Hello y'all! I've gotten better at teambuilding and understanding the metagame since my initial post here, so now I present a team that I've had a lot of fun using on ladder. It was able to make top 500 on ladder, so it might be at least sort of decent? Anyways, let me know of any improvements to make the team even better as I'm still fairly new to gen 9 OU and teambuilding in general.
Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/3dc40f85e8299c75
The team:
Weezing-Galar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Neutralizing Gas
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Strange Steam
- Defog
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp
One of my favorite things about teambuilding is building teams around pokemon that have an interesting niche in OU. Weezing-Galar stood out to me due to its ability neturalizing gas, which negates the abilities of other pokemon. Because of this, Weezing-galar is able to defog freely against Gholdengo, which is quite nice. Neturalizing gas is also great in other situations, such as weakening Samurott-Hisui's attacks by removing its sharpness ability. For this, I decided to go with the standard Smogon set: strange steam as a solid attacking move, defog to remove hazards, pain split as some form of recovery, and will-o-wisp to weaken physical attackers like Kinggambit. I also experimented with toxic and it could be a nice choice as well against bulker walls like Garganacl and Sinistcha. Tera flying is for avoiding ground-type attacks as well as providing a better match-up against Landorus and Great Tusk.
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Earthquake
- Ruination
Both Weezing-Galar and Ting-Lu create a solid defensive core that combat each others' weaknesses well. Ting-Lu is a solid answer into pokemon like Gholdengo and Slowking-Galar, which otherwise wall Weezing-Galar. On the other hand, Weezing-Galar's ability to remove hazards helps Ting-Lu switch into these common threats while also utilizing leftovers recovery. This is a simple spike-stack set with whirlwind to accumulate spikes damage, earthquake for obvious stab, and ruination to halve the health of switch-ins. Tera ghost is for blocking rapid spin and gaining an immunity to fighting type attacks.
Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost
- Discharge
Zapdos helps complete this defensive core by providing important pivoting as well as being an answer against corviknight and skarmory, which both counter Weezing-Galar and Ting-Lu. This is a pretty standard Zapdos set with hurricane as flying stab, u-turn for pivoting, roost for consistent recovery, and discharge for electric stab as well as spreading paralysis. Tera water is for gaining a resistance against ice type attacks while also providing a better match up against Great Tusk and Cinderace.
Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Ice Spinner
- Extreme Speed
Choice band Dragonite is one of my favorite sets to use, and I found it to be a good fit on this team. Choice band Dragonite can act as an immediate threat against teams thanks to its high attack and access to powerful array of moves, and Weezing-Galar helps removes rocks that do a good chunk to Dragonite without boots. Outrage is a great move that can demolish non-resists, but is risky due to fairy types or tera fairy pokemon. I chose fire punch over earthquake as I wanted to hit mons like Corviknight and air balloon Gholdengo while still threating other steel types . Ice spinner is for mons like Landorus and Gliscor. Finally, extreme speed is an amazing priority move that, with tera normal and choice band, can hit like a truck.
Iron Crown @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tachyon Cutter
- Psyshock
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast
Next, I decided that I wanted to add some more speed control to my team, so I went with a more unconventional choice in choice scarf Iron Crown. The reason is that I wanted a mon that could assist in breaking down physical walls and threating fairy types like Clefable and Enamorous for Dragonite while also acting as a fast pivot pokemon. Iron Crown is able to outspeed mons like Dragapult and non-scarf Darkrai and threaten to one-shot with tera steel tachyon cutter and focus blast respectively (after spikes damage for Dragapult). I went with psyshock to hit mons like Slowking-Galar and Iron Moth hard on the switch-in. Volt switch creates a great volturn pairing with Zapdos that can build greater momentum for the team and bring in other threating wallbreakers like Dragonite.
Weavile @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Low Kick
- Triple Axel
As of now, it is unfortunately Joever for Weavile as an OU pokemon, but with Kyurem now banned and no ice types in OU, I think Weavile could still act as a solid physical sweeper/wallbreaker. I added it here for that role as well as needing a good knock off user to remove boots and allow Ting-Lu's spikes to chip away the opposing team. I recently decided to add low kick instead of ice shard as I already had Dragonite's extreme speed priority and wanted to hit mons like Samurott-Hisui and Kinggambit for super effective damage. I prefer to use tera ghost over tera ice as it can remove Weavile's 4x weakness to fighting as well as its other weaknesses to fire and bug, allowing me to set up on mons like body press Skarmory and avoid priority from something like Dragonite's extreme speed.
Threats:
Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/3dc40f85e8299c75
The team:
Weezing-Galar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Neutralizing Gas
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Strange Steam
- Defog
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp
One of my favorite things about teambuilding is building teams around pokemon that have an interesting niche in OU. Weezing-Galar stood out to me due to its ability neturalizing gas, which negates the abilities of other pokemon. Because of this, Weezing-galar is able to defog freely against Gholdengo, which is quite nice. Neturalizing gas is also great in other situations, such as weakening Samurott-Hisui's attacks by removing its sharpness ability. For this, I decided to go with the standard Smogon set: strange steam as a solid attacking move, defog to remove hazards, pain split as some form of recovery, and will-o-wisp to weaken physical attackers like Kinggambit. I also experimented with toxic and it could be a nice choice as well against bulker walls like Garganacl and Sinistcha. Tera flying is for avoiding ground-type attacks as well as providing a better match-up against Landorus and Great Tusk.
