ORAS OU Misdreavus: Alone (Peak 1759 ELO, #37 Ranking)

[The Goomy]

(I'm clickable!)

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Proof of Peak: http://i.imgur.com/2q8HbFY.png
Proof of Ladder Rank: http://i.imgur.com/kohLoVd.png
Replay of Peak: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-313529681

Hello everyone, Steven here. And today, I'm going to bring you guys an RMT of this Hyper Offense team I've been using. Hazard control is something I've always really been interested in, and I wanted to attempt to make a team that could effectively hazard stack against most meta builds. Apart from Sableye, Misdreavus is the best spin blocker in OU, and it has some really cool utility as a stall breaker as well (something that Sableye can't really boast). In addition, hyper offense has been used a lot less since the spinners in the tier are so good, so I wanted to make it work. Hope you enjoy the team!

- Hazard Stack Lead
In order to effectively build hyper offense, a good hazard stacking lead is needed. I feel like Stealth Rock is not enough on its own in the meta, so that threw out Azelf and Aerodactyl. So it came down to Omastar and Skarmory. I ended up going with Omastar as it has the ability to lay three types of hazards (Stealth Rock, Spikes, and Toxic Spikes). It's typing and speed combination are better than the other two Pokémon that have access to that movepool (Smeargle and the Pineco line). Omastar is a Pokémon that I have used successfully in NU and I figured I would give it a shot in OU.

- Hazard Retention Core
So, as we all know, there are two main ways to deter the opponent from removing hazards - Defiant and spin blocking. While Bisharp may be an obvious choice, Misdreavus is obviously pretty unique. I feel like Gengar is lacking as a spin blocker due to it's frailty and the fact that it's out-sped by Starmie (so it just loses to Psyshock variants). Jellicent would kill all my momentum, and I wanted to use a more offensive Mega than Sableye. So, I went with Misdreavus - another Pokémon I've used to success in NU (especially BW2) Misdreavus has a wonderful movepool and good distribution of stats that allow it to take on the spinners of OU.

- A More Offensive Mega than Sableye
Manectric fits perfectly into the hazard core. Not only does it effectively bait in Lati@s for Bisharp, but it also loves Spikes and Toxic Spikes support. Its main checks in Heatran and Hippowdon get punished by hazards on every switch in and Volt Switch momentum is amazing with Spikes in general. The blistering speed is great for a team that was relatively slow to this point, and it has nice synergy with Omastar early game when it comes to using electric type attacks against it.

- Checks to Common Meta Threats
At this point the team was incredibly weak to things that bother most HO teams (Bisharp, Weavile, and Tyranitar in particular), so RestTalk Keldeo seemed to fit the bill perfectly. It allows offensive momentum, the ability to beat bulky grounds that bother Manectric, and can even lure things effectively by bluffing choice. Talonflame checks a bunch of stuff in OU if you didn't know. So I put that on the team because I didn't know what else to put there at first.

Omastar @

| Weak Armor
Timid | 252 Spe / 252 SpAtk / 4 Def
Stealth Rock
Spikes
Toxic Spikes
Icy Wind

Omastar is a really cool hyper offense lead. It's actually really effective at getting up multiple layers of hazards in almost every game due to Weak Armor (which boosts your speed when hit by a physical attack at the cost of lowering your defense). Being able to pick and choose the best type of Spike in every game is very cool and gives the Omastar user more control at the beginning of matches. Unfortunately it's unable to set up hazards on Sableye, but the team can handle Sableye with the combination of Keldeo and Talonflame. Icy Wind is there to prevent things from setting up on you (Dragon Dance users).

Bisharp @

| Defiant
Adamant | 192 HP / 220 Atk / 96 Spe
Knock Off
Iron Head
Sucker Punch
Pursuit

As I stated in the opening, I really wanted to be certain that my team could punish opposing teams for attempting to remove my hazards. Bisharp is easily the most effective Pokémon in the meta at punishing Defoggers (primarily Lati@s). Assault Vest makes it so that a wrong prediction doesn't punish me as the Bisharp user and also helps it act as a pivot for the team.

Knock Off is standard as it removes items and is the most reliable STAB that Bisharp has access to. Iron Head allows Bisharp to be a good check to Clefable. Sucker Punch is amazing priority that can help to pick off weakened foes as well as pressure Excadrill and Starmie as spinners. Pursuit allows me to trap Lati@s and Alakazam for Keldeo and Manectric.

