OU balanced team

[LonelyBarstool]

I've been out of the meta for awhile and recently got back into it for a tournament my friends are hosting. This team is heavily influenced by smogon suggested sets, so I apologize for the lack of creativity. It's gone 10-2 so far playing fairly lower ranked players, but I can see major holes in it that will need to be patched up if I were to move up in rankings.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Knock Off
Forms a semi-useful volt-turn combo with Rotom-W, although the only synergy they have is that Rotom-W can tank water and ice hits headed for Landorus. He's handy for picking off weakened pokemon and gets a surprise KO every now and then with the scarf. A fast U-turn is helpful on a team with many pokemon that can tank a few hits.

Rotom-Wash @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Rest
Part of the main defensive core of Heatran and Rotom-W, he's essential for dealing with Mamoswine which would otherwise wreck havoc on my team. ChestoRest because I'm using lefties on Dragonite and I like having the ability to get rid of status. A slow volt-turn benefits my frailer wall-breakers.

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Earth Power
- Lava Plume
As close to I've ever used as a dedicated lead. I've found stealth rocks to be very useful in the current meta, however the rest of the set is iffy. I wouldn't mind a more powerful special attacking set, but taunt is extremely useful as a lead. Shuca Berry lets him live through weaker earthquakes to get a final move in.

Medicham @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch
- Substitute
The teams not exactly built around him, so he's not as effective as he could be. As a wall-breaker he is amazing, and he can do massive amounts of damage. His weaknesses aren't well covered on this team however.

Dragonite @ Leftovers
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 216 HP / 64 Atk / 228 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Roost
- Dragon Claw
- Extreme Speed
- Thunder Wave
Probably the least useful member of the team. A compounding ice weakness with Landorus doesn't help, and the lack of a spinner/defogger makes his multiscale useless half the time. He's meant to provide thunder-wave support for Medicham, but other than that I don't see much use in him.

Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Sludge Bomb
Just an all around good special attacker. Sludge bomb makes him my fairy-killer, and shadow ball and focus blast round out the coverage. Not a whole lot of need for his to immunities, but they are still useful. Mainly the team appreciates his speed and power for taking out physical walls. Taunt could be useful, but I can't find a place to put it.

Last thoughts:

• A Mega-Venasaur would make a great defensive core with Heatran and Rotom-W, but I'm having trouble with what to add after that.
• Team has had troubles with bulky support mews. I've tried to mess around with movesets to aid this, but I don't have any one pokemon that can easily deal with it.
• Team lacks a spinner, but I can't find a great fit. I'm hesitant to use defog because I like my own hazards too much.

 

[MoxieInfinite]

you need something to punish defog, if not heatran as a shuca lead is useless. try bisharp.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Substitute + Life Orb without Pain Split is a terrible combination because it wears down Gengar fast. Dropping Sludge Bomb or Focus Blast for Pain Split to help with Chansey may be better.

As Moxie said, Bisharp is ideal for punishing Defog. This can go over Dragonite, since you feel it isn't too useful:
-Sucker Punch
-Iron Head
-Knock Off
-Pursuit/Swords Dance
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb/Dread Plate/Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant

Regarding Heatran, using 248 HP EVs is better than 252 to reduce Stealth Rock damage. Why not use Air Balloon to avoid Ground attacks completely?:
-Stealth Rock
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Will-o-Wisp/Stone Edge/Flash Cannon
Nature: Timid
EVs: 12 HP/252 SAtk/244 Spe
Item: Air Balloon

 

[LonelyBarstool]

As Moxie said, Bisharp is ideal for punishing Defog. This can go over Dragonite, since you feel it isn't too useful:
-Sucker Punch
-Iron Head
-Knock Off
-Pursuit/Swords Dance
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb/Dread Plate/Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant

Regarding Heatran, using 248 HP EVs is better than 252 to reduce Stealth Rock damage. Why not use Air Balloon to avoid Ground attacks completely?:
-Stealth Rock
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Will-o-Wisp/Stone Edge/Flash Cannon
Nature: Timid
EVs: 12 HP/252 SAtk/244 Spe
Item: Air Balloon

I'll try out the Bisharp set and the spread on heatran, although taking away heatran's special def leaves me a little weak to special attacks. I don't know if you guys have any suggestions for substitute special walls or to just leave as is. Thank you!

 

[Nah]

I'll try out the Bisharp set and the spread on heatran, although taking away heatran's special def leaves me a little weak to special attacks. I don't know if you guys have any suggestions for substitute special walls or to just leave as is. Thank you!

You can still run the specially defensive Heatran if you want, you just have to tweak the EVs like Platinum said is all.

But your team does cover Heatran's weaknesses well. Half the team is immune to ground, while Rotom-W resists Water and Lando-T resists Fighting. Not to mention that Heatran returns the favor to its teammates by having 4x resists to Ice, Grass, and Fairy. So you can run a more offensive set on Heatran because you don't have to worry about it tanking attacks because it synergerizes (is that even a word?) well with its teammates.

If you insist on a dedicated special wall, there's always Chansey and Blissey.

 

[MoxieInfinite]

The defensive aspects here has potential, but I see no reason to really keep it going. Eventually it'll just end up as a worse variant of something that's already been buildt and popularized.

 

[Dark Azelf]

Yeah Dragonite is kinda ass. It just gets curb stomped by everything this gen. Id actually replace that for Bisharp (good suggestion as it can also Pursuit Psychics that cause Medicham issues) tbh or at the very least give it a better set see: DD Weakness Policy or CB.

Also Sticky Web supports Medicham well if you can squeeze it in actually and stops it getting revenge killed somewhat so that could be looked into. I dislike it severely when people compromise Medichams amazing coverage for shiyte like Bullet Punch, Fake Out and Sub. ThunderPunch>Sub lgi imo. Also as of late ive really been not liking HJK on Medicham and much prefer Drain Punch. Most notably you hardly lose any 2hko's and the fact that everything HJK targets happens to have Protect (Heatran, Ferrothorn, Chansey just to name a few) which makes using it a gamble every time. :| That and it helps Medicham stick around a bit longer which is one of its issues.

Id also look into hazard control, get something with either Defog or Spin or 3 + layers of Spikes are going up every time vs you against foe stall which is typically the case with balance and with auto stall loss pokemon like Nite and Lando you need this imo. Something like Defog Lati@s may work over Gengar.

 

[LonelyBarstool]

You can still run the specially defensive Heatran if you want, you just have to tweak the EVs like Platinum said is all.

But your team does cover Heatran's weaknesses well. Half the team is immune to ground, while Rotom-W resists Water and Lando-T resists Fighting. Not to mention that Heatran returns the favor to its teammates by having 4x resists to Ice, Grass, and Fairy. So you can run a more offensive set on Heatran because you don't have to worry about it tanking attacks because it synergerizes (is that even a word?) well with its teammates.

If you insist on a dedicated special wall, there's always Chansey and Blissey.

Now that I've played more with the team, I see that a special wall isn't as needed. Thank you for the advice. (I'm pretty sure synergizes is a word if you believe in yourself.)

Yeah Dragonite is kinda ass.

Truuuuuuuu
(Thanks for the Latias suggestion, I think I'll try that out.)