DO NOT HAVE YOUR HEADPHONES AT A HIGH VOLUME LMFAO
I'm sure people familiar with NatDex Ubers have seen older variants of this team before since it's literally a sample team, but I made a slight update to better optimize the team. When making a Hyper Offense team I always try to consider how consistent each archetype (Dual Screens, Hazard Stack, Webs) is and from personal experience I've found that Webs HO is by far the best archetype to use since the speed drops enable a whole bunch of dumb broken threats and invalidate the few speed control options we have in this tier. This team has had great results and helped me win a set in NatDex USA vs ROW, carried me to Winner's Finals of Freezai's $100 Discord tour, and is currently sporting good results again in NatDex Ubers Seasonal. I know some people like ladder peaks, but I hate laddering for any tier since most of them are very mediocre quality and NatDex Ubers isn't an exception so that probably isn't happening anytime soon
The idea I had with this team was basically to make a powerful Webs HO based around Mixed Eruption Primal Groudon since it's insanely difficult to respond to once webs are down.
Xerneas was brought in since it's a broken sweeper, borderline mandatory for any HO team worth its salt. But it also is nice to directly tackle threats to Primal Groudon such as Arceus Dark, Offensive Yveltal, and Zygarde-C.
I wanted to run Eternatus in order to give myself another out against Zygarde-C while also being able to lure threats such as Zacian-C and Necrozma-Dusk-Mane with Firium Z Fire Blast.
Rayquaza was good in order to give myself a Ground immunity to pressure Arceus Ground and opposing Primal Groudon, but its main goal is to function as a powerful cleaner that can use Tera to break through a lot of its checks after a Dragon Dance boost. It partners well with Primal Groudon since it lures in its main check in Zygarde-C and Arceus Dark and hits them insanely hard with Eruption, afterwards Rayquaza can overwhelm the two with Tera Dragon Ascent.
I heard how good Mega Lucario was on webs teams so I thought it would be useful here to function as a good lure to Ho-oh so I can remove it with Stone Edge. Also very helpful to pressure Arceus Dark and Arceus Normal. This of course makes the full team of the first version and it worked out ok, but something about it felt off but I couldn't place it since it showing good results early on in testing.
One of the biggest flaws of the first team was that Xerneas could basically run through the entire team after setting up, so I added an Ultra Necrozma which could use it's base form to semi check it with Primal Groudon. Just enough to get it down in range of Rayquaza's Extreme Speed. Ultra Necrozma also helps a lot against Stall teams so it makes the team a lot less matchup reliant.
Marshadow was another mon that had it too easy since its strong Shadow Sneaks could revenge kill a lot of mons on this team if they got too low. And seeing as how Lucario + Ultra Necrozma was kinda too redundant (Ultra Necrozma still lures Ho-oh so it's less neccesary), adding in Arceus Normal would be helpful to limit Choice Bands power against this team while making sure that things like Arceus Ghost and Flutter Mane don't get too annoying. This six makes up the sample team we see today.
Something I still didn't think was acceptable was the fact that despite having 4 seperate mons that could fuck over Ho-oh, it still somehow ended up clearing webs with Defog since it can sometimes live hits from Xerneas's HP Rock and Primal Groudon's Stone Edge. So I made a slight adjustment to Arceus in order to make sure that Ho-oh can't use it as a free opportunity to click Defog, so now Ho-oh is pressured by the entire team and makes it hard to actually get a free chance to clear hazards.
The Sets
LONG LIVE SLUMBER (Shuckle) @ Mental Herb
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Sticky Web
- Stealth Rock
- Encore
- Final Gambit
Not much to explain about why I chose Shuckle here because it's just the best webs lead in the tier. Smeargle is a strong contender but it can find itself being bogged down hard by Taunt users. Anything else like Ribombee and Slurpuff are pretty mediocre. Encore is great in order to screw over common hazard leads like Groudon-Primal, and punish Defoggers like Ho-oh and Arceus Dark. Final Gambit is just an easy momentum grab for when attempting to get both hazards down is just not possible so you can just chunk the opponent of a decent amount of HP. Tera Ghost is just a nice catch all Tera to prevent threats like Necrozma Dusk Mane and spinners like Smeargle and Excadrill from being annoying. Steel is an optional Tera if you foresee yourself having to deal with Glimmora leads but I rarely use it.
GROSS TECHNIQUE (Arceus) @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Multitype
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Taunt
Although most HO teams would rather the power from a standard Silk Scarf or Life Orb Arceus, Covert Cloak + Taunt allows Arceus to completely solo Ho-oh while also being able to outrun all of its checks under webs. Earthquake was chosen over Shadow Claw in order to beat down Bulky Primal Groudon and Zacian Crowned. Taunt's usage case is also good in order to shut down Zygarde-C and other threats like Dondozo. The Speed EVs outrun Adamant Primal Groudon so I can prevent it from clicking Swords Dance or Rock Polish.
GENGAR ECSTASY (Necrozma-Dusk-Mane) @ Ultranecrozium Z
Ability: Prism Armor
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 224 Atk / 32 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Photon Geyser
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
Although I had the option to run Swords Dance Ultra Necrozma since it's a webs team, I thought Dragon Dance would be far more potent here in order to take down the uncommon Scarf Yveltal. I ran Stone Edge over X-Scissor because I can't output enough damage to beat Arceus Dark so I would rather just directly target Ho-oh and Yveltal. The Defense EVs live Life Orb Marshadow's Shadow Sneak after Stealth Rocks.
REUBEN'S WALTZ (Xerneas) @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 180 Def / 252 SpA / 76 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Rock]
Xerneas has a lot of versatility in what it can run but I chose Focus Blast and Hidden Power Rock as my coverage moves since after it Terastallizes, it has next to no answers. Focus Blast obliterates assumed checks such as Zacian, Primal Groudon, and deals heavy damage to Necrozma Dusk Mane while still being able to live its Sunsteel Strike. The EV Spread is designed to outrun Deoxys-S after a Geomancy Boost, which isn't super valuable but it makes it easier to just blow past it since it doesn't have to fear Toxic. The rest of the EVs are dumped into Special Attack and then the remainder is put into Physical Defense to shrug off hits from Primal Groudon.
COMIC MISCHIEF (Groudon-Primal) @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Eruption
- Precipice Blades
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
Eruption Primal Groudon was ran over the more typical Swords Dance Rock Polish sets because of its ability to bypass a lot of its standard checks like Arceus Dark. It also has the very funny thing of being able to take out a huge chunk of Zygarde-C's health. The EdgeQuake combo is pretty good as a backup incase Primal Groudon gets worn down and also lets me target threats like Eternatus and Ho-oh with more ease. Swords Dance also renders Primal Groudon almost impossible to wall and it is known to allow it to break through checks like Zygarde-C after hitting it Eruption.
KAIZO BLUNDER (Rayquaza) @ Life Orb
Ability: Air Lock
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Ascent
- Extreme Speed
- V-create
Rayquaza is probably the most underestimated sweeper on this team since many people are just caught off guard by how hard it hits after Tera and it's V-Create letting it take down common checks like Necrozma Dusk Mane and Zacian-C. Extreme Speed is a kinda last ditch move in order to outskill opposing Extreme Speed users like Arceus and Deoxys-Attack, but you can run Earthquake as an alternative move to break Primal Groudon and Steels without having to use V-Create. Life Orb was chosen as the item in order to maximize the power of Tera Flying Dragon Ascent without having to do something obscene like running Adamant Choice Band.
Gameplans vs Playstyles
Hyper Offense
It's a little tricky facing opposing HO teams because the first turns matter a lot in order to sway the game. Against Deoxys-S leads it's not ideal to lead with Shuckle since Magic Coat can fuck you up really easily, so removing it with one of your breakers and then making an attempt to set webs later in the game is usually the best play there. Grimmsnarl leads are easier since you're guaranteed to get webs down, but the problem is that you need to outlast screens or find some way to overpower them not impossible to do however and webs can give you an edge in the endgame. Smeargle leads you essentially let it sleep you and then set webs after the turns run out. Glimmora leads are an annoying matchup since it can remove your webs, but the gameplan is typically to get webs down and hard switch into Necrozma to block Mortal Spin. The very rare Excadrill leads are probably the hardest lead since it has an unblockable Rapid Spin but essentially you would follow a similar strat with Deo-S: just kill it and try to set webs later. In any of these cases failing to setup webs makes it very hard to win.
