SM OU Alakazam&Keldeo Balance

[rinascere]

Introduction: At the first sight of the team, you may come up with ideas like “zam-terrain team again”. However, it’s not meant to be this combination. It was intended to be a common Alakazam balance team, and Lele just happened to be there. So if you have any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to separate the classic partner XD.

Team Preview:

Importable

Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Knock Off
- Focus Blast
- Dazzling Gleam

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Zapdos @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Poison]
- Secret Sword

Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Moonblast

Team Building:

Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Knock Off
- Focus Blast
- Dazzling Gleam

Alakazam-M, the main attacker and sweeper of the team with a really common set. The combination of psychic-fighting-fairy doesn’t really have much scotoma in OU metagame. Knock Off can effectively weaken some bulky mons like Chansey, Bulu, Mage, Celest and Jirachi that could stop its pace. Without a leftovers/eviolite/vest, they wouldn’t really be a solid wall to stop Zam stably.

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Poison]
- Secret Sword

Keldeo with specs is always my first choice of non-mega stable attacker. Scald can deal nice damage while chipping enemies with high-possibility burn effect, and hydro pump is really destructive to most mons. HP Poison is prepared for its two big enemies-Bulu and Fini. If they got one hit, they won’t be really capable of defending Keldeo even with type advantage.

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Excadrill is an excellent mon to control the field status. I chose a HP-Speed EV spread to enable it to form relative speed advantage and take on some defensive tasks at the same time.

Zapdos @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost

Zapdos is a suitable defensive partner with Excadrill. I leave the defogging(spinning) task to Excadrill cuz Zapdos can effective deal with Ground types like Landorus, Zygard and Gliscor with HP Ice, and Heat Wave is needed to beat Ferrothron. I finally choose VS instead of Discharge or Thunderbolt so that more free chances can be created for Zam and Keldeo. Because I'd like the team become fast-paced, I choose a more offensive helmet to conservative leftovers.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower

The team really lacks a Special Defensive Wall, so I tried my favorite Clefable Set. Wish can heal teammates as well as recovering itself. Flamethrower can be used to predict Steel Types like Ferrothron and Scizor-M that would always switch on to Clefbale. I prefer Unaware to Magic Guard as a check to mons like Balce and Volcarona.

Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Moonblast

At last, I need a scarfer to raise the speed line. Lele happens to fit well with Zam, so that’s it. It can both provide Psychic Terrain for Zam and deal considerable damage itself.

Weakness:
Charizard-X: Just a Dragon Dance, and the whole team is in danger. :(
Slowbro(-Mega): The team can deal effective damage to it.
Victini: Banded Set is really hard to defend. Scarfed Set would also become a huge threat when Zapdos isn’t in a healthy status.

Something at last:
I think this team is not really good enough, so I wish can get your suggestion to improve it! Thank you!

 

[MFJK]

Hey,

You've got an interesting team there! Psyspam is a really underrated playstyle which can still put in tons of work. Your team has most of the roles a team needs, but the problem is that you're using sets that aren' toptimal with the type of team you're going for - Unaware Clefable is only viable on Stall, and I'm not a fan of offensive Excadrill outside of Sand (spdef is generally better) - and if you used different options, you would have a better role compression. Currently, the team suffers from a weakness to some offensive threats including, but not limited to, Zygarde, Tapu Lele and Mega Alakazam, as well as Greninja (both Ash and Protean), which you do not have a proper switchin for. Also, your team will have troubles dealing with the most common variant of Stall, as you cannot really get past the core of Alomomola + Chansey + M-Aggron + Mew. So these are the issues my suggestions below will aim to solve.

Changes

: moveset change +

:

->

/

So my first suggestion is a change in M-Alakazam and Lele's sets. Nowadays, every M-Alakazam needs Recover in order to perform its functions fully. Otherwise, it is unable to switch-in on pokemons like Heatran and M-Latios, and has less longevity in general. For that reason, I would change its moveset to Psychic / Focus Blast / Shadow Ball / Recover. In addition to that change, I believe it would also be more optimal to change Lele's set to either Fightinium Z or Choice Specs. Although Scarf Lele is by no means a bad set, having one of the 2 sets I proposed better satisfies the goal of a Psychic Spam core: weakening shared checks. With Specs or Fightinium, Lele can more easily weaken Steel-types and special walls in general.

->

/

As my second change, I replaced Keldeo. You said that Keldeo was your go-to pokemon when you needed an offensive Water-type, but the truth is that it's not really good in the meta. A lot of common such as Tangrowth and Toxapex can wall it, and it doesn't offer much utility (the only set that imo is worth using is the CM + Z-Water / Fight because it allows it to actually get past its checks and it's a good stallbreaker). For that reason, Ash-Greninja fits better in that slot because it's faster, meaning it can pressure slower mons like Tornadus-T, and offers Spikes support as well. Alternatively, you can go for Scarf Protean Greninja for speed control if you feel that mons like Zard-X are too annoying.

->

As I said earlier, I don't like offensive Excadrill outside of Sand, nor the fact that it's your rocker and your only defogger because it's frail and not durable. Even SpDef Drill is quite frail and doesn't really solve the issue against Psychic-types. For that reason, I believe spdef Heatran would be a better fit as it's much more durable than Excadrill, is a better switchin to Psychic-type (although it's admittely not perfect), and also checks Grass-types which is always a plus. The spread on the importable outspeeds max speed Magearna so you can Taunt it, and also wins 1v1 against most other Heatran variants when at full.

->

As I said earlier, Unaware Clefable is only viable on Stall, and with the fact that you already have a rocker, Clefable felt pretty out of place here. For that reason, I replaced it with Tangrowth which gives you a switchin to Water-types like Ash-Gren as well as Ground-types like Zygarde, which you were still pretty weak to.

As a last minor change, I would change Zapdos' spread to 248 HP / 240 Def / 20 Spe so that you have a number of HP that isn't divisible by 4. You also want Defog over HP Ice on it, since I replaced Excadrill. Also, if you opt for Choice Specs on Lele, you can go for Electrium Z on it, so that you can have a one-time nuke which can be helpful against some threats, and also reduce Knock Off damage, which can be useful against stuff like Tangrowth, Kartana, and Tornadus-T.

Final comments

So that's it for my rate. The new team now has most of the issues I outlined covered, although there are still some threats you are gonna have troubles against. Those include Zard-X, which can take advantage of Tangrowth and is really hard to revenge kill after a Dragon Dance (especially if you're using the Ash-Gren variant), Garchomp which can come in on Tran and cripple Tang with Toxic or OHKO it with Z-Stone Edge depending on the variant, and also other offensive threats such as M-Mawile, M-Alakazam and Tapu Lele. In those situations, you'll need to play more aggressively to put yourself in a somewhat comfortable situation and avoid getting swept. Of course, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Have a nice day!

Importables: Version 1 | Version 2​

 

[rinascere]

Hey,

You've got an interesting team there! Psyspam is a really underrated playstyle which can still put in tons of work. Your team has most of the roles a team needs, but the problem is that you're using sets that aren' toptimal with the type of team you're going for - Unaware Clefable is only viable on Stall, and I'm not a fan of offensive Excadrill outside of Sand (spdef is generally better) - and if you used different options, you would have a better role compression. Currently, the team suffers from a weakness to some offensive threats including, but not limited to, Zygarde, Tapu Lele and Mega Alakazam, as well as Greninja (both Ash and Protean), which you do not have a proper switchin for. Also, your team will have troubles dealing with the most common variant of Stall, as you cannot really get past the core of Alomomola + Chansey + M-Aggron + Mew. So these are the issues my suggestions below will aim to solve.

Changes

: moveset change +

:

->

/

So my first suggestion is a change in M-Alakazam and Lele's sets. Nowadays, every M-Alakazam needs Recover in order to perform its functions fully. Otherwise, it is unable to switch-in on pokemons like Heatran and M-Latios, and has less longevity in general. For that reason, I would change its moveset to Psychic / Focus Blast / Shadow Ball / Recover. In addition to that change, I believe it would also be more optimal to change Lele's set to either Fightinium Z or Choice Specs. Although Scarf Lele is by no means a bad set, having one of the 2 sets I proposed better satisfies the goal of a Psychic Spam core: weakening shared checks. With Specs or Fightinium, Lele can more easily weaken Steel-types and special walls in general.

->

/

As my second change, I replaced Keldeo. You said that Keldeo was your go-to pokemon when you needed an offensive Water-type, but the truth is that it's not really good in the meta. A lot of common such as Tangrowth and Toxapex can wall it, and it doesn't offer much utility (the only set that imo is worth using is the CM + Z-Water / Fight because it allows it to actually get past its checks and it's a good stallbreaker). For that reason, Ash-Greninja fits better in that slot because it's faster, meaning it can pressure slower mons like Tornadus-T, and offers Spikes support as well. Alternatively, you can go for Scarf Protean Greninja for speed control if you feel that mons like Zard-X are too annoying.

->

As I said earlier, I don't like offensive Excadrill outside of Sand, nor the fact that it's your rocker and your only defogger because it's frail and not durable. Even SpDef Drill is quite frail and doesn't really solve the issue against Psychic-types. For that reason, I believe spdef Heatran would be a better fit as it's much more durable than Excadrill, is a better switchin to Psychic-type (although it's admittely not perfect), and also checks Grass-types which is always a plus. The spread on the importable outspeeds max speed Magearna so you can Taunt it, and also wins 1v1 against most other Heatran variants when at full.

->

As I said earlier, Unaware Clefable is only viable on Stall, and with the fact that you already have a rocker, Clefable felt pretty out of place here. For that reason, I replaced it with Tangrowth which gives you a switchin to Water-types like Ash-Gren as well as Ground-types like Zygarde, which you were still pretty weak to.

As a last minor change, I would change Zapdos' spread to 248 HP / 240 Def / 20 Spe so that you have a number of HP that isn't divisible by 4. You also want Defog over HP Ice on it, since I replaced Excadrill. Also, if you opt for Choice Specs on Lele, you can go for Electrium Z on it, so that you can have a one-time nuke which can be helpful against some threats, and also reduce Knock Off damage, which can be useful against stuff like Tangrowth, Kartana, and Tornadus-T.

Final comments

So that's it for my rate. The new team now has most of the issues I outlined covered, although there are still some threats you are gonna have troubles against. Those include Zard-X, which can take advantage of Tangrowth and is really hard to revenge kill after a Dragon Dance (especially if you're using the Ash-Gren variant), Garchomp which can come in on Tran and cripple Tang with Toxic or OHKO it with Z-Stone Edge depending on the variant, and also other offensive threats such as M-Mawile, M-Alakazam and Tapu Lele. In those situations, you'll need to play more aggressively to put yourself in a somewhat comfortable situation and avoid getting swept. Of course, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Have a nice day!

Importables: Version 1 | Version 2​

Thank you for your rate!
I really like the changes you made. However, I still have some questions about it.
1. What's the reason for Heatran to choose Lava Plume rather than Magma Storm?
2. Is Power Whip more useful than Giga Drain for Tangrowth?
3. The team seems to lack a ground-type, so Tapu-Koko with VS can be a trouble, isn't it?

I would really appreciate it if you can explain about these :)

 

[MFJK]

Thank you for your rate!
I really like the changes you made. However, I still have some questions about it.
1. What's the reason for Heatran to choose Lava Plume rather than Magma Storm?
2. Is Power Whip more useful than Giga Drain for Tangrowth?
3. The team seems to lack a ground-type, so Tapu-Koko with VS can be a trouble, isn't it?

I would really appreciate it if you can explain about these :)

Hey, I'm glad that you liked my rate!

1- Magma Storm isn't really needed on specially defensive Tran and Lava Plume is generally better to fish for burns and for 100% accuracy (that's also the reason why a lot offensive steelium heatrans run lava plume over magma).

2- Power Whip is used to beat M-Alakazam, which can otherwise just trace Regen, tank a Knock Off and come back at nearly full later on (and if Tangrowth has been chipped, Psychic 2HKOes), whereas Power Whip leaves it at pretty low hp. However, if you feel that you prefer Giga Drain, then sure you can you do it too.

0 Atk Tangrowth Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Alakazam-Mega: 183-216 (72.9 - 86%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Tangrowth Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Alakazam-Mega: 183-216 (72.9 - 86%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and 1 layer of Spikes

3- Yeah that's one thing I noticed but I didn't wanna make further changes as it would've been too much. However, it's not that big of a deal because pretty much every Kokos run U-turn anyways ro you'll only really have to deal with Volt Switch Magearna and Zapdos occasionally, both of which you can check without too much trouble.

Hope that helps!