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- Has a very high 135 base attack
- Very good bulk, especially on the physically defensive side
- High stats in general
- A nice set of resistances
- Pretty bad offensive STAB moves starving it for coverage moveslots
- Faces pretty big competition as offensive steel type, and as a defensive steel type
- Clear body helps against common Intimidate users
- Excruciatingly common weaknesses to fire, ground, ghost, and dark
- Pretty slow
Assault Vest
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name: Assault Vest
move 1: Meteor Mash
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Pursuit
move 4: Zen Headbutt
ability: Clear Body
item: Assault Vest
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 hp / 252 atk / 4 sdef
Moves
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- Meteor Mash is pretty strong STAB that has a nice chance to boost attack, thus it allows metagross to punish recover stalling pokemon that might be able to beat it otherwise
- Earthquake is a solid coverage move that hits steel, and fire types like Aegislash
- Zen Headbutt is a good secondary STAB that hits a number of switch ins for respectable damage, such as Rotom. Rotom that lack Will-O-Wisp, such as the choice set can be beaten one on one with zen headbutt. Zen Headbutt as well allows you to check most fighting types, notably Keldeo, and Conkeldurr as well as dealing significant damage to the ever hard to kill Mega-Venusaur
- Pursuit is useful to easily defeat Latios, Latias and Alakazam letting pokemon checked by these threego to work
- Rock Slide is useful for checking unboosted Pinsir, as well as hitting Talonflame and Charizard on switch in
- Bullet punch is useful priority, that at max attack hits modestly hard, and can pick off some weakened foes, while doing quite respectable damage to any weaknesses
- Ice punch achieves good coverage with EArthquake, and super effectively is considerably better than a neutral meteor. Special attacking dragons even with super effective moves will not be able to muscle through you right away, and ice punch hits hardest. Ice Punch also snipes LAndorus-T quite nicely thanks to Clear Body.
- Explosion does serious damage to anything offensive, having a chance to KO some of the bulkiest offensive pokemon such as Mega Charizard X and Mega Pinsir. Its incredibly useful for retaining momentum and preventing Metagross from ecoming set up bait.
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- Metagross' natural special bulk combined with Assault vest, and max HP investment give great special bulk, while still improving physical bulk making Metagross a pretty formidable tank
- Max attack, with an Adamant nature is necessary to actually hit the opponent back and be useful
- Some Attack and/or HP can be dropped in favor of 60 Speed EVs to outpace defensive Heatran
Usage Tips
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- Thanks to fantastic bulk, and strong offense but generally weak typing, metagross can act as a good tank, but most interestingly, a lure. Gengar's shadow ball,, Landorus-therian's Earthquake as well as Excadrill's, Unboosted Tyranitar's Crunch and many very strong super effective attacks can not OHKO Metagross, while Metagross retaliates with a massive amount of damage or flat KOs right back
- As mentioned in the move section, pursuit can trap very dangerous pokemon and even those it doesnt kill it can chip away at, switching agressively into latios is recommended
- Metagross is a very strong check to a number of dangerous pokemon such as Clefable, it is advisable to keep Metagross healthy until what it is supposed to deal with has been dealt with.
Team Options
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- Metagross is useless when burned, and has no recovery options. ALthough heal bell and wish support are easy to recommend as helpful team options this Metagross in particular enjoys them quite nicely, and is a very good candidate at receiving them. This is because Metagross although has common weaknesses it has a large profile of resistances and great mixed bulk, meaning that switching into the wish no matter what you're facing is very plausible, and after that Metagross will again after taking a previous beating be able to go to work on whatever it is now staring down.
- Mandibuzz is very good at fighting Dark-type and Ground-types such as Excadrill and Bisherp, as well as fighting types who use ghost, and dark for coverage, but not ice and rock, thus the two form solid defensive synergy.
