np: UU - A New Beginning

[Icy_eagle]

Haven't seen any NFE's so far, I'm using magneton myself, and it's been doing ok. Unfortunately, I'm not trapping a lot, sine Registeel is pretty much the only steel i've run into and my magneton can't really do anything against it except getting exploded on after a few turns. Registeel troubles my team in general. I don't mind CM Raikou at all though.

What ev's are typically run on Registeel?

 

[SHUCKLE MAN]

I'm actually sort of glad that we can't decide the suspects, as I don't want us to all go overboard.

And Magneton has the strongest Electric attack in UU I believe, not to mention a nice 13 resistances. And I would never have thought that Magneton would struggle against Registeel. I haven't met any with Earthquake or Superpower yet. Probopass may be a better trapper, but his type combo is absolutely horrific, and Magneton's offensive stats are so much better than Probopass's too.

I can't really decide who would be the better trapper. The only other things that can trap Registeel that I can think of are Diglett, Trapinch, Nosepass and Wynaut. I doubt any of those are competant. At the moment I get my Umbreon to Baton Pass Mean Look. I can sometimes Synchronize paralysis onto it too which is cool.

And I don't really think we should be expecting to see many NFEs. Only a small hanfull of them are useful in practice, and even then, they're not that good.

 

[Icy_eagle]

I'm running choice scarf, so I don't like getting t-waved. Assuming max hp ev's and no SPd ev's or natures for Registeel, my current max SPa will deal 31-36%, 3-4hko factoring in leftovers. Choice specs is not a guaranteed 2hko either. Thunder is guaranteed 3hko & 2hko respectively though, but I don't like the 70% acc. and they can still ev their SPd. Again, what ev's does Registeel use?

 

[Garganator]

Standard OU set is 252 HP/56 Def/200 SpD and I'm using those EVs myself. They're fine enough to handle threats like Raikou and Shaymin, even is they use Growth/Calm Mind. But you need to count at least 128 SpD on most Regis if you use special attacks against it.

 

[Chou Toshio]

imo, magneton's appeal isn't trapping. It's 120 sp.ATK attached to a type set with some of the best resistances in the game.


edit:
Hariyama is so cool, I'm just wishing I didn't have to choose between it and Blaziken. :(

 

[SHUCKLE MAN]

lol. I've just discovered that even Magnemite has the same Special Attack as Seadra and Kingdra! Yeah, the magnet evolutionary line have insane Special Attacks.

Anyway, the Pokemon that I'm finding hardest to beat at the moment is Spiritomb, and I see a lot of them. It doesn't help that they switch in every single time I use my Gallade either. I usually end up having to Mean Look them with Umbreon, and then Baton Passing to a very offensively orientated Pokemon.

I'm not having any particular problems with anything else though.

 

[Etceteraetcetera]

I've been having some pretty healthy success with Crobat @ LO- nasty plot, dark pulse, air slash, heat wave.
It especially gets easy switch ins due to the common fighting attacks everyone's carrying for the regis.

Banded Hariyama and Scarfed Roserade have also been doing very well.

 

[PeteDHeat]

@ Darkie: I guess your right.
@ Chris: Yes, Hariyama is a bitch lol

About the NFE, I saw quite a few actually. I lol'ed at Gabite trying to sweep. I only encoutered problems with Roserade and Spiritomb so far, but I think I found a solution for that. Besides them two, everything has done alright.

 

[RBG]

I believe some badged member council (read: not us) decides suspects and a bold voting esque system gets them banned.

SHUCKLE MAN, don't worry, we all thought it should have been :(

No, its a Bold Vote that is open to everyone.

