Fireburn
BARN ALL
What's up? It's been awhile.
I left Smogon some time ago so I could focus on school and getting into college. But though I left the site, my love for the game never left me. With X and Y on the clear horizon and some school stuff drying up now that high school graduation is just around the corner, I decided to start getting into competitive Pokemon again. I tried OU for awhile, but let's face - OU sucks. I went back to my original home, Ubers, and found it to be just as good as I remembered it, and I've been having a lot of fun with this team I created for it. I'm not a serious ladderer and I won't even try to claim having a million ladder points, a 40-win streak, 360 No Scope No Stealth Rock 6-0 sweeps, or something inane like that, but this team has a pretty consistent win ratio and has beaten some good players. More importantly, it's one of the few teams I've made where I've felt like it has been a genuinely good team, one that fits my style, and one that I can be proud of. Because of that, I'd like this team to be as good as I can get it, and I'd appreciate some help in doing just that from people who know BW2 Ubers a bit better than I do. :]
I'm not going to bore you with a long Introduction, so here's the team. It's a Rain Semi-stall build, focusing on punching holes with Kyurem-W and stalling out the crushed remains with poison and a solid defensive core:
At A Glance
The Details
Kyogre @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SAtk / 204 Spd / 52 Def
Modest Nature
- Water Spout
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
- Surf
Kyogre isn't usually who I lead with, mind you. That honor is given to Kyurem-W, who is capable of taking down most common leads in one shot with its crushing blows. Instead, Kyogre is used conservatively, meant to set up rain and check otherwise troublesome offensive Pokemon. It is perhaps the most conservatively played Pokemon on this team, only seeing battle when it is needed as its revenge killing role and ability to check Ghost Arceus, Dakrai, and Mewtwo is crucial to making this team work. It can also sweep late-game with its mighty Water Spout once my core has done its work, which is also why I like to keep this bloated whale around for the long haul. Rain is also useful for activating Tentacruel's Rain Dish and removing Jirachi and Arceus's Fire weaknesses. Basically, Kyogre checks sun and hyper offense while serving as a nice glue Pokemon and late-game cleaner. There's not much else to say, Kyogre's job is pretty simple.
Water Spout is my main move and I pretty much just spam it while I can. It OHKOes even +1 Mewtwo, does tremendous damage to Ghost Arceus, and OHKOes pretty much everything that doesn't resist it (and some things that do). Surf is for when I am too weak to use Water Spout, chosen over Hydro Pump since I can't afford to have my revenge killer miss a crucial attack that could lead to me getting swept. Ice Beam and Thunder are the standard coverage moves and are useful for picking off weakened Palkia, Lati@s, and opposing Kyogre, especially when backed up by Toxic Spikes.
I find Modest Scarf Kyogre generally more useful than Timid as the extra power is quite significant in most cases, not to mention it helps a lot against Arceus. The EVs are pretty straightforward: max SpA is for POWER, 204 Spd beats Rash Deoxys-A and Mewtwo, and the rest goes into Def in case Kyogre needs to take an Extremespeed or something.
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 SDef
Calm Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Toxic
Tentacruel used to be pretty bad in Ubers until 5th Gen came along and gave him Scald and Rain Dish, turning him from a waste of space into a pretty nice utility Pokemon. His most important job is Rapid Spin, and he does a pretty good job at it: Giratina-O hates Scald burns (as do most hazard setters in Ubers), Ghost Arceus dies to Toxic Spikes and Jirachi, and Giratina gives me an excuse to throw down Toxic Spikes. Speaking of Toxic Spikes, they are truly nasty in Ubers due to the lack of viable Poison-types. Tentacruel usage seems to be falling significantly due to Lati@s running around and threatening everything, so most opposing teams don't have a reliable way of removing them. Because of this, Tentacruel + Giratina tend to absolutely own most stall and defense tieams I face, as I can just sit there until their walls shrivel up and die, hehe. Tentacruel also absorbs Toxic Spikes automatically, which is really nice as they screw up a good chunk of my team. Rain Dish also allows Tentacruel to stick around for quite a while and he can also beat other Forretress and Magic Bounce Pokemon with rain boosted Scalds, a big reason why I chose him over Forretress. His Fighting resistance is also handy at times.
