to preface the rest of this RMT by saying that I know that this team likely isn't exactly optimal, but I personally enjoy using it. I understand that Zard X tends to fit more naturally on HO, but I don't really like playing HO. I also know that you could just switch Zard with Mega Alakazam and Serperior with Kartana and you would have a classic Psychic Spam team, which would probably be a better team, but again, I just wanted to build a fun BO featuring Zard X. I've also had some success while testing it on the ladder, which to reiterate, I know doesn't mean much, but I was happy with how the team functioned. I decided to stop laddering with an Elo of 1641 and a GXE of 80.1, so the team worked fairly well for me (more proof here - you can also see my other alt decayed all the way down to 140 because I stopped using it after I peaked lol). Anyway, this was kind of a rambling and roundabout way of me saying that I know that this team isn't perfect, but I still think it's good and I enjoyed using it, so I thought that I would share it. I also plan on taking another very lengthy break from playing mons because I spend too much time on it and I still get more anxious/stressed when playing than I would like. Regardless, I'll try to keep the rest of the RMT briefer.

Team Building Process:

As I mentioned in the introduction, I wanted to build a Bulky Offense around Mega Charizard X. Zard X isn't the best mega, but I think it's just cool - it somewhat takes me back to a time when I was a kid and Charizard was as awesome as anything else in the world (I wonder if people who were young when X&Y came out felt the same about Zard X?). I experimented with a bunch of different sets (DD, Dragon Claw over Outrage, etc.) but I found that I liked the classic 3 attacks set with Outrage best for BO. Part of me still thinks that DD could be better because there were plenty of games where I felt like if I had DD, I could have just set up and won, but I think it's kind of difficult to justify not building an HO team around DD Zard X, and like I said before, I don't find HO fun to play. I think that if you want to use Zard X on a BO team, Roost + 3 attacks offers the most consistency and flexibility for a breaker. I also saw an old battle where Punny used a very similar team against SoulWind and his BO featured a Roost + 3 attacks Zard X (Dokkerich narrated the battle here). I felt a little bad that my team ended up so similar to Punny's, and I definitely did take inspiration from it, but I saw that video after I was already trying to build a BO around Zard X and my team was shaping up similarly anyway. There ended up being more differences between my team and Punny's than it may appear at first glance, since while both teams do share 5 pokemon in common, at least a few of the sets were significantly different: Punny's team had a Scarf Lele, the Z move was on Kartana, his Rotom was invested in Special Defense, and a more minor difference, but he had Dragon Claw over Outrage on Zard. Besides, the Landorus-T + Mag + Rotom-W core is just very common and I already had experience using it with Empo's Mega Medi team. I also wrote this post in the SM OU Good Cores thread about why I think that that core is good. In general, I feel like you can just use that defensive backbone to pivot into breakers and round the team out with a solid scarfer and the team will probably be decent.

+
Ok I'm not doing a good job of being briefer but I'll try to start now. I liked the thought of using Scarf Serperior alongside Zard X because it can be a great late game cleaner (albeit at times very disappointing - Leaf Storm felt way less than 90% accurate at times) and also offered an emergency Defog option to help Zard. I also saw that the user royalfluxh made a post in the Good Cores thread here outlining how Serp and Zard X make good partners and can handle each other's checks, and I agree with them.

+ +
I felt like the few BO Zard X teams I saw tended to include Tapu Lele, and it makes sense, since Zard can handle the Steel types that can be annoying for Lele. They also kind of just blow holes in the opposing team, and between the two of them, they can eventually overpower and break through some common defensive structures.

+ + +
I initially tried for a while with a different team using a CM + Pain Split Magearna, but it didn't really fit and left the team too flimsy defensively for a BO of my liking. AV Mag feels to me like one of the most dependable mons in the tier in that it always feels useful, so it was an easy switch to make.

+ + + +
It's just so easy to include Landorus on any team. I needed a Ground Type and a Ground resist/Flying type (because of Mold Breaker Excadrill and Mega Gyarados, I guess), so it was down to Lando or Gliscor. Gliscor is obviously excellent and always annoying to run into, but I thought that Lando fit better with AV Mag, since I wanted another defensive pivot. I guess that U-turn Gliscor could have also worked but I like Lando more as a pivot on BO and Intimidate is very important at times.

+ + + + +
Rotom-Wash felt like the most logical conclusion to finish the team with because it provides a more suitable Defogger and also rounds out the Fire-Water-Grass core alongside Zard and Serp. And again, just using the Volt-Turn core of Lando/Mag/Rotom alongside breakers like Zard and Lele feels so natural and good to me that it's hard to pass up.

The Team:

Landorus-Therian @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stealth Rock
​

I probably won't write as much for each of these since I already wrote a decent amount about my thought process behind the team. This is just the classic defensive Lando set and there isn't too much room from deviation from it; Earthquake, U-turn, and Stealth Rocks all feel pretty mandatory to me. Even without investment, EQ hits pretty hard across the board, being able to U-turn out for momentum is one of the biggest selling points of Lando, and my team needed a Rocks setter. I like HP Ice as the last move because it can be crucial to hit other Landos and Garchomps, as well as sometimes helping against Hawlucha. Knock Off can be nice as well and I was also considering going with Z Fly on this team, but HP Ice seemed fine to me. The Speed investment hits 256, which is to creep things like Wish Jirachi and other Landos that hit 255. Technically, most of those pokemon hit 254 to be faster than Modest Heatran, but there is a big enough pileup at 254 that many people go to 255, so this is to creep them - I get that you could continue on that logic forever but in general I like going for 2 points above whatever the standard benchmark is. I tend to always go with a pinch berry on defensive Lando because it allows for some nice things like being able to beat Ice Punch Mega Lopunny one-on-one if you Intimidate the Lopunny and Ice Punch puts you below 25%. I know that Rocky Helmet is also common on defensive Landorus, and I get that I'm probably just not thinking about it correctly, but I don't really like it. Rocky Helmet just tends to feel underwhelming to me on Lando because it's not like it can Regenerate off hits like Torn-T can and getting a full 50% back from an Iapapa Berry tends to feel much more substantial to me, but again, that's probably preference and the downside to a pinch berry is that you can't guarantee that it's going to do something each game.

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 216 SpD / 44 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Fleur Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Iron Head
- Hidden Power [Fire]​

Assault Vest Magearna is a general catch-all check to many of the threatening Special Attackers in the tier, like Ash Greninja and Mega Alakazam. To save myself some time, I'm going to quote myself from my post in the Good Cores thread, "The 44 Speed EVs on Magearna are to speed-creep uninvested Tyranitar (mainly AV) and other AV Magearna, as well as Clefable, like the usual AV Mag spread does. It can be nice to outrun all of those, especially with the Iron Head flinch chance. I feel like Volt Switch is mandatory to recapture momentum and Iron Head probably is too for CM users like Clef, Lele, and Zam, but the other two move slots are pretty versatile. I like Fleur Cannon because it generally hits most things hard but Ice Beam is nice for better catching Landos and Gliscors that try to switch into Volt Switch; Ice Beam always OHKOs Lando and it can OHKO and even the most SpDef invested Gliscor if Rocks are up." Fleur Cannon also feels pretty necessary on this team because of how threatening Mega Medicham can be. I like HP Fire as a way to round out the set to help deal with Mega Mawile and Mega Scizor, as well as giving a more reliable way than Focus Blast to hit things like Ferrothorn and Excadrill on the switch.

Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
​

Tapu Lele is just such a threatening special breaker and like I said in the "Team Building Process" section, I like how it pairs with Zard X to punch holes in defensive structures. I initially tried CM + Fightinium Z Lele, which is still a good set, but I just found the Specs set to be more consistently rewarding. I went with Modest over Timid because I heard z0m say in his excellent video here something along the lines of "who uses Timid Lele anyway?". The additional power from Modest is definitely appreciated and I didn't feel like I was missing out on too much speed tier-wise, although being faster than things like Excadrills that switch in would be nice and I could see SD Lando and Z Kommo-o sets being more of a pain too. The only other real decision is whether to go with Focus Blast or HP Fire for the last slot; I went with Focus Blast primarily because I thought that Heatran was more of an issue than Mega Scizor, but you do have to live with relying on Focus Blast's accuracy, which can feel awful. One additional benefit of Focus Blast though is that it's much better against Ferros in Rain, which can be fairly significant. Last thing I'll mention about Lele is that while I don't have any other user of Psychic type attacks on my team to benefit from Psychic Terrain, I also don't have any forms of priority, which means that I'm not hampered by it and it can help against things like Mega Mawile and Bisharp.

