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All about Ubers
#1
The goal of this article is to provide advice for team building for the Ubers tier. It will cover some of the most common Pokemon you will encounter, how to beat them, and general strategies you will encounter.

The first thing you will want to note is that Arceus still isn't allowed in the Ubers ladder. If you plan on using it, you must manually challenge someone on Shoddy and put the Extended Game Clause on. You will also want to note that Soul dew Clause is off. While you may consider using only Pokemon from the Ubers tier for your team, there are several good Pokemon that perform solid in Ubers that are in the Standard metagame. One such pokemon is Scizor.

Scizor is still useful due to its very high Attack and priority move. It is also resistant to the numerous Dragon and Psychic Pokemon you will encounter. In particular, Latios and Latias since they often come equiped with Soul Dew. Scizor is also good at taking down walls. With Swords Dance doubling your attack, your Attack can max out at 788 after just one Swords Dance if you don't have it equiped with Life Orb. Swords Dance, X-Scissor, Bullet Punch, and Superpower is a common moveset.

Blissey is another great example of a good Standard Pokemon to use in Ubers. With its incredible HP and very high Special Defense, it is able to wall a scarfed Kyogre as well as numerous other special sweepers. The main thing to watch out for is Pokemon that have a high physical attack.

Forretress is used as a spiker in Ubers. By having both Stealth Rock and Spikes in play, your opponent will be heavily punished for switching out. It can wall Groudons since most Groudon's don't run Fire Punch or Flamethrower. It also is capable of setting up Toxic Spikes to further harm your opponents' Pokemon. It can be used as a spinner if your team needs one. It is countered with special attacks and spinners.

Kingdra can just be a beast in the rain. With the ability to run a physical or special set, it can fit whatever your team needs. The common hold item for it is Life Orb. The special set runs Surf, Dragon Pulse, Ice Beam, and Draco Meteor. The physical set that I prefer is Dragon Dance, Waterfall, Outrage, and Iron Head. This set is great because you can flinch the opponent since going first shouldn't be a problem in the rain. It is countered by changing the weather to something other than rain. Groudon is very threatening to a Kingdra since Dragon Claw will cause very large damage. It is far less dangerous when there isn't any rain because it will no longer outrun your Pokemon.

You will run into a lot of Kyogres in the Ubers tier. Lets take a look at the ways it can be run. Sometimes it runs the standard Choice Scarf set. By running this set, it strikes first against any nonscarfed Pokemon. The biggest drawback is having to switch if you need to use a different move. Surf, Ice Beam, Thunder, and Water Spout can be a useful set. If you are at full health, Water Spout can do around 60% of Dialga's HP in the rain. Running a Calm Mind set is quite common. The other moves it would run are Surf, Thunder, and either Ice Beam, Thunderwave, or Rest. The choice is based on what the rest of the team is capable of doing. This Pokemon is countered by special walls and scarfed Palkia and Deoxys-A.

Deoxys is unique in that it has multiple formes and so has more movesets possible. The speed forme is quite common since it can outrun scarfed Kyogre. It normally will run Spikes and or Stealth Rock. Focus Sash is a must since it has low HP and is best used as a lead. Deoxy-A can also make a great lead since it is able to counter some of the biggest threats in the tier. Examples include Darkrai, Groudon, and Kyogre to name a few. My favorite set for it is Superpower, Thunderbolt, Grass Knot, and Psychic. You have first strike vs pretty much any nonscarfed Pokemon and can supereffective attack them for a ko in either one or two hits. Thunderbolt is used instead of Thunder based on the number of Deoxys leads. Either way you are unable to OHKO Kyogre unless you ran Choice Specs which would be too risky in the event of Extreme Speed. Grass Knot is able to ohko Groudon depending on how the Groudon is ev trained. It is countered by scarfed pokemon that survive its attack and by Extreme Speed or other priority moves. Extreme Speed on this pokemon is a good choice too if you want a priority move. This is especially true if you equip Focus Sash to Deoxys.

