Battle Spot [Singles] Meta Manectric

[2Radon]

Introduction

Hello,
This will be my first Battle Spot Singles team and my aim is to go ranked, climb as high as possible with this team and learn a great lot of things for a possible future team to build myself uniquely to get even higher. Thanks to the great help of the people in PS! Battle Spot chat, I now have this team and I am happy to to have pokemon that I like work great in competitive!
Please note that I try to avoid too much of standard pokemon (Thundurus, Rotom-W, Kangaskhan, Landorus, etc.) for up to three reasons:
1. They're well prepared for
2. I like to surprise and be prepared, and not be one of the many
3. I don't like them visually or gameplay-wise often
Since this is my first team, I don't think I've deviated too much, and I did choose Talonflame and Mamoswine even though they're pretty often seen I think. But it's better that I run Talonflame a bit differently.

Here is a Pastebin of the team (shinies for fun because I won't breed for that :) ).

The Team

Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Ice Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- Hammer Arm

I felt this was a not-so-commonly seen Mega, while being overall bulky, fast, painful and an interesting typing with 3 good coverage moves and a priority ability-boosted STAB move. Additionally Meteor Mash can increase attack, creating a bit of a snowball effect, while Zen Headbutt can prevent a hit by flinching. I decided to build around this pokemon and often lead with its great power and survivability.

Hydreigon (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power

This was one of the suggested allies for Mega Metagross and I've seen it do nasty things to a great number of opponents, while being easy to switch into types that threaten Metagross. This is my wallbreaker. With a choice item, though, I have to be careful about predicting a switch or I will do little damage and be forced to switch again, but thankfully the coverage is good.

Serperior (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 248 SpA / 12 SpD / 248 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Dragon Pulse
- Glare

The Offensive Leaf Storm set from Smogon and my only option against Breloom. This one doesn't go against Azumarill because of how often I see Sap Sipper, unfortunately.

Mamoswine (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 156 Atk / 4 Def / 92 SpD / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Tomb

Not my favourite Ice-Pig, but nicely covers a few of those standard pokemon I dislike like Landorus, Thundurus, Rotom-W and also a lot of Dragon types, Grass types and more. Considering Knock-Off in place of Superpower, and worried if I the need for Freeze-Dry against Water (and better against Dragon, Ground and Grass) takes away my only chance at having something against Substitutes in the form of Icicle Spear. I used to love Assault Vest Rhyperior on every team before, but I wouldn't have Ice on my team and would lose a lot more to the mentioned types this one is strong against, I think. Is this Mamoswine capable and useful for wallbreaking, in case Hydreigon is unable to?
Edit: changed to AV Mamo with Rock Tomb as suggested below by cant say an aniravjain.

Manectric-Mega (F) @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch

I only have to choose 3 pokemon, so that gives me the opportunity to introduce something that can go in place of Mega Metagross when it will provide an advantage over more of the opposing pokemon. Manectric can often go first because of easy Volt Switch to chip away or sometimes even KO and predict their other switch and answer it with my own. The other three moves have a cover a superb range of types I've found, and with the presence of Rotom-W, Zapdos, Thundurus, Raikou and the popular Thunder Wave, Manectric is a great pivot with Lightning Rod and Intimidate, weakening opponents while bringing his sweeping potential up. Also people expect Rotom-W and may even have a Grass pokemon for it, or maybe they feel safe with outspeeding Raikou, not expecting Mega Manectric.

Gyarados @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt

An exceptional ally for Mega Manectric - Gyarados begs for Electric moves to power up Manectric and ignores the threatening Ground moves, coming back with Ice Fang. Additionally, Gyarados totally counters Mega Blaziken and Talonflame. Intimidate switching between Mega Manectric and Gyarados throws off physical attackers as well, complimented by the momentum-keeping Volt Switch. Gyarados may cause a few switches, so predicting whether a statuser or an attacker will come in makes the situation a lot better for my team and eases my switch if necessary. Also, a lot of walls are slower than base speed Gyarados, so Taunt tends to come in before them, which might not even be expected of this pokemon.

Conclusion

I need to find and cover any remaining threats that I cannot deal with by increasing my skill and knowledge at battling and predicting. As mentioned before, Substitute is one of my worries if I don't get a Taunt off first, as then it might be too late. Also how well do you think defensive pokemon with Toxic would deal with my team and would that be a problem I need to prepare for? Maybe both of these points depend on how well I predict when Taunt is needed.

Regarding synergy, I think Talonflame doesn't go very well with Mega Manectric, but that is probably fair considering all the other members work very well with each other and Talonflame seems very good with this set. Or maybe he is the one to replace with a pokemon that my team needs more?


Previous team members:
The Talonflame I had before, which was replaced by one with Maranga Berry as suggested below by Omastar68.

Talonflame (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost

A frail pokemon turned into a tough one for switching into statuses and resisted attacks with Lum Berry, Taunting their set-ups and status moves, burning in turn and making them thing I will do a fire move, which I don't even have! This Talonflame can survive attacks while the opponent is burning down without a way to status it and safely finish off with Brave Bird. This tends to cause a few switches, which I may predict and burn or Taunt just as they come in.

 

[Omastar68]

Hello again(I'm the one who suggested Freeze-Dry on Mamo!)

Mega Metagross is certainly the interesting Poke in BSS...I guess you could say it's gross in this meta(it's just asking for that,) though I wouldn't say it's e worst mega viable in BSS(my vote there is Sceptile, but that's another story.) I'm a bit skeptical about Hammer Arm, since yours is a fast Metagross, but EQ doesn't get the TC bonus and Brick Break is relatively weak and screens are rare. Someone give this thing Drain Punch! Ice Punch over Hammer Arm could be good, you can never really have too much ice type coverage. Make sure to stick those last 4 EVs in HP or something, and to run calcs to make sure that you're using a good EV spread and that you want Meteor Mash and not Iron Head(both get TC boost, Iron Head has 100 accuracy at the cost of 10 BP, and it has a 30% flinch rate instead of a 20% chance to raise Atk one stage. Ofc, Iron Head isn't in Metagross' top 10 moves, but that doesn't always mean a move is bad. If Meteor Mash doesn't net some crucial OHKOs or 2HKOs I'd drop it for Iron Head.)

Hydra seems fine, not sure what else you can really do w/ a Specs set(Focus Miss see,s like it'd be dumb.) Just check the EVs, as always, to make sure you really need all those SpA EVs.)

Talonflame @ Lum Berry / Maranga Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 236 HP / 4 Atk / 44 Def / 188 SpD / 36 Spe
- Brave Bird / Acrobatics
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost

I got this set from cant say, it's quite a bit bulkier on the special side after the Maranga boost(still about the same if you go Lum,) and a little better on physical defense and slightly faster.

Jolly Mamoswine is gonna do minuscule damage w/ Freeze-Dry, going Naive will preserve your SpA, and the SpD drop isn't so bad for the most part. The first two Superpower targets that come to mind are Kang and Porygon2, but I don't think either is OHKOd(Kang is after DE recoil, but that happens even w/ EQ from an LO set,) and Knock Off is better for P2 anyways, since the EViolite is what makes it viable. Running 4 SpA EVs gives you a 96% chance to 2HKO Rotom-W, and 36 EVs guarantees it(96 is practically a guarantee, so just move that 4 SpD to SpA,) I also got this information from cant say, so ask him what EVs the Rotom-W in question is running.

Mega Manectric is perfectly fine, and since it's a frail sweeper, I wouldn't even bother checking the EVs.

I ran a Gyara that was practically the same, w/ moderate success. The only difference was I had 228 Def EVs and 28 SpD EVs. Forgot what that's for, but definitely something.

I don't see why you think Talon synergizes poorly w/ Mega Manectic since its immune to MM's sole weakness. Substitute is definitely a nuisance. I see it much more often than I'd like on PS, and even though it's not that common, it's still really nice to have a way around it. Short of going back to Icicle Spear(well, you were using Crash, but whatever,) the only way to damage things that already have a sub up w/ the Pokemon on this team is Hyper Voice on Hydreigon, which would suck. I guess you'll just have to be on top of things w/ Taunt, though easier said than done when Gyara is a fairly slow user and Talon is only one Poke(and not the fastest either w/ no/little speed investment.)

 

[Anirav]

I have to disagree with you here omastar68, I don't think its a good idea using a naive mamoswine for freeze dry because although it does 2hko rotom-w, rotom-w can just answer with a hydro pump and ohko the mamoswine.
0 SpA Rotom-W Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Mamoswine: 218-258 (118.4 - 140.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Freeze dry isn't really necessary for your team and I think you should go for an adamant AV mamoswine with icicle spear instead of freeze dry. Icicle spear allows you to break subs pretty efficiently and can also break sashes so its much better option.

As for the hydreigon, I think a timid nature would be better because choice specs is already giving you enough of a special attack boost and with a timid nature you get to outspeed max speed base 95s and max speed rotoms.

Use the talonflame set omastar68 recommended, it is much better and could work for your team.

Metagross, gyarados, and manectric look fine. Just make sure you only use hammer arm when its necessary because it does lower your speed which can lead to you losing the game.

 

[cant say]

This team looks pretty decent! You're right though that Talonflame and Gyarados don't really combine too well as it compounds your Rotom-W weakness. You could replace either of them with Serperior, but Serperior's build differs depending on which you replace.

If you replace Gyarados, then Serperior should be the Solid Snake set from our analysis on the Strategy Dex.
If you replace Talonflame, then Serperior should be the offensive Life Orb set. It could potentially replace Talonflame and use a similar build to the Solid Snake set, but since Gyarados has the Rocky Helmet then you should use something like Lum Berry or Leftovers.

Now that you have something that can wallop Rotom-W, your Mamoswine doesn't need to run Freeze-Dry (or Life Orb for that matter). I believe that Assault Vest Mamoswine will be a much nicer fit for your team, especially so if you replace Talonflame! We don't have a finished analysis for him uploaded yet, but NOVED has a WIP analysis with a damn fine AV set, so I'll post that here:

name: Assault Vest
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Ice Shard
move 3: Icicle Spear
move 4: Fissure / Knock Off / Rock Tomb
item: Assault Vest
ability: Thick Fat
nature: Adamant
evs: 44 HP / 156 Atk / 4 Def / 252 SpD / 52 Spe

I bolded Rock Tomb because right now, Hydreigon is the only thing on your team that can beat Rotom-H (by nuking it with Modest + Specs Draco Meteor), in the case you find yourself with Mamoswine out against it, Rock Tomb is your best move against it, and the speed drop really punishes switch-ins. It's also helps Hydreigon by outspeeding things and being able to keep running Modest.

tl;dr
> replace Gyarados or Talonflame with either bulky or offensive Serperior respectively
> change Mamoswine to the Assault Vest set

 

[2Radon]

Thank you so much for your incredibly insightful replies!
And thank you for showing the AV Mamo build - I loved AV Rhyperior and Mamoswine will be able to fight Substitutes and punish switches while being easier to switch in and survive - that sounds brilliant!
Plus, it also frees up Hydreigon for the suggested Nature change to Timid by aniravjain to benefit Speed and I now want to run damage calculator to fine-tune the EVs. Since I am not so familiar yet with all the match-ups I could be facing with Hydreigon, which pokemon should I calculate it against?
I'm thinking Aegislash, Ferrothorn, Clefable, Mega Charizard X, Garchomp, Tyranitar, SpD Talonflame, but there are surely more.

I really like how the suggested Talonflame sounds and is unexpected from it as well, and Gyarados has a really annoying combination with Manectric for Intimidate and Electric attack baiting, if I swap it with and offensive Serperior, Gyarados can come along and offer Intimidate and answer to Fire and even Flying types as well. In this case I would most likely require Mega Manectric for its Flamethrower against Ice types and that would provide even more Intimidate support, as well as remove the need for Ice Fang on Gyarados, it seems to me.

I do like how quite a few defensive pokemon play, so I am interested in the defensive Serperior, which can provide a great bonus with Reflect, allowing even an easy switch in for Manectric against physical opponents. This Serperior could get a lot more out of the Rocky Helmet with these moves than Gyarados and if allowed to get two Leaf Storms off could be devastating, I think.
Though by choosing this I lose the biggest bait to Electric attacks for Manectric and the double Intimidate play (Talonflame remains the only bait and his sole attack Acrobatics might not cover the Ground types that Manectric fears, making Serperior a must most of the time). Since Manectric has HP Ice, I don't think I'd miss Ice Fang from the Gyarados. With the requirement of Taunt, I also lose my source of Paralysis.

It seems to me this is a tough choice and I might have to do a lot more tests with two variations of my team, unfortunately, or is there a better way to decide about Serperior?

 

[cant say]

Hydreigon really needs to be Modest to make sure it OHKOes Rotom-H (and I guess Rotom-W if you don't bring Serperior). Just coz you're going Specs doesn't mean you can go Timid, Hydra needs all the power it can get, especially since it's primarily a wallbreaker anyway.

Bulky Serperior is a fantastic check to Mega Kangaskhan and Garchomp, so by choosing it over Gyarados you're really only opening yourself up to Mega Salamence and Heatran, but Mamoswine deals with both and Manectric can usually deal with Mega Salamence. Mega Metagross can as well if you choose Ice Punch over Hammer Arm (something I forget to mention in my original post).

That way you keep your specially- and physically-defensive duo, instead of just having a physdef mon (Gyara) and another offensive mon (LO Serp). So I think go with Serperior over Gyarados.

But yeah it's never a bad idea to test out both teams on PS before you wanna breed them on-cart!

 

[Omastar68]

Hydreigon really needs to be Modest to make sure it OHKOes Rotom-H (and I guess Rotom-W if you don't bring Serperior). Just coz you're going Specs doesn't mean you can go Timid, Hydra needs all the power it can get, especially since it's primarily a wallbreaker anyway.

Bulky Serperior is a fantastic check to Mega Kangaskhan and Garchomp, so by choosing it over Gyarados you're really only opening yourself up to Mega Salamence and Heatran, but Mamoswine deals with both and Manectric can usually deal with Mega Salamence. Mega Metagross can as well if you choose Ice Punch over Hammer Arm (something I forget to mention in my original post).

That way you keep your specially- and physically-defensive duo, instead of just having a physdef mon (Gyara) and another offensive mon (LO Serp). So I think go with Serperior over Gyarados.

But yeah it's never a bad idea to test out both teams on PS before you wanna breed them on-cart!

Beat me to it. Was gonna say Modest>Timid on Hydra, too. Hydra beats Rotoms already, and max speed base 95s aren't common(Gliscor can't do too much to Hydra, and rarely if ever goes max speed.) I use Freeze-Dry, but it's not really for Rotom-W. What I like about it is it does lots to Gyara(Mega is KOing w/ Waterfall, but plenty are defensive,) Mega Slowbro, and a few other oddities like Gastrodon and Ludicolo. It still does tons to 4x ice weak dragons, while their lower SpD offsets the lower damage due to Mamo's low SpA and FD's lower base power compared to Icicle Spear/Crash. FD can also surprise supremely physically bulky switch ins like Skarmory. Assault Vest Mamo is really good, and your team could use some more special bulk.


When O do calcs, I tend to use stuff like CB Talon's BB, CB Chomp's Outrage(as well as EQ and its rock coverage if the Poke I'm calling for is weak,) 252 Kang's DE(or SE coverage move when applicable,) 252+Atk Kang's DE, 252+Atk Mega Blaziken's HJK(or other SE move it might run, particularly Flare Blitz. Did you know Modest Chandelure can survive a Stone Edge if it's EVd right?), 252+Atk Lando-T's moves, 252+SpA Aegis' STAB moves(Sacred Sword if my Poke's weak, and you also want to see if you can typically take a STAB followed by Shadow Sneak. Since Aegi likes WP, running calcs w/ it at +2 is also a good idea,) Mega Manectric(because it is predictable in what it runs, so you don't have to guess much w/ the EVs it has,) 252 SpA Thundy's LO T-Bolt(not that common, but why not?,) Mega Gengar's STABs, both for 252 and 0 SpA, and anything that's threatening in the strat Dex, since those EVs are listed so you won't be running defensive calcs w/ the foe w/ X number of Atk/SpA EVs when most of them actually run a different number of Atk/SpA EVs. Defensively, stuff you want to calc for(at least w/ Hydra,) is 252/4 Aegislash, Kang(4/0 is easiest, but a bulky speed would be good too,) Suicune(252/4, unboosted and boosted to maybe +2,) anything else weak to one of Hydra's moves, and ofc anything on the strat Dex. I don't actually run that many calcs myself, but I do a lot of the main ones like can I survive 252 Atk Megamence's DE, etc.

 

[2Radon]

I seem to pick M-Manec a lot more often than M-Meta because Manectric's moves tend to cover at least 4 pokes on the opposing team while Meta's moves might cover no more than 3 in the same case. Am I thinking right choosing Manectric when the coverage is better (and often SE types against Meta are more)?

This battle was a disaster.
Another case where Manectric covers almost all opposing pokemon with a SE move and Intimidate helps against more than half of them, while there is Thundurus to pivot into.
I picked Mamo to cover his possible picks as well (it basically all of that team, and can switch into Thundurus for free too). Then Serperior, I thought, would do well against all but Charizard, which is fine and I have the coverage already on the two I picked.

The first mistake I did was leave Manectric in after sleep, because I felt it would last two more turns and it might as well be dead if put to sleep. Mamo wouldn't have been an option against Bullet Seed, according to dmg calc, but Serperior might have been (though I would have naturally wanted to switch Mamo for Ice > Grass). That would have eventually forced him to switch into Charizard, which would have forced me to switch into Mamo, which, as you can see here, went down like nothing, and a sleeping Manectric was as good as a give-away point.
Since Mamo failed, I was left with nothing against Zard-X, which makes me think I should pay more counters to possible Megas from the opponent than the other two he might choose.

Besides the failure in picking, what could you have suggested I did with the three I chose, and could it have been possible to win for me?

Regarding team composition, I would have picked Gyarados if it was there, and it would have absorbed Zard-X hits while wearing it down with Rocky Helmet and Thunder Wave, though eventually fainting due to no recovery. Also more Intimidate. But according to dmg calc it's not very clear, so I would say Intimidate and Rocky Helmet cut the win between those two.

 

[Omastar68]

I seem to pick M-Manec a lot more often than M-Meta because Manectric's moves tend to cover at least 4 pokes on the opposing team while Meta's moves might cover no more than 3 in the same case. Am I thinking right choosing Manectric when the coverage is better (and often SE types against Meta are more)?

This battle was a disaster.
Another case where Manectric covers almost all opposing pokemon with a SE move and Intimidate helps against more than half of them, while there is Thundurus to pivot into.
I picked Mamo to cover his possible picks as well (it basically all of that team, and can switch into Thundurus for free too). Then Serperior, I thought, would do well against all but Charizard, which is fine and I have the coverage already on the two I picked.

The first mistake I did was leave Manectric in after sleep, because I felt it would last two more turns and it might as well be dead if put to sleep. Mamo wouldn't have been an option against Bullet Seed, according to dmg calc, but Serperior might have been (though I would have naturally wanted to switch Mamo for Ice > Grass). That would have eventually forced him to switch into Charizard, which would have forced me to switch into Mamo, which, as you can see here, went down like nothing, and a sleeping Manectric was as good as a give-away point.
Since Mamo failed, I was left with nothing against Zard-X, which makes me think I should pay more counters to possible Megas from the opponent than the other two he might choose.

Besides the failure in picking, what could you have suggested I did with the three I chose, and could it have been possible to win for me?

Regarding team composition, I would have picked Gyarados if it was there, and it would have absorbed Zard-X hits while wearing it down with Rocky Helmet and Thunder Wave, though eventually fainting due to no recovery. Also more Intimidate. But according to dmg calc it's not very clear, so I would say Intimidate and Rocky Helmet cut the win between those two.

I can maybe see why you did what you did, but one thing is the first turn Manectric shoulda gone used Volt Switch after going mega, and pivoting out to Serperior. Any grass type worth using, except ofc sash Breloom, can switch in on Breloom to soak up a predicted Spore(cause that's often what it'll go for immediately. Same w/ Smeargle, tho w/ that one Breloom is generally a safe switch in as well,) and breaking its sash first and lowering Atk woulda put you at an advantage. I would've switched out mega Manectric after being put to sleep, even though it was effectively dead, Serp gets a free switch in on Breloom, and you can bring Mega Manectric in on something later to Intimidate it and give the next Pike you send out a free switch in. Really there wasn't any hope after the first turn when you didn't switch out MM, either through VS or the normal way. High speed(252 EVs but not plus speed nature,) base 100s outspeed max speed 80s like your Mamo, so even if you had sacrificed Serp to Char X you wouldn't have been able to revenge w/ Mamo. I'd actually argue you didn't fail in picking your 3 Pokemon-Hydra is outspeed and OHKOd by Kang, and eats a Mach Punch from Bre while not enjoying para from Thundy(or anything) at all. Meta's has a horrendous match up vs Aegi, doesn't do too hot vs Hippo or Zard(especially X w/ it's good physical bulk,) can take a lot from Kang(weak to Sucker Punch as well,) and yours has nothing to hit Thundy w/ really hard, so it can T-Wave and then just switch/pivot out, stay in and T-Bolt(hoping for for full paralysis on you, tho if you had gotten that the first turn you'd be in a really bad place,) or Swagger, and T-Bolt the next turn if you hit yourself/fail to move. Talon really can't handle Thundy at all, has some trouble w/ Aegi and Hippo, and would've been bad cause it was Char X not Y, which takes much less from BB. So you picked right but made a mistake.

