Pseudo-Stall UU RMT

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Pseudo-Stall UU RMT Peak 1608 (Won PT UU #1)

This is my current team which I have used to peak at #8 on the UU leaderboards and win the first UU Smogon Tour this season.

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Froslass @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Cloak
Timid (+ Spd, - Atk)
EVS: 252 Sp Atk/ 252 Spd/4 HP
- Shadow Ball
- Spikes
- Destiny Bond
- Taunt

The quintessential lead of UU, helps me set up some spikes, prevent other people from getting rocks up and occasionally allows me to kill stuff. Shadow ball is pretty much used to kill enemy froslasses and destiny bond is there to play mind games with your opponent. Taunt is there to stop people from statusing froslass or using secondary effects to stop your destiny bond.

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Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Ability: Overgrow
Calm (+ SDef, - Atk)
EVs: 252 HP/252 SDef/4 Def
- Sleep Powder
- Sludge Bomb
- Energy Ball/Grass Knot
- Synthesis

Venusaur, with max hp and max sp def, this thing is my anti-bulky water and shaymin counter. Can be used to sleep counters or pokes that threaten the team, meanwhile offering some nice attack moves. He's also used to absorb toxic spikes. My go-to guy to stop special attackers when it is raining. Sludge bomb 2hkos most shaymin and does decent damage and provides a powerful stab move. Energy ball is used to hit bulky waters and can usually 2hko slowbro.

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Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Rock Head
Relaxed (+Def, -Spd)
EVs: 252 hp/ 120 Atk/ 138 SDef
- Roar
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Steelix is my Normal/Flying resist, he's using gyro ball because stone-edge is too unreliable and can't hit froslass in hail. Meanwhile gyro ball can hit up to 50% on incoming Shaymin and around 60% to Crobats. Roar is there to force switches and pseudo-phaze. Earthquake is there to hit electric types and fire types like Raikou. He's also my main Raikou counter, though he does not like getting hit by HP ground or fire.

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Mismagius @Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Timid (+ Spd, - Atk)
EVs: 252 Spd, 180 SAtk, 78 HP
- Substitute
- HP Fighting
- Shadow Ball
- Calm Mind

Mismagius is my late game sweeper/ Rapid Spin blocker. HP Fighting and Shadow Ball provides great coverage and also allows me to stop wall breakers from killing my team. At 105 base speed, Mismagius is usually my fastest pokemon near the end of the game. Can come up on pretty much any walls that use Special attacks or Clefable and set up.

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Slowbro @Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
Bold: (+Def, - Atk)
EVs: 212 HP/ 252 Def/ 44 SpAtk
- Slack Off
- Psychic
- Surf
- Calm Mind

Slowbro, how I love thee, is the shit. Slowbro pretty much laughs at everything that's adamant and sends them packing. Psychic is there to hit water types and incoming shaymin, while Surf is there to provide a little more umph and scare off fire types. Calm Mind explains itself, as I don't like using thunder wave on slowbro. Slowbro is used for pretty much anything regarding attackers. He can wall most offensive threats in the metagame and can sweep late game.

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Honchkrow @Life Orb
Ability: Insomnia
Adamant (+Atk, -SAtk)
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 HP
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Drill Peck

This is my favorite poke in UU hands down. Packing the strongest pursuit in UU, bar Absol, immunity to ground, psychic, and sleep, this thing punishes choice users that have picked the wrong move. My switch in to lead CSrades, come in on the sleep powder, and then punish them for using such an annoying pokemon. Sucker Punch can stop most sweeps, Superpower pounds Honchkrow's counters to dust, and Drill Peck provides you with powerful STAB move to wipe out slower enemies.
 
Pretty solid team Blue Light. And congradulations on winning the annual Smogon UU Tour

My question to you is; How long does froslass usually survive? Does it usually survive long enough to get most of the spikes down?

I like your EVs on Steelix and im pretty sure they would help you survive an hp ground/fire from Raikou provided you dont come in on it and it doesnt have a CM in.

Pursuing scarf Rozerades who use sleep powder is probably the funniest thing on this team. I saw you do that at least twice during the Tour. It works like a charm because there are so many Rozy leads nowadays. And a good percentage of them are scarf and can't wait to sleep someone.

Mismagus is a serious threat here. It can hit basically everything for neutral damage with Hp fighting and shadowball. Its slightly bulky because after a calm mind or so your special attack/defense is already going to be high. So the 78 HP EVs help with her defense. Not to mention shes pretty darn fast like a sweeper should be. I can only imagine how many times this things saved your ass.

