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Now that UPL is over, I want to invite everyone who participated to share any interesting sets and teams they used and discuss how they prepared for and/or played specific matches. I think this will help the community gain some more insight into how to prepare for tournament play instead of ladder play, especially with Ubers Open coming up.
very brief note on prep: remember prep is a two-way street. obviously players want to gain an advantage by bringing threats / playstyles that their opponent is often unprepared for or exploits a common trend / theme in their teambuilding. however, it's key to remember to cover your own ass as well; if you're weak to the same threat or use the same sets week after week you're liable to be counterstyled yourself. additionally, don't go overboard with counterstyling (in most cases) if it sacrifices too much of your team's matchup vs other playstyles. it can introduce too much variance in match results, which is usually unwanted unless you know you can't win without insurmountable matchup advantage / know exactly what your opponent is bringing.
Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Swords Dance
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Protect / Roar
- Stealth Rock
i built this around lando-i + jolly bandtar, a combo that seemed cool because you can force in ground immunes and trap them consistently. scarf lando is so good against offense it's kind of crazy; they often will have no mons that outspeed it and 0-1 that can avoid that 2hko from sand boosted eq (relevant calc: 252 Atk Sand Force Landorus Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arceus-Type in Sand: 178-210 (40 - 47.2%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and sandstorm damage). exca just adds to this pressure, as it shares almost every check with lando. might be ekiller weak.
i wanted to build around specsdra because i think it's fairly underrated; definitely a good mon vs most offenses and balances with hazards up. ogre+fightceus checks darkrai well, alleviating the need for a scarfer here. deo-a+exca+tina-o sets hazards / spinblocks while checking some key threats (lati@s, sd arcs, etc). generally you want to get up hazards as quickly as possible and rack up general chip with status and phazing before attempting a kingdra sweep.
i firmly believe froslass is the worst hazard lead in bw2 but other people seem to like it so i wanted to try it out. i ended up with this build, which utilizes froslass' strengths of anti-leading nearly all spikers while not being weak to spinners. the rest of the team helps cover the darkrai / genesect lead matchup. specsogre is pretty threatening under the right conditions, so it's important to get up spikes / sr as fast as possible to limit the number of times it can switch in.
scarf dialga is a mon i've always really liked but it's hard to justify using this gen. here, it serves as a way to force out tina-o, a sleep absorber, and a general cleaner / utility check. the rest of the team is just there for moral support and hazards.
I'm here to post some thoughts on adv the metagame. Before Upl I really had no experience with adv. I learned it by just playing with friends but I really never thought about taking it seriously but like the last 2 weeks before upl I decided I might wanna give it a try especially if my team needed to slot me there. It just so happens I was on a team with hack which guaranteed that I would be playing adv while he played bw2 so I guess it all worked out. Adv is pretty weird because it's so underdeveloped that nothing is really standard and there's only a few teams that are well known and have had a ton of success but even then there are hundreds of varients of that team because in adv you can really check most of the tier in like 4 slots leaving a team to fill the last slots with a vareity of pokemon from something with no defensive synergy like deo a or something that has a ton of synergy making the team more secure. Even though I never really tested during the weeks of upl with my teammates but we did build a few squads but some of them weren't ever used. I don't feel comfortable posting full teams for a few reasons. The biggest reason is I just want to keep some of the teams I made between myself and a few friends because we might be using them in tourplay and I don't want to have to make more squads so people won't be able to suspect what teams I will bring. The other reason is like I said above a team can have so many varients so my opinion on which varient is the best might not be the same for everyone. That's why I'm gonna post some cool cores that I liked building around.
Leab wob + ninjask is a core I used to make a scary baton pass team. It sounds gimmicky but it can be suprisingly effective. Lead wob isn't the most common thing and it's really weird but it has its perks. The most common lead is latios which you can encore and mirror coat or if it decides to cm then encore into ninjask to setup so it's pretty good. Removing latios right away is pretty clutch if you have a kyogre in the back that can take advantage of this. Another wicked common lead is groudon. Wob can get off a free encore on eq, twave, toxic, basically anything a lead groudon has which means you can encore then pivot into ninjask to setup for free. Kyogre is by far the best lead vs wob so you need a pretty good way to deal with kyogre. Lead mewtwo will be forced into clicking boom so you are at the advantage. The rest of the team needs the same stuff all adv teams but it's just gonna be more offensive with mons that enjoy getting speed + attack boosts.
Wobbuffet @ Lum Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Encore
- Mirror Coat
- Counter
- Safeguard
This looks like a pretty standard core by the looks of it but I'm gonna get more in depth. During my 2nd week of upl facing shrang I build a sun team with curse lax as the special tank over blissey. The problem with this sun team was I had trouble removing steel types like forretress, skarmory and others. Even though I had a Ho-oh the steels types obviously were just gonna switch. In the long run lax will get overwhelmed before hooh has time to break through the other team by getting free switches into the steel types. I really wanted to fit magneton onto the team but there was no room so instead of running rest on lax I deciced to run fireblast. This in the sun makes it easy to lure in steel types and get rid of them easily. Not only that but when you can remove steels types there are only so many things that can stop lax so it becomes extremely threatening. Not the craziest set or core but it sure is effective.
Groudon @ Leftovers
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 224 SpD / 28 Spe
Careful Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Roar
Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Curse
- Fire Blast
- Body Slam
- Shadow Ball
The idea behind this core was pretty basic. It's sub baton pass celebi instead of sd because passing subs is more consistent than sd. Basically the gameplan was to just annoy ppl with sub/leech seed but also sub then pass into strong hitters. I used this game 1 vs shrang and iirc the team was celebi, heracross, metagross, kyogre, latios, and lax. So the rest of the team all benefits from gaining free momentum while having sub up to make sure they don't lose any damage on the switch in. I chose heracross over something like groudon because heracross is extremely hard to check and imo it's more threatening than groudon but it just has less bulk so switching is hard but that can be done with the help of celebi.
Defensive Defog mence is a vert interesting set in my opinion, I used it twice in this UPL in a defog-less arceus-dark team. I used dragon dance in order to threaten ferrothorn a bit harder but toxic and dragon tail are fine too I guess.
Yveltal @ Darkinium Z
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Oblivion Wing
- Sucker Punch
- U-turn
Darkinium Z yveltal's firepower is terrifying :
252+ SpA Dark Aura Yveltal Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Arceus-Ground: 330-388 (74.3 - 87.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Dark Aura Yveltal Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Groudon-Primal: 297-351 (73.6 - 87%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Dark Aura Yveltal Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Arceus: 328-387 (86 - 101.5%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Dark Aura Yveltal Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 240 HP / 0 SpD Xerneas: 195-231 (43 - 50.9%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO
I also used u-turn in order to lure scarf (or just allows me to pivot around arceus-dark), and sucker punch just bop blissey
4 Atk Dark Aura Yveltal Black Hole Eclipse (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Blissey: 501-591 (76.9 - 90.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
In the same team as the big black burd i used a weird core of CM-Refresh Arceus-rock and defensive Buzzwole, they cover each other weaknesses near flawlessy, but you definitely should use some strong Groudon and xerneas check.
This set is also super strong in the current metagame imo, as it can just set up on every regular ekiller check bar Sableye. (thousand arrows and heavy slam from zygarde and celesteela don't
break sub).
very brief note on prep: remember prep is a two-way street. obviously players want to gain an advantage by bringing threats / playstyles that their opponent is often unprepared for or exploits a common trend / theme in their teambuilding. however, it's key to remember to cover your own ass as well; if you're weak to the same threat or use the same sets week after week you're liable to be counterstyled yourself. additionally, don't go overboard with counterstyling (in most cases) if it sacrifices too much of your team's matchup vs other playstyles. it can introduce too much variance in match results, which is usually unwanted unless you know you can't win without insurmountable matchup advantage / know exactly what your opponent is bringing.
