SM OU Rental - Mega Mawile Balance [Peak 1836]

[Mellow]

Introduction

Hey my dudes, I've got some free time so I figured I'd write this RMT about a team I made around a month ago. Its a fat balance team based on the tried and true core of Mega Mawile + Ash Greninja - Greninja provides free setup opportunities for Mega Mawile as the majority of Greninja switchins are Grass types which Mawile tends to be able to setup for free on or knock them off to reduce their longevity or just generally cripple them. The team actually got a bit of a show in the tournament scene - my friend TheGreninjaWarrior21 used it in a couple games in Smogon Tour. I also got my highest ladder peak with this team - I probably could've gotten higher than 1836 but I'm lazy :^). Without further ado, here's the building process:

Okay I lied. Here's a song I've been listening to on repeat for days now from a band I only recently heard of - they're fucking amazing, give their stuff a try, you won't be disappointed.

Building Process

These two mons will make up the Offensive core of the team. As said before, Greninja provides Mega Mawile with setup opportunities and sets up Spikes to wear down their Sucker Punch resists to potentially allow Mawile to clean late game.

Next came the defensive core. Gastrodon and Celesteela have perfect type synergy together, and they help each other by checking what the other member is weak to - Gastrodon is heavily threatened by Grass types like Kartana, Tapu Bulu and Ferrothorn, all three of which Celesteela checks, and Celesteela struggles with Electric types like Tapu Koko, Rotom Wash, and Zapdos, also Fire types such as Heatran and Volcarona, all of which Gastrodon quite comfortably switches into.

...however, despite their synergy, they don't cover everything - neither can switch into a Zygarde or a Mega Medicham, which is where Clefable comes in. Clefable provides a solid check to the aforementioned threats while also supporting the team with Stealth Rocks.

Finally, I took a look over the team and considered possible weaknesses. The team was pretty slow, lacked a Defogger and despite having Celesteela, the team still looked fairly weak to Fightinium Z Kartana and Tapu Bulu. Tornadus was a perfect fit; its really fast, it has Defog and it can quite safely come in on Kartana and Tapu Bulu and scare them out with Hurricane.

Sets

Mawile-Mega @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off

Mawile is a fearsome wallbreaker in the OU tier, ripping through common defensive cores like CelePex, GastroClef, FerroDos - the list goes on. It is particularly effective against Stall teams, tearing through them like a hot knife through butter. The moves on the set are pretty standard, as is the spread - we all know what this mon does.

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

Ash Greninja is just a generally fantastic Pokemon, dealing insane amounts of damage after transforming and punishing switches by laying down Spikes to later put them in range of one of your attacking moves. It also carries one of the strongest priority moves in the tier, it can even bypass some of it's checks by getting scummy flinches with Dark Pulse. Standard set again.

Gastrodon-East @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Toxic
- Earthquake

Gastrodon has been rising in popularity as of late, and its not hard to see why. With the meta being in a state where it is so straining on teambuilding because there are so many threats to account for that it's really hard to feasibly cover the majority of the metagame at least decently, Pokemon like Gastrodon that thrive due to the role compression they provide are doing really well right now. Anyway, enough shitting on the meta, I'll talk about the mon now: Gastrodon is a huge boon for fat balance team as it checks 3 big threats in the metagame: Ash Greninja, Tapu Koko and Heatran. It also provides the team with a much needed bulky water and a ground type. Again, standard stuff, I haven't really felt the need to make any techy changed on any of my sets because I think the team generally has a pretty good matchup versus most teams.

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 156 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Heavy Slam
- Flamethrower

Celesteela is pretty important for the team too, it ensures I don't lose to big threats like Mega Pinsir, Tapu Lele, Mega Alakaza, Flyinium Z Landorus etc. This mon isn't as good as it used to be due to the rise of mons that Celesteela is supposed to beat running sets that heavily dent / beat Celesteela like Fightinium Z Lele and Kartana but its still a solid mon in my eyes.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Wish

Big Clef is actually the MVP of this team. The mon is just super good currently, being one of the only checks balance can run to beat Medicham and other big threats. Since the team isn't really weak to stall or Zapdos at all, I opted for a slightly more unorthodox (maybe not so much not but it was at the time) move in the last slot - Wish (Credit to Eo). While Soft-Boiled + Wish may seem like a waste, the ability to pass a Wish into any of my other members, particularly Celesteela and Mega Mawile is actually so potent. One of Celesteela's main weaknesses is lack of reliable recovery outside of Leech + Lefties (it's nice don't get me wrong but it sometimes isn't enough to keep it alive for the whole game), so by running Wish on Clefable I remove that weakness altogether. I cannot stress how good Wish is for this team.

