Until we see the final details, no one knows for sure. IMO, Metagross will be very effective. Much like Ho-Oh and Mewtwo, it makes up for non-optimal moves and combinations with massive CP. Think about it - if Mewtwo had FutureSight, or if Ho-Oh had Overheat, they would break the meta. Metagross is probably going to be like that, maybe not to the extreme that Ho-Oh or Mewtwo are, but close.
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is metagross going to be all that?
so lots of people are excited for metagross (and i was) but is he all that?
stats are great attack, similar to dragonite, solid bulk (mostly defense) and lots of resistances including no double weaknesses.
But it has a sub-optimal charge-move-pool (fast moves are fine)
psychic (and yes well all hope it gets a buff) no future sight
flash canon and gyroball, no heavy slam.
mewtwo makes up for psychic with a monumental attack gaining enough from the extra damage from his fast moves to make up for it, metagross doesn't have this.
metagross due to the steel typing looses it's resistance to fighting one of the main uses for a psychic type and strong fairy types are sometime away and there are probably better options into ice.
so it's lacking the DPS of espeon/alakazam/mewtwo in attack.
Lacking the bulk of lugia, who double resists fighting, with only a slim if any increase in dps over lugia, which gets future sight.
what are we going to use it for?
it's probably going to be a solid sweeper and or gym defense but it doesn't seem to be a must have on the surface
am I missing something?
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Answers
Neither Mewtwo with future sight, nor Ho-oh with overheat, would break the meta. They would become arguably the two best pokemon in the game, but shouldn't they be?
Moltres, with a higher attack stat than Ho-oh, has overheat. So does Entei, with a very similar attack stat to Ho-Oh, and only a little less tankiness. And they both have fire-type quick moves. Ho-oh with overheat would be as good or slightly better of a fire-type attacker than either of those two, instead of decidedly worse.
As for Mewtwo, psychic is a pretty sucky move, and future sight is basically identical, except that it is 20% more powerful. That is enough to make it a lot better, but it would still only be marginally the best charge move for Mewtwo, and would put it on the same level as Dragonite as a generalist. As it stands now, Mewtwo doesn't have a good generalist moveset (a charge move that is doubly resisted by Blissey and Snorlax can't be considered good for a generalist), and Dragonite is still the king of gym sweepers.
I'd be OK with fire blast and psychic if they were made into two-bar moves with similar DPS, or, in the case of fire blast, if the move duration were shortened and it had an earlier damage window, similar to hydro pump. As it stands now, those moves unnecessarily nerf what should be the two best mons in the game.
Metagross's greatest strength as an attacker is it's typing. It has high attack to deal quite a bit of neutral damage with a moveset like zen headbutt/metal claw and iron head. It will have plenty of time to defeat defender after defender with high neutral damage because of its incredible bulk alongside its amazing typing. For instance, it resists every move available from dragonite, Blisseys, and exeggutor, as well as most common movesets from many other pokemon such as snorlax.
I wish it could get iron tail and heavy slam like aggron is likely to get, but sadly those aren't in its movepool. Gyro ball is a bit stronger than heavy slam but waaay slower, effectively making it quite a bit worse. Iron head is actually almost as good as heavy slam by being a bit faster while having a bit lower damage. Their dps is fairly similar.
