BDSP Battle Tower Discussion & Records

[RAlexa21th]

Is it feasible to have Hitmontop learn both Sucker Punch and High Jump Kick?

 

[MeepBard]

Is it feasible to have Hitmontop learn both Sucker Punch and High Jump Kick?

yup! high jump kick is an egg move from a hitmonlee father and sucker punch is a level up move :) i wouldn't recommend high jump kick over the level up move close combat though - you'll start to notice that imperfect accuracy moves are really difficult to maintain high streaks with in the tower, especially with a drawback as big as HJK's...

in the future you can see if a moveset is legal in pokemon showdown's teambuilder by changing the format to "[Gen 8 BDSP] Battle Festival Doubles" and clicking "validate", and typing the

/learn gen8bdspbattlefestivaldoubles, [pokémon], [move1], [move2], [...]

command in any chat'll give you more in depth info on obtainability. good luck! o7

 

[RAlexa21th]

Thank you, I'll keep this in mind. Right now I'm dealing with the trash mob.

 

[RAlexa21th]

Alright, the trash mob has been dealt with, now I'll move on to the Master Class. This team has served me pretty well so far, but as usual I won't be posting the details until they clear 105 streak.

 

[RAlexa21th]

Began the Master Class and it's interesting. Here are my first thought about it.

Compared to Gen V Battle Subway, the power level is indeed lower, since we don't have the genies or Excadrill to push the non-restricted meta. That, or the lower variety means there are fewer matchups that you have to prepare for, especially the guys with tricky typing like Jellicent.

Some Pokémon got a huge nerf due to lacking the Platinum Move Tutors (Zapdos lost Heat Wave and Tailwind) while others got a big boost with typing changes and breeding mechanics (hello Azumarill), giving it a fresh experience even compared to Platinum.

The much-hated "hax" sets return again. I dunno the exact the statistics, but I feel like I ran into Quick Claws much more often than the Battle Subway.

The biggest difference is that you're facing two opponents at the same time, which means it's easier to force the opponent to a 2v1 situation. Of course, the chances of losing to hax teams don't go down that much. You even get to fight important NPCs at the end of every streak, so it's a huge upgrade over only fighting Ingo/Emmett once.

 

[RAlexa21th]

I've got the first team reaching the 105 benchmark on Master Class Doubles. As usual, I gravitate towards a Tailwind team.

Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Pulse
- Tailwind
- Psychic

With the Tailwind distribution severely limited (thanks for the pack of Platinum content), it's a godsend when Latios' moveset is relatively unchanged. I've always been fond of the Life Orb variance. I originally used Draco Meteor but I found myself not using it much, so I added Thunderbolt instead to help with the Skarmory and Suicune matchup.

Hitmontop (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Sucker Punch
- Fake Out
- Mach Punch

A Fake Out user to accompany Latios. The first 3 moves are super standard, with Mach Punch rounding out the set. Fake Out + Mach Punch will kill Weavile no matter the set. Beware that some Tyranitars can outspeed this Hitmontop.

Togekiss @ Scope Lens
Ability: Super Luck
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 4 Def / 76 SpA / 4 SpD / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Dazzling Gleam
- Follow Me
- Grass Knot

The biggest glow-up since the Battle Subway. Togekiss is just great all-around, and compliments Latios near-perfectly. Fairy-flying is just so good. I picked the CritKiss variant to help fighting bulkier threats like Cresselia, Suicune, and Amnesia Wishcash. I don't find myself using Follow Me a lot. Maybe I should change it to Flamethrower or Protect.

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 204 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Protect
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power

Because Latios shares Fairy weakness with Hitmontop and Ice weakness with Togekiss, I need a Fire or Steel type to round out the team, and Heatran is conveniently both! Heatran covers most of the weaknesses of the other three except for Dark and Ghost. The Speed EV ensures it outspeeds all Breloom and Heatran variants.

The threats to this team are Gengar, who speed ties with Latios and can't be faked out, and the Abomasnow + Starmie combo, who will hit Latios with an Ice move no matter what.

As for Palmer and Barry, I find the Torterra variant to be the trickiest. Milotic has Protect which and trip you up and Competitive to hit you hard, while Torterra has that irritating Quick Claw Crunch. I don't face the Empoleon variance often.

Here's a battle video of this team, though unfortunately the sound is off for some reason.

 

[RAlexa21th]

My win streak ended at 150 as I tried out a SunRoom team. Cresselia and Gastrodon got PP-stalled by Zapdos. Torkoal was the only mon that can inflict more than 50% damage on Zapdos and with Bright Powder and Double Team sometimes not even it can work.

 

[RAlexa21th]

Finally, a second team has reached the 105-win benchmark. This time, I built a team around Torkoal and Trick Room, since this is one of the rare times I get to have fun with Eruption + Sun.

Hariyama @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 220 Atk / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Heavy Slam

The item and moveset are very standard for Hariyama . This is the definitive Trick Room Fake Out user. The 36 HP makes Flame Orb hurts a bit less, while the 252 SpD allows it to survive Psychic pretty well. Surprisingly, Hariyama can underspeed the Slow twin, but it's not guaranteed to OHKO Slowking without criticized, and it cannot OHKO Slowbro. Maybe 252 Atk can help it reliably OHKO Slowking.

Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 100 SpA / 76 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Moonlight

I used to have Dusknoir as a Trick Room setter but Cresselia's higher bulk and potential damage output did win out in the end. 100 SpA guarantees a OHKO on non-Yache Charchomp. Moonlight is in the last slot because it can't use Helping Hand. Still, Moonlight works well with Sun and Perish Song.

Torkoal @ Charcoal
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Flamethrower

The centerpiece of the team, Eruption under Sun is the strongest spread move in the game, and even provide Cresselia plenty of opportunities to use Moonlight. As a weather-dependent Pokémon, it is commonly threatened by Politied and Tyranitar in the back. Fortunately, I didn't get in a lot of Politoed vs. Torkoal situations, but I did get into a couple Tyranitar vs. Torkoal situations.

Marowak @ Thick Club
Ability: Battle Armor
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Perish Song
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Protect

I needed a Perish Song user to win games against Double Team spammers, and I find Marowak the most suitable candidate since it isn't afraid of Zapdos, it's slow, and it can threaten Heatran while Torkoal can't.

Ranking the Palmer + Barry difficulty: Torterra > Infernape > Empoleon.

 

[RAlexa21th]

After many, many experiments, I finally got a Rain Team online. For something that is the "best" weather in the game, this archetype feels pretty finicky, perhaps because I can't pick my leads in the Battle Tower (seriously, GameFreak? For 6 generations you can't do that?)

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 148 HP / 28 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 76 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect
- Ice Beam

I've always championed Kingdra as the better Swift Swimmer than Ludicolo with its superior stats. Surf spam with Life Orb under Rain is an immediate and strong spread damage. Too bad it doesn't have Hurricane. The EV outspeeds Barry's Staraptor but slower than other Kingdra and Dragon Dance Flygon.

Politoed @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 8 Spe
- Perish Song
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Rain setter, and Kingdra's co-lead. I decided that Politoed's higher survivability is more important than Pelipper's Tailwind. Perish Song is there to punish Double Team spammers. The 71 Speed is vital to underspeed Abomasnow.

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 4 Def / 140 SpA / 172 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Scald
- Protect

A partner to allow the Surf spammers to damage both opponents without a care, and also a switch-in to Electric moves. Storm Drain gives it a much-needed offensive push. The 140 Modest SpA is there to 1HKO non-Yache Garchomp, though this calc didn't come up often. I still think that the spread is pretty good.

Scizor @ Lum Berry
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- X-Scissor
- Bullet Punch
- Protect
- Swords Dance

Steel-type for Rain team. I did consider Metagross, but Metagross without Gen IV Explosiom, or even Normal Gem Explosion, is really unattractive. I opted for a Sword Dance set with slight bulk. Its role here is to fight Grass types, and 52 Spe allows it to outspeed Rain Dish Ludicolo.

Infernape Palmer + Berry is the most difficult Tycoon matchup for this team, with Choice Band Outrage being a coin flip on where it lands. The Empoleon set is still the easiest.

Other threats are also the Water-Ice Pokémon. These bastards are too specially bulky to 2HKO, and their Freeze Dry and Sheer Cold spam is a nightmare.

Not sure which team to pick up next. Maybe a Sejun team or DisQuake team.

 

[justintr]

LatiVile
Paste | Streak Proof​

Submitting a completed streak of 669 wins in Master Doubles. Had an urge to play again back in January but I didn't want to play Trick Room again. I always wanted to return to Team Ryo and try to get something more out of it but also make some adjustments to the team. I also remember Eisenherz playing around with a LatiVile team a while back so I started there. Let's begin.

The Team

Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: HT/xx/31/31/HT/31
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Energy Ball
- Ice Beam
- Tailwind

This is the exact same Latios I used back on Team Ryo but it didn't always have this set. Latios went through a couple of changes before coming back here. I originally had Psychic/Thunderbolt/Tailwind/Protect, fearing possible Fake Outs now that I didn't have the Sash here. After a couple of run-ins with Palmer's Rhyperior I ended up changing Thunderbolt to Energy Ball. After a couple more rounds, Protect ended up saying good bye and Ice Beam returned as well. These three moves seem to be perfect for handling most of what the Tower has to offer, outside of things like Registeel, Houndoom, and Metagross. I did consider Life Orb as a potential option too. It definitely would have helped in some matchups. Lum Berry seemed fine to me and gave Latios a "get out of jail free" card vs random status.

Without the Focus Sash, some opposing Dark Types became a bit scarier, like Absol2. Certainly that won't be brought up later, right? Tailwind is a great tool for getting control of the field with speed, plus gen 8's dynamic speed helps a lot in certain situations, such as allowing Blaziken to outspeed threats before it gets a Speed Boost and helping Gastro get the jump on slower stuff. Even Weavile gets to benefit sometimes to get the jump on stuff like Jolteon and Scarf Medicham.

Weavile @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pickpocket
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IVs: 31/31/31/xx/31/31
Quirky Nature (minted to Jolly)
- Fake Out
- Ice Punch
- Throat Chop
- Protect

Weavile is a much faster alternative than Kangaskhan and can provide really good Fake Out support as a result. The only thing that can really match Weavile's Fake Out is another Weavile, which is pretty rare in this Tower at least. Only two duos outside of Mars/Cyrus have it. Ice Punch is the Ice STAB of choice because of the 100 accuracy and no negative priority (looking at you Icicle Crash and Avalanche). Its power is a little lacking sometimes though and can be pretty laughable vs neutral targets but it does its job.

I SO wish I could have Knock Off on this Weavile. It would make things so much easier but unfortunately, the death of transfer moves means I am forced to run Throat Chop. Honestly, Throat Chop isn't that bad though. Like Ice Punch, it isn't very strong and its secondary effect doesn't really ever come into play. But it's stronger than Night Slash so it's definitely preferred. Exploud2 is the only actual target for the sound move blocking effect as its only attacking move is Boomburst, pretty amusing.

Pickpocket over Pressure because why not steal items while being brought to Sash by powerful contact moves? Its's actually pretty handy as it allows Weavile to remove scary items from some stuff. Seriously, I've stolen Bright Powders, random Berries, Quick Claws, Choice Scarves, Focus Bands, etc. Most of the stuff is pretty whatever but removing some of these items from the AI is always nice. It can be a detriment sometimes though. I expected Pickpocket to be like a roulette or something but once you get into a routine with the fixed teams, you can plan out whatever Weavile needs to steal. A lot of the time it doesn't matter, but gameplans have been cooked with Pickpocket in mind.

Finally, the Quirky base nature. There was one matchup on a previous attempt vs Barry/Palmer's third team where Snorlax got a crit Fire Punch on Weavile, which brought it to sash and forced it to steal the Mago Berry. At the time, I was using a shiny Relaxed base Nature Weavile (which was also minted to Jolly). Naturally, Weavile ate the Berry but then got confused. I thought it was pretty amusing but after some discussion in the Facilities Discord, it was decided to get a new Weavile. The first random Sneasel I caught happened to be Quirky, so I bred from that and a new Weavile was born.

The neutral natures do not seem to care about these pinch healing berries and so this new Weavile would never get confused from eating them, even after being minted to Jolly Nature. The Fire Punch crit did happen once more but this time I was prepared and Weavile was able to happily eat the Mago without any problems.

Blaziken @ Wide Lens
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
IVs: 31/31/31/xx/31/31
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Low Kick
- Rock Tomb
- Protect

Same four moves, but different Blaziken. Originally, I used the same Blaziken from Team Ryo with no changes at all. I started to have some problems with enemy Weaviles and Raikous where Blaziken was unable to outspeed after one Speed Boost. This made some matchups a little difficult, especially if I couldn't get a Tailwind up in time for these matchups. It was especially difficult vs enemy Weaviles as a lot of the time, Latios was unable to get the Tailwind up vs them. Lumari suggested I get a faster Blaziken. I was pretty stubborn about it but I eventually did change to a slightly faster Blaziken. That one was 180 Speed to get the jump on Raikou and the like after one Boost. However, this was still slower than enemy Weavile and I was still having some issues especially since Blaziken needed to switch on these Weaviles and potentially take an Ice Punch. It was once again suggested I get a faster Blaziken. I eventually did and went with this.

This Blaziken hits 130 speed, 195 after a Speed Boost. This allows it to outspeed almost everything in the Tower after one boost. Jolteon and some Scarfers end up still being faster and require a second boost or Tailwind. Having a slower Blaziken wasn't too bad. However, less bulk meant I had to be more careful about the attacks I needed Blaziken to possibly take. It can now die to things like crit Extrasensory from Entei2 and random Earthquakes from various things. This wasn't a huge problem as long as Blaziken and its allies get to hit first, which a lot of the time they did.

The moves on Blaziken remained unchanged. I didn't feel the need to really change anything out. Flare Blitz and Low Kick are clicked most of the time as they do the most damage. Rock Tomb is barely used for actual speed control, but can remove things like Charizard, Jynx, and Moltres (it's a roll on Moltres but that's fine). When it is used for speed control, it's mostly on the slower opponents that Gastro can actually outspeed at -1.

Gastrodon @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 108 Def / 220 SpA / 16 SpD
IVs: 31/xx/31/31/31/31
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Clear Smog
- Protect / Recover

My favourite little sea slug. Also, Blaziken's new BFF. With Weavile's addition, I didn't really want Magnezone in the back anymore as it would stack too many weaknesses. Blaziken also shares Mag's Ground weakness so I figured it was time for a change. At the time of building, Lumari was in the middle of her Rain streak and was using this exact Gastro so I figured I'd give it a shot. I didn't want to change anything about the EVs as they seemed fine for general bulk.

Scald and Earth Power are the self explanatory STABs. They deal good damage and compliment the rest of the team quite well. I've never actually used Clear Smog on any of my facility teams before but I fell in love quite fast. It's a great tool for stopping Evasion boosters in their tracks. Also great for Calm Minders and Dragon Dancers! The fact that it can never miss as well makes it the perfect third move to run here. It's definitely saved my ass a couple of times over the multiple attempts.

Storm Drain forces the AI to never use any of their offensive Water moves once the ability is revealed. This makes Gastro almost the perfect Pokemon to have next to Blaziken, which is why they're BFFs now. Things like Raikou2, Lanturn2, and Vaporeon2 are completely walled by this Gastro thanks to Storm Drain. Gastro's power can be a little lacking at times. It can't do much to things like Cresselia or Blissey (more on that later). It's a great support though for the rest of the team and pretty holds it together.

