Nedor
thiccc
allow me to bless your ears with pretty balkan music
f.y.i, 'igri bez granici' roughly translates to 'play without limits' (r.i.p tose proeski <3)
INTRODUCTION
even though i have been a part of the rmt forum for the last few months, managing to earn the team rater badge as well as being involved in multiple activities it holds, "play without limits" will be the first team that i've decided to showcase here. if you haven't seen me around and simply don't know me, allow me to introduce myself. hi, i'm nedor, a competitive tutoring & overused room moderator over on ps!. also, i'm involved in many projects here on smogon, including but not limited to the ou team building workshop, community create a team, & the rating league. i started playing competitive 'mons at a pretty young age, approximately during the middle of x/y; playing mainly for shits and giggles, until i eventually found a small group of friends, the competitive tutoring room, & the battling 101 program. through all of this, i simply found myself enjoying 'mons in a more competitive and serious sense as time went on, & that is what has led me to today.
now, i've always enjoyed building slightly more than battling for the most part (referring to the slumps i would have a while ago); i have a large interest and attraction in finding and possibly creating new sets and utilizing underrated 'mons, as well as exploiting metagame trends which make builds more consistent & effective in most instances, at least in my opinion. even though the usage statistics are a fantastic way of recognizing what 'mons are prominent, my preference is watching high level tournament matches / replays which i personally believe is a more productive method in identifying 'hidden gems' to abuse as much as possible because it is more of a realistic situation. i've been meaning to feature one of my builds in this forum for a fairly long time now & i think now is a perfect opportunity to do so; i built this team a few weeks ago (before the hoopa-unbound suspect test), it is the most consistent offensively based team i've ever personally used & seen. while i did not build this specifically for the recent suspect, i made the decision of using it to achieve reqs & it did exactly that with a respectable 45-6 win / loss ratio (my friend also easily accomplished reqs with the team). in the building phase, i focused on offensively managing threats as opposed to using a defensive backbone which i felt would slow down the team's constant theme of applying pressure, but i'll get into that more in-depth later on. in the current state of oras ou, almost 99.9% of teams that i see being used are nearly identical in terms of 'mons, but i personally feel like the difference between an average build & a consistent, solid one is not being too predictable. a lot of players i've spoken to & built with often take a safer as well as more cautious route that contributes to passivity & is frequently how they get exploited. this is why i believe 'playing without limits' is a fantastic representation of hyper offense in the current metagame; easily throws off my opponent with unpredictable sets, exerts non-stop pressure, abuses type immunities / resistances for setup, & overloads checks with physical spam.
based on the hyper offensive nature of the team & as many of you can see from the preview, this build predominantly focuses on exerting enough pressure consistently until a setup opportunity can be found with one of the build's many win conditions to sweep. on that note, while dd gyarados is what the team is centered around, giving it the best opportunities to clean with the build's tools, it will admittedly not have the best matchup once in a while. in this position, the team can easily adapt to any given situation in multiple ways: last resort speed control / sweeper check in priority thunder wave, numerous priority users capable of revenge killing, or using the 'mon on the field as setup fodder to stay in your opponent's face & pressure them. team preview is really beneficial when playing with this team; you may get overwhelmed by the fact that you have more than a few options to clean late game, but you must think logically & in a way divide the roles of your members. for example, sd garchomp might not be capable of winning a match for whatever reason, but it can still be abused as an early game wallbreaker to weaken something into range of one of your setup sweepers that you plan on only bringing out later on. as i briefly mentioned in the previous paragraph, this team doesn't necessarily have 100% switchins to many threatening 'mons, but, they are definitely manageable through offensive pressure, putting them in range of priority, etc. in general, this team can be viewed as heavy offense as it uses four physical win conditions / setup sweepers that share similar checks defensively and offensively, allowing you to overwhelm them quite easily. this 'physical spam' core is complimented with a few special attackers, specifically a rocker to slowly chip away switchins, a lure in heatran in order to pave a sweep late game from one of the members, as well as speed control from thundurus in case things get problematic. without further ado, let's get into this rmt~
TEAMBUILDING PROCEDURE
dd restochesto gyarados is the 'mon that was chosen to be built around & this was definitely a good decision. after going through a few weeks of spl replays, i recognized that gyarados essentially 6-0'd the majority of teams. even though wash-tom's usage has been fairly high (its only full-on counter), i knew that it could easily get pressured and kept low with the right offensive pressure. i personally think regular gyarados is severely underrated with its ability to setup on a large majority of the tier, especially with the correct team options.
garchomp fit well in the second slot as a partner to gyarados to fulfill the role of a mandatory stealth rocker. it is perfectly suitable on this build as with a swords dance under its belt, garchomp is capable of pressuring teams early on, while earning momentum swiftly. i ended up shifting stealth rock to a different member later on & changing the set to endure sd to function as a secondary win condition, but i'll go more in-depth on the specifics later on in the rmt.
i knew that in order to clean with gyarados, the build would need to consistently break down & keep its checks low; a lure was very effective in this slot. taunt magma storm + solar beam heatran was the first thought i had to weaken some very important 'mons, while providing the team a single pivot into threatening attacks. heatran also ended up being the build's stealth rocker, so yay.
at this point, the team was looking fairly slow, & thus vulnerable to other more offensively based teams, thunder wave thundurus-i was chosen due to this. not only does it provide the mandatory speed control, it is also a surefire method of eliminating common water & ground-types. also, thanks to its typing, thundurus-i offensively checks flying-types alongside heatran + garchomp.
now, with a solid base for the build, the last two slots took me a while to finalize a specific decision. i knew for the last two roles, the team would benefit from another breaker as well as a setup sweeper to maintain the team's goal, which is to constantly apply pressure until a member can find a setup opportunity. enter life orb breloom, a 'mon that is capable of pressuring both bulkier & offensive playstyles, a good form of priority to manage threats, all while overwhelming many physically defensive 'mons.
aware of that the team had a free mega slot to choose from, & the fact that i wanted another setup win condition, there were many options to choose from. after going back & forth with myself, i concluded on offensive sd mega scizor. in general, this 'mon benefits from the fact that its checks easily get put in range, helps the team in beating a few important threats with priority, creates setup opportunities, & contributes to the physical spam core.
DETAILED ANALYSIS
gyarados @ chesto berry | moxie *** love remains the same
jolly nature | 72 hp / 188 atk / 248 spe
dragon dance | waterfall | bounce | rest
bulky dd restochesto gyarados is the perfect representation & example of the term 'hidden gem.' this harshly overlooked 'mon has definitely grown to be one of my favorite (setup) sweepers in the tier for many good reasons. as i briefly noted earlier, dd gyarados finds setup opportunities on a large majority of the current tier, including but not restricted to various starmie variants, heatran, jirachi, keldeo, mega lopunny, & mega scizor. with every other set, whether its sub + dd or dd 3 attacks, i find gyarados being put into range of revenge killers (priority, scarfers, etc.,) far too quickly to do much in many matchups, especially considering many offensive teams pressure it from setting up. that's what makes this set much more consistent as well as all around superior; the fact that this set enables you to have more than one setup opportunity in a match in case some hax is involved or you make a misplay is certainly advantageous. to give a practical example, gyarados is capable of freely switching in against any prevalent heatran set early- to mid-game without fear of getting burnt or poisoned & you can proceed from there with your opponent unable to do much. not to mention, thanks to its above average bulk as well as typing, gyarados finds many freedoms in setting up; this is notably the situation as it exploits the majority of priority attackers once one of your members has been revenge killed; bullet punch, aqua jet, mach punch, & a weak brave bird / acrobatics are all examples of this. even many revenge killers on offense (predominantly choice scarfers) are frankly not powerful enough to remove it from a match, & even if they manage to do so, they will most likely be locked into a move that a different win condition can capitalize upon.
in the current oras ou metagame, bulky offense & balanced builds with beefy grass-types like mega venusaur, amoonguss, ferrothorn, as well as tangrowth are fairly common, with dd restochesto gyarados having an excellent matchup against these teams & is often your end game win condition. to expand & elaborate on this a bit further, gyarados abuses many passive 'mons as complete setup fodder; stuff along the lines of defensive starmie, cm suicune, stone edge / toxic hippowdon, & thunder wave slowbro often think that they are able of putting gyarados into range of priority or preventing it from cleaning by fishing for scald burns or paralyzing it, but their gameplan is turned around quickly thanks to the unexpected rest + chesto berry. unlike swords dance garchomp, mega scizor, & breloom, gyarados does not typically function as an early game breaker to soften up checks to the other win conditions in the majority of matchups, although it can find a setup opportunity early on to instantly pressure your opponent. just like any sweeper on a more offensively based build & as i alluded earlier, team preview is absolutely your best friend; learning how to utilize it effectively instead of going into a match without some sort of gameplan is something that is crucial. in gyarados' case, you create a strategy of sorts that answers a few things, what can you exploit on the opposition's team for a setup opportunity & how to keep this or these specific 'mons alive until the late game (if required), what would be the ideal second win condition to preserve in case your plan fails through, possible ways of putting its checks into range at +1, etc. obviously once you're playing, these theoretical situations turn into practice; most of the time a matchup will develop & pan out as you expect it to, but the team adapts well to most scenarios if something unfavorable occurs. in stall matchups, gyarados often does better than you might expect it to. even though standard stall builds in the current metagame run bulky waters such as mega slowbro & quagsire, i made this team in particular to put immense amounts of pressure on waters with a combination of wallbreakers, lures, & taunters to keep things low. the sole fact that abr popularized stall that includes band weavile over unaware clefable & fake out being used as opposed to foul play commonly on mega sableye only helps gyarados' situation.
