Introduction
The monster, the terror, the royalty of X and Y cores is back. I got a bird spam team for you all. I recently started laddering up on a new alt... shudder.... and that of course meant I had to once again deal with the unpredictability of the low ladder. I stared in shock as my Garchomp went down to a scarf hp ice Magnezone. That was when I knew if I was going to survive this madness... i had to go for some mindless hazard stacking offense, and then I decided to tack on a bird spam core because why not. I have so far been playing mindlessly, usually 2-3 games at a time with this team, and have reached about 1400 on ladder, and have still climbing steadily over the past few days.
The Team
AmIHuman (Scolipede) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Endeavor
- Megahorn
As hazard stacking is one of the best strategies for the low ladder, I decided on lead Scolipede in order to set up my hazards. It's also one of the best mons against new players due to endeavor as many of them will immediately bring it down to its sash instead of breaking it first. The only downside to this lead is that its lack of taunt sometimes allows hazards to be set up. However it beats Starmie one of the two premiere rapid spinners in the tier. Megahorn is the only attacking move however it beats many of the psychic types I am weak to. (Zam, Latis, Starmie, ect), along with a couple of the dark types (Weavile, Tyranitar,). (For those of you wondering 29 HP IVS ensure I break other Scolipedes Sashes with Endeavor without having to risk Megamiss)
Deagle (Talonflame) (M) @ Life Orb/Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost / U-Turn
Talonflame was the beginning of the bird spam core I had in mind for with this team, and he does not disappoint. Brave Bird is the nonchalant easy 120 Base Power priority stab move that we all love. I decided to run Flare Blitz as it's not very present in this meta and also helps me beat a lot of the steels that threaten this core, (Skarnory, Scizor, Magnezone). Swords Dance instantly makes Talonflame's attack stat 574. For the last move I've been torn between roost and U-Turn. The difference between the two is huge, one loses momentum and one gains it. I've been using U-Turn as with how stealth rock weak the team is I can't afford to lose momentum ever but I'll leave it up to you guys. I've also been wondering about life orb vs. sharp beak. I've been using LO but the recoil is so damn high. For reference a brave bird to tank chomp does 43.1%-45.6% to Talonflame. However the power drop is very noticeable.
Goliath (Pinsir-Mega) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Quick Attack
- Return
- Close Combat
The second member of my Birdspam core, Mega Pinsir has always been somewhat of an enigma to me. This thing was the bane of X and Y. You couldn't build a team without having a "Counter" to this thing, especially after Aegislash left and you could run CC again. However, it's usage plummeted in ORAS for reasons unknown to me. Anyways this monster has 150 base attack and isn't giving any F**** about most teams. Heatran is Ohkoed by Close Combat, and most Skarms are 2hkoed by this thing. Usually most games end with either this or Talon cleaning, and this is also a very good wallbreaker. Swords Dance brings this things attack to a jolly good 818 attack. This combined with the 199 BP move that is Return after Aerilate and Stab causes this thing to 2HKO literally every viable pokemon in the metagame. Even Mega Aggron... the bulkiest thing with any viability in OU is 2HKOED by Close Combat, after a Swords Dance, even if Mega Aggron is max HP, max Def Bold.
(+2 252 Atk Mega Pinsir Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Filter Mega Aggron: 172-204 (50 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO)
Quick Attack is the flying type priority move that helps this to clean against most teams, and also helps to KO alot of HO threats to my team.
Aimchin (Garchomp) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Outrage/ Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
While testing this Team out this was originally Focus Sash Chomp. Problem was that after it took one hit or even SR damage, my entire team lost to Fast Electric threats such as (Mega Manectric, Raikou, Thundurus (all forms), and various other common HP Ice mons. While stealth rock is a little weird on a choice scarf set I've seen it work out marvelously on Lando-T and it is a great bluff in many games. Outrage gives me the power I need to wallbreak against much of stall, while the EdgeQuake combo helps me beat the aformentioned checks to my team, especially with the choice scarf which often makes them go for hp ice against a weakened Garchomp. Outrage is much stronger than dragon claw... but I've always been scared off outrage and with this gen its more true than ever. So while I am asking you to choose which you think would be better, I also say I'm partial to Dragon Claw. With how common the tank chomp set is this has caught a lot of teams off guard and helped to clean in quite a few games.
North (Starmie) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
Starmie is a weird mon... I'll be honest. No water stab may seem a bit weird, however Lando and Chomp are such threats to my team that I needed the Ice Coverage. As this is my Keldeo switch in I needed to be both bulky, carry Psyshock and be able to recover health. Furthermore due to how incredibly entry hazard weak my team is, this thing needed to live through much of the match. Therefore I opted to the water stabless set you see here. Max speed helps it rapid spin against most of the metagame, and 0 atk IVS ensure minimum Confusion/Foul play damage, and tbh even with 31 Atk IVS rapid spin isn't doing much damage anyway.
