Mega Abomasnow is really never seen in UU, and there's no reason why not. Unlike OU, UU struggles to handle its great coverage, with Wood Hammer obliterating several of UU's prime walls such as Slowbro, Suicune, Hippowdon, Vaporeon, and Florges, and it has access to good priority and can afford to go mixed at the same time. Hail is also a weather condition that people seem ill-prepared for, cancelling leftovers and breaking sashes, while overriding Sandstorm.
Also, most importantly, it is a yeti with mortars. This often causes opponents to surrender.
I made this team yesterday, and after getting to grips with it I've been moving up the ladder quite quickly. I will talk about some of my issues and problems that I face at the end, but for now lets begin teambuilding!
Teambuliding + Reasoning
So we start with Crobat- not much to say, except the choice banded set provides some truly insane damage and will ohko almost any mon not investing in defense it can get a neutral hit on. For instance, the standard nidoking is ohkod from full hp without stealth rock, and specially defensive florges has a 75% chance of getting ohkod (by brave bird, not even with a super effective move). Fast, hard hitting, and scary as hell, he's a good place to start.
Mega Abomasnow provides a very synergistic typing with Crobat- Crobat takes poison, fighting, and bug attacks, while mega abomasnow takes ice and electric attacks aimed at the bat. Mega Abomasnow gets slept on so much so it was fun to add it to my team. He also starts my team off with some early priority, as well as breaking galvantula sashes with hail for crobat to casually ohko later.
Sharpedo is added in as a late-game option here- while also providing my team with a special attacker. I chose specially offensive Sharpedo because I think it is a more relevant set in the UU meta. He gives me yet another fast pokemon to add to the team, and with the chip damage from crobat's scouting and hail, he should be able to sweep nicely.
I have two electric weaknesses and two rock weaknesses so far, so I add Flygon in order to balance those out. He adds perfectly to the team due to creating a scouting core with Crobat, whilst also providing defog support. Sharpedo can't tank an Ember, so getting an actual fire resist is helpful vs Darmanitan and Victini, whilst also having immunity to some of their coverage moves.
Florges patches up the special defense side of my team, and can perhaps supply my team with wishes. Honestly I think Florges is one of the best pokemon in UU and its hard to justify not using it on a team, as original as it is. Fairy typing is very useful in the meta with a reasonable amount of scarf jolly flygon running amok too, something which my team is not a huge fan of apart from abomasnow.
This feels weird, but Arcanine seemed to be the thing that my team needed- a defensive pokemon with fire resist, with the added bonus of a +2 priority move. This covers my pokemon who have invested more in offenses than their speed.
After some playtesting I realised that my team needed some changes. Sharpedo was a huge asset to my team but I found myself repeatedly getting worn down by stealth rocks, and having huge issues with threats being able to repeatedly switch in and out of my team as they pleased. Flygon always seemed like a loss of momentum when he used stealth rock, so I replaced the move on flygon and brought in a new mon to become my defogger: Mew. Switching to Mew led to a transition of my team moving from offensive to more of a defensive stall team, and I feel like that is a lot more fitting environment for Abomasnow and pals.
When someone uses Crocune, you know they care far more about winning than actually having fun. This is the case here, as Crobat was tons of fun to use (watching mons get dropped instantly to 0%) but as Brawlfest picked up on, I was compounding a serious stealth rock weakness that was not always solved by having a defogger. Suicune was a great suggestion as it allows me to deal with the frustrating mon that is Umbreon with 3 pokes, as well as having another check to fire types to ease the burden on Arcanine. this lets me not need to play so carefully on Flygon, so I was able to give him some more heavy hitting but reckless moves. Suicune also provides me with a much-needed win condition.
The team is now complete, so I will go into more detail about their movesets!
Movesets + Changes made
Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Brave Nature
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Giga Drain
- Earthquake
This Abomasnow is a pretty standard physically offensive Abomasnow. I went for a fully physically offensive set because I wanted a powerful Ice Shard, and a powerful Wood Hammer which I believe to be stronger in UU than Blizzard
Every time this guy comes in safely, I get a chance to OHKO something. His power is seriously underrated and unprepared for. The only issue is I have to be thoughtful about how to bring him in, and usually it requires a double-switch by me in order to switch him in, which can be risky.
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Scald
- Calm Mind
Suicune was added after saying goodbye to one of my favourite pokemon, Crobat. Suicune provides this team with a win condition, as well as being a pokemon who can actually deal with walls just by boosting- he also provides some much-needed special offense as all of my other mons apart from Florges use mainly physical attacks. Crocune is a well known set, so it requires no real explanation- boost on something that cant touch you and then win the game due to forfeit, smothering the guilty feeling underneath newfound heights on the ladder. He's also an excellent check to Chandelure which my team was otherwise struggling with somewhat. AND to top it all off, he avoids the 2hko from Honchkrow's Brave Bird!
