kinda lame explanation but w/e
So with that, hello everyone, I'm TSR and welcome to my pseudo-100 post RMT! I've lately been in a little bit of a low point in teambuilding (at least in UU, Ubers squads still fresh) but feel particularly proud of this team for the little bit of time that I used it. This team was still heavily in the works at the time of my 100th post but was completed in this form not too long after soon after. However, this team's potential success was banking on Crawdaunt remaining BL. I decided to give an early retirement to this team, at least in this form, because it simply doesn't handle Crawdaunt well. Handling Crawdaunt would require me to deconstruct the team and build it all over. I still think this team was a good team for the Daunt-less metagame that would of had a bit of success if I didn't scare away 6 opponents in farm league. I think it's a nice that some advice that I've got was never to change the team around; the team has only gone through a couple of more optimal EV changes to deal with a couple threats. It's still a pretty damn effective team for me even if a single mon that I was really hoping didn't come to UU wrecks it, and is still pretty usable in the right matchups, but I'd definitely like a better way to deal with the new lobster menace. But for now, the team sits in this form.
So with the new November tier shifts, non-Sableye joined ORAS UU and it seemed interesting since I didn't play a lot of UU in the BW era (mostly OU and Ubers). I knew at least it makes a great stallbreaker and spinblocker, along with being quite annoying to offense by neutering dangerous physical sweepers with Prankster Will-o-Wisp.
The few things that can take advantage of Sableye on offensive teams consist of Strong physically-based Fire types and Gardevoir. Suicune seemed like the perfect partner to stop CM florges setup, switch into a plethora of Fire-type moves, discourage setup alongside Sableye. Alomomola could have been in this slot but I didn't want to go down a full stall route and Cune is a better fit on the style of team this is.
Forretress was a great fit for this team, as I had both a spinblocker and a phazer so Spikes were a huge boon for the team, not to mention I love Spikes stacking builds. Forretress also checks a bunch of physical threats, makes a nice slow pivot, and appreciates Suicune switching into Fire moves. Also Rapid Spin keeps hazards off my field and on my opponents side.
Aerodactyl is a great cleaner for spike stacking team, and also utilizes Pursuit to trap spinblockers for Forretress. Pursuit is also vital to minimize damage that a very threatening Chandelure could do to this build. Stone Edge and Aerial Ace are great STABs to break offensive teams with little defensive synergy and especially lack of good Flying resists. Also provided a Ground immunity which was pretty nice for the team as a whole.
Nidoqueen was chosen as my rocks setter and made a nice fairy check for Sableye. Also doubles as a nice electric immunity for the team, and also takes advantage of poor defensive synergy in teams. With Spikes and Stealth Rock up, pretty much only Blissey can switch in, and only if it's really healthy.
CM Florges is an amazing win condition for spike stacking teams such as this one, and provides crucial Aromatherapy so that Sableye actually can just click buttons against Stall. Aromatherapy also speeds up Suicune's sleep turns and lets it heal up more often so pressuring it to switch in isn't too much of a hassle.
On to the team!
Sableye @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 240 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Taunt
Pokemon choice:
Here's the focal point of the team. With Aromatherapy support and hazards up, it's almost an autowin when matched up with Stall. Physical sweepers like Salamence, Swampert, and Cobalion can be pretty hard to deal with for this team but Sableye can instantly cripple them for pretty much the rest of my team to beat. Stallbreaking sweepers like Snorlax and Reuniclus also get hard walled, which is a huge boon for this team. Setup sweepers that get rolling can also be a hard thing for my team to deal with, so Taunt can be a last ditch effort to stop an onslaught from NP Infernape, for example. With its Ghost type, it stops Rapid Spin, and with Prankster, shuts down a wide variety of Defog sources. Keeping hazards up is key for this team; with no Wish passer, the offensive core is worn down pretty quickly and switches aren't punished, so the opponent being worn down for Florges and Aerodactyl is how you win games.
Set Details:
A standard Specially Defensive Sableye with it's stallbreaker moveset. A few EVs were invested into speed to beat other Sableyes 1v1.
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 240 HP / 240 Def / 28 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Roar
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Pokemon choice:
Suicune is my main switch in to offensive Fire-types that try to get free turns by switching into Sableye. Its works in tandem with Sableye, taking advantage of hazards by using Roar, also crippling sweepers and walls with the
Set Details:
Another standard set, 240 HP hits a 401 HP for a Leftovers number. 28 Spe investement is to heavily creep standard CM Roar Suicune variants, which can be quite threatening to this team.
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball
- Volt Switch
Pokemon choice:
Forretress was hard not to consider for the team, seeing as I have a solid spinblocker paired with a phazer. These could greatly benefit from Spikes, due to the switches they often force. Since I don't find Suicune's recovery in Rest the best, and Sableye isn'e exactly a bulky pokemon, they both greatly aprreciate Forry taking a hit and pivoting into them with a Volt Switch. Roserade is pretty annoying to this team in particular, so pivoting to Forretress on Grass/Poison move and doubling (usually scouting for HP Fire) will bring in Aero relatively safely to check it. Forretress is also a pretty good check to a few physical attackers like MoxieMence and Toxicroak which are a little scary to Cune due to Lum Berry and Dry Skin, respectively. Quite a good check to Whimsicott as well, which was also a threat to the Sableye/Suicune core.
Set Details:
Very obvious set, max HP + max Def = physical wall. Overcoat helps it to pivot into Spore/Sleep Powder/Stun Spore. Sturdy isn't very necessary as I usually don't want Forry dying in only two hits. Spikes and Volt Switch gives the rest of the team an easier life wallbreaking/phazing/cleaning.
Aerodactyl-Mega @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Aerial Ace
- Pursuit
- Hone Claws / Roost
Pokemon choice:
Aerodactyl is super splashable in general and finds its way onto a large amount of teams. It fits here because Aerodactyl is a perfect cleaner for a spike stacking team, as it lacks just a tiny bit of power to be an overwhelming wallbreaker, but has blistering speed that many offense builds have an exceptionally hard time handling. Racking up hazard damage is pretty useful to turn a plethora of 2HKOs from Aero into OHKOs. Aero is also a crucial member of the team to heavily limit the damage Chandelure can do to this build. Along with Chandelure, Aero traps a number of annoying spinblockers for Forretress. Volt Switching on said spinblockers brings in Aero for free because Forretress usually invites in spinblockers, especially Chandelure. Other spinblockers like Sableye and Jellicent don't exactly get trapped but aren't nearly as threatening to my team as Chandelure.
Set Details:
Max Attack and max Speed with Jolly for cleaning, and outspeeding the entirety of the unboosted UU teir. Hone Claws can make it a pretty scary sweeper, but keeping it healthy in matchups like a non-Pursuit-trapped Mega Beedrill with Roost is equally useful.
Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 48 HP / 252 SpA / 208 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Thunderbolt
Pokemon choice:
I personally dislike defensive dual hazards Nidoqueen; I hate the idea that a Poison-type pokemon with perfectly capable wallbreaking capabilities being setup fodder for a CM Florges. Nidoqueen provides Stealth Rock for my team to compliment with Spikes. With multiple layers of hazards up, Nidoqueen has a very limited pool of switch ins. Its natural bulk helps it to usually take a couple hits and break through teams with poor defensive synergy. It provides a pretty nice and much needed Electric immunity, because before Nidoqueen, Zapdos just dominated my team. The combination of Sludge Wave and Earth Power give an amazing neutral coverage over the tier and combined with LO and Sheer Force it blows at least one hole in most teams. It's also good for checking things like Doublade (which doesn't get trapped by Aero) and Florges, the only stall mon capable of stopping Sableye. Absorbing Toxic Spikes quickly is also pretty nice for the team and doesn't rely on Rapid Spin. Nidoqueen is also nice to make the team a little less weak to Volt-Turn. Still, well played Volt-Turn is always threatening to balance builds such as this, but an electric immunity that can kill momentum is always nice.
Set Details:
The EV spread was created by Christo the Gr8, which I now have shamelessly stole, 208 Spe outspeeding Adamant Metagross. Of course a bulkier spread is just fine, as I have Metagross checks on this team. The moveset is standard with the exception of opting for Thunderbolt, which lures in Jellicent, which is incredibly annoying to the team otherwise.
Florges @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Synthesis
- Calm Mind
- Aromatherapy
Pokemon choice:
This set is getting really popular, and for good reason. Florges makes an amazing win conditon for spike stacking teams, and helps Sableye completely annihilate stall teams, functioning as a cleric. Florges also works as another good pretty good fighting check, a safer Zapdos and Chandelure switch in, and a good specially-based pivot. Ironically, my team was pretty weak to the Dark-type stallbreakers like Absol, Sableye, and Mandbuzz, assuming Sableye has to switch in, so Florges is a pretty good way to beat them. Also a good check for special Abomasnow, which was absolutely terrifying for my team at this point. Also, with the help of Suicune, it wins CM wars against SubCM Chandelure, other Florges, Reuniclus, and Suicune. Once Blissey is gone, this also beats stall pretty handily as well, but allows potential Defogs due to its low speed and lack of Taunt. Florges really struggles to set up against fast offensive teams, but is usually a valuable asset against more conservative teams, giving me a good tool to use against balance, since my team usually fares well against Offense and Stall archetypes.
Set Details:
In the final stages of the team's creation, I decided to hop on twitch during chimpact's stream, and passed him the team to see what he could do with it. Strangely enough, Christo was also in the chat and again influenced my teambuilding by recommended me the EV Spread you see here. Since I had a significant physically defensive presence on my team with Forretress, a more SpD oriented Florges let me switch into threats like Zapdos, Mega Houndoom, Porygon-Z, and Chandelure much more reliably. Other than the odd story, run-of-the-mill CM Florges set.
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Synthesis
- Calm Mind
- Aromatherapy
Pokemon choice:
This set is getting really popular, and for good reason. Florges makes an amazing win conditon for spike stacking teams, and helps Sableye completely annihilate stall teams, functioning as a cleric. Florges also works as another good pretty good fighting check, a safer Zapdos and Chandelure switch in, and a good specially-based pivot. Ironically, my team was pretty weak to the Dark-type stallbreakers like Absol, Sableye, and Mandbuzz, assuming Sableye has to switch in, so Florges is a pretty good way to beat them. Also a good check for special Abomasnow, which was absolutely terrifying for my team at this point. Also, with the help of Suicune, it wins CM wars against SubCM Chandelure, other Florges, Reuniclus, and Suicune. Once Blissey is gone, this also beats stall pretty handily as well, but allows potential Defogs due to its low speed and lack of Taunt. Florges really struggles to set up against fast offensive teams, but is usually a valuable asset against more conservative teams, giving me a good tool to use against balance, since my team usually fares well against Offense and Stall archetypes.
Set Details:
In the final stages of the team's creation, I decided to hop on twitch during chimpact's stream, and passed him the team to see what he could do with it. Strangely enough, Christo was also in the chat and again influenced my teambuilding by recommended me the EV Spread you see here. Since I had a significant physically defensive presence on my team with Forretress, a more SpD oriented Florges let me switch into threats like Zapdos, Mega Houndoom, Porygon-Z, and Chandelure much more reliably. Other than the odd story, run-of-the-mill CM Florges set.
Basically an autowin as I said before. Stall can't touch Sableye for the most part, and if it takes a Scald burn it's not that annoying because you can heal it with Florges. Basically this team gets hazards up, then stops Stall dead in its tracks with Sableye. On the off chance they use Espeon to block hazards and block stallbreakers, Aero can just Pursuit trap it.
A bit more tricky to play but still in your favor. Find opportune times to set hazards, and proceed to stop setup sweepers with Suicune and Sableye, along with playing Nidoqueen somewhat aggressively. Once the opponent has been shuffled around a bit and the checks weakened, go for an Aero sweep.
Proabably the hardest matchup for this team. Use Sableye to weaken the defensive core and Suicune to stop wincons the opponent has. Use Florges to finish off the defensive core for Aero, or Aero to finish off the offensive core and have Florges sweep the passive mons. It's more or less an even battle for most battles, depending on matchup.
Here are some major threats to the team. All need to be well played, most are manageable and can be played around.
- lol. Seeing as my offensive mons on this team are both weak to Water, you have to resort to Suicune and Forretress whittling it down. Either way, unless you get a first-try Scald burn, it'll be punching a big hole in the team's defenses. Usually doesn't sweep, but opens a path for something else 9/10 times.
- I have a distinct lack of solid Krook counters, but it's one of the lesser threats on this list. It hits quite a bit of things pretty hard with only one ground immunity. It gets crippled by Sableye, and just keep Suicune and Florges healthy and you should be fine.
- Not actually to much of a problem thanks to Florges, but just a spinner you don't want to switch Sableye into. It usually gets worn down pretty quickly.
- My team is ironically pretty weak to this thing. It also gets worn down pretty quickly, and your own Nidoqueen usually outspeeds 9/10 other Nido spreads.
- Physical Abomasnow is kind of a threat but it doesn't really set up and SD very well vs. my team.
- Helio is kind of a threat because you don't really want to be switching Nidoqueen into a Hyper Voice. Usually you can condition your opponent to think its safe to Volt Switch by going to Florges a couple times then kill momentum with Nidoqueen.
Closing Thoughts
I tried to build a hazard stacking team with a touch of originality - I think I failed to an extent here; I realize how hard it is to build a hazard-oriented team without copying half of Aerolyn lol. I do think I utilized Sableye well, however. Also happens to have pretty damn nice color coordination if I do say so myself. It was pretty fun to build and is always rewarding when you build a team that you can see and feel do well, even if it was for the while between the building and Daunt being freed. It came out a bit more stallish than I wanted it to but it's really w/e. I really don't think my creation fares well in the new meta with Crawdaunt, so at some point, I'd enjoy coming back to the drawing board for this team and change it around to fit whatever metagame we might have whenever I get around to it. I think I'm gonna be stuck on this team for a little while before I can finally be inspired to tear it apart and rebuild a proper team (of course suggestions are nice if there's some simple fix I can make). It's still usable if you don't think you'll be running into Crawdaunts all too much, I still think it can work pretty well in stage 6 UU but Daunt will probably be a pretty centralizing threat so I still want to work it over. Hope I don't sound to whiny about Crawdaunt; it's a metagame-defining threat now that this team never prepared for.
And of course - what's an RMT without the import?
Sableye @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 240 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Taunt
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 240 HP / 240 Def / 28 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Roar
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball
- Volt Switch
Aerodactyl-Mega @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Aerial Ace
- Pursuit
- Hone Claws
Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 48 HP / 252 SpA / 208 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Thunderbolt
Florges @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Synthesis
- Calm Mind
- Aromatherapy
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 240 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Taunt
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 240 HP / 240 Def / 28 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Roar
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball
- Volt Switch
Aerodactyl-Mega @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Aerial Ace
- Pursuit
- Hone Claws
Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 48 HP / 252 SpA / 208 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Thunderbolt
Florges @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Synthesis
- Calm Mind
- Aromatherapy
Thanks and hope you enjoyed reading!
