Speed Control Offence (OU)
Welcome. This is a speed control offence team. I've tested it quite a bit before posting. I would like to both share it and optimize it further through feedback. There's a Showdown export Pastebin at the bottom of the post if you're interested.
Team At First Glance
This is an offensive team that has some elements of balance. It primarily focuses on punching holes in teams using banded Tyranitar, life orb Excadrill, and huge power Medicham-Mega. While the team's primary attackers are somewhat slow, sand rush, tailwind, and paralysis alleviate this weakness. Latios is scarfed in order to deal with fast immediate threats. Landorus and Zapdos feature u-turn and volt switch respectively creating opportunities to bring in a sweeper safely. The team features three ground immunities to compensate for Tyranitar and Excadrill's ground weaknesses and the prominence of earthquake in the OU metagame.
Detailed Set Analysis
This is the part where I go over each team member's set in detail, explaining why they are the way they are and what they're meant to accomplish or deal with during a battle. I will not be covering the obvious things like why I have Atk EV investment on my physical attackers, but I will be explaining elements that may not be immediately obvious.
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 168 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
Tyranitar is there to switch into and pursuit trap or at least threaten out fast offensive threats that consist of primarily Latios, Latias, Talonflame, and the occasional Mandibuzz. It deals with many leads as well, specifically sash Azelf which can survive a crunch, but will die to sandstorm at the end of the turn. Equipped with a choice band, Tyranitar can be used to weaken walls that would otherwise give Excadrill, Latios, and Medicham some difficulty. It can serve as a specially defensive pivot in a pinch, and can even be used as an endgame sweeper under Zapdos's tailwind. Outside of tailwind, the speed EVs allow it to outspeed standard Skarmory and hit it hard before it can roost.
Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 204 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
Excadrill under sand rush serves as an extremely powerful lategame sweeper or midgame hole puncher. An adamant nature alongside 204 speed IVs allows it to outspeed scarfed base 110s in sand. With 32 EVs in HP Excadrill takes minimal damage from life orb while maximizing overall defenses. The remaining points are put into Def as the majority of its threats are physical priority attacks. Rapid spin is used in place of swords dance as the team needs some form of hazard removal and neither Zapdos nor Latios are running defog. Swords dance can be used in place of rock slide, however Excadrill then lacks the ability to KO Thundurus, who can survive an iron head and KO back with focus blast. Dropping rapid spin for swords dance is not recommended, however it can be done if you don't mind reducing the lifespan of your Zapdos which is the team's only stealth rock weakness.
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- U-turn
A staple in OU, this is the standard Landorus stealth rock setter and defensive pivot. HP EVs minimize damage taken from hazards. 252+ Def maximizes its physical pivoting capability and is further boosted by intimidate. 8 SpD EVs guarantee that timid Manectric-Mega's hidden power ice will never KO Landorus at full HP. It serves as a check to Charizard-Mega-X and flying threats that Tyranitar cannot deal with such as those with fighting type coverage.
Zapdos @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Static
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Tailwind
- Volt Switch
- Heat Wave
A somewhat uncommon choice in OU, Zapdos is used for its typing, tailwind utility, and ability static. Its spread is similar to Landorus's above which maximizes defense and minimizes hazard damage. 4 SpA EVs are used to guarantee that volt switch will always put Pinsir-Mega in range of Medicham's fake-out. 4 speed EVs are there to outspeed uninvested base 100s in order to get a tailwind off before Zapdos is KOed. Tailwind is one of Zapdos's main utilities, alleviating the low speed of Medicham, Tyranitar, and Excadrill outside of sand. Rocky helmet and static makes Zapdos an excellent switch in to resisted or weak contact moves and punishes the user with rocky helmet damage and potential paralysis. This is especially useful versus fake-out and priority users such as Lopunny-Mega, Breloom, Azumarill, and Scizor and can punish common leads like Ferrothorn and Scizor with heat wave.
Latios @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Ice beam
- Sleep talk
Latios is an extremely fast revenge killer. Timid Latios reliably revenges jolly scarf Garchomp and jolly Charizard-Mega-X at +1. It also serves as a check to Venusaur-Mega and a reliable counter to spore Breloom. Latios can switch into spore and press sleep talk, KOing standard Breloom no matter what attack is ends up using. Ice beam is also very welcome on this set as nothing else on the team has ice coverage. Latios sports some nice resistances and a useful immunity to ground, allowing it some switch in opportunities.
Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Bullet Punch
- High Jump Kick
- Zen Headbutt
Adamant double priority Medicham-Mega is the mega evolution of choice for this team. Boasting powerful offensive utilities in fake-out and bullet punch and the most naturally powerful high jump kick in the game, this is the team's primary way of dealing with the majority of walls present on defensive stall oriented teams bar Sableye. Under tailwind, Medicham steamrolls offensive and balanced teams outside of a high jump kick miss. Bullet punch is used in place of substitute in order to alleviate Medicham's lackluster speed and surprise KO faster threats such as Weavile after stealth rock damage.
End
Hopefully the detailed descriptions give you an idea of how to effectively play this team. As stated above, I am interested in improving the team against threats I haven't thought of or encountered in my testing. Feel free to post your thoughts and experiences related to this team, however keep in mind I am fully aware of the Sableye weakness but I am waiting until the suspect test is over before I adjust the team accordingly. If you want to use the team but are worried about Sableye, you can switch to using Lopunny-Mega, however the difference in power is very noticeable.
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