The Queen's Gambit - GSC UU in 2022

« Previous Article

Next Article »

Introduction

GSC UU is an interesting tier as far as UU generations go; various factors such as generation 2 Sleep Talk mechanics and Pokémon having 252 EVs in every stat cause the tier to be much bulkier, and long-term game planning and positioning is much more rewarded. Because of this, GSC UU has had a reputation of being a stallfest tier in the past. However, recent developments over previous years have seen a sharp rise in more offensive structures that make use of some of the tiers various offensive powerhouses and different forms of offensive utility moves such as Spikes and Light Screen.

GSC UU has a rich and diverse set of Pokémon while still being a fairly enclosed metagame where one can hope to cover most threats in every team, rewarding stronger play more than matchup fishing, though good matchups and solid teambuilding are also rewarded when different options are explored. In 2022, the tier has seen its first tiering action in a long time, with the banning of the Agility + Baton Pass combination that had been running amok in tour play, an option that had been very dangerous with the potential to instantly win when passing into Belly Drum Quagsire or Politoed, a fantastic move forward into the future for the tier.

Carry on reading this article if you'd like to explore more about the GSC UU metagame and some of the more recent changes that have happened to the tier!

The Lead Metagame

UUSD + UUPL Lead Usage 2022

Rank	Leads	Use	Usage %	Win %
1	Hypno	19	6.67%	31.58%
2	Piloswine	16	4.04%	62.50%
3	Mr. Mime	10	8.77%	50.00%
3	Scyther	10	8.77%	40.00%
3	Electabuzz	10	8.77%	40.00%
6	Granbull	9	7.89%	77.78%
7	Qwilfish	8	7.02%	50.00%

Like any oldgen tier lacking Team Preview, GSC UU has a variety of leads forming a colorful lead metagame. These leads tend to, with one particular exception, fall into one of four categories that shape the opening dynamics of a match; Psychic-type leads, Pokémon with a positive matchup against Psychic-type leads, Spikes Qwilfish leads, and other Pokémon with a solid matchup against Qwilfish leads. These categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive; for example, Psychic-type leads tend to match up well against the tier's Spikes user, Qwilfish, as well.

As one can see from the lead usage statistics, Psychic-type leads are by far the most popular leads in tour play, not only matching up well against other leads like Qwilfish and Nidoqueen but being able to combat themselves in a lead matchup as well. Qwilfish is a popular choice on some teams due to the immediate high-value Spikes offer in a tier where they are considered nearly mandatory on any non-stall team. Scyther and Granbull remain popular leads due to their great matchup into Psychic-type leads and the immediate dangerous offensive presence they offer, typically revealing immediate information about the presence of specific offensive and defensive counterplay. Electabuzz is also a highly popular choice due to a fantastic Scyther and Spikes matchup and the immediate ability to cripple popular Ground-types with Thief.

An interesting trend that started going into 2022 was the significant rise of lead Piloswine, being the second most popular choice in UUPL. Piloswine in general has seen a huge uptick in usage in recent times, eclipsing Nidoqueen usage during this last tour, which is discussed in much more detail below. Piloswine particularly shines in the lead slot, which is reflected heavily in its lead usage, due to amazing matchups against common Psychic- and Electric-type leads, giving it the ability to immediately control the flow of a match from turn 1 and reveal crucial information about the opposing teams and take momentum.

Below we explore popular lead choices in depth and their matchups versus other leads and the value they provide in the lead slots over other Pokémon, as well as two other more uncommon but still relevant lead options that have massively lowered in lead usage rate compared to previous years in Nidoqueen and Haunter.

• Strong Against - Nidoqueen, Piloswine
• Weak Against - Electabuzz, Hypno, Mr. Mime, Haunter
• Situational - Scyther, Granbull

Qwilfish stands out as a true offensive lead, aiming to set Spikes from turn 1 to immediately create an offensive advantage, as Spikes are overwhelmingly powerful in GSC UU. This very dynamic shapes the lead choices of teams in the tier a fair amount; Pokémon such as Electabuzz and Mr. Mime thrive off of matching up well into Qwilfish and dissuading it from a turn 1 Spike. Qwilfish doesn't have a fantastic matchup versus a lot of leads, but its fast Hydro Pump lets it beat Ground-type leads in Nidoqueen and Piloswine, while Sludge Bomb can dissuade Granbull leads from wanting to try and pressure it due to the risk of taking poison.

Leading up against a Piloswine, Nidoqueen, or likely Granbull will typically result in one of the most common Qwilfish dynamics seen in the tier, where the opponent tends to switch their own Qwilfish into Qwilfish to set up their own Spikes freely. This can still offer the original Qwilfish an advantage, however, due to either being able to get a free switch on the predicted Spike or the ability to start wearing down the opposing Qwilfish with a 1v1 advantage, which prevents it from checking Pokémon such as Gyarados and Piloswine later.

• Strong Against - Hypno, Mr. Mime, Haunter
• Weak Against - Granbull, Electabuzz, Nidoqueen, Piloswine
• Situational - Qwilfish

Scyther is another example of a true offensive lead, immediately threatening popular Psychic-type leads in Hypno and Mr. Mime with its Swords Dance sets and threatening to Baton Pass to a Pokémon such as Nidoqueen, Dodrio, Granbull, or Piloswine from the get-go. Scyther is often seen running Miracle Berry + Hidden Power Bug in this role, providing it with a safety net against Thunder Wave from Hypno and Mr. Mime and sleep from Granbull, Nidoqueen, or Mr. Mime, all while providing it with the necessary power to OHKO Hypno after a Swords Dance to prevent back-to-back Thunder Waves.

While Scyther excels at pressuring common Psychic-type leads, it has some poor matchups against other popular leads. Lead Granbull can pretty comfortably use Curse turn 1 against Scyther and beat anything it could pass a Swords Dance into, forcing an early reveal of the Scyther user's counterplay to it and potentially crippling some of these options such as Haunter with a Lovely Kiss or outright beating it with Hidden Power Ground. Electabuzz Speed ties it and threatens it with an enormous Thunder, while Nidoqueen and Piloswine can 2HKO it with their coverage; taking one of these attacks and passing a Swords Dance into a Sleep Talk Granbull is still a very dangerous play that must be considered, but Piloswine in particular can usually force a Rest out of it to give more options.

Scyther's matchup into Qwilfish is very situational, as Hidden Power Bug sets often lack enough power to truly threaten it, giving it the option to Spike turn 1 and Haze turn 2 at the cost of 50% of its HP, but Hidden Power Ground or Double Edge sets are enormously threatening if Qwilfish chooses to run Curse instead of Haze to improve its Blastoise matchup. Even when facing a Haze set, this often forces a different counterplay option to come in and deal with a +2 Scyther afterwards, albeit with Spikes now up.

Scyther has the issue of Gyarados switching in when facing a lead Mr. Mime or Hypno; the popular MimeGyara team structure in particular will often resort to doing this. This is an uncomfortable situation for Scyther. where it has to choose between attacking Gyarados on a predicted Roar to weaken it to potentially get through it later, or Baton Pass on a predicted Hidden Power Flying to bring out an option such as RestTalk Granbull.

