Pokemon Uranium - Competitive Discussion

PP Stall Proof of Concept

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 14:36:34 +0000

Hi there y'all!

I don't know what I should be posting this under, really, so if someone could help me out there that'd be great

I just spent an hour and a half in a single battle, so I thought I'd show it off:

Stallouts.png (Size: 175.49 KB / Downloads: 8)
Stallout Mon & Win.png (Size: 377.75 KB / Downloads: 10)
...and geezus, am I worn out.

I don't really have the patience to spend much more time on this right now, but maybe eventually I'll spend time breeding a better IV'd mon for this lol

ParaFlinch, working its magic

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 23:25:54 +0000

I'm just going to post this here, and let it speak for itself.

ParaFlinch Example.png (Size: 69.05 KB / Downloads: 6)

Geez, I love Jank strategies like this! lol

F.E.A.R. in Uranium?

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 20:30:01 +0000

Hi everyone!

I'm putting together a team of some of Uranium's most annoying semi-viable pokemon, and I was thinking: is FEAR possible?

(If you don't know what I'm talking about, please watch some of these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8mHW3b_9w8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkuLfnAnXqo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2uz8LuRY5w
Thank you!)

My thoughts are going towards either the Cottonee build of Substitute and Leech Seed (with Focus Sash and Prankster), or a Sturdy build with Shell Bell and Endeavor, or Pain Split.

This is what I've landed on:
Pokemon: Snopach
Level: 1
Ability: Sturdy (Hidden Ability)
Item: Shell Bell
Moves:
-Endeavor
-Ice Shard
-Hail/Sandstorm
-??? (Currently the other one from move 3)

Thoughts? Suggestions? Hidden Ability Snopachs up for trade? Let me know, please!

UCC's new website for competitive data!

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 00:56:57 +0000

I've been working on this for awhile, and I finally finished enough of it to unveil it to the public today! May I introduce:

UCC's Official Tiering Resources!

It's a little barren at the time of writing, only featuring brief overviews for the pokemon in each of UCC's main tiers, but UCC's Staff will be working with the community to compile data for sample sets, sample teams, and viability rankings for the foreseeable future.

If you'd like to join the community and give us a hand, come join the Uranium Competitive Collective Discord server! (you can find the invite link on the Uranium Discord Community page of the website linked above!)

Equipe

Sun, 26 Apr 2020 17:48:35 +0000

Bonsoirs , joueur depuis peut a Pokemon uranium.
Avez vous des idées d'équipe, avec capacités et objet qui sois compétitif.
Sachant que je viens d'obtenir les 8 badges, mon starter est metalynx lvl 65.
J'aimerai parfaire mes connaissances sur ce jeux, qui es génial, et ma redonner gout a un jeux Pokemon depuis longtemps.

UCC's tiering process and current tierlists

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 22:37:48 +0000

One of the goals of the Uranium Competitive Collective is to sort the Pokémon of the Uranium dex into tiers based on power level. The aim is to separate the powerhouses from the average 'mons, so that online battlers can enjoy the fairest metagames possible. This thread will detail how UCC's tiers came to be, what the rules for each one are, and how they evolve. The current tierlists will also be posted here and updated with every new tier shift.

Contents

Preamble

..I.. The original headache for UCC's tiering: no usage stats

..II.. UCC's tiering process (mild story spoilers here)

..IIa.. The tier pyramid

..IIb.. Tier shifts

..IIc.. Suspect testing

..III.. Tier rulesets

..IIIa.. UCC rulings

..IIIb.. Tierlists

Preamble

The tiers in question are only official within the Uranium Competitive Collective's community and its Discord server. We are a subgroup of the Pokémon Uranium community and the tiers we use are only an agreement between our members. It is highly unlikely they will ever be recognised as official by the game developers and main community leaders. People are also, of course, free to battle between themselves for fun not following the UCC guidelines.

The tiers in question are made for the Uranium battle simulator (or as we call it, "the sim"). In-game online battles are a feature that is currently broken and the sim is our way around that. Do note, and it can't be stressed enough, that the sim is a work in progress. As such, a certain amount of mechanics are either missing or not working as intended at the moment. The list of known issues can be found here, it's there for all to see. Besides these few hiccups, the sim is absolutely usable - usable enough that we can work on building tiers for it.

The current philosophy regarding certain sim exploits is "if it's possible on the sim, it's allowed, unless specifically forbidden by UCC rules". That applies to harmless moveset additions (ie: Splendifowl, Aromatisse and Miasmedic are able to use the move Wish on the sim due to it being coded in their movepool in game, although technically they are unable to learn in game it for lack of potential fathers to chain breed it from, onto their pre-evolutions), to more significant alterations to abilities (ie: Feliger's signature ability Lazy is currently not working at all on the sim, allowing it to make use of its massive 155 Base Attack with no drawback. Similarly, Yatagaryu's signature ability Stormbringer currently summons Rain to the field instead of Thunderstorm, allowing for various rain based strategies).

..I..
The original headache for UCC's tiering: no usage stats

The point of reference that the UCC Staff looked up to was quite obviously Smogon and the series of main tiers they created. Now the principle for these tiers is that they're usage-based. Pokémon used most frequently (because they're supposedly the strongest) go the main tier, while others used less frequently (supposedly weaker) drop down to lower tiers. That sounds like a fair system, one can't argue with usage statistics; however it isn't one that could be applied to Uranium. Unlike Showdown, the simulator we use does not keep track of the Pokémon played in battle so we had to come up with another strategy to base our tiers off of. Even if it did, the UCC playerbase is far smaller than Showdown's and it wouldn't make sense to base our tiers on usage statistics if one person alone can have that much control over them. The Staff considered many options to sort the 'mons, from making arbitrary tierlists, to rating each mon individually using composite indices. None of them were practical to use, and that's the issue the Staff spent most of their time trying to solve. Eventually, we managed to find a solution that was both democratic and retained some form of reliability.

..II..
UCC's tiering process (mild story spoilers here)

..IIa..
The tier pyramid

Pokémon Uranium's cover legendary Urayne comes in three different formes during a playthrough: Urayne-Gamma, Urayne-Beta and Urayne-Alpha. UCC's tiers are named after these three formes to reflect the power levels of the Pokémon that they include. As such, Gamma is the tier in which the strongest Pokémon can be used, while Beta is the tier where Pokémon of a lesser power level can be used in. Beta Pokémon can be used in Gamma, but not the other way around. For convenience, a third tier named Uber was made to take away the mechanics and Pokémon deemed uncompetitive, unhealthy, or broken for the Gamma tier. (An Alpha tier below Beta may or may not be created in the future to complete the trilogy.)

..IIb..

Tier shifts

Every month, a Google form is issued by the UCC Staff. UCC members are welcome and encouraged to vote on where they think each 'mon deserves to be placed (either Uber/Suspect test, Gamma or Beta).

Every two months, the results of the two latest Google forms are utilised to make up new tier shifts. The way this system works is that every tier shift weighs enough to completely reset the previous tierlists.

- If, over the course of two votes (2 months), a given Pokémon is placed consistently in the same tier by the majority of voters, then it will remain in said tier.

Example: Archilles was voted Gamma by the majority of voters both during January and February's vote. Therefore, it is Gamma until the next tier shift.

- If, over the course of two votes (2 months), the ratings of a given Pokémon vary by over 25%, then it will drop/rise in tier accordingly.

Example: Paraboom was voted Beta in January, however in February people thought it proved too strong for Beta and voted it Gamma. The difference between the two votes was significant enough to warrant Paraboom's place in Gamma.

- If, over the course of two votes (2 months), the ratings of a given Pokémon vary by 25% or less, then it will remain in the tier it was voted in by the majority of voters in the first vote.

Example: Navighast was voted Gamma in January. However, even though in February people thought it wasn't strong enough for Gamma and voted it Beta, the difference between the two votes was not significant enough to warrant Navighast's place in Beta. Therefore, it is Gamma until the next tier shift.

Regarding Uber
- At least 80% of the voters need to place a given Pokémon in Uber for it to be quickbanned
- If 40-80% of the voters place a given Pokémon in Uber, then it will be suspect tested.
- Fewer than 40% of the voters placing a given Pokémon in Uber will not result in any balancing action.

..IIc..
Suspect testing

Each Pokémon that has been voted Uber by 80% or more of the voters is given its own suspect test.

A suspect test is a period of time (2 weeks) where people are welcome to battle using either the suspected Pokémon itself, or using a team designed to counter it, in order to amass experience and be able to formulate an educated opinion on whether the suspected 'mon deserves to go to Uber or not.

Anyone can enter a suspect test. However, for one's opinion ("ban" or "no ban") to matter in the final vote for the suspected 'mon's fate, one must show proof that they have battled regularly during the suspect. They can do that by taking a screenshot of the number of ranked battles they have played on the sim (using the /rank sim command) and by posting it in the appropriate channel of the UCC's discord server as early as possible. After having played the required amount of ranked battles (usually 10), they can get verified as a Suspect Test Voter by posting a second screenshot of their /rank, with the amount of ranked battles played logically incremented by 10.

For example, current Staff member Jabuloso would post this screenshot at the beginning of a Suspect test:

And this second one after having played 10 more ranked battles:

When a suspect test ends, the Suspect Test Voters' votes are counted and the decision to ban or not to ban the suspected 'mon becomes effective immediately.

..III..
Tier rulesets

..IIIa..
UCC rulings

All game-breaking mechanics are forbidden in battle. Again, find the list of known issues on the simulator here.
All unreleased Pokémon that are otherwise available on the simulator are forbidden in battle until properly released in game. To name them, they are Baitatao, Leviathao, Krakanao, Aotius, Mutios, Zephy and Gengar.
Uber is not intended to be a balanced tier of its own, it is merely the banlist for Gamma and Beta. As such, all mechanics and Pokémon are allowed in Uber.
Gamma battles must be played following the Gamma tierlist. Beta Pokémon are allowed to be used in Gamma battles.
Beta battles must be played following the Beta tierlist.
Gamma and Beta : Pokémon whose typing does not include Nuclear may not use Nuclear-type moves by any means. This includes moves that change typing under various circumstances (i.e. Natural Gift when the user is holding a Hafli Berry) and moves that call other moves that the user has control over (i.e. Assist into any Nuclear-type move).

..IIIb..
Tierlists

Find the current Beta tierlist here.
All Non fully evolved Pokémon are de facto Beta.
Find the current Gamma tierlist here.

The current Uber tierlist includes : Mega Inflagetah, Nucleon, Xenoqueen, Lanthan, Urayne-Alpha, Urayne-Beta and Mega Syrentide.

UCS Debrief: What It Took to be the Champ

Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:14:20 +0000

Hello again, this is the followup post I mentioned in my drafting guide. As promised, I will be dumping all the teams I made for this season and tournament in this post, but I’ll also be going through my preparation each week in depth (some longer than others). Hopefully this will provide a more tangible grasp of my process than generally saying things like “build your opponent’s team first, and use a friend to battle against it.”

Mizz and the Nowtoch Jackdearys
Expected Team: https://pastebin.com/YSpfWFHK
My Team: https://pastebin.com/zHbpVnEJ

Look, if you haven’t figured it out by now, hyper offense was a bad matchup, and Mizz’s sand team was no exception. Generally, sand teams in Uranium struggle against bulky waters like Mega-Syrentide, but Mizz had the answer in Winotinger. Choice Scarf Final Gambit Winotinger is a clean answer to MegaTide no matter how many times I’ve used Calm Mind. The other problem with yet another weather team is it is impossible to outspeed it under the weather effect. My go-to answer to weather sweepers had been Anderind, but this week it didn’t look particularly promising. For starters, Escartress switches in on every move scarf Anderind has and sets up sand again, negating the hail Anderind sets up itself. Additionally, both scarf Winotinger and scarf Chimaconda outspeed and OHKO Anderind, and I was pretty certain they would both be scarf, as much as Tan complains about scarf Chimaconda.

Both of these two scarfers have a base speed stat of 85, which is 1 more than Xenoqueen at 84. This meant that Xenoqueen would be permanently outsped by Mizz’s two scarf users, and that it would not be able to get much of anything done, especially when Tracton presents the same problem after a Speed Boost and Protect. This week especially, I would not be able to rely on my Pokémon to outspeed the enemy team with a casual choice scarf, so I would have to innovate (very annoying, honestly).

There are a couple of different reasons why I brought Trick Room this week. On top of everything above, I promised Mizz I would “bring something spicy.” And, as we’ve already mentioned, it’s important to bring different strategies each week to keep your opponents guessing. There isn’t a lot to say about making a Trick Room team, but I’m going to do it anyway. Trick Room lasts 5 turns, and you want to maximize the number of turns you get to take under its effects. Outside of Tracton, every turn under Trick Room Xenoqueen is guaranteed a kill with Radioacid. To maximize our number of turns, Whimsicott has Memento (giving Xenoqueen a free switch-in) and S51 has U-Turn (I only realized later that S51 would have been better with Explosion).

The other thing to make sure when making Trick Room teams is that you don’t go all in on Trick Room. The battle will last more than the 5 turns Trick Room will be up, and it’s very difficult to set it up again and sweep. My plan was to have two Trick Room users in Whimsicott and S51, both of which would set it up for Xenoqueen to dent some things, but I would still need a team for the rest of the turns.

Mega-Syrentide is a staple of the team, but this week would not be able to Calm Mind sweep through everything due to Winotinger’s Final Gambit, so I brought Calm Mind + 3 attacks. Not that M-Syrentide has many options, but Ice Beam was for Cocancer, Surf for Chimaconda, and Hyper Voice for everything else. M-Syrentide would also be my best answer against Tracton, which threatened to stop Xenoqueen’s Trick Room sweep. With the calcs I’d done, max physdef M-Syrentide would be able to switch into any Tracton set regardless of any factors and 2HKO. With Tracton dead, all I would have to do is set up Trick Room a second time with S51 and finish it off.

My backup backup win condition this week was Feliger. Nothing on Mizz’s team could 2HKO it without boosts, which meant that Slack Off would allow the cat to clean everything up outside of a random mon clicking Toxic. It was my fault for not doing enough preparation this week, but I should have known that scarf Winotinger would not 2HKO Feliger with Aura Sphere, and it almost cost me the match. The match, as always, can be watched here: https://youtu.be/3hlJz1b-5Lc.

Week 5

Spoder and the Legen Harpteras
Expected Team: https://pastebin.com/sKYH3GBv
My Team: https://pastebin.com/LwDE56Wm

Somehow I found myself up against yet another bad matchup: hyper offense. Except this time, Spoder had the two fastest and most offensive physical attackers in the entire game. Mega-Inflagetah, even without functioning Accelerate, kills most things after a Swords Dance. Harptera kills basically everything after a Swords Dance. Fortunately for me, Spoder’s team is extremely weak to Stealth Rock, and only has Dermafrost to Rapid Spin and remove them. Because I identified that Stealth Rock was so vital to my win, I brought Sableye for the first and only time this week to block the Rapid Spin to remove them.

Going into this week, I wasn’t super worried given how solid I considered my strategy this week. Spoder would truly have no way of escaping Stealth Rocks once I got them up. However, playing against the team I made with Dragonstrike, I realized that Spoder could just Swords Dance a couple times and it would be over whether I had Stealth Rock or not. The most scary Swords Dance user he could bring was easily Harptera. In order to beat it, I decided to do something quite stupid, and bring Baariette. Now baar with me for a second. This rancid Baariette set could switch into a swords dance from Harptera and live the Acrobatics, killing back with Rock Slide.

Obviously the previous statement is a complete and utter lie. But Baariette with Ice Punch has game against Dunseraph, Fafninter, Dermafrost, and Astronite. If I got lucky, I could catch Harptera on the switch-in and kill with Rock Slide. The best and only real answer I had to Harptera was physdef S51 with Eviolite. It also walled and killed Leafeon with Toxic and Recover spamming. For Mega-Inflagetah, my Mega-Syrentide would have to do. Once all the Swords Dance users were out of the way, Feliger would be able to brute force through the rest of Spoder’s team with a Slack Off + 3 attacks set in Earthquake for Jolteon, Brick Break for Fafninter, and Rock Slide for Harptera.

When it came time for the battle, Spoder didn’t actually end up bringing Harptera, which was my biggest problem and worry. When you watch the battle, you will see me throw certain Pokémon away to their certain deaths. When I did this, I was letting Toxic wrack up and preserving health on Pokémon I need to actually win, while the ones I was sacrificing to Spoder’s fervor wouldn’t help me win at that point anymore. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/aIMUFnRiDP8.

Week 6

Week 7

Poisseman and the Moki Nimfloras
Expected Team A: https://pastebin.com/qxw0cpr2
Expected Team B: https://pastebin.com/r2ys8yhr
My Team: https://pastebin.com/w6xjjgRy

This week looked rough, but winnable. Poisseman’s only two checks to Xenoqueen were spdef S51-A and Metalynx, and neither take the fire type coverage moves well. In fact, Poiss’s entire team was pretty weak to fire types. It looked like I would finally be able to bring Beliaddon again. Unfortunately, this looked like the worst match-up for Mega-Syrentide yet. Metalynx is probably the best M-Syrentide counter in the game, but Theriamp and M-Arbok both revenge kill M-Syrentide with their powerful super-effective STABs with ease. With Ice Punch, Theriamp punches through my best answer to it in Gliscor. After a Swords Dance, Theriamp could only be stopped by choice scarf Xenoqueen.
But Poiss had two other potent threats. Seikamater has more than enough bulk to set up several Quiver Dances and can continually heal off chip damage. The only way I could beat Seikamater was having it die to Toxic. That’s why I have Toxic on Tofurang, S51, and Feliger. It was literally that important. The secondary plan was to Roar it out with Tofurang.
Tofurang was my plan to beat Poiss’s other threat as well: Mega-Arbok. Mega-Arbok loves to set up multiple Coils and plow through teams with Sucker Punch, a very accurate Gunk Shot, and Earthquake. Just like Seikamater, there was no beating it after it got enough boosts, so what do you do against that? Roar. My plan with Tofurang was to Toxic Seikamater before promptly roaring it out, and then Will-O-Wisp Mega Arbok before roaring it out. The double status, Roar, and U-turn may look weird, but I had a feeling Poisseman wouldn’t expect it. If I was able to side step Theriamp somehow, Toxic Seikamater and phaze it before it can set up and sweep my team, and then Will-O-Wisp Mega-Arbok and also phaze it before it sets up and sweeps my team, then I can win, easy.

Another out to Mega-Arbok was Defiant Beliaddon. Arbok has no choice but to give it a Defiant boost upon switching in, whether pre-mega or not. Also, Beliaddon beats everything on Poiss’s team outside of Theriamp with relative ease, aside from Archilles which folds to Gliscor anyway. I speed crept it to reach 222 speed in order to beat physdef Nimflora which hits a speed stat of 220. Beliaddon is almost never run with speed, which is partially why speed creeping it specifically is so effective. Somehow, the battle plan with Tofurang went perfectly to plan, and if you don’t believe me, see for yourself: https://youtu.be/-c_YiOpZXxc.

Semi-Finals

Poisseman and the Moki Nimfloras Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
Expected Team: https://pastebin.com/3Qi3dSaM
My Team: https://pastebin.com/RyFWPuuT

Same game plan, just like the first, but somehow, things have got a lot worse. So this week I wouldn’t be able to gimp Poiss’s entire lineup with a single Tofurang. Additionally, Poiss got some new toys in Tracton and Herolune. Tracton would present a problem due to its ability to tank Radioacids from Xenoqueen and set up a Swords Dance before plowing through my team. Herolune had recently been showing up in the preliminary Beta tier (Uranium’s UU) with a choice scarf and wrecking things particularly hard. I was afraid that someone would finally catch on and start scarfing their Pokémon to blow out Xenoqueen.

However, I got some new toys as well. Harptera is an egregious Pokémon that can easily clean up draft teams without the actual answers that keep it in check in Gamma Tier. My team was basically the same with Harptera replacing S51 and Mega-Syrentide replacing Feliger. Despite Feliger’s raw power, Herolune would present a real way to break through it.
The only strategy that I truly gave away in the first match was Tofurang, which meant that Beliaddon’s speed creep could be effective again. Additionally, Beliaddon’s new speed beats neutral natured Herolune, which would be useful given Herolune is expected to force Beliaddon out. However, if Beliaddon failed, Mega-Syrentide switches into most Herolune sets pretty easily and blasts something with Hyper Voice or Surf.

I also expected Poisseman to actually bring Archilles this week to counteract Tofurang and shore up his weakness to Xenoqueen (with Flame Impact) and Beliaddon (with Earthquake), which was another reason to bring Mega-Syrentide over S51.

In the week 7 match, my Xenoqueen traded for his Theriamp, which was actually very good for me all things considered given how dangerous Theriamp was to my team. I didn’t want to make the same trade this week, which is why I led with Gliscor and set up my Stealth Rocks. Before I drop the battle video, I’d like to impart a little bit of battling strategy: when your opponent uses moves like Reflect, Trick Room, Light Screen, or has weather summoning moves like Drought they intend to abuse, you should stall out as many turns as you can. Oftentimes it will help them if you kill the Pokémon setting up Trick Room or Reflect. In this battle, you can see me choose to U-Turn with Gliscor instead of using Earthquake and killing Jerbolta, switching into Tofurang, then switching back into Gliscor to eat an attack from Jerbolta. That wasted two turns out of the 5 Reflect would be active. I forced Poisseman to manually switch Jerbolta out in order to get a threat in, which then had to take chip damage upon coming in -- in this case a crit Earthquake to OHKO. But enough about the minutia, see for yourself: https://youtu.be/0yJR3jhky_A.

Grand Finals

Thanks everyone for reading. As always, you can find me in the competitive discord (https://discord.gg/Peysqny) where I'm officially willing to answer all questions. Until next time,
-Fam

Uranium Championship Series Debrief Part 1: How To Draft

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 16:28:54 +0000

Hello, I am FamSlayer, the champion of The Uranium Championship Series for Season 1. Through no shortage of luck, I managed to go undefeated through the entire tournament, finishing with 9 straight wins between the regular season and the playoffs. To help competitors preparing for next season, I want to share as much of my strategy as possible so that the tournament and players can grow. This is the first post where I will be briefly breaking down the first part of the UCS: the draft.

The Uranium Championship Series is a draft league format, and if you don’t know what that means, you can read up on it here. The short version is that each of the 8 players take turns drafting from the Pokédex to make up a team. This draft will inform your entire season, and it is incredibly important. There are three general types of Pokémon that you should be prioritizing in draft.

The first type serves a vital utility in removing hazards such as Stealth Rocks and Sticky Web. Defog users are better than Rapid Spin users because they cannot be “spin blocked” by a ghost type, so prioritize them first. The best Defog users are Coatlith, Gliscor, and Gligar at the moment, although Gliscor and Gligar only get defog due to a bug in the online simulator, and that might be fixed before next season. I do not recommend a Defog (or Rapid Spin) user that is already weak to Stealth Rocks as you will have to take (at least) 25% when switching in. You have a couple more options when choosing a Rapid Spin user, but S51-A and Gararewl are still the best of the bunch, so pick them if you can. Unfortunately, assuming Gliscor’s access to Defog gets fixed, there will only be three “good” hazard removers, so I recommend drafting first! Remember, Pokémon like Splendidfowl may get Defog, but its weakness to Stealth Rocks will limit its effectiveness. If you were not lucky enough to get good hazard removal, you need to think more carefully about whether the key Pokémon on your team can be weak to rocks. Think twice about drafting Harptera and Inflagetah if your only way to remove hazards is Dermafrost.

Secondly, you want offensively threatening Pokémon with raw power. Actan, Yatagaryu, Harptera, Seikamater, Garlikid, Inflagetah, Mega-Archilles, Frikitiki, and Paraboom are perfect examples of pokemon that can 6-0 teams after just one turn of setup, and some with less than that. You’re looking for Pokémon with very high speed or speed boosting moves, or ones that can easily spam high base power priority moves. Sometimes a Pokémon that is extremely difficult to kill and tends to OHKO things with its STAB moves like Actan or Mega-Syrentide fit the bill as well.

Lastly, you need defensive Pokémon. You can’t expect to win every week with hyper offense, even though hyper offense is very strong in Pokémon Uranium. Antarki, Mega-Syrentide, Actan, Laissure, Luxelong, Gliscor, Escartress, Nimflora, Cubblfly, Tofurang, and Tubareel all serve different roles, but have unique typings and niches that make it difficult for one Pokémon to break through more than one or two. Pokemon with reliable recovery on this list deserve special recognition, like Antarki, Luxelong, and Escartress with Recover, and Gliscor, Nimflora, Cubblfly and Tofurang with Roost. These recovery moves allow these Pokémon to serve as true walls to much of the metagame, and will all serve you well on your team.

I made a tier document at the start of the season, and have updated it throughout as I have seen different Pokémon perform. This is only my opinion, so do not follow this as law. Also, don’t draft straight down this tier list, as there are far more important factors than what tier I put a Pokémon in, like how well it would work on your team.

FamSlayer's UCS Draft Tier List.

This is some basic information I wanted to get out before I made my followup post about teambuilding and preparation where I will be dumping (as promised) all of my teams. Thanks for reading, and be on the lookout for a followup post in the next couple of days!

Stall: SLAC Guide

Sun, 05 Jan 2020 01:27:01 +0000

Stall in Uranium – SLAC review

If you are following the UCC (Uranium Competitive Collective), Uraniums dedicated server for all things competitive related, you might have seen the acronym „SLAC“ being used (mostly with a side of disgust) and you might have wondered what this „SLAC“ really is. Well SLAC describes the team composition of S51-A, Luxelong, Antarki and Corsoreef and is generally accepted to be the most successful attempt at stall in Uraniums battle sim so far. I, the „inventor“ of SLAC will guide you in this thread through the process of how SLAC was made, why and how it works, what you can do against it and an outlook on how stall in Uranium might evolve in the future.

Trivia
Ever since I learned about the existence of the battle sim of Uranium, I‘ve been one of the more active players on it and back then the sim had a lot more missing features and bugs. One of the missing features was an updated list of hazard removal in Uranium. During that period the only hazard removal we had were the S51-line and the Snopach-line (and maybe Hazma with Defog but we never used it back then). Well there was also the Ratsy-line but we had some sort of unspoken rule not to use the rat that was even more busted back then due to the sim not having the nuclear moves correctly implemented (Fission Burst had no drawbacks and a 20% flinch chance). In general there were some rules based on trust not to abuse obviously broken stuff like Belly Drum and without these rules it would have been impossible to create a functional stall team.
Back to the hazard removal options or rather option: S51-A
S51-A was basically required for a functional team if you weren‘t running hyper offense due to the fact that it was the only viable hazard removal you could use and had a fantastic typing to prevent a random Xenoqueen from sweeping you. During that time I met someone on the sim called Jabuloso and in the effort to create the strongest team we discovered for ourselves that Luxelong and S51-A formed an incredible defensive backbone for a team, being able to cover each others weaknesses while also providing cleric support for the team due to Luxelongs access to Wish and Heal Bell. This went on for a while until I battled someone on the sim called Banter (Ten Graves on Discord). He used a Calm Mind Antarki and destroyed me with it. So after that demonstration I dug a little deeper into Antarki and realized that it was the perfect counter to the SpDef UFO that was basically omnipresent at that point. Shortly after that I found myself in quite a few games where scarf Chimaconda was a huge problem for my team and the counter I tried prior wasn‘t sufficient enough, that being Pajay. I started looking through the dex and realised that Corsoreef was basically a hard counter to every scarfed Chimacond since it could reliably tank two Hidden Power Grass from it. The battles I had after that (mainly against Jabuloso, Vinii and Poisseman) involved quite a lot of suffering on their part as they were unable to break through this defensive core and were stalled out quite easily. Talking about that defensive core wasn‘t that fun when you always had to write out every pokemon in it and so the term SLAC was introduced.

The individual members

S51-A @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
IVs: 0 Spe
Sassy nature
- Flash Cannon
- U-turn
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

Starting with S51-A, it‘s basically the standard specially defensive set. Flash Cannon for reliable damage, as the UFO still hurts quite a bit even with no special attack investment. Rapid Spin to remove hazards as S51-A is still one of the best ways of removing them in Uranium, Recover for healing and Uturn with Sassy nature and 0 speed IVs to bring in other team members safely in and scout switches. A particular benefit of this is that you can outslow a Chainite that isn‘t speed creeped on this set, allowing you to Uturn out of a Pursuit for minimal damage.

Luxelong @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Sdef
IVs: 0 Atk
Bold nature
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell

Luxelong is the dedicated cleric of this core and your main switch in to the various physically offensive fire-types and Knock Off users. Luxelong has a reputation for being immortal due to it‘s abillity Regenerator which also allows it to function extremely well as a Wish-passer for the group. Using Wish means Protect is a given on the set, as well as Heal Bell to cure status ailments. Moonblast is there for a reliable STAB option and to not be Taunt bait. This also helps in dealing with Mega Baariette which can be a big threat if it gets a Swords Dance up. This set has the issue however that it can not really touch S51-A at all, but this is where the next member of the team comes into play.

Antarki @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Sdef
IVs: 0 Atk
Bold nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Taunt
- Shadow Ball

Antarki is basically Sableye if Gamefreak wanted to make it as annoying as possible in XY. Physically defensive Antarki shuts down so many physical attackers, that it is honestly easier to say what physical attackers work against it than to say what it counters, but it‘s primary function is to prevent Rapid Spin from S51-A. The proven standard set for S51-A can not deal at all with Antarki and even when they U-turn on the switch, Rocky Helmet will chip them anyway. The UFO has to go out of it‘s way to account for Antarkis presence with something like Toxic to seriously hurt it, as an uninvested Dark Pulse does not even do 50% to Antarki. The set also does fairly well against almost every cleric in the game bar Vaporeon, preventing them from removing status and healing their teammates via Wish. Shadow Ball is preferred over Flamethrower due to the tendency of bulky waters to switch into Antarki. While Antarki has few problems with handleing the vast majority of physical attackers, it struggels with special attackers, especially those who can set up and have super effective moves against it, as a Taunt to prevent the setup can end up costing you your Antarki which leads us the last member of the team:

Corsoreef @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Sdef
IVs: 0 Atk
Calm nature
- Stealth Rock
- Recover
- Toxic
- Mirror Coat

Corsoreef can tank a lot of special hits thanks to its solid bulk and access to Recover and Regenerator as abillity. The general problem with it however is that it is extremely passive, allowing and easy setup for most attackers. As such I‘ll be the first to admit that Corsoreef is the weakest member of that team by far, but it has a niche and it is an important one: Choice locked special attackers have a hard time killing Corsoreef and Corsoreef can fire back with a deadly Mirror Coat. As such Choice Scarf Chimaconda fails to accomplish anything at all against Corsoreef except setting up Toxic Spikes, since even a quad effective Hidden Power Grass fails to 2HKO Corsoreef on the switch, effectively stopping any attempts at an Overheat sweep. While still passive, Toxic puts a timer on setup, allowing you to play around the threat in most cases even though it will most likely end up costing you a mon or two. Stealth Rock is there because it is Stealth Rock and therefor the best move in the game. Jokes aside, stall is built around passive damage and therefor hazards are greatly appreciated to assist in the effort, especially since they help chipping down the dangerous fire types in the tier.

Counters

SLAC, even with 3 of the 4 members resisting fire, still has trouble with some fire types. Inflagetha can Swords Dance up freely against Luxelong while being immune to burn, Antarki can break through it with a Calm Mind or Choice Specs set, some Beliaddon sets - especially a Bulk up set – can break through and a well played non Choice locked Chimaconda can boost up with Overheat and kill everything at +6.
Another big problem for SLAC is passive damage through Sandstorm, Hail, Stealth Rocks, Spikes and Toxic Spikes since especially Antarki needs all the HP it can get, so Ghost types preventing spinning options are a huge nuissance for it. Particulary Mismagius, Dramsama and Antarki are a pain in this regard since they belong to the next counter category: special boosters.
I mentioned non choice locked Chimaconda already as it is able to boost up freely against SLAC, but other noteable ones in this area are S51-A-T, Mismagius, Dramsama, Antarki, Shell Smash Escartress, Vilucard etc.
Another problem for SLAC are pokemon with some kind of status immunity. A Gliscor with activated Poison Heal, Guts Baariette and Herolune and Magic Bounce pokemon, especially Nimflora are difficult to deal with using SLAC.
Physical attackers that can avoid the Will-O-Wisp through outspeeding Prankster Antarki also threaten SLAC severely. This includes Gale Wings Harptera and Sudden Strike users should Antarki be weakened enough.
Defog is another way to reduce the effectiveness of SLAC as it has no way of punishing it.

Team Options

SLAC enjoys support against special attackers, so a phazer with special bulk is a good partner. Laissure is a good option in that department as it has respectable bulk, Roar as well as Dragon Tail and Spikes but no good recovery. Another great failsafe is Feliger due to its absurd bulk, the fact that Lazy isn't functional at the moment, Slack Off and Roar. Further options with viability include Syrentide (preferably Mega if allowed), Fafninter, Dunseraph, Umbreon etc.
To solve the problem with Swords Dance Gliscor and Inflagetha, Umbreon is a good option due to Foul Play, but bulky water types like Syrentide, Tubareel and Gyarados (to an extend) can also work. Nimflora or Cubblfly also do fairly well as partners due to their Magic Bounce abillity that makes it difficult for the opponent to lay down hazards. Winotinger works as a status absorber and CM booster fairly well on SLAC ever since it got Softboiled as MG move (MG abillity is pixilate though, so abuse Magic Guard as long as the combination is still possible).

Future of stall in Uranium

Oh dear, where do I start: Basically if you want to use stall, do it now as future updates to the sim will make stall worse and worse. Starting off with the positives for the future, Gargryph will be a pretty good member on stall when it‘s abillity Rebuild is finally functional. Additionally, trapping will help making Terlard the worse Dugtrio (an important stall member in Gen 6). I can also see Jerbolta being pretty good on stall when Quick Charge is implemented to scare of boosted threats after a kill.
Now to the negatives: Functional Shadow Tag, Acceleration and especially fully functional Infernal Blade are very bad news for Stall as Chainite can then trap with ease, Infla can hit a lot harder and Beliaddon breaks through Luxelong. Furthermore trapping through moves like Whirlpool allows many pokemon to abuse the structure of the current stall teams (for example Blubelrog can dismantle SLAC very easily using a Whirpool + Toxic + Surf + Taunt set with Black Sludge if trapping through moves would work). Another big problem for stall will be Substitute as it allows physical attackers to break through Antarki as well as avoiding status and phasing via Dragon Tail.
All in all I don‘t see stall getting better with time so I guess when you want to annoy your friends, do it as soon as possible.

A special thanks goes out to everyone who has ever suffered against SLAC as I can imagine the frustration you all felt ^^ Thank you for reading.

Uranium Championship Series Team review

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 22:12:38 +0000

Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the UCC UCS team review. Just rolls off the tongue.

My name is Narshyl and i’m joined today by Shademonkey to have a look at the teams and how they match up.

Why not kick things off with the man who started the UCS: Jabuloso, coach of the Venesi Baariettes. At first glance his team looks very much offense-oriented, sporting high speed and/or high damage threats such as Mega Baariette, Inflagetah, Alpico, Gyarados, Frikitiki, Oblivicorn and Navighast. Not many teams can contest the absurd speed that Inflagetah and a scarfed Alpico provide. The defense on this roster, while not nearly as impressive as the offense, is still pretty solid including Gararewl, Luxelong, Gyarados and Gligar. I can tell that Jabuloso had a plan going into this draft which shows when you look a bit deeper at all his Pokémon. Multiple ground immunities, multiple hazards and multiple ways to remove them. All in all quite a versatile draft. I can’t really point out many downsides. Perhaps the draft is a bit predictable. The Pokémon all have a job and they can do it well, but unless Jabuloso is going to pull out some wacky strategies it seems that his game plan would be clear as soon as his opponent enters team preview.

