Featured Uber RMT

Team by trickroom, with commentary by firecape.
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Introduction

Burn All is an awesome team made by firecape. His team inspired me to create a counterpart to Burn All. Since Jibaku made Drown All a kick word in IRC for me a while ago, I am using that name as the RMT tittle! Obviously, Drown All contains Kyogre and previously Gyarados was the MVP of the team. Nevertheless, I reluctantly removed Gyarados from the team because Gyarados just isn't worth using in Ubers without proper support, Stealth Rock weakness, mediocre stats and lack of recovery hurts it severely. As an Uber QC team member, I made an Ubers team just to support Gastrodon for the sake of testing the usability of the slug in the tier. I don't want to post any Ladderboard achievement here because getting to 1st on the Ubers leaderboard isn't such a big deal. Gyarados more common than Steel Arceus in total usage ---> LOL This team did fairly well when I tested it against several experienced players but I won't name them just like in firecape's RMT :P.

I don't think I need much prove for this team's success but it's a team not similar to my past teams. Jibaku's rain team was superb but I tried not to copy his team :P Jibaku's team of RestTalk Kyogre, Choice Scarf Palkia, Ferrothorn, Dialga, Arceus-Ground and Giratina-O gotten incredibly popular, heck I met many people spamming that team on ladder ;_; Similar to Vulcan Fury this team attempts to display the utility of a few underrated Pokemon: Gastrodon and Lugia. Gastrodon is rather anti-metagame because it completely trolls Kyogre, the most common Pokemon in the tier with it's Water-type and Electric immunity, decent bulk and access to Recover. That's not all, Gastrodon also harasses Steel Arceus, Palkia, Giratina-O and Dialga. [ Note: I dropped Gastrodon for Lustrous Orb Palkia, another uncommon threat in Ubers. Unlike Gastrodon, Lustrous Orb Palkia can not only surprise but immediately take out the opponent expecting the Choice Scarf set. ] The Lugia in this team is rather unique. While the standard Great Wall Lugia fears Toxic from the likes of pink blobs to death, this one can use them as a ticket to get a free Substitute up. Instead of dying to Heatran, Substitute Lugia is safe from Heatran's Toxic. Even Taunt fails to stop Lugia from flying things around thanks to Dragon Tail.

I don't know what will you call a team like this. It's generally defensive based team due to the bulkiness of all the team members. I like Wish support a lot but Blissey or Chansey cannot fit in. Unlike most generic stall teams, I abuse Dialga and Giratina-O to threaten stall teams with their mighty power and bulk. Contrary to popular believe, my team actually fairs well against the standard Classic Stall team. Choice Scarf users are generally free food for my team because this team utilizes amazing synergy between all of the team members. Hax can be a general nuisance, something like a critical hit from Groudon's Earthquake on my Kyogre can be a disaster.

Arceus is released with no EV restrictions this generation. This team attempts to cover all of them as close as possible. This is probably the longest RMT I ever made because I followed Jibaku's Vulcan Fury RMT style! He gets all the credit for it because his RMT is just so cool and neat!

PS: I might lie on the EV spreads..

Here's the team...

Team at a Glance

KyogreGiratina-OLugiaDialgaFerrothornPalkia

Kyogre
Kyogre @ Choice Scarf***firecape
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 64 HP / 252 SpA / 192 Spe
Nature: Modest (+SpA, -Atk)
- Water Spout
- Thunder
- Surf
- Ice Beam

Kyogre is the base of this team, by summoning infinite heavy downpour. Unlike the standard Scarf Kyogre, I prefer power over the little extra Speed. While I lose the Speed tie and outspeeding Deoxys-formes, my Kyogre can OHKO even a +1 Mewtwo at full health. With Modest, Kyogre suddenly gets the ability to OHKO max HP Arceus, a very impressive feat. Water Spout drowns almost any Uber, including but not limited to Mewtwo, Darkrai and Arceus. This bloated whale holds the entire team together by acting as a revenge killer or cleaning up with fast and powerful strikes.

Thunder fries Manaphy, opposing Kyogre, some Lugia and can spread paralysis around. I can always Thunder predicted Palkia switch ins and cripple them with a possible paralysis and doing around 43% damage. Surf is mandatory and still does a respectable ~90% to Mewtwo. I was thinking about Hydro Pump but with my already horrible luck, I rather do less damage for 100% accuracy. Ice Beam allows me to pick of Dragons such as non Scarf Garchomp, Zekrom,0 unboosted Rayquaza, especially MixedQuaza, Shaymin-S and Groudon if the weather is not on my side. Defensive teams always face problems from the near unstoppable Mewtwo and Darkrai. Nevertheless, Kyogre drowns them both easily with a mighty tidal wave. I don't usually lead with Kyogre due to team preview. I will only lead with Kyogre when the opponent's lead is most likely to be Darkrai. If their lead is Groudon, I won't lead with Kyogre because the weather will then be sunny. Max Special Attack is straight foward, while the Speed EVs help to outrun everything up to Mewtwo. Some HP EVs are for additional bulk and that little buff helped me survived a +2 Arceus Extremespeed once.

