SM Ubers The End of an Era (Peaked #1 | 2100+ ELO, 96.2% GXE)

Symphonic Sorcerer

Banned deucer.
And so the end of another generation has arrived. With the release of Pokemon SWSH, USM is days away from being replaced as the official generation on Pokemon Showdown. Ubers took a massive hit, for better or worse, as many of the beloved Pokemon we've come to know and love have been axed. Alas, now is the time to reflect on the old and move on to fresh, new horizons. Today, I would like to share the single most successful team I've made in USM Ubers - reaching a GXE of 96.2% and an ELO of 2100+ - the highest of this generation, without boosting. I've always been a fan of Ho-oh, its rainbow phoenix vibe made me fall in love it since its inception, and I can safely say it is my favorite Pokemon. Ho-oh has always been a threat in Ubers, but it needs the right kind of team support to perform truly optimally. Indeed, its offensive sets can be quite selfish. By this, I mean Ho-Oh is a threat that needs a lot of support and warps its team structure around it to make the most out of it. One of its most uncommon but powerful sets is Sub Curse Ho-Oh. Coupled with a Flyinium Z, it becomes a devastating breaker that is extremely difficult to defeat.

The team building process:




Originally, my team structure began with a Balanced mindset, as I thought Specially Defensive Primal Groudon + Ferrothorn would be enough to deal with the threats most Ho-Oh teams struggle with, namely Primal Kyogre. While Ferrothorn + Ho-Oh might seem counter-intuitive at first glance, getting Hazards up with Primal Groudon and Ferrothorn allowed a way for Ho-Oh to block hazard removal behind a sub and safely set up. The residual damage would then be enough for Ho-Oh to KO many Support Arceus forms and other threats like Primal Groudon with a +1 Supersonic Skystrike. Furthermore, Primal Groudon ran Roar was a means of phazing and racking up Hazard Damage as well as getting rid of Geomancy Xerneas from sweeping this team. This core was a good starting point and I decided to add a strong defensive backbone that could patch up some of the weaknesses Balance Teams are prone to possessing in Ubers.




Some of the biggest threats to Balance Teams are Physically Offensive sweepers like DD Mega Salamence, DD Zygarde, and EKiller. Physically Defensive Zygarde checked those quite nicely and I added Arceus-Dark as the support form of choice in order to remove hazards for Ho-Oh and better deal with other pesky Wallbreakers like Ultra Necrozma and Lunala, the latter being an uncommon but devastating threat for many Balance teams this generation. At this point, I had all of the basics of a rock-solid Balance team under control. Having answers to three of the best wallbreakers in the tier (Primal Kyogre, Ultra Necrozma, and Lunala) and had ways of dealing with other threats like EKiller and Geomancy Xerneas, though the latter matchup was a bit shaky. What I realized this team lacked was speed control and a cleric.




Enter Scarf Xerneas. I decided to run a mono-attacking Moonblast set along with Aromatherapy, Defog, and Thunder Wave so that I could have a cleric, emergency hazard remover, and status spreader packed into one single team member. Along with Darkceus, Xerneas gives me another nice check to Ultra Necrozma and impoves my Yveltal matchup as well.

Version 1 of the team:
https://pokepast.es/3ed16abc5ea11a4...vyKzj5ekEe2YTHEyqZ6GYnft37APQPBjieR68uBfM0OU4


Overall, I was happy with the team until I realized just how passive it was. Relying on Curse Ho-Oh to break through teams was not working out as well as I would have liked. The team was slow and it had problems especially with the Stall match up. Sadly, Balance Teams have a difficult time breaking through Stall without at least two to three dedicated breakers or implementing something designed to defeat Stall like Stallbreaker Yveltal. I decided to take a different route and change this Balance team to a Bulky Offense team.

I changed my Specially Defensive Primal Groudon set to the more potent SR + SD set and this allowed me to remove Ferrothorn and add something less passive like a Specially Defensive SD Dusk Mane Necrozma. In addition to granting my team a significantly better Geomancy Xerneas matchup, SD Dusk Mane could also pressure uncommon CM Arceus Forms like Arceus-Flying. I opted to run Earthquake over Toxic and Leftovers for the increased longevity. Note, you can opt to run a Max Speed Jolly Nature Primal Groudon with the same defensive EVs and dump the rest of the EVs in Attack. However, the initial damage output is noticeably decreased. The last change I made to my team was a surprising one, but worked out extremely well in the end. I did not like how passive Coil Zygarde-C was and Glare wasn't doing as much as I would have hoped. So I decided to change Glare to Dragon Dance and essentially ran a Physically Defensive "Double Dance" Zygarde set. This gave me four potential breakers (SD Primal Groudon, SD Dusk Mane Necrozma, Double Dance Zygarde, and Curse Ho-Oh) and along with Xerneas acting as a decent cleric, my stall match up improved significantly. All in all, I was extremely pleased with the final version of the team, and it performed extremely well on the ladder.

Version 2 of the team:
https://pokepast.es/9305b047338abc6c



Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
EVs: 144 HP / 156 Atk / 56 SpD / 152 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Precipice Blades
- Rock Tomb

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Leftovers
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sunsteel Strike
- Earthquake
- Morning Sun

Zygarde-Complete @ Leftovers
Ability: Power Construct
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Rest
- Coil
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows

Ho-Oh @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
- Substitute
- Curse
- Brave Bird
- Sacred Fire

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

Xerneas @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
- Thunder Wave
- Defog

Overall, I am extremely pleased with this team and have enjoyed USM Ubers very much. Though I am disappointed my favorite Pokemon will not be making a return to SWSH Ubers, I am glad that we are all getting a fresh start. I hope you enjoyed reading my RMT and please leave a like and feel free to comment below any suggestions or questions. Until next time, au revoir!

Edit: Fixed Versions 1 & 2 Poképaste Links!
 
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