SS OU Victini + Koko BO (My first team)

[Midcapd]

Ok, so this is my first team here and also the first team I've made in about 6 months. And so far, I've only started running into problems around the high 1300's. As the title suggests, the basic premise of the team is to use a Victini + Tapu Koko core as the two do synergize well together (explained below).

The Team:

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- U-turn
- Final Gambit

Victini is an underrated mon imo since V-create is hard to switch into since it can deal heavy amounts of damage to most non-bulky resists. Heatran is the biggest problem to this, but Tran switches are pretty predictable, allowing for a free switch into Shifu/Bliss. Usually, Victini sets run Glaciate to deal with Lando/Chomp but I've seen that Chomp isn't very common and V-create still does more damage on Lando, so I've replaced it with Final Gambit. Adamant nature allows it to break problematic walls, especially with SR/Spikes support while not really sacrificing that much in terms of speed, since 299 speed + scarf still outspeeds common speed control mons I've encountered like Scarf Fini, Scarf Wash/Heat, and Modest Scarf Lele. Additionally, its decent 100/100/100 defenses allow it to take most resisted hits pretty well (which will come in later). I generally consider Victini to be my speed control mon, but it can also be a semi-successful wallbreaker/cleaner.

Tapu Koko @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Thunderbolt
- U-turn
- Roost

Just your standard Offensive Pivot Koko set. It has great synergy with Victini as it counters some of the common mons that wall it and can boost its Bolt Strike to deal with bulky waters through terrain. Most notably, it hard-checks Slowbro and soft-checks Chomp and Zapdos. In late game, it can also serve as a pretty good cleaner primarily because of terrain boosted Tbolts and high speed. Its typing is also pretty useful, allowing it to switch into fighting/flying/electric/dragon type moves (which are all fairly common) and absorb Knock Offs (since HDB isn't really important for this mon).

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Aqua Jet

Since Victini doesn't really reliably break many walls, there is Shifu. It hits incredibly hard and provides useful fighting coverage while also still having U-turn. It can also consistently switch into Tran's fire moves (except plume) and consequently get a free hit on another mon on the switch or get a free switch through U-turn. I also use it a lot to combat suicide leads of HO teams as it can hit past screens and sash/sturdy because of Surging Strikes. It also provides utility in its priority move Aqua Jet, being able to finish off weakened scarf/speed control mons.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off
- Spikes
- Protect

Ferro because of its high physical defenses and iron barbs forms the defensive backbone of the team alongside Blissey. Leech Seed + Leftovers serve as decent recovery and can cripple common switchins like Tran since it does not have reliable recovery. Protect doubles this recovery and allows for scouting of commonly choice-locked switch-ins like Blacephalon, Pult, Rotom-H, and Kart. Knock Off over Gyro/Whip to add extra utility, especially since Tran is the most common switch-in (according to my experience). Spikes are also needed to chip walls into OHKO/2HKO range for Koko/Tini. Moves used to counter it (fighting/fire type moves), are resisted and tanked by Shifu, Tini, Koko and Torn all of which can strike back afterward.

Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Soft-Boiled
- Stealth Rock
- Seismic Toss
- Teleport

The blob here is used just as a catch-all special wall/status absorber. Toxic is replaced with SR to provide support to Victini and Koko (since I couldn't fit it anywhere else), though that does comes at the cost of being unable to reliably check Volcarona/other setup sweepers. It can switch into almost every common special attack except for Focus Blast which can be tanked by Tini/Koko/Torn. Teleport provides opportunities for Shifu/Koko/Victini to come in but at the same time, when not using teleport, common switch-ins can still be used to create momentum as fighting is resisted by Koko, Tini and Torn, while physical moves are handled by Ferro. Lastly, it can also check Tran, even though it does take quite a beating vs taunt stallbreaker sets.

Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Taunt
- U-turn
- Defog

Lastly, Torn was chosen because of its great typing which gives the team a much-needed Lando counter and Earthquake immunity. I have been debating replacing it with Lando, but in the end, I've still chosen Torn because of special coverage, taunt and its superior longevity due to regenerator. Although having Torn instead of Lando does come at the cost of having to put SR on Bliss, having no ground type and losing Intimidate pivoting. However, taunt is especially valuable imo as it can shut down setup sweepers, HO leads and stall which my team does stuggle with.

Problematic Matchups:
These are some of the problems that I have seen but cannot think of a solution to due to said solutions sacrificing the synergy of the team (at least I think).

- setup sweepers, especially seed Lucha as my main walls are pretty passive since Bliss doesn't have Toxic

- weather because neither Bliss nor Thorn can tank hits from weather abusers (especially Skewda and the Zolts)

- speed control in general is a problem since mons like Scarf Kart can still outspeed Tini even at max speed + scarf and wreak havoc on switch-ins.

- the lack of ground types is another one of this team's glaring flaws since it does lose a lot of defensive utility because of it.

