Theorymon
Long Live Super Mario Maker! 2015-2024
I'm sure that a good majority of the users that come across this thread are going to have this question in their thoughts, “Why the hell would you use Salamence in Ubers when you can just use Rayquaza?” This is true to a certain extent. While Salamence may have some small advantages over Rayquaza (such as a higher base Speed), in most cases, Rayquaza is the superior choice due to its higher offenses. However, Salamence does have huge selling point that makes it a great Pokémon in the Uber metagame: When Salamence and Rayquaza are used on the same team, they can form a very destructive duo that at times, feels like a loophole through the species clause! In fact, Salamence has been successful enough for me to post a WIP Ubers analysis, which can be found here. Please look at the peer edit for more details on the Salamence set, this thread will focus on testing out teammates and sets for Salamence in Ubers.
The Set
Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk/ / 6 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Fire Blast
This set should look very familiar to those who play OU and Ubers. Not only is this set similar to the Dragon Dancing Salamence of OU, but it is also similar to Rayquaza’s Dragon Dance set. While This set would normally be mostly overshadowed by Rayquaza, I have found that Dragon Dance Salamence thrives when paired with Rayquaza. Below, I will list some damage calculations to show that Salamence has plenty of power in Ubers.
Damage Calculations
+1 Life Orb Outrage vs...
Max HP Kyogre: 106.44% - 125.5%
Max HP Max Defense Bold Kyogre: 75.25% - 88.61% Good thing that most of these Kyogre only run Surf as their attacking move!
112 HP / 8 Defense Groudon: 79.13% - 93.5%
Max HP Max Defense Impish Groudon: 54.95% - 64.85%.
Max HP / 52 Defense Bold Lugia: 65.62% - 77.4%. Yes, this is one of Salamence's problems anyways, but Outrage still does a huge amount of damage to Lugia.
28 HP / Max Defense Wobbuffet: 83.52% - 98.48%. that's around a 74% chance of OHKOing after Stealth Rock damage (This is assuming no Leftovers Recovery, Wobbuffet is a very risky switch into Salamence).
Min/min Dialga: 97.66% - 115.2%. A 100% OHKO after Dialga takes Stealth Rock damage.
Max HP Dialga: 82.67% - 97.52% (While this usually wont KO after Stealth Rock, note that this calc means that max HP Dialga must almost sacrifice itself to end Salamence's sweep).
+1 LO Earthquake vs. Max HP Dialga: 92.57% - 109.41% (around a 92% chance to OHKO after Dialga takes Stealth Rock damage).
Teammates for Dragon Dance Salamence (I'll add more later)
Rayquaza- This is the main point of using Salamence in Ubers
Wobbuffet- Wobbuffet is helpful for its ability to stop most faster scarfers, and is able to set up both Salamence and Rayquaza. Wobbuffet can also be paired with a Pursuit user to defeat Lugia for Salamence.
Scizor- Scizor provides vital resists to Dragon and Ice type moves for Salamence and Rayquaza, while Salamence has a resistance to Fire attacks. Most of this applies to other offensive Steel types like Metagross as well.
Salamence’s quirks (I'll add more later)
Intimidate- I know Ubers may be a Specially based metagame, but Intimidate has really saved my ass several times. For example, Intimidate has saved me from sweeps by last game Rayquaza, Groudon, and Garchomp. This usually requires sacrificing Salamence, but I still find Intimidate to be a life saver at times.
Higher Base Speed-Unlike Rayquaza, Salamence has 100 base Speed, meaning that it ties with Palkia. This is most significant on Dragon Dance Salamence, because many teams devastated when their only answer to it, Choice Scarf Palkia, loses the Speed tie Otherwise, This actually isn't to major besides revenging unboosted Rayquaza.
No Air Lock- Unlike Rayquaza, Salamence is actually effected by the weather, and this really isn't a good thing IMO. In the rain, you get totally walled by Skarmory, while Kyogre will do way more damage with Surf. In my experience, Salamence prefers the weather to be sunny.
Sets to test
The main thing that I am going to be testing is an Ubers Mixmence as teammate for Rayquaza. I will post some damage calcs on the EV spreads I find later. I have a little bit of experience with this, but I didn't feel that I had enough to include it in the peer edit yet. Salamence also learns Roost unlike Rayquaza, so I might try out some sets with Roost, and see what happens. The main point of this thread will be to explore Salamence's teammates, sets, and other things Salamence is capable of in the Uber metagame. This way, I can finish my analysis of Ubers Salamence this month! If proposing a set to test, I highly recommend that you include damage calculations!