First UU team (cliche title :P )

[Sharoy]

Well to start off,i joined competitive battling 3 weeks ago and i found the uu tier particularly interesting.I hope you guys can help me improve my team.
First i decided that the team should have a defensive backbone.Initially i chose Gligar and Slowbro.Lead Azelf and Life Orb Arcanine were also part of the team.But then i found out that gligar sucks.its taunt bait for setup sweepers.So i chose physically defensive bronzong over it.Then i realised that i did not need another phy def wall.So slowking replaced slowbro.Azelf was replaced by Scarf Flygon and Arcanine by Life Orb Nidoqueen(since my whole team was physical :P) .Mienshao is my scouter and heracross is my status abuser.(it was initially a scarfer but then the whole team was weak to status)
Note: Qwertyuiop helped me alot in the teambuilding process :3


Team at a glance:

Bronzong

@Choice Band

Relaxed Nature
EVs:252 hp/252 def/4 spe
0 spe IVs
Ability- Levitate
Moveset:
Gyro Ball
Stealth Rock
Trick
Explosion
~
Bronzong is my physically defensive tank.Its an awesome Flygon check.It has 4 spe evs for speed creeping on other bronzongs.0 spe ivs and a relaxed nature power up gyro ball.I chose a trick band version as the number of pokes who setup on bronzong is astronomically high.Trick obviously cripples setup sweepers.Gyro ball is a reliable stab move and explosion is a last ditch effort move which i use if i have my band intact.Stealth Rock is there because its an important move.I sometimes setup rocks with the band and switch out and later cripple a poke.The opponents are usually taken by surprise when i cripple their setup sweepers.Gyro Ball is a decently powerful move and prevents it from being taunt bait.Moreover,a Banded Gyro Ball hurts.

Nidoqueen

@Life Orb

Modest Nature
EVs:204 hp/252 SpA/52 spe
Ability- Sheer Force
Moveset:
Roar
Ice Beam
Earth Power
Fire Blast
~
Nidoqueen is my all around bulky attacker and fighting poke check.I stole the ev spread from that of kokoloko's Anna Molly team and it is awesome.It allows me to survive neutral and weak supereffective attacks with ease and dish out immense damage in return.52 spe evs allow me to outspeed the standard milotic and some togekiss [but you guys already know this :p].I chose sludge wave over Focus Miss/Thunderbolt to deal with Rotom-H who would otherwise wall me initially.But since subsweepers can be troublesome,it has roar instead of sludge wave now.The moves provide very good coverage.Ice Beam hits other nidoqueen and flygon,Fire Blast maims Bronzong,Earth power is a cool stab move that deals with darmanitan,arcanine and victini.

Heracross

@Leftovers

Jolly Nature
EVs:4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
Ability- Guts
Moveset:
Swords Dance
Close Combat
Megahorn
Stone Edge
~
Initially my hera was the scarf moxiecross,but once it got burned it became dead weight.So to solve this problem,i changed the set to the guts abusing one.The ev spread is standard.Swords Dance helps me to break stall.Close Combat and Megahorn are powerful stab moves and have good coverage in general.Megahorn deals with slowking/bro and close combat hits snorlax and rhyperior hard (especially at +2)The side effects suck though.Stone Edge hits flying pokes for alot of damage [provided it hits XD].I usually switch to hera when i predict a wow.

Mienshao

@Life Orb

Jolly Nature
EVs:4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
Ability- Regenerator
Moveset:
Fake Out
Stone Edge
Hi Jump Kick
U-Turn
~
I run max attack and speed on my shao.[obvio]Many people on the forum complain that fakeout on mienshao sucks but i think otherwise.It helps me to weaken pokes and break sashes many times and works well with u-turn.Moreover,if i predict a switch to a ghost poke i dont use it and u-turn to heracross.Stone Edge and Hi Jump Kick have awesome coverage together and can ko many threats.U-turn is for switching out and dealing damage at the same time.Moreover i can recover life orb recoil while switching out.Fake Out+ Hi Jump Kick helped me to kill many dangerous pokes.

Slowking

@Leftovers

Sassy Nature
EVs:248 hp/12 atk/248 SpD
Ability- Regenerator
Moveset:
Scald
Thunder Wave
Dragon Tail
Slack Off
~
It is my spD wall and kingdra check.The ev spread is standard.12 atk evs ensure that i break 4hp/0 def kingdra's subs all the time with dragon-tail.Scald is for dealing modest damage and burning pokes.[scald's burn chance is 100% hence i changed hera's moveset >.> ].ThunderWave cripples many pokes and Slack off provides reliable recovery.Dragon Tail is for phazing setup sweepers.

