Other Metagames [AG] Consistency (Peaked #1, 2024)


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Peak at #1

Later Peak at #2


Welcome to my first ever RMT, a team for the AG metagame, the metagame I have come to love. While I was originally drawn to the metagame by powerful attackers such as Mega-Rayquaza and Arceus, I was inspired to build teams that show the balanced side of this metagame. In a meta filled with swagger, Darkrai, Baton Pass, and extremely potent offensive powers, I decided to create a team that creates balance and order yet can still be extremely competitive and answer almost every relevant threat.

Consistency shows that AG is not just about abusing overpowered attackers, but can also utilize strong team synergy to win. From this idea, I created a team that uses underused yet viable threats in the metagame that showcases the offense mixed with defense. Consistency embodies the spirit of the balance playstyle in AG by combining the individual strengths of each team member with the overall spirit of the team to triumph in battles against all playstyles. As a result, I ended up with a team that had no priority and no overpowered attackers, yet still manages to shine in AG metagame.​

Teambuilding Process
This team started with Diancie-Mega, a unique offensive mega that has very few switch ins, yet provides fantastic support for the team.

Diancie-Mega needs a strong defensive backbone, so to check a plethora of threats, I added Skarmory and Ho-oh, a classic AG defensive core.

However, I noticed that the team was still weak to Primal Groudon, Choice Band Mega-Rayquaza, and Ho-oh. In addition, because I run Ho-Oh, I needed a defogger. While Water-Arceus was my first thought, I felt that it was too passive and couldn't sufficiently check Dragon Dance V-Create Mega-Rayquaza. Therefore, I settled on Dragon Arceus.

I now needed a Primal Kyogre Check as well as a way to break stall. Primal-Groudon fit those roles perfectly and also provided fantastic offensive support.

Finally, I added Arceus-Steel as a Calm Mind Arceus-Rock as well as a Diancie-Mega Switch in.

With this, the team, focused on Defensive Synergy backed by Status, was complete.

In-Depth Analysis
Now, let's take a closer look at the team:

Keystone (Diancie-Mega) @ Diancite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 36 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Protect
- Earth Power
Diancie-Mega is the key to the team, acting as the primary Darkrai check; without it, Darkrai would easily tear through this team. Diancie-Mega in this metagame has few switch ins, barring Ferrothorn and Fast Support Arceus formes, and acts as a primary attacker against balance. The EVs are geared to speed creep Adamant Rayquaza-Mega, Adamant Arceus, while also ensuring that Genesect does not get the attack boost from Download. 36 HP helps against the Sludge Bomb roll from Darkrai. However, Diancie-Mega is extremely weak to Extremekiller Arceus, leading us to one of the premier checks, Skarmory.


Pride (Skarmory) @ Rocky Helmet / Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Whirlwind
- Stealth Rock
- Roost​

Skarmory is my favorite Extremekiller Arceus wall, being able to take 2 +6 Lum Berry Extreme Speeds while shrugging off most other attacks. In addition, Skarmory walls most physical attackers in the tier as well, including other Swords Dance Arceus formes, Dragon Dance M-Rayquaza, and Stone Edge Primal Groudon. Toxic, Whirlwind, and Roost are all Self Explanatory, while Stealth Rock on Skarmory is my personal preferance over defog, as Skarmory often finds itself in tight situations where defogging is extremely risky. The EVs are geared toward maximizing the defensive potential of Skarmory, and 8 Speed helps in crucial Skarmory vs. Skarmory speed ties. If Gengar-Mega becomes more prevalent, Shed Shell can be superior to help alleviate the weakness to Mega-Gengar trapping.

Inferno (Ho-Oh) @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 188 Atk / 52 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thunder Wave / Sleep Talk
- Recover
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird​

Ho-oh, the premier special wall, would be S-Tier if it didn't have such a crippling weakness to Stealth Rocks. Without Rocks, Ho-oh checks almost every special attacker (barring Primal Kyogre, Arceus-Rock, and M-Diancie) with ease, while striking back with powerful attacks of its own. Recover, Sacred Fire, and Brave Bird are all self explanatory. Thunder Wave is a fantastic support move that cripples many fast threats and synergizes with the team as a way to provide speed control and serves as a fantastic complete stop to Xerneas. The EVs are to live +2 Thunder from Xerneas while also maintaining most of Ho-oh's attacking potential.


Colossal (Groudon-Primal) @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 64 SpD / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Thunder Wave
Paradancer Primal-Groudon is the second Thunder wave user of this team, using Thunder Wave to outspeed faster threats and provide offensive pressure. Stone Edge and Earthquake have near perfect coverage together, and Swords Dance boosts Primal-Groudon's attacking ability to monstrous levels. I personally prefered Earthquake over Precipice Blades to ensure the accuracy over the power. 104 HP with 64 SpD lives Xerneas +2 Focus Blast, while 252 Attack with an Adamant nature maximizes the attacking prowess. 88 Speed is not only to speed creep standard Primal Kyogres, but also to speed creep defensive Yveltal, a common Swords Dance Primal Groudon Check.


Forgotten (Arceus-Dragon) @ Draco Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 96 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Perish Song / Roar / Toxic
- Recover
- Defog​

Arceus-Dragon is the team member that holds this team together, providing solid physical bulk for checking Most Rayquaza Variants (barring Life Orb and Choice Specs), Primal Groudon, and Ho-oh. Judgement does solid damage (especially against Rayquaza), and Recover and Defog are fantastic tools for a support Arceus Forme. I personally chose Perish Song while laddering and Toxic while facing players that I know wouldn't bring baton pass, yet Roar is a fantastic alternative. The EVs are made to speed creep Adamant Rayquaza yet also maximize Defensive Bulk.


Inspiration (Arceus-Steel) @ Iron Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Judgment
- Thunder / Earth Power​

Toward the end of my teambuilding process, I realized that Arceus-Rock and opposing Mega-Diancie would clean sweep my team, as I had no easy switch ins to either. Arceus-Steel provides a fantastic check to both while providing a secondary win condition of the team. Calm Mind, Recover, and Judgement are standard on any Calm Mind Arceus Forme. Thunder is intended to hit Primal Kyogre, Skarmory, and Ho-oh, dealing with those threats efficiently, even landing the OHKO on Ho-oh after rocks at +1. While Earth Power is more standard and hits the threatening Primal Groudon, I personally liked thunder as a way to deal with Ho-oh, a more solid check, as I felt the lack of reliable recovery on Primal Groudon hindered its ability to check my Inspiration. The EVs allow Arceus to speed tie with maximum speed opposing Support Arceus Formes and outspeed Mega Rayquaza, while 4 Defense inhibits Genesect.

Threatlist
While Consistency has at least 1 check to every threat, many Pokemon still heavily threaten the team as a whole.


Darkrai is the scariest threat to the team, easily sweeping after Diancie-Mega drops below 30%. Getting Diancie-Mega evolved is cruical to playing against Darkrai. However, due to fear of M-Diancie, most Darkrai will not attempt to Dark Void turn 1; using this fact is critical to alleviating the stress M-Diancie takes from checking Darkrai.

Gengar-Mega, while not particularly threatening to most of the team, has the potential to trap Skarmory and Mega Diancie, allowing for Darkrai to sweep. Ho-oh is the safest member to take on Gengar, as Thunder Wave + Powerful attacks easily take it down.

While Arceus-Dragon easily takes most attacking moves from P-Don and Skarmory + Ho-oh can check specific P-Don variants, Thunder Wave, Roar, Stealth Rocks, and Swords Dance still make Primal Groudon a huge threat to the team that must be dealt with carefully.

Mega-Rayquaza is a threat to every team; However, the most common threats, Choice Band and Dragon Dance, are not particularly threatening. Mixed Life Orb, however, is extremely threatening and can almost always land a kill. Mega-Diancie can handle the Life Orb Set, yet it is still extremely dangerous.

Swords Dance Arceus-Ghost is threatening, but can be dealt with by Skarmory. However, special precautions should be taken as +2 Shadow Claw deals heavy damage to Skarmory.