Charizard-Mega-X (M) @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Roost
​

I already talked about Zard X a good amount earlier, so I don't have as much to say here. Flare Blitz and Earthquake are pretty necessary, and like I said before, I feel like DD is better for HO and 3 attacks + Roost is better for BO. Roost is important because Flare Blitz recoil tends to chip Zard heavily, and you usually want Zard to last longer on BO, where as on HO it can function more as a kamikaze battering ram. Roost feels particularly important on a team like this because Zard is also my best check to some threatening attackers, like Scarf Kartana and Mega Charizard Y. Having a Dragon STAB is really useful to help ease some predictions regarding your opponent's switching and also to hit otherwise annoying checks like Garchomp and Gastrodon. To me, the biggest decision felt like choosing between Outrage and Dragon Claw. Dragon Claw can definitely be nicer because you don't have to worry about getting locked into a move and there isn't the annoying Confusion chance. However, Dragon Claw seemed to fall just short of the necessary damage too often when I tested it. Locking into Outrage also isn't always the end of the world if you're smart about it, since any Fairy that switches in breaks you free from being locked into the move, and thanks to the partial Fire typing, not that many Fairies or Steels can very easily revenge kill Zard if it's healthy enough. Outrage also offers the additional benefit of helping in the Stall matchup, since Outrage 2HKOs Quagsire and is very likely to 2HKO Pyukumuku (93.4% chance), while Dragon Claw doesn't come close to 2HKOing either. However again, Outrage does come with downsides so I could see going with Dragon Claw. Finally, I think that unlike with Lele, the additional Speed from Jolly is very important on Zard without DD, because being able to outrun things like Excadrill, the base 95s (Lele, both Kyurems), and having a chance to speed-tie with other base 100s like Mega Medicham can all be really helpful. The final thing I want to say about using Zard X on BO is that it makes it more ambiguous as to whether you're running Zard X or Zard Y. Sure, an experienced and knowledgeable player should be able to deduce from the rest of the team that it is more likely to be Zard X than Zard Y, but I guess it at least could be Zard Y, while if you see a Charizard on HO, you pretty much immediately know that it's Zard X.

Rotom-Wash @ Waterium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 160 Def / 84 SpA / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Defog
​

I've talked about this a lot before, but I feel like Rotom-Wash rounds out the defensive backbone of defensive Lando + AV Mag extremely well. In general, it's great at grabbing momentum since most Ground types (except for like Gastrodon) fear switching into a Hydro Pump or Will-O-Wisp. Rotom is also a decent Defogger because it usually switches into and scares out some common Stealth Rockers like Lando and Heatran well. Rotom-W also helps a good deal against Rain, which to me at least feels pretty important. While I didn't really question the decision to include Rotom, I wasn't really sure about what set to run. I normally go with a little bit more defensive spread and also give it another pinch berry, but since I didn't have a Z move user, I thought that Waterium Z would work better on Rotom, as it makes Rotom just that much more difficult to switch into and alleviates having to rely on Hydro Pump's imperfect accuracy. Gliscor spamming Roost to PP stall Hydro Pump also could be annoying if you didn't hit like every Pump (which is unlikely), but Z Hydro Pump OHKOs any Gliscor that wants to try that. I also like Rotom having a Z-crystal because it's my best Knock absorber from things like Tornadus-T and Weavile. I know that most Z Rotoms run Pain Split, but I didn't think that I could fit it on this set/team. I felt like I needed Rotom to be a more reliable Defogger than Scarf Serperior and Will-O-Wisp helps a lot against things like Bulu. With that being said though, I do miss some of the longevity that having a pinch berry or Pain Split would afford Rotom, despite neither of those being surefire healing options. To be honest as well, I'm not exactly sure what the 84 Special Attack EVs do, since I took the set from John W's post here. However, I do know that the 16 Speed EVs allows for Rotom to hit 212 and outrun things like Crawdaunt as well as something like Tapu Fini that may be at 210 or 211 to also be faster than Crawdaunt.

Serperior (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Knock Off
- Glare
- Defog​

I really like Serperior as a Scarfer because it's faster than most other Scarfers and can snowball with Contrary Leaf Storm to clean late. I also mentioned earlier how to pairs well with Zard X since they can handle each other's checks and Serp gives additional Defog support to help Zard come in. I also feel like pretty much all Serperior should run Glare; it can be a little iffy clicking Glare when you're Choice-locked but Serp generally forces obvious switches to things like Heatran, AV Mag, Mega Scizor, AV Tangrowth, and Bulu, so it isn't too difficult to Glare them on the switch. Glare is also just one of the best moves in the game so it's hard to forego. Finally, I was struggling to choose between Knock Off and HP Fire for the last move. I went with Knock because it seems generally more useful to me, while HP Fire is mostly just for revenge killing Kart, which to be fair, can be really important. I like Knock on Serp though because Chansey tends to be a common switch-in and both Zard and Lele really appreciate removing Chansey's Eviolite (Psychic from Lele has a 97.7% chance to 2HKO Chansey without Eviolite and both Flare Blitz and Outrage are guaranteed 2HKOs from Zard if Eviolite has been removed).

Threats:
I'm probably going to overlook some things but these are what immediately come to mind/I've run into:


Mega Medicham is just always super annoying to switch around because Rotom and Magearna can't take HJK well at all and Lando can't live even a -1 Ice Punch after Fake Out most of the time. I also can't even revenge kill Medicham well since Leaf Storm only does 76% max from Serperior, so my best bet is either to go for the speed tie with Zard, force it out with Lele if Lele is healthy enough, or Glare it with Serp, although that usually requires sacking Serp.


Primarily Mega Tyranitar's DD set, since I really can't deal with a set of DD, Stone Edge, Ice Punch, and Fire Punch reliably/repeatedly.


Opposing Serperior can always be annoying, but particularly a set with Substitute + Glare (and maybe Leech Seed too) can be a big pain with the possibility of Paralysis hax.


It depends on the set, but Koko can be annoying to switch into without giving up momentum while also not risking Landorus to HP Ice.


Ironically, normal Charizard (pre-mega) is probably my best answer to offensive Volcs that have HP Ground and Mega Zard X should handle bulky Volcs ok, but that requires you not mega-evolving Zard until you know the Volc set (meaning you need to keep Rocks off your side even more, which makes it harder to keep Rocks up to pressure the opposing Volc). There also seems to me like there is usually some Volc set that can just 6-0 you if it has the right matchup, but I guess that's just Volc being its annoying self.


Banded and SD Kart can be a big problem, especially since I don't have a reliable way to revenge kill it without likely sacking Serp to get a Glare off. Scarf can also be a problem if I've let my team get chipped enough, but I feel like you can always say that about Scarf Kart.


I don't really know what I should do against Reuniclus. I guess I could go Zard X on it immediately and try to scare it out, but that requires Zard to be at near full health and isn't reliable counterplay at all.


I know this is very niche, but I ran into a few Shedinja Stall teams on the ladder and they're annoying, primarily because they blank Lele.


I think that I should usually be able to play around Hawlucha if I don't mess up thanks to Landorus and Rotom (Landorus being able to Intimidate shuffle and HP Ice on Lando can actually be crucial against Hawlucha) and positioning Lele to set up Psychic Terrain, but I really don't like playing against Hawlucha. That may be more of a personal thing, but Hawlucha kind of feels like a mini version of Magearna in a sense in that "the right set" can sometimes just 6-0 you no matter what. Obviously that dynamic isn't as extreme with Hawlucha as it is with Magearna, but I just personally dislike facing Hawlucha, Volcarona, and Sub-Glare Serperior more than going up against an opposing Magearna. In particular, my team can struggle a lot with bulky Hawlucha sets that go for Roost against Lando's HP Ice or Rotom's Volt Switch. Volt Switching on Roost usually isn't horrible if I can go to Lando for an Intimidate, but then Hawlucha can usually SD on Lando and Roost on HP Ice. Hawlucha can be even more of a problem to my team if it's holding a Psychic Seed (or I guess even a Misty Seed but I don't think I've ever come across that) because I primarily rely on HP Ice from Lando and Volt Switch from Rotom to hit Hawlucha (unless Magearna is at full HP or the Hawlucha hasn't gotten off an SD yet, but that isn't a common scenario and +2 HJK has a 37.5% chance to just OHKO Magearna anyway, so AV Magearna obviously isn't a Hawlucha answer), and again, Roost makes Volt Switch, and especially HP Ice, largely ineffective against Hawlucha anyway.

