[RATE MY TEAM] VGC MetaScreens

[Delta]

Hello everybody! I have been working on a team for quite some time now, and need just a tiny bit more help with it. It is a dual Screens team, with a Metagross and Meowstic core.



Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 SpD
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Protect

Metagross has quickly become my favorite mega Pokemon of all time. I know more about this guy than any other Pokemon. I maximized attack, and speed. There really isn't too much to it. This might not my end all be all EV set. I will eventually maximize bulk, speed, and attack, but this is a good substitute for now. Zen Headbutt is your standard psychic type attack, and has great coverage over what Meteor Mash doesn't have. I chose Meteor Mash over Iron Head because the slight damage buff is nice, and the attack bonus is great. I should also mention, that Clear Body is an amazing ability. I can safely send out Metagross into a double Intimidate, and I won't be phased. This is, of course, until it goes mega. Bullet Punch is a staple to Metagross. It can be used to pick off weakened Pokemon, and it hits pretty hard. I have used a slow and bulky Metagross before, but I prefer speedy Metagross under screens because I can hit first, and still have quite a nice amount of bulk. I have found on multiple occasions that Protect is better than anything else.



Meowstic @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 108 SpD
Calm Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Safeguard
- Quick Guard

Meowstic is the main thing that holds this team together. It almost always leads, and the times it doesn't, I regret it. It had dual screens, as well as Safeguard to protect against Smeargle, and Quick Guard to protect against Thunderus's Taunts, and Fake Out. Light Clay keeps screens up for a while, and I need it. I rarely run out of screens, but I use every single turn. Most of my battles are 7-8 turns. I threw together the EV's for Meowstic. There was no calculations made, I just slid the sliders in Showdown and said **** it.



Scrafty @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Atk / 116 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Drain Punch
- Protect
- Knock Off
- Fake Out

Through all the battles I've done, I have concluded that I love Scrafty. He is very bulky, has Intimidate, has a very good typing, and has Fake Out. What is not to love. He is also pretty slow, and so, sometimes, he with get outsped by an Aegislash, and after it is hit with Knock Off, it won't be happy. Now, for confession time. I stole borrowed the Scrafty set from this thread http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-VGC...ht=scrafty. I just changed Rocky Helmet to Leftovers. Leftovers have proven much more useful. Protect is, well, Protect. It Protects you. I used to run Super Fang, but I never found it useful.



Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect

I quite like Zapdos. I like it better than Thunderus. With a Life Orb, it hits very hard, and it is pretty bulky behind screens. Heat Wave has been infinitely useful against Pokemon like Bisharp and other steel types that my team has trouble with. Hidden Power Ice does what Hidden Power Ice does; destroy everything that is x4 weak to it. Protect protects me, and is a staple on just about any doubles Pokemon. The natures and EV's are too maximize Speed and Special Attack.



Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
- King's Shield
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Ball
- Wide Guard

Aegislash is basically THE doubles Pokemon. There is so much strategy that goes behind it. Do I King Shield now or wait 'til later? I have Wide Guard to protect myself from Earthquakes, Heat Waves, and Hyper Voice. Weakness Policy is, in my opinion, the best item for Aegislash, especially when it is behind screens. I run Calm instead of Modest or Quiet because when Calm, and in Shield Form, I can almost always survive a Choice Specs 252+ Hydreigon Dark Pulse. The rest is put into Special Attack to maximize my damage output.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 0+ SpD Aegislash-Shield: 140-168 (83.8 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO


Now here we get to an interesting point in the team. I have not found a very good last pokemon. I have used Rhyperior, Chansey, Gengar, and Terrakion, and the only pokemon that really helped was Chansey and Rhyperior, and Rhyperior subtracted from Aegislash, because it needs a Weakness Policy as well. I would really love some help on this last Pokemon.
                                                                                         
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-255538092
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-255664609
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-255685128
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-256563470
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-256572193
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battle...-257863264

I thank you for reading this, and I would love to get some feedback. I will also make edits in the color blue.

[Slec]

I highly suggest staying away from the 252/252/4 spread as I do in every RMT and people are probably getting tired of it . But this team seems very balanced. However speed control might be a factor and this team is very Bisharp and Aegislash weak except for Scrafty. A water type would fit well here as well as a bulkier Zapdos spread. Hope this helped

[Rogue]

I've legitimately never run a dual screens team, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
I like the team however, all of the replays made me surprised with how well they were taking damage behind screens especially when your spreads aren't really bulky.
So because of that, I'm in the middle with this. I like the fact that you can run these powerhouse simplified builds because of screens, but it makes me worried about what would happen if you can't get those screens up. Like say meowstic gets crit OHKO'd or something of that nature. Or maybe they just make a lead that Meowstic can't live a turn from, or they double up; whatever the case might be, you get the point.

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Metagross

Metagross is probably fine here. I see a lot of 252 gross builds and they work out just fine. The only other ones I see are ones with max speed w/ 204 attack and the rest in bulk. Not really sure the reason behind it as I never really use mega metagross. So /shrug
I do recommend dropping Bullet punch for hammer arm. This is really just a suggestion, but hammer arm metagross is becoming more popular within good reason. Especially since this team is rather dark weak. Try it out!

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Meowstic

Nothing to really say about Meowstic. All EV spreads are usually 252/252 or split just like yours. The only spread I've ever used was stolen, and it's: 252 HP / 140 Def / 116 SpDef with a bold nature. This spread basically lets you survive jolly kangs double edge, bisharp/scrafty knock off (even life orb bisharp knock off), etc. up to you if you wanna try it.

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Scrafty

scrafty is good here.

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Zapdos

I like life orb zapdos, and it's especially nice under screens so you can be more lenient with ev's. EVs: 36 HP / 64 Def / 212 SpA / 196 Spe This spread is from a 1st place team in a regional from mexico. It gives you a little bit of bulk to get 3hko'd from certain rock slides, and gives you enough speed and damage to pull off the things you want. T-Bolt still ohko's a bulky zard y, which gives your team some problems.

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Aegislash

Mixed feelings about aegislash here. Slash is a really good mon. But it just sort of hurts, and helps the team just by being on it. You gain another dark and ghost weakness, giving you 3 ghost & dark weaknesses. It also adds another ground and fire weakness, and zard y already gives you a tad bit of trouble. But at the same time aegislash does well simply because, well; it's an aegislash.
I'd personally drop aegislash. But if you wanna keep it, I understand. Here's my favorite spread: 252 HP/204 SpA/52 SpD

"Survives Modest Choice Specs Hydreigon Dark Pulse 63.5% of the time
Survives 100 Spa Modest Mega Charizard Y spread Heat Wave 87.% of the time
Survives Modest Heatran Fire Blast 96.7% of the time
OHKOs 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Metagross with Shadow Ball 87.5% of the time"

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and finally, I think a really good teammate would be Sylveon.
It helps your dark weakness, already gives off amazing offensive support, and because it already maintains good bulk, screens will only help it even more. It also beats fighting types, and a conkeldurr under TR could be harsh for you.

I use my sisters choice specs spread, i literally use this on every sylveon I have and I love it.

Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 94 HP / 120 Def / 248 SpA / 46 SpD
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Hidden power ground is mainly for heatran, but you can change it to something like hyper beam or shadow ball if you'd like. Psyshock is mainly for mega venusaur, but you already have metagross for that. Moonblast is to play around wide guard users. If I had a dollar for everytime I OHKO'd a hitmontop with moonblast because it used wide guard.. I'd have like 10 dollars. But still. Hyper voice KO's everything.

Another good choice for sylveon is pixie plate. I've only used this like once, and it's really good. However my build was sloppy and I know it can be done better since I only use specs. Skim through black117's teams here: http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-Bla...rly-August

On this thread he uses pixie plate sylveon in multiple teams, all with different uses. Try some out! Be sure to give him credit if you use one!

Hope I helped.

[Delta]

(Aug 10, 2015, 11:55 AM)MudkipLegend Wrote: I highly suggest staying away from the 252/252/4 spread as I do in every RMT and people are probably getting tired of it . But this team seems very balanced. However speed control might be a factor and this team is very Bisharp and Aegislash weak except for Scrafty. A water type would fit well here as well as a bulkier Zapdos spread. Hope this helped

I am certainly going to try to get some more optimized EV's. I can certainly see my weaknesses from Bisharp and Aegislash, and so I might be adding Hydreigon do remedy that. A slightly bulkier Zapdos could work, but I like the ability to speed tie other base 100 Pokemon. I'll still give it a try.

(Aug 10, 2015, 12:44 PM)Rogue Wrote: (Insert your long, and very helpful evaluation here)

I appreciate the your suggestion with Metagross, but I am not changing him. Bullet Punch is just too valuable.

I will try out that Zapdos, see if being less speedy and more bulky fits me better.

I am liking those statistics for Aegislash. Under screens, and with a Weakness Policy, I might just have to "borrow" that from you.

And now for the final Pokemon. I will try out Sylveon, and I will also try using a Hydreigon. It seems to cover a few of my weaknesses, and Sylveon would not want to come near all the steel type Pokemon I have.