ORAS UU Gen Wunners Favorite Team A Kanto Volt-Turn (First RMT)

[GeniusX]

Threats of the Past​

Hi, I'm new to Smogon RMT and is here to make a RMT on a team that i made recently. I am a OU player but due to OU suspect, I decided to make a UU team to ladder and play with. As a Gen wunner, I decided to build my team consisting of 6 Gen 1 Pokemon. I found out a lot of threats in UU were from Gen 1 so let's start the team. (Note: This is my first RMT so I don't know how to make it look good) (Also, I'm Chinese so my English sucks, so please don't pick on my grammar mistakes :p)


The Team

Mega

Thought Process
I started with a core of Zapdos and Mega Beedrill as I thought Zapdos can take hits defog rocks for Beedrill, and they can form a nice Volt-Turn Core.

I realize I was disgustingly weak to Aerodactyl, Band Entei with this Core, so I added Nidoking. Nidoking doesn't necessarily serve as a check to both these mons but when played correctly can be bought in by volt-turn and scare them out.

The next mon I added was Alakazam, one of my favorite mons in Gen 1. This helped me somewhat mitigate a mega swampert sweep in rain with focus sash and energy ball. This mon also helped with scarf hydreigon by sash+dazzling gleam. Overall this mon was a one time check to threats that 6-0 my team.

The first 4th member of the team is the one and only Arcanine, with intimidate support and resist to Entei (unless they predict and stone edge), is great. Supporting a wide movepool and fantastic priority was great. Often outclassed by entei, this beast was nothing less than what you expected. I ran a band set so I could 2hko bulky waters (looking at u, suicune) and it worked pretty nicely.

Last but not least, the John Cena of Pokemon, Machampion himself, joins the squad. I wanted a status absorber and a mon that can take a few special hits so the first thing that came to mind was AV Machamp.

On to the sets!

Beedrill-Mega (F) @ Beedrillite
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- U-turn
- Poison Jab
- Drill Run

I absolutely love this thing. Gamefreak knew that it would be terrible if they skimped out on its offensive potential at all, and that's what this set capitalizes on. Beedrill’s a monstrous glass cannon, so be very mindful about switching it in. This pokemon doesn't stay on the field for long everytime it comes in so it can remain a threat throughtout the battle.

Adament nature is preferred as it ohkos lucario with drill run, standard evs, and drill run was chosen over knock off because of I don't see what knock off is useful for on this thing. Protect is useful for scouting out attacks/choice users, and ensuring that you can Mega Evolve safely. U-turn and Poison Jab are the default STABs, the former allows Beedrill to quickly escape while still dishing out a healthy amount of damage.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Defog
- Heat Wave / Hidden Power [Ice] / Roost

This is a very interesting Zapdos set to say the least. This thing finishes my Volt Turn Core and provides hazard removal. Zapdos is mainly a support poke that can pull out volt switch. This set lacks longevity as it will be switching in on hazards and attacks that will worn it down, therefore losing momentum. Heat Wave is for Steel types such as Forretress, and HP Ice is mainly for Gligar and such. If you do run roost over coverage, this thing will get completely walled by ground types, so it's quite hard to choose which move to run for the last slot.

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave

This is the most standard Nidoking set, and it's fairly effective. Earth Power is Nidoking's best STAB attack, benefitting from great coverage and the boost from Sheer Force, while dealing with some of the tier's most threatening Pokemon, such as Arcanine, Empoleon, Rhyperior. Ice beam is necessary to deal with Shaymin, one of the absolute most dangerous Pokemon in the tier, while also dealing with other Grass types spread through the tier. Sludge Wave is great for fairies and also as a secondary Stab, and Flamethrower is there to hit the likes of Steel type.

​

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball

This mon is in my opinion, one of the best revenge killers ever, acting as a check to seriously dent the entire meta. Moveset is simple, Dazzling Gleam for Hydreigon, Psychic for STAB, Shadow Ball for coverage, and energy ball for bulky waters. This mon is a one time check to kill a large threat so the rest of team can pull through.

Arcanine @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed

Ahh, Arcanine, one of the most underated threats in the whole uu metagame. This mon is often overlooked by entei so most Arcanines are defensive. This arcanine however, hits extremely powerful with a band. Able to 2hko bulky waters such as crocune and blastoise with a read, this thing is crucial. Providing intimidate support with STAB Flare Blitz and Priority Extreme Speed, this power is unexpected by most opponents.

Machamp @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 128 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Heavy Slam

Machamp, a great counter to Hydreigon, a status absorber, and a Knock Off user all packed into one. Scald burns were a huge issue to this team, and i really needed a status absorber. That's why Machamp came to mind. Before Machamp, this last spot was the hardest. First I went with CurseLax as it offers a Chandy Switchin, then I tried P2, which was great, but status and Knock Off were still a huge problem. I also tried Dugtrio and Blissey. But Dugtrio rely too much on sash, and Blissey took away the offensive presence. The closest was probably lead aero, as it provided stealth rocks, but ultimately I decided on Machamp.


Conclusion:

This team is by no means good, it probably is a horrible team. Like I've said, I never played UU before, and this is my first attempt at making a UU competitive team. I would love criticism for this team to make this team better. One thing to keep in mind for everybody reading this is that you don't necessarily have to let it stay as a Gen 1 team. I had limited choices for this team because I used the first 151, but this is only a foundation. I understand that only using Gen 1 mons is not going to make a good UU team. So if anybody has ideas of changing mons, please don't hesitate to reply to this RMT. I really want to make a actual UU team because I honestly want to get into the UU community.

Import:
(For anyone to try out how horrible this team is)
Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Defog
- Heat Wave

Machamp @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 128 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Heavy Slam

Arcanine @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed

Beedrill-Mega (F) @ Beedrillite
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- U-turn
- Poison Jab
- Drill Run

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball

​

 

[ict]

Sup bro cool Gen 1 based theme team :o, I've got some few changes for you to improve this team.

• First of all you should change Roost > Thunderbolt it's better for you to have recovery on your defogger with a Beedrill and an Arcanine on your team. I decided to take of Thunderbolt off insteda of Volt Switch because you form a good volturn core with Beedrill to support your breakers in CB Arcanine and Nidoking. You should change your Zapdos set from 252 HP 252 SpA > 248 HP 176 Def 84 Spe this will help with your glaring fighting weakness and leaves you at a better matchup vs Cobalion or Lucario.

• Considering you have no Stealth Rocker I suggest you to run Cobalion over Machamp I know that this will ruin your ''Gen 1 Theme'' but it will improve your team a lot since Stealth Rocks are mandatory. Cobalion still provides a good check to Hydreigon while losing not that much it also gives you a better matchup vs Mamoswine which will be forced to click EQ often enough to not give Coba a free switch on it, a shuca Berry helps out very well.
  Cobalion

  Cobalion @ Shuca Berry
  Ability: Justified
  EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
  Jolly Nature
  - Stealth Rock
  - Iron Head
  - Close Combat
  - Swords Dance

• Change your Arcanine spread from 252 HP 252 Attack > 252 Attack 252 Spe 4 SpD remaining the Adamant nature, Arcanine has a good speed tier not taking advantage of that would be awkward.

• Use Jolly over Adamant on Mega Beedrill while you might enjoy the power with Adamant this will leave you tougher vs things like Crobat/Scarf Garde/Chandelure and Sceptile ties because you run Drill Run you want to outspeed Chandelure so Jolly is better here.

• Run Thundebolt over Flamethrower. This will help you vs your Suicune matchup a lot or Bulky Waters in general that your team do not really want to face. It also is a good lure for Gyarados which after a Dragon Dance can sweep through your team. You can consider Superpower or Sucker Punch, too because Flamethrower really isn't necessary. So yeah Tbolt is the best fit here imo.

• Energy Ball might be fine to deal with Rain Dance Pert but I personally like Thunder Wave more here to stop the likes of Scarf Salamence or Aerodactyl for a cool surprise in yellow magic :P. Thats just my opinion tho.

Hope I helped and you will consider those changes

 

[Manipulative]

Hey there, GeniusX and welcome to Smogon! This is a very cool team and I really like the Gen 1 theme. UU has quite a few good Pokemon that go all the way back to Gen 1 and it seems like you've already found some of them. I've got some changes for you to try out that could make this team much better suited for the metagame, while still maintaining that nostalgic feel.

• The team seems quite vulnerable to some of UU's top threats, such as Mega Aerodactyl, Fire types, and Dragon types. Mega Aerodactyl is able to nearly OHKO the entire team from full health with its STAB moves and common coverage in Earthquake or Aqua Tail. Arcanine, without carrying Morning Sun to heal itself up, is not going to be able to handle fire types efficiently. Your team also lacks a win condition, and has nothing that wants to switch into Draco Meteor, a move that is very commonly spammed in UU. To help mitigate all of these major weaknesses, I recommend replacing Arcanine with CurseLax. Snorlax has some pretty great bulk on the special side, while also being able to boost its physical defense with Curse. It also has access to a very useful ability in Thick Fat, allowing it to comfortably take Fire and Ice type attacks. It could comfortably switch in to Draco Meteors and most special attackers in general, including opposing Nidos, which also look like a huge threat to your team. With just getting a single curse up, Snorlax would be able to deal with many physical attackers that your team currently can't handle, such as Mega Aerodactyl, Mega Beedrill, Mega Swampert, Gyarados, and more. Snorlax also 1v1s certain bulky psychics like Slowking and Cresselia that otherwise seem like they could trouble your team. Overall, this change helps your team with a multitude of common threats. Here's the set:

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 144 HP / 188 Def / 176 SpD
Careful Nature
- Curse
- Body Slam
- Rest
- Sleep Talk​

• Your team lacks a Stealth Rocker, which is practically mandatory on any team. I would suggest replacing Nidoking with SR Nidoqueen. Thanks to its more natural bulk, Nidoqueen makes for a generally better Stealth Rocker than Nidoking would. It also helps your team better check fighting types, which your team desperately needs right now. For the most part, Nidoqueen has just as good wallbreaking capabilities as Nidoking does. It is actually slightly stronger due to being able to run a Modest nature, while Nidoking has to run a +Speed nature to maintain the one reason to ever use it over Nidoqueen. Despite losing some speed, the drawbacks to this change are pretty minimal and the advantages are well worth it. Anyways, here's the set:

Nidoqueen (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 168 HP / 252 SpA / 88 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam
​

• The team would still appreciate a better check to fighting types since Nidoqueen could get worn down pretty easily. I suggest running Physically Defensive Zapdos to help fix this issue. This would help take a ton of pressure off of Nidoqueen and in being able to deal with certain fighting types that Nidoqueen wouldn't be able to handle, such as a +2 Lucario and CB Heracross. Zapdos should also be carrying Roost over Thunderbolt so that it can keep itself healthy while still maintaining the VolTurn core that you wanted. Also, having some slight Special Defense investment would allow Zapdos to switch into Mega Sceptile easier. Here's the set:

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 240 HP / 176 Def / 68 SpD / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Roost
- Defog
- Heat Wave​

• Since Snorlax would provide you with a sponge to most special attacks, I think your team would be much better off with Machamp running the Choice Band set over the Assault Vest set. CB Machamp would be incredibly helpful in dealing with some other very annoying threats to your team, such as Suicune, and Sableye which became more threatening with the loss of your fire type and is the biggest counter to Snorlax. It is able to switch into Suicune and 2HKO it even without the Guts boost. A CB Heavy Slam also guarantees OHKOing Sableye after rocks, and can do the same to it from full health if it catches the burn from Will-O-Wisp. Additionally, a CB Knock Off would help your team further in dealing with Reuniclus. I'll leave some calcs below. This change would give you another wallbreaker, and also help compensate for the loss of CB Arcanine. Here's the set:

Machamp @ Choice Band
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Heavy Slam​

Calcs

252+ Atk Choice Band Machamp Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Suicune: 211-250 (52.2 - 61.8%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Guts Machamp Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Suicune: 316-373 (78.2 - 92.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Machamp Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Sableye: 273-322 (89.8 - 105.9%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Guts Machamp Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Sableye: 409-482 (134.5 - 158.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Machamp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Reuniclus: 302-356 (71.2 - 83.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Guts Machamp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Reuniclus: 452-532 (106.6 - 125.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO


Without an item:

252+ Atk Choice Band Machamp Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Reuniclus: 204-240 (48.1 - 56.6%) -- 88.3% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Guts Machamp Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Reuniclus: 304-358 (71.6 - 84.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

• DD Mence is still a huge threat to this team, and Mega Sceptile is also pretty threatening. I suggest replacing Shadow Ball with HP Ice on Alakazam. Shadow Ball is pretty expendable since the team could deal with most of the psychic and ghost types pretty well even without Shadow Ball on Zam. Being able to take out two huge threats to the team though, as well as other annoyances like Gligar with HP Ice, is too good to pass up.

• Mega Beedrill definitely needs to run a Jolly Nature here to be able to outspeed some other massive threats to the team, such as Scarfed Chandelure and a +1 Jolly Feraligatr. The loss in power shouldn't be too noticeable, and being able to stop these threats is crucial.

Other Options:

• You could consider running Knock Off over Drill Run on MBeedrill because it has a very high chance at OHKOing Chandelure from full health, which Drill Run can't do. Though, this would mean having one less way of threatening steel types like Cobalion.

• If you're willing to give up Volt Switch on Zapdos, then I would highly suggest putting Thunderbolt in its place because Gyarados is still a massive threat to this team. It could simply use substitute while you Volt Switch and then proceed to set up or damage your team while Zapdos isn't on the field. With Thunderbolt, you wouldn't have to switch out every time you clicked the electric attack, making Zapdos a much better answer to Gyarados. In the case that you don't make this change, your best bet is making sure to set up with Snorlax before Gyarados comes out on the field.

• If you make the above change, then it may be worth running HP Ice over Heat Wave on Zapdos as well. This would give you another potential way of beating DD Mence in the case that you had to sacrifice Zam or its sash too early. The change also helps in being able to take on MSceptile better. However, it also means less efficiency against steel types. Though, Thunderbolt is usually able to get the job done against those.

I hope you consider my suggestions, and best of luck with the team!

 

[GeniusX]

Thx everyone for the rates! After experimenting all the changes mentioned, I found out that CurseLax worked really well on this team as it provides a nice win con and serves as a nice Special Sponge. I changed Beedrill to Jolly and changed Zapdos to a Physically Defensive set as mentioned and swapped thunderbolt for roost. I took off heat wave on Zapdos as I didn't find it as useful and replaced it with HP Ice, this allowed me to deal with Scep as Zam wasn't able to paralyze it. As for my SR setter, I decided to go with Nidoqueen as it scares out a lot of mons and can set up rocks. As for zams last move, I decided to go T wave as it stops a lot of sweeps and can bring me back into the game a lot of the times, focus blast wasn't as useful because paralyzing Coba let Machamp outspeed and revenge kill it. Dazzling Gleam also is a 2hko on Krook and I didn't want to mess around with focus miss. I haven't decided on whether to run CB Machamp as I haven't met a lot of Bulky waters or Sableye in the last few matches. Bulky waters is a huge problem and I think I will make a decision after I run into more Bulky Waters.
Thx everyone for rating my team!