For much of this, I'm assuming we all have a basic understanding of what each pokemon listed can do. Everyone knows Staraptor has Brave Bird, Return, and Close Combat at it's disposal, so there's little use in just listing those characteristics and saying 'obvious BL'. Also, while the Uber characteristics are amazing tools to aid us in this discussion, I don't think referencing them directly is the best course of action. You'll notice I actually do include parts of the same phrases in my own arguments, however, and it should be clear that I've used them as guidelines at the very least. The only reason I make a distinction is that I feel that actual explanations carry more weight than just listing a suspect and saying which characteristic it happens to meet does.
Staraptor
This will probably be the most popular suspect, honestly. It's not hard to believe, either, seeing what Staraptor was able to do to the metagame in such a short amount of time. In UU, where there are no steel typings which aren't also weak to fighting, Staraptor threatens nearly everything. How good is the combination?
| Staraptor | Move | Close Combat | 99.1 |
| Staraptor | Move | Brave Bird | 99.1 |
Enough that nearly every competitive Staraptor is using both. As a result, the best defense (unless you're using max defense Luxray) is to hope you can play around it. However, it usually ends up playing around you, which is the single most important part of it's consideration here. Because Staraptor is so threatening that it forces you to make one of a few (usually very predictable) switches, it can freely abuse other tactics other than straight-up attacking. It usually is 2HKOing rather than OHKOing bulky pokemon, and, because of that, attacking early on with a choice set isn't especially effective. That's where two key ideas come in: U-turn and Substitute.
U-turn allows the Staraptor user to stay ahead of their opponent, and control the pace of the game. On many pokemon, U-turn is a way to escape a threatening situation, or to scout. However, due to the fact that Staraptor forces your opponent to make such predictable switches, you can actually gear your team toward taking advantage of the pokemon it brings in on the U-turn. Whereas a pokemon like Flygon becomes predictable using U-turn because it has 'dangerous' STAB moves it would rather not get locked into too early, the threat Staraptor poses at all stages of the game is too great to ever really 'predict' a U-turn and stay in.
Substitute Staraptor sets further tear apart any hopes of it being suitable for UU. While SubRoost on a defensively challenged pokemon seems suicidal, especially with Brave Bird, the fact that Staraptor can force switches like none other allows him to pull it off. STAB Brave Bird with Close Combat as coverage is amazingly effective in UU, as we all know, but the ability to choose your attacks after seeing what your opponent has brought in against you completely ruins most 'strategies' for dealing with the bird. I feel the SubRoost set is the most important of all: with two attacks alone, Staraptor is able to dispatch most of the pokemon in this metagame.
Gallade
Gallade seems to be underwhelming for some, but I'm really not sure why. It seems to be mostly based off of the fact that while Gallade will often set up and kill something, it will not alone sweep your team. That's true, to an extent, but only due to the fact that STAB Brave Birds are all over the place (read: the fact that almost everyone uses at least one of Crobat and Staraptor). Gallade presents a problem much like Salamence in standard - it has a ridiculously good movepool and can kill more or less anything out there given the set. That's not the only way Gallade is linked to mence, though. Gallade's biggest problem in OU is that even if it does kill something, it tends to let faster and arguably more dangerous pokemon, like Salamence, get in and cause a switch. Much like that, in UU it allows Staraptor to come in and wreck up the place, making any kills actually seem less spectacular than before.
I suppose this one comes down to your interpretation of the offensive clause. Does Gallade actually sweep through a significant portion of teams with little effort? I believe it does. The destructive power Gallade reaches after a single SD has been discussed at length, and LonelyNess has provided the most compelling of arguments both here and elsewhere. The few things that can actually survive the CC/SE/SS/SD set are usually easily KOd by another of the large variety of moves Gallade learns and often puts to use, such as Psycho Cut, Night Slash, X-Scissor, or Leaf Blade.
It seems the presence of just a couple (potentially suspected) pokemon is the only thing that keeps Gallade from being the overwhelming suspect in UU right now. Still, the very notion that a threat requires teams to run something faster than it which can KO in order to be able to even force it out after a kill is outrageous. While stall teams can benefit from running a fast semi-bulky pokemon or two, it's not always reasonable to do so in UU, where the field of 'semi-bulky, fast, and powerful pokemon' is at a bare minimum.
Froslass
Froslass is a lot like past pokemon which were banned from OU to Uber due to the fact that even when you knew their set, you couldn't stop them from doing what they wanted. Now, Froslass doesn't always carry the exact same set, but it does always serve the same goal: give a team a large amount of nearly unstoppable support. A lot is said about Froslass 'always' getting Spikes up, and most of that is true. Much like Staraptor forces switches, the threat of either Taunt, Destiny Bond, or a strong STAB attack allows exploitable situations every single game. Right when you think you have it figured out, Froslass has tricked a scarf onto you and still will likely get some Spikes down and rack up some more residual damage.
Froslass poses a prediction nightmare. Even the simple threat of Destiny Bond is enough to make most teams fearful of attacking and losing their Spiritomb (or other pokemon which can usually handle Froslass straight up) to it. Do I really want to lose my spin blocker, which is also my only hope against other huge threats? What further complicates prediction is the fact that many of the same-speed or faster pokemon which could potentially ruin Froslass are either weak to Froslass' STAB moves, or can't afford to take a strong STAB hit anyway. Raikou, a likely suspect itself, is the only faster pokemon which makes an alright switch-in most of the time.
So what do you do? 'Outpredict your opponent', which is not a valid strategy in circumstances such as these. It's not as if you're switching into a Choiced attack, and you're going to have to correctly predict (and play excessive mind games) at least 2-3 turns in a row to dispatch of Froslass without it doing serious damage. You might say: 'Why not stall out it's low PP moves?' In order to do so, you're going to be taking heavy Spikes damage, which will likely cause you as much damage as simply saccing a pokemon to Froslass does in the first place.
Even though I believe Froslass is a suspect regardless of the status of auto-hail in UU, it's difficult to deny hail makes things much, much worse. Snow Cloak is a bitch, and adds to the likelihood of another layer of Spikes getting set up or another of it's attacks getting through. However, like with most pokemon in hail, it is Blizzard which presents the biggest problem. Froslass is not the most fearful special attacker, but a STAB 100% accurate Blizzard certainly does a lot to put it up there (see Abomasnow). The threat of taking a Blizzard, which may even freeze your 'counter' in addition to the large amount of damage it causes, is much more than that of a simple Ice Beam. For instance, standard max/min Spiritomb is 2HKOd by Blizzard if it has to switch into either SR or just a single layer of spikes. The same Spiritomb easily survives two Ice Beams, and recovers even better due to it's Leftovers actually healing when hail is absent.
Abomasnow
The strength of hail teams in UU is undeniable right now. There are serious concerns about their incredible stall potential and ease of victory, and the ultimate question to be asked is: 'Where does the problem lie?' I believe it lies with Abomasnow. While Abomasnow is the 'easy' culprit, it is also the one which actually causes the most grief and damage. If I felt just a single pokemon in hail were broken, I would nominate that one, but Abomasnow brings multiple other pokemon to the suspect level (and Froslass beyond it, imo). A few quick mentions:
Walrein
Auto-hail takes Walrein from 'pretty crappy Water/Ice pokemon' and pushes it all the way to the limit of the defensive characteristic. We all know about the whole '32 turns of stall', and it's even more effective in UU where the only auto-weather changer is weak to both Walrein's STABs and has pretty awful defenses to boot. In case it isn't obvious that Abomasnow is the culprit here and not Walrein, please note that in January Walrein was only seen 2.45% of the time without Abomasnow (interestingly enough, the amount of Thick Fat Walrein were 2.4%). Meanwhile, on teams that carry Abomasnow, over 23% of the time you would not find a Walrein. While Walrein completely depends on Abamasnow, the opposite seems much more like: 'If I'm running Abomasnow, why not run Walrein too?' (Much thanks to Doug's newest teammates stats, which are amazing)
Froslass
See above suspect explanation.
Glaceon
I remember making a long post about Glaceon's raw power in hail back in the day. With Specs and Blizzard, there are few safe switches, and with Snow Cloak added to it's decent defenses, it can actually stick around a while. Blizzard also allows to to change quite a few resisted 3HKOs into 2HKOs, even on non-Specs versions. Hell, even min/+max Chansey takes at minimum 35% from a Specs Blizzard, and unlike other strong moves like Eruption (which isn't available to a pokemon with as much SpA as Glaceon), It's power doesn't decline after taking damage. On average, Chansey will die if switching in to SR and just one layer of spikes - not an uncommon situation when you consider Froslass will also be on the same team.
In addition to allowing those pokemon to run wild, hail causes problems that even the abundance of sandstorm in OU does not. There are very few pokemon which work well to combat hail, and unlike sandstorm where you have Steels, Rock, and Ground types benefiting, there is only one type which does not take damage while in hail. While Ice pokemon often do well to combat hail teams, most of them are at a serious disadvantage the rest of the time unless you choose to run hail yourself. Furthermore, due to the fact that there are so few pokemon which retain leftovers recovery in hail, the common SR weakness hail teams normally have a lot of trouble with is minimized. Other teams have to deal with SR and the lack of leftovers, while every hail team will at the least have half their team able to heal in hail (and of course, walrein, who heals even moreso).
Abomasnow is also a huge asset to hail teams on both the offensive and defensive fronts - a fact which often seems to get lost in these discussions. Due to Blizzard's high BP, it doesn't need to run a lot of Special Attack, and can use those EVs for defensive purposes, or to become a mixed attacker due to Wood Hammer. With a 120BP STAB on both sides of the attacking spectrum, Abomasnow is extremely threatening. Add that to the fact he threatens Sub/Seed to stall with (and Blizzard to hit grass types who want to switch in on Leech Seed), and you can easily see how Abomasnow is a strong member of any team, regardless of if it's running full hailstall or not.
Crobat
Take a look at the top 5 attacks for Crobat in January:
| Crobat | Move | Taunt | 74.8 |
| Crobat | Move | Roost | 71.7 |
| Crobat | Move | Brave Bird | 68.4 |
| Crobat | Move | U-turn | 65.2 |
| Crobat | Move | Hypnosis | 14.6 |
Yes, that's about the most predictable moveset a pokemon can have. Much has been said about knowing exactly what a pokemon can do, and still being unable to stop it, and Crobat, as you can see, fits the description well. Consider that at the height of Garchomp's peak, it wasn't even using Yache over 50% of the time, and it's fifth move was around 45%. Crobat is already far more predictable than that, and it's only been a month.
Crobat was the top lead in January, and considering it beats most everything at the job, it's usage only seems to be increasing. The thing is an absolute support monster, shutting down just about every lead strategy, while subsequently setting up it's own. Ask yourself: What would I like to do on turn 1? Crobat most likely does it best.
Would you like to put up the weather while shutting down your opponents'? Well, the only time you're going to miss out is if Electrode taunts you. Interestingly enough, Electrode, while seeing usage of only about a fourth of Crobat's usage, and seemingly limited to the niche role of fastest lead taunter and rain dancer, carries Taunt only 69% of the time (to Crobat's 75%).
Would you like to shut down any sort of nonsense your opponent is going to try to set up? With a Taunt coming from 130 Base Speed, and respectable defenses (85/80/80) with reliable recovery in Roost, which removes 3 weaknesses, Crobat stops nearly everything that can't severely cripple it with a strong attack. Hell, with a small HP investment (standard), Crobat doesn't ever die to Timid Froslass' Ice Beam and can even risk a Taunt on her, and attempt to Roost off some of the damage.
But while a staggering 71% of Crobats were leads, it's effectiveness is hardly limited to the first turn of battle, unlike many of the suicide leads in Standard. If you don't have a solid answer for Crobat, and keep that answer alive, it is going to eat holes in your team. Whether it's Taunting your stat-ups and Roosting off any damage, or just threatening a Taunt or Brave Bird and U-turning ("the best move in DPPt") through to another counter, Crobat can single-handedly ruin your strategy if you're not careful. Stall teams are particularly vulnerable, but Crobat's Brave Bird is a huge threat to offensive teams ripe with Shaymin, Gallade, Blaziken, Roserade, and Hitmontop as well. Consistently is the key word in the Support Characteristic, and Crobat fits it to a T.
Raikou
I'll admit, Raikou sometimes seems like less of a problem than he was a month ago. However, noting that fact alone seems to be disingenuous. Raikou is one of those pokemon, which (as you'll see with my next suspect) you're generally at a disadvantage if you're not using. That statement seems awfully vague, but it's more than true. I've been using it on my stall team for the vast majority of the last month (a consistently top 10 team, right around 1800/40 at the time of this writing), and it has worked exceptionally well in what at first seems like a role it's not meant for.
Consider that Raikou is a very serious threat to a team. Also consider that Raikou is usually one of the better answers to itself when carrying Roar. With great base Specials, it doesn't even need much EV investment, if any, to do well. Instead, you can max it's HP and use some Defense EVs so it can shrug off Brave Birds and take unboosted EQs. You're left with a Pokemon which can always switch into other Raikou, and at the same time come into Crobat (something every stall team needs) and Staraptor and scare them off or KO them. Why not use a Steel? Well, Raikou provides much more to my team than a steel would. It adds a fast, strong, STAB attack to finish off many pokemon that would otherwise give me trouble. It can take a CB hit of any kind from Staraptor, outspeed it, and OHKO (and only Return has a chance to 2HKO from the scarfer), unlike steels who are extremely vulnerable to Close Combat. It also threatens more pokemon than the UU Steels do, making U-turning through Raikou less of an optimal proposition. Furthermore, it can still present a serious threat after a Calm Mind or two - Cursing steels are pathetic in comparison. Raikou also is less prone to losing to other Raikou than many of it's other common switchins, which die to a super effective Hidden Power or one of Raikou's other special attacks.
Obviously, this is not all about some niche set I've been using. However, the mention of it's workings does a great service in showing just how good Raikou is in UU.
The real key here is that Raikou is 'too good not to use' - even to counter itself. Even offensive Raikou running Roar sets up on other Raikou not carrying HP ground and has a good chance of decimating afterward (with the added benefit of laughing at stuff like Psych Up Regice, especially with SR on the field). Overall, Raikou is much like Staraptor in that it forces out a very specified 'counter', which you can usually note and take care of - if you haven't already built your team with that in mind. The fact that Raikou can carry attacks to easily beat groups of those pokemon itself adds significantly to the problem. You can usually 'deal with' Raikou once you learn which moves it's carrying, but how many pokemon will you lose before that happens? Perhaps more importantly, how many pokemon which can take a CM Tbolt do you have to carry before you're overspecializing your team? It's clear that, at worst, Raikou meets the offensive characteristic we're looking for. The real problem, though, is how it simultaneously becomes a monster on the specially defensive side at the same time, limiting potential answers to 'strong Earthquake' and 'Chansey'.
Clefable
Even more so than Raikou, I find that teams are at a disadvantage when not carrying Clefable. This is especially the case for stall teams, and often times the presence of Clefable on mine has given me wins over other stall teams seemingly 'by default'. It's not just stall that Clefable shuts down, though - a large variety of strategies are affected.
Setting up with Clefable around can be a serious problem, due to both good defenses and possibly the best use of the move Encore out there. Clefable easily ruins:
- Every curser. Including Regirock, Registeel, Steelix, Muk, Umbreon, and more. If they curse, they will be encored and killed off with Seismic Toss. While Clefable usually prefers to come in on the Curse itself, it generally fares just fine as Clefable is best used running at least some defensive EVs - even if you run a Reflect set like I do.
- Every other slow stat up user. This includes some of the most common CMers in Spiritomb and Slowbro, which Clefable easily switches into - only fearing Slowbro's Thunder Wave (and only if it's not already statused by other means). It also includes Spiritomb or Slowking trying to Nasty Plot.
- Many fast stat up users who cannot kill it after a boost. Both Mismagius and Raikou carry easily exploitable moves, and Clefable definitely has the defenses to take a CMed hit. It will Encore Raikou's Tbolt and switch to an immunity or resist, and the same is true with Mismagius' predictable HP fighting.
- Resttalkers if they dare to Sleep Talk.
It's ability to use Encore is obviously not the only suspect part of Clefable's UU play, though. Rapid spinning in UU is as troublesome as it gets, and, as gimmicky as it sounds, Foresight Hitmontop is often the best way to actually get a spin off. The presence of Clefable on one's team greatly reduces the amount of damage Spikes and SR will do, limiting need for a spinner. These facts, combined with the ability to actually stall out a large portion of stall teams on it's own, allow Clefable to provide nearly every team with an inordinate amount of support. Yes, even offensive teams can benefit from it's ability to stop pokemon which might otherwise cause serious problems.
Magic Guard also allows Clefable to exploit it's vast movepool and use Trick in conjunction with Toxic or Flame Orb to great effect. So if for some reason Encore doesn't screw up enough UU pokemon for Clefable's liking, it can always Trick a status orb on something. This even comes with the added benefit of Sleep and Paralysis protection, and because you aren't locked into a choice item like most users of Trick, your opponent will never know if or when Trick is coming. Toxic Orb even allows you to use STAB Facade without any drawback, hitting things much harder than anyone switching into Clefable might expect. Magic Guard even opens up opportunities for more gimmicky sets, such as the level 1-2 versions of the evolution line which abuse Focus Sash + Endeavor in hail. While not completely unstoppable, most non-hail teams end up losing a key pokemon or two, especially when you can never be sure the Clefable your opponent switched in isn't it's normal level 100 self.
I'm obviously not going to list every great use of Magic Guard here, as I think this sums it up nicely enough. Those are definitely the most effective ones, at least. After all, it's not that any singular aspect of Clefable is absolutely suspect on it's own - it's the overall combination of it's supportive and defensive abilities that we need to look at.
Results
Qibingzero: Staraptor | Accepted. Gallade | Accepted. Froslass | Accepted. Abomasnow | Accepted. Crobat | Accepted. Raikou | Accepted. Clefable | Accepted. (7 noms)
Double Checking: zzzz tldr;
Everything except Clefable - Accepted. Clefable - Rejected - it's not convincing - Okay, it can use Encore - but what stops Raikou or curse/restalks from switching out after? So what if it makes spikes/SR less viable? Tricking Orbs is only a level little higher than using Toxic / Will o Wisp - so "why is this bad"? You need to be a little bit more detailed with some of this bits and connect it before it's anywhere near convincing that it's "too much"
