XY/ORAS Singles Showdown OU Team

[Shiny Motley]

Hey guys, so I've been using this one for a while, and it works mostly well except for whenever any of the MegaZards appears on the field. When that happens, I'm kinda screwed. MegaSaur is also annoying to deal with, though not as much as MegaZard.

Gengar @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Sludge Wave
- Energy Ball
Special sweeper of the team, and she does her job mostly well. She's a blessing against fairy types with Sludge Wave~

Infernape @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
Physical sweeper of the team and sort-of scout with U-turn. I opted for Rock Slide over anything else just because of the MegaZards roaming around, and even then he barely manages to outspeed them. One Dragon Dance, though, and he's kind of done for.

Weavile @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Fake Out
- Ice Shard
- Taunt
Anti-lead and usually meant to either die or deal with Gliscor/Garchomp/anything with a 4x weakness to ice. I might switch Fake Out for something else, but overall seems to work.

Skarmory @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- Whirlwind
The physical half of my defensive core, and is pretty decent I think. Defog to get rid of any entry hazards, Roost for recovery purposes, etc. I originally had Whirlwind to deal with pesky baton pass chains, but it's seen so much more use than that and I'm glad I have it.

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Recover
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Scald
The special half of my defensive core. Seems to be rather commonly used so I hope I don't have to explain too much.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Moonblast
Cleric and, surprisingly to me, the star of the team. She was only added after all the other roles were figured out, and she's been extremely helpful. Wish/Protect works well after Gastrodon has something burned or toxic'd, and Moonblast for damage purposes.

 

[Shocari]

Everything seems pretty standard to me and I don't see much wrong with any of your team other than preferences, really.

Gengar can also make good use of Choice Scarf to be a revenge killer. Life Orb and Expert Belt are good options if you feel like having it sweep freely. Psyshock is a decent option to take care of Mega Venusuar, while you also have Dazzling Gleam if you feel like running that. Gengar has a bunch of toys to play with, so it's all up to personal taste with it!

Infernape, as you've probably experienced, needs to be careful with Flare Blitz+Life Orb. Expert Belt is a good alternative if you don't want to recoil constantly. Earthquake is a decent enough option, also taking care of Mega Zard X quite handily provided you outspeed it. Swords Dance has potential, but I don't see a real need for it here.

Weavile gets alternative STAB in Ice Punch/Icicle Crash and Night Slash, the latter having consistent damage as opposed to Knock Off. Most things that are weak to Ice are slower than Weavile anyway, so switching to a more powerful Ice STAB would probably guarantee a few kills there. Low Kick is great for taking care of things like T-tar and Ferrothorn, although Iron Barbs still really hurts.

Not much to say for Skarmory other than hazards are an option.

Gastrodon looks pretty solid.

Clefable I honestly don't have much experience with, but I don't really see anything you could or should change provided its role. Clefable has a ton of different sets, but that's probably a discussion for another time.

Overall, pretty solid. The only thing I'd really change is Infernape, but that's just a bit of bias on my part XP

 

[Shiny Motley]

We've talked about your Infernape from Gen IV days, mommy XD Infernape's actually the one giving me the most problems right now, so I'll experiment with Expert Belt. I'm iffy about putting EQ on there because of so many things with ground immunities, be it flying-type or levitate :x

EDIT: I think it's worth mentioning that I've also tried using Gallade in place of Infernape before and I'm not sure which I prefer. I don't have the exact EV spread on me but it's most likely full att/speed with a choice scarf for revenge killing purposes. I ran him with Leaf Blade, Close Combat, Rock Slide, and I think Ice Punch? I might bring him back and give him Fire Punch instead of Ice Punch and replace Energy Ball on Gengar with Psyshock, like Sho suggested.

 

[Alexxander]

I know it is neither fast or a Fighting type but if you're having trouble with Mega Zards maybe replace Infernape with Azumarill it has sizeable bulk and should resist most stuff they throw at you. If you have Psyshock on Gengar then it should buffer the additional weakness to Mega-Saur. The other option is to add a Mega of your own I'd suggest maybe Mega Aerodactyl as it will destroy Zard-Y and do sizeable damage to Zard-X. It will also get Tough Claws boost on it's Flying moves to take out Mega Saur and it would easily outspeed them.

