[UU] Balance RMT

[Introduction]

So this is my first RMT thread here on the Smogon forums and hopefully my thread meets the requirements for RMT threads and doesn't get closed. Anyway whenever I make a team I always try to go for some sort of balance. I've been laddering with this team since I've made it and I get quite a lot of wins with it. Anyway my teams usually look like this.

• The Lead
• 2 Walls [1 Physical and 1 Special]
• 3 Sweepers [1 Physical, 1 Special and 1 Mixed] Although this team has two Physical Sweepers and no Mixed Sweepers.

The Lead



Honchkrow @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 252 Atk / 60 Spa / 196 Spe
Nature: Naive
- Superpower
- Brave Bird
- Hidden Power Grass
- Night Slash

Why This Pokemon?

So originally my lead was a Scarf-Moltres and it worked quite well for me but when it was suggested that I try a Scarf-Honchkrow it turned out a lot better than my old lead so he's my new lead now. The given speed EVs let me outrun max speed base 120 pokes with +speed natures such as Alakazam with my 373 speed.

Honchkrow gives me as much coverage as my Moltres did and can hit with physical attacks as well as that HP Grass for things like Rhyperior. As for the ability I picked Super Luck instead of Insomnia so I can hit with the possible crit.


The Special Wall



Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Hp / 4 Atk / 252 Spd
Nature: Careful
-Earthquake
-Thunder Wave
-Curse
-Iron Head

Why This Pokemon?

Registeel takes most hits my other pokemon don't like (which is why he's my wall =D) and spreads around T-Wave for my other pokemon but then again the slowest sweeper on my team is Pinsir and the rest are fast or have a scarf so I don't know if I should change T-Wave.


The Physical Wall



Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Nature: Bold
-Slack Off
-Surf
-Psychic
-Toxic

Why This Pokemon?

Slowbro checks lots of physical attackers that would devastate Registeel or anyone else on my team. Slack Off + Toxic can stall out some pokes and dish out some STAB Surfs and Psychics.


The Physical Sweeper


Pinsir @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Nature: Jolly
-Swords Dance
-X-Scissor
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake

Why This Pokemon?

Pinsir is a good physical sweeper imo as he can come in on Earthquakes and set up with Swords Dance. He can also come in Psychic types and scare them off with STAB X-Scissor to get a free Swords Dance. I was considering Scyther for this slot but I didn't want another guy 4x weak to SR. I also thought of going MixTile since he's faster and provides other options but gives me an additional weakness to Ice and Poison so I need your opinions on whether I should change Pinsir but so far he's worked pretty well.


The Special Sweeper



Raikou @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Spa / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Calm Mind
-Thunderbolt
-Shadow Ball
-HP Fire

Why This Pokemon?

He's got good Speed, Special Attack and can scare away Water Types for the for the free Calm Mind as they switch. Raikou can also deal with Ghost Types thanks to Shadow Ball and is so far my best Spiritomb counter since Will-O-Wisp doesn't really matter on Raikou and I can Calm Mind up to hit it with a STAB Thunderbolt. I encounter more Registeels and Leaf Types than Ground Types to try and wall Raikou that's why I went with HP Fire.


The Second Physical Sweeper


Gallade @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant
-Close Combat
-Ice Punch
-Night Slash
-Psycho Cut

Why This Pokemon?

I really liked this set since it can revenge kill lots of scary and fast pokemon such as Alakazam, Honchkrow, Swellow. I'm not sure if I should keep Ice Punch and switch it with something like Thunder Punch since it also hits Swellow and Honchkrow as well as Water Types so I need some advice on that or If I should change the other moves as well but so far the set works well for me.






Absol: Gallade and Pinsir can kill it with their STAB moves.
Aggron: I haven't seen one recently but I suppose STAB CC from Gallade could take it down or a Surf from Slowbro.
Alakazam: Gallade can outspeed it and take it down with Night Slash and Pinsir with X-Scissor could kill it.
Altaria: Ice Punch from Gallade also takes care of Altaria. There's also Pinsir with Stone Edge but I haven't tried it yet and I don't know how to calculate damage =/.
Ambipom: All the Ambipoms I've seen have been leads and Moltres takes care of them after the 2nd turn and OHKOs with Overheat. If they do switch out I can take it out with Gallade or Pinsir later on.
Arcanine: Only Slowbro can take it down but I've only seen one Arcanine since I made this team so he's not much of a problem. With a couple of curses on Registeel though I could probably take it out with Earthquake.
Azumaril: Slowbro walls this quite well and I can also scare it off with Raikou.
Blastoise: Raikou.
Blaziken: Pinsir can kill it with an Earthquake and since its faster I can take it out before it gets hit.
Chansey: Gallade and Pinsir can take it down.
Claydol: Pinsir, Gallade or Raikou, probably even Surfs from Slowbro.
Clefable: The physical sweepers can take it out I guess.
Donphan: STAB Surf could do it from Slowbro.
Drapion: Probably Pinsir would do the trick.
Drifblim: I dunno what to do with this since I'm very unfamiliar with lots of Generation IV pokes so I'll probably hit it with a SE attack?
Dugtrio: CB Dugtrio can't outspeed Gallade and will get smacked by Ice Punch.
Electrode: Pinsir with Earthquake.
Espeon: Gallade and Pinsir takes care of it.
Feraligatr: Stall with Toxic Slowbro.
Gardevoir: Pinsir, Gallade and Raikou.
Hariyama: Won't enjoy STAB Air Slashes or STAB Psychics.
Hitmonlee: Slowbro and Gallade work well.
Hitmontop: Same thing with Hitmonlee I guess.
Honchkrow: The three sweepers work well on Honchkrow.
Houndoom: Gallade or if it's hit with T-Wave Pinsir could Earthquake it.
Kabutops: The three sweepers could take it kill it.
Lanturn: Pinsir would kill it with Earthquake.
Ludicolo: I suppose STAB Air Slash or STAB X-Scissor could kill it.
Magneton: Moltres and the three sweepers can take it out.
Mesprit: I haven't faced any so I don't have a clue.
Milotic: Can kill with Raikou or Stall with Slowbro provided it doesn't have rest I guess.
Miltank: Gallade.
Mismagius: Raikou and Gallade can kill it.
Moltres: Slowbro.
Nidoking: Gallade and Pinsir or maybe Slowbro.
Omastar: The three sweepers should be able to kill it.
Regirock: Slowbro kills it with Surf.
Registeel: Everyone on my team is capable of denting or killing it.
Rhyperior: Slowbro can take it.
Rotom: Gets killed by Raikou and Pinsir as well as Gallade.
Spectile: Moltres and Gallade outspeed it and can kill it. Pinsir could take the leaf attacks and strike back with X-Scissor.
Slowbro: The three sweepers.
Spritomb: So far Raikou with a CM or 2 can take it out and this poke is usually the one I have troubles with since I can't switch in Gallade or Pinsir to set up SD since I'll get WoWed.
Steelix: Slowbro walls and Surfs away.
Tangrowth: I haven't faced many Tangrowths so I don't know what to do maybe Overheat/Air Slash from Moltres?
Torterra: Moltres or Gallade?
Toxicroak: Moltres, Slowbro and Gallade. If it has Dry Skin maybe Raikou.
Umbreon: I haven't encountered one yet so maybe STAB Close Combat or X-Scissor?
Uxie: Most of the Uxies I see are leads so I U-Turn to Pinsir and SD as they switch or if they don't they'll eat a +2 STAB X-Scissor.
Venusaur: Moltres.
Weezing: Slowbro or Gallade.


Changelog

• October 21 - Changed lead Moltres to Honchkrow. Will update the threat list and is currently testing the support Registeel set that Legacy Raider suggested as well as the standard Sub CMer set for Raikou.

Not a bad team, I had trouble finding weaknesses, so good job.
Though Dragon dance Feraligatr might be a problem, What if you send out Pinsir and Feraligatr comes in..What'll you do? if Feraligatr get's a Free DD It's going to wreck your team real good.you'll switch to Raikou? Raikou eats EQ... And Even if you have two Scarved pokemon in your team Feraligatr outspeeds them(after a DD), Moltres will never survive a Waterfall as well as Gallade..Even if you can Stall 'em with Toxic, Feraligatr's DD'd EQ will be a 2HKO(Slowbro)..So I suggest replace Slowbro with Mesprit, Mesprit is an Anti-Sweeper and Mesprit is a counter to DDgyara, therefore Feraligatr is as well..while Feraligatr 3HKO's Mesprit, Mesprit 2HKO's Feraligatr..not only Mesprit has sturdy defenses it can use T-Wave as well, a good teammate too, so Mesprit in your team is a real force to be reckoned with..If you want to use 'em here it is..

Mesprit@Leftovers
Ice beam/ Thunderbolt/ Thunder Wave/ Psychic/
Bold

Good luck in your future battles dude!!
Hope to battle you sometime..

If Mismagius gets a sub up, then something is going down in this team, and when Gallade goes down, your team could potentially get swept. I think you should change Moltres to Honchkrow.

Honchkrow @ Choice Scarf
Naive Nature
4def/252 att/252 spd
-Pursuit
-Brave Bird
-Superpower
-Heat Wave

This thing can come in when Mismagius' sub is down, sac the Pokemon you have out, and this thing will outspeed and KO with Pursuit. This makes an affective revenge killer as well with STAB Brave Bird and Superpower for coverage. I think this will your Mismagius troubles. Good luck with the team!

WoOoShoOo!! said:

Not a bad team, I had trouble finding weaknesses, so good job.
Though Dragon dance Feraligatr might be a problem, What if you send out Pinsir and Feraligatr comes in..What'll you do? if Feraligatr get's a Free DD It's going to wreck your team real good.you'll switch to Raikou? Raikou eats EQ... And Even if you have two Scarved pokemon in your team Feraligatr outspeeds them(after a DD), Moltres will never survive a Waterfall as well as Gallade..Even if you can Stall 'em with Toxic, Feraligatr's DD'd EQ will be a 2HKO(Slowbro)..So I suggest replace Slowbro with Mesprit, Mesprit is an Anti-Sweeper and Mesprit is a counter to DDgyara, therefore Feraligatr is as well..while Feraligatr 3HKO's Mesprit, Mesprit 2HKO's Feraligatr..not only Mesprit has sturdy defenses it can use T-Wave as well, a good teammate too, so Mesprit in your team is a real force to be reckoned with..If you want to use 'em here it is..

Mesprit@Leftovers
Ice beam/ Thunderbolt/ Thunder Wave/ Psychic/
Bold

Good luck in your future battles dude!!
Hope to battle you sometime..

Click to expand...

I might try your suggestion for Mesprit although a DD EQ from Ferali has not killed my Slowbro without me taking it down with me (though sometimes DD Ferali dies first before my Slowbro but leaves it with so little hp that I'll just let it die). If I switch Mesprit with Slowbro though I lose the Electric and Grass weakness of my team but then again I'd lose the Fire and Water resistance for my team so I'll probably keep Slowbro.

sprinkles said:

If Mismagius gets a sub up, then something is going down in this team, and when Gallade goes down, your team could potentially get swept. I think you should change Moltres to Honchkrow.

Honchkrow @ Choice Scarf
Naive Nature
4def/252 att/252 spd
-Pursuit
-Brave Bird
-Superpower
-Heat Wave

This thing can come in when Mismagius' sub is down, sac the Pokemon you have out, and this thing will outspeed and KO with Pursuit. This makes an affective revenge killer as well with STAB Brave Bird and Superpower for coverage. I think this will your Mismagius troubles. Good luck with the team!

Click to expand...

I like the suggestion and I'll definitely try it out and Honch can cover the same Pokes that Moltres does =D

I suggest replacing Heat Wave with HP Grass, as it's only really useful for Steelix (Superpower hits the others harder). Rhyperior is so common, and loves to come in on Honchkrow, so this could be a nice little surprise.

I took sprinkles advice as well as 031ap's to put HP Grass on it and Honckrow has worked out very well for me, even better than when i had Moltres as my lead. I'm still tinkering with the Mesprit though I'll probably keep Slowbro as my physical wall.

