Lightning Strikes!

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As you may have guessed, this is a team focused on Zekrom. It always seems like Reshiram overshadows Zekrom with its flawless STAB coverage and all that, but Zekrom is part of an elite group of physically based attackers in Ubers, and he deserves to get used. I'm rather proud of this team as within 48 hours (including the offline time for Christmas) it reached 1300 CRE on the PO server.

Team building process:

To center the team, I started with Zekrom. Zekrom is a powerful physical attacker who is only stopped by faster dragons with revenge or extremely physical walls, like Groudon (and Ground Arceus {What?}), who is even immune to one of his STAB.

Still wondering which form I'm using? Hint: Zekrom's biggest threat are faster dragons. Still wondering? 2nd Hint: Steel. Pure steel is great as it is only weak to 3 types without having to compromise it's numerous resistances. I chose the specially defensive variant as it can use calm mid, while also walling the other specially based attackers in Ubers.

Zekrom's other big threat is physical walls like Groudon and some Dialga variants. Mixed Giratina-O is a great wall breaker with Draco Meteor to put holes in walls and then access to priority to finish them off. He also is (one of) the only spin blocker in Ubers, so he needs some entry hazards to show off his multiple talents.

Supportive Groudon is great on offensive teams. With access to stealth rock AND thunderwave AND a great combo deal of dragon tail. He is also able to wall physical hits where Arceus cannot.

As great as Giratina-O is at taking down walls, there's nothing bad about taking Groudon out quickly. And it's not like Palkia is a one-trick pony. Mixed Palkia is great in general and especially at taking Kyogre down quickly.

As a lead, I love Darkrai. It got a massive boost this generation with the new sleep AND trick mechanics. I love using trickRai as it can shut down set up leads, sleep threats, and also kill weaker leads.


IN DEPTH LOOK:

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EVs: 248 HP / 8 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature
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- Calm Mind
- Judgment
- Recover
- Roar

While I keep Arceus in the lead slot, I almost always use Darkrai. I simply do this to abuse the team preview. Arceus is a great booster as it is faster than most with great defenses (which are boosted more by calm mind). Recover keeps Arceus healthy and roar lets it beat anything trying to boost alongside it. Steel judgement (despite sounding like a band name) hits most pokemon for neutral damage and those that it cannot hit (at least) neutrally *usually* cannot touch Arceus back.


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EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Dark Void
- Trick
- Focus Blast
- Dark Pulse

Lead Darkrai is able to handle so many different leads. It can trick a choice scarf onto anything trying to set up or sleep any threatening pokemon it cannot KO or simply attack with blistering speed. It is also very happy for the boost that both sleeping moves and trick got this generation.

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EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Naughty Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Claw
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Shadow Sneak

Giratina has great synergy with Darkrai, being able to take any fighting or bug moves thrown its way. Dragon claw and shadow sneak provide reliable STAB and priority on the physical side, and Draco Meteor to dent anything and HP Fire to hurt steels on the special side. Very useful for luring and clearing steel-types for my other dragons to sweep. Poor Giratina doesn't have an easily available animated sprite yet.

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EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Dragon Tail

With Giratina on my team, I needed someone to lay hazards and Groudon is able to lay stealth rock while also providing weather control. It is able to wall physical hits while crippling sweepers with thunderwave, phazing with dragon tail, and utilizing his massive attack with earthquake. Unfortunately, I have been seeing a trend to carry two weather controllers, so I've had to play Groudon very conservatively. At least he has an animated sprite.

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EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Spacial Rend
- Surf
- Outrage
- Fire Blast

Palkia functions great under any weather, so it is very important if Groudon goes down early. Spacial Rend is a necessity with Outrage hitting special walls who take Palkia's other attacks with ease. Surf may seem strange on a team with Groudon, but allows Palkia to function in other weather and still does ~1/3 to Heatran under the sun.

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EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Lightning Strike
- Outrage
- Volt Change
- Draco Meteor

Back to black, aww. The center of this team, Zekrom, is a prime physical attacker. Lightning strike is very hard to handle in Ubers as other dragons, who resist it, don't want to switch into a possible outrage. Volt change allows me to keep the momentum if I want to scout their counter before I attempt a sweep. Draco Meteor is there to hit physical walls trying to wall Zekrom, but has been doing pitiful damage, so it may be replaced soon.

I made this team rather quickly, but it has been performing well. There are definitely changes that can make this team better, and I would love to know them. Thanks in advance.
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[min min]

Thunder can be better than Surf on Palkia in rain for killing Kyogre, since keeping the sun in is always a good thing for teams packing Groudon. Draco Meteor on Zekrom doesn't have much purpose other than making you set-up fodder after you use it once, as it doesn't KO Groudon if I remember correctly.

 

[calze6]

Arceus doesn't need 252spd for such a defensive set. Just go with a 252HP/252SDef EV spread. Gira-o doesn't need such an offensive EV spread but does need some speed. Run a standard 248Atk/196Spd/64SAtk spread instead. Groudon needs stone edge over thunder wave as otherwise, ho-oh creates real troubles for the team as zekrom risks getting burnt. Palkia needs thunder over surf as it is sunny and thunder is important for reliably checking kyogre.

 

[syrim]

Draco Meteor is great on Scarf Zekrom. It doesn't outright ko groudon but doing upwards of 50 percent to something that "walls you" is always good. It keeps it from being able to switch in with impunity.

 

[j99ubers]

Arceus doesn't need 252spd for such a defensive set. Just go with a 252HP/252SDef EV spread. Gira-o doesn't need such an offensive EV spread but does need some speed. Run a standard 248Atk/196Spd/64SAtk spread instead. Groudon needs stone edge over thunder wave as otherwise, ho-oh creates real troubles for the team as zekrom risks getting burnt. Palkia needs thunder over surf as it is sunny and thunder is important for reliably checking kyogre.

On Arceus I think the speed is still pretty important, since it stops him being roared out first by something faster, and lets him CM quicker than most attackers to reduce the damage that he takes. But yeh I agree with the other changes, on a sun team Surf is near useless on Palkia since its power is halved in most games. I would recommend using Rock Slide over Stone Edge on Groudon since its pretty much exclusively for Ho-Oh and SubRecover will give you some trouble with Stone Edge from misses and its low PP, and if this team is playing in Wifi then SubRoost Ho-Oh with leftovers just stalls out Stone Edge's PP. Other than that this team seems pretty solid although if Darkrai has tricked his Scarf away Scarf Palkia can really give your team trouble. Although there isnt too much you can do about this apart from running Ho-Oh but there isnt really much space for it in this team. Also just a suggestion but since you said you were wanting Gira-O as your wallbreaker perhaps the stallbreaker set could work better here:

-Substitute
-Calm Mind
-Dragon Pulse
-Aura Sphere/Shadow Ball

You can use the given EVs on Smogon or come up with your own but that set really heps break stall.

 

[Server_Crash]

Thanks for the help, guys.

@min min: I was thinking that draco meteor should get replaced with Crunch, as nothing in Zekrom's movepool touches Groudon, so Crunch is just good coverage for the metagame.

@Calze6: With Arceus' EV spread, it has enough special defense because I can fire off a calm mind before their attack and recover before they move (all except for mewtwo). It's also not really trying to be a defensive pokemon, it's more of a tank that can set up on the special attacks in Ubers. I have been thinking about changing its nature to bold in order to take outrages a little bit better. I do like the Giratina set, though.

@Syrim: If it does ~50% on the first hit, then it won't do 50% on the next hit. That make sit setup fodder.

EDIT: Why not replace dragon tail with rock slide/ fail edge instead of thunderwave as I already have a phazer (arceus)?

 

[Tibzmonster]

On Arceus I think the speed is still pretty important, since it stops him being roared out first by something faster, and lets him CM quicker than most attackers to reduce the damage that he takes.

Roar has a -6 priority, meaning if Deoxys-S with a Choice Scarf Roars a Shuckle holding the Macho Brace, Shuckle will still move first. Even if Shuckles uses Mirror Coat, Deoxys will still strike afterwards.

Also, I would recommend changing the nature on Zekrom if you do change the Draco Meteor, as Volt Change doesn't need extra power, it's just free damage that isn't worth a loss in defense.

Also just a suggestion but since you said you were wanting Gira-O as your wallbreaker perhaps the stallbreaker set could work better here:

-Substitute
-Calm Mind
-Dragon Pulse
-Aura Sphere/Shadow Ball

You can use the given EVs on Smogon or come up with your own but that set really heps break stall.

The point of a wall breaker is to break both physical and special walls. If this set goes against a CM Blissey, how is it a wall breaker? If it had physical moves, it could take a Blissey with no fear, and if it has Special moves, it could take a Skarmory (for the sake of an example of a physical wall) with ease.

Finally, in your overview you stated Palkia as your Groudon counter, so I would recommend a different move over Surf, since he is your Groudon counter as under the sun Surf does mediocre damage. Giratina-O could have Will-o-Wisp to cripple Groudon, if you would like to protect Zekrom that much, but it might function well on Giratina-A. Zekrom also takes Kyogre nicely too, so unless Zekrom isn't working well, then Palkia with Thunder would still fair nicely.

 

[j99ubers]

Roar has a -6 priority, meaning if Deoxys-S with a Choice Scarf Roars a Shuckle holding the Macho Brace, Shuckle will still move first. Even if Shuckles uses Mirror Coat, Deoxys will still strike afterwards.

Also, I would recommend changing the nature on Zekrom if you do change the Draco Meteor, as Volt Change doesn't need extra power, it's just free damage that isn't worth a loss in defense.

The point of a wall breaker is to break both physical and special walls. If this set goes against a CM Blissey, how is it a wall breaker? If it had physical moves, it could take a Blissey with no fear, and if it has Special moves, it could take a Skarmory (for the sake of an example of a physical wall) with ease.

Finally, in your overview you stated Palkia as your Groudon counter, so I would recommend a different move over Surf, since he is your Groudon counter as under the sun Surf does mediocre damage. Giratina-O could have Will-o-Wisp to cripple Groudon, if you would like to protect Zekrom that much, but it might function well on Giratina-A. Zekrom also takes Kyogre nicely too, so unless Zekrom isn't working well, then Palkia with Thunder would still fair nicely.

About the roaring, since I said it stops it being roared out by something faster, if they both use roar the quicker roarer will still be quicker. It means it will stop it losing any boosts it has gained. Also CM Blissey dont really exist in ubers, the standard set has Toxic,Softboiled,Wish,Seismic Toss. Or aromatheraphy or protect in place of Wish or seismic toss. Thats why that set is a wallbreaker, since the standard Blissey can't touch it.

 

[syrim]

Draco meteor only does 50%, yes, but that's more than enough to keep it from switching in. Obviously, you would switch out the next turn, as you would be koed. The whole point is to be able to do something about groudon, most teams only zekrom check. It switches in once on the DM, you handle it, and the next time zekrom gets in they have to lose a poke. You probably shouldn't be too worried about zekrom becoming setup fodder when it switches out after most attacks. Being able to annihilate your one supposed " solid counter" is well worth a move slot.