UnderUsed Teambuilding Competition Week #13 - Scizor

[Celebiii]

Approved by Lily
Adapted from the SWSH UU Teambuilding Competition

(placeholder art for now, real art coming soon!)

UnderUsed Teambuilding Competition​

Welcome to the UU Teambuilding Competiton! This will be a weekly competition which you can join at any time. Each week, there will be a core, set, theme, or Pokemon posted, and then you will post an importable of a team featuring the given concept! This should look like a condensed RMT; a post will require an import and (brief) description of the teambuilding process to count. After a five days, the submissions will close and then you can cast your vote for the best team. The winner of the week will then get put into the hall of fame with their team on display for anyone to see!
Rules (read these first):

1. Five (5) days of submission of teams and discussion. Post your entry on the thread, and be sure to use the following format:
   

   <sprites>
   [hide=Importable][/hide]
   <Description>

2. Two (2) days of voting for the winning team

Submitting Teams: Please include the following when submitting your teams. Post your entry on the thread!

• Optional but recommended: sprites.

:sv/gengar: :bw/gengar:

• Importable of your team in a hide tag
• A brief description of your teambuilding process and how the team plays. If the description is too large then use hide tags.

Discussion and Changes: Feel free to discuss people's teams in this thread. People can make suggestions to other people's team but only to an extent. A full rate would be best left to the RMT subforum, and a big overhaul on a team by someone else would defeat the purpose of this thread. Small recommendations such as a nature change or slight EV tweaking are game, though.

Winning: If you win, then congratulations! You'll have your name and team featured in the UU Teambuilding Hall of Fame.

Copying Teams: Please don't. This ruins the concept of "competition". If you do copy someone's team, you will be automatically disqualified for the week. If you suspect someone of doing this, DM the host. Hopefully this won't be an actual issue.

On Bandwagoning / Namevoting: Please don't do this either. Just vote for whatever team you think is the best. There's no need to vote for someone because they already have a lot of other votes. In addition: if you participated in the week, please do not ask for people to vote for you. There's no fun in the competition if you get a big number of votes from people that might not even post otherwise.

On Suggestions: If you have any suggestions for this thread, feel free to suggest them to me (through DM please). They will be considered, but no promises on whether they'll actually be implemented or not.

On Slashes: In play, you can only bring four moves; so in the case of this thread, please do not use slashes. The team should be reflective of your skill as a builder, and have choices that you feel comfortable with.

Tiers: A week is for SV UU unless stated otherwise. For variety's sake, the generation will be changed occasionally so you can show off your RBY, GSC, ADV, DPP, BW, ORAS, SM, and SS teams!

***

HALL OF FAME

Outdated Teams

Week #1: Espathra - Won by Twilight



Week #2: Gengar - Won by Askov



Week #3: Azumarill - Won by Askov



Week #4: Hatterene - Won by Crushy



Week #5: Hydreigon - Won by Twilight



Week #6: Tyranitar - Won by tomatosoup110



Week #7: Maushold - Won by starbitstorm



Week #8: Wo-Chien - Won by pokemonisfun



Week #9: Lucario - Won by DraconicLepus



Week #10: Iron Hands - Won by mark6870



Week #11: Torkoal - Won by Rasche



Week #12: Pawmot - Won by Sleestacks

 

[Celebiii]

I hope you're all as excited as I am to welcome back the Teambuilding Competition! Our first subject will be...

Espathra

Public enemy #1 at the moment and Ancient Egypt's favourite ostrich, Espathra made its presence known as soon as SV UU began. Its flagship set is a dangerous sweeper that makes use of its Speed Boost ability, Calm Mind boosts, Roost for longevity, and Stored Power. Espathra has its choice of an additional coverage move to complement this set, including Dazzling Gleam or Tera Blast. Espathra commonly uses Tera Fairy or Tera Fighting to resist attempts to take it out with Sucker Punch and to break through Psychic-type checks. This is not the only thing Espathra can do, however. Espathra's signature move, Lumina Crash, functions as an analogue to Shaymin's Seed Flare, dropping the target's Special Defense by 2 stages after landing, making it extremely difficult for even the bulkiest of special walls to take it on. This move functions excellently on a Choice Specs or Life Orb set. With as much attention as Espathra has received, naturally, checks were quickly found to it. The most prominent of these is Tinkaton, which resists Espathra's Psychic STAB and Fairy-type Tera Blast, while taking neutral damage from Fighting-type Tera Blast. Tinkaton also has great natural special bulk and access to Encore to lock Espathra into Calm Mind or Roost, allowing a physical attacker to safely switch into Espathra and KO it. Scream Tail and Sableye can also use this Encore strategy to check Espathra, while Bronzong can check it with its typing, good special bulk, and Gyro Ball. All this said, Espathra is still a monster of a Pokemon, and may not be in the tier for long, so let's build some great teams with it while we can!

Teambuilding Restrictions:

• The team should be built in the Scarlet and Violet UnderUsed format.
• The team must include Espathra.

Submission Deadline: Friday, December 9, 2022 @ 11:59 PM EST (GMT-5).

 

[Kizaco]

Importable

https://pokepast.es/8feaca5820902efd

Snow team? In my underused meta game? With espathra? It’s more likely than you think. I’m back at it again with an improved version of my first team bazaar post, a hail team. With screens support and plenty of offensive mons. While this is more of an offensive leaning team, I would consider it balance.

My team building process started with the idea from my previous post, but with a new team, starting with abomasnow and slowking for snow setter, then cetitan and cloyster to abuse snow and it’s defense boost and ice move boost. Then wrapping up with screen support froslass and special attacker espathra.
I am always first to a team posting thread :)

 

[Queen of Bean]

pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/b50b814cd220a41a

in this team i used grassy seed espathra to try and help its bad physical defense and paired it with eject button arboliva.
i went for a ho angle because i wanted to abuse grassy terrain as much as possible with strong sweepers like hawlucha

 

[justdrew]

Espathara is fully broken. Any mon with Speed Boost and Calm Mind over 480 is going to be good. But with STORED POWER!!!! and Tera, this thing is gross and theres no need to build around it. Slap on team, it will be good. Sooo...


I threw together this little number messing around with some cool new things. Sandy-shocks seems like a cool setter with the removal of an ideal one like Excadrill. It's got good stats, can speed boost, and set spikes and rocks. I gave it Tera Ghost to avoid getting spun on in the event Mimikyus disguise is worth maintaining and Espath doesn't look too good in the mu. Mimikyu seems like a cool way to counter threats like Espathara with its ability. Eviolite Bisharp adds secondary priority and just seems like a beast. Low key AV Bisharp in SM but better. Espathara here to just win most game. Scarf Staraptor seems like a cool and unexpected cleaner. And Oricorio is an idea I got from SBPC. I lost his spread and just made my own random one but with Tera Steel it can be a really cool sweeper bc steels a broken typing. I haven't done a lot with this team but its won multiple times and just seems fun to mess around with new things!

 

[iLiekMudkipz_]

reserved for Espathra rain

https://pokepast.es/8ad8050ffc744a77


I threw this together in 20 minutes. Pelipper and Drednaw for the rain duo, Slither Wing to take advantage of its weakness to fire being removed in rain, Donphan to be the resident spinner and because I forgor hazards, and Goodra because I wanted to try out a Rest Hydration set.

 

[HydreigonTheChild]

https://pokepast.es/8acdfb7498389468

HO team with lead sandy shocks that can often setup a spike and rocks. Mimikyu is here to spin block and be able to threaten super strong attackers with disguise and be able to revenge kill attackers. Disguise is pretty valuable on a HO team as its able to take a hit setting up and its priority is valuable. Iron Jugulis is used here for the annoying presence it has with taunt + knock and the very strong hurricane it provides, it supports the team by wearing opponents down and denying them recovery attempts. Iron Thorns is the main mon of the team who is able to DD with booster energy up and nuke a lot of mons not called hippo, quag, gastro, and zong. Sub dd gyarados is able to take advanage of the passive water types that have been going around, in gastrodon, quagsire, and alo being complete setup fother while being able to use most steels as well. Espathra is the final member of the team... being able to come in when the time is right click CM and stored power and sweep the game.

 

[Sulo]

This is a balance team constructed with the combination of Swords Dance Lucario + Calm Mind Espathra, each depending on each other to break past the opposing team. Lucario can eliminate faster revenge killers like Talonflame, Pawmot, and Swift Swim Pokemon, as well as being able to threaten Steel-types like Tinkaton and Bisharp and deal with Psychic-types like Slowking and Hatterene via Crunch/Silk Scarf-boosted Extreme Speed. Grafaiai is able to pivot out on Ground-types like Gastrodon and Hippowdon and give Brambleghast more opportunities to set Spikes, further bolstering the damage output of the wincons and breakers. It also forces in Dark-types like Wo-Chien and Iron Jugulis, meaning it can either cripple them with Knock Off down or double switch into Lucario and setup. Gastrodon provides a valuable defensive glue, is a secondary check to Kilowattrel and Gengar, entry hazard setter, and is able to cripple opposing Pokemon with Sludge Bomb and spread invaluable status. Brambleghast, as mentioned before, provides entry hazard removal and is the primary check to Kilowattrel. It prevents Pokemon like Hatterene from reliably bouncing hazards due to its strong Shadow Ball. Talonflame checks Bisharp and can deny opposing entry hazards with Taunt and annoy bulky walls with it as well, denying recovery from them and making entry hazard damage stick on. It's also the main Ground immunity and can appreciates Brambleghast and Gastrodon improving the rain matchup. I really like this team personally, has been really fun to use in test games + ban Espathra, thank you.

 

[JKoster]

Yes, speed boost stored power is good, but have looked at Espathra's other ability? Oppurtunist makes it so that when the opponent boosts stats, so do you.

Importable

Espathra @ Choice Specs
Ability: Opportunist
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Lumina Crash
- Dazzling Gleam
- Trick
- U-turn

Lucario @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Justified
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Meteor Mash

Hydreigon @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- U-turn

Oricorio-Sensu @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dancer
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 4 SpA / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Revelation Dance
- Roost
- Hurricane

Gastrodon-East @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Yawn
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Surf

Toedscruel @ Leftovers
Ability: Mycelium Might
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Gentle Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Leaf Storm

With oppurtunist espathra becomes the best espathra counter there is (as a bonus you abuse basically every other special booster too), while also being a pretty good specs user when there is no espathra to boost off. Lumina crash can also help breaking through special walls (though psyshock is honestly better, but i wanted to use the signature move). E-killer lucario is also a big threat on this team. It sometimes only needs a single free turn which is not that hard too come by. It can also get a nice +1 by switching into a dark move thrown at espathra or oricorio. Oricorio is both a good spin blocker and a potential sweeper, with ghost+flying STAB being nearly unresisted by the metagame, and fighting tera covering most other matchups. Hydreigon is simply a good pivot with rocks, u-turn and draco. Gastrodon is mostly here so you don't lose too rain and toedscruel is here for hazard control+stacking. Knock off covers for spin blockers and its ability ignores magic bounce.

The team does have some flaws. It lacks a solid speed control besides e-speed and can't really handle the flying spam that is permeating the tier, but these problems can somewhat be played around with well timed setup.

anyway
fun team, can recommend

 

[Corperate n]

https://pokepast.es/4402b7a6dd1c1928

I thought I would try a magnezone pairing with espathra. Magnezone is kind of dissapointing in this meta in general, but it does have some cool applications in terms of removing some of espathra's more common checks, like tinkaton and bisharp, making the bird even better than it already is. chople helps trap forretress with press. I actually have a specs espathra rather than the more standard cm (thanks to estarossa's team from the np thread for the idea). I've found that specs has slightly weaker, but still strong, potential as a sweeper, however the utility of trick is amazing, as is the immediate power. Specs also lets it run uturn which can lure in magnezone's targets. Mimikyu is a very reliable revenge killer, which I think is important in this meta, and it can also benefit from magnezone support. Noivern is a mon I like a lot as a glue atm, and it brings in espathra with uturn p easily vs the more passive fat mons that often come in on noiv, which hate trick/lumina crash. Donphan was added for its sick role compression (ground, rocks, spin, knock). I went through many variations of this last slot. I wanted to be ok into rain without having donphan become something too passive like quag or gastro, I wanted an ice resist, blah blah blah, tera blast grass washing machine. It's like rotom wash but also kind of like mowtom so you can beat the annoying water grounds I mentioned earlier. Thunder wave also helps support the rest of the team, so it was a good choice. It's really hard to say what makes a good team right now but I hope you find this one to be at least fun.

 

[Theviking]

E terrian (pokepast.es)
This is an electric terrain built around Hawluncha and Espathra with electric terrain to active unburden and be faster than most things outside of rain. Espathra can be could a really bulky mon with the seed. Raptor is just a breaker

 

[Slip]

Specspathra:
(click me!)

