Death From Above
Indrotuction
Hey there, guys! As always thanks for clicking on the RMT and taking some time to read it. After having some rather bitter feelings when I got to know Froslass and Raikou hadn’t been banned, especially the former, and then experience more of them knowing the ducky duo was coming to storm the metagame, I thought of just retiring from this metagame, but not before giving it a try. I tried many team styles, some turned out to be decent, but I just couldn’t put up with everything being so centralized, or with the fact it was impossible to cover everything, thus I decided I would give it one last shot, which I wasn’t very optimistic about, and then abstain from the UU metagame at least for the time being. It ended up that the team worked extremely well, getting me to 1700 CRE, reaching the #1 spot on the ladder with my alt, Bright Sky, and getting my main account to the top 5. Despite being quite successful I do have the feeling it can be improved some more, and that’s where you guys come in =)
Summing It up a bit, this team is basically structured to give my main sweepers, Moltres and Scyther, an easy time sweeping, thus everything is geared to remove factors that might somehow hinder them (yeah, it’s yet another team focused on giving Flying-types a chance to sweep, live with that).
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Hariyama (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Guts
EVs: 12 HP/ 252 Atk/ 188 Def/ 56 Spe
Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SpAtk)
- Close Combat
- Payback
- Bullet Punch
- Ice Punch/Sleep Talk
Why Hariyama? That’s a good question. Why use Hariyama over any other standard lead that works just as well as it, or even better, and has access to hazards/status? I had something in mind when I started building this team: I wanted a lead that could handle Froslass, to avoid those annoying spike stacking teams that were bound to infest the ladder even more than they did before, but I also wanted my lead to work against other leads and, added to that, I wanted it to have a small touch of surprise, meaning it would put me ahead on the match and get me the valuable momentum for not being plain predictable. Finally, I wanted a lead that would start the match with an offensive approach; and I found a lead that was able to accomplish all that on Hariyama, who brought with itself a whole face palm of surprise (yes that was a pun, a bad one, but it was).
The idea of lead Hariyama didn’t start with myself, but with Cleanup141, which was the first one I ever saw using this lead, so all I did was creating my own EV spread that worked for me and a moveset that would fit the team’s needs. The beauty of this set is how it meshes well with the rest of the team, being able to take on a considerable amount of leads and surviving with a considerable amount of HP, which is very important, as it can perform the following roles throughout the match: act as a status blocker; bait Will-O-Wisps from Ghosts and OHKO them with a boosted Payback, thus making spinning a much easier task; weaken Rock/Steel-types that hinder either Moltres’ or Scyther’s sweep, while taking Rock-type attacks, to which both my sweepers have a 4x weakness.
All in all, when designed the lead role, Hariyama is meant to be played as a stretch of its main job, and rather recklessly, trying to open as many holes on my opponent’s team as possible, weakening common Scyther and Moltres counters, like the Regi brethren, that have to withstand heavy hits to be able to setup rocks and won’t be in ideal condition once I bring my flying duo to the battlefield; and if I see fit, I will sacrifice Hariyama during the early stages of the match if somehow that aids a sweep.
How does Hariyama handle the Top 15 leads of UU?
Why those moves? By casting an eye upon the last section you should have good part of this question answered. Close Combat is STAB and hits Steels and Rocks for super effective damage. Payback is there to hit ghosts in general and to take care of lead Froslass, while also allowing me to smack something hard on a predicted switch. Bullet Punch is priority, something very important in this metagame and that allows me to pick off weakened Froslass. The fourth move has gone through several changes, from Brick Break to handle screens to Stone Edge for flyers and Toxic for Cresselia. After some testing I narrowed it down to Ice Punch, which allows me to hit Altaria, Venusaur and Flying types, and Sleep Talk (thanks for the suggestion, IronBullet), that provides me a sleep absorber and allows me to abuse guts to its fullest.
Why the EVs, Nature, Item and Trait? The EVs might look a bit messy at first, but they have a purpose. 252 Attack EVs paired with an Adamant Nature allow Hariyama to hit as hard as possible, pretty much what it’s meant to do. 12 HP EVs are there for the closest Leftovers recovery number. 56 Speed EVs allow me to reach a speed stat of 150, enough to outspeed LeadPerior and Omastar. The rest of the EVs were poured on Defense, so that it has an easier time withstanding physical blows form the likes of Rhyperior and is able to check some threats I’m rather vulnerable to, like Torterra and Feraligatr. Leftovers, while odd on a set meant to be so offensive at first, is used to give it some extra durability and bluff a tanking set, attracting status, thus being able to retaliate with Guts boosted attacks and catch some unaware Ghost-types. I'm considering Life Orb for the extra kick on power, but I'm afraid that will make the nature of this set too obvious and reduce both effectiveness and durability.
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Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/ 100 Atk/ 156 SpDef
Nature: Careful (+SpDef, -SpAtk)
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock
Why Registeel? Why not? Registeel brings everything this and every team needs: a flying/normal resistance, which is very important with all those Swellow’s running amock, specially considering that’s my only defensive line against these attacks; Stealth Rocks and a counter for the many specially oriented threats that lurk on the tier, namely Mismagius, Alakazam, the newcomer Donald Duck, Secptile and, especially (insert pun), Raikou, whose STAB hits half my team for super effective damage, while outspeeding all of them and having enough bulk to withstand a fair amount of priority. Outside of that, Registeel works basically as my “Oh shit!” button, as due to his bulk on both ends of spectrum and excellent typing he can take pretty much any attack, even some boosted super effective ones, and retaliate with paralysis, thus making some threats much more easy to handle. The paralysis support is also very important for my rather slow team, in which four pokés sit on a meager base 50 Speed.
Why those moves? Nothing too revolutionary to be honest. Iron Head is STAB and is used to hit Mismagius, Alakazam, levitaters and abuses the ParaFlinch combo. Earthquake is here to hit everything Iron Head doesn’t, namely Fire-type pokés that love to switch in, but end up eating paralysis and Earthquake, and Raikou. Thunder Wave is very important for my team, due to it being rather slow and can completely shut down some threats. Rocks just... rock. Not having Seismic Toss hurts a lot against Magneton, but I just can’t afford to give Raikou so many free turns, considering it normally comes with spikes support that I might not always be able to get rid off.
Why the EVs, Nature, Item and Trait? Again, nothing new. Careful Nature and 156 EVs are there to boost Registeel’s capacity of taking special hits. 252 HP EVs provide him with further tanking abilities and provide him with some bulk on both sides. 100 Attack EVs allow Registeel to 2HKO Mismagius and Alakazam with Iron Head and Raikou with Earthquake (IIRC). Leftovers were chosen over Shed Shell as due to having no Wish support whatsoever, I needed some sort of recovery, even if that comes with the risk of being killed by Dugtrio.
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Azumarill (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 232 HP/ 252 Atk/ 24 Spe
Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SpAtk)
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Return
- Toxic
Why Azumarill? Bulky Water Pokémon is a common concept on all of my teams and this wasn’t any different. Mostly I’d just stick Milotic here for its ability to check great part of the metagame, but I decided I wanted to keep this team as offensive as possible, also getting me some priority to backup my slow team, so I settled down on using this guy and have never looked back. Azumarill’s job is very simple: he supports Hariyama when taking on some leads the latter just can’t handle; he eats fire-type attacks aimed at Scyther, Donphan (special) and Registeel; keeps some threats that could possibly cause me trouble at a bay, namely Moltres, AgilityKen, Ninetales and Houndoom; and baits other bulky waters and Cresselia out, hitting them with Toxic, thus opening up a sweep for my flying duo.
