[UU Beta] Dancing on the borderline

[Alan]

Hey, I'm alan, I used to be really into comp mons back in dpp but I started to drift away with gen 5 and I never came back even for BW2. I decided to come back with XY and mega pokemon seemed pretty cool so I'd give it a shot. OU is fun, but it got kind of old seeing Rotom-w, Heatran, Talonflame on every other team and I couldn't wait for UU. So far, I really like the meta, don't really agree with MegaHera getting the boot, but it's not my tier to make.

Right now, UU is a tier absolutely dominated by dark types (especially now without MegaHera being available to counter them). Knock Off is currently the best move in the game, reaching 97,5 base power if it knocks an item off. That's before STAB as well. I wanted to make a team that really utilized that, and since Scarf Staraptor is the best late game sweeper (pretty much just a poor mans CB Talonflame), I wanted those two things to be at the core of my team.

Team-building Process:

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I had already fooled around in UU and found that a) Bisharp rules and b) Crawdaunt is strong as a mugg. I decided since they both get priority and STAB Knock off, I'd throw them on my team as my Dark-typed Knock Off duo. So far they've done their jobs excellently.

As previously mentioned Staraptor is the best late game sweeper, so I added ScarfRaptor.

Originally this team was all dark types and Staraptor (to prove a point about the meta, but I forgot fighting type exists). I noticed my huge fighting weakness and my lack of special attacking. Nidoking seemed like a great answer. Sheer Force LO and it can run a complete moveset and not take recoil. Ground immunity also helped Staraptor and made it a little easier to weed out electrical types.

Obviously, rocks are something you don't want up with Staraptor as the focus of your team, so I took care of it two fold. I added Hitmontop and Empoleon. Hitmontop has great bulk and Technician boosted Mach Punch is good for picking off frail sweepers. It also serves as my Bisharp / Weavile counter, since they are both huge threats this meta. Empoleon is a Kingdra / general water counter. Sets up rocks and if I can, just spam Roar until it dies to rack up as much SR damage as possible to help Raptor sweep. Empoleon also prevents me from being bait to Scolipede and baton pass teams.

Bisharp @ Air Balloon
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Iron Head

Little weird yeah? Well I know Air Balloon is not nearly as good as Choice Band or Life Orb (or probably even Dread Plate) but I'm absolutely wrecked by most thing that set up and have EQ or EP. Having an Air Balloon kind of helps with that. Swords Dance is kind of filler, I might drop it for Brick Break or something so I can threaten other Bisharps and just not be set up bait for other Dark-types and Aggron. Max Attack, Max Speed so I can Knock Off as much as possible. Sucker Punch is for attackers and just as a general last-ditch effort to do damage. Iron Head for STAB and general effectiveness. I have used LO and CB Bisharp before.

Crawdaunt @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 128 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Crabhammer
- Knock Off
- Superpower

Most criminally underrated pokemon in the tier imo. Adaptabilty + Adamant + Choice Band basically has no safe switch-ins. So many people forget about Aqua Jet too. 80 BP Priority with STAB coming off base 120 CB boosted attack trashes teams late games. Also serves as a handy revenge killer. Crabhammer has 200 BP now thanks to adaptability, but that 90% accuracy sometimes comes back to bite you. Knock Off is the key move here though. It's disgusting how much damage this does. Even to resists. Big problem though is with Justified pokes like Cobaloin, Virizon, Keldeo etc. Superpower is basically for those guys I just listed, trying to hit them on the switch. The EVs are a little wierd. I had run 252 HP/ATK for the longest time, but I think it was breh in the UU channel convinced me to run speed investment for Metagross. With the current EVs I reach 178 speed, which outspeeds 4spe neutral metagross (in case any AV users want to outspeed other AV users and stupid "situational" stuff). The rest I just threw into HP for some bulk so that I can switch into restisted attacks and stuff. But yeah, this guy is a wallbreaker and revenge killer and great late game sweeper if anything happens to Raptor, basically my favorite part of this whole team.

Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Double-Edge

Late game sweeper / early game scouter. Scarf base 100 outspeeds tons of thing as you already know, probably. U-turn scouts and lets me keep momentum. Reckless Brave Bird and Double Edge really hurt a lot of things. Close Combat keeps (non-mega) Aggron from freely switching in. Max Atk max Spe to hit as hard and fast as possible. Not a lot to say about this although by now you can probably see how I get wrecked by fighting types.

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Defog
- Stealth Rock
- Scald
- Roar

This is where my team starts to get a little weird. Unfortunately with the Steel nerf, Empoleon is no longer the defensive stalwart it once was. It still resists dragon (important) and water (also important). Even with sniper crit hax, it still doesn't fear Kingdra and it has suprisingly impressive bulk. Able to live lots of non-stabbed SE moves. Max HP/Def compliment it's already naturally impressive special bulk. It won't take hits for days, but it generally has no problem getting rocks up. Scald is for burn chance and some damage so things can't just setup willy nilly. Roar is to prevent BP teams from succeeding and defog is to prevent hazards.

