Rampage
Introduction
Hello hello. I've written a million RMTs at this point and I usually drop a novel worth of rambling in this section. This time I feel like I have less to say than usual but we'll see. Anyway, I'd say I've been in a weird spot with ORAS UU for a year-ish now. I will be the first to tell you it is legitimately a very good tier right now. With that said, I have been playing the tier so long at this point that I've had a decent spell of feeling uninspired. This isn't anything new really. My interest wanes a bit, I play a tournament or two and come up with some new stuff, the idea well runs dry, and we repeat the process. I am very familiar with it at this point. However, this time feels a little unique. Basically ever since the Slurpuff ban in early 2023, the tier has been incredibly balanced. Nothing is remotely close to broken, as even some top mons like Mega Aerodactyl and formerly Mienshao have fallen back down to earth in recent times. One could argue that the tier is centralized, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. Conk meta was the most centralized and constrained tier I've ever tried to build in consistently. The problem there is that there was no creativity or room to truly experiment beyond what had been already established. Conk itself was so oppressive that a very large amount of the teams we're running now would not have any shot at being consistent in the old metagame. There is a difference between being centralized and being over-centralized. As some may know, I've played more and more ADV OU over the years. Again, a very centralized tier, but it is almost universally agreed to be a great metagame. If anything, the centralization to some degree reduces the amount of variance and makes it easier to be consistent in the builder or in game. Introduction
So yeah, I think that applies pretty well to current ORAS UU too. However, there is still more than enough room to be creative with team styles, as shown by some more out-there builders like dingbat and killintime. With that said, a big part of my approach in this game is maximizing my amount of playable matchups. This naturally implies prioritizing consistency over high ceiling and low floor matchups. That will always be a debate among players on this website, especially in best of 1 settings. There is no correct answer, but yeah that's just how I see things. I have built a ton of ORAS UU teams since 2023. Since then, it has felt more and more like straying from the established and proven team structures is suboptimal a lot of the time. This is expected in a metagame as developed and balanced as this one, so I'm not exactly surprised or bitching about it. The effect has been more so that I've had less fun trying to explore the tier. For a dumb example, I really tried to explore making Espeon work this UUPL since it has a unique set of traits and could have potential. I tried some stuff, it felt like I had to make a ton of plays to even keep up, then we used Mega Swampert Good Stuff instead. That's what a lot of my prep in recent times has felt like it's boiled down to, and frankly it's been getting kind of boring as someone who used to be so into trying something new every week.
Part of it has been me being much much busier than I was in the old days. This was easily the least I've experimented in a UUPL in the last fookin 10 years. A lot of weeks I just didn't have the time to sit down for hours and come up with something brand new from scratch, let alone test it, tweak it, and go from there. That makes me kinda sad but it was bound to happen eventually. With that said, of course my semester ended 2 days after our season ended so I'll have a good amount more time in the next few months to do things like write this shit. ANYWAY, I've rambled way more than I ever expected already. The point of all this context is to say in my opinion, Mega Swampert Good Stuff feels so much better than the rest of the tier on a regular basis. It is so easy to stack consistent progress makers on these frameworks and see things die. ORAS used to be incredibly fat balance heavy when Conk was around, but in recent years it has turned much more heavily toward bulky offense and making consistent progress. Mega Swampert enables this better than any mon around, and I believe it is the best Mega in the tier right now by a mile.
With this team specifically, it actually came to be because of these exact sentiments. I was in ORASPL finals tiebreak against umbry, another obviously very good ORAS player and I wanted to give myself the best chance possible. We had already played twice in that tour, and by the third time, prep mind games were in full working order. I was definitely starting to run out of ideas, and you know, the timing of that wasn't great considering where we were in the tour. I think it was literally the day before the game and right before I went out for the night that I decided to quote "stack strong guys and be consistent". That sums up a lot of my mentality with the tier the last few years, and I feel as though this team could be the best example. I believe it is one of the best and most consistent teams I've ever come up with, not that it is anything truly groundbreaking. With that said, I've only made one RMT since the Conk ban in 2021, and this one felt like a natural successor to Mandiqueen Rose in terms of encapsulating where the metagame has gone since those times. I don't necessarily like handing out some of my best teams, but I'm not sure what my future holds with the tier and this team did feel exceptional compared to a lot of the others I'd been spamming. Pretty much every game I've used it or seen someone else use it has felt winnable at worst or overwhelmingly favorable at best, which yeah sums up what I go for in the builder a lot of the time.
In-Depth
Swampert-Mega @ Swampertite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
Overview - My feelings toward this mon have changed a lot over the years. When I first started playing tournaments and establishing myself on the scene, it was during Conk meta where as I touched on, things were much more constrained and there was only so much to do in the builder. Building ORAS UU was more of a checklist than a creative exercise. This led me to trying to obtain a good matchup versus every relevant top meta threat with every team. in late 2016, Entei was even considered S rank given how much progress it could theoretically make with Sacred Fire and broken burns. Naturally, offensive Mega Swampert as your Water-type did not bode well into Entei, and as a result, I never did much exploring with it. As Entei has fallen further off the map and my mindset has shifted towards mons in general, I realized how busted this guy could be. I used to hate its matchup versus Defog Mandibuzz and guys at the time too. It really wasn't until I tried Stone Edge over Waterfall that things truly clicked into place in my head.
The amount of progress Mega Swampert can consistently make is pretty unparalleled in this tier. This is only exacerbated by the fact that it has absurd natural bulk and honestly solid enough Speed. It is also an incredibly reliable rocker, and unlike guys like Nidos, it doesn't necessarily mind taking the turn to click it a lot of the time. It has the tools with these three attacks to threaten the essentially the entire metagame, including the only decent hazard removers. Again, so much of this tier ties back into making consistent progress, and I would argue no mon comes close in that regard. It only makes sense that it would establish itself among the best mons in the tier at some point.
Interactions - A lot of these Mega Swampert Empoleon bulky offenses function relatively the same. You throw out strong attacks, click some pivoting moves, and basically every mon has some degree of defensive utility. I didn't stray much from that framework at all here. The combination of Mega Swampert and Sylveon can punch holes in essentially any matchup ever. Shit if you see a Florges balance without Bronzong, it will be really hard to lose a lot of the time. They are supported nicely by the momentum-gaining core of Crobat and Hydreigon. Lastly, NP Recover Celebi gives the team a true purpose by playing off of the breakers. It and Mega Pert have incredible synergy, especially offensively. Pert threatens all the relevant Steels and often forces trades with STABs Celebi's other biggest check in Hydreigon. Pert is simply the engine that makes all this go between its breaking power, reliable rocks, and ability to trade.
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
Overview - In a way, this is similar to Mega Swampert in that Specs Sylveon is not a mon I explored all that heavily in 2017-2021 or so. Sure it could threaten Conk, but it was by no means consistent counterplay given its fragility and Conk's resilience or raw power. However, it was evident from the day it dropped just how punishing this mon can be in the right matchups. Its breaking power is pretty insane. Also, with mono Fairy being such an incredible defensive typing, it still has a reasonable amount of defensive utility even with its lackluster bulk. It can still soundly win 1v1s vs faster threats like Hydreigon, Heracross, and Mega Sceptile. It does face some competition with the emergence of Gardevoir and its versatility, but no mon offers quite what Specs Sylv does. It can be so unforgiving if the opposing team is lacking strong Fairy resists, or at worst it can trade for decent progress. It is very rarely useless but still has such a high ceiling, making a perfect home for it on a team like this aiming for consistency through sheer power.
Interactions - I'm probably going to start repeating a lot of the same notions I keep harping on, but a lot of them do apply directly to Sylveon. In the right matchups, this thing can win the game on its own with its raw power and breaking opportunities presented by its natural bulk or defensive typing. Instead, the main thing I wanted to touch on here are its "bad" matchups. This generally applies to when it stares down opposing Empoleon + Crobat, where theoretically they have a solid Hyper Voice sponge and a decent other pivot if needed. However, you might notice this team isn't exactly fantastic against opposing Emp. This was partially by design. As the ADV OUers might say, this was a bit of matchup division. In the games where Sylveon doesn't make a lot of progress on its own, the gameplan is to quite literally mash it into the opposing Empoleon until they both die from the interaction. This trade is much worse for the opponent 9/10 times. Emp is heavily relied on vs mons like Celebi, Crobat, and Hydreigon on its frameworks. If you look at the rest of this team, yeah, it starts to make a bit of sense. In general, this thing is the perfect breaker partner for STABs NP Celebi, given its ability to continually beat down Emp or any other Steels that could stand in the way of it clean sweeping late game. Also directly abuses opposing Hydreigon and guys.
Celebi @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 48 Def / 208 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
Overview - Okay this is probably the only semi interesting thing about this team so hear me out. I'm not even sure how I came up with this set but it happened. NP Recover STABs Celebi has existed since ORAS was current gen, so nothing really new there. Depending on the team around it, Celebi doesn't always need the additional coverage move. Sometimes it just makes sense to give it more longevity to outlast its checks rather than punching through them. This is one of those situations, where teammates do a lot of the progress-making for it, and it just needs to be around to clean up. The kicker here is the bit of bulk along with Rocky Helmet. I honestly wanted to run more bulk but at a certain point you become super weak. Anyway though, the idea was to give Celebi a way to apply further pressure to bulky Steels that often come in to check it. i.e. look at this team vs Mega Aggron. Sure Pert can hard into it, but it doesn't necessarily want to. Sylveon can dent it, but it has to be in an advantageous position first. The idea was, okay what if I can boost with NP, hit them, then click Recover a couple teams as they continue chipping themselves. Also, not revealing lefties often made Hydreigon assume it was Colbur, meaning they would U-turn first sequence. It and opposing Crobat constantly U-turn out of the 4x weak Celebi, and this was just another way to make progress while chipping down its main counterplay. Also this set helps check and punish opposing Pert. It's pretty lowkey, but it can have a massive impact in the right situations.
Interactions - So as you might have picked up on, this thing and Specs Sylveon are absolute besties. Sylv can punch Steels out the gate to soften them for Celebi. Celebi can boost, chip them, heal itself as they chip themselves down further with helmet, then suddenly Hyper Voice is super free in turn. Crobat loves this interaction from both of them, making them a nice 3 mon core of despising Steel-types. Bat of course has no real way of pressuring them outside of U-turning to Swampert, which is a valid line in its own right, but they all just play off each other so well. These kinds of synergies aren't always super noticeable or groundbreaking, but they go a long way towards consistency and playing toward a real goal rather than trying to make miscellaneous progress. Also unrelated but semi related, one of NP Celebi's biggest drawbacks is how little progress it can make versus a healthy team. That's fine, but it can make things awkward if this thing is your only Waters counterplay. Sylveon being such a great progress maker early-game really takes that burden of it there too.
ALSO a huge aspect I liked when building this team was how the metagame overall played into its effectiveness. Mega Swampert + Healing Wish has been taking over in recent years. HWish is basically only ever seen on Scarf Celebi, so naturally, people would play around this Celebi assuming it was Scarf. That will be much less of the case now considering this team is public, but it was a very cool aspect to me at least when sets were still unknown.
Crobat @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
Overview - Man Idk what you want me to say here. Along with Empoleon, Crobat is one of the least interesting, most splashable mons in the tier. It will almost always do roughly the same thing, but it fills such a crucial role in the modern metagame. There is simply no mon that offers its level of Speed, defensive utility, and general box-checking quite like this thing. It will very rarely take over a game and win on its own, but it will always always do its job and make your team just that much more cohesive. That isn't any different here. The only distinction in this circumstance is the decision to run max Speed. Generally, I don't like max at all and feel like it's a waste. However, this team isn't exactly ironclad versus opposing Crobat, so winning that 1v1 can go a long way. Also outrunning Modest Sceptile is appreciated. Opposing Bat is also the main reason I opted for Taunt over Super Fang. Sure, Super Fang would complete the 3 mon anti Steel type core with Sylv and Celebi, but at a certain point it felt like overkill. Super Fang feels like greed to me a lot of the time especially if the mu isn't ideal versus opposing Bat, and Taunt is just the most consistent.
Interactions - Yeah yeah more generic Crobat descriptions. Another aspect of the three mon Celebi-Sylveon-Crobat core is that they all check Fightings to some degree. Crobat is obviously the most relied on Fighter answer in the tier. However, I do think it can be over-relied on in that role at times. It really feels like shit when Crobat is your only actual fighting check and suddenly they have the easiest, most telegraphed doubles of all time to take advantage of it with rocks up. Specs Sylv is by no means a hard counter, but it squarely beats basically every fighter in a pure 1v1 early game, and Celebi gives a great midground against guys like Coba and Virizion. All around, I just like Crobat's fit here. It isn't relied on to do too much defensively, and it's a great partner to get Mega Pert in good positions to rock or kill everything. Shoutouts Crobat.
Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Overview - I have no idea how to make the descriptions for these last few mons interesting at all but here is take 2. As touched on in the Celebi section, it would be very fair to assume that on this team it would be Scarf Celebi + a breaker Hydreigon set, given HWish Celebi's synergy with Mega Swampert. I actually had a team with this exact 6 featuring Scarf Celebi and AOA Hydreigon, but it felt a million times clunkier than the version I am presenting today. But yeah, with Celebi being a sweeper set, I needed the additional Speed. This is especially crucial considering Mega Pert is my primary Aero check and I do not have HWish to help it out in that endeavor. Scarf Hydra just has incredible synergy with these kinds of cores. It checks all the boxes you need and is simply a handsome guy. Fire Blast is a reasonable and more common option, but I preferred TWave a bit in the last flex slot. Some people still use a lot of AV Mienshao fsr. It is obviously the main switch into Scarf Hydra, so if you can completely neutralize it immediately, it just opens up guys like Celebi and Sylveon all the more. It also is a great way to abuse a healthy Bat that may Roost to scout your move and provides another avenue of dealing with setup sweepers like Gyara.
Interactions - you resist a lot of common attacks, have a great Speed tier, threaten most things in a 1v1, and U-turn is good. That is the most simple way I can sum up what Scarf Hydreigon does for just about any team it's on. There isn't a ton to it, but it is incredibly effective in this role. Mega Swampert and Sylveon are obviously its main beneficiaries given its ability to get them into favorable positions. Mega Swampert abuses Empoleon or most other slow mons that come into it, while Sylveon can punish any Fightings or slow Fairies that might come in as well. The thing about this team is it isn't super defensively-focused, but every mon has some degree of natural defensive utility. Scarf Hydreigon is the cherry on top in taking a bit of pressure off of all of them collectively, given its vast favorable 1v1 matchups and revenge killing capabilities. All around important guy to have.
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
Overview - The CEO of ORAS Underused. I've written about this thing so many times idek what the total could be at this point. For those unaware, basically Empoleon has a set of traits, stats, and typing that allow it to enable so many frameworks that would otherwise not be able to exist. It is the single, dare I say only good one, best hazard remover in the tier. It would be one thing if that were the only thing it had going for it, but it is an incredible catch-all special check as well. It applies pressure in such a dumb way as well, given its access to STAB Scald and variety of coverage or utility moves in Ice Beam, Grass Knot, Toxic, Roar, Knock Off, etc. All it really needs to function on a team is Scald and Defog, then you can mix and match from there. Ice beam is a very safe default given how generally relied on it is against Hydreigon and Mega Sceptile. We do have Sylveon here too, but Ice Beam gives the team even more midgrounds / leeway to trade Sylveon if needed. I used Grass Knot originally which skews its hazard matchup versus Seismitoad, but it doesn't do it a ton for it otherwise. I believe the safer option in this context is Knock Off. I think Knock Off is greed a lot of the time, but it fits genuinely very well here. It provides another way of dealing with opposing Emp especially, which is far from the easiest mon to deal with. Also in general basically none of its switch-ins like Heracross, Virizion, Seismitoad, etc. like coming into it either. Virizion obviously does but Celebi hard walls and it becomes much more Scald-susceptible.
Interactions - Again, not a ton to say. This team simply would not function versus the greater metagame without this mon. It provides invaluable defensive utility against mons like opposing Crobat, Hydreigon, Mega Sceptile, Sylveon, among many others. You could argue that the team deals with all these mons in other ways, but in a way that is why it is so valuable. I love having as many midgrounds as possible in-game. That flexibility alleviates the need to make hard reads a lot of the time. Just think if like, this Empoleon was a Metagross or something. Sylveon would have to stay in pristine health to deal with opposing Hydreigon, where as here, it does not have that much defensive pressure on it. Instead, Sylveon is much more free to trade versus opposing Empoleon or simply throw itself around to make progress in general. Empoleon opens all the doors to enabling this team to make as much progress as it does while checking all the usual boxes it needs to. There is a reason Empoleon is as splashable as it is, and this team is as good an example as any why that is the case.
Threat List
Honestly, I'm not sure what else to point to when it comes to specific threats. You can very easily argue that x, y, and z mon can make a lot of progress versus this team and you'd probably be right. However, most relevant meta threats have some degree of counterplay available. You'll never have a perfect team with perfect matchups against the entire metagame. The best you can ask for it tools in most matchups, and I think this team accomplishes that. Half this awful game is in the battle itself for a reason.
Replays
ORASPL 2024 Finals Tiebreak, Pak vs umbry - https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen6uu-802459
UUPL 2025 Week 3, DJ Breloominati vs Real FV13 - https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen6uu-826406
UUPL 2025 Week 6, Gondra vs watashi - https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen6uu-833464
Conclusion
Import
Swampert-Mega @ Swampertite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Hyper Beam
Celebi @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 48 Def / 208 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Recover
- Nasty Plot
Crobat @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- U-turn
- Taunt
Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Thunder Wave
- U-turn
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Knock Off
- Defog
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Hyper Beam
Celebi @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 48 Def / 208 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Recover
- Nasty Plot
Crobat @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- U-turn
- Taunt
Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Thunder Wave
- U-turn
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Knock Off
- Defog
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