Ask a Simple Question, Get a Simple Answer - UU Edition

[cim]

So the other day in #genvuu we were briefly talking about short batton passing, and batton pass 2 attacks sets. Of course Mew came up, and someone mentioned they thought Zapdos had batton pass. That sounded right, so I looked it up and got a weird result. In the DPP analysis, batton pass is listed under moves and has an entire set. The move disappears off the list in BW, and Zapdos does not come up on the batton pass page. So can anyone tell me why this is, or is it a mistake or what? Thanks.

I know this is an old post but I thought I would explain what's going on. The learnsets on Smogon do not include event moves, which includes XD purification. In addition, the only moves listed in each generation are those that can be learned in that generation. To see an example, look up the gen 5 Stealth Rock page. You'll see a lot of missing Pokemon!

For having tested this playstyle, i can confirm that Stall isn't the way to go in UU. Mons like Mew or Virizion which are remarkable stall breakers makes it really hard to deal with it. But things might change since Chansey is probably gonna go back to UU next month.

I don't think Chansey is going to be enough to make stall viable in UU. Umbreon and Snorlax are similar Pokemon, albeit much less bulky, and they don't seem to be making stall particularly dominant. With the addition of Eviolite since Gen 4, Chansey will be nuts, but stall's problem was never that we didn't have enough special walls.

 

[Dark Fallen Angel]

It's true that hail is unbanned on UU?

 

[exotic]

Hail is indeed unbanned.

 

[Metal Sonic]

This may be a stupid question, but why is Crobat ranked really high in the UU ranking thread? It is Ranked S but I think it should be like B or C

I'm afraid I might sound stupid if I ask it there, but I don't see the 'power' of crobat... its offensive movepool is shit(Bravebird/Uturn for attacking moves?), granted that it has wonderful speed but whats the point of a fast pokemon if it cant support w/ hazards or inflict status on the enemy? It's typing has good 4x resists bug grass and fighting but also 2x weak to common attacking types like ice rock and electric, and u turn isnt fantastic if you get 25% every time you switch in... not to mention u-turn doesnt get stab boosted. and it gets jack walled by steel types

Could somebody enlighten me why Crobat is such a star?

I like it personally but I think its terrible competitively

 

[exotic]

Crobat is a check to half the tier thanks due his speed and typing. He can switch on a lot of pokemon(grass types, fighting types and bug types) and walls using taunt roost to stall them out. Brave bird hits hard, while there are not many bird resists. Nothing can setup on crobat.

 

[Metal Sonic]

But crobat is weak to SR and common types like ice rock electric, and is walled by steel and rocks and also electric = bird resistors are bird killers

I still don't understand :(

it's good but not 'godly' I still can't see why it is 'godly'

 

[cim]

Could somebody enlighten me why Crobat is such a star?

It's quite simple - Crobat checks half of UU. Below is the S and A tier list - bold Pokemon are easily checked by Crobat, italic Pokemon are somewhat checked.

S Rank
Cofagrigus
Crobat
Heracross
Kingdra
Mew
Raikou
Snorlax
Zapdos

A rank
Azelf
Chandelure
Darmanitan
Flygon
Froslass
Mienshao
Roserade
Sharpedo
Shaymin
Slowbro
Togekiss
Tornadus
Venomoth*
Victini
Weavile


Yes, Flying doesn't hit everything for neutral damage - but that's what Super Fang is for. It's also got a fast Taunt and Roost so it's going to stay around forever. Yes it's weak to a few things, and Rock is one of them, but it honestly doesn't stop it from doing what it does.

It singlehandedly enables heavy offense to work at all since it checks so much so easily. The S and A rank lists are partly weighted by how well they can handle Crobat. A large part of the reason Raikou / Zapdos are so good in this metagame is because they don't give a shit about Crobat.

 

[MeteorMiss]

I'm a bit unfamiliar with the UU metagame, so I ask this blindly.

Mew was uber in 4th gen. What happened (metagame-wise or pokemon-wise) to cause it to drop to UU?

 

[LionKingMax]

Crobat is also a great lead, which is something UU lack at the moment.

MeteorMiss: Team preview, a ton of pokemons that can easily check outspeed and revenge kill him, bad typing, and the fact that 100 base stats aint as good as people made it to be.

 

[exotic]

Why was Wobbuffet banned? And what is the difference between wobb and wynaut?

 

[RabidChipmunk]

I'm currently using a Honchkrow with the following set:

Big Daddy (Honchkrow) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- Brave Bird
- Superpower

I love this set so far, as it's good at Pursuit-killing Pokemon weak to Honchkrow if they decide to switch out into a Honchkrow check with a better chance, but I've found that, without Roost, this Honchkrow wears itself out very quickly, especially if I couldn't get SR off the field.

Would BlackGlasses be an acceptable alternative? Or would the 10% damage drop from Life Orb cause me to lose out on too many OHKO's and 2HKO's?

 

[exotic]

I like dark gem for that set, pursuit on the ghost/psychic, get +1 and demolish teams.

 

[Organization Member XIV]

But crobat is weak to SR and common types like ice rock electric, and is walled by steel and rocks and also electric = bird resistors are bird killers

I still don't understand :(

it's good but not 'godly' I still can't see why it is 'godly'

You really should ask this in the Viability Ranking Thread if you have a problem with its tiering. However, Crobat still walls like half at least of the physical attackers in UU, has a really fast Taunt, and a powerful STAB Brave Bird.

 

[cim]

I'm a bit unfamiliar with the UU metagame, so I ask this blindly.

Mew was uber in 4th gen. What happened (metagame-wise or pokemon-wise) to cause it to drop to UU?

To really understand this you have to understand tiering politics a little bit. Before the 5th generation, we would always carry over the last gen's ban list and just use that as a starting point. This wasn't the smartest decision, since mechanics changed so dramatically. Essentially, Mew was grandfathered in. In Generation 4, Mew was never tested, so it was Uber.

In Gen 5, we started with a much shorter ban list and tested a lot of threats. This is why the Lati twins, Deoxys-D, etc. are OU. However, Mew did not find much of a place in OU. Between power creep (Pokemon have been steadily increasing in offensive power every generation since Gen 2) and a metagame dominated by Pokemon that eat Psychics for lunch, and Mew didn't have much of a chance. He was a bit of a jack of all trades, but not exceptional at anything valuable in the metagame that couldn't be better done by another Pokemon.

So he fell to UU, where the consensus is that Mew is quite good, but not exactly broken.

Why was Wobbuffet banned? And what is the difference between wobb and wynaut?

Essentially, acceptable defenses combined with Encore and Shadow Tag enabled Wobbufett to make any Pokemon into set up fodder. Simply Encore, and then if they attacked, you can KO them with the appropriate move. If they didn't, you switch out to another Pokemon and are guaranteed a turn of set up.

Wynaut can do something similar, but he has a much harder time doing so due to the lower defenses and Speed, even after Eviolite. Thus he can set up on fewer Pokemon and thus hasn't proven to be broken yet.

I'm currently using a Honchkrow with the following set:

Big Daddy (Honchkrow) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- Brave Bird
- Superpower

I love this set so far, as it's good at Pursuit-killing Pokemon weak to Honchkrow if they decide to switch out into a Honchkrow check with a better chance, but I've found that, without Roost, this Honchkrow wears itself out very quickly, especially if I couldn't get SR off the field.

Would BlackGlasses be an acceptable alternative? Or would the 10% damage drop from Life Orb cause me to lose out on too many OHKO's and 2HKO's?

http://honko.byethost8.com/manly_calc.html will help you make this decision, particularly the "one versus all" calculator that lets you get a good idea what Honchkrow does to EVERY Pokemon in the metagame.

 

[-Green-]

I've tried to make a team with CB Druddigon but I don't know what Pokémon are the best to support Druddigon or what Pokémon benefit from Druddigon's wallbreaking power. Any advice?

