SS UU Runaway Baby- Funky Monky Webs- 1000th Post Special (1718 Peak)

Introduction
As I begin this post, I look back on the time I’ve been on this site. I’ve been playing competitive Pokemon for about 2 and a half years and am approaching my 2nd year as part of the UnderUsed community. I honestly thought competitive Pokemon would be a short distraction from a global pandemic, but Smogon and UU have grown into a fun community with lots of interesting and different people to meet and interact with. Furthermore, competitive Pokemon has become a super fun hobby of mine that I can use to distract myself from the real world at times. I never really thought I’d be hitting a 1000 posts until a few months ago when I hit the 900s but here we are. All those VR posts, project votes, and QC checks especially really have added up over the years. As I click post, I look back and see just how much I have accomplished in my time here so far and how I can grow and be involved even further as the next generation approaches. I’ve had the contents for this post in mind for a while, and I’ve decided to RMT my most successful team in my history in competitive Pokemon, being the Funky Monky webs. Despite it being a relic of a metagame more than a year ago, it really left a mark on me as a player and has been the most fun team I have used while also taking the UU ladder by storm when it was sampled.

Before I dive into the team itself, I want to briefly talk about my history with webs and the hyper offense archetype as a whole. I personally love to use hyper offense in my free time on the ladder. I like the fast paced action of games and the ability to just stack offensive threats and put my opponent on the backfoot more often than not, brainlessly clicking to rack up elo points. I piloted it well when first joining UU, using it to get reqs for the Blaziken and first Latias suspect tests. However, my first real success using a hyper offense team made by myself was a Psychic Seed Zeraora + Focus Sash Alakazam Psychic Terrain team that was able to use two of the strongest threats in UU of the time + Polteageist and a now banned Kommo-o to overwhelm most defensive teams and eliminate priority moves like Bullet Punch and Ice Shard, which was a major component in checking these Pokemon. After Zeroara rose and Alakazam got banned, I went to typical veil hyper offense teams and got around 5th place and like 1700 elo during a cycle of UULT. However, with the Light Clay ban (good riddance), I was left wondering what other playstyle to experiment with. I messed around with Trick Room for a bit, but never could get a good 6 that I liked. Eventually, I came across Sticky Web and decided to give it a shot. Little did I know I would fall in love with the playstyle. The ability to outright shut down or limit dangerous offensive threats reliant on their solid Speed tiers like Keldeo, Lycanroc-D, Nihilego, Choice Scarf Jirachi, and Choice Scarf Zarude opens up a lot of mid Speed tier breakers to shine and show just how potent they are in the metagame, tying into my belief that SS UU has largely been a diverse and experimental metagame where you can make just about anything work. In the present, I've made niche threats like Bewear, Lucario, Decidueye, and Gardevoir that otherwise be decently tough to pull off in the current UU tier work. I experimented around with this team for the remainder of UULT and hit a ladder peak shown in the post. After this, shifts came and the team got even better with despite the presence of rain which theoretically should stop webs. The team then got sampled and eventually took over the UU ladder for a few months. When October came, Buzzwole rose to OU so the team became outdated, not to mention that Excadrill also dropped and most people lost the excitement with webs. I still think it's fun to use albeit with Vikavolt over Ribombee and can definitely put in work on the ladder, though it’s something I wouldn’t bring to a serious tournament now. The Monky webs origin story is done, let's get to actually talking about the team.

The Squad
:ss/Ribombee:
I Gotta Feeling (Ribombee) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Shield Dust
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sticky Web
- Moonblast
- Bug Buzz
- Skill Swap

When deciding on a webs setter, I turned to the three on the VR at the time: Shuckle, Slurpuff, and Ribombee. I tried them all and found Ribombee to be a far better setter than both of them, and I was further shocked when it got UR but both remained on. Yes, Shuckle compresses Stealth Rock, but it’s so poor at its job that it can’t keep both up either way and is just a super passive momentum sink. Meanwhile, despite being able to KO Scizor with Flamethrower, Slurpuff had 4MSS with wanting both Misty Explosion for momentum and Endeavor to wear down threats and was too reliant on Focus Sash being broken to be useful in getting off another attack. The Flamethrower tactic got old as well once people realized how standard it was. It was a really long time ago so details are a bit fuzzy but I strongly remember Ribombee being good and the other two not being that good. I found that Ribombee was the optimal choice for webs at the time because of its raw Speed tier and ability to offensively pressure entry hazard removal like Salamence and Rotom-W as well as offensive threats like Zarude, Keldeo, Zygarde-10%, and Thundurus forms with STAB Moonblast and Bug Buzz. Its offensive potency provided lots of value to the team and there have even been times where I would preserve it if it had a good matchup. Skill Swap was the best 4th as it allows Ribombee to bypass Hatterene which was another common hazard blocker while also removing abilities like Beast Boost from Nihilego. After some time, I found Stun Spore is far better over Bug Buzz and I wish I realized that earlier, but to stay true to the sample version Bug Buzz remains listed as the 4th move. Before I talk about the rest of the team, I will say that this webs team does not use a Stealth Rock setter. I think fitting a rocks setter was incredibly difficult to do at the time. You either had Krookodile which isn’t that good offensively or Necrozma with its Meteor Beam set. I liked the latter more, yet found Autotomize to be an incredible 4th instead, being able to function as a sweeper outside of webs and proving useful in the incoming rain matchup. I don’t run rocks at all on current webs either; it’s much better to stick on offensive threats that take advantage of webs counterplay like Boots Zarude and Lycanroc-D rather than rocks that will probably be removed late-game. Overall, using Ribombee as a webs setter and having great success with it made me appreciate this Pokemon a bit more and was my reliable webs setter for almost an entire year.

:ss/Necrozma:
Counting Stars (Necrozma) @ Power Herb
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Autotomize
- Photon Geyser
- Meteor Beam
- Heat Wave

Necrozma is one of the many stars of this team, being a dangerous sweeper with Meteor Beam and having the very dangerous Psychic + Fire Coverage at the time. As alluded to earlier, Necrozma’s main benefit was to serve as a sweeper with Autotomize to beat out other hyper offense and rain rather than solely take advantage of webs, as these teams had threats that ignored webs and could still beat out some of the slower members of the team. I cannot count how many times Necrozma’s natural bulk allowed it to take hits from Pokemon like Barraskewda, Gyarados, Kommo-o, or Kingdra and finish them off to stop the sweep. It even outspeeds the former in rain with webs at +2 which was amazing to really save the game. Necrozma was also notorious for pressuring entry hazard removal like Rotom-W, Tentacruel, and especially Salamence as most people on ladder never realized it uses Meteor Beam. It’s a key defensive backbone to an otherwise largely frail team and showed that even Pokemon not UU by usage hold strong niches in this tier.

:ss/Azelf:
GANGNAM STYLE (Azelf) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Psyshock
- Fire Blast
- Energy Ball

Often when using niche archetypes, there’s always a few Pokemon that have staple or near-staple status, disregarding the optimal setters of course. With sun it’s Venusaur and Darmanitan, while Trick Room has Alolan Marowak and Conkeldurr. To me, Azelf is the closest Pokemon I would have considered a staple on webs at the time, with it still being a near-staple even today. As alluded to earlier, the presence of Heavy-Duty Boots means webs can sometimes be very limited, so having a bunch of slow Pokemon reliant on webs can often result in a bad team if the team has decent removal or lots of Pokemon unaffected by Sticky Web. However, Azelf’s raw Speed and strength cover this shortcoming, being nearly unwallable at +2 and not relying on webs, yet still benefitted from Choice Scarf users like Jirachi, Zarude, and Mienshao being slowed down. Psyshock + Fire Blast + Energy Ball covered everything that wasn’t Umbreon at the time, meaning Azelf could just destroy unprepared teams. If webs were up and Azelf managed to boost, it could even take on rain teams lacking Barraskewda with sweepers like Seismitoad and Modest Kingdra being slower than it on webs. When I first made this team, Mew was still legal and could replicate the same moveset while being bulkier, but Azelf felt much stronger and the Speed was too valuable to forgo. In general, Azelf has been the biggest underdog of UU throughout the gen, with it getting more and more hyped up as the tier develops. At the time I thought Azelf was underrated but nothing too special, but using it on webs changed my view of it and I see it as one of the most potent Pokemon to use on hyper offense.

:ss/Thundurus-Therian:
Viva la Vida (Thundurus-Therian) (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Focus Blast

Thundurus-T is the most simple and standard part of this webs team when compared to other webs teams experimented with, so there’s not much to say really. At the time, Thundurus-Incarnate kept growing in dominance and overshadowing its Therian counterpart because of the massive Speed difference, so webs was pretty much the only place Thundurus-T could shine. Under webs, Thundurus-T is basically unwallable, as it boosts past typical specially defensive walls like Chansey and Assault Vest Tangrowth while evading Keldeo and Nihilego from revenge killing it. It also is useful to limit entry hazard removal like Salamence, Rotom-W, Moltres, Pelipper, and Tentacruel, threatening all of them with massive damage. Nasty Plot Thundurus isn’t the most common these days as pivot has overtaken it, yet still is considered to be the best set by many and makes a good showing from time to time.

:ss/Buzzwole:
Party Rock Anthem (Buzzwole) @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Roost

Buzzwole was by far the most defining and important component of this team. Webs often struggles with Heavy-Duty Boots Zarude as well as revenge killers like Lycanroc-D, Choice Scarf Jirachi, and Choice Scarf Mienshao due to their ability to be a pain if webs are off or don’t mind webs at all in case of the former. Buzzwole provides a safety net against these attackers with its raw bulk while being a nearly unwallable breaker that can sustain itself with Roost. Close Combat destroyed foes like Rhyperior, Krookodile, Celesteela, Zarude, and Chansey, while I went with the classic EdgeQuake combo as coverage to beat foes like Moltres, Salamence, Jirachi, and Aegislash. Eventually I dropped Stone Edge for Ice Punch with Moltres declining to improve the Amoonguss matchup while retaining coverage for Salamence. I consider Buzzwole on webs to be one of my best innovations, completely shoring up the poor matchups webs has and still being a well functioning and dangerous breaker. When Buzzwole unfortunately rose to OU, the team became outdated, showing how it was basically the heart and soul of the team.

:ss/Diggersby:
Moves like Jagger (Diggersby) @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Mega Kick
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack

This last slot was tough to decide on during the teambuilding process. I wanted a physical attacker and I initially experimented with Swords Dance Aegislash here, but I never really felt it clicked too well and wanted something with a better stall matchup. I eventually decided to give Swords Dance Diggersby a shot and it performed extremely well, earning the 6th slot on the team. SD Diggersby is basically unwallable, with even physically defensive Tangrowth dropping to +2 Mega Kick, while Celesteela takes massive damage still. It made the stall matchup much easier by 2HKOing unsuspecting Quagsire on the switch and having enough power to get past Umbreon, Salamence, and Tangrowth at +2. Quick Attack proved useful in revenge killing frail sweepers like Thundurus-I, Zygarde-10%, and Barraskewda. It also gave the team a second Volt Immunity which was nice. Diggersby was a Pokemon I never got around to using but this team really made it shine and even get more recognition among the community when it was sampled, getting enough of a boost to rise from RUBL to formally UU by usage.

Notable Results
I skipped the threat list as the team is outdated by more than a year and I also lack replays to really show off the team but if you were playing UU at the time you could see its takeover on the ladder. These are some screenshots of my ladder peaks, first one is during the June meta when I first made the team while the second one is in July where my main is at #14.
0381F80A-9AC1-41D9-B38B-6EBC0E1A4975.png

C4D22136-9EED-47A4-B77E-56F575887FA1.png

An interesting story about this team is that I almost destabilized the PU metagame. Ribombee is an integral part of SS PU, and this team got spammed so much on the ladder as a sample that it almost rose to UU, which would’ve completely altered the PU metagame by taking away one of their most integral Pokemon. Usage stats for month of September alone has it above the 4.52% cutoff, while overall 3 month usage had it nearly there (at 4.36%). I honestly would’ve felt super bad considering how the team became immediately outdated so we’d rob them of an integral Pokemon that isn’t that good in UU. Luckily, that didn’t happen.

