I've no idea why my ladder rating is different from the one in my /rank, but oh well who cares, I got qualified and voted anyway.
SV OU is certainly a...tier. How good it actually is as a meta is up to anyone's interpretation, but one thing is for certain; as the "central/inclusive" tier, it is by far the one most open to the widest possible range of strategies available (that aren't banned from it, like baton pass/moody shenanigans etc); a trait/luxury that lower tiers aren't always able to provide; perhaps because OU's power level is such that it can handle, and best adapt, strategies from all sorts of playstyles- be it screens, weather and indeed even terrain...much like the team being showcased here.
I'd been meaning to make this post for a while now, but 1. I'd never really found a good enough opportunity to post a rmt, be it because of a wide variety of excuses (most notably how long it'd take to write a thread like this....), or simply because 2. I'd never really been fully satisfied with the state of the team; after all, it's a strategy facilitated by one of the worst mons in the game, and frankly it wasn't until recent meta developments/game additions that such a playstyle even stood out as having a genuine chance at it; even now/in this team's current state, you still need a particular amount of skill/reading/aggression level to be able to pilot a team like this, and I'm frankly astonished I even managed to use it all the way through to get reqs- I'm mostly a mid ladder player stuck in the mid 1600s that sometimes reaches 1700 and plateaus there. Anyway that's enough ranting for now- let's get onto the rmt itself.
Warning: I'm not really a frequent forum poster, so I always make sure that when I do post about something, I go into as much depth as possible. Considering this is an entire thread....
I'd been meaning to make this post for a while now, but 1. I'd never really found a good enough opportunity to post a rmt, be it because of a wide variety of excuses (most notably how long it'd take to write a thread like this....), or simply because 2. I'd never really been fully satisfied with the state of the team; after all, it's a strategy facilitated by one of the worst mons in the game, and frankly it wasn't until recent meta developments/game additions that such a playstyle even stood out as having a genuine chance at it; even now/in this team's current state, you still need a particular amount of skill/reading/aggression level to be able to pilot a team like this, and I'm frankly astonished I even managed to use it all the way through to get reqs- I'm mostly a mid ladder player stuck in the mid 1600s that sometimes reaches 1700 and plateaus there. Anyway that's enough ranting for now- let's get onto the rmt itself.
Warning: I'm not really a frequent forum poster, so I always make sure that when I do post about something, I go into as much depth as possible. Considering this is an entire thread....
Before getting into anything else, let's address the 
in the room:
Why would one consider using e-terrain in OU?
As with any playstyle, this one offers a unique set of advantages, provided you're able to delve deep enough into them. Most particularly though:
in the room:Why would one consider using e-terrain in OU?
As with any playstyle, this one offers a unique set of advantages, provided you're able to delve deep enough into them. Most particularly though:
- It enables quark drive mons. This seems like a no brainer to mention, but it really cannot be understated how invaluable 1. getting the ability boost at any point of the match really is (mostly, and for a limited time, but still) 2. the additional ability to run an actual, non consumable item is (or even consumable still!).
- But why are the above points important? Because it allows the builder to explore new, often-overlooked dimensions/move choices from the mons themselves, as will be further evidenced down the rmt.
- It's a terrain, so it doesn't suffer from glowking's chilly reception changing weather. Yes, you have to deal with rillaboom instead, but in my experience it's not really that insurmountable an obstacle to overcome.
- Surprisingly good matchup into kingambit, and not terrible vs stall either. Fairly certain these traits are enough to make your average ou team quite appealing.
- It can be so exhilirating/rewarding to actually win with it. Many people don't believe in the playstyle's viability -mostly rightly so- which makes it all the more satisfying to pull out wins with it. There's room to outplay/overcome almost any matchup with good enough play/sometimes luck, too.
Pincurchin is the only mon with electric surge in the game, so it gets added without saying. Valiant gets to explore new depths to its set versatility, which is quite helpful for the rest of the team. Treads is invaluable role compression in a variety of areas. Hawlucha serves a ground immunity+opposing setup stopper+setup sweeper/win condition on its own, which is invaluable. Raging bolt holds the team together in so many matchups, while getting to explore a new move option. Lastly, Iron crown provides a strong wallbreaker as well as general fairy killer, which the team sorely needed. This slot was originally a rotom w; its defensive value+pivoting was nice, but it simply didn't have enough threats to volt switch INTO. Crown, despite fulfilling an entirely different role, could only replace rotom w out of all the team members....and what the team lost in terms of resistances, it MORE than made up for it in other areas, getting to a satisfactory state to become "playable" enough and giving the playstyle its well earned "revenge" (hence the title of this thread).
SpongeShock (Pincurchin) (F) @ Terrain Extender
Ability: Electric Surge
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 88 SpA / 172 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Supercell Slam
- Pain Split
- Spikes
- Hydro Pump
As the only pokemon in the game with access to the electric surge ability, this mon is an auto include. Manual terrain setting isn't viable/worth considering in a tier as demanding/high powered as SV OU. The freedom to do something else with that turn is infinitely more valuable. Indeed, this set aims to squeeze as much value as this mon is capable of providing.
Supercell slam seems absurd on a mon as reactive as this, especially with its recoil potentially causing you to lose your setter prematurely, but it's nonetheless the best possible option the mon has for exerting....some semblance of pressure onto the opponent. It notably ohkos enamorus and offensive primarina, while 2hkoing the latter's bulky variants as well as darkrai/iron valiant, bypassing their possible calm mind boosts and actually forcing them to respect you.
0 Atk Pincurchin Supercell Slam vs. 80 HP / 0 Def Primarina in Electric Terrain: 362-428 (112.7 - 133.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0 Atk Pincurchin Supercell Slam vs. 252 HP / 244+ Def Primarina in Electric Terrain: 248-294 (68.1 - 80.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Pincurchin Supercell Slam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Darkrai in Electric Terrain: 154-183 (54.8 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Enamorus/iron valiant are frailer, so there's no need to show that they obviously get ohkoed/2hkoed respectively.
0 Atk Pincurchin Supercell Slam vs. 252 HP / 244+ Def Primarina in Electric Terrain: 248-294 (68.1 - 80.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Pincurchin Supercell Slam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Darkrai in Electric Terrain: 154-183 (54.8 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Enamorus/iron valiant are frailer, so there's no need to show that they obviously get ohkoed/2hkoed respectively.
88 SpA Pincurchin Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Iron Treads in Rain: 322-380 (100.3 - 118.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
This is massive, as unexpectedly eliminating one of rain's most key mons in their matchup against yours opens up raging bolt immensely, giving you a fighting chance against a near impossible matchup (without severe amounts of outplaying). And ofc, deleting their hazard control on the spot makes your own hazard stacking that much more potent.
Spikes are one of the mon's main selling points; if brute force is somehow not enough to push through, sufficient amounts of hazard stacking+2 knockers will (ideally) ensure the deal is sealed. It also just gives the mon something to do with its few free turns, as its attacking moves are always so scary to click.
Pain split gives the mon some semblance of recovery, while also leeching hp off of opposing walls. The mon's pathetic base hp stat finally gets turned into an advantage, making the move a more proactive alternative to recover. It ensures you can actually turn blissey, glowking and the like into spiking opportunities, too.
The ev spread may seem unconventional, considering the default analysis suggests physdef instead. However, spdef gives the mon much more practical roles, allowing it to take hits from
better, and respond in kind. You do miss out on the ability to live an iron treads eq from full by not running physdef, but that is NOT a matchup you want to risk like that in the first place.252+ SpA Choice Specs Primarina Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 250-295 (83.3 - 98.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 SpA Slowking-Galar Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 91-108 (30.3 - 36%) -- 38.1% chance to 3HKO
252 SpA Enamorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 176-208 (58.6 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Darkrai Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 117-138 (39 - 46%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Iron Valiant Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 127-151 (42.3 - 50.3%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO
+1 252+ SpA Protosynthesis Raging Bolt Dragon Pulse vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 268-316 (89.3 - 105.3%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
Not bad for a ZU shitmon, huh?
0 SpA Slowking-Galar Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 91-108 (30.3 - 36%) -- 38.1% chance to 3HKO
252 SpA Enamorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 176-208 (58.6 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Darkrai Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 117-138 (39 - 46%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Iron Valiant Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 127-151 (42.3 - 50.3%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO
+1 252+ SpA Protosynthesis Raging Bolt Dragon Pulse vs. 252 HP / 172+ SpD Pincurchin: 268-316 (89.3 - 105.3%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
Not bad for a ZU shitmon, huh?
Other options: Memento can replace pain split to prevent pincurchin from turning into setup bait lategame, if you have to get it in to refresh the terrain one last time.
This mon SUCKS. Let's actually delve into how terrible this mon's state is:
- This mon's base hp stat is SO BAD that even with 252 hp evs, it reaches EXACTLY 300 hp. That's right, it's impossible to avoid a 3hko from BLISSEY of all things. It also affects its general hit-taking capabilities.
- For some incomprehensible reason, this is the ONLY electric type mon in the game (not counting forms like silvally/arceus) to NOT LEARN VOLT SWITCH? WHY?? This is absolutely outrageous, especially since the mon would be the perfect user of the move with its abysmal speed, to bring in the terrors of this team safely and wreak havoc. Hell, tons of non electric steel types like forretress/cobalion get it, but not a literal pure electric type??
- As an added insult to injury, despite many last gen tutor moves like triple axel coming back, rising voltage did NOT get so lucky (with one exception, more on it later); thus, any attempt at a dedicated offensive set with this mon is out of the question, as it simply cannot match the power of smth like overheat torkoal. (then again, such an offensive set would just get walled by raging bolt anyway....)
Executioner (Iron Valiant) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Quark Drive
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Stellar
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
FINALLY, we can move on to the actually relevant stuff. With e.terrain allowing its quark drive to activate on demand, the mon becomes significantly more versatile, acting as either a breaker or a cleaner depending on the matchup/battle demands. Finding the right set/combination of moves was quite challenging however, as despite the newfound ability to run an item with a free quark boost, its inability to cover everything with one moveset/set of evs is STILL an issue that remains. Nonetheless, I've managed to make the most out of said newfound ability, crafting a rather unusual set designed to catch off guard/eliminate the widest range of pokemon possible in just 4 moves, utilizing the mon's sheer natural strengths as well as the set's surprise factor. Its nickname further cements this due to the mon's ability to just snipe and get unexpected kills out of nowhere, as not many people are going to expect a moonblast after seeing a max attack close combat.
Close combat is this set's strongest stab move, capable of inflicting immense damage onto many opponents, while also providing valuable fighting coverage to dispatch many steel/dark type mons with.
Moonblast, despite the set's minimal spa investment, is used to allow val to fulfill its usual job- eliminate tusk, wake, opposing valiant and many other threats. It is similarly non-negotiable on the set, and preferred over spirit break/anything else.
Knock off is a staple coverage move on valiant, but such a fact becomes more important/notable than ever on this particular set; it is your most spammable move when you're not sure what the opponent will bring up next, and with the attack investment it can seriously dent opponents expecting to take...much less from the move in general. More on that in just a bit.
Ice punch is perhaps the most bizarre choice on this set; but why? The answer is simply, as a catch all coverage move for eliminating a specific subset of ground type mons on the spot. Because you see, the actual main purpose of this set is to "lure" and exterminate any and all ground types you might commonly come across, freeing up the rest of the team immensely. Indeed, every move on this set eliminates some ground types 1 way or another:
CC:
(the latter 2 require tera)Moonblast:
(not really but lol) 
(the latter 2 require tera)Ice punch:
(esp spdef) 
(not a ground type, but it also helps vs :dragonite)Knock off: doesn't help vs any actual ground types, but is nonetheless invaluable vs
and also just for removing boots/other items in generalExpert belt allows val to help seal the deal against many mons expecting to barely live a hit; it is chosen over life orb because 1. it doesn't reveal your set, keeping the opponent guessing, which can be crucial for successfully sniping more opponents 2. it prevents you from getting as punished for mispredicting, especially mid-lategame 3. the boost from e.belt, especially vs its intended targets, is often enough to get the job done. And if it doesn't, tera stellar will. It's the perfect tera choice for this set: the one time extra burst in damage to properly seal the deal against unsuspecting targets is all this set needs to get the job done. And finally, let's get into the obligatory sea of calcs to showcase why this set just...works. I put them all in a pastebin due to space issues, alongside some comments.
https://pastebin.com/1LfZL0VD
Quark drive on this set boosts speed, because both the mon itself and the team as a whole absolutely demand it: you NEED to be able to outpace protospeed wake, darkrai, meowscarada, weavile, zamazenta and dragapult to be able to adequately threaten them all with your stabs/wide coverage, no 2 ways about it. A naive nature is used to not compromise physical defense while keeping both of your offenses intact, which as shown by the calcs above is very important.
Other options: Zen headbutt could be used to try and take on certain poison types, and tbolt could be used to try and take on moltres/the metal birds while getting a terrain boost. However both of these options are already covered by other mons on the team, and dropping any move on this set drastically worsens its general purpose, so I don't recommend it. I also don't suggest adding sd>moonblast or even ice punch; you NEED the ability to eventually kill that tusk immediately with moonblast, and nothing else is gonna cut it.
The last thing to say about this mon is that you're gonna have to get comfortable with 2 things: 1. Hard switching into great tusk/ting lu: you're faster than tusk even after a spin/ice spinner, unless it's proto speed, in which case it can't kill with rapid spin+headlong rush. 2. iron valiant speed ties: no one wants to be reminded of it, but with how common/potent the mon is in OU, and how shaky the rest of the team is vs it, there's no way to put it any more nicely, so get used to this possibility.
Well would you look at that! Val's set above happens to thud vs bulky poisons, fairies and some psychics! If only there was a way to cover all of these in 1 slot, and so much more. Oh, wait....
TASER (Iron Crown) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Tachyon Cutter
- Psychic Noise
- Focus Blast
- Volt Switch
The REAL star of the show. Well....sorta. This mon is arguably the least "flashy" mon on the team especially in terms of moveset, but it's also by far the mon that just does so much carrying in some matchups....and next to nothing in some other ones. The mon acts as the main "muscle"/breaker of this team, capable of utterly ravaging anything slower than it; conversely however, it's very prone to getting overran by boosting sweepers with eq as coverage. Its power/numbers might not quite reach the level of (modest) specs wake/bolt in sun, but for this team's purposes it's more than enough to really lay the hurt on many an opponent.
Tachyon cutter is the main move of this set and, with all the damage multipliers this set attains, the move starts performing rather bewildering feats. More will be shown just a bit below, but suffice to say it does a lot of damage. It also kills glimmora/ribombee through their sashes in 1 turn which is obviously amazing (especially if you switch in blocking glimmora's mortal spin, and then kill it without even activating toxic debris!)
Psychic noise is your secondary stab option, hitting for solid damage against most targets while also denying the recovery of whatever survives the move. It's also a sound move, letting it bypass subs and kill iron moth/zamazenta behind them (yes, it can actually 1v1 them in the right circumstances).
Focus blast is a necessary coverage move for about a dozen mons that would otherwise thwart your stabs and become way more difficult to take on otherwise (
), even if some of them can be overcome by just spamming tachyon cutter a couple of times.
Volt switch is actually mainly used as a coverage move here (while conveniently being boosted by e-terrain), sniping fat waters like mola/volcanion, the metal birds, and moltres. Ofc the pivoting is good too, but getting locked into it with the threat of so many ground types coming in to just blank it make it always scary to actually click, unless you know your target will stay in, not expecting anywhere near the damage it's about to take. Which conveniently brings me to the main point everyone's excited to see....
Quark drive on this set boosts special attack; in tandem with choice specs, that's a 1.3*1.5=1.95 spatk multiplier just for being in e.terrain with specs. This is absolutely wild, and the numbers don't lie. Just to put things into perspective...
(Also put in a pastebin due to space issues)
https://pastebin.com/MwXW8p4e
I could go on and on, but I THINK the point's been established by now; standing true to the mon's nickname (especially with it being in allcaps), as well as its dex entry in the mainline games, specs quark drive tachyon cutter turns into a weapon of mass destruction, absolutely rocking nearly anything that would normally only fear coverage on the switch. And if the above numbers aren't quite enough vs some opponents, you can simply tera steel and remind them where they belong. Just to illustrate what I mean:
Tera steel can also be used to take a hit from the likes of 
and ohko them all back. ONLY do this if you're absolutely SURE the trade is worth it however; if they've a setup sweeper in the back that requires your tera elsewhere to contain, it can become quite fatal really fast, if they can live a hit from crown.
It's worth noting that even with tera steel, focus blast is still stronger vs targets weak to it, compared to a neutral tachyon cutter. However, the latter is more reliable to spam, and also has fewer overall switchins while also requiring less prediction/luck to nail, even though focus blast generally only needs to land once (sometimes twice, but you shouldn't have to risk it) to do its job for crown.
So....yeah. Honestly, I'm in love with this mon and it only keeps growing in me more and more by the day. I always believed in the mon's potential from the day it was released, and knew it was only a matter of time before others did the same, too. Now, it's finally in a good spot where it belongs: a good/viable mon off its own merits, without being anywhere near broken, and just doing honest work; despite its part psychic typing, this mon is one of those cases where, just like 
it just....works somehow, and all of the mon's collective traits serve to make the mon a valuable asset to the teams that call for its talents. This couldn't be more true for this team: it serves as a breaker, destroyer of anything fairy, and for the most part doesn't need/want tera to do its thing, allowing other mons to make use of it in dire situations when needed.
Other options: Psychic can be used over psychic noise to do more damage to neutral opponents like skeledirge/rotom-w, while being barely weaker than tachyon cutter. I don't recommend dropping your special psychic type move; you need to be able to rkill zamazenta in a pinch while securing the ohko vs great tusk at all times. If psyshock were to be considered, it'd have to be over focus blast, but...having half your moveset be walled by the sea of dark types in the tier is not very appealing. A final sillier option could be tera water with tera blast>focus blast; this lets you take a hit from rain/sun mons and surprise ohko them back, while tera water blast is an option that covers all of iron moth, gliscor and iron treads in 1 slot; this improves the mon's offense matchup while worsening it vs bulkier teams however, which is counterintuitive to the set's main purpose.