And that's all! Again, take this with a grain of salt since I'm a dirty low ladder noob, so I'm may be overlooking some major flaws.
[Gen 8] OU replay: Tetedebois vs. VortexOverdrive - Pokémon Showdown (pokemonshowdown.com)

 

[airfare]

i think vic + koko + shifu is a pretty good starting point for your offensive core: it gives you a lot of room in that koko gives both of your breakers lots of opportunities after pivoting out of special walls/steels/grounds and vic + shifu both have some unique defensive utility vs stuff like lele heatran melmetal and weavile

however, there are some pretty glaring weaknesses that i think the defensive core should address.

in general when building a bo like this (especially when going for a more momentum-reliant style like this voltturn) you want to have a defense that can keep the pressure up. blissey and ferrothorn slow down the tempo of your team and make your offense less effective in addition to their own defensive holes

here are some suggestions to make this team more cohesive as bulky offense and improve its defensive vulnerabilities at the same time

1. you lack a ground type
dropping a ground type on a bulky offense like this gives electric-types like koko and zeraora free rein all game, whether it's free pivots on your passive ferrothorn/blissey or setting up to sweep with cm/bulk up. it also helps vs opposing garchomp, heatran, zapdos, and gives you an intimidate pivot to help buffer all of the tier's numerous physical attackers. standard spdef lando is fine in one of your 3 remaining slots:


Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 23 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic

2. you falter vs urshifu, are easily overwhelmed by weavile, and have trouble deciding how to execute a hazards plan
because of this ferrothorn set and your lack of a defensive water-type, you will inevitably struggle vs standard ferro + weav builds that can easily chip down your urshifu, as well as opposing urshifu that simply clicks the right move to OHKO something. in addition to providing you with a defogger and therefore more easily letting you organize your hazards, tapu fini adds solid defensive utility to your team and can act as an emergency way to force toxapex out with this set


Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 176 Def / 60 SpD / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Moonblast
- Nature's Madness
- Taunt

3. minor changes
-->
without blissey, this offensive core suffers from a weakness to pult. making your torn av fixes your ghost issue and helps pivot into things like lele and heatran while fini acts as the defogger

--> or another item that enables breaking
given that this offense relies heavily on victini in terrain to break through defensive cores containing fatter water-types like slowbro and pex, the ability to change its moves or another method of facilitating its wallbreaking abilities is ideal. you already have adequate speed control in koko and this doesn't affect your matchup vs other pokemon like zera/pult/slower scarfers too much

import & new threat list:
you'll notice that the new version of the team doesn't have a steel type; i chose to make this decision partially because victini and av torn act as pseudo-steel types by switching into tapu lele and dragapult while urshifu and tapu fini pick up the slack in checking dark types and the strong offense stops fairies from accomplishing too much. however, there are still a few weaknesses that can be exploited depending on your opponent's team

rain
the enemy of all offenses. rain is a tough matchup mostly because it's hard to maneuver around zapdos here (this is where the lack of your steel hurts). keeping up offensive pressure with koko, victini, and urshifu while making a conscious effort to conserve fini's hp for their skewda/toad is how you can scrape by this mu

ghosts
even with the best consistent ghost answer in the tier in av pult, u can still end up vulnerable to spdef drops from shadow ball and fall to a specs pult or scarf blace. the latter is especially terrifying because one kill vs a semi weakened team can end the game. make sure you conserve lando's hp as much as possible in blace mus specifically

toxapex
even though it looks like a decent enough mu with koko, lando, vic, and fini, knock + scald pex can enter and wreak havoc on your team against urshifu and torn. it's important to maintain momentum with u-turn if you think pex would enter - if you're in a hairy situation where you're unable to force it out without taking a risk like a burn on lando or a knock on vic, you can always sac fini's item to force it out with taunt + nm

there are a couple more minor weaknesses to things like melm, kartana, and hail but none are negative enough to where you can't play around them

hope this helped

 

[Zaza]

I like the Ferrothorn+Koko+Victini idea a lot as they synergize well off eachother, but like the last person said above my own comment, you need a ground type badly since volt switch is so free. Ferro, Koko, and Victini is the core I'd build around, Lando T makes a lot of sense as it gives the team a ground immune pokemon along with the much needed electric immunity to support these three. I would consider replacing Urshifu for a dark type wall breaker. Options for that slot could be Crawdaunt (most power, very slow and frail though), Weavile (fastest and easiest to use, but toxapex abuses), Pangoro (fighting STAB, but very slow and not super bulky), Hydreigon (spikes immune, is a special wall breaker), and Bisharp (defiant pairs well on hazard stack, but is slower). This gives the team a shadow ball switch-in if needed while still being able to be a wall breaker.

Example team based off the build's idea

Tapu Koko @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- U-turn
- Dazzling Gleam
- Roost

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Spikes

Victini @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- U-turn
- Bolt Strike
- Toxic

Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Def / 8 SpD / 168 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Defog
- Icy Wind

Crawdaunt @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crabhammer
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet
- Close Combat

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 172 SpD / 88 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic