Volt-Turn/Priority Hyper Offense - click me for the import :]
Summary -
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CLICK ABOVE FOR THE IMPORT!) Hey guys, so I've been asked a lot recently to share this team, and I thought it might be useful to this thread. I don't particularly pride myself on team building but I think every now and then I squeeze out a solid team. I went 42-3 on the OU Suspect Ladder (for Dugtrio) with this team, and ended up peaking #1 with it so considering that plus all the random requests recently brings me here!
When it comes down to it, as you can see, it really is just simple offense. I don't even remember how I ended up building this team and specific reasons why I have certain things on here (you'll see if you keep reading), but I can definitely explain why it works so well now. The very subtle tricks this team has up its sleeves are the beauty of it, as is true with any solid team I guess.
The general goal of this team is to get up stealth rocks, with Landorus, obviously one of the best rock setters, and take advantage of how amazing Landorus works with Magearna on offensive teams. Defensive helmet Landorus is able to take hits as well as deal them, providing strong earthquakes, stealth rocks, AND u-turn, and even HP ice to damage opposing Lando-T's for Lopunny. After rocks are up and momentum is gained from Magearna/Landorus' respective volt switch and U-turn, Heatran and Latios are what I usually use most to surprise people or just hit really hard. The reason I have Heatran and Latios being the I guess bulky-ish offensive core here is because they will help clear the way for Gren and Lop in the end, who will usually end up sweeping with shuriken, or lopunny just cleaning up due to its speed and power with high jump kick.
I want to talk about each pokemon on this team briefly, because if I didn't I really wouldn't be doing it justice to explain why this team is so fun to use and works great. I also will have a brief overview of the
drawbacks of this team, as there are a few (like with all teams).
Magearna -
Magearna has the very important role of sponging hits for this team. Obviously, it is offense, so I have practically nothing to take heavy hits. The reason Magearna is here is because it does a great job checking as many things as it can being just one Pokemon. Fairy/Steel is amazing typing, and on TOP of being able to take a hit if I needed to from Keldeo, Greninja, Koko, Diancie, Kyurem, etc, it can hit incredibly hard with Fleur Cannon. Magearna is great for coming in, checking something, and then if the opponent expects you to U-turn, you click Fleur, and usually just ohko a ground type that comes in like Landorus, or Zygarde. Excadrill can sometimes be hit with hp fire on a switch. Magearna is truly the glue here.
Landorus-T -
You all know Landorus-T, an absolutely dominant poke in OU for a long time now. It works amazingly well with Magearna, as Mag is checked by things like Excadrill, Zygarde (assuming you dont catch it with fleur), and many others, which Landorus-T can appropriately come in and intimidate. Then when they switch out again, you have a choice of setting up rocks, or U-Turning out to keep momentum. Honestly Landorus-T hardly needs an explanation here on offense. This thing plus Magearna are the two mons on this team that can take hits pretty well, as everything else is 100% dedicated to hitting hard. Lando-T + Magearna u-turning and volt switching for momentum allows more fragile team members to come in and get kills. The Speed EV's are mostly to outrun opposing defensive Landorus running the standard spread.
Heatran -
Now we really get into the HEAT of the team. Now I really get a lot of hate for this but to me people just don't want to admit that this thing is good for some reason, because it literally gets a kill with bloom doom just about every battle. Yes, this is bloom doom Heatran. It's fully offensive. This also works great with Landorus-T, because offensive Z-move landorus is so common as well, that people assume Tran has rocks instead. Especially if you can bluff that Landorus-T is Z-Move, you're absolutely gonna catch a Tapu Fini, Hippowdon, Tyranitar, Rotom-W, Gastrodon, Swampert, and a million other things you can grab with a bloom doom. It's full speed allows you to outspeed bisharp, mawile, tapu bulu, slow variants of landorus, and more. Taunt + Magma Storm allows you to trap Clefable, Chansey,
TOXAPEX (which is a huge problem for this team), Celesteela, Scizor, and more. It's very helpful vs. stall and the surprise factor of bloom doom is really perfect for this team.