Balance
Every balance team is pretty easy to outplay, especially the ones that are reliant on Ho-oh as their Defogger of choice (most of them). Paralysis spreaders such as Primal Groudon, Ho-oh, and Zygarde-C can make things annoying but Arceus can abuse them with Taunt or they're just simply forced out by one of the sweepers, getting to +2 speed to break even is also good enough since you still have Webs to back you up. To win you basically need to break their Defog users (Arceus Ground, Ho-oh, Giratina-O) and Zygarde-C and at that point, it becomes very difficult for the opposition to respond.
FatFat teams are just going to lose hard to this team unless they are packing Ditto, in which case the opposite happens and it suddenly becomes a near impossible matchup. The best they can do is just spreading as much status as possible but it is far less punishing than on Balance. Toxic Spikes Eternatus in conjunction with Arceus Dark is pretty annoying since they just force each others checks to take Poison damage. Keeping Webs up and keeping Rayquaza, Xerneas, and Primal Groudon healthy should be enough to overwhelm them however. Alomomola Balances are not hard to beat but it's preferred you don't give it free opportunities to Wish Pass. Lunala Structures are also pretty frustrating so there is more emphasis on making sure that Shuckle gets Stealth Rock setup in order to break it easier. Boots Lunala is even harder to respond to since it can feasibly punish all of the sweepers on this team with its coverage and status moves but the caveat is that it can only realistically do it once so it shouldn't be a huge issue if you have to just throw away a sweeper to deal with it.
Stall
In this matchup Webs don't matter at all and setting rocks are way more beneficial. To Win, all that matters is that you overwhelm Dondozo and the best way of doing this is overwhelming it with Ultra Necrozma's Photon Geyser / Light That Burns The Sky. Primal Groudon's Eruption and Rayquaza's Tera Flying Dragon Ascent are also good at overwhelming it quickly. Arceus Dark is another worry since you need to keep Xerneas healthy enough to remove it or once again you can just opt to overwhelm it with Rayquaza and Primal Groudon. After that is gone then most of the stall compositions should fall apart rather fast.
Weaknesses
Ok this is pretty self explanatory, but you can't setup at all vs Ditto or you can end up losing. The team is decently improofed but it becomes harder to deal with later in the game when your team is significantly worn down.
You have 2 chances to break Arceus Dark: The first being to blow it up with Primal Groudon's Eruption and the second being to remove it with Xerneas. But if both of those get removed then it quickly becomes a chore to deal with. There is also a very last ditch attempt to take it out with +1 Rayquaza's Dragon Ascent, but you can't setup against it without being punished.
Counterplay to Trick Room Calyrex-I is borderline non-existant and it runs through the entire team. Best option would be to Taunt it with Arceus or wait until Trick Room runs out, but doing the latter means that you have to sack about half of your team against it.
Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexubers-740854 - Game 2 of my NatDex USA vs ROW set in the NatDex Grand Slam slot
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-2067275094 - NatDex Ubers Seasonal Round 2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-2033599713
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-2038700847
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-2052703166
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-2066885482
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-2066889388 - Various games from Freezai's Discord Tournament
Importable
https://pokepast.es/c4fe1bfcba58af49
Shoutouts
I don't really want to do specific shouts since I don't want anybody left out (also some of you people I don't know the Smogon Account of), although I do have to partially credit entrocefalo for suggesting to add Arceus and Ultra Necrozma. Anyways to all my homies in NatDex Ubers and NatDex in general, I love you all and I probably wouldn't have stayed for as long as I thought I would if not for the friendly enviroment you guys fostered. This is one of the best metagames I've had the pleasure of playing in a while.
Ok bye
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