Replays:
These are mostly just some random ladder games and aren't the highest quality (aside from the fifth replay, which was played by z0mOG), but they at least show off the team in action a little:

Replay 1
I admittedly get very lucky this game with Mega Medicham missing Zen Headbutt on Turn 7 and my Rotom OHKOing it back with Z Hydro Pump, but Grc111/German111 is a good player that's often at the top of the ladder (I think they're the same person but I could be wrong), so I'm glad to have won the battle regardless. HP Ice on Lando comes up big this game too and Scarf Serp cleans late.

Replay 2
My opponent makes some mistakes but Rotom-W really shines this game.

Replay 3
Lele tears through most of the opposing team.

Replay 4
The Leaf Storm miss on Turn 22 made the game much harder than it needed to be, but I regret complaining about it a little, since moves missing is part of the game (as evidenced by the HJK miss in the first replay), however Lando and Rotom still pull it out late. Zard and Lele also both do good damage to the opposing team throughout the game as well. I think that I misplayed a little at the end by not going back to Rotom on the Corkscrew Crash from Excadrill on Turn 30 because by keeping Lando I wouldn't have needed to rely on getting the Volt Switch roll against Fini on the last turn, but I believe that the roll was in my favor and I get it anyway.

Replay 5
I decided to come back and edit this post, even though a good amount of time has passed, just to include one more replay of EVIL z0mOG using my team. z0m is the reason why I even started playing competitively years ago and he's always been my favorite player and biggest inspiration, as far as building and playing goes, so it meant a lot to me to see him use a team that I built. I know that it's unlikely that anyone really looks at this RMT anymore but I wanted to include this replay more for myself, although it's also good for anyone who comes across this to see one of the best SM players ever pilot the team.

Replay 6
So I've had a tumultuous relationship with competitive Pokemon in that it makes me stressed and anxious when I play but I keep compulsively coming back to it. Not to randomly psychoanalyze myself here but I feel like I'm probably searching for some type of fulfillment that likely doesn't even have anything to do with Pokemon, so it's a fruitless endeavor for me to play competitively when my subconscious motivation may be to try to "fill" some void that competitive Pokemon obviously can't reach. I get that's an odd bit of introspection to include here and I'm sure no one reading this would care lol, but again, it's more for me. Long story short, I decided to play on the SM ladder "one last time" and try to not focus on my Elo or GXE and instead just attempt to enjoy playing. I'm definitely rusty/I tilted and I threw a few games and lost one or two to hax, and my goal to just enjoy playing wasn't fully achieved since I was a little disappointed that the GXE on one of my accounts dropped below 80 (although I also logically understand that that is totally inconsequential), but the last game that I played was the one I linked to in this replay. I managed to defeat a player near the top of the ladder (I think that they were 12th on the ladder when I played them) and I was happy with how the game went and how I played, so I wanted to include it here. My biggest regret from the game was actually not returning my opponent's "hf" at the beginning; I always play with chat muted so I didn't see it until after the game, otherwise I would have reciprocated the nice gesture.

