SM OU Tornadus-T + Alolan Marowak defense-oriented balance

apolgies for the terrible formatting

I've been trying to build a team around Tornadus-T for a while. Regenerator + U-Turn is a fantastic combo.

Alolan Marowak makes a great partner for Tornadus-T; Alolawak appreciates the momentum gain from U-Turn as well as something to switch into when threatened by faster water- and ground-types while Tornadus-T is helped a lot by Alolawak's ability to stonewall electric types even when they run ice coverage.

The problem with this core is that neither Tornadus nor Alolawak have much physical bulk, so I added Skarmory as a physical wall. Alolawak also covers Skarmory's weaknesses nicely.

I wanted some extra pivots in the next slots. Landorus-T was my first choice for Intimidate and rock setting, and after Landorus-T I felt my team looked too slow and passive so I added Tapu Koko as a fast attacker giving some coverage I didn't have yet.

after this, I plugged my mons into Hidden50 to see what I was weakest to, which pointed to (correctly, in my opinion) Keldeo and Landorus-T. Mega Venusaur was my choice of a check to these mons, as well as a backup way of not getting destroyed by Zapdos and Koko if Alolawak dies.

Overview

Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 SpD
Calm Nature
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
- Knock Off
- U-turn

the titular bulky pivot of the team. I decided not to invest in speed so I could use it to bring in other +
mons more easily. With Assault Vest its special bulk is great, much better than I was expecting. Sample calc:
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja-Ash Ice Beam vs. 248 HP / 32+ SpD Assault Vest Tornadus-Therian: 214-252 (59.2 - 69.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO. I feel that Heat Wave is a bit pointless since it doesn't quite OHKO Ferrothorn uninvested and I have a very strong fire type wallbreaker in the next slot anyway, but I don't know what to replace it with.

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Bone
- Fire Punch
- Swords Dance
- Bonemerang
Standard Marowak set. It's powerful and has good coverage. I find that I almost never get any opportunities to set up, though.

Skarmory @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spd
Bold Nature
- Roost
- Defog
- Whirlwind
- Toxic
My physical wall. Phazing helps beat setup sweepers, especially offensive Landorus-T variants. Toxic was chosen to help against opposing pivots such as Tangrowth and Rotom-Wash.

Landorus-T @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Atk / 220 Def / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power Ice
- U-Turn

pretty much the most standard set in the tier. Sets rocks, hits for OK damage w/ EQ, HP Ice hits the mons 4x weak to it (which is more important than usual here, because I don't have much else to check them with). An extra 4 EVs were put into speed to creep opposing Landos.

Tapu Koko @ Electrium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Spa / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Wild Charge
- Hidden Power Ice
- Taunt
- U-Turn

my team is very lacking in offensive coverage, with Alolawak being my only other real offensive mon. I was originally running the choice specs set but I was being constantly forced into predictions between HP Ice and Thunderbolt and I struggled with it.

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 88 Def / 156 Spd / 16 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power Fire

another standard set, chosen to check the mons my team was otherwise struggling with. I found that with Leech Seed this was very weak to being PP stalled, since I only have 8 Synthesises (Syntheses?). Giga Drain also gives me something to do against Zygarde and Garchomp.​
Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Bone
- Fire Punch
- Swords Dance
- Bonemerang

Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 SpD
Calm Nature
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Skarmory @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Defog
- Whirlwind
- Toxic

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Atk / 220 Def / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

Tapu Koko @ Electrium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Wild Charge
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Taunt
- U-turn

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 88 Def / 156 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 1 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power Fire


EDIT: gave Alolawak Will-O-Wisp over Bonemerang so Lando doesn't come in free, switched back to Specs Koko s suggested

Any advise is appreciated.
 
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pretty solid team you got here. I think that whether you have z wild charge koko or specs koko you still have to predict and specs koko fits this team better than z-wild charge would. other than that small change nothing seems to be wrong with your team.
 
I happened to take a re-glance at your team;here is some more changes you can make.
Changes
  • make torn max hp and speed because you will want to abuse that speed tier as making it bulky would cause you to use a more reliable defensive flying type(celesteela,zapdos,etc).
  • A more updated lando-t spread is 248 hp/ 228 def/ 32 spd. I have to read up on what this spread does but its the more optimal spread at the moment for lando-t.
  • (optional) i like lefties on lando-t for the passive recovery but rocky helmet is still good.
 

Ktütverde

of course
is a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Former Smogon Metagame Tournament Circuit Champion
Hey is this avatar Pingu? Whatever, I liked the simplicity of your post, short but providing all the information we need to understand it, that's why I will rate it:

-Obviously you want something close to a voltturn team, abusing the pivotal ability of torn and the sheer power of marowak. I really think skarmory doesn't suit the team at all because you have a huge weakness to tapu lele and skarmory can't handle any of its sets. Moreover skarmory in a semivolturn team is counter productive and it's extremely easy to deter it from defogging. I would rather use an offensive defogger, since pokemons like Koko, marowak and tornadus don't let your opponent set up rocks often. So Latios could be great, if you decide to use it try the ScarfTrickDefog set over Koko, and put a celesteela>skarmory so you get a pretty solid latios venu celesteela lando core.
-You will also notice that celesteela can do the same job as landorus, except dealing with zygarde and medicham: so if you run celestela>skarmory, you can also try using defog mew>landorus, and so give stealth rock>SD to marowak and keep koko as a fast wincondition! Mew tanks zygarde easily and venusaur is there too to support it, and is an extremely reliable defogger for balance teams. With celesteela and mew you get rid of the tapu lele issue.

As you can see I did my best to preserve the idea of the team, and what I wanted to explain is that celesteela is always the choice in balance over skarmory, and that many pokemons can have the defog role, even if they are frailer than skarm: on paper it is good , but in game you defog once or twice per game, so if you have a volturn team for instance you can use the threat latios poses to have a free defog, or just use mew as a great glue to defog on mons scared of willowisp.

Good job man, I wish you the best of luck with your underrated pokemons: we rarely see RMT's involving tornadus and marowak ^^
 

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