SM OU My first team

[RoyalReloaded]

Hello I am Royal. I have been playing competitive pokemon for a long time but I only used sample teams. I'm really terrible at teambuilding so I just went on smogon and looked at what pokemon worked well together and pasted them onto a team. It worked kinda well. I tried this method with another team and it really didn't work at all. I'd love some help teambuilding, but for now please check out my first team :) I made this team a while ago.

Disclaimer: I don't really have a lot to explain about the sets because I took them all from smogon. I'm so sorry that my descriptions are pretty bad but idk what to say about them really

(Kyurem-Black) @ Icium Z
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Freeze Shock
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power

I decided to build around Kyurem black because I wanted to take advantage of him as a counter for Landorus. I picked this set because I thought the Z move would be good to fire off on some of the other OU threats, and it would do a hearty amount of damage to each of them. Earth power is there for heatran, which is pretty much the only pokemon that I am willing to stay in on that won't take a lot from Subzero Slammer.

Police (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball

Next I have ferrothorn. I added him as my stealth rocker and scizor counter. He came to mind because I thought of Kyurem Black getting eaten alive by bullet punches. I also added him because at this point I had already added Mega-Scizor and Landorus which would allow for volt-turning if i was able to get a read and I could go out into my wall and hopefully get a free stealth rock or leech seed.

Teracy (Keldeo-Resolute) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Scald
- Icy Wind

I decided to add Keldeo because I noticed that my team got bodied by Mega Charizard Y and max speed Keldeo outspeeds it by just a few points. Hydro pump one hit ko's it in the rain which is great, and sacred sword is really good for Kartana, Scizor, and Ferrothorn. Choice specs are really good to ensure the KO on some targets that the rest of my team has a hard time with

Azazel (Scizor) (M) @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Defog
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Roost

I decided to add Mega scizor because I didn't have any other megas and I wanted one that could reliably volt turn and be a defogger just in case my landorus went down. I also used it for some priority in case my Keldeo and or Landorus went down and I wanted to outspeed an immediate threat.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Discharge
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Heat Wave
- Roost

I used Zapdos as a counter to Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Kartana because Keldeo can't do it alone. Also in the rare case of a pelipper, I wanted to have something that could scare it out. I tried to use him as a defensive wall sometimes but that does not really work out, so most times I just try to use him as a pivot if I don't have a speed advantage.

Socks (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 80 HP / 148 Atk / 84 Def / 196 Spe
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Defog

Lastly I added Landorus. I wanted to use a scarfed Landorus so I could outspeed other Landorus' and hit them with a hidden power ice. He's also my primary defogger and u-turn user so I can pivot into other pokemon. Sometimes I find it a bit difficult to get off a defog at all because most times I just want to hit the enemy with something hard before they hit me and I go down.


thank you for checking out my team, I think it's okay. I mainly just want help with team building because I want to be able to make my own teams and not use methods like this. I want to learn more about the game and learn about what goes well with what and how to make a great team, thank you :)​

 

[Selurkcup]

I think the obvious problem is that this gets obliterated by Zard-Y, Volk, of pretty much any strong fire types, as Keldeo can be worn down pretty easily due to no recovery. I personally would only use one of Scizor or Ferro, as they don't really cover each other's weaknesses at all, and are both very slow. Mega Latias/Latios could be a good choice or even Mega Alteria if you like something fun.

 

[HyperRayaquaza007]

Your team has a good foundation but needs work. For one, your landorus has 0 sp Atk investment, so HP ice doesn’t actually do anything. Choice scarf landorus is quite common, and your not ko’ing diddly squat with the investment you have. Instead, I use choice scarf lando as a revenge killer by maxing the attack stats and putting speed with choice scarf.


