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Metagame Almost Any Ability UU
- Thread starter BoingK
- Start date
yo, uu teamdump incoming. unfortunately almost all of these teams are outdated, but I'd like to dump what I have anyway. if i feel like it i may edit in metagame thoughts later but not feeling it rn
TEAMDUMP
W1 vs shadow079 (W) - Zamazenta-Crowned BO (outdated)
W2 vs 5Dots (W) - Specs Azelf BO (outdated)
W3 a fairy vs Osake (L) - Spidops Webs Hyper Offense (outdated)
W4 vs Ren (L) - TalonWing Pivot Spam (outdated)
W5 vs tbp (W) - Monkey Pivot Spam
Our semis team was made by ghastly, you can see it in the above post
TEAMDUMP
W1 vs shadow079 (W) - Zamazenta-Crowned BO (outdated)
Week 1 was essentially getting a feel for the tier. Hydreigon + Slither Wing was very much an offensive core I wanted to run, and I think I was always going to be running Meloetta Week 1 for its excellent bulk, despite having an awkward typing into the metagame. However this left my team pitifully weak to Hydreigon (this is going to be a common theme), and naturally Fezandipiti was the answer. It was at this point I remembered the existence of Flash Cannon. Ghastly suggested Babiri Berry as a one-time emergency button into it. The team was rounded out with Donphan for general physical utility, and hazard setting/control, while Zamazenta was slapped on as a mon with great defensive utilty and lategame potential. The Zamazenta should be Heavy Slam, however I forgot about its existence in the run-up to this game. It was also originally going to be a Metagross, but Ghastly talked me into using the dog.
In the match, we loaded into Webs, and my gameplan eventually just turned into trying to get Webs off, made very difficult by the fact we dropped Knock on our Donphan, making it very useless into Balloon Chandelure. I did manage to get a few turns right however, which let me spin and win with Zamazenta, while Slither Wing also put in a great shift.
In the match, we loaded into Webs, and my gameplan eventually just turned into trying to get Webs off, made very difficult by the fact we dropped Knock on our Donphan, making it very useless into Balloon Chandelure. I did manage to get a few turns right however, which let me spin and win with Zamazenta, while Slither Wing also put in a great shift.
W2 vs 5Dots (W) - Specs Azelf BO (outdated)
The idea here is to click U-Turn as many times as possible. Specs Azelf is a very nasty breaker thanks to its excellent natural speed tier, and has a little bit of a surprise factor since Scarf is still the more standard set thanks to its amazing utility into offense. However, you'll find yourself clicking Knock and U-Turn a LOT, making progress into all teams, and getting Vests off for nasty endgame positions. Barraskewda is here to do Barraskewda things (namely killing everything), and is notably Sword of Ruin here - this gives it a better Close Combat, but it is only really not Primordial Sea because the star of the team, Archaludon, mandates it to work. Archaludon was mainly stupid for its ability to accumulate boosts in front of everything due to its amazing bulk, and we didn't really have any good DesoLanders or immunities to stop it. Unfortunately, I myself was weak to bridges, which caused me to make the most copium Slither set of all time - it is able to 2hko most Arch variants, and also acts as a stopgap to Inteleon and Barraskewda (resists Fighting + Dark/Ground, the most common coverage Barra was running). With this much special investment, Slither is able to live some ridiculous hits, most importantly taking less than 50 from +1 Electro Shot and living Specs Azelf Expanding Force out of PsyTerrain.
In the game, I literally just clicked pivot moves and it worked. Archaludon was also able to 1v1 a VA Mandibuzz and that was probably a sign for it to go LOL
In the game, I literally just clicked pivot moves and it worked. Archaludon was also able to 1v1 a VA Mandibuzz and that was probably a sign for it to go LOL
W3 a fairy vs Osake (L) - Spidops Webs Hyper Offense (outdated)
Unfortunately, I dodged osake, but in my place a fairy played very competently. Spidops is a very bulky setter, and is always able to get up webs. Two (admittedly not very bulky) Ghost types are able to spinblock and keep them up for most of the game - Hoopa's Prankster allows it to setup some nasty situations where a PrankBond will remove an important piece from play for the opponent, and also trades very favourably into offensive pieces if Webs don't stay up. Polteageist is very defensive, being able to live a Choice Band Sword Of Ruin Terrakion Stone Edge, which is absolutely ridiculous. After that it intends to Smash and win, but that requires any Mandibuzz or Meloetta to be removed, preferably by Hoopa. Terrakion takes advantage of the various Fluffy Grounds with Levitate, using free turns to get many Dances up and start punching holes, Glimmora is here as an emergency spinner and way to smack things hard. Talonflame is a notably bad matchup, so we stuck a Zamazenta on with Stone Edge, to outspeed and guarantee the kill.
In the game, a fairy played very well, but got pretty unlucky with a flinch to stop webs going back up after they had been removed once, and a crit on Zamazenta as it setup in front of osake's Donphan. Those are odds you have to play against with HO, but regardless it was a bit sad to see a friend who otherwise played fine have two wincons taken away from her.
In the game, a fairy played very well, but got pretty unlucky with a flinch to stop webs going back up after they had been removed once, and a crit on Zamazenta as it setup in front of osake's Donphan. Those are odds you have to play against with HO, but regardless it was a bit sad to see a friend who otherwise played fine have two wincons taken away from her.
W4 vs Ren (L) - TalonWing Pivot Spam (outdated)
This week I wanted to run Talonflame becos I thought it would give me a good matchup into Webs, which I was semi expecting from Glory (little did I know Fc was building). I had by now decided that in this tier you need to be clicking U-Turn as much as possible, and so to match I slapped a Slither Wing on (shocker) - this one is Long Reach and is my preferred ability on Slither, giving it as much damage as possible into the Fluffy Pokemon with either CC into the Fluffy Grounds or Flare Blitz into Fluffy Fez. Latias acts as a lategame bulky wincon as well as the team's Barraskewda check, Rotom brings fast pivoting and disruption to the table, Palossand checks Slither and Terrak in one while bringing utility in PrankBond to the table, and Fezandipiti is only here for Hydreigon.
In game I did actually load into Webs, but I got a few turns wrong and didn't have enough turns to win as a result.
In game I did actually load into Webs, but I got a few turns wrong and didn't have enough turns to win as a result.
W5 vs tbp (W) - Monkey Pivot Spam
Think it is fairly obvious at this point that I was running out of steam for building (not just with AAAUU, but with singles in general), so I decided to revists an idea from before - Specs Azelf. I decided to pair it with Terrakion (becos why not), and I also paired it with Infernape. LO Infernape is an interesting proposition, because it's faster than a lot of the tier's cast, notably however slower than Azelf, Ogerpon, and Latias. However, in return, you get an extremely powerful mixed breaker (Overheat in the Sun ohkos a lot of the Fluffy Grounds / straight up kils physdef Palossand) that can U-Turn, and pivotally, Knock. I added more Item disruption to the team in the form of Scarf Rotom and Volt Absorb Mandibuzz, while Palossand is just here to check Terrakion and Barraskewda in one slot while spinblocking and stopping Blastoise / Milotic from making serious progress.
In the actual match, I loaded into a very scary team, but fortunately their Ogerpon was adamant to guarantee a 2hko against Chesnaught (which I heavily considered this week tbf), which gave me a lot of outs with Infernape and Azelf, and with proper terrain control, I just about had enough health to win what was an extremely close endgame.
As this team is still legal, I'll break it down a little bit in this extra spoiler for those who are interested:
In the actual match, I loaded into a very scary team, but fortunately their Ogerpon was adamant to guarantee a 2hko against Chesnaught (which I heavily considered this week tbf), which gave me a lot of outs with Infernape and Azelf, and with proper terrain control, I just about had enough health to win what was an extremely close endgame.
As this team is still legal, I'll break it down a little bit in this extra spoiler for those who are interested:
Fixed team paste: https://pokepast.es/134bc2c4f5c4ea45
Azelf Mainly wants to be clicking Knock Off and U-Turn to pressure Regenvesters and slower pieces, while pivoting in the other breakers on the team and removing items. Given Azelf is Specs, Expanding Force is much more powerful as a lategame option, and should be used sparingly in the early / middle game, as this generally tends to be your wincon and terrain control (Surge Surfer and Glide Ogerpon are real options). Of course, if there's a predicted kill, take it, but you generally want to keep Meloetta and co. very low, and Knocking Mandibuzz is more important than forcing damage on it with DGleam, given that the team's offense make it easy to keep up rocks otherwise. And if for some reason CB Terrakion kills everything after some chip, feel free to use Azelf to punch holes, but generally their checks do not overlap.
Infernape Also wants to click Knock Off and U-Turn a lot, but due to Life Orb you do get less turns with the monkey. Generally you'll use this to just punch massive holes in the opponent's defensive core, forcing a lot of predicted switch-ins thanks to its ability to a) remove items b) pivot c) kill everything after some chip thanks to its good mixed offenses. Overheat with 48 SpA EVs is a guaranteed knockout on non-Fluffy Palossand and all Fluffy Grounds, max speed investment, and rest are dumped in attack.
Terrakion Scrappy Terrakion has a guaranteed 2HKO on non-Fluffy Palossand. It struggles to make progress into Fluffy Grounds and Chesnaught - Infernape will be your friend in those matchups to overload those threats. Earthquake feels like redundant coverage and I can't exactly remember why its here, Stealth Rocks are good on Terrakion because it will often force switches of which you cannot make good progress, so hazard setting is always good.
Rotom-Wash Scarf Regenerator blends offense nicely with defense... is what I would say if I had remembered to change my WashTom's ability. Apparently, I forgot to make it Regenerator, and I only found out a full week and half after I had played against tbp, in a test game against someone else. LOL. Cannot believe no one caught this.
164 Speed EVs with a Timid Nature outpaces Barraskewda while Rotom-Wash has its Scarf intact. 252 HP EVs to retain some bulk so it can switch into Pokemon like Barraskewda and Inteleon and rest are dumped in SpA.
Mandibuzz Mandibuzz is a bit of a weird Pokemon. A lot of people have been running Toxic, but that just feels too awkward. Click Knock Off, click U-Turn, only click Defog and Roost if you absolutely need to use them. Mandibuzz has minimum speed investment with 0 speed ivs. This is your slow pivot, slow pivot into your breakers.
Palossand Water Absorb to stop Barraskewda in its tracks even after Infernape dies. Rocks Shore Up are obviously mandatory, EP lets Palossand put damage down. Sludge Bomb is important for Palossand to have a chance at making progress all the time, proccing a Poison status into Pokemon like Mandibuzz is the only way for it to contribute in those turns. Max defense EVs, max HP EVs, one point in SpD cos why not.
Azelf Mainly wants to be clicking Knock Off and U-Turn to pressure Regenvesters and slower pieces, while pivoting in the other breakers on the team and removing items. Given Azelf is Specs, Expanding Force is much more powerful as a lategame option, and should be used sparingly in the early / middle game, as this generally tends to be your wincon and terrain control (Surge Surfer and Glide Ogerpon are real options). Of course, if there's a predicted kill, take it, but you generally want to keep Meloetta and co. very low, and Knocking Mandibuzz is more important than forcing damage on it with DGleam, given that the team's offense make it easy to keep up rocks otherwise. And if for some reason CB Terrakion kills everything after some chip, feel free to use Azelf to punch holes, but generally their checks do not overlap.
Infernape Also wants to click Knock Off and U-Turn a lot, but due to Life Orb you do get less turns with the monkey. Generally you'll use this to just punch massive holes in the opponent's defensive core, forcing a lot of predicted switch-ins thanks to its ability to a) remove items b) pivot c) kill everything after some chip thanks to its good mixed offenses. Overheat with 48 SpA EVs is a guaranteed knockout on non-Fluffy Palossand and all Fluffy Grounds, max speed investment, and rest are dumped in attack.
Terrakion Scrappy Terrakion has a guaranteed 2HKO on non-Fluffy Palossand. It struggles to make progress into Fluffy Grounds and Chesnaught - Infernape will be your friend in those matchups to overload those threats. Earthquake feels like redundant coverage and I can't exactly remember why its here, Stealth Rocks are good on Terrakion because it will often force switches of which you cannot make good progress, so hazard setting is always good.
Rotom-Wash Scarf Regenerator blends offense nicely with defense... is what I would say if I had remembered to change my WashTom's ability. Apparently, I forgot to make it Regenerator, and I only found out a full week and half after I had played against tbp, in a test game against someone else. LOL. Cannot believe no one caught this.
164 Speed EVs with a Timid Nature outpaces Barraskewda while Rotom-Wash has its Scarf intact. 252 HP EVs to retain some bulk so it can switch into Pokemon like Barraskewda and Inteleon and rest are dumped in SpA.
Mandibuzz Mandibuzz is a bit of a weird Pokemon. A lot of people have been running Toxic, but that just feels too awkward. Click Knock Off, click U-Turn, only click Defog and Roost if you absolutely need to use them. Mandibuzz has minimum speed investment with 0 speed ivs. This is your slow pivot, slow pivot into your breakers.
Palossand Water Absorb to stop Barraskewda in its tracks even after Infernape dies. Rocks Shore Up are obviously mandatory, EP lets Palossand put damage down. Sludge Bomb is important for Palossand to have a chance at making progress all the time, proccing a Poison status into Pokemon like Mandibuzz is the only way for it to contribute in those turns. Max defense EVs, max HP EVs, one point in SpD cos why not.
Our semis team was made by ghastly, you can see it in the above post
6-1 Osake reporting in: