Monotype Metagross Psychic

[Saezu]

Introduction​

Have not posted any RMTs before so please excuse if it doesn't look too professional but I'd be glad to receive some tips. Psychic is definitely one of my favourite types and with a DOU background, I am very fond of using mega-metagross. Megagross is unfortunately banned in mono and regular metagross never really picked my interest as when I saw it, it was often only a rocks setter or perhaps a banded attacker and I thoguht of these sets as a bit boring or underwhelming. But after playing around with psy for a while, I noticed that I actually have quite big problems when facing poison teams (the a-muk/m-venu/pex core) and I thought that metagross should be a great asset in breaking that core. That's where the planning for a metagross team begun. Furthermore, I wanted to stray a bit away from what the sample teams are offering.

Teambuilding Process​

Hide

As testing metagross was my main objective, I of course started with that one. Main objective was to check poison teams effectively.

Unfortunately, metagross is neither very fast nor does it sport a good sp.def. To alleviate these issues, I decided to use a screener and thanks to its great speed as well as other numerous support moves, my choice fell on deoxys.

A-muk is not only a problem on poison but also dark teams. But there, metagross faces more difficult defensive pokemon in mandibuzz and m-sableye. I needed something capable of breaking these walls and as I had never given gardevoira real try before, I thought I may test it simply for its great fairy STAB.

With this, my firepower was already quite good but especially bulky steel mons may simply wall them. Victini was chosen to handle such threats, e.g., celesteela, skarmony, ferrothorn and m-scizor.

At this point, I was still wide-open to damage from entry hazards and needed a reliable defogger. My choice fell on latias because I am quite fond of both its offensive presence as well as supporting moves.

At this point, I still had a mega slot to fill. Since the team was still lacking a good toxic user to break down bulky walls as well as a generally bulky pokemon capable of stopping offense threats and was pretty susceptible to strong ground attacks, I decided to use m-slowbro over more powerful but also frail attackers such as gallade or latios to at least patch up the physical side and be able to hit back.

The Team​

Metagross @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Agility
- Zen Headbutt
​

As mentioned above, by using metagross, I wanted to counter poison teams effectively. Metagross has a great movepool, but suffers greatly from the 4-moveslot-syndrome as it can never carry all the coverage it may need. Thus, I chose to prioritize the poison matchup and chose earthquake and zen headbutt to inflict as much damage as possible, effectively beating all defensive poison mons. I did not want to be choice-locked into any move as that would affect this role negatively. Thus, I decided to go for a funny agility set. After one boost, jolly metagross reaches 524 speed, outspeeding large parts of the metagame. A drawback is, that scarfers of base 110 and higher are still faster, leaving me vulnerable to fast threads such as gengar. Meteor Mash was chosen as secondary STAB because steel possesses a great complementary typing, hitting especially fairies and kyurem-b very hard. That way, many fairies can be threatened even if klefki managed to set up screens. Handling kyurem-b is important, as most of my other team members can be outsped and beaten by it. But without a choice band, metagross certainly lacks some firepower and as I did not want to sacrifice another moveslot for a setup move, I chose weakness policy as item. This allows getting speed and attack boosts in a single turn, especially if screens are up. Ice punch (landorus-t), bullet punch (mimikyu) and thunder punch (mantine, celesteela) would all be other valuable options.

calcs

252 SpA Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Metagross through Light Screen: 144-169 (47.6 - 55.9%) -- 80.1% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Diancie-Mega Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Metagross through Light Screen: 125-148 (41.3 - 49%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Metagross Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 12 Def Muk-Alola: 282-332 (68.2 - 80.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Metagross Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 212+ Def Venusaur-Mega: 174-206 (47.8 - 56.5%) -- 86.7% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kyurem-Black: 306-360 (78.2 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Teravolt Kyurem-Black Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Shuca Berry Metagross: 133-156 (44.1 - 51.8%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO

Deoxys-Speed @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock
​

Getting up these screens is deo-s role. Behind screens, metagross can survive many hits that would usually OHKO it, set up a boost or simply revenge kill the attacker. A sash was chosen to be able to set up either both screens, hazards or also to paralyze boosted or fast threats in the mid game. That way, dangerous pokemon such as +1 volcarona can still be neutralized. Stealth Rock limits the chances of switching around for many types, including fire, bug and electric. Taunt would be another great move, but so far I did not manage to fit it anywhere on the team.

Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Energy Ball
​

As proposed above, gardevoir is meaned to counter pesky dark types that could harm my team a lot. It has an inherently bad matchup vs a-muk but can deal a lot of damage to many other problematic threats such as m-sableye, hydreigon and mandibuzz. With focus blast, it also pressures tyrannitar greatly. Focus blast also allows hitting other troublesome foes super effectively, including porygon2 and diggersby on normal as well as several steel types such ferrothorn, stakataka and heatran. The combination of scarf and trace allows to effectively counter and kill many weather sweepers, including excadrill, kingdra, swampert, a-sandslash and a-raichu. Timid was chosen to also outspeed other naturally fast pokemon, most importantly m-lopunny, but also tapu koko, zeraora and scarfed tapu bulu. As a side effect, the dragon matchup is greatly improved as well. Alternative moves may be thunderbolt and shadowball. Thunderbolt would be useful to counter pelipper, mantine and to some extent celesteela and skarmony but I am not sure what move I would replace. Perhaps psyshock but then it would be almost deadweight in the poison matchup. Shadow ball is only useful vs ghost and in the mirror matchup. Thanks to m-slowbro I have a decent matchup vs other psychic teams without any supereffective moves and ghost teams are generally so rare, that I decided not to use shadow ball.

calcs

252 SpA Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 216-254 (71 - 83.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Mandibuzz: 318-374 (75.1 - 88.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Lopunny-Mega: 312-368 (115.1 - 135.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Gardevoir Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Cobalion: 334-394 (86.5 - 102%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Gardevoir Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 184+ SpD Heatran: 186-220 (48.1 - 56.9%) -- 39.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Life Orb Raichu-Alola Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Gardevoir in Electric Terrain: 227-269 (81.9 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Raichu-Alola: 172-204 (65.9 - 78.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- U-turn
- Trick
​

Victini provides the much-needed fire coverage for this time. This allows to effectively take out walls such as ferrothorn and celesteela and remove threats such as volcarona and m-scizor. I chose a second scarf over choice band to outspeed scarfed heracross, the ocassional scarf pelipper, galvantula and at least tie +1 volcarona. This also makes it possible to deal a finishing blow to mons such as scarfed kyurem-b or m-gallade which can otherwise become troublesome threats. Bolt strike mainly functions as coverage for mantine and pelipper but can also to some extent be used against rotom-w on electric. U-turn is crucial to pivot in and out quickly, especially against pokemon such as hetran. Trick functions as a means to cripple bulky pokemon that may otherwise be hard to break, including toxapex, chansey, porygon2, celesteela, hetran, suicune, torkoal and cradily.

calcs

252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Celesteela: 476-564 (119.5 - 141.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 224 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 278-330 (85 - 100.9%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Tapu Koko: 280-330 (99.6 - 117.4%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 312-367 (98.1 - 115.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Volcarona: 346-408 (111.2 - 131.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Victini Bolt Strike vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rotom-Wash in Electric Terrain: 168-198 (55.2 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (the sample team spread, 3HKO for defensive spreads)

Latias @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Healing Wish
- Psyshock
​

Every team needs some sort of hazard control and here I opted for latias. In many cases, latios is the preferred choice but I have a personal liking or latias and the healing wish support it provides. This allows bringing back an already weakened wincon in the mid- or lategame, especially in matchups where latias itself cannot do much. Depending on the opponent, this may mean to bring back low HP victini vs steel or heal slowbro vs types such as rock once the poison users have been taken care of. Defog is pretty self-explanatory, removing rocks, spikes and opposing screens. Draco meteor is latias strongest STAB move, and powered up by the Z crystal it can score certain KOs which may otherwise not be possible. Psyshock functions as secondary STAB to not be locked into the Spa-lowering draco meteor as well as to feign a scarf if applicable. The main reason for not using a scarfed lati@s is the bug matchup as this latias set reliably kills galvantula or at least gets rid of sticky web and breaks galvantulas sash. Not being slowed down by webs is a crucial part of securing the bug matchup as victini then effectively outspeeds any bug sweeper (except for the rare scolipede).

