Project UnderUsed Teambuilding Competition v2 - Week 63: Reuniclus

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Congrats to Luirromen and thanks for the submissions! Next up, we have:

Starmie

Starmie has been known as an offense shredder throughout generations of competitive Pokemon, and continues to perform excellently in that role in current UU. In particular, Starmie is excellent at taking advantage of the many slower Steel-types with poor Special Defense that dominate the current metagame, such as Cobalion, Skarmory, and Scizor, blasting them with Surfs, Psychics, Ice Beams, and Thunderbolts, while resisting their Steel- and Fighting-type attacks. Starmie is also notable as an offensive Pokemon for having access to Recover, which allows it to perform its role multiple times throughout a game where other offensive Pokemon could be more easily worn down. Additionally, Starmie has an excelent Speed tier of Base 115, outspeeding other offensive Pokemon like Thundurus-Therian and Keldeo and Speed tying Zygarde-10%, Azelf, and Raikou. As well, Starmie has incredible coverage options for an offensive Pokemon, being able to make good use of both its STAB moves as well as running BoltBeam coverage. Finally, Starmie is not entirely beholden to running an offensive set - while on the rarer side, bulky Starmie variants making use of Rapid Spin to clear hazards are also possible. As great as all these advantages are, Starmie has numerous downsides that do hold it back as well. Starmie notoriously struggles with 4 Moveslot Syndrome, always having to give up on an important coverage move when running its offensive sets. Starmie is also quite frail and cannot be brought onto the field easily. In addition, Starmie struggles heavily to break Chansey, and can struggle with other specially bulky Pokemon should it lack a super effective coverage option for them. Finally, Starmie lacks a Special Attack boosting move, meaning it faces competition from Azelf as a special sweeper. Azelf possesses Knock Off as well, making it harder to justify Starmie over it. All that said, Starmie is still an excellent choice in the current meta, and I'm eager to see what teams are shared this week!

Teambuilding Restrictions:
  • The team should be built in the Sword and Shield UnderUsed format.
  • The team must include Starmie.
Submission Deadline:
  • Sunday, August 7, 2022 @ 11:59 PM EST (GMT-4).
 
Life Orb Starmie Bulky Offense

:nihilego: :salamence: :diggersby: :cobalion: :starmie: :tangrowth:
https://pokepast.es/bba614cb1c7fc859

This is a fast paced team I've built around life orb starmie. Starmie is a great offensive threat in UU, being in the amazing 115 speed tier, and analytic is amazing since there are multiple pokemon it can threaten out. I've paired starmie with nihilego and salamence to form a solid hazard control core, and also to pressure grass types. Cobalion is here to deal with 2 of the biggest answers to starmie, being chansey and zarude, while also generally being an amazing win condition. Diggersby is here to add an extra bit of speed control, pivot starmie in safely, act as a volt absorber, and also to spread knock off to make it easier to get other pokemon into starmie KO range. Finally tangrowth is here to also spread knock off, and because it's a good switch-in to zydog and primarina. Overall this team is solid, and I hope it preforms well for anyone who tries it.
 
Starmie Spike Stack

:starmie::skarmory::cobalion::tangrowth::hydreigon::diggersby:
https://pokepast.es/4f4ff6bb4a49e901

I was interested in Starmie for its Rapid Spinning versus a more offensive set because that's what really sets it apart from say Azelf, and the reliable recovery which sets it apart from Tentacruel, letting it be a really reliable answer to Keldeo. Natural Cure is also a great ability. Stacking spikes seemed like a logical choice to pair with rapid spin, and Skarmory is the obvious way to go. I ended up with Cobalion as a SR setter, and then AV Tangrowth, who appreciates not having to worry about certain threats that overlap with what Stamie covers, preventing it from getting easily overwhelmed. I wanted a really powerful breaker who can force switches and Specs Hydreigon seemed like a good fit. Lastly, scarf Diggesby gives the team an electric immunity and some speed control.
 
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Insou

formerly LoveStallLiveLife
:Nidoking: :Darmanitan: :Tangrowth: :Starmie: :Cobalion: :Salamence:

I started with the offensive core of Starmie and coballion. Natural starmie is perfect for the team as it improves matchups vs stall which provides it the much needed longevity. It also deals with common threats to coballion as well as being able to pressure common rocks setter such as hippowdon, excadrill and non scarfed krookodiles. Coballion is one of your offensive breakers that is also capable of sweeping lategame. Rocks nido+3 attacks frees up a slot for coballion to have magnet rise which forces hippowdon to whirlwind or to hard switch into a counter like moltres since we do not carry stone edge. Nidoking on the other hand deals with common mons that walls coballion such as tangrowth with focus blast and amoongus who can threathen it with spore. Meanwhile, salamence checks most of coballion counters such as darmanitan and conkeldurr with its offensive set. It is able to wear down offensive pivots such as rotom wash with roost+attacks. Lastly, darmanitan is the team's speed control and is able to eliminate threats such as offensive celesteela.
 
:ss/togekiss: :ss/starmie: :ss/tangrowth: :ss/cobalion: :ss/rotom-wash: :ss/zygarde-10%:
・Starmie is a good spinner which can defeat some of popular stealth rock setters like hippowdon and nihilego so it can be a good partner for togekiss, 2x stealth rock weakness but very powerful wallbreaker.
・These two are weak to electric types so I chose tangrowth as a electric check. Focus blast is always better than earthquake in this meta.
・These 3 are bad vs scizor so cobalion was chosen as a scizor check. It also provides rocks and physical pressure to chansey.
・These 4 are weak vs celesteela (defensive and autotimize are both annoying) so I decided to use defensive rotom. This rotom has thunder wave but this move is good for speed control and helps togekiss flinch.
・Zygarde is for late game cleaner. It also has volt immunity and a strong priority move.
about spreads:
Togekiss...Outspeed 252 speed celesteela
Starmie...Outspeed 252+ speed cobalion
Rotom...Outspeed 252 speed scizor
 

Luirromen

:]
is a Tiering Contributor
OUPL Champion
Stallbreaker Crobat + Nasty Plot Hydreigon. Ft Spin Starmie
:crobat: :hydreigon: :tangrowth: :cobalion: :diancie: :starmie:
(Click on the sprites for importable)
This team is a remake of another team I made some time ago, the idea was to use Nasty Plot Hydreigon, a pretty underrated set up sweeper. Starmie provides to Hydreigon a fast and bulky Fighting type check, perfect against the omnipresent Cobalion, can also absorb moves from Defensive Celesteela with ease and force it to switch out via Scald Burn, Starmie as well provides a very solid Keldeo check. Since Starmie is unable to check other water types aside from Keldeo, I decided to pair it with AV Tang + Crobat, this core allows you to play around Choice Specs Primarina, and also Tangrowth can deal with Rotom-W and Thundurus. Cobalion is the main Scizor check of the team, I decided to make it the rocks set but with Twave > Volt Switch or Sword Dance, since Twave helps me to play around easier vs DD Gyarados and dont have to purely rely on Stone Edge, also helps to neutralize Scizor easier, Stone Edge is for both Gyarados and Thundurus, since this team is lacking an Electric inmunity, use as many tools as posible to deal with Thundurus is valuable. Diancie is an interesting pick here, I was using Rotom-H before, that gave me another Scizor check, but Rotom-H is a "Celesteela" check unable to take on Meteor Beam, Rotom-H would force me to play around it and bait the Meteor Beam, and probably even force me to make some sacks, Diancie keeps being a reliable Flying resist and an excelent Autotomize Celesteela check, the combo of Diamond Storm + Body Press at +2 Defense allows it to beat it easily, boosted Body Press + Heal Bell also makes u capable to deal with Hippowdown, and Heal Bell helps on longer games, another option would be Mystical Fire over Body Press, but I find more valuable the combination of Diamond Storm + Body Press, Diancie as well helps with match ups vs Specs Hydreigon, since Tangrowth could potentially get overwhelm.
 

Slip

dancing to alarm bells
is a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributor
Expanding Force Starmie Heat
:starmie: :indeedee-f: :hydreigon: :swampert: :thundurus-therian: :celesteela:
I wanted to take a crack at an expanding force team as I feel like it's something that can be good, but is hard to pull off. I gave this team a handful of tests and it felt good enough to share. Specs starmie anhilates teams from beginning to end and with psychic terrain up it becomes unstoppable. The meta is a lot slower now, so starmie can quickly overwhelm teams. Hydreigon is an excellent offensive pivot that can't be threatened by bp scizzor thanks to psychic terrain which makes the mu fish a lot easier to keep drei alive. Swampert has yawn in order to make the opponent switch or if they decide to sleep, then it's easier to set up your terrain. Thundurus is the Slip Special™ utility set where you can defog and knock opponents which can give mixed results, but since the team is more offensive, it is just there to help open up opportunities for the team. Celesteela is the spdef tank that can leech seed opponents and take water types by surprise with giga drain. This is mainly just to keep everything relatively healthy if needed and wall pokemon like primarina which the team can struggle with switching into.

TL:DR: Expanding force is fun give it a try!
 
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Starmie Hazard Stack
:ss/skarmory: :ss/starmie: :ss/excadrill: :ss/hydreigon: :ss/tangrowth: :ss/nihilego:

Overview
With this team, my main goal was to use Starmie's powerful Analytic ability in combination with Skarmory's spikes and Nihilego's Rocks to make it incredibly painful for the opposing pokemon to switch out. This way it makes it simple to pick off Pokemon with Starmie while they cannot switch due to the hazards and Analytic boosted attacks they'll end up eating as they switch.

Hazard Stacking defensive Core
Skarm, Excadrill and Nihilego form a nice defensive hazard stacking and removing core, as they cover lots of key metagame threats such as Scizor with Iron Defense Skarm and Mence with Nihilego's high Spdef and resistance to many of Utility and Special Mences moves. Assault Vest Tangrowth also assists in handling offensive waters, with power whip over giga drain to make the calm mind Prim and Keld matchups easier. Because this team heavily relies on stacking up hazards, having ways to keep skarm safe from special attacks, particularly electric and fire type ones is important, and Nihilego and AV tangrowth are very helpful here, while skarm is also helpful to protect Nihi from strong physical attackers. Nihi and Tang also come with important knock off support to remove annoying Boots that may harm the spikes stacking potential. Skarm's Helmet discourages opposing spinners, while knock off and sludge bomb on Tang and Nihi wears down HDB flying type defoggers like Mence and Mandibuzz. very fast.

Offensive Core
Finally, Starmie utilites Hazards very well as it's strong analytic boosted Hydro Pumps alongside Spikes and Rocks give it the power to break through walls and tanks. Thunderbolt over Psyshock can mean breaking past special walls is trickier, however the coverage for dealing with Primarina, Gyarados and especially ProtectSeed Celesteela is important as these are fairly big threats for this team. Steela in particular struggles to 1v1 starmie due to recover, and Tbolt is a 3HKO. Without psyshock, starmie can struggle a bit harder to kill Special walls like Chansey, however if eviolite is knocked, Starmie still does reasonable damage on the switch when in combination with rocks and spikes. If rocks and 3 layers of spikes are up, it is almost a guaranteed 2HKO, however even with 1 or 2 layers, the damage is still very high and if Chansey has taken prior damage it is likely in the KO range. AV Tangrowths also take massive damage to Analytic Ice Beams and are 2HKO'd. Hydreigon is here as a form of speed control, and dropping Dracos on top of hazard damage means it also abuses them well. It also has U-turn to help pivot in Starmie.

Calcs
252 SpA Life Orb Starmie Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Celesteela: 153-182 (38.4 - 45.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Analytic Starmie Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Chansey: 242-286 (34.3 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes (Chansey switches in)
252 SpA Life Orb Starmie Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Chansey: 187-220 (26.5 - 31.2%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes (Chansey was already in)
252 SpA Life Orb Analytic Starmie Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 160 SpD Assault Vest Tangrowth: 250-294 (61.8 - 72.7%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes
 
https://pokepast.es/f4141b9a8547f891

:starmie: :chansey: :skarmory: :tangrowth: :umbreon: :slowbro-galar:

this is a stall team utilizing starmie ability to help skarmory keep hazards off for chansey to stay healthy throught the game to wall the metagame better. And letting skarmory focusing on healing and slowbro-g to setup. Chansey is here to help skarmory with special hits such as from thundy-t, salamence, moltres, and the rotoms. Tangrowth helps with the waters and grasses such as bulu, zarude, azu, and keldeo which this team would hate to face since starmie has to spam recover every time it gets in. Umbreon is here for the ability to deal with mamo and give wishes to its teammates while also being a cleric which allows the team to stay unstatused especially umbreon, and tangrwoth from poisons. Slowbro-g is the sweeper of the team, I chose it since it can wear down its checks quite quickly esp with aegislash and moltres-g gone it no longer has to worry about them and at +1 not many pokemon can KO it or threaten it out without the risk of being crippled by burn or poison which slowbro-g can just repeat the process
 
Congrats to Slip and thanks for the submissions! Next up, we have:

Suicune

Suicune, AKA the North Wind, is another Water-type that sees success in the current UU metagame due to its great matchup vs. the dominant Steel-types in Cobalion, Skarmory, and Scizor, due to their low Special Defense and Suicune's great physical bulk. Suicune is able to act as a bulky setup sweper with Calm Mind that spreads burns with Scald to make it even tougher to break through. Suicune's Pressure ability in combination with moves like Protect and Substitute allow it to also stall out low-PP moves that can break through its defenses, such as Close Combats from Conkeldurr and Draco Meteors from Hydreigon. Suicune can choose to make use of Calm Mind in 2 main ways: through the more resilient CroCune set (Calm Mind / Scald / Rest / Sleep Talk), or the more offensive VinCune set (Calm Mind / Scald / Substitute / Protect). It can also choose to slot in moves like Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, or Roar to augment its potential. Suicune can be an excellent win condition, but it also has many downsides. For one, Suicune is very dependent on its Leftovers to function effectively, and has to be very careful around Knock Off because of this. Suicune is also vulnerable to many common moves that hit it super effectively before boosting with Calm Mind thanks to its proclivity to run slower, bulkier sets, such as Thundurus-Therian's Volt Switch and Zarude's Power Whip, the latter of which it still remains vulnerable to even after boosting unless Suicune can get a Substitute up before Zarude comes in. Finally, unlike other bulky Water-types like Slowking, Suicune cannot be used to tank hits throughout a game, as this will ruin its potential as a win condition, so its team must find other ways to check the Pokemon bulky Water-types would normally handle, lest Suicune crumble under the pressure of having to take large hits and be healthy enough to sweep as a relatively slow Pokemon. It should make for an interesting teambuilding challenge this week!

Teambuilding Restrictions:
  • The team should be built in the Sword and Shield UnderUsed format.
  • The team must include Suicune.
Submission Deadline:
  • Sunday, August 14, 2022 @ 11:59 PM EST (GMT-4).
 
https://pokepast.es/b6553c07a78a4f62

hmmm.... :suicune: :cobalion: :rotom-wash: :tangrowth: :diggersby: :nidoqueen:

cobalion pairs with suicune to help lure in grasses and deal with them. It helps with zarude by punishing u-turns and threatening the opposing team with SD esp at +1 and can put a decent amount of pressure on teams. It is also the teams steel type which helps with scizor, zarude, nihilego, jirachi. It can also lure in slowking for suicune to help break through. Rotom-w is the water on this team and helps deal with togekiss, it also compresses defog on this team as this team would lack a fogger otherwise. Tang helps against zydog, keldeo, and thundy-t and makes sure this team doesnt get ass swept by CM prim. Nidoqueen is the rocker of this team and helps suicune by bullying tang, amoonguss, and bulu since it forces all of them out. Scarf diggersby is the speed control on this team and helps suicune sweeping late game by spreading paralysis and knock off'ing opponents
 