Early-game, Gyarados has a significant advantage, as it's typically in its best interest to just Roar to avoid any potential risks, and while 40-50% damage is nothing to be sniffed at, Gyarados often gets a momentum advantage here with revealing more information about Scyther's team and potentially getting multiple turns of Leftovers recovery depending on which foe gets dragged in. Gyarados is also quite capable of gaining a lot of HP back during a match due to its Ground immunity, strong matchup against Piloswine, and ability to chain multiple turns of Leftovers recovery with Roar if it pulls in targets such as Piloswine. Scyther tends to not have this disadvantage be as noticeable when played in a non-lead slot on a team, as Gyarados is more inclined to lose some of its HP trying to check Pokémon such as Piloswine and Omastar early on to help put it into range of Scyther, while other hard checks such as Piloswine are more likely to be forced asleep and unable to check it as well due to the unreliability of Sleep Talk.

• Strong Against - Qwilfish, Haunter, Nidoqueen
• Weak Against - Scyther, Piloswine
• Situational - Hypno, Electabuzz, Granbull

Mr. Mime presents a strong lead matchup into Qwilfish, Nidoqueen, and Haunter due to its Psychic typing and Speed. Mr. Mime tends to take two different routes in the lead slot that offer different valuable utility from the get-go, which can make it unpredictable and able to force strong momentum from turn 1.

RestTalk Mr. Mime sets immediately offer important information about the opponent's long-term counterplay to it such as Hypno, Piloswine, their own RestTalk Mr. Mime, and Lanturn. Seeing a Piloswine or Lanturn tends to suggest that the opponent is relying on two lighter checks to Mr. Mime and that it will remain a dangerous threat throughout the match if played well, while seeing an opposing Mr. Mime suggests that attempting to consistently take on Mr. Mime 1v1 is their main defensive answer to this Pokémon, and that aggressive use of Mr. Mime could force dangerous progress if their Mr. Mime is overwhelmed by Pokémon such as Nidoqueen and Gyarados.

RestTalk Mr. Mime tends to have a less negative lead matchup against Hypno, Electabuzz, and Granbull. While it won't break Hypno, it gives it the opportunity to scout its set and see if it's running Thunder Wave and/or Light Screen, and versus Granbull it can put some immediate pressure on non-Rest sets with Psychic while being able to recover any damage it takes later, although it should still switch out after turn 1 due to Return 2HKOing it. While Mr. Mime should avoid staying in on an unrevealed Electabuzz to avoid taking Thief, possibly recovering later makes taking a Pursuit less annoying, and Mr. Mime's reliable recovery provides it with a positive matchup when Electabuzz is potentially used to threaten Mr. Mime later in the match.

Mr. Mime can instead run a utility-based Rest-less set if need be. Thief is typically seen on these sets, immediately crippling counterplay such as opposing RestTalk Mr. Mime, Piloswine, and Hypno, opening doors for teammates like Nidoqueen, Gyarados, and Kadabra to put far more pressure on these Pokémon later; however, it would traditionally prefer to catch Hypno on a switch unless it knows it is not running Thunder Wave, as it has no ability to absorb paralysis without Rest, making it unable to even offensively check Pokémon like Nidoqueen and Gyarados. These sets typically take less of a defensive role, as they can't be relied on to check Pokémon such as Gyarados or opposing Mr. Mime very much, forcing more defensive support from Pokémon such as Lanturn. Instead, matches start off with strong momentum and a great initial advantage with a well-timed Thief.

Mr. Mime's fourth moveslot can be customized to meet a team's specific needs, with a wide movepool including moves such as Encore to annoy Baton Pass teams and prevent Sleep Talk usage the turn after a Pokémon uses Rest; Thunder Wave to annoy Pokémon such as opposing Mr. Mime, Scyther, and Electabuzz; Reflect to enable easier switching in to Granbull and Piloswine that attempt to check it; Baton Pass to pair with Substitute and/or Barrier to take advantage of opposing Hypno to aid setup, especially in Baton Pass teams; Baton Pass alone to act as a dry pass to remove prediction against switch-ins; and nicher options such as Light Screen and Safeguard to help aid setup for teammates such as Granbull, all while being less passive than Light Screen Hypno.

• Strong Against - Qwilfish, Electabuzz, Mr. Mime, Haunter, Nidoqueen
• Weak Against - Scyther, Granbull, Piloswine

Hypno is a much more defensive lead compared to the ones previously discussed, but it possesses a really strong matchup versus most choices. While it is slower than Qwilfish, the threat of a Psychic forces it to either trade most of its HP to get Spikes up or switch out and try later, all while naturally beating RestTalk Mr. Mime and Nidoqueen leads. While Hypno dislikes taking a Thief from Electabuzz or Mr. Mime, it nonetheless still walls them afterwards, and it can easily bait out these moves with teammates and switch back in afterwards. Against Haunter, it greatly dissuades the use of a Thief due to the danger of Psychic, and although Haunter can choose to trade with an Explosion, this is usually still dissuaded by the risk of this being easily predicted and the desire to keep Haunter around later in the match to check Granbull and potentially spinblock.

Hypno struggles with Scyther, Granbull, and Piloswine leads traditionally, but the option to run Reflect exists and has been favored more by a few players lately to make these Pokémon much easier to deal with. Hypno traditionally otherwise runs Thunder Wave in the lead slot to pressure Pokémon such as Electabuzz, Mr. Mime, and Granbull alongside RestTalk, but it can also choose to run options such as Seismic Toss to add more pressure against Psychic-types or Light Screen to offer key offensive potential to Pokémon such as Nidoqueen and Dodrio to pressure their checks like Mr. Mime and Piloswine.

Hypno occasionally chooses to drop Sleep Talk in favor of being able to run both Thunder Wave and one of Light Screen or Reflect on its set, which makes it harder to play around in the early-game and take advantage of through offensive threats like Scyther compared to standard Light Screen sets, but this makes it noticeably more passive when forced to use Rest, making it a potential liability if relied on to deal with targets like Nidoqueen that are able to fish for crits against it and break through it much more comfortably without risk when it's asleep.

• Strong Against - Qwilfish, Scyther, Haunter
• Weak Against - Hypno, Nidoqueen, Piloswine
• Situational - Granbull, Mr. Mime

Electabuzz stands out as an offensive lead that maintains a strong matchup versus Qwilfish and Scyther leads while being able to start matches off with strong momentum through an early Thief against Pokémon like Piloswine and Hypno. Its power level also leaves it in a position to greatly threaten Granbull and Mr. Mime leads, but it must be wary of taking a Lovely Kiss or Thunder Wave against these.

Electabuzz has a poor matchup versus Ground-type leads in Nidoqueen and Piloswine, and it can't hurt Hypno leads enough to justify risking taking a potential Thunder Wave from them. Traditionally, Electabuzz gets preserved instead of trading itself for early chip damage in matches, as its value in trapping a Haunter with Pursuit later in a game is very valuable to teammates such as Blastoise and CurseTalk Granbull, and its Speed tier can be very valuable mid- to late-game to deal with threatening Pokémon like Scyther, Gyarados, and Dodrio.

Despite Electabuzz's traditional offensive team usage, it also sees usage in the lead role on some stall teams with a RestTalk set, providing a very strong answer to Gyarados, a strong initial lead versus Spikes leads, and the abilty to remove Haunter with Pursuit to enable Blastoise to more easily remove Spikes when necessary.

• Strong Against - Scyther, Electabuzz, Haunter
• Weak Against - Hypno, Mr. Mime
• Situational - Piloswine, Granbull, Qwilfish

Nidoqueen was a major lead in the past, viewed as the most dominant Pokémon in the tier and an immediate threat with a solid initial matchup versus Electabuzz, Haunter, and Scyther. These days it tends to see little usage in the lead slot due to a poor matchup versus Psychic-types, the most popular leads, and it is often brought out later in a match instead. Piloswine often sees more usage in the lead slot instead as far as Ground-types go due to the Psychic-type matchup, although when Nidoqueen and Piloswine leads face each other it can often be ideal for both sides to potentially switch as each can 2HKO the other with Fire Blast and Earthquake, respectively.

It does still see usage, however, on teams that would like to make a strong initial impression versus lead Electabuzz and Scyther, and it can be seen as a neat lead choice with Lovely Kiss sets on very offensive teams too, allowing it to punish lead Granbull and Qwilfish more heavily and generate strong initial momentum; even RestTalk Psychics that still check it can be punished by unpredictable sleep lengths later in the match. This does come with the downsides of being a poor switch-in to Electric-types later without the reliable recovery, and it is therefore only usually seen on teams with a second Ground-type or teams that are offensive enough that it shouldn't need to switch in more than once or twice.

• Strong Against - Scyther, Electabuzz, Hypno, Mr. Mime, Haunter
• Weak Against - Qwilfish
• Situational - Granbull, Nidoqueen

Piloswine wasn't the most common lead in the past—even as a Pokémon in general it has grown in popularity immensely over the last few years, as an alternative to Nidoqueen that lacks the immediate one-slot recovery provided by Moonlight and Nidoqueen's coverage in favor of a more powerful Earthquake, STAB Ice Beam that is powerful enough to 2HKO targets like Scyther unlike Nidoqueen's, and neutrality to Psychic-, Ground-, and Ice-type moves, letting it check and pressure popular Psychic-types in Hypno and Mr. Mime, check Pokémon like Electabuzz, Scyther, and Haunter more reliably, and beat Ice Beam Nidoqueen.

Piloswine is arguably one of the strongest leads in GSC UU currently, with a usage uptick associated with this. A superb matchup against Psychic-type leads and Electabuzz lets it start off games with the momentum solidly in the Piloswine user's hands, instantly revealing key information about the opponent's team, such as the presence of Pokémon like Slowbro and Gyarados, or forcing nasty chip damage on the Psychic-types. It is also powerful enough to make Granbull not want to stay in against it if it's not a RestTalk set, and it can similarly provide important information here about whether you are facing a Rest set or a coverage-based set.

While it loses the 1v1 to Fire Blast Nidoqueen at lead, the damage Nidoqueen would take in the process is highly undesirable and will often result in a double switch, as both players want to preserve their Ground-type's health. Piloswine's worst lead matchup is undeniably Qwilfish; while it can beat it with two Earthquaks if Qwilfish decides to set up Spikes, the damage PIloswine takes in the process is not worth taking usually, especially due to the risk of Qwilfish using Hydro Pump turn 1. Fortunately, this lead matchup provides the perfect opportunity for your own Qwilfish to switch in and set its own Spikes, causing an immediate Spikes trade, at the cost of some potential momentum if the opposing Qwilfish did Spike turn 1.

• Strong Against - Scyther, Hypno, Nidoqueen
• Weak Against - Haunter
• Situational - Electabuzz, Mr. Mime, Piloswine, Qwilfish

Granbull sees enormous use in GSC UU as one of the deadliest offensive threats. Its CurseTalk set acts as one of the most reliable late-game threats and forces Normal-resistant Pokémon on nearly all teams to handle it, while its Curse + Hidden Power Ground sets can act as a deadly early- to mid-game wallbreaker that can particularly take advantage of teams reliant on Haunter to deal with it and open massive holes in opposing teams for teammates such as Scyther and Mr. Mime to take advantage of.

Alongside this, Granbull is an interesting and fairly popular lead choice in GSC UU, setting an immediate offensive tone to a fight and revealing key information about an opposing team's composition and the presence of Pokémon such as Haunter and Omastar. Its immediate power makes it a fantastic lead into highly offensive teams, and in particular it can deny Baton Pass teams an easy start to a match. As a lead, it matches up very well vs Scyther and Hypno, but most other lead matchups are situational on both Granbull's set and the opposing set.

Granbull can take two particular routes with its sets, either taking a more offensive approach with Curse, Return, and a choice of two moves such as Hidden Power Ground or Shadow Ball, Thunder, Lovely Kiss and Protect, where it runs two coverage moves or one coverage move and a supporting move, or a more bulky approach with a Curse + RestTalk (CurseTalk) variant that lacks the ability to hurt Normal-resistant Pokémon such as Haunter and Omastar but can safely 1v1 Pokémon such as Nidoqueen and Piloswine, bar crits.

Both of these Granbull versions are very popular outside of the lead slot, with coverage sets often seeing use alongside Light Screen support from Hypno to serve as terrifying mid-game wallbreakers or late-game sweepers, and CurseTalk sets being used as scary late-game sweepers that function well when checks such as Hypno, Omastar, and Slowbro are removed, with Pursuit Electabuzz being a popular choice to help remove Haunter for it in particular.

Despite this, Granbull is still a potent choice in the lead slot, due to its ability to immediately reveal important information about opposing teams, gain an immediate strong footing against offensive teams, and punch strong holes in the opposing team. Curse + coverage sets are undeniably the best at this.

• Strong Against - Qwilfish
• Weak Against - Scyther, Electabuzz, Hypno, Mr. Mime, Nidoqueen, Piloswine
• Situational - Granbull

Haunter was a traditionally risky lead due to the potential to instantly lose a lot of HP aainst Pursuit Electabuzz leads. It also only really has one naturally strong lead matchup in Qwilfish, and one situational matchup against Granbull, where it can counter CurseTalk Granbull and threaten Curse Hidden Power Ground Granbull with Thief, coverage, and Explosion but must be wary of Lovely Kiss versions punishing it for not clicking the latter.

This might have you asking why you would bother using it as a lead in the first place. The main answer is that it can immediately set an enormously strong offensive tone on very offensive teams with the threat of its Explosion, making Pokémon such as RestTalk Mr. Mime and Hypno, Nidoqueen, and Piloswine wary of staying in against it and opening up opportunities for teammates such as RestTalk Mr. Mime and Electabuzz to become dangerously strong when their main checks are removed. It is therefore a nice fit on very offensive teams that can make use of this immediate momentum. When matching up into Qwilfish, it can often use this to force a and it can also consider running Hypnosis sometimes to punish switch-ins that don't run Rest such as Pursuit Electabuzz and Moonlight Nidoqueen.

The Piloswine Coup D'état

Ground-types Usage UUSD 2021

Rank	Pokémon	Use	Usage %	Win %
3	Nidoqueen	32	57.14%	43.75%
9	Piloswine	13	23.21%	46.15%
17	Quagsire	4	7.14%	50.00%

Ground-types Usage UUPL 2022

Rank	Pokémon	Use	Usage %	Win %
5	Piloswine	19	33.93%	63.16%
7	Quagsire	14	25.00%	42.86%
10	Nidoqueen	13	23.21%	46.15%

Ground-types Usage UUSD 2022

Rank	Pokémon	Use	Usage %	Win %
4	Piloswine	28	48.28%	53.57%
10	Quagsire	12	20.69%	41.67%
13	Nidoqueen	8	13.79%	50.00%

One of the most unprecedented changes that occurred in 2022 was the significant usage rate shifts between Piloswine and Nidoqueen, with the former's usage overtaking the latter and even Quagsire slightly overtaking Nidoqueen in UUPL 2022, compared to Nidoqueen having 2.5x the usage rate of Piloswine in UUSD 2021. This disparity only becomes more obvious into UUSD 2022, although multiple notable players were absent for a significant portion of this tour. Why did this happen?

One might assume the answer to this question is somewhat lazy building, which is true to a certain extent. Piloswine doesn't share Nidoqueen's Psychic-type weakness and can really help patch up RestTalk Mr. Mime matchups on paper for teams that would otherwise rely on either their own Mr. Mime or a Pokémon such as RestTalk Lanturn to cover it in situations that both are forced to merely PP stall in. Piloswine in these situations can aggressively pressure Hypno too and offers arguably the strongest lead in the tier with aggressive potential from turn 1. One other useful aspect is its ability to very comfortably pressure Swords Dance + Baton Pass Scyther early-game to reduce the pressure on teammates like Gyarados from doing it, with its solid bulk and threat level versus most Baton Pass recipients such as Dodrio and Granbull.

Before the ban of Baton Pass, Piloswine also offered a decent check to such playstyles with its ability to switch into Girafarig and immediately pressure it and the Baton Pass recipients, and it also offers some fairly strong hax fishing tools against other teams between Ice Beam freezes, which become quite likely to occur over a long game, and Earthquake crits that it can fish for against sleeping targets such as Slowking and Blastoise.

Why is Nidoqueen still considered a top 2 Pokémon over Piloswine, then, and why does it still receive plenty of usage over it? There are quite a lot of answers to this question, between relative power levels and skill ceilings, differing matchups versus threats such as Lanturn and Gyarados, and the respective abilities to make use of offensive tools such as Light Screen.

To start with, Piloswine has a rather low skill ceiling compared to Nidoqueen, which we define here as the maximum expected potential output you can expect to achieve from it without hax or RNG. This tends to be because Piloswine is fairly limited in what it can do versus top-tier Pokémon in Gyarados and Blastoise that are popular checks to it without Ice Beam freezes or Earthquake crits. In comparison, Nidoqueen has a much easier time getting through checks such as Blastoise or Slowking with Thunder paralysis and gets equally as many opportunities to crit through Psychic-types with Earthquake. Nidoqueen ends up having one of the highest skill ceilings of any Pokémon in the tier thanks to the myriad of ways it has to get through nearly all checks and rewards strong positioning to offer more chances to get the RNG, and when crits are put into the equation it can reach even higher levels.

Another aspect for Piloswine versus Nidoqueen is the teambuilder aspect. While Piloswine tends to improve Psychic-type matchups for some teams that would otherwise be forced into passive PP stall wars, it tends to introduce a much harder matchup versus two specific popular Water-types, Lanturn and Gyarados. Gyarados is arguably the single best answer to Piloswine and a very difficult Pokémon to handle in general due to its power, mixed coverage, immunity to Spikes, and ability to shuffle teams around with Roar + Spikes while gaining free recovery, putting much more pressure on teammates like Mr. Mime and Electabuzz to try and handle it. Lanturn, on the other hand, is an Electric-type that Piloswine can't really check at all Lanturn's higher Speed and access to Surf, an issue that Nidoqueen handles reasonably better with one-turn recovery and a better Speed tier.

Overreliance on Piloswine has also lead to certain options picking up in popularity to punish it outside of this, such as Hidden Power Water Ampharos and Magneton, which comfortably outspeed it and come dangerously close to 2HKOing it after Spikes, an issue that Nidoqueen much more comfortably deals with due to access to Moonlight and greater Speed. Gyarados can be seen as a Swords Dance + Baton Pass Scyther recipient sometimes to punish the usage of Piloswine as an early-game check to it, switching in through Baton Pass very safely and being an enormous threat when boosted.

Reflect Hypno is an interesting example of a set that has picked up in popularity to combat Piloswine usage; it is a purely defensive option that offers little offensive utility to teammates compared to Light Screen but leads to Piloswine losing out on one of its best entry points to generate pressure and makes it very easy to handle unless it can land an Ice Beam freeze. Teams can also often just be built to rely on overwhelming Piloswine to punish defensive overreliance on it, something that is fairly easy when it is often used to deal with Pokémon that can easily cripple or trade with it like Haunter, which can use Explosion or Destiny Bond versus it, and Electabuzz and Mr. Mime, which can run Thief and start to really pressure it.

One other notable benefit that Nidoqueen has is its ability to better make use of offensive utility tools such as Light Screen and Thief from teammates to overcome its own weaknesses. Nidoqueen behind Light Screen in particular is arguably the scariest Pokémon in the tier, capable of circumventing most of its counterplay, putting it in a momentary state where checks like Mr. Mime and Blastoise are unable to do any significant damage versus it, giving it the option to attempt to overwhelm and break through them, notably 3HKOing the former and sometimes 2HKOing it after Spikes while being able to more comfortably fish for crits or Thunder paralysis versus the latter. Piloswine, on the other hand, struggles to make as reliable use of this sort of support, as it is still unable to do anything to Gyarados in particular, and Light Screen makes very little difference to its matchup versus Slowbro either.

As far as Thief support goes, both Pokémon certainly benefit from it, but the more common Thief users such as Electabuzz, Mr. Mime, and Haunter have traditionally more beneficial standard targets in Piloswine and Hypno for Nidoqueen, opening up opportunities to nearly guarantee a 2HKO against the former and 3HKO against the latter, regardless of Spikes being up or them having just recovered with Rest. Piloswine certainly appreciates an opposing Piloswine being crippled by Thief to improve the 1v1, but it typically requires more specific Thief users if it wants its best answers in Gyarados and Blastoise to lose their Leftovers, such as Gligar.

The takeaway message from this section is really that while Piloswine has some huge convenience in the builder with its strong matchup versus Psychic-types and its strength as a top-tier lead option, it still comes with downsides that can very much punish the lazy builder who overrelies on it, while Nidoqueen is an underrated option right now that has plenty of advantages to reward skill expression and strong building more and still remains one of the two faces of the tier alongside Granbull, which has one of the greatest effects on the teambuilder with the nature of it forcing multiple strong answers on any team. With the Baton Pass ban coming into action and Piloswine spam being punished more than ever lately, we will see if Nidoqueen usage picks up again.

The Fall of the Slowtwins and Bellossom and Rise of RestTalk Mr.Mime and Gyarados

If one were to look at the GSC UU VR from a couple of years ago, they would notice two things in particular that feel strikingly high in contrast to their current usage: Slowbro at #3 and Bellossom at #8. They would also notice that Gyarados is a lot more popular now than its previous #20 ranking in B+ would suggest. These changes inevitibly followed an inherent shift in the offensiveness of the metagame, with bulkier teams being a lot more popular back then and Gyarados counters such as Ampharos being much more prevalent.

This rise in offensive teams has also seen a rise in popularity of RestTalk Mr. Mime, now considered one of the most important Pokémon to consider when teambuilding, due to the potent combination of a fast offensive threat and a solid Psychic-type full of defensive utility and longevity.

In this section we discuss in further detail the causes of these trends and the state these Pokémon are currently in.

Slowbro naturally faces competition from other RestTalk Psychic-types such as Mr. Mime, due to being a Psychic-type that can't check Nidoqueen as cleanly, due to being slower and being 2HKOed by Thunder after Spikes, and is unable to check Mr. Mime or Lanturn at all, forcing secondary answers against these threats. These two Pokémon also give it competition due to Mr. Mime's fantastic Speed tier and Hypno's stronger utility options such as Thunder Wave, Light Screen, and Reflect, while Slowbro is typically forced to run both Surf + Psychic to ensure optimal Sleep Talk rolls versus Nidoqueen and Granbull.

Despite all of this, Slowbro is still a very relevant Pokémon that has enormous niches within the tier. In particular, it is one of the strongest answers to physical wallbreakers such as Dodrio and Piloswine while being a very capable secondary check to Granbull that allows other checks such as Haunter to use Explosion more freely earlier in the match for valuable trades. Slowbro's matchups versus Nidoqueen and Mr. Mime are also not totally devastating for it; while it does force extra support for these threats, often needing to be paired with Pokémon such as Piloswine and RestTalk Mr. Mime, it is still quite threatening against Nidoqueen due to Sleep Talk being guaranteed to pull good moves when running both STAB moves, and Mr. Mime can be quite scared of how powerful Slowbro's Surf is, often being orced to either predict switches less and use Thunder or click Rest more often.

Slowking has some noticeable differences over Slowbro. In particular, it is one of the best Nidoqueen answers in the tier due to not being 3HKOed by any move while possessing perfect Sleep Talk pulls, all while only being 3HKOed by Mr. Mime's Thunder, making it less immediately weak to it and able to stay in to pressure it more with Surf. This comes with an immediate noticeable downside against Piloswine and Granbull in particular, though, as its massively decreased bulk can put it in dangerous positions when trying to switch into the faster Piloswine, and it makes its Dodrio matchup very shaky too, all while struggling to check Granbull as reliably without running Reflect.

Slowking also faces competition from other RestTalk users such as Blastoise, Hypno, and Mr. Mime. Blastoise is also one of the strongest Nidoqueen answers in the tier and provides valuable Rapid Spin utility, a better Piloswine answer, and the Speed tier needed to get a fast Surf or Rest off against Nidoqueen. Hypno provides a reliable Nidoqueen answer too, compresses the ability to deal with Mr. Mime, and can offer utility to itself and teammates through moves such as Reflect and Light Screen more easily. Mr. Mime acts similarly as a more offensively powerful RestTalk user, but the combination of its Speed tier, ability to check other Mr. Mime and Lanturn, and coverage to hit other Water-types gives it a distinct advantage over Slowking.

Slowking is still a relevant Pokémon despite all of this, primarily because of its supremacy as a Nidoqueen answer, but it is mostly only used on teams that really appreciate it being far less vulnerable to Mr. Mime compared to Blastoise or Slowbro, making it easier to pair with lighter counterplay to it such as Piloswine and fit on teams that are otherwise extremely prone to giving Nidoqueen lots of opportunities because of using Pokémon such as Ampharos and Magneton that let it in frequently.

Bellossom suffers a great deal from how passive it is, although it can be extremely irritating to face at times due to its ability to force Pokémon such as Gyarados and Scyther to potentially have to eat a Stun Spore if they want to directly threaten it. The annoyances of its kit directly stem from the combination of Stun Spore + Leech Seed + Razor Leaf, being able to cripple switch-ins with paralysis and ease its teammates' ability to switch into them with Leech Seed, but this set lacks immediate power and can open up easy recovery opportunities for RestTalk users, especially as Leech Seed does not damage them as they switch in, but on their first turn they move instead.

Compared to the past where Pokémon like Slowbro and Slowking were more popular, and when Nidoqueen more often ran Ice Beam, Bellossom has a harder time now dealing with the more popular RestTalk Mr. Mime, while Nidoqueen can now comfortably 2HKO it on the switch with Fire Blast, making it a much harder entry point for it, while the more popular Piloswine remains difficult for it to switch into due to being slower and 2HKOed by Ice Beam. It can also be fairly easy setup bait for Granbull, while the growing popularity of Dodrio offers an offensive Flying-type that can pressure Bellossom without fear of paralysis due to its RestTalk set.

Bellossom in the past has been seen running Swords Dance sets, making use of Stun Spore to overwhelm checks such as Nidoqueen, Scyther, and Gyarados. This unfortunately tends to be quite hard to pull off, as such Pokémon can often still trade with it, and it greatly struggles with avoiding paralysis from Pokémon like Thunder Wave Hypno.

Bellossom still sees usage despite all of this, but it is typically relegated to teams that desperately need to compress its ability to check Pokémon such as Lanturn, Haunter, Mr. Mime, and Quagsire. It often benefits the most from having Spikes available on such builds to make it harder to switch around, to somewhat mitigate its passivity, but it is typically seen as a last resort option that is merely used to glue such teams together to fix such weaknesses.

RestTalk Mr. Mime is the perfect blend of offensive potential and defensive utility, offensively checking Pokémon such as Gyarados, Nidoqueen, and Haunter while being able to switch into them more reliably over a longer game due to recovery. Its Psychic + Thunder combination is insanely dangerous for most Pokémon in the tier and in particular lets it beat some other Psychic-types such as Slowbro, Slowking, and non-Rest Mr. Mime while making it harder to take advantage of by Pokémon such as Granbull and Piloswine compared to Hypno. The inability to wear it down easily or cripple it long-term with paralysis forces a lot of teams to pack strong long-term reliable counterplay to it, such as Hypno and Chansey, or combinations of less surefire answers such as Piloswine, Lanturn, and your own RestTalk Mr. Mime. The Speed tier of Mr. Mime is one of its greatest advantages compared to other Psychics, outspeeding Pokémon it intends to check such as Gyarados and Nidoqueen.

Mr. Mime's solid Speed tier and offensive potential make it a staple of popular offensive balance structures within GSC UU, teams that greatly appreciate a more offensive option compared to Hypno; one of its most popular combinations is the so-called MimeGyara combination of Mr. Mime + Gyarados, where they can simultaneously wear down shared checks such as opposing Mr. Mime or Hypno, and Gyarados can check Piloswine for it. Mr. Mime offers one of the most dangerous late-game threats that synergize amazingly with options such as Haunter, which has the capacity to trade with Mr. Mime's strongest answers, and other Pokémon that share similar checks such as Nidoqueen, which can overwhelm them.

Gyarados is one of the most dangerous offensive mixed wallbreakers in the tier, with oodles of defensive utility thanks to its Spikes immunity, fantastic Piloswine matchup, and bulk plus access to Roar, allowing it to be a solid Scyther check. Its mixed coverage and great power level leave it with few counters in the tier; checks such as Mr. Mime and Electabuzz can offensively pressure it well but don't switch into it repeatedly amazingly without RestTalk, while defensive checks such as Hypno and Slowking offer opportunities to break through with repeated attempts to fish for crits, and playing passively around Gyarados's Roar can offer it a lot of Leftovers recovery while your Pokémon get chipped down due to Spikes.

The most reliable counterplay to Gyarados is certainly Lanturn, which can completely wall the standard 3 attacks Roar sets and forces reliable counterplay such as Nidoqueen or Ampharos. Gyarados still has options to pressure Lanturn, as well as the more uncommon Ampharos, with Double Edge or Hidden Power Ground to turn this matchup on its head, but it must give up valuable moves for this. Despite this issue, Gyarados remains, like Mr. Mime, one of the most important facets in teambuilding, especially when building around Pokémon that are particularly weak to it such as Piloswine, and a face of offensive balance teams in GSC UU.

New Advancements in and the Popularity of Stall Teams

Stall teams have seen new exploration in recent years in GSC UU, with innovations such as Shuckle, RestTalk Electabuzz, Hidden Power Electric Blastoise, and Belly Drum + Rest Quagsire seeing usage on stall teams to solve varying issues and turning stall teams into an even greater threat than in the past, having naturally strong matchups versus most playstyles and shutting down Scyther-based teams. Below we explore these options a bit more with some example replays of teams featuring them.

• Shuckle @ Leftovers
• Ability: No Ability
• - Defense Curl
• - Toxic
• - Sleep Talk / Flash
• - Rest

Shuckle is a unique option that has seen a lot of use on popular stall teams to reliably counter threats such as Dodrio, Curse Granbull, and Swords Dance Victreebel, being used alongside Haze Crobat to prevent Swords Dance from being passed to such Pokémon by Scyther. It also offers a fantastic Explosion absorber with its bulk, and it can solidly check Nidoqueen and Granbull with a decent chance to mitigate hax with Rest. Some of its matchups are well displayed by the provided replays.

• HSA vs Estarossa UUPL 2022
• bea vs Estarossa UUSD 2021

• Electabuzz @ Leftovers
• Ability: No Ability
• - Thunderbolt
• - Pursuit
• - Rest
• - Sleep Talk

RestTalk Electabuzz offers stall teams two extremely valuable niches, as it is a Gyarados counter as demonstrated in the below replay, a Pokémon that is otherwise immensely threatening with its mixed coverage and Spikes + Roar shuffling, and able to Pursuit trap Haunter to enable Blastoise to reliably clear hazards off the field. Alongside this it still offers useful value to offensively pressure Qwilfish and weaken it down with Pursuit.

• Robjr vs Estarossa GSC Cup Finals 2021

• Blastoise @ Leftovers
• Ability: No Ability
• IVs: 14 HP / 28 Atk
• - Surf
• - Hidden Power [Electric]
• - Rapid Spin
• - Rest

Blastoise has always been a mandatory member of stall teams, as it is the only reliable Rapid Spin user and a very reliable Nidoqueen answer. Recent explorations have seen it exploring Hidden Power Electric over Sleep Talk on its standard sets, however, to massively improve its matchup versus the more common Curse Qwilfish, an option that is commonly ran to allow Qwilfish to 1v1 standard RestTalk Blastoise.

• UUSD 2022 - col49 vs Lunala

• Quagsire @ Leftovers
• Ability: No Ability
• Hidden Power: Rock
• - Belly Drum
• - Earthquake
• - Hidden Power [Rock]
• - Rest

Belly Drum + Rest Quagsire offers stall teams a uniquely powerful wincon that can enable it to really pressure opposing bulky teams such as in the below replay. The importance of Rest is particularly valuable on a defensive team that can provide it with easy Heal Bell support from Chansey, allowing it to more aggressively set up and find setup opportunities, often being able to claim a Pokémon each time it does, all while being able to wear down Crobat with repeated Hidden Power Rock usage in the stall mirror.

• GSC Cup Finals 2021 - robjr vs estarossa

Uncommon Picks, Underrated Threats, and More Recently Popular Sets

• Kadabra @ Leftovers
• - Substitute
• - Recover
• - Psychic
• - Nightmare

People familiar with GSC OU will have no doubt seen Nightmare users before. In a generation defined so heavily by Rest and Sleep Talk, it's no surprise that Pokémon like Starmie and Jynx have explored using Nightmare to punish their checks like Snorlax for trying to stay healthy against them. The absolute kicker in this Nightmare scenario is that when Rest is pulled by Sleep Talk, the Nightmare status stays intact, guaranteeing 75% of Nightmare damage before the sleeping Pokémon wakes up unless they switch out to something else first.

Kadabra could be seen as Sub Nightmare Starmie's UU counterpart, making the most of the fact that in order to check Psychics teams tend to rely either on their own Hypno or RestTalk Mr. Mime or on a more shaky combination such as CurseTalk Granbull + RestTalk Piloswine. With solid Thief and Spikes support from its teammates, teams using RestTalk Psychics get put into a position where Kadabra can potentially break through them or force uncomfortable switches to absorb hits to break Nightmare, which can be deadly if the opponent has no other Pokémon that resist Psychic, while Kadabra's solid Special Attack stat makes it very dangerous for the latter structures such as Granbull + Piloswine to reliably deal with. Its Speed stat is really helpful in practice too, as its faster than both Haunter and Mr. Mime, preventing it from being KOed by Explosion or Destiny Bond from the former and letting it fish for Thunder misses against the latter with Substitute while protecting itself from Thunder paralysis.

Want to see Kadabra used in practice? Check out some of the following replays! You could also try out the following team featuring SubNM Kadabra.

• UUSD II Week 5 - Estarossa vs Raptor
• UU Classic V Playoffs - Estarossa vs Pak

• Victreebel @ Leftovers
• - Swords Dance
• - Sludge Bomb
• - Hidden Power [Ground]
• - Sleep Powder / Giga Drain

Victreebel is unique among the Grass-types in GSC UU due to taking a purely offensive role. While its typing and speed leave a bit to be desired, being slower than popular Pokémon like Nidoqueen and Mr. Mime and weak to the popular Psychic-types, Victreebel has a deadly niche due to Swords Dance + it's colossal Attack stat. This, in combination with Sleep Powder discouraging Pokémon like Nidoqueen and Gyarados from switching in directly, gives Victreebel the perfect opportunities to force uncomfortable trades with Hypno and Mr. Mime, paving the way for late-game threats like RestTalk Mr. Mime to win. Victreebel has also been seen making use of Giga Drain lately too to turn the matchup against Piloswine on its head, preventing it from reliably switching in and letting it recover a fair amount of its HP it will lose if it chooses to 1v1 it. Victreebel has enormous potential alongside Explosion Haunter, as both Pokémon typically share the same checks such as Piloswine and Mr. Mime, and in a fair number of situations Haunter can potentially create openings for Victreebel to instead act as a dangerous late-game threat itself. While it lacks a huge number of setup opportunities, it does threaten Blastoise and Lanturn and ends up becoming an enormous threat to some structures such as LanturnPilo and stall because of this. Its access to Sleep Powder also lets it create turns for itself versus non-Rest Granbull if it so chooses, while Giga Drain variants can help to offset its lack of recovery more easily with entry points.

Want to see SD Victreebel in action? Check out the following replay from GSC PL, showcasing Victreebel's ability to threaten Lanturn and Curse Lovely Kiss Granbull. The replay from UUSD, while incredibly short due to a dominant matchup, shows how terrifying Victreebel can be in the stall matchup, especially versus non-Shuckle variants. You can also try out the team used in these replays for yourself.

• GSCPL II Week 4 - Estarossa vs Avarice
• UUSD II Week 7 - Estarossa vs vani

• Scyther @ Leftovers
• - Swords Dance
• - Wing Attack
• - Hidden Power [Ground]
• - Light Screen / Double Edge

Scyther is most known for its Swords Dance + Baton Pass sets and their ability to create openings for deadly teammates like Nidoqueen, Granbull, and Dodrio, but it's far from a one-dimensional Pokémon. Its traditional Baton Pass sets arguably struggle a fair bit with extremely popular picks in Roar Gyarados and RestTalk Piloswine that have massively risen in usage lately, and while they have ways of getting around this, Scyther has incredible potential as a self-sufficient sweeper or breaker. Scyther has two amazing routes it can take with this; Swords Dance + Light Screen (SD LS) Scyther has the ability to beat popular checks such as Piloswine, Slowbro, and Nidoqueen and clean up teams late-game, while Swords Dance + Double Edge (SD DE) Scyther has the raw power to 2HKO traditional checks such as Gyarados and Piloswine and force its own early-game progress at the cost of a significant amount of its health while still maintaining pressue afterwards before switching back out and later in the game due to the potential of recovering HP with Leftovers due to its Ground immunity.

Curious to see how these two Scyther sets play out in practice? In the UUPL replay below, Torchic uses a Light Screen Scyther to apply significant pressure to Piloswine and set up against it. In the UUSD replay, Holly uses a Double Edge Scyther to force a significant amount of damage on Gyarados on a turn it is forced to Roar. Try out the following team from the UUPL game if you want to try SD LS Scyther yourself.

• UUPL X Week 1 - Torchic vs Estarossa
• UUSD 2022 - Holly vs spl4sh

• Granbull @ Leftovers
• - Curse
• - Return
• - Thunder
• - Lovely Kiss / Hidden Power [Ground]

Granbull is well known as one of the scariest threats in GSC UU, and its HP Ground sets are extremely popular with their ability to beat Haunter and even Magneton. What Granbull always lacks the ability to beat in practice, however, is Omastar, but Thunder variants can turn this matchup on its head with the ability to 2HKO Omastar after Spikes. Granbull does often appreciate the utility that options such as Lovely Kiss or Protect offer it in the fourth moveslot, but Thunder Granbull is by far the most deadly set to face when supported by Light Screen, leaving it with only one true answer in Shuckle with its 3 attacks sets, while its Lovely Kiss variants give up the ability to hit Magneton while still crippling Haunter with sleep and posing as a better lead option.

Look no further than the following replays to see Thunder Granbull's potential. In the UUSD replay, Holly's Thunder Granbull backed up by Light Screen becomes an incredibly dangerous threat that takes out the opponent's Omastar and Qwilfish and forces considerable chip on Gyarados to simply Roar it out, while in the UUPL replay lead Lovely Kiss Thunder Granbull puts enormous pressure on gorgie's offensive team from the get-go, denying lead Mr. Mime, preventing Scyther from Baton Passing a Swords Dance boost into Kabutops, and breaking through Kabutops with Thunder.

• UUSD II Week 3 - Holly vs Estarossa
• UUPL X Week 5 - Estarossa vs gorgie

The following are two Thunder Granbull teams for you to try for yourself! This lead Thunder Granbull team aims to remove Omastar for Dodrio to become a monumental threat, while the following Curse 3 attacks Granbull team aims to utilize Granbull's ability to beat all traditional Normal answers to allow CurseTalk Wigglytuff to clean late-game.

• Dodrio @ Leftovers
• - Double Edge
• - Drill Peck / Hidden Power [Ground]
• - Rest
• - Sleep Talk

Normal-types being deadly in GSC tiers is nothing unusual, but Dodrio is a much less seen option than Granbull in GSC UU. Don't let that fool you though, as its Double Edge is the single strongest attack in the tier and as powerful as Snorlax's is in OU, except in a less bulky tier. Spikes immunity and a Speed tier above common threats like Mr. Mime and Haunter make it a very persistent threat, and recent exploration has seen it utilize its lack of physical weaknesses to pair amazingly with Light Screen to serve as one of the deadliest threats on such team compositions. Here, it acts as a battering ram that can both generate a comfortable number of opportunities against Pokémon like Hypno and even Pokémon like Mr. Mime when protected by Light Screen and overwhelm typical defensive counterplay to it such as Lanturn, Piloswine, and Nidoqueen in the long run while being very hard to wear down with RestTalk. Dodrio sees occasional use with Swords Dance + Baton Pass Scyther too, becoming a deadly wallbreaker with the +2 boost. These sets often see Hidden Power Ground usage instead to allow it to break through Magneton and Omastar, although Drill Peck is most commonly seen on Light Screen teams, as it gives it a more powerful neutral option when facing down Haunter and a better secondary move to pull from Sleep Talk.

The following replays are merely some examples of Dodrio's ability to utilize Light Screen as a deadly offensive tool for itself. In the UUSD game it quickly overwhelmed a Piloswine with turns it generates versus Mr. Mime under Light Screen and would have likely won the game singlehandedly if it didn't get crit fairly quickly into the match. The team was already linked before for Thunder Granbull, but here it is again for reference.

• GSC PL II Week 5 - Estarossa vs LpZ
• UUSD II Week 6 - Estarossa vs Lord Thorx

• Lanturn @ Leftovers
• - Thunder
• - Surf
• - Rest
• - Sleep Talk

Lanturn is rather unique among the various bulky Water-types in GSC UU as one that doesn't check Nidoqueen or Piloswine at all but in return can beat other Water-types without Hidden Power Electric crits or stalemating, and among the Electric-types as one that Nidoqueen and Piloswine don't want to switch into. This combination puts Lanturn in a strange position, but it holds valuable niches as an extremely effective counter to Gyarados and a strong answer to RestTalk Mr. Mime while being a general threat capable of checking the various Water-types in the tier and being difficult to switch into because of its STAB combo. It's not all rainstorms and thunderclouds for Lanturn though, as its low base Special Attack leaves it falling short in the Hypno matchup, often requiring Thief and Spikes support to make any headway without considerable RNG, and lets Nidoqueen switch in semi-safely on predicted non-Surf moves while healing off Surf damage with Moonlight.

The following is holly's Lanturn + Piloswine team that has been famously recreated by other players too, and some tour games featuring it.

• UUSD 2021 - Holly vs Estarossa
• UUPL 2022 - HSA vs Torchic

• Gligar
• - Thief
• - Earthquake
• - Hidden Power [Flying]
• - Screech / Counter

Gligar is a unique and interesting Pokémon in GSC UU; while one might expect it to be underwhelming due to its lack of Swords Dance this generation, it makes up for it through a number of facets and niches it offers as a strong Fire Blast Nidoqueen answer and check to various threats like Scyther and Quagsire. Gligar takes up a rather supportive role at times, with Thief letting it cripple Water-types like Blastoise, Gyarados, and Slowbro for teammates like Piloswine or Nidoqueen and Counter potentially providing a very strong matchup into Baton Pass teams against Belly Drum Quagsire and Politoed, though it can also become a nuanced wallbreaker with Screech and Thief alongside Spikes support, forcing switches andpotentially breaking through sleeping Water-type checks due to the unreliability of Sleep Talk. Its Speed tier contributes to this nicely, with it outspeeding Blastoise, Nidoqueen, and Gyarados.

The following is a team featuring Screech Gligar that was used in UUPL 2022 semifinals, and the replay featuring the team.

• UUPL 2022 Semifinals - Estarossa vs HSA

Baton Pass in GSC UU

Baton Pass has been an area of growing discontent among the GSC UU playerbase over the last year, leading to the combination of Agility + Baton Pass being voted on in October 2022 and eventually banned. Below we will talk a bit more about what led to this and the issues people had with it, and how the ban will affect GSC UU going forwards.

The main problematic element was typically considered to be the combination of Agility Girafarig + Belly Drum Quagsire and/or Politoed. This combination can essentially end games instantly when Girafarig gets free turns versus Pokémon such as Mr. Mime, with Quagsire having the natural bulk to easily set up Belly Drums versus a wide range of targets and Politoed having access to Lovely Kiss to generate easy setup opportunities for itself and shut down some counterplay options such as Crobat without absorbing sleep first. Girafarig's access to Psychic- + Electric-type coverage and ability to set up against top Pokémon such as Mr. Mime and Hypno made this considerably harder to deal with, as common phazers or Haze users in Qwilfish and Gyarados really struggled to block it. Girafarig could also consider passing Amnesia alongside Agility to aid setup opportunities even more.

A number of players considered Baton Pass structures such as these to put too much emphasis on the other player to make perfect moves every turn without doing the same to the Baton Pass user, massively shifting the skill dynamic of the matches and easily offering it plenty of automatic win matchups; however, they did still have some very tough matchups they could struggle with, such as Counter Gligar and Encore users such as Jumpluff and Mr. Mime, or overwhelming offensive pressure from Granbull and Piloswine to try and disrupt chains.

Baton Pass teams unfortunately did tend to have a lot of outs versus some of these problems, though. Counter Gligar and Encore Jumpluff could struggle with Politoed's access to Lovely Kiss to shut them down. Miracle Berry Politoed also had a completely free matchup against Jumpluff, which couldn't Encore the faster Baton Pass from Girafarig and could no longer paralyse Politoed, while a secondary Baton Pass user such as Mr. Mime alongside Girafarig could also offer a safe pass without paralysis to Leftovers Politoed. Encore Mr. Mime similarly could have issues with Quagsire if it didn't predict the switch well, as Quagsire came extremely close to 2HKOing it with Earthquake and couldn't be paralyzed by Thunder Wave.

Offensive pressure to break chains could instead struggle with the option to include a Barrier + Baton Pass Mr. Mime in the chain. This was often used as the initiation instead of Girafarig in practice, playing on traditional switch-ins to a normal Mr. Mime such as Hypno to generate easy free setup and putting Defense boosts into the chain to stop Granbull from being a big threat. These teams could often feature Nidoqueen as another Baton Pass recipient alongside a Swords Dance Scyther and Qwilfish to bluff a more standard Mr. Mime + Nidoqueen balance team to further encourage this line of play.

Baton Pass teams had also tried to bluff fatter team structures too to increase the setup opportunities. A popular version of this used in UUPL 2022 by gorgie took the route of running Magneton + Crobat + Blastoise as the initial three members, suggesting a more semi-stally approach that could then lead to the opponent easily falling against the last three team slots of Girafarig + Quagsire + Politoed. This saw a lot of success in UUPL onwards and really led towards the respect towards Politoed as an equally threatening element of the Baton Pass problem.

Going forwards, it's expected that the ban will have implications on the ease of building in GSC UU, primarily with one less enormous game-ending threat to consider. Whether options such as Curse or Meditate + Baton Pass Mr. Mime, Amnesia + Barrier chains with Girafarig + Mr. Mime into Pokémon such as Curse Nidoqueen, or further Growth Flareon + Swords Dance Scyther + mixed Nidoqueen sort of chains will end up being problematic elements remains to be seen still, as these options still retain notable ability to get around phazing options, but the lack of a Speed-boosting element should hopefully make this much more palatable for more matchups.

Sample Team Choices in 2022

Below in this article we cover some example teams that would offer solid choices in 2022, with a brief description about the team structure and specifics of how to play them! Some of these teams may have been featured previously as examples or replays but will be covered more in depth here.

This is an example of a Light Screen Hypno + Nidoqueen team, featuring two other strong Light Screen attackers in Dodrio and Granbull. The team uses this overwhelming offensive potential to break through opposing teams, with lead Curse Thunder Granbull removing Omastar for Dodrio in particular while offering instant offensive progress. Light Screen allows Dodrio to pressure its checks like Nidoqueen and Piloswine much better while also giving it the opportunity to switch into special attackers like Mr. Mime and Blastoise comfortably to pressure them. Omastar covers for the setup opportunities that Light Screen Hypno can offer to Granbull. Qwilfish provides the much-needed Spikes to help Nidoqueen and Dodrio overwhelm switch-ins; a Curse set is employed to best pressure Blastoise in the absence of a spinblocker, as the Haze support is not too necessary with Dodrio + Nidoqueen pressuring Scyther and Omastar checking Granbull.

This is the most popular version of a Lanturn + Piloswine team, although variations such as the Gligar one exist. Lanturn and Piloswine synergize with each other perfectly, as Lanturn can deal with Water-types such as Gyarados and Blastoise for Piloswine, while Piloswine helps pressure defensive Pokémon such as Hypno and Chansey that Lanturn can't easily. Qwilfish + Blastoise offer much-needed hazard support to ensure that the Lanturn + Piloswine core cannot get worn down as easily while enabling them to pressure checks such as Blastoise and Hypno as well as possible. Haunter provides spinblocking support and the ability to cripple or remove Lanturn checks such as Nidoqueen and Hypno with Thief or Explosion. Jumpluff rounds the team off with a secondary answer to Granbull to allow Haunter to more freely use Explosion and can make use of the Spikes to force extra switches for chip damage with Stun Spore + Leech Seed.

This is an example of a traditional MimeGyara team, making key use of the offensive and defensive synergies that they offer each other as checks to Pokémon such as opposing Mr. Mime and Piloswine, respectively. Alongside Nidoqueen and Haunter, there are plenty of opportunities to overwhelm and remove Mr. Mime's checks such as Hypno and Piloswine to allow it to sweep late-game, while CurseTalk Granbull offers a secondary late-game sweeper option and a reliable check to Nidoqueen. Qwilfish offers key Spikes support to enable the offensive breaking power of the rest of the team. Roar Gyarados is used to rack up chip damage with Spikes on forced switches and to check Swords Dance Gyarados early-game, with Granbull able to take the role instead if Gyarados cant afford to take more damage. Nidoqueen covers for Electric-types like Lanturn, Electabuzz, and Ampharos for the rest of the team.

This is an example of a traditional Shuckle stall team. Lead RestTalk Electabuzz leads you off strongly versus Qwilfish leads while offering a strong Gyarados and Kabutops answer for Shuckle and Pursuit support for Blastoise against Haunter. Hidden Power Electric Blastoise improves its own matchup versus Curse Qwilfish to help keep Spikes off the field. Crobat offers a key check to Swords Dance + Baton Pass Scyther, ensuring it can never pass a boost, while also dealing with options such as Belly Drum Quagsire. RestTalk Shuckle provides solid counterplay to Pinsir, Victreebel, and Granbull without being at risk of Lovely Kiss or Sleep Powder; it should be used versus Pinsir and Victreebel instead of Crobat due to the risk of Swords Dance + Baton Pass Scyther if Crobat gets Body Slam paralysed by the former or put to sleep by the latter. Chansey gives you a complete counter to special attackers such as Mr. Mime and Lanturn and can help to limit Gyarados's entry points with Thunder. Hypno provides a late-game cleaner for the team with its Curse + Body Slam set while being able to provide its traditional defensive utility versus Pokémon such as Nidoqueen and guarding itself better against Piloswine through Curse + Sleep Talk.

Final Thoughts

This article on GSC UU in 2022 has been a fairly comprehensive look at the overall metagame. If you are interested in exploring GSC UU further after reading, you should consider joining both the GSC and UU Discord servers, which can be found in the Smogon Discord directory, for more conversations about this fantastic tier and should keep an eye out for GSC UU roomtours in the UU room on Pokémon Showdown, which happen on Mondays as part of our Tour Nights system, as well as at random times upon request.

Thank you for reading!

« Previous Article

Next Article »

All guides and strategy information are © 2004 Smogon.com and its contributors. Pokémon is © 1995 Nintendo. Privacy Policy