Other Metagames GEN 8 AG Scarf Kyogre Balance

[Darth Alen]

Hello everyone I am Darth Alen. I have been playing Gen 8 Ag for a month now and I would like to share the team that I have been using to ladder. I call this team Scarf Kyogre Balance. When I first started building I didn't know what I was going to include. After doing some research using the resources here at smogon I knew what Pokemon I wanted in the team. The 6 Pokemon that I wanted to use are the some of the 3 biggest threats and their checks.


Zacian-Crowned @ Rusted Sword
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Behemoth Blade
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge
- Assurance

When building the team I decided to go with an offensive core that included a good special attacker and a good physical attacker. So what better physical attacker than Zacian-c to use. Zacian-c's role is pretty obvious. Its to be a strong physical wallbreaker to break through the opponents walls. Zacian-c is running a pretty standard set with Behemoth blade for dmax pokemon, CC for big damge, Wild charge for dealing with Pokemon like Lugia and Assurance for coverage. Its running the Adamant nature so I can dish out the maximum amount of damage. Evs 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe pretty basic stuff.


Calyrex-Shadow @ Life Orb
Ability: As One (Spectrier)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Astral Barrage
- Draining Kiss
- Substitute

Next up we have Caly-S. When going with offensive core I mentioned before what better Special Attacker to use than Caly-S. Caly-S is more of a late game sweeper than a wallbreaker. After Zacian-C and Kyogre or other Pokemon have taken down the walls of the opponents team Caly-S comes in. After setting up a Substitute and 1 Nasty Plot Caly-S is gonna go crazy on the opponents team. If you took out their Yveltal than Caly-S just sweeps. Almost nothing is faster than Jolly nature Caly-S so your gonna have a great time absolutely crushing your opponent. If you happen to get Caly-S Hp low with life orb or substitute damage don't worry Draining Kiss will heal you up.


Eternatus @ Black Sludge
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 164 SpD / 92 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dynamax Cannon
- Mystical Fire
- Toxic
- Recover

Alright now I had my offensive core. Now I need some defense. Specs Kyogre was a big problem to my team. So I needed a check for it. At first I went with Kyurem-W and don't get me wrong Kyurem-W was ok but I kept losing Hp on it to rock type moves and stealth rocks. If my yveltal was dead and there were still rocks up Kyurem-W would take like a 1/4 of its hp and if it was low hp it would just die. To solve this problem I tested with Etern next. And well Etern had solved the problem to the stealth rocks chip. Not only is does Etern take less damage from stealth rocks and chip it was bulky enough to live orgin pulse or water spout. And So I could freely run Black sludge to get passive healing and recover to make sure Etern never dies to Specs Kyogre. I am running the basic Special defensive set for Etern. Dynamax Cannon To kill Kyogre and do damage. Dynamax Cannon for general damage, Mystical Fire for coverage, Toxic for chip damage and Recover to Etern Alive.


Kyogre @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Water Spout
- Origin Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Thunder

Ok so the team was looking pretty good. Now I wanted Speed Control, sure Caly-S is there. But I wanted something that could tank a hit than proceed to do big damage.
at first I went with Scarf Ditto, I know Scarf Ditto is a very good Pokemon but I wasn't able to switch it in immediately I had to wait till they would go into something like Zacian-C or Caly-S to send Ditto in. But With Scarf Kyogre it's a different story. The second the opponents Kyogre answer is out of the way this thing can come in and do big damage, I can easily survive things like stone edge and earthquake and proceed to do damage with this. So that's why in the end I chose to run Scarf Kyogre.

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Sunsteel Strike
- Earthquake
- Morning Sun

Now NDM is pretty explanatory why it's here. Its here because its the best Zacian-C check in the meta. Its running the basic defensive NDM set with stealth rock for chip damage, Sunsteel Strike for damage Earthquake for coverage and morning sun for healing. Its got rocky helmet for those attackers who get up close and personal. And that's it for NDM


Yveltal @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 248 HP / 72 Def / 188 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 27 Spe
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost

Now we have the final Pokemon of the team and it's Yveltal. Its also pretty explanatory why Yveltal is here. Yveltal is the best Caly-S counter in the meta right now so of course it's here. It's running the default specially defensive set with knock off for good damge and taking away the opponents item, U-turn to get out of sticky situation while doing chip damage, defog to get rid of hazards and finally roost to heal up. Now the reason why I am running 27 IVs for speed is so that in a mirror battle I would be the one getting the slower U-turn so I can see what my opponent switches into and switch accordingly.

That about raps things up. I have been really successful with this team getting a 20 in a row win with no losses ever since I started using this team. Its really good. So I really wanna know what you guys think of it.

 

[Geysers]

Hi! This team looks really solid and well-built, and I have only a few small suggestions to make.
Minor change

set

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Sunsteel Strike
- Earthquake
- Morning Sun

Running a bit of speed on Dusk Mane helps against opposing Dusk Mane that's been heavily chipped, potentially removing it if you were able to hit it with zac a few times. It's not a big thing, but it doesn't hurt and can help occasionally.

While that's the only change that's strictly necessary in my opinion, I think there are a couple of decent optional changes you could make that would improve your team.

Optional Major Change

set

Roll with It (Calyrex-Shadow) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: As One (Spectrier)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Astral Barrage
- Psyshock
- Aromatherapy
- Trick

I think that Choice Scarf Calyrex-S is probably going to be marginally better on this team. As it is, you don't have a lot of great ways to revenge kill stuff. Although Kyogre certainly helps, if something like Geomancy Xerneas gets through your Dusk Mane, the game just ends. Running this should help to give you a chance in that sorta situation while just making setup sweepers more manageable overall. It also lets you potentially cripple opposing Eternatus / Yveltal with Trick, should its speed control services not be needed, which is pretty useful, or it can remove status, which is always nice given how stuff like Eternatus and Yveltal will eventually accumulate Burn or Toxic over the course of a game.

set

Kyogre @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rest
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Scald

I think that Calm Mind Kyogre will help out a lot. Since Calyrex-S is now providing speed control, Kyogre is free to run a bulkier set, which should help to mitigate the otherwise significant threats posed by Groudon and Zygarde, while potentially being able to take advantage of Calyrex-S maybe crippling Eternatus with Trick.

This change (if you change caly, you should change kyogre, and vice versa; don't do one or the other. Either change neither or change both.) should be a very small improvement on your team.

Overall, this looks like a really solid team and I'm glad to hear it's been working well for you. Good luck in your future AG endeavours!
e: fixed messed-up hide tags