ORAS Ubers Skymin team : )

[Sardinfang]

hello everyone I build this Shaymin-Sky based team and I wanted to know how to improve it. I´ve not seen many Skymin teams so this should be interesting (it is still a good pokemon in Ubers though)

Raw Team:

Klefki @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Spikes
- Light Screen
- Reflect
Klefki´s role is to help my set-up pokemon with screens, thunderwave things for Shaymin and it´s a good pokemon to sack.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Return
- Facade
Salamence is good against Groudon (except those annoying rock polish ones, I really struggle against them) but its sometimes hard to set up. And a big problem with my team is that only Groudon can hit steel-types and every other moon can only deal resisted damage to them. So yes I could change Salamence if I can find a better Mega.

Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 184 HP / 28 Def / 252 SpA / 44 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 31 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Grass Knot
Xerneas is Xerneas it´s a power house and if it can sweep with screens up oh boy ! The only flaws are Lugia if I couldn´t break Multiscale with Stealth Rocks before, sometimes Groudon but that´s not that big of a problem if screens are up and Aegislash/Ferro/Bronzong but these are just hard counters watcha gonna do.

Genesect @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Download
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 120 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Ice Beam
- Explosion
Genesect is awesome because it does huge damage and has great coverage. I went with a spread different from what smogon suggested. With this I outspeed max speed M-Gengar, have max attack and a significant amount of health investment. I was OK with using a -SA nature because I still OHKO Neutral SpD M-Salamence with Ice Beam AND the Smogon Spread doesn´t always live +2 Moonblast from Xerneas, mine does.

Shaymin-Sky @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 16 HP / 252 SpA / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Air Slash
- Seed Flare
- Sleep Talk
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Here we go: The theme of the team. We all know what Skymin does (Air Slash 30 % Flinch Chance, Serene Grace doubles that) which works because it is soo fast. My personal spread has just enough speed to outspeed max speed Darkrai, 252 SpA and the rest into HP. I went with leftovers over life orb because with stealth rocks and life orb damage your Shaymin will be gone very quickly otherwise. Second of all I don´t really need more damage and getting back health while flinching your opponent does a lot of sense. HP Ice is for M-Salamence and Sleep Talk to beat Darkrai 100 % of the time. At least in theory, it does usually work though. Seed Flare is incredible by the way, 120 base power and 40 percent to lower SpD by two stages ?? The 85 % accuracy are totally worth it.

Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 248 SpD / 4 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Rock Slide
- Precipice Blades
Yeah we all know what P-Don does. I went with a t-wave version because it does make sense on a Skymin team and I never played another Groudon version.

I think I kinda explained the idea and strategy behind the team already but here in short form:
1. Lead Groudon get stealth rock and just switch around, play the game
2. Lead Klefki get up screens and/or spikes then go into Salamence/Xerneas to set up
3. Lead Genesect go for U-turn and switch around or just start Iron Heading thing and deal damage - if they go into Groudon you can bring in Salamence to set up or Skymin to Air Slash to death or Seed Flare predicting a switch

Important/Interesting Calcs:
+1 252+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Frustration vs. 184 HP / 28 Def Xerneas: 391-462 (89 - 105.2%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO oh god I never knew that maybe I should run Double-Edge
+1 252+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 184 HP / 28 Def Xerneas: 459-541 (104.5 - 123.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO is that worth the recoil ??
+2 252+ SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Primal Groudon: 192-227 (47.5 - 56.1%) -- 82.4% chance to 2HKO
+2 252+ SpA Xerneas Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Primal Groudon: 244-288 (60.3 - 71.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
4 Atk Primal Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 184 HP / 28 Def Xerneas: 220-259 (50.1 - 58.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
4 Atk Primal Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 184 HP / 28 Def Xerneas through Reflect: 110-129 (25 - 29.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Arceus Extreme Speed vs. 184 HP / 28 Def Xerneas: 325-383 (74 - 87.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Arceus Extreme Speed vs. 184 HP / 28 Def Xerneas through Reflect: 162-192 (36.9 - 43.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+2 252+ SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Arceus: 390-459 (102 - 120.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ SpA Xerneas Hidden Power Rock vs. 248 HP / 52 SpD Ho-Oh: 384-456 (92.5 - 109.8%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Genesect: 264-311 (93.2 - 109.8%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 128 HP / 4 SpD Genesect: 237-279 (75.2 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Genesect Iron Head vs. 184 HP / 28 Def Xerneas: 276-326 (62.8 - 74.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
something unexpected to round it up:
252 SpA Shaymin-S Air Slash vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Primal Groudon: 99-117 (24.5 - 28.9%) -- 99.4% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Shaymin-S Seed Flare vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Primal Groudon: 157-186 (38.8 - 46%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Threads:

Lugia is this team´s worst enemy. I simply can´t hit it. My best chance is to catch it on a switch-in and go for seed flare to hope for the SpD drop and flinch it to death with Skymin or doing basically the same with Groudon (Thunderwave + Rock Slide yes it´s a very very sad win condition)

A well played extreme killer Arceus can wreck my team. I try to set up screens with Klefki (on which turn it can go to +4) or use Salamence´s Intimidate and somehow beat it.

I hope you enjoyed reading and I´d be suprised if you actually did read everything but I´d really love to hear your suggestions !! : )

 

[Minority]

I feel as though this team has a number of redundancies and as a result isn't able to fit all the offensive utility that it needs. Another thing that should be addressed is the use of two Stealth Rock weaknesses and no anti-hazard support, along with lack of an Arceus.

I'd say using Excadrill over Klefki and EKiller over Genesect fixes most of these concerns. A lead Excadrill provides Rapid Spin and frees Primal Groudon from Stealth Rock duties. There are two advantages to using Excadrill over Primal Groudon as the Stealth Rock setter for this team: freedom to run boosting moves and it means Primal Groudon is worn down less, which is important since this team relies heavily on it to check Xerneas. As for EKiller, it adds another option for checking opposing Xerneas and gives something to pick off Pokemon such as Deoxys-A. It should run Stone Edge as to better cover opposing Mega Salamence.

With these structure changes, Primal Groudon should run a double dance set with and EV spread of 168 HP / 252 Atk / 32 SpD / 56 Spe / Adamant. This boosts this team's number of physical sweepers up to 3, which is offensive synergy that benefits Shaymin-S. In regards to Shaymin-S, it should run a Life Orb with Healing Wish, which is largely the reason to use it in the first place, giving another one of your set up Pokemon a second chance at breaking the opposing team. Although EKiller and Shaymin-S are nice for revenge killing Darkrai, I'd still recommend running Sleep Talk on Xerneas so you have a somewhat stable switch-in option. A Choice Scarf set is best for Darkrai and handling opposing offense, although it opens up more opportunities for opposing Primal Groudon and Ho-Oh, so may be better off running Power Herb Geomancy with Sleep Talk. I'd also suggest tweaking the Mega Salamence EV spread to something slightly more bulky. Swords Dance Arceus-Ghost over EKiller and Scarf Xerneas are variants you may want to test for yourself after working with these changes.

Summary:
- Change Klefki to this Excadrill

(Lead Excadrill)

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic
- Earthquake

- Change Genesect to this EKiller

(Stone Edge EKiller)

Arceus @ Life Orb
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed

- Change Primal Groudon to this set

(Double Dance)

Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 168 HP / 252 Atk / 32 SpD / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Precipice Blades

- Run a Life Orb on Shaymin-S with Healing Wish over Sleep Talk
- Run Rest over Grass Knot and Sleep Talk over Hidden Power Rock on Xerneas, adjust the EV spread accordingly
- Consider a Mega Salamence EV spread of 248 HP / 124 Atk / 136 Spe / Adamant and Double-Edge over Return