Crystal Ruingross (Analyzed ep.2)

“Diance? Pfft! I am the real crystal here!”
-Crystal Ruingross

Hi guys, girls, oversized pack of minerals and anything in-between! This time, I’ll be looking at Crystal Delta Metagross (Ruin), or Crystal Ruingross for short.
Be warned, since there is no competitive usage stats avaliable, I do not have any reliable ways to accurately predict the metagame. This analysis is theoretical and does not entirely reflect a Pokémon’s viability.

Aslo, I never used him once. While I recognize he is really intimidating, but I never experienced it myself. My ideas about him are a bit… unclear.

Typing, Stats, Abilities & Movepool

Grass/Crystal (Grass/Rock before Crystallization)
Ability: Weak Armour (Sturdy/Rock Head (DW) before Crystallization)
Hp: 80
Atk: 180
Def: 100
SpA: 120
SpD: 100
Spe: 100

What is the most striking about this pseudo-mega is its gigantic 180 base attack. Even if having as much attack as Mega Rayquaza is already good, he also got the very crowed base 100 speed tier. We’ll get to that later. Good bulk in 80/100/100 is also good, so do 120 special attack. No waist here, its almost a perfect Pokémon.

His typing is… ok? Since crystal as no type interaction, it basically has pure grass as for defensive typing. Its not bad, having resistance for common types in Water, Grass and Ground, but having key weaknesses to Flying, Fire, Bug (so U-Turn) and Ice. Crystal type would have been very great offensively if it wasn’t for it having only one move. Crystal rush isn’t bad, but it would have been nice to have another stronger STAB.

I personally don’t like Weak Armour that much, but without a priority move, Crystal Ruingross become really hard to outspeed and thus, make revenge killing hard without some of the likes of Delta Arcanine or Delta Blaziken. Delta Arcanine being particularly good for its access to Extreme Speed to outprioritise Crystal Rush.

Crystal Ruingross has what he want… except for a stonger crystal stab as previously mentioned. 45 BP priority is really cool, especially when having a so crowed speed tier. He got what he want for grass STAB in Seed Bomb and Wood Hammer while having interesting coverage in Earthquake, Brick Break, Diamond Storm, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, X-Scissor, Poison Jab, Wild Charge, Zen Headbutt, iron Head, Power Up Punch, Gunk Shot and Thunder Punch on the physical. He also have surprisingly good special moves too, like Earth Power, Energy Ball, Focus Miss (I mean Focus Blast), Thunderbolt and Sludge Bomb. On the support, he can provide momentum with Volt Switch, Pursuit Trap (mainly those who fear Crystal Rush like Gengar or Mega Alakasam), Setup with Rock Polish and setup Stealth Rock.

Yeah, he got amazing pros!

Sets Suggestions

His sets are strait forwards and effective as we like them. I got few ones:

All out Attacker

Delta Metagross (ruin) @ Crystal Fragment
Ability: Weak Armour
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Crystal Rush
-Seed Bomb/Wood Hammer
-Earthquake/Diamond Strom
-Zen Headbutt

Do I really need to explain? Just punch until your opponent doesn’t move anymore.

The third movelsot is your choice for Fire-proof countermeasure. Earthquake has perfect accuracy and hits Steels types who would be problematic. Diamond Strom, on the other hand, hits Talonflame and Volcaronna harder while not being stopped but Ground immuned. Zen Headbutt and handle problematics Poison Types, while also hitting Fighting Types that wanted to handle regular Mega Ruingross.

Substitute

Delta Metagross (ruin) @ Crystal Fragment
Ability: Weak Armour
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Crystal Rush
-Seed Bomb
-Drain Punch/Synthesis
-Substitute

Due to the number of switch he forces, Crystal Ruingross does a great substitute user. Substitute also make him REALLY HARD to revenge kill and protect him from Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave that would otherwise ruin it (no pun intended).

Drain Punch and Synthesis are here to give stronger Staying Power to Crystal Ruingross and give him more chances to setup substitute. Synthesis could be used for “more consistent” healing, but having only 8 PP (especially with those pesky Noctem PP Stall) is problematic. Drain Punch on the other hand, depend on the dealt damage, but is overall superior in my opinion.

3 Attack

Delta Metagross (ruin) @ Crystal Fragment
Ability: Weak Armour
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Crystal Rush
-Seed Bomb/Wood Hammer
-Earthquake/Diamond Strom
-Stealth Rock/Taunt/Volt Switch

This one is an offensive set who also provide some sort of support for its teammates. Taunt makes him almost impossible to wall on the long term and Volt Switch keep applying pressure on the opposing team, since not many ground types want to switch into him.

Other options

Drain punch is viable elsewhere than the Substitute set, but since they are more offensive, it doesn’t fit as well. Mixed set using Crystal Rush, Energy Ball, Earth Power and Sludge Bomb or maybe Charge Beam could be used to lure Physical wall and surprise them. If overkill is your last name, try Hone Claw + Wood Hammer.

Good Teamates

  • Water and Fire types forms a Fire/Water/Grass core with Crystal Ruingross. Keldeo, Volcarona and Volcanion are good ones.
  • Sweepers like Crystal Ruingross ability to punch holes in the enemy’s team and lay the path for them. Delta Blaziken, Volcaronna, Choice Scarf Crookodile and Delta Arcanine are notable ones.
  • Steel types resists most of Crystal Ruingross’s weaknesses and handle problematic offensives treats. Skarmory and Heatran are notable ones.
  • Delta Registeel is also useful on more balanced teams given its ability to setup Fire Types Stealth Rocks and thus making Grass resistants less reliable checks, such as Ferrothorn, Amoonguss or Tangrowth.
  • Intimidate users like Gyarados, Landorus-T and Delta Amoonguss soften physical attacks and give more chance to activate weak armour.

Check and Counters.

  • Bulky physical walls in Ferrothorn or Skarmory are good are handling him, but can be disposed of by teammates if they are under constant pressure.
  • Burn and Parralysis are very detrimental for him. Users like Gengar, Thundurus and Klefki being the most annoying if substitute isn’t up. Livewire rain teams are also a big problem.
  • Mega Delta Gallade and and Delta Scyther, when unboosted, are great revenge killers that can dispose of him.
  • Extreme Speed is maybe his best counter as it outspeed even +6 Crystal rush. As such, Dragonite and Delta Arcanine are amoung its greatest checks.

Overall

Its attack is so massive, I don’t really know what to say about him. With a possible 603 unbolted attack stat, he is a hella hard to check, especially with his type ignoring Crystal Rush. I would suspect test him in a real metagame because both of his mega are really OP. His main weakness is that the turn when it Mega Evolve, he is still pathetically slow and he looses bulk upon evolving. So he is difficult to use. But if he evolve safely, let’s say your opponent will have a bad time. He wouldn’t be bad there either! Who knows? Maybe I’ll do an Uber analysis about him too.

So? What about it? What do you think about Crystal Ruingross? Let me know in the comments bellow! Next time, we are facing the other side of the crystal. No not Diance, regular Mega Ruingross.

7 Likes

Da genius strikes again!

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This. Is. Awesome! You did a great job on crystal ruingross, can’t wait for the next one!

2 Likes

I actually prefer normal, for it’s useful typing and Rock Head, which allows it to spam Wood Hammer and Head Smash, running a bulky Hone Claws Wallbreaker set, or a Choice Scarf/Band Sweeper/Revenge Killer with Crystal Rush.

3 Likes