SS UU Fairly new to teambuilding, looking for some feedback

[DavyFreaknJones]

Overview

So, I’ll preface this by saying that I’m fairly new to teambuilding and showdown in general (this is my first smogon post ). I started a few weeks before Gen 8 and played primarily UU. Made it to ~1300 in a week or so before I started making random teams to mess around in other tiers. Stopped playing because I wasn’t a big fan of dynamax, but I’m back after the suspect test. Here’s a team, I kind of put together and plan to test tomorrow (it’s pretty late right now), but I figured I’d post it anyway and see what kind of feedback I got. I’m going to document my thought process here as well because I’m interested to see if anyone will provide me feedback on that as well (maybe things I’m overlooking).

The Team

I have made a few teams previously in this gen and the previous gen and have found that two of my favorite mons to use in this tier have been Doublade and Gengar/Chandelure. In this team, I choose Gengar over Chandelure primarily because of its higher speed stat which I’ll talk more about later. I enjoy this core as they both potentially do a ton of damage to the enemy team while also doubling as rapid spin blockers. However, the use of these two mons gives this core a weakness to both ground and dark mons.

I wanted to check dark types by turning that weakness into a potential advantage if played correctly. This left me with a few options. One of the first ideas I had was Hitmonlee. Hitmonlee’s typing makes it a decent dark-type check which is amplified with its access to unburden being able to turn a reckless knock-off into an advantage for me. However, with a low HP and Def stat, I was hesitant to go this route. My next course of action was Justified with which there are a few choices. I decided to choose Arcanine here primarily because of its stats being better than most other Justified users in the tier as well as for its movepool being able to check Steel and Flying types with its access to flare blitz and wild charge.

For my ground weakness, which was amplified with the addition of Arcanine, I had a few options in mind. One of these was Eldegoss. With access to supportive abilities such as Aromatherapy and Leech Seed as well as rapid spin for hazard control, Edlegoss seemed like a decent addition to the team, but I was looking for a more aggressive choice. Rotom-Mow was the mon I landed on as it would give me a ground immunity and access to thunderbolt/volt switch, hitting popular defoggers in the tier for big damage, such as Braviary and Noivern, while also giving me a nice pivot option.

I mentioned earlier that the core of my team was focused on being able to spin block. Many of the mons on this team are fast; however, I wanted to be able to enable Gengar to be able to output as much damage as possible. To do so, I would need to shy away from Scarf and choose options that would amplify damage, such as specs, life orb, nasty plot, etc. Having some form of speed control would allow Gengar to outspeed it’s opponents while dishing out a ton of damage. So the big choice for me here was between Araquanid or Ribombee. I decided to choose Ribombee here because of it’s typing being able to provide an additional check to Clangorous soul Kommo—o as it’s a fairly popular mon in the tier.

Claydol here acts as a hazard setter as well as a hazard control. Additionally, Claydol has access to STAB moves in Earth Power and Psychic that allow me to deal unresisted damage to mons that might pose problems for this team such as Weezing or Copperajah.

Sets​

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Gyro Ball
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Sneak

Pretty standard Doublade set here. This is the set I typically run as Sacred Sword allows me to ignore stat boosts of mons that may try to take advantage of move such as Cotton Guard or Iron Defense. Running min speed allows gyro ball to hit for max damage as well as pose a threat against teams that may try to set up trick room. Lastly, shadow sneak is a must with how rampant pokemon such as Scarf Gengar and Polteageist have been in my matches.

Gengar @ Choice Specs
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Dazzling Gleam
- Trick

Once again. Fairly standard set here, the only difference being Specs rather than Scarf. I went for this because this team is primarily trying to play around webs. This enables Gengar to deal tons of damage while still outspeeding some of the faster mons in the tier. Most notably, this max speed specs set is able to outspeed Scarf Gengar by 1 point after webs. One decision I have to make here was between Focus Blast or Dazzling Gleam. I decided to run Dazzling Gleam as it provides a good offense options against Kommo-o as well as a potential way to net big damage on dark-type switch ins expecting a Shadow Ball. Lastly Trick is used here to be able to break to bullky special attackers, such as Milotic, which take advantage of recover.

Arcanine @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed

Most of what needed to be said about Arcanine was said above. Justified is used here to check move such as knock off. Life orb is used here to allow Arcanine to deal good damage early without the use of it’s ability.

Rotom-Mow @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Leaf Storm
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp

As mentioned above, Rotom-Mow here is used as a ground resist while also being able to deal good damage to common hazard setters and defoggers in the tier. Scarf ensures that it will outspeed most of the defoggers (looking at Braviary primarily) while also being able to pivot out of matchups that may threaten it. Additionally, Will-O-Wisp is used to weaken physical attackers to provide the team a little more survivability.

Ribombee @ Focus Sash
Ability: Shield Dust
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sticky Web
- Quiver Dance
- Moonblast
- Bug Buzz

This is the mon that makes it all happen. With a higher speed stat and survivability through the use of focus sash which guarantees webs, this mon enables the rest of the team to shine against other speedy mons. This will probably be the lead in the most games, however, I setup this set to be able to be more than just a suicide web setter. Being able to setup with quiver dance with decent typing moves allows Ribombee to also pose a threat if played into poorly by an opponent.

Claydol @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Earth Power
- Psychic

Lastly there’s Claydol which is serving as both a stealth rocker and a rapid spinner primarily. When finishing up the set, I wanted to be able to get extra damage on mons that may prove to be nuisances against this team in the long run. For example, Weezing, which servers as a problem for this team with it’s access to defog and decent typing allowing it to resist Gengar.

