Importable: Spoiler Venusaur (M) @ Choice Scarf Trait: Overgrow EVs: 56 HP / 200 Spd / 252 SAtk Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Leaf Storm - Sleep Powder - Sludge Bomb - Earthquake Toxicroak (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Dry Skin EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Focus Punch - Substitute - Stone Edge - Sucker Punch Houndoom (M) @ Choice Specs Trait: Flash Fire EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Overheat - Dark Pulse - Flamethrower - Hidden Power [Flying] Swellow (M) @ Flame Orb Trait: Guts EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk) - Brave Bird - Facade - Protect - Quick Attack Dugtrio (M) @ Life Orb Trait: Arena Trap EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Earthquake - Sucker Punch - Stone Edge - Aerial Ace Haunter (M) @ Life Orb Trait: Levitate EVs: 4 Def / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Thunderbolt - Shadow Ball - Hypnosis - Psychic [/HIDE] This team is overdue for a retirement, but it served me extremely well while it lasted. The surprise factor of my lead, combined with the difficulty of landing a hit, causes my opponents to suffer immensely. The general strategy is to capitalize on immunities to get free switch-ins followed by a hard hit on the switch in. Plumos Viir (Venusaur) (M) @ Choice Scarf Trait: Overgrow EVs: 56 HP / 200 Spd / 252 SAtk Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Leaf Storm - Sleep Powder - Sludge Bomb - Earthquake SURPRISE! This is my favorite lead.... ever. The strategy is simple, most leads get put to sleep (yes, even if it looks like I'll lose the match-up) because they tend to assume that they'll move faster than I will. Generally, this works, but if it doesn't, I either rinse and repeat or switch out to Houndoom. The best match-ups are the ones that are against Trick-scarfers that think they're messing me up by tricking me one. Once the surprise factor has worked its magic, I switch out to a more appropriate pokemon to take care of their lead. My team is rather un-fond of stealth rock, so this strategy aims to avoid them. Venusaur makes a return appearance as necessary as a revenge killer, aiming to come in on leech seeds, toxic (spikes) and to threaten bulky waters and rock types that would otherwise threaten my team. Toxicroak (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Dry Skin EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Focus Punch - Substitute - Stone Edge - Sucker Punch Toxicroak used to get me many, many wins. Oftentimes I would find that my opponents would spam their water move assuming I'll switch out, allowing me to set up a sub and start whaling away. Stone Edge gives coverage, and Sucker Punch allows me to beat most ghost types. He's even defeated a Skarmory before. He's also my stall-breaker. Don't complain when your Softboiled/recover/rest/curse-spam gets blown through by a 36 PP 120BP Fighting move when it finally crits :P. As of late most bulky waters that I would switch in on have elected to carry Ice Beam, and fighting types Earthquake, so he's no longer capable of performing that duty quite as well. Houndoom (M) @ Choice Specs Trait: Flash Fire EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Overheat - Dark Pulse - Flamethrower - Hidden Power [Flying] Houndoom aims to fry. The sheer power Choice Specs allows for a more hit-and-run playstyle than the Nasty Plot setup would. Overheat with Flamethrower gives me the option of attempting to overpower my opponent, or stick around for a while. Hidden Power Flying gives him a fighting chance against fighting types, while Dark Pulse allows me to destroy ghosts and lanch some lucky flinches. The weaker my opponents team gets, the easier it is to sweep in the end, so it's all good. Swellow (M) @ Flame Orb Trait: Guts EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk) - Brave Bird - Facade - Protect - Quick Attack Ah Swellow. My sweeper, with immunities to Ghost and Ground, comes in to threaten, severely weaken or finish off as many opponents as it can with Guts-boosted STAB and priorities. Coming in on an immunity helps activate Guts that turn, however it's not always possible so Protect helps me activate it without (much) risk. Dugtrio (M) @ Life Orb Trait: Arena Trap EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Earthquake - Sucker Punch - Stone Edge - Aerial Ace I spent some time agonizing over the item choice... originally I had a Choice Band on him, but I found that it restricted me too much in allowing me to get the kills that I needed after whatever I originally trapped. Having now tried both, Life Orb is my preference here, but he does perform equally well (in particular, better against Chansey) with it. One of my favorite tactics is to switch him in on a sleeping pokemon, sealing their fate. Again, priority here helps me prevent scarfed pokemon from running all over me. Haunter (M) @ Life Orb Trait: Levitate EVs: 4 Def / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Thunderbolt - Shadow Ball - Hypnosis - Psychic I wanted a ghost type here, and I wasn't impressed until I started looking through the NFEs. Haunter in my opinion is one of the best sweepers in UU. Unfortunately he doesn't have the coverage that his Evo Gengar has, not having Focus Blast. To compensate for this, I gave him Hypnosis. This gives me two sleeps, allowing me to threaten Ambipom leads with the same fate that Venusaur deals to every other lead by putting it to sleep. He's also got Life orb, which means that after the first turn he has better flexibility to land sleeps. Backup plans are awesome ^_^. With thunderbolt to hit water types, and Psychic to hit the fighting types I usually switch into, the only thing he fears is being pursuit/sucker punch trapped(another reason for Hypnosis). Well, I hope you enjoyed this team. Now to figure out what my next one will be >_<
just wanna let you know that someone will yell at you for not reading the rules. (putting explainations after each pokemon) On a team rating note, i would use mismagius over haunter, even though you said you didnt like it, the amount of sweeps its gotten me is amazing. and its faster than haunter :D
Actually I didn't, the importable part is hidden in the hide tags. The problem with Mismagius is that it takes set-up. The point of the team is to hit and run... something Mismagius is not good at. She can't come in on bulky waters, absorb a toxic and proceed to thunderbolt them either. Thanks for the input though.
absorb a toxic, no, proceed to Tbolt, yes. Mismagius is also faster and more durable - can't see Haunter switch in anything - albeit not as powerful. A Scyther would also fit your team nicely. Not saying a it is a bad team, I find it quite well - built.
ooh, i did not see that, my bad. there are also ways to use mismagius that dont require set-up, probably the choice set, which also has the added benifit of screwing up walls(with trick) but if youre hellbent on using haunter then i have no objections