SM OU Ash-Greninja Balanced Team

[Sptflcrw]

This is my first time making a RMT, so go easy on me, alright?

Heatran @ Firium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock​

Heatran is here because he's good as hell, and I needed a Stealth Rocker. Simple as that. Firium Z is there because I didn't have any other Z-Move users, and Heatran appreciates having a nuke. Main reason I picked Heatran over someone like Ferrothorn is because he has better synergy with my other team members.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 Atk / 68 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Defog​

Landorus provides some ground for this team to stand on. Covering the stuff the other team members might struggle with. Choice Scarf gives Landorus a great speed stat, and it generally doesn't mind being locked into Earthquake. Defog also helps.

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

Thank you to Twin-Gamer for the Ash-Greninja render. Anyway, here we are, the main man. People rag on Ash for being a bad trainer, but you gotta give him credit for this monster of a Pokemon. This thing is what most of the team is built around. Greninja is a beast, carrying one of the highest Sp. Atk stats in the entire tier, an absurd speed stat, and decent bulk, all things considered. It's phenomenal offensive typing and expansive movepool means no one is safe from this monster. Choice Specs is great on this thing, as it hardly ever minds being locked into Water Shuriken or Hydro Pump. Spikes forces out Pokemon like Toxapex as well.

Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Telepathy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch​

Medicham is one hell of a Mega Evolution. A pretty good attack stat combined with Huge Power is all but guaranteed to make a monster. Combine that with a decent attack stat, a phenomenal offensive typing, an amazing movepool, and you've got a beast in your hands. Mega Medicham pairs incredibly well with Ash-Greninja. The two specialize in both forms of attack, and their typing and movepool covers each other's weaknesses.

Tapu Koko @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 104 HP / 12 Def / 176 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost​

Tapu Koko, much like Greninja and Medicham, is a great attacker. Not only this, much like Medicham, Tapu Koko backs up Greninja and Landorus very well. Volt Switch and Landorus' U-Turn work great and really help conserve momentum.

Hawlucha @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 64 HP / 248 Atk / 56 SpD / 140 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- High Jump Kick
- Acrobatics
- Roost​

Rounding out the team is Hawlucha. Hawlucha pairs very well with Tapu Koko, what with the whole Electric Seed gimmick. Swords Dance gives Hawlucha access to terrifying Attack, and Unburden gives it phenomenal speed.

 

[lydian]

Hello Sptflcrw

Nice team you got there, the foundation of Heatran + Landorus-T + Ash-Greninja is quite solid, and Mega Medicham compliments them nicely, but I still believe I can improve your team in a few ways:

♯ Major Changes ♯

• 
  Hawlucha —> Tangrowth
  
  • Set

    Tangrowth @ Assault Vest
    Ability: Regenerator
    EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
    Sassy Nature
    IVs: 30 Atk
    - Giga Drain
    - Focus Blast
    - Hidden Power [Ice]
    - Payback

  • While I'm removing one of your win conditions, the team has plenty of offensive pressure to open the path for Ash-Greninja in most games, so I don't really think Hawlucha is too necessary here. Meanwhile Tangrowth fills a plethora of useful roles for your team, first and foremost, you have no switch in to opposing Ash-Greninja, which is a big no-no, as its one of the stronger and most prominent threats in the current metagame. Thanks to the coverage moves Tangrowth can also take on other Pokemon that could pose a threat to your team. Focus Blast deals with Kartana and also punishes offensive Heatran a bit for coming in (nowhere near as much as Earthquake, of course, but it's something), Hidden Power Ice helps with the likes of Landorus-T and Garchomp, and lastly Payback gives your team another out against Mega Alakazam, which could be a big threat otherwise.

...

• 
  Tapu Koko —> Garchomp
  
  • Set

    Garchomp @ Rockium Z
    Ability: Rough Skin
    EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
    Jolly Nature
    - Earthquake
    - Stone Edge
    - Stealth Rock
    - Swords Dance

  • I think taking out Tapu Koko for Garchomp is the ideal move here. Garchomp gives you a Heatran check and giving it Stealth Rock frees up a moveslot on Heatran, which we'll get to later. You do lose some speed, but between Ash-Greninja and Choice Scarf Landorus-T you should be more than fine. Garchomp also forms a great core with Ash-Greninja by weakening the likes of Tapu Bulu and Tangrowth for it.

...
♭ Minor Changes ♭

• 
  Offensive —> Defensive
  
  • Set

    Heatran @ Leftovers
    Ability: Flash Fire
    EVs: 224 HP / 208 SpD / 76 Spe
    Calm Nature
    IVs: 0 Atk
    - Magma Storm
    - Earth Power
    - Taunt
    - Toxic

  • A more defensive Heatran sets lets your team more adequately handle threats like Tapu Lele, Mega Alakazam, and Mega Mawile. Since you now have Stealth Rock on Garchomp, you can afford to run Toxic and annoy Mega Alakazam. This EV spread has enough Speed for Rotom-W and gets a jump point in Special Defense.

...

• 
  Bulk for Hawlucha —> Bulk for Kartana
  
  • Set

    Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
    Ability: Intimidate
    EVs: 80 HP / 148 Atk / 84 Def / 196 Spe
    Jolly Nature
    - Earthquake
    - U-turn
    - Stone Edge
    - Defog

  • This EV spread gives your team more outs against Kartana, which can be a threat especially if Focus Blast misses or if Tangrowth gets overwhelmed. The EV spread allows Landorus-T to stomach two Leaf Blades from unboosted Kartana after Stealth Rock.

...
So these are my suggestions for your team! I hope you liked the changes. Here's the final team:

Importable

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 224 HP / 208 SpD / 76 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Toxic

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 80 HP / 148 Atk / 84 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Defog

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

Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Telepathy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch

Garchomp @ Rockium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance

Tangrowth @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Payback

 

[busyguy]

lyd posted a solid rate, and that gave me a few ideas. Heatran + Landorus is a good start, but you missed on important threats which need to be covered, even on hyper offense. When Heatran, Lando, or Medicham get a kill, the opponent will bring in Greninja, and your answer to Greninja is your own Greninja. But you need it to sweep. So as lyd also said, we need to cover the most prominent sm ou threats a bit.
The way we can do it with your team is removing Tapu Koko and Hawlucha. We can consider Medicham + Greninja as your offensive core. Koko + Hawlucha is another core to build with. But every offensive core needs some support, and with two to support we're trying to do too much at once.

• Replace Hawlucha with Tapu Bulu. It covers Greninja well and pressures the opponent's checks to Medicham, such as Landorus, Clefable, Reuniclus. With a SpD set you can help Heatran tank some hits from fairies such as Tapu Lele and Magearna. With SD you can force other checks to Medicham and Bulu, like Mega Latios to recover to bring in a check. There is some other crazy stuff, like living a hurricane from Tornadus and killing it back, which is great for Medicham, but you can read that up in the smogon dex.
• Replace Tapu Koko with scarf Tapu Lele, so that we have a fast revenge killer. Tapu Bulu can also pressure some steels with Superpower, to prepare for a Tapu Lele sweep late game. Lele and Medicham also have good synergy, as Medicham can ohko or heavily dent many steels which like to switch into Lele. Lele's has some similar checks to Greninja, such as Magearna, Ferrothorn, Celesteela. One can open the way for the other.
• The last changes are on Lando and Heatran. We don't need a Scarf Lando now, it is trying to sweep late game with Earthquake, but we have Grassy Terrain. So we can make it defensive. Your Heatran set is fine, you can still run your z-move, but there are other ways as well. You could run a z-fly lando (for hawlucha) with taunt/toxic/rocks heatran, or rocks on lando and a z-heatran. It's really up to you, what ever suits your playstyle or preference better.

team

Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Telepathy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch

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

Greninja-Ash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- U-turn

Tapu Bulu @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Swords Dance
- Horn Leech
- Superpower
- Synthesis

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 224 HP / 208 SpD / 76 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Toxic

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Defog

 

[Sptflcrw]

I'm really happy with the changes you guys have suggested, thanks!