Tailwind in UU

[Mind Controller]

Welp, Trick Room was taken so I decided to try my hand at something like this. Hopefully I've done this right...

Tailwind is a Flying-type move that doubles the speed of all Pokemon in the user's party for four turns. As you may be thinking, this is extremely helpful for sweepers who are held back for their below-average speed stats. However, this move hardly got any usage last generation due to the fact it only lasted for three turns! At best, the most number of turns you could sweep with was two (if the setup can't sweet), which really isn't wasting a turn for. Thankfully Gen V was kind enough to give us a decent buff.

List of Pokemon that know Tailwind:

Hide

Butterfree
Beedrill
Pidgeot
Fearow
Venomoth
Scyther
Aerodactyl
Articuno
Zapdos
Moltres
Dragonite
Mew
Noctowl
Ledian
Crobat
Xatu
Murkrow
Gligar
Scizor
Mantine
Skarmory
Suicune
Lugia
Ho-Oh
Beautifly
Dustox
Shiftry
Swellow
Pelipper
Masquerain
Volbeat
Illumise
Flygon
Altaria
Castform
Tropius
Salamence
Latias
Latios
Rayquaza
Mothim
Vespiquen
Drifblim
Honchcrow
Chatot
Lumineon
Togekiss
Yamnega
Gliscor
Giratina
Arceus
Shaymin
Unfezant
Whimsicott
Sigilyph
Swanna
Braviary
Mandibuzz
Tornadus

Tailwind Setup
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Crobat@Leftovers
Nature: Jolly
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
-Taunt
-Roost
-Tailwind
-U-turn/Super Fang

Unfortunately Tornadus was banished to OU, so we'll have to make due with the ones we have. Crobat is fast, somewhat bulky and can use Taunt to stop setup sweepers and Trick Roomers dead in their tracks, use Tailwind and U-turn out into a bulky sweeper.

Sigilyph@Flame Orb
Nature: Timid
252 HP/ 200 Def / 56 Spe
-Psycho Shift
-Roost
-Psychic/Psyshock
-Tailwind

Magic Guard, anyone? Sigilyph is a pretty cool guy, he sets up Tailwind and ain't afraid of any passive damage. With Flame Orb, he can cripple physical attacks waiting to take your teammates out. Toxic Orb is an option is your team isn't physically weak. He can even heal himself too with Roost, which is also nice.

Suicune@Leftovers/Life Orb
Nature: Timid
252 SpA/ 4 Def/ 252 Spe
-Tailwind
-Surf/Hydro Pump
-Ice Beam
-Hidden Power Fighting/ Hidden Power Grass

Suicune is a beast both offensively and defensively. 100/115/115 defenses are nothing to screw around with, especially with its Water typing. He can set up Tailwind and go berserk with three attacks, or setup again with Calm Mind. In fact, you don't even need to invest any EVs in Speed, because it reaches 206 with a Speed-boosting nature and 0 EVs, which becomes 412 speed in Tailwind.

Xatu@Leftovers
Nature: Bold
252 HP/ 178 Def/ 78 SpD
-Tailwind
-Roost
-U-turn/Night Shade
-Light Screen/ Reflect/U-turn
Problem, entry hazards? Magic Mirror will reflect them right back at your opponent. That, and status moves such as Will-O-Wisp or Thunder Wave. Xatu can use Tailwind, U-turn out or Roost off any damage if necessary. Screens can also be useful. Just be careful of Stealth Rock when switching this guy in.

Other Tailwind users:
-Mew (replace one of its other moves on support with Tailwind and there you go)
-Murkrow (Mischevious Heart)
-Gligar (Bulky with Eviolite)
-Flygon (Dragon and Ground STAB, anyone)
-Aerodactyl (Roost and Tailwind + Stone Edge and Earthquake = massive damage and adequate support)

Tailwind Abusers
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Basically, anything that has a below average speed stat can make use of Tailwind. I'll list some notable ones.

Heracross@Choice Band/Flame Orb
Nature: Adamant/ Jolly
252 HP / 4 Def/ 252 Atk
-Megahorn
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
-Night Slash/Facade/Substitute

Heracross was always held back by its 85 base speed, but with Tailwind it can bypass that, reaching up to at least 370 Speed with hindering nature. 125 attack tears holes through teams and 80/75/95 defenses lets it take a hit or two. Do not mess around with this guy.

Kyurem@Choice Specs/Life Orb
Nature: Modest/ Timid
4 HP/ 252 SpAtk/ 252 Spe
-Blizzard/Ice Beam
-Draco Meteor
-Focus Blast
-Hidden Power Fire
Under Tailwind, Kyurem doesn't even need a Choice Scarf. With a beneficial speed nature, the ice turkey thing reaches a whopping 634 Speed alone. Slap on a Choice Specs, send it in, click Blizzard or Draco Meteor and get ready to destroy the metagame. Be vary of entry hazards though, especially Stealth Rock.

Other Tailwind abusers:
-Anything that needs a x2 Speed boosting move (Golurk, Bisharp)
-Anything held back by low Speed (Roserade, Electrivire, Scrappy Stoutland)
-Basically any sweeper can make use of Tailwind.

Alright, discuss!

 

[His Eminence Lord Poppington II]

the problem with tailwind that, even with its buff from 3 turns to 4 it simply does not last long enough. Trick room is barely viable with 5 turns and tailwind does not really make threats that were otherwise unusable suddenly viable (such as TR does for things like marowak); it's very nice in doubles though.

 

[Mysterious Trainer]

It's definitely still a joke. Especially since from what I've seen so far effective sweeping in BW UU lies more within boosting your offenses, whereas with a temporary speed boost any dedicated wall could stall out as many Tailwinds as they'd like. The fact that Trick Room trumps it on the field and Drought teams with Chlorophyll users give it tough competition also leaves little reason to use Tailwind over Baton Passing speed boosts individually. There are after all many effective Baton Passers in UU this round.

 

[Gerard]

While a free chlorophyll-like boost is awesome, you have to die in the turn you set Tailwind because of the three turns since unless you die, you have to swich out and loose another turn (really one tailwind turn in most cases) which is only good to revenge kill, not to sweep, it still works in a little gimmicy sets or as an unexpected surprise (i've seen it work in battles), but TR is far better since you have bulk on your side

 

[TM13IceBeam]

If you want a sweep just use Choice Scarf, simple as that. If you want the freedom of switching moves, find a faster sweeper. Simpler as that.

 

[taziathegreat]

I've been using a team like this the past month on the sever(soriyu the wind warrior)

nidoking proved to be an amazing asset outspeeding pretty much everything with the boost.


what i always lacked was a powerful mixed sweeper since being walled is the last thing you could use

 

[Scoopapa]

Tailwind does seem pretty weak; this is the best I can come up with.

Flygon @ Life Orb
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe Jolly

Earthquake
Stone Edge / U-turn
Outrage
Tailwind

I wouldn't really recommend basing a whole team around Tailwind, but this might be a decent Flygon set. The basic idea would be to pull off a lategame cleanup with Flygon's great coverage and decent power. Theoretically this has stiff competition from a lot of stronger Rock Polish abusers, due to the average attack stat, but tbh I haven't seen Rock Polish once on the ladder. However, the best reason to use this over those is the absurd speed you hit after Tailwind. You will be able to out-speed any scarfer or chlorophyll user after Tailwind. It's also not exactly useless without the boost - it has good speed already.

Only use this if your team has plently of wall-breaking support, as it's dead weight against stuff like bulky waters and ghosts. The very same mixed attackers and bulky choice banders who fill out the ranks of the wall-breakers tend to have low or average speed, so they should enjoy a couple of rounds of Tailwind if you choose to run U-turn. Right now the best use of this would be that it can outspeed and severely damage sun teams. If sun is banned in the future, this set would become much less useful.

 

[Tenodera]

If doubles ever becomes popular, I could see "Tailwind teams" being much more usable. Right now in singles, it's... difficult.

Braviary could be a nice user though, with decent bulk and great attack power to sweep under Tailwind (and U-Turn is helpful to bring in someone else).

 

[More Cowbell]

Couldn't you use Tailwind as some kind of temporary Rock Polish? Like last gen some Pokémon used gimmicky sets with Trick Room as a set-up move for themselves, rather then for their team. Could work for Tailwind too. Find a chance to set up, then outspeed everything for the following 3 turns. Might not be too useful since most Tailwind users are pretty fast themselves, but it could be worth a try.

 

[Graceclaw]

I've been using a team like this the past month on the sever(soriyu the wind warrior)

nidoking proved to be an amazing asset outspeeding pretty much everything with the boost.


what i always lacked was a powerful mixed sweeper since being walled is the last thing you could use

I've faced you twice, and even though I was satisfied with both results, the tailwind caught me by surprise and was easy to forget. As mentioned before, since the team was built around tailwind, once the user was KO'd and the tailwind petered out, it was relatively easy to take down your mostly slow team (barring Nido- he's a beast even WITHOUT tailwind). It seems like a fun team to experiment with, but it doesn't look reliable enough to set a whole team around and focus on- maybe two pokes and the rest be a normal team? I'd probably get a Tailwinder soemwhere in the mix and a slow tailwind threat (like trick room), use TW, u-turn out, and abuse that four turns alone with the threat to cause as much havoc as I could before returning to normal battle style. I think that's preferable to centering your entire team around a 4 turn (3) long move that just boosts speed.