Project SV OU Good Cores

[Magcargo]

Offensive Core
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Sets

Iron Crown @ Assault Vest / Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Future Sight / Psyshock
- Tachyon Cutter
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast

Samurott-Hisui @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Assault Vest / Choice Scarf
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Ghost / Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ceaseless Edge
- Razor Shell / Aqua Cutter
- Knock Off
- Flip Turn / Encore / Sacred Sword

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water / Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe OR 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Bold / Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- U-turn
- Psychic / Taunt / Grass Knot

Popularized by Mimikyu Stardust, this is a fairly popular and flexible core that I've been seeing more on bulky offense teams lately. This core covers a lot of checkboxes when teambuilding, featuring both Spikes and Stealth Rock, Future Sight support, Knock Off, and all three commonly used pivot moves (U-turn, Volt Switch, and Flip Turn). Iron Crown, Samurott-H, and Lando-T also have remarkably strong defensive synergy with one another, resisting every type in the game & having solid match-ups into some of the most threatening Pokemon in the metagame, including Gholdengo, Kyurem, Gouging Fire, Kingambit, Glimmora, Zamazenta, and Slowking-G. Sets are fairly flexible as well depending on team needs. For example, if speed control is needed, Samurott-H can run scarf (as can Lando-T and Crown, though I haven't tested this set on those two Pokemon yet). This core has some weak spots, namely with hazard control, and Ogerpon, so it pairs well with other pivoty mons like Cinderace and Dragapult.

 

[Dreadfury]

In the spirit of writing about the Gouging Fire analysis, I figured I'd bring up this core:

Sets

Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 SpD
Tera Type: Flying
Bold Nature
- Lava Plume
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Will-O-Wisp

Walking Wake @ Choice Specs
Ability: Protosynthesis
EVs: 12 HP / 244 SpA / 252 Spe OR 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Tera Type: Water
Timid Nature
- Hydro Steam
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Flip Turn

Gouging Fire @ Choice Band
Ability: Protosynthesis
EVs: 88 HP / 168 Atk / 252 Spe OR 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Tera Type: Fire
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- Raging Fury
- Flare Blitz
- Dragon Claw / Outrage / Heat Crash
- Earthquake

This weather-based offensive core hits insanely hard on both ends of the spectrum, and both Gouging Fire and Walking Wake can mix and match Speed-boosting or offense-boosting Protosynthesis EV spreads to make the core even more difficult to play around. Torkoal sets up the mandatory sun with Drought and sets up Stealth Rock to force chip damage against opposing teams. Gouging Fire's boosted Raging Fury and Flare Blitz 2HKO the vast majority of the tier, and with an Adamant nature, Attack Protosynthesis, and Tera Fire it 2HKOs literally everything in the tier besides Breaking Swipe Gouging Fire, Pelipper, and Flash Fire users like Heatran with Raging Fury alone. Walking Wake offers a better Speed tier, can nuke physical walls like Alomomola and Dondozo with Specs Draco Meteor, and can even use Flip Turn to get Gouging Fire in safely against would-be Wake answers like Blissey and AV Galarian Slowking where Gouging Fire can follow up by KOing something on the switch.

This core is dependent on hazard control from Great Tusk/Iron Treads and Hatterene since sun teams are naturally very prone to being worn down by hazards, and sweepers like Kingambit, Chlorophyll users like Venusaur and H-Lilligant, and CM Raging Bolt can capitalize on any sort of gaping holes blown open by Wake+Gouging.

 

[Lum x Duc]

Offensive Core

Iron Jugulis x Rain
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since ban rain has been pretty much disregarded from the meta. However I believe that rain even now without is still plenty viable, let me explain:

Rain nowadays really struggles vs dragons and mainly grass types since, there’s nothing in the standard rain build that hits grass types for super effective except for

If you’re running rain you’re also lacking some offensive powerhouse that is also usable in a rather oppressive way, like

That are some things I noticed when building rain and with enough tinkering in the builder I found one mon that seemed like a perfect fit to rain

Enter:

Jugulis is unique, in the way that it’s a hurricane user, which can carry booster energy to enhance its speed (walking wake also gets hurricane, but it doesn’t do nearly as much in rain, I’ll explain later)

it also gets nice dark stab to threaten a possible 2hko on incoming but that’s not all
It becomes really oppressive once you take a closer look into its kit and see that it can both run earth power, for incoming steels, most notably aswell as taunt to punish status attempts, like for example Tera chilly reception or setup opportunities like dragon dance, not only that thanks to its flying typing + taunt it also single-handedly can turn balance running , , into good matchups, since and usually can’t touch and gets 2hkoed by hurricane, specially defensive variants still get 2hkoed by Tera Flying, not to mention that Hurricane always forces either a Tera or a switch on rains worst matchup being

thanks to its surprisingly good bulk it can beat a lot of mons that rain usually would struggle against for example the previously mentioned
With Tera you can even beat other offensive powerhouses such as or even

Jugulis really struggles with three things: 1. against mons that are faster than it, 2. Having to rely on 70% accurate Flying stab (hurricane) and 3. .
This is where rain comes in: mons faster than it, usually booster or booster speed both get outsped by and hurricane becomes 101% accurate under rain, meaning it can’t ever miss, unless the opposing mon is in a semi-invulnerable state ( phantom force for example). Likewise if your is facing a grass type let’s say you can most of the time even hard switch into it and you’ll have an advantageous position from there, since nothing in this meta opposes an immediate threat to
. poses a threat to since it can’t be smacked for a lot of damage, the maximum amount of damage ironpress takes from earth power is 40% which, not bad does not result in a good damage trade for you since is weak to salt cure. This is another example in which rain comes in to save the day, since many rain threats are water types, therefore inherently win vs most notably and force it to Tera, after it Tera’s it usually becomes more vulnerable to or a thunder user for example


Set:


Iron Jugulis @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Flying / Ground
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Hurricane
- Taunt
- Earth Power / Focus Blast


-Tera Ground serves to beat in 1v1s

-Tera Flying serves to break defensive walls and ohko threats it usually wouldn’t such as or specially defensive

-Focus Blast is there to ohko aswell as hitting for larger damage, however its focus blast, and you miss out on ohkoing glimmora aswell, wouldn’t recommend!

Thanks for checking out my very first Thread on the Forum!!

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[veti]

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Weather Ball should be removed from Raging Bolt

 

[Dreadfury]

Blissey @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk
Tera Type: Dark / Water / Fairy
Calm Nature
- Seismic Toss / Flamethrower / Alluring Voice
- Calm Mind / Protect
- Soft-Boiled
- Stealth Rock / Flamethrower / Heal Bell


Dondozo @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Tera Type: Fighting / Dark / Grass
Impish Nature
- Waterfall / Body Press
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

This defensive core is the face of practically every Stall team and features the definitive special wall paired with the definitive physical wall. Between this duo the majority of offensive threats can be blanket walled, with some exceptions. Blissey can't reliably handle Taunt+CM Raging Bolt without Alluring Voice, for instance.

Teammates like Corviknight, Magic Guard Clefable, and Gliscor (as well as Sticky Hold users like Hydrapple and the rare Muk) are useful in being able to absorb Knock Off. Iron Defense Corviknight is a good answer to Ursaluna specifically, which can force a ton of progress against these bulkier squads.

 

[Duck Chris]

balance/bulky offense core

SETS

Alomomola @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
IVs: 0 Spe
Tera Type: Flying
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Flip Turn
- Wish
- Protect

Ursaluna @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 124 HP / 252 Atk / 132 Spe
Tera Type: Ghost
Adamant Nature
- Facade
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Trailblaze

Alomomola + Wallbreaker
This core operates by alternating between soaking hits with Alomomola and passing wishes into Ursaluna to break some walls. Alomomola is one of the best defensive pivots in the game with regenerator to absorb neutral hits and a good defensive typing. With heavy duty boots and wish, Alomomola can come in many times without caring for hazards and click wish and flip turn. Low speed means you can almost always pass a wish safely into your slower teammates allowing them to come in safely and restore to full health, and as a bonus flip turn can pop balloons for ursaluna.

Ursaluna is the chosen Wallbreaker here with extremely potent breaking capability with just a few moves. Facade hits ridiculously hard with guts flame orb and earthquake cleans up steels and ghosts, leaving Skarmory and Corviknight as the only reliable switches, allowing Alomomola to come right back in safely. Ice punch targets gliscor landorus and dragonite and trailblaze can be a surprise wrinkle for offensive opponents. Can also be substituted for drain punch or thunder punch.

Ursaluna also makes opponents think twice about moves that would otherwise threaten Alomomola such as Toxic, Thunder Wave, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, and Hex.

Other options: Ursaluna can slash basically whatever move it wants as 90% of the time it will click a stab move. Alomomola can fit mirror coat with a more specially defensive spread to absorb things like primarina surfs, though it usually prefers to be able to tank Ivy Cudgel a little better. Alternatively other Wallbreakers such as or nasty plot can be used instead of Ursaluna in order to retain some more speed in exchange for breaking power.

Team options: This core is weak to strong grass offense like and and strong special attackers that can threaten Alomomola such as so a good partner would be something that counters these such as which can also help pivot, absorb toxic spikes, and help shut down weather.

Tournament replays with this core
hellom SPL week 6
pdt SPL week 4
tko SPL week 4 (Hoopa version)

 

[Heatranator]

Sets

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 168 HP / 88 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Grass Knot
- Earth Power
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp

Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ivy Cudgel
- Power Whip
- Play Rough

This is a balanced core, and one that I have been having fun with recently. The core starts out with landorus therian and heatran, two mons that cover each others weaknesses almost perfectly. Landorus-t is quad weak to ice moves and weak to water type moves, which can sometimes be annoying for lando-t to switch into due to ice moves being more ubiquitous then they should probably be. This is where Heatran comes in, it quad resists ice type moves, which means something like kyurem or weavile which might threaten lando-t is stonewalled by it, weavile especially due to lando-t's intimidate which means that its knock offs are doing less damage. In return for walling ice types, lando-t can take on the fighting and ground types that threaten heatran effectively, being immune to ground type attacks entirely while resisting fighting type moves.
They also form a powerful offensive team, with fire+ground only being resisted by 13 mons you can use in OU, which is of course not a lot. For reference, the only OU ranked mon that can resist both moves is Dragonite, which is threatened by Heatran's will-o-wisp. This allows them to deal great damage to the majority of teams. Grass knot and the specifc special attack evs mean that after one layer of spikes, grass knot is a guarenteed ohko on tusk, plus many other ground types that might want to switch in such as ting-lu will be chunked immensly.
Now, the main weakness of stacking these two mons is that they are both weak to water, this can be overcome by adding ogerpon wellspring into the mix. Due to its water absorb ability, any water type moves will be doing -25% damage to it, which is great for both lando-t and heatran. From there, it can start blasting the opponent with ivy cudgel's or power whips. It even helps a bit in the dragonite macthup and tusk matchup. Against dragonite, it can use play rough to destroy it if multiscale is removed, which lando-t can do by using u-turn on the switch. Against tusk, which commonly runs ice spinner, it can't do much against waterpon, allowing a free sd. It appreciates the defensive backbone that heatran and lando-t provide. Kyurem is a problematic matchup for it due to it living a play rough and being able to ko it back with freeze dry. Heatran can help in that regard, quad resisting the ice type move. Heatran can also help against things such as glowking which may be able to stomach a hit from waterpon and deal massive damage to it back with sludge bomb or t-wave it. Lando-t can take the u-turns that are used against waterpon and damage the opponent for trying to play around it.
This core does appreciate support from mons such as glowking in order to deal with HDB kyurem, which can be a bit of a problem for this core. However, careful use of tera can help out in this regard.

 

[658Greninja]

Defensive Core

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Sets
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers/Heavy-Duty-Boots
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Poison/Ghost/Water/Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Spikes/Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Ruination/Heavy Slam

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Moltres @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Fairy/Dragon/Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- U-turn/Roar/Hurricane/Brave Bird
- Roost

(12 Spe to outrun Jolly Gambit)

The Mons In A Vacuum
Ting-Lu is a fantastic special sponge and Vert’s son. It trades with nearly every thing while getting up hazards and generally being annoying. Ruination is free chip, Whirlwind racks up hazard damage or prevents sweeps. Heavy Slam is an option to bash through Fairies like Clef, Val, and especially Hatt.

Moltres is an anti-meta pick that checks several physical attackers with Flame Body, Wisp, its solid Fire/Flying typing, and natural bulk. Molt can also tech options like U-Turn to act as a defensive pivot, Roar to phaze out Volc, Hurricane or Brave Bird as secondary STAB, the latter can smack physically frail mons like Prima, Glowking, Blissey, Clod, etc.

Core Explanation
The reasonings go beyond one being physically bulky and the other being specially bulky. Molt tends to struggle with Raging Bolt and it appreciates hazards to make its status spreading and pivoting more obnoxious. Ting-Lu covers both things. In return, Molt annoys Tusk, Rilla, Grasspon, and Zama with burns (watch for Knock tho) while also checking Enamorus. Molt also pivots on Glowking to allow Ting-Lu to either get up more hazards or get off a bit of Lefties recovery.

Weaknesses
This core shares weaknesses to offensive Waters (especially Wogre), SD Gliscor, and Knock Off, as both of them are heavily reliant on their items to stay on the field. Kyurem is also quite annoying for this core.

Partners
But there is a way to circumvent these issues. We have 4 empty slots for a reason.

Mola is a strong supporter for Ting-Lu as they both complement each other defensively and Mola’s Wish support provides further longevity for Ting-Lu. It also acts as a semi-Knock absorber and can pivot on SD Gliscor, which benefits the core.

Ting/Gking/Bird is a classic defensive core that still works well in DLC2. Glowking can help with the Primarina matchup and since Ting-Lu and Molt covers Raging Bolt, Gambit, and Ghold nicely, you have more freedom to run options like T-Wave or Ice Beam which also smacks Gliscor.

Ting/Molt hate Kyurem and these four are valuable to the core in more ways than being Kyurem checks. Gambit appreciates Molt’s ability to annoy Tusk, Zama, and Val while appreciating Ting-Lu as a Ghold check so it can preserve its HP. Plus it gives the core a nice cleaner to go with it. Specs Crown is an underrated wallbreaker that can shred through bulkier builds with strong Tachyon Cutter and Psyshock/Psychic Noise. It also Volt Switches on Glowking to bring in Ting-Lu for hazards and anti-lead Glimmora. Ghold can block spin to keep Ting-Lu’s hazards up while giving the team an excellent wallbreaker. Tinkaton is a partner you sometimes see with Ting/Molt. They both hate Knock Off and Tinkaton can semi-punish it with Pickpocket. Tinka also forms a hazard stacking core with Ting-Lu, and click Knocks.

Pult complements the core as speed control that sort of checks Wogre. It functions as a spinblocker to keep Ting-Lu’s hazards up, and spreads status like wild fire with Moltres.

Ting/Molt/Zama cteams many HO builds. Zama nicely covers the Wogre, Samu, and Darkrai matchup while Ting/Molt cover the Ghosts nicely. Roar Zama can also abuse the hazards Ting-Lu lays down.

Dnite covers the Wogre matchup while providing the team with speed control. Molt can enable a DD sweep by burning its checks, Dnite threatens Glowking with EQ or Gliscor with Ice Spinner. Plus it enjoys the hazards layed out by Ting-Lu.

This core hates Water types. Grasspon speed ties with Wogre, clicks Knock to enable hazards, locks Prima into CM with Encore, and brings in Molt/Ting with U-Turn. With Molt, it forms a nice pivot core. Sinistcha matches up well into Wogre and spinblocks Ting-Lu’s hazards. The teapot appreciates the core’s ability to check the Dark, Ghost, and Fire types it hates. Amoonguss is another semi-Knock absorber that matches up well into Wogre. Worry Seed can annoy Gliscor which this core dislikes and Amoonguss likes being paired with mons that abuse Corv/Ghold.

The core appreciates Balance breakers like Hatt, in Hatt’s case, its especially for the ability to keep hazards out.

As stated earlier, Ting/Molt loves and supports strong wallbreakers, especially those that exploit Gliscor/Glowking with Molt being able to bring them in. Prima gives the team a check to Samu and Weavile while appreciating the Spikes Ting-Lu lays down. Samu forms a hazard stacking core with Ting and enjoys the company of Moltres. Kyu, Darkrai, and Weavile are all wallbreakers that crush Gliscor’s spirit. The latter gives the team a strong Knock abuser for Ting-Lu’s hazards. Hoopa crushes bulky teams and can pivot into Boots Kyu.

Molt and Ting-Lu allow Tusk to run more offensive spreads. HLR/Spinner/Knock is scary to switch into and Tusk provides hazard control.

Weezing punishes Gliscor and Glowking with Neutralizing Gas. It also checks Samurott and freely clicks Defog. Even as Ghold comes in, Ting/Molt are enough to check it.

The core hates Knock, and Clef is one of the best Knock absorbers out there. It also can switch into Gliscor and get up Rocks, freeing up Spikes on Ting-Lu.