Competitive Pokemon History - Metagross Quiz

Answer: Meteor Mash

Meteor Mash is an amazing move with a sweet Base 100 power and workable 85 Accuracy. The main catch to the move, though, is it has a 20% chance to raise the user's Attack stage by one upon the move successfully striking its target. Apart from Metagross and Metang, only Clefairy, Clefable and Smeargle had access to this move - and they were impotent users of it by a long shot.

This move single handedly positioned Metagross as the absolute best wallbreaker in all of standard play, while still being elite at the role even in Ubers.

Answer: Nothing

Explosion is Metagross' secret recipe behind it being able to annihilate defensive cores in the game. The move OHKOes literally everything which is relevant in standard play or Ubers and isn't outright immune to the move. The downside of sacrificing Metagross does mean the user has to be careful before clicking the move, to ensure that trading Metagross for something else ends up being a worthwhile trade. Additionally, while speedier Pokemon would certainly be OHKOed by the move, they could put up a Substitute or use Protect to force Metagross to waste the move, and itself.

In other words, there is counterplay to Metagross blowing something up, but the move is doubtlessly extremely potent, forcing both players into difficult, strategic situations whenever Metagross is on the field.

Answer: Clear Body

Clear Body is more useful on Metagross than it is on pretty much anything else, preventing Intimidate from mitigating its impressive Attack stat. It also allows Metagross to switch in to various Shadow Balls and Crunches without fearing a Defense or Special Defense drop from their secondary effects, enabling it to check Gengar and Tyranitar more efficiently.

Answer: Agility

Metagross' Base 70 Speed, while not absolutely horrible, is well below average for an offensive Pokemon. Its decent defensive typing and excellent bulk make this setback forgivable, but it's still a disadvantage Metagross has. Enter Agility, a move which enables Metagross to rectify the problem by immediately doubling its Speed.

Its Base 135 Attack stat combined with Meteor Mash's ability to sometimes boost said Attack stat make it so that Metagross has enough immediate power to sweep if desired.

After boosting its Speed, Metagross can commence its sweep. It can still blow up on something with Explosion and open up a hole in the opponent's team if there are too many countermeasures for an outright sweep to be possible. The ability to turn into a wallbreaker on the fly made Metagross extremely valuable on hyper offensive teams, as it boasted the flexibility to both sweep and supplement a sweep for something else if need be.

Answer: Trick + Iron Ball

Trick + Iron Ball would enable Metagross to force an Iron Ball onto Skarmory and Rotom-H. Iron Ball lowers the user's Speed by six stages and renders them susceptible to Ground moves, meaning Metagross can hit those two with a super effective Earthquake despite their usual immunities to the move. Additionally, Metagross can steal away their Leftovers, or Shed Shell in Skarmory's case, which can further hamper them significantly.

This gave Metagross a way to beat the two, which would otherwise hard counter it pretty reliably.

Answer: Metagross encountered four moveslot syndrome, and couldn't fit enough important moves to be viable

Metagross' iffy offensive typing now became an 'ugly' offensive typing. The advent of numerous popular Water, Fire and Steel types strained Metagross from an offensive perspective, while giving it massive competition for its niche as a wallbreaker. Meteor Mash was mandatory, but filling out its other three moves while simultaneously making it effective would be hard. Thunder Punch was 'mandatory' to hit Gyarados and other bulky Water types, while Hammer Arm was 'mandatory' to hit Ferrothorn for appreciable damage. Bullet Punch was 'mandatory' so that Metagross' poor Speed couldn't be freely exploited, while Ice Punch was 'mandatory' to stop Gliscor and Landorus-T from freely setting up on Metagross. Grass Knot was 'mandatory' so that Quagsire and Gastrodon didn't wall and hard counter Metagross. Unfortunately, going without any of these moves (which Metagross was forced to do) meant it would have popular counters which could exploit it freely, significantly hampering its effectiveness and making it unviable.

Sadly, Metagross was too strong for UnderUsed play, leaving it in a regrettable state of Pokemon Purgatory; too weak to be effective in one tier, but too strong to be legal in the tier beneath that tier.

Answer: 150 in Defense

With Base 150 Defense and 145 in Attack, Mega Metagross is ready to effectively tear defensive cores apart again. With a nice Base 110 Speed, Mega Metagross also poses a huge threat to offensive teams as well, able to outspeed staples like Hydreigon, Kyurem-B, Scizor and Landorus-T, while speed-tying with Gengar, Latios and Mega Diancie.

Answer: Tough Claws

Tough Claws grants a 1.3x boost to contact-based moves. Metagross' list of relevant moves benefiting from this consists of Meteor Mash, Zen Headbutt, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Hammer Arm and Pursuit. Combined with its nifty upgrade to Attack, and Mega Metagross could once again rip apart teams of all kinds.

Answer: Mega Scizor

Mega Scizor had a colossal Defense stat with a great HP stat as well, while also resisting Mega Metagross' STAB and taking any other relevant move it could run easily. Unlike other Pokemon, Mega Scizor's phenomenal offensive power meant it could take Mega Metagross down quickly, as to make it impossible for Mega Metagross to win by spamming Meteor Mash, gaining Attack boosts from it, and muscling its way through Mega Scizor that way; Mega Scizor would just take it out before Mega Metagross could get terribly far trying that.

Other defensive answers, such as Skarmory, were somewhat susceptible to Mega Metagross trying to achieve this. Apart from Mega Scizor, Mega Metagross' movepool is expansive enough where it could theoretically be running just the right move to take something down.

This means that, other than Mega Scizor, Mega Metagross had no true counters in the strictest sense of the word.

Answer: Necrozma-DuskMane

Necrozmma-DM shared Mega Metagross' typing. The fact that it can do everything Mega Metagross can without taking up an extremely valuable Mega slot is such a massive disadvantage for Mega Metagross, that this alone would've made it hard to justify using Mega Metagross. However, the ugly, long lists of advantages Necrozma-DM has don't end there. Its defensive sets can make use of Leftovers, have access to reliable recovery in Morning Sun, while its offensive sets have access to Swords Dance, and can wield a Z-Crystal which gives Necrozma-DM access to the stupidly strong mega nuke Light That Burns The Sky. Finally, Necrozma-DM can use Ultranecrozium-Z to turn into Ultra Necrozma and have ridiculously better base stats than Mega Metagross does. This meant that Necrozma-DM outclassed Mega Metagross by so much that the thought of ever using Mega Metagross in anyway was laughable.

While it might seem like Mega Metagross could grab a niche in the tier anyway, due to its access to Bullet Punch which Necrozma-DM couldn't do, as a measure of checking Xerneas, Mega Metagross wasn't worth using in this capacity either. While not necessarily outclassing it, Mega Lucario's Bullet Punch was far stronger, and it thus made a better user of the move.

All of this meant that Mega Metagross' banning to Ubers was a completely negative transition, and it was in the ultimate state of Poke Purgatory for the seventh generation.