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National Dex Ubers: Clodsire + Mega Diancie Semi Stall [Top 1 of Ladder, 1873 Elo]

Bobsican

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While ND Ubers is likely close to being stale between the constant influx of trends that often demand specific answers, this is still the most unusual, yet creatively effective thing that I can make as the tier leans on its last few years as a current gen format.

While this team has the common Alomomola + Giratina-O + Chien-Pao core for this sort of teams, similarly to a previous RMT I've posted, the three remaining members being different leads to a team structure that not only plays differently, but also adjusts just to the right needs for the current metagame in a surprisingly reasonable manner.

Most of the team is standard set-wise for the most part, and while Mega Diancie being viable in ND Ubers isn't unheard of, its usage outside of offense very much is, whereas Clodsire is yet to even be ranked in the ND Ubers VR, which was once thought to be impossible ever since Xerneas got banned, but is that really the case? Let's find out!

:clodsire:
Being inspired by Quagsire's role in old Uber metas to hard-check Zacian-C, Clodsire's neat combination of traits enable it to perform a nice blend of roles that Fezandipiti and Landorus-T do, which is valuable for this team as it hard-checks Zacian-C, offensive variants of Eternatus without Recover (which M-Diancie and Ferrothorn can handle for it after a trivial scouting with it), and Calm Mind Arceus formes.

Bulldoze + Poison Jab grant Clodsire a ton of PP to 1v1 Gothitelle, while also reducing its passivity when Taunt'd, and easing its matchup against Eternatus by not being as vulnerable to Pressure in the long term, with Bulldoze in particular also providing the utility of placing fast foes like Eternatus, Zacian-C, and Deoxys-S in outspeeding range for the fast breakers in the team, Mega Diancie and Chien-Pao.

Counter may seem like some RBY cheese, but with Zacian-C's inability to 2HKO Clodsire with Behemoth Blade after Stealth Rock, let alone even OHKO it with Tera Blast Ground or Tera Psychic Psychic Fangs (yes, that happened), Zacian-C is forced to either switch and lose Intrepid Sword, or just attack and end up KOed, especially as Counter's high PP, Unaware, and Leftovers recovery means that Zacian-C can't just spam SD forever, as then I can just use Bulldoze whenever appropiate to wear it down and render it unable to sweep out of the Speed drop, Counter also comes in handy to force mind-games as it may sometimes switch to an ally or just backfire an incoming physical attack, most notably this has been useful to backfire Flip Turn from opposing Alomomola. Clodsire's Speed, while terrible, also still manages to barely find use with a few EVs + Bulldoze, namely enabling it to reliably outspeed -6 Zygarde, which is nice as it's a hard-check to it with Tera Fairy, with such Tera type also easing the Arceus-Dark matchup and sometimes the Yveltal one as well in a pinch.

:diancie-mega:
Alomomola teams are quite known for having a playable matchup against a good portion of the metagame, with the sole exception being Sticky Web teams, as it's basically impossible in paper to prevent such field effect from being laid, let alone remove it without considerable limitations or even trading (case in point Giratina-O and Ho-Oh dislike switching into Yveltal). However, this does not apply for Mega Diancie, compressing as a Sticky Web hard-check between invalidating Smeargle, Shuckle, and most variants of Ribombee from setting such field effect, all while also pressuring cornerstones of such structures like Yveltal and Chi-Yu, this is further complemented by its great offensive typing pressuring GHAZ cores, forcing one of its members to Terastallize, and thus often being a good late-game sweeper once the Tera user is KOed.

However, this seems nice and all, but the main reason Mega Diancie is not generally seen outside of offense is related to Mega Diancie's poor bulk outside its favorable matchups carried by its resistances, as well as its lack of longevity making it rather limited, which in turn makes a solid core with Alomomola to mitigate such flaws, granting Mega Diancie multiple opportunities to come into the field safely and pressure the opposing team, given that beyond these roles Mega Diancie's set is fairly standard, I'll just move onto explaining the next Pokemon.

