REDEMPTION: An original Gen 7 OU RMT
Hello all, welcome to the first team I've ever built that has actually made it to high ladder. I'm pretty proud of this one, but obviously no team is perfect and I would certainly love to hear any and all suggestions that you guys have for me. Below is my team-building process, but if you'd like to jump ahead to the finalized team you certainly can.
I knew I wanted to build around Mega-Metagross because it's my favorite Pokemon and is honestly one of the best mons in OU right now. Gen 7's mega evolution mechanics blessed it with 110 base speed right off the bat, and its steel typing is a godsend in a metagame with so many powerful new fairy types.
Next, I added gyarados as a set-up sweeper that could deal with fire and ground types that could give metagross trouble, and mamoswine as a reliable stealth rock setter (lycanroc never did the trick for me)
After that, I sort of started experimenting with fast, powerful attackers and attempted to make them work. Tapu Koko could deal with water types that annoyed the team, pheromosa (scarf) was a great revenge killer, and ash-greninja was another offensive nuke pokemon.
At this point, I knew I had to revise. I was auto-losing to mega-scizor, and opposing ash-greninja was incredibly difficult to even revenge-kill (phero dies to water shruiken in ash-form). I therefore changed Tapu Koko to magnezone, and pheromosa to hydreigon.
Lastly, I realized that ash-greninja didn't provide much utility to my team other than hitting very hard, which several other members could already do, plus its typing compounded too many weaknesses with other members. I also realized that my suicide lead probably deserved a spinblocker, I missed having a fairy type to complete my dragon/steel/fairy core, I wanted a fun z move to experiment with, and I could use an all-around check to many threatening offensive Pokemon in the tier. Enter: mimikyu.
Next, I added gyarados as a set-up sweeper that could deal with fire and ground types that could give metagross trouble, and mamoswine as a reliable stealth rock setter (lycanroc never did the trick for me)
After that, I sort of started experimenting with fast, powerful attackers and attempted to make them work. Tapu Koko could deal with water types that annoyed the team, pheromosa (scarf) was a great revenge killer, and ash-greninja was another offensive nuke pokemon.
At this point, I knew I had to revise. I was auto-losing to mega-scizor, and opposing ash-greninja was incredibly difficult to even revenge-kill (phero dies to water shruiken in ash-form). I therefore changed Tapu Koko to magnezone, and pheromosa to hydreigon.
Lastly, I realized that ash-greninja didn't provide much utility to my team other than hitting very hard, which several other members could already do, plus its typing compounded too many weaknesses with other members. I also realized that my suicide lead probably deserved a spinblocker, I missed having a fairy type to complete my dragon/steel/fairy core, I wanted a fun z move to experiment with, and I could use an all-around check to many threatening offensive Pokemon in the tier. Enter: mimikyu.
Team Members:
Chewbecca (Mamoswine) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Oblivious
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
Mamoswine is my designated lead vs almost anything except mega-sableye. Stealth rocks are mandatory on any team. Dual stab allows it to deal good damage to other leads before it goes down. Ice shard to pick off other leads like sash lycanroc, and to revenge kill later should I choose to keep mamoswine alive. Oblivious>thick fat to prevent taunts from things like lycanroc or tapu fini, and the evs allow it to outspeed as many other pokemon, and to hit as hard, as possible. Fairly standard set overall, but it works well.
Barnacles (Gyarados) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Substitute
Gyarados is my set-up sweeper of choice, and it synergizes very well with mega-metagross. Waterfall is reliable stab with a handy chance to flinch, and is capable of OHKO-ing Tapu Koko at +1 after stealth rock. Earthquake is primarily for toxapex; I used to have ice fang for grasses/dragons until I got dragged into multiple struggle wars with toxapex, so I made the change. (Bounce can be run instead in Pokebank OU, works well with leftovers). Substitute is very useful because it allows me to avoid status and set up vs fat nonsense like toxapex (if they don't carry haze), alomomola, heatran, etc. The speed evs let me outspeed max speed heatran to avoid toxics and Bloom Dooms. The rest is for maximum power and a bit of bulk. Intimidate helps me come in on stuff like garchomp and alolan-marowak and start setting up.
Dangerzone (Magnezone) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Magnezone was a very necessary addition to my team that lets me deal with scizor, celesteela, and plenty of other bulky water and steel types. Dual stab in flash cannon and thunderbolt, with volt switch being the first half of my volt-turn core, and hp fire to OHKO most mega-scizor variants. A timid nature is used here to outspeed bulky mega-scizor sets, but specs are used to achieve maximum power and score OHKOs on scizor and celesteela with hp fire and thunderbolt, respectively. Did I mention mega-scizor? I hate mega-scizor. Moving on.
Medusa (Hydreigon) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Focus Blast
- U-turn
Hydreigon functions as a revenge killer to threatening Pokemon like ash-greninja and mega-gyarados. Dual stab again to fire off powerful attacks without predicting too much, if I can. Focus blast for the aforementioned threats (superpower can be used here with a hasty nature in Pokebank OU), and u-turn to complete my volt-turn core and gain momentum.
Pikaboo (Mimikyu) (M) @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Disguise
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Claw
- Play Rough
- Shadow Sneak
Mimikyu is such an underrated threat, in my opinion. Disguise is an amazing ability that allows it to get +2 vs basically anything. Shadow claw to deal with bulky psychic types like slowbro, tapu lele, and other mega metagross. When boosted by Ghostium Z and after a Swords Dance, Shadow Claw is capable of OHKOing mega-scizor, nearly every variant of the tapus, and a plethora of other threats. Play Rough can kill Mandibuzz at +2, which sometimes tries to check mimikyu with foul play. Shadow sneak is additional priority, which is very nice for an offensive team that isn't tremendously fast.
Sovereign (Metagross-Mega) @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Hammer Arm
- Bullet Punch
The star of the team, behold the beast that is Mega-Metagross. This monster is my primarily wallbreaker, capable of punching holes in bulky Pokemon like tapu fini, toxapex, garchomp - if it needs breaking, Metagross can probably do it (exceptforskarmbutwehavemagsothat'sok). Dual Stab for, again, firing off hard hitting attacks. Hammer arm deals with steel types like Heatran and Kartana, and unsuspecting dark types that might think they're safe, like non-scarfed hydreigon and mega gyarados before boosting. Bullet punch is a great last move that can revenge kill things like tapu koko if it's low, or beat mimikyu (busted) that might try to shadow sneak you.
Thanks for reading my RMT! Please leave a comment if you have any improvements, I do appreciate them. Attached are my proof of peak, a few replays, and the importable team if you'd like to test it yourself. I only ask that you keep them nicknames :)
- Professor Suicune (shnazzy on PS).
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