- Qwilfish + Reuniclus
INTRO
The RU suspect test gave me a great chance to test out the floating embryo pokemon Reuniclus and observe how reliable a win condition it is even against prepared teams. I found that Qwilfish partnered really nicely with Reuniclus, spreading paralysis and hazards and whittling down a lot of the Pokemon that cause Reuni trouble. Since Reuniclus's bump up to UU, I thought I'd try and readapt my RU team for the UU meta. I've had some success with the team, going undefeated in a dozen games and getting up to 1300 ELO, but there are definitely some glaring flaws I'm hoping you guys can help me patch up. Feel free to suggest even the most drastic changes, as long as you keep the 2 main mons on the team. Anyway, here's the crew:
THE_TEAM
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TEAM_DEVELOPMENT
The game plan of the team is to cripple/eliminate counters to Calm Mind Reuniclus to allow it to sweep mid to late game. Step 1: Have a CM Reuniclus.
Step 2: Have an early game plan to eliminate Reuniclus counters. Many of the mons that threaten Qwilfish are physical attackers with no means of recovery and/or speedy pokes that don't enjoy paralysis. Enter Rocky Helmet Qwilfish for hazards and momentum stopping. Also makes for a decent lead.
Step 3: More hazards. This is shaping up to be a pretty bulky team that would force a lot of switches, and I want a rocks setter that would work with the team vibe. I decided to enlist the help of the #1 pink blob, SR Blissey, which gets a lot of free turns to get up rocks coming in on predicted special attacks.
Now it's time to fill in the gaps. My team as of now puts very little in the way of immediate offensive pressure out there and has no way of dealing with hazards. Offensive Rapid Spin Mega-Blastoise fits the bill and matches the bulky flavor of the team.
With Blissey occupied setting Rocks, my team needs a cleric, as Qwilf and Stoise lack recovery. I use Wish+Heal Bell Umbreon, which also makes short work of paralyzed mons with SR boosts. [To be honest I think this guy might be the weakest link on the team, but I'm not sure how else to keep Blastoise healthy.]
Last but not least, a dedicated physical wall to round off the team. A cool set that doesn't get enough usage is Taunt+Toxic Gligar, which puts pressure on clerics and also patches up my team's electric weakness.
Onto a more in-depth look:
DETAILED_ANALYSIS
Reuniclus @ Colbur Berry | Magic Guard
Bold Nature (+Def / -Atk) | 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
• Calm Mind
• Psyshock
• Focus Blast
• Recover
Reuniclus's bread and butter set, and without a doubt one of the most dangerous threats in the meta. I opted for Colbur and Focus Blast to beat dark types, since Doublade is dealt with by Blastoise/Gligar. Unfortunately this leaves me with no way of dealing with other Reuniclus with Shadow Ball. Against everything else though, he's basically unstoppable, and once the checks have been dealt with he's free to come in and do his thing. The mitosis pokemon wins me upwards of 75% of my games.
Pros:
• Beats pokes that rely on whittling you down with status
• Lures dark types and kills with Focus Blast
• After one or two turns of setup, can run through teams
Cons:• Walled by Psychics and Doublade
• Not immediately threatening
Qwilfish @ Rocky Helmet | Intimidate
Impish Nature (+Def / -SpA) | 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
• Thunder Wave
• Spikes
• Pain Split
• Waterfall
This pufferfish is easily in my top ten most fun pokemon to play with, with a huge support movepool and a great ability. He fills a unique and underused niche that gives many teams headaches: this guy laughs in the face of U-turners and DDers alike, counters a ton of physical attackers cold, and as a consequence gets a ton of opportunities to set up multiple layers of spikes. Rocky Helmet + Pain Split makes Qwilf a real pain to take down as well as provide a limited mode of recovery. TWave is what separates this Qwilfish set from something like Garbodor. I opted for Waterfall over Scald for the higher damage output and that sweet, sweet paraflinch hax, and even though I didn't manage to fit DBond or Taunt onto the set, the existence of those moves in Qwilfish's movepool often causes my opponent to overpredict. The IVs are just to maximize physical bulk, but if investing in attack nets me any important 3HKOs maybe one of you can enlighten me?
Pros:
• Beats Heracross, Feraligatr, Infernape, Darmanitan, Lucario, and other physical attackers (all Reuni checks)
• Hard to switch in on for fear of TWave
• Reliably sets up layers of hazards in the face of Forretress thanks to Helmet
• Underprevalent in the meta
Cons:
• No reliable recovery
• Bad lead matchup against Galvantula and Azelf, exacerbates the team's electric weakness
• Can't switch in on Krookodile, which can threaten Reuniclus
Blissey @ Leftovers | Natural Cure
Bold (+Def / -Atk) | 252 Def / 252 SpD/ 4 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
• Soft-Boiled
• Toxic
• Stealth Rock
• Seismic Toss
The big egg strikes again. On this team, Blissey supports by doing her usual Toxic/Softboiled thing to wear down anything that's not Banded and setting up rocks on the things she forces out. In my opinion, the given spread is the best for a non-wishpassing Blissey, as the slight drop in physical bulk is outweighed by total special spongitude. Seismic toss is of course obligatory. Not much to say, and not much room to change the set in a way that isn't gimmicky. It might be worth moving SR to Gligar, but then Blissey feels too passive to me on the free turns she gets forcing out special attackers.
Pros:
• Again one of those pokemon that demands them to keep a check to it or get stalled out
• Reliable SR
• Checks non-Refresh+Work Up Pidge
Cons:
• This team doesn't really have an answer to strong Psyshockers, so NP Zelf and CM Espy can cause me trouble
• Begs for physical setup sweepers, banded pokemon to come in
• Gets totally #rekt by LO Hydrei, which my team struggles with
Okay, so these first three pokemon I'm pretty happy with and they seem to do their job perfectly. Past this point, I feel the teambuilding gets less airtight.
Blastoise @ Blastoisinite | Rain Dish
Modest (+SpA / -Atk) | 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
ivs: a / b / c
• Rapid Spin
• Scald
• Dark Pulse
• Ice Beam
Good old MegaStoise takes a dent out of everything, cleans up hazards, basically the only power hitter on the team. I didn't put much thought into the set, just threw on Rapid Spin and three coverage moves. Scald over Water Pulse; the slight drop in power is made up for by the increase in hax. Since my team is so weak to bulky boosting mons, I was considering a more defensive set with Roar. Another option was to switch Blastoise out for Quagsire and put Defog on Gligar. Again though, not too much consideration went into dropping Stoise in the Mega slot, so I'm willing to switch things up.
Pros:
• Beats Krook and other ground mons my team struggles with
• The best pokemon to take a Knock Off (which cripples Glig and Qwilf, the other physically bulky pokes)
• Nice offensive synergy with Reuni
• Uniquely offensive for a spinner
Cons:
• No recovery
• Very slow for my only offensive mon
• Can't switch in to many of the boosting threats my team has trouble with anyways
Umbreon @ Leftovers | Synchronize
Calm (+SpD / -Atk) | 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk
• Wish
• Protect
• Heal Bell
• Foul Play
Umbreon, the dark horse of the Eeveelutions. The original logic behind Umbreon was to have a poke that could take on Work Up Pidge with Foul Play while also dealing with SD Gatr and Mega Obama that have been paralyzed by Qwilfish while also providing a cleric role for the team. It does this okay, but the glaring flaw with Umbreon is its poor defensive synergy with the other specially bulky mon Blissey. This means both are threatened by the same wallbreaking LO Hydreigon set that beats the rest of my team with Draco Meteor. Additionally, since its only way of dealing damage is Foul Play, it fails to deal with many things a dark type should be able to check, such as Taunt Jellicent. I've been thinking of replacing it with something like Florges, but Florges would make my team even more weak to boosting sweepers. Wish I could make room for Baton Pass on Umbreon to help keep some kind of momentum.
Pros:
• Deals with paralyzed SDers nicely
• Best Azelf switch-in from lead Qwilfish, and my only way of dealing with NP Azelf
Cons:
• Doesn't have that many useful defensive resistances and shares weaknesses with Blissey
• Very passive, can't spread status or do damage to many pokes
Gligar @ Eviolite | Immunity
Bold (+Def / -Atk) | 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
• Toxic
• Taunt
• Roost
• Earthquake
This was the last guy added and I think he really glues together the team nicely. Immunity to Electric and Ground makes him a great partner to Qwilfish, and Toxic + Taunt forces out a lot of pokemon with recovery and stops clerics from curing the team of status. It also prevents DDers from boosting to the point that they can overwhelm Gligar. I originally had Taunt Crobat, but I found that Heliolisk got a bunch of free pivots coming in on Qwilfish and Blastoise, and it didn't have the bulk I wanted. One problem here is that Gligar is completely walled by Crobat and faster Taunters with a ground immunity like Aerodactyl and Air Balloon Cobalion. Still, I'm pretty happy with this guy, as it's the best stallbreaker my team has.
Pros:
• Lots of nice immunities and resistances thanks to its typing
• Taunt catches many people off guard (as well as Immunity)
• Beats non-Ice Beam Cresselia, Audino, Thick Fat Curselax and can stall out Salamence, Slurpuff, and other non-water type boosters
Cons:
• For a physical wall, weak to Knock Off
• Completely walled by Crobat and Taunt Mega-Aero
THREATS
The number one threat to my team is LO Hydreigon, which can KO Blissey with Rocks Damage + Draco + Superpower. I basically have to bait out the Draco with risky switches, but even then it can just roost the damage off and switch in later. Other dark types that give me headaches are Krookodile and the rare RestTalk or CM Spiritomb.
My team lacks phazers, so fast boosters give me problems, although Gligar can deal with slow boosting sweepers and Reuniclus can handle everything all Cunes but Rest + Roar + CM Cune. Lum Berry SD Haxorus/Feraligatr/Cobalion can also run through my team if Qwilfish is weakened.
Not sure if I'm missing anything critical. I was once almost 6-0'd by a Sub+NP Chatot though...
IMPORTABLE
Not sure how to do hide tags :( If someone tells me I can paste the team here.
Shoutout to trinitrotoluene for the badass RMT template.
Thanks guys, and tell me what you think!
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ORAS UU Qwilfish + Reuniclus = <3 (First UU RMT)
- Thread starter Clefable
- Start date
I would recommend using Impish over Bold on Gligar, as your using Earthquake as your main attack, so you don't want to negate its damage. I would recommend 60 Speed on Blastoise as this lets you outspeed uninvested base 85s, such as Suicune and Cresselia. I would also recommend running the Reuniclus set below, which is shamelessly taken from the Underrated Sets thread, as it helps you beat opposing Dark-types on the switch-in much easier.
I'm going to also recommend having Thunder Wave over Toxic on Blissey. This allows you to cripple a lot of attackers, especially Azelf, and let's you check Refresh Pidgeot most of the time iirc. I would recommend having Physically defensive over Specially defensive Umbreon, as this lets you check Swords Dance Feraligatr, and helps you deal with other physical attackers better. Physically defensive can take a boosted Dazzling Gleam from Azelf if need be anyhow.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
160 HP / 252 Def / 96 SpA
Bold Nature
-Psyshock
-Focus Blast
-Calm Mind
-Recover
As stated from the thread, EVs allow you to OHKO Hydreigon most of the time, while also letting you do a lot to Snorlax unboosted.
Ability: Magic Guard
160 HP / 252 Def / 96 SpA
Bold Nature
-Psyshock
-Focus Blast
-Calm Mind
-Recover
As stated from the thread, EVs allow you to OHKO Hydreigon most of the time, while also letting you do a lot to Snorlax unboosted.
I'm going to also recommend having Thunder Wave over Toxic on Blissey. This allows you to cripple a lot of attackers, especially Azelf, and let's you check Refresh Pidgeot most of the time iirc. I would recommend having Physically defensive over Specially defensive Umbreon, as this lets you check Swords Dance Feraligatr, and helps you deal with other physical attackers better. Physically defensive can take a boosted Dazzling Gleam from Azelf if need be anyhow.
Thanks, I'll try all of these. I actually do run Impish and copied incorrectly from memory. The Reuni set seems like an improvement, and phys def Umbreon seems like a neat idea. I actually used to run Twave over Toxic, but switched due to slight redundancy with Qwilfish; I'll switch back and see if it's better for Pidge.