Project SV ZU Teambuilding Competition

Really dreaded this at first because yes, but then i opened the calc and discovered:
252 Atk Hustle Delibird Triple Axel (120 BP) (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Rhydon: 200-242 (48.3 - 58.4%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock

it's not... thaaaat bad? Hustle puts its attack at like 303 or something, which is right around Floatzel. After playing around in the calc, it looked like Delibird kinda 2HKO'd the metagame, outside of like Qwilfishes because of intim, Regirock, and the other bulky walls that aren't weak to ice. But everything else got 2HKO'd. Coverage moves had significantly lower BP than BB/taxel and only really hit Magneton (and as i later discovered, Probopass), so I opted for none of them.

And the team: :Delibird: :Passimian: :magneton: :mesprit: :floatzel: :virizion:

This voltturn team focuses on getting in Delibird with any of the four mons with a pivoting move. The slow pivots switch into things well, and the fast pivots can get Delibird in for free on a KO with U-turn. Delibird's STAB combo is amazing in this tier, being tough to switch into without using stuff like Lanturn and Probopass (guess what I found on ladder), and KO-ing stuff like Dipplin, Decid-H, and any other grass type. ZU doesn't have a lot of offensive Ice-types (or physical flying types), and using one in any capacity will allow you to do things that no other mon can, notably including revenge KO-ing a tera grass mon via ice shard and threatening an OHKO on dipplin.

Virizion is chosen because I really really wanted a special grass-type attacker and I couldn't say no to myself, and given that Snorlax, Regirock, and Magneton are in my list of problems, a mon that beats all of them (pre tera, at least) fits naturally. The four VoltTurn mons were chosen because Mesprit was the easiest way to fit rocks and a SpD mon, Magneton is good against opposing VoltTurn/Jolteon/Electrics with the raw tera blast as coverage to hit them, Passimian is the goat and felt like a better fit than Scarf Hecid, and Floatzel is necessary to revenge fire-types that aren't switching in on Viriz's stone edge.

And that's the team. I'm honestly shocked I didn't make Deli a suicide lead.

replays: literally game 1 | something high ladder that I threw | a delibird on the win screen

Edit: It honestly could be on the VR as a C-tier
Edit: I changed my mind on the C-tier thing lol
 
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Lead Delibird Grassy Terrain "HO, HO, HO"
:delibird::brute bonnet::farigiraf::thwackey::charizard::hattrem:

I figured the best way to get some consistent value out of Delibird would be as a sort of surrogate Froslass, as it gets Rapid Spin and Memento along with Spikes. Since Delibird is probably not threatening enough to keep hazards off for Charizard, I also decided to go with Hattrem to keep hazards off and give one of the sweepers two shots to sweep with Healing Wish. Bonnet, Giraf, and Thwackey are pretty typical GTerrain HO type stuff, Belly Drum Charizard is extremely greedy but can also just erase teams if played correctly. I tried not to use any of the mons that are leaving the tier in two days for this.
 
:delibird: :oricorio-sensu: :qwilfish: :Rhydon::jolteon: :shaymin:

Hope you all had happy holidays! Delibird was a fun festive choice to close out 2024's teambuilding project. I still remember hosting Victim of the Week a while back so it's time to jump back in with a fun team!
:sv/delibird:
Delibird is greatly outclassed by numerous hazard setters in the metagame, including but not limited to Lycanroc, Froslass, Sandslash, Qwilfish...but one thing it does have is compression as a lead. As a spikes lead, having the combination of Endeavor, Rapid Spin, and Destiny Bond makes it capable at messing with slower attackers like Magneton and Clawitzer. To ensure it more reliably pulls off Endeavors, I reduced its bulk as much as possible and gave it Tera Ghost in the event hazard removal for the other team is lacking.
:sv/oricorio-sensu:
Due to Delibird's lack of usefulness after setting up hazards (and possibly taking a foe down with it), Oricorio-G is ideal to discourage Rapid Spin while maintaining a Fighting, Ground, and Normal immunity. Aside from Quiver Dance and its STAB moves, the last slot for Roost was to maintain longevity against bulky walls like Cramorant and Weezing. Taunt can also be thrown in to stop other hazard setters like Orthworm and Sandaconda from setting up their utility moves, though Roost's longevity was more important as aside from Shaymin (I'll get to it later), the team has no means of recovery.
:sv/Qwilfish:
Time and time again, Qwilfish has been a fantastic duel threat for its offensive and defensive prowess since the SS ZU days. Swords Dance has been a standard wincon for quite a while now, but while Leftovers (Black Sludge in SS) is easier to fit, Life Orb raises its power to even more dangerous levels - now, it can 2HKO defensive Qwilfish-H after getting Intimidated and Stealth Rock, OHKO Snorlax without Rocks, and OHKO Muk after Stealth Rock, something Leftovers/Black Sludge could not accomplish. Intimidate also is a boon against opposing physical attackers like Floatzel and Hitmonlee, surviving attacks it otherwise would've struggling without the Attack drop.
:sv/Rhydon:
Probably would rise to PU, but while you can fit Stealth Rock or Swords Dance there, Rock Polish makes for one of the scariest cleaners in the tier, outspeeding everything barring Jolteon. Tera Poison gives it defensive utility against Fighters, and Poison Jab makes it surprisingly good against Grasses like Dipplin, Virizion, and Decidueye-H. It's a formidable tank and deserves more usage in this meta. The nice Poison chance also annoys physical walls like Palossand and Sableye looking for safe entry points. Bonus points for Lightning Rod causing opponents to forget post-Terastalization that it completely stuffs Jolteon.
:sv/Jolteon:
I needed natural Speed control and another pivot, as otherwise I was very reliant on double-switching or 1v1s to win. Jolteon helped check those two boxes, and provided a secondary Electric immunity and a wincon that could quickly spiral out of control if not accounted for. The moves were otherwise pretty standard.
:sv/Shaymin:
More Speed control? Jolteon alone was quite vulnerable to being outpaced by Scarfers like Qwilfish, Passimian, and Grafaiai, but Shaymin provided some decent defensive utility through a Water resistance and Natural Cure. A fast healing wish is nice to give otherwise chipped offensive behemoths a second wind of life. Seed Flare also provided some odds to break through bulky titans like Porygon2 or Snorlax that other special attackers have a difficult time with.

Here's another team with Passimian over Shaymin to give the team a VoltTurn offensive core:
:delibird: :oricorio-sensu: :qwilfish: :Rhydon::jolteon: :passimian:
 
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I gave a lot of thought on how to make Delibird work and i came to the conclusion that it fucking sucks, which is a bit of a shame because it definitively has some redeeming qualities, be it hustle or its surprisingly decent movepool. My first hunch was to make it a suicide lead, but almost any other lead beats the shit out of it, then i thought that maybe a scarf or band set could put hustle to good use, but Triple Axel+Hustle is basically gambling and brave bird recoil feels like belly drum when you have 45 base hp, then for just a second i wondered if it could do something as a stand-alone spinner but yeah no way lol
:Delibird:
In the end i've come a full circle and landed on the very first idea: the suicide lead, but i figured that setting spikes would be pretty much useless since you can't really expect Delibird to set more than 1 layer or to do anything against opposing removers, so i went for a more offensive approach with Tera Fighting Reversal, now your dream mu is Avalugg-h, where you break sturdy with spin and then get the ohko with reversal if he attacked, spin again otherwise(you don't need tera against the usual 252atk 252spe, but it is required for bulkier ones), Lycanroc is now also within your reach and he's the reason of the defensive evs, say thanks to this penguin's atrocious bulk that even after tera fight can't otherwise safely be out of 2hko range from rock blast, but in the end 75 is a pretty specific speed tie so you don't really lose much by taking those evs away. And let's be clear: in most cases your goal will just be to preserve your tera and go for the 1 for 1 trade with dbond, which already is a huge achievement for such a shitmon, but in some match ups this set is actually able to go 2 for 1 or even 3 for 1 which is pretty crazy.
:Hattrem:
Next i wanted some other form of hazard control because it may surprise you but no, Delibird isn't very reliable, but at the same time i didn't want a dedicated remover because i had already wasted a slot on the bird, so i settled for Hattrem as a middle ground. It is a bit physically bulkier than usual to help checking some threats like sd qwiflish.
:Regirock:
Then i needed my own sr setter, so i went with Regirock who could face Froslass against whom Delibird can't do anything and also help with Zard and splash some dmg with iron defense+body press.
:Charizard:
Charizard in ZU is just like Guile's Theme: it goes with everything, Good offensive capabilities, peculiar typing and burn spreading make it a viable jolly.
:Jolteon:
Then i needed my own wincon and for that role i choose Jolteon, playing the early game as pivot until the stage is set for a sweep is something just a few mons are able to do this efficiently, putting maybe too much faith in the Delibird-Hattrem duo i decided to go lefties instead of boots because it allows to better setup cm against special walls like Lanturn and Porygon2.
:Poliwrath:
I had only one slot left and a need for some role compression considering i had nothing against water or special sweepers in general, and Poliwrath turned out to be not bad at all, it blocks Floatzel turn chain, it resists Frosmoth dual stab, it takes SpecsTypho's eruptions like a champ and so on, while providing more chip damage with circle throw phazing and utility with knock off.
 
