SV OU This one suffered badly after the mask DLC; help me out (edit: now top 100 lol)

[Surgo]

Alright, so I put this together pre-DLC. At that point it struggled to break through 1800. It's got some unusual stuff in there (Salazzle, who the hell uses that), and it was my first attempt at SV teambuilding so really no surprises that it started to struggle there because there's only so much experience can take you, at some point you need a good team. Post-DLC I've faffed around a bit and after getting some experience, now it struggles to break past 1700. Actually I don't think I've gotten past 1700 at all, I topped out at like 1680...really not good. The biggest struggle is Ogerpon, in any form. I hate Ogerpon so much, it's basically custom designed to wreck this team. The only way I can really handle it is predicting when it will Swords Dance (which I'm fairly good at doing, at least) and switching into Salazzle at that point to toxic it (I can encore but it only delays the inevitable, better to toxic and just eliminate the threat with some other sacrifice). Needless to say, that's not a winning strategy and is the #1 reason I think the team has lost so much Elo in the transition. Alright, with all that said let's get to it.

Garganacl @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Salt Cure
- Recover
- Protect
- Block

Salazzle (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Corrosion
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Toxic
- Protect
- Flamethrower

Great Tusk @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Headlong Rush
- Stealth Rock

Toxapex @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Infestation
- Sludge Bomb
- Ice Beam

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Heat Wave
- Hurricane
- Roost

Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonlight
- Stored Power
- Moonblast

The team is defense-oriented and is meant to either wall off threats, or check them enough to force them to come in again into hopefully a better situation. The Garganacl / Toxapex / Zapdos core works quite well for that. Zapdos static is essential for handling opposing Great Tusk and contact mons in general. It has flipped way more matchups than it should. The defensive core is generally worked around checking Kingambit, who stops Cresselia sweeps. So you've got Great Tusk, but then also Heat Wave on Zapdos and tera water on Garganacl to try to stay alive against an Iron Head and get a salt cure on. Salazzle encore has stopped Kingambit sweeps in the past as well. Assault Vest on Toxapex with maxed out SpA can do surprising damage, and completely stops Iron Valiant. Or rather, it did. Nowadays we've got lucky hypnosis hits and tera steel.

Salazzle is of course the big question mark. It's great against Cresselia and the newly available Clefable. And its the fastest thing on my team, so it checks (but not counters) that irritating Ogerpon which just destroys me otherwise. Cresselia is the wincon, but Ogerpon's existence has made it a much less useful wincon than it used to be.

Originally I struggled a bit against Gliscor, but recently I realized that block Garganacl is a perfect counter when it doesn't have U-turn, which it rarely does because 4MSS. Heck, even Gliscor doesn't carry knock off you don't even need to terastalize and can save it for later. It probably won't work against SD+Earthquake+Stone Edge, but I've yet to seen one of those.

Getting rocks up is usually pretty challenging since I have to keep Great Tusk healthy for some threats like Kingambit, several games I don't bother trying and don't control hazards at all (not the worst thing in the world since the team isn't too vulnerable to them).

 

[Surgo]

Damn, Cress really is obsolete now with the DLC huh? I don't particularly have anything that needs to be kept, but I do like two aspects that I wouldn't mind maintaining:

(1) Garganacl can trap and deal with a couple really annoying shits like Gliscor
(2) Cresselia is sturdy enough to get a bunch of chances to set up for a sweep, plus it can set up on top of other set-uppers.

 

[Surgo]

Garg cannot kill Gliscor, Poison Heal negates the Salt Cure damage and Cress is too passive as it takes like 1-3 turns to setup. Meaning that it will be taking to much damage to even get setup. (We are playing a very offensive metagame, meaning that even taking 1-3 turns is really tough (and you have to bc cress hits like a baby when not setup) as you set yourself so far behind.

Every Gliscor I've run across in the last 20 games I've killed with Garg. It takes a while but as long as Gliscor doesn't have Swords Dance it completely kills it. Takes about 5 recover PP if you don't tera, and about 13 salt cure PP. It can't trap and kill Swords Dance set (but I haven't seen one yet). Or U-Turn, obviously.

As far as Cress goes though, yeah you completely hit the nail on the head. The setup time is just too much, thanks to the presence of stuff like Kingambit and Ogerpon.

 

[Surgo]

Totally fine to can Cress. It's got a lot of problems. I'd love to find something that can set up on other set-upers like Cress could do if possible, but Cress itself is just too hard to work with nowadays.

 

[Surgo]

Hahaha, I somehow broke 1700 with this as-is, reaching 1708. A new post-DLC high. edit: 1766 now, lol.

 

[Surgo]

Good job Salazzle you did it, top 100. Thanks recent bans!

edit: Recent bans let me put Stealth Rock over Block on Garganacl, and Ice Spinner over Stealth Rock on Tusk.