Hitmontop (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Mach Punch
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch

Wierd top set. Assault Vest plus a natural base 110 SpDef goes a pretty long way. It's a good counter to Hydregion and Bisharp. Rapid Spin wasn't originally meant for the set, but I figured it doens't hurt and EQ doesn't really hit that much anyway. Mach Punch for STAB and priority. With Technician it's a servicable move for general spamming as well and I don't have to worry about drops from CC. Stone Edge for Flying type / Psychic switchins. Sucker Punch is mostly for coverage and frail resists that think they can beat me. Max HP just makes it more bulky and since it's only got 50 base HP, it needs all the help it can get. Like Empoleon, it's not going to just switch in to anything, but it has its opportunities.

Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Earth Power

Wallbreaker. Has near perfect coverage and damn good power. Timid Max Spe/SpAtk to do as much damage to as many things as possible. BoltBeam takes care of most of Nidoking's counters and checks. Earth Power 2HKO's standard MegaAggrons. Sludge Wave was more for general coverage just to ease prediction on my part. It's role on the team is to just weaken the other team with powerful hits.

So that's my team. I really enjoy using it. I haven't peaked at #1, I didn't win SPL with it, I didn't revolutionize the metagame. It's just a fun team I threw together, but I still feel like it's missing something. I want to get some input to help take it to the next level. The only two pokemon I really would prefer to not change are Crawdaunt and Staraptor. The rest of the team is fairly disposable as long as I can still meet my win condition (weaken their team and keep Staraptor alive til late). I also have a feeling Koko is gonna quickban Staraptor soon.

If you read this far, thanks. Sorry it's a lot. I don't make RMTs that often and when I do I try to go all out.

 

[watashi]

i'd replace empoleon with mew since your team is really weak to fighting-types and mew is the only pokemon i can think of which checks them well and carries stealth rock (deoxys-d does as well but that's usually used as a suicide lead).

Mew @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost

you could run defog on this as well but you're pretty strapped for move slots and you already have rapid spin support. it doesn't handle kingdra as well as empoleon, but i haven't seed a single kingdra on the ladder and the team's lack of answers to fighting-types is pretty noticeable.

alternatively, you could run nidoqueen with stealth rocks over nidoking and use a different pokemon to check fighting-types

 

[Arkian]

I second FLCL's suggestion of Mew > Empoleon, mostly because it can actually switch into Mega Medicham and not get utterly wrecked, unlike everything else on your team right now.

Another thing is that I highly recommend Life Orb > Air Balloon on Bisharp. The only thing that Air Balloon lets Bisharp beat that it couldn't otherwise is Whirlwind Hippowdon, which really doesn't justify not being able to OHKO Mega Gardevoir and Staraptor with Sucker Punch (the latter after SR).

For crawdaunt you might want to go fir a dd set.

Nah, Crawdaunt doesn't have the bulk to set up at all, and even at +1, it is outsped by a slew of common Pokemon. Choice Band, on the other hand, gives it great revenge killing utility while also letting it nuke everything on the switch with Crabhammer/Knock Off.

Hope this helps Alan.

 

[Alan]

thanks. i actually skipped over mew somehow (i think i was concerned about u-turn) but it definitely seems like a good option. ill give it a try.

yeah dd crawdaunt is cool, (not really), but it serves a much different purpose than what i'm trying to accomplish with my set. appreciate the advice though.

 

[Swamp Link]

I don't like Assault Vest on Hitmontop. It does help with several attackers, but Hitmontop has a low HP stat and higher defensive stats. Because of this, the recovery from Leftovers tends to help its bulk more than the added bulk from Assault Vest. Also, even though spinblockers are less common, Hitmontop really has a lot of difficulty spinning without foresight if the opponent does have Cofagrigus or Jellicent or something.

 

[Patrick1088]

Cool team you have there! With the exception of bisharp its very interesting (no offense but bisharp is everywhere).
1. Hitmontop is okay. Technician boosted mach punch is cool. But have you tried av hitmonlee? It also gets access to mach punch (from a much higher attack stat) and rapin spin. And it has access to knock off which allows it to cripple jellicent and cofagrigus which try to spinblock.
2. I agree with the above guy on switching mew for empoleon. Instant recovery and unpredictability make it a force to be reckoned with. You need a poke that can check fighting types reliably.

My only real issue with this team is that sub mega gard can ohko the entire team with little ease tbh. Empoleon is probably your best bet but its pretty shaky due to focus blast.