Surprising weapons: An Uber Offesnive team.

[Kierany9]

So I decided to make my first Ubers team. Realizing everybody used more or less the same predictable Pokemon and teams, I decided to make something...different. It is divided into three "Plans" to deal with different Pokemon at different times. Each plan also has great synergy with its members.

BUILDING PROCESS

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I needed a sweeper. So I went with Palkia
Something to support Palkia. Volbeat's Prankster Tail Glow Baton Pass would do it.
I needed something to hit hard on the physical side. So I went with ExtremeKiller Arceus.
Something else on the physical side. I went with Blaziken.
Now something that guarantees a KO. Taillow(View below for strategy) should do.
Rapid spin support is mandatory. Excadrill.
After playing for some time, Blaziken was not doing well, so it was replaced by Kyurem-B

THE TEAM

PLAN A
This plan involves BPing Special boosts onto Palkia to wreck everything.

Volbeat (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spd
Hardy Nature
- Tail Glow
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Tailwind

Just as long as the opponent doesn't have a priority move, Volbeat can pass one Tail Glow to Palkia safely. Getting a +3 special attack bonus wrecks everything. Volbeat can also pass over a Sub or help deal with scarf users via Tailwind. And who uses Taunt in Ubers anymore?

Palkia @ Lustrous Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Spacial Rend
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Aura Sphere

Palkia has near-perfect coverage and godly power with Volbeat's Tail Glows. I went for high-accuracy over power due to the fact that one miss can be fatal and with +3 or +6, the opponent dies in one hit anyway. Evem Blissey cannot survive two hits. The EV's are spread for obvious reasons. 100 base speed isn't bad, but it can still be outsped by things like Scarfed Giratina-O and die from a Draco Meteor to the face. Starts off the game with a great advantage.

PLAN B
If Plan A fails to clean the team, then Plan B will clean up any hazards and KO an opponent causing trouble for the team.

Excadrill (F) @ Iron Plate
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Rapid Spin
- Swords Dance
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Head

Excadrill is the main hazard cleaner/setter of the team. Anything that thinks it can set up on it can eat a STAB, Sword-Danced, IronPlate-Boosted Iron Head.

Taillow (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Endeavor
- Quick Attack
- Protect
- Swagger

You would be surprised how well a FEAR set works in Ubers when everybody is faster and stronger than the weak Pokemon used for it. Especially when it isn't Rattata doing it. I've netted several game-deciding kills with FEAR Tailow and ruined the day of many Baton Pass teams. If something tries to set up on it, then prepare for a world of stalling because Swagger and Protect will annoy you to no end. Tailow is great for cleaning up an annoying Pokemon midgame/endgame.

PLAN C
Kill everything that isn't dead.

Kyurem-B @ Life Orb
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Lonely Nature (+Atk, -Def)
- Outrage
- Stone Edge
- Shadow Claw
- Fusion Bolt

Kyurem B's main objective is to hit hard and fast. Like Palkia it has a large variety of coverage moves along with the strongest Outrage in the game. Works wonders near the end of the game when the counters are probably destroyed.

Arceus @ Leftovers
Trait: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SDef
Hardy Nature
- Swords Dance
- Protect
- Recover
- ExtremeSpeed

A basic ExtremeKiller Arceus, who also does a bloody good job at walling as well. It can win most PP Wars and can heal off any significant damage. Also, Leftovers are damn annoying on this set. Makes for a perfect finishing Pokemon due to its bulk and power, but it can also lead against something frail like Darkrai and kill it instantly.

ISSUES

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Volbeat will probably survive but is pretty much useless if Palkia dies. It needs more synergy with the rest of the team.
A Giratina can wreck the team entirely. It will kill Volbeat and Tailow, Palkia and Kyurem will die unless they outspeed it, Arceus is useless against it and Excadrill isn't meant to fight.

That just about wraps it up. Please leave any feedback or suggestions below. Thanks in advance.

 

[Gates]

1. You can put your building process and threat list in hide tags but putting the team itself in hide tags defeats the point of posting an RMT.

2. A lot of these sets aren't very good. Excadrill looks like you tried to combine the bulky spinner and sand sweeper builds and found an unhappy medium and then threw SR on because you realized nothing else on your team had it. I recommend using this set instead of what you have currently:

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Mold Breaker
Adamant
176 HP/60 Atk/252 SpD/20 Spe
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance

The build you have right now is inefficient. You outspeed neutral nature base 90s? Good for you. Too bad most base 90s don't run any speed at all. Iron Plate+Iron Head? You can't hit Kyogre, Palkia, Dialga, Forry, Ferrothorn, or Ho-Oh worth a damn. Stealth Rock? Other pokemon on your team can run it to give Excadrill a coverage move (more on that later). Iron Head isn't a bad move to use on its own since it's a STAB, but its primary use on Sand Rush Excadrill is to hit Levitating stuff with a STAB attack. With Mold Breaker you don't need to worry about Giratina-O Levitating over your good attacks because you can hit is with its best STAB, Earthquake. As an alternative to Excadrill or if you just want to keep something that can set up hazards or spin, try Gyro Ball Forretress or Ferrothorn. I won't post sets though because I honestly think Excadrill can work on this team.

Now let's look at Arceus. First of all, you forgot to change his nature to Adamant (or Bold or Careful or Jolly or whatever stat you wanted to boost). Also, Mono-Normal coverage is totally unacceptable in a format with three strong ghost types (Arceus-Ghost and Giratina formes), two strong rock types (Tyranitar and Arceus-Rock), and a plethora of strong steel types (too many to list). I feel like the reason you're running Kyurem-B in the first place is because your coverage on Arceus is so terrible. More than anything else though, I feel like you need to decide what you want your Arceus to do. Right now it's like some kind of freezer experiment that you Frankensteined together from an Extremekiller set and a Chansey set that you're trying to make serve double duty as both a wall and a sweeper. My advice to you is to just pick one way to run it and go with it.

If you want him to be a sweeper, use this set:

Arceus @ Life Orb/Silk Scarf/Leftovers/whatever
Adamant
88 HP/252 Atk/168 Spe
- Earthquake/Recover
- Extremespeed
- Shadow Claw
- Swords Dance

This is the set that's been terrorizing Ubers since its inception. A lot of Ubers players today had their cherries popped by this slick pimp. Not me though. I gave it up to a classy, refined, and gentle Darkrai back in Gen IV. I'm not some kind of CHEAP SLUT.

Speaking of cheap sluts, Chansey would be superior to Arceus if you decide to go with a wall in this slot.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Calm
4 HP/252 Def/252 SpD
- Heal Bell/Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Toxic
- Wish

She can support your team much better than Arceus by using Wish and Heal Bell to keep your teammates healthy. Aside from Terrakion and Kyurem-B, there aren't many viable physical attackers in the format that can really scare it off. Chansey can also use Stealth Rock if you really need it to, but I didn't include it as an option on this set for reasons that I'll get to soon.

Also, why are you running Lonely on Kyurem-B over Adamant if you only have physical attacks?

3. Your team is really, really weak to weather. Your lack of weather users makes you incredibly vulnerable to common weather pokemon. If Kabutops gets an SD in the rain, you're screwed. If Kingdra gets a DD in the rain and your opponent got SR up, you're screwed. If Ho-Oh has a sub up in the sun and Palkia is within range of being killed by Brave Bird, you're screwed. If Jumpluff is able to Encore any of your pokemon, it can stall you out and force switches to a point where you're screwed. If your opponent has Tyranitar or Hippowdon on their team, you're screwed. Honestly, the only type of weather it looks like you can beat consistently is Hail, and that's only because Hail teams are so terrible in Ubers.

Of all the weathers I mentioned, the one you get screwed the least by is sun, so I recommend Groudon over Kyurem-B for this team. The only real disadvantage you have by running sun is that Palkia's Surf becomes a little less powerful, but he has good enough coverage that it doesn't really matter. There's two Groudon sets you can choose from - the bulky SR set or the aggressive SR set. Since Groudon will be replacing Kyurem, I recommend the aggressive SR set.

Groudon @ Life Orb
Adamant
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge

The coverage Groudon gets from this is not quite as good as Kyurem-B since it lacks a dragon attack, but it excels in most other areas. Stone Edge is recommended here because it 2HKOs Lugia (yes, even after Multiscale assuming they don't Recover, and it's a guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock), but Dragon Claw is an option to consider if you really feel you need a dragon attack or if you just want a move with better accuracy. Fire Punch is for Forretress and Ferrothorn, but Overheat is an option if you don't want to take LO recoil plus Iron Barbs damage. EQ and SR should be self-explanatory.

4. This last point is just problems your team has that I don't really have any solutions for. Relying on Volbeat opens you up to a lot of problems besides priority users. What if they Encore whatever you do? What if they phaze you with Roar? What if they keep breaking your subs with Dragon Tail until you finally pass to Palkia and they phaze that instead? What if they use Thunder Wave Kyogre, nail your Volbeat with Surf turn 1, and then Thunder Wave whatever you Baton Pass to? What if they set up Toxic Spikes and Palkia comes in poisoned and ready to be Protect stalled by Blissey or Lugia? What if they use Trick Room? I know a lot of the stuff I mentioned is really gimmicky shit, but your team is built around really gimmicky shit, so I'm guessing that whatever simulator you use or whatever group of players you play with, gimmicky shit dominates that metagame which means that you need to be prepared for it. Maybe running Smeargle would solve a lot of these problems and it would give you more options in what to pass to, but I doubt it'll completely save your team. You also say your team is super weak to Giratina. For this reason alone you should seriously consider Darkrai, but I can't think of what you would cut to run it.

Your team is just generally really weak to phazing, hazards, and weather, and I don't know of any clear way to address all three of these problems without completely gutting your team. I'm sorry if I was really harsh in this post, but that's the way it is.

tl;dr
- Use a better spread on Excadrill
- Decide whether you want Arceus to attack or wall and change it to Extremekiller or Chansey accordingly
- Your team is weak to weather, change Kyurem-B to Aggressive SR Groudon
- Your team is weak to Giratina, consider running Darkrai
- Your team is weak to a lot of other things, you may want to consider using a different Baton Passer
- idk, you should probably just bite the bullet and play Top5+Ferrothorn
- Use hide tags responsibly

 

[Kierany9]

Thanks for the advice. I'll test it out later today when I have time. And nope, it isn't that harsh.
A quick question. You said in the TLDR version to pick a different BPer. Suggest one that has Prankster and can boost +3 SpA in one turn.

 

[Double Electric]

There's nothing else that can really baton pass tail glow boosts, but regardless, Volbeat is incredibly ineffective against any semi-competent uber player for the reasons that Gates stated. It can't do anything to phazers, and it needs two turns to ensure anything resembling a sweep to Palkia. In ubers, you only get one turn to boost, especially with something whose purpose is as obvious as Volbeat's.

If you're going to baton pass, the only somewhat reliable options are Smeargle and maybe Gorebyss, both with Shell Smash. Smeargle can Spore phazers and use the sleep to ensure a safe pass, while Gorebyss can just kill any phazers herself by attacking directly. The recipients in the uber tier are so powerful, that one Smashpass is all something like Dialga needs to sweep most teams anyway.

I can't say that much else about your team that Gates hasn't already touched on, but I'll mention that if you're going to use a FEAR Tailow, give it Scrappy, because that will allow it to use Endeavor on ghost pokemon. It'll still be pretty crappy, but at least you'll be taking advantage of Tailow's single advantage over other level 1 gimmicks.