mcmeghan created the spread that i'm utilizing on this set, based on a couple of calculations i did, the bulk helps gyarados more comfortably setup against 'mons such as keldeo & power whip ferrothorn if necessary. 248 speed evs with a jolly nature enables you to outspeed positive base 135's such as mega lopunny & mega manectric, with the rest of the investment being dumped into attack for damage output. although intimidate would lower rolls on physical attackers to ensure safer setup, moxie is my preferred ability so prevalent intimidate users simply cannot play around you in any way, as well as the fact that in many instances, the opponent would be forced to sack a 'mon, granting you a free +1 to proceed cleaning. furthermore, moxie can be the saving grace in situations where you weren't capable of putting something in range; the extra boost often comes into play. the set i'm using is fairly straightforward; use dragon dance when the situation is optimal & proceed to sweep, not much to say about this. waterfall is a consistent, reliable, & mandatory stab attack to be used when setup; nailing important targets such as bulky fires, grounds, rocks, electrics, etc. bounce is used to beat bulky grasses & waters in a 1v1 situation, not to mention the opponent can't really play around this set in particular well thanks to rest removing status & healing up if you get low. on that note, rest + chesto berry is what differentiates this set from the standard substitute + dragon dance variant, you're not forced to play risky around status, you can potentially get out of range of certain priority attacks, more comfortable setup, & the capability of coming in freely on 'mons, but i've already gone in-depth on this above. there's not that many other options in terms of altering with the item or moveset, but the ev spread can definitely be optimized to your liking. i enjoy using some bulk to support in setting up by lowering rolls on a few threats, but max atk / max speed is a viable option for higher damage output, even with moxie as your ability.
......
garchomp @ salac berry | rough skin *** heart of stone
jolly nature | 252 atk / 4 spd / 252 spe
swords dance | endure | dragon claw | earthquake
swords dance + endure garchomp is yet another incredibly underrated set that adds another surprise factor to the build. i'm not taking any credit for creating the set as i am aware more well-known tournament players have used it in the past, but it is something i would like to see gain popularity among other prevalent garchomp variants. as it is uncommon & unexpected, it is capable of sweeping many common team archetypes with relative ease. to give a quick rundown of what this set does & accomplishes, you typically use endure against faster 'mons that you know will put you in range of salac berry activating to grant you +1 in speed (499 stat). swords dance functions as it always does; boosts garchomp's attack to insane levels, although you don't always need it in order to clean more frail offense builds that rely on scarfers, priority, & generic fast 'mons as revenge killers. to elaborate on this, the majority of the time, garchomp will be clicking endure late game against common 'mons such as latios / (mega) latias, mega manectric, thundurus, raikou, mega diancie, mega metagross, mega lopunny etc. (note: garchomp may be slightly weakened due to breaking something early game, so not being dead weight late game against fast 'mons is hella appreciated.) once you get in range of salac berry, garchomp has a few options to proceed, either instantly attack to remove or severely weaken something to the point where one of the team's members can revenge kill it, or the more riskier alternative, use swords dance on a predicted switch to pressure the opponent even further.
to give an example of a situation, you click endure against a latios, but instead of attacking, you swords dance on an incoming landorus-t or rotom-wash to again, either remove or severely weaken them for something else; you have momentum no matter which situation occurs. if the combination of priority attacks & thunder wave isn't capable of dealing with a setup sweeper such as charizard-x, endure garchomp can also function like a sweeper check / revenge killer as a last resort option, providing breathing room for the rest of the team. on this team specifically, i found this set to outclass the alternative subsalac as it immediately provides the speed boost when hit by a faster 'mon, something the latter is not capable of doing. this edure variant mainly gets revenge killed by priority attackers which isn't as bad as you may think, mainly because a few other win conditions on the team abuse common forms of priority as setup fodder. similar to what i stated about gyarados & any other setup 'mon found on offense really, team preview is crucial. in every matchup, garchomp typically fulfills one of two roles, an early game wallbreaker that is able of harshly weakening or even removing a few 'mons on the opponent's team to the point where priority can pick them off, or a late game sweeper once a setup opportunity is found. although garchomp's matchup against stall is inevitably not the greatest, it can pressure both balance & offensive teams with swords dance or endure + salac berry respectively. akin to gyarados, garchomp can quickly turn around games in your favour as it throws your opponent off, especially as swords dance garchomp is a 'mon that is often revenge killed by faster stuff. like i previously mentioned in the teambuilding procedure, garchomp was previously my rocker of choice to instantly pressure teams & gain momentum early on, but trying out this set definitely did the team wonders.
aside from that, garchomp is one of the main parts of the 'physical spam' aspect as it does an excellent job in breaking down phys. defensive walls & putting hard dents in the opponent in general. to be more specific with matchups, swords dance garchomp tears apart those typical balance / balanced offense teamstyle of like clefable | landorus-t | latios | steel etc, either paving the way for itself or a team member to clean. not to mention, swords dance is capable of pressuring sand builds really easily alongside breloom. as for set details, its fairly straightforward & what you'd expect; max attack is optimal for damage output as well as some rolls, while max speed is used to hit an extremely important speed tier, both before salac berry activates & after, not much that needs to be toyed around with ev spread wise. the moveset i'm running is fairly self-explanatory for the most part, swords dance rips holes through bulkier teams quite swiftly, earthquake & dragon claw are two consistent stab attacks to have perfect coverage against everything aside from togekiss, which the team breaks down well anyways. outrage can be ran as opposed to dragon claw if you'd like more wallbreaking power, but being locked in late game can suck depending on the scenario. endure is the more unexpected & unorthodox move on the set, it makes sure you live with at least 1% of hp, enabling garchomp a +1 speed boost thanks to salac berry to help with more offensive teams. rough skin is not only good for chipping phys. attackers health, but putting stuff into range of priority too, which is important for offense. to be frank, i've found endure + swords dance to be optimal for this team in its ability to soften up defensive teams & act as another win condition so there won't be too many different possibilities unless some drastic changes were made.
......
heatran @ power herb | flash fire *** room for sadness
timid nature | 176 hp / 92 spa / 240 spe
stealth rock | taunt | magma storm | solar beam
heatran has been a sturdy 'mon throughout the ou generations over the years consistently, & it is easy to see why this is. its excellent typing defensively, bulk, offensive presence, etc., makes it a fantastic choice for the stealth rocker slot on this team. it finds a teamslot on many playstyles due to its immense role compression. on this build in particular, the magma storm + solar beam set aims to break down bulky waters like rotom-w, quagsire, & slowbro which all facilitate a gyarados or mega scizor sweep. on that note, heatran was a perfect candidate as a lure due to the fact that gyarados checks are typically annoying to wear down into range. also, narrowing keldeo's opportunities to freely come in is appreciated with solar beam as it does threaten the team greatly, so weakening it into range of +2 bullet punch from mega scizor becomes much more efficient. heatran's main function on the team is to lay down stealth rock as soon as possible to limit the opponent's switchins, all while wearing down the opposition gradually into range of your win conditions which is vital for offense. furthermore, thanks to its typing + bulk, heatran reliably & consistently sets up stealth rock throughout the match, especially considering it beats the prominent forms of hazard removal 1v1 due to its set. aside from limiting switchins as well as luring in water-types for the rest of the team, heatran has a few other main goals to accomplish; softening up defensive teams with ease thanks to taunt preventing hazards (very important for the team for easier setup opportunities), recovery, status, & opposing bulky win conditions from setting up in unison with magma storm. not to mention, taunt does a proficient job in keeping the opponent's defensive backbone low & easily exploitable for your offensive 'mons, preventing stuff like clefable from getting out of hand.
heatran also has good matchups against the majority of playstyles; starting off with stall / semi-stall, it constantly puts pressure on these more passive builds due to lack of consistent answers to this specific set. magma storm is capable of trapping a plethora of 'mons that think they beat you or force you out in a 1v1 scenario, & you can proceed to taunt to completely shut them down or solar beam if they're vulnerable to it; something to note is that magma storm also prevents dugtrio from coming in freely. if they're forced into something like quagsire or mega slowbro & they provide heatran the opportunity of trapping, four of the team's win conditions suddenly have an easier path to spam their attacks & setup to continue to pressure stall. even though i'm not running max special attack, heatran manages to pressure most mega sableye variants early on by keeping them low with magma storm; this pressure prevents it from coming in safely on every member's respective attacks / setup, or even potentially allows you to get up stealth rock risk-free. to offer a more practical view, standard stall builds typically rely on wearing it down through hazards until its in range of pursuit which isn't always dependable, particularly because their main foundation will already be severely crippled. against more balanced builds, heatran's goal is to still get up stealth rock when possible to limit switchins & constantly force the opponent to bring in their removal, but the build gains momentum due to this. the set remains effective in limiting the opposition's win conditions from getting out of hand while luring bulky waters, while also functioning as a pivot into resisted attacks in case you're forced out. when matched up against more offensive playstyles, heatran abuses its bulk & typing to come in on the likes of latios, mega manectric, offensive mega scizor, raikou, serperior, talonflame, etc., to set up stealth rock so these fast-paced builds cannot manage your priority users late game. even though the heavy offensive nature of this build pressures & overloads physical walls fairly easily, heatran ensures that they can be broken down & forced out until a setup opportunity can be found later on. once heatran has done its job & isn't required anymore, it could still be used as sack fodder to provide a setup opportunity; getting revenged by offensive waters or grounds provides another member a freedom to setup as an example.
when the team was originally built, i was using the standard max hp / max speed spread on heatran to stomach hits well from the mentioned threats above, while being capable of outspeeding adamant sand rush excadrill out of sand & everything below, but, i found it to be far too weak when trapping common bulky waters. the spread was optimized to the point where heatran had enough bulk to live a focus blast from life orb thundurus from full while also obviously helping with mega manectric. the special attack investment, while it may not seem like a lot definitely helps with rolls when using magma storm & solar beam; rotom-w, bulky starmie, as well as standard phys. defensive slowbro get ohko'd by the combination of magma storm + solar beam. the moveset was already explained in this analysis slightly, but to just give a quick rundown: stealth rock is mandatory to limit switchins & they support in getting your opponent's 'mons in range of attacks, magma storm + solar beam are used to trap & eliminate problematic 'mons, while taunt is here to improve the team's matchup against stall & keeps stuff low. while heatran in general is extremely versatile in what it can run, it doesn't have many other options on this build in particular as every moveslot is imperative to accomplish the goal.
......
thundurus-incarnate @ life orb | prankster *** my secret
timid nature | 252 spa / 4 spd / 252 spe
thunderbolt | hp ice | thunder wave | taunt
with the first three members of the build being extremely slow & susceptible to a plethora of setup & generic speedy 'mons, i was looking far too vulnerable to opposing offensively based teams. waters are still an issue to immediately manage due to the overall slowness & the fact that heatran was the only way of luring them in which is definitely not consistent or reliable. thundurus being added as the fourth slot isn't really unexpected or unordinary thanks to these reasons & a few others that i'll go in-depth on; it is a 'mon that has certainly been a staple on offensive playstyles in the last few generations. hyper / heavy offense with a slight defensive backbone to cut all momentum you gained just to manage some 'mons never really appealed to me; thundurus is a major component of offensively dealing with faster threats in the metagame. priority + thunder wave in its arsenal provides this team a sweeper check / counterplay to countless threats, while obviously functioning as a form of speed control to pave a way for a potential setup opportunity or simply allowing another member to revenge kill the crippled 'mon. the majority of these fast-paced teams are extremely weak against thundurus & have relatively shaky electric checks (including this build, although they are 100% beatable), which only helps thundurus' case in these matchups. offense would be far too inconsistent if thunder wave was its only way of handling opposing offensive teams, so thundurus is paired with a few other 'mons that wreck havoc against them, meaning the team is not going to lose if thundurus is not capable of paralyzing something like mega lopunny. on another note, thundurus abuses its defensive typing to offensively check talonflame, mega pinsir, etc., while coming in on locked ground attacks as a last resort option which is specifically nice for offense as it typically struggles against them.
to provide a realistic situation, something like scarf landorus-t can revenge kill thundurus with stone edge, but then you directly shift the momentum to your side by using either garchomp or mega scizor to setup & proceed to pressure the opponent. in the current metagame, bulky grounds with a more offensive presence are being used, mainly referring landorus-t & garchomp who get a ton more usage over a more passive option in hippowdon; thundurus immediately threatens them which helps the rest of the team as they both cannot switch in repeatedly on attacks or else they'll easily get worn down. to amplify my point on aiding in setup opportunities, thundurus paralyzes an extremely common 'mon that builds like to slap on for role compression, fast heatran, allowing mega scizor to clean up late game much easier. this same situation applies to many different 'mons as well; slowing down & preventing stuff like mega alakazam, mega lopunny, charizard-x, serperior, scarf keldeo, starmie, & latios from getting out of hand. furthermore, due to its above average speed tier & strong attacks, thundurus can even act as a revenge killer by picking off weakened threats. it doesn't only do superb against more offensive archetypes either, thundurus can annoy more defensive builds in unison with a few other teammates depending on the matchup; taunt especially does this well by preventing recovery from the likes of mega venusaur, celebi, clefable, quagsire, hippowdon & mew to keep these bulky cores constrained as much as possible, status, (bulky) win conditions such as calm mind clefable from setting up, hazards from being set which is particularly appreciated by the team's main end game 'mons for secure setup (not being spikes fodder from ferrothorn is also sweet).
thundurus is one of the two specially offensive threats to break down some phys. defensive walls that annoy the heavy offense element of the team, & vice-versa. for example, garchomp / gyarados / mega scizor / breloom all either use chansey which is baited in by thundurus as complete setup fodder or the opportunity of firing off a strong attack. despite the fact that it gets worn down through life orb recoil + a 2x weakness to stealth rock, thundurus normally does a great deal against stall if you're capable of keeping up offensive pressure (which you should be able of doing) thanks to your opponent being forced to take into account all options it has in its movepool, but taunt can also shut down their gameplan quickly. on the remark about thundurus' movepool, it has plenty of alternative options that are still effective. focus blast can be ran over taunt to nail its standard targets, but 'mons such as heatran, ferrothorn, & tyranitar are all exploited as setup fodder by whatever you choose to clean with, so keeping them around until mid-late game is actually more beneficial. nasty plot is also an alternative to taunt to add another end game in mind, or even an early game wallbreaker to pave the way for anything else. if you want a secondary lure, grass knot as opposed to taunt helps lure in grounds like quagsire & gastrodon which can be slightly irritating to remove. to be blunt, there are countless options thundurus has, but i have found taunt + thunder wave to be the best variant on this team specifically for the reasons mentioned throughout this analysis.
......
breloom @ life orb | technician *** insomnia
adamant nature | 252 atk / 4 def / 252 spe
spore | bullet seed | mach punch | force palm
breloom provided a lot of role compression in managing what the team was prone to on an offensive standpoint, & was simply a fantastic choice here; breloom is far more complicated in terms of the role it accomplishes on the team. to start off, its a fantastic utility 'mon with its access to spore, enabling breloom to cripple something for the majority of the match when given the opportunity to do so, thus providing free turns to either setup in the face of your opponent, get up stealth rock, etc. against more bulkier playstyles it will almost always find a chance to put something to sleep, but against faster builds, its forced to spore on a predicted switch or against something like landorus-t. speaking of offense, breloom is outstanding in these matchups as it abuses its priority to threaten out 'mons such as mega lopunny & bisharp, or simply kill them off if they have no other option. speaking of bisharp, breloom is the primary way of checking it, but it doesn't find setup opportunities on anything anyways. due to the frail nature of offensive teams in order to actually apply pressure while keeping up momentum, they will naturally be annoyed by sand & rain offense because of their ability to fire off powerful attacks at a sky high speed tier, breloom helps circumvent this weakness by forcing certain respective weather abusers out. the combination of multiple forms of priority, setup win conditions, priority thunder wave, & useful resistances can typically break down these teams, but you have to play well by giving the weather exploiters minimal free turns. a large portion opposing offense greatly struggles against breloom thanks to its extremely powerful form of priority, especially when taking into account life orb + adamant.
it can also spam its other hard-hitting stab moves in bullet seed (granted you get more than 2 hits) & force palm which can fish for paralyzation while getting guaranteed damage if you come in on a locked tyranitar or azumarill, to give an example. this build is all about creating an end game plan to sweep with a form of priority or something setting up, but in order to do this, the opponent's team much be in range to accomplish that. breloom again, helps with that greatly; mach punch severely weakens keldeo into range of +2 bullet punch, same goes for most offensive electrics to provide a situation. aside from that, breloom is yet another wallbreaker capable of severely damaging or removing fat waters & grounds to help your respective sweepers clean up. breloom doesn't only support the team by offensively dealing with relevant threats, but almost every single other member puts pressure on its main checks (bulky grasses, mega latias, etc.) with taunt heatran / thundurus, sd + endure garchomp, dd restochesto gyarados, & sd mega scizor. once breloom isn't needed anymore & you can afford to sack it to a revenge killer, a different member comes in freely to exploit the opponent; weavile might be forced into pick off breloom with ice shard, but that enables scizor or gyarados to come in freely, the same situation applies to stuff like latios, tornadus-t, mega metagross, & mega alakazam. even against defensive builds, breloom causes a lot of trouble. bulky grasses like amoonguss are obviously issues for it but the team doubles efficiently to pressure them.
the combination of heatran + breloom put immense amounts of pressure on stall thanks taunt preventing stuff from healing, while the ability to put something asleep & pressure 'mons like mega sableye / skarmory with bullet seed & force palm respectively is definitely helpful; common backbones found on playstyles like balance in general also absolutely hate switching into breloom. the moveset aside is self explanatory for the most part; force palm was always something i wanted to try & that decision paid off, it nails stuff like ferrothorn that often thinks it can take a mach punch & retaliate with gyro ball to k.o you, giving dd gyarados as well as thundurus a much easier time. mega scizor will also try to abuse your passivity to setup freely once you've already put something to bed, but force palm prevents that by 2hko'ing offensive mega scizor & bulky mega scizor after stealth rock damage; the same pertains to stuff like skarmory that might believe breloom is spikes fodder. not to mention, force palm has a 30% chance to paralyze an incoming latios, tornadus-t, or talonflame as examples which is pretty cool. despite this, there is one other possibility that is definitely a good option, focus punch > force palm which hits hard as a truck (focus punch + mach punch guarantee's an ohko on both latios & tornadus-t on the switchin), but in my opinion, is sort of too prediction reliant here. its also down to personal preference, but this set does what it needs to do.
......
scizor @ scizorite | light metal *** only
adamant nature | 252 atk / 4 def / 252 spe
swords dance | bullet punch | bug bite | superpower
offensive mega scizor has been a threat lingering around for a few months at this point, causing a few metagame trends itself; max speed heatran is one in particular that even slower playstyles are using to not get completely overrun by this massive threat. even with the popularity of that variant, mega scizor remains to be an extremely useful sweeper. having a free mega slot to choose from, this 'mon specifically fit the build incredibly & it performed in practice as it was meant to. firstly, mega scizor abuses the team's tools & capabilities to consistently clean no matter the matchup. speed control from thundurus is imperative in allowing mega scizor to outspeed the previously mentioned fast heatran & other various 'mons to possibly freely setup. the fact that its checks easily get overwhelmed / pressure by the phys. spam core mean that it has a greater chance of sweeping, especially when paired with an excellent lure in solar beam heatran to instantly put a large majority of its checks in range. a secondary form of strong priority with adamant breloom helps put keldeo (an otherwise scary threat to the team) in range of +2 bullet punch, while also acting as a revenge killer if need be; breloom can offer mega scizor free turns thanks to spore as well. if heatran can't accomplish its goal for whatever reason, the team still breaks down waters / grounds persistently to the point where the opponent crumbles over to some bullet punches. aside from the great amount of support the team provides to pave way for the late game, mega scizor becomes even more consistent thank to a few metagame trends in its favour. boltbeam mega latias' usage is relatively high which mega scizor uses as complete setup fodder & generally beats typical balance archetypes with some team support. also, phys. defensive landorus-t has seen increased usage over its main counterpart, garchomp which makes things much easier as the previously mentioned gets worned down much quicker, can be used as a setup opportunity & doesn't force you to take large amounts of recoil.
mega scizor does an excellent job in exploiting passivitiy from 'mons such as ferrothorn, while its bulk & defensive typing enables it to setup on a huge portion of the tier despite not having roost on its set: mega alakazam, mega altaria, band azumarill locked into play rough in attempt to eliminate dd gyarados, chansey, thunder wave clefable, mega diancie, mega gardevoir, variants of jirachi, hp fire latios at -2, mega lopunny, mega metagross, & so on. mega scizor also has offensive synergy with multiple 'mons on the build; sd garchomp, breloom, as well as thundurus all get revenge killed by weavile's priority, allowing mega scizor to come in with no danger, although there are many examples. this works vice-versa if you decide to use it as an early game wallbreaker to weaken something like rotom-w; heatran comes in to revenge kill you, now you as the player make the decision of setting up with gyarados or garchomp, its all about creating setup opportunities to stay in your opponent's face & prevent them from following through with their gameplan, but at the same time you have to think logically. mega scizor is also the team's secondary fairy / dragon resist if heatran or another member isn't capable of dealing with them; bullet punch threatens out stuff like mega diancie & mega gardevoir which can get extremely irritating if provided free turns to attack, having a guaranteed way of beating them is appreciated. also, mega scizor can clean like 99.9% of various matchups if you play your cards correctly. starting off with generic stall, it really only requires quagsire low on hp or removed entirely to effectively sweep which isn't too difficult to achieve with a lure + breakers, especially as stall is passive to the point where it can setup multiple times.
from past experiences with the team, certain well constructed balance gives mega scizor the toughest matchup, 'mons such as wisp talonflame / charizard-x, sd ground-types, etc., can prevent it from doing its main role. on that note, mega scizor doesn't only have to be brought out until late game to sweep, if a setup opportunity is found early on, it can heavily damage something like rotom-w or mega venusaur for a different 'mon, or even revenge kill / pick something off with priority if necessary. even if the build looks slow at first glance, threats are managed in an offensive manner rather than using a backbone, & mega scizor contributes to that concept, something that you figure out with constantly playing with the team. there's nothing extraordinary about its set details; sd to provide sweeping potential, bullet punch as a mandatory form of priority which helps it clean up offensively based teams & possibly revenge kill, bug bite has a roll in your favour to ohko standard rotom-w after stealth rock, while hitting 'mons like mega venusaur, mega metagross, mega sableye, mega slowbro etc., with superpower nailing common steels such as heatran, bisharp, excadrill, skarmory, magnezone, & opposing mega scizor. i felt the standard 252 / 252 spread was optimal here for a solid speed tier + excellent damage output, although some hp / bulk can be invested to help with specific situations. i definitely don't find jolly relevant on this team for bisharp, adamant nature helps a ton with increasing rolls & the power difference is noticeable. light metal is the preferred pre-mega ability to take much less from weavile's low kick which is a possible scenario. there are no real alternative options for offensive sd mega scizor on this team without changing the build completely. overall, i still find mega scizor to be incredible in this metagame despite a few drawbacks, & it certainly has done the build as a whole well.
......
even though i have been a part of the rmt forum for the last few months, managing to earn the team rater badge as well as being involved in multiple activities it holds, "play without limits" will be the first team that i've decided to showcase here. if you haven't seen me around and simply don't know me, allow me to introduce myself. hi, i'm nedor, a competitive tutoring & overused room moderator over on ps!. also, i'm involved in many projects here on smogon, including but not limited to the ou team building workshop, community create a team, & the rating league. i started playing competitive 'mons at a pretty young age, approximately during the middle of x/y; playing mainly for shits and giggles, until i eventually found a small group of friends, the competitive tutoring room, & the battling 101 program. through all of this, i simply found myself enjoying 'mons in a more competitive and serious sense as time went on, & that is what has led me to today.
now, i've always enjoyed building slightly more than battling for the most part (referring to the slumps i would have a while ago); i have a large interest and attraction in finding and possibly creating new sets and utilizing underrated 'mons, as well as exploiting metagame trends which make builds more consistent & effective in most instances, at least in my opinion. even though the usage statistics are a fantastic way of recognizing what 'mons are prominent, my preference is watching high level tournament matches / replays which i personally believe is a more productive method in identifying 'hidden gems' to abuse as much as possible because it is more of a realistic situation. i've been meaning to feature one of my builds in this forum for a fairly long time now & i think now is a perfect opportunity to do so; i built this team a few weeks ago (before the hoopa-unbound suspect test), it is the most consistent offensively based team i've ever personally used & seen. while i did not build this specifically for the recent suspect, i made the decision of using it to achieve reqs & it did exactly that with a respectable 45-6 win / loss ratio (my friend also easily accomplished reqs with the team). in the building phase, i focused on offensively managing threats as opposed to using a defensive backbone which i felt would slow down the team's constant theme of applying pressure, but i'll get into that more in-depth later on. in the current state of oras ou, almost 99.9% of teams that i see being used are nearly identical in terms of 'mons, but i personally feel like the difference between an average build & a consistent, solid one is not being too predictable. a lot of players i've spoken to & built with often take a safer as well as more cautious route that contributes to passivity & is frequently how they get exploited. this is why i believe 'playing without limits' is a fantastic representation of hyper offense in the current metagame; easily throws off my opponent with unpredictable sets, exerts non-stop pressure, abuses type immunities / resistances for setup, & overloads checks with physical spam.
based on the hyper offensive nature of the team & as many of you can see from the preview, this build predominantly focuses on exerting enough pressure consistently until a setup opportunity can be found with one of the build's many win conditions to sweep. on that note, while dd gyarados is what the team is centered around, giving it the best opportunities to clean with the build's tools, it will admittedly not have the best matchup once in a while. in this position, the team can easily adapt to any given situation in multiple ways: last resort speed control / sweeper check in priority thunder wave, numerous priority users capable of revenge killing, or using the 'mon on the field as setup fodder to stay in your opponent's face & pressure them. team preview is really beneficial when playing with this team; you may get overwhelmed by the fact that you have more than a few options to clean late game, but you must think logically & in a way divide the roles of your members. for example, sd garchomp might not be capable of winning a match for whatever reason, but it can still be abused as an early game wallbreaker to weaken something into range of one of your setup sweepers that you plan on only bringing out later on. as i briefly mentioned in the previous paragraph, this team doesn't necessarily have 100% switchins to many threatening 'mons, but, they are definitely manageable through offensive pressure, putting them in range of priority, etc. in general, this team can be viewed as heavy offense as it uses four physical win conditions / setup sweepers that share similar checks defensively and offensively, allowing you to overwhelm them quite easily. this 'physical spam' core is complimented with a few special attackers, specifically a rocker to slowly chip away switchins, a lure in heatran in order to pave a sweep late game from one of the members, as well as speed control from thundurus in case things get problematic. without further ado, let's get into this rmt~
TEAMBUILDING PROCEDURE
dd restochesto gyarados is the 'mon that was chosen to be built around & this was definitely a good decision. after going through a few weeks of spl replays, i recognized that gyarados essentially 6-0'd the majority of teams. even though wash-tom's usage has been fairly high (its only full-on counter), i knew that it could easily get pressured and kept low with the right offensive pressure. i personally think regular gyarados is severely underrated with its ability to setup on a large majority of the tier, especially with the correct team options.
garchomp fit well in the second slot as a partner to gyarados to fulfill the role of a mandatory stealth rocker. it is perfectly suitable on this build as with a swords dance under its belt, garchomp is capable of pressuring teams early on, while earning momentum swiftly. i ended up shifting stealth rock to a different member later on & changing the set to endure sd to function as a secondary win condition, but i'll go more in-depth on the specifics later on in the rmt.
i knew that in order to clean with gyarados, the build would need to consistently break down & keep its checks low; a lure was very effective in this slot. taunt magma storm + solar beam heatran was the first thought i had to weaken some very important 'mons, while providing the team a single pivot into threatening attacks. heatran also ended up being the build's stealth rocker, so yay.
at this point, the team was looking fairly slow, & thus vulnerable to other more offensively based teams, thunder wave thundurus-i was chosen due to this. not only does it provide the mandatory speed control, it is also a surefire method of eliminating common water & ground-types. also, thanks to its typing, thundurus-i offensively checks flying-types alongside heatran + garchomp.
now, with a solid base for the build, the last two slots took me a while to finalize a specific decision. i knew for the last two roles, the team would benefit from another breaker as well as a setup sweeper to maintain the team's goal, which is to constantly apply pressure until a member can find a setup opportunity. enter life orb breloom, a 'mon that is capable of pressuring both bulkier & offensive playstyles, a good form of priority to manage threats, all while overwhelming many physically defensive 'mons.
aware of that the team had a free mega slot to choose from, & the fact that i wanted another setup win condition, there were many options to choose from. after going back & forth with myself, i concluded on offensive sd mega scizor. in general, this 'mon benefits from the fact that its checks easily get put in range, helps the team in beating a few important threats with priority, creates setup opportunities, & contributes to the physical spam core.
DETAILED ANALYSIS
gyarados @ chesto berry | moxie *** love remains the same
jolly nature | 72 hp / 188 atk / 248 spe
dragon dance | waterfall | bounce | rest
bulky dd restochesto gyarados is the perfect representation & example of the term 'hidden gem.' this harshly overlooked 'mon has definitely grown to be one of my favorite (setup) sweepers in the tier for many good reasons. as i briefly noted earlier, dd gyarados finds setup opportunities on a large majority of the current tier, including but not restricted to various starmie variants, heatran, jirachi, keldeo, mega lopunny, & mega scizor. with every other set, whether its sub + dd or dd 3 attacks, i find gyarados being put into range of revenge killers (priority, scarfers, etc.,) far too quickly to do much in many matchups, especially considering many offensive teams pressure it from setting up. that's what makes this set much more consistent as well as all around superior; the fact that this set enables you to have more than one setup opportunity in a match in case some hax is involved or you make a misplay is certainly advantageous. to give a practical example, gyarados is capable of freely switching in against any prevalent heatran set early- to mid-game without fear of getting burnt or poisoned & you can proceed from there with your opponent unable to do much. not to mention, thanks to its above average bulk as well as typing, gyarados finds many freedoms in setting up; this is notably the situation as it exploits the majority of priority attackers once one of your members has been revenge killed; bullet punch, aqua jet, mach punch, & a weak brave bird / acrobatics are all examples of this. even many revenge killers on offense (predominantly choice scarfers) are frankly not powerful enough to remove it from a match, & even if they manage to do so, they will most likely be locked into a move that a different win condition can capitalize upon.
in the current oras ou metagame, bulky offense & balanced builds with beefy grass-types like mega venusaur, amoonguss, ferrothorn, as well as tangrowth are fairly common, with dd restochesto gyarados having an excellent matchup against these teams & is often your end game win condition. to expand & elaborate on this a bit further, gyarados abuses many passive 'mons as complete setup fodder; stuff along the lines of defensive starmie, cm suicune, stone edge / toxic hippowdon, & thunder wave slowbro often think that they are able of putting gyarados into range of priority or preventing it from cleaning by fishing for scald burns or paralyzing it, but their gameplan is turned around quickly thanks to the unexpected rest + chesto berry. unlike swords dance garchomp, mega scizor, & breloom, gyarados does not typically function as an early game breaker to soften up checks to the other win conditions in the majority of matchups, although it can find a setup opportunity early on to instantly pressure your opponent. just like any sweeper on a more offensively based build & as i alluded earlier, team preview is absolutely your best friend; learning how to utilize it effectively instead of going into a match without some sort of gameplan is something that is crucial. in gyarados' case, you create a strategy of sorts that answers a few things, what can you exploit on the opposition's team for a setup opportunity & how to keep this or these specific 'mons alive until the late game (if required), what would be the ideal second win condition to preserve in case your plan fails through, possible ways of putting its checks into range at +1, etc. obviously once you're playing, these theoretical situations turn into practice; most of the time a matchup will develop & pan out as you expect it to, but the team adapts well to most scenarios if something unfavorable occurs. in stall matchups, gyarados often does better than you might expect it to. even though standard stall builds in the current metagame run bulky waters such as mega slowbro & quagsire, i made this team in particular to put immense amounts of pressure on waters with a combination of wallbreakers, lures, & taunters to keep things low. the sole fact that abr popularized stall that includes band weavile over unaware clefable & fake out being used as opposed to foul play commonly on mega sableye only helps gyarados' situation.
mcmeghan created the spread that i'm utilizing on this set, based on a couple of calculations i did, the bulk helps gyarados more comfortably setup against 'mons such as keldeo & power whip ferrothorn if necessary. 248 speed evs with a jolly nature enables you to outspeed positive base 135's such as mega lopunny & mega manectric, with the rest of the investment being dumped into attack for damage output. although intimidate would lower rolls on physical attackers to ensure safer setup, moxie is my preferred ability so prevalent intimidate users simply cannot play around you in any way, as well as the fact that in many instances, the opponent would be forced to sack a 'mon, granting you a free +1 to proceed cleaning. furthermore, moxie can be the saving grace in situations where you weren't capable of putting something in range; the extra boost often comes into play. the set i'm using is fairly straightforward; use dragon dance when the situation is optimal & proceed to sweep, not much to say about this. waterfall is a consistent, reliable, & mandatory stab attack to be used when setup; nailing important targets such as bulky fires, grounds, rocks, electrics, etc. bounce is used to beat bulky grasses & waters in a 1v1 situation, not to mention the opponent can't really play around this set in particular well thanks to rest removing status & healing up if you get low. on that note, rest + chesto berry is what differentiates this set from the standard substitute + dragon dance variant, you're not forced to play risky around status, you can potentially get out of range of certain priority attacks, more comfortable setup, & the capability of coming in freely on 'mons, but i've already gone in-depth on this above. there's not that many other options in terms of altering with the item or moveset, but the ev spread can definitely be optimized to your liking. i enjoy using some bulk to support in setting up by lowering rolls on a few threats, but max atk / max speed is a viable option for higher damage output, even with moxie as your ability.
......
garchomp @ salac berry | rough skin *** heart of stone
jolly nature | 252 atk / 4 spd / 252 spe
swords dance | endure | dragon claw | earthquake
swords dance + endure garchomp is yet another incredibly underrated set that adds another surprise factor to the build. i'm not taking any credit for creating the set as i am aware more well-known tournament players have used it in the past, but it is something i would like to see gain popularity among other prevalent garchomp variants. as it is uncommon & unexpected, it is capable of sweeping many common team archetypes with relative ease. to give a quick rundown of what this set does & accomplishes, you typically use endure against faster 'mons that you know will put you in range of salac berry activating to grant you +1 in speed (499 stat). swords dance functions as it always does; boosts garchomp's attack to insane levels, although you don't always need it in order to clean more frail offense builds that rely on scarfers, priority, & generic fast 'mons as revenge killers. to elaborate on this, the majority of the time, garchomp will be clicking endure late game against common 'mons such as latios / (mega) latias, mega manectric, thundurus, raikou, mega diancie, mega metagross, mega lopunny etc. (note: garchomp may be slightly weakened due to breaking something early game, so not being dead weight late game against fast 'mons is hella appreciated.) once you get in range of salac berry, garchomp has a few options to proceed, either instantly attack to remove or severely weaken something to the point where one of the team's members can revenge kill it, or the more riskier alternative, use swords dance on a predicted switch to pressure the opponent even further.
to give an example of a situation, you click endure against a latios, but instead of attacking, you swords dance on an incoming landorus-t or rotom-wash to again, either remove or severely weaken them for something else; you have momentum no matter which situation occurs. if the combination of priority attacks & thunder wave isn't capable of dealing with a setup sweeper such as charizard-x, endure garchomp can also function like a sweeper check / revenge killer as a last resort option, providing breathing room for the rest of the team. on this team specifically, i found this set to outclass the alternative subsalac as it immediately provides the speed boost when hit by a faster 'mon, something the latter is not capable of doing. this edure variant mainly gets revenge killed by priority attackers which isn't as bad as you may think, mainly because a few other win conditions on the team abuse common forms of priority as setup fodder. similar to what i stated about gyarados & any other setup 'mon found on offense really, team preview is crucial. in every matchup, garchomp typically fulfills one of two roles, an early game wallbreaker that is able of harshly weakening or even removing a few 'mons on the opponent's team to the point where priority can pick them off, or a late game sweeper once a setup opportunity is found. although garchomp's matchup against stall is inevitably not the greatest, it can pressure both balance & offensive teams with swords dance or endure + salac berry respectively. akin to gyarados, garchomp can quickly turn around games in your favour as it throws your opponent off, especially as swords dance garchomp is a 'mon that is often revenge killed by faster stuff. like i previously mentioned in the teambuilding procedure, garchomp was previously my rocker of choice to instantly pressure teams & gain momentum early on, but trying out this set definitely did the team wonders.
aside from that, garchomp is one of the main parts of the 'physical spam' aspect as it does an excellent job in breaking down phys. defensive walls & putting hard dents in the opponent in general. to be more specific with matchups, swords dance garchomp tears apart those typical balance / balanced offense teamstyle of like clefable | landorus-t | latios | steel etc, either paving the way for itself or a team member to clean. not to mention, swords dance is capable of pressuring sand builds really easily alongside breloom. as for set details, its fairly straightforward & what you'd expect; max attack is optimal for damage output as well as some rolls, while max speed is used to hit an extremely important speed tier, both before salac berry activates & after, not much that needs to be toyed around with ev spread wise. the moveset i'm running is fairly self-explanatory for the most part, swords dance rips holes through bulkier teams quite swiftly, earthquake & dragon claw are two consistent stab attacks to have perfect coverage against everything aside from togekiss, which the team breaks down well anyways. outrage can be ran as opposed to dragon claw if you'd like more wallbreaking power, but being locked in late game can suck depending on the scenario. endure is the more unexpected & unorthodox move on the set, it makes sure you live with at least 1% of hp, enabling garchomp a +1 speed boost thanks to salac berry to help with more offensive teams. rough skin is not only good for chipping phys. attackers health, but putting stuff into range of priority too, which is important for offense. to be frank, i've found endure + swords dance to be optimal for this team in its ability to soften up defensive teams & act as another win condition so there won't be too many different possibilities unless some drastic changes were made.
