Welcome all, and settle down, because this is going to be a long read. I really appreciate you coming along to read, since I worked reasonably hard on this team and I know that Anything Goes is not always the easiest of metas to get along with. So, with that being said, let's get into it!
I have always personally felt that Pokemon is not just a game of statistics, and that there's more to battling well than a good grasp of the mathematics behind the game. I have always believed that, more than anything else, chaos, whether or not it comes from creating a set so wildly different than anything else in the meta or simply from playing in an unexpected manner, is the most important factor to winning battles.
It doesn't take an awful lot of skill to win on logic, to win by analyzing battles to a degree where your opponent is see-through, but to truly create a sense of surprise for your opponent can give a massive advantage to your team.
This is what I've mainly tried to do with this team-create sets that may not be especially good, but are simply so unexpected that they receive enough bad plays so as to turn a battle around.
TL;DR-Chaos>Logic
Teambuilding Process:
To start off with, I needed the root of chaos, a Pokemon that could both be viable as well as being unexpected to a degree at which a battle could turn to my favor simply through misplays. Reviewing all of these needs I chose Ho-Oh.
Next up I wanted another Pokemon that was similar to Ho-Oh in that near everyone in the tier played it a certain way, and through changing the way it was played , I could create surprise. Seeing this, I picked Giratina.
Continuing on, I realized the fact that any Ho-Oh user needs reliable hazards control. I chose Latias, mainly because it aids my team defensively and because the Special pressure it provided aided my team.
Next I realized that I had forgotten to add a lead. Seeing as my team had a Defog user I chose to go for a HO lead over a hazard setter. Thus, I chose Rayquaza.
At this stage, I started to realize that my team, once an opponent had set up on me, was extremely weak to a large range of Pokemon, such as Extremekiller Arceus and Dragon Dance M-Ray. As a result, I decided to pick Ditto.
Here I had begun to really look at my team, and figured that I a) already had enough physical pressure on my opponent and b) Giratina didn't provide the sort of physical pressure that I was looking for in the first place. Seeing this, I went back to the drawing board, looking for a Special Attacker that was near always played in the exact same fashion and came up with Xerneas.
Forgive me-I hate myself for doing it, but sometime a team just needs good hax to win, and Klefki is able to almost always turn those hax in my favor. Remembering this, I chose Klefki.
The Team:
Rainbaus(Ho-Oh) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Earthquake
- Sacred Fire
- Sleep Talk
It took me a while to come up with a Ho-Oh set that was both viable and completely unexpected, and I ended up with the above set. I was slightly disappointed about how little I had ended up changing, but when I was testing out the set I found that the speed change was enough to completely upset many teams that were prepared for Ho-Oh's slower sets. The moveset is fairly standard, there are no recovery moves here because of the Scarf. The EVs include Speed simply to aid the scarf in out-speeding my opponents.
Rainbaus Mk II(Xerneas) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Moonblast
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
I once again decided use a Choice Scarf on this Pokemon, just like Ho-Oh. Unlike nearly all Xerneas sets, Geomancy is not present here, as this set, due to the scarf, does not benefit from it. The moveset is fairly standard, except for the presence of Psychic, which allows Xerneas to come n and attempt to revenge kill any relevant Pokemon, such as Arceus-Poison. The extra speed that Xerneas possesses allows it to quickly destroy many opponents, due to the fact that it doesn't have to set up.
Logic (Latias) @ Soul Dew
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 212 HP / 120 SpA / 176 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
Sorry to disappoint, but no special sets here. This set is word for word copy-pasted from the Smogon Pokedex. I felt no need to play around with it due to the fact that it worked already, and I usually make sets worse when I do anything with them. This thing Defogs, it takes hits well and it provides enough special pressure to keep opponent's Pokemon, such as Primal Groudon, wary.
