Anything goes: Pokemon that you shouldn't use (part 1)

Anything goes is a tier where you can use whatever pokemon they want. It's one of the easiest tier for new players to get into, thus have one of the most amount of new players. Therefore, there are a lot of outclassed/bad pokemon being used. In this article, i will cover the pokemon that are relatively common in low ladder that you shouldn't use. For this article, I will base the usage of July usage stats.

All out attacker greninja/non toxic lead greninja (greninja's usage in low ladder: 9.95661%, 4th place in ag):

The appeal: Having Protean making every move a STAB and an amazing speed and great coverages and support moveable.

Why it doesn't work:
The all out attacker set may seems good but it just lacks the fire power it needs. 103 special attack is honestly very disppointing for an offensive pokemon in AG. it's speed might seem really good but it falls short against things like mewtwo and deoxys-attack, which are faster, hits a lot harder, and in mewtwo's case, bulkier. Speaking of bulk, greninja is also extremely vulnerable to priority, which makes it unable to sweep effectively.
Offensive suicide lead is it's main viable role in ag. However, it's not viable if you don't have toxic spikes on it. Because otherwise it will be outclassed by deoxys-attack. Deoxys attack have much higher speed, better priority, hits harder and access to stealth rock.

What should be used instead:
If you are looking for a fast frail special revenge killer/sweeper, then mewtwo and deoxys attack are your bet.
Mewtwo @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psystrike
- Focus Blast
- Ice Beam/Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast/taunt

OR

Deoxys-Attack @ Life Orb/Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Psycho Boost
- Superpower/Low Kick
- Ice Beam/Knock Off
- Extreme Speed/Knock Off

Mewtwo and deoxys-attack are faster, hits harder and have arguably better coverage. Mewtwo can hit special walls via psytrike while being not as vulnerable to priority as greninja. Having focus blast and fire blast to hit steel type. While deoxys-attack hits even harder, being able to run mix a lot better, having a much stronger priority, knock off for unility, and useful fighting coverage. Its lower bulk than greninja doesn't matter that much because greninja can't take attack at all usually.

If you are not running toxic spikes on lead greninja then a direct replacement would be deoxys-attack.

Deoxys-Attack @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Spikes
- Psycho Boost
- Knock Off
- Extreme Speed

Deoxys-attack is faster, having much more fire power, accessing knock off for utility, and a much stronger priority move.


Dragonite(Usage: 6.31969%, 9th place)

The appeal: Having access to dragon dance and extreme speed and some good coverage making it dangerous after setting up. Having multiscale gives it a lot of set up oppurtunities. Most new players have weak policy on it so when dragonites tanks a super effective hits, it becomes powerful.

Why it doesn't work: While it can beat a lot of people in low ladder, anyone with legit battle experience will have ways to deal with it. Any experienced player wont just let you activate weak policy freely. It's also fairly outclassed by other dragon dancers and 134 attack isn't good in AG standard. Being weak to stealth rock is also a huge pain.

What should be used instead:
Rayquaza(mega or none mega) or salamence are direct replacement. They hits harder, less predictable, and aren't entirely screwed by stealth rock.

Rayquaza @ Lum Berry
Ability: Air Lock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Ascent
- Earthquake/V-Create
- Extreme Speed

rayquaza having much more fire power, access to good flying stab, V-create for a lot more fire power, and access to weather other pokemon's weather. Mega rayquaza's ability delta stream is also extremely useful to tank super effective hits that aren't technically super effective.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Double-Edge/Return
- Earthquake

If you don't want to use rayquaza because it is not bulky enough, mega salamence would also be a good replacement. Accessing to intimidate as normal salamence and a overall good bulk of 95/130/90 makes mega salamence a superior choice. It doesn't require you to be at full health to tank attacks unlike dragonite. Mega salamence also has access to aerialate, which allows it to have a really power flying type double edge/return. While dragonite doesn't even have any good flying STAB option.


Talonflame (Usage: 6.28101%, 10th place)


The appeal: It has a great speed of 126, making it outspeed most of the pokemon in the tier. Accessing to gale wings gives it priority brave bird, making it seems like a decent revenge killer.

Why it doesn't work: Although priority flying moves seems impressive, it fails to give it a good niche because the existence of other priority users like arceus and mega rayquaza. Extremespeed has higher priority than gale wings brave bird and flying stab doesn't make that much difference. Due to the existence of bird spam by mega rayquaza, mega salamence and ho-oh, most team has a flying resistence. 81 attack is very bad in AG standard, which makes talonflame unable to punch holes.

What should be used instead:
If you are looking for a priority users, any extreme speeder would usually work. Yveltal is also good for having the strongest sucker punch.

Rayquaza @ Choice Band
Ability: Air Lock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Ascent
- Extreme Speed
- V-create
- Waterfall

This rayquaza set is for the mega ones not the regular ones. Dragon ascent hits a lot harder than talonflame's brave bird because of the attack stat. Extremspeed only hits a little bit weaker than brave bird. But instead rayquaza gives you a higher priority, able to hit a lot harder and being able to beat primal groudon. It can weather primal groudon's deslote land into delta stream and beat groudon-primal with waterfall.

If you are looking for an offensive physical fire type then you should use this.
Ho-Oh @ Choice Band / Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 196 Atk / 52 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Sacred Fire
- Earthquake / Thunder Wave
- Sleep Talk / Recover

Ho-oh is slower than talonflame but is superior at pretty much anything else. it hits much harder, it's much bulker, more annoying fire stab, better coverage and having regenrator. It's access to switch in to things like darkrai and most xerneas variant and threaten them with the apporpriate moves makes it a superior choice.


So that's it for part 1. If you have any questions, please ask, it's appreciated. There will be more coming sooner or later, maybe tomorrow, maybe later today, idk. But anyway, hope you enjoyed even though there's probably only 1 of you reading this .-. Have a good day n_n