The Team:
The Process:
I started building this team as I began my self-quarantine after returning from college around mid-March. I was bored and so I got back on Pokemon Showdown for the first time since generation 6 and noticed that DP UU was one of the past generation ladders available. In looking through the cast of UU pokemon, I wanted to find a Pokemon to build around that I liked and which was at it's best in generation 4. I ended up landing on Drapion because of his cool shiny form and because he peaked in UU at his introduction.
First, I Googled "Smogon Drapion team UU peaked" and found a good bulky offense team by the user Legacy Raider from 2009, I replaced the banned Shaymin with Exeggutor and the team worked very well. However I did not like two things; the nooby Ambipom lead and the thrilling but unreliable scope lens + sniper Drapion.
So, I made a new team of my own, and moved Drapion to the lead role with a defensive toxic spikes support set. I was able to find success with this team but kept getting bodied by two particular Pokemon that are unaffected by toxic spikes: Venusaur and Registeel. I used Choice Specs Altaria as my counter for both of them and her Fire Blast just wasn't strong enough, being unable to 2HKO Registeel. And with Venusaur being a monster in the tier and eliminating my toxic spikes just by switching in I realized it would be my team's primary enemy. I needed a fire-type.
Moltres was my weapon of choice. I built the rest of the team around covering for its weaknesses so it can eventually clean up the game by its fire-type attacks and stalling with toxic spikes, substitute, and roost. To use Moltres, I need to be able to eliminate stealth rocks so I added Hitmonchan with rapid spin, replacing my ghost-type. Sceptile works as a counter to bulky waters that threaten Moltres and wall Slowbro, and carries edge-quake coverage. Rest-Talk + Calm Mind Slowbro works as an alternative win condition with toxic spikes. Steelix is a top wall and hazard setter with roar to spread poison.
The last team was an improvement, Registeel and Venusaur are much easier to deal with, but I still found myself getting bodied by some hard counters that would get rid of my toxic spikes, which severely weakened both of my win conditions. To remedy those problems, I made the whole entire team into a supporting cast for Moltres. While this team was weaker than the last one, it would ultimately be the basis for my final squad. I replaced Hitmontop/Slowbro with Blastoise as a spinner/bulky water, and found Blastoise was too weak to do both roles. Hariyama provides a lot of utility with priority attacks, guts status absorption, whirlwind to spread poison and special bulk that pairs well with Drapion, but it's also too weak. So that I would be not be vulnerable to rapid spin getting rid of my toxic spikes, I replaced Sceptile with a Calm Mind Mismagius packing Thunderbolt to counter bulky waters. Having a spinblocker is nice, having to basically sacrifice it to get rid of the ubiquitous Milotic is not. Lastly, Dugtrio (with or without scarf) replacing Steelix was perfect for this team, I will explain why later.
At last, onto the final team:
Scorpio (Drapion) (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Battle Armor
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 224 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def / 28 Spe
Impish Nature
- Taunt
- Crunch
- Toxic Spikes
- Whirlwind/Protect
Drapion as a toxic spikes setter was the starting point for this team. With his 95 base speed, his taunt is enough to stop a lot of set up sweepers and especially stealth rock setters which is key for protecting Moltres. Toxic spikes are used to enable Slowbro as well as Moltres to stall out basically any other Pokemon using their healing moves. Protect would be used to counter fake out using leads and to scout, but I find the utility from whirlwind which spreads status and gets rid of swords dance users makes it slightly preferable. Using it gives me more incentive to preserve Drapion, as he has a ton of utility late game when he packs three team supporting moves. Crunch is his best STAB considering poison's horrible coverage. Black Sludge punishes any leads using trick. 28 Speed outspeeds jolly Torterra's earthquake, 224 HP is odd and a leftovers number and 252 def capitalizes on Drapion's base 110 defense bulk.
I Eat Ass (Slowbro) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 216 HP / 196 Def / 96 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Surf
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Slowbro is my setup sweeper, bulky water, and backup win condition to Moltres. Calm Mind provides a way for her to gradually become an offensive threat with surf, while at the same time turning Slowbro into an invincible mixed tank. Because she carries rest, Slowbro is also my status absorber for the team. Although I describe it as the backup to Moltres, Slowbro may more often be the finisher. Dugtrio is excellent at taking care of electric-types that would threaten Slowbro while Moltres can easily handle Venusaur or any other grass-type. Usually, bulky water types that resist surf would also wall Slowbro but with the help of toxic spikes this set can easily take down even Milotic. Pivot or boost and sweep.
2.5 Men (Dugtrio) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Arena Trap
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Pursuit/Sucker Punch
- Stone Edge
- Substitute
Dugtrio's trapping is amazing for this team. Dugtrio is able to reliably get rid of a ton of the Pokemon that threaten Moltres like rock-types, electric-types, and Chansey. Dugtrio also enables me to reset toxic spikes because its STAB earthquake wipes out every single grounded poison-type that can soak up my toxic spikes. I don't use a choice scarf because substitute is needed so that I can avoid Toxicroak's sucker punch and get rid of it. Sucker punch provides some badly needed priority to the team, but pursuit lets Dugtrio switch into thunderbolt and trap unpoisoned levitating spinblockers such as Rotom and Mismagius, clearing the way for Moltres.
Dreidel (Hitmontop) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Foresight
- Close Combat
- Sucker Punch
To use Moltres, I absolutely need to be able to get rid of stealth rocks before it gets sent in, meaning that I need to use rapid spin. Hitmontop is a great bulky rapid spinner thanks to his intimidate ability and numerous ways to get rid of ghost-types, namely foresight and sucker punch. Foresight on a predicted ghost-type switch in allows Hitmontop to either use his STAB or simply remove stealth rocks while sucker punch is super-effective priority against spinblockers. The EV set capitalizes on his higher base special defense and relies on intimidate to supplement his weaker physical bulk. Because intimidate causes most physical sweepers to switch, Hitmontop can be a very effective scout.
Plug (Rotom) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Trick
Base form Rotom is my scarfer, my spinblocker, and my counter to bulky waters all compressed into one Pokemon. Trick is a massively useful ability against walls and rapid spinners, as none of them want speed. Thunderbolt allows Rotom to bring the smackdown upon bulky waters, pairing nicely with hidden power ice which hits important Pokemon like Altaria and Torterra for 4x damage and provides excellent bolt-beam coverage. With choice scarf Rotom also has the ability to surprise a lot of sweepers with a deadly shadow ball to the face. Because of its base 91 speed, I think Rotom needs to carry the choice scarf to compare to Mismagius offensively with the advantage being its dual STAB. The main downside is that both STAB moves are vulnerable to type immunities sometimes giving my opponent a free turn because I am choiced.
FireChickn (Moltres) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 24 HP / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Substitute
- Flamethrower
Everything else is the glue of the team, and this bird alone is the team. Why does Moltres need that much glue? Well, it's pretty broken. Moltres takes great advantage of toxic spikes with its amazing stall capabilities. Moltres is enabled to stall by using substitute to avoid status and roost to recover the health cost of substitute and pressure to drain enemy PP. In addition, Moltres has powerful double STAB which is only resisted by rock-types and Lanturn which are both easily eliminated by Dugtrio. Slowbro can easily tank aqua jet which is another Moltres counter. Moltres' biggest weakness is to stealth rock, which is why I use taunt, pursuit, foresight and rapid spin on this team. 252 special attack EVs are to hit as hard as possible, the 232 speed EVs outspeed neutral base 100s, and 24 HP EVs lands on an odd number.
THE END.
Thank you so much for reading all of this! I really hope an experienced DP UU player or anyone who did well on last month's ladder will look at the thread and give me their thoughts. I am absolutely willing to change the team to make it better, even Drapion, which I hope the comprehensive team history made clear! Please ask questions if you think of any, or point out any UU threats you think this squad cannot handle and if you can please suggest a remedy to that weakness! Although without the showdown ladder I'll have to test in RoA tours. Overall, I believe this is exactly what a DP UU Moltres team should look like to maximize the legendary bird's potential!
The Process:
I started building this team as I began my self-quarantine after returning from college around mid-March. I was bored and so I got back on Pokemon Showdown for the first time since generation 6 and noticed that DP UU was one of the past generation ladders available. In looking through the cast of UU pokemon, I wanted to find a Pokemon to build around that I liked and which was at it's best in generation 4. I ended up landing on Drapion because of his cool shiny form and because he peaked in UU at his introduction.
First, I Googled "Smogon Drapion team UU peaked" and found a good bulky offense team by the user Legacy Raider from 2009, I replaced the banned Shaymin with Exeggutor and the team worked very well. However I did not like two things; the nooby Ambipom lead and the thrilling but unreliable scope lens + sniper Drapion.
So, I made a new team of my own, and moved Drapion to the lead role with a defensive toxic spikes support set. I was able to find success with this team but kept getting bodied by two particular Pokemon that are unaffected by toxic spikes: Venusaur and Registeel. I used Choice Specs Altaria as my counter for both of them and her Fire Blast just wasn't strong enough, being unable to 2HKO Registeel. And with Venusaur being a monster in the tier and eliminating my toxic spikes just by switching in I realized it would be my team's primary enemy. I needed a fire-type.
Moltres was my weapon of choice. I built the rest of the team around covering for its weaknesses so it can eventually clean up the game by its fire-type attacks and stalling with toxic spikes, substitute, and roost. To use Moltres, I need to be able to eliminate stealth rocks so I added Hitmonchan with rapid spin, replacing my ghost-type. Sceptile works as a counter to bulky waters that threaten Moltres and wall Slowbro, and carries edge-quake coverage. Rest-Talk + Calm Mind Slowbro works as an alternative win condition with toxic spikes. Steelix is a top wall and hazard setter with roar to spread poison.
The last team was an improvement, Registeel and Venusaur are much easier to deal with, but I still found myself getting bodied by some hard counters that would get rid of my toxic spikes, which severely weakened both of my win conditions. To remedy those problems, I made the whole entire team into a supporting cast for Moltres. While this team was weaker than the last one, it would ultimately be the basis for my final squad. I replaced Hitmontop/Slowbro with Blastoise as a spinner/bulky water, and found Blastoise was too weak to do both roles. Hariyama provides a lot of utility with priority attacks, guts status absorption, whirlwind to spread poison and special bulk that pairs well with Drapion, but it's also too weak. So that I would be not be vulnerable to rapid spin getting rid of my toxic spikes, I replaced Sceptile with a Calm Mind Mismagius packing Thunderbolt to counter bulky waters. Having a spinblocker is nice, having to basically sacrifice it to get rid of the ubiquitous Milotic is not. Lastly, Dugtrio (with or without scarf) replacing Steelix was perfect for this team, I will explain why later.
At last, onto the final team:
Scorpio (Drapion) (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Battle Armor
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 224 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def / 28 Spe
Impish Nature
- Taunt
- Crunch
- Toxic Spikes
- Whirlwind/Protect
Drapion as a toxic spikes setter was the starting point for this team. With his 95 base speed, his taunt is enough to stop a lot of set up sweepers and especially stealth rock setters which is key for protecting Moltres. Toxic spikes are used to enable Slowbro as well as Moltres to stall out basically any other Pokemon using their healing moves. Protect would be used to counter fake out using leads and to scout, but I find the utility from whirlwind which spreads status and gets rid of swords dance users makes it slightly preferable. Using it gives me more incentive to preserve Drapion, as he has a ton of utility late game when he packs three team supporting moves. Crunch is his best STAB considering poison's horrible coverage. Black Sludge punishes any leads using trick. 28 Speed outspeeds jolly Torterra's earthquake, 224 HP is odd and a leftovers number and 252 def capitalizes on Drapion's base 110 defense bulk.
I Eat Ass (Slowbro) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 216 HP / 196 Def / 96 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Surf
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Slowbro is my setup sweeper, bulky water, and backup win condition to Moltres. Calm Mind provides a way for her to gradually become an offensive threat with surf, while at the same time turning Slowbro into an invincible mixed tank. Because she carries rest, Slowbro is also my status absorber for the team. Although I describe it as the backup to Moltres, Slowbro may more often be the finisher. Dugtrio is excellent at taking care of electric-types that would threaten Slowbro while Moltres can easily handle Venusaur or any other grass-type. Usually, bulky water types that resist surf would also wall Slowbro but with the help of toxic spikes this set can easily take down even Milotic. Pivot or boost and sweep.
2.5 Men (Dugtrio) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Arena Trap
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Pursuit/Sucker Punch
- Stone Edge
- Substitute
Dugtrio's trapping is amazing for this team. Dugtrio is able to reliably get rid of a ton of the Pokemon that threaten Moltres like rock-types, electric-types, and Chansey. Dugtrio also enables me to reset toxic spikes because its STAB earthquake wipes out every single grounded poison-type that can soak up my toxic spikes. I don't use a choice scarf because substitute is needed so that I can avoid Toxicroak's sucker punch and get rid of it. Sucker punch provides some badly needed priority to the team, but pursuit lets Dugtrio switch into thunderbolt and trap unpoisoned levitating spinblockers such as Rotom and Mismagius, clearing the way for Moltres.
Dreidel (Hitmontop) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Foresight
- Close Combat
- Sucker Punch
To use Moltres, I absolutely need to be able to get rid of stealth rocks before it gets sent in, meaning that I need to use rapid spin. Hitmontop is a great bulky rapid spinner thanks to his intimidate ability and numerous ways to get rid of ghost-types, namely foresight and sucker punch. Foresight on a predicted ghost-type switch in allows Hitmontop to either use his STAB or simply remove stealth rocks while sucker punch is super-effective priority against spinblockers. The EV set capitalizes on his higher base special defense and relies on intimidate to supplement his weaker physical bulk. Because intimidate causes most physical sweepers to switch, Hitmontop can be a very effective scout.
Plug (Rotom) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Trick
Base form Rotom is my scarfer, my spinblocker, and my counter to bulky waters all compressed into one Pokemon. Trick is a massively useful ability against walls and rapid spinners, as none of them want speed. Thunderbolt allows Rotom to bring the smackdown upon bulky waters, pairing nicely with hidden power ice which hits important Pokemon like Altaria and Torterra for 4x damage and provides excellent bolt-beam coverage. With choice scarf Rotom also has the ability to surprise a lot of sweepers with a deadly shadow ball to the face. Because of its base 91 speed, I think Rotom needs to carry the choice scarf to compare to Mismagius offensively with the advantage being its dual STAB. The main downside is that both STAB moves are vulnerable to type immunities sometimes giving my opponent a free turn because I am choiced.
FireChickn (Moltres) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 24 HP / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Substitute
- Flamethrower
Everything else is the glue of the team, and this bird alone is the team. Why does Moltres need that much glue? Well, it's pretty broken. Moltres takes great advantage of toxic spikes with its amazing stall capabilities. Moltres is enabled to stall by using substitute to avoid status and roost to recover the health cost of substitute and pressure to drain enemy PP. In addition, Moltres has powerful double STAB which is only resisted by rock-types and Lanturn which are both easily eliminated by Dugtrio. Slowbro can easily tank aqua jet which is another Moltres counter. Moltres' biggest weakness is to stealth rock, which is why I use taunt, pursuit, foresight and rapid spin on this team. 252 special attack EVs are to hit as hard as possible, the 232 speed EVs outspeed neutral base 100s, and 24 HP EVs lands on an odd number.
THE END.
Thank you so much for reading all of this! I really hope an experienced DP UU player or anyone who did well on last month's ladder will look at the thread and give me their thoughts. I am absolutely willing to change the team to make it better, even Drapion, which I hope the comprehensive team history made clear! Please ask questions if you think of any, or point out any UU threats you think this squad cannot handle and if you can please suggest a remedy to that weakness! Although without the showdown ladder I'll have to test in RoA tours. Overall, I believe this is exactly what a DP UU Moltres team should look like to maximize the legendary bird's potential!
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