calcs

252 SpA Latias Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Torkoal: 375-442 (109.3 - 128.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Latias Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Diggersby: 349-412 (112.2 - 132.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Latias Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 144+ SpD Sableye-Mega: 202-238 (66.4 - 78.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (if caught on switchin or by feigning scarf)
252 SpA Latias Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Slowbro: 339-400 (86 - 101.5%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery

Slowbro-Mega @ Slowbronite
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Calm Mind
- Slack Off
- Toxic
​

My choice for a mega fell on m-slowbro as this team greatly values its defensive capabilities as well as the greatly improved ground and rock matchups thanks to it. All EVs went into maximizing defense, while calm mind functions as a useful setup move to boost itself against potential special attackers. Especially vs ground this is useful, as it effectively handles excadrill, garchomp, mamoswine and steelix. Toxic allows to poison water-immune pokemon such as mantine, seismitoad and gastrodon but also to slowly break down bulky pokemon such as porygon2. Scald is its STAB attack, damaging threatening especially dangerous ground types such as excadrill and hippowdown, as well as (frail) firetypes such infernape and victini. Scald also offers the 30% chance to burn the opponent, something that can be very useful against sweepers that cannot immediately break slowbro, such as m-altaria, a-muk, cloyster and dragonite. Oblivious was chosen over regenerator to bait taunt users and get free set up turns. This works exceptionally well vs deoxys-s and after one or two calm minds many mirror matchups are basically decided. But other taunt or trick users fall for it now and then as well. Slowbro also puts a stop to the rare trickroom strategies, which are sometimes played on rock and steel teams.

calcs

252 Atk Mold Breaker Excadrill Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Mega: 79-94 (20 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Diggersby Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Mega: 153-180 (38.8 - 45.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
0 Atk Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Mega: 116-138 (29.4 - 35%) -- 9.3% chance to 3HKO (->once ferro is burnt, it becomes possible to setup even with leechseed)
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro-Mega through Light Screen: 137-162 (34.7 - 41.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
0 SpA Slowbro-Mega Scald vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Landorus: 258-306 (80.8 - 95.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Mega through Reflect: 167-197 (42.3 - 50%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO (-> at least 2 chances to burn or poison)

Conclusion​

Thanks to those who read this and even more if you have some advice to offer. Unfortunately, I cannot say too much about the ghost matchup as it happens too rarely but I would assume that I am very vulnerable there. Other than that, problematic troublespots may include, for example, defensive flying teams and steel teams sporting doublade. It's a bit difficult for me to discern which problems actually stem from the team and which from my own bad plays since I still catch myself making wrong moves more often than I should. I can't remember the exact peak of the team but I believe it was around 1810. Tips on how to make it more well-rounded would be greatly appreciated.

Importable

Metagross @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Agility
- Zen Headbutt

Deoxys-Speed @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock

Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Energy Ball

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- U-turn
- Trick

Latias @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
- Healing Wish
- Psyshock

Slowbro-Mega @ Slowbronite
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Calm Mind
- Slack Off
- Toxic

 

[maroon]

Hi Saezu, fascinating take on teambuilding. I noticed you were using Deoxys-S with screens, so I made your team fit around Deoxys-S better and changed it to full HO. This happened by me rearranging two team slots and fixing a few sets on the rest of the team to better fit the style.

>

Let's talk about this, while Slowbro can be a fantastic Pokemon on regular Psychic teams it does not really match well on an HO team and can drag down the team's momentum. This is why I replaced it with a Pokemon that can still act as a one-time check to Physical attackers thanks to Magic Guard Focus Sash + Counter. Finally, Dazzling Gleam is an option over Shadow Ball, as this allows the team to better take on Mega Sableye, at the cost of doing better vs. other Psychic and Ghost teams. This was one of the bigger changes on the team, as I completely changed a Pokemon on the team, this was so your team would function better as what it is, HO Psychic.

Alakazam Set

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball / Dazzling Gleam.
- Counter

>

This was the second change I made to your team. I kept the idea of being able to beat Dark-types with this slot and replaced it with Mega Gallade due to the fact Scarfed Gardevoir is rather bad and Mega Gallade is a very solid setup sweeper on HO Psychic teams, especially being able to take advantage of Deoxys-S's screens to set up its Swords Dance. Swords Dance boosted Close Combat can take out every Dark-type Pokemon after Stealth Rock damage bar Mega Sableye. This Pokemon also smashes through Poison teams as you mention with Metagross, it is one of the reasons you use that cheesed set, so this can alleviate the pressure off Metagross, allowing it to run more efficient sets.

