ORAS UU I have no idea what I'm doing, but I like snowmen

[Yettison]

Hey all,
I'm reasonably new to all of this, but I wanted to share and get some feedback on a team that I've been using to some success. I tried it out most recently in a random single elim tourney in the UU room and it worked pretty well. The team is bulky offense centered around Swords Dance Mega Abomasnow and moxie Honchcrow, two pokemon that I dont really see a lot of and really wanted the opportunity to use. It has a couple of big problems with it, but it works reasonably well as is.
Any comments or criticisms would be very much appreciated!

I LIKE SNOWMEN

Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Seed Bomb
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Swords Dance
​

I like this thing far more than I expected to. It does absolutely everything I could want and more. Its bulky enough to take hits, it scores kills on most of the huge variety of dragons in UU, and after a single swords dance ice shard is often all it needs to clean up games. I feel like people generally don't take this thing seriously enough, as it sets up on a ton of pokemon and forces switches left and right.
One of the easiest plays with this pokemon is to lure in either a donphan or forretress and set up to +4 off of them. At +4 you 2hko forretress with EQ and 2hko donphan with seed bomb/ice shard if they have sturdy up, and after theyre removed ice shard generally takes care of the rest.

Nothing special about the set, just standard bulky SD Aboma.

This pokemon works really really well in conjunction with Cobalion and Goodra, as Abomasnow absolutely hates fire, poison, and fighting, and those two deal with all but fighting.

Things this pokemon hates:
-Chandelure, Arcanine, and Entei force you out even after boosts, but they cant switch in properly if you predict well.
-Mega aggron hurts, but you beat it 1v1 if it has heavy slam over iron head
-Rotom heat switches in and overheats or burns you and it sucks
-fighting types in general are pretty gross without a boost up​

Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Calm Mind
- Recover
​

I freaking love this adorable little psychic fetus. It's my favorite pokemon by miles, and I try to run it on every team I can. Reuniclus actually partners extremely well with abomasnow, as it switches in on fighting types (specifically toxicroak which I hate), and can act as a secondary sweeper against teams that are weak to it. This thing is my secondary check to pokemon like entei and arcanine, as it doesnt mind being burned, and it's never 2hko'd by sacred fire or arcanine's flare blitz. This thing can also easily switch in and force out the bat, another pokemon that I really just dont like.
Nothing too special about its set either. Standard Defensive CM.

One thing I have seriously considered doing is changing this to an offensive (or maybe defensive support?) trick room set. Abomsnow and Honchcrow both do pretty well in trick room, and I think having that additional sweeping option could be pretty nice. I've also considered running shadow ball over focus blast, because I hate missing, and having something to catch doublade with would be hype.​

Honchkrow @ Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Roost
​

This is a pokemon I've been trying to use for a while now, and I think this is the team that it's shown through the most on. Dark/flying are two of the most spammable types in the current metagame, and from my experience with this team, that's all the murderkrow needs to do its job. Speaking of, I'm running this thing mainly for it's excellent ability to trap and revenge kill choiced chandelure, who otherwise can be a bit of a pain for mega abomasnow. This thing also has tremendous ability to snowball late game, and I've swept with sucker punch alone after a moxie boost. This guy also goes really well with the fetus, as it traps many of reuniclus' switch-ins and removes them, while at the same time the combination of reu and goodra switch in to basically everything this guy hates.

While I might be willing to consider dropping this guy in favor of something else, I really really love this pokemon and would be sad to see him go. The crow does a lot of work, and I genuinely believe he functions well in todays meta.​

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

I've never been a huge fan of Cobalion, but he fits so well onto this team. He's a solid ice resist on a team that's really weak to ice, he's a solid mega Abomasnow check, he does well against fairies, he sets up hazards, and if I really need him to he can even sweep once his checks are gone. I don't really know what else to say about this guy. Cobalion has become so ubiquitous that I really think everyone knows what he does by now.

Super standard set. Nothing interesting here. I have considered dropping SD for volt switch just to have something to gain initiative with, but I havent really tried it out as I like the extra sweeping option late game.​

Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
​

Hazard control and my only real darmanitan switch-in. Honestly, this thing really compounds my ice weakness, so if I could find alternative hazard control that still works as an effective wall, I would replace this thing in a second. It also works as a pretty nice cobalion check though, so there's always that.

