ORAS UU Oras UU Absol-utly Offensive

[Spoiled Rotten]

I've been fooling around in OU for a couple months, and have been finding hyper offense to be the playstyle I preform best in. However you can only see so many Drills, Keldeos, Latis, and Clefs before you begin to get a bit bored. Therefore I decided to give UU a try.

So to start off, I decided to try and build a team off a mega I never saw get much love... Mega Absol. I've always thought of Mega Absol as a sort of backwards Mega Sableye, One with much more offensive presence, but also infinitely less bulk. This made me think it would be fun to try on a HO team. With that here is the team.

Near (Absol-Mega) (M) @ Absolite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Play Rough

The selling point for me about Absol is that 150 base attack stat coupled with magic bounce. Magic Bounce, while being used in OU mainly to prevent hazards, is more useful in Absol for preventing will-o-wisp and that yellow magic. It also helps to make sucker punch into less of a guessing game. The only options vs suckerpunch is to recover, attack, or setup. This makes it much less prediction intensive. Knock off on Mega Absol is an absurdly powerful move that also gets rid of a foes item. Play rough is a great coverage move, creating almost perfect neutral coverage with dark stab. Finally swords dance can turn Absol into a sweeper in the few situations it sets up on.

Rias (Infernape) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Mach Punch
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- U-turn

Infernape has gone through quite a few changes on my team. Serving originally as the suicide lead I've used as in ou before, I discovered it is not quite as effective in uu. Or rather, I found it as more effective as an attacker. Furthermore I found I was in much need of more priority than just Abol's sucker punch. This led to the life orb set if currently have with nape. I finally decided to go with a mono physical set, though I've been considering changing flare blitz to overheat. This would get rid of some recoil, however i'm not entirely sure what overheat would hit harder in the tier. Close Combat is a monstrous hit which 2hkoes a large amount of the tier on the switch, especially with spikes up. Mach punch is a priority move which helps alleviate a weakness to things like gatr and other fast set up mons. It also helps against focus sash leads. Finally U-Turn is there to grab momentum.

Alucard (Crobat) @ Sky Plate
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 212 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost/U-Turn
- Defog
- Taunt

Next I did not consider Absol to be as good as a hazard deterrent as sableye, due to its inability to be used as a lead. This meant i needed a good defogger. Also I wanted one that could prevent rocks rather than always having to defog them away. This made Crobat a good pick as it can outspeed almost all of the tier. Sky Plate boosts it's only attack, Brave Bird, which hits like a truck against most of the tier. Defog and Taunt serve as Hazard Control , along with preventing set up by a lot of mons. Finally I've been indecisive about Roost vs. U-Turn. U-Turn helps me grab momentum and helps to form a bit of a core with Infernape, albeit a weak one. Roost however increases its longevity.

Tsumugu (Feraligatr) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Ice Punch

Ah Feraligatr. As I saw a bit of a weakness staring to form in an inability to deal with fire and ground types in the tier, as well as wanting another setup sweeper, I decided to go with the S tier gator we all know and love. Dragon Dance is the boosting move of choice allowing it to outspeed a large portion of the metagame, as well as boosting its already sky high sheer force boosted attacks. Life orb is canceled out by Sheer Force, and the combination of its stab waterfall, and crunch allow it to hit most of the tier neutrally. Finally ice punch helps deal with gligar who previously walled my entire team, and salamence who is a massive threat against my team. It also hits Hydreigon who resists both crunch and waterfall.

Major (Krookodile) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
I also wanted a good revenge killer, and to be honest I liked the idea of a crocagatr team, so I decided to go with Moxie Krook. Earthquake is the destroyer of worlds (literally) stab move that so often ends up sweeping teams that suddenly find themselves grounded. Knock off is a great utility move and strong stab that can often open up a sweep for another member or allow krook to sweep on its own. Pursuit preys upon those cheeky psychic types who think they can switch such as Reuniclus and Slowking (Thankfully it goes before Regenerator). Finally Stone Edge serves to hit those flying types who think they can switch into an EQ.

Minatsuki (Roserade) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Sludge Bomb
- Leaf Storm
- Sleep Powder

By this point I knew I needed a Hazard Setter. I was torn between Roserade and Froslass for the longest time before I realized my weakness to status before Absol mega evolves. That coupled with the everpresent fear of Gastrodon and Swampert, sealed the deal with Roserade. Roserade is my hazard stacker, and also hits extremely hard with sludge bomb and leafstorm. Sleep Power often prevents a sweep, along with allowing it to get up multiple spikes.

And there's the team. I look forward to hearing how my team gets thrashed by so and so, and hope that you will give me some suggestions on how to alleviate said weakness. While I have played with this team over about 20 games, I have not found anything that would be so glaring as to utterly destroy me, however that may also simply be because I started at 1000 on the ladder for UU. I have played the metagame before so please feel free to rip me apart if I have made a massive mistake somewhere.

Finally here is the pastebin for the full team, for those who hate copying and pasting individual mons like I do.
http://pastebin.com/vhe6Wd4W

 

[YABO]

Hey man, couple changes that I would make the team for personal use.

Firstly, I would throw Scarf Hydreigon > Scarf Krookodile. Scarf Krookodile leaves you very vulnerable to opposing Krookodile and opposing Hydreigon. Choice Scarf Hydreigon of your own at least adds a speed tie to the mix provided the opponent is scarfed as well. Hydreigon also works as a ground immunity, making it another good answer to Swampert who is a pain to the team as Roserade doesnt like taking Earthquakes. Next, I would put Stealth Rocks > U-turn on Infernape. Having a team without Rocks is incredibly dangerous, especially on a team so weak to Salamence. With stealth Rock you have a better chance versus Crobat, Mence, Mega Aerodactyl, and many others since they are all big threats to the team. Finally, I would like to see Trick Room Reuniclus > Crobat although this is a more unorthodox change. The reasoning behind this is you don't really need defog and you have can check florges with Roserade so after a bit of whittle, Psyshock punches through. TR Reun actually helps versus a lot of those flying types since it can set up as they attack and have several turns to fire off attacks uninhibited. Those are the extent of the changes I'd make without seriously altering the team structure so I hope these additions help you out :]

Changes:
Scarf Hydreigon > Scarf Krookodile
Stealth Rock > U-turn on Infernape
Trick Room Reuniclus > Crobat

Hydreigon

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- U-turn

Reuniclus

Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

 

[teal6]

Hi Spoiled Rotten,

Love seeing offensive teams, but I think there are some logical changes you can make to beat a larger swathes of teams right away.

First off, you absolutely need Stealth Rock on your team. Hitting everything is much more important than spikes, which are resisted less often (when non-flying, of course). So for this change I'll switch Roserade to Azelf, giving you an SR mon that also is a strong special attacker. While Azelf doesn't have Sleep Powder, offensive teams can sometimes struggle to take advantage of sleep turns with a non-setup mon anyway, as it slows you down a lot to sleep->switch->setup. Rose hits hard, Azelf hits harder and has wider coverage:

Azelf @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt

Scarf Krookodile I think is not very good on the team either. The theory is nice, a fast Moxie mon that you could theoretically steamroll teams with, but both EQ and Knock Off have massive drawbacks when it comes to cleaning games, as you generally can't rely on either to do so provided either a flying, some megas, or fairy mons are still alive. At that point, you don't want to waste your Moxie boosts or momentum by switching, so you'll probably want to use a different mon in this slot. Your team lacks ways to quickly break walls, which is a problem for offensive teams. I like Mamoswine here to give you a little less weakness to fast VoltTurn teams, stopping VS and being able to shard MBeedrill for huge damage before he turns. Additionally, Knock Off deals massive damage to Reuni:

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard

Finally, I'm not a huge fan of your Crobat set, as Defogging your own hazards is suicide on offense. You don't need "hazard deterrent" when playing an offense team, as its generally better to have hazards on both sides of the field than none of them because you'll be hitting faster and harder most of the time. I think you can use a Choice Band set here to get some nifty 2HKOs against some troublesome mons like Cobalion:

Crobat @ Choice Band
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Cross Poison
- Sleep Talk

This way you'll outspeed all other Crobats and can do massive damage. You get a neat momentum core with Bat and Ape, which beat up one anothers counters.

 

[grimAuxiliatrix]

i don't think krookodile has a very solid presence on this team and would definitely agree with yabo's replacement of hydreigon (nice ground immunity, faster, also another special attacker where your team is so physically heavy)
also dumb question but can i ask why you're using blaze over iron fist for ape, especially given mach punch?

 

[Spoiled Rotten]

Hi Auxiliatrix, a couple things. First of all, hyper offensive teams like to go with most of the team attacking on one side of the spectrum. This is usually the physical side, because the special side is completely walled by Blissey in UU, and Chansey in OU. This explains why most of my team is physically heavy. Secondly, Infernape was blaze because I forgot to change it when I changed it from lead ape. Lead ape appreciates blaze more because it runs focus sash, and can get off a hard hit before it goes down. However I forgot to change it to iron fist when I changed the set.

 

[Spoiled Rotten]

Thanks for the rate YABO. I do understand a lot of the changes in terms of making my team less weak to x, y and z, however many times hyper offense doesn't need to worry about a lot of this this, what we do have to worry about is eliminating checks and counters to allow a sweep For example, an opponent will not switch in the same pokemon to take a hit from hydreigon as they would into Feraligatr. This means Hydreigon does nothing to open up a sweep for Feraligatr. Neither does it open up a sweep for Absol, which are the two sweepers on my team. It is due to this that most hyper offensive teams only hit on one side of the physical special split. As a general rule, only a maximum of one and a half mons should ever be the opposite of the rest of your team on hyper offense. For example keldeo in OU is half special. It relies on its special attack stat, however secret sword hits on the physical side. This allows it to weaken the physical walls on the other team to allow for a sweep by the other meembers of my team. Reuniclus is also half special, however switching it for crobat results in a loss of a taunter for my team, and as I am against the Hydreigon change, the loss of my ground immunity.

I'm sorry for my constant references to OU, however it is the tier I am most familiar with.

 

[Spoiled Rotten]

Thanks for the rate teal. I do definitely agree with the stealth rocks change as I know the importance of breaking sashes. I've used Azelf in OU before and to be honest, I had kinda forgotten it was in this tier. One question though... oftentimes I like to run taunt with my Azelfs. Is that necessary in UU or is it better to run moves for coverage?
Now for the second change. I 100% agree with the Mamo switch. It A) Gives me a better chance against salemence, and B) gives me the volt turn counter/check I had in krook. The only question I have is adamant vs. jolly. I've almost always ran jolly on Mamoswine in OU in order to outspeed dragonite. Is the attack drop really worth it not outspeed threats like jolly feraligatr? Also just a note, doesn't lowering the hp IVs to 29 reduce life orb recoil? The page for mamo said so, and I remember seeing it on sets when Mamo was in OU.
For the final change I somewhat agree with the crobat change. I've never really minded defogging my own hazards as I usually can build up enough pressure to get them up again. Especially with sticky web being such a strong threat in the tier I wanted to be able to remove hazards. However, my team is now extremely weak to ammongus with the loss of roserade, so sleep talk band would help, and it does help to form a U-turn core between nape and bat. Therefore I have mixed feelings. Because of this I pose two final questions to you... 1. How prevalent is sticky web in the tier, and 2. How weak is my team to sticky web?

 

[YABO]

Actually, Hydreigon's two primary switch ins are Whimsicott and Florges. Florges takes a ton from Waterfall, letting Hydreigon roll through the opponent later, and Whimsicott getting weakened is supremely beneficial for Feraligatr since that is one of the main ways to deal with Feraligatr on a lot of teams. Another common switch in to Hydreigon, Cobalion, is something else that Feraligatr appreciates weakened since it can normally take a hit and retaliate, killing Feraligatr if the set up wasn't free. In addition, Trick Room Reuniclus is one of the scariest mons on offense due to its ability to attack all types of teams (bar stall really) and it definitely helps Feraligatr by hitting things like Suicune, Umbreon, and Empoleon which can all be problematic to Feraligatr. Reuniclus also attacks Florges, weakening Absol's primary counter. Trust me when I say that I understand Hyper Offense often stacks attackers on the same side of the spectrum to overwhelm walls. In fact it's my favorite playstyle and I use it a ton. That being said, pokemon like Scarf Krookodile are honestly just ineffective in most situations (believe me I've tried) and any good offense team requires stealth rock to break sashes and gain critical damage on your pokemon's checks and counters.

 

[Spoiled Rotten]

Sorry YABO, I didn't mean to take your knowledge of the metagame into question. I've seen you on a lot of the UU threads, and I know you are a respected teambuilder for the UU community, working on the UU thread for teambuilding. As I said most of my knowledge is of the OU metagame, but I should know more about the UU metagame having played it before. I'm too used to teams with latios keldeo, 4 physical threats and I just looked at your suggestions and thought 2 and a half special mons is too much for an HO team. Sorry for any offense I might have caused.

 

[YABO]

Reading that back, my tone was a little bit harsh. I didn't mean to come off as condescending or offended or anything as everyone's opinions/thoughts are just as valid as my own. Forgive my poor wording D: and definitely no offense caused :D