OU USUM OU Victim of the Week! Week 13: Rain Sweeper Mega Swampert

[j0nathan]

Check:
Counter:

 

[zinnias]

Mega Lati and Synth Kartana

 

[Astoria]

lati for check and mega bro as counter since its easier to use than quag outside of stall

 

[DaRotomMachine]

check:
counter:
edit: apparently can't vote for own

 

[j0nathan]

check:
counter:

You can't vote for your own stuff, that would ruin this format

 

[DaRotomMachine]

You can't vote for your own stuff, that would ruin this format

Was that a rule?
Ok.

 

[clematis]

Alright, voting is now closed! Thanks to everyone for your votes; and.. weirdly I've ended up winning both categories. Fun? Someone should probably recount that. Anyway.

Week 10: Choice Scarf Kartana

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Smart Strike
- Knock Off
​

Choice Scarf Kartana is a ferocious cleaner and sweeper against weakened teams; with a monstrous 181 Base Attack and a very good Choice Scarf-boosted base 109 Speed, allowing it to outspeed a majority and snowball with Beast Boost. STAB Leaf Blade and Smart Strike provide two good STABs for Kartana to quite liberally spam throughout the game. Knock Off improves this further, letting Kartana clear items away from potential threats to its team such as Gliscor and Toxapex. Maximum Attack and Speed investment allow Kartana to hit as hard and fast as possible.

Can you find a way to handle this set? You will have 6 days to submit your answers, with submissions ending on Sunday 17th March. If you wish, you may submit both a check and a counter, though you are of course allowed to submit one or the other if you please.

Best of luck!

 

[Captain Funk]

Reserve as a check and as a counter.

(Definitely will be finished b4 deadline clem.) Definitely did not aged like milk =^]

PUNCH BEHIND THE VOLT

CHECK



Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
Hidden Power: Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch​

This pokemon restricts Kartana so much. Kart can't hit kill any mon with Leaf Blade, Smart Strike, nor Knock Off without Magnezone coming in to trap it and revenge kill it. On top of that, due to its niche role, often times you can keep Magnezone healthy. Just the presence alone in the team preview will make Scarf Kart extremely hard to sweep

COUNTER



Zapdos @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Discharge
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost​

There's really nothing kart can do to Zapdos. Zapdos has the the ability to shrug every single move kart can dish out. What makes this Zapdos set the ultimate counter is due to kart moves and zapdos Ability. All of Kartana's moves are contact moves, meaning it'll not only take damage from Rocky Helmet, but a 30% chance to paralyze Kart every hit, completely destroying karts role as the speed control.

Calc

252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Zapdos: 80-95 (20.8 - 24.7%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery


252 Atk Kartana Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Zapdos: 53-63 (13.8 - 16.4%) -- possibly the worst move ever

252 Atk Kartana Smart Strike vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Zapdos: 63-74 (16.4 - 19.2%) -- possible 8HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Kartana Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Zapdos: 116-137 (30.2 - 35.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

 

[DaRotomMachine]

as counter

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 68 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Leech Seed
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power Fire
- Synthesis

 

[zinnias]

Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 12 SpA / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Toxic
- Roost

CM Reuni put me onto this heat a while ago. If it shrugs off hits from Choice Band Kartana, it can certainly handle scarfed. 252 Atk Kartana Knock Off vs. 248 HP / 228+ Def Charizard-Mega-Y: 79-94 (22 - 26.1%) -- 9.1% chance to 4HKO so I'd call it a counter

 

[Cdijk16]

Physically Defensive Landorus-Therian with HP Fire
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Figy Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Relaxed Nature
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
This set takes little damage from -1 Leaf Blade and easily OHKOs back with Hidden Power Fire. Figy Berry provides the recovery needed to keep on switching into and checking Kartana throughout a match.

Calcs

-1 252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Landorus-Therian: 97-115 (25.4 - 30.1%) -- 4.8% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock
8 SpA Landorus-Therian Hidden Power Fire vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Kartana: 432-512 (166.7 - 197.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

I am submitting this as a Check.

 

[clematis]

callout post /j

I will be extending the deadline by one day to allow for any extra submissions, and so Captain Funk can finish writing up Magnezone and Zapdos. >:)

 

[clematis]

Alright, submissions are now closed. Think I might start putting out a warning 24h beforehand to remind everyone to finish reservations :D

Checks:
Choice Scarf Magnezone by Captain Funk
Figy Berry Landorus-Therian by Cdijk16

Counters:
Rocky Helmet Zapdos by Captain Funk
Mega Venusaur by DaRotomMachine
Physically Defensive Mega Charizard Y by AcneAutist
​

You have four days to vote, ending on Friday 22nd March. You may vote for one check and one counter this week. I will add the winners to the Hall of Fame at the end of the voting phase.

Best of luck to all submissions!

 

[DaRotomMachine]

Check:
Counter:

 

[zinnias]

Zone and Zap cuz Lando gets that berry knocked and static is insane

 

[clematis]

Check:
Counter:

 

[j0nathan]

Check:
Counter:

 

[clematis]

Okay, voting is now closed. Congratulations to Captain Funk for the clean sweep! I'll add your sets to the Hall of Fame shortly.

Week 11: Mega Diancie

Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power​

Diancie-Mega is a dangerous threat in the OU metagame owing to ludicrous Base 160 dual Attack and Special Attack; and good Base 110 Speed; allowing it to outspeed a good portion of the unboosted metagame. Powerful STABs in Moonblast and Diamond Storm let Diancie dish out some strong hits; while Earth Power rounds off its coverage, allowing to hit a majority of Steel-types that resist Diamond Storm and Moonblast for super effective damage. Finally, Stealth Rock allows Diancie to make the most of the switches that it forces by setting up hazards. In addition, Magic Bounce is an excellent ability to have, protecting Diancie from direct status moves such as Toxic and Thunder Wave that might otherwise hamper its ability to wallbreak effectively. However, low base HP and a mediocre Rock/Fairy typing mean that Diancie can be bowled over without much difficulty owing to the high power level of SM OU, and a huge 4x weakness to Steel-type moves mean that even weak hits can severely damage or outright OHKO Diancie.

Can you find a check or a counter to this set? You have 6 days to submit your answers, with submissions ending on Friday 29th March. If you wish, you may submit both a check and a counter, though you are of course allowed to submit one or the other if you please.

Good luck!

 

[zinnias]

is likely what comes into your heads when you think of a Dian counter. If you’ve ever used a Mega Diancie HO, you can already taste your opponent leading with this thing. It not only eats hits from Dian even before mega evolving, but it threatens to outspeed and OHKO it back (which I feel cannot be said about any other dian check whom needs to conserve HP to not be 2HKOed. Mega Scizor is the hardest hard counter that has ever countered.

 

[clematis]

Nominating Gastrodon as a counter.

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover

Gastrodon is a very good counter to Diancie owing to its solid resistance to Diamond Storm, ominously large bulk, access to Recover to continually heal off any attacks thrown its way, and STAB Earthquake and Scald, both of which chunk Diancie for enormous damage, and the latter threatening to burn it, even through Magic Bounce. Moonblast doesn't even 2HKO after Stealth Rock, making Gastrodon a very good counter to Diancie.

252 SpA Diancie-Mega Moonblast vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Gastrodon: 148-175 (34.8 - 41.1%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Gastrodon Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Diancie-Mega: 188-224 (78 - 92.9%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

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

Nominating Ash-Greninja as a check

Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Spikes

While being completely allergic to taking any sort of hit from Diancie whatsoever, and thus being entirely unable to switch in, Greninja outspeeds Diancie and threatens the OHKO with Specs-boosted STAB Hydro Pump, even when untransformed. Even Water Shuriken untransformed kills most of the time if you pull 4 hits or higher, thus making it a decent enough last-resort check.

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Diancie-Mega: 422-498 (175.1 - 206.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Water Shuriken (15 BP) (4 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Diancie-Mega: 240-288 (99.5 - 119.5%) -- approx. 81.3% chance to OHKO

 

[DaRotomMachine]

as counter

Ferrothorn

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpD
IVs: 0 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip

Resists both Diancie stabs while being neutral to EP, and because this Diancie set does not have Hidden Power Fire it makes it a good defensive counter. Ferrothorn fits on a good majority of teams anyway due to it being able to set up and pressure mons with hazards

Edit: You're gonna set hazards in front of Mega Diancie, that's not what I meant.

 

[j0nathan]

Check:

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 248 HP / 28 Def / 232 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 18 Spe
- Fleur Cannon
- Volt Switch/Ice Beam
- Iron Head
- Hidden Power [Fire]
AV Magearna is a pretty good check. It can take all attacks and OHKO with iron head.

Calcs

0 Atk 0 IVs Magearna Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Diancie-Mega: 292-348 (121.1 - 144.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Diancie-Mega Earth Power vs. 248 HP / 232+ SpD Assault Vest Magearna: 102-122 (28 - 33.6%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO

 

[clematis]

Alright, submissions are now closed. One day late again, I do apologise lol. Voting will be a little longer this time as I'm away a majority of the week with no ability to update this; so ;-;

Checks:
Ash-Greninja by clematis
Assault Vest Magearna by trainer_j0nathan
Counters:
Mega Scizor by AcneAutist
Gastrodon by clematis
Ferrothorn by DaRotomMachine
​

You have eight days to vote, ending on Sunday 7th April. You may vote for one check and one counter this week. I will add the winners to the Hall of Fame at the end of the voting phase.

Best of luck to all submissions!

 

[DaRotomMachine]

Check:
Counter:

 

[Captain Funk]

Gear and scizor