Fresh Starts - A Newblet's UU Team

[Phoenix]

Alright, so I've been lurking on Smogon for quite a while now. In that time, I've mainly stuck to OU, relying on what looks easy to use and works to scrape a few wins together. However, I seemed to lose a lot more than I won. So I decided, "Screw OU, I'll try a different tier!" Checking around in the RMT archives for some inspiration, I was completely ethralled with HeYsUp's many UU teams. And so, here we are with my fresh start to UU.

TEAM AT A GLANCE:

Swellow (Hurricane) (M) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SpD/252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Facade
- Brave Bird
- U-Turn

Summary: Swellow's always been one of my favorite bird Pokemon, and I saw no reason not to use him here. I'll usually start out with a Protect to get the Guts boost, with pretty much the only exception I've seen so far being Roserade, in which case I'll just Brave Bird and hope for the best. He's a solid lead in most cases, and can stick around provided I predict.

Moveset: It's a cookie-cutter Guts Activation off the Analysis, and that's purely because I'm a newblet and am not creative enough to create my own sets. Gets the job anyway... either way, anyone that's played UU should know what Swellow does. Protect to scout and get his desired Guts boost, and then either whomp ass with his beefed-up STAB moves, or GTFO with U-turn to something else.

EVs and Nature: It's a standard 252/252/4, because Swellow is not going to be taking any hits with it's 60/60/50 defences. The last point is thrown into Special Defence to keep my HP odd, ensuring I can switch into Stealth Rock 5 times (assuming I don't take any other damage, which is bloody unlikely).

Crobat (Plague) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 104 HP/152 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- Taunt
- Roost
- Toxic

Summary: Everybody uses Crobat, and why not? He's bloody useful and a great check to Shaymin with his x4 resistance to Grass and immunity to Earth Power. He also handles Fighters easily with a x4 Fighting resistance, provided he doesn't switch into a Stone Edge or anything nasty like that. He's got the second-fastest non-Scarf Taunt in UU, and with the EVs he can stay alive for quite a while with his decent defences and Roost.

Moveset: Brave Bird is obvious; it's a 120 BP, STAB move coming off a decidedly-okay 90 base Attack. Taunt can screw over any attempts to SR, Spikes, or status Crobat, which is coming off of one of the fastest base Speeds in UU, but it may as well be fastest because nobody seems to use the faster Electrode anymore. Roost gives it some survivability, and Toxic rapes walls that think they can stick around against Crobat until the cows come home (screw you, Steelix.)

EVs and Nature: Once again, a standard Brave Bat. Also once again, it works, so who's complaining? I get a Leftovers number, maxed out Speed for tying against other Crobats, and the rest is dumped into Attack to give Brave Bird a kick.

Umbreon (Despair) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP/252 SpD/4 Def
Careful Nature (+SpD, -SAtk)
- Payback
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic

Summary: Besides being one of my favorite Pokemon ever (and having one of the most epic Shinies ever), this pup's my special sponge and Wish passer. He gets his share of usage on the team, and can cripple others with Toxic as well as heal his teammates with Wish. He also triples as a psuedo-panic button, because as long as what's about to come isn't a CB Hitmonlee or some other absurdly powerful physical Fighter, he'll generally live whatever I need him to live.

However, I've been considering making him a Cursebreon with Curse/Wish/Protect/Payback, because I've already got Toxic support in Crobat and I'd like for him to have the potential to deal a bit more damage while still being able to heal others. Thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Moveset: The moveset's a Support Umbreon with Protect and Toxic. Payback's there because a STAB 100 (in most cases) move isn't too bad, even coming off of 65 Base Attack. Wish and Protect combined can heal a teammate, scout, or heal Umbreon himself. To wrap things up, Toxic's simply there to cripple stuff that is potentially cripple-able.

EVs and Nature: A very simplistic moveset made by your's truly. It's just a 252/252/4 made to maximize Umbreon's defensive potential on the special side, so he can take as many hits as possible.

Steelix (Earthquake) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/120 Atk/136 SpD
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Roar

Summary: My Stealth Rocker and phazer, though I don't seem to do either very often. Mainly, he's just around to stop physical threats because he's a physical monster like that. A replacement might be nice; suggestions?

Moveset: Just your everyday Steelix. Earthquake and Gyro Ball for reliable STABs; Gyro Ball doesn't really get much use. Stealth Rock sometimes gets added to the table, sometimes not. Other times I'm feeling too threatened by whatever's out and decide to book out to something better-equipped to handle the threat. Roar phazes, but I barely ever use it because by the time something's finished setting up it'll usually be able to OHKO Steelix before it gets to Roar.

EVs and Nature: Physical Wall's EVs. 252 HP because Steelix needs moar HP, 136 Special Defence because Steelix needs it to survive any sort of special threat. The Attack EVs are probably made to get a 100% chance of OHKO against something or another, but I just accept that it gives EQ and Gyro Ball a boost.

Azumarill (Flood) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Double-Edge
- Focus Punch

Summary: Azumarill is like a flood; he swamps everything with amazing force and leaves behind next to nothing. My go-to guy when something needs to get revenged, because CB Huge Power STAB Aqua Jet is sexy. He usually gets brought out early-game to reveal the team's Water resists/immune (usually Shaymin), and otherwise tear big gaping holes with it's nuke-esque power. Don't follow this white (and blue) rabbit, and if you do, pack a Quagsire or Lapras something.

Moveset: What, this honestly needs explaining? Waterfall is good for early-game bombing, taking a hefty chunk off anything that doesn't resist it. Aqua Jet can be used for either revenging something, or late-game cleanup. Double-Edge makes the famous Water/Normal coverage, and Focus Punch is great for pounding annoying buggers like Registeel.

EVs and Nature: Azumarill doesn't really need to care about outspeeding much, so it's welcome to pump the 252 EVs not devoted to Attack into HP to beef it up a bit. Max Attack is natural, of course; no dedicated nuke is complete without it.

Arcanine (Blaze) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 92 Atk/228 SAtk/188 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SpD)
- Flare Blitz
- Overheat
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Electric]

Summary: Arcanine's probably the weakest link of my team. He's a decent wall-breaker, but he's not really working for me. Usually I'm caught just not really dealing enough damage to the things I need, or outspeeding what I need to outspeed. I probably would have chosen Blaziken in his place if I were a better player; I understand Blaziken takes a certain level of skill and experience to use correctly.

Moveset: He's got some nice coverage; Hidden Power Electric can hit Bulky Waters on the switch for acceptable damage, and Dragon Pulse deals a heavy blow to Altaria. Switching into a Fire move makes Arcanine's own Fire moves deal a good dollop of damage to pretty well anything neutral or worse to it. Even so, he doesn't really do that great a job.

EVs and Nature: The Mixed Attacker off Smogon with a twist. Seeing as I've only got one physical move, I swapped the Attack and Special attack. I've tested both, and more Special Attack seems to work a little better for me.


And there you have it, my first UU Team. By all means Rate and Hate, just don't steal. This thing isn't worth stealing.
PS: I don't exactly have a Threat List because usually it's more a team itself than a single Pokemon that gives me problems. Mostly every other UU team I've gone up against so far has been against a veteran to the UU tier, whereas I'm the current newblet.

 

[Erazor]

Welcome to UU!

I would probably use Crobat as your lead. Swellow doesn't do well against some of the antil-leads that people use for Crobat, and Crobat itself outspeeds and Brave Birds Swellow. Swellow is best used as a late game sweeper. Also, Crobat can prevent Stealth Rock from coming up, making Swellow's life easier.

On Crobat, I'd use U-turn in the last slot. It's great for scouting purposes, and allows you to bring in counters to their counters.

Replace Arcanine with Blaziken - he's a much better wall breaker. And it's the best way to gain experience with Blaziken - by using it!
Now, there are two main EV spreads for a mixed Blaziken. The first one goes 72 Atk/252 SpA/ 184 Spe, and the other one goes 240 Atk/252SpA/ 16 Spe. The second one absolutely tears through stall teams, while the first one can lure out and break its counters, and then sweeping to a certain extent. I'd use the first spread, because Honchkrow can give this team real problems if played right.

Focus Punch on Azumarill can be replaced by Superpower - it doesn't require that much prediction to use, and Azumarill will switch out a lot anyway.

Hope I helped!

 

[Heysup]

I'd actually replace Arcanine with Magmortar. Imo Magmortar is much more effective then Blaziken at using a fast Wall Breaker set unless there is something you need the priority for, and Honchkrow does not seem too threatening for your team when you have Pokemon like Steelix. The set I recommend is:

Magmortar (M) @ Life Orb
EVs: 60 Atk/252 SAtk/196 Spd
Mild Nature (+SpA, -Def)
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Cross Chop
- Hidden Power [Ice]

This allows you to outspeed Honchrow and Absol, and gives you the ability to tear holes through teams. Keeping stealth Rock off the feild shouldnt be too hard with your Pokemon U-turning or Taunting. More notably, this set can beat Altaria, unlike the rest of the wall breakers (unless Blaziken uses 4 Attacking moves instead of 3 and VW).


Thats all I have for now.

 

[Phoenix]

You guys are godsends; I'll get right to testing. Thanks to both of you!

 

[Evil Hamster]

I was surprised to see that you weren't running Extremespeed on Arcanine- it's one of the main reasons to use it over something like Blaziken (the others being Flash Fire and some degree of bulk) With it, you would really help yourself against all sorts of threats that can set up on you and sweep relatively easily- stuff like Rock Polish Torterra, Rain Dance Ludicolo, Dragon Dance Feraligatr, and Swords Dance Toxicroak. Admittedly, it's not a sure-fire check to these threats, but being able to finish them off when weakened could really save you in a tight spot, particularly when considering that none of then take a lot of damage from Azumarill, and only Feraligatr is remotely threatened by Crobat (maybe Toxicroak if Stealth Rock isn't up) Personally, I would use it over Overheat- most of the targets that you would be hitting it with are hit hard enough by Flare Blitz anyway- for example, Steelix will still easily be 2HKOed. I would also probably use Hidden Power Grass over Electric personally- you only really gain coverage on Moltres by using Electric. Hidden Power Grass hits the Swift Swimmers, Omastar and Kabutops, for a lot more, which is important as your team probably really dislikes Rain Dance teams. It also hits Regirock harder, who walls your current set hard.

Swapping Arcanine out is certainly worth thinking about- I would have recommended Ludicolo (with Focus Punch) personally, as it actually helps you defensively as well as offensively, being able to switch into Azumarill and Feraligatr, which you can't do at all at the moment. If you did, you could turn your team into a psuedo-rain dance team, with Crobat setting up Rain Dance for Azumarill and Ludicolo to sweep. Swords Dance Toxicroak is also an option, giving you a Water immunity and priority- it's probably not as effective as Ludicolo though here as a wallbreaker, unless you really want priority, but it requires less support to sweep, is fantastic against more offensive teams and covers Rain Dance teams on its own.

However, Blaziken or Magmortar are also worth considering- of those two I would probably lean towards Blaziken as Stealth Rock is a massive pain, particularly combined with Magmortar's frailty. Being walled by Altaria is obviously annoying, but I see Vacuum Wave as being more useful here for your team. This is because Omastar and Kabutops currently destroy your team with Rain Dance in play, and Vacuum Wave gives you some way of combatting them. It's not reliable, particularly as Kabutops may carry Aqua Jet anyway (admittedly unlikely on a Rain Dance set) but it's better than nothing. I would still advise Ludicolo or Toxicroak over these two personally, but I will admit that they are better out-and-out stallbreakers than Toxicroak and Ludicolo if that's what you're looking for.

If you use Ludicolo, you'll probably still have some problems with opposing Ludicolo and Kabutops, as well as Torterra. If you opt for Toxicroak, you'll still have issues with Torterra and Feraligatr, as well as Substitute Azumarill. And if you opted for Blaziken or Magmortar (or keep Arcanine) you will have problems with all of the above, as well as Choice Band Azumarill and Omastar. Either way, I would advise running an offensive, Life Orb Shaymin over Swellow, seeing as Swellow offers minimal defensive cover, whereas Shaymin can come in on all these threats to a degree, surviving boosted Sucker Punches and Ice Punches and OHKO in return, whilst maintaining a strong offensive presence. The Ground resistance is also invaluable. You'll still have some problems with Rain Dance (though you can work around them) unless you opted for Toxicroak, but ultimately that can be said about any team as Rain Dance is incredibly difficult to deal with.

Hope that helps :)

 

[d2m]

I might be biased against it because every team I have ever run in UU runs the perfect counter to it (lolol Encore Clefable), but I've never noticed a reason why anyone would bother with Umbreon. It's setup bait for anything, for instance: SD/NP Toxicroak, Subpunch Hariyama, Subpunch Azumarril, Curse Registeel/Steelix, etc. The only set I've seen that does really well is the trapper set, which doesn't synergize with your team, so I'd drop Umbreon altogether.

Altaria can take Special hits rather well even without EVs, so running a DD/DC/EQ/Roost set over Umbreon could work rather well. It also gives you another switch in to any Shaymin without HP Ice (most of the higher ones are running HP Rock for Moltres).