Excadrill @ Air Balloon
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin
- Swords Dance
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Protect / Roar
- Stealth Rock
i built this around lando-i + jolly bandtar, a combo that seemed cool because you can force in ground immunes and trap them consistently. scarf lando is so good against offense it's kind of crazy; they often will have no mons that outspeed it and 0-1 that can avoid that 2hko from sand boosted eq (relevant calc: 252 Atk Sand Force Landorus Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arceus-Type in Sand: 178-210 (40 - 47.2%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and sandstorm damage). exca just adds to this pressure, as it shares almost every check with lando. might be ekiller weak.
i wanted to build around specsdra because i think it's fairly underrated; definitely a good mon vs most offenses and balances with hazards up. ogre+fightceus checks darkrai well, alleviating the need for a scarfer here. deo-a+exca+tina-o sets hazards / spinblocks while checking some key threats (lati@s, sd arcs, etc). generally you want to get up hazards as quickly as possible and rack up general chip with status and phazing before attempting a kingdra sweep.
i firmly believe froslass is the worst hazard lead in bw2 but other people seem to like it so i wanted to try it out. i ended up with this build, which utilizes froslass' strengths of anti-leading nearly all spikers while not being weak to spinners. the rest of the team helps cover the darkrai / genesect lead matchup. specsogre is pretty threatening under the right conditions, so it's important to get up spikes / sr as fast as possible to limit the number of times it can switch in.
scarf dialga is a mon i've always really liked but it's hard to justify using this gen. here, it serves as a way to force out tina-o, a sleep absorber, and a general cleaner / utility check. the rest of the team is just there for moral support and hazards.
I think your teams in general are well made, especially the skarm sand: it utilizes the advantages of scarf dialga pretty well. I wouldn't count on the band ttar team to do that well though, seems fairly reactive to the common sdef ogre+steel cores around. It gets a bit too hard to punish ogre in general when running 4 water weaks regardless of how many checks to you pack.
I have some bw2 stuff as well. Basically to preface me and kebabe spent a fair while gimicking around with bw things before starting to build solid stuff again. It was fun to reinvent my views on the tier... Credits to problems as well, as he allowed me access to the old archives on the IDM forums. Basically I tried to reiterate on stuff people had already made, making small adjustments and hopefully optimizations. You don't always have to that creative and some sets I fancy in bw2 aren't exactly new but here are some I like:
Quite possibly the best spikes abuser in the tier. I used to always run HP Fire on Latios but with time I grew annoyed of not having max speed. With Roar+spikes you own Ferro anyway. Surf is a neat anti spin tech, which I favor on rain, but Roost practically never dies vs stall and CM puts on the beatdown.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball / Power Whip
- Spikes
- Knock Off
Ferrothorn can actually lure well... other Ferrothorn quite well. It will give you the edge in the hazard war and pave way for mons like Latios (see above), Kyogre, Eleceus etc. Just make sure to pack additional Kyogre answers...
Nothing new but I would say lead TTar is by far the best lead in the tier. It pretty much dominates every lead bar Darkrai. It almost always grants you momentum. Use with a sleep absorber (sdef Kyogre should be a go-to mon in general). I fancy Taunt for some slower stuff sometimes, for example if you really wanna prevent Tspikes from Forretress.
I never got to use this because I didn't have the balls but I am fairly certain it is viable. Most teams in bw2 doesn't have true flying mons and instead rely on levitate Lati@s/Giratina-O to take EQs. Exca has a pretty good typing for a scarfer and can emergency spin at times. I don't run Iron Head since it only hits Gliscor.
I ran this on Espeon sun. Outruns and OHKOs Landt/jolly Groudon. Toxic is anti anti sun (Arc-Rock/Water) and Turboblaze provides the usuall anti sturdy support for keeping some hazard users at bay.
Latias @ Soul Dew
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Pulse
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Recover
Sub CM does 2 things: it punishes Genesect via hazards and it sets up on Power Whip Ferrothorn. Those two things big enough to warrant usage. Also you can protect yourself from status and crits, which is usually something that happens to Latias a lot.
Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 136 SpD / 40 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic
My Exca evs make sure you live 2 Fire Punches from Deo-S, which is nicer than dying.
Donkey made this back in the day and I think it is a great set that I had on a few teams. Surf is anti Exca/Forre/Heatran/Ho-oh which is helpful for certain bulkier rain teams. It is just a reliable support mon, use it.
I'm not the biggest on set innovation so I guess that's pretty much it. Might drop some teams as well
I wanted to post a few of my fun sets since I like to use "niche" sets that generally perform well against certain styles or due to opponent's lack of knowledge of these sets.
Probably my favorite set recently, as it punishes a lot of common SD Ghostceus switchins like MMence and Zygarde-C. Ghostium Z is used over Plate since there are scenarios where you want to click Z-Move to bluff physical. The set lacks recover, but can often function as a midgame wallbreaker or late game sweeper and has few counters outside of extremely specially bulky mons like Ho-oh, Chansey/Blissey and Magearna. The mon is run very well with Primal Groudon which appreciates its checks/counters getting removed (Zygarde-C and Mence), and can beat the mons that threaten Ghostceus.
A really good option vs. stall teams, it provides a lot of pressure between Plate Moonblast and Aroma, making it a threatening force that can loosely bluff Specs. CC is chosen over Focus Blast to hit Chans/Bliss while still maintaining coverage on Ferrothorn, making it a good option vs. stall. The main reason to use this set over specs is the option to change moves and not lose momentum when clicking Aroma, which can often be a good option vs. Stall.
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 112 Atk / 252 SpA / 144 SpD
Mild / Quiet Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Overheat
- Roar
- Precipice Blades
Although Evopass is now a thing of the past, this set was one of the best ways to deal with it, as long as you add Gira-O to the team. Overheat has a good chance to OHKO Mew, while roar ensures that Eevee cant free set up. Overheat also hits absurdly hard to anything that doesn't resist it or is named Chansey/Blissey. Otherwise set is pretty standard.
Yveltal @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 32 HP / 4 Def / 220 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Foul Play
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn
Another Z-Move set that I have been using with Yveltal, as it provides a huge amount of pressure. Other options such as Sucker and Toxic also work, but the reason this set is so threatening comes from Z-Hurricane bopping Xerneas on the mouth, OHKO'ing offensive sets while normally taking down Geo sets down after a Dark Pulse. The set also can be assumed to be Scarf due to U-turn being run, switch xern in on Dark Pulse and eat a Supersonic Skystrike.
MMeta pretty underrated mon in this meta, since it hits very hard even by Ubers standards, has a decent speed tier and provides an important slot that checks Xerneas, beating both Geo sets as long as it maintains full health. The other slots can be used for a variety of options, I personally enjoy having EQ + Ice Punch to threaten a good majority of the meta, but Psych Up can be used against Z-Geo Xern to set up a sweep, while Toxic / Tpunch can punsh would be switchins like Ho-oh.
Although I didn't use it during UPL, I think MixRay is one of my favorite sets alltime, as it lures common Ray checks and bops them with appropriate coverage, making it extremely threatening, especially when used alternately with DD / SD Skystrike Ray. Surf hits PDon and provides OK coverage vs. Arc-Ground and Ho-oh, while Overheat is for Steels like Magearna, Celesteela and Ferro, Thunder hits Ho-oh and Ybird hard but mainly hits Arc-Water and Celesteela, while Toxic hits most support arcs on the switch. Draco hits Mence and Zygarde, other parts of the set are pretty self explanatory.
These sets are what I enjoy using and think are fun and underrated, the ones I especially like are the CM Ghostceus set, and I hope more people incorporate interesting sets into their gameplay, as I feel SM Ubers is a tier that allows for a ton of creativity!
I used this in w5 vs seir although I don't think I actually revealed gravity, but basically gravity allows you to hit many of groundceus's most common switchins like gira-o and especially celesteela. if you sd and then set gravity on a predicted switch, you can start spamming +2 earth plate boosted eqs which are extremely hard to switch into.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Swords Dance
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed / Knock Off
I never got to use this but this is essentially ferro's standard set with sd over spikes. the good thing about this set is you can punish players that try to gain the upper hand by pivoting around ferrothorn. power whip grabs some nice chip damage on pdon at +2 and allows ferro to 1v1 yvetal sometimes. sd also gives you an easier way to break more defensive mons such as support arc formes, zygarde-c, and zgeo xerneas.
