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OU SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 1: Tapu Fini)
- Thread starter Cdijk16
- Start date
After the vote extension, the voters have decided that CM Reuniclus deserves to win their third consecutive title. Goat. I will add them to the hall of fame (again, how many times am I gonna have to do this lol) ASAP. Anyway, this week, I thought it would be cool to get back to the berries. This berry might be the most heat of them all, being one of the most unexpected ways to surprise an opponent. This week will be based around...
Week 5: Custap Berry
This berry was introduced in Generation 4 and it has a very unique effect. It is eaten when a Pokemon reaches >25% HP, and when eaten, it will cause the Pokemon to move first in its priority bracket. (Disclaimer: This does not give a move extra priority, it just means that your +0 priority moves will go before your opponents +0 priority moves, for example).
It opens up a lot of room for surprising tech, and if there is one gen full of that, it's this one. It works great with Substitute, being able to manually lower your HP into the range and giving yourself a "priority move" in a pinch. For this week, at least one Pokemon on the team submitted must be holding a Custap Berry.
You have until 11:59pm GMT-5, Saturday, 16th of December to post your team. Good luck!
Week 5: Custap Berry
This berry was introduced in Generation 4 and it has a very unique effect. It is eaten when a Pokemon reaches >25% HP, and when eaten, it will cause the Pokemon to move first in its priority bracket. (Disclaimer: This does not give a move extra priority, it just means that your +0 priority moves will go before your opponents +0 priority moves, for example).
It opens up a lot of room for surprising tech, and if there is one gen full of that, it's this one. It works great with Substitute, being able to manually lower your HP into the range and giving yourself a "priority move" in a pinch. For this week, at least one Pokemon on the team submitted must be holding a Custap Berry.
You have until 11:59pm GMT-5, Saturday, 16th of December to post your team. Good luck!
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OFFENSIVE VEIL + CUSTAP BERRY TOR
V
C BERRY TOR + CRACK COCAINE (pokepast.es) TEAM PASTE>
Alola Nine tails: The Mon That will set shit straight, offers veil for 7 turns due to light clay, allows my pocket monsters to set up and sweep has a strong stab blizzard + veil for Volcarona , Magearna and M Gyarados which is a great offensive core.
Alola Exeggutor: The main man, veil allows TOR to swords dance on anything about 2 times at least, Then the additional custap berry for priority and a strong stab in dragon hammer and earthquake for coverage... However, that's not it :) THE ABILITY HARVEST ALLOWS A 50 percent chance to get the berry back! and protect allows me to try to obtain TWICE if it doesn't get it the first time :) BROKEN^^^
for you people saying sun counter plays 100 percent berry recover in sun :3 (394 hp) and a 187 spdef + veil plays
Volcarona: A nice pick for coverage and a special sweeper besides magearna, normally pairs well with offensive veil from my 4 day knowledge of gen 7 OU. Passho berry allows me to set up on any rain team, due to being bulky quiver dance, before and after aurora veiling + giga drain for recovery. Veil allowing it to stay a bit safe from rock choice scarf users, then out speed them.
Mega Gyarados: A good water coverage and like volc pairs well with a fast veil setter, can abuse sub + veil and DDance sweep covers my fire type weakness* gives me a ghost resist can tank Char Y Focus Blast + Solar Beam. So, it takes care of the teams Most important utility due to checking Alola tails counters and checks. While taking advantage of veil.
Landorus-Therian: Landorus-T is probably the most volatile member of this team, having gone through multiple moveset changes over the course of this team in *excuse my language* A FUCKING DAY. Smack down + earthquake dope ah combo *im looking at u zap sure the hell is* Knock off always needed on a team u feel for utility and cleaning purposes. With a nice groundium z
Magearna: Oh, how I love this Pokémon, Ice beam + thunderbolt kills everything in the tier Once u add veil abuse and CM +Shift Gear + Soul Heart.. oh the item? lefties ez Veil basically making it assault vest + a physical assault vest LOLLLL its just comedic to me LOL
Heatran isnt a problem under veil :3.
FIRST TIME POSTING THX TO MY FRIEND CM REUNICLUS FOR TEACHING ME THESE PAST 4 DAYS I STARTED OF GEN 7 HES THE REAL GOATTTTTTTT
C BERRY TOR + CRACK COCAINE (pokepast.es) TEAM PASTE>
Alola Nine tails: The Mon That will set shit straight, offers veil for 7 turns due to light clay, allows my pocket monsters to set up and sweep has a strong stab blizzard + veil for Volcarona , Magearna and M Gyarados which is a great offensive core.
Alola Exeggutor: The main man, veil allows TOR to swords dance on anything about 2 times at least, Then the additional custap berry for priority and a strong stab in dragon hammer and earthquake for coverage... However, that's not it :) THE ABILITY HARVEST ALLOWS A 50 percent chance to get the berry back! and protect allows me to try to obtain TWICE if it doesn't get it the first time :) BROKEN^^^
for you people saying sun counter plays 100 percent berry recover in sun :3 (394 hp) and a 187 spdef + veil plays
Volcarona: A nice pick for coverage and a special sweeper besides magearna, normally pairs well with offensive veil from my 4 day knowledge of gen 7 OU. Passho berry allows me to set up on any rain team, due to being bulky quiver dance, before and after aurora veiling + giga drain for recovery. Veil allowing it to stay a bit safe from rock choice scarf users, then out speed them.
Mega Gyarados: A good water coverage and like volc pairs well with a fast veil setter, can abuse sub + veil and DDance sweep covers my fire type weakness* gives me a ghost resist can tank Char Y Focus Blast + Solar Beam. So, it takes care of the teams Most important utility due to checking Alola tails counters and checks. While taking advantage of veil.
Landorus-Therian: Landorus-T is probably the most volatile member of this team, having gone through multiple moveset changes over the course of this team in *excuse my language* A FUCKING DAY. Smack down + earthquake dope ah combo *im looking at u zap sure the hell is* Knock off always needed on a team u feel for utility and cleaning purposes. With a nice groundium z
Magearna: Oh, how I love this Pokémon, Ice beam + thunderbolt kills everything in the tier Once u add veil abuse and CM +Shift Gear + Soul Heart.. oh the item? lefties ez Veil basically making it assault vest + a physical assault vest LOLLLL its just comedic to me LOL
Heatran isnt a problem under veil :3.
