Other Metagames [gen8AG] Common HO team

[Nateiscool246]

So I made an HO team and asked a few top tier players to rate and got some advice, but now I want to see what you think.

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Steel Beam

Simple Suicide lead that gets your rocks up. Rapid Spin gets away their suicide lead or early setup. Earthquake for main stab and steel beam to get rid of flying types or resists. Fairly simple and unchanged from the original team. Changes can be made but I don't think they will affect it much. I think my main problem with him is not conserving him sometimes.

Calyrex-Shadow @ Life Orb
Ability: As One (Spectrier)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Astral Barrage
- Psyshock
- Draining Kiss
- Nasty Plot

What HO team would this be without the biggest glass canon in the meta. Calyrex is running his common nasty plot set to catch switch-ins and punish non-bulky Yveltals. He is a great late game sweep and one of the easiest conditionals. Sadly the meta is currently revolved around him making Yveltal, his biggest threat, the most used pokemon in the meta. Calyrex can still be used and is still amazing but a lot harder to pull off then a few weeks ago.

Yveltal @ Life Orb
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Oblivion Wing
- Sucker Punch
- Heat Wave

Now the biggest threat himself. This is his Special Attacking set with STAB boosted Dark Pulse and Oblivion Wing for recovery. Sucker Punch takes care of scarfed or maxed Calyrex and Heat Wave takes care of thinks like Ferrothorn (which for some reason has never swapped on my Yeveltal ever), Melmetal, Ocassionly Zacian-C and Necrozma-Dusk-Mane. His biggest fear is rocks and a specially bulky set, which there are a lot of. Yeveltalis very versatile and prevalent and included in most, if not all AG teams. His original set had him running heavy-duty boots, but a player told me to switch to Life Orb.

Zacian-Crowned @ Rusted Sword
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 160 Atk / 96 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Behemoth Blade
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Wild Charge

With the rise of Ditto and Necrozma-Dusk-Mane, Zacian has seen a lot of drops with some players not even using him. HoweverZacian is still a huge threat with Wild Charge threatening Lugia, Ho-oh, and Yveltal. Behemoth Blade is still as powerful as ever, Crunch in case you need to 1v1 a NDM. Crunch was originally Assurance but I changed it recently. Can someone let me know if I want to run assurance over Crunch. The spread may look a little weird but it definitely works in battle.

Zekrom @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Bolt Strike
- Dragon Claw

A little bit of an odd choice but works pretty well. This pokemon is great to fall back on when your opponent still has a Ho-oh or Yveltal and you need to conserve Zacian. Sub + Dragon Dance works incredibly well and used to be even better before a player suggested running Life Orb over Leftovers. Now its less about Sub + DD and more about his sheer damage output. His speed is slow compared to the speed race currently happening but is still a very fast mon that out speeds many others.

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- Moonlight
- Earthquake
- Knock Off

Finally a bit of an interesting pick for HO. This mon was actually suggested to me by Icemaster to run instead of a ditto I had. I works as a ditto counter in itself and also to stop opposing Zacian from their massive damage. This NDM is a little more versatile since I already have a Stealth Rock Setter I can run both Earthquake and Knock Off. The debate I still have is Rocky Helmet or Leftovers, but currently I am running the very prominent Rocky Helmet. He does his job pretty well and I am mostly happy with him, but I do miss ditto.

That's the team and I open to all suggestions no matter if it's a tiny EV change or swapping a whole pokemon out. The only thing I care about is please explain why and have some knowledge about what your talking about. Thank you to anyone who helps!

Team

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Steel Beam

Calyrex-Shadow @ Life Orb
Ability: As One (Spectrier)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Astral Barrage
- Psyshock
- Draining Kiss
- Nasty Plot

Yveltal @ Life Orb
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Oblivion Wing
- Sucker Punch
- Heat Wave

Zacian-Crowned @ Rusted Sword
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 160 Atk / 96 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Behemoth Blade
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Wild Charge

Zekrom @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Bolt Strike
- Dragon Claw

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- Moonlight
- Earthquake
- Knock Off

 

[Geysers]

Hey there! Sorry it took me so long to get to this team. This looks pretty solid, although I find the use of defensive NDM on HO to be really strange. Additionally, I don't like Zacian-C on offense because of just how difficult it is to improof offensively. To that end, I've got two major changes to make here.

Major Changes
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set

Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Thunder
- Substitute

This set really helps to give you more options offensively, notably helping the Zygarde matchup a lot, while also being easy for the rest of your team to imposter-proof. It also helps the matchup against opposing Yveltal, being able to defensively Dynamax in a pinch. The most useful way that this helps, however, is by removing the need to have a defensive Necrozma-DM in the back to protect against being reverse-swept by ditto. As a result, you can now fit another offensive Pokemon on the team, allowing you to keep up the offensive pressure and beat defoggers more reliably than you might otherwise be able to.
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set

Reshiram @ Life Orb
Ability: Turboblaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Outrage
- Flare Blitz

This set is a big unconventional, but I think it would fit well on your team. It's a deadly setup sweeper with very limited switchins and checks, that only loses to ditto. However, Ditto is forced to use Outrage in order to revenge kill Reshiram, which allows Xerneas to setup freely on it. With this addition, you entire team will be imposter-proofed. Calyrex-S will be improofed by Yveltal, which is self-improof and improofed by Xerneas. Zekrom is self-improof thanks to sub, and Xerneas is also self-improof. Reshiram, in turn, is improofed by Xerneas.

Minor Changes

set

Zekrom @ Leftovers
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Bolt Strike
- Dragon Claw

Changing this set to Jolly allows it to outspeed Zacian-C at +1, which is extremely useful. Additionally, running Leftovers allows Zekrom to have significantly more longevity, helping it to improve its setup prospects against staples such as Necrozma-DM or Chansey.

set

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb

Switching Steel Beam for Rock Tomb allows Excadrill to perform better against potential setup sweepers like Dragon Dance Necrozma-DM, slowing it down so that it can be finished off by a teammate without risking a runaway sweeper. This also helps in the matchup against lead Yveltal, which can be kept under control by reducing its speed. While having a way for Excadrill to deny defoggers can be useful, most defoggers are crippled by Rock Tomb regardless, allowing you to click it freely without fearing any potential switchin.

Hopefully my changes help!
here's an importable. (click the sprites to view it)