Other Metagames Anything Goes: Peaked #1 with Clefable

[hexandwhy]

The team at a glance:

Rating

Hello, this is my first RMT ever so please tell me any mistakes you find, or anything that I could improve on.

My History of AG

I started AG as soon as it began, because I thought it was a very nice tier. Obviously, my first plan was to troll the ladder. My first team was six Choice Scarf Kyogre, which won me many games. After a while, I checked the ladder. My hobby has always been to check the ladder, look at the person who had the highest rating, and look at the person's replays.

At the time, the man was Transcendent God Champion. He was the best thing I ever saw. He inspired me to make a team similar to his, so I laddered a bit and got to 90 in the ladder. At that point, I quit AG for some time. I came back for another round, and laddered until I got to 27 in the ladder. At the time, this was a pretty big accomplishment for me, and I was thrilled. I kept trying until I finally reached 3 in the ladder. Since then, I quit AG for a few months. I finally came back after a ladder reset to see that most of my main competitors quit AG. I decided to make a 6 Arceus team, and try it out on the ladder. This is where my team building process began.

My Team Building History

This was my original plan, making a team similar to HunterStorm, one of my favorite AG players. The first Arceus would be a StallCeus, the four others, including Ghost Arceus, would be E-Killers. Steelceus would serve as the defogger. I decided to scrap this idea almost immediately, as I felt like something was missing from this team. After a while of thinking, I came up with this:

I somehow came up with this ridiculous team. I saw Zangooser using Giratina, at one point, and thought that it might be a good addition to my team. After that, I wanted a good Xerneas counter. I thought of quite a few Pokemon, but I felt like Clefable would be best (it was inspired by Exiline's Uber team, which utilized Clefable) , with her ability to stall out Xerneas, use Wish, and utilize Heal Bell or Aromatherapy to wake up Giratina, who's form of recovery is limited to Rest. Darkrai was chosen because I used to run HP Steel to lure Diancie-Mega and also function as a late game sweeper. I got rid of three of the four E-Killer I had, and gave the defogging role to Giratina. I also changed my Steelceus set into a CM set. My supposed 6-Arceus team suddenly became a 3-Arceus team.

Ho-oh was a great addition to my team. This time, I literally copied the set along with EVs from Exiline. It served as a check to one of my biggest problems: Another Ho-oh. I didn't miss my final E-Killer much, as I felt like it didn't accomplish much most games. I also changed my Darkrai's Hidden Power Steel to Taunt, as I found it better in all situations other than fighting Diancie-Mega. I noticed that this team was very weak to three things. Ho-oh, Kyogre-Primal, and Diancie-Mega. The fact that I changed my Darkrai's moveset, and the fact that all of my Pokemon would at least get 3HKO'd by Diancie-Mega surely didn't help. So I recently decided to add a new Pokemon:

This guy. I haven't tested Groudon very much, but statistically, he should serve me very well. It's too bad he doesn't have access to recover, as that makes him a lot easier to KO, compared to my Arceus. At this point, my 6-Arceus team only has one Arceus left. Groudon can KO Ho-oh and Diancie with his moves, set up Stealth Rocks, and Rest off any damage. Too bad he gets 3HKO'd by a lot of moves. It makes him reliant on Clefable support, and pretty hard to switch in.

I decided to go back to this team, because I realized that Groudon got 3HKO'd by way too many things, lol. I tried Chansey, Ferrothorn, and even Latias until finally settling for Arceus again.

Team Overlook

RNG Plate (Arceus) @ Iron Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Judgment
- Earth Power
- Recover

I had a bulkier set on him, until I realized that winning speed ties against other Arceus was important, along with outspeeding Rayquaza-Mega. Other than that, the set is simple. Once Ho-oh is gone, this guy sweeps.

RNG Plate (Arceus) @ Leftovers
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 204 HP / 176 Def / 40 SpD / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Recover
- Toxic
- Roar

I tried SO MANY THINGS. I found this guy to serve this role the best. If you want to get rid of any of the Pokemon in this team, you should probably replace this one, however. Speed EV to outspeed neutral base 99s.

