SS OU Surprise Eruption Heatran Team

[Electra102]

Hey there! Second team I've posted to Rate My Team. Rather than some gimmicky team featuring a bad Pokémon, this time it is a quick team I made for SS OU that I feel is pretty decent. It makes use of a surprise addition of Eruption to Heatran, which will be mentioned later.

The Team

Tapu Lele

Probably one of my favorite Pokemon to use. With a Choice Scarf, it outruns some of the fastest Pokémon in the format, including (but not limited to) Dragapult. I found I was not clicking Future Sight on the standard Choice Scarf set, so I went with a set of Psychic, Psyshock, Moonblast, and Focus Blast. This thing is great for cleaning up when the resists are gone, for breaking Toxapex, and thus forth. Of all the Pokémon on this team, this is the one I want to keep the most and would be most resistant to changing. Of course, if there is a good enough reason...

Weavile

A Pokémon I'm a bit more iffy on, but it can certainly pull its weight, and benefits from the Psychic Terrain that Tapu Lele conveniently provides. If Lele is down, Weavile can take out Dragapult, seriously damage Ferrothorn, and scare off some pesky birds. Though I do not click it often, Swords Dance can certainly prove helpful, especially if Weavile has the opportunity to get several up. The rest of the set- Heavy Duty Boots, Ice Shard, Triple Axel, and Knock Off, is self-explanatory.

Melmetal

This thing is a monster. Though it lacks Thunder Wave and the cheesing potential from paralysis + Double Iron Bash, it can still dish out a lot of damage. With the Assault Vest, Melmetal can actually take quite a bit on the special side, despite its less-than-impressive special bulk. It can also help out some against rain teams, as it can take any one hit from Choice Banded Barraskewda well, and always KO in return with Thunder Punch. Overall a decent Pokémon, though it can certainly fall flat at times.

Ferrothorn

Ah, my main counter to rain in general. Zapdos Thunder? Resisted. Barraskewda Liquidation? Resisted and punishes for it. U-Turn from an annoying Pelipper? Not resisted, but that chip damage... Ferrothorn was added on as a check to rain in general, save for perhaps Close Combat from Barraskewda, and the last 'mon resists that. Even if there is no rain... its still a freaking Ferrothorn. When is hazard stacking not useful?

Heatran

The penultimate team member, Heatran. Also known as my answer to stall. Magma Storm and Taunt combined can trap and take out many common stallers, including Blissey, Corviknight, and Toxapex. However, I replaced Toxic on the thing for Eruption, which can be deadly against a slower team, and unexpecting opponent, or some wonderful combination of both. While it misses out on the KO on many mons, it still does heavy, possibly crippling, damage.

Landorus-Therian

​

You may have noticed that I have a severe fighting weakness on this team. Lando here helps to fix that. Intimidate alone on the guy is wonderful, and a pivot move is also helpful. It also serves as a way to deal with opposing Heatran, Melmetal, and thus forth. I found I was not clicking Toxic, so out it went for Knock Off, which can help me even more against rain teams (especially if I can nail it on an incoming Pelipper).

Conclusion​

So, how did I do? Is this team complete garbage, or does it have some merit? Opinions are welcome, though I may become a bit defensive of certain parts of my team, why I made certain decisions, and thus forth. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day, even if you despise me and my team.

 

[Electra102]

Also, Poképaste: https://pokepast.es/957e4507d0f41116

 

[jawsome274]

Not experienced in ss ou in the slightest however I am noticing that Urshifu comes in here and consistently gets kills

 

[Electra102]

Thank you for pointing that out. I should really find a way to fix that

 

[memesketch]

Maybe a Physdef Water-type over Melm and change Ferro to SpDef? Melm seems superfluous when the Ferro Lando Heatran core checks basically all of what it wants to, and since your team looks fairly weak to Urshifu immediately and Melmetal and Weavile over time, I was thinking maybe Toxapex could shore up some of those weaknesses. Plus Toxic Spikes looks interesting to consider for your team, since you have Knock Off Lando to remove Boots from Slow twins and Buzzwole for Heatran and Weav. Fini could also work because it resets Terrain so Weav can use Ice Shard more often

 

[awyp]

Hey there,

Format is very interesting, to the point with no initial preview of the team before the deep dive but it is missing the move set and EVs of each Pokémon aside from you linking the Pokepaste (should be in the OP).

Don't post incomplete teams - this means having all 6 members with EV spreads and moves.

Quick rate:

Your team gets wrecked by entry hazard, so stall would be easy cake for the current format of this team. A quick remedy to this would be (Defog > Knock Off) on Lando. I would suggest it over Knock Off because having a pivoter on the team (Landorus-Therian) could help deal pivot damage and scope out the opponents moves (deciding to switch or stay in).

