Down the Middle Line

[Cycle]

.Down The Middle Line​

I've always enjoyed playing in the UU tier. In this generation, especially, I find UU to be exhilarating with threats such as Kyurem, Victini, and sun sweepers like Sawsbuck and Victrebell. The goal in my team was to defeat common threats of the metagame. I've laddered up to around 1200 on one account and 1150 on the other. Both have been fairly successful, although I find that common "cheap elements" are not used that far up. In my team, I decided not to use drought, hail, Victini or Kyurem aka anything broken. I don't want to start rambling so I introduce to you: the team.

At a glance:

Registeel@Leftovers
Calm
EVs: 252 HP/120 Def/136 spD
Clear Body/-Stealth Rock
-Seismic Toss
-Rest
-Toxic

This is your generic Registeel "lead". Seismic Toss is useful because of stable damage, although I have to watch out for ghosts. Stealth Rocks lets me chip away at the opponents health. This is especially helpful since my team uses momentum to set up status, substitutes are pursuit running foes. Rest, although not a very good choice, is the only thing I have for healing. Even without seismic toss, Registeel has the bulk to take the opponents attacks so I'm not too worried about the new sleep mechanic. Toxic allows me to wear them down. The opponent will slowly faint after stealth rocks, toxic, and the stable damage of Seismic Toss.

Registeel lets me handle many threats. Pokemon that come to mind include Espeon, Jolteon, Zapdos, and more. Although ground types or somewhat abundant in UU, the only common fighting types are Hitmontop and Cobalion, which are comfortably handled by the rest of the team. Wobbuffet, on the other hand, has the annoying Shadow Tag and can really limit how I play with Registeel.

Slowbro@Leftovers
Bold
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Def/ 4 spA
Regeneration
-Scald
-Psychic
-Slack Off
-Thunder Wave

Slowbro can already wall the majority of physical attacks in OU; there's no wonder hes such a great physical wall in UU. Scald is a godsend from generation 5, letting bulky waters burn physical threats and tank their hits even better. Psychic gives decent coverage alongside scald. Both attacks are also STAB'd. Coming off of a not too shabby base 100 special attack, they do fairly decent damage. Thunder Wave, while having a chance of colliding with scald, provides useful support, especially since most of the pokemon on this team are slow. Slack Off is almost mandatory; while regeneration reduces the need for Slack Off, I still find it useful for winning stall wars, especially when the opponent does around 45%. One of the best things about Slowbro is the ability to beat threats like Victini, and check pretty much every physical threat in the UU metagame, bar Staraptor lol.

Zapdos@Leftovers
Bold
EVs: 232 HP/220 Def/56 spA
Pressure
-Thunderbolt
-Substitute
-Roost
-Toxic

Zapdos is an absolute nightmare to take on. Pressure is an amazing ability to have on a subroost set (see: Three legendary birds, etc). Thunderbolt has a nice, strong BP and also has stab. Substitute and Roost provide stalling capabilites. It is also hard to get status onto Zapdos without Synchronise, due to substitute. The most annoying thing to face is Taunt+WoW Mew, who sets up in Zapdos's face. The Evs allow Zapdos to have a chance of beating Mew with the help of a critical hit, although I shouldn't be relying on hax to beat a pokemon. 56 spA EVs lets me 3HKO that Mew. This set is also useful for beating the fighting types like Hitmontop. Cobalion may have Stone Edge, which is why Slowbro handles him better.

Heracross@Choice Scarf
Jolly
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Guts
-Stone Edge
-Megahorn
-Close Combat
-Pursuit

EAT MY HORN. Heracross is one of the strongest pokemon in the UU metagame. All the common walls crumple in its path. Some include Chansey, Registeel, Slowbro, Mew, and Deoxys D. Besides Escavelier, Heracross has the strongest Megahorn. What Hera lacks in power, he more than makes up in speed with 85, which is more than it seems. Close Combat is extremely strong; many of the other fighting types lack the raw power that Heracross sports. Pursuit is a poor choice, but Heracross has a pretty barren movepool. Stone Edge hits flying types, and not much else. The best thing about this set is Guts. Getting a boost from status means that Heracross can tear teams up, especially late game.

Kingdra@Life Orb
Modest
EVs: 4 HP/252 spA/252 spD
Swift Swim
-Rain Dance
-Dragon Pulse
-Hydro Pump
-Ice Beam
Rotom-H was barely keeping up with the rest of the team. Most of the time, it ended up fainting and doing nothing else. As a result, I decided to replace it with Special Rain Dance Kingdra. This Kingdra is a nice counter to weather sweepers, such as Victreebel and Tangrowth. With the help of Dugtrio, I can remove any Vulpix and change the weather to my favor. Hydro Pump is used over Surf because 95 special attack is very weak, I need as much base power as I can get. Dragon Pulse helps provide decent coverage. Ice Beam is used to hit grass types hard.