Mega Gallade Set

Gallade-Mega @ Galladite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Knock Off

(Light Clay>Focus Sash) & (Knock Off>Thunder Wave)

>

This change was fairly minor but still very necessary. Since you are running screens, it is essential for Deoxys-S and its teammates to be able to keep up screens for more than five turns. So I replaced its Focus Sash with Light Clay since this would be able to pretty easily set up screens or stealth thanks to its blazing fast speed. Also, I replaced Thunder Wave with Knock Off; this team doesn't need Thunder Wave's utility per se as much as being able to cripple Pokemon such as opposing Victini by knocking off their item or Chansey's Eviolite, which is why I replaced it to Knock Off.

Deoxys-S Set

Deoxys-Speed @ Light Clay
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off

(Choice Band>Weakness Policy)

>

The main reason for this change is because Weakness Policy is truly a terrible item, that relies completely on a bad niche to succeed and sweep, making it far too unreliable to use successfully to a wide extent. This is why I replaced it with the best Metagross set available to Psychic teams. Choice Band allows it to disrupt Poison teams like you originally wanted, bar Toxapex, which can be taken care of by a plethora of teammates. The EVs allow Metagross to smash as hard as possible while outspeeding such threats as Jolly Azumarill and being able to survive an Aqua Jet from it as well. The rest are dumped into its HP allowing it to round out its bulk better and take better advantage of its amazing defensive typing.

Metagross Set

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Pursuit

Now here is where the team gets interesting as it has two options. The first of which is making the Victini a Choice Scarf set and the Latias a Latios that can Defog, while the second option is to make Victini a Z-Celebrate Pokemon and Latias a Choice Scarfer and giving it access to Healing Wish.

+

(Z Victini + Choice Scarf Latias)

+

So the basic idea of this was to make Victini a solid setup sweeper and Z move user since Latias is no longer that. This Z-Celebrate set is a fantastic late-game cleaner and free's up Latias to use its best and only set for Monotype Psychic teams, being Choice Scarf + Healing Wish support. This allows it to give any teammate a second by removing itself with Healing Wish. Also, it acts as a secondary Mega Sharpedo check, being able to OHKO it with minor chip damage while being able to outspeed it at +1.

Sets

Victini @ Normalium Z
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Celebrate
- Searing Shot
- Stored Power
- Focus Blast

Latias @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Healing Wish

or

+

(Scarf Victini + Defog Latios)

+

This option allows Victini to immediately threaten Bug teams with its Dual STAB coverage allowing it to 2HKO the entire type bar Araquanid, while also not making the Defog user crippled by a Choice Scarf. This is simply just preferencing right here, whether you don't want a Defog user that also has a Choice Scarfer, however on this version of the team does not have a Z move user, which can be annoying. Both versions of this team have their pro's and con's; I would suggest playing with both a bit to see which one you like better.

Sets

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- V-Create
- Bolt Strike
- Blue Flare / Trick
- U-turn

Latios @ Soul Dew
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Roost

Team v1

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Counter

Gallade-Mega @ Galladite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Knock Off

Deoxys-Speed @ Light Clay
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Pursuit

Victini @ Normalium Z
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Celebrate
- Searing Shot
- Stored Power
- Focus Blast

Latias @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Healing Wish

Team v2

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Counter

Gallade-Mega @ Galladite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Knock Off

Deoxys-Speed @ Light Clay
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Pursuit

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- V-Create
- Bolt Strike
- Blue Flare / Trick
- U-turn

Latios @ Soul Dew
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Roost

Overall, this was an enjoyable team to rate. I Hope these changes are helpful, if you have any questions about my rate please pm me on PS, there I'm iExca or reply to this thread, and I will answer as soon as possible!

 

[Vin Flint]

Wow, my man Saezu made his first post on the Smogon forums! That's exciting! In terms of the formatting of the post, I wouldn't worry too much about it, just make sure to go back and fix the font size later so that everything is consistent. The font difference and the size difference between the text copy pasted from the team builder and the difference in your test is a bit jarring. But otherwise, I like how the sections are all separated and given their own space, everything is centered, and you have little headers.

Now, in terms of what I would to to your team, I agree with Maroon above that you should change your Metagross to be Banded over Weakness Policy. Weakness Policy is an item that should be banned from all formats simply for being an insulting, disgusting piece of garbage that spits in the face of items as a whole in this game. I'm not blaming you for choosing it or calling you out, I just really hate the design of it. Think of it as how I complained about Toxapex (before I actually tried using it and found out that stall is the most fun, rewarding playstyle in this game). Banded might sacrifice speed, but behind screens, speed shouldn't be that huge of a concern. I think you've seen my banded Crawdaunt team, and I envision Banded Metagross being played out in a similar manner, so ask me if you want advice on how to use a Banded Beast without speed.

Metagross Set

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Pursuit

The other thing I wanted to do to your team, however, is to upgrade that measly Gardevoir into Mega Gardevoir. You think that little damsel is doing anything to scare Dark? HAH! Not even concerning ourselves with how pitiful it is when matched up against Muk, look at how Tyranitar completely bodies this loser.

Calcs

252 SpA Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 204-240 (59.6 - 70.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+1 252 Atk Tyranitar Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Gardevoir: 354-417 (127.7 - 150.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (+1 attack is from Dragon Dance)

252 SpA Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 146-174 (36.1 - 43%) -- 95.7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 Atk Tyranitar Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Gardevoir: 195-231 (70.3 - 83.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage

And before you go talking about how Focus Blast OHKO's it, I'm gonna remind you that you're running a Choice Scarf, sir. If you get locked into Moonblast, it's not killing any Ttars today. Besides, Gardevoir won't even get to concern itself with the Ttar matchup because Alolan Muk hard counters it!

Calcs

252 SpA Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 248 HP / 248+ SpD Assault Vest Muk-Alola: 73-87 (17.6 - 21%) -- possible 5HKO

0 Atk Muk-Alola Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Gardevoir: 154-183 (55.5 - 66%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Also, you should keep in mind that Mega Sableye basically sets it in stone that Deoxys isn't setting any rocks anytime soon, so you're doing a hot 20% each time you Moonblast. And Muk is gonna click knockoff and hurt something bad. So why not fix all of that by running Mega Gardevoir?

Set

Gardevoir-Mega @ Gardevoirite
Timid Nature
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Will-O-Wisp

Calcs

0 Atk burned Muk-Alola Knock Off vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Gardevoir-Mega: 51-61 (18.4 - 22%) -- possible 5HKO

0 Atk burned Muk-Alola Poison Jab vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Gardevoir-Mega: 127-150 (45.8 - 54.1%) -- 53.1% chance to 2HKO

Look at how the returning damage to you is almost non-existent! That's because you can use Will-O-Wisp with Mega Gardevoir to cripple that mon for the rest of the game! And then, let's go back and look at the Ttar calcs.

Calcs

252 SpA Pixilate Gardevoir-Mega Hyper Voice vs. 80 HP / 0 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 282-332 (78.1 - 91.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Gardevoir-Mega Focus Blast vs. 80 HP / 0 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 420-496 (116.3 - 137.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+1 252 Atk Tyranitar Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Gardevoir-Mega: 354-417 (127.7 - 150.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Pixilate Gardevoir-Mega Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 204-242 (50.4 - 59.9%) -- 82.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Pixilate Gardevoir-Mega Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 204-242 (50.4 - 59.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery and burn damage

0 Atk burned Tyranitar Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Gardevoir-Mega: 97-115 (35 - 41.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after sandstorm damage

Look at how it nicely 2HKO's Spdef Tyranitar most of the time! Or, if you want to make it even more consistent, you can burn it and then get a free 2HKO while the Ttar gets only a 3HKO! And, to top it off, you don't sacrifice anything in your other matchups! I mean, what else does Scarf Gardevoir do that its Mega counterpart can't in the Dark matchup? That's right, nothing! And, this has the added bonus of not being as standard as Gallade, since I saw you say earlier that you wanted to stray away from the sample teams.

If you run Mega Gardevoir, you have to remove the mega stone from Slowbro. In this slot, I'd just run the Alakazam set that Maroon suggested. Regular Slowbro is dumb looking and doesn't fit into your theme of Hyper Offense that well anyway, so why not just remove it completely?

Set

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball / Dazzling Gleam.
- Counter

Other than Gardevoir, I really didn't have much else to say. I've just been using Mega Gardevoir a lot in Doubles (the Hyper Beam set you probably saw earlier on Facebook) and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share the idea. Then again, I haven't used your team at all, and knowing how good of a player you are, you can probably use your team better than I could ever even imagine, so all that talk about how Gardevoir doesn't touch Dark could just be me not knowing a thing about the game. But if my advice was useless and dumb, just ignore it and live your life happily running Scarf Gardevoir and forget I exist. Good luck laddering!

 

[Saezu]

maroon and Vin Flint thanks to both of you! I appreciate the advice and perhaps you two could go into a little more detail because overall, I like some ideas, have tried most of them before, but also fail to see the appeal of some others. I would appreciate it because both of you suggest heavy rebuilding of the team, making me think that the team I posted must have been pretty flawed from the start.

I start with Vin Flint's advice because that one is shorter. M-garde is a fascinating mon and like you, I've never given it a real try and I think I totally should, especially to counter dark teams. The points you raised are valid, it cannot touch a-muk and ttar is a 3HKO at best (because hitting 2 focus blast in a row doesn't happen anyway). The problem that I see here, is that I indeed trade away several good matchups by just replacing m-bro with m-garde, notably (rain) water and ground. Slowbro checks both types successfully and scarf gardevoir at least pressures them greatly. Alakazam and M-garde cannot do the same unless I at least run tbolt or energyball on one of them. M-garde requires an entire team build around it and I simply do not have that here. I will give this mon a more dedicated try but then with its own team.

To move on to iExcas pointers. Alakazam is a great mon and I've used it a lot before. It is very effective at taking out physical threats but I feel like it falls short at pressuring dark at all. Dazzling gleam is a 3HKO (if sab doesn't click recover). It can take out either muk or bisharp but that's pretty much about it.

I like the idea of running koff deo-s a lot, as it should especially make the normal matchup easier. I've used light clay before and found that both items offer different things. The idea of sash was to get a screen up or paralyse an opponent that already set up to get another chance in the game. The screens are in those cases meant to lift the pressure for a short time which may allow to take out the foe in front of me. A short screen also served me well in just getting the initial agility on metagross or calm mind on slowbro as one set up turn was often enough to turn a game. I rarely lead with deoxys and often don't get both screens up either. In combination with knockoff, light clay seems like the better option though as the function of twaving boosted threads pretty much disappears.

M-gallade is a great mon as well and I use it on pretty much all my psy teams. I would change knock off to shadow sneak, especially if deoxys already runs knock off. Otherwise, gallade easily falls prey to a lot of mons such as a-raichu or gengar. Without shadow sneak, the psychic matchup also becomes pretty tough. Unfortunately, gallade offers nothing against dark as long as sab is alive.

At this point I would also like to say, that at least the mirror match up doesn't require too much fixing in general. Except for banded victini, rare pokemon like celebi and meowstic or some unexpected specs sets, psy doesn't have a lot to offer to break slowbro. Only banded bolt strike does more than 50%. Gallade must hope not to get burned while setting up to stand a chance, slowbro cannot be taunted by deoxys and latios' draco is too weak from the 2nd turn on. Status moves are the best psy can do, and if that one toxic user (or yawn meowstic) goes down, it's more or less over.

I haven't given banded metagross much of a try yet so I think I will do that and see how it goes. Could you explain the moveset because removing zen and eq feels like ripping it off its original purpose? I guess, it is because gallade would take these roles over? And what can I hit with pursuit other than psy mons? I can see why neither of you favors weakness policy, but for as niche as it is, it actually works against several types (e.g. fairy, poison, electric). You shouldn't call it a generally horrible item though, at least in doubles it can be great (on other pokemon, not mgross).

Regarding the last part, what's the big problem with dragon-z latias? Personally, I'm not a big fan of scarfed defog, especially because of the bug matchup which becomes a lot easier when you aren't choice-locked. So I would probably lean towards your second team version, although I am also quite fond of z-victini myself.

In conclusion, thanks a lot for the tips. I'd be happy to hear those additional explanations.