Approved by Aberforth
I've been meaning to drop some teams and metagame thoughts for a while now, but the opportunity never presented itself until now with SV starting to gain my attention along with an increasing inability to spend hours prepping for tours now that real life is doing what real life does best. While these teams have all had varying degrees of success, I selected these specifically because they're most memorable to me.
Click on the sprites to get a pokepaste link
Old DPP: 2016 - 2021
Real old DPP is even earlier of course, but I figured it's only worth discussing what I'm familiar with. I started playing DPP Ubers tours in early 2016 with the Weekend Tour, but I didn't play a major tour until UPL VI with the Luminous Lunalas in 2018 and once again in 2019 as a retain. The blueprint for my and many others' DPP Ubers teams was Iris, whose influence is still visible today if you look close enough. In 2020, I took a "break" and skipped UPL VIII, which coincidentally happened to be the year where Arceus was released back into the tier after its initial exclusion due to obsolete simulator limitations more than a decade ago. In 2021, I played in UPL IX as a Dangerous Dracovish, which the last major tour where we saw people use old era teams. Most of the teams in this section are outdated, but I included them anyway to show how the metagame has involved since then.
Gliscor Deo-A Sub Pass
Back in 2016, I thought Gliscor Pass was the coolest thing ever after I saw Iris' Gliscor Pass team run through some room tours. I was also hooked on SpDef Groudon at the time because of how well it tanked hits from the big scary dragons in the tier. The original import is long lost, but I did my best to recreate it since it's the oldest tournament team that I can remember, and it took game off of Pohjis in the Weekend Tour playoffs.
Back Scarf Darkrai Rain Spikes HO
Behold one of the many faces of no dragon resist rain HO, a playstyle once so dominant that Deo-S, Dialga, Gira-O, sweeper, sweeper, speed control became a mantra. Teams of this era lost to all sorts of things: RP Groudon, Ho-oh, Stall, Tspikes, any dragon, Mewtwo, Lucario and the list goes on. Some of the most iconic teams from this era include Iris' PP stall, Kabutops HO, and SkarmBliss sun stall, which are 6-0ed by SpDef Dialga, Ray, and Ho-oh respectively. I managed to get a quick win against M Dragon in UPL VII since I loaded SpDef Dialga into support Jirachi, but looking back it's puzzling how anybody was consistent with these teams.
Old Farceus Kabutops HO
When Arceus was released back into the tier, the playerbase jumped on Ekiller like it was the second coming of RBY Mewtwo, and the UPL VIII quickly collapsed into sun HO. There were other trends like SD Garchomp sand and Ho-oh suns, but sun HO emerged as the clear number one with Groudon settup up sun versus pesky steels while also chipping Gira-O for an Ekiller sweep. But the problem was Ekiller sun HO mirrors were incredibly volatile to the point where entire endgames would be decided by Ekiller speed ties. It took a few months after UPL VIII before players realized how potent rain really was. Twave Kyogre is one of the best ways to deal with CM Arceus forms whereas sun was forced to check them with a Latias that is susceptible to Twave. Band Kabutops is phenomenal for checking Ekiller and chipping opposing Gira-O to aid your own Ekiller. We also saw a resurgence of Scarf Deo-S after years of people malding over losing turn 1 speed ties. It's a mystery why it took so long though considering Jiabaku was using Scarf Deo-S with great success a decade ago in Vulcan Fury, but the shift was much welcome. Another interesting detail about the Deo-S is the 29 speed IV; you can lower the IV from 31 to check whether an opposing lead Deo-S might be Scarf. That being said, even this team has fallen dramatically with modern Farceus teams being a completely different beast.
Old Groundceus Balance
Groundceus is one of the best support forms by virtue of its sandstorm immunity, SR resist, Thunder/Thunder Wave immunity, and ability to threaten Dialga. I never saw a Refresh support Arceus in DPP until I built this team, but it's useful for increasing longevity. Lead Rest Talk Kyogre is admittedly not the best, but it's necessary to deal with Darkrai. Scarf Tyranitar traps Latias/Latios that would otherwise be a big problem for the Kyogre and Groundceus. The team has actually aged relatively well and remains one of my favorite Farceus teams.
The Advent of Sun Stall and Bronzong: 2021 - 2022
UPL IX was the last UPL where we saw the past big names slotted in DPP, including M Dragon, BKC, SoulWind, and Chill Shadow, making it a very special one for me. But the quality of my teams didn't improve significantly until BKC's DPP Invitational at the end of 2021 which is where sun stall and optimized Bronzong squads really began to take off. After making the playoffs of the BKC invitational and immediately being sent to losers round 1 by Pohjis, I started bringing Bronzong and sun stall at a high usage rate, which miraculously lifted me out of loser's and into a tournament win that still remains to be my biggest accomplishment in competitive Pokemon.
BU Thunder Dialga T-spikes BO
There are plenty of non-standard BU Dialga sets out there: Roar Dialga, Magnet Rise Dialga, EQ Dialga, and even Toxic Dialga, but what about Thunder Dialga? Traditionally, people just paired the standard Rest Talk BU Dialga with Magnezone to circumvent Skarmory issues, but Thunder Dialga directly addresses the issue. I had just brought a team that was extremely week to Tspikes UPL IX week 1, so I decided to bring what was essentially a Tspikes counter team week 2 versus Chill Shadow. Mewtwo becomes immune to Toxic after a single Tspike layer, which is usually stall's best bet to beat it. Tentacruel can also eliminate Tspikes at any time by switching in. Hypnosis Bronzong is also nice for instantly shutting off Forretress. Needless to say, I loaded this directly into Tspikes, and the Dialga earned me a nice win.
Roar Gira-A Rain BO
Full Tspikes teams have long regressed since their PP stalling days because players realized killing SpDef Dialga is an impossible feat, but this team aims to circumvent that issue by using Roar Gira-A to phase the Dialga before it can phase you. Simply set up Tspikes, paralyze the poison immune Pokemon, and let Gira-A go to work. I used this to get a win off of byronthewellwell in BKC invitational playoffs where my Gira-A managed to phase a Heatran that would have phased standard CM Gira-A sets. It's hard to say whether I'll actually use Roar Gira-A ever again since Dialga is still a threat despite all the precautions, but it the right MU it can make significant progress.
Standard Bronzong Spikes Rain HOs
When people prep against me in tours, this is what they're likely preparing for. It's very difficult to beat this structure unless you tech against Bronzong using things like Mail Forretress to punish the Trick Scarf Deo-s, Pokemon that take advantage of Bronzong's passiveness like Sub Palkia or Wisp Gira-O, or something even more specific like DragMag. The last slot is flexible, but if it's something slower than Darkrai, then you'll need to Scarf the Kyogre to check it. My personal favorites are the first three versions, but I did use the Mewtwo to win the final game of BKC Invitationals grand finals set 2 vs Garay Oak. Expert belt over Life Orb is also viable on the Mewtwo and even preferable in most situations.
The Deo-S and Deo-A on this structure are interchangeable, but I usually use Deo-A when I'm expecting a lead Kyogre since it makes the sequence more forgiving. Scarf Deo-S deals with other Deo-S and spinners like Forretress/Tentacruel a lot better. If you run into Kyogre with lead Deo-S, then you have to hope it's not lead CM and go Dialga to click Thunder after dying turn 1. A lot of times they'll go straight to Bronzong in this position to setup SR, and I see a lot of new players just switch to their own Bronzong to avoid the EQ instead of clicking Thunder for free chip. Chances are that if they're leading Kyogre and have a Bronzong, they won't have any other switch in and they will be forced to EQ after setting up SR giving you a free switch to your Bronzong regardless.
The crux of team is TR Bronzong. The point is to transform your Gira-O and Dialga into late game sweepers, but how much speed should you actually use? You want your Gira-O to be slower than opposing slow Gira-O, slow Dialga faster than opposing slow Gira-O, slow Dialga faster than opposing slow Dialga, and slow Gira-O faster than opposing slow Dialga. I've chosen to run 56 Spe EV Gira-O and 24 Spe EV Dialga on most of my builds with slight variance, but it's completely dependent on the usage rate of TR spreads in the meta.
Cress Stall: Latias and Dialga
Cress stall is the most influential DPP Ubers team in recent history, and you can read the full RMT by Seldanna and Nineveh HERE. I suppose you could say Seldanna gave me "early access" which allowed me to help piece together some of the tech choices on the team way before the RMT was released. The team was in development throughout 2021 starting with the Latias version but wasn't optimized until the end of the BKC Invitational. For starters, pretty much nobody had seen an EQ Gira-A until SoulWind used it in the Swiss rounds. Without EQ Gira-A on the Latias version, Heatran would have plagued the team just as it has done to older sun stalls. I personally like Dragon Claw as the last slot on Groudon, but there are plenty of options, even Brick Break if you feel the looming threat of screens. Many new players quesiton the viability of Thunder Latias on sun but believe me, it is mandatory. I think an early version of the team ran Grass Knot, but it made rain and Skarmory much more difficult. The Dialga version of the team makes the rain MU worse but increases your chances of beating threats like BU Dialga and Darkrai which is why I brought that version the most.
