Creative / Underrated Sets in the UU Metagame V2

[LRXC]

One question. When do you ever get to hit Doublade? Like when, on the switch? Or as you're at 1hp and he magically misses Shadow Sneak? I don't get this...at all....halp D:

I know, its very rare, but you never know haha. :) Probably when Doublade switches in, because he usually walls you, but then you pull out the hp ground... haha

 

[LRXC]

I'd say if you are going to have a slash over Sludge Bomb, I'd go with Energy Ball, as not only does it OHKO both Mega and normal Swampert, Mega Blastoise, and Jellicent, you also 2HKO Nidoqueen and +1 Suicune.

Changed, and yeah thats a good point =) Thanks!

 

[Cactrune]

Alright, I don't know if anyone else has tried this set before, but I was scrolling through Zapdos's moves and found a gem that I think can be put to use in a number of situations. Alright, without further ado, here's your new favorite set (hopefully), Metal Sound Zapdos.

Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Metal Sound
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Hidden Power Ice

Introduction

Alright so the first thing that I noticed when trying to come up with new sets for Zapdos was that it doesn't really have that many boosting moves to work with, which is mostly fine. Look, I get it, GameFreak, you didn't want any Quiver Dance birds running around, so you only gave this thing Agility and called it a day. But hey, Metal Sound is sort of a boosting move, and it can really help put the pressure on defensive teams. It's kind of like working with Seed Flare Shaymin, but with a turn of setup instead of attacking and lowering the enemy's stats right away. That's okay though, because Zapdos is plenty strong even without too many boosts, and it can still whack switch-ins with a powerful Thunderbolt if it wants to.

Set Details

As for the exact set details, I just kind of used the standard braindead offensive EVs that you'll find on most offensive/LO Zapdos sets, but I've been thinking about making it bulkier to better deal with stall teams, if that would even help. Moves are also pretty standard, with HP Ice in the final slot to get the classic "BoltBeam" coverage, though it may be better in some cases to run HP Fighting, HP Grass, or even Heat Wave if you want to do more damage to specific 'mons. HP Fighting is probably my favorite option of those, doing more damage to Snorlax, Mamoswine, Umbreon, and Blissey than anything else.

Teambuilding Options

Good teammates are those that can induce even more pressure on the opponent. This set will force switches very often, so a 'mon with Spikes, Toxic Spikes, or Stealth Rock is very helpful to wear down 'mons that might stop something else's sweep. Pokemon with good synergy in this case include Qwilfish, Tentacruel, Roserade, Krookodile, and Cobalion, all of which can lay down hazards while often adding more pressure with things like the threat of setup or strong moves. Tentacruel is fun here because its Acid Spray does the same thing as Metal Sound, and sometimes amplifies its effects. Other good teammates synergize well type-wise with Zapdos, and they include things like Swampert, Cobalion (again lol), Doublade, Empoleon, and Jellicent.

I don't have any replays yet because I just started using this set, but I'll try to get some when I get the chance. Good luck with this set, the sky's the limit!

 

[Chamaeleon]

Alright, I don't know if anyone else has tried this set before, but I was scrolling through Zapdos's moves and found a gem that I think can be put to use in a number of situations. Alright, without further ado, here's your new favorite set (hopefully), Metal Sound Zapdos.

Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Metal Sound
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Hidden Power Ice

Introduction

Alright so the first thing that I noticed when trying to come up with new sets for Zapdos was that it doesn't really have that many boosting moves to work with, which is mostly fine. Look, I get it, GameFreak, you didn't want any Quiver Dance birds running around, so you only gave this thing Agility and called it a day. But hey, Metal Sound is sort of a boosting move, and it can really help put the pressure on defensive teams. It's kind of like working with Seed Flare Shaymin, but with a turn of setup instead of attacking and lowering the enemy's stats right away. That's okay though, because Zapdos is plenty strong even without too many boosts, and it can still whack switch-ins with a powerful Thunderbolt if it wants to.

Set Details

As for the exact set details, I just kind of used the standard braindead offensive EVs that you'll find on most offensive/LO Zapdos sets, but I've been thinking about making it bulkier to better deal with stall teams, if that would even help. Moves are also pretty standard, with HP Ice in the final slot to get the classic "BoltBeam" coverage, though it may be better in some cases to run HP Fighting, HP Grass, or even Heat Wave if you want to do more damage to specific 'mons. HP Fighting is probably my favorite option of those, doing more damage to Snorlax, Mamoswine, Umbreon, and Blissey than anything else.

Teambuilding Options

Good teammates are those that can induce even more pressure on the opponent. This set will force switches very often, so a 'mon with Spikes, Toxic Spikes, or Stealth Rock is very helpful to wear down 'mons that might stop something else's sweep. Pokemon with good synergy in this case include Qwilfish, Tentacruel, Roserade, Krookodile, and Cobalion, all of which can lay down hazards while often adding more pressure with things like the threat of setup or strong moves. Tentacruel is fun here because its Acid Spray does the same thing as Metal Sound, and sometimes amplifies its effects. Other good teammates synergize well type-wise with Zapdos, and they include things like Swampert, Cobalion (again lol), Doublade, Empoleon, and Jellicent.

I don't have any replays yet because I just started using this set, but I'll try to get some when I get the chance. Good luck with this set, the sky's the limit!

I can concur that this set is surprisingly decent and I have made plenty of teams featuring it contesting to its versatility. Shameless plug here of me featuring teams with this set in my recent team dump in the sample teams. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ let song bird sing.

 

[LRXC]

Alright, I don't know if anyone else has tried this set before, but I was scrolling through Zapdos's moves and found a gem that I think can be put to use in a number of situations. Alright, without further ado, here's your new favorite set (hopefully), Metal Sound Zapdos.

Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Metal Sound
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Hidden Power Ice

Introduction

Alright so the first thing that I noticed when trying to come up with new sets for Zapdos was that it doesn't really have that many boosting moves to work with, which is mostly fine. Look, I get it, GameFreak, you didn't want any Quiver Dance birds running around, so you only gave this thing Agility and called it a day. But hey, Metal Sound is sort of a boosting move, and it can really help put the pressure on defensive teams. It's kind of like working with Seed Flare Shaymin, but with a turn of setup instead of attacking and lowering the enemy's stats right away. That's okay though, because Zapdos is plenty strong even without too many boosts, and it can still whack switch-ins with a powerful Thunderbolt if it wants to.

Set Details

As for the exact set details, I just kind of used the standard braindead offensive EVs that you'll find on most offensive/LO Zapdos sets, but I've been thinking about making it bulkier to better deal with stall teams, if that would even help. Moves are also pretty standard, with HP Ice in the final slot to get the classic "BoltBeam" coverage, though it may be better in some cases to run HP Fighting, HP Grass, or even Heat Wave if you want to do more damage to specific 'mons. HP Fighting is probably my favorite option of those, doing more damage to Snorlax, Mamoswine, Umbreon, and Blissey than anything else.

Teambuilding Options

Good teammates are those that can induce even more pressure on the opponent. This set will force switches very often, so a 'mon with Spikes, Toxic Spikes, or Stealth Rock is very helpful to wear down 'mons that might stop something else's sweep. Pokemon with good synergy in this case include Qwilfish, Tentacruel, Roserade, Krookodile, and Cobalion, all of which can lay down hazards while often adding more pressure with things like the threat of setup or strong moves. Tentacruel is fun here because its Acid Spray does the same thing as Metal Sound, and sometimes amplifies its effects. Other good teammates synergize well type-wise with Zapdos, and they include things like Swampert, Cobalion (again lol), Doublade, Empoleon, and Jellicent.

I don't have any replays yet because I just started using this set, but I'll try to get some when I get the chance. Good luck with this set, the sky's the limit!

This is actually a really sick set! It kind of reminds me of like how Tentacruel uses Acid Spray... Another thing this really reminds me about is my signature Charm Blissey set, which uses a move that lowers a stat by 2, which can but the opponett in a bad position. I like it! =) Cactrune

 

[ZoroDark]

caring is creepy (Reuniclus) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Recover

This set isn't terribly creative but it's very, very effective and underrated enough for me to post it here. TR Reuniclus is a bit forgotten compared to its CM set, but that's not a bad thing. It means there are very few offensive teams that are prepared to face this thing, which generally ends really badly for them. Recover as the filler move is the "innovative" part and it's so much better than Shadow Ball or any other coverage move. It forces teams to face this monster head-on, because stalling out TR turns or weakening it and picking it off won't work thanks to Recover. Even though it doesn't do as much work versus more defensive teams, Reuni's still very useful by soaking up Scald burns and dishing out huge hits with Psychic. Sometimes all it takes is weakening the special wall a little bit to break through, which isn't terribly hard to accomplish with some support. CB Krook is the #1 partner, trapping Psychic mons and Blissey as well as checking Doublade.

If you're looking for something that absolutely obliterates offense while still pulling its weight in other matchups, I strongly urge you to try this out (preferably before Sableye drops :/).

 

[freezai]

Diancie @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Moonblast

CROCIE

Basically functions the same way as a CM Florges, but it has a whole different set of counters. Stuff like Entei or Beedrill don't do enough to Diancie, in fact Diancie even uses Entei as set up bait. Diancie also serves as a Fire and Flying check,something that Florges cannot claim. Furthermore, because of Diancie's rock typing it also beats standard curselax 1v1. Diancie possesses weaknesses to grass and water but fortunately, calm mind can boost and bolster those weaknesses because those attacks are mostly special attacking. Diancie also has more physical bulk than Florges. It is not all gold for Diancie though. It adds a ground weakness which can be exploited by stuff like Mamoswine and Krookodile. None of those attacks are OHKOs but they still dent diancie. Additionally, sleep talk rolls add a bit of luck into the equation that Florges would not have. Overall, Crocie is a good win condition that can substitute in the bulky fairy role (read: Florges)to provide an Entei switchin as well as a Fighting switchin.



252 Atk Krookodile Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Diancie: 164-194 (53.9 - 63.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
244 Atk Life Orb Mamoswine Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Diancie: 229-273 (75.3 - 89.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

+6 0 Atk Snorlax Body Slam vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Diancie: 106-126 (34.8 - 41.4%) -- 71.1% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
+6 0 SpA Diancie Moonblast vs. 144 HP / 176+ SpD Snorlax: 292-345 (58.7 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Salamence Iron Tail vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Diancie: 244-288 (80.2 - 94.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (not too relevant of a calc but it shows Diancie's physical prowess being able to avoid a OHKO on a quad weakeness)

 

[Pipotchi]

This is a fun lure set for certain bulky waters

Metagross @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Meteor Mash
- Trick
- Earthquake (could be other things here, tried HP fire for forry too)

So basically, Toxic Orb Metagross is funny because it cripples Metagross counters that can usually deal with Toxic, in particular Suicune but also clerics like Vaporeon and Umbreon that like to switch in. Aint no removing toxic orb bish

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uususpecttest-304227067
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uususpecttest-304217518 (are replays still required?)

Also eviolite users are common Metagross switchins, Doublade Pory2 and Gligar all potentially wall other Metagross sets and are crippled by Trick. You can change the rest of the moves to whatever your team needs since Trick could be used on a bunch of different sets, adamant 3 atks, SR, specially defensive, etc

 

[Hogg]

Pipotchi, wouldn't Choice Band be a better use of an item there? It similarly cripples every wall you mentioned, while also providing some use to Metagross (as opposed to having Metagross functionally go without an item until it clicks Trick).

 

[Pipotchi]

Pipotchi, wouldn't Choice Band be a better use of an item there? It similarly cripples every wall you mentioned, while also providing some use to Metagross (as opposed to having Metagross functionally go without an item until it clicks Trick).

Im not too sure about Stealth Rock and CB together. Youre probly right for all-out-attacker though I started with SR Metagross and thought trick gave it some additional utility outside of setting rocks, also being a nice lure

edit: can delete if its too gimmicky tho hehe

 

[LRXC]

Hello Everyone, LittleRunnerXC here and I am going to bring up a very good Metagross set, and wanted to bring up this thread again. It was featured in my Adaptability RMT. This Metagross is a really cool lure to many common counters, and can really surprise many teams! Here it is!

The X-man (Metagross) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake

This is a great set for Metagross because it has a lot of trouble with Ground types. This set can allow it to tank an attack and either set up rocks, or OHKO the unexpecting mon, or weaken it and finish it off with a bullet punch(especially after a Attack boost from Meteor Mash). Examples of when this set can be helpful is if you wanna lure and take out a certain mon, This can lure Nidoqueen and Nidoking very well, and can even switch into one if it attacks with Ice Beam or Sludge Wave. This set also lures Mamoswine, as it can kill it with a Meteor Mash. I also like the EV spread as it can tank many hits, and still hits very hard. The 16 speed is to prevent common speed creeps on Metagross.
Hope you liked this set! Try it out yourself!

 

[Adaam]

Fat RoarDos

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Hello everyone. I've been testing out Gyara's defensive potential since I couldn't get DD to work for me (although it has been abusing me lol). So, I tried to build a balance team using FatGyara and I seem to have found success with this set. Since Gyara has no Recovery, I opted for RestTalk to be self sustaining and not rely on Wish support. I tried a lot of moves for the last two slots, but I like EQ + Roar as the last two. The team I use this on uses T-Spikes, so I decided against T-Wave (however it is very viable and nails almost everything EQ doesn't sans Rotoms and Zapdos), so I thought Roar would be clutch to get some things poisoned before they are spinned or defogged. D-Tail is another option but unreliable and can't phase Fairies. Obviously I needed an attack, but Waterfall made me massive Toxicroak and Heliolisk bait which were huge threats to my team (mainly Toxicroak). EQ still hits Fires and Rocks and gets chip damage on grounded Electrics, so this was my move of choice. The speed on this spread creeps Crawdaunt bc why not?

Why use this over Suicune? You get a Fighting resist, Bug resist (for Hera), Ground immunity, EQ to not be Dry Skin bait, Intimidate, and not weak to Grass. That's why.

 

[freezai]

Snowball (Cobalion) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock/Swords Dance
- Toxic
- Close Combat
- Iron Head

This is probably one of the better Cobalion sets purely because Cobalion counters are so prevalent thats you literally never have any point of setting up because you are just going to get hard countered. At the same time, Cobalion still forces in its counters because they obviously can't wait till Cobalion hits max atk and can overpower the counters. Toxic lures in and cripples so many Cobalion counters. These include: Swampert, Slowking, Cresselia, Arcanine, Salamence, Zapdos, Chesnaught, Donphan, Chandelure and Sableye. The only usual switchins it doesn't deal with is Doublade and Reuniclus. Toxic can be used to faciliate a SD sweep later in the game once you cripple the counter first time around or it can also be used to cripple defoggers in conjunction with stealth rock.

 

[Catholic Rabbits]

Physical Bombshell
​

Set

Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Earthquake
- Superpower / Ice Punch
- Sucker Punch

Hello guys. I am Catholic Rabbits. Recently I have been testing out a few cores with special Nidoking and I found that the same special walls switch into Nidoking every time. I found this very naive of my opponents so I decided to make a set to punish them. I present to you, Adamant Nidoking. With adament I am giving up the ability to out-speed base 80s, but mow I can get some important 2Hkos and a much stronger Sucker Punch. The speed is still great catching jolly Tyrantrum and Mega Swampert.​

Move Set Deatails:

• Poison Jab gives me the my greatest power output for a physical set. It is slightly less powerful than modest sludge wave but more powerful than timid. The move is basically a poison type waterfall coming from a Feraligatr. It is spammable and unpredictably powerful.
• Earthquake covers my poison resists and vice versa with poison jab. It has a little less power than the jab but it is still a stab EQ coming from an attack stat greater than Victini.
  
• Superpower / Ice Punch here is a meat sauce to it all. Superpower hits most spdef walls really hard that switch in like Snorlax, Porygon2, Umbreon, and even shuca berry Empoleon. It demolishes incoming ground types like Mamoswine and Krookodile that want to take a poison type move. If you happen to be weak to Crobat and Gligar, then you can swap this out for Ice punch which makes a great defogger lure.
• Sucker Punch is a my powerful priority. It has some nice surprise kills on Hoopa under TR, scarf Chandelure, and Azelf. Other than that it pretty much just hits things really hard. People never expect this thing to have Sucker Punch and the 50/50 is too risky for them.

Good Core-mates:

• Water types cover a lot of Nido weaknesses while Nido threatens them with the stab poison type move.
• Grass types come in on the earth type attack and provide a nice offensive presence that couples well with Nidoking.
• Dark Types resist a possible psychic type attack and then set up or fire off a stab. Nidoking can take a fighting type attack.

I hope you guys like the set. Pair this up with some heavy special attackers so when you get those special walls out of the way, they can sweep. I wish you all a great day!
​

 

[Wandering Wobbuffet]

Heracross @ Salac Berry
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Endure
- Reversal
- Megahorn
- Stone Edge

Apparently this was a set from way back in the ADV days but honestly endureversal is something I don't see very much these days. I understand that from gen 4 onwards so much more priority has become available which nerfs it (although indirectly buffs endureversal hitmonlee/endure flail kabutops which are the only 2 I really see these days). However this set is still a force to be reckoned with. It got a massive buff in gen 5 with moxie to continuously boost it's attack KO after KO instead of previously where it used swarm to boost it's megahorn's power when you were clicking reversal most of the time anyways. The process is simple: Make sure priority users are gone, Endure on something that'll knock you out, get your salac boost and start spamming reversal to act as a late game cleaner. Endureversal is a strategy that often relies on surprise but lets be honest here, who sees heracross ever running it this days? Definitely an underrated set and you should try it out. I've been pairing it a lot with life orb metagross to deal big damage to opposing teams while also having good defensive synergy, only being weak to fire which can easily be assisted with swampert or something.

Edit: Replays- http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-318665999, http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-318470603, http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-318678778