Featured OU RMT

Team by Bribery, with commentary by Harsha. Art by Bummer.

Introduction

Welcome to my RMT! As you can tell by the title, Euphoria is a balanced Sand team. Ultimately the goal of this team is to sweep with SubSalac Terrakion or CM Latias, using Gothitelle to remove their counters. The VoltTurn core of Rotom-W and Genesect provides scouting and makes it easier to trap things with Gothitelle. I've been using this team for a while now, and it's definitely my favorite team to use. This will probably be my last RMT for a while, because I can't stand the OU metagame as it currently is. That being said, I'd still like to perfect this team as much as possible, so I've turned to the Smogon community for assistance in fixing the issues outlined in the threat list.

The Team

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock

With the recent surge in Dugtrio-based weather teams, Hippowdon is arguably the most reliable weather starter in the metagame. Its superb bulk and reliable recovery allows it to laugh off any attempts at being trapped by Dugtrio, something Tyranitar can only dream of doing. Thus, Hippowdon is excellent for winning weather wars, which is crucial in this metagame. Although this team isn't reliant on Sandstorm to function, it makes dealing with opposing weather much easier by neutering Chlorophyll sweepers and Tornadus-T. The sand also provides Terrakion with a nice Special Defense boost. Hippowdon has many other important roles on this team besides controlling the weather. It is also my Stealth Rock user and primary check to most physical attackers in the game.

I normally prefer to use a specially defensive EV spread on Hippowdon, but this team has enough special sponges with Latias and Rotom-W. Thus, the onus is on Hippowdon to check physical attackers, so I need it as physically bulky as possible. The 12 Special Defense EVs prevent it from being 2HKO'd by Expert Belt Landorus' HP Ice even after Stealth Rock damage. The moveset is very straightforward. Earthquake provides STAB and hits pretty hard even without the attack investment thanks to Hippowdon's 112 base attack. Whirlwind provides pseudo-hazing and prevents Hippowdon from turning into set-up fodder. Slack Off provides recovery, keeping it healthy throughout the match and outlasting opposing weather starters. Stealth Rock provides residual damage and keeps threats like Multiscale Dragonite and Volcarona at bay.

Gothitelle @ Choice Specs
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 SpA / 16 SpD / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Fire
- Trick

Gothitelle is a fairly mediocre Pokémon that has been blessed with arguably the best ability in the game. I'm actually quite surprised that it's still rather uncommon. It's an excellent tool to have against stall teams and it pairs well with many physical sweepers. In particular, Gothitelle is an incredible partner for Terrakion since it can trap and eliminate nearly all of Terrakion's counters. Similarly, Gothitelle can remove things like Forretress, Ferrothorn, and sometimes even Scizor so that Latias has an easier time sweeping. Furthermore, Gothitelle works well with Hippowdon by aiding in winning the weather war. Although it's not as good of a weather-trapper as Dugtrio, Gothitelle can pick off weakened Politoed and Ninetales to secure the weather war in my favor. In fact, non-Scarf Politoed are easy prey for Gothitelle since it can outspeed them and KO with Thunderbolt once they fall below 65% HP.

Psychic is the STAB move of choice. I prefer it over Psyshock because of its ability to 2HKO Gliscor, which reduces the need for HP Ice. Thunderbolt is great for trapping Skarmory and weakened Politoed. Hidden Power Fire eliminates Ferrothorn, Forretress, and Scizor. Sometimes I use HP Ice over HP Fire for Gliscor. Although Psychic does 2HKO it, SubToxic Gliscor can be a pain in the ass and Terrakion really appreciates having it removed. Trick allows Gothitelle to cripple just about any wall, such as Blissey and Chansey, that would otherwise wall it. The EV spread is straightforward. 240 Speed allows Gothitelle to outspeed a number of things, such as 72 Speed Gliscor, Modest Politoed, and Adamant Breloom. This also means it can outrun practically any common wall. The random 16 Special Defense EVs guarantee that Specs Tornadus-T's Hurricane never OHKOes Gothitelle at full health.

Terrakion @ Salac Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge

I use Terrakion on many of my OU teams because of its incredible offensive prowess. While I normally prefer the nuking power of the Choice Band set, I decided to give the SubSalac set a shot after seeing Gimmick's RMT and was amazed at its ability to effortlessly sweep practically any kind of team. Stall teams struggle to wall a +2 Terrakion, while most offensive teams fail to outspeed it once Salac Berry activates. Thus, many teams are unprepared for it, especially since it can easily bluff a Choice set. The Special Defense boost from sandstorm along with Terrakion's decent bulk allows it to come in on many powerful attacks and survive with enough HP to trigger Salac Berry. Terrakion also forces many switches, making it easy to set up Substitute and put a ton of pressure on my opponent. With Gothitelle removing the majority of Terrakion's counters, it has little trouble sweeping through any team.

Close Combat and Stone Edge provide incredible neutral coverage together. Thus, very little is safe once Terrakion gets a Swords Dance boost in. Substitute protects it from revenge killers and can be used to activate Salac Berry. The EV spread is a simple offensive spread. Max Attack to hit as hard as possible, while Speed is maxed to outrun many Scarfers after the Salac Berry boost. 4 Special Defense EVs gives Genesect an attack boost through Download.

Latias @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 88 HP / 168 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Dragon Pulse
- Psyshock
- Roost

Latias is quite a versatile Pokémon that is often overlooked by Latios. Unlike her more offensive brother, she can be used defensively and offensively in whatever the situation calls for. Latias is primarily used in a defensive and supportive role on this team, only going for a sweep if the cards fall into place. Latias is my main answer to opposing weather teams since her typing provides her with key resistances to the Water, Electric, Fire, and Grass attacks commonly found on those teams. Besides checking weather teams, Latias is my main answer to the plethora of powerful Fighting-types in the OU metagame, such as Keldeo, Breloom, and Terrakion. It also checks many special attackers like Thundurus-T, Rotom-W, and Venusaur. Furthermore, Latias is an excellent partner for Terrakion, since she lures in things like Tyranitar, Heatran, and Genesect, which Terrakion can use as set-up bait. She also baits Dark-type attacks for Terrakion to capitalize on with its Justified ability.

Calm Mind boosts Latias' excellent special stats to even higher levels. Dragon Pulse provides STAB and excellent neutral coverage. Psyshock provides secondary STAB and comes in handy in CM wars. It's also useful for checking the aforementioned Fighting-types. Roost significantly improves Latias' longevity, allowing her to shrug off the weather-boosted Fire and Water attacks she takes. The Special Attack EVs ensure that Latias always OHKOes Keldeo with Psyshock after a Calm Mind, as well as securing an OHKO on offensive Dragonite with Dragon Pulse before a Calm Mind, after Stealth Rock. Max speed is crucial for outspeeding the likes of Terrakion and Keldeo. The remaining EVs are placed in HP for some extra bulk.

Rotom-W @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 28 SpA / 224 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder Wave
- Rest

Rotom-W is the first half of my VoltTurn core with Genesect. The two form an excellent scouting duo, which makes it easier to trap things with Gothitelle. Rotom-W is also my main answer to rain teams alongside Latias, providing an important secondary Water resistance. It is my best check to Tornadus-T, who is otherwise a huge threat to this team. That is why I opted to use a specially defensive EV spread; Tornadus-T's Choice Specs Hurricane is only a 3HKO on Rotom-W even after Stealth Rock damage. The specially defensive spread also lets it handle rain-boosted Scalds and Hydro Pumps a bit better, and makes it an excellent check for many special attackers in general.

The moveset is the standard defensive Rotom-W set, except with Thunder Wave over Will-O-Wisp. Thunder Wave neuters many fast special attackers, such as Latias/Latios, that commonly switch in to check Rotom-W. With Latios/Latias paralyzed, they can no longer revenge kill Terrakion. Thunder Wave can also allows Rotom-W to act as an emergency check to Volcarona by paralyzing it so that Terrakion can revenge kill it with Stone Edge. Thanks to the EV spread, Rotom-W can even survive a +1 LO Bug Buzz from Volcarona after SR damage. ChestoRest allows Rotom-W to shrug off random Scald burns and Toxics, and it bluffs a Choice set early-game. The 28 Special Attack EVs guarantee an OHKO on Gliscor with Hydro Pump. 8 Speed EVs for some speed creep against other bulky Rotom-W.