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Earthquake
- Ruination
Both Weezing-Galar and Ting-Lu create a solid defensive core that combat each others' weaknesses well. Ting-Lu is a solid answer into pokemon like Gholdengo and Slowking-Galar, which otherwise wall Weezing-Galar. On the other hand, Weezing-Galar's ability to remove hazards helps Ting-Lu switch into these common threats while also utilizing leftovers recovery. This is a simple spike-stack set with whirlwind to accumulate spikes damage, earthquake for obvious stab, and ruination to halve the health of switch-ins. Tera ghost is for blocking rapid spin and gaining an immunity to fighting type attacks.
Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost
- Discharge
Zapdos helps complete this defensive core by providing important pivoting as well as being an answer against corviknight and skarmory, which both counter Weezing-Galar and Ting-Lu. This is a pretty standard Zapdos set with hurricane as flying stab, u-turn for pivoting, roost for consistent recovery, and discharge for electric stab as well as spreading paralysis. Tera water is for gaining a resistance against ice type attacks while also providing a better match up against Great Tusk and Cinderace.
Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Ice Spinner
- Extreme Speed
Choice band Dragonite is one of my favorite sets to use, and I found it to be a good fit on this team. Choice band Dragonite can act as an immediate threat against teams thanks to its high attack and access to powerful array of moves, and Weezing-Galar helps removes rocks that do a good chunk to Dragonite without boots. Outrage is a great move that can demolish non-resists, but is risky due to fairy types or tera fairy pokemon. I chose fire punch over earthquake as I wanted to hit mons like Corviknight and air balloon Gholdengo while still threating other steel types . Ice spinner is for mons like Landorus and Gliscor. Finally, extreme speed is an amazing priority move that, with tera normal and choice band, can hit like a truck.
Iron Crown @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tachyon Cutter
- Psyshock
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast
Next, I decided that I wanted to add some more speed control to my team, so I went with a more unconventional choice in choice scarf Iron Crown. The reason is that I wanted a mon that could assist in breaking down physical walls and threating fairy types like Clefable and Enamorous for Dragonite while also acting as a fast pivot pokemon. Iron Crown is able to outspeed mons like Dragapult and non-scarf Darkrai and threaten to one-shot with tera steel tachyon cutter and focus blast respectively (after spikes damage for Dragapult). I went with psyshock to hit mons like Slowking-Galar and Iron Moth hard on the switch-in. Volt switch creates a great volturn pairing with Zapdos that can build greater momentum for the team and bring in other threating wallbreakers like Dragonite.
Weavile @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Low Kick
- Triple Axel
As of now, it is unfortunately Joever for Weavile as an OU pokemon, but with Kyurem now banned and no ice types in OU, I think Weavile could still act as a solid physical sweeper/wallbreaker. I added it here for that role as well as needing a good knock off user to remove boots and allow Ting-Lu's spikes to chip away the opposing team. I recently decided to add low kick instead of ice shard as I already had Dragonite's extreme speed priority and wanted to hit mons like Samurott-Hisui and Kinggambit for super effective damage. I prefer to use tera ghost over tera ice as it can remove Weavile's 4x weakness to fighting as well as its other weaknesses to fire and bug, allowing me to set up on mons like body press Skarmory and avoid priority from something like Dragonite's extreme speed.
Threats:
- (Primarina): I didn't run into any while laddering, but Primarina is definitely a huge threat. My only water resist is Dragonite, which is weak to moonblast and rocks, so a specs Primarina can create huge holes in this team. Moreover, Ting-Lu, my only specially bulky mon, is weak to both of Primarina's stabs. I can't say for certain what the best strategy is for beating this monster, but my best guess would be careful switching between Dragonite and Iron Crown while potentially terastallizing Dragonite, Ting-Lu, and Zapdos against its stabs.
- (Walking Wake + Sun): Walking Wake is a threat for the same reasons as Primarina. Its dragon stab can hit Dragonite for super effective damage, and combined with the sun boosting its hydro steam and speed, Walking Wake can be very difficult to combat. For this match up, it's best to keep Dragonite healthy and prevent Walking Wake from getting any free switch-ins with careful prediction. Once more, terastallizing Dragonite and Ting-Lu will be very helpful.
- (Great Tusk): Great Tusk has a fairly good match up into this team, but Zapdos is able to handle most of its sets and tank ice spinner fairly well. However, more offensive sets with bulk up and booster energy can be difficult, so for these sets, it's best to either tera water on Zapdos or tera flying on Weezing-Galar and burn the Great Tusk.
- Weezing-Galar clutch: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2213040235?p2
- Scarf Iron Crown surprise: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2213313219-o1r3q3yasmdp9muuvavjzr9ttlrthstpw
- Dragonite showing its strength: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2213681692-i357kdzcg0wugvmojophly5w9gqgpmrpw?p2
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