ατομος - Peaked #1, 1997 ELO
Chapters
1 - Proof of Peak
2 - Teambuilding Process
3 - Team Composition & Introduction
4 - Potential Threat List
5 - Replays
6 - Importable
7 - Outro
1.0 Proof of Peak
Peak Game: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-1971282351-ll8bx3dg3jinczm163frd67qtrmlmh9pw
2.0 Teambuilding Process
The team originally started out as a very mediocre stall team that I made very early in the meta. I ended up not having a lot of success with the team, and often found myself stuck at the 1500-1600 elo range.
However, after a while I decided to do a challenge for myself. Getting better at team building. After modifying the team roughly 20 times, I ended up with the team above. After using the team for a while, I ended up peaking the ladder about 3 times. However, I was still not happy with the team. Not only was I often hovering around the low 1800 elo range, often not getting higher on the ladder, but there was also another stall team which included Arceus-Dark and Eternatus, that was widely considered a better team than the one I was using.
After DLC 1 released, 2 major changes were made. First of all, a lot of pokemon had access to new moves they didn’t have before. Koraidon being one of those. With scale shot, Koraidon quickly rose from a good Pokémon, to a broken one, quickly getting banned to anything goes. After Koraidon was banned, me and my friend, OchoM started to try and build an updated stall team for the meta, suspecting that threats such as Zekrom, Rayquaza, and Ultra Necrozma would rise in usage after the Koraidon ban.
That’s when he suggested a new idea. Tyranitar. Even though I usually disliked new suggestions, this one sat with me. I had always been less impressed by Arceus-Fairy the more I used it. Even though it can set up stealth rocks against Ho-oh with refresh, and check threats such as Marshadow or Yveltal, I was often struggling with its longevity when it tried to get stealth rocks up against Ho-oh and still try to check other threats in the meantime. But with Tyranitar getting knock off in the DLC, it seemed like the perfect Pokémon to add, especially considering how it was one of few pokemon that was able to win basically any stall mirror due to the combination of sand stream and knock off.
I was debating between using a tyranitarite or leftovers on the Tyranitar, but quickly chose to use a tyranitarite due to its improved bulk, stronger knock off, and being less scared of a life orb Yveltals knock off. I additionally made some other tweaks, such as changing Dondozos body press to liquidation to better hep the poorer Marshadow matchup, and changing Mewtwos Mewtwonite Y to a rocky helmet as it no longer needed to speed creep Koraidon.
I started laddering with the team a bit and quickly realized how I disliked Tyranitar often inviting Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre. I quickly changed rock tomb on Tyranitar to toxic, after which, the team started working perfectly.
3.0 Team Composition & Introduction
Giratina is by far the best defogger in the game. With astounding bulk and a great defensive typing against popular stealth rockers such as Primal Groudon or defensive Arceus formes, there is not a lot of competition. Giratinas main role on the team is to serve as a Primal Groudon check, but it additionally has lots of other redeeming qualities. Not only does it immensely help in stall mirrors as it can pressure opposing defogs, but it can also terastallize to make sure that toxic spikes stay off the field without having to use defog to remove them. In case of a pinch, it can also switch in on other threats such as Necrozma-Dusk-Mane or Arceus-ground if the set hasn’t been deduced yet.
Dondozo is an excellent unaware wall. From having success in ou, to having success in anything goes, there is no doubt about Dondozo being a top defensive pokemon introduced in gen 9. With its amazing physical bulk paired with its typing, Dondozo is able to wall a big majority of the tier. Would be threats such as Zacian-Crowned, swords dance Primal Groudon or Marshadow are now completely shut down. With tera fairy, Dondozo is able to fight back against powerful moves such as a choice banded Marshadows low kick, or life orb Rayquazas draco meteor. Avalanche Dondozo is an idea borrowed from OU, which allows Dondozo to hit threats such as Salamence-mega, Zygarde, or Rayquaza, which it could otherwise struggle with. Liquidation not only relieves the aforementioned Marshadow matchup, but it can also allow Dondozo to hit Ho-Oh super effectively, not making it complete defog bait as it was in the earlier stages of the team.
Chansey has been seen on stall teams all around the competitive scene. With its enormous hp combined with an amazing special defense stat, it is by far the best special wall in the tier. Aside from what people may think, running Blissey with a shed shell, leftovers, utility umbrella, or heavy-duty-boots is actually worse than Chansey. To start off, shed shell is practically useless item in metagames without Gengar-Mega in the tier. Even with Gothitelle running around on some teams, it is simply not worth sacrificing the bulk from Chansey only to prepare for a Pokémon with 2% usage. Utility umbrella is also another completely useless item due to the fact that it doesn’t block Primal Kyogres heavy rain, even though it sometimes ran it in gen 8 Ubers as Primal Kyogre did not exist in that tier. Even running defensive items such as leftovers or heavy-duty-boots is not worth it as not only are you forced to terastallize against Primal Kyogre every single game, but you’ll also have overall worse matchups against threats such as geomancy Xerneas. All in all, the bulk from Chansey is just more worth it, especially considering that the bulk is barely passable in the tier as it often already takes up to 40% from attacks. Using a Pokémon with less special defense is not going to pay off.
Heal bell is a crucial move in national dex formats. Not only does basically every pokemon learn toxic, but with 3 Pokémon on the team knowing the move rest, it is very difficult to not use it. Confide is anlso a crucial move on Chansey which helps it a ton against common Pokémon such as calm mind Primal Kyogre or Xerneas. Even though toxic may seem like a more efficient method of beating those Pokémon. Xerneas often opts to run 101 hp substitutes which can block toxic and live 1 seismic toss from Chansey, and Promal Kyogre can also opt to run a defensive calm mind rest moveset, albeit being quite uncommon.
Chansey will also often opt to run 0/252/252 bulk instead of the usual 252/252 bulk that a lot of defensive Pokémon use. This is for 2 reasons. The first one is how EVe work. Instead of giving a percentage of stats, EVs give full numbers. This means that a Pokémon with 10 base hp would get overall more percentage of hp, than a Pokémon that has 100 base hp. There are also some Pokémon in the tier that like to opt to run niche sets specifically to beat Chansey. Xerneas can sometimes opt for psyshock, or more commonly, close combat to beat Chansey, and Primal Kyogre can sometimes run liquidation. However, none of these are too lethal for it to be a loss. Against Xerneas, both close combat and psyshock deal about 50% damage, but have flaws. Psyshock can somewhat be ignored by just spamming confide and soft boiled as psyshock is calculated with Xerneas special attack stat. Close combat which is calculated with its weaker physical attack can get played around with a well timed tera grass which now allows Chansey to beat it. As mentioned before, Primal Kyogre, the other Pokémon that sometimes tries to cheese its way through Chansey, can be put to a stop with a tera grass yet again as it also deals roughly 50%. This is also the case for calm mind water spout movesets.
In recent generations, Tyranitar has started to see a lot more play on stall in Ubers or AG. This is mainly due to the presence of Calyrex Shadow Rider being in the tier, but that is not the case in national dex ubers. This means that Tyranitar plays a vastly different role than what it usually does on most stall teams. With DLC 1 giving Tyranitar access to knock off, it can suddenly 1v1 a lot of opposing stall teams on its own. Even if the opponent has a rare defensive Necrozma-Dusk-Mane or Magearna which are both immune to sand stream and toxic, they can still be used to get up stealth rocks against and get chipped down with knock off. You really can’t describe how good knock off + sand stream is against stall in this meta. In fact, ever since adding Tyranitar on the team, every single opposing stall matchup has always been a win, even when encountering Pokémon such as Magearna.
Defensively, Tyranitar has about 3 targets to worry about. Mainly Ho-Oh, Mewtwo-Mega-Y, and Yveltal. Ho-Oh is generally very trivial to deal with. Tyranitar can often use it to get stealth rocks up and threaten a toxic or knock off on the Ho-oh or whatever is coming in. In fact, Tyranitar is one of the best stealth rockers in the tier as it can consistently beat every single popular defogger in the tier, those being Ho-Oh and both Giratinas. Barring any uncommon earthquake set, Tyranitar can basically always come in on Ho-Oh and force it out due to the threat of knock off and toxic.
Yveltal is another trivial Pokémon to beat for Tyranitar. Due to Tyranitar resisting both of its stab moves, it also has a really good special defense due to sand stream that also happens to always deal damage on Yveltal as soon as Tyranitar switches in. Due to Tyranitar holding a mega stone, it is not prone to getting knocked by Yveltal, something that isn’t the case for the rest of the team.
Mewtwo-Mega-Y is not as trivial, but still pretty straight forward to beat. By mega evolving Tyranitar, you can ensure to live a +2 earth power and retaliate back with a strong knock off, winning the 1v1. If Tyranitar has low hp, or you know that the Mewtwo knows the moves focus blast or aura sphere, you can also use your own Mewtwo with tera dark as counterplay due to it having basically a guaranteed chance to knock it out in 1 hit.
Toxic on Tyranitar can also help it cripple common switchins such as Xerneas, Primal Groudon, or Primal Kyogre.
I won’t go too in depth with Ho-Ohs set as it is basically the most standard set known to man, excluding the tera fire. Tera fire is what I personally prefer on the team, but changing it to tera grass will still be able to give you good results. Tera fire allows Ho-Oh to gain both offensive and defensive capabilities that it didn’t have access to before. Notably, it can remove the electric weakness which a lot of offensive pokémon exploit when trying to beat Ho-Oh. The most common examples of this are thunder tera electric Xerneas, or wild charge Zacian-Crowned, but also stretches to nicher options such as fusion bolt Kyurem-Black. Ho-Ohs EV spread will allow it to always like a +2 thunder from Xerneas, granted they don’t terastallize.
Aside from what one may think when looking at the team at first glance, Mewtwo is not some sort of semi-stall Pokémon, but rather plays more of a support role. With a valuable mono psychic type, Mewtwo is able to take on threats such as Ultra Necrozma or opposing Mewtwo-Mega-Y. With a rocky helmet, Mewtwo has another layer of protection against Ultra Necrozma if it doesn’t decide to ultra burst as soon possible, but rather tries to chip it down with sunsteel strike. Mewtwos pressure ability also turns the foes sunsteel strike pp from 8 to 4, meaning that it will be even tougher to chip down.
Mewtwos main job is to check Necrozma as mentioned before. This is mainly done with a tera dark foul play, regular foul play or an emergency will-o-wisp. However, you only need to terastallize if the opposing Necrozma hasn’t ultra bursted, or if Mewtwo is chipped and has to survive a light that burns the sky.
However, Mewtwo can still work very well offensively even without any special attack investment. One of the biggest threats to the team, calm mind rest Primal Kyogre can only be threatened by Mewtwo on the team due to Mewtwos high special attack stat in conjunction with psystrike. While it isn’t the safest bet as you’d have to correctly predict when Kyogre is using rest, it has been a lot easier to take down in recent days due to the fact that most calm mind rest Kyogres have switched from being fully physically defensive to only running 252 hp EVs and putting the rest in special attack. Another arguably more niche part of Mewtwo is its ability to deal massive damage to the most common lead in the metagame - Glimmora without giving it 2 free turns or setting up toxic spikes from toxic debris.
4.0 Potential Threat List
- Defensive sets are often checked by Giratina and offensive swords dance sets are checked by Dondozo or an emergency foul play from Mewtwo if it has previously been chipped down.
- Poses no threat at all if you make sure that you don’t let any important Pokémon get trapped from an unexpected thousand waves. - Both defensive and the occasional offensive sets are both checked by Ho-Oh + Tyranitar-Mega
- As long as you scout the set with Mewtwo or Giratina, you’ll be fine. Physical sets are walled by Dondozo, and special or support sets are walled by Ho-Oh or Chansey.
- Offensive sets are no issue to handle if you’re careful to not sacrifice Ho-Oh to an unexpected meteor beam. But defensive sets need to be chipped down with Tyranitar-Megas knock off + sand, Chanseys seismic toss, or Mewtwo. In case of a stall mirror / a bulkier team, Giratina may have to terastallize to a poison type to remove toxic spikes.
- Can not pose a threat between Chansey or Ho-Oh. If it runs close combat or psyshock, you may have to terastallize Chansey or Ho-Oh.
- Walled by Dondozo or a terastallized Ho-oh.
- If it is a calm mind set, you’ll have to terastallize Chansey and chip it down between seismic toss and Mewtwos psystrike. 4 attack sets are walled by Chansey. Getting stealth rocks up is crucial in the Prinal Kyogre matchup.
- Checked by Tyranitar-Mega, or Ho-Oh
- Walled by Tyranitar-Mega
- Walled by Dondozo or Giratina
- If you’re careful to not lose Ho-Oh, it’s very trivial to beat between toxic Ho-Oh and confide Chansey
- Only threatening set is choice band which you’ll have to pivot around. If it is life orb, it’s best to be careful about putting up sand with Tyranitar as it can negate Dondozos leftovers.
- If you’re careful to not status it and power up facade, you can often get stealth rocks up and spam whirlwind with Ho-Oh and force it to waste roost, or chip down teammates. - At worst it gets stealth rocks up against you. In the case of a rare calm mind taunt set, you can attempt to chip it down by burning it with Ho-Oh and getting chip from seismic toss, sand, or Mewtwos psystrike.
- Checked by Mewtwo
- Checked by Mewtwo
- Checked by Mewtwo
Checked by Tyranitar-Mega, or your own Mewtwo
- If you can knock it out with Mewtwo earlier in the battle, you’re gonna be fine, but if it switches out, you’ll have to really try to play around it during the game as Mewtwo is the only Pokémon on the team capable of not causing a disaster, or even doing meaningful damage vs Glimmora5.0 Replays
6.0 Importable
https://pokepast.es/7c2f7ed798ddaad1
or
Chaos (Giratina) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rest
- Dragon Tail
- Toxic
- Defog
Triton (Dondozo) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Curse
- Rest
- Liquidation
- Avalanche
Epione (Chansey) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Confide
- Heal Bell
Erebus (Tyranitar-Mega) @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Rest
Helios (Ho-Oh) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 SpD
Impish Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Toxic
- Whirlwind
- Defog
Hyperion (Mewtwo) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psystrike
- Will-O-Wisp
- Foul Play
- Recover
I personally find it kind of funny how a challenge for myself to get better at team building ended up getting me the highest peak in national dex ubers at the time of writing this. It took ages to make the team, and there was a lot of back and fourth when I tried building it. I’d very much like to thank my friend, OchoM for helping me get ideas for teambuilding, teaching me what to and not to use, and introducing me to the tier when I started playing.
I was originally going to go for a good gxe with the team on other accounts, but after laddering about 7~ accounts to a 30-0 WL, I was constantly losing to the same person that was using an outright counter team and playing all day long. I would’ve loved to have gotten a good gxe with this team, but with a player actively counter teaming me, it is simply not possible.
While I wasn’t able to get 2000 elo either, losing the last game when I was at 1997 elo, I’m still happy with what I got. I put a lot of effort and time into this team, and even just getting top 1 was an achievement for me. You can’t always have everything at the end of the day
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(T-tar truly ruined other stall teams, great idea to put it in the team)