I guess the only thing you really need now is a spinner. But as you've told me before "where would i put it!?!" I dont know man. Only 2 of your pokes are heavily damaged by stealth rocks. But i can see 3 layers of spikes becoming a problem.

Your teams cool because it has none of the pokes that people are complaining about on it. And its still completely viable.

A major threat I do see to your team is nUU offender CMSubRaikou with Hp fire. That could potentially ruin your entire team especially if Steelix is down.
 
All i can say, is that i never lost to you before, b€ut i have lost the last three in a row to you because i keep falling for your Roserade trick, and this team is really alot better than i remember seeing(i think you once used a Uxie Lead?). I usually remember people's teams but i didnt remember yours for some reason.

Venusaur is seriously annoying because you can never remember if its a leech seed or Synthesis. Its also really tough to bring down as well without using a Blaziken or something, which your Team Handles very very well.

Slowbro coming out AFTER my Blaziken has been out for a while, really made me frusterated, i didnt know what to do after burning him out on other pokemon.

The main reason why this team is really good though, is because it has none of the "big threats" in it. SO many people have Counters for Raikou, they forget about Missy. People are so scared of Staraptor, they forget about Honchkrow. This team really shows up the Standard teams using the big threats, with showing people they need to counter the other pokemon to.
 
This comes across as one of those teams that is succesful, and doesn't need too much doing to it, I especially wouldn't want to change any of the mons around, I'd be worried about upseting the balance of this team, that has obviously been very succesful.

Froslass looks cool, its pretty much the standard set, but I like the way that you are running Shadow Ball over Ice Beam, most Crobat's (I know I do) tend not to Taunt, but to simply U-Turn out on the expected Ice Beam, so having something for other Froslass is probably reccomended. I think Energy Ball gives you better damage output overall on Venusaur in UU, but when you consider a lot of the things you want to hit with it, most notably Milotic, Grass Knot is the way to go, personally, I'd pick Grass Knot.

The only problems that I can forsee with this team is a slight Raikou weakness, Sub CM Raikou can set up on Venusaur and then assuming it has a Hidden Power that is super-effective on Steelix, you are pretty much done. You can get around this by predicting well with Venusaur and Honchkrow, and Steelix is a "check," but it's not a great defence you have there. Have you considered running Registeel over Steelix, it can run the same moveset as your Steelix, but unfortunately you would lose Roar. The moveset Stealth Rock / Iron Head / Earthquake / Status move, generally works quite well, so I think it might be worth testing, but like I said before I'm tentative to suggest it because Roar is pretty useful for you and like I said, I don't want to upset the synergy in this team. Just something to keep in mind I guess.

That is all lol unless there are any specific problems you have been having that you would like to point out ^_^ Oh, and congratulations.
 
Thanks for all the comments so far.

Regarding your question 7ay about Froslass's survivability, it really depends on what lead the opponent has and what the rest of his team has in general. If we start out and I find Froslass in an unfavorable advantage I might switch him out and save his sash for another time. However, if I see that the opponent is about spike or stealth rock, then I'm pretty much forced to switch over to Froslass again to not waste the sash. Answering your question, Froslass is a suicide lead that can usually net me about 2 layers of spikes unless the opponent has ambipom w/ pursuit as a lead, but sometimes he can survive around mid game and help me stop sweeps.

As for Imran, yes I have tried Registeel, but he never really seems to do much on my team. I personally like using Steelix because he can come in on Registeel and pretty much wall him (taking only around 20% damage from earthquakes). The STAB earthquakes and electric immunity is probably my main reason as to why I like Steelix. While yes Registeel is better all-around in terms of defense. His defense needs some ev investment, and while he does have godly Sp Def he's still can't do anything to things that he can come in on and that plus the lack of recovery makes him a poor choice imo. As for him dealing with Raikou, I don't know if EQ is a 2hko or not, and how much he likes taking STABed thunderbolts, but I'll do some calculations and get back to you on that.

As for specific problems, this team does have great deal of them. Special Fire sweepers like Houndoom, Moltres, Ninetales, Magmortar, and Blaziken can have a field day on this team. The only thing I can really do is try to get the revenge kill. Also Moltres and Articuno are pretty much too much to handle when they're using their stalling set, since my best sp def poke is venusaur, who while is immune to their toxic can't take too many ice beams or flamethrowers. Meanwhile none of my pokes can really ohko them, since I lack any rock attacks. It's really quite a beezy. I have tried a sp def hariyama over honchkrow to try to stop them, but then it just leaves me even more open to pokes like torterra and the lack of a priority attack user hurts. As mentioned before Raikou is also indeed a big problem if he has a hidden power that is super effective against steelix, but I can usually work around that with prediction. And most Raikous fail to 2hko steelix with super effective hidden powers.
 
Looks like a wicked sturdy team overall.

Ever had problems with heavy status use? Nothing on your team can switch into a Burn, and the other statuses are only blocked by one poke each. With a little paralysis support something like Gallade (haha, banned) or Pinsir rampages through your team. (Both can slaughter your two Def-heavy pokes no problem.)

Oh, and CB Staraptor has something to take out every member of your team, though with smart switching and SR I guess it's not a problem. In the same vein, Swellow with QA rapes if you lose Steelix and then mispredict with Sucker Punch.

I can see why you want Clefable banned! No one on your team sans Honchkrow can scratch it, and Honchkrow doesn't like switching into paralysis either.

How does Synthesis work for you? It's hampered by rain and hail, and has poor pp. I would use Leech Seed before Synthesis.
 
if you're having trouble with special fire sweepers, and stalltres, you could run a restalk milotic with some special defensive investment, it can take boosted fire attacks better than slowbro and can still physical tank with its decent defense, resttalk can actually physical tank better than slowbro due to marvel scale
 
This is a really solid team, and my nitpicks can be disreguarded at your hearts content, but you know I'm going to make them anyway.

You're biggest problem right now I'd say is a team that uses CB staraptor in conjuction with cm raikou. (which is a lot of teams) CB staraptor can most likely catch your steelix on the switch with close combat, opening you wide for raikou to sweep you. It can dent everything on your team with cmed thunderbolt and hp. ice and once behind a sub, you will be hard pressed to get to it. Your best bet for this is just prediction really. You have to be aware that steelix is the lynchpin of your team and that without him, a raikou sweep is a real possiblity. Make sure you scout staraptor and make sure you're not swaping steelix into a fatal close combat and you should be fine.

Like I said minor nitpick, but it's a solid team so I just want to help out where I can.

-chaos 9
 
Thanks for all the responses everybody.

Steinhauser, regarding your question on status, I usually allow either slowbro or venusaur to take incoming will-o-wisps or steelix for t-waves. Will-o-wisp can sometimes even help because because I rather get burned than get hit by a crippling toxic or twave.

I really like the idea of using restalk milotic, I've actually considered it, but I've never tried it because I liked the fighting resist that slowbro provided. I'll probably try it in a couple matches and see, but I like slowbro a lot.

As for concerns of CB staraptor, I don't really have a problem with raptor, I just find him very annoying because of his u-turns and intimidates. However, your concerns are valid, but theres nothing I can really switch out since staraptor has such little counters. I have already tried Rotom or Mismagius, but he still takes too much damage from Brave Bird to be an effective counter.

The good thing about this team though is that its utilizing fairly unstandard pokes, that probably won't go to BL, meanwhile the problems that it has are pretty much cleared after the bans. I really can't wait to use this team after many of the suspected threats in UU vanish (eg Staraptor, Raikou, Gallade)
 
A couple things, One Fighting resist should be fine, and you have a Bulky one at that, just beware of mixed sweepers. Milotic should be fine especially with its Marvel Scale during Rest.

And this may sound wierd, but your team will likely not do any better when Raikou/Gallade/Staraptor are gone. People's teams will change to Counter Missy instead of Raikou, and other pokemon instead of Gallade, Honchkrow instead of Staraptor. So I dont beleive the bans will help much, if at all.
 
Just noticed whilst reading through that Slowbro's ev's add to 512, so I'm not sure where the extra ones are just thought I'd let you know, otherwise awesome team.
 
HeYsUp said:
A couple things, One Fighting resist should be fine, and you have a Bulky one at that, just beware of mixed sweepers. Milotic should be fine especially with its Marvel Scale during Rest.

And this may sound wierd, but your team will likely not do any better when Raikou/Gallade/Staraptor are gone. People's teams will change to Counter Missy instead of Raikou, and other pokemon instead of Gallade, Honchkrow instead of Staraptor. So I dont beleive the bans will help much, if at all.
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Where did you get Milotic from? Never mind i don't care.

Ok. First of all. The Demon238 Team has 2 resistances to fighting. And 2 immunities to fighting.

Second of all. If Demons238 Team is threatened by certain pokemon. And those certain pokemon are taken out of that certain metagame. Then logic tells us that there would be less getting in Demon's Teams' way. So i disagree with you there. Obviously.

Are you intoxicated?
 
First, if you are going to flame, take it to PMs no need to muck up his RMT.

Secondly, read the post again.

