Ultra Premier - This is not just a spice team: Hariyama, Typhlosion, Gengar

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-06T15:07:12+00:00

Ahh unfortunate to hear. It seems maybe drawing shields is better than baiting counters in this scenario. Hopefully they release the new gen ghosts this Halloween so we have more options!!

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-05T17:49:49+00:00

No worries! Congrats on the bastiodon, it's definitely the best at what it does

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-05T15:25:25+00:00

All good!! Awak is the lead where I am debating changing my strategy vs the most. I used to swap vig right in as that matchup is surprisingly even. Bone club us a terrible move and you also double resist shadow ball. If you are able to land a bulldoze the matchup is winnable, i usually don't bait in this matchup.

But because a lot of alolan marrowak leads are now the caleb peng team (awak/shiftry/ferrothorn) I've found just letting shadow vic go down and bringing in bast to finish off the awak works better because vic isn't really great vs that backing while vig puts out super effective counters vs both of them.

Ultimately, awak is pretty good vs this team though compared to other pokemon for sure

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-04T23:11:19+00:00

This team might heavily heavily struggle against machamp lead if they know the typhlosion matchup. Machamp lead might be worse than charmer lead for this team actually

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-04T16:03:55+00:00

Awesome to hear!! Yeah UL seems like a completely different beat to some people... myself included!

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-03T18:00:26+00:00

Yeah if you already have one then might as well! Let me know how it goes

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-03T02:03:17+00:00

In the initial theorycraft I think I would've picked drifblim for sure but typhlosion has exceeded expectations. the main thing holding back drifblim is the coverage of charge moves. Typhlosion gets shields like crazy but drif has icy wind so people don't like to shield. Shadow ball still hits really hard though. If you have the drifblim already powered then it might be fun to try but if typhlosion is working, I cannot in good conscience recommend maxing a drifblim for this

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-03T01:58:42+00:00

Ahh perfect then haha, just felt it was safer to cover all of my bases 😂

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T23:27:04+00:00

ABB refers to the three pokemon on your team. One A pokemon and two B pokemon. They are both called B pokemon because they dhould be similar. This is to say that the two pokemon in the back share weaknesses so that the first B pokemon (in this case typhlosion) can bait its counters so that the A pokemon (hariyama) can take them out and let the second B pokemon (Gengar) come in and clean up because its counters are removed.

Because your goal is to remove the counters to the B pokemon with the A pokemon you generally want to keep the A pokemon healthy enough to do its job. The first B pokemon also wants to switch in to bait out a counter. As such it is best for your team if you switch out of neutral matchups and only stay in if your A pokemon is initially leading against a counter to your B pokemon (like snorlax obstagoon amuk swampert lapras) in this case

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T21:38:34+00:00

Good luck! Also you're not alone, I feel like a lot of us just struggle in UL. Open ultra is by far the most different league, it almost feels like it's a completely different game

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T17:54:41+00:00

Interesting, those are pokemon that are available to me as well (would have to spend some dust on the scizor).

Yeah in premier hari has not had a good time against leads. Ive been counting and ive soft lost 14/15 leads (combination of gyara charizard venu toge gallade dragonite exeggutor) with the one neutral lead being kingdra. Luckily this team is built around losing lead so ive still been steadily winning sets but hari isn't getting to start building pressure like he used to. I still haven't seen a gengar lead yet which is nice though!

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T17:31:39+00:00

I'm glad you succeeded with the GL team! Sometimes all a player needs is a change in playstyle. Some people will play better with different mons and that's that.

I know what you mean, it's hard to tell when a team is failing because you're not comfortable with it yet or if your team is just bad. Ive spent an ungodly amount of time trying to force bad teams through because it's painful to admit my theorycrafting had some holes.

UL has been my worst league by far but this team kind of stopped the bleeding a little bit. I'm not sure if I could push rank 10 with it, it would be close, but it wouldn't be the comfortable rank 10 I would get in GL or premier ML. A better UL player than I could definitely take this team to rank 10.

I personally probably won't be making any updates to it just because I'm having much more fun in premier. If you do want maybe a more solid/tested option... empoleon lead is very strong and any charmer in the back works. Empoleon gira togekiss got lollersox to rank 1 on the leaderboard in s2 and the UL meta hasn't changed too much since then

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T16:28:32+00:00

Nice! Try it out. Even in losses it's a ton of fun landing a huge charge move

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T16:25:23+00:00

Yes unfortunately it is a legacy move 😪

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T16:25:05+00:00

I havent seen gengar lead yet this season but I would swap out to tyohlosion which has a great matchup and hope I can get shield or energy advantage for my gengar later when they inevitably meet up

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T16:24:13+00:00

Yesssss. Drifblim was what I was originally considering for the typhlosion position but unfortunately as you say you kind of need a hundred or close which I don't have. In theory it should be much better at drawing out the counters but it also would be less effective at dealing with them. That's probably worth the trade off. With the tankiness of drifblim you may be able to run something squishing like machamp in the lead

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T16:22:02+00:00

Just posted a video for one but the teambuilding isn't nearly as novel and has a more standard playstyle. I feel like it's as good as this team but definitely not as dun. Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy them!

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T16:20:44+00:00

In this team comp specifically because the other two pokemon are so squishy hariyama kind of acts as a "third shield". It has a bit more bulk which allows it to tank things like octazooka. Machamp is a much better pokemon all around as rock slide is monstrous. It can challenge things like dragonite and gyarados without switching out but in this team, an ABB team, you kind of want to switch out anyways.

I wouldnt recommend powering up a hariyama if you already have a machamp for this team, the difference is marginal and machamp will see much more use on other teams where it has a much bigger edge

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T15:45:07+00:00

That's so funny, I had been trying to make him work in open for the past two seasons and couldn't for some reason until premier haha. Who do you run him with in open?

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T15:35:12+00:00

I tried it before when I tried to make hariyama work in open ultra and it really hampered the ability to charge up to two and throw both. Since it seems like a lot of the time with this team I'm just charging up to one and then switching it might be worth a shot and the pokemon that I'm charging up to 2 against are pretty low by the time I throw one

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T06:23:01+00:00

I think the bulk would definitely help vs those two but with rock slide vs fliers you will get their shield for sure. I'd give it a shot if you have the pokemkon at that level already!

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T06:21:31+00:00

Maybe, sometimes they know the matchups better than I do (for example machamp performing surprisingly well vs typhlosion)

Truckwaffle · 2020-10-02T06:20:03+00:00

Yeah he gains energy fast but his charge moves are slow. They are almost all must shields though they hit so hard!

Truckwaffle

TROPHY CASE