SM Ubers Black Swallowtail (Ubers Anti-Stall)

[EternalSnowman]

Black Swallowtail

Hello, this is ESM here with an anti-stall team in Ubers. This was originally a project I made for hyw, as he wanted to know what could easily break his stall teams and this was one of the ideas I came up to beat him. It was highly successful, and has close to if not a 100% win rate in our games together (which is like 40-50 games). Note that this team needs specific techs that should change if you want to use it for Ladder or other things like that. I decided to put this team out after being asked for a few RMTs of some of my Ubers teams so I thought this would be a good one to start with.

Teambuilding Process:​

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I wanted to make a team around Tapu Koko + Zekrom, which is potent in dealing with a number of playstyles, but especially stall and BO in the current meta. With many teams only packing 1 or 2 reliable answers to Zekrom, and because the meta is trending towards teams with DuskMane as their defensive answers and offensive Primal Groudon. Zekrom is able to tear through most of stalls cores, as they run Lugia, Ho-oh, Gira-A, Supportceus, Blissey, etc. and everything either loses to Zekrom or fears the incoming Toxic. Tapu Koko is an underrated mon that provides a lot of pressure, with the Z-move it can pretty much eliminate a mon from play, and fear of the Z-move can make your opponent play passive, while it also has U-turn, and provides to checks to things like Yveltal and Primal Kyogre, while being surprisingly strong.

However, this obviously left the team open to massive defensive weaknesses, so Arceus-Ground comes in next, which provides a good defensive backbone, while also having reliable hazard control.

Primal-Groudon covers mons, and with Arceus-Ground provides a good defensive core, with SR and Defog.

Scarf Xern is added as a tech against offense, which can give Zekrom a hard time, and Scarf Xern is also borderline broken right now.

The final mon is then Tyranitar, as this mon allows you to prevent trapping, as it countertraps both Gothitelle and MGar, and provides another check to Support Arceus, Ho-oh and Yveltal which can prove challenging to switch into.

The Team:

Zekrom @ Magnet | Teravolt

Lonely | 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

- Bolt Strike

- Draco Meteor

- Toxic

- Roost


Zekrom is an absolute monster, if given the opportunity to reign free, there exists no defensive core in the game that can truly stop it, except perhaps Rest Primal Groudon. This set opts to go Magnet with +Attack, as a Choice Band bluff, as I run Choice Band on another team that I made before this. The moveset is specifically chosen to deal with Stall, but Roost can easily be dropped to instead add on Outrage or something of that nature.


252+ Atk Magnet Teravolt Zekrom Bolt Strike vs. 252 HP / 160+ Def Lugia: 398-470 (95.6 - 112.9%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Magnet Teravolt Zekrom Bolt Strike vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Ho-Oh: 500-590 (120.1 - 141.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Magnet Teravolt Zekrom Bolt Strike vs. 252 HP / 64 Def Arceus-Fairy in Electric Terrain: 378-445 (85.1 - 100.2%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

0 SpA Teravolt Zekrom Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Giratina: 282-332 (55.9 - 65.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

Tapu Koko @ Tapunium Z | Electric Terrain

Timid | 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

- Thunderbolt

- U-turn

- Grass Knot

- Nature's Madness


Tapu Koko is an amazing mon if played correctly, and has a lot to do with its Z-Move. Guardian of Alola removes 75% of a mons hp, which is amazing and in a meta where many mons don’t bring recovery, it can cripple them to points of no return. Taunt is a viable option over Grass Knot, as it makes matchups against HO significantly easier, as Tapu Koko will always beat both Cloyster and Smeargle on a 1 on 1. Some usage tips when regarding Koko in Ubers is to remember that it can block Rest with Electric Terrain, and remember that U-turn is often your best friend since it provides a free switch to your breakers on predicted doubles. Keeping Electric Terrain up isn’t huge for this team however, and often Zekrom just needs 1 or 2 turns to truly threaten the defensive cores, because Zek can be revenged somewhat easily, it only can utilize that 1 turn to claim its kill.

Arceus-Ground @ Earth Plate | Multitype

Timid | 248 HP / 68 Def / 192 Spe | IVs: 0 Atk

- Judgment

- Toxic

- Recover

- Defog


This is standard spread for Arceus-Ground, made to outspeed Mega Lucario, on this team I opted to drop Ice Beam for Toxic (which would be standard) because the only thing we truly miss out on is Celesteela (which Ice beam did jack to anyway), since we can scare out Mega Salamence with fear of Ice Beam, and Toxic can still beat it, and Zygarde’s Rest can be blocked by Tapu Koko, and also Glare. Arceus-Ground is a great defensive pivot, and also this teams main counter to Primal Groudon. It is pretty much advised that it should come in on Primal Groudon everytime, and try to keep this healthy.

Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb | Desolate Land

Sassy | 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD

- Precipice Blades

- Toxic

- Overheat

- Stealth Rock


This is a standard SpDef Don, specifically the Overheat variant, which I have been using as of late. This set which I believe I created or at least was one of the pioneers is really great, since it punishes many of Pdon’s standard switchins with Overheat then following it with a Toxic. This mon is also notably the only Xern check on this team, which means that you must keep it healthy in games where Xern may be a crucial mon, especially the Geomancy Sets.

Xerneas @ Choice Scarf | Fairy Aura

Modest | 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe | IVs: 0 Atk

- Moonblast

- Defog

- Toxic

- Aromatherapy


This is the mon which deals with Offense well, Moonblast is generally hard to switchin to and it can benefit from Tapu Koko shenanigans. The other 3 moveslots are just filler, Aroma support helps vs. Stall and BO, Defog can help vs. HO and Toxic is to help vs Stall. General usage tips are that you don’t want to get too greedy with Xern, as locking yourself into anything other than Moonblast is very punishable. Xern also hits harder than you think most of the time and can just clean up games very easily. Looking for opportunities by getting a ZMove or Toxic off on Pdon then spamming Moonblasts can often lead to winning games.

Tyranitar @ Lum Berry | Sand Stream

Adamant | 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

- Pursuit

- Crunch

- Toxic

- Stone Edge


Tyranitar is easily the most replaceable mon on this team, and actually a specific mechanism I put into this team to deal with a habit that this team is meant to beat (all variants of stall at least). With Lum Berry, Ttar is guaranteed to trap and kill Mgar, meaning it can never safely get any kill, while also needing a little prediction to trap Gothitelle, but also works. The rest of the moveset lets it hit Yveltal and Ho-oh and also not be complete set-up bait. Tyranitar also performs some other jobs, like checking Ekiller. It should be noted that Babiri Berry is a viable option with more bulk to make Tyranitar an emergency check to Dusk Mane, and Mega Tyranitar can also be used with the same set. Marshadow with Pursuit is another option courtesy of DawnManeDuskWings, that helps a lot vs. offense however note that you will have to play significantly better vs. Gengar Stall.


Threatlist:

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Double Dance Dusk Mane can provide issues as if it gets in on Choice-Locked Xern it can easily sweep the team, as there are no real answers other than baiting out the ZMove and revenging with Groundceus.

A team with limited Fairy resists can only expect to be weak to Xern, and if Pdon is forced to check multiple mons on the enemy team, especially the Double Fairy offense builds, it may be hard to fight back. Keeping Pdon healthy is the only way to deal with Xern efficiently.

Gothitelle + Specific Breakers

The only mon on this team that can be trapped is of course Arceus Ground, however if it does manage to trap it, there can be issues dealing with Primal Groudon and other common mons.


General HO:

If they are able to set hazards with Tapu Koko around, then it can be troublesome to remove them, some webs and Toxic Spikes HO variants can be very hard to deal with barring opponent misplays.

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Importable:

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Zekrom @ Magnet
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Bolt Strike
- Draco Meteor
- Toxic
- Roost

Tapu Koko @ Tapunium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- U-turn
- Grass Knot
- Nature's Madness

Arceus-Ground @ Earth Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 68 Def / 192 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Toxic
- Recover
- Defog

Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Precipice Blades
- Toxic
- Overheat
- Stealth Rock

Xerneas @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Defog
- Toxic
- Aromatherapy

Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Toxic
- Stone Edge

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Closing Word:

Just another reminder that this team is meant to be loaded into Stall/bulky teams and be an almost autowin. This team was not built in mind for general use, but if you wish to use it for that, then make sure to change to the techs I mention above. Also shoutouts to Luthier for helping me with this and hyw for testing this team with me and shoutout to Trace for giving me the idea for the name of this RMT

 

[Lotus]

Cool team you got there. Although I am not the greatest fan of Tapu Koko (due to it needing nearly flawless predictions) it is undeniable that it has good matchup against stall teams due to Nature's Madness and Electric Terrain blocking Rest from some prevalent fat 'mons. Zekrom is something I personally like a lot due to the anti-meta technique it features against bulkier teams.

Aside from that, the thing that immediately concerns me is the fact that this team gets straight up steamrolled by Mega Salamence if you give it a turn to set up; your Xerneas is obviously going to be slower than +1 mmence, and variants with Earthquake can easily dispose of Zekrom, Tapu Koko, and Tyranitar. Fortunate news is that Arceus-Ground, Primal Groudon, and Tyranitar after Intimidate, which Mega Salamence will most likely set up on, gets put on timer by Toxic and it won't have a time to deal with six of your 'mons, but it will still rampage through your team and Facade variants are essentially as threatening as Earthquake variants are to your team.

Another threat that can disrupt your team is Swords Dance variants of Arceus-Ground. The pokemon itself outright beats four of your team and if you try to Toxic it while it uses Substitute, it won't be harsh to say clicking x is going to do the job. Xerneas and Tapu Koko outspeeds but neither of them will OHKO. Arceus-Ground can at least break Substitute or survive +2 Earthquake but will be prone to +2 Tectonic Rage.


Quick solution to aforementioned issues can be using Ice Beam over Toxic on Arceus-Ground. I am aware of the fact that this leaves Arceus-Ground deadweight against Ho-oh but this is the only feasible way you can ever prevail against Mega Salamence without significantly changing the rest of your team. The potential drawback of running Ice Beam is being deadweight against Ho-oh, Arceus-Water, and maybe even defensive Yveltal with Roost, but your Tapu Koko + Zekrom core got them covered. Another thing I want to suggest is that using Pursuit Marshadow over Tyranitar. This solves all of your issues with SD Arceus formes. Obviously replacing Tyranitar with Marshadow makes your team even more vulnerable to Yveltal but Tapu Koko can switch into Choice Scarf variants about twice, and if you manage to get Stealth Rock up early, Yveltal won't be doing much outsides just spamming random U-turn's. Although Pursuit Marshadow involves prediction, it fulfills your desire to trap Mega Gengar and Gothitelle (both of them are highly unlikely to stay in against Marshadow in the first place).

tl;dr:

* Arceus-Ground:
Toxic -> Ice Beam

* Switch

->to

Marshadow @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat
- Pursuit

252 Atk Life Orb Marshadow Pursuit (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 80 Def Gothitelle: 213-252 (61.9 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 SpA Earth Plate Arceus-Ground Judgment vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Gothitelle: 102-121 (29.6 - 35.1%) -- 21.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

Worst case scenario. Marshadow's Pursuit puts Gothitelle into Arceus-Ground's Judgment range.

~~

Hope these feedbacks helped in anyway. The team is quite bothered by Arceus-Fairy but I hope someone better stops by and leaves appropriate solutions for that. Good luck with the team and

#FreeZekrom

 

[EternalSnowman]

Cool team you got there. Although I am not the greatest fan of Tapu Koko (due to it needing nearly flawless predictions) it is undeniable that it has good matchup against stall teams due to Nature's Madness and Electric Terrain blocking Rest from some prevalent fat 'mons. Zekrom is something I personally like a lot due to the anti-meta technique it features against bulkier teams.

Aside from that, the thing that immediately concerns me is the fact that this team gets straight up steamrolled by Mega Salamence if you give it a turn to set up; your Xerneas is obviously going to be slower than +1 mmence, and variants with Earthquake can easily dispose of Zekrom, Tapu Koko, and Tyranitar. Fortunate news is that Arceus-Ground, Primal Groudon, and Tyranitar after Intimidate, which Mega Salamence will most likely set up on, gets put on timer by Toxic and it won't have a time to deal with six of your 'mons, but it will still rampage through your team and Facade variants are essentially as threatening as Earthquake variants are to your team.

Another threat that can disrupt your team is Swords Dance variants of Arceus-Ground. The pokemon itself outright beats four of your team and if you try to Toxic it while it uses Substitute, it won't be harsh to say clicking x is going to do the job. Xerneas and Tapu Koko outspeeds but neither of them will OHKO. Arceus-Ground can at least break Substitute or survive +2 Earthquake but will be prone to +2 Tectonic Rage.


Quick solution to aforementioned issues can be using Ice Beam over Toxic on Arceus-Ground. I am aware of the fact that this leaves Arceus-Ground deadweight against Ho-oh but this is the only feasible way you can ever prevail against Mega Salamence without significantly changing the rest of your team. The potential drawback of running Ice Beam is being deadweight against Ho-oh, Arceus-Water, and maybe even defensive Yveltal with Roost, but your Tapu Koko + Zekrom core got them covered. Another thing I want to suggest is that using Pursuit Marshadow over Tyranitar. This solves all of your issues with SD Arceus formes. Obviously replacing Tyranitar with Marshadow makes your team even more vulnerable to Yveltal but Tapu Koko can switch into Choice Scarf variants about twice, and if you manage to get Stealth Rock up early, Yveltal won't be doing much outsides just spamming random U-turn's. Although Pursuit Marshadow involves prediction, it fulfills your desire to trap Mega Gengar and Gothitelle (both of them are highly unlikely to stay in against Marshadow in the first place).

tl;dr:

* Arceus-Ground:
Toxic -> Ice Beam

* Switch

->to

Marshadow @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat
- Pursuit

252 Atk Life Orb Marshadow Pursuit (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 80 Def Gothitelle: 213-252 (61.9 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 SpA Earth Plate Arceus-Ground Judgment vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Gothitelle: 102-121 (29.6 - 35.1%) -- 21.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

Worst case scenario. Marshadow's Pursuit puts Gothitelle into Arceus-Ground's Judgment range.

~~

Hope these feedbacks helped in anyway. The team is quite bothered by Arceus-Fairy but I hope someone better stops by and leaves appropriate solutions for that. Good luck with the team and

#FreeZekrom

Thanks for your suggestions! I was originally thinking about putting Marsh here, and is definitely better in non-fat matchups, so I will mention it in other options, however Marshadow lacks something that Tyranitar has, which is the ability to eliminate Mega Gengar from the game completely, as it safely switches on any move and traps it. The same is true for the Ice Beam > Toxic change, as I mentioned Ice Beam as a viable alternative if you are looking to use this in Ladder play or similar.

 

[Minority]

This team has an interesting anti-defensive concept based around the utilization of Zekrom, a Pokemon so many defensive teams feel terribly weak to. However, what is lacking in spades is counterplay to offensive threats, especially Grounds, Necrozma-DM, and Xerneas. I'd argue that being able to trump a variety of defensive teams is hardly worth being weak to the three most common Pokemon in the tier. The situation is even worse when they're paired with Primal Kyogre or Mega Salamence, and they often are. This team simply lacks resistances to such threats and provides them several options in which they may setup or force sacks. It also doesn't help that largely proactive Pokemon such as Zekrom and Tapu Koko are paired with momentum sinks like support Arceus-Ground. The stacking of quad Ground weaknesses, without a single resist no less, is baffling. The team as posted is very much something that should only be used to counterstyle a particular player - one who likes defensive teams, double Defog cores, and bulky Water-types.

If this team is to be adapted to ladder or more general tournament play, the structure needs to provide better options for Grounds, more control when faced by Necrozma-DM or Xerneas, and a more focused archetypical intent. The reason Zekrom and Tapu Koko are used so infrequently is because it is exceedingly difficult to craft a strong defensive structure around them. It is already very difficult to adequately cover this tier's premier offensive threats, either proactively or reactively, let alone when you're starting with two Pokemon that offer limited defensive utility or revenge killing capability. The focus of the archetype should shift to something more offensive as the basis of the concept are Pokemon that are constrained by their poor defensive synergy. I don't see this structure being able to reactively cover all major threats by stapling on four defensive Pokemon, which is not conducive to the team's goal of offensive synergy anyway. If the whole team can actually punish opponent's attempts at setup, then economy is gained since Zekrom and Tapu Koko can actually contribute to the cause.

At minimum, this structure needs some kind of Ground resistance in addition to Arceus-Ground. Mega Salamence and Yveltal are two of the better (and more obvious) options, but you can certainly go weirder. Pokemon such as Marshadow can also kick up the team's security vs. offense while still contributing to offensive synergy. I agree that ttar is probably the weakest link here, and I'd also question how necessary Xerneas is. Keep the sets proactive so that the opponent cannot get decent setup ops, and have one or two options to revenge. Zekrom + Koko + rational choice in offensive partners should be more than enough to bust open defensive teams, so focus on keeping momentum when facing opposing offenses.

 

[EternalSnowman]

This team has an interesting anti-defensive concept based around the utilization of Zekrom, a Pokemon so many defensive teams feel terribly weak to. However, what is lacking in spades is counterplay to offensive threats, especially Grounds, Necrozma-DM, and Xerneas. I'd argue that being able to trump a variety of defensive teams is hardly worth being weak to the three most common Pokemon in the tier. The situation is even worse when they're paired with Primal Kyogre or Mega Salamence, and they often are. This team simply lacks resistances to such threats and provides them several options in which they may setup or force sacks. It also doesn't help that largely proactive Pokemon such as Zekrom and Tapu Koko are paired with momentum sinks like support Arceus-Ground. The stacking of quad Ground weaknesses, without a single resist no less, is baffling. The team as posted is very much something that should only be used to counterstyle a particular player - one who likes defensive teams, double Defog cores, and bulky Water-types.

If this team is to be adapted to ladder or more general tournament play, the structure needs to provide better options for Grounds, more control when faced by Necrozma-DM or Xerneas, and a more focused archetypical intent. The reason Zekrom and Tapu Koko are used so infrequently is because it is exceedingly difficult to craft a strong defensive structure around them. It is already very difficult to adequately cover this tier's premier offensive threats, either proactively or reactively, let alone when you're starting with two Pokemon that offer limited defensive utility or revenge killing capability. The focus of the archetype should shift to something more offensive as the basis of the concept are Pokemon that are constrained by their poor defensive synergy. I don't see this structure being able to reactively cover all major threats by stapling on four defensive Pokemon, which is not conducive to the team's goal of offensive synergy anyway. If the whole team can actually punish opponent's attempts at setup, then economy is gained since Zekrom and Tapu Koko can actually contribute to the cause.

At minimum, this structure needs some kind of Ground resistance in addition to Arceus-Ground. Mega Salamence and Yveltal are two of the better (and more obvious) options, but you can certainly go weirder. Pokemon such as Marshadow can also kick up the team's security vs. offense while still contributing to offensive synergy. I agree that ttar is probably the weakest link here, and I'd also question how necessary Xerneas is. Keep the sets proactive so that the opponent cannot get decent setup ops, and have one or two options to revenge. Zekrom + Koko + rational choice in offensive partners should be more than enough to bust open defensive teams, so focus on keeping momentum when facing opposing offenses.

Yep I completely agree with what you are saying here, the team originally was a counterstyle to a specific player (this was a project for hyw) and as stated in the OP I also said to use it with risk on ladder and whatnot. I have a couple other teams that have Koko Zekrom with more offensive mon that aim to patch weaknesses for general ladder play but I wanted to share this team because I have had a lot of fun with it and also have been seeing a lot of people struggle against stall players. Thanks for the rate tho!

 

[Norman2509]

I love the structure of the team. The core impressed me and you utilized it perfectly. Anti-Stall teams are always prone to Offensive teams and this isn't that much bad against offense and I loved that. However this team lacks protection against some of the main threats especially when Mega Salamence and Primal Kyogre are in a team together. And I doubt if Xerneas is important because as you said it has filler moves which doesn't have a good combination with the rest of the team. I would suggest you using Scarf Yveltal instead of Scarf Xerneas.

Yveltal @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 8 Atk / 248 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- U-turn
- Oblivion Wing
- Dark Pulse
- Foul Play

Deals with Dusk Mane better, Outspeeds Marshadow and kills the SD Variants of Arceus. Also if you want better matchup against Mega Salamence then you should consider using Ice Beam on GroundCeus instead of Toxic. Just spamming Toxic doesn't benefit anything in these type of teams as you already have Zekrom to deal with Bulky and Stall teams. Using Taunt over Grass Knot on Tapu Koko makes it as a good lead against mons like Smeargle. Sash Marshadow with Pursuit also works well if you want better matchup against offensive teams.

Good luck with the team! :]