TASER (Iron Crown) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Tachyon Cutter
- Psychic Noise
- Focus Blast
- Volt Switch
The REAL star of the show. Well....sorta. This mon is arguably the least "flashy" mon on the team especially in terms of moveset, but it's also by far the mon that just does so much carrying in some matchups....and next to nothing in some other ones. The mon acts as the main "muscle"/breaker of this team, capable of utterly ravaging anything slower than it; conversely however, it's very prone to getting overran by boosting sweepers with eq as coverage. Its power/numbers might not quite reach the level of (modest) specs wake/bolt in sun, but for this team's purposes it's more than enough to really lay the hurt on many an opponent.
Tachyon cutter is the main move of this set and, with all the damage multipliers this set attains, the move starts performing rather bewildering feats. More will be shown just a bit below, but suffice to say it does a lot of damage. It also kills glimmora/ribombee through their sashes in 1 turn which is obviously amazing (especially if you switch in blocking glimmora's mortal spin, and then kill it without even activating toxic debris!)
Psychic noise is your secondary stab option, hitting for solid damage against most targets while also denying the recovery of whatever survives the move. It's also a sound move, letting it bypass subs and kill iron moth/zamazenta behind them (yes, it can actually 1v1 them in the right circumstances).
132 SpA Iron Moth Fiery Dance vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Iron Crown: 240-284 (74.7 - 88.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Psychic Noise vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Iron Moth: 422-498 (140.1 - 165.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+3 88 Def Zamazenta Body Press vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Crown: 262-309 (81.6 - 96.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Psychic Noise vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Zamazenta: 408-480 (105.1 - 123.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(WARNING: Switching in directly expecting an iron defense, only to get body pressed instead can be fatal: +1 88 Def Zamazenta Body Press vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Crown: 157-186 (48.9 - 57.9%) -- 95.7% chance to 2HKO)
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Psychic Noise vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Iron Moth: 422-498 (140.1 - 165.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+3 88 Def Zamazenta Body Press vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Crown: 262-309 (81.6 - 96.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Psychic Noise vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Zamazenta: 408-480 (105.1 - 123.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(WARNING: Switching in directly expecting an iron defense, only to get body pressed instead can be fatal: +1 88 Def Zamazenta Body Press vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Crown: 157-186 (48.9 - 57.9%) -- 95.7% chance to 2HKO)
), even if some of them can be overcome by just spamming tachyon cutter a couple of times.Volt switch is actually mainly used as a coverage move here (while conveniently being boosted by e-terrain), sniping fat waters like mola/volcanion, the metal birds, and moltres. Ofc the pivoting is good too, but getting locked into it with the threat of so many ground types coming in to just blank it make it always scary to actually click, unless you know your target will stay in, not expecting anywhere near the damage it's about to take. Which conveniently brings me to the main point everyone's excited to see....
Quark drive on this set boosts special attack; in tandem with choice specs, that's a 1.3*1.5=1.95 spatk multiplier just for being in e.terrain with specs. This is absolutely wild, and the numbers don't lie. Just to put things into perspective...
(Also put in a pastebin due to space issues)
https://pastebin.com/MwXW8p4e
I could go on and on, but I THINK the point's been established by now; standing true to the mon's nickname (especially with it being in allcaps), as well as its dex entry in the mainline games, specs quark drive tachyon cutter turns into a weapon of mass destruction, absolutely rocking nearly anything that would normally only fear coverage on the switch. And if the above numbers aren't quite enough vs some opponents, you can simply tera steel and remind them where they belong. Just to illustrate what I mean:
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Tera Steel Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 244 HP / 228+ SpD Gliscor: 360-428 (102.2 - 121.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Tera Steel Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 212 HP / 0 SpD Kingambit: 234-276 (59.3 - 70%) -- approx. 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Tera Steel Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Gholdengo: 220-260 (58.2 - 68.7%) -- approx. 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Tera Steel Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Assault Vest Slowking-Galar: 228-272 (57.8 - 69%) -- approx. 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Tera Steel Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 240-284 (36.8 - 43.5%) -- approx. 3HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Tera Steel Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 212 HP / 0 SpD Kingambit: 234-276 (59.3 - 70%) -- approx. 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Tera Steel Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Gholdengo: 220-260 (58.2 - 68.7%) -- approx. 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Tera Steel Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Assault Vest Slowking-Galar: 228-272 (57.8 - 69%) -- approx. 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Tera Steel Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 240-284 (36.8 - 43.5%) -- approx. 3HKO
and ohko them all back. ONLY do this if you're absolutely SURE the trade is worth it however; if they've a setup sweeper in the back that requires your tera elsewhere to contain, it can become quite fatal really fast, if they can live a hit from crown.It's worth noting that even with tera steel, focus blast is still stronger vs targets weak to it, compared to a neutral tachyon cutter. However, the latter is more reliable to spam, and also has fewer overall switchins while also requiring less prediction/luck to nail, even though focus blast generally only needs to land once (sometimes twice, but you shouldn't have to risk it) to do its job for crown.
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 212+ SpD Heatran: 348-410 (90.1 - 106.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu: 306-360 (59.5 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Focus Blast vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 284-336 (43.5 - 51.5%) -- 8.2% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Focus Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Iron Crown: 152-179 (47.3 - 55.7%) -- 78.5% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu: 306-360 (59.5 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Focus Blast vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 284-336 (43.5 - 51.5%) -- 8.2% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Quark Drive Iron Crown Focus Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Iron Crown: 152-179 (47.3 - 55.7%) -- 78.5% chance to 2HKO
it just....works somehow, and all of the mon's collective traits serve to make the mon a valuable asset to the teams that call for its talents. This couldn't be more true for this team: it serves as a breaker, destroyer of anything fairy, and for the most part doesn't need/want tera to do its thing, allowing other mons to make use of it in dire situations when needed.Other options: Psychic can be used over psychic noise to do more damage to neutral opponents like skeledirge/rotom-w, while being barely weaker than tachyon cutter. I don't recommend dropping your special psychic type move; you need to be able to rkill zamazenta in a pinch while securing the ohko vs great tusk at all times. If psyshock were to be considered, it'd have to be over focus blast, but...having half your moveset be walled by the sea of dark types in the tier is not very appealing. A final sillier option could be tera water with tera blast>focus blast; this lets you take a hit from rain/sun mons and surprise ohko them back, while tera water blast is an option that covers all of iron moth, gliscor and iron treads in 1 slot; this improves the mon's offense matchup while worsening it vs bulkier teams however, which is counterintuitive to the set's main purpose.
There are 3 certain things in life: 1. Death 2. Taxes 3. Webs players hard switching their balloon ghold into Iron treads (every single time without fail)
Dumbo (Iron Treads) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
Iron treads serves on this team as a swiss army knife, capable of providing immense amounts of value to the rest of the team in a wide variety of directions. But before getting into things in detail, let's quickly sift through its moveset; it's the least interesting part of the set/mon description after all.
Earthquake is your main stab move of choice. It's particularly notable as, with the quark drive speed boost, you can outrun cinderace/tera poison darkrai and ohko them both, preventing the former from swapping away your precious hazards while severely punishing the latter for trying to snipe iron valiant the turn prior (a very common opening sequence is: I lead pincurchin as they lead darkrai, I go to valiant as they dark pulse/nasty plot, then immediately go treads as they tera poison and sludge bomb for 0 damage; this has almost reached a dozen times by now, if not more, and puts you in a great position to start the game off with until they focus blast and kill you next turn anyway.
Stealth rock lays down an additional entry hazard, putting further pressure onto switchins, particularly the likes of moltres once its boots are stripped off.
Rapid spin removes hazards from your side, letting you switch around much more easily. Most importantly however, its speed boost combined with the quark drive one give you a 2.25x speed boost, which is huge for outrunning some unexpected targets: most notably adamant barraskewda in rain (769 speed vs its 742) and ribombee while paralyzed (384 speed vs its 381); the latter's relevant bc this set doesn't have a move to kill it off that quickly, so yeah.
Knock off is chosen over any other coverage move for its ability to strip boots/other items off of opponents, while also smashing any incoming balloon ghold for about half its health, before dying to the followup eq. It also hits pult quite hard (albeit usually not an outright ohko), too. Considering the other possible options for this slot, none of them really compare to the value this move brings to the table.
As for its held item, air balloon turns treads into a MUCH better pokemon overall; not only does it serve as an additional, situational source of ground moves immunity for the team (important considering how much of the team, including itself, is weak to ground), it also makes it immune to ALL hazards except rocks, which it takes a pittance from due to its 4x resistance to them; it's essentially like holding boots with other additional upsides. And yes, floating with said balloon means that it avoids webs' speed drop, ensuring quark drive gives it a speed boost and allowing the mon to outrun most things used on webs teams to get that spin off (and yes, quark drive still activates to provide a speed boost even if you're not affected by the terrain itself by floating). Oh, and you also completely hard wall clodsire with balloon intact, important if valiant cannot successfully lure it early on.
And finally/most importantly, the long-awaited laundry list of roles that make this mon indispensable for this team:
That aside, tera ghost CAN still be considered as an option if you're ok with an even harder barraskewda matchup; this treads set cannot really spinblock tusk that well, but tusk will often use rapid spin (or cc if it has it) to try and pop your balloon; with tera ghost and balloon you can really mess up most of its move options, allowing treads to potentially overcome it on its own! (252 Atk Iron Treads Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 117-138 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 79.9% chance to 3HKO)....But this is too much commitment for a result that's not even guaranteed and relies on too many variables, for something that might not even pay off in the long run; it's often better to just let valiant get chipped by spin to force tusk out instead.
Iron head can be considered to 2hko clef/hatterene, alongside a 31.3% chance to ohko valiant and always ohko enamorus. But the value/utility/even coverage of knock off is often too much to pass up, compared to this single digit number of targets that can already be handled by iron crown anyway.
So yeah, that's all there is to say about this stupid elephant. It's a mon with a simple role/purpose, yet conveniently provides so much in 1 slot. Anyway, NEXT!
Dumbo (Iron Treads) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
Iron treads serves on this team as a swiss army knife, capable of providing immense amounts of value to the rest of the team in a wide variety of directions. But before getting into things in detail, let's quickly sift through its moveset; it's the least interesting part of the set/mon description after all.
Earthquake is your main stab move of choice. It's particularly notable as, with the quark drive speed boost, you can outrun cinderace/tera poison darkrai and ohko them both, preventing the former from swapping away your precious hazards while severely punishing the latter for trying to snipe iron valiant the turn prior (a very common opening sequence is: I lead pincurchin as they lead darkrai, I go to valiant as they dark pulse/nasty plot, then immediately go treads as they tera poison and sludge bomb for 0 damage; this has almost reached a dozen times by now, if not more, and puts you in a great position to start the game off with until they focus blast and kill you next turn anyway.
Stealth rock lays down an additional entry hazard, putting further pressure onto switchins, particularly the likes of moltres once its boots are stripped off.
Rapid spin removes hazards from your side, letting you switch around much more easily. Most importantly however, its speed boost combined with the quark drive one give you a 2.25x speed boost, which is huge for outrunning some unexpected targets: most notably adamant barraskewda in rain (769 speed vs its 742) and ribombee while paralyzed (384 speed vs its 381); the latter's relevant bc this set doesn't have a move to kill it off that quickly, so yeah.
Knock off is chosen over any other coverage move for its ability to strip boots/other items off of opponents, while also smashing any incoming balloon ghold for about half its health, before dying to the followup eq. It also hits pult quite hard (albeit usually not an outright ohko), too. Considering the other possible options for this slot, none of them really compare to the value this move brings to the table.
As for its held item, air balloon turns treads into a MUCH better pokemon overall; not only does it serve as an additional, situational source of ground moves immunity for the team (important considering how much of the team, including itself, is weak to ground), it also makes it immune to ALL hazards except rocks, which it takes a pittance from due to its 4x resistance to them; it's essentially like holding boots with other additional upsides. And yes, floating with said balloon means that it avoids webs' speed drop, ensuring quark drive gives it a speed boost and allowing the mon to outrun most things used on webs teams to get that spin off (and yes, quark drive still activates to provide a speed boost even if you're not affected by the terrain itself by floating). Oh, and you also completely hard wall clodsire with balloon intact, important if valiant cannot successfully lure it early on.
And finally/most importantly, the long-awaited laundry list of roles that make this mon indispensable for this team:
- Electric immunity, while conveniently also resisting dragon at once. This is massive as the mon's only 3hkoed by raging bolt, letting you come in on it a couple times and put the opponent in a reactionary position for a while (WARNING: 252 Atk Iron Treads Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Raging Bolt: 318-374 (81.3 - 95.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ SpA Protosynthesis Raging Bolt Dragon Pulse vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Iron Treads: 138-162 (42.9 - 50.4%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO). That said, be especially careful if you also need treads to handle other mons/duties, or if you're not sure if they'll tera, switch out or just boldly stay in. But yeah the dragon resistance also makes the mon your 1 time specs pult "switchin" to hopefully land a knock off on it (252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Iron Treads: 219-258 (68.2 - 80.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Iron Treads Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 242-286 (76.3 - 90.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO .....yeah this is pretty terrible, but this team kinda doesn't really have specs shadow ball switchin, so....)
- Hazard control. This was already brought up once but really needs to be emphasized better here: this mon is responsible for not only laying down rocks for you (dealing damage to floating enemies/more dmg than a single spikes layer vs some types), but to also remove that, alongside any other hazard, from your own side. This is especially notable since valiant dislikes webs making its quark drive boost atk instead of speed (in addition to robbing it), and raging bolt would really rather not be affected by t.spikes especially since this team doesn't have/can't afford iron moth in it. And ofc, getting to switch around more freely while preserving as much hp as possible is important considering you often have to make aggressive double switches to get into favorable positions to start making progress. Now yes, treads may struggle in this role when matched vs tusk/ting lu/gliscor, but that's why it falls upon the above 2 mons to ensure their weakening/removal, so that treads can have breathing room to do its thing, and why not even threaten a possible mini sweep! Also, knock off can strip mons like mola/moltres of their boots, allowing your hazard stack to really go into effect as the match progresses, and the mon can often land the move onto ideal targets.
- A steel type. Now yes, iron crown is also one, but the added psychic typing is nowhere near as valuable as treads's ground typing/better physical bulk. Said steel type gives treads a lot of resistances to work with, letting it more comfortably trade hp with other mons to get its job done, even if it can't actually threaten to kill much.
- Tera dragon (instead of the standard ghost) may seem really off here, but it really just boils down to surprising/taking out a specific subset of mons; most notably, it allows treads to (hopefully) live 1-2 hits from things like barraskewda/overqwil and revenge kill them in a pinch; really, it's just about the simultaneous resistance to all of fire/water/grass at once, while also still resisting electric as a bonus. It really is more of a panic option than anything, but it's been effective enough so far. Also iron crown can act as a backup steel type just in case afterwards.
That aside, tera ghost CAN still be considered as an option if you're ok with an even harder barraskewda matchup; this treads set cannot really spinblock tusk that well, but tusk will often use rapid spin (or cc if it has it) to try and pop your balloon; with tera ghost and balloon you can really mess up most of its move options, allowing treads to potentially overcome it on its own! (252 Atk Iron Treads Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 117-138 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 79.9% chance to 3HKO)....But this is too much commitment for a result that's not even guaranteed and relies on too many variables, for something that might not even pay off in the long run; it's often better to just let valiant get chipped by spin to force tusk out instead.
Iron head can be considered to 2hko clef/hatterene, alongside a 31.3% chance to ohko valiant and always ohko enamorus. But the value/utility/even coverage of knock off is often too much to pass up, compared to this single digit number of targets that can already be handled by iron crown anyway.
So yeah, that's all there is to say about this stupid elephant. It's a mon with a simple role/purpose, yet conveniently provides so much in 1 slot. Anyway, NEXT!
Jurassic (Raging Bolt) @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Rising Voltage
- Dragon Pulse
- Thunderclap
- Calm Mind
As alluded to earlier on, this colossal hunk of a dinosaur is the pillar, the raidboss of this team (just like archaludon was in rain before its ban), a mon whose presence/potency is felt basically all game long (except vs stall but lol), and....the savior that singlehandedly carries many otherwise impossible matchups/feats on its back. But first, let's just get into its moves, aka the REAL meat of this set. So, you know how various paradox mons have gotten access to various semi exclusive moves just because they can (headlong rush tusk, steel roller treads, spirit break valiant, raging fury gouging, etc)? Well, raging bolt gets to join the fun too! And its semi special move of choice issss-
Rising voltage. First debuting in gen 8 as a tutor move alongside triple axel, scorching sands and many other moves, it sadly did not get to make a return in that status this gen, causing its existence to become forgotten by many people. But lo and behold, raging bolt here stands tall as the only mon remaining in gen 9 with access to the move. At base, it only has 70 base power, nothing special there. But if the opponent is grounded/affected by the electric terrain, this move's power DOUBLES to an astonishing 140 bp (before even accounting for the electric move boost from the terrain!)! Suddenly, electric terrain allows this past paradox to utilize the strongest electric stab option it has access to, allowing it to perform dumb shit you'd never expect it to with regular ol' tbolt. Here's just a few calcs to drive the point home.
252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 240+ SpD Slowking-Galar in Electric Terrain: 211-249 (53.5 - 63.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Clefable in Electric Terrain: 336-396 (85.2 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Kingambit in Electric Terrain: 354-417 (103.8 - 122.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Iron Moth in Electric Terrain: 285-336 (94.6 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
.....This is absolutely fucked up. And all of this is at the weakest possible state, too: no modest nature, booster energy or even a single cm boost. I don't need to show any more unboosted calcs like this to demonstrate that squishies like 
get straight up razed on the spot.
But while we're at it, let's add a single cm boost anyway, just to show how much better it gets:
+1 252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Assault Vest Slowking-Galar in Electric Terrain: 261-307 (66.2 - 77.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 212 HP / 0 SpD Kingambit in Electric Terrain: 529-624 (134.2 - 158.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey in Electric Terrain: 271-319 (41.5 - 48.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO (WARNING: this is moreso to showcase a jaw dropping number; you won't actually win this exchange due to blissey just using its own cm and then healing up until the terrain runs out)
+1 252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Zamazenta in Electric Terrain: 411-484 (105.9 - 124.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (The number of zamazentas that get outsped and ohkoed by this as they try to roar you out has almost reached the double digits iirc. Yet it never gets any less hilarious all the same.)
252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Clefable in Electric Terrain: 336-396 (85.2 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Kingambit in Electric Terrain: 354-417 (103.8 - 122.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Iron Moth in Electric Terrain: 285-336 (94.6 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
.....This is absolutely fucked up. And all of this is at the weakest possible state, too: no modest nature, booster energy or even a single cm boost. I don't need to show any more unboosted calcs like this to demonstrate that squishies like
get straight up razed on the spot.But while we're at it, let's add a single cm boost anyway, just to show how much better it gets:
+1 252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Assault Vest Slowking-Galar in Electric Terrain: 261-307 (66.2 - 77.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 212 HP / 0 SpD Kingambit in Electric Terrain: 529-624 (134.2 - 158.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey in Electric Terrain: 271-319 (41.5 - 48.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO (WARNING: this is moreso to showcase a jaw dropping number; you won't actually win this exchange due to blissey just using its own cm and then healing up until the terrain runs out)
+1 252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Zamazenta in Electric Terrain: 411-484 (105.9 - 124.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (The number of zamazentas that get outsped and ohkoed by this as they try to roar you out has almost reached the double digits iirc. Yet it never gets any less hilarious all the same.)
Dragon pulse is your secondary stab option, chosen for its greater accuracy and pp compared to draco meteor. However, the latter can still be ran to ohko tusk/kyurem on the switch/pick gliscor off from a higher hp range, at the expense of your staying power. It's worth noting that rising voltage in terrain is actually STRONGER than dragon pulse, even when resisted. This leaves dragon pulse as just there for electric immunities/opposing bolt really.
252 SpA Raging Bolt Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Ogerpon in Electric Terrain: 160-189 (53.1 - 62.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Raging Bolt Dragon Pulse vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Ogerpon: 150-177 (49.8 - 58.8%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Raging Bolt Dragon Pulse vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Ogerpon: 150-177 (49.8 - 58.8%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO
Calm mind elevates the mon's threat level to the stratosphere, immensely punishing attempts at passively trying to play around it without putting it on a timer, by making itself harder to take out for special attackers, and for achieving some eye watering feats shown above. It's also just a good midground play if you're not sure what the opponent will switch into next/if they'll tera. Just be mindful of opposing faster encore users coming in and locking you into either of the above moves...
Bolt is the one holding everything together in the first place, in so many areas:
- It provides a (mini) breaker that's at once also a lethal anti offense tool. With its titanic bulk -even uninvested- it can take anything weaker than a great tusk stab ground attack, and quite often trade back with any (non ground) offensive mon of its choosing for an ohko, even unboosted. This efficiency at forcefully removing a target makes it invaluable vs all sorts of offensive teams, making up for pincurchin/iron crown's tendency of getting overran by boosted threats.
- Further accentuating this point is its access to an even stronger thunderclap, making revenge killing the mon super awkward especially for setup opponents; if you predict things correctly (and/or are willing to expend your tera), you can often take out a second, and possibly even a third, mon before going down. This is absolutely immense value and makes the mon so relied upon to convert defense into offense for this team.
- To further support the aforementioned points, leftovers is the item of choice for this set; bolt is often tasked with switching into stuff like cinderace/barraskewda earlygame, and especially as the opponent scrambles to find a way to respond to bolt, the latter can often get a good amount of free turns for leftovers to undo most of the damage taken, allowing it to take an unexpected hit even lategame, and respond in kind. Leftovers is also vital for offsetting burn damage, which is especially notable when 1. Most of the team is physically oriented, thus they'd obviously rather not be burned (especially with no burn immunity on this team, rip moth again) 2. Iron crown is a special attacker, but it's not coming in on the fire types that often dish out the burn for obvious reasons. This leaves bolt as the one to take the burden upon itself, but it's worth it anyway (especially if it means you can't get toxiced by something else anymore).
- For the rest of the set, tera fairy is a standard choice for the mon, making it immune to opposing dragons and resistant to dark/fighting, while also removing weaknesses from ground and ice. It will often be your primary tera of choice, to thwart would-be revenge kill attempts and claim a second kill vs offense. To further assist on this regard, a TIMID nature is chosen to really punish adamant/modest mons in the mid 80s base speed range, uninvested gliscors, and really anything that only invests enough for modest bolt.
- It REALLY needs to be emphasized how vital bolt is vs so many styles of offense: it will often be your default switchin to mons like
earlygame, to then threaten either them or their teammates with huge damage. It turns sun from a shaky, near unwinnable matchup of rocket tag into a toy, especially after calm mind (Wanna know what's it's like being on eterrain with a free proto activation from opposing sun? Something like this: +1 252 SpA Protosynthesis Raging Bolt Thunderclap vs. 12 HP / 0 SpD Walking Wake in Electric Terrain: 352-415 (102.9 - 121.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO). It makes rain from a miserable state to be in to something you have slightly more of a chance against (WARNING: 252+ Atk Choice Band Barraskewda Flip Turn vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Raging Bolt in Rain: 126-148 (32.2 - 37.8%) -- 0.7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery, this is why eliminating rain's electric immunities is so essential). Webs can remove what little advantage your timid nature gives you, but the mon's natural bulk should still let it trade with at least one target before going down. And ofc, it again needs to be stated how important having a priority move on your team is for handling various boosted threats, and bolt has access to the strongest of them all in terrain. But yeah, all of these aforementioned factors ensured that bolt would still have a place on the team, rising voltage or not. Its sudden access to the move is just a perfect bonus to go hand in hand with what the team has to offer.
Items: Booster energy could be used to make the mon even comically stronger unboosted, however the lack of longetivity from lefties can really be felt when having to contend with additional passive sources of damage. Electric seed is also an option uniquely provided from this playstyle, boosting its defense to make it even more robust to take down, particularly in tandem with calm mind boosts reinforcing it on both ends. However, the mon's tendency to switch in and out of battle a fair amount makes this option shaky, even if not needing tera as much for tusk revenge kills is nice (252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. +1 0 HP / 4 Def Raging Bolt: 284-336 (72.6 - 85.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO).
In terms of moves, as mentioned above draco meteor can replace dragon pulse for greater immediate power in exchange for sacrificing reliability and staying power. Otherwise...this is an electric type, infamously known for having a puddle of a movepool.
Anyway, speaking of electic seed though-
Ronda (Hawlucha) (F) @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Encore
Finally, we have Hawlucha here to round off the team. If the above mons are concerned with keeping the team running along as an engine, Hawlucha's here to ensure (almost) no random shit will cause it to go haywire, by both shutting down opposing sweeps while also threatening to sweep/seal the game itself. Indeed, electric terrain allows Hawlucha to run electric seed as its item, both activating unburden and also giving it a defense boost to setup more easily on moves like knock off/rapid spin/sometimes even ice spinners. Before continuing further with its role, let's break the set down:
Acrobatics turns into a 110 bp stab move with no drawbacks after losing your item/activating unburden, be it from the terrain or by switching into a knock off. It's your primary sweeping tool of choice for this reason, with close combat covering almost everything else that this move can't (except).
Close combat is your other stab move, complimenting acrobatics with nearly perfect coverage across the board, hitting the many steel/rock/ice/dark/even electric types that acro doesn't do as much against. Be sure to use it sparingly however, as the defense drops can make you more easily revenge killed if you're not careful. Still, the added power makes it worth it over drain punch, despite the latter seeming appealing in tandem with the defense boost from the e-seed.
Swords dance allows the mon to set up and threaten to sweep/seal entire games after a boost or even 2 sometimes, while also making up for the mon's paltry base attack stat. Knowing when to sd instead of using encore first is another form of art of its own though, but you should try your hardest to get that boost for the mon to pose an adequate threat to revenge killers.
Encore is the last move of this set, and the move that ties everything else on this team together. The value of this move cannot be stated enough; it prevents so, SO many opposing setup sweepers from getting out of hand prematurely, it punishes kingambit for clicking sucker even once, it punishes ground moves aimed at basically the entire rest of your team, it punishes knock offs, rapid spins etc and if timed right, allows you for at least 1 free sd, if not even more. And yes, the sheer value of this move alone is why, even though it'd obviously be ideal to preserve the mon as late as possible, it's perfectly fine to send the mon out mid- or even earlygame to stop an otherwise fatal sweeper from getting out of hand too early. Yes, you might not have sufficient sweeping conditions afterwards and even be forced out/lose your unburden, but it's worth it if it shuts down a key threat before it's too late.
