OK, after a failed attempt at being niche in Ubers using SpA groudon and things, I got tired of my matches taking so long on the ladder, and decided to build a HO team, which I expected to be poor, because I wanted to play a lot of matches rather than just a few. With this team, it is rare for games to go beyond 20 matches, often being decided before turn 10. And there are mistakes in this team, with some things being rather unadvisable, but I've not had problems yet.
First member is one I always (bar none) lead with, as a standard suicide lead for Ubers HO. Deoxys-S.
Deoxys-Speed @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Knock Off
Theres not much to say here, I went with the EVs recommended in the teambuilder, and this allows for the speed tying with other Deo-S I encounter. The purpose of this is just a suicide lead, who gets rid of potential focus sashes on the mons that will come in, and paves the way for sweeping by literally any of the other five members of the team. Knock off is there just if it'll be helpful in the future (potentially getting rid of power herbs/choice scarfs on Xerneas (this has happened 7 times so far) and other items that the team appreciates being gone (life orb Ekiller)).
The next member of the team is someone I almost always have on my team, Geoxern.
Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 216 HP / 252 SpA / 40 Spe
Modest Nature
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
This was built to suit the most powerful setup sweepers in the game, and when you think of an ubers setup sweeper, you think of Xern. I've seen a decline in hp fires recently, due to groudon, however this thing really appreciates getting rid of stuff like Scizor and Genesect, hp fire deals a lot more to Aigislash than Thunder and is more accurate, and if they have a steel type in like ferrothorn or Skarmory, I'd rather go for hp fire than risk the 30% miss. Moonblast is obvious. The EVs, I don't know about on this thing, I gave it 40 for speed creep, max special attack and threw the rest into HP.
Arceus @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Refresh
After a special sweeper, I decided to go for the best physical sweeper. Ekiller is a huge threat to most teams, and I personally prefer silk scarf adamant over jolly life orb, due to similar damage results, without the HP drop that could allow for speed ties with other ekillers killing me off. Evs are fairly standard, max attack, threw the rest in speed to at least tie with other arceus forms that haven't got for a + speed nature. And the moves... refresh over S-claw should automatically tell you, giratina-O cannot even possibly lose to this set. I've considered heavily running S-claw over EQ, which would make me a bit weaker to primal groudon, but means that I don't just lose in a 1v1 this versus giratina-o. I've not yet had a match where this has been a serious problem, but it definitely has the potential to be, and I went with refresh because of burns stopping the effectiveness of this set entirely.
And lets go to the reason for EQ being on Arceus now, primal groudon.
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
Double Dancing Groudon requires two turns of set-up, and then kills everything not named Lugia or Yveltal, basically. The EVs are to outspeed and KO most other pdons running around, and RP allows me to outspeed everything at +2 short of choice scarf mons with base speed 120, and even that is a speed tie. Or, in other words, it speed ties or outspeeds all Salamence at +1. Mence seems to be a common switch in to a RPd pdon, because it takes -1 hits like a champ, but on the turn they DD, you SD and Ko with dclaw. EQ over Precipice Blades is due to accuracy issues, and not much lives a +2 EQ that dies to +2 Pblades. Dclaw is due to the amount of latis that are floating around right now, you don't want to let your opponent get off a defog on you unless it is clear that there are no focus sash users on their team, or the relevent sashes are all broken. Dclaw Kos all latios after stealth rock at +0, and has a good chance against Latias. If you're at +2 in both speed and attack with this thing, only lugia and Yveltal live one of its attacks after stealth rocks, unless someone is running fully defensive Ho-Oh (which still has 48% chance to KO).
Lets go back to special based mons now.
Darkrai @ Life Orb
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Void
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Sludge Bomb
If I think of a special based set up sweeper not named Xerneas, I think of Arceus-Fairy and other forms of said god. But I had Ekiller, and this was the next to come to mind, and is usually the mon that follows deoxys out of the blocks, making use of its insane speed stat to force a mon to sleep and then set up and hurt. This thing will almost never sweep, but it can normally take out an important defensive mon for your opponent to pave the way for a teammate to sweep, and it reduces the potential damage of using a suicide lead by making the game 5v5 again (basically, although obviously not forever with sleep mechanics). At +2, this hits most things very hard if not outright koing them, and it can outspeed most of the tier with its insane 125 base speed. Dark Pulse and Sludge bomb were chosen to hit everything for at least neutral damage. This thing hits like a tank, but is not the primary sweeper, this is more of a support sweeper.
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Aerilate
Happiness: 0
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Frustration
- Roost
- Earthquake
The best new mega that hasn't been banned, Salamance can set up on unboosted Ekiller, any physical arceus, Groudon, Ho-Oh, Mega-Mewtwo X (if not running Ice Beam), Blaziken, Deoxys-A if it has used a psycho boost already, Rayquaza, Scizor, and an already evolved version of itself, if it isn't +1 already. 11 mons in A and S rank in the viability thread, this thing can set up on, and then kill. Evs are just max damage without recoil (speed tying arceus is nice, but not worth killing yourself over by running DE over frustration/return). Frustration over return is because of ditto, as most I have seen haven't touched happiness (risky, I'll admit), and you can set up when it comes in again, if you want to, because it can't touch you. Earthquake is for coverage against steel types, but I feel refresh might be worth talking about instead of either roost or earthquake.
The idea of these moves is not necessarily, cover everything on every mon so that they all have equal chance of sweeping, its 'optimise movesets that allow at least one mon to sweep'.
Threats: Giratina-O. This thing hard walls Ekiller, and being toxic'd is not something I ever enjoy on one of my mons, plus with dtail/roar, it can stop my setup that is often needed, and hard to replace. Geoxern only gets to geo once, after all.
Lugia: Darkrai is the only real answer to this thing my team has, and it lives a lot of attacks, even after stealth rock damage. Whirlwind is annoying for the reasons stated above.
Opposing Ekiller: Only if they are set up, and I am not.
So, what improvements would people here suggest?
EDIT: IMPORTABLE:
First member is one I always (bar none) lead with, as a standard suicide lead for Ubers HO. Deoxys-S.
Deoxys-Speed @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Knock Off
Theres not much to say here, I went with the EVs recommended in the teambuilder, and this allows for the speed tying with other Deo-S I encounter. The purpose of this is just a suicide lead, who gets rid of potential focus sashes on the mons that will come in, and paves the way for sweeping by literally any of the other five members of the team. Knock off is there just if it'll be helpful in the future (potentially getting rid of power herbs/choice scarfs on Xerneas (this has happened 7 times so far) and other items that the team appreciates being gone (life orb Ekiller)).
The next member of the team is someone I almost always have on my team, Geoxern.
Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 216 HP / 252 SpA / 40 Spe
Modest Nature
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
This was built to suit the most powerful setup sweepers in the game, and when you think of an ubers setup sweeper, you think of Xern. I've seen a decline in hp fires recently, due to groudon, however this thing really appreciates getting rid of stuff like Scizor and Genesect, hp fire deals a lot more to Aigislash than Thunder and is more accurate, and if they have a steel type in like ferrothorn or Skarmory, I'd rather go for hp fire than risk the 30% miss. Moonblast is obvious. The EVs, I don't know about on this thing, I gave it 40 for speed creep, max special attack and threw the rest into HP.
Arceus @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Refresh
After a special sweeper, I decided to go for the best physical sweeper. Ekiller is a huge threat to most teams, and I personally prefer silk scarf adamant over jolly life orb, due to similar damage results, without the HP drop that could allow for speed ties with other ekillers killing me off. Evs are fairly standard, max attack, threw the rest in speed to at least tie with other arceus forms that haven't got for a + speed nature. And the moves... refresh over S-claw should automatically tell you, giratina-O cannot even possibly lose to this set. I've considered heavily running S-claw over EQ, which would make me a bit weaker to primal groudon, but means that I don't just lose in a 1v1 this versus giratina-o. I've not yet had a match where this has been a serious problem, but it definitely has the potential to be, and I went with refresh because of burns stopping the effectiveness of this set entirely.
And lets go to the reason for EQ being on Arceus now, primal groudon.
