ORAS UU Scarf 109 (Peaked #3 with 1752 ELO)

[North]

Proof of Peak

Introduction
I've been looking in the RMT forums lately and seeing a lot of succesful UU teams using the Azelf + Mega Swampert offensive core and I thought I would give it a try myself. After mediocrely laddering for a bit, I had gotten into a ladder friendly ladder competition with the true UU ladder hero Arifeen and I managed to get myself pretty far. This team also incorperated some of my favorite lures in the tier, life orb Azelf and scarf Heliolisk. And without further adieu, onto the team.

Teambuilding Process

I started off with a core of LO Azelf and Mega Swampert as it Azelf is able to lure alot of swamperts checks with Fire Blast and Thunderbolt coverage, allowing Mega Swampert to clean easier.

Next I added Feraligatr as it also benefited from Azelf taking out its checks, while also weakening a lot of Mega Swampers checks (and vice versa).

I added Heracross because i needed something to break bulky normals like Porygon2 while also giving me a reliable Mamoswine check.

At this point I was extremy weak to flying types including Mega Pidgeot, Mega Aerodactyl, Crobat, and also extremly weak to Feraligatr. I had contemplated using this, but I ultimatly ended up deciding on scarf Heliolisk.

I still didn't want to rely on Heliolisk being my only check to Crobat and make Swampert take damage whenever a Mega Aerodactyl came in. I also had no reliable checks to Slurpuff at this point (Heliolisk outspeeds if the opponent speed creeps scarf 108's) so i ended up going with Doublade as the last mon

Azelf @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Thunderbolt
- Psyshock
The obligatory offense rocker on the team, but holy shit this is a good lure. This monster is able to beat spinners and defogers like Forretress and Empoleon, along with counter leads like Machamp, Doublade, and Pidgeot. Psyshock is used over Explosion because Nidoqueen has become a massive problem and I needed a better check to it (plus people dont expect the Psyshock).​

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp ---> Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Rain Dance
- Ice Punch
One of the main water sweepers of te team, Mega Swampert has definatly gotten better than it was pre tier shifts. With the departure of Hippowdown and Alakazam, Offense became a shit ton better because of no longer having to deal with sand offense and sash Alakazam. Swampert fairs amazingly well vs offensive teams and can very easily pull off a late game sweep with some prior help from Feraligatr. Standard dual stab paired with Ice Punch to hit grass types like Shaymin and Whimsicott. Rain Dance is to double Swamperts speed, allowing it to outspeed Mega Aerodactyl, and scarf Infernape.

Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 220 Atk / 36 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute
- Waterfall
- Crunch
Oh man has this thing gotten good. Feraligatr is one of the tiers most potent sweepers with it's ability to 2hko most offensive checks after a Dragon Dance. Substitute is used over Ice Punch to set up on most bulky waters, including Suicune and Alomomola. The spread is to always take 2 hits behind a sub from a +1 Suicune.

Heracross @ Choice Band
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Knock Off
- Stone Edge
The premier wallbreaker of the team. Banded Heracross is just a monster if you lose your best switchins to it. Heracross has the coverage to hit pretty much everything that could come in on it, including Crobat, Doublade, and Cresselia. Jolly is used over Adamant because I needed Heracross as my check to Jolly Mamoswine.

Heliolisk @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Grass Knot
- Hyper Voice
This thing is so underrated. While pretty much being deadweight vs stall and some forms or balance, Heliolisk is absolutely amazing vs offense. Scarf Heliolisk also provides my team with a mon to outspeed Mega Pidgeot, Mega Aerodactyl, and Crobat. Heliolisk also outspeeds a +1 Feraligatr, +1 Mega Sharpedo, and a Mega Swampert in the rain. Stab w/volt switch provides excelent nuetral coverage and Grass Knot to hit Swamperts and Seismetoads.

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Sneak
The final glue to the team. Doublade allows me to safely check Mega Aerodactyl, Crobat, Lucario, Heracross, Mega Abomasnow, and Slurpuff. The moveset is standard and gives me another wincon late game. The spread minimizes Will-o-Wisp and Stealth Rock damage.

Final Thoughts
This is more of my more succesful teams of this gen and I would absolutly love some feedback to make it better. Thanks for reading!
​

Threatlist

- Zero reliable switchins paired with the fact that it gets free switches on Doublade and Heracross. To beat it I need rocks up and I can weaken it with Doublade and Heliolisk and revenge with Azelf.

- If it's scarfed I'm forced to play around what move he wants to lock himself into and try and revenge it later. I can weaken it with scarf Heliolisk and rocks damage and kill it with Doublade. If specs I can revenge with Heracross if I lose a mon to it, which is quite often. Sub CM and Sub split usual require me to sack a mon if it gets a sub up, but after it shows the set I can play around it.

- Free switch in on Azelf and I have zero switch ins to draco. If scarf, weaken it with Heliolisk and rocks, and go to heracross if it locks itself into Dark Pulse. If Specs/Life Orb weaken it with residual damage and revenge with Heliolisk.

- No reliable way to take it down besides Azelf, so preserve it if you see one.

Shoutouts

Arifeen for being the true ladder hero and a good friend to play some UU with.
OG_Wanka for ~~ghosting~~ watching me while laddering and discussing the team.
Geotal for calling me bad the entire way through, but still being a bro.

Importable

Azelf @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Thunderbolt
- Psyshock

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Rain Dance
- Ice Punch

Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 220 Atk / 36 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute
- Waterfall
- Crunch

Heracross @ Choice Band
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Knock Off
- Stone Edge

Heliolisk @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Grass Knot
- Hyper Voice

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Sneak

 

[lllg17]

Ever considered running 216 Sp EVs > 252 Sp EVs? The extra speed doesn't really get you very many reliable outspeeds except for mega swampert and if you put the EVs into health it adds 10 points of much needed bulk. This is entirely your choice though because as rare as MegaSwamp is, it still exists and is annoying af if you don't outspeed it.

 

[Lord Wallace]

Really cool looking team and congrats on the peak.
Looking at your threat list I came up with a couple changes that should you take them can help you deal with those threats while keeping the goal of the team the same.

The first change would be to include Cobalion over Heracross and Doublade, as it essentially combines their roles into one convenient Pokemon. I've really been liking this mon a lot in this tier given its great dual STABs, speed, and natural bulk. This gives you a convenient soft check to Hydreigon while still outspeeding and murking the Pig and checking the likes of Crobat, Aero, Lucario, and Abomasnow, and because of it's speed it makes for a far superior Swords Dancer over Doublade. You can even run Rocks on it and make room for Nasty Plot on Azelf, giving it a means to pressure defensive builds and overall solidifying your match up advantage over balance and stall.

So with Heracross gone it'd be nice to have something else to replace it's role as a wallbreaker, and we're going to get to that now. A mon I feel patches up your weaknesses rather well while emulating the qualities of your previous members is a Chandelure of your own, preferably Specs.
Chandelure may seem odd considering you're running rain but it gives you a solid way of handling Chesnaught outside of Azelf and gives you an actual switch in to Sacred Fires, and it also fills in Heracross' job as a fat Psychic check and it's a fairly decent Fairy check in Doublade's absence. The lack of hazard control might hurt it's performance quite a bit but it's honestly worth the support it brings to the table, namely being harder to switch into than Heracross could dream of and Flash Fire to not have to risk two win cons or sack to Entei every time.

These changes do open you up a bit to Mamoswine with the loss of Heracross but honestly I didn't see this as too much of an issue seeing as how this is an offense team and Mamo really doesn't hold up that well 1v1 against any mon on your team unless Heliolisk is locked into an Electric move or something. Opposing Chandelure are also still a bit of an issue but with these changes at least you only have to "play around" that instead of that plus Hydra plus Entei, especially Hydra since the two are great partners for each other and having limited ways of dealing with both could be disastrous even for a team as offensive as this one.

Hope I helped!

 

[North]

Ever considered running 216 Sp EVs > 252 Sp EVs? The extra speed doesn't really get you very many reliable outspeeds except for mega swampert and if you put the EVs into health it adds 10 points of much needed bulk. This is entirely your choice though because as rare as MegaSwamp is, it still exists and is annoying af if you don't outspeed it.

I need atleast 242 Speed evs to outspeed scarf Infernape under rain, so thats the lowest I would consider changing it to.

Really cool looking team and congrats on the peak.
Looking at your threat list I came up with a couple changes that should you take them can help you deal with those threats while keeping the goal of the team the same.

The first change would be to include Cobalion over Heracross and Doublade, as it essentially combines their roles into one convenient Pokemon. I've really been liking this mon a lot in this tier given its great dual STABs, speed, and natural bulk. This gives you a convenient soft check to Hydreigon while still outspeeding and murking the Pig and checking the likes of Crobat, Aero, Lucario, and Abomasnow, and because of it's speed it makes for a far superior Swords Dancer over Doublade. You can even run Rocks on it and make room for Nasty Plot on Azelf, giving it a means to pressure defensive builds and overall solidifying your match up advantage over balance and stall.

So with Heracross gone it'd be nice to have something else to replace it's role as a wallbreaker, and we're going to get to that now. A mon I feel patches up your weaknesses rather well while emulating the qualities of your previous members is a Chandelure of your own, preferably Specs.
Chandelure may seem odd considering you're running rain but it gives you a solid way of handling Chesnaught outside of Azelf and gives you an actual switch in to Sacred Fires, and it also fills in Heracross' job as a fat Psychic check and it's a fairly decent Fairy check in Doublade's absence. The lack of hazard control might hurt it's performance quite a bit but it's honestly worth the support it brings to the table, namely being harder to switch into than Heracross could dream of and Flash Fire to not have to risk two win cons or sack to Entei every time.

These changes do open you up a bit to Mamoswine with the loss of Heracross but honestly I didn't see this as too much of an issue seeing as how this is an offense team and Mamo really doesn't hold up that well 1v1 against any mon on your team unless Heliolisk is locked into an Electric move or something. Opposing Chandelure are also still a bit of an issue but with these changes at least you only have to "play around" that instead of that plus Hydra plus Entei, especially Hydra since the two are great partners for each other and having limited ways of dealing with both could be disastrous even for a team as offensive as this one.

Hope I helped!

Although most of the suggestions sound good, I notice I become extremly weak to Cresslia (weakening Chandelure with rocks and psyshock damage on switch in probably won't be that hard for my opponent) and DD Mence because my main way of beating those is going into Doublade and then revenging with Heliolisk. If Cobalion is weakened, I think i just lose to Mence flat out if it gets up a Dragon Dance (Heliolisk's tbolt does not do that much damage). I will fully try out these changes sometime in the future, thanks for the rate!

 

[Christo]

Cool team(bar scarf helio lol) but I for sure recommend considering Darkerones suggestions, I like them a lot. Stealth Rock dual stab+SD is great. Chandy would also be a great addition. Chandy 1hko's a Cres with Modest Specs Shadow Ball after rocks i believe so its not a problem.

Just a quick suggestion is to run Psychic>Psyshock. Its just more base power and i think hitting the special side works better against a lot of mons too.

 

[North]

Cool team(bar scarf helio lol) but I for sure recommend considering Darkerones suggestions, I like them a lot. Stealth Rock dual stab+SD is great. Chandy would also be a great addition. Chandy 1hko's a Cres with Modest Specs Shadow Ball after rocks i believe so its not a problem.
Just a quick suggestion is to run Psychic>Psyshock. Its just more base power and i think hitting the special side works better against a lot of mons too.

Psyshock ohkoes Machamp, so thats really the only reason I run it over psychic.

 

[Lord Wallace]

Cresselia is extremely passive and also crumbles to Gatr's +1 Crunch. I don't see it as much of a threat bar I guess TWave, and its not like Heracross could switch into it any better than Chandy.

 

[Geopolitics]

i think we've played 3 times (i was that dumb dude with the barbaracle :^) and this is a really sick ho team, just one suggestion.

1. energy ball > thunderbolt on azelf. energy ball gives you better coverage imo, as you cant outrun pidgeot anyway and hit crobat hard with lo psyshock. energy ball donks pert n such, which makes doublade's job significantly easier. additionally, sacred sword doublade + pert + hera handle empoleon anyway :]

gratz on the peak man :^)

 

[North]

i think we've played 3 times (i was that dumb dude with the barbaracle :^) and this is a really sick ho team, just one suggestion.

1. energy ball > thunderbolt on azelf. energy ball gives you better coverage imo, as you cant outrun pidgeot anyway and hit crobat hard with lo psyshock. energy ball donks pert n such, which makes doublade's job significantly easier. additionally, sacred sword doublade + pert + hera handle empoleon anyway :]

gratz on the peak man :^)

Thunderbolt is to hit lead Mega Pidgoets because you outspeed before they mega and they love to try and counter lead.

 

[teal6]

Great team Cnorth, big fan of it.

My main suggestion, with keeping the reasoning behind the team entirely in tact, would be to switch Heracross to an orb variant. The main reason I say this is, in my times playing HO, choiced mons have a potential to slow your momentum down wildly if you mispredict. Both CC and Megahorn, Hera's two stabs, have major resistances in the tier. I would think that switching to an orb variant allows you the ability to keep momentum in your control with little downside.

 

[Lord Wallace]

I typically prefer SD Lefties but Orb is also a good set