Gen 7 Triple Hazards, a Mega Garchomp balance team

[Red Raven]

After some experimentation, I was suggested a team made around Mega Garchomp and it worked pretty well but in recent times I've used it, I have had a hard time using it because one of the pokemon would become dead weight in some battles so I reworked it myself and this is what I came up with. I did base it on the original team I was suggested though






Garchomp-Mega @ Garchompite
Ability: Sand Force
Shiny: No
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast


Starting things off is the star of the team, Mega Garchomp. At first, I was skeptical about using a mild nature over naive but after some battles, it really proved its worth. Just a standard mixed Mega Chomp set meant to hit as many things as hard as possible. This is the first member of the hazard trio of the team and because how Mega Chomp threaten many pokemon, it's one of the perfect candidates for using stealth rock. Not much to say since it is just the usual set








Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 180 Def / 80 SpD
Calm Nature
- Haze
- Scald
- Recover
- Toxic Spikes


The second and main member of the hazard. I say main member because toxic spikes is a very powerful hazard. Putting opposing pokemon on a timer even with just one layer of poison can put them in range of some strong attacks like Garchomp's draco meteor. I always prioritize getting toxic spikes up over rocks unless the opponent has Charizard. The ev spread and nature is a bit weird but like in my previous rmt, I don't want it to be too vulnerable on the special side







Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Protect
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed


The final member of the hazard trio. When using spikes, Ferrothorn is probably one, if not, the best user of the move. Spikes is the least important hazard on this team and it's job is to whittle down steel types like Magearna, who would otherwise survive Mega Garchomp's earthquakes from full hp and kill it back with fleur cannon. Protect is a move for scouting and gyro ball is my choice of stab so it can threaten fairies on its own. Leech seed is there because seed and Ferrothorn go together like burgers and fries







Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
Shiny: No
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Hydro Pump
- Water Shuriken


Next is the main sweeper of the team. Since Ferrothorn already has spikes, I gave Greninja ice beam for a nasty surprise against grass types. Because it is Ash Greninja, its other moves remain the same along with the nature, evs and item. With the help of the hazard trio, it should force the opponent to use defog more often and that means I can bring in Greninja to hit something hard, possibly scoring the battle bond activation early and thus, giving me a powerful revenge killer. The coverage from ice beam should make things a lot easier because of the coverage it provides







Tapu Koko @ Electrium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Roost
- U-turn
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam


For this member, I'm not exactly sure if its the best one. The main reason I chose Tapu Koko was to deny an opposing Tapu Lele's psychic terrain, which would prevent Greninja from using water shuriken. When I tried it in a few battles, Koko performed good, sometimes even too good since it seems to be a pokemon made for my playstyle. Recovery option and a powerful stab in thunderbolt. Even though it's special attack is not that great, under electric terrain, it hurts. Since Greninja already had the ice type coverage, I chose to forgo it and replace it with u turn on Koko and since my z crystal slot was still open, I gave it to Koko. It does come at the cost of losing life orb damage but it still performs decently. I chose the electric z crystal over the fairy one because of Volcarona and Charizard. In the event that I failed my prediction and let my opponent defog away the rocks, I wanted a nuke that could hit them real hard, even if it means that Koko must be sacrificed just so they would put them in range of a pre battle bond water shuriken, which is completely unreliable








Tornadus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: No
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- U-turn
- Hurricane
- Knock Off


For the last member, I needed a pokemon with the regenerator ability in specific. The reason for this is I wanted a pokemon that could scout a choice locked opponent pokemon to ease prediction. Most unboosted coverage attacks do not kill Tornadus from full hp unless it is a crit. Thus, it's main role is to scout the moves so I can react accordingly. I know Tornadus is a good z user, but for my play style, it is more useful to me in the role I just mentioned, as a scout. It also comes with the benefit of defog which my team doesn't really need that much but good to have nonetheless. This set has proven itself to be a lot more consistent with me than the z crystal set. That is why I gave the crystal to Koko instead

