SM OU Hazards Don't Matter

So once in a while, I get the urge to hard counterteam some kind of ladder cancer. It's a little more rare that I get annoyed by something like hazard-stack, but I ended up building this team to counter webs as well. I don't normally post these teams, but this one performs really damn well for the amount of fire in it.



Snore (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled

Steel Beams (Celesteela) @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Leech Seed
- Heavy Slam
- Protect
- Flamethrower

Nothing to see here. Standard defensive sets that do standard defensive things. Both of them are incredibly hazard resistant, caring only about rocks and even then only a little. I wanted a defensive core that could handle spike stack, and these do the job.

So, what I wanted next was something that was both hazard resistant like the above, with Taunt and Defog pressure, and some ability to wall fire attacks. It took me a while to find it, but I found the perfect mon.

UU God (Hydreigon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Taunt
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn

Defensive dragons are so good, I just dont get why they never caught on. With Celesteela to eat fairy attacks my core is only weak to non-choice Koko, and you'll see that the offensive core handles that. Taunt stops stupid teams like Trick Room from working effectively as we're able to stall out the Mental Herb free room pretty effectively. I ended up removing defog because, as per the title, hazards don't matter. And pivoting does.

Huh. (Alakazam) @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Psyshock
- Dazzling Gleam
- Substitute

In case you hadn't noticed, this team started life as a meme - I started off by just adding every viable Magic Guard user. Originally this was Z-Ghost, but in the end the ability to just win against defensive Mag is super useful, as is the ability to pressure Toxapex and Keldeo, and to just be fast as fuck. Sub wins games.

100% Usage (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Explosion
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Snore. Scarf Landorus extends our hazard immunity yet again, while providing excellent pivoting into defensive mons, powerful EQ once immunities are dealt with, and a late game nuke in Explosion. He's pretty good for a piddly 40% usage mon.

What is this Bull (Reuniclus) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast

This is the star of the team. I was pretty dubious putting this on the team back when it was a meme, Lele-less psyspam didn't feel like a team to me.
But this guy is so damn good.
Sure, against offence he's basically just one fairly weak attack, but there are no (and I mean no) defensive pokemon in this metagame that he can't CM against. Predict the Gren switchin and watch the concession. Over and over and over again. Combined with Hydreigon this guy can get reliable switchins on every defensive pokemon, not give a shit about their attacks, set up and just win the game.

Strategy
You don't really need to do much to beat offence. So long as you don't make any stupid sacs you should be able to get chip on threats, and get to a point where you can win with Landorus or Reuniclus.

Against HO, life is harder. Heavy setup teams can be a hassle, and Bisharp is a pain in the ass, as is Gigavolt-Koko and CM Keldeo. A lot of the time you just need to time the BOOM well and bring in celesteela to finish them off.

Against Stall, things are fun. They have so few ways of damaging us, and although breaking them is also really hard, our hazards actually do things. Reuniclus butchers any team that doesn't have either Sableye-Mega or Mandibuzz (lul) and Zam can threaten several cores thanks to sub. If it comes down to it, this team is also pretty good at just doubling around for pp stall, even without regenerator, due to our hazard immunity.

Balance is where the team comes to life. If you lose against balance, I will come to your house and slap you. Reun wins every game against balance without any effort (unless they're packing Bisharp. Fuck Bisharp.)

Threatlist

"Oh, Tap, how could Koko ever threaten a team with Scarf Landorus?"
Yes, people have asked me that. Gigavolt Koko eats the core, able to Dazzle Hydreigon, Z down Clef and obviously Celesteela isnt standing for long. Sure we can bring in Lando, but he can only eat so many dazzles, and any ground immunity makes our attacks hard to work out. Koko is good. Don't underestimate it.


We're actually quite good against setup Zygarde. Taunt Hydreigon holds it off nicely as they don't tend to run outrage. Band, on the other hand, is much more of a pain in the ass, as we lack the Ice coverage needed to hurt it.

Ghreayuoilfb;lj. Fuck Bisharp with a stick. Why is every team I make decimated by this bloody mon. SD eats our core. Any variant stops Reuniclus unless our predictions are perfect, and even if they are they can just sac something to bring him in. Most of the time we just have to sac the scarf to a KO and hope they stay in. Pray to Mithras, whatever works.

Other than that, we're pretty good. I've struggled with Gyarados, but I find that most teams that try to win with it run out of steam once you take it out, and Celesteela/Hydreigon can chip it down quite well.

Overall

You probably shouldn't play this team. There's got to be a better home for Reuniclus. But please play more Reuniclus. If it can win me games with this bucket of bolts, it can win you games.
(I'm normally too lazy to grind, getitng to 1600 with this was an achievement.)
 

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