Hey all,
I've recently gotten back into pokemon after an extended leave (thanks school) and after messing around a bit in OU I remembered how much fun I had in the UU tier with a bulky offense team I built back in the day. That team consisted of a suicune/entei offensive core with umbreon/M-blastoise for cleric and rapid spin support. That team I had built also had some fairly gimmicky/fun sets in that I used a choice specs Yanmega with tinted lens as a wallbreaker, and used rock polish golurk as a sweeper. It sounds really gimmicky but I was able to get to like 17th(?) or so on the ladder with it, so I decided to remake the team and modernize it a bit to see how well I could do with the new meta. The goal of this team was to make a bulky team that works semi-independently or with cleric support to keep themselves fresh, thus making a team of hard to eliminate pokemon that grinds my opponent down over the course of a game.
The Team-Building Process
The Current Team
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Ahhhh the good old crocune set that everybody has known and feared for generation after generation of pokemon. This is one of the core pokemon that I decided to build my team around, and it combined with entei is where I got the whole idea for the bulky offense archetype. I used this exact set in my old team that I discussed earlier as a win condition, or as a tank against physically threatening pokemon in the early game. In the early game scald is a great way to spread burn throughout the opponent's team, making the inevitable crocune sweep that much easier. I decided to use the regular crocune set instead of the roarcune set or an offensive set specifically because I needed a bulky pokemon that won't get worn down throughout a match. I felt with only stealth rocks on my team I couldn't take advantage of the roarcune set, so I decided to use the crocune set I've known and loved for a long time. Other than pokemon that are meant purely to counter suicune (lanturn, jellicent, lapras) I've found this set struggles against taunt users obviously, and assault vest machamps who love to spam dynamic punch or fish for burns with the guts set. They don't usually do much damage to me but I run 16 speed to outrun adamant max speed machamp. Other than that 0 Atk IVs is to reduce damage from foul play users, and near max HP/Def to give it a role as a tank early game and to help it sweep with calm mind later on in the game.
Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Stone Edge
- Bulldoze
- Extreme Speed
The second half of my inspiration for this team is a pokemon I've enjoyed using and have had great results with in the past. Choice band entei is definitely not the strongest wallbreaker in the tier, but its unique access to sacred fire, great uninvested bulk and priority in extreme speed made me choose him instead of darmanitan or some other wallbreaker. I chose choice band entei to give it that bit of extra power to help damage things as quickly as possible, but also to give a boost to all its moves. I've been considering a set with flame plate to bluff a choice set but entei's movepool is kind of meh. If anything I would add will-o-wisp, but sacred fire burns the target 50% of the time anyway so what's the point? I usually just use this thing to spam sacred fire anyway, as even pokemon that resiste it don't enjoy taking that on the chin in addition to the chance to burn. Suicune in particular enjoys the burns as it improves it's already impressive physical bulk, granting it extra situations to set up. Stone edge is on the set for useful coverage, and for hitting flying type pokemon pretty hard, or for using on the predicted switch in to flash fire users such as arcanine or chandelure. It also hits M-aero which can be a pretty big pain to this team. Bulldoze is an odd option that I've only used a few times to hit pokemon like tentacruel or nidoking/queen on the switch to make them easier to revenge kill. I've been toying around with replacing this with flare blitz in accordance with the strategy pokedex set as bulldoze isn't not very useful, but I don't like the idea of recoil on this set as entei is the most susceptible pokemon on this team to getting worn down. Extreme speed is useful on bulky offense because it provides very strong priority that out-prioritizes most common priority in the tier. Bulky offense is generally slow so having strong priority to revenge kill frail or weakened pokemon is a necessity. Like I said I think a flame plat set that bluffs choice band would be pretty cool, but so far I've had little reason to want to switch, as entei does a great job of hitting stuff hard, burning folk, and revenge killing weak pokemon with extreme speed.
Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast
I was really surprised when this thing didn't get into OU, so I decided to take advantage of it in UU. It has an amazing speed tier, outspeeding most of the unboosted UU tier and has an interesting type combination (and lightning-rod) that gives it some unique switch-in opportunities. The purpose of this set is to come in on a pokemon that it scares out and set up a substitute or spam some attacks. Substitute is also a great move to scout what slower pokemon will do, albeit at the expense of 25% of your health. Giga drain is a great STAB move used to hit bulky waters (particularly (m)-swampert) and to replenish it's health after using substitute. Dragon pulse is the other STAB attack that hits a little harder than giga drain and has better neutral coverage. Focus blast is the final move, and it is used to hit the steel types in the tier such as M-aggron that like to switch into M-sceptile. When I switch sceptile in, if their are pokemon faster than sceptile on the other team I will sub almost automatically (unless I predict a switch to a crobat) to give a safety net against them, or if I'm playing against stall or semi-stall to avoid status. If I'm playing against slower offense teams I may just start throwing out attacks to do some damage (only if I feel I don't need a sub however). Fairy pokemon wall this set pretty badly, but sceptile has poor coverage options and no room for them on this set. Generally entei is strong enough to tank a moonblast or two, and scares out most of the fairy pokemon in the tier. Suicune can also set up on some of them such as florges or aromatisse, so switching into those pokemon if I don't have a sub is what I will commonly do. M-sceptile's main job is to act as a fast safety net against the frailer but faster pokemon that might attempt to sweep my team. M-sceptile checks most of those pokemon reliably, but lacks in pure power.
Umbreon @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Foul Play
Umbreon is an asshole to say it mildly. It is so damn bulky that many pokemon in the tier struggle to knock it out, allowing it to complete its role as team cleric well enough. Upon inspection of my team I realized I needed a specially bulky pokemon to sponge hits, so I decided to use a specially defensive set instead of a physical one. The combination of wish/protect allows umbreon to heal itself reliably, or to heal others that lack recovery on the team such as entei or donphan. Heal bell is also there to keep the team healthy, as it can become rather bogged down by status or it can remove sleep from suicune if need be. In the last moveslot I decided to use foul play instead of knock off because I realized umbreon would be incredible set up fodder for many pokemon in the tier if using knock off. By using foul play, umbreon is still set up fodder for lots of pokemon but physical attackers will receive lots of damage in return and special attackers will have trouble breaking through umbreon. Synchronize is also quite useful/hilarious, as I can switch into expected toxics or thunder waves to bounce it back to the opponent. In some circumstances they can't get rid of a status on their pokemon, but I can use heal bell the very next turn. All in all, umbreon does a great job of acting as the team cleric, healing my other pokemon without their own recovery and removing status. It also walls certain pokemon quite badly, so I can use it as a special wall to switch into fairly reliably.
Donphan @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
Donphan is a pokemon I never thought I would end up using, but its access to stealth rock, rapid spin, sturdy and its pure ground typing gave it a great role within my team. Because of sturdy, I can use leftovers to try and keep it reasonably healthy through the match if I don't need to sacrifice it to set up/get rid of entry hazards. Stealth rock and rapid spin provide hazards and hazard removal on the same pokemon without having to muck around with defog clearing my own hazards (I'm looking at you empoleon). Due to the bulky nature of this team I can switch around more reliably than some other team archetypes, thus keeping my side of the field free of hazards is very important. Having stealth rock on the other side of the field also helps as my opponent will become weaker with every switch they make. In addition to hazard control I have earthquake to provide a very strong STAB attack that hits a lot of pokemon in the tier for big damage. Knock off also provides utility to the team, removing choice scarves, eviolites and other annoying items. Donphan utilizes it better than umbreon with its much larger attack stat even though it loses out on STAB, and this also provides knock off support without umbreon becoming total set up fodder. Donphan's role on the team has been to set up stealth rock, remove spikes/sticky web/stealth rock from my side of the field and occasionally hit something really hard with an earthquake or knock off. His terrible speed has let me down a few times, which is why I put all of its EVs into HP and Attack which ideally lets it tank a hit or two and fire off a strong attack back or place/remove hazards. I've considered replacing it with a similar pokemon with hazard setting and removal on the same set but haven't found anything that meshes well with the team yet. Donphan struggles with any and all special attackers, particularly scald users that can burn it to work around sturdy. Most opponents expect me to lead with donphan however, so I can anti-lead them quite successfully most of the time with suicune or M-sceptile.
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Toxic
- Roost
The newest member of the team, Zapdos was added in to deal with a weakness to mandibuzz and crobat that my team had. My team could eventually deal with those pokemon by wearing them down slowly, but smart opponents could prove quite annoying. I decided to add zapdos as another physically bulky pivot that is able to remove flying or some water-type threats that are annoying to this team. My team had little to deal with pokemon spamming recover moves which makes for a long game, so I added toxic to expedite the process of removing those threats. Thunderbolt is there as a reliable answer to crobat, mandibuzz or other flying types that proved to be pretty annoying to my team. Heat wave is there to hit pokemon such as forretress that doesn't take much damage from thunderbolt and are immune to toxic. Roost is there to keep it healthy throughout the match, especially considering it takes plenty of damage from stealth rocks. Zapdos's main role on the team is to remove threats such as mandibuzz/crobat, but I have also decided to use it as another check to physical attackers in the tier such as heracross due to its flying/electric typing. I really wish zapdos got air slash or something similar to help it in this role, but it checks a variety of physical threats in the tier well. The EV spread is to maximize its physical bulk to help it sponge physical hits.
Threats
Conclusion
Overall I'm pretty happy with how the team has turned out so far. I am obviously looking to make it better though so I would appreciate any help. As of right now I am still considering replacing zapdos with pokemon such as SD doublade or agility metagross to give me another win condition but I am unsure. I have also considered placing defog on zapdos and switching donphan to an offensive nidoking or bulky nidoqueen with rocks but I have seen no reason to do so yet other than the wallbreaking potential. So basically I am the least sure about zapdos and donphan on my team. The other pokemon could be replaced but I think they function very well together.
I've recently gotten back into pokemon after an extended leave (thanks school) and after messing around a bit in OU I remembered how much fun I had in the UU tier with a bulky offense team I built back in the day. That team consisted of a suicune/entei offensive core with umbreon/M-blastoise for cleric and rapid spin support. That team I had built also had some fairly gimmicky/fun sets in that I used a choice specs Yanmega with tinted lens as a wallbreaker, and used rock polish golurk as a sweeper. It sounds really gimmicky but I was able to get to like 17th(?) or so on the ladder with it, so I decided to remake the team and modernize it a bit to see how well I could do with the new meta. The goal of this team was to make a bulky team that works semi-independently or with cleric support to keep themselves fresh, thus making a team of hard to eliminate pokemon that grinds my opponent down over the course of a game.
The Team-Building Process
When I was last playing the offensive core of heracross/darmanitan was everywhere which is why I had 2 bulky water types. I realized that that offensive core was not nearly as popular/powerful as it once was so I decided to remove M-blastoise and all that weird stuff (yanmega, golurk) that worked well at the time and keep the core of suicune/entei with umbreon support. Thus the basis for this team.
So with the removal of M-blastoise I had room for one of the new, powerful megas that had been released into UU since I've last played. I read a lot about M-Aerodactyl and decided it would fit well into the team as a fast check to pokemon that outspeed my bulky core. I also realized I had 2/3 of a F/W/G core, and decided to take advantage of that by including shaymin to spam seed flare at everything that moves. I also needed a stealth rock setter so I decided to use one of the pokemon that dropped from OU: mamoswine. Mamo was great because it set rocks admirably while almost certainly dying in the process and maybe hurting something as well.
After awhile I realized mamoswine wasn't really working for me. It's ice typing left it weak to almost everything and I found it was losing against the common hazard setters/removers. I was using M-aero as an offensive set and didn't have room for defog so I also didn't have any way of removing hazards on my team. I really appreciated ice shard from mamo, but I decided to experiment with a few other pokemon (empoleon in particular) and found that donphan was working well for me. I was able to put rapid spin and stealth rock on the same set and sturdy meant I could run leftovers on it to try and keep it around for most of the match.
So at this point I figured my team was pretty good so I decided to do some laddering and find out what it's weaknesses were. I was finding my team really struggled with pokemon that were faster than the base 100 tier (outspeeding shaymin/entei) and that I was having difficulty using M-aero properly. I don't know why, I was just genuinely having a lot of issues with it as it seemed like everybody was well prepared for it and I didn't have many opportunities to switch into it, just giving it the role of over-glorified revenge killer. I decided to replace M-aero with a different mega. I soon set my eye on M-sceptile, as I had used a substitute set in OU right when ORAS came out to great effect. So I decided to cut shaymin and use M-sceptile in my F/W/G core. My team was needing an answer to strong fairy types as well, so I decided to add SD lucario to the team as well to help deal with them and to act as a second win-condition or wallbreaker as need be.
Upon testing the team further, I found that my team could handle fairy pokemon fairly well without lucario, and pokemon such as gardevoir and florges could 2HKO or OHKO lucario depending on the set. Also I found him being walled by very common pokemon in crobat and mandibuzz, so suffice to say I was disappointed with lucario and decided to replace him with something else to check the pokemon I've been struggling to eliminate (crobat and mandibuzz with taunt primarily). I decided to use a zapdos, as it checks both those pokemon well in addition to most bulky waters to give M-sceptile a hand, and wallbreakers such as heracross that are pretty annoying (gotta watch out for stone edge though). The ground immunity is also pretty nice since I had trouble switching safely into ground attacks such as krookodile's EQ. Zapdos is still the most disposable member to me, and I have toyed around with replacing it with a doublade or metagross, but zapdos seems to be holding up well for now. I have also considered replacing donphan with nidoking/nidoqueen/metagross with stealth rock and putting defog on zapdos but I am unsure as of now. Here is the current form of the team as stands.
So with the removal of M-blastoise I had room for one of the new, powerful megas that had been released into UU since I've last played. I read a lot about M-Aerodactyl and decided it would fit well into the team as a fast check to pokemon that outspeed my bulky core. I also realized I had 2/3 of a F/W/G core, and decided to take advantage of that by including shaymin to spam seed flare at everything that moves. I also needed a stealth rock setter so I decided to use one of the pokemon that dropped from OU: mamoswine. Mamo was great because it set rocks admirably while almost certainly dying in the process and maybe hurting something as well.
After awhile I realized mamoswine wasn't really working for me. It's ice typing left it weak to almost everything and I found it was losing against the common hazard setters/removers. I was using M-aero as an offensive set and didn't have room for defog so I also didn't have any way of removing hazards on my team. I really appreciated ice shard from mamo, but I decided to experiment with a few other pokemon (empoleon in particular) and found that donphan was working well for me. I was able to put rapid spin and stealth rock on the same set and sturdy meant I could run leftovers on it to try and keep it around for most of the match.
So at this point I figured my team was pretty good so I decided to do some laddering and find out what it's weaknesses were. I was finding my team really struggled with pokemon that were faster than the base 100 tier (outspeeding shaymin/entei) and that I was having difficulty using M-aero properly. I don't know why, I was just genuinely having a lot of issues with it as it seemed like everybody was well prepared for it and I didn't have many opportunities to switch into it, just giving it the role of over-glorified revenge killer. I decided to replace M-aero with a different mega. I soon set my eye on M-sceptile, as I had used a substitute set in OU right when ORAS came out to great effect. So I decided to cut shaymin and use M-sceptile in my F/W/G core. My team was needing an answer to strong fairy types as well, so I decided to add SD lucario to the team as well to help deal with them and to act as a second win-condition or wallbreaker as need be.
Upon testing the team further, I found that my team could handle fairy pokemon fairly well without lucario, and pokemon such as gardevoir and florges could 2HKO or OHKO lucario depending on the set. Also I found him being walled by very common pokemon in crobat and mandibuzz, so suffice to say I was disappointed with lucario and decided to replace him with something else to check the pokemon I've been struggling to eliminate (crobat and mandibuzz with taunt primarily). I decided to use a zapdos, as it checks both those pokemon well in addition to most bulky waters to give M-sceptile a hand, and wallbreakers such as heracross that are pretty annoying (gotta watch out for stone edge though). The ground immunity is also pretty nice since I had trouble switching safely into ground attacks such as krookodile's EQ. Zapdos is still the most disposable member to me, and I have toyed around with replacing it with a doublade or metagross, but zapdos seems to be holding up well for now. I have also considered replacing donphan with nidoking/nidoqueen/metagross with stealth rock and putting defog on zapdos but I am unsure as of now. Here is the current form of the team as stands.
The Current Team
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Ahhhh the good old crocune set that everybody has known and feared for generation after generation of pokemon. This is one of the core pokemon that I decided to build my team around, and it combined with entei is where I got the whole idea for the bulky offense archetype. I used this exact set in my old team that I discussed earlier as a win condition, or as a tank against physically threatening pokemon in the early game. In the early game scald is a great way to spread burn throughout the opponent's team, making the inevitable crocune sweep that much easier. I decided to use the regular crocune set instead of the roarcune set or an offensive set specifically because I needed a bulky pokemon that won't get worn down throughout a match. I felt with only stealth rocks on my team I couldn't take advantage of the roarcune set, so I decided to use the crocune set I've known and loved for a long time. Other than pokemon that are meant purely to counter suicune (lanturn, jellicent, lapras) I've found this set struggles against taunt users obviously, and assault vest machamps who love to spam dynamic punch or fish for burns with the guts set. They don't usually do much damage to me but I run 16 speed to outrun adamant max speed machamp. Other than that 0 Atk IVs is to reduce damage from foul play users, and near max HP/Def to give it a role as a tank early game and to help it sweep with calm mind later on in the game.
Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Stone Edge
- Bulldoze
- Extreme Speed
The second half of my inspiration for this team is a pokemon I've enjoyed using and have had great results with in the past. Choice band entei is definitely not the strongest wallbreaker in the tier, but its unique access to sacred fire, great uninvested bulk and priority in extreme speed made me choose him instead of darmanitan or some other wallbreaker. I chose choice band entei to give it that bit of extra power to help damage things as quickly as possible, but also to give a boost to all its moves. I've been considering a set with flame plate to bluff a choice set but entei's movepool is kind of meh. If anything I would add will-o-wisp, but sacred fire burns the target 50% of the time anyway so what's the point? I usually just use this thing to spam sacred fire anyway, as even pokemon that resiste it don't enjoy taking that on the chin in addition to the chance to burn. Suicune in particular enjoys the burns as it improves it's already impressive physical bulk, granting it extra situations to set up. Stone edge is on the set for useful coverage, and for hitting flying type pokemon pretty hard, or for using on the predicted switch in to flash fire users such as arcanine or chandelure. It also hits M-aero which can be a pretty big pain to this team. Bulldoze is an odd option that I've only used a few times to hit pokemon like tentacruel or nidoking/queen on the switch to make them easier to revenge kill. I've been toying around with replacing this with flare blitz in accordance with the strategy pokedex set as bulldoze isn't not very useful, but I don't like the idea of recoil on this set as entei is the most susceptible pokemon on this team to getting worn down. Extreme speed is useful on bulky offense because it provides very strong priority that out-prioritizes most common priority in the tier. Bulky offense is generally slow so having strong priority to revenge kill frail or weakened pokemon is a necessity. Like I said I think a flame plat set that bluffs choice band would be pretty cool, but so far I've had little reason to want to switch, as entei does a great job of hitting stuff hard, burning folk, and revenge killing weak pokemon with extreme speed.
Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast
I was really surprised when this thing didn't get into OU, so I decided to take advantage of it in UU. It has an amazing speed tier, outspeeding most of the unboosted UU tier and has an interesting type combination (and lightning-rod) that gives it some unique switch-in opportunities. The purpose of this set is to come in on a pokemon that it scares out and set up a substitute or spam some attacks. Substitute is also a great move to scout what slower pokemon will do, albeit at the expense of 25% of your health. Giga drain is a great STAB move used to hit bulky waters (particularly (m)-swampert) and to replenish it's health after using substitute. Dragon pulse is the other STAB attack that hits a little harder than giga drain and has better neutral coverage. Focus blast is the final move, and it is used to hit the steel types in the tier such as M-aggron that like to switch into M-sceptile. When I switch sceptile in, if their are pokemon faster than sceptile on the other team I will sub almost automatically (unless I predict a switch to a crobat) to give a safety net against them, or if I'm playing against stall or semi-stall to avoid status. If I'm playing against slower offense teams I may just start throwing out attacks to do some damage (only if I feel I don't need a sub however). Fairy pokemon wall this set pretty badly, but sceptile has poor coverage options and no room for them on this set. Generally entei is strong enough to tank a moonblast or two, and scares out most of the fairy pokemon in the tier. Suicune can also set up on some of them such as florges or aromatisse, so switching into those pokemon if I don't have a sub is what I will commonly do. M-sceptile's main job is to act as a fast safety net against the frailer but faster pokemon that might attempt to sweep my team. M-sceptile checks most of those pokemon reliably, but lacks in pure power.
Umbreon @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Foul Play
Umbreon is an asshole to say it mildly. It is so damn bulky that many pokemon in the tier struggle to knock it out, allowing it to complete its role as team cleric well enough. Upon inspection of my team I realized I needed a specially bulky pokemon to sponge hits, so I decided to use a specially defensive set instead of a physical one. The combination of wish/protect allows umbreon to heal itself reliably, or to heal others that lack recovery on the team such as entei or donphan. Heal bell is also there to keep the team healthy, as it can become rather bogged down by status or it can remove sleep from suicune if need be. In the last moveslot I decided to use foul play instead of knock off because I realized umbreon would be incredible set up fodder for many pokemon in the tier if using knock off. By using foul play, umbreon is still set up fodder for lots of pokemon but physical attackers will receive lots of damage in return and special attackers will have trouble breaking through umbreon. Synchronize is also quite useful/hilarious, as I can switch into expected toxics or thunder waves to bounce it back to the opponent. In some circumstances they can't get rid of a status on their pokemon, but I can use heal bell the very next turn. All in all, umbreon does a great job of acting as the team cleric, healing my other pokemon without their own recovery and removing status. It also walls certain pokemon quite badly, so I can use it as a special wall to switch into fairly reliably.
Donphan @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
Donphan is a pokemon I never thought I would end up using, but its access to stealth rock, rapid spin, sturdy and its pure ground typing gave it a great role within my team. Because of sturdy, I can use leftovers to try and keep it reasonably healthy through the match if I don't need to sacrifice it to set up/get rid of entry hazards. Stealth rock and rapid spin provide hazards and hazard removal on the same pokemon without having to muck around with defog clearing my own hazards (I'm looking at you empoleon). Due to the bulky nature of this team I can switch around more reliably than some other team archetypes, thus keeping my side of the field free of hazards is very important. Having stealth rock on the other side of the field also helps as my opponent will become weaker with every switch they make. In addition to hazard control I have earthquake to provide a very strong STAB attack that hits a lot of pokemon in the tier for big damage. Knock off also provides utility to the team, removing choice scarves, eviolites and other annoying items. Donphan utilizes it better than umbreon with its much larger attack stat even though it loses out on STAB, and this also provides knock off support without umbreon becoming total set up fodder. Donphan's role on the team has been to set up stealth rock, remove spikes/sticky web/stealth rock from my side of the field and occasionally hit something really hard with an earthquake or knock off. His terrible speed has let me down a few times, which is why I put all of its EVs into HP and Attack which ideally lets it tank a hit or two and fire off a strong attack back or place/remove hazards. I've considered replacing it with a similar pokemon with hazard setting and removal on the same set but haven't found anything that meshes well with the team yet. Donphan struggles with any and all special attackers, particularly scald users that can burn it to work around sturdy. Most opponents expect me to lead with donphan however, so I can anti-lead them quite successfully most of the time with suicune or M-sceptile.
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Toxic
- Roost
The newest member of the team, Zapdos was added in to deal with a weakness to mandibuzz and crobat that my team had. My team could eventually deal with those pokemon by wearing them down slowly, but smart opponents could prove quite annoying. I decided to add zapdos as another physically bulky pivot that is able to remove flying or some water-type threats that are annoying to this team. My team had little to deal with pokemon spamming recover moves which makes for a long game, so I added toxic to expedite the process of removing those threats. Thunderbolt is there as a reliable answer to crobat, mandibuzz or other flying types that proved to be pretty annoying to my team. Heat wave is there to hit pokemon such as forretress that doesn't take much damage from thunderbolt and are immune to toxic. Roost is there to keep it healthy throughout the match, especially considering it takes plenty of damage from stealth rocks. Zapdos's main role on the team is to remove threats such as mandibuzz/crobat, but I have also decided to use it as another check to physical attackers in the tier such as heracross due to its flying/electric typing. I really wish zapdos got air slash or something similar to help it in this role, but it checks a variety of physical threats in the tier well. The EV spread is to maximize its physical bulk to help it sponge physical hits.