Well, HydreigonTheChild wins by default due to being the only submission for this week. Hoping for more submissions this time! We have an interesting theme to help get those creative juices flowing:

Pinch Berries


A "Pinch Berry" is a Berry that will activate when a Pokemon is in a pinch, i.e., its HP drops to 25% of its maximum HP or lower. There are 9 Pinch Berries in total, each described below:

Liechi Berry: Raises Attack by one stage in a pinch.
Ganlon Berry:
Raises Defense by one stage in a pinch.
Salac Berry:
Raises Speed by one stage in a pinch.
Petaya Berry:
Raises Special Attack by one stage in a pinch.
Apicot Berry:
Raises Special Defense by one stage in a pinch.
Lansat Berry:
Raises Critical Hit ratio by one stage in a pinch.
Starf Berry:
Raises a random stat out of Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, or Speed by two stages in a pinch.
Micle Berry:
Raises Accuracy of the next move used by approximately 20% in a pinch.
Custap Berry:
Allows the user to move first in its priority bracket in a pinch.

These Berries have had a variety of competitive uses over the generations. The most successful have been the Liechi, Salac, Petaya, and Custap Berries, with more niche uses seen for Lansat and Starf Berries. A common way to activate the Berries is through the use of Substitute to reduce the user's HP into a range where the Pinch Berry will activate, while also potentially allowing the user to keep a Substitute up as well. Belly Drum has historically also been used for this purpose. Another way involves using the Sturdy ability to ensure the user can activate their Pinch Berry after suriving a hit. A final way to trigger their effects can simply be from switching into hazards, and Pokemon can be EV'd and/or IV'd to ensure that a certain number of switch-ins to hazards will bring them into Pinch Berry range. The use of Pinch Berries can be an excellent way to surprise your opponent or to take advantage of unconventional strategies. I'm looking forward to what creative uses you can find for these Berries!


Teambuilding Restrictions:
  • The team should be built in the Sword and Shield UnderUsed format.
  • The team must include at least one Pokemon holding a Pinch Berry.
Submission Deadline:
  • Sunday, August 21, 2022 @ 11:59 PM EST (GMT-4).
 
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:salac-berry: Sub-Salac Diggersby :salac-berry:

:Diggersby::Magneton::Nihilego::Salamence::Slowking::Zarude:
https://pokepast.es/975c702c4c4024f9

Looking through UU, Diggersby jumped out as a great candidate for a Substitute + Salac Berry set. Huge attack stat + swords dance along with a speed tier that’s already very good at only +1 as evidenced by the success of its scarf set. Magneton seemed like a natural partner to get rid of Skarm/Steela as Diggersby can only run dual STABs. I went with Nihilego as a SR setter to start to pressure Pokémon like Tangrowth and Salamence who can keep Diggersby in check. Salamence was added for defog support and to cover the weaknesses to fighting, ground, and water present so far. Slowking and Zarude finish off the team by providing some pivoting. Slowking is important to help with Primarina and Mamoswine and Zarude is scarf to give the team some speed control.
 
https://pokepast.es/8eb38aa4bf375a3c

This uses salac berry thundy-t as usually it gets hit by one attack especially after rocks which put into salac range and this makes it harder to revenge kill by pokemon like scarf krook, scarf jirachi, crobat, noivern, azelf, nihilego, etc. The team is built around 2 hazard setters in vikavolt and krook which setup and due to their offensive pressure can keep up hazards esp krook with taunt. Keldeo is the dark resist as to prevent scarf krook and scarf drei from going ham on this team. Auto steela fits on this type of team as it abuses webs and hazards to help clean late game especially since stuff such as scarf zarude are now outsped.
 
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