SM UU Darmanitan to the top

[Mapplle]

Hiya guys, second team that i'm posting here, this one is neat af too. I've always wanted to make another Darmanitan team since my last top 10 ladder peak considering it's my favorite UU pokemon. It's been carrying me over and over again in so much matches that i wanted to give him a chance to shine again in this meta. Pretty sure what i did makes him shine bright like a diamond so here it is :

Team building process


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When i thought of building a team around Darmanitan, surprisingly the first pokemon i wanted to add to this team was Darmanitan. I've been a huge Darmanitan player but this kinda falled with Azu coming around. Now that the beast is gone for good i can use it again. I used to run a pretty special set (Adamant on Jolly to Ohko some mons like Hippo) but now that Gliscor spread evolved to a 188+ speed usage i can't really use this one at all :

SmileInHeaven

SmileInHeaven (Darmanitan) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Earthquake

Max speed to tie Kyurem (which is like a huge threat to my team lmfao), i used to run enough speed just for Krooko and rest in HP but tie Kyurem is too damn important. Earthquake to hit things like Rhyperior that rised a lot those past weeks with Moltres and Rockslide for Mantine / Moltres mostly but also Chandelure. U-turn giving this god damn momentum and what makes Darmanitan a better band than Entei for me (Extrem speed is worth nuts hue). After this i wanted to pair my fire monkey with a shroom that punch people out of the tier hence why Breloom.

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On a more serious note, Breloom is an awesome partener to Darma considering it can clean bulky water mons such as Swampy or Seimi. Being the most broken mon in the tier i thought why not abuse it. Darma is also a good support to Breloom sweeps as it can pressure Scizors but also open some walls that could resist Loom in the tier (if those even exist) :

BrokenLikeKars

BrokenLikeKars (Breloom) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Swords Dance
- Mach Punch
- Rock Tomb

Classic Breloom moveset and spread, Jolly allows me to tie Volcanion but also to get chances to kill others Loom or people that would invest their walls only for regular Ada Loom. I still OHKO Banded Scizor (lmfao Loom is healthy for the tier) at +2 but lack some bit of damage on Hippo which can be a bit annoying. Also not being Adamant makes an Ohko nearly impossible on Hydreigon without rocks. As for me, being Jolly got more positiv sides than negativs considering how important is to kill other Looms. Rocktomb is a must for me cause it helps handling regular Breloom checks like Crobat, Moltres or Chandelure.
Those 2 mons being weak to our good friend Latias, Muk seemed to me a pretty good choice :

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I already had this offensiv core in mind for a while, well mostly Breloom + Muk that i saw working well on Redemption's team but adding to it Darmanitan made even stronger :

RedoHottoChilliPeppaaaaa

RedoHottoChilliPeppaaaa (Muk-Alola) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Atk / 104 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Pursuit
- Knock Off
- Shadow Sneak

136 atk is plenty enough to kill all Tias sets. Knock + Sneak kills the z Drake set and pursuit kills the scarf with rocks. With that i only needed some spdef to tank those hits better considering i don't need more atk for Fpunch. 20 speed allows me to outspeed Swampy and hitting it hard when required with a Koff.
Then i was like "Heck im slow / Heck Hydreigon is a problem" then why i chosed to pick Altaria my fluffy friend.

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Altaria helps me handling Manectric which can be annoying but like i said Hydreigon too and our good friend Loom. It helps with the lack that my offensiv core gots to check and kills. Having a slow offensiv core made me chose the DD set to clean in late when Breloom can't :

ALTARIARIARIARI

ALTARIARIARIARI (Altaria-Mega) @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
Shiny: Yes
Happiness: 0
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 204 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Facade
- Roost
- Earthquake

204 speed is enough to outspeed Manectric at +1 but still enough to outspeed Loom neutral. Using max speed doesn't help as i won't outspeed Beedrill / Aero at +1 so i'd rather have some more bulk to handle the bulletpunch spam. Facade on Frustration helps me having a SI to Empoleon as i won't care much about getting burned. Pretty strong late game cleaner helped by Darma and Loom to get a strong cleaning situation without walls to block me. Having those 4, i wanted a strong answer to SD Scizor which was hella threatening but also something that could setup rocks hence why i picked Cobalion.

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Cobalion is one of the best Scizor answer in the tier with its awesome natural defensiv bulk but also its godtier typing. Playing an offensiv cobalion set helps not being a placement spot for Scizor Z fight for exemple. I've chosed to run a special set just to test out to be honest, everyone's running a regular Z CC set but i've chosed a special one, mostly to make use of HPIce for Gliscor that would help opening the field for Loom to clean. Can also surprise things like Swampert that tink they can be safe on a physical one :

I like large fries ♫

I like large fries ♫ (Cobalion) @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Focus Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Regular spread and regular moves for a special one, nothing more to add to this. I've chosed not to run any setups cause i wanted to kept the surprise of my set as much as i could since when i use z fight you can't guess its Focus Blast. Last mon i wanted a good partener for Cobalion to make a lil defensiv core but i also needed a defog user considering my weakness to hazards hence why i picked Gliscor.

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I'm running a pretty common set on this one, Gliscor doesn't need much to work :

Rerorerorerorero

Rerorerorerorero (Gliscor) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Atk / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Wing Attack
- Defog
- Roost

Speed allows you to outspeed banded Entei and atk invest allows you to kill Nido that you also outspeed. Wing atk is ofc for Loom so it can't setup on you. Nothing more to add on this one, its Gliscor bet you all know how it works.

Threats
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Altaria mega : As you can see, Malt DD can pretty much 6-0 me if mine can't setup before. It won't be able to setup on much pokemon tho, running toxic on Wing on Gliscor can help handling it, also running Shuca berry Cobalion can help. It will only be able to setup on Gliscor as Darma will hit it way too hard / Breloom can creep out its speed / Muk can ohko / Malt can too / Cobalion will Flash it down.

Actual picture of me when i see Altaria setting up

Replay
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Only one replay but shows how much damage Darmanitan can make to a team :
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-749684366

Other notes

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- Special thanks to Givrix for helping me out with the names (if you get the references, note that i cried for weather report...)
- Special thanks to Patoche for being my secretary
- Special thanks to Darmanitan for being such an awesome pokemon

Importable
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I cried for Weather Report

BrokenLikeKars (Breloom) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Swords Dance
- Mach Punch
- Rock Tomb

SmileInHeaven (Darmanitan) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Earthquake

RedoHottoChilliPeppaaaa (Muk-Alola) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Atk / 104 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Pursuit
- Knock Off
- Shadow Sneak

ALTARIARIARIARI (Altaria-Mega) @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
Shiny: Yes
Happiness: 0
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 204 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Facade
- Roost
- Earthquake

I like large fries ♫ (Cobalion) @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Focus Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Rerorerorerorero (Gliscor) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Atk / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Wing Attack
- Defog
- Roost

 

[TheTapDancer]

I really dont see any good reason to run Band on Darm. With LO+Sheer Force you're nuking basically everything anyway, and being able to u-turn on anything that you're not 2HKOing is nice, or being able to switch to Quake on Tentacruel.

Wing Attack is bad. Even Acrobatics is better as it lets you be a KO sponge, but another Rocks, U-turn, Swords Dance, Toxic or Facade are all much better. If Loom is your main concern, I'd run with Facade.

Even with this, it feels like the team dissolves to any good physdef core. Latios might make a better offensive defogger to deal with this, in which case you might be better running a specially offensive mega like Manectric.

 

[Mapplle]

I really dont see any good reason to run Band on Darm

252 Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 244 HP / 0 Def Gliscor: 289-341 (82.1 - 96.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Poison Heal
252 Atk Choice Band Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 244 HP / 0 Def Gliscor: 333-393 (94.6 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Poison Heal

^ Main reason why i'm running Band and not LO. Band helps me scoring kills that i wouldnt achieve with a lifeorb.

What's the poins of being able to switch to equake for Tenta when Tenta isn't a switch in. I mean i get that in a pure 1v1 without having Tenta switching into me i'd lose but that means oppo got to lose a pokemon to get a safe switch on me which is what i want if i want my Malt to clean in late.
252 Atk Choice Band Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 248 HP / 240 Def Tentacruel: 210-248 (57.8 - 68.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery.

As for Latias on Gliscor it's an option but i'd rather have a safe Defog than a scarf defog considering how weak my team is to hazards

 

[SilvioGuacamole]

Hi Mapplle ! I really like the offensive core you’ve gone for here, :cbdarm: is really underprepped for. However, the team has a few issues defensively. No flying resist is really problematic and your Crobat matchup totally relies on catching it with rock tomb. In order to remedy this, my recommendation would be to switch Cobalion -> Phys Def Empoleon. This helps out against massively problematic mons like Pidgeot and Crobat as well as improving the matchup vs Altaria.

Empoleon Set

Empoleon @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Toxic/Ice Beam
- Roar

The problem with this addition is that it makes SD Scizor even more of an issue that it was before. To help with this, I suggest Wing Attack -> Fire Fang on Gliscor, Shadow Sneak -> Fire Punch on Muk and EQ -> Flamethrower on Altaria. This means that Scizor can never really set up for free vs your team and you can hopefully pressure it to death. In this matchup play very carefully around Scizor to scout the set and keep Gliscor healthy.
As a side note, I feel like this could definitely be improved with a different offensive fire like Volcanion or Chandelure, as the team’s speed control really isn’t great and it struggles a lot vs Scizor. Scarf Darm is also something to think about, but I realise the team was built around :cbdarm: initially.
Hope the rates helped, good luck in testing!!

 

[Mapplle]

Hey thanks for the tips, Empo defo seems like a better choice than Cobalion i'll change this. I'd rather keep Sneak on Muk as it helps me winning all my duels against Latias, considering how weak my team can be to it i'd rather clean it than Scizor. I've never had much issues with SD scizor, mostly cause Loom cleans it way too easily but firefang on Gliscor will help for sure. Thanks again mate !