A delibird offense team that would probably be better with froslass instead.
:delibird: - :qwilfish: - :whimsicott: - :rhydon: - :jolteon: - :mesprit:
This team is essentially an offensive pivot spam team with some bulk to it.
Delibird lives in froslasses shadow, but it does have a couple of unique tools that gives it a shot of doing something. It has a superior attack stat, ice and flying stab, access to rapid spin, and drill run to nail steel types that wall its gamebreaking type combination such as magneton which when running eviolite, delibird can land a clean 2hko. Knowing how much of a monster this pokemon would be in the future gamefreak locked it inside of an ice cave, version exclusive encounter, causing these tools only work 76-80% of the time. On this team delibird acts as a spinner with an alright stab typing, sometimes kos something, sometimes wears down something, most of the time just gets sacced.
Qwillfish threatens alot of mons with swords dance due to its great stab and appreciates the pivots that this team provides, mystic water is ran to bluff other sets, I would probably run lorb if I had a decent hazard remover.
Whimsicott is a great revenge killer threatening most nastyplot/swordsdance users slower than it, annoying spdef walls with switcheroo (dont give pory2 specs though lol) while being a pivoter.
Rhydon checks fire types and jolteon, has stealth rock, and swords dance for offensive capabilities. Tera poison helps cover this teams lack of a solid fighting/grass resist.
Jolteon is a solid non choice locked revenge killer/pivot and a magneton/orthworm check since the rest of this team struggles against it.
Mespirit is the glue mon that makes most of my teams half decent, so I went with it on this one. Scarf was chosen to help create true speed control and since I already had rocks I went with healing wish which is a cool option if you can pull it off. Tera dragon helps with checking fire/elec scarfers.

Unrelated thing: This post dudun ban era has been really fun to build in. Have a happy new year and lets hope this upcoming tier shift doesnt screw up the current balance of this tier :clueless:
 
:Delibird: :Abomasnow: :Wyrdeer: :Arboliva: :Charizard: :Frosmoth:

Decided to push the theme even further and use Christmas based mons inspired by this room poll and frosmoth because its a cool mon that wont be around much longer. Don't want any questions about how Charizard is a Christmas themed mon, ask whoever created this:
1735665090599.png


Suicide lead Delibird, get hazards up, keep opponents off. Next went with the Abomasnow + Frosmoth combination since hail + frosmoth would be broken if it wasn't for the fact the only hail setter is abomasnow. Arboliva sets up terrain for Wyndeer to abuse, as Intimidate + Grassy Seed makes it easy to set up on Physical mons, also getting passive recovery. Lastly Charizard as a breaker to soften team for the set up sweepers to clean up.
 
It's now time to vote!

Team 1: :Delibird: :Passimian: :magneton: :mesprit: :floatzel: :virizion: Offensive Deli + Fight Spam Voltturn by LettuceLeaf07

Team 2: :delibird: :brute bonnet: :farigiraf: :thwackey: :charizard: :hattrem: Lead Deli + BD Zard Grassy Terrain by Sputnik

Team 3: :delibird: :oricorio-sensu: :qwilfish: :Rhydon: :jolteon: :shaymin: Lead Deli + RP Rhydon HO by 5Dots

Team 4: :delibird: :regirock: :hattrem: :charizard: :poliwrath: :jolteon: Reversal Deli + Resttalk Poli BO by Tizio

Team 5: :delibird: :qwilfish: :whimsicott: :rhydon: :jolteon: :mesprit: Offensive Deli + Specs Whimsi BO by evend101

Team 6: :Delibird: :Abomasnow: :Wyrdeer: :Arboliva: :Charizard: :Frosmoth: Lead Deli + Christmas Mons HO by Inferno Monferno

Vote for your three favourite teams!
Deadline to vote is Sunday 5th at 10pm GMT+1.
 
:rotom-mow: :sv/rotom-mow: :rotom-mow:
The newest addition to the ZU tier, many people believed it could be the next Hisuian Electrode, but it recently surviving a quickban might be a different sign. Anyway, with its strong Volt Switch, paired with Leaf Storm to make the former almost unblockable, and good set variety, this mon is guaranteed to be a threat in the tier.
Build a team featuring Rotom-Mow and post it in this thread with a brief description.
Deadline is Friday 10th at 10pm GMT+1.
Have fun!
 
Scarf Mower+Band Perrserker Bulky Offense

:rotom-mow::perrserker::lanturn::mesprit::cryogonal::sneasel-hisui:

Frankly, I'm not enjoying building in this meta much. It feels very hard to cover Mower+Zard+Floatzel+Fightings and be able to fit everything a non Boots-Spam offense needs to function properly. I think I came pretty close here though, even if the matchup versus some threats is a little shakey I feel you can outplay most. I went with a utility Scarf Mowtom here, which is lower reward than Plot sets but with Trick and Will-o-Wisp is a good disruptor combined with its good speed tier for a scarfer. Wisp also helps me out vs Brute Bonnet, which would be very scary in a late game situation otherwise. Band Perrserker is still an insane breaker that is very hard to switch into, and it forms a great pivot core with Mower, since it can U-turn on Zard and other poor matchups to get Mower and Lanturn in. Lanturn feels abusable in a Mower meta but checking Zard and Typh and having a pivoting move was useful for this. Mesprit chips Fighting-types and sets up rocks. Sneasel has an interesting typing for this that gives me some secondary emergency resistances, and SD has been a decently threatening late game wincon for a while now. Cryogonal helps me outlast Mower unless its Tera Blast Fire, in which case I need to Tera Lanturn to handle it. Cryo also holds off some special breakers like Alolan Eggy (albeit, barely) and can Spin away hazards.
 
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Scarf Mowtom Balance
:Rotom-Mow: :Qwilfish-Hisui: :Lurantis: :Mesprit: :Palossand: :Porygon2:

Initially went with SubSplit Mowtom + Tspike support, but subsplit was easily the worse set so I switched it out for scarf, with Spike support instead. I prefer Wisp > spammable electric stab as it allows us to annoy the grasses that come in on Mowtom like Virizion. Phydef Lurantis provides a solid Floatzel switch in while letting it chip itself down to hazards. Knock Off> Superpower allows it to punish Zard and Typlosion switching in, making them easier to deal with. Qwilfish-H, Palossand and P2 round off the defensive core, covering most of the tier and providing utility through hazards and speed control. Foul Play is on here to be able to break Jolteon's Substitute after some boosts more consistently (Does so 75% of the time), while also hitting physical attackers hard. Mesprit provides a wincon for the team. There are 3 Tera Dragon mons which seems redundant but it is a really good tera type atm for dealing with the threats of the tier.
 
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