SM UU sub gengar + curse lax bulky team

[pacato]

Hello everyone. This is my attempt doing a team featuring sub gengar + curse lax, where they each have their own niche plus a defensive core to pivot their entry on the field.

Gengar (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Cursed Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Substitute
- Will-O-Wisp

The center idea of the team, a set including shadow ball and sludge wave for covering and to fish some poisoning. Sub + will'o wisp is here when gengar gets a kill behind the sub and burn the oposing pursuit (krok and bisharp). Black sludge recovers a little of the SR residual damage.

Steelix-Mega @ Steelixite
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Atk / 48 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Roar

The setter of the team, a primarily defense wall. Steelix can set up hazards and take an EQ before leaving. Gyro ball and EQ hit enemies hard enough and roar prevents enemies to set up too much and + SR makes underrated residual damage to fire threats.

Cobalion @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 16 Def / 240 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Rock Polish

Cobalion's Justified is ideal to prevent knock offs that hurt gengar and lax. When it forces a switch, it can Rock Polish to the next play hit hard even its resistances.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
- Rapid Spin

A mixed wall, the sponge that keeps both the physical a special sides of the team together. Starmie is the spinner of the team, forcing many switchs and crippling enemies. The EVs allow it to be faster than the most of its theats and this HP investment makes Starmie almost a tank.

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn

The speed control of the team, the ideal scarfer of this meta. Great coverage moves and u-turn allow gengar or lax to come in, depending of the situation.

Snorlax @ Figy Berry
Ability: Gluttony
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 SpD
Careful Nature
- Body Slam
- Recycle
- Curse
- Fire Punch

The star of the team, curse lax is the main late game sweeper, when you already got rid or crippled the physical enemies. It is incredible how it can set up in front of a lot of special sweepers and win the recovery and set up war. Thanks to gluttony it is always healthy. Fire punch is here for scizor, and Body Slam hits hard with set up, besides fishing those unexpected paralysis.

Threat list
- Snorlax is too suscetible of poisoning and burning, and this can ruin the game. Blissey, Alomomola and stall in general is kind hard, but using gengar and starmie wisely can turn the things in favor
- Scarfers and priority moves like Scizor, Hydreigon and Bisharp are the weak spot of gengar, if not protected by sub
- Fat water types like Suicune and Alomomola are persistent threats, since the team doesn't have any grass or thunder move that can can scare them away or at least hurt them enough to the sweepers finish the job without being crippled.

Fun team, any help that can improve its coverage and ladder are appreciated!

 

[esche]

Hi!

I like the clarity of your teambuilding approach and recently became interested in how Gengar does in UU at the moment so I decided to check your team out.

Let's start with a quick discussion about Recyle CurseLax:

I find PapaLax performs quite underwhelming in practice because all it takes is a random Knock Off and there goes your recovery. What's more you will want Snorlax to switch into predicted Scalds to get the most out of Facade (which is something you should be packing btw) while also blocking Toxic but looking at the list of bulky waters you will run into difficulties. I'm thinking of common picks suchs as Empoleon, Tentacruel, Alomomola and the likes here all of which Snorlax should be able to switch in and set up on comfortably in theory but instead it has to be wary of the possibility of Knock Off. That being said, it's not unviable by any means and it has its advantages over regular CurseLax such as being a useful pivot into Choice Specs Primarine that fits on more offensive builds but personally I find that Recyle doesn't provide PapaLax with the necessary longevity to excel as a Curse sweeper as most teams nowadays do pack a Knock Off user.

Anyway, I like a challenge so here are some fixes that I'd make given the focus on Gengar + Snorlax:

Facade > Body Slam --> This allows Snorlax to act as a pivot into status attacks and be useful even after absorbing a burn.

Sub + Fight Z > Sub + WoW --> Immediately removing Knock Off users for Snorlax to have an easier time sweeping later appears to me to be of greater value than crippling them for the remainder of the game.

Shuca Berry > Fightinium Z on Cobalion --> The best bet after removing the Z-move is to slap a Shuca Berry on Cobalion to help deal with the likes of Mega Aerodactyl, Mega Altaria, and Choice Scarf Krookodile. Rocky Helmet is an alternative if you value chipping Scizor and Mega Beedrill (after all if you expect to lose your item being switching into Knock Off anyway, might as well get some chip) but the insurance you get from Shuca is more valuable overall I feel. I decided to change the set to a Taunt + SR variant as it is quite good at keeping up hazards (especially in combination with Gengar to block/dissuade Rapid Spin from Tentacruel!).

Mega Altaria >

Mega Steelix --> Might seem like an odd choice to replace a Steel with a Fairy type but considering that you're trying to pull off a Snorlax sweep I felt having another member that doesn't mind tanking a Knock Off while also not being susceptible to Scald like Cobalion is would be appreciated on this team. Moreover, you retain the ability to check Latias and gain the ability to safely switch into Hydreigon. Mega Altaria also acts as the teams Fighting resistance which this team turned out to be in dire need of in light of the upcoming change (s/o vivalospride). The moveset on Mega Altaria is surprisingly flexible on this team: I used a support set with Body Slam, Fire Blast and Heal Bell to provide some utility with paralysis, to snipe unsuspecting Scizor and to have the option of resetting a Toxic on Snorlax but a bulky DD set can work as well here (I'd use Facade + EQ in that case).

Defog Volcanion >

Starmie --> I consider Starmie a terrible spinner and the bulky set underwhelming at pretty much everything that it aims to do. Most of the time it's just sitting there spamming Recover or Scald to fish for a burn. A more offensive route is more fitting here in my opinion. Also, with the change from Mega Steelix to Mega Altaria this team became hardpressed to fit another Scizor answer so that's where the idea of Volcanion originated. The Shuca Berry allows you to check Mamoswine, Mega Altaria and other EQ users (of which there are plenty) which is useful to have on a team with no Ground resists other than non-Mega Altaria. Rocky Helmet is an alternative if you value chip damage on Scizor (especially useful in combinaton with DD Mega Altaria) but Shuca Berry grants more safety overall. Rotom-H is a viable alternative that provides the team with a Ground immunity and a Flying resist but I ended up appreciating Volcanion's offensive prowess and ability to help with Sub+CM Suicune more. I recommend you give both of them a go and decide for yourself which of the two you prefer.

Krookodile >

Hydreigon --> On this team, Pursuit support is still greatly appreciated to deal with Latias and opposing Gengar, blocking Volt Switch from Mega Manectric is useful vs VoltTurn teams (honestly, just the presence of a Ground type to dissuade the opponent from using an Electric move to get a free turn with Snorlax is very useful), and Intimidate shuffling has proven to be instrumental in some of the games I played with the edited version of the team. I find Iron Tail last is best here to have something in the back for the scenario that Mega Altaria gets out of hand while still having an option versus Mega Aerodactyl.

As for threats you gotta watch out for DD Cobalion (this means being careful with Choice Scard Krookodile and not mindlessly spamming Knock Off and Pursuit) and Togekiss can be somewhat of an annoyance but not to the degree that it warrants making any other changes (also remember Rotom-H > Volcanion is an option). The stall matchup is shaky despite rocking Gengar and Taunt+SR Cobalion but unless you specifically center the team around beating that style you're going to have a rough time anyway (DD Facade Mega Altaria helps though!). Other than that I feel the team now has the tools to adapt to most matchups (I definitely missed something but you can't prepare for everything after all).

I understand that these are impactful changes to the team but I believe that overall they have improved the team so that you will be able to both better respond to threats and to successfully pull off the original idea behind the team - a CurseLax sweep. Let me know what you think of these changes and if you have any questions whatsoever please ask away! Most importantly however, have fun!

https://pokepast.es/922861d1c23c24b3