......
heatran @ power herb | flash fire *** room for sadness
timid nature | 176 hp / 92 spa / 240 spe
stealth rock | taunt | magma storm | solar beam
heatran has been a sturdy 'mon throughout the ou generations over the years consistently, & it is easy to see why this is. its excellent typing defensively, bulk, offensive presence, etc., makes it a fantastic choice for the stealth rocker slot on this team. it finds a teamslot on many playstyles due to its immense role compression. on this build in particular, the magma storm + solar beam set aims to break down bulky waters like rotom-w, quagsire, & slowbro which all facilitate a gyarados or mega scizor sweep. on that note, heatran was a perfect candidate as a lure due to the fact that gyarados checks are typically annoying to wear down into range. also, narrowing keldeo's opportunities to freely come in is appreciated with solar beam as it does threaten the team greatly, so weakening it into range of +2 bullet punch from mega scizor becomes much more efficient. heatran's main function on the team is to lay down stealth rock as soon as possible to limit the opponent's switchins, all while wearing down the opposition gradually into range of your win conditions which is vital for offense. furthermore, thanks to its typing + bulk, heatran reliably & consistently sets up stealth rock throughout the match, especially considering it beats the prominent forms of hazard removal 1v1 due to its set. aside from limiting switchins as well as luring in water-types for the rest of the team, heatran has a few other main goals to accomplish; softening up defensive teams with ease thanks to taunt preventing hazards (very important for the team for easier setup opportunities), recovery, status, & opposing bulky win conditions from setting up in unison with magma storm. not to mention, taunt does a proficient job in keeping the opponent's defensive backbone low & easily exploitable for your offensive 'mons, preventing stuff like clefable from getting out of hand.
heatran also has good matchups against the majority of playstyles; starting off with stall / semi-stall, it constantly puts pressure on these more passive builds due to lack of consistent answers to this specific set. magma storm is capable of trapping a plethora of 'mons that think they beat you or force you out in a 1v1 scenario, & you can proceed to taunt to completely shut them down or solar beam if they're vulnerable to it; something to note is that magma storm also prevents dugtrio from coming in freely. if they're forced into something like quagsire or mega slowbro & they provide heatran the opportunity of trapping, four of the team's win conditions suddenly have an easier path to spam their attacks & setup to continue to pressure stall. even though i'm not running max special attack, heatran manages to pressure most mega sableye variants early on by keeping them low with magma storm; this pressure prevents it from coming in safely on every member's respective attacks / setup, or even potentially allows you to get up stealth rock risk-free. to offer a more practical view, standard stall builds typically rely on wearing it down through hazards until its in range of pursuit which isn't always dependable, particularly because their main foundation will already be severely crippled. against more balanced builds, heatran's goal is to still get up stealth rock when possible to limit switchins & constantly force the opponent to bring in their removal, but the build gains momentum due to this. the set remains effective in limiting the opposition's win conditions from getting out of hand while luring bulky waters, while also functioning as a pivot into resisted attacks in case you're forced out. when matched up against more offensive playstyles, heatran abuses its bulk & typing to come in on the likes of latios, mega manectric, offensive mega scizor, raikou, serperior, talonflame, etc., to set up stealth rock so these fast-paced builds cannot manage your priority users late game. even though the heavy offensive nature of this build pressures & overloads physical walls fairly easily, heatran ensures that they can be broken down & forced out until a setup opportunity can be found later on. once heatran has done its job & isn't required anymore, it could still be used as sack fodder to provide a setup opportunity; getting revenged by offensive waters or grounds provides another member a freedom to setup as an example.
when the team was originally built, i was using the standard max hp / max speed spread on heatran to stomach hits well from the mentioned threats above, while being capable of outspeeding adamant sand rush excadrill out of sand & everything below, but, i found it to be far too weak when trapping common bulky waters. the spread was optimized to the point where heatran had enough bulk to live a focus blast from life orb thundurus from full while also obviously helping with mega manectric. the special attack investment, while it may not seem like a lot definitely helps with rolls when using magma storm & solar beam; rotom-w, bulky starmie, as well as standard phys. defensive slowbro get ohko'd by the combination of magma storm + solar beam. the moveset was already explained in this analysis slightly, but to just give a quick rundown: stealth rock is mandatory to limit switchins & they support in getting your opponent's 'mons in range of attacks, magma storm + solar beam are used to trap & eliminate problematic 'mons, while taunt is here to improve the team's matchup against stall & keeps stuff low. while heatran in general is extremely versatile in what it can run, it doesn't have many other options on this build in particular as every moveslot is imperative to accomplish the goal.
......
thundurus-incarnate @ life orb | prankster *** my secret
timid nature | 252 spa / 4 spd / 252 spe
thunderbolt | hp ice | thunder wave | taunt
with the first three members of the build being extremely slow & susceptible to a plethora of setup & generic speedy 'mons, i was looking far too vulnerable to opposing offensively based teams. waters are still an issue to immediately manage due to the overall slowness & the fact that heatran was the only way of luring them in which is definitely not consistent or reliable. thundurus being added as the fourth slot isn't really unexpected or unordinary thanks to these reasons & a few others that i'll go in-depth on; it is a 'mon that has certainly been a staple on offensive playstyles in the last few generations. hyper / heavy offense with a slight defensive backbone to cut all momentum you gained just to manage some 'mons never really appealed to me; thundurus is a major component of offensively dealing with faster threats in the metagame. priority + thunder wave in its arsenal provides this team a sweeper check / counterplay to countless threats, while obviously functioning as a form of speed control to pave a way for a potential setup opportunity or simply allowing another member to revenge kill the crippled 'mon. the majority of these fast-paced teams are extremely weak against thundurus & have relatively shaky electric checks (including this build, although they are 100% beatable), which only helps thundurus' case in these matchups. offense would be far too inconsistent if thunder wave was its only way of handling opposing offensive teams, so thundurus is paired with a few other 'mons that wreck havoc against them, meaning the team is not going to lose if thundurus is not capable of paralyzing something like mega lopunny. on another note, thundurus abuses its defensive typing to offensively check talonflame, mega pinsir, etc., while coming in on locked ground attacks as a last resort option which is specifically nice for offense as it typically struggles against them.
to provide a realistic situation, something like scarf landorus-t can revenge kill thundurus with stone edge, but then you directly shift the momentum to your side by using either garchomp or mega scizor to setup & proceed to pressure the opponent. in the current metagame, bulky grounds with a more offensive presence are being used, mainly referring landorus-t & garchomp who get a ton more usage over a more passive option in hippowdon; thundurus immediately threatens them which helps the rest of the team as they both cannot switch in repeatedly on attacks or else they'll easily get worn down. to amplify my point on aiding in setup opportunities, thundurus paralyzes an extremely common 'mon that builds like to slap on for role compression, fast heatran, allowing mega scizor to clean up late game much easier. this same situation applies to many different 'mons as well; slowing down & preventing stuff like mega alakazam, mega lopunny, charizard-x, serperior, scarf keldeo, starmie, & latios from getting out of hand. furthermore, due to its above average speed tier & strong attacks, thundurus can even act as a revenge killer by picking off weakened threats. it doesn't only do superb against more offensive archetypes either, thundurus can annoy more defensive builds in unison with a few other teammates depending on the matchup; taunt especially does this well by preventing recovery from the likes of mega venusaur, celebi, clefable, quagsire, hippowdon & mew to keep these bulky cores constrained as much as possible, status, (bulky) win conditions such as calm mind clefable from setting up, hazards from being set which is particularly appreciated by the team's main end game 'mons for secure setup (not being spikes fodder from ferrothorn is also sweet).
thundurus is one of the two specially offensive threats to break down some phys. defensive walls that annoy the heavy offense element of the team, & vice-versa. for example, garchomp / gyarados / mega scizor / breloom all either use chansey which is baited in by thundurus as complete setup fodder or the opportunity of firing off a strong attack. despite the fact that it gets worn down through life orb recoil + a 2x weakness to stealth rock, thundurus normally does a great deal against stall if you're capable of keeping up offensive pressure (which you should be able of doing) thanks to your opponent being forced to take into account all options it has in its movepool, but taunt can also shut down their gameplan quickly. on the remark about thundurus' movepool, it has plenty of alternative options that are still effective. focus blast can be ran over taunt to nail its standard targets, but 'mons such as heatran, ferrothorn, & tyranitar are all exploited as setup fodder by whatever you choose to clean with, so keeping them around until mid-late game is actually more beneficial. nasty plot is also an alternative to taunt to add another end game in mind, or even an early game wallbreaker to pave the way for anything else. if you want a secondary lure, grass knot as opposed to taunt helps lure in grounds like quagsire & gastrodon which can be slightly irritating to remove. to be blunt, there are countless options thundurus has, but i have found taunt + thunder wave to be the best variant on this team specifically for the reasons mentioned throughout this analysis.
......
breloom @ life orb | technician *** insomnia
adamant nature | 252 atk / 4 def / 252 spe
spore | bullet seed | mach punch | force palm
breloom provided a lot of role compression in managing what the team was prone to on an offensive standpoint, & was simply a fantastic choice here; breloom is far more complicated in terms of the role it accomplishes on the team. to start off, its a fantastic utility 'mon with its access to spore, enabling breloom to cripple something for the majority of the match when given the opportunity to do so, thus providing free turns to either setup in the face of your opponent, get up stealth rock, etc. against more bulkier playstyles it will almost always find a chance to put something to sleep, but against faster builds, its forced to spore on a predicted switch or against something like landorus-t. speaking of offense, breloom is outstanding in these matchups as it abuses its priority to threaten out 'mons such as mega lopunny & bisharp, or simply kill them off if they have no other option. speaking of bisharp, breloom is the primary way of checking it, but it doesn't find setup opportunities on anything anyways. due to the frail nature of offensive teams in order to actually apply pressure while keeping up momentum, they will naturally be annoyed by sand & rain offense because of their ability to fire off powerful attacks at a sky high speed tier, breloom helps circumvent this weakness by forcing certain respective weather abusers out. the combination of multiple forms of priority, setup win conditions, priority thunder wave, & useful resistances can typically break down these teams, but you have to play well by giving the weather exploiters minimal free turns. a large portion opposing offense greatly struggles against breloom thanks to its extremely powerful form of priority, especially when taking into account life orb + adamant.
it can also spam its other hard-hitting stab moves in bullet seed (granted you get more than 2 hits) & force palm which can fish for paralyzation while getting guaranteed damage if you come in on a locked tyranitar or azumarill, to give an example. this build is all about creating an end game plan to sweep with a form of priority or something setting up, but in order to do this, the opponent's team much be in range to accomplish that. breloom again, helps with that greatly; mach punch severely weakens keldeo into range of +2 bullet punch, same goes for most offensive electrics to provide a situation. aside from that, breloom is yet another wallbreaker capable of severely damaging or removing fat waters & grounds to help your respective sweepers clean up. breloom doesn't only support the team by offensively dealing with relevant threats, but almost every single other member puts pressure on its main checks (bulky grasses, mega latias, etc.) with taunt heatran / thundurus, sd + endure garchomp, dd restochesto gyarados, & sd mega scizor. once breloom isn't needed anymore & you can afford to sack it to a revenge killer, a different member comes in freely to exploit the opponent; weavile might be forced into pick off breloom with ice shard, but that enables scizor or gyarados to come in freely, the same situation applies to stuff like latios, tornadus-t, mega metagross, & mega alakazam. even against defensive builds, breloom causes a lot of trouble. bulky grasses like amoonguss are obviously issues for it but the team doubles efficiently to pressure them.
the combination of heatran + breloom put immense amounts of pressure on stall thanks taunt preventing stuff from healing, while the ability to put something asleep & pressure 'mons like mega sableye / skarmory with bullet seed & force palm respectively is definitely helpful; common backbones found on playstyles like balance in general also absolutely hate switching into breloom. the moveset aside is self explanatory for the most part; force palm was always something i wanted to try & that decision paid off, it nails stuff like ferrothorn that often thinks it can take a mach punch & retaliate with gyro ball to k.o you, giving dd gyarados as well as thundurus a much easier time. mega scizor will also try to abuse your passivity to setup freely once you've already put something to bed, but force palm prevents that by 2hko'ing offensive mega scizor & bulky mega scizor after stealth rock damage; the same pertains to stuff like skarmory that might believe breloom is spikes fodder. not to mention, force palm has a 30% chance to paralyze an incoming latios, tornadus-t, or talonflame as examples which is pretty cool. despite this, there is one other possibility that is definitely a good option, focus punch > force palm which hits hard as a truck (focus punch + mach punch guarantee's an ohko on both latios & tornadus-t on the switchin), but in my opinion, is sort of too prediction reliant here. its also down to personal preference, but this set does what it needs to do.
......
scizor @ scizorite | light metal *** only
adamant nature | 252 atk / 4 def / 252 spe
swords dance | bullet punch | bug bite | superpower
offensive mega scizor has been a threat lingering around for a few months at this point, causing a few metagame trends itself; max speed heatran is one in particular that even slower playstyles are using to not get completely overrun by this massive threat. even with the popularity of that variant, mega scizor remains to be an extremely useful sweeper. having a free mega slot to choose from, this 'mon specifically fit the build incredibly & it performed in practice as it was meant to. firstly, mega scizor abuses the team's tools & capabilities to consistently clean no matter the matchup. speed control from thundurus is imperative in allowing mega scizor to outspeed the previously mentioned fast heatran & other various 'mons to possibly freely setup. the fact that its checks easily get overwhelmed / pressure by the phys. spam core mean that it has a greater chance of sweeping, especially when paired with an excellent lure in solar beam heatran to instantly put a large majority of its checks in range. a secondary form of strong priority with adamant breloom helps put keldeo (an otherwise scary threat to the team) in range of +2 bullet punch, while also acting as a revenge killer if need be; breloom can offer mega scizor free turns thanks to spore as well. if heatran can't accomplish its goal for whatever reason, the team still breaks down waters / grounds persistently to the point where the opponent crumbles over to some bullet punches. aside from the great amount of support the team provides to pave way for the late game, mega scizor becomes even more consistent thank to a few metagame trends in its favour. boltbeam mega latias' usage is relatively high which mega scizor uses as complete setup fodder & generally beats typical balance archetypes with some team support. also, phys. defensive landorus-t has seen increased usage over its main counterpart, garchomp which makes things much easier as the previously mentioned gets worned down much quicker, can be used as a setup opportunity & doesn't force you to take large amounts of recoil.
mega scizor does an excellent job in exploiting passivitiy from 'mons such as ferrothorn, while its bulk & defensive typing enables it to setup on a huge portion of the tier despite not having roost on its set: mega alakazam, mega altaria, band azumarill locked into play rough in attempt to eliminate dd gyarados, chansey, thunder wave clefable, mega diancie, mega gardevoir, variants of jirachi, hp fire latios at -2, mega lopunny, mega metagross, & so on. mega scizor also has offensive synergy with multiple 'mons on the build; sd garchomp, breloom, as well as thundurus all get revenge killed by weavile's priority, allowing mega scizor to come in with no danger, although there are many examples. this works vice-versa if you decide to use it as an early game wallbreaker to weaken something like rotom-w; heatran comes in to revenge kill you, now you as the player make the decision of setting up with gyarados or garchomp, its all about creating setup opportunities to stay in your opponent's face & prevent them from following through with their gameplan, but at the same time you have to think logically. mega scizor is also the team's secondary fairy / dragon resist if heatran or another member isn't capable of dealing with them; bullet punch threatens out stuff like mega diancie & mega gardevoir which can get extremely irritating if provided free turns to attack, having a guaranteed way of beating them is appreciated. also, mega scizor can clean like 99.9% of various matchups if you play your cards correctly. starting off with generic stall, it really only requires quagsire low on hp or removed entirely to effectively sweep which isn't too difficult to achieve with a lure + breakers, especially as stall is passive to the point where it can setup multiple times.
from past experiences with the team, certain well constructed balance gives mega scizor the toughest matchup, 'mons such as wisp talonflame / charizard-x, sd ground-types, etc., can prevent it from doing its main role. on that note, mega scizor doesn't only have to be brought out until late game to sweep, if a setup opportunity is found early on, it can heavily damage something like rotom-w or mega venusaur for a different 'mon, or even revenge kill / pick something off with priority if necessary. even if the build looks slow at first glance, threats are managed in an offensive manner rather than using a backbone, & mega scizor contributes to that concept, something that you figure out with constantly playing with the team. there's nothing extraordinary about its set details; sd to provide sweeping potential, bullet punch as a mandatory form of priority which helps it clean up offensively based teams & possibly revenge kill, bug bite has a roll in your favour to ohko standard rotom-w after stealth rock, while hitting 'mons like mega venusaur, mega metagross, mega sableye, mega slowbro etc., with superpower nailing common steels such as heatran, bisharp, excadrill, skarmory, magnezone, & opposing mega scizor. i felt the standard 252 / 252 spread was optimal here for a solid speed tier + excellent damage output, although some hp / bulk can be invested to help with specific situations. i definitely don't find jolly relevant on this team for bisharp, adamant nature helps a ton with increasing rolls & the power difference is noticeable. light metal is the preferred pre-mega ability to take much less from weavile's low kick which is a possible scenario. there are no real alternative options for offensive sd mega scizor on this team without changing the build completely. overall, i still find mega scizor to be incredible in this metagame despite a few drawbacks, & it certainly has done the build as a whole well.
......
AFTERWORD
after approximately two weeks of writing up my first rmt: play without limits, & ensuring everything is perfect, its finally completely done! i've presented to you with what i feel is one of my best builds to this date, & it is a fantastic representation of consistent heavy offense in the current metagame, abusing many physical threats to overwhelm similar checks while also managing relevant threats without the use of a backbone that would cut momentum. i feel as though a large part of the team's success is from using unexpected sets to catch off my opponent, which is something i haven't seen a whole lot, unfortunately. hopefully i'll see this team being spammed on the ladder as i feel its going to remain consistent throughout the shifting metagame with volcanion, & possibly even in tour play. other than that, i really hope you guys enjoyedskimming reading my first rmt & certainly expect more of these from me down the line. anyways, here is the threatlist, importable, shoutouts, all that good stuff :3c
THREATLIST
due to their high speed, coverage, & strong attacks, offensive electrics are some of the most threatening 'mons to offensive builds. heatran is capable of pivoting in a few times to setup stealth rock & immediately pressure them, but otherwise there's counterplay in endure garchomp, putting them in range late game with priority, etc.
offensive waters don't have a guaranteed switchin as this is hyper offense, but they can be dealt with in multiple ways. heatran luring them with solar beam, either removing or severely weakening them into range of priority, using them as potential setup fodder for dd gyarados depending on the variant, weakening them with your priority users until one of them can pick it off, or use thundurus as speed control if they get out of hand.
sand rush excadrill can get extremely annoying if you allow it free turns to spam its stab attacks. obviously use breloom's form of priority to revenge kill / force it out, stall out sand turns with endure garchomp or 'dance' around it, gyarados / mega scizor can both use it to setup depending on the variant as well.
mega lopunny is yet another troublesome offense breaker that i don't have direct switchins to, but its completely dealt with in numerous ways. dd gyarados uses it as setup fodder & has rest in case you need to help up, garchomp lives a hit thanks to endure & can revenge kill it thanks to salac berry, breloom forces it out with mach punch, thundurus slows it with thunder wave, & even mega scizor can live a hit to either superpower or setup.
both defensive & offensive variants of garchomp can certainly threaten this team. defensive variants are typically worn down through physical pressure & ohko'd by lo thundurus, but it is capable of phazing the team around which is annoying with stealth rock up. offensive sd variants / choice scarf can definitely clean up the team, relies on thundurus, wearing it down through priority or abusing your own garchomp set.
◘ miscellaneous ◘
even though most of the threats are rather subjective & can be beaten with a proper gameplan in mind, there are some 'mons that can throw your own gameplan off. even though the build has win conditions that can setup on different forms of priority, stuff like breloom, bisharp, & talonflame are nuisances more than full-on threats. thanks to type immunities / resistances, the build can setup on various choice scarf users in the tier, even though 'mons like scarf keldeo & landorus-t can be problematic. aside from that, hax is something apart of the game but is not in your control for the most part; this team only has one inaccurate move in magma storm on heatran which is definitely a good factor. tilt also exists, if you find yourself losing more than you'd like, just take a step back & do something else that you enjoy!
after approximately two weeks of writing up my first rmt: play without limits, & ensuring everything is perfect, its finally completely done! i've presented to you with what i feel is one of my best builds to this date, & it is a fantastic representation of consistent heavy offense in the current metagame, abusing many physical threats to overwhelm similar checks while also managing relevant threats without the use of a backbone that would cut momentum. i feel as though a large part of the team's success is from using unexpected sets to catch off my opponent, which is something i haven't seen a whole lot, unfortunately. hopefully i'll see this team being spammed on the ladder as i feel its going to remain consistent throughout the shifting metagame with volcanion, & possibly even in tour play. other than that, i really hope you guys enjoyed
THREATLIST
due to their high speed, coverage, & strong attacks, offensive electrics are some of the most threatening 'mons to offensive builds. heatran is capable of pivoting in a few times to setup stealth rock & immediately pressure them, but otherwise there's counterplay in endure garchomp, putting them in range late game with priority, etc.
offensive waters don't have a guaranteed switchin as this is hyper offense, but they can be dealt with in multiple ways. heatran luring them with solar beam, either removing or severely weakening them into range of priority, using them as potential setup fodder for dd gyarados depending on the variant, weakening them with your priority users until one of them can pick it off, or use thundurus as speed control if they get out of hand.
sand rush excadrill can get extremely annoying if you allow it free turns to spam its stab attacks. obviously use breloom's form of priority to revenge kill / force it out, stall out sand turns with endure garchomp or 'dance' around it, gyarados / mega scizor can both use it to setup depending on the variant as well.
mega lopunny is yet another troublesome offense breaker that i don't have direct switchins to, but its completely dealt with in numerous ways. dd gyarados uses it as setup fodder & has rest in case you need to help up, garchomp lives a hit thanks to endure & can revenge kill it thanks to salac berry, breloom forces it out with mach punch, thundurus slows it with thunder wave, & even mega scizor can live a hit to either superpower or setup.
both defensive & offensive variants of garchomp can certainly threaten this team. defensive variants are typically worn down through physical pressure & ohko'd by lo thundurus, but it is capable of phazing the team around which is annoying with stealth rock up. offensive sd variants / choice scarf can definitely clean up the team, relies on thundurus, wearing it down through priority or abusing your own garchomp set.
◘ miscellaneous ◘
even though most of the threats are rather subjective & can be beaten with a proper gameplan in mind, there are some 'mons that can throw your own gameplan off. even though the build has win conditions that can setup on different forms of priority, stuff like breloom, bisharp, & talonflame are nuisances more than full-on threats. thanks to type immunities / resistances, the build can setup on various choice scarf users in the tier, even though 'mons like scarf keldeo & landorus-t can be problematic. aside from that, hax is something apart of the game but is not in your control for the most part; this team only has one inaccurate move in magma storm on heatran which is definitely a good factor. tilt also exists, if you find yourself losing more than you'd like, just take a step back & do something else that you enjoy!
vs boudouche mlop offense
vs normspam bulky off
vs mmedi balanced off
vs mdiancie balance
vs mlop fat balance
vs clef balanced off
vs mscep bulky off
vs mscep bulky off
vs msab semi-stall
vs mlati semi-stall
vs maero balance
vs mhera balance
vs mlop bulky off
vs mirror match
vs malt balance
vs voltturn ho
vs tang stall
vs azelf ho
vs normspam bulky off
vs mmedi balanced off
vs mdiancie balance
vs mlop fat balance
vs clef balanced off
vs mscep bulky off
vs mscep bulky off
vs msab semi-stall
vs mlati semi-stall
vs maero balance
vs mhera balance
vs mlop bulky off
vs mirror match
vs malt balance
vs voltturn ho
vs tang stall
vs azelf ho
ps! friends / oh - https://45.media.tumblr.com/4092aaf41fb71a2e687ee7fdd6c1df0a/tumblr_o0j4n3oZoQ1qinvlto1_r1_540.gif
paper dreams
starry blanket
Meteordash
unfixable
Reverb
Infernal
astroboy
p2
TDK
Hootie
ou mates - https://49.media.tumblr.com/a7079ff1c9397fc9e23b36b9840163c5/tumblr_njil6olQia1txzehro1_540.gif
bludz
Clone.
Giagantic
Gizmo
Scotti
Skarmx2
Team Pokepals
BlazeLatias
NotFalse
Sonired
jacob
Vertex
Valentine
slurmz
ct mates - https://49.media.tumblr.com/0f9f97921f3582a65b21675e0b9d0c0b/tumblr_nq984aelKk1qhk0wlo2_400.gif
AM
Eyan
Kreme
MrAldo
Master Sunny-EX
Trinitrotoluene
Arifeen
DaAwesomeDude1
Hairy Toenail
Starmei
rob.
AllAttack
cfdba
MajesticM
North Gate
Peli
Cyndequil.
Exeggutor
brokenwings
Tyler0
yuruuu
rmt mates - http://puu.sh/oshzN/bef4fc3492.gif
celticpride
IronBullet
Enki
Analytic
mil
DennisEG
Yagura
Snowy.
extremely sorry if i missed anyone, there's so many people to tag o_o
paper dreams
starry blanket
Meteordash
unfixable
Reverb
Infernal
astroboy
p2
TDK
Hootie
ou mates - https://49.media.tumblr.com/a7079ff1c9397fc9e23b36b9840163c5/tumblr_njil6olQia1txzehro1_540.gif
bludz
Clone.
Giagantic
Gizmo
Scotti
Skarmx2
Team Pokepals
BlazeLatias
NotFalse
Sonired
jacob
Vertex
Valentine
slurmz
ct mates - https://49.media.tumblr.com/0f9f97921f3582a65b21675e0b9d0c0b/tumblr_nq984aelKk1qhk0wlo2_400.gif
AM
Eyan
Kreme
MrAldo
Master Sunny-EX
Trinitrotoluene
Arifeen
DaAwesomeDude1
Hairy Toenail
Starmei
rob.
AllAttack
cfdba
MajesticM
North Gate
Peli
Cyndequil.
Exeggutor
brokenwings
Tyler0
yuruuu
rmt mates - http://puu.sh/oshzN/bef4fc3492.gif
celticpride
IronBullet
Enki
Analytic
mil
DennisEG
Yagura
Snowy.
extremely sorry if i missed anyone, there's so many people to tag o_o
Last edited:
