Death, then Revenge

[theboyonfire]

UU Team: Death, and her Revenge

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I started this team knowing that I wanted to use both fast and bulky hard hitters. Little did I know that I couldn't just send out a Crobat and expect it to KO everything, like in-game. After looking up some strategies for different Pokemon on Smogon, this team was born.​

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Cursed (Frosslass) @ Focus Sash​

Ability: Cursed Body​

EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe​

Nature: Timid (+Spe, -Atk)​

- Spikes​

- Ice Beam​

- Shadow Ball​

-Destiny Bond​

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Obviously, Frosslass is my lead. With Focus sash, I can get at least two layers of spikes up and then use Destiny Bond to simultaneously kill the foe and get a free switch in. The biggest threat that I have run into is Rhyperior with Rock Blast, so when somebody leads with that, I use Ice Beam right away. If I get the three layers of spikes off, I will either continue to fight with her, or save her until later (if Focus Sash hasn't activated.) She gets her job done, and lets our next pokemon swoop in and sweep.​

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Swag (Scrafty) @ Lum Berry​

Ability: Moxie​

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe​

Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)​

- Dragon Dance​

- Crunch​

- Hi Jump Kick​

-ThunderPunch​

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Oh Swag, you and Aurora have won so many battles for me. When choosing his Held Item, I have gone back and forth between Lum Berry or Life Orb. Life Orb would've made him an all out attacking beast, but Lum Berry has saved my but many times. If a pokemon can get off a burn or poison, the Lum Berry cures Swag and he can OHKO the pokemon before they can do it again. I realized that this is just more than amazing when opponents use Swagger. As for the moves, Dragon Dance turns Swag into a lethal weapon, especially when coupled with Moxie. Hi Jump Kick and Crunch are his STAB moves, and can OHKO almost any pokemon, except Steel types. Originally, I had Ice Punch, but replaced it with ThunderPunch after seeing I had nothing to counter for water types, plus it still hits flying types.​

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Aurora (Crobat) @ Black Sludge​

Ability: Infiltrator​

EVs: 176 HP / 192 Atk / 4 SpD / 136 Spe​

Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)​

- Brave Bird​

- Taunt​

- Roost​

- Toxic​

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Originally, Aurora was supposed to just be a staller and wall breaker, with the Toxic/Taunt combo. But, she has now become one of the most important members of my team. Depending on who comes out after Cursed, Aurora or Swag comes out. One Brave Bird and most pokemon are done for, and after Spikes, Stealth Rock, and some Toxic damage, even bulky pokemon can say good-bye. Inner Focus was my first choice as an ability, but after experience and some reading on RMT, Infiltrator proved to be the better choice. This lets Brave Bird hit hard no matter what. The Toxic, Taunt, Roost combo still comes in handy for bulky pokemon like Slowbro and Snorlax. Aurora works great as a revenge killer for Swag, too.​

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Ferocious (Darmanitan) @ Choice Band​

Ability: Sheer Force​

EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SpD​

Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)​

- Earthquake​

- Flare Blitz​

- Rock Slide​

-Superpower​

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Ferocious and Rocket are two pretty similar Pokemon, just one is focusing on revenge and the other is a bulky band user. They both have similar movesets, but I use them on different occasions. If Swag dies, and Aurora isn't a good pokemon to send out, Ferocious has his time to shine. Darmanitan can come in a take a few hits, while dishing some out as well. I usually switch between Rocket and Ferocious because they are both Choiced (Scarf and Band, respectively.) This is straight from Smogon, so look on Darmanitan's bio there.​

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Rocket (Krookodile) @ Choice Scarf​

Ability: Moxie​

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Spd / 252 Spe​

Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -SpA)​

- Earthquake​

- Crunch​

- Stone Edge​

- Superpower​

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This is Ferocious's partner. He and Darmanitan work well together, because they have similar movesets, but are both choiced. Even though they don't help each other out resistance wise, I've found that they can accomplish a lot of things. Together, they share many weaknesses, but they can get a lot done together, or at least weaken the team down for Aurora or Swag.​

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Percy (Swampert) @ Leftovers​

Ability: Torrent​

EVs: 240 HP / 16 Atk / 252 Def​

Nature: Relaxed (+Def, -Spe)​

- Stealth Rock​

- Waterfall​

- Earthquake​

- Roar​

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I love using Percy late in the game, set up Stealth Rock and Roar things until there is no tomorrow. Or, I can just use him to tank hits and deal some hard hits as well. Swampert us a good, bulky physical attacker that can set up and weaken the opposing team down. I either throw him in after Frosslass, when I need a tank, or at the very end. Yay for Swampert!​

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All in all, I'm not sure how my team actually ranks. I think they're good, and I win a number of battles, but I would like to be able to win lots of games in a row, right now i'm in more of a win one lose one situation. Fun Fact though: I accidentally used this team in an OU battle and won, so I dpon't know if that shows the other players incompetence or this team's skill. Please Rate My Team!​

 

[PTJon7]

Overall pretty solid team. Froslass needs Taunt however, its so useful and important on a team so succesptable to entry hazards. Just replace either Ice Beam or Shadow Ball. HP EVs on Darmanitan are a waste of time, it has base 55 defenses, even with full HP it won't be doing much to help Darm. Just put the HP EVs into Speed. I also recommend a Life Orb instead of Choice Band, thanks to Sheer Force Darm won't take LO recoil from useing Flare Blitz or Rock Slide, and not being locked into a move is really useful. Definitely don't run T-Punch on Scrafty, Ice Punch is much better. Without it you're much more easily walled, notably by Gligar. HJK does more to Water types anyway >_>

Your team has no offensive special attackers, just thought its worth mentioning as it could be a problem.

 

[silenced]

I would recommend that you change your froslass set to the bulky spread as listed in the on site analysis. The issue with the sash set for your team is that you lack an additional spinblocker, and you're not putting nearly enough pressure on the opponent otherwise to prevent spinning unless they are using hitmontop. This also gives you another back-up check to mienshao, since I feel you're taking a risk against with only crobat to deal with it.

Secondly, I'd change scrafty's ability to shed skin, otherwise sableye is going to put your team to the sword. It's a bit gimmicky and doesn't always work, but it does help, since sableye can really hurt if not outright OHKO Darmanitan on the switch with foul play. I'd then replace the lum berry with life orb as you seem to want to do. Moxie boosts won't matter too much, since a revenge killer generally comes in to stop you from acquiring too many anyway. I think in your case, you can keep thunderpunch, as gligar can't really do much to scrafty, while you can just keep boosting away, especially if you change your ability to shed skin.

There's not much else I'd immediately change at present, though your lack of special attackers is a major concern, especially with no team member really able to deal with bulky waters throwing around scald, other than scrafty.

 

[Purple Grind]

I thought I'd point out that scrafty's hi jump kick is super effective against steel types. I agree with swapping darmanitan's choice band for a life orb, seeing as the recoil is canceled and it'll let you change moves, but it's up to you as choice band is quite usable as well and slightly stronger.

 

[TheEeveeAnimations]

My concern is why you're not running U-Turn on either Crobat or Darmanitan. Crobat is a stallbreaker, and with U-turn provides amazing utility for the team, but Toxic + Roost + Taunt does help stop walls. It's up to you. But U-Turn > Rock Slide on any given day, Flare Blitz is going to be hitting everything harder than a STAB Rock Slide save the rare Moltres. And yeah, your lack of both a spinner and a special attacker hurts you a lot, because 5/6 of your Pokemon are susceptible to Spikes, and 3 of them are weak to Stealth Rocks (though Froslass doesn't really count as it's a suicide lead), and you will get destroyed by popular special attackers like Raikou and Zapdos (Swampert can take them on, but is taken out easily if one of them carries HP Grass). So maybe add a special wall that resists Water (as both Darmanitan and Swampert are walled by Suicune/opposing Swampert/basically the bulky Waters of UU).
Other than those, I really like your team.