teamENGLAND (UU RMT)

[SinZ]

Introduction
*As im sure you are all aware, the biggest sporting event of the year is currently being held - the FIFA world cup. So ive decided to nickname my team after the players of the english team (which i support :>)*

After a long break from pokemon, i have decided to dive back into competitive battling, but this time entering the exciting metagame of UU! IMO the UU tier is much more interesting than OU because it constantly evolving and even some NU pokes can have certain niches in teams (not to mention pretty much all my fav pokes resign in uu). My team centres mainly around a toxicroak sweep however individually each member is more than capable of sweeping by themselves. Milotic and Houndoom are toxicroak's partners in crime by eliminating counters and luring set up bait.

Im still relatively new to the UU scene so im not very familiar with common threats and stuff. But so far this team has performed decently and is currently in the middle of a 15 win-streak. Anywayz on to the team.

TEAM ENGLAND

[Kick-off]

Crouch (Mesprit) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 236 HP/20 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Psychic
- Grass Knot

Mesprit was chose over Uxie due to superior offensive stats, and a powerful psychic to deal with the fighting types that lurk uu. Stealth Rock is essential for an offensive team like mine and nails arcanine, magmortar and moltres on the switch, so is usually the first move i use, since it usually survives anything the opponent can throw at me. Many people think mesprit is choiced (expert belt facade) so it also discourages people from setting up first turn in fear of trick. From there i usually U-turn to keep momentum unless the opponent is stupid enough to leave something like an omastar out. This lead is extremely consistent for me and fares well against common UU leads.

Ambipom: Crouch can survive fake out + return however it will take out a fair chunk so i usually prefer to switch out to rotom, because i never really see ambipoms running payback anymore. This really one of few leads i can have issue with, problem is its the most popular lead xD

Omastar: Grass knot to the face.

Uxie: If it tricks me on the sr then i switch out to rotom. If we both sr then it usually u-turns next, i take it comfortably and since im usually slower i can U-turn on turn on the switch in. A problem if it has t-wave

Arcanine: Dont see many of these really. Switch to milotic to take the flare blitz and threaten with hydro pump. If it toxics it dies if it doesnt then the switch in will take an LO 120bp STAB move to the face.

Mesprit: pretty much the same as Uxie

Alakazam: SR then switch to houndoom

Moltres: SR then switch to milotic

Cloyster: Grass knot straight away, cant let it set up too many spikes.

[OPENING PLAY]

Terry (Rotom) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Charge Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball

Rotom provides many important resistances, essential for an offensive team. It usually acts as a sort of preliminary sweeper, to soften up the opponent and scout the team a bit. I usually start by substituting on a poke that cant do it much harm (the list is considerably large) and proceed to thunderbolt anything that moves. I do not use charge beam unless i am sure it can pull of a decent sweep, because i do not want to reveal my rotom's full set yet, causing confusion and opportunities for wrong play (WoW paranoia). The unpredictability of rotom can work in my favour as my opponent usually would prefer to play conservatively to minimize risk, forcing many switches and revealing the opponent's team.

[THE OFFENSIVE CORE]

Gerrard (Houndoom) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk/180 Spd/76 SAtk
Naughty nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Overheat
- Crunch
- Sucker Punch
- Thunder Fang

This Houndoom basically follows the same principal as mixmence in OU, nail the switch with a 140bp STAB attack and follow up with physical barrages. I have trouble faking special houndoom with this set becuz of life orb and overheat so if the opponent is smart it should realized its mixed. However if overheat hasn't been seen yet i can cause i few surprise kills. Crunch is for reliable physical STAB and sucker punch for anything faster. Thunder Fang is great for nailing milotic or bulky waters on the switch, however the damage output leaves much to be desired. Houndoom was chosen over Arcanine because IMO it is more effective as a mixed wallbreaker and nearly everyone thinks its the standard NP model, so the surprise factor is there. It also has great synergy with toxicroak, luring the bulky waters that are mostly setup bait for him. Most importantly its pretty much a catch it all counter for all the rampant WoW ghosts (especially spiritomb) bar possibly rotom, which are all so annoying to toxicroak and pretty much anything else.

Lampard (Milotic) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 152 HP/80 Def/56 Spd/220 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Recover

Offensive LO milotic is a godsend to offensive teams, checking a huge chunk of UU while at the same time posing a significant offesive threat. Hydro pump is here over surf becuase the damage it deals is just too much to forgo, and milotic has enough bulk so as not to be screwed when it misses. The rest of the moves are pretty standard but are extremely effective. The evs make milotic semi-bulky in order to take punishments from both Arcanine and Moltres, which are on almost every team i play against. As for synergy with toxicroak, it draws in and damages Venusaur, which is seriously a pain. It also tanks through the physical walls that stand in toxi's way and basically tears holes in the team while its at it.

Rooney (Toxicroak) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Cross Chop
- Sucker Punch
- Taunt

Just as Wayne Rooney is usually England's MVP, toxicroak is usually mine. I like to think of him as the UU lucario, able to set up on a variety of pokes and tearing shit up with just one turn of set up, it even has an 80bp priority move just like luke. I usually bring him in on a bulky water's water move and SD on the switch, then he's good to go. Taunt can stop status, substitutes and other annoying hindrances. Cross Chop and Sucker Punch are my attacking moves and both provide outstanding coverage, the only downside of this is Cross Chop's 80% accuracy, and all of you who know and hate stone edge can understand the annoying situations where i miss at a crucial moment. If i play correctly toxicroak's counters should usually be ko'ed or damaged sufficiently. Usually though, once my other pokes has scouted the team and damaged them a bit, toxicroak rarely fails to pull of a decent sweep.

[STOPPAGE TIME]

Cole (Hitmontop) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- Sucker Punch

With the previous five pokes covering most of what's important in the UU tier, this guy is just the icing on the cake. Technitop was chosen to basically mop up after my other pokes, acting as an excellent revenge killer. The combination of Fake Out and Mach Punch can take out most weakened enemies, ensuring they never get the chance to retaliate. Bullet Punch was chosen over Sucker Punch as i feel that SP can be a little risky at times and BP helps when dealing with mismagius and its substitutes, i might change this though. This is also my check against frail set up sweepers who don't utilize priority, should they manage to set up. Close Combat is for slow but bulky walls such as registeel and rhyperior, and neither will survive it without significant ev investments (and i dont think i even have to mention Chansey xD). Without Cole i would probably have a hard time dealing with speedy sweepers that have unfortunately managed to set up. Life orb is chosen over lefties to ensure maximum damage output to ensure it finishes off whatever needs to be finished off.

* sadly Joe Cole did not make it to the actual England first team :( *

EDIT: after getting 6-0ed by topine and his rotom i decided to give cole sucker punch to deal with ghosts that switch in to its normal and fighting type moves.

Conclusion
I hope you have enjoyed reading my RMT (it been a long time since my last) and i look forward to your rates. I have not noticed many significant weaknesses in my team but one that i have is the fact that my team is relatively slow for an offensive team, relying on priority on houndoom, toxicroak and hitmontop to deal with speed demons. Other than that though, im confident that its a decent team....by my standards :/​

 

[The Cicada]

Try using lonely nature on houndoom instead of naughty because a naughty nature will reduce your reasonable sdef while a lonely nature will lower your pitiful def which won't even make much of a difference,since you can't expect houndoom to survive a physical hit.

 

[phoenixwright7]

Personally, I prefer Bullet Punch over Sucker Punch on technitop. While doing super effective damage to the various ghosts and psychics in UU, especially Rotom, is appealing, it'll allow them to set up on you as you try to Sucker Punch them. For example, Just about every Mismagius that I have seen ran Substitute and either Nasty Plot or calm mind to try and set up a sweep. I've seen several Rotoms run Substitute as well. Against these, Your hitmontop won't be able to do much other than eventually breaking their substitutes...

 

[Dillon]

i agree with phoenix
also sucker punch doesnt get the technician boost while bp does
i would also suggest rapid spin on it as well just in case spikes, t spikes, or sr are against u.
maybe also give milotic flame orb so that it can get marvel scale to bring up its defences seeing as its special and burn effects physical
surf instead of hydro pump is also useful considering hydro pump has a chance of missing

 

[SinZ]

@CBMence: good point, i guess i chose naughty to take spiritomb's attacks better but i guess surviving mismagius's thunderbolt is important.

@Pheoniwright7+Dillion: Ok, sucker punch must go. but i was thinking about pursuit being in its place. It is sortof a compromise, dealing a good amount to and trapping ghosts while getting a technician boost, at the cost of priority.What do you think?

 

[phoenixwright7]

@Pheoniwright7+Dillion: Ok, sucker punch must go. but i was thinking about pursuit being in its place. It is sortof a compromise, dealing a good amount to and trapping ghosts while getting a technician boost, at the cost of priority.What do you think?

Eh... I dunno... I had thought of Pursuit on my own Hitmontop but decided against it in the end. I don't really want to test to see if Hitmontop can survive one of those Mismagius' Shadow Balls and the priority is really nice and helpful at times... Actually, I think he might of survived a shadow ball before, but I still prefer the priority...

By the way, It's Phoenix.

 

[IronBullet]

Hi,

This is a pretty solid team, but I have a few pointers. Rotom seems unlikely to pull of a sweep with Charge Beam, mainly due to all of the Registeels and Spiritombs running around the tier. So, I'd recommend making a small change to the set, i.e. adding Will-O-Wisp over Charge Beam. This means that your Sub will not be broken by weak Physical Attackers, and Pokemon immune to it will be worn down by repeated Thunderbolts from behind your Sub. This set has the potential to run through teams, although you need to watch out for Houndoom looking for an easy boost.

On Houndoom, try Fire Blast over Overheat. This allows you to bluff an NP set more effectively, and the power boost isn't really noticeable. Also, I'd like you to try out Pursuit over Crunch or Thunder Fang. Pursuit traps Ghost-types and Psychic-types, who are most likely to flee when they come face to face with a Houndoom. This nets you an easy kill, and can open up a sweep for one of your other Pokemon. A super effective Thunder Fang does only 10 damage more than a neutral Crunch, so it's not too useful. Bulky Waters such as Milotic are barely 3HKOed by Thunder Fang anyway.

Very nice team, gl.

 

[SinZ]

@Pheonix: I'll guess i'll test out both to see which one works, bullet punch barely 3HKOs mismagius anyways and i already have 2 priority moves, so....yea its a toss up.

@IronBullet: Thanks for the rate :) I'll definitely try out all your suggestions, they all seem great, especially the houndoom moveset change.

 

[Emerald Blaze]

-Hey. What's up?

*It's a small suggestion. You can try Low Kick over Cross Chop on Toxicroak. This move hits harder on some common, heavier targets such as Rhyperior, and hits with the same power on slightly lighter pokemons like Milotic with 100% accuracy. The only 2 notable pokemons that can survive (barely) an unboosted Low Kick are Chansey and Clefable, but seriously, who would keep their Chansey/Clefable in on a Toxicroak?

-That's all I can think of as of now. Hope I've helped.

 

[ToF]

Yeah, this team is pretty good already, just a few tweaks.

Use Substitute over Taunt on Toxicroak. For one thing, the most common ways of defeating Toxicroak involve revenge-killing, which Taunt helps in no way whatsoever. Taunt is for Spiritomb I guess, but Substitute would be much more beneficial since like none of the common moves on Spiritomb break the Substitute, and the Substitute blocks status as-is. Definitely an easy transition, who cares if you let things recover their HP when you can boost up your attack further under a Substitute. I also second the option of Low Kick over Cross Chop because of the latter's shaky accuracy.

I don't like MixDoom on this team, especially since the Nasty Plot set hits the counters harder anyway. Just run the standard NP Doom with enough attack EV's (I believe its 96) to KO Dugtrio with Sucker Punch. Thunder Fang and Crunch are novelties at best, and I don't understand why you wouldn't abuse boosted Fire Blasts and Dark Pulses from one of UU's most threatening Special Attackers.

 

[SinZ]

@Emerald Blaze: Low kick sounds good, i'll definitely try it out.

@Twist of Fate: Substitute seems like a good replacement, the only problem i see is substitute+LO damage is gonna wear toxicroak down pretty fast, mayb lefties instead of LO? NP doom makes sense, i guess in hindsight it the surprise factor of mixdoom didnt really help me much.