(0- Atk Life Orb Starmie Rapid Spin vs. -6 0 HP / 0- Def Caterpie: 135-160 (58.4 - 69.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO) While I know this attack is against Caterpie the defensive GOD, it still illustrates my point.
Midas (Azumarill) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Knock Off/Superpower
The finaly member of my team... Azumarill. Originally a Rotom-Wash I thought I was doing great until... o ya I found a Lati. This thing is my only Lati switch in and counter along with a massive portion of the rest of the metagame. (Latis, Weavile, Rain, Sand, Loppunny, Tornadus-T, Keldeo, Zard-X, Mega Altaria, Chomp, and finally Mega Sableye which is the bane of all Hazard Stacking). So ya... I guess you could call this the glue for this team. This is just standard Bulky Azu with the only question I have being if I should go knock off or Superpower on it.
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Weaknesses
Fast Electric types: No switch ins for Raikou / Manectric except Garchomp and then it's a mind game between HP Ice of electric move.
Lati Twins: For both of these my only check is Azu and it has no recovery... If thats gone I get 6-0d.
Stealth Rock + Spin Blockers: Heatran plus Mega Sableye core destroys this team. Once Heatran sets up SR then its almost impossible to get SR off the field... especially if Azu gets burned. TBH this is a problem with almost all Ghost types.
Bisharp: Simple... Does massive damage to everything not named Azu with Sucker Punch and Azu dies to Iron Head. While I can 2HKO with everything except Starmie, and OHKO with everything except Scolipede on top of that... it still hurts everything.
Clefable: Not much to hit this thing with... usually I try and Endeavor on it with Scolipede which really reduces the amount of hazards I can set up.
Rotom-Wash + bulky water types: This team has a lot of trouble with these mons due to almost nothing to KO them. Rotom Wash is probably the worst of these but stuff like Azu and Manaphy gives problems too.
Talonflame: Ah yes... the bird still turns on its master. It's very hard to build an HO team without being weak to Talon in some way or another, and when your best check is Scarf Chomp you know you have a problem.
Conclusions
I could go on and on but that would make this longer than it already is so I'm going to submit it to you guys to see what you like about it and what you don't (SR Choice Scarf Chomp works guys trust me :P).
Anyways thanks ahead of time for taking the time to trek up this mountain of text regardless of whether or not you leave a comment. Have a good day, and thanks ahead of time to the Raters which work so hard on these threads.
The monster, the terror, the royalty of X and Y cores is back. I got a bird spam team for you all. I recently started laddering up on a new alt... shudder.... and that of course meant I had to once again deal with the unpredictability of the low ladder. I stared in shock as my Garchomp went down to a scarf hp ice Magnezone. That was when I knew if I was going to survive this madness... i had to go for some mindless hazard stacking offense, and then I decided to tack on a bird spam core because why not. I have so far been playing mindlessly, usually 2-3 games at a time with this team, and have reached about 1400 on ladder, and have still climbing steadily over the past few days.
The Team
AmIHuman (Scolipede) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 29 HP
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Endeavor
- Megahorn
As hazard stacking is one of the best strategies for the low ladder, I decided on lead Scolipede in order to set up my hazards. It's also one of the best mons against new players due to endeavor as many of them will immediately bring it down to its sash instead of breaking it first. The only downside to this lead is that its lack of taunt sometimes allows hazards to be set up. However it beats Starmie one of the two premiere rapid spinners in the tier. Megahorn is the only attacking move however it beats many of the psychic types I am weak to. (Zam, Latis, Starmie, ect), along with a couple of the dark types (Weavile, Tyranitar,). (For those of you wondering 29 HP IVS ensure I break other Scolipedes Sashes with Endeavor without having to risk Megamiss)
Deagle (Talonflame) (M) @ Life Orb/Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost / U-Turn
Talonflame was the beginning of the bird spam core I had in mind for with this team, and he does not disappoint. Brave Bird is the nonchalant easy 120 Base Power priority stab move that we all love. I decided to run Flare Blitz as it's not very present in this meta and also helps me beat a lot of the steels that threaten this core, (Skarnory, Scizor, Magnezone). Swords Dance instantly makes Talonflame's attack stat 574. For the last move I've been torn between roost and U-Turn. The difference between the two is huge, one loses momentum and one gains it. I've been using U-Turn as with how stealth rock weak the team is I can't afford to lose momentum ever but I'll leave it up to you guys. I've also been wondering about life orb vs. sharp beak. I've been using LO but the recoil is so damn high. For reference a brave bird to tank chomp does 43.1%-45.6% to Talonflame. However the power drop is very noticeable.
