SM Ubers Midnight Oil - Calm Mind Arceus-Dark Bulky Offense (peaked #20 | ~1780 elo, 88.0% gxe)

bigtalk · Nov 18, 2019

As USM is ending, I would like to showcase what I consider to be one of my better builds. I'd made multiple attempts at building a solid CM Darkceus team over the past couple of months, but it was a workshop request that finally inspired me to throw this together; I feel like this is probably the most optimized CM Darkceus team I've managed to create, so this is the one I'll share.

I decided to do some last-minute laddering with this team in an attempt to get #1 before SS went live; as usual, I failed as this goal (I tend to get impatient and make greedy plays at high elo). However, I did manage to peak at around 1780 on a fresh alt within 2 laddering sessions, which hopefully counts for something.

Ok, on to the RMT.

When I build a bulky offense team, I like having at least one check to everything. I really don't like teams that have an autoloss matchup to a particular threat; for me, one of the selling points for bulky offense teams is that they give you maximum flexibility so that you have room to outplay everything. With this in mind, there is a certain formula you have to follow for a CM Darkceus team in order to cover all the threats. It's roughly as follows:

( :arceus-dark:

Darkceus) + ( :necrozma-dusk-mane:

/

/

The Fairy answer) + ( :giratina-origin:

/

/

The Groudon counter) + ( :groudon-primal:

Groudon) + ( :ho-oh:

/

/

The Groundceus counter) + ( :toxapex:

/

/

The water resist)

Here are some notable precursors to this build I took inspiration from that follow this formula:

Nabbed this from PurpleGatorade's UPL team dump

pokeaim used this team during one of his road to top 10 lives (I believe he won against a ferrothorn team with it, which is quite an amazing feat if you look at it)

I was cocky enough to bring this variation with Wacan Berry Toxapex to a recent tour despite having never tested it before. I lost g1, and feeling I needed to "prove" it was decent I brought the same exact team to the next 2 games. lmfao. Ended up losing to Dusk Mane

some other attempts

:arceus-dark:

I finally arrived at the build I'm about to describe after dropping Mega Gengar for Dusk Mane, as Mega Gengar doesn't provide insurance for GeoXern nor is it even able to trap Magearna, which is Darkceus' best counter. (As for Fairyceus, you just beat that anyway if you win a Speed tie and / or Toxic Spikes are down, since it can't outdamage Recover after enough Calm Mind boosts.) Having Dusk Mane as a flying resist means that I'm free to use Ho-Oh > Celesteela as the Groundceus check and not worry about getting 6-0d by Mega Salamence, which lets me take advantage of Magearna / potentially abuse tspikes more easily.

Arceus-Dark @ Dread Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Judgment
- Recover
- Refresh

Darkceus is the team's wincon. The Speed is enough for Yveltal so you can use Recover first before getting Taunted, and Refresh allows it to act as a general-purpose status absorber.

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Solganium Z
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Sunsteel Strike
- Morning Sun

Dusk Mane's job is to counter Fairy-types for Darkceus and set Stealth Rock. It also helps out as a Flying resist, preventing Mega Salamence from 2HKOing everything by simply spamming Double-Edge / Facade. In return, Darkceus is able to cover its weakness to Lunala / Mega Gengar. Collectively, both of them are able to wall all of the fast psychics like Ultra Necrozma / MM2Y and co, which lessens the need for speed control on this team.

Giratina-Origin @ Griseous Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 72 Def / 136 SpA / 52 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Defog
- Shadow Sneak
- Hex
- Dragon Pulse

Giratina-O is the Groudon counter and Defogger, and can act as a soft check to Zygarde / non-Recover Ekiller as well. Dragon Pulse is used to consistently break the Substitute of Zygarde / Ekiller / SD Groundceus. Shadow Sneak is really nice as backup priority against eg. Marshadow or Ultra Necrozma, as the team lacks speed control. The spread lets it survive 2 Eruptions from Groudon and 2 +1 Thousand Arrows from Zygarde after rocks. This is the usual lead against suicide lead offense teams, eg. with Deoxys-S, since you can limit them to one layer of hazards or catch them on a choke (eg. using Taunt first instead of rocks).

Ho-Oh @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird
- Toxic
- Recover

Ho-Oh is the team's dedicated Groundceus check, which is important to be insured against since it hits most of our teammates super effectively. It also takes advantage of a lot of Darkceus switch-ins, like Magearna and Choice Scarf Xerneas, and really helps with the stall matchup, often singlehandedly dismantling them once you force Giratina to Rest. Recover helps it stallbreak and offset residual damage from Toxic / Brave Bird recoil / etc, while max Speed is important for hitting Kyogre first with Brave Bird.

You should always go to this first on Dusk Mane too if you don't know the set, since you don't want to potentially give it Weakness Policy boosts with Darkceus and be staring down a +4 Attack +2 Speed Dusk Mane. If they're in fact Ultra, they'll be forced to burst unless they want to take a lot of damage from Sacred Fire, after which Darkceus will be able to threaten an OHKO with Judgment.

This is a nice lead against a lot of bulky offense teams. A lot of people (including me) will look at this team and go "hmm, I see a Giratina and a Groudon which are both very common leads, so I'm going to lead Yveltal since it covers both." If you predict this, you can lead with Ho-Oh and get a free Toxic off on something; if they lead Groudon, then you can always scout for rock coverage by switching to Giratina.

Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 216 SpA / 40 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Precipice Blades
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rock Tomb

4 attacks Groudon is really nice for luring things for the rest of the team. Its only counters are basically Giratina / Waterceus, the latter of which teammates can easily abuse, so with proper prediction you can always get a kill. If you think Magearna is going to come in to check Darkceus, just double to this and claim something. The spread guarantees you kill Mega Salamence with HP Ice and there's some investment in Special Defense to take on Kyogre better; since we have a Xerneas counter / secondary water resist elsewhere on the team, the spread is a little more offensively inclined.

I'm really a fan of having HP Ice Groudon alongside Ho-Oh, since it eliminates Zygarde and Mega Salamence. Zygarde, in particular, is problematic for most of the team to handle, so having a lure for it is nice.

Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Toxic Spikes
- Haze
- Recover

Toxapex helps with physical attackers like Ho-Oh / Marshadow / non-Earthquake Ekiller that trouble the rest of the team. I've found Helmet to be the best item here since it can wear down these physical attackers more quickly. Toxic Spikes support is also amazing for our dual Fire-type breakers, since Poison- / Steel-types obviously don't want to switch in on them, for boosting Giratina's Hex, and it also affects a lot of counterplay to Darkceus such as Marshadow / Xerneas / Fairyceus.

No Scald might seem bizarre on Toxapex, but it's pretty important to have Toxic in order to pressure Ho-Oh and Defoggers like Giratina, as well as not being a free switch-in for Groudon. This makes you bait for Steel-types, but the way you deal with this is you double to one of the Fire-types if you think the opponent will predict Toxic and go to their Ferrothorn / Dusk Mane, and get a kill. Also, a very common Dusk set (specially defensive) can't actually touch Toxapex, so if they reveal rocks / Leftovers for example you can simply trade tspikes with them.

Since the team lacks a Fairy-type, a lot of threats that would normally be handled by them are unsurprisingly quite threatening.

:marshadow:

Marshadow is problematic for most of the team, since it outspeeds everything and can hit up to 4 team members super effectively. Bulk Up variants even have the possibility to break through Toxapex with the +1 Z-Move. You should get Toxic Spikes up in order to limit it.

:zygarde-complete:

Arceus-Dark can't really deal with this properly since it's not running Ice Beam. The closest thing we have to a switch-in is Giratina, which can get hurt by Outrage or Dragon Tail. We're mostly reliant on luring it with Groudon.

:yveltal:

The stallbreaker set can potentially break through most of the mons on this team, or Life Orb sets with Taunt if Sticky Web is up. Note that since Ho-Oh is offensive, it takes a lot of damage from Foul Play.

:necrozma-ultra:

Haven't faced this yet, but SD + Outrage should be able to obliterate this team once Dusk Mane has been weakened.

:arceus:

Ekiller and SD Arceus-Ground are also annoying for most of the team; try to keep Giratina healthy for these, and get Toxic Spikes up. Groudon can prevent Arceus-Ground from setting up on it with Rock Tomb + Overheat.

I'm a bit burnt out so don't feel like writing much here :/ Thanks all for reading! Hope you enjoy this team and have a nice day. I'm super excited for gen 8.

bigtalk · Nov 18, 2019

I'll also use this thread to do a gen 7 team dump, as I wrote up a big post and all to give away my builder, then I realized I couldn't make it an rmt since there isn't a detailed description of each team :/ The "ubers community exhibit" threat is also dead as a doornail so idk where else to put this.

===

Since gen 7 is ending and I have more teams than I know what to do with, I thought it would be prudent to dump all of them here as a resource for anyone who wants them. They're organized in a series of folders.

Here the teams I would mostly consider decent / usable (note: avoid the ones labeled (ng) = not good):

My favorites folder. For the most part, these are teams that I have tested substantially, I think they are very solid and have outs versus most playstyles. I may do an rmt of the first one (cm darkceus + ndm) sometime soon; I'm very proud of that build because I managed to get #20 on ladder with it on a fresh alt, plus it took me ages to properly flesh out. Some of the teams (like the cune / mega ttar ones) are kinda just there for their wonderful color schemes, although they certainly aren't unusable.
My "RMT" folder. This contains various teams that have piqued my interest and that I have stolen from friends / forum posts / replays / other places. Not all of them are serious obviously (referring to the jamvad ones), but there are some nice builds in there.
My testing folder. These are the not-quite-finished teams that I get a cool idea for and build a decent prototype of, but then I never get a chance to thoroughly test / I still feel too on-the-fence about them to put them in my favorites.

Use these ones at your own risk:

My archives folder. I put teams in this folder for various reasons, the most common ones being I decide they're too weak to something, a suboptimal version of another build, or just too boring. There are some cool ideas in there though, imo.
My meme teams folder. These have varying levels of usability.

Honorable mentions:

koff koff - This was the first team I did "serious" laddering and got to ~1500 with, and it's how I first ran into the dovahneer. Man if only weezing had slightly better spdef, it'd be such a good geoxern + groundceus check :(
serp mgar bo - Serp is such a troll mon because of glare + leech + the fact that you can get evasion boosts from defog. I'm fond of this game I had with this team against stall, I also 1v1'd a mega salamence with serp once but I can't find the replay for that unfortunately.
owo - This is a balance team that uses only OU Pokemon(!), uwu only uses stuff from UU. Believe it or not it's possible to get ~1600 on ladder with these teams. Jamvad used this bucket of trash in one of his lives and went 3-1 iirc, I also ran into pokeaim using this on ladder who said he got it from a subscriber lol. Also, here's an interesting replay of this facing off against another OU team.
cb zygarde - I remember this team primarily for a room tour I used it in. The first round I faced off against Zesty, whom at the time I knew to be a very good builder who supplied teams to pokeaim, so I was pretty excited when I beat him. The next round, I faced a player who was using mega bro stall, and there were some people who started complaining about us using stall teams (see chat). For the finals, I beat one of the guys who had been complaining about my "stall" team, and he and another user got really mad at me; they started a huge shitshow in the chat and were telling other ppl not to congratulate me and raving "stall should be banned from roomtours!" LOL. Darumaka calmed down after a while, but Amithist refused to stop and (iirc) eventually insulted a mod so he got muted lmao
flyceus + chansey bo - Mostly fond of this team for its color scheme and a memorable game I had with it vs Magnemite stall. (edit: learned from someone just after writing this that this is apparently some crazy guy called lance, lol)
sapphire skies - This is a very recent invention that I built off the cuff a couple of weeks ago. Obviously it gets 6-0d by mega gengar, but outside of that it's very fun to use. The basic premise was to have shuca berry pex + something walled by groudon, I was also considering other things like zekrom or cm eleceus. This is a truly amazing team if you want to piss people off since it has tspikes + leech + double tect (originally had tect on zygarde too, but I changed it for opposing zygarde). Your opponent can also never set up unless they want to get reverse swept by ditto, so basically ferrothorn becomes a dusk/ultra counter which I find quite funny. A ladder guy took interest in this build, I lent it to him, and we ran into each other a couple of days later; here's what ended up happening.

Teams I just like for their color schemes:

klef + naga ho
mega ttar balance
sapphire skies (this one becomes clearer once you look at it in the teambuilder)
both scolipede teams ( / )
flyceus + chansey bo

That's it, thanks for reading :)

SM Ubers Midnight Oil - Calm Mind Arceus-Dark Bulky Offense (peaked #20 | ~1780 elo, 88.0% gxe)

bigtalk

Banned deucer.

bigtalk

Banned deucer.

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