MajorBowman
wouldst thou like to live fergaliciously?
Introduction
Teambuilding
Salamence is definitely my favorite mega evolution to use competitively, and after joining the DOU community after the ban in Gen 6, I've been very happy that I have the chance to use it again. I love how much raw damage Salamence can put out while still being considerably bulky and having team support options like Intimidate and Tailwind. I hadn't built a Salamence team yet in SM at this point, so I was eager to build a team around it for week 2 of SPL.
Tyranitar, while used very little in ORAS DOU, has become one of the top threats in SM DOU. Tyranitar's ability to check the 3 top mega evolutions in the tier (Salamence, Gengar, and Charizard) is basically unmatched, and having a weather setter to mess with opposing weather is quite valuable. Tyranitar makes Ninetales in particular quite useless, as sand negates its ability to set up Aurora Veil and Blizzard becomes inaccurate and unreliable. Miltankmilk suggested Tyranitar to go along with Salamence and I fully supported the idea, so we added it to the team.
Our next pick was Aegislash. While not the same monster it was in ORAS, Aegislash is still a great Pokemon in SM since it's one of the best checks to PsySpam and Tapu Lele in general. Aegislash was again miltankmilk's idea, and he had a pretty :fire: set to boot, so I just couldn't say no.
At this point, I knew I wanted some speed control. After getting nerfed in 3 separate ways, I knew Thundurus was out, and I also ruled out Thunder Wave entirely since it just didn't lower speed enough anymore. Trick Room would have been a decent option, but I instead opted for Tailwind because Salamence and Aegislash both greatly appreciate it, and I knew I could fill the team out with a couple more mid-speed tier Pokemon that could take advantage of Tailwind as well. Zapdos was such an easy pick for this role, as it can reliably set Tailwind multiple times during a game thanks to its naturally high bulk, typing, and access to Roost.
It's hard to build an SM DOU team without a Tapu, and this slot originally had Tapu Bulu to protect Tyranitar and Aegislash from Earthquakes. However, I wasn't a fan of Bulu at all and never felt that it contributed enough to the team in testing, so I switched to Tapu Fini. This Pokemon shot up the usage stats pretty quickly in DOU thanks to its great bulk and ability to either set up Calm Minds and sweep or just support its team with Misty Terrain and potentially Swagger (which raises its partners attack 2 stages but doesn't confuse them thanks to the terrain) and Heal Pulse.
Originally, I had Landorus-I in this slot. Jirachi was still legal at this time, and having an option to straight up OHKO it with Earth Power was tempting. Landorus-I also got clean OHKOs on Landorus-T and Salamence with Hidden Power Ice and could run either Sludge Bomb or Stone Edge for coverage, but overall I felt that Landorus-I was too frail and too slow to accomplish what I wanted. Instead of finding a replacement I just swapped to Landorus-T, since I liked the typing in this slot and another Intimidate option was great. Honestly you can never really go wrong with putting Landorus-T on a DOU team, I think we know that much by now.
Sets
--->
Item: Salamencite
| Ability: Intimidate ---> Aerilate
EVs: 52 Atk / 204 SpA / 252 Spe | Hasty Nature
Moves: Hyper Voice / Double-Edge / Draco Meteor / Protect
Like I said, I'm a huge fan of Mega Salamence, and I think mixed is easily its best set. Hyper Voice is such a spammable move that does a really surprising amount of damage thanks to Aerilate, and Double-Edge is incredibly powerful coming off Mega Salamence's base 145 Attack stat. Draco Meteor was mainly used to hit stuff like opposing Salamence or Landorus-T, but it clashed with my own Misty Terrain, which weakened Draco Meteor against grounded targets. Fire Blast is definitely worth considering in that slot to give the team a fire move to hit the now popular Ferrothorn. The EV spread is pretty simple, max Speed was an obvious pick to make Salamence as fast as possible and give it the best chance to eliminate other Salamence with Draco Meteor before they could attack. The minimal Attack investment (along with choosing a nature that didn't lower Attack) allows Salamence to always OHKO 4 HP Tapu Lele, and the rest was dumped into Special Attack. We picked Hasty over Naive so Salamence could take special attacks a bit better, as special attacks are generally more common in this format. Additionally, the 2 Intimidates on the team could help cover the slightly lowered Defense.Item: Salamencite
EVs: 52 Atk / 204 SpA / 252 Spe | Hasty Nature
Moves: Hyper Voice / Double-Edge / Draco Meteor / Protect
Item: Chople Berry
EVs: 232 HP / 136 Atk / 8 Def / 132 SpA | Brave Nature
Moves: Rock Slide / Crunch / Ice Beam / Protect
Item: Ghostium Z
EVs: 132 HP / 252 SpA / 124 Spe | Modest Nature
Moves: Shadow Ball / Hidden Power Ice / Shadow Sneak / King's Shield
Item: Misty Seed
EVs: 232 HP / 136 Def / 84 SpD / 56 Spe | Bold Nature
Moves: Thunderbolt / Hidden Power Ice / Tailwind / Roost
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 152 SpA / 32 SpD / 56 Spe | Bold Nature
Moves: Muddy Water / Moonblast / Calm Mind / Protect
Item: Choice Band
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe | Adamant Nature
Moves: Earthquake / Rock Slide / Superpower / Explosion
Threats
Conclusion
This is still my favorite team that I've built and used in SM. I think that it still handles the current meta pretty well even though it was built before two very prominent Pokemon were banned thanks to its flexibility and margin for error while playing. Huge thanks to miltankmilk for being my trusty building partner week in and week out. I'm pretty sure we built this team while I was staying overnight at the Berlin airport waiting for my flight home from a VGC Regional lmao. Hopefully you all enjoy the team as much as I do.Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 52 Atk / 204 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Double-Edge
- Hyper Voice
- Draco Meteor
- Protect
Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 232 HP / 136 Atk / 8 Def / 132 SpA
Brave Nature
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Ice Beam
- Protect
Aegislash @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 132 HP / 252 SpA / 124 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield
Zapdos @ Misty Seed
Ability: Static
EVs: 232 HP / 136 Def / 84 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Tailwind
- Roost
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 152 SpA / 32 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Protect
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Rock Slide
- Explosion
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 52 Atk / 204 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Double-Edge
- Hyper Voice
- Draco Meteor
- Protect
Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 232 HP / 136 Atk / 8 Def / 132 SpA
Brave Nature
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Ice Beam
- Protect
Aegislash @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 132 HP / 252 SpA / 124 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield
Zapdos @ Misty Seed
Ability: Static
EVs: 232 HP / 136 Def / 84 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Tailwind
- Roost
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 152 SpA / 32 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Protect
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Rock Slide
- Explosion
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