As for the actual replay, Z Hydro Pump on Rotom worked out well for me on Turn 1, since it allowed me to OHKO Excadrill on the switch. I don't know the spread of the Drill so Hydro Pump may have OHKOed anyway, but bulky Drill could have lived Hydro Pump and I'd also have to rely on it actually hitting. Kyurem-Black was a big threat to my team and it was a little risky of me to pivot Landorus into its Fusion Bolt on Turn 2, but I didn't think that my opponent would waste their Z move when Electric Terrain gave it a very good shot to finish off my Rotom (it should have been an 87.5% chance for Fusion Bolt in Electric Terrain to finish off my 50% Rotom, and Z Freeze Shock was essentially an identical roll to Fusion Bolt in Electric Terrain anyway). Maybe I shouldn't have left my Magearna in to take the Nature's Madness from Fini on Turn 3, but with Excadrill being down, I got free momentum with Volt Switch and my Magearna was still healthy enough to later live the Fusion Bolt from Kyurem-Black on Turn 8 and OHKO it back with Fleur Cannon. The rest of the game was essentially my Tapu Lele being able to pick up an OHKO with Psychic whenever it came back in, and my early game lead was strong enough to allow me to just sac when necessary and bring back out Lele. I was debating on Turn 13 whether or not to bring out Lele or Charizard, and in hindsight, Lele may have been better, but it still worked out regardless. I guess I was just concerned because I didn't know the Koko's item - I knew that it wasn't Specs but I didn't know if it was Shuca or Scarf or something else (I think that it was most likely Scarf), and I was paranoid about a potential Thunderbolt Paralysis into full-Para, which ironically did happen later on Turn 16. Either way, I knew that Zard X would have been fine so long as it didn't get Paralyzed by Static Zapdos and then lost the one-on-one, but that was also very unlikely since Zapdos probably couldn't hit Zard X hard anyway and I could Roost. Even if I did lose my Zard to Zapdos through Para, I still should have been fine with Lele coming in to revenge kill Zapdos and then finishing off Koko, barring any outlandish hax (and I guess that Serperior should have also been fine as an emergency backup against Koko if it haxed through my Lele, assuming I didn't miss a bunch of Leaf Storms or something). Overall I think that I worried way too much about not choking the endgame since I was in a very good position, but I don't think that I played it wrong anyway. So like I said, I thought that this was a good final replay to include (again, mainly for myself, since I doubt that many people will really read this RMT anymore) and I also wanted to add it in for my own commemorative purposes, because it should be the last competitive game of Pokemon I play.

Replay 7
Ok, so I lied about the last replay being my last competitive game of Pokemon lol. I felt bad about not playing as well earlier and having my GXE drop, so I thought that I would play some more games to see if I could get my GXE back up over that imaginary threshold. Well, it turns out that I tilted more and dropped my GXE even lower, but somehow I actually feel more content now stepping away when I'm not as close to having my GXE where I wanted it to be. Regardless, I know that I achieved a GXE over 80 and was in the top 150 to top 50 on multiple accounts, both of which were personal goals of mine, so I can live with not being quite at that level anymore. To reiterate, I understand that laddering in a past generation, like SM, isn't typically as impressive as doing so in the current gen, but I'm still proud of what I was able to achieve. Really, I think that I achieved most of my goals from when I started on Showdown in August of 2019. I know that no one who may come across this will care but since I doubt that anyone is really going to see this again, I guess I'll use it as some sort of therapeutic diary to help me move on from playing competitively. First, I wanted to just make it into the top 500 of the ladder (which I did when SS OU was the current gen and I've since done it in DPP, ORAS, and SM as well). Then I wanted to win a tournament game, which I did in a couple of Smogon Tour weeks, and if those don't count, I did win a game in DPP Cup. I decided that tournament games weren't really my thing because I got so stressed, so I turned my attention back to just laddering. I did always want to get reqs for a suspect test and I was able to for the Urshifu suspect in SS OU. I actually wanted to get the Tiering Contributor badge but laddering for reqs was stressful and I didn't want to ever really try it again, so I can be content with knowing that I was able to get reqs and vote in a suspect test before. Like I said in the introduction of this RMT, I started focusing on SM OU again because it is my favorite metagame. I wanted to get into the top 100 and then the top 50, which I accomplished using a slightly modified version of Empo's excellent Mega-Medicham and Volcarona team (which again, I linked to the PokePaste in the intro). Finally, I wanted to build and ladder with my own team in SM, since team building has always been my favorite part of Pokemon and I had success building in SS OU before, but this was the first SM team I built that I felt satisfied with. It truly does feel much better to me to use a team that I built myself and this is personally my favorite team ever, so I wanted to end with using it for my last time playing competitively.

