ChaosBlizzard
Crit Happens.
Team Preview:
–The Leftovers–
The name is a holdover from an older version of the
team when four of the six members held Leftovers.
The name stuck and I've gotten accustomed to it now.
–The Leftovers–
The name is a holdover from an older version of the
team when four of the six members held Leftovers.
The name stuck and I've gotten accustomed to it now.
Forward:
Hi everyone. This is my first attempt at playing in the Underused tier. I've played OU for a long time and I'm fairly experienced in that tier, but I've always played OU exclusively. I've always wanted to try branching out into other tiers instead of just reading about them, so I decided to start with UU. I've been using variations of this team in UU for a little while now and I have to say, it is in many ways quite a bit more enjoyable than OU. The decreased (although still present) presence of stall teams and weather teams at the very least makes things a lot more fun. This is the kind of team I've always wanted to use in OU but have never been able to pull off: heavy offense.
This team has already been through several dozen iterations by now and each of the members is fairly thoroughly tested. In the early stages of its usage on PO, I actually won nearly every battle I played rather handily. Several of the Pokemon haven't changed much since their inception and have proven to be battle-tested successes. Others are a bit newer and are still a bit shaky.
As I've continued to play, I've started finding myself losing more and more often unfortunately. Granted I'm not at all good at this game, but I've been beating my head against the wall trying to figure out how to fix and balance this team. I didn't want to post here until I had something I thought could defend itself, and I think I've finally gotten to that stage. I'm largely happy with this team and I consider it mostly complete.
The team is constructed of three pairs of Pokemon. The two Pokemon in a pair are meant to be able to support each other, and roughly equate to the stages in a battle. Generally speaking, one pairing of Pokemon is supposed to clear the way for the next to come in cleanly. However, this is entirely theorymonning; in practice, whatever needs to be sent out is what gets sent out and used. This organization is mostly just for thought purposes.
The first pair in Mienshao and Victini, my fast, outrageously powerful heavy-hitters. Their job is to punch holes in the opposing team and clear a path for the late-game sweepers to come in successfully. The second pair in Zapdos and Milotic, my defensive pivots. If things go south for my wallbreakers and I need to tank a hit without losing momentum, or if I need to hit specific threats while maintaining pressure, these two come out. The final pair is Rhyperior and Lilligant, my late-game sweepers. Once the things that could resist them or pose threats to them are removed and they can safely set up, they are able to finish off the remains of the opposing team with fast, boosted, lightning strikes.
As I said, I've already gone through dozens of iterations with this team and found decent success. However, I still lose more often than I feel like I should be, despite my complete lack of skill. Maybe there's something I'm missing or overlooking. As such, let's get into the sets themselves.
The Team:
Mienshao @ Life Orb
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
–Hi Jump Kick
–Fake Out
–U-turn
–Stone Edge
Mienshao is one of the most overpowered Pokemon in UU right now. It doesn’t surprise me that it dropped from OU, but it absolutely rips UU to shreds with even a little team support. Its ability to just come in, nuke something, and then switch out just as healthy as it was before makes it a truly frightening sweeper and wallbreaker.
The set is completely standard in all but one way. Standard Mienshao still runs Naïve and Hidden Power Ice because those things were necessary in OU to deal with Gliscor and Landorus. In UU however, such an absolute need for an Ice-type attack isn’t nearly as necessary. I run Stone Edge on mine for extended coverage, and to hit Flying-types and Ghost-types who Hi Jump Kick or U-turn aren’t as useful against. Obviously with the moveset then becoming entirely physical again, Naïve goes back to Jolly.
Fake Out is the go-to starting attack, able to both scout and do a decent amount of damage. Expecting immediate HJK spam, a lot of people will switch to a Ghost-type as soon as they see Mienshao enter the field. However, after seeing that tactic two dozen plus times, I’ve also noticed a trend with it that if people are going to do that, they do it on the first turn. If they’re going to switch, they do it right away. As such, if I always lead with Fake Out before HJK, I never fall for that trick. If they switch, then neither of us took any damage, so no harm no foul; if they don’t switch, I got some free damage. Unfortunately, it can sometimes come back to bite me in that I will take more damage from Life Orb than I actually dealt out against certain opponents.
Hi Jump Kick is Mienshao’s ridulously powerful STAB attack that absolutely crushes everything in its path. I’ve tried Drain Punch in this spot instead, but with Regenerator, Mienshao needs power more so than additional longevity; I managed to Regenerator all the way from around 10% HP back up to completely healed once two times in a single match. I’ve already explained about Stone Edge, and U-turn is standard on the set for scouting counters. I find myself only ever really using it against Slowbro switch-ins however, mostly just to spite them; if I was going to change anything about the set, I’d get rid of U-turn.
Victini @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 Defense
–V-Create
–Fusion Bolt
–Zen Headbutt
–Brick Break
Victini is the closest thing in the tier to a defensive Fire-type, in the sense that it won’t insta-die to any hit if it has taken Stealth Rock damage. 100/100/100 defensive stats allow it to at least survive for a couple of turns, unlike other notable Fire-type UU sweepers like Arcanine, Houndoom or Darmanitan who are completely crippled if they have to switch in more than, say, twice. With that added staying power, Victini is able to very effectively run a Choice Scarf set to be a very fast, reliably powerful wallbreaker and/or revenge killer.
The EVs and nature are standard. The EVs are just a sweeper set with the remaining 4 put in Defense instead of HP to keep me at an odd HP amount for one extra Stealth Rock switch-in. Adamant is useful for the additional power, which Victini needs without LO or Choice Band. The only notable Pokemon I can think of it doesn’t let Victini outspeed that Jolly would are Scarf Flygon, who I would switch out against anyway, and +1 Sharpedo, both of whom would need to be positive natured to outspeed me. Not outspeeding that Sharpedo would bother me if it weren’t for the fact that it also normally runs Adamant as well, so I still outspeed standard varients.
V-Create, Fusion Bolt and Brick Break are all standard moves. V-Create is stupidly powerful and is what gives Victini its wallbreaking abilities, while maintaining its longevity in ways the comparable Flare Blitz does not. The speed drop is also somewhat mitigated by the Scarf, allowing safe repeated uses. Fusion Bolt gives it excellent coverage alongside its Fire-type STAB and allows it to hit bulky Water-type switch-ins, as well as counter some set-up threats like that Sharpedo. Brick Break is kind of filler, but it’s standard filler; it hits Dark-types who want to Pursuit me and Rock-types who want to wall me. Zen Headbutt is more coverage and more STAB, which is nice, but it isn’t standard, so I feel like I should defend it. Choice users always want as much powerful, reliable (read: safely spammable) coverage as they can get, especially if it’s STAB. The standard move for that spot is U-turn, but I’m just personally not a very effective user of scouting type moves like that. I’m just not really good at it, so I’d rather concentrate on giving Victini strong coverage. Just a matter of personal opinion really. I’ve put U-turn and Volt Switch on stuff before and I just never end up using it (see Mienshao).
Zapdos @ Life Orb
Nature: Timid
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Special Attack / 252 Speed / 4 Defense
–Thunderbolt
–Heat Wave
–Hidden Power Ice
–Roost
There is one primary way to run Zapdos, and then a bunch of defensively-minded spin-offs. This is completely textbook Zapdos, admittedly lifted straight from Smogon. The set has years of proof as one of the most devastating special sweepers in UU however. I would argue it is the best non-setup based special sweeper in the tier, followed by Raikou and Shaymin. It runs basically the same set as standard Raikou, but while it loses a bit of Raikou’s speed, it gains a roughly equal amount of power, and an infinite amount more staying power thanks to Roost. I actually tried standard Raikou in this spot for a long time, but after about the millionth time of just barely missing KOs with him and then getting immediately shot down, I found the added power is much more useful than the added speed.
The set really is totally standard and time-tested as effective. Thunderbolt rips holes in everything, Heat Wave gives it Fire/Electric coverage just like Victini, Hidden Power Ice gives it pseudo-BoltBeam, and Roost gives it some staying power and can heal off Life Orb damage. Admittedly though, finding the right time to use Roost can be a little tricky some times. Snorlax, some Ground-types and some Water-types can still safely switch in and threaten it, but Mienshao, Victini, and my next Pokemon are all fairly capable of sorting them out.
Milotic @ Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Defense / 16 Speed
–Recover
–Scald
–Ice Beam
–Dragon Tail
UU is a largely physical metagame, with some of the biggest threats being stuff like Ambipom, Darmanitan and Heracross. I like high pressure, hyper offensive teams, and this one is no exception, but I still need a defensive pivot to fall back on. With such an offensive team, I also need a good status absorber to keep Mienshao or later Rhyperior safe from Burn. This Milotic set is able to very effectively fend off most physical attackers, even without Marvel Scale active. If I can switch in on status and get Marvel Scale going though, assuming it isn’t Bad Poison, I’m pretty much set against physical attackers for the rest of the game. She can also tank special hits though as well; even completely uninvested, 125 base Special Defense goes a long way. This set really suits my team’s needs and is able to keep herself alive for a very long time.
The EVs and nature maximize physical defense to allow her to be viable even without a guarantee of status. In practice, I’ve found she’s bulky enough on both sides to be usable even with no status and no investment in Special Defense. It has to be used kind of carefully, but it survives what it needs to.
Milotic’s standard set uses 8 Speed EVs to hit a speed stat of 200 even. This is actually something of a speed benchmark in UU however that quite a few Pokemon EV to outspeed, kind of like max speed TTar in OU. Since they EV to hit 201 to outspeed me, I EV to hit 202 to outspeed them. I pull 4 EVs out of HP to give her an Stealth Rock number, 4 from the leftovers, and the remaining 8 from Defense. It’s still outsped by the majority of the metagame, but it at least screws over the stuff that EVs for that benchmark.
Scald is the obligatory STAB move with the Burn chance only further helping her physical defense. Recover is obviously the main way for her to restore health; I tried a RestTalk set for a little while but I didn’t like it. Ice Beam is nice coverage against Dragons, Flying-types, Grass-types, et cetera, and Dragon Tail is a useful move against stuff that wants to try and set-up against me or just to use against anything I don’t really want to fight yet. I’ve considered trying Toxic somewhere on here, but it would probably replace Ice Beam, and I find myself missing the coverage. I also don’t like having the two competing statuses on one set like that.
Rhyperior @ Leftovers
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 20 HP / 252 Attack / 236 Speed
–Stone Edge
–Earthquake
–Rock Polish
–Ice Punch / Megahorn
To quote a spectator who was watching me beat the snot out of one of his clan members on Pokemon Online once, “OH **** IT’S A ROCK POLISH RHYPERIOR!!!”
Yes, the long forgotten Rock Polish variant of Rhyperior. Massive physical bulk, massive physical defense, two crippling 4x weaknesses to types that are often specially-based and utterly no Special Defense or Speed. Such was the lot for Rhyperior. However, it made people come to expect it to be a physically bulky Choice Band user, and this is when we strike. Rhyperior is actually able to outspeed nearly everything in the tier after a single Rock Polish under this set, while still maintaining its terrorizing attacking power and a respectable level of staying power. The EVs and nature allow it to outspeed all positive natured base 125s and below after a Rock Polish, turning what would have been a OHKO from Weavile into a OHKO against Weavile. After maximizing Attack, the remaining EVs go into its gargantuan HP stat.
This set is unequivocably a late-game sweeper. It must be used when certain threats have been eliminated, and it must be sent in against something it is sure to be able to get a Rock Polish against. It is still pretty much useless without a speed boost. However, make no mistake, once it has set up, it is very difficult to take down. I’ve opted for Leftovers to try and regain the HP lost in the event that I can’t force a switch before using Rock Polish, but I have noticed a very, very slight want for power against some opponents; he has a nasty habit of taking 95%+ of his opponent’s HP without finishing the kill. I’m wary of using Life Orb though for fear of dreaded residual damage on a setup sweeper.
Earthquake and Stone Edge form STAB EdgeQuake, Rock Polish lets it get its speed, and Ice Punch is a reliable way of hitting Dragons, Flying-types, Grass-types, et cetera. I’d be open to switching it for Megahorn though if enough people suggest it; they hit largely the same stuff, but while Megahorn is more powerful, it is less accurate, which worries me on something like him. Also take into account that without Ice Punch, I’d only have Zapdos and Milotic as uneasy counters to Dragons.
Lilligant @ Lum Berry
Nature: Modest
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 Special Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
–Quiver Dance
–Sleep Powder
–Petal Dance
–Hidden Power Rock
Lilligant is the oldest member of the team and also the only member from the original version of it. She is incredibly reliable and incredibly good. This set is battle-tested and highly effective. To be honest, I’m not really looking for ways to improve this set or anything to replace it with; it has more than earned its spot. She is a very good late-game sweeper and has taken many unprepared teams for a ride.
Start with Sleep Powder, preferrably against the thing that worries you the most from the opposing team like a Bronzong or a Registeel. Quiver Dance on the switch or, if they don’t switch, until you feel ready. Proceed to lay waste with Petal Dance or respond to counters with Hidden Power Rock. Win game.
It is admittedly still fairly easily walled, and its moveset isn’t doing it any favors. However, if you use it late-game after Mienshao and Victini have done their work, it can absolute ravage whatever is left in their wake. It is walled by Steel-types, but Hidden Power Rock covers everything else that Grass doesn’t, almost always allowing for at least one surprise KO against Fire-types or Flying-types who think they’re smart. On the subject of being walled by Steel, have I told you about the time this set single-handedly crippled and KO’d a standard Registeel and then proceeded to sweep the entire remaining team? Yeah, that happened. Admittedly against a fairly dumb opponent, but still.
I don’t know why, but this set is an absolute magnet for status. Well over half of my opponents who see this set first try to counter it with status. Lum Berry helps with that and has proven through countless battles to be the right item for the set. The EVs and nature are standard, opting for Modest to gain as much power as possible. Finally, I’ve chosen Own Tempo over Chlorophyll to make Petal Dance spammable. I’ve never seen sun in UU, making Chlorophyll useless, and in testing, I’ve found I like Petal Dance better than Giga Drain, the only other STAB alternative. It has to be run late-game and it needs some hefty team support, but don’t let Lilligant’s tier fool you; this is the best set on the team in my opinion.
such a great team chaos. Can you make an importable? I would really like to see how this team plays and give you a better rate(which I will)