Hey all! This is my first RMT thread, and I'm only now making one because I've been testing this team for a while and really just enjoying the UU meta. My playstyle is pretty heavily based around capitalizing on free switches, and my teams almost always end up being heavily prediction reliant. The result is that one bad play can set me back hugely in a battle, but overall I find strategies that are based around constantly outsmarting your opponent are more fun to play. Without further ado, here's the lineup!
Drag Queen the Gardevoir
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
Nature: Timid (+SPE, -ATK)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 SPE
IVs: 0 ATK
Moves:
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Destiny Bond
- Trick
The star and centrepiece of the team, Drag Queen almost always pulls his weight and then some. Moonblast eats chunks out of a huge swath of the meta, notably 2HKOing non-Assault Vest Usage Slowbro among other things that come in expecting to be able to take a hit. The Choice Scarf allows him to outspeed and OHKO +1 Scrafty, Hydreigon, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Crobat and several other 'mons that would normally potentially threaten him or have a chance at getting a hit in before going down; I can't keep count of the number of Crobat leads who have instantly died to a Psychic. He's weak to Steel types such as Magnezone and Metagross whom he can barely dent, and is scared out by Poison types who come in on a choice-locked Moonblast. Trick is a godsend against the likes of many boosters like Venomoth and Reuniclus, as well as Eviolite-dependent mons like Chansey and Porygon 2. I also cannot count the number of free switches Trace grants with good prediction skills.
Regis the Empoleon
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Bold (+DEF, -ATK)
EVs: 248 HP / 252 DEF / 8 SpA
IVs: 0 ATK
Moves:
- Scald
- Stealth Rocks
- Defog
- Roar
Basically Drag Queen's best friend possible, Empoleon is immune to Poison and 4x Resists Steel. Regis is my hazard-management guru, who gets rid of opposing hazards while placing up my own. Roar is used here to screw with set-up sweepers and Wishpassers; some like to run Ice Beam, but Empoleon doesn't outspeed enough of the 'mons that are weak to that to matter, in my opinion, and half the time I would rather use Scald for the burn chance anyway (e.g. vs. Haxorus). He is weakest to Ground, Electric and Fighting, the last of which Drag Queen has a 4x Resistance to. These weaknesses are what prompted the addition of the next member of the team; Empoleon and Gardevoir form the team's supportive "core".
Kawaiju the Flygon
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Jolly (+SPE, -SpA)
EVs: 252 ATK / 4 SpD / 252 SPE
Moves:
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- U-Turn
- Fire Punch
Guess what Flygon has immunities to? Ground and Electric! A generally quite safe switch-in from Empoleon, his weaknesses and resistances mesh quite perfectly with the Core. His Ice Weakness is 4x resisted by Empoleon, who also resists Fairy x2, and his Dragon weakness is handily covered by Gardevoir. Most battles, depending on the enemy team, I will either open with Flygon or Gardevoir. He is good at revenge killing all variants of Darmanitan, Nidoroyalty, Hydreigon and Chandelure, and his Outrage takes a massive chunk out of threats like Tornadus Therian. I tried a Life Orb set, but the loss of durability from the recoil and the loss of speed were both really noticeable.
Alvin the Chesnaught
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
Nature: Impish (+DEF, -SpA)
EVs: 248 HP / 8 ATK / 252 DEF
Moves:
- Seed Bomb
- Brick Break
- Leech Seed
- Spiky Shield
This wooden Gundam mech has saved my battles nearly as often as Drag Queen has. Bulletproof gives him a lovely set of immunities, including the dreaded Shadow Ball; unfortunately, a lot of UU pokemon have access to Sludge Wave over Sludge Bomb, but that immunity comes in handy too. This guy is my answer to Mega Blastoise (unless they carry Ice Beam, which is a pain to deal with) as well as just generally most bulky water and normal types. He needs to carry his dual STAB to actually threaten all the mons he's supposed to, like Swampert and Hydreigon. With good prediction, he can mow through half a physical attacker's HP pool with a combination of Leech Seed and Spiky Shield, and I have killed pokemon like Haxorus who tried to boost in my face and ended up getting stalled into an early grave. Easily the second MVP of the team, though not as essential to my switching core.
Houndespair the Mega Houndoom
Item: Houndoominite
Ability: Flash Fire -> Solar Power
Nature: Naive (+SPE, -SpD)
EVs: 4 ATK / 252 SpA / 252 SPE
Moves:
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Sludge Bomb
- Sucker Punch
The team's Mega Evolution. This guy packs a punch, especially after a Flash Fire boost. I chose Naive because he's fast and he will predominantly take damage from passive rack-up and priority. The fast majority of priority moves that deal direct damage are physical, so I figured it was best to leave this defense as intact as possible. Sucker Punch catches a lot of foes off-guard who have seen me flinging Dark Pulses and Fire Blasts left and right, and it is especially handy for polishing off Jirachi and Victini. Lots of Scarfers who think they can revenge him can, if on low HP, be take out outright with a Sucker Punch, letting Houndoom go back to kicking ass and taking names. Sludge Bomb is literally just there for Florges - apart from her, it doesn't really score any particularly important coverage.
Stormhawk the Zapdos
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Calm (+SpD, -ATK)
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Moves:
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Roost
The member of the team I am least invested in and change most often. Stormhawk has been replaced by Magnezone and Jolteon in the past, but I found him more useful than either of them. I'm not super set on having an Electric-type, but I like him because he doesn't add more Ground weakness. Unfortunately, what he does add is more Ice weakness.
That being said, I can't just say bad things about this guy. His toxic stall and super bulky substitutes have won entire games for me, and some teams just don't pack the right moves to deal with him. Unfortunately, he can't do anything at all to the Nidoroyalty and does very little to Ground types that don't mind being poisoned, like Swampert.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
So, that's the team! Like I said, it's built around a bunch of mutually synergistic immunities, so it works really really well off of good predictions. Unfortunately, if I make a bad move and lose a cog in the machine before it has done its job, I can be royally screwed over. Losing Gardevoir before I can Trick Chansey is a big deal, and losing Chesnaught before I kill Swampert is another - there are tons of examples where I've lost because I lost a pokemon before its job was done. I'm mostly looking for tweak suggestions and for advice on how to replace or improve Zapdos, but I'm only really dedicated to the core of Gardevoir/Empoleon + Chesnaught. If there's any more info that should go in this opening post, let me know and I'll update it with whatever is needed. Thanks for reading all of this!
Drag Queen the Gardevoir
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
Nature: Timid (+SPE, -ATK)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 SPE
IVs: 0 ATK
Moves:
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Destiny Bond
- Trick
The star and centrepiece of the team, Drag Queen almost always pulls his weight and then some. Moonblast eats chunks out of a huge swath of the meta, notably 2HKOing non-Assault Vest Usage Slowbro among other things that come in expecting to be able to take a hit. The Choice Scarf allows him to outspeed and OHKO +1 Scrafty, Hydreigon, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Crobat and several other 'mons that would normally potentially threaten him or have a chance at getting a hit in before going down; I can't keep count of the number of Crobat leads who have instantly died to a Psychic. He's weak to Steel types such as Magnezone and Metagross whom he can barely dent, and is scared out by Poison types who come in on a choice-locked Moonblast. Trick is a godsend against the likes of many boosters like Venomoth and Reuniclus, as well as Eviolite-dependent mons like Chansey and Porygon 2. I also cannot count the number of free switches Trace grants with good prediction skills.
Regis the Empoleon
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Bold (+DEF, -ATK)
EVs: 248 HP / 252 DEF / 8 SpA
IVs: 0 ATK
Moves:
- Scald
- Stealth Rocks
- Defog
- Roar
Basically Drag Queen's best friend possible, Empoleon is immune to Poison and 4x Resists Steel. Regis is my hazard-management guru, who gets rid of opposing hazards while placing up my own. Roar is used here to screw with set-up sweepers and Wishpassers; some like to run Ice Beam, but Empoleon doesn't outspeed enough of the 'mons that are weak to that to matter, in my opinion, and half the time I would rather use Scald for the burn chance anyway (e.g. vs. Haxorus). He is weakest to Ground, Electric and Fighting, the last of which Drag Queen has a 4x Resistance to. These weaknesses are what prompted the addition of the next member of the team; Empoleon and Gardevoir form the team's supportive "core".
Kawaiju the Flygon
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Jolly (+SPE, -SpA)
EVs: 252 ATK / 4 SpD / 252 SPE
Moves:
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- U-Turn
- Fire Punch
Guess what Flygon has immunities to? Ground and Electric! A generally quite safe switch-in from Empoleon, his weaknesses and resistances mesh quite perfectly with the Core. His Ice Weakness is 4x resisted by Empoleon, who also resists Fairy x2, and his Dragon weakness is handily covered by Gardevoir. Most battles, depending on the enemy team, I will either open with Flygon or Gardevoir. He is good at revenge killing all variants of Darmanitan, Nidoroyalty, Hydreigon and Chandelure, and his Outrage takes a massive chunk out of threats like Tornadus Therian. I tried a Life Orb set, but the loss of durability from the recoil and the loss of speed were both really noticeable.
Alvin the Chesnaught
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
Nature: Impish (+DEF, -SpA)
EVs: 248 HP / 8 ATK / 252 DEF
Moves:
- Seed Bomb
- Brick Break
- Leech Seed
- Spiky Shield
This wooden Gundam mech has saved my battles nearly as often as Drag Queen has. Bulletproof gives him a lovely set of immunities, including the dreaded Shadow Ball; unfortunately, a lot of UU pokemon have access to Sludge Wave over Sludge Bomb, but that immunity comes in handy too. This guy is my answer to Mega Blastoise (unless they carry Ice Beam, which is a pain to deal with) as well as just generally most bulky water and normal types. He needs to carry his dual STAB to actually threaten all the mons he's supposed to, like Swampert and Hydreigon. With good prediction, he can mow through half a physical attacker's HP pool with a combination of Leech Seed and Spiky Shield, and I have killed pokemon like Haxorus who tried to boost in my face and ended up getting stalled into an early grave. Easily the second MVP of the team, though not as essential to my switching core.
Houndespair the Mega Houndoom
Item: Houndoominite
Ability: Flash Fire -> Solar Power
Nature: Naive (+SPE, -SpD)
EVs: 4 ATK / 252 SpA / 252 SPE
Moves:
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Sludge Bomb
- Sucker Punch
The team's Mega Evolution. This guy packs a punch, especially after a Flash Fire boost. I chose Naive because he's fast and he will predominantly take damage from passive rack-up and priority. The fast majority of priority moves that deal direct damage are physical, so I figured it was best to leave this defense as intact as possible. Sucker Punch catches a lot of foes off-guard who have seen me flinging Dark Pulses and Fire Blasts left and right, and it is especially handy for polishing off Jirachi and Victini. Lots of Scarfers who think they can revenge him can, if on low HP, be take out outright with a Sucker Punch, letting Houndoom go back to kicking ass and taking names. Sludge Bomb is literally just there for Florges - apart from her, it doesn't really score any particularly important coverage.
Stormhawk the Zapdos
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Calm (+SpD, -ATK)
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Moves:
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Roost
The member of the team I am least invested in and change most often. Stormhawk has been replaced by Magnezone and Jolteon in the past, but I found him more useful than either of them. I'm not super set on having an Electric-type, but I like him because he doesn't add more Ground weakness. Unfortunately, what he does add is more Ice weakness.
That being said, I can't just say bad things about this guy. His toxic stall and super bulky substitutes have won entire games for me, and some teams just don't pack the right moves to deal with him. Unfortunately, he can't do anything at all to the Nidoroyalty and does very little to Ground types that don't mind being poisoned, like Swampert.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
So, that's the team! Like I said, it's built around a bunch of mutually synergistic immunities, so it works really really well off of good predictions. Unfortunately, if I make a bad move and lose a cog in the machine before it has done its job, I can be royally screwed over. Losing Gardevoir before I can Trick Chansey is a big deal, and losing Chesnaught before I kill Swampert is another - there are tons of examples where I've lost because I lost a pokemon before its job was done. I'm mostly looking for tweak suggestions and for advice on how to replace or improve Zapdos, but I'm only really dedicated to the core of Gardevoir/Empoleon + Chesnaught. If there's any more info that should go in this opening post, let me know and I'll update it with whatever is needed. Thanks for reading all of this!
