Pokemon Showdown
Anything Goes
Introduction
Hello and welcome to my first ever RMT! Today I'm going to showcase a USUM AG Balance team which has fared well in roomtours, high ladder and against respectable players (I sadly never got to play a Smogtour).
Importable
The Team
Lunala @ Choice Specs
Ability: Shadow Shield
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moongeist Beam
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Trick / Hidden Power [Rock]
Absolute goated mon right here. Specs Lunala has enough power to serve as a wallbreaker, 2HKOing support arceus forms, Ferrothorn, SpD Groudon-Primal and SpD NDM with Moongeist Beam. Shadow Shield gives it some defensive utility, allowing it to serve as a revenge killer (even without SS, it can easily counter all Ultra-Necrozma sets). Moonblast nails Yveltal on the switchin, and Psyshock threatens Arceus-Poison. Trick is just a filler move, though it can be handy against the pink blobs. Since Lunala's best check is Ho-oh, I was thinking HP Rock to 2HKO but that's extremely niche and may be used by the opponent to their advantage. Lunala has great coverage, and can force out a lot of Pokemon, allowing me to take advantage of the momentum if I predict right. In situations where it can't KO, it'll leave the Pokemon weakened for M-Ray to clean later.
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
IVs: 0 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Precipice Blades
- Dragon Tail / Stone Edge (run Careful nature and 31 Spe IVs if running S-Edge)
- Toxic
Classic SpD P-don set; serves as a Primal-Kyogre counter, and a backup Geo-Xern check. Its also the rocker of my team, with Toxic for Defog support-Arceus forms and Ho-oh. Blades is blades, and D-tail is for M-ray. Stone Edge is to nail Ho-oh trying to Defog; however, that leaves me very vulnerable against M-ray doubles, which is why I usually prefer D-tail. I required a P-ogre check for my team, and I chose P-don over Ferro because ferro would make my Ho-oh matchup very bad.
Arceus-Water @ Splash Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Defog
Classic Waterceus set. 20 Spe EVs is to creep 16 Spe Arceus forms, and allows me to outspeed neutral speed nature base <90s. My premier M-ray switchin and also a nice pivot for P-ogre. I've chosen Ice Beam + Toxic over Judgement because the latter meant M-ray could setup DD for free, and Toxic is for other Arceus forms which don't mind Judgement. Though it does make my Ho-oh MU worse, the whole team handles it well enough. Toxic + Defog allows it to beat Rocks P-don sets, and it handles offensive P-don sets for Yveltal + Ho-oh too (mainly the double-dance set). Most Pokemon which threaten/wall Waterceus are handled by Yveltal, ho-oh and P-don.
Ho-Oh @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Sacred Fire
- Toxic
- Defog
- Whirlwind
Classic Ho-oh set; serves as my premier Geo-Xern and CM Arceus forms check, and Yveltal switchin. It completes the Waterceus + Ho-Oh + Groudon-Primal defensive core, which is a heat USUM AG defensive core. Also my main switchin for most support-ceus forms, as it can comfortably eat a Toxic and shrug the damage off with Regenerator. Whirlwind is for Geoxern and CM Arceus forms. 204 Def EVs and a Relaxed Nature allow it to server some defensive utility too, since 252 HP / 52 SpD is enough for a +2 Thunder from Xerneas. It can also run Safety Goggles to ruin a Spore-Smeargle noob's day.
Yveltal @ Leftovers
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Foul Play
- Roost
- Taunt
One of my favourite Yveltal sets, highly customisable. I know I have 3 Defoggers, but it allows me to keep rocks off most of the time, which is needed for Ho-oh and Lunala's Shadow Shield. It acts as a check to all Necrozma sets (except the SD S-Edge one, but that's extremely rare and handled by Lunala) and ExtremeKiller / SD Ghostceus with Foul Play. Since defensive Yveltal is uncommon, it can also surprise opponents which click DAscent with M-Ray against it, which it comfortably eats and OHKOes w/ Foul Play in return (like here). Taunt over Toxic is for Ferrothorn, since I felt it was needed more (I have 3 Toxic mons either way). Another option is to go 96 Spe EVs to outspeed stall Lugia, but that's very niche and makes it eat a lot more from Band M-Ray.
Rayquaza-Mega @ Life Orb
Ability: Delta Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Ascent
- Draco Meteor
- Extreme Speed
- V-create
Classic Mixed M-Ray set. I chose mixed M-Ray over DD or CB because it is the only set which can break through Tyranitar + Skarmory, the former of which is also a problem for Lunala (and my only way to break through the Skar-Ttar-Chans core). V-Create over EQ for Skarmory and Draco nails Ttar. DAscent is obvious, and E-Speed allows for revenge killing. Nothing much to say here, it can clean if its checks are weakened enough.
Threats & other issues
- CM Arceus-Dark: CM Re/Re Darkceus is a mon which sits on 5 out of 6 Pokemon on my team. Ho-oh can Whirlwind it away, but if its the last Pokemon then I have nothing to kill it with. It naturally outspeeds everyone and has Refresh to shrug off status. Once an opponent realises this, they can save Darkceus for late game and easily win. That is what happened in my battles with S6M (this, this, and more of which I don't have replays of).
- I'm confused on whether I should have Stone Edge or Dragon Tail on P-don. Dragon Tail helps against M-Ray doubles, both when M-Ray is switching in and after taking a DAscent; while Stone Edge cleanly OHKOes Ho-oh, which immensely helps Lunala. In my experience I've felt Dtail is superior, but I'd still like more opinions on this.
- Is it worth having Judgement on Waterceus for Ho-oh? The Ho-oh MU isn't that bad but its definitely something considering, especially when Ho-oh is the best Lunala check.
- Is it worth having HP Rock on Lunala for Ho-oh?
Replays
I only selected the ones in which I won lol. Also f-word warning cause I don't remember which of these have it.
vs S6M - The only reason I won here was because I could eliminate CM Darkceus early, but in all later matches they saved it throughout the battle.
vs a45454546 - Another CM Darkceus opponent
vs p0lt
vs +MurderousMantyke
vs pokenerddude♔
vs PokemonTrainer596 - 1 (Shuckle Webs HO), 2
vs Adhiraj8202 - 1, 2, 3
I have more but they're all in my replays tab which I'm too lazy to go through lol.
I reached #2 on USUM AG ladder (highest ELO being 1877) with it but that doesn't matter much because ladder is extremely dead. I also had replays against Icemaster and cromagnet but those were with a worse version of this team.
Thanks for reading, have a nice day!