used this against tdk in w2, z psycho boost is strong as fuck, and is just unbelievable under terrain (ohkos just about anything that isn't immune at +2 under terrain, including ferro and blobs, and a chance to ohko magearna). the main selling point of this set is it basically gives you two hits with psycho boost, since z psycho doesn't lower special attack. an added plus is you can bluff sash which is helpful sometimes.
also brought this vs tdk though i never got to use it, calm mind is not always reliable in practice but it sure was fun to use during tests. lele can force alot of switches which gives setup opportunities with calm mind. it's pretty dependent on being able to ohko stuff at +1 though which it isn't always able to do.
used this in w4 vs pohjis, unfortunately poisonceus didn't get to do much. it's pretty good at dealing with xern in a meta where zgeo is not uncommon. rest of the moves are just to cover stuff like mence and pdon and ensure they don't setup for free.
Wasn't tagged, but I'll take the time to share some stuff I built throughout UPL, especially some ORAS stuff since this gen kinda went unexplored and just saw Dice/Hack teams for the majority.
ORAS:
Finals vs Lacus Clyne
Darkrai @ Life Orb
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Void
- Dark Pulse
- Thunder
- Nasty Plot
Steelceus is a fun Pokemon in my opinion with the right support, kinda anti-metagame towards specific trends and players, it also allowed me to utilise a more offensive Groudon set to tear balances apart, like the Swords Dance + Stealth Rock set I used in this team. I really wanted to shake it up in the finals and Steelceus is something that naturally does well against Lacus Clyne and overall it's a solid team as far as Steelceus teams go. Unfortunately I had a very unlucky series and the game didn't go my way at all.
I think I used this Game 2 vs Hugo Barrington, I always wanted to try a Mega Lucario despite people saying how awful it is, Deo-a + Mega lucario sounded like an interesting core to try Hugo's builds seemed to naturally struggle vs Mega Luke + Arceus Water + Deo-a combinations from what I observed in replays, Arceus-Water obviously for those Ho-oh teams and my prep really paid off, sadly I did not get to utilise Lucario at all as his team pretty much got soloed by Arceus Water in my Game once he lost Ferrothorn to Groudon.
Week 3 vs Blim
Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Rock Tomb
- Rapid Spin
I'd probably get called for being a madman for bringing Hyper Offense against a player like Blim, but it worked out really well, when discussing it with the team, they came to the conclusion that Blim might bring some form of HO in a game and that's exactly what happened both games.
It was probably one of my favourite and best executed games in UPL, something I'm really proud of. Team is pretty standard as most things go for Excadrill Offenses, The Excadrill set I will give credit to Gunner since it's his set, not much to say about the team however.
Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 200 Def / 252 SpA / 56 Spe
Modest Nature
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
- Hidden Power [Rock]
I believe I used this vs Lord Outrage in week 2, however it is my 'go to' team and I've used it in the metagame for a long while, my take on a Dialga Offense in ORAS (I'm such a Dialga fangirl and I think everyone knows this). The name comes from Gunner Rohan who kept dubbing it 'Cranham Doghorse' or 'Bonk', it won him a final so I'll take any credit this team can get :p
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Protect
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Precipice Blades
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
Ho-Oh @ Choice Band
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird
- Earthquake
- Sleep Talk
In hindsight I shouldn't have posted this team. this is something I built, but kept deciding against almost every week, the fear of playing Darkrai Offense which is something it naturally struggles against, those matchups are workable and it involves leading Gengar basically and finding room to defog later on, though the matchup can be rough, I used a klefki version of this build against Benbe (which is the obvious optimisation to make the build less Mence and Darkrai weak).
The concept of the team was for me to mainly shake up and move away from my predictability of what I usually bring, but sadly it never saw the light of day, despite ripping opposing balances apart I wasn't too convinced about the chances of an opponent bringing a balance team against me.
Sun & Moon is a metagame I really wanted to play and I'm glad I got to at least play it once, this is the only team I actually 'built' for Finchinator, Sun and Moon is a metagame I wanted to get into and my ORAS approach to teambuilding was really hurting my dimensions of how I see the metagame. Though a bit standard, this is my approach on a CM Kyogre Balance, something that I took note of that deals with a lot of common stall trends in SM and breaks them down. Sadly, like the Lacus series, this team didn't have the best of luck and didn't really get to perform.
Teams that didn't make the cut
Ho-Oh @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 184 Atk / 52 SpD / 24 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird
- Toxic
- Recover
Zygarde-Complete @ Leftovers
Ability: Power Construct
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Rest
- Thousand Arrows
- Dragon Tail
- Sleep Talk
Arceus-Electric @ Electrium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Recover
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 248 HP / 240 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Precipice Blades
- Toxic
- Roar
Lucario-Mega @ Lucarionite
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Iron Tail
- Bullet Punch
I was feeling a bit wild this week, I believe this was me trying to explore sun and moon, helping to prep for Leru and someone came up with the wild idea of that is Electric Arceus which is a Pokemon that un-ironically performed really well against him . Obviously the Xerneas version is Xerneas weak, but it was supposed to be a build for a specific player, The Ho-oh version is me trying to make an Electric Arceus team as well as possible for how Electric Arceus builds go for the sake of creativity, Exiline couldn't wield such a monster and went with the Buzzwole and Rock Arcues team instead.
Summary:
While most of these teams aren't really optimised and were for specific players, playing UPL was a fantastic experience for me and I'm glad I got to play it and really develop myself, I am looking forward to next year to play some really solid players again and maybe in SM / Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon!
I wasn't really in upl, as even though i was drafted, i had no intentions of playing. But, I made a cool team for benbe and made another cool team for myself that I think is interesting enough to share.
This is the Dual Screen team I made for benbe. Other versions use Dual Screen Healing Wish Jirachi, SD darkrai, SD infernape, SD Fire Fang Chomp, and DD latios.
There is a special Dual Screen team that I like more (and was the original) with the same deoxys / zong, but included lum cm 3 attacks Kyogre; NP Focus Blast, vacuum wave, HP ice Infernape; CM surf Latios; Lum Darkrai; and LO 4 attacks mewtwo (and one CM 2 attacks SD mewtwo).
I made this second team shortly after upl and was planning to use it vs benbe in PO's uml, but he wanted to do a ban / pick pokemon battle and I obliged. And after giving it to a few others, it had already been used on smogtours, so I chose to use CP deoxys week 2 instead of this cool team.
The idea has been done before but came to me when I was watching someone use my triple taunt gliscor team. We had a discussion concerning what mon to go to after CS darkrai slept something, and then the idea of deoxys came to me. So I have CS darkrai sleep hopefully the deoxys, then bring in my own deoxys to set up a lead matchup almost every time.
I also tested a scizor set which is really cool: SD Occa scizor. Lum / Iron Plate could also be used but occa lets you check stuff or set up in a pinch / comfortably and bluffs a choice item.
And who doesn't love Scarf Gira A? Or Cm Lugia? A lot of people.
Darkrai @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Void
- Dark Pulse
- Focus Blast
- Trick
Lugia @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 152 HP / 104 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Roost
This last team is just too fun to not post. Rain spam has been done before, but people wouldn't expect it from me because I never use kabutops / kingdra and rarely use kyogre–not even with ludicolo. Deoxys sets the spikes, Zong checks the rays and has that dpp uu synergy of water steel. Manaphys set may look weird without rest, but I can't afford a momentum loss from 1) not having the correct coverage move 2) Resting on a weather change and 3) I need a ray check because that is the bane of rain teams. Hydration is still nice to block jirachis, darkrais, and some zongs from preventing or slowing down the team with status.
Splash plates are used for power + bluffing. Though every time I post these teams, I lose the bluff so whatever.
Psychic stops tentacruels without resorting to SD. FB is needed to make sure darkrai and ttar die. You now lose to scarf darkrai if they void (you live pulse), but you now stop froslass spikes 100% and keep your speed for momentum. I think the trade off is worth it if you have a good sleep absorber (say scarf / specs / band sleep talkers–kyogre, dialga, garchomp). Ice beam is for ray and giras. You don't outright beat either, but you can always save the mewtwo. Fire blast can also be used if you fear jirachis or scizors more and don't have a skarmory like I do.
I was going to post here after my run in the Ubers Pentathlon was over because I was using teams only very had access to and I wanted to succeed in that tournament. After getting on a massive tilt and ending up losing I was not going to share stuff I was using - even though in the end I didn't even use those teams - because I wanted to save those teams for future tournaments. However, I couldn't let my selfishness - for possible glory in the future - be in the way of contributing to this tier and community.
Dice mentioned that Sun and Moon Ubers in Ubers Premier League didn't bring much to the table. I agree with him that most of the teams we saw were different variations of hyper offense and so called "Ho-Oh balance", bulky offense that included Mega-Salamence and a steel type which was usually Celesteela, Baton Pass and stalls that we have seen in the past. Teams we saw weren't usually out of the ordinary and I won't blame anyone who played this tier for bringing stuff that was usually safe to use. For a spectate standpoint it might have been boring to see safe and common stuff used over and over but regardless of that I still enjoyed spectating SM Ubers games. This generation is fun despite being a bit bulkier metagame.
Time to stop blabbering and share some of my ideas and teams.
I used this team against the Hyw. I lost to him in the seasonal which he ended up winning and in those games he used stall in all three games. I expected him to bring stall again and the team and especially that Shaymin-S set couldn't have worked better. I ended up losing the next two games and the whole series in three games but the first game of the series was the game I enjoyed the most out of all the SM Ubers games I played during this Ubers Premier League. Maybe my first game against the very same Winter Seasonal winner in the finals was better and I enjoyed that game too a lot.
I don't know what this team is and why it was ever used. I only remember Reje daring me to use his team after the week was won and I did end up winning via a lot of hax.
This is another team I used week three against Seirle. Even though this team has no flying resists it had some really cool stuff I always wanted to use. I ended up winning this game.
I always wanted to use Ice Punch Mega-Lucario and Dominatio was the perfect opponent due to him using Salamence or Zygarde in every game. I had Scarf Xerneas to punish his PsySpam teams and I paired it with Celesteela to check physical attackers and Xerneas. Arceus-Dark was there to check Lunala and trap fat 'mons that prevent Zygarde to sweep. I got lucky in my game against him but the match-up was as good as I planned and I ended up winning.
A semi-stall kind of team obii used against Poek and I used against Dominatio. I think we both had a pretty good match-up but we ended up losing due to misplaying and getting unlucky. The team otherwise is just a different variation of those semi-stall teams but it seems outdated now after Marshadow was released.
I didn't use this team in the Ubers Premier League but I wanted to share it here because I used it in the Smogon Premier League. I want to give a huge shout-out to Eren. and Omfuga helping me make this team that had so many cool things to use. Arceus-Fairy with Stealth Rock to pressure stall with Double Dance Primal-Groudon. Dragon Dance Zygarde is one of my personal favourite sets to use and it has sweeping potential with Groundium Z. Salamence (jolly cuz omfather) and Ferrothorn were my defensive backbones. Choice Scarf Tapu Lele is there to revenge kill and bopping those Lunalas with Shadow Ball.
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I mentioned earlier that people kept recycling stuff someone has used in the past. I also did that in my other games which I used either Level 56's team in this game and Gunner Rohan's teams from these two games with slightly different and updated sets. I had several ideas regarding sets and here are some of them:
Celesteela @ Rockium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 12 Def / 248 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stone Edge
- Leech Seed
- Toxic
- Heavy Slam
Celesteela @ Groundium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 208 Def / 52 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Leech Seed
- Toxic
- Heavy Slam
Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 208 Def / 52 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Fire Blast
- Leech Seed
- Toxic
- Heavy Slam
The first set was to catch defensive Ho-Oh with Z-Move Stone Edge. The second set was meant to OHKO Mega-Gengar and hit Primal-Groudon hard. Last set is to help against Mega-Lucario and Ferrothorn.
Xerneas @ Rockium Z
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Close Combat/Thunder
- Rock Slide
- Moonblast
For each week I tried to think of some cool Z-move to use. Calm Mind and Electrium Z with Thunder would have revealed the set way too easily which is why I wanted Rock Slide with Rockium Z to surprise kill Ho-Oh. I planned this set to be used against HunterStorm in finals but Exiline pussied out. It would have worked out too but alas...
Other than these sets I can't remember right know what I planned but I am quite sure that most of the sets (DD ziggi, jolly dd + defog mence, z-move deos etc.) have been already mentioned somewhere. Z-moves and unexpected sets things I always want to see and I hope people will bring new stuff in future SM Ubers tournaments.
During Ubers Premier League nearly everyone noticed that The Burning Red White Kyurems were using stall one game after another in either ORAS or SM. I wouldn't blame them for using stall that much even though it made them quite easy to counter team later in the tournament by other teams. For example The Trap God managed to counter team SvetaGS3 perfectly and he collected his two wins effortlessly.
I started preparing for my tie-break matches I realised that Lacus Clyne was weak to opposing stall. I didn't want to use the sample stall or the stall team Lacus Clyne used several times against his/her opponents. This meant I had to bring a unique stall team no one has used in the past.
Sableye is there to do things it usually does: prevents hazards and checks Arceus-Normal and threats it needs to check. The team I used in the tie-break had specially defensive Sableye to check Dialga, Stealth Rock Arceus, Mewtwo and Deoxys-Attack. Probably physically defensive works too to check Arceus-Normal etc. better. Giratina is there to control hazards, check various threats and pressure opposing stall with its ability. Lugia had Psychic because Lacus Clyne used Mega-Gengar several times and it hits Salamence and Groudon harder than Psyshock. Ice Beam and Substitute work too since Lugia is the main check to Salamence. Arceus-Ground gets up Stealth Rock and checks physical attackers. Toxic over Ice Beam is possible to punish Ho-Oh and Latios which are both big but manageable threats. Ferrothorn and Blissey are the remaining defensive backbones to check special attackers like Xerneas and Primal-Kyogre. That combination beats any Xerneas but most importantly Rest + Sleep Talk/Ingrain which is the most popular and best set in ORAS Ubers.
I ended up using this team twice in the tie-break and I managed to win both of those games. The first game is a prime example of winning directly via match-up. I lost the second game of the series and I ended up bringing the same stall I used game one in game three. I made a couple of mistakes and with the help of freeze I ended up winning.
This team has threats (Ho-Oh, Darkrai, Latios etc.) that annoy it but if the team is played perfectly it should win every possible match-up (despite a true counter team I suppose). In some games it can win straight from match-up even if the team is played poorly. In official tournaments this team is at the moment 4-0 (well 4-1, because Gunner Rohan is gay and wanted to flex against Vileman so he lost but woulda won otherwise so w/e) and probably would have a higher win-loss ratio if I and others used it more. This team might be one of the best ORAS Ubers team ever made and one of the greatest stall masters and Ubers players in general Transcendent God Champion has said this in his interview (go read it!):
Although, to be fair, I had begun to reconsider my stance on ORAS Ubers after creating GaiaForce and achieving a 58-2 win-loss record with it, with my reconsideration of such being recently solidified upon witnessing the ORAS Ubers stall team Pohjis used in two of his tie-breakermatches in the previous Ubers Premier League. I believe there is a very, very high chance that the team Pohjis made may be the single best ORAS Ubers team ever, as I have battled many times with it against various people, without a single loss. Had I come up with such an incredibly awesome, consistent and hax-resilient team in early or mid-ORAS Ubers, I actually think I could have enjoyed this metagame a lot.
Credits for this team belong to Defiant Durians which was the team I played for this year in the Ubers Premier League. Gunner Rohan, Hack, SparksBlade, Soviet, Californium, Reje, myself and others on our team all deserve credit for making this team - not just me which is why the name of the team is Defiant Durians Stall. I am just here to provide a team that has a major impact in the ORAS Ubers metagame.
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I guess that is all. I haven't been playing much Ubers lately but I hope to catch up with the current metagame really soon. There are still a lot of things to discover in SM Ubers and I hope to see a lot of new and unexpected things in the upcoming Ubers Open and Snake Draft. I hope to see you guys in those and in many other Ubers tournaments.