ORAS OU Team Building Competition (Go vote!)

Anti · Jan 6, 2015

ORAS OverUsed Team Building Competition

Hey PokéCommunity! This is our version of the team building competitions you'll find on Smogon, like this one. We hope that this competition will allow people to hone their team building skills and learn from their peers so that a major barrier for entry to battling here at PC ("I don't have a good team") will be defanged. More importantly, its main purpose is just to be a fun way to casually compete with others in a different environment than a battle and to be a fun way to engage competitive Pokemon.

The process is relatively straightforward. Each round will last two weeks. The rounds will start with me posting a new core of two Pokemon. Once the core is posted, you will have a full week to brainstorm, test, and post your team which includes those two core members. After a week, submissions will be closed, and there will be three days to discuss the teams that have been posted and to offer suggestions. Anyone who made a submission can implement suggestions or otherwise edit their team during this time if they so choose, so long as they note what edits have been made. (You are also free to discuss the teams during the submission period! This is just to make sure that there is enough room for discussion.) There will then be three days of voting. The top three vote-getters will be put before a three-person panel (currently consisting of myself, D_A, and a third person to be named soon) who will determine the winner. We will post an explanation for each decision. We will then post a new core and begin again!

While there aren't any rules, per se, we do ask that you consider the following guidelines:

When you post a team, please include an importable of your team (you can copy this from Showdown) and an explanation of the choices you made during team building. A sample entry is posted below.
There is no need for ostentatious presentation of your submission, but using images as a visual aid would be a good touch.
Don't bandwagon teams during the voting process. That's why the judging panel exists, but even so, try to judge the team on its own merits rather than who posted it.
When voting, consider the criteria that the panel will be using: viability (if the team good?), creativity (does it stray from standard builds?), and synergy (is there evidence of thoughtful team building?).
You can only post one team for each round, so use your submission wisely!
Remember that this is for fun, so don't be a jerk when making suggestions for other teams. It's a competition, yes, but we are also striving for a sort of collective construction of team-building knowledge.

Here is a sample submission, based on the core of Landorus-T and Mega Manectric:

Spoiler:

This Round's Core:

Past Winners:

Round 1: tbd

srinator · Jan 8, 2015

Well i tried, import and description is in spoiler (changes in red) -

Spoiler:

KorpiklaaniVodka · Jan 8, 2015

Eh, might as well try.

Spoiler:

Also, where's the "You can't vote for yourself" rule?

Nah · Jan 8, 2015

Eh fuck it, I'll join in too. Don't expect anything great though.

Edited team a little, edits are in bold.

Spoiler:

Anti · Jan 9, 2015

I'll post some feedback! :)

srinator: The biggest problem I'm seeing is defensively, especially against opposing Fire-types. Heatran is actually a huge problem, especially if it runs Flash Cannon or Toxic for Altaria (even with Heal Bell, it can Toxic spam you and stall you out of PP or even Taunt and then toss Toxic your way), while SD Talonflame is a pretty big lategame threat. (Zap is really easy to corner with SR damage and doesn't take Blitz very well.) It also seems stall weak, in large part because of the Heatran problem. To fix this (hope this isn't too drastic), I may consider Starmie over Celebi (still checks Keld decently, can Spin) to cover Heatran and open up the Defogger/Zapdos slot for a wallbreaker who can still check Pinsir and Talon okay. Unfortunately, that's pretty tough, but I would honestly just ignore BirdSpam entirely--it's not common at all right now, and LandT, while very shaky, can check it well enough (and Pinsir struggles to set up on anything else). With that, wallbreaking choices are limited since the best ones are Mega wallbreakers, but maybe you could try CB Azumarill? It gives priority and has good defensive utility, and it's nice to U-turn in. I don't know exactly how that final product would look, but the big thing I want to emphasize is that I think Zapdos is a very inefficient choice in this meta and replacing it will help your team a lot.

Archer99: Actually, you have pretty much the same problem: Heatran is running wild against this build, and Starmie is very easily worn down by a few Lava Plumes, Earth Powers, or Toxics, even with Natural Cure and decent bulk. BU Talon is really good vs. stall but needs a little help as well, again from Heatran. With that in mind, a cool option might be to try Earthquake over Draco on Altaria to lure it a little, but it's not going to come close to OHKOing and you really have to go for the kill on it, so IDK. I think the slot to look at in the fix would be Clefable over Bisharp. I don't like Bisharp a whole lot here for some reason, but I think Keldeo might be solid in its spot (SubMind or Specs) as a way to pressures defensive builds and balance while giving you a decent Heatran check and more offense. This opens you up to MMeta a fair amount, but Land can hold it off and Talon can RK it, though you'll be pretty weak to it regardless. (Of course, MMeta is pretty insane, so whatever.) There is also the problem of Raikou/MegaManec being more troublesome, so it Keld may be more trouble than it's worth. I apologize for struggling to come up with a solution. You could always just run a bulkier Starmie which can then hold off Tran way easier, though you'll be fairly stall weak. The more I look at Bisharp, the more I get its place since it is a nice offensive check to a few things mentioned before. I'll get back to you if I think of something else, but hopefully there are ideas hidden in here somewhere.