Kyogre is named after Firecape because firecape is phat, fast, helpful, persistent and strong :) I mean look at the Parasect formation on Jibaku's profile wall. Iconic is still a true boss, he's cooler than firecape imo but firecape is phat so I named Kyogre as firecape.

I won't mention any Dream World threats here (unlike Burn All) Without Latias blocking the way to Kyogre's sweep, this true King of Ubers (Arceus suck imo) can smash almost everything in his path.

Giratina-O
Giratina-O @ Griseous Orb***Jibaku
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 236 Atk / 236 SpA / 36 Spe
Nature: Naughty (+Atk, -SpD)
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Tail
- Shadow Sneak
- Thunder

Giratina-O is the best spinblocker in the game, out ranking even Ghost Arceus. Giratina-O's resistances are always overlooked. Resistances to Water, Electric, Fire, Grass and immunity to Fighting and Ground, makes it a fantastic pivot. Weakness to Dragon, Ghost and Dark are a bit depressing but Giratina-O's bulk is actually similar to Ghost Arceus assuming both are without HP or Defense EVs. Giratina-O checks Mewtwo, Victini, mono attacking Kyogre, Groudon, Ho-Oh, Ground Arceus, Excadrill and a lot of other threats, so it's kinda like Burn All's Heatran, phazing everything out repeatedly, and harassing stall. Unlike Roar, Giratina-O's Dragon Tail actually packs quite a punch, especially when combined with hazards. As an example, even Fireburn's divine Ghost Arceus was brought down with a simple Dragon Tail + Shadow sneak with a layer of Spikes and Stealth Rock out. Giratina-O's ability to wear down his counters with entry hazards, invulnerable to hazards himself and Dragon Tail is an amazing ability Ghost Arceus wishes it can do. The EVs are standard on Mixed Giratina-O but I like to Speed creep a bit to beat Groudon in a Dragon Tail war.

Of course, we must not forget Giratina-O's main niche is to block any attempts of Rapid Spin. Forretress will struggle to do much damage although Giratina-O will loathe swallowing a Toxic. Draco Meteor is an extremely powerful move, and it gets STAB with a Griseous Orb boost. Draco Meteor's main move is to dish out heavy damage to the opponent before spamming Dragon Tail, and it's mainly to smack Groudon or Dialga. Dragon Tail was already mentioned earlier and it is Giratina-O's most used move. Shadow Sneak is rather weak but it can be useful for picking off weakened things such as Mewtwo and Ghost Arceus. It won't be too hard to put many threats into KO range when combined with entry hazards. Thunder is mainly a filler as Hidden Power Fire sucks in the rain, even when Groudon is so popular, I chose Thunder to spread paralysis around and threaten Lugia or Kyogre.

Giratina-O is named after Jibaku, he is a very cool guy and his favorite Pokemon happens to be Giratina-O. Oh yeah, Jibaku first used (popularized?) Dragon Tail Giratina-O before it became the main move for the renegade.

Lugia
Lugia @ Leftovers***Fireburn
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Nature: Impish (+Def, -SpA)
- Substitute / Reflect
- Toxic
- Roost
- Dragon Tail

This is a rare Lugia set not seen a lot in the tier. Sub + Toxic allows Lugia to stall out a variety of threats such as Arceus, Ho-Oh, Groudon and Rayquaza. Sometimes I miss Reflect for completely walling Ho-Oh and physical Arceus but Substitute prevents Lugia from being statused by the likes of Chansey, Ferrothorn or even Groudon. In addition, thanks to Lugia's bulk, Groudon's and even Rayquaza's Dragon Tail will never break Lugia's Subsitute. Lugia is the main buffer of the team and it annoys many offensive threats. This Lugia EV spread became the standard for the outdated Great Wall Lugia set. With an Impish nature, I can comfortably wall Groudon, Rayquaza, Garchomp and even Ho-Oh!

Substitute helps a lot for preventing status being inflicted on Lugia. It turn the tables on the pink blobs, and Lugia can now abuse them because either Seismic Toss or Ice Beam will not break the Sub. Toxic is Lugia's main way of doing damage. Lugia is my only check to Calm Mind Grass Arceus if it's the last Pokemon. Roost is mandatory for a wall like Lugia and just gets better with Pressure. Dragon Tail is Lugia's new gift this generation, and it works incredibly well. Thanks to this move, I can stay in Lugia on Heatran or StallTwo. Staying on Heatran when not behind a Rhydon doll can be risky though because some of this Volcanoes love to carry Toxic. Lugia also provides useful Grass resistance to the team and can beat Grass Arceus and Shaymin-S for Kyogre.

Lugia is named after Fireburn because he made the Lugia analysis, loves Lugia, is overall a friendly and experienced guy. Fireburn can absorb a lot of blows( including the Gyara discussion !_!) just like Lugia.

Dialga
Dialga @ Leftovers***Colonel_M
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 96 SpA / 140 SpD / 20 Spe
Nature: Modest (+SpA, -Atk)
- Dragon Pulse
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Roar

Nothing can fully halt a Dialga rampage with the possible exception of Ground Arceus. Unlike Burn All, Dialga fits perfectly with the Drown All theme. While Kyogre drowns threats with torrential rain, Dialga drowns everything in a Time Zone. Setting Stealth Rock is almost important for any team. Dialga is very reliable and it can beat Groudon leads because Fire Blast is a 2HKO on most Groudon. EV spread seems confusing but it gives Dialga a bonus point in Special Attack while providing optimum bulk. Some Speed EVs were slapped in to beat Groudon in a speed creep contest.

Draco Meteor annihilates anything not resistant to it bar extremely bulky farts such as Ho-Oh or Chansey. However, I picked Dragon Pulse for it's consistency and for defeating Bulk Up Dialga with Leech Seed support. Dragon Pulse still OHKOes Palkia after Stealth Rock anyway. Fire Blast roasts Forretress and Ferrothorn, both are possible annoyance to the team. Roar is used because I just love raping things with entry hazards, and since Dialga forces a lot of switches, Roar is an invaluable move. Breaking stall becomes a tad easier with Dialga around. Dialga can also easily phaze out Steel-, Electric- and Grass Arceus but is unable to kill them. Toxic on Dialga can work to stop Grass Arceus but I prefer Roar to phaze out Shaymin-S, Ho-Oh and Hone Claws Zekrom.

Dialga is named after Colonel_M because Colonel_M is a Tyrant King and owns everything like Dialga.

Ferrothorn
Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers***reachzero
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD ( 0 Spe IVs)
Nature: Sassy (+SpD, -Spe)
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
- Protect / Power Whip

Similar to Burn All, Ferrothorn makes another appearance in Drown All. Unlike the one in Burn All, my Ferrothorn is all out Specially Defensive due to the amount of Special Attacks, Ferrothorn is likely to take such as Spacial Rend, Draco Meteor, Thunder, Surf, Fire Blast in rain, Focus Blast, Grass Knot, Seed Flare and the list goes on.. I just love to Spike stack and abuse them through phazing, a tactic favoured by top players such as Jibaku, Fireburn, reachzero and firecape. Since I am battling in Wifi Ubers, I have nothing to fear from Chandelure. I have another great Kyogre check so Gyro Ball is used to deal more damage, and prevent Shaymin-S from coming in for free. Gyro Ball is actually surprisingly powerful since it almost always hits for base 150 damage.

Leech Seed is Ferrothorn's only way of healing and with it, I can beat Dark and Steel Arceus with the entire team and Leech Seed support. Spikes is obviously useful because the team is focusing on Spikes abuse. Ferrothorn provides useful resistances to the team such as Dark-, Dragon- and Electric-types. It can also stop most Zekrom sets, excluding the Sub Hone Claws set. Ferrothorn also assists Lugia in absorbing hits from the likes of Garchomp, Groudon, some Rayquaza and Arceus. Lastly, Leech Seed + Protect is a cool combination to heal up and causes a lot of annoyance. Anyway, I am thinking of using Power Whip over Protect to combat Manaphy and Ground Arceus. I sometimes miss Protect's scouting ability though and free healing with Leech Seed. Power Whip hits Groudon harder too but makes it set up fodder for Rayquaza or Shaymin-S.

Ferrothorn is named after reachzero because they are both tough and produces amazing results. I also saw reachzero frequently used Ferrothorn in his Ubers team...

Palkia
Palkia @ Lustrous Orb***Bloo
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD /252 Spe
Nature(s): Timid (+ Spe, -Atk)
- Spacial Rend
- Surf
- Thunder
- Fire Blast

Unlike Gyarados, Palkia is a TRUE beast in Ubers. I am currently using it over Gastrodon since the slug sucks vs sun teams. Palkia also helps me check Manaphy, Lucario, Ho-Oh and Kyogre. Palkia lures in Ferrothorn and 2HKO it with Fire Blast easily. Oh yeah, Jibaku is using Scarf Palkia in his team, this one is a rare sight in the current metagame with lots of surprise value. User BLOO is awesome just like Palkia and he even said Palkia > Gastrodon all the way. What user Blue said makes a lot of sense though! It made me reconsider putting Palkia back over Gastrodon.

I actually wanted to use Palkia over Gastrodon because Gastrodon just sucks against sun based teams. Palkia also helps me check Lucario, Manaphy and even Ho-OH in the rain of course! Lustrous Orb Palkia is now the superior choice over Gastrodon for the team. After some discussion with Bloo, I decided to use Palkia over Gastrodon. Palkia somewhat fixes that annoying Ferrothorn issue by luring it in and KO with Fire Blast, Thunder fries Manaphy for the 2HKO, Lucario is OHKOed by Fire Blast or Surf. It fixes all of the team's weaknesses really except now I lack an Electric-type immune but I guess that's unnecessary with Dialga, Giratina-O and Ferrothorn to absorb it. Lustrous Orb pushes Palkia's STAB moves to insane levels, allowing it to nearly OHKO min HP Arceus with Surf in the rain after just Stealth Rock damage. Thunder is usually just for raping Kyogre and Manaphy but it works. Should opposing Lugia or pink blobs try to wall Palkia, Ferrothorn can set up on them for free or my Dialga can phaze them out with relative ease. Giratina-O punishes Chansey to the extreme with entry hazards support while Kyogre scares off Lugia generally. Ferrothorn and Lugia can stomach almost any Dragon-type attacks for Palkia while absorbing Specs Water Spout is Palkia's main niche for this team.

Although Palkia is a smaller fish compare to Gyarados, Palkia is just as awesome if not more. Palkia is named after Bloo because he is the one who made me try out Palkia over Gastrodon for another time. Palkia > Gastrodon at least for now.

Overview

This featured team is from a user who has had great success in the Ubers metagame and on the ladder, with a near-perfect SPL record to boot. In this team, trickroom forms a core that is almost impossible to break by conventional means. He also utilizes the common strategy of stacking the opponent's side of the field with entry hazards, in conjunction with phazing and annoying walls to slowly wear down the opposition through residual damage. By using a few unique sets, trickroom is able to keep the opponent on their toes as well, which are described later in detail. This team forms the archetype for nearly all successful teams in the current metagame, and is easily recognized as the bane of almost any heavy offense team.

Lead

With the advent of team preview, trickroom can choose any of his Pokemon to lead; however, a few of his Pokemon stand out as advantageous in the lead position. Dialga, to put it bluntly, cannot be OHKOed by unboosted attacks save for a rare few exceptions. This puts it at an advantage and allows him to almost always get down Stealth Rock fast, in addition to possibly causing a switch with the looming threat of a powerful Dragon- or Fire-type attack. Kyogre can also cause some favorable match-ups, as many may not take into account that it could be Scarfed, and quickly lose a Darkrai or a similar frail-but-fast sweeper. In addition, leading with Kyogre allows trickroom to summon a raging torrent of rain to weaken Fire-type attacks targeted at other members of the team (namely Ferrothorn) early on in the game. There are also other Pokemon that require a unique response; for example, Deoxys-(A/S/N) leads (they are almost always dedicated leads) require trickroom to lead with Giratina-O. The examples are far too many to enumerate, and it comes down to common sense and prediction in the end.