Goodra @ Assault Vest
Ability: Gooey
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Bomb

​

Another pokemon that I think is actually really good, but is very under-appreciated. It switches in on special hits for days, and most importantly it acts as an awesome defensive check to chandelure, something this team otherwise has no switch-ins to. I wish this thing had recovery, but you can't have everything I suppose.

In general, I switch this thing into special attackers repeatedly and use the switches it forces to slowly weaken walls with draco meteor. Once things are low enough, I sack it and go into either the crow or the snowman and sweep.​

__________________________________________________
​

So that's the crux of it really. This team has some issues switching in to a lot of threats (Like chandelure, chandelure, chandelure, and mega swampert/beedrill/sceptile), but if you play your cards right it can break down teams with ease.
If you all would like me to, I can probably get some replays to showcase the team in action, it might take me a day or so though.

​

This was my 2nd ever thread posted, so if I did something incorrectly, please let me know and I'll fix it ASAP.
Thanks for any help you can offer, and I hope you all have a lovely day!

 

[Shiba]

What's up dude, pretty cool looking team you have here. One thing I noticed right away was that this team was extremely weak to mamoswine, bar Abomasnow I guess but that could get worn down really easily by Stealth Rocks + either of Mamo's STAB moves. You are also relatively weak to Fire Spam (Entei in particular). Another thing I did notice is that you also have 2 pretty uncommon Pokemon in Honchkrow and Goodra, although I do love these Pokemon they aren't necessarily all that viable in the UU meta-game right now. But anyway, I'd like to recommend a couple of things that would help this team out a lot.

• So first off, I'd like to try and replace Honchkrow. For Honchkrow, I'd like to recommend using Krookodile over Honchkrow. Krookodile provides you with a solid Stealth Rocker (I'll mention why later), a very strong offensive presence, and also has access to intimidate, which is always nice. And since this team is relatively slow, it gives you some extra speed which is really needed. Here's the set I'd recommend you use with this team.
  
  
  
  Krookodile @ Dread Plate/Earth Plate
  Ability: Intimidate
  EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
  Jolly Nature
  - Knock Off
  - Pursuit
  - Earthquake
  - Stealth Rock
  
  
• Next, since I recommended a solid Stealth Rocker on Krookodile, I'd like to recommend using Substitute over Stealth Rock on Cobalion. Substitute gives you many opportunities to set-up. For example, if Coba comes in on a Snorlax or Porygon 2, you could easily set up a sub, SD, and probably almost always get a kill, unless your opponent has a Doublade or something like that. Other options could be Magnet Rise, Taunt, or you could use Volt Switch for momentum, but I do feel Substitute is your best option for this set-up sweeper.
• So to negate your Ice and Fire Weakness, I'd like to recommend a cool Suicune set over Reuniclus. I was debating on a couple of pokemon to sub Suicune in for, but I felt Reuniclus was the best choice. Suicune gives you a very nice Mamoswine check as well as a Fire Spam check. Being able to rest off burns and other statuses is extremely nice. Roar is used to stop set-up sweepers like Feraligatr, although you could just potentially burn it with scald. It could also be used as a potential CM sweeper, which also helps fills the shoes of Reuniclus. But anyway, here's the set.
  
  
  
  Suicune @ Leftovers
  Ability: Pressure
  EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spe
  Bold Nature
  - Scald
  - Calm Mind / Sleep Talk
  - Rest
  - Roar
• As a defogger, I really didn't like Gligar here tbh. I know its a very nice physical check, but it has no offensive presence otherwise. So I'd like to recommend Crobat over Gligar. Since you're not using Gligar as a rocker and just as a defogger I feel that Crobat could be better here. Crobat works as a very nice Defogger as well as having a nice offensive presence, which Gligar did not have before. In your threat list Crobat could also cover the weakness of Mega Beedrill and Mega Scep (Considering its Modest, which most do run Modest now). But anyway, here's the set I'd like to recommend for this team.
  
  
  
  Crobat
  Ability: Infiltrator
  EVs: 112 HP / 156 Atk / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
  Jolly Nature
  - Acrobatics
  - U-turn / Taunt
  - Defog
  - Roost
  I chose an Acrobatics set, but you could choose to run a Brave Bird set. I usually like to run Acrobatics so Crobat could become a great knock off absorber as well as not receieve any chip damage from Brave Bird, which is extremely nice for a defogger. The speed allows it to outspeed Mega Sceptile and Mega Beedrill considering they're Modest and Adamant, respectively.

But anyway, I think that should cover the weaknesses and I hope you consider my recommendations. Good luck with your team! :]

 

[Caliber]

Hey man, great team! I agree with Shiba's changes, so I really recommend you implement them. Furthermore, I think you should use a Hydreigon over Goodra, since your reasoning to use Goodra was to wear down walls and have a Chandelure switch-in, which Hydreigon does it better. The set should be mixed, and therefore, you can lure in Florges and 2HKO it. But the more important reason is that it would lure Slurpuff, which your team lacks a counter to. Here is the set:

Hydreigon

Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 56 Atk / 200 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Superpower
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Iron Tail

 

[teal6]

Hey Yettison,

Cool squad you have going here. I tend to enjoy anything with Mega Abomasnow on it as it's in my top favorite mons, probably only second to Hydreigon in UU. I definitely think that, despite its rising popularity, it still functions as a very good anti-meta pokemon with relatively favorable matchups against the big dragons, Cune, Beedrill, MAero, and Mamo. Pretty good list of things to check, IMO.

I read over Shiba's recommendations and I think they're really good and will help patch up your team. What's good about the core you have is that you can shift it around in a few different ways for a more favorable matchup. Shiba's changes bring you into a more "balanced" approach, which is definitely viable, and will give you the widest net of playability in my opinion. In the rest of my post, my changes will be more to change your team toward a more offense bent, to offer a different playstyle that you may enjoy. I recommend trying them all out and seeing what suits you as a player best.

In an offensive team, Gligar is a bit of a drag. It's slow, has minimal damage output, and gives "free" turns to some mons that can flip a game on their head if you don't pivot immediately out. Additionally, I see a point here where I think I can optimize by changing Gligar and shifting Rocks into that slot, freeing up a moveset on your Cobalion which has a lot of good options. So my first recommendation is to replace Gligar with an offensive Nidoqueen:

Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Sludge Wave

Nidoqueen gives you a MUCH more offensive presence in the same slot, and like I said allows you to switch off Rocks from Cobalion. Unfortunately, this does make you a bit weaker to Darm, which will have to be addressed, of course as you mention it as a mon you have trouble with.

For Cobalion, I think you can replace Stealth Rock with Rock Polish. A double dance Cobalion set is generally unexpected in UU, as other sets are far more common. This will make your matchup against opposing offense a lot better, as Cobalion's pretty good defensive stats as well as relatively good typing will allow you to set up for either cleaning or wallbreaking whenever necessary. Offensive teams in general like having options available, so that you aren't beaten at team matchup.

Then, coming back to your still present Ice weakness, I think you have to switch out Reuniclus. Shiba definitely has the right idea in recommending Suicune, but as I'd like to speed your team up some more and make it more outright offensive, I would like to go with a pretty nifty offensive set. For that, please use the following:

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tailwind
- Hydro Pump
- Calm Mind
- Ice Beam

This Suicune is pretty cool, and can take advantage of either CM or TW in a pretty similar way to Cobalion depending on your matchup. Essentially, I'd like to make your team as flexible as possible while still maintaining the pretty bulky offensive thing you have going on. If you do decide to use this Suicune set, I have a pretty cool change to Mega Abomasnow that I think will help your team out a lot and let it address some pretty major threats.

