Gen 3 OU Superman TSS mixed

[shrektionz]

First post on the forums. This is a team I have been having a lot of fun using and messing around with because of its capability to wall blissey and swampert with Articuno. This team's biggest weakness atm is dealing with metagross, but i'll cover all of that as we go along




Birb (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Keen Eye
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Spikes
- Roar
- Taunt
- Toxic
Although this is a fairly standard skarm lead set, I like the option of taunt as a starter because in skarm v skarm if you outspeed / win speed tie then you deny them a free turn which forces them to switch out. side note, never use struggle in this scenario because it gives them a free turn for spikes and you take more residual damage. this set has a decent chance to survive mag t bolt without magnet, and is the corner stone of this team's biggest advantage in setting up spikes. even just one layer can do so much for this team.

no rox pls (Articuno) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 114 SpA / 136 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Ice Beam
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Roar

I love this set. It's probably my favorite special wall to play with in this generation because it's one of the few things that laughs at most swampert variants. swampert also rarely ever carries rock slide so it makes this set all the more dangerous. it's role on this team is invaluable for a multitude of reasons. the first big one is it's immunity to spikes, as while this means it gains a 4 times weakness to rock, and also means that it loses a lot harder to things like metagross and ddance ttar, those both lose to spikes's damage adding up. salamence doesnt fancy taking an ice beam to the face either, and even if im really scared of a physical sweeper i just use sleep talk roar, because if articuno outspeeds the target and gets roar with sleep talk it ignores the negative prio, and this set always outspeeds fast ttar.

TierKing (Tyranitar) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Bug]
i like fast ttar a lot because it's still so utterly massive that it will just survive hits you would think would kill it. the lum berry was something i was against at first but because this team lacks a good status taker outside of resting articuno it works really well on ttar because it gives him a free ddance, which means he'll outspeed defensive starmie, offensive gengar, and only loses in speed to dug and everything else past that. the moves are fairly standard on this set, but the sand he provides is a huge source of chip damage for this team and he's also invaluable.


Nefarious (Gengar) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Def / 8 SpA / 112 SpD / 96 Spe
Timid Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch

man, gengar is honestly great. defensive gengar is genuinely so crazy that it even exists is just one of the quirks of this gen. its role as a spin blocker and toxic absorber are massively helped by the fact that its also immune to spikes. dusclops came close to being on this team because it checks other gengar, but i had to cave in and i needed to be hit by spikes less while also not letting my team get checked by more ice beams and rock slides. this just checked all the boxes.

The Thing (Claydol) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Atk / 32 SpA / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Psychic
- Refresh
probably the best physically defensive mon that this team has. its massive natural bulk does wonders because it just also hits gengar with psychic fairly hard. levitate and rapid spin are also just a fantastic combination because it gets past things like jolteon predicting you to switch into a starmie only for you to bring this out. jolteon hp ice does check this but that's why you bring out something like metagross as a double switch in. the use of refresh helps against skarm and defensive gengar as well since they both tend to expect claydol to have explosion. leftovers helps this guy stay in more then he would without getting rid of one of his precious moves. probably the best rapid spinner in the game that is immune to spikes on top of that.


Metagross @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
Hidden Power: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Atk / 80 Def
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Protect
- Explosion

this is honestly a filler spot, there are a lot of mons that could fill this spot. but bulky metagross just fits the best in my opinion because of two main issues this team has; choice band metagross and all heracross sets. nothing besides gengar switches into focus punch / mega horn safely, and gengar in turn cant do anything to the swords dance set. articuno cannot deal damage to metagross and cannot tank a hit from non special attacking variants. so bulky metagross just fits the bill, albeit at the cost of having the team be slightly more weakened to mag. meteor mash is also just an insane move, and i think that this just compensates for the team having less special sweepers.

let me know what you guys think, and feel free to leave suggestions for changes :P

 

[johnnyg2]

Hi! I wanted to give some comments on this team bc I think the idea is very interesting: articuno on a more offensive spikes team. The meta/skarm/dol structure is very common and a good backbone. Including articuno here is a challenge, as your team sorely struggles to switch into and actually threaten out Zapdos, esp w a meta w/o rock slide, an offensive tar, and dol that can’t stop it from getting a sub.

the first thing I’d do is use a different skarm set. Your team doesn’t really need taunt skarm. You only have 2 mons affected by spikes and you have a spinner. I’d go either dpeck/tox tect spike roar skarm. Tox helps w your (dire) zap weakness, while peck lets you pressure forre/dol/fighters/etc.

There is a well known team w regice > cuno and offensive resttalk cune > tar. The main idea is that skarm is a risky lead vs Zapdos, as your opp could always sub and pass to a trapper/rain tbolt on you, but if you have regice, you don’t have to worry about that. I think the best way to channel that is to move tar up to the lead and use a bulkier set OR swap out probably Claydol for something like jolteon. The issue is that for aggressive teams like these, you typically can afford only one means of keeping spikes: either spinblocking w gar or including a spinner to have more spikes than your opp. You’re gonna have to play fast to get away w articuno if you go w jolt, as it invites in starmie to spin and you don’t have ways to mitigate status outside of articuno itself.

if you go down the tar path, zapdos is less of an issue than it is currently as you force it out early, but it’s still a problem. I think you’re gonna have to replace Gengar, probably with something that soft checks Zapdos like offensive celebi or venusaur.

if you go down the jolt path, I think you’re probably pretty set, just have to play very aggressively.

Cool idea! Please let me know if you have more questions!

 

[shrektionz]

Hi! I wanted to give some comments on this team bc I think the idea is very interesting: articuno on a more offensive spikes team. The meta/skarm/dol structure is very common and a good backbone. Including articuno here is a challenge, as your team sorely struggles to switch into and actually threaten out Zapdos, esp w a meta w/o rock slide, an offensive tar, and dol that can’t stop it from getting a sub.

the first thing I’d do is use a different skarm set. Your team doesn’t really need taunt skarm. You only have 2 mons affected by spikes and you have a spinner. I’d go either dpeck/tox tect spike roar skarm. Tox helps w your (dire) zap weakness, while peck lets you pressure forre/dol/fighters/etc.

There is a well known team w regice > cuno and offensive resttalk cune > tar. The main idea is that skarm is a risky lead vs Zapdos, as your opp could always sub and pass to a trapper/rain tbolt on you, but if you have regice, you don’t have to worry about that. I think the best way to channel that is to move tar up to the lead and use a bulkier set OR swap out probably Claydol for something like jolteon. The issue is that for aggressive teams like these, you typically can afford only one means of keeping spikes: either spinblocking w gar or including a spinner to have more spikes than your opp. You’re gonna have to play fast to get away w articuno if you go w jolt, as it invites in starmie to spin and you don’t have ways to mitigate status outside of articuno itself.

if you go down the tar path, zapdos is less of an issue than it is currently as you force it out early, but it’s still a problem. I think you’re gonna have to replace Gengar, probably with something that soft checks Zapdos like offensive celebi or venusaur.

if you go down the jolt path, I think you’re probably pretty set, just have to play very aggressively.

Cool idea! Please let me know if you have more questions!

Hey I'm just getting to reading this, being a student can be time consuming and I don't always have the time to check my office where I usually post in places.

I really like how you pointed out this team's massive weakness to Zapdos leads. After I made this post I adjusted my team a few times to deal with zap leads and your suggestion of Bulky TTar lead is honestly so much better. I also find myself taking explosion on Gengar now, but now that you mention the drill peck skarm set, as well as the need to focus on either having claydol or gengar and not both has given me a lot to think about. I like the jolteon idea as well but I prefer this team to be more balanced in its approach, since while it is true that Articuno can check blissey and maybe win a stall war with it, it doesnt ever really threaten blissey with status unless its a 1v1 and i get max freeze, or blissey is already toxic'd. I'm likely going with bulky ttar lead and claydol so that i can keep the momentum with spikes. thank you for the soft check suggestions as well, ive debated on using celebi before but not venusaur. i might each of them to see which fits better :)