After I was rekt by "Adrift & [Filler]" (sorry dude I don't know who you are on Smogon unfortunately), I've been inspired to do a Screen HO which is almost the same as Adrift but with some variations.. and thanks to this team I was able to reach the second place on the current ladder so I guess the team it's quite effective.. (GXE is horrible because I'm testing every team I'm making on this main account to be able to play in the highest part of the ladder).
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(click the sprites for importable)
The team is a pretty straightforward HO with Dual Screen Espeon which also act as my counter vs opponent's Entry Hazards, especially Sticky Web. Yawn is a decent move this generation and forces some switchs which is always useful vs some setup sweepers. Mamoswine is the Stealth Rock setter of the team and overall a nice Pokemon to pressure opponent's Pokemon.. then it's kinda no brain with 4 setup sweepers. Kommo-o is just the best Pokemon in the tier in my opinion and it's able to nuke really hard the opponent if it doesn't have a faster threat to revenge kill it. I decided to opt for Dragon Pulse instead of Clanging Scales because I'm pretty sure there is almost +90% of Soundproof Kommo-o and I don't want mine to not be able to nuke opponent's Kommo-o (especially defensive ones which would like to phaze mine with Dragon Tail). Then we have Polteageist with the Focus Sash which can be a scary finisher once Dark-types are gone and Doublade to pressure some Steel-types thanks to Sacred Sword. Last but not least.. there is an unusual pick : Butterfree. This Pokemon is actually pretty decent and can be really unhealthy to deal with since there isn't that much Flying resist in the tier. Compound Eyes is just amazing on this Pokemon and provides to it a 97.5% accuraccy Sleep Powder (you'll basically almost never miss) and a 91% accuraccy Hurricane which is really nice. Substitute is used to bother some defensive Pokemon like Pyukumuku and it's overall a super annoying Pokemon to deal with as you can see when I played it : here and when I faced it : there.
Otherwise.. I'd like to talk about some Pokemon once again.
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Kommo-o is just the best Pokemon in the tier at the moment.. While I don't believe that this is the most dangerous Pokemon in the tier neither the most complicated Pokemon to deal with, I firmly believe that this Pokemon is just the best in the tier so far and provides just so much utility to the point that I believe that it's dumb to not play it since it can fulfill almost whatever role it wants. People already know how good its set with Clangerous Soul is with Throat Spray but this set always struggle to beat something and has a pretty annoying 4MSS. If you want to be able to beat Umbreon, you really have to play Aura Sphere but on the other hand, you need Flamethrower to beat Doublade and ensure the OHKO on Frosmoth. Flash Cannon is also really important if you want your Kommo-o to be able to pressure Fairy-types.. and obviously.. the Dragon STAB is just too good to get rid of it. So yeah a great set but with its limits. On the other hand, defensive Kommo-o with Stealth Rock is one of the best blank check in the tier thanks to its typing and its access to the brand new and amazing attack : Body Press. It's also one of the few Pokemon which can handle 2 Facade from Guts Obstagoon and this is really important considering how good and dangerous Obstagoon is. However, Kommo-o can be played in many other ways thanks to its great typing, statistics and movepool. I've seen some people running physical Clangerous Soul with Drain Punch, Sub Bulk Up with Body Press, Fast Stealth Rock with Taunt but also some sets from USUM like DD, SD or Sub Belly Drum with Salac Berry. Overall this Pokemon is just great and I don't think you can be wrong by using it.
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A few weeks ago, I was kinda in love of this Pokemon and I couldn't wait to play with it.. Well now I can tell that I hate this Pokemon because it has absolutely 0 counter and it's insanely hard to deal with it especially when you're using some Balanced teams or more defensive teams. Despite its 90 BS in attack, Obstagoon hits like a truck in rampage, this is insane how it's hard to switch-in this Pokemon. Facade + Knock Off can punish anything on the tier and I don't see any good answers to it right now. At the moment, max physical defense Avalugg is probably the most consistent answer to Obsatgoon but it's a shakky answer because even if it doesn't struggle to heal itself thanks to Recover, it really hates being Knocked Off since without its boots, it takes badly Stealth Rock which means it really struggle to check Obstagoon if Stealth Rock are on its side of the field. The same thing applies to Kommo-o which is an even softer check to Obstagoon. This Pokemon has also some amazing defensive utility thanks to its bulk and its typing which provides it 2 useful immunities in the current metagame ; one to Psychic-type and another to Ghost-type. When you're facing an Obstagoon, you have to think about being Choice Locked on a Psychic or Ghost-type attack because it can allows Obstagoon to come freely on the field and to be able to smack something in return. The worst thing with this Pokemon is also that you never know what you're really facing. Outside of Facade and Knock Off, I firmly believe that it can run whatever fillers it want, it will always be effective. Close Combat allows it to punish Rock and Steel-types and to have 88% of chance to 2HKO max def Avalugg once it takes Stealth Rock damages. On the other hand, Taunt shut down a ton of defensive Pokemon while Parting Shot allows Obstagoon to be able to pivot while still being able to bother the opponent by decreasing its offensive statistics. Switcheroo is also really annoying and allows Obstagoon to bother a Pokemon by giving it its Flame Orb ; it also allows it to get a nice item like Leftovers.. Bulk Up can be useful on an opponent's switch and allows Obstagoon to hit even harder.. Last but not least I'd like to talk about Obstruct. About a weeks ago, I was thinking that it wasn't a great filler to Obstagoon and gosh.. I was wrong. Obstruct is probably the most disgusting tool on Obstagoon's arsenal because it allows it to make some nasty 50/50 vs some of its defensive checks which would like to punish it with something like Body Press (aka one of the best way to shut down an Obstagoon). For Obstagoon's player it's almost free to click Obstruct but for the other player, it's really hard because if you're making the wrong play you're offering a hit to Obstagoon or your decreasing by 2 stages your Pokemon's defense which means you'll have to sack it vs Obstagoon or switch.. which once again means a free hit for Obstagoon. Heres an example of the issue with Obstruct Obstagoon. I had to anticipate the fact that he was going to use Obstruct in order to beat it but if I made one mistake, my Kommo-o would have died... I don't know if this Pokemon will rise after the end of the UU Alpha but if it's not the case, I believe that we should take care of this issue as soon as possible because it doesn't affect in a good way the tier, on the contrary..
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I'm enjoying quite a lot this two Pokemon. Their set of Double Dancer (Acid Armor + Calm Mind) allows them to be really nasty vs a plethora of teams but also allows them to check a lot of things on the physical and/or special side. Obviously, Reuniclus needs some support to get rid of Dark-types but once they're gone, this Pokemon can really 6-0 almost any build. On the other hand, Alcreamie is another dangerous Double Dancer which doesn't have any immunity to its STAB but struggles vs Steel-types. Like Reuniclus, when those kind of checks are gone, it's really hard to beat it and most of the time you'll have to rely on Toxic or a miraculous Critical Hit to get rid of it. Both are fun, feel free to try them !
I've been running a pretty similar version of this team (main diff is goon instead of Butterfree), and maybe it's just my lack of skills (only playing at 1400 on UU) but I have trouble getting past Weezing in particular. It doesn't look like you have anything that sets up too easily on Weezing, so how do you play around it?































