OU Team Rater Competition v3 - Finals [Won by Gross Sweep]

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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:
  • The winner will be accepted as a member in our Rating League!
  • Shoutouts in the room intro of the RMT room and in RMT news
  • Your name on a trophy-banner
  • The rates in the final three rounds will count towards the Team Rater
  • 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.
Participants please PM your rate to Team Pokepals, mil and Enki. You have until 23:59 EST on Sunday, 30th April to submit your rate. Also, if you were not tagged in the last round and didn't submit a rate and would still like to submit a rate, please send it as soon as possible and at the least we can provide you with feedback. Good luck!

Congratulations for making it to finals!

H.M.N.I.P
Gross Sweep

We got some excellent rates this round, and were amazed at the quality you guys had to offer. We believe that all who made it this far are on a top level quality wise.
Here is the team for this round:

[team building process in the pastebin]

Zygarde @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage
- Superpower

Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 164 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Defog
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Scald
- Secret Sword
- Stone Edge
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Discharge
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Tangrowth (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 48 Def / 212 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Magma Storm
- Taunt
- Earth Power

Pastebin
 
Congrats to H.M.N.I.P for submitting the best rate for this round, he did an amazing job, well done!
ROUND FOUR RATED TEAM:

Hello friend, I think that the idea of running Mega Medicham in the actual metagame is really good. With the idea of running a solid volt-turn core, being able to give Medicham some free and crucial switchins, you can easily break past balance cores; it's also nice to see that people still remember ORAS' metagame times! However, even if this team appreciate the work behind Medicham's sweep, I still think that it's somehow not viable, since I feel that it has some big problems such as the lack of a reliable speed control condition, and a nice way of beating stall. Also, I'm just seeing how you fastest mon, which is Garchomp, is just blocked from spamming Earthquakes, because of the presence of Tapu Bulu, which, with its terrain, interferes with Garchomp's work. Also, as your team is looking really slow, it obviously gives problems against the biggest threats of the metagames which include mons like Metagross, Charizard, Greninja and Zygarde. To fix those problems, while still keeping the team's archetype as close as the one you laid out, I'm suggesting two Pokèmon changes plus some different sets, in hopes that they can help you achieve a better matchup against most of the tier, and the infamous stall archetypes.

-->

The first change I'm suggesting is Choice Scarf Nihilego instead of Choice Scarf Garchomp. This is a pretty self explanatory change: as I previously wrote, Garchomp just doesn't fit that well as the main speed control option. The presence of Tapu Bulu, which works really well paired with another strong wallbreaker like Medicham, doesn't let Garchomp do its job at its best, so you might want to replace it. Nihilego is a perfect change for Garchomp in this spot because, not only it helps by removing Toxic Spikes which are surely problematic to your team, as your main cleaner fears them, but it can also take on some of the teams weakness, thanks to its great typing and movepool. I also feel like the synergy doesn't get hurt too much by this change, as Nihilego still beats mons like Tapus or Volcarona, which are really threatening for Medicham, and volturns in general.

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And this is the second important change I'm suggesting to your squad: Stallbreaker Tapu Koko over Rotom. This is a pretty well known core right now, but I think it's important to explain how, and how well, these two work together. Koko helps out medi in many ways; the main one being that it sets up electric terrain to boost its Thunder Punch. This allows it to muscle past would be counters/checks, like Mega Sableye and Clefable. Koko also provides fast volt switch/u-turn support, allowing Medicham to potentially fire of free hits versus some of Koko's answers, like Tangrowth and Ferrothorn. Koko also deals with pokemon faster than Medi, like Gengar and Protean Greninja. Many sets are viable on Koko, but I think that in this archetype, Taunt definetely works better than Volt Switch, since it definetely gives you a more solid support against stall, but honestly the choices on its set are up to personal preference.