This team is filled with goons and uses the worst Espathra set which instantly makes it 20x cooler. Team idea is relatively basic. Stack up hazards and use Espathra/Heracross to sweep. Support from prankster Murkrow helps stop the 2 defoggers in the tier while Tinkaton helps stop set up mons for your own sweepers to take advantage. Gastro is here to stop water sweepers with bramble and bramble is here to beat every spinner in the tier. There is also a lot of options to adjust for your own playstyle as you can move around who has spikes and stealth rock between bramble, gastro, and tinkaton. Overall I think the concept here is very cool and has the potential to make Espathra specs work, so if anyone uses it please let me know how it goes as I haven't tested it yet LOL.

Glad to have your project back biii hopefully all these teams will be unviable by the end of the month tho lmao

 

[Boomalacka]

https://pokepast.es/9fa78c494032b59a

I really like running pawmot to revive staraptor after recoil builds up. You can use it a lot more freely which helps break down everything for espathra to sweep.

 

[BigFatMantis]

https://pokepast.es/263a527a2eb79a68

This team is funny. The Arboliva just gets hit and sets up your seed sweeping Espathra or a Hawlucha if that's what you're in the mood for. The Def + with Seed is so high so you will basically be indestructible after two CMs. Jolteon is also a funny option to sweep. Ideally just do some stuff with Drei and then swap to Arboliva and start sweeping.

 

[Twilight]

Specs Espathra because the CM sets are boring. The plan is to just spam Lumina Crash and chunk through most answers to it. I decided I would partner it with a few pivots to get it in safely. Washtom is really good right, I opted for NP in the last slot with Grass Tera Blast to pick off Gastrodon and Quagsire. I was running Tera Fairy for a bit to lure Hydreigon but I think the team handles it well enough. Grafaiai gives an Espathra and Gengar soft-check. Talonflame gives a more reliable response to Slitherwing and Lucario + removal. Gastrodon is a good glue mon and gives a rocker. The extra Water-type is particularly useful if you ever use the Tera on Washer. Finally, Bisharp kinda glued the team out well and gave a decent wincon. Priority is also great to have with the already high Speed tier mons on the squad.

 

[StarFalcon555]

https://pokepast.es/d099f2d11f86754b

this is the most small brain team you will ever see in your life. you could put a blind stegosaurus in front of a computer with showdown on it and have it ladder with this team and it could still get to 1400 ELO in an hour. I got to 1400 ELO within an hour with this team after being in 1050 ELO hell for a week. it took me five minutes to build this team and it takes five minutes for this team to win. I really hope I don't have to explain this team too in depth bc what it does is vv obvious. I like Forretress as a HO lead bc it just has insane role compression with hazards + hazard removal + sturdy + going boom. I messed with Eject Button and Eject Pack for more momentum but the former always activates before you can set up hazards and the latter rarely activates. eventually I settled on Mental Herb to get around Prankster Taunt shenanigans. Morgrem is unironically viable in this tier - Prankster Screens + Parting Shot is just stupid, and it actually has enough longevity to set up screens at least twice per game. dumbass turkey does dumbass turkey things, won me half of my game single handedly. Tera Fighting is specifically for Bisharp but Tera Fairy would probably work just as well. originally I used SubPlot + Black Sludge Gengar but found the speed lacking. Liz Angeles mentioned on discord how she likes Scarf Gengar on HO so I gave it a try and it's really good, fixes the speed issues without losing the power, highly recommend! SD Lucario is insane, honestly you don't even need to Tera half the time, +2 Silk Scarf ESpeed alone rips a hole in the tier. and finally DD Mence does DD Mence things, clicks DD once and then goes brrrr. you can't really go wrong with this team, or screens HO in general in this meta, and this team utilizes four of the most insane offensive threats to create probably the most HO team ever.

 

[Lily]

Thief Dragalge + the broken ostrich

This team uses Thief Dragalge w/ Toxic Spikes to not only pressure Dark-types for Espathra - which is Dark Tera to avoid Prankster sheananigans and is also mono Stored Power - but also to Thief Steel-types like Tinkaton that could present a problem otherwise. Tinkaton is the SR setter of choice mostly bc it beats up Dark-types harder and provides a wonderful Knock Off user, and Hydreigon bc it's broken + I needed a decent Ground-resist. Pawmot is just the best Speed control imo and reviving either Hydreigon or Espathra can be very useful; Quagsire helps with Bisharp and other assorted setup sweepers. Quag can be Water Absorb if you're really scared of rain though.

 

[yonitet]

Twists in the Serengeti

https://pokepast.es/b45bb8463300a888



~Hanukkah Matata~

is beyond broken.
Ladies and Gentlemen we have an Uber roaming freely in the fields of UU. And what's the counterplay?
Another

of course!

