ORAS UU Queen Bee & the Beehive

[AD4PT15]

Queen Bee & the Beehive​

Hey guys! Welcome to my first RMT featuring none other than Mega Beedrill. Took me awhile to work up the energy to post my RMT but here it is. After weeks of tweaking and replacements, I can finally say that I feel confident enough with this team to share with the rest of you guys. I don't have the luxury of playing consecutive games to ladder up like a lot of other players here but I did what I could with what time I had. So without further ado, here's the team!

Update Log:

*changed Knock Off on Mega Beedrill to Pursuit.
*changed Salamence from Fatmence to offensive Defog variant.
*replaced Slurpuff with Alakazam.
*re-wrote Florges' summary.
*changes Florges' moveset to CM variant.

Queen Bee (Beedrill) (F) @ Beedrillite
Ability: Swarm
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Protect
- Poison Jab
- Knock Off Pursuit

For my team idea, I generally love a little volt-turning action going whether its fast or slow. In my head, if that was the plan, then why not chose the hardest hitting U-Turn user in the tier in Beedrill? This is your basic Mega Beedrill set: Protect to get off an easy Mega Evolution on faster threats, to scout for coverages moves or to lock an opponent into a move if I suspect it to be Choiced. Poison Jab is there for basic STAB and hits a lot of things that don’t resist or are immune to it hard. And lastly, we have Knock Off. I chose Knock Off over Drill Run because I later chose Pokemon that can provide ground coverage. Plus, who doesn’t hate getting their items knocked off? Pursuit was chosen as the last move for Mega Beedrill as it was pointed that the team is weak to Psychics. Since most Psychic types are more than likely to switch out when facing Mega Beedrill (fearing STAB Adaptability U-Turn), Pursuit trapping punishes the switch out. Kudos to -Magic- for the Pursuit suggestion.

Trap Queen (Magneton) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power Grass

For the second member, I wanted to close out my volt-turn core. I wanted to pick a Pokemon that would offensively gel well with Mega Beedrill and can threaten the Steel and bulky defensive Pokemon that are in the tier. For this reason, I chose Magneton with his deadly Choice Specs set. Magnet Pull is to trap the steel types and KO them so that Mega Beedrill has an easier time spammimg U-Turn or Poison Jab. I opted for Hidden Power Grass over Ice due to the bulky ground/water types like Swampert and Seismetoad who I notice challengers like to switch in on Magneton. If only they knew… Anyways, Volt Switch is there to keep offensive momentum in my favor. Thunderbolt is the main STAB move used in case Volt Switch is the inferior option and Flash Cannon is to spank Florges for super-effective damage and possibly lower its crazy Sp. Def stat a stage… or two.

Mara (Swampert) @ Leftovers
Ability: Damp
Nature: Relaxed
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Atk / 252 Def
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Roar

Now that I got my Volt-Turning combo complete. There were just a few more things I needed (other than four other Pokemon) in order to complete the team. I’ve never put a team together without a stealth rocker so that was the next role I wanted to fill. Ultimately I went with my favorite stealth rocker in UU, Swampert. Not only is he my favorite stealth rocker, but he actually meshes with the team. Remember how I opted out of Drill Run on Mega Beedrill? Well this is the reason. STAB Earthquake from a defensive Swampert still hurts coming from that base 110 attack. He also supports the team by phasing out set up sweepers such SD Coballion, Hone Claws Aerodactyl, DD Salamence and Gyarados and to an extent CM Suicune. Not only that, but he can also threaten those same sweepers (with the exception of Suicune) with a Scald burn hindering their sweep attempt. All in all, Swampert was hands down the easiest Pokemon to pick for this role and for this team.

Lotus (Florges) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 SpD
Calm Nature
- Wish Synthesis
- Moonblast
- Protect Calm Mind
- Aromatherapy

Since I got my physical pivot/wall set, it was time to add my special one. This special wall was a no brainer for me because I needed something that can come in on some of the top threats in UU such as Hydreigon (lacking Iron Tail), Mienshao (lacking Poison Jab) and Mega Absol and DD Salamence (also lacking iron tail). Swampert to an extent can handle the physical threats but can’t really threaten them in return the way Florges can (112 base special attack kids). Now the set is pretty simple, Wish in order to heal herself or other teammates, Moonblast for STAB and like I said, coming off that base 112 special attack, is nothing to laugh at even if you’re neutral to it. Protect is to scout for steel/poison type coverage from the above mentioned Pokemon, lock a choiced Pokemon into a move and to receive a free Wish from herself. Aromatherapy is used in the event any member of the team gets crippled with status as Mega Beedrill and Swampert hate getting burned and Mega Beedrill also hates being paralyzed. Calm nature is used to keep it's bulk on the specially defensive side.

*edit - Switched Florges to her Calm Mind set as I removed my Slurpuff. This left a slot for a set-up sweeper for late game. I actually tested this (again, another suggestion made by this great community) and it helped a lot. I could've easily went for a Bold nature since I had Calm Mind, but not every situation calls for Florges to set-up so I wanted to keep the EV's the same. Syntheses over Wish for immediate recovery. Overall, I'm pleased with this set as it can take on other Florges' 1v1 assuming they are not the CM variant as well.

Big Boi (Salamence) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 236 Def / 24 Spe 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Timid Nature
- Roost
- Dragon Claw Draco Meteor
- Earthquake Fire Blast
- Defog

One of the first big changes to the team was switching Salamence from his typical Fatmence set to a more offensive set. I didn't want to lose my Defog support so this Salamence was a variant suggested to me by -Magic-. Utilizing this offensive set gives my team added offensive pressure while still also preserving Defog support. Roost is to keep Salamence healthy throughout the match, Draco Meteor over Dragon Claw so that Salamence isn't handicapped by burns and Fire Blast over Earthquake for the Steel types that resist Draco Meteor such as Mega Aggron, Forretress and Coballion. And as usual, Defog is there to help Mega Beedrill and Salamence switch in more throughout the match.

Diabeetus (Slurpuff) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Play Rough
- Return
- Drain Punch

Replaced with:

Houdini (Alakazam) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Dazzling Gleam
- Shadow Ball

At the suggestion of viewers, I tested out Alakazam over Slurpuff. I must say, thank you all! Alakazam provided my team with an immediate offensive presence to go alongside Beedrill and Magneton. Alakazam acts as a cleaner, wallbreaker and revenge killer. Due to his frailty, he works well with the Volt-Turn core of Mega Beedrill and Magnezone. Life Orb was chosen to make Alakazam hit as hard as possible. Magic Guard allows Alakazam to become a status absorber as long as the status isn't paralysis. Focus Blast is used to catch those pesky Dark types off guard when they predict a Psychic move (assuming it connects). Dazzling Gleam is another alternative for the Dark types if I'm not feeling so lucky or if Focus Blast isn't necessary for the KO. It is also helpful for Sableye as Alakazam is not phased by Will-O-Wisp. Shadow Ball is mainly for other Psychics such as Reuniclus, Cresselia and Doublade.​

Full Team at a Glance:

​

So there you have it. Overall I haven't faced a certain threat that can totally destroy this team. I have answers to most of the top threats in UU (I believe). Any suggestions are greatly appreciated at this time as I'm still looking to make adjustments to the team as I continue to try and ladder with them.

Replays:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-368207441

Good game overall. In this one, Salamence and Swampert came through big time with two crits that basically opened up the game for me. From there it was a matter of just switching out and making predictions. I pretty much kept it safe the whole match and didn't do anything too out of pocket to secure the win.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-369078505

Another good game from a higher ranked player. I think my only mistake as not curing Florges' Toxic late game but other than that the team worked spectacularly. Blissey was tough to work around as Mega Beedrill was my only true physical attacker. But in the end, we prevailed!

 

[Ramses]

hi, pretty cool team and i respect your use of the mega beedrill + magneton + slurpuff core, pretty fresh

on a whole you've got all your necessities down pack and you handle everything relatively fine, but you've got a big weakness to alakazam, you can revenge kill it with mega beedrill, but it can just keep evading until it's done denting your entire team. an easy fix to this is pursuit > knock off on mega beedrill. pursuit is a really cool move on mega beedrill as it's relatively unexpected since knock off and drill run are ran more often than it. it lets you trap and hit alakazam and subsequently scarf chandelure for pretty heavy damage while giving you a nice method of cheap damage for an easier endgame, which is big when using slurpuff

my second change is for a more specially offensive salamence variant. with defensive swampert on your team, it gives you this freedom, especially with wish support. and an offensive variant allows you to take full advantage of salamence's speed + power to punish teams a LOT harder than the relatively passive defensive variant. as for it's item you could run leftovers for more longevity, life orb for more power overall, or dragon fang to just power up draco meteor. i'd personally go with fang since you're using it for a defogging role. Earthquake shouldn't be missed too much since Fire Blast hits the same array of targets, usually for more damage.

offensive salamence

Salamence @ Leftovers / Life Orb / Dragon Fang
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Defog

again, cool team and i hope these suggestions help!

 

[AD4PT15]

hi, pretty cool team and i respect your use of the mega beedrill + magneton + slurpuff core, pretty fresh

on a whole you've got all your necessities down pack and you handle everything relatively fine, but you've got a big weakness to alakazam, you can revenge kill it with mega beedrill, but it can just keep evading until it's done denting your entire team. an easy fix to this is pursuit > knock off on mega beedrill. pursuit is a really cool move on mega beedrill as it's relatively unexpected since knock off and drill run are ran more often than it. it lets you trap and hit alakazam and subsequently scarf chandelure for pretty heavy damage while giving you a nice method of cheap damage for an easier endgame, which is big when using slurpuff

my second change is for a more specially offensive salamence variant. with defensive swampert on your team, it gives you this freedom, especially with wish support. and an offensive variant allows you to take full advantage of salamence's speed + power to punish teams a LOT harder than the relatively passive defensive variant. as for it's item you could run leftovers for more longevity, life orb for more power overall, or dragon fang to just power up draco meteor. i'd personally go with fang since you're using it for a defogging role. Earthquake shouldn't be missed too much since Fire Blast hits the same array of targets, usually for more damage.

offensive salamence

Salamence @ Leftovers / Life Orb / Dragon Fang
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Defog

again, cool team and i hope these suggestions help!

Hey, I used your suggestions and they helped in the match I posted. Will continue to test the team out before I transfer them to my main account and ladder with it. Thanks again!

 

[Shiba]

Hey man cool looking team! Just got a couple of quick suggestions that would really help this team out

• So first off, a problem that I found was that team was really susceptible to things like DD Salamence (most carry Iron Tail now), CurseLax and SD Cobalion. Sure Swampert is there, but I wouldn't call it a guaranteed check to those kinds of set-up sweepers. That's why I'd like to recommend Doublade over Slurpuff, which really helps against most of the weaknesses. This is the set I'd recommend, it's basically a standard set, except I personally prefer Gyro Ball for Dragon Dancers such as Mence and Gyara.
  
  
  
  Doublade @ Eviolite
  Ability: No Guard
  EVs: 240 HP / 236 Atk / 32 Def
  Brave Nature
  IVs: 0 Spe
  - Shadow Sneak
  - Sacred Sword
  - Gyro Ball
  - Swords Dance
  
  
• Next, that frees up a slot for a set up sweeper, that's why I'd like to recommend Calm Mind Florges over the current set, I get that healing teammates is nice, but I feel that CM Florges would be a great addition to this team, being that it has no dedicated sweeper now that Slurpuff is gone.
  
  
  
  Florges @ Leftovers
  Ability: Flower Veil
  EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
  Bold Nature
  IVs: 0 Atk
  - Calm Mind
  - Synthesis
  - Aromatherapy
  - Moonblast
  
  
• Lastly, I think -Magic-'s suggestion of offensive Defog Salamence could be implemented, as it gives you a pretty nice defogger as well as an extra offensive presence. But it's purely optional!

Other than those changes, solid team and good luck! :]

 

[Christo]

Hey AD4PT15, really like the team you have here! I just have a few suggestions that I believe will overall better the team.

To start, your team is definitely quite weak to Psychic types, Alakazam in particular. Due to that, I agree with user -Magic- that Pursuit > Knock Off is your best option. Alakazam will more often than not switch vs a Beedrill assuming it is LO, so Pursuit is safe. the lack of Drill Run is honestly quite problematic with how common SD Cobalion is, but I think the rest of your team can handle it so you do not get completely swept.

My next suggestion is to change Florges to Calm Mind > Wish because your team lacks a bulky win condition as well as nothing on your team honestly needing a Wish passed to them. As opposed to Shiba, I think an EV spread of 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spdef with a Calm Nature is more optimal to better take special attacks from the likes of Mega Sceptile, for example. With that spread you should still be able to switch into Fighting type attacks, and if you cannot for w/e reason, you have Salamence there as well.

Set:
Florges (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Synthesis
- Aromatherapy

My final suggestion is to use Life Orb Alakazam > Slurpuff. With Florges on the team, the use of 2 fairy pokemon is quite awkward. I would find Alakazam particularly useful to outspeed and OHKO Cobalion, which would otherwise be really threatening to your team. Your team also lacked speed outside of Beedrill so Alakazam works great in that regard.

Set:
Alakazam @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Dazzling Gleam
- Calm Mind

I added Calm Mind as the forth move just to you can better handle stall teams, but feel free to use anything else that you might want. One pokemon to look out for is LO Mamoswine, since the team has trouble taking hits from it. Other than that tho, the team looks solid. Good luck!

 

[AD4PT15]

I appreciate all the feedback you guys. I've made some changes so far to the team. I will be testing out other suggestions today and will report back soon!

 

[AD4PT15]

Hey guys so I uploaded a new replay with the current team. Feel free to check it out and provide any feedback. Thanks!

 

[Found True Love]

I really like the changes that were already made to this team, since in the original version Florges was a big momentum killer and now it isn't and Slurpuff is kind of meh for this team in general (the Salamence change is also a big plus in my view, since max special atk mence punishes common hazard setters in a way defensive mence doesn't and is generally an excellent defoger for offense.)

However, there's still a couple small changes I think could be made to make the team even better.

1). Magnet Pull -> Analytic on Magneton. Your set... can't touch steels. Why do you have Magnet Pull? xd Analytic will take maximum advantage of your status as a relatively slow Volt Switcher and your ability to force switches.

2). Leftovers -> Life Orb on Salamence. Straightforward. You have Roost and most of the hazard setters you're switching in on can barely touch you anyways so keeping Mence healthy throughout the battle isn't much of an issue, especially since you're running offense. Power boost from LO is much nicer.

3). Fire Blast -> Flamethrower on Salamence. The power differential only matters for a handful of potential KOs that could theoretically happen in rare situations and doesn't outweigh the crappy accuracy IMO, especially since fire coverage is mainly useful for punishing common hazard setters in the tier (like Chesnaught, Forretress, Roserade, ect.) and for these Pokemon the power differential really doesn't matter as much as consistently landing your attacks.

4). Dazzling Gleam -> Energy Ball on Alakazam. Energy Ball is just better coverage for your team in general. You have a Florges so you're not really weak to dark or dragon types at all. The only dark or dragon type you're really threatened by is Crawdaunt which would be hit equally hard by Energy Ball.

Hope this helped! Happy battling!

 

[AD4PT15]

I really like the changes that were already made to this team, since in the original version Florges was a big momentum killer and now it isn't and Slurpuff is kind of meh for this team in general (the Salamence change is also a big plus in my view, since max special atk mence punishes common hazard setters in a way defensive mence doesn't and is generally an excellent defoger for offense.)

However, there's still a couple small changes I think could be made to make the team even better.

1). Magnet Pull -> Analytic on Magneton. Your set... can't touch steels. Why do you have Magnet Pull? xd Analytic will take maximum advantage of your status as a relatively slow Volt Switcher and your ability to force switches.

2). Leftovers -> Life Orb on Salamence. Straightforward. You have Roost and most of the hazard setters you're switching in on can barely touch you anyways so keeping Mence healthy throughout the battle isn't much of an issue, especially since you're running offense. Power boost from LO is much nicer.

3). Fire Blast -> Flamethrower on Salamence. The power differential only matters for a handful of potential KOs that could theoretically happen in rare situations and doesn't outweigh the crappy accuracy IMO, especially since fire coverage is mainly useful for punishing common hazard setters in the tier (like Chesnaught, Forretress, Roserade, ect.) and for these Pokemon the power differential really doesn't matter as much as consistently landing your attacks.

4). Dazzling Gleam -> Energy Ball on Alakazam. Energy Ball is just better coverage for your team in general. You have a Florges so you're not really weak to dark or dragon types at all. The only dark or dragon type you're really threatened by is Crawdaunt which would be hit equally hard by Energy Ball.

Hope this helped! Happy battling!

Thank you! I quickly added your suggestions but have to yet to utilize them. However, I came across a Blissey who actually scared me because my whole team is basically specially based. So I'm considering using Psyshock over Psychic on Alakazam.

Any thoughts?

 

[Found True Love]

Thank you! I quickly added your suggestions but have to yet to utilize them. However, I came across a Blissey who actually scared me because my whole team is basically specially based. So I'm considering using Psyshock over Psychic on Alakazam.

Any thoughts?

I didn't even notice that it had Psychic, but yes, you should definitely 100% run Psyshock instead. Alakazam should always run Psyshock.

 

[Found True Love]

By the way, I'd like to expand on something because I realized I didn't explain myself very well after Christo challenged me on what I said (shoutout to him, he helped me order my thoughts by arguing the point with me.)

The reason I suggested changing Magneton from Magnet Pull to Analytic isn't because you *can't* hit steels, that was wrong of me to say. You can hit *most* steels relatively hard. It's more that your team doesn't benefit nearly as much from trapping these steels as it will from Analytic, at least IMO.

Let me explain.

What is the benefit in trapping and removing steel types to your team? Well, steel types are problematic for Beedrill-Mega and Florges, so trapping your opponent's steel type(s) may open the door for them to sweep... or not, depending on what their other Pokémon are. And also maybe not depending on what their steel types are, because certain steels, like Steelix-Mega can't be touched by your Magneton. Still, even if it just eliminates some steels, that's useful, right?

So how will you do this with Magnet Pull Magneton? Lets say you bring in Beedrill-Mega. -> They switch into their Aggron-Mega (for example) to take the hit -> you predict successfully and U-Turn out on the switch -> go to Magneton. Trapped. Great! You can now kill it. Your opponent *does* get a free switch after it dies which kills your momentum and gives it to them. Nonetheless, you've eliminated a big threat. That's the benefit of Magnet Pull.

Now how will Analytic Magneton deal with the same situation? You have Beedrill-Mega on the field. -> They switch into their Aggron-Mega to take the hit -> you predict successfully and U-Turn out on the switch -> go to Magneton. -> they switch out -> you get the analytic boosted Volt Switch damage doing a heck of a lot to whatever comes in -> you go back to Beedrill-Mega and U-Turn. -> They have to bring back in Aggron-Mega to take the hit -> you go back into Magneton. The cycle repeats. You've trapped your opponent in a VoltTurn cycle. What breaks the VoltTurn cycle? Something dying.

Except if you get a kill with either Volt Switch or U-Turn you get the initiative to go in to whatever can safely counter whatever they want to go in to keeping momentum on your side (note that if your opponent has a ground type, which most will obviously, there's the intermediary step of killing it with either Analytic-boosted Flash Cannon or HP Grass when it tries to come in on the Volt Switch before you can begin this sort of cycle.)

This is VoltTurn offense in a nutshell.

What this means is that even without Magnet Pull steels are *not* a problem for your team despite them walling Beedrill-Mega. They are *bait* for Magneton. Every time they want to try to come in on Beedrill-Mega instead of looking at that as a chance to use Magneton to specifically kill that steel type to make way for a Beedrill-Mega sweep (as in the original version of this team) you should instead see it as Magneton getting a free chance to hammer the rest of their team. And not just once. You can constantly go into Beedrill-Mega and constantly force them to bring out their steel type and constantly Magneton will be getting kills and firing off these hugely powerful attacks.

AND Analytic Magneton will be useful in a wide variety of situations not involving steel types. Magneton is a slow VoltSwitcher. You will get the boost from Analytic constantly. Every time your opponent has to switch out or outspeeds you get the Analytic boost. Magnet Pull does nothing for you in either of those situations, and both of those situations happen all the time.

So in conclusion, using a Magnet Pull Magneton on this team is, in my opinion, incredibly narrow and not taking full advantage of Magneton's potential here. Magnet Pull Magneton can deal with a few specific, rare steel type walls. Analytic Magneton is a constant power boost in a wide variety of situations AND does not in fact make you even a tiny bit weaker to those bulky steel type walls anyways! It simply punishes the opponent in a different way for switching their bulky steels in.

Simply put, I think this is the perfect team to abuse Analytic Magneton and I don't see any downside to using it over Magnet Pull.

(And yes, I know you said you made the change. :P I just wanted to explain my logic a little more clearly.)