Delta Metagross (Ruin)

Battle Simulator Meta Discussion
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Delta Metagross (Ruin) is a potent offensive threat with extremely high-powered STAB attacks alongside a solid offensive typing and good coverage. Its Rock Head ability is extremely beneficial, preventing it from taking recoil from its most powerful STAB attacks. It has multiple ways of boosting and has is very difficult to switch into. It also has a Mega forme, which has greatly increased Speed while retaining the Rock Head ability. However, its defensive typing is mediocre, providing few resistances. It is also somewhat slow before boosting, making it more difficult to fire off attacks.

Rock Polish

Delta Metagross (Ruin) @ Life Orb
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
-Rock Polish
-Head Smash
-Wood Hammer
-Earthquake

Rock Polish allows Delta Metagross (Ruin) to circumvent its mediocre Speed to become a terrifying sweeper. Head Smash and Wood Hammer are non-negotiable and should be used on all Delta Metagross (Ruin) sets, as they are extremely powerful STAB attacks and do not inflict recoil due to Rock Head. Earthquake is the best coverage option, allowing Metagross to hit the Steel-types that resist its STAB attacks. Drain Punch might seem appealing as it also hits Steel-types and provides recovery, but it is much weaker than Earthquake and leaves Metagross walled by Aegislash, and is therefore not advised.

Life Orb is the best item because this Metagross set is meant to sweep late-game, and Life Orb Metagross is much stronger than Mega Metagross. Maximum Attack and Speed EVs are used to hit as hard and fast as possible. An Adamant nature can be used as Metagross will be able to outspeed the majority of the metagame after a Rock Polish, but a Jolly nature is viable if Metagross needs to attack before it can set up a Rock Polish. Additionally, at +2, Jolly Metagross will outspeed Pokemon between Choice Scarf Hydreigon to Choice Scarf Keldeo, which Adamant Metagross does not outspeed at +2.

Hone Claws

Delta Metagross (Ruin) @ Delta Metagrossite (Ruin)
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Hone Claws
-Head Smash
-Wood Hammer
-Earthquake

Delta Metagross (Ruin) gets a large Speed boost when it Mega Evolves, elevating it to a solid Speed tier. Mega Evolving Metagross when it has Hone Claws is preferred, because although regular Metagross is bulky, its mediocre defensive typing and Speed make it difficult to both set up and fire off attacks. Again, Head Smash, Wood Hammer, and Earthquake are non-negotiable attacks which provide amazing power and solid coverage. Jolly is the best nature, as Mega Metagross sits in a crucial Speed tier, and it’s already able to boost its Attack. As Metagross will be Mega Evolving immediately and gaining Rock Head anyway, Sturdy is used in order to potentially live an attack before it evolves.

Stallbreaker

Delta Metagross (Ruin) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Stealth Rock / Power-Up Punch
-Head Smash
-Wood Hammer
-Earthquake

Metagross distinguishes itself as one of the few users of Stealth Rock that can set them up versus Mega Sableye, as Mega Sableye is 2HKOd and is therefore deterred from switching into Metagross. Due to Head Smash’s obscene power and an Adamant nature, Metagross is able to 2HKO every Pokemon on stall, especially after Stealth Rock. If another Stealth Rock user that can set up rocks vs Mega Sableye is used, Power-Up Punch is a great choice to prevent Reversal Focus Sash Dugtrio from killing you and easing prediction versus Skarmory. An Adamant nature is preferred to help pick up the 2HKO on physically defensive Skarmory. Max Speed is used to Speed tie with other neutral-natured base 70 Pokemon and outspeed defensive Landorus-T.

Choice Band

Delta Metagross (Ruin) @ Choice Band
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Head Smash
-Wood Hammer
-Earthquake
-Drain Punch

A Choice Band increases Metagross’s Attack to astronomical levels, allowing it to crush the majority of the metagame with its STAB attacks. This set is used early game to blow massive holes in the opposing team, as very few things can take a Choice Band Head Smash, and the ones that can are, for the most part, destroyed by Metagross’s other attacks. Head Smash and Wood Hammer are obligatory, while Earthquake and Drain Punch together cover most Steel-types that resist Metagross’s STAB attacks, such as Mega Mawile and Ferrothorn. An Adamant nature is preferred, as due to Metagross’s mediocre Speed, a Jolly nature does not allow it to outspeed very many things, so the extra power is desired. Max Speed is still used to outspeed defensive Landorus-T and tie with other base 70s.

Offensive

Delta Metagross (Ruin) @ Life Orb
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Head Smash
-Wood Hammer
-Earthquake
-Stealth Rock / Substitute

Due to the switches that Metagross forces, it is a great user of Stealth Rock. If your team already has a user of Stealth Rock, Substitute is a fantastic option, again due to the switches Metagross forces. Substitute prevents Metagross from being revenge killed (barring sound-based moves) and tremendously eases prediction. As usual, the three attacking moves are obligatory and should not be changed, and the nature and EVs give it as much power as possible while still outspeeding what it needs to. Thunder Wave can be used in the last slot, but it is generally inferior to Stealth Rock and Substitute. Life Orb is used over Leftovers even with Substitute because despite Metagross’s good bulk, its defensive typing leaves much to be desired, and is thus not able to switch into too many things comfortably. Therefore, it prefers the extra power.

1 Like
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I run a growth metagross in my sun team :stuck_out_tongue:

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I don’t think the Shed Shell set is really optimal for beating stall. If you’re worried about Dugtrio, you can just use Power-up Punch so that the Focus Sash gets broken and then you can kill it the next turn and only take 60-70% total if it Earthquakes twice. That set also has the advantage of being able to beat or severely weaken Skarmory if it switches in on Power-up Punch. You can replace it with Lum Berry so that things can’t status it to completely destroy stall.

You also mentioned Mega Sableye and Mega Mawile, which are both banned from ORAS so I don’t think those are problems.

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The hypothetical Insurgence metagame isn’t too comparable to XY OU metagame because there are so many viable custom megas and deltas, so I think it’s impossible to say whether Sablenite would be banned, especially since the ban was so close. Even though Mega Mawile was way better in Gen 6, I still don’t think it’s unreasonable to accept the possibility that it wouldn’t be banworthy in Insurgence OU. Tornadus-T went from one of the best XY OU mons to UU by usage in Gen 7 almost solely due to Greninja and Magearna’s presences, so the introduction of many new deltas and megas is surely going to drastically decrease the viability of former staples and banworthy Pokemon.

But you’re right about the stallbreaker set - even though I know Dugtrio has base 80 Attack here, I overestimated EQ’s power.

5

A 65.67% (44 yes, 23 no) majority isn’t exactly close. The minimum is 60% and there have been closer suspects. For example, Mega Metagross remained in OU with 57.3% voting for a ban. Hoopa-U was banned from OU with a 61.2% majority. A lot of the reason for the Mega Sableye ban are still relevant. Mega Sableye stall has always had counters (Band Crawdaunt, Mega Heracross) but the problem was that it prevented pretty much all forms of stallbreaking aside from just muscling through. I’d argue that the fact that it isn’t banned in SM isn’t due to just meta changes, but also because of Z-moves making it easier to break through.

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I would say that those votes are extremely close. Again, citing the Torn-T example, if a mon like that can go from the top of OU to UU almost solely due to the introduction of new Pokemon (the new Gen 7 mechanics are not the reason Torn is so much worse, it’s the new Pokemon), then it’s reasonable to accept that many other Pokemon will take huge hits in viability. When Pokemon are going from top picks in a tier to nearly unviable solely due to new Pokemon (not necessarily Torn but it happened with several other Pokemon), then I think a 65% ban is extremely close from that perspective.

But more practically, the reason why I don’t think Sablenite would be banned in Insurgence is because Insurgence introduced several rockers who can set up hazards versus it, while simultaneously not introducing many assets to Sableye stall. Mega Heracross’s biggest obstacle wasn’t really Sableye, but it was the fact that it had to crit through clef to win, but with the introduction of new rockers that can set them up vs stall, not nearly as many teams are forced into situations where the only counterplay is correctly executing many series of intelligent doubles due to them not being able to otherwise chip with hazards.

I think this whole discussion is relevant to Metagross Ruin because it is a new rocker that can set up rocks vs stall, and although simply being able to set up rocks vs stall doesn’t necessarily mean you have a huge advantage now, it makes sableye stall a far less team-restrictive playstyle combined with, as I mentioned, the introduction of new great breakers alongside the introduction of few assets to stall. Anyway, I appreciate your comments because it’s interesting to think about what the meta would be like. :slight_smile: