Tailwind Mega-Beedrill Offense
Overview
I wanted to build a team around mega-”Bee’s Knees”-Beedrill, as I love a hard hitting, VoltTurn and prediction heavy style. A set I came up with while using Mega-Bee in OU was replacing KnockOff/DrillRun with Tailwind. This change allows a beedrill to suddenly open up a huge hole for other members of its team. I filled out the rest of the team with slow heavy-hitters and after a bunch of playtesting, it arrived where it is today. At a macro level, this team has very good offensive and defensive synergy and can match up well against most team archetypes. It’s weaknesses lie in vulnerabilities to specific threats rather than styles. This is where I would like help making tweaks to cover some of the holes.
Team building
Bee+Sylv
As mentioned, I started with Mega-Bee. To form a pivoting core, I added Specs Sylveon. With their combined offenses, these two hit ridiculously hard on both sides of the spectrum, and for the most part, they can break through each other’s checks (aside from Steels, which are fortunately not so durable in UU).
Bee+Sylv+Forr
With the pressure applied by Beedrill and Sylv, it’s useful to have some hazards up to punish your opponent’s switches. Forretress cleanly compresses hazard support, hazard removal and steel/poison/fairy check into one slot, all of which are key for the survival of its teammates.
Bee+Sylv+Forr+Milo
Forretress hates fire and has trouble dealing with water spam, so I added Milotic, since my team was getting a little Entei weak. I elected for competitive as an ability, since milotic can switchin and threaten most defoggers.
Bee+Sylv+Forr+Milo+Krook
Choice band Krook was the next addition. It’s a real pain to switch into, and when a tailwind is up, moxie and its hard-to-revenge bulk mean you can take out 2-3 opponents with it.
Bee+Sylv+Forr+Milo+Krook+Raichu
I don’t know why I added it, but Sash+Encore+Nasty Plot Raichu existed at some point. Needless to say, it wasn’t very good outside of a few cheesy encore sweeps. Removed pretty quickly.
Bee+Sylv+Forr+Milo+Entei+Heliosk
Entei replaced Krook, thanks to being equally scary under a tailwind and also possessing +2 priority to cleanup. Heliosk was added to check Suicune (which is still only scared by Sylveon in the current iteration)
Bee+Sylv+Forr+Milo+Honch+Rhyp
I missed having a moxie user to cleanup during the late game, and my dark-spam game was certainly lacking, so Honckrow took Entei’s spot. The bird is just generally a great hole puncher and can be absurdly threatening if your opponent is missing a key stop. I still had trouble with mega-Aeros that managed to stay away from my stealth rocks, so I added Rhyperior. Rhyperior’s bulk and typing lets it act as an electric/fire/bird stop and the double dance set lets you break stall or offense. Needless to say, scary under tailwind.
As mentioned, I started with Mega-Bee. To form a pivoting core, I added Specs Sylveon. With their combined offenses, these two hit ridiculously hard on both sides of the spectrum, and for the most part, they can break through each other’s checks (aside from Steels, which are fortunately not so durable in UU).
Bee+Sylv+Forr
With the pressure applied by Beedrill and Sylv, it’s useful to have some hazards up to punish your opponent’s switches. Forretress cleanly compresses hazard support, hazard removal and steel/poison/fairy check into one slot, all of which are key for the survival of its teammates.
Bee+Sylv+Forr+Milo
Forretress hates fire and has trouble dealing with water spam, so I added Milotic, since my team was getting a little Entei weak. I elected for competitive as an ability, since milotic can switchin and threaten most defoggers.
Bee+Sylv+Forr+Milo+Krook
Choice band Krook was the next addition. It’s a real pain to switch into, and when a tailwind is up, moxie and its hard-to-revenge bulk mean you can take out 2-3 opponents with it.
Bee+Sylv+Forr+Milo+Krook+Raichu
I don’t know why I added it, but Sash+Encore+Nasty Plot Raichu existed at some point. Needless to say, it wasn’t very good outside of a few cheesy encore sweeps. Removed pretty quickly.
Bee+Sylv+Forr+Milo+Entei+Heliosk
Entei replaced Krook, thanks to being equally scary under a tailwind and also possessing +2 priority to cleanup. Heliosk was added to check Suicune (which is still only scared by Sylveon in the current iteration)
Bee+Sylv+Forr+Milo+Honch+Rhyp
I missed having a moxie user to cleanup during the late game, and my dark-spam game was certainly lacking, so Honckrow took Entei’s spot. The bird is just generally a great hole puncher and can be absurdly threatening if your opponent is missing a key stop. I still had trouble with mega-Aeros that managed to stay away from my stealth rocks, so I added Rhyperior. Rhyperior’s bulk and typing lets it act as an electric/fire/bird stop and the double dance set lets you break stall or offense. Needless to say, scary under tailwind.
Individual Roles
Beedrill-Mega @ Beedrillite
Ability: Adaptability
- U-turn
- Poison Jab
- Tailwind
- Protect
Beedrill is Beedrill. Everyone knows what it does. On its turn it either:
- Protects to evolve or scout
- U-turns
- Kills a fairy
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 176 HP / / 252 SpA / 80 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Baton Pass
- Quick Attack
Forretress @ Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes / Volt Switch
- Heavy Slam / Gyro Ball
Forretress has a very clear role on this team. Set hazards and then remove them. Rapid spin and stealth rock are thus self-explanatory. I opted for spikes over volt switch, though this is something I am certainly reconsidering. The additional damage with spikes really wears down the opponent and can be crucial in securing kills for beedrill, who can KO most things with a neutral poison jab from ~60%. Heavy slam is for killing fairies. Florges is 2HKOd; whimsicott is OHKOd. Unfortunately, heavy slam doesn’t do near the damage or gyro ball to mega aero, so that alone may result in a switch. Custap is so amazing on forretress. You can perform emergency spins and SR sets or nab surprise kill. 10/10 never going back to leftovers. Full special defense investment means that you don’t care about CM florges, and you can survive an HP fire from most things, to allow for aforementioned custap shenanigans.
Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Competitive
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Mirror Coat / Haze
- Recover
Milotic acts as a tank and is a check to pretty much anything that can’t boost its attack or hit it super effectively. Milotic is an awesome partner for the rest of the team. Taking the fire attacks that Beedrill and Forretress don’t like, sponging up water attacks from who knows where, and being a check to most physical attackers thanks to scald, Milotic is a great part of this team. You’ll notice that competitive was chosen over marvel scale. This is for several reasons. There are lots of intimidate pokemon in this tier, and Beedrill, Honchkrow and Rhyperior are intimidate magnets. With prediction, milotic can punish their use. The hazards laid down by fortress invites in (Tentacruel, Mandibuzz, Forretress, Mega-Blastoise, defoggers.) Defoggers get punished. Spinners don’t like taking. Mega blastoise can’t 2HKO, and get wrecked my mirror coat. I realize mirror coat is normally pretty gimmicky, but the instances where I find I would prefer haze are not very common. (DD Gyarados being notable). Recover is an obvious choice and means you can stall out everything that doesn’t carry toxic. Bonus points for punishing webs.
Honchkrow @ Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- Brave Bird
- Heat Wave / Snatch
Boy, oh boy, Honchkrow might take the cake for #1 most threatening pokemon in the entire game. If this thing gets even one moxie boost, it’s game over, unless your opponent has a scarfed dark type. While it does have a nice defensive typing, Honchkrow is all about killing things and shouldn’t be switching in, except to pursuit trap. Under a tailwind, you don’t have to rely on suckpunch mindgames, and can just destroy things with brave bird instead. Pursuit is nice nice for snagging kills against things like Azelf, Espeon, or things that run away from your sucker punch like opposing mega beedrill. Sucker punch + Pursuit ™ allows for those classic mind games and means that anything below ~40% is a free moxie boost. Your opponent has to be very mindful of this, as Honchkrow WILL sweep them. Can be used as a wind condition or to punch some holes as a lead. Heatwave for forretress. I’ve experimented with snatch, which while rather niche, means that you just plunder an intimidate gyara or salamence that tries to dragon dance in your face. Try it you’ll like it. P.S. Bird scares off spin blockers.
Rhyperior @ Passho Berry / Salac Berry
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
Rhyperior does a lot for this team and I find myself winning because of it. Its typing means it can stop Entei, M-Aero, Block VoltTurn, and it’s bulk just stops most physical attackers cold. The double dance set is cool and to follow the trope of all double dance set: “Boost speed to beat offense, boost attack to beat stall”. And it’s true. Stab EdgeQuake kills everything. At +2 Rhyperior hits 358 speed, which is faster than Cobalion and infernape. The things it is still too slow for are really only Mega Sceptile and Scarf Hydreigon, albeit both common threats. If you opt for salac berry, you outspeed all non-scarfers at +3. I normally use Passho berry, since it lets you live scalds from tentacruel and suicune (could EV HP to live other stuff) or aqua tail from mega Aero. You can then either boost speed to set up a sweep, or get a necessary KO (like on Aero). Can survive a feraligatr Aqua jet from 40%.
Strengths
- Hazard Control. The core of Forretress and milotic gives you a very good chance of controlling the hazard game. Honchkrow puts the fear of God in spinblockers.
- Good offensive and defensive type synergy. I’m not going to type this all up, since it should be pretty obvious from how the team was built. Beedrill + Sylveon are a Special-Physical offensive pivot core. Forretress + Milotic are a defensive hazard control core. Honchkrow and Rhyperior break each others check and just break things in general.
- Strong priority. Sucker Punch is good priority. Not great like E-Speed, but it’s powerful and has good typing. LO honchkrow does 50% to most set up sweepers, so it’s a decent secondary form of speed control. Have to be careful of substitute. Try snatch, as mentioned earlier.
- Stallbreaker / Wallbreaker. Between Sylveon, Honchkrow and SD rhyperior, you don’t have to worry about losing to stall. Be careful with suicune, as I’ll mention below.
- (Some) Speed Control. Beedrill has tailwind. Sylveon has quick attack. Rhyperior has RP. Honchkrow has sucker punch and snatch. Forretress has custap. There’s no prankster T-wave or anything, but you have 2.5 priority users and ways of globally boosting speed.
- Momentum gainers. Beedrill is the momentum king. Sylveon is his queen. Honchkrow is pretty good at messing up your opponent’s cadence as well.
- Weak to status. This team lacks any kind of cleric, so burn, toxic and twave can be quite an issue, though you can mitigate their use with milotic, beedrill and rhyperior, respectively.
- Grass spam. Beedrill, Honchkrow and Forretress are the only team members that resist grass, and Forretress is the only one that can switch into grass attacks repeatedly, though it can’t do much to threaten back. Sylveon is a good answer to mega-sceptile, but again it is easily worn down.
- Trouble breaking suicune. Sylveon is the only thing that can force out a +1 suicune, and milotic can mirror coat it, but beyond that the team doesn’t have a real way of dealing with it.
Defensive Type Coverage
S Rank
Hydreigon: Unless it’s a scarf set, it’s not too difficult to handle. If it is, then kiss beedrill goodbye. You do however have sylveon, which can take a flash cannon and blow hydreigon back into being a zeilous.
Mega-Aero: Rhyperior can take care of Aero pretty easily, but it can give the rest of the team some troubles. If it has pursuit, Beedrill is dead, which can severely affect your ability to control momentum. Otherwise, it’s forced out by milotic and Rhyperior, unless it’s adamant. Defog sets not an issue.
Salamence: Salamence’s versatility makes this a tricky matchup, but this team has at least one answer for each main set. Special sets can’t hurt Sylveon, and physical sets are scared out by Rhyperior. If it manages to get to DDs of you probably loses, but that shouldn’t ever happen, since milotic can survive outrage at +1 and KO with ice beam.
Suicune: A tough matchup for this team. If it get to +2 it’s game over. Milotic can mirror coat it, sylveon can kill it it’s at +1 and rhyperior can force it to attack, since you can survive a scald and use 2 EQs back. Otherwise you get swept. Bad matchup.
Mega-Aero: Rhyperior can take care of Aero pretty easily, but it can give the rest of the team some troubles. If it has pursuit, Beedrill is dead, which can severely affect your ability to control momentum. Otherwise, it’s forced out by milotic and Rhyperior, unless it’s adamant. Defog sets not an issue.
Salamence: Salamence’s versatility makes this a tricky matchup, but this team has at least one answer for each main set. Special sets can’t hurt Sylveon, and physical sets are scared out by Rhyperior. If it manages to get to DDs of you probably loses, but that shouldn’t ever happen, since milotic can survive outrage at +1 and KO with ice beam.
Suicune: A tough matchup for this team. If it get to +2 it’s game over. Milotic can mirror coat it, sylveon can kill it it’s at +1 and rhyperior can force it to attack, since you can survive a scald and use 2 EQs back. Otherwise you get swept. Bad matchup.
A+ Rank
Entei: Milotic and Rhyperior are pretty hard stops to entei, which will otherwise wreak havoc on this team. Have to be sure to keep milotic healthy when you see one of these. If it’s BandTei, then Rhyperior can setup.
Mega Swampert: Offensive variants of mega-swampert are a gigantic threat to this team. Unless you correctly predict a raindance and tailwind with beedrill, then you are in for a bad time. Sylveon and milotic can deal with defensive variants, though EQ will still do a big chunk to everything.
Cobalion: Cobalion can be very difficult for this team to deal with. Scarf sets kill beedrill, but are otherwise manageable. SD sets, and particularly magnet rise, leaving you hoping for a scald burn from milotic so that you don’t get 6-0d. If it’s late game, I usually find myself just sac. tail winding with beedrill, and then cleaning up with Sylveon or Honchkrow. Doesn’t give the team many choices.
Celebi: mixed bag. Support sets get feasted on by Beedrill and Honchkrow. Scarf set is sneakier and can be an issue, especially if it carries coverage for forretress. Baton pass is fine unless it has weird coverage. As usual, Celebi just needs to be scouted to safely beat it.
Mamoswine: Another big threat to the team. EQ does number to everything and ice shard can kill beedrill and honchkrow, which would otherwise outspeed. Milotic is soft check here, but usually they won’t stay in to take a scald.
Krookodile: Pretty easy to handle. If it’s not scarf, milotic just walls it. If it is the (worse) scarf set, then you have an easy switch into any of EQ, Stone Edge, Knock Off.
Gyarados: If it’s the sub-DD set you lose. If not, you still lose. Have to pray for scald burn. Bad matchup.
Mega Swampert: Offensive variants of mega-swampert are a gigantic threat to this team. Unless you correctly predict a raindance and tailwind with beedrill, then you are in for a bad time. Sylveon and milotic can deal with defensive variants, though EQ will still do a big chunk to everything.
Cobalion: Cobalion can be very difficult for this team to deal with. Scarf sets kill beedrill, but are otherwise manageable. SD sets, and particularly magnet rise, leaving you hoping for a scald burn from milotic so that you don’t get 6-0d. If it’s late game, I usually find myself just sac. tail winding with beedrill, and then cleaning up with Sylveon or Honchkrow. Doesn’t give the team many choices.
Celebi: mixed bag. Support sets get feasted on by Beedrill and Honchkrow. Scarf set is sneakier and can be an issue, especially if it carries coverage for forretress. Baton pass is fine unless it has weird coverage. As usual, Celebi just needs to be scouted to safely beat it.
Mamoswine: Another big threat to the team. EQ does number to everything and ice shard can kill beedrill and honchkrow, which would otherwise outspeed. Milotic is soft check here, but usually they won’t stay in to take a scald.
Krookodile: Pretty easy to handle. If it’s not scarf, milotic just walls it. If it is the (worse) scarf set, then you have an easy switch into any of EQ, Stone Edge, Knock Off.
Gyarados: If it’s the sub-DD set you lose. If not, you still lose. Have to pray for scald burn. Bad matchup.
Other threats
Mega Sceptile: Beedrill speed ties and honchkrow will usually scare it out, but leaf storm sceptiles can really do a number on this team. Because all the grass resists lack recovery, it’s not too difficult for sceptile to wear you down.
Sylveon: Beedrill easily KOs and milotic can mirror coat it, but nothing likes switching into this. Forretress can do some custap nonsense, as is the case with everything not named blissey, nothing can switch in safely on sylveon.
Crawdaunt: SD Crawdaunt will put a big hole in this team if not sweep. Aqua Jet kills beedrill and honchkrow if it sets up and it outspeeds sylveon. Don’t let it setup.
Sylveon: Beedrill easily KOs and milotic can mirror coat it, but nothing likes switching into this. Forretress can do some custap nonsense, as is the case with everything not named blissey, nothing can switch in safely on sylveon.
Crawdaunt: SD Crawdaunt will put a big hole in this team if not sweep. Aqua Jet kills beedrill and honchkrow if it sets up and it outspeeds sylveon. Don’t let it setup.
Replays
These aren’t great. Only have a few
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-392415601
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uususpecttest-379597513
*Disclaimer*
I started playing UU again after a long break since the early days of XY, and obviously much has changed since then. Pieces of this team I had run to decent success in OU, and after seeing that most of what I was using was UU-legal (and therefore could be hidden from the horrors of Lando-T and Talonflame), I made the switch. Bear in mind that I am fairly new to the current UU meta (on&off since Sylveon drop), so there are definitely some threats that I simply am not covering or common sets I just don’t know about.
Beedrill-Mega @ Beedrillite
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Poison Jab
- Tailwind
- Protect
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 176 HP / / 252 SpA / 80 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Baton Pass
- Quick Attack
Forretress @ Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Heavy Slam
Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Competitive
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Mirror Coat
- Recover
Honchkrow @ Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- Brave Bird
- Heat Wave
Rhyperior @ Passho Berry
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Poison Jab
- Tailwind
- Protect
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 176 HP / / 252 SpA / 80 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Baton Pass
- Quick Attack
Forretress @ Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Heavy Slam
Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Competitive
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Mirror Coat
- Recover
Honchkrow @ Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- Brave Bird
- Heat Wave
Rhyperior @ Passho Berry
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
