RBY Ubers
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Viability Rankings:
S
Mewtwo MewA+
Snorlax
Exeggutor
Tauros
ChanseyA
Gengar
Rhydon
Slowbro
ZapdosA-
Jynx
AlakazamB+
StarmieB
Hypno
Golem
Jolteon
Dragonite
CloysterB-
Sandslash
AerodactylC
Lapras
Victreebel
Articuno
PersianD
Dodrio
MoltresE
Dugtrio
ElectrodeF
Porygon
Poliwrath
Arbok
Charizard
Ditto2021 MASTER Viability Rankings
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Hello,
Following the RBY Ubers ROA tournament I would like to give my thoughts on the tier: teambuilding, strategy, and pokemon. This does not aim to be a guide or anything, just some personal thoughts about a tier that is honestly quite unexplored. I will give strong opinions about certain matters and if you disagree with them, please post as I will gladly discuss it.
First of all I really enjoy the tier. It has the image of a stall tier in which whoever wins the Mewtwo freeze war wins. However, this is completely untrue, and I believe the freeze strategy is completely unviable.
RBY Ubers has one major threat you have to deal with: Mewtwo, but it also has a plethora of other very strong pokemon you have to handle, them mainly being Mew, Snorlax, and Chansey.
The most efficient way to deal with them is not to fish for a freeze on Mewtwo and then kill everything with your own, but is to spread paralysis among your opponents team and then pressure it with physical attackers, mixed sweepers, and set-uppers. If you decide to play a freeze-based team with Ice Beam Mewtwo and stuff like Light Screen Chansey, you are 1) relying on RNG against other freeze-based teams and 2) losing most of the time to paralysis-based teams. Paralysis-based teams are way more efficient in efficiently pressuring your opponent and giving you a chance to outplay him. But what is a paralysis-based team in RBY Ubers? To answer that, I will analyse how I think the different pokemon fare in the tier.
RBY Ubers : The Big 4
The term “Big 4” in RBY OU might be close to an end, but it definitely is not in Ubers. These are what I believe the be the 4 best pokemon in the tier, by far. I consider them close to mandatory on every team.
This is obvious, so I want to take the time to talk about which moves Mewtwo should run. Every Mewtwo should have Amnesia and Recover. The choices after that are among Psychic, Ice Beam, and Thunderbolt, and I actually think Ice Beam is a pretty bad move on Mewtwo.
Dropping Thunderbolt means you are walled by Slowbro, which is terrible, and dropping Psychic means you are walled by Chansey, which is not as bad, but an unnecessary burden to put yourself through. It also makes you weaker against Snorlax and Tauros.
Let’s talk about Ice Beam : the only real thing you are hitting with it is Exeggutor. Granted, giving it that extra room to explode can be annoying at times but I don’t think it’s worth the risk of getting walled by Slowbro. Beyond that, the only use of Ice Beam is to fish for a freeze. You don’t need Ice Beam against Zapdos, and Rocks are barely existent so you are only running Ice Beam to fish for a Freeze against Mewtwo/Chansey, which is not a good strategy if you want to go for a paralysis approach.
The only real downside to Psychic + Thunderbolt is that you invite Ice Beam Mewtwo for free if you’re unparalysed but in my opinion it is worth it to take that risk since you have many other ways to pressure opposing Mewtwo.
During the tournament I also tried Psychic + Barrier which is okay if you took paralysis, but overall I mostly played Psychic + Thunderbolt and it worked, I never missed Ice Beam.
Mew is the best breaker you have access to in RBY Ubers. With Swords Dance, it has the ability of taking on almost anything in the tier. It can run different moves depending on what you want it to do. I am unsure of what the best sets are, and chances are that we will discover new ones with time, so I will talk about the different moves you can play:
Swords Dance: Every Mew should run this alongside a physical move, it’s your only way to make it a true breaker as its power is insufficient otherwise.
Explosion: One of the best moves. +2 Mew simply kills everything with an explosion making it a constant threat. Non-boosted Explosion can even be enough to deal with paralysed Mewtwo sometimes.
Soft-Boiled: One of the picks of choice, giving your Mew a lot of survivability and allowing you to switch into attacking moves more easily. Only downside is that you will lack some coverage.
Body Slam: Good all-around move to spread paralysis to opposing Mew, sometimes Mewtwo. It’s also your best attacking move against Zapdos. The downsides are that you are walled by Gengar and subject to Counter.
Earthquake: Hits harder than Body Slam, is not counterable, hits Gengar, but doesn’t spread paralysis and most importantly can’t touch Zapdos, which is a big deal especially if you don’t have Body Slam/Hyper Beam.
Hyper Beam: I did not play this but saw it played. This is something you probably want to play over Explosion and combine with Earthquake and Soft-Boiled (or Thunder Wave). Solid option but at +2 Earthquake + Hyper Beam can sometimes lack that crucial extra bit of damage Explosion has.
Thunder Wave: Something you want to play over Soft-Boiled in certain teams. Spreading paralysis is absolutely crucial but the mons who are capable of consistently spreading it are few. Body Slam helps, but it can’t paralyse Chansey (which can be actually pretty hard to do sometimes). Thunder Wave is a good option to help your team in this task. I recommend Swords Dance/Earthquake/Explosion/Thunder Wave.
Other moves:
Reflect: It’s okay, but not great. Yes you’re doing better against Mew and Snorlax, but it’s not helping you break anything which should be Mew’s Role, and it’s not making you better against Mewtwo (the crucial part) and Slowbro. Using Reflect means you can only pick one offensive move as you cannot drop Swords Dance/Soft-Boiled in a set like this, which can limit your offensive options.
Transform: The infamous Lutra set. I think the idea is pretty funny (and I almost got screwed by it during the tournament because I had forgotten about it) but once you know it exists you can see it coming and it becomes pretty bad.
Special Moves: Don’t waste your time, you need to break physically. Psychic and Ice Beam are useless on Mew and if you want to run Thunderbolt you run it on Mewtwo.
Those are the moves I either played, faced, or thought about. If you tried or thought of other moves, I would love to hear about it.
Yes, I am putting Snorlax in the same rank as Mewtwo and Mew. I believe it is the 3rd best pokemon in the tier and is almost as impossible to drop as the two above. The sheer power it has to break and threaten almost anything is huge. It can pressure Mewtwo, Mew, Snorlax, Chansey, but also has the ability to go against Tauros, Zapdos, Slowbro, you name it. Do not drop Snorlax, the value you can get out of it is enormous.
Snorlax
- Body Slam
- Earthquake
- Hyper Beam
- Self-Destruct
It’s what I used in 95% of my games and it’s the strongest, easiest, most straightforward set. Earthquake is crucial for Gengar and Counter-dodging (Mew being in the tier means more reasons to use Counter), Hyper Beam is great if you’re spreading lots of paralysis (range on Mewtwo is 45-53, nuts), and Self-Destruct is absolutely needed as it allows you to get rid of anything you want.
Other moves:
You can try Counter for Mew/Snorlax/Tauros but I find it a bit on the reactive side, when your Snorlax should be pressuring as much as possible. I also would not like to drop Hyper Beam for it.
You could try Amnesia/Blizzard/Body Slam/Self-Destruct but it’s kinda slow and it’s hard to find a common scenario in which you’re happier to have this than fishlax. Amnesia Rest sounds super passive and is a doormat for physical attackers, Reflect + Rest sounds awful as it invites Mewtwo and Slowbro all day and if you’re running Self-Destruct + Reflect just drop Reflect and make your life easier by having Earthquake.
I also put this part of the big 4. I believe it to be the 4th best mon in the tier and although it’s not as dominating as the other 3 it compacts so many roles you need at once that it’s usually easier and more efficient to just slap this into your teams.
It Thunder Waves reliably: this is the most important part. The 3 pokemon above don’t spread paralysis or don’t do it reliably and it’s an absolute crucial part of the tier. Mewtwo does not paralyse, Thunder Wave Mew is good but it has its cost, and Body Slam isn’t reliable. Chansey, thanks to its ability to tank and go against a big portion of the tier can switch into a lot of things and throw in Thunder Waves. It is the best user at this by far. Other Thunder Wave users either have a lot of limits in the tier (Alakazam/Starmie) or have a harder time getting in and spreading Twaves safely (Zapdos/Slowbro).
It’s one of the best sleepers: I said “one of the best” but really I wonder if it simply isn’t the best. By that I don’t mean that it’s the best at getting sleep, but that it is the best pokemon that has access to sleep. We all know Sing can be very irritating sometimes, but Chansey is one of the pokemon that has room to play it and click it. Gengar is a very good pokemon with other attractive traits but it has a lot less room and missing Hypnosis is a lot worse than missing Sings. Jynx is a pretty mediocre mon in Ubers in my opinion. Egg is very solid but sometimes takes the slot of Zapdos or Slowbro. You almost always want to play Chansey for its ability to reliably spread paralysis. Finally, one of the biggest strengths of Sing is that that even if your opponent has a Sleep Blocker, Sing is a move Chansey can use to force Mewtwo out if it's unparalysed.
As for the other moves, Ice Beam is your best offensive option. Most of my Chanseys had Sing which means no Reflect and Ice Beam is both the most damaging against Zapdos/Egg and the ability to get a freeze is always strong. Starmie is barely played and Jynx can be pressured easily via other ways so not having a move such as Seismic Toss isn’t a big deal. Thunderbolt is useless.
Chansey
- Ice Beam
- Thunder Wave
- Sing
- Soft-Boiled
If you’re not running Sing (because you have a non-lead sleep already), then you can pick one of these moves:
Counter: I would honestly run this over Reflect as you can use it against to get kills against Snorlax, Body Slam Mew, Tauros, and make some plays at times after an Explosion.
Reflect: It sounds okay but the problem is that if you’re paralysed, Mew can just come in and get at +6 and you’ll eventually lose the 1v1 and then have to face a +6 Mew. Of course, you could fish by throwing Ice Beams while it sets-up but that also means you’re not paralysing it (making it harder to deal with after he wins the 1v1) and fishing for Freeze is letting the game out of your hands. Also, Reflect is useless against Mewtwo. Counter also is but at least it’s a move that can let you directly get rid of some threats.
Light Screen: This is a leftover from the days where everybody built and played around Mewtwo Freeze wars. This move is outdated, and it sucks because it makes you a doormat for physical attackers, don’t play it.
RBY Ubers: The “Second big 4”
Now that you’ve got your first 4 pokemon, it is time to choose the two other members. These are what I believe to be the best picks for your paralysis-based team.
Zapdos is great against literally everything except Mewtwo. It lends Thunder Waves on Chansey and Mewtwo, while being able to go against Snorlax/Tauros/Chansey, and Mew to some extent.
Slower but bulkier, Slowbro is another great mon to spread some consistent paralysis. It can go against Mew, Snorlax, Tauros, Chansey and also has the ability to sweep at times. It has troubles against Egg, Zapdos, and Thunderbolt Mewtwo (but it walls the ones who make the mistake of dropping it), obviously, but this pokemon will always get something done. As for its offensive move, I recommend Surf and not Ice Beam as you want to do as much damage as possible. Psychic is barely playable because of Mewtwo and Mew.
While looking at my builder I realized I didn’t play Egg all that much, but it’s an extremely solid mon. It has strong sleep, Stun Spore to spread some paralysis (with the ability to get in fairly often) and a strong explosion, all greats traits for Ubers. If you’re running Egg, do not drop Stun Spore, as it is once again crucial to spread paralysis. Your egg will usually sleep something, paralyse something, and then explode against something. It’s a pokemon without any finesse to it but it gets the job done very reliably.
Here’s another wallbreaker. Just like in OU, nothing likes to switch into Tauros and you can easily consume it to break into Snorlax/Chansey/Egg, and even Mew (or trade it against Zapdos). It works well as a lead because it forces Gengar out and is a 40/60 against Jynx (if it doesn’t have Counter, that is). Unlike in OU, you will very rarely get the Tauros sweep, so get that in early and break through your opponent’s team. It is not the beast it is in OU but it’s still a great pokemon and an easy one to lead with as Alakazam and Starmie are less present.
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Even though Ubers adds Mewtwo, Gengar is a very solid pick for the tier. I don’t think it is as good as the 4 pokemon above, but it has a lot of interesting traits and you should definitely have a good usage of it. Its strengths are its ghost typing, allowing it to absorb Explosions or to threaten to do so (and to wall non-Earthquake Mew), and an honorable Explosion that can come in handy against the likes of Chansey, Exeggutor, and Zapdos. Finally, it still is the fastest sleeper while Alakazam and Starmie are not as present as they are in OU.
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Other options:
I tried it, and I liked it. It fits very well into the paralysis style team. Zapdos is stronger overall, but Jolteon can lead and check it while having decent wallbreaking abilities as a mixed attacker. If RBY Ubers were played all year long, I would definitely have a good usage of this so that my opponent can’t spam Zapdos at me too freely.
These are decent picks as leads to fit into a paralysis-based team, as they can spread Thunder Waves consistently, early, and anti-lead the very present Gengar and Jynx. They can’t do much besides this, though. I played Alakazam on a couple teams and was satisfied with it as it did its job in the early game. I did not play Starmie even though it’s better against Physical attackers because I did not want to make the Zapdos match-up tougher.
I’m gonna say this right away: I don’t like Jynx in this tier, and I don’t think this is a great pokemon. It gets sleep off very reliably… and that’s it. Beyond that, I don’t think it does enough. Fishing for Freeze is not something that fits into my paralysis strategy. Building is already very restrictive; you need to cover a lot of threats/sets while having tools to break and Jynx does none of these things. It’s also going to sleep something that isn’t a crucial piece for your opponent (Tauros, Gengar, opposite Jynx, sometimes Psychics), whereas a mid-game sleeper such as Sing Chansey can be way more threatening. I would only consider this if my opponent’s usage of egg lead is too high.
Note for the set: since this does not Rest well in this tier given the amount of set-uppers, run Counter in the last slot. Props to FOMG for screwing me with it, that was cool.
I said that if Ubers were played all year long, I would play a bunch of Jolteons to avoid facing too many Zapdoses, to which you could answer “I mean, if you don’t want to be labelled as Zapdos-weak, just have a good rock usage”, but that’s honestly hard in Ubers. As I said I think the formula is Mewtwo/Mew/Snorlax/Chansey and two slots. Rocks look decent as they wall Zapdos and are okay support against non-Earthquake Mew, and Gengar. The problem is that they need a lot of paralysis support to work while they don’t spread it and the first big 4 does not enough. I did not find a way to build with them that satisfied me. As for which one is better than the other, I have no idea: Golem’s explosion is a ton more valuable than it is in OU, but Rhydon gets very important rolls on Mewtwo, Mew, Chansey, and Snorlax, so good luck.
Honestly on paper Cloyster sounds pretty good: it outspeeds the slow portion of the tier, has partial trapping, can switch into physical attackers, and has an Explosion. I still did not play it because like Rocks, I didn’t like the fact that it doesn’t spread paralysis himself and it also makes the Zapdos match-up harder. I would definitely not count this pokemon out, though, paralysed Mewtwo does not like to switch into its Clamp
So this is how I built most of my teams in RBY Ubers :
Lead (Tauros/Jolteon/Alakazam/Gengar) + Mewtwo + Mew + Snorlax + Chansey + (Zapdos/Slowbro/Exeggutor/Tauros)
Some teams:
Big 4 + Big 2
Gengar + Zapdos
Alakazam Lead + Slowbro
Jolteon Lead + Tauros
Nothing looking revolutionary, but those are well-rounded teams that should allow you to deal with everything while creating angles for a victory path.
Anyway those are my thoughts on the tier and how I approached it during the tournament. I hope you enjoyed the read, I hope this gave you a nice introduction to the tier if you’re new, and of course, if any of your views are different, please share them !
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