Mega Aggron Balance (Featuring Alolan Muk)
Even though I don't really play anymore, I still have fun sometimes daydreaming and coming up with different teams, and here is my take on Mega Aggron balance. Again, as a disclaimer, I haven't really tested it (I hope it's still alright to post it), so I apologize if I've overlooked some major flaw or something (I already know that Zard X kind of destroys the team), but it seemed solid enough to me to warrant dropping it here, in case anyone would like trying it.
Quick and simple descriptions:
Mega Aggron hits hard and absorbs a lot of hits - fairly common balance structures like this often feature it. I like running Rocks on Clef to give Aggron more coverage. The 4 speed EVs are just to outrun Chansey.
Alolan Muk is a good check to special attackers and helps make progress with Knock and spreading poison via Poison Touch. One of its main niches is Pursuit trapping Psychic types, which obviously helps out a lot against Psyspam. Muk also offers a more consistent Volcarona check, since Giga Drain Volc blows past Gastro. I just took the EV spread from
Alolan Muk's dex entry so I'll link to that, instead of reiterating all of those details. I was considering putting the 36 attack EVs into special defense but I couldn't figure out if they were important for any roll or if having a little more special defense would really matter - I feel like it probably wouldn't make a big difference either way, so I just left it.
Gastro helps check key threats like most offensive Heatran and Manaphy variants. It also importantly helps out against a lot of offensive Magearna sets. I think that Quake is still a better option than Earth Power, despite Grassy Terrain occasionally weakening it, since Quake is generally stronger and importantly hits things like CM Mag and spdef Tran harder. I initially had Clear Smog over Toxic, primarily to help with Manaphy, but Toxic is overall better and it's important to help Gastro handle things it's supposed to beat like Rotom-Wash and Zapdos. I felt like changing Bulu to Scarf instead of Band gave me a good enough check to Manaphy to warrant switching Clear Smog to Toxic on Gastro. The 44 defense EVs are to make it so that Gastro isn't 2HKOed by non-Specs Keldeo's Secret Sword with Rocks up; that likely isn't too important but I'm not sure if having 36 fewer special defense EVs really makes much of a difference either. The dex entry says that Gastro with that spread could be 2HKOed by Choice Specs Blacephalon's Shadow Ball if Rocks are up, but I figure having AV Alolan Muk on this team makes that situation not as relevant.
Grassy terrain helps give Aggron and Muk some passive recovery and removes their Earthquake weaknesses, although it also unfortunately can be annoying and weaken Aggron's and Gastro's own Earthquakes. Bulu is also useful as a physical breaker and helps against things like Mega Swampert on Rain teams. I originally had Bulu Banded (as I'll mention in the update at the bottom), but I decided to switch it to Scarf to give the team some form of speed control. Banded Bulu obviously gives the team better breaking power than Scarf, but I think that the rest of the team is defensively solid enough to win through residual/chip damage and potentially having Scarf Bulu clean, as opposed to it simply blowing holes in the opposing team. I could see running Megahorn over Stone Edge to hit Grasses like Serperior or some Psychics like Mega Latias, but I feel like Alolan Muk handles both Grasses and Psychics well enough on his own, and Mega Aggron helps against them as well. Things like Torn, Zapdos, and Volc switching into Bulu seem more annoying to this team and could be bigger revenge killing targets, so I think that Stone Edge is a better fit than Megahorn.
Having Clef to pass Wishes to Aggron and Alolan Muk is huge for this type of balance. It pairs nicely with Aggron as well to relieve Aggron from needing to run Rocks and Clef helps check some physical attackers that Aggron can't, like Mega Medicham. Helmet on Clef could be cool and it would make the team obey item clause, if you’re someone like
Eeveeto who is down with that (that’s not shade either, since I’ve been an Eeveeto fan for a while and I also think it’s neat when a team happens to obey item clause), but Lefties is probably generally better.
Torn offers Defog support, a Ground immunity, and checks some prominent threats, like Kartana. Z-Hurricane also helps the team make some progress as a special breaker.
Edit: I slightly tweaked the team after happening to stumble across
this old video by Blunder. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Craing/Ben Gay used a team that was very similar to the one I came up with, including 5 of the same mons, with him running Z-Gren over Alolan Muk. I was very happy to see that my team was similar to his, since I've been a long time Ben Gay fan and I think he's definitely the greatest builder ever - I promise that I saw his team after I had built my own as well. I'm sure there were plenty of more subtle differences between his team and mine, like him having Helmet on Torn since his Gren had the Z move or him running Protect over EQ on Gastro, but the biggest inspiration I took from his team was running Scarf Bulu. I think that it's a good idea since most SM teams really benefit from having a Scarfer; even though Bulu isn't particularly fast by Scarfer standards, I feel like the rest of the team is bulky enough for the relative lack of speed to be alright. I also felt like Bulu being Scarfed gave my team a better answer to Manaphy and would allow me to run Toxic over Clear Smog on Gastro. So, the two changes I made to my team after seeing Ben Gay's was making Bulu Scarf and putting Toxic over Clear Smog on Gastro.
Here's the original version of the team that I built with Banded Bulu and Clear Smog Gastro, in case anyone is interested.