After a few battles, this team performs rather good but I have this feeling that something is off about it and that it can be improved so any help would be appreciated. One of the main reasons I even wanted to change the team I was suggested was because I really wanted to have a team with Ash Greninja and Mega Garchomp

This team does struggle a lot against Kingdra in the rain though as choice specs, rain boosted hydro pumps puts a massive dent in even Ferrothorn. And if the thorn gets injured by it, then even the pex will get hammered by it even more. Now that I think about it, this is the main reason I wanted some feedback on the team

 

[Red Raven]

bump

 

[ElectricEpic384]

Here is a fact, for some reason, mega garchomp is actually worse than normal garchomp, so I recommend normal garchomp with life orb or choice scarf

 

[Red Raven]

Perhaps but Mega Garchomp is still a lot of fun to use. There are even times I find it easier than life orb Garchomp but yeah, the real reason I made this team was I wanted at least one team around me favorite mega and it's not like Mega Garchomp is that useless

 

[ElectricEpic384]

Mega garchomp is not useless, I’m just saying that you could make the team better, sorry for offending you, it’s just my opinion.

 

[SpookMÆN]

Ignore the previous user ForstamemasNeetaroOoniqua , Mega Garchomp does have a carved niche and shouldn't be compared to regular chomp, who is a blanket check to physical attackers or is an offensive rocker, while its mega acts as a mixed wallbreaker with rocks. With that aside, it's time for me to put my obscure knowledge to use.

MAJOR CHANGES

1. -->

First off, it's not a mega chomp team without sand. With sand force activated it helps chomp reach achieve KOs it wouldn't without (62.5% chance to OHKO pex with two layers of spikes) and even leaving heavy dents on resists. Tyranitar is solid on its own, as it acts as a special sponge and check to mega latias and lele not clicking moonblast/ focus blast. It's not even that bad agaisnt Heatran, but it shouldn't switch in due to it fearing a corkscrew crash. Trades t spikes and regenerator from pex to being a special wall + pursuit trapping problematic mons and improving chomp's wallbreaking potentiall.

2. -->

Your team lacks a win condition or set up mon, so to fill that niche is painsplit calm mind magearna, which dosen't sacrifice ferro's defensive utilities with access to semi reliable recovery and good defensive typing. It pairs well with chomp as it leaves holes and blows past checks like heatran opposing magearna, which in return it can muscle past walls like gastrodon, chansey and even improve the mu agaisnt rain with a few cm boosts. (Watch out for EQ from swampert tho). Super scary late game and thrives off the havoc its teamates leave.

3. -->

Yeah koko does seem nice, dealing with pex, celesteela while providing volturn support, but those roles are accomplished with magearna (aside from volturn) and the team lacked a scarfer + ground resist, so Serperior seemed like a perfect pick. Similiar to magearna, it takes advantage of the opponent being worn down late game, but it also can blow past bulky waters early game, thanks to contrary making it easy to snowball out of control. It has a lot of utility options it can use to lure its counters, such as glare crippling tornadus t, knock off making heatran easier to wear down and hp fire to hit steel / grass types. Finally it's a nice panic button agaisnt rain teams, as with scarf it outspeeds m swampert under rain.

MINOR CHANGES

1 (ice beam --> spikes)

Ice beam may seem like a nice option to nail tapu bulu and tangrowth, but the rest of team, specifically tornadus t already handle them well enough making spikes the better choice. It not only keeps the hazard stack idea you were going for, but it is very good in achieving this, as the amount of switches it forces creates oppurtunities to lay a spike or two. The extra chip is crucial in nailing kos (see the calc above), synergizing well with the rest of its teamates.

Overall while the changes might seem plentiful, they improve several mus while still keeping the hazard stacking nature you were going for. (3 setters with no defog/spin detterent dosen't synergize well in practice.) Now instead of passively setting up a spike or two, you take advantage of the switches both setters force to provide some chip for the win con/ revenge killer to clean up. Hope this actually helps, thanks for reading and have a good day.


https://pokepast.es/dc5d135c30940913

 

[Red Raven]

Ignore the previous user ForstamemasNeetaroOoniqua , Mega Garchomp does have a carved niche and shouldn't be compared to regular chomp, who is a blanket check to physical attackers or is an offensive rocker, while its mega acts as a mixed wallbreaker with rocks. With that aside, it's time for me to put my obscure knowledge to use.

MAJOR CHANGES

1. -->

First off, it's not a mega chomp team without sand. With sand force activated it helps chomp reach achieve KOs it wouldn't without (62.5% chance to OHKO pex with two layers of spikes) and even leaving heavy dents on resists. Tyranitar is solid on its own, as it acts as a special sponge and check to mega latias and lele not clicking moonblast/ focus blast. It's not even that bad agaisnt Heatran, but it shouldn't switch in due to it fearing a corkscrew crash. Trades t spikes and regenerator from pex to being a special wall + pursuit trapping problematic mons and improving chomp's wallbreaking potentiall.

2. -->

Your team lacks a win condition or set up mon, so to fill that niche is painsplit calm mind magearna, which dosen't sacrifice ferro's defensive utilities with access to semi reliable recovery and good defensive typing. It pairs well with chomp as it leaves holes and blows past checks like heatran opposing magearna, which in return it can muscle past walls like gastrodon, chansey and even improve the mu agaisnt rain with a few cm boosts. (Watch out for EQ from swampert tho). Super scary late game and thrives off the havoc its teamates leave.

3. -->

Yeah koko does seem nice, dealing with pex, celesteela while providing volturn support, but those roles are accomplished with magearna (aside from volturn) and the team lacked a scarfer + ground resist, so Serperior seemed like a perfect pick. Similiar to magearna, it takes advantage of the opponent being worn down late game, but it also can blow past bulky waters early game, thanks to contrary making it easy to snowball out of control. It has a lot of utility options it can use to lure its counters, such as glare crippling tornadus t, knock off making heatran easier to wear down and hp fire to hit steel / grass types. Finally it's a nice panic button agaisnt rain teams, as with scarf it outspeeds m swampert under rain.

MINOR CHANGES

1 (ice beam --> spikes)

Ice beam may seem like a nice option to nail tapu bulu and tangrowth, but the rest of team, specifically tornadus t already handle them well enough making spikes the better choice. It not only keeps the hazard stack idea you were going for, but it is very good in achieving this, as the amount of switches it forces creates oppurtunities to lay a spike or two. The extra chip is crucial in nailing kos (see the calc above), synergizing well with the rest of its teamates.

Overall while the changes might seem plentiful, they improve several mus while still keeping the hazard stacking nature you were going for. (3 setters with no defog/spin detterent dosen't synergize well in practice.) Now instead of passively setting up a spike or two, you take advantage of the switches both setters force to provide some chip for the win con/ revenge killer to clean up. Hope this actually helps, thanks for reading and have a good day.


https://pokepast.es/dc5d135c30940913

Thanks a lot for the feedback. Will give these a try a couple days from now when I do some battling

 

[Sickist]

Being a UU main, I've not touched OU in quite a while. However, SM OU is one of the few tiers that I actually know some stuff about, so I'll drop a rate anyways. I'm also gonna steal sp00k's format because that's the format I used while I consistently did rates.

Major Changes

->

While you definitely had the right idea with combining a flying resist + dark resist into one slot, you missed a crucial point in the building proccess: the stall matchup. This build struggles vs common stall builds, notably Chansey in general, which even in the face of Garchomp-Mega just soft-boils or switches out. With Calm Mind + Pain Split Magearna occupying this slot instead, the stall matchup becomes notably easier, especially considering the structure of the rest of the team. Most stall builds rely on Toxapex or Jirachi to check this variant of Magearna, but with multiple layers of hazards and teammates that pressure these hazard removers (Mega Chomp + Ash Gren), it becomes a lot harder to check in the long run. Magearna still keeps your flying/dark resist, but patches up a huge hole in this team. Magearna also makes the Alakazam-Mega matchup a lot less painful, although Magearna gets worn down quite quickly between it and Tapu Lele, so be careful.

->

With Magearna becoming the team's main steel, I see no reason to keep Ferrothorn here. The team has a meh Landorus-Therian matchup in my opinion (one stone edge on Torn and it's free real estate.), as well as struggles vs stuff such as Alakazam-Mega and Kartana. Assault Vest Tangrowth helps keep these in check, while also providing a much better longterm answer to Ash-Greninja. Tangrowth's mono-grass typing also allows it to function as an actual Ground resist, which is very beneficial for the Landorus-Therian matchup. You're also able to cripple more of Ash-Greninja's answers alongside Tornadus-T. This also enables you to scout for Z-Move Heatran and Magearna.

Minor Changes

[Mixed defenses -> Full SpDef, Toxic Spikes -> Baneful Bunker]

With Magearna taking less of a role as a Dark Resist then Koko (being a roost variant, Koko is not a good Greninja answer unless you know it's clicking dark pulse), Toxapex is better off utilizing a fully specially defensive set. This allows Pex to handle the likes of Ash-Greninja, Magearna, and Volcarona, as well as others, a lot better then before. I also highly suggest running Baneful Bunker as opposed to Toxic Spikes to cut momentum and scout better, as well as spread poison status (the more chip the merrier). While you do lose out on Toxic Spikes, chances are with how dominant Pex is in the metagame, those Toxic Spikes weren't staying down long anyways.

[Ice Beam -> Spikes]

As suggested above, Spikes are much more useful in the long run then Ice Beam. While you do hit Tangrowth and Hydreigon slightly harder, the benefit of Spikes is a lot more valuable to this team. Ash-Greninja is a very good spiker, as it forces so many switches, and can abuse these switches with setting Spikes on the field. This also supports your teammates, as spikes chip allows for easier Wall-breaking and weakening the opposing team's defensive checks.

While it may not be a "Triple Hazard Stack" anymore, these changes allow for a lot better matchups vs common metagame threats and archetypes of SM OU. If you have any issues, feel free to post here or contact me through Smogon or PS! You can also reach out to the OU room on Smogon, and there are sure to be people that can and will help you. Click the sprites below for an importable with the changes, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

 

[Red Raven]

Being a UU main, I've not touched OU in quite a while. However, SM OU is one of the few tiers that I actually know some stuff about, so I'll drop a rate anyways. I'm also gonna steal sp00k's format because that's the format I used while I consistently did rates.

Major Changes

->

While you definitely had the right idea with combining a flying resist + dark resist into one slot, you missed a crucial point in the building proccess: the stall matchup. This build struggles vs common stall builds, notably Chansey in general, which even in the face of Garchomp-Mega just soft-boils or switches out. With Calm Mind + Pain Split Magearna occupying this slot instead, the stall matchup becomes notably easier, especially considering the structure of the rest of the team. Most stall builds rely on Toxapex or Jirachi to check this variant of Magearna, but with multiple layers of hazards and teammates that pressure these hazard removers (Mega Chomp + Ash Gren), it becomes a lot harder to check in the long run. Magearna still keeps your flying/dark resist, but patches up a huge hole in this team. Magearna also makes the Alakazam-Mega matchup a lot less painful, although Magearna gets worn down quite quickly between it and Tapu Lele, so be careful.

->

With Magearna becoming the team's main steel, I see no reason to keep Ferrothorn here. The team has a meh Landorus-Therian matchup in my opinion (one stone edge on Torn and it's free real estate.), as well as struggles vs stuff such as Alakazam-Mega and Kartana. Assault Vest Tangrowth helps keep these in check, while also providing a much better longterm answer to Ash-Greninja. Tangrowth's mono-grass typing also allows it to function as an actual Ground resist, which is very beneficial for the Landorus-Therian matchup. You're also able to cripple more of Ash-Greninja's answers alongside Tornadus-T. This also enables you to scout for Z-Move Heatran and Magearna.

