Okay I haven't played nearly as many games with Zydog unlike last week with Absol mainly because I don't have as much time but also because I really hate Set-up Zydog. Like there were just too many games it couldn't do shit cos it’s too frail to be setting up, I ended up completely scrapping a team I had with it cos it just couldn't fulfil its role. For this reason, I decided to try aurora veil for the first time to try make it work and I was able to fit in Bruxish, so I'll give my thoughts on that too. I reached 1410 with just under 70% GXE and didn't want to play much more, but I played around 40 games, so I think I have enough info to talk about them. Just a heads up, I don't have any good replays for the Dog unfortunately.
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Okay so this is the set I ran on Zydog. I mainly tried to mimic what its brother, that was once in OU, used to do under veil. Yes, I know it’s a kind of gimmicky squad in general especially with 4 Physical Mons lol, which is why you'll see I just swapped this Mon out later. Anyways, I felt screens would be the best way to allow this thing to set-up and while it does have an easier time, it is still super frail lol. Sure, it can attempt to break / sweep with double dance but at most it would get one or two boosts and kill one Mon maybe two depending on how fat the opponent’s squad was. This set was solely reliant on getting a lot of boosts for T-Arrows and E-Speed to do anything but because it struggled to set-up effectively it wasn’t all that amazing. Also, unlike its CB set there is no way to punish bulky walls because this set can't utilize Toxic. I gave it Iapapa to heal up to a decent health trying to set-up and it came in handy once or twice but otherwise it did very little. In some cases it put in work against offensive teams but this was mainly only effective in low ladder. Tbh DD Coba was the real reason this team functioned well because it did this dumb shit in like 70% of the games. There were just way too many scenarios where I wished I just had CB to just spam E-Speed or T-Arrows to claim or revenge something.
I also tried a DD + Z-Outrage set on a team I scrapped and on this veil team (I gave Coba Weakness Policy) but there is very little reason to run it when it will literally just invites in a Mon like Scizor or bulky Prim and get revenged. Imo the Mon is already fast enough to the point it doesn't need to set-up, its better off just hitting something hard on the switch and potentially 2OHKO it or simply doubling out after. Even CB + E-Speed allows it to be an effective sweeper in the late-game anyways. Like the biggest and only benefit of this set imo, was not having to get locked into Outrage thanks to the Z-Move.
Okay so I decided to just drop set-up Zydog set and instead ran this team, essentially the same just added Salac Celebi and used EQ on Sandslash. This version functions so much better with having something that doesn't just lose to Scald Burns and Wisp, but I was trying to fit both on the same team with the first version. Anyways Bruxish was easily much better than set-up Zygarde imo, especially when it came to breaking stuff after a boost. Bruxish isn’t anything incredible but I had a lot of games where it got one or two SDs under veil and it just swept.
Okay so Bruxish was basically just a Mega Sharpedo that has access to Swords Dance so in short it can hit like an absolute truck. However, the downside is having no way to boost its speed unless you run Z-Snatch (Which I did try btw, again gave Coba Weakness Policy), so it is quite easy to revenge kill. Personally, I think it’s better off just using SD + 3 Atks and start killing Balance and Stall teams. It put in a decent amount of work than what I expected, especially when it came to breaking apart a lot of fat cores like Gligar + Empoleon. I initially had Waterfall which was quite nice, but I retreated back to Aqua Jet because the priority was just too important for handling faster threats like MegaBee and Scarf Krook which most people were reliant on to revenge this Mon. It is also hard walled by Hydreigon because it can't really fit any other coverage on this set so that is one big downside of it. The Z-Snatch set was just too hard to pull off imo, especially with trying to support this Zydog set as well so yeah. I think there was one game I managed to pull off both SD + Z-Snatch but it didn't do a whole lot cos of my lack in coverage for things like Slowbro etc. But, I think it could be gimmicky enough to work against opposing HO teams. I don't really know what else to say, like Bruxish does a good job destroying Balance and Stall thanks to SD but I would rather use MegaShark any day of the week simply because Speed Boost just makes it insanely difficult to revenge the Mon + its stats still make it hit like a truck vs these archetypes anyway. Bruxish being overly reliant on Aqua Jet against faster teams was really annoying especially if I hadn’t set up an SD yet, but with a boost this wasn't always a massive issue. Overall I am actually pleased with Bruxish and I'm sure i'd have a different opinion on it if I wasn't running screens, but with team support like this it is definitely a threat.
TLDR:
- Set-up Zydog was really underwhelming imo. Even with Screens it still has a hard time setting up and breaking shit without getting blown back. In most cases I'd rather just have CB to nuke something hard. It might have some potential, but for me I just wasn't the biggest fan of this set.
- Bruxish is really threatening to Balance and Stall Teams that just can't handle it after +2. But against most other archetypes it can struggle as it is still kinda slow compared to the fast threats in UU. It is reliant on Aqua Jet vs them and without a boost it does very little damage. In almost every case I'd rather use Mega-Shark due to Speed Boost, but I won't deny that if a team isn't preparred to switch into it you'll just sweep through.
- Veil is actually so braindead and fun lol, why the fck haven’t I tried this before lol
Again really fun week even if I thought this Zydog set was awful but I enjoy taking the time to make these wacky squads trying to make these sets/Pokemon work. Both Mons needed a lot of team support and basically forced me to play some more HO which is always fun. I look forward to see what you choose next week and if something catches my eye I'll give it a try ^_^
Edit: Holy shit I think I've been using Prankster Tornadus this whole time...I've fixed the importables lol
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Zygarde-10% @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Coil
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Coil
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
Zygarde-10% @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-848862539 - Zydog doing something I guess after a coil boost but nothing special. Would have done the same thing with CB.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-848906190 - Against a super gimmicky team but that is as good of a replay I have for Set-up Zydog (Tried Outrage here but don't think I was running Dragonium-Z for some reason).
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-848906190 - Against a super gimmicky team but that is as good of a replay I have for Set-up Zydog (Tried Outrage here but don't think I was running Dragonium-Z for some reason).
Okay so I decided to just drop set-up Zydog set and instead ran this team, essentially the same just added Salac Celebi and used EQ on Sandslash. This version functions so much better with having something that doesn't just lose to Scald Burns and Wisp, but I was trying to fit both on the same team with the first version. Anyways Bruxish was easily much better than set-up Zygarde imo, especially when it came to breaking stuff after a boost. Bruxish isn’t anything incredible but I had a lot of games where it got one or two SDs under veil and it just swept.
Bruxish @ Life Orb
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Psychic Fangs
- Crunch
- Aqua Jet / Waterfall
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Psychic Fangs
- Crunch
- Aqua Jet / Waterfall
Bruxish @ Darkinium Z
Ability: Dazzling
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Psychic Fangs
- Waterfall
- Snatch
Ability: Dazzling
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Psychic Fangs
- Waterfall
- Snatch
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-848894067 - Bruxish gets +2 under veil and basically 6-0's
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-849262945 - Another game where Bruxish just 6-0's. The guy pretty much lost to it at preview but I got +6 and it just swept.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-849276660 - Bruxish breaks through 4 members without a boost before dropping to LO recoil.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-849262945 - Another game where Bruxish just 6-0's. The guy pretty much lost to it at preview but I got +6 and it just swept.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-849276660 - Bruxish breaks through 4 members without a boost before dropping to LO recoil.
TLDR:
- Set-up Zydog was really underwhelming imo. Even with Screens it still has a hard time setting up and breaking shit without getting blown back. In most cases I'd rather just have CB to nuke something hard. It might have some potential, but for me I just wasn't the biggest fan of this set.
- Bruxish is really threatening to Balance and Stall Teams that just can't handle it after +2. But against most other archetypes it can struggle as it is still kinda slow compared to the fast threats in UU. It is reliant on Aqua Jet vs them and without a boost it does very little damage. In almost every case I'd rather use Mega-Shark due to Speed Boost, but I won't deny that if a team isn't preparred to switch into it you'll just sweep through.
- Veil is actually so braindead and fun lol, why the fck haven’t I tried this before lol
Again really fun week even if I thought this Zydog set was awful but I enjoy taking the time to make these wacky squads trying to make these sets/Pokemon work. Both Mons needed a lot of team support and basically forced me to play some more HO which is always fun. I look forward to see what you choose next week and if something catches my eye I'll give it a try ^_^
Edit: Holy shit I think I've been using Prankster Tornadus this whole time...I've fixed the importables lol
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