- A good offensive partner to Metagross is a mixed Kyurem-Black set consisting of Fusion bolt / Ice Beam / Earth power. This is capable of checking a wide profile of Metagross defensive counters, such as skarmory and landorus-therian. Metagross is quite good against Fairies, and can sponge some Dragon attacks aimed at Kyube. A clever double switch to Kyurem-B as the opponent brings in their defensive counter to Metagross can land the opponent on their back foot searching desperately for a switch in.
- Metagross invites hazard users such as Skarmory, Hippowdon and Ferrothorn to come in on it and set up, Defog or Rapid Spinusers that threaten these particular pokemon such as Zapdos or Starmie are useful alongside Metagross
- Bulky waters like Rotom-W, Gyarados, and Suicune love to come in on Metagross, strong defensive Grass types like Mega Venusaur completely mitigate this
Utility
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name: Utility
move 1: Meteor Mash
move 2: Stealth Rock
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Zen Headbutt / Pursuit / Trick
ability: Clear Body
item: Leftovers / Iron Ball
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 hp / 252 atk / 4 def
Moves
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- Pursuit traps a number of Psychic-types, and can help ensure damage on an important threat as it flees, weak to Pursuit or not
- Stealth Rock is a valuable entry hazard Metagross has access to, and opportunities to lay it are numerous
- Meteor Mash is a relatively strong STAB move that can put an end to most Fairy-types
- Earthquake achieves good coverage and is great alongside the iron ball
- Trick + Iron Ball is a useful tool that synergies with Metagross' moves and common switch ins crippling them, and anything in general by grounding them and halving their speed after an iron ball is given, though letovers must be given up
- Zen Headbutt scores some important Super Effective hits and offers decent neutral coverage all around
- Bullet Punch allows Metagross to support the team by being a decent check to weakened sweepers, especially steel weaknesses
- Ice Punch can be used to hit the 4x weak pokemon in the tier like Lando, and Dragonite
- Rock Slide can be used to hit the 4x weak pokemon in the tier like Pinsir and Talonflame
Set Details
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- As Metagross is quite slow, especially when holding an iron ball before tricking it off, no speed investment is necessary, or useful
- Without Iron Ball 60 Speed EVs allow Metagross to outspeed defensive Heatran
- Maximum HP investment maximizes mixed bulk for investment
- Maximum attack with adamant lets Metagross deal real damage
- Leftovers greatly improve Metagross longevity,this is valuable to a bulky supporting pokemon and should be used if Trick is not used.
Usage Tips
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- Potential switch ins to Metagross that can wall it, set up on it, or KO it include but are not limited to Balloon Excadrill, Talonflame, Balloon Heatran, Landorus-Therian, Thundurus, Zapdos, Rotom-W/H, Skarmory, and more are all really screwed around by Iron Ball, many are incredibly vulnerable to Earthquake after the iron ball, and you will outspeed most of them. Target these pokemon with trick if you see them on the opposing team.
- Despite the utility of iron ball tricking switch ins may not be completely trigger happy to take advantage of Metagross, so using Stealth rock on a switch force is a solid idea and by no means a waste of a turn. Losing your iron ball right away when a good counter exists is unwise.
- Sylveon, Clefable, Togekiss, Tyranitar, Klefki, and a couple other common pokemon can be taken advantage of, do this as much as possible
- Many teams are completely vulnerable to an iron ball trick, and getting stealth rock up early is valuable. Metagross because of this acts as a solid lead that can trick an iron ball onto the opponent, severly crippling it if it relies on speed, perhaps even crippling something incredibly important to the team. Then, outspeeds and sets up rocks before going down.
- AS with any Stealth Rock user its ideal to set them up as early in the game as possible, if the opponnet lacks Pokemon Metagross may be needed to deal with such as Sylveon, or Mega Venusaur then reckless use of Stealth Rock is a viable tactic
Team Options
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- Metagross does not have particularly favorable match up against most spinners and defoggers, especially without an iron ball trick, carrying a spin blocker with this set is ideal
- As well as this pokemon that discourage defog, such as Defiant Bisharp help keep rocks up
- Mandibuzz is very good at fighting offensive ghosts, and ground types, as well as fighting types who use ghost, and dark for coverage, but not ice and rock, thus the two form solid defensive synergy.
- When running Iron Ball trick Mega Pinsir is a surprisingly amazing parnter as nearly every counter to mega Pinsir, especially Skarmory and Rotom-W are eager switch ins to Metagross, and an iron ball tricked to these pokemon leaves them unable to properly check Mega Pinsir.
- Metagross invites hazard users such as Skarmory, Hippowdon and Ferrothorn to come in on it and set up, Defog or Rapid Spin users that threaten these particular pokemon such as Zapdos or Starmie are useful alongside Metagross
- Bulky waters like Rotom-W, Gyarados, and Suicune love to come in on Metagross, strong defensive Grass types like Mega Venusaur completely mitigate this
Other Options
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- Explosion lets you go out with a bang, it can deal a lot of damage even with "just" 250 base power. In tandem with trick iron ball can create a situation where you can absolutely prevent the opponent from spinning or defogging even if you do not kill them, as defog and rapid spin fail to clear hazards against nothing.
- Thunderpunch is considerable on the Assault vest set to damage Skarmory, Gyarados, Talonflame, and handful of moderately relevant pokemon like Vaporeon.
- Hammer Arm is your best move against a number of dark types, but the most relevant ones can be covered with other moves, such as Meteor Mash vs. Tyranitar, Earthquake for Bisharp, and Ice Punch against Hydreigon. Hammer Arm is also the best move against Ferrothorn that Metagross can use.
- An Agility set can function as a late game sweeper, however due to poor neutral STAB coverage, as well as only adequate super effective coverage it lacks power and is generally not as good as other Agility sweepers such as Dragonite, Thundurus-T, and Landorus-T.
- A Choice Band set although strong is generally outclassed by other offensive steel types for their superior speed, and coverage.
- Toxic gets a leg up on defensive counters like Zapdos, Rotom-W and Hippowdon
- Dual Screens mitigate Metagross' tendency to be set up bait, and it certainly has the bulk to pull it off, however Metagross offers nothing exceptional as a dual screen user unlike Deoxys' insane speed and further support movepool, or Klefki's prankster, or Latios' Memento
Checks & Counters
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- Metagross is slow, and doesnt have the greatest movepool. However, despite this it has just enough to be a bit harder to check than what you might think. Strong Ground-types, such as Garchomp, Landorus-therian, Excadrill, and such are good checks, but none short of Max attack boosting item sets can OHKO Metagross, and can be hit very hard in return. Despite this if you are checking Metagross, it i probably sufficiently weakened.
- Mega Charizard has nothing to fear but Thunderpunch, Earthquake, or Rock Slide depending on Forme, Can not be tricked, and can easily OHKO any set, thus it is a premier switch in, though clever opponents may demolish you
- Once weakened sufficiently strong and fast ghosts, and dark types again have litte trouble ending Metagross
- Rotom-W, walls Metagross pretty bad, while burning it, but it can get chunked by Zen Headbutt pretty decently
- Skarmory turns Metagross into set up bait outside iron ball trickery
- Any fast Will-o-wisp users not Ko'd by bullet punch can severly cripple Metagross to the point where it is nearly useless.
- Aegislash can be offered as a good check, cleanly knocking out metagross with a combination of Shadow Ball and shadow sneak. Metagross' Earthquake is a 2HKO however, thus it can not switch in freely.
- Bulky Ground-types like Hippowdon, Landorus-T, and Gliscor work. The latter two have to fear Ice Punch.
- Ferrothorn keks at anything Metagross is going ot carry
- Mega Scizor uses Metagross as set up bait
- Zapdos outside iron all usage just siwtches in and defogs
- Gyarados uses Metagross as set up bait outide Thunderpunch
- Talonflame outside Rock Slide / Thunderpunch is a free switch in
- Bulky Volcarona sets up on Metagross
- man metagross kinda sux :/
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