Lucario Mixed Ray Sun HO
I had been spamming Bronzong rain quite a bit in BKC invitational playoffs and needed to mix up my usage, which meant resorting to an playstyle I viewed as subpar: sun HO. I brought this team against Garay Oak in grand finals set 1 in an attempt to avoid a Bronzong counter team, which worked perfectly since he brought Gliscor DragMag BO. Even for sun HO standards, I wouldn't call this team anything special because the best sun HOs utilize RP Groudon or even Wobbuffet, but I wanted to maintain a defensive backbone by having SpDef Groudon. Scarf Jirachi with both Healing Wish and Trick is a nice touch, allowing it to cripple defensive threats while also rejuvenating Groudon in emergencies.
Healing Wish, Anti-Zong, and Beyond: 2022 - Present
A lot has changed since the BKC Invitational with the playerbase becoming more knowledgeable and DPP Ubers as a whole becoming more popular. I wouldn't say the tier is solved yet, but the diversity has diminished severely as a result of hyper optimization. In 2023, I decided to manage the Spectral Thieves with Ayu in UWL II, where we saw Hwish Blissey used to defeat Bronzong structures. Stone_Cold really forsaw everything. I ended up playing a surprise Farceus slot in DPPPL with Dave's Dragonites, which was refreshing after bringing Bronzong at 70% usage for so long. Finally, I finished the year with UPL XI managing with Ayu again after deciding to be a tryhard one final year.
Psych Up Dialga Wob
Psych Up Dialga allows Dialga to beat Manaphy and CM Kyogre. Other than that it's not too useful, and this team is actually a BKC Invitational reject. The team is reminiscent of aforementioned no dragons resist rain HOs with the silver lining being that Wob can still sponge a few hits. Nevertheless, I brought it versus zf in UWL II where I was haxed to hell in a game I likely lost at MU anyway. I still like the aesthetic of the team, and ways to use Wob consistently should be explored more.
Ludicolo BU Dialga Rain BO
This team was actually made in 2022, but I had never brought it to a tournament game until I had to face London Beats week 2 of UPL XI in an attempt to counter team no dragon resist rain HO. I ended up loading into a Manaphy BO, which is still a nice MU for Ludicolo and BU Dialga. You'll also notice that this team is 6-0ed by opposing BU Dialga, which is unfortunate because it's a great team otherwise. A way to alleviate the problem is teching Destiny Bond and Aura Sphere on Gira-O to force the Dialga out preferably after Ludicolo has Leech Seeded it, but the team is more consistent overall by just ignoring the MU. Lucario is another big threat which is why the Gira-O is max speed, and the added bulk of Scarf Kyogre helps a bit too.
Stall2 Hwish Balance
Losing to Seldanna twice in UWL II irked me quite a bit, but I still won the tour. Like they say, winning fixes everything. I lost to a Healing Wish supported Sub SD Groudon slicing through my Bronzong not once but twice, which was a wake-up call to adjust my team building approach for DPPPL II and UPL XI. I originally built this for Keys in DPPPL with mixed Ray over Latias, but both versions have their strengths. The team features the Sub SD Groudon that Seldanna had swept me with, and I later used it myself in UPL XI versus Inspirited. Grass Knot Bronzong is an ancient set, but I was paranoid of the Sub SD Groudon trend. As for Hwish, it's an incredibly versatile tool that has reshaped how offense can crack open defensive cores. SD Groudon and CM Kyogre no longer have an issue of withering away to Tspikes, and lead Specs Kyogre can come back in the endgame which was previously unheard of. Blissey is the best Hwisher by virtue of its plethora of switch in opportunities and low speed, but Latias, Skymin, and Jirachi can work too.
A New Age of Cress Stall
Cress stall hasn't slowed down one bit boasting a 100% win rate in UPL XI. Mewtwo as the sixth member of the team is an interesting addition that helps the team overcome BU Dialga, Stall2, and still acts as a Darkrai check. It can even run Flamethrower over Aura Sphere to clean games up on its own. The obvious issue with Mewtwo is that you lose a Specs Kyogre check meaning the Forretress has to be changed to Focus Sash. That's not going to help too much if your opponent has Hwish support with Specs Kyogre though, so it's always a good idea to keep the Latias version in your back pocket. It's also possible to use Deo-A or Deo-S since they can reliably set up Spikes against every Kyogre set. I used a Deo-S Scarf Dialga verison in my UPL XI game vs Hack, which ended up being one of my closest UPL games ever.
Band Tyranitar Rain: Lead Dialga Version
Under normal circumstances, I would never use lead Dialga but I needed to mix up my lead usage versus Susciety, and I actually sniped a Mail Deo-S Ho-oh team, which I can only assume was designed to counter my own Trick Deo-S rains and Bliss dual-weather balances. Bronzong provides TR for CB Tyranitar much like you see in OU, and the Latias can pass Hwish to Tyranitar just in case. Tyranitar also eliminates Latias clearing way for a potential Scarf Kyogre sweep.
