Gen 8 Hard Feelings (Bulky Offense), a Love Letter to SS Ubers (Peaked #1)

gephicka

gephicka

i miss her
is a Pre-Contributor

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Introduction​

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Hello All,
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My name is gephicka, I own the SS Ubers Discord and throughout the month of March I've decided to remain at or near the top of the RoA spotlight ladder for Gen 8 Ubers– I plan to document my journey here. I wanted to draw some attention to the new ladder as it hasn't gotten a lot of love, which saddens me as it's one of my favorite formats ever. You may see me using other teams up there, but the team that took me through it all, through Rainy Days and Groudon's intense sunlight, through the classic YEN standoffs SS Ubers is notorious for, is this one. I started back in Gen 8, and as I've branched out and tried new things (ORAS, DPP, SV, SM), there's always remained a special place in my heart for SS Ubers. I've never been good at SS OU, but for some reason balance mirrors in Ubers just made sense to me in a way they don't in OU. I have never been a particularly patient player, but SS Ubers is a metagame that, in its own way, rewards patience and dedication to your craft. It's always represented the peak of balance in Ubers. It is a format I will always jump to play whenever anyone asks for a game, and one that will always hold a place in my heart. I wish I had played it more while it was still around.

Hit #1 multiple different times
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Teambuilding Process​

"Go back and tell it..."​

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The genesis of the idea ()came to me when I was on a flight home. I thought that the idea of Xern and Scarf Ogre + bulky DD NDM does a pretty good job of wearing down opposing NDM, Ferrothorn, and Ho-Oh to allow for a Xern or Scarf Ogre clean. Of course, Yveltal and Eternatus perfectly fill out the rest of the YEN defensive core, checking Calyrex-Shadow and opposing Kyogre (among others) respectively. However, after some testing on ladder, I noticed a few things: 1)The Stall MU is atrocious, 2) The team still gets exploited by Ferrothorn, and 3) CM Kyogre (looking at you Rainy Days) completely owns this 6. I went through a lot of testing of different variants– even picking up this Pheromosa BO I stole from OreoSpeedruns– before I realized what the team was missing: a fast, strong fighting type and revenge killer. Which, is how I came to CB Marshadow over Lando. Marsh basically gives the team a strong priority revenger killer and outs into basically everything. With Lando gone, I needed to swap Necrozma to a defensive set because without it the team gets cooked by Zekrom and has no rocker.


Yveltal​

"Please could you be tender..."​

yveltal.png

be tender (Yveltal) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 16 HP / 240 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- Defog
- Roost​
Originally, I was running a bulky Yveltal before I realized I needed to run max speed because the webs MU was atrocious. This set is meant to switch into Calyrex-Shadow as many times as possible while also providing defog support and STAB Knock Off pressure into the majority of the metagame. Taunt is for the Stall matchup, as well as being generally useful into assorted balance and setup-focused teams. This set also does a very good job of putting pressure on Ferrothorn with Knock Off + Taunt preventing it from recovering.


Eternatus​

"...and I will sit close to you."​

eternatus.png

close to you (Eternatus) @ Eject Pack
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 164 HP / 252 SpD / 92 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Toxic
- Recover​
Classic specially defensive Eternatus. Serves in part as a Knock Absorber, a Kyogre check, generally fat mon that can sit on the field and exert pressure in a lot of matchups and pivot once using Eject Pack. Eject Pack + Draco allows Etern to generate momentum on NDM pivots by allowing you to pivot into a mon that threatens it more like Scarf Ogre or CB Marsh. Toxic is to punish setup sweepers or defensive mons trying to stay in on Etern. Draco also allows Eternatus to OHKO opposing offensive Eternatus most of the time, allowing Etern to stop their momentum into the rest of the team while generating its own.


Xerneas​

"Just give it a minute before we admit that we're through"​

xerneas-neutral.png

give it a minute (Xerneas) @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 168 Def / 252 SpA / 88 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Thunder
- Substitute​
Xerneas was chosen to provide the team with an endgame wincon, able to 2HKO the entire tier when boosted. Sub allows Xern to punish passivity and sweep more efficiently, while Moonblast and Thunder allow it to hit Ho-Oh and Kyogre for harder while 2HKOing most other things with Moonblast. Xerneas is also able to pressure dragons like Zekrom and Zygarde that the rest of the team can struggle with.


Kyogre​

"Cuz I remember the rush when forever was us"​

kyogre.png

forever was us (Kyogre) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Origin Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Thunder​
Scarf Kyogre is one of the best scarfers in the tier, able to net 2HKOs into essentially the whole metagame other than Blissey and SpD Ferrothorn with Scarf Water Spout. It is able to wear teams down over the course of the game and serves as an excellent lead option into a lot of matchups. It also aids Xerneas in chipping their archnemesis Ferrothorn down over longer games and is another way of revenging Calyrex-S.


