SV OU - Peaked 2022 elo, #18. Screens Zamazenta HO (literally) (2024)

Screens Zamazenta HO

I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

Psalm 40:1-2 NIV

Table of contents:

Introduction
Proof of peak
Team Description
Threats
Replays
Conclusion

Introduction

Hey everyone, There isn't too much introduction needed for this team as I basically built it in a day. There isn't too much backstory to this team, I basically came up with Hoopa's set, put it on one of my "Failed" Builds to test it and it did very well. This also included a new Zamazenta set which I am happy to share. The ongoing ladder tour made laddering difficult but it felt good to hit 2000s battling very skilled opponents. Without further ado, here is the squad.
Proof of peak

Team Description

Zamazenta @ Light Clay
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 152 SpD / 104 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Body Press
- Roar

If you think Zamazenta has too much set variety in the current meta, well here's yet another thing it can do. Zamazenta has quite a few merits as a dual screens setter for the team.
1. It has insane bulk so it can reliably set screens multiple times a game, and its ability comes in handy the first time it does this as well.
2. It is faster than Cinderace and Cinderace really struggles to swap the screens off in the face of Zama.
3. The surprise value of this set is enormous and easily gets me multiple free turns per game.
The main downside is that Zamazenta lacks in other utility like status moves, but roar is a good enough option for the 4th move slot to stop opponents from setting up on you. After using this set a lot, I feel confident in saying that this is an excellent screen setter for ho teams. The speed is enough to outspeed Cinderace. I made this spdef for no reason other than that I thought it was funny (I'm being serious lol). You can move around the spdef evs to other areas if you want for a similar result as they don't matter too much.

Hula-Hoopa (Hoopa-Unbound) @ Maranga Berry
Ability: Magician
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Dark Pulse
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Destiny Bond

There's a lot of different techs going on here, so I will split this up into a few paragraphs.

Trick room Hoopa-U is an extremely dangerous attacker capable of coming in at any point of the game to blast the opponent. Trick room with max spatak investment lets hoopa heavily threaten offensive teams, and only dark types are able to resist its dual stab. However because Hoopa is commonly used as a mixed attacker your opponent has to assume you have a fighting move, and you can take advantage of this bluff greatly, Tera Dark is used for certain endgame scenarios where the extra damage is sometimes needed. Destiny bond is the icing on top for this set, allowing hoopa to easily trade against attackers who can 1 shot it, especially pokemon with u-turn trying to take advantage of it.

However there is another layer to trick room destiny bond which inspired me to use this team in the first place. There is a really cool interaction with these 2 moves that essentially allows you to click destiny bond 2 times in a row. If trick room is up, and Hoopa moves first in Trick room, it can use destiny bond to trade with an opponent. But if the destiny bond fails to connect on the first turn, can't the opponent just attack on the 2nd turn for a free kill? Well if you use destiny bond on turn 1, and then use trick room on turn 2, because of trick rooms negative priority you move after your opponent keeping the destiny bond effect active. This catches a lot of people off guard for free kills. For those familiar with it, this is similar to what mega banette used to do in prior gens, though not perfectly.

What is Maranga berry?

"A Maranga Berry raises the holder's Special Defense by one stage when hit by a special move. This consumes the Maranga Berry."

Maranga berry lets Hoopa-U better check special attackers as it is coming in. This also frees up the item slot allowing Hoopa-U to make use of its ability magician to steal 1 item from the opponent's team. I chose this over a boosting item like life orb because I don't like life orb, and Hoopa-U never felt like it was lacking in power anyways.

Ursaluna @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Facade
- Headlong Rush
- Crunch

I wanted a slow bulky attacker that could not only take advantage of screens but also underspeed everything if Hoopa's trick room was still up when it died. This is where Ursaluna comes in. Ursaluna is very threatening under screens, which lends itself to fairly easy predictions when your opponent has immunities to both of your stabs. Ursaluna also synergizes well with zamazenta as I find that much of the stuff that checks zama is switch-in/setup fodder for Ursaluna. Tera Ghost helps against fighting types as I don't have a good resist to fighting moves, and it also lets you sometimes take on Skarmory. Crunch is chosen as the last move specifically for Sinistcha which isn't that common but I have seen a few times and it was a bit of a tough matchup, it also guaranteed 1 shots offensive gholdengo which I think fire punch just misses out on.

Iron Crown @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 84 HP / 172 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psychic Noise
- Tachyon Cutter
- Focus Blast

Regular Calm mind booster speed Iron Crown. Iron Crown helps a lot defensively as a steel type for the team that abuses screens very well. I went with this set because I wanted a fast sweeper that was also a steel type. Originally I was running a weakness policy set without focus blast but that made the team too weak to dark types. Focus blast is (unfortunately) a necessary evil which helps out in matchups against Pokemon Like Ting-Lu, and tera fighting boosts the move's damage further while removing the dark weakness. Psychic noise helps against pokemon with a Recovery move as well as Gliscor.