The Shoutouts
I'm honestly not very good with shoutouts because I find it hard to put my appreciation towards everyone in words without it sounding mushy or incoherent but I'll still try my best to get everyone. You all are super amazing people that I am glad to have met in my time as part of the UU community.

BigFatMantis you were probably my first friend getting into UU, I still remember you helping me get into the server when I had issues joining. It has been an amazing experience to grow as a player alongside you, I still am super grateful that you took the efforts hosting UUFPL last year and it was a pleasure hosting it this year with you. You're a super talented player that deserves way more credit and I certainly look forward to interacting with you in the coming gen as well as see you reach even further heights as a player.
Lily it's hard to put this into words to accurately describe my admiration and respect for you but you're basically my idol. You are an incredibly welcoming person that puts so much effort into making UU the best place for everyone and I cannot thank you enough for the chances you've given me during my time here. There have been times where you believed in me more than myself even and I cannot thank you enough for the motivation you've given me as well as being a friendly face I can turn to if needed. I'm definitely glad I chose UU to be the community I am a part of and look forward to working with you in the new generation. Thank you for everything.
Adaam I don't know if you'll see this but I think as a player I look up to you the most. You're one of the best UU players to ever exist and watching your games always has me on the edge of my seat as I await to see your battling skill. You picking me up for UUPL was super amazing because I was like "holy shit I got picked by Adaam this is so awesome." You really gave me confidence during that tour and working with you allowed me to hit a new peak as a player. You're also super funny and manage to crack me up every time when making jokes. You're the GOAT to me and I hope the best to come to you in the future.
Sage Indigo Plateau Accel TPP- same as above, you are all amazing players that I look up to lots and have been great motivators for me as I began to improve in UU. You all were either my managers in a team tour or an active part in the chat and I was just totally stoked to be interacting with UU's best. To IP and Sage, I thank you for drafting me to UUSD and allowing me to be a part of your team and getting to know you both a lot better. To TPP and Accel, you both were such big motivators in these team tours and your advice gave me major confidence to win the game and be proud. I'm totally down to team and work with any of you again.
pokemonisfun Aqua Jet- thank you for reaching out to me about PIA and asking me if I wanted to help in last UUSD and just being good friends overall. You both are insanely hard workers and always aimed to make UU a better place for everyone, especially newer users that can get lost as they venture into the hobby of competitive Pokemon, which I really admire.
Band KM Estarossa Magnum Sickist bb skarm Crushy - you guys were some of my first my friends when getting into UU and your welcoming presence made being part of the UU community a fun experience that was worth being in. Thank you all for reaching out and being kind and I'm glad we're all still friends today.
Totomon romanji haxlolo Mystras Leoxses Celebiii -I believe you all started UU around the same time as me or not too long before/after and always managed to participate in my forum projects I used to host. Seeing you all participate honestly made my day and I even got to know all of you a lot better. It's been great to grow as a player alongside you all and I'm always rooting for you to get more respect and prominence in big team tours because I know you are all committed players with room to grow even more.
If I continued any longer this post would get crazy long so a quick shoutout to the following people who have been cool to get to know and make each day in the UU community a fun one- avarice Jade vivalospride TSR Lyss umbry hariyana grande Wanka Slip Sulo Moutemoute Venuesaur Luirromen Micciu Amukamara Specs Hilomilo scorbunnys ausma
 
Last edited:

Aqua Jet

Stardew
is a Contributor to Smogonis a Community Contributor Alumnus
Tags didn't work + you get owned by QCQD Slowbro-Galar pls ban already
Jokes aside Ily too, I always saw you as my UU rival of sorts despite you starting a little before me and I'm really happy we spent a lot of time togther and I cant wait to see what the future has in store for you

Also maroon ironwater Idk if I'm supposed to DM you or whatever but I'd like to nominate this for team showcase because A) its descriptive and to me is a good example of what a RMT should look like and B) its a good team that dominated UU ladder and probably one of the most successful teams to be sampled since I began UU

:jirachi: yep
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top