Trying Something Different...

I've been playing Smogon OU battles with speedy teams, but I got bored. So, I'm trying something different.

I call this one the "Your Speed Has Failed You" Team. This team is based on slow and (some of them) underrated Pok?mon with the help of Trick Room. The Mega that I pick is Mega Ampharos, with Fairium Z as my Z-Crystal of choice. This team is for Smogon OU SIngles.



Ampharos-Mega @ Ampharosite
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Thunder
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch

An underrated Mega. It's true that its slow Speed hinders its great stats overall, but there must be a way to get around it. This Pok?mon has an insane Sp. Attack stat, with a very good bulk to back it up, and with Trick Room, Mega Ampharos will wreck through enemies. Its movepool is also pretty good, regardless of it not having much of a synergy. Thunder is for STAB move, and can't miss thanks to Pelipper's Drizzle. Dragon Pulse is to hit Dragons that Thunder can't hit hard enough (or a secondary STAB move when not in rain). HP Ice is for the likes of Garchomp, Zygarde, and Gliscor. Volt Switch is for momentum if I want to reactivate Trick Room.


Pelipper (M) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Hurricane
- Scald
- Roost
- Ice Beam

Drizzle has made Pelipper a BEAST, bumping it up to the OU Tier thanks to its free Hurricane. Pelipper handles Ground Pokemon that Ampharos can't. It also has a role of "raining" the battlefield, turning on the synergy of the team. Hurricane is powerful and can't miss, nuff said. Scald is chosen over Hydro Pump due to it having 100 Accuracy and a chance of burn. Ice Beam is for coverage.


Stakataka @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Stone Edge

A superior Aggron and Steelix. A Trick Room user and hazard setter. Boosting Stakataka's Health and Sp. Defense easily makes it super tough that requires super-effective moves to take down. Its super slow Speed and high Attack make Gyro Ball destructive. Stakataka is to handle Fairy and Ice, other Mega Ampharos' weaknesses.


Heracross (M) @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Megahorn
- Earthquake

I always love Heracross. Whenever I need Fighting Pokemon to choose, I always think of Heracross. Its Mega is powerful, it's great with Choice Scarf, and now I'm using the Guts version with Flame Orb. Good for handling Ferrothorn, one of this team's troubles. Close Combat and Megahorn are STAB moves. Knock off is to handle Ghost and Pokemon that relies on items. Earthquake is for coverage.


Hoopa-Unbound @ Leftovers
Ability: Magician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Trick Room
- Hyperspace Fury
- Psychic
- Gunk Shot

Never thought Hoopa Unbound would ever go down to OU Tier. Thank you Smogon, now I just got a super tank that hits very hard. Hoopa's Defense is bad, but boosting it solves the problem. There's no need to boost its offensive stat, since it already hits hard. Another Trick Room user, so that my team is more flexible and Trick Room can be used regardless of the situation, because this team really needs Trick Room to shine. Hyperspace Fury and Psychic are STAB moves. Gunk Shot is for coverage against Fairy Pokemon.


Shiinotic (F) @ Fairium Z
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Spore
- Energy Ball
- Moonblast
- Strength Sap

A weak Pokemon overall, but has a great synergy on this team. Spore and Rain Dish are what makes me pick Shiinotic over other Grass/Fairy Pokemon. It also handles Ground really well. Strength Sap is also a pretty good recovery option, especially against physical attackers. To buff its average offensive capabilities, I give it Fairium Z.


With Trick Room active, this team is to beat speedy Pokemon that are usually fragile. I know that this team has tons of weaknesses, for example the lack of Fire moves. Please give some advice to this team so that I can be much better. Thank you.

I like this team, I like it alot. I think it was very well thought out, in my opinion. Fire moves aren't an issue, if you're attempting to keep M-Ampharos active the whole battle, (needing to land Thunders) then Pelipper would need to be out to keep the rain going to get 100% accurate Thunder, and therefore, the power of fire moves decrease, so Fire moves aren't an issue. I hope you go well in battling with this awesome team you made! :D

Ace Trainer Slash said:

I like this team, I like it alot. I think it was very well thought out, in my opinion. Fire moves aren't an issue, if you're attempting to keep M-Ampharos active the whole battle, (needing to land Thunders) then Pelipper would need to be out to keep the rain going to get 100% accurate Thunder, and therefore, the power of fire moves decrease, so Fire moves aren't an issue. I hope you go well in battling with this awesome team you made! :D

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Thank you for rating my team. Recently I played some more OU and AG battles using this team, and I came to realize that Ice Beam on Pelipper is redundant (especially as a coverage move). Anything that Ice Beam hits really hard, Hurricane and Scald can do just as well.
Also, about Shiinotic. Energy Ball is good, but which one do you think is better, Energy Ball or Giga Drain?

IDProG said:

Thank you for rating my team. Recently I played some more OU and AG battles using this team, and I came to realize that Ice Beam on Pelipper is redundant (especially as a coverage move). Anything that Ice Beam hits really hard, Hurricane and Scald can do just as well.
Also, about Shiinotic. Energy Ball is good, but which one do you think is better, Energy Ball or Giga Drain?

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No problem :D. With Shiinotic, it depends what you want to do more, if you run Shiinotic to sustain through the battle, or heal more HP. Giga Drain is weaker than Energy Ball, and can heal HP, but Energy Ball is 15 more power, and you have a chance to have a Sp. Def drop, therefore for more damage if you do get the drop, and sometimes force a switch from low Sp. Def on the opponent's side! (Though its very situational) I personally believe you should keep Energy Ball, considering that Strength Sap is a more reliable way to heal. :D

Ace Trainer Slash said:

No problem :D. With Shiinotic, it depends what you want to do more, if you run Shiinotic to sustain through the battle, or heal more HP. Giga Drain is weaker than Energy Ball, and can heal HP, but Energy Ball is 15 more power, and you have a chance to have a Sp. Def drop, therefore for more damage if you do get the drop, and sometimes force a switch from low Sp. Def on the opponent's side! (Though its very situational) I personally believe you should keep Energy Ball, considering that Strength Sap is a more reliable way to heal. :D

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Yeah, I think Energy Ball is better after seeing Shiinotic's not-so-impressive Sp. Attack stat. Strength Sap is pretty much a superior Rest + Lum against physical attackers, and Rain Dish regenerates Health over time. Those are already high recovery rate. I don't think I need any higher than that. Thanks for answering.
And as for Pelipper's Ice Beam, I decided to use Defog as the replacement.

IDProG said:

Yeah, I think Energy Ball is better after seeing Shiinotic's not-so-impressive Sp. Attack stat. Strength Sap is pretty much a superior Rest + Lum against physical attackers, and Rain Dish regenerates Health over time. Those are already high recovery rate. I don't think I need any higher than that. Thanks for answering.
And as for Pelipper's Ice Beam, I decided to use Defog as the replacement.

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No problem. :D Tell me if you need any analysis on any other teams too, I believe that Defog is a good replacement for Ice Beam too, as Stealth Rock limits Pelipper, good choice on the move! :)

First of all, I think it's best to keep in mind that super large images aren't that beneficial for anyone trying to review your team, as it makes it much more harder to read the text.

Anyway, onto the team.

It's generally pretty suboptimal to EV train your Pok?mon to cover their weaknesses. EVing Stakataka for SpDef doesn't do anything, since it still gets murdered by the same things (Gren Pump, basically any 4x effective move). Hoopa as well, it's still not going to take Physical attacks too well. On the other hand, you're going to miss out on a lot of KOs by not EVing them for offensive purposes. With that said, this is only a minor problem.

To be honest, your team doesn't synergize well. I understand that you want to build around Mega Ampharos, but there's much more to synergy than Type coverage, since a lot of Pok?mon have moves that beat their "weaknesses" - i.e. Magearna being part Fairy-type but still being able to defeat Stakataka because it gets Focus Blast.

Your team also loses to a lot of the common threats, since it's a Trick Room team with very frail Trick Room setters. In most cases (if you're playing against a decent player) you're going to get Trick Room up once and then lose afterwards because it can't handle the pressure from other teams. Things like Magearna, Kartana, and offensive Landorus can easily blow your team away without much support.

As for suggestions, personally I would rebuild the team. But if you want to keep most of your Pok?mon, I'd say swap out one of the Trick Room users out for a Cresselia, put a Z-Crystal on the other one (and make it offensive), and then change Shiinotic's item to Leftovers or something.

5qwerty said:

First of all, I think it's best to keep in mind that super large images aren't that beneficial for anyone trying to review your team, as it makes it much more harder to read the text.

Anyway, onto the team.

It's generally pretty suboptimal to EV train your Pok?mon to cover their weaknesses. EVing Stakataka for SpDef doesn't do anything, since it still gets murdered by the same things (Gren Pump, basically any 4x effective move). Hoopa as well, it's still not going to take Physical attacks too well. On the other hand, you're going to miss out on a lot of KOs by not EVing them for offensive purposes. With that said, this is only a minor problem.

To be honest, your team doesn't synergize well. I understand that you want to build around Mega Ampharos, but there's much more to synergy than Type coverage, since a lot of Pok?mon have moves that beat their "weaknesses" - i.e. Magearna being part Fairy-type but still being able to defeat Stakataka because it gets Focus Blast.

Your team also loses to a lot of the common threats, since it's a Trick Room team with very frail Trick Room setters. In most cases (if you're playing against a decent player) you're going to get Trick Room up once and then lose afterwards because it can't handle the pressure from other teams. Things like Magearna, Kartana, and offensive Landorus can easily blow your team away without much support.

As for suggestions, personally I would rebuild the team. But if you want to keep most of your Pok?mon, I'd say swap out one of the Trick Room users out for a Cresselia, put a Z-Crystal on the other one (and make it offensive), and then change Shiinotic's item to Leftovers or something.

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Thank you for rating my team.
I knew it. I knew I needed Fire moves, despite this team being a rain team. Maybe you're right. Maybe I need to rebuild my team. I'll update this post when I'm done, but I think I'll consider Magearna to be a Trick Room setter.

I finished the team rebuild. I don't want to update the post until I get the final team. Here it is:

Ampharos-Mega (M) @ Ampharosite
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Thunder
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch

Pelipper (M) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Hurricane
- Scald
- Roost
- Defog

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Trick Room
- Rock Slide
- Stealth Rock

Tapu Bulu @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Horn Leech
- Zen Headbutt
- Superpower

Magearna @ Fairium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Fleur Cannon
- Flash Cannon
- Ice Beam

Marowak-Alola (M) @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance

What do you think?