 

[Luckii]

In my experience, Infernape is useful as a lead or a mixed sweeper. Outside that, it gets outclassed by other Pokemon. Breloom and Conkeldurr render Infernape's speed advantage kind of redundant due to Mach Punch (Breloom gets a sick boost too), both of them deal with status better (Conkeldurr has Guts and, thanks to Poison Heal, Breloom can just give itself a status condition to keep away the dreaded burn), both have a significantly higher attack stat, whilst Conkeldurr is more durable than Infernape and Breloom has access to Spore and Technician.

That being said, Infernape is a good counter to Mega Venusaur and has the good STAB attacks. The use of Close Combat requires a lot of switching, so Defog or Rapid Spin is essential (although note that Defog removes all hazards, not just your opponents).

 

[Shocari]

Just a little note here that Azumarill DIES to Mega Zard Y, who laughs at Waterfall/Aqua Jet and just kills you with Solarbeam. Mega Venusaur having Thick Fat means that Infernape isn't a strong counter with his Fire STAB.

 

[Shiny Motley]

Azumarill also has its moves' powers halved thanks to Zard Y's Drought. Also, personal preference but I like having no types repeated on my team (unless I'm doing monotype). Forgot to mention it, oops.

Reason I don't have Breloom is because my team otherwise had a really noteable weakness to fire. Trust me, tried Breloom and it didn't quite work as well as I would've liked.

 

[Luckii]

Reason I don't have Breloom is because my team otherwise had a really noteable weakness to fire. Trust me, tried Breloom and it didn't quite work as well as I would've liked.

Then perhaps you should consider Conkeldurr. Whilst it may not have the Fire STAB of Infernape, it does learn Fire Punch, and anything coming off a base 140 attack stat is gonna hurt. Also, Mach Punch cancels out the speed advantage of Infernape. Guts makes it a support Pokemon's worst nightmare, and it is pretty bulky.

 

[KoL]

Here's the beef:

- TRICK. It's usually quite obvious who has Mega Stones and who doesn't, and if you can learn Trick and you're using a Choice set, you should be using it. Energy Ball is probably the most spare move on this set.

- There's not much point running pure physical on Infernape when you can replace Flare Blitz for a special move quite easily. Otherwise the set is fine.

- I'm curious as to how your Weavile handles Tyranitar leads but sure OK.

- Skarmory is fine besides an overarching problem with your team mentioned in the summary at the end.

- Gastrodon can stay as it is.

- I'm at a loss as to what Clefable provides here that Chansey does not besides Toxic immunity (and Chansey has Natural Cure anyway) but I guess either can work. Note that Chansey also walls the shit out of Charizard Y for you as well, but any Chansey lacking Thunder Wave will become setup bait for Zard X if you send in Chansey before your opponent's 'Zard has Mega Evolved.

Overall, I'm not sure how your team would deal with Zard Y (or Zard X for that matter) when you have no entry hazards and your defensive core gets obliterated by both of them. Gengar and Infernape being faster won't do a lot of good when Gengar can be quite easily trapped and killed by Pursuit from one of 'Zard's team-mates and Infernape currently kills himself for the opponent. Having Defog is not an excuse for running no entry hazards and this team isn't particularly harmed by any hazard anyway as it is, so you'd likely be better off with Stealth Rock on Skarmory over Defog here just for that reason.

As for Alexxander and Luckii:

1. For the love of Arceus, do NOT post advice if you don't know what you're talking about. By giving someone advice that contains false or inaccurate information, you risk worsening their team if they follow that information. Make sure you know EXACTLY what you're talking about if you're posting advice - if you're not sure what you're doing, you're probably far better off keeping your mouth shut and your fingers away from your keyboard.

The vast majority of your points in this thread were completely wrong. It'll be official forum warnings if it happens again.

 

[Shiny Motley]

Thankies, KoL. I originally opted out of using entry hazards because they seemed to be more of a hassle to me, though I guess you do have a point. I'll replace Defog with Stealth Rock, then.

As for Weavile and Tyranitar leads... hahaha, it kinda just dies to them honestly ^^; Again, since I plan on switching out Fake Out anyways, would Low Kick help then?

 

[KoL]

Low Kick would obliterate any T-Tar without Chople Berry, and if they Stealth Rock on the turn you hit them then they will have to switch or die. Although honestly, you're probably just better off leading with something else if you see T-Tar on their team preview.