Gastro's fourth move was a tossup. Protect was ran during the first attempt but ultimately I ended up losing to Cress6 on Lionel/Abbey's team. This gave me the idea of maybe running Recover over Protect as I felt I could have won that battle with Recover, During attempt 4 however, I was stuck in the exact same position and still lost even with Recover. That sucked. For the final attempt, I went back to Protect and didn't really look back. Protect helped improve some matchups such as Ellis/Irene where Gastro can bait and Energy Ball from Abomasnow, meaning it couldn't Protect on Blaziken's Low Kick.

At the end of the day, I think I prefer Protect and kinda regret wasting so much time on Recover. It was still fine, but Protect felt like it had more value.

Threats

Bright Powder, Lax Incense, Quick Claw, Focus Band
The hax items are pretty much a threat to every team but I figured they should still be included. Some notable things to watch out for when using this team:

• Muk3 - can survive Fake Out+Psychic and retaliate with a Big Boom. It likes to throw away its Quick Claw if Latios is on the field first though so not too bad. Shows up on Kellen/Mikel & Allie/Chester.
• Regirock4 - Quick Claw boomer. This thing actually does click Explosion when it feels like it. It also has Stone Edge and Brick Break to target Weavile with. If it uses Brick Break, then you now have a Quick Claw and this thing becomes a little less menacing. However, it likes to use Stone Edge way more due to the higher power. Shows up on Sophie/Irene & Dallin/Barrett.
• Granbull3 - God, I hate this thing. It always gets the Quick Claw proc at the worst times and it's always a tossup between Crunch or Stone Edge when facing off against Latios and Weavile. It also has a pretty scary Earthquake for Blaziken. I found out recently it actually dies to -1 Ice Punch+Psychic so I started doing that a lot more towards the end of the run. Still, this guy's a dick. Shows up on Irene/Darcy, Elaine/Titus, & Hans/Benny.
• Exploud3 - A menace to society but thankfully it likes to use Giga Impact a lot. Still packs quite a punch so a thing to be cautious of. Shows up on Jaime/Jaylin, Barrett/Sophie, & Kristi/Antony.
• Registeel4 - Like its brother, this thing packs Explosion but it's the only attacking move it knows. It also has Swagger, Double Team, and Sub on top of that. Good luck if it rolls good RNG. Shows up on Ellis/Barrett & Bryon/Dallin.
• Slowbro3 - A pretty rare sight but still hurts. It has Psychic, Shadow Ball, and Flamethrower so it can hit 3 of the 4 team members for super effective damage. Falls pretty fast though. Shows up on Kelton/Joy & Christa/Gunner.
• Heatran4 - This dude just likes to click Boom. Nothing too menacing about it outside of that because it's a physical Heatran. Shows up on Tiffani/Barrett.
• Tyranitar2 - Annoying sand user that can hit pretty hard. Shows up on Hernan/Kevon & Clara/Cortney.

Lots of annoying Bright Powder/Lax Incense stuff:

• Porygon-Z2 - It leads with Registeel4 on one team. More on that a bit later in this section. It also leads with an OHKO Dewgong. Pretty strong Tri Attack. Thankfully, it only leads and always gets an Attack Download boost. Shows up on Ellis/Barrett & Antony/Haylee.
• Articuno3 - Pretty rare sight but it's your standard Evasion item+OHKO move set. It doesn't carry Mind Reader but it does have Double Team. Yikes. Shows up on Irene/Darcy & Alonso/Daron.
• Heatran5 - Wide Lens Blaziken can OHKO this thing 99% of the time with Low Kick. I have missed it before. Earth Power can KO back but it also has Magma Storm to KO Weavile through Sash and Dark Pulse to hit Latios. Gastrodon does pretty well into it too. Shows up on Harvey/Lyle, Titus/Ryne, & Kelton/Anissa.
• Gengar3 - Hypnosis+Dream Eater stuff. Throat Chop removes it easily. Cursed Body can be a dick sometimes but it is what it is. Shows up on Johanna/Blair & Nadia/Dalvin.
• Slowking3 - pretty bulky and also carries Swagger. Missing it can be bad. It's removed by Throat Chop+Energy Ball but it also leads with a Tauros on one team which stops that 2HKO. Shows up on Rusty/Jarred & Bryon/Hernan.
• Walrein2 - The classic OHKO Walrein. Not much can be said about this. Just hope that you hit it and hope it doesn't hit you. Shows up on Tyrell/Kristy, Tyrell/Mikel, & Anissa/Kegan.
• Donphan3 - Has Sturdy so you have to hit it twice and it's very strong. Packs a pretty strong Ice Shard that can snipe Latios if it's taken enough damage. Shows up on Aldo/Blair & Jaclyn/Kellen.
• Latias3 - Ties Latios and is very strong. Weavile can handle it but Throat Chop missing can sting. Shows up on Joy/Tasha & Hernan/Kevon.
• Espeon2 - Ties Latios and has Reflect. Morning Sun is also on this set incase you don't hit the killing blow. It's annoying. Shows up on Jerrell/Auston & Hans/Benny
• Froslass3 - Also ties Latios and can actually hit hard with Ice Beam/Shadow Ball. Also carries Light Screen. Not too big of a deal as Blaziken and Weavile can dispatch it pretty fast. Shows up on Andreas/Kristy & Hans/Benny.
• Raikou2 - This dude can be a problem if it stacks up too many Double Teams and Calm Minds... however, it's only attacking move is Scald so Gastro walls it completely. Good job, ILCA. Shows up on Jayden/Josie2 & Codi/Lionel.