AmourPearlShipper: I think you should be able to vote for yourself if you think your team is the best, but if it gets abused, I'll add it.

Anyway, cool team--I really dig the hipster balance build, and the Heracross is a unique touch that I can see helping a lot vs. balance and maybe even stall. The change I'd make is Rhyperior. Mega Pinsir is nowhere to be seen right now and ScarfTar can RK if just fine. I would run LO+3 Atks Latios in its place (while running SR on Jirachi, even though that can admittedly get dicey) since you have enormous problems with Landorus and Keldeo (don't wanna risk an Altaria burn on that post-MEvo) and it handles both well while providing a nice offensive presence. It can also RK Mega Heracross who can break you down pretty badly. In any case, I'd say Land/Keld are way more important threats than Mega Pinsir. Admittedly softens you up against Talon a lot but that can be pressured a little easier at least with inferior bulk and sand/rox weakness.

Zekrom: IDK why you're running Blissey when Tenta/Conk handle it okay at least, though I suppose it's defensible. I think one thing you could do is keep Blissey on for Gar and run Chesnaught over Conk, which provides you with more insurance vs. SubMind Keld and can set up Spikes, which even minus a SpinBlocker can be very useful. (It helps that Exca doesn't want to spin on it.) I don't have a ton else to say. It's pretty MHera weak but he's not as common anymore, though the more common MMeta can threaten you if its coverage moves are EQ/Ice Punch (though that's uncommon, iirc?). I'll probably have more to say after mulling it over some more, but yeah, nice submission.

And nice submissions everyone. Fun to see some already!

Yoshikko · Jan 9, 2015

srinator forced me

Spoiler:

KorpiklaaniVodka · Jan 9, 2015

Anti said:
AmourPearlShipper: I think you should be able to vote for yourself if you think your team is the best, but if it gets abused, I'll add it.

Anyway, cool team--I really dig the hipster balance build, and the Heracross is a unique touch that I can see helping a lot vs. balance and maybe even stall. The change I'd make is Rhyperior. Mega Pinsir is nowhere to be seen right now and ScarfTar can RK if just fine. I would run LO+3 Atks Latios in its place (while running SR on Jirachi, even though that can admittedly get dicey) since you have enormous problems with Landorus and Keldeo (don't wanna risk an Altaria burn on that post-MEvo) and it handles both well while providing a nice offensive presence. It can also RK Mega Heracross who can break you down pretty badly. In any case, I'd say Land/Keld are way more important threats than Mega Pinsir. Admittedly softens you up against Talon a lot but that can be pressured a little easier at least with inferior bulk and sand/rox weakness.

this is theorymon, but between jirachi, keldeo, mega alt and hera i can handle keldeo, whether specs, scarf or subcm. if it switches into rhyperior i'd probably go to jirachi since it will likely go for the scald, while if it catches tyranitar, will likely go to hera or even mega alt if i feel like it. (of course, predictions are a thing but still). even ttar can deal decent damage with superpower.
manaphy can handle lando-i with wish support (and btw jirachi can tank an earth power), while t-tar and heracross (is psychic lando-i still popular?) deal heavy damage to it.

i really don't want to have two members weak to pursuit. mega aero, which is popular in high level play, would also buttfuck this team, especially when paired with rotom-w.

But then again, I don't really know how would my team handle Lando and Keldeo in practice. I've tested it and right now I have a rating of about 1420. But I don't think that's enough.

champagnepapi · Jan 10, 2015

here is my team, accidentally ended up building a better version but it replaced altaria so that isn't eligible

Exportable

Spoiler:

Strategy

Spoiler:

I began with Altaria and Jirachi as per the rules of the competition, I opted for the Special Attacker altaria set, the DD variant has to choose between being walled by Ferrothorn or Heatran, which are two of the most common Pokemon in the metagame; I didn't want that. I invested enough speed for Altaria to outrun max speed belly drum azumarill, and used the rest to pad its Special Attacker as well as its defensive bulk, given that it will be switching into Pokemon like Keldeo and Rotom-W frequently, given that those Pokemon's typings give them a lot of opportunities to come in and attack. I opted for specially defensive jirachi here, I think scarf might be a very good alternative, but ultimately I have my defensive core to rely on, and Tornadus-Therian is already a speedy Pokemon; the team would have to beat clefable by Suicune critting it in a CM war if I ran scarf, since that set can be easily weakened. Not the best answer to such a common threat since Clefable has reliable recovery [so more chances to attack and crit], with some running stored power. Fire Punch can work over Body Slam but I would probably have to change to 112+Def/144 Sdef or a similar mixed wall thread on hippowdon so Thundurus doesnt become a threat to the team. Anyways after the main core, I thought in terms of frameworks and remembered how many times I had seen a water paired with those two. In the metagame there are 4 water types right now that are able to break apart balanced/stall cores; Crawdaunt, SubCM Keldeo, Suicune and Manaphy. Crawdaunt on balance has been done before but even with so many potential users of U-Turn I feel like it isn't a great fit, as the burden falls on the rest of the team to support it defensively. Keldeo and Manaphy are interesting, but the keldeo-altaria-jirachi has been done the most, and I liked having Suicune to fall back on due to its bulk, so I could have an answer in a pinch to a lot of powerful threats.

