INTRODUCTION
If you have been on the ladder recently, you may or may not have run into me using this team and thought "Wtf is this guy thinking, and what is this team doing on high ladder?" Well, I (like many others) am a fan of using so-called "heatmons" in OU, not for the sake of using a bad Pokémon, but for using an underappreciated Pokémon that has a genuine viable niche in the OU tier. So instead of featuring only one such mon on an otherwise standard OU team, I thought, "Is there a way I can put 6 non-OU Pokémon on one team and make it stable and effective into the OU tier?" And thus, this was born. So I decided to make this RMT for anybody who may be curious about the team.
PROOF OF PEAK
GENERAL TEAM DESCRIPTION
With stability in mind, I built the team to function as a bulky balance-y style of team. The team does not have a specific win condition, and instead focuses on aiming to carry multiple reliable answers (mainly defensively) to any single threat in the OU tier. As you can see, the team is quite slow, and generally lacks offensive presence apart from Mamoswine (although Goodra and Moltres are heavily SpAtk invested). So, the team will tend to lean on Mamoswine for revenge-killing and late-game cleaning. Otherwise, your primary goal (very loosely speaking) is, in a stall/semi-stall fashion, to get a hazard up, force switches by bringing your defensive check, and hit things along the way. Without further prattling, let's get into the specific sets.
TEAM
PokePaste: The SAUCE (pokepast.es)
Goodra-Hisui @ Assault Vest
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe
Calm (+SpD, -Atk) Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
Goodra functions exactly as you would expect on this team: be a generic beefy special tank to exchange hits with special attackers in the tier. This will be the primary switch-in to threats such as Gholdengo, Kyurem, Darkrai, Raging Bolt, and the like. In most cases the goal is not to beat these threats 1v1, but to trade or get enough chip for Mamoswine or another member of the team to revenge kill later. I contemplated running Boots over AV, but ran into the problem of needing SpDef investment to take hits well, and thus not being able to hit hard enough back.
In terms of moveset, I decided to omit Dragon type STAB since it doesn't hit anything not already covered apart from Gouging Fire. Flash Cannon is a catch-all STAB that will 2hko Kyurem. Thunderbolt earns its moveslot almost exclusively to cover CM Primarina, which otherwise threatens this team. Fire Blast is mainly to hit Gholdengo. Flamethrower works perfectly well in this slot but in practice I found myself appreciating the extra power when hitting things on the switch. Ice beam lets you trade hits with CM Raging Bolt and get the necessary chip for a Mamo revenge kill. I arbitrarily threw in 16 speed EVs to speedcreep max bulk Primarina because I was tired of losing the speed-tie.
Tera Flying is there to surprise-kill things like Gliscor, Lando-T, Great Tusk and Dragonite. It very rarely comes up, but has won me a game or two. You should not be looking to use Tera on this mon.
Chesnaught @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Bulletproof
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish (+Def, -SpA) Nature
- Drain Punch
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off
On the physical side of things, we have our trusty ever-underrated Chesnaught. It's job entails getting up a spike and checking threats which include (but not limited to): Cinderace, Dondozo, Great Tusk, Lando-T, Ogerpon-W, Meowscarada, etc. You can even switch it into most versions of Slowking-G for a free Knock Off. Rocky Helmet speaks for itself, and Bulletproof is the obvious choice in ability as it lets you troll Cinderace and Slowking-G, and also makes Specs Dragapult and Scarf Gholdengo think twice about clicking Shadow Ball.
I view Spikes and Knock Off as mandatory. Knock Off lets you slap Gholdengo and Dragapult for trying to switch into you, and I think this team in particular needs a member with Knock Off to get rid of Boots and Leftovers. As far as the other two moveslots, I definitely view fighting-type coverage as mandatory as well for things like Kingambit, Ogerpon-W, Treads, Weavile, Meow, etc. In terms of Body Press vs. Drain Punch, I personally appreciate having the extra longevity while drain punch still hits hard enough to beat what you need to beat. Leech Seed is another pick that looks questionable, but aside from being the ultimate troll move/switch forcer, has proven itself invaluable against Garganacl, Dondozo, and Gliscor on the switch in particular. Other move options include Synthesis, which I used to run, but with the advent of ArchRain I was forced to drop it. I haven't tested it since the Arch ban, but don't see myself going back to it as I think Leech Seed is just better because it's less passive. Grass-Type coverage I decided to omit as well, since you already beat Dozo thanks to Leech Seed and you can already force enough damage onto things like Great Tusk and Iron Boulder and such. Feel free to experiment though.
Max defense EVs to take physical hits as well as possible, to ensure you live things like Triple Axels from Meow and Weavile, an Icicle Spear from DD Kyurem, +2 Play Rough from Ogerpon-W, etc. You will live uninvested Brave Birds from Corviknight and Skarmory as well, though I don't suggest trying to stay in on those vice scouting lol.
Tera Steel is there for emergencies against specific scenarios. It allows you to take anything not named Earth Power from specs Kyurem and 2hko back with Drain Punch (hopefully they don't have Snowscape Def boost or decided to Tera-Ice Ice Beam you hehe). Similarly, if you are too low to live Triple Axel from Meow and Weavile the same applies to them. It also allows you to Tera on Roaring Moon clicking Acrobatics and hit back with Drain Punch, as they aren't likely to Tera themselves on that turn. And finally, you can troll non-nasty plot Gholdengo sets in a pinch, being immune to Shadow Ball and Focus Blast, and now resisting Make it Rain and Psyshock. But I will mention that just like Goodra, this is not a mon that you should ever be looking to Tera and these scenarios do not often come up.
Mamoswine @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Thick Fat
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant (+Atk, -SpA) Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash
- Stealth Rock
The only true heavy-hitter of the squad, Mamoswine only comes in to lay down the law. I do not advise switching this mon in haphazardly. This is not a lead Stealth Rock set. I generally do not prioritize getting up rocks, except against stall, as you will have more free turns with Mamo in that MU. If you can find a free turn, great, but otherwise if Mamoswine comes in you are probably looking to kill something anyway. The one layer of Spike is usually adequate as hazard chip. In addition, Mamoswine's HP should be preciously conserved as you will find yourself needing to be able to take a hit late-game to get a win.
With that out of the way, I initially put AV on this thing, but since this team lacks hazard removal, just being able to switch in freely is much more valuable, and on top of that Tera covers the situations in which you would care about the extra SpDef anyway (more on that later).
Moveset is pretty much bog standard. As I mentioned, this team doesn't really prioritize rocks so you could potentially put another coverage move over it, although I have not ever found myself wishing I had any other attacking move. I opted for Adamant nature to hit as hard as possible, and the extra speed from Jolly doesn't seem to cover anything save for maybe random max speed Raging Bolt or maybe fast Heatran/Gliscor, which I am willing to accept.
Tera type started out as Tera-Ice to extend the range in which I can revenge kill with Ice Shard, but I quickly dumped that in favor of Tera Fire, which is just infinitely better. Coupled with Thick Fat, this lets you 4x resist both fire and ice, allowing you to emergency check Kyurem, Volcarona, and banded Gouging Fire. As a side benefit you will resist Grassy Glide/Wood Hammer from Rillaboom which can net you a kill, but I don't often use it for this purpose as the team already has many Rillaboom answers. In addition, you will be immune to burns from things like Dragapult/Cinderace, but again this is not something I look to use Tera for (though it has come up).
Moltres @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpA
Modest (+SpA, -Atk) Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost
- Flamethrower
- Hurricane
Moltres fills an interesting role on this team. It's primary mission is simply to deal with Kingambit, and in matchups where Kingambit is present is usually preserved for that purpose. Beyond that, I did not want to make it the premiere physical wall of the team, as the prevalence of Knock Off in the meta makes it very difficult to fulfill that role. With that in mind, I tend to not lean on Moltres defensively. Ultimately, it ends up being a "jack-of-all-trades" support member, serving as a secondary check to many threats and picking up slack when other members may get overwhelmed. It is given just enough bulk to make use of its natural typing and take hits from special attackers such as Gholdengo, scarf Enamorus, CM Iron Valiant, as well as being able to switch in on the plethora of physical attackers in the tier. It is given a very generous SpAtk investment to blow away offensive Gambit and Gholdengo, and having access to powerful Hurricanes really shines against bulkier teams, allowing you to grind down and deter more specially defensive mons from thinking they can switch into you freely (Slowking-G, Clefable, Gliscor, Clodsire, etc.) It is also very useful against bulky DD Gouging Fire and Volcarona, allowing you to comfortably 1v1 both provided you hit most of your Hurricanes (or force Tera in Volcarona's case).
