SM OU OU Team "Knights of the Rush" (Balanced 14-3 rating)

[xOliver]

Knights of the Rush ​

Hows it going? This is my second RMT I have made and I'm bringing a balanced offense team to the table. Currently, I have 14 wins and 3 losses, but I am on an 8 W streak atm.
(Sorry ahead of time for the way the icons look below, but hey as long as it works right?)

Teambuilding Process:
So first I wanted to build a team around mega-medicham. Which is what starts my team off

Then I also wanted to include Tapu Koko, because well, Tapu Koko is broken and it also gives a bit of momentum to the team. Koko also ironically serves as my team's Ferrothorn counter.

Then I needed a stealth rock setter that could deal with meta threats like landorus-therian and zygarde, so I picked up Mamoswine which can switch into an zygarde and landot, also hitting it very very hard.

From here I just thought of a really good ultra beast to go with this, and I picked up kartana due to its incredible sweeping potential.

After I wanted to really include araquanid into a team because I felt like although its damage is pretty garbage, with a splash plate liquidation has 204 damage base after water bubble. It ohkos defensive chomp too btw.

Last but definitely not least (araquanid is least) we have volcarona. I tend to save volcarona for whatever reason, mostly because of rocks which murders it. Volcarona serves as an incredible setup sweeper which does a 90% bug buzz to a gren with no stat boosts.

Now on for the sets:​

Mamoswine (M) @ Metronome
Ability: Thick Fat
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 156 HP / 116 Atk / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake

Standard stealth rock setter/sweeper mamo set, the speed is set to outspeed a Scizor-Mega, kill landot and take an eq. Mamo's role is basically to get rid of any threats in the team. The most interesting part is most likely the metronome. I got this set (don't remember where) but it works out great, the stab on the mon coupled with metronme makes it into an ultra beast of sorts which is great for hitting Ho teams hard.

Medicham-Mega (M) @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Bullet Punch
- High Jump Kick
- Zen Headbutt

Standard MMcham set to take down most OU threats like Heatran, Gren, Tapu (Except Lele, bc bullet doesnt work in psych terrain), and does end up outspeeding mega-mawile which is a plus making this a great sweeper. Hjk for 195 damage after stab, zen for 120 damage after stab. and Fake Out to break sturdies and such, and bullet to hit faster monsters.

Araquanid (M) @ Splash Plate/Choice Band
Ability: Water Bubble
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Poison Jab
- Crunch
- Leech Life

Now most araquanids are sticky web setters, which suck in my opinion I made mine a sweeper mine ohkos chomp, tran, koko, and 83% to lele. I currently am testing Ash-Gren in araquanid's place which is working well (For the 5 matches I did with him) (Ill put the ash-gren set at the end) But I use araquanid as a heatran switch in (Nobody really plays against it for some odd reason) or a early game sweeper. He does also abuse trick room if you do end up facing one which is great for my and this team's sort of playstyle.


Tapu Koko @ Tapunium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Nature's Madness

This is my tank killer koko set. Z natures madness kills a big tank like ferro, volt switch after is a kill. Koko and Lele, in my opinion, are the two best legendary pokemon in the metagame (Besides the ultrabeasts) and adding koko does give good synergy to the team.

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Defog

Kartana sweeper, used as defogger as well. Once kartana gets a kill with scarf, beast boost just ends up snowballing to an absolute Ultra Beast. But serioulsy, this is literally a great monster for this team and I think the setup sweeper, kartana is insanely great.

Volcarona (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flame Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Hurricane
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz

Volcarona is my late game setup sweeper it is super good for taking down m-medicham with ease after a +1 from quiver. Also giving it hurricane over heat wave lets it hit mvenu and kill w/ or w/o stat boosts. The fiery dance is there because, well, fiery dance is a great move.

And the Gren Set:
Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Water Shuriken
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse

Ash-Greninja is one of the most dangerous sweepers in OU right now. Once It gets battle bond it has 605 spa after specs and 399 unforgiving speed. Water shuriken is a 25 stab move, hitting 3 times, and +1 priority, so basically a techinician bullet seed after stab with increased priority. Ice Beam to slap zygarde, dark pulse to combo with tapu on a tank killer (z-natures) and hydro for that cool 165 damage smackdown.


Anyways, thanks for reading and I'll keep you posted.

Forgot, threats:
Tyranitar, Greninja, Charizard ~>Y<~, Mawile, and stall.

Here's the importable link: https://pokepast.es/9d3f27de9abb6d01

Once again, thanks for reading, gn you studs <333

 

[Gross Sweep]

Welcome to Smogon! I'm locking your RMT for the time being as the forum rules require that you provide in-depth descriptions for each Pokemon to explain their roles. Please read the rules carefully and take a look at Team Showcase to see the level of detail we require. PM me with updated descriptions and I'll be happy to unlock this.

Edit: reopened

 

[xOliver]

bump

 

[xOliver]

Hey xOliver that's a cool team you've got there and although there are some awkward choices and general issues, I think this team has potential to be improved. I personally really like the M-Medicham + Mamoswine core and think it's pretty scary considering how well it breaks Balance and abuses some of the metagame's tendencies. I'll start by touching upon the team's issues before suggesting changes. First off, I think your team lacks of synergy and doesn't have reliable checks to some metagame defining threats such as Heatran, Greninja, Ground-types such as Zygarde, Gliscor, and Landorus-T among other things and although a Bulky Offense like this doesn't need the best switch-in in the world to those threats, it's always nice to have 1 or 2 countermeasures to not get overwhelmed. The fact that you don't have one of those leaves you really open to pressure and / or getting swept, which means that wallbreakers and sweepers that can abuse some members of your team such as M-Latios, Tapu Lele, SD Bulu and M-Alakazam are generally gonna threaten you. Also, something else I wanted to point out was your awkward choices in this team such as Araquanid which is only used for Webs and Volcarona which doesn't exactly fit here considering it doesn't have much support (nor a defogger). I appreciate and respect creativity but I think that in this case, it would be better to go for a more conventional build to make this team more effective.

Now, the first thing I would try to cover would be the team's lack of switch-ins to some types / metagame threats. I think it can be covered easily enough by replacing Kartana + Araquanid by Ferrothorn + Landorus-T. This core allows you to check most pokemons you were weak to such as M-Latios, Zygarde, Greninja and also brings some role compression with Ferrothorn being the stealth rocker and Landorus-T being a scarfer + a defogger (potentially) which frees up some moveslots for their teammates. On Ferrothorn, I believe a Power Whip / Gyro Ball / Stealth Rock / Leech Seed moveset, as well as a classic spread of 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD Careful would be optimal. Also, I think Iapapa Berry should be its item here since it allows it for more longevity to check pokemons like M-Latios, Ash-Greninja and Zygarde more efficiently as your team really relies on it to check those. On Landorus-T, the classic Choice Scarf set with Earthquake / HP Ice / U-turn / Defog or Explosion (depending on what you're gonna run on koko (you'll see later on the rate)) with the classic analysis spread.

Also, you mentioned it in your RMT so I assume it was an optional change, but I'd run Ash-Greninja here because it gives you some really useful offensive pressure as well as Spikes, which really help your wallbreaking core.

Also, there are some minor tweaks I'd suggest:

• First off, you should have Ice Punch over Bullet Punch on M-Medicham in order to hit Ground- and Grass-types among other things. Bullet Punch generally isn't that useful of a move on M-Medi, only hitting a few stuffs and being a weak priority move. M-Medicham would much rather run a coverage move in Ice Punch to improve its wallbreaking ability.
• Since you now have rocks on Ferrothorn, I'd run Knock Off on Mamoswine, in order to cripple things like Celesteela and improves its wallbreaking potential. Also, I really don't know what your spread does which is why I'd just suggest the classic one in 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Jolly which maximizes its Atk and Speed, and notably outspeeds Heatran.
• On Koko, I'd run a more classic set in Thunderbolt / U-turn / Roost / Defog or HP Ice with Shuca Berry as its item which allows it to switch-in once on ground-types such as Zygarde and Landorus-T. The last slot is up to you depending on if you want to have defog on it or landorus-t. Personally, I'd prefer Defog on it because of its ability to reliably check Toxic Spikes Pex. Also, I'd run a 20 HP / 252 SpA / 20 SpD / 216 Spe spread to maximize its special attack while being able to take a hit from M-Latios from full after rocks.
• Finally, as an optional change, you could run a Z-Move on Greninja, either Darkinium or Waterium Z which is always cool to lure mons such as Clefable and surprise opponents who think you're specs.

Importable

Mamoswine (M) @ Metronome
Ability: Thick Fat
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Knock Off
- Earthquake

Medicham-Mega (M) @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Ice Punch
- High Jump Kick
- Zen Headbutt

Ferrothorn @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed

Tapu Koko @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- U-turn
- Defog / Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 96 HP / 20 Atk / 136 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Explosion / Defog
- U-turn

Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Spikes

Hope I helped!

Thanks a ton for the input, I'll let you know how it goes :)
I did notice that the team doesn't have any answers to ferro besides medicham, and I'd rather not risk one of the main sweepers for that? What do I do in the event of a ferro?

 

[Heart Doom]

Hello my friend your team looks pretty cool but I would make some changes in which I quote:

Araquanid> Greninja: Greninja is a great partner of medicham whose same manages to prune mew and also to foul the field of the adversaries with spikes and to help to an eventual victory of the medicham.

kartana> Magearna: Magearna is a great pivo that can help from the moment pro medicham and make a volt turn core with tapu koko and she is a stell type that different from kartana is more reliable to handle hits.

Volcarona> Heatran: Volcarona does not fit very well with the synergies of this team and besides you have no hazard control so I would put a heatran to help against stall and that would take the pressure off the mamoswine with rocks.

I would change the Mamoswine spread by placing maximum attack and maximum speed and put a tapu koko with another z move.

https://pokepast.es/b4d10b7288c6bd52

gl bro