Potential Threats

I haven’t had a chance to playtest this team yet. But I plan to do so over the next few days and will probable either post updates in the comments as well as edit this thread. I didn’t want to just leave this empty so I speculated some things that I think might be a problem for this team. Definitely didn’t hit it all, and am curious to see what other people think.

-Sandstorm and Hail

While these aren’t exactly the biggest threats, they are quite notable as they limit my usage of Ribombee since they can act as sash breakers.

-Weezing

I think Weezing might turn out to be a particular problem for this team as my main ways to deal with this mon are either through Psychic from Claydol, which may not prove to be very useful (I may rethink this set), or Doublade. However, its access to Defog makes it a huge nuisance for this team giving me little room to punish.

-Centiscorch

This mon as the potential to deal a ton of damage. Additionally, this team has no moves that hit particularly well on it.

-Shell smash Polteageist

While this mon wouldn’t normally be a threat due to shadow sneak. The issues becomes getting Doublade in carefully in order to not instantly lose to this mon. Additionally, this mon becomes particularly hard to deal with if it’s running white herb as shadow sneak will not OHKO and it will outspeed Gengar at +1 (shell smash + webs). So this mon will need to be played around carefully.

 

[jeronipuff]

Okay I'm here from the academy, it's jeronipuff. I'm going to start with some major threats I see that you didn't mention and go into some changes after. First off your team gets absolutely obliterated by Crawdaunt. Having Arcanine as a dark check does not work too well in most scenarios as it loses its defensive utility with intimidate when you run justified. Another big offensive treat would be scarf Gengar. It's ability to ohko nearly everything on the team is something you need to watch out for. The last offensive threats I see are Cloyster & Barbaracle. If either one gets a free smash its gg especially if the Cloyster is mixed as it easily can take out Doublade in that case.

Now onto some changes. I'm going to go through mon by mon for this. Doublade is a good standard set... for gen 7. Now that the tier is much slower and things like Weezing and Avalugg are everywhere it is recommended that you run Iron Head over Gyro. The Gengar set seems fine to me as I personally think specs is slept on at the current moment nasty plot sash or scarf may work better for your current team. Sadly, the Arcanine needs to be changed. Justified Arcanine just will not cut it in the current meta. I would possibly put something like Lucario or Drapion if you do want a offensive dark type switch-in. If you want to keep Arcanine make it flash fire offensive or intim defensive. Rotom mow kinda feels weird on this team as it stands. It's the much needed water type check you need but I could see you needing to switch moves up often. You can try out nasty plot on this thing with lefties. Not too much to say about Ribombee other than that you need stun spore on it, probably over quiver. Finally, Claydol. This thing is garbage. Please change it for a good ground type like Mamo and get a spinner somewhere else on your team (maybe over Arcanine).

 

[DavyFreaknJones]

Okay I'm here from the academy, it's jeronipuff. I'm going to start with some major threats I see that you didn't mention and go into some changes after. First off your team gets absolutely obliterated by Crawdaunt. Having Arcanine as a dark check does not work too well in most scenarios as it loses its defensive utility with intimidate when you run justified. Another big offensive treat would be scarf Gengar. It's ability to ohko nearly everything on the team is something you need to watch out for. The last offensive threats I see are Cloyster & Barbaracle. If either one gets a free smash its gg especially if the Cloyster is mixed as it easily can take out Doublade in that case.

Now onto some changes. I'm going to go through mon by mon for this. Doublade is a good standard set... for gen 7. Now that the tier is much slower and things like Weezing and Avalugg are everywhere it is recommended that you run Iron Head over Gyro. The Gengar set seems fine to me as I personally think specs is slept on at the current moment nasty plot sash or scarf may work better for your current team. Sadly, the Arcanine needs to be changed. Justified Arcanine just will not cut it in the current meta. I would possibly put something like Lucario or Drapion if you do want a offensive dark type switch-in. If you want to keep Arcanine make it flash fire offensive or intim defensive. Rotom mow kinda feels weird on this team as it stands. It's the much needed water type check you need but I could see you needing to switch moves up often. You can try out nasty plot on this thing with lefties. Not too much to say about Ribombee other than that you need stun spore on it, probably over quiver. Finally, Claydol. This thing is garbage. Please change it for a good ground type like Mamo and get a spinner somewhere else on your team (maybe over Arcanine).

Thanks a lot. Looking over it, I think this is really good feedback. I have some questions and thoughts I want to run by to see what you think outside of the straight forward things you've mentioned.

I think Drapion is an interesting potential addition over the Arcanine. I think an equally interesting thing to consider might be Toxicroak, as it also is a dark resist. I think this could be a pretty good addition possible over drapion as it provides me another layer of defense against a potential Polteageist sweep with sucker punch.

I'm still struggling however to find a good way to add both rocks and rapid spin to the team. I picked Claydol for its decent defensive stats + access to both moves. I really don't plan on using it for much damage which is why the two STAB moves were kind of carelessly thrown in for lack of anything better (and it was late and I didn't want to focus anymore). If I remove Claydol, the other options for this are: Coalossal and Torkoal.

Another interesting thing that could be done is using Hitmontop for both Intimidate and rapid spin, leaving me open adding a better ground type such as Mamoswine as you suggested.

I need to think more about how to deal with the shell smash cloyster/barbacle threats you mentioned, but I wanted to get this out of the way while it was fresh in my head.

 

[jeronipuff]

Top does fill a good number of holes, with priority to help with the smashers and a dark resist and spinner. It might be tough to use without something like wish support but I think it could be a really good pick. I also like Croak a lot bc it helps with the water types freeing you up to switch the Rotom for something. I suggest you make different versions of the team and test them all out on the ladder to see which one fits your playstyle the best.