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H_i, two-times-ubers-classic-winner sexiline is here to spread some knowledge (mostly sharing some teams).
Starting with DPP, because it was the tier I had the most fun building in
https://pokepast.es/ae4c4b84e42cec76
The idea behind this team is that Lead-Kyogre spikes-less rain offense archetype is pretty solid against pretty much everything but sunstall (mostly thinking about highlord's structure: forry / groudon / cress / blissey / gira-a / dialga) which is, usually, almost impossible to break for this archetype.
But here comes the CB dialga (props to Lasen for the idea), Cb dialga basically 2HKOes (at worst) every sunstall mon outside of forry (yes groudon too) and it can also swiftly removes Blissey because no one really expects it.
The rest of the team is pretty classic, standard lead lumberry Kyogre, SR spdef bronzong and Latios as a dracometeor clicker + kyogre SI. Darkrai is used as a scarf and is used as a revenge killer or to disrupt your opponent's team midgame (+ it strengthens the stall MU even further with trick/darkvoid). The last slot is pretty w.e, I used Rayquaza here cause it's another dracometeor clicker that's also faster than base speed 90 mons and it has access to extreme speed.
In the end, it's a pretty classic team with a small twist to adapt to a specific MU while still being very good against others.
https://pokepast.es/e67222ede326c0ce
Well, everyone's been spamming sunstall lately (hence my previous build) so I ended up building this to face situm as he seemed a bit unprepared to beat this kind of team.
Contrary to the Highlord's squad, I went with the anti-lead path rather than leading with forry to set hazards asap. Giratina-o stops deo-s from doing too much kekkery and is pretty nice vs pretty much any lead (you switch out to bliss vs Lead kyogre, those usually aren't CM so you don't risk shit + you should have a nice match up / against darkrai, I go to Blissey cause there is no way in hell that they click trick vs a gira-o).
Blissey uses wish, leaving the SR moveslot to groudon, giving you a lot of freedom to take some hits with forry / gira / groudon, most notably helping a lot in the stall MU. Forry being toxic / protect to outlasts opposing gira-o and eventually spinning in some MU (thinking rain balance with gira-o + skarmory).
Groudon is impish here cause it suits the team better than the standard spdef one. Dialga is the standard scarf set and Lugia ends up taking the last moveslot, giving a much needed second ground immunity and a very nice wincon versus offensive teams while also checking pretty much anything (use CM lugia, it's amazing when well supported!).
Not much to explain here, it's just a version of a standard archetype that works very well at the moment.
https://pokepast.es/ecd5c3c27a353b99
That's the team I planned to use vs Lasen in Classic finals, unfortunately the sexiline went too hard on poor Lasen and the series ended before I got to use it . I never got to test this team (because I never do, I either trust my team or I don't) but it sounds heat lol.
Idk how good it is really but it seemed nice, especially vs what Lasen tends to use, use it at your own risk. It may be way less effective than the two other dpp teams I've shown you tho.
___
I didn't really build much new stuff in ADV, but since i've been toying with balance a bit so i'll showcase some here anyway
I feel like Jirachi's roles compressing abilities is one of the few things that can make Balance compete with offense or stall because you may lack in the wallbreaking/hazards management/durability that offense and stall can have.
In the first team, I wanted to make use of Heracross insane wallbreaking power, not much to explain here, fire coverage on jirachi/snorlax/skarmory for spikes control, para spam (latios thunder, jirachi bodyslam, groudon thunderwave, snorlax bodyslam) to fuck with defensive's backbone / have a chance to absolutely rob offenses. Wish jirachi so you can play heracross very very aggresively (read hard switching it on everything) vs stall while also helping other teams members staying healthy in the long term. Snorlax has to be rest because of Ho-Oh.
In the end, it's a very very solid team when piloted nicely and one of my all time favorite.
The second one is most likely worse and I wouldn't recommend you to use it but sand + knock off is super fun for sure, also it has unviable ass rayquaza as your main wallbreaking tool:
252+ Atk Choice Band Rayquaza Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 160+ Def Lugia: 192-226 (46.1 - 54.3%) -- 5.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Use with caution, I have 100% winrate with it in tournaments (iirc, I may have lost a game maybe) but that's because I'm the sexiline so take that with a grain of salt.
Now I'd like to talk about something I feel like no one understands after watching UPL games, which have been desastrously shit and awfully played. How to use/build Offense in Adv Ubers:
- On Metagross / Deoxys-Attack interactions.
I've seen a awful lot of people using Metagross as a breaking tool early game vs opposing offense. Switching on snorlax is nice and all but doing that basically means that you'll end up straight up losing vs any opposing physical Deoxys-a.
Metagross should be used very preservatively with the aim of trapping your opponent's Deoxys-a, in offense MU, you should always deal with snorlax, not by hard switching your metagross on it but by booming on it with mewtwo/overwhelming it with your modest thunder latios or with your groudon/kyogre.
- On how to build Rain offense and how Kyogre should be used vs opposing offenses.
Latios / Kyogre / Snorlax / Metagross / Deoxys-A are auto-include and should never be skipped (you can use different Deo-A moveset however, physical being the most stable but SubPetaya can sometime win on the spot). The last spot is up to you, the most common being lead mewtwo (that you can customize a loooooot, mewtwo is an evil bastard that always takes a kill and can easily pave your way to break stall but if you do it properly you can even take more than that with a bit of creativity in the builder (for example, I ran shadowball/hprock/BU/selfdestruct in my semifinals versus situm, targetting Ho-Oh's sunstall...)
And most importantly, KYOGRE IS A DEFENSIVE PIVOT, NOT A WAY TO BREAK LATIOS, Kyogre is half your Groudon countermeasure (along latios), while also being the most effective way to remove Snorlax and your metagross/ho-oh/emergency deo-a check. It also forces your opponent to make a lot of telegraphed switches which can easily be abused with some smart double switches.
- If you want to use Kyogre as a Latios remover, you have to pair it with defensive groudon, a mon that will then take advantage of Latios being out of the way to ravage your opponent's team (or the other way around), I particulary like SubCM (salac or not) Kyogre + SD Twave groudon.
Also please, on the name of God, stop using bronzong in ORAS, it's an awful mon really.
This is (arguably) optimal non-choice phys Deo-A. Spell Tag isn't as valuable when you are +speed nature since you no longer secure the Latios roll. With Bright Powder, you win games on a Pursuit dodge and are favored in Espeed ties. Rock Slide with Aberforth's blessing is a great way to win against CB Ray endgames.
FcAberforth Please do something about the bullshit luck items in adv ubers. Besides Deo-A, Quick Claw Wobb is legitimately viable and has already put in work in tournament games. You also have cases like heysup vs fourmi this upl where an unscrupulous player simply doesn't have to give a fuck. The only valid argument against this ban would be the fact that it deletes ptr's entire builder. However, I believe that it is in the adv community's best interests to do away with these abominations regardless. It is also possible to consider a potential complex ban; that way it can win a 50/50 vote on a technicality and never be reviewed again.
This is (arguably) optimal non-choice phys Deo-A. Spell Tag isn't as valuable when you are +speed nature since you no longer secure the Latios roll. With Bright Powder, you win games on a Pursuit dodge and are favored in Espeed ties. Rock Slide with Aberforth's blessing is a great way to win against CB Ray endgames.
FcAberforth Please do something about the bullshit luck items in adv ubers. Besides Deo-A, Quick Claw Wobb is legitimately viable and has already put in work in tournament games. You also have cases like heysup vs fourmi this upl where an unscrupulous player simply doesn't have to give a fuck. The only valid argument against this ban would be the fact that it deletes ptr's entire builder. However, I believe that it is in the adv community's best interests to do away with these abominations regardless. It is also possible to consider a potential complex ban; that way it can win a 50/50 vote on a technicality and never be reviewed again.
This is recent, we legit had Brightpowder used this UPL. Maybe Adv OU added the items to Evasion clause and they applied it to Ubers, too?
Regardless, Quick Claw, Focus Band, and King’s Rock are still legal and bullshit. Just use Focus Band on your Deo-A, it’s barely weaker than Brightpowder but has the same odds.
Mr.378 showed this to me, so that’s why it’s banned now. It’s funny cause it happened the day after the heysup fourmi game. Not that anything would change if it happened before, Quick Claw was what won the game and that wasn’t banned by this.
So September was DPP Ubers spotlight ladder month which was the perfect time for me to mess around with dogshit that come up in my head whenever. I should be working on my Farceus post but I'm too busy and it's not like anyone is in a real rush to get that thing unbanned anyway, so may as well just have something light.
So I haven't played Pokemon in like 2 years and was perfectly happy to just be a backseater and just spout my usual shit... but after going on my winning streak in UPL it's almost like my gambling addiction came back after a few massive wins.
Anyway - here are some random sets I've trying which to be fair aren't groundbreaking in any means, but are fun and have some use in DPP Ubers at the moment and could probably win you some cool points outside of using the usual Sunstall or "click Draco" monotony of this tier.