Mew @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Defog
- Soft-Boiled
- Will-O-Wisp
I switched out my specially offensive Sharpedo for this little guy, which means my team is entirely physically offensive. However, in UU there are no physical walls that enjoy a Wood Hammer to the face apart from Physically defensive Umbreon, who can't deal with Florges. This Mew also has no attacking moves because good taunt users are hard to find in UU, and Mew will never lead the match either way. Defog was something that my team needed hugely, because constantly switching would quickly spell doom for Arcanine, Crobat and Abomasnow, who all are stealth rock weak and use recoil moves. Stealth Rock also seemed essential for my team, with lots of switches being forced and top threats like Victini and Darmanitan being destroyed by constantly having to switch into them. Will-O-Wisp really hurts the steel and ground types that actually dont care about switching into SR, and is good for Metagross in particular, who can otherwise punch a few holes in my team.
0 atk IVs means Umbreon's foul play is a guaranteed 3hko in hail.
Arcanine @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Morning Sun
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed
This Arcanine is my fire resist, as well as Sableye/Entei/Arcanine/Darmanitan/Victini check. Its necessary that something on my team takes will-o-wisps,
EDIT: Changing Leftovers to Rocky Helmet has made Arcanine a fantastic Honchkrow counter as well as Mienshao counter- the combination of 2 rounds of life orb damage (from fake out and u-turn), 2 rounds of rocky helmet damage, and damage from extremespeed will bring mienshao down to 11% hp at turn 2 which is a great way to cripple a Mienshao lead for the rest of the match. Leftovers wasn't really necessary on the mons that Arcanine beat, and it helps turn shaky checks into successful counters.
Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
This is fire resist#2, as well as providing a bunch of other useful resists with the dragon/ground typing that help out my other teammates. The main perk of this Flygon set (which was basically stolen from Excadrill's set in OU) is that it allows it to be utility, wallbreaking, revenge killing,
EDIT: I changed this set after some advice from better players. Flygon wasnt really able to use defog ever, since u-turn always felt like a more momentum-conserving move every time I brought him in. I switched this out to rock slide, which allows me more coverage. I changed to Jolly nature in order to outspeed choice scarf Darmanitan and tie with Victini, both of which cause issues for me if Arcanine is dead.
Florges (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 132 SDef / 252 HP / 124 Def
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Aromatherapy
Florges glues my team together as a specially defensive wall and decent special attacker.
EDIT: I switched Toxic for Aromatherapy after I decided to replace Sharpedo with Mew. There's so much status flying around in UU and my team had a huge weakness to Scald in particular. Being able to beat other florges was great, but my team is too weak to status after that. Florges can now keep mega Abomasnow alive for much longer, as toxic + wood hammer recoil usually meant death after a couple of turns.
Conclusion
So thats the whole team. For once, i feel like this is one of my first ever teams where nothing feels like the weak link. After making a few changes, my team feels definitely comfortable with dealing with the mons who threatened it before, in particular Darmanitan, Victini (both scarfed) and Honchkrow, as well as being much better at punishing teams for switching repeatedly, something that Mega Abomasnow forces them to do. The only mon which causes my team some real hassle is Choice Scarf Chandelure... nothing on my team resists shadow ball and Arcanine can't deal any damage back despite being able to soak up Fire Blasts/Energy Balls due to flash fire chandy being immune to everything he has. Florges is crippled by trick, and Flygon can avoid the ohko from anything and hit back with EQ (as well as locking it into trick if it uses it) but it still takes a chunk from Shadow Ball. Dealing with Chandelure isn't so hard if rocks are up, but it can happily switch into florges, mew, and arcanine without fearing anything in return. Because choice Scarf Chandelure is such a huge threat, sub variations can really screw my team up when I'm somewhat forced to switch into arcanine or flygon,
I'm not swept by it, but it can reliably cause some holes in my team if it has trick.
Sometimes I find myself in a situation where Arcanine is in hail, and this can be an issue for him due to the reduced effectiveness of Morning Sun, but the stuff that Arcanine walls usually don't do enough damage to break him either way. It hasnt caused a problem yet, but I can see where it could.
Almost everything else is handled (i think??), and I just got onto the ladded at the end of yesterday after using the team for a day, and it will hopefully continue to climb.
Please give me feedback and tell me if there are ways that I can improve/ threats that I need to watch out for! Umbreon is always a pain, especially gimmicky strategies such as confuse ray... but I've been managing everything pretty well as long as I can outplay my opponent.
Changelog
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