My beloved...
Team Here
I've been playing Pokemon Showdown for too long. At least 10 years, because I remember playing in college. Someone told me I have one of the highest number of games played by one account and I don't remember how to check that but that was probably a few years ago. And I play a lot, when I have a little down time, or while I'm listening to something, or on tilt when I decide I can't quit. And over all of this time I've used Umbreon. And I don't know why. I like Umbreon!
From my Gen 6 and 7 teams built around Umbreon / Volcarona / Cofagrigus, through to my current Gen 9 team. I don't like playing other teams or other styles, I like the familiarity. I know when I see the same popular team pop up that I have a strategy to use, but they probably don't have any idea what I'm doing. Sometimes that works great and other times it doesn't. And it's Pokemon so there's a ton of luck involved, I'm luckier than most.
I've been working on this team since 2022, based on the nicknames, and I've peaked on the ladder higher now than I have in a long time. And I don't want to play this weekend because I'll probably go on tilt and get knocked back down to the 1500's. So I wanted to break it down now before that happens.
Proof of Peak (I'm Auburn Hills)
Alvvays (Umbreon) - named after the great 2022 album "Blue Rev" by Alvvays
@ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Wish
- Thunder Wave
- Foul Play
This is my boy. Again, I don't know why I use Umbreon I just always have. It's ok as a Wish passer, outclassed by Alomomola, and Clefable. I like spreading Paralysis, which I think is underutilized in this format, both as a form of speed control and a way to get free turns out of your opponent. A lot of end games come down to parahax, sometimes on both sides. But in a format overrun with Gambit, we're all just trying to get our gambling fix. This current version of Umbreon is built specifically to outlast late game Gambit, with Inner Focus over Synchronize to dodge Iron Head flinches. I think in a few day span I lost games to a flinch maybe five times and just said fuck it. Synchronize is good against T-Wave Gholdengo, Dragapult, the rare Rotom Wash burn, but not much else. Most status is coming from mons unaffected by their own status move so it becomes moot. I liked the consistency of the flinch protection. I used to run Tera Ghost but switched to Water after rain teams were giving me trouble, and to better counter Gambit. I really hate late game Gambit.
Umbreon struggles with Fairy and Fighting types, but is a pretty strong wall against some common pokemon (with caveats). Great matchup into Darkrai (unless it Tricks you), Dragapult (unless banded), Dragonite (unless encore), Iron Moth (unless tera fairy/substitute), Roaring Moon (except tera fairy), Wellspring (unless encore), Walking Wake (unless specs Tera Water in the rain), and Kyurem (unless it's that weird stalling bulky Sub set, but even then it's ok if you predict the Protects right).
It has some strangely strong matchups against niche picks, Greninja is totally walled, Iron Crown isn't much of a threat even after Tera, Ceruledge gets wrecked with Foul Play, Basculegion and Barraskewda are quick kills after a Tera Water, and Jirachi is nothing without the flinch chances. It can also do surprisingly well against common would-be checks. Iron Valiant can get Para'd after doing only around 55% with a Moonblast, Umbreon can even sometimes live Close Combat at full but that's a risk. Same thing with Enamorus. Foul Play really punishes any physical attacker who tries to set up, like Chomp, Ursaluna, Scizor, Ogerpons, even Weavile a little bit or the rare SD Gliscor. It can survive against Bolt or Tusk with poison support from Glim, so I am a real boots hater.
Umbreon is just a cute little guy who can take hits, spread Para, and live to keep going. It's annoying and I have more experience using it than anyone on the planet at this point. Despite the bad matchups with really common options like Gambit, Great Tusk, Gholdengo, Zamazenta, Gliscor, Ting-Lu, Garganacl, etc., I just like the little guy.
Note: If anyone from GameFreak reads these forums, give Umbreon Poison Heal! It was supposed to be the poison Eevee so it makes thematic sense, Poison Heal only works on non-poison types, there isn't a better option. And it still wouldn't even be that good. But it would be a hell of a lot better, and the if the eeveelutions are fan favorites like you think they are giving them a little boost competitively would really help.
Julia Jacklin (Glimmora) - named after the great 2022 album "Pre Pleasure" by Julia Jacklin
@ Focus Sash
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Mortal Spin
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
Glimmora is one of my favorite Gen 9 designs, love the weird alien flower design, the cool ability, the little eyes. This is a standard lead Glim vs Glim set, with a goal of killing the other lead Glim and living to get a Toxic Spike up. Glim lead has become more rare and {oison types more prevalent, so lately I've been focused on getting rocks up and as many threats Poisoned as possible before going out in a blaze of glory. But with the high special attack, Glim can sometimes rack up some early kills. I love to see turn 1 Wellspring, non-sash Glim, or even just a chance to poison to Great Tusk or Raging Bolt or Ting Lu and get out of there.
It's frail and that's kind of the point. Sometimes it takes over a game and sometimes it does barely anything. Sash can be great in an end game against teams without hazards, and Sludge Wave hits like a truck when the opponent doesn't expect it sometimes. With the rise of Meteor Beam Glim it's in an interesting meta position, and definitely still hard walled by the trio of flying steel types in Corv, Skarm, and Air Balloon Gholdengo. But if my team ethos is to be annoying, spreading Poison and spreading Para go hand in hand in trying to hinder as many Pokemon in the matchup as possible.
Carly Rae (Iron Moth) - named after the great 2022 album "The Loneliest Time" by Carly Rae Jepson
@ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 120 Def / 132 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dazzling Gleam
- Fiery Dance
- Morning Sun
- Discharge
The rare non-Sludge Wave non-sub Iron Moth set. With no Volcarona in the meta this is my closest replacement, and it does an ok job. I really wish it had Quiver Dance though. Moth can be a really dependable late game cleaner, and has decent matchups into a lot of threat like Gholdengo, Moon, Valiant, Zamazenta (unless Stone Edge or Roar), Darkrai. I like surprising people with Discharge, especially Pelliper or Tera Flying Moon, and it's another way to spread paralysis pretty reliably. I love throwing out a Discharge, luring in Moon who think I must have Sludge Wave, then hitting it with D-Gleam. Satisfying. These are the kind of habits you pick up on after playing one team for so long.
But Moth has a lot of counters, and can often get wasted in the matchup. It can't really touch Ting Lu even after tera and gets whirlwinded out if not EQ'd. Can't touch Garg, needs boosts to realiably kill Zam, Gliscor and Lando need to be chipped, Dragonite is a menace even para'd it can extreme speed and even Tera Fairy it can live through scale and Extreme Speed. Glowking is probably the biggest threat, just can't be touched without a lot of boosts or a lot of Para luck. Not great into stall at all really, but Discharge does surpise Dozo sometimes.
But when it's on it's on, and can really run away in certain endgames. Even in a bad matchup it can provide some reliable damage before bowing out. Tera fairy is primarily for late game Gambit, like a lot of my choices, to live even boosted Sucker Punch. Morning Sun is great to get some health back in those situations, and the added defense gives it some reliable bulk. I don't remember what I calc'd to get these numbers and should probably change it lol.
Smino (Gholdengo) - named after the great 2022 album "Luv 4 Rent" by Smino
@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Good as GoldTera Type: Flying
EVs: 68 Def / 252 SpA / 188 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick
- Make It Rain
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
Gholdengo, to me, is the classic OU pokemon for this generation. It's broken and weird looking, but fun to play and fun to play against I think. I've changed up this set a lot, it used to Covert Cloak specifically to target Garganacl, who I hate so much. But with Garg not being too popular I switched to a more standard Choice Scarf Trick set. Great to Great Tusk, Zamazenta, trick onto Gambit, or Garg, or Blissey, or Gliscor if I'm really lucky. Even without Nasty Plot it hits like a truck, and Make It Rain and Shadow Ball are great coverage. Tera Flying to surprise one ground attacker and hopefully take it out, or to get above Sticky Web in that annoying matchup.
The defense is calc'd specifically to take two Zamazenta Crunches. I mainly switched to Choice Scarf because Zama was killing me, but this gives me a pretty solid matchup. Either it gets tricked, or it switches out, so that defense boost is gone and I have a chance with my other guys. Otherwise everything is pretty standard, psyshock might be the weakest link here, without Nasty Plot it's not great against Blissey but sacrificing two move slots to Blissey is a lot. Does great against Clodsire at least. Keep my guy in the tier, or at least ban Gambit with him. And Gliscor, and Garg. Ban all the G's or none of them imo.
Elucid (Dragonite) - named after the great 2022 album "I Told Bessie" by Elucid
@ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Ice Spinner
Punch one of my 1-2 physical punch. Standard DD D-nite set, Earthquake is the best move all around, Ice Spinner for coverage, and Extreme Speed is broken especially after Tera. I have a bad habit of using Dragonite too early in games, especially against other Dragonite teams, mainly because of my team's overall weakness to Ground. It can come in early and get a few strong hits in, and leave the rest of the team to clean up. I don't love the Dragonite on Dragonite matchup, and usually leave Umbreon to para and Foul Play other Dragonites to death. But it can hold it's own with Ice Spinner or at least bait out Tera.
This thing is made to do as much damage as possible, and can use Tera offensively to get that extra Extreme Speed boost or defensively to live an Ice attack. It's useless against stall unless it can take out Gliscor turn one. Pairs pretty well with Umbreon, able to take a Wish and reset Multiscale in a lot of situations. Good versatility in a lot of matchups, but it often comes down to rolls and predictions against Great Tusk / Gambit. And Pult is a big problem, needs to be +2 to outspeed and Extreme Speed is a non-factor. Really any fast Tera ghost mon is a problem, but I think they're becoming more rare as Sucker Punch is probably a more common threat.
Rat Tally (Garchomp) - named after the great 2022 album "In My Car" by Rat Tally (which was my AOTY)
@ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Scale Shot
- Earthquake
- Tera Blast
I love this Garchomp. The man really became underrated but the physical Swords Dance set wins a lot of games for me. It can really snowball quickly with even one Scale Shot speed boost, and it has enough natural bulk + leftovers recovery to tank priority hits late game. Tera Electric surpises the hell out of people, especially Corv/Skarm/Moltres teams, usual walls that can get blown right past. In the right position this can win games from the jump, or at least knock some holes in teams. My most common early Tera, which is a habit I'm trying to break. Tera Electric does give me another Ground weakness though, so it may be counterintuitive. But in the right matchup and played well it's hard to stop.
Decent matchups against many common threats, can handle non-boosted Gambit pretty well, easy to knock out Great Tusk with some chip, can surprise Tera on Valiant for a kill, or Tera to survive common Ice Beams and set up. Sinistcha is a real weird matchup, I can set up through the Strength Saps unless I get burned, but the rarer Foul Play variants is a quick knock out for me. Can set up on passive Lando's pre-tera, can still really hit Bolt post-Tera, solid chance against Dragonite, 2 HKO's Wellsrping unless I miss Scale Shot.
The inconsistency of Scale Shot is probably the biggest reason I lose games in tough situations. One miss when I need the speed boost is a killer, but even worse I often get the minimum 2 hits when I specifically need three. It has happened to me so many times against Sticky Web Araquanid in particular. I can set up 3 SD's, predict the Endure's perfectly, and then land two hits of Scale Shot in the perfect range to activate Colbur Berry. This has happened more times than I can count, and when it doesn't I can sweep the game 1 vs 6. So frustrating. Might switch out Leftovers for Loaded Dice but that recovery is so vital late game against priority, it's a tough call. We are rolling dice with a lot of numbers at the end of the day.
Overall weakness
- Stall. Terrible matchup into stall. I think I've gotten so high on the ladder lately primarily because I've been seeing less stall. Sometimes if I'm frustrated and I see a stall team I just forfeit rather than play 80 turns and lose. I can win the matchup sometimes but it takes a lot of prediction and baiting out tera's. If I trick the right pokemon I can whittle them down, but all of my sweepers have a strong check, so I have to keep the right mon on my side untouched. Umbreon and Glim have no good matchups, Clod and Blissey wall Moth (I think I've beaten a handful of Blissey's by powering up fiery dance through para's against their calm minds, but that's a slog and not in my favor), Dragonite is walled by Dozo and gets poisoned easily, and Chomp is usually my reliable breaker but I need to surprise Dozo with tera electric and have the opponent burn their tera first, and not get poisoned by Gliscor in the process. Gholdengo does okay, but a tera dark Blissey really grinds things to a halt and without recover it gets chipped pretty easily. The team sucks as currently constructed against all of this.
- Being outgunned is another issue. This is not a full HO team by any means, and does pretty well into a lot of those matchups, but if an opponent gets some setup after good predictions I don't have a lot than can stop it. Iron Moth is my only really fast mon, and if that booster energy is burned my speed control is not great. Umbreon can really take some hits but if it gets chipped down with spikes or has to handle too much, it's not hard to take out. And my only priority is extreme speed, which can be countered easily in a lot of matchups. There a lot of pokemon I can take on, but only once, and it's hard to get back to a stable position after getting knocked down once. I really have to neutralize threats quickly and they just take over. Part of why I hate late game Gambit.
- Not great against Ground and Poison heavy teams. Gliscor, Ting Lu, Glowking, and Pecharunt always give me trouble. More niche picks like Tinkaton can be annoying to deal with, also Lokix and Primarina. And there's just certain surprise sets that really throw me and can steal a game, I think the main advantage of using a weird team is adding a surprise factor against more standard teams. Standard looking teams with one out there pick in Tera or moveset can really swing that advantage.
- Also, Garganacl. I hate Garganacl more than anything else. Why does it have like three abilities? For a guy running a pretty annoying team that guy is too much. Ugly too. I would never use it. SD Garchomp can usually do ok, especially Tera Water against Tera Electric, but it's just so annoying and usually fucks me up late game. Hate it.
Note: I don't save replays unless the games are like really close and strategically interesting or really lucky lol. So I don't have saved replays of the team working well and doing what it should.
1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2251804615 (60 turns, down to the wire)
2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2241845229 (37 turns, late game Glim!)
3. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2231543173?p2 (18 turns, wild Tera Steel vs Tera Ghost interaction)
4. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2063820256-7e6usjbe9sifdrfwx5hiveo3g2vycndpw (19 turns, heavenly luck win)
5. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2044187345-1pcxolu4gl6qoz66wec6mqhumasnwylpw (50 turns, para and luck completely turning a game around)
6. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2208834272 (75 turns, I could tell this guy was going to hit Sucker every time and stalled them out of pp, so fun to do)
So that's the team. I've been playing it for three years and it has some glaring weaknesses so I might finally change it. I used to run Volc pre-ban, I tried out Meowscarada with Thunder Punch before Garchomp, and I've mixed Tera's and movesets around a lot. Ultimately with an Umbreon team it's not gonna be perfect, I could just not use Umbreon. Well someone could, at this point I can't, it's been 12 years probably. I'm set in my ways. But it could be improved on the margins and get a little better, maybe tweaked enough to get top 5 on a good run. But I'm mostly playing for the challenge and the consistency of knowing my team.
But also, it's a lot of luck. Fortune favors the bold, and I think in this game fortune favors those who play more. I lose a lot of games to luck and win a lot of games because of luck. Eventually you get luckier than you are unlucky. It's always better to be lucky than good.
I at least could change the nicknames. My top 6 albums in 2024 were Gouge Away (Garchomp), Magdalena Bay (Dragonite), Charli XCX (Gholdengo), Remi Wolf (Iron Moth), Haley Heynderickx (Umbreon), and julie (Glimmora). Forget my team I'd rather talk music. I'm taking a break this weekend to work on my screenplay, I don't have time to keep trying to make Umbreon work! But I'll always be back, at least this is cheaper and less destructive than a gambling addiction.