Misdreavus @

| Levitate
Timid | 248 HP / 116 SpDef / 144 Spe
Will-O-Wisp
Hex
Taunt
Pain Split

Misdreavus is a god. It's easily the best spin blocker currently available in OU. This spread is mostly to let Missy come in on Starmie and beat it outright. Will-O-Wisp allows Misdreavus to burn the physical attackers that like to switch in and has nice synergy with Hex. Speaking of Hex, Hex + Toxic Spikes is really sexy and allows Missy to punch holes throughout the game. Taunt lets Missy work as an amazing stall-breaker as it has great speed (enough for Jolly base 70s + creep) and can Pain Split back to full against many things. This Pokémon has put in work in every game I've used it and should seriously be used more on teams that utilize hazard stacking.

Manectric @

| Lightningrod -> Intimidate
Timid | 252 Spe / 252 SpAtk / 4 Def
Thunderbolt
Volt Switch
Flamethrower
Hidden Power [Ice]

Manectric does a lot of really cool things for the team. It's blitzing speed allows me to revenge kill a lot of things that can give offense problems. It's a good check to Talonflame (one of the best IMO). It provides momentum with Volt Switch, and it benefits greatly from Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Lati@s being gone. It just fit the team too well to not be used. Mega-evolving early with Manectric is key in certain matchups (they have speedy things).

Keldeo @

| Justified
Timid | 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Scald
Secret Sword
Rest
Sleep Talk

RestTalk Keldeo is amazing in general and fits this team amazingly well. Most hyper offense teams struggle with things like Bisharp and Weavile. Mystic Water allows you to bluff choice, which is nice, but in particular I don't want my Keldeo that I want to have longevity slowly killing itself with Life Orb. The team is really well prepared for the things that commonly switch in on Keldeo (Lati@s - Bisharp, Venusaur - Talonflame, Starmie - Missy, Rotom-W - Manectric)

Talonflame @ [No item] | Gale Wings
Careful | 248 HP / 252 SpDef / 8 Spe
Acrobatics
Roost
Bulk Up
Will-O-Wisp

This is a Talonflame, it does Talonflame things~

Talonflame checks a bunch of stuff, which is really cool for a HO team. The bulk is amazing and allows you to set up on certain bulky waters and the like. Bulk Up is a cool set up move that lets Talonflame beat Foul Play Sab with ease, as well as preventing it from being revenged by common checks to Talonflame (Landorus-T, Excadrill, Talonflame, Lopunny). Will-O-Wisp lets you hit bulky things that want to switch in on you and has cool synergy with Hex. The lack of hazard removal is irrelevant because the point of the team is to force them to Defog or to stack and win with offensive pressure.

Mega-Diancie:

Diancie not only prevents hazards with Magic Bounce, but it also resists all forms of priority on the team and is just obnoxious in general to deal with.

Uncommon Sub CM Users:

Raikou in particular gets a lot of set up opportunities. Toxic Spikes help to deal with these and Bisharp does well against Raikou.

Mega-Lopunny paired with Rotom-W:

+

Talon is best check to Lopunny (which is a problem in general) and Rotom-W pressures the team to make good choices.

Conkeldurr:

Does a lot of damage to everything on my team and can be a Toxic Spikes deterrent due to Guts.

Fast Taunt Leads:

Lose hazards game early.

This team is really fun to use and it definitely performs effectively as a hyper offense team.
Misdreavus is really good, use it.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-310691933 - vs #5 on ladder
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-313476367 - game against 1000 some turn stall legend
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-313503495 - an example of Missy's usefulness
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-313518838 - playing around Diancie
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-313521004 - stacking hazards
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-313524489 - talonflame is a good pokemon
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-313529681 - peak replay again

Importable:

http://hastebin.com/ujijureliw.md


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[CanadianWifier]

hI sTEVEN!

Amazing looking RMT, as usual. Cool team, yada yada, I've seen you use it enough times on ladder and in calls.

One change I can suggest though is switching Icy Wind ---> Scald on Omastar. Not only does this help alleviate your weakness to Mega-Diancie, but it also prevents set-up sweepers (Dragon Dance users specifically) from setting up as well, just like Icy Wind! Scald always burns, let's not fucking kid ourselves here..


Best of luck in the future with your god squads! :]

 

[MANNAT]

what does your team do vs rapid spin+hazard stacking teams with like tent, ferro, etc.?

 

[xtra$hine]

WHAT DOES UR TEAM HAVE FOR MEGA ZARD X

 

[The Goomy]

WHAT DOES UR TEAM HAVE FOR MEGA ZARD X

Playing well around it. n_n

 

[FlamingVictini]

Hey there,
I've actually had a lot of experience with bisharp + missy hazard stacking thanks to pokebattle. In that team I used physical spam with Deoxys-S as my hazard stacker (since its legal there) and then MGyara, Scarf Lando-T, and Breloom in the last three slots. Here, since omastar is really poor at preventing the opponents hazards, I kind of feel iffy about using talonflame without hazard control. Because of this, I feel like a restructured team could be beneficial. In addition, I find that if you're gonna have 3 types of hazards on your team, you'd almost always want to keep the hazards up rather than kill lati and get a +2 bisharp that will be most likely revenged the next turn. Because of this, I urge you to try a pursuit trapper that can outspeed lati's and KO them such as scarf ttar or scarf bisharp (or weavile, but then you have no dragon switch-in at all).

