ORAS OU Mega Gallade Offense - Let's not lose to Talonflame + Torn-t

[13sdic]

Hi! So this is my first RMT. This is a team I have really enjoyed using and with mega sableye gone for the suspect test it's been very fun. It's very offensive and using it I've gotten higher on the ladder than with any other of my teams, lol and that high peaked at like 1600ish if that gives you a measure of my skill. This team is based off of the Mega Gallade + Bisharp combo to keep up offensive pressure with supporting offensive mons to crack down walls the first two can't, and volt-turn to keep momentum... plus clef to take some abuse. I've enjoyed reasonable success with this team but I've noticed that Talonflame and Tornadus-t can make a serious dent in my team between flying stab, wisp, etc. I am doing this RMT because I really like using Gallade but I would like some input on what mon needs to go or what set needs to change to give this team a better matchup against bird spam and torn as both are getting more common. I'll discuss other flaws below but in general I guess should I even be using Gallade? I like him, but please let me know what you think! Also I think I may be too focused on those threats I mentioned above so please point out other possible improvements as well! :)

So here we go:

Gallade @ Galladite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Shadow Sneak
- Psycho Cut

This is the star of the show. After an SD gallade can tear through slower teams and keep health up with drain punch, psycho cut is run over zen headbutt because I don't like to miss. Shadow sneak is on there because it can pick off things at low health and kills gengar, zam, and the lati twins after some previous damage and ohkos the first two after one SD. It's a weak form of priority yes but gets nice coverage on things that want to stop gallade and can catch certain offensive threats off guard and helps gallade sweep. This set seems a little weak on power but Gallade can set up on many defensive pokemon like ferrothorn and tank chomp after some prior damage and keep himself healthy with drain punch. Again gallade hates torn-t and talonflame but is really effective for cleaning up late game.

Bisharp (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance

Bisharp is another SD and my compliment to MGallade. He is my main fairy killer and my best way of killing clef/sylveon. I have SD to punish switching to clean teams up. Sharp is helpful in getting rid of regular slowbro for gallade and in general spamming knock off to help out. I have adamant max attack to make him hit as hard as possible, the Speed EVs are questionable as I just put them on there but perhaps putting some of those in special defensive is an idea to life AV torn's heat wave or other hits in general. Basically bisharp is here to help gallade and put a dent in things.

Keldeo @ Expert Belt
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
- Taunt

Keldeo is here to deal with chomp, landorus, lo kyu b, drill (to an extent) and especially hippodown. Keldeo is nice for antileading lando or chomp and getting free icy wind/scald damage on whatever comes in. Hippo walls my offensive mons and can phaze them out so keldeo is here to threaten and kill/2hko with scald. Keldeo is my best answer to defensive ground types, I decided ebelt over specs/scarf because keldeo's main job is to deal with ground types so I don't want to be in on one and be locked in secret sword, plus it results in some surprise kills every now and then (after which I am usually told I'm bad). I think my team needs keldeo or a water type in general to deal with ground types and I like having taunt to stop the occasional calm mind or softboiled from a clef that think's its free. It also helps with other walls and scald + taunt help with the rare DD gyrados. The dual fighting may be a bit redundant however and I have the feeling that keldeo might need to be the change that needs to be made in this team however I am not sure as it helps me break down the physically defensive walls for my first two.

Raikou @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shadow Ball

Next, Raikou is here to give me some volt-turn support as well as some electric stab. Healthy raikou is my best answer to azu, and talonflame, however he is worn down quickly which lessens my chances of pulling out a W. Pressure is nice to have as I can lead raikou and volt switch alot of things or I can tell right away if lando is scarf or not. Besides this the assault vest helps me reliably beat keldeo, gengar, latios, Mmane, and helps me deal with zard Y better. It also gets rid of slowbro which gallade appreciates and it can punish non-scarf ground switchins with HP Ice. AV Raikou is actually essentially my best way to deal with mega diancie by 2hkoing with tbolt where earth power 3hkos. I like shadow ball better than extrasensory as venu isn't too common and I have gallade anyway. Raikou is a great mon for my team but I often find situations where raikou is absolutely necessary to win as it beats a majority of the opponent's team, however it is simply worn down too quickly.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Superpower

Next is a very plain scarf lando. I went scarf to give myself some speed on this team and intimidate is nice for physical attackers. This thing is very nice to dealing with MLop and Mmedi that don't ice punch predicting the switch in. Scarf eq can clean up games and lando can come in on DD zard X as an emergency check as well as come in on talon but again he has to be healthy and this team hates wisp on either of those mons. I like uturn and intimidate for utility and the scarf is nice to beat scarf drill but again I am not sure if this spot should be revised to help with the birds. I have knock off on sharp so I opted for superpower to hurt steels on a ballon and hit rotom harder if necessary. I like lando on this team but again this is a slot that feels generic and seems like it could use a change.

Clefable (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Flamethrower

Finally we have Clefable. I need a fairy on this team to beat mega sab as it otherwise walls me. I have no rocker either so I threw rocks on clef and gave it flamethrower to punish steel switchins like scizor or excadrill as well as not give ferrothorn infinite free turns. The evs are a little bit arbitrary although I wanted to be able to live any one steel attack from full just in case I need the flamethrower damage. In general clefable may be the laziest member of my team although I personally think it's move set fits my team well. However often times I consider this mon to be my most expendable and many times have to sack it to Mgarde's hyper voice or specs keldeo's hydro pump.


So there's the team! I appreciate all criticism, again I have had some success with it but who knows it may have just all been surprise factor or dumb luck. Either way please leave suggestions! Thanks! :)

 

[Snou]

Hi! Nice team here :D Mega Gallade is an amazing Mega Slot with a strong coverage but I think your team can be easily fixed to work quite better than this :O

I'm gonna suggest you a series of little changes :O so let's start with the first one:

Gallade has a powerful attack and an high speed. Drain Punch is a decent move, but it's like use Drain Punch Lopunny > HJK o_o what a waste! So I suggest you to run Close Combat > Drain Punch (in order to stallbreak hippos etc). Also, since you've not a safe switch in on Slowbro (burns, paraz etc) i'd suggest you to fix that Shadow Sneak into an useful Knock Off.

I'm not a big fan of LO Bisharp. Why run LO if you've Black Glasses? No recoil, same power. Doesn't iron head kill fairies without LO? O_O Also, Hippowdon is not a clear OHKO on Bisharp with EQ since it's 87-104 % :O but if you run LO then it kills :C

I'm suggesting you Signal Beam > Shadow Ball. It hits latwins the same (about the same damage) but Signal Beam hits hardly Hoopa and Celebi that could be a problem for your team :O (also run 0 atk evs on these two, since no need of them)

Just run 8 speed evs in order to outspeed Sylveons and other Clefables :O oh, and what about CM > Ftrower? It could became a lategame sweeper and a win condition :O

^_^ great job with the team, lemme know if I helpd :O

 

[JoarAddamNessosin]

Hi! Nice team here :D Mega Gallade is an amazing Mega Slot with a strong coverage but I think your team can be easily fixed to work quite better than this :O

I'm gonna suggest you a series of little changes :O so let's start with the first one:

Gallade has a powerful attack and an high speed. Drain Punch is a decent move, but it's like use Drain Punch Lopunny > HJK o_o what a waste! So I suggest you to run Close Combat > Drain Punch (in order to stallbreak hippos etc). Also, since you've not a safe switch in on Slowbro (burns, paraz etc) i'd suggest you to fix that Shadow Sneak into an useful Knock Off.

I'm not a big fan of LO Bisharp. Why run LO if you've Black Glasses? No recoil, same power. Doesn't iron head kill fairies without LO? O_O Also, Hippowdon is not a clear OHKO on Bisharp with EQ since it's 87-104 % :O but if you run LO then it kills :C

I'm suggesting you Signal Beam > Shadow Ball. It hits latwins the same (about the same damage) but Signal Beam hits hardly Hoopa and Celebi that could be a problem for your team :O (also run 0 atk evs on these two, since no need of them)

Just run 8 speed evs in order to outspeed Sylveons and other Clefables :O oh, and what about CM > Ftrower? It could became a lategame sweeper and a win condition :O

^_^ great job with the team, lemme know if I helpd :O

Remember he cant 0atk ivs and have hp ice on Ri. Otherwise i agree tho id change thrower to fire blast instead of cm and id run cm of taunt of keldo for a much faster win con than fable. Taunt has nice utility but i find it can be a little more risk than needed with bird everywhere and fable

 

[13sdic]

Thanks to both of you! :) I'll definitely try it out. I've played a few games so far but I definitely understand knock over sneak since I have ways of dealing with the lati's and gengar anyway. Also I like glasses on sharp since I need to keep it alive as long as there are fairies around. However with orb sharp has a 25% chance to ohko clef but I'll see if that even matters. I'll play more tomorrow and see how it goes, thanks again :)

 

[13sdic]

Hmm okay, I've been liking the team from the first edits but I think I'll start playing around more once I get higher on the ladder, I want to try klefki for sure, someone else suggested azu which is interesting although mMane has fun then. Typically I'm able to beat mGardes and wear them down though they usually claim a mon or two, zard x hasn't been an issue but otherwise strong fairies like azu and diancie are hard for me to beat. And yes haha I've thought about medi, honestly gallade is more personal preference since I've always liked it and wanted to make it work but at some point I may cave if I find it's holding me back. lol but I'll have to say goodbye to ohkoing through lop's fake out tho. Thanks for the rate dude!

Also -Snow: glasses sharp was definitely the right move thanks dude :)