Ampharos

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CBManBearPig

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Overview
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  • Finally useful because of Mega Evolution
  • After it Mega Evolves, its Special Attack becomes the highest of any Electric- or Dragon- type at 165 and it still retains above average bulk
  • That combined with low speed makes it perfect for a bulky Trick Room attacker
  • Desperately needs Trick Room and Wide Guard support to reach potential


Mega Trick Room Attacker
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name: Mega Trick Room Attacker
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Dragon Pulse
move 3: Focus Blast
move 4: Protect
ability: Static
item: Ampharosite
evs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
nature: Quiet

Moves
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  • Thunderbolt and Dragon Pulse - Powerful STAB moves with excellent coverage
  • Focus Blast - Wrecks Tyranitar, Heatran, and Scrafty harder than other moves
  • Protect - allows Ampharos to scout or evade damage while its partner sets up Trick Room or takes out one of its counters

Set Details
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  • Quiet + 252 SpA - max power
  • Max HP - best overall bulk, Speed investment is unhelpful because Mega Ampharos is meant to be used in Trick Room
  • Ampharosite - only reason to use Ampharos. Without it, it would be outclassed

Usage Tips
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  • In Trick Room as a powerful battering ram taking out or weakening one pokemon at a time

Team Options
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  • Trick Room is essential as it allows for Ampharos to get around its only low stat, its Speed - Aromatisse can also strike the Dragon-types that scare Ampharos while being immune to their Dragon-type attacks and Cresselia and Gourgeist resist the Ground-type attacks that are fired Ampharos' way.
  • Wide Guard support is necessary given Ampharos' weakness to EQ and Blizzard - Aegislash resists Dragon and Ice attacks that threaten Ampharos, while Hariyama or Conkeldurr scare away Ice-types with their Fighting STABS.
  • With Politoed, Ampharos can fire off powerful 100% accurate Thunders, dealing more damage than Thunderbolt. However, in other weathers, Thunder's accuracy very unreliable.
  • Ice-types threaten Dragon- and Ground- types. Glaceon and Regice fit well in Trick Room; unfortunately, Mega Abomasnow and Mega Ampharos can't be used together.

Other Options
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  • Not much else
  • Discharge - useful spread move, but it is not powerful enough to achieve several 1HKOs and 2HKOs.
  • Thunder Wave - useful support for slowing down opponents to around Mega Ampharos' speed, but it is counterproductive in Trick Room
  • Agility - patches up its speed, allowing it to be used on teams other than TR
  • Heal Bell could support team but it is better off attacking

Checks & Counters
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**Earthquake**: Mega Ampharos' weakness to EQ will often lead to its demise. Outside of Trick Room, Garchomp, Landorus, and Zygarde can outspeed and take it out. Inside of Trick Room, Rhyperior can also outrun it. However, Wide Guard on Ampharos' side of the field often leads to a wasted turn.

**Dragon-types**: Garchomp, Salamence, and Dragonite prey on its weakness to its own type, outspeeding and KOing. However, during Trick Room, Ampharos gains the upper hand in speed.

**Mega Abomasnow**: Another crippling issue is Ampharos' Blizzard weakness. Mega Abomasnow outspeeds Ampharos when Trick Room is in play and destroys it with Blizzard.

**Gengar**: While not exactly a counter to Ampharos, it can beat almost every Trick Room user, rendering Ampharos extremely slow and easy to outspeed and KO by most of the above pokemon.
 
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The skeleton is pretty much done. I will certainly elaborate more in the actual analysis. Anything else I need to add? I believe this is ready for QC.
 
Mention Aegislash as a nice partner because it resists Ampharos's Dragon and Ice-type weakesses and protects both of them with Wide Guard.

Mention Politoed as a potential partner so Ampharos can spam Thunder.

Ice-types make great partners since they threaten the Dragon- and Ground-types that threaten Ampharos. It just sucks that you cant use Mega Abomasnow also :(. Glaceon and Regice are the only two other options that fit in Trick Room.

Mention Hariyama/Conkeldurr threaten the Ice-types that aim at Ampharos.

Remove the Power Gem mention since you would rather use Thunderbolt to hit those threats.

Discharge, Thunder Wave, and Agility in Other Options.

Make sure your checks and counters follow the **topic** format. Check the main thread for the link to the analysis guide.

In general you need to put more detail into this. Mention why these Trick Room and Wide Guard setters partner well with Ampharos (Cresselia and Gourgeist handle Ground-type moves, Aromatisse is immune to Ampharos's Dragon-type weakness etc.) It is much easier for the QC to stamp if it looks like you know what you are talking about (I'm sure you do, but you need to show it).
 
Is tailwind support worth a mention? If you jack up its speed with 252Spd EVs and Timid I think it outspeeds even like base 127 pokes.. Probably still hits really high when modest..
 
No mention of Tailwind please. In general, slow Pokemon (below base 60) need a super-specific role on Tailwind teams to function (Pwnemon's Lightningrod Rhyperior in gen 5).

In general, all-out Tailwind teams are not as viable as all-out Trick Room teams, so Pokemon that are known to fair well in Trick Room definitely should not have Tailwind mentioned in their analysis.
 
In the overview mention how Mega-Evolving gives it a much better defensive typing as well, countering Pokemon such as Charizard-Y and Talonflame.

In Usage Tips, talk about maintaining offensive pressure with its powerful coverage.

Add Hidden Power Ice in OO for BoltBeam coverage but mainly to hit Lando-T.

Change your checks and counters tabs to match the new approved tabs here.

You still need more detail in this skeleton, especially in moves, set details, and usage tips. Go further into each bullet point about what it accomplishes, covers, etc. I am sure you know what you are talking about but I am not seeing it right now. If you need help I can make a longer, more detailed check but a lot of it is just cleaning.
 
Is Cotton Guard possible slash after Focus Blast? That's the set I used and with simple Intimidate support you basically resist EQ at that point.

-1 252+ Atk Sand Force Mega Garchomp Earthquake vs. +3 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Ampharos in Sand: 108-128 (28.1 - 33.3%) -- 93.5% chance to 3HKO after sandstorm damage AKA strongest physical move possible against you
-1 252+ Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. +3 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Ampharos: 74-90 (19.2 - 23.4%) -- possible 5HKO
Really big game changer imo for 1 turn to use
 
The EV spread is pretty inefficient in my opinion. When the attacking stats are as high as 165, the influence of 1 stat point (or 4 EVs) is significantly less. For my current VGC team, I'm using 72 SpA Quiet which still does stuff like OHKO Dragonite/Garchomp/Salamence and the defensive investment makes it more difficult to KO. I'm not 100% sure what the best spread is (also mine is geared for a different meta and lv 50 play) but I'm positive 252/252 is not the best.
 
Overview:
  • Mention the perks of gaining the Dragon typing defensively, allowing Ampharos to counter stuff like Talonflame, Charizard, the Rotom forms, etc.
  • Also mention how Ampharos is a one-trick-pony that has very little to go from, meaning it is very predictable
Set:
  • Add 0 Speed ivs.
Moves:
  • I would say that Ampharos's stabs have decent base power, but they are not outstanding in any regard.
  • Mention Focus Blast's sucky accuracy
Set Details:
  • Mention Thunder here as an option for way more power, but it needs Rain support to be reliable.
Usage Tips:
  • Play cautious with Protect when Trick Room isn't set up.
  • When Trick Room is up, smash the opponent with its strong Special Attack stat and coverage.
  • Must keep itself and a partner with Trick Room alive in order to achieve a late-game sweep.
  • Do not use Protect under Trick Room unless necessary, time is money.
Team Options:
  • Because Ampharos's STABs have an average Base Power, Helping Hand support from Pokemon such as Cresselia is much appreciated.
  • Take out the bit i mentioned earlier about Abomasnow; its pretty irrelevant. Just separate into Water-types such as Azumarill, Suicune, and Rotom-W that can eliminate Ground-types that threaten Ampharos, and Fighting-types such as Conkeldurr and Scrafty that can take out the Ice-type that threaten it. Fairy-types such as Sylveon cockblock any Dragon-type attack aimed at Ampharos also.
  • Don't say wide guard is mandatory, just say it is appreciated.
Other Options:
  • Emphasize again that Ampharos needs the mega stone to have a niche in Doubles, so it cannot hold any other items for much success.
  • Cotton Guard can go here.
  • Has access to light screen and reflect.
Checks & Counters
  • Mention Taunt users can prevent Ampharos's partner from setting up Trick Room severely crippling Ampharos's performance in battle. Add Gengar to the section about keeping out trick room and add pokemon such as Aegislash that also can threaten Trick Room setters
  • Pokemon holding an Assault Vest can take a few of Ampharos's attacks while replying with just as strong attacks, such as Ludicolo and Conkeldurr
  • You can sum up a lot of your points with a **super effective coverage tab**
  • Also Landorus-T uses Earthquake, not Landorus
  • Mamoswine has two super effective STAB types and it can even revenge kill under Trick Room with Ice Shard.
  • Many Pokemon can take a hit and reply with a lot of damage or Status, such as Mega Kangaskhan, Tyranitar, Venusaur, Amoonguss, Abomasnow (it doesnt need its own section, just mention it here) and Gastrodon
Sorry these thoughts are kinda scattered. Do these CBManBearPig and I will check this again.
 
gdi lolk. reassignin this since the user doing the writeup hasnt been on in like a month. if anyone wants to take this up they can feel free
 
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