Anyway, I promise that I'm done with all of that weird stream of consciousness writing now, so I'll start giving my thoughts on the game itself. I was pretty confident that my opponent's Landorus was Scarfed, based on their team composition, and it wouldn't have been able to OHKO my Lele, while Lele would have OHKOed it back with Psychic, so I felt comfortable that it would go for U-turn on Turn 1. Even if their Lando was the suicide lead variant with Focus Sash, it was probably just going to go for Rocks and then Explode anyway after I eventually switched to my own Landorus, so I didn't feel like it would have made a big difference what I went for with Lele (which would have been slower than max speed Lando because I use Modest Lele) if it was Sash Lando. Again though, I really thought that it was Scarf Lando on the type of BO that they were using. I was debating whether or not to click Moonblast or Focus Blast on the predicted U-turn, since I didn't know if my opponent would have gone out to Ferrothorn or Hoopa-Unbound. Obviously Moonblast into Hoopa would have been ideal, and it probably was the safer play considering Focus Blast's infamous accuracy, but I thought that Focus Blast was a good midground for Hoopa and Ferrothorn. Thankfully, my read paid off and I hit the Focus Blast on the Hoopa. Maybe I should have doubled out to Magearna or something after hitting the first Focus Blast but I didn't know if my opponent was going to switch to their Koko or Fini, or they even could have gone back to their Scarf Lando; I guess that it was also a possibility that my opponent was going to stay in and hope for the second Focus Blast to miss, which somewhat predictably did happen, but staying in and just hoping for a miss wouldn't have been a good play and my opponent was ranked in the top 25 of the ladder, so I didn't anticipate them to take such a risk. It would have been nice if the second Focus Blast would have hit to chip the Koko into range of things like one Leaf Storm from Serperior or Magearna's Fleur Cannon, but you can't really complain if you don't hit consecutive Focus Blasts and I hit the more important one on Hoopa anyway. On Turn 3, the Dazzling Gleam damage from their Koko onto my AV Mag showed me that their Koko was Specs, which became important later. I went for Fleur Cannon on Turn 4 and I never actually clicked Volt Switch with Mag when facing their Koko because I didn't want their Landorus to come in and take back the momentum. Going for HP Fire may have been the smarter play to get some chip on Lando if it switched in and obviously hit the Ferrothorn as hard as I could have, but that's probably speaking with too much hindsight and I just really was trying to catch a potential Lando switch-in. Throughout the game, my Charizard was really threatening to the opposing team, and even though I thought that they were going to U-turn out with their Lando on Turn 7 after they switched it into my Zard, I don't think that staying in would have been worth the risk, especially since they probably would have just gone into their Fini anyway. I do want to point out that my opponent made a great move by going for Volt Switch on Turn 8 after they brought out their Specs Koko to threaten my Lando with HP Ice. They then followed it up with another very nice play by clicking Hyperspace Fury with their Banded Hoopa, predicting correctly that the threat of Fire Punch was going to scare out my Magearna. The next few turns are fairly straight forward, but I will mention that my -2 Magearna criting Fleur Cannon into their Fini on Turn 14 was pretty fortunate for me. I don't think that it necessarily ended up being the most influential crit I've ever seen, but it was still helpful. I think now that I should have probably brought out Lele on Turn 15 instead of Serperior, since that should have guaranteed a kill, but I didn't realize in the game that their Ferro was physically defensive and was concerned about it being able to live two Psychics from 82%; I could have known that it was physically defensive if I calced the Fleur Cannon damage from Mag onto Ferro earlier but I didn't think to do so. I was kind of surprised that my opponent stayed in with their Fini against my Serp on Turn 16, since they were in Leaf Storm range but maybe they were afraid of my Serp being Rocky Helmet and having HP Fire for Ferro or something. Either way, I was primarily just looking to Defog away the Rocks and I would have gone into Zard if they went to their Ferro on my Serp using Defog, but it ended up working out for me. I was proud of my switch into Lando to block the Koko's Volt Switch on Turn 21 but I thought that the play made sense because their Koko wouldn't have been able to kill my Lele with either HP Ice or Dazzling Gleam, and if they hard switched into their Hawlucha (which I was very scared about sweeping me), their Koko would have switched out before my Lele and Lando would have Intimidated the incoming Hawlucha. Again, maybe I should have brought out Lele instead of Serperior after U-turning with my Lando on Turn 22, since Lele would have picked up a KO, but I was concerned about my opponent sacking their Fini and then either ending up in the same difficult scenario with Koko on Lele or them bringing out their Scarf Lando and putting me on the back foot that way, particularly because I knew that I couldn't afford risking having my own Lando get chipped more with their Hawlucha still looming. My opponent makes a good play though by sacking their Koko on Turn 23 to set the Electric Terrain and finally setting the stage for their Hawlucha. As I said in the chat, I thought that I messed up by letting their Hawlucha come in against my Serperior, but I don't actually think that I misplayed. I knew that their Hawlucha was probably going to SD on Turn 24 to see if they could then break past my Lando, especially since they were at +1 Defense from the Electric Seed and I hadn't revealed HP Ice yet, so I stayed in with my Serperior and got very good chip with a +2 Leaf Storm. After that, I knew that they needed to attack to not be finished off by another Leaf Storm, so I decided to sac my Zard. My Lando was still healthy enough on Turn 26 to come in, Intimidate the Hawlucha down to +1, comfortably live the Acrobatics, and then finish it off with HP Ice. If my opponent had Roost on their Hawlucha, they probably should have gone for it, but then that opens up the possibility of my Lando being something like Z Fly (and I guess they could have deduced that my Rotom was likely my Z move user because it was revealed to already not be Leftovers and it didn't use a pinch berry after the Hoopa brought it down to 11% earlier, but that would have required a good deal of insight and their timer was low) or Toxic, so overall, not going for Roost was defensible; besides, their Hawlucha may have been Substitute or something else instead of Roost. After the Hawlucha dropped, I thought that I pretty much had the game won. I don't think that it really would have mattered what their Lando went for against my Lando on Turn 27, and I think that sacking my Lando would have been alright, since Serp would have won if it connected with two Leaf Storms, but maybe I should have sacked my Lele instead. Either way though, if I had sacked either my Lando or Lele to their Lando, I think that I would have needed to hit one or two Leaf Storms to win, which weren't horrible odds. I also thought that keeping Lele was the correct move in case my Serp revenge killed their Lando but then missed/got crit by their Fini, because my Lele beat their Fini but I don't think that my Lando would have. None of that ended up mattering though, because my Lando lived the U-turn, actually popped its Iapapa Berry for good measure, and brought out my Lele with its own U-turn. Lele wrapped the game up from there. Finally, I said "Have a good night" at the end in chat because I went up against that player a little earlier in the night and they seemed friendly with the few interactions I had with them in chat then, so I was being genuine, although I could see someone potentially misconstruing that for me being BM. We both used different teams when we previously played (I used the slightly modified version of Empo's Mega-Medi + Volc team and my opponent beat me using a somewhat non-standard version of Rain), so neither of us knew the other one's team.

