DPP UU Screen, Sub, and Sweep! (UU RMT Peaked #1)

Nas

Banned deucer.
Screen, Sub, and Sweep



Introduction:

Hey everyone! With the introduction of Cresselia and Porygon-Z in UU and the parting of Gallade and Honchkrow the whole tier has been in disarray. At first stall seemed the superior team choice as its two main counters were gone, but then Porygon-Z started giving it problems with its seemingly unstoppable Nasty Plot Set. Offensive teams which used to dominate only a few weeks ago were stopped in their tracks by the “Great Wall of UU,” Cresselia. After only a few days of this the entire UU community was demanding Cresselia’s immediate banning from UU, as it could wall a significant portion of the tier with little effort, while being a pain in the ass to remove. Now that the dust has settled, we’ve found that Cresselia is actually set up on by many pokemon, such as Mismagius, Drapion, Absol, etc, and the metagame is returning to a (somewhat) calmer state.

I started off using a stall team like a lot of people were doing, and Cresselia proved to be a cool addition as a physical wall/late game CM sweeper. However, against other stall teams it was basically a 50/50 chance of winning, so I sought to build a team that could deal with stall and offense.

This team was originally inspired by Philip’s dual screen OU team that he used in the 3rd botw, and I thought the same could work for UU. Once screens are up, all of my pokemon are incredibly hard to take down and they can usually boost up behind a sub undisturbed. My main three sweepers (Missy, Cress, PZ) all share the same counters so if one fails in their attempted sweep, they’ll have likely eliminated/crippled their counter in the process so I have an easier time sweeping next time round. You might notice that all my sweepers are special attackers, which would usually prove to be a problem when facing the likes of Chansey, but in fact I specifically chose them based on their ability to actually beat the common special walls of UU. Another element that may have played a part in this team’s success is its defensive capabilities. Should I be forced to sacrifice Uxie before it can set up screens I don’t just have 5 brittle sweepers that can’t take any hits, as Registeel and Milotic (along with Cresselia) form a solid defensive core. This team peaked at #1 on the UU ladder with a CRE of 1678, before I got sick of the metagame and stopped laddering it.

Team Building Process

For my team, I looked at pokemon that could have an easy time sweeping with screens up. I wanted them to have good synergy and work together to break down the opponent’s core and then get a clean sweep. Porygon Z was my first choice as I knew how powerful it was with a NP under its belt.

Mismagius was a good check to opposing Cresselia and Porygon-Z and could take the fighting attacks directed at my own Porygon, so I added her next.

I had faced a team earlier that used a CM/Sub Cresselia that was an absolute nightmare for my stall team, and seeing how well he worked with the other members of my team he became a solid choice I never regretted.

I looked at what I had so far and saw that I was in danger of being swept by opposing PZ/Cress/Mismagius, so looking over the UU list I found Registeel and added him to my team to deal with them. I thought I’d use CroSteel to absorb sleep powders and sweep late game.

I opted for another special tank in Milotic to provide a solid counter to the ever present Moltres, and should Registeel die an early death Milo provided a good back up to Cress and PZ.

Now all I was missing was a screener and a rocker, so Uxie was the obvious choice.

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In-Depth

Uxie @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Hp/20 Def/236 Spd
Impish Nature
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Stealth Rock
-U -Turn

Description:
Uxie starts off the match by (hopefully) netting me an early advantage with SR and screens. While it may seem to be wishful thinking to expect my opponent to grant me three turns of set up, there’s usually nothing they can do about it. Amazing defenses coupled with a respectable speed stat of 95 allow this Uxie to beat almost all of the common UU leads. Against Taunt leads like Froslass and Alakazam I’ll always U-Turn first to break their sashes and go to the appropriate counter, but when it comes to Ambipom it becomes a little trickier. I’ll usually switch to Registeel on the first turn, and depending on whether or not they take life orb damage I can make the appropriate move. If they are Life Orbed, it’s likely that they don’t have Taunt, so it’s safe to switch back to Uxie on the Low Kick and set up. If I don’t see recoil, then I can either stay in and Iron Head with Registeel as they likely Taunt or U-Turn, or I can switch to Cresselia and get some damage in/scout their Cress counter.