Dugtrio@Choice Band
Jolly
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Arena Trap
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Sucker Punch
-Aerial Ace

Dugtrio is a nice pokemon to have on my team, ridding myself of the ever common fire types. Raikou, who could be potentially dangerous with too many Calm Mind's, is beaten singlehandedly by Dugtrio. Arena Trap is the crux of the set, letting me trap threats, aka they don't threaten me anymore. Earthquake is reliable stab, with Stone Edge backing it up for coverage. Sucker Punch is priority, despite not being very reliable. Aerial Ace sucks but I have nothing else mostly. It does let me hit grass types harder, but Dugtrio has no business staying in on them. 80 Base attack is pitiful, which is why I added Choice band, but he still only hits 388 Base power lol.






EDIT 2:I'll finish the rest of this later, such as the treat list, team building, and the importable.
EDIT: Wtf my thing posted >_>
I'm gonna finish this up right now, sorry for the inconvenience >_>.

 

[Vrai]

Just wondering... how exactly do you deal with hail? Or better yet, Kyurem in general? Scarf Kyurem smacks around your team's defensive walls with Draco Meteor and Blizzard, save Registeel who can't do much in response except set up SR. The best way you have to deal with it is to shift around and hope it doesn't hit anything too crucial before forcing it out and getting it to take SR damage again. The 101 HP/Substitute variant concerns me even more, as the only things that break its subs are Heracross (who then gets smacked by a Dragon Tail at -1/-1 defenses), Kingdra (who gets smacked by a super-effective Dragon Tail) and Dugtrio (who is frail enough that its gonna die anyway). I mean, yeah, those three things kill it but the other three are absolute set-up bait and if Dragon Tail swaps you into one of them then Kyurem gets another free turn to spam Sub/Protect/Dragon Tail. :/

Scarf Flygon also looks annoying, U-turning out of Slowbro, resisting all of Dugtrio's moveset, outspeeding non-rain Kingdra, and then spamming Registeel with EQ. It might just be me, but I really feel like Registeel is absolutely useless this gen. It sets up SR, sponges attacks, and... does nothing. Like, it's just there to die, basically. Makes me uncomfortable using it, anyway. I'd much rather use Cobalion who is a great check to Kyurem and a solid Pokemon in its own right. Plus, you've technically got all of its weaknesses covered by your teammates anyway. :(

I'll probably get into an actually detailed rate sometime in the future, lol. Gotta go soon. ;;

 

[OneofFour]

Er, I like most of the above criticism, but I do wonder why Dugtrio would be in on the Choice Flygon anyways, seeing as Arena Trap makes him a pure revenge killer anyways.

Also, Scarf Kyurem would probably be easy to stop, the two threats Vrai mentions from it (Draco Meteor and Blizzard) are taken care of by Registeel alone, and then it can Seismic Toss to victory with its massive defenses, provided you predict right or can scout what move it will use (Focus Punch, watch out!).

It seems to me that the CB Dugtrio also could handle Kyurem without the scarf, Stone Edge is probably enough to kill it after one SR? Of course, if it gets behind a sub, then whatever, get ready to sac at least one pokemon (probably Dugtrio, then Heracross to finish it?).

It seems Kingdra could stop the Hail, especially with that defensive set-up.

I think it would be Mismagius, especially if had HP Fighting!, that would give you some serious stress. I don't know directly how to handle that threat, unfortunately, as I don't play UU.

 

[Vrai]

Er, I like most of the above criticism, but I do wonder why Dugtrio would be in on the Choice Flygon anyways, seeing as Arena Trap makes him a pure revenge killer anyways.

It seems to me that the CB Dugtrio also could handle Kyurem without the scarf, Stone Edge is probably enough to kill it after one SR? Of course, if it gets behind a sub, then whatever, get ready to sac at least one pokemon (probably Dugtrio, then Heracross to finish it?).

...uhh, looking back, the only reason I mentioned Scarf Kyurem was because it outsped his Scarf Heracross. XDD; It's still a prediction-based threat - if you lose Registeel to Focus Blast, then it's going to be a lot more trouble. Honestly, I'd suggest throwing Iron Head in there somewhere so you can a) smash Kyurem much better and b) not be complete set-up bait for Substitute Rotom/Mismag/Froslass etc. Sub Ghosts are amazing and really underrated as several very popular Pokemon just get stuffed by them. <3

I meant the Sub Kyu getting in on something it can set up a sub on (ie Registeel, Slowbro, Zapdos) and then when he switches out to something that can break it (the other three) getting smacked by Dragon Tail. Yeah, Duggy beats it but it has a substitute up and D-Tail will KO Dugtrio after one or two hits, tbh. (Plus Kyurem can Pressure-stall Stone Edge by spamming Substitute+Protect). It's just the constant shifting around due to Dragon Tail that makes this team weak to it, imo. Putting Iron Head on Registeel to break Kyurem subs will definitely help this weak.

SubCM Mismagius also looks annoying once Heracross is nearly dead/gone. Iron Head on Registeel goes a long way to preventing it from being absolute set-up bait for it, though Rotom (uncommon tho ;;) can still set up all over Regi.

edit: Twilight Sky made me remember - Flygon's coming in on Dugtrio, not the other way around. I just wanted to mention that Dugtrio is a free entry point for Flygon to come in and spam U-turn and gain momentum, or outpredict and EQ the switch-in (presumably being Registeel) or Outrage or whatever.