np: SV UU Stage 0 - Start of Something New (Hello SV UU!)

[Estarossa]

Wanted to do another quick post about my general feelings about some mons I really enjoy atm. Two of them i included some teams i've been using with too if anyone was particularly interested





I'm honestly really high on this mon rn, one of the best foggers for sure and the role compression is just fantastic with speed control + fighting resist + flame body, fast willo to fuck around with bisharp, ability to ghost tera to completely negate Ekiller lucario (feels like one of the most danger threats to me in general honestly), act as a pseudo spin blocker, remove its rocks weakness if it gets knocked, and keep its fighting "resist". Mainly been doing it on bulkier stuff where a lot of those roles come in super handy, one team i was playing with that i rly enjoyed it on in general is this:


https://pokepast.es/baedeb0740f698d7

Been enjoying this one a lot, slowking + hippo fantastic for extreme weather control with slowking giving you the twave support to really open up a late game SD protect tinkaton alongside umbs wish support. Tera grass hippo for the ability to use it against drednaw if necessary, talonflame handles some stuff like bish + lucario if necessary since grafaiai can give them openings, grafai gives you so much utility versus gengar etc and just general progress making.



Honestly i'm kinda high on this after completely overlooking it before. This thing honestly leaves a lot of teams reliant on spinners to deal with spikes completely in tatters, none of the popular ones really deal with it blocking them that well thanks to the typing + strength sap + speed. Also fits nice spin compression (and can even spin against wattrel too cause of ability) and has the ability to pressure opposing ghosts + hatt well in its role as spiker + spinner cause of stab shadow ball. very interesting mon that ive got more of an appreciation for after being fucked over by it a lot on ladder and then trying it, example team with it:


https://pokepast.es/e71ffe3b56e5c92d



Ekiller lucario feels like honestly one of the deadliest threats to me rn, its so responsive to a lot of typical counterplay to a bunch of stuff like grifai, noivern, pawmot etc thanks to the +2 priority and stab espeed just has very little answers to stuff at +2. sets up on some counterplay to stuff like gengar etc cause of that too, just really nasty and i really have to pay a lot of attention to it in general while building now to avoid teams just being washed over by it. Pretty much justifies random tera ghost on stuff lately honestly too.



This thing feels like one of the better speed control options im general to me rn, I'm super high on it and think it should be seeing way more usage than it is. Toxic + Knock Off + Corrosion + Speed is as fantastic as its always been, but Tspikes is such a cool new tool for it too in really helping to force progress. Only real issue is you really need to pair it with other fast things + forms of revenging, but feel like you really need to be doing that in general rn anyway so it doesn't feel so bad to me. Ability for it to open doors for other win cons through all of its Corrosion Toxic's on all sorts of stuff is honestly brilliant tho.



I was not high at all on this thing at first when people talked about it, took one look at its bulk and went like "yep this is getting 2hkoed by focus blast from googar". I don't necessarily think its some perfect mon at all but the ability to be a rly strong gengar check + its gluing abilities throuhg knock / gunk / prankster parting shot are honestly really noticeable and i really think its a solid choice, also quite cool on bulkier teams that can supplement that lack of recovery honestly. Main issue to me really just feels like it not feeling that strong against a lot of things like grounds and the fact it faces serious issues with bisharp especially (though at least it just stops parting shot and doesnt give it a +3 LMAO), high on this though and imagine it'll be decent post a gengar ban/rise at least even if nowhere near as common.



Love specs noivern with its boomburst + tera normal combo honestly, fantastic option to remove its own rocks weakness too and it likes that we can easily pair stuff like hatt + bramble to keep rocks off for it. Speed control aspect is really cool too and honestly its not that bad if you still needa use it for a draco + flame specs set and want to tera something else either.



This honestly feels kinda underrated as an option, calm mind + boomburst + flamethrower + roost is really kinda powerful when you dont face things like encore tink, the bulk is massive too which really facilitates taking this sorta route. Coil sets probably have a bit of potential too although they would benefit a lot from scald returning quite frankly so that it could pick up burns for facade. nonetheless this thing has monstrous coverage and movepool and honestly definitely things you can do with it.



honestly nowhere near as bad as peoples gut reactions to it losing Toxic were honestly to me. WW honestly fucks with a lot of stuff rn from it and its still insanely good into a bunch of things like Tinkaton. The way greater defense over stuff like quag defo has value sometimes too, even though Quag is definitely the best ground to me cause of the toxic + recover + water absorb combo, it definitely comes in relevant when you trying to deal with things like scarf/boots staraptor that you can actually beat, and tbh more weather disruption is always valuable.



Talked about this a fair amount last post i did but honestly this thing is still really giving solid showings in my eyes. I think im highest on just a general Agility + 3 attacks Route with itnow though, its power level at base with sharpness + life orb is just so high that it benefits way more from speed boosting to just flat out ignore most common counterplay like gengar / noivern / killowattrel 100%, and its deinitely an insanely good cleaner with these sets with the potential for early breaking too.

 

[Allidoishuynh]

After posting my stall core and seeing that PiF is beginning his inevitable run to the top of the ladder, I felt like tossing up a few wall-breaker sets that have decent matchups into stall.


Heracross @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Pin Missile/Close Combat
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Blast


Gallade @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sacred Sword
- Leaf Blade
- Stone Edge


Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Tera Blast
- Play Rough

First up, Heracross. At +2 bullet seed has a 61% chance to ohko standard wish alomomola. The calc won't say that, but here's the math:
50% of the time u get 4 hits
50% of the time u get 5 hits.
5 hits always ohkos and 4 hits only ohkos with at least 1 crit. But since u get 4 chances for it, a 4-hit bullet seed has [1 - ((15/16)^4)]% chance to get that crit. If u do the math, a 4-hit seed has a 22.7% chance to get min. 1 crit so the odds of getting a 4-hit seed that kills is 0.50*0.227 = 11.3%. Add that to the chances of a 5-hit seed (50%), and you get 61.3% chance to ohko. Tera rock is there so you can stay in on talonflame's coverage move and kill it, but is really for fire/flying attacks in general which are pretty prevalent and giving you a very strong rock blast that has roughly a 45% chance to ohko pelipper after accounting for miss. Giving up either stab is a painful decision, especially cuz loaded dice makes pin missile so enticing, but CC is preferred for the immediate threat to steel types.

Gallade is a bit iffy in this meta, but at minimum he's got a real shot as a wall breaker especially vs stall.
+2 252+ Atk Sharpness Gallade Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Bronzong: 412-486 (121.8 - 143.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Sharpness Gallade Leaf Blade vs. 40 HP / 216+ Def Alomomola: 538-634 (111.8 - 131.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Sharpness Gallade Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Quagsire: 504-596 (127.9 - 151.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Tera fire is specifically for avoiding burn, but has the slight benefit of resisting fairy moves which can often target gallade. Another nice aspect of gallade is that he can't be revenged by espathra after tera because:
252+ SpA Espathra Stored Power (40 BP) vs. 28 HP / 0 SpD Gallade: 54-64 (19 - 22.5%) -- possible 5HKO

And for the rare focus sash espathra:

+1 252+ SpA Espathra Stored Power (120 BP) vs. 28 HP / 0 SpD Gallade: 240-283 (84.5 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

HDB protects him from hazards post-tera and let's him come in, chip his switch ins and dip out vs any matchup.

Last but certainly not least, Azumarill. Probably the best of the 3 for my money. Tera grass is obviously for quagsire/alomomola and it completely clobbers them. On paper you're walled by steel, but that's not actually true at+6 since you still 2hko literally everything with play rough. Get rocks up and you still ohko spdef bronzong with play rough 93% of the time (not counting for miss obviously). On top of that +6 aqua jet absolutely smothers a bunch of teams with just a little chip or hazards. You also don't have to worry about prankster/talonflame wisp because aqua jet goes first vs both and kills them.

I hope this helps some of you who have trouble with stall or have the misfortune of playing PiF on the ladder.