Set details: tera steel turns most of your weaknesses into resistances (most especially various ice spinners/dnite's espeed), allowing for further setup opportunities. It also makes you immune to toxic, punishing ground types (and other mons too ofc) that rely on the move to beat you (and also poison moves immunity, resisting pjab gliscor/both of glowking's stabs). Since no one would use a ground/fighting move before tera, it's often safe to commit to it when you need it, and by the time they're able to respond you can encore them into a bad move and then setup even more/finish them off afterwards. Max attack/speed investment, alongside a jolly nature even, may seem obscene, but it's essential for making the mon less reliant on unburden vs threats like
(any form) 
(the latter 2 if they come in as your terrain runs out, activate their booster energy, then get forced out/come back in later in the game without the terrain being up; sounds super specific, but it's better than nothing). UNFORTUNATELY..... you're STILL slower than even adamant barraskewda in rain (742 speed while you only hit 736....gods, sneasler did NOT have this goddamn issue!!), and...I don't need to state how devastating this is for the rain matchup....
The mon's ability to be a dark/fighting resist, a ground immunity, an opposing setup stopper as well as a setup sweeper/cleaner itself earn the mon a well deserved spot on the team, and it really carries hard in some matchups, particularly if valiant/crown manage to "lure" and destroy gholdengo beforehand.
Other options: tera electric with thunderpunch COULD be used to try and muscle past dondozo/gholdengo yourself while killing other birds faster, but it's a tad too commital for my liking, to the point where idt dropping encore for it is very worth it. Besides,
+2 252 Atk Tera Electric Hawlucha Thunder Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo in Electric Terrain: 264-312 (83.8 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Tera Electric Hawlucha Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Dondozo in Electric Terrain: 168-198 (33.3 - 39.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
....Yeah this is just awful lol. Just use other mons to take out ghold instead, and for dozo just keep in mind that e.terrain prevents rest, so without leftovers, any dmg inflicted on it is permanent (wish support notwithstanding).
Taunt is an option to fully shut down passive mons with toxic/haze like pex/quag/clod without needing to tera+encore, but it fails to punish opposing setup moves which can have fatal consequences in a wider variety of matchups; this is still the main other option I'd consider over encore though.
Otherwise this mon's movepool sucks, but it's ok because the above moves are all it needs to do its job. Oh right, just as a reminder for why not drain punch:
252 Atk Hawlucha Drain Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 258-306 (73.5 - 87.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Ewwww. No, thanks.
Ability: Unburden
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Encore
Finally, we have Hawlucha here to round off the team. If the above mons are concerned with keeping the team running along as an engine, Hawlucha's here to ensure (almost) no random shit will cause it to go haywire, by both shutting down opposing sweeps while also threatening to sweep/seal the game itself. Indeed, electric terrain allows Hawlucha to run electric seed as its item, both activating unburden and also giving it a defense boost to setup more easily on moves like knock off/rapid spin/sometimes even ice spinners. Before continuing further with its role, let's break the set down:
Acrobatics turns into a 110 bp stab move with no drawbacks after losing your item/activating unburden, be it from the terrain or by switching into a knock off. It's your primary sweeping tool of choice for this reason, with close combat covering almost everything else that this move can't (except
).Close combat is your other stab move, complimenting acrobatics with nearly perfect coverage across the board, hitting the many steel/rock/ice/dark/even electric types that acro doesn't do as much against. Be sure to use it sparingly however, as the defense drops can make you more easily revenge killed if you're not careful. Still, the added power makes it worth it over drain punch, despite the latter seeming appealing in tandem with the defense boost from the e-seed.
Swords dance allows the mon to set up and threaten to sweep/seal entire games after a boost or even 2 sometimes, while also making up for the mon's paltry base attack stat. Knowing when to sd instead of using encore first is another form of art of its own though, but you should try your hardest to get that boost for the mon to pose an adequate threat to revenge killers.
Encore is the last move of this set, and the move that ties everything else on this team together. The value of this move cannot be stated enough; it prevents so, SO many opposing setup sweepers from getting out of hand prematurely, it punishes kingambit for clicking sucker even once, it punishes ground moves aimed at basically the entire rest of your team, it punishes knock offs, rapid spins etc and if timed right, allows you for at least 1 free sd, if not even more. And yes, the sheer value of this move alone is why, even though it'd obviously be ideal to preserve the mon as late as possible, it's perfectly fine to send the mon out mid- or even earlygame to stop an otherwise fatal sweeper from getting out of hand too early. Yes, you might not have sufficient sweeping conditions afterwards and even be forced out/lose your unburden, but it's worth it if it shuts down a key threat before it's too late.
Set details: tera steel turns most of your weaknesses into resistances (most especially various ice spinners/dnite's espeed), allowing for further setup opportunities. It also makes you immune to toxic, punishing ground types (and other mons too ofc) that rely on the move to beat you (and also poison moves immunity, resisting pjab gliscor/both of glowking's stabs). Since no one would use a ground/fighting move before tera, it's often safe to commit to it when you need it, and by the time they're able to respond you can encore them into a bad move and then setup even more/finish them off afterwards. Max attack/speed investment, alongside a jolly nature even, may seem obscene, but it's essential for making the mon less reliant on unburden vs threats like
(any form) (the latter 2 if they come in as your terrain runs out, activate their booster energy, then get forced out/come back in later in the game without the terrain being up; sounds super specific, but it's better than nothing). UNFORTUNATELY..... you're STILL slower than even adamant barraskewda in rain (742 speed while you only hit 736....gods, sneasler did NOT have this goddamn issue!!), and...I don't need to state how devastating this is for the rain matchup....The mon's ability to be a dark/fighting resist, a ground immunity, an opposing setup stopper as well as a setup sweeper/cleaner itself earn the mon a well deserved spot on the team, and it really carries hard in some matchups, particularly if valiant/crown manage to "lure" and destroy gholdengo beforehand.
Other options: tera electric with thunderpunch COULD be used to try and muscle past dondozo/gholdengo yourself while killing other birds faster, but it's a tad too commital for my liking, to the point where idt dropping encore for it is very worth it. Besides,
+2 252 Atk Tera Electric Hawlucha Thunder Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo in Electric Terrain: 264-312 (83.8 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Tera Electric Hawlucha Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Dondozo in Electric Terrain: 168-198 (33.3 - 39.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
....Yeah this is just awful lol. Just use other mons to take out ghold instead, and for dozo just keep in mind that e.terrain prevents rest, so without leftovers, any dmg inflicted on it is permanent (wish support notwithstanding).
Taunt is an option to fully shut down passive mons with toxic/haze like pex/quag/clod without needing to tera+encore, but it fails to punish opposing setup moves which can have fatal consequences in a wider variety of matchups; this is still the main other option I'd consider over encore though.
Otherwise this mon's movepool sucks, but it's ok because the above moves are all it needs to do its job. Oh right, just as a reminder for why not drain punch:
252 Atk Hawlucha Drain Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 258-306 (73.5 - 87.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Ewwww. No, thanks.
This team functions at its strongest when e-terrain is up; thus, leading pincurchin in the majority of matches, despite its crappiness/lack of pivoting moves, is quite essential to get things started (and due to its slowness, it will win the terrain setting war vs any other setter on the lead slot). Now this might seem scary, considering that most opponents will send out a counterlead that seems perfectly safe and can start setting up its own things. However, this tendency to play passively around pinc at the start of the match is conversely, a STRENGTH; it means you can safely bring valiant/crown/bolt early on in the match, then immediately start exerting pressure with the mons' boosted states.
Vs glimmora/ribombee that're not paired with a spinner, you can instead lay down a spike first before switching in iron crown to crack them wide open through sash. Vs samurott-h leads, valiant is the obvious mon to take c-edges, but depending on what water moves they have, things can get really scary from quite an early state. In some VERY specific matchups, leading iron treads/even crown instead might be more beneficial; however, you must ensure pincurchin can find some sort of entry point asap afterwards, which is quite hard due to its poor bulk and why it's often best to lead with it (and why getting the terrain up a second time can already be quite challenging, let alone a third time...got forbid you get knocked off at any point....)
Otherwise, you will need to make aggressive calls to switch in the appropriate mons when/as needed, as this team lacks pivoting moves outside of iron crown's volt switch; if you send out iron treads and they have a tusk in the back, it's often safe to double back out into valiant/crown as appropriate, forcing it right back out and landing a knock/killing a mon. Another common sequence is bringing valiant in vs tusk, then just clicking knock right away if they have a glowking/crown/moltres in the back; you will basically always land it and get tons of value out of it. For crown it's easier since tachyon is already so strong, and the focus blast targets switchins are often easily telegraphed, thus giving you a solid chance to land the 1 focus blast you need to cripple/kill them, and win. Be wary of locking into psynoise/volt switch if immunities are still present. Raging bolt has its whole host of mindgames associated with the mon's playstyle, but for the most part if the opponent 1. doesn't have a fast encore user in the back 2. doesn't have a physical attacker that outspeeds and 2hkos, using calm mind can put you in a great position especially if you're getting more free leftovers recovery. That said, depending on how much you need bolt's hp for later on, it might be beneficial to just attack instead, especially vs targets like play rough waterpon/ice beam darkrai. For treads, the most important thing to assess is what you will need the balloon for, and how long can you hold on to it. Otherwise get up rocks asap if possible, be wary of random tera ghosts when trying to spin, and if they have ghold/sinistcha in the back it's often the easiest knock off prediction of your life. For hawlucha, identifying the possibility of the opposing threat setting up and how much do you need its encore to punish it for doing so is the lifeline of this team, especially as hawlucha can only outspeed speed boosted threats once before being forced out. Finally, valiant is much more versatile on this team than in most other ones; depending on the matchup, it can either be an additional source of breaking power, a cleaner, a lure for specific threats, or in the worst case scenario simply a knocker. Try to get as much value out of it as possible, as it's able to come in at any point of the match, but its role will wary depending on the specific game state. The sheer strength/surprise factor of its set should help out immensely on this regard, too.
Vs glimmora/ribombee that're not paired with a spinner, you can instead lay down a spike first before switching in iron crown to crack them wide open through sash. Vs samurott-h leads, valiant is the obvious mon to take c-edges, but depending on what water moves they have, things can get really scary from quite an early state. In some VERY specific matchups, leading iron treads/even crown instead might be more beneficial; however, you must ensure pincurchin can find some sort of entry point asap afterwards, which is quite hard due to its poor bulk and why it's often best to lead with it (and why getting the terrain up a second time can already be quite challenging, let alone a third time...got forbid you get knocked off at any point....)
Otherwise, you will need to make aggressive calls to switch in the appropriate mons when/as needed, as this team lacks pivoting moves outside of iron crown's volt switch; if you send out iron treads and they have a tusk in the back, it's often safe to double back out into valiant/crown as appropriate, forcing it right back out and landing a knock/killing a mon. Another common sequence is bringing valiant in vs tusk, then just clicking knock right away if they have a glowking/crown/moltres in the back; you will basically always land it and get tons of value out of it. For crown it's easier since tachyon is already so strong, and the focus blast targets switchins are often easily telegraphed, thus giving you a solid chance to land the 1 focus blast you need to cripple/kill them, and win. Be wary of locking into psynoise/volt switch if immunities are still present. Raging bolt has its whole host of mindgames associated with the mon's playstyle, but for the most part if the opponent 1. doesn't have a fast encore user in the back 2. doesn't have a physical attacker that outspeeds and 2hkos, using calm mind can put you in a great position especially if you're getting more free leftovers recovery. That said, depending on how much you need bolt's hp for later on, it might be beneficial to just attack instead, especially vs targets like play rough waterpon/ice beam darkrai. For treads, the most important thing to assess is what you will need the balloon for, and how long can you hold on to it. Otherwise get up rocks asap if possible, be wary of random tera ghosts when trying to spin, and if they have ghold/sinistcha in the back it's often the easiest knock off prediction of your life. For hawlucha, identifying the possibility of the opposing threat setting up and how much do you need its encore to punish it for doing so is the lifeline of this team, especially as hawlucha can only outspeed speed boosted threats once before being forced out. Finally, valiant is much more versatile on this team than in most other ones; depending on the matchup, it can either be an additional source of breaking power, a cleaner, a lure for specific threats, or in the worst case scenario simply a knocker. Try to get as much value out of it as possible, as it's able to come in at any point of the match, but its role will wary depending on the specific game state. The sheer strength/surprise factor of its set should help out immensely on this regard, too.
Despite not having the most eye catching ladder rating peak here on display, I've gotten around to collecting a few replays for general demonstation. FWIW I've also had my main account, as well as several other alts, either reach 1700 or mid 1600s with the team (which considering my general skill level is quite impressive already), so clearly there's at least some potential in it. These replays are obtained from my various alts at different points in time. Not gonna go into too much detail with them as this thread's already way too long/I'm not even done with it yet:
Sun:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186092285
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2195069961
Stall:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186085092
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186146242 (psyshock would've made this way easier, but it also shows you don't need it after all)
Bulky offense:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186112070
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186166380
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187394005
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187410351-fen5n0ulgpexl0flwslu7vdylbgs5qmpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187413323
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187372567
Balance:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187389912-s0ilaorefti5f3r71vh6wfipajgwgr6pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186132247-m75j48qljhbb2cgi0n0nkbkou88g3e9pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186128640 (lokix is another scary mon if you let your 4x bug resists get whittled too much)
Various forms of HO:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187367043-4p1ss471e70s0styjtc08szk2z7q9s2pw (screens)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186155987 (dark spam, also showcases the earlygame scenario vs darkrai I mentioned above)
...I swear I thought I saved at least 1 replay vs webs. Oh well, maybe I didn't preserve it bc said webs teams were too unconventional or smth. Same for rain teams, not counting the team's low win% vs them.
Sun:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186092285
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2195069961
Stall:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186085092
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186146242 (psyshock would've made this way easier, but it also shows you don't need it after all)
Bulky offense:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186112070
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186166380
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187394005
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187410351-fen5n0ulgpexl0flwslu7vdylbgs5qmpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187413323
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187372567
Balance:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187389912-s0ilaorefti5f3r71vh6wfipajgwgr6pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186132247-m75j48qljhbb2cgi0n0nkbkou88g3e9pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186128640 (lokix is another scary mon if you let your 4x bug resists get whittled too much)
Various forms of HO:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187367043-4p1ss471e70s0styjtc08szk2z7q9s2pw (screens)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2186155987 (dark spam, also showcases the earlygame scenario vs darkrai I mentioned above)
...I swear I thought I saved at least 1 replay vs webs. Oh well, maybe I didn't preserve it bc said webs teams were too unconventional or smth. Same for rain teams, not counting the team's low win% vs them.
This one is a strange point to make, because as just mentioned above, the biggest "threat" to the team is pincurchin's tendency to get taken advantage of by various threats in ou in the lead slot, often being reactive and unable to respond sufficiently in time before it gets awkward. With that said, here's some generally shaky/poor matchups:
(Ice spinner): This move instantly removes your e-terrain upon inflicting damage, while also hitting hawlucha super effectively. It's also paired with ground type stab/coverage for further insult to injury. Your best bet is to simply make aggressive plays to force out/kill these mons before they get a chance to get the move off/do a whole lot more damage to the rest of the team, even if this can be quite hard....(especially with dnite having espeed for maximum insult to injury)
I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: Barra in rain outruns and ohkos like, the entire team except raging bolt with liquidation alone, and some mons with just flip turn before escaping. An uninvested bolt can only take so many hits on the switch before going down, especially since it'll most likely also have to do the job vs the rest of the rain team as well, provided the opposing electric immunities are eliminated. Your best bet is to outplay the hell out of them and turn things into a rocket tag game where you take out as many opposing mons as possible before finally getting the chance to kill barra itself. If need be, treads can tera in a desperate emergency to live a hit, but eq never ohkos back from full so be sure to get up hazards first...somehow....
It's especially problematic if it's a lead, and you're not sure if it'll dd or just knock right away, but even otherwise the wiggle room vs it is super limited. The fact that it outruns valiant after a dd is catastrophic, especially since you can't tera steel out of your acro weakness here. Hawlucha can contain its threat level, but only once. Be very careful around it.
Annoying because it hits hard on top of replacing your terrain with its own, and crown/bolt are 2hko'd by banded wood hammer on the switch. Still, it's not as unmanageable as you'd think; hazards/wood hammer recoil can wear it down quickly, most mons on the team can hit it fairly hard (even treads can knock off its band), and since it's adamant, timid bolt can pick it off with boosted dragon pulse after a bit of chip. Still a real threat though especially if the opponent utilizes it well.
While you do have immunities to each of its individual stabs, it's still tough to contend with, in no small part because not only it does it get a boost from your own terrain, iron treads can't even ohko it back from full anyway (without tera). Get up entry hazards and limit its opportunities as much as possible; your own bolt should once again come out on top due to always being faster, especially if you cm as they preemptively tera fairy.
Where specs shadow ball switchins (other sets are manageable)
(scarf) If the opponent doesn't fall for the tera poison bait and the mon is scarfed, it can outrun and ohko valiant with sludge bomb even in terrain. Punish the move it's locked into as well as possible. On a semi related note, scarf can be even worse to handle lategame if your iron crown is weakened/fainted, as it can then outrun everything, mindlessly spam triple axel, and somehow land every single one without fail, mopping up everything else if you don't catch on in time.
Your only natural fire type resist is an uninvested raging bolt. That should tell you how awful it is to switch into these threats when they get the upper hand, and it's also among the main reasons treads has tera dragon; to surprise live a hit from them and ohko back with eq/knock moltres's boots away. If need be, valiant can tera stellar to ohko cinderace with cc from full.
