Other Metagames [AG] Divine Dominance: Peaked 1904 rating, #8 on ladder, 92+ GXE

Reffrey

Banned deucer.
Background/Introduction

Greetings AG community. I've got a decent team to share with you all, although it is just arceus spam (heh). I've played AG since it first started in gen 6, but in gen 6 I kinda sucked and I didn't play it that much (I was more focused on VGC and Ubers). When gen 7 started, I was eager to play the metagame again due to the addition of several new threats such as Solgaleo, Lunala, Zygarde-C, and also the nerfing of darkrai and klefki. After playing around with some of the new gen 7 pokes, I started to get the hang of the metagame a little, and it wasn't long before I completely fell in love with AG. AG is hands down my favorite tier because it is really the only metagame that is played the exact way that pokemon battles are supposed to be played, no pokemon being banned and no clauses except for the endless battle clause. I was never a fan of OU or other lower tiers because I don't like all of the restrictions and banned pokemon, and plus there are suspect tests, so a team that is very good could be rendered unusable at the hands of a suspect vote. Anyway, in the beginning of the gen I kept getting crushed on the ladder by a player named Alexei Karamazov, who is notorious for using 6 arceus teams. After losing to him and some other good players several times, I thought "hmm, why don't I just make an arceus spam team of my own?" And that is when the beta version of Divine Dominance was born. I went on a new alt that I named "Divine Dominance," and laddered with only 6-arceus teams, testing every single arceus form in the process. At last I had put together a decent team, and it actually went 87-2 on the ladder (yeah, the early gen 7 ladder was kinda bad) before I started facing higher ranked players. I even managed to defeat Alexei several times, a player who had previously beaten me consistently. Eventually after getting into the high 1800s with the team, I decided that I would be done with it, and then I switched over to my regular alt to ladder with non arceus spam teams. As several months passed my laddering skills drastically improved, and looking back I realized that my old arceus spam team really wasn't that great of a team. And so, recently, I set out to revamp it.

Teambuilding Process


The original team featured a stealth rock groundceus lead, along with 3 swords dance ekillers, one a normalceus with a silk scarf, the other a shadow force z-move ghostceus, and the last an iron head steelceus. The other two pokemon on the team were a calm mind grassceus with grass knot, and a calm mind poisonceus that carried flamethrower for dealing with pesky steel types such as ferrothorn and celesteela. Despite how this team wasn't terrible, there were several issues with it. First of all, ferrothorn and celesteela posed a TREMENDOUS threat to the team if poisonceus was down, and I was also weak to mega rayquaza and rocky helmet yveltal, since I lacked a fairyceus. In addition to this, my evs were not optimal, since, for instance, I did not have max speed jolly nature on any of my ekillers. To top all of those weaknesses off, I lacked defog. As an immediate change to the team I gave all 3 of my ekillers max speed and a jolly nature, and replaced the arceus-normal's silk scarf with a life orb. However, my team was still pretty darn weak to steel types, and still got completely wrecked by rocky helmet yveltal. Deoxys-spam tapu lele teams also posed a big threat to my team, due to how I relied on 3 extreme speed users for priority kills.


In order to patch up my yveltal and rayquaza weakness, I replaced poisonceus with support fairyceus with defog and toxic. Due to the now lack of a fire move I took calm mind off of grassceus and gave it flamethrower. My team was now much more solid, but there were still some issues that it faced, such as a bit of an increased weakness to steel types, which I could absolutely not afford. At last, I made one final odd change that sealed the deal, and completed my team. Here is the team in it's final form:

The Team


Arceus-Fairy @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Recover
- Toxic
- Defog

First off, we have a classic support arceus-fairy set. The evs allow it to be at max speed, while also being bulky yet not hitting very hard. However, judgement even without investment ohkos mega rayquaza after stealth rock, and does a hefty chunk of damage to yveltal. Toxic allows for arceus fairy to stall out and annoy opposing primal groudons and ho-oh, in addition to simply spreading status. This arceus fairy set can also be effective against swords dance ghostceus, since it can speed tie with it and also cripple it with toxic, and since ghostceus usually relies on shadow force to attack, which is a two turn move, toxic takes it out pretty fast. Still beware of never-ending nightmare, which ohkos fairyceus at +2.


Arceus @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Claw
- Earthquake

This is a standard lum berry ekiller set, not much to explain about it. This set used to be life orb with a jolly nature, but with the removal of grassceus from the team I had to have a lum berry arceus in order to better check smeargle. It is quite unfortunate that this arceus is not at maximum speed, but running an adamant nature was a must since without a life orb or silk scarf arceus does not hit very hard. The moveset enables arceus to have the best coverage possible, although another option may be to use punishment instead of shadow claw, which at +2 can ohko an opposing ghostceus that has set up a swords dance, something that shadow claw can't do unless a critical hit occurs.


Arceus-Ground @ Earth Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Roar
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock

Next we have a groundceus lead set, featuring Judgment, roar, ice beam, and stealth rock. Roar is used to roar out annoying geomancy xerneas or swords dance arceus leads, while judgment is its obvious stab move. Ice beam is excellent against mega rayquaza and other flying types, and actually OHKOs mega rayquaza if it is at -1 spdf from a dragon ascent. Although lacking recovery or speed investment, this arceus has maximum special attack in addition to max HP, which allows it to hit hard and take a lot of hits before it goes down. Also, ice beam surprises salamence and zygardes that think that they can set up a dragon dance, easily ohkoing both of them.



Arceus-Steel @ Iron Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance

Next is swords dance steelceus, which may be the most useful pokemon on the team. I took extreme speed off and replaced it with stone edge, a move that surprises unsuspecting ho-ohs that try to come in on steelceus. Maximum speed and a jolly nature coupled with 252 atk evs are the obvious ev spread, allowing steelceus to speed tie with other max speed arceus forms. The most useful thing about this pokemon is the 30% chance for iron head to flinch opposing pokemon. Of course it is not good to rely on flinches to win games, but I can't tell you how many times I've annoyed players by getting a lucky flinch that helped me win the game. Also, if steelceus gets to +4, chances are your opponent is in big trouble unless they have quagsire.


Arceus-Fire @ Flame Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Calm Mind
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam

Behold, the star of the team, not for being the best member but for being the most underrated member, fireceus! Now I know your probably thinking "lmao what, firceus sucks, and plus your set lacks recover smh." However, I assure you that this set is quite useful. The main purpose of it is to check ferrothorn and celesteela. Earth power is used to hit primal groudon decently hard, and ice beam can ohko both zygarde and mega salamence, in addition to dealing a good amount of damage to mega rayquaza and yveltal. The addition of firceus to the team also adds another soft check to steelceus and xerneas, which the team kind of needed.



Arceus-Ghost @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shadow Force
- Brick Break
- Extreme Speed
- Swords Dance

Lastly we have standard swords dance z-move ghostceus. Being one of the most powerful arceus sets, this one just had to be included on the team. Never-ending nightmare truly is a nightmare, and ghost + fighting boasts nearly perfect coverage. This is also a soft check to life orb ekiller arceus.

Replays


http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-551473494 win vs thegengar878, a 1600s-1800s player

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-551484885 win vs 1st lorgone, the guy who is famous for creating that cancerous stall team that many people have used to get high on or peak the ladder

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-551575927 win vs Falco108, who was using a modified version of hunterstorm's cuntsquad

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-551632411 win vs Jaytin, a great player who is consistently high on the ladder

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-551642791 win vs Shadow Thief/Leafstorm121, an excellent player who has no trouble getting past 1900

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-552571640 win vs Tic-Tac-Toe Guru, a veteran player who is definitely experienced in the metagame

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-552625908 win vs Alexei Karamazov, the original user of arceus spam teams this gen

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-552635529 win vs Hunterstorm, who is possibly the best ag player this gen, and winner of the ag open

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-552908487 win vs r.U~b%y, a global voiced player who just started laddering recently

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-551679276 win vs moongeistbeam5, a friend of mine who is an excellent player and consistently #1 on the ladder.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-552911679 win vs Tic-Tac-Toe Guru again, the battle that got me to 1904.


Proof of Peak
Screenshot (17).png

Also, my gxe on the Divine Dominance account was only 86.6 due to me previously using the account to ladder with trash monotype arceus teams. However, I did hit a 92 GXE on another account, called D1V1ne, with one of the beta versions of the team.

Threatlist
upload_2017-3-26_17-37-52.png

Ferrothorn aka assothorn is one of the monst annoying mons to face. Fireceus and boosted ghostceus take care of it but it is still a major threat. Still, I have gotten by many ferrothorn teams surprisingly.

Celesteela, another aids mon that I hate, is pretty much the equivalent of ferrothorn against this team. Fireceus and ghostceus can both take care of it but it is still tricky to deal with.

Quagsire is another big threat, since it walls half my team. The only way to beat it is to hit it hard with groundceus or fairyceus or to get toxic on it. You can also attempt to take it out with never-ending nightmare if it is at low health but that is not easy to do, since almost every quagsire carries protect. Quagsire is EXTREMELY tough to beat if it is paired with chansey or blissey, but somehow I managed to beat a guy with such a team but I think he was just making bad plays.


Mega gengar isn't as big of a threat as it seems. All arceus spam teams have a bit of trouble with mega gengar, but it can still easily be taken care of by arceus-n or arceus-steel's earthquake. Groundceus and fireceus also don't have trouble with it, but of course you have to watch out for d-bond shenanigans.
upload_2017-3-26_17-48-55.png

Darkceus isn't much of a threat, but I could definitely see a calm mind/refresh variant posing some trouble, since fairyceus won't be able to take it down if it gets 2 or more cm boosts, unless you get a crit. Luckily, cm refresh darkceus is very rare.

Ho-oh used to be a big threat but ever since I added stone edge to steelceus it is usually not a problem. Still, if stone edge misses you're in trouble. Scarf ho-oh might also be a bit of a threat.

That pretty much covers everything! Hope you enjoyed reading. Here are some shoutouts:

Dontstealmypenguin - Great ubers and ag player who I've known since like xy ubers. Your new web team that you got to 2090 with is godly.

Moongeistbeam5 - Amazing player who I've known since the beginning of gen 7 ag. Probably one of the best players in the meta with some creative teams.

Synoptic - You suck lol. Haha jk. I'm looking forward to seeing that epic rmt that you've been working on. You're a pretty darn good player.

Thimo - The based lord of gen 7 ag. Lend me some of your teambuilding skills dude.

Hunterstorm - The other based lord of gen 7 ag. Gratz on winning the ag open.

Chloe - The based lord of gen 6 ag. I'm a pretty good flowre impersonator ayy? Haha. You're an amazing player, gotta dethrone hunter and thimo.

Kaushik, p0lt3rgeist - good players and friends

Alexei Karamazov - the original user of arceus spam this gen who inspired me to make this team

F6 Tornado - You've got some godly mono arceus spam teams. Amazing player who almost beat Thimo in ag open.

Some really good players - Jaytin, Donno, FardinAG

Alright, that's it, sorry if I missed you in shoutouts, I tried to include as many as possible.

Peace. :]

Paste of team:

Arceus-Fairy @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Recover
- Toxic
- Defog

Arceus @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Claw
- Earthquake

Arceus-Ground @ Earth Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Roar
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock

Arceus-Steel @ Iron Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance

Arceus-Fire @ Flame Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Calm Mind
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam

Arceus-Ghost @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shadow Force
- Brick Break
- Extreme Speed
- Swords Dance

 
Last edited:
hey man,
Nice team and grats on the peak. However, there are definitely some optimizations to be made. For groundceus, i don't believe max hp with roar really makes sense. If yours set is that offensive, you might as well go for 252 spe and 252 spa. If you'd rather keep the hp, I suggest changing roar to recover. On fairyceus, since it is your only check to every physical attacker in the metagame, it is essential that you run max defense and hp. I don't really see what the speed is doing for you here. Perhaps the most important issue- I understand that you hate ferrothorn but that does not, in any way, justify using arceus-fire. Put simply, it's a terrible mon, and especially without recover you aren't going to be able to do anything useful with it apart from surprising your opponent once. It definitely makes sense to get rid of it. If you are that paranoid about ferro, I would change your ekiller to life orb and add overheat over shadow claw to catch it off guard. Now that fireceus is gone, you have a few options. I think the best one in this situation is a calm mind refresh arceus rock, which allows you to not get destroyed by ho-oh and also provides a nice way to break past balance and stall teams. If you prefer you can use arceus dark with the same set instead, which allows you to have a better gengar matchup but is also xerneas bait. Anyway, congrats on the peak again and hope this helped.
 

Reffrey

Banned deucer.
hey man,
Nice team and grats on the peak. However, there are definitely some optimizations to be made. For groundceus, i don't believe max hp with roar really makes sense. If yours set is that offensive, you might as well go for 252 spe and 252 spa. If you'd rather keep the hp, I suggest changing roar to recover. On fairyceus, since it is your only check to every physical attacker in the metagame, it is essential that you run max defense and hp. I don't really see what the speed is doing for you here. Perhaps the most important issue- I understand that you hate ferrothorn but that does not, in any way, justify using arceus-fire. Put simply, it's a terrible mon, and especially without recover you aren't going to be able to do anything useful with it apart from surprising your opponent once. It definitely makes sense to get rid of it. If you are that paranoid about ferro, I would change your ekiller to life orb and add overheat over shadow claw to catch it off guard. Now that fireceus is gone, you have a few options. I think the best one in this situation is a calm mind refresh arceus rock, which allows you to not get destroyed by ho-oh and also provides a nice way to break past balance and stall teams. If you prefer you can use arceus dark with the same set instead, which allows you to have a better gengar matchup but is also xerneas bait. Anyway, congrats on the peak again and hope this helped.
Hmm I would definitely agree that replacing fireceus with rockceus may help the team. The only slight problem with this is that xerneas and zygarde would pose bigger threats to the team, but still I think that using rockceus is a good idea (a cm rockceus with ice beam for hitting zygarde is also an option), since zygarde and corneas are not tremendous threats to the team anyway. Fardin made the same suggestion in the anything goes room. Still I will say that although fireceus is notorious for being trash (like bugceus), it has surprisingly helped me win several games if you watch the replays. Darkceus is kind of meh. As for the fairyceus and groundceus, I really think that my groundceus lead works pretty well. It's weird that I don't run any speed evs on it yes, but it really doesn't need any speed, and the bulk has helped me in a lot of situations. The special attack investment is required to Ohko mega ray after a dragon ascent. Running max defense fairyceus seems like it could help, but the reason why I gave it so much speed is so that it can outspeed mega ray before getting ascented. Honestly I think that both fairyceus ev spreads work. Even though fairyceus is my only defensive check to physical attackers, the truth is that physical attackers almost never pose much of a problem for my team. Mega rayquaza never gives me any trouble, and for swords dance arceus forms I usually take care of them with my own espeeders, and plus I have 4 max speed arceus that can speed tie with them. Thank you for the good suggestions, I will definitely try them out. Also I should have given you a shoutout lol. You're a really good player.
 

Reffrey

Banned deucer.
Hey guys, small update. I replaced fireceus with rockceus and I changed arceus-fairy's evs to what purple gatorade suggested. Seems to have helped because my rating went up to 1944.

So here's a paste of this alternate version of the team, I guess it can be called Divine Dominance 2:

Arceus-Fairy @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Recover
- Toxic
- Defog

Arceus @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Claw
- Earthquake

Arceus-Ground @ Earth Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Roar
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock

Arceus-Steel @ Iron Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed
- Swords Dance

Arceus-Rock @ Stone Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Calm Mind
- Flamethrower
- Recover

Arceus-Ghost @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shadow Force
- Brick Break
- Extreme Speed
- Swords Dance

Peak:

well I can't post the screenshot because it's too big of a file, but here's a replay of the battle that got me to 1944 (#4 on ladder):

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-553836679
 
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