For another, Keldeo is a terrible check to Zard y. Charizard has drought. You know, the thing that WEAKENS WATER TYPE MOVES WHILE GIVING IT A ONE TURN SOLAR BEAM? Just that little thing. But seriously. I actually use Zard y as a keldeo answer. And Keldeo is easy enough to kill. Once it’s gone, your team is free to be anhiilated by zard y. So change your mega.


But the biggest problem is that your team doesn’t know what it is. Is it a bulky offense? Well you have no offense. You don’t have a set up sweeper or anything close to that. Is it a defensive team? Well if it is, you have a crippling weakness to fire. Is it a Hyper offense? Well, there is no offense.

Your kyurem set doesn’t really work with your team. Yes, it has a one time nuke. But after that, you have a dead slot (because freeze shock sucks) and a kyurem with not enough sp Atk to be useful. By investing more into sp Atk (relying on kyurem’s naturally insane Atk) and speed, and maybe using a Life Orb set so you can have some offensive presence, you could really improve it.

All in all, your team lacks anyway to destroy opposing Pokémon, and a set up sweeper. It doesn’t have offensive presence. In playtesting, I found that 10 times out of 10, a stall team or well played Zard y could 6-0 this team. Whenever I got a win, it was usually from luck.

 

[RoyalReloaded]

Thank you for the advice. Basically, I'm looking for help with teambuilding, can someone point me in the right direction?

 

[HyperRayaquaza007]

Thank you for the advice. Basically, I'm looking for help with teambuilding, can someone point me in the right direction?

Hmm, I would suggest a few things. For one, lurking on smogon could be helpful. I didn’t even post my first team until 2 years after making my account! For another, YouTube can be helpful. A good YouTuber with a comprehensive guide on team building would be PokèAim MD. He’s really good, watch his videos and his team building guide especially. You’ll get a lot of info. YouTube in general (and not verlisify) can be helpful to you. A lot of you tubers have decent guides on teams. Best of luck to you.

 

[Indigo Plateau]

Hey xRoyal64! Your team definitely has potential, but there are quite a few flaws from a teambuilding aspect. I know you said that you wanted some help teambuilding, and I'll try to point these out with all the changes I make during my rate.

Upon looking at your team, the first flaw I see is Ferrothorn + Scizor. Having two Pokemon that are both 4x weak to Heatran is very ill-advised, especially given Heatran's popularity in the current metagame. You stated that you added Ferrothorn to handle Scizor (which it loses to 1v1), but your following 3 members (Keldeo, Scizor, and Zapdos) can all fulfill this role as well. Ferrothorn isn't a bad partner to Kyurem-B per se, but you usually want to take a more offensive approach with it.

Next, some of your sets are a bit subpar. Both physically defensive Defog Scizor and Choice Specs Keldeo are currently pretty bad and leave your team more exposed to threats like Mega Alakazam and Ash-Greninja. This might just be you being out of touch with the meta but it was still worth pointing out.

With all that said, let's get into some changes and why I feel they would benefit your team both from a teambuilding and ingame aspect.

=========================

Let's start by talking about some threats to your team:

Fire-types like Heatran, Volcarona, and Victini can be extremely annoying for your team to face since the Fire-type resistances on this team consist of Keldeo. These can come in for free vs. Ferrothorn and Scizor and without recovery, you're bound to struggle with them.

Greninja can get pretty annoying since Keldeo gets worn down really easily with hazards + handling Fire-types too. Ice Beam + HP Fire on Protean Greninja can beat everything bar Kyurem + Keldeo easily, both of which have no recovery.

Despite having two Steel-types, some Psychic-types like Mega Latios and Mega Alakazam can get really annoying. Mega Alakazam can 2HKO Scizor and Ferrothorn and then Psychic is sweeping through your team pretty easily, and Mega Latios with the right coverage an dent your team.

Celesteela can single handedly beat Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Lando-T and can heavily annoy the other members of your team bar Zapdos, which has to potentially deal with Leech Seed + hazards.

=========================

Now let's look at my suggestions to improve your team:

>

My first suggestion is running Tapu Fini > Ferrothorn. This helps you with the problem you had against Fire-types and also provides you with a Defog user so that Scizor doesn't need to run it. Tapu Fini also helps you somewhat against Greninja bar Gunk Shot on Protean and you can Taunt Celesteela to prevent it from recovering health in a pinch.

>

Next, I really don't like Keldeo in the current meta and I think you should replace it with Greninja. You could try both Ash and Protean here, but I'll be recommending Protean for now as its expansive coverage can help wear down things for Kyurem. Gunk Shot + HP Fire + Ice Beam can really help dent things like Tapu Fini, Ferrothorn, Mawile, and Magearna for Kyurem. Greninja also gives you better speed control than Keldeo and allows you to have a better matchup against Mega Lati@s and Torn-T.

Impish, 248 HP / 16 Def / 244 SpD
This is pretty straightforward & from the SmogDex: "248 HP, 16 Defense EVs, and an Impish nature allows Mega Scizor to avoid getting 2HKOed by Sacred Sword from Choice Band Kartana after Stealth Rock damage. The rest of the EVs are put into Special Defense to more comfortable take on Magearna, Mega Alakazam, and Tapu Lele."

Optional:

>

This isn't necessary, but if you want an extra pivot for Kyurem (plus Electric Terrain) and want your team to be slightly more offensive with extra Speed, you could run Tapu Koko > Zapdos. 3 attack Zapdos does a good job at annoying most builds though so no need to change it if you don't want to.

=========================


(Click me!)

Above is the team with the new changes (the Tapu Koko version is included in the paste too). Some things that you should watch out for are

, since if Fini gets worn down it's gonna be pretty hard to beat it (Tapu Koko version is better off vs it),

is still annoying if Fini gets worn down, and

can get really scary if you let Scizor take too much damage. Hope I did a good job explaining everything, and feel free to shoot me a PM whenever with extra questions. Good luck

 

[RoyalReloaded]

Hey xRoyal64! Your team definitely has potential, but there are quite a few flaws from a teambuilding aspect. I know you said that you wanted some help teambuilding, and I'll try to point these out with all the changes I make during my rate.

Upon looking at your team, the first flaw I see is Ferrothorn + Scizor. Having two Pokemon that are both 4x weak to Heatran is very ill-advised, especially given Heatran's popularity in the current metagame. You stated that you added Ferrothorn to handle Scizor (which it loses to 1v1), but your following 3 members (Keldeo, Scizor, and Zapdos) can all fulfill this role as well. Ferrothorn isn't a bad partner to Kyurem-B per se, but you usually want to take a more offensive approach with it.

Next, some of your sets are a bit subpar. Both physically defensive Defog Scizor and Choice Specs Keldeo are currently pretty bad and leave your team more exposed to threats like Mega Alakazam and Ash-Greninja. This might just be you being out of touch with the meta but it was still worth pointing out.

With all that said, let's get into some changes and why I feel they would benefit your team both from a teambuilding and ingame aspect.

=========================

Let's start by talking about some threats to your team:

Fire-types like Heatran, Volcarona, and Victini can be extremely annoying for your team to face since the Fire-type resistances on this team consist of Keldeo. These can come in for free vs. Ferrothorn and Scizor and without recovery, you're bound to struggle with them.

Greninja can get pretty annoying since Keldeo gets worn down really easily with hazards + handling Fire-types too. Ice Beam + HP Fire on Protean Greninja can beat everything bar Kyurem + Keldeo easily, both of which have no recovery.

Despite having two Steel-types, some Psychic-types like Mega Latios and Mega Alakazam can get really annoying. Mega Alakazam can 2HKO Scizor and Ferrothorn and then Psychic is sweeping through your team pretty easily, and Mega Latios with the right coverage an dent your team.

Celesteela can single handedly beat Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Lando-T and can heavily annoy the other members of your team bar Zapdos, which has to potentially deal with Leech Seed + hazards.

=========================

Now let's look at my suggestions to improve your team:

>

My first suggestion is running Tapu Fini > Ferrothorn. This helps you with the problem you had against Fire-types and also provides you with a Defog user so that Scizor doesn't need to run it. Tapu Fini also helps you somewhat against Greninja bar Gunk Shot on Protean and you can Taunt Celesteela to prevent it from recovering health in a pinch.

>

Next, I really don't like Keldeo in the current meta and I think you should replace it with Greninja. You could try both Ash and Protean here, but I'll be recommending Protean for now as its expansive coverage can help wear down things for Kyurem. Gunk Shot + HP Fire + Ice Beam can really help dent things like Tapu Fini, Ferrothorn, Mawile, and Magearna for Kyurem. Greninja also gives you better speed control than Keldeo and allows you to have a better matchup against Mega Lati@s and Torn-T.

Impish, 248 HP / 16 Def / 244 SpD
This is pretty straightforward & from the SmogDex: "248 HP, 16 Defense EVs, and an Impish nature allows Mega Scizor to avoid getting 2HKOed by Sacred Sword from Choice Band Kartana after Stealth Rock damage. The rest of the EVs are put into Special Defense to more comfortable take on Magearna, Mega Alakazam, and Tapu Lele."

Optional:

>

This isn't necessary, but if you want an extra pivot for Kyurem (plus Electric Terrain) and want your team to be slightly more offensive with extra Speed, you could run Tapu Koko > Zapdos. 3 attack Zapdos does a good job at annoying most builds though so no need to change it if you don't want to.

=========================


(Click me!)

Above is the team with the new changes (the Tapu Koko version is included in the paste too). Some things that you should watch out for are

, since if Fini gets worn down it's gonna be pretty hard to beat it (Tapu Koko version is better off vs it),

is still annoying if Fini gets worn down, and

can get really scary if you let Scizor take too much damage. Hope I did a good job explaining everything, and feel free to shoot me a PM whenever with extra questions. Good luck

Hi, thank you so much, I appreciate this help a lot :)

 

[737373elj]

Hey xRoyal64! Your team definitely has potential, but there are quite a few flaws from a teambuilding aspect. I know you said that you wanted some help teambuilding, and I'll try to point these out with all the changes I make during my rate.

Upon looking at your team, the first flaw I see is Ferrothorn + Scizor. Having two Pokemon that are both 4x weak to Heatran is very ill-advised, especially given Heatran's popularity in the current metagame. You stated that you added Ferrothorn to handle Scizor (which it loses to 1v1), but your following 3 members (Keldeo, Scizor, and Zapdos) can all fulfill this role as well. Ferrothorn isn't a bad partner to Kyurem-B per se, but you usually want to take a more offensive approach with it.

Next, some of your sets are a bit subpar. Both physically defensive Defog Scizor and Choice Specs Keldeo are currently pretty bad and leave your team more exposed to threats like Mega Alakazam and Ash-Greninja. This might just be you being out of touch with the meta but it was still worth pointing out.

With all that said, let's get into some changes and why I feel they would benefit your team both from a teambuilding and ingame aspect.

=========================

Let's start by talking about some threats to your team:

Fire-types like Heatran, Volcarona, and Victini can be extremely annoying for your team to face since the Fire-type resistances on this team consist of Keldeo. These can come in for free vs. Ferrothorn and Scizor and without recovery, you're bound to struggle with them.

Greninja can get pretty annoying since Keldeo gets worn down really easily with hazards + handling Fire-types too. Ice Beam + HP Fire on Protean Greninja can beat everything bar Kyurem + Keldeo easily, both of which have no recovery.

Despite having two Steel-types, some Psychic-types like Mega Latios and Mega Alakazam can get really annoying. Mega Alakazam can 2HKO Scizor and Ferrothorn and then Psychic is sweeping through your team pretty easily, and Mega Latios with the right coverage an dent your team.

Celesteela can single handedly beat Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Lando-T and can heavily annoy the other members of your team bar Zapdos, which has to potentially deal with Leech Seed + hazards.

=========================

Now let's look at my suggestions to improve your team:

>

My first suggestion is running Tapu Fini > Ferrothorn. This helps you with the problem you had against Fire-types and also provides you with a Defog user so that Scizor doesn't need to run it. Tapu Fini also helps you somewhat against Greninja bar Gunk Shot on Protean and you can Taunt Celesteela to prevent it from recovering health in a pinch.

>

Next, I really don't like Keldeo in the current meta and I think you should replace it with Greninja. You could try both Ash and Protean here, but I'll be recommending Protean for now as its expansive coverage can help wear down things for Kyurem. Gunk Shot + HP Fire + Ice Beam can really help dent things like Tapu Fini, Ferrothorn, Mawile, and Magearna for Kyurem. Greninja also gives you better speed control than Keldeo and allows you to have a better matchup against Mega Lati@s and Torn-T.

Impish, 248 HP / 16 Def / 244 SpD
This is pretty straightforward & from the SmogDex: "248 HP, 16 Defense EVs, and an Impish nature allows Mega Scizor to avoid getting 2HKOed by Sacred Sword from Choice Band Kartana after Stealth Rock damage. The rest of the EVs are put into Special Defense to more comfortable take on Magearna, Mega Alakazam, and Tapu Lele."

Optional:

>

This isn't necessary, but if you want an extra pivot for Kyurem (plus Electric Terrain) and want your team to be slightly more offensive with extra Speed, you could run Tapu Koko > Zapdos. 3 attack Zapdos does a good job at annoying most builds though so no need to change it if you don't want to.

=========================


(Click me!)

Above is the team with the new changes (the Tapu Koko version is included in the paste too). Some things that you should watch out for are

, since if Fini gets worn down it's gonna be pretty hard to beat it (Tapu Koko version is better off vs it),

is still annoying if Fini gets worn down, and

can get really scary if you let Scizor take too much damage. Hope I did a good job explaining everything, and feel free to shoot me a PM whenever with extra questions. Good luck

Just adding on this, You could change your Lando-T set to Stealth Rock if you want :)

 

[Indigo Plateau]

Just adding on this, You could change your Lando-T set to Stealth Rock if you want :)

woops yeah that’s supposed to be SR, thanks for noticing!

 

[SheerForce]

Your team has a good foundation but needs work. For one, your landorus has 0 sp Atk investment, so HP ice doesn’t actually do anything. Choice scarf landorus is quite common, and your not ko’ing diddly squat with the investment you have.

Just noting that this specifically is poor advice, as Lando-T has been running uninvested HP Ice for quite some time now, mostly to cover against itself and Gliscor. That being said, it’s more commonly seen on defensive sets and Gliscor shouldn’t be a huge concern for a team with Kyurem, but I just want to make sure that other people reading the analysis don’t get the impression that it’s always a bad choice for a move.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

hp ice is just a waste of a slot

No, it's not. Even uninvested, HP Ice gets the necessary 2HKOs.

0 SpA Landorus-Therian Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 220-260 (57.5 - 68%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Landorus-Therian Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 208-248 (49.5 - 59%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Landorus-Therian Hidden Power Ice vs. 244 HP / 76 SpD Gliscor: 208-248 (59 - 70.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Poison Heal

 

[PsyducksChili]

No, it's not. Even uninvested, HP Ice gets the necessary 2HKOs.

0 SpA Landorus-Therian Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 220-260 (57.5 - 68%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Landorus-Therian Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 208-248 (49.5 - 59%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Landorus-Therian Hidden Power Ice vs. 244 HP / 76 SpD Gliscor: 208-248 (59 - 70.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Poison Heal

Sorry i was a really shitty teambuilder at the time lmao