Now, let's go into minor adjustments and tweaks:​

  • -Change Medicham to Thunder Punch- This is something that instantly came in my mind as soon as I replaced your Rotom with Tapu Koko. This is probably one of the main reasons, if not the most important, which relates the presence of Tapu Koko with Mega Medicham. I think that the move you want to change in your moveset is Zen Headbutt. In the description of your team, you mentioned that Zen Headbutt was helpful against mons like Celesteela, Tapu Fini, Toxapex or Clefable; well these are some calcs I've done in order to let you see how strong boosted Thunder Punches are against the mons previously mentioned:
252 Atk Pure Power Medicham-Mega Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 112 Def Sableye-Mega in Electric Terrain: 153-181 (50.3 - 59.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Pure Power Medicham-Mega Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 64 Def Clefable in Electric Terrain: 244-288 (61.9 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Pure Power Medicham-Mega Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Celesteela in Electric Terrain: 398-470 (100 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO

  • -Change Tapu Bulu to Fightinium Z- Tapu Bulu is probably one of the most important members of the team. Its incredible bulk paired with its great movepool make it a perfect partner for an already solid balance breaking core. Its Grassy terrain also helps its teammates like Magearna by weakening opposing Earthquakes, so that's really cool for the team. This mon can be played with a serious variety of sets, but I thought that the most efficent one in the team is the Swords Dance Taunt combination. It might seem weird at a first look, but trust me, it can take on many stalls archetype. Just think about opposing mons, supposed to be a check of this monster, being threatned by Taunt: Skarmories cannot even shuffle or toxic it, so they become set up fodder for it (as they usually carry Counter instead of Brave Bird). In general, Bulu hits really hard and can even be a good support for the team, so that's why I'm not changing it!
For this rate, that's all, hope you like the new version of the team! :heart:

New Importable:
 
Hey Team Pokepals really cool team! Choice Band Zygarde is one of the best mons in the meta, so it's cool to see a team centered around it. While I do really like the focus of the team there are a few issues I'd like to address. Those issues being: Stall, M-Medicham, and low momentum disallowing you to get Choice Band Zygarde into the battle as often as possible. My rate will try to help improve upon these issues, while keeping the original essence of the team strongly intact.

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I'm not a huge fan of this teams way of taking on stall due to your main breaker (Heatran) being easily trapped allowing the combination of Dugtrio + Clefable to be able to take on your teams primary weapons against stall (Zygarde + Heatran) giving you a tough match up. With that in mind I feel making the swap of Tapu Koko>Zapdos would help with this match up while retaining the teams ability to check mons like M-Pinsir, Gyarados, and Torndaus-T. The set I'm proposing is Thunderbolt / Nature's Madness / Taunt / U-turn with the EV spread: 252 Hp / 52 Spa / 12 SpDef / 192 Spe Timid nature and the item Mago Berry. This set allows Tapu Koko to effectively take on stall, avoid being trapped by Dugtrio, and serve as a better to check to mons like Charizard-Y and Protean Greninja (the speed investment hits 378, one point faster than Greninja) than Zapdos. Max Hp maximizes bulk, and 12 Spdef EV's let Tapu Koko take a Flash Cannon from Magearna. This is nice since based on the damage you do as Magearna switches into something like a Thunderbolt you can see if it's offensive, if so you can safely Taunt to stop the set up - since if you predict wrong you live and get back most of your health with Mago Berry. Tapu Koko also greatly helps the team with Sticky Webs. Taunt keeps Webs off the field, but Koko can also just U-turn into M-Scizor who can Defog without fear of Spore due the Electric Terrain. That Defog in combination with the option of pivoting out to Keldeo on an incoming Bisharp, stopping a possible defiant boost, gives the team great odds. Tapu Koko also helps versus M-Medicham as it is able to take any 1 hit (popping the Mago Berry if HJK) and apply a lot of pressure with Thunderbolt. Tapu Koko also helps with the issue of momentum I wanted to discuss, U-turn on a predicted switch provides an oppurtunity to get mons like Zygarde and Keldeo into the game more safely increasing momentum. Also the reason for U-turn over Volt Switch is so Tapu Koko can avoid being trapped by Dugtrio preserving it vs stall.