I might try your suggestion for Mesprit although a DD EQ from Ferali has not killed my Slowbro without me taking it down with me (though sometimes DD Ferali dies first before my Slowbro but leaves it with so little hp that I'll just let it die). If I switch Mesprit with Slowbro though I lose the Electric and Grass weakness of my team but then again I'd lose the Fire and Water resistance for my team so I'll probably keep Slowbro.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I see your point of losing Water resistance...Also I tried to see on how damage Bro would take from Ferligatr's EQ and I said it would be 2HKO, though It was 3HKO...Just don't let Slowbro die easily...By the way I agree on the Honchkrow lead, I've tried it too and it was really awesome...

There are some small changes you can make to the Pokemon you already have to increase your team's efficiency. I won't suggest anything too major so as to not mess up the synergy already present in your team.


Firstly, that Moltres lead that you're using is specifically designed for OU play, and it works a lot more effectively there. It is meant to surprise faster Focus Sash users such as Azelf and take them out with two hits, while also matching up well against OU's numerous leading Steel-types like Metagross and Jirachi. However, in UU, scarf Moltres will struggle against several common leads. There aren't many leads in OU that use paralysis, but in UU, the standard defensive Uxie's Thunder Wave and Stealth Rock will leave Moltres little more than dead weight. Similarly, Ambipom's Fake Out hurts a lot, and any perceptive opponent will realize you're scarfed if you stay in to take it. What I would suggest is either to change Moltres to a Life Orb sweeper lead, or to replace it with a leading Arcanine:

Arcanine @ Life Orb | Adamant | 8 HP / 252 Atk / 248 Spe
Flare Blitz / ExtremeSpeed / Toxic / Morning Sun

Intimidate helps it take Fake Out from Ambipom, which only averages 26% from Silk Scarf variants. Flare Blitz boosted by Life Orb is incredibly powerful, and does massive chunks to anything that doesn't resist it. LO boosted ExtremeSpeed is also a great tool for revenging later on in the game. Toxic can be used to break Froslass' sash, as well as critically weaken bulky walls such as Uxie and Slowbro with it. Morning Sun not only heals back health lost from Life Orb and Flare Blitz recoil, letting Arcanine make the most of its natural bulk and Intimidate, but also lets Arcanine stall out the likes of Uxie once you've hit them with a Toxic. With the Speed EVs, Arcanine is guaranteed to outspeed +Speed base 80s and Milotic (base 81), meaning it doesn't have to fear much at all from the likes of Venusaur and Blaziken. Base 80 is a very common speed stat, so outspeeding them is an important benchmark to hit.

Overall I think Arcanine would be the more helpful lead for you over any Moltres set for several reasons: firstly, it is far less of a liability when it takes only 25% from Stealth Rock as compared to Moltres' 50%, especially since you have another SR weak Pokemon and no spinner on your team; secondly, Arcanine's Intimidate and ExtremeSpeed allow it to be a far more helpful later on in the game than anything Moltres can do; and thirdly, Arcanine is far better for luring in and weakening opposing Slowbro for your Gallade to take out later on in the game. Give this lead a try, it's a good team player and will pull its weight.


You are trying to do too much with your Registeel. While it has great utility, Registeel should either run a supporting set or a Curse set with ResTalk, not a combination of the two, since they both play significantly differently. While a status absorber in the form of Curse Registeel would be a nice addition to your team, having Stealth Rock is even more vital, so I suggest you go with the following supporting set:

Registeel @ Leftovers | Careful | 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Stealth Rock / Toxic / Seismic Toss / Shadow Claw

Like I said, Stealth Rock is important for most teams, but absolutely vital to a team running two Fighting-types. Registeel is a good user of the move because of the multiple opportunities it gets to switch in. Toxic gets the nod over Thunder Wave here because Registeel needs a way of hitting Donphan and Rhyperior, two common switch ins. By running Thunder Wave you are almost completely helpless against those two, which is why Toxic is a better choice here. Toxic can once again help weaken Slowbro for Gallade to take out later on, and also can be used to beat Milotic one on one since it can't just Recover away your Seismic Tosses. The attacking combination of Seismic Toss and Shadow Claw covers as many bases as possible. Iron Head + Earthquake and Iron Head + Seismic Toss leave you very vulnerable to sub Charge Beam Rotom, so Shadow Claw gets the nod over a STAB attack since it covers it, while also letting you check Mismagius and Espeon, and Raikou with Seismic Toss.


