SM OU “Double Defog? Y’all are Stupid.” Mega Metagross Suspect Test Qualifier

PokeTroopa · May 11, 2017

Hey all, this is the team I recently got my Mega Metagross requirements with and I thought I’d take the chance to share it before Ash-Greninja gets the boot in about a month and since the team isn’t stall or baton pass. So let’s get started.

Greninja-Ash @ Life Orb

Ability: Battle Bond

EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

- Water Shuriken

- Dark Pulse

- Ice Beam

- Surf

So the way I build my teams is that I choose one or two Pokemon that I really like and build a team to support them. Ash-Greninja is probably my favorite thing to come out of Gen 7, and was the first Pokemon I wanted to use. I’ve gotten some crap for running Ash-Greninja the way I do, but having played around with Choice Specs, Life Orb was my preference since I like being able to switch moves. Ice Beam was chosen over U-turn to deal with Tapu Bulu, Tangrowth, Garchomp, and Zygarde, and burning 10% of your HP just to U-turn is a waste unless you have Protean. Surf is used over Hydro Pump for consistency. Hydro Pump guarantees the OHKO on Tapu Koko and Mega Medicham however.

Charizard (M) @ Charizardite Y

Ability: Blaze

EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Flamethrower

- Solar Beam

- Roost

- Focus Blast

Charizard is the second Pokemon I wanted to base my team around. Charizard is here to hit hard, unhindered by intimidate users. Flamethrower was chosen over Fire Blast for consistency, since I was already running the inaccurate Focus Blast. Fire Blast does guarantee ohkos such as against Landorus-T, but teams only get one mega slot, and it didn’t make sense to throw a ton of inaccurate moves on such a vital Pokemon. I have been considering running HP Ground since it hits Heatran all the same and more consistently, and also gives me a better option against Charizard-X, but Focus Blast did come in handy against the random Tyranitars I ran into.

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers

Ability: Misty Surge

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD

Bold Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Scald

- Moonblast

- Defog

- Nature's Madness

The second part to the typical Charizard-Y core. Tapu Fini is the first of the two defoggers, and is there to take all sorts of hits for the team. Scald was used despite the Misty Terrain to get the potential burn on Mega Pinsir, Landorus-T, Celesteela, and incoming Tapu Bulu. The rest is staple.

Dugtrio (M) @ Focus Sash

Ability: Arena Trap

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Earthquake

- Reversal

- Sucker Punch

- Screech

Dugtrio – The third part to the typical Charizard-Y core. This team doesn’t run entry hazards since I have 2 defoggers, which lets my opponent switch with no drawback. Dugtrio was necessary for trapping things that prevented Charizard or Greninja from running over the entire team, such as Chansey, Magearna, and Toxapex (make sure Sun and/or Misty Terrain is up first). It was also used to take out things that were problematic for the team as a whole such as Mega Medicham and Ash-Greninja right after it gets its kill. Earthquake and Reversal are standard. Sucker Punch was used for the many instances where Dugtrio left the opponent with a sliver of health, but Rock Slide can work well here for Volcarona and Zapdos. Screech was essential for getting rid of Chansey, and once Chansey’s taken down stall loses to Charizard pretty much single handedly. If the Chansey Toxics you first, screech a second time so that they can’t just spam Soft-Boiled.

Scizor (M) @ Leftovers

Ability: Technician

EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe

Careful Nature

- Bullet Punch

- U-turn

- Defog

- Knock Off

Scizor is mainly here as a second defogger. With Tapu Fini as my main way for tanking hits on the team, I felt it necessary to add a second defogger since I’m running both Charizard-Y and a Focus Sash Dugtrio. There’s no offensive investment on this Scizor since its main objective is to defog, and attack later if it has to. Outside of defogging, it was useful in dealing with Tapu Bulu, Choice Scarf Gengar, and sometimes Ash-Greninja that gave the rest of my team trouble. Knock off can be replaced by Roost, but I was taking more than 50% from common moves such as Landorus-T’s Earthquake and Thunderbolt from offensive Tapu Koko, so I chose to go with Knock Off to get rid of whatever troublesome items I could. With Mega Stones and Z-Crystals running around, the move isn’t as good as it used to be though.

Zygarde @ Choice Band

Ability: Aura Break

EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Thousand Arrows

- Extreme Speed

- Outrage

- Toxic

Pretty typical banded Zygarde set, and serves as another hard hitter of the team. Even at +1, Zygarde’s power can be a bit underwhelming at times, so it made more sense to have Zygarde as an immediate attacker than a set up sweeper. Toxic came in handy for troublesome walls such as Mantine, but was rarely used otherwise. Zygarde’s more common switch ins such as Landorus-T and Tangrowth never stay in for long, meaning poisoning them doesn’t really do much. I also messed around with Superpower, but it was barely ever used also, and I feel having toxic is more important.

The team isn’t perfect, and it took me 2 solid attempts to get the requirements (I needed to win the 70th game on my first run and lost to Timid Shuca Berry Magearna and missed the OHKO on Tapu Koko with Greninja). I do like the team a lot and it does allow me to play the way I like to. I did reach a point where I “wanted” to run into stall teams which was kinda funny. I do think it’s interesting that the old Mega stones are slowly getting added to the game, changing the metagame alongside these suspect tests, so you have to keep adjusting your teams. But yeah, let me know what you guys think.

Baton Pass / Heavy Set up teams: There was no good way to go about fighting these teams, especially since the team lacked any set up sweepers itself. What seemed to work for me was to chip Scolipede out with Tapu Fini, deal with their first Baton Pass threat, then pressure with priority from there.

Trick Room: With no taunt, trick room gets set up for free constantly, so I’m playing by their rules most of the time. The more common teams were built so that even Ash-Greninja couldn’t OHKO the Cresselias and Uxies.

Tapu Koko: Outspeeds my entire team pre-Ash transformation, threatens OHKOs on 3 members, and can U-turn out of Dugtrio. Lately they’ve all been running Iapapa berry, making any chip damage that Scizor can get pointless. The only ways to deal with it were to get Ash-Greninja up early, or keep Zygarde healthy so it can survive the HP Ice. Using Tapu Fini to mess with the terrains to soften the electric blows helps too.

Tapu Bulu: Troublesome since its terrain weakens Dugtrio and Zygarde, and it threatens Greninja and Tapu Fini. It can also use Stone Edge, making it so that Charizard can’t switch in freely. Preserving Scizor was vital to fighting Bulu.

Volcarona: If it gets a boost, Zygarde is the only good answer to it. Luckily the ones I ran into didn’t carry HP Ice.

Protean Greninja: This thing caused me more grief than I expected. It has a ton of different options, and I think I’ve seen about all of them on my last climb through the ladder including low kick, rock slide, and even water shuriken. Losing speed ties doesn’t help either :/

Mantine: After the 150+ games I played on this suspect test, I only fought one, but this thing walls the team very effectively and can’t be trapped or killed by Dugtrio. Luckily I had toxic on Zygarde.

Charizard (M) @ Charizardite Y

Ability: Blaze

EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Flamethrower

- Solar Beam

- Roost

- Focus Blast

Zygarde @ Choice Band

Ability: Aura Break

EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Thousand Arrows

- Extreme Speed

- Outrage

- Toxic

Scizor (M) @ Leftovers

Ability: Technician

EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe

Careful Nature

- Bullet Punch

- U-turn

- Defog

- Knock Off

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers

Ability: Misty Surge

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD

Bold Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Scald

- Moonblast

- Defog

- Nature's Madness

Dugtrio (M) @ Focus Sash

Ability: Arena Trap

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Earthquake

- Reversal

- Sucker Punch

- Screech

Greninja-Ash @ Life Orb

Ability: Battle Bond

EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

- Water Shuriken

- Dark Pulse

- Ice Beam

- Surf

JTD783 · May 11, 2017

Hi,

I noticed that your EV spreads are all max/max; there's really no adjustments made to suit your team's needs. It's possible, albeit very unlikely, that max/max spreads are the team's best option, but the best thing to do is calc how much speed or bulk you actually need for each mon. For example, Banded Zygarde typically runs 252 Spe instead of 252 HP, but it can be customized.

