SM UU Catch Fire

ehT · Sep 18, 2018

- Catch Fire -

Hi, all. Ya girl's back with her one RMT per year. I absolutely love the meta right now. Despite being seemingly centralized around safe balance builds, the weaknesses of those builds open us up to a lot of possibilities for offense to respond not with the consistency of any one threat, but the dynamics between multiple threats demanding predictable, exploitable play from the opponent. That is to say, it allows for teams like this to thrive. Even with gaping weaknesses in the teambuilder, which I'm sure you can see just looking at this lineup, the tools at my disposal from these dynamics allow for frenetic, on-your-toes gameplans that force me to take control early and stay on the offensive.

- Teambuilding Process -

I wanted to start with the balance breaking core of Specs Primarina and mixed Stealth Rock Kommo-o. Primarina is Primarina. Always a savage. Mixed Kommo-o is a beastly set right now, and she makes for one of the best partners for Primarina cause thanks to the combination of Spore immunity and the ability to dismantle the cookie cutter balance cores people like to run, allowing Primarina to simply smash them. These two also have pretty decent bulk to 1v1 scary things in a pinch.

Running two slow wallbreakers obviously opens me up to a tough offense matchup, and Scarf Krookodile is here to patch that up that weakness, revenging Psychics, Ghosts, and Electrics. Pretty basic.

Next I added Mega Aero as offensive glue. Between her Speed, Flying resistance, backup Pursuit, and ability to soft-check stuff a bunch of other anti-offense mons with her coverage, I've put a lot of weight on her shoulders. She's also... the... only real Moltres check on this team. Woops.

While nothing on this team so far gives Scizor a free Swords Dance, they nevertheless all lose to Scizor at +2. In response, I have a Scizor of my own specifically to mitigate that. Bullet Punch also helps compensate for my thus far flawed speed control.

Starmie is tacked on the end to fill some urgent defensive holes, nuke stuff with Analytic, and Spin for Aero. It used to be Mamoswine, but my lack of hazard removal on a team with Aero + single Bullet Punch resist + ample counterplay to most Ice-Shard-weak 'mons made Starmie a more worthwhile pick.

- The Team -

Primarina (F) @

Ability: Torrent
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk

- Hydro Pump

- Moonblast

- Sparkling Aria

- Psychic

Primarina is the first of my main breakers, and my favorite breaker to use right now by a good margin. People are saying that she's on the decline right with all the Empoleon spam, but I wholeheartedly disagree. For one, you can trade with Empoleon by spamming Hydro Pump if you need to, and for another, she forces so much predictable play just by being Primarina that being walled by relatively exploitable threats is quite easily compensated for. Her bulk is also nice to 1v1 stuff like Infernape, CB Scizor, and Dragon-types.

Kommo-o (F) @

Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 28 Atk / 228 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature

- Clanging Scales

- Close Combat

- Flamethrower

- Stealth Rock

Kommo-o is our Rocker and, as mentioned above, one of the best partners available to Primarina in my opinion. I'm using Overcoat over Soundproof because she's my main Spore switch-in and intended to give breathing room to Primarina. As a mon in general, between all its sets, Kommo-o is just so scary because of how hard it is to guess the set, especially with all the other possible Rockers on this team. The Attack investment 2HKOes opposing Kommo-o with Close Combat. I've considered 88 Attack to 2HKO no bulk Primarina after Rocks as well as OHKO Blissey 100% and avoid getting Toxicked, but Clanging Scales is so ridiculously spammable it softens up pretty much every core by just attacking what's in front of it, so I want it to be as strong as possible.

Krookodile (F) @

Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

- Earthquake

- Knock Off

- Fire Fang

- Pursuit

Standard Scarf Krook is standard. Due to the Speed and priority provided by my remaining three members, she rarely needs to clean late-game, meaning she's free to spam Knock Off and Earthquake early- to mid-game and follow up on holes punched by Kommo-o and Primarina. Fire Fang is the filler move as a failsafe against Scizor, but I haven't needed to click it once... but also look at Scizor oh my God. Stone Edge would give me insurance against Moltres but doesn't have much use beyond that due to how safe I am against Togekiss and Crobat, which would be really nice.

Aerodactyl-Mega (F) @

Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

- Stone Edge

- Wing Attack

- Earthquake

- Pursuit

As my best revenge killer, my main anti-offense mon, and my single point of failure versus Moltres, Mega Aero is arguably the most important member on this team. Double Pursuit may look odd, but it's incredibly useful for invalidating Pursuit weak mons backed up with ample counterplay to Scarf Krook, because let's face it, Scarf Krook is pretty exploitable no matter how splashable she is. Coverage is standard, but I often highly consider Aqua Tail over Wing Attack to beat up Hippowdon, but Wing Attack is too necessary to beat up Celebi and opposing Kommo-o, which I would struggle to handle otherwise.

Scizor (F) @

Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature

- Bullet Punch

- Quick Attack

- Superpower

- Swords Dance

Quick Attack Scizor is a pretty neat revenge killer + breaker that softens my matchup versus Infernape and Electrics by a good deal. Having a second offensive Dragon resist is also pretty great if Primarina needs to stay healthy. I'll often use her as my cleaner in fatter matchups due to how easy it is to set the stage for +2 Bullet Punch to mop up, but games where all it does is revenge kill aren't uncommon. I really like Bug Bite > Quick Attack too because Slowbro and Reuniclus are massive pains, but I found the weakness to Fire and Electric more urgent to patch up.

Starmie @

Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature

- Hydro Pump

- Ice Beam

- Thunderbolt

- Rapid Spin

Taking up the rear is Starmie. It used to be Mamoswine, and as much as I miss Ice Shard for Dragon-types as well as the general physical firepower, Starmie fills some key roles that I was previously missing while still being a potent wallbreaker. Water typing + Z-Move gives me an additional countermeasure to offensive Steel- and Fire-types, which I was struggling to check before. Running coverage walled by Latias and Hydreigon can be annoying, especially in a slot that used to carry Ice Shard, but I found this to be a worthwhile trade I still have ample counterplay to those threats. Having a second thing to threaten Moltres is pretty great, too.

- Threatlist -

- I'll be frank: Scarf Infernape cleans late-game with relatively little effort, and I'm not sure at all how I'd fix this. My counterplay is to either keep Primarina or Kommo-o healthy to 1v1 it late-game, which is difficult due to how quickly they wear themselves down early-game, or I sack somebody to get a hit off and put it in range of Bullet Punch. Starmie could do it too but it's extremely difficult to position.

- CM Suicune sets up on my main breakers. That's bad. I can beat down Vincune by trading with Primarina, and Starmie and Kommo-o can pressure it to hell if it's a defensive set, but it's really not hard for either set to get into a winning position versus Krookodile or Aero.

- Nothing on this team is strong enough to OHKO Celebi, and the only things capable of doing major damage to it are slower and/or weak to its STAB's. I can chip it down into range of Knock Off, Stone Edge, or Pursuit, but this still forces a sack at best.

- I have one Flying resist. That Flying resist is weak to Rocks. I can very easily keep Rocks up versus most Moltres teams as well as trap it, but Aero is nevertheless my only real countermeasure versus a Moltres with Stealth Rock down.

- Mega Sceptile is by no means common, and I have the means to outspeed and overwhelm it, but I have no safe switch-ins and have to rely on positioning Scizor and Aero properly to take it down.

- Importable -
https://pokepast.es/fd03114cd07d5949 [NEW STARMIE VERSION]
https://pokepast.es/4e7fab2e0775e02d [OLD MAMOSWINE VERSION]

- Changelog -

9/20/18 - Partially implemented vivalospride's rate with Waterium Z Starmie > Mamoswine. Made Scizor Life Orb Quick Attack > Fightinium Z Bug Bite.

vivalospride · Sep 18, 2018

Hey eht nwn, this is a pretty neat team here. I think it could probably be better tho owo. Sure, Scizor has a rough time setting up on the majority of the team but tbh after a little chip, a whole lot of this team just drops to CB/LO BP whether it's boosted or not. I also think Mamoswine being there kinda contributes to the poor nape and scizor matchup a lot, especially since it's not like you needed a ground, it feels like you put it there because you have a bias towards the set over anything else (which you do kinda say it's filler). Looking at this, it's a very good team but I do think it can be better!! :D

- Starmie > Mamoswine makes a lot of sense in this slot because it kinda fills the same role as mamo in the sense that it's super fuckin irritating for fat shit to switch into, especially with this coverage. The big thing Starmie has over mamo in this slot is the fact that it's removal on a team w/o removal and a bird. This also gives you another BP resist, which helps a whole lot since mamo was just stacking things OHKOd by BP. Oh and this also kinda improves the nape m/u a lil bit-ish.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Psyshock
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin

Smaller changes:
- Scizor from Jolly -> Adamant, I don't think that tech is super necessary with Starmie > Mamo since it gives something that can revenge Scizor much more reliably, also nobody fuckin runs max speed Scizor these days anyways so you could probably just run max max adamant and still outspeed the majority of Scizors you come across.
- Another option for Scizor would be going LO BP, QA, Superpower set which would improve the nape/moltres matchup a lot as well since +2 QA can take out Moltres after rocks and nape after the tiniest bit of chip.
- Wing Attack 100% > Aqua Tail on Maero, Aqua Tail is really nice rn since Hippo is literally everywhere but hitting Celebi harder is WAY more important rn on this team since Starmie threatens Hippo a lot and Celebi is still an issue to a certain extent.
- Another thing is Taunt > Flamethrower on Kommo-o, yes ig this kinda hinders the Scizor matchup a bit? But tbh it's really not a big deal, you can taunt on the SD if you're worried about it setting up that bad. This just improves the stall matchup so much.

Primarina (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Torrent
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Moonblast
- Sparkling Aria
- Psychic

Kommo-o (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 28 Atk / 228 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Clanging Scales
- Close Combat
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock

Krookodile (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Fire Fang
- Pursuit

Aerodactyl (F) @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Rock Head
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Wing Attack
- Earthquake
- Pursuit

Scizor (F) @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Superpower

- OR -

Scizor (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Quick Attack
- Superpower

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Psyshock
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin

This is a really dope team and I'm glad you posted it because it was fun to rate and you're awesome o3o. Lmk if you try this out and how it goes. You know you can hmu with questions or to talk whenever. Gl :).

ehT · Sep 20, 2018

Hey vivalospride, so I tried your Starmie change (I made it Z-Water along with LO QA Scizor), and I gotta say, it fixed virtually everything wrong with this team. Like you said, a secondary offensive Steel resist pretty much did away with the need to run that weird Scizor spread + it gives me spin for Aero. Worth the trade for Ice Shard + strong EQ cause I still have bunch of stuff to pressure Grounds/Waters/Dragons. I also made Scizor LO Quick Attack > Bug Bite Z-Fight, to give me a little bit more counterplay to Fire and Electric. Thanks son I'm proud of you uwu

SM UU Catch Fire

ehT

:dog:

vivalospride

WHAT MANEUVER COULD POSSIBLY BE SMOOVER

ehT

:dog: