Cross 'N' Doom (XY UU Team)

[BeyondOurwillMatt]

My first UU team I've ever made that I've actually been having a lot of fun with. I'd like to get my peers' opinions on it before I decide to create it in my actual Y Version. Let me know what you think!!

Doom (Houndoom) @ Houndoominite
Ability: Flash Fire
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Destiny Bond
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse

My Special Sweeper. Houndoom is a force to be reckoned with. With the right predictions, it can take a fire type move in order to get the Flash Fire boost (usually from something like Chandelure). After forcing a switch, I usually set up a nasty plot which does tremendous amounts of damage to a team. A +2 Fire Blast 2HKOs SpDef Florges encounters as well. A really great check to Celebi, Chandelure, and Jirachi.

Serebii (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave

Celebi is my physically defensive wall. It's able to take some status inflicting moves that Heracross won't appreciate having (like Paralyzation). Double STAB in order to take care of water and fighting types like Gastrodon and the Chan family. Stealth Rocks help cripple incoming Honchkrow, Victini, Houndoom, and Darmanitan. And Thunder Wave is to slow down any threats that my Heracross, Houndoom, and Crobat can't outspeed already.

Cross (Heracross) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Guts
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Megahorn

The MVP of this team. Heracross is an absolute monster. He can take any toxic or will-o-wisp thrown at him and outspeed most unscarfed threats. Double STAB and EdgeQuake cover and destroys most walls like Celebi and Umbreon. Pokemon who aren't prepared to take a huge hit are usually 2HKO'd upon switch-in thanks to Heracross. He works really well with Donphan after my little elephant lures out some will-o's and knocks off some choiced users.

DooDoo (Gastrodon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Earth Power
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover

Gastrodon is one bulky little guy. He can take almost any non-grass move relatively well. Not even a Draco Meteor from a Noivern 2HKOs this little dude. He checks plenty of Nidoking and Queens, MegaStoise, and Rotoms fairly well. He also works well with Heracross by luring my opponent to shoot out toxic.

Peanut (Donphan) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off

Donphan is great. As I mentioned earlier, he lures plenty of status inflicting moves to give my Heracross a boost. Most people don't see a knock off coming from this thing and it's even better to use it on incoming Starmie or Celebi. Rapid Spin helps take care of hazards that would regularly annoy my Houndoom and Crobat.

Baman (Crobat) @ Choice Band
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Cross Poison
- U-turn
- Pursuit

The Dark Crusader himself!!! A Banded Brave Bird really puts a dent in walls. Crobat takes care of Florges pretty well and can even stand up to Weavile from time to time. It checks Scarfed Chandelure through the use of Pursuit as well. U-Turn is there to keep some offensive momentum going. With the ability infiltrator, Crobat doesn't even care about subs either.

So what do you guys think? Room for improvement? Also feel free to change some of their nicknames too. I'd like to have some fun with this! Thanks a lot guys.

 

[Paragon189]

This is my first RMT post, so bear with me. I would replace Cross Poison and Pursuit on Crobat. Crobat gets Brave Bird, which does more damage, and takes care of the same types that Cross Poison takes care of(except fairy). Roost is a must on Crobat, especially because of rocks and BB recovery. As for Pursuit, replace it with Super Fang for more Wall Breaking, Taunt to prevent setting up, or Defog if you have problems with rocks. Since you have Donphan with Rapid Spin, I would run Taunt in place of Pursuit. I don't recommend having Choice Band on Crobat, and he does fine without the extra damage boost. If you want a CB on Crobat, use him as a revenge killer. It may seem nice with the extra damage, but BB recoil will kill Crobat, and U-turn is not effective if you are already locked into a move. Black Sludge is the best item for Crobat, in place of CB.
Not sure why you have Destiny Bond on Houndoom. I would replace it with Sucker Punch(it may not do that much because of the Attack drop from Modest), Sludge Bomb for fairies, or HP Fighting for other Dark Pokemon, or HP Ice for other threats.

 

[KM]

Sorry to post something contrary to the one before it, but Banded Crobat is a perfectly acceptable set. U-turn is absolutely effective, because it gives momentum while still doing a massive amount of damage. SR can't be seen as a given because A. it has to be set up and B. you have a method of eliminating hazards. Also, Destiny Bond is perfectly fine on Houndoom. Sludge bomb is mostly superfluous because it's not really all that much more powerful than neutral Fire Blast.

252 SpA Mega Houndoom Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Florges: 102-120 (28.3 - 33.3%) -- 91.4% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Mega Houndoom Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Florges: 112-132 (31.1 - 36.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

Destiny bond is definitely far more worth it.

As a whole, this team seems pretty great. There are definitely some threats to it, but most of them are fairly easy to overcome. However, you seem to be incredibly weak to Jolly SD Weavile. Your physical wall in celebi is wrecked by his dual stab, and the rest of your pokes are slower than it. Brick Break will make quick work of Houndoom, Ice punch will heavily dent Donphan and Heracross and kill Crobat, and Gastrodon won't enjoy taking +2 Ice punches either. There are a couple of things you could do to fix this.

1. Make Banded Crobat Jolly. Although you do miss out on some sheer power, you outspeed Weavile and can at least check him, if not outright kill him. Be careful of sash sets, though.
2. Change out Celebi for a different physical wall. Two suggestions would be Forretress and Qwilfish. Forretress offers great utility with any type of hazard you wish and momentum with slow volt switches, and can easily deal with Weavile through the use of Gyro Ball. Qwilfish can cripple Weavile with TWave just like Celebi, and also offers hazards and utility.

This is a pretty great balanced team all around though, and you have the right mix of wallbreakers, walls, and sweepers. Great job :)

 

[Blast]

Yeah I definitely second Kitten Milk on Jolly Crobat, the amount of stuff that it outspeeds (Weavile, Mega Houndoom, etc) are way too good to pass up. On a second note you probably want to use Sleep Talk > either Cross Poison or Pursuit, since it allows you to switch into Roserade's Sleep Powder while still being useful, and neither Cross Poison or Pursuit are terribly helpful for CB Crobat since Brave Bird + U-turn is all you ever really use.

Also I agree that you're a tad weak to Weavile (and Cloyster too), though I think the best way to go around this is to use physically defensive Vaporeon over Gastrodon. It can take a single hit from both at full health and retaliate back with a Scald, and can outright beat both if they haven't boosted up yet. It also retains the ability to beat stuff like Fire-types, Mega Blastoise, etc. similar to Gastrodon and can support your team with Wish, which is great for Donphan and Crobat and stuff that tend to get worn down quickly.

Oh and your movesets could use some tweaking; Celebi should be using Recover over one of its STABs since it can't properly wall things without a recovery move, Heracross should use Knock Off somewhere just for the utility / crippling counters, and for Donphan I honestly think it's better to invest in Special Defense rather than HP, as because Donphan's SpD stat is lower than its HP it gives Donphan much greater special bulk than max HP.

Suggested changes

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Scald
- Protect
- Toxic / Roar

Crobat: Adamant --> Jolly, either Cross Poison or Pursuit --> Sleep Talk

Celebi: either Giga Drain or Psychic --> Recover

Heracross --> either Earthquake or Stone Edge --> Knock Off

Donphan: EV spread --> 252 Atk / 252 SDef / 4 HP with an Adamant Nature

 

[bbg]

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Scald
- Protect
- Toxic / Roar

Crobat: Adamant --> Jolly, either Cross Poison or Pursuit --> Sleep Talk

Celebi: either Giga Drain or Psychic --> Recover

Heracross --> either Earthquake or Stone Edge --> Knock Off

Donphan: EV spread --> 252 Atk / 252 SDef / 4 HP with an Adamant Nature

I'm kind of against the fourth of these changes. Locking yourself into Knock Off isn't good because it does so much less damage the second time you use it and forces you to switch a lot of the time because Heracross is relatively frail. Also, you already have a Knock Off user on your team, which, by all measure, is enough, so you shouldn't feel as if you need more Knock Off. The rest of his points are pretty spot-on. I like the Donphan spread that Dat Blast has given you. Offensive Donphan is quickly outclassing Defensive Donphan and being able to take hits on both sides of the spectrum is important in a UU metagame that stresses bulky offense. I'd also like to second the addition of Vaporeon to your team, as it is a better physical wall than Gastrodon and provides your team with Wish support, something that no pokemon scoffs at. Recover on non-Scarf Celebi is completely necessary, and Sleep Talk on Crobat is nifty, albeit situational.

As for a few of my own suggestions...

If you choose to use Vaporeon (which you should), it'd be best to replace Celebi with a special wall. I'd use SpDef Jirachi, in your case. It has good synergy with houndoom and vaporeon and, since you're not using celebi as a cleric, it has more utility.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 248 SDef / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
-Thunder Wave / Body Slam
-Stealth Rock
-Wish
-Iron Head

This set operates like Paraflinch 'Rachi but sets up a Rocks and has fantastic special bulk, along with the semi-reliable Wish. It can switch in on a lot of things Vaporeon doesn't want to take, and vice versa. Having a second Wish passer can be an ace up your sleeve, as most people would, upon seeing vaporeon, assume that your Jirachi is offensive and doesn't carry wish. It can act as a sort of reverse lure in this way, drawing out things that want to check one of its offensive sets only to be nearly unable to damage it and powerless to stop it from using wish or setting up rocks and t-wave.

This is a solid team, overall. Continue to play with suggestions. Good luck!