XY UU Research Week #9

[Mazz]

Welcome, UUers and all those looking for an excellent comp. 'mons experience! A fresh tier means a fresh installment of Research Group!

Keep the following things in mind during every Research Group:

• Be open-minded, don't just say something is terrible and walk away; look at its stats, movepool, and typing and think something up!
• Feel free to theorymon early in the research period, but make it clear you're doing so. Later in the period though, you will be expected to back up your posts with hard evidence like logs, actual sets, perhaps even teams.
• Just because an analysis has been done for a Pokemon doesn't mean there isn't more to explore; it's very likely that something has gone unnoticed.
• Do not post in this thread complaining about the Pokemon I choose and / or suggesting ones we should do for future weeks. Feel free to VM / PM me these suggestions, but don't expect me to always listen to you.

A few things to clarify:

• Early period means the first three days of the research week, so let's keep the theorymoning to a minimum after. The late period refers to the last four days of the research week, where raw evidence and discussion should become the basis of the thread.
• Sign-Ups close Monday nights (about three and a half days of sign-ups), so be sure to sign up before they close!
• The prizes for Research Week have been decided; winning a research week will grant you half-ops on our IRC channel, #xyuu. Win five, and you get a nomination for a Community Contributor badge.
• You must post a ladder ranking in order to win the above prizes.

This Week's Research Pokemon:

Sharpedo | Cacturne | Froslass | Braviary
​

How useful are these Pokemon in XYUU? What sets can they run effectively? What gives them trouble? What advantages do they have over other Pokemon? How well do they work in the metagame? If you have anything to say about any of these Pokemon, please post about them! It doesn't matter if you've used them or have just faced them in battle, anything is fine (but please, do try them). Just be sure to back up your posts with good competitive reasoning. Remember, discussion is not limited to this topic, you are encouraged to talk about these Pokemon in #xyuu as well!

The Research Group Challenge:

In order to participate you must do the following:

• Post here with a fresh alt and the name(s) of the Pokemon you will be using.
• Use at least one of the Pokemon being researched.
• Post your experiences with the Pokemon you're using, participate in the discussion!
• Post logs of this Pokemon in action against other teams - don't just tell us, show us!

The first stage of the challenge will be very relaxed so theorymon will be allowed as long as its backed up by good reasoning. During the later stage, discussion will be expected to be backed up by hard evidence, such as teams, actual sets, and logs. The winner of the challenge will be the person who has the highest ladder ranking on the Pokemon Showdown UU ladder on the alt they registered at the time the challenge ends. Prizes are currently being discussed with higher powers, so hang tight while I find something worth your guys' attention. Winners will also receive a permanent spot in the XYUU Hub Hall of Fame (once it exists).

 

[Mazz]

By the way, I'm no longer keeping track of participants, since the list of names wasn't doing anything. Just be sure to post your ranking at the end of the week.

 

[Bouff]

alt: Sharp Pedo haha just kidding thats taken i meant git gud of sharp
Pokemon: Sharpedo, Froslass, Braviary

spikestacking is for faggits specs froslass is the way to go

 

[KM]

Alt: Frosláss
Pokemon: Froslass, Sharpedo
Pruuf:

So happy about another HO week =) Already had a team around these two, so this should be fun.

 

[The Leprechaun]

alt: the worst guys
poke: Sharpedo
View attachment 12908

Just made a team with this savage :]

 

[CoolStoryBrobat]

Alt: The Sharpedo Files
Pokemon: Froslass, Sharpedo

The rank was from UU beta when I last tried a team of the sort I'm about to use, I have no score in regular UU. Just in case one of youse guys skimmed over that too quickly.

 

[effyouzion]

Name: def not a test
Pokemon: Sharpedo

Sharpedo is solid in UU. Water + dark coverage is nice, you can run adamant with speed boost and protect, there's not a whole lot of priority to revenge kill you, and destiny bond is a thing now.

I'm not too fond of the others. Cacturne could be cool if he could learn knock off to threaten things that don't fall for his sucker punch. Froslass has no offensive presence and hazards are really easy to remove now.

