SM UU Some kinda bulky offense (Top 100, LF Feedback)

Preface

Hi all. After "quitting," only to come back 8-9 months later, I decided to give a new tier, UU, a go as a friend got me interested. I put together a quick team which mostly consists of Pokemon I enjoy using and found relative success with it. Relative because I know top 100 is nothing amazing and in the tiers I used to play I always hovered around top 5 on numerous alts. So, being new to the tier, obviously I could benefit from the advice of more experienced players, which is why I'm posting this team as I hope to take it to the next level.

Team Preview


The team started with Talonflame as I have a soft spot for Pokemon that have fallen out of favour, and with the Gale Wings nerf this gen, Talonflame is a shell of its former self.

Mega Blastoise seemed to be the perfect partner as Talonflame struggles with bulky Ground and Rock types which it defeats with ease. It also provides Rapid Spin support which is essential for Talonflame, and is probably the best Spinner in the tier. The two have decent typing synergy, and Talonflame also beats Mega Blastoise's typical checks like bulky grass types (Shaymin, Amoonguss) or specially defensive walls (Florges, Sylveon, Blissey).

This core had a heavy Electric type weakness so a bulky Ground type, Nidoqueen, was added to deal with them. Nidoqueen provided Stealth Rock, wallbreaking and a semi-reliable check to Electric types. I wasn't looking for hard counters as I tend to favour offense and hence this team is bulky offense, so a decent enough check was good enough to fill the role. Nidoqueen and Mega Blastoise are notoriously a strong core too, so I was adamant with this addition.

Latias, Mega Aerodactyl, and Starmie looked pretty troublesome at this point. Scizor was added to deal with these, being able to Pursuit trap Latias and Starmie, and giving me another way to check Mega Aerodactyl so Mega Blastoise doesn't get overwhelmed. It also gives a very strong priority move which is useful for revenging Scarfers or setup sweepers, a Steel type which pretty much every team outside of Ubers requires, and is generally a really prominent Pokemon, so I was confident in adding it.

Mega Pidgeot and bulky waters like Suicune and Primarina were threatening at this point, so Raikou was added to deal with them. It (at first anyway) also completed a Volt-Turn core with Scizor. Later it proved helpful for breaking down bulkier teams and thus secured its place.

I was told fast threats and Dragon Dancers are common in this tier, so I needed a fast and strong Scarfed Pokemon to deal with them. This role belonged to Terrakion, it beat or revenge killed pretty much every Pokemon in these categories, and its typing wasn't redundant so I figured it was the best option for a Scarfer I had.

Set Details


Talonflame @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Swords Dance
- Roost

There wasn't much thought behind this set. It just seemed strong and fun to use so I was sold. At full health with Flyinium Z and Gale Wings, it gets a 190 BP priority move. This move can also be used to wallbreak in conjunction with Swords Dance. Originally I had Tailwind, but I replaced it with Roost as it gave longevity against fat teams and I never used Tailwind anyway. The Speed EVs outspeed Mega Pidgeot by one point. I didn't feel a need to go max speed as other Talonflame were very rare and the extra bulk was nice.



Blastoise-Mega @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Mega Launcher
EVs: 56 HP / 252 SpA / 200 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Pulse
- Dark Pulse
- Aura Sphere
- Rapid Spin

Mega Blastoise's set was very standard. I opted for Water Pulse as it gave a nice middle ground between Scald and the risky Hydro Pump. The confusion chance has actually won me a couple of games, so confirmation bias has me reluctant to change it. Dark Pulse beats Ghost types attempting to block Rapid Spin, and Aura Sphere rounds out the coverage neatly. I'm a big fan of speed creeping so I made this really fast, as it outspeeds Adamant Metagross and Honchkrow, Jolly Crawdaunt, Modest Nidoqueen and most defensive Arcanines.



Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock

Nidoqueen's set was very standard. Dual STAB with Ice Beam to round off the coverage, with Stealth Rock since it's a "necessity" for every team. The Speed EVs reach the exact same benchmarks as Mega Blastoise. I have a feeling however that a bulkier spread will be advised.



Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Superpower
- Pursuit

I opted for a Choice Band set as I was quickly sold on how strong it is with the priority move Bullet Punch. This also helped revenge Mega Aerodactyl reliably, and other setup sweepers. Choice Band also ensures the OHKO on Latias and Starmie if they switch out, and since this was Scizor's primary role, Choice Band seemed the best option. Instead of the standard 252 Spe, I opted a little slower so I could U-Turn last in a mirror match up in order to gain the momentum. The additional bulk clutched a few times too.



Raikou @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Substitute
- Calm Mind

This was originally an Assault Vest set to better check Mega Pidgeot and Specs Primarina. However, I noticed in a couple of games that a Sub-CM set would've been really helpful, and ultimately changed it to that. The longevity Leftovers provided made up for the lack of AV. Outside of SD Talonflame (with Z Brave Bird), my team greatly struggled with a Blissey-Gliscor core. Most Blisseys run Fire Blast so Raikou can use it as setup fodder, and hence dismantle this core.



Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Sleep Talk

The addition of Terrakion is wholly explained in the Team Preview and there isn't much to discuss about its set, only that I opted for Sleep Talk in the last slot so that it can act as a sleep absorber.

Threatlist

I could be missing a few due to my limited knowledge of the tier, but so far the only Pokemon I found to be consistently problematic are Latias and Mega Sceptile running Hidden Power Fire.

Conclusion

That's it! Thank you for reading, I look forward to feedback so I can improve the team and hopefully climb higher up the ladder to establish myself.
 
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Hey Dilwar, first off congrats on top 100, and secondly I'd love to give you advice for your team. Forgive me if I sound rude, but your team overall is severely lacking in some areas. Allow me to go over the flaws and how you can fix them.

Problem 1. EV distribution. Half of your team's base speed is under 80, which is incredibly slow compared to pokemon like Sharpedo and Starmie, both of which can wipe out half of your team with ease. Putting speed on Blastoise, Scizor, and Nidoqueen is causing you to sacrifice bulk, leaving you vulnerable to setup sweepers. I would either replace Scizor, Blastoise and Nidoqueen for faster sweepers, or put more Evs for bulk instead of speed. Speaking of bulk

Problem 2. No support pokemon. the only support I see on your team currently is Stealth rock, which is easy to rapid spin off. You have no stallmon, no wish passer, no spike setter, no status healer, nothing that can take a hit well and keep your team together. The reason why these pokemon are important in the meta game is because they help hold the team together, and they shut down certain pokemon in the process. When you ignore these entirely, it leaves you a lot more likely to lose against teams with Support-mons. For support-mons I'd suggest Blissey > Nidoqueen or Gliscor > Nidoqueen. If you can tell Nidoqueen is probably the worst pokemon on your team. With a huge lack of bulk and vulnerable to way too many pokemon, Nidoqueen is only serving as hindrance to you team as a whole rather than blessing. Speaking of vulnerability.

Problem 3. Huge weaknesses to Water and Ground. Half of your team is weak to water, and another half is weak to ground. This is why Nidoqueen is serving as a hindrance, because she's putting common weaknesses on your team instead of fixing the current weaknesses with your rest of your team. If raikou is dead, you have almost nothing to counter water types, and if both Blastoise and Raikou are dead, you might as well forfeit against any Starmie, Krookodile, Sharpedo, Gliscor, Blastoise, Empoleon, swampert, primarina, volcanion especially, Steelix, Nidoking/queen, Hippowdon, alolamola, and crawdaunt you see left on the opponent's team. And yes, I just told you FIFTEEN pokemon your team is incredibly weak to.

Final Problem. Sleep Talk on Terrakion. I can see why you'd want this, but here's the major problem with that. Say you're locked into Stone Edge and you fell asleep. If you went for Sleep talk, you can ONLY use Stone edge. You can't use Close Combat or Earthquake, just Stone edge. It's overall incredibly unreliable and serves no purpose for Terakion.

Now how to fix them here my suggestions.

Latias > Nidoqueen

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Pulse
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Defog

Forretress > Scizor

Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin

Blissey > Talonflame or Terrakion

Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Protect
- Wish
- Heal Bell

Of these pokemon, I'd suggest Latias and Blissey for your team, but you can have Forretress too if you want.

EV changes Blastoise: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Def Scizor: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def Nidoqueen (If you still want her on the team) 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD

Sleep Talk < X Scissor

Those are my suggestions to make the team better.
 
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I agree with the user above that this team is super weak to water and ground and is lacking utility/support options. However, I find Blissey to be a massive momentum sink on offensive teams like this one, so I wouldn't recommend that change. My main suggestion would be Scarf Terrakion -> Scarf Hydreigon. Hydreigon would provide the team with an extra water resist as well as another ground immunity. The team's weakness to Latias and HP Fire Mega Sceptile would also disappear as Hydreigon can revenge kill those threats with Draco Meteor.

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- U-turn


Hope this helps a bit!
 
Hey Dilwar, first off congrats on top 100, and secondly I'd love to give you advice for your team. Forgive me if I sound rude, but your team overall is severely lacking in some areas. Allow me to go over the flaws and how you can fix them.

Problem 1. EV distribution. Half of your team's base speed is under 80, which is incredibly slow compared to pokemon like Sharpedo and Starmie, both of which can wipe out half of your team with ease. Putting speed on Blastoise, Scizor, and Nidoqueen is causing you to sacrifice bulk, leaving you vulnerable to setup sweepers. I would either replace Scizor, Blastoise and Nidoqueen for faster sweepers, or put more Evs for bulk instead of speed. Speaking of bulk

Problem 2. No support pokemon. the only support I see on your team currently is Stealth rock, which is easy to rapid spin off. You have no stallmon, no wish passer, no spike setter, no status healer, nothing that can take a hit well and keep your team together. The reason why these pokemon are important in the meta game is because they help hold the team together, and they shut down certain pokemon in the process. When you ignore these entirely, it leaves you a lot more likely to lose against teams with Support-mons. For support-mons I'd suggest Blissey > Nidoqueen or Gliscor > Nidoqueen. If you can tell Nidoqueen is probably the worst pokemon on your team. With a huge lack of bulk and vulnerable to way too many pokemon, Nidoqueen is only serving as hindrance to you team as a whole rather than blessing. Speaking of vulnerability.

Problem 3. Huge weaknesses to Water and Ground. Half of your team is weak to water, and another half is weak to ground. This is why Nidoqueen is serving as a hindrance, because she's putting common weaknesses on your team instead of fixing the current weaknesses with your rest of your team. If raikou is dead, you have almost nothing to counter water types, and if both Blastoise and Raikou are dead, you might as well forfeit against any Starmie, Krookodile, Sharpedo, Gliscor, Blastoise, Empoleon, swampert, primarina, volcanion especially, Steelix, Nidoking/queen, Hippowdon, alolamola, and crawdaunt you see left on the opponent's team. And yes, I just told you FIFTEEN pokemon your team is incredibly weak to.

Final Problem. Sleep Talk on Terrakion. I can see why you'd want this, but here's the major problem with that. Say you're locked into Stone Edge and you fell asleep. If you went for Sleep talk, you can ONLY use Stone edge. You can't use Close Combat or Earthquake, just Stone edge. It's overall incredibly unreliable and serves no purpose for Terakion.

Now how to fix them here my suggestions.

Latias > Nidoqueen

Latias (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Pulse
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Defog

Forretress > Scizor

Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic Spikes
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin

Blissey > Talonflame or Terrakion

Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Protect
- Wish
- Heal Bell

Of these pokemon, I'd suggest Latias and Blissey for your team, but you can have Forretress too if you want.

EV changes Blastoise: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Def Scizor: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def Nidoqueen (If you still want her on the team) 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD

Sleep Talk < X Scissor

Those are my suggestions to make the team better.
Thanks for taking the time to give a very detailed rate. I will make the changes you suggested and see how it goes. My only question is that EV spread you put on Blissey. Why does it have 0 Def EVs? In any meta, Blissey runs 252 Def because its SpDef is already gargantuan.
 
I agree with the user above that this team is super weak to water and ground and is lacking utility/support options. However, I find Blissey to be a massive momentum sink on offensive teams like this one, so I wouldn't recommend that change. My main suggestion would be Scarf Terrakion -> Scarf Hydreigon. Hydreigon would provide the team with an extra water resist as well as another ground immunity. The team's weakness to Latias and HP Fire Mega Sceptile would also disappear as Hydreigon can revenge kill those threats with Draco Meteor.

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- U-turn


Hope this helps a bit!
Thanks for the suggestion! This makes a lot of sense as it patches a weakness at no significant opportunity cost. I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.
 