Dee

Now this is quite the intriguing roster. Dee picked no less than 3 Non Fully Evolved Pokémon for his roster, making him the coach with the most NFEs on the first week. Dee's Pokémon may look lackluster on paper, with Mismagius, Tanscure, and Brainoar often finding it hard to make a niche for themselves in the regular meta. On the other hand, Dee has access to some strong Wallbreakers and/or Sweepers in Mega Gyarados, Krilvolver and Gellin alongside the fantastic support that Stenowatt, Antarki and Ratsy can provide, the latter being his only way to remove Hazards from his field as of now. I know he is going to have to play aggressively or plan his strategy thoroughly before his matches because if he loses his offensive Pokémon in battle, there might be no way for him to get past his opponents' bulkier Pokémon.

On to Tanamar and the Snowbank Barands.

This is one scary-looking draft. A strong Sun core in M-Archilles paired with Coatlith. Add onto there Actan, Garlikid, Gengar, Geigeroach and Syrentide and you have both offensive and defensive threats that can solve most problems. Backing those up are some less obvious picks that each bring some heavy utility to the table in the form of hazards, Haze and Magic Bounce, among others. However having only one way of removing his opponents’ hazards is a major downside to this draft.

FamSlayer

Bulky. Offense. Potential.

Fam picked some really fat Pokémon for himself. Mega Syrentide, Beliaddon, Xenoqueen, Feliger, Anderind are all very resilient Pokémon that can pack a punch. While this roster has some nice defensive pivots to fall back on in Corsoreef, Gliscor and Sableye, its main weakness it its overall mediocre speed. But if Fam finds a way around that, he can find himself in a position where not much can revenge one-shot his pokemon. Chip damage is going to be key to beating this bulky roster, luckily Fam has multiple ways of removing them and preventing his opponents from setting them.

Mizz

As BO-oriented as FamSlayer's picks were, Mizz is sweeping incarnate. Literally half her Pokémon have the ability to set up to perform a mid-game sweep, granting her a certain element of surprise as to which Sweepers she's bringing to the table, and whether or not her sets are going to deviate from the expected "set up move + 3 attacks" formula. Mizz can tamper with opposing weathers, has all sorts of entry hazards at her disposal and even has several methods of removing them from her field in Defog and Rapid spin. All in all a versatile and threatening roster. Watch out for this one.

The Legen Harpteras coached by Spoder seem to be drafted mostly around their superstar, Mega Inflagetah. Easily one of the scariest in Pokémon Uranium, regardless of format. Everyone knows it, everyone fears it. Luckily for Spoder, it has a ton of support to make sure it succeeds. FIVE different eeveelutions that perform their own role. from taking hits to getting rid of checks. Many ways to both set and remove hazards, and the ever annoying Dunseraph to make anyone's’ day a living hell. Finally, a couple mon that can clean up games if needed in Astronite, Fafninter, Harptera and Jolteon. I feel like it’s going to be difficult to build against this team as it just has so many good options to go for.

Poisseman

Here's the roster of someone who likes to be prepared for all eventualities. Poisseman has all kinds of tools at his disposal : VoltTurn? Check. Rapid Spin? Check. Trapping? Check. Key immunities? Super check. Speed control? Hello, is three Sticky Web users gonna be enough? These traits look great on paper but the Pokémon may prove a little too specific, we'll see how he handles teambuilding. One thing I'm noticing is that his roster could use a little more instant firepower - understand: his offensive Pokémon need to set up first to be able to dish out decent damage. I'm betting the other coaches will want to trade for some of Poisse's Pokémon during the next rounds; his game is going to be to decide who he gives away some of his precious toys to.

And last but most certainly not least, the Tsukinami Volchiks coached by Skullex.

Bulk is the name of the game here. Mega Metalynx, Laissure, Tubareel and Vaporeon are all great at taking hits. Having 3 different mons that can bring Intimidate and maybe the most options for hazards out of any team. Games with the Volchiks are likely to turn into slow grinds to wear down the opponent. On the offensive front, this team isn’t lacking either. Strong wallbreakers in Herolune and Sylveon and sweepers in the likes of Yatagaryu, Dramsama and Laissure make it so you can’t assume your are facing a slow and bulky team without the risk of getting swept. Oh, did i mention that this team has incredible rain synergy?

This first season of the UCS is already looking to be an exciting one. But before we wrap things up here we have our power ranking as of week 0. To all participants and spectators, we hope you have a fun and exciting UCS Season 1!

8. Deeffect
7. Poisseman
6. Spoder
5. Jabuloso
4. FamSlayer
3. Skullex
2. Tanamar
1. Mizz

For more information on the UCS or other PU competitive news and discussion join the Uranium Competitive Collective https://discord.gg/Peysqny

Inflagetah x other fire options

Mon, 20 May 2019 07:56:07 +0000

The ability of this pokemon may buff a 65 power move, ending with around 100 power due to stab, it's strong.
However, wouldn't a overheat with Chimaconda's contrary be much more powerful? Beliadon looks like a better option due to its dark resistance and high base stats. Just informal questions, I didn't calculate too much stuff.

[Competitive] Barand

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 14:23:24 +0000

Well seeing some activity in Competitive Discussion the last few days finally convinced me, that it is time to try making my first competitive quide, and as it is my first one, i used the opportunity to write a guide on my favourite Uranium fakemon and first bred shiny ever: Barand

Barand

HP:          45
Atk:         115
Def:         45
SpAtk:     40
SpDef:     30
Spd:         85
BST:        360
Abillity: Rivalry, Shed Skin, Tough Claws (HA)

Well that is certainly a glass cannon if there ever was one! To give you an idea of how frail Barand is, Adamant Life Orb Daikatuna does up to 40% with a resisted Aqua Jet, so every defensive option for Barand is out of the question. However not all is lost for the serpentine dragon as it has the highest Base Attack stat out of all the Dragon-types in Tandor, beating out Fafninter by 5 points. That alone wouldn't be enough to give it legitimate usage, though, and here comes Barand‘s real claim to fame: access to Tough Claws and a godly movepool to take advantage of. Seriously, the amount of diverse moves this Pokemon can use effectively is absurd and this makes Barand a real threat if you face one unprepared, as very few Pokémon can safely switch into it.

Not bare handed (Choiced sets)

Barand @ Choice Band/Choice Scarf
Abillity: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Spe
Jolly/Adamant nature
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage/Dragon Claw
- Poison Jab/Knock off
- Superpower/Knock off

Extreme Speed boosted by Tough Claws is the reason why an Adamant Choice Band set can work as it lets Barand pick on weakened, speedier threats. Dragon Claw or Outrage are your go-to STABs and must be chosen carefully as Outrage deals disgusting amounts of damage, but Dragon Claw is a much safer option. Poison Jab deals with Fairy-types such as Luxelong and Mega Syrentide; and Superpower with Steel-types like Lanthan, Metalynx or Gararewl. You can choose Knock Off over one of these for utility and if you are particularly worried about S51-A (there is a legitimate reason to be). Barand hits incredibly hard with Choice Band and if you are locked into the right move, it can 2HKO almost every Pokémon in the game bar physically defensive Laissure, physically defensive Tubareel and physically defensive Beliaddon.
A Choice Scarf can let Barand work as a revenge killer, but there are other mons that do this job better as its Speed stat, although not too terrible, is somewhat slow compared to more prominent Revenge killers. Nonetheless it can prove effective, as it lets Barand use it's near perfect coverage to revenge kill its opponents instead of over relying on Extreme Speed, effectively threatening healthier targets such as Rock- and Steel-types that can tank an Extreme Speed fairly well, and the rarer Dramsama and Mismagius because of their lack of priority. Both Adamant and Jolly natures can work with Choice Scarf. Adamant allows Barand to hit harder in general and still outspeed almost the entire unboosted metagame bar Inflagetah, Mega Archilles and Mega Inflagetah, although it loses the ability to outspeed scarfed Pokémon with a base speed of 74 and above, which can create a problem with Xenoqueen, Lavent and Paraboom in this speed tier. Going Jolly has the benefit of outspeeding these threats, even when scarfed and speed tying with Chimaconda at worst as well as actually damage non-Mega Inflagetah with Extreme Speed which deals about 25% to Inflagetah's HP.

The Dancing Snake (Setup Sweeper)

Barand @ Focus Sash
Abillity: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Spe
Jolly nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Drain Punch/Poison Jab
- Outrage/Dragon Claw

A difficult set to pull off, but that can save you in some sticky situations. Dragon Dance combines the power of Choice Band and the speed of Choice Scarf into one set, which can spread destruction on the opposing team, but it comes with a few issues: by sacrificing one of its moveslots to Dragon Dance it loses the ability to check either Fairy- or Steel-types depending on the chosen coverage move. Extreme Speed is still a must-have to not loose the duell against any Priority user in the game and to smack weakened Inflagetah after a Dragon Dance. A notable change in the moveset is Drain Punch instead of Superpower due to Superpowers attack drop which would ruin your sweep and to restore the function of an unused Focus Sash should Barand survive an Attack naturally like Leaf Blade from defensive Metalynx. Poison Jab can be used instead of Drain Punch to damage bulky Fairy-types that would otherwise wall this set to no end. Dragon Claw can be chosen over Outrage, to not be choice locked into one move, which can be easily exploited but the damage difference is noticeable. Focus Sash is the best item to use on this set because of to Barand’s less than stellar defenses that can lead to many opposing Pokémon OHKOing it. Since Barand is affected by all entry Hazards, a Hazard removal from the likes of S51-A is desperately needed to take care of them before they break the Sash or slow Barand down. Since Barand is either walled by Fairy types or Steel types depending on the coverage move, it is advised to deal with them before you start to set up preferably in the late game. All in all, a more niche set, but it cuts the need of prediction, which can severely hinder its usage in the choiced sets.

Nuclear Slap (Choice Scarf)

Barand @ Choice Scarf
Abillity: Shed Skin
EVs: 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Spe
Jolly nature
- Nuclear Slash
- Knock off
- Superpower
- Fire Punch/Half-Life

Barand’s nuclear version is sadly locked out of its HA Tough Claws and Extreme Speed, therefor making a Jolly nature and Choice Scarf necessary to be able to attack first in most cases. Barand could use as much speed as possible, given it's horrendous defensive typing that causes Barand to faint from almost any attack. While undoubtedly inferior to Tough Claws, Shed Skin can still be useful due to it's 30% chance to cure any status condition which may help against Flame Body or Static. Priority users will destroy this set given how frail even regular Barand is, and the other moves of Barand will suffer from the lack of Tough Claws, but no other Pokémon with Nuclear Slash (besides Urayne, but yeah that is Urayne) has quite the power and speed of Barand (Gliscor and Tanscure are faster but not quite as strong), giving it an effective niche as a physical Nuclear-type revenge killer. Granted special Nuclear-type revenge killers are vastly superior to physical ones with beasts as Nucleon and Nuclear Jerbolta, but it is worth mentioning, especially with the high critical hit rate of Nuclear Slash. Knock off is there to deal with S51-A and Superpower for the rest of the Steel-types. The last move should either be Fire Punch to maul Metalynx or Half Life to soften up walls like defensive Laissure, although most of the time you will spam Nuclear Slash. Note that, although four times effective against most Pokémon, Nuclear Slash is still only a move with a Base Power of 55 and it will fail to kill the prominent walls of the meta if they don't receive some chip damage before that. Also, since its niche is a Nuclear-type move, Steel types will have an easier time with it. S51-A does not appreciate being Knocked Off but it will still live 2 hits most of the time even if it's the special defensive set and will dispose of Barand with any of its moves.

Team options:
Because Barand can't switch into attacks at all, a slowturner like S51-A is a great partner for it as it can also keep Hazards off the field. Barand also appreciates Stealth Rock support as it allows it to force switches with Extreme Speed against weakened foes and with Stealth Rocks it can always OHKO Nucleon with Extreme Speed. Chainite is a great Partner because it can remove S51-A from enemy teams and can damage Steel types with Drain Punch. Nimflora is also a fantastic partner for Barand because it can lay down Sticky Webs and use Sleep Powder to give Barand the opportunity to set up.

Counters:
Keep your Fairy- and Steel-types healthy as they prevent Barand from spamming absolutely deadly Outrages and force prediction games. Revenge killing it is also a pretty safe way of dealing with Barand if it's not locked into Extreme Speed or doesn't have it in it's moveset. Sticky Web is a huge nuisance to Barand as it forces it to spam Extreme Speed to outspeed; and Stealth Rock or Spikes break its Focus Sash. Physically defensive Tubareel and physically defensive Laissure are the only mons that can safely switch into any of Barand’s moves and not be 2HKOed. Physically defensive Fafninter also survives one attack no matter what and can finish Barand with Ice Shard if it has taken a little bit of damage before. Trapping it with Chainite is also an option as Barand only needs to take little damage beforehand to be safely killed by a Shadow Sneak.

Other Options:
If you choose Dragon Claw instead of Outrage, the Elemental Punches can be used to cover specific types, otherwise Outrage is superior in most cases. If you are particularly worried about Cocancer, Metalynx, Gyarados, Gliscor and Frosthra (although that's a stretch) these moves can still be used on an Outrage set. Iron Tail is an option if you want to maul Fairy-types even harder, but it's difficult to justify over Poison Jab, because of its less than stellar accuracy. Facade can be nice if Barand ends up being burned, but it's difficult to fit on sets. Another option on the Choice Banded set could be Focus Punch for an even stronger hit, but it's still difficult to justify over Superpower, since it can be used in succession unlike Focus Punch which will most likely fail if your opponent is playing somewhat decent. Another option (suggested by Dragonstrike) is to swap out Choice Band for Life Orb, to make you less dependent on prediction and since your bulk is almost non-existing anyways the recoil won't matter as much. I would recommend using Life Orb if you choose to use Dragon Claw instead of Outrage.

Summary:
Well it's obvious that Barand will never be the most consistent performer and will only have niche usage in all tiers since it's so frail, but it's surprisingly powerful for a Pokémon with a BST of 360. It's not a Pokémon you have to consider building against since you will almost never encounter one, but if you do you have to keep up your prediction game, as you will most likely have no switch-ins if it's the Choice Band set.

Huge thanks to shademonkey who really helped me out with this guide It wouldn't have been half as good if he didn't helped me to not be an idiot xD

Some Calcs:

Spoiler

Stat-Based Tiering Guide

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 21:15:19 +0000

Seeing a little bit of discussion arise in the Nucleon thread, I felt encouraged to make this stat-based tiering guide of all fully evolved Pokemon in Uranium's Pokedex. Based only on base stats and ignoring typing, abilities, and movesets for each Pokemon, I have separated the fully evolved Pokemon in Uranium's Pokedex into 3 distinct tiers. I have also looked at Mega Evolutions separately and have separated them into 2 distinct tiers; the reason I treated Mega Evolutions separately was because they noticeably skewed the average stats in my calculations, making them more error-prone, and balancing their impact has proven to be too difficult, since the Mega Evolutions are also disadvantaged in that they can't be regularly switched in as part of a battle without risking initially taking damage in their base forms and they are also unable to hold any other items except for their Mega Stones.

Hopefully, this can serve as a rough guide as to the viability of Pokemon in the Uranium Pokedex and reasonably discern strong metagame threats that can be built effectively in several unpredictable ways and weak Pokemon that usually get outclassed by other stronger Pokemon in the metagame in their roles and are limited in the ways they can effectively be built, making them too predictable and relatively easy to counter. The tiering below is based on stats calculations, admittedly with a little bit of subjectivity as to what makes certain stat builds stronger than others (asking myself how many underpowered stats on a Pokemon are required to balance out its overpowered stats, and evaluating the quality of the stat distribution on the Pokemon in ambiguous cases).

My opinion of an ideal metagame in PU with justifications will be made clear at the end of the guide. Okay, here we go:

Regular Pokemon Tier A:

Feliger
Yatagaryu
Fafninter
Seikamater
Xenoqueen
Gyarados
Actan
Beliaddon
Laissure
Lanthan
Garlikid
Chimaconda
Electruxo

I would like to reiterate that the tiering is based only on stats. All of the Pokemon shown above either have:

1) too many base stats that are significantly higher than the rest of the Pokedex without a reasonable amount low base stats to balance them, or
2) a balance in the number of high and low base stat, but containing a stat total within their most effective offensive and defensive niches that is unreasonably high compared to other Pokemon.

Having said that, this is by no means a ban list for these Pokemon, but some of these could potentially be very worthy suspects for a ban depending on their typing and abilities (looking at you Yatagaryu, Sheer Force Subduction Lanthan, Fur Coat Fafninter, Sticky Web Seikamater, and Contrary Chimaconda; ...).

OLD: [*Syrentide was the most questionable case that consistently circulated between this tier and the one below it (Regular Pokemon Tier B). With only its speed keeping it in line to potentially fit in the lower tier, any form of Rain support, would make this Pokemon overpowered, since it can abuse its ability Swift Swim to outspeed even Mega-Inflagetah without requiring and stage increases in speed to do so. Expectedly, rain support would be very common in a meta where teams are trying to preserve their steel type Pokemon to avoid getting completely swept by nuclear types. Thus, in a typical battle, Syrentide will likely have an average speed that is significantly higher than that of the rest of the Pokedex, which made it deserve this tier.]