There are many ways that you could choose to restructure this team. You could choose to go with a different mega like Diancie, MGyara, Kazam, or even something rogue like Mega Absol for example, which I think all have potential to work well. Such a change would certainly push you to restructure the keldeo + talonflame, and perhaps consider skarmory over omastar.

The most important thing to take away from this is that you need to find a way to balance your hazard game very well. For teams like this, I find that if you can just get the right combination of mons in your non-hazard slots that contribute towards the overall momentum of the team and still have value towards maintaining your hazards or preventing your opponents hazards, then the team works best. This is extremely difficult to accomplish in ou due to the sheer amount of mons you need to account for, but I know that some builds are just better than others because of how they maintain momentum and pressure. Its pretty much impossible to cover every mon even type-wise on this just because some will just have the right movepool to hit everything; the key is to maintain very solid momentum and ability to revenge kill threats. Teams like these also require very accurate predictions, but are also extremely rewarding. Although this team is good, it has its flaws. Most notably the talonflame seems like a weak point, but also the slow omastar lead that can be exploited, and also the team pretty much fails to PREVENT defog from lati and only discourages it, which doesn't seem good to me when you're gonna run all 3 hazards on your ho team (unless you can reliably set those hazards up again, which you can't). Numerous weaknesses to set-up sweepers and fast mons in general or priority and a stronger hazard game from the opponent are things you need to account for. I would suggest alternatives, but there's no way I can really know whether it will be better than your current build without extensive testing, and there are many many alternatives to try out. This build is good for sure, but I think it is lacking that momentum and oomph factor to create a really strong hazard game with high pressure that would be more consistent than this one, which can fall apart any moment it loses momentum. In your future builds I would consider having a stall/wall breaker that is much more immediately threatening than a talonflame, because things like that can just lose momentum, especially if you're gonna concede rocks and then be forced to roost, only to have no switch-in to the threat they bring in on talon. Its also really good to make sure you can check as much as possible while making sure this revenger doesn't lose a lot of momentum; scarf lando-t, although unpopular and probably less effective in this metagame compared to previous ones, is similar to what I have in mind (sash regular zam might also be of great value, as it also has options to disrupt the opponent depending on its 4th moveslot).

There are many ways that you could choose to restructure this team. You could choose to go with a different mega like Diancie, MGyara, Kazam, or even something rogue like Mega Absol for example, which I think all have potential to work well. Such a change would certainly push you to restructure the keldeo + talonflame, and perhaps consider skarmory over omastar or even not running a defiant user and instead focusing on preventing defog with very good momentum.

I'm not sure what more to say because this is the most unusual rate i've ever written since its more focused on developing a more ideal hazard stacking offense rather than directly trying to improve yours. The team is good for sure, but if you want something a little bit better, you're gonna have to keep restructuring this team and testing it until you find that right momentum where the whole hazards thing just clicks and works much more consistently. Gl!

e: to add a bit more clarity to the whole preventing defog thing and weakness to opposing hazards, just imagine losing omastar early for some hazards, then having lati come in to defog as you go to bisharp a little later in the game, so that you can kill lati and they can bring in keldeo and just grab a kill or at least force out the bish. Doesn't seem so great to me, especially since you don't prevent opposing hazards spectacularly well or anything.

 

[Roarring1]

How do you handle mega blastoise?

 

[Campaign]

How do you handle mega blastoise?

It's not a common enough threat to worry about but you have stab lightning and pain-split wall as well as toxic spikes. It's a HO team and having your major stall-breaker be Talon Flame does leave you weak to water / lightning stall but the team really does rely heavily on hazards to get the offensive cores through.

 

[coffeeaddict]

Great team, but I'm honestly not sold on Misdreavus.

I currently run a bulky Jellicent as my spinblocker and I think it might be superior to Misdreavus. Jellicent can basically run the same movepool (Will-o-Wisp, Taunt, Recover, Scald/Surf/Hex) and has better typing, bulk and access to more reliable recovery (recover + leftovers). It let's you completely wall pokemon like Keldeo.

Only downside is its speed is a bit lower. I tend to allocate 84 Speed EVs for it to outspeed Skarmory. I think you should give it a try and see whether it fits into your team.