Marshadow​

"These are what they call hard feelings... of love"​

marshadow.png

hard feelings (Marshadow) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Close Combat
- Shadow Sneak
- Rock Tomb​
Banded Marshadow is one of the best methods this team has of pressuring Stall. It's able to pressure both Blissey and Ferrothorn as well as chunking Ho-Oh on a prediction. It also serves as a great revenge killer, with banded Shadow Sneak allowing it to remove CSR and chipped setup sweepers like Xerneas or Zekrom. It also serves the function of checking slower setup sweepers like Demon Etern and CM Kyogre through Spectral thief and providing really nice outs into any setup sweepers that get out of hand.


Necrozma-Dusk-Mane​

"I'll start letting go of little things until I'm so far away from you, far away from you, yeah"​

necrozma-duskmane.png

so far away from u (Necrozma-Dusk-Mane) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Def / 120 Spe
Impish Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- Earthquake
- Moonlight
- Stealth Rock​
Physically Defensive NDM is essentially the team's last line of defense into threats like Zekrom and the Ice Types, which would otherwise run through the team with ease. NDM is also the team's rock setter and switch-in to defensive Eternatus and Xerneas. Of course, it also functions as the third and final member of YEN. NDM is vital to the team's defensive functions, without it you will most likely get swept by Zekrom, Darmanitan-G, and Xerneas, so it is of the utmost importance that you keep it alive and as healthy as possible. It will likely trade almost all of its HP to deal with one of the 3, so you have to be extremely careful of the other two should you encounter a team with more than one of them.

Problem MUs​

"L-O-V-E-L-E-S-S Generation"​

zekrom.png

Zekrom
DD LO Zekrom is able to set up and OHKO basically the entire team with just one DD. You have to be extremely careful and almost always end up trading Necrozma for it.
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The Ice Types
These two are able to OHKO basically everything on the team outside of NDM. Weavile, Banded Garm, and Scarf Adamant Garm are a lot easier to handle because Scarf Ogre can outspeed and OHKO them without too much issue, however Jolly Scarf Garm can give the team a lot of issues, especially when paired with other mons NDM is needed to check.

Ferrothorn
Ferrothorn does a really good job of checking your two primary offensive threats (Xerneas and Kyogre) and even after it's knocked it can spam leech seed freely until taunted by Yveltal. If possible try to position Marshadow to pick up a KO on it with CC. Sub Xern can also help to overwhelm it if you're proactive about it.

Unfortunately I didn't save a whole lot, but here are a few of them– I'll edit with some more throughout the month
With Earlier Variants:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ubers-2310576629
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ubers-2310440778
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ubers-2310648959-eh0bi3oeeddde0kjl0a890pc0hqkiqtpw
With Main Team:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ubers-2311111236
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ubers-2311111236
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ubers-2311115456

be tender (Yveltal) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 16 HP / 240 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- Defog
- Roost

close to you (Eternatus) @ Eject Pack
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 164 HP / 248 SpD / 96 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Toxic
- Recover

give it a minute (Xerneas) @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 168 Def / 252 SpA / 88 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Thunder
- Substitute

forever was us (Kyogre) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Origin Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Thunder

hard feelings (Marshadow) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Close Combat
- Shadow Sneak
- Rock Tomb

so far away from u (Necrozma-Dusk-Mane) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Def / 120 Spe
Impish Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- Earthquake
- Moonlight
- Stealth Rock

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Conclusion​

"But I still remember everything, how we'd drift buying groceries– how you'd dance with me."​

It makes me glad that I've gotten the chance to have SS Ubers ladder up again, and a chance for others to experience what has come to be my favorite metagame of all time. The laddering process wasn't the best, and I know I got super cooked a few times by ELO bc I was top of the ladder and got haxed or misplayed and dropped to 3rd or 4th after 1 game. It was hard, of course, but at the end of the day I can still say I topped the ladder of my favorite metagame of all time. If you take nothing from this post, go give SS Ubers a try– on ladder or even in a tournament. The tier dynamics are so facsinating, with each member of YEN forcing one of the others' out but not outright OHKOing or muscling through them the majority of the time. It fosters a bulkier and more balanced metagame based on taking out the walls on the opposing side that prevent your setup sweeper from winning or prolonged wars of attrition where one mistake can make the next 10 turns infinitely harder. I love that slow play and balance. I don't really get that level of both balance and power in any other tier besides this one. If you enjoy SS at all in any capacity you should give SS Ubers a try. If you enjoy Farceus DPP you should give it a try. Hell, if you enjoy a skill-based balance mirror then SS Ubers is the perfect place for you.

Play SS Ubers, one of my favorite metagames of all time, and hopefully soon to be yours too!​
 
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