Tales from Battle Spot Singles blog #4 — Metagross Araquanid (SnowParty S13)
While awaiting the blog posts following the end of Season 13 in early January 2019, this month's blog post is about a fun Specs Araquanid team extrapolated from three streaming sessions played by SnowParty (twitch.tv/picture7200), which I used to 7-0 myself from 1700 to 1800 late in the season after countless unsuccessful experiments to do so with both Surge Surfer and mega Ampharos/Pancake Snorlax Trick Room.
Nouthuca: n/a
blogs: https://ocurern.hatenablog.com/entry/2018/11/06/164452 (likely original core)
QR code: n/a
Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/f8b26275b2b7aae6
1) Team overview:
Please see links above for builds.
Araquanid:
Water Bubble boosted Specs Araquanid likes to click Surf almost no matter what. It hits hard. So hard, in fact, that it 2HKOs most Snorlax, while 3HKOing the likes of Gyarados and 252 HP Tapu Fini, limiting their longevity as switch-ins. This also means that opponents who play into a utility Sticky Webs Waterium Z or full offense Choice Band Araquanid instead just occasionally lose the game immediately. Access to damage this severe at the click of a button also lends itself nicely to Trick Room from Mimikyu after the opponent is sufficiently bruised by Metagross and Mimikyu.
The bulk listed above lets Araquanid live a +252 Outrage from Charizard X and +252 Snuggle from Mimikyu while OHKOing back with Surf. Tapu Koko Thunderbolt in terrain is also only a 43.8% chance to OHKO, meaning Araquanid can lead against Volt Switch Koko if need be, although Xurkitree is far and away better suited for that task.
As an aside, I personally ran into a couple of people who used Gyarados to try to check Araquanid. These were situations that inevitably led me wanting to overthink they were bulky Flynium Bounce, something I have onetricked myself in the past, when in reality it was always a case of either bulky Rocky Helmet or just straight up Intimidate into mega for want of anything else—both 3HKOable & Scald haxable with no danger whatsoever to ladder points.
Metagross:
Zen Headbutt and Hammer Arm combined provide answers for Toxapex and Porygon2/Ferrothorn, while sacrificing the ability to win a Metagross mirror or touch Aegislash in any meaningful way.
Bulk makes even +1 +252 Salamence Earthquake and the rare Ghostium +252 Mimikyu survivable and +252 Landorus Earthquake a 12.5% lowroll to OHKO, while Metagross' 158 creeps just past Jolly suicide lead Landorus.
Metagross competes for the lead role chiefly with Araquanid and Xurkitree.
Mimikyu:
Trick Room turns the tables on rain Swampert/sand Excadrill and speed boosted set-up sweepers while Curse waylays Baton Pass and provides a win condition against Glalie. With heftier than usual investments in bulk, this build has a chance to live a sweeper hit from +252 Snuggle from opposing Mimikyu, +252 Salamence Double-Edge and +252 Charizard X Flare Blitz in addition to the usual unboosted sweeper stuff (cf.blog post #1), thereby also providing the usual Z-move threatening one-time blanket-check against set-up sweepers Mimikyu is known for.
Xurkitree:
Xurkitree pulls double duty as a lead against Tapu Koko and a Tail Glow stallbreaker. The best case scenario against a non-stall matchup is to get to click the Z-move on turn 1 for a kill—this is indeed what you look for when thinking about bringing Xurkitree: an opposing side with no electric immunity.
EVs handily live an Earthquake from defensive ground types like Hippowdon and Gliscor while still surviving a +252 Salamence Earthquake from full 50% of the time. It should be noted that on his streams, SnowParty alternated between Substitute and Grass Knot.
Landorus:
Outside its offensive pivot role, Scarf Landorus is really only a bring against teams that tilt towards the hyper offensive spectrum of things or when Intimidate+Earthquake immunity is at a premium.
Stone Edge was usually preferred over Rock Slide on SnowParty's streams. Against teams with double ghost (Aegislash+Mimikyu) and/or Kangaskhan, Landorus is a safe bet.
Blaziken:
Last in terms of pick-rate, +252 spatt Life Orb Blaziken specializes in punching through Hippowdon-Salamence-Aegislash cores. The set listed in the pokepaste above only hits 192 speed at +1, meaning it should be deployed through a double-switch or as a revenge killer against Hippowdon or Aegislash, speaking of which, Fire Blast OHKOs 252 HP Aegislash in shield forme, while even a low roll on fully physically defensive Hippowdon does over 70%. As for Salamence, HP Ice lowrolls 80%+ on 212 HP / 140 SpDef mence, killing it after it switches into a Fire Blast and outright OHKOing purely offensive variants.
2) Usage notes:
These observations are based on SnowParty's streams and my personal experience of piloting this team around the 1800s on cart.
Usual team composition:
Xurkitree-Araquanid-Metagross
Metagross-Mimikyu-Araquanid
Most drafted, rate/member (descending):
-
Araquanid
-
Metagross
-
Mimikyu
-
Xurkitree
-
Landorus
-
Blaziken
How to draft/lead against...
“Kabamanda”
Salamence/Hippowdon/Aegislash/Koko
Xurkitree-Mimikyu-Blaziken
Xurkitree: Turn 1 Z move and get a kill or bait out the Hippowdon and either chip it with HP Ice or OHKO with Grass Knot: either outcome enables the Salamence/Aegislash Blaziken sweep against all but the most SpDef tanky of Careful Salamences.
“Rizzagross / Kabarizza”
Charizard/Metagross/Greninja; Charizard/Hippowdon
Araquanid-Mimikyu-Metagross
Turn 1 Surf should be free in most cases.
"Landorus momentum"
Suicide lead Landorus+set-up sweepers (Naganadel, Dragon Dance megas, NagaScizor etc.)
Metagross-Mimikyu-Araquanid
Metagross wins the 1v1 against Landorus, and Mimikyu in the back makes sure the likes of Naganadel and Gyarados don't run away with the game.
Rain core modular
Politoed/Pelipper/Swampert/steel type/Tapu Koko
Xurkitree-Mimikyu-Araquanid
Mimikyu-Metagross-Araquanid
Grass Knot Xurkitree can choose whether to click Z-move to delete Koko and the rain setter or Grass Knot to delete Swampert on turn 1. Trick Room is invaluable against speed-control based teams while Metagross can hammer through any common steel type pairing rain teams typically bring (Kartana, Ferrothorn).
“Mimigassa / suropoke”
Mimikyu/Breloom/Mawile/Porygon2
Araquanid-Mimikyu-Metagross
Landorus-Mimikyu-Metagross/Araquanid
Breloom is attractive against this composition, so Araquanid can usually get away with bruising it with Sleep Talk. Araquanid is also slow enough to outspeed the Trick Room game plan. Alternatively, Landorus can lead U-turn into Araquanid on both Spore and Porygon2.
Dedicated stall
Chansey/Toxapex/Sableye/Celesteela/Slowbro/Skarmory/Venusaur/Shedinja/Gliscor etc...
Xurkitree-Metagross-Blaziken/Mimikyu
Shedinja+Toxapex, which is found on the more popular stall QR teams, is a massive problem for this team: Landorus is choice-locked and Blaziken/Mimikyu are both hard walled by Toxapex. Outside Shedinja, Tail Glow Xurkitree will punch through most things.
Dedicated Baton Pass
Scolipede, Blazikenpass, Eeveepass, Dual Screens lead etc.
Xurkitree-Mimikyu-Araquanid
Teams setting up screens will get set up on with Tail Glow, Trick Room deals with speed control and clicking Curse checkmates teams boosting with Eevium or Z-Celebrate.
Dedicated Glalie
Cripple lead (Serperior, Mimikyu, Light Ball Fling users etc.), Thunder Wave + Lunar Dance Cresselia, Glalie
Metagross/Xurkitree-Araquanid-Mimikyu
"Mimikyu used Curse!"
In conclusion:
For anyone seeking to improve the EV spreads in the accompanying pokepaste, Xurkitree's SpAtt could be dropped in favour of more physical bulk in order to more consistently live a standard Salamence Earthquake or even to do so after 1-2 rounds of sandstorm. Running Jolly on Landorus has the benefit of revenge killing Modest Scarf Tapu Lele, +1 mega-Gyarados and +1 Charizard X without having to rely on Mimikyu nigh every game. Blaziken can, and perhaps should, be run as Naive instead of Rash. This ensures an easier insertion with its superior +1 speed tier, but runs the risk of not OHKOing Aegislash and even minor bulk investment running Salamence, which is in large part its whole raison d'être.
Yes, the last two entries have been a little light on the analysis. I'd like to blame that on the lack of anything revolutionary or even interesting from season 12's batch of top finishing teams, but the truth is, I've been spending a great deal more time on my own teams and have grinded out the most amount of games I've ever played in a single season. Season 13's harvest being just around the corner, I hope to be able to provide something more than a cursory glance in future posts.
- Tox
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/tox.146/