Moveset, EVs, Nature:
The given speed EVs allow Uxie a speed stat of 285, enough to outspeed all positive natured base 80’s. This can come in handy if I need to get a quick Reflect up against a Venusaur or Kabutops out of the rain, as they can both be problematic for this team. (Venusaur not so much, but Kabutops is very threatening) However, because of the lack of Venusaurs I’ve been facing, I’m thinking of lowering it down to just enough to outspeed Absol. The rest of the EVs were dumped into HP and defense so as to stay as bulky as possible.


Mismagius (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Hp/252 SpAtk/252 Spd
Timid Nature
-Nasty Plot
-Shadow ball
-HP Ground
-Substitute

Description:
Nasty Plot Mismagius has been known to sweep teams clean after its counters have been removed, but under dual screen support Missy has the potential to 6-0 the opponent right off the bat. Its usual counters in Drapion, Spiritomb and Steelix are all destroyed by +2 Missy. Only CB Drapion can really hurt Missy while screens are up and he is easily OHKO’d by Hidden Power Ground. Max Hp/Max SpDef Impish Steelix takes a minimum of 76% from Hidden Power Ground, an easy 2hko. Spiritomb’s Shadow Sneak only manages a pitiful 23.7% - 28.2%, while Sucker Punch is too risky should I set up a Sub or Nasty Plot again. (which I usually do) As you can see, Missy’s usual counters are demolished with little effort, and those pokemon usually serve as the teams Cress/Porygon-Z counter as well. Because Missy so easily gets rid of these pokemon, aiding PZ and Cress, she’ll usually be the first I send out after screens are up.

Moveset, EVs, Nature:
The EVs are straightforward really; 252 Sp.Atk maximizes the damage output, while max speed ensures I at worst tie with other base 105’s. When making the moveset, Nasty Plot and Shadow Ball were given. Calm Mind takes too much time to do to little, as the Sp.Def boosting is completely unnecessary on this fast paced team. I chose HP Ground to deal with Drapion and Steelix, two of Mismagius’s biggest counters, and Thunderbolt was no longer necessary with Honchkrow gone anyway. The last slot was going to go to either Taunt or Substitute, and although I was originally attracted to the idea of shutting down Encore Clefable and friends, I decided Substitute was better overall for setting up on weaker attacks and blocking status.

Trying these Changes:

Taunt over Encore. While I become more vulnerable to Sucker Punch revenge kills, Taunt is useful for shutting down Encore users, specifically Clefable, who can be very annoying due to its Toxic immunity and respectable defenses.


Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Hp/40 Def/216 Spd
Timid Nature
-Calm Mind
-Psychic
-HP Ground
-Substitute

Description:
I’ve taken a lot of shit from random noobs who flame me about using Cress when it is so broken, but I hate to say they’re kind of right. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s broken, but it can definitely be destructive with the right support. To put this very simply; Cress under screens just doesn’t die. How many times I’ve subbed up under screens and proceeded to CM up to +6 while my opponent fruitlessly tries to break my subs, I have no idea. The ability to set up on, and defeat its counters with little effort is something that can be said for very few pokemon. For example, under screens, an Adamant CB Drapion’s Crunch will only deal 31.1% - 36.9%, a 4hko with leftovers. Meanwhile, a +1 HP Ground will deal 53.9% - 63.8% back, a 2hko. This goes for most of its counters, Registeel, Spiritomb, and Chansey are all beaten. If that’s not a good enough reason to use a poke, I don’t know what is.

Moveset, EVs, Nature:
I stayed with the Substitute+boosting move+2 attacks set that Mismagius and Porygon-Z use, because it works. The only trouble I had for this set was figuring out what move to use alongside psychic. In the end I went for Hidden Power Ground because it deals with the steel types that resist Psychic, as well as nailing Drapion for SE damage. Because of Cresselia’s natural bulk, I figured I could lay off the defensive EVs and dump some into speed. 216 EVs in speed allow me to outpace +base 80’s, a number that I like to go for on all my sweepers. I wanted meaty subs that could withstand a Seismic Toss from Chansey, and although I only needed 92 EV’s to achieve that, I just dumped all 252 to maximize overall defenses.


Porygon Z @ Leftovers
Ability: Download
EVs: 4 Def/252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd
Timid Nature
-Nasty Plot
-Tri Attack
-Dark Pulse
-Substitute

Description:
Goodnight stall, Porygon-Z is here! Yes, the sole reason that I haven’t lost to ANY stall team while using this team is probably because of PZ and the huge threat he poses to stall. While under screens Spiritomb can’t hope to break Porygon’s subs, so it poses no threat at all. Other than that there’s nothing that can stand up to this beast on the standard stall team, so it’s usually gg. (For some reason people say that Chansey counters PZ, but that’s nowhere near true. All it can do is Seismic Toss me while I boost up, and then it is 2hko’d)

Moveset, EVs, Nature:
Sub/Plot is probably the best Porygon-Z set I’ve ever used. With Substitute, PZ is able to avoid being crippled by status users such as Chansey, Cresselia, Spiritomb, etc, and easily wins against Sucker punch users such as Absol and Spiritomb. Also, due to PZ’s not to shabby HP stat, his substitutes can actually withstand some weaker attacks with dual screen support, allowing for easy set up. For EVs, I was considering bulking him up with some HP investment, but decided that without Life Orb his attacks needed all the power they could get. The reason I’m running max speed Timid is because I need to beat all those pokemon that hang around the base 80 range, like Venusaur, Kabutops, Adamant Arcanine, and Modest Moltres. (and tying with Timid Tres)


Milotic (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 Hp/40 Spd/216 Sp.Def
Calm Nature
-Surf
-HP Grass
-Toxic
-Recover

Description:
I figured that 3 sweepers would suffice, so I decided to start patching up the teams weaknesses with a solid 1-2 punch core. Milotic got the first slot as it functions very well as a special sponge, and with a significant EV investment he can even take boosted attacks from Porygon-Z and Cresselia, as well as function as a reliable Moltres counter. This pokemon gives me an automatic advantage against Rain Dance teams; their ONLY way of dealing with Milo is Kabutops. With all those special defense EV’s Milo can shrug off Ludicolo’s Energy Balls and Omastar’s HP Grass and effectively neuter them with a Toxic or HP Grass. (Toxic for Ludicolo and HP Grass for Omastar)

Moveset, EVs, Nature:
I’ve used specially defensive Milotic once before and was astounded as how well it functions as a special sponge, and in this specially based metagame its usefulness is unlimited. The decline in Venusaur usage helps immensely, as I now don’t have to waste a moveslot on Ice Beam and can run HP Grass to deal with Omastar, Kabutops, and Quagsire more efficiently. The EV spread is simple; I was just going to run max HP/SpDef but put 40 EVs in speed to get the jump on slower Cresselia, poisoning them before they can throw up a Sub.


Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Hp/40 Atk/216 Sp.Def
Careful Nature
-Curse
-Iron Head
-Rest
-Sleep Talk

Description:
Registeel pairs well with Milotic, absorbing the Grass and Electric attacks that are pitched against it. Another Porygon-Z and Cress counter can never hurt either, so what the hell. The decline in Venusaur usage was also met by a similar decrease in Arcanine usage, making a Curse Registeel set possible. (Try using this set in the previous metagame, lol) Essentially, Registeel is my sleep absorber and special wall early to midgame, and he functions as a great late game sweeper when its counters have been removed.

Moveset, EVs, Nature:
This is your standard CroSteel, so there’s not much to say here. Max HP, 216 Sp.Def and a Careful nature allows for great special tanking, and since I have Curse to boost my Defense there`s no need to bother with Defense EV`s. This moveset is always incredibly hard to stop if you lack a powerful Ground, Fighting, or Fire type, but while under Screens, this thing just doesnt die.


Conclusion:

Well, it has been fun using this team and abusing the confused state UU has been in. (while it lasted anyway) This’ll probably be the last UU RMT I post in a while, because I’m going to be starting up in OU again, I seriously can’t stand this metagame. Nevertheless, feel free to suggest any fixes that can make the team better.
 
Hey RT. very nice team, and congrats on the number one status.

It's a very solid team, so i'll just make a suggestion regarding PZ. Have you considered using a Bulky NP set? I used it on my own Screen team to great success. Once under screens i have found it to be near unstoppable.

Porygon Z @ Leftovers
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 HP/82 Sp.Atk/176 Spd
Timid Nature
-Nasty Plot
-Tri Attack
-Dark Pulse
-Recover
 
Really nice team here RT. In my opinion this is a sort of anti-stall team as you have three sweepers which basically run through stall (especially under dual screens!). These teams work really well in UU atm I have found because Offense isn't having a lot of fun now cresselia is here (Swellow 3hkos it). Don't really have much advice but maybe watch out for Moltres with spikes support (which it often has) because milotic is a rather shaky counter then but it's not like you can't revenge kill it with mismagius anyway.

Overall great team RT.
 
Porygon Z @ Leftovers
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 HP/128 Sp.Atk/176 Spd
How did you manage to get 556 EVs? (just jokes)

Anyway, on to the actual rate.

Obviously this is a great team, as you reached #1 (though you never beat me and we only played once with your DS team). There are a few minor things I would change though. This is one of those teams that will plow through the ladder, because if you are on auto-pilot, you won't be ready for this team at all.

I see Absol and other Dark-types as a bit of a problem as you use Mismagius and Cresselia (especially Absol since it isn't weak to Ground).

Firstly, I recommend changing up your Cresselia a little bit so that you are less Absol-weak. Signal Beam is probably a better option over Hidden Power Ground, because while you can still hit Drapion for neutral, you can now hit Absol. Additionally, I recommend you just leave 92 EVs in HP for the 101 Substitute, and add the rest in SpA so that you can OHKO Absol with Signal Beam after Stealth Rock and a Calm Mind.

Second, I would probably change up your Registeel up a bit since it is pretty well bait for anything with a special Fire-type attack (Moltres in particular, who you will have trouble holding off even with Milotic who can be 2HKOed with Spikes). You can still use Curse if you want, but I'd add something to hit Moltres with if possible, such as Rock Slide. Rest / Curse / Iron Head / Rock Slide sounds fine.

All in all, great team.
 

Nas

Banned deucer.
How did you manage to get 556 EVs? (just jokes)

Anyway, on to the actual rate.

Obviously this is a great team, as you reached #1 (though you never beat me and we only played once with your DS team). There are a few minor things I would change though. This is one of those teams that will plow through the ladder, because if you are on auto-pilot, you won't be ready for this team at all.

I see Absol and other Dark-types as a bit of a problem as you use Mismagius and Cresselia (especially Absol since it isn't weak to Ground).

Firstly, I recommend changing up your Cresselia a little bit so that you are less Absol-weak. Signal Beam is probably a better option over Hidden Power Ground, because while you can still hit Drapion for neutral, you can now hit Absol. Additionally, I recommend you just leave 92 EVs in HP for the 101 Substitute, and add the rest in SpA so that you can OHKO Absol with Signal Beam after Stealth Rock and a Calm Mind.

Second, I would probably change up your Registeel up a bit since it is pretty well bait for anything with a special Fire-type attack (Moltres in particular, who you will have trouble holding off even with Milotic who can be 2HKOed with Spikes). You can still use Curse if you want, but I'd add something to hit Moltres with if possible, such as Rock Slide. Rest / Curse / Iron Head / Rock Slide sounds fine.

All in all, great team.
I'm a little bit reluctant to use Signal Beam on Cresselia, reason being that Steelix and Registeel will wall me without HP Ground. At least with HP Ground I can still hit Absol for neutral damage, whereas without it I can't hope to hit bulky steels. However I'll try 92 Hp/200 Sp.Atk/216 Spd, as it can 2hko Absol with HP ground after one CM and SR.

On the subject of Registeel, I've been looking for a set that counters Raikou more effectively, as I've had some troubles with Raikou that manage to get a few CM's up. I'm thinking of just changing it to a basic Iron Head/Earthquake/Explosion/Thunder Wave set. Thunder Wave is, in my opinion, a better choice to deal with Moltres because Rock Slide is basically useless against any team without Tres, so I think that crippling it with Thunder Wave should be good enough.

By the way, were you on an alt when I faced you? I only ever remember facing you with my stall team, I don't think I played you with this team.
 

franky

aka pimpdaddyfranky, aka frankydelaghetto, aka F, aka ef
is a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
Sup RT,

Yeah so this was the offensive team with dual screen support, but with a two-punch core, I thought it was screens and + 5 sweepers. Anyways, the only tweak I would probably recommend is a bulky Porygon spread. I'm thinking somewhere along outpacing base 80s or base 85s and dumping the surplus to HP. 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe with a Timid nature or 80 HP / 252 SpA / 176 Spe. With screen support, the stuff that will be outpacing you will be doing little damage to you for the most part. I don't think you'll be losing much from this as most threats faster than you are handled by your one-two punch core. With Milotic's EVs, I don't think Timid Moltres will be a huge problem. Modest versions are outpaced.

