SS UU Diamond Is Unbreakable (UU Hyper Offense ft. Meteor Beam Diancie)

[Blueboy_SMASH]

So with this precious little gem being my favourite mythical pokémon, and Scizor being banished into the OU tier, it seemed as if I could make this less-common mon an offensive threat, with its access to a useful move pool, high defensive/average offensive stats and setup moves. Pairing it with a fairy/dragon/steel core to help out with things that it finds hard to damage by itself.

Anyway, the team:

Diancie @ Power Herb
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rock Polish
- Meteor Beam
- Moonblast
- Mystical Fire

I may as well have an explanation for why I'm using an NU pokémon in UU, and that's because its actually busted. With a rock polish boost it reaches an enormous 398 speed, making it faster than everything else in the teir, bar Regieleki, only having to worry about scarf users like Jirachi and FC Hydreigon in terms of speed. Meteor beam is a 1 turn nuke with power herb and STAB, also boosting its special attack so it can sweep afterwards with 1.5* Moonblast and Mystical Fire for steel type coverage.

Salamence @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Dual Wingbeat
- Earthquake

Here is the dragon type of the core, with dragon dance and moxie letting him absolutely devour teams once it gets going. Dragon Claw as its main STAB move to OHKO most specially-defensive mons after a +1 Dragon Dance boost, that would quash Diancie's sweeping potential. Dual Wingbeat easily disposes of, or forces a switch out for the fat grass types in the tier including Amoonguss, AV Tangrowth and Tapu Bulu, it also inadvertently deals with frail focus sash-ers like Azelf and Regieleki. Finally, EQ is the coverage move that I went with to cover grounded steel types and Galarian Slowbro.

Aegislash @ Choice Band
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat

To finish off our main offensive core, we have a banded Aegislash as a physical wall breaker. Usually able to tank a super effective hit from a sweeper and dish back a fatal counterattack with boosted Iron Head or Shadow Claw, along with dealing massive damage to anything defensive. It also has utility in Shadow Sneak to shut down any sweepers on low health. CC is there to potentially OHKO defensive Chansey on switch in (87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock).

Azelf @ Red Card
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
- Knock Off

Speaking of rocks, this team's lead is a suicide Azelf with the obvious Stealth Rock to let everyone else get free damage, Taunt to prevent the opponent from using Defog or their own hazards, Knock Off to remove any leftovers or rocky helmet from a defensive mon, and Explosion as an early game nuke so I can set up from there. The red card is to force a switch out on anything that decides to immediately attack it. Taunt is also useful for stopping turn 1 setup sweepers that try to cheese an instant win.

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
- Flip Turn

I went with a pretty standard specs Keldeo as a special wall breaker. Hydro Pump for a huge damage STAB move, Secret Sword for Chansey and fighting STAB, Icy Wind as a utility move & for grass/dragon types. Finishing with Flip Turn to read switches and pivot into anything else on my team to threaten it. This might seem pretty basic with not much explanation, but that's because Keldeo is just one of the objective best in UU (maybe too good imho).

Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- U-turn
- Psychic

As the last pokémon on the team, and the second part of the volt-turn core, is life orb Thundurus-T. Thunder bolt for STAB, mainly to deal with Celesteela, Skarmory and bulky water types and with the life orb boost it can always OHKO Celesteela without having to roll for it with heavy-duty boots. Focus Blast covers Krookodile and Mamoswine, Psychic covers Amoonguss, Kommo-o and Nihilego.

So there is the team, let me know if there is anything you recommend anything to change about it, like different moves, items or other pokémon. I've been using this on the UU ladder and its pretty fun to sweep people with a 50 base speed rock/fairy type.

Import

Diancie @ Power Herb
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rock Polish
- Meteor Beam
- Moonblast
- Mystical Fire

Salamence @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Dual Wingbeat
- Earthquake

Aegislash @ Choice Band
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat

Azelf @ Red Card
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
- Knock Off

Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
- Flip Turn

Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- U-turn
- Psychic

 

[FootHead58]

Hey Smash,

I thought this was a really cool team to use and work with. You're using a lot of mons that the meta is really favorable to rn (Thundurus-Therian, Salamence, Band Aegislash) and they work very well together. I have to say, while I initially had my doubts, Diancie is definitely a sleeper threat. I'm not sure if it's the best mon of all time (I suspect a Nihilego may work better with Beast Boost to allow snowballing and higher base speed) but there's definitely something to be said about the surprise factor, given how no one knows how to react to it.

Overall, I think some of the weaknesses of the team are mons that most of the meta is having a tough time against right now. Kommo-O and Conkeldurr are devastatingly powerful, and opposing Salamence and Aegislash are pretty hard to handle as well. Excadrill is also running the tier right now, and while it doesn't have free reign against this team, you definitely have to play around it well.

Here are my suggestions:

--->


Primarina @ Choice Specs
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Scald

Imo, Primarina is a much better fit for this team than Keldeo. Everyone's aware of how good this thing is, yet people still consistently underestimate it. It has a frankly disgusting damage output, and does a great job of handling some mons that were serious threats to the team. Primarina better handles Conkeldurr, Kommo-O, and Salamence (EVs allow you to survive a +1 dual wingbeat while still outspeeding Crawdaunt) all while still filling the same niche that Keldeo filled on the team. You can play around with running Ice Beam > Psychic, as both hit Amoongus pretty hard for Diancie, and it's ultimately not something you're going to be clicking very often. I initially was running Flip Turn, but didn't use it very often at all.


--->
This is a small tweak, but very often I found myself wanting a Focus Sash more than I was appreciating the utility of the Red Card. I find it really effective on Azelf especially, as it's so frail, while still being fast enough to usually go twice if it's got a sash.


Mystical Fire -> Earth Power

This is another minor change, but one that makes a big difference. Giving up Mystical Fire only makes you weaker to Skarmory/ Celesteela, as even +1 Mystical Fire doesn't make a difference against sturdier grass type mons like Tapu Bulu and Tangrowth. Earth power does better damage against most steel types, as well as picking up the OHKO on some mons that you would otherwise be unable to take out, such as Nidoking, Excadrill, and Tentacruel. Torn-T appreciates the reliable removal of Excadrill just so that you don't have to worry about risking a Focus Blast miss to KO it, and has no problem taking on the Steel/Flying types that Diancie now needs some help with.

Calcs
+1 252+ SpA Diancie Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Nidoking: 340-400 (112.2 - 132%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ SpA Diancie Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Excadrill: 380-448 (105.2 - 124%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ SpA Diancie Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Nihilego: 428-504 (119.2 - 140.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ SpA Diancie Earth Power vs. 212 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro-Galar: 362-426 (94.2 - 110.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252+ SpA Diancie Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tentacruel: 230-272 (63.1 - 74.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery


->
U-turn -> Nasty Plot

With no way to remove rocks and a LO, Thundurus-Therian gets worn down so quickly. I found myself essentially never clicking U-turn, and the Nasty Plot set is just so good right now it's honestly hard to justify passing it up. This thing wins a ridiculous amount of games just by being broken, and the longevity from this set allows it to affect the course of a game beyond a handful of turns.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful. This was a really fun team, and I really enjoyed working on it. Thanks for posting!

You can find a pokepaste of this version of the team by clicking here: