2025 Gimmicks Part 2

Part 2

Azelf @ Focus Sash  

Ability: Levitate  

EVs: 60 HP / 188 Atk / 44 Def / 216 Spe  

Jolly Nature  

- Stealth Rock  

- U-turn  

- Explosion  

- Taunt

This looks like Mew and plays like it. The difference is the power output, and the fact that it will always outspeed Tentacruel to prevent Toxic Spikes going up turn 1 (not sure if or when people are going to creep Tentacruel to max speed or not). The power difference between Azelf U-turn and Mew U-turn is pretty significant:

188 Atk Azelf U-turn vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Deoxys-Speed: 156-184 (51.3 - 60.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Mew U-turn vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Deoxys-Speed: 140-166 (46 - 54.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252+ Atk Choice Band Technician Scizor Bullet Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Deoxys-Speed: 177-208 (58.2 - 68.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252+ Atk Life Orb Rayquaza Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Deoxys-Speed: 152-179 (50 - 58.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

40 Atk Life Orb Rayquaza Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Deoxys-Speed: 119-141 (39.1 - 46.3%) -- 28.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock

64 Atk Griseous Orb Giratina-Origin Shadow Sneak vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Deoxys-Speed: 140-168 (46 - 55.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

As you can see, with some weaker priority moves from MixRay and Gira-O, you may not get the 2HKO with Mew as easily as you would with Azelf. The reason you use Azelf over Deo-S or Deo-A is the ability to Explode, as well as the ability to pivot out of Tyranitar and other Sash leads and then come back and set up Rocks later. The main downside of Azelf is that you're much worse off against Darkrai leads - they can easily sleep you and break your Sash then kill you, and unlike Deo-S, it's not easy to stay in and go for the 2 turn wake vs Scarf Rai because they can feasibly bring in something faster (or Giratina-O). Scarf Azelf is also an option (which was a set I wrote 15 years ago), but that runs into trouble against Scarf Rai (you just die). Scarf Azelf is also trying to do too many things at once. You will definitely need a Sleep absorber to go alongside lead Azelf. Scarf Dialga is probably the best one - you don't care about Trick, don't mind Dark Pulse much either.

EVs used let you outspeed Latis and Froslass, as well as survive a Lum/Passho lead Ho-oh Sacred Fire through burn and blow up on it.

Mesprit @ Custap Berry  

Ability: Levitate  

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA

Modest nature

- Stealth Rock  

- Ice Beam  

- Healing Wish

- U-turn / Thunder Wave / Grass Knot / Trick Room

This is something totally stupid that I tried once or twice and is actually kind of funny so I decided to keep it in here. The only thing that this has over Cresselia is the fact that it can set up Stealth Rock. Healing Wish is the other notable move that Mesprit has which is generally useful.

Anyway, the main reason I was trying this out is because there would be teams that I'd be using that I wanted to role compress a soft RP Groudon check + Stealth Rock user on a relatively fast paced team, which outside of Bronzong (subject to whether Groudon carries Fire Punch or not), is actually surprisingly hard to find! Your options are literally the Lake trio (Azelf is too frail but Mesprit and Uxie are okay; Uxie definitely needs Grass Knot to hurt Groudon), Gliscor (okay but can't hurt Groudon as much), Aerodactyl (can't hurt Groudon and is frail anyway), Claydol (a bit slow) and Solrock/Lunatone (actually surprisingly usable but LOL). If you're running rain and are happy to be slightly Fire Punch weak then Bronzong is probably the best, but your other options would be like Celebi (which is still pretty unexplored but probably mediocre), Skarmory (which can set up Rocks but you'd rather use it for Spikes) and a possible option in Torterra (which to be honest I see potential). Mesprit can tank +2 Dragon Claw and deal ~50% to even the fat Double Dance Groudons which is honestly quite impressive, and if you really wanted to put down Groudon you can still use Grass Knot. U-turn lets you pivot and Twave is just always good for last slot. Trick Room is always an option in the last slot because Mesprit is actually slower than most Ubers. Custap Berry is probably the best since Mesprit is quite slow and you can fodder if some damage and then just set up Rocks or Twave or whatever as you die. However, this may be getting patched out soon because Custap doesn't actually work on cart like it does on Showdown, so... if we can't use that the probably use Lum or something.

Some calcs:

252+ SpA Mesprit Ice Beam vs. 112 HP / 0 SpD Groudon: 214-254 (57.9 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252+ SpA Mesprit Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 112 HP / 0 SpD Groudon: 272-320 (73.7 - 86.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252+ SpA Mesprit Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 104 SpD Groudon: 192-226 (47.5 - 55.9%) -- 80.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Life Orb Groudon Fire Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mesprit in Sun: 187-221 (51.3 - 60.7%) -- 93.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

+2 16+ Atk Groudon Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mesprit: 175-206 (48 - 56.5%) -- 35.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

So yeah, definitely a very interesting niche that I actually find relatively "not rare", although it does come at the cost of running Mesprit lol.

I should probably try Uxie at some point too but I haven't tried it properly yet so can't do it justice unfortunately.

Mew @ Lum Berry / Custap Berry

Ability: Synchronize  

EVs: 64 HP / 204 Atk / 24 SpD / 216 Spe  

Jolly Nature  

- Swords Dance  

- Explosion  

- Sucker Punch

- Dragon Claw

Credit goes to Laurianne who was using SD Mew in about 2021-2022, although the set that she used was a bit different (iirc was SD/Ice Punch/Low Kick + either Boom or Sucker Punch or something). The idea behind this set is basically to force out opposing Skarmory/Bronzong/Steel/physical wall who think they can wall you and blow up on them, clearing the way for something like a Double Dance Groudon, or DD Ray.

One interesting property of Mew I feel is that it is a pretty decent offensive CM Mewtwo check for WobbRay which tends to struggle with that mon. Mew basically lives anything Mewtwo can throw at it, can SD up and threaten Sucker Punch or just boom straight up.

Dragon Claw is picked for the last move because it hits the most common mon that is immune to boom (Gira-O). I guess you can use Outrage but Dclaw is just more flexible. Item wise, Lum is probably best since at least you can at least get two +2 Dragon Claws into Gira-A - with the Synchronise and burn, you can theoretically 2HKO through rocks and burn (via Synchronize) while healing yourself with Lum. You straight up 2HKO if it's SpD. Custap is also an option (keeping in mind cart vs PS) so you can potentially switch into a strong attack then just boom on the way out. EVs were made to tank a 184 SpA Rash Gira-O Draco Meteor so +2 Dragon Claw -> Sucker Punch can kill it before they can Shadow Sneak you.

Drifblim @ Petaya Berry  

Ability: Unburden  

EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  

Rash Nature  

- Endure  

- Shadow Ball  

- Weather Ball / Thunder 

- Explosion

Not sure when I'll write my Ghost part 2 blog, but this was going to be part of it. As mentioned in my Gira-O blog, I kind of noted how Gira-O doesn't have a great deal of sweeping potential. Drifblim isn't great, but it's the only thing that can boost its power and speed once. This set's effectiveness does wear off a bit once people know how it's played but it has a bit of speed control and sweeping potential. The idea is to survive a fatal hit, get +2 Speed and +1 SpA and either explode to take out a big threat (eg Mewtwo), or if you have an opportunity, go on a bit of an attack. Shadow Ball is unfortunately kind of weak and is your main STAB but hits a lot of the Psychics decently hard so still okay. I normally use this on sun HO, so Weather Ball is your best weapon to hit Forretress. Thunder can be used if you're using on rain, although Water-type Weather Ball in rain is not bad either. Explosion lets you wipe out something in a pinch.

I think I overhyped this thing in my mind a bit, but it fits with the kind of hyper aggressive team style that I like to use. Spinblocker + emergency speed control + maybe cleaner + Explosion is just so cool. Also a blimp being usable in Ubers is funny.

Empoleon @ Leftovers  

Ability: Torrent  

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD  

Calm Nature  

- Stealth Rock  

- Knock Off  

- Ice Beam  

- Roar / Toxic

So I finally found a use for this thing in DPP Ubers. For the longest time, it was hard to justify using this because while it looks like the perfect Palkia check with its typing, they waste you with Thunder anyway.

After a while, I saw these Ho-oh + Heatran sun teams appearing every so often and really not rating them very highly at all. You know those teams - Ho-oh/Groudon/Heatran/Forretress/Latias/Giratina-O. I didn't like these teams mainly because they are so dependent on a single point of failure against Kyogre (Latias), something that if you've played ADV, DPP or BW teams for just a few games you'll know immediately that Latias being your only Kyogre check is very prone to getting haxed so you really need a bit more of a solid core against Kyogre. If you lose Latias to hax or Pursuit early you're just fucked.

Why did I go into a massive detour on a middling sun team style? The main reason is because I feel that is the kind of team that Ho-oh is broken af but you still need that solid Steel-type to absorb things like MixRay (Forre is trying to do much as your single point of Draco absorption). Heatran makes you much weaker to Kyogre, however Empoleon's typing lets you tank mixed Dragons pretty well while semi-check Kyogre too. The type difference changes you from a Kyogre weak team to something that's a lot more solid.

Empoleon is one of the only Pokemon in DPP Ubers that can use Knock Off, which is pretty cool. Knocking Off Leftovers from shit like SpD Dialga and CM Kyogre is incredibly useful. Ice Beam lets you take out Ray when it locks into Outrage. Roar fill let you get rid of CM Kyogre in a pinch, but Toxic is also not a bad option.