SS UU Tieduprightnow (peak #2, 87.0 GXE)

[Notily]

sup gamers

i’ve been meaning to rmt something since the latter half of USUM, but never got around to it. with my seemingly endless free time going out with a coronavirus assisted bang, now seemed like as good a time as ever.

OVERVIEW:
with the large number of breakers populating the tier, keeping them in check using offensive measures works much more consistently than trying to do so with defensive options in my opinion. this team embodies that BO philosophy, using fast glue mons to keep up pressure and not give these breakers free turns to claim kills.

i started with the rough idea of np uturn celebi + fighting breaker, as the tier’s fighting types abused celebi’s answers fairly well. i eventually passed on the “breaker” aspect and decided coba was the best fit due to the freedom it gave other slots. imo any time you’re not using one of rhyp / gigalith / zong as your rocker, you’re kinda stuck using a bulky water otherwise noivern will give the team issues. enter milotic, the tier’s prototypical bulky water. next i added noivern, which i admittedly didn’t put much thought into. i firmly believe noivern is the best mon in the tier, and think there’s little reason not to use it. with my last two slots i knew that i needed breaking power and speed control, though i couldn’t really find a combination of a scarfer + breaker that i felt comfortable with. i eventually went with mamo + doublade, mamo providing the breaking power and doublade providing the bulk + priority to close out games.

i’m really happy with how the team performs. its pretty fun to use, so i’ve been hitting ladder with it a lot and hit #2 with an 87.0% gxe. it’s done similarly well in test games, which made me want to share it here as a reflection of bulky offense in the post-home meta.

proof of peak

THE TEAM:

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Nasty Plot
- U-turn

celebi was one the many new additions we got in the latest tier shift, though it hasn’t been quite as impactful of some of the other drops due to its 4mss. it wants shadow ball and earth power to break past bronzong and incineroar respectively, while also wanting protect to prevent being revenged by first impression. uturn might not allow it to plow through checks, but it does give you the initiative to abuse them with celebi’s teammates. it synergizes well with coba and mamo, positioning coba to click moves vs dark type answers or mamo to knock vs answers like bronzong and doublade. with regards to the team's structure, celebi provides the team with a counter to bulky waters. it's able to threaten them out with grass stab / boosting or grab momentum with uturn. thanks to natural cure it doesn't care about burns, and giga drain allows it to stay healthy without delegating a moveslot to recovery.

Cobalion @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock

with the sorry slate of viable steel types we had before pokemon home, cobalion was the mon i was the most hyped about. and man, does it ever deliver. to me, it (along with doublade and noivern) is in a group of mons that you can reliably count on to check anything over the course of a game. access to rocks and a secondary fighting type + justified means that its one of the best options for abusing dark types, something both of my set-up sweepers appreciate. i opted for stone edge in the last slot, as i felt taunt wasn’t necessary given how offensive the team was and i didn’t need volt to keep momentum vs doublade given i have milotic in the back. shuca berry allows coba to act as a somewhat ratchet check to mamo, flygon, and haxorus. also weakening golisopod is super useful for celebi.

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Haze

a staple since the commencement of the tier, fatass snake has always been valuable for its ability to pivot vs special attackers and sit on a large chunk of the tier. milotic is the only “defensive” mon on the team, necessary to keep mons i struggle to cover with offensive pressure (doub, coba, noivern mainly) in check. “defensive” in quotations as it can be a pain in the ass to switch into thanks to the threat of scald burns / an ice beam predict. while i have doublade to help cover psychic types, it struggles to switch in to most of them. milotic helps cover this weakness by eventually forcing them to recover or hazing them as they try to calm mind up. aside from that, milotic's job is to sponge hits from speedy offensive mons and trade with select breakers (mainly mamo) if given the opportunity.

Noivern @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Flamethrower
- Roost
- Defog

imo the best mon in the tier, noivern is the choice for hazard control on this team. despite losing 1v1 to rhyp and gigalith, its speed tier and typing means that it finds plenty of opportunities to defog later in the game. noivern acts as the main method of speed control, with mamo and doublade picking off what noivern can’t handle on its own. hurricane + flame as the attacking moves as i wanted to be able to ohko fightings, and my teams overall doublade weakness (given how hard i rely on milo to check breakers i can’t rely on it being healthy all the time) meant i wanted my noivern to be able to pressure it.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Knock Off

while it was already a tough mon to play against before pokemon home, mamo regaining knock off has made it considerably harder to deal with. now able to further support itself and its team by removing items from the likes of g-weezing, golisopod, and avalugg, a well positioned mamo can make progress in basically any matchup. ice shard keeps it afloat in the offense matchup, as well as severely limits what can comfortably revenge it. i opted for jolly as i felt outspeeding timid toxtricity, adamant mamo, and timid necrozma was important, though adamant is probably fine too.

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Claw
- Iron Head
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance

doublade rounds the team out as a second wincon, offering some speed control, and checking psychic types. basically, doublade functions as the teams main out vs offense (while celebi is the main wincon vs bulkier teams). shadow sneak is very useful for picking off polteageist and chandelure, which is big as i have no ghost resist. i decided that shadow claw with some speed investment was more valuable than cc here. hitting most reuniclus sets felt more important than being able to hit darks and steels on the switch (both of which i have strong switch ins to). evs creep rhyperior + a couple points, mainly cause i feel if you’re running speed on an offensive reun rhyp is the only thing worth creeping in that speed tier.

THREATS:
- necrozma’s combination of bulk, speed, and coverage can be really difficult for this team to deal with early game, especially if its metronome. try and keep milotic healthy vs this, if you can bink a burn on it then it gets much easier to deal with.

- i mentioned that i think a well positioned mamo can make progress vs any team and that rings true for this one as well. try not to let it come in for free (so be careful with noivern basically), keep celebi out of shard range, keep up hazards so it chips itself to a point where doublade can revenge it. a lot of ppl on ladder mindlessly lead mamo so don’t be afraid to lead coba and prioritize damage on it.

- weezing being able to viably run like 20 moves can make it really annoying to pivot around, offensive sets more so than defensive ones. getting turns right vs this thing in particular is the key to winning the mu vs weezing teams. granted, its slow as shit and is everything on the team is capable of pressuring it in some form so it’ll never just outright win. the less turns you give it to click moves the better

- this thing sucks ass but its annoying for the team to break. most of the time you’ll have to let mamo get burned so you can knock it

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

all in all the team has preformed really consistently as i’ve climbed the ladder with it. it implements a handful of arguably broken metagame defining aspects of ss uu in a way that rewards moderately aggressive play which has made it my go to team for killing some time on the ladder. hope you enjoy

shoutouts

importable

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Nasty Plot
- U-turn

Cobalion @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Haze

Noivern @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Flamethrower
- Roost
- Defog

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Knock Off

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Claw
- Iron Head
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance

stay safe
- notily