Other Metagames AAA: Zamillionaire - Zarude Bulky Offense

[DeepFriedMagikarp]

Zamillionaire

Introduction

Hello, i am DeepFriedMagikarp (DFM), you can also find me going by sand- on discord/etc as well. I am an AAA / om's main i suppose and have played casually in gen8, and more competitively in gen9 finding myself on its council now. Throughout gen9 i still played relatively casually until i signed up for OMPL & subsequent teamtours last year. There i had a blast playing on a more serious level; actively prepping, scouting, the whole deal. Before i couldn't quite bring myself to do so on the individual tournaments. Starting this year i yet again joined the AAA open. I didn't plan on anything in particular but my main goal going into it was to try to create some new viable fun teams and cores. Building AAA i can often find myself in a creative rut where im recycling all the same boring old cores that have since been outdated and bad. Oh yeah this is also my first RMT

Priority at this point in the metagame was quite dire with both Dragonite and Ceruledge banned. It was basically just Kingambit and Chien Pao, who are both conditional, can be pretty weak, and have their own issues. Then i reconsidered grassy glide previously written off after the nerfs + opportunity cost (i need damage boost right?)
Naturally, i went with ogerpon-hearthflame. I was getting just owned by pecharunt so i came to Zarude, he was good in gen8 i think cant be that bad. Turns out hes the best ogerpon form

So grassy surge means i have to run seed dd roaring moon, gholdengo, mons like heatran, etc etc, some real classic grassy cheeser teams with the priority option in the back. This turned out to be pretty dang meh in testing and it was hard to keep terrain up, get value out of it, and cheese was much too unreliable. But Zarude itself was kinda cooking, i just needed to get it into position which these kind of teams couldn't accomplish. So i set out to build a bulky offense with this mon'
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obligatory ladder peak for those who care

Building process/the team

Allmighty

AllMighty (Zarude) @ Life Orb
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Grassy Glide
- Power Whip

Big Chief Sosa himself. This mon is much stronger than you'd expect. Its bulky and a constant threat at both +0/+2 making the sd/attack mixup potent. Its the teams priority / midgamewallbreaker / endgame sweeper. This mon takes great advantage of the most common bulky offenses popular at the moment, instantly crushing teams with defensive cores consisting of and the likes. Its biggest demon being on the down rn in the metagame is great for it. The grassy terrain is also helpful in mitigating chip and weakening eq, which the next 3 mons all take advantage of.​

some calcs but just believe me okay it kills everyone

+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def : 341-403 (88.8 - 104.9%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def : 331-390 (86.1 - 101.5%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def in Grassy Terrain: 408-484 (94 - 111.5%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def in Grassy Terrain: 305-360 (93.8 - 110.7%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def in Grassy Terrain: 282-333 (86.7 - 102.4%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def : 330-390 (86.8 - 102.6%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Colbur Berry : 446-526 (117.9 - 139.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def in Grassy Terrain: 226-268 (64.3 - 76.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def in Grassy Terrain: 105-125 (29.9 - 35.6%) -- 26.5% chance to 3HKO
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def in Grassy Terrain: 209-247 (59.5 - 70.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def in Grassy Terrain: 320-378 (86.2 - 101.8%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Zarude Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 0 Def in Grassy Terrain: 292-346 (72.2 - 85.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery

Angel

Angel (Primarina) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Moonblast
- Flip Turn
- Psychic Noise
- Surf / Sparkling Aria / Energy Ball

Next up is physdef Regenvest Primarina. This mon pivots into most of everything that will scare out your zarude. Its unique in that its a regenvest that utterly farms the most common scary physical attackers whilst still retaining an excellent spdef typing and bulk. Having the fairy typing in particular helps stifle Latios, who clicks draco for free vs other regenvests. Two of the biggest problems with this mon is that it always takes a little too much from EQ than is comfortable and that its prone to chip are solved by grassy terrain. Grassy also makes energy ball a stronger option on it though water stab is useful vs more things. VS some teams this mon will wall both their scariest physical mon and scariest special mon, leaving them with no good options as it pivots out.
Its next 2 biggest problems are solved by the next 2 mons. This is the backbone of the team, keeping everything in check and generating momentum.

Ann Alienate

Ann Alienate (Gholdengo) @ Colbur Berry / Kasib Berry
Ability: Well-Baked Body
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 144 HP / 112 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Nasty Plot
- Recover

Primarina's biggest problem by far is that its momentum is stopped by desolate land fire types and unlike Swampert it cannot threaten them hard. This paired with Zarudes bad mu into fire types meant i needed a very sturdy fire resist. Primordial Sea and other water types have some redundancy overlap with primarina and so i went with the evil that is WBB gholdengo. This is one of the best anti-fire mons in the tier as it immediately takes the +2 defense boost and runs away with it sweeping some teams on the spot. This big of a punish makes fire types lives hell. The +2 defense boost on its own stops ground types and dark types from being counterplay, and with WBB blocking out fires thats most of the things that can even stop a ghold. Colbur Berry has great general utility and really secures the dark type mu. 112 spa is to ohko at +2, max speed to outrun as much as possible, and rest in bulk. Kasib is a specific tech meant to defeat teams relying primarily on their own or shadow ball to deal with this set. Would probably drop speed for bulk ev's if using Kasib. Really not much in the tier can stop a ghold when its blanking fire/ground/dark and potentially ghost at the same time.
Oh have i mentioned its a gholdengo yet, yeah its a gholdengo

AceTopGun

AceTopGun (Cinderace) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Desolate Land
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pyro Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- U-turn
- Court Change

Cinderace is the hazard remover of choice, as 's value is diminished with primarina covering most of the mons and i dont like / it overlaps with ghold. Cinderace is also a great backup check to opposing gholdengo as prim can struggle with it and in general is a nice fast offensive pivot that keeps the pace of the team up. Does desolate-land fire type things. The usual best switchin to this mon on is who are a free uturn into , so people will avoid doing so giving cinderace a bit more of an offensive presence in games. Dont sleep on this mons cleaning power either when its counters are removed. Keeps the hazards off pretty well long enough.

A-Hyphenated

A-Hyphenated (Latios) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Hadron Engine
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Thunderbolt / Surf
- Trick / Flip Turn

No, i do not know what this nickname means. Im just trying to keep the A- theme and this sounded good to me at the time. Anyways this team has good priority and a fast mon, but it doesn't have a fast mon so heres scarf latios. Its faster than and ohko's most of the offensive tier, and puts really strong pressure onto unprepared teams with its very powerful attacks. Modest as the team already beats SD garchomp. Resetting terrain and turning it off for my opponents can be neat. I alternate between Tbolt which has a wider spread & Surf which really nails opening itself up for later. Trick is a very consistent 4th move which generally will dispatch whatever problematic mon / bulky setup cheeser you may face. You can technically run flip turn to ease clicking but i think its unneeded as you will get more mileage out of just making the correct prediction or double switch to break, & flip turn is blockable. Zarude sets up on all* the mons that wall this, very nifty. Since Primarina will likely be sponging everything in the early game, having the elemental resistances of latios helps alot in the endgames.

Alexandria

Alexandria (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Fluffy
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 20 HP / 200 Atk / 36 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance

I needed a ground type, i would ideally like a ground immunity, and i already have hazard removal and a dragon type. This leaves me with Lando-T. Luckily, i love this mon. Also luckily, its a perfect backup physical check in case Primarina goes down. This set and ev's are taken from Glory, and they work great. SD lando-t is a strong threat, bulky piece, and rock setter in one. Also crucially it spreads chip with helmet to put everything in range. Most important is how effective it is at chipping down , who is a big problem for Zarude. In practice vs physdef Corv teams this can be an amazing early game progress maker and between rocks/helmet/stone edge Corv can easily be at sub 50%, perfect for Zarude to be able to break it. The helmet chip is crucial for putting random things into grassy glide range for later.
Now the big question everyone asks is "lol sd eq guy in grassy terrain" but in practice it rly isnt a big deal. The turns dont last too long, You often rocks or SD first, Lando comes out at different points of the battle and Primarina is your primary switch to go into after Zarude.
Overall great and an ever underrated mon in AAA. Actually, just hear Glory yap about it.

Overall, everyone is fast, offensive, likes trading, loves setting up endgames for itself and others, and the type synergies on this team is beautiful is it not?
And if you were one of the people who clicked on the zarude calc wall, youll notice alot of the calcs are actually rolls. What the hell you liar, i didnt sign up for rolls i signed up for KILLS. Well you rarely just "go for the roll" with this team, as everyone naturally chips those mons ever slightly into range without even making a conscious effort of it. is the main driving force behind this with rocks and helmet, but / get chip for free on /etc., and for various steels.

Threatlist and weaknesses
Numero uno, bricks Zarude and is on bulkier teams

SPIKES: Cinderace will not stop a proper spikes team in the long term, and they are often built to play the long term. You will get drowned in spikes if you cannot win fast enough
A threat to every team for sure, but it isnt very difficult for it to get kills vs this one. Zarude helps a lot here in mitigating it
ironically Zarudes little cousin completely bypasses the Primarina/Lando/Ghold defensive core and always lives +2 grassy glide. Try to trade colbur Ghold into it. Or try to get rocks up asap and wear it down into glide range. Scarf outruns the whole team but is weak and choice locked.

In general some bulkier teams will be a tough mu (especially stall) if they have an answer to all of the mons, but this team in turn has a strong mu into the bo's and offenses dominating the tier and a strong mu into the rising Hyper Offenses.

Some Replays (AAA open)
AllmightySo
AllmightySo2
Latios Sweep
Kasib Ghold Sweep
is it better to be feared or respected

Shoutouts

peeps

in no particular order its like 2 am sorry if i missed anyone as well ill update this later prolly*
Isaiah
Glory
UT
Jrdn
HiZo
Chessking345
April
pannu
Evie
Atha
LordBox
Betticus IV
QT
Akira 153
Kinetic
Racool
Fc
Icemaster
Lana
aerobee
Giagantic
Chromate
Clas
AM
@ more peeps
@ literally everyone in the om discord, om community at large

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And uhh yeah thanks for reading​

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