Groudosect: My First Ubers Team

[NeoSeth]

After lurking in the Ubers Metagame forum for awhile and reading several warstories, I decided to get in on the fun. Everyone was talking about how dead the ladder was, and I decided I’d do my part. So, with my considerable OU experience under my belt, I jumped into the Ubers metagame.

Team at a Glance:

Obviously, it's an offensive team. Deoxys sets up entry hazards, and I attempt a sweep with Groudon. Rayquaza breaks down stall and generally annoying defensive cores, while Kyogre just hits REALLY hard. Darkrai is for revenge killing. Parasect forces some switches for residual damage and makes Groudon's sweep much easier by paralyzing and sleeping potential counters. In playtesting it's worked rather well, but the dead ladder has prevented this to some extent. So, any comments are welcome!

Deoxys-S w/ Lum Berry
Pressure
Jolly
252 Atk, 252 Spe, 6 HP
Stealth Rock
Spikes
Taunt
Superpower

Basic Deoxys lead. Set up hazards, prevent others from setting up hazards, and throw around Superpowers at Darkrai leads or Steel types that switch in. The Lum Berry allows it to take Dark Void without a problem. It really serves no purpose after getting up as many hazards as possible, but it still really helps my team, dishing out the entry damage as I force switches with the rest of my team. Speaking of which, forcing a lot of switches is…

Latias w/ Soul Dew
Levitate
Timid
112 HP, 204 SpA, 192 Spe
-Calm Mind
-Dragon Pulse
-Thunder
-Recover

Groudon w/ Life Orb
Drought
Adamant
112 HP, 252 Atk, 8 Def, 136 Spd
Rock Polish
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Dragon Claw

Groudon’s my main sweeper, outspeeding many common counters after a Rock Polish boost. At first I’ll switch him in early, and just throw out a Stone Edge or Dragon Claw depending on my scouting of the opponent’s team (I’ve noticed you can tell what they haven’t shown you if you’ve seen a couple of their Pokémon). This catches Lugia, Shaymin-S, Garchomp and generally anything weak to the attack I use. I don’t go for the KO, but it helps to make them thing twice about switching in. It also severely dents Kyogre, ruining Water Spout. With the entry hazards set up by Deoxys, some leads might not be able to switch in again, or be KOd. Shaymin-S is OHKOd by Stone Edge. From there, I can switch to Parasect to take any Water attacks, or Kyogre to sponge an attack and lash out with a boosted Surf. Once set up, Groudon rips through most anything, with powerful STAB Earthquake hitting anything grounded for huge damage, with Stone Edge catching Flying types. Dragon Claw hits the massive amount of Dragons running around for super effective damage, like Giratina.

Kyogre w/ Choice Specs
Drizzle
Timid
252 SA, 252 Spd, 6 HP
Water Spout
Surf
Thunder
Ice Beam

Classic SpecsOgre. Water Spout hits stupidly hard, and Surf as well if I’ve taken too much damage. Thunder hits other Kyogre, and Ice Beam is great to throw out on a predicted switch, as it catches Dragons and Flying types (Two of the most prevalent types in Ubers) for super-effective damage. Kyogre is a great partner when used with Groudon and Parasect, as it effectively counters an opponent’s Groudon counter and allows Parasect to continue doing it’s job with extra rain support. Kyogre also appreciates Rayquaza removing Blissey, although that isn’t much of an issue if I’m throwing around Specs Water Spout in the rain.

Rayquaza w/ Life Orb
Air Lock
Hasty
40 Atk, 252 SA, 216 Spe
Draco Meteor
Fire Blast
Extremespeed
Outrage

Mixquaza does very well on my team, breaking down key defensive cores. Draco Meteor and Fire Blast are stupidly powerful, and Fire Blast has the added bonus of removing Steels that could give Groudon trouble. Extremespeed picks off weakened or faster foes, and Outrage just clears out non-steel Pokémon. I don’t really know how to go into detail on this one, since he just comes out and tears down the walls in my way.

Jirachi w/ Choice Scarf
Serene Grace
Jolly
252 Atk, 252 Spe, 6 HP
Iron Head
Ice Punch
Trick
U-Turn

 

[shrang]

Hi, not bad for a first attempt.

Firstly, you have no Dragon-resist on this team. While it isn't compulsory, it can be quite difficult to play Ubers without a Steel on your team. Something as simple as Dialga can just come in again and again and fire off Draco Meteors until your whole team dies. This makes your team weak to a long list of Dragons, which include Lati@s (THIS ESPECIALLY), Dialga, Palkia, Rayquaza, Salamence, etc.

Secondly, Parasect is mediocre at best. Even Genny (The one who pioneered UberSect) concedes that it sucks, and this is especially true when you have Groudon on your team to hurt it every time it's in the sun.

Thirdly, you have quite a big weakness to SD Rayquaza (With Groudon weakened). Once Groudon has been weakened to about 60%ish, he can just kill you with Dragon Claw and Extremespeed everything else (Oh, Dragon Claw for Kyogre, too).

To fix these problems, I propose:

1) Replace Parasect with Latias or Palkia:
As I said before, Parasect is not very good. Yes, Spore + Stun Spore + Aromatherapy + Free switch into Water Spout is really cool, but that, unfortunately, that is where Parasect's usefulness ends. This is not mentioning that Kyogre can predict your Parasect switch-in once it's revealed and nail you with Ice Beam. Latias is as close to a surefire counter to Kyogre that isn't dead-weight as you can get:

Latias @ Soul Dew
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 112 HP/204 SpA/192 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Calm Mind
-Dragon Pulse
-Thunder
-Recover

or Palkia:

Palkia @ Lustrous Orb/Choice Scarf (Use Choice Scarf if you don't go with Scarf Jirachi)
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Draco Meteor/Spacial Rend
-Surf
-Fire Blast/Spacial Rend
-Thunder

Palkia can pretty much do anything you want it to do except stop SD Ray, I suppose. Since you have both Sun and Rain, Fire Blast is quite a good move to use on Palkia.

2) Replace Darkrai with Jirachi:

Darkrai isn't that spectacular of a revenge killer. Sure, it's fast, but that's about it. Like I said before, it won't stop SD Ray, either. Jirachi, on the other hand, can pretty much stop both SD and DD Ray, provided that you don't switch into EQ or a Fire move. I recommend ScarfRachi, but Wish passing is good as well:

Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
-Iron Head
-Ice Punch
-Trick
-U-Turn

or Wish-Passing:

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP/40 Atk/216 Spe
Nature: Jolly
-Wish
-Iron Head/Protect
-Ice Punch/Protect
-U-Turn

3) I have a one more change I'd like to make: Change Kyogre's EV spread to 220 HP/252 SpA/36 Spe Modest. Kyogre doesn't have any business trying to outspeed many things, so a bulkier spread and a Modest nature is better, in my opinion. This also allows you tank some hits like Groudon's EQ and kill it with Surf.

Hope I helped, good luck.

 

[mtr]

Deoxys-S/RPDon/MixRay is a good core of Pokemon to have, you're weakening walls like Lugia and Groudon so RPDon can sweep. However, Parasect isn't doing enough for this team, and you could substitute it out for another Pokemon to develop your strategy.

And aside from Shrang's changes, I would recommend a Wobbuffet over Kyogre to help RPDon set up. Still, SpecsOgre is definitely a good choice.

 

[NeoSeth]

Alright, I've made the changes Shrang suggested, and I see how they can help. I've been very busy, and I'll playtest them when I get the time, hopefully tonight. I'll be keeping Kyogre for these tests, but if he's not useful I'll replace him with Wobbuffet for a go.