 

[Sleepless]

Well, I had six matches with an offensive Cacturne.
My thinking was it could check many water types due to Water Absorb but it actually underperformed my expectations.
Many Suicune seemed to carry Ice Beam, which always 1hko's after one Calm Mind. Even Exceggutor had Sludge Wave for me.
Grass/Dark poses alot of weaknesses and Cacturne has no bulk nor speed to avoid them.
Sucker Punch did net me some surprise kills, aspecially after a Sword Dance (of it's own or baton passed by Mienshao) but it dosn't seem to be enough.
The set I was using :

Cacturne @ Life Orb
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 88 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Seed Bomb
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch

 

[kokoloko]

im gonna use the same alt im using for the ladder tour

lti koko
lass/shark

edit:

ok so i already knew froslass and sharpedo were ridiculous but since im running deviations from standard on both mons i guess i'll post what i've found so far.

regarding froslass: i've found that an attacking move is completely unnecessary--bordering on useless--because i didn't use it once. i ended up changing it for thunder wave (which left me with twave/spikes/taunt/dbond) and i really really fucking like twave on froslass lol. not only does it help with scarfers trying to hit you twice before you can spike more than once (which is a shitty way of dealing with lass cause cursed body is broken), but it makes aero and crobat your bitch, prevents shit like houndoom from setting up on you, and gives you a sami-safe move to use if your opponent leads with cloyster. icy wind is also something worth considering if it 2HKOs bat and aero but idk if it does even with max SpA and i prefer running max HP anyway.

regarding sharpedo: idk a lot of people have been using the EQ set from BW which is completely unnecessary nowadays since crunch hits empoleon neutrally. ice beam is the way to go in a hydreigon meta since it gives you a way to hit it and random chesnaught for 60% minimum with some investment (you only need enough speed to beat +speed base 130s at +1 which also beats scarf mien at +2 so you can run -SpD and dump the rest in SpA. you could also run full special and do more dmg with ice beam/hydro but then lol nice accuracy.

the thing about these two is that require a ton of support. i've never really been a fan of full HO because it tends to get shitty matchups too often on the ladder but a balance-offense team with several ways of preventing hazard removal and recovery (aka a shitload of taunters) fits them nicely. this team is nowhere near secret anymore so i'll just post it. i might make an RMT later too.

team!

do i sweep?? (Sharpedo) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 152 Spd / 252 Atk / 104 SAtk
Naughty Nature
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Protect
- Ice Beam

YUMMMM (Swampert) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 216 Def / 248 HP / 40 SDef / 4 Spd
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Stealth Rock
- Roar

check deine emails (Crobat) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 200 Spd / 56 HP / 252 Atk
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Roost
- Taunt

HAZORUS (Hydreigon) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn
- Fire Blast

i can sense it (Froslass) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 248 HP / 8 SDef
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Spikes
- Destiny Bond
- Taunt

GOT HAXED (Sableye) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SDef / 248 HP / 8 Def
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp

the idea is to get hazards early and never let them defog/spin via 3 taunters and 2 ghosts. sharpedo should sweep if you play well.

 

[Lost Soul]

Alt:Pine Tar
Pokemon:Sharpedo, Braviary
View attachment 12967

 

[Expulso]

Alt: Expulso(W9)
Pokemon: Froslass, Braviary

I believe Froslass and Braviary will pair fairly well, with Braviary benefitting from Defogs forced by Froslass's spike-stacking. (also nobody's used braviary which is lame)

EDIT: Bouffalant is cool

 

[KM]

My team is somewhat similar to Koko's in that it tries to keep the hazards on the field no matter what so sharpedo can roflstomp later on, but instead of going with a bunch of ghosts/taunts, I decided to just use a Tornadus.

The concept's simple, punish attempt to spin with froslass, punish attempts to defog with tornadus. If they really want to get the hazards off the field, it's their choice, but it's going to put a +2 Tornadus in their hands (for those of you wondering, it's no item acrobatics/superpower/u-turn/knock off - this shit can do a lot of damage at +2). Pair with lots of u-turning pokes and you have yourself a pretty decent HO team.

One other thing I wanted to touch on is SubLiechi Sharpedo, which I'm currently using. Although it sounds a tad gimmicky at first, it's actually quite good compared to how it was in gen 5 (when it wasn't bad either). Because of the ubiquity of protect you get so many free turns to set up subs, not to mention subbing on status etc. Also eases prediction a little bit and increases sweeping potential once you get to liechi stage. I run destiny bond for more goodness and stuff. I'll post some replays later on, it's getting late, just wanted to give a little update.

 

[DiscoDucky]

Wasn't Froslass last week's test subject, or is there a reason behind it?

 

[newfren]

Froslass was last week's test subject, but noone used it cause azelf was slightly faster and could taunt froslass for free. I'm guessing Mazz wants to give it a chance when people aren't spamming 'zelf on the ladder.

 

[Mazz]

No I'm using it because it didn't get used last week. I'll recycle Pokemon until they get used.

 

[Mazz]

So uh yeah, where's the rankings guys?

 

[KM]

View attachment 13277

Sorry mazz. I was so busy this week with AP tests and LTI that I really didn't have time for RW, which is a huge shame =( I'll try not to disappoint and think ahead before I sign up in the future.

 

[Bouff]

ok

so the thing with lass is that like koko said is that ice beam is useless however you are forced to switch vs magic bounce users if that means anything

mixpedo is based af because it fucks over a lot of offensive teams, and due to the fact that spikes turn 2hkos into ohkos usually means sharpedo makes for a great cleaner lategame

braviary + lass is so obvious tbh your opponent knows exactly what you're trying to pull however cb brav fucks up defensive arcanine hard which is nice

ok ill update this with a higher score later because fuck you kitten you schlong :^)

 

[Lost Soul]

Here is my ranking, have not gotten as much laddering done as i wanted but some quick notes, from my personal experiences thus far Sharpedo has proven itself time and time again as a great late game cleaner once everything is weakened and he gets a speed boost or two he can rip right through teams he has excellent Dark/Water coverage which hits alot of the big threats in UU, As for the second Pokemon I'm using this research week Braviary it is a little bit more underwhelming but access to rock slide/sheer force it can handle other fliers fairly well and with a Choice Band it hits like a tank thanks to the almighty BB, the biggest issue i have with Braviary however is not how hard it hits but rather its Speed, Base 80 just isn't cutting it with the fighting Pokemon and grass Pokemon in the tier generally having a higher base speed and out speeding it. I have been debating on switching it too a scarf but that takes away from some of its power and unlike Honchkrow he does not get access to Sucker Punch or any other priority moves and in a tier filled with fast dangerous attackers he has no way to beat them without taking a hit first, however he does get a lot of free switch ins thanks to being Immune to Ghost moves and Ground type moves allowing him to come in hit something hard with a BB or U-turn out of there and hit something hard and allow you to gain the momentum. This has been fairly fun experience thus far anyhow I'll try to get some Replays if i got the time and throw them up on here XD, but it seems i have you beat for now Bouf XD with a staggering lead of 1.
View attachment 13340

also here are the two sets I'm currently using.


Braviary @ Choice Band
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 176 HP / 252 Atk / 80 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Rock Slide

Sharpedo @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Poison Jab
- Protect

 

[Bouff]

nope Lost Soul http://prntscr.com/3ig392

also sharpedo shouldnt be used as ur fire / steel / w/e resist but that should be obv lol

 

[Lost Soul]

Oh he isn't thankfully or else I'd be in trouble haha, i been running a pert on the team I've been using alongside of them, poor sharpedo doesn't like taking any V-creates or flare blitz or heavy slams that's for sure but thankfully most times when he comes in he is either faster or his target is weakened and awwww you passed me XD i was first for like 12 minutes at least thats a new accomplishment XD, i took a break from laddering because one game i lost when the guys feraligatr survived at 1% and another when i missed a HJK so i saw that my luck was turning sour so i decided to call it quits for now Lmao.

 

[The Leprechaun]

View attachment 13373

k i'll edit this in with info when i'm not lazy

 

[kokoloko]

this is dead but i might as well post since im winning:

i kinda already posted my team and what i think of the research mons tho :]

 

[pokemonisfun]

the importable is lying FYI koko speed creeps like shit on sableye by the way

 

[kokoloko]

lol this is true i never give my actual spreads huehuehue