Offensive U-turn

[unknownkj]

Team at a glance,

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I have always preferred balanced teams but well heck this time i go for a more offensive approach. They the best defense is offence. I had a hard time picking a rapid spinner to fit the nature of the team so well I settled for hitmontop eventually.

The guys,

Mienshao @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SAtk
Hasty Nature
- Hi Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Fake Out
- Hidden Power [Ice]

I love regenerator. Basically just fake out and u-turn until desirable health and go for the hi jump kick for the ko. HP ice is for pesky gligars who think they can wall mienshao. HP ice also nails nidoking and other flying subtypes like crobat. Stone edge is cool but it so unreliable.

Empoleon @ Petaya Berry
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Substitute
- Agility
- Hydro Pump
- Grass Knot

The crux of the team. Empoleon has such a good typing that it is actually damn bulky without and def investments. Agility allows me to outspeed fast threats and also set up on switches. Petaya berry activation and torrent boost hit like a truck. Grass knot is interchangable with ice beam. I prefer grass knot for the surprise kos on water types.

Hitmontop (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Rapid Spin
- Mach Punch
- Pursuit

I had a hard time deciding a spinner for my team. Claydol and defensive top is just too stally and weak. Blastoise is a great spinner but with the lack of a good recovery it wears down very fast. Technitop is good for revenge killing. Just fake out and mach punch everything. Pursuit helps trap ghosts.

Azelf @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- U-turn

I had a hard time deciding a rocker. I needed a fast poke which sets up fast rocks and I immediately thought of azelf. After setting up rocks, i would find a good poke to go boom for the ko.

Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Meinshao's u-turn buddy. Both of them helps to keep momentum in check. Flygon has good typing as well and is immune to Thunder wave. Earthquake and stone edge are for coverage. Outrage is for the hard hits.

Slowbro @ Choice Specs
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off

My favourite slowbro set. I love specs bro because it hits hard and surprises people. Regenerator allows me stay longer in the battle field. Slowbro is naturally bulky and helps to wall fighting attacks even with little defensive evs. Fire blast is for the lols and coverage.




imports;

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Mienshao @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SAtk
Hasty Nature
- Hi Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Fake Out
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Empoleon @ Petaya Berry
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Substitute
- Agility
- Hydro Pump
- Grass Knot

Hitmontop (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Rapid Spin
- Mach Punch
- Pursuit

Azelf @ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- U-turn

Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- U-turn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Slowbro @ Choice Specs
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off

 

[zIntens1fy]

It seems like nobody rates UU teams anymore so I think I'm going to try and become the go to guy for UU rating...well now to the rate. Honestly I would switch flygon to a specs raikou set with hp ice t-bolt volt switch and signal beam that would keep the idea of idea of flygon witch seems to be u-turn support along with mienshao and specs t-bolt is not to be messed around with. This also creates a nice volt-turn combo. I think that slack-off on your specs slowbro is kind of redundant and I reccomend switching it to hp ground to hit raikou on the predicted switch because I think there is not a soul that would expect a slowbro to carry hp-ground and rightfully so. Honestly hazards aren't that important in the tier and azelf kind of seems like dead weight besides the rocks. To replace that I would reccomend using a scarfed darmanitan as it has access to u-turn which would make up for the loss of flygon and it would give you a scarfer. Not only that but rock slide and flare blitz both hit like trucks. Rock slide would really help you take out zapdos which otherwise might be quite annoying to take out

 

[shiranai]

It seems like nobody rates UU teams anymore so I think I'm going to try and become the go to guy for UU rating...well now to the rate. Honestly I would switch flygon to a specs raikou set with hp ice t-bolt volt switch and signal beam that would keep the idea of idea of flygon witch seems to be u-turn support along with mienshao and specs t-bolt is not to be messed around with. This also creates a nice volt-turn combo. I think that slack-off on your specs slowbro is kind of redundant and I reccomend switching it to hp ground to hit raikou on the predicted switch because I think there is not a soul that would expect a slowbro to carry hp-ground and rightfully so. Honestly hazards aren't that important in the tier and azelf kind of seems like dead weight besides the rocks. To replace that I would reccomend using a scarfed darmanitan as it has access to u-turn which would make up for the loss of flygon and it would give you a scarfer. Not only that but rock slide and flare blitz both hit like trucks. Rock slide would really help you take out zapdos which otherwise might be quite annoying to take out

I agree with some changes here. But instead of Raikou I would use a Scarf Zapdos: even though the bird doesn't pack so much force as the dog you keep the ground immunity in the team since Flygons and some Krookodile are still common in the tier, protecing your Empoleon (something, I presume, Flygon was doing).
But a Volt-Turn team without, at least, a hazard lose a lot of KO potential, so I wouldn't recommend you to to get rid of a rocks setupper.
Slowbro, as said, isn't ideal with Slack Off, since it would, obviously, recover and run. Another coverage move is better (HP ground can be an option).
But one thing bothers me: why 0 Speed IV in Empoleon? Is that right? Also, you could try to expand a little the descriptions, so people could understand better wht your team do.

 

[Ernesto]

I'd assume he meant 0 attack, not 0 Speed (though I don't know what the deal with Azelf is).

While I agree that you could easily replace Scarfgon, I'd really suggest running Scarf Mienshao instead of LO, with Aerial Ace over Fake Out. Then you can go with Band Flygon or Offensive SubRoost Zapdos / Specs Raikou in its place – I prefer Zapdos, but the other two have a lot of firepower if that's your thing.
I agree with the general consensus about Slowbro, HP Ground can work, but Grass Knot is good to deal with the bulky Waters it tends to draw in.
Azelf should really run max Attack / max Speed, possibly with Taunt over Ice Punch to prevent Rocks for the first turns. Fire Blast and Grass Knot are options over Explosion to beat Bronzong and Registeel, or Rhyperior, one v. one (that way it should run max SpA), but I'm not sure about that.
Finally, I don't know, it always seems as if Spinners really take momentum out of you, even Technitop I don't particularly like. How'd you feel about using Xatu with U-turn to fend off hazards? It struggles with Rhyperior of course, but it helps in allowing you to retain momentum, which is important on an offensive team...

PS: I always felt like Agility SubPetaya Empoleon should run Timid. It's hard for it to keep its Substitute since it will mostly go first until it gets the Petaya boost, and then it's left at the mercy of revenge killing by Scarf Heracross, arguably the most common Scarfer. The loss in power may be noticeable, I don't know, but I'd think that at +1 and on Torrent range Surf is already amazingly powerful even without the 1.1 multiplier. That way, you can be sure that the most common Pokemon in UU doesn't screw up your sweep before it's started... I know that you'd have Shao to prevent it from beating you, but it makes for a cleaner sweep and gives you less things to worry about – priority being the most threatening, of course

Overall, nice team, it can be improved, but Empoleon really is an amazing late-game cleaner, so kudos for using it. Hope my advices helped you

 

[silenced]

Firstly, I'd like to make yet another alternative suggestion for slowbro: Trick. I used to use a CS Slowbro with psyshock, Fire blast, Scald and trick, and while it did get walled every so often, trick is invaluable to stuff up irritating tanks who otherwise attempt to wall you to hell and back (e.g snorlax, cresselia). That would be in place of slack off.

Secondly, please get rid of hitmontop. This of all teams DOES NOT NEED A SPINNER. You have two regenerators and two levitating pokemon. Any team trying to set spikes against you is wasting its time, giving you several free turns to use, and helping empoleon towards achieving its petaya sweep earlier if anything. SR is near negligible here, hurting only the Zapdos suggestion, which I think would be a good idea. As other people have suggested, Max out speed and Sp Atk. If you want to keep a u-turn theme going here, two moves that should be non-negotiable are volt switch and roost (the latter to help with SR damage). Take your pick for the last two slots.

Mienshao should become the scarfer as others have suggested, as well as the changes to the moves.

Flygon...If you're using so many choice items with u-turning pokemon, that could get tricky...I suppose for a very weird suggestion, an expert belt. While it will do stuff all for outrage, it would be good for extra damage to your other three moves, and potentially screw up people who try to take advantage of swapping a flying type into EQ only to get nailed by stone edge. I have not done calculations for that, but it is something to consider certainly, especially with repeated u-turns and volt switches wearing down health of opponents.

I'm not sure I like azelf here...asides from the weird stat distribution, it looks to be a dead weight in the volt-turn chain. Flygon and zapdos have nice resistances and immunities to take advantage of, as well as some to good bulk, and mienshao can regenerate damage if it must come in, but azelf has neither...and you do need SR...You could use mew instead, who would be much more suited to taking hits. Since you wish to be aggressive...

Mew @ Life Orb/Leftovers
Timid
252 Sp Atk, 252 Speed, 4 Sp Def
-Stealth Rock
-Volt Switch
-Ice Beam
-Psyshock.

That's just an example set. You could go a physical variant with u-turn/drain punch and zen headbutt if you wanted (might be more useful due to bandlax trying to pursuit you) though this set would be an okay offensive lead. To explain, against sash leads, volt switch out to break the sash while they waste their turn using taunt, in order to go to scarf mienshao in order to kill them before hazards go up or destiny bond/explosion is used on you. Against slower leads, set up stealth rock and switch (or kill gligar with ice beam before it can set up SR). This will give you problems against swampert, but you may be able to bluff it out as swampert will hate being burned, and will fear will-o-wisp despite your mew not having it. Item choice comes down to preference. LO will give mew more punch, lefties will help keep the illusion of lead mew. The 3 attacking moves should try and be chosen in such a way to give mew good all-round coverage, perfect coverage being preferred. It won't have as much power as azelf, but it will help in volt-turning since it helps offense, gets hazards up and wears pokemon down for the kill. Alternatively, pick a set of attacking moves that would otherwise weaken counters to your empoleon sweep. Up to you.