.the mental WARD // OU offense

[Parivir]

the mental ward
.an overused offense team.

.//preamble
Hey there, PC, it's been a while. I'm GaiaEdge 355, a relatively seasoned battler who has posted a couple of RMTs here on PC in the past (as none of you will recall). I started out in late DPPt era and went in hiatus sometime around BW2, and throughout those years my forte has always been Stall Teams. I have the patience of a saint, you see, and don't mind being put through hours of battles just to move a couple points up on the ladder. I've bore witness to countless hazard battles and PP wars, and my trusty walls have come out victoriously throughout most of these struggles. So as I return to the battling scene sometime last week, my first instinct was to create a stall team tailored to defeat the current threats. However, I soon found out the hard way that XY OU is a very heavily offensive metagame, where things like Greninja and Talonflame and Mega-Anything will tear up pretty much any defensive mon you pull up. So with only a battered stall team and a series of losses to show for my brief stint in XY OU Stall, I moved on to Hyper Offense. This is an incredibly foreign playstyle to me, and I am aware that my team might have more holes than a piece of Swiss Cheese; however, this team has done exceedingly more for me than the stall team I attempted to craft in the beginning. So, without further ado, I present to you: The Mental Ward, an OU offense team.

p.s. Please excuse the admittedly cheesy formatting; it's been a while since my last foray into anything even remotely related to such things.

.//team construction

Spoiler:

As a veteran of the BW metagame, I knew full well how incredibly potent the VoltTurn combo of Scizor and Rotom-W is. Both are competent Pokemon both offensively and defensively, and their synergy is remarkable. As I wanted to construct a Heavy Offense team, the offensive momentum provided by these two made them a natural choice for the team.

Of the extremely few amount of Hyper Offense teams I created during the BW era, only one was ever particularly successful, and it was built around Contrary Serperior. With Leaf Storm and a blistering speed stat at its disposal, it tore down pretty much anything not named Blissey. Hence, why it's here.

Every Hyper Offense team needs a hazard, it appears, and Tyranitar is here to provide just that. It wins out over things like Hippowdon and Ferrothorn because it's still capable of maintaining an offensive presence, thanks to its titanic Attack stat. With resistances to both Flying- and Fire-type, it provides great synergy to the team as well.

Tyranitar's Sand Stream is a useful boon, but both Rotom-W and Serperior are hurt by it, leaving only Scizor as a favorable switch-out recipient. So in comes Landorus, with an immunity to the Earthquakes often targeting Tyranitar, and an immunity to the Sandstorm it brings.

I soon realized that the team had no Fire-types, which was simply a no-no with all the Steel- and Bug-types running around. So here we are with the fourth member of the team undamaged by Sandstorm, Choice Scarf Heatran. With a massive SpA stat and respectable speed with Choice Scarf, Heatran quickly became a revenge-killing machine that dealt with the likes of Talonflame and Skarmory effectively.

Unfortunately, a wrench was then thrown into my plans: Contrary Serperior is unreleased! So, seeing as my team had no Megas, I switched in Mega-Venusaur as it seemed to be the most-used Grass-type in XY OU.

Venusaur was great and all, but Sleep Powder simply missed too much. So after careful consideration, I decided to switch it with Breloom, who trades in Venusaur's bulk for a much better sleep-inducing move: Spore.

With virtually every team on PS running Megas, I felt like I needed that sort of power on my team as well. So Support Tyranitar became DD Mega Tyranitar, bringing a ****load of offensive presence to the team. It mainly functions as a late-game cleaner, when all Mach Punchers and Azumarills have been safely put to rest.

The change in Tyranitar's function prompted changes in both Landorus and Heatran; with the loss of Stealth Rock, Heatran gave up Choice Scarf and instead assumed a supporting role. Landorus switches forms and is given a Choice Scarf to fill the empty revenge-killer slot.

And with that, The Mental Ward was complete.

.//at a glance

​

.//in-depth view

Hypomania (Heatran) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 12 HP / 248 SpA / 248 Spe
Timid Nature

• Fire Blast
• Taunt
• Earth Power
• Stealth Rock

Heatran's main job is to set up Stealth Rocks, but he does so much more than that. He is in fact a fantastic anti-lead, easily shutting down things like Baton Passers and fellow hazarders through a well-placed Taunt. It also does well against common defoggers like Latias and Mandibuzz, which is always a boon to Stealth Rock-setters. Its Air Balloon allows it to safely switch in to Earthquakes, which is extremely beneficial if it comes from things like Choice Scarf Landorus or Choice Band Excadrill. Fire Flash awards him with another immunity, making him the perfect switch in to Hidden Power Fires or Flamethrowers directed at Scizor or Breloom. Earth Power is there for coverage, taking good chunks out of Fire- and Rock-types, and is a more reliable option than Fire Blast against weakened Steel-types.

Bipolar (Breloom) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature

• Spore
• Drain Punch
• Protect
• Leech Seed

Though its defenses leave much to be desired, Breloom is a competent Wall-Sweeper hybrid, due to a large number of defensive assets it has up its sleeve. Leech Seed and Poison Heal combined with Protect effectively heals over a quarter of its HP each "turn"; add Drain Punch to that, and it's pretty much GG to anything that can't OHKO it. Spore is there, of course, to put the opponent's mon to sleep, giving Breloom the chance to set up Leech Seed either on the switch out or the sleep.

OCD (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature

• Volt Switch
• Hydro Pump
• Will-O-Wisp
• Pain Split

Rotom-W fills the shoes of a bulky water, a check against birdspam, and a momentum-keeper with Volt Switch. There isn't much to be said on its prowess that most competitive battlers don't already know, but its fantastic typing and access to Will-O-Wisp makes it a physical wall that's more competent than its meager defensive spread would suggest. Hydro Pump knocks pesky Rock- and Ground-types around, while Pain Split is a great move to use on the frequent Chansey or Blissey switch-in.

Scizophrenia (Scizor) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature

• U-turn
• Bullet Punch
• Knock Off
• Superpower

Fun fact: Scizor's name inspired the team's naming scheme. Anyway, what we have here is your standard Choice Band Scizor that established itself as the king of BW OU, only better: it now has access to Knock Off! So while most of the time it's U-turning with Landorus-T and Rotom-W, or Bullet Punching fairies into oblivion, it now has another function: ruining the lives of Chansey, Azumarill, Talonflame, and their item-dependent ilk. Superpower provides coverage against Rock- and Normal-types, which is always nice.

Anxiety (Tyranitar-Mega) @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

• Dragon Dance
• Stone Edge
• Fire Punch
• Earthquake

And now we have the MVP of the team, Mega Tyranitar. With a decent Speed stat and an absolutely ridiculous base Attack stat of 164 (not to mention wall-level defenses that let it pull off a DD most of the time), it is easily of the Pokemon with the most offensive presence in XY OU. After a Dragon Dance, Tyranitar's Attack reaches sky-high levels and easily OHKOs pretty much anything in the metagame, especially since its three moves hit every type for at least neutral damage (8 among them weak to one or more). With such destructive capabilities, it's a wonder that we haven't seen more Mega-Tyranitars running around in OU, really.

Paranoia (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

• Earthquake
• Stone Edge
• Knock Off
• U-turn

Landorus-T is the team's revenge killer; with a 91 base Speed stat coupled with a Choice Scarf, it can outrun a big portion of the metagame, while providing very much welcome immunities to both Ground- and Electric-types. While at a glance the moveset might seem to simply repeat the ones already owned by its teammates, the truth of the matter is you simply need to get as many Earthquakers and Stone Edgers as you can to defend against the Venusaurs, Dragonites, Bisharps, and birdspams that run the tier. Knock Off is always a useful move to nerf item-dependant mons and deprive walls of their Leftovers or berries, while U-Turn allows it to maintain momentum, especially when combined with Rotom-W and Scizor.

.//bibliography
Thanks to:

www.pkparaiso.com, for the sprites that you see on this page.
Smogon, for obvious reasons.
Pokemon Showdown, for similarly obvious reasons.
Marriland.com, for its team builder, which helped me round out this team's synergy.
The various people on Pokemon Showdown who helped me test and improve this team through advice as well as battle.
You, for reading! Rates and help are even more appreciated, of course.
​

 

[PlatinumDude]

Nice team, but the only suggestion I have for Tyranitar is dropping Earthquake or Fire Punch for Ice Punch. Currently Gliscor and Therian Landorus have a field day with it.

 

[halcyonic]

rotom-w's ev spread is suited to outrun jolly max speed azu and these variants are very, very rare nowadays. personally, i'd go with standard 252 hp / 252 def / 4 spa.

 

[Secondary account]

where is the keldeo check?