Man these threads are some of my favorite reads but they have been dead AF, UU being no exception... I've been wanting to post about week 2 but I kept pushing this back. Finally taking the time to share various things about the Phase 2 games, and I guess I'll talk about the one that have been happening in week 3.
Firstly, before actually talking about the games, some things I wanna say about the Usage Statistics (thanks Eyan for compiling them by the way).
- Latias is first by a large margin. It is without a doubt the best Pokemon in the tier in my opinion. Mega-Latias is seeing more and more usage, rightfully so as it's very good. Between the resistances it brings to the team, the speed and the unique movepool, there is almost always a Latias set that will fit your needs.
- Klefki is pretty high overall, compared to its ladder usage. Once again, very logical imo, priority status + spikes almost always pull their weight and you have a godlike typing to pivot into various stuff early game.
- Doublade is 12th in usage compared to its 64th spot in the September stats. It's been seen on various archetypes in the tournament, maybe a sign of a future rise in usage if solid teams featuring Doublade get popularized.
- Blissey has 4 wins out of 5 usage. While the sample is way too small to draw definitive conclusions, it does show that fat archetypes are not only viable, but successfull in the current sea of VoltTurns (or underprepared for?).
- Alolan-Muk has 3 wins out of 3 usage. I think Muk is a much more solid Pursuiter than the other two popular Scizor & Weavile. Scizor can be prepared for with HP Fire while Weavile has to play mindgames and risk getting killed by misspredicting. Of course, the Pokemon is worse as a whole, but it accomplishes a game-winning task more solidly, which is worth considering when building, whether as an user or an opponent. More on this later when I'll talk about my games.
I'll move to the games now, starting by my own. I feel like explaining some of my choices regarding the teams I used.
vs HANTSUKI
Something I've been doing so far in Snake is revamping XY/ORAS OU teams, as the metagames share similarities in term of power levels, Pokemon used and dynamics. Ben gay topped the XY ladder with a team that went like this: Lickilicky/Doublade/Celebi/MAggron/Zapdos/Gyarados. I took it and adapted to SM UU by changing some movesets and putting Mandibuzz over Zapdos, and Mantine over Gyarados.
Mandibuzz & Mantine felt like a strong Defog core as they can perform against most of the SR and Spikes setters of the tier, allowing me to play without hazards pressure, which is always important for defensive teams. Lickilicky might not have been worth keeping but the team was actually pretty weak to Taunt Gliscor, and I decided to keep Licki for this reason instead of replacing it with something like Blissey. Deciding on Aggron moves was tough. I wanted Avalanche for Gliscor, Fire Punch for Scizor and Earthquake for Tentacruel. I would have appreciated EQ in this game to prevent Camerupt from freely switching on me and forcing me to play without Rocks. I think I should have relied on Mantine + Mandibuzz for Scizor and kept Earthquake (which would have been useful had I run into Tentacruel too).
The main reason I lost this game, which is also the biggest regret I have over my preparation was relying on Celebi to check Rotom-W. I knew beforehand Celebi was the only Pokemon standing in Rotom-W's way to beat me. Thanks to my experience of Black/White OU, I know that's just asking to lose to the combination of Rotom-W + Pursuiter. As a result, I put Protect on Celebi to make sure I could escape the Pursuit 50/50 from the popular CB Weavile and CB Scizor. The problem is that I focused so much on those two that I completely overlooked Muk. Muk ended trapping Celebi very easily, and from that point Rotom-W just ran circles around me and between him and Gliscor, I don't think I had a way of winning this game.
When I built this team, I considered using Amoonguss over Celebi to avoid ending in this kind of situation. I would have had to shift Heal Bell on Lickilicky and that would have been a much better approach that what I ended up going with.
Moral of the day: don't forget other Pursuiters than Weavile and Scizor exist.
vs Sacri
I straight up jacked the teams from HT vs Manipulative here, because it felt very solid and I wanted to use Empoleon Bulky Offense. Sacri' went for a similar approach.
It was pretty close and Sacri' played well. Lookin' back, the game has been decided on a lot of micro-plays/small decisions I feel. For example the Pursuit/Knock Off with Weavile vs Raikou, who to Healing Wish, etc. On turn 21, I hard switched a dangerous Weavile on his Raikou's Thunderbolt because I was very scared of a CM Z-Shadow Ball set and it ended up costing me.
I liked his Protect/Toxic Empoleon. Definitely worth running if you can afford Defog/SR somewhere else. Empoleon has a very good typing in the metagame imo, and it's one of the best MGard check atm.
Healing Wish Mega-Latias gave me a shot at coming back in the game. Latias showing once again its versatility and swissknife-ness to give you the most chances at winning.
At the end, it was shown our Gliscor actually tied. Very unfortunate for me since I had Taunt and could have PP Stalled his Gliscor had I run just 4 more EVs. Talking about Gliscor, I've seen TDK say recently that it was the Landorus-T of UU. I can definitely agree with that. Gliscor feels like a good fit of any team thanks to its myriad of sets and the ability to check all kind of threats depending on your spread and moveset, while acting as a win condition when you run Taunt or Swords Dance.
vs Pearl
I used a team from Mael this round. It featured two things I wanted to use: Bulky Infernape and DD Block Feraligatr. I honestly just wanted the Fera to work and that's why I went with it. Bulky Infernape is a set I liked a lot in ORAS because it was one of the only Pokemon who could effectively switch on Weavile while laying down Rocks. Thanks to Slack Off, you can check the currently suspected Pokemon for a long time.
Had I made Feraligatr more bulky, I could have set up on Sandslash and win there, but the EQ damages caught me off guard. Infernape on the other hand did a ton of work. Broke Aurorus' sash, surprised Pearl by switching moves (it did look Scarfed here) and U-Turned on Latias for a trap and even countered a boosted Doublade later.
Outside of that, I don't think the game was super interesting because Pearl's team struggled with fat and I had good answers to his set-up sweepers. I do like his Krookodile and feel like it could be a fun wincondition even outside of Veil-oriented teams. I'm not a big fan of those because without Ninetales, you have to "waste" two slots on support mons, which means you pretty much have to win with 4 Pokemons, and it's hard to cover everything, both offensively and defensively with just 4 Pokemons.
I know it's getting long, but bear with me as I want to briefly talk about the other games too.
There were a lot of Volt-Turn cores once again. No surprise there, as UU has very potent Volturners and pairing them with strong breakers that would otherwise have trouble getting on the field is a no-brainer option. It worked particulary well in this game where
Lcans abused Spec Primarina vs teal. Gardevoir was often featured on those teams with mixed success.
In
his game vs Manipulative, Pearl brought a Seismitoad. Very good metagame call imo, as Seismitoad can completely break Volturns momentum by hard countering Rotom-W and Manectric and threatening these teams with his stabs and the potential of Scald burning. On top of that, you have a Rocker which doesn't invite the incredibly popular Tentacruel for free, allowing you to play with Rocks up vs those teams.
On top of the Lcans-teal game linked earlier, we had
Manipulative beating teal in this game with another strong Primarina showing. Primarina feels like a good inclusion in Offense atm for its ability to break Balance and offering a Sharpedo-Mega check, which is a big threat to this archetype. Another reason to use Empoleon more!
Anyway, I've said what I wanted. Please share your thoughts on the UU games, whether you're playing in the tournament or not. I'd appreciate them a lot and I always feel like they're interesting and help us summarize into words the metagame development.