SV OU Beartic Rain (peaked at 41 on ladder 1914 elo)

[Protalithic]

The Bear goes to OU





https://pokepast.es/b88fa459f6a18fe9

I wanna get Beartic to #1 on the ladder. Current peak was at 41 (1914 elo), so I wanna see if anyone wants to try the team as it is or has any suggestions to put it over the edge (or if you think I just need to grind it a bit more). I’ll break down what everyone does.


Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Surf
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Ice Beam

Obviously sets rain and pivots. Full phys def. In a pinch can be used to check both Dragonite and Zamazenta. Against Samu you just have to accept that a spike is going up. Lead Pel and u turn out to break a potential sash and then bring in whatever attacker to kill/hit the opposing team. Can Tera steel to resist extreme speed from dragonite after a few DD’s, but have to be careful with the Tera because pel is the primary Zama counter if the opponent gets a few iron defenses.


Hatterene @ Eject Button
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Def / 128 SpA / 128 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draining Kiss
- Psychic Noise
- Healing Wish
- Psyshock

Eject button to get in one of the four attackers once rain is up while also blocking all potential hazards aside from ceaseless (and stone axe but who uses kleavor). The hazard prevention, specifically rocks, is very important because Pel, Zapdos and Beartic are all rocks weak and are not wearing boots. Luckily the combo of this and the general pressure provided by the four attackers is usually enough to keep rocks off all game. As stated above, against Samu, a spike is going up. There’s nothing to be done about it. You can usually work around it. Don’t waste the eject pack on ceaseless, just u turn out with Pel. Tera ghost to spin block on a tusk or treads that just tried to set up rocks and got bounced.


Barraskewda @ Mystic Water
Ability: Swift Swim
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 28 Def / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Poison Jab
- Close Combat
- Flip Turn

Primary late game sweeper and also outspeeds and KO’s every booster mon and scarfer. Sometimes even with just a flip turn. Liquidate while you can get KO’s and if not just flip turn out. When your dealing with Wogerpon, as you often will be, I’ve found that using mystic water has them often thinking you are choiced, so you can just poison jab them in the face because they’d rather set up or click cudgel than click power whip anyway. Once it’s down to like 15 health, Skewda is free to terrorize everything. There are other obstacles besides Wogerpon, and those are dealt with by the other three attackers.


Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ivy Cudgel
- Power Whip
- Play Rough
- Encore

The nightmare of all Alomalola, who would otherwise terrorize this team. Can switch in forever on Alo and put a massive dent in with power whip. Cudgel hits like a truck in rain, in addition to the high crit chance. Play rough hits dragons like Dragonite, Pult, Bolt and Kyurem. Encore for late game Gambit, Bolt or anyone else who is trying to set up. Power whip is also useful for all the defensive mons that Tera water against this team. A very common interaction will be glowking Tera water in front of Wogerpon. Predict where you like.


Zapdos @ Assault Vest
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 40 SpD / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Weather Ball

Another Alomalola check and the special attacker of the team. Inevitably against this team, some opposing defensive mon is going to Tera water, usually glowking, garg, ting Lu or Lando. 100% accurate thunders from Zap handle this nicely, and can even Tera electric for some extra juice on this against the Tera water gargs and glowkings. Can also be useful to check zamazenta. AV gives it some extra special bulk so it’s a great switch in to gholdengo or other special attackers. Also an excellent counter to Valiant as it resists CC while AV bulk means it tanks moonblasts and OHKOs with hurricane. Have to be careful around ting Lu and Raging bolt. Weather ball does a solid chunk to ting Lu, but hazards absolutely cannot go up for this squad, so make sure hat is alive. My reasoning for using this over Raging Bolt is threefold. One, simply the speed, it outruns Lando, Gliscor and Tusk, so can weather ball all of them into oblivion, and this team relies on constant pressure so outspeeding and KO’ing these three potential hazard setters is essential. Two, ground immune, those three above can’t even EQ it. Three, hurricane is spammable in the rain, which is great just on its own but is also helpful for the rare grass types that this team runs into like Rillaboom, Venasaur on sun teams, Amoongus on stall teams or the more rare grass Tera mons.


Beartic @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Swift Swim
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 28 Def / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Substitute

My pride and joy. On top of outspeeding most of the metagame while packing stab icicle spear with CC and EQ for coverage off a 394 attack stat, Bear handles some of the biggest obstacles to rain teams, dragons. A very common matchup against this team will be lead Kyurem against our lead pelipper. Normally, a specs freeze dry would be devastating. Have no fear, the Bear is here. The Bear will take only 30 something percent while immediately outspeeding and threatening Kyurem with Close Combat or at least 4 hits from icicle spear. This is also very useful against sub protect variants as you can break the sub and do some damage. Another common matchup is raging bolt against lead pellipper. This is handled pretty easily with a simple switch in to hat, eject pack out to the Bear who outspeeds and OHKO’s raging bolt from full with icicle spear. Can also scout Tera with sub. Can also Tera ground yourself so your immune to Thunderclap or want to set up a sub on an incoming thunderbolt. If you force Tera on the raging bolt, AV Zapdos now easily deals with it. Also OHKOs Dragonite and Zapdos which are commonly problems for the rest of the team. The EVs are such that it outspeeds all non scarfers or booster mons aside from Zama, Pult, and occasionally Deoxys. Zama you’re never staying in on anyway. Same with Deoxys. Outspeeding Pult could be useful sometimes, but it isn’t worth the decrease in damage output generally. As it is, the Adamant bear can OHKO tusk with spear on five hits and can KO balloon gold with EQ after it switches in on an icicle spear. Also you can just bluff that your faster, the Pult willl often switch out and never know. Substitute is also useful for outplaying late game Gambit or in combo with Wogerpon encore. Also handles the grass mons mentioned with Zapdos above. Tera ground can also be useful to get stab on EQ and catch an unsuspecting glowking or pech off guard.



This is the highest I’ve ever been on the OU ladder and I did it with a team I created and with a mon I hold dear so I am very proud. Let me know your guys thoughts.

Some replays below

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2372963196

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2376451392

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2375372321-rqtgdr8n54lfd4skdyha6d7i3ipu0xfpw?p2

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2376589289

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2377917661-f2i98scsb72mbmlv7na66kkk35qoa03pw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2376596362-3s28gwwn5ugsuqmm0plrx0bepkqtcofpw

 

[toshimelonhead]

I see you took my advice :) . Welcome to Smogon.

Here are some clarifications I missed the first time. If you want sprites, put colons on the edges of each sv/pokemon tag. Example is :sv/pokemon:. Putting beartic for example where pokemon is in that example will get the sprite. The descriptions themselves are close to long enough, but there might be grumbling for some that aren't exactly over 3 lines in length. Pelipper is probably the only clear offender here, but more description to a point always helps. No need for a novel, just enough to rationalize decisions.

Other helpful tips: The replays have a ton of space between them. It's not anything people will complain about, but it's easier to read if they are closer together. Another key feature if you want to hide things is use hide tags. Examples below:

:sv/Beartic: <- sprites
[HIDE]Beartic is awesome[/HIDE] <- hide tags

Full rate later.

 

[Protalithic]

I see you took my advice :) . Welcome to Smogon.

Here are some clarifications I missed the first time. If you want sprites, put colons on the edges of each sv/pokemon tag. Example is :sv/pokemon:. Putting beartic for example where pokemon is in that example will get the sprite. The descriptions themselves are close to long enough, but there might be grumbling for some that aren't exactly over 3 lines in length. Pelipper is probably the only clear offender here, but more description to a point always helps. No need for a novel, just enough to rationalize decisions.

Other helpful tips: The replays have a ton of space between them. It's not anything people will complain about, but it's easier to read if they are closer together. Another key feature if you want to hide things is use hide tags. Examples below:

:sv/Beartic: <- sprites
[HIDE]Beartic is awesome[/HIDE] <- hide tags

Full rate later.

Thank you! Edited the thread

 

[Pinkacross]

I honestly think Beartic is irredeemably bad. That being said, even a terrible pokemon can perform decently well with good playing and good support. Nicely done, I'm impressed!

 

[MilkyWay]

I’ve been trying this team out and the offensive nature of it makes it a lot of fun. I play rain a lot and using Beartic as a Kyurem switch in and Dragonite/grass breaker is a great concept. Interestingly my two highest ladder peaks this gen have also been a rain team with one unranked mon (Taurus Aqua and Toxicroak) so we have that in common.

Some set questions:

1) Have you explored other moved such as Swords Dance, Encore, Taunt, or Liquidation over Close Combat on Beartic? After playing with your team I now see why Substitute is such a good move (beforehand I assumed swords dance would be better), but I didn’t find myself clicking Close Combat too much. I get that it’s for Kyurem, but seems like they switch out anyway and it’s not even a OHKO. Feels like Sub or icicle spear are better clicks after switching into Kyu

2) Have you thought about Aqua Jet on Barraskweda over Poison Jab? I’ve used mystic water barra and really liked being able to switch moves to aqua jet to surprise would-be revenge killers that assume CB. Also seems like it would make the gambit matchup easier. And both CC and PJ are 2HKO on wellspring

3) What are the 28 def Evs and speed Evs on Beartic for specifically? Same with the 216 speed Evs on Zapdos

EDIT: nvm i see you explained the Beartic Evs

Some general questions about your experience with rain:

1) What do you think of Iron Treads on rain? In theory it checks Kyurem, Bolt, spins, and puts down hazards but in practice it always seems so underwhelming. Feels like it offers so much role compression on rain teams that I include it on most of mine, but my complaints with it have lead me to try maushold, tusk, hat, and even boots builds. None have been too successful for me, but nice to see you found success with hat

2) Have you had success with other rain teams and if so would you mind sharing? Just curious to see how other people approach this style

 

[Protalithic]

I’ve been trying this team out and the offensive nature of it makes it a lot of fun. I play rain a lot and using Beartic as a Kyurem switch in and Dragonite/grass breaker is a great concept. Interestingly my two highest ladder peaks this gen have also been a rain team with one unranked mon (Taurus Aqua and Toxicroak) so we have that in common.

Some set questions:

1) Have you explored other moved such as Swords Dance, Encore, Taunt, or Liquidation over Close Combat on Beartic? After playing with your team I now see why Substitute is such a good move (beforehand I assumed swords dance would be better), but I didn’t find myself clicking Close Combat too much. I get that it’s for Kyurem, but seems like they switch out anyway and it’s not even a OHKO. Feels like Sub or icicle spear are better clicks after switching into Kyu

2) Have you thought about Aqua Jet on Barraskweda over Poison Jab? I’ve used mystic water barra and really liked being able to switch moves to aqua jet to surprise would-be revenge killers that assume CB. Also seems like it would make the gambit matchup easier. And both CC and PJ are 2HKO on wellspring

3) What are the 28 def Evs and speed Evs on Beartic for specifically? Same with the 216 speed Evs on Zapdos

EDIT: nvm i see you explained the Beartic Evs

Some general questions about your experience with rain:

1) What do you think of Iron Treads on rain? In theory it checks Kyurem, Bolt, spins, and puts down hazards but in practice it always seems so underwhelming. Feels like it offers so much role compression on rain teams that I include it on most of mine, but my complaints with it have lead me to try maushold, tusk, hat, and even boots builds. None have been too successful for me, but nice to see you found success with hat

2) Have you had success with other rain teams and if so would you mind sharing? Just curious to see how other people approach this style

Glad you’re enjoying the team!

To answer your questions:

Have I experimented with Beartic’s set?

1. Not really to be honest. I tried a few different things but didn’t try Swords Dance, Encore, Taunt or Liquidation (or Aqua Jet or Tera Electric which are other things I’ve thought about but haven’t tried). On Close Combat generally, I pretty much agree with you. Off the Kyurem switch in I am nearly always pressing Spear unless Kyu happens to be in kill range. That being said CC has had its uses. Mainly, it’s most useful for OHKOing Gambit or forcing the Tera on it. Gambit (and priority generally) can be a pretty big problem for this team so being able to set up a sub on a sucker punch and then get a guaranteed OHKO with CC is useful. CC is also useful against Darkrai since it does OHKO, however it is hard to tell when Darkrai is scarf or not and spear is also capable of OHKOing, although far less frequently. I do think experimenting with that slot could be pretty fruitful and I’m curious what results you would have.

Have I thought about Aqua Jet on Skewda?

1. I have actually thought about this a lot, but have never tried it. You’re completely correct it would make the gambit matchup much easier and would just generally be useful. To me though, I always thought the ability to hit Wogerpon and then survive a cudgel in the rain was more valuable because it just gets you past that massive roadblock. Again though, I have thought about this a lot and just never tested so I’m not positive that Aqua Jet wouldn’t be better.

Zapdos EVs?

1. Just enough speed to outrun Gliscor, and then get to invest the rest in SpDef to maximize AV return value.

Iron treads opinion?

1. I think treads is serviceable but just inferior to hat on this team personally. You’re right about it checking Bolt and Kyu, spinning and setting up rocks, but to me, since spinning can be so hard in Gen 9 OU with Pech and Balloon Gold running around, my preference is to just never let hazards get down in the first place if I can, especially rocks with this squad.

Other rain team success?

1. Sadly I actually haven’t, this is far and away my most successful rain team and I tried out a few before this (it’s actually my most successful team ever in OU), but I am a relatively new competitive player.

Let me know if you end up testing anything out, would love to hear about the results!