With the change of Zapdos to stall break Tapu Koko you are freed up to use a more utility oriented Heatran, which I feel is a big benefit to your team. I suggest the Move Set: Lava Plume / Stealth Rock / Protect / Taunt with the EV Spread: 252 Hp / 172 Def / 8 SpA / 76 Spe Bold nature with the item Chople Berry. One of the biggest issues for any more Balanced/Bulky Offensive oriented team like yours is M-Medicham, so you have to take extra precautions to checking it. Protect gives Heatran the chance to outplay M-Medicham, and the defensive investment coupled with Chople Berry allows Heatran to live a High Jump Kick from adamant M-Medicham after rocks and get off big damage with Lava Plume in return. Heatran can also take any hit from Buzzwole and guarantee the KO with Lava Plume after rocks thanks to the the 8 SpA - making Tran a decent lure as Buzzwole can be kinda annoying for the team. Another benefit to running Protect besides the possible outplay vs M-Medicham is the ability to scout. Common scarfers like Garchomp and Keldeo are often used to revenge Heatran, but with protect you can see what move they are locking into and act accordingly. Stealth Rocks was chosen due to the residual damage it provides, and it's just a staple for every team that fit best on Heatran. Finally Taunt was decided on because it allows Heatran to 1v1 M-Venusaur who can be annoying to the team. Also with the 76 Spe Heatran out paces no investment Rotom-W, and can Taunt it before it gets off a potential Pain Split late game. Aside from M-Medicham Chople Berry also allows Heatran to serve as a better emegengy check to mons like Focus Blast Tapu Lele and Hammer Arm M-Metagross if you let M-Scizor go down for some reason. Overall this Heatran helps the team a lot. it can lure M-Medicham, which was an issue I pointed out early on, as well as, effect the game with its ability to get rocks and possibly annoy fatter mons with taunt.

I really like the Scarfed Keldeo here, but I'd like to make a set suggestion of Surf>Scald. With the Nerf of burns only doing 6.25% damage this gen fishing for burns isn't nearly as good. Mons like M-Venusaur or Tangrowth that hated the burn last generation don't mind it so much now meaning the raw damage of surf is better in most scenarios. Also with respect to power, and Hydro Pump having more, I personally find 80 accuracy to unreliable for a sole water stab on Keldeo. I also would suggest testing out Icy Wind>HP Ice. This change allows Keldeo to hit almost as hard, 55 BP compared to 60 BP, while having the utility to lower an opponents speed which can be helpful vs set up mons like Gyarados.

Tangrowth is a really cool pivot that I feel fits really well on this team, but I would suggest trying Earthquake>Sludge Bomb.You mainly see Sludge Bomb on teams really struggling with fairies, which isn't the case in your situation. With the team having more than a few answers to common fairies I feel like this change will allow the team to handle more threats. Running Earthquake on Tangrowth still provides you with a way to hit mons like Tapu Koko hard, but at the same time hitting Heatran, M-Mawile, Nihilego, and M-Metagross who often try to switch into Tangrowth thus improving Tangrowth's ability to pivot as it wears down its own checks.

I really like the power Choice Band Zygarde provides, but the removal of Zapdos, which was for the best, opened up a few holes I feel a bulkier set would cover. The two new possibly problematic threats are Double Dance Z-Fly Landorus-T and Gyarados with Earthquake. While these threats are annoying they can be played around, and if you look for these threats on the ladder you'll find them in a combined total of roughly 4% of your games - so that's something to consider when making this change (Based on latest usage stats). However, with these threats in mind I would like to suggest the Move Set: Thousand Arrows / Extreme Speed / Outrage / Glare with the EV spread: 104 Hp / 252 Atk / 152 Spe Adamant nature and the item Choice Band. This set allows Zygarde to take any hit from Landorus-T including Z-Fly, any hit from +1 Gyarados including Z-Fly, any hit from Buzzwole including Ice Punch, avoids the 2hko from Flash Cannon from non specs Magnezone, lets Zygarde better help vs Volcarona, and avoid the 2hko from Charizard-Y among other things. This bulk clearly allows Zygarde to take a lot more hits, and serve as a bit of a safety valve for the team being able to take a hit and Glare a mon if they set up or you've let the set check of a mon go down. The speed lost may seem annoying, but in reality the only relevant mon that Zygarde can no longer 1v1 with the loss of speed is Mamoswine - who is checked by Keldeo and M-Scizor so you're still solid. Also the speed allows you to hit 264 allowing you to out pace possibly problematic base 70 speed mons and below like M-Mawile, Bisharp, and offensive Celesteela. Overall I feel this change really helps the team as Zygarde can still break fatter teams, while helping vs offensive teams who can be tough for this style of team.