Tornadus-Therian @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Knock Off / Taunt
- U-turn
- Defog

Finally, we have Tornadus-T, another mon that's been rising in popularity recently, and for good reason. It's a stellar offensive pivot with a nice typing, decent bulk, an amazing ability in Regenerator and the ability to reliably and consistently Defog throughout the game. It's just a nice glue for the team. I'm a bit conflicted as to whether Knock or Taunt is better here - I think Knock is probably better but having used Taunt it's decent.

Threatlist (Not Exhaustive)

While Clefable handles most Zygarde sets, the mon is broken, so your team is always gonna lose to one of it's set. In this case, it's Groundium Z (the less annoying of the two sets I'm listing as the roll for them to OHKO Clef with their +1 Z is in your favour and you can scout for it anyway) and Weakness Policy (this set is so annoying for this team - if you run into it, it's practically an instalose if they manage to get you in a situation where they can DD as your bring in your Clefable).

+

In this matchup, you're gonna have to predict quite a bit more than you'd like, as you cannot let Magnezone come in on Celesteela without taking Leech Seed / Flamethrower damage. Celesteela is a solid Pinsir answer, however it's often paired with Magnezone, which traps and kills Celesteela.

My fire resist is Gastrodon which obviously can't switch in to Zard X if they're Dragon Claw (most are). This matchup isn't too bad, just try keep rocks up and don't let it come in for free on anything. Ash Gren pressures this thing a lot.

Most Heatrans are stopped in their tracks by Gastrodon, however Bloom Doom has been cropping up here and there. However, it's super uncommon (4% usage high ladder), so you probably won't face it, and if you suspect they might be that set then you can try switching out to scout for it after you've gone Gastrodon since they're unlikely to click it straight away.

Rain in general is pretty annoying for the team since no Grass type but you can get around it by pivoting between Celesteela and Gastrodon.

Replays


(seurim is malekith and i dont reply is kickasser)

Conclusion

Thanks a lot for reading. I hope it was written decently, I hope you enjoy the team, I hope you enjoy the music and I appreciate any feedback given in advance :]
time for the hide tags

proof of peak

shoutouts

Jordy real nigga
TheGreninjaWarrior21 GekkisaiDaiNi thanks for helping me test the team broskis
A thanks for the advice that i didnt take and thanks for popularising wp zygarde (dickhead)
LL also thanks for the advice
Gurpreet Patel (Sent you a Friend Request) thanks for helping me tag A LOL

shoutouts continued

Creator of Chaos Random Passerby thanks for putting my team on the break this team thread
also thanks to everyone who posted a threat to the team on the thread

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[Ryomathekillers]

I would honestly add Grass knot koko to the threatlist as that is a viable pokemon that this team can do jack shit to.

that being said (and this is going to sound awful), wouldn't it be better to run skarm instead of steela on this team? Considering Spike stack is really good with MMawile, It also helps in the matchup against Bulu and Kartana and gives you a defoger so you can replace Tornadus-T with a pokemon like Kartana or SD lando that uses a Z crystal?

 

[Mellow]

I would honestly add Grass knot koko to the threatlist as that is a viable pokemon that this team can do jack shit to.

that being said (and this is going to sound awful), wouldn't it be better to run skarm instead of steela on this team? Considering Spike stack is really good with MMawile, It also helps in the matchup against Bulu and Kartana and gives you a defoger so you can replace Tornadus-T with a pokemon like Kartana or SD lando that uses a Z crystal?

Grass knot from koko unless life orb or specs doesn't even 2HKO Gastrodon and it can't really fit Grass Knot on it's set anyway. Running Skarmory over Celesteela makes my Lele matchup absolute dogshit and I already have Spikes. Thanks for the suggestion though c:

 

[DKM]

Yo, this is quite a brilliant team and congrats on the peak.

While the team does have some weaknesses that you mentioned I think most of them can be played around. I only think one main change can benefit the team so this will be quite a short rate.

> : The change I suggest is bulky scarf Landorus over Tornadus. Firstly this gives you slightly better speed control, which might not be needed thanks to the solid defensive core but I wanted to bring it up. You now have an alternative check to Zygarde which gives Clefable more room to breath if the opponent has something like a Medicham or Hawlucha. Landorus can also take a hit from, and revenge-kill Charizard X if it does get out of hand.

Landorus isn't as reliable of a defogger, but It doesn't need to be. The team isn't really hazard weak and you have a Greninja who can spikestack, so your opponent is usually more pressured to Defog than you. While using this team and a similar kind of team I made, I almost never need to Defog simply because I'm not pressured by hazards or my opponent is forced to Defog first.

The moveset on Landorus is EQ, HP Ice, U-turn, Defog but if you don't think you need U-turn you can try Punishment or Stone Edge/Rock Slide for Pinsir.


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Hopefully this change is helpful, good luck with the team :]

Importable


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[Mellow]

Yo, this is quite a brilliant team and congrats on the peak.

While the team does have some weaknesses that you mentioned I think most of them can be played around. I only think one main change can benefit the team so this will be quite a short rate.

View attachment 117257> View attachment 117258: The change I suggest is bulky scarf Landorus over Tornadus. Firstly this gives you slightly better speed control, which might not be needed thanks to the solid defensive core but I wanted to bring it up. You now have an alternative check to Zygarde which gives Clefable more room to breath if the opponent has something like a Medicham or Hawlucha. Landorus can also take a hit from, and revenge-kill Charizard X if it does get out of hand.

Landorus isn't as reliable of a defogger, but It doesn't need to be. The team isn't really hazard weak and you have a Greninja who can spikestack, so your opponent is usually more pressured to Defog than you. While using this team and a similar kind of team I made, I almost never need to Defog simply because I'm not pressured by hazards or my opponent is forced to Defog first.

The moveset on Landorus is EQ, HP Ice, U-turn, Defog but if you don't think you need U-turn you can try Punishment or Stone Edge/Rock Slide for Pinsir.


~~


Hopefully this change is helpful, good luck with the team :]

Importable
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Thanks for the rate bro. Yeah when I saw TDKs team recently (the one that is literally this but it has like tran over cele and i think it has scarf lando too) I considered if Scarf Lando would be better than Tornadus-T - while I'll miss the bird, I think Lando is probably a slightly better choice here. I'll give it some testing but I'd imagine I will end up making it Scarf Lando - thanks again :]

 

[Mellow]

Yo, this is quite a brilliant team and congrats on the peak.

While the team does have some weaknesses that you mentioned I think most of them can be played around. I only think one main change can benefit the team so this will be quite a short rate.

View attachment 117257> View attachment 117258: The change I suggest is bulky scarf Landorus over Tornadus. Firstly this gives you slightly better speed control, which might not be needed thanks to the solid defensive core but I wanted to bring it up. You now have an alternative check to Zygarde which gives Clefable more room to breath if the opponent has something like a Medicham or Hawlucha. Landorus can also take a hit from, and revenge-kill Charizard X if it does get out of hand.

Landorus isn't as reliable of a defogger, but It doesn't need to be. The team isn't really hazard weak and you have a Greninja who can spikestack, so your opponent is usually more pressured to Defog than you. While using this team and a similar kind of team I made, I almost never need to Defog simply because I'm not pressured by hazards or my opponent is forced to Defog first.

The moveset on Landorus is EQ, HP Ice, U-turn, Defog but if you don't think you need U-turn you can try Punishment or Stone Edge/Rock Slide for Pinsir.


~~


Hopefully this change is helpful, good luck with the team :]

Importable
View attachment 117261View attachment 117260View attachment 117262View attachment 117259View attachment 117263View attachment 117257

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I just realised the reason I didn't go with Scarf Lando in the first place is because Mega Venusaur and potentially Amoonguss are super annoying without it. Thoughts?

 

[DKM]

I just realised the reason I didn't go with Scarf Lando in the first place is because Mega Venusaur and potentially Amoonguss are super annoying without it. Thoughts?

Hm, That's true. Although with spikes up it's possible to wear down Venusaur until it runs out of recovery or just gets overwhelmed by switching into Gren and Mawile, and Amoonguss dies to +2 Mawile knock off. So they're both pretty annoying but not really unbeatable

 

[SheinG]

Hm, That's true. Although with spikes up it's possible to wear down Venusaur until it runs out of recovery or just gets overwhelmed by switching into Gren and Mawile, and Amoonguss dies to +2 Mawile knock off. So they're both pretty annoying but not really unbeatable

how about running scarf latios instead of scraf lando? still beats venu and amoongus and can easily revenge charizard x while also providing better speed control and can run defog

 

[Mellow]

how about running scarf latios instead of scraf lando? still beats venu and amoongus and can easily revenge charizard x while also providing better speed control and can run defog

I considered Scarf Latios in building also, however I generally find it's a suboptimal set right now, Latias tends to be the better scarfer because of Healing Wish, but this team doesn't really need Healing Wish considering I have Wish Clef. I think Torn is just generally better in this slot for its ability to check SD Kartana + Bulu, it's a more reliable Defogger, it has Regenerator etc.