Thirdly, after you understand my post, then try again. Ill help, what my point is: Teams are going to Adapt to the new change, if Staraptor Goes, people will start using Honchkrow counters. Once Raikou goes, people will stop using Raikou counters and use Missy counters. Teams will be overall alot more prepared for a team like this. This doesnt make it any worse, but it doesnt mean its going to be easier once the bans come out. Basically, i dont think its legitimately correct to say that a team will be better once a ban comes out.
 
I understand where both of you are coming from. What I was trying to say is that once some of the more offensive threats of nUU are banned my team will be a lot more consistent since I won't be threatened as much by certain sweepers. However, Heysup does make a good point in that Honckrow and Missy counters will begin to have more popularity. Unfortunately Heysup, is that my team is all about wearing down the opponent using entry hazards and walling them with my 3 defensive pokes. Honchkrow and Missy, while they can help me sweep if needed, are mainly there to stop slower sweeper pokes(that lack priority moves) from completely dismantling my team and blocking rapid spin. Also, many people have Missy counters in Registeel and spiritomb, but I have managed to work through them anyway, simply because of how my team operates. Meanwhile Honchkrow doesn't really have a solid counter besides maybe a highly defensive regirock, because superpower on the switch pretty much slaps any flying resist into pieces.
 
Congrats on winning the first tour.

For one thing, I fail to see how you handle hail at all, especially hail teams that rely heavily on Substitute (like mine haha). Abomasnow, Walrein, and Froslass can all sit behind Sub's and fire Blizzards at your team with relative ease; Walrein in particular seems like a major problem, especially if it Toxics Slowbro. Seems your walls in general are weak to stall-heavy hail.

I dunno how much you will like this suggestion, but RestTalk Milotic seems perfect over Slowbro. You lose out on a possible stat-upper in Slowbro, but Milotic takes hits almost as well physically when you factor in Marvel Scale, and Special hits significantly better. This also allows you to have a solid status-absorber in a metagame where Toxic and Will-O-Wisp are spammed. In terms of attacks, you can mix and match to your liking. I always prefer Surf and HP Electric to hit stuff that Milotic is suppose to wall, namely Feraligatr and Fire types.

You did manage to win the tour though where Hail was probably abundant, but I feel with the one Pokemon change, you have an extremely solid defensive core that allows the setup of Mismagius (and the constant passive SR damage).
 
ToF, you're right, my team is extremely weak against Hail teams, in the tour I was lucky to have only played one hail team (which so happened to be the finals). I pretty much only won because the opponent had a mismagius weak and did not run encore on his/her clefable. Prior to that stabed 100% Blizzards had already wiped out half of my team as I really have no defense against it. Like I said, I will begin testing restalk milotic, though I'm kind of sad to see CB blaiken doing 75-80% damage with superpower on regular milotic without marvel scale activated. However, I will try to remove as much bias as I can from this test. I will be using hidden power electric so Feraligatr and Azumarril can't set up and Modest nature to break 252hp articuno's sub 100% of the time w/ surf.

KingFresh, if you didn't get DQed and knocked me out of the tourny then I never would have made it to finals :[.
 
Im fairly sure CB Blaziken OHKOS the standard Milotic with Superpower.

EDIT: @Twist of Fate-
Oh i know trust me, it handled mine fine for the most part, i was just saying if it changed to Milotic that Blaziken's SP is a OHKO.
 
Blaziken, as with other threats such as Staraptor, require some degree of prediction to beat when choiced. With the combination of Milotic, Venusaur, and Mismagius, this team can handle Blaziken. I think he needs the Hail insurance before its banned because of both the popularity of it as well as the threat it poses to the team. Surf/Ice Beam cover hail particularly well in general, and with RestTalk, not even Stallrein is winning.
 
demon238 said:
ToF, you're right, my team is extremely weak against Hail teams, in the tour I was lucky to have only played one hail team (which so happened to be the finals). I pretty much only won because the opponent had a mismagius weak and did not run encore on his/her clefable.
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Wow you are extremely lucky.
I was watching the match thinking you were absolutely fucked. But then i saw that knock off did not break the sub that was when i started to doubt my previous hypothesis. Anyway...

Obviously one could suggest the standard clefable for this problem over venasaur but once again with succesful infact very succesful teams this would throw the whole team out im sure. Im not so keen on rest talk milotic though as i steel feel this throws you wide open to abamosnow with leech seed sub grass knot who will destroy this.

I dont really have a suggestion but i still think you should take above into account tbh as long as honckrow gets a good go at the hail stall team it could be game over particularly coupled with the mismagius threat.

Very good team the venasaur slowbro combo is what really make this team very exciting and this team really benefits from it. Good luck.
 
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