Core

The core of this team consists of Dialga, Ferrothorn, Giratina-O, and Lugia, with Kyogre acting as glue and Palkia as a catch-all mixed attacker. Dialga's great typing and stat distribution allow it to serve as a great tank, being nearly impossible to OHKO; which it can use to act at a last-resort phazer against many powerful sweepers should the need arise. It is also able to dole out massive damage with near-perfect coverage, all packed into just two moves, and at the same time it can support the team nicely with Stealth Rock and Roar. Ferrothorn provides this team with a plethora of useful resistances, and a great range of options to further provide team support. Ferrothorn is also this team's Steel-type (Dialga cannot be counted due to its neutrality to Dragon-type attacks), and a great one at that. With its great defensive stats, and an even better typing, Ferrothorn finds numerous opportunities to set up Spikes. Even though it has no means of reliable recovery, it is still able to keep quite healthy through the combination of Leftovers, Leech Seed, and Protect; which also furthers the usefulness of Spikes through the switches it is certain to cause. Leech Seed can also provide recovery to teammates that lack it, and cushion the switch for a check or counter. Giratina-O acts as the spinblocker for this team, and provides extremely useful Fighting- and Ground-type immunities. Giratina-O is also the bane of many other stall teams; once a few hazards are up, not much can be done to stop Giratina-O from endlessly spamming Dragon Tail until it finally succumbs to poison or the like. The spectral dragon also has near-perfect synergy with Ferrothorn, and attacks Ferrothorn does not resist, but that Giratina-O is weak to, do a negligible amount of damage to the metal plant. Lugia slides into place as the last member of the core, providing sheer walling potential with amazing defenses where the rest of the core's resistances fail. There is almost nothing that is capable of OHKOing Lugia, and the set trickroom uses is particularly annoying. It is extremely easy for Lugia to force out, or cause to stay in by lack of knowledge, a Pokemon without the tools to scratch it once it is safely behind a Substitute. From there, Lugia is protected from numerous attacks that would normally cripple it beyond repair, such as Toxic. Dragon Tail from most of the common users also cannot hope to break Lugia's Substitute in one hit, making it quite easy to Toxic stall with Roost and Substitute as needed. From behind the Substitute, Lugia can also phaze Pokemon with impunity, and, as many Pokemon can't touch it, it will often force out one of these Pokemon; thus repeating the viscous cycle. Lugia provides this team with an impenetrable wall to countless Pokemon that would annoy the team otherwise. Lugia's defenses are so great that even Thunder (provided it is unboosted) from base 150 Special Attack Pokemon cannot 2HKO it with the EV spread trickroom runs, along with the help of Leftovers. Kyogre further acts as glue upon this solid core, outspeeding and drowning any sweepers who would be too taxing for the team to attempt to wall. Kyogre does its job as a revenge killer quite admirably, and it is also able to clean up the remains of a team quite easily after the core has worn it down with various forms of residual damage. Instead of the standard Scarf set, trickroom opts Scarf set with more power, while still outspeeding up to Mewtwo. Kyogre further supports the core by summoning forth an infinite downpour to weaken Fire-type attacks that may otherwise overwhelm Ferrothorn, while also making Giratina-O's Thunder 100% accurate. Lastly, trickroom chooses to use Palkia in the last slot to patch up a Kyogre weakness and cause general havoc.

Sweepers

While trickroom doesn't really have any "sweepers" in the strict sense of the word, Kyogre and Palkia can fill the role if needed. Kyogre can easily mop up a weakened team after the core has shuffled them around and chipped away their health enough. Even without any sort of boost, Kyogre still packs quite a punch. When looking at the team through team preview, it may seem as if Palkia is the team's Scarf Pokemon; a mistake many players make. This allows Palkia to easily smash holes into the opponent's team as it incinerates an unsuspecting Ferrothorn or the like. Palkia is also much like Kyogre in the sense that it excels at mopping up after the opponent's core has been sufficiently weakened.

Threats

This team is excellent at checking a wide variety of threats, but it still has its flaws. Ghost Arceus can cause this team quite a bit of trouble if it can set up, and, short of sacrificing Lugia in an attempt to poison it, there's not much trickroom can do but phaze it out with Dialga or hope to catch it without any boosts with Kyogre. Darkrai can cause some problems, as it can with any defensively-oriented team; Kyogre is trickroom's only true check to it. Dialga can be annoying as it has the ability to phaze trickroom's team racking up entry hazard damage, and a Bulk Up variant is quite difficult to play around. There are also the Pokemon that trickroom doesn't have a true check or counter to (or one doesn't exist in general), namely Ho-Oh, Mewtwo, and Reshiram. Drown All also hates both kinds of Spikes, and their primary users, Forretress and Ferrothorn; Toxic Spikes and Spikes wear down Drown All's team members quite fast. Ferrothorn in particular gives trickroom's teams some problems as neither Pokemon that can deal with it directly via Fire-type attacks (Palkia and Dialga) like losing HP to Leech Seed and other hazards. Fire Blast from both of them also fails to OHKO Ferrothorn in the rain.

Conclusion

This team sums up the current state of the Uber metagame. It is quite tough to use heavy offense with the plethora of defensive teams, so you must adapt to survive. Of course, that doesn't mean making a successful heavy offense team is impossible, you just have to be a bit creative! This team is formidable to face, and shows you don't need Arceus to make a successful team.

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