EVs are subject to the user deciding what they want to outspeed. You need a minimum 76 Spe to outspeed 0 Spe 90s, but everyone usually creeps those and there's no way to know exactly how much anyone is using at a certain time so shrug.
Use this thing in sun with (Toxic) Spikes and spinning (so mainly Forre, Tenta is good too). It pairs really well with Heatran since it resists like everything Heatran is weak to, and Heatran takes things that Gyarados hates (mainly Draco, Thunder is less accurate in the sun so Heatran can afford to take 1 or 2 if they miss every other turn too). The cool thing about this Gyara is that it walls like most Groudons in the current meta since I haven't seen a single one use rock moves in forever (I mean what, does Ho-oh not exist any more or something?!). It also provides a nice check to that CM/Aura Sphere/Ice Beam/Recover Mewtwo that I absolutely hate but is very common (bring back the Taunt CMs!). Intimidate is nice too. It does kind of invite Dragons in, but that's what Heatran is there for. You can potentially slap on Ice Beam in place of Roar or Protect just to mess around with Rayquazas and stuff switching in but I haven't tried that yet.
Dragonite's main niche is the fact that it can run Agility and the only dragon that can outspeed Scarfchomp after a single boost. Actually DD Latios can too but that thing plays really differently and yes Tailwind Ray and Gira-O can too but Tailwind absolutely sucks in DPP so it's not worth. Anyway, you basically play this like a boosting Mence or Ray - obviously no attack boosts means it's a bit weaker but with LO and Outrage is still hits decently. I ran this on triple dragon with Ray and Mence because why the hell not and barring running into Lugia it plays okay. Superpower hits Dialga and TTar harder but is -1 Atk obviously. Espeed is still preferred in last slot because of the kind of team you're using it on - it's still useful to pick off weakened stuff if you can't boost up, but Fire Punch is nice to hit Bronzong with.
Darkrai @ Life Orb
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dark Void
- Dark Pulse
- Focus Blast / Thunder
- Pursuit
This thing takes lives like nothing. You're aiming to Pursuit stuff like Lati@s and Gira, but potentially could hit other things too. Definitely use this in the early game. The typical build I put this on it pair with Specs Ogre or something - click Water Spout so you bait in their Lati, they would Recover in which you use to switch to Darkrai, and because they likely have no idea what else you're running they're going to want to preserve their Lati and not get it slept by Darkrai, in which you promptly damage it beyond repair (Latias) or kill it (Latios). You do like 70ish to standard Latias and 80-90 to Latios. With some clever double switching you can potentially catch Gira-O as well (eg Groudon -> Darkrai) although you won't kill with Darkrai. If they're sacking something to get slept you might even be able to Pursuit that too although be careful of Sleep Talk.
For some reason I don't see CM + 3 Mewtwo that much. The ones that use CM are commonly that one that I hate (CM/Recover) or they don't run CM at all and just run LO 4 attacks (which is good). I hardly see the middle ground which I don't know why. Anyway, this set is pretty straight forward - just click CM once and go. I have it on my super clicky HO team and you really don't have to think very much for this. You can run any 3 attacks really - Grass Knot and Fire Blast on sun teams, Selfdestruct too is also fine. Lum Berry is nice because Thunder Wave is a common way people try to stop Mewtwo which you just ignore and kill them. It also gives you an emergency Darkrai switch-in if you don't have one (you can live Dark pulse sometimes I think and if you come in on Dark Void you can wake up and threaten to KO them).
This thing I thought was going to be awesome, but it's kind of disappointing. Still, it has potential IMO. My main gripe about it simply the fact that the lead metagame has too many variations and there's no optimal item. Ideally you should run this with Lum so you beat Darkrai, but you miss the OHKO on standard max HP Kyogre lead which is just TERRIBLE, so you need LO or Zap Plate or something. You also lose to the Focus Sash leads like Ray if you don't use Focus Sash because they live you with Sash and KO you. The coverage is great though. Thunder + Espeed lets you take on Deo-S, Aura Sphere hits TTar and Darkrai and the inevitable Dialga switch-in, Thunder hits Ho-oh and Ogre really hard, HP Ice for Rays and you can potentially still bring this in mid-game to hit a few things.
I did screw around a few other things like Electivire, Jolteon and Roserade too but they're not salvageable unfortunately. I did also have a tailored Ninjask lead EV spread which lets you set up potentially but fuck that. Enjoy.
Took me an entire year but BOTH the SM and DPP sections are up to date with new VRs and Sample teams! Thank you to everyone who helped out, supported the long and arduous process or contributed with teams and voting. Because of how lazy I was with SM, here's a link to the SM VR votes so you know who to yell at about the placement of your favorite mons. BW next I swear....