Rapid Spin and Toxic Spikes are the reasons I'm using Tentacruel. Spin keeps hazards off my side of the field, especially Spikes as I have no Levitating/Flying Pokemon. Toxic Spikes ruin stuff such as Chansey and defensive Kyogre that would otherwise be hard to overcome, and it makes it easier to handle offensive Pokemon such as Mewtwo. I do, however, tend to be cautious as to when I throw them down: only getting one layer can make it really hard to stall out something like Ghost Arceus for example. I also tend to prefer burning physical Arceus sets as well, though this is not as significant a worry. Because of this, I usually do not set Toxic Spikes up unless I know I can get down both layers before something dangerous comes in, or I know what Arceus my opponent has. The one except is if my opponent has Chansey, in which case I'll set down Toxic Spikes immediately to make it easier for Kyurem-W to bust through it. Scald is STAB and burns Ferrothorn, which is always nice. Toxic allows me to poison Giratina-O that try to set up a Substitute against Tentacruel, making it easier to stall out, and it helps check CM Ghost and Fighting Arceus too. It used to be Ice Beam, but I honestly never used Ice Beam and Toxic + Scald burn is usually enough to make Rayquaza think twice.
Standard EVs are standard, enough in Def to survive Giratina-O's Earthquake at full HP with the rest going to SDef for taking hits.
Kyurem-White @ Choice Specs
Trait: Turboblaze
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Draco Meteor
- Focus Blast
- Earth Power
This guy is the definition of raw power. Whatever is unfortunate enough to get switched into him is probably going to die unless it is a pink blob, and even the pink blobs aren't safe thanks to Toxic Spikes. Kyurem-W is nearly unwallable, especially with the rest of the team built to let him do work and take advantage of the holes he smashes.
It might seem weird to use something like Kyurem-W on such a defensive team, but he really does fit well here. This beast helps the team work by punching enormous holes into the opponent's squad and ruining their cores enough to where my defensive Pokemon can easily wall and stall what is left. Kyurem-W also helps my team take out a few troublesome things that are hard to stall out: having something that can OHKO Lugia and Giratina on command is a real blessing, and he also walls the crap out of Grass Arceus, a troublesome threat to any rain team. The rest of team supports him well by giving him Toxic Spikes to help break defensive Kyogre, Water Arceus, and Chansey as well as providing Rapid Spin from Tentacruel and Wish support from Jirachi to help keep him alive and get him into battle. However, the most valuable support my team gives Kyurem-W is switch-in opportunities; a good few Pokemon on my team bait in things I can double switch Kyurem-W in on to wreck something. Groudon wants to put and end to Jirachi's shenanigans? Double switch to Kyurem-W. Grass Arceus thinks it can wall Kyogre? Kyurem-W will put a stop to that. Giratina wants to block my Tentacruel's Rapid Spin? In comes Kyurem-W as punishment. Kyurem-W punishes my opponent for playing predictably, forcing them to take risks that could leave them in a bad position against my other Pokemon. He's much more of a team player than what he originally seems to be, and overall I have been very satisfied with his performance.
(Also, smashing things with 723 Special Attack Draco Meteors is just plain fun! :3)
Draco Meteor and Ice Beam are the STABs that make him so much of a threat. The former's power is overwhelming and is usually spammed because it punches massive holes in everything and even manages like 40% to Chansey. The latter, on the other hand, is consistent and extremely potent given Ice's excellent offense coverage on the Ubers metagame. Focus Blast is there to kill pink blobs, Ferrothorn, and Tyranitar, easily besting Chansey in two hits after Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes. Earth Power is mainly just there for Jirachi and the odd Heatran. However, I pretty much never use Earth Power, and am considering dropping it for Fusion Flare so I could have a move that OHKOes lead Forretress and Skarmory guaranteed.
EVs are standard for a special attacker, with Modest chosen for more POWER. I am considering switching to a bulky spread to allow Kyurem-W to take more of an advantage of his solid 125/90/100 defenses, especially considering hardly anything in the base 90 Speed crowd runs close to max Speed. I'm not sure what would be optimal, however.
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 216 SDef / 252 HP / 12 Def / 28 SAtk
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Thunder
- Iron Head / Ice Punch
Glue Pokemon, primary special wall, and stalling machine, Jirachi is what makes the team work. With this set and support from Kyogre's rain, Jirachi is capable of countering and stalling out a long list of offensive Pokemon, including but not limited to most CM Arceus (especially that jerk Ghost Arceus), Mewtwo, Darkrai, Shaymin-S, Lati@s, Kyurem-W and Tornadus-T. In the rain, Jirachi is easily capable of taking their hits and then spamming Wish + Protect until they wither and die from Toxic Spikes. Wish support in general is helpful for this team as Jirachi can easily pass it to any of my other Pokemon: Kyurem-W scares out Jirachi counters, and everything else resists at least one or two of Jirachi's weaknesses. In short, Jirachi keeps the team alive and is easily my favorite defensive Steel in Ubers at the moment. I have considered using Ferrothorn a few times instead for Spikes, but Jirachi is just way too useful to give up.
As useful as Jirachi is, it wasn't actually on the first version of this team. The first iteration had Forretress and Tyranitar over Tentacruel and Jirachi to help faciliate Kyogre sweeps by Pursuiting Latias. However, having Forry as my only Dragon resist kinda sucked as it tended to die quickly, and sand hurt my team more than it helped it. I ditched TTar for Jirachi for a sturdier Dragon resist and replaced Forry with Tentacruel for a more consistent spinner, and that has worked much better ever since. Jirachi is really the glue of the team and I've loved using it in Ubers since I first started in Gen 4 when Platinum first came out.
Thunder makes Jirachi super annoying - it breaks Ho-Oh's Substitute, hurts Skarmory and Forretress a lot, and makes Kyogre think twice before coming in. Paralysis support is also a boon to my relatively slow team, which is nice. It used to be Toxic, but Thunder has overall been better for pressuring the aforementioned threats, and I can still usually beat Ghost Arceus by paraflinch. I alternate between using Iron Head and Ice Punch and I'm not sure which one is better. Iron Head kills Kyurem formes and, in conjuction with Toxic Spikes, allows Jirachi to run over slow defensive Pokemon such as Giratina and Blissey, helping a lot versus stall teams. It also lets me paraflinch things and generally be evil. However, Ice Punch destroys Shaymin-S and hurts Rayquaza more while still hurting Lati@s and Giratina-O. It is also a nice deterrent for Gliscor.
EVs are give me enough SpA to always break Ho-Oh's Substitutes while maximizing special bulk. The 12 Def EVs are kinda random, but they help me take random Outrages and the like.
Arceus-Grass @ Meadow Plate
Trait: Multitype
EVs: 112 Spd / 248 HP / 148 SDef
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Judgment
- Ice Beam
- Recover
Mr. Utility himself, Grass Arceus in the rain is one of the best defensive Pokemon around. His main job is to counter Kyogre, Groudon, and Excadrill, though he's also wonderful against Zekrom, Thundurus, Manaphy, Kingdra, Garchomp, Tyranitar, Water and Ground Arceus, and the Sinnoh Dragons provided rain is up. He's an excellent check to rain and sand teams and is a good Pokemon to throw around in troublesome situations. Grass Arceus is also my best check to Rayquaza, though I have to be really careful as V-Create makes Grass Arceus a sad (and probably dead) panda.
Grass Arceus is my chosen Stealth Rock setter and he usually finds opportunities to set it up. I sometimes wish I could use another move instead, but I can't really afford to give Stealth Rock to Jirachi and risk spreading it too thinly. Judgment is reliable STAB, chosen over Grass Knot so I could hurt Manaphy instead of being walled by it. Ice Beam kills Rayquaza and Gliscor and hurts Zekrom and predicted Shaymin-S switch-ins. I have considered Stone Edge over Ice Beam a few times for Ho-Oh, but the phoenix so far hasn't been troublesome enough to this team to warrant the switch. Recover should be obvious lol.