FIRST TIME POSTING THX TO MY FRIEND CM REUNICLUS FOR TEACHING ME THESE PAST 4 DAYS I STARTED OF GEN 7 HES THE REAL GOATTTTTTTT
Attachments
CUSTAP HOOPA-UNBOUND TRICK ROOM
Team : https://pokepast.es/32866098925c24f8
The team is a standard trick room team except Im using Custap Berry Hoopa Unbound. Custap Berry Hoopa unbound is good for trick room team for various reasons:
1) Hoopa Unbound's special defense is very bulky, making it hard to be revenge killed by certain Pokemon such as Greninja, Serperior, Tapu Koko, and Mega Charizard y.
2) Hoopa Unbound's speed is good enough to outspeed a lot of offensive Pokemon under trick room.
3) Custap Berry can be useful on slow offensive mons, it can allow them to surprise the opponent, and transform them into a check.
Team : https://pokepast.es/32866098925c24f8
The team is a standard trick room team except Im using Custap Berry Hoopa Unbound. Custap Berry Hoopa unbound is good for trick room team for various reasons:
1) Hoopa Unbound's special defense is very bulky, making it hard to be revenge killed by certain Pokemon such as Greninja, Serperior, Tapu Koko, and Mega Charizard y.
2) Hoopa Unbound's speed is good enough to outspeed a lot of offensive Pokemon under trick room.
3) Custap Berry can be useful on slow offensive mons, it can allow them to surprise the opponent, and transform them into a check.
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Custap Berry Heatran
Anyone who has ever used Heatran knows this feeling. Heatran is at around 30%, rocks are up, it just feels like a sack fodder. Offensive Pokemon, the same offensive Pokemon that Heatran could blow away if it was just faster, smell blood, and they're ever so gutsy when it comes to throwing off attacks knowing that you either switch out or you lose your Heatran. No matter what, it's safe for them. Right..?
Anyone who has ever used Heatran knows this feeling. Heatran is at around 30%, rocks are up, it just feels like a sack fodder. Offensive Pokemon, the same offensive Pokemon that Heatran could blow away if it was just faster, smell blood, and they're ever so gutsy when it comes to throwing off attacks knowing that you either switch out or you lose your Heatran. No matter what, it's safe for them. Right..?
This Heatran holds the Custap berry, allowing it to surprise the opponent by outspeeding their Pokemon and allowing it to be reborn for one last big attack, like a Phoenix. Overheat is my move of choice on this because of its monstrous base power, but also due to the improved accuracy over Magma Storm. The one thing that is just as bad as getting fully paralysed while Custap activates is missing your clutch kill move. I use the Mild nature so that Stone Edge is able to kill max HP Volcarona. Despite its typing, Heatran really can't be considered a Volcarona answer due to the Hidden Power Ground variants. However, with Endure + Custap, Heatran can shoot first and OHKO with Stone Edge, ignoring all the boosts that Volcarona may have gotten. Earth Power is around so that it isn't walled by opposing Heatran, as much as I would love to run HP Ice or Explosion. Endure is probably a little self explanatory, but it allows you to force a Custap activation when it isn't going to come naturally from chip damage and/or hazards. Another cool application of Endure is that it comes in clutch vs speed boosters like Hawlucha, as if they switch out expecting the Custap (unlikely, but so is Endure) then they lose their boosts and you are safe.
Seismitoad is something that I have always wanted to slot onto offense, and I finally got to doing it. Seismitoad is the Stealth Rock user, being able to set them up on some of the many Pokemon it walls like Rotom-Wash (just you wait until the Seismitoad analysis drops). Seismitoad gives me a very pleasant time against Volt Switch users, and it lowkey improves my matchup against Magearna and Heatran too. I'm using a Toxic variant because I'm slightly shaky against some grass types so I like to put them on a timer. It also allows Seismitoad to threaten Rotom-Wash faster, as some of them arrogantly stay in to burn Seismitoad.
This type of Serperior is something that I have grown to love from using it on Hyper Offense. It has defensive EV's to live crucial hits and spread paralysis, further enabling Medicham. It completes a wholesome fire-water-grass core and helps out against more balanced structures, as it can 1v1 Chansey with more of a "death by a thousand cuts" method rather than a "kick it in the fucking face" method that is employed by a certain teammate. Synthesis allows it to stick around for longer, making it able to switch into Tapu Fini Moonblasts long term (yes, Tapu Fini checks are a thing, I'm not crazy, whatever it can't break past it'll taunt, NM and weasel out).
This is my number one favourite Tapu Koko set. Wild Charge allows Tapu Koko to use its superior attacking stat, with the Z-Crystal turning it into a genuine nuke. Hidden Power Ice, although uninvested, does the job when it comes to Landorus/Garchomp deterral. Roost allows it to come into Choice-locked Dark Pulse from Specs Greninja, which to be honest they will be using as they don't want to give Seismitoad a relaxing bath and look like a dumbass as they get rocked up on. Roost also can help out with the recoil if you ever have to repeatedly pepper stuff with Wild Charges. My favourite part of this set is U-Turn, completely flipping the script on pests such as Gastrodon, and also being a valuable mid ground when facing Landorus-Therian (it can be a lot safer than clicking a predicted HP ice as Koko is on it's way out either way).
I only have time for one Medicham variant, which is the Thunder Punch variant (which obviously fits nicely with Tapu Koko) due to its ability to break through the Pokemon that are thought to be checks such as Slowbro. Terrain boosted Thunder Punch is strong enough to rip through Mega Sableye and Reuniclus, meaning that the limit to Medicham's breaking capabilities is my own prediction (and Cresselia, but cmon). Other than the boosted Thunder Punch, I appreciate Fake Out for priority against the fastest threats, Ice Punch hits Ice weak Pokemon that resist Fighting such as Bulu/LandoT. High Jump Kick is just insane.
I wholeheartedly think this entire team would just fall apart into rubble without this Pokemon. It gives a completely crucial speed tier against Mega Alakazam and Mega Lopunny, it gives hazard removal (albeit desperate), and it gives momentum through U-Turn. Knock Off allows me to remove the most annoying items like Celesteela's Leftovers or Chansey's Eviolite. It gives me a ground immunity that I find very helpful against ground attackers like opposing Scarf Landorus-Therian. The speed it brings is a comfortable blanket that makes this tier feel just a little less volatile.During testing I played against offense builds (not intentionally, it just ended up happening), where Heatran's Custap berry did incredible things, even carrying me through a room tour. Greninja seems daunting at first but it's not impossible to handle as long as I remember to keep Koko healthy. Alakazam and Lopunny are other difficult Pokemon but there is ways to revenge kill them and switch around them (and maybe they might get Heatran'd, you never know). Stall and Fat isn't straightforward but there is some tools on this team that I think in practice would create an equal game. I am excited to see what others can do with the Custap berry. Good luck!
Attachments
Custap Magearna + Taunt SD Haxorus Hyper Offense
- Custap Berry lets Magearna still be useful in games even once it has gotten low on health.The idea was that it eats strong hits like High Jump Kick from Medicham or Hawlucha or earthquake from Landorus and gets put into Custap range so it will move first for the next turn which might lead to an important kill. 
- If I'm honest, this pokemon is what I was really building around. I have tried lots of different sets and spreads for this thing but ended up with a Swords Dance Taunt set with the sole purpose of winning into stall. Due to Mold Breaker, we can Taunt anything, which most importantly means we can set up on Sableye-Mega. However the ability also means we bypass two of the biggest issues for Hyper Offense teams like this: unaware pokemon like Quagsire and Clefable and Shedinja. I chose Dragon Claw and Earthquake with Groundium Z as the attacks for the set as it hits pretty much everything it needs; OHKOing most defensive pokemon such as Clefable and Ferrothorn with Tectonic Rage. These attacks leave it unable to hit either Skarmory or Celesteela, although this set still 1v1s Skarmory lacking an attacking move like Brave Bird as Taunt denies Toxic or Whirlwind. The speed hits 290 which outruns neutral base 95s while the special defense means Haxorus lives a Moonblast from full from Clefable. The drop in attack does not make any noticeable difference to this pokemon. I will also be the first to admit this pokemon is not good outside of ripping through stall.
- The much better physical Mold Breaker sweeper, I chose to use this here to help with Greninja-Ash and to do what Haxorus fails to do; beat Latias fat teams. It too is running Taunt + a boosting move to allow it to sweep or at least help break through a team. - I chose Yache Berry because it seemed helpful on Landorus for our matchup into Xtrashine and more just Tapu Koko and Medicham-Mega in general since we can eat an ice move and Earthquake it back or get rocks up. im running imprison on here to try and deny rocks from slower rocks setters due to Volcarona and Gyarados-Megas weakness. U-turn is useful to help get momentum in your favour without just clicking explosion like with normal rocks lead Landorus. - Same as always, Serperior clicks Defog and Glare to enable our sweepers it helps out against rain and other Pokemon like Kartana and Chansey for Gyarados and volcarona. Getting a Paralysis on Latias-mega can also mean that Haxorus can break through fat teams if they don't have another faster revenge killer on the team.
- The Matchup Moth himself. As they say, if you can't beat them, join them. I went with it here to make up for our offensive Magearna match up, as well as a fast offensive special sweeper. Leftovers helps it stay alive that bit longer since it can heal a bit between Fake Outs from Medicham-Mega and Lopunny-Mega to get more chances of flame body. I didn't really have time to build something a bit more solid; the team really isn't great, but it is quite fun to use. Enjoy the team!
https://pokepast.es/efa4daa13cedda7c
The idea for this team originally was a modern take on that old Mimolette team.
Crawdaunt and Magearna are your main breakers / wincons, crawdaunt breaks fat and revenges the moth against offense, magearna sweeps offense.
Zard was added next and gives you a check to kart and rotom after evolving while also beating heatran and ferro for magearna.
Custap Lando was a set I threw on in order to keep momentum and another stopgap against offense. I've explained this in another post that I'm not gonna go find, but an absurd amount of strong neutral and super-effective hits put you into custap range and you can priority boom. I don't remember why it's knock, uturn probably works if you want that.
Koko gives you a pivot into gren (kinda) and other stray hits. Taunt + Madness absolutely ruin things like chansey in order to let magearna win late game. Evs live a pump from full iirc. Also this makes sure you don't get 6-0d by lucha at preview.
Kartana is just the glue, I don't really have much to say about this
The idea for this team originally was a modern take on that old Mimolette team.
Crawdaunt and Magearna are your main breakers / wincons, crawdaunt breaks fat and revenges the moth against offense, magearna sweeps offense.
Zard was added next and gives you a check to kart and rotom after evolving while also beating heatran and ferro for magearna.
Custap Lando was a set I threw on in order to keep momentum and another stopgap against offense. I've explained this in another post that I'm not gonna go find, but an absurd amount of strong neutral and super-effective hits put you into custap range and you can priority boom. I don't remember why it's knock, uturn probably works if you want that.
Koko gives you a pivot into gren (kinda) and other stray hits. Taunt + Madness absolutely ruin things like chansey in order to let magearna win late game. Evs live a pump from full iirc. Also this makes sure you don't get 6-0d by lucha at preview.
Kartana is just the glue, I don't really have much to say about this
Custap Explosion Magearna + Healing Wish Latias + Firium Z Volcarona Offense
Team order is screwed but I don't care.
Started out with these two, considering I wanted to trial Healing Wish Latias + Volcarona, as a monstrous offensive core that smashes through basically every archetype if you play it right. Healing Wish is fun to allow Volcarona a second chance at a sweep, so you can be much more liberal with it early-game. Draco Meteor was chosen here to improve the team's matchup against Mega Medicham, and indeed the EVs are spread to guarantee the OHKO after rocks, while still keeping it as bulky and fast as possible. Volc, meanwhile, is running 3 attacks + Firium Z, simply to hit as hard as possible. You can run basically any set here, but I like the one at the moment. Giga Drain is a somewhat unorthodox choice here, but Gastrodon otherwise is an absolute monster to face for this team, along with Rotom-W (which is less of a problem but still, yikes).
Standard Tornadus. No notes, other than that it's an excellent Defogger for Volc, able to come in multiple times per game and remove hazards.
Again, very much a normal Tapu Fini except for running Haze over Defog. It's a slightly unorthodox choice, but being able to come in against a boosted foe and singlehandedly invalidate them is very, very satisfying. Probably, you could dump Taunt for Defog if you really want to, but I haven't been finding it difficult to remove hazards. Madness was chosen over Scald here to help Volc with those super bulky mons it struggles to hit, e.g. Chansey, Clefable, etc. Most stall mons, basically. Terrain helps Volc with sweeping by preventing it from being Toxic'd as it sets up enough.
You can run basically any set on Gliscor, let's be real. I'm particular to Swords Dance but that leaves you without Stealth Rock, so we're running Stealth Rock with U-Turn as a way to bring in Volcarona throughout the game.
Magearna seemed like a fit here, I needed a bulky steel-type and it seemed good enough. Ice Beam and Volt Switch are standard, so is Pain Split, but Custap Explosion is a funny answer to terrifying things like Ash-Greninja which otherwise are very nasty to see if Fini is weakened enough. The EV spread allows it to take Medicham's HJK, Landorus-T's Earthquake, underspeed Celesteela after Leech Seed, and OHKO Ash-Greninja after Stealth Rock with Explosion. Everything else went into SpD to make it as bulky as possible.
Enjoy!
Team order is screwed but I don't care.
Started out with these two, considering I wanted to trial Healing Wish Latias + Volcarona, as a monstrous offensive core that smashes through basically every archetype if you play it right. Healing Wish is fun to allow Volcarona a second chance at a sweep, so you can be much more liberal with it early-game. Draco Meteor was chosen here to improve the team's matchup against Mega Medicham, and indeed the EVs are spread to guarantee the OHKO after rocks, while still keeping it as bulky and fast as possible. Volc, meanwhile, is running 3 attacks + Firium Z, simply to hit as hard as possible. You can run basically any set here, but I like the one at the moment. Giga Drain is a somewhat unorthodox choice here, but Gastrodon otherwise is an absolute monster to face for this team, along with Rotom-W (which is less of a problem but still, yikes).
Standard Tornadus. No notes, other than that it's an excellent Defogger for Volc, able to come in multiple times per game and remove hazards.
Again, very much a normal Tapu Fini except for running Haze over Defog. It's a slightly unorthodox choice, but being able to come in against a boosted foe and singlehandedly invalidate them is very, very satisfying. Probably, you could dump Taunt for Defog if you really want to, but I haven't been finding it difficult to remove hazards. Madness was chosen over Scald here to help Volc with those super bulky mons it struggles to hit, e.g. Chansey, Clefable, etc. Most stall mons, basically. Terrain helps Volc with sweeping by preventing it from being Toxic'd as it sets up enough.
You can run basically any set on Gliscor, let's be real. I'm particular to Swords Dance but that leaves you without Stealth Rock, so we're running Stealth Rock with U-Turn as a way to bring in Volcarona throughout the game.
Magearna seemed like a fit here, I needed a bulky steel-type and it seemed good enough. Ice Beam and Volt Switch are standard, so is Pain Split, but Custap Explosion is a funny answer to terrifying things like Ash-Greninja which otherwise are very nasty to see if Fini is weakened enough. The EV spread allows it to take Medicham's HJK, Landorus-T's Earthquake, underspeed Celesteela after Leech Seed, and OHKO Ash-Greninja after Stealth Rock with Explosion. Everything else went into SpD to make it as bulky as possible.
Enjoy!
Custapex + 5 Other Pokémon That Work Well Balance
So, I’ve seen a lot of offensive Pokémon use custap berry, so I wanted to use a defensive variant on custap.
Toxapex, holding the coveted custap, is made to just set up toxic Spikes, and really the whole team is just make to cheese with toxic. Custap Berry allows it to Recover as soon as it drops low,which might just make the difference between a Pokémon fainting from toxic or not. Or, it can choose to get that last T-spike up, so other Pokémon will have to get poisoned and put on a timer. Other than that, you can scald, or just set up toxic yourself.
Skarmory, I’ve learned, is a really good partner with Toxapex, as It can avoid the Ground Moves, and take the Psychic moves that Toxapex fears, and Toxapex can tank the Fighting and Fire moves that Skarmory can’t take. This Skarmory set just really has spikes for spike reasons, defog for hazard control, roost for recovery, and Brave bird to deal some damage, and Rocky Helmet to cause even more chip damage.
Both of Toxapex and Skarmory are weak to Electric moves, so that’s where Landorus comes in. This is the usual Choice Scarf set, Earthquake to deal massive damage and to deal with those poison and steel types immune to toxic, U-turn to get the hell out of there, Stone Edge to take care of those flying types immune to toxic spikes, and knock off to cripple the opponent by taking away their held item.
Heatran‘ here for some stealth rocking, for those flying types. Also Magma Storm to chip the opposition even further, Earth Power for overall coverage and dealing with other Heatran, magearna, and Magnezone, and toxic because we need those toxic for toxic shenanigans,
Kartana, because I needed a sweeper to capitalize on the holes in the very crippled holes via toxic. Usual swords dance set, Leaf blade, secret sword as usual attacking moves, and Normalium Z Giga Impact to just delete a certain Pokémon that the team can’t break through.
I was planning to post for the Diancie-Mega slate last week, but I just didn’t do it, so here’s me redeeming myself for my previous mistake. A hard hitting special attacker, with physical STAB in Diamond Storm, Earth Power for coverage (Can be easily swapped with Mystical Fire), and toxic for, well, you get it.
https://pokepast.es/dd9d23e2caae1d7d
So, I’ve seen a lot of offensive Pokémon use custap berry, so I wanted to use a defensive variant on custap.
Toxapex, holding the coveted custap, is made to just set up toxic Spikes, and really the whole team is just make to cheese with toxic. Custap Berry allows it to Recover as soon as it drops low,which might just make the difference between a Pokémon fainting from toxic or not. Or, it can choose to get that last T-spike up, so other Pokémon will have to get poisoned and put on a timer. Other than that, you can scald, or just set up toxic yourself.
Skarmory, I’ve learned, is a really good partner with Toxapex, as It can avoid the Ground Moves, and take the Psychic moves that Toxapex fears, and Toxapex can tank the Fighting and Fire moves that Skarmory can’t take. This Skarmory set just really has spikes for spike reasons, defog for hazard control, roost for recovery, and Brave bird to deal some damage, and Rocky Helmet to cause even more chip damage.
Both of Toxapex and Skarmory are weak to Electric moves, so that’s where Landorus comes in. This is the usual Choice Scarf set, Earthquake to deal massive damage and to deal with those poison and steel types immune to toxic, U-turn to get the hell out of there, Stone Edge to take care of those flying types immune to toxic spikes, and knock off to cripple the opponent by taking away their held item.
Heatran‘ here for some stealth rocking, for those flying types. Also Magma Storm to chip the opposition even further, Earth Power for overall coverage and dealing with other Heatran, magearna, and Magnezone, and toxic because we need those toxic for toxic shenanigans,
Kartana, because I needed a sweeper to capitalize on the holes in the very crippled holes via toxic. Usual swords dance set, Leaf blade, secret sword as usual attacking moves, and Normalium Z Giga Impact to just delete a certain Pokémon that the team can’t break through.
I was planning to post for the Diancie-Mega slate last week, but I just didn’t do it, so here’s me redeeming myself for my previous mistake. A hard hitting special attacker, with physical STAB in Diamond Storm, Earth Power for coverage (Can be easily swapped with Mystical Fire), and toxic for, well, you get it.
https://pokepast.es/dd9d23e2caae1d7d
With these 7 submissions, the week has come to a close. You will now vote for who wins this week by replying down below with the team you want to vote for.
Team 1 by Yxzwilliam
Team 2 by Bored Pikachu
Team 3 by AcneAutist
Team 4 by CM Reuniclus
Team 5 by TPH
Team 6 by clematis
Team 7 by Lightniong
You have until 11:59pm, Wednesday, 20th of December to vote for a winner. Good luck to everyone who posted!
Team 1 by Yxzwilliam
Team 2 by Bored Pikachu
Team 3 by AcneAutist
Team 4 by CM Reuniclus
Team 5 by TPH
Team 6 by clematis
Team 7 by Lightniong
You have until 11:59pm, Wednesday, 20th of December to vote for a winner. Good luck to everyone who posted!
After the voting has concluded this week, CM Reuniclus has won again. Please somebody stop this guy.
On another note, I’m reminding users not to delete votes. If you delete your vote in the middle of a competition then I will not accept votes from you again.
Anyway, I’m proud with last week’s success. 7 teams was a lot to pick from. This week, I’m going back to centering the week around one Pokemon. The Pokemon that you will be building around this week will be…
Week 6: Mega Charizard X
This Pokemon is an incredible breaker/sweeper, being able to throw off Tough Claws boosted Flare Blitz to melt basically everything. It has coverage options of the likes of Earthquake and Dragon Claw, and it even has the option to run bulky Roost sets. It doesn’t just fit on Hyper Offense, it can be an inclusion on anything from Balance to Offense. I feel the potential of this Pokemon is untapped, so I am making it the subject of week 6.
Any team posted must contain a Charizard holding Charizardite X. You have until 11:59pm on Friday, the 29th of December, to post your teams. Good luck!
On another note, I’m reminding users not to delete votes. If you delete your vote in the middle of a competition then I will not accept votes from you again.
Anyway, I’m proud with last week’s success. 7 teams was a lot to pick from. This week, I’m going back to centering the week around one Pokemon. The Pokemon that you will be building around this week will be…
Week 6: Mega Charizard X
This Pokemon is an incredible breaker/sweeper, being able to throw off Tough Claws boosted Flare Blitz to melt basically everything. It has coverage options of the likes of Earthquake and Dragon Claw, and it even has the option to run bulky Roost sets. It doesn’t just fit on Hyper Offense, it can be an inclusion on anything from Balance to Offense. I feel the potential of this Pokemon is untapped, so I am making it the subject of week 6.
Any team posted must contain a Charizard holding Charizardite X. You have until 11:59pm on Friday, the 29th of December, to post your teams. Good luck!
Horrifying Charizard X + Seismitoad "Pray you don't run into Heatran" Balance
Started out with this. There isn't anything particularly noteworthy here, but it was originally a Swords Dance set that evolved into the Dragon Dance variant we see here. There's no Earthquake due to the effects of Grassy Terrain, so Dragon Claw is used instead simply to hit as hard as possible with a Tough Claws-boosted STAB.
Cresselia is here because I wanted Thunder Wave support for Charizard, also combined with Lunar Dance as a way to give Char a second chance to sweep if it gets too weakened. Ice Beam and Moonlight are also extremely standard, and the 84 Speed here allows it to creep Careful Gliscor to 2HKO with Ice Beam. All the other EVs were pumped into Defense to handle powerful wallbreakers like Mega Medicham, Landorus, Garchomp, and Kartana.
This one came as a pair with Seismitoad and was originally running a Stealth Rock + Wish set, but it's also running Thunder Wave to really spread status for Charizard. Aromatherapy is useful here as none of the mons on this team really enjoy taking a Toxic to the face, and it needed a way to deal with that. This, along with Lunar Dance Cresselia, means that you can be pretty liberal with Charizard early-game if you want, throwing out STAB Tough Claws-boosted Flare Blitzes with near-impunity. Wish is still entirely an option if you want, I'd probably dump Thunder Wave if you choose to go that way. We're running enough speed for paralysed Heatran, otherwise the normal Chansey spread.
Much as I hate Seismitoad, it fits quite well here, giving us both a Water- and Electric- immunity, while compressing Knock Off support, Stealth Rocks, Scald burns, and Toxic into one teamslot. Again, there's no Earthquake here mainly because of Grassy Terrain, but Earth Power is totally an option over Toxic if you want. Protect also fits as a way to scout out Z-Moves and Choice-locked Pokemon - all three options are pretty good, but Toxic is my preference to catch switchins such as Serperior out. The Speed EVs are to outspeed uninvested Mega Scizor and threaten it with a Scald burn, while the HP and Defense allow it to tank a +2 Sucker Punch from Mega Mawile from full. Everything else was pooled into SpD to help deal with common threats such as Tapu Koko, Magearna, and Heatran.