At this point in teambuilding I usually just consider the strongest sweepers in the metagame and if I can beat them; as it stood Mega Charizard-X was a pretty big threat, so I fell back on old reliable Hippowdon. I usually run mixed wall but I feel this team could afford to run max def since Jirachi and Altaria are already specially bulky; this would give me more insurance vs Charizard-X, Bisharp, Metagross-Mega, etc. Stone Edge is there to beat Mega Pinsir and Talonflame 1 on 1, Whirlwind is an option too I guess. I struggled with the fifth slot a lot, I wasn't terribly weak to Azumarill but I wasn't a huge fan of its ability to get chip damage on my team. Suicune needs a scald burn to beat it and Jirachi struggles to beat it 1 on 1 [252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Jirachi: 159-187 (39.3 - 46.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery, 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Jirachi (No Item): 172-204 (42.5 - 50.4%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO] while losing to CB versions, it can't switch in on Knock Off either, as it does around 70% while Jirachi has an item.

Next I wanted the team to have both hazard control and a way of beating Azumarill, as well as a secondary answer to Rotom-W just because it's annoying. I tried Celebi first, it would have been a decent fit but it can't defog, Mew could work too, but eventually I found my best option in Zapdos, which allows me to not only take on Azumarill, but threatening Pokemon like Mega-Pinsir and Mega-Scizor as well, while giving me the hazard control I wanted with Defog. The 6th slot was originally a hawlucha to further break cores, but I looked through the viability rankings and noticed that I was still decently weak against Gengar, Landorus and Mega Gallade. Luckily there's a Pokemon with a 70% chance to beat all 3 [I need hurricane for the power to KO gallade but this move is horrible]. Assault Vest Tornadus allowed me to give the team its much needed speed and take on these three threats, Timid so I don't have to sacrifice its defensive capabilities, Knock Off hits what it needs to hard enough and it has respectable base 100 attack anyways.

Anti · Jan 12, 2015

Submissions will be closed tomorrow so please do post any last-minute teams.

KorpiklaaniVodka · Jan 13, 2015

Alright, so I decided to change Rhyperior to Heatran. Jirachi now uses Body Slam over Toxic.

Jake♫ · Jan 13, 2015

The Team:

Explanation:

Spoiler:

Importable:

Spoiler:

Xairmo · Jan 13, 2015

I can edit later for sprites, it's too difficult to do on my phone, but here's what I came up with:

Team

Spoiler:

Strategy

Spoiler:

Anti · Jan 13, 2015

oh yeah, no more submissions, but yall are free to discuss, edit, etc. the ones currently there over the next few days before we start the vote :)

also, apologies if the core was a little difficult to build around. will be more deliberate next time. (i test ran it myself and found the build v challenging)

Anti · Jan 16, 2015

alright everyone can vote, just post the username of the person whose team you think should win (criteria are in the op)

gl everyone!

KorpiklaaniVodka · Jan 16, 2015

~~myself lol~~

I hate how most of our teams get wrecked by pretty much stallbreaker not named Mega Gardy/Gallade... and Archer's team doesn't have that much offensive presence. I'll give my vote to Zekrom, as I really don't want to vote for myself.

champagnepapi · Jan 17, 2015

i like jake's team best, cool team structure although i am not sure about the thundurus

srinator · Jan 18, 2015

~~I vote for elf~~
I think I shall vote for Exile's team.

Nah · Jan 18, 2015

Could use another vote in here.....I guess I'll vote for.....Yoshikko's team.

Yoshikko · Jan 18, 2015

My vote goes to AmourPearlShipper!! Gl everyone

KorpiklaaniVodka · Jan 18, 2015

... wait, I just realized Exile's Altaria doesn't have 510 EVs while Jirachi uses a -atk nature (?!) despite using physical attacks.

ORAS OU Team Building Competition (Go vote!)

return of the king

srinator

Guest

KID BUU PAWAA

return of the king

the princess has awoken while the prince sleeps on

KID BUU PAWAA

exile

Exportable

Strategy

return of the king

KID BUU PAWAA

► My Happy Little Pill

G-String Grandmas, tonight on Sick, Sad World

return of the king

return of the king

KID BUU PAWAA

exile

srinator

Guest

the princess has awoken while the prince sleeps on

KID BUU PAWAA