SV OU Bloodiursa Screens (Peaked #18)

[Roller K]

BLOODIURSA SCREENS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Importable Pokepaste
2. Proof of Peak
3. Team Introduction & Building Process
4. Individual Roles of Team Members
5. Bad Matchups & Counterplay
6. Replay Section
7. Closing Thoughts

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1. Importable of Pokepaste
https://pokepast.es/0cd2d4064f1b4625

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2. Proof of Peak

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1945960526-1ukwgr2xzgevntgs9akurette7kh0frpw

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3. Team Introduction & Building Process
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With the reintroduction of Alolan Ninetales, I knew the metagame would completely shake up. It provides weather control, great offensive typing, and most importantly, Aurora Veil. It did not take much time to tell that Baxcalibur was too overpowered with the combination of veil and the defense boost from snow. However, even with the Bax ban, Aurora Veil is extremely potent and difficult to deal with once set up. Rather than focus on the Ninetales-Bax core that everyone spammed day 1, I wanted to just make a very optimized screen offense. That's where my first pick came in:



I knew I wanted to use Bloodmoon Ursaluna (or as I like to call it, Bloodiursa). I had not made a team with it yet, and it is the better Ursaluna in my opinion. I foresaw regular Ursaluna not staying OU prior to its release because it's so slow and relies on Flame Orb to activate Guts, meaning it takes 6% per turn. Combine that with such a hazard-dominated meta, and Ursa can get worn down extremely fast to put it in range of many hits. Bloodmoon Ursaluna, while not being as good as a wallbreaker, can be around in the game for way longer. It has a phenomenal signature move in Blood Moon, good setup in Calm Mind to also cover for its mediocre special bulk, priority in Vacuum Wave, and a beneficial ability in Mind's Eye to prevent Ghost-types from walling its moves. While the natural bulk is good, it is not enough to set up reliably and put in great work.



That's where Alolan Ninetales comes in. Setting up veil and encoring opposing Pokemon makes setup very easy, whether it be Ninetales setting up veil itself or pivoting into a setup mon safely. The additional bulk from veil makes playing against it a nightmare. I don't need to explain how good screens are, and being able to set it up in 1 turn while providing weather and speed control for the team is massive.



Steel types wall the first couple of mons, mainly because my Ursa set does not have Earth Power (I'll explain why later). I wanted to pair a Fire-type to be able to break down Steel Pokemon and open up opportunities for Ursaluna. Up until DLC came out, I was spamming a version of Vert Sun with modifications made by z0mog. It helped me get out of a slump of being in 1500s, and I managed to stay around 1700. I grew to love Iron Moth a lot, and I decided to smack it onto the team. It has been very potent on the team, and I have enjoyed using it a lot.



Another Pokemon that can handle most Steels while also leaning into a defensive role is Zamazenta. The standard ID & Body Press set is already very difficult to deal with, and it pairs nicely with Ursaluna since Ursa can deal with the Ghost types that give Zama trouble. Zamazenta probably wins me games most often, and it is still a top OU threat.



Great Tusk was originally added as a form of hazard removal for the team, but I thought it would be cool to lean into the idea of using Tera Ice with the snow boost under veil to be extremely tanky and hit hard. This is the member of the team I'm least confident in currently, but in some matchups it can be very potent.



I decided Hatterene would be my last pick because it is a really good form of hazard control, can abuse veil with Calm Mind, helps with speed control or out-of-hand threats thanks to Nuzzle, and is an overall nuisance. I will admit that it hasn't been performing as well as expected in terms of sweeping, but its presence alone discourages hazard setup in many games.

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4. Individual Roles of Team Members


Ursaluna-Bloodmoon @ Leftovers
Ability: Mind's Eye
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 248 HP / 56 SpA / 164 SpD / 40 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blood Moon
- Hyper Voice
- Vacuum Wave
- Calm Mind
​

is the premier wallbreaker of the team. The EV spread is fairly arbitrary, but it has not let me down. The bulk combined with veil allows to live many hits with ease, and Calm Mind compensates for its lackluster special defense. 56 SpA combined with a Modest nature hits a jump point and does more than enough damage. 40 Spe is to handle , , , and that have little to no speed investment. The main standout of the set is a lack of Earth Power, but it is unnecessary in my opinion. Blood Moon deals with most targets that would be hit super-effectively by Earth Power, and Vacuum Wave hits the Rock- and Steel-types that would otherwise resist the Normal attacks. I wanted to use Tera Normal on to fully lean into its role of wallbreaking, and Hyper Voice felt like the perfect last move. It enjoys the boost from Tera Normal, goes through Substitute, and most importantly, allows to click a Normal move without having to wait a turn to click it again. For example, if it needs to pick up a kill on a Flying type, it is not forced to go for Blood Moon and wait an extra turn against the incoming Pokemon to use a Normal move again. It minimizes the chance that you have to think twice before clicking Blood Moon.

Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-Dry
- Moonblast
- Encore
- Aurora Veil​

is the bread and butter of the team. It provides amazing support in Snow Warning, Encore, and Aurora Veil. Most of the time I used , I had max SpA over max HP, and I made the change pretty recently. The damage output from is fairly irrelevant; the ability to set up veil is way more important, and max HP allows this to happen more easily. I have yet to use Tera Water on , but it is mainly for weather matchups to help pivot into sun or rain teams and change the weather. Freeze-Dry and Moonblast do just enough damage to be annoying for the opponent. Of course, its main use is for veil so that already strong Pokemon can be extemely difficult to deal with.

Iron Moth @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 124 Def / 132 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
- Energy Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
​

As mentioned before, provides speed control and beats the Steel-types that give trouble to and . I did not reinvent the wheel too much with this set, but instead of Substitute as a last move to deal with , I went with Dazzling Gleam because it handles , . and better. Even with banned, I still greatly appreciate Dazzling Gleam on the set. With Aurora Veil set up, struggles to kill with Sucker Punch. The coverage allows to be a potent lead into some teams, as they are often unequipped for . As a side note, is checked pretty well by , and considering it is one of the most power Pokemon in the game, feels very valuable to have on a team. Yes, it can be a late-game cleaner as it is on Vert Sun, but I have gained the most mileage from it as a lead or early-game Pokemon. Tera Grass is to ensure a KO on some Water- and Ground-types as well as give a resistance to Water and Ground-type attacks that may come its way.

Zamazenta @ Leftovers
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 108 Def / 152 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Body Press
- Crunch
- Substitute
- Iron Defense
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is my late-game hero. The speed is to outspeed Pokemon at base 125 (, , etc.). The set is extremely standard, but still demonstrates how potent it is as a cleaner. With a veil up, feels nearly unkillable, and it checks most physical attackers. Substitute with Aurora Veil is a nasty combo, and can shrug off hits easily to keep up Substitute. Combine that with Tera Steel to resist incoming Fairy-, Psychic-, and Flying-moves, and is a force to be reckoned with.

Great Tusk @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 248 HP / 4 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Knock Off
- Ice Spinner
- Bulk Up
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has varying degrees of success. Speed Booster feels very strong, and its coverage handles a lot of the current meta. I do not set up with often, but when I do, it can be very scary for the opponent. It is always nice to Knock Off an opposing Pokemon, and it scares holding an Air Balloon. Tera Ice with Ice Spinner is a fun idea combined with snow provided by , but I do not know if this is the most optimal set. A standard bulky set with Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock does not abuse Aurora Veil well, but it could be the better set. I have yet to test otherwise, but I am open to criticism.

Hatterene @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Draining Kiss
- Stored Power
- Nuzzle
- Calm Mind
​

is the reason why is able to avoid using Rapid Spin on its set. It blocks most hazard setters, cannot be stopped from setup in most circumstances, and abuses Aurora Veil very well. The set is fairly standard as well; Tera Water is very difficult to deal with, Draining Kiss recovers health very well, Stored Power breaks down fatter teams, and Nuzzle helps in scary situations as well as provides speed control. There is not too much to say, but can hold its own when need be.

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5. Bad Matchups & Counterplay

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3. ​

with Unaware is extremely terrible to deal with. They tend to run Tera Electic, so you cannot Nuzzle with . It completely ignores setup, so struggles and , , and cannot break without a crit. Magic Guard is actually pretty easy for the team to handle, but Tera Electric with Unaware feels like an auto-loss. If they wait to tera, use Nuzzle and hope they get unlucky. If they tera, try to get big chip with Headlong Rush from and revenge with ? It is a very difficult matchup, but with banned, I do not see the set being as prominent as it was in early meta.

and are a potent duo that can be difficult to break. If they are randomly slapped onto a team and/or are not together on a team, they are relatively easy to dismantle. When on stall together, however, they can easily stall the team. The specific sets that give me trouble are specially defensive with Calm Mind and physically defensive with Haze. cannot outboost , and infinitely walls . The best outcome against this core on a stall team is to set up / tera with and hope it eventually crits with Hyper Voice or Blood Moon. If that does not work, set up with as Stored Power is able to handle and .

, , , and all set up hazards in 's face (for the most part). When facing 2 on the same team, it can be extremely difficult to manage hazards and keep them off the field. In three of the four cases, I recommend leading with . With specifically, use Knock Off on turn 1 to catch a potential double or remove the item off (especially useful for Choice Scarf/Specs), then pick up the KO with Headlong Rush. It is not uncommon for to go for Tera Ghost to avoid removal of hazards, so you can easily bait a Tera from the opponent and make the matchup easier. is difficult because it is immune to paralysis from Nuzzle thanks to Shield Dust, so it can pretty reliably 1v1 . Depending on the matchup, it is reasonable to lead with and Fiery Dance to put on good pressure against (they tend to not run Stun Spore often from my experience). It is essential to put in a lot of work early-game though since Sticky Web will not be leaving the field.

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6. Replay Section​

All replays are within the past 3 days (of the original post date):
Win vs. Snow
Win vs. Nine-Bax
Win vs. GTerrain
Win vs. Sun
Win vs. Pinkacross using Glimmora HO
Win vs. Funky HStack Team
Win vs. Glimmora HO, but played badly by me
Win vs. Sun, put me at 1917 and #20
Loss vs. Webs, Jolly Breloom outsped -1 Zama for the win
Win vs. Glimmora HO to get my peak of #18
*I wish I could include more losses, but I tend to only save wins. I will say that Unaware as well as top players with stall tend to be a loss, but in the hands of a right player, it could be managed.

Edit: I got voting requirements for the Bloodmoon Ursaluna suspect test with this team (35-3). My losses were to a modified version of Exotic64's Ogerpon-Wellspring HO, Highv0ltag3's DLC Stall, and the other one I forgot. Here are a couple more recent replays below:
Win vs. Stall
Win vs. Ogerpon-Cornerstone GTerrain, gave me voting requirements

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7. Closing Thoughts
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By no means am I saying this team is perfect. I really like the first 4 and feel that everything is optimal with them, but the last 2 slots/sets are completely flexible, and maybe a better player can improve upon them. I tend to be really mediocre at ladder, and my highest peak ever was 1780s, but within 1-2 days, I managed to break the 1800 and 1900 barrier with this team alone. My friend also climbed up to 1700s easily with this team using a fresh account, so there is clearly some merit to this team.

I would love to hear your opinion of the team, what you like about the team, how it can be improved, and your thoughts on the RMT in general. I have uploaded teams before on other threads, but this is my first official RMT, so I hope I did a good job of presenting the team and my ideas.

Overall, Aurora Veil is very strong, and Bloodiursa is a fun new Pokemon that utilizes screens to great success. This meta feels more competitive and fresh, and while some Pokemon need to be looked into (cough cough, ), I am very happy with the new Pokemon available for us to use. I hope this team contributes to part of a metagame development and Bloodmoon Ursaluna adapts this set, because it is much better than Earth Power variants in my opinion.

Thank you for reading this RMT, and good luck with using this team!

 

[hpdark]

Small comment: You mentioned that it would be good to lead Iron moth into Ribombee and substitute, but your Moth doesn't have the move. I think dropping Dgleam is fine, as the only Dragapult out of all the dragons right now resist all Fire, Grass and Poison attacks, in exchange for Subs to deal with Ribombee, as your team have no way to remove web.

 

[Roller K]

Small comment: You mentioned that it would be good to lead Iron moth into Ribombee and substitute, but your Moth doesn't have the move. I think dropping Dgleam is fine, as the only Dragapult out of all the dragons right now resist all Fire, Grass and Poison attacks, in exchange for Subs to deal with Ribombee, as your team have no way to remove web.

Before writing that part, I was playing around with a sun team that had Sub Iron Moth and did that sequence into two Ribombees, so I confused myself. You would Fiery Dance into Ribombee; they tend to not run Stun Spore lately, and you have two chances to boost Special Attack assuming they are running Focus Sash. If you get a boost, it is pretty easy to take down 2-3 members of the team before Moth goes down. Even if they get Sticky Web up, you are at such an advantage number-wise that you tend to be in a comfortable position. I'll fix this mistake rn. As for Substitute over DGleam, that's fairy subjective, but the team does not switch in well to pult, so I don't like being walled, and even into other dragons, it's nice to have.

 

[Spand2G]

I would suggest running psychic over dazzling gleam to improve pex matchup while retaining threat to dragapult

 

[Boomenheimer]

Fun team that my buddy shared with me when I asked for a CM Hatterene veil team. Only suggestion is to invest in some speed on Hatterene for Pex/Garg. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Roller K]

Fun team that my buddy shared with me when I asked for a CM Hatterene veil team. Only suggestion is to invest in some speed on Hatterene for Pex/Garg. Thanks for sharing!

I usually Nuzzle the pex and can outspeed from there. The extra bulk is nice, but it is pretty annoying to get hazed and have to set up again. Thank you for the suggestion, I’ll try it out!

 

[RTM]

Great team man, hit reqs only using this going like 35/4. It feels like 75% of games, the opponent would be using one of these guys , , which made it a pain :(

A matchup I found randomly hard and lost was maushold psychic terrain as it feels like you're basically forced to sac to get moth in (which loses to them shell smashing again) which is easily abusable by their other mons, or using tera steel on zama and not having it for sneasler later on.

I hated playing against valiant cause it meant I actually have to use my brain and not rely on zama to just win on the spot but the matchup is pretty alright between hatt tales and moth. I'd usually go hard hatt on val to not risk losing to psyshock and preserve the moth for a later sweep. Gilmm/Samu + Val was a major pain for this reason as you take too much so have to sacc something usually.

Hyper voice>Earth power on ursaluna was a good call as it helps especially against opp moth ironically, as you can hit it through its subs.

Overall I'm impressed with how often hatterene puts in work and how zamazenta is useful in 100% of matchups. The meta is trending towards anti veil teams which made games a lot more annoying and I felt like towards the end, games were often affected a lot by if I got the counterlead right vs those squads.

Thanks bro!!