Background about my AG career
I'm known as oosty, and I started playing AG back in January this year after I realized that mega-rayuaza was banned from ubers. It was interesting to see that a Pokemon could be so strong that even ubers does not allow its usage. After reading the showdown page on its stats, I thought I would see how strong this Pokemon was. My first game in AG consisted one mega ray vs. an entire Ubers composition. Not surprisingly, I lost. However, it was to my great surprise that I took down 4 ubers Pokemon with me. It was then where my passion for the insta-OHKO began. From that day on, I played an game of AG almost every day.
Abstract
My team began as six rayquazas but I soon realized that AG still only allowed one Mega Evolution per team, which was really irritating. Normal rayquaza is not only slow, does not hit as hard as its mega evolved counterpart, but has really annoying weaknesses to rock and ice. This was where my inspiration came in. I thought to myself, what pokemon hits really hard, can take a hit, and is super fast? The answer came in the form of deoxys attack.
Reasoning
I noticed that as I climbed up the ladder, the teams were beginning to all look the same. Whether it was a Sage Hane-like Ho-Oh-Giratina stall team or one of those Arceus Spam teams that people like Linear Curve and Black Schatten love to run, I felt that diversity in the ladder was rather uninspiring.
Additionally, 2 people running stall teams can often take between 100-200 moves for a game where the victor is usually the one with the most luck or PP!!! I felt that even for such a fun game like AG, wasting thirty minutes of your life pressing the recover button does not seem gratuitous or worthwhile.
After I began using my team, I noticed that I almost never had a match over the 50 turn range. In fact, the average for my team is around 20-25 moves before one team runs out of members. In my mind, this actually made the game more fun, as the winner gets to demonstrate his or her skill not by grinding to a slow victory, but key predictions and decisions that massively swing the game dynamics.
Team composition
My team evolved as i progressed up the ladder, and this is its current state-
Anna Karenina (Deoxys-Attack) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Focus Blast
- Ice Beam
- Psycho Boost
Lolita (Deoxys-Attack) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Focus Blast
- Ice Beam
- Extreme Speed
- Psycho Boost
Ulysses (Deoxys-Attack) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab
- Extreme Speed
- Low Kick
Reasoning for the 3 deoxys-A
The 3 Deoxys-A form the core of my team. Here are the 2 main reasons why they are so viable:
Moby Dick (Rayquaza-Mega) @ Life Orb
Ability: Air Lock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Ascent
- Draco Meteor
- Extreme Speed
- V-create
Mega Rayquaza serves to function as a slower but bulkier sweeper than deoxys-A. It is arguably more useful due to its moveset and should be treated to a slightly higher degree of importance than a deoxys. As this is a mixed LO ray, no set up is necessary, which is really nice as the AG tier has adapted around the dragon dance rayquaza with klefki and bulky phazers. Dragon Ascent is its go to move for Primal Kyogre (usually an OHKO) and other pokemon with bad physical defences. However, I feel that draco meteor should be the first move used instead. Draco meteor deals almost the same damage as dragon ascent and hits many pokemon such as primal groudon much harder (80%). Additionally, it keeps rayquaza's bulk intact for those pesky extreme killer arceus (which only need one or 2 dragon ascents to finish rayquaza off w. extreme speed). Extreme speed is a hard hitting priority move for revenge tactics (as if this team is not already fast enough) and V-create is a harder hitting alternative to earthquake. Note that V-create almost always means a switch out next turn as it critically reduces your speed. If your opponent is cognizant of that, try out predicting them with another huge hit instead.
(sorry I couldn't find a gif)
Hamlet (Arceus-Rock) @ Stone Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Judgment
- Defog
- Calm Mind
- Magic Coat
Now the question that must have popped up by now is how this team will deal with entry hazards. Indeed, the offensive core of this team is so reliant on a cleared battlefield that I have only around a 5% win rate against a good player once my defoggers are taken out. To prevent this from happing, I have two of them. Arceus rock covers deoxys' weaknesses surprisingly well. It tanks extreme speeds from arceus normal and mega rayquaza. It devastates yveltal and skarmory and the HUGE threat of Ho-oh to deoxys is reduced to 0 as long as this guy is up. Judgement paves the way to a cheap sweep as they are switching out and magic coat is the surprise factor for darkrais and klefkis who do not think ahead. A fast defog can often salvage a game and it had indeed done so for me many times for me.
Lord Jim (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Calm Nature
- Toxic
- Defog
- Whirlwind
- Roost
This pokemon is in many ways, the keystone of this team. I mentioned earlier that any team is a balance of offence and defence, and skarmory provides almost as much defence as a deoxys provides offence. Prevalent threats in AG such as mega rayquaza and arceus normal are almost completely walled by this guy, who can also phaze troublesome sweepers and stall physical attackers out with roost+toxic. As a measure of its success, a +4 LO extreme speed from arceus normal only does between 60-70% dmg. Skarmory heals 56% every turn from leftovers and roost. Therefore, if the opponent is under toxic, skarmory out sustains its dmg and removes a viable threat from the match. However, if there ever comes a situation where you feel that skarmory has only one move left to make before it goes down, defog is the button that you should press. None of the other tasks a skarmory does is as unique as its defog, and it is many times that the skarmory was protected instead of a deoxys. However, when used right, skarmory can provide as much if not more to the team than any individual deoxys.
Threats and Weaknesses
No team is perfect, and this team is far from that. Below is a list of threats that can really ruin this team's day.
This team when used correctly can easily get you to number one in the AG ladder. I was never a good pokemon player and how i know is because i never got over 1500 in OU, a ladder that I consider to be much more difficult than AG (please do not take offence, this is my personal opinion and I am saying that I am a bad player, not you). Yet I see that there is huge potential for this team as not only fun, quick and innovative but a real contender to the AG stage.
Umm... i really don't keep a lot of replays but here are some examples of games that were quickly and efficiently finished:
I also show losses in order to reveal the weaknesses of this team and some of these replays were so old that my team was different back then :(
Vs. T-hunter Storm
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-343978995
Vs. Primal Box
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-343709586
Vs. Linear Curve
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-328850853
Vs. Blaze8437
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-325874020
Vs. DontStealMyPenguin
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-320294682
IU is my alt account and favourite K-pop star :)
Conclusion
I noticed at the higher parts of the ladder that AG is really more of a place where close friends test teams on each other. I never really belonged to AG and was never treated more than a mere outsider. Additionally, maintaining a high rank in AG is exhaustive to say the least with a win giving around 5 points and a loss around -40 !! I decided that I should focus in on my studies and therefore am leaving Showdown for the conceivable future. I had decided long ago that I would share anything notable before I leave and this page is my first and probably only attempt at doing so. Forgive me if I sounded cocky, assuming or made any errors in this page- I swear that I only wished to share my experiences and not insult any people. If I made any mistakes, I had already said that I was a low skilled player and ask for your forgiveness in tolerating this .All of the above is merely my opinion. I had a great time playing in AG and hope that this metagame continues to grow in diversity in the future.
With Regards
Oosty
" The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
Robert Frost.
I'm known as oosty, and I started playing AG back in January this year after I realized that mega-rayuaza was banned from ubers. It was interesting to see that a Pokemon could be so strong that even ubers does not allow its usage. After reading the showdown page on its stats, I thought I would see how strong this Pokemon was. My first game in AG consisted one mega ray vs. an entire Ubers composition. Not surprisingly, I lost. However, it was to my great surprise that I took down 4 ubers Pokemon with me. It was then where my passion for the insta-OHKO began. From that day on, I played an game of AG almost every day.
Abstract
My team began as six rayquazas but I soon realized that AG still only allowed one Mega Evolution per team, which was really irritating. Normal rayquaza is not only slow, does not hit as hard as its mega evolved counterpart, but has really annoying weaknesses to rock and ice. This was where my inspiration came in. I thought to myself, what pokemon hits really hard, can take a hit, and is super fast? The answer came in the form of deoxys attack.
Reasoning
I noticed that as I climbed up the ladder, the teams were beginning to all look the same. Whether it was a Sage Hane-like Ho-Oh-Giratina stall team or one of those Arceus Spam teams that people like Linear Curve and Black Schatten love to run, I felt that diversity in the ladder was rather uninspiring.
Additionally, 2 people running stall teams can often take between 100-200 moves for a game where the victor is usually the one with the most luck or PP!!! I felt that even for such a fun game like AG, wasting thirty minutes of your life pressing the recover button does not seem gratuitous or worthwhile.
After I began using my team, I noticed that I almost never had a match over the 50 turn range. In fact, the average for my team is around 20-25 moves before one team runs out of members. In my mind, this actually made the game more fun, as the winner gets to demonstrate his or her skill not by grinding to a slow victory, but key predictions and decisions that massively swing the game dynamics.
Team composition
My team evolved as i progressed up the ladder, and this is its current state-
Anna Karenina (Deoxys-Attack) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Focus Blast
- Ice Beam
- Psycho Boost
Lolita (Deoxys-Attack) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Focus Blast
- Ice Beam
- Extreme Speed
- Psycho Boost
Ulysses (Deoxys-Attack) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab
- Extreme Speed
- Low Kick
Reasoning for the 3 deoxys-A
The 3 Deoxys-A form the core of my team. Here are the 2 main reasons why they are so viable:
- Smogon used the term "microscopic" when referring to the defensive stats of an deoxys attack. This is completely true. From personal experience I can tell you that a defensive dragon tail from a phazing lugia will OHKO a deoxys attack. Indeed, in a typical ubers game, its use is rather limited to a weaker form of stealth rock lead or a suicide lead. Yet as AG allows for the same item to be used repetitively, I slowly came to realization of the potential a deoxys has as long as it is at full health. I gave all my deoxys a focus sash so that realistically, they would need 2 hits to go down, not one. This difference is HUGE for a deoxys. Additionally, the huge speed of an deoxys means that short of mega mewtwo Y, ninjask, deoxys -S and other deoxys-A, NOTHING can outspend it (unboosted). This essentially means that a deoxys attack (generally) gets 3 opportunities to attack to opponent's pokemon before it goes down. This is actually on par with the majority of the offensive metagame.
- I have had the opportunities to play against deoxys attack and I can personally tell you the horror of tanking three hits from a deoxys attack. Armed with an astounding 180 base attack and special attack, it has the same offensive stats as a mega rayquaza with an arguably much stronger move pool. A deoxys-a has the ability to OHKO at least 50% of the AG metagame and 2HKO 40%. If you do not believe me, here are some examples garnered from hundreds of deoxys games. My physical deoxys attack OHKOs all (except the super rare max def + hp) darkrai with one low kick, which is a massive AG threat at no cost to itself. Offensive extreme killer arceus are disappointed to find that on the turn that they switch in or swords dance, they often lose between 80-90% of their hp by the same move. Extreme speed finishes the deal and thus prevents it from even making a move. Poison jab/meteor mash pretty much decimates any fairy type available. This makes a deoxys attack a perfect counter to a sweeping geomancy xerneas, send it in, tank a hit using focus sash while doing around 70% with poison jab and finish it off next turn with a quick extreme speed. Non-defensive forms of primal kyogre get 2HKOd by low kick and knock off pretty much 0HKOs/2HKOs anything else that dares to switch in to a deoxys without knowing its set. Yet the physical form of deoxys actually pales in comparison to the special deoxys. Focus blast OHKO's (so much I can't even list them out) darkrai, and pretty much dooms arceus rock, steel, and normal (they take anywhere from 65-90% based on evs and nature). Ice beam wrecks Yveltal, mega rayquaza, skarmory, mega salamence and pretty much anything that flies. And as a finale, Psycho-boost acts as an a one bullet shotgun that does massive dmg to any pokemon that cannot be 2HKOed by the first two moves. Non resistant forms of Arceus looses between 60%-90% of their hp after a psycho boost. Other top tier AG threats such as a xerneas before it uses geomancy and mega rayquaza are put within the extreme speed KO range after that move. Yet the most preferred target for a psycho boost is actually a primal groudon. Primal groudon is a massive issue in AG, whether it is the bulky stall type or the rock polish sweep type. I have found that for most players under 1700, primal groudon is their go-to lead. This is VERY bad for them bc one single psychoboost OHKOs the offensive variant and 2OHKOs the defensive variant. Which means that you are sacking your most formidable wall/sweeper for nothing more than usually a stealth rock and stat drop. I can keep going on forever about doexys attack's propensity for blowing up all sorts of pokemon, but it would take up too much space. In conclusion to the second benefit, giving 3 opportunities for a deoxys attack to hit other pokemon can lead to anywhere between 1-6 of the opponent's team fainting. The profundity of this situation is compounded by the fact that there is 3 deoxys-attacks!!! Each of them have at least 2-3 guaranteed opportunities to hit the opponent. Enough said.
Moby Dick (Rayquaza-Mega) @ Life Orb
Ability: Air Lock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Ascent
- Draco Meteor
- Extreme Speed
- V-create
Mega Rayquaza serves to function as a slower but bulkier sweeper than deoxys-A. It is arguably more useful due to its moveset and should be treated to a slightly higher degree of importance than a deoxys. As this is a mixed LO ray, no set up is necessary, which is really nice as the AG tier has adapted around the dragon dance rayquaza with klefki and bulky phazers. Dragon Ascent is its go to move for Primal Kyogre (usually an OHKO) and other pokemon with bad physical defences. However, I feel that draco meteor should be the first move used instead. Draco meteor deals almost the same damage as dragon ascent and hits many pokemon such as primal groudon much harder (80%). Additionally, it keeps rayquaza's bulk intact for those pesky extreme killer arceus (which only need one or 2 dragon ascents to finish rayquaza off w. extreme speed). Extreme speed is a hard hitting priority move for revenge tactics (as if this team is not already fast enough) and V-create is a harder hitting alternative to earthquake. Note that V-create almost always means a switch out next turn as it critically reduces your speed. If your opponent is cognizant of that, try out predicting them with another huge hit instead.
(sorry I couldn't find a gif)
Hamlet (Arceus-Rock) @ Stone Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Judgment
- Defog
- Calm Mind
- Magic Coat
Now the question that must have popped up by now is how this team will deal with entry hazards. Indeed, the offensive core of this team is so reliant on a cleared battlefield that I have only around a 5% win rate against a good player once my defoggers are taken out. To prevent this from happing, I have two of them. Arceus rock covers deoxys' weaknesses surprisingly well. It tanks extreme speeds from arceus normal and mega rayquaza. It devastates yveltal and skarmory and the HUGE threat of Ho-oh to deoxys is reduced to 0 as long as this guy is up. Judgement paves the way to a cheap sweep as they are switching out and magic coat is the surprise factor for darkrais and klefkis who do not think ahead. A fast defog can often salvage a game and it had indeed done so for me many times for me.
Lord Jim (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Calm Nature
- Toxic
- Defog
- Whirlwind
- Roost
This pokemon is in many ways, the keystone of this team. I mentioned earlier that any team is a balance of offence and defence, and skarmory provides almost as much defence as a deoxys provides offence. Prevalent threats in AG such as mega rayquaza and arceus normal are almost completely walled by this guy, who can also phaze troublesome sweepers and stall physical attackers out with roost+toxic. As a measure of its success, a +4 LO extreme speed from arceus normal only does between 60-70% dmg. Skarmory heals 56% every turn from leftovers and roost. Therefore, if the opponent is under toxic, skarmory out sustains its dmg and removes a viable threat from the match. However, if there ever comes a situation where you feel that skarmory has only one move left to make before it goes down, defog is the button that you should press. None of the other tasks a skarmory does is as unique as its defog, and it is many times that the skarmory was protected instead of a deoxys. However, when used right, skarmory can provide as much if not more to the team than any individual deoxys.
Threats and Weaknesses
No team is perfect, and this team is far from that. Below is a list of threats that can really ruin this team's day.
- The Swagkey - While easily countered by a taunt, lum berry or magic coat, my team was not built to slowly eke out advantages over the opponent. A Klekfi with good RNG could do massive damage to my composition. The benefit is that short of a few notable exceptions, most players in the 1800+ range are sportsmanlike enough to not depend on RNG to win.
- Arceus ghost - Physical variants are immune to the psychoboost+espeed KO and require at least a full deoxys and the sash of another to defeat. Defensive variants that predict a psychoboost and recover on their first turn are arguably even worse. To counter that, I added the surprising nasty plot to one of my deoxys. I acknowledge that my perspective is limited to the few players that I see in my point range who played me enough to know that leading with arceus ghost both counters skarmory (judgement is an easy 2HKO) and deoxys.
- Sage Hane - If any of you are lucky enough to play this guy and the other guys who copy his team with mine, you are in deep trouble. The biggest issue with his team is that it is extreme stall, and i know realize that there is no such thing as a wallbreaker team that can go through repeats of his ho-oh + giratina wash. Ho-oh is extremely irritating due to regenerator and recover. Essentially, you may bring it down to 30% with a psycho boost but it then switches out the giratina and regains almost all of the hp back with you now at -2 SpA. On rare (and lucky with 4 turn sleep) occasions that I have beaten him, it was not with this team. So far this team has a 0% success rate against his team. However, it is unlikely that you will face against it as the meta has shifted to a more arceus central team comp.
- Choice scarf Genesect - with every u-turn, this pokemon is halving a deoxys' lifespan. Additionally, my entire team is countered by it, either with ice beam for skarmory and rayquaza, iron head for arc. rock and u turn for deoxys. The best way to deal with it is to absorb its hits until it is locked in an unfavourable move with few alternatives to switch to.
- Entry Hazards - A stealth rock not dealt with properly practically ends the game. Make sure that your defogger outlives your opponent's entry hazard setter. This becomes easier to do after practice and most players tend to lead with their entry hazard mon. Counter this with a deoxys and quickly switch to either arceus rock or skarmory to erase its effect.
This team when used correctly can easily get you to number one in the AG ladder. I was never a good pokemon player and how i know is because i never got over 1500 in OU, a ladder that I consider to be much more difficult than AG (please do not take offence, this is my personal opinion and I am saying that I am a bad player, not you). Yet I see that there is huge potential for this team as not only fun, quick and innovative but a real contender to the AG stage.
Umm... i really don't keep a lot of replays but here are some examples of games that were quickly and efficiently finished:
I also show losses in order to reveal the weaknesses of this team and some of these replays were so old that my team was different back then :(
Vs. T-hunter Storm
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-343978995
Vs. Primal Box
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-343709586
Vs. Linear Curve
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-328850853
Vs. Blaze8437
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-325874020
Vs. DontStealMyPenguin
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-320294682
IU is my alt account and favourite K-pop star :)
Conclusion
I noticed at the higher parts of the ladder that AG is really more of a place where close friends test teams on each other. I never really belonged to AG and was never treated more than a mere outsider. Additionally, maintaining a high rank in AG is exhaustive to say the least with a win giving around 5 points and a loss around -40 !! I decided that I should focus in on my studies and therefore am leaving Showdown for the conceivable future. I had decided long ago that I would share anything notable before I leave and this page is my first and probably only attempt at doing so. Forgive me if I sounded cocky, assuming or made any errors in this page- I swear that I only wished to share my experiences and not insult any people. If I made any mistakes, I had already said that I was a low skilled player and ask for your forgiveness in tolerating this .All of the above is merely my opinion. I had a great time playing in AG and hope that this metagame continues to grow in diversity in the future.
With Regards
Oosty
" The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
Robert Frost.
