VGC Lets Take a Look at this X-Ray

[FMASoul]

Hi, so I've been play testing a bunch of teams lately, and I think I finally found one I like. The thing is, it could still definitely use some work to take it from the team I like, to being a successful team. I've played a lot of games with it on the showdown ladder, and it has okay success, but it still seems to be lacking. Without further ado, here it is,

Rayquaza @ Focus Sash
Ability: Air Lock
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Ascent
- Extreme Speed
- Overheat
- Protect

So originally, this guy was a swords dance, focus sash set. Then I found myself struggling with Primal-Groudon, so I changed to waterfall over swords dance. Then I was struggling with Ferrothorn and Bronzong, so I replaced waterfall with overheat. That helps me beat those two, which is important for our next member, but I'm not quite sure if I'm totally happy with it. The EV's are standard mix, max attack to increase dragon ascent and extreme-speed, max speed, and four in special attack for overheat. I went with hasty over naive to take water spout, hyper voice, and eruption better from their respective users.

Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
Level: 50
EVs: 192 HP / 84 Def / 68 SpD / 164 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Dazzling Gleam
- Geomancy
- Protect

So when figuring out Xerneas, I decided I wanted bulky over fast and offensive. The moves are the geomancy standard, good clean fairy stabs with protect. The EV's are designed to make precipice blades a 3HKO from max attack adamant Primal-Groudon. Anything less than that does even less damage, and since max attack p-don is pretty rare now, It holds up well. Max special attack Primal-Kyogre's water spout has a 6.3% chance to OHKO, which lets me hold up against most other variants as well. It also lives M-Gengar's sludge bomb, life orb M-Rayquaza's dragon ascent, and basically any-non boosted attack that isn't M-Mawile's iron head. Its also fast enough to outrun non-scarfed Smeargle.

Amoonguss @ Mental Herb
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 196 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Grass Knot
- Protect

Amoonguss is the mon I hate to face but love to use. Its redirection is crucial for Xerneas to have sweeping potential on this team, as well as to allow M-Ray to punch holes in things like it does. The rage powder and spore are standard redirection and sleep support. I went for grass knot over clear smog because the chip damage on Kyogre is important to let Xerneas or Rayquaza pick up that KO, and considering that Amoonguss isn't that offensive, I felt the higher damage of grass knot over giga drain was too good to pass up. Protect in the final move slot to stop double edge's and dragon ascent's as well as cut off the double attack from people expecting the rage powder. The Ev's maximize its special bulk to help take on Xerneas and Kyogre, while the 60 defense EV's allow it to take a -1 double edge from 20 Atk M-Salamence, as well as jolly Kangaskhan's double edge. Regenerator over Effect Spore to allow it to regain some health with a switch.

Talonflame @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Tailwind
- Protect

Talonflame is one of two members of this team I'm unsure of. I rarely bring it, and while its speed control and damage are good, it feels underwhelming. At one point it was bulky roar Arcanine, but I thought the speed control was more important. I went LO for extra damage on threats like Salamence and Xerneas, as well as running brave bird and flare blitz for the dual stab that lets me hit fast, as well as hitting mons like Bronzong and Ferrothorn. I went protect over quick guard because this team has fake out pressure itself in Scrafty, but that's another thing I'm unsure about with this mon. I went standard 252/252 to maxamize damage and speed.

Gyarados @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Atk / 20 Def / 120 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt
- Protect

Gyarados is the second mon I'm unsure about. It was originally here to help against P-don with the help of M-Ray, as well as stop smeargle. But it also seems underwhelming, and it also feels like it loses momentum and becomes stale quickly. The EV's let it live attacks from M-kang, M-Mence, and M-Ray after intimidate, and paralyze them. The rest of its bulk is there to help against Xerneas, and paralyze it as well. The attack lets it OHKO 4 HP 0 DEF P-Don with waterfall in air lock or delta stream. Waterfall as its one attack, thunder wave for speed control, and taunt for smeargle, in combination with lum. Protect to stop electric attacks and the such. I liked it more when I first built the team, but now it doesn't seem to fit as well.

Scrafty @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 228 Atk / 20 Def / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Low Kick
- Knock Off
- Super Fang

Scrafty is the king of chip damage on my team. Its move set lets it's team mate's set up with fake out, put a large amount of damage onto M-Kangaskhan with low kick, hit Bronzong and Cress with knock off, as well as remove items from a lot of other mons, and let Xerneas and Ray pick up KO's after a super fang. Scrafty puts in a lot of work with the right support, and lets its team-mate clean up the game. The EV's Let it live a -1 Double Edge from 20 Atk Salamence, as well as live a water spout from max SpAtk P-Kyogre. The rest is put into attack to help scrafty get the most amount of chip damage off as it can.

Overall I like the team, but it needs something, and I can't seem to see it. I'm hoping some fresh sets of eyes will supply a new perspective on the team. Thank you in advance!

Replays:

Wins:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2016-430662993

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2016-430666069

Losses:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2016-430668501

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2016-430672570

 

[Bright Size]

The Ray/Xern core was one that I think is very... odd. I can't say that it's bad though, it has had some notable finishes in the top cut of Worlds; Top 8 Worlds (Barry Anderson [UK]), Top 16 Worlds (Jamie Boyt [UK]), Top 24 Worlds (Dane Zieman [US]), Top 24 Worlds (Jang Won Seok [South Korea]), and winning Italian Nationals (Javier Señorena). Here are the Worlds teams and the Italian Nationals winning team for reference.

The way I see the Rayquaza/Xerneas core is that you do everything you can to protect the restricted Pokemon with your other 4 Pokemon so that you can dish out tons of damage with the duo (this may seem true of a lot of the teams in the VGC2016 format though I feel it is especially true in this core).

I don't see anything wrong with Rayquaza or Xerneas. You may want to change up Mega Rayquaza's moveset a little and I'll get to it later here because it depends on the rest of the team and which (if any) of the suggestions I make you end up taking.

That being said... I feel like Amoonguss can be replaced with Smeargle here for a better way to put opposing Pokemon to sleep in Dark Void along with being able to block spread moves in Wide Guard to better support Xerneas and Mega Rayquaza at the cost of the offense in Amoonguss's Grass Knot and whatever bulk it had.

Smeargle @ Mental Herb/Focus Sash
Ability: Moody
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Dark Void
- Spiky Shield/King's Shield
- Follow Me
- Wide Guard
​

So the EV spread probably looks very weird... And I'll agree. The EVs are to make it as bulky as it can get. The minimum Speed EVs allow you to function under Trick Room. You don't have Trick Room on this team and I don't plan on adding it to the team though this Smeargle is just functioning a lot like Amoonguss though with better support options. It still under speeds min speed Primal Kyogre under Trick Room like Amoonguss (I feel like a slow Primal Kyogre when Trick Room is up could give this team issues, though you already had some solutions to this problem and I just wanted to bring up that Smeargle is still helping against it). Paired with Intimidate in Scrafty and Gyarados, Smeargle will be tough to take out even without a Focus Sash. With a Mental Herb on Smeargle, you can opt to go King's Shield instead of Spiky Shield though Spiky Shield still works. If you decide to put Focus Sash on Smeargle, I would recommend putting Assault Vest on Mega Rayquaza (I plan on replacing Scrafty's item regardless of this decision; if you choose to go AV Ray put Waterfall > Protect). Take a more defensive spread on Mega Rayquaza if you opt to take this suggestion.

You said that "at one point [Talonflame] was bulky roar Arcanine, but I thought the speed control was more important," in your description for Talonflame. One thing you should know is that you don't need to bring speed control for the sake of having speed control on the team. When you bring it you need to have an actual purpose and goal with the speed control you're bringing (think about what specifically you're wanting to outspeed, be slower than, etc.). I really think you should revert back to the Bulky Roar Arcanine instead; you could try giving it something like Snarl in order to help with Special bulk on the team (the team would now have 3 Intimidate users, the same 3 that Jamie Boyt had on his top 16 Worlds team). I won't give you a new Arcanine set since you said that you had one before and honestly I'm not very familiar with Arcanine.

I think Gyarados is fine on this team and I don't really have any issues with it. I was originally going to see if I could get it to outspeed Smeargle though it takes too much investment and with the Lum Berry along with Thunder Wave and Taunt on it I think you've done a good job here.

Scrafty @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 196 Atk / 20 Def / 44 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
- Fake Out
- Low Kick
- Knock Off
- Super Fang
​

I'm not super familiar with Scrafty in this format though I don't think Assault Vest on it is a very good item for it. You EV'd it to take a max SpA Water Spout from Primal Kyogre which is OK though you need to keep in mind that most Primal Kyogre don't run max SpA and with how fast Xerneas and Mega Rayquaza are you'll often be able to dish out damage to Primal Kyogre first so it won't be able to deal that much damage anyway. Xerneas is still going to OHKO it even with an Assault Vest, so I feel like it's a wasted item here. Instead I put Chesto Berry in order to help against Smeargle some more. I basically wanted another Lum Berry on the team but didn't have the ability to use it because it's already on Gyarados so I chose to put Chesto Berry as a nice alternative. You can flip the two items, I don't think it matters tons. One thing I want to mention is that you'll want to take Attack EVs out and put them more into Def/SpD for extra bulk. You don't bring Scrafty for the offense; you bring it for the support it brings. Yes it can deal a decent amount of damage to Mega Kangaskhan/Cresselia/Bronzong with the moves it haves, though you already have your restricteds to hit these 3 hard. You may want to tinker with its defensive EVs some more.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the new Scrafty EVs are to survive a Water Spout from a Modest Kyogre with 76 SpA EVs. I chose this specific number because it is a common benchmarker that is used because it knocks out 4HP/0Def Mega Kangaskhan all the time.

76+ SpA Primal Kyogre Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 244 HP / 44+ SpD Scrafty in Heavy Rain: 142-168 (83 - 98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Hope I've helped. If I made any weird typos grammar mistakes or are just plain confused feel free to ask.

 

[FMASoul]

The Ray/Xern core was one that I think is very... odd. I can't say that it's bad though, it has had some notable finishes in the top cut of Worlds; Top 8 Worlds (Barry Anderson [UK]), Top 16 Worlds (Jamie Boyt [UK]), Top 24 Worlds (Dane Zieman [US]), Top 24 Worlds (Jang Won Seok [South Korea]), and winning Italian Nationals (Javier Señorena). Here are the Worlds teams and the Italian Nationals winning team for reference.

The way I see the Rayquaza/Xerneas core is that you do everything you can to protect the restricted Pokemon with your other 4 Pokemon so that you can dish out tons of damage with the duo (this may seem true of a lot of the teams in the VGC2016 format though I feel it is especially true in this core).

I don't see anything wrong with Rayquaza or Xerneas. You may want to change up Mega Rayquaza's moveset a little and I'll get to it later here because it depends on the rest of the team and which (if any) of the suggestions I make you end up taking.

That being said... I feel like Amoonguss can be replaced with Smeargle here for a better way to put opposing Pokemon to sleep in Dark Void along with being able to block spread moves in Wide Guard to better support Xerneas and Mega Rayquaza at the cost of the offense in Amoonguss's Grass Knot and whatever bulk it had.

Smeargle @ Mental Herb/Focus Sash
Ability: Moody
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Dark Void
- Spiky Shield/King's Shield
- Follow Me
- Wide Guard
​

So the EV spread probably looks very weird... And I'll agree. The EVs are to make it as bulky as it can get. The minimum Speed EVs allow you to function under Trick Room. You don't have Trick Room on this team and I don't plan on adding it to the team though this Smeargle is just functioning a lot like Amoonguss though with better support options. It still under speeds min speed Primal Kyogre under Trick Room like Amoonguss (I feel like a slow Primal Kyogre when Trick Room is up could give this team issues, though you already had some solutions to this problem and I just wanted to bring up that Smeargle is still helping against it). Paired with Intimidate in Scrafty and Gyarados, Smeargle will be tough to take out even without a Focus Sash. With a Mental Herb on Smeargle, you can opt to go King's Shield instead of Spiky Shield though Spiky Shield still works. If you decide to put Focus Sash on Smeargle, I would recommend putting Assault Vest on Mega Rayquaza (I plan on replacing Scrafty's item regardless of this decision; if you choose to go AV Ray put Waterfall > Protect). Take a more defensive spread on Mega Rayquaza if you opt to take this suggestion.

You said that "at one point [Talonflame] was bulky roar Arcanine, but I thought the speed control was more important," in your description for Talonflame. One thing you should know is that you don't need to bring speed control for the sake of having speed control on the team. When you bring it you need to have an actual purpose and goal with the speed control you're bringing (think about what specifically you're wanting to outspeed, be slower than, etc.). I really think you should revert back to the Bulky Roar Arcanine instead; you could try giving it something like Snarl in order to help with Special bulk on the team (the team would now have 3 Intimidate users, the same 3 that Jamie Boyt had on his top 16 Worlds team). I won't give you a new Arcanine set since you said that you had one before and honestly I'm not very familiar with Arcanine.

I think Gyarados is fine on this team and I don't really have any issues with it. I was originally going to see if I could get it to outspeed Smeargle though it takes too much investment and with the Lum Berry along with Thunder Wave and Taunt on it I think you've done a good job here.

Scrafty @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 196 Atk / 20 Def / 44 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
- Fake Out
- Low Kick
- Knock Off
- Super Fang
​

I'm not super familiar with Scrafty in this format though I don't think Assault Vest on it is a very good item for it. You EV'd it to take a max SpA Water Spout from Primal Kyogre which is OK though you need to keep in mind that most Primal Kyogre don't run max SpA and with how fast Xerneas and Mega Rayquaza are you'll often be able to dish out damage to Primal Kyogre first so it won't be able to deal that much damage anyway. Xerneas is still going to OHKO it even with an Assault Vest, so I feel like it's a wasted item here. Instead I put Chesto Berry in order to help against Smeargle some more. I basically wanted another Lum Berry on the team but didn't have the ability to use it because it's already on Gyarados so I chose to put Chesto Berry as a nice alternative. You can flip the two items, I don't think it matters tons. One thing I want to mention is that you'll want to take Attack EVs out and put them more into Def/SpD for extra bulk. You don't bring Scrafty for the offense; you bring it for the support it brings. Yes it can deal a decent amount of damage to Mega Kangaskhan/Cresselia/Bronzong with the moves it haves, though you already have your restricteds to hit these 3 hard. You may want to tinker with its defensive EVs some more.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the new Scrafty EVs are to survive a Water Spout from a Modest Kyogre with 76 SpA EVs. I chose this specific number because it is a common benchmarker that is used because it knocks out 4HP/0Def Mega Kangaskhan all the time.

76+ SpA Primal Kyogre Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 244 HP / 44+ SpD Scrafty in Heavy Rain: 142-168 (83 - 98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Hope I've helped. If I made any weird typos grammar mistakes or are just plain confused feel free to ask.

First off, thank you for such an in depth review of my team, it's really helpful, so thank you again. Secondly, I really like the suggestions you made for the team, and after doing some test battles with them, I ended up using them, albeit slightly modified.

Rayquaza-Mega @ Assault Vest
Ability: Air Lock
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 124 SpD / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Ascent
- Extreme Speed
- Overheat
- Waterfall

I ended up using AV Ray, but not because of Smeargle. I ended up using a modified version of Jamie Boyt's Ray, with more speed and less special defense. The investment lets it take three ice beam's from any Kyogre under Strong Wind, while still 2HKO'ing most Kyogre's in return, as well as a lot of other offensive threats. It also outspeeds max speed base 90's after mega evolving.

Arcanine @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 196 Def / 76 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Snarl
- Roar
- Protect

So Arcanine is so much better than Talonflame. The roar for Xern helps so much, and is overall much more usable in this team. The EV's let it live a -1 P-Blades from Max Attack P-Don, as well as live Life Orb Dragon Ascent from Mega Ray. The leftovers after that go to special defense to help against Xerneas more. And while flareblitz may seem detrimental on a bulky mon, it lets me OHKO every Ferro variant, while also hitting harder than flamethrower in general, and being more consistent than both fire blast and overheat. And yes, snarl really does help with the special bulk of the team.

Scraft and Smeargle I ended up using basically the sets you suggested, with mental herb Smeargle with kings shield, I tested focus sash, but on this team it didn't hold up as well as the mental herb set. Scrafty ended up being bulkier, with less attack and more of both special and physical bulk, letting it live -1 Dragon Ascent from non LO Rayquaza, and making it more specially bulky in general, while still letting it 2HKO standard M-Kang, as well as do decent damage to both Bronzong and Cresselia.

Again, thank you for your suggestions, they are really helping the team function much better than it did before.

 

[Bright Size]

No problem, it's really nice hearing that my suggestions are helping you out quite a bit. I really like the changes you've made to the team. Mega Rayquaza with that little Attack investment looks so strange but it looks so incredibly specially bulky paired with 3 intimidate users... It still sounds like a big threat.

I really like where the team is now and I may even try to bring it to a PC this fall at some point.