XY UU Salty Cupcake (Would Like Some Advice)

[CoolStoryBrobat]

Introduction

Hi, I'm CoolStoryBrobat and I hardly post RMTs these days because I've been in a pretty big rut for a while now. I usually find myself scrapping around 90% of my teams on average mainly due to constantly hitting too many roadblocks in the form of frustration, hax, and extremely niche and otherwise-useless-but-happened-to-be-effective-against-my-team-this-time sets when I battle. Going a period of months on end like this has finally pushed me to where I currently am, and what it has turned me into: A salty husk of his former self at the end of his rope who keeps throwing himself at the game to be met with repeated failure no matter how many times he decides to take a break or step away, whose score has plummeted steeply as a result...

I kinda came up with this team on a whim, and managed to have a bit more than the usual success with it, so I decided to save it. I'd like some pointers on actually improving it though, as I think it's kinda fun and I'd like to get somewhere using it because I just feel it's got more potential than what I'm currently putting into it.

There is a fun process I made using it, which I'm going to put below in this box:

Teambuilding Process

VERSION 1

The original build of this team was based on some funky Trev set I came up with. Idea was to spinblock Blastoise with a funny Jolly Wood Hammer + Colbur set, with Lead Omastar since it was good at setting up hazards. I never really messed with HO too much but I wanted to get out of making Balance/Bulky Offense every single time, and my recent experiments with regular Offense ended in a mass wave of deletions so I figured I'd try Spikestacking (Hyper?) Offense.

Added Absol since Mega Absol pretty much stopped opposing suicide leads (mainly Azelf) and kept the advantage on my side. Literally no other reason, I never really could use Mega Absol too effectively as regards pure sweeping.

Alakazam because revenge killing's cool I guess. I took a weird turn when I was making this team and honestly they don't usually come together in such a manner. Sash Alakazam with CM is still able to do a number to Blissey and most defensive cores in general so why not.

Scarf Jirachi's fun, Healing Wish allowed me to give a 2nd life to one of my sweepers somewhere in the game. When it wasn't doing that it was haxing things into next week, and it gave me a bit of assurance against Scarf Hydreigon, which kind of hurts. Even with Jirachi it still hurts. On the plus side I was able to cover stuff like Crobat and Aerodactyl more easily, which was also kind of needed. Scarf Rachi allowed me to switch into Defog users not named Empoleon and flinch them down. Of course it was gonna require aggressive double switching and prediction but that was the concept...

Noticing I was still super weak to Hydreigon I was hard-pressed to find a primary sweeper for this team. Looking through the list of offensive Fairy-types I stumbled across Slurpuff, who I forgot even existed till now. I remember having used SubCM Slurpuff in the past so I figured I'd give CM + 3 attacks Slurpuff a whirl this meta, and I was frankly more impressed with how well Slurpuff swept than how well Trev could spinblock, which ironically was the premise of this team. With that being done, Slurpuff was quite literally the icing on the cake for this team.

VERSION 2

Made some changes rather than ultimately giving up, used LO Krook with Pursuit to trap things, and Mega Blastoise to spin in cases where hazards still went up against me. Also had some offensive backbone and more importantly, extra bulk, which neither Absol nor Alakazam could offer.

VERSION 3

Giving up on that team (but still not deleting it!) I decided I'm gonna skip the whole Trev thing and just focus on Slurpuff, because it was such an interesting mon to me. Paired it with Froslass, something I never really used much this gen, a more "standard" Spikes lead.

Not Scarf this time, Jirachi was brought back because my main choices for an offensive Stealth Rock user boiled down to this, Swampert, or the Nidos. I figured Jirachi's ability to beat Forretress 1-on-1 while still laying SR and checking opposing Jirachi, Crobat, Roserade, etc. would be far more useful out of the options at hand.

Knowing how Slurpuff fell short against bulky waters like Suicune, Vaporeon, Alomomola (only cuz I lack sub in the case of Alomomola), and special walls like Blissey and Florges, I added Toxicroak since it pretty much manhandled them one-on-one, and could be a threat in general with Swords Dance.

I added Specs Rotom-H mainly because of the synergy it has with Toxicroak, and the fact it beats down Steel-types for Slurpuff to sweep a bit more easily. Trick + Specs also hindered the aforementioned Special Walls in a pinch. Also helped with the occasional Curselax, I guess.

With the finishing touches in place, I wanted a 6th mon who could hold everything together. I needed something else that could hit steel-types hard, but more importantly also resisted Fire. Even though Victini was banned recently, Darmanitan and Infernape still exist, and having a mon who can check them is still important. But at the same time while being able to check them, I wanted something that could also hit like a truck. CB Swampert came to mind, and thus the final building block of this team was put into place. I won a tournament in the UU room with this team, and did okay on the ladder (Even though after the session I realized I lost points, I won more games than I lost because I h8 the Elo system right now) so I decided I'd save this team as well. And that brings us here.

A Closer Look

Goal of this team if it isn't obvious is basically to get hazards up on the opposing side as long as possible, having Swampert, Toxicroak, and Rotom punch holes primarily in Slurpuff's checks and counters to open the way up for a possible lategame (or really early in a few hilarious cases) sweep from Slurpuff.

Slurpuff @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 28 HP / 252 SpA / 228 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draining Kiss
- Flamethrower
- Surf
- Calm Mind

• Puff in the end is what I built the team around, because I was just impressed with its potential in UU. I decided against the Belly Drum set since that was too mainstream what people would often assume, instead going for the Calm Mind set, which I had a little experience with having used it on one of Calloflochie's teams a long time ago.

• EVs + Nature are to outspeed Scarf Infernape after Unburden is activated, which pretty much makes you the fastest thing in the tier. The extra Speed doesn't get you any other benchmarks (Even if scarf base 115s were actually more than slightly viable in this tier you still couldn't outpace them with max Speed) so the remaining EVs were put into HP. Moveset is taken from the analysis, which gives you the maximum coverage overall (just watch out for Tentacruel!!!).

• My only beef with Slurpuff is you're gonna need at least a +2 before really going for the sweep, which in some cases, isn't hard. Other cases, I find myself wishing I had Substitute or Aromatherapy just to not get stopped by certain defensive threats. But more than anything, don't let Blissey be alive before going in with this, it's not worth it. Also, relying on the opponent to activate your Sitrus Berry is also somewhat annoying. On the plus side though Scarf Jirachi's Iron Head never OHKOes from full HP, so you're guaranteed to get going long as it's been weakened beforehand.

Froslass (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Icy Wind
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond

• Froslass for the spikestacking shenanigans. Everything's standard, Icy Wind is mainly to hit faster leads and get off a Spike afterward, or even a Destiny Bond if it's really necessary early game.

• Not much to say about Froslass, my only beef I could have with it is more or less related to how I suck at using it sometimes. Overall it's pretty cool I guess.

Jirachi @ Expert Belt
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Iron Head
- Fire Punch
- Energy Ball
- Stealth Rock

• Added Jirachi because an offensive SR user who can check Crobat, Aerodactyl, Roserade, etc. while still taking down Forretress is cool for what I have going here. I used Leftovers at first with U-turn > Energy Ball but switched this to Expert Belt to reliably 2HKO Forretress with Fire Punch and Swampert with Energy Ball. Energy Ball was also added when after making this team I noticed how prone I am to Swampert in general (as well as Gastrodon in one stupid case). Also bluffs Scarf fairly well.

• My only beef with Jirachi is sometimes you just don't have enough moveslots...At times it crosses my mind to use T-Wave or Body Slam, which I guess on one hand can really help Slurpuff sweep, but I feel the extra coverage is more important for this team.

Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Swords Dance

• Added Toxicroak because it's able to stop most bulky waters not named Swampert while still whacking Florges and Blissey in the face for Slurpuff. Even if they manage to escape from it, it's still a pretty big threat once it sets up an SD, and overall a pretty cool member.

• My only beef with Toxicroak is when I suck at reading the Sucker Punch mindgames... :[ Gunk Shot missing also freaking sucks.

Rotom-Heat @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Trick

• Rotom-H was added for the dope synergy it has with Toxicroak as well as ability to punch holes (mainly in Steel-types) and cripple stuff with Specs Trick. I usually use Trick early game if Florges/Blissey/insert Ground-type here is healthy just to save myself a bit of pain later. Usually it works, and it has a fair number of switch opportunities thanks to ts great typing.

• My beef with Rotom-H is picking the wrong move with a Nidoking/Queen in the back can really be disastrous to this team, for obvious reasons. Actually scratch that, most Ground-types (or Chandelure) in general can really flip a game over on its side against me. It hasn't happened too often, but when it does it gets kinda ugly...

Swampert @ Choice Band
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Superpower

• This thing is a BEAST. I chose CB Swampert because I needed to glue the team together...I wanted an offensive answer to Fire-types (and Mega Ampharos) in the tier who can still dish some serious damage overall, and this floated into my head. EVs are customized to outrun Florges. From my experience, CB Swampert is a massive unexpected threat due to how easy it is to get people to unsuspectingly throw their Hydreigon/Noivern/Grass types at it just to get whacked by the appropriate coverage move. Overall I think this guy's pulled the most weight on the team and definitely is one of its more valuable members. Usually the things it lures that it can't kill with the correct move (bulky waters mainly) are handled easily by Toxicroak. Forry's a pain though.

• Really don't have much of an issue with Swampert, I've tried CB Pert in the past on bulky offense/balance and it hasn't done as much work as it does here. It gets a bit easily worn down and of course CB Ice Punch isn't going to handily OHKO that Shaymin you have there, but what can ya do. It's a hole puncher, and 9 games out of 10 it punches holes in something, so I know for sure its job gets done.

Importable/Exportable

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Slurpuff @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 28 HP / 252 SpA / 228 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draining Kiss
- Flamethrower
- Surf
- Calm Mind

Froslass (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Icy Wind
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond

Jirachi @ Expert Belt
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Iron Head
- Fire Punch
- Energy Ball
- Stealth Rock

Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Swords Dance

Rotom-Heat @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Trick

Swampert @ Choice Band
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Superpower

Like I said, I want advice on improving this team more than anything and I'd really like it if you gave it a whirl yourself, maybe you can see things I can't see.

Conclusion

So that's the team, any comments/critiques you have would be nice. I just wanna improve the team to achieve its goal a bit more easily, and have some better success on the ladder than I recently have been. I have messed around with variants using Dugtrio + SubCM Slurpuff and I wasn't too fond of how it went, just a heads-up. Also, please don't suggest to me to replace Slurpuff, AKA the thing this team's built around. Gets me real salty when people do that on RMTs, especially on something that I know is able to do work.

Anyway, thank you for reading and taking the time to look at this, I look forward to your comments/thoughts on it.

edit: Woot. 800th post, pure coincidence.

 

[RecklessRaptor]

i honestly dont know how much the synergy of this team would work out with barely any switch initiative and the initiative is weak to rocks. Also, i am not a huge fan of suicide lead as the opponent can take notice of it right away. Plus, playing 5-6 right away is never any fun. your team also has a slight ground and fire weakness but has counters. But overall this team has potential, or so it seems. I will definitely try this team out. Biggest problem with the team for me is no defogger or spinner. If they kill off Froslass, then they can set up hazards and they will stay on the field, and there is nothing you can do about them. 3 spinners to consider are forretress, cloyster and starmie, 2 of which are offensive spinners. Forretress would also give you a slow volt switch to pair with rotom heat, but isnt exactly HO. But i dont have any suggestions on who to replace though, but i would consider having a spinner. Your team doesnt appreciate rocks and spikes.

 

[Pombo]

if they play conservatively with theri mega-aero (aka keep him alive through the whole match), you lose.

ill think about and give you tips later on

 

[DiscoDucky]

boo you need more evs to outspeed scarf crobat

On a more serious note, you might want to consider a second spin-blocker. Your team doesn't maintain enough offensive momentum to ebb out Defog opportunities. I'd highly suggest using an offensive Ghost type to patch, such as Chandy (rough guess)

 

[Ununhexium]

I think this may be the only RMT ever that says would like some advice in the title and is well written.

 

[Kushalos]

you're literally the only person using rotom-h... fuken hipster

 

[spuds4ever]

Hey brobat,

So I think one of the main problems with this team is that it doesn't apply enough pressure to make suicide hazard stacking work. The most common defoggers in the tier Crobat and Empoleon can come in for pretty much free and defog against croak and jirachi respectively as well as stuff like slurpuff which I imagine will have to come out fairly often as it's your only hydra check and toxicroak is shaky for stuff like LO shao. Mega toise can also come in and spin rather easily against most of your team as you have no spinblocker that will last the game. I would say then that suicide stacking won't work with this team without a lot of hefty changes. What I would suggest instead is to replace Frosslass and toxicroak with Roserade and CB dugtrio. What this does is essentially put lass's and croak's roles into one and give you a solid trapper for stuff that walls slurpuff (blissey and empoleon being the biggest ones and are both trapped) as well as revenge killer for pokemon your team looks weak too atm such as LO shao or NP megadoom.

Here are the sets:

Roserade holding black sludge/life orb
EVs: 200 HP/252 SpA/56 Spe
Modest
Natural Cure
-Sleep Powder
-Giga Drain
-Sludge Bomb
-Spikes/Extrasensory

Dugtrio holding Choice Band
EVs: 252 Atk/ 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly/Adamant
Arena Trap
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Sucker Punch
-Memento

The rosie spread gives you decent bulk and enough power to provide a good answer to crocune and enough speed to comfortably outspeed creepwarring megatoise and nidoqueen. Extrasensory is an option if you want to kill crobat quickly. Dugtrio's set is obvious, adamant is slashed with jolly as it gives you a much better chance of 2hkoing max def/spD blissey and mixed defenses florges at full health. If you do run these changes, I would also recommend running u-turn over energy ball on rachi so you can get dugtrio in safely more often.

Hope I helped and good luck with the team :)