Full TR Rain
TR Bronzong is understandable considering it's there to turn your slow Pokemon into late game cleaners, but what about full TR? I've tried full TR in the past with no avail because I was focusing too much on covering threats like Forretress. In reality, what works is just unleashing sweeper after sweeper, TR after TR. While Specs Kyogre seems obvious, I found Lum CM Kyogre far more versatile defensively, and another surprise was how bulky Palkia became with the additional HP evs, allowing it to finally survive Latios' Draco Meteor through Haban Berry. I brought this one for a win versus Garay Oak in UPL XI Semi-Finals Tie Beaker.
Clef Rain Stall
Clef is essentially masochism considering how dragons like Palkia can randomly plow through your team even after a few dozen turns of thoroughly outplaying your opponent. The viability stems from Magic Guard and Encore, but its defenses are not on par with Ubers. More traditional Clef teams will use sand to make use of the residual sandstorm chip, but I figured rain might have some niche with Spdef Gira-A. I was wrong. The team sucks, but this experiment leads me to believe that CM BoltBeam Clef might have some potential if paired with Blissey. It's also worth noting that Clef's viability drastically increases in Farceus, so it's not the end for Clef enjoyers.
Fightceus Ho-oh Sand Stall
This is actually modification of a standard DPP team with Mewtwo over Fightceus that gave me a win vs Pohjis in BKC Invitational playoffs, but I found that the team functioned more efficiently in Farceus. I actually prepared an intial version of this team for the DPP AG ladder in 2022, but the addition of Fightceus over Mewtwo is fantastic in Ubers. SpDef Gira-A and Tyranitar give you just enough leeway to come out unscathed versus Kyogre and Latias if maneuvered correctly. I won't say it's the best team ever compared to standard Tyranitar and Skarm balances, but I must say it's satisfying to pilot a Ho-oh on sand. I ended up winning with this in DPPPL versus Mr. 378, who was using a no dragon resist HO.
Poisonceus Rain
What we have here is a modern Farceus rain balance. In standard DPP Ubers, SkarmBliss struggles with mixed dragons, but that isn't the case when Arceus can survive pretty much anything thrown at it. That gives rise to a slower, more grindy metagame that's less centered around surprise techs and exploiting lack of preview. Poisonceus is often underestimated because it has poor coverage with its STAB, but it absorbs Tspikes, can't be poisoned by Toxic, and counters Fightceus. Poor STAB coverage doesn't even matter when BoltBeam exists. I'd say the two best forms are Normal and Fighting. A tier below that is Ground, Ghost, and Steel. Then finally, you have Poison and Grass as the last good forms.
SD Steelceus Rain
My most recent Farceus team features SD Steelceus and excessive amounts of Twave. Even the Mewtwo and Gira-O have Twave. The goal is to go for an endgame sweep with Steelceus para-flinching everything with Iron Head. Now if you look at the old Farceus sun HOs from 2020, it isn't hard to see that they would completely fall flat against these fat balances when Ekiller does absolutely nothing against this. The UPL VIII meta had no resemblance of a stability with sun HOs cannibalizing each other, but I think the current state of Farceus is very balanced and offers something for people who like DPP but want a more calculation heavy metagame rather than a prep heavy, "surprise your opponent with techs" metagame.
Improved UU
Does anybody remember Iris' DPP UU team? Consider this the more viable sequel, except it's cheating because all the Pokemon on this team have potential or are already viable in Ubers. Hariyama was created for Ubers being able to anti-lead Deoxys forms, Darkrai, and Tyranitar. Ludicolo is immortal versus rain. Claydol is a nifty Groudon check. Registeel is a steel in a tier where very few good fighting-types exist. Clefable despite mostly being used by mashochists is still incredibly strong against weaker dragons like Latias and is difficult to remove for passive teams thanks to Magic Guard. Finally Qwilfish is a threat that has always been good on lead Kyogre structures for both setting up and removing Tspikes, but it's also prominent on offense almost always taking down something with the combination or Explosion, Destiny Bond, and Taunt.
Shoutouts Seldanna for helping build a ton of these teams and for being unable to contain her excitement about this post (bruh). Also, shoutouts to the rest of the homies, Ayu, Iris, zf, FatFighter2 (please give like).
I've been meaning to drop some teams and metagame thoughts for a while now, but the opportunity never presented itself until now with SV starting to gain my attention along with an increasing inability to spend hours prepping for tours now that real life is doing what real life does best. While these teams have all had varying degrees of success, I selected these specifically because they're most memorable to me.
