Pyramid of Light

[Zentrius]

Pyramid of Light

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Teambuilding​

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Started off with Landorus. Landorus has always been an important factor in BW1 and even more in BW2. I'm running Choice Scarf Landorus for two reasons: prediction. Most players nowadays immediatally switch their Chansey /Blissey in front of Landorus not even knowing it's set. The other reason is revenge killing. Most of my teams were Volcarone weak as fuck, and the reason behind that is that I had no way of revenge killing it. Landorus isn't a counter, but does a fantastic job at revenging Volcarona with Earthquake under like 70% of health.

Since scarf'd Landorus is really weak (not really) without sand, I think is obvious that this is a Sand Team. I honestly prefer Hippowdon to Tyranitar since Terrakion and Choice Keldeo are everywhere. Hippowdon walls so many things, including some of Landorus' counters. Hippowdon serves me as a phazer and hazard setter in the forms of Whirlwind and Stealth rock, respectively. It also it's fucking bulky on the physicall side, even tanking Choice Banded Waterfalls from Gyarados (Fucking ridiculous, but I have faced it). I used to run a Sp Def. spread, but by the end, the team was really weak to Terrakion, specially the Choice Band set, so I went for it and make it Physicall.

Since every sand team need at least 2 or 3 Rain counters, Amoonguss forms part one of my Rain Counter Core. Amoonguss takes Specs Politoed Ice Beams with relatively ease, and striking back with Spore or GigaDrain. Amoonguss counters Gastrodon, Jellicent, and a bunch of Fighting types, most notably, Keldeo and Breloom. It also counters Rotom-W under Rain, but the burns suck though. Sp Def Amoonguss also walls

Here it is. The fucking beast. Seriously Choice Band Terrakion is so terrifying to face. Don't matter if your oponent has Gliscor or Skarmory, you can just click Stone Edge/Close Combat and 2HKO the entire oponent's team. Is that good. And if you have Stealth Rock, you do even better. Close Combat coming from this thing in such an Offensive oriented metagame kills so many things it's ridiculous.

I really wanted this to be a balanced sand team and those teams need a spinner. The reasoning in chosing Starmie here is to kill right off the bat Gengar, who can be annoying under the hands of a great player, specially the SubDisable set. That shit is so fucking annoying. Either way, Starmie's coverage is incredible, hitting everything for neutral damage, but I only need Thunderbolt, Psyshock, Recover and Rapid Spin for this team to function better. It's easy: Thunderbolt for Jellicent, Psyshock for Gengar.

Part two of my Rain Counter Core. Both Rotom-W and Amoonguss counter most Rain Teams by themselves only. Both counter Politoed, both cripple Ferrothorn with status, Rotom handles Tornadus and Thundurus-T unboosted, and if it is Amoonguss can take a +2 HP Ice and Sludge Bomb ir or HP Ice it. Not only that, but Rotom gives me so many momentum with Volt Switch. That move is so spammable, and I love when they predict the Hydro Pump with Hippowdon and then I just Volt switch away. So much fun.

In my opinion, having two water types was kind of redundant and I lacked Steel-Types, making the dragons just spam free Outrages/Draco Meteors. Also, I need spikes for Terrakion to nail some 2HKOs on resists. Forretress fulfills both roles as a Hazard Setter and Spinner and it's much, much better than Starmie on this team.

I honestly focused more on Terrakion as a threat that I completely forgot about Latios and Latias. Terrakio is maneagable, but Latios and Latios are not. Tyranitar solves this problem, trapping them or straight up killing them if they stay, if the oponent decides to play mind games with me. Ice Beam is for Gliscor and Dragons, and it gets the job done.

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Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Trait: Sandstream EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature (+SpD, -Spd)
Crunch | Pursuit | Stealth Rock | Ice Beam​

Tyranitar is just a last minute switch, because my team was just so icredibly weak to Latios and Latias, and that's unacceptable in OU at the moment. With this spread, I'm allowed to wall any type of special dragon in OU, like Latios and Latias, Kyurem, and some other things that are dangerous, like Celebi. With this set, I cant semi all of them with Pursuit or just play mind games with Crunch. Stealth Rock is mainly for support, but it's a great move, helping Terrakion to clean late game. Ice Beam is mainly for Gliscor if things get ugly between Amoonguss, Landorus and Forretress, but it gets the job done most of the time.

Tyranitar needs as much special bulk as posible to kill Latios and Latias, so 252 HP and 252 SpD are there. Sassy nature is to not lose bulk or power, and since Tyranitar is slow anyways, he just doesn't care about speed. I'm still testing both Tyranitar and Hippowdon, but I think I'll stay with Tyranitar in the end though.

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Landorus @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force EVs: 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SpD)
Earthquake | Stone Edge | U-Turn | Hidden Power [Ice]​

Landorus is such a powerful force as a revenge killer in this current metagame, killing so many things that are naturally faster than him, like Terrakion, Jolteon, Scarf'd Tyranitar, 2HKOing Starmie, and most importantly, OHKOs Gliscor and Landorus-T with HP Ice. The moves are pretty standard; Earthquake for obvious STAB, and in sand it hits ridiculously hard, 2HKOing most grounded enemies, unless you are named Hippowdon or Forretress. Stone Edge forms the amazing EdgeQuake combo, and Stone Edge helps me to hit effectively Gengar, going for the OHKO after Stealth Rock with sand damage. U-Turn gives me so much momentum, and it hits the Psychic Dragons, breaks Zam's sash, hits Celebi, and rund away from the obvious Skarmory, Forretress, Hippowdon, Bronzong or Cresselia switch ins. HP Ice is mainly for the Dragon/Flying family, Garchomp and Gliscor and Landorus-T. With this spread, Landorus Revenge Kills Salamence, Volcarona, Gyarados, Dragonite and some other things @ +1, and killing Volcarona in this way is really helpful, because if Terrakion is weakened, then I think I'm getting swept, so I need to play carefully with that.

The EV's here are pretty obvious: Max Attack for mayor power in Earthquake and Stone Edge, and doing a lot to Celebi, the rest goes into speed, making it really fast with a Choice Scarf and a Naive nature. The other 4 points go into Sp Attack, but they really do nothing. I was testing Landorus-T, but Landorus-T does not revenge kill Timid Salamence and Jolly Volcarona @ +1, so there is that.

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Amoonguss @ Black Sludge
Trait: Regenerator EVs: 252 HP / 28 SpA / 228 SpD
0 Atk IVs | Calm Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
Spore | Giga Drain | Clear Smog | Hidden Power [Ice]​

I find Amoonguss to be such an incredible Pokémon this metagame, countering most Rain Abusers, like Keldeo, Politoed, Starmie, and spread status around. Being the glue that holds my team, Amoonguss is really important and has helped me to win so many games, walling the super annoying Breloom after something has taken the Spore. Spore is just for utility, putting asleep something in this metagame is absolutely terrific, basically making the pokemon put to sleep useless for the rest of the mach. Giga Drain is the STAB move of choice, hitting 80% of what Amoonguss counters. Also, draining HP is really important. Clear Smog is for Lum Berry-less dragons, putting them to sleep and then effectively eliminating those boost, and it hits Breloom and Celebi for fair damage. HP Ice is mostly for Gliscor and Landorus-T, and sometimes Dragonite and Salamence, but mostly for the former, since he's really dangerous for this team. With that spread, Giga Drains breaks Keldeo's sub @ +1, something that is really important in order to kill it. If it decides to get smart and decides to stay in and Calm Mind away, we'll just have a mind game, and even if it manages to kill Amoonguss, Landorus revenge kills Keldeo anyways.

252 HP with 228 SpD with a calm nature helps me to never being mayor injured by Specs Politoed's Ice Beam, doing a measly maximum of 53%. After this, I'll just switch into Rotom-W and Volt Switch/Hydro Pump/Will-o-Wisp. Basically doing anything I want, really.

I was testing Celebi in it's place, but since I have Sheer Force Landorus covered in ROtom-W, I wanted this thing to take on in such a better way of Keldeo and Jellicent.

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Terrakion @ Choice Band
Trait: Justified EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SpA)
Close Combat | Stone Edge | X-Scissor | Quick Attack​

First of all, let's start off showing some important calcs.

