Other Pyre- AG

[MZ]

I listened to this while writing the rmt, it goes way better with this than some standard NP song would. Love this music

EDIT: THANK YOU Magnemite FOR POINTING OUT THAT THIS IS UBERS LEGAL, I LEGITIMATELY DID NOT NOTICE. IF AN UBERS RATER WOULD LIKE TO TAKE A CRACK AT IT, GO AHEAD. THIS PROBABLY WORKS BETTER IN AG BUT IDK. FML e.e

I like making and rating and building teams and I meant to do an rmt for 1.5k but that went to scRUb League. AG is a really nice meta I've been getting into recently, obviously it suffers from its awful reputation of lol klefki spam or whatever but it's a lot of fun and hasn't proved itself to be that unbalanced. I asked for a mon to build around since I didn't really care, and was told by Joshz and Zangooser (two of the few people who play this meta) to use a scarf xerneas. I was like 'k' and this is the team. It's a lot more laid back than some of my other builds, and it's a lot of fun to play with and just pivot around before cleaning with Xern / Deo

Teambuilding Process

Scarf Xerneas seemed cool, it cleans nicely once you've swept up the Fire-types so I'm fine with starting around that, plus it's always good to start with a check to both Megaray and Darkrai.

Xern needs something to smash things so that it can clean. I'd wanted to use Deo-A for a while, and thus the core was born.

Up until this point, I had been experimenting mostly with Arceus spam for a while and I decided that I wanted a more balanced build. Arceus-Rock is a Ho-oh check which currently really annoys the offensive core, and just like checks shit idk. Good mon.

Gira-O was #3 of my "let's slap this mon I want to test on" group. I'm weak as hell to Primal Groudon, Gira helped alleviate that quite a bit and frees up a slot to not be forced into Defog Rockceus, which feels a lot more mediocre than Wisp/CM sets.

No rocks, no Electric immunity, nothing with Twave.

Don is still my singular Geo-xern check which is nowhere near healthy, so I decided to test Mega Scizor since I'd seen a few people using it and it seemed cool. A slot U-turn makes getting Deo-A in a lot safer.

Xerneas @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
Modest Nature
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot
- Sleep Talk

Ubers analysis for Scarf Xern says to run 224 speed and beat out Scarf Kyurem-White and +1 Ray, but every Ray is mega unless I'm facing myself and nobody runs scarf Kyurem (if they do, you should be upset but you shouldn't lose). Other than that this is a really basic set, Modest Fairy Aura Moonblast hits like a truck and then FB and GK hit Arceus Steel / Ferrothorn / Primal Groudon / Primal Kyogre / other assorted resists, with Sleep Talk in the last slot because fuck Darkrai. I didn't feel like going Thunder because the team handles Ho-oh pretty well but it's definitely an option.

Deoxys-Attack @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 68 Atk / 252 SpA / 188 Spe
Naive Nature
- Psycho Boost
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- Extreme Speed

Get used to analysis spreads, I don't have much innovative to show for the individual moves and EVs. Classic Deo-A is really underrated, it's got the fastest viable Espeed making it an invaluable Arceus / Ray check and basically OHKOs whatever it wants to. Psycho Boost, Extreme Speed and Superpower make up the regular moves, and Knock Off is like, Knock Off. Good stuff, this is the mon you're bringing in to fire off base 100+ power moves from whenever you can

Arceus-Rock @ Stone Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Def / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Judgment

Creative fucking sets. Rockceus walls stuff, checks stuff, burns stuff, and does stuff. Main STAB, boosting move, status and recovery and it's just that easy. I honestly can't think of anything else to say about this, it's my bird check and obligatory Arceus, and that be what it do. Speed is for Jolly Megaray (or timid specs if you're real).

Giratina-Origin @ Griseous Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 184 Def / 248 SpA / 76 Spe
Modest Nature
- Defog
- Shadow Ball
- Roar
- Draco Meteor

Idk how people don't use a mon that checks Ekiller, Groudon and Megaray in one slot while also being a Defogger. EVs look a little odd, but the speed is for uninvested Yveltal and Xerneas and the Defense EVs aren't in HP because you're actually bulkier doing this thanks to its massive HP stat. Basically just specially offensive Defog, although phazing is far too useful to pass up. This was originally just a basic physical set with Shadow Sneak and Phantom Force and it certainly wouldn't be that bad, but ultimately special helps overload some walls that give even Deo-A and Xerneas trouble like Skarmory.
Edit: If this is being used in ubers, apparently full physical is just better or some shit
Roar > Dragon Tail (Joshz) helps w/BP and Geoxern, also Arc Fairy to an extent

Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Precipice Blades
- Fire Punch / Dragon Claw

Don is kind of an obligatory presence, it checks most Arceus forms and Primal Kyogre while giving me Stealth Rock, freeing up the CM slot on Rockceus. Basic dual stab hits stupidly hard, and while I'd like to fit Dragon Claw or Stone Edge in the final slot, Thunder Wave is essential for more easily beating Arceus Fairy 1v1. I will say that I creep more than 8 Speed on this, but it doesn't significantly impact the team so i won't be giving that up.
edit: Fire punch is a good reliable STAB move for things like Ferro and Skarm but Dragon Claw is probably better in ubers because of things like Lati and Mence being way more common

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 60 Atk / 200 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Swords Dance
- U-turn

Scizor is just an amazing no-think pivot and the hidden MVP of this team, it's really easy to just go to it and click U-turn and suddenly have some hard hitting legendary in for free. I ripped this out of the analysis because I can't see where any optimization would help, basic pivot Scizor but SD helps it not be just general setup fodder and lame, although Knock Off or Toxic wouldn't be bad either. Most games this is just switched into 2-3 times until it dies to get other things in for free, but if they have a Geo-Xern it just needs to be kept a bit healthy in the back.

How to use this team
Have fun with it and enjoy the ride. Get up rocks and try to keep them there, keep the Ho-oh pressured and go for as many slow U-turns as you can squeeze in. Nuke things with Deo-A and you're good

Major Threatlist
Klefki- No dedicated counters, full Klefki teams suck but can win with luck
Arceus-Ghost: Gets around Scizor much faster than standard Ekiller and can't be revenged by Deo-A

Replays
Never saved any because the ladder was shit, shoutout to Zangooser for accepting my challenge so I'd have at least one thing to show (and for letting me steal his formatting)
VS Zangooser and his RMT you should check out
I should mention that I peaked around 30, this could likely go to #1 if I had the time to go to 1930 on a ladder where you wait 10 minutes and get a game vs Cynthia's champion team at 1700 ELO. The overall W/L was 55-6 minus about 35 wins and 6 losses with an Arceus Spam team I'd been testing on the account before this.

Shoutouts
Anty, gasquakee and Magnemite calling AG shit a lot
Joshz Zangooser Rhythms metaphysical R0ady ready2go202 trash Peli HJAD Vapo Shiba Twix Detect Marowak Dundies 2xTheTap Sir Kay Jariibo -Grim TONE114 (the real mvp of like everything) Syncrasy Snaquaza in no particular order

Import
http://pastebin.com/dxvPtRhS​

 

[MZ]

reserved for changelog and shouting out all the people I forgot after being up for 24 hours straight sick
BreloomMyHomie

fixed bolding and spacing idk what that was
made some slashes because I suppose this is an ubers team too sorta
the team also had my old rockceus spread for whatever reason, what is proofreading

put 0 attack IVs on stuff that didn't need attack IVs in the importable
Changed dragon tail to roar on Gira-o

 

[Josh]

This is the 2nd time you've done this. My name is Joshz you donger D:

ty for >attempted< shoutout, will edit in a real rate later i g2g rn


EDIT; As for the rate: The thing with baton pass teams is that good ones aren't that common. It's hard to get practice time, and without roar it turns into complete luck whether or not you win. However, I don't agree with roar on pdon on this team, 1 phazer is enough imo. I'd just recommend Roar > Dragon Tail on gira, because dtail prevents fairy phazing, doesn't phaze through sub, and most importantly can get evaded. Roar also goes through protect, which is nice for smeargle. This is more of a personal preference though. It also completely sucks missing 90% dtails :p

Klefki just plays tricks with your team. I know you don't think its ranked too highly in S, but even then you have to admit it is a noteworthy threat. If it swaggers pdon on the switchin it can play tricks with subspam, and if pdon is down it just spreads paras like crazy. Even though it won't "sweep" (if you can call it that even), it will cripple a lot of things with twave. It's also really annoying if mega sab or something is spreading burns on all of your mons. To deal with these, I'd recommend Aromatherapy > Sleep Talk on xern. Yes, being scarfed into aromatherapy can be bad, but so can being scarfed into sleep talk. It gives you cleric, allows you to be more brave when dealing with klefki, and allows you to punish people who predict xern will attack. Idk why I'm explaining this, you know what aromatherapy does. I've seen (BAN ME PLEASE)-gooser use scarfxern aroma to success, it does work :p

Maybe like Knock Off/Superpower > SD on scizor? Either that, or one of them above u-turn. Set-up sweeper and pivot aren't very compressable roles, and bug bite is just shit coverage. Basically, if you want a sweeper, drop Uturn, and if you want a slow pivot and a way to get deo-a in (I prefer this option on this team) drop SD.

Small nitpicky thing: 0atk IVs on xern, rockceus and if you decide to do my gira swith then gira (otherwise not) helps you better deal with swagkeys and yveltal.


These changes are all very opinionated and none are necessarily the right answer. However, I do think they will help. :p

 

[InfernapeTropius11]

Hi Megazard, cool looking team dude! I'll probably test it sometime if I get bored and drop a proper rate, but rn after reading it I think you have a little bit of a problem with evasion users on BP teams. For this reason I'd recommend going with Roar on Primal Groudon. This helps if you can get it in before they get an Ingrain in (which should be easy cuz if they decide to Ingrain first Xerneas switches in ez and reks the Smeargle most of the time). This does limit you to just one attacking move, however PDon looks like more of a utility mon, slowing stuff down and setting rocks to break Sashes and generally making it easier for Xerneas and Deo-A to smash stuff. If you do decide to add Roar I'd recommend Fire Punch as your attacking move, as PDon is your only Keys check lol, and PBlades missing can be unfortunate. Couldn't find much wrong with it at first glance, it's a pretty solid team and it looks fun!

 

[MZ]

Hi Megazard, cool looking team dude! I'll probably test it sometime if I get bored and drop a proper rate, but rn after reading it I think you have a little bit of a problem with evasion users on BP teams. For this reason I'd recommend going with Roar on Primal Groudon. This helps if you can get it in before they get an Ingrain in (which should be easy cuz if they decide to Ingrain first Xerneas switches in ez and reks the Smeargle most of the time). This does limit you to just one attacking move, however PDon looks like more of a utility mon, slowing stuff down and setting rocks to break Sashes and generally making it easier for Xerneas and Deo-A to smash stuff. If you do decide to add Roar I'd recommend Fire Punch as your attacking move, as PDon is your only Keys check lol, and PBlades missing can be unfortunate. Couldn't find much wrong with it at first glance, it's a pretty solid team and it looks fun!

Yeah, I originally had roar over Twave and it's certainly a decent option for anybody looking to steal the team. However, when facing BP I was consistently slaughtering it with the combo of Deo-a, scarf xern, and SD Mega Scizor, although I did have to hit moves so I suppose roar could be nice.

This is the 2nd time you've done this. My name is Joshz you donger D:

ty for >attempted< shoutout, will edit in a real rate later i g2g rn


EDIT; As for the rate: The thing with baton pass teams is that good ones aren't that common. It's hard to get practice time, and without roar it turns into complete luck whether or not you win. However, I don't agree with roar on pdon on this team, 1 phazer is enough imo. I'd just recommend Roar > Dragon Tail on gira, because dtail prevents fairy phazing, doesn't phaze through sub, and most importantly can get evaded. Roar also goes through protect, which is nice for smeargle. This is more of a personal preference though. It also completely sucks missing 90% dtails :p

Klefki just plays tricks with your team. I know you don't think its ranked too highly in S, but even then you have to admit it is a noteworthy threat. If it swaggers pdon on the switchin it can play tricks with subspam, and if pdon is down it just spreads paras like crazy. Even though it won't "sweep" (if you can call it that even), it will cripple a lot of things with twave. It's also really annoying if mega sab or something is spreading burns on all of your mons. To deal with these, I'd recommend Aromatherapy > Sleep Talk on xern. Yes, being scarfed into aromatherapy can be bad, but so can being scarfed into sleep talk. It gives you cleric, allows you to be more brave when dealing with klefki, and allows you to punish people who predict xern will attack. Idk why I'm explaining this, you know what aromatherapy does. I've seen (BAN ME PLEASE)-gooser use scarfxern aroma to success, it does work :p

Maybe like Knock Off/Superpower > SD on scizor? Either that, or one of them above u-turn. Set-up sweeper and pivot aren't very compressable roles, and bug bite is just shit coverage. Basically, if you want a sweeper, drop Uturn, and if you want a slow pivot and a way to get deo-a in (I prefer this option on this team) drop SD.

Small nitpicky thing: 0atk IVs on xern, rockceus and if you decide to do my gira swith then gira (otherwise not) helps you better deal with swagkeys and yveltal.


These changes are all very opinionated and none are necessarily the right answer. However, I do think they will help. :p

I like Roar on Gira, it basically helps with what Infernape pointed out, doing that. As for the other two, I don't really see myself doing either. SD and Sleep Talk are both incredibly useful, especially talk which I need to not be criminally weak to Darkrai

 

[MZ]

Bumping because AG is a fun and balanced meta