Iron Moth @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 124 Def / 132 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
- Tera Blast
- Substitute

Booster Speed Iron-Moth synergizes very well with our special attacking core both offensively and defensively. Defensively it is very good against faries and offensively it is great at cleaning up weakened teams. I went with tera ground tera blast so that I can muscle past checks like Glowking and Garganacl. I also chose it to 1 shot raging bolt after a special attack boost because that mon it hard to get past easily for my team otherwise. Substitute is great because it helps outplay kingambit.

Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ivy Cudgel
- Play Rough
- Encore

Ogerpon-Wellspring helps the team out as not only a setup mon but a counter to other setup pokes. Ogerpon really threatens defensive cores which the team otherwise struggles with, and it also gives me a switchin against great tusk. I chose to drop grass stab on this set because I never clicked it, and encore's utility granted me so many setup opportunities. Swords dance and play rough really help break through dragon types that I otherwise don't really have a good way to weaken like Dragonite and raging bolt.

Threats

Banded Zamazenta

This is a Really Rough Matchup because It ohkos or 2hkos basically everything on the team and it is usually a surprise set when it shows up. Just hope that you can exert enough offensive pressure to out-offense it. You can also bait this with Ursaluna's tera ghost.

Ogerpon-Teal

While the Wellspring form is decently threatening in its own right to this team, I feel like I have enough tools to beat it. The same cannot be said for the teal mask form. This is one of the absolute worst matchups for my team because after a tera, Ogerpon teal mask outspeeds the entire team and messes up all of my setup strategies with encore and its high damage output. I haven't beaten this mon once while playing, and you really just have to hope that the opponent gives you chip on this so you can get past it.

Lokix

Probably the worst matchup for the team, first impression basically revenge kills the entire team and its nearly impossible to get any momentum going. Probably an auto loss but at least Lokix is rare.

Roaring-Moon

Roaring moon is scary because it finds easy opportunities to try and setup on my team and force kills. However the team has enough ways to play around this especially if reflect is up. This also tends to get baited by Hoopa very hard in my experience, so I didn't lose to it too often. Choice band sets are easy to play around and are not a problem.

Gouging-Fire

If this gets going it can sweep almost immediately, however its not too bad to try and out-offense it. Just try not to be put in a position where it can boost freely and it shouldn't be too hard to beat.

Ting-Lu

This is hard to wear down since Hoopa and Iron-moth get walled by it, but there are ways around this matchup. Ogerpon, Ursaluna, and Iron-Crown all have ways to hit it for big damage, although the trade isn't clean and these mons don't switch in super well to its attacks. I can also bluff a coverage move with hoopa to spam dark pulse and hopefully hit the opponent while they are scouting the set.. Once its weakened enough though Ting-Lu teams tend to succumb to the remaining pressure that this team exerts.

Corviknight (especially defog sets)

Defog Sets of Corviknight are very painful to break with this team, because it easily switches into this Zamazenta and can just sit there removing screens. However this team should have the offensive tools to break past this, its just quite awkward and difficult to do so, especially since I lack a good switchin to it. Side note, Skarmory is easier to get past since it has less special bulk and doesn't have defog or u-turn.

Hatterene

Hatterene is awkward because it usually features on offensive teams where I would normally want to use Hoopa to exert pressure on. The issue is that it is slower than Hoopa in Trick Room and is very scary in trick room itself if I ever try and set it up. It can also nuzzle my pokemon. Luckily it tends to get worn down easily over the course of the game and is ursaluna fodder.

Meowscarada

Meowscarada is hard to deal with as its coverage hits most of my team for super effective damage. Scarf sets are also dangerous in the end game as it naturally outspeeds all of my pokemon. Fortunately this is one of the pokemon that Hoopa-U tends to bait in really well.

Dragonite

Specifically encore Dragonite is very annoying. I've been caught off guard by this a few times and it really messes with Zamazenta and the other setup mons on my team, just try not to give this thing an opportunity to mess you up. If you are against a dnite with Zamazenta it might just be better to roar it first just in case.

Honorable mention: Entry hazards

There is 0 hazard control on this team and if the opponent starts stacking hazards it gets rough. To deal with this I try to get active before my opponent gets the chance to spam too many of them, which works out to be good enough for this squad. I also tended to struggle against sticky web teams since I didn't have removal but webs are rather uncommon at the moment.

Replays

The more interesting matches:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2177603411 I passed the team to a ladder tour player username LT112TP tier, they won a game with it, here it is.

Other matches: (some replays contain outdated sets)

Conclusion

Screens Zamazenta is a lot better than I originally thought and I wouldn't be surprised to see this pop up on other teams in the future, The ability to be a bulky screens setter throughout the game that can outspeed Cinderace and provide phasing with roar is very appealing.

THANKS FOR READING AND HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY, GOD BLESS!

SV OU - Peaked 2022 elo, #18. Screens Zamazenta HO (literally) (2024)

References