While Mewtwo has no direct switch ins, Steelceus and Skarmory easily resist Psystrike, and Ho-oh can take any other move and Paralyze Mewtwo. However, with rocks up, the team has no switch ins to Mewtwo, so playing around Mewtwo is key.

Lesser Threats

Extremekiller Arceus is always threatening, however, Skarmory and Arceus-Dragon should be able to deal with repeated Arceus assaults.

Ho-oh is always a monster, but it is dealt with quite nicely on this team. M-Diancie can OHKO with Diamond Storm, Dragonceus can take repeated Brave Birds or Sacred Fires, CM Steelceus OHKOs Ho-oh at +1 after rocks, and Primal Groudon can paralyze or OHKO with Stone Edge.

While offensive variants are scary and are only handled well by Ho-oh and Steelceus, the more common defensive variant gets completely walled M-Diancie.

While Klefki is a threat to many offensive teams, this team has 2 checks to it; M-Diancie easily beats all non Flash Cannon sets, and Skarmory + Ho-oh can continuously swap to PP stall foul play.

Arceus-Rock would easily sweep this team, but Steelceus exists, which puts a complete stop to any CM Rockceus form.

Primal Kyogre is threatening yet is completely countered by Primal-Groudon.

Replays
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-459628991 vs PurpleGatorade
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-440318582 vs PurpleGatorade
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-440345578 vs PurpleGatorade
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-443642390 vs Chloe.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-453752713 vs HunterStorm (example of stall)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-473512792 vs Yuga42
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-473767887 vs Cryptis
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-474997074 vs Cryptis
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-438489787 vs Fardin
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-442253760 vs Quantum Tesseract
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-474316919 vs Kris
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-474982772 vs BlackFlame29
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-440312958 vs Prof.shuckle
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-437233894 vs Remux
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-438362451 vs And His Name's
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-438367707 vs Klark Kent

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-474987933 vs Baton Pass
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/anythinggoes-474989373 vs The Absolute Power

Importable
Keystone (Diancie-Mega) @ Diancite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 36 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Protect
- Earth Power

Pride (Skarmory) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Whirlwind
- Stealth Rock
- Roost

Inferno (Ho-Oh) @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 188 Atk / 52 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Recover
- Sacred Fire
- Brave Bird

Colossal (Groudon-Primal) @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 64 SpD / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Thunder Wave

Forgotten (Arceus-Dragon) @ Draco Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 96 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Toxic
- Recover
- Defog

Inspiration (Arceus-Steel) @ Iron Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Judgment
- Thunder


Shoutouts
Since this is an AG RMT, I'm going to focus on AG players that have supported me throughout my journey.
Chloe. Fantastic RO and friend, had many fun games with you. Keep up the great work into Generation 7!
Megazard Supportive and fun RO, interesting teambuilds
thelinearcurve God
HunterStorm Awesome player with fantastic ideas, hope you become more active in Gen 7
Thimo Thimo Thimo Cool guy with neat ideas, continue to break the meta in the future
PurpleGatorade Fantastic friend, this team didn't cause you too much grief did it?
Yuga42 Never going to give up hax, but still a fantastic friend
DontStealMyPenguin Great friend with fantastic teams, hope you eventually become fractal

Other fantastic AG players: Daft Blaze Cryptis Ransei Kris DonnotheFirst Quantum Tesseract TylerWithNumbers Broussard Jaytin

Mono players that play AG: Eien iLlama Izaya. terrors Clearly

Sorry if I forgot anybody, there's simply too many people along the way to include in this narrow margin.

Closing Remarks
Thank you for reaching the end of my first RMT, and I hope AG continues to grow far into the future as a fun tier with a supportive community.
 
Last edited:
Hey man, great team. I can't stand playing it bc i always lose lol. The only thing I don't like on this is 2 twavers. I feel like twave on ho-oh is rather unnecessary especially when you have it on pdon already, and run toxic on skarm. I'd go for sleep talk instead because a well played darkrai really screws you over once mega diancie is gone. Sleep talk also allows you to beat random sludge bomb variants, unlucky crits on diancie, etc. This is really just a nitpick but i think it could help. Hf playing with this for 2 more days lol and grats on the peak.
 

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