EVs give me enough Speed to outpace Garchomp with the rest going into special bulk to help take on Kyogre and Palkia.
Giratina @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Impish Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roar
Giratina rounds out the team by blocking Rapid Spin and checking troublesome physical attackers. His main purpose is to counter Extremekiller, and he's also great against most other physical Arceus, Ho-Oh, Terrakion, Blaziken, Jirachi, mono-attacker Kyogre, and Kabutops. Giratina is extremely difficult to kill and spinblocks basically everything, which helps a lot against stall teams. Leftovers and better defenses are why I picked him over Giratina-O, as it allows him to counter these threats much more reliably. Not much else to say about Giratina, he does his job and does it well.
Rest and Sleep Talk provide healing and allows Giratina to absorb status, letting him stick around for quite a while. Will-O-Wisp neutralizes pretty much any physical threat, while Roar is for phazing and racking up hazards damage. I originally used Dragon Tail, but Roar doesn't miss and allows me to phaze Substitute users. The consistency is worth being completely owned by Taunt in my opinion.
EVs maximize physical defense with a bit of speed creep for getting around other base 90 walls such as Groudon and defensive Kyogre.
Big Threats
Most things are pretty manageable, though these Pokemon can give me a lot of trouble:
Rayquaza - Biggest threat to the team by far. Rayquaza is incredibly hard to switch into and one mispredict means I'm usually screwed. Grass Arceus is my best answer, though V-Create means he's somewhat shaky at best. Fortunately, Rayquaza can't really set up on anything on my team, and Stealth Rock + Life Orb cuts down on his lifespan dramatically, so he's usually not a threat for long. However, he'll usually deal some serious damage before going down.
Reshiram - Similar to Rayquaza, hazards keep it at bay but predicting around it is hard. Fortunately, no one uses Reshiram anymore, which is actually somewhat depressing. :[
Bisharp - Massive threat if it manages to set up, though its not common enough to really worry about too much. It's immune to poison and beats Giratina which is super annoying. -.-
Ghost Arceus - I can usually beat it with teamwork from Jirachi and Kyogre, but it's still annoying as nothing on my team resists Ghost.
Wobbuffet - Custap Wobb is just a jerk in general, especially if it traps Kyogre. Get Toxic Spikes down ASAP and don't be stupid against Destiny Bond.
So, that's the team. I'd really appreciate some advice on it; I know I've been out of the Ubers loop for awhile and I know you guys can help make this team better. Rate away! :)
CHANGES I'M TESTING
Toxic > Ice Beam on Tentacruel - Kept.
Thunder > Toxic on Jirachi - Kept.
Giratina-O > Giratina-A
Kyogre @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SAtk / 204 Spd / 52 Def
Modest Nature
- Water Spout
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
- Surf
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 SDef
Calm Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Toxic
Kyurem-White @ Choice Specs
Trait: Turboblaze
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Draco Meteor
- Focus Blast
- Earth Power
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 216 SDef / 252 HP / 12 Def / 28 SAtk
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Thunder
- Iron Head
Arceus-Grass @ Meadow Plate
Trait: Multitype
EVs: 112 Spd / 248 HP / 148 SDef
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Judgment
- Ice Beam
- Recover
Giratina @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Impish Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roar
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SAtk / 204 Spd / 52 Def
Modest Nature
- Water Spout
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
- Surf
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 SDef
Calm Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Toxic
Kyurem-White @ Choice Specs
Trait: Turboblaze
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Draco Meteor
- Focus Blast
- Earth Power
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 216 SDef / 252 HP / 12 Def / 28 SAtk
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Thunder
- Iron Head
Arceus-Grass @ Meadow Plate
Trait: Multitype
EVs: 112 Spd / 248 HP / 148 SDef
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Judgment
- Ice Beam
- Recover
Giratina @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Impish Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roar