Why those moves? The first three moves are standart, providing me, respectively, with STAB priority, a stronger STAB and a coverage move. The fourth move might look like a complete oddball on an Azumarill set, specifically on such offensive one as Life Orb is, due to the shorter lifespam, but due to the amount of Milotics and Slowbros that switch into Azumarill constantly, and considering those 2 pokés hold my team back way too much, Toxic has proven its usefulness in several occasions when handling these threats, also coming with a nice bonus of completely messing up Cresselia. Added to that, neither Ice Punch nor Superpower have proven to be much more than moves that are used once in life and once in death, and with some dire consequences.
Why the EVs, Nature, Item and Trait? Again, standard. Everything is tailored to boost Azumarill’s ability of dealing and taking damage. 24 Speed EVs are meant to outspeed other base 50 that normally don’t invest that much, while 232 HP EVs give me 399 max HP, lowering LO's recoil damage. Life Orb is used because that’s the most efficient way of revenge killing Fire-types and frail pokes, like Alakazam, while keeping the offensive nature of the team and not locking myself into a move.
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Donphan (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SpAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Assurance
- Rapid Spin
Why Donphan? With both my main sweepers bearing a 4x weakness to rocks it was obvious that I needed something to alleviate that, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to abuse all their potential; and that’s where Donphan comes in, as for being a rather durable poké he has several chances of spinning throughout the match. His job is not limited to that though, he acts as an extra check for Raikou, one of my team’s biggest nemesis when given the right conditions, Drapion, the Regi brethren and Altaria; provides me with an immunity to both paralysis and electric type attacks, which comes in handy considering my team has a glaring weakness to Electric-type attacks and adds yet another priority move to my team, which usefulness should’ve been made clear by now.
Why those moves? Thanks to the fact Registeel already packs Stealth Rock I was able to abuse Donphan’s spinning potential to its fullest. Earthquake is my always reliable STAB and an all around great move. Assurance is great for hitting floating ghosts such as Rotom and Mismagius on the switch and getting them on Ice Shard’s killing range. Speaking of Ice Shard, it’s a great way to pick off weakened pokés and give the likes of Altaria a hard time, instead of being a complete fodder for them. If you don’t know what Rapid Spin is doing here you’re better off just jumping off a cliff (I’m joking, don’t. Suicide is never the answer).
Why the EVs, Nature, Item and Trait? Max attack and Adamant nature ensure I’ll be picking off the ghosts that are meant to wall this set much easier than with max defenses. I decided to max HP instead of going for the 52 HP/ 204 Def because that spread only improves Donphan’s capacities of taking physical hits by a little, while maxing HP means that I won’t mind (that) much taking specially based attacks if the need arises, specially against the aforementioned Ghost-types. 4 Speed EVs are here so that I can outspeed the Regis and spin their rocks before they go boom on me. Leftovers are there for the extra durability, also being pretty much the only viable item.
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Scyther (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk/ 4 Def/ 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -SpAtk)
- Aerial Ace
- Bug Bite
- Swords Dance
- Brick Break
Why Scyther? When deciding what poké on my team would counter Cresselia (a necessity nowadays), I noticed lots of lunar ducks were overspecializing themselves on beating their most common counters, Drapion, Absol and Houndoom; but ended up forgetting about a not so common yet very dangerous threat, Scyther; which had two available sets: CB and Swords Dance. I decided that on a metagame in which Scyther is so neglected, and in which many stall teams aren’t prepared to face it, it would be better off with a sweeping set, thus my choice was clear. Breaking stall and Cresselia isn’t all that guy does though, as he does an excellent job against offensive teams once faster threats have been removed, gives dual screen teams a hard time with Brick Break and weakens some of the counters he shares with Moltres, like Milotic and Regirock, thus aiding a sweep of the fire bird.
Why those moves? Aerial Ace and Bug Bite are both STAB and boosted by Technician, going from meager 90 base power to 135, which is not shabby at all. Swords Dance is the base of this set and allows me to pull off a sweep whenever my opponent’s counters have been weakened or defeated. Brick Break is there for Coverage, to hit Steel-types harder, also coming with the nifty side effect of messing up dual screen teams. Lack of priority hurts at times, but I can’t pass Aerial Ace, as it’s needed to hit Fire-types and Venusaur for super effective damage.
Why the EVs, Nature, Item and Trait? The EVs are standart, boosting Scyther’s sweeping prowess to the maximum while retaining an odd HP number. Jolly went over Adamant because I don’t want to be stopped on the tracks by anything with more than 91 Speed base, namely Houndoom and Mismagius, which is now running HP Fighting in most cases and being outsped because of that. Life Orb is there to boost furthermore the damage dealt by Scyther’s attacks and Technician is what makes this set viable to start with.
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Moltres @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def/ 252 SpAtk/ 252 Spe
Nature: Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Hidden Power Grass
Why Moltres? Moltres was actually a random addition to the team, chosen due to SR not being much of a threat anymore and to me considering it a broken son of a… bird, but it turned out to be a great team player and just as fearsome sweeper as Scyther itself. Moltres acts as the second part of my offensive core, but taking an offensive approach on special side instead of the physical one, allowing me to deal loads of damage from both ends of spectrum and not being stuck with a plain physically based team. Just like Scyther either removes or weakens Moltres counters, likewise the latter does the same in return, so I can just abuse that and creating an opportunity for Scyther to sweep.
Why those Moves? Fire Blast and Air Slash are STAB, hiting stuff for obscene amounts of damage. Roost is there to soothen LO recoil, SR if they happen to be up and to give it some durability throughout the match, enabling it to take the attacks it’s supposed to. Hidden Power Grass is there for coverage, hitting Water/Rock-types for super effective damage.
Why the EVs, Nature, Item and Trait? Again, everything is focused on making Moltres as much of a sweeper as possible, being that the reason of the EVs and the item. Timid was chosen over Modest because, in spite of missing some important 2HKOes, I can’t afford not to outspeed base 80 and 85 pokés and to tie with other Moltres and Porygon-Z on this slow team, in which only one member outspeed both of them.
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Team Building Process
Everything started when I considered using the Hariyama lead I hadn’t seen in action much, but that seemed to be very useful. I had in mind setting up a sweep for Scyther, and even though I weren’t sure whether I was going to use that premise or not, I knew a Fighting-type would help no matter the team, thus I added this.
After that I decided I needed something to cover some of the most dangerous threats of this metagame, namely Mismagius, Raikou, Swellow and such. Also, I still hadn’t put rocks on my team. I initially used Regirock here, but after noticing it couldn't deal nearly as well with threats like Mismagius and Raikou, added to the fact I had a glaring weakness to Grass-types like Sceptile, Regirock was replaced by his brother Registeel, who was a natural choice to cover everything the former couldn't.
From that point on I decided I would try to build a team not necessarily around Scyther, but that allowed him to have an easier time, as he was a fairly solid Cresselia check and a troublesome threat for stall; so, just like I had thought of at first, in went Scyther!
After that I knew I’d need a spinner, so that my sweeper wouldn’t get hampered by rocks. That would also allow me to have an easier time against stall and spike stacking teams if they happen not to use their leads to perform their strategy or decide to switch out on Hariyama. My choices were between Blastoise and Donphan, but I settled down for the latter because of personal preference, due to the fact Blastoise couldn't defeat some key pokémons this team desperately needed to beat and because Donphan was able to actually cause troubles to dual ghost teams.
My team seemed fairly weak to Fire-types so far, especially Moltres and Blaziken, who could just OHKO every member of my team with the right attack, so I knew a bulky Water was needed. I narrowed down the choices to Azumarill and Milotic, but I ended up picking the former due to its more offensive way of playing and access to priority.
Finally, I had one last poké to choose, but nothing in mind. I thought it would be plausible to abuse the spinning support I was giving Scyther, as it would be a bit of a waste not to, thus I added Moltres, one of the most dangerous threats of this metagame, and ended up with this final product.
