CCRo4 - Diancie and Mega-Aggron by DuckyOfChaos

DISCLAIMER: Very long read. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. I'm usually in the Monotype room as CCxx DuckyOfChaos, DuckyOfChaos, or Dusk Ducky.

Hey everyone! DuckyOfChaos here for the 4th Rock Core Challenge. I've never used rock before this CC, but this turned out to be a really fun challenge even though at the beginning I was nearly tearing out my hair trying to put together a useable team. I started off 0-6 with this core. The core for this challenge was Diancie and Mega Aggron. Right away I figured those two would work as Special and Physical walls, respectively. However, I was quick to find out that that didn't work nearly as well as I expected it to/wanted it to. While Aggron stayed a  Physical wall, I converted Diancie to have a stronger offensive presence. I tried to make this a pretty offensive team, that would have a lot of surprises. This team is designed to give me a decently good fighting chance against Water, Ground, and Steel teams. I suspect many people will question my sets since I'm (fairly) certain they are unconventional. But they worked for me and I'd recommend giving them a shot. I'll explain how each Pokemon worked and then give the sets and then discuss some weaknesses.

Diancie - Lead against Sableye. Diancie worked as a dual Special Attack sponge and Special Attack weapon. With AV and a naturally high base 150 SpD stat, it was easy switching in 2-3 times throughout a match and normally being able to get a kill or dish out some decent damage. Due to Diancie's amazing SpD, I was able to pour 252 EVs into SpA. Earth Power, Diamond Storm, and Moonblast are all fairly common on Diancie. HP Grass was added to take care of Water/Ground threats, particularly Gastrodon and Seismitoad. Most people don't expect it so it's usually good for a kill. The only drawback is that HP Grass takes 1 point away from SpA.

Mega Aggron - The lead in I'd estimate 85-90% of my matches. Mega Aggron's huge defensive stat allows it to switch in multiple times against physical attackers. I opted to go away from the Rest/Sleep Talk set as I find it relies far too heavily on luck for me to be comfortable using it. Thunder Wave is a great tool to cripple opposing leads, switch-ins, or physical mons who think it's a good idea to try to set up on M-Aggron and take it down that way. It's not. Stealth Rock needs no explanation. Heavy Slam is Aggron's best STAB IMO and completely wastes Fairy teams. Fire Punch is my best way of dealing with Scizor, who could otherwise wipe my team with a SD+BP. You can consider replacing it with Earthquake if you want Aggron to be even remotely useful against Water teams.

Tyranitar - First off, shout out to SirSkit for these EV spreads, as he used them in his CCRo2 team. Tyranitar is the physically attacking (mostly) version of Diancie. It can eat up Special Attacks like nobody's business and return the favor by dishing out some huge damage. Stone Edge and Crunch are obvious stabs, with Crunch being my best weapon against Psychic and Ghost teams. Fire Blast is to get x4 attacks on Scizor/Forretress/Genesect/Ferrothorn and to deal decent damage to Skarmory. Earthquake is just a good coverage move, but you can try using Ice Beam (as SirSkit did in his set) to deal with threats like Lando-I. Having 2 AV users on the same team is likely very unorthodox, but I found it necessary as Rock just has too many common threats to not be able to switch out freely. The Assault Vests allowed me to do that while keeping a strong offensive presence.

Cradily - Physically defensive Cradily is the only reason I ever had a chance against Ground or Water teams. It is also the only Pokemon on this team without any measureable offensive presence. With 252 EVs poured into Defense, Cradily could take an EQ or Iron Head from Excadrill in sand and answer it with Confuse Ray. Confuse Ray could (sometimes) provide an opportunity to stall the sand from Hippowdon. Toxic was Cradily's best way of taking out mons such as Garchomp, Hippowdon, etc. Giga Drain was a way to recover HP and dish out damage to Excadrill (or whoever) at the same time. Recover is typically what you want to use immediately after confusing said Excadrill, as well as assisting in the Toxic stall.

Terrakion - Standard Choice Scarf set. Terrakion is my physical sweeper. Given enough good play at the beginning of the game Terrakion could often spam Close Combat or Stone Edge to close out the game. Earthquake and Iron Head are for coverage. Iron Head is chosen for giving the tiniest of all hopes of dealing with Gallade/Medicham. Otherwise, this team has no answers for those two, barring Confuse Ray lottery luck.

Archeops - Archeops is by far the most unorthodox set in this team. Archeops was my lead in the remaining 10-15% of games when it wasn't M-Aggron. When I revealed certain moves in game, it was often met with "LOL!" or "Okay", as is the standard for when someone runs something new/different/unexpected. At some point when I was tilting during this challenge I decided to face something I had been ignoring throughout the challenge: without Mega Diancie, Rock has no fast Special Attackers. I tried Shell Smash Omastar for a while to no great avail. Everyone sees it coming and this team does not utilize Defog or Rapid Spin, so its Focus Sash was often broken upon entry. So I looked through a list of the highest Special Attacking mons, trying to find viable options. Archeops is (if I recall correctly) the third highest Special Attacking Pokemon on Rock. So, as hard as it was to ignore that huge base 140 Attack, I threw on some Choice Specs and went for broke, with outstanding success. Ancient Rock functions as Archeops' only STAB, as he does not learn any Special Flying attacks (if he learned Air Slash, OMG fighting teams would have been possible). Heat Wave is used to deal x4 damage to common Rock threats. HP Ice is used to surprise kill Landorus/Garchomp/Gliscor. Earth Power was Archeops' best way of dealing with Heatran. While I suspect many people will write off this set, I believe it's worth trying. You can try using Focus Blast instead of Earth Power for coverage against Normal and Dark teams. It provides a fast Special Attacking mon that Rock desperately needs.

(Now for a mini-rant: FUCK DEFEATIST. IT'S A GOD AWFUL ABILITY. WITHOUT IT, ARCHEOPS IS GOD DAMN GOD.)

Diancie @ Assault Vest
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpA
Mild Nature
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast

Aggron @ Aggronite
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
Impish Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Punch

Tyranitar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 220 Atk / 252 SpD / 36 Spe
Careful Nature
- Fire Blast
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

Cradily @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Toxic
- Recover
- Confuse Ray

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Stone Edge

Archeops @ Choice Specs
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ancient Power
- Earth Power
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]


Now for the biggest threats/annoyances:
Scizor - If my opponent managed to take down M-Aggron before I took out Scizor, I was basically done for. Swords Dance + Bullet Punch + Technician is brutal to this team.

Fighting Teams - Automatic loss if my opponent is even half-competent. I have no answer to Mega-Gallade/Mega-Medicham. If Archeops had a decent Special Flying STAB, then this match up is doable. I considered putting HP Flying onto him just to see if it's worth it, but never did. I hate Fighting teams and how congested they are around 1400-1450. They nearly single-handedly kept me from trying to finish this challenge.

Ground Teams - Rock has no great answer to Ground. I normally had to rely on Cradily getting off Confuse Ray and taking out something that way. Still, a FAR easier match up than fighting.

Mew - More of a nuisance than a threat, Mew could make the beginning of my games hell. Between Taunt and Will-O-Wisp, Mew can cripple Aggron with no really great switch available, as Tyranitar is not someone who likes being burned.

Klefki - Much like Mew, Klefki is more annoying than anything. Since this team doesn't use Defog, Light Screen and Reflect were a consistent problem against Fairy teams and (occasionally) Steel teams. Perhaps throwing Brick Break onto someone somewhere could work. Idk, I never tried.

Substitute Gyarados (Especially Mega)- If Gyarados is allowed to Substitute and set up a DDance or two, my team will definitely pay for it.

M-Venusaur - No easy way to take down this monster, but also didn't normally deal massive amounts of damage to my team. Just another reason Archeops is in dire need of a STAB Special Flying attack.


Sorry for the novel. Hope you enjoyed the read as much as I enjoy them.