Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Welcome to the latest edition of the Team Rater Competition! The tier this time around will be SM OU. For each round we'll post a team, and participants will have one week to complete a rate of said team. When the round is over, the participants who submitted the best rates will move onto the next round. If you are eliminated and want to receive feedback on your rate, the hosts will be more than happy to provide that upon request. Each round will last one week. Failure to rate the team within the one week time period will result in disqualification unless you're able to give us a valid reason. Please only sign up if you can commit to rating one team every week for the next month. If you're currently involved in or are looking to start rating OU teams, I highly encourage you to participate as this promises to be a great learning experience. Here's to a fun and competitive tournament!
Important notes:
Shoutouts in the room intro of the RMT room and in RMT news
The top rates from each round in addition to the rates in the final two rounds will count towards the Team Rater badge
The winner will be awarded voice status in the RMT room on PS if they have shown an interest in getting involved.
Each round will last one week. Failure to rate the team within the one week time period will result in disqualification unless you're able to give us a valid reason. Please only sign up if you can commit to rating one team every week for the next month.
If you are eliminated and would like some feedback on your rate and how you can improve going forward, feel free to ask us.
At the end of each round, we will announce the best rate from that round and a quick overview of what we liked in the rates submitted.
I wanted to build around Mega Lopunny as it's a big threat to most teams by being able to outspeed common threats in Ash Greninja and Tapu Koko, and it's able to get past Ferrothorn and Lando-T, which is pretty common on most bulky offensive teams. Ice Punch allows it to get past Lando-T quickly and Power-Up Punch allows it to increase its damage output to be in a better position to KO bulkier pivots like Mew and Toxapex.
Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Spikes
I wanted to run Mega Lopunny with hazards to give it an easier time breaking through bulkier mons and Ash Greninja was a great fit as it provides Spikes, and it can handle Mew, something Mega Lopunny can't immediately break through unless worn down. Moveset is standard and it can work with Lopunny in getting past Toxapex and Tangrowth or at least wearing them down a bit with damage and Spikes.
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 248 HP / 108 SpD / 152 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Healing Wish
Clefable was another mon that Lopunny struggles with, so I decided to go with Jirachi to switch into Clefable and other fairies like Tapu Lele. Jirachi also provides Stealth Rock, U-turn for momentum, and finally can help Lopunny or Greninja have a 2nd chance in case they get worn down from hazards, take chip damage like Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs and Sandstorm damage, or if Lopunny decides to be a burden and misses High Jump Kick.
Toxapex (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 72 Def / 188 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
- Toxic Spikes
Toxapex is here to remove opposing Toxic Spikes, provide Toxic Spikes that can poison Mew and Tangrowth, and switch into Ash Greninja and various threats. This annoying mon refuses to go down easily and poisoning mons like Tangrowth and Mew really helps out Ash Ninja and Lopunny, as those 2 mons will have to worry about spikes, rocks, poison damage and the actual damage from the attack they're switching into. Toxapex also helps out with Mega Scizor and can also help out with opposing Mega Lopunny a little bit.
Kartana was added to help provide speed control, being able to take a ton of fast threats including Ash Greninja and Lopunny while being able to switch into Zygarde a few times. Kartana and Lopunny have some similar defensive answers, so like Lopunny, Kartana can benefit from having those defensive answers being worn down and can finish the job if Lopunny or Greninja can't.
The team had no ground resist and the stall matchup was a bit shaky so I added the most used mon in the tier, Lando-T. Despite being an offensive variant, Lando-T can help out defensively through Intimidate for physical attackers like Mega Lopunny, providing an electric immunity prevents Tapu Koko from spamming electric moves, which helps especially with choice specs variants, and finally as a ground immunity with opposing lando-t being unable to mindlessly click Earthquake and also helps out when an opposing Heatran uses Earth Power to try and KO Toxapex. Substitute helps avoid status moves like Leech Seed or Wisp, making it easier for Lando-T to set up a Swords Dance.
Despite the excessive amount of bolding, vsomani did a great job with supporting the focus/original core of the team and was able to further enhance the offensive potential of it. He started off with changing Lando-T's set in order to allow it to break through some defensive mons like Unaware Clefable and Quagsire, which Zygarde would struggle breaking through. Then he adjusted the Zygarde moveset by adding in the Z move, which was previously removed from the last change, thus giving the Zygarde an easier time to get past mons like Tangrowth and Mew. Then he added Scarf Latias, which enables the offensive members of the team to have a second chance at sweeping, and also helps out against threats like Calm Mind Keldeo, which the original team struggled. Then he went on to add Ash Greninja, which boosts the offensive potential of the team and for Zygarde, it serves as a partner that can wear down switch ins like Tangrowth via hazards and it's own attacks. After describing how Ferrothorn's role was spread out amongst the other team members, vsomani added Tangrowth to handle Zygarde (which Mew previously did) and it still handles some threats that Ferrothorn handled including Rain. Finally, he altered the Mega Scizor EV spread in order to improve the matchup against Magearna while also mentioning the downside to his change in the weaker Tapu Bulu matchup.
hey, cool team. In the metagame right now, most people are not running more than one check to grounds, and not running defensive cores such as Defensive Landorus-T + Mew or Defensive Landorus-T + Zapdos. This immensely helps this kind of a underrated archetype. An amazing booster in SD Mega Scizor can complement the core, giving both the grounds free switchins on mons like Toxapex, and even Zygarde can set up on Celesteela and it is also can take advantage of mons such as a weakened Zapdos. However, I noticed a few issues with the team. Firstly, I noticed that it lacked a solid way to beat the one groundspam check that your opponent does have in Zapdos or Mew. You overly rely on your own Mew to check these threats, which is by no means optimal. In addition, Celesteela + Toxapex + Clefable backbones can wall the entire team. Stall teams, in particular Quagsire stall can wall the entire team and slowly chip it down. With your hazard removal being Mew, Toxic Spikes like Toxapex are very annoying as Toxapex is not only able to stall out Defog with Toxic Spikes, it can also potentially Toxic Mew. keeping TSpikes up for essentially the whole game, and pressuring Mew and Zygarde immensely. Last, but not least, the team is very slow for an offense team, with every Pokemon beside the scarfer being under 300 base speed opening holes for a variety of wallbreakers such as Sub SD Kartana, Gengar, HP Fire KyuB, CM and Specs Keldeo, SD + Dragonium Z Garchomp, and Tapu Lele.
My first suggestion to fix these weaknesses is to make Landorus-T a Jolly Earth Plate, Gravity + Hidden Power Ice set to break Defensive cores such as Toxapex + Celesteela + Clefable backbones. This set can help you break Unaware Quagsire and Clefable, considerably helping the stall MU. Additionally, you do extra damage to ground checks such as Mew. It also frees up the Z slot for Zygarde to use up.That said, this weakens your matchup vs mons like Zapdos, which Rockium Z hit. Another option to consider would be Knock Off > HP Ice to Knock Off Pokemon such as Clefable, Ferrothorn, Celesteela, Quagsire, Tangrowth, and Zapdos for Zygarde to abuse. Keep in mind that you lack the ability to get immediate damage onto opposing Defensive Landorus-T, which can be very annoying at times as getting the chip to kill it can be very handy at a multitude of cases.
Next, I recommend a Dragonium Z Zygarde > Soft Sand. Dragonium Z allows Zygarde to have a one time nuke OHKOing many ground resists at +1, after rocks such as Tangrowth, Mew, and Zapdos in addition to dealing massive damage to mons such as Defensive Landorus-T. This does sacrifice a little damage to threats such as Ferrothorn, but is worth it in the long run as that one time nuke can break targets that would otherwise kill it.
As we head into the mon changes I decided to do, the first thing I recommend is Choice Scarf Latias > Keldeo. Scarf Latias can immensely help your monobreaker Landorus-T by supplying it with a Healing Wish when it needs it. It can also supply a Healing Wish to Zygarde, allowing it to not fear attacking and weakening checks to it early game, and pressuring offensive threats like Heatran, which frees it up a lot over the course of the game. It also provides Defog, which is one of the main roles that Mew plays, opening up the slot, and also being a little bit solidder as removal as it can force out Toxapex. In addition to this, it also acts as a fighting resist, and technically a ground immunity, which were some other key roles that Mew plays. It can also act as a solidder check to Pokemon such as CM and Choice Specs Keldeo. This does not make the team weaker to Heatran because Zygarde can freely come in with the option of getting Healing Wished to late game. This does make you weaker to Darks, Bug Buzz Volcarona, and Kingdra.
Next, I suggest running Ash-Greninja > Mew. Ash Greninja appreciates Healing Wish support, as often it gets chipped down by Entry Hazards or Statuses or just takes a big hit like a Scarf Landorus-T Earthquake from full. Through Healing Wish it can clean given that its checks are weakened or gone. It also acts as Speed Control, outspeeding and dealing massive damage to each of the wallbreakers I listed not named Keldeo and can even get Kyurem-B into range from a Scizor Bullet Punch. It provides important priorty in Water Shuriken most notably beating Bug Buzz Volcarona after it has taken a Psyshock from Latias and keeps it into Zygarde/Scizor range if it does not kill it. It acts as a softcheck to SD Scizor as with SD + Bullet Punch + Knock Off, Scizor is not able to deal anything major to Greninja, while Greninja can fire off insanely powerful Specs Boosted Hydro Pumps. It also weakens Ferrothorn for Zygarde lategame. In addition to all of this, Greninja is a great way to pressure Mew, and force it out. It also takes advantage of Zygarde dealing huge damage to Tangrowth as well as having the ability to chip Choice Scarf Greninja into the range of +1 Extreme Speed from Zygarde lategame. However, this means that you have to rely on Latias for strong ground and fighting types. It also removes the only status of the team.
For the last mon change, I recommend AV Tangrowth > Ferrothorn. With Ash-Greninja being able to set up spikes and deter Psychic from Tapu Lele and Mega Scizor as a psychic resist, there is little reason to run Ferrothorn > another grass type Pokemon, and here I feel as if Tangrowth is the soliddest one of all. It can act as a ground resist and check Zapdos a lot better than Ferrothorn. It is a little bit solidder against Ash-Greninja and Tapu Koko whilst not giving free switchins to Mega Lopunny. In addition, it can run either of Hidden Power Fire or Ice to beat either of Scizor or Zygarde, and Hp fire is the better one as not letting Sciz set up on Tangrowth is huge here. However, this makes the team weaker to Spikes and Toxic Spikes.
Lastly, I recommend changing the Scizor spread to be more specially defensive to better take on CM Magearna. It can also live hits like Greninja Hydro Pump better. However, this does hurt the Tapu Bulu MU.
I have managed to deal with every threat that I felt to be concerning enough to deal with which was possible. I have also made it more offensive in nature which is what I think supports this kind of a groundspam core with SD Mega Scizor. The team also has more speed control which helps against breakers and can break teams far more effectively.
Landorus-Therian @ Earth Plate
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Gravity
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Spikes
Nice work vsomani! With this, I'm proud to say that each one of our semifinalists has had a top rate throughout this competition, so major props to you guys
