Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Welcome to RMT's first UU team rating competition! In this tournament, we will provide each of you with a team to rate every round. You will then rate the given team and submit it to the Team Raters you are assigned. When the round is over, the participants who submitted the best rates will move on to the next round.
Important notes:
The rates in the final two rounds will count towards the Team Rater
badge and doing well in general will earn you more consideration for it.
The winner will be awarded voice status in the RMT room on PS if they have shown an interest in getting involved (If you are currently an active voice and win, you may be promoted to driver).
Each round will last one week. Failure to rate the team within the one week time period will result in disqualification unless you're able to give us a valid reason. Please only sign up if you can commit to rating one team every week for the next month.
If you are eliminated and would like some feedback on your rate and how you can improve going forward, feel free to ask us.
All participants please PM your rate to IronBullet. You have until 23:59 pm EST on Sunday, 27 March to submit your rate.
Good luck everyone, and here's to a fun and competitive tournament!
The best rate of this round was submitted by Sacri', whose rate was honestly pretty much perfect. His formatting was excellent, he accurately analysed all of the team's weaknesses and his suggestions were spot on. Congrats man!
Here's his rate:
Hey Arifeen, what's good ? Neat offensive team you have got here, however I think we can still improve it ! :]
• I definitively think this team would enjoy using Shuca Berry Defog + SR Empoleon over the set you're currently running. You have three fighting resits, I dont see Chopple being that useful, Shuca allows you to beat Krook and Mamoswine which can both be annoying if played correctly. I do not thing you miss the use of Flash Cannon as you still have Toxicroak in the back to make sure you do not lose to Florges.
• The team is pretty slow for an heavy offense and Hydreigon looks troublesome to deal with, I definitively thing you can afford losing mamo's priority to run Pixie Plate Whimsicott. Whimsicott gives you a fast pivot, which on top of that has a really good offensive presence on the special side. This change also means you don't lose Slurpuff which can straight sweep by setting up versus Salamence. You also get to deal better with Sharpedo and Mega Swampert which are both important threats.
• Aerodacty-Mega is hell of a threat, it just needs some prior damage to straight up win. I really do like Choice Scarf Hydreigon over Gyarados. This set helps vs those threats and give you another Fire check that doesnt mind getting burned as much as gyara does. It also can revenge kill a ridiculous number of threats such as : Whimsicott, Absol, Cobalion, Mega Beedrill, Gyarados at +1, and i'll just end it there even though there are a lot of others.
• Empoleon can defog and the team currently doesnt need Roost + Intimidate to deal with fighting spam as much, that's why I think you should go back to Moxie Dragon Dance Salamence. This change gives you another fantastic win condition vs pretty much every playstyle, thanks to Whimsicott's support you have an easier time to set up which can be deadly with this pokemon as it has the potential to ruin a bunch of teams after just one boost.
Whimsicott @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Energy Ball
- U-turn
- Encore
Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
Options :
• Running Memento Specs Whimsicott could work very well as you have three set up sweepers, you just lose the Encore support which can be deadly vs Slurpuff if your opponent doesnt fear Encore and just sets up versus Hydreigon, same goes to Mega Swampert.
• Intimidate Salamence can work if you wanna combat fighting types or things like Gyarados.
Hope I helped !
He accurately identified the major issues of the team, which only a handful of few raters managed to do: the team was quite slow with a heavy reliance on priority moves to take on speedy threats like Mega Aero, it lacked any sort of pivot to gain momentum for the team, and it was very vulnerable to powerful Dragon-types and Sableye, which only Absol could take on reliably.
His first suggestion was to go with Shuca Berry and Defog over Chople and Flash Cannon on Empoleon. With multiple Fighting resists on the team Chople was not too crucial, while Shuca would enable Empoleon to check the likes of Salamence and Mega Aero easily. A lot of raters made this change, so props for that! Using Defog on Empoleon would free up a slot for Salamence, which we will discuss later. His second change was to replace Mamoswine with Pixie Plate Whimsicott. This was an excellent option that gave the team a fast pivot, a check to Dragon-types, and a way to defeat setup sweepers via Encore. It also provided the team with a way to defeat Swampert and Sableye, two threats which the team would otherwise struggle to break. The team could afford to lose Mamo's priority at this point given the existence of two strong Sucker Punch users in Absol and Toxicroak. He then proposed switching out Gyarados for Choice Scarf Hydreigon. Gyarados was indeed the weak link of this team and didn't really have a defined role. Hydreigon retained its important attributes of resisting Fire and Ground attacks, while providing a more reliable switch to Entei and Chandelure and a way to revenge kill fast threats like Whimsicott, Cobalion, Mega Beedrill and DD Gyara. Whimsicott and Scarf Hydrei overall added some much-needed speed and special attacking power to the team which was severely lacking before.
He also suggested another minor change in going with Moxie DD Lum Berry Salamence over the current set since Defog duties were now handled by Empoleon. This would allow Salamence to lure in and defeat troublesome Fairies that could check Mega Absol with Iron Tail. It also added another great wincon to the team, while Lum Berry provided further insurance against Entei. Finally, Sacri proposed a couple of optional changes which could provide quite a bit of utility to the team: Memento Whimsicott to aid the team's core of setup sweepers, and Intimidate Salamence to soften the blow against Fighting-types. This was overall a very thorough and detailed rate by Sacri, and with his extremely effective suggestions he's the clear winner for this round. Great job man and keep it up!
There really isn't much to add regarding the changes we were looking for since Sacri covered pretty much everything n_n One thing might have been to go for a bulkier Whimsicott since replacing Gyarados did make the team more vulnerable to Fighting-types, but retaining Intimidate Salamence would remedy this.
Overall I think the performance this round was rather average apart from Sacri's and -Magic-'s rates. Only a handful of people identified the team's major issues; some people suggested changes that didn't help the team much at all or went in a completely different direction to what we were looking for. A couple of people also seemed to shy away from making major changes and instead stuck with minor ones. I'd definitely advise you to be more bold in your thinking and analysing of the team's threats. There are some issues with teams that are not apparent at first, for example the lack of speed and pivots in this particular one, which are two attributes that offensive teams really appreciate. Looking at how minor item, moveset and EV spread changes could improve the team is important for sure, but it's also crucial to look at the bigger picture. Of course, all this must be done while keeping in mind the threats that you open up the team to in the process, which some raters seemed to forget! The formatting and structuring of the rates though was largely a major improvement from last round, so well done for that guys.
Congrats to the six who've made it through to the next semis! For those who didn't, once again we sincerely thank you for participating. The competition is getting extremely tight now so don't feel too down about it, you did very well to get this far. As usual, feel free to ask us for feedback and ways in which you can improve going forward :)
So for this team, I wanted to build around Alakazam, the most recent addition to UU. This specific set allows me to hit a large majority of the tier with Alakazam's insane coverage while posing a huge threat to defensive teams with Calm Mind. I did opt for Psychic over Psyshock as it allows me to hit things like Entei a little bit harder. Focus Blast takes out Steel-types and bulky Normal-types like Blissey and Snorlax, while Shadow Ball hits opposing Psychics. The EV spread allows me to survive powerful priority moves such as Entei's Extreme Speed and Doublade's Shadow Sneak, which a lot of teams rely on to take out Alakazam.
Next up on my team was Mega Aerodactyl. Aero forms the second part of my 'offensive core'. The set is fairly standard with two obligatory STABs in Aerial Ace and Stone Edge. Pursuit was added for Mega Beedrill and Alakazam which tend to be annoyances for a large majority of balance teams, while Aqua Tail helps against bulky Ground-types which the team otherwise struggles against. The 40 Defense EVs were added to allow Aero to survive Mamoswine's Ice Shard after Stealth Rock.
Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Def / 56 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Power-Up Punch
Looking at my first two Pokemon in Alakazam and Aerodactyl, I definitely needed to start working on my defensive backbone. This is where Seismitoad comes in to fill a couple of key roles as my Stealth Rock user, Fire-type check, Scald switch-in, and physical wall, helping me counter huge threats like opposing Aerodactyls, Suicune and Enteis. The EV spread is pretty neat, with 200 HP allowing Seismitoad to hit a Leftovers number and the rest in Special Defense to round out its overall bulk. Power-Up Punch allows Seismitoad to beat Suicune one-on-one and pose more of a threat to defensive teams with a couple of boosts.
Next up I added a Defogger. Zapdos is probably one of the best to do it in the tier, so it seemed like an easy choice. The set is pretty standard, with max Speed letting Zapdos outrun anything up to Hydreigon and Zapdos's excellent typing and bulk allowing me to check the likes of Doublade, Lucario, and Stone Edge-less Cobalion. Thunderbolt was chosen over Volt Switch as a powerful STAB attack was necessary for its higher damage output against the likes of CM Suicune and Slowking. Heat Wave provides excellent coverage against Steels and Grass-types, while Roost increases Zapdos's longevity.
Looking at my first four Pokemon, I had a really big weakness to strong special attackers like Hydreigon and Mega Sceptile and Dragon-types in general. Therefore I chose to use Florges, one of the most common Pokemon in UU nowadays and the last part of my defensive backbone. The set is a pretty standard cleric set, with Aromatherapy keeping my team free of status and Wish helping to keep Swampert and Aerodactyl healthy throughout the match.
Escavalier @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 56 Atk / 204 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Drill Run
- Swords Dance
Lastly, I really needed a switch-in to powerful Ice-type moves from the likes Kyurem and Mega Abomasnow, and a Pokemon to threaten bulky Psychic-types which are troublesome to break down. Escavalier provided me with an answer to both and a secondary wallbreaker to aid me in sweeping more defensive teams. Escavalier also makes a fantastic check to many sweepers like Venomoth, Alakazam, Nidoqueen and Shaymin. Megahorn and Iron Head provide two powerful STABs to work with while Drill Run allows Escavalier to defeat Lucario and Cobalion and hit Entei on the switch hard. Swords Dance increases Escavalier's power to terrifying levels, allowing it to easily defeat bulky threats like Porygon2, Cresselia and Snorlax.
Alright so the rates are in, expect the finals to be up by Sunday latest! As usual if you are eliminated feel free to ask for feedback and ways to improve going forward.