Scizor seems to be the team's weakest link. While its utility in Knock, BP, and Defog are nice, Scizor struggles to fill the same niche that its Mega counterpart does: shrugging off powerful physical hits while performing decently against special attackers with its improved special bulk. A regular Scizor, especially one without Roost, does not have the sheer bulk that it takes to be successful in this meta. For example, a Mega Metagross (assuming it remains after the suspect) can get an attack boost from Meteor Mash and then be able to 2HKO Scizor with EQ or Hammer Arm, while Mega Scizor continues to wall it easily. Even an unboosted EQ from Jolly offensive Lando-T 2HKOs regular Scizor.

Since you want to have two Defog users, I think the best replacement for Scizor is Zapdos. Zapdos's good bulk and typing allow it to come in safely against many Ground-types and proceed to Defog or attack. Its coverage options in Thunderbolt/Discharge, HP Ice, Heat Wave, etc are much more spammable than those of Scizor. It makes you less weak to Bulu and Mantine as well as helping your matchup versus stall.

If you decide against having a second Defog user, I think changing Scizor to Scarf Nihilego would be a good choice. It offers more speed control and covers a lot of the team's threats, while trading bulk for speed and power for the team. Like Zard, it runs wild once Chansey is removed. Scarf stealth rock is a fun tech too.

Nice team, and congrats on getting reqs!

PR3D4TOR · May 13, 2017

Cool team! I watched all your replays and played myself quite a bit (1500s)

Just my alterations of the team/sugesstions:

- Tapu Koko runs through this team if played not careless (Duggy trap/Greninjas Battle Bond) -> Replaced Scissor with AV Magnezone. Really helped a ton. Also catches Ferrothorn and also has Momentum. Deals with bulky Waters, etc. etc.
- Specs Greninja: Got me many KOs due to specs > LO. In some occasions LO might be better but overall i feel Specs > LO on this team
- Fire Blast > Flamethrower gets me even more KOs than the Greninja change. Noticed a few occasions in your replays where FB would have made your life easier.
(- You could also try Taunt on Fini over Scald. Helped me beat (down) nasty stall crap (Pex, Chansey, etc.). Of course you might weaken your defoger but i focus this team more around Greninja than Zard tbh: But that is not really something you should change if you do not want i just like Stall breaking things like this very much)

Overall i really enjoyed it but i feel i need a good replacement for scissor. Also tried Zapdos but that did not help against Koko.

Chokepic · May 18, 2017

The team is cool in paper, but as another comment your spreads are all max max, and thats not good lol.

First, fire blast > Flamethrower. With this you KO landorus-therian, a thing that with flamethrower you can't.

252 spe in zygarde > 248 HP. With 252 you outspeed thinfs like offensive landorus and iirc you have a spee tie with kyurem-b and modest tapu lele.

Specs > Life orb on greninja. Since you are going to spam dark pulse in many times because sun is up, specs is better.

Iron tail > toxic on zygarde. That's simple, just to having a chance to kill tapu bulu.

Taunt > scald on fini. For things like mantine that you sau you struggle with.

Zapdos > Scizor. I agree with the other comment, non mega scizor is really bad in OU, so if you want to have 2 defog users, go on zapdos.

Scarf duggy > Sash. This is for winning zard-x and volcarona at +1, because you struggle with volcarona is a good choice.

And for last, I suggest you to rin the ev spread standard of smogon.
That's all.

SM OU “Double Defog? Y’all are Stupid.” Mega Metagross Suspect Test Qualifier

PokeTroopa

JTD783

PR3D4TOR

Chokepic

You're a choker if you say you've never choked

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)