I will briefly address that you may notice there are no speed EVs on this set, which means there is potential to be outsped by Jolly Kingambit. You are right. However, in practice, I have found that on the ladder I run into exactly zero Jolly Gambits. So it may be greedy, and you might consider running a small amount of speed. I would also consider running 44 speed EVs to outspeed Gliscor with no speed investment.
Moveset is mostly as expected. Wisp helps cripple physical attackers, but more importantly aids in wearing down bulkier mons that want to switch into you (again think Slowking-G, Blissey, Clod, etc.). I do not run U-turn as the team doesn't really need offensive momentum and will be switching defensively more often than not. Not having Scorching Sands means Heatran can freely switch into you, but that is a price I am willing to pay.
Tera Poison helps IMMENSELY in the stall MU, and WILL be your choice of Tera in that MU. Offensive Moltres is already quite good into stall, but having Tera Poison allows you to get clutch Wisps off on Clodsire, or lull a 50% Gliscor into clicking Toxic on you as you kill it back with Hurricane, or allow you to more easily stay in on Alomomola/Dondozo, and also mitigates your fear of eating a Knock Off. This MU very often comes down to staying in and wearing down Blissey until it runs out of recovery, so having Tera Poison to allow Moltres to just squat and threaten everything not named Blissey really helps with that. In earlier versions of the build I was using Tera Steel, as it functions very similarly, but found Tera Poison to be better since it maintains the fighting type resistance which can be useful outside of the stall MU.
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy (+SpD, -Spe) Nature
- Future Sight
- Chilly Reception
- Scald
- Rock Tomb
Typical bulky water/pivot. The team needs a true water-resist for things like Walking Wake, and a fat specially defensive mon in general to gobble up Draco Meteors from Specs Dragapult, Kyurem, Latios, etc. Not much to say in terms of EVs either. You need max SpD as you will take upwards of 50% from specs Draco Meteor, and you would like to be able to live a Shadow Ball from choice'd Gholdengo and Dragapult and be able to pivot out to a potential Chesnaught.
The first three moveslots are not too adventurous. Future Sight in conjunction with Mamoswine helps with breaking bulkier teams that this team can struggle to power through. Chilly Reception lets Slowking pivot and do it's best imitation of it's purple twin. Scald is chosen over Surf as STAB to fish for burns. The extra damage from Surf doesn't often come up, save for maybe putting mixed Valiant into Ice Shard range after taking one layer of spikes. Scald is still strong enough to trade with most Heatran, Gliscor, do enough chip to Enamorus, Great Tusk, blah blah blah. Now, as for the last moveslot, this was originally Yawn to phaze out setup sweepers (which almost always ends up being Volcarona or a CM stored power set). But of course the sleep ban happened and I was forced to find alternatives. That alternative ultimately took the form of Rock Tomb (and honorable mention to Psych Up, which I will touch on in a second). Rock Tomb will nearly guarantee a Tera from Volcarona which is more often than not Ground or Dragon, which will open up the door for Mamoswine to counter Tera and revenge kill. Now, if the Volcarona happens to be Bug Buzz + Tera Water, well... anyways! The speed drop from Rock Tomb also comes up as well, slowing down most offensive mons not named Zamazenta or Dragapult to be outsped by Mamoswine in a pinch, which is why I chose it over something like Rock Slide which is also less accurate. As I mentioned earlier, Psych Up is another move that could fit in this slot. It performs a similar function in forcing Tera from Volcarona, and potentially allows you to set up along with the CM stored power Latias/Cresselia sets which otherwise 6-0 this team. However, in both cases, you would probably need to drop Future Sight for another coverage move like Ice Beam for Volc or Flamethrower/Psyshock for the other two, which I wasn't willing to do. But I do think the idea is interesting and worth mentioning, and it could work on a different team.
Tera Dark is to absorb Shadow Ball and Knock Off in the late game if you don't need your natural typing for anything else or if you don't need Tera on anything else. Slowking doesn't really kill anything, so it doesn't really come up except in late game when you need to hit Valiant or Great Tusk and you have no other option. Once again, Slowking does not often get Tera'd.
Pecharunt @ Red Card
Ability: Poison Puppeteer
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 112 SpA / 72 SpD
Bold (+Def, -Atk) Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Malignant Chain
- Hex
- Parting Shot
- Recover
The beefiest member of the team in terms of physical defense, Pecharunt works in tandem with Chesnaught to take on any physical threat you encounter as well as being able to block Rapid Spin. I will mention Tera early here, as this is the member that gets Tera'd most often thanks to strong Knock Offs from things such as Roaring Moon. Tera Fairy mitigates this and removes your ground type weakness, letting you more easily handle Dragonite or Iron Boulder. Even without Tera, Pecharunt comfortably beats Iron Defense Zamazenta, taking 30% from Crunch and either 1v1s it or forces Tera Steel/Poison, opening the door for Moltres to beat it. It is given enough defense to laugh off weak Knock Offs from Iron Valiant, another mon you often switch this into. On the flip side, it is given enough SpDef to better take Moonblasts from said Iron Valiant and Enamorus, tank a hit from Specs Kyurem in a pinch, as well as take hits from Volcarona better in an emergency. Enough SpAtk is given for Malignant Chain to reliably break Substitute on most Iron Defense Zama sets, as well as having a good chance of killing +1 CM Valiant after taking spikes, assuming you get the poison (and yes, you will live +1 Shadow Ball even if you've taken a couple rounds of rocks). Similar to Moltres, I don't run speed EVs as again, I am not punished by Jolly Kingambit nearly often enough to reconsider, but I will admit that the EVs here are largely play-by-ear and could absolutely be open for fine-tuning. For example, it might be worth running enough speed to speedcreep CM Raging Bolt, or Gliscor maybe.
Moveset is quite standard. Malignant chain deters things from setting up on you and is very good at baiting Tera from Gouging Fire, among other things. Hex is preferred over Shadow Ball because, apart from the obvious synergy with Malignant Chain, it hits Gliscor and a sleepy Dondozo hard, as well as hitting a burned Slowking-G quite hard. Parting Shot is great for potentially punishing a Kingambit that clicks an attacking move after switching into Malignant Chain, and is great for endgame 1v1 scenarios, especially against Zama. It is obviously a great move for momentum as well.
Red Card is the item of choice here. I would normally want HDB on this, but this thing (along with Chesnaught) will always be eating Knock Offs on this team, so it doesn't seem like a great fit. I really like Red Card on Pecharunt, as often times, the opponent will hit you with a mon that is immune to Malignant Chain, just to get Red Carded out and get something unexpectedly crippled (it is especially hilarious when they get forced into Iron Valiant and die, which has prompted an instant forfeit on more than one occasion LOL). Aside from the troll aspect, it is very good at letting Pecharunt serve as an emergency stop to getting swept, as it is bulky enough to live most +1 hits and can recover the damage back. This has served well against Volcarona, Iron Boulder, and Ogerpon-W, just to name a few. Anything that tries to set up Substitute will similarly be unexpectedly phazed out.
THREATS
While this team is surprisingly resilient, there are a handful of threats that this team can encounter. These Pokémon, while not likely to sweep you, can put you behind in a game and leave you in an undesirable position (forcing Tera, forcing a kill, etc). In addition, while there are many overall threats in the tier, the Pokémon mentioned here are mentioned specifically because they are relatively easy to position to put pressure on this team.
First on the list, we have Ogerpon-W. You might look at the team and think that between Chesnaught, Pecharunt, a dragon type in the form of Goodra, and a potential Tera on Moltres that this thing shouldn't be altogether threatening. Well, there are several different issues that when put together make this mon problematic.
Problem one is the survivability of Chesnaught. While Chesnaught is on paper a reliable answer to Wogerpon, it almost always gets worn down early game due to needing to answer many common hazard setters/removers (Tusk, Samu-H, Lando-T, Treads, Cinderace). Coupled with the lack of truly reliable recovery and susceptibility to hazards, Chesnaught will always be on a timer and will have limited switch-ins to Ivy Cudgel.