 

[AntiBawss]

Im somewhat new to the UU metagame, and I've been using an old Heracross set

GRRRLPWER (Heracross) (F) @ Salac Berry
Trait: Moxie
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
- Substitute

It's a very good check to many threats that encounter it, but are there better Hera sets to deal with today's metagame, as this set is from 4th gen. Please and thank you.

 

[CFerens]

Hi, I have a quick question about UU Machamp. I'm more of a shiny hunter than I am a competitive battler, but I am trying to get into competitive battling. Just last night, I obtained a shiny machop, which is what I was looking for, but it has the ability guts. DynamicPunch, one of its best moves for Machamp (I think :/), is apparently only good with the ability No Guard. I was thinking of using the moveset posted on smogon (Substitute, Stone Edge, Toxic, and DynamicPunch) but I'm not sure if I should still
use DynamicPunch with the Guts ability. Should I keep DynamicPunch? Or should I teach it another move? If so, what move?

Thanks,

Chris

 

[Nyktos]

I wouldn't use DynamicPunch with any ability other than No Guard; 50% accuracy is pretty awful. You can try Cross Chop I guess. Close Combat would be better but that's an egg move.

 

[MoosePlus]

A small question here... If a pokemon with unburden is not holding an item at all before you switch it in, will it still have the unburden speed boost when you switch it in?

 

[Nas]

Nope, the Speed boost from Unburden ends when the Pokemon is switched out. If you switch it in without an item, it won't get the boost.

 

[MoosePlus]

Ahh thanks for the clarification! Hitmonlee's role as a reversal sweeper can so easily be a dead slot for the team if not played well... T.T

 

[CFerens]

Hey, simple question here. Is Roserade considered to be in UU or BL? On the tier list, it states that it is in UU, which was allowed in the UU Tier for the battle simulator Pokemon Showdown. However, after using PokemonOnline (got banned from PokemonShowdown because my brother spammed in the chat system, resulting in his ban and his "alternate" accounts being banned as well, which was really mine :/), I wasn't allowed to enter UU with a roserade on my team.

tl;dr, is roserade allowed in UU for wifi competitive UU battles?

 

[alkinesthetase]

PO and smogon tiers are different in some ways. i don't remember which mons are different, but rade is UU on ours. it may well be BL on theirs, idk.

 

[Weststpaul1]

Hey guys, I am starting to make a UU team and really want to put Houndoom on (as he's my favourite pokemon) but I just don't know if he's viable for this metagame. Should I use him? Why or why not?

Thanks

 

[Warb]

Hey guys, I am starting to make a UU team and really want to put Houndoom on (as he's my favourite pokemon) but I just don't know if he's viable for this metagame. Should I use him? Why or why not?

Thanks

As a potential sweeper, Houndoom is outclassed by every Fire-type in the tier (Arcanine, Victini, Darmanitan and Chandelure). Pretty much very Dark-type in the tier is also oftentimes more viable than Houndoom (Weavile, Honchkrow, Krookodile, Sharpedo).

Note that all of the above mentioned Pokémon can sweep much easier than Houndoom, which means that you should not build a team around Houndoom as potential sweeper. Because, unless you're a bloody genius, setting up a Houndoom sweep is (in my opinion at least) outright impossible in this metagame.

So where does Houndoom's niche lie? IMO, as an anti-Psychic / Ghost Pokémon. With the mixed trapper set, you can effectively neutralize a high number of common Fighting checks (Psychics and Ghosts) to support your Fighting-type sweeper for the lategame. Funny thing is, while Houndoom is the least used UU Pokémon in the entire tier, it is arguably one of the most effective checks to nearly any Chandelure set.

It's kinda shameless to be self-advertising, but I honestly haven't seen anyone else besides me using Houndoom (as a matter of fact, it is the least used UU Pokémon in the meta IIRC), so you can take a look at my RMT to see what role Houndoom plays in my team.