Team With Changes

Zygarde @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 152 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage
- Glare

Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 164 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Defog
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Surf
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
- Stone Edge

Tapu Koko @ Mago Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 52 SpA / 12 SpD / 192 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Nature's Madness
- Taunt
- U-turn

Tangrowth (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 48 Def / 212 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Giga Drain
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Heatran @ Chople Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 8 SpA / 76 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Taunt


Adding a potential Threat list, since there are a few things I want to make sure you take notice of before you test the team: Strongly recommend you read

Gyarados can be tough for the team if it's an earthquake variant, which is the case 50% of the time. If it's not an earthquake variant Tapu Koko keeps it in check, and it shouldn't be a big issue. Regardless of the set you should look to set up rocks as early as possible as they cripple Gyarados greatly. If it is an Earthquake variant you can 2hko with Extreme Speed from Banded Zygarde after rocks, or Zygarde can Glare the Gyarados making it much less of a threat. Also after rocks the combination of Extreme Speed from a weakened Zygarde and Stone Edge from Keldeo can knock Gyarados out, so that's an option. Another option you have if it's at +1 is that you can Icy Wind it with Keldeo dropping its speed to neutral, which then allows Tapu Koko to come in and scoop the KO. As I mentioned earlier you'll run into Eearthquake Gyarados in about 1.5% of your games, so just keep Zygarde relatively healthy in this match up and you should be fine.

Landorus-T can be a threat, but it has to be double dance with Z-Fly. This is another fairly uncommon set to come across, but in a worse case scenario you can Glare Lando-T with Zygarde and neutralize it (main reason for the Hp investment). If Landorus-T isn't Z-Fly Tangrowth takes it on, and if it isn't Rock Polish it loses to Keldeo - so just try to keep Zygarde healthy until you can get an idea what kind of set the Lando-T is, and you should be fine.

M-Medicham is the biggest annoyance to a more balanced team like yours, so it needs to be addressed. Heatran and Tangrowth are what M-Medicham wants to come in vs the most, but both mons can take a hit and get off a big chunk in return. It may seem like a waste, but both of their attacks will put M-Medicham in range for your more offensive mons to pick up a KO helping the team. Also I would focus on pressuring M-Medicham offensively with Keldeo and Tapu Koko - Zygarde to some degree also with Extreme Speed. Just try to keep the pressure on vs M-Medicham and you should be fine.

I just wanted to highlight a few tough match ups, if you have any questions on other match ups let me know, and I'd be happy to walk you through your options.


That's all I have, it was really fun working on the team! If you have anymore questions or concerns about the team let me know. Have a great day, and have fun with the team!