Flygon

@Choice Scarf

Jolly Nature
EVs:4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
Ability- Levitate
Moveset:
Outrage
Earthquake
Fire Punch
U-Turn
~
Once again,it has the standard moveset and ev spread.It revenge kills various threats like darmanitan etc.Outrage is a powerful stab move and has very good coverage with Earthquake.U-turn is for scouting purposes and i usually use it when i predict a switch to bronzong.I spam u-turn initially to provide myself with a better match up against the opponent or use outrage for late game sweeping.And finally there's fire punch.It sucks really.It cant even 3hko bronzong or ohko escavalier >.>

Well there you have it.This is my team.I dont use a spinner because my team isnt weak to hazards.2 pokes have levitate and 4 resist stealth rock.Sorry for the horrible presentation :( Please give me some feedback so that i can improve my team and consider the fact that im a newbie before bashing me for any particular reason :p That would be all :)

Importable :

Hide

Hera (Heracross) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Guts
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance


Bronze (Bronzong) @ Choice Band
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Explosion
- Gyro Ball
- Trick
- Stealth Rock


Narisa (Nidoqueen) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 204 HP / 252 SAtk / 52 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Roar
- Fire Blast


Slowdude (Slowking) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 12 Atk / 248 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Slack Off
- Dragon Tail
- Scald
- Thunder Wave


Felicia (Flygon) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- U-turn


Shao (Mienshao) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Fake Out
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Hi Jump Kick

 

[Qwertyuiop]

Some of the changes I've tried out when I've used this team are giving Bronzong some attack EVs (100 Atk means you KO Virizion after SR 3/4ths of the time) or an extra attack (shifting SR to Nidoqueen) and using Aerial Ace on Mienshao over Fake Out. I've also tried Fire Blast > Fire Punch in Flygon (changing the nature of course) which actually works better in my experience. The team usually has problem facing SubCM or Sub + Setup move Pokemon if Bronzong/Slowking can't break the Sub, so SubCM Cofagrigus can be problematic.

 

[Sharoy]

what are the disadvantages of reducing the defensive evs of bronzong?And i dont think i will replace Fake Out.If i do so,i might as well scarf shao..and yeah i might switch fireblast>fire punch....i usually break the subs with hera/shao/nidoqueen or phaze with slowking(after the sub is broken ofc)

 

[Qwertyuiop]

Not a great deal honestly; I don't see any notable 3HKOs becoming 2HKOs. CB Azumarill will always 2HKO you though and CB Hitmonlee can OHKO.

Also SubCM Cofagrigus really destroys the team (as you saw), so Roar > Sludge Wave on Nidoqueen will be really helpful for your team. If you are afraid of getting walled by Rotom-H, you can try out Focus Blast, but as you know, it tends to miss at the most inopportune times.

EDIT: Cofagrigus is very bulky for UU and Flygon isn't that strong, so Crunch > Fire Punch isn't very useful.

252 Atk Flygon Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Cofagrigus: 90-106 (28.12 - 33.12%) -- possible 4HKO
252 Atk Flygon Crunch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cofagrigus: 106-126 (33.12 - 39.37%) -- 14.09% chance to 3HKO (guaranteed after SR, but only NastyRoom runs this spread)

 

[Sharoy]

I am switching roar>sludge wave on nido

 

[KM]

I don't really understand how sludge wave is going to help you against Cofagrigus o_O. If you are looking for a quick solution to Cofag or other ghosts, you could always just put Crunch on your Flygon in place EQ or Fire Punch.

Also, just an idea, if you're looking for a strong, bulky pokemon in place of Bronzong that can surprise people with its massive attack stat, I'd really go for an offensive Rhyperior. Your best option to directly replace the niche that Bronzong holds would be:

Rhyperior @ Life Orb
Adamant Nature
-Stealth Rocks
-Megahorn
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge

Best of luck with this team :)

 

[Sharoy]

I replaced sludge wave with roar...roar can phaze out subcm cofag..anyway sludge wave was for rotom-h...and bronzong is primarily a defensive tank and flygon check with a very useful ability..its too good to change...it even cripples crocune etc (rhyperior is eq weak)...i might go for your suggestion of crunch>fire punch...but a neutral outrage hits harder than a supereffective crunch...scratch that...outrage will ALWAYS hit harder than crunch :P thanx for the rate :D

 

[Sharoy]

Replays of how trick cripples certain pokes- http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/uu-14557498

http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/uu-14595735

 

[rolen120]

I have a few questions about the sets...

Why nidoqueen over nidoking?

how useful is explosion on bronzong? it seems like a simple coverage move like earthquake or rock slide might be a better option.
Why relaxed? it seems a bit odd and I would expect brave with that set. also consider iron ball as item (kinda like my post on the bronzong update), it eases prediction a bit and cripples things a different way and could be useful with letting flygon clean.

If you're having problems with stone miss I usually resort to rock slide, he flinch chance can be funny sometimes

The 12 attack EVs on slowking seem a bit random, it seems like they might be more useful elsewhere

 

[Qwertyuiop]

I have a few questions about the sets...

Why nidoqueen over nidoking?

how useful is explosion on bronzong? it seems like a simple coverage move like earthquake or rock slide might be a better option.
Why relaxed? it seems a bit odd and I would expect brave with that set. also consider iron ball as item (kinda like my post on the bronzong update), it eases prediction a bit and cripples things a different way and could be useful with letting flygon clean.

If you're having problems with stone miss I usually resort to rock slide, he flinch chance can be funny sometimes

The 12 attack EVs on slowking seem a bit random, it seems like they might be more useful elsewhere

Because I've extensively used this team, I'll comment. Nidoqueen has significantly higher bulk than Nidoking and I feel it is a better Pokemon overall in UU. In this team, it acts as a bulky attacker, something Nidoking isn't able to do well. For instance, scarf Flygon can never OHKO Nidoqueen from full health, while Nidoking dies 75% of the time.

Iron Ball is an interesting idea! I'm not a big fan of running Earthquake (everything resists it) or Rock Slide (too weak), but I'll try them out. I generally run some attack and some defense with a +Def nature, but it seems Sharoy runs 252 Attack (o.O), so yeah, Brave will be a better nature for him.

The 12 attack EVs on Slowking guarantee breaking 0 HP Kingdra's sub 100% of the time.

(also, yay, 100th post)

 

[Sharoy]

*mega facepalm* i mistyped zong's evs.nidoqueen is better than nidoking in every way.it has way better bulk,and can survive attacks and deal alot of damage. The only reason one might use king is because of its higher speed.modest queen is stronger than timid king too...and iron ball cant cripple np cofag or crocune unlike cb....plus explosion is a last ditch move,like i said.and i believe i mentioned why 12 atk evs are needed for slowking.

 

[Pkn range6]

Hey there got your message. Your team is quite interesting, I have some suggestion that I think would help out your team. Your Bronzong is set seems like you want it to run two roles playing offensively and defensively at the same time. I think honestly you should just change the Choice band to Leftovers, trick to Earthquake and Explosion to Toxic since Explosion defeats the purpose of a wall. Earthquake hits those common Fire- and Electric-types like Raikou, Darmanitan and Vicitni. Toxic is self explanatory. Flygon is quite weak so I think Mienshao should become your scarfer instead. Your team seems quite weak to Chandelure and Rotom-H as nothing likes to take a hit from them. I would recommend using CB Snorlax over Flygon as it can take a hit from both and Pursuit trapping the former. This will make your team more Heracross weak but if you play carefully with Nidoqueen you should be fine plus Mienshao can Aerial Ace it. Hoped I help GL with you team.

tl;dr

Bronzong
Choice Band-->Leftovers
Trick and Explosion--> Toxic and Earthquake

Flygon-->Snorlax

Snorlax @ Choice Band
Trait: Thick Fat
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 52 Def / 196 SDef / 8 Spd (def evs allow to live 2 jolly flygon outrage and +1 kingdra outrage)
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Crunch

Mienshao
Life Orb-->Choice Scarf
Regenerator-->Reckless
Fake Out-->Aerial Ace

 

[Sharoy]

hmm.i will try out your changes...bronzong is my wall who does not allow opponents to set up due to trick.explosion is a last ditch move which i use if my opponent is down to 2 or 3 pokes...see the replays for a better understanding of the team plz...slowking,nidoqueen,flygon can all def chandy 1 on 1..flygon can also defeat rotom-h....rotom-h like switching into queen...i use roar,predicting this to rack up stealth rock damage.and im considering scarfing my mienshao,so the team might have 2 scarfers,which isnt bad,i guess...its basically a question of power vs speed :3 a life orb hjk is more powerful than a reckless one.Thanx for the rate.

 

[WTFlash]

Hello Sharoy!

Here is my rate, but first i have to show you something:

252 Atk Choice Band Victini V-create vs. 248 HP / 12 Def Slowking: 217-256 (55.21 - 65.13%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

And now the rate:

CB Bronzong is with SR is weird, if you want to use him offensive i prefer LO Zong with EQ, GyroB, TR, Explotion. But the best set of this pokemon might be the support alternative, Leftovers Zong with Rocks, toxic, EQ, Gyro ball/Explotion thanks to his amazing types combination and good defensive stats can wall lots of pokemons in UU like crobat, Rhyperior, Raikou( just +1), physical honchkrow, even physical kindra and more.
I prefer Slowbro>Slowking cause slowbro is one of the best physical walls in the entire metagame and have a large useful move pool, is better against kindra cause can learn CM instead of Nasty Plot, giving to him more bulk and power. UU has a plenty of Uturn users and with the poor def of slowking he cant switch in the most situations and receiving a lot of damage if he do.
Heracross SD is good, but slow and fragile, i think is better Scraft for late-game sweep thanks to Moxie, an amazing trait.
In relation to Nidoqueen toxic spikes>roar to do pasive damage to the opponent team if the foe doenst have a poison type pokemon alive. this is nice against the non-steel type walls.

thanks for your contribution to the community and UU tier, is an extensive tier and have a lot of possible sets and teams combinations. I hope u like the rate :].

 

[Sharoy]

Honestly though,the trickband zong set is better.slowking can t-wave victini and slackoff a few turns before ohkoing it with scald.and toxic spikes in a tier full of poison types isnt a good idea.SD hera breaks stall..i will try slowbro over slowking though.Thanx for the rate.

 

[Fille]

Team looks really cool, I must admit. First of all, I suggest changing Mienshao to Scarf with Reckless, seeing that Heracross is SD. For Flygon, I suggest using Aerial ace over Fire punch, seeing that it kills Heracross/Virizions. Also, Nidoqueen should run enough speed to outspeed Gligars, seeing that they trouble your team a lot. A good Nidoqueen spread is:
EVs: 136 HP / 252 SAtk / 120 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

Offensive ghost types seems like a problem. 1 on the opponents team shouldn't be aproblem, but what about 2 or 3? Slowking could be changed to something like Umbreon, but the loss of Twave doesn't really help Heracross out anyways :/ Tho I'd say it's worth testing. Maybe you can scrap Bronzong and add SR on Nidoqueen as a last resort.

 

[Sharoy]

bronzong can wall/trickband gligar.queen can take an eq and ko with ice beam.hera can setup on it....i am considering scarfing shao but twave support from king makes an l.o. set worthwhile..and yeah cofag+chandy can be problematic..i usually trickband cofag and kill chandy with shao/queen/flygon/slowking(king takes only 55%~ damage from shadowball and can ohko it after sr)...mismagius can be killed by them too...anyway no team uses 3 pursuit weak pokes,lol...thanx for the rate :D

 

[Qwertyuiop]

bronzong can wall/trickband gligar.queen can take an eq and ko with ice beam.hera can setup on it....i am considering scarfing shao but twave support from king makes an l.o. set worthwhile..and yeah cofag+chandy can be problematic..i usually trickband cofag and kill chandy with shao/queen/flygon/slowking(king takes only 55%~ damage from shadowball and can ohko it after sr)...mismagius can be killed by them too...anyway no team uses 3 pursuit weak pokes,lol...thanx for the rate :D

You should at least try out CB Snorlax > Flygon (give Mienshao scarf) and maybe changing Slowking to Slowbro. Snorlax works well in this team (half the team resists fighting), weakens your opponent's team and possible provides paralysis support for Hera. Snorlax can also take special hits and beats Chandy and friends, so you don't need to rely on Slowking to beat them.

But I wouldn't honestly touch Nidoqueen anymore; Gliscor is hardly a threat being absolute setup bait for Heracross. It's not like it can touch Bronzong anyway. You might want to see how Tank Bronzong works if you use a CB Snorlax (can Pursuit things which set up on Bronzong).