 

[Moutemoute]

The mudboys are probably one of the greatest defensive assets the tier has to offer right now. Both Quagsire and Gastrodon are great and each of them provides specific benefits. Their brand new access to Stealth Rock / Spikes make them better than ever. Quagsire stands out thanks to its access to Toxic. It's one of the few Pokémon which kept it without being Poison-type (the two other in UU are Toedscruel and..Vespiquen kekw). I think it can thanks its cousin Cloudsire for being a Poison-type because I trully think this is the sole reason it kept this attack (pretty much like Toedscruel and Tentacruel). Unaware is a pretty great ability but I think Water Absorb is pretty good too in a metagame with Rain teams around and Azumarill being that great. On the other hand, I enjoyed a lot Gastrodon thanks to Storm Drain which allows it to really be annoying vs Rain teams. I think both of them are great atm and great answers to common threats such as Pawmot or Barraskewda. However, I trully dislike the fact that people can bypass them thanks to Terastallization Grass users which shouldn't be able to beat them ever otherwise (things like Sandy Shocks, Iron Thorns or Pawmot). That's one thing I trully hate about this mechanic..

The more I'm facing this Pokémon on the ladder the more I'm thinking it's straight up dumb and broken. The fact that moves such as Recover are now only 8 PPs allows Azumarill to really mess with things which was checking it in the past (like Unaware Quagsire). I don't think the tier has the tool to beat this Pokémon atm. It can really punish too much Pokémon thanks to its typing + Huge Power + movepool and I feel like it puts too much pressure on the teambuilding. Terastallization Grass + Tera Blast is great on it but I've also seen people running Terastallization Water + Trailblaze (it 2HKOs with ease both Quagsire and Gastrodon while boosting Azumarill's speed each time it's used). I really would like to know what people are thinking about this threat.

Fun Suicide Lead I've been using recently. Not the best for sure but really fun. Even tho we have a couple Poison-types in the tier, they're not used that much which makes Toxic Spikes pretty filthy to deal with. Glimmet is great alongisde Ghost-type and things like Bisharp. Even tho it lacks Mortal Spin, it has Memento and a Special Attack good enough to deal some nice chips to the opponent's team.

Sableye is such an annoying Pokémon but I really love it. Prankster Encore is nasty vs offensive teams and the fact it also has access to Recover + Knock Off + it's a Ghost-type allows it to have a really good niche in the tier (to the point where I think it's not just a niche). I don't have a lot to add on that one, it's known for being annoying since a couple of generations and it didn't change in this one. Great Pokémon !

 

[Wapf]

Gallade seeming kind of busted. Life orb + sharpness breaks through basically anything that doesn't resist it, leaf blade breaks through slowbro/king, and fighting/psychic STAB with insane base power and no drawbacks makes it so hard to deal with. Once espathra inevitably gets banned I'm suspecting a huge wave of agility gallade. Basically the only thing that deals with it is strong priority, and at that point you're playing mind games on what tera type he has for your priority. I haven't tested it but psychic terrain sounds absolutely nutty with agility gallade.

 

[Turtlek]

Does anyone know when is the next Council Reunion?

I have a team I like playing but I don't want to play with Espathra. How can I improve this?
https://pokepast.es/34a2f4616c78d77d

 

[Estarossa]

Does anyone know when is the next Council Reunion?

I have a team I like playing but I don't want to play with Espathra. How can I improve this?
https://pokepast.es/34a2f4616c78d77d

If you mean in terms of meeting up to do voting on bans etc, UU can't make any tiering decisions during UU Alpha which runs from December 1st to December 31st. Quickbans can only happen from Beta onwards in January. In terms of council discussing stuff that is likely an ongoing constant within their own personal channels, but they can't actually make any tiering action until next month!

This thread explains more about how tiering works in the early months for tiers
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/tiering-for-generation-9.3711698/

 

[Glitchwood High]

(inspired by a similar meme from band)​

Another day, more SV UU posting. People are started to post more and more of their tierlists and it's really fun seeing other people's takes on the metagame! Even though it's still early and opinions are changing, I have noticed a pretty large amount of hatred for the birds, coming from all sorts of different perspectives. After 150+ games of SV UU so far (I am bored), I thought it'd be fun to give my thoughts on them, bullet point style:

• Demands dedicated answers from every team, and multiple mons at that.
• Can pick and choose it's checks very easily with moveset changes and Tera shenanigans
• Fits very well into Hyper Offense teams and even many Balance Structures
• Has some 4MSS due to really wanting all of protect, roost and substitute, I guess?
• Is over-prepped for...although let's be honest, if "people are cteaming you" is a drawback, you're probably broken anyways.

• Really strong and requires only one turn of setup
• Electric/Grassy Seed makes it very hard to take out with priority
• Loses hard to Quagsire
• Requires the remarkably bad pincurchin or substandard Arboliva
• Boom or bust; if it doesn't pop off the very turn it comes out, it doesn't really do much for the rest of the game

• Strong STABs that can cheese past checks with frequent status effects.
• Very fast and is a pretty good pivot.
• Two very useful immunities
• Loses to pretty much all decent priority
• Needs Rain to be consistent; needs boots to deal decent damage versus special walls

• Obscene Power: Tera Flying can 2HKO physdef mons even on a scarf set
• Hard to switch into and has u-turn for anything that tries to switch in
• Decent-ish speed tier, not fast but it's enough
• Very frail and kills itself very quickly due to rocks, helmet and recoil

• Intimidate + Rocky Helmet makes it one of the very few offensive Slither Wing checks in-game, and gives it a surprising amount of defensive utility
• Tera Grass cockslaps any Quagsire or Gastrodon that gets funny
• Not very flashy or strong by setup sweeper standards
• Has pretty obnoxious 4MSS

Honestly, out of all of these Pokemon, only Espathra and Hawlucha strike me as being really problematic; but make no mistake, every single one of them can run away with a game if given the chance. The fact that I didn't even include Salamence or Noivern speaks to just how insanely prevalent birds are in UU Alpha. I wouldn't be surprised if we had a bird-centric suspect slate once January rolls around, but until then, I'll keep my lycanroc-dusk to myself, thank you very much.

 

[frankjosh]

hi not gonna post abt every mon i’ve tried but heres some thoughts on stuff i may or may not be gassing up too much



the GOAT spinner imo. pretty close with tsareena, but he just does it all. knock+spin+rocks is simply combination of moves that no1 else in uu can compete with. elec immune is ofc nice too in a tier with so many good electric types. only issue is its owned by knock whereas tsareena isnt so thats why i’d say theyre pretty close in terms of best spinner.



easily the best defogger. not like thats saying too much considering most of the others are terrible, but talonflame is REALLY good at defogging. also one of the few things that can actually punishing slither wing from just spamming uturn. sd sets also somehow feel threatening in a tier where theres so few (niche-ish) rock types. great use of tera steel as well for if it eventually gets knocked



been a little higher on this mon than most ppl, but just from my brief experience from trying it out with the new trailblaze move, its been rly strong. stuff like medi has always been held back by never having a speed boosting move, so you’ll often see why that was so important when using this, since after a speed boost it can often just end games.

one thing i’ll note though is poison jab feels almost mandatory to me on medi and who is another mon that ppl have been gassing up, and for good reason. its really only for one mon, but if you dont have this move ur walled by in my opinion, the incredibly strong . scream tail is THE defensive mon for me, and is what i think will end up holding balance as an archetype together. wish alongside amazing utility moves like rocks/encore/twave with its great defenses/speed makes it end up being such a good support mon. cm sets could also prob be explored a bit more too.

also wanna give a quick shoutout to who i think has some potential as a scarfer. its pretty much entirely outclassed by the but it has knock and gunk shot to separate itself, so it can hit scream tail (ofc) and 2hko talon without worrying about flame body.



ive used toedscruel on a few of my teams now and as much as ive been saying its god or whatever i’ll admit that its like.. just good. its ability SUCKS. lets just make that clear, and its gonna be basically useless assuming hatterene rises next month. however, it has some really sought after moves, and an OK defensive typing, that let it be a blanket check to a bunch of stuff. a set i tried was with rapid spin, knock, toxic and spikes, and managed to do make progress and do just enough every game. thats about how i’d describe this mon. it probably wont do too much but it usually wont let u down. its epic with wish support though.

also just wanna touch on toxic spikes cause i think theyre INSANE. theres quite a few good poison types out there so getting them off isnt too bad generally, but theres a handful of mons that can offensively pressure you enough AND apply them (looking at and ) that it can sometimes be a huge bitch to deal with. generally ur gonna find about half of team gets hit by tspikes too, whereas last gen it’d be hard to find teams with more than two targets.

 

[Estarossa]

Tbh I'm really coming around to the idea that Talonflame is just a general like top 5 level sorta mon for me rn. The defog sets are definitely great compression but when you're able to fit removal somewhere else (not really that difficult) the taunt sets on talonflame are absolutely nuts too, just annoys the tier such an insane amount while having fantastic defensive utility through bulk + speed + flame body and offers speed control too. Would argue you've definitely got options alongside it to cover for the no fog anyway (eg. bramble is solid and spikes for you too which would pair amazingly).

