My first attempt at USUM BO
I'll be honest, I did not like SM when it came out. I cannot really tell you why, but I just didn’t. I have come around to it now, especially with the addition of USUM, and after playing around with some teams that I didn’t make, I decided to make one myself. I have now played around with it on a new acc to try it out and it has been doing well on the low ladder:
So, without further ado, let's begin!
Tornadus-T was easily one of my fave mons in ORAS, but goddamit I think I like it even more in USUM. The Flyinium Z set is very good in this meta imo. Regular hurricanes hits hard coming off 110 base SP ATK. But it is the Flyinium Z boosted 'canes that are deadly. Z-cane almost okho's defensive Lando-T, (252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Supersonic Skystrike (185 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 322-381 (84.2 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery), and just firing off one on turn 1 really hampers your opponent’s Lando and helps other members of this team. Now we all know how broken of an ability Regenerator is, it just makes Torn-T such a nuisance to deal with. Especially combined with its utility moves: Knock, U-Turn, and Defog. Knock-off is just a nice move, particularly on a mon like Torn-T. Many of the mons coming in on the bird are defensive mons with leftovers/black sludge. Knocking off Cele, Pex, Tran etc. and making them lose their passive recovery just helps deal with them so much. We all know what U-turn does, gaining momentum etc. Torn was blessed with Defog this gen, which it really utilizes well. It defogs on no stone edge defensive lando, clef, pex, sash-driller, SP DEF Tran. Taunt can be run in conjunction with Defog to be able to stop the rocks from going up again. And finally, its speed tier is quite good, it's a shame it doesn’t outspeed Koko but it does outspeed mons such as Kart, Keldeo, Hawlucha and the Latis. All which it can deal with rather effectively.
Gastrodon-West @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover
- Scald
Jesus fucking Christ, Gastro is so unbelievably good right now. It comes in on so many of the threats in the metagame, ash-gren, most of the regular grens, koko, tran (thought it must care for those who carry toxic and the bloom doom ones), Magerna and Zapdos (again care for Toxic). Its moveset is very good at dealing with the mons it checks too. EQ threatens Koko and Tran out usually resulting in a free toxic on something, scald is just a great overall move threating burns on whatever that’s coming in. Toxic is great for shutting down other walls, especially Zapdos. And recover is an important move for gastro, as it gets worn down very easily. I just wished it had water absorb instead of storm drain.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Stealth Rocks
- Softboiled
- Wish
When I first was exposed to this set I didn’t really see why it was any good. Why run ANOTHER recovery move over T-wave, Flamethrower or Calm Mind? Then I tested it out and to my surprise I really liked it. With the way Gastro gets chipped it is just very nice to be able to pass it a wish. Or set up a wish and go into my Intimidate Mawile to soft check something. The rest of the set is quite self-explanatory, it’s a max def bold SR clef. It does what it sets out to do very well. It helps this team to check Zygard, Mega-Lop and Mega-Medi among others. Clef, gastro and torn-t forms a solid defensive core.
Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk/ 128 Spe
Adamant Nature
What I love about this set is that you don’t have to predict versus Lando-T. If Koko is out versus a Cele, and my opponent has a Lando, I’m clicking T-Bolt 100 times out of a 100 since I beat Lando 1v1 and often people just predicts the HP Ice and stays in. Now, I am a bit sure about this mon on this team. I tried a Specs Koko first but that didn’t work that well. I have been thinking about making Torn-T helmet and making this a Z-move. Don’t get me wrong, this set this its job. I think of Koko like an offensive Rotom-W in ORAS. It is just a great glue mon that gives teams some volt switching action. Volt-turn is really nice for brining in Mega-Mawile and Ash-Gren.
Some threats against my team that I have noticed are Mega-Zam, Bloom Doom Heatran and opposing Gastrodons. Mega-Alakazam just outspeeds my whole team and with Gastro and Mega-Mawile chipped it can easily sweep me. Bloom Doom Tran just puts so much pressure on this team with Z-Solarbeam and Magma Storm. This team also kind of struggles with breaking opposing Gastros. My main way of beating them is toxicing them and then knocking them off. For this reason, I have been thinking about putting Play Rough over Iron Head on Mega-Mawile.
So, my main questions are:
Good team?
Play Rough over Iron Head?
Change to Helmet Torn and Z-Koko?
Any other changes I should do?
I'll be honest, I did not like SM when it came out. I cannot really tell you why, but I just didn’t. I have come around to it now, especially with the addition of USUM, and after playing around with some teams that I didn’t make, I decided to make one myself. I have now played around with it on a new acc to try it out and it has been doing well on the low ladder:
So, without further ado, let's begin!
Larry Bird – Tornadus Therian
Tornadus-Therian @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Tornadus-Therian @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Defog
- U-turn/Taunt
- Knock Off/Taunt
- Defog
- U-turn/Taunt
- Knock Off/Taunt
Tornadus-T was easily one of my fave mons in ORAS, but goddamit I think I like it even more in USUM. The Flyinium Z set is very good in this meta imo. Regular hurricanes hits hard coming off 110 base SP ATK. But it is the Flyinium Z boosted 'canes that are deadly. Z-cane almost okho's defensive Lando-T, (252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Supersonic Skystrike (185 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 322-381 (84.2 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery), and just firing off one on turn 1 really hampers your opponent’s Lando and helps other members of this team. Now we all know how broken of an ability Regenerator is, it just makes Torn-T such a nuisance to deal with. Especially combined with its utility moves: Knock, U-Turn, and Defog. Knock-off is just a nice move, particularly on a mon like Torn-T. Many of the mons coming in on the bird are defensive mons with leftovers/black sludge. Knocking off Cele, Pex, Tran etc. and making them lose their passive recovery just helps deal with them so much. We all know what U-turn does, gaining momentum etc. Torn was blessed with Defog this gen, which it really utilizes well. It defogs on no stone edge defensive lando, clef, pex, sash-driller, SP DEF Tran. Taunt can be run in conjunction with Defog to be able to stop the rocks from going up again. And finally, its speed tier is quite good, it's a shame it doesn’t outspeed Koko but it does outspeed mons such as Kart, Keldeo, Hawlucha and the Latis. All which it can deal with rather effectively.