Anyways, I've been having a pretty good time with this. Staraptor does take a big chunk out of anything that switchs into it. I've had fun with my Facade + Cosmic Power clefable, being walled by Ghosts however can be a problem (unless I still have my toxic orb + trick)

No pokemon has proven to be obviously broken yet, I haven't seen much perma-weather from my opponents, Maybe at most 1 Abomasnow and 1 Hippoptas, but nothing besides those. I still haven't faced the Regigias or Shaymin that peolpe seem to be having trouble with

 

[Steinhauser]

I tried a Scarf Haunter who played a lot like ScarfGar. The only difference is the lack of Focus Blast which is really a nonissue without TTar around. Trick ruins switch-ins just as well as it does in OU, and Destiny Bond takes care of anything that gets too many Calm Minds.

Attempting to make a catchall counter for Chansey, Spiritomb and (especially) Registeel I tried a gimmicky combo of max Speed Tickle/Encore Wynaut and CB Trapinch. Ironically, I never saw any of those three in the few hours I was testing. However, they still handled slow things like Clefable and Muk quite fine. Worth two team slots they ain't, but they did indeed work.

Toxic Orb Swellow still seems to be the best check/revenge for all major non-scarfed offensive threats in the metagame - Gallade, Blaziken, Shaymin, Raikou, Abomasnow, Froslass, and Ambipom are all outsped and OHKO'd after Orb activates.

 

[SHUCKLE MAN]

No, its a Bold Vote that is open to everyone.

Oh dear. That could be problematic. Well, at least it's bold voting, and not just a plain poll.

 

[Scoopapa]

I've been having lots of success with a hail team (my shoddy name is mawile). I personally think Abomasnow will become a consideration for BL, but obviously it's a little early to know. There seem to be a lot more leftovers in UU than OU, so stallrein isn't as much of a beast as first thought he would be. Froslass has been cutting through teams just with sub, snow cloak, and blizzard, so I imagine a moveset with more attacks could be pretty deadly too.

I strongly encourage everyone to try out a hail team (this site has an article about it so it's pretty easy to build a decent team) so we can better assess whether or not to keep abomasnow in UU.

 

[Phizzlax]

Toxic Orb Swellow still seems to be the best check/revenge for all major non-scarfed offensive threats in the metagame - Gallade, Blaziken, Shaymin, Raikou, Abomasnow, Froslass, and Ambipom are all outsped and OHKO'd after Orb activates.

I bet Ambipom Fake Out does an ass-load of damage to Swellow, other than that, yeah I'm surprised I'm only seeing Staraptor and not Swellow (I also prefer Swellow for picking up late game trash).

 

[cim]

No, its a Bold Vote that is open to everyone.

RB Golbat? Will you marry me?

Anyway, SHUCKLE MAN, there's nothing to fear; if someone can make a fantastic argument about a Pokémon's tiering then they've probably played enough of the game to form an opinion.

I bet Ambipom Fake Out does an ass-load of damage to Swellow, other than that, yeah I'm surprised I'm only seeing Staraptor and not Swellow (I also prefer Swellow for picking up late game trash).

Swellow does consistently less damage and can't touch Flying resists with any of its moves, when Staraptor has Close Combat to abuse. I don't see the "surprise" at all.

 

[Steinhauser]

I bet Ambipom Fake Out does an ass-load of damage to Swellow, other than that, yeah I'm surprised I'm only seeing Staraptor and not Swellow (I also prefer Swellow for picking up late game trash).

Well, I did mention Swellow was a revenge killer, so it would get in after the Fake Out. It also has Quick Attack which outspeeds Fake Out and deals a solid 36-43%, in case a weakened Ambipom tried to revenge you.

Staraptor is indeed the better offensive frontman, with Intimidate and Close Combat. However, its speed is "good-not-great" without a Scarf, and it has the obvious disadvantages with a Scarf.

Swellow is the better choice against Raikou, Froslass and Ambipom, and doesn't risk a speed tie against Shaymin.

 

[Phizzlax]

Don't forget Espeon, Mismagius, Sceptile and Tauros ;) Not that I've seen many Tauros around (exactly 1 in about 30 battles).

Also, Swellow's Facade is stronger than Star's Brave Bird, of course Star can run Life Orb or CB, but those have their obvious drawbacks as well.