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
Double Dancing Groudon requires two turns of set-up, and then kills everything not named Lugia or Yveltal, basically. The EVs are to outspeed and KO most other pdons running around, and RP allows me to outspeed everything at +2 short of choice scarf mons with base speed 120, and even that is a speed tie. Or, in other words, it speed ties or outspeeds all Salamence at +1. Mence seems to be a common switch in to a RPd pdon, because it takes -1 hits like a champ, but on the turn they DD, you SD and Ko with dclaw. EQ over Precipice Blades is due to accuracy issues, and not much lives a +2 EQ that dies to +2 Pblades. Dclaw is due to the amount of latis that are floating around right now, you don't want to let your opponent get off a defog on you unless it is clear that there are no focus sash users on their team, or the relevent sashes are all broken. Dclaw Kos all latios after stealth rock at +0, and has a good chance against Latias. If you're at +2 in both speed and attack with this thing, only lugia and Yveltal live one of its attacks after stealth rocks, unless someone is running fully defensive Ho-Oh (which still has 48% chance to KO).
Lets go back to special based mons now.
Darkrai @ Life Orb
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Void
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Sludge Bomb
If I think of a special based set up sweeper not named Xerneas, I think of Arceus-Fairy and other forms of said god. But I had Ekiller, and this was the next to come to mind, and is usually the mon that follows deoxys out of the blocks, making use of its insane speed stat to force a mon to sleep and then set up and hurt. This thing will almost never sweep, but it can normally take out an important defensive mon for your opponent to pave the way for a teammate to sweep, and it reduces the potential damage of using a suicide lead by making the game 5v5 again (basically, although obviously not forever with sleep mechanics). At +2, this hits most things very hard if not outright koing them, and it can outspeed most of the tier with its insane 125 base speed. Dark Pulse and Sludge bomb were chosen to hit everything for at least neutral damage. This thing hits like a tank, but is not the primary sweeper, this is more of a support sweeper.
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Aerilate
Happiness: 0
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Frustration
- Roost
- Earthquake
The best new mega that hasn't been banned, Salamance can set up on unboosted Ekiller, any physical arceus, Groudon, Ho-Oh, Mega-Mewtwo X (if not running Ice Beam), Blaziken, Deoxys-A if it has used a psycho boost already, Rayquaza, Scizor, and an already evolved version of itself, if it isn't +1 already. 11 mons in A and S rank in the viability thread, this thing can set up on, and then kill. Evs are just max damage without recoil (speed tying arceus is nice, but not worth killing yourself over by running DE over frustration/return). Frustration over return is because of ditto, as most I have seen haven't touched happiness (risky, I'll admit), and you can set up when it comes in again, if you want to, because it can't touch you. Earthquake is for coverage against steel types, but I feel refresh might be worth talking about instead of either roost or earthquake.
The idea of these moves is not necessarily, cover everything on every mon so that they all have equal chance of sweeping, its 'optimise movesets that allow at least one mon to sweep'.
Threats: Giratina-O. This thing hard walls Ekiller, and being toxic'd is not something I ever enjoy on one of my mons, plus with dtail/roar, it can stop my setup that is often needed, and hard to replace. Geoxern only gets to geo once, after all.
Lugia: Darkrai is the only real answer to this thing my team has, and it lives a lot of attacks, even after stealth rock damage. Whirlwind is annoying for the reasons stated above.
Opposing Ekiller: Only if they are set up, and I am not.
So, what improvements would people here suggest?
EDIT: IMPORTABLE:
Deoxys-Speed @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Knock Off
Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 216 HP / 252 SpA / 40 Spe
Modest Nature
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Arceus @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Refresh
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
Darkrai @ Life Orb
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Void
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Sludge Bomb
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Aerilate
Happiness: 0
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Frustration
- Roost
- Earthquake
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Knock Off
Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 216 HP / 252 SpA / 40 Spe
Modest Nature
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Arceus @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- ExtremeSpeed
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Refresh
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
Darkrai @ Life Orb
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Void
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Sludge Bomb
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Aerilate
Happiness: 0
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Frustration
- Roost
- Earthquake
