Project UU Victim of the Week (Round Twenty Four: Rhyperior)

[Nakeeb]

Hydreigon

Hydreigon @ Life Orb / Dragonium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Taunt
- Dark Pulse
- Roost
- Draco Meteor

Taunt Hydreigon serves as a check because its allows you taunt opposing doublades, thought I doubt doublade is ever gonna set up on Hydra but yeah. Hydreigon is also a check because it forces Doublade to switch out with it's stab dark. Roost is for recovery and what not.

(revoking Mega Lix)

 

[Twilight]

Electrium-Z Magneton

Magneton @ Electrium Z
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt / Thunder
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon

Magneton is a good check to Doublade when it comes to always revenging this Mon thanks to Magnet Pull. While it can't hard switch into it, thanks to Doublade commonly having Sacred Sword it can always revenge using this set. It can even eat a +4 Sneak if for w/e reason you let it set-up to that point. So Elec-Z with T-bolt kills after SR dmg but the role is very much in your favour if somehow it has taken zero chip. You could opt for Thunder as well which garuanteed kills and does more dmg to other steel types, ofc you drop the reliabilty of T-bolt.

Magneton Calcs

252 SpA Magneton Gigavolt Havoc (175 BP) vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 307-363 (96.2 - 113.7%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

Curse Gligar

Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD
Impish Nature
- Curse
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Roost

Now I chose this Gligar as my counter, because what better way to counter an Eviolite Mon than with another Eviolite Mon. The normal Gligar set normally has an alright time with this assuming Doublade is chipped etc. But in the scenario where you hard switch in as Doublade SD's and it does so again the next turn, you lose the 1 vs 1 especially if it has more spammable moves in Iron Head or Shadow Claw (Both at full health). But Curse Gligar can set-up alongside Doublade and always beat this set thanks to it having reliable recovery in Roost and the Def boost. Even if they attempt to just go for +6 as soon as you hit +3 the following turn they do maximum 35% with Gyro. I have absolutely no clue what it runs as coverage, I assume Rock Slide to actually hit flying types with the standard EV spread but yeah you get my point >.>

Gligar vs Doublade Calcs

+4 252+ Atk Doublade Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 156+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 169-199 (50.5 - 59.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Gligar Earthquake vs. 240 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 84-98 (26.3 - 30.7%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

+4 252+ Atk Doublade Shadow Claw vs. +1 252 HP / 156+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 112-133 (33.5 - 39.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

 

[Moutemoute]

Twilight since Doublade is a Ghost type, it can't be trapped by Magnet Pull :

Proof : https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7uu-851432783

 

[Twilight]

Oh yeah I'm derping lmao. ill leave it up for now and maybe edit later. Thanks for pointing it out Moute ^_^

 

[Estarossa]

Kommo-o @ Life Orb
Ability: Bulletproof
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Clanging Scales
- Close Combat
- Flamethrower
- Taunt

Mixed kommo-o is a nice check to Doublade when running flamethrower, with an immunity to Gyro ball, and with a decent physical bulk being able to win the 1v1 with a sizeable amount of hp left if doublade decides to stay in. Flamethrower is not an ohko, but with 2 layers of spikes its a 50/50 on the ohko, or any small amount of previous chip.

252 SpA Life Orb Kommo-o Flamethrower vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 244-289 (76.4 - 90.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after 2 layers of Spikes

252+ Atk Doublade Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kommo-o: 54-64 (18.5 - 21.9%) -- possible 5HKO

252+ Atk Doublade Sacred Sword vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kommo-o: 79-94 (27.1 - 32.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO


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Nidoqueen @ Black Sludge
Ability: Sheer Force
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Flamethrower/Toxic Spikes
- Sludge Wave

Nidoqueen is a nice counter to doublade, with doublades best move gyro ball doing,

252+ Atk Doublade Gyro Ball (70 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Nidoqueen: 88-105 (22.9 - 27.3%) -- possible 5HKO after Black Sludge recovery

It naturally threatens doublade back with a powerful sheer force earth power. While this is a 2hko, allowing doublade to fight back for some damage, with black sludge recovery, the best doublade can hope to achieve is SD on swap, then a gyro ball + a shadow sneak for 72-85% damage pre black sludge recovery, or 60-73% after recovery. This naturally requires the prediction of swap in first place, instead of it trying to kill whatever was in previously. If it choses to swap nido will just recover hp though, and with cleric support nido can still deal with other mons it counters like terrarkion in same match.

