Defensive UU team

[Sabinfrost]

Hey guys! First team I've uploaded here, this is a relatively defensive team I've been playing around with for a while now and so far I like it. I have moderate experience with battling and tend to prefer playing rather stall heavy and forcing switches. I'd welcome some constructive feedback, particularly for threats I might have overlooked as I know I've missed something.


Kabutops - (weak armour/focus sash)

Adamant - 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Hp

Stealth Rocks
Rapid Spin
Stone Edge
Waterfall

[This is an Aerodactyl style suicide lead, with the sash/weak armour boost it can set up rocks or potentially outspeed/kill enemy leads with dual stab. It can be useful to bring in and spin out enemy entry hazards]


Nidoking – (Sheer Force/Life Orb)

Quiet - 132 HP / 252 SpA / 124 Att

Ice Beam
Earth Power
Sucker Punch
Roar

[This is a mixed set capable of sweeping in a trick room, the reason I decided to go mixed is because the life orb boosted sucker punch is valuable as priority given my team is quite slow. Nidoking has fairly nice defensive typing, I gave him roar to shuffle Pokemon trying to set up or sub stall against him. Roar is nice ability to have on any team]

Tangrowth - (Regenerator/Leftovers)

Adamant - 252 HP / 252 Att / 4 Def

Knock Off
Power Whip
Earth Quake
Sleep Powder

[A bulky physical attacker capable of dealing a lot of damage in a trick room, he can switch about for recovery and knock off is an underused trick if you expect your opponent to switch out. Sleep Powder is mostly to cripple enemy sweepers as his health/natural physical bulk lets him take a lot of hits quite well]

Snorlax - (Thick Fat/Leftovers)

Careful - 188 HP / 104 Def / 216 SDef

Body Slam
Ice Punch
Pursuit
Curse

[Snorlax is my favourite Pokemon, I use him as a specially bulky normal, thick fat is his biggest advantage over other specially bulky normals. Ice Punch is for coverage as I already have a lot of ground moves so I decided not to take Earthquake. Curse is a nice stat boost, especially with trick room and pursuit often surprises opponents who switch out on him]

Slowbro - (Regenerator/Leftovers)

Relaxed - 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA

Trick Room
Psychic
Toxic
Slack Off

[This set is fairly standard, he's capable of switching in and out and setting up trick room numerous times with recovery, his stab attack gives the team useful coverage. Defensively his typing works very well with the other pokemon on the team like Snorlax and Tangrowth]

Rotom - H - (Levitate/Choice Scarf)

Modest - 252 SpA / 252 SpE / 4 SpD

Trick
Thunderbolt
Overheat
Will-o-Wisp

[Mostly I use it as a revenge killer, it's also quite a powerful special attacker. Trick scarfing can be particularly crippling with the trick room and will - o - wisp can be handy for crippling physical attackers, though it's not always the best ability to get locked in on]


Overall I think the Pokemon on the team are very cool, there may be a few better options for certain spots though. I'm not sure how well it checks all the possible counters in the current tiers.

EDIT: Fixed a typo with Rotom - it was not supposed to be 252 SpE not a second SpD
EDIT 2: I decided to swap out Fire Punch for Ice Punch on Snorlax as the coverage fit a bit better and I already have Rotom for Steel types
EDIT 3: I took the EV advice on Kabutops (eventually) and also swapped out Aqua Jet for Waterfall for neutral accuracy mostly
EDIT 4: I switched Scald for Psychic on Slowbro as I mostly switch him in on fighting types and I have no other flying or psychic moves

 

[Braseg257]

Good team Sabinfrost, really a good team.
No common weaknesses and good bulk.
I'm not totally sure of the evs spread of kabutops...if he's a suicide pkmn why 132 evs in Hp?

 

[Sabinfrost]

Good team Sabinfrost, really a good team.
No common weaknesses and good bulk.
I'm not totally sure of the evs spread of kabutops...if he's a suicide pkmn why 132 evs in Hp?

It's mostly to let him survive after hazards in order to have a hope of being used as a rapid spinner outside of first turn against set up leads.

Weak Armour is really good offensively letting you out-speed most enemies anyway if they trigger your sash.

 

[puregenius]

if kabutops is a suicide lead i reckon he'd be better off with swords dance so u can sd first turn he will either atk u and u get ur weak armour boost or he sets up hazards at this point u can boost again or atk

 

[puregenius]

and max speed evs

 

[Undefinedmaster]

Hey guys! First team I've uploaded here, this is a relatively defensive team I've been playing around with for a while now and so far I like it. I have moderate experience with battling and tend to prefer playing rather stall heavy and forcing switches. I'd welcome some constructive feedback, particularly for threats I might have overlooked as I know I've missed something.


Kabutops - (weak armour/focus sash)

Adamant - 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spe

Stealth Rocks
Rapid Spin
Stone Edge
Aqua Jet

[This is a fairly standard Aerodactyl style suicide lead, with the sash/weak armour boost it can set up rocks or potentially outspeed/kill enemy leads with stone edge and aqua jet. It can be useful to bring in and spin out enemy entry hazards]

Nidoking – (Sheer Force/Life Orb)

Quiet - 132 HP / 252 SpA / 124 Att

Ice Beam
Earth Power
Sucker Punch
Roar

[This is a mixed set capable of sweeping in a trick room, the reason I decided to go mixed is because the life orb boosted sucker punch is valuable as priority given my team is quite slow. Nidoking has fairly nice defensive typing, I gave him roar to shuffle Pokemon trying to set up or sub stall against him. Roar is nice ability to have on any team]

Tangrowth - (Regenerator/Leftovers)

Adamant - 252 HP / 252 Att / 4 Def

Knock Off
Power Whip
Earth Quake
Sleep Powder

[A bulky physical attacker capable of dealing a lot of damage in a trick room, he can switch about for recovery and knock off is an underused trick if you expect your opponent to switch out. Sleep Powder is mostly to cripple enemy sweepers as his health/natural physical bulk lets him take a lot of hits quite well]

Snorlax - (Thick Fat/Leftovers)

Careful - 188 HP / 104 Def / 216 SpD

Body Slam
Fire Punch
Pursuit
Curse

[Snorlax is my favourite Pokemon, I use him as a specially bulky normal, thick fat is his biggest advantage over other specially bulky normals. Fire punch is for coverage as I already have a lot of ground moves, I might swap it out for something else. Curse is a nice stat boost, especially with trick room and pursuit often surprises opponents who switch out on him]

Slowbro - (Regenerator/Leftovers)

Bold - 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA

Trick Room
Scald
Toxic
Slack Off

[This set is fairly standard, he's capable of switching in and out and setting up trick room numerous times with recovery, his stab attack gives the team useful coverage and sometimes burns. Defensively his typing works very well with the other pokemon on the team like Snorlax and Tangrowth]

Rotom - H - (Levitate/Choice Scarf)

Modest - 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 4 SpD

Trick
Thunderbolt
Overheat
Will-o-Wisp

[Mostly I use it as a revenge killer, it's also quite a powerful special attacker. Trick scarfing can be particularly crippling with the trick room and will - o - wisp can be handy for crippling physical attackers, though it's not always the best ability to get locked in on]


Overall I think the Pokemon on the team are very cool, there may be a few better options for certain spots though. I'm not sure how well it checks all the possible counters in the current tiers.

Well I must say that your ev distribution isn't very good. Alonso was the only good distribution I see. With the last pokemon you said speed twice for your last pokemon. If you are going to ev train attack and speed, there is no point for hp, and he should kill the opponent without taking damage himself. If your training hp, always do defense or sp. Defense. With Att or sp. Att alway do speed.

That's what I think. Thanks!

 

[Sabinfrost]

Well I must say that your ev distribution isn't very good. Alonso was the only good distribution I see. With the last pokemon you said speed twice for your last pokemon. If you are going to ev train attack and speed, there is no point for hp, and he should kill the opponent without taking damage himself. If your training hp, always do defense or sp. Defense. With Att or sp. Att alway do speed.

That's what I think. Thanks!

Sorry? What's Alonso and why is it the only good distribution? Rotom was supposed to be SpE and 4 SpD, that was a typo, I'm going to edit it. I think you've also over-looked the roll of the trick room for Nidoking and Tangrowth as well as Tangrowth's ability to switch in, take a hit, and switch out and recover.

 

[puregenius]

u really should have more than 1 poke setting up trick room imo

 

[Sabinfrost]

u really should have more than 1 poke setting up trick room imo

Any suggestions?

 

[BLINGAS]

Your team has absolutely nothing for Max Def Bold Chansey,
I suggest a Rest Talk Heracross with
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
This could help patch up your chansey problem.

 

[XxVincentxX]

Your Kabutops run EVs in HP but is holding a focus sash. Sash is good, but you should try to give max atk max speed

 

[Sabinfrost]

I made a couple of changes, I altered the EVs on Kabutops due to advice after a few games and swapped Aqua Jet for Waterfall. I found the priority move was less important than the powerful stab coverage and higher accuracy compared to Stone Edge.

 

[TheSpeedyShaymin]

Is this a trick room team? If so, why do you have a scarfer, and why does only one Poke run Trick Room? And it seems like curselax should just run 252 HP/252 SpD as Curse will continuously raise his Def.

 

[Sabinfrost]

It's not full trick room abuse, more an unconventional, bulky team without playing full stall.

The only Poke that benefits from trick room expressly is Tangrowth (and lax, though he functions as my special wall, not a trick room sweeper) and he isn't useless without it. Bulky Tangrowth (even offensive) has incredible synergy for sponging physical hits with Slowbro, the two swapping back and forward can completely stall some players due to regenerator.

Nidoking certainly benefits from Trick Room given he has no speed investment, he does however have a powerful priority move and can shuffle threats that wont OHKO him. Being bulkier lets me use his fantastic typing defensively, plus, there is no point being fast if you're going to roar lol :)

Even trick room teams often run scarfers, two reasons, the first is that tricking a scarf makes your opponent suffer under your trick room for no benefit and the other is that if you don't have trick room up without an adequate wall you are very easy to sweep, having a fast Pokemon means you're not completely reliant on keeping it up all game.

 

[the dead mans oddysey]

i honestly think the team is a bit, meh. defensive you claim. but i have a few queries about this team.

1. nidoking is the OFFENSIVE side of the nidoqueen/king family. you want defense? use nido queen. its got better bulk. same speed. and its attacking prowess isnt half bad compared to nidokings either. also, it give's you a chance to set up T-spikes.

2. your spinner is good. but use a blastoise. i know its themost common spinner, but if you use him, you can keep any psychic moves on slowbro, plus keeping scald. rocks as im led to believe can be setup by nidoqueen aswell, so that covers everything.


if it goes well, tell me. but these changes are neccisary for a DEFENSIVE UU team.

 

[Sabinfrost]

i honestly think the team is a bit, meh. defensive you claim. but i have a few queries about this team.

1. nidoking is the OFFENSIVE side of the nidoqueen/king family. you want defense? use nido queen. its got better bulk. same speed. and its attacking prowess isnt half bad compared to nidokings either. also, it give's you a chance to set up T-spikes.

2. your spinner is good. but use a blastoise. i know its themost common spinner, but if you use him, you can keep any psychic moves on slowbro, plus keeping scald. rocks as im led to believe can be setup by nidoqueen aswell, so that covers everything.


if it goes well, tell me. but these changes are neccisary for a DEFENSIVE UU team.

I'm not playing stall, it is a defensive team, it's just not all out defense.

Nidoking is my special attacker and a solid wall breaker.

Blastoise doesn't sweep from the lead position or set up rocks, Kabutops does.

 

[Machineae]

If you're asking for constructive feedback why are you giving simple one sentence replies to peoples suggestions that pretty much go like this: "No because >insert opinion based reason here<"

 

[Sabinfrost]

If you're asking for constructive feedback why are you giving simple one sentence replies to peoples suggestions that pretty much go like this: "No because >insert opinion based reason here<"

I'm sorry? I've given a couple of detailed responses, some answers like explaining that I wasn't going for all-out-stall only a defensively capable team required only a simple answer.

As does explaining that I chose Nidoking over and Nidoqueen as he's supposed to be offensive, the comment wasn't relating to the actual set I chose rather the choice to bring Nidoking over Queen. I want him for breaking physical walls.

I suppose I can elaborate on Kabutops but in a comparison to Blastoise they are very different Pokemon, looking at the actual stats not just opinon, here is why...

Kabutops has access to stealth rocks, unlike Blastoise, and a second stab move in Rock Slide. Blastoise only has a single STAB, hence worse super-effective coverage. Blastoise also has a rather low attack stat of 83 compared to Kabutop's respectable 115. Kabutops has one of the higher attack stats in UU (despite being RU).

Blastoise is slightly slower than Kabutops and unlike Kabutops he does not have access to weak armour, weak armour is a speed boost after taking a hit. That speed boost will pretty much always get used due to focus sash, allowing him to stay in, take a hit and outspeed a large number of non-scarfed Pokemon at 120 speed.

Originally I gave Kabutops health EVs with the intention of having the option to switch him out and bring him in later as a Rapid Spinner, Blastoise would have been better at this, I took advice and gave him max speed to better fill his purpose as an offensive lead with set up.

It's an original set, not a Smogon set, I haven't seen anyone use it but I can tell you from experience it works.