Exactly what the title says, an offensive UU team. With the re-introduction of Crobat into UU, the entire tier had to re-work itself as this stupid purple bat had a significant impact on every type of team. Balanced teams seemed to be all the rage, and the pure offensive teams seemed to be mostly Rain Dance with the occasional Sunny Day here and there. So I set out to come up with a purely offensive, non-weather, UU team which could be viable in today's post-Crobat metagame, and this is what I came up with. I'm posting this now because I don't know if it will be viable tomorrow, with the scheduled removal of Shaymin and Crobat the metagame is set to shift once again, and after those two are gone the team may very well become defunct (yes, they are both on it).
Steelix @ Iron Ball
Nature: Brave
EVs: 252 Hit Points / 252 Attack / 4 Special Defense
0 Speed IV
Stealth Rock
Earthquake
Gyro Ball
Explosion
Moveset: Not much to say. Steelix doesn't have that many viable options in its movepool, so there isn't much room to devise any terribly creative sets. Fortunately, it doesn't need to be creative in order to be effective. The dual STAB attacks have coverage that is only resisted by a few (Charizard, Moltres, Rotom, Ludicolo), Stealth Rock is obligatory, and Explosion is a broken move which should try and find its way onto the moveset of any pokemon who can viably use it. I didn't use Roar because there was simply nothing I could afford to drop for it, SR is obviously necessary and each of the other three moves provided invaluable coverage (or in Explosion's case just general win).
EVs & Nature: The strong emphasis on Attack was done to ensure that Steelix poses a threat to as many Pokemon as possible. This is the primary reason that I chose Steelix over Registeel; this is meant to be an offensive team, and thus I want all members of the team able to lay down significant damage, in order to keep the opponent constantly threatened. After maxing Attack, max HP is a no-brainer since it gives the best overall defenses and putting anything into Speed on Steelix is an obvious no-no.
Item Choice: Gyro Ball is a move with some great offensive properties. It has the potential to reach 150 base power, it has 100 accuracy, and Steelix gets STAB on it. I wanted to really abuse this, and Steelix is one of the best Pokemon to abuse it with. With Iron Ball and the appropriate nature and IVs, Steelix reaches an astoundingly horrible 29 Speed, being outsped by every single other Pokemon in UU. This also has the cool side effect of making Gyro Ball astoundingly powerful. Thanks to Iron Ball, Gyro Ball reaches its full 150 base power against anything with 174 Speed or more. Without Iron Ball, this Speed marker would be doubled to 348. Enough said. Can also be funny when people are trying to Trick me, I'm still waiting for the day when I get a chance to use Earthquake on a Trickscarf Rotom and kill it after it Tricks Iron Ball onto itself.
Why I Chose This Thing: Stealth Rock is a necessity on most any team, and in UU a flying resist is also pretty much a necessity. This is the most offensive Pokemon I could find to fill those two roles; I didn't want to use the less powerful Registeel, as I was aiming for as much brute force as possible, and Steelix's typing badly outclasses Regirock's with dual STABs, many more resistances, and double resistance to SR. Out of UU's possible Steel/Rock SR users, Steelix is the best at threatening his possible switch-ins with the strong coverage of Gyro Ball/Earthquake, and I considered it very important that my Pokemon be able to deal with popular switch-ins if at all possible. Steelix's base Attack may be mediocre, but his high-powered moves (particularly Gyro Ball which is reaching max power against so many things) go a long way towards compensating for this. Some calculations for Gyro Ball against some of the most common UU Pokemon:
vs 48/0 Timid Mismagius (standard SubCM): 112.09% to 131.87%
vs 4/min Honchkrow: 99.12% to 116.96%, pretty much a guaranteed OHKO
vs 4/min Shaymin: 59.06% to 69.59%, guaranteed 2HKO
vs 100/min Crobat: 72.32% to 85.12%, way more than it can Roost off
vs 4/min Roserade: 124.05% to 146.56%
vs max HP Roserade: 100.31% to 118.52%, still an OHKO
vs max HP Intimidate Hitmontop: 46.38% to 54.61%, with SR and Leftovers, a 2HKO over 98% of the time
vs max HP/144 Def Bold Claydol: 47.22% to 55.86%, with SR and Leftovers, a guaranteed 2HKO
vs max HP Regirock: 46.7% to 56.04%, with SR and Leftovers, pretty much a guaranteed 2HKO (over 99% chance)
vs 4/min Espeon: 112.5% to 132.35%
vs max HP Espeon: 91.62% to 107.78%, with SR, a guaranteed OHKO, and sporting nearly 50% chance to OHKO from full health
vs 4/min Ambipom: 96.92% to 114.38%, about 80% chance to OHKO
Basically, almost anything that doesn't resist Gyro Ball is going to take a nice chunk from it, and many of the things that resist it, such as Fire and Steel types, are conveniently weak to Steelix's other STAB. Few Pokemon can comfortably switch into it without risking at least a good portion of their health, and as you can see, many of the more offensive Pokemon are risking an OHKO, and almost none of them can OHKO Steelix with unboosted moves. Even the mighty Shaymin can almost never OHKO with Timid Life Orb Seed Flare, and Steelix can do more damage than it is able to recover with Synthesis, meaning that if Shaymin switches into a Gyro Ball (or possibly even EQ + SR) I can reliably remove it from play right then and there. Steelix is one of the best Pokemon to set up Stealth Rock because the common Taunters, Crobat and Ambipom, must put themselves at incredible risk in order to Taunt him. If Crobat taunts me and I pick Gyro Ball, he's crippled and unable to recover that damage (a second Gyro Ball will finish him if he tries), and if Ambipom tries it he is usually just OHKO'd outright. Steelix is also able to deal good damage on the two popular spinners, Hitmontop and Claydol, wearing them down very quickly if they repeatedly switch in. Throw in Explosion, and there are very few Pokemon that are totally safe against this guy, he usually has plenty to work with when trying to break an opposing team.
The reason why I lead with Steelix is fairly obvious. Crobat is the #1 most used lead (& also Ambipom at #3) + Steelix scoffs at Crobat/Ambipom = Steelix leads. Simple math. I also want my SR user out first so that, if not faced with a Taunt lead, I can try and throw rocks up ASAP, they are very important in UU with massive threats such as Moltres and Yanmega being double weak to them.
Weaknesses: Ground is covered by Missy, Shaymin and Crobat. Fighting is covered by Missy and Crobat. Water is covered by Azumarill and Shaymin. Fire is covered by Azumarill. Things that try to use WoW will generally meet Shaymin, and Steelix is immune to T-wave and poison anyway (kinda unfortunate, I'd love to get it paralyzed as that would just make Gyro Ball even stronger).
Mismagius @ Leftovers
Nature: Timid
EVs: 48 Hit Points / 252 Speed / 208 Special Attack
Substitute
Calm Mind
Shadow Ball
Thunderbolt
Moveset: Obviously a SubCMer. The main comment to make is that I chose Thunderbolt over HP Fighting because of Honchkrow, allowing me to CM as he breaks my sub, and then OHKO with T-bolt while he's trying to Pursuit me. It's also convenient for beating Milotic which, for some reason, often tries to tangle with SubCM Missy, and is nice for hitting Drapion neutral. The main advantages of HP Fighting were to hit Steelix and especially Registeel SE, but unless they already have significant damage Missy loses to those two even with HP Fighting, so I considered Thunderbolt's advantages more significant, as it allowed me to guarantee that I could beat one of my counters.
EVs, Nature & Item Choice: Standard. No attempts at creativity here; if it's not broken, don't try to fix it.
Why I Chose This Thing: This is the team slot that I'm the least sure about, and I've tried tons of random stuff in this spot, a priority Technitop, an Ambipom, some other random crap that I don't remember, but eventually I came up with Mismagius as the most reliable Pokemon to fill the gap. SubCM Missy is a reliable Pokemon on any team; it provides important backup resistances to Fighting and Ground if Crobat bites it, a secondary answer to bulky waters if Shaymin goes down, a second special attacker just so that I have more than one Pokemon hitting from the special side, etc. There is not much to say as it's a standard, tried-and-true set, and I'm using it precisely because of that, it works.
Weaknesses: Both Ghost and Dark are covered by Steelix and Absol. Protected from status by Sub.
Azumarill @ Choice Band
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 244 Hit Points / 252 Attack / 12 Speed
Aqua Jet
Waterfall
Superpower
Double-Edge
Moveset: Aqua Jet and Waterfall are a given. The last two slots were a toss-up between Double-Edge, Superpower and Ice Punch. I knew I wanted Double-Edge immediately because of the possibility to 2HKO Slowbro. Between Superpower and Ice Punch, I eventually chose Superpower simply because of the higher base power and greater neutral coverage vs common switch-ins. Ice Punch is useful for grass switch-ins and Altaria, however it does piddly if the other guy sends in a Water like Milotic, or predicts Ice Punch and goes to a Fire type. Neutral coverage is very important on Choice sets, and Double-Edge was already doing massive damage to literally any Pokemon that resisted Azumarill's STAB, so in most cases there would be little reason to use Ice Punch over the superior neutral coverage of Double-Edge. Superpower atleast allowed me to hit Registeel and Omastar while still retaining strong neutral coverage against a variety of other switch-ins.
EVs & Nature: Max HP and Attack doesn't need too much explaining on a slow Choice Bander. The 12 Speed EVs are to help me beat out other base 50s which might not have invested any in their own Speed, such as Chansey, Hariyama, the Regis, etc.
Item Choice: A Choice Band set was immediately appealing because of the possibility to beat Azumarill's arch-nemesis Slowbro. If Slowbro has about 10% prior damage, then using Double-Edge I can 2HKO it with SR down. The other factor which made me lean towards Choice Band was the fact that the CB set's priority is much stronger. Priority is a huge asset for any offensive team, keeping a wide range of threats in check, and I couldn't say no to the power of CB Aqua Jet, the strongest priority available after Honchkrow/Absol's Sucker Punch. For example, with CB, Azumarill's Aqua Jet is capable of KOing Moltres after it has suffered Life Orb recoil once, preventing Life Orb Moltres leads from hitting me with HP Grass after I switch into Fire Blast.
Why I Chose This Thing: A Fire-resist was absolutely necessary with so many high-powered fire moves being thrown around in UU, from Magmortar, to Arcanine, to Moltres, to the dreaded Blaziken. I didn't want to be forced to immediately sacrifice against Moltres leads, or when Blaziken comes in on Steelix's Stealth Rock, or whatever. My choices for the role of Fire Resister were:
Altaria: Even though this can Dragon Dance, with 70 base Attack and Special Attack I really didn't feel that it belonged on an offensive team. With Azumarill packing the equivalent of 150 base Attack, over twice as high as Altaria's, and all of the additional resistances Altaria provides being covered by other team members already, there was really no way I could choose Altaria over Azumarill. I was also looking for an Ice resist, Ice isn't a very powerful attacking type in UU as no UU Pokemon get STAB on it, but it would still be nice to have at least one resistance to it, and clearly Altaria doesn't fulfill that requirement.
Various Fire-types: Pretty much any UU Fire-type can pose a big offensive threat, but Azumarill beat out most of these due to its possession of powerful priority, an excellent tool on UU offense. In addition, I really didn't want to add any SR weaks. The only Pokemon I seriously considered here was Blaziken, as he is not weak to SR, packs priority, and like Azumarill has the sheer, brute force to smash anything in UU, but considering that I was choosing a Pokemon to counter Fire-types, I had to go with Azumarill as its priority was actually SE on Fire-types. If I bring Blaziken in on a Moltres Fire Blast, it's just going to die to Air Slash next turn. If I bring in Azumarill, instead it's Moltres who dies. The additional Water resistance provided by Azumarill was also convenient, since my team had only one other Water resist, Azumarill would help to prevent being swept by things like DD Feraligatr.
Other Water-types: None of these can match Azumarill in sheer power, period. Milotic and Slowbro can stall and tank, but this is an offensive team, I'm not aiming to stall and tank. I don't want to absorb a hit, recover off the damage as Shaymin switches in, then switch right back out. I want to absorb a hit, then blast the Shaymin switch-in with a 120 base power move coming off 654 Attack. Azumarill simply provided the most bang for my buck, so to speak. Not to mention, again, the whole priority deal.
Like Steelix, Azumarill is able to fill a mixture of useful roles as a reasonably bulky water-type, a user of strong priority, and a user of powerful attacks in general, all rolled into a neat little rabbit-shaped package. The ability to devastate almost any possible switch-in, with just two moves (the brilliant coverage of Normal + Water, which hits all UU Pokemon neutral except Shedinja), was also extremely appealing. Some calculations to demonstrate Azumarill's unmatched power:
Double-Edge vs Max HP Roserade: 118.83% minimum
Double-Edge vs 4/min Ludicolo: 105.63% minimum
Double-Edge vs standard Lanturn: 92.02% to 108.48%, a guaranteed OHKO with SR and nearly a 50% chance to OHKO even without
Double-Edge vs 4/min Feraligatr: 76.28% to 90.06%
Double-Edge vs max/max Bold Blastoise: 47.24% to 55.8%, with SR and leftovers, a guaranteed 2HKO
Double-Edge vs 4/min Azumarill: 83.92% to 98.83%, about a 75% chance to OHKO with SR
Double-Edge vs max HP Altaria: 73.45% to 86.72%, with SR nearly a 90% chance to OHKO
Double-Edge vs max/max Bold Milotic: 50.51% to 59.64%, with SR and Leftovers a guaranteed 2HKO
Double-Edge vs max/0 Modest Milotic: 73.35% to 86.55%, OHKOing with a small amount of prior damage
Double-Edge vs max/0 Adamant Poliwrath: 64.84% to 76.30%, a guaranteed 2HKO
Double-Edge vs 4/0 Sceptile: 120.21% minimum
Double-Edge vs 4/0 Shaymin: 69.59% to 82.16%, forcing them into a situation of whether to use Synthesis or Seed Flare, and if they pick wrong they die/are forced out by the Crobat switch-in without recovering any damage, or if they have a little prior damage they just die outright upon switching in
Double-Edge vs max HP Calm Venusaur: 76.37% to 90.11%, slight chance of OHKO with SR
Double-Edge vs 4/min Toxicroak: 110.42% minimum
As already stated Slowbro can even be 2HKO'd with a little prior damage, and he's outsped so Azumarill will finish him before he can heal. I don't need to post calcs for Waterfall on stuff that doesn't resist it, it's just as strong. Azumarill is pretty much unmatched in its ability to so strongly threaten almost any Pokemon with just 2 moves, and is incredibly adept at devastating its switch-ins with Double-Edge. Throw in the ability to revenge kill with Aqua Jet, good defensive typing and bulk for an offensive Pokemon (100/80/80 defenses are nearing those of Shaymin) and you've got an incredibly useful attacker. When you're choosing a Water-type while aiming to make every Pokemon on the team pack as much punch as possible, Azumarill is a no-brainer.
Weaknesses: Electric is covered by Steelix and Shaymin. Grass is covered by Crobat and Shaymin. I generally don't care too much if it gets paralyzed as it's already either going to go first or go last (with Aqua Jet, or anything else, respectively) in most situations. Steelix, Crobat and Shaymin can all absorb Toxic and Shaymin is still there to absorb WoW, or if I really must, Missy can take WoW as it is indeed a special attacker and won't be crippled by it.
Absol @ Life Orb
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 4 Hit Points / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Ability: Super Luck
Sucker Punch
Night Slash
Superpower
Pursuit
Moveset: Absol is like Steelix in that he only has a few viable options. Swords Dance was thrown out because Absol almost never finds time to use it, almost any Pokemon can threaten it with its paper defenses, and many refuse to switch out because of Pursuit. Swords Dance/Sucker Punch mindgames are fun, but I'd rather be using Night Slash if I'm not using Sucker Punch, as if I predict right and use Night Slash I can simply end the prediction war right there, whereas even after I Swords Dance I'd still be playing the dangerous prediction game of whether to Night Slash or Sucker Punch. Psycho Cut is only 70 BP, non-STAB, too weak to be of much use. It has approximately 140 BP against its intended targets (bulky Fighters), only 20 more than Superpower, not worth using for a little extra damage against a select few Pokemon. Pursuit makes a much bigger difference against its intended targets.
EVs & Nature: Adamant > Jolly on something with STAB Sucker Punch. Max Attack & Speed are pretty obvious, its defenses are complete garbage so there's no point in investing anything there.
Item Choice: Absol really only chooses between Choice or LO, and Choice I find to often be suicidal. If I went with Choice, most people would immediately deduce my item when they saw the lack of LO recoil, and then I'd only have one chance in a prediction war, if I made the wrong choice they'd know I couldn't switch attacks and I'd be totally screwed. For example, against SubCM Missy, a Choice Band Absol will always lose as the Missy simply scouts with Sub and acts accordingly, whereas LO Absol is perfectly capable of killing the Missy. Choice Band is absolutely not worth it for a 20% increase in power, especially since the LO recoil is largely irrelevant with Absol, his defenses are abhorrent so if he needs to take a hit he's usually dead regardless of LO recoil. Choice Scarf has somewhat of a surprise factor, but in the end simply doesn't make sense on something which has literally the most powerful priority attack in the whole game.
Why I Chose This Thing: I wanted at least two priority users on my team, even though each Pokemon's weaknesses are all covered by at least one other Pokemon, I was still not exactly focusing on defensive synergy, and thus priority is my main line of defense against alot of sweepers (see: Yanmega). If Azumarill bites it Absol can still cover me against fast sweepers, and vice versa; having double priority has saved my ass multiple times. When looking for a potential second priority user, the #1 candidates were the Sucker Punchers simply because of the sheer power of their priority. A 80 base power STAB priority attack beats the shit out of any other available priority. Sure, they have to attack you, but in many cases this doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if Feraligatr is sitting at 60%, whether he has 1 DD or 6 Absol still kills him when he decides to attack. People who think they are cool enough to stall out all of Sucker Punch's 8 PP have the odds stacked against them, since I can randomly throw in Night Slash anytime I want to and they have to completely guess when it might be.
In comparing Absol vs Honchkrow, I had Honchkrow at first, but decided that I wanted to try a set without Drill Peck, see how 3 Dark attacks would do. Then I decided that I'd use Super Luck over Insomnia, and at that point I realized that if I was going to run 3 Dark attacks + Superpower and Super Luck, I might aswell make it so that my Pokemon wasn't SR weak and could beat other Honchkrow (Adamant Absol outpaces Adamant Krow, beating him to the Superpower, resisting Sucker Punch, and winning one-on-one confrontations). I figured I'd go back to Honchkrow if I missed Drill Peck too much, but this worked out just fine as I found myself always using Night Slash on anything that wasn't resistant because of the absurd Crit rate, and not running into too many situations where I was like "damn, I really wish I had STAB Drill Peck," although a few of those did happen (see: Hitmontop and Hariyama). Even when the lack of Drill Peck screwed me, though, I just remembered all the times that Pursuit has been useful aswell. At any rate it no longer matters as Honchkrow is about to leave the UU ladder.
In addition to priority, Absol provides powerful attack capabilities in general. Night Slash's 25% Crit rate is simply unfair, allowing Absol to beat down all sorts of stuff that would usually beat him instead. When coupled with Superpower, Absol is able to hit all of UU's premier physical walls super-effective, making him difficult to defend against, and Sucker Punch + the ability to beat Honchkrow makes him difficult to revenge. He's a great all-around choice for an attacker, and the fact that he has few actual counters and is able to break the common physical walls really appealed to me. Like Azumarill, I picked him because he is very effective against both offensive and defensive threats in general, and like Azumarill, I was looking for Pokemon who could deal with their usual switch-ins, and Absol can beat almost any Pokemon in UU with proper prediction or just plain unfair hax with Super Luck. Absol doesn't live too long but he makes a splash while he's alive.
Weaknesses: Fighting is covered by Mismagius and Crobat, Bug is also covered by those two aswell as Steelix. Once again he has priority so paralysis is not a big worry, and I have the same stuff as always to absorb Toxic or WoW, not that he cares too much about Toxic either since once again, if he ever gets actually attacked he's usually going to die anyway, and he rarely lives long enough to actually die from Toxic damage without getting attacked.
Shaymin @ Life Orb
Nature: Timid
EVs: 36 Hit Points / 220 Speed / 252 Special Attack
Seed Flare
Psychic
Hidden Power Rock
Synthesis
Moveset: Seed Flare is a given, and so is Synthesis as Shaymin has enough bulk and can force enough switches to really abuse it. The other two moves were the ones that needed figuring out. I wanted Psychic immediately because it can KO Crobat with SR, which is simply too good to ignore, and is also my hardest-hitting move against Roserade, another popular switch-in to Shaymin. This left Air Slash, HP Ice, HP Rock and Earth Power as possible last moves. Air Slash was inferior to HP Ice, as both would hit enemy Shaymin but HP Ice would hit Altaria and cover possible Crobat switches at the same time. HP Rock would allow me to hit Fire-types, Altaria, and cover Crobat, but wouldn't hurt enemy Shaymin or Registeel. Earth Power allowed me to hit Registeel and Fire-types, but would possibly allow Crobat a free switch, and leave me SOL against Moltres and other Shaymin.
In the end, I went with HP Rock because of Moltres. HP Rock covered everything except enemy Shaymin and Registeel; I could cover one of those two with a different move, but not both, and HP Ice/Earth Power both had bigger drawbacks than HP Rock. Earth Power left me vulnerable to Altaria, gave Crobat another move to switch in on, and left Moltres free to terrorize me at will, while HP Ice left me vulnerable to all non-Blaziken Fire-types which I found to be more immediately threatening than enemy Shaymin, considering that I had only one Fire resist and if that wasn't available for whatever reason and Shaymin couldn't hit the Moltres that had just switched in, I'd have to sacrifice, end of story, and I didn't want to be forced into that situation.
HP Rock is also simply more effective against its intended target than HP Ice or Earth Power; HP Ice/Earth Power will not immediately KO Shaymin/Registeel, even with HP Ice I could still easily lose to enemy Shaymin, and Registeel could still easily blow up on me. Moltres, however, simply gets instantly annihilated in one hit from HP Rock.
EVs & Nature: I was losing to other Shaymin one-on-one anyway so I didn't bother to Speed tie with them. The Speed EVs outpace +Speed Nature Arcanine, the next fastest thing. Max Special Attack is obvious, what's left over goes in HP for a little more durability. Failing to tie with Charizard has screwed me over a couple times, though.
Item Choice: As with Absol, Life Orb is a no-brainer on offensive Shaymin. Part of the reason Shaymin is so good is that it can hit absolutely any of its counters hard, and is fast enough to outpace the majority of the tier, allowing it to switch to another coverage move and beat alot of the common Seed Flare resists before they can even hit back. The ability to switch moves was invaluable here. I considered Coba Berry to screw with Crobat but decided to not bother trying it out.
Why I Chose This Thing: Ahhhh, this bastard. I hate him cause I know he's too good, but that's why I have to use him, too. Most serious UU teams will include Shaymin. It was nominated for BL for good reason, it is broken. Shaymin is the best special sweeper in the tier, period. Any team that does not carry Chansey is threatened by this guy, period. He has great coverage, great bulk, great power with Seed Flare + the chance of an SpD drop. He provides key resistances to Water and Ground, and has the speed, coverage and power to revenge all sorts of threats for me. With Shaymin it's not Why Would You Use It?, it's more like Why Would You Not Use It?
Weaknesses: Flying is covered by Steelix. Fire is covered by Azumarill. Ice is covered by Azumarill. Bug is covered by Mismagius, Crobat and Steelix. Poison is also covered by Mismagius, Crobat and Steelix. Natural Cure means he doesn't care about status.
Crobat @ Leftovers
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 160 Hit Points / 252 Attack / 96 Speed
Brave Bird
Roost
U-Turn
Confuse Ray
Moveset: Standard Crobat set, the first three moves are non-negotiable on any Crobat, any offensive Crobat atleast. Confuse Ray was chosen over Taunt because the metagame had become so heavily focused on Crobat. Everyone knew it was out there, everyone knew its set, and everyone prepared for it. Anything that was worth taunting, had re-invented itself to prepare for a Crobat coming in and trying to Taunt it. Regirock started running Stone Edge over Rock Slide alongside a higher number of Attack EVs, Steelix started running enough Attack to maim Crobat with Gyro Ball, Slowbro started running Psychic, I've even seen Registeel try to Thunder me. Taunt simply wasn't worth it anymore, it was always a risk and you frequently got smacked around for it. As a replacement I seriously considered Hypnosis, but that would force me to run Aerial Ace instead of Brave Bird, and I decided that halving my attack power for a move that would miss almost half the time anyway just wasn't worth it. Thus, sadly, I was left with just good ol' Confuse Ray, not really an outstanding move, but works against anything and is generally annoying if I have nothing better to do.
EVs & Nature: Max Attack to get the most out of Crobat's stupidly fast STAB Brave Bird, makes a difference against stuff like Missy or Espeon that might be left barely alive if I ran any less attack, and can screw over people who EV their Shaymin to only survive Brave Bird from the popular 152 Atk variant or something like that. Speed EVs are way below max, allowing me to put lots into Hp and giving Crobat some nice bulk. The Speed EVs are set to outpace Timid Espeon. Yes, I get outsped by several Pokemon including other Crobat, but frankly, besides other Crobat, none of those other Pokemon are common at all and I already have not one but two priority users to deal with stuff like Swellow when it ever does show up. So far I've found the spread to be a reasonably effective one, I can't recall any significant problems it has caused me so far.
Item Choice: Yeah, Leftovers, what else. I considered Life Orb just for the hell of it, but figured it really wouldn't be worth it, you'd be hurting yourself alot with recoil from both Brave Bird and LO, and literally hurting yourself more than the opponent whenever they switched a Steel or Rock into BB.
Why I Chose This Thing: See Shaymin. This guy is too good, the only Pokemon who is possibly better than Shaymin in UU. Brave Bird does good, consistent damage on anything save a select few Pokemon, all of which can be conveniently U-Turned off to Shaymin or Azumarill. Crobat really has no counters because any counter can just be U-Turned, keeping the momentum on my side, which is great for an offensive team. Brave Bird has too-good-to-be-true coverage in UU, there are twice as many Pokemon weak to it as there are that resist it, and there's a mere 7 that resist it, out of a tier of 58. Combined with that huge Speed score Crobat can revenge tons of stuff and sweep through stuff that's weakened or simply weak to Brave Bird to begin with, which includes top UU Pokemon such as Shaymin, Roserade, Blaziken and Hitmontop. In addition to this he provides key Ground, Fighting and Grass resistances to contribute to my defenses. Crobat does all sorts of things and he's good at everything he does. Just as with Shaymin, the question isn't why do I use Crobat, it would be more along the lines of why would I not use Crobat.
Weaknesses: Psychic is covered by Absol and Steelix. Ice is covered by Azumarill. Electric is covered by Shaymin and Steelix. Rock is covered by Steelix. Shaymin and Steelix can absorb T-wave, or Azumarill doesn't care much about T-wave either. As with all my physical attackers, my two special attackers can absorb WoW if need be, and Crobat's immune to Toxic.
I've done pretty well with this team but I'm sure it can be better. One of the bigger problems is that I don't really have a good sleep absorber for Roserade, I can bring in Shaymin but then if it's not choiced and I don't switch, I could die to Sludge Bomb, whereas if I switch I could get something else Sleep'd. But I don't really know how to fix this, since I don't want to use Primeape, Honchkrow is gonna be off the ladder anytime now, and I don't want to run a RestTalker on an offensive team. I've considered Lum Berry on Crobat to let it switch into Sleep Powder once, but that too will be irrelevant soon since Crobat's about to be removed. I suppose that's the biggest thing I want feedback about, and part of the reason I posted this team, I need replacements for Crobat and Shaymin and would like some suggestions. Please, rate, offer any comments or feedback, make any sort of suggestions you might have about viable replacements for my two BLs.
I'm thinking about Roserade to replace Crobat as it can provide some of the same important resistances (Grass and Fighting) and because I'll be losing one of my bulky water counters when Shaymin's banned. No idea what sort of set to run, though, SubSeed, LO attacker, whatever, I don't know.
Steelix @ Iron Ball
Nature: Brave
EVs: 252 Hit Points / 252 Attack / 4 Special Defense
0 Speed IV
Stealth Rock
Earthquake
Gyro Ball
Explosion
Moveset: Not much to say. Steelix doesn't have that many viable options in its movepool, so there isn't much room to devise any terribly creative sets. Fortunately, it doesn't need to be creative in order to be effective. The dual STAB attacks have coverage that is only resisted by a few (Charizard, Moltres, Rotom, Ludicolo), Stealth Rock is obligatory, and Explosion is a broken move which should try and find its way onto the moveset of any pokemon who can viably use it. I didn't use Roar because there was simply nothing I could afford to drop for it, SR is obviously necessary and each of the other three moves provided invaluable coverage (or in Explosion's case just general win).
EVs & Nature: The strong emphasis on Attack was done to ensure that Steelix poses a threat to as many Pokemon as possible. This is the primary reason that I chose Steelix over Registeel; this is meant to be an offensive team, and thus I want all members of the team able to lay down significant damage, in order to keep the opponent constantly threatened. After maxing Attack, max HP is a no-brainer since it gives the best overall defenses and putting anything into Speed on Steelix is an obvious no-no.
Item Choice: Gyro Ball is a move with some great offensive properties. It has the potential to reach 150 base power, it has 100 accuracy, and Steelix gets STAB on it. I wanted to really abuse this, and Steelix is one of the best Pokemon to abuse it with. With Iron Ball and the appropriate nature and IVs, Steelix reaches an astoundingly horrible 29 Speed, being outsped by every single other Pokemon in UU. This also has the cool side effect of making Gyro Ball astoundingly powerful. Thanks to Iron Ball, Gyro Ball reaches its full 150 base power against anything with 174 Speed or more. Without Iron Ball, this Speed marker would be doubled to 348. Enough said. Can also be funny when people are trying to Trick me, I'm still waiting for the day when I get a chance to use Earthquake on a Trickscarf Rotom and kill it after it Tricks Iron Ball onto itself.
Why I Chose This Thing: Stealth Rock is a necessity on most any team, and in UU a flying resist is also pretty much a necessity. This is the most offensive Pokemon I could find to fill those two roles; I didn't want to use the less powerful Registeel, as I was aiming for as much brute force as possible, and Steelix's typing badly outclasses Regirock's with dual STABs, many more resistances, and double resistance to SR. Out of UU's possible Steel/Rock SR users, Steelix is the best at threatening his possible switch-ins with the strong coverage of Gyro Ball/Earthquake, and I considered it very important that my Pokemon be able to deal with popular switch-ins if at all possible. Steelix's base Attack may be mediocre, but his high-powered moves (particularly Gyro Ball which is reaching max power against so many things) go a long way towards compensating for this. Some calculations for Gyro Ball against some of the most common UU Pokemon:
vs 48/0 Timid Mismagius (standard SubCM): 112.09% to 131.87%
vs 4/min Honchkrow: 99.12% to 116.96%, pretty much a guaranteed OHKO
vs 4/min Shaymin: 59.06% to 69.59%, guaranteed 2HKO
vs 100/min Crobat: 72.32% to 85.12%, way more than it can Roost off
vs 4/min Roserade: 124.05% to 146.56%
vs max HP Roserade: 100.31% to 118.52%, still an OHKO
vs max HP Intimidate Hitmontop: 46.38% to 54.61%, with SR and Leftovers, a 2HKO over 98% of the time
vs max HP/144 Def Bold Claydol: 47.22% to 55.86%, with SR and Leftovers, a guaranteed 2HKO
vs max HP Regirock: 46.7% to 56.04%, with SR and Leftovers, pretty much a guaranteed 2HKO (over 99% chance)
vs 4/min Espeon: 112.5% to 132.35%
vs max HP Espeon: 91.62% to 107.78%, with SR, a guaranteed OHKO, and sporting nearly 50% chance to OHKO from full health
vs 4/min Ambipom: 96.92% to 114.38%, about 80% chance to OHKO
Basically, almost anything that doesn't resist Gyro Ball is going to take a nice chunk from it, and many of the things that resist it, such as Fire and Steel types, are conveniently weak to Steelix's other STAB. Few Pokemon can comfortably switch into it without risking at least a good portion of their health, and as you can see, many of the more offensive Pokemon are risking an OHKO, and almost none of them can OHKO Steelix with unboosted moves. Even the mighty Shaymin can almost never OHKO with Timid Life Orb Seed Flare, and Steelix can do more damage than it is able to recover with Synthesis, meaning that if Shaymin switches into a Gyro Ball (or possibly even EQ + SR) I can reliably remove it from play right then and there. Steelix is one of the best Pokemon to set up Stealth Rock because the common Taunters, Crobat and Ambipom, must put themselves at incredible risk in order to Taunt him. If Crobat taunts me and I pick Gyro Ball, he's crippled and unable to recover that damage (a second Gyro Ball will finish him if he tries), and if Ambipom tries it he is usually just OHKO'd outright. Steelix is also able to deal good damage on the two popular spinners, Hitmontop and Claydol, wearing them down very quickly if they repeatedly switch in. Throw in Explosion, and there are very few Pokemon that are totally safe against this guy, he usually has plenty to work with when trying to break an opposing team.
The reason why I lead with Steelix is fairly obvious. Crobat is the #1 most used lead (& also Ambipom at #3) + Steelix scoffs at Crobat/Ambipom = Steelix leads. Simple math. I also want my SR user out first so that, if not faced with a Taunt lead, I can try and throw rocks up ASAP, they are very important in UU with massive threats such as Moltres and Yanmega being double weak to them.
Weaknesses: Ground is covered by Missy, Shaymin and Crobat. Fighting is covered by Missy and Crobat. Water is covered by Azumarill and Shaymin. Fire is covered by Azumarill. Things that try to use WoW will generally meet Shaymin, and Steelix is immune to T-wave and poison anyway (kinda unfortunate, I'd love to get it paralyzed as that would just make Gyro Ball even stronger).
Mismagius @ Leftovers
Nature: Timid
EVs: 48 Hit Points / 252 Speed / 208 Special Attack
Substitute
Calm Mind
Shadow Ball
Thunderbolt
Moveset: Obviously a SubCMer. The main comment to make is that I chose Thunderbolt over HP Fighting because of Honchkrow, allowing me to CM as he breaks my sub, and then OHKO with T-bolt while he's trying to Pursuit me. It's also convenient for beating Milotic which, for some reason, often tries to tangle with SubCM Missy, and is nice for hitting Drapion neutral. The main advantages of HP Fighting were to hit Steelix and especially Registeel SE, but unless they already have significant damage Missy loses to those two even with HP Fighting, so I considered Thunderbolt's advantages more significant, as it allowed me to guarantee that I could beat one of my counters.
EVs, Nature & Item Choice: Standard. No attempts at creativity here; if it's not broken, don't try to fix it.
Why I Chose This Thing: This is the team slot that I'm the least sure about, and I've tried tons of random stuff in this spot, a priority Technitop, an Ambipom, some other random crap that I don't remember, but eventually I came up with Mismagius as the most reliable Pokemon to fill the gap. SubCM Missy is a reliable Pokemon on any team; it provides important backup resistances to Fighting and Ground if Crobat bites it, a secondary answer to bulky waters if Shaymin goes down, a second special attacker just so that I have more than one Pokemon hitting from the special side, etc. There is not much to say as it's a standard, tried-and-true set, and I'm using it precisely because of that, it works.
Weaknesses: Both Ghost and Dark are covered by Steelix and Absol. Protected from status by Sub.
Azumarill @ Choice Band
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 244 Hit Points / 252 Attack / 12 Speed
Aqua Jet
Waterfall
Superpower
Double-Edge
Moveset: Aqua Jet and Waterfall are a given. The last two slots were a toss-up between Double-Edge, Superpower and Ice Punch. I knew I wanted Double-Edge immediately because of the possibility to 2HKO Slowbro. Between Superpower and Ice Punch, I eventually chose Superpower simply because of the higher base power and greater neutral coverage vs common switch-ins. Ice Punch is useful for grass switch-ins and Altaria, however it does piddly if the other guy sends in a Water like Milotic, or predicts Ice Punch and goes to a Fire type. Neutral coverage is very important on Choice sets, and Double-Edge was already doing massive damage to literally any Pokemon that resisted Azumarill's STAB, so in most cases there would be little reason to use Ice Punch over the superior neutral coverage of Double-Edge. Superpower atleast allowed me to hit Registeel and Omastar while still retaining strong neutral coverage against a variety of other switch-ins.
EVs & Nature: Max HP and Attack doesn't need too much explaining on a slow Choice Bander. The 12 Speed EVs are to help me beat out other base 50s which might not have invested any in their own Speed, such as Chansey, Hariyama, the Regis, etc.
Item Choice: A Choice Band set was immediately appealing because of the possibility to beat Azumarill's arch-nemesis Slowbro. If Slowbro has about 10% prior damage, then using Double-Edge I can 2HKO it with SR down. The other factor which made me lean towards Choice Band was the fact that the CB set's priority is much stronger. Priority is a huge asset for any offensive team, keeping a wide range of threats in check, and I couldn't say no to the power of CB Aqua Jet, the strongest priority available after Honchkrow/Absol's Sucker Punch. For example, with CB, Azumarill's Aqua Jet is capable of KOing Moltres after it has suffered Life Orb recoil once, preventing Life Orb Moltres leads from hitting me with HP Grass after I switch into Fire Blast.
Why I Chose This Thing: A Fire-resist was absolutely necessary with so many high-powered fire moves being thrown around in UU, from Magmortar, to Arcanine, to Moltres, to the dreaded Blaziken. I didn't want to be forced to immediately sacrifice against Moltres leads, or when Blaziken comes in on Steelix's Stealth Rock, or whatever. My choices for the role of Fire Resister were:
Altaria: Even though this can Dragon Dance, with 70 base Attack and Special Attack I really didn't feel that it belonged on an offensive team. With Azumarill packing the equivalent of 150 base Attack, over twice as high as Altaria's, and all of the additional resistances Altaria provides being covered by other team members already, there was really no way I could choose Altaria over Azumarill. I was also looking for an Ice resist, Ice isn't a very powerful attacking type in UU as no UU Pokemon get STAB on it, but it would still be nice to have at least one resistance to it, and clearly Altaria doesn't fulfill that requirement.
Various Fire-types: Pretty much any UU Fire-type can pose a big offensive threat, but Azumarill beat out most of these due to its possession of powerful priority, an excellent tool on UU offense. In addition, I really didn't want to add any SR weaks. The only Pokemon I seriously considered here was Blaziken, as he is not weak to SR, packs priority, and like Azumarill has the sheer, brute force to smash anything in UU, but considering that I was choosing a Pokemon to counter Fire-types, I had to go with Azumarill as its priority was actually SE on Fire-types. If I bring Blaziken in on a Moltres Fire Blast, it's just going to die to Air Slash next turn. If I bring in Azumarill, instead it's Moltres who dies. The additional Water resistance provided by Azumarill was also convenient, since my team had only one other Water resist, Azumarill would help to prevent being swept by things like DD Feraligatr.
Other Water-types: None of these can match Azumarill in sheer power, period. Milotic and Slowbro can stall and tank, but this is an offensive team, I'm not aiming to stall and tank. I don't want to absorb a hit, recover off the damage as Shaymin switches in, then switch right back out. I want to absorb a hit, then blast the Shaymin switch-in with a 120 base power move coming off 654 Attack. Azumarill simply provided the most bang for my buck, so to speak. Not to mention, again, the whole priority deal.
Like Steelix, Azumarill is able to fill a mixture of useful roles as a reasonably bulky water-type, a user of strong priority, and a user of powerful attacks in general, all rolled into a neat little rabbit-shaped package. The ability to devastate almost any possible switch-in, with just two moves (the brilliant coverage of Normal + Water, which hits all UU Pokemon neutral except Shedinja), was also extremely appealing. Some calculations to demonstrate Azumarill's unmatched power:
Double-Edge vs Max HP Roserade: 118.83% minimum
Double-Edge vs 4/min Ludicolo: 105.63% minimum
Double-Edge vs standard Lanturn: 92.02% to 108.48%, a guaranteed OHKO with SR and nearly a 50% chance to OHKO even without
Double-Edge vs 4/min Feraligatr: 76.28% to 90.06%
Double-Edge vs max/max Bold Blastoise: 47.24% to 55.8%, with SR and leftovers, a guaranteed 2HKO
Double-Edge vs 4/min Azumarill: 83.92% to 98.83%, about a 75% chance to OHKO with SR
Double-Edge vs max HP Altaria: 73.45% to 86.72%, with SR nearly a 90% chance to OHKO
Double-Edge vs max/max Bold Milotic: 50.51% to 59.64%, with SR and Leftovers a guaranteed 2HKO
Double-Edge vs max/0 Modest Milotic: 73.35% to 86.55%, OHKOing with a small amount of prior damage
Double-Edge vs max/0 Adamant Poliwrath: 64.84% to 76.30%, a guaranteed 2HKO
Double-Edge vs 4/0 Sceptile: 120.21% minimum
Double-Edge vs 4/0 Shaymin: 69.59% to 82.16%, forcing them into a situation of whether to use Synthesis or Seed Flare, and if they pick wrong they die/are forced out by the Crobat switch-in without recovering any damage, or if they have a little prior damage they just die outright upon switching in
Double-Edge vs max HP Calm Venusaur: 76.37% to 90.11%, slight chance of OHKO with SR
Double-Edge vs 4/min Toxicroak: 110.42% minimum
As already stated Slowbro can even be 2HKO'd with a little prior damage, and he's outsped so Azumarill will finish him before he can heal. I don't need to post calcs for Waterfall on stuff that doesn't resist it, it's just as strong. Azumarill is pretty much unmatched in its ability to so strongly threaten almost any Pokemon with just 2 moves, and is incredibly adept at devastating its switch-ins with Double-Edge. Throw in the ability to revenge kill with Aqua Jet, good defensive typing and bulk for an offensive Pokemon (100/80/80 defenses are nearing those of Shaymin) and you've got an incredibly useful attacker. When you're choosing a Water-type while aiming to make every Pokemon on the team pack as much punch as possible, Azumarill is a no-brainer.
Weaknesses: Electric is covered by Steelix and Shaymin. Grass is covered by Crobat and Shaymin. I generally don't care too much if it gets paralyzed as it's already either going to go first or go last (with Aqua Jet, or anything else, respectively) in most situations. Steelix, Crobat and Shaymin can all absorb Toxic and Shaymin is still there to absorb WoW, or if I really must, Missy can take WoW as it is indeed a special attacker and won't be crippled by it.
Absol @ Life Orb
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 4 Hit Points / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Ability: Super Luck
Sucker Punch
Night Slash
Superpower
Pursuit
Moveset: Absol is like Steelix in that he only has a few viable options. Swords Dance was thrown out because Absol almost never finds time to use it, almost any Pokemon can threaten it with its paper defenses, and many refuse to switch out because of Pursuit. Swords Dance/Sucker Punch mindgames are fun, but I'd rather be using Night Slash if I'm not using Sucker Punch, as if I predict right and use Night Slash I can simply end the prediction war right there, whereas even after I Swords Dance I'd still be playing the dangerous prediction game of whether to Night Slash or Sucker Punch. Psycho Cut is only 70 BP, non-STAB, too weak to be of much use. It has approximately 140 BP against its intended targets (bulky Fighters), only 20 more than Superpower, not worth using for a little extra damage against a select few Pokemon. Pursuit makes a much bigger difference against its intended targets.
EVs & Nature: Adamant > Jolly on something with STAB Sucker Punch. Max Attack & Speed are pretty obvious, its defenses are complete garbage so there's no point in investing anything there.
Item Choice: Absol really only chooses between Choice or LO, and Choice I find to often be suicidal. If I went with Choice, most people would immediately deduce my item when they saw the lack of LO recoil, and then I'd only have one chance in a prediction war, if I made the wrong choice they'd know I couldn't switch attacks and I'd be totally screwed. For example, against SubCM Missy, a Choice Band Absol will always lose as the Missy simply scouts with Sub and acts accordingly, whereas LO Absol is perfectly capable of killing the Missy. Choice Band is absolutely not worth it for a 20% increase in power, especially since the LO recoil is largely irrelevant with Absol, his defenses are abhorrent so if he needs to take a hit he's usually dead regardless of LO recoil. Choice Scarf has somewhat of a surprise factor, but in the end simply doesn't make sense on something which has literally the most powerful priority attack in the whole game.
Why I Chose This Thing: I wanted at least two priority users on my team, even though each Pokemon's weaknesses are all covered by at least one other Pokemon, I was still not exactly focusing on defensive synergy, and thus priority is my main line of defense against alot of sweepers (see: Yanmega). If Azumarill bites it Absol can still cover me against fast sweepers, and vice versa; having double priority has saved my ass multiple times. When looking for a potential second priority user, the #1 candidates were the Sucker Punchers simply because of the sheer power of their priority. A 80 base power STAB priority attack beats the shit out of any other available priority. Sure, they have to attack you, but in many cases this doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if Feraligatr is sitting at 60%, whether he has 1 DD or 6 Absol still kills him when he decides to attack. People who think they are cool enough to stall out all of Sucker Punch's 8 PP have the odds stacked against them, since I can randomly throw in Night Slash anytime I want to and they have to completely guess when it might be.
In comparing Absol vs Honchkrow, I had Honchkrow at first, but decided that I wanted to try a set without Drill Peck, see how 3 Dark attacks would do. Then I decided that I'd use Super Luck over Insomnia, and at that point I realized that if I was going to run 3 Dark attacks + Superpower and Super Luck, I might aswell make it so that my Pokemon wasn't SR weak and could beat other Honchkrow (Adamant Absol outpaces Adamant Krow, beating him to the Superpower, resisting Sucker Punch, and winning one-on-one confrontations). I figured I'd go back to Honchkrow if I missed Drill Peck too much, but this worked out just fine as I found myself always using Night Slash on anything that wasn't resistant because of the absurd Crit rate, and not running into too many situations where I was like "damn, I really wish I had STAB Drill Peck," although a few of those did happen (see: Hitmontop and Hariyama). Even when the lack of Drill Peck screwed me, though, I just remembered all the times that Pursuit has been useful aswell. At any rate it no longer matters as Honchkrow is about to leave the UU ladder.
In addition to priority, Absol provides powerful attack capabilities in general. Night Slash's 25% Crit rate is simply unfair, allowing Absol to beat down all sorts of stuff that would usually beat him instead. When coupled with Superpower, Absol is able to hit all of UU's premier physical walls super-effective, making him difficult to defend against, and Sucker Punch + the ability to beat Honchkrow makes him difficult to revenge. He's a great all-around choice for an attacker, and the fact that he has few actual counters and is able to break the common physical walls really appealed to me. Like Azumarill, I picked him because he is very effective against both offensive and defensive threats in general, and like Azumarill, I was looking for Pokemon who could deal with their usual switch-ins, and Absol can beat almost any Pokemon in UU with proper prediction or just plain unfair hax with Super Luck. Absol doesn't live too long but he makes a splash while he's alive.
Weaknesses: Fighting is covered by Mismagius and Crobat, Bug is also covered by those two aswell as Steelix. Once again he has priority so paralysis is not a big worry, and I have the same stuff as always to absorb Toxic or WoW, not that he cares too much about Toxic either since once again, if he ever gets actually attacked he's usually going to die anyway, and he rarely lives long enough to actually die from Toxic damage without getting attacked.
Shaymin @ Life Orb
Nature: Timid
EVs: 36 Hit Points / 220 Speed / 252 Special Attack
Seed Flare
Psychic
Hidden Power Rock
Synthesis
Moveset: Seed Flare is a given, and so is Synthesis as Shaymin has enough bulk and can force enough switches to really abuse it. The other two moves were the ones that needed figuring out. I wanted Psychic immediately because it can KO Crobat with SR, which is simply too good to ignore, and is also my hardest-hitting move against Roserade, another popular switch-in to Shaymin. This left Air Slash, HP Ice, HP Rock and Earth Power as possible last moves. Air Slash was inferior to HP Ice, as both would hit enemy Shaymin but HP Ice would hit Altaria and cover possible Crobat switches at the same time. HP Rock would allow me to hit Fire-types, Altaria, and cover Crobat, but wouldn't hurt enemy Shaymin or Registeel. Earth Power allowed me to hit Registeel and Fire-types, but would possibly allow Crobat a free switch, and leave me SOL against Moltres and other Shaymin.
In the end, I went with HP Rock because of Moltres. HP Rock covered everything except enemy Shaymin and Registeel; I could cover one of those two with a different move, but not both, and HP Ice/Earth Power both had bigger drawbacks than HP Rock. Earth Power left me vulnerable to Altaria, gave Crobat another move to switch in on, and left Moltres free to terrorize me at will, while HP Ice left me vulnerable to all non-Blaziken Fire-types which I found to be more immediately threatening than enemy Shaymin, considering that I had only one Fire resist and if that wasn't available for whatever reason and Shaymin couldn't hit the Moltres that had just switched in, I'd have to sacrifice, end of story, and I didn't want to be forced into that situation.
HP Rock is also simply more effective against its intended target than HP Ice or Earth Power; HP Ice/Earth Power will not immediately KO Shaymin/Registeel, even with HP Ice I could still easily lose to enemy Shaymin, and Registeel could still easily blow up on me. Moltres, however, simply gets instantly annihilated in one hit from HP Rock.
EVs & Nature: I was losing to other Shaymin one-on-one anyway so I didn't bother to Speed tie with them. The Speed EVs outpace +Speed Nature Arcanine, the next fastest thing. Max Special Attack is obvious, what's left over goes in HP for a little more durability. Failing to tie with Charizard has screwed me over a couple times, though.
Item Choice: As with Absol, Life Orb is a no-brainer on offensive Shaymin. Part of the reason Shaymin is so good is that it can hit absolutely any of its counters hard, and is fast enough to outpace the majority of the tier, allowing it to switch to another coverage move and beat alot of the common Seed Flare resists before they can even hit back. The ability to switch moves was invaluable here. I considered Coba Berry to screw with Crobat but decided to not bother trying it out.
Why I Chose This Thing: Ahhhh, this bastard. I hate him cause I know he's too good, but that's why I have to use him, too. Most serious UU teams will include Shaymin. It was nominated for BL for good reason, it is broken. Shaymin is the best special sweeper in the tier, period. Any team that does not carry Chansey is threatened by this guy, period. He has great coverage, great bulk, great power with Seed Flare + the chance of an SpD drop. He provides key resistances to Water and Ground, and has the speed, coverage and power to revenge all sorts of threats for me. With Shaymin it's not Why Would You Use It?, it's more like Why Would You Not Use It?
Weaknesses: Flying is covered by Steelix. Fire is covered by Azumarill. Ice is covered by Azumarill. Bug is covered by Mismagius, Crobat and Steelix. Poison is also covered by Mismagius, Crobat and Steelix. Natural Cure means he doesn't care about status.
Crobat @ Leftovers
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 160 Hit Points / 252 Attack / 96 Speed
Brave Bird
Roost
U-Turn
Confuse Ray
Moveset: Standard Crobat set, the first three moves are non-negotiable on any Crobat, any offensive Crobat atleast. Confuse Ray was chosen over Taunt because the metagame had become so heavily focused on Crobat. Everyone knew it was out there, everyone knew its set, and everyone prepared for it. Anything that was worth taunting, had re-invented itself to prepare for a Crobat coming in and trying to Taunt it. Regirock started running Stone Edge over Rock Slide alongside a higher number of Attack EVs, Steelix started running enough Attack to maim Crobat with Gyro Ball, Slowbro started running Psychic, I've even seen Registeel try to Thunder me. Taunt simply wasn't worth it anymore, it was always a risk and you frequently got smacked around for it. As a replacement I seriously considered Hypnosis, but that would force me to run Aerial Ace instead of Brave Bird, and I decided that halving my attack power for a move that would miss almost half the time anyway just wasn't worth it. Thus, sadly, I was left with just good ol' Confuse Ray, not really an outstanding move, but works against anything and is generally annoying if I have nothing better to do.
EVs & Nature: Max Attack to get the most out of Crobat's stupidly fast STAB Brave Bird, makes a difference against stuff like Missy or Espeon that might be left barely alive if I ran any less attack, and can screw over people who EV their Shaymin to only survive Brave Bird from the popular 152 Atk variant or something like that. Speed EVs are way below max, allowing me to put lots into Hp and giving Crobat some nice bulk. The Speed EVs are set to outpace Timid Espeon. Yes, I get outsped by several Pokemon including other Crobat, but frankly, besides other Crobat, none of those other Pokemon are common at all and I already have not one but two priority users to deal with stuff like Swellow when it ever does show up. So far I've found the spread to be a reasonably effective one, I can't recall any significant problems it has caused me so far.
Item Choice: Yeah, Leftovers, what else. I considered Life Orb just for the hell of it, but figured it really wouldn't be worth it, you'd be hurting yourself alot with recoil from both Brave Bird and LO, and literally hurting yourself more than the opponent whenever they switched a Steel or Rock into BB.
Why I Chose This Thing: See Shaymin. This guy is too good, the only Pokemon who is possibly better than Shaymin in UU. Brave Bird does good, consistent damage on anything save a select few Pokemon, all of which can be conveniently U-Turned off to Shaymin or Azumarill. Crobat really has no counters because any counter can just be U-Turned, keeping the momentum on my side, which is great for an offensive team. Brave Bird has too-good-to-be-true coverage in UU, there are twice as many Pokemon weak to it as there are that resist it, and there's a mere 7 that resist it, out of a tier of 58. Combined with that huge Speed score Crobat can revenge tons of stuff and sweep through stuff that's weakened or simply weak to Brave Bird to begin with, which includes top UU Pokemon such as Shaymin, Roserade, Blaziken and Hitmontop. In addition to this he provides key Ground, Fighting and Grass resistances to contribute to my defenses. Crobat does all sorts of things and he's good at everything he does. Just as with Shaymin, the question isn't why do I use Crobat, it would be more along the lines of why would I not use Crobat.
Weaknesses: Psychic is covered by Absol and Steelix. Ice is covered by Azumarill. Electric is covered by Shaymin and Steelix. Rock is covered by Steelix. Shaymin and Steelix can absorb T-wave, or Azumarill doesn't care much about T-wave either. As with all my physical attackers, my two special attackers can absorb WoW if need be, and Crobat's immune to Toxic.
I've done pretty well with this team but I'm sure it can be better. One of the bigger problems is that I don't really have a good sleep absorber for Roserade, I can bring in Shaymin but then if it's not choiced and I don't switch, I could die to Sludge Bomb, whereas if I switch I could get something else Sleep'd. But I don't really know how to fix this, since I don't want to use Primeape, Honchkrow is gonna be off the ladder anytime now, and I don't want to run a RestTalker on an offensive team. I've considered Lum Berry on Crobat to let it switch into Sleep Powder once, but that too will be irrelevant soon since Crobat's about to be removed. I suppose that's the biggest thing I want feedback about, and part of the reason I posted this team, I need replacements for Crobat and Shaymin and would like some suggestions. Please, rate, offer any comments or feedback, make any sort of suggestions you might have about viable replacements for my two BLs.
I'm thinking about Roserade to replace Crobat as it can provide some of the same important resistances (Grass and Fighting) and because I'll be losing one of my bulky water counters when Shaymin's banned. No idea what sort of set to run, though, SubSeed, LO attacker, whatever, I don't know.
