SM UU USUM UU- Surfin' USA (Alolan Raichu squad)

[Sickist]

Hello Everyone! I decided to build an Alolan Raichu team, so I built this. Shoutout to Accelgor and the Pokemon Showdown UU room for giving me a small hand in finishing this team. Let's dive right in, shall we?

Raichu-Alola @ Aloraichium Z
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Nasty Plot​

Our first mon is Alolan Raichu. Raichu is the main breaker on the team, boasting an excellent settup move in Nasty Plot and great coverage options, such as Focus Blast. Thunderbolt and Psychic are for STAB. Aloraichum Z powers Raichu's Thunderbolt into a hard hitting 175 base power attack that can deal major damage to threats such as Mega Aggron, Slowbro, and Empoleon. Max speed and max special attack for outrunning key threats such as non-scarfed hydreigon and speed tying with Latias and Gengar.

Krookodile @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge​

Next, we have the team's main form of speed control. Krookodile offers a nice choice in revenging/trapping psychic types like Latias and Celebi. Knock Off is a solid STAB attack that remove's a pokemon's item. Pursuit allows Krook to damage any pokemon switching out. Earthquake is Krookodile's secondary STAB, hitting alot of the tier for solid damage. Stone edge forms a nice combo with Earthquake, hitting most things that Earthquake can't, such as Moltres and Togekiss. Max attack and speed allow Krookodile to be strong and fast as possible.

Kommo-o @ Focus Sash
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Clanging Scales
- Close Combat
- Taunt​

Kommo-o is my Stealth Rock user. Focus Sash allows Kommo-o to get up rocks vs Mamoswine, which is a huge threat to the team. Clanging scales along side Close Combat are very spammable moves in UU, par from the stray Togekiss ruining my day. Taunt stops slower mons from setting up rocks, such as Swampert and Empoleon and blocks Toxic from others such as Gligar, Hippowdon, and Swampert.

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Scald
- Toxic
- Roar​

Empoleon is the Hazard removal of the team. It's also the main Hydreigon and Latias check on the team. The EVs are for the Standard Empoleon set (check the smogon analysis). Defog clears hazards that would plague my team, such as stealth rocks, spikes, and sticky web. Scald allows Empoleon to not be a sitting duck vs taunt users and has a 30% to burn. Toxic allows Empoleon to cripple settup sweepers and walls such as Latias, Hippowdon, Swampert, and Blissey. Roar is the last move on Empoleon, allowing it to phase out boosted sweepers to another pokemon on the opponent's team.

Altaria-Mega @ Altarianite
Ability: Pixilate
Happiness: 0
EVs: 112 HP / 120 Atk / 100 Def / 176 Spe
Impish Nature
- Frustration
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Roost​

Mega Altaria is the Krookodile, Terrakion, Non-Flash Cannon Hydreigon, backup Latias check, and Mega on the team. It can also function as another sweeper. Altarianite allows Altaria to Mega Evolve. 112 HP and 100 Defense coupled with an impish nature allow Altaria to eat an unboosted Close Combat into Z Stone Edge from Terrakion. 176 speed allow Altaria to outspeed Adamant Bisharp and below. The rest of the EVs are thrown into attack to make sure Altaria can at least fight back. Frustration is essentially a 122 base power STAB attack when boosted by Mega Altaria's ability, Pixilate, which turns all normal type moves into Fairy type moves. Earthquake complements Altaria's Fairy STAB quite nicely, hitting Steel and Poison types that would resist Frustration, such as Tentacruel, Bisharp, and Empoleon. Dragon Dance allows Altaria to boost it's attack and speed by 1 stage, allowing Altaria to outspeed every non-scarfed pokemon slower than Latias and Gengar. Roost allows Mega Altaria to keep itself healthy throughout the match, allowing the team to deal with Krookodile and Terrakion (somewhat).

Moltres @ Leftovers
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 36 Def / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Roost
- Defog
- Toxic/Will-O-Wisp​

Moltres is the final member of the team. It's the secondary hazard control and Scizor check on the team. Again, standard Moltres EV spread, so check the smogon analysis for what they do down below, I'll link them there. Flame Body has a 30% chance to burn anything that makes contact with it, such as U-turn users like Scizor, Mega Beedrill, and Hydreigon. Flamethrower is the only attacking move, as it deals decent damage to anything that doesn't resist it or is named Blissey. Roost allows Moltres to stay healthy and continue to check what it needs to. Defog allows Moltres to clear Hazards from the field, and Toxic cripples walls named Blissey and other walls that annoy Moltres, such as Swampert and Slowbro. Will-O-Wisp is another option to burn something right away without having to count on Flame Body activating.


Threatlist:

Mamoswine: This mon is scary to fight with this team, as nothing par Moltres can switch into it. It even cheeses through Moltres, as Icicle Crash does a solid chunk.

Nasty Plot Infernape: This thing is terrifying to try and revenge kill. Altaria has no SpDef investment, so Ape can break through it after enough switch ins.

Mega Aggron: Just killing this thing is annoying. It is possible to deal with it, as it has no reliable recovery.

Terrakion: The single biggest threat to the team is Terrakion (that alliteration though). Banded has no switchins at all, and the only way to kill it is to revenge it with Krookodile or hope Mega Altaria lives. After a Swords Dance, this thing is just going to kill everything, no matter what.


Smogon Analysis links for Empoleon and Moltres:

Moltres: https://www.smogon.com/dex/sm/pokemon/empoleon/

Empoleon: https://www.smogon.com/dex/sm/pokemon/moltres/


Importable:

Importable

https://pokepast.es/1062e2a82d2cba91

Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-834501203 Won this one
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-834341716 Lost this but I choked it away so, its good.

Thanks for looking at this, any suggestions would be welcome. Have fun Surfin' USA!
​

 

[Twilight]

It's really cool that you are building around Alolan Raichu as it is something that not many things switch into bar Hydreigon depending on the coverage. However it is very prone to the dark spam in the tier right now and due to its paper defenses it is very easy to trap and can only really come in to fire off an attack once said threats are removed. Given the threats you listed I agree they can all be pretty scary bar Mega-Aggron and NP Ape which I think the team handles pretty easily.

Major Changes:

>

- This is the only major change I made to your team because I think Cobalion has a little more usefulness here as a check to the dark type and pursuit trappers in the tier like Bisharp, Scizor and Krookodile. This set utilizes Shuca Berry due to your Z-move being used on Raichu meaning it has a decent chance to lure in a Krookodile that may be looking to pick off a weakened Coba. It also helps out with Mamoswine, MegaLix, Hippo and EQ Shark as you can OHKO or 2OHKO all of them (Assuming its Sash Mamo) and take a EQ after a -1 defense drop.

Minor Changes:

- This Moltres set seems very out of place imo so I swapped it over to a more offensive variant. This set still has access to Defog to remove hazards on Pokemon that set them up like Aggron, Cobalion and Broznong, however you can opt for U-turn if you wanted. Again because you don't have access to a Z-move I recommend using Charcoal to boost your Fire Attacks to break things like Empo and Gligar. It has the dual stab combination of Hurricane + Fire Blast and Flame Body helps punish Scizor and Coba.

- Personally I felt your match-up against Stall and Balance isn't amazing so I opted for Refresh over EQ to alleviate this and set-up on a lot of passive Pokemon that can't threaten Malt other than using Toxic and Recover spamming. It also helps with Rotom-H now that I removed Kommo-o. I think your team does more than a good enough job at breaking the Poison + Steel types. Just be aware of Sub Gengar so doubling should be done more often vs it.

- I don't think Focus Blast is all that useful as it only helps you against non-Scarf Hydreigon and MegaLix, two things you can handle already. Everything else gets nuked by Electrium-Z + coverage at +2. As I mentioned against any Pursuit user this thing shouldn't be freely firing off attacks because it will be RK. I decided to swap to Psyshock because this still allows you to 2OHKO Blissey at +2 and Grass Knot lets you nuke the ground types like Quagsire, Hippowdon etc. Only thing you lose out on hitting is like fully bulky Malt.

Alola-Raichu Calcs

+2 252 SpA Raichu-Alola Gigavolt Havoc (175 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Hydreigon: 250-294 (76.9 - 90.4%) -- 25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock (Non-Scarf)

+2 252 SpA Raichu-Alola Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 176 SpD Hippowdon: 444-524 (105.7 - 124.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 252 SpA Raichu-Alola Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 382-450 (53.5 - 63%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

+2 252 SpA Raichu-Alola Gigavolt Havoc (175 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Altaria-Mega: 219-258 (62 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252 SpA Raichu-Alola Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 380-450 (87.9 - 104.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252 SpA Raichu-Alola Gigavolt Havoc (175 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Aggron-Mega: 382-451 (111.3 - 131.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

- This one is up to you as I think Protect is really nice for netting extra recovery to keep checking Prima and scouting for Elec-Z Latias and what move Pokemon lock themselves into. Feel free to test around with what you prefer.

<Click Sprites for importable>
​

Really solid team overall and hopefully these small changes help you out. Let me know what you think or if you have any questions let me know ^_^

 

[Sickist]

Thanks, Twilight. I appreciate it