252 Atk Choice Band Terrakion Close Combat vs 252 HP/252 Def Skarmory (+Def) : 49.7% - 58.68% (2 hits to KO)
252 Atk Choice Band Terrakion Close Combat vs 252 HP/144 Def Forretress (+Def) : 50.28% - 59.6% (2 hits to KO)
252 Atk Choice Band Terrakion Stone Edge vs 252 HP/0 Def Celebi: 60.4% - 71.29% (2 hits to KO)
252 Atk Choice Band Terrakion Stone Edge vs 252 HP/184 Def Gliscor (+Def) : 44.92% - 52.82% (2 hits to KO)
252 Atk Choice Band Terrakion Stone Edge vs 248 HP/176 Def Jellicent (+Def) : 58.81% - 69.48% (2 hits to KO)​

This is calculated with Stealth Rocks on the field. Even with this pokes gargantuan defenses, they still lose to Terrakion. Skarmory gets 2HKO'd by Close Combat, and Forretress cant' switch in. Gliscor needs to be at something like 90%, Toxic Orb activated and not have rocks on the field to be KO'd by Stone Edge the following turn. On, and another one;

252 Atk Choice Band Terrakion Close Combat vs 252 HP/252 Def Hippowdon (+Def) : 44.52% - 52.86% (2 hits to KO)​

With rocks and at least one layer of Spikes, the sturdiest physicall wall at the moment in OU is 2HKO'd by Close Combat. Terrifying.

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Forretress @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
0 Spd IVs | Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
Rapid Spin | Spikes | Gyro Ball | Volt Switch​

Forretress is just utility, doesn't matter where you look at. Just pure utility. It's a great part of this team: spins away hazards unless there's a Ghost on the opponets teamd, in that case I continue to set up more hazards/Gyro Ball it/Volt Switch away. Rapid Spin is a really obvious move, Spikes is for more entry hazards, and they help to clean with Terrakion or Landorus late game. Gyro Ball is for STAB and hurt Gengar, Latias/os, Dragonite after DD, Salamence and Terrakion for greats amount of damage. Volt Switch gives me momentum and helps me to escape those Skarmory, Ferrothorn, Heatran and Magnezone switch ins.

Let's just say that Forretress is really good at tanking Physicall hits. However, since it lacks reliable recovery, Forretress is just a tank that sets up Hazards, spins, and then just dies and gets foddered.

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Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
0 IVs Atk | Calm Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
Hydro Pump | Volt Switch | Pain Split | Will-O-Wisp​

Part 2 of Rain Counter Core. Rotom-W walls Politoed, Tentacruel, Tornadus, Sheer Forace Landorus and some other things. Hydro Pump is for STAB and it's an amazing move under Rain, something that is very common this metagame. IIRC, Hydro Pump under rain OHKOs Thundurus-T. Volt Switch is again for STAB and gives me momentum, getting away of Amoonguss, Ferrothorn and Celebi, but first let's just status the former 2 with Will-O-Wisp. With that, Rotom basically renders useless most physicall atackers if predicted correctly, unless you are Conkeldurr. Pain Split is a terrible support move IMO, but in Rotom, it's amazing, because the washing machine has really low HP, eventually "2HKOing" some things at full health.

Let's give Rotom as much special buk as possible to make it a sturdy wall, shall we? With this spread, Rotom-W rakes Politoed's attack with ease, and walls Tornadus to hell and back. Rotom-W can't switch into Landorus, but if you somehow manage to switch in, you are risking a 2HKO from Focus Blast, but then you will OHKO Landorus with Hydro Pump. Fuck misses though.

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Threats

Gliscor

With Forretress now with HP Ice and basically all of the team having coverage againts Ground, it isn't as much as a threat as it was before, but is still annoying and can set-up on a lot of pokes.

Importable:

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Tyranitar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sandstream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature (+SpD, -Spd)
- Crunch
- Pursui
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam

Landorus (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sand Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Amoonguss (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 28 SAtk / 228 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Giga Drain
- Spore
- Clear Smog
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Terrakion @ Choice Band
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- X-Scissor
- Close Combat
- Quick Attack
- Stone Edge

Forretress (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Volt Switch
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split

Hotoshimi - Sephiroth​

 

[dragonuser]

Hey there,

This is a pretty cool team and has few major weaknesses. Like you mentioned LO Lati@s and Gliscor do look pretty threatening, so I will focus mainly on them during this rate. So to start off, running Hidden Power Ice > Gyro Ball on Forretress would help a lot vs Gliscor, heavily limiting its effectiveness vs your team. Hidden Power Ice can easily break Substitute's from Gliscor and can really discourage it from trying to setup during the match. If you use this change, run 2 Speed IV's to get a 70 base power Hidden Power Ice. Now your weakness to Lati@s seems a bit more difficult to fix, but I do have a few suggestions. I would suggest running a Specially Defensive set on Hippowdon, giving you a much better check to LO Latias, as it can reliably tank hits and heal them off. Now checking Specs Latios seems much more difficult and the best suggestion I could make is changing your Scarf Landorus for a Scarf Jirachi, but as Landorus is the basis of your team I can understand if you don't want to make this change. I am suggesting Jirachi over Landorus for the reason that it gives you something to tank a few Draco Meteors while still maintaining momentum and checking troublesome boosters. If you don't wish to make this change then I would definitely change Hippowdons set at the very least. Anyways, cool team and gl.

 

[Zentrius]

Actually, HP Ice seems like an amazing idea on Forretress.

That way, I can replace Tyranitar with Hippowdon to wall both of the dragons and still cripple Gliscor with Ice Beam if things get out of hand. Thanks a lot for that suggestion.

 

[PokèManiac Livio]

Hey man, Cool team, it seems a volturn that i know, with the exception of Amoonguss>Celebi, i love much this kind of teams, especially because they have an incredible easiness to find "momentum". I have only some advice to give you about the sets, because the team has a good sinergy and i dont want to ruin it.

Well, the first advice that i have to give you, is about the Set of your Tyranitar. Since you are running a moveset that implement Ice Beam, and since Gliscor, as you told, is a big threat for your team, you should consider the possibility to use this Evs Spread: 252HP/64Satk/192SpD Sassy Nature. It allows you to do a clean HOKO against Gliscor or Landorus with Ice Beam, while maintains his incredible bulkyness. Furthermore, i suggest you to replace Leftovers with Chople Berry. The reason is pretty simple, in this way you can win the 1vs1 against some Psichic pokemon that could give you problems, such as Alkazam, Reuniclus or Meloetta, and you have not any problem to set the Stealth Rock or win 1vs1 against some pokemon that run Focus Blast to complete his coverage, for example Gengar, Hydreigon or the common Tornadus-N. Now imo, you should replace the type of Hidden power on your Amoonguss from Ice to Fire, it allows you to dont give free setupp to common steel pokemon that can enter on it, for example Ferrothorn, Skarmory or Forretress too; this is much usefull especially to not lose the momentum (sending more and more times the spinner inside), fundamental in this archetypes of teams (if you have already following the suggestion of Dragonuser you have already 2 pokemon with Hp ice, so is a change that doeasnt imply the weakness to Gliscor).

Well, the team didnt need much changes, hope i helped you anyway, see ya :)

Tl;dr

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Tyranitar (F) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SAtk / 192 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam
- Pursuit
- Crunch

Amoonguss (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 32 SAtk / 224 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Spore
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Giga Drain
- Clear Smog

 

[Pikachuu]

Hey since you changed Hippowdon to Tyranitar you seem very weak to Swords Dance Sub Terrakion among other threats like Garchomp, Sub Gyarados, Dragonite. I recommend Slowbro over Rotom-W this allows you to deal with all these threats much more easily and is a great core with Amoonguss. It's a great go to Pokemon to sponge physical hits in general really and it's amazing with Regenerator. You already have Amoonguss to sponge the special attacks so Rotom-W is unnecessary. The set I recommend is physically defensive Slowbro with Scald, Psyshock/Psychic, ThunderWave, Ice Beam. Consider a Chople Berry on Tyranitar as it can be really helpful at times against Tornadus and Alakazam, Gengar. Your team is also very weak to SD Scizor from the looks of it I reccomend HP fire on Forretress this may seem weird but it really does help Forretress huge defense will allow you to counter SD Scizor very well with it which is very common. I don't see how Gliscor is really that much of a problem for you as it's manageable. Lastly consider Payback on Tyranitar. Crunch just doesn't do enough sometimes and Payback hit's very hard as it's 100 BP if he goes last though this can backfire against things like Reuniclus so it's a double edged sword but it's getting really uncommon anyway. Nice team and good luck!