The pink blob - Chan.....I mean Gastrodon
Gastrodon-West @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover
- Scald
Jesus fucking Christ, Gastro is so unbelievably good right now. It comes in on so many of the threats in the metagame, ash-gren, most of the regular grens, koko, tran (thought it must care for those who carry toxic and the bloom doom ones), Magerna and Zapdos (again care for Toxic). Its moveset is very good at dealing with the mons it checks too. EQ threatens Koko and Tran out usually resulting in a free toxic on something, scald is just a great overall move threating burns on whatever that’s coming in. Toxic is great for shutting down other walls, especially Zapdos. And recover is an important move for gastro, as it gets worn down very easily. I just wished it had water absorb instead of storm drain.
Pink blob nr 2 – Clefable
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Stealth Rocks
- Softboiled
- Wish
When I first was exposed to this set I didn’t really see why it was any good. Why run ANOTHER recovery move over T-wave, Flamethrower or Calm Mind? Then I tested it out and to my surprise I really liked it. With the way Gastro gets chipped it is just very nice to be able to pass it a wish. Or set up a wish and go into my Intimidate Mawile to soft check something. The rest of the set is quite self-explanatory, it’s a max def bold SR clef. It does what it sets out to do very well. It helps this team to check Zygard, Mega-Lop and Mega-Medi among others. Clef, gastro and torn-t forms a solid defensive core.
Mega Power – Mawile-Mega
Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk/ 128 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Ice Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Fire Fang
- Iron Head
- Thunder Punch
- Fire Fang
- Iron Head
Wow, I have really underrated this mon. This is the first time I properly use Mega-Mawile and it’s amazing. It just breaks Balance and Stall and is bulky enough to actually put in more work than it should versus Offense. Intimidate is use over Hyper Cutter since it can soft check some mons with it in combination with wish passing from Clef. Now to the moveset. People seem to always be expecting SD sets and Sucker Punch which makes it so satisfying to first knock out a Ferrow, then a Celesteala and finally a Lando-T. I don’t know why but people on the ladder never expect me to carry two, nevertheless 3 och the ice/fire/elec moves. I got the inspiration to this set from the roost+3 attacks Zard-X set running around. You know, just hit what’s in front of you. I decided to run Iron Head over Play Rough since I simply found using it more during testing. And with this set I find myself clicking the coverage moves most of the time. M-Mawile breaks beautifully for this team and forms a nice offensive core with the last 2 members of my team.No one man should have all this power – Ash-Greninja
Ash-Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 Sp Atk / 4 Sp Def/ 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Ash-Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 Sp Atk / 4 Sp Def/ 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Spikes
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Spikes
This is this teams cleaner and late game wincon, and it does a wonderful job of being just that. With Torn-T and, in particular, Mega-Mawile breaking holes in the opposing team Ash-Gren gets set up to clean up the game. Mega-Maw chips or just outright kills many of Ash-Grens checks, like Pex, Tang, Fini and Ferrow. Ash-Gren gives this team some much needed speed control both with its high speed after changing forms but also with Water Shuriken. The volt-turn support this team provides for Ash-Gren aids it much too. It just forms a really solid offense core with Mega-Mawile with them breaking for each other and punching holes through the opposing team.I’m in love with da Koko – Tapu Koko
Tapu Koko @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 104 HP/ 12 Def/ 176 SpA/ 216 Spe
Timid Nature
Tapu Koko @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 104 HP/ 12 Def/ 176 SpA/ 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power Ice
- Roost
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power Ice
- Roost
What I love about this set is that you don’t have to predict versus Lando-T. If Koko is out versus a Cele, and my opponent has a Lando, I’m clicking T-Bolt 100 times out of a 100 since I beat Lando 1v1 and often people just predicts the HP Ice and stays in. Now, I am a bit sure about this mon on this team. I tried a Specs Koko first but that didn’t work that well. I have been thinking about making Torn-T helmet and making this a Z-move. Don’t get me wrong, this set this its job. I think of Koko like an offensive Rotom-W in ORAS. It is just a great glue mon that gives teams some volt switching action. Volt-turn is really nice for brining in Mega-Mawile and Ash-Gren.
Some threats against my team that I have noticed are Mega-Zam, Bloom Doom Heatran and opposing Gastrodons. Mega-Alakazam just outspeeds my whole team and with Gastro and Mega-Mawile chipped it can easily sweep me. Bloom Doom Tran just puts so much pressure on this team with Z-Solarbeam and Magma Storm. This team also kind of struggles with breaking opposing Gastros. My main way of beating them is toxicing them and then knocking them off. For this reason, I have been thinking about putting Play Rough over Iron Head on Mega-Mawile.
So, my main questions are:
Good team?
Play Rough over Iron Head?
Change to Helmet Torn and Z-Koko?
Any other changes I should do?
