Lower Tiers RBY Ubers Hub

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Mons I want to talk about
:y/mew:
The problem with Swords Dance Mew
If you glance at my ALTPL/UWL teamdump you'll see that with Mewtwo, I experimented with a ton of different sets: Barrier, Twave, Amnesia, Explosion, and so on. However with Mew I stuck with the traditional Swords Dance set (I think?) every game, and I felt like it was less useful as the weeks went on. The problem with Swords Dance Mew, compared to older RBY Ubers metas, is that now Mew and Mewtwo are running around spamming Thunder Wave more often than ever. This means it's much harder now for Mew to set up Swords Dance and remain unparalyzed, which heavily hinders its sweeping potential.

I noticed this problem especially with Swords Dance + Thunder Wave + Earthquake + Soft-Boiled Mew. I used to believe that this set was the best Mew set in RBY Ubers, and you could run it alongside Cloydon essentially for free, since Cloyster and Rhydon checked the birds. In a world where Mewtwo still spams Amnesia + 2 Attacks + Recover, you could bring this Mew set in on Mewtwo, paralyze it, then spam soft-boiled until it FPs then get a free boost. Now that you have a boosted unparalyzed Mew staring down a paralyzed Mewtwo, this often forces your opponent out, and if you are in a good enough position you could force progress or even sweep outright. If you try doing this in 2025, Mew and Mewtwo will trade Paralysis, and now your Mew becomes a much less effective progress maker sweeper.

Support Mew
So I genuinely thought this was an original idea and was talking to Ctown6 about it then he linked me to this post where he talked about the same exact mew set THREE YEARS AGO. My idea behind support Mew is that Swords Dance does not let you fit Thunder Wave, Soft-Boiled, and Explosion on the same set. You generally have to give up one, or sometimes two, of these good moves to make room for Swords Dance and your attacking moves. Because of this, I figured why not scrap Swords Dance and run these three + an attacking move (mainly used Psychic). I have described this set to people as an "exploding Chansey". The mon is played like Chansey, generally eats and spreads para, not a great damage output, and sticks around through good bulk + instant reovery. However Chansey is pretty flawed in Ubers largely due to how passive it is and how it allowes Mew/Mewtwo to setup for free. This is where boom is useful, if you need to bail out of Mew/Mewtwo setting up on you, you can explode to gain momentum.

This set fits best on teams that do well in the physical department and appreciate Mew's purpose as more of a defensive backbone than a physical sweeper. Double Normal (Bull + Lax) teams stand out in particular for me. You have enough physical firepower with the Normals so SD Mew alongside them seems like overkill. Running support Mew and playing it more defensively gives you a mon to fall back on and threaten paralysis against special attackers, such as Psychic-types, Zapdos, or Cloyster. You're not bulletproof, of course, but you definitely appreciate the defensive utility. An example of a team Support Mew would NOT be good on is some kind of Mie + Zam team. You have enough twavers and special tanks and would greatly appreciate SD Mew's offensive potential more. My general rule was "the more physical a team is, the less physical Mew's set should be"
:y/zapdos:
Zapdos is not great
Zapdos in OU has two key defining traits: (1) it is a deadly lategame sweeper with Agility and dual STAB, and (2) it has a hard wall in Rhydon. In Ubers, Rhydon is still common and Zapdos is still ass into it. In fact, I'd argue that Zapdos into Rhydon is much worse in Ubers since Zapdos + Tauros is heavily constraining in builder meaning there is a good chance you are not using the Bull. Additionally, Zapdos is not nearly as deadly in Ubers; Mewtwo sits on it (and now with Blizzard > Ice Beam it 2HKOes), and while Mew into Zapdos is a lot shakier it's still hard for Zapdos to break.

One big thing Zapdos (and all other fliers) has is walling Mono-EQ Mew sets. This used to be a very valuable trait and I ranked Zapdos very highly because of it. However as I mentioned in the Mew section I find Swords Dance Mew as a whole to not be as dangerous anymore, to the extent that I don't think it's worth devoting an entire teamslot to walling Mono-EQ Mew when I could instead just Thunder Wave it. This means I don't think Zapdos is an effective sweeper or worth using as a Mew wall, making it hard to justify, especially since Zam and Mie have grown on me as twavers.

Most of my Zapdos hate is towards back Zapdos, though. I think lead Zapdos is still very good, being able to force damage and para and favorable against most leads. Lead Zapdos is fine, but back Zapdos is hard to justify.

Not gonna give it its own section but this does also mean I think Aerodactyl is dead. It's really not worth using an entire teamslot to wall Mew, and on top of that your opp isn't even guaranteed to run lax or SD Mew anymore, meaning Aero might just wall zero mons on your opponent's team. Take your Aerodactyls somewhere else, this is a serious tier.
:y/chansey:
Chansey is underrated (if you play it correctly)
You know that bell curve meme where both the bottom and top of the curve agree while the middle disagrees? That is how I feel about Chansey. People new to RBY Ubers will assume Chansey is good because of the special bulk and "ability to wall Mewtwo", then once you improve at the tier you will see Chansey is not that great since it is passive and doesn't actually wall Mewtwo. However, if you keep playing the tier even more you will realize Chansey indeed has a place, as long as you play it a certain way.

The way I see Chansey is as a sleeper, no different from pokemon like Exeggutor and Jynx. This is different to OU Chansey where Sleep is one of the many things it can do, but not the sole purpose of the mon. If you are using Chansey, use it for sleep. In contrast with Exeggutor, it lacks the offensive pressure, but does not die to Ice moves. This makes it my sleeper of choice against teams that need a little more help with special attackers, with mons like Tauros, Snorlax, Cloyster, and Rhydon. Exeggutor is the better Pokemon most of the time, but Chansey definitely has a place. I especially like pairing it with Lead Tauros since you can turn 1 switch against a lot of leads, mostly the Psychics.

Once complaint I've seen against Chansey is "after landing sleep it's just explosion fodder." This is a good thing though! After Chansey lands sleep it is extremely passive and doesn't do much outside of Thunder Wave. I would much rather have Exeggutor use Explosion on my Chansey than something more valuable, like my Mew or Mewtwo.

If you think Chansey is bad, you are bad.
:y/alakazam:
Alakazam is a great mon
Alakazam has been incredibly disrespected in RBY Ubers for a long time, and I think this mon deserves more respect. Lead Zam is still great, I'd argue as good as OU since it's great at forcing twave. Less Chansey means you are more likely to bait in a turn 1 egg switch, with teammates such as Slowbro, Rhydon, and Mew appreciate. My recent distaste for Zapdos has also made me appreciate Zam more, as I feel it has outdone Zapdos as a twave lead.

Something that I think is extremely underexplored right now in Ubers is back Alakazam. Kinesis Alakazam is genuinely a good Mewtwo answer since you can recover on boosted hits and click Kinesis, stalling it out through misses and FPs. I tried this with Flash Chansey in UWL but it did not work since Flash Chansey had to dodge para to be effective, then I figured if I'm dodging para anyway why not just load Zam, and Kinesis Zam has performed much, much better.

Alakazam is a fantastic mon and is easily a top 10 ubers Pokemon in my opinion.
:y/mewtwo:
Mewtwo
- Amnesia
- Ice Beam
- Barrier
- Recover

It's tempting to blame builder and skill issue as the cause for almost everyone in the UPL pool constantly getting 6-0ed by this guy but genuinely fuck this asshole. I hate this set with a burning passion. It's not fun to use since you don't get to play the game with your mewtwo until you send it in and click 17 setup moves then hope you dodge a few crit booms and sweep. Barrier2 can win games based on matchup. If you don't have a way to stop Mewtwo once it sets up then... gg? But you also can't just bring Chansey/Cloyster/Slowbro to every game so sometimes you just have to accept the loss. This set also brings back the famous "GET MEWTWO PARALYZED SO IT CAN'T BE FROZEN AND YOU CAN PP STALL BETTER" strategy which I'm really upset the meta has drifted back towards it.

Because of how much of a sack of shit this mon is I'm gonna list a ton of ways to counter it so if you think opponent is gonna bring it you can shut them down then laugh in their face as their wincon gets destroyed.

:alakazam: (Kinesis)
:chansey:
:mewtwo: (Recover)
:cloyster::slowbro: :starmie:(Ice only)
:rhydon::golem::sandslash: (Bolt only)
:mew: (SD + Boom)
:tauros: (just crit lmao)
:snorlax::exeggutor: (boom before setup)

But you know what the fun part is? Even if you prep for it and have the perfect counter THIS SHITHEAD CAN STILL FREEZE YOU! ISN'T THAT FUN AND EXCITING GAMEPLAY??? Almost all of these "counters" require some degree of luck (except maybe like cloyster/grounds vs the mono attacking sets). Alakazam has to hit kinesis then dodge moves, chansey/slowbro/mew have to dodge freeze etc.

I still really like RBY Ubers overall as a tier but Barrier2 has made it less enjoyable for me.
 
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