OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (2024)

Intro:
Welp this is hella late and I have been extremely busy, so this post won't be as in depth as the previous ones. Slowbro is one of my favorite mons to tinker with in the builder given its versatility in sets and usage, and I believe it to be one of the best pivots in the current metagame. Despite the recent popularity of Z-psychium sets utilizing future sight à la SS, I believe mega slowbro to be a heavily underrated mon, taking advantage of the immense buff in defense and substantial increase in spa. However, mega slowbro is not generally used for a reason, copounding the suceptibility of base-slowbro to special attackers and coverage/4mss, alongside the reduced longevity with the loss of regenerator upon megaing and the required use of a mega slot, I decided to pair it with a set I believe to be extremely potent in the current metagame, bulky as all fuck kyurem-b. With its defensive typing and great bulk (125/100/90 for those unaware), kyurem-b can check the majority of grasses, waters, electrics and special attacker that look to take advantage of mega slowbros comparatively middling special bulk and exploitable coverage. From there, I meshed together a pretty basic bulky offense quartet of tornadus-t, the defogger of the team and in my opinion a near necessity when using mega slowbro; magearna, resident psychic check and dark resist (allowing us to wall a-greninja alongside kyurem-b); band kartana, an additional ground check and source of offensive pressure; and gliscor, our rocker and heatran answer. The team is by no means consistent (or well, even good), but I was fucking busy, so what can you really do? Anyway, moving on to the team:

PAPER TRAIL
Mega Slowbro + Bulky Electrium Z Kyurem-B Bulky Offense:
OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (1)OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (2)OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (3)OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (4)OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (5)OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (6)
(Click images for paste!)

The Team:
OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (7)
The star of the week, mega slowbro is in my opinion a highly underrated defensive mega in the current metagame, offering a reprieve against the likes of mega swampert, mega charizard x, gliscor (the broken fuck) and mega mawile base-slowbro may otherwise struggle with. Retaining its pre-mega, slowbro is an excellent pivot in the early game as a stop against most physical attackers thanks to regenerator; disrupting the opposition with status from scald and thunder wave. Note that aggresively using slowbro early game to trade paralysis is a valid startegy thanks to regenerator, and is a saving grace in some poor matchups. Flamethrower was chosen over future sight or ice beam as I valued the chip on ferrothorn and ability to severely weaken mega scizor over the other utility options. The spread allows you to take a +1 mega alakazam shadow ball (and by extension a mega charizard y solar beam from full, 2hko standard ferrothorn pre-mega after rocks, outspeed max speed neutral base-50s once paralyzed, and hit a jump point in defense.

OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (8)

My specially defensive pivot and "mandatory" defensive steel, av magearna provides the team crucial resistances against dark, psychic, ice and flying while exerting offensive pressure of its own. It is in my humble opinion that pivot variants of magearnas utilizing assault vest as their item necessitate special attack investment to truly be effective, as it allows them to take the most advantage of their trading capabilities and prevent the likes of careful gliscor and ferrothorn from taking back momentum. Hp fire was chosen over focus blast as I valued pressuring mega scizor more then punishing a potential heatran switch in, and flash cannon was chosen over the more common fleur cannon in order to pressure calm mind clefable and more reliably deal with tapu lele. The evs allow you to take two +2 mega scizor bullet punches at full and hit a jump point in special attack, with the rest allocated into special defense. I chose not to reduce speed on this magearna in order to take the most advantage of flash cannon hitting clefable and mega mawile.

OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (9)
A set I like to refer to as "overweight" kyub, kyurem-b provides a blanket check into a majority of special attackers in the tier, trading with most of them; while being a potent breaker in its own right. In tandem with magearna, kyurem-b forms an anti a-greninja core akin to the tornadus-t + rotom-w cores utilized to answer keldeo in oras (a building approach I have become more and more fond of). At a glance the set I am using may seem very odd, but there is a method to the madness and the move choices and Z selection fit a set of criteria I wanted kyurem-b to accomplish. Electrium-Z allows me to ohko toxapex, manaphy and volcarona, a trio of extremely annoying mons for the team. Additionally, electrium baits in chipped magearnas and mega scizors, koing both around the half hp range. Dragon claw may seem like a wasted slot at first, but it allows you to pressure mega latias without icium-Z, while denting the likes of rotom-w, volcarona after burning Z, gastrodon and chansey. The evs allow you to eat a +1 fire blast from volcarona after rocks while outspeeding adamant variants of hoopa-u and hitting a jump point in attack. An adamant nature was chosen to preserve bulk and speed as I did not value the slight power increase of ice beam such natures would allot.

Defensive:
252 SpA Charizard-Mega-Y Focus Blast vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 276-326 (69.8 - 82.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Alakazam-Mega Focus Blast vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 296-350 (74.9 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Dark Pulse vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 151-178 (38.2 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 16 HP / 180 SpD Kyurem-Black: 250-295 (63.2 - 74.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Offensive:
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Gigavolt Havoc (180 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Volcarona: 358-422 (115.1 - 135.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Gigavolt Havoc (180 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Manaphy: 504-594 (125 - 147.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Gigavolt Havoc (180 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Toxapex: 350-414 (115.1 - 136.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
176+ Atk Teravolt Kyurem-Black Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Latias-Mega: 288-338 (79.3 - 93.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Burger.


OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (10)

The defogger of the team and part two of my regen core, tornadus-t provides crucial speed control and acts as my primary "answer" to kartana. Tornadus-t compliments slowbro (and by extension gliscor) in outlasting defensive pieces thanks to the self-sufficiency provided by their passive recovery while punishing pivot attempts from the likes of landorus-t with rocky helmet. Toxic tornadus-t may seem like an odd selection, but it allows me to put mega latias, opposing tornadus-t, and other problematic mons on a timer, opening oles for the rest of the team to take advantage of, while shutting down mons that might otherwise 6-0 the squad. Heat wave was chosen over a utility move such as upturn or knock off in order to chunk ferrothorn, skarmory and mega scizor for the rest of the squad to abuse, notably making it more self sufficient as a fogger into ferrothorn. The evs allow me to take a mega medicham ice punch from full while maximizing hp investment (making it easier to play around fini, which I found to be a nuisance); while outspeeding scarf tyranitar, and by extension azelf, because I am paranoid.

OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (11)
My primary source of offensive pressure, kartana is an excellent wallbreaker that capitalizes on the numerous free switchins alotted by gliscor and magearna to wreck havoc with band boosted attacks, while offensively checking the likes of garchomp, mega medicham and mega swampert thanks to its speed tier and/or defensive typing and natural bulk. While scarf may seem more appealing on this structure, I found the breaking potential of band kartana to mesh better with the current six, opening up kyurem-b and magearna by dismantaling their shared checks. Evs and set are standard; it's a kartana on steriods; not much else to say.

OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (12)

My rocker, ground type and primary heatran answer, gliscor compresses a variety of roles thanks to it's combination of excellent defensive typing, great utility, and amazing ability in poison heal doubling as leftovers on crack and status immunity following activation. I think its far to say we all know what gliscor does at this point, it lives forever and eats everything, while being the biggest bastard the metagame has to offer. U-turn was selected over toxic in order to transform bulky grounds and grasses that may use gliscor as points of entry to set up entry hazards and the like, into offensive momentum for band kartana and kyurem-b to take advantage of. The evs are standard fare for gliscor, outspeeding modest heatran while maximizing special bulk alongside an optimal poison heal number (248 hp on gliscor often has better roles then 244 hp, so always double check the calc if your an ev fiend like I am).

Closing:
Not my best work, but hopefully the ideas presented within the structure are worthwhile to the inquisitive onlooker. It has its funny moments, but its not a team I would load in any serious setting. That's about it.

P.S.:

Don't airstrike my house KaiserKaiba ok I know it's late, ok love you byeeeeeeeeeeee
OU - SM OU - Teambuilding Competition: (Week 5: Garchomp) (2024)

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