Click on the sprites to get a pokepaste link
Old DPP: 2016 - 2021
Real old DPP is even earlier of course, but I figured it's only worth discussing what I'm familiar with. I started playing DPP Ubers tours in early 2016 with the Weekend Tour, but I didn't play a major tour until UPL VI with the Luminous Lunalas in 2018 and once again in 2019 as a retain. The blueprint for my and many others' DPP Ubers teams was Iris, whose influence is still visible today if you look close enough. In 2020, I took a "break" and skipped UPL VIII, which coincidentally happened to be the year where Arceus was released back into the tier after its initial exclusion due to obsolete simulator limitations more than a decade ago. In 2021, I played in UPL IX as a Dangerous Dracovish, which the last major tour where we saw people use old era teams. Most of the teams in this section are outdated, but I included them anyway to show how the metagame has involved since then.
Gliscor Deo-A Sub Pass
Back in 2016, I thought Gliscor Pass was the coolest thing ever after I saw Iris' Gliscor Pass team run through some room tours. I was also hooked on SpDef Groudon at the time because of how well it tanked hits from the big scary dragons in the tier. The original import is long lost, but I did my best to recreate it since it's the oldest tournament team that I can remember, and it took game off of Pohjis in the Weekend Tour playoffs.
Back Scarf Darkrai Rain Spikes HO
Behold one of the many faces of no dragon resist rain HO, a playstyle once so dominant that Deo-S, Dialga, Gira-O, sweeper, sweeper, speed control became a mantra. Teams of this era lost to all sorts of things: RP Groudon, Ho-oh, Stall, Tspikes, any dragon, Mewtwo, Lucario and the list goes on. Some of the most iconic teams from this era include Iris' PP stall, Kabutops HO, and SkarmBliss sun stall, which are 6-0ed by SpDef Dialga, Ray, and Ho-oh respectively. I managed to get a quick win against M Dragon in UPL VII since I loaded SpDef Dialga into support Jirachi, but looking back it's puzzling how anybody was consistent with these teams.
Old Farceus Kabutops HO
When Arceus was released back into the tier, the playerbase jumped on Ekiller like it was the second coming of RBY Mewtwo, and the UPL VIII quickly collapsed into sun HO. There were other trends like SD Garchomp sand and Ho-oh suns, but sun HO emerged as the clear number one with Groudon settup up sun versus pesky steels while also chipping Gira-O for an Ekiller sweep. But the problem was Ekiller sun HO mirrors were incredibly volatile to the point where entire endgames would be decided by Ekiller speed ties. It took a few months after UPL VIII before players realized how potent rain really was. Twave Kyogre is one of the best ways to deal with CM Arceus forms whereas sun was forced to check them with a Latias that is susceptible to Twave. Band Kabutops is phenomenal for checking Ekiller and chipping opposing Gira-O to aid your own Ekiller. We also saw a resurgence of Scarf Deo-S after years of people malding over losing turn 1 speed ties. It's a mystery why it took so long though considering Jiabaku was using Scarf Deo-S with great success a decade ago in Vulcan Fury, but the shift was much welcome. Another interesting detail about the Deo-S is the 29 speed IV; you can lower the IV from 31 to check whether an opposing lead Deo-S might be Scarf. That being said, even this team has fallen dramatically with modern Farceus teams being a completely different beast.
Old Groundceus Balance
Groundceus is one of the best support forms by virtue of its sandstorm immunity, SR resist, Thunder/Thunder Wave immunity, and ability to threaten Dialga. I never saw a Refresh support Arceus in DPP until I built this team, but it's useful for increasing longevity. Lead Rest Talk Kyogre is admittedly not the best, but it's necessary to deal with Darkrai. Scarf Tyranitar traps Latias/Latios that would otherwise be a big problem for the Kyogre and Groundceus. The team has actually aged relatively well and remains one of my favorite Farceus teams.
The Advent of Sun Stall and Bronzong: 2021 - 2022
UPL IX was the last UPL where we saw the past big names slotted in DPP, including M Dragon, BKC, SoulWind, and Chill Shadow, making it a very special one for me. But the quality of my teams didn't improve significantly until BKC's DPP Invitational at the end of 2021 which is where sun stall and optimized Bronzong squads really began to take off. After making the playoffs of the BKC invitational and immediately being sent to losers round 1 by Pohjis, I started bringing Bronzong and sun stall at a high usage rate, which miraculously lifted me out of loser's and into a tournament win that still remains to be my biggest accomplishment in competitive Pokemon.
BU Thunder Dialga T-spikes BO
There are plenty of non-standard BU Dialga sets out there: Roar Dialga, Magnet Rise Dialga, EQ Dialga, and even Toxic Dialga, but what about Thunder Dialga? Traditionally, people just paired the standard Rest Talk BU Dialga with Magnezone to circumvent Skarmory issues, but Thunder Dialga directly addresses the issue. I had just brought a team that was extremely week to Tspikes UPL IX week 1, so I decided to bring what was essentially a Tspikes counter team week 2 versus Chill Shadow. Mewtwo becomes immune to Toxic after a single Tspike layer, which is usually stall's best bet to beat it. Tentacruel can also eliminate Tspikes at any time by switching in. Hypnosis Bronzong is also nice for instantly shutting off Forretress. Needless to say, I loaded this directly into Tspikes, and the Dialga earned me a nice win.
Roar Gira-A Rain BO
Full Tspikes teams have long regressed since their PP stalling days because players realized killing SpDef Dialga is an impossible feat, but this team aims to circumvent that issue by using Roar Gira-A to phase the Dialga before it can phase you. Simply set up Tspikes, paralyze the poison immune Pokemon, and let Gira-A go to work. I used this to get a win off of byronthewellwell in BKC invitational playoffs where my Gira-A managed to phase a Heatran that would have phased standard CM Gira-A sets. It's hard to say whether I'll actually use Roar Gira-A ever again since Dialga is still a threat despite all the precautions, but it the right MU it can make significant progress.
Standard Bronzong Spikes Rain HOs
When people prep against me in tours, this is what they're likely preparing for. It's very difficult to beat this structure unless you tech against Bronzong using things like Mail Forretress to punish the Trick Scarf Deo-s, Pokemon that take advantage of Bronzong's passiveness like Sub Palkia or Wisp Gira-O, or something even more specific like DragMag. The last slot is flexible, but if it's something slower than Darkrai, then you'll need to Scarf the Kyogre to check it. My personal favorites are the first three versions, but I did use the Mewtwo to win the final game of BKC Invitationals grand finals set 2 vs Garay Oak. Expert belt over Life Orb is also viable on the Mewtwo and even preferable in most situations.
The Deo-S and Deo-A on this structure are interchangeable, but I usually use Deo-A when I'm expecting a lead Kyogre since it makes the sequence more forgiving. Scarf Deo-S deals with other Deo-S and spinners like Forretress/Tentacruel a lot better. If you run into Kyogre with lead Deo-S, then you have to hope it's not lead CM and go Dialga to click Thunder after dying turn 1. A lot of times they'll go straight to Bronzong in this position to setup SR, and I see a lot of new players just switch to their own Bronzong to avoid the EQ instead of clicking Thunder for free chip. Chances are that if they're leading Kyogre and have a Bronzong, they won't have any other switch in and they will be forced to EQ after setting up SR giving you a free switch to your Bronzong regardless.
The crux of team is TR Bronzong. The point is to transform your Gira-O and Dialga into late game sweepers, but how much speed should you actually use? You want your Gira-O to be slower than opposing slow Gira-O, slow Dialga faster than opposing slow Gira-O, slow Dialga faster than opposing slow Dialga, and slow Gira-O faster than opposing slow Dialga. I've chosen to run 56 Spe EV Gira-O and 24 Spe EV Dialga on most of my builds with slight variance, but it's completely dependent on the usage rate of TR spreads in the meta.
Cress Stall: Latias and Dialga
Cress stall is the most influential DPP Ubers team in recent history, and you can read the full RMT by Seldanna and Nineveh HERE. I suppose you could say Seldanna gave me "early access" which allowed me to help piece together some of the tech choices on the team way before the RMT was released. The team was in development throughout 2021 starting with the Latias version but wasn't optimized until the end of the BKC Invitational. For starters, pretty much nobody had seen an EQ Gira-A until SoulWind used it in the Swiss rounds. Without EQ Gira-A on the Latias version, Heatran would have plagued the team just as it has done to older sun stalls. I personally like Dragon Claw as the last slot on Groudon, but there are plenty of options, even Brick Break if you feel the looming threat of screens. Many new players quesiton the viability of Thunder Latias on sun but believe me, it is mandatory. I think an early version of the team ran Grass Knot, but it made rain and Skarmory much more difficult. The Dialga version of the team makes the rain MU worse but increases your chances of beating threats like BU Dialga and Darkrai which is why I brought that version the most.
