The Chonky Danger Noodle: Zygarde Bulky Offence
Background
Recently I was feeling quite a bit of nostalgia for my favourite metagame of all time, Gen 7 ubers. However, given that it is a lower tier in an old gen, outside of hitting the RoA bingo it is not possible to throw a team together and have some fun on the ladder. With the dissolution of Natdex AG and its subsequent replacement with Natdex Ubers that itch got stronger so I somewhat hastily threw together a team that has worked surprisngly well. Though I forgot to take a screenshot I have peaked at #3 on the ladder. This is the first RMT I have made so please forgive any formatting errors.
Teambuilding Process
When building a team the first thing to do is to decide what exactly you want to do. Having not played Natdex Ubers before I took a quick peak at the viability rankings and the idea of a team based around Zygarde sounded fun. I settled on the defensive tera fairy set as it would allow a lot of leeway as I acclimated to the tier. This ended up being a good choice as sweeping with this mon is one of the most satisfying things in all of pokemon.
Well how should I go about getting hazards?
I then had to decide on which groudon set I wanted. Not being familiar with the tier I didn't think it was a great idea to start building a team without it. As it received spikes this generation I thought that would be fun to play around with. I didn't want to put both rocks and spikes on Groudon so I decided to use NDM. It provided further protection against Xerneas and it is hard to go wrong with one of the best mons in the tier. It is boring and standard, but does what it needs to do.
And how should I remove them?
I then looked around for a defogger and settled on Ho-oh. Arceus felt too passive as a defogger on this team. Zygarde deals well with nearly every primal groudon set so I was not particularly keen on Giratina-O. Ho-oh spreads status, hits fairly hard, and completed the defensive core. Xerneas is no longer a worry and I've managed to memory hole the sole loss I've had to it (3 precipice blades misses and 3 sacred fire misses against a sub tera steel xern).
This team feels a tad too passive
The team felt a little passive and I remembered loving life orb in SM. It gives the team a knock user, taunt to help against bulkier teams, and nothing really loves taking a big ol smack from an it.
Perhaps Zygarde could use some help
For the last member of the squad I wanted a special attacker and what better teammate for Zygod than God itself. Admittedly, I'm not the biggest fan of it but seemingly every time I start to look towards another mon it reminds me why it is on the squad. It softchecks a lot of important things and having something with a bit of speed really helps. Every time i've tested the team with a different 6th mon it has performed a lot worse than w/ Arceus-Water.
The Team
For how great this mon is on paper and in practise it really does not spend much actually on the field. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of my matches on the ladder have been facing some form of HO or bulky offence teetering on HO rather than balance or stall teams. As a result, maintaining Groudon's health so it is able to take a hit from some threat later in the game and revenge it than let it get chipped heavily is more valuable thana layer of spikes. Against HO teams this team generally just needs one layer of hazards to break annoying sashes and rocks serve that purpose. However, against bulkier teams the layer of spikes is quite nice
There are not a ton of interesting things to say about this mon. It feels quite underwhelming at times but does its job very well. It is a good answer backbone against mons that this team would otherwise struggle quite a bit against such as Deoxys-A and Mega Mewtwo Y. It gets up rocks, it toxics the Ho-oh, Groudon, Giratina switching in and leaves.
Ho-Oh really glues the entire team together. It pivots to scout movesets and ev investment, deals with threats, defogs when needed, spreads status, and deals good damage with its attacks. All while regaining HP when switching out after doing one of the million things it has been asked to do that battle. It will frequently do all that then come and finish out the match when needed.
When building this team I truly had no idea how good this mon would be. It is truly the MVP of the team and cleans an absurd number of teams with shockingly little support. Unless I am incredibly stupid this mon just does not die. Midgame it will probably tera, take little to no damage from something and glare it to set up its own sweep later. The only physical attacker that has something of a chance of taking it down is tera normal E-killer and even then that is far from a given. It still shocks me when I see boosted sunsteel strikes and behemoth blades bounce off post tera. It is even difficult to knock out from the special side as well though doable. It still requires an insanely strong or boosted attack though. The scariest thing for it to face would be Eternatus (more on that later).
This either goes ham or does not do much. It is often the lead and wallbreaks like crazy against bulkier teams. Against more offensive teams it is often not much more than a dark pulse and a sack unforfunately. Taunt -> Dark Pulse -> Oblivion wing to start a game v a Pdon is always nice. However it has to watch out for eruption/ water spout from the primals as both are a OHKO. That alone has made me wonder if it is worth running max speed.
As mentioned above this mon frequently makes me feel like I should drop it but it has a fair few good qualities that I havn't been able to find a replacement for. It is a one time switchin to the primals and gets necessary chip. On Groudon I can see how defensive it is with the earth power chip. It very soft checks Eternatus which this team has a very hard time dealing with outside of Groudon coming in after a ko. It also just sweeps opposing teams on occasion and outspeeds things early game that I do not want to glare or switch something else into.
Threats
Eternatus
Any non tspike set is hard for this team to play around and cosmic power is incredibly difficult. Ho-oh + NDM can somewhat handle meteor beam and Arceus-Water + Groudon can handle it but don't particularly like to switch in
Taunt + CM Arceus
In my experience this has usually been either Ground or Dark. Ground is usually a sweep as I'll be unable to force a tera on something else and it will tera water v Arceus-Water. Dark is a bit more managable.
Primal Kyogre
If it is max speed it is going to rip some serious holes in the team early game with water spout before it gets chipped or statused. Once it has been it is much easier to deal though still a bit annoying. Groudon is likely going to be sack fodder after dealing with it.
And that is the team. Please let me know what improvements/changes I am able to make
When building a team the first thing to do is to decide what exactly you want to do. Having not played Natdex Ubers before I took a quick peak at the viability rankings and the idea of a team based around Zygarde sounded fun. I settled on the defensive tera fairy set as it would allow a lot of leeway as I acclimated to the tier. This ended up being a good choice as sweeping with this mon is one of the most satisfying things in all of pokemon.
Well how should I go about getting hazards?
I then had to decide on which groudon set I wanted. Not being familiar with the tier I didn't think it was a great idea to start building a team without it. As it received spikes this generation I thought that would be fun to play around with. I didn't want to put both rocks and spikes on Groudon so I decided to use NDM. It provided further protection against Xerneas and it is hard to go wrong with one of the best mons in the tier. It is boring and standard, but does what it needs to do.
And how should I remove them?
I then looked around for a defogger and settled on Ho-oh. Arceus felt too passive as a defogger on this team. Zygarde deals well with nearly every primal groudon set so I was not particularly keen on Giratina-O. Ho-oh spreads status, hits fairly hard, and completed the defensive core. Xerneas is no longer a worry and I've managed to memory hole the sole loss I've had to it (3 precipice blades misses and 3 sacred fire misses against a sub tera steel xern).
This team feels a tad too passive
The team felt a little passive and I remembered loving life orb in SM. It gives the team a knock user, taunt to help against bulkier teams, and nothing really loves taking a big ol smack from an it.
Perhaps Zygarde could use some help
For the last member of the squad I wanted a special attacker and what better teammate for Zygod than God itself. Admittedly, I'm not the biggest fan of it but seemingly every time I start to look towards another mon it reminds me why it is on the squad. It softchecks a lot of important things and having something with a bit of speed really helps. Every time i've tested the team with a different 6th mon it has performed a lot worse than w/ Arceus-Water.
The Team
Groudon @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Precipice Blades
- Overheat
- Toxic
Ability: Drought
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Precipice Blades
- Overheat
- Toxic
Necrozma-Dusk Mane @ Leftovers
Ability: Prism Armor
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 188 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Sunsteel Strike
- Toxic
- Morning Sun
Ability: Prism Armor
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 188 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Sunsteel Strike
- Toxic
- Morning Sun
Ho-Oh @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 SpD
Impish Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Toxic
- Defog
- Brave Bird
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 SpD
Impish Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Toxic
- Defog
- Brave Bird
Zygarde @ Leftovers
Ability: Power Construct
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Coil
- Glare
- Thousand Arrows
- Rest
Ability: Power Construct
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Coil
- Glare
- Thousand Arrows
- Rest
Yveltal @ Life Orb
Ability: Dark Aura
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Oblivion Wing
- Taunt
- Knock Off
Ability: Dark Aura
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Oblivion Wing
- Taunt
- Knock Off
Arceus-Water @ Splash Plate
Ability: Multitype
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Judgment
- Earth Power
- Recover
Ability: Multitype
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Judgment
- Earth Power
- Recover
I thought I had some replays saved but I did not so I just played a few games to get some
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-1831651612-gzqr5rh02894qza2kyygf7cdqe5gbifpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-1831662791-kjzdcpf5coj1xadboat1p8s9peok2bbpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-1831666586-i956tmt9xclobewrgtbqgzfu58clxphpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-1831651612-gzqr5rh02894qza2kyygf7cdqe5gbifpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-1831662791-kjzdcpf5coj1xadboat1p8s9peok2bbpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexubers-1831666586-i956tmt9xclobewrgtbqgzfu58clxphpw
Threats
Eternatus
Any non tspike set is hard for this team to play around and cosmic power is incredibly difficult. Ho-oh + NDM can somewhat handle meteor beam and Arceus-Water + Groudon can handle it but don't particularly like to switch in
Taunt + CM Arceus
In my experience this has usually been either Ground or Dark. Ground is usually a sweep as I'll be unable to force a tera on something else and it will tera water v Arceus-Water. Dark is a bit more managable.
Primal Kyogre
If it is max speed it is going to rip some serious holes in the team early game with water spout before it gets chipped or statused. Once it has been it is much easier to deal though still a bit annoying. Groudon is likely going to be sack fodder after dealing with it.
And that is the team. Please let me know what improvements/changes I am able to make