:chien-pao:
Chien-Pao makes a great offensive core with Mega Diancie, granting the team priority to nail fast sweepers like Mega Salamence, Ultra Necrozma, and Eternatus, all while also easing the matchup against Arceus-Ground, Lunala, and Marshadow, while Mega Diancie in return heavily minimizes the act of having to deal with entry hazards, and acting as a short-term switch-in for Tera Fire Yveltal, Chi-Yu, Terastallized Giratina-O, and Arceus-Dark, this is further complemented by Alomomola, which similarly to Mega Diancie, also provides safe pivoting for Chien-Pao to come in and apply offensive pressure, thus also minimizing mind-games to get either into a favorable position.

As the team itself barely uses the Tera slot for edge matchups, Tera Dark Crunch's comical damage output eases a lot the matchup against hard stall once Arceus-Dark and whichever Terastallized foe (most often Dondozo) is in KO range. As Mega Diancie forces a member of a GHAZ core to Terastallize, Chien-Pao can also quickly capitalize and punish accordingly, for example, Terastallizing Ho-Oh means that Chien-Pao can now just OHKO the incoming Tera Grass Ho-Oh with Ice Spinner, and let's not start on Primal Groudon getting worn down quickly or Zygarde being vaporized by either when it doesn't Terastallize, as well as the Arceus forme having to pick on losing to one, the other, or the rest of the team depending on its set as alluded to previously, in total resulting on it often being difficult to handle both opponents on the long term without aggressive plays, which often have minimal gain as the team has a sturdy defensive backbone characteristic of a semi stall structure to resort to.

:ferrothorn:
This is mainly here as it's the sturdiest Primal Kyogre check the metagame has to offer, which is crucial as the team is otherwise rather weak defensively to it, but Ferrothorn also comes with some nice role compression, namely easing the matchup against opposing Regenerator cores by removing their item (namely of Alomomola and/or Ho-Oh) with Knock Off, setting layers of Spikes to further pressure defensive cores, especially as this benefits Giratina-O's phazing to make more progress, acting as a backup anti-lead when facing a disfavorable set of Deoxys-S, Glimmora, or Ribombee that can overwhelm Mega Diancie, supporting Clodsire as a check to Calm Mind Arceus-Fairy, while also checking Arceus, and soft-checking Ultra Necrozma and Yveltal, and annoying Trick Room teams between its low Speed punishing such field effect, and Iron Barbs making Melmetal cry.

While the team lacks a Stealth Rock setter, the prevalence of such entry hazard also means that Mega Diancie can indirectly set it with Magic Bounce and solid prediction, and Spikes capitalizes nicely on the act from its allies at forcing Ho-Oh to Terastallize, but using Stealth Rock over Spikes can be a preference choice for Ferrothorn in this team if it'd be desired to have less entry hazard pressure (notably leading to a worse matchup against bulky structures) in exchange of wearing down Flying-types with their item removed and Levitate users like Giratina-O.


:giratina-origin::alomomola:
Similarly to Ferrothorn, this is mostly here as it's the sturdiest Primal Groudon answer the tier has, often invalidating it between Toxic + Hex easily making progress on it, with Defog also preventing it from taking advantage of Mega Diancie's inability to defensively check it to keep hazards off the field, with Dragon Tail preventing setup sweepers that can bully Clodsire like Primal Groudon, Ultra Necrozma, and Mega Salamence from making too much progress by phazing them, with the move also finding use against bulkier teams to force mind-games as it threatens to spread status, especially with Ferrothorn's before-mentioned support.