Think the general speed control it provides and checking of fast stuff is just so valuable to me, honestly a great tera user too thanks to ability to immunize itself to espeed from lucario especially to really seal the speed control deal while also negating its rocks weakness if it is forced to take knock somewhere to eg. burn a tink, fast willo just has so much utility. Honestly crazy good revival blessing candidate too with how it can just trade itself to do crippling damage and come back again and that sorta path has really won a lot of games for me lately with it. Definitely one of the best defoggers as hari mentions and i just really love this mon and find myself spamming it a lot rn!

Free team with the taunt set on if you wanna play around with it, (cryo is defo garbage LOL thing did 50% to a coalossal in rain, it glues this together alright tho cause of spinning well into the ground rockers + special bulky mon that just gives a lot of breathing room for this team around stuff like noiv/jugs, could definitely play around with taking an eg. gastrodon + brambleghast route instead for instance too if you wanted spikies)


https://pokepast.es/61ee244db5fcb993

 

[Pabloaram]

Hi... a few troughts after playing a bunch more:


I feel like the only think QB rn is . He has only one set wich his CM + Stored Power. This convined by utility moves like Subtitute, Protect and coverage like Dazzing Gleam or Terrablast can clean trought team with ease. The most "reliable" check is Spdef Tinkaton or Priority Spam. Pls BAN (i hate Alpha state so much)

Terastalization
I'm still in the ban train. There are few abuser but still is uncompetitive as a hold. Maybe not as broken as Dynamax was but still broken.

Rain

Strong playstile. Demands water inmunity to not be bold over. Terra Grass is a problem when the best terra inmune are both 4x weak to grass.

Hazzard Control

With such bad distribution of Defog this Gen, Rapid Spin is back on the menu. New Mon Bramble beats physical Spiners tranks to okeyish bulk and Strenght Sap. Didnt see too much Cryogonal or Coalossal.
Bulky talonflame, fly from gen8nu to be the most "reliable" defogger in this new meta, probably gona stick around until DLC/Home drops.
Hatterene helps in more offense teams as a hazzard deterrement and a wincon with Calm Mind.


If Raptor goes to UUBL (like always), own new flamengo friend can cover his spot, having also a strong Brave Bird + Scrappy CC, but being slower and weaker than the Raptor itself

 

[5camp]

Buncha random thoughts now the meta is 5 days old.


I've been a little disappointed at the reaction people have had to revival blessing. I've seen numerous times people say "I've only faced it once or twice but it should be banned". God forbid a new mechanic be introduced. In practice the fact your returning mon comes back at 50% health means the revival blessing user has to pull its weight outside of revival blessing, or its like you're playing half a mon down.

Generally I've found the best mons to revive are fast mons, scarfers, or priority mons since they can do their stuff even at half health. Special mention to the floofiest boy Slither Wing since not only does it have first impression, but you can scare something out with it and use the free turn to heal back to full with morning sun. It also means you can play a little recklessly at times if you are convinced you can get that mon back, such as with Pelipper on rain. That can admittedly backfire as I have watched people sac Pelipper then fail to ever get into a position to revive again.

Pawmot is pretty excellent mind you, easy A or even A+ tier mon. 115 Atk + 120 base power stabs with 105 speed is excellent. Not sure if UU standards, but it means it can actually scare stuff while packing revival blessing. I prefer leppa berry myself, since I've found that allowing it just the one revive means you're never scared of it again since it's really easy to wall, but the threat of a second one means it keeps putting pressure on all game. I get why people use scarf, but since both revival blessing and the electric signature move can only be used once, it traps you into struggle and can be pretty embarrassing if someone predicts the revive and sets up on you.


The problem with rain is it would be a lot more manageable if not for tera water on or . That turns mons who might otherwise barely hang on into 1hkos. Players are definitely finding responses, but it starts to feel like a Dracovish problem when those solutions are water immunities like our favourite sea slug Gastrodon.

Speaking of rain answers!


Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Trailblaze
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough

Tired of your belly drum sweeps being halted by Quagsire but don't want to have to run tera grass? Let me introduce you to trailblaze! 16 speed EVs lets you outpace no speed Rotom Wash after a single trailblaze boost. I swear Azu is the main thing keeping rain in check, and is one of the single best mons in the meta. It will probably get taken by OU at some point since it's really good there too.

Speaking of mons about to be taken by OU!


Are you looking for a guaranteed way to beat every single Espathra set irregardless of tera type without having to burn a tera yourself or running a shitmon? Let me show you the tech:


Scream Tail @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Perish Song

Espathra can do nothing to Scream Tail. You can switch in no matter what, click perish song, take absolutely nothing from Espathra, then do whatever the hell else you want with your free turns. Set rocks, pass a wish, put up screens, twave something coming in. It's Scream Tail, it has a movepool the size of the moon. Now you never need to worry about the damn ostrich ever again.


This thing is the new Nidoking. It's unwallable. Except imagine if Nidoking got swords dance. Or if it got agility. Zero defensive utility but who cares when you're this deadly otherwise.


Speaking of unwallable! This is my first time being able to play with the BL Bird before it gets banned, and it's been neat to see it in action and understand why it's so terrifying. The only thing holding it back is its tendency to murder itself, but it usually takes down something with it.


With rain and hyper offence being so strong and the most potent sweeper being a speedboost mon, plus the overall excellence of Hatterene and the new revival blessing Rabsca, I thought I could make trick room work. Spoiler warning: I couldn't.

But I did discover in the process that Ursaring is pretty cracked. A lot of mons run protect, which sucks for trick room, until you SD on the protect and accomplish absurd feats like 1hko Forretress with a resisted move. Ursaring wasn't the problem with my trick room attempts. It was that I couldn't find a good second abuser (if you have any suggestions please let me know. I was reduced to trying contrary leaf storm Lurantis before finally giving up). Also Rabsca was kinda ass, although memento is a good trick.


Florges @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Synthesis
- Moonblast
- Giga Drain
Florges has one of the more interesting tera applications. If you tera grass, you activate its ability to become like a grass type Garganacl and be immune to status. The amount of games I won with this thing is truly amazing. It's a shame that it has to be a grass type, since grass doesn't help it hit any of its counters. Plus you get your healing cut down by the relentless rain. However tera grass does have the funny application of surprising Barraskewda that thinks it has a free kill and healing back up with giga drain.


Who the hell at Gamefreak thought Bisharp of all mons needed an evolution? I've seen this thing tank a body press from Bronzong. It's stupid and we hates it. It's not banworthy but urgh I hate it.


It's insane just how underwhelming this fella has been. It was maybe the scariest breaker in OU in gen 8, yet one generation later and it's struggling to find its place in UU. I know it has been nerfed, but I don't think I truly appreciated how big especially the lack of knock off is. I honestly think it's going to drop to RU.


Ddance Mence claims lives. Tera steel is unfair and the only reliable stop to it is Quagsire. Well, that or prankster shenanigans.


Speaking of prankster shenanigans, I'm surprised at how good they've been. I definitely didn't expect Grafaiai to end up this good, but prankster is a hell of an ability. I've seen these prankster bitches enough that tera dark is a legit option on stuff like Gallade to avoid their nonsense.


Is Gengar doomed to be a BL Knight for the rest of eternity? Or at least for as long as it remains in the same game as Dragapult? It's insanely good and can kinda do whatever it wants and be effective. I like energy ball as a tech option to blast Gastrodon or Quagsire. I also think Will-O-Wisp Hex could be fantastic. Trick scarf is also pretty great.

Put it this way: I talked about revival blessing at the start of this post and why I think it's balanced. However I've had games where people just forfeited on the spot because I revived my Gengar. If there's a mon that causes people to forfeit if it gets revived, maybe it's the mon that's the problem.

 

[Boooo_Yah]

After many observations of Espartha, I think a suspect is needed to be honest for now, or even a quickban.

 

[Boooo_Yah]

Hi... a few troughts after playing a bunch more:


I feel like the only think QB rn is . He has only one set wich his CM + Stored Power. This convined by utility moves like Subtitute, Protect and coverage like Dazzing Gleam or Terrablast can clean trought team with ease. The most "reliable" check is Spdef Tinkaton or Priority Spam. Pls BAN (i hate Alpha state so much)

Terastalization
I'm still in the ban train. There are few abuser but still is uncompetitive as a hold. Maybe not as broken as Dynamax was but still broken.

Rain

Strong playstile. Demands water inmunity to not be bold over. Terra Grass is a problem when the best terra inmune are both 4x weak to grass.

Hazzard Control

With such bad distribution of Defog this Gen, Rapid Spin is back on the menu. New Mon Bramble beats physical Spiners tranks to okeyish bulk and Strenght Sap. Didnt see too much Cryogonal or Coalossal.
Bulky talonflame, fly from gen8nu to be the most "reliable" defogger in this new meta, probably gona stick around until DLC/Home drops.
Hatterene helps in more offense teams as a hazzard deterrement and a wincon with Calm Mind.


If Raptor goes to UUBL (like always), own new flamengo friend can cover his spot, having also a strong Brave Bird + Scrappy CC, but being slower and weaker than the Raptor itself

Another rain mon you can include is Kilowattrel.

 

[Pabloaram]

Another rain mon you can include is Kilowattrel.

Probably. Kilo is normally the electric inmunity on rain teams

 

[Negative Charge]

Really enjoying this tier and the lack of Cyclizar/Chi Yu/Annihilape. Just QB Espathra (who is kinda broken in OU too) and all will be well. I am a huge fan of Gallade, the new ability is so busted and gives you psuedo stab on all your coverage (those leaf blades really hurt). The most excited I've been to play UU in a long time.

 

[Fish Gaming]

Klefki @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 132 Def / 96 SpA / 252 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Imprison
- Calm Mind
- Stored Power
- Spikes

Only way Espathra counters this is if it runs Tera Ground or Steel Tera Blast for some reason, otherwise, this thing shuts down Espathra HARD. No stored power, 4x dazzling gleam resist, and Klefki can setup sweep itelf. Spikes are there just so it can shut down enemy spikes leads and set them up itself.

 

[Lunar Sloth]

I was playing this tier a lot yesterday and was having a blast. I typically only played randoms, but decided to try out UU. Overall its felt like quite a fun and enjoyable metagame (aside from espathra LOL). Wanted to mention some things I really enjoyed using.


Tinkaton has proved extremely valuable to me. The utility it provides and its stellar typing is amazing. I used a spdef Tink and it can really just sit on some things and pester them with knock/encore. Also spdef does well into (SOME) espathra sets. Encore is quite useful for locking it into a particular move and punishing it accordingly. I typically ran Gigaton Hammer/Knock/Rocks/Encore but it could also use Twave or Swords Dance to make it more threatening. Probably my favorite mon to use in the tier right now.


Slowking and Tinkaton both have paired quite nicely together for me. Chilly Reception being pseudo teleport helps pivot out and gain momentum while bringing in powerful attackers such as Slither Wing, which combined with Future Sight support is incredibly difficult to deal with. Also pairs wonderfully with Slush Rush Cetitan. Slack Off PP nerf is annoying but hasn't felt too noticeable with boots and regen. Speaking of that, Slowking loves the lower distribution of knock off for keeping boots. Chilling Water is also better than I was expecting on it, the attack drop can be quite useful for weakening some threats.


A good friend of Slowking. I've been loving this combo quite a lot. I have preferred the Belly Drum set over Band though because its power felt a bit underwhelming even with Choice Band. Defense boost in snow is quite useful for setting up. Ice Spinner is a relatively strong reliable stab move to spam, eq for non-levitating fire and steels, and it has ice shard for priority which can be very helpful.


Slither Wing has been incredibly fun to use. Choice Band First Impression goes brr. It is so satisfying and lets it revenge quite a lot. It is even more ridiculous with bug tera. Future Sight support with Slowking makes this incredibly difficult to switch into with CC also. Very powerful and fun to use dino bug.


She needs no introduction. This pokemon is so insane and can pick and choose its own counters. Can easily win you games you shouldn't. So many viable tera options as well with fairy being the most common that I've seen, but it can also use fire, fighting, and ground. I wish bans were possible because she is the only thing rn that I think is too overwhelming.


The UUBL birb is down in UU for now. I've been using scarf sets which let it revenge kill a lot with its very strong Reckless stabs and CC. U-turn to pivot out is also nice. It does wear itself down rather easily as it is frail and the recoil adds up, but it definitely makes up for it with its insane strength. Tera Flying also makes it even more difficult to deal with.