Lucario Mixed Ray Sun HO
I had been spamming Bronzong rain quite a bit in BKC invitational playoffs and needed to mix up my usage, which meant resorting to an playstyle I viewed as subpar: sun HO. I brought this team against Garay Oak in grand finals set 1 in an attempt to avoid a Bronzong counter team, which worked perfectly since he brought Gliscor DragMag BO. Even for sun HO standards, I wouldn't call this team anything special because the best sun HOs utilize RP Groudon or even Wobbuffet, but I wanted to maintain a defensive backbone by having SpDef Groudon. Scarf Jirachi with both Healing Wish and Trick is a nice touch, allowing it to cripple defensive threats while also rejuvenating Groudon in emergencies.
Healing Wish, Anti-Zong, and Beyond: 2022 - Present
A lot has changed since the BKC Invitational with the playerbase becoming more knowledgeable and DPP Ubers as a whole becoming more popular. I wouldn't say the tier is solved yet, but the diversity has diminished severely as a result of hyper optimization. In 2023, I decided to manage the Spectral Thieves with Ayu in UWL II, where we saw Hwish Blissey used to defeat Bronzong structures. Stone_Cold really forsaw everything. I ended up playing a surprise Farceus slot in DPPPL with Dave's Dragonites, which was refreshing after bringing Bronzong at 70% usage for so long. Finally, I finished the year with UPL XI managing with Ayu again after deciding to be a tryhard one final year.
Psych Up Dialga Wob
Psych Up Dialga allows Dialga to beat Manaphy and CM Kyogre. Other than that it's not too useful, and this team is actually a BKC Invitational reject. The team is reminiscent of aforementioned no dragons resist rain HOs with the silver lining being that Wob can still sponge a few hits. Nevertheless, I brought it versus zf in UWL II where I was haxed to hell in a game I likely lost at MU anyway. I still like the aesthetic of the team, and ways to use Wob consistently should be explored more.
Ludicolo BU Dialga Rain BO
This team was actually made in 2022, but I had never brought it to a tournament game until I had to face London Beats week 2 of UPL XI in an attempt to counter team no dragon resist rain HO. I ended up loading into a Manaphy BO, which is still a nice MU for Ludicolo and BU Dialga. You'll also notice that this team is 6-0ed by opposing BU Dialga, which is unfortunate because it's a great team otherwise. A way to alleviate the problem is teching Destiny Bond and Aura Sphere on Gira-O to force the Dialga out preferably after Ludicolo has Leech Seeded it, but the team is more consistent overall by just ignoring the MU. Lucario is another big threat which is why the Gira-O is max speed, and the added bulk of Scarf Kyogre helps a bit too.
Stall2 Hwish Balance
Losing to Seldanna twice in UWL II irked me quite a bit, but I still won the tour. Like they say, winning fixes everything. I lost to a Healing Wish supported Sub SD Groudon slicing through my Bronzong not once but twice, which was a wake-up call to adjust my team building approach for DPPPL II and UPL XI. I originally built this for Keys in DPPPL with mixed Ray over Latias, but both versions have their strengths. The team features the Sub SD Groudon that Seldanna had swept me with, and I later used it myself in UPL XI versus Inspirited. Grass Knot Bronzong is an ancient set, but I was paranoid of the Sub SD Groudon trend. As for Hwish, it's an incredibly versatile tool that has reshaped how offense can crack open defensive cores. SD Groudon and CM Kyogre no longer have an issue of withering away to Tspikes, and lead Specs Kyogre can come back in the endgame which was previously unheard of. Blissey is the best Hwisher by virtue of its plethora of switch in opportunities and low speed, but Latias, Skymin, and Jirachi can work too.
A New Age of Cress Stall
Cress stall hasn't slowed down one bit boasting a 100% win rate in UPL XI. Mewtwo as the sixth member of the team is an interesting addition that helps the team overcome BU Dialga, Stall2, and still acts as a Darkrai check. It can even run Flamethrower over Aura Sphere to clean games up on its own. The obvious issue with Mewtwo is that you lose a Specs Kyogre check meaning the Forretress has to be changed to Focus Sash. That's not going to help too much if your opponent has Hwish support with Specs Kyogre though, so it's always a good idea to keep the Latias version in your back pocket. It's also possible to use Deo-A or Deo-S since they can reliably set up Spikes against every Kyogre set. I used a Deo-S Scarf Dialga verison in my UPL XI game vs Hack, which ended up being one of my closest UPL games ever.
Band Tyranitar Rain: Lead Dialga Version
Under normal circumstances, I would never use lead Dialga but I needed to mix up my lead usage versus Susciety, and I actually sniped a Mail Deo-S Ho-oh team, which I can only assume was designed to counter my own Trick Deo-S rains and Bliss dual-weather balances. Bronzong provides TR for CB Tyranitar much like you see in OU, and the Latias can pass Hwish to Tyranitar just in case. Tyranitar also eliminates Latias clearing way for a potential Scarf Kyogre sweep.
Full TR Rain
TR Bronzong is understandable considering it's there to turn your slow Pokemon into late game cleaners, but what about full TR? I've tried full TR in the past with no avail because I was focusing too much on covering threats like Forretress. In reality, what works is just unleashing sweeper after sweeper, TR after TR. While Specs Kyogre seems obvious, I found Lum CM Kyogre far more versatile defensively, and another surprise was how bulky Palkia became with the additional HP evs, allowing it to finally survive Latios' Draco Meteor through Haban Berry. I brought this one for a win versus Garay Oak in UPL XI Semi-Finals Tie Beaker.
Clef Rain Stall
Clef is essentially masochism considering how dragons like Palkia can randomly plow through your team even after a few dozen turns of thoroughly outplaying your opponent. The viability stems from Magic Guard and Encore, but its defenses are not on par with Ubers. More traditional Clef teams will use sand to make use of the residual sandstorm chip, but I figured rain might have some niche with Spdef Gira-A. I was wrong. The team sucks, but this experiment leads me to believe that CM BoltBeam Clef might have some potential if paired with Blissey. It's also worth noting that Clef's viability drastically increases in Farceus, so it's not the end for Clef enjoyers.
Fightceus Ho-oh Sand Stall
This is actually modification of a standard DPP team with Mewtwo over Fightceus that gave me a win vs Pohjis in BKC Invitational playoffs, but I found that the team functioned more efficiently in Farceus. I actually prepared an intial version of this team for the DPP AG ladder in 2022, but the addition of Fightceus over Mewtwo is fantastic in Ubers. SpDef Gira-A and Tyranitar give you just enough leeway to come out unscathed versus Kyogre and Latias if maneuvered correctly. I won't say it's the best team ever compared to standard Tyranitar and Skarm balances, but I must say it's satisfying to pilot a Ho-oh on sand. I ended up winning with this in DPPPL versus Mr. 378, who was using a no dragon resist HO.
Poisonceus Rain
What we have here is a modern Farceus rain balance. In standard DPP Ubers, SkarmBliss struggles with mixed dragons, but that isn't the case when Arceus can survive pretty much anything thrown at it. That gives rise to a slower, more grindy metagame that's less centered around surprise techs and exploiting lack of preview. Poisonceus is often underestimated because it has poor coverage with its STAB, but it absorbs Tspikes, can't be poisoned by Toxic, and counters Fightceus. Poor STAB coverage doesn't even matter when BoltBeam exists. I'd say the two best forms are Normal and Fighting. A tier below that is Ground, Ghost, and Steel. Then finally, you have Poison and Grass as the last good forms.
SD Steelceus Rain
My most recent Farceus team features SD Steelceus and excessive amounts of Twave. Even the Mewtwo and Gira-O have Twave. The goal is to go for an endgame sweep with Steelceus para-flinching everything with Iron Head. Now if you look at the old Farceus sun HOs from 2020, it isn't hard to see that they would completely fall flat against these fat balances when Ekiller does absolutely nothing against this. The UPL VIII meta had no resemblance of a stability with sun HOs cannibalizing each other, but I think the current state of Farceus is very balanced and offers something for people who like DPP but want a more calculation heavy metagame rather than a prep heavy, "surprise your opponent with techs" metagame.
Improved UU
Does anybody remember Iris' DPP UU team? Consider this the more viable sequel, except it's cheating because all the Pokemon on this team have potential or are already viable in Ubers. Hariyama was created for Ubers being able to anti-lead Deoxys forms, Darkrai, and Tyranitar. Ludicolo is immortal versus rain. Claydol is a nifty Groudon check. Registeel is a steel in a tier where very few good fighting-types exist. Clefable despite mostly being used by mashochists is still incredibly strong against weaker dragons like Latias and is difficult to remove for passive teams thanks to Magic Guard. Finally Qwilfish is a threat that has always been good on lead Kyogre structures for both setting up and removing Tspikes, but it's also prominent on offense almost always taking down something with the combination or Explosion, Destiny Bond, and Taunt.
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There's a ton of stuff I didn't get to show like Pursuit Darkrai, a real Qwilfish team, Probopass, Mean Look Pass, Marowak, Full Pass, Mew Pass etc., but I'm just rambling at this point. Maybe I'll just mass dump some teams later. DPP Ubers continues to be my favorite tier even after almost 8 years, and it's hard to imagine something surpassing it, although I do like SV Ubers and DPP UU these days. Hopefully some of these teams were interesting and will be useful to anyone reading.Shoutouts Seldanna for helping build a ton of these teams and for being unable to contain her excitement about this post (bruh). Also, shoutouts to the rest of the homies, Ayu, Iris, zf, FatFighter2 (please give like).
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