Pokémon Metagross

[uppa]

"It hurts all nearby grounded opponents. If you stay too close to it, it’ll bury you in the ground."

-- An Introduction. Who is Metagross? --
Metagross is a very special pokemon. They are a large blue robot with four legs and a face resembling that of a large man. In adv, it was an incredible progress maker with explosion, and had a great niche of blowing past its checks with meteor mash attack raises. I know nothing about gen 4, but I think it was pretty good there as well. In gen 5, it fell off majorly when explosion's power was cut in half, and rain offense hurt the consistency of bulky steels. It came back in a big way in gen 6 with its mega, but in gen 7 it was banned, and its base form fell to even greater depths. In gen 8, it lanquished in mediocrity, feeling the full effect of dark and ghost spam becoming more reliable, inadvertently making the part-psychic typing a liability for tons of mons. In gen 9, Metagross loses to 4/5 of the top mons in OU, and is outclassed in nearly every niche it could want. Still though, it gained a few really nice tools this gen, so there are sets worth exploring for when it inevitably falls to a lower tier.

-- An overview. What can Metagross do? --

Abilities: Clear Body, Light Metal (hidden)
Viable move options:

-- Offensive Options --

Heavy Slam (New)
Bullet Punch
Meteor Mash
Hard Press (New)
Steel Beam
Psychic Fangs (New)
Zen Headbutt
Future Sight
Psychic Noise (New)
Earthquake
Stomping Tantrum
Bulldoze
Ice Punch
Supercell Slam (New)
Thunder Punch
Stone Edge (New)
Knock Off (New)
Body Press
Focus Punch (New)
Brick Break
Tera Blast

-- Setup Options --

Iron Defense
Hone Claws
Trailblaze (New)
Agility
Reflect
Light Screen
Psych Up

-- Utility Options --

Stealth Rock
Trick
Steel Beam
Explosion
Icy Wind
Mud Slap

--- So What Changed? ---
Metagross has always been short on tools, and this gen has been a blessing for it. Having to rely on the poor accuracy of Meteor Mash and Zen Headbutt has always made it awkward and inconsistent as an offensive threat. While its stats and ability are nice, it has always fallen into an unfortunate rut where it fails to make progress against its checks. Recieving Heavy Slam, Psychic Fangs, and Knock Off are perhaps the three best offensive tools it could have asked for, and it helps lend merit to a very simple choice band set.


Bulky Attacker

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Psychic Fangs / Earthquake / Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Trick

This set strives to make the most of its strong steel stab, leveraging its huge weight class with Heavy Slam while also providing a good amount of utility with its other moves. Fangs helps against screens, as well as certain meta-dependant checks such as Toxapex and Great Tusk. Knock off provides a decent amount of power, crippling any switchins when it's able to threaten what's in front of it. Trick increases this utility further, rounding out the set's usefullness into unfavorable matchups.


PhysDef

Metagross @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Knock Off
- Iron Defense
- Stealth Rock

While admittedly not having as strong a niche as the CB set, this still has merit in a meta where it isn't worrying about spikes chip and sballs as much. For an OU environment, however, this set outspeeds and beats kingambit, while providing more utility with Knock Off and Rocks.



Lead (heat :3)

Metagross @ Custap Berry / Light Clay
Ability: Clear Body
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Steel Beam
- Future Sight / Reflect
- Knock Off / Light Screen
- Stealth Rock

A truly strange set, almost completely outclassed by a mon who rhymes with Ryan Brown, who's able to ohko sashed glimmoras and ribombees in the lead slot with its signature move. There's plenty room to optimize here, and this may even be effective in a meta where Metagross is viable, and you're able to bluff with this set. A steel beam rocks lead could potentially set the tempo with future sight before sacrificing itself, but a screens set is also an option. Definitely the most iffy of these three options, but I felt it was worth mentioning.


Have fun with Metagross! Share any innovations you can come up with below. This is a cool mon that has a ton of potential in lower tiers with its new tools!

​

 

[Loginator]

Why PhysDef when it has Iron Defense already and resists many common special attacking types?

 

[Morkal]

Why PhysDef when it has Iron Defense already and resists many common special attacking types?

It's likely because the special attacking types that would come in on Metagross would be able to yeet it pretty easily from sheer power regardless of the EVs invested. Investing in its best defense stat here allows it to check some incredibly problematic OU Pokemon such as Iron Boulder in addition to being better able to utilize Tera against specific threats. Metagross needs to take on a role like this in OU to keep itself going strong amidst the reign of Dark and Fighting-type Pokemon spam everywhere.

 

[sebas99sevilla]

Man I feel like bullet punch is compulsory. And even tho PF is good, eq seems necessary for those fire/Steel pkms. Then, the free slot would be between knock off, PF, ice punch, and trick, and I am chosing know off as a progress maker. I Dont think you need to combine knock off + trick, when bullet punch is left behind (bp IS amazing VS hyper offense). Im ok with the Tera, Steel empowers both and makes It lose Its Ghost and dark weakness. I would love to know why are you using that ev spread too.

Thanks for reading, my fellow metagross enjoyer.

 

[uppa]

Man I feel like bullet punch is compulsory. And even tho PF is good, eq seems necessary for those fire/Steel pkms. Then, the free slot would be between knock off, PF, ice punch, and trick, and I am chosing know off as a progress maker. I Dont think you need to combine knock off + trick, when bullet punch is left behind (bp IS amazing VS hyper offense). Im ok with the Tera, Steel empowers both and makes It lose Its Ghost and dark weakness. I would love to know why are you using that ev spread too.

Thanks for reading, my fellow metagross enjoyer.

I kept finding bullet punch super underwhelming when theorycrafting. Even scizor has a hard time threatening OU stuff with banded bullet punch sometimes, and generally it outclasses metagross in a priority revenge killer/wincon. Bullet punch can definitely be used, I just like knock + trick for utilty, where its actual niche lies imo

 

[astroshagger]

How about Agility + Weakness Policy under Screens?

 

[arbiter1337]

Did Gross lose Hammer Arm? I swear last gen it could learn it

 

[Zephyr_tw]

Did Gross lose Hammer Arm? I swear last gen it could learn it

Did Gross lose Hammer Arm? I swear last gen it could learn it

Metagross definitely still gets hammer arm. It gets it by level up.

 

[arbiter1337]

Metagross definitely still gets hammer arm. It gets it by level up.

Should have gotten Shift Gear and Swampert should have gotten Regenerator but noooooo

 

[Zephyr_tw]

Should have gotten Shift Gear and Swampert should have gotten Regenerator but noooooo

Oh I would have loved to see shift gear metagross

 

[Holden McCock]

Would it be okay to run Bullet Punch, Pyschic Fangs, Earthquake and Trick with the Bulky Attacker build? Or is Heavy Slam too important to be left out?

 

[arbiter1337]

Would it be okay to run Bullet Punch, Pyschic Fangs, Earthquake and Trick with the Bulky Attacker build? Or is Heavy Slam too important to be left out?

Makes Metagross a weaker Scizor if you leave out Heavy Slam I think

 

[Holden McCock]

Thanks!