 

[Sickist]

View attachment 156291

Kommo-o @ Life Orb
Ability: Bulletproof
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Clanging Scales
- Close Combat
- Flamethrower
- Taunt

Mixed kommo-o is a nice check to Doublade when running flamethrower, with an immunity to Gyro ball, and with a decent physical bulk being able to win the 1v1 with a sizeable amount of hp left if doublade decides to stay in. Flamethrower is not an ohko, but with 2 layers of spikes its a 50/50 on the ohko, or any small amount of previous chip.

252 SpA Life Orb Kommo-o Flamethrower vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 244-289 (76.4 - 90.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after 2 layers of Spikes

252+ Atk Doublade Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kommo-o: 54-64 (18.5 - 21.9%) -- possible 5HKO

252+ Atk Doublade Sacred Sword vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kommo-o: 79-94 (27.1 - 32.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO


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Going to go out on a limb here and assume the reservation for moltres is going to be for a more standard set not this one, if it is i'll remove.View attachment 156288

Moltres @ Wide Lens / Leftovers
Ability: Flame Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Hurricane / Air Slash / Toxic
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- Roost
- U-turn

Defensive Flame Body moltres is a less common set for sure, but serves as a very strong counter to doublade (as well as being able to reliably counter NP-ape unlike offensive moltres since it easily survives +2 fightinium/firium, and multiple other mon that the offensive sets don't deal with so well).

biggest thing this set has going for it over an offensive moltres is that this set can counter doublade even when rocks are up on your side, making it a far stronger counter, while offensive moltres may be ohkoed after rocks by a +2 shadow sneak, even with 0 prior chip, forcing a defog to be necessary before it can reliably counter it.

+2 252+ Atk Doublade Shadow Sneak vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Moltres: 139-165 (43.3 - 51.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ Atk Doublade Shadow Sneak vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Moltres: 99-117 (25.7 - 30.4%) -- 46.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Doublade Shadow Sneak vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Moltres: 51-60 (13.2 - 15.6%) -- possibly the worst move ever

0 SpA Moltres Flamethrower vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 270-318 (84.6 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 SpA Moltres Fire Blast vs. 240 HP / 16 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 326-386 (102.1 - 121%) -- guaranteed OHKO

The highest possible unboosted damage doublade can pull off is minimal as above, and all attacks risk a burn. Wide lens / Leftovers can be chosen based upon whether you would like an ohko against doublade and more powerful moves at worse accuracy or to act as a better defensive threat, since not being able to ohko doublade is a very minimal issue here. If running Wide Lens, Hurricane for 1st move, if running Leftovers, Air Slash or Toxic depending on team build.

Being the one who reserved it, I would like to point out this set is very niche and kinda is inferior to standard defensive Moltres. The speed is very important, especially in this metagame where everyone likes to spam Rotom-Heat. It may not be important in this specific matchup, but across the board, it is very important. Missing out on things like Mega Altaria, Heracross, and Nidoking is not very plausible. Yes, Doublade is the thing we're trying to check/counter here and Moltres can act as a check in many games as long as rocks are not up. However, you'll not only be trying to check doublade every game and the speed is just too much to miss out on. Moutemoute correct me if I'm wrong, but this set probably shouldn't count and seems overall inferior to standard defensive Moltres.

 

[Moutemoute]

I'm not hosting this project Sickist. You should ask BackAtYouBro who is in charge of it :]

 

[Sickist]

I'm not hosting this project Sickist. You should ask BackAtYouBro who is in charge of it :]

Oh sorry, my apologies. I assume since BAYB liked the post, they saw it. I'll edit that post and please correct me if I am wrong BackAtYouBro

 

[Taptricity]

Yeah apologies but Estarossa Sickist has already reserved Moltres. I am still down with experimentation with very niche sets for Victim of the Week (Twilight’s Curse Gligar is a good example) but this set just looks like it’s completely outclassed by standard Defensive Moltres and I see no use or reason to use it over the standard defensive set outside of handling specific slow offensive threats. Please remove this counter or replace it with another or I will completely disqualify you due to taking a reserved mon. Don’t be discouraged though and please continue to contribute to this thread like you did last week with the winning submission ^_^

 

[Estarossa]

Being the one who reserved it, I would like to point out this set is very niche and kinda is inferior to standard defensive Moltres. The speed is very important, especially in this metagame where everyone likes to spam Rotom-Heat. It may not be important in this specific matchup, but across the board, it is very important. Missing out on things like Mega Altaria, Heracross, and Nidoking is not very plausible. Yes, Doublade is the thing we're trying to check/counter here and Moltres can act as a check in many games as long as rocks are not up. However, you'll not only be trying to check doublade every game and the speed is just too much to miss out on. Moutemoute correct me if I'm wrong, but this set probably shouldn't count and seems overall inferior to standard defensive Moltres.

I have changed the choice of counter cause I was torn when posting anyway, but my thoughts on your comment:

This set still definitely checks non refresh altaria, and all heracross sets so not sure what you are on about there. Unlike other moltres sets it also checks beedrill, is much more reliable against crawdaunt since aqua jet does far less damage and carrries the burn risk unlike standard defensive moltres, mamoswine (big one here, offensive moltres gets killed by icicle crash into ice shard), m-sharpedo, bisharp that has been given chance to sd, nasty plot infernape (offensive moltres gets ohkoed by z move), fightinium-z cobalion (does 82-97% to offensive moltres so need basically no chip at all), among other things, as well as all the standard checks of offensive moltres bar a couple like nidoking (which you didnt ohko without using z move anyway, so wouldd have to trade a considerable amount of your hp for and have to bring in via a death/voltturn firsrt if you were needing z move for something else). Note that while standard defensive moltres gets some of these, it can't burn beedrill crawdaunt sharpedo (being the only reason it can actually counter sharpedo in 1st place) or bisharp, as well as things like scizor that you are threatening with burns.

It's just a matter of changing your definition of what you want the mon to counter. And on the rotom-h front, the leftovers set can just toxic it, and takes far less damage from volt switch to the point that its only a 38% chance to ohko. So yes you can't deal with rotom-h so well, but you do have 5 other pokemon on your team and offensive moltres is hardly a counter to rotom-h either, just puts a lot more pressure on it then this set does. One could also argue this is a meta of fighting types too which only helps this set.

To the part in bold, i was using that to argue why this set is an absolute counter while offensive should proabbly only be a check.

 

[Taptricity]

Apologies for my slight lateness but it’s voting time! To Sickist , Gligar is honestly a pretty hard check to Doublade. I will first say that if you did not slash Knock Off with Taunt, then I might’ve disqualified the Gligar set. There is a Gligar set that combines Taunt and Knock Off but to me, Taunt on its own seems way too specific in trying to eliminate Doublade. Outside of Doublade, Taunt only seems helpful vs Stakataka and Mega Steelix but you already beat them anyway (sure Mega Steelix can set-up but it really doesn’t want to take any unnecessary chip). As Twilight mentioned, Doublade can beat Gligar 1v1 if it clicks Swords Dance the second time after you click Knock Off. So the regular set is placed as a check. I also don’t know what made you think that Moute ran this project lmao. Twilight I will allow Electrium Magneton to still be a check as it still follows the nature of most soft checks in winning the matchup if given a free switch. Also faded love be sure to check out the deadline next time before reserving sets. Now here’s what you can vote!

Checks:

Rotom-H by bukemon123

Defensive Moltres by Sickist

Gligar by Sickist

Darkinium Bisharp by Scizorphobic

Choice Scarf Krookodile by DraconicLepus

Mega Blastoise by Rawbi

Taunt Roost Hydreigon by DubFreaknakeeb

Electrium Magneton by Twilight

Mixed Kommo-o by Estarossa

Counters:

Quagsire by StickingGum

Hippowdon by bukemon123

Taunt Chesnaught by Scizorphobic

Curse Gligar by Twilight

Nidoqueen by Estarossa

Ok vote for 2 checks and 2 counters. Voting ends Saturday 8PM GMT-4 and I might tease what the next victim is but I will say, next week won’t be a new mon that rose to UU due to shifts.

 

[justdrew]

nidoqueen for counters and gligar for checks

 

[Sickist]

Checks: Krook and Hydreigon

Counters: Quag and Curse Gligar

I apologize for this whole mess i created. First off, I honestly did think Moute ran this project for some reason, but now I know. Number 2, this week was really screwy for me in general, so I hope to be better at telling checks/counters apart in the future. My apologies for this whole ordeal, and I hope to never repeat it.

 

[Darksafadao]

hydreigon and kommoo for checks, hippowdon and chesnaught for counters

 

[avarice]

Rotom H for checks Quag for counter

 

[Smallsmallrose]

Hydra and Kommo for checks, Hippo and Quag for counters.

 

[Estarossa]

Moltres and Blastoise for checks, Hippo and chesnaught for counters

 

[Twilight]

Moltres for check and Chesnaught for counter.

Also my bad BackAtYouBro I completely forgot to go back and edit my post about Magneton

 

[bukemon123]

Checks: Taunt Hydreigon and Mixed Kommo.
Counters: Taunt Chesnaught and Nidoqueen.
I think Quagsire is kinda a top counter to Doublade, but I have not seen it much outside of stall teams.

 

[PapaBisexual]

heattom taunt hydra
curse glig quag

 

[InvejaMata]

Checks: Scarf Krook and Mega Blastoise
Counters: Quagsire and Hippowdon

 

[Nakeeb]

Checks: Clanger, and Mega Stoise
Counters: Curse Glig and Taunt Chesnaught

 

[innisfree]

Checks Moltres and Blastoise
Counters: Hippo and Chesnaught

 

[Taptricity]

The Winners Are:

Rawbi and StickingGum
Rawbi made a comeback with the final votes and won with Mega Blastoise as their check! Over to counters, StickingGum beat out the competition with Quagsire! Your sets will be placed into the archive!

Voting Results

Checks:
Mega Blastoise=5
Hydreigon=4
Kommo-o=4
Moltres=3
Krookodile=2
Rotom-H=2
Gligar=1
Bisharp=0
Magneton=0

Counters:
Quagsire=6
Chesnaught=5
Hippowdon=5
Gligar=3
Nidoqueen=2

Before we continue into Week 4, there is something I'd like to address. I already noticed this becoming apparent this week but I would like to make this clear: I am completely fine with experimentation. In fact, I encourage it. Discovering and developing new sets and strategies to handle current threats is something that is encased in the very essence of this project throughout many iterations of the past and in today's version that exists in multiple tiers (Shoutouts to CoolStoryBrobat and Hikari for covering the past UU Victims. You both may be ancient users, but your contributions to the tier are phenomenal and still affect all of us today). New discoveries can influence the way we think about the tier far more than you may initially think. If you think you have a set that deals with the current victim quite well that is creative, reveal it to us! Who knows, that set could become a main set in that Pokémon's analysis or influence the tier in ways never seen before. This doesn't mean that there are guidelines and restrictions to this though. I do recommend anyone who posts a more abstract set to provide a better description on how the set functions. Not only that, but you should explain its niche in this description and why I should take some consideration to using it. However, if this set is only able to counter the victim, but worsens your matchups vs too many other Pokémon, I will disqualify it. Another thing I want to discuss is please when reserving a Pokémon, also say what the set of that Pokémon is in that reservation in order to not create any confusion.

Now without further ado, here’s your next victim!
Week 4’s Victim is:
Nasty Plot Psyhcium Celebi

Celebi @ Psychium Z
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam

I said that the next Victim won’t be a new Pokémon in UU due to shifts. So if there’s any Pokémon that I think could cause more experimentation, Celebi is the one. Celebi flourishes as the tier’s premiere offensive Grass-type who can be devastating after gaining a Nasty Plot boost. Psychium is able to muscle through counterplay like Blissey and Scizor depending on the spread with Dazzling Gleam providing coverage against Hydreigon and Latias. It will require some thinking to come up with possible Counters. Get your submissions in by Wednesday at 8PM GMT-4 as usual. Good luck!​

 

[avarice]

Houndoom @ Houndoominite
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Taunt / Sludge Bomb

Houndoom outspeeds and destroys Celebi with 0 effort and can even get a greedy NP up if desired, due to the lack of ground coverage on most Celebi.

Muk-Alola @ Assault Vest
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 252 Atk / 212 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Gunk Shot
- Knock Off
- Focus Punch / Fire Punch

Pretty much the most obvious counter to Celebi, only fearing the rare Z-Earth Power, Alolan Muk comfortably switches into and traps Celebi. And this Celebi cannot harm it at all.