https://pokepast.es/17679f9ee7f4a06b
I have been playing OU relatively casually since generation 6. I was able to reach top 500 in ladder in gen 6 back when I was 13. About a month ago, I decided to take it seriously and try to make ladder this generation too. I did it today with this team, so I decided to share it here so other people can see it. This team took me from hovering between the high 1400s to low 1600s to being able to consistently sit in the mid 1600s and finally make ladder. I will show you how I deal with every threat in OU.
Blissey (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Soft-Boiled
- Teleport
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss
This is the standard OU that switches into the legions of special attackers and teleport out, allowing for other Pokemon to come in. One of the special functions on this team for Blissey is to be switched out into from Hippowdon, then teleporting out into Dracozolt for the sweep. Heavy duty boots, like always allow for longevity. You take max defense in order too live hits from powerful physical ice types when necessary, (more on this in the threats section). Natural cure allows this Pokemon to soak up status conditions and teleport out. Teleporting into Draczolt, Tapu Lele, or Dragonite are its primary functions. Toxic and seismic toss are very rarely pressed.
Tangrowth @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Knock Off
- Giga Drain
- Sleep Powder
- Earthquake
More than Hippowdown, this Pokemon is your primary switch in to physical attacks. Rocky helmet allows it to quickly make work of multi hitting Pokemon, such as Weavile's Triple Axel, Melmetal's Double Iron Bash, and Urshifu's surging strikes. Sleep powder allows Tangrowth to handle problematic mons on the switch, such as Clefable. One of the primary functions of this Pokemon is to serve as a pivot for Rillaboom, as most non-bulk-up/SD RIllabooms will U-turn out on the switfch into Tangrowth, taking large switch Damage. Additionally, This spread allows it to live two dragon-darts from DD Dragapult at +1, letting it either 2HKO with knock up, or kill after some chip. ONe of the most important functions of this Pokemon for this team, however, is dealing with Kartana, particularly the scarf variant. Knocking off Kartana allows it to be revenge killed by Dracozolt in the sand or tapu lele. Tangrowth almost always forces Kartana out, except for the SD variant.
Hippowdon @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
- Slack Off
- Earthquake
This Pokemon's Primary purpose is to revenge kill certain mons, stop sweeps, and set up sand for Dracozolt. Smooth Rock is important, allowing for sand turns to be extended, as it is a very rare situation to be able to directly switch into Dracozolt, and usualy 2-4 turns of sand pass before Dracozolt can safely come in. Ironically, I rarely press stealth rocks on this Pokemon. Whirlwind allows for Hippowdon to deal with annoying substitute users, or setup sweepers, most commonly Hawlucha. Max defense allows it to live hits from +3 Hawlucha. I try to not let this Pokemon take chip, so as to keep settting sand. And I also try to not let it get knocked off. However, sometimes, it is a necessity, such as if Tangrowth is too low to take a knock off and Bisharp is out.
Dracozolt @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Bolt Beak
- High Horsepower
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Blast
Dracozolt is the main protagonist of this team. It sweeps pretty easily after threats such as landorus, hippowdown, and swampert are gone. Max attack allows it two be able to two shot shuckle. one shot or two shot cleffable, depending on spread, ONe shot offensive tapu koko with bolt beak, or defensive tapu koko with high horse power, one or two shot blissey, and so on and so forth. Landorus and Swampert are often annoying threats that must be taken care so this Pokemon can sweep more effectively. Often times, Dracozolt will take too much chip Using Dragon Claw on Landorus or Swampert on the switch trying to wear them down. A weakness of this Pokemon is with life orb it is hard to keep healthy and is super sensitive to chip. It can deal with rillaboom in the sand, as Fireblast can 2HKO rillaboom, but grassy glide does not 2HKO it. A weakness of this mon is that there are many threats it won't OHKO, such as Ferrothorn with fireblast or Clefable. Often times it is necessary to get chip on many mons before you can sweep.
Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Moonblast
- Psychic
Tapu Lele's main job is to cover Dracozolt's weakness. Being able to two or three shot big threats, such as Landorus and Swampert, and revenge kill others, such as Weavile, Kyurem, and Bisharp helps allow Dracozolt to sweep. Scarf is important because after a knock off from Tangrowth, it can easily revenge kill Kartana. Scarf is important over specs because of the ability to revenge kill speedier threats if sand is not currently up or Dracozolt is down, such as Dragapult and Tapu Koko. Focus blast is rarely clicked, and usually only to predict the ferrothorn or heatran switch in, both of which get 2HKO. But who is really hit 2 focus blasts in a row?
Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 228 HP / 4 Atk / 24 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Defog
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Ice Beam
This is a very creative Dragonite set, and it was kind of forced together to cover the rest of the team's weaknesses. Tapu Lele and Dracozolt are very sensitive to chip damge, so defog is necessary. Often, switching into Blissey on Heatran, or Tangrowth on Bisharp could be impractical, so earthquake allows Dragonite to deal with these two mons. Ice beam is very rarely used to handle Rillaboom, but almost always used to handle Landorus-T. An interesting note is that Landorus-T is rarely one shot by Ice beam, so I might have to increase SpAtt EVs and decrease SpD IVs. Roost allows it to reset multiscale.