Real talk for a sec; Opportunist

is extremely underrated and is without a doubt is one of the only true counters to bulky Calm Mind

. Opportunist is by itself an extremely handy ability to have in any Hyper-Offense centric meta.
You come in on a Shell Smash, and suddenly they're in some deep mud.
This is without even mentioning Lumina Crash.
Lumina Crash is yet another broken tool in the disposal of

. It's an 80BP move that lowers SpDef upon hit.
There is no such thing as a Lumina Cash switchin. Steels and Psychics are destroyed by the sheer power, and Darks face a stinging U-Turn or Dazzling Gleam. Furthermore, because most of

checks are Steels, U-Turn makes an excellent pairing with , who can trap and eliminate them with Iron Defense boosted Body Press and Discharge.

On top of being excellent support, is extremely important in the Rain matchup. With Discharge and Body Press, the one thing in Rain teams capable of switching into is , who is incredibly frail, and hard countered once rain is over. Most importantly, is capable of trapping and effortlessly eliminating it with a Body Press OHKO. Tera Flying is also notable for letting set up on ground type walls without fearing Earthquake or Close Combat. With Substitute and Tera Flying, is capable of setting up even on, letting int PP stall it thanks to Iron Defense's high PP andpredictable moveset.

is arguably the most important member of all VoltTurn teams. It's great mix of bulk, power and utility lets it completely disrupt opposing teams and gain large amounts of momentum for it's user. Even more effectively, its pairing with lets it completely out-momentum and destroy Grass and Dragon types that give it trouble.
is indispensable in the Rain matchup. With the ability to force out to bring in the beastie. It's Will-o-Wisp makes it extremely hard to switch into for many teams, as it threatens out the Fire types immune to it with Hydro Pump. Terastalization is also notable on , as it's capable of completely abusing Tera Steel. It's Hydro pumps deter Fire Types from switching in, while Ground types cannot harm it due to Levitate, and Fighting types are neutralized by burn.

is the offensive backbone of this team. Packing an absurdly strong Close Combat and U-Turn, is capable of completely destroying unprepared teams due to the sheer strength of it's STABs and priority. First Impression is a fantastic revenge killing tool thanks to it's pressure leading to highly favourable mixup situations. It's capable of revenge killing essentially everything in the tier, with even resists like Tera Fairy

taking upwards of 50% from a Choice Banded Tera Bug First Impression. Thanks to it's unusually high SpDef, its capable of switching into several special attackers in a pinch, such as. Wild Charge is rarely clicked, but it's main target is Flying types that resist both Bug and Fighting, like &

is a solid blend of offensive and defensive qualities that fits perfectly into this team. It's capable of acting as a solid Stealth Rocker and a decent switchin to most Pokémon in the tier. It's notable for handling with

fairly easily thanks to the strength of Heavy Slam and utility of Whirlwind stopping it setting up. With investment, its capable of taking on powerful special attackers like and.

is an valuable rapid spinner. Spore allows it to put an opposing Pokémon out of use, potentially lending a huge advantage to it's user. Rapid Spin lets it act as the team's hazard relief, while spikes can do the inverse to opponents. Heavy Duty Boots are used on it to leverage guaranteed spins without taking much chip that will not be healed due to the bad healing options has. is also notable for being a hard counter to &, which helps relieve it's own from pressure and getting worn down.

All and all this is an extremely fun team that is capable of easily beating some of the strongest playstyles available, while establishing the strength of VoltTurn.

~Enjoy~
<3​

 

[Celebiii]

What a way to start the generation off! Thank you for the incredible number of submissions this time! Vote for your favourite! For those new to the teambuilding competition, you can vote by posting the teambuilder's name, or you can just copy the team and their name below and post that.

• by Kizaco
• by tomatosoup110
• by justdrew
• by iLiekMudkipz_
• by HydreigonTheChild
• by Sulo
• by JKoster
• by Corperate n
• by Theviking
• by Slip
• by Boomalacka
• by BigFatMantis
• by Twilight
• by StarFalcon555
• by Lily
• by yonitet
• by miikeyraw

You have until the end of Sunday to vote (Sunday, December 11, 2022 @ 11:59PM GMT-5)!

My vote goes to Twilight!

 

[Slip]

Twilight

 

[lavarina]

Kizaco

 

[HydreigonTheChild]

lily for having a hydreigon team, wtf is that dragalge, and prob a pretty decent team

 

[Sulo]

twilight

 

[Corperate n]

twi

 

[iLiekMudkipz_]

StarFalcon bc morgrem