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Welcome to the latest edition of the Team Rater Competition! The tier this time around will be USM UU. For each round we'll post a team, and participants will have one week to complete a rate of said team. When the round is over, the participants who submitted the best rates will move onto the next round. If you are eliminated and want to receive feedback on your rate, the hosts will be more than happy to provide that upon request. Each round will last one week. Failure to rate the team within the one week time period will result in disqualification unless you're able to give us a valid reason. Please only sign up if you can commit to rating one team every week for the next month. If you're currently involved in or are looking to start rating UU teams, I highly encourage you to participate as this promises to be a great learning experience. Here's to a fun and competitive tournament!
Important notes:
The top rates from each round in addition to the rates in the final two rounds will count towards the Team Rater badge
The winner will be awarded voice status in the Trainers' School room on PS if they have shown an interest in getting involved.
Each round will last one week. Failure to rate the team within the one week time period will result in disqualification unless you're able to give us a valid reason. Please only sign up if you can commit to rating one team every week for the next month.
If you are eliminated and would like some feedback on your rate and how you can improve going forward, feel free to ask us.
At the end of each round, we will announce the best rate from that round and a quick overview of what we liked in the rates submitted.
As we move into Round 3, we wanted to highlight our favorite rates from Round 2; congratulations to Kreme & vivalospride! Check out their rates below
So the first problem I noticed was that Hydreigon was trying to perform the role of stallbreaker and hazard removal and performing neither well because of it. I think having Roost > Defog on Hydreigon can help this problem by ensuring it focuses entirely on being a good wallbreaker / stallbreaker by utilizing its TauntRoost set with a solid form of sustainability.
The team has a bad matchup against opposing Primarina and Fairy-type attacks in general, as there is no resist on this team. That and the fact we just got rid of hazard removal means Empoleon > Primarina is an optimal change to remedy both issues. Primarina was no longer necessary as Hydreigon fulfilled the role of being a strong wallbreaker and Empoleon helps a lot with the Dragon-types Primarina would normally be needed for while also being able to wear down walls in its own right. Empoleon also works well with Hippowdon to form a solid defensive core.
Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Defog
- Toxic
- Knock Off
The set allows Empoleon to wear down opposing walls with Toxic + Knock Off while still performing as a solid hazard remover. Protect can be used over Knock Off in order to have a better matchup against Choice Band Scizor and Choice Band Terrakion, as well as Latias, but Knock Off's overall utility I feel is far better on this team, especially considering Knock Off usually allows Empoleon to win the entry hazard war, which can be problematic for this team considering Hippowdon doesn't deal well with opposing entry hazard removal.
Lastly, the team also has a very bad matchup against Mamoswine. To fix this, I suggest having Rotom-H > Togekiss. This helps fix the Mamoswine issue while also ensuring holes to Scizor aren't brazenly opened up. Togekiss's stallbreaking capabilities aren't necessary when Celebi + Hydreigon work well as an offensive core to deal with most stall archetypes. Losing Fairy-types completely on the team isn't a huge problem as Dazzling Gleam on Celebi can generally lure most Hydreigon and sometimes Latias, which is also dealt with by Pursuit Aerodactyl and pivoting into Empoleon.
Iapapa Berry can be swapped out for Charti Berry if you're worried about the Terrakion matchup, as Charti + Will-O-Wisp generally stops it from doing anything if it happens to be the SD set. Toxic or Thunder Wave can be used over Will-O-Wisp as well, the former crippling many bulky walls like Swampert and Rhyperior while also crippling Latias which can be a big threat towards the team. Thunder Wave on the other hand, cripples most offensive threats that attempt to take advantage of Rotom-H like Terrakion, Hydreigon and Latias. Regardless, the objective of checking Mamoswine and Scizor consistently is achieved regardless of the set changes proposed.
Hey, this is an interesting team, this team seems like the person who made it put in every ounce of energy they had into supporting Celebi, which is fine but they forgot to make sure some of the most common and biggest threats in were accounted for... let's go over some of the issues this team has to me:
- Dragon dancers such as Haxorus can get to +1 and pretty much run through this team with rocks up.
- CB Scizor BP is a reliable wincon vs this team considering switching into it is almost impossible bar Hippo (which just gets U-Turned on).
- No real speed control aside from Maero ig, this sort of piggybacks off the dder bullet point.
- Double fairy just adds to the Scizor problem, even if one of them is a lure... it's a common and easy to scout lure, and when a lure is your primary counterplay for a mon I'd say it's a poor m/u.
- No steel type on the team, which pretty much translates as "it loses to most lati variants."
- Even though Celebi is a very efficient and reliable status absorber, it's supposed to be the wincon and it has no recovery aside from Giga Drain, the whole team has issues with switching into toxics/uturns/rocks/etc. No roost on drei and no heal bell on toge just makes that worse.
With these pointed out, let's see what we can do about them.
- The first change I did was Rotom-H > Hydreigon as the hazard removal. I did this because of the aforementioned weakness to Scizor and because I think it has much better synergy as hazard removal w/ Maero. A lot of people like to do Tentacruel + Maero because of the obvious (Scizor answer + removal to support Maero), but this has always been something I'm against. I'm technically adding Rotom-H for the same reasons as someone would add Tentacruel on this team, however the issue w/ Tentacruel is it is unable to come in on rockers that run EQ... which just so happen to be pretty much all the rockers that primarily pressure Maero. Not only does Rotom-H pressure the rockers like Maggron and Hippo better than Tentacruel, but it also is able to come in on the same things that Maero usually comes in on (Moltres, mega burd, etc). Meaning Maero isn't overworked at all. Set OHKOs Celebi while being able to pressure shit like Hippo and Swampert more w/ Toxic.
- I went with CB Scizor > Togekiss for several reasons, 1) Lack of reliable speed control on the team previously, CB Bullet Punch is some of the most reliable speed control there is, 2) Team was in desperate need of a lati answer, and 3) This fixes the hax/kommo/malt issue almost entirely. Lati is still a little annoying but Rotom-H volt switching on it makes it not too difficult to trap for Scizor, toxic from Hippo and Maero help the m/u a lot as well. Set is standard.
Smaller changes:
- Made Primarina a bulky set > Choice Specs. Bulky prima supports Celebi in pretty much the same way the specs set does, but just chips less while being able to stay in on steels sometimes and going for burns as well as getting more chances to come in and click things due to the more defensive nature of the set. I originally kept babiri Togekiss > bulky Primarina but I decided bulky prima was the better choice because of the weakness to shit such as Crawdaunt, Mega Shark, and Infernape.
- Changed Hippo spread to be able to have just enough phys def to tank some hits I'd like it to tank such as a +2 LO Bug Bite from Scizor after rocks which helps Rotom-H not be overworked and then I dumped as much into SpD as possible due to this being the team's only realanswer to electric types such as mmane, raikou, and zera.
- Wing Attack/Aerial Ace > Aqua Tail on Maero for better neutral coverage and being able to pressure shit like Celebi and Kommo better... being able to hit Hippo isn't really necessary since the wincon uses it as setup fodder and if it's too early to win, Primarina can switch in every time and absorb toxics, taking a lot of pressure off of Celebi.
Conclusion:
I think this is a much much more optimal version of the previous team. Now let's address some of the things you might question about the current team. Yes, the team has no scarfer, this is far from an issue due to CB Bullet Punch being able to pressure every DDer in the tier and pretty much every scarfer/fast mon in the tier being answered reliably. Maero + Primarina + Hippo + CB Bullet Punch takes care of every fast threat in the tier, no scarfer is necessary. One more thing is the lack of a dragon type, which leads to shit like Volcanion being able to put in work vs this team, but it's not an autolose matchup by any means. If you get rocks up and play aggressively against volc, you can win without too much of an issue with faster threats that pressure it a lot like Celebi, Maero, Rotom-H etc. As well as hitting a toxic on it if you can would be huge with Hippo, letting it be chipped down easily with toxic, rocks, and sandstorm. I mentioned this earlier but even in this variation of the team, harding into Lati is a bit difficult if Scizor isn't 100% and depending on the set, but is is very far from undoable. Rotom-H lures it in and either a) hits toxic or b) volt switches into Scizor and hopefully traps it. If these don't work, Maero pressures cm lati a lot by being faster than it and it taking a lot from things like Stone Edge, and Hippo can survive a hit if need be to toxic it. Primarina also helps a lot vs. sets that don't have recovery such as cm draco psychic hp fire. Another thing, you added Togekiss and your main reason for it was "stall breaker" but babiri Togekiss straight up isn't a stallbreaker because it fails to reliably beat Blissey or even Alomomola due to not having Heal Bell, Celebi is the main stallbreaker for this team and w/ support from Primarina + CB Scizor trapping Blissey, the stall m/u is far from bad. Anyways, thanks, that's it n_n. I hope y'all like it.
Below is the team for Round 3:
I wanted to build a stall team that would wall as much of the metagame as possible. Aggron is the best Steel-type in the tier thanks to its amazing ability, stats, and movepool, allowing me to compress a Stealth Rock user, sturdy wall, and hard-hitter all in one. Blissey pairs amazingly with Aggron, sponging strong special attacks that might threaten it and healing it via Wish passing.
The previous two Pokemon are weak to Fighting-types and thus are vulnerable to the likes of Terrakion, Cobalion, and Infernape. Gligar gives my team Defog, a Ground-type, and a Fighting-type resist all in one slot. It's also nice for countering Electric-types like Manectric that can pivot freely into a breaker against Aggron and Blissey.
The team still seemed a bit vulnerable to CM Latias and Ghost-types like Chandelure and Gengar, so I added Alolan Muk to trap these threats and prevent them from threatening my team.
Quagsire seemed like a nice addition to the team to prevent Gligar from being overwhelmed by setup sweepers like Terrakion and Cobalion thanks to Unaware. Quagsire also helps me counter Scizor, which can be a huge problem if it possesses both Swords Dance and Roost.
Lastly, I wanted a Z-Move user that fit the nature of my team. Defog Pressure Moltres can reliably check Scizor and a lot of physical attackers if Stealth Rock are off the field. Z-Hurricane + Fire Blast are strong nukes that can come in clutch against a lot of Stealth Rock users that try to pressure the team, such as Hippowdon, Empoleon, and Aggron.
