something something diancie

[Nah]

So I got another team going, wanted to try something with Mega Diancie:

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 128 HP / 252 SpA / 128 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch

Started off with Specs Magnezone to trap and eliminate Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Scizor, all of which are things Mega Diancie loses to. I prefer Specs to Scarf since Scarf does a **** job at beating those 3 imo, it doesn't need Scarf to outspeed them, and non-HP Ground Zone loses to Tran anyway. Need the extra power to blast them apart so they don't even get a chance to do anything at all, especially since Scizor can U-Turn out, and Skarm can Whirlwind it away or switch out if it runs Shed Shell. The Speed EVs are meant to outspeed Mega Scizor, so I don't have to run the risk of it U-turning/Superpower/Knock Off. Magnezone also acts as a Fairy check to some degree, which all teams kinda need these days.

Serperior @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Like I mentioned before, Magnezone lacking HP Ground loses to Heatran, and Tran is another obstacle to Diancie and just something that needs to be dealt with in general. So I put in Serperior with HP Ground as a lure, and it works like a ****ing charm; people are so willing to throw Heatran at Serp cuz everyone expects it to be running HP Fire. But besides being a Heatran lure, Serp's here to also be an additional check to bulky waters (something I don't want to have issues with), and the base 113 Speed+Contrary Leaf Storm can apply a little pressure to some teams.

Diancie-Mega @ Diancite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock

And then here's the thing that the team is.....centered around, I guess. Checks both Zards+Talonflame, shits on Mega Sableye, eats most dragons up, etc. I have Stealth Rock over the usual Protect in the hopes that it won't really need Protect due to it's teammates more or less clearing out things it doesn't like, and not wanting to have to deal with finding a SR setter later.

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 232 Def / 28 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave

Put Slowbro on the team since it needed some defensive backbone. Serp and Magnezone do indeed check Water types pretty well, but having a full on Water switch-in is also nice to have. More importantly, I needed a more solid bird answer, since while Diancie does check Talonflame, it's not bulky enough and lacks the recovery needed to take multiple Brave Birds, and Zone gets killed by ones with Fire STAB. Mega Loppunny also rips through the above three and Slowbro does a good job at walling that too, as well as all the priority moves Diancie can't handle. Using T-Wave in the last slot since I think that the team appreciates the speed cuts it brings.

Diggersby @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Thunder Punch
- U-turn

Idk if it was the best choice or not, but here's Scarf Diggersby. Added it to the team because I needed something with a some speed, and with Jolly+Scarf it's faster than Mega Lop/Mega Mane, so that's most of the unboosted meta right there. Also needed an Electric immunity for Slowbro. Knock Off and a Ghost immunity (suck it Gengar) are nice to have too. The 3rd slot is one I haven't used much. Besides mostly just needing the other 3 moves, I'm not sure what would be the best move there. Do I need Wild Charge's extra power? Is the coverage of Ice Punch better? Or does Diggersby want Normal STAB more?

Kyurem-Black @ Leftovers
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 56 HP / 216 SpA / 236 Spe
Mild Nature
- Substitute
- Ice Beam
- Fusion Bolt
- Earth Power

.....this is the problem slot. At this point I felt like the team could handle offense fairly well, but would definitely struggle against more bulky/defensive teams. And I had a hard time thinking of what would fit in to fix that. On one hand, Cube does a good job at dealing with Rotom-W and Mega Venusaur, who would be huge pains in the ass for the rest of the team, and it gives much needed extra Water, Grass, and Electric resists while not being Ice weak, but on the other hand, it doesn't break stall and certain walls really, and brings several weaknesses that I don't want to have (Steel, Fighting, SR, etc) and the Speed stat is not really that good in ORAS OU.


I also don't like the lack of hazard control on the team, which is exacerbated by the difficulty of safely mega evolving and bringing in Mega Diancie to continually reflect hazards away from my side of the field.
.....which is another one of the problems I have with this team. Mega Diancie honestly feels like such a pain in the ass sometimes to use in battle even when you try to support it. It also makes it hard to actually get Stealth Rocks onto the field too. And so while I had originally made the team in mind with Diancie, I'm not exactly opposed to swapping it with something else because of that.

And I really don't know what to do at this point.

 

[Anti]

meant to reply to this in teambuilding workout, my b :(

so as you allude to, mega diancie is pretty much impossible to mega evolve. i know you're trying to compress roles making it your stealth rock setter, but a good stealth rock setter is one that can set up stealth rock easily, which is why a lot of defensive pokemon do it. and unlike, say, a sr setting landorus-incarnate from older times, diancie doesn't force many switches before it's mega evolved, and while some people will anticipate protect and try to get a free turn, you don't want to have to risk 1/6 of your team just to get a little momentum and some stealth rock, which is something even offensive rockers don't have to do. i would honestly just run protect on it and find a different rocks setter. otherwise the margin for error using diancie is much thinner, as you have found out.

otherwise, the general outline is good, though there are some tweaks i'd make. serp is a bit confusing to me...kyurem-black is already doing some major work against what it's supposed to be stopping, and the entire team crushes heatran so luring it strikes me as odd. i'd experiment with stuff over hp ground and giga drain, like glare, taunt, knock, synthesis, etc. run return over thunderpunch on diggersby.

hmm, diancie+mag is very tough to build around for me because it puts you at such a huge deficit in both defense and momentum--mag is a huge momentum sieve. you definitely need a ground immunity, and landorus-t is looking pretty good in the digg slot since it also lets you lay rocks. problem is, that ruins your speed control, which is already a bit iffy. these are exactly the types of teams i am bad at building so sorry if i'm not much of a help, but hmm...might just take some tinkering with *all* of the slots until you get the combination that works.

 

[Nah]

otherwise, the general outline is good, though there are some tweaks i'd make. serp is a bit confusing to me...kyurem-black is already doing some major work against what it's supposed to be stopping, and the entire team crushes heatran so luring it strikes me as odd. i'd experiment with stuff over hp ground and giga drain, like glare, taunt, knock, synthesis, etc.

I have HP Ground on Serp exactly because of that: the rest of the team too obviously checks Heatran. Everyone expects Earth Power on Mega Diancie and Black Kyurem, everyone expects Ground STAB from Ground types and Water STAB from Water types. So what're they gonna do when they see one of those? Switch out in expectation of the Earth Power/Quake or STAB. With Serp, they see a free Heatran switch in and free turn for it, but then lose Tran instead. I suppose I could use that to my advantage though, but idk.....

I'm probably making this harder for myself than I should by using this kind of team, right?

 

[Anti]

yeah, but i think you're thinking tactically and not strategically. unless heatran is their only serp check and removing it lets you 6-0 or otherwise break the game open, luring it isn't helping your team because your other team members actually actively want it alive since they get free turns off of it. so, let's say you run hp fire and knock off over hp ground and giga drain. with this set-up, you can knock off heatran and put it on a timer while also having more general utility against other checks like chansey, talonflame, tornadus-t, etc., so your serp isn't nearly as specialized while it still has the tools to bs its checks a bit. since a mon like torn-t for example actually kinda busts you up, and diancie can hammer past a non-eviolite chansey, it does synergize a bit better.

 

[Nah]

....Oh, I see. I'll go fiddle around with Serp's moveslots and see what other 2 moves I like best.

What should I do for a rocks setter though, since I'm in need of one now?

 

[Nah]

So I'm running Knock Off and Taunt on Serp now in place of HP Ground and Giga Drain, and have replaced Diggersby and Black Kyurem with defensive Lando-T and DD Haxorus. It doesn't seem too bad so far, but I dunno if it's really significantly better either.