SM UU Mega Latias Balance



Introduction

Hello, with two official tournaments featuring UU coming to a close and Mega Latias being banned, I thought I would post this team. It features Sub + Toxic + Protect Gliscor, a set I wanted to use against teal in Grand Slam playoffs, and Calm Mind + Reflect Type Mega Latias. It also showcases Chandelure and Mantine, two underrated Pokemon in UU. The team got me the UU win against teal, and Lcans also picked up a win with the team in Snake draft.​

The Team


Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 68 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Protect
- Toxic
- Earthquake

The main focus of the team, SubToxic Gliscor can singlehandedly destroy bulky offenses like the ones I had seen teal using. The set is very easy; while there are certainly some situations in which firing off an aggressive Toxic or using a risky Substitute is worthwhile, it is usually very straightforward to play. This outspeeds offensive Rotom-Wash, which could be pretty annoying for my team to face when paired with its usual partners, but also lets Gliscor easily stall out Pokemon like Heracross, Entei, Nidoking, and some Togekiss sets.


Latias-Mega @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Reflect Type
- Stored Power
- Recover

While it certainly requires more support than any other Mega Latias set, CM Reflect Type Latias is deadly to unprepared teams and the only set that even pushes it anywhere near broken. It allows it to setup and beat most of its conventional checks, like Toxic Empoleon, Klefki, Scizor, and Primarina, and also allows it to switch out freely on Pursuit users like Muk and Scarf Krookodile. However, this comes with the cost of not being able to check the majority of Pokemon that it usually does (like Gliscor and Cobalion), and being completely shut down by opposing Dark-types. Because of this, it's more than reasonable to run Psychic, Psyshock, or even Ice Beam as Latias's attacking move, the latter being especially useful to mitigate this team's weakness to Gliscor.

Muk-Alola @ Assault Vest
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 36 HP / 252 Atk / 216 SpD / 4 Spe
Brave Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Poison Jab
- Fire Blast

Muk is one of the most useful Pokemon in a tier and is able to do its job of weakening or removing certain special attackers in 90% of games, and in its worst matchup, can still whittle down the bulkiest of teams with item removal and ability to inflict Poison. Everyone knows what it does by now, it can go toe to toe against nearly every special attacker in the tier, and its ability to remove non-Reflect type Latias in particular is helpful to the other members of the team. With no need to 2HKO Cobalion due to having multiple checks to it, I was able to dump the usual SpA EVs into additional bulk.


Cobalion @ Steelium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Close Combat

Cobalion, as usual, serves multiple purposes on this team. With Latias being blanked by opposing Dark-types, having several solid checks to them was important. Cobalion handles the ones that Gliscor can't, the most important of which are Mega Sharpedo and Crawdaunt. Aside from SR, it also serves as a handy lure to Gliscor (or at least it did at the time of this team's creation, as most Cobalion were running either Shuca or Fightinium Z). +2 Corkscrew Crash needs only a minimal amount of chip to guarantee the OHKO on non-Defense invested Gliscor, paving the way for my own Gliscor, Muk, and Latias to go to town. However, with more Gliscor investing in physical defense (especially SR Toxic variants, the most difficult set for this team to face), and more players recognizing the threat of this particular Z move, this is no longer a great way to lure opposing Gliscor. It doesn't matter now that Mega Latias is banned, but if this team was still legal, I'd definitely put Ice Beam as Latias's attacking move, or Haze/Ice Beam over Toxic on Mantine, to handle opposing Gliscor better.


Mantine @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 24 SpD / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Defog
- Roost

With Muk being heavily pressured by threats such as Primarina, Mega Blastoise, and others, Mantine serves as a nice cushion against these and gets hazards off the field semi-reliably against U-turn Gliscor, Cobalion, Hippowdon, Mega Aggron, and some variants of Mamoswine. While it's not the best Defogger since many of these Pokemon run sets that can threaten to beat Mantine, its typing, excellent bulk, and Water immunity usually allow it to get rocks off the field several times throughout a game. It also beats opposing Reflect Type Latias. Running near-max Defense gives it the best shot at beating Cobalion, Scizor, and Mamoswine.


Chandelure @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Trick

The final member of the team, Chandelure is an unorthodox Choice Scarf user because it doesn't actually outspeed the three fastest Megas or any other Choice Scarf user. However, here its useful typing and STABs make it a great pick over something like Hydreigon. Not only does it check Cobalion and SD Scizor, but a powerful Hidden Power Ice OHKOes fast variants of Gliscor, and Trick is also incredibly useful against opposing bulky teams. In addition, two of Chandelure's powerful Fire Blast do 68% on average to opposing Muk, which with SR and a final Pursuit from my own Muk, will KO it and make Mega Latias that much more threatening. Any of Chandelure's three abilities will be useful here, but I've chosen Flame Body for its additional chance at burning opposing Muk, which can guarantee a Mega Latias sweep right there.

Threatlist
In particular, Stealth Rock + Toxic Gliscor will almost always be able to keep rocks up while it's alive. Swords Dance Gliscor is a major threat as well, and as I said earlier, would necessitate a set change such as Ice Beam Latias or Haze Mantine if this team weren't limited to just a few tournament games.

With nothing to outspeed it, this requires keeping Cobalion or Latias healthy to check or getting a Toxic off with Gliscor (often sacrificing a lot of health in the process), and is another reason why an actual attack over Stored Power would be useful.

There are some special attackers that threaten both Muk and Mantine. Some physical boosting breakers can also get at least a kill when given the right opportunity.

Importable

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-322850
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-324903

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If you had used this team or others like it, you would have found that even the "most broken" Mega Latias set had plenty of counterplay and tons of limitations (primarily, this particular set is almost a dead slot when it doesn't get to set up). Unfortunately, I think people had their own mindless bulky offense with 4 threats + rocks + filler swept by a +1 Mega Latias and made their decision right there. The reason I think this is because despite a reasonable amount of evidence provided by the anti-ban side, no hard evidence was shown by the pro-ban side, and the arguments were just "it's just too fast for a CM user and IMPOSSIBLE to kill". Mega Latias's ban is almost certain to have a negative effect on the tier.​
 
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