I noticed that nobody seems to have achieved a streak with Mega Gengar. Any particular reason for this? Have others tried it with little success? I was thinking of building a team around one.
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Battle Maison Discussion & Records
- Thread starter NoCheese
- Start date
First is that Mega Gengar's biggest draw in competitive battles is his ability, Shadow Tag, which is pretty much useless against the AI, and leaves you vulnerable to Earthquake. Second is that even with his monster Special Attack and Speed, he can't boost, so has difficulties sweeping, though there are of course plenty of things he takes out. Third, needing to carry Gengarite denies him the ability to hold a Focus Sash. Sash is an amazing item on Gengar since it can outspeed and 2HKO most things, and then after the Sash has been activated, use Destiny Bond to take out a second foe. Without the Sash, Gengar is far more vulnerable to crits and such, and cannot use Destiny Bond as reliably. Finally, you have the opportunity cost of not being able to use another powerful Mega like Kangaskhan.
Even given all this, Mega Gengar does have potential, so build away, but recognize that there are decent reasons why it has yet to be the centerpiece of a massive streak. Good luck with the team building!
Mega Gengar is pretty underwhelming in my opinion - it's fast, but still outsped by Aerodactyl and Choice Scarfers most of which OHKO it, it can't use Sash making it die in one hit to anything with Earthquake and any number of Pokémon with decent hitting power it can't OHKO, and it loses the useful Levitate. Focus Sash Gengar outclasses it pretty much all of the time, and Life Orb Gengar (if your team's Focus Sash and Mega slot are already taken and you want Gengar anyway) deals more damage and only loses out in Speed.
Singles Gengar isn't bad, but I think Dragon leads and Greninja outclass it for the most part. I think its potential is greater in Doubles, but even there Focus Sash Greninja probably outclasses it most of the time as the Focus Sash user.
I lost another streak, this time at 280 to diffcult misplays and Nidoqueen poisoning with Poison Jab to capitalize. The original Mega Blastoise team got crushed by Water Absorb Suicune in battle 49 or so (got an useful battle video for testing from it, though). I'm currently trying out a new Mega Blastoise team with Yawn dropped for Protect and the fake out user replaced with Mat Block Greninja for a dual-water lead, which is working surprisingly well.
Finally...
I got the super multi trophy on my second real attempt, but it would have been my last anyway with an AI player.
After my first loss at battle 25 or so, I had to make some "friends" to have more choice for partners. I ended up with milotic3 and typhlosion3, while I used a standard Dragonite/Mega Khan team. The computer team was by far the best I tried, because milotic3 is more than decent, and typhlosion4 is invaluable when he comes in to revenge kill about anything. His choice scarf + eruption (which he ALWAYS did) are truly what made the difference until the end.
I almost lost in battle 49 because of Weezing4 which was actually a big threat to my team. I only won because it launched Will-O-Wisp instead of toxic to Dragonite. For those who want to see :
GGXG-WWWW-WWW7-QHNY
As for battle 50, I thought it was one of the worst possible start because of choice scarf landorus with grass knot on milotic, and terrakion3 with rockslide on Nite. When milotic's blizzard missed landorus (depsite the wide lens), I thought my streak was over, but this team had resources and made it! (and also terrakion cast earthquake).
Here is the video: JBCG-WWWW-WWW7-QHNQ
I'm now done with the battle maison, thanks guys for your help! (and I'm glad to have my name on the front page :) )
I got the super multi trophy on my second real attempt, but it would have been my last anyway with an AI player.
After my first loss at battle 25 or so, I had to make some "friends" to have more choice for partners. I ended up with milotic3 and typhlosion3, while I used a standard Dragonite/Mega Khan team. The computer team was by far the best I tried, because milotic3 is more than decent, and typhlosion4 is invaluable when he comes in to revenge kill about anything. His choice scarf + eruption (which he ALWAYS did) are truly what made the difference until the end.
I almost lost in battle 49 because of Weezing4 which was actually a big threat to my team. I only won because it launched Will-O-Wisp instead of toxic to Dragonite. For those who want to see :
GGXG-WWWW-WWW7-QHNY
As for battle 50, I thought it was one of the worst possible start because of choice scarf landorus with grass knot on milotic, and terrakion3 with rockslide on Nite. When milotic's blizzard missed landorus (depsite the wide lens), I thought my streak was over, but this team had resources and made it! (and also terrakion cast earthquake).
Here is the video: JBCG-WWWW-WWW7-QHNQ
I'm now done with the battle maison, thanks guys for your help! (and I'm glad to have my name on the front page :) )
And finally I'm back with a decent result to share. :)
I just ended a Triple Rotation Streak of 425 victories - on one hand, I was eager to achieve a 100-streak, something that I've never did before in previous games; on the other, I got so excited that this build worked so well that I really thought that I could go 500 or higher. And I really could if I had not screwed on the last match... but I'm happy, nevertheless. To the team!
Wreak Havoc
First of all, I have not so much patience to read Battle Maison teams, EV spread, moves and so on. Actually, I use to play on the bus or listening to some podcasts, so I usually don't have 100% of my attention on the game. I'm not saying that this is wrong or something like that, I just don't do that, 'cause its my way to play. Anyway, to fit my "play style" I wanted to have some... quick-finish, small-attention-needed squad. And, as said previously, I've always wanted to achieve a 100-streak. After some big failures on late 80s and 90s, I tried to mix some ideas that gave me the trophies and finished with the below. It have a very good synergy and intersting game strategies with few flaws, on my point of view (I'll present it later). It is based on Mega-Blastoise Water Spout.
Tordo, the Taloflame @ Focus Sash
Gale Wing / Adamant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Att / 4 Def (Stats: 185/146/92/84/89/146)
- Tailwind
- Brave Bird
- U-Turn
- Flare Blitz
=> 90% of time, Tailwind while the other two Protect. Focus Sash so it survives the first blow that usually goes to him. Brave Bird if it has sufficient health; if not, U-Turn to save it a little longer (and breaks some pokes with Sturdy). I've just used Flare Blitz 3 or 4 times due rain, but... it is a good move. After some matches, I saw another use for U-Turn that I'll explain later.
Donatello, the Mega-Blastoise @ Blastoisinite
Mega Launcher (Torrent) / Modest
EVs: 252 Sp.Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP (Stats: 155/80/119/150/125/130)
- Protect
- Water Spout
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
=> The powerhouse. Protect, transform, Water Spout. There were no matches that it didn't Water Spouted and it killed at least 2 pokes per match (usually, all 6 of them). It is SO strong when on full health, but add the rain and, late game, helping hand and it can destroy EVERYthing. I'm not kidding. I didn't feared when there was a Blissey, Assault Vest Snorlax, Regice, nn-Water Absorb Suicune or even Stockpile Dewgong (4x resistance). Just keep Water Spouting that they would die. Of course, there are some Water Absorb and Storm Drain mons that won't fall for it, so I used Dark Pulse or Ice Beam on them (but I ended lost because of a lame Water Spout to a Storm Drain Cradily...). I chose Dark Pulse over Aura Sphere mostly because of Trick Room teams that have lots of Psychic types.
Puiuiu, the Politoed @ Damp Rock
Drizzle / Modest
EVs: 252 Sp. Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP (Stats: 166/72/95/155/120/122)
- Protect
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Grass
=> My first fun poke. Look at its smile, you cannot be sad with it! He enters and rain comes! This is his main purpose: make it rain - so I chose Damp Rock, to make it last longer. I think that there were just two matches that stopped to rain due the end of turns it lasts. His second job is to finish off what Blastoise couldn't, mainly Sturdy mons - so Scald to not hurst Blastoise, Ice Beam for coverage and HP Grass to those Water Aborb Water/Ground mons.
Abacaxi, the Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Swift Swim / Modest
EVs: 252 Sp. Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP (Stats: 156/81/90/156/120/122)
- Scald
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Protect
=> The funniest of all. It just can't stop dancing at all. And look to its face! And its hands! How is there any misery on the world when there are plenty Ludicolos showing how to be happy? Anyway, besides the joy it brings, I chose him due the Swift Swim ability AND the STAB Giga Drain. It takes A LOT of life from water pokes, it becomes the fastest of all my pokes (even when Tailwind ends, due rain) and have intersting coverage and special bulk. But the joy by itself would be enough.
Cleopatra, the Cresselia @ Leftovers
Levitate / Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 Sp. Def (Stats: 227/67/169/95/169/105)
- Helping Hand
- Toxic
- Psychic
- Protect
=> I always wanted to use a Cresselia on a team just because... it is a cool pokemon. Look at it. It keeps being cool as nothing would hit it at all. Suicune Hydro Pump w/ rain on it? Just 3HKO. Any stab Thunderbolt that would kill Talonflame, its sons and grandsons? 3HKO or even 4HKO. It just-doesn't-die! Its main task is to give a hand to Blastoise (mainly) to boots its Water Spout even more. But there were 1 or 2 battles where it was the last one remaining and it ended by poisoning and protecting.
W. Dafoe, the Garchomp @ Yache Berry
Sand Veil / Adamant
EVs: 252 Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP (Stats: 184/200/115/85/105/154)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Rock Slide
- Protect
=> At first, I wanted a ground, fast mon to protect me againts electric attacks. But after some fights I saw that my main worry was not electrical pokes, but grass/water one. Still, he fulfilled the role of a late sweeper (but physical one, as the only other one is my suicidal Talonflame, coming to Earthquake those who remained standed. Yache because as water was a worry, some also carried ice moves, so he could live a little longer.
So the main strategy (for more than 70% of the fights) was: Tailwind, Protect, Protect. If Talonflame is more than 50%, Brave Bird something that could annoy more; if it had less than it, U-Turn to Cresselia; if it fainted, than Cresselia used Helping Hand. Mega-Blastoise uses Water Spout and, if there is a survivor, Politoed Scalded it. When everything works, the fight is done within 3 turns, 4 at most - and I'm talking about 60, 70% of the matches, so you can see this goes really fast. Even Veterans fall to that. But, of course, there is the other 30, 40%, and that is...
Other weather teams: if it uses Abomasnow, Ninetales, Tyranitar, Hippowdon, Aurorus or if on the first turn it uses Hail, Sunny Day or Sandstorm, then part of the strategy is broken. But after a few fights, I noticed an intelligent sequence of movements to be made on first turn (if it uses weather-inducer poke) or second (if it uses a move to change weather): Talonflame uses U-Turn, Blastoise Protects (1st turn) or Water Spout (2nd turn) and change Politoed for Cresselia. Because of the priority, first Politoed is changed, than Blastoise becomes Mega-Blastoise (1st turn), then Talonflame attacks... and can be retreated to... Politoed. As it enters, rain is induced and Mega-Blastoise may attack (if 2nd turn) using the 50% bonus of rain - and usually fainting 2-3 pokes from the other side.
Trick Room teams: when fighting a Hex or anyone using 2-3 slow-Trick-Room-users-poke, I skip the first turn and begin attacking all of them. It is not always that I can faint the 3 of them, but there are some, like Trevenant or Gourgeist, that falls for a Brave Bird. Using this method, I can prevent Trick Room being used and can skip using Tailwind at all due almost always their team are naturally slower than mine. But of course there are some cases that they use something like Slowbro, Bronzong and Starmie and if I go straight to attak Starmie is faster than Mega-Blastoise and may use a Thunderbolt, diminishing its Water Spout capacity A LOT (but not fainting it!). Well, this is where I should play more careful at all.
Bad Matchup: After 400, I got a sequence of bad matchup fights. Something like a poke with Water Absorb, a Grass with high Spe. Def and something with speed high enough just so I have to use Tailwind. This sucks - and eventually, I fell for a team that started with Blastoise / Ferrothorn / Storm Drain Cradily. This is the only team where the main strategy does not apply and you have to act wisely (not as I did in my last game...). There are sometimes that brute force may win nevertheless.
Some things that used to scare me, but were not that hard:
- Gyarados/Kingdra: a water(dragon) type with good sp.def and that can destroy everything with 2 DD? It sounds scary, but I don't know if the IA is more scared of me than the reverse, but it ALWAYS 2 DD - what ALWAYS gave me the opportunity to land it 2 Water Spout, 1 Brave Bird, a 1 Ice Beam. It never GET to attack
- Wide Defense: it is a pain in the ass to use Water Spout and then this awlful Bastiodon uses a Wide Defense to screw you. But after the second time it did that, I just attacked individually a team that usually has some water-weak pokes
- Hax: it is fun, but even hax doesn't bothered me that much. I mean, of course you curse when a Fissure/Sheer Cold lands or if a 2 DT Regigigas keeps avoiding me, but I figured out that if I control the board and clean the other pokes, the hax...y one will fall, one way or another
- Water Absorb Suicune: my first fear and (in my opinion) the best pokemon among all 718. First of all, I just want to state that I think it sucks AI using a poke with a HA that we cannot legally. Besides it, I noticed that Suicune can't... do much to this team, besides Garchomp or Talonflame. So when facing it, I used to clean the other pokes with not much effort and then was 4 to 1 or 3 to 1. Anyway, never had much problem facing it, for real and for my surprise.
UPDATE: after some time, here are some interesting battles I'd like to share
Z2WG-WWWW-WWW8-7DXU (332): an example of bad matchup + weather inducer (Abomasnow) and how this team doesn't care about it. In this match I use the switch + U-turn combo to make it rain again in turn 1.
35XG-WWWW-WWW8-7DXH (352): a rare example when I couldn't use Tailwind (fake out + stone edge on turn 1); brute force was the option. Oh, and Fissure also worked against Blastoise...
RPDG-WWWW-WWW8-7DXM (396): an example against a Veteran. Nothing special, just wanted to show how this team just doesn't bother against legendaries.
SBGW-WWWW-WWW8-7DWN (426): My doom... as said, my main mistake was to keep trying to defeat Cradily even knowing it had Storm Drain... then it got so pumped (+2 SA) that I couldn't do anything. Very bad play on that...
I just ended a Triple Rotation Streak of 425 victories - on one hand, I was eager to achieve a 100-streak, something that I've never did before in previous games; on the other, I got so excited that this build worked so well that I really thought that I could go 500 or higher. And I really could if I had not screwed on the last match... but I'm happy, nevertheless. To the team!
Wreak Havoc
First of all, I have not so much patience to read Battle Maison teams, EV spread, moves and so on. Actually, I use to play on the bus or listening to some podcasts, so I usually don't have 100% of my attention on the game. I'm not saying that this is wrong or something like that, I just don't do that, 'cause its my way to play. Anyway, to fit my "play style" I wanted to have some... quick-finish, small-attention-needed squad. And, as said previously, I've always wanted to achieve a 100-streak. After some big failures on late 80s and 90s, I tried to mix some ideas that gave me the trophies and finished with the below. It have a very good synergy and intersting game strategies with few flaws, on my point of view (I'll present it later). It is based on Mega-Blastoise Water Spout.
Tordo, the Taloflame @ Focus Sash
Gale Wing / Adamant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Att / 4 Def (Stats: 185/146/92/84/89/146)
- Tailwind
- Brave Bird
- U-Turn
- Flare Blitz
=> 90% of time, Tailwind while the other two Protect. Focus Sash so it survives the first blow that usually goes to him. Brave Bird if it has sufficient health; if not, U-Turn to save it a little longer (and breaks some pokes with Sturdy). I've just used Flare Blitz 3 or 4 times due rain, but... it is a good move. After some matches, I saw another use for U-Turn that I'll explain later.
Donatello, the Mega-Blastoise @ Blastoisinite
Mega Launcher (Torrent) / Modest
EVs: 252 Sp.Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP (Stats: 155/80/119/150/125/130)
- Protect
- Water Spout
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
=> The powerhouse. Protect, transform, Water Spout. There were no matches that it didn't Water Spouted and it killed at least 2 pokes per match (usually, all 6 of them). It is SO strong when on full health, but add the rain and, late game, helping hand and it can destroy EVERYthing. I'm not kidding. I didn't feared when there was a Blissey, Assault Vest Snorlax, Regice, nn-Water Absorb Suicune or even Stockpile Dewgong (4x resistance). Just keep Water Spouting that they would die. Of course, there are some Water Absorb and Storm Drain mons that won't fall for it, so I used Dark Pulse or Ice Beam on them (but I ended lost because of a lame Water Spout to a Storm Drain Cradily...). I chose Dark Pulse over Aura Sphere mostly because of Trick Room teams that have lots of Psychic types.
Puiuiu, the Politoed @ Damp Rock
Drizzle / Modest
EVs: 252 Sp. Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP (Stats: 166/72/95/155/120/122)
- Protect
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Grass
=> My first fun poke. Look at its smile, you cannot be sad with it! He enters and rain comes! This is his main purpose: make it rain - so I chose Damp Rock, to make it last longer. I think that there were just two matches that stopped to rain due the end of turns it lasts. His second job is to finish off what Blastoise couldn't, mainly Sturdy mons - so Scald to not hurst Blastoise, Ice Beam for coverage and HP Grass to those Water Aborb Water/Ground mons.
Abacaxi, the Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Swift Swim / Modest
EVs: 252 Sp. Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP (Stats: 156/81/90/156/120/122)
- Scald
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Protect
=> The funniest of all. It just can't stop dancing at all. And look to its face! And its hands! How is there any misery on the world when there are plenty Ludicolos showing how to be happy? Anyway, besides the joy it brings, I chose him due the Swift Swim ability AND the STAB Giga Drain. It takes A LOT of life from water pokes, it becomes the fastest of all my pokes (even when Tailwind ends, due rain) and have intersting coverage and special bulk. But the joy by itself would be enough.
Cleopatra, the Cresselia @ Leftovers
Levitate / Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 Sp. Def (Stats: 227/67/169/95/169/105)
- Helping Hand
- Toxic
- Psychic
- Protect
=> I always wanted to use a Cresselia on a team just because... it is a cool pokemon. Look at it. It keeps being cool as nothing would hit it at all. Suicune Hydro Pump w/ rain on it? Just 3HKO. Any stab Thunderbolt that would kill Talonflame, its sons and grandsons? 3HKO or even 4HKO. It just-doesn't-die! Its main task is to give a hand to Blastoise (mainly) to boots its Water Spout even more. But there were 1 or 2 battles where it was the last one remaining and it ended by poisoning and protecting.
W. Dafoe, the Garchomp @ Yache Berry
Sand Veil / Adamant
EVs: 252 Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP (Stats: 184/200/115/85/105/154)
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Rock Slide
- Protect
=> At first, I wanted a ground, fast mon to protect me againts electric attacks. But after some fights I saw that my main worry was not electrical pokes, but grass/water one. Still, he fulfilled the role of a late sweeper (but physical one, as the only other one is my suicidal Talonflame, coming to Earthquake those who remained standed. Yache because as water was a worry, some also carried ice moves, so he could live a little longer.
So the main strategy (for more than 70% of the fights) was: Tailwind, Protect, Protect. If Talonflame is more than 50%, Brave Bird something that could annoy more; if it had less than it, U-Turn to Cresselia; if it fainted, than Cresselia used Helping Hand. Mega-Blastoise uses Water Spout and, if there is a survivor, Politoed Scalded it. When everything works, the fight is done within 3 turns, 4 at most - and I'm talking about 60, 70% of the matches, so you can see this goes really fast. Even Veterans fall to that. But, of course, there is the other 30, 40%, and that is...
Other weather teams: if it uses Abomasnow, Ninetales, Tyranitar, Hippowdon, Aurorus or if on the first turn it uses Hail, Sunny Day or Sandstorm, then part of the strategy is broken. But after a few fights, I noticed an intelligent sequence of movements to be made on first turn (if it uses weather-inducer poke) or second (if it uses a move to change weather): Talonflame uses U-Turn, Blastoise Protects (1st turn) or Water Spout (2nd turn) and change Politoed for Cresselia. Because of the priority, first Politoed is changed, than Blastoise becomes Mega-Blastoise (1st turn), then Talonflame attacks... and can be retreated to... Politoed. As it enters, rain is induced and Mega-Blastoise may attack (if 2nd turn) using the 50% bonus of rain - and usually fainting 2-3 pokes from the other side.
Trick Room teams: when fighting a Hex or anyone using 2-3 slow-Trick-Room-users-poke, I skip the first turn and begin attacking all of them. It is not always that I can faint the 3 of them, but there are some, like Trevenant or Gourgeist, that falls for a Brave Bird. Using this method, I can prevent Trick Room being used and can skip using Tailwind at all due almost always their team are naturally slower than mine. But of course there are some cases that they use something like Slowbro, Bronzong and Starmie and if I go straight to attak Starmie is faster than Mega-Blastoise and may use a Thunderbolt, diminishing its Water Spout capacity A LOT (but not fainting it!). Well, this is where I should play more careful at all.
Bad Matchup: After 400, I got a sequence of bad matchup fights. Something like a poke with Water Absorb, a Grass with high Spe. Def and something with speed high enough just so I have to use Tailwind. This sucks - and eventually, I fell for a team that started with Blastoise / Ferrothorn / Storm Drain Cradily. This is the only team where the main strategy does not apply and you have to act wisely (not as I did in my last game...). There are sometimes that brute force may win nevertheless.
Some things that used to scare me, but were not that hard:
- Gyarados/Kingdra: a water(dragon) type with good sp.def and that can destroy everything with 2 DD? It sounds scary, but I don't know if the IA is more scared of me than the reverse, but it ALWAYS 2 DD - what ALWAYS gave me the opportunity to land it 2 Water Spout, 1 Brave Bird, a 1 Ice Beam. It never GET to attack
- Wide Defense: it is a pain in the ass to use Water Spout and then this awlful Bastiodon uses a Wide Defense to screw you. But after the second time it did that, I just attacked individually a team that usually has some water-weak pokes
- Hax: it is fun, but even hax doesn't bothered me that much. I mean, of course you curse when a Fissure/Sheer Cold lands or if a 2 DT Regigigas keeps avoiding me, but I figured out that if I control the board and clean the other pokes, the hax...y one will fall, one way or another
- Water Absorb Suicune: my first fear and (in my opinion) the best pokemon among all 718. First of all, I just want to state that I think it sucks AI using a poke with a HA that we cannot legally. Besides it, I noticed that Suicune can't... do much to this team, besides Garchomp or Talonflame. So when facing it, I used to clean the other pokes with not much effort and then was 4 to 1 or 3 to 1. Anyway, never had much problem facing it, for real and for my surprise.
UPDATE: after some time, here are some interesting battles I'd like to share
Z2WG-WWWW-WWW8-7DXU (332): an example of bad matchup + weather inducer (Abomasnow) and how this team doesn't care about it. In this match I use the switch + U-turn combo to make it rain again in turn 1.
35XG-WWWW-WWW8-7DXH (352): a rare example when I couldn't use Tailwind (fake out + stone edge on turn 1); brute force was the option. Oh, and Fissure also worked against Blastoise...
RPDG-WWWW-WWW8-7DXM (396): an example against a Veteran. Nothing special, just wanted to show how this team just doesn't bother against legendaries.
SBGW-WWWW-WWW8-7DWN (426): My doom... as said, my main mistake was to keep trying to defeat Cradily even knowing it had Storm Drain... then it got so pumped (+2 SA) that I couldn't do anything. Very bad play on that...
Last edited:
Hi Fencas,
congrats for your streak! (though it's not triple rotation but super triple).
To upload videos, you need to connect to the internet first, and then to use the rare item called vs. recorder. Once there, go to the left part (L button) and select the up arrow, then choose the video to upload; you'll get the code.
congrats for your streak! (though it's not triple rotation but super triple).
To upload videos, you need to connect to the internet first, and then to use the rare item called vs. recorder. Once there, go to the left part (L button) and select the up arrow, then choose the video to upload; you'll get the code.
A pal and I were fortunate enough to not fuck up or get haxxed in a Multi Streak to 50 tonight, and I have at last got all five trophies.
Proof:
Also, while I'm here, I'd like to provide an update on my Rotation streak. I have beaten round 311 and am still going strong, though slowly. I described the team previously, and I'll quote that at the bottom, but here are just the members again:
Ruby Weapon (Garchomp/M) @ Rocky Helmet
Jolly w/ Rough Skin
IVs: 31/31/31/27/31/31
EVs: 252 HP, 92 Defense, 164 Speed
-Swords Dance
-Dragon Claw
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake
Calamity (Kangaskhan/F) @ Kangaskhanite
Adamant w/ Scrappy
IVs: 31/31/31/08/31/31
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Attack, 252 Speed
-Return
-Earthquake
-Power-Up Punch
-Sucker Punch
Keyblade (Klefki/F) @ Light Clay
Bold w/ Prankster
IVs: 31/03/31/23/31/31
EVs: 252 HP, 152 Defense, 104 SpecDef
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Thunder Wave
-Foul Play
Quetzalcoatl (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Calm w/ Pressure
IVs: 31/01/27/23/31/31
EVs: 248 HP, 240 SpecDef, 20 Speed
-Thunderbolt
-Roost
-Toxic
-Substitute
For what it's worth, I got proof, even though I haven't lost yet:
At this point I would say there has only been one close call, in terms of having a real chance to lose. I can almost always spam +2 Returns, Dragon Claws or Earthquakes and win, but I think it was battle 309 where my opponent had Vaporeon, Flygon and Steelix out. I got a little greedy and responded to Steelixes Curses with going for +4 with Kanga. He Swaggered me and I killed myself in +6 Confusion the next round. Steelix got up to +6 because I was scared of the Flygon for some reason, and since Zapdos can't touch Steelix with Thunderbolt or Toxic, I just had to Pressure stall him out of Gyro Balls and Paybacks, which I almost wasn't able to do because I was just Subbing again and again, and if he hadn't tried to Swagger me on my fourth consecutive Sub, I would've had to risk the Roost and almost certainly died. Anyway, I ran him out of attacking moves and Klefki began trying to finish him off (he was only at like 10% HP) with Foul Play, but Klefki never thawed out from a FRZ from Vaporeon and Steelix eventually Struggled to death. I thought I saved a replay of that battle, but it very clearly isn't here... Ah well. Will post again when I've either lost or become #1.
Proof:
Also, while I'm here, I'd like to provide an update on my Rotation streak. I have beaten round 311 and am still going strong, though slowly. I described the team previously, and I'll quote that at the bottom, but here are just the members again:
Ruby Weapon (Garchomp/M) @ Rocky Helmet
Jolly w/ Rough Skin
IVs: 31/31/31/27/31/31
EVs: 252 HP, 92 Defense, 164 Speed
-Swords Dance
-Dragon Claw
-Rock Slide
-Earthquake
Calamity (Kangaskhan/F) @ Kangaskhanite
Adamant w/ Scrappy
IVs: 31/31/31/08/31/31
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Attack, 252 Speed
-Return
-Earthquake
-Power-Up Punch
-Sucker Punch
Keyblade (Klefki/F) @ Light Clay
Bold w/ Prankster
IVs: 31/03/31/23/31/31
EVs: 252 HP, 152 Defense, 104 SpecDef
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Thunder Wave
-Foul Play
Quetzalcoatl (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Calm w/ Pressure
IVs: 31/01/27/23/31/31
EVs: 248 HP, 240 SpecDef, 20 Speed
-Thunderbolt
-Roost
-Toxic
-Substitute
For what it's worth, I got proof, even though I haven't lost yet:
At this point I would say there has only been one close call, in terms of having a real chance to lose. I can almost always spam +2 Returns, Dragon Claws or Earthquakes and win, but I think it was battle 309 where my opponent had Vaporeon, Flygon and Steelix out. I got a little greedy and responded to Steelixes Curses with going for +4 with Kanga. He Swaggered me and I killed myself in +6 Confusion the next round. Steelix got up to +6 because I was scared of the Flygon for some reason, and since Zapdos can't touch Steelix with Thunderbolt or Toxic, I just had to Pressure stall him out of Gyro Balls and Paybacks, which I almost wasn't able to do because I was just Subbing again and again, and if he hadn't tried to Swagger me on my fourth consecutive Sub, I would've had to risk the Roost and almost certainly died. Anyway, I ran him out of attacking moves and Klefki began trying to finish him off (he was only at like 10% HP) with Foul Play, but Klefki never thawed out from a FRZ from Vaporeon and Steelix eventually Struggled to death. I thought I saved a replay of that battle, but it very clearly isn't here... Ah well. Will post again when I've either lost or become #1.
Nothing fancy, but since I decided I really should go out and get all five trophies, I put together a little 137 win streak in Super Rotations. My team:
Mega Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Trait: Scrappy -> Parental Bond *Unlike my Kanga used in my earlier streaks, which was Inner Focus.*
Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -Spa)
-Power-Up Punch
-Return
-Sucker Punch
-Earthquake
Stats: 181/177/120/72/120/167
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6/252/0/0/0/252
Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
Nature: Adamant (+Att, -Spa)
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Fire Punch
-Dragon Dance
Stats: 167/204/115/108/120/132
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6/252/0/0/0/252
Darmanitan @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sheer Force
Nature: Adamant (+Att, -Spa)
-Flare Blitz
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Superpower
Stats: 181/211/75/45/75/147(220 with Scarf)
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6/252/0/0/0/252
Gengar @ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
Nature: Timid (+Spe, -Att)
-Shadow Ball
-Sludge Bomb
-Thunderbolt
-Destiny Bond
Stats: 136/76/80/182/95/178
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6/0/0/252/0/252
Nothing special here, just a lot of hard hitting attackers. The basic idea is to trade attacks to set up a situation where one of your three leads can sweep the foe's remaining pokes, and merrily sweep away. Because you have more information than usual in a rotation battle (you start knowing 3/4 of your opponent's team, and know all of it after a single KO) it's usually pretty easy to figure out which of your opponent's Pokemon is the biggest obstacle, play to eliminate or weaken it, and have a Poke ready to finish the job.
Kanga and Dragonite are Maison staples, classic sweepers that can hit hard unboosted while becoming beastly after a single boost. Where your opponent's front three Pokes can't really hurt them too badly, I typically PuP or Dragon Dance once, and then start attacking. Where, however, there's something scary that could rotate in, I much prefer immediately attacking. Even if the foe rotates in that bad Poke, Dragonite and Kanga both hit hard enough unboosted that they often "wall break" sufficiently to open sweeping chances for their teammates. My rule of thumb in most Maison battles is "when in doubt, attack" and that continues to hold in rotation battles.
Darmanitan is a bit of an unusual choice, as being Choice-locked doesn't seem advisable in rotations, since rotating out does NOT allow you to later select a new move. However, Flare Blitz is ridiculously powerful, and so long as you play to remove things that can withstand it first, Darmanitan hits ridiculosly hard and fast without needing to set up, which plays well with the offensive nature of rotation battles. Gengar can 2HKO lots of things with his attacks, surviving with his Scarf, but his most important role is serving as an emergency Destiny Bond check to foes that threaten to sweep my team.
Obviously, facing sets of foes with multiple immunities can be awkward, as it can be very difficult to tell which attack to use. The AI rotates erratically, making prediction very difficult, but usually in such a situation, if you trade attacks around until you eliminate one of the immune Pokemon, you can bring in another sweeper that doesn't mind the other immunity, and go to town. I built this team to quickly get to 50, and though I kept playing it further, this "trade until you have a favorable sweeping scenario" approach is not as reliable as the set up + cleric one, though it surely plays faster.
This team really dislikes Trick Room teams, as all of its Pokemon are offensive and built for Speed. Thankfully, Kanga and Dragonite are pretty bulky and Gengar has a Sash, so I can usually outlast a Trick Room, but always take a fair bit of pain in the process. Giving Kanga Earthquake certainly improves its coverage, but the loss of Crunch really hurts against trick Room Foes, as you can't Sucker Punch a Ghost-type on the turn it uses Trick Room. Ghost-types in general can be awkward foes because the threat of one rotating in really hamstrings Kanga, stopping both PuP and Return (unless I choose not to Mega Evolve), so when the foe has a Ghost-type in its lead three, rotating to Dragonite and Dragon Dancing is usually my plan, though that's complicated when the opponent also has a Dragon-type immune Fairy in play.
I lost to Veteran Dorian with Regirock / Heatran / Terrakion / Raikou. Basicly, I got a little greedy with Kanga, and then played right into Regirock's Custap Berry late in the battle. Oops! Still, I can't be too disappointed, as this was not a heavily theorymoned squad, and did its job of racking up some quick wins. Were I to play this team again, it's very possible I'd want something with some bulk/stall potential, perhaps VaporeanIce's Protect + Substitute Gliscor. To stay with the fast battle approach, another option might be to replace Gengar with Cloyster, and go all-in on the all-sweepers-all-the-time plan.
More generally, I found rotations to be much more fun than I expected, as I enjoyed planning out "how do I weaken their checks enough to sweep?" in each battle, something reminiscent (though at a much simpler level) of competitive battling.
Proof video: P7RG - WWWW - WWW7 - R93H
Next up is to get the fifth trophy by beating Super Multis. Sadly, your three default in-game partners are horrible, and I haven't added any friends yet, so I'm lacking in the necessary AI trainer options at the moment. Time to go out and hunt down someone whose friend code gets me access to Scarf Eruption Typhlosion, as that appears to be one of the more effective Pokes in the hands of an AI trainer due to the ease of just spamming Eruption.
Mega Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Trait: Scrappy -> Parental Bond *Unlike my Kanga used in my earlier streaks, which was Inner Focus.*
Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -Spa)
-Power-Up Punch
-Return
-Sucker Punch
-Earthquake
Stats: 181/177/120/72/120/167
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6/252/0/0/0/252
Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
Nature: Adamant (+Att, -Spa)
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Fire Punch
-Dragon Dance
Stats: 167/204/115/108/120/132
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6/252/0/0/0/252
Darmanitan @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sheer Force
Nature: Adamant (+Att, -Spa)
-Flare Blitz
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Superpower
Stats: 181/211/75/45/75/147(220 with Scarf)
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6/252/0/0/0/252
Gengar @ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
Nature: Timid (+Spe, -Att)
-Shadow Ball
-Sludge Bomb
-Thunderbolt
-Destiny Bond
Stats: 136/76/80/182/95/178
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6/0/0/252/0/252
Nothing special here, just a lot of hard hitting attackers. The basic idea is to trade attacks to set up a situation where one of your three leads can sweep the foe's remaining pokes, and merrily sweep away. Because you have more information than usual in a rotation battle (you start knowing 3/4 of your opponent's team, and know all of it after a single KO) it's usually pretty easy to figure out which of your opponent's Pokemon is the biggest obstacle, play to eliminate or weaken it, and have a Poke ready to finish the job.
Kanga and Dragonite are Maison staples, classic sweepers that can hit hard unboosted while becoming beastly after a single boost. Where your opponent's front three Pokes can't really hurt them too badly, I typically PuP or Dragon Dance once, and then start attacking. Where, however, there's something scary that could rotate in, I much prefer immediately attacking. Even if the foe rotates in that bad Poke, Dragonite and Kanga both hit hard enough unboosted that they often "wall break" sufficiently to open sweeping chances for their teammates. My rule of thumb in most Maison battles is "when in doubt, attack" and that continues to hold in rotation battles.
Darmanitan is a bit of an unusual choice, as being Choice-locked doesn't seem advisable in rotations, since rotating out does NOT allow you to later select a new move. However, Flare Blitz is ridiculously powerful, and so long as you play to remove things that can withstand it first, Darmanitan hits ridiculosly hard and fast without needing to set up, which plays well with the offensive nature of rotation battles. Gengar can 2HKO lots of things with his attacks, surviving with his Scarf, but his most important role is serving as an emergency Destiny Bond check to foes that threaten to sweep my team.
Obviously, facing sets of foes with multiple immunities can be awkward, as it can be very difficult to tell which attack to use. The AI rotates erratically, making prediction very difficult, but usually in such a situation, if you trade attacks around until you eliminate one of the immune Pokemon, you can bring in another sweeper that doesn't mind the other immunity, and go to town. I built this team to quickly get to 50, and though I kept playing it further, this "trade until you have a favorable sweeping scenario" approach is not as reliable as the set up + cleric one, though it surely plays faster.
This team really dislikes Trick Room teams, as all of its Pokemon are offensive and built for Speed. Thankfully, Kanga and Dragonite are pretty bulky and Gengar has a Sash, so I can usually outlast a Trick Room, but always take a fair bit of pain in the process. Giving Kanga Earthquake certainly improves its coverage, but the loss of Crunch really hurts against trick Room Foes, as you can't Sucker Punch a Ghost-type on the turn it uses Trick Room. Ghost-types in general can be awkward foes because the threat of one rotating in really hamstrings Kanga, stopping both PuP and Return (unless I choose not to Mega Evolve), so when the foe has a Ghost-type in its lead three, rotating to Dragonite and Dragon Dancing is usually my plan, though that's complicated when the opponent also has a Dragon-type immune Fairy in play.
I lost to Veteran Dorian with Regirock / Heatran / Terrakion / Raikou. Basicly, I got a little greedy with Kanga, and then played right into Regirock's Custap Berry late in the battle. Oops! Still, I can't be too disappointed, as this was not a heavily theorymoned squad, and did its job of racking up some quick wins. Were I to play this team again, it's very possible I'd want something with some bulk/stall potential, perhaps VaporeanIce's Protect + Substitute Gliscor. To stay with the fast battle approach, another option might be to replace Gengar with Cloyster, and go all-in on the all-sweepers-all-the-time plan.
More generally, I found rotations to be much more fun than I expected, as I enjoyed planning out "how do I weaken their checks enough to sweep?" in each battle, something reminiscent (though at a much simpler level) of competitive battling.
Proof video: P7RG - WWWW - WWW7 - R93H
Next up is to get the fifth trophy by beating Super Multis. Sadly, your three default in-game partners are horrible, and I haven't added any friends yet, so I'm lacking in the necessary AI trainer options at the moment. Time to go out and hunt down someone whose friend code gets me access to Scarf Eruption Typhlosion, as that appears to be one of the more effective Pokes in the hands of an AI trainer due to the ease of just spamming Eruption.
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Chugging along at 300 straight in Super Singles with this team:
Sableye @ Focus Sash
Trait: Prankster
Level: 1
Nature: Calm (+SpD, -Spe)
-Taunt
-Embargo
-Flash
-Trick
Stats: 12/5/6/6/6/6
IVs: ?/31/31/?/31/31
EVs: 0/0/0/0/0/0
Durant @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Truant
Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -Spa)
-Entrainment
-X-Scissor
-Iron Head
-Rock Slide
Stats: 164/129/134/50/68/177
IVs: 31/31/31/7/31/31
EVs: 244/0/12/0/0/252
Glalie @ Leftovers
Trait: Moody
Nature: Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
-Substitute
-Protect
-Taunt
-Frost Breath
Stats: 177/76/111/101/101/143
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
EVs: 176/0/84/4/4/242
Credit to VaporeonIce for the idea of combining level 1 cheese with Entrainment Durant. Haven't had a battle this streak where Glalie wasn't able to set up for 30+ turns against an opponent with Truant - even if a lead uses Explosion early and I don't have great boosts, I've been able to sacrifice Sableye and bring in Durant for another Entrainment. Glalie plays as more of a tank than Moody Smeargle. Even at +6 Special Attack, there's plenty of things Glalie can't OHKO, but it's bulky enough when boosted that it rarely needs to rely on Evasion hax to keep its Substitute up against the 2nd/3rd Pokemon. The battles have been mostly pretty mindless, but there are a few mons that cause me to watch for certain boosts before KOing the Entrained lead in order to minimize the luck I need to power past them.
In the meantime, here's some videos if you're into 50+ turn Moody funfests
XYUW-WWWW-WWW7-ZFLE (lead Espeon not a problem + Taunt shuts down Blissey)
2T8W-WWWW-WWW7-RHVK (Flash>Toxic on Sableye makes setup against Swords of Justice much easier)
H5GK-WWWW-WWW7-ZFTU (Heatran 3 coming in 2nd/3rd doesn't trouble Glalie too much thanks to dumb AI)
Sableye @ Focus Sash
Trait: Prankster
Level: 1
Nature: Calm (+SpD, -Spe)
-Taunt
-Embargo
-Flash
-Trick
Stats: 12/5/6/6/6/6
IVs: ?/31/31/?/31/31
EVs: 0/0/0/0/0/0
Durant @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Truant
Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -Spa)
-Entrainment
-X-Scissor
-Iron Head
-Rock Slide
Stats: 164/129/134/50/68/177
IVs: 31/31/31/7/31/31
EVs: 244/0/12/0/0/252
Glalie @ Leftovers
Trait: Moody
Nature: Timid (+Spe, -Atk)
-Substitute
-Protect
-Taunt
-Frost Breath
Stats: 177/76/111/101/101/143
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
EVs: 176/0/84/4/4/242
Credit to VaporeonIce for the idea of combining level 1 cheese with Entrainment Durant. Haven't had a battle this streak where Glalie wasn't able to set up for 30+ turns against an opponent with Truant - even if a lead uses Explosion early and I don't have great boosts, I've been able to sacrifice Sableye and bring in Durant for another Entrainment. Glalie plays as more of a tank than Moody Smeargle. Even at +6 Special Attack, there's plenty of things Glalie can't OHKO, but it's bulky enough when boosted that it rarely needs to rely on Evasion hax to keep its Substitute up against the 2nd/3rd Pokemon. The battles have been mostly pretty mindless, but there are a few mons that cause me to watch for certain boosts before KOing the Entrained lead in order to minimize the luck I need to power past them.
In the meantime, here's some videos if you're into 50+ turn Moody funfests
XYUW-WWWW-WWW7-ZFLE (lead Espeon not a problem + Taunt shuts down Blissey)
2T8W-WWWW-WWW7-RHVK (Flash>Toxic on Sableye makes setup against Swords of Justice much easier)
H5GK-WWWW-WWW7-ZFTU (Heatran 3 coming in 2nd/3rd doesn't trouble Glalie too much thanks to dumb AI)
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I just finished my 50th for Triples, using:
Greninja @ Focus Sash "Prototype"
Protean Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
- Mat Block
Aron @ Shell Bell "Fear"
Sturdy (who cares about nature)
EVs: are for noobs
Rash Nature
- Endeavor
- Protect
- Toxic
- Swagger
Hitmonlee @ Normal Gem
Unburden Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Speed/4 Hp
-Fake Out
-Close Combat
-EQ
-Stone Edge
Togekiss @ Lum Berry
Serene Grace Bold
EVs: 252 HP/252 Sp.Atk/4 Spd
-Air Slash
-Aura Sphere
-Thunder Wave
-Dazzling Gleam
Kangaskan @ Kangaskhanite
Scrappy -> Parental Bond Adamant
EVs:4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
-Fake Out
-Return
-Sucker Punch
-Power Up Punch
Scizor @ Choice Band
Technician Adamant
EVs: 4HP/ 252 Atk/ 252 Spd
-Bullet Punch
-Pursuit
-U-turn
-Superpower
I know this isn't an ideal Triples team in a number of ways but it is constructed from parts of other teams. Only one real change though:
-Scizor would have Bug Bite somewhere for the large number of berries that the Maison uses, maybe over Pursuit but this Scizor was bred for online. Although Thunder Wave has been very niche on Togekiss so maybe something better could go there, its from my paraflich set for singles. Togekiss is actually has really good synergy with pree much everyone on the team, particularly as Aron is the first to die, Togekiss can switch in being immune to EQ and can easily take a few Surfs from Greninja. But she's also good for triples because Aura Sphere and Air Slash can be thrown from far left to far right which means if she ends up on one side, it's still relevant. The Hitmonlee is to try and alleviate some of the problems Mat Block has like priority by hitting them with Fake Out, which activates the Normal Gem->Unburden and then he outspeeds everything that isn't Choice Scarfed (and some that are). The Hitmonlee one hit Regice and Moltres of the Chatelaine before they got attacks off. But it's really important to activate Unburden so if they have Protect, it can sometimes be worth using your free turn to just switch out and save him for later.
Greninja @ Focus Sash "Prototype"
Protean Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
- Mat Block
Aron @ Shell Bell "Fear"
Sturdy (who cares about nature)
EVs: are for noobs
Rash Nature
- Endeavor
- Protect
- Toxic
- Swagger
Hitmonlee @ Normal Gem
Unburden Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Speed/4 Hp
-Fake Out
-Close Combat
-EQ
-Stone Edge
Togekiss @ Lum Berry
Serene Grace Bold
EVs: 252 HP/252 Sp.Atk/4 Spd
-Air Slash
-Aura Sphere
-Thunder Wave
-Dazzling Gleam
Kangaskan @ Kangaskhanite
Scrappy -> Parental Bond Adamant
EVs:4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
-Fake Out
-Return
-Sucker Punch
-Power Up Punch
Scizor @ Choice Band
Technician Adamant
EVs: 4HP/ 252 Atk/ 252 Spd
-Bullet Punch
-Pursuit
-U-turn
-Superpower
I know this isn't an ideal Triples team in a number of ways but it is constructed from parts of other teams. Only one real change though:
-Scizor would have Bug Bite somewhere for the large number of berries that the Maison uses, maybe over Pursuit but this Scizor was bred for online. Although Thunder Wave has been very niche on Togekiss so maybe something better could go there, its from my paraflich set for singles. Togekiss is actually has really good synergy with pree much everyone on the team, particularly as Aron is the first to die, Togekiss can switch in being immune to EQ and can easily take a few Surfs from Greninja. But she's also good for triples because Aura Sphere and Air Slash can be thrown from far left to far right which means if she ends up on one side, it's still relevant. The Hitmonlee is to try and alleviate some of the problems Mat Block has like priority by hitting them with Fake Out, which activates the Normal Gem->Unburden and then he outspeeds everything that isn't Choice Scarfed (and some that are). The Hitmonlee one hit Regice and Moltres of the Chatelaine before they got attacks off. But it's really important to activate Unburden so if they have Protect, it can sometimes be worth using your free turn to just switch out and save him for later.
I still need to make my own original team, but i got my ribbons onto my ribbongross thanks to a durant mega pinsir combo. woot! I was lurking around and noticed alot of people are maxing out EV's at 252. I thought for level 50 battles you were supposed to stop at 248 because at level 50 it takes 8 EV's (level 100 takes only 4 EV's) to add a new point to stat and 252/8 there is a remainder of 4. so for example my Pinsir @ pinsirite should be 248 att 248 speed 14 def or something like that. 252 in two stats is wasting 8 points and the remainder of 6 leftover in another stat won't get you a point gain at level 50. did they change the way EV's work?
well i just did a test and it looks like 4 EV's at level 50 still give a stat increase. they must have changed it i guess. haven't played for several years.
well i just did a test and it looks like 4 EV's at level 50 still give a stat increase. they must have changed it i guess. haven't played for several years.
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No, nothing has changed. You are correct that if you add 8 EVs you'll gain a stat point at level 50, but whether the progression is 4, 12, 20, 28, ... , 252 or 8, 16, 24, 32, ..., 248 depends on the Pokemon and its IVs.
In short:
If the IV in the stat you are boosting is even, you'll want the EVs to be divisible by 8 (e.g. cap at 248)
If the IV in the stat you are boosting is odd, you'll want the EVs to be divisible by 4 but not 8 (e.g. cap at 252)
Since most well-bred Pokemon will have 31 in their most relevant IVs, 252 is usually going to be correct. Of course, whenever you are in doubt, it's often easiest to just play around with a calculator.
Hello again! I got a new streak going in Super Triples and I'm almost at 500. I figured I'd share a video because I didn't save anything from my last streak of 331.
57ZW-WWWW-WWW7-S5YM
Peristance is key. My play has been extremely tight thus far and that can only come from experience. I've accumulated over 16,000 BP to this point in my Pokemon journey.
I will report back when the streak is over. I'd like to hit 1,000 straight wins, but the thought of the number of hours that will take makes me physically ill.
57ZW-WWWW-WWW7-S5YM
Peristance is key. My play has been extremely tight thus far and that can only come from experience. I've accumulated over 16,000 BP to this point in my Pokemon journey.
I will report back when the streak is over. I'd like to hit 1,000 straight wins, but the thought of the number of hours that will take makes me physically ill.
I finally got all trophies!!! Now to try if I can make it past 100 in Rotation. i might as well try to move from #15 in singles.
PS: Sorry if the pic is a bit huge.
PS: Sorry if the pic is a bit huge.
Hello, everyone. I've been lurking this topic for a long time, though admittedly much of the reading I've done that amounted to more than mere skimming was saved for Triples teams, or teams that involved less common tactics.
While I don't have a record (an acceptable one at least) for the rankings, I did just end a Super Triples streak at 315 with a method that has never, ever carried me this far in all of my battle facility play: random team selection. I know very few people that like to play through the Maison in this fashion.
I have presently 80 Pokemon with a Speed IV of 0 and a nature that hinders the stat. About two thirds of them were brought over from Bank and altered if necessary. I use a detailed RNG website to roll a team of six of these Pokemon; two rolls are reserved exclusively for a TR setter and a mega evolution, though I allow the possibility of setters to come up in the four "TR Abuser" rolls as well.
To resolve some of the more difficult held item conflicts and/or assist with dysfunctional teams, I do have multiple movesets for several pokes, particularly Mega Abomasnow, whose dominance on a team has varied wildly. For some, I had alternate sets in case I wanted less redundancy, while others had two sets because they worked well both as support or entirely offensively (Namely Porygon2. If I had an excellent and reliable setter, I sometimes opted for a four attacks set.) Alternate sets are kept separate from the eighty.
The team then battles until they get destroyed, or I get bored, though until recently I did try to reach Dana with every team. I normally would have interrupted each streak after ten battles to change teams, though I allowed two of them to go for 100 wins apiece, as I believed they could earn me the Lansat and Starf berries. Battles 201-316 were fought with teams that changed every ten battles regardless of how much I enjoyed them.
I have a small handful of youtube vids covering various runs, including many battles from the two hundred-long streaks that were part of the 316, as well as some replays of battles much further on; since I can't expect people to watch those just to see the teams displayed at the end, I'll quickly gloss over the two teams that won 100 battles apiece.
It's worth reminding any reader that because synergy occurs by luck, my EV spreads are far less refined than most players would use. Unless an Assault Vest is involved, the overwhelming majority of pokes have 252/252/4 spreads. Only the Trick Room users and the odd poke here or there like Wigglytuff had a specific, refined spread. Hell if I can recall some numbers off the top of my head, though >___>
BATTLES 1-100
Carbink @ Weakness Policy
Sturdy, Relaxed
-Trick Room
-Reflect
-Power Gem
-Moonblast
Carbink gets a lot of hate, and while it's generally on the lower end as far as setters go, it served me well. Weakness Policy prevented it from being deadweight in some battles, though because I pumped its physical defense, its SpA only hit 204 after activation. In other words, if the target wasn't weak to the move, it probably wasn't fainting.
Hariyama @ Flame Orb
Guts, Brave
-Fake Out
-Knock Off
-Heavy Slam
-Close Combat
Fake Out was really the only kind of support that could have helped Carbink without giving it an all-purpose hold item like Mental Herb or Lum Berry. I freaking love Fake Out.
You're probably looking at Heavy Slam and thinking I'm an idiot. While it had Ice Punch when it migrated from W2, and then briefly toyed with Poison Jab, Heavy Slam ended up being the most applicable and reliable choice. Hariyama's Heavy Slam hits every single Fairy that appears in Supers for max power and OHKOs them, while even Guts Ice Punch or Poison Jab can't destroy every Togekiss build. Type coverage is otherwise meaningless with Close Combat around, while nearly all teams carry excessive amounts of flying control. Ice Punch is not remotely missed.
With Heal Pulse spam, Hariyama was able to scribble out its death warrant in many battles of a prior 100-long streak, mitigating burn damage and the frequent def drops to its spongy tush. This time around, my sumo pal died frequently.
Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Iron Barbs, Brave
-Gravity
-Knock Off
-Power Whip
-Gyro Ball
No Rock Slide for largely the same reason I decided flying/fire coverage wasn't all that necessary on a lot of pokes; the overwhelming majority of teams carry STAB that murders those types. I really like offensively-oriented Ferrothorn, though its SDef did take a massive hit as a result, but Gravity allowed its teammates to function a thousand times better.
Heatran @ Power Anklet
Flash Fire, Quiet
-Flash Cannon
-Dragon Pulse
-Earth Power
-Eruption
Power Items are FUCKING AWESOME FOR TRICK ROOM TEAMS. They turn base 80 pokes, normally well above the cutoff point for TR-applicable speeds (in battle facilities at least) into frighteningly potent and quick machines. I liken them to reverse Choice Scarves; you get all of the speed, while still allowing them to distribute EVs entirely into bulk and offense, and none of the movelocking.
But I digress. There's otherwise nothing I can say about Heatran that no one already thinks. It's still one of the best fire types in the game, and Eruption never failed me.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Magic Guard, Quiet
-Shadow Ball
-Thunder
-Psyshock
-Focus Blast
Occasionally I miss Grass Knot, especially when the team this is on has no Gravity support, but there were no regrets here. I've always preferred using Reuniclus strictly for offense and this guy has no alternate set with Trick Room.
I still toy with dumping Thunder for Grass Knot, because when it doesn't kill, that 30% paralysis rate can and has bitten me in the ass. I once set off a Carracosta's WP and it cleared the room with an Earthquake; the only reason I won that battle is because TR wore off at the end of the turn, and being paralyzed sealed its fate. That battle permanently changed the way I handle Carracostas.
Ampharos @ Ampharosite
Static, Quiet
-Power Gem
-Thunderbolt
-Dragon Pulse
-Focus Blast
Mega Amphy has made a pretty decent lead on other teams. With Gravity support happening upon me, I tried to wait until it could be set up. Its Focus Blast being weaker than Reuniclus' was slightly problematic considering that Reuniclus could just barely OHKO several threats with it. Reuniclus nearly always took precedence when sending in reinforcements, though base speed was also part of those decisions.
BATTLES 101-200
Musharna @ Safety Goggles
Telepathy, Quiet
-Trick Room
-Helping Hand
-Psychic
-Energy Ball
Musharna, one of few setters to be a little more offensively oriented, exists for my Earthquake spammers, Sludge Wave Nidoqueen, Explosion Lickilicky, and so on. I also envisioned her being a big help to Tyranitar and Abomasnow, hence the goggles, though actually she and Tyranitar have yet to be on a team together. Heh.
Energy Ball actually came in handy quite often. Musharna was my go-to Carracosta slayer (more on that bastard later.) When the set was originally coined, I envisioned it as more of a support move for my Sap Sippers, and didn't really want Shadow Ball or Thunderbolt. EB was used often enough that I decided I wouldn't lose it for Dazzling Gleam.
Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Soundproof, Quiet
-Protect
-Grass Knot
-Earthquake
-Blizzard
One of three Abomasnow. This one was selected because of Musharna; Helping Hand Earthquake OHKOs all Heatran builds (Sash variant resolved via Hail damage) and a lot of lesser fire types. Grass Knot saw a lot of use, since Veterans and bulky waters were not shy.
Azumarill @ Expert Belt
Huge Power, Brave
-Aqua Jet
-Waterfall
-Play Rough
-Superpower
This bugger along with Abomasnow made me immediately think of Kappaten's Triples streak once they both came up in the roll, though these two are the only similarities my team bears to his. An excellent lead next to Abomasnow and more often than not mitigated the need for Earthquake. The shared Poison weakness did lead to some misassumptions and misplays as a result. Normally holds a Splash Plate, but no one else held an Expert Belt, so I opted for a little upgrade.
Porygon2 eviolite
Download, Quiet
-Trick Room
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Tri Attack
I spent a lot of time considering leading with it alongside Abomasnow instead of Musharna, but ultimately decided it was better that I didn't, for two reasons:
Escavalier @ Life Orb
Overcoat, Brave
-Knock Off
-Iron Head
-Drill Run
-Megahorn
Having to wait for Bank to release in NA in order to breed this thing did not make me happy! It held a Quick Claw prior to being drawn for this team. While Quick Claws are made of lingering remnants of hopes and dreams and some of my most undeserved battle facility comebacks were attributed to repeated procs of this item…
…after running a ton of various damage calcs I determined that I was gimping myself by not using a Life Orb, an all-purpose item that never fails to work. It pushed a lot of things into kill range after Hail damage, such as Vaporeon.
Whenever I switched Escavalier in for Azumarill to tank an Electric or Poison move, the opponent usually decided it'd go for Abomasnow. When I didn't, that's when the AI decided to kill my bunny. Fortunately, they never failed to be retarded elsewhere.
Chandelure @ Power Lens
Flash Fire, Quiet
-Protect
-Shadow Ball
-Energy Ball
-Heat Wave
I often chose to switch this in for Abomasnow for the free FF boost, even if Earthquake could have kept momentum going, since Helping Hand + Flash Fire Heat Wave was stronger than Blizzard under the same conditions.
Random tidbits about this team:
#235 - 8Y7W-WWWW-WWW7-SK2Q
Cofagrigus/Mega Abomasnow/Scrafty/Nidoqueen/Gardevoir/Rhyperior
You won't see it, but that Rhyperior saved my ass during two battles where I would have lost without it. During one of those, it survived two Ice Beams from a Porygon2 after a +SpA Download boost (it holds Assault Vest.)
I've since gotten a second Cofagrigus with Ally Switch, which is a fun and handy move with more applications than you might realise.
#256 - ZH2G-WWWW-WWW7-SK2S
Aromatisse/Emboar/Mega Ampharos/Ursaring/Blissey/Clawitzer
#264 - 9FHG-WWWW-WWW7-SK2U
Aromatisse/Mega Aggron/Tyrantrum/Slowbro/Tyranitar/Bisharp
Mega Aggron may not be as good offensively as other TR-oriented Megas, but it's actually been very helpful. It helps that it's a magnet for abuse but often still too durable for the opponents to kill. I was pleasantly surprised after trying it out and haven't been let down yet.
#288 - BDDG-WWWW-WWW7-SK33
Bouffalant/Cresselia/Mega Mawile/Slowbro/Marowak/Mamoswine
#300 - 8MWG-WWWW-WWW7-SK3B
Cofagrigus/Mega Abomasnow/Barbaracle/Porygon2/Tyranitar/Tyrantrum
The team I was given for battles 291-300 made me very nervous because of its gross overabundance of shared weaknesses. With that working against me, many of those battles were extremely difficult and won by the skin of my teeth, as I was making poor guess after poor guess. Battle #300 was a sigh of relief, as it was a Veteran with an easily murdered team.
#316 - CRNG-WWWW-WWW7-SK3J
Bronzong/Mega Heracross/Carbink/Exploud/Dragalge/Gourgeist
"Cringe" is right! My ill-fated battle 316 was due to two very poor and stupid decisions, as well as an awful stroke of bad luck. First, I wrongly assumed that Scizor would attempt to Bullet Punch Carbink, and thus no Protect. Then, I got screwed over when Bronzong missed both 1HP Bisharp and Scizor with Rock Slide, which might have sealed my fate already; who knows, because I'm left wondering if I'd stood a chance if I used Phantom Force instead against Aerodactyl on the turn TR wore off. Regardless, I consider using Rock Slide to be my second stupid misplay.
Pokemon/Trainers that nearly always give me grief regardless of my lineup:
Youtube battle compilations:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd66daCW5lNmj-YCpps2vLbV6SXT5kJRw&feature=mh_lolz
Vid 1: Slowbro/Hariyama/Togekiss/Clawitzer/Golurk/Mega Mawile
Vid 2: Gourgeist/Machamp/Regice/Emboar/Togekiss/Mega Mawile
Vid 3: Aromatisse/Mega Heracross/Slowking/Dragonite/Ursaring/Aggron
Vid 4: Carbink/Hariyama/Ferrothorn/Heatran/Reuniclus/Mega Ampharos
Vid 5: Musharna/Mega Abomasnow/Azumarill/Porygon2/Escavalier/Chandelure
Methinks that's enough for now!
Edit: Yeow, did not expect Youtube links to automatically embed themselves. I'll just link the playlist.
While I don't have a record (an acceptable one at least) for the rankings, I did just end a Super Triples streak at 315 with a method that has never, ever carried me this far in all of my battle facility play: random team selection. I know very few people that like to play through the Maison in this fashion.
I have presently 80 Pokemon with a Speed IV of 0 and a nature that hinders the stat. About two thirds of them were brought over from Bank and altered if necessary. I use a detailed RNG website to roll a team of six of these Pokemon; two rolls are reserved exclusively for a TR setter and a mega evolution, though I allow the possibility of setters to come up in the four "TR Abuser" rolls as well.
To resolve some of the more difficult held item conflicts and/or assist with dysfunctional teams, I do have multiple movesets for several pokes, particularly Mega Abomasnow, whose dominance on a team has varied wildly. For some, I had alternate sets in case I wanted less redundancy, while others had two sets because they worked well both as support or entirely offensively (Namely Porygon2. If I had an excellent and reliable setter, I sometimes opted for a four attacks set.) Alternate sets are kept separate from the eighty.
The team then battles until they get destroyed, or I get bored, though until recently I did try to reach Dana with every team. I normally would have interrupted each streak after ten battles to change teams, though I allowed two of them to go for 100 wins apiece, as I believed they could earn me the Lansat and Starf berries. Battles 201-316 were fought with teams that changed every ten battles regardless of how much I enjoyed them.
I have a small handful of youtube vids covering various runs, including many battles from the two hundred-long streaks that were part of the 316, as well as some replays of battles much further on; since I can't expect people to watch those just to see the teams displayed at the end, I'll quickly gloss over the two teams that won 100 battles apiece.
It's worth reminding any reader that because synergy occurs by luck, my EV spreads are far less refined than most players would use. Unless an Assault Vest is involved, the overwhelming majority of pokes have 252/252/4 spreads. Only the Trick Room users and the odd poke here or there like Wigglytuff had a specific, refined spread. Hell if I can recall some numbers off the top of my head, though >___>
BATTLES 1-100
Carbink @ Weakness Policy
Sturdy, Relaxed
-Trick Room
-Reflect
-Power Gem
-Moonblast
Carbink gets a lot of hate, and while it's generally on the lower end as far as setters go, it served me well. Weakness Policy prevented it from being deadweight in some battles, though because I pumped its physical defense, its SpA only hit 204 after activation. In other words, if the target wasn't weak to the move, it probably wasn't fainting.
Hariyama @ Flame Orb
Guts, Brave
-Fake Out
-Knock Off
-Heavy Slam
-Close Combat
Fake Out was really the only kind of support that could have helped Carbink without giving it an all-purpose hold item like Mental Herb or Lum Berry. I freaking love Fake Out.
You're probably looking at Heavy Slam and thinking I'm an idiot. While it had Ice Punch when it migrated from W2, and then briefly toyed with Poison Jab, Heavy Slam ended up being the most applicable and reliable choice. Hariyama's Heavy Slam hits every single Fairy that appears in Supers for max power and OHKOs them, while even Guts Ice Punch or Poison Jab can't destroy every Togekiss build. Type coverage is otherwise meaningless with Close Combat around, while nearly all teams carry excessive amounts of flying control. Ice Punch is not remotely missed.
With Heal Pulse spam, Hariyama was able to scribble out its death warrant in many battles of a prior 100-long streak, mitigating burn damage and the frequent def drops to its spongy tush. This time around, my sumo pal died frequently.
Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Iron Barbs, Brave
-Gravity
-Knock Off
-Power Whip
-Gyro Ball
No Rock Slide for largely the same reason I decided flying/fire coverage wasn't all that necessary on a lot of pokes; the overwhelming majority of teams carry STAB that murders those types. I really like offensively-oriented Ferrothorn, though its SDef did take a massive hit as a result, but Gravity allowed its teammates to function a thousand times better.
Heatran @ Power Anklet
Flash Fire, Quiet
-Flash Cannon
-Dragon Pulse
-Earth Power
-Eruption
Power Items are FUCKING AWESOME FOR TRICK ROOM TEAMS. They turn base 80 pokes, normally well above the cutoff point for TR-applicable speeds (in battle facilities at least) into frighteningly potent and quick machines. I liken them to reverse Choice Scarves; you get all of the speed, while still allowing them to distribute EVs entirely into bulk and offense, and none of the movelocking.
But I digress. There's otherwise nothing I can say about Heatran that no one already thinks. It's still one of the best fire types in the game, and Eruption never failed me.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Magic Guard, Quiet
-Shadow Ball
-Thunder
-Psyshock
-Focus Blast
Occasionally I miss Grass Knot, especially when the team this is on has no Gravity support, but there were no regrets here. I've always preferred using Reuniclus strictly for offense and this guy has no alternate set with Trick Room.
I still toy with dumping Thunder for Grass Knot, because when it doesn't kill, that 30% paralysis rate can and has bitten me in the ass. I once set off a Carracosta's WP and it cleared the room with an Earthquake; the only reason I won that battle is because TR wore off at the end of the turn, and being paralyzed sealed its fate. That battle permanently changed the way I handle Carracostas.
Ampharos @ Ampharosite
Static, Quiet
-Power Gem
-Thunderbolt
-Dragon Pulse
-Focus Blast
Mega Amphy has made a pretty decent lead on other teams. With Gravity support happening upon me, I tried to wait until it could be set up. Its Focus Blast being weaker than Reuniclus' was slightly problematic considering that Reuniclus could just barely OHKO several threats with it. Reuniclus nearly always took precedence when sending in reinforcements, though base speed was also part of those decisions.
BATTLES 101-200
Musharna @ Safety Goggles
Telepathy, Quiet
-Trick Room
-Helping Hand
-Psychic
-Energy Ball
Musharna, one of few setters to be a little more offensively oriented, exists for my Earthquake spammers, Sludge Wave Nidoqueen, Explosion Lickilicky, and so on. I also envisioned her being a big help to Tyranitar and Abomasnow, hence the goggles, though actually she and Tyranitar have yet to be on a team together. Heh.
Energy Ball actually came in handy quite often. Musharna was my go-to Carracosta slayer (more on that bastard later.) When the set was originally coined, I envisioned it as more of a support move for my Sap Sippers, and didn't really want Shadow Ball or Thunderbolt. EB was used often enough that I decided I wouldn't lose it for Dazzling Gleam.
Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Soundproof, Quiet
-Protect
-Grass Knot
-Earthquake
-Blizzard
One of three Abomasnow. This one was selected because of Musharna; Helping Hand Earthquake OHKOs all Heatran builds (Sash variant resolved via Hail damage) and a lot of lesser fire types. Grass Knot saw a lot of use, since Veterans and bulky waters were not shy.
Azumarill @ Expert Belt
Huge Power, Brave
-Aqua Jet
-Waterfall
-Play Rough
-Superpower
This bugger along with Abomasnow made me immediately think of Kappaten's Triples streak once they both came up in the roll, though these two are the only similarities my team bears to his. An excellent lead next to Abomasnow and more often than not mitigated the need for Earthquake. The shared Poison weakness did lead to some misassumptions and misplays as a result. Normally holds a Splash Plate, but no one else held an Expert Belt, so I opted for a little upgrade.
Porygon2 eviolite
Download, Quiet
-Trick Room
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Tri Attack
I spent a lot of time considering leading with it alongside Abomasnow instead of Musharna, but ultimately decided it was better that I didn't, for two reasons:
- While both P2 and Musharna share only one weakness with Abomasnow, Fighting types and moves were much more common, and Bug moves were also more easily predicted. Some of my most aggravating and close battles were so purely because I was forced to guess and guessed wrong.
- Helping Hand + Blizzard was such a deciding factor in the majority of battles that I wanted to be able to abuse it immediately.
Escavalier @ Life Orb
Overcoat, Brave
-Knock Off
-Iron Head
-Drill Run
-Megahorn
Having to wait for Bank to release in NA in order to breed this thing did not make me happy! It held a Quick Claw prior to being drawn for this team. While Quick Claws are made of lingering remnants of hopes and dreams and some of my most undeserved battle facility comebacks were attributed to repeated procs of this item…
…after running a ton of various damage calcs I determined that I was gimping myself by not using a Life Orb, an all-purpose item that never fails to work. It pushed a lot of things into kill range after Hail damage, such as Vaporeon.
Whenever I switched Escavalier in for Azumarill to tank an Electric or Poison move, the opponent usually decided it'd go for Abomasnow. When I didn't, that's when the AI decided to kill my bunny. Fortunately, they never failed to be retarded elsewhere.
Chandelure @ Power Lens
Flash Fire, Quiet
-Protect
-Shadow Ball
-Energy Ball
-Heat Wave
I often chose to switch this in for Abomasnow for the free FF boost, even if Earthquake could have kept momentum going, since Helping Hand + Flash Fire Heat Wave was stronger than Blizzard under the same conditions.
Random tidbits about this team:
- I fought a very disproportionate amount of Wailords, Eelektross and especially Carracostas during these 100 battles. The only one that really mattered was Wailord, as it loved targeting Musharna with Fissure. In one battle, it killed my Chandelure instead, and I immediately encountered an enemy Escavalier with Trick Room active. It was not pretty.
- Musharna was able to get away without a Lum Berry because the overwhelming majority of first-turn attacks were directed at Abomasnow, who opted to attack instead of Protect no more than twice.
- Veterans were among the most enjoyable teams to curb stomp during this streak. Sadly I fought very few Heatrans.
- Given that Musharna had an offensive build you'd have thought I'd be running damage calcs for it, but I didn't, as I expected to be using HH nearly all the time. Which is my way of saying I was surprised by how badly its Psychic was injuring the target when used. Much of its attacking was against either enemy Slowkings or Carracosta, or Fire/Fighting types I didn't care to switch from.
#235 - 8Y7W-WWWW-WWW7-SK2Q
Cofagrigus/Mega Abomasnow/Scrafty/Nidoqueen/Gardevoir/Rhyperior
You won't see it, but that Rhyperior saved my ass during two battles where I would have lost without it. During one of those, it survived two Ice Beams from a Porygon2 after a +SpA Download boost (it holds Assault Vest.)
I've since gotten a second Cofagrigus with Ally Switch, which is a fun and handy move with more applications than you might realise.
#256 - ZH2G-WWWW-WWW7-SK2S
Aromatisse/Emboar/Mega Ampharos/Ursaring/Blissey/Clawitzer
#264 - 9FHG-WWWW-WWW7-SK2U
Aromatisse/Mega Aggron/Tyrantrum/Slowbro/Tyranitar/Bisharp
Mega Aggron may not be as good offensively as other TR-oriented Megas, but it's actually been very helpful. It helps that it's a magnet for abuse but often still too durable for the opponents to kill. I was pleasantly surprised after trying it out and haven't been let down yet.
#288 - BDDG-WWWW-WWW7-SK33
Bouffalant/Cresselia/Mega Mawile/Slowbro/Marowak/Mamoswine
#300 - 8MWG-WWWW-WWW7-SK3B
Cofagrigus/Mega Abomasnow/Barbaracle/Porygon2/Tyranitar/Tyrantrum
The team I was given for battles 291-300 made me very nervous because of its gross overabundance of shared weaknesses. With that working against me, many of those battles were extremely difficult and won by the skin of my teeth, as I was making poor guess after poor guess. Battle #300 was a sigh of relief, as it was a Veteran with an easily murdered team.
#316 - CRNG-WWWW-WWW7-SK3J
Bronzong/Mega Heracross/Carbink/Exploud/Dragalge/Gourgeist
"Cringe" is right! My ill-fated battle 316 was due to two very poor and stupid decisions, as well as an awful stroke of bad luck. First, I wrongly assumed that Scizor would attempt to Bullet Punch Carbink, and thus no Protect. Then, I got screwed over when Bronzong missed both 1HP Bisharp and Scizor with Rock Slide, which might have sealed my fate already; who knows, because I'm left wondering if I'd stood a chance if I used Phantom Force instead against Aerodactyl on the turn TR wore off. Regardless, I consider using Rock Slide to be my second stupid misplay.
Pokemon/Trainers that nearly always give me grief regardless of my lineup:
- Turn One Tyrantrum 4. Protect is nearly always a coin flip against this behemoth. Nearly everything I have that takes neutral damage from it is still reliably OHKOed and there were many times when, much to my dismay, it opted not to charge my defending poke.
- Likewise, Turn One Walrein 4 and Wailord 4. Chef Carlos is like the neighbor that always invites himself into my backyard and brings along his dipshit children to "play" with my kids. Team Carbink fought him easily well over a dozen times.
- Regigigas, for the same reason everyone hates Regigigas. I nearly always killed it first.
- Scientists and Black Belts can either be pieces of cake or extremely dangerous depending on lead positioning. Armaldo 4 easily OHKOs psychic TR users; both can pack Tyrantrum 4, and Scientists usually have an Electric type that can pose a threat to Slowbro should it be ganged upon. Drapion 4 and Toxicroak 4 can also be problems for setters without adequate support. Sniper Night Slash easily slaughters the setters, and Toxicroak usually must be Faked Out, or else it will attempt to Taunt the setter or, in the case of Aromatisse, attack with Gunk Shot.
- Furisode Girls get an honorable mention in case they lead with Umbreon 1 or 3, which attempt to confuse me. For that matter, pre-Dana, there's a lot more confusion spam.
- Golem 4 loves to be Sturdy, outspeeds most of my lineup under TR, inflicts enough damage with Fling to be deadly should the target be wounded, and has haxy Rock Slide. Fortunately, the AI loves using Explosion when it has little to no benefit whatsoever and would generally rather waste their Golem than give me grief.
- Escavalier 4 is durable, strong and also outspeeds nearly everything I've got. I try to target it with prejudice, but it loves to plop down in awkward positions.
- Custap Berry holders not named Escavalier, who goes first regardless. THESE are the guys that prevent me from playing the Maison away from the internet, because I feel much safer running damage calcs if I think there's a chance I can't OHKO them. Some of these, like Claydol/Blastoise 4, are actually pretty harmless under some circumstances, but they have the capacity to be bastards.
Youtube battle compilations:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd66daCW5lNmj-YCpps2vLbV6SXT5kJRw&feature=mh_lolz
Vid 1: Slowbro/Hariyama/Togekiss/Clawitzer/Golurk/Mega Mawile
Vid 2: Gourgeist/Machamp/Regice/Emboar/Togekiss/Mega Mawile
Vid 3: Aromatisse/Mega Heracross/Slowking/Dragonite/Ursaring/Aggron
Vid 4: Carbink/Hariyama/Ferrothorn/Heatran/Reuniclus/Mega Ampharos
Vid 5: Musharna/Mega Abomasnow/Azumarill/Porygon2/Escavalier/Chandelure
Methinks that's enough for now!
Edit: Yeow, did not expect Youtube links to automatically embed themselves. I'll just link the playlist.
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Here's how I lost my Super Singles streak of 332. Pyroar 4 killed Glalie through a Sub with a critical hit Hyper Voice. I'd done the calc before and knew a crit Hyper Voice did somewhere around 70-80%, but I underestimated the damage range, so it only needed the "huge" 8/16ths damage roll (in addition to critting and hitting through -1 Accuracy and +1 Evasion). If I'd known it didn't need a max damage roll there I'd obviously have used Protect - not only is Pyroar 4 the Pokemon with the strongest sound-based move in the entire Maison (except for maybe a Tinted Lens Yanmega 4), but it's literally the worst out of the 100 (!) Pokemon Sigurd could've led with because its Hyper Voice makes me use Protect too many times, and I usually want to keep around 8-10 Protects to better fish for a miss if something like Infernape4 comes out second so I can 2HKO and keep my Sub intact. Code for my loss is YX4W-WWWW-WWW7-SSG6.
Also was some top-notch AI trolling to have me already at like +5 Special Defense and Pyroar at -6 Special Attack when it crits on the first Hyper Voice it uses - that's one way to lull someone into a false sense of security about being stingy with using Protect. So yeah, operator error (if I'd used Protect that turn, I'd have survived a max damage crit Hyper Voice the next time it attacked and been forced to go Taunt/Protect/Taunt/Protect... until I was back up to good health) combined with 1% matchup hax for this particular trainer combined with 2% hax in the actual battle flushed quite a few hours down the drain. Of course, if I'd known the two Pokemon on deck were Musharna 4 and Abomasnow 4, I would've gladly used up all of my Protects to set up on Pyroar.
Another thing to note for anyone who wants to give this team a try - Glalie's EVs are definitely not optimal. I transferred it over from White, where the Speed EVs were to outspeed a certain Suicune set and Taunt it at +0, and I think it also outsped everything but Scarf Manectric at +1. I haven't given the Maison speed tiers a look yet, but since Level 1 Sableye all but guarantees Durant will get an Entrainment off it's probably safe to drop some Speed. It might be tempting to just go Modest with max HP and Sp. Attack or something, but even if you're faster than everything at +6 Speed, outspeeding something earlier during setup so you can Taunt it before it uses a stat-boosting move helps a lot in conserving your Sub/Protect PP later on. As is the case with all Entrainment teams, use something faster to get through the first 40 or so battles.
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Apart from assuredly baiting attacks at lv1 which allows you to Taunt and block the opponent from Protecting the turn Durant uses Entrainment, I'm having a hard time seeing what exactly you gain from being lv1.
Of course, I haven't gotten my feet wet with the Durant strategy this gen; after the Fairy type was introduced, my Haxorus became worthless as an all-purpose sweeper and I didn't have the drive to breed something to take its place. I also used a Cloyster alongside it, but it was nowhere near as versatile.
Congrats on your streak. I dunno about you, but I always felt a certain sense of disgust when losing a battle that was extremely winnable, not so much to hax, but a generally crappy poke. I lump Pyroar in with the junk, but then this is coming from someone who raised and kept a Dragalge knowing it was a thousand times less useful without Adaptability, so perhaps I shouldn't be bashing it? =P
Of course, I haven't gotten my feet wet with the Durant strategy this gen; after the Fairy type was introduced, my Haxorus became worthless as an all-purpose sweeper and I didn't have the drive to breed something to take its place. I also used a Cloyster alongside it, but it was nowhere near as versatile.
Congrats on your streak. I dunno about you, but I always felt a certain sense of disgust when losing a battle that was extremely winnable, not so much to hax, but a generally crappy poke. I lump Pyroar in with the junk, but then this is coming from someone who raised and kept a Dragalge knowing it was a thousand times less useful without Adaptability, so perhaps I shouldn't be bashing it? =P
I was just wondering if someone would try to make a successful Gravity team, and voila, ReptoAbysmal does it (at least does it for part of his streak)! Good show!
Note, however, that if you are using pokes generated or altered by an outside device, the streak is not eligible for listing. I don't think that's what you meant, but just confirming what "altered" and the RNG website mean. I assume you just used the RNG site to draw numbers to pick your team, and "altered" pokes via proper in-game training and breeding. Really cool either way though, especially with the random selection element.
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What I mean by "altered" is that either prior to making the trip through Bank or afterward, the poke learned a new move or, in less ideal cases like Escavalier, needed to be bred from scratch thanks to X/Y exclusive egg moves.
The main tutored move brought from White 2 was Knock Off, though a couple pokemon such as Druddigon picked up something else. Gunk Shot improved slightly, is jacked up by Sheer Force, and destroys Fairies, important for Druddster.
And of course there were a handful of pokemon that got some great new toys, like Ampharos Dragon Pulse, and Fairy attacks.
Having said that, unless I misunderstood Eppie, I was under the impression my streak was automatically disqualified from the rankings because I kept drastically changing my team. I wanted to share the progress with you guys because I was delighted that I was able to win so many battles using a very unreliable method.
http://www.randomnumbergenerator.com/default.asp This is the RNG site I refer to. I can define the limits for all six pokes right there and roll them at once. Very handy!
As for Gravity, I love that move almost as much as Trick Room, but unfortunately it's nowhere near as versatile as Tailwind or TR, so I see it only as something that's nice to have around IF several teammates can improve with it. Reuniclus and Ampharos loved it. I have a Clefable, Blissey, and Gigalith with it, among some others that can possibly have it as an alternate set.
That's the main thing; you absolutely want Sableye to faint before Taunt runs out, and it's not going to damage anything either way (one time I did let Lapras 4 use Perish Song and brought in Sableye at 1 HP so it could have the experience of "KOing" something at the end of a victory lol) so you might as well save yourself the time leveling and EVing it. One definite application is that you can be sure nothing's using Trick Room or boosting its stats on turn 1, so you can go straight to using Flash. That definitely helps in keeping a healthy-as-possible Durant in your back pocket to use Entrainment again in case you get really unlucky with bad boosts + a bad matchup as the 2nd/3rd Pokemon.
I've lost twice with this team, and neither time was due to Sableye + Durant not serving their purpose (lost an earlier streak to even worse hax. A 3rd Pokemon Scizor 4 hit twice through +6 Evasion with Bullet Punch before Glalie could 2HKO - the 2nd Bullet Punch not only needed to be a critical hit, but the Scizor needed to be Technician. In other words, the last turn's outcome was 1/9th as likely as a normal critical hit).
Yeah, Pyroar is crap and on top of that, its usual non-competitiveness is directly responsible for that win. In exchange for juust enough extra power to secure that KO, it's able to be outsped and more easily taken out by all the +Speed Garchomps/Charizard-Ys that people actually use.
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Pyroar is more threatening than that - it can have Rivalry for an extra 25% damage on same-gendered targets, such as your female Glalie. And its gender ratio is 87.5% female, so most of the time it will be getting the boost if it has that ability. And with the Rivalry boost, it can cleanly OHKO Glalie:
252+ SpA Pyroar Hyper Voice (112 BP) vs. 176 HP / 4 SpD Glalie on a critical hit: 168-198 (94.9 - 111.8%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
Using a male Glalie would solve the Rivalry problem, outside the occasional 12.5% male Pyroar. Rivalry Pyroar in general is why I try to have anything that may take hits from it in my Doubles teams be male nowadays, the boost is nasty and Sun Overheat and double-target Hyper Voice are no joke. Attract is nonexistent and other Rivalry pokes have 50/50 gender ratios (outside Nidos), but female Pyroar's Rivalry is reason enough to run males, at least for teams that fear Sun-boosted Overheats or sound moves.
Edit: Lv1 Sableye has the advantage of being able to die on cue like it had Memento without actually having to run the move, freeing up slots for other things and making up for the fact that Sableye can't learn Memento. I wonder how it fares against Speed Boost Blaziken4 with Flame Charge, though - with Memento Whimsicott, you can instantly Memento it so it doesn't get any Flame Charge boosts and only gets one turn of Speed Boost, but if it's able to get multiple boosts against Sableye things could get nasty.
252+ SpA Pyroar Hyper Voice (112 BP) vs. 176 HP / 4 SpD Glalie on a critical hit: 168-198 (94.9 - 111.8%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
Using a male Glalie would solve the Rivalry problem, outside the occasional 12.5% male Pyroar. Rivalry Pyroar in general is why I try to have anything that may take hits from it in my Doubles teams be male nowadays, the boost is nasty and Sun Overheat and double-target Hyper Voice are no joke. Attract is nonexistent and other Rivalry pokes have 50/50 gender ratios (outside Nidos), but female Pyroar's Rivalry is reason enough to run males, at least for teams that fear Sun-boosted Overheats or sound moves.
Edit: Lv1 Sableye has the advantage of being able to die on cue like it had Memento without actually having to run the move, freeing up slots for other things and making up for the fact that Sableye can't learn Memento. I wonder how it fares against Speed Boost Blaziken4 with Flame Charge, though - with Memento Whimsicott, you can instantly Memento it so it doesn't get any Flame Charge boosts and only gets one turn of Speed Boost, but if it's able to get multiple boosts against Sableye things could get nasty.
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The original intent was to sacrifice Sableye and Durant to prevent Roar/Whirlwind from messing me up. It turns out that those moves are incredibly rare, but against a back-up Skarmory 4, it's still very valuable to have a Sableye that faints easily. Against Workers (who have more Steel types and therefore are more likely to have Skarmory), I typically try to sacrifice both Sableye and Durant, which is easy to do
Like GG Unit mentioned, it's important to prevent the AI from setting up. The biggest benefit of Level 1 is making the AI predictable. Tornadus 4 or Thundurus 4 might use Taunt against a Level 50 Sableye; they'll ALWAYS attack a Level 1, letting you use Taunt first (and avoid their Prankster Taunts) and ensure the strategy works. Level 1 also helps against Exeggutor 4; by ensuring it attacks, you get a free switch-in to Durant and can just instantly KO with X-Scissor (you don't want to try to set up on it because it will use Explosion). If you were Level 50, it would likely set up Trick Room against Sableye. You could bring in Durant and KO it (or have it KO itself with Explosion against Durant), but then a Fire-type switch-in puts you in a bad spot; if you switch in Sableye and it gets knocked down to its Sash and burned, Durant will come in while Trick Room is still active and be taken out. You can boost Sableye's bulk with EVs to help it take Fire moves, but you add too many variables (crits, high/low damage rolls, misses) to know exactly when Taunt will run out against most foes. Having Sableye faint in two hits or less (ensuring that Taunt is active when Durant comes in) is essential against opponents with Protect.
I decided to think/look through the opponents who appear after battle #40 who can't beat Sableye. They are:
Reuniclus 4
Lapras 4
Medicham 4
Mienshao 4
Gallade 4
Shiftry 4
Forretress 4 (use Taunt and it's forced to instantly kill itself with Explosion. Hilarious!)
Skarmory 4 (well, you force it to use Struggle with Taunt, but then you switch out to Durant)
Spiritomb 4
Walrein 4 if its luck is bad (I've managed to take out all of Walrein's Sheer Cold + Fissure PP just by leaving Sableye in; sometimes two lives is all you need!)
Alakazam 4
Breloom 4
Cresselia 2 and 4 (Cresselia 2 has the Struggle problem)
Espeon 1 if it's not Magic Bounce
Gothitelle 4 (unless you miss with Taunt or miss repeatedly with Trick)
Kangaskhan 4 if it's not Scrappy
Meganium 4 (same issue with Struggle as Skarmory)
Leaving Sableye in against all of these usually isn't the best strategy (many of them are pretty much free set-up for Durant + Moody sweeper), but the fact that this many set 4 Pokemon are completely powerless against a Level 1 Sableye is utterly hilarious to me. The fact that they concentrate around Psychics is also awesome; if I recall correctly, I had one battle where I didn't even send out Smeargle because of something like "AI leads with Espeon, go to Durant, KO with X-Scissor, AI sends out Medicham, go to Sableye, HJK damage; AI switches to Exeggutor, KO Exeggutor with Durant, back to Sableye, finish off Medicham." When you lose to a Level 1 Pokemon and a Truant Pokemon, you know you're terrible.
Also, for anyone using a Moody team, just know that Bulbapedia AND Serebii are wrong; Protect DOES NOT block Mean Look. Don't let Mismagius 4 KO your Moody sweeper because those sites gave you bad info.
EDIT turskain , it's nice to know that someone besides me forgets that Pokemon lose their original abilities when you use Entrainment to give them Truant. You won't believe how many times I've thought "uh oh, I don't want Durant to get stuck against Gothitelle because of Shadow Tag" or "How will I handle setting up against an Infiltrator Pokemon?" Also, I theorymon'd Blaziken 4; it's actually still slower than Jolly Choice Scarf Durant, even at +2. You just use Trick on turn 1 to let it KO you; even if it gets the Speed Boost AND uses Flame Charge, you can still hit it with Entrainment before it KOs Durant.
You're right, I've made that mistake too many times! Still, Pyroar is Fire-type, so if it comes in after you've set up and Glalie is not +6 252+, Frost Breath is not a secure OHKO and it could Rivalry Hyper Voice crit it down afterwards:
+6 252+ SpA Glalie Frost Breath vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pyroar on a critical hit: 171-202 (106.2 - 125.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
I'm pretty confident Pyroar won't use Hyper Voice against Glalie; it should choose the super-effective Overheat instead (fortunately). Even with a Moody team, utilizing the AI's idiocy (and not just their refusal to switch!) is still important. I actually did a bunch of mock battles against Volcarona to plan out my strategy against it. In all of my trials, it used up all of its Heat Wave PP before even attempting to use Bug Buzz once against Smeargle (because the extra 10 base power is Very Important), so now my strategy against it involves just using Sub (and Miracle Eye) until it runs out of Heat Wave PP, then using Protect every other turn once it runs out of Heat Wave PP. It's worked really well; Smeargle losing too much HP has never been a problem (I force a lot of misses with Flash + Heat Wave's 90% accuracy + possible evasion boosts), and the extra Protect turns buy me the time I need to undo any SpAtk drops so I can run over its Quiver Dance boosted SpDef. But it wouldn't work if the AI weren't extremely reliable in using the most powerful move. They seem to be less reliable if the most powerful move has drawbacks (like Overheat's SpAtk drop), but they don't seem to pass up a super-effective hit very often, especially if the alternative move (in this case, Hyper Voice) needs a crit to OHKO and the White Herb is still intact.
I continued my quest to collect all the trophies today with my 50th win in Doubles, much to my pride using my own team instead of copying VaporeonIce and R.Inanimate's swaggy teams (like I did for the others). The team is as follows:
Greninja (M) @ Focus Sash "Prototype"
-Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
- Mat Block
Conkeldurr (M) @ Flame Orb
-Guts
EVs: 128 HP/252 Atk/ 128 Sp Def (I think hes a bank mon from Gen 5 and I can't remember what I gave him exactly I think it might also have 0 Speed IVs)
Adamant Nature (+Atk -SpAtk)
-Drain Punch
-Mach Punch
-Power Up Punch
-Payback
Kangaskan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
-Scrappy -> Parental Bond
EVs:4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant Nature
-Fake Out
-Return
-Sucker Punch
-Power Up Punch
Aegislash (M) @ Leftovers
-Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
Adamant Nature
- King's Shield
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Sacred Sword
The ideology behind this team started as use Mat Block to buy a free turn for a boost, originally I was thinking Aegislash with a Swords Dance but I was scrolling through my boxes and found this Conkeldurr, which I bred due to it being the reason I lost my first ever online match (naivety). But this was before Power Up Punch which is my new favourite move and Aegislash is terrible at doubles (he's only here because I didn't know what else to do) so I taught it to him and use it and Flame Orb essentially boosting his attack to its level 100 stat (its just above 410) which is absolutely monstrous with priority STAB in Mach Punch. Payback allows me to kill ghosts and psychics although STAB Psychic almost always kills him, but these are usually 1 for 1's due to the priority. The rest of the team is pretty standard.
What I'm going to change (open to suggestions):
-Scald on Greninja over Surf:Surf was here in the first place for Triples which I'm leaving alone for the mean time
-Something better than Aegislash: I don't feel he has the same impact the others do
-Considering changing Drain Punch to something with more coverage. Fire Punch for fairies? Drain has been extremely situational.
If you lost battle 316 that means you had a streak of 315 not 316.
Greninja (M) @ Focus Sash "Prototype"
-Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
- Mat Block
Conkeldurr (M) @ Flame Orb
-Guts
EVs: 128 HP/252 Atk/ 128 Sp Def (I think hes a bank mon from Gen 5 and I can't remember what I gave him exactly I think it might also have 0 Speed IVs)
Adamant Nature (+Atk -SpAtk)
-Drain Punch
-Mach Punch
-Power Up Punch
-Payback
Kangaskan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
-Scrappy -> Parental Bond
EVs:4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant Nature
-Fake Out
-Return
-Sucker Punch
-Power Up Punch
Aegislash (M) @ Leftovers
-Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
Adamant Nature
- King's Shield
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Sacred Sword
The ideology behind this team started as use Mat Block to buy a free turn for a boost, originally I was thinking Aegislash with a Swords Dance but I was scrolling through my boxes and found this Conkeldurr, which I bred due to it being the reason I lost my first ever online match (naivety). But this was before Power Up Punch which is my new favourite move and Aegislash is terrible at doubles (he's only here because I didn't know what else to do) so I taught it to him and use it and Flame Orb essentially boosting his attack to its level 100 stat (its just above 410) which is absolutely monstrous with priority STAB in Mach Punch. Payback allows me to kill ghosts and psychics although STAB Psychic almost always kills him, but these are usually 1 for 1's due to the priority. The rest of the team is pretty standard.
What I'm going to change (open to suggestions):
-Scald on Greninja over Surf:Surf was here in the first place for Triples which I'm leaving alone for the mean time
-Something better than Aegislash: I don't feel he has the same impact the others do
-Considering changing Drain Punch to something with more coverage. Fire Punch for fairies? Drain has been extremely situational.
If you lost battle 316 that means you had a streak of 315 not 316.