So that wraps up my last replay, and what really should be my final competitive game. I know that I wrote way too much here, but again, it's really for my own purposes as I attempt to finally move away from playing on Showdown; I'll still watch tournament games and occasionally post/mostly lurk here on Smogon, but I'm done playing competitive Pokemon, and "this time I mean it." I also tried to write it a little in the same vein of the old "war stories" that people would write on Smogon before Showdown implemented replay saving. BKC made an excellent video highlighting and creating a replay out of his favorite game ever, which LoveDensity wrote up his terrific war story of here, so I took some inspiration from that.

Conclusion:
So this RMT ended up longer than I intended/anticipated, but I guess that's how it tends to go when I write these. I just wanted to do one for SM OU, since it's my favorite tier. Like I said in the beginning, I know that this team isn't perfect, but I wanted to build a fun and solid Bulky Offense with Zard X, and I feel like I achieved that. The structure of the team is a little cookie-cutter and I know that very similar teams have been built before (like the one used by Punny years ago that I mentioned earlier) but I feel like a lot of team building is in the details and I'm happy that I found success with a team that I did build myself. I plan on taking another very long hiatus from playing now, but I feel content with doing so, especially after writing this. Also, just to give proper credit, I took the held item sprites from here. I always end my RMTs like this, but truly, thank you to anyone who read/skimmed this over and I hope you all have a great day!


PokePaste

Importable

Landorus-Therian @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stealth Rock

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 216 SpD / 44 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Fleur Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Iron Head
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast

Charizard-Mega-X (M) @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Roost

Rotom-Wash @ Waterium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 160 Def / 84 SpA / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Defog

Serperior (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Knock Off
- Glare
- Defog