Vrai
can you feel my heart?
- 2,896
- Posts
- 15
- Years
- Age 29
- Seen Oct 24, 2022
hippopotas stall gogo!
Okay so I joined a tourney at Smogon a while back, and the idea of the tournament is that I'm supposed to build my team around some sort of theme. I've tried Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and Hail; all three of them never really worked out for me. Running a stall team in sandstorm has actually been really cool. However... I've come to a point where I really can't think of anything else to change my team, but I still think it can get better. Thus, it's RMT time. This is obviously for UU, so yeah. I'll have some comments on each Pokemon and then some conclusionifications later.
Hippopotas (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP/164 Atk/92 Def
Relaxed nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Yawn
- Roar
- Earthquake
Okay, so, Hippopotas here has been a really cool lead. Against most leads, I tend to Yawn first more than anything, especially against other entry hazard-ers. Now, if they tried to set up or anything, I get in some free rocks while they either switch out or attack, breaking the sash, and fall to sleep. If they instead attack first, it puts them in a situation where they lose their lead to sleep, or I get rocks up. Either scenario is really okay with me in general. When I'm faced with a Taunt user like Qwilfish or Electrode, I usually just spam EQ. There have been times when Hippopotas manages to scout 1/2, if not 2/3 of my opponent's team by spamming Roar and Yawn effectively. Regardless, Hippopotas does it's job, and it does it well as a lead.
Against the top 10 leads;
- Uxie is a dumb. Some of them run Lum Berry, some of them don't. Some of them TrickScarf, some of them don't. Some run some retarded set that I don't know. Regardless, I SR first against Uxie, and then respond accordingly.
- Tomb takes the impending Fake Out well, and then gets a free CM while they U-turn.
- This is in the same boat as Uxie, except more and more run Lum Berry, so Yawn is definitely not an option.
- I Yawn it as it either uses SR or Surf. In both cases, I'll just stay in and use my own SR.
- rofl at the sprite lolol. I have yet to see one (gogo random lead pokes nowadays) but I believe that Cradily can come in on either the offensive or defensive lead sets (also offensive > defensive btw).
- I tend to just skip straight to Spiritomb for impending Psychic/whatever. I won't, however, use CM after this as if Zam encores it, Spiritomb becomes some cool setup bait.
- read: omastar
- I'll just get up SR and die, usually.
- I always always always Yawn it. They always always always SR. From then on it's basically me scouting and setting up SR.
/
- These can basically go together as I generally have to do the same to them. They have the possibility of Taunting me, so in order to not give them a free turn I spam EQ. If 'Trode sets up Rain Dance, I have to switch out so that I can bring sandstorm back in later if I get the chance. I've been thinking about seeing if I can EV Hippopotas to OHKO either of these leads, but idk if it is possible in the first place. ~_~
Qwilfish (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Poison Point
EVs: 248 HP/152 Def/4 Spd/104 SDef
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Pain Split
- Poison Jab
- Taunt/Explosion
Qwilfish is like the sexiest spiker in UU. Or in all of Pokemon. :] Qwil comes in on a lot of things, but it usually tends to be bulky waters who try to Toxic something (though not Slowbro/king as they have psychic a lot). He gets up Spikes like a good little man. Qwilfish generally doesn't get out until later game, after I have found their spinner and weakened/beaten it. I dunno why, that's just the way it has worked.
Lastly, that last slot has been both Taunt and Boom. I've had Taunt and been in a situation that I wished I had Boom; I've had Boom and been in a situation that I wished I had Taunt. I really dunno which one is better. :[
Gligar (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Roost
- Aerial Ace
Gligar is a cool and really underrated poke. It easily comes in on a vast majority of physical attackers in UU. Most of those then have to rely on Stone Edge's shaky accuracy to hit Gligar, and that gets even harder with Sand Veil and with Gligar actually being a fast Rooster. Rhyperior in particular gets annihilated by this set.
I run Aerial Ace over Stone Bad because I tend to switch Gligar into fighting types more than anything, and one time an uncool RP Torterra came in and swept what was left of my team.
Cradily (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Suction Cups
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
- Rock Slide
- Curse
Mmm, Cradily. Easily the most kickass member of my team. The set is really easy to understand, so I won't explain it. I really rely on this guy to come in on a lot of things, especially a lot of special attacks. Once he's got his curses up and going, Cradily isn't stopped by much (except fighting types, which Gligar beats anyway).
Spiritomb (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Calm Mind
- Dark Pulse
Alright, before D_A comes in and eats me, I just want to say that no, Tomb does not beat Hitmontop. He is, however, my general spinblocker and stuff. This is really where I question my team; I would like something that can break those rapid spinners, but also I'm in love with Spiritomb's Dark-typing and general bulkiness. Without Tomb, an Alakazam can KO at least one if not more of my team members, and I actually like to have all of them. Anyway, the set is easy to understand, again. Having two Restalkers is actually kind of nice. :]
Azumarill (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP/240 Atk/16 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Return
- Superpower
Okay so this is my team's designated revenge killer, for things I cannot manage to break with entry hazards and whatever else I have on hand. Also, this annihilates Clefable, which is a bastard to the rest of my team by Encoring everything. It's rather standard, but with Superpower over Ice Punch because, as elf said, Return hits Grass-types hard enough anyway. Superpower lets me hit a lot of other cool things super-effectively.
---
Remember how at the beginning I said this was for a tourney? Yeah, it is. That tourney requires that I have a certain amount of things that revolve around the theme, so that means I must keep Hippopotas (lol), Cradily, and Gligar, all three which are basically centralized and have to be here anyway. ~_~
this also means that my opponents will be using teams around rain dance, sunny day, hail, gravity, and trick room. if you have any particular comments about being weak to any of those or something, please tell me especially. :C
Now, I have laddered with this team a lot, and it has been beaten (although generally from my own mistakes as opposed to flat-out beaten), but I also have not seen the entirety of the metagame, so there might be a bunch of weaks that I just haven't seen yet. As far as I can tell, I'm not really weak against any particular type (blah Ice) so yeah. I'd really like some comments especially on my Ghost-y situation there with the whole "I don't beat foresight top" thing, but I also kind of don't want to give up Spiritomb. But anyway, I'd love to have a rate and stuff, especially since I have to use this very soon (my match is later tomorrow, actually) and I'd like it to actually not suck. Thanks again. :D