I would defenitely keep the Curse set for Registeel. Without screen support its deadly enough as it is and with support I could imagine it being a mission to take down. Like you said, Cresselia/Milotic handles most stuff that troubles Registeel. The only evident change I would go for is Earthquake over Sleep Talk. Allows you to strike Houndoom, Blaziken, and Arcanine for super effective damage. Now the best idea would be going to Milotic, but in certain situations where you must attack, it will come in handy. As an added bonus, you can hit raikou hard too (something difficult I would imagine without dual screens down).

As for other options, reverting to taunt on Mismagius would probably be best. Allows you to effectively combat with stall teams and prevent someone like Cresselia from further boosting its spd stat. But most importantly, it prevents Clefable and Chansey from ruining you with Encore or Thunder Wave respectively. I have used a similar team like this and found that Encore is a problem to Cresselia, Porygon, and Mismagius. Taunt will allow you to swing the momentum to your favor and it scares away Encore users. Although take note dat your prone to Sucker Punch users, but thats the only exchange for handling stall teams mainly. With Reflect support, Im pretty positive Mismagius can survive. overall gl.
 

Nas

Banned deucer.
Thanks for the rate Franky. I laddered the team a bit with Taunt Mismagius, Bulky Porygon-Z, and Franky's Registeel, and some issues I saw were:

Though being able to beat other CroSteel and random Fire types is great, I found that Registeel really needs to be able to boost while sleeping, otherwise I'm basically a sitting duck for two turns. Also, teams with Sleep inducers gave me some trouble as I need all six members of my team to be functioning. Overall, I'm probably going to just stick with the original set.

Even though Substitute can block status as well as Taunt, Taunt has been useful for shutting down stat boosters and Encore users so I'm leaning towards making that a permanent change.

Bulky Porygon-Z didn't really make the cut, I found I needed the max speed to tie with Timid Moltres, which is becoming increasingly more popular. Besides, the 80 Hp EV's didn't really help me survive anything I couldn't before.

Keep the rates coming. :)
 
Hey, thanks for the nod in the OP! I just wanted to suggest running Modest 252 Spa Cress with HP Fighting and Shadow Ball over your current set. I have been using that in UU, and it has been destroying everything, even 2HKOing some Chanseys at +6. I think behind screens, you'll find that set will be able to sweep through most teams by itself. Good job with the team so far, and good luck in the future!
 
Have you considered using a second dual screener? Right now you have 3 setup Pokemon to one dual screener, so it's not easy to get screen backup for all three of them. A second dual screener can still function as a defensive wall to some extent as well.

In concrete terms it'd be to drop either Registeel or Milotic (probably Milotic), move Cresselia from SubCM to dual screens, and then use a second SubCM sweeper like Raikou.
 

Nas

Banned deucer.
Hey, thanks for the nod in the OP! I just wanted to suggest running Modest 252 Spa Cress with HP Fighting and Shadow Ball over your current set. I have been using that in UU, and it has been destroying everything, even 2HKOing some Chanseys at +6. I think behind screens, you'll find that set will be able to sweep through most teams by itself. Good job with the team so far, and good luck in the future!
That sounds interesting, though the lack of stab might hurt on some occasions. I'll get to testing that asap.

Have you considered using a second dual screener? Right now you have 3 setup Pokemon to one dual screener, so it's not easy to get screen backup for all three of them. A second dual screener can still function as a defensive wall to some extent as well.

In concrete terms it'd be to drop either Registeel or Milotic (probably Milotic), move Cresselia from SubCM to dual screens, and then use a second SubCM sweeper like Raikou.
A second Dual Screener is not necessary, 8 turns of screens is more than enough for my pokes to do their jobs. And in a lot of cases, Uxie survives to set them up again, if I ever need them. Replacing Milotic would open me up to Fire types, especially Moltres, and would ruin the defensive synergy the team has.
 

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