Minor Changes

[Mixed defenses -> Full SpDef, Toxic Spikes -> Baneful Bunker]

With Magearna taking less of a role as a Dark Resist then Koko (being a roost variant, Koko is not a good Greninja answer unless you know it's clicking dark pulse), Toxapex is better off utilizing a fully specially defensive set. This allows Pex to handle the likes of Ash-Greninja, Magearna, and Volcarona, as well as others, a lot better then before. I also highly suggest running Baneful Bunker as opposed to Toxic Spikes to cut momentum and scout better, as well as spread poison status (the more chip the merrier). While you do lose out on Toxic Spikes, chances are with how dominant Pex is in the metagame, those Toxic Spikes weren't staying down long anyways.

[Ice Beam -> Spikes]

As suggested above, Spikes are much more useful in the long run then Ice Beam. While you do hit Tangrowth and Hydreigon slightly harder, the benefit of Spikes is a lot more valuable to this team. Ash-Greninja is a very good spiker, as it forces so many switches, and can abuse these switches with setting Spikes on the field. This also supports your teammates, as spikes chip allows for easier Wall-breaking and weakening the opposing team's defensive checks.

While it may not be a "Triple Hazard Stack" anymore, these changes allow for a lot better matchups vs common metagame threats and archetypes of SM OU. If you have any issues, feel free to post here or contact me through Smogon or PS! You can also reach out to the OU room on Smogon, and there are sure to be people that can and will help you. Click the sprites below for an importable with the changes, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

Thanks for the feedback as well. I'm really liking these changes. I'm not gonna lie, when I made the original team, I was already imagining me and my opponent putting our Toxapexes out there just to get rid of the toxic spikes and Tangrowth might actually give me a pokemon that craps on rain boosted hydro pumps from Kingdra and not get worn down by it, unlike Ferrothorn. I'll give you both an update when I tested both teams out. That'll probably be at around monday or tuesday since I'm not doing any battles yet as I'm waiting for my new 3ds to arrive so I can finally give all my mons the proper natures instead of making do with the ones that are from a free giveaway. Thanks again. I really appreciate the help

By the way, I was wondering if you could also help me out with my other rmt

 

[Red Raven]

Sorry I'm late. I know I said I would tell you how the teams went on monday but the new 3ds I got had some issues so I had to fix it. My apologies. Anyway, I just tried out both teams. I'll start with the one SpookMÆN suggested. I only battled with it once but it was rough. The way that team works isn't suited to how I battle, which is mainly using defensive mons to slowly whittle down the enemy. Even when I did some practice battle against the ai I was having a hard time because there is nowhere to retreat. Tornadus maybe good but it can't handle all the defensive duties and Tyranitar won't last that long against repeated special hits. Here is the replay code

H2RW-WWWW-WWXD-UXVJ

I did manage to somehow win it but the whole time, it was very difficult for me to battle with

With Sickist team, it fared a lot better. The whole team was perfectly suited to how I battle. Three regenerator pokemon was just too good. I could simply rotate them accordingly to take hits and remain healthy. Here are the replay codes

9UNW-WWWW-WWXD-UXVK
XXUG-WWWW-WWXD-UXVL

I dunno why but the other guy decided not to use that many ou mons. Altho after these battles, I'm thinking about replacing baneful bunker mainly to cripple Hoopa unbound. The team has no good switch ins to it and its hyperspace fury and Pex's bunker won't save it. Bunker also doesn't put that much pressure on the enemy because they'd have to use contact moves for it to work

I know these are just three battles but I haven't really had the time this week. I've been busy but at least there's the results. Thanks a lot for the advice you two