Breaking Down the VGC Metagame MK. II

[Greyfeld]

Some have you have really given me a lot of info in my other "Breaking down the VGC Metagame" thread, and it's helping me immensely. But now I would like to focus on another part of the metagame. I would like to take a look at leads.

I think most people would agree that the leads on any team are the most important two slots to the metagame. These are usually the pokemon that have the moves needed to set up for the rest of the match. Trick Room, Fake Out, Taunt, Dark Void, Trick, etc. The first part of ruining somebody's match is ruining, or nullifying, their lead setup. So, I would like to take a look at the most common, dangerous, or powerful lead pairs in the current meta.

This list is going to include pokemon pairings, opening strategies, and move lists. It's going to start small, with my limited knowledge of the meta, so anybody who can add more information would be greatly appreciated. Just like in the last thread, this information is for my own personal use, but anybody else who wants to use the info is free to do so.

Smeargle/Dialga
-Follow Me!
-Trick Room
-Dark Void
This pair opens with Smeargle using Follow Me!, allowing Dialga to set up Trick Room without fear of Fake Out or Taunt. If Smeargle is still alive on the next turn, Dark Void will be incoming to incapacitate your team.

Hitmontop/Kyogre
-Fake Out
-Mach Punch
-Sucker Punch
-Water Spout
Hitmontop ruins your day with Fake Out, either breaking your Focus Sash or just stalling your lead. With Drizzle taking the field, Kyogre winds up a full power Water Spout to deal at least neutral damage to most threats. Mach Punch and Sucker Punch hit hard and fast as priority moves, usually knocking out one of your pokes before they get to move on the second round.

Mewtwo/Abomasnow
-Blizzard
-Taunt
-Grass Knot
-Aura Sphere
This is a common goodstuff lead, and the point is to spam Blizzard while stopping TR with Taunt and weather with Aboma's Snow Warning ability. Dual blizzard is extremely effective, with possible freezes, hitting both opposing pokes, and having a 100% hit rate during a snow storm. Grass Knot is a strong secondary STAB against Kyogre, and Aura Sphere hits major steel threats for neutral or Super Effective damage.


Toxicroak/Palkia
-Spacial Rend
-Fake Out
-Sucker Punch
-Low Kick
-Blizzard
This is a common lead to take advantage of rain, especially opposing Kyogre leads. It's not uncommon to see this backed up with Abomasnow for dual blizzarding against a bad matchup like Sunny Day leads. It can also be a lead for Trick Room, since Palkia can run it just as well as its legendary counterpart and Croak's lower speed and access to priority moves such as Sucker Punch and Fake Out allows it to function well within it. Palkia is really a great partner to deliver weather-oriented Blizzard (if Aboma is a partner in this set), STAB Spacial Rend and sometimes Thunder/Flamethrower/Earth Power depending on whom is in the back.

Infernape/Palkia
-Encore
-Fake Out
-Mach Punch/Close Combat/Low Kick
-Overheat/Heat Wave/Flare Blitz/Flamethrower
-Spacial Rend
The purpose of this pairing is to disrupt the opponent's lead with Fake Out and/or Encore (especially vs. Trick Room) and let Palkia tear into the opponent with Spacial Rend. Since these two have higher speed than average, they tend to be difficult to deal with unless you're using TR or Imprison. Palkia, having higher base speed than most of the legends allowed, make its sweeping capabilities with Infernape fairly powerful when coupled with Infernape's decent typing and speed. Also, this combo comes with high Atk/SpA stats for mixed attacking.

Metagross/Giratina
-Explosion
-protect
-shadow force
This lead is a bit more malleable than the others, in that Metagross and Giratina aren't necessarily the lead, but are probably one of the most common pair. The tactic behind this is to Explode to take out both opponent's lead pokemon ASAP, taking advantage of ghost-type immunity to Normal attacks, then getting a free switch in for a sweeper. Other popular exploders are Shiftry, Snorlax, Lickylicky and Regirock. Also, some combinations involve using a non-ghost pokemon with Protect in order to avoid collateral damage.

Giratina(scarf)/infernape
-shadow force
-Fake Out
-earthquake/safeguard/earthpower
-shadow sneak
-dragon claw
Typical Infernape paired with Jolly/Hasty Giratina. 'Nape Fakes Out, buying Gira time to Shadow Force. With the recent introduction of toxic Blissey in the metagame, Safeguard has become more common. This lead pair has become more popular of late to combat TopOgre.

 

[Dimsun]

I'd like to add:

Mewtwo/Abomasnow
-Blizzard
-Taunt
-Grass Knot
-Aura Sphere
This is a common goodstuff lead, and the point is to spam Blizzard while stopping TR with Taunt and weather with Aboma. Its a real threat because dual blizzard is extremely effective, with possible freezes, and super effective damage on alot of the ubers. This is one of the reasons Groudon/Zapdos can be hindered, and one of the many reason people don't like to put ice weak pokemon on their team.

 

[Oberon]

There are a couple other somewhat common leads, but not nearly as lethal as Ogre/Top, Aboma/Two or Dialga/Smeargle. But still I see these quite a lot. Especially the first one.

Toxicroak/Palkia
- Spacial Rend
- Fake Out
- Sucker Punch
- Low Kick
This is a really commonly seen lead for rain dance. It can also be common for those that are Hail/Rain as well (switching out croak for Aboma and blizzard spamming). It can also be a lead for Trick Room, since Palkia can be seen with it and Croak's lower speed and access to priority BP, Sucker Punch and Fake Out allows it to function well within it. Palkia is really a great partner to deliver weather-oriented Blizzard (if Aboma is a partner in this set), 150 power Spacial Rend and sometimes Thunder/Flamethrower/Earth Power depending on whom is in the back.

Infernape/Palkia
- Encore
- Fake Out
- Mach Punch
- Spacial Rend
With Infernape having access to some really potent moves, and since it usually has a 'Sash, it can sometimes decimate an opponents team if they aren't careful in disposing of it quickly or setting up TR as soon as possible. Palkia can serve a number of functions for this, be it TR or goodstuffs as mentioned above. It can be a lead pair for Goodstuffs with Giratina, Metagross and Aboma making nice partners (to name a few).

 

[Greyfeld]

Darkwatch, do you think you could elaborate a little bit more on the nape/palkia setup? I'd like info on how you would most likely see the lead start off in the first 1-2 rounds, and what the opponent should especially look out for when facing them.

 

[Oberon]

Sure, here is a more detailed version. I missed a few things I guess. lol

Infernape/Palkia
- Encore
- Fake Out
- Mach Punch/Close Combat/Low Kick
- Spacial Rend
Infernape and Palkia is a somewhat common lead pair. The purpose of this is typically disrupt the opponent from setting up TR (or disrupt in general) and let Palkia hit it hard or hit the other partner the opponent has very hard. Since these two have higher speed than average, they tend to be difficult to deal with unless you're using TR or Imprison. Palkia, having higher base speed than most of the legends allowed, make its sweeping capabilities with Infernape very well when coupled with Infernape's decent typing and also nice speed and Atk/SpA stats for mixed attacking. Encore is there for a similar purpose of disrupting the opponents attempts at setting up.

Hope that works a bit better.

 

[Greyfeld]

Much appreciated.

For the record, I hope nobody is offended, but I'm taking liberty in doing a bit of rewording with some of these descriptions, to try to keep them concise and easy to understand even for newbies.

 

[Oberon]

yeah with my descriptions that might be necessary lol

 

[Greyfeld]

lol not an issue. just make sure you correct me if I misunderstand your description and write something different than you intended. Or I missed something important.

 

[Dimsun]

Your rewordings were much better. Thanks :D

 

[Charistopher]

Nice compilation of leads. I'd only think to add:

Exploder/Ghost usually Metagross/Giratina, Gengar
-Explosion
-doesn't effect ghost
-protect
-shadow force

Really what i did is memorize every poke that could learn explosion and use it viably and if i ever saw it i was cautious. The hardest part is figuring out when the exploder will go boom, which can really make or break the match. My friend lost 1st round because he got taken down by a exploder team consisting of Hippowdon, Solrock, Regirock, and ???. He never saw Regirock's or Solrock's explosion coming. My main defense against explosion was every poke on my team had protect 1st off, then i also had Giratina-O on my team. My first match i faced a Metagross whom i barely stopped from exploding, i think i had to fake it out 1st turn, and his mewtwo used protect... so i assumed i stopped it and then i KOed it b4 he had another chance.

 

[Greyfeld]

Still looking for more lead info. /bump

 

[Cannonfodder]

Giratina(choice scarf)------infernape(sash)
-shadow force
-earthquake/safeguard/earthpower
-shadow sneak
-dragon claw

typical fakeout infernape lead with scarfed giratina-either hasty or jolly. This way infernape can either fake out or protect while giratina disappears before anything can hit it. safeguard is new do to all the toxic stalling (blissey) that has been happening lately. The move sets have already been talked about, but these two as a lead have been more popular, especially in Newark to combat toporge. Giratina can take water and infernape is a faster fake outer......

 

[Greyfeld]

Giratina(choice scarf)------infernape(sash)
-shadow force
-earthquake/safeguard/earthpower
-shadow sneak
-dragon claw

typical fakeout infernape lead with scarfed giratina-either hasty or jolly. This way infernape can either fake out or protect while giratina disappears before anything can hit it. safeguard is new do to all the toxic stalling (blissey) that has been happening lately. The move sets have already been talked about, but these two as a lead have been more popular, especially in Newark to combat toporge. Giratina can take water and infernape is a faster fake outer......

lol that's interesting, because i recently came up with this combo myself without knowing about its popularity... sans the scarf.

 

[magickzzl]

I have to say, the leads I used made me very happy, i just need to get my skills up to par-

Giratina(G-Orb)
DClaw
EQ
Shadow Force
Protect

Weavile(focas sash)
Taunt
FO
Night Slash
Ice Shard

Im not sure I used them the most approprietly, but I would FO/Protect first turn, then procede to mostly DClaw/Shadow Force and Ice Shard my way through. With weavile getting priority and being sashed she lasted an insane amount of time in the game, especially since I had kinda written her off as a Pseudo Suicide

 

[JRank]

I have to say, the leads I used made me very happy, i just need to get my skills up to par-

Giratina(G-Orb)
DClaw
EQ
Shadow Force
Protect

Weavile(focas sash)
Taunt
FO
Night Slash
Ice Shard

Im not sure I used them the most approprietly, but I would FO/Protect first turn, then procede to mostly DClaw/Shadow Force and Ice Shard my way through. With weavile getting priority and being sashed she lasted an insane amount of time in the game, especially since I had kinda written her off as a Pseudo Suicide

Ya at Dallas I expected that Weavile would be the first to die in every battle but most people would just activate the sash and then forget about him while he wreaked havoc. He was really my MVP of the tourney.

 

[Oberon]

I would suggest a ludi/kyogre explanation. I cant do it at the moment though.

EDIT: Okay, hopefully this helps a bit.

Ludicolo/Kyogre
-Fake Out
-Water Spout
-Thunder
-Grass Knot
The set is effectively a pure Rain Dance strategy in terms of the leads. Ludicolo in the rain with Fake Out pretty much always goes first, disrupting the opponent, with either Water Spout or Thunder right behind it from Kyogre. Nothing too special with the set.