Threats
These are the pokemon I have noticed to be difficult for my team to deal with so far.
Bulky Mega-Aerodactyl
Due to how varied this pokemon is I don't have a definitive answer for it with any one pokemon. Generally I need to keep suicune alive and fresh so that I can wall it in the end game. Given the opportunity these things can tear through my team (and was the initial reason for lucario on my team). However as long as I keep suicune alive I stand a good chance of beating them
Mega-Beedrill
This thing isn't particularly threatening to the entire team, but it's powerful U-turn can do significant damage to many of my pokemon. Suicune and zapdos check it but entei can also revenge kill it with extreme speed. Ideally I would get rocks up as soon as possible and prevent it from pivoting around.
Cloyster
This thing likes to come in and set up on umbreon particularly. I basically need to do as much damage to it with foul play while it sets up and try to revenge kill it with entei. If need be I can tank a hit with suicune and take it out however.
Florges/Gardevoir
My team doesn't really have great switch-ins to these two as entei gets worn down after awhile and my only special wall can't take fairy attacks. Generally I'll need something to tank a hit or two so I can bring in entei to either scare them out or hit them hard with sacred fire. Doublade/metagross/nidoking/queen would alleviate some of the pressure from these guys but make my team more weak to EQ spam.
Heliolisk
Outspeeds most of my team, and likes to pivot around and do damage with specs sets or scarves. If I'm lucky or predict well I can snag a lightning rod boost with sceptile but again my main plan is to set up rocks and try to outplay them.
Nidoking
Nothing on my team really likes taking a hit from it. If I see one on the team preview I will keep sturdy up on donphan for an easy revenge kill. Sceptile can also clean up a weakened one, same with entei (extreme speed).
Slurpuff
I really hate this thing. Something will almost always die to it but then I can come in and revenge kill it with entei. Plus if I see it on the field I know to attack as it has no niche other than belly drumming in UU.
Bulky Mega-Aerodactyl
Due to how varied this pokemon is I don't have a definitive answer for it with any one pokemon. Generally I need to keep suicune alive and fresh so that I can wall it in the end game. Given the opportunity these things can tear through my team (and was the initial reason for lucario on my team). However as long as I keep suicune alive I stand a good chance of beating them
Mega-Beedrill
This thing isn't particularly threatening to the entire team, but it's powerful U-turn can do significant damage to many of my pokemon. Suicune and zapdos check it but entei can also revenge kill it with extreme speed. Ideally I would get rocks up as soon as possible and prevent it from pivoting around.
Cloyster
This thing likes to come in and set up on umbreon particularly. I basically need to do as much damage to it with foul play while it sets up and try to revenge kill it with entei. If need be I can tank a hit with suicune and take it out however.
Florges/Gardevoir
My team doesn't really have great switch-ins to these two as entei gets worn down after awhile and my only special wall can't take fairy attacks. Generally I'll need something to tank a hit or two so I can bring in entei to either scare them out or hit them hard with sacred fire. Doublade/metagross/nidoking/queen would alleviate some of the pressure from these guys but make my team more weak to EQ spam.
Heliolisk
Outspeeds most of my team, and likes to pivot around and do damage with specs sets or scarves. If I'm lucky or predict well I can snag a lightning rod boost with sceptile but again my main plan is to set up rocks and try to outplay them.
Nidoking
Nothing on my team really likes taking a hit from it. If I see one on the team preview I will keep sturdy up on donphan for an easy revenge kill. Sceptile can also clean up a weakened one, same with entei (extreme speed).
Slurpuff
I really hate this thing. Something will almost always die to it but then I can come in and revenge kill it with entei. Plus if I see it on the field I know to attack as it has no niche other than belly drumming in UU.
Conclusion
Overall I'm pretty happy with how the team has turned out so far. I am obviously looking to make it better though so I would appreciate any help. As of right now I am still considering replacing zapdos with pokemon such as SD doublade or agility metagross to give me another win condition but I am unsure. I have also considered placing defog on zapdos and switching donphan to an offensive nidoking or bulky nidoqueen with rocks but I have seen no reason to do so yet other than the wallbreaking potential. So basically I am the least sure about zapdos and donphan on my team. The other pokemon could be replaced but I think they function very well together.
