SM OU Standard USUM Balance

[Cody323]

This is a pretty boring and standard team so I will be sure to keep it short. :)

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

Greninja is a massive threat in USUM with a very high spak stat and access to water/dark coverage, spikes and priority. I'm using standard gren so nothing special. The main thing that stops it is special walls like av mag, chansey or tangrowth. This is what the next mon does.

Tapu Koko @ Electrium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wild Charge
- Brave Bird
- Nature's Madness
- U-turn

Physical Koko is a great lure, because when paired with Gren people usually assume magnet or shuca and switch in their special walls. Z-Wild Charge Koko is able to lure chansey and magearna and with brave bird, also lure grass types. While bb doesn't kill grass types it does alot and with hazard support, makes them easily pressured. Electric terrain also removes other terrains, most notable psychic terrain so gren can use it's priority. Natures Madness allows Koko to damage walls like ferrothorn. I have found more use for this move than any other move. U-turn over volt switch because koko switch ins are usually ground and the momentum it provides is really nice and can allow me to bring in Gren on a ground type.

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 224 SpD / 36 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Fleur Cannon
- Iron Head
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

Magearna is a solid check to special attackers like Gren or shift gear magearna, it's able to take a massive beating while still outputting solid damage. Fleur Cannon is a high base power move that punishes ground type switch ins. Iron head allows Magearna to beat calm mind Magearna and calm mind clef (that's what the speed is for). HP fire hits Ferrothorn, Scizor and Kart, common switch ins to magearna. Volt switch helps magearna provide momentum.

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Smack Down

Defensive lando-t is the physical check for the team, providing rocks and a scarf lando-t check(it beat all of my team members so far). I am also running smack down on this set to be able to hit M-pinsir. HP ice is to hit Zygarde and lando-T. Earthquake is on every lando set so I hope I don't have to explain that. The speed also outspeeds Ttar.

Pinsir-Mega @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Frustration
- Quick Attack
- Close Combat

M-Pinsir is another huge threat in the tier, able to break through it's own checks with only one consistent check in zapdos, which is weakened by rocks. Hyper Cutter avoids intimidate, allowing Pinsir to 2HKO Lando at after Rocks. Frustration is an attempt to avoid ditto, and have a 100 base power move boosted by aerialate. Quick attack for priority, OHKOing Gren at +2. EQ or CC is up to preference, cc allows me to threaten celesteela, Rotom-W and Skarm, but EQ allows me to take on Mag and Mawile.

Latios @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Trick

Obviously M-pinsir needs hazard support, and finding a we forget that fitted the team was quite hard. I tried Mart for a bit but I didn't like it. Zapdos lost too much momentum, so I finally settled on scarf Latios. Scarf Latios also gave me a much needed check to +1 dragons and char y. Lati also lures defenive pokemon, like chansey, magearna and ferrothorn allowing me to trick them. Psyshock is to hit volcarona at +1 to put it in range of priority. Draco allows lati to be a very efficient revenge killer, by taking out +1 dragons like Char X, Dragonite, Salamence and Zygarde, while also being a good check to scarf kart (this team struggles with it).

So that's the team. Hope you enjoyed it, I know I have. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated thanks in advanced! :)

 

[Gross Sweep]

Hi - I'm locking your RMT for the time being since you're only allowed to post one team every two weeks. This is stated in the forum rules. I'll reopen this thread on June 11.
Edit: reopened

 

[Indigo Plateau]

Hey Cody323! I came here from your other thread, and seeing how you haven't gotten feedback on this team and Pinsir is one of my favorite Pokemon, I'll be happy to help you out. This seems like a standard BO team, but I think it can use some tweaks to make it more effective overall.

A general weakness that I see with your team is that Pinsir is a Pokemon that requires reliable entry hazard control. You have a Latios, but Pokemon such as Weavile and Tyranitar are increasing in usage, and once Latios gets Pursuit trapped, your team gets worn down very easily by entry hazards. The rest of the tweaks are mostly with sets to make your team more threatening, which we'll discuss later.

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Now, let's analyze some specific threats - this will help us see what to change with the team more easily.

Like I mentioned before, with hazard removal being essential to your team, both Tyranitar and Weavile are huge threats. They're able to trap Latios and after it's removed from the game, Pinsir will suffer heavily from Stealth Rock. The rest of your team is also prone to almost every form of hazard, so it's imperative you have a reliable hazard remover.

Your Water-type resists on the team are Greninja (very frail) and Latios (Choice locked and your hazard remover), meaning Ash-Greninja can spam Hydro Pump whenever it wants to. AV Magearna is an okay check to it, but it's also prone to being worn down rather easily. This Pokemon looks like a big annoyance to your team.

Entry hazard setters that can beat Latios are really annoying. Both Clefable and Ferrothorn can keep up Stealth Rock / Spikes with little effort, since they can easily recover off any damage from Latios. Clefable can Moonblast anything on your team after Magearna is worn down, and Ferrothorn can spam Leech Seed whenever it wants to as well.

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All other specific threats would just be nitpicks, especially with this type of build, so now it's time for suggestions to make the team more efficient against the aforementioned threats.

>

The first suggestion is replacing Latios with Hawlucha. Although you lose a Choice Scarf user, Hawlucha provides your team with a sweeper and an answer to Dark-types. With Electric Seed, you can set up on Weavile and Tyranitar locked into Knock Off / Crunch. Hawlucha can also take advantage of Ferrothorn and forces in Clefable.

Defog, U-turn
Now that you lost your Defog user, I think you should give your Landorus Defog. Defensive Lando is a better Defog user than Scarf Latios, giving Pinsir more opportunities to switch in. I also think that you should go for U-turn > Smack Down here. Smack Down beats Pinsir but does little outside of that, and bringing in your Pokemon via U-turn (especially Pinsir) is much better utility for your offensive team.

>

This might seem like a weird suggestion, but it's one that makes sense when you analyze it. Now that you lost your Stealth Rock user, you need a Steel-type that can set up hazards, not lose against Water-types, and not be a complete momentum drain. Ferrothorn accomplishes all of these (for the most part). It provides Stealth Rock, can beat Ash-Greninja, and has an expansive utility movepool with Knock Off, Thunder Wave, etc. Lastly, it makes your team more sturdy against Tapu Koko, which is very annoying for Pinsir and Hawlucha.

Special Z-Move
Lastly, a minor change to your Tapu Koko is making it the special Z-Move set. The reason is that Wild Charge wears down your Tapu Koko quickly, which you need for Hawlucha. Your team still pressures Chansey and Magearna quite well, and you can still nuke certain Pokemon like Scizor and Heatran with Gigavolt Havoc.

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(click for importable!)

This is the final version of the team after the changes. I think that overall, it's better against the threats that I listed out and a more consistent BO build. It's hard to list out threats against these types of teams, but some things to look out for are:

is a bit annoying and gets a free switch-in against Ferrothorn (as opposed to pivoting out with Magearna).

also gets annoying with Protean as Magearna is a better answer for it, but luckily it doesn't get many free switch-ins.

I hope my suggestions helped. Enjoy the team and feel free to ask me any questions

 

[Cody323]

Thank you so much for the rate! I've just been testing the new version of the team and I have some questions and some feedback. One thing I have noticed is the threat of special attackers to the team now that mag has been replaced. Pokemon like alakazam, lele, magearna, HPfire koko and of course protean greninja have been giving me a hard time with their super effective coverage vs ferrothorn. And since I have no other special sponge, I find myself having to make 50/50s to prevent these mons from beating me. But ferrothorn wasn't all bad however, it's longevity throughout the match is much better than mags with leftovers and leech seed recovery. It can also function as a secondary physical wall for threats that lando can't take on like M-Gyara. Ferrothorn has also greatly improved my mamoswine weakness. Because of how many threats to the team ferrothorn unfortunately allows in, I've decided to opt for thunder wave over knock off to punish offensive mons like zam or tran trying to take advantage of it. While knock off is great utility, it is too passive and doesn't help the team as much as T-wave does (At least, thats what I think)

Hawlucha as an addition was very benificial for the most part, giving me another wincon/wall-breaker while still allowing me to keep a late game cleaner. One problem I have noticed is the increased threat of speed boosting pokemon. Because hawlucha's speed is a one time use thing, I can't use it as a revenge killer often, which makes it hard vs mons that speed boost (especially Char-X). While in some cases like scarf kart or volcarona, I can usually rely on my priority to take them down, some set up sweepers are harder to deal with than others.

The changes to lando are fine. I can see how the threat of hazard stacking could overwhelm my team. And especially since I have a pinsir, keeping stealth rock off the field is quite essential. Lati is able to defog hazards vs more offensive teams because of its speed more easily, while lando will be able to defog more often vs balance builds I guess. I knew smackdown would be an odd choice, and probably sub optimal, but using different sets is pretty fun to spice up the team :) . It was also a good way to try to force switches vs celesteela which I stuggle against.

Physical koko was my way of making this team stand out from other similar builds. With the physical set I'm able to lure gren checks like I said in my original post. But it's also nice to surprise other players with a gigavolt havoc that ohkoes Tyranitar! But through testing I have realised how nice it is to have a koko that can last the entire match and be a consistent offensive check throughout the entirety of a game. Also, with the addition of a physical attacker to the team, special walls aren't nearly as much of a problem as they would have been.

As you mentioned before, heatran is quite a big threat to the team, but I didn't realise how big until I faced a scarf heatran and ended up sacking half my team to it. It comes in freely on ferrothorn, and nearly always forces a kill. Also with the recent release of zeraora i have had quite a bit of trouble with the life orb set in particular. Plasma fists is super effective vs three of my mons and 2hkoes koko in terrain, HPice takes care of lando, and close combat bops ferrothorn after a terrain boosted plasma fists. I'm not too sure how to play against it as It's speed teir doesn't allow me to revenge kill it very easily and my priority doesn't do enough and Lucha at neutral doesn't do enough but does put it in range of priority or hazards.

So thats about all I've got to say about the suggestions. I really like this new version and am looking forward to improving my teambuilding skills, thanks again!