ROUND FIVE RATED TEAM:

Hello friend, the idea of running Mega Scizor and Zygarde together is already proved to be an incredible good-working core: during the ORAS era I've made this post, in which I talked about the great synergy between these two good mons together. Even if the core remains the same, in Sun and Moon these two mons drastically changed their roles. As Scizor is now an optimal pivot and hazard cleaner, Zygarde became instead one of the most threatening Choice Band users of the actual meta. With this new arrangement, a new type of support is needed, since from the beginning of Sun and Moon, new threats has been added to the metagame. The Hazard cleaner Scizor + Choice Band Zygarde has been already proved to be a really solid core, as this was even used in SPL games, OU circuit or ST games, and a team, in particular, the Triple Z built by obii has been used a huge amount of times, especially in the first part of SM. As obii's team, Zapdos is the 'triple z': which is the mon that completes the main core of the build. Zapdos in fact is an extraordinary antimeta mon which sits in front of all the grass types that can switch into Zygarde's Thousand Arrows. The last 3 mons you added just fullfills the necessary roles (water resist, Stealth Rocks, speed control and a little of stallbreaker support). However, I really feel like the team you've built isn't really updated to the current metagame situation: the addition of threats like Mawile and Medicham. As you can see, your team lacks of reliable ways to check these two common threats, as both of them, with the right sets, can pull an irreparable hole in your team, and make you lose the game. You also need to consider the fact that stall is basically an autowin against this team-archetype, as for example you don't have reliable ways of beating the most common stall archetype the moment your only mon which causes big troubles to stall, Heatran, gets trapped by Dugtrio. To fix all these problems, I have a couple of suggestions which will hopefully improve the team and give a nice matchup against the threats mentioned above. As the team is already solid itself, I will just try to make it a bit more 'updated' in order to have all the necessary checks to what the metagame has to offer right now.

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The first change I'm suggesting is Stall-breaker Mew over Assault Vest Tangrowth. The first huge weakness I noticed when I firstly saw the team was the absence of a solid Medicham or Mawile switchin: this lack can't just happen for the way the metagame is going right now. Otherwise, whenever your opponent will get the opportunity to bring up momentum in his favor, and give Medicham or Mawile respectively a free entry, a member of your team goes down. For this reason I think that in this certain types of team, every member should be a key one, and you cannot allow to have holes in it. Mew not only helps against these threats mentioned before, but it is also a key member against stall, since it gives Knock Off, Will-o-Wisp and Taunt in only one spot. Furthermore, it is an additional check to mons like Metagross, Band Zygarde, Garchomp and non-band Bulu version. I also feel like this change doesn't hurt the synergy too much, as Mew functions really well also by being just a pivot, and, in some of the best cases, it can take alone an entire team. Having Mew on the team, it allows you to run different sets on your mon, since this mon is really versatile, and it can be used with a huge amount of different sets. You can run it with Volt Switch in order to form a Volt-turn core with Scizor and give Zygarde crucial entries. You can also run Heal Bell, for giving second chances to crippled mons, and, especially, to a burned Zygarde. Also, having Mew in your team, can help you as time will pass by, to change future spreads for your mons, since the defensive backbone you're having right now has the opportunity to check different threats depending on the EVs you're giving to them. For this team, though, I'm recommending the common Stall-breaker set, with an EVs spread of 248 HP / 148 Def / 112 Spe, and an Impish nature. The speed given makes it reach 264 speed, which is the one you need in order to outspeed base 70's speed with a Jolly or Timid nature like Bisharp, Breloom or Volcanion.

Now let's get into minor adjustments and tweaks:​


  • -Change Keldeo to Icy Wind- This is a really small change in Keldeo's set: Icy Wind over Hidden Power Ice. Even if this seems a skippable change, I still think that having the opportunity not to let some random set up mons becoming too big of an issue like Porygon Z, Manaphy, Volcarona, DD Zygarde or other not set up mons which are threats anyway like Tapu Koko or non DD Zygarde.
  • -Change Heatran to DragoniumZ- I've seen this set in the SPL 8 Creative set dump thread, made by -Snow, and I've instantly thought that this change would have been really perfect for this squad! In a metagame where most Heatrans are Bloom Doom, when you see a non-lefties Heatran with rocks, people won't send Fini on it anymore. Pokémon like Garchomp or Zygarde, instead, are good switchins, so the Dragonium lure comes really useful, as it is able to kill offensive dragons (CB Zygarde, Garchomp, Latios, and even one of the team's biggest threat: Charizard X), and to hit hard defensive dragons (like SpDef Zygarde which takes like a 80% from a Z Dragon Pulse).
  • -Change Zygarde movepool- This change isn't necessary, but straight optional. I feel like Superpower is good in the last slot, but also, there are other coupls of viable options that I want you to consider! First of all, Iron Tail is really good since it is a perfect lure for mons like Clefable or Tapu Bulu which are considered good Zygarde checks. If you don't feel like using a 70% accurate move, you can always run Sludge Wave, which is considered another great lure for Tapu Bulu especially, but honestly, if I have to choose between these two, I would always go with the first one. Another viable option is Toxic: even if this one looks more gimmick than the other two, this is still a great lure for really bulky walls like Mega Slowbro, Landorus or Tangrowth. Jolly is also a viable option but if you run Adamant you get important rolls and 2HKO's like the aforementioned Clefable, Iron Tail on Bulu etc..
  • -Change Zapdos to Pressure- This is another change that might seem not important at all, but this is really huge instead. First of all, I think that para chance is really overrated, and secondly Pressure helps you bluff the Defog set, which, as you can see, in this game, it turned out to be a key move. Pressure also helps the stall match up immensely as Stall is already passive itself, and having PP down is such an optimal way of counterteaming it.
Overall, with these new changes, you should feel more secure about running this team nowadays, as I feel like that with these nice changes, you should have a better matchup against the new mons that are dominating the meta. Of course, as you're only able to use 6 mons in a team, with these new changes you will have to be more careful when playing around other threats that I will now mention below, so let's just get into it.



THREATLIST:

Mega Charizard-X

Even if the 2atks + Roost variant isn't really dangerous for the team, as it can't touch Heatran, while this gets 1HKO'd by the Dragonium Z lure, the 3atks variant (the Earthquake one) is really a pain for this team. The plan is always to keep the rocks up, as they're fundamental for worning down Charizard, and giving it painful switchins everytime it gets in the field. The moment it gets worn down to the 75% (after the first time it gets in the field) Keldeo can easily 1HKO it with Hydro Pump, so you should be good. Just think that you need to get/keep momentum on your part and you'll be fine.

Tapu Koko

As you don't have a real momentum breaker, Tapu Koko becomes annoying thanks to the fact that the Taunt + Volt Switch set can easily take down the biggest part of the team. I don't really feel that keeping Tangrowth to your part really helps against Koko, for a simple point that the utent p2 reported in the viability ranking, which I totally agree. The counterplay is usually to worn it down with Hazard and, if possible, knock it off or burn it with Mew for chip damage which is fundamental against this mon. After it gets hurt by Stealth Rocks for a first time Koko's in range of Keldeo's Hydro Pump (252 SpA Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Koko: 228-268 (81.1 - 95.3%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock) with odds in your favor.

Greninja

Even if I think that the Protean variant isn't really threatening for the team, because you can easily pivot around it (and since most Protean variants lack of Dark Pulse, Mew easily checks it), Ash Ninja, especially the Specs variant, is really a pain for this team. Keldeo can come in 3 times, with the right rolls in your favor, so you need to be really careful when playing around this. The only reliable way of beating this is that your opponent for any reasons tries to overpredict against one of your mons and gets punished for it, or he simply leaves Ninja against Keldeo, which isn't really happening during games.

Zygarde + Spikes support

Even if Zygarde isn't a threat alone as Scizor and Mew completely block Band variant, I still think that Spikes, or, in general, hazards on your field plus Zygarde are a threat to this team. Thankfully, the Defogger of the team is Scizor which is 3HKO'd by Zygarde's Thousand Arrows (only the CB variant) so you should be cool playing around it. Mew can also burn it or knock it, if it's the CB variant, or taunt it if it's the SubCoil, which is less threatening to this team.


For this rate, that's all, hope I've been the most useful to this team, I could've been, and I sincerely hope you'll like the new version of the team in faith that this will be more prepared in the actual metagame, see ya! :heart:

New Importable:

The winner of the third edition of the OU Team Rater Competition is Gross Sweep!

His rate starts with his only major change being Tapu Koko over Zapdos, a change that focused on pressuring stall teams as much as possible, especially considering how Heatran was the only way to deal with them and it fears being trapped by Dugtrio. He suggested a Tapu Koko spread that allows it to check Charizard Y, Protean Greninja, and also deal with stall with Taunt and Nature's Madness while utilizing a Mago Berry to enable Tapu Koko to increase its longevity. Most of the remaining changes are smaller ones, with the first of them being a set change for Heatran, making it more utility oriented, with Lava Plume, Stealth Rock, Protect and Taunt. Chople Berry and a specific EVs spread, allow it to take a hit from Adamant Mega Medicham's High Jump Kick, and use Lava Plume to burn or KO it. Protect was a nice addition since it helps to scout common scarfers such as Keldeo and Garchomp, but also being able to use it on a possible HJK from Mega Medicham. Chople Berry also helps to take on Tapu Lele as Focus Blast. His second change is Surf over Scald and Icy Wind over HP Ice, which can be helpful against set up sweepers. He also suggested Earthquake over Sludge Bomb on Tangrowth, being able to lure Mega Mawile, Mega Metagross, Nihilego and Heatran. His final change was Choice Band Zygarde moveset, adding Glare in the final slot to allow Zygarde to cripple/slow down threats.

H.M.N.I.P. suggested Mew over Tangrowth, which helps the team against Medicham significantly, but we felt like it opened up the team too much for Tapu Koko and Ash Greninja and didn't help with the team being too passive when facing stall teams.

Both rates were great, and it was a close finals, but in the end, making the team less passive with a better matchup vs stall is what gave Gross Sweep the win. Congratulations to Gross Sweep for having a great run in the whole competition, and great job to H.M.N.I.P. for proving himself as a great rater and finalist too. Thank you to everyone that participated and thanks to Team Pokepals and mil for co-hosting!

See you all next time!
 

H.M.N.I.P

https://youtu.be/pIr6TjG7Rko
is a Past SPL Championis a Past WCoP Champion
As I've already told you all, this was such a fantastic run for me! I've never expected to come this far, and I'm not even sad, because I know that this is not an ending, but the beginning of a new (and I hope as funny as this one) rating career, which will hopefully prove myself as a good one! I'm going to start now with the shoutouts since I think that they're fundamental. First of all, big congratulations to Gross Sweep, you've proved to be one of the best rater talking about Sun and Moon material, so you definitely deserve this. Secondly a big shoutouts to the Rating staff which hosted this competition from a genuine and always fresh point of view, so thank you Team Pokepals and mil for the great effort you've put in here! A big thanks also to Ironfist24, which was one of the best supporter I could've ever asked for! Now let me do some shoutouts in Italian since I've some friends that definitely deserve it.

Primo fra tutti, grazie mille Enki. Senza di te non avrei mai preso così seriamente la competizione, quindi se adesso mi trovo qui a scrivere queste due parole di autoconforto, è tutto tuo il merito. Spero, in primis, di non aver deluso le tue aspettative, e, in secondo luogo, di poterti continuare a scrivere anche al di fuori di questo torneo perché, oltre ad essere un'ottima persona, sei anche un ottimo amico. Un altro grande grazie a Will of Fire: penso che un mio shoutouts senza il tuo nome non esiste, tra un po' li faccio anche per calcio e scuola hahaha. Tralasciando gli scherzi, sei sempre stato di grande aiuto come sempre, mi raccomando il prossimo fantacalcio che fai compra Schick che è un fenomeno! Un piccolo grazie anche a Sun, che anche se non sento più come una volta, è sempre stato una grande fonte d'inspirazione per me. Ed infine, grazie anche a Tricking, Marrano e Kebab mlml che sono sempre stati disponibili per critiche o tests.

It was really fun overall, see you next edition (that time I won't lose again :toast:). :heart:
 
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