Thanks for taking the time to give a very detailed rate. I will make the changes you suggested and see how it goes. My only question is that EV spread you put on Blissey. Why does it have 0 Def EVs? In any meta, Blissey runs 252 Def because its SpDef is already gargantuan.
The problem with putting everything in Blissey's glass defense, is that you leave yourself a lot more vulnerable to special attacking wall breakers, aka Xurkitree and Latias. Here's the damage difference between a +3 Xurkitree and a +3 Latias vs a max def Blissey

+3 252 SpA Xurkitree Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Blissey: 349-412 (48.8 - 57.7%) -- 54.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

+3 252 SpA Soul Dew Latias Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Blissey: 435-513 (60.9 - 71.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Now I'm gonna take the same two mon, but against a max SpD Blissey

+3 252 SpA Xurkitree Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 265-313 (37.1 - 43.8%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

+3 252 SpA Soul Dew Latias Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Blissey: 363-427 (50.8 - 59.8%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

The overall difference is roughly 11%, which can really mean the difference between life and death.

Now let's see if the Max Def Blissey can handle Physical attackers, this time I'm gonna do Scizor and Infernape

252+ Atk Choice Band Scizor Superpower vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 782-920 (109.5 - 128.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Infernape Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 612-720 (85.7 - 100.8%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

Now the max SpD

252+ Atk Choice Band Scizor Superpower vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Blissey: 1778-2094 (249 - 293.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Infernape Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Blissey: 1386-1632 (194.1 - 228.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

The only difference here is that the max Def blissey can barely take a close combat from Scarf Infernape, So even if you do put max Def, it's still worthless against physical sweepers. Not only are you still just as vulnerable against physical attackers, you also leave yourself a lot more vulnerable to special attacking wall breakers. This is why Max SpD Blissey is more successful, because it takes care of what Blissey is meant for, not what it isn't meant for. The purpose of Blissey is to stall out special attackers, not physical ones.
 
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The problem with putting everything in Blissey's glass defense, is that you leave yourself a lot more vulnerable to special attacking wall breakers, aka Xurkitree and Latias. Here's the damage difference between a +3 Xurkitree and a +3 Latias vs a max def Blissey

+3 252 SpA Xurkitree Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Blissey: 349-412 (48.8 - 57.7%) -- 54.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

+3 252 SpA Soul Dew Latias Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Blissey: 435-513 (60.9 - 71.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Now I'm gonna take the same two mon, but against a max SpD Blissey

+3 252 SpA Xurkitree Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 265-313 (37.1 - 43.8%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

+3 252 SpA Soul Dew Latias Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Blissey: 363-427 (50.8 - 59.8%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

The overall difference is roughly 11%, which can really mean the difference between life and death.

Now let's see if the Max Def Blissey can handle Physical attackers, this time I'm gonna do Scizor and Infernape

252+ Atk Choice Band Scizor Superpower vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 782-920 (109.5 - 128.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Infernape Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 612-720 (85.7 - 100.8%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

Now the max SpD

252+ Atk Choice Band Scizor Superpower vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Blissey: 1778-2094 (249 - 293.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Infernape Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Blissey: 1386-1632 (194.1 - 228.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

The only difference here is that the max Def blissey can barely take a close combat from Scarf Infernape, So even if you do put max Def, it's still worthless against physical sweepers. Not only are you still just as vulnerable against physical attackers, you also leave yourself a lot more vulnerable to special attacking wall breakers. This is why Max SpD Blissey is more successful, because it takes care of what Blissey is meant for, not what it isn't meant for. The purpose of Blissey is to stall out special attackers, not physical ones.
Latias runs Psyshock so that calc is irrelevant. The Xurkitree calc is irrelevant as Blissey cannot take on a Tail Glow Xurkitree. The difference in its calcs you showed was nothing significant, and if it does tank +3, Xurkitree can just Tail Glow again anyway.

Obviously max defense would drop to strong super effective physical attacks. It is not running defense to tank Banded Infernape or Scizor. It runs it so it doesn't die to Rapid Spin. I'd take a 10% damage increase in the special spectrum over not dying to any physical attack.

Example:

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 309-367 (43.2 - 51.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Blissey: 717-846 (100.4 - 118.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

A more than 2x increase in its physical bulk is far more beneficial than a roughly 1.2x increase in its special bulk.
 
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