Goliath (Pinsir-Mega) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Quick Attack
- Return
- Close Combat
The second member of my Birdspam core, Mega Pinsir has always been somewhat of an enigma to me. This thing was the bane of X and Y. You couldn't build a team without having a "Counter" to this thing, especially after Aegislash left and you could run CC again. However, it's usage plummeted in ORAS for reasons unknown to me. Anyways this monster has 150 base attack and isn't giving any F**** about most teams. Heatran is Ohkoed by Close Combat, and most Skarms are 2hkoed by this thing. Usually most games end with either this or Talon cleaning, and this is also a very good wallbreaker. Swords Dance brings this things attack to a jolly good 818 attack. This combined with the 199 BP move that is Return after Aerilate and Stab causes this thing to 2HKO literally every viable pokemon in the metagame. Even Mega Aggron... the bulkiest thing with any viability in OU is 2HKOED by Close Combat, after a Swords Dance, even if Mega Aggron is max HP, max Def Bold.
(+2 252 Atk Mega Pinsir Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Filter Mega Aggron: 172-204 (50 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO)
Quick Attack is the flying type priority move that helps this to clean against most teams, and also helps to KO alot of HO threats to my team.
Aimchin (Garchomp) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Outrage/ Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
While testing this Team out this was originally Focus Sash Chomp. Problem was that after it took one hit or even SR damage, my entire team lost to Fast Electric threats such as (Mega Manectric, Raikou, Thundurus (all forms), and various other common HP Ice mons. While stealth rock is a little weird on a choice scarf set I've seen it work out marvelously on Lando-T and it is a great bluff in many games. Outrage gives me the power I need to wallbreak against much of stall, while the EdgeQuake combo helps me beat the aformentioned checks to my team, especially with the choice scarf which often makes them go for hp ice against a weakened Garchomp. Outrage is much stronger than dragon claw... but I've always been scared off outrage and with this gen its more true than ever. So while I am asking you to choose which you think would be better, I also say I'm partial to Dragon Claw. With how common the tank chomp set is this has caught a lot of teams off guard and helped to clean in quite a few games.
North (Starmie) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
Starmie is a weird mon... I'll be honest. No water stab may seem a bit weird, however Lando and Chomp are such threats to my team that I needed the Ice Coverage. As this is my Keldeo switch in I needed to be both bulky, carry Psyshock and be able to recover health. Furthermore due to how incredibly entry hazard weak my team is, this thing needed to live through much of the match. Therefore I opted to the water stabless set you see here. Max speed helps it rapid spin against most of the metagame, and 0 atk IVS ensure minimum Confusion/Foul play damage, and tbh even with 31 Atk IVS rapid spin isn't doing much damage anyway.
(0- Atk Life Orb Starmie Rapid Spin vs. -6 0 HP / 0- Def Caterpie: 135-160 (58.4 - 69.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO) While I know this attack is against Caterpie the defensive GOD, it still illustrates my point.
Midas (Azumarill) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Knock Off/Superpower
The finaly member of my team... Azumarill. Originally a Rotom-Wash I thought I was doing great until... o ya I found a Lati. This thing is my only Lati switch in and counter along with a massive portion of the rest of the metagame. (Latis, Weavile, Rain, Sand, Loppunny, Tornadus-T, Keldeo, Zard-X, Mega Altaria, Chomp, and finally Mega Sableye which is the bane of all Hazard Stacking). So ya... I guess you could call this the glue for this team. This is just standard Bulky Azu with the only question I have being if I should go knock off or Superpower on it.
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses
Fast Electric types: No switch ins for Raikou / Manectric except Garchomp and then it's a mind game between HP Ice of electric move.
Lati Twins: For both of these my only check is Azu and it has no recovery... If thats gone I get 6-0d.
Stealth Rock + Spin Blockers: Heatran plus Mega Sableye core destroys this team. Once Heatran sets up SR then its almost impossible to get SR off the field... especially if Azu gets burned. TBH this is a problem with almost all Ghost types.
Bisharp: Simple... Does massive damage to everything not named Azu with Sucker Punch and Azu dies to Iron Head. While I can 2HKO with everything except Starmie, and OHKO with everything except Scolipede on top of that... it still hurts everything.
Clefable: Not much to hit this thing with... usually I try and Endeavor on it with Scolipede which really reduces the amount of hazards I can set up.
Rotom-Wash + bulky water types: This team has a lot of trouble with these mons due to almost nothing to KO them. Rotom Wash is probably the worst of these but stuff like Azu and Manaphy gives problems too.
Talonflame: Ah yes... the bird still turns on its master. It's very hard to build an HO team without being weak to Talon in some way or another, and when your best check is Scarf Chomp you know you have a problem.
Conclusions
I could go on and on but that would make this longer than it already is so I'm going to submit it to you guys to see what you like about it and what you don't (SR Choice Scarf Chomp works guys trust me :P).
Anyways thanks ahead of time for taking the time to trek up this mountain of text regardless of whether or not you leave a comment. Have a good day, and thanks ahead of time to the Raters which work so hard on these threads.
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