SmogonWorkHorse
Banned deucer.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Black & White. This guide will teach players who have never been fortunate enough to experience this metagame what the biggest threats are, best types of teams, current metagame and much more.
BW UU on the website
http://www.smogon.com/dex/bw/formats/uu/
Onto the guide...
I. Introduction
With the recent loss of Abomasnow and Chandelure, things have been looking slightly less chilly in the UU metagame. The removal of perma-Hail allows balanced teams to appear more prominent whilst heavy offense isn't punished as badly with the lethal combination of Toxic Spikes and Hail chip damage. If you want to play a metagame whereby all playstyles are viable and nothing appears to be too overcentralizing, BW UU is your pick. It is a shame it took this long for the perfect metagame to finally emerge but better late than never. Here are SOME mechanics you must however know that differ from ORAS
- The sleep counter resets once your sleeping Pokemon switches out.
- Electric-types can be paralysed, Grass-types can be slept with Spore / Sleep Powder.
- Critical hits are 2x, not 1.5x.
- Weather inducers provide permanent weather, not really relevant but eh...
II. Entry hazard users
Entry hazards are 3; Stealth Rock, Spikes and Toxic Spikes. With quite a number of Fire and Flying-types in the tier, it is important to get Stealth rock down quickly. Below is a list of the all the users of entry hazards and the role they play.
http://pastebin.com/44RRu9VX
III. Sweepers / Wallbreakers / Tanks
Here is a brief list of the roles Pokemon play in the tier including the sweepers.
http://pastebin.com/T4HMJhtZ
Physical threats in bw uu are generally Fire and Fighting-types so stocking up on a few solid counters and checks to those is advised. Stall is very viable however with a decent amount of wall breakers, it isn't the easiest thing to pull a win with stall here.
IV. How to deal with Stall
Dealing with stall can either be done with overwhelming the team with a series of aggressive momentum grabbing switches WITH an attack ie. U-turn / Volt Switch preferably when Stealth Rock is down. This is quite a common tactic with Xatu teams which rely on it to block entry hazards from the opposing stall team and constantly pivot around getting damage. Another way is via stall breakers such as Mew and Crobat. Taunt puts the smack down on the majority of the Pokemon in a stall team and forces out their counter, use this to your advantage. Sableye is a great spin blockers and with priority Taunt and Will-o-wisp punishes stall really hard.
Victini can be used a wall breaker with Glaciate to get the surprise kill on Gligar after you have landed another hit such as V-create beforehand. Mew can utilize a Swords Dance or Nasty Plot lategame to clean a weakened stall team whilst Bulk Up Tornadus (or even life orb mix variants) can prove fatal if used correctly. Arcanine dies relatively quickly due to recoil however lures out the opposing Bulky water type such as Suicune or Blastoise which can make things easier for a lategame Sharpedo or Flygon sweep. Offensive synergy is key here and taking advantage of what one Pokemon lures makes it easy to break stall down.
Due to the lack of Defog removing hazards, Blastoise and hitmontop remain the only relevant spinners in the tier. This means that hazard stacking hyper offense can cause stall lots of headaches especially when a Ghost-type paired with 1 or 2 pivots that threaten the aforementioned spinner (such as Raikou / Zapdos / Victini), making it very hard to spin off the hazards.
Substitute Swords Dance Heracross blows away typical Snorlax or Umbreon / Blastoise or Hitmontop / Roserade cores making it a threat to watch out for. Couple this with its ability guts and stall teams can quickly see themselves with 2 or more less Pokemon by the end of Heracross' rampage.
V. Using stall
Typically in team preview you want to find the win condition for the opponent and go in this order.
1) Get Hazards down, if the opponent has more than 2 grounded-toxic spikes affected Pokemon, then ensure your priority lies in getting Toxic Spikes down asap. Stealth Rock should follow whilst Spikes is last should the first condition be true.
2) Pressure your opponent into switching into their more hazard vulnerable Pokemon. Ie. force Victini to come out as much as possible, this can be done via baiting it by bringing out your Grass or Steel-type only to double when the opponent switches. A very BIG misconception is that you cannot be aggressive with stall, this is FALSE. You simply must avoid reckless un-calculated switches however safe, low risk aggressive doubles are good for avoiding a battle to drag out which increases your likelihood of getting critted.
3) Towards the end phase of the game you generally want to have your backbone at good health, if you have a wish user try to get your core to good hp to deal with the opposing lategame sweeper that you identifed in the team preview phase.
4) VERY IMPORTANT. At times a high level opponent will purposely let you kill a threat or even 2 to have the "last mon standing" scenario where their set up sweeper cannot be phased out and your current Pokemon in is practically set up fodder. You must ensure you play the last few turns with care to avoid that scenario.
VI. Styles of teams in the BW UU metagame in a nutshell
There is hyper offense which revolves around a few pivots such as Mienshao / Victini / Raikou to force switches to lure out a Pokemon on the enemy party that allows their set up mon to set up ideally.
Rain teams exist, Bronzong, Kingdra, Tornadus and Zapdos being ideal candidates to set up rain. Watch out for Water-types from lower tiers such as Kabutops, Ludicolo while at the same time for higher profile Pokemon such as Kingdra / Tornadus
Sleep talk is quite rare however at times offensive teams may have a choiced user utilize it such as Heracross or Flygon to avoid any set backs to the momentum they have. Be wary.
Balanced teams are very common in BW UU featuring Rhyperior for entry hazards, another one or two slow Pokemon and then Mienshao or Victini as Choice scarf user. A set up sweeper and a wallbreaker are what the last two slots are generally for.
Tailwind based teams are seen sometimes, Suicide lead Mew sets up Rocks, Tailwinds then BOOMS. Whimsicott and Tornadus sport the move at times and can provide clutch wins last minute thanks to Prankster.
VII. Teams
Below are the few teams that have been responsible for pretty much all of my UU wins in the past 4 years and shows how a team which focuses on destroying stall whilst maintaining a slight defensive backbone works. The last team in the bin is a stall team which is ideal for beginners.
http://pastebin.com/1DgYYeGp
ALSO a link to RMT archive for BW UU
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/generation-v-rmt-archive-index.3447323/