No Rocks, No Problem. Or: How to Succeed in UU with No Hazards

[michaeloche]

When I made this team, I wanted to be as anti-hazards as possible. To that end, I don't use them on this team, and do just about anything to keep them off my side. Eventually, it evolved into the balanced team I use now.

Without further ado, here's the team.

George (Darmanitan) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Rock Slide
- Zen Headbutt
- Fire Punch

Darmanitan is a pretty good wallbreaker. His Flare Blitz tears huge holes in anything that doesn't resist it. Rock Slide and Zen Headbutt are solid coverage moves, hitting Flash Fire users and Fighting types, respectively. Fire Punch may seem like a strange choice, but it is a good finishing move should I not be in the mood to take Flare Blitz's recoil. On that note, all moves have secondary effects, meaning FB is the only source of recoil at all. Being a Fire type, Darmanitan is something that really appreciates rocks being off the field

Donatello (Blastoise) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 100 SDef / 252 HP / 156 Def
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rapid Spin
- Roar
- Protect
- Scald

Befitting the team's theme, Blastoise serves as the spinner with some extra utility. I chose Roar over Dragon Tail because it always works, even on subs. Plus, the things that use Taunt (Gligar, Sableye, Azelf, and a few random fast things) generally gan be worn down with Scald. Roar can also remove those spinblockers that Scald can't. Protect fills the last slot mainly for burn/toxic stalling purposes. The EVs give him mixed walling capabilities while denying a SpA boost to Download Porygon2/Z.

Hel (Weavile) (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Ice Punch
- Night Slash
- Low Kick
- Ice Shard

In Norse mythology, Hel is the queen of the icy underworld, Niflheim. In this UU team, Hel is a banded Weavile, dragging things to Niflheim. Ice Punch and Night Slash give her decent STABs and Low Kick is for coverage, notably hitting Snorlax and Registeel. Ice Shard lets her revenge stuff that she just can't outspeed.

Now, you may be wondering why I'm running Adamant over Jolly. This is mainly for power; Adamant guarantees some OHKOs that Jolly does not, such as Togekiss. And on a team that doesn't use hazards, that can (and has) mean the difference between victory and defeat. With Adamant, she can outspeed everything up to base 109, which is most of UU, so the speed drop isn't that bad.

Pandora's Box (Cofagrigus) @ Leftovers
Ability: Mummy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Toxic
- Pain Split
- Knock Off

Defensive Cofagrigus is a good partner to Weavile, absorbing Fighting attacks and generally being annoying. Toxic is a great weapon, allowing Darm, Weavile, or Raikou to sweep easier. Pain Split is semi-reliable recovery, and Knock Off gives him some utility by removing Gligar's Eviolite, for example. Shadow Ball prevents him from being Taunt bait and does some decent damage off hit 95 base SpA.

Loki (Sableye) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Recover
- Foul Play

What better way to stop hazards than to not have them in the first place? Sableye can beat most hazard leads, namely Bronzong, Swampert, Azelf, Rhyperior (just watch out for EQ if WoW misses), and the occasional Smeargle. Recover and WoW allow him to stall things out, while Foul Play can decimate a physical attacker or Chandelure on the switch.

Zeus's Pet Tiger (Raikou) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Rash Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SAtk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Extrasensory
- Aura Sphere

I needed a special attacker for team balance, and Raikou is it. Taking advantage of his event move, Aura Sphere, he can nail Scrafty, Umbreon, and Registeel with it. The HP choice is Grass for Swampert and Rhyperior, should Sableye not get rid of them. Extrasensory is a great move in UU because of all the Fighting types.

Overall, this team has been fairly successful. And yes, I know I have two Ghost types with no hazards. Deal with it.

Anyway, that's the team. I'm interested to hear your feedback, and hopefully can carry this over to XY.

 

[SquirtleSquad626]

This looks like an astounding team! I wouldnt want to be this teams opponent:0 That being said, I feel the moves on Darm are a little odd, namely fire punch (which you already mentioned) and zen headbutt. I feel that he would benefite from the standard U-turn/Superpower set instead. Uturn helps give you momentum, while superpower will be the best bet against bulky waters or Rhyperior. Other than that, its hard to critique what already looks great!! :)

 

[Qualna]

At a glance, this team is:

Greatly troubled by Water-types, especially Kingdra.

Also troubled by Dark-types like Houndoom.


Let's focus on the premier threat to this team first, Kingdra.

Kingdra's physical sets are less threatening if Cofagrigus is still alive as it can stomach anything a physical Kindra can do. Sableye works too but it can't reliably switch as Cofagrigus can and a good number of physical Kindra holds a Lum Berry. When you see Kingdra in team preview, always keep Cofagrigus alive and healthy.

The special sets are much, much more threatening, being able to switch-in to numerous Pokémon in team, and once it gets in, it will almost always snag a KO(if not always). The Rain Dance sweeper can easily sweep your team while the Specs set will just smash it.

Empoleon gives your team a solid switch-in to Kingdra, I suggest using it over Weavile as you already have a wallbreaker in Darmanitan.

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam / Grass Knot
- Roar
- Stealth Rock Toxic

Empoleon gives your team a much needed special wall and somewhat mitigates the Kingdra weakness. Scald to spread burns, Ice Beam for coverage but you can use Grass Knot for other Water types. Roar is there to deter set-up sweepers from setting up and Stealth Rock is a good move on Empoleon as it has many opportunities to set it up Toxic allows Empoleon to win Stallwars, among other uses. Just watch out for Magneton + Kingdra!

Obviously, Empoleon isn't really the best answer to Dark-types, and having two Water types that are pretty similar isn't a good idea, a Pokémon that threatens Dark-types and can spin is what you need, I hope you see what's coming.

Hitmontop @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Close Combat
- Foresight / Toxic
- Sucker Punch / Stone Edge

First two moves are obvious but the third and fourth slot is a bit tricky. Foresight allows for a guaranteed spin if it hits the Ghost. Toxic is a good idea too as most switch-ins are defensive and despises Toxic. For the fourth move, Sucker Punch, while unreliable, can pick off fast Pokémons especially the ones weak to it while Stone Edge hots the Flying switch in. You can give it a mixed spread like Blastoise too if you want.

For Raikou, change Extrasensory to Volt Switch. Volt Switch's utility is just too much to pass up. Fighting types aren't the most threathing to the team and is usally hit hard enough by Thunderbolt anyway. Extrasensory's targets are Virizion(you'll still lose to Virizion) and Roserade, but why bother when you can just Volt Switch outta there? Well, Extrasensory is a weapon against the Nido's but Volt Switch's utility is usually superior.

 

[Patrick1088]

This is an interesting team to say the least. I dont really get the whole anti hazards mentality but ill try to be open with that in mind. I do have some nitpicks though...
1. Darm should be scarfed to check scarf moxie hera. Zen headbutt has little to offer tbh. I recommend superpower to at least smack around umbreon and snorlax both if which can come close to ohko with return and foul play respectively. Fire punch is okay but i recommend u turn to pivot. Youll also want to move those 4 hp evs to sp def to prevent a download boost.
2. Youre not running a rain dance team so rain dish is pointless on blastoise. If rain dance were very prevalant then go ahead. Im not a big fan of stoise but im bias so eh.
3. I dont really get the point of cb weavile. Flare blitz from darm almost cleanly ohko togekiss (guaranteed ohko if you had sr). I think youre better off with the swords dance variant.
4. Sableye isnt doing much for your team tbh. I recommend switching umbreon for sableye. Youll find the cof/umby core bery tough to break down.
5. LO kou is good just watch out for the speed drop with rash nature. I think youre better off with subcm tbh.

Other than that good team!