I think Slowbro would prefer Thunder Wave to Toxic. In contrast to Registeel, Slowbro wards off the Ground-types that are immune to Thunder Wave with the threat of a STAB Surf, but draws in Poison-types such as Venusaur more often than Registeel, so Thunder Wave is a lot more useful than Toxic in most cases. Paralyzing foes means that Slowbro's extremely low Speed isn't quite as big a problem, and also helps out the rest of your relatively slow sweepers get kills in.


You might get more mileage out of Raikou if you go with the standard Sub CMer. Paralysis is a big killer for Raikou (and all of your sweepers really) so I find being able to protect yourself with Sub far preferable to the added coverage and power of a 3 attack LO set. Shadow Ball is mostly redundant anyway. Also, Hidden Power Fire is a very bad choice to go with on Raikou. Not only does it reduce your Speed IV to 30, Steelix is the only Pokemon hit harder by it than Thunderbolt or a different Hidden Power (remember, a neutral Thunderbolt is stronger than a super effective Hidden Power against Pokemon only singularly weak to Fire, such as Registeel). Personally I would go with Hidden Power Ice, as not only does it provide the greatest coverage of a single attack alongside Thunderbolt, it also hits Venusaur and Donphan decently hard, both of which are commonly being used as checks to Raikou. Substitute is also good for scouting for your opponent's Raikou counter (as well as Dugtrio), letting you work away at weakening it for a late game sweep. The spread I've been using is Timid with 64 HP / 192 SpA / 252 Spe. This puts Raikou's HP 1 above a Leftovers number while letting it threaten with a powerful Thunderbolt even while unboosted.


Try out Trick over Ice Punch or Night Slash on Gallade. With a Scarf you'll find there's often times when none of your attacks can really hurt an opposing defensive Pokemon, in which case handing over your Choice Scarf can be a great play. I've been running a Trick Scarf Gallade with great success, and I've found that Trick is one of the best moves in many situations.

Good luck with your team :).

@LR: He's already running Honchkrow in the lead slot.

That said, Trick is really the best option. Get rid of Ice Punch, as hitting Altaria and Torterra aren't worth it.

You seem awfully lax about Rock Polish Rhyperior as a threat to this team. Slowbro really needs to be in tip-top shape to have a chance of taking it on; if you drop down to less than 65%, you're toast quite frankly. Moltres is the only one that can outspeed it after Rock Polish, but only has the unreliable WoW to neuter it which is worrying.

Going with previous little suggestions such as HP Grass on 'Krow and Toxic on Registeel can go some way to checking it and limiting its setup opportunities, but you could also try a different Raikou set. I don't like HP Fire too much as it means that Raikou loses the speed tie against Ambipom and other Raikou, though I see why you want it to hit both Grass types and Steelix in one (Regi is hit harder with T-Bolt anyway). You could try HP Ground instead, which still hits Steelix whilst giving you a better move against Rhyperior. To fix the Grass problem then you could try Signal Beam over Shadow Ball, or even Extrasensory if Venusaur is the main problem. Like I said, it's just a suggestion, you don't have to take it obviously.

Another thing you could try is to switch Gallade and Pinsir's roles, making Pinsir the Scarfer and Gallade the SDer. Pinsir can outrun Jolly Rock Polish Rhyperior with an Adamant nature, and can batter it with a Mold Breaker Close Combat on the revenge-kill. Needless to say, Gallade can work well as a Swords Dancer too. The only problem is that Gallade is more suited to the hit-and-run tactic with its SR resistance, but you could try it out and see how it works for you. Good luck.

So I've changed the lead I think a few days ago thanks to sprinkles' suggestion and I'm currently testing the Registeel and Raikou set suggested by Legacy Raider. I might also try out using Trick on Gallade or test Lemmiwinks suggestion of switching Gallade and Pinsir's roles.