 

[cant say]

I seem to pick M-Manec a lot more often than M-Meta because Manectric's moves tend to cover at least 4 pokes on the opposing team while Meta's moves might cover no more than 3 in the same case. Am I thinking right choosing Manectric when the coverage is better (and often SE types against Meta are more)?

This battle was a disaster.
Another case where Manectric covers almost all opposing pokemon with a SE move and Intimidate helps against more than half of them, while there is Thundurus to pivot into.
I picked Mamo to cover his possible picks as well (it basically all of that team, and can switch into Thundurus for free too). Then Serperior, I thought, would do well against all but Charizard, which is fine and I have the coverage already on the two I picked.

The first mistake I did was leave Manectric in after sleep, because I felt it would last two more turns and it might as well be dead if put to sleep. Mamo wouldn't have been an option against Bullet Seed, according to dmg calc, but Serperior might have been (though I would have naturally wanted to switch Mamo for Ice > Grass). That would have eventually forced him to switch into Charizard, which would have forced me to switch into Mamo, which, as you can see here, went down like nothing, and a sleeping Manectric was as good as a give-away point.
Since Mamo failed, I was left with nothing against Zard-X, which makes me think I should pay more counters to possible Megas from the opponent than the other two he might choose.

Besides the failure in picking, what could you have suggested I did with the three I chose, and could it have been possible to win for me?

Regarding team composition, I would have picked Gyarados if it was there, and it would have absorbed Zard-X hits while wearing it down with Rocky Helmet and Thunder Wave, though eventually fainting due to no recovery. Also more Intimidate. But according to dmg calc it's not very clear, so I would say Intimidate and Rocky Helmet cut the win between those two.

You just played that really badly. When they led with Breloom you should have immediately switched to Serperior who is immune to Spore thanks to its Grass-typing and walls it really well. Then when Charizard came in you should have used Glare to paralyze it (the Solid Snake set outspeeds all Zard variants), so that Mamo could revenge kill it. We don't know what their third Pokemon was but you would have had a full health Mamo and Manectric vs their last so you probably would have won....

 

[2Radon]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-322158808
Serperior sure sounds great, but although I'm not trying to disprove how well it fits in this team, in practice I tend to send it out against a lot of fighting types, because often Talonflame is threatened too much for that and Serperior is the only choice.
In this match, after reviewing it I realized my best bet could have been sacrificing my faster Serperior to paralyze Zard X and allow Hydreigon to revenge KO it with meteor, but then I should have chosen Mega Manectric to switch into Politoed and hope trading water attacks with it would get me through it. After that, all Manectric's attacks are resisted by Kingdra and Swift Swim outspeeds Hydreigon, so I had lost it.
Why do I keep wanting to believe Gyarados is a safer defensive matchup against water types than Serperior, as well as a lot Fire, Fighting and even Dragon types?
I looked at dmg calc also, Serperior could have put up a Reflect before Zard hit, survived it and paralyzed too, but that would have made no difference seeing as the other two mons were special-based.

But if Gyara knew only Ice Fang and Waterfall besides Taunt and Thunder Wave, I think that would have just delayed the imminent defeat.

I replaced Ice Punch on Metagross with Hammer arm as I felt I didn't have a reliable answer to Steel and Normal mons like Kanga, maybe Heatran and the like... Though Ice Punch allowed Metagross to be picked more often I think.

Edit: I've been trying the Serpe and Gyara version and so far I feel it has brought more than the Talonflame option. I worry the lack of special defense on my team is making it come closer to the risk line than it should...
Also I think some scarf mons destroyed my team at least twice. Notably Garchomp and Mamoswine, when I just couldn't outspeed them and their damage was immense.

I am now thinking that Hydreigon is the single best mon on this team and I sometimes find locking myself into Dark Pulse sweeping entire teams alone. The additional chance to flinch is always a helpful thing. Otherwise, Draco Meteor will destroy just about anything other than Fairies without fail. He carries my strongest fire nuke, which along with Manectric's Flamethrower is enough fire coverage, I think.
I wonder if Focus Blast would be a better option as I haven't had much use for Earth Power, and FB would be able to take care of Heatran, other steel and Normal types, while letting Metagross pick up Ice Punch again. What do you say? The miss chance is a bit worrisome, though.
Maybe this means I should do more changes to the team to complement Hydreigon more?

So the fast Garchomp examples:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-322199941 - I don't even know how he managed to pop in and smack down my team! Don't believe he can be faster than my mons without a Choice Scarf.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-322202693 I could have expected the Sucker Punch if I was more familiar with Mega Mawile and saved my Mamo while having the same result with Manec, but what surprised me was that Turn 7 EQ going before Manectric! I ran the dmg calc anyway and found that M-Manec has an 18.8% chance to OHKO Scarfchomp with HP Ice. Not so promising. :(

 

[cant say]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-322158808
Serperior sure sounds great, but although I'm not trying to disprove how well it fits in this team, in practice I tend to send it out against a lot of fighting types, because often Talonflame is threatened too much for that and Serperior is the only choice.
In this match, after reviewing it I realized my best bet could have been sacrificing my faster Serperior to paralyze Zard X and allow Hydreigon to revenge KO it with meteor, but then I should have chosen Mega Manectric to switch into Politoed and hope trading water attacks with it would get me through it. After that, all Manectric's attacks are resisted by Kingdra and Swift Swim outspeeds Hydreigon, so I had lost it.
Why do I keep wanting to believe Gyarados is a safer defensive matchup against water types than Serperior, as well as a lot Fire, Fighting and even Dragon types?
I looked at dmg calc also, Serperior could have put up a Reflect before Zard hit, survived it and paralyzed too, but that would have made no difference seeing as the other two mons were special-based.

But if Gyara knew only Ice Fang and Waterfall besides Taunt and Thunder Wave, I think that would have just delayed the imminent defeat.

I replaced Ice Punch on Metagross with Hammer arm as I felt I didn't have a reliable answer to Steel and Normal mons like Kanga, maybe Heatran and the like... Though Ice Punch allowed Metagross to be picked more often I think.

Edit: I've been trying the Serpe and Gyara version and so far I feel it has brought more than the Talonflame option. I worry the lack of special defense on my team is making it come closer to the risk line than it should...
Also I think some scarf mons destroyed my team at least twice. Notably Garchomp and Mamoswine, when I just couldn't outspeed them and their damage was immense.

I am now thinking that Hydreigon is the single best mon on this team and I sometimes find locking myself into Dark Pulse sweeping entire teams alone. The additional chance to flinch is always a helpful thing. Otherwise, Draco Meteor will destroy just about anything other than Fairies without fail. He carries my strongest fire nuke, which along with Manectric's Flamethrower is enough fire coverage, I think.
I wonder if Focus Blast would be a better option as I haven't had much use for Earth Power, and FB would be able to take care of Heatran, other steel and Normal types, while letting Metagross pick up Ice Punch again. What do you say? The miss chance is a bit worrisome, though.
Maybe this means I should do more changes to the team to complement Hydreigon more?

So the fast Garchomp examples:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-322199941 - I don't even know how he managed to pop in and smack down my team! Don't believe he can be faster than my mons without a Choice Scarf.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-322202693 I could have expected the Sucker Punch if I was more familiar with Mega Mawile and saved my Mamo while having the same result with Manec, but what surprised me was that Turn 7 EQ going before Manectric! I ran the dmg calc anyway and found that M-Manec has an 18.8% chance to OHKO Scarfchomp with HP Ice. Not so promising. :(

First match, you should have healed with Serperior rather than gone for the kill, this would have helped stall out the Rain turns and made sure you had more health to take on their last Pokemom. Politoed was doing like <40% with Ice Beam so you would be healing back more than it was dishing out. If you weren't so low on health then Choice Specs Kingdra wouldn't be able to lock itself into Surf while it killed you, meaning it'd choose something like Draco Meteor / Dragon Pulse or Ice Beam, meaning that Metagross would have curbstomped it.

Second Battle: why did you use Dark Pulse against Rotom-W?? Draco Meteor is a OHKO and nothing on his team could take it so he wasn't going to switch. Then you used Bullet Punch to try and pick off the Garchomp as he brought his Thundurus is. Garchomp outsped you because Metagross was using his pre-mega speed which is incidentally lower than Garchomp. However, after you had mega'd, Metagross would have outsped so using Bullet Punch was a misplay (unless it was Scarf, but it would be locked into Outrage in that case). There was a lot of pressure on Mamoswine in that game though as he needed to check both Garchomp and Thundurus.

Third battle: again you misplayed by going for the kill on Breloom when you should have healed Serperior, he walls both him and Garchomp and you knew it was Scarfchomp because it revenged your Manectric. When you brought in Serp against his Chomp locked into Earthquake you should have either used Glare or Reflect, then just sat infront of the Breloom and wall it until it died, then Glare the Garchomp and wall it until you won.

Team aside, and to be brutally honest, you just need more practice at battling than focussing on fine-tuning the team. All your losses have been from misplays rather than problems with the team (which you seem to be blaming, otherwise why are you posting here and not in one of our threads in the Battle Spot forum for help?).

 

[2Radon]

First match, you should have healed with Serperior rather than gone for the kill, this would have helped stall out the Rain turns and made sure you had more health to take on their last Pokemom. Politoed was doing like <40% with Ice Beam so you would be healing back more than it was dishing out. If you weren't so low on health then Choice Specs Kingdra wouldn't be able to lock itself into Surf while it killed you, meaning it'd choose something like Draco Meteor / Dragon Pulse or Ice Beam, meaning that Metagross would have curbstomped it.

Second Battle: why did you use Dark Pulse against Rotom-W?? Draco Meteor is a OHKO and nothing on his team could take it so he wasn't going to switch. Then you used Bullet Punch to try and pick off the Garchomp as he brought his Thundurus is. Garchomp outsped you because Metagross was using his pre-mega speed which is incidentally lower than Garchomp. However, after you had mega'd, Metagross would have outsped so using Bullet Punch was a misplay (unless it was Scarf, but it would be locked into Outrage in that case). There was a lot of pressure on Mamoswine in that game though as he needed to check both Garchomp and Thundurus.

Third battle: again you misplayed by going for the kill on Breloom when you should have healed Serperior, he walls both him and Garchomp and you knew it was Scarfchomp because it revenged your Manectric. When you brought in Serp against his Chomp locked into Earthquake you should have either used Glare or Reflect, then just sat infront of the Breloom and wall it until it died, then Glare the Garchomp and wall it until you won.

Team aside, and to be brutally honest, you just need more practice at battling than focussing on fine-tuning the team. All your losses have been from misplays rather than problems with the team (which you seem to be blaming, otherwise why are you posting here and not in one of our threads in the Battle Spot forum for help?).

Can you please give some examples where going Serp in place of Gyara and keeping Talonflame, instead of replacing Talon with Serp and keeping Gyara, I would be able to climb to a higher rating for sure, provided I learn to use it right?
I also need to settle on when it's right to start breeding my team. Maybe something like Focus Blast on Hydreigon and Ice Punch/Hammer Arm Metagross can be adjusted at any time after breeding and training up the team?
Also, I had a thought whether Assault Vest Rhyperior would be better than Mamoswine, as so far I've felt Mamo was meant more to come in either against resisted attacks, as lead, or revenge only, whereas Rhyperior would be capable of switching in in many more occasions, with being wary about Grass and Water attacks, which are both walled by Serperior and destroyed by my other mons. I wonder why Rhyperior isn't so popular?
Thank you for your replies, I appreciate them and try to make use of them to learn faster and better!

 

[cant say]

Honestly the only example I can think of off the top of my head is that if you drop Gyarados your team becomes slightly weaker to Mega Salamence, specifically the Dragon Dance set. If it manages to get a boost or two up, Manectric will be too slow to revenge kill it, and Mamoswine's Ice Shard may not be able to pick it off depending on how much health the Salamence has (or if it has an active Substitute). So if you keep Gyarados, it provides a great check to Salamence as it can tank a hit, T-wave it and then Ice Fang until either go down (if Salamence gets trough Gyara it will at least be easily revenged due to the paralysis). Gyara and Talon both check Blaziken equally well so not losing anything there, and you wall Mega Kangaskhan and Garchomp even better. Talonflame was good for Aegislash, Cresselia and Porygon2, but you have Hydreigon to nuke them, Mamo deals with Aegi and P2, and Serp can set up on Cres and P2. I honestly don't think you lose much by dropping either, as their jobs overlap so much (my reason for dropping one) so it's down to preference, but yeah I think having a defensive answer to Salamence rather than trying to revenge it is the biggest point in Gyara's favour.

No, don't use AV Rhyperior, keep Mamo. Rhyperior is too slow and can really only be used for a 1-for-1. Mamo's much greater speed and priority help it so much more against top threats, and he's so versatile that people can't tell exactly what it is, whereas everyone knows that Rhyperior is gonna do when they see it...

 

[2Radon]

I was surprised how rarely, or practically never, I select Mega Metagross when I run only Ice Punch or Hammer Arm along with Bullet Punch, Meteor Mash and Zen Headbutt.
Looking at the types of moves available to it, running Meteor Mash, Zen Headbutt, Hammer Arm and Ice Punch provides an incredible number of type coverage, hitting very hard with Tough Claws and high Atk, while never fearing to lead against an Intimidate pokemon because of Clear Body. It is also quite tough, and the last two moves I mentioned will often destroy two of its weaknesses, leaving only Ghost and Fire to avoid for sure. After this, Mega Metagross seems like capable of mashing a lot of opponents into a rather fine paste, especially if outspeeding them, but also through surviving.

With the occasional Meteor Mash Atk boost, the coverage with these moves is much better strengthened further than having Bullet Punch replace one of them.
Bullet Punch sounds good in theory - with STAB and Tough Claws it's like a lower priority Extreme Speed (80 power), but especially with Hydreigon on the team, popping Fairies is important.
And Hydreigon should then have Earth Power in place of Focus Blast, right?

Also, isn't it a good way to play by instead of focusing too much on STAB moves for a pokemon, which is what an opponent would expect and switch out from, you could focus on hitting the opposite types that the opponent would drop onto that pokemon?

Having said all that, Mega Meta still seems to get beaten by Burn and Paralysis if not faster SE moves. And unfortunately, my bulky Gyarados is very susceptible to statuses too. :(
<hr>
Now about Mamo - although I really like what it can do to a lot of common pokemon, I have ice moves on M-Meta, M-Manec and Gyara.

Now my team in general I have found to be a bit of a close call against Gengar running Focus Blast as it will KO even Gyarados who can Taunt it to prevent Destiny Bond, my Hydreigon gets annihilated by Focus Blast or taken with DB. Serperior by poison attack, and Meta by ghost attack. I only seem to have for it Mamo and M-Manec to try and revenge kill it, probably taken by DB anyway.

Dragonite might be rare(?), but I've seen it with Thunder punch every time, making me suddenly lose Gyara, then M-Manec... Do I have to definitely go Mamo against Dragonite and will it be very good against it?

The biggest shame against Rotom-W for me was when I had it switched in after my Gyara KO'd one and I of course couldn't keep Gyara against eletric attacks, so I switched to M-Manec, which got hit very hard by Hydro Pump and then Rotom-W switched out into something that I had to use Gyara for again, but then he switched Rotom-W again, easily predicted M-Manec coming in and Hydro Pumped the barf out of it.
What can I do and what should I do in situations like this? I think my Hydreigon got KO'd by Magnezone Flash Cannon crit there, which is why I didn't have it against Rotom-W.

 

[Omastar68]

Keep everything else on it, but go 252 HP/ 228 Def/ 28 SpD on Gyara. I honestly don't remember what those EVs are for, but they help you against some special attacker or anger while hardly impacting physical bulk.

If you're running Ice Punch on Meta, then could you edit your RMT? You don't get in trouble for it, especially if it's just a move change, and it'll make it easier to rate.

Choice Scarf on Mamo is actually pretty good. I run it w/ the same boring EVs and Jolly, but no Superpower or Freeze-Dry(FD is also unviable w/ a -SpA nature-the damage is poor even w/ a Naive nature against most stuff.)

Per than that just check EVs. You never know, even something like Mega Manectric might benefit from a tiny bit less SpA and you put that in Def or something. Also your Meta is missing 4 EVs. Probably put those in Def.

 

[2Radon]

I'll try that Gyara spread, thanks.
I guess I find AV mamo with the weird spread rather safe and I'm afraid to get locked into a move when often that Ice Shard can finish off what the previous move didn't. Mamo also carries my only rock attack and yeah Freeze-Dry doesn't even seem like a good option...

With these moves on M-Meta I now find myself picking it a lot more often than M-Manec this time, maybe he even makes M-Manec an obsolete secondary mega? But dropping M-Manec for a different secondary mega would take a lot of points from Gyara being there..? Sorry if I'm thinking too much about changing my team rather than adjusting and learning.

I did read around and notice some people saying M-Manec is in a speed tier that doesn't really need maxing the speed stat, so fine-tuning EVs could make it survive in some cases I imagine.
I also have a dilemma between Overheat and Flamethrower. By going Overheat I pick up more OHKOs which could be an important deciding factor often, but I am forcing M-Manec to switch due to reduced SpA after it. Flamethrower can come short of a OHKO often, but fixes that completely with Lightning Rod catching an electric attack, also not diminishing that bonus for other attacks, which sometimes can make M-Manec seal the battle at that point. Overheat with +1 seems an Overheat to me in the damage calculator.

Replays:
1. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-325688960
Looked like such an easy battle before I realized I'm not familiar with P2 moves and received a Paralysed M-Meta for that, should have switched to Mamo, right? Though I was fine against it with finally getting a crit off. The embarassing failure chain started when that Moody Mega Glalie came in. Just take a look... How could I have won this?
2. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-325701134
Didn't expect a SpA Blaziken, but if my Gyara goes down, I have nothing against Blaziken at all. I tried to drop in an Intimidate or two in hopes that my Mamo will survive it, but he could still switch after that to his 3rd pokemon. Should I have considered how I may need Gyara for Blaziken much more than using the opportunity I had on M-Sala and switched into M-Manec? I forgot that Electric actually resists Flying, plus Intimidate would have completely ruined M-Sala. I guess I just answered this myself?

 

[Omastar68]

I'll try that Gyara spread, thanks.
I guess I find AV mamo with the weird spread rather safe and I'm afraid to get locked into a move when often that Ice Shard can finish off what the previous move didn't. Mamo also carries my only rock attack and yeah Freeze-Dry doesn't even seem like a good option...

With these moves on M-Meta I now find myself picking it a lot more often than M-Manec this time, maybe he even makes M-Manec an obsolete secondary mega? But dropping M-Manec for a different secondary mega would take a lot of points from Gyara being there..? Sorry if I'm thinking too much about changing my team rather than adjusting and learning.

I did read around and notice some people saying M-Manec is in a speed tier that doesn't really need maxing the speed stat, so fine-tuning EVs could make it survive in some cases I imagine.
I also have a dilemma between Overheat and Flamethrower. By going Overheat I pick up more OHKOs which could be an important deciding factor often, but I am forcing M-Manec to switch due to reduced SpA after it. Flamethrower can come short of a OHKO often, but fixes that completely with Lightning Rod catching an electric attack, also not diminishing that bonus for other attacks, which sometimes can make M-Manec seal the battle at that point. Overheat with +1 seems an Overheat to me in the damage calculator.

Replays:
1. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-325688960
Looked like such an easy battle before I realized I'm not familiar with P2 moves and received a Paralysed M-Meta for that, should have switched to Mamo, right? Though I was fine against it with finally getting a crit off. The embarassing failure chain started when that Moody Mega Glalie came in. Just take a look... How could I have won this?
2. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-325701134
Didn't expect a SpA Blaziken, but if my Gyara goes down, I have nothing against Blaziken at all. I tried to drop in an Intimidate or two in hopes that my Mamo will survive it, but he could still switch after that to his 3rd pokemon. Should I have considered how I may need Gyara for Blaziken much more than using the opportunity I had on M-Sala and switched into M-Manec? I forgot that Electric actually resists Flying, plus Intimidate would have completely ruined M-Sala. I guess I just answered this myself?

I say Overheat for Mega Manec. There isn't really a right answer, but who doesn't like the extra power?

That P2 in the first battle was weird. For starters Trace>Download. Second, he never revealed its fourth move, but certainly it should be either Foul a Play or Tri-Attack, both of which do more to Meta than Ice Beam, so why was he spamming Ice Beam?
Was his fourth move Toxic or something. Weird.

Don't know what you could've done against that Glalie. Have you considered Iron Head over Meteor Mash on Meta? Not much weaker, and that 100 accuracy and 30% flinch chance is great.

I actually never noticed you have Serp on here lol-I think we might have our culprit.
For one thing, 248 DpA and speed indicates that both those IVs are even, a.k.a. imperfect. You want to breed for flawless. I also think the Solid Snake set in the strategy Dex might be better-it'd take your Rocky a Helmet, but Gyara oughta be running Lefties anyways I think. Gyara can sometimes get itself free turns w/ Taunt, paralysis, and the small flinch chances of both of its moves-that means Lefties is your friend, and since you're not running it anywhere else, why not?

 

[Anirav]

I'll try that Gyara spread, thanks.
I guess I find AV mamo with the weird spread rather safe and I'm afraid to get locked into a move when often that Ice Shard can finish off what the previous move didn't. Mamo also carries my only rock attack and yeah Freeze-Dry doesn't even seem like a good option...

With these moves on M-Meta I now find myself picking it a lot more often than M-Manec this time, maybe he even makes M-Manec an obsolete secondary mega? But dropping M-Manec for a different secondary mega would take a lot of points from Gyara being there..? Sorry if I'm thinking too much about changing my team rather than adjusting and learning.

I did read around and notice some people saying M-Manec is in a speed tier that doesn't really need maxing the speed stat, so fine-tuning EVs could make it survive in some cases I imagine.
I also have a dilemma between Overheat and Flamethrower. By going Overheat I pick up more OHKOs which could be an important deciding factor often, but I am forcing M-Manec to switch due to reduced SpA after it. Flamethrower can come short of a OHKO often, but fixes that completely with Lightning Rod catching an electric attack, also not diminishing that bonus for other attacks, which sometimes can make M-Manec seal the battle at that point. Overheat with +1 seems an Overheat to me in the damage calculator.

Replays:
1. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-325688960
Looked like such an easy battle before I realized I'm not familiar with P2 moves and received a Paralysed M-Meta for that, should have switched to Mamo, right? Though I was fine against it with finally getting a crit off. The embarassing failure chain started when that Moody Mega Glalie came in. Just take a look... How could I have won this?
2. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-325701134
Didn't expect a SpA Blaziken, but if my Gyara goes down, I have nothing against Blaziken at all. I tried to drop in an Intimidate or two in hopes that my Mamo will survive it, but he could still switch after that to his 3rd pokemon. Should I have considered how I may need Gyara for Blaziken much more than using the opportunity I had on M-Sala and switched into M-Manec? I forgot that Electric actually resists Flying, plus Intimidate would have completely ruined M-Sala. I guess I just answered this myself?

You could've won that first game if you had switched to gyarados when glalie set up the sub and then next turn you could've gone for a taunt to stop it from abusing sub and protect. The entire point of having a taunt gyarados is to stop mons from setting up. The only way you'll get better at recognizing what mons are gonna set up and what your opponent is gonna do next is by practice.

 

[cant say]

I'll try that Gyara spread, thanks.
I guess I find AV mamo with the weird spread rather safe and I'm afraid to get locked into a move when often that Ice Shard can finish off what the previous move didn't. Mamo also carries my only rock attack and yeah Freeze-Dry doesn't even seem like a good option...

With these moves on M-Meta I now find myself picking it a lot more often than M-Manec this time, maybe he even makes M-Manec an obsolete secondary mega? But dropping M-Manec for a different secondary mega would take a lot of points from Gyara being there..? Sorry if I'm thinking too much about changing my team rather than adjusting and learning.

I did read around and notice some people saying M-Manec is in a speed tier that doesn't really need maxing the speed stat, so fine-tuning EVs could make it survive in some cases I imagine.
I also have a dilemma between Overheat and Flamethrower. By going Overheat I pick up more OHKOs which could be an important deciding factor often, but I am forcing M-Manec to switch due to reduced SpA after it. Flamethrower can come short of a OHKO often, but fixes that completely with Lightning Rod catching an electric attack, also not diminishing that bonus for other attacks, which sometimes can make M-Manec seal the battle at that point. Overheat with +1 seems an Overheat to me in the damage calculator.

Replays:
1. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-325688960
Looked like such an easy battle before I realized I'm not familiar with P2 moves and received a Paralysed M-Meta for that, should have switched to Mamo, right? Though I was fine against it with finally getting a crit off. The embarassing failure chain started when that Moody Mega Glalie came in. Just take a look... How could I have won this?
2. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-325701134
Didn't expect a SpA Blaziken, but if my Gyara goes down, I have nothing against Blaziken at all. I tried to drop in an Intimidate or two in hopes that my Mamo will survive it, but he could still switch after that to his 3rd pokemon. Should I have considered how I may need Gyara for Blaziken much more than using the opportunity I had on M-Sala and switched into M-Manec? I forgot that Electric actually resists Flying, plus Intimidate would have completely ruined M-Sala. I guess I just answered this myself?

Glalie is a rare strategy, and Freeze-Dry + Earthquake is even rarer (like really rare) so you were just unlucky. You basically never see the strategy on your 3DS because it just takes so long that people can't be bothered doing it, lol. That's why I try to discourage playing on PS... It was really obvious he was going to use it since your team doesn't deal with it well. Your mistake was not going immediately to Gyarados to Taunt it so that Mamo could hopefully luck out and beat it (with Earthquake, why spam Rock Tomb?). But the Porygon2 lead was inevitable since Glalie teams always try to ease setup for the Glalie by spamming T-wave first, so leading with something like Hydreigon or Mega Manectric would have been better. The thing is, it is a strategy that relies on luck, sometimes you'll win and sometimes they will. That time they did. Having Bullet Punch on Metagross would have been great but you don't.

You did everything right in the second battle, the guy just had a really unorthodox team! Draco Meteor + Return is almost never used together, in fact they're both pretty rare on their own. The real gem was Focus Blast Blaziken, I've honestly never seen that. If it were standard Mega Mence + LO Blaze I think you would have won if played well. A lot of pressure on Gyarados to handle both but I think once Mence was para'd you could switch to Manectric to finish it, and allow Gyarados to save health for Blaziken. I'm not really sure, but I definitely know you shouldn't dwell on the weird battles as you won't run into them all the time. There's no point teambuilding for weird shit if it compromises you against common/standard shit. Just laugh it off and move on :)

Omastar68 download P2 is really common and quite good. It's fourth move must have been Toxic because anything else would have been better than Ice Beam against Metagross. Also, 248 SpA / 248 Spe are required on Serperior because of the Hidden Power Fire EVs it's using, so suggesting to go perfect is silly...

I don't necessarily disagree with your suggestion of Helmet Serp + Lefties Gyara, but it would make this team really defensive and I think the offensive Serp spread is good since he really needs it for Rotom-W and Azumarill

 

[2Radon]

I used Rock Tomb instead of EQ on Glalie because Rock is SE vs Ice.

Taking Bullet Punch in place of either Ice Punch or Hammer Arm severely reduces the useability of My M-Meta from what I've experienced. Also, both of those coverage moves allow it to easily take out a lot of top pokemon, it seems to me.
If I didn't require a devastating threat to Fairies to cover for Hydreigon I would even drop the Steel move on Meta and let my opponent switch thinking I have it while instead having another coverage move like EQ or Grass Knot (Having Mamo for Earth attacks and only Serp with grass attack, making it helpless against Sip Sappers (Solid Snake) I might lean towards Grass Knot).
But could I do that if I gave Flash Cannon to Hydrei in the 4th slot? Who would keep their Fairy in against Mega Metagross? And although a Steel attack would be SE against Rock and Ice just like Hammer Arm, but with a positive effect instead and having STAB, there seems to be no other reason to struggle giving a move slot for it. Maybe even Agility instead? ( :D )
That's why at first I considered compromising with Bullet Punch for my only Steel move, having a bit of power against Fairies just in case, while also having a good priority move.

Sylveon comes to mind in that case as it hits M-Meta very hard with Hyper Voice anyway, and Flash Cannon would be Special so Hydreigon would never dare face it.

And now with Life Orb gone from my Serp as I wen't for the suggested Rocky Helmet, is it a better option to give Life Orb to Hydrei and make use of the different moves, or would that throw it off its great wallbreaking role?

Edit: Just found out that Grass Knot gains bonus from Tough Claws, but then, unfortunately, other attacks that aren't SE do more damage to GK targets anyway. :/

Edit2: Would you say deciding whether or not I want HP Rock on Serperior is the last decision I need to make before I am safe to breed this team?

 

[cant say]

I used Rock Tomb instead of EQ on Glalie because Rock is SE vs Ice.

Taking Bullet Punch in place of either Ice Punch or Hammer Arm severely reduces the useability of My M-Meta from what I've experienced. Also, both of those coverage moves allow it to easily take out a lot of top pokemon, it seems to me.
If I didn't require a devastating threat to Fairies to cover for Hydreigon I would even drop the Steel move on Meta and let my opponent switch thinking I have it while instead having another coverage move like EQ or Grass Knot (Having Mamo for Earth attacks and only Serp with grass attack, making it helpless against Sip Sappers (Solid Snake) I might lean towards Grass Knot).
But could I do that if I gave Flash Cannon to Hydrei in the 4th slot? Who would keep their Fairy in against Mega Metagross? And although a Steel attack would be SE against Rock and Ice just like Hammer Arm, but with a positive effect instead and having STAB, there seems to be no other reason to struggle giving a move slot for it. Maybe even Agility instead? ( :D )
That's why at first I considered compromising with Bullet Punch for my only Steel move, having a bit of power against Fairies just in case, while also having a good priority move.

Sylveon comes to mind in that case as it hits M-Meta very hard with Hyper Voice anyway, and Flash Cannon would be Special so Hydreigon would never dare face it.

And now with Life Orb gone from my Serp as I wen't for the suggested Rocky Helmet, is it a better option to give Life Orb to Hydrei and make use of the different moves, or would that throw it off its great wallbreaking role?

Edit: Just found out that Grass Knot gains bonus from Tough Claws, but then, unfortunately, other attacks that aren't SE do more damage to GK targets anyway. :/

Rock Tomb's 60 base power becomes 120 with a super effective hit. Earthquake's 100 becomes 150 with STAB. It's also 100% accurate so it was the superior option against Glalie.

I use Iron Head / Bullet Punch / Earthquake / Ice Punch on my Metagross. But yeah Zen Headbutt is really good for some stuff like Mega Venusaur and Rotom-W so deciding which Steel move to use is tough. You want a Steel move though otherwise what's the point of using Metagross?

I think you're dwelling on your losses a lot though, you know you're allowed to lose right? You don't have to build an unbeatable team or come here with replays every time you lose wondering what you can do better. As long as you're winning more than you're losing then just keep going and refining your skills I think!

 

[2Radon]

I was just theorizing how obvious it is for offensive pokemon to have a move corresponding to their type for STAB. Consider this kind of situation:
1. Steel type is switched against a Fairy type
2. Fairy type opponent expects Steel type attack to KO it
3. Fairy type switches with Ground type to counter Steel type with a STAB
4. Steel type user used an Ice type attack predicting that

So the point is that in most cases the 'must have' STAB attack or the type of that pokemon will be pivoted against, therefore reducing the effect of the STAB move and threatening the user.

Another note - with a lot of different coverage moves like M-Meta can have, it's bound to have at least one neutral damage move in any case.
~~~~~~~~~~~

I believe that you get better by analysing your mistakes, then you can determine whether the loss could have been a win through a different thought path. :)
In my case, I often miss a point or two and make the wrong choice or order in selection, but that I can feel starting to be replaced by in-battle decisions. Those are even easier to analyse since the 3 pokemon choices are set.

There are some battles I don't understand why I lost, and I can't simply leave it like that - if I'm gonna go with what I know and can do only and get that >50% win rate, I will hardly ever fill up the remaining portion of that win rate, because those are the things I don't know combined with the things I can't actually win.

 

[Omastar68]

A lot of your battle replays have been kinda out there with rare stuff like Glalie, Focus Blast Blaziken, and the like. Those random strats can always trip you up-rest assured people who run weird crap are losing more often than not, so you can call them noobs even if they're beating you :D

If you think you're losing too much, just start over making your team rather than trying to replace moves all the time.

You're overthinking Meta, even if it's kinda expected you oughta have a steel move. Plus, EQ isn't that strong w/o the TC boost, and special moves aren't much help at all. I think there was a time where Meta typically ran Agility/ Ice Punch/ Meteor Mash or Iron Head/ Zen Headbutt. It has good speed, so it can outspeed most anything after the Agility, and I think it even allows you to run Adamant.

Not sure if that would be a good set though. One weird thing that's gotten me a few times is regular Meta w/ a Weakness Policy. It can often survive a SE move, and if it used Agility that turn it is in a position to sweep. Other than that you could run a single screen on Meta, Substitute, Thunderpunch for something against Gyara, or even try Pursuit, though I think the move is kinda dumb.

P.S. If you want to prepare for stuff like Glalie you could have Haze,Clear Smog, Roar, or Whirlwind on something, though to fit that in you'd have to make some big changes to your team.

 

[cant say]

I was just theorizing how obvious it is for offensive pokemon to have a move corresponding to their type for STAB. Consider this kind of situation:
1. Steel type is switched against a Fairy type
2. Fairy type opponent expects Steel type attack to KO it
3. Fairy type switches with Ground type to counter Steel type with a STAB
4. Steel type user used an Ice type attack predicting that

So the point is that in most cases the 'must have' STAB attack or the type of that pokemon will be pivoted against, therefore reducing the effect of the STAB move and threatening the user.

Congratulations, you've discovered how Pokemon works! :p

This is just the mind games involved in playing this game. Of course, you can be caught out overpredicting and that Sylveon user can stay in on your Ice move and smack you with a Hidden Power Ground/Fire or Shadow Ball. Making the right plays / better judgement calls will come with experience, not continuously tampering with your team.

Another note - with a lot of different coverage moves like M-Meta can have, it's bound to have at least one neutral damage move in any case.

Yeah Metagross has really bad four-moveslot-syndrome. I think what you've got is fine, but you'll always find yourself wishing you had another move when the opportunity presents itself (such as Bullet Punch against Glalie, Protect against Garchomp, Hone Claws against defensive teams etc.).

I believe that you get better by analysing your mistakes, then you can determine whether the loss could have been a win through a different thought path. :)
In my case, I often miss a point or two and make the wrong choice or order in selection, but that I can feel starting to be replaced by in-battle decisions. Those are even easier to analyse since the 3 pokemon choices are set.

There are some battles I don't understand why I lost, and I can't simply leave it like that - if I'm gonna go with what I know and can do only and get that >50% win rate, I will hardly ever fill up the remaining portion of that win rate, because those are the things I don't know combined with the things I can't actually win.

I agree, this is a good thing to do to get better, but not something to do here in RMT. You can visit our Battle Spot forum and ask for help on losses on our metagame discussion thread, or hang out with us on Pokemon Showdown. This place is really just for showcasing your team and maybe implement sole suggestions. Stuff like "hey I lost to a weird set / core how do people normally play against these?" are best saved for other places.