I had a decent team in the Raikou/Froslass era and just after they left, but since that, haven't made a team good enough that I can actually ladder with it. This round is absolutely full of gimmicks, and the popularity of Pokemon changes daily. Somes days, every team features Poliwrath, the next, no team is without Registeel. I guess versatility makes building a solid team much harder.
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NP: UU - Silent Night
- Thread starter reachzero
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On the contrary, I've found team building to be substantially easier this round. At the beginning of last round I couldn't find a solid and consistent team due to all of the "new" threats running around, but towards the middle, I couldn't stop making "good" teams. Same goes for this round, it's just make sure you have a plan, decent synergy, and some kind of brain and you'll surely win. I've been using a CB mesprit because I wanted to try it out and even thats doing decently. I'm honestly not sure if I even want to waste my time on upper reqs again though. I've been laddering, sure, but not as frequently as I have in the past, but I have at least 2 alts on the board as I type. And a little hint guys: surprises go a long way these days. I've been trying to find a good one. Also, surprise =/= gimmick. Make sure it's consistent!
Lol I've run into Jabba's team 3/5 battles and I'm expecting more to come
Just put a leafeon or sceptile on your team, it completely fucks the jabba clones. This is also the reason I haven't made an RMT besides one I made waaay back during Yanmega meta (at which point I wasn't popular enough to rip off). I appreciate that some people steal teams to get a better grasp of the metagame but let's be honest, the majority do it because they want to "win", even though proper teambuilding and iterative testing is probably half the skill in competitive Pokemon.
ive been using mix sceptile (one off the analysis) in this round of UU and it has been very effective with the moves leafstorm/focusblast/EQ/Leafblade with its massive base 120 speed able to outspeed most of UU without a problem and put a dent in anything not named venu/leafeon which makes a suberb late game clean up poke
Yeah, even Ubers is getting more attention than UU now... Come on Heracross, drop down!!
Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. The sad part though, is that no one I've faced uses it very well.
And I agree with Shrang, the ubers ladder was fairly active last night which was surprising to say the least. Oh yeah....and something drop...anything!
The ladder is about as active as it's been from my experience o.O
I have been playing a bit more Standard now though, mostly because the latias-free metagame agrees with me. I'll probably also play more Ubers when I get around to building a serious team (the only reason I play ubers now is to abuse WHHHAAAABUFFFET).
Either way no use bitching about it. I'm still making new teams and playing around with new/underrated sets. Also looking forward to seeing Jynx become UU in the June stats, hehe
I have been playing a bit more Standard now though, mostly because the latias-free metagame agrees with me. I'll probably also play more Ubers when I get around to building a serious team (the only reason I play ubers now is to abuse WHHHAAAABUFFFET).
Either way no use bitching about it. I'm still making new teams and playing around with new/underrated sets. Also looking forward to seeing Jynx become UU in the June stats, hehe
Cool way to attach objective qualifications to a subjective reality bro. I'm personally having much more fun in a metagame when I don't have to play around a constant two layers of spikes and a sweeper that effortlessly runs through its "counters". I'm sorry if you can no longer enjoy yourself because abusing the suspects to get easy wins is no longer allowed, but if you want to play an unbalanced metagame just get on the Ubers ladder! And have fun waiting 10 minutes for a game because people got tired of seeing Kyogre on 60% of teams and stopped laddering.
We derive objective truths through testing; balance is an objective criteria we derive through suspect tests. Last suspect test we decided there were no suspects, which is the definition of a balanced metagame. Until we make up "charateristics of a fun metagame" and start making up "fun tests" it will remain a subjective term, while "balanced" in this case is not.
funny how we achieve a balanced metagame people have been trying to get too for over a year, and people complain it's boring. Just to rub salt in the wound, black and white comes out soon and it's gonna mess up all the work we did. And then people will complain about an unbalanced metagame.
Seriously, stop complaining. There is no middleground. Either we play this way, or we throw staraptor/cressilia/honchkrow back in UU. Seriously. And if you'r complaining about creativity, go use a 4-fires team like me, or I could go use my mono-fighting (both of which are succesfull).
Seriously, stop complaining. There is no middleground. Either we play this way, or we throw staraptor/cressilia/honchkrow back in UU. Seriously. And if you'r complaining about creativity, go use a 4-fires team like me, or I could go use my mono-fighting (both of which are succesfull).
It's still subjective, since it is the collection of opinions. However, you're right, we shouldn't be arguing on whether "balanced" is subjective or not.
I do find that the metagame has become quite stale though, and the activity of the forum and the ladder shows this. I have about 45 UU teams (And counting) where I'm just testing random shit, and it's just gotten to the point where I'm just like "You know what, I've had enough, I am bored to hell".
I do find that the metagame has become quite stale though, and the activity of the forum and the ladder shows this. I have about 45 UU teams (And counting) where I'm just testing random shit, and it's just gotten to the point where I'm just like "You know what, I've had enough, I am bored to hell".
Only just joined UU laddering recently, and been trying some pokes that I've always liked even if they aren't that popular or in NU.
Been finding some relative success with an Offensive Calm Mind Espeon though it severely struggles against anything physical (which is sadly a lot of things), faster (usually choice scarfs) or named Registeel.
Also been trying a Drapion lead. He works about 50% of the time, but is a good bulky taunt lead thanks to it's resistences. Plus it's a natural sucker for EQ which, unless well predicted, gives me a free switch. Of course, the well-predicted bit is why it's only 50% successful...and venusaur is so popular the toxic spikes often don't get a chance to rack up damage.
Been finding some relative success with an Offensive Calm Mind Espeon though it severely struggles against anything physical (which is sadly a lot of things), faster (usually choice scarfs) or named Registeel.
Also been trying a Drapion lead. He works about 50% of the time, but is a good bulky taunt lead thanks to it's resistences. Plus it's a natural sucker for EQ which, unless well predicted, gives me a free switch. Of course, the well-predicted bit is why it's only 50% successful...and venusaur is so popular the toxic spikes often don't get a chance to rack up damage.
i was trying a stall team, but toxic spikes aren´t working that well since there are poison types everywhere (venusaur is everywhere at least) has anyone been really succesful with a stall team, also, do you think running scyther+swellow is viable?, since really if you want that spikes support the rapid spin and a spin blocker you have already filled 5 out of 6 party members
I'm running stall atm (ooooh shocking), and Venusuar isn't really a problem when almost everything on your team can beat it 1-on-1. Once it dies, those Spikes are going right back up. Once the T-Spikes absorber comes in, they have to actually do something to the Pokemon setting them up or whatever it is they're coming in on. In the meanwhile, my opponent gets his entire team poisoned and can't do shit about it. :)
Yeah I mentioned Venusaur as the problem, but what the problem is is actually Venusaur, Venomoth, Muk, Toxicroak, Drapion, Nidoking and Nidoqueen. I seem to always run into one or the other unless they run rapid spin instead.
Still, Drapion as my spiker typically gets a second or third chance to put up the spikes. But I'm wondering if perhaps he would be better suited in the middle of the team for when I have gotten rid of the poison absorbers? But he does work really really well as a bulky, yet somewhat speedy, taunter.
Oh and speaking of Toxicroak: that thing, in the hands of someone on a roll with predictions, can do exceptionally well.
One solution is to just nix Toxic Spikes in favor of a good Toxic staller or two. Use something that can poison stuff and beat Venusaur (i.e. not Milotic) as part of your team. Also, while I don't think Swellow or Scyther on a stall team is a good idea, Rhyperior can wall, set up SR, and do massive damage at the same time, so it might fill the spot you're looking for. Using pokemon who are able to fulfill their stall role and still pose a threat is a good way to make your stall team more robust, since it allows you to wear down the opponent's team even if you aren't perfectly successful getting your entry hazards up. Just off the top of my head, pokemon who can wall, support, and cause damage with one set:
Rhyperior (high attack + SR)
Miltank (Curse + Heal Bell)
Altaria (DD + Heal Bell)
Spiritomb (CM + Spin Blocking)
Steelix (Explostion + SR)
If you have your support options covered already, you can just look for pokemon that can both wall and cause damage, which is a longer list. You wouldn't want to look for this in all of your stall members, since you probably still need some of the pokemon like Chansey or Registeel who are offensively feeble. However, putting some oomph into your stall team makes it perform better when you can't rely on your hazards, not to mention when faced with Taunt. Just make sure any pokemon whose offensive presence you desire also fulfills a defensive role - otherwise you'll have trouble getting in to do damage when it plays alongside stuff like Chansey (this is why I wouldn't recommend Swellow or Scyther).
Using Toxic stallers instead of Toxic Spikes is a similar philosophy, really, perhaps even to a greater extent. It may not be as overwhelming on a good day, but it actually works on a bad day. I prefer things that work that way, because the players you really want to beat aren't going to let it be easy.
This all isn't to say that SJCrew's strategy of loading your team with Venusaur counters can't work either. It strikes me as risky, though.
I've seen a lot of Toxicroak, and I honestly haven't seen it do anything remotely threatening. It's not very fast or powerful and there are way too many UUs that can put it out of commission before it attempts to sweep with SD or NP. I can see it being a good rain-killer or sub-abuser, but most offensive teams will have multiple strong answers for it that will prevent it from doing much of anything.
Toxicroak isn't particularly threatening against faster offensive teams, but it does a huge number on bulky offense and balance, balance especially because toxicroak shits all over milo/steel/venu while packing priority for the frailer sweepers. I include Toxicroak and Spiritomb in pretty much every semi-serious team I make just because Toxicroak is capable of shutting down Balance and Stall nearly completely by itself (just needs a WoW absorber paired with it) and Spiritomb checks an insane amount of offensive threats.
I run balanced and I have little trouble with NP Croak, milotic can do 25% with ice beam in a pinch, swellow revenges. Subpunch is a lot esier, it sets up a sub against nothing (it has trouble eating omaster ice beams on the switch) and gets roared out by donphan.
It's only broken if it uses SUBSTITUTE!
It's only broken if it uses SUBSTITUTE!
LOL, I've inadvertently made entire teams that counter Venusuar. Without Sleep Powder, it's just another UU. In this instance, the beauty of stall is when Venusuar gets all happy because it put something to sleep that walls it completely, only to face down one of two more Pokemon it can't do anything about, leaving it to either die or switch out. What a pussy.
Let's nominate Vileplume as a suspect next, lol.
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