Gen 7 Rate my Gen 7 AG team

[brinkworth]

One of my favorite gens is gen 7, and I've played AG a LOT. I made this team a while back, and I'm confident I'm done editing it.


Stonks (Xerneas) @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]

"Dread it, run from it, destiny still arrives, all the same"
Xerneas is obvious here, just power herb geomancy, with hidden power fire to counter ferrothorn specifically. Thunderbolt has great coverage to annoying flying types like skarmory, as well as dealing huge damage to Primal kyogre, which can deal massive damage with origin pulse. Hidden power fire can also be replaced with flash cannon if you want more coverage against other fairy types. The 2 counters to this mon are primal groudon and Marshadow. Primal groudon has the sheer strength to tank one Geomancy Moonblast, and Marshadow can just yoink the stats, since every single f***ing marshadow in gen 7 has a sash (Yeah I know mine has a sash, but I accepted the irony a while ago). If you can get a geomancy up and are still at full health, it can make a lot of people forfeit.



Snek (Zygarde) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Power Construct
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Outrage
- Thousand Arrows
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed

"No flying type is safe"
Zygarde is one of the heavier set offensive types on this team. He can tank most moves, including a dragon claw, which puts him below 1/2 health, which then his power construct activates. He has Thousand arrows for the STAB against flying types, and outrage can at least 2 hit anything with one or two dragon dances up. Extreme speed is to kill off any mons who are faster than you and are at low health. This mons counter is alolan- Kuram- I mean Ninetails. Being a fairy/ice type, blizzard can easily OHKO zygarde, and the opponent can use that knowledge to set up an aurora veil, which will make you say bye bye to your damage for a while.



Thief (Marshadow) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Close Combat
- Shadow Sneak
- Knock Off

"Your stats, hand em over. Now"
This is the sweep counter. Marshadow has the basic moves any other Marshadow would have, like spectral thief, close combat and shadow sneak. If you can steal some stats off of something like a beast boost kartana, close combat will solve everything. You can change knock off to something like sucker/ drain punch to deal more damage, but knock off is pretty good overall from the item boost. I had a hard time giving up drain punch, because of the STAB boost + healing, and it is better than close combat in the sense that it doesn't lower your stats, but knock off is just better to prevent things like level 1 magnemite toxic stalls, and other sturdy troll mons.



Birb (Yveltal) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Knock off
- Oblivion Wing
- Defog

"When in doubt, use knock off"
This is the strongest STAB mon I have on this team. Knock off does ludicrous damage with STAB, dark aura, black glasses, AND if the target has an item (which it will). Defog is for any shuckle hazards like sticky web and stealth rock, as well as other hazards. Oblivion wing is there as a mini-roost. Roost is great and all, but it gives your opponent a turn to toxic you or give you other annoying status conditions.



Eggplant (Mewtwo-Mega-Y) @ Mewtwonite Y
Ability: Insomnia
Happiness: 0
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Psystrike
- Earthquake
- Thunderbolt

"I am SpAtk"
This mon is pure SpAtk. If you can mega evolve him, it can counter any sleep powder/spore stall mons like Smeargle and butterfree, and psystrike should destroy pretty much anything because of STAB. You also have thunderbolt again to deal with Primal kyogre as well as scarfed peliper, and since mewtwo doesn't get earth power, I put earthquake there to deal with Primal Groudon, and other tanky steel types. And yes, I know fire blast is a thing, but it does absolutely nothing against Primal groudon. If that thing gets a rock polish off, it could easily sweep your team if you don't have a counter, so I went with the safe option and not the option where I would be swept by rock polish groudon for the 15000th time



Burst (Necrozma-Dusk-Mane) @ Ultranecrozium Z
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Photon Geyser
- Earthquake
- Sunsteel Strike
- Brick Break

This is the tankiest pokemon on my team. Personally I love to lead with this pokemon, it can tank pretty much any non-SpAtk move.Sunsteel strike is there to counter shuckle and other sturdy mons, brick break for screens, and you can get even more Speed and Atk with ultra burst. Photon Geyser is another great STAB move to kill any tanky pokemon like blissey, because blissey's defense sucks, and photon geyser turns into a physical move if the users Atk stat is higher than their SpAtk.

 

[Strange Name]

This team has some severe issues IMO. I have achieved 88.8% GXE on gen 7 AG and peaked at #7 on the ladder so I do believe I know the meta to some extent. Firstly, the team utilizes two focus sash users, whilst the only defogger is Yveltal, this gives the team a terrible Matchup against stealth rock Arceus Fairy, which also beats the team's 2 sash users. Secondly, due to its incredible bulk, Zygarde usually does not need a sash, and instead, prefers Z, leftovers, or even Life orb for your set. Thirdly, your team lacks good Geomancy Xerneas answers, as nothing is able to stop a sweep from a Geomancy Xerneas, with Ultranecrozma being 2HKOed by Moonblast. Fourthly, your team fails to break the most common stall team in the metagame, Lance's Stall team, thus I suggest running pursuit Marshadow. Fifthly, your team has no checks to Primal Kyogre, meaning it is able to claim a life whenever it gets a free switch. Furthermore, the lack of stealth rock also makes your team incredibly weak to Rayquaza, with Scarf quaza being the scariest of them all as it outspeeds everything on your team.

 

[Geysers]

Hello! Sorry it took me so long to get to rating this, I've been quite busy. Your team seems reasonably solid, but it has a lot of extremely suboptimal sets that desperately need fixing. In addition, your team lacks the absolutely vital elements of hazards and strong priority. To fix those shortcomings, I've got some changes to make.

Major Changes
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set

Rayquaza-Mega @ Life Orb
Ability: Delta Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Ascent
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake

Non-booting MMY is really terrible and is total setup fodder for much of the meta, making it a complete waste of your mega slot, let alone a team slot. As a result, I'm replacing it with the omnipresent Mega Rayquaza, which provides much more effective offensive pressure, while also offensively checking Primal Groudon far, far better than Earthquake MMY. I've gone with the standard Dragon Dance set here, since it also provides useful priority support while being a threatening wincon.

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set

Arceus @ Chople Berry
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed
- Shadow Claw

Focus Sash Marshadow is another straight up unviable set. While it might work against low ladder players without hazard support, your combination of no reliable hazard control and no pressure to keep hazards from going up turns Marshadow into complete deadweight, unable to put in any work against a competent opponent. This Arceus set partially takes over Marshadow's role, providing solid revenge-killing support with its powerful priority, while also giving you some neat counterplay to Marshadow with its Chople Berry. I could have made marshadow into a z move set, but that would have meant having to scrap ultra necrozma, which I felt was a bad trade.

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set

Deoxys-Speed @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Magic Coat
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes

Your Zygarde set was really unviable, and in any case Zygarde doesn't fit well on offensive teams. This mon helps solve your lack of hazard control, getting hazards up against most leads while denying the opponent's hazards with Taunt. It's nigh-mandatory on hyper offense teams to ensure that you can get some hazards up so you don't lose to random midgame sashes, especially on the ladder.

Minor Changes

set

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Ultranecrozium Z
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Photon Geyser
- Swords Dance
- Sunsteel Strike
- Earthquake

Ultra Necrozma desperately needs a boosting move, so I dropped Brick Break which wasn't hitting anything at all for Swords Dance. In addition, making it Jolly allows it to outspeed Jolly Mega Rayquaza and Marshadow, both of which are absolutely vital for Ultra Necrozma to outspeed in order for it to achieve anything at all.

set

Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 168 Def / 252 SpA / 88 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Thunder
- Focus Blast

Thunderbolt is strictly outclassed by Thunder, since it can't KO Ho-Oh even after appreciable chip, while also failing to break through chipped Arceus-Poison. In addition, Focus Blast is almost strictly better than Hidden Power Fire, hitting Necrozma-DM harder because of Prism Armor while also doing just as much damage to Ferrothorn, and more to Primal Groudon. The new EVs are the standard USUM spread, intended to maximize bulk against Necrozma-DM's Sunsteel Strike. The Modest Nature is the most important part of the spread, however, adding the necessary power to net multiple key OHKOs against support Arceus formes.

set

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

This isn't a huge change, just switching it to the standard set. This adds even more priority support with Sucker Punch while also allowing you to block opposing Defoggers with Taunt. The Life Orb is better than Black Glasses because of the drastically boosted damage to Oblivion Wing.

Hopefully this rate helps!

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