BD AZU DESTROYS WALKING WAKE Introduction
Yo, I'm back to playing gen 9 after the drop of walking wake, who seems to be on everyone's radar atm. Anyways, here's a team that has sufficient counterplay to wake despite not packing a water immunity + doesn't need tera. Azu is one of my faves (my main in pokemon unite even), and soon as I saw water+dragon coverage being spammed by the new suicune, I realised that azu stocks have gone up yet again. I made this team for a few reasons, firstly, I wanted to see how Walking wake counterplay can be made without using a water immunity, and also, I wanted to test out magnezone's viability. Unfortunately, I managed to miss every single corv on the planet and so I didn't trap a single bird in my 20+ games of testing. This team is also a hstack team that doesn't have a ghost or gholdengo, instead relies on pressuring the opponent and denying spin opportunites, like a HO would. I reached 1850s or something. Anyways, here's the team. Enjoy.
Pokepaste
https://pokepast.es/e84c2d1e9138d103
Kiss It Better (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Multiscale
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 224 HP / 252 Atk / 12 SpA / 20 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Draco Meteor
Dnite is incredibly strong right now, even if you know what set you're going against. However, in this case, they do not know what set they're going against. Behold, LO draco dnite. Spinning is easy in this meta because of how strong Great Tusk is (will elaborate later), and you really need LO's power boost. 12 SpA OHKOS tank chomp with draco, 20 speed outspeeds Great Tusk at +1, the rest into attack and bulk, since a) espeed doesn't rely on speed and b) fast espeed resists (eg pult) won't try to revenge kill you since most dnite are max speed, and pult runs into the 50/50 of draco'ing into a tera normal dnite. So why is draco on this set? Well, it allows dnite to beat unaware mons and great tusk. Because of unaware, they ignore your spatk drops and so you can spam a 130 BP special move on a presumably lower SpD stat. For example:
12 SpA Life Orb Dragonite Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Dondozo: 261-308 (51.7 - 61.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
12 SpA Life Orb Dragonite Draco Meteor vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Great Tusk: 305-360 (82.2 - 97%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
12 SpA Life Orb Dragonite Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 188 SpD Skeledirge: 187-222 (45.3 - 53.8%) -- 42.2% chance to 2HKO (need some chip)
It's mainly for dondozo, since the fish can't do much back to dnite, but can also help for chomp or physdef rotom. In terms of team synergy, I mostly use this dnite to clean, with the extra power of LO helping reach higher thresholds, but I've used it as an early-game breaker against teams where azu can sweep. Dnite punishes choice-locked walking wake, as if they go dragon move to kill dnite, you can setup for free with azu, and vice versa.
Consideration @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Tera Blast
This was the mon I built the team around, but also the mon I wasn't sure about. The premise is to set up goober hazards and trap corv with zone, which also helps corv-weak teammates. However, I did not run into a single corv, somehow. This mon is also another backup defensive-ish mon, and also a wallbreaker that's surprisingly hard to switch into unless they have a ting-lu or treads. Ting-lu is hella passive and abused by teammates, and treads is also abused by tusk.
Work @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Headlong Rush
- Rapid Spin
Tusk does tusk things. At first, I considered tusk + hatt or tusk + corv for extra hazard control. However, Tusk is enough for hazard control with this specific set. First, booster energy makes your opponents get shook, thinking oh shit, it's offensive tusk, which causes them to switch into a defensive mon to respect CC/Headlong. This allows you to spin easier since it's far riskier for them to go pult/gholden. Second, rocks on this set, as well as the fact that the team has no other possible rocker may make the opponent think you don't even have spin, and instead have knock or another move. Aside from spinning, this mon heavily chips rotom which is a counter to azu and needs to be chipped for dnite. Also, tusk is a rocker that beats treads and loses to corv. Corv gets trapped, and beating treads denies spin. The only issue is defensive tusk, which gets heavily chipped and also loses to rotom/ is a setup opportunity for dnite or azu.
Needed Me @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
I personally think Rotom is a top 3 mon, since it's so splashable and always helps with progress/defensive counterplay. Spdef rotom is used here to soft-check shadow balls from pult and gholdengo, and twave allows you to annoy pult/volc. If they predict correctly with scarf/specs gholden and shadow ball on an expected Rotom switch, you can punish by going dnite and tera-ing. Rotom isn't for anything particular, just always a good mon to have.
Woo (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Bulldoze
The star of the show: azu. At first, I was using CB. Then I realised that CB is very prediction reliant, and doesn't sufficiently punish walking wake. I wanted something that would punish walking wake's existence, AKA force a win. This is where BD azu comes in, as a lategame cleaner alongside espeed dnite, when their rotom, dondozo, etc are all chipped. Azu is kind of an underdog mon and not often seen, but trust me, this thing carries and synergises very well with the team, as shown by replays below.
Love On The Brain @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Overgrow
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Flower Trick
- Knock Off
Meowscarada is one of the most popular leads rn, and for good reason. Access to dual spikes and an insane movepool, and the valuable quality of being a hazard setter that beats great tusk. Unfortunately for most teams, Meow cannot keep hazards up against corv (unless you have a gholdengo), which is where zone comes in play. Spikes and tspikes are both very crucial, to break down tusk and dondozo specifically, as well as lower the thresholds for +1 espeed or +6 aqua jet. Miracle seed because flower trick under overgrow becomes insanely strong with it. Also acts as a ghost resist.
Threatlist
Annoying because you have to predict its set, and usually these teams are fast-paced and hard to spin against.
there is sufficient counterplay but this mon can be very annoying to prevent the setup / prediction reliant if it's CB. also fat and resists AJReplays
Dnite Sweeps
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Got very lucky, but Azu kills 6
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Early game dnite sets up for azu sweep
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