Regular Pokemon Tier B:

Syrentide
Winotinger
Luxelong
Frosthra
Dermafrost
Brainoar
Tubareel
Glavinug
S51-A
Cocancer
Metalynx
Trawpint
Antarki
Dunseraph
Gellin
Baariette
Astronite
Floatzel
Espeon
Jolteon
Vaporeon
Leafeon
Sylveon
Blubelrog
Gliscor
Escartress
Coatlith
Mismagius
Glaceon
Umbreon
Anderind
Archilles
Krilvolver
Ampharos
Inflagetah
Harptera
Daikatuna
Luchabra
Tracton
Flareon
Gararewl
Herolune
Dramsama
Neopunk
Vilucard
Corsoreef
Aromatisse
Majungold
Alpico
Haagross
Theriamp
Oblivicorn

Note: Based on stats alone, Nucleon would fit into this tier but it is obviously getting a quick-ban due to its 100% accurate spammable 90 BP nuclear type Atomizate boosted Hyper Voice, as discussed in several other threads; thus, it was excluded to reduce any confusion.

I read a comment on a post here in the forum somewhere that stated that the PU Pokedex is very balanced for the most part; I would have to say the statistics agree with that assertion as do I. All of the Pokemon shown above are very balanced with respect to their stats and utilities. This encourages a very diverse and exciting metagame to be a part of with approximately 51 Pokemon that could potentially be chosen to fill in certain roles on a team. While some might have a bit of an edge over others, by no means does one Pokemon severely outclass another based on stats alone. Introduce typing advantages and disadvantages and abilities into the mix and the story may very well change here. Having said that, not all Pokemon were created equal and there are still quite a few that are solely there to make the in-game adventure more fun, but are by no means worthy of being on a serious competitive team. These are:

Regular Pokemon Tier C:

Gargryph
Kiricorn
Pajay
Empirilla
Navighast
Splendifowl
Chainite
Frikitiki
Paraboom
Stenowatt
Praseopunk
Nimflora
Geigeroach
Drilgann
Titanice
Ludicolo
Tanscure
Whimsicott
Sponaree
Eshouten
Lavent
Jerbolta
Raffiti
Harylect
Miasmedic
Terlard
Hazma
Tofurang
Firoke
Arbok

I think I might have missed Barand and Sableye; however, in the off chance that Tier C does gain community interest in creating a comp scene around it, Barand and Sableyes would be probably be considered as jokes even here based on their stats. I guess what this tier is saying is that based on base stats alone, the less skilled player in making in-battle decisions using exclusively Pokemon in higher tiers will win noticeably more battles than the more skilled player in making in-battle decisions using exclusively Pokemon in this tier.

The take home is, in general, Tier A > Tier B > Tier C when discussing regular Pokemon.

As promised earlier, I also created a tiering for Mega Evolutions; the inclusion of Urayne-alpha here was an accident, but giving it some thought, I later came to the conclusion that including it here was appropriate, since it has a wide variety of useful stats, albeit slightly less than other mega evolutions, as well as the ability to hold an item and sweep with 4X supereffective coverage against >80% of the metagame. I do believe that if teams opt to include Urayne-alpha, they should not be able to also include a Mega Evolution in addition to it. This, I believe, will allow for the best possible diversity, since I don't think Urayne-alpha is completely broken (unlike Nucleon), and the extreme difficulty in soft resetting for a competitive 5 IV Urayne with an ideal nature somewhat balances it out. I think we are all on the same page that the beta form of Urayne is stupidly broken on a completely different level than the scope of any of these tiers and doesn't deserve a place in a serious comp scene. Here is the first tier for Mega Evolutions:

Tier A: Strong Megas and Urayne

Inflagetah (Mega Inflagetah)
S51-A (Mega S51-A T)
Baariette (Mega Baariette)
Syrentide (Mega Syrentide)
Gyarados (Mega Gyarados)
Metalynx (Mega Metalynx)
Archilles (Mega Archilles)
Ampharos (Mega Ampharos)
Electruxo (Mega Electruxo)
Urayne (Urayne Alpha)

These Mega Evolutions are discernably stronger and have a higher utility than the ones in the following tier based on their base stats:

Tier B: Weaker Megas

Sableye (Mega Sableye)
Drilgann (Mega Drilgann)
Kiricorn (Mega Kiricorn)
Arbok (Mega Arbok)
Whimsicott (Mega Whimsicott)
Dramsama (Mega Dramsama)

Overall, these Megas do not contain any impressive stat builds and superficially, they don't seem to give enough of an "oomph" factor when they appear and are very outclassed by their counterparts in Tier A. These should not be taken seriously based on their stats alone.

Now that I have presented a stat-based tiering guide, I would like to present my opinion of an ideal metagame in PU:

Firstly, I believe that the most popular metagame that would be played would be one that encourages the use of Pokemon from Regular Tier B as much as possible and discourages the use of Pokemon from Regular Tier C. This would optimize team-building diversity to the best ability possible. Seeing that the vast majority of Mega Evolutions exist in Tier A, it naturally follows that Mega Tier A should complement Regular Tier B, and that Mega Tier B should complement Regular Tier C.

As I said earlier, Pokemon in Regular Tier A are by no means broken, so they shouldn't necessarily be excluded from fights. Thus, I propose the following team-building archetype for 6v6 singles:

- choose any (1) of a Mega-Evolution/Urayne-alpha, or any other Pokemon;
- choose any (2) of a regular Pokemon in Tier A or lower (any except Urayne-alpha); and
- choose any regular Pokemon from Tier B or lower to fill in the rest of the team slots.

Another possibility for those desperate to do team-building using their favorites that would otherwise perform sub-optimally against the rest of the Pokedex:

- choose any (1) of a Mega-Evolution in Tier B or any other regular Pokemon in Tier B or lower;
- choose any (2) of a regular Pokemon in Tier B or lower; and
- choose any regular Pokemon from Tier C to fill in the rest of the team slots.

This tier could ideally allow people to experiment with any Pokemon I ranked too harshly low and boost their usage to be potentially viable in the more competitive format initially proposed.

All in all, I do believe this is a good starting point that can help influence the initial usage statistics to create as healthy as possible of an early stage metagame. However, we shouldn't just stop there. One limitation of this guide is its failure to take into account Pokemon's abilities, typing, and movesets. I don't believe this limitation is too extreme though, since most of this will develop when people attempt to build their own personalized teams. Of course, Pokemon that have been brought up as suspects in other threads should be suspect tested (Yatagaryu, Inflagetah, Mega Syrentide, Lanthan, etc.), but only when the time comes and only when usage stats become available and reliable for each Pokemon.

Rate my team

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 06:52:49 +0000

Hello again!
Well, I think I’m joining the competitive, and since I’m too lazy to breed IVs I’m using my story team, and while I think it’s decent I wanted to ask about it:

[Seikamater]
  F8C6022D-B4D1-488E-BA5E-B6C623885B0D.png (Size: 1.7 KB / Downloads: 113)
Ability: Elementalist
Moves:
Quiver Dance
Flamethrower
Surf
Thunderbolt
Item: Leftovers

[Tracton]
  3F3D66CF-3A56-47CA-A731-BCA7F9E58F83.png (Size: 1.22 KB / Downloads: 110)
Ability: Speed Boost
Moves:
Shift Gear
Dragon Claw
Iron Head
Dig (don’t ask)
Item: Life Orb

[Archilles]
  C79094BE-1F37-4F2D-8F3C-E11DEA06E497.png (Size: 1.59 KB / Downloads: 110)
Ability: Flame Body (Drought)
Moves:
Earthquake
Flare Blitz
Extreme Speed
Flame Impact
Item: Archillesite

[Stenowatt]
  8C6D9099-4391-4D66-A9A9-203F6287BFAB.png (Size: 1.12 KB / Downloads: 111)
Ability: Speed Boost (Oh yeah)
Moves:
Tail Glow (Here it comes)
Electro Ball
Flamethrower
Batton Pass (Initiating massacre.exe...)
Item: Focus Sash

[S51-A]
  F08B61C8-5838-4426-A71B-63F0DA69541E.png (Size: 1.3 KB / Downloads: 111) (Massacre.exe initiated)
Ability: Levitate (Mega Launcher)
Moves:
Psychic
Flash Cannon
Láser Pulse
Recover
Item: U.F.O.

[Nuclear Gellin] (No attachment for you, sorry buddy)
Ability: Clorophyl
Moves:
Radioacid
Solar Beam
Thunderbolt
Recover (Don’t ask me what’s this doing here, neither I know the answer)

And that’s it, any suggestions (Besides Dig and Recover) that could be changed?

Beginners guide to understand Uraniums competitive Meta

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 21:43:29 +0000

Important things in the competitive Meta of Pokemon Uranium

Uraniums main new feature: Blessing and curse for the competitive scene

Uraniums competitive scene is extremely different to the official Pokemon Meta mostly due to Uraniums main new feature: The Nuclear type. A type that hits every type super effective bar Steel and Nuclear itself. Understanding the importance of this type and it's main users or abusers is crucial to winning battles in Uranium. Stall as a playstyle is mostly unviable in Uranium due to the fact, that there are very few Pokemon that can survive the nuclear onslaught and those who can often have a crippling weakness in their recovery. However the importance of these semi good counters to the nuclear type can not be denied, due to the fact to create momentum in a battle (such as forcing out nuclear types).
The most prominent Nuclear types in the Meta are the following:

-N-Pajay Can threaten nuclears best counter in steel with it's fire STAB and good Speed and Special Attack. Bulky Monotypes like Laissure work somewhat as a counter, but the best counter are Hazards like Stealth Rocks and Sticky Web. Revenge killing it with strong priority is also an option, but one should be aware of the fact, that it's abillity is Flame Body and because of that it can be somewhat risky to attack him with prioritys that create contact (like the Aqua jet from Daikatuna).

-Nucleon   Insanly hard hitting and fast nuclear hyper voice spammer. Downsides to it are few, but Nucleon is really a one-trick-pony. It falls victim to strong prioritys, Scarfers, Hazards (especially Sticky Web) and can get pretty much always be handled by certain Steel-Types such as Gararewl.

-Xenoqueen   Probably the worst prominent Nuclear type because it lacks the Nuclear-Firepower of Nucleon as well as the moderatly good speed of Nucleon (Nucleon has 6 Base Points more in Speed over Xenoqueen). It can outcompete Nucleon though in it's abillity to also threaten it's common switch-ins more than Nucleon due to it's acces to Fire Blast. Counters are the same as the counters to Nucleon except that steel types can't reliably wall the mutant Xenomorph.

-N-Jerbolta   Extremely hard hitting Radioacids with a Priority of that that outspeeds Protect on the first turn N-Jerbolta is the best revenge killer in the game bar none. It's lacking coverage leaves it open to be walled by Steel types though since it looses the STAB on it's Ground-type moves (although most Steel types don't appreciate a burn from Radioacid). Counters to it are Steel types, who can take a hit and kill it, since N-Jerbolta probably dies to a Tackle from Magikarp, and Hazards that wear it down after some time. Another Option is Pursuit trapping it with Oblivicorn or M-Arbok after it claimed a kill.

-Urayne   Notable for being the only Nuclear mon that can actually take a hit and having a super effective move for every mon in the meta. The best counter to it are Sticky Webs or being faster than it in general. Walling it is just impossible.

Other noteable nuclear mons:

-N-Gellin   very good on sun teams due to it's acces to Clorophyll and Growth if you predict the switch well. There are no 8-turn Sun setters in Uranium though.

-N-Tubareel   everything with N-Gellin but with rain and physical.

Other nuclear types (feral only):

-Geigeroach Noteable for being immune to Nuclear attacks, but it's stat distribution and secondary typing holds it back from being a top threat.

-Hazma   Same story as Geigeroach: It's immune to Nuclear, but is too slow to take advantage of it reliably. Expunge also has a pretty bad accuracy. Can hit nuclear for super effective damage though.

Nuclear downfall: Countering the atomic destruction

Countering nuclears all comes down to what mons you are using. Every (and i mean every) team has to have a semi-safe switch-in in a Nuclear attack. Because nuclear is a pretty shitty defensive typing though, a steel type is recommended to fill this slot. The available fully evolved Steel types (and their tier in countering nuclears imo) to choose from are:

Metalynx        A- (Mega Metalynx A )
Gararewl        B+
S51-A              A+ (Mega S51-A A)
Tracton          D-
Daikatuna      D-
Actan              C
Lanthan         A-

Tracton and Daikatuna are very offensive Steel types. They can't take that Nuclear hit's that well and also lack recovery. Most of the time they can't be one-shotted though. More or less the same applies to Actan, but Actan can cripple Physical Nuclears, like Urayne (most of the time) and Tubareel with it's intimidate. Gararewl is the first good counter to Nuclear and the only Steel type who resists Nuclear.Why only at B+ then? It lacks recovery and many Nuclears have Fire-type coverage. Also it's Special Defense is a bit mediocre. Lanthan doesn't have the resistance to nuclear attacks, but it has fantastic bulk and an amazing damage output due to it's ability. The problem with Lanthan is also that it lacks reliable recovery. Metalynx on the other hand has a recovery in Synthesis which allows it to heal against Nuclear types. The Problem with Metalynx though is, that it can't wall reliably against Non-Choiced Nuclears due to it's 4x weakness to fire (aka the most common coverage move on nuclear mons). It's Mega can sort of solve this Problem because of it's ability Heatproof, but it can't wield Leftovers then, which is a useful item for every wall. Also Yatagaryu is one of the most common mons in the game and the weather that comes with it really hurt the viability of Synthesis. The best mon to counter Nuclear mons is S51-A due to it's good bulk and access to recover. An at least B-tier counter to Nuclear is recommended for every team.

Bringing down the nuclear Fallout to the opponent

Removing the defensive counters is key for your Nuclear mon to sweep. As such most Fire types are a great offensive partner for your Nuclear mon of choice. The fully evolved Fire types in Uranium and their tier imo are:

-Archilles                                             A+         (Mega Archilles A+ )
-Firoke                                                 E
-Pajay                                                  D          (N-Pajay A+ )
-Inflagetah                                          A+          (Mega Inflagetah A+ )
-Chimaconda                                      A-
-Frikitiki                                               B/B+
-Flareon                                              E
-Antarki                                               B+
-Krillvolver                                          D
-Lavent                                                C
-Beliaddon                                          A-
-Baitatao(currently unreleased)   ???
-Aotius(currently unreleased)       ???

Archilles and his Mega have an amazing offensive typing as well as the option to be physical or special offensive. In addition to that, the speed tier of Archilles is really good and it has access to the 2 most powerful prioritys in the game, named Flame Impact and Extreme Speed. Firoke on the other hand hits pretty decent on the special site, but it is way to slow and frail to take advantage of it reliably. Pajay hits decently hard as well and is reasonably fast, but it is pretty frail overall and often still lacks the firepower needed to threaten a kill. Nuclear Pajay on the other hand combines the probably 2 best offensive typings in the game and is a threat to every Steel-type, that are forced to switch into him, because these are the counter to nuclear attacks. Inflagetha and it's Mega are the prime revenge killers in the meta after N-Jerbolta, due to their hard hitting Prioritys and their access to Sword Dance. No steel type want's to face those as well as a majority of the meta, making it really easy to sweep with them. Chimaconda is only contrary abuser in the game and nothing but bulky water types really enjoy facing it. the only downside to it is the fact, that you almost always need to run Choice Scarf to outspeed your opponent due to it's slightly below average speed. Frikitiki is an excelent Choice Band abuser, due to it's access to Flame Impact, Flare Blitz and Power Whip. Problem with it is though that you have to choose one move to spam. Flareon would be a usefull pokemon if it's former hidden abillity Drought wouldn't have changed. As it stands, it is too slow to really be an effective weapon to use against steel types. Antarki walls the King of Steel types S51-A to no end if it doesn't carry Dark Pulse and even then it is a huge nuissance. Problem with it is, that it doesn't threaten the middling counters to nuclear all that hard. Krillvolver like Pajay sometimes just doesn't hit hard enough and also has a disappointing speed tier. Lavents niche is that of an Adaptibillity Eruption spammer. Though powerful indeed, it can be very vulnerable to Hazards and needs to carry a Choice Scarf to be that effective. Beliaddon can threaten Steel types offensively as well as defensively with it's extremely good attack and good bulk. You won't find much though that it will outspeed with it's really bad speed.

Nuclear weapons in the war: Other titans of the meta

Bringing down your opponent with nuclear bombs isn't the only option to win battles in Uranium. Uranium has a huge variety of strong pokemon that you will have to prepare for. I will briefly mention a few of them as well as the reason why they are such strong Pokemon.

-Yatagaryu   Need a mon that breaks through bulky waters? Look no further. Abusing the storm it brings with it, Yatagaryu hits insanely hard with 100% accuracy Thunders and can even boost itself with nasty plot.

-M-Syrentide   The evolution of Crocune. This mon just refuses to die and walls a large majority of the Metagame with it's Restalk set.

-Laissure   Offensively as well as defensively an insanely versatile Pokemon. Hazards, Choiced, Setup-Sweeper, phys/special tank, this mon can do it all.

-Seikamater   Queen of the bugs indeed. Versatile and an amazing Setup Sweeper with it's 5 STABs and access to Quiver Dance and Tail Glow. Sticky Web is also an option on her. (btw why is it the queen of the bugs if she can't breed?)

-Alpico   Technician boosted STAB Frost Breath from a very high SpAtk and Speed stat is a recipe for disaster on opposing teams.

-Nimflora   Not directly one of the best, but since Sticky Webs are REALLY important in a metagame of Nuclears, the best Sticky Web setter gets a honorable mention.

-Dunseraph   Extremely bulky and annoying due to his abillity Serene Grace and access to Glare/Skyfall for paralysis and many Flinching moves like Air Slash.

-Raffiti   We shall not talk about a Smeargle with actual stats and nuclear attacks

These are not the only viable mons in Uranium, but some of it's more prominent ones (as well as the mons i mentioned in previous sections). Taking them into consideration in teambuilding (with or against them) is highly recommended.

I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction into Uraniums meta. This is only a beginners guide to not get totally run over in the first battle. Of course there are a lot of things to improve so constructive criticism is always appreciated as this marks my first post if my opinion on certain mons change, i will include/edit them in here.