SM UU Sucker Punch

[avarice]

Sucker Punch

Hi I'm a decent player (I think) and this team has been one of my favorites to play with and I hope to get some help on making it more consistent w making this thread owo. Ever since the venu ban UU has been really fun even with the wild drops (looking at you, latios) that came around and doom gets a lot more viable with bisharp in the tier so yeah. Sorry in advanace if things are unclear/too short with my descriptions, I’ll gladly clarify anything, and such given that it's my first RMT and first super lengthy post really.

Teambuilding Process ​

Once I was certain I wanted to build with houndoom my first instinct was simply read what goes well with them from the analysis. Nihilego was one of those mons. From there I got into the idea of having taunt + tspikes from the two. It immediately gave me nice m/u against fatter teams. And having a strong poison meant I could forgo sludge bomb safely.


Hydreigon has finally reclaimed its S rank throne from ORAS and it's a solid defog user. Having Z over scarf made it less bothered by scarf krook shenanigans, which is definitely appreciated given how bothersome it is to doom and nihi.


Since I was adamant about keeping TSpikes on nihi, I needed a stealth rocker. Given that I had two potential knock switchins with Z hydreigon and doom, and none of the three were faster than zeraora, I thought gligar would be an optimal pick. It also meant I had an answer for mane and can hit empo fairly hard if it tries to switch in to clear rocks expecting a mere u turn. Always answering terrak was a huge boon too, considering it murdered all three of my members thus far.


Scizor is broken. That is all. But really, CB sciz could uturn with gligar to get doom/nihi in and served as a reliable revenge killer/speed control with priority. Pursuit trapping was cool too. Scizor is super common for good reason.


With how passive alo can be, it's the teammate I've been the least sure about. It was originally block bro, but I've come to really appreciate the wish support. Alo providing a mamo switch without having to play icicle crash and eq mindgames putting my scizor or hydra at risk has been helpful too. Same with prim matchup.

The Team

Fake Friends (Houndoom) @
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Taunt​

Houndoom is a strong mon right now as a sucker punch resist and is a potent lati killer given that they aren't scarfed. It can be super devasting to opposing teams at +2. Have to still be careful since dark pulse can't ohko lati unboosted, though.


Focus (Nihilego) @
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 72 HP / 8 Def / 176 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Power Gem
- Acid Spray
- Toxic Spikes
- Pain Split

Originally I had a basic max max spa and spe spread, but I needed more bulk since it was my hydrei switchin. TDK's speed boosting set/spread became a great way to implement it. Pain split means I'm not relying on sludge and wish for my recovery and acid spray lets me beat Blissey 1 on 1.

High Five (Hydreigon) @
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Roost

Hydreigon is rather simple. Roost was chosen over u-turn to be less reliant on wish from Alo. Though I have tried it (u turn) to bluff scarf easier, Hydreigon just got too low too fast. Dragonium is a powerful nuke that can do things like oh-ko mamo and slam anything for a fair chunk that isn't fairy.

Plot Twist (Gligar) @
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 15 Spe
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn

Gligar is another cool mon rn, which leads to more usage. That's why it has 15 speed evs, to get the slow u-turn against other gligar most of the time and hit 8 spe klefki with eq before it can playrough/non status. As mentioned before, being able to answer terrak defensively is great. Switching it in leads to free recovery or rocks, or just pivoting scizor in for the kill. Having a second ground immunity definitely didn't hurt either.

Dynamite (Scizor) @
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit​

CB Scizor has been reliable for me. Max speed allows me to nail opposing scizor constantly, since most run more hp at the loss of speed for bulk. The ability to get heals from alo means I can typically play it like it has bulk of its own. This has been good particularly for trapping latis. The power with CB increases the odds of beating the occasional babri sets of Terrakion and Toge. Though Gligar and Nihilego answer them respectively.

Raw (Alomomola) @
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SpD
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic
- Scald​

Ah, the classic fat fish. As previously mentioned, the wish support it provides has been critical. It has also been phenomenal at toxic ing Hydreigon and latias, two mons unaffected by toxic spikes. Rocky helmet was chosen over lefties to punish u-turn users,specifically scizor, more. Scald meant I could hit infernape for immediate damage. The taunt tspikes core of doom and nihi meant a solid fat matchup and led me to believe I’d find scald more useful than knock off on the long run. The potential burns can help wear down the common switchin Tentacruel too.

Threatlist
- Suicune is a real pest, crocune is usually dealt with through acid from nihi +finishing off with hydra while vincune it prevented from wrecking havoc by setting up tspikes as soon as possible. Overall can get really shaky.
- NP Ape can overwelm gligar + alo after a boost and can avoid scald/poison stall if it just nukes alo with grass knot or Z.
- Z BU Zeraora in particular can be really threatening as well as the rare HP ice variant since aside from chip from tspikes and SR + Bullet Punch, gligar is my only line of defense against the furry bait mon.
- Klefki + Bisharp isn't the worst matchup since I have houndoom and gligar however it can be annoying since Hydreigon, my defogger, can't really touch either of the two and potentially gives bisharp a +2. But this may end up irrelevant if bisharp leaves.

Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-819702988 (Stall? P Fat)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-819421910 (v klefki)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-819373378 (v prim)

Importable
https://pokepast.es/1e52dcea82050767
​

 

[vivalospride]

Hey, this is a pretty cool team but there are definitely some issues I see with it. The team's Hydreigon matchup is pretty poor considering there isn't a fairy type in sight, and the Lati matchup is also troublesome since the only real counterplay you have is a Scizor with 0 bulk investment. Elec z/Hp fire sets would tear this team apart. Another thing I noticed is the nihi set, it's a good set but it kinda defeats the purpose of the core to a certain extent... the point of the core is basically for Nihi is set tspikes and use them to wear Blissey down so Houndoom can clean up with Taunt after it's chipped. But this nihi set literally just beats Blissey 1v1 by itself, making the tspikes support a little unnecessary for Houndoom, especially since klefki could work so well on this team and spikes in general are much more efficient then tspikes at getting chip. Either way let's see what could be done.

- The first thing I did was compress Nihi + Gligar into Nidoqueen. Nidoqueen checks rak while actually resisting rock, coba, and has tspikes + rocks to do p much the same thing nihi + glig was doing. It provides hazards for doom to go to work vs fatter teams which is pretty much what the team was about nwn.

SET

Nidoqueen @ Black Sludge
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 248 HP / 128 Def / 132 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Toxic Spikes

- Bulky Prima > Alo was necessary here to give a fairy type to check Hydreigon, and something to take care of Scarf Krook a bit better which allows drei to more viably run scarf on this team. It's just a bulky water glue mon that blanket checks a lot, the big one being Infernape since that can tear thru this team pretty easily atm.

SET

Primarina @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Moonblast
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

- I put Zera in the free slot that compressing glig + nihi gave. My reasoning for this was primarily as a bird check and something to more reliably break thru waters which this team has a bit of trouble with. It also works very well with tspikes chip and can open a lot of holes for mdoom to clean. Set is pretty standard aoa mixed.

SET

Zeraora @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Grass Knot

Smaller changes:
- Changed Hydreigon into a scarfer because of lack of speed control and the great synergy between U-Turn Hydreigon and Nidoqueen. Hydreigon can u-turn on incoming fairies giving Nidoqueen a free turn to place tspikes or rocks. You can do defog in the last slot if need be but honestly this team doesn't need removal too much. It has a grounded poison and the only mon that's weak to rocks is like a cleaner and won't be coming in too often anyways aside from winning the game or revenging sciz if need be.
- Changed the Sciz spread to be a bit bulkier. Max max is pretty unnecessary honestly, no one runs max speed scizor, all you really need to creep is keys and you can dump the rest into Hp. This is good because it's like your primary Lati answer.

Importable

Fake Friends (Houndoom) @ Houndoominite
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Taunt

Nidoqueen @ Black Sludge
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 248 HP / 128 Def / 132 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Toxic Spikes

High Five (Hydreigon) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn
- Fire Blast / Defog

Dynamite (Scizor) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 92 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Primarina @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Moonblast
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Zeraora @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Grass Knot

I think this is much better. Sorry for changing the core a bit but the general idea is 100% the same, Nihi was just complicating fitting both a fairy and a ground really fuckin badly. Every time I rated it w/o changing nihi it ended up being suboptimal in some way, so I decided this was the best course of action. Lmk how it goes and like I said this team really doesn't need removal, but if you really want it you can plop it on drei. Tspikes will force people to defog most of the time anyways.