Tornadus seemed like a fairly natural fit - the team as it was needed a Defogger along with a little more of an offensive presence, so Z-Tornadus fit well. It also gives us a good out against Swords Dance Kartana, which was a dangerous threat at this point. It also helps out with the Medicham matchup a ton. Originally this was Flyinium Z for those two, but Heatran was looking pretty much unbreakable at the end of the building process, so I switched it to Fightinium Z-Focus Blast to handle that a little better. Hurricane remains the obligatory STAB, along with Defog and U-Turn to clear hazards and get Charizard in, respectively.
At this point, a Fairy-type was needed, and I also wanted a Grass-type to complete the Fire/Water/Grass core that had formed around Charizard and Seismitoad. Tapu Bulu was definitely the best choice here, as it also brings in Grassy Terrain support, weakening Earthquakes that threatened Charizard and provide a small amount of passive recovery to slightly negate Flare Blitz's recoil. We're running a bulky Swords Dance set to provide a secondary wincon, along with some more general offensive pressure as the team still felt quite passive. The Speed is enough to creep Crawdaunt (and Azumarill, by extension), while the Attack EVs are enough to OHKO Mega Alakazam after Stealth Rock with Horn Leech.
Well, there's the team. Heatran is a big issue considering that your best way of killing it is by either Swords Dance-boosted Superpower or All-Out Pummeling from Tornadus, but aside from that, this team has a decent enough matchup into most of OU's big threats, while still providing a good backbone and support for Charizard to sweep.
Best of luck to all the other teams, and Happy Christmas!
Started out with this. There isn't anything particularly noteworthy here, but it was originally a Swords Dance set that evolved into the Dragon Dance variant we see here. There's no Earthquake due to the effects of Grassy Terrain, so Dragon Claw is used instead simply to hit as hard as possible with a Tough Claws-boosted STAB.
Cresselia is here because I wanted Thunder Wave support for Charizard, also combined with Lunar Dance as a way to give Char a second chance to sweep if it gets too weakened. Ice Beam and Moonlight are also extremely standard, and the 84 Speed here allows it to creep Careful Gliscor to 2HKO with Ice Beam. All the other EVs were pumped into Defense to handle powerful wallbreakers like Mega Medicham, Landorus, Garchomp, and Kartana.
This one came as a pair with Seismitoad and was originally running a Stealth Rock + Wish set, but it's also running Thunder Wave to really spread status for Charizard. Aromatherapy is useful here as none of the mons on this team really enjoy taking a Toxic to the face, and it needed a way to deal with that. This, along with Lunar Dance Cresselia, means that you can be pretty liberal with Charizard early-game if you want, throwing out STAB Tough Claws-boosted Flare Blitzes with near-impunity. Wish is still entirely an option if you want, I'd probably dump Thunder Wave if you choose to go that way. We're running enough speed for paralysed Heatran, otherwise the normal Chansey spread.
Much as I hate Seismitoad, it fits quite well here, giving us both a Water- and Electric- immunity, while compressing Knock Off support, Stealth Rocks, Scald burns, and Toxic into one teamslot. Again, there's no Earthquake here mainly because of Grassy Terrain, but Earth Power is totally an option over Toxic if you want. Protect also fits as a way to scout out Z-Moves and Choice-locked Pokemon - all three options are pretty good, but Toxic is my preference to catch switchins such as Serperior out. The Speed EVs are to outspeed uninvested Mega Scizor and threaten it with a Scald burn, while the HP and Defense allow it to tank a +2 Sucker Punch from Mega Mawile from full. Everything else was pooled into SpD to help deal with common threats such as Tapu Koko, Magearna, and Heatran.
Tornadus seemed like a fairly natural fit - the team as it was needed a Defogger along with a little more of an offensive presence, so Z-Tornadus fit well. It also gives us a good out against Swords Dance Kartana, which was a dangerous threat at this point. It also helps out with the Medicham matchup a ton. Originally this was Flyinium Z for those two, but Heatran was looking pretty much unbreakable at the end of the building process, so I switched it to Fightinium Z-Focus Blast to handle that a little better. Hurricane remains the obligatory STAB, along with Defog and U-Turn to clear hazards and get Charizard in, respectively.
At this point, a Fairy-type was needed, and I also wanted a Grass-type to complete the Fire/Water/Grass core that had formed around Charizard and Seismitoad. Tapu Bulu was definitely the best choice here, as it also brings in Grassy Terrain support, weakening Earthquakes that threatened Charizard and provide a small amount of passive recovery to slightly negate Flare Blitz's recoil. We're running a bulky Swords Dance set to provide a secondary wincon, along with some more general offensive pressure as the team still felt quite passive. The Speed is enough to creep Crawdaunt (and Azumarill, by extension), while the Attack EVs are enough to OHKO Mega Alakazam after Stealth Rock with Horn Leech.
Well, there's the team. Heatran is a big issue considering that your best way of killing it is by either Swords Dance-boosted Superpower or All-Out Pummeling from Tornadus, but aside from that, this team has a decent enough matchup into most of OU's big threats, while still providing a good backbone and support for Charizard to sweep.
Best of luck to all the other teams, and Happy Christmas!
Zard X Fire Spam Bulky Offense w Weavile Pursuit Support
Fire types are a cornerstone attack type in SM metagame and Zard X is a top tier abuser of fire attacks. With that, the obvious thing to do is stack fire type attackers that synergize together positionally and enable that concept as much as possible with support pieces. Serperior and Heatran stack fire moves to create fire spam core. Weavile+Fini attack dragons that attempt to stop fire spam core from destroying the opponent. Lando T provides many needed roles in a pivot move, volt switch blocker, defensive buffer, backup defog, revenge killer and adds a strong EQ to pair with Zard X. Bam, team is done.
Heatran
* Stealth rocks are great at chipping down opponents and punishes switches, best move in pokemon. Taunt+toxic deters many dynamics unfavorable to fire+ice+ground core like stealth rocks, set-up, water and ground attackers among other generally useful ways to use those moves. Since Heatran has Fini+Zard X+leech seed support, there's less of a need to use earth power to take out Toxapex and Heatran while toxic covers other swap ins. Fire blast is a generally strong fire move with decent accuracy, stacking on the fire attacking core even more.
* 2hko 248 HP Lando T from full without rocks up (assuming no leftovers). Speed is faster than jolly Bisharp+EV point jump. Rest is dumped into HP to allow Heatran to be more defensively capable into brokens like Mega Mawile, Volcarona, Magearna and Tapu Lele.
Serperior
* Leaf storm+HP fire is a great attack combination in tandem with leech seed to chip away at steels, flying and dragon types that try checking Serperior. Chipping those pokemon down allow ground and ice attackers to be fully enabled. Leech seed also provides some recovery to its teammates and creates switch opportunities, deadly with pursuit support+substitute.
* Always eats Rotom W hydro pump uninvested with sub up. Rest dumped into speed+special attack power to maximize Serperior's offensive output.
Zard X
* Flare blitz+earthquake creates the core attack types this team hinges on. Roost creates much needed longevity for Zard X to continue its flare blitz onslaught. With misty terrain support and no dragon claw, there is zero downside for Zard X to be under terrain. This allows for swap ins against toxic pex and t-wave Clefable while enabling attacks into static Zapdos. Weavile's pursuit support+stab ice attacks allows Zard X to break past Mega Latias, Dragonite and Garchomp more comfortably. All of this support is there to enable dragon dance as the last slot and turns Zard X into a hyper consistent killing machine while being hard to revenge kill.
* With decent natural bulk and its role as the main attacker, max attack and speed is ideal for its role.
Weavile
* Pursuit+ice attacks enables ground+fire attackers to be maximized as dragons that resist/immune to ground attacks are vulerable to pursuit+ice attacks. Ice shard priority as priority keeps in check many breakers/sweepers and unexpected outcomes to have some counterplay.
* Max speed max attack is ideal as Weavile's role is entirely based on its offensive output to enable Zard X+Serperior.
Lando T
* EQ stacks with Zard X for ground attack core. U-turn is a pivot move to bring in Zard X+Serperior+Weavile offense trio. Defog removes hazards to help rock weak Zard X+Weavile swap in more often. Stone edge created edgequake combination that's very difficult to stop generating progress.
* Spread outspeeds +1 Kommo-o, lives Hawlucha +1 acro after rocks, rest into attack.
Tapu Fini
* Misty terrain allows swap ins against passive pokemon, letting the breaking core do what they want. Surf, with the special attack investment, can punish Gliscors attemping to set up and sweep with a over 2/3 chance to 2hko. Surf also lets Fini punish the fires and grounds it'll match up against like Heatran, Volcarona and Lando T. Moonblast is a fairy move that punishes dragons, a big deal for the fire spam core, that also lets Fini beat Mega Medicham and Mega Lopunny 1v1. Natures madness is great general chip damage and keeps opponents honest when swapping around mons in advance to keep the breaking core from coming in. Defog clears hazards that bother the breaking core.
* Enough spedef for Ash Gren pumps (never 3hko'd), enough special attack to have great odds vs SD Gliscor set-up, enough speed for CB Crawdaunt and rest put into physdef for maximum defensive capabilities into fighters like Mega Medicham and Mega Lopunny.
https://pokepast.es/66bed573cea3bcfd
Fire types are a cornerstone attack type in SM metagame and Zard X is a top tier abuser of fire attacks. With that, the obvious thing to do is stack fire type attackers that synergize together positionally and enable that concept as much as possible with support pieces. Serperior and Heatran stack fire moves to create fire spam core. Weavile+Fini attack dragons that attempt to stop fire spam core from destroying the opponent. Lando T provides many needed roles in a pivot move, volt switch blocker, defensive buffer, backup defog, revenge killer and adds a strong EQ to pair with Zard X. Bam, team is done.
Heatran
* Stealth rocks are great at chipping down opponents and punishes switches, best move in pokemon. Taunt+toxic deters many dynamics unfavorable to fire+ice+ground core like stealth rocks, set-up, water and ground attackers among other generally useful ways to use those moves. Since Heatran has Fini+Zard X+leech seed support, there's less of a need to use earth power to take out Toxapex and Heatran while toxic covers other swap ins. Fire blast is a generally strong fire move with decent accuracy, stacking on the fire attacking core even more.
* 2hko 248 HP Lando T from full without rocks up (assuming no leftovers). Speed is faster than jolly Bisharp+EV point jump. Rest is dumped into HP to allow Heatran to be more defensively capable into brokens like Mega Mawile, Volcarona, Magearna and Tapu Lele.
Serperior
* Leaf storm+HP fire is a great attack combination in tandem with leech seed to chip away at steels, flying and dragon types that try checking Serperior. Chipping those pokemon down allow ground and ice attackers to be fully enabled. Leech seed also provides some recovery to its teammates and creates switch opportunities, deadly with pursuit support+substitute.
* Always eats Rotom W hydro pump uninvested with sub up. Rest dumped into speed+special attack power to maximize Serperior's offensive output.
Zard X
* Flare blitz+earthquake creates the core attack types this team hinges on. Roost creates much needed longevity for Zard X to continue its flare blitz onslaught. With misty terrain support and no dragon claw, there is zero downside for Zard X to be under terrain. This allows for swap ins against toxic pex and t-wave Clefable while enabling attacks into static Zapdos. Weavile's pursuit support+stab ice attacks allows Zard X to break past Mega Latias, Dragonite and Garchomp more comfortably. All of this support is there to enable dragon dance as the last slot and turns Zard X into a hyper consistent killing machine while being hard to revenge kill.
* With decent natural bulk and its role as the main attacker, max attack and speed is ideal for its role.
Weavile
* Pursuit+ice attacks enables ground+fire attackers to be maximized as dragons that resist/immune to ground attacks are vulerable to pursuit+ice attacks. Ice shard priority as priority keeps in check many breakers/sweepers and unexpected outcomes to have some counterplay.
* Max speed max attack is ideal as Weavile's role is entirely based on its offensive output to enable Zard X+Serperior.
Lando T
* EQ stacks with Zard X for ground attack core. U-turn is a pivot move to bring in Zard X+Serperior+Weavile offense trio. Defog removes hazards to help rock weak Zard X+Weavile swap in more often. Stone edge created edgequake combination that's very difficult to stop generating progress.
* Spread outspeeds +1 Kommo-o, lives Hawlucha +1 acro after rocks, rest into attack.
Tapu Fini
* Misty terrain allows swap ins against passive pokemon, letting the breaking core do what they want. Surf, with the special attack investment, can punish Gliscors attemping to set up and sweep with a over 2/3 chance to 2hko. Surf also lets Fini punish the fires and grounds it'll match up against like Heatran, Volcarona and Lando T. Moonblast is a fairy move that punishes dragons, a big deal for the fire spam core, that also lets Fini beat Mega Medicham and Mega Lopunny 1v1. Natures madness is great general chip damage and keeps opponents honest when swapping around mons in advance to keep the breaking core from coming in. Defog clears hazards that bother the breaking core.
* Enough spedef for Ash Gren pumps (never 3hko'd), enough special attack to have great odds vs SD Gliscor set-up, enough speed for CB Crawdaunt and rest put into physdef for maximum defensive capabilities into fighters like Mega Medicham and Mega Lopunny.
https://pokepast.es/66bed573cea3bcfd
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Thanks to its combination of charizard types, it is able to use its dragon attacks without worrying about steel and fairy types, forming synergy with other dragons.
- The pokemon chosen this week, its DD set is used to sweep weakened teams, dragon claw is used as neutral coverage, pressing pokemon such as latios or rotom.
- Kommo-o, like charizard, has a good secondary type to combat defensive steels, thanks to crystal Z and DD it is capable of defeating teams weakened by charizard.
- Offensive Tornadus with taunt and defog is a good lead, avoiding rocks for charizard, metronomo boosts its hurricane with each consecutive use.
- Tapu bulu with assault vest is my special defensive without losing offensive potential, his field counteracts the other tapus especially fini which would be a big problem, madness of nature helps to wear down opponents without recovery
- Rotom-W fills three very important niches, it gives immunity to the ground, it gives a Defogger and finally a defensive pivot to easily bring in Kommo-o and Charizard.
- Jirachi is again my dedicated steel against fairy/psychic spam, I opted for the defensive variant with rock trap, so kommo-o is able to carry dragon dance and he complements well with Rotom as my defensive pivot, healing wish helps you recover your teammates .
“Just Why?” Zard X Semi Stall Edition
I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea, but I felt like building SM when I saw this thread active. I then checked it and saw alexdevi’s team which basically looks similar to every single zard X team I ever built, so I decided to do something radically different and build around the fabled dtail
https://pokepast.es/75a620b420a0fa4b
This set is probably not the most viable thing but I tried to build to it’s forces: it handles decently to extremely well steel types and offensive fire types (except heatran). But most importantly, it abuses hazards really well.
basically, zard handles physical threats skarm can’t deal with (with exceptions of course) and skarm provides spikes for the zard to abuse.
Nothing too fancy here, except maybe u-turn which isn’t the most common slot, but it synergize well with weavile imo. And u-turn in spikes stack is just my favorite thing 
this little guy fits well in this for several reasons: of course traping things weakened by hazards is always cool, it provides both speed and breaking power, weavile switch ins are, beside pex, mostly free charizard shenanigans.
now, skarm is a fake steel in a lot of regards in the tiers, so another steel might be needed. I first thought of jirachi, which may provides rocks and let gliscor run defog, jirachi could have also ran wish/hwish to help weavile. But, with the passivity of the team something like magearna with heart swap seemed like an interestong option to cover cm reuni and stuff and provide a real dark resist.
I would have loved to put a scarf rotom here, but that would have been really incoherent with the team pace imo. On the other hand, pex provides a sturdy water resist and haze to further helps with set up and not just rely on hs gear.
Icium Z is obviously here to not waste the opportunity of a z user, but it may also help with certains set up user that pex may need to switch into at some point (think lucha/azu/z psy volc/t-bolt clef/serp…)
Overall, this has glaring issues, like the lacks of hazard control in a team with weavile and charizard. Defog was considered on zard but wow is really multipurpose and usefull against stuff like mawile.
I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea, but I felt like building SM when I saw this thread active. I then checked it and saw alexdevi’s team which basically looks similar to every single zard X team I ever built, so I decided to do something radically different and build around the fabled dtail
https://pokepast.es/75a620b420a0fa4b
This set is probably not the most viable thing but I tried to build to it’s forces: it handles decently to extremely well steel types and offensive fire types (except heatran). But most importantly, it abuses hazards really well. basically, zard handles physical threats skarm can’t deal with (with exceptions of course) and skarm provides spikes for the zard to abuse. Nothing too fancy here, except maybe u-turn which isn’t the most common slot, but it synergize well with weavile imo. And u-turn in spikes stack is just my favorite thing this little guy fits well in this for several reasons: of course traping things weakened by hazards is always cool, it provides both speed and breaking power, weavile switch ins are, beside pex, mostly free charizard shenanigans. now, skarm is a fake steel in a lot of regards in the tiers, so another steel might be needed. I first thought of jirachi, which may provides rocks and let gliscor run defog, jirachi could have also ran wish/hwish to help weavile. But, with the passivity of the team something like magearna with heart swap seemed like an interestong option to cover cm reuni and stuff and provide a real dark resist. I would have loved to put a scarf rotom here, but that would have been really incoherent with the team pace imo. On the other hand, pex provides a sturdy water resist and haze to further helps with set up and not just rely on hs gear.Icium Z is obviously here to not waste the opportunity of a z user, but it may also help with certains set up user that pex may need to switch into at some point (think lucha/azu/z psy volc/t-bolt clef/serp…)
Overall, this has glaring issues, like the lacks of hazard control in a team with weavile and charizard. Defog was considered on zard but wow is really multipurpose and usefull against stuff like mawile.