Inauguration Day (UU)

TeaBag

The move of all BL and NFE Pokemon to the UU tier has without a doubt brought the metagame to its heels. We witnessed Gallade's coup over Absol as the premier Swords Dance sweeper; we lauded at Staraptor's triumph over Swellow. The advent of such fearsome offensive threats has left a former UU turned BL abomination in their shadow. I'm talking about Abomasnow.

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Abomasnow @ Leftovers
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Blizzard
- Focus Punch

Abomasnow brings the permanent weather UU so long ago had. Max speed Timid ensures that I outrun Water types such as Poliwrath and Mantine as well as Hitmontop, Hypno, etc. Blizzard mauls Grass types switching in to absorb Leech Seed as well as Nidoqueen's Toxic Spikes (fuck you, Roserade) while Focus Punch deters Magic Guard Clefable switching in (still does lol damage to max defense Bold renditions, though).

Without Tyranitar lurking about, Focus Punch is no longer a necessity. In addition, UU Chansey lacks the SpA of her OU counterpart, Blissey, so Flamethrower is no longer a threat. In the end, it comes down to whether I want to smack Clefable or bulky Waters such as Milotic and Poliwrath (not to mention Feraligatr).

Of course, the dilemma of Grass Knot v. Energy Ball arises as well.

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Ninetales @ Choice Specs
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power Ice

Rather than the boast a defensive prowess Heatran does in OU, Ninetales attempts to absorb Fire moves and pose an immediate offensive threat. Flash Fire boosted Fire Blast deals ~37% to Bold Chansey, beating her with the aid of Toxic Spikes (any noticeable amount of prior damage means Chansey loses).

I run Fire Blast over Flamethrower because Choice Specs warrants the use of pure power over reliability, not to mention the additional damage to Chansey and Hypno. Dark Pulse is almost entirely for Grumpig (not to mention the hopeful flinch) while Energy Ball makes short work of bulky Water types. Hidden Power Ice is largely filler (deals with Altaria if it comes to it lol) and will likely be replaced with Hidden Power Electric, although I rarely see Mantine anywhere, and even then, Spiritomb can outstall if need be.

td;dr it helps break opposing stall.

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Nidoqueen @ Leftovers
Ability: Poison Point
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Nature: Bold
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic Spikes
- Earth Power
- Blizzard

Nidoqueen provides vital Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes support. Earth Power
provides solid STAB while Blizzard causes pain for any Grass / Poison type switching in to absorb Toxic Spikes (again, fuck you Roserade), not to mention achieving impeccable coverage with the use of only STAB and another move. Her solid Rock and Fighting resist and Electric immunity is vital to the success of Walrein (BAN ME PLEASE) stall.

Originally, I had planned Gastrodon to be here due to the presence of Recover. However, Nidoqueen is superior in almost every other way due to 1) Poison typing (absorbs Toxic Spikes), 2) Gastrodon doesn't learn Steath Rock ;_;, 3) no Grass weakness.

I really hate overloading Nidoqueen with both Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes, but there really isn't any other way.

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Hitmontop @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SpD
Nature: Impish
- Rapid Spin
- Close Combat
- Sucker Punch
- Toxic

Hitmontop provides the Rapid Spin and additional Rock resist so crucial to Walrein (BAN ME PLEASE) stall. Close Combat deals with Clefable and Steelix, although I try to limit its use due to the defense drops. I dropped Mach Punch in favor of Sucker Punch to deal with Ghost types to some extent (fuck you Calm Mind Drifblim). Yes, I know this leaves me Absol weak, but no one leaves Absol in against Hitmontop anyways.

I have Toxic to catch incoming Spiritomb hoping to absorb a Rapid Spin or Close Combat, neutering it or forcing it to Rest. Spiritomb is so gay that I'm actually contemplating using Foresight Hitmonlee just to deal give it the shaft (Hitmontop doesn't learn Foresight ;_;).

The EV spread is rather arbitrary, but my entire team lacks SpD so I'm considering running 252 / 80 / 176 Careful so I have considerable bulk both ways when factoring in Intimidate.

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Spiritomb @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Nature: Bold
- Calm Mind
- Dark Pulse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Spiritomb serves as my Rapid Spin blocker and status absorber. It's also my only safe switch in to Gallade (and, by inclusion, other Fighting types). Calm Mind + Dark Pulse allow me to pose an offensive threat, etc., standard Spiritomb shit.

Again, my EV spread is not optimal. 252 / 80 / 176 Calm may be a better option to counter special threats without a Calm Mind.

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Walrein @ Leftovers
Ability: Ice Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Nature: Bold
- Protect
- Substitute
- Blizzard
- Encore

As I lack a Steel type, Walrein is my initial switch into Swellow and Staraptor (I've yet to see a Staraptor open with Close Combat). At 110 / 90 / 90 defenses, Walrein is surprisingly bulky (LO Milotic's Hidden Power Electric doesn't 2HKO at max health lol). Protect + Substitute are standard for a total of 32 turns of (BAN ME PLEASE) stall, etc. I run Blizzard over Surf because it's awesome and Encore over Toxic and Roar because 1) ideally Toxic Spikes should be set and 2) Encore often grants me a free Substitute if I catch a Miltank on Curse, Spiritomb on Calm Mind, etc.

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I'm Absol weak boo hoo.

Staraptor can be a bitch but I can generally outpredict them (Walrein on the Brave Bird / Return, Spiritomb on the Close Combat, anticipating Walrein).

I'm potentially Nasty Plot Ninetales weak if Hitmontop can't Sucker Punch it right, but hail + LO keeps it at bay.