With defog being very limited right now, Talon seems to be probably the best user of it atm. Flame Body helps it punish physical attackers and any u-turn users. Fast wisp is also quite valuable. Pretty cool mon.


I was a bit sad that Hydreigon lost roost this gen, but it's still a monster. Tera Steel Hydreigon with Substitute/Nasty plot/Dark Pulse/Flamethrower has felt insanely strong and it's won me a lot of games. Its coverage is very good too with tons of viable options. Love this mon.


Wasn't expecting to enjoy this pokemon, but it has a very nice movepool and provides great utility. Spin/spore/knock off/spikes/stun spore/taunt/toxic can all be handy. It's ability can be unfortunate in most scenarios but ignoring the abilities of other mons can be useful also, and lets you spore/taunt Magic Bounce mons for example. One of the better spinners imo.


My baby! I was so happy to use tea with tera. Tera fighting has been very fun to use and provides great coverage with shadow ball and stored power. Does typical polteageist shenanigans but can tera to kill dark types that would normally wall it. Tera fairy is another good option for it.

 

[Turtlek]

Is anyone interested by this?
Cetitan's my new Bro (Slowking) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 134 Def / 122 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Chilly Reception
- Slack Off
- Future Sight
- Surf
You survive a banded Jolly slither's u-turn. probably too niche.

 

[HydreigonTheChild]

Is anyone interested by this?
Cetitan's my new Bro (Slowking) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 134 Def / 122 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Chilly Reception
- Slack Off
- Future Sight
- Surf
You survive a banded Jolly slither's u-turn. probably too niche.

the thing is any form of chip puts u into range.. i doubt this is very useful but i mean gives a free switch if u are at full hp and just scouting with slowking... but good god having a 33% slowking is gonna be hard to get value out of

 

[HydreigonTheChild]

This is a very good pokemon .. it is like the only viable wish user besides umbreon and scream tail and can utilize a lot of bulk to be able to pass wishes.... it is also a great CM win con since there is a lack of steel types (besides tinkaton) and many poison types that probably want to switch into florges and threaten it... esp after a Couple of CM boosts

 

[MasterPlayer]

Haven't played any game on the UU ladder yet but I'm sure there's a few solutions involving can put a serious wrench in Rain Teams, and it's honestly all due to the speed stat of Pelipper. Outspeeding it with a faster lead might prompt the opponent to switch their Pelipper out without giving them an opporunity to gain momentum and then switching out the turn after for another weather setter like Abomasnow to completely invalidate the rest of the Rain Team except for the KIlowattrel who usually pairs with this team and can stop that attempt if put on lead instead of Pelipper

 

[Turtlek]

Has anyone built smth around Medicham? It may have some issues but I am bad at team build

 

[MasterPlayer]

Has anyone built smth around Medicham? It may have some issues but I am bad at team build

I've heard that Medicham can fix it's speed issues with Trailblaze, so there's that

 

[Fabi_ODST]

So, I've been trying some stuff in this early meta, and one of the things that surprised me is how nice aboma feels with the snow buff. This is not even as a snow setter support (though it does help/fit quite well in those teams), but as a standalone mon. Blizzard and giga drain are enough to cover most of the relevant stuff in the tier, you have Wood Hammer if you want to hit blissey, aurora veil to be even more bulky/support the team, ice shard for priority and some more niche stuff like eq if you feel your prediction game against tinkaton is on point XD
In terms of tera type, I'm not sure yet. water gives it a much nicer defensive profile. but boosted blizzards/shards are also really tempting. ghost also has its place against e-speed luke and normal can work in an end game situation against choiced gengar.
I don't think it's gonna be a tier superstar by any means, but I would still suggest giving it a shot if you want to try something different :)

 

[Negative Charge]

Tatsugiri (Tatsugiri-Stretchy) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Surf / Hydro Pump
- Draco Meteor
- Nasty Plot

A very respectable stat spread and great typing + ability gives you ample opportunities to spin or get up a nasty plot. I prefer HP over Speed on my sushi but that's just me. Tera Steel covers your only two weaknesses. Tatsugiri's movepool is pretty barren otherwise besides Taunt.