Sweet Dreams (Darkrai) @ Leftovers
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 220 HP / 36 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk (3 Attack IV if running HP Steel)
- Dark Void
- Dark Pulse
- Substitute
- Taunt/Hidden Power [Steel]/Nasty Plot

This guy, Darkrai, is definitely broken. Fits well in pretty much any team, with little support. I specifically chose taunt, as I found that it made it easier to set up on Pokemon like Blissey, and it would shut down Pokemon trying to use Sleep Talk. The HP EV allows it to gain maximum leftovers recovery, and avoid the 2HKO from non-boosted E-speeds in the tier.

Phoenix (Ho-Oh) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 244 HP / 216 Def / 48 SpD
Impish Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird
- Toxic
- Recover

I tweaked the EVs since then, but the set remains the same as the one from Exiline's team. I just couldn't care for the speed creep, and preferred the Defense points. Sacred Fire + Toxic is just very good. This thing can poison the opposing Ho-oh and Recover to stall it to death, Sacred Fire and KO Arceus-Steel, or land a Sacred Fire on the switch in and burn Diancie, providing this team multiple wincons. It is a problem if there are Stealth Rocks on my field, however.

Spoopy (Giratina) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 220 HP / 216 Def / 72 SpD
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Defog
- Dragon Tail
- Rest

This thing was inspired after playing a battle with Zangooser, iirc. I gave Giratina enough EV to get maximum recovery from Leftovers, and 216 EV to get the most out of Impish Nature. I ran Dragon Tail in order to avoid those annoying Magic Coat Arceus. Also, screw Sleep Talk. Pressure is really good in AG, as moves like Sacred Fire which has little PPs. Moves like Toxic and Will-o-Wisp are easy to stall out, too.

MVP (Clefable) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 212 HP / 80 Def / 216 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Aromatherapy
- Moonblast

This thing is so useful. It's another set borrowed from Exiline. This set gives me optimal Leftovers recovery. It can stall out things like Xerneas and E-Killers, what more do you want? It can even afford to be hit with crits, depending on the situation. Aromatherapy is a must for my team, and Moonblast is used to KO Xerneas and Arceus.

Team Import/Export

RNG Plate (Arceus) @ Iron Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Judgment
- Earth Power
- Recover

RNG Plate (Arceus) @ Leftovers
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 204 HP / 176 Def / 40 SpD / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Recover
- Toxic
- Roar

Sweet Dreams (Darkrai) @ Leftovers
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 220 HP / 36 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Void
- Dark Pulse
- Substitute
- Taunt

Phoenix (Ho-Oh) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 244 HP / 216 Def / 48 SpD
Impish Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird
- Toxic
- Recover

Spoopy (Giratina) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 220 HP / 216 Def / 72 SpD
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Defog
- Dragon Tail
- Rest

MVP (Clefable) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 212 HP / 80 Def / 216 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
- Moonblast

Threat List

S Rank
Diancie-Mega
Kyogre
Kyogre-Primal
Groudon-Primal (With Eruption)
A Rank
Ho-oh
Darkrai
Mewtwo (With Taunt)
Rayquaza-Mega
B Rank
Arceus (With Magic Coat)
Arceus (With Calm Mind)
Arceus (With Life Orb)

 

[flowre]

Great team, Sage. The only thing I would change is Precipice Blades for Earthquake on Groudon because that thing misses so much. The rest looks nice, maybe a little weak to Darkrai, but it seems to be less used now. Congrats!

 

[hexandwhy]

Great team, Sage. The only thing I would change is Precipice Blades for Earthquake on Groudon because that thing misses so much. The rest looks nice, maybe a little weak to Darkrai, but it seems to be less used now. Congrats!

It sure is a good thing that I haven't fought a decent Darkrai user in ages. Also, will consider the EQ. I need to see if it does enough damage. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Mq]

Hi,Awesome team you got there.
And for threats i think M Gengar And Kyogre wrecks your team and use this website for sprite that actually "move" http://www.pokestadium.com/tools/sprites

 

[hexandwhy]

Hi,Awesome team you got there.
And for threats i think M Gengar And Kyogre wrecks your team and use this website for sprite that actually "move" http://www.pokestadium.com/tools/sprites

I will definitely add both Pokemon. M Gengar is less of a threat now, I guess, but it can still beat almost all of my Pokemon, if they are even slightly injured. The threat list will be added some time later. Thanks for the website.

 

[MZ]

Hey hexandwhy. First off you should know that your tea doesn't actually meet the RMT standards thanks to its lacking descriptions and can be locked. However, it's clearly a competent and full team so I'm gonna still rate it. Now I'm not quite sure how you got a semistall team from Arceus spam, but I think there's a few cases of optimization that could go on here. You're more focused on a stall setup, but with two rest users reliant on Clefable's mediocre bulk and no magic guard to keep them healthy that's not really an effective strategy imo.

First of all, I think it's pretty clear that Diancie is just a massive threat to this team, your best switch takes 40 something % and has to recover as it switches out. Sludge Bomb Darkrai variants also put a massive dent in this team, and strong setup mons that don't actually lose to Clefable (SD groudon, CM ogre) are basically only checked by sleeping them. Honestly Gira is a huge momentum suck that only provides Defog for bulky Ho-oh, which I'm not quite sure why you're running anyway. You're mostly beating CM Arceus variants, which you already beat easily. I'm changing it on the basis that I can't figure out what you actually need it for even after looking up and down VR, although if I'm missing something it actually helps with then this could be totally flawed.

So after a few paragraphs, I think running a more standard Choice Band Ho-oh variant ought to help you out. Gives you more offensive pressure in a tier where semi-stall really suffers while also providing you a bulky Sleep Talk user for Darkrai and keeping the CM arc check. Now on Clefable, I think you'd just get more out of Toxic over Aromatherapy, as it still helps stall out CM Arc forms and cripple other stuff. Giratina is basically there just to Defog and check Ekiller, so how about bulky Arceus-Ghost instead? It's not so rest reliant and also provides some more speed while removing a fairy weakness for Diancie to abuse.

Finally I really don't like the Darkrai set, bulky variants are just so weak and unreliable at beating Ekiller as they can't really switch into lum. You'd benefit more from a max special attack variant, and I think in the last slot Sludge Bomb gives you extra insurance versus fairies, especially more vs diancie. After these you'll still have some difficulty with random threats, but I think they solve the major issues without changing too much, and it's still a very solid team.

 

[hexandwhy]

Hey hexandwhy. First off you should know that your tea doesn't actually meet the RMT standards thanks to its lacking descriptions and can be locked. However, it's clearly a competent and full team so I'm gonna still rate it. Now I'm not quite sure how you got a semistall team from Arceus spam, but I think there's a few cases of optimization that could go on here. You're more focused on a stall setup, but with two rest users reliant on Clefable's mediocre bulk and no magic guard to keep them healthy that's not really an effective strategy imo.

First of all, I think it's pretty clear that Diancie is just a massive threat to this team, your best switch takes 40 something % and has to recover as it switches out. Sludge Bomb Darkrai variants also put a massive dent in this team, and strong setup mons that don't actually lose to Clefable (SD groudon, CM ogre) are basically only checked by sleeping them. Honestly Gira is a huge momentum suck that only provides Defog for bulky Ho-oh, which I'm not quite sure why you're running anyway. You're mostly beating CM Arceus variants, which you already beat easily. I'm changing it on the basis that I can't figure out what you actually need it for even after looking up and down VR, although if I'm missing something it actually helps with then this could be totally flawed.

So after a few paragraphs, I think running a more standard Choice Band Ho-oh variant ought to help you out. Gives you more offensive pressure in a tier where semi-stall really suffers while also providing you a bulky Sleep Talk user for Darkrai and keeping the CM arc check. Now on Clefable, I think you'd just get more out of Toxic over Aromatherapy, as it still helps stall out CM Arc forms and cripple other stuff. Giratina is basically there just to Defog and check Ekiller, so how about bulky Arceus-Ghost instead? It's not so rest reliant and also provides some more speed while removing a fairy weakness for Diancie to abuse.

Finally I really don't like the Darkrai set, bulky variants are just so weak and unreliable at beating Ekiller as they can't really switch into lum. You'd benefit more from a max special attack variant, and I think in the last slot Sludge Bomb gives you extra insurance versus fairies, especially more vs diancie. After these you'll still have some difficulty with random threats, but I think they solve the major issues without changing too much, and it's still a very solid team.

Wait, what requirements am I missing? Still new to this thing. But I will try all of those things you mentioned on an alt to see if it works, and give you feedback on it later.

 

[Josh]

Wait, what requirements am I missing? Still new to this thing. But I will try all of those things you mentioned on an alt to see if it works, and give you feedback on it later.

You need a minimum of around 3 lines of text describing each Pokemon, you only have 1-2.

Explain the EVs a bit better please. What does that Pdon spread do? 52 SpA and then HP on Darkrai is really weird, what does 52 SpA kill (or what does the HP live)? Same for Ho-oh, Giratina and Clefable.

I'll rate this probably once you've identified that, so I understand the spreads and don't try to optimize them, and a threatlist is ideal to raters as well so we know what we have to attempt to beat.


The team itself is nice. :p

 

[hexandwhy]

You need a minimum of around 3 lines of text describing each Pokemon, you only have 1-2.

Explain the EVs a bit better please. What does that Pdon spread do? 52 SpA and then HP on Darkrai is really weird, what does 52 SpA kill (or what does the HP live)? Same for Ho-oh, Giratina and Clefable.

I'll rate this probably once you've identified that, so I understand the spreads and don't try to optimize them, and a threatlist is ideal to raters as well so we know what we have to attempt to beat.


The team itself is nice. :p

Yeah, for those EVs, I'll write up the calcs later. Thanks. I have a huge threat list, which I also need to write down.

 

[Transcendent God Champion]

Nice team, though I'd personally recommend Toxic over Moonblast on Clefable. Moonblast giving you the possibility of beating Substitute Xerneas may seem appealing, until you realize just how risky it is most of the time, due to the sheer number of times this move needs to be used in order to finally KO a Xerneas, combined with the fact that you would need to use Wish and Protect a few times for every single instance you fire a Moonblast, due to Clefable being heavily pressured by Xerneas's own Moonblast. In other words, out of the countless times Xerneas will be attacking you with Moonblast, all it would take is a single well-timed critical hit for it to get past your Clefable. In respect to that, combined with the fact that Calm Mind and sometimes even Extreme Killer Arceus use Recover and would therefore not mind taking Moonblasts at all, I would say that it is much better to sacrifice the mere possibility of beating Substitute Xerneas for a move that is more reliable in pretty much every other situation, especially since the rest of your team in general deals with Xerneas very well anyway.

 

[hexandwhy]

Nice team, though I'd personally recommend Toxic over Moonblast on Clefable. Moonblast giving you the possibility of beating Substitute Xerneas may seem appealing, until you realize just how risky it is most of the time, due to the sheer number of times this move needs to be used in order to finally KO a Xerneas, combined with the fact that you would need to use Wish and Protect a few times for every single instance you fire a Moonblast, due to Clefable being heavily pressured by Xerneas's own Moonblast. In other words, out of the countless times Xerneas will be attacking you with Moonblast, all it would take is a single well-timed critical hit for it to get past your Clefable. In respect to that, combined with the fact that Calm Mind and sometimes even Extreme Killer Arceus use Recover and would therefore not mind taking Moonblasts at all, I would say that it is much better to sacrifice the mere possibility of beating Substitute Xerneas for a move that is more reliable in pretty much every other situation, especially since the rest of your team in general deals with Xerneas very well anyway.

Thanks for the tip, and I'll definitely try it out, but my Clefable's Moonblast is one of my only safe answers against taunt Yveltal... In a serious matter, I used this move only a few times, but it really has served me well. The fact that Ho-oh forces so many switches and has access to Toxic means that spreading status isn't really a problem for me. (I hope people don't use Heatran in AG) I don't really switch this guy in early game, and in the late game, the chip damage usually comes incredibly handy. Like I already said, I'll try Toxic out, but I don't really see myself changing my moveset.

 

[HunterStorm]

Great team, Sage. Can't figure out any big holes in it. LO mewtwo seems one to come straight to mind. Taunt-SE MMX could be another. The threat list shouldn't be a big one, though.
If there's one thing that bugs me, it's gira's overly passive set. Best defensive wall in the game, indeed, but it often slows down the momentum for you in the fast paced meta. That being said, I haven't seen many others use a stall-based team as well as you have in AG.

 

[hexandwhy]

Great team, Sage. Can't figure out any big holes in it. LO mewtwo seems one to come straight to mind. Taunt-SE MMX could be another. The threat list shouldn't be a big one, though.
If there's one thing that bugs me, it's gira's overly passive set. Best defensive wall in the game, indeed, but it often slows down the momentum for you in the fast paced meta. That being said, I haven't seen many others use a stall-based team as well as you have in AG.

This team shut down balanced teams and make it seem as if it is Stall vs Stall. Against hyper offensive teams, yes, I do struggle. Good thing nobody in top tier, other than you, uses hyper offensive. Well, thanks.