Genesect @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Download
EVs: 112 Atk / 144 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower

I'm sure most of you have never heard of this obscure set. Yeah... this set is about as bog standard as it gets, but Genesect is truly an amazing Scarfer. Its primary duties on this team are to scout and revenge kill. Thanks to its incredible ability, typing, and stats, it performs these roles very effectively. Genesect is the second half of my VoltTurn core along Rotom-W. The two make an excellent scouting pair and work well alongside Gothitelle's trapping abilities. Genesect is also an incredible lure for things like Volcarona and Heatran, which Terrakion can often force out and get a free Substitute.

The moveset is fairly standard. U-turn is used for scouting and is generally the move used most often. Iron Head isn't seen often on Scarf Genesect, but it can be a decent secondary STAB option for killing the likes of Terrakion, Gengar, and Mamoswine. Iron Head also takes advantage of the fact that many people prefer giving Genesect an attack boost through Download. Ice Beam and Flamethrower provide excellent neutral coverage and can be used to revenge kill things like Dragonite and Lucario. I adjusted the EVs to better fit the needs of this team. In particular, the Attack EVs guarantee that U-turn OHKOs max HP Latias after SR, effectively eliminating one of Terrakion's best checks. I prefer using Hasty over Naive so that Genesect has an easier time checking Latios/Latias. There's not much else I can say about Genesect. It does what it needs to do and it does it very well.

As any OU player can attest, the metagame is quite clearly messy, to say the least. Offensive playstyles rule the metagame, but stall teams have sadly taken a plunge in usage due to the abundance of attackers in the tier. Balance is a style nearly as rare as stall, but Bribery manages to pull it off quite well in his team, Euphoria. This sand balance team is quite refreshing to see in such a stale metagame dominated by rain offense, heavy offense, and not much else. In essence, the team's goal is to trap opposing walls that hamper a sweep and then finish off the opponent in the late-game with one of the two powerful sweepers present. However, it also functions well defensively due to the backbone provided by Hippowdon, Latias, and Rotom-W.

At the front of Bribery's five-star lineup, Hippowdon is the spine of this team. While its usage has fallen tremendously for some odd reason, Hippowdon has managed to still be a defensive behemoth in this metagame. Rain's new threats—namely Tornadus-T, Thundurus-T, and Keldeo—make it hard to play OU without the presence of one's own weather inducer. Hippowdon provides both a change of weather to hurt rain and sun teams and a bulky wall for any physical attackers. As Bribery states, the prominence of Dugtrio on both rain and sun teams really makes Hippowdon a prime candidate for this position. As far as other benefits go, Hippowdon is a great switch-in for opposing Terrakion, one of the most threatening Pokémon in the metagame at this point. It's also a good check to Dragons, of which there are plenty.

Gothitelle is the second member of the team, and it is an especially important member. As stated earlier, Bribery relies on taking out the checks and counters of Terrakion and Calm Mind Latias, and Gothitelle does this well due to Shadow Tag. Thunderbolt gets rid of pesky Skarmory, Psychic takes down Gliscor, and Hidden Power Fire removes Ferrothorn, Forretress, and Scizor. Once these Pokémon are removed, both Terrakion and Latias can go to town on the opposing team. However, Gothitelle needs to be played carefully, as one false move can give the opponent a lot of momentum. Choice Specs locks Gothitelle into one move, so using Hidden Power Fire when the opponent has Heatran, for example, can be problematic, as you likely see.

Up next is Terrakion, part one of Bribery's two end-game sweepers. SubSalac Terrakion is one of the most prominent sweepers in BW2 OU, due to its great base 108 Speed and its high base Attack. Due to all the switches Terrakion forces, it will usually get a chance to use Substitute in the late-game. When this happens, the opponent will either outspeed Terrakion and break the Substitute or fall under Terrakion's 346 Speed benchmark, rendering it slower than Terrakion. In the case of the former, Terrakion simply needs to use Substitute until it falls into the range necessary to activate Salac Berry and then sweep, or it can use Swords Dance in the case of the latter and then use Substitute until it reaches Salac Berry range to sweep with its Attack boosts. Once Terrakion's counters are gone—thanks to Gothitelle of course—Terrakion is set to wreak havoc on all opposition.

The second sweeper is Latias, and it plays a pivotal role in the overall goal of this team. As Bribery states, the goal of this team is to eventually trap and KO the counters to his two sweepers and sweep the opposing team. Calm Mind Latias does just that for Bribery, and it provides much more. Sun teams are typically a pain to handle, but Latias can handle nearly every threat sun teams tend to bring as long as it can avoid crippling status. Additionally, Latias provides emergency relief against rain teams in case Rotom-W ever falters. With Psyshock, Latias can beat down Breloom and Keldeo, further adding to its utility (both can sweep this team clean if Latias is not played intelligently!). As the only Tyranitar sets ever seen in this metagame are Choice Band and Choice Scarf (specially defensive Tyranitar is far too weak, though it can be seen rarely), Latias can lure Tyranitar out and give Terrakion a setup opportunity via Justified. Of course, this is more of a bonus than a function of Latias—one does not want to sacrifice this late-game sweeper early unless doing so will provide an exploitable hole for Terrakion or Genesect to swap in and clean up the mess.

ChestoRest Rotom-W provides much of the team's defense against rain teams, the most common weather in OU. While most choose to run Leftovers and Pain Split, Bribery chooses Rest to rid Rotom-W of crippling status. Rotom-W is a great Pokémon in this metagame due to its ability to sponge hits from Tornadus-T, Politoed, and Keldeo consistently, though if it ever happens to go down, Bribery has Latias to cover up. What sets Rotom-W apart from other answers to rain is Volt Switch, as momentum is key, especially in the offensive mess known to us as BW2 OU. Many players tend to use Will-O-Wisp on Rotom-W to cover Ferrothorn, but Bribery chooses to run Thunder Wave as a precautionary measure against Latios, Latias, Volcarona, Tornadus-T, and many other speedy offensive threats. While it can provide an opportunity for Thundurus-T to come in, with proper prediction one can smack Thundurus-T with Hydro Pump.

Genesect rounds out the team, and its presence is not without good reason. As most of us assuredly know, Genesect is easily one of the most useful revenge killers in the metagame. However, Bribery takes a more unique approach in terms of the moveset, using the rare Iron Head to provide extra insurance against Terrakion. While Genesect has so many EVs diverted into Attack, its Special Attack is nothing to scoff at, especially with a +1 boost thanks to Download. It provides a perfect catch-all revenge killer with Ice Beam to nab Dragon-types and Flamethrower to take care of Bug-, Grass-, and Steel-types. U-turn's momentum is always appreciated on any Choice Scarf user, and with the presence of Rotom-W, Bribery can use a VoltTurn core to effectively maintain the momentum throughout the match. Stealth Rock and sandstorm damage can really rack up against the opponent after forcing so many switches, and Bribery can take that into account and capitalize on weakened opponents to either set up a sweep or trap a threat.

While this team is certainly exceptional, it, like all BW2 OU teams, has its fair share of threats to cope with. Deoxys-D stands out as a big threat to this team, especially without a spinner to help ease the pressure Spikes-stacking teams bring. While Bribery carries Genesect, it lacks Bug Buzz, so Deoxys-D is guaranteed at least Stealth Rock, and it can likely provide an extra layer of entry hazards if played well. Breloom is also a pain for this team, but Latias and Gothitelle check it reasonably well. However, a Pokémon must be already asleep for either to switch in, and putting the right Pokémon to sleep can sometimes be a bit of a gamble. Gengar proves to be a big threat for this team, as it outpaces every team member bar Genesect, and if it runs Protect, even Genesect may become fodder for another Pokémon. However, with the Special Defense boost granted to Terrakion via sandstorm, Gengar can fall prey to Stone Edge, and it can possibly give Terrakion a Speed boost, though trying to capitalize on Gengar through this method is a bit of a gamble. Latios and Latias can be problematic, but with Genesect, the twin Dragons can be removed without too much trouble. Despite the presence of these threats, Bribery's team performs very well (for the metagame it was built in, before the release of Kyurem-B), and it showcases a solid team that relies both on offensive and defensive prowess. Please give Euphoria a round of applause!

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