Alomomola + Giratina-O cores aren't revolutionary, so there's quite little to add here that isn't new or already alluded to in previous paragraphs. Giratina-O's EV spread outspeeds uninvested Zygarde, reaches the same physically defensive benchmarks as the bulkier standard physical utiliity spread, and the SpD EVs avoid a 2HKO from Primal Groudon's Eruption, with Alomomola's 8 Atk EVs ensuring that it breaks the Substitute of Tera Ground Dragon Dance Zygarde's Substitute.
Checks
:sv/lunala::sv/mewtwo-mega-y::sv/necrozma-ultra::sv/deoxys-attack:
Even though they often can't switch in without prediction, offensive Psychic types can overwhelm the defensive core of the team with the right moveset, for example Focus Blast variants of Lunala can vaporize Ferrothorn, and the same applies for Mega Mewtwo Y sets with Fire + Electric coverage to nail Ferrothorn + Alomomola, although its severe 4MSS means that it has to pick between losing to one of them or Giratina-O, so even then it's not immediately lost unless it has the momentum + prediction to punish scouting.

Similarly, specially offensive variants of Ultra Necrozma, while uncommon, can be surprisingly oppressive as the typical switch-ins the team has for the regular Dragon Dance set (Ferrothorn, Chien-Pao, Giratina-O) can't switch into them, thus often being forced to pull a Tera mind-game in hopes of removing it.

Finally, while it can't switch in at all and is usually limited as a revenge killer outside Alomomola structures, Deoxys-A can easily make progress agaisnt everything in the team, but the drawback of Psycho Boost also means that it can't directly sweep early-game, giving opportunities to play around it momentum-wise, with Alomomola easily coming into it after Psycho Boost has been burned at least once on something else.

:sv/yveltal:
The team may seem rather hostile to Yveltal, but as Mega Diancie can get quickly worn down, clever usage of Yveltal to capitalize on that can render it vulnerable to it in the long term, so it's often desirable to not try to drag the game for too long and apply proactive play to either remove Yveltal or retain momentum to keep it in check.

:sv/eternatus:
Choice Specs variants of Eternatus, while rare nowadays, can quickly dent past the common switch-ins (Clodsire, Mega Diancie, Ferrothorn) depending on prediction, but this isn't a lost cause given the constant skill check at prediction whenever it's used, and it can't use Alomomola as a cheap opportunity to make progress thanks to Protect letting it scout whichever move it locks to.

:sv/zygarde:
Substitute + Glare variants of Zygarde can cheese past Clodsire out of its inability to hinder it back and the potential inability to heal off damage from attacks before being overwhelmed, however, this is a double-edged sword, as this can also result on this just letting Clodsire PP stall Zygarde even more efficiently, so while technically this can overwhelm the team, it's also rather inconsistent, especially as Counter mind-games can greatly punish it.
Replays

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-2470134718-rknxuaqwnq9dua2ea3mj2pwtiscxnpipw
Against a balance from Kayoubi, notably showcasing the Clodsire acting as a emergency check to Yveltal, while also checking Zygarde

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...77396257-ojqmfnqnbs77ygxj8jrrcejfge3la7tpw?p2
Against a entry hazard stack offense from an unknown Smogon user, but in any case the replay showcases Clodsire slowing down Deoxys-S so M-Diancie can finish the job

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-2477287699-irprro8dtnllviqiqratowym7171f1hpw
Against a semi stall featuring a surprise Choice Band Ho-Oh by BEASTADARSH, still showcasing the offensive synergy between M-Diancie and Chien-Pao

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...76072187-wms2ydndyow5eeirbcumeq3wxw69eivpw?p2
Against a balance from a unknown user, featuring how Clodsire checks Eternatus and forces a long mind-game against Ho-Oh and Kingambit
 
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The opponent of your second replay is a Chinese player, a diehard HO fan, and he only plays ladder.
The opponent of your fourth replay uses a team made by Unban NAT AG, but I'm not sure if that's his alc. He is called Largone in his community (not Smogon, another one). I met him on the ladder spamming this team yesterday, and his Etern was using a specs set.
 
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