Gyro Ball Metagross?

[Madvillain]

Introduction: this team is based around an idea i had of utilizing a pokemon that could learn both Hammer Arm and Gyro Ball, and the ou pokemon i thought would be well-suited for the role was Metagross. The concept is simple: Bring in Metagross on a safe switch and have him fire off a few Hammer Arms, letting his speed drop a couple of stages, and then unload with Gyro Ball. Metagross is the main attraction here, with the other pokes to support it and take out its counters. This team is relatively effective but i have yet to find a good way to put Metagross as the star player, and most of the time other pokes get a majority of the kills. This team is basically a diamond still very much in the rough, so i'll need all the help i can get from you people out there to make it shine.

swoosh (Jirachi) @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 224 SDef / 252 HP / 32 Spd
Careful Nature
- Drain Punch / Ice Punch / Stealth Rock
- Wish
- U-turn
- Iron Head

Common lead. Jirachi's whole purpose of being on this team is to serve as a special wall and pass wishes when needed. I'm having trouble deciding upon a move for that first slot. Ice Punch really only proves useful for dragons or the Landorus-T that overpredicts a switch and sets up rocks first turn. When I run it I usually put 152 EV's into defense to be better suited against offensive sets. Drain Punch allows for additional recover, but adds additional unnecessary fighting-type coverage. Stealth Rocks have come in handy simply because most teams don't run two Stealth Rockers. Offensively, Jirachi is used to counter Alakazam and Gengar, which can normally cause this team problems with their Focus Blast/Shadow Ball combo.

outrage switch-in (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
- Power Whip
- Stealth Rock

Ferrothorn's main job is to set up hazards to make things easier. He's also the main 'mon i use to counter dragon-types. be it special-attacking Hydreignon or Latios, or Mence/Garchomp/outraging whatever. Power Whip handles Gastrodon and Vaporeon with super-effective damage. Has Leech Seed support which comes into play often, and both hazards to set up accordingly. Probably benefits the most from rain more than anything, so will probably go with Politoed upon finding a suitable physical wall replacement.

poliyo (Politoed) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Perish Song
- Rain Dance
- Toxic

Politoed is definitely the weakest link this team has, and is definitely what is gonna have to go first. My thought process with putting him on this team was that he could neutralize Metagross's fire weakness, but after a few test runs it's become apparent that giving an entire team member spot to something just used to set up rain really isn't worth it. Not only because Fire is severally under-represented in the meta, but because not enough of my team benefits offensively from rain, and it opens up chances for metagross to get easily swept by Rotom-W and Keldeo. If Politoed does get taken off this team, it's quite likely that i'll have to switch up the ferrothorn/jirachi combo, since it leaves their fire weaknesses wide open.

Justin (Latios) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Surf / Dragon Pulse
- Psyshock
- Calm Mind
- Thunderbolt

Mid-game sweeper mostly used to eliminate many of Metagross's checks, such as Jellicent and Skarmory. It can also deal with Rotom-W, Keldeo, and most fighting/water types with a CM-boosted Psyshock/thunderbolt respectively, two things that heavily threaten this team. If/when Politoed gets taken off, surf will definitely be replaced by DP so Latios can counter other Dragons, most notably Garchomp with it's threatening STAB Earthquake against Metagross.

meh (Landorus) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Atk
Rash Nature
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stone Edge / U-Turn
- Grass Knot / Focus Blast

My only scarf user and primary revenge killer. Checks most of the dragons this team works to eliminate early on with HP Ice. Earth Power is the primary STAB here and plays its part of hitting any steal type like a truck. The last two move slots i'm still playing with. U-turn is always nice for switch initiative and 4x SE damage to celebi, which this team has a hard time with. Grass Knot is reserved pretty much exclusively for Gastrodon, as again it poses a very big problem as a well to most of this team (especially should Ferrothorn find itself with a nasty burn). Focus Blast seems unnecessary when using U-turn, and as such, only gets used with Stone Edge. Again, I'm open to new ideas for what to use in the last two spaces.

metalface (Metagross) @ Iron Ball
Trait: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 202 Atk / 252 HP / 54 SDef
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Bullet Punch / ThunderPunch
- Gyro Ball
- Hammer Arm
- Zen Headbutt / IcePunch

The big one. On a safe switch Metagross can usually get off 1 or 2 hammer arms, and with help from Iron Ball can devastate anything that doesn't resist it's STAB Gyro Ball. Bullet Punch is a good option for priority no matter how low Metagross's speed gets. The elemental punches can be interchanged with Zen Headbutt to fit appropriate coverage. Once its counters are gone, Metagross can clean house easily. Careful Nature and 54 SpD EV's add generously to Metagross's fair bulk, making him hard to kill in one hit. The additional attack investment is definitely unnecessary, since the boost gyro ball gets from Iron Ball more than makes up for it.
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CONCLUSION: So basically i'm trying to figure out what to replace politoed and ferrothorn with. i'm fairly happy with the way the rest of this team looks, though i'm still more than open to suggestions on how they can be improved. I know this team would make a fair candidate for a trick room team, which i'm definitely willing to try. What would you all suggest?

 

[pwnage77]

on metagross, i suggest you run a brave nature with 204 atk / 52 spdef cause you're wasting 1 point. iron ball won't be of much help here so use leftovers as metagross will die too quickly and hammer arm is already enough to do the job plus the fact that you will be running brave.

for landorus, use a timid nature with the moveset of earth power | hidden power ice | u-turn | focus blast. i don't see how stone edge is of help since you don't have much attack evs and it doesn't really hit anything in specific. earth power already does a lot to gastrodon and focus blast will deal a huge damage to the blobs. hidden power ice rounds off the coverage hitting pokemon resistant or immune to earth power and focus blast. u-turn is for obvious reasons.

latios has one weird moveset and if you really wish a calm mind sweeper (especially since you have a politoed), use keldeo. it has more power in the rain with its water type STAB and isn't scared of tyranitar if it has no boosts. it also resists scizor's CB bullet punch. here's the set

Keldeo@Leftovers | Justified
Timid Nature | 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Calm Mind | Hydro Pump / Surf | Secret Sword | Hidden Power Ice / Electric

 

[Emaias]

Why does your Drizzletoed have rain dance?

 

[Madvillain]

Why does your Drizzletoed have rain dance?

I did that to put an emphasis on the fact that politoed's only job was to set up the rain. Moreover, I used it as a way to aggressively combat sun teams, again trying to combat this team's heavy fire weakness. The idea being that if Ninetales switched into Politoed, it could simply set up a Rain Dance to cancel the sun and take the toxic/burn whatever. If they try to stay in predicting a switch, even better so politoed can wall the fire-type attack. This doesn't work for sand teams with hippowdon and tyranitar, however, but that's not a big deal bc sand doesn't cripple scald's power.

btw this team has been reworked into a trick room team i'll post once it's viable enough to the point where i can't spot obvious flaws. The only set that's the same is metagross's with slight EV redistribution and leftovers.

 

[TransparentOpacity]

On metagross if you run a +atk nature and go 72 evs into attack and 184 into special defense, you actually gain 11 points of special defense, while maintaining the exact same attack stat.

You should also run a -speed nature, since you are trying to make metagross slow.

So go brave nature, and put the evs however you want from there.

 

[pom]

The whole manual weather thing works for Ninetales because it is naturally faster than any of the other Auto Weather setters, and it can Sunny Day before Politoed Scalds or Hydro Pumps it, removing its weakness. For Politoed, it's better to use the slot on coverage or utility. If you're going to go defensive, my favorite Toed set is:

Politoed @ Leftovers
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spd
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Encore / Perish Song