Burning all to Ashes

[shiranai]

Since the beginning of the UU metagame, two great powerhouses were always present in the metagame, and they are also one of the main reason of the huge popularity of Flash Fire and Thick Fat in the tier: Chandelure and Darmanitan. So, why not building a team around these two?

Team Building

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The team intended to have they both as offensive cores, so here they are.

With both them, I needed some defensive cores. Gligar pack one of the highest Def status of the tier thanks to Eviolite, and Lickilicky, even not having the same bulky of Snorlax, can also work as a cleric.

Gligar can take a lot of physical hits, but Lickilicky can't, so I need another SDef poke. Empoleon came to mind since it has a good typing by having a stell type.

A team always need to carry a setupper, and at the same time that I needed a plant poke to take some hits and get rid of some bulky water. Lilligant is one of the few plants that can setup.

The Team
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Darmanitan (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Superpower
Darmanitan is the physical sweeper of the team. Unless the opposing threat carries a Scarf it will either get KOed or won't be able to OHKO Darmanitan. I prefer Superpower over Stone Edge more because of accuracy, since I left the EdgeQuake coverage away. Life Orb is here since I'm able to bluff a classical Scarf build, attracting opposing Flash Fire, most of them are taken down by EQ or SP. U-Turn gives coverage against Slowbro/king, but it helps more to keep the offensive momentum than to damage these duo.

Chandelure (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
This Chand is my favorite set because it simply hits too hard. Fire Blast is prefered over Overheat so I can attempt a sweep after a Flash Fire boost, and this can happen more often than you expect. Since Blast is my main move, all the other three are to coverage most switches to Chand: HP fight can do decent damage in both Snorlax and Porygon2 and OHKO Houndoom, Energy Ball can hit 2HKO most bulky waters and Shadow Ball is to hit opposing Chands and can do considerable damage since gets STAB too. The only thing people think can do is to take a Fire Blast after Flash Fire being activated, and this is why I can sweep even without a Scarf holded.

Empoleon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Scald
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam
- Roar
As my water choice I had two options: someone to setup hazards or someone to spin away hazards. i decided to choose Empoleon, who can setup hazards, since thanks to Rocks I'm able to nail more KOs than I would without, at the same time the small damage Rocks do helps a little by lowering the recoil from Darmanitan. Roar helps getting rid of opposing setuppers, and Ice Beam is to hit Gligar, since now it can carry both Immunity and Roost.

Lilligant (F) @ Lum Berry/Life Orb

Trait: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Quiver Dance
- Giga Drain
- Sleep Powder
- Hidden Power [Rock]
Lilligant can become a real threat with decent prediction and few setup. The point here is to know the time to use Quiver Dance or Sleep Powder when Lilli forces a switch. Giga Drain improves her survivebility, but Lilli doesn't seems to be quite resistant, maybe Petal Dance seems a better option. HP rock is to counter most of the switches to her, that is consisted of mainly fire and flying pokes, and since she can at least force two switches, even some Scarfers may not be able to revenge her. My only doubt is the item: Lum Berry is cool since paralysis is more common in UU than OU metagame, but the extra damage from Life Orb can mean the difference between a KO for me or for my opponent.

Gligar (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Immunity
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Substitute
- Toxic
Most Gligars carry Rocks with him, working almost like a tiny Skarmory, but I prefer this build. Toxic can cripples most bulky water pokes, and with Roost and Substitute it can stall long enough to get a KO or two, and thanks to Eviolite Gligar can win a match against Heracross, even the (not so common) Guts build. Since the tier is full of fire pokes, EQ is a most, and thanks to the STAB it can do a nice damage, even with his mediocre Atk. And now, thanks to BW2, Gligar can carry both his Dream World hability and Roost, making possible to him to defeat Umbreon now.

Lickilicky (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Knock Off
Since I gave in about a spinner, and my offensive core is simply weak to Stealth Rocks, I needed at least a Wish passer. And this Lickilicky is the best image of what a uitility pokemon can be: Wish and Heal Bell makes this other pink pokemon a nice cleric, and Knock Off disrupts many pokes, since the tier is filled with both Eviolite and Scarf users, that can counter Darmanitan quite easily, and completely ruins Chandelure. I wish Licki could have either Natural Cure or a better way to phaze, since Dragon Tail can't bypass a Substitute (most of the times can't even break a subs since to the ridiculous Atk status).

 

[silenced]

Looks like a good team, but a few things.

Firstly, I see a rather big weakness to SubCM raikou here. While it seems the popularity of the choice sets has gone up, the fact is that short of trying to get lilligant to boost alongside Raikou, you are in a lot of trouble once a sub from that thing goes up. While it doesn't have the greatest number of set-up opportunities, both gligar and empoleon are forced out (HP ice for gligar) and then you have problems from there.

I'm not really sure how to address the problem exactly, but I think there are a few ways to do it while not changing pokemon in your team, and perhaps offering one or two more advantages. I think lickilicky needs a change to its movepool, as it has seemingly enough bulk to switch in to raikou and take attacks if it turns out to be choice locked (hopefully not aura sphere), or use earthquake if it subs. Repeatedly breaking the sub will force it out. I think you can afford to drop heal bell from its moveset for EQ. Gligar can function as a status absorber for the most part, and if worst comes to worst, empoleon for scald burns. Lum berry may also be preferred on lilligant too if you do this, but I'm not too sure about that choice.

In addition, much as darmanitan loves life orb, to me, I think it has to be run with a scarf in your team, otherwise you have nothing that can outpace raikou and kill it, should lickilicky fail, or you break the sub too late. This also gives you a way to revenge any heracross variant, should gligar go down (since most opponents will see gligar as the only safe switch to it, and hence have something prepared for it).

Up to you if you think those changes are necessary, as it seems people prefer choice spces/scarf these days, though your team is in some danger if you mispredict who takes the blow from raikou.

Secondly, I'm not certain if its released yet, or is legal with its current moves, but your team would appreciate lickilicky more if it had cloud nine as its ability. It'd be quite useful during the hail testing, and also for rain teams who'd put a dampener on your fire pokemon.

Since I'm guessing you have good prediction capabilities, there's not much more I need to say. I can't see anything else as a major threat to your team, and I haven't much experience with wish passing, so it seems solid otherwise.

 

[Red M]

Switch Empoleon out for something else. Blastoise gets rid of rocks that plague your fire-type superstars. Alternatively, you could use Swampert. It's weak only to grass, but you've got three grass resistances on your team, so that's a non-issue. Swampert is a better matchup against all fighting types, Raikou, and Nidoking, and can use all the moves you have on your Empoleon set.

 

[Daz Bones]

I agree with Red M. The only thing is to change Scald to Waterfall and Ice Beam to Ice Punch because Swampert is more of a physical attacker :)