+4 252 Atk Heracross Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Gliscor: 308-363 (87 - 102.54%) -- 93.75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

 

[Fille]

You should at least try out CB Snorlax > Flygon (give Mienshao scarf) and maybe changing Slowking to Slowbro. Snorlax works well in this team (half the team resists fighting), weakens your opponent's team and possible provides paralysis support for Hera. Snorlax can also take special hits and beats Chandy and friends, so you don't need to rely on Slowking to beat them.

But I wouldn't honestly touch Nidoqueen anymore; Gliscor is hardly a threat being absolute setup bait for Heracross. It's not like it can touch Bronzong anyway. You might want to see how Tank Bronzong works if you use a CB Snorlax (can Pursuit things which set up on Bronzong).

+4 252 Atk Heracross Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Gliscor: 308-363 (87 - 102.54%) -- 93.75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Slowbro doesn't get dragon tail, hence he should keep slowking. I agree on the Snorlax :) And you're talking about Gliscor, but this is Gligar, which is bulkier, meaning that you need +6 on Hera to do OHKO. Higher on the ladder, most ppl use Aerial ace Gligar ^^

Also, ppl do run 3 ghosts on 1 team. Z+V topped the UU ladder with a triple ghost team (Screws me over, I mostly use Dual Fighting core :P). So honestly, ppl do use 3 pursuit weak pokes (He used Cofagrigus, Golurk and Chandelure).

 

[Sharoy]

lol,then maybe i should doubleswitch to queen against gligar when it uses aerial ace,but anyway zong shits on it.and lol @triple ghost core..that would be annoying....and yeah,i did try cb lax and slowbro...my team became too hera weak,and scarf mienshao not locked into hjk is a bit weak imo.

 

[Fille]

lol,then maybe i should doubleswitch to queen against gligar when it uses aerial ace,but anyway zong shits on it.and lol @triple ghost core..that would be annoying....and yeah,i did try cb lax and slowbro...my team became too hera weak,and scarf mienshao not locked into hjk is a bit weak imo.

Lets see, Bronzong walls Gligar, but Gligar walls zong. At least give Bronzong hp ice then lol. Triple ghost is annoying, but really effective due to the fighting dominated tier we got today, Slowbro shouldn't make the team weaker to Heracross, seeing that it can take a megahorn from +0 scarf. Slowking works better for countering kingdra due to dragon tail :S And lol at ScarfShao being weak, at least it can do damage to stuff like Crobat, yanmega and Ambipom .-. It's not only about power, it's about being able to hit things too.

 

[Sharoy]

yeah but i dont wanna lock shao into a move...plus it cant ohko victini and shaymin..but lo fakeout+stoneedge/hjk kos them and zong can trickband gligar :p

 

[Qwertyuiop]

Okay, evidently I failed, but the point is that if Gligar is running Aerial Ace, then it loses Earthquake (unless it forgoes Stealth Rock or Toxic). If it doesn't have Toxic, Slowking doesn't mind it at all. If it runs Aerial Ace/EQ/Roost/Toxic, Bronzong can Trick it Choice Band, take a hit and then switch out to something else to setup.

In relation to Nidoqueen toxic spikes>roar to do pasive damage to the opponent team if the foe doenst have a poison type pokemon alive. this is nice against the non-steel type walls.

I disagree about this honestly. Toxic Spikes is only good for full stall imho, as the damage isn't as much as say, Spikes or SR, not to mention the fact that half the tier is immune to or absorbs Toxic Spikes (Gligar, Flygon, Bronzong, Roserade, Togekiss, the Nidos) etc.

Anyway, I suppose Nidoqueen could run a bit of speed for Gligar, but it doesn't need all that speed in my opinion. 120 Spe puts it at 218, but Nidoqueen only needs 80 speed to outspeed Gligar (and maybe some more for speed creep), and the rest can be invested in its bulk. The point is that Nidoqueen acts as a last resort Pokemon to stop a dangerous attacker in the opponent's team a lot of the time which is possible due to its defensive typing and investment in bulk. Reducing bulk might mean that the team has more problems with say, something like LO Zapdos.

 

[Sharoy]

i concur with qwerty..204 hp evs on nido allow it to survive flygon's eq and ko back etc.plus it serves as my hera check...lol nido is so awesome x3

 

[Fille]

ok, seems good :)