This mon is awful to play around/switch into, especially if its set is unrevealed/has tera steel to live a hit from your own valiant anyway. Bolt can live a hit and ohko with rising voltage even after a spa drop, but it takes way too much damage without tera-ing...and thunderclap, even in terrain, DOESN'T ohko it from full (252 SpA Raging Bolt Thunderclap vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Valiant in Electric Terrain: 234-276 (80.6 - 95.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO). Crown is the best overall option, but it too fears coming in directly on a dark/ghost move. Hawlucha can force it out/rkill even in eterrain, but only once. Treads doesn't even kill it from full with rapid spin->eq unless valiant uses cc (and you tera to live the hit), but they can switch out after your rapid spin, so....Ultimately, it's gonna be a walk on eggshells no matter what, and you'll just have to be ok with it/hope luck is on your side. Oh right, even if their quark drive activates via your eterrain, you STILL can't knock off their (unused) booster energy anyway.....
Water/ground mons are thankfully rare in OU, which is a good thing because they can be awkward to play around; nothing on the team hits them super effectively, so you have to contend with their invested bulk while they have super effective stab ground moves vs most of your team. They're not insurmountable, but may require an awkward amount of resource allocation to contain and take out.
It hits the majority of the team for SE damage while walling valiant. As long as iron crown's healthy enough, it can use it as an entry point to start dishing out its own breaking prowess in turn, and bolt/even pinc can obviously vaporize it, but it can still be a walk on eggshells when it gets the upper hand.
Screens can be awkward to go up against, especially depending on their choices of sweepers/how well they conserve them. If grimmsnarl doesn't have taunt, try laying down as many hazards as possible to prevent it from (re)setting screens too many times, while also taking out some of their sweepers more easily. Hawlucha can also lock them into setup moves to waste even more screens turns, but usually only once. Just try to hold on as tightly as possible until screens run out, then go full throttle on them. Iron crown does ~75% to grimmsnarl behind light screen.
(Ice spinner): This move instantly removes your e-terrain upon inflicting damage, while also hitting hawlucha super effectively. It's also paired with ground type stab/coverage for further insult to injury. Your best bet is to simply make aggressive plays to force out/kill these mons before they get a chance to get the move off/do a whole lot more damage to the rest of the team, even if this can be quite hard....(especially with dnite having espeed for maximum insult to injury) I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: Barra in rain outruns and ohkos like, the entire team except raging bolt with liquidation alone, and some mons with just flip turn before escaping. An uninvested bolt can only take so many hits on the switch before going down, especially since it'll most likely also have to do the job vs the rest of the rain team as well, provided the opposing electric immunities are eliminated. Your best bet is to outplay the hell out of them and turn things into a rocket tag game where you take out as many opposing mons as possible before finally getting the chance to kill barra itself. If need be, treads can tera in a desperate emergency to live a hit, but eq never ohkos back from full so be sure to get up hazards first...somehow.... It's especially problematic if it's a lead, and you're not sure if it'll dd or just knock right away, but even otherwise the wiggle room vs it is super limited. The fact that it outruns valiant after a dd is catastrophic, especially since you can't tera steel out of your acro weakness here. Hawlucha can contain its threat level, but only once. Be very careful around it. Annoying because it hits hard on top of replacing your terrain with its own, and crown/bolt are 2hko'd by banded wood hammer on the switch. Still, it's not as unmanageable as you'd think; hazards/wood hammer recoil can wear it down quickly, most mons on the team can hit it fairly hard (even treads can knock off its band), and since it's adamant, timid bolt can pick it off with boosted dragon pulse after a bit of chip. Still a real threat though especially if the opponent utilizes it well. While you do have immunities to each of its individual stabs, it's still tough to contend with, in no small part because not only it does it get a boost from your own terrain, iron treads can't even ohko it back from full anyway (without tera). Get up entry hazards and limit its opportunities as much as possible; your own bolt should once again come out on top due to always being faster, especially if you cm as they preemptively tera fairy. Where specs shadow ball switchins (other sets are manageable) (scarf) If the opponent doesn't fall for the tera poison bait and the mon is scarfed, it can outrun and ohko valiant with sludge bomb even in terrain. Punish the move it's locked into as well as possible. On a semi related note, scarf can be even worse to handle lategame if your iron crown is weakened/fainted, as it can then outrun everything, mindlessly spam triple axel, and somehow land every single one without fail, mopping up everything else if you don't catch on in time. Your only natural fire type resist is an uninvested raging bolt. That should tell you how awful it is to switch into these threats when they get the upper hand, and it's also among the main reasons treads has tera dragon; to surprise live a hit from them and ohko back with eq/knock moltres's boots away. If need be, valiant can tera stellar to ohko cinderace with cc from full. This mon is awful to play around/switch into, especially if its set is unrevealed/has tera steel to live a hit from your own valiant anyway. Bolt can live a hit and ohko with rising voltage even after a spa drop, but it takes way too much damage without tera-ing...and thunderclap, even in terrain, DOESN'T ohko it from full (252 SpA Raging Bolt Thunderclap vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Valiant in Electric Terrain: 234-276 (80.6 - 95.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO). Crown is the best overall option, but it too fears coming in directly on a dark/ghost move. Hawlucha can force it out/rkill even in eterrain, but only once. Treads doesn't even kill it from full with rapid spin->eq unless valiant uses cc (and you tera to live the hit), but they can switch out after your rapid spin, so....Ultimately, it's gonna be a walk on eggshells no matter what, and you'll just have to be ok with it/hope luck is on your side. Oh right, even if their quark drive activates via your eterrain, you STILL can't knock off their (unused) booster energy anyway..... Water/ground mons are thankfully rare in OU, which is a good thing because they can be awkward to play around; nothing on the team hits them super effectively, so you have to contend with their invested bulk while they have super effective stab ground moves vs most of your team. They're not insurmountable, but may require an awkward amount of resource allocation to contain and take out. It hits the majority of the team for SE damage while walling valiant. As long as iron crown's healthy enough, it can use it as an entry point to start dishing out its own breaking prowess in turn, and bolt/even pinc can obviously vaporize it, but it can still be a walk on eggshells when it gets the upper hand. Screens can be awkward to go up against, especially depending on their choices of sweepers/how well they conserve them. If grimmsnarl doesn't have taunt, try laying down as many hazards as possible to prevent it from (re)setting screens too many times, while also taking out some of their sweepers more easily. Hawlucha can also lock them into setup moves to waste even more screens turns, but usually only once. Just try to hold on as tightly as possible until screens run out, then go full throttle on them. Iron crown does ~75% to grimmsnarl behind light screen.I don't really interact enough with the forums to have any particular person to tag in here, but shoutout to the most frequent OU room users on PS! for being good friends/people, and for being among the first few to have witnessed this team's paste/the team in action sometimes.
This is my first thread at all ever, so I hope it's descriptive/sufficient enough to satisfy those who read it, and are willing to give the team a chance. I'm really glad I got to give this team a proper sendoff before putting it into a fully public space like this. This is most particularly relevant because...this team relies A LOT on the surprise/unexpected factor to scrape kills/wins. Depending on how much this team takes off, said surprise factor may no longer be on your side, potentially dimishing the team's overall effectiveness. Nonetheless, I'm really happy I managed to get this team/playstyle to a state that I can at least call functional enough to survive mid ladder, if nothing else. I'm sure a much more skilled player than me could take this even higher; for now though I think it's good enough to post here, ripe for people to pick apart as they please; such is the purpose of this subforum after all.
If you unironically read everything all the way through to the end, I....thank you very much for your time. It was not easy finding the right set/amount of words to put into each section, pouring all my thoughts into them while at once making sure they're satisfactory enough to go through. Really glad for the ability to save threads as draft before posting.
This is my first thread at all ever, so I hope it's descriptive/sufficient enough to satisfy those who read it, and are willing to give the team a chance. I'm really glad I got to give this team a proper sendoff before putting it into a fully public space like this. This is most particularly relevant because...this team relies A LOT on the surprise/unexpected factor to scrape kills/wins. Depending on how much this team takes off, said surprise factor may no longer be on your side, potentially dimishing the team's overall effectiveness. Nonetheless, I'm really happy I managed to get this team/playstyle to a state that I can at least call functional enough to survive mid ladder, if nothing else. I'm sure a much more skilled player than me could take this even higher; for now though I think it's good enough to post here, ripe for people to pick apart as they please; such is the purpose of this subforum after all.
If you unironically read everything all the way through to the end, I....thank you very much for your time. It was not easy finding the right set/amount of words to put into each section, pouring all my thoughts into them while at once making sure they're satisfactory enough to go through. Really glad for the ability to save threads as draft before posting.
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that died to the move was so satisfying to watch, 4x resisting rillaboom's stab was as great as it comes, and most importantly it could actually put opposing moths into awkward situations), but....the set/mon as a whole otherwise just didn't feel like it was providing all that much TO the team as a whole, and vice versa. And ofc, the mon further exacerbating the team's ground/water weaknesses didn't help matters (especially when waterpon can just tera out of the sludge wave weakness and beat you anyway). 