Threats:
Extreme Tier Threats:
Extreme Tier Threats:
- Mamoswine- This team has no real counter for Mamoswine. If running life Orb, Blissey cant take 2 Earthquakes/icicle crashes and often times you just have to keep Using softboiled to try to stall it out. However, typically you will have to eventually switch out and sack something.You don't HARD lose because this Pokemon exists, but he usually forces a sack. Tangrowth can live 1 icicile crash typically, and with enough chip, revenge kill with Giga Drain,.Tapu Lele can also revenge kill with enough chip
- Weavile- Similarly to mamoswine, physical ice types are near impossible to deal with for this team. Typically, Weavile may necessitate a sack. Making Weavile take large chip with Triple axel on Tangrowth's rocky helmet is a good strategy. So is revenge killing with Tapu Lele. Many weaviles dont run Ice shard, and even if they did, Dracozolt can live one, so revenge killing with Dracozolt is possible too. However, nothing on the team appreciates a hit from this Pokemon, and it almost always necessitates a sack.
High Tier Threats:
- Landorus-T- Any bulky ground type with pivot is a hard Pokemon on for this team to handle, because it makes it harder for Dracozolt to sweep. Dragonite using Ice beam on this Pokemon can make it easeir to deal with, but it typically won't be one shot. Max HP is a particularly troublesome.When this mon is present, it is typicallly desirable to bait it into Dragonite, as most people will expect a DD-Dragonite set. Then you can take it out with ice beam. Making it take chip on U-turn with Tangrowth allows for Ice beam to be more effective. Tapu Lele can also typically two shot
- Swampert -Swampert is easier to deal with than Landorus because of Tangrowth, but typically easier to deal with because of Tangrowth. Tapu Lele will not typiclalyt shot swampert, but Dracozolt can wear it down faster on the switch. Not much to say about this mon, except bulky ground pivots are hard for this team.
- Kyurem- Kyurem is currently one of the most oppressive Pokemon in the tier with its new Choice specs set. Often, going into Blissey and teleporting out is enough to deal with it, but since it started carrying focus blast and running specs, Blissey can be in trouble. Sometimes Kyurem forces a sack. Often times, you can predict a focus blast and switch into Tapu Lele or Dragonite. It may be necessary to burn soft boiled PP on blissey to stall out focus blast. Have of them will mist anyway. Without focus blast, this Pokmeon is easy to deal with. However, if Kyurem manages to kill Blissey, the team is severely crippled and may have a near impossible time dealing with Kyurem
- Ferrothorn- Usually more of a nuisance than a threat, the problem with this Pokemon is that Dracozolt can't one shot it. One of the more effective strategies for this Pokemon is knocking off it's leftovers with Tangrowth and wearing down its HP with earthquakes over and over til it switches out or dies, so Dracozolt can one shot it. The problem with that strategy is that usually by that times rocks and 3 layers of spikes have been set up, so you have to try to force in Dragonite to get rid of the hazards. God forbid Dragonite has been knocked off or worn down.
- Amoongus -- Hard to deal with but luckily not super common. Going into Blissey and teleporting out into Tapu Lele after the spore is the main strategy to deal with it. However, while Blissey is asleep, often times it will switch out, forcing you to hard switch into something suboptimal rather than teleport out.
Mid to Low Tier Threats:
- Heatran -- On paper. this Pokemon shouldn't be as hard to deal with as it is. However, when coupled with Pokemon with Landorus, pivoting back and forth between a bulk ground and Heatran can proove difficult, especially when it can kill Blissey if running taunt, and it can spread status with Toxic. The strategy to deal with this threat is a combination of switching between Dragonite, Blissey, and occasionally Hippowdon, and predicting between taunt and magma storm.
- Tapu Fini - - This Pokemon is only really a threat if it is running choice-scarf/trick.It can catch you off guard when going out into Blissey. Other than that, just switch into Blissey. Tapu Lele can easily switch in on a trick.
- The Slows - - On paper, they're easy to deal with, as the all get one shot by Dracozolt without sand. However, the problem lies in with future sight. Often times, when switching into Blissey to pivot out, it will use Future sight, potentially forcing you to stay into something suboptimal to soak a future sight, potentially forcing you to pick between sacking Blissey or another Pokemon.
Final Notes
Overall, this team can effectively deal with most threats except physical ice types. Another weakness of this team is that it has many win cons. For example if a Pokemon like Corviknight is on the enemy team, Dracozolt becomes unsackable. The are many Pokemon on the team only one team member can handle.
is a good choice here. Each balance/bulky team need a defensive Flying type that's able to Defog away entry hazards and handle the threatening Ground types and Grass types. Defensive Dragonite is often an interesting choice because of several things. First off, it has a very good coverage allowing him to target specific Pokemon you want to be able to deal with, and common hazard setters with moves like Earthquake, Ice Beam, Flamethrower. Moreover, it is one of the rare reliable Heatran 
check because of its typing, its better Speed and the aforementioned access to Earthquake. Lastly, it has an excellent ability that let it check a wide variety of Pokemon when it is at full health. It's on that particular point that I want to talk. Because the main issue here, in my opinion, is that with Sand (and especially an 8 turns Sand) you can't use Dragonite at its full potential. Basically, while Sand is active (which may be the case most of the time), you can't really use Dragonite defensive utility as its ability will be broken each turn by the residual Sand damages.
here. Of course, replacing Dragonite by something like Corviknight make you way weaker to Heatran. It will thus require other changes like using a Special defensive Hippowdon 
and/or using another special wall over Blissey 
(something like Slowking 
/Slowking Galar 
that deals better with Heatran while forming a great Regecore with Tangrowth 
). Mandibuzz 
could also be an option over Dragonite as it would allow to avoid having to use a full Spe Def Hippowdon to deal with special threats like Dragapult 
if you remove Blissey. Slowking would be particularly interesting here because of its ability to fire a Future Sigh before pivoting which greatly helps Dracozolt 
and Tapu Lele 
to break through bulkier teams.
and so Slowking Galar could be an option to deal with it, but at the cost of losing a pivoting option, anyway, Kyurem is always hard to deal defensively)