What I'd like to do with Abomasnow is run some speed on it and just a hint of defense EVs. The speed EVs in a more general sense help against things like Slowking, which can carry Fire Blast to OHKO you in a speed tie before you get a chance to Seed Bomb. But with this specific set you'll be able to outrun +1 Adamant Feraligatr and OHKO after Rocks or Hail damage while still living a 252 attack Cobalion Close Combat (albeit by the skin of your teeth, you can't have any hazard damage but you will be able to get off an EQ which can be vital sometimes, as between an EQ, an Ice Shard, two rounds of Hail and SR damage you have a pretty good chance of taking it down with you):

Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def / 144 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Seed Bomb
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake

Let me know what you think of the changes. It's definitely a pretty unique bulky offense squad after the switches, but I think that you will have a pretty clear end goal in mind with a few good benchmarks hit and good matchup against the metagame. Overall, I also think it strengthens the "thesis" behind you team, which appears to me to take hits and dish them out even harder turn per turn until you can win. As well, my personal preference is for relatively flexibility when playing on the ladder, which I think my changes have afforded you. If you try it out, definitely post some replays, and we can see if there are any more tweaks we can make to optimize further.

 

[Yettison]

Thanks so much for all the recommendations so far!
I've already tried out some of Shiba's recommendations, and they're working out really well. I also really like the idea of running a faster Abomasnow with tailwind, though the only thing I might question about it is how to actually get it in safely with enough turns left on tailwind to actually amke use of it. If I wanted to make use of tailwind, would a pokemon like whimsicott that can get suicune or aboma in safely be something to consider? I guess team space would be an issue then though. I'll try out everyone's suggestions over the next couple games and let you know what works out.
Thanks so much!

 

[Shiba]

Thanks so much for all the recommendations so far!
I've already tried out some of Shiba's recommendations, and they're working out really well. I also really like the idea of running a faster Abomasnow with tailwind, though the only thing I might question about it is how to actually get it in safely with enough turns left on tailwind to actually amke use of it. If I wanted to make use of tailwind, would a pokemon like whimsicott that can get suicune or aboma in safely be something to consider? I guess team space would be an issue then though. I'll try out everyone's suggestions over the next couple games and let you know what works out.
Thanks so much!

No problem dude, glad you liked them! Anyway, Tailwind teams are really cool, but yeah Whimsicott and Suicune are usually the 2 Tailwinders on any team like that. There are a lot of other Pokemon that could abuse tailwind, most notably a Choice Band Tyrantrum, that thing has almost 0 switch-ins. If you're thinking about using Whims, its really great. With access to U-turn and Prankster Tailwind, it can create momentum as well as set up a prankster tailwind with no speed lategame for one of the wallbreakers for sweep. Good luck! :]

 

[Yettison]

Back again, with some replays this time.
I've been finally trying out krookodile instead of honchkrow, and truth be told I'm not hugely enthused by it. It works pretty well as a hazard setter and takes pressure off cobalion really well, but honestly it doesnt really switch in on anything this team already has trouble with. It does beat lead smeargle though if I run taunt over pursuit, and that's pretty nice.
Either way though, even with Earth Plate, Krookodile cant take on aggron, which is probably the biggest threat to this team at the moment, and so I think I'd want somehting that can do that more effectively to switch out honchcrow with.
In addition, honchcrow providing a second source of priority takes a ton of pressure off the snowman, which I love.
Maybe I'm just dumb and stubborn at the same time. Always a possibility.

I also tried out the tailwind team, and while I really enjoyed it and could see it being good, I just couldnt get the hang of it. In addition, there's a whole lot of things that theteam really has no answer for, specifically things like darmanitan, which nothing on the team outspeeds even after tailwind (unless its LO, but really who doesnt run scarf), and suicune gets a max of 1 switch-in on after SR. The only way to play around it is to get up rocks ASAP and sack pokes til it dies, but since it OHKO's nidoqueen, it can just lead and force me into suicune again and again.

Anyways, a couple battles from its current iteration:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-258256278 (Honchcrow cleans)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-258258518 (I get lucky early and manage to capitalize on it)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-258497228 (I make some misplays early, but manage to beat my opponents gimmick and win from there)

None of them are particularly great, as I couldnt find any that really showcased the strengths of the team really well, and in addition I'm really not a particularly good player.
Speaking of, I just got absolutely wrecked by DaSpoofy using Life Orb Cress. Anyone have any idea how the hell to beat that?