I'm not trying to say star is bad or anything, I'm just saying Swellow shouldn't be forgotten so easily, as it still has it's place in this metagame.

 

[Garganator]

Haven't seen any NFE's so far, I'm using magneton myself, and it's been doing ok. Unfortunately, I'm not trapping a lot, sine Registeel is pretty much the only steel i've run into and my magneton can't really do anything against it except getting exploded on after a few turns. Registeel troubles my team in general. I don't mind CM Raikou at all though.

I need to agree - it's hard to see any NFE's and the only one I saw were Rock Polish Rhydon (which didn't have luck in sweep after all) and Dusclops. I'm testing by myself Wish passing Shelgon with Max HP/Max Def Impish. Surprisingly, it's not that bad. Stops Blaziken, Arcanine and switches on Azumarill quite comfortable (CB Double-Edge unluckily hurts) and Dragon type has really usefull resistances and with not that often Ice attacks it's usable. Not the greatest, but in future NU it may work. I'm using it with Wish/Protect (usable to scout for HP Ice on Blaziken)/Dragon Claw/Zen Headbutt (steels are not that often). It's a shame that it doesn't learn Earthquake.

 

[Evil Hamster]

Has anyone else been trying out Toxicroak? I haven't seen a single one, which surprises me because in the current metagame it's capable of beating pretty much every common wall that you're likely to see at the moment. The only ones it has real trouble with are Nidoqueen and Weezing.

I've been using a set with SD/Cross Chop/Sucker Punch/Taunt, and it pretty much rips up everything if you don't have Weezing or Nidoqueen. It comes in for free on Milotic all the time thanks to Dry Skin, and Slowbro if you can avoid Psychic or Thunder Wave. Swords Danced Cross Chops deal hefty damage to pretty much everything, and Taunt forces the likes of Slowbro and Uxie to attack you instead of statusing you to stall you out, and they take over 85% from +2 Sucker Punches. Spiritomb is 2HKOed by Sucker Punch after a Swords Dance, and Taunt stops it from Calm Minding or Will-o-Wisping Toxicroak. 0 SpA Shadow Ball is a 3HKO, so Toxicroak can SD as it comes in, Taunt the CM/WoW, and 2HKO it with plenty of HP left. If it runs Dark Pulse, then it's even more helpless.

SD Sucker Punch is obviously effective against offensive teams too, seeing as it's only about 2% weaker than a Lucario's Extremespeed. Absorbing Toxic Spikes is another massive plus, as they seem quite popular. This means that it's at least not completely deadweight against teams with Nidoqueen :s . I've personally found it considerably more effective in the new UU than the old UU.

Cosmic Power Clefable is also a real pain to take down, particularly if you leave it until last to kill as then you can't phaze it. The dominance of Fighting types in the old UU made it much less viable there, but apart from Blaziken and the odd Hitmontop there aren't many fighting types seen at the moment.

 

[Etceteraetcetera]

I was actually working quite well with a Reflect set up and then nasty plot ambipom passing to Timid Scarf Venomoth, which performed insanely well, but it turned out that Ambipom just got exploded on far too often when it taunted walls.
Nothing really gamebreaking, but it was fun.

 

[TVboyCanti]

Not to shoot you down, but I considered and passed it up. While it DOES do all you say it does, the way my team plays is I let them get up SR as a free turn for me to do something. I really wish there was some fast Taunter like Azelf, but the closest I come is Electrode. I know it's UU, but I keep yearning for OU Pokemon =P.

It feels like theres fast taunters all over the place. Crobat, Ambipom, Frosslass, Persian, Floatzel, Purugly, Mismagius, Sneasel. Take your pick. Of course, they can't use stealth rock, but if they could they would probably be OU now wouldn't they?

 

[Random Pizzaman]

Im having some pretty good success with CB Tauros, as its atleast faster than Staraptor so it can run CB comfortably as it outruns everything not named Ambipom, Crobat, Persian, Sneasel or Scyther or that has an agility or CS. Its Frustration is quite powerful too(i think frustration fits Tauros more than return :P)

 

[Phizzlax]

The dominance of Fighting types in the old UU made it much less viable there, but apart from Blaziken and the odd Hitmontop there aren't many fighting types seen at the moment.

You forgot about Hariyama :'(

Anyway, your Toxicroak idea sounds pretty good. I'll have to give him a try myself.

 

[Lemmiwinks MkII]

Cosmic Power Clefable is also a real pain to take down, particularly if you leave it until last to kill as then you can't phaze it.

A strange statement given that you've just been hyping Swords Dance Toxicroak.

Anyway, in what must be over 50 battles that I've played over the last two days I have yet to see even one appearance of the following Pokemon:

Abomasnow, Arcanine, Charizard, Lickilicky, Ludicolo, Marowak, Pinsir, Porygon2, Regigigas and Zangoose.

Abomasnow is particularly surprising as I thought many people would be itching to try out a Hail team in the new metagame, but apparently not. In fact I've barely seen weather abusing teams at all. The only one I recall was a Sunny Day team using a lead Crobat for setup.

I've had plenty of success with Swords Dance Torterra @ Yache Berry so far as a lategame cleaner, using only Stone Edge and Earthquake for attacks. I was originally going to use a double dance set with Rock Polish, but my current team lacks a good Stealth Rock user so I'm currently using it on Torterra with reasonable success. It can set up on CroTomb quite easily as it is not 2HKO'd by +1 Dark Pulse, as well as Registeel and Chansey, especially on predicted Thunder Waves. It actually works a bit like Yachechomp in that regard (although the two should obviously not be directly compared). Paralysis support is important, but I've been having plenty of success with two NFEs, Chansey and Magneton, for that role. The latter especially has been very useful for deterring Steelix as well as trap-killing it at ~50% health, or even full health if they lack Roar.

I've also used CM ResTalk Ralkou (or CroKou as I like to call it) with great success, believe it or not. People laugh at it as it's walled by any Ground type, but in all honesty they aren't as common as they are in OU. Most teams only have one at the very most, and they can be lured quite easily as long as your strategy is concealed. I use Curse + Explosion Registeel which sometimes takes out the occasional bulky Ground looking to absorb a T-Wave or otherwise. Even Shaymin has to rely on a bit of luck to switch in and defeat it before running out of PP or being overwhelmed by boosted Thunderbolt.

So far the only Pokemon I'm leaning towards Suspect status with are Shaymin and Gallade (Spiritomb is WAY overrated IMO), but I'm not going to make any rash remarks just yet. It is still way too early.

 

[Evil Hamster]

A strange statement given that you've just been hyping Swords Dance Toxicroak.

Lol, I've only recently started using it to be honest. I got rid of Torterra for it yesterday, and I've had less problems with it since then. BTW, I've probably played about 30-40 battles and have seen all of the threats you listed bar Charizard, Regigigias and Zangoose; I can't say any of them were overwhelming tbh.

@Phizzlax; lol, yeah, sorry :p

 

[Icy_eagle]

A strange statement given that you've just been hyping Swords Dance Toxicroak.

Anyway, in what must be over 50 battles that I've played over the last two days I have yet to see even one appearance of the following Pokemon:

Abomasnow, Arcanine, Charizard, Lickilicky, Ludicolo, Marowak, Pinsir, Porygon2, Regigigas and Zangoose.

Abomasnow is particularly surprising as I thought many people would be itching to try out a Hail team in the new metagame, but apparently not. In fact I've barely seen weather abusing teams at all. The only one I recall was a Sunny Day team using a lead Crobat for setup.

bolded are the ones I've not run into.

I've fought two hail teams ,maybe more, I remember only those two clearly because I got wrecked by one of them early, but after tweaking my team some, I pulled a 6-0, thanks to articuno. O.o

Shaymin doesn't really give me any trouble, I just get around it somehow. :/