Heatrans set is interesting I feel like Eruption isn't getting used to its full potential, since its only 40 BP higher than Magma storm. You will get damaged by the time you use a second move or go for the Magma storm so Eruptions full power will go down once you take any damage, so I do think it is a waste of a move with the current set. I would recommend to go with the Choice Specs set this will provide the ability to surprise on the switch and hit anything that is trying to resist Heatrans stab move.

Heatran Choice Specs set

Heatran @ Choice Specs
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid / Modest Nature
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power Grass / Dark Pulse

Fun Calc: Modest Heatran Eruption vs Toxapex

252+ SpA Choice Specs Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 148-174 (48.6 - 57.2%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO

As stated above Urshifu-Rapid-Strike does some problem to this team. I think Melmetal is a good bulky steel to have but Ferrothorn is kinda doing the bulk steel job pretty well on this team plus providing entry hazard. You say in the description that Melmetal is used to cover some rain dance teams that have CB Barraskewda, which I can agree with you but you can't switch into it, which I think is the whole premise of real defensive checks against something like CB Barraskewda. My recommendation would be go with Slowbro (a Pokemon that covers Urshifu-Rapid-Strike pretty well but also provides pivoting ability and the defensive prowess to handle CB Barraskewda and some other rain dance mons).

Slowbro Physically Defensive set

Slowbro @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Future Sight
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Teleport

Lastly, I would say consider Body Press > Power Whip for some common Ferrothorn switch in (Like Magnezone / Bisharp) this could be helpful in the long run.

Best of luck with this team.

 

[Smashburn]

Hi, so first here are your new pastes:

https://pokepast.es/d0714f75231ca4ef
https://pokepast.es/af395157316c7ebc

However, secondly I think this team has a lot of inherent flaws. There are a lot of threats that pressure you, and I don't think I can really do much to this team without making it unrecognizable. So, the changes I implemented give you more options to play around them and other obvious threats.

1. ->

This one was fairly simple. As mentioned above by other commenters, Melmetal stacks too much with Heatran and Ferrothorn for it to fit into this team. You were in desperate need of a bulky water-type that didn't further open the Kartana and Rillaboom hole so this is the best patch. Optionally, if you are okay with no longer being able to fish for burns you can run Poison Jab to better answer CM Fini because you have a lot of trouble once it sets up. The current EVs allow you to tank 3 Specs Pult Shadow Balls after rocks barring a SpD drop, which give you a little more defensive insurance that also covers Blacephalon and Gengar as a midground. The 8 speed and Rocky Helmet lets you creep and punish Melmetal, which is rather large considering you don't want to be dropped by DIB - Twave spam while fishing for burns.

2. Eruption -> Flash Cannon ( SpD -> Offensive)

I understand the main "gimmick" you were hoping to build with was Eruption (although, this is a fairly standard offensive Heatran move and won't come as a surprise to most, if any, experienced players) but Flash Cannon is simply too useful to pass up on. This is still optional if you choose to go with Taunt, but I think it best complements this team's role compression. It allows you to nail fairies, which is a necessity given that the majority of your team cannot immediately deal with most. Heavy Slam can also be used to specifically target CM Clefable.

I also took the liberty to use an offensive set which better complements this team offensively. It even outspeeds Timid Volcanion which causes this team a ton of issues, and it can threaten it with Earth Power. However, you are still almost always sacking something to it in a given game.

3. Phys Def -> SpD ( Earthquake -> Earth Power)

Phys Def Landorus really doesn't cut it in this team, especially when you want to provide a soft barrier against Zapdos, Tornadus, and Ghost-types. The switch to SpD helps this team out a lot more.

In addition to this change I took the liberty of using Earth Power over Earthquake as a means to better control Kartana (see below calcs). This also has the added benefit of preventing Bulk Up Zeraora from getting out of control.

0 SpA Landorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Kartana: 240-283 (92.6 - 109.2%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
0 SpA Landorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Kartana: 240-283 (92.6 - 109.2%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

4. Psychic -> Thunderbolt ( Timid -> Modest)

Switching from Psychic to Thunderbolt reduces prediction reliance when facing bulky-water types, as well as Corviknight and Skarmory. Additionally, this gives you another offensive out to pressure Volcanion.

Modest is used over Timid for more immediate power, which often comes in handy. The only real practical use of Timid is outspeeding Arctozolt in hail, which isn't common.

That's all I have for you, have fun!

 

[Electra102]

Um, wow. Thank you Smashburn!