Palkia is commonly ran with a Choice Scarf. This is done to outspeed Kyogre and pretty much anything else. The set includes Thunder for Kyogres and Manaphys, Spacial Rend for Dragons, and Aura Sphere for Darkrais. The last move is normally Surf. This Pokemon is very hard to counter because of how fast and powerful it strikes. It can do around 80% to a Manaphy after 1-2 Calm Minds if the Manaphy wasn't eved in HP or Spdef. Kingdra is one of the few counters available if you don't run Scarfed Latios or Latias. It is certainly possible to run Palkia without a Choice Scarf, but it is harder to use due to being able to get ohkod by Latios before you get a chance to strike. If you are feeling gutsy, you could try running it with Choice Specs. When equiped with this item, Spacial Rend craters any Pokemon's health bar, especially when you get a critical hit.

Darkrai are a pain to deal with. They almost always have the move Dark Void which has a very high hit ratio. Due to this, you may want to consider running a Lum Berry on one of your Pokemon that is capable of knocking it out. Nasty Plot is commonly used after you get put to sleep to make it even more deadly. Darkrai almost always run Dark Pulse as well since it can make the opposing Pokemon flinch. Life Orb is very common on Darkrais to further increase the damage it does. I go with Wide Lens just so I almost never miss with Dark Void. It can be countered by only those with extremely high speed that or those that are scarfed. The biggest counter is Mewtwo since with Expert Belt attached it can OHKO it with Aura Sphere. Another way to run Darkrai is with Leftovers as the item and use Substitute instead of a second damaging attack. While you lose some type trumping abilities, if you put them to sleep then use Substitute, you won't get cheaply knocked out. After getting a substitute up, then you would use Nasty Plot.

Shaymin Sky forme is a very fast Pokemon that gets the rare ability Serene Grace. This makes the chances of added effects caused by its Attacks doubled. When combod with Air Slash, it has a 60% flinch rate. Seed Flare has an 80% chance of harshly lowering the Special Defense of the enemy Pokemon. Earth Power is a necessity on it to help against Dialga who would otherwise wall it completely. It is sometimes ran with Choice Scarf to ensure first strike with Air Slash. Nonscarfed Shaymins are countered by scarfed Kyogres and many pokemon that can survive a hit if they don't flinch. While it may be fragile, it can still be a useful team member.

Mewtwo was the first ever Pokemon that had a 680 base stat total and had the highest Special Attack. It is now second highest Special Attack losing only to Deoxys-A. Unlike Deoxys attack forme, Mewtwo is capable of taking a hit without Focus Sash, with some exceptions. It is still one of the fastest Pokemon there is. With its high Special Attack and Speed it is capable of plowing through Pokemon one by one if they aren't scarfed. It has an incredible movepool surpassed only by Mew and Smeargle. It commonly holds an Expert Belt and has the following moves: Psychic, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Aura Sphere. By running this set, it is capable of supereffective attacks against almost all Pokemon. If you are feeling brave, you can opt to have it hold Life Orb for increased power with all attacks in the event you don't have one that type trumps the opponent. The downfall is that then it becomes quite difficult to take a hit. It is also a rare true counter to Darkrai. It is countered by scarfed Kyogre most commonly, although special walls like Blissey work well too. You could also run Choice Specs if you want to increase the damage even farther, but you will have to switch if you need to perform a different attack. It can be good if you are running a Rain Team though.

Mew is very special in that it can learn every TM/HM/Move Tutor move with the exception of Draco Meteor. It learns a variety of stat boosting moves and Baton Pass if you are looking for a stat passer. Mew is capable of both Nasty Plot and Swords Dance, thus allowing it to be used as a sweeper in either category. It also has the ability to act as a wall if you are willing to dedicate a few slots to moves like Amnesia and Rest. Mew's speed maxes out at 328 which allows it to be outrun by quite a few nonscarfed Pokemon. If you want, you could try running it with Rock Polish to increase its speed and then just not boost other stats to be able to use three different move types.

It is better to use the regular forme of Giratina due to being able to have freedom with item choice. Giratina is best used as a wall; it even has the bonus of having the ability Pressure. It is common to give it either Calm Mind or Bulk Up and rest for increased survivability. I personally don't use Sleep talk with it because then you only have one damaging move, although it is an option that is available. For damaging moves, I recommend Dragon Pulse or Dragon Claw and either Shadow Ball, Shadow Force, or Shadow Claw. The moves depend on if you use Calm Mind or Bulk Up. If you would rather have a more offensive Giratina, I would still recommend the regular forme simply because you can choose what item to have it hold. In this case, you can give it moves like Earthquake and Thunderbolt. It is countered by Darkrai and really powerful Dragon, Ghost, Ice, and Dark Type attacks.

Groudon has a very high Attack stat and is the most powerful Earthquake user even. It also has the unique ability to cause eternal Sunny Day. Now Groudon may not be the fastest Pokemon, therefore, it is highly recommended to run Rock Polish on it. This will allow you to outrun pretty much everything that comes your way. Earthquake is a given move for its boosted power. Dragon Claw is highly useful due to the number of Dragon Pokemon. Additionally, it is only resisted by steel types which Earthquake takes care of. There are a couple of choices for your last move. Stealth Rock can be helpful if you plan on leading with it. Fire Punch can deal high damage in the sunlight; Swords Dance would be able to increase your power. They all can be good, but I feel that Stealth Rock is the best choice if it is your lead. Once it pulls off a Rock Polish, it becomes very hard to stop a Groudon. You must have Pokemon that can survive its attacks and then use either Ice or Grass attacks since the weather will be sunny. The best way to take it down is if you have Grass Knot. due to its heavy weight, it will cause well over half of Groudon's HP to be lost. Latios' Grass Knot while holding Soul Dew can OHKO Groudon.

Dialga is run very similar to Palkia. It is commonly equiped with Choice Scarf and posseses these moves: Dragon Pulse, Thunder, Aura Sphere, Draco Meteor. With its high defense and resistance to several types, it can be difficult to take down. Groudon is a possible counter it provided it doesn't get critical striken by Draco Meteor. You need to be careful though since it will still put a large dent in your HP. Wobbuffet is also a good way to counter it, as your opponent will be locked into doing one move. Dialga can also be used as a pretty good wall since it resists several types and has high Defense. Its Special Defense isn't bad either. In that case, you would equip it with Leftovers.

Manaphy can be a troubling Pokemon to get rid of in the rain. It normally has Calm Mind making it very durable especially since it recovers status conditions right away in the rain. Rest is easily the best move on it. Surf and Ice Beam are also solid on Manaphy. Calm Mind is really better than Tail Glow so you can survive Thunders easier. Once the weather is no longer rain, it is easily destroyed, so make sure you always have control of the weather. Palkia is definitely a big counter since it has such high Special Attack anyway.

There are a few different ways you can run a team for Ubers. There really isn't a right or wrong way, but you must know how to use each member of the team to its full potential. A fair amount of the time, Stealth Rock doesn't ever hit the field. This is because the Pokemon just unleash such powerful attacks that it is hard to endure an attack. Knowing that, Focus Sash is more useful than it is in Standard play. You can go for straight power with little strategy. It will get you through a lot of games, but you will find it hard if you don't have any set up moves, especially against the more experienced players. Teams can also be weather based. If you can control the weather, you can really do so much more than if you don't harness it. Some combos are only possible by using weather. Some teams are just like your Standard ones with the only exception being what Pokemon you choose. Whatever strategy you choose, make sure you have synergy in the team. Without synergy and knowing how to maximize the effect of each of your Pokemon, you will never make the leaderboard. As of Monday, November 2, the top 50 had a cut off ranking of 1570.
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#2
Very nice article, good read, and me (being a n00b at the competitive battling) didn't even know you were allowed to use Ubers at all.

These tiers are still pretty confusing to me, would you mind making a short article about what each of the tiers are, and what pokemon are in them?
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#3
I sure can. I will work on them later.
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