SM Ubers Mega Lopunny at Dusk (Peaked 1700s)

I got a question for you: Is this a stall, semi-stall, or balanced offense team? I'd really like to know, because someone raged at me for "using stall" and I was a bit surprised. Anyway this is a team I didn't think would make far because all I really wanted was to try out the new xerneas killer, alongside a mon I thought to be underrated, Giratina-O. Here's the team building process.

With every new game, I want to try out the latest toy in ubers that appealed to me. Dawn Wings looked so bad, ultra necrozma sounded like a good sweeper, but dusk mane persuaded me to buy ultra sun. Bar any hax, the SpDef set invalidates every Xerneas set, and I didn't like xerneas with its ez boosts.
Next I wanted to try Giratina-O. The dragon typing and levitate synergized well with Dusk Mane's Steel typing. It's got defog and a powerful signature move, and is a nice check for that omnipresent Pdon.
I had 2 ghost/dark weaknesses. You already know that I had to bring out the bird of destruction. There was no other dark type like it. So much black in this core.
I thought I would be weak to setup sweepers so I added Marshadow. I'm a fan of the z-move set but recently I saw how amazing the scarf set can be. I tried that out.
I knew the sets I would run, so now I wanted something to take advantage of toxic (that's a broad request), and something to further support Giratina-O. Mega lopunny looked like it can do those jobs, and I heard that mega lop + Marshadow was a good offensive core back when Marshadow was in OU.
Last mon I tried Z-xerneas as a win con. Even though I hate this mon I just wanted to show how busted it was, but it wasn't. So instead I tried support xern, but I felt it was lacking any sustain or power, now I tried Fairy-Arc, but the typing wasn't cutting it out for me so I switched to Splash Plate. Also a nice switch in to knock off.
The Team:

Necrozma-Dusk Mane @ Leftovers
Prism Armor
Careful Nature
252 HP / 4 Att / 252 SpD
-Sunsteel Strike
-Morning Sun
-Toxic
-Stealth Rock

Standard SpDef set. This thing doesn't die. Always comes out vs xerneas, support arceus, and magearna. It can also take a hit from yveltal and most PDon if need be. It sets up rocks and spreads toxics. Sunsteel Strike is for fairy types, and breaking some subs. Toxic is more of a priority than stealth rock, as many people switch in their ground type mon on him.


Giratina-Origin Griseous Orb
Levitate
Adamant Nature
128 HP / 252 Att / 128 Def
-Shadow Force
-Shadow Sneak
-Defog
-Dragon Tail

Put this mon on the team because I wanted to, and Defog. Shadow Force hits very hard, and synergizes well with Toxic. Yveltal is usually the enemy's only ghost resist, so poisoning it or putting up rocks makes nothing a safe switch in to it. A combination of Shadow force-> Sneak is also great with toxic, and deals an average of 89% to 72 HP GeoXern. Shadow sneak is also just general strong priority for picking off weakened threats. Dragon tail is for racking up hazard damage, hurting the pink blobs, and for phazing Double Dance PDon if I wasn't able to toxic it. EV spread was meant to give Giratino-O a little more special bulk, but 252/252 Att/Def works too I honestly thought that was what I was running in my climb on the mid 1500s.


Yveltal @ Leftovers
Dark Aura
Modest Nature
72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
-Dark Pulse
-Oblivion Wing
-Taunt
-Toxic

You know how I said I use the latest new uber that appealed to me? Well this is the exact same set I ran back in 2013 (Minus Big Root and 40 Spe Evs). This thing breaks stall almost by itself and while I'm not a fan of breaking items clause, leftovers plays a big role in its stall breaking. This is usually my lead, as it gets off toxic almost free. Dark pulse is for cracking dents, and oblivion wing is for sustain. Taunt stops any hopes of wish passing or aromatherapy. Speed EVs to outspeed max neutral base 90s. Definitely my favorite uber.


Marshadow @ Choice Scarf
Technician
Naive Nature
4 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spe
-Spectral Thief
-Close Combat
-Rock Tomb
-Hidden Power Ice

Revenge Killer/Cleaner. I wanted to make sure that I can't be set up on so choice scarf allows me to outspeed Mega Mewtwo, Mega Gengar, Ultra Necro, +2 Dusk Mane, +1 MMence, +1 Zygarde, +2 Adamant PDon, other scarfers, and some versions of boosted xerneas. Close combat is for unresisted STAB coverage, Rock Tomb is for Ho-oh or allowing something in my team to outspeed, and HP Ice is for Zygarde and salamence.


Mega Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Limber -> Scrappy
Jolly Nature
4 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spe
-Fake Out
-Return
-High Jump Kick
-Healing Wish

Both MLop and Marsh have unresisted STAB coverage, which is very neat. Lopunny in its base form can be a switch in to Yveltal, Glare Zygarde, support arceus, and marshadow if you get the prediction right. I would compare this mon to the currently D-Rank MKanga, who possesses better bulk, power, and wish support. The biggest difference is that MLop can threaten Marshadow and Mega sableye. It also outspeeds MGengar and UNecrozma without relying on sucker punch mind games. Another plus is healing wish, which can be used to patch up Yveltal or Giratina-O, especially if they have been statused. Fake out is important for stacking toxic damage, and scouting the damage for your other stab moves. The extra damage output MKanga provides is rarely missed thanks to toxic spreading.


Arceus-Water Splash Plate
Multitype
Bold Nature
252 HP / 168 Def / 72 SpA / 16 Spe
-Judgement
-Fire Blast
-Recover
-Refresh

Probably the most exchangeable mon. I just wanted something to take those offensive Ho-oh and marshadows, as well as a status absorber. Aromatherapy xern was subpar so refresh arceus was my next idea. Fire Blast is to deal with Ferrothorn and Magearna. EVs are to be almost as physically as bulky as Xerneas(with lefties), outspeed max neutral base 90s, and the rest is dumped into special attack to hit slightly harder.

Gameplan: The goal is to toxic as much things as you can so that Giratina, Marshadow, and MLop can clean up. I guess spreading poison is where the stall argument comes from. Keep yveltal away from toxic and glare unless you need to get your own toxic off. If the opponent has a cleric be sure to always have something to threaten it. Taunt, or Dragon Tail (to make switching in harder), or Fire Blast (In magearna's case) these annoying clerics.

Threats: Primal Kyogre- Must toxic and wear it down, usually yveltal takes life-threatening damage. If its restalk I need to time attacks accordingly with taunt, dragon tail, spectral theif, or mega lop.

Magearna- This thing also doesn't die. Send help. Fairy also wrecks 2/3rds of my team. I just have to keep chipping away at it.

PDon- I can't switch into this thing very well. Sometimes I have no fear and go straight for the toxic/dpulse and it usually works. Giratina is my best switch in so I'd keep that as healthy as the enemy pdon.

Yveltal- S-rank for a reason. Once again, toxic or oblivion wing wars is the only way to win.

Zygarde- Spreads para easily. Sub sets are pretty scary too. I need toxic, marshadow, or reading the tectonic rage to beat this thing.

Toxapex- Never saw this thing yet, but its up there in the viability rankings I don't know how I would deal with this

That's all I could think of at the moment

Replays: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ubers-678052414 vs hyper offense. Zekrom was a bit scary
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ubers-676452685 Pretty much followed the game plan
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ubers-674617777 6-0ed stall, #11 player on ladder. Very satisfying.

Conclusion: So did you find the answer to my question? This was a fun team with a nice color scheme and Mega Loppuny for a little twist. Maybe this will put MLop in the viability rankings :) I can easily see a suggestion to change my current arceus, feel free to give me some pointers. Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!

Excuse me while I soft reset for my Shiny Giratina now.
 
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Minority

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To answer your very first question, I would categorize this as a bulky offense team. The reason is because of the use of Pokemon that lack strong staying power (Giratina-O, Marshadow, Mega Lopunny), but in a structure that has Pokemon that are primarily there as reactive defensive checks (Arceus-Water, Necrozma-DM). Not proactive enough to be HO, but not quite enough staying power for me to call this a balance.

In terms of the structure of the team, I think most of the basics are here, hence the ladder ranking, although your threatlist pinpoints some of the issues pretty well. Primal Kyogre is a big one, especially because this team options for no Primal Groudon and has Water resists that are smacked around by common coverage. Even that aside, your Arceus-Water actually can't touch any good Primal Kyogre set. With Pokemon as reactive as some of the things being run here (see above) revenge killing alone isn't a adequate defense. The structure can't really accommodate this mentality either, although using Toxic Arceus-Water in conjunction with an offensive Necrozma-DM and Yveltal would help a lot. For the style of build you're going for I think you're best off just using Primal Groudon.

This brings me to one of my next concerns, which is that Steels and Ho-Oh are very annoying, again somewhat reflected by your threatlist. Your option for breaking Magearna, which laughs at the Yveltal set, is to switch to Necrozma-DM. This is no good, mostly because it easily Volt Switches out of this and because Necrozma-DM doesn't actually do all that much to Magearna or harshly punish the opposing team. As for Ho-Oh, Arceus-Water does provide some options, but ultimately I feel like good Ho-Oh teams can win the hazard war, trap Arceus-Water, or both. It's not so much that Ho-Oh in a vacuum is a big threat, but rather that your typical Ho-Oh build is a threat. The ladder is notorious for underutilizing Ho-Oh, and building poorly with it, so this is probably why you haven't run into much trouble.

Another Pokemon in your threatlist that I think is a huge deal is opposing Yveltal. This team has two Pokemon very afraid of it and the Yveltal check is Yveltal. Your Yveltal set is very much an anti-ladder tech, but one that in my opinion isn't really conducive to a singular role. In short, if the point is to break stall, why would you be using Leftovers. If the point is to wall, why aren't you using Roost. I do think small (and seemingly conflicting) customizations can be justified, so I won't get too hung up on it. The biggest thing here is just an overall redundancy in the structure, and I'm referring specifically to Giratina-O + Marshadow + Yveltal. In terms of defensive synergy there is overlap between Giratina-O and Marshadow. In terms of offensive synergy there is overlap between Marshadow and Yveltal. I'm not saying it's absolutely impossible to justify a team with one of these two combinations, but all three together in this application doesn't work for me.

I think the structure is much better off if Marshadow is replaced with Primal Groudon, and the Yveltal set is adjusted to match your offensive needs. The teambuilding section doesn't justify Marshadow's addition outside of "I thought I would be weak to setup sweepers". Marshadow is very much an anti-HO Pokemon, but in regards to specifically checking setup sweepers it really only checks two types - SD Arceus and slow boosters. The former is checked by Giratina-O and the latter can be check by Yveltal, Mega Lopunny, or some combination of detailing. I think any offensive and defenisve needs can simply already be squeezed out of the other members. The benefit of Primal Groudon is pretty intuitive - it makes this team more secure vs. Primal-Kyogre, Ho-Oh, Steels (especially Mage), and is already freed of Stealth Rock. A setup Primal Groudon also synergies well with Healing Wish from Lopunny. I would use the Yveltal set to ensure that things like fast Psychics are adequately covered (think Sucker Punch or Scarf), although Mega Lopunny does already somewhat function as a fastmon. If this team wants to really improve its matchup against Yveltal, you'll probably have to ditch Mega Lopunny for a Fairy-type, use Mage over Necrozma-DM and then put SR on Primal Groudon, or try and detail an Arceus or Yveltal set that can beat it.
 
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