Problem two is the structure of this team. It is very slow and it's only form of speed control is in Ice Shard from Mamoswine, which Ogerpon resists post-Tera and requires you to get a massive amount of chip on it beforehand, via spikes or other means. So that means that this team can't take advantage of the one thing that generally keeps Ogerpon containable (it's middling speed). Another major issue is in ease of positioning. The two members of this team that get the most kills are Mamo and Moltres, meaning almost every time you get a kill, you automatically invite this in to click one of the cheapest free-to-click moves ever in Ivy Cudgel and further wear down Chesnaught with no risk. This does not even take into account pivoting via U-Turn or Chilly Reception.
Problems 3 and 4 involve what happens once Chesnaught is off the table if you are unable to preserve it. This is probably the only major downside I've faced in Moltres not being fully Def invested. Ivy Cudgel has a very strong chance to OHKO Moltres. This also means that Moltres will get absolutely folded by a +2 Ivy Cudgel even if you try to Tera. Now let's look at Pecharunt. Sure, you can take a raw Cudgel reasonably well and recover off the damage, but if Red Card has already been spent you have to fear Encore. The more common scenario is switching Pecharunt in as Ogerpon SDs up to +2. You will be eating rocks, but even after rocks, if Ogerpon Tera's into superPon-W at +2 you will live... assuming you don't get crit (did I mention how cheap Ivy Cudgel is?).
Next up is Roaring Moon. This thing will probably never sweep you thanks to Mamoswine, but makes this list because it all but guarantees that you will be forced to Tera early to deal with it, in the form of Tera Fairy Pecharunt. So the danger really lies not just in encountering this mon by itself, but in encountering this PLUS something else that threatens your use of Tera (hint: see below mons). There is also a small problem in actually getting Pecharunt in. You have the option of pivoting into Chesnaught to eat the Knock Off or DD and then into Pecharunt on Acrobatics, but this line of play can be obvious to any competent player. So there will typically be a guessing game involved if you want to get Pecharunt in without anybody dying, or you may just have to sack a mon to get Pecharunt in safely. Moltres also can potentially deal with Roaring Moon as well (MAYBE, to get Moltres to do it reliably will probably involve a sack first), but as I mentioned earlier in the RMT, Moltres is used to cover a wide array of things and really, REALLY does not want to eat the Knock, as that by itself puts you in a very bad spot.
Continuing on the list of mons that nobody is surprised to see on here, we have classic Volcarona. There are several forms of defense against Volc on this team in the form of Rock Tomb Slowking, Red Card Pecharunt, offensive Moltres, and Tera Fire Mamoswine. The threat level from Volcarona depends largely on the set, Tera type and coverage, but makes this list in general because no matter what the set is, it will probably prompt a Tera from Mamoswine to deal with it. The bulky two-attack sets are much more containable, and do not generally threaten this team that much.
Both common Tera types from these sets (Ground/Dragon) are weak to Ice Shard, and even at +2, both STAB attacks are a mid-roll to kill Mamoswine if you want to gamble on saving your own Tera. What is truly dangerous are offensive Volcarona sets with either Bug Buzz or Tera Water. Slowking is your first switch-in to any Volcarona set most of the time, and will actually take a +1 Bug Buzz and get a Rock Tomb off. This isn't the problem. The problem is going Mamoswine afterwards on a +1 offensive Volcarona. Mamoswine can live a +1 Fiery Dance or STAB neutral Tera Blast, but Bug Buzz has a strong chance to kill you, which forces your Tera. And if they are Tera Water, they will always click that on you, making your own counter Tera useless. Tera Water also means that Moltres can't come in to pick up slack if things went south with Mamo and Slowking.
Rounding out the list are these three demons. With all my laddering of playing this team I've found very few things that actually 6-0 this team, but out of everything these are the ones to do it. I lumped them all together because they all do the same thing and present the same problems to the team. Just to be clear, the sets in question are CM stored power from Latias/Cres, and RestTalk CM Suicune. They are all bulky pokemon that Mamo can't break post-Tera that nobody else can hit and can't be Malignant Chain'd (always Tera Poison/Steel from the first two and obviously Suicune just clicks Rest). There is very little recourse once these come in if you can't get a Leech Seed to stick (good luck keeping Chesnaught alive long enough). Thankfully these are very uncommon to run into.
REPLAYS
vs Stall
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vs Balance
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vs Offense
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Conclusion
So that's the team! I've been having a lot of fun with it, and I'd be interested on any feedback/constructive criticism, especially regarding potential moveslots and EVs. Anyway, let me know what y'all think!
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