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danke for reading ^_^
 
I'm not entirely sure why you have Toxic on Hitmontop when you have T-Spikes with Nidoqueen, who is capable of killing off the most common T-Spikes absorbers. I would actually run a Technitop set with Rapid Spin>>Fake out, and run Bullet Punch>> Toxic. Bullet Punch stops SubCm Mismagius from going LOL at this team.

This team has plenty of pokes that can take physical hits, but practically none that can perform as a special wall. Your lack of a flying resist can also cause problems, as can Absol. Best ways to solve this?

Absol: Mach Punch>> Sucker Punch on Technitop.
Flying resist: You can change Spiritomb to a RestTalk Rotom.
Special wall: Make Walrein more specially based, move all the def EVs to Special Def.

Otherwise, nice team, except for one more nitpick: On Ninetales, you're juggling between HP Electric for Mantine and HP Ice for Altaria. Either way, you can't hit other fires at all right now. I find that HP Rock hits Mantine, Altaria, and Fires. I would run that as your Hidden Power.
 
Mach Punch and Bullet Punch are worth testing, but I'm probably going to keep Intimidate over Technician on Hitmontop because the aforementioned priority moves already deal with Absol, Mismagius, etc.

I'm not too keen on Rotom because it doesn't exactly absorb Brave Birds well from the likes of Choice Band Staraptor. :\

Hidden Power Rock sounds excellent, will test.
 
Rotom does absorb CB brave birds well, mine takes around 30-40% percent, and can then W-o-W the switch or go for a T-bolt on staraptor. One thing though is the he won't block rapid spin aswell as spiritomb due to being weak to shadow ball, which most claydols seem to be carrying now. That's not to say claydol is the only rapid spinner in UU, but it is a very common one. Just run a max def/hp rotom and it will soak up CB brave birds all day. And yes it should be a Restalk rotom
 
Sc4rfCh0mp said:
Otherwise, nice team, except for one more nitpick: On Ninetales, you're juggling between HP Electric for Mantine and HP Ice for Altaria. Either way, you can't hit other fires at all right now. I find that HP Rock hits Mantine, Altaria, and Fires. I would run that as your Hidden Power.
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Normally I'd recommend that, but with so many base 100s flying around UU (Staraptor and Shaymin, I'm looking at you), I'm not sure he wants to automatically lose every speed tie he gets himself into (HP Rock requires 30 speed).
 
TeaBag said:
I have Toxic to catch incoming Spiritomb hoping to absorb a Rapid Spin or Close Combat, neutering it or forcing it to Rest. Spiritomb is so gay that I'm actually contemplating using Foresight Hitmonlee just to deal give it the shaft (Hitmontop doesn't learn Foresight ;_;).
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Yes it does! Forget Sucker Punch, Foresight is Hitmontop's most useful Platinum addition for this new metagame, and will give you an advantage against other stall-heavy teams that don't have it. Having said that, I don't like the idea of Sucker Punch on Hitmontop as it is an unreliable way of dealing with Ghosts, particularly Calm Mind / Sub Mismagius who just sets up on you. Tech Pursuit or Bullet Punch would be the best options, but given that you're Adamant on keeping Intimidate I guess Stone Edge is the only good option you have. Which isn't too bad as it does hit the Flying types that may otherwise like to switch in (they're the main reason you'd use Toxic right?). I'd invest in some Attack EVs though, as 226 Attack doesn't really cut it, especially with unSTAB'd moves.

I'm also not keen on Specs Ninetales on a Hail team. 6.25% damage per turn, 25% per switch with SR down, and no recovery means it will wear out quickly, whilst 391 special attack just isn't strong enough to make it worthwhile. I'd rather use something that can handle Moltres, as your team is VERY weak to it atm. Lack of Roar on Nidoqueen makes the situation even worse. Perhaps a bulky Water type would fit that slot better? Preferably something that can PHaze, which would probably make Blastoise the better option. It all depends on how much you really need that all-out offensive slot on this team; just beware that your team will have Moltres problems without the introduction of a decent counter.
 
Bulbapedia and Serebii just confirmed that Hitmontop doesn't learn Foresight. :\

I really do need a Flash Fire Pokemon to stop Choice Scarf Typhlosion from having a field day. Once Stealth Rock goes up on my side of the field, my first priority is for Hitmontop to Rapid Spin, so 6.25% per turn isn't an issue. Arcanine may turn out to be the better choice due to its ability to run a mixed set, but Ninetales is a personal favorite of mine. ^_^
 
Lemmiwinks MkII said:
Check the 'Pre-Evolution Moves' section on Serebii again. I'm assuming you're playing on Wi-fi, because if you're using Shoddy you should know about this already.
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You're right, but Shoddy doesn't have Foresight listed in Hitmontop's moveset. :\

I use Toxic to catch not only incoming Flying types, but also to neuter Mismagius on the switch and force Spiritomb to Rest. To be honest Mismagius isn't as difficult to deal with as I had feared (and by inclusion other Calm Minders, because Mismagius is arguably the most threatening). Every member of my team save Hitmontop can break her Substitute given one Calm Mind, so as long as I keep the offensive pressure high, she'll be hard pressed to sweep due to hail negating Leftovers.
 
TeaBag said:
You're right, but Shoddy doesn't have Foresight listed in Hitmontop's moveset. :\
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It might be because you didn't select 'Smogon University' when building a new team? I don't think the other two options include the updated Platinum moves, but I may be wrong. This is the last time I'll post regarding this issue.
 
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