Underused and Underrated: A (Mostly) Fire-type UU Team

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ShinyFlareon

ShinyFlareon

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Anyone who knows me knows that I love Fire types. Yet competitively, they don't seem to get much love. With the advent of Stealth Rock to the metagame...well, the feeling seems to be that if a Fire type doesn't have a secondary type that neutrals out Rock, they're just plain f*cked.

So here I am, putting together a team of pokemon I feel are really underrated -- and yes, most of them are Fire types. It's mostly for fun, but humor a girl, will ya?

EDIT: Forced to make some changes. Because Shoddy is an ass when it comes to legendaries -_-

Changes in bold.


The Lead

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Moltres@Choice Scarf
Modest nature
EVs: 40 Def / 252 Sp. Atk / 216 Spe
-- Air Slash
-- Overheat
-- U-Turn
-- Will-o-Wisp

Changed to a Scarf Lead, and it’s working out a lot better than Claydol did. The Scarf is pretty restricting, I find, but the speed boost is really useful. It doesn’t exactly work well when I need to bring it back out later in the match, but overall working better than Claydol.

The Physical Underdog
flareon.png

Flareon@Leftovers
Adamant nature
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 128 Def
-- Fire Fang
-- Quick Attack
-- Curse
-- Superpower

I love Flareon, and I think a lot of people really underestimate it. The main things I see it get bashed for is it's poor movepool (especially with respect to it's stats) and low speed. While it requires a bit of setup and may seem odd, this set carries a major surprise factor. Quick Attack negates the low speed, while Curse drops it and boosts Quick Attack as well as Flareon's admittedly lackluster defense. Superpower's Attack and Defense drops can also be negated with Curse, and Fire Fang for STAB. Leftovers and the HP and Defense EVs ensure that this firey little fox sticks around a little longer.

The Status Spreader
ninetales.jpg

Ninetales@Leftovers
Timid nature
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-- Nasty Plot
-- Dark Pulse
-- Flamethrower
-- Energy Ball

Another personal favorite. Switched to a Nasty Plot booster, but generally I can’t find time to set up Nasty Plot. This is also REALLY vulnerable to status.

The Bulky Attacker
poliwrath.png

Poliwrath@Leftovers
Water Absorb
Adamant nature
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Speed
-- Bulk Up
-- Brick Break
-- Waterfall
-- Hypnosis

I gave it Brick Break over Body Slam because I NEEDED a fighting move. Hypnosis went in for some more status, and though it’s accuracy is sometimes a letdown, it’s generally been pretty useful.


The Monkey Wrench

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Claydol@Leftovers
Calm nature
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 114 SpA
-- Stealth Rock
-- Rapid Spin
-- Psychic/Earth Power
-- Toxic

Immunity to Ground, resistance to Stealth Rock, and the ability to Rapid Spin are quite helpful, if not essential, to a Fire-themed team. Claydol's got all that and more, with good defenses and the ability to set up a Stealth Rock of it's own and spread Toxic around. I obviously don't have to worry much about Steels, and Poison types are taken care of with one of Claydol's STABs. So named because this is designed to throw a monkey wrench into my opponent’s plans to cripple my team with entry hazards. But the shared weakness to water is a bigger problem than I expected.

The 'Specially Mixed Legend
Entei06.jpg

Entei@Expert Belt
Naive nature
EVs: 48 Atk / 208 SpA / 252 Spe
-- Calm Mind
-- Flamethrower
-- Stone Edge
-- Hidden Power (Ground)

Entei, last of the Jhoto trio. The trick here is to fool people into thinking I'm running a simple Calm Mind set, and when they bring out their special wall, slam them with Stone Edge. I DID manage to get an HP Ground with a Naive nature, but it took a LOT of Shoddy manipulation...
 
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Claydol: Why Defense EVs if it's Calm? I don't see the point here.

Moltres: Try Grass for bulky Water types

Poliwrath: Try changing up the Nature to Careful, if you want. You won't be using it in OU anyway, so go with Ice Punch.

That's all I got.
 
This actually seems like an effective team. Only thing is, Sunny Day will cripple Poliwrath's Waterfall.

Also, Earth Power doesn't drop your Special Attack. It's just a Ground-type Psychic.
 
Ninetales: Is there a need for Hypnosis? I mean it already has WoW..
 
Thanks for all the comments, guys! A few notes after a few battles:

-- Flareon is working AMAZINGLY. People expect it to run Return over Quick Attack, so they send out something that they think can ouspeed Flareon, giving me a chance to Curse. Then they get a Quick Attack to the face x3 Superpower is not getting a lot of use, mainly because I can usually take stuff out with Fire Fang or Quick Attack. It's got pretty redundant coverage with Fire Fang, actually :-/ The only thing it covers additionally is Rocks, which I usually have out of the way by the time I bring Flareon out.

-- I think I need to make Moltres the lead. Claydol leading tends to go down quick, and without it's Rapid Spin, Moltres is crippled. Plus, it could really use a Flying-type move to take care of opposing Poliwrath.

-- Cresselia is now UU. Why? I have no clue. But it f*cks this team up something awful. Porygon-Z is ALSO apparently UU now, but I haven't seen much of it.

-- Poliwrath needs a Fighting move, so I'm going to be replacing Rock Slide (which has done absolutely nothing) with Brick Break.

Any new thoughts?
 
An interesting team, although I don't see it being all that successful. I guess I'll just go Poke by Poke, but the team needs a cohesive concept, which it is lacking although it is somewhat themed. Splashing Sunny Day doesn't make it a Sunny Day team, meaning that the majority of it is easily walled by bulky waters or taken out by faster sweepers.

The Claydol set looks fine, pretty standard I believe. Although it is odd to do Calm nature and then EV in Defense. I suppose you are trying to 'balance' the defenses, but is that really what you are going for? Something to think about. Currently, it looks like you should be using a Bold nature and trying to absorb Rock/Ground/Fighting attacks.

Curse Flareon is cool I suppose, but the spread and moves are a bit suspect. I am glad you pointed out the problem with Superpower, it is too contradictory to really work. I'm sure you can comb through Flareon's other options or Smogon page to find something to take its slot. As for the EVs, I'd think you would EV in SpD, not defense, since you are boosting Def with Curse anyway. Also you may need to consider leftovers numbers, and Stealth Rock survival numbers for the HP. So I would adjust that accordingly and dump the rest in SpD.

Ninetales is OK, I am not sure Fire/Grass has that great of coverage, though.

Poliwrath looks interesting. I'd consider using Substitute though, that can really mess with people and allow you more setup. Protection from status is helpful as well. I am a big fan of Bulk Up, so hopefully this guy is helpful for you.

I'd forget about the Sunny Day, it's not going to work with just one SD user. I would probably run the Choice Specs Moltres set to give yourself a powerful attacker, or Choice Scarf to allow for more revenge killing (overall your team is quite slow and easy to run over). Something like Feraligatr could rip through this entire team (Water + Ground takes out 5/6 of your Pokes), so you need to have at least some out for that.

I'm really not a fan of that Entei on paper, but if it works, then maybe it's just an interesting idea. I don't like the fact that your 'mixed' attacker is using an inaccurate non STAB attack as the 'mixed' part. Most mixed attackers have a powerful Physical STAB attack to break down Special Walls with. Stone Edge with minimal investment isn't even going to barely scratch Milotic, Blastoise, etc.

As far as your Hidden Power goes, if you change the IVs around you can change the Hidden Power easy. Shoddy is fully customizable so I don't know why you are being restricted to certain types.

You have chosen some cool dudes here, but overall this team is slow and redundant and is likely to get beat down quickly by offensive water types.

Cresselia is a pain, but if you hammer it with STAB Ghost/Dark moves it can be taken down. Absol comes to mind, as does Mismagius. If it isn't carrying Rest you can Toxic it, just watch out for Psycho Shift.
 
Going to edit the team, with some changes (sorry if there's a bit of delay between this post and the edit).

@Troggy: I know Shoddy is customizable, but it tends to have problems with legendaries' IVs. It'll say they're 'invalid with the nature' or some shit...it's just really confusing and frustrating.

As for overall comments...yeah, this team's not doing so hot. I've switched Moltres to a scarf lead, which is working a lot better as a lead than Claydol. I also switched up a couple movesets, but the main problems are faster or bulky water types, or things I can't take out in one or two hits. But most Cresselia I've run into are carrying Rest :/ so Toxic doesn't work.
 
Edo-kun said:
Going to edit the team, with some changes (sorry if there's a bit of delay between this post and the edit).

@Troggy: I know Shoddy is customizable, but it tends to have problems with legendaries' IVs. It'll say they're 'invalid with the nature' or some shit...it's just really confusing and frustrating.

As for overall comments...yeah, this team's not doing so hot. I've switched Moltres to a scarf lead, which is working a lot better as a lead than Claydol. I also switched up a couple movesets, but the main problems are faster or bulky water types, or things I can't take out in one or two hits. But most Cresselia I've run into are carrying Rest :/ so Toxic doesn't work.
Click to expand...

Oh, yeah the reason is that some combinations of IVs and natures are just not possible for legends. This can help determine if one you received is hacked (just did that for a few lol). It should adjust them for you based on the hidden power though. If they are still 'illegal' try changing them a bit.

Keep testing it if you enjoy using this team, but I think it's going to need major reworking to be successful (e.g. less fire types, haha).

And Cresselia should be BL due to annoyance factor .___.
 
How do you fair against normal Swampert leads? I'd assume you'd switch to Poliwrath and try to hypnosis, but if you don't hit you might be stealth rocked and roared, then swept.
 
Dexington said:
How do you fair against normal Swampert leads? I'd assume you'd switch to Poliwrath and try to hypnosis, but if you don't hit you might be stealth rocked and roared, then swept.
Click to expand...

Well, I use this in UU, where Swampert is banned, so I don't really have a problem with him :)

EDIT: Grammar nerd time. When using it in this way, the word is 'fare,' not 'fair.'
 
Hmm, this might be random, but,
Good for you, for sticking to the pokes that you connect with.

Thanks.
 
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