Rayquaza-Mega @ Lum Berry
Ability: Delta Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Ascent
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed
This Pokemon is my lead, and an old favourite of mine. Instead of hazard setting MegaRay Dances, then proceeds to assault the enemy team. It can OHKO Pokemon like Pogre with Dragon Ascent and can 2HKO any pokemon in the tier outside of Skarmory. The Lum Berry prevents Pokemon such as Klefki crippling it with a Thunder Wave or WoW. The moveset is fairly standard for this type of build, covering most of the meta. I considered running a Fire move instead of Extremespeed, but the priority is far more useful than covering the occasional Skarmory.
Logic (Ditto) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Transform
- Transform
- Transform
- Transform
Some people say that Ditto is overrated in Anything Goes-I have to disagree. It acts as a potent deterrent from setting up, which in itself is enough to claim a spot on my team. However, it also manages to defeat Lugia, crush a set-up Ekiller and smash Geoxern. What's not to love? This guy holds my team together-without him, there would be far too many weaknesses.
Chaos (Klefki) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Foul Play
- Substitute
If worst comes to worst, some hax is always welcome when I'm trying to win a game. If you don't know the strategy here, Klefki essentially Twaves the opponent, substitutes until the sub stays up, Swaggers, then Foul Plays until the opponent dies. This strategy relies on logic, but creates utter chaos, as there aren't too many ways to beat it. This is a standard enough set which supports the team while requiring no support itself.
Well, there's the rmt! Thanks for reading, your time is much appreciated! If you want to test out the team, go for it, but it is extremely bad etiquette to actually seriously ladder with another person's team without asking express permission. Comments are much appreciated!
CREDIT TO:
The artists that unwillingly and unknowingly volunteered their work: Autlaw-Deviantart (Ho-Oh image), e-tane-Deviantart (Xerneas image), CherubimonX-Deviantart (Latias image) zerudez-Deviantart (Mega-Rayquaza image) vaness96 Deviantart (Ditto image)
Zangooser For putting up with more stupid questions than anybody should have to.
baconbagonz For being extremely encouraging
The OM room-great people
The Ubers room-I know, AG is not Ubers, but all the same, the people in the Ubers room know their stuff and are very helpful.
I have always personally felt that Pokemon is not just a game of statistics, and that there's more to battling well than a good grasp of the mathematics behind the game. I have always believed that, more than anything else, chaos, whether or not it comes from creating a set so wildly different than anything else in the meta or simply from playing in an unexpected manner, is the most important factor to winning battles.
It doesn't take an awful lot of skill to win on logic, to win by analyzing battles to a degree where your opponent is see-through, but to truly create a sense of surprise for your opponent can give a massive advantage to your team.
This is what I've mainly tried to do with this team-create sets that may not be especially good, but are simply so unexpected that they receive enough bad plays so as to turn a battle around.
TL;DR-Chaos>Logic
Teambuilding Process:
To start off with, I needed the root of chaos, a Pokemon that could both be viable as well as being unexpected to a degree at which a battle could turn to my favor simply through misplays. Reviewing all of these needs I chose Ho-Oh.
Next up I wanted another Pokemon that was similar to Ho-Oh in that near everyone in the tier played it a certain way, and through changing the way it was played , I could create surprise. Seeing this, I picked Giratina.
Continuing on, I realized the fact that any Ho-Oh user needs reliable hazards control. I chose Latias, mainly because it aids my team defensively and because the Special pressure it provided aided my team.
Next I realized that I had forgotten to add a lead. Seeing as my team had a Defog user I chose to go for a HO lead over a hazard setter. Thus, I chose Rayquaza.
At this stage, I started to realize that my team, once an opponent had set up on me, was extremely weak to a large range of Pokemon, such as Extremekiller Arceus and Dragon Dance M-Ray. As a result, I decided to pick Ditto.
Here I had begun to really look at my team, and figured that I a) already had enough physical pressure on my opponent and b) Giratina didn't provide the sort of physical pressure that I was looking for in the first place. Seeing this, I went back to the drawing board, looking for a Special Attacker that was near always played in the exact same fashion and came up with Xerneas.
Forgive me-I hate myself for doing it, but sometime a team just needs good hax to win, and Klefki is able to almost always turn those hax in my favor. Remembering this, I chose Klefki.
The Team:
Rainbaus(Ho-Oh) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Earthquake
- Sacred Fire
- Sleep Talk
It took me a while to come up with a Ho-Oh set that was both viable and completely unexpected, and I ended up with the above set. I was slightly disappointed about how little I had ended up changing, but when I was testing out the set I found that the speed change was enough to completely upset many teams that were prepared for Ho-Oh's slower sets. The moveset is fairly standard, there are no recovery moves here because of the Scarf. The EVs include Speed simply to aid the scarf in out-speeding my opponents.
Rainbaus Mk II(Xerneas) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Moonblast
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
I once again decided use a Choice Scarf on this Pokemon, just like Ho-Oh. Unlike nearly all Xerneas sets, Geomancy is not present here, as this set, due to the scarf, does not benefit from it. The moveset is fairly standard, except for the presence of Psychic, which allows Xerneas to come n and attempt to revenge kill any relevant Pokemon, such as Arceus-Poison. The extra speed that Xerneas possesses allows it to quickly destroy many opponents, due to the fact that it doesn't have to set up.
Logic (Latias) @ Soul Dew
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 212 HP / 120 SpA / 176 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
Sorry to disappoint, but no special sets here. This set is word for word copy-pasted from the Smogon Pokedex. I felt no need to play around with it due to the fact that it worked already, and I usually make sets worse when I do anything with them. This thing Defogs, it takes hits well and it provides enough special pressure to keep opponent's Pokemon, such as Primal Groudon, wary.
Rayquaza-Mega @ Lum Berry
Ability: Delta Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Ascent
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed
This Pokemon is my lead, and an old favourite of mine. Instead of hazard setting MegaRay Dances, then proceeds to assault the enemy team. It can OHKO Pokemon like Pogre with Dragon Ascent and can 2HKO any pokemon in the tier outside of Skarmory. The Lum Berry prevents Pokemon such as Klefki crippling it with a Thunder Wave or WoW. The moveset is fairly standard for this type of build, covering most of the meta. I considered running a Fire move instead of Extremespeed, but the priority is far more useful than covering the occasional Skarmory.
Logic (Ditto) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Transform
- Transform
- Transform
- Transform
Some people say that Ditto is overrated in Anything Goes-I have to disagree. It acts as a potent deterrent from setting up, which in itself is enough to claim a spot on my team. However, it also manages to defeat Lugia, crush a set-up Ekiller and smash Geoxern. What's not to love? This guy holds my team together-without him, there would be far too many weaknesses.
Chaos (Klefki) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Foul Play
- Substitute
If worst comes to worst, some hax is always welcome when I'm trying to win a game. If you don't know the strategy here, Klefki essentially Twaves the opponent, substitutes until the sub stays up, Swaggers, then Foul Plays until the opponent dies. This strategy relies on logic, but creates utter chaos, as there aren't too many ways to beat it. This is a standard enough set which supports the team while requiring no support itself.
Well, there's the rmt! Thanks for reading, your time is much appreciated! If you want to test out the team, go for it, but it is extremely bad etiquette to actually seriously ladder with another person's team without asking express permission. Comments are much appreciated!
CREDIT TO:
The artists that unwillingly and unknowingly volunteered their work: Autlaw-Deviantart (Ho-Oh image), e-tane-Deviantart (Xerneas image), CherubimonX-Deviantart (Latias image) zerudez-Deviantart (Mega-Rayquaza image) vaness96 Deviantart (Ditto image)
Zangooser For putting up with more stupid questions than anybody should have to.
baconbagonz For being extremely encouraging
The OM room-great people
The Ubers room-I know, AG is not Ubers, but all the same, the people in the Ubers room know their stuff and are very helpful.
