Tournament OU Team Rating Competition V5 - Finals [Won by Indigo Plateau]

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Gross Sweep

Plan Ahead
is a CAP Contributoris a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus





Approved by esteemed RMT Leader IronBullet
Hosts: Gross Sweep | TPP | Anish | Simia

Welcome to the latest edition of the Team Rater Competition! The tier this time around will be SM OU. For each round we'll post a team, and participants will have one week to complete a rate of said team. When the round is over, the participants who submitted the best rates will move onto the next round. If you are eliminated and want to receive feedback on your rate, the hosts will be more than happy to provide that upon request. Each round will last one week. Failure to rate the team within the one week time period will result in disqualification unless you're able to give us a valid reason. Please only sign up if you can commit to rating one team every week for the next month. If you're currently involved in or are looking to start rating OU teams, I highly encourage you to participate as this promises to be a great learning experience. Here's to a fun and competitive tournament!

Important notes:
  • Shoutouts in the room intro of the RMT room and in RMT news.
  • The best rates of each round, and all rates in the final, will count towards the Team Rater
    badge.
  • The winner will be awarded voice status in the RMT room on PS if they have shown an interest in getting involved.
  • Each round will last one week. Failure to rate the team within the one week time period will result in disqualification unless you're able to give us a valid reason. Please only sign up if you can commit to rating one team every week for the next month.
  • If you are eliminated and would like some feedback on your rate and how you can improve going forward, feel free to ask us.
  • At the end of each round, we will announce the best rate from that round and a quick overview of what we liked in the rates submitted.
Deadline will be July 5th 11:59 PM EST.

PM your rate to Gross Sweep TPP Anish Simia

Participants:

DragonKnightmaster
Indigo Plateau
vso
Jordy
 

Gross Sweep

Plan Ahead
is a CAP Contributoris a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
Before we get into the team I just wanted to say congratulations to all the finalists! It has taken a lot of work to get here, so take some time and give this rate your all. I want this to be a hard decision.


Let’s start off with Zygarde. I went with Weakness Policy Zygarde as it’s a borderline broken Pokemon taking advantage of would be checks like Clefable and defensive Landorus. Thousand Arrows is a spammable stab, Iron Tail is amazing coverage, Extreme Speed is nice for priority, and Dragon Dance is nice to turn Zygarde into a serious win condition. The speed evs allow me to outpace through m-lopunny. Also provides me to with a ground type, which is nice + a heatran switch on.

I am going to go with Clefable for the second member of my team. Gives me some Rocks, solid fairy stab, and recovery for itself and team members. Clefable is just extremely splashable, and can really eat up hits and help check major threats.

Next I went with Toxapex. Toxapex gives me a great switch in vs threats like Greninja and Charizard-Y. It has great recovery, a fail-safe option in haze, and the ability to spread status with Toxic. Also using the Payapa berry to better check Volcarona, and the EVs plus berry is for M-Medi.

Next I went with M-Latios. A great mon in the current meta. Gives me a ground immunity, and another check to Heatran. Earthquake is for Heatran, HP Fire is for Kartana, Psychic is a great stab, and Roost is for recovery keeping me healthy. Also gives me a nice speed tier in 110 so I’m not slow as dirt.

Ferrothorn was my 5th mon. Great typing giving me an electric and psychic resist. Spikes for chip, and leech seed for the passive recovery along with lefties. Went the dual stab route on Power Whip and Gyro Ball. My team is fairly passive, so I really wanted to hazard stack, which Ferro helps me do.

Final mon was Weavile. I wanted a pursuit trapper to punish all the psychics running around. Icicle Crash + Knock Off has very switchins as you’re taking big damage or losing an item if you do even manage a good switch in. Ice Shard is for revenge killing, so even though I don’t have a scarfer I have two priority users.

Zygarde @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 240 Atk / 88 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Iron Tail

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Soft-Boiled

Toxapex @ Payapa Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Scald
- Haze
- Recover

Latios-Mega @ Latiosite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Psychic
- Roost

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball

Weavile @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
 

Gross Sweep

Plan Ahead
is a CAP Contributoris a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
The finals are upon us, but let’s not forget how we got here. Today I am here to honor the top rate from the semi-finals, which was created by DragonKnightmaster. I will note all rates made in the semi-finals were solid making this a tough round, and an even rougher decision to pick the best of the best.

DKM starts his rate off by breaking down threats, and does a good job explaining what makes them threatening. He begins his changes with Zapdos over Clefable. This change helps the team versus threats like Pinsir and Kartana, while providing the team with a defogger. His next change is Heatran over Tyranitar. The SpDef Heatran helps with psychic spam, and provides the team with a new rocker after removing Clefable. He then changes Scizor from an SD set into a Curse set helping a few key match ups like zygarde and opposing SD Scizor. Next up was optimizing the Gliscor spread. Finally DKM gave Greninja a choice scarf providing the team with the speed control it desperately desired.


Hello again, Very cool team. M-Scizor is a cool pick for bulky offense, it beats alot of common pokemon and can threaten teams that are underprepared. Again, I've looked for the most threatening things to the team. So now I'll list them and then make changes that hopefully improve your matchup vs them.

Threats to the team:

View attachment 123549: Kartana, specifically the Fightinium Z set can be a pain for the team, as it's the only one that can break through Scizor. At +2 All-Out Pummeling OHKOs even max defense M-Scizor. Greninja can easily revenge-kill it, but can never risk switching in. Which means that a well played Kartana can break holes in the team easily.

View attachment 123543/ View attachment 123544+ View attachment 123542: Rising in usage recently is M-Alakazam + Magnezone. If Scizor is trapped and removed from the game, Alakazam, specifically Modest Zam is a huge threat. Covering your whole team with Psychic + Focus Blast. Alakazam also can't be revenge-killed by Greninja. The same can be said with Tapu Lele + Magnezone, although Lele is revenge-killed by Greninja.

View attachment 123545: While not as common, M-Pinsir is still a notable threat. Your only flying resist is Tyranitar who gets beaten by coverage. Pinsir doesn't even need to setup to break through most of the team. At +2 Quick Attack even picks off Greninja due to its Hasty Nature. It can setup on Bulu, unboosted Gliscor and technically Clefable, although T-Wave annoys it.


Major Changes

View attachment 123548 > View attachment 123547: The first major change I suggest is Zapdos over Clefable, this gives you a good answer to Kartana, being able to take anything apart from a +2 Black Hole Eclipse and threatening to OHKO back with Heat Wave. It's also one of the best Pinsir answers, taking a +2 return easily and threatening back with Discharge. Zapdos also gives you a defogger which helps against spike stacking Greninja teams, allowing Bulu to come in more comfortably if you can remove the Spikes. Discharge is useful to paralyze things like Heatran and Clefable, meaning it's slightly harder for them to keep up rocks.

View attachment 123552> View attachment 123551: The next change I suggest is using SpDef Heatran over Tyranitar. This gives you a second steel type which helps in the Magnezone + Psychic type matchup, this also replaces your rocker since I removed Clefable. Heatran's incredible bulk allows it to sponge up a Psychic into a Focus Blast from Alakazam most of the time and cripple it with Toxic, wearing it down and allowing Zapdos or Gliscor to potentially Roost stall it. Heatran's moveset consists of Lava Plume as a reliable STAB, Stealth Rock, Toxic and Protect. The last move allows you to always live a Psychic + FB from Modest Zam, lets you scout for potential Z-moves from Lele and also forces M-Medicham into a 50/50 position, which is nice since I removed Clefable who was the main answer to it. The set is walled by Toxapex but you do have Gliscor to use it as setup fodder, and Zapdos to annoy it with Discharge.

Minor Changes

View attachment 123555Curse > Swords Dance: The next change I suggest is running a Curse Scizor instead of SD. This allows you to check most Zygarde variants which is good since I removed Clefable, and Bulu might get pressured by Iron Tail or a certain setup variant. Curse also allows you to beat non Fire Fang M-Mawile and opposing SD Scizor 1v1 without crits. The setup is a bit slower but still works, losing speed shouldn't matter in most cases as your main attack is priority.

View attachment 123556Spread Change: On Gliscor, instead of max Atk, you should run near max HP. 244 to maximize poison heal. 44 in defense to let you live a Play Rough + Sucker Punch from M-Mawile if Toxic Orb is activated. Same Speed EVs and the rest dumped in SpDef. This bulkier spread allows you to switch into things like Heatran and Tyranitar easily. The loss of attack shouldn't matter, as Gliscor is so bulky it can usually setup multiple times on things like Heatran, Clefable, Toxapex, Ferrothorn, and many other common mons.


View attachment 123560View attachment 123562> View attachment 123561: Lastly, on Greninja, I recommend using the Choice Scarf set. This gives you good speed control which you were lacking before, as Greninja is one of the best scarfers. It can setup Spikes, U-turn and revenge-kill alot of common threats. Some of them being Kartana, Zygarde, Landorus, M-Alakazam, opposing Greninja, Unboosted M-Pinsir, Volcarona and more. The moveset and spread is very standard, 80 SpAtk allows you to OHKO Kartana with Ice Beam, then max Speed and the rest in Atk.


Conclusion:

Overall the team was very solid and very strong, with just a few weaknesses. Most of them could more or less be played around, but I tried to fix them as best as I could. The team is a bit more defensive than before, but that shouldn't stop it from breaking through most builds thanks to three setup sweepers. You still have the option to setup Spikes, as Gliscor + Spikes is a pain for most teams to play against.

I'll leave a list of poential threats down below along with the Import. Hopefully you liked these changes, and as usual any feedback is appreciated :]

View attachment 123564: With the removal of Clefable, M-Medicham can be a pain if played well. Although you can still outplay it between Zapdos and Scizor. Not to mention Protect Heatran helps in this matchup.

View attachment 123565: The Fire Blast + Bug Buzz + HP Ground Volcarona set can be quite threatening. At +1 it can threaten the whole team. Although it shouldn't be able to get to +2 which means Greninja can revenge-kill. Volcarona isn't super common, but I would guess that's because it's hard to build around, not because it isn't a threat.

View attachment 123560/View attachment 123566: Greninja, specifically the Protean sets that have been rising in usage recently can be a bit annoying to face. With Z-Hydro Pump + Ice Beam/Gunk Shot + HP Fire/U-turn + Spikes, this set can threaten most bulky offense teams and should be watched out for. Ash-Greninja is less threatening, although if Bulu gets weakened and hazards aren't removed then it can also threaten the team.

Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Curse
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 220 SpD / 40 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Protect
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock

Tapu Bulu @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 224 HP / 216 SpD / 68 Spe
Careful Nature
- Swords Dance
- Horn Leech
- Superpower
- Synthesis

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 44 Def / 60 SpD / 160 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Earthquake
- Facade

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 236 Def / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Defog
- Discharge
- Heat Wave

Greninja @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 176 Atk / 80 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Spikes
- U-turn
- Ice Beam
- Rock Slide


I want to wish all our finalists the best of luck moving forward! It's crunch time, make sure to give your best effort!
 

Gross Sweep

Plan Ahead
is a CAP Contributoris a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
I want to say congratulations to all of our finalists for making it this far. This was an extremely competitive finals, and I hope everyone had fun! That being said I would like to congratulate Indigo Plateau on winning the 5th version of the OU Team Rating Competition! I really enjoyed managing this competition, and I hope everyone who took part had as much fun as I did. Now before we close the books on this one, I want to showcase our winning rate!

Indigo Plateau starts of his rate with a change of Heatran over Toxapex helping the team deal with Psychic Spam, Grass Spam, Celesteela, and Tornadus in a more efficient manner. He then changes Zygarde into a Choice Band set over Weakness Policy which helps pressure opponents in conjunction with the hazard stack nature of the team. He finishes up his rate by changing Hidden Power Fire on M-Latios for Ice Beam to help better deal with Gliscor while still pressuring Kartana. Overall a very solid rate, and one worthy of being crowned the newest OU Team Rating Competition Winner!

first of all, wanted to start by thanking you guys for hosting this; I didn't think I'd make it this far, but I've looked forward to every new round and had tons of fun. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading all the rates and this one doesn't let you down!

Mega Latios's versatile movepool and good offensive prowess makes it one of the best Mega Evolutions in the tier, and this is a very solid hazard stacking build around it. This team features some successful trends that make it good: a reliable defensive core of Ferrothorn + Clefable and a Pokemon which some have deemed too powerful for OU in Zygarde. However, although this team definitely has a lot of potential, there are some tweaks you can make in order to maximize its potential.



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

Let's start out with some specific threats to your team; this will help us pinpoint the weak links in the team and help more with suggestions later on.


Psychic spam is a huge problem for your team. Ferrothorn is the only Steel-type in the team that can take a Psychic from both Mega Alakazam and Tapu Lele. Weavile is outsped by Mega Alakazam and risks a wrong prediction against Tapu Lele. Seeing how common Mega Alakazam is currently, the team definitely needs a backup option against it.


Similar to Psychic spam, Grass spam can become quite problematic for your team too. Tapu Bulu can set up against Clefable and Toxapex, forcing Mega Latios and/or Weavile to come in to handle it. The problem is that with Mega Latios and Ferrothorn weakened, Kartana has no problem sweeping late game with some chip damage or a boost under its belt.


The Steel-type on your team is Ferrothorn, meaning that you possess no Flying resist. Tornadus-T spams Hurricane against the entire team, and with some good timing and pivoting, can put you in a problematic situation very quickly if you don't keep Toxapex healthy to status it.


Celesteela is a huge nuisance because it completely walls your defensive backbone, while Latios, Zygarde, and Weavile are all annoyed by Leech Seed + Heavy Slam. It gets to spam Leech Seed and then switch out to something like Landorus-T, for example, when you try to take advantage of it with Zygarde.


Mega Mawile's huge base Attack and good typing can beat your team after just one SD if Zygarde is removed. Not much to say here, as it can boost up against both Clefable and Ferrothorn and proceed to wreak havoc.

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

With these threats in mind, here are my suggestions to improve your team.

>

When closely studying your team, Toxapex invites in many of these aforementioned threats, and I believe it's the weak link of your team. For example:
1) Mega Alakazam and Tapu Lele take easy advantage of it
2) Tapu Bulu, Kartana, and Mega Mawile beat it if Toxapex doesn't Scald burn them
3) Tornadus-T can remove its item and spam Hurricane, only really fearing Toxic (which it can Regen)
4) Celesteela can spam Leech Seed easily against it

Unlike Toxapex, Heatran:
1) Provides you with a secondary Psychic resist
2) Beats all Grass-types and Mega Mawile bar switching into Fighting-type coverage
3) Doesn't mind any attack from Tornadus-T (Superpower is rare)
4) Beats Celesteela

and, in addition, its Z-Move provides your team with higher offensive capabilities while covering Pokemon that Toxapex checks, such as Mega Scizor, Clefable, and Fire-types, while maintaining Toxic to status other Pokemon. Lastly, Ferrothorn + Clefable + Heatran is a very potent backbone that's seen in a big amount of Mega Latios hazard stacking due to their defensive synergy. Heatran appreciates Clefable's Wish passing, and Heatran can break Steel-types for Clefable in return.

Choice Band > WP
I know that you wanted the team to be built around Weakness Policy Zygarde, but I think that Choice Band will benefit from your team more. Choice Band provides extremely consistent damage output, and with Wish on Clefable, you can maintain Zygarde healthy throughout the match. The point behind Choice Band on this build is to spam hazards alongside Thousand Arrows on annoiyng Pokemon to your team like Celesteela, Ferrothorn, and Torn-T, weakening them enough to where Mega Latios can come in and clean late-game. Weavile helps to remove threats to Zygarde like the Mega Eon twins, allowing CB Zygarde to spam Thousand Arrows easier. CB also makes up more for your lack of a Choice Scarf user due to its increased damage output.

Ice Beam > Hidden Power Fire
Now that Heatran was added to the team, Ice Beam helps you beat Ground-type boosters like Zygarde and Gliscor. Hidden Power Fire was primarily used for Kartana, which Ice Beam still OHKOes, and although you don't hit Ferrothorn as hard, you can use opposing Ferrothorn to hazard stack and bring in your own Heatran. Ice Beam also gives you the addition of hitting opposing Mega Eon twins, which can pose a problem if you can't trap them.



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

(click me)

Not too many changes this time around, but I do firmly believe that the changes made benefit your team more than they hinder it, and you had a really solid team to begin with. The idea behind the team is to use Weavile to trap fast threats like Mega Lati@s, follow it up by setting up hazards to spam Banded Thousand Arrows and Heatran's Z-Move, and then come in late-game with Mega Latios to clean up.

The team isn't without flaws, however. Watch out for
, as you have to keep Ferrothorn healthy throughout the match to counter it.
is still a big threat, but luckily CB Extreme Speed does more damage to it, it doesn’t come in freely on much, and you can pressure it more with Heatran than Toxapex. Lastly,
can be really annoying with Fairium Z + Focus Blast, so play aggressively around it and don't let it come in freely against Clefable or Weavile.

Hope I was able to help you out with the team; enjoy it! :toast:


Now before I let all you reading this go I want to give a special shout out to TPP Simia and Anish for putting in a lot of great work throughout the process. Also I would like to thank Snowy for helping with finals decision making, and of course IronBullet for approving the project (and being best bot). That should wrap it up, I hope to see you all back for our next rating project!
 

Indigo Plateau

is a Community Leaderis a Top Tiering Contributoris a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Past SCL Champion
UU Leader
just wanted to formally post & thank all the hosts for their work in running this (Gross Sweep TPP Anish Simia) as well as anyone else who might’ve helped either before or along the way (Snowy IronBullet), and ofc congratulations to the other finalists (vso DragonKnightmaster Jordy) for making it this far

you guys are all awesome & I had a ton fun participating in this n_n

e @ below: thanks everyone :]
 
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