Latios -
Latios is the other surprise factor on this team. You might think okay what can a Latios really do to surprise me? Well, for one, most people think oh okay it has defog, its the only defogger. Nope, no defog here. Oh okay well its just scarf with psyshock and draco right? No scarf here either. This is Life Orb, thunderbolt, with roost. First of all, life orb allows draco to get ohkos on a few mons that scarf and even soul dew wouldnt get, and thunderbolt is the ultimate tech of this set. It hits celesteela, and toxapex, both of which are absolute annoyances to the team. Yeah psyshock hits Pex too, but T-bolt allows you to have 1 more overarching coverage move that hits both of them, as well as neutral chip damage on other targets like Jirachi or something in between.
Mega Lopunny -
Most people prefer to have Medicham, or Alakazam in their mega slot for offense or of course Zard Y or Diancie even or anything like that. The reason I wanted to use Lopunny is because of stab fake out and I know that's a petty reason okay but like I said, the goal of this team was to wear down the opponent with the amazing core of magearna and landorus, get rocks up, and then sweep with priority and speed that comes with Lopunny and Greninja. Lopunny also has a strong stab with Return, and of course High Jump Kick. Lopunny also somewhat catches people off with its power, for example, if you catch an AV Tangrowth on a switch with a HJK, that is literally a 2hko, its not even a switch-in (if its weakened a little). Lopunny in combination with the last Pokemon on the team are very deadly, and usually slept on because people don't realize they're about to be swept by water shuriken.
Ash-Greninja -
This is the Pokemon that the team is essentially built around. Basically having a 60BP stab priority move is excellent, and it being a water type is even more useful with all of the Landorus, Excadrill, TTar, and other stuff weak to water running around. On top of that, Dark Pulse and Hydro Pump hit hard as stab moves, in case priority isn't needed to win. Specs Hydro Pump destroys almost everything that isnt fully invested in special defense or resisted. Once the opponent is hit a few extra times than expected, from Heatran, Latios, and Lopunny, Greninja can just clean up the game with water shuriken.
Drawbacks/Weaknesses to this team :,( -
One of the biggest drawbacks (and this is going to sound stupid but really it is a problem) is that you're gonna be missing moves a lot. Magma Storm, as we all know, has like 5% accuracy. In all honesty you WILL miss it like half of the time. But that's okay, because if it had 100% accuracy that move would be so stupid. Only use magma storm when you really want to trap something or need super effective damage, especially since it's only 8 PP.
In terms of weaknesses, Rain is a huge problem, in fact you quite frankly just lose if someone brings rain. Obviously it's possible to play around it (cough cough catching swampert with a bloom doom), and if your opponent like sacks their Pelipper turn one you can win, but it's very difficult.
Stall can be a problem if you aren't careful with Heatran. Heatran destroys stall, but if you let it get weak before it can take out and trap pex, chansey, clefable, or whatever then you're only gonna get 1 kill with it and then lose. On top of that, there is no hazard removal, so stall is beatable but you have to play really well and be careful.
In terms of individual Pokemon this team is weak to, Scarf Tapu Lele, Sand Rush Excadrill, Zygarde, Charizard-Y, and fatty mons like Pex and Celesteela (unless you play carefully with heatran and latios).
Honestly, this team does have some terrible matchups like with rain and stall, but even with those two matchups, you can still beat them. I'd argue this team has at least SOME kind of defense to almost everything, all though it is run thin. I feel like it rewards risky and aggressive play a lot, so I like it.
Here are a few solid games I got on the ladder with this team (some examples of water shuriken) -
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-609726966 (on the ladder vs. Mob Barley)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-609735714 (also on the ladder vs. Shunz)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-603109550 (vs. Blalib)
Thank you for reading! Good luck :)
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