Other Metagames Perfection?: An Anything Goes RMT, Peaked #2 on ladder

[PurpleGatorade]

Hi guys, this is PurpleGatorade with my first-ever Anything Goes RMT. This team underwent a lot of changes as I became more acclimated to the anything goes metagame before finally reaching #2 on the ladder a few times. Hope you enjoy!

The team at a glance:

I started playing Pokemon Showdown about four months ago, and immediately went to work spamming contrary pokemon and darkrai. I had assumed that I would easily win every battle with my nightmare+dream eater darkrai, but I was so wrong. As I battled more and more, I adapted my team to check some of the biggest threats in the metagame while still maintaining a very offensive presence. The result is this balanced offense team consisting of a three arceus core, xerneas, yveltal, and of course, Mega Rayquaza. Now let's go a little more in-depth into each mon.

A closer look at the team:

Arceus-Ghost @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Stealth Rock

Every team needs a stealth rocker, and this one is no different. I meddled around with several different lead mons, including Primal Groudon, Deoxys-Speed, and Excadrill. My problem with primal groudon was that it nearly always took some damage while setting up rocks, which made it incapable of properly checking Geomancy Xerneas as the match wore on (more on that later). Deoxys-Speed and excadrill were essentially suicide leads that put me at a 5-6 disadvantage early on. I didn't know how to fix this until i played Synoptic and his lead arceus-ghost. This mon is incredibly useful because it's access to recover allows it to not be a suicide lead, and its bulk coupled with useful ghost typing and will-o-wisp allow this arceus to check ekillers and Mega Rayquaza.

Arceus @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Shadow Claw

Behold, my most original creation. I know that none of you have ever seen an extreme killer arceus before, but I will talk about it anyway. This thing can be a sweeper, wallbreaker, or revenge killer depending on the situation. Swords dance is an obvious attack-boosting move, extreme speed is the obligatory STAB move, earthquake hits Primal Groudon and Steel types hard, and for the fourth slot i went with shadow claw to hit arceus-ghost and giratina at the cost of straight-up losing to yveltal.

Rayquaza-Mega @ Lum Berry
Ability: Delta Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Ascent
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed

An AG team wouldn't be an AG team without the transcendent Mega Rayquaza. Just like with extreme killer arceus, it can act as a deadly sweeper, powerful wallbreaker, or reliable revenge killer depending on the situation. Dragon Dance boosts its attack and speed in one move, instantly transforming Mega Rayquaza into a frightening offensive presence capable of OHKOing or at least 2HKOing the entire metagame. Dragon Ascent is the most powerful and reliable STAB move available, and it also allows it to mega evolve in the first place. I chose earthquake over V-create eq has more utility 90% of the time, and I don't really appreciate the stat drops of V-Create in conjunction with Dragon Ascent. Extreme speed is used to pick off faster threats like arceus or mewtwo.

Arceus-Poison @ Toxic Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Recover
- Extreme Speed
- Perish Song

As I mentioned earlier, my main problem with primal groudon as a stealth rock setter was that it couldn't properly check Geomancy Xerneas later in the match. This is where arceus-poison comes in. With 240 HP EV/s and 8 defense EV's, it doenst get ohkoed by any of xerneas's attacks after rocks except the very rare psychic. It can then retaliate with the powerful combo of poison jab + espeed to outright KO xerneas or leave it within range of a second espeed. Poison jab is self explanatory, recover allows poisonceus to come in on xerneas several times throughout a match and eases the matchup against scarf xern as well. Perish Song is an idea i saw somewhere else on smogon forums that allows me to beat the albeit rare baton pass team and shut down the calm mind arceus sweepers that threaten the rest of my team. This is the only moveslot i am unsure about, as it could be replaced with earthquake for better coverage.

Yveltal @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Foul Play
- Roost
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch

First of all, Yveltal looks so cool that it automatically deserves a place on any team. In all seriousness though, this airborne monster is the bane of ekillers everywhere. With max defense and hp and a rocky helmet, "Ygod" can laughs at a +2 extreme speed from arceus and ohkoes it back with foul play. It can also easily handle mega rayquaza except when it is at +1 and yveltal is coming in on rocks. I went with a more attacking set here rather than the traditional toxic + taunt set because i wanted to make the most out of Yveltal's fantastic ability Dark Aura. Knock off hits xerneas very nicely on the switch, and also makes Poison Arceus' job a lot easier. Sucker Punch is useful priority that helps kill off weakened threats. The only thing to watch out for here is a +2 life orb arceus stone edge, because that always ohkoes after rocks and has a small chance to kill even when at full health.

Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 184 HP / 28 Def / 252 SpA / 44 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast

Possibly the most terrifying sweeper in anything goes, Geomancy Xerneas needs no introduction. This is the standard smogon set, except for the fact that it has psyshock. I used to have thunder there, but it really only hit 3 things: Primal Kyogre, lugia, and ho-oh. The thing is, primal kyogres aren't usually ev'd to survive a +2 moonblast anyway, while lugia and ho-oh are not very common. Also, I was getting rather sick of having two low accuracy coverage moves (the other being fmiss of course). Finally, I have been seeing arceus-poison more and more lately on other teams so i just decided to roll with psyshock. The rest of the set is pretty obvious. Moonblast smacks everything that doesnt resist it extremely hard, focus blast hits skarmory, ferrothorn, steelceus, and primal groudon significantly harder. Provided it actually hits lol. Not much else to say about Xerneas. If set up at the right time, it can easily sweep through an opposing team.



Threatlist:

Even with two lum berry mons, darkrai is still a huge threat to this team. Normal arceus and mega rayquaza can beat it 1v1, but they usually have to switch in on the dark void. Couple that with unlucky sleep turns and darkrai can do massive amounts of damage to me. The best way to stop it is to have xerneas, normal arceus, or Mega Rayquaza already set up.

Any calm mind arceus forme is a threat to my team, but I am calling out arceus steel specifically because thelinearcurve and dontstealmypenguin used it to great effect against me in the past. The best way to kill it is to, again, have any of the previously mentioned 3 mons already set up, or switch to ekiller and hope you win the speed ties.

Both life orb and rocky helmet yveltal have good matchups against my team. The best way to deal with the life orb variant is to deal as much damage to it with whatever mon it comes on, then switch to xerneas and set up geomancy. I wouldn't allow it to hit xerneas on the switch however, because oblivion wing can 2hko. The rocky helmet version walls ekiller and Mega Rayquaza to some extent, however this can be dealt with by burning it with arceus-ghost, and then going to xerneas.

Although relatively rare, rocky helmet skarmory essentially walls 2/3 of my team. Yveltal can hit hard with one knock off but thats about it. Arceus poison literally cant touch it, and mega rayquaza can't break through it either. If facing a skarmory, it is vital to keep arceus-ghost healthy because it can easily 2hko it.


Replays:
I have played with several variations of this team on several different alts, so whenever I have time I will sift through my old battles and upload them here.

Proof of Peak:

As you can see I was one point away from peaking. Then I got haxed and lost. Rip.

Team Importable

Arceus-Ghost @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Judgment
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Stealth Rock

Arceus-Poison @ Toxic Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Recover
- Extreme Speed
- Perish Song

Arceus @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Shadow Claw

Rayquaza-Mega @ Lum Berry
Ability: Delta Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Ascent
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed

Yveltal @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Foul Play
- Roost
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch

Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 184 HP / 28 Def / 252 SpA / 44 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast

Conclusion
I have had a lot of fun playing with this team, and I hope to eventually peak the ladder with it. I would be happy to take any suggestions or improvements for it. Thanks for reading!

 

[SaturnZelda]

Tyler here. (Hi.) So, I'm just gonna mention one of the threats you had listed on here. For Skamory, maybe you could change your Yveltal to Life Orb and give it Heat Wave? Since most Skarmory in AG are defensive for Extreme Speed Killers, it would OHKO most of the time, I believe. However, this leaves you vulnerable to Extreme Speed Killers now. You could change the 4 SpD into 4 Def on Ghostceus, and because it has Will-O-Wisp and max HP, it can take a few hits from an Extreme Speed Killer because Extreme Speed doesn't affect Ghostceus. That means you wouldn't just sack it at the beginning of the game, however. Think it over!

 

[Thimo]

Sup PurpleGatorade nice RMT, fun to read. However, I got a few things to say here and there. Let's get to it!
On Arceus and Arceus-Ghost put those 4 SpDef EVs into Def for Genesect Purposes. Although not really crucial, it can be a gamechanger and everything counts in a game like Pokémon. For Rayquaza you can opt for V-Create over Earthquake, it really helps a ton against Skarmory. You can also try out a bulky spread, however I'm not totally sure which one is the best, you could give mine a try: EVs: 152 Atk / 104 Def / 252 Spe, Adamant Nature. This ensures a live against a +2 Jolly Extreme Speed from Arceus after Stealth Rock damage, you can either setup on it, and finish off with Extreme Speed or just do big dmage if it is still high on HP. For Arceus-Poison, use this spread: EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 40 Def / 16 Spe, Adamant Nature. This will live a +2 Xerneas Psyshock after Stealth Rock just fine. Though, now you have 16 Speed EVs in Speed, letting you outspeed 252 Spe Base 90s and The stuff Creeping the 252 Spe Base 90s. The HP EVs it now has will give your Arceus-Poison a stat divisible by 8, minus 1. That ensures minimal Stealth Rock, Will-O-Wisp, Leech Seed, etc. damage. I hope my rate helped. :]

 

[PurpleGatorade]

Sup PurpleGatorade nice RMT, fun to read. However, I got a few things to say here and there. Let's get to it!
On Arceus and Arceus-Ghost put those 4 SpDef EVs into Def for Genesect Purposes. Although not really crucial, it can be a gamechanger and everything counts in a game like Pokémon. For Rayquaza you can opt for V-Create over Earthquake, it really helps a ton against Skarmory. You can also try out a bulky spread, however I'm not totally sure which one is the best, you could give mine a try: EVs: 152 Atk / 104 Def / 252 Spe, Adamant Nature. This ensures a live against a +2 Jolly Extreme Speed from Arceus after Stealth Rock damage, you can either setup on it, and finish off with Extreme Speed or just do big dmage if it is still high on HP. For Arceus-Poison, use this spread: EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 40 Def / 16 Spe, Adamant Nature. This will live a +2 Xerneas Psyshock after Stealth Rock just fine. Though, now you have 16 Speed EVs in Speed, letting you outspeed 252 Spe Base 90s and The stuff Creeping the 252 Spe Base 90s. The HP EVs it now has will give your Arceus-Poison a stat divisible by 8, minus 1. That ensures minimal Stealth Rock, Will-O-Wisp, Leech Seed, etc. damage. I hope my rate helped. :]

Thanks for your suggestions thimo! I will defensively change the ev's to defense for both arceus formes, as that is definitely something I overlooked. V-create on mega rayquaza does seem like an important change, however I'm not sure about the bulky spread. Do you know if it misses out on any ohkoes or 2hkoes? The poisonceus spread that you suggested seems a lot better, so I'll fix that as well. Thanks again!

 

[PurpleGatorade]

Tyler here. (Hi.) So, I'm just gonna mention one of the threats you had listed on here. For Skamory, maybe you could change your Yveltal to Life Orb and give it Heat Wave? Since most Skarmory in AG are defensive for Extreme Speed Killers, it would OHKO most of the time, I believe. However, this leaves you vulnerable to Extreme Speed Killers now. You could change the 4 SpD into 4 Def on Ghostceus, and because it has Will-O-Wisp and max HP, it can take a few hits from an Extreme Speed Killer because Extreme Speed doesn't affect Ghostceus. That means you wouldn't just sack it at the beginning of the game, however. Think it over!

Hi Tyler, thanks for your suggestions, however, I am not sure that a life orb yveltal is the best way to go for this team because it completely changes the dynamic. I will change the EV's to defense for arceus ghost, however.

 

[Pigeons]

Hey man, nice team, I don't think this is the one I faced a bunch of times but I'll do my best to rate.

I think Darkrai is the most glaring weakness, like you said both Mega Rayquaza and EKiller can win 1v1, but once their Lum Berries are used up Darkrai pretty much has a field day. While there isn't an amazing way to fix this weakness, something that could help is running Magic Coat over Shadow Claw on EKiller. Not being able to touch Giratina and struggling with Ghostceus sucks, but notably it allows EKiller to mess with Darkrai and at the very least make the opponent think twice before clicking Dark Void. Magic Coat is also cool against Pokemon like Skarmory, Lugia and some Ghostceus that rely on status or phasing to deal with EKiller, so the loss of coverage isn't necessarily the end of the world.

Beating CM Steelceus and Skarmory reliably seems tricky, but Thimo's suggestion of V-Create on Rayquaza could help a lot. Other than that, I can't see too many other changes that wouldn't require quite a bit of change that would help you with those threats, so you might just have to play carefully around them.

Overall, nice team and congrats on almost peaking!

 

[PurpleGatorade]

Hey man, nice team, I don't think this is the one I faced a bunch of times but I'll do my best to rate.

I think Darkrai is the most glaring weakness, like you said both Mega Rayquaza and EKiller can win 1v1, but once their Lum Berries are used up Darkrai pretty much has a field day. While there isn't an amazing way to fix this weakness, something that could help is running Magic Coat over Shadow Claw on EKiller. Not being able to touch Giratina and struggling with Ghostceus sucks, but notably it allows EKiller to mess with Darkrai and at the very least make the opponent think twice before clicking Dark Void. Magic Coat is also cool against Pokemon like Skarmory, Lugia and some Ghostceus that rely on status or phasing to deal with EKiller, so the loss of coverage isn't necessarily the end of the world.

Beating CM Steelceus and Skarmory reliably seems tricky, but Thimo's suggestion of V-Create on Rayquaza could help a lot. Other than that, I can't see too many other changes that wouldn't require quite a bit of change that would help you with those threats, so you might just have to play carefully around them.

Overall, nice team and congrats on almost peaking!

Thanks for the rate pigeons, now that I think about it, magic coat makes a lot of sense because I don't use shadow claw all that often anyway.

 

[MZ]

Hey man, don't particularly feel like putting out a big rate since it looks like you've gotten plenty of helpful feedback from other people but I do have a couple of ideas. Assuming it's V-Create ray (but not the bulky spread here) and magic coat ekiller, the two slots I'm not a fan of are knock off yveltal, which feels redundant with such a solid xerneas counter already on the team, and perish song poisonceus on a team that isn't particularly baton pass weak at all. Slotting in U-Turn on yveltal should help maneuver a bit better around CM arc formes since that is currently your main setup fodder, and Poisonceus could do practically anything with the free slot but I think you could consider going Stone Edge with enough speed to creep standard offensive yveltal, which helps check that and lure Ho-Oh, which isn't on the threatlist but is still pretty annoying as you don't really switch into it and it causes problems for xern and ghostceus. Overall though the team is pretty solid, grats on your peak!

 

[PurpleGatorade]

Hey man, don't particularly feel like putting out a big rate since it looks like you've gotten plenty of helpful feedback from other people but I do have a couple of ideas. Assuming it's V-Create ray (but not the bulky spread here) and magic coat ekiller, the two slots I'm not a fan of are knock off yveltal, which feels redundant with such a solid xerneas counter already on the team, and perish song poisonceus on a team that isn't particularly baton pass weak at all. Slotting in U-Turn on yveltal should help maneuver a bit better around CM arc formes since that is currently your main setup fodder, and Poisonceus could do practically anything with the free slot but I think you could consider going Stone Edge with enough speed to creep standard offensive yveltal, which helps check that and lure Ho-Oh, which isn't on the threatlist but is still pretty annoying as you don't really switch into it and it causes problems for xern and ghostceus. Overall though the team is pretty solid, grats on your peak!

Thanks for your rate, i agree that perish song is rather unecessary since baton pass is rare in high ladder, but im not 100% sure about stone edge. I will try it out but since primal groudon is far more prevalent than Ho-oh, i think i may go with earthquake instead. The yveltal idea makes a lot of sense, I didnt even consider U-turn but it seems to be a great option for this team. Thanks again!