Finally, Focus Band:

• Rapidash2 and 3 - Both of these sets are the same except one has Flash Fire and the other has Flame Body. They both carry Horn Drill. Fun! Shows up on Sophie/Kevon, Jaime/Jaylin, Titus/Ryne, & Chester/Tiffani.
• Zapdos2 - My play vs this when it shows up is to usually double up with Ice Punch+Beam but the Focus Band can put a dent into that plan. It carries Ancient Power for a possible omniboost (yes it will use it on Weavile), and Discharge in case it wants to spread Paralysis. Shows up on Harvey/Edmund, Kristy/Nadia, & Kaila/Mayra.

There's more couple more than what is listed here but the ones not listed aren't too bad to handle even if they get their hax item off.

Ellis/Irene (both teams)
Abomasnow4/Bronzong3/Rhyperior4 or Torkoal2/Rotom-Wash2
A pair of Trick Room users. These two have been hated by a lot of people playing BDSP Tower and they should be respected. Anyway, Bronzong can be easily removed with Fake Out+switching Latios out to Blaziken. Abomasnow can be a bit of a wildcard as it likes to click Blizzard a lot. Flare Blitz OHKOs the Zong but taking two possible Blizzards+recoil+hail (gimme snow plz) can be a lot for Blaziken. And yes, this Abomasnow does still use Blizzard in front of Blaziken+Weavile sometimes. Rotom-Wash is also pretty random. You'd think switching Weavile to Gastro to take a Hydro Pump would be easy, right? Wrong. Because the Abomasnow also carries Protect, Rotom has a chance of just going for Discharge which can possibly KO or paralyze Blaziken. Cool. Once Abomasnow is removed, the Rotom plus the Rhyperior or Torkoal in the back aren't too much of a problem. Gastro beats all of them (although it needs a Tailwind or Rock Tomb to get the jump on Rhyperior).

Hernan/Kevon
Manectric2/Tyranitar2/Latias3/Forretress3
Quick Claw Tyranitar is not a joke. It's opening move can be pretty random as it has Dragon Claw, Shadow Claw, and Iron Head. My play before was to Fake Out Manectric and hope that Ttar goes for Iron Head to Weavile so I can steal the Quick Claw. But that makes the Latias a lot more scarier. So the play is to switch Weavile out t1 and let the leads do whatever. Manectric usually goes for Overheat or Thunder Wave while Tyranitar can go for any of the three above moves. The key is to remove Kevon's side first so if Latios falls t1, great! If not, then hope it falls on t2.

Kristy/Nadia
Zapdos2/Blissey2/Absol2/Bastiodon3
Focus Band Zapdos can be a dickhead. Ice Punch+Beam will remove it if the Focus Band doesn't activate though. Blissey can be a dick with Tri Attack and Flamethrower. Also, Absol carries a Sash and has a 50/50 chance at clicking either Night Slash or Sucker Punch into Latios. Cool. Kristy's side is the priority here so just hope you can remove it without too much hax.

Jerrell/Auston
Espeon2/Suicune2/Quagsire3/Ampharos3
Missing Throat Chop can give Espeon a free Reflect which means you'd need to double up on the next turn. Setting Tailwind can counter Suicune's Icy Winds for a couple of turns. Thanks to BDSP not having an in-battle summary, you need to pay attention to how many Speed drops you get.

Cresselia4
A fully offensive Cress set. This thing carries Psychic for Blaziken, Shadow Ball for Latios, and Energy Ball for Gastro. It falls to two Throat Chops thankfully but still it's something to be respected. It shows up on two teams: Ellis/Kelton & Gunner/Jerrell. It's in the back on both teams so as long as Weavile can stay alive, it's easy to remove.

Alma/Kristi
Bastiodon3/Glalie3/Weavile2/Blissey2
One of the enemy Weavile users. They lead with a Moody Glalie that should be removed ASAP. Psychic+Throat Chop does just barely enough. You don't want to risk this thing getting a good Moody boost. Weavile is behind it, which Blaziken can handle. However, getting frozen by a potential Ice Punch can be bad. Bastiodon can also randomly Stone Edge Blaziken for a lot of damage. Protect in front of Weavile to get a good Speed Boost then remove it. Try to keep Blaziken alive as it's the best option into the Blissey hiding behind Bastiodon.

Sophie/Kevon
Vileplume3/Weavile2/Rapidash2/Vespiquen3
The Vileplume is a Quick Claw set with Effect Spore but it's not too scary. Latios handles it quite well and so does Gastro (no grass moves!). Blaziken should be brought out immediately as it handles enemy Weavile quite well as noted in the Alma/Kristi section. Rapidash can be a dickhead with Focus Band+Horn Drill. Cross your fingers and hope for the best. Vespiquen also hits pretty hard but drops to Flare Blitz.

Ellis/Barrett
Registeel4/Porygon-Z2/Gyarados2/Suicune4
The lead is pretty threatening, the backline not so much. Registeel is the Quick Claw boom set as noted above. P-Z is the Bright Powder set. Regi likes to t1 Boom a lot so if you get unlucky in removing P-Z, at least Registeel can provide the assist. Gyarados and Suicune aren't too bad. Gyaarados will just Dragon Dance until the end of time as long as you keep Clear Smogging it and Suicune will Calm Mind once Gastro's Storm Drain is revealed. Gyarados also needs two Dragon Dances to outspeed Latios and Weavile so you don't really need to Clear Smog every turn.

Hans/Benny
Jolteon2/Granbull3/Froslass3/Espeon2
God, I hate this team. My trainer encounter sheet have them showing up 7 times in total which is a lot for them. They've been pretty rare when running previous teams. Maybe they just don't like Weavile. Anyway, Jolteon is really fast and can TWave either slot or even go for Flash. Granbull is our good friend with the Quick Claw as noted above. During the last few encounters, I liked setting Tailwind on the first turn and then removing Granbull on the second turn with Ice Punch+Psychic. It's not the best idea but I really don't like gambling with this thing. I got pretty lucky with Jolteon where it either missed Thunder Wave on Weavile or let Latios' Lum get consumed. Espeon and Froslass both have evasion items in the back so they can be problematic. Weavile can remove Espeon easily and Blaziken can remove Froslass easily.

Antony/Haylee
Porygon-Z2/Dewgong3/Cresselia3/Houndoom3
I like to switch Latios on turn 1 and Fake Out Dewgong. This is pretty much a must because Dewgong packs Sheer Cold and Horn Drill as its only attacking moves. Whoa! Just like Walrein2! Anyway, P-Z likes to Ice Beam the Latios slot a lot which then goes to Blaziken. This can freeze Blaziken and if it does, prepare for an annoying battle. Protecting Blaziken if it doesn't get frozen is also important as P-Z can also Tri Attack Blaziken once it's on the field and Blaziken needs the Speed Boost. Dewgong can do whatever usually. Weavile can remove the P-Z with two Throat Chops if they both connect. The backline isn't too bad. Houndoom drops to Blaziken and Cress' only attacking move is Ice Beam, but it does pack Double Team.

OHKO Stuff
Rapidash2, Rapidash3, Dewgong3, Walrein2, and Articuno3 have already been noted above. There's also Lapras2, Lapras3, Articuno4, Glalie2, and Abomasnow3 for Sheer Cold. Dugtrio3, Whiscash2, and Whiscash3 for Fissure. And finally Gliscor2 for Guillotine. These should all be prioritized when they show up.

Notable Battles

I ended up recording every battle from 505 onward. At the time, I hadn't planned on recording this attempt as I was pretty burnt out after a pretty poor attempt 4. However, once I hit the new PB I figured this could be The Run and started uploading battles again. Every battle can be found in this playlist. In this section, I'll be going over some of the more notable battles. Their timestamps will be included if one is available.

Battle 7 vs Mars/Cyrus, team 2 - Espeon4 / Weavile5 / Togekiss8 / Entei7
We start off with the trainer duo that only shows up once every single streak. Mars/Cyrus actually have pretty scary teams. Both this team and their third team can cause early losses if things don't go your way. We start off with this annoying Espeon/Weavile lead. Weavile is like the Weavile2 in that it can murder Latios easily. However, this Weavile carries a Focus Sash instead of Chople Berry. I can't really risk Fake Out either.

• t1 switch latios out to blaziken. enemy weavile ice punches blaziken. espeon dies to throat chop.

So we start off like this, seems fine. Blaziken can get frozen by that Ice Punch which would suck but we have Flare Blitz. Not the end of the world. I chose to remove Espeon here as it can set up either screen and bringing up a Reflect could be problematic with two physical attackers on the field.

• t2 mars sends out togekiss. protect blaziken and weavile. togekiss whiffs air slash on blaziken, weavile whiffs ice punch on weavile.

The Togekiss is a scarf set, the only scarf kiss in Master Doubles. The double protect was used to see what it would lock into. Air Slash is... not very good. +1 Speed Boost isn't enough to outspeed this Kiss, unfortunately. Weavile's targeting was random as it doesn't have a whole lot to do here so whatever.

• t3 switch blaziken back out to latios. togekiss air slashes latios. enemy weavile ice punches weavile. ice punch to togekiss, freezes.
• t4 switch latios back to blaziken. togekiss stays frozen, dies to ice punch. enemy weavile ice punches blaziken.

Because of the Air Slash lock, I'm forced to switch Blaziken back out to Latios. The freezes on Togekiss was pretty lucky though, so thanks for that. Because of this, I can safely switch Latios back to Blaziken and let enemy Weavile do whatever. Of course, Togekiss can always thaw but I didn't mind if it did since this was very early in the streak.

• t5 protect blaziken. enemy weavile whiffs ice punch. throat chop to enemy weavile.
• t6 low kick kos enemy weavile.
• t7 cyrus sends out entei. low kick+throat chop kos entei.

Rest of the battle goes by pretty smoothly. Blaziken outspeeds both Weaviles after a Speed Boost and removes enemy Weavile after its Sash is broken by my own Weavile.

Battle 66 vs Hans/Benny - Jolteon2 / Granbull3 / Froslass3 / Espeon2

• t1 granbull gets quick claw! fake out to jolteon, granbull stone edges weavile to sash. tailwind up.
• t2 granbull gets quick claw! stone edge kos weavile. psychic to jolteon. tbolt to latios.

Two annoying Quick Claws in a row. I told you this Granbull was a dick. This was before I started doubling up on the Granbull so Jolteon was my priority target. I had clicked Throat Chop with Weavile before it died. Womp womp.

• t3 gastro sent out. psychic to granbull. jolteon twaves latios, lum berry consumed. earth power kos granbull.

Removing Granbull was my #1 priority after losing Weavile so fast so I went for that. Luckily, Gastrodon outspeeds Granbull with Tailwind. So Psychic+Earth Power remove it pretty easily.

• t4 benny sends out espeon. psychic kos jolteon. espeon shadow balls latios down to 35. earth power to espeon, ~50%. tailwind expires.
• t5 hans sends out froslass. froslass sets light screen. latios sets tailwind. espeon uses morning sun. gastro crits espeon with earth power.
• t6 ice beam kos espeon. froslass kos latios with ice beam. earth power misses froslass.
• t7 blaziken sent out. flare blitz kos froslass.

Jolteon had to go as my Lum Berry was gone and I didn't want to eat another Thunder Wave. Pretty whatever turn. Turn 5 was a great turn. I lost the tie with Froslass but it thankfully used Light Screen as Latios managed to get Tailwind up before Espeon could move. Morning Sun was not cool but the crit Earth power was. Didn't mind the Lax Incense miss on t6 either as Froslass would just die to Flare Blitz on t7.

Battle 148 vs Ellis/Irene, team 2 - Abomasnow4 / Bronzong3 / Torkoal2 / Rotom-Wash2

• t1 switch latios out to blaziken, fake out zong. abomasnow blizzards.
• t2 throat chop to abomasnow. flare blitz kos zong. abomasnow blizzards again, blaziken survives on 9. dies to hail.

Pretty standard t1, not much to say here. Turn 2, however, was weird. This was the first time I've seen Abomasnow click Blizzard again with Blaziken/Weavile out. It really caught me off-guard. Losing Blaziken early to two Blizzards+recoil+hail felt bad. I was never really in this position before so I had to think.

• t3 gastro sent out, irene sends out rotom. abomasnow protects, protect gastro. weavile whiffs throat chop. rotom discharges, weavile survives with 8 and gets paralyzed.

Well, that's unlucky. I figured with Gastro out, Abomasnow would certainly go for Energy Ball but it Protected. Probably because Rotom was using Discharge. Getting paralyzed was bad too. This was already not looking pretty.

• t4 switch gastro out to latios. protect weavile. rotom whiffs tbolt, abomasnow energy balls latios.
• t5 switch weavile out to gastro. gastro slurps up hydro pump. abomasnow blizzards, kos latios. gastro down to 120. hail expires.

Well, this is not looking good, huh? I was ready to take this loss and move on but then something amazing happens....

• t6 weavile sent back out. weavile fully paralyzed (I clicked fake out on aboma). rotom kos weavile and abomasnow with discharge. clear smog to rotom

Rotom... Discharges...? And Abomasnow didn't Protect? What? Okay, I'm sure this happened because Rotom couldn't use Hydro Pump anymore thanks to Storm Drain. But it also has Thunderbolt so I really have no idea why it clicked Discharge over that. Especially since Abomasnow was in range of dying. Anyway, I was happy to get this.

• t7 ellis sends out torkoal. rotom misses wisp. earth power kos torkoal.
• t8 rotom lands wisp on gastro. scald to rotom, no burn.
• t9+ rotom keeps spamming wisp. scald to rotom until it dies.

And that's pretty much it. Rotom cannot do anything to Gastro so once Ellis' side is gone, Rotom just slowly dies to Gastro. Torkoal's Sun caused Clear Smog to be slightly stronger than Scald but I wanted to get the Burn so I can make this go a little faster. However, the burn never came and Rotom just slowly dies to Scald in the Sun.

Battle 193 vs Johanna/Blair - Mamoswine2 / Gengar3 / Tauros3 / Regirock3

• t1 switch latios out to blaziken. throat chop misses gengar. gengar focus blasts weavile to sash. mamoswine double teams.

T1 miss happens, it's expected. Mamoswine never goes for Fissure into the Latios slot and as long as Gengar doesn't Hypnosis, we're fine. But then....

• t2 throat chop kos gengar. low kick misses mamoswine. mamo misses fissure on weavile. phew.
• t3 blair sends out regirock. low kick misses mamo again (????). throat chop to regirock. fissure and stone edge both miss weavile.

So missing one Low Kick is fine, it's a 1% chance to miss with the Wide Lens after a Double Team. But missing two turns in a row? What the hell. Anyway, at least the Mamo was missing its Fissures.

• t4 low kick finally lands and kos mamo. throat chop to regirock again. regirock sets sandstorm. weavile dies to sand, blaziken down to 148.
• t5 johanna sends out tauros. low kick+psychic kos tauros. regirock stone edges latios, down to 44 after sand. blaziken down to 139 after sand.
• t6 low kick+energy ball ko regirock.

Rest of the battle goes by pretty smoothly. Still, pretty cursed misses on Mamoswine.

Battle 250 vs Hans/Benny - Jolteon2 / Granbull3 / Froslass3 / Espeon2
Our good friends Hans/Benny show up again for another round.

• t1 fake out jolteon, set tailwind. granbull stone edges weavile to sash.
• t2 throat chop+psychic ko jolteon. granbull kos weavile with stone edge.

This time, my plan works. This was still before I realized I could just KO Granbull by doubling on it. I viewed Jolteon as a more annoying threat thanks to Thunder Wave and Flash. It's still scary but I think Granbull should be considered the bigger threat here.

• t3 send out blaziken, hans sends out froslass. flare blitz kos froslass, cursed body activates. psychic to granbull. latios dies to crit crunch. womp womp.
• t4 send out gastro. quick claw activates! protect blaziken. granbull EQs, gastro hit. earth power kos granbull. tailwind expires.

That crit on Latios did matter. It's unfortunate but not exactly the end of the world. Cursed Body on Flare Blitz does sting though. The Quick Claw EQ wasn't too bad thanks to Protect. Thank you Gastro for finishing off Granbull. In a way, the Cursed Body actually helped somewhat because without it, I probably would have just clicked it. Although I think I was aware of Earth Power KOing Granbull so Protecting Blaziken was still likely. Depends on how tilted I was at the time which I don't think I was.

• t5 benny sends out espeon. rock tomb hits espeon. psychic kos blaziken. earth power connects on espeon, down to red.
• t6 espeon heals with morning sun then dies to earth power.

I coulda gambled a second Protect but I figured why not just attack. Rock Tomb has a pretty bad chance to hit thanks to Bright Powder, but it does a bit more damage than Low Kick. There was also a chance Espeon could just Reflect here over Psychic. I think the Earth Power KO was a roll after Morning Sun as well so I could have been stuck in a Morning Sun roulette as long as I kept landing my Earth Powers.

Battle 304 vs Jayden/Josie, team 2 - Entei1 / Dewgong3 / Raikou2 / Umbreon2

• t1 switch latios out to blaziken, fake out dewgong. entei calm minds.
• t2 throat chop to entei, low kick kos dewgong. entei hits blaziken with extrasensory, survives with 25hp.

Well, well. That's an annoying Calm Mind. Entei usually just goes for Snarl or Lava Plume here so seeing the Calm Mind sucked. Even if Dewgong wasn't the OHKO set, I can't Fake Out Entei because of Inner Focus so we just roll with it. Throat Chop does pretty pitiful damage because the Entei is very physcially defensive.

• t3 josie sends out umbreon. protect blaziken, umbreon protects. throat chop to entei. entei whiffs extrasensory.
• t4 low kick+throat chop kos entei. umbreon kos blaziken with foul play.

I figured Umbreon would Protect, it usually does the moment it's sent out. Probably because of Entei's Lava Plume. Anyway, Entei finally dies after three Throat Chops+one Low Kick. Umbreon going for Foul Play was expected as Blaziken was most certainly in range. I wasn't happy about that.

• t5 jayden sends out raikou, gastro sent out. umbreon protects. ice punch+scald whiff. raikou double teams.
• t6 ice punch to umbreon. raikou scalds, storm drain absorbs it. umbreon foul plays gastro, down to 159. scald to umbreon, burns.
• t7 ice punch to umbreon. raikou calm minds. umbreon foul plays weavile, down to 118. scald kos umbreon.

Umbreon was a pain to take down without Blaziken as you can see. I was worried if I missed it too much then I could possibly lose to it because Gastro no longer has Recover. I was able to finally remove it after a couple of turns.

• t8 throat chop to raikou. raikou double teams. clear smog to raikou.
• t9 throat chop to raikou. raikou rests, dies to earth power.

Raikou's a joke once Gastro's on the field so it was only a matter of time before it went down. This was actually the first time I've had Weavile survive this long in this battle, lol. It's usually gone to Lava Plume by now.

Battle 380 vs Ellis/Irene, team 1 - Abomasnow4 / Bronzong3 / Rhyperior4 / Rotom-Wash2

• t1 switch latios out to blaziken, fake out zong. abomasnow blizzards.
• t2 throat chop to abomasnow, flare blitz kos zong. abomasnow blizzards again. blaziken dies to recoil+blizzard+hail.

Same opening as the earlier battle. Still confused as to why Aboma would Blizzard again but whatever.

• t3 irene sends out rotom, gastro sent out. protect gastro. throat chop to aboma again. wisp to weavile. aboma whiffs energy ball.
• t4 throat chop kos aboma. rotom hydro pumps, storm drain catches it. scald to rotom.

Burned Throat Chop still being able to finish off Abomasnow was nice. No Protects either which was a surprise but I'm not complaining.

• t5 ellis sends out rhyperior. protect gastro. throat chop to rotom, sitrus berry activates. discharge kos weavile. rhyperior whiffs rock slide.
• t6 latios sent back out. energy ball kos rhyperior. rotom wisps gastro. scald to rotom.
• t7 energy ball kos rotom.

Not much to say here, the rest of the battle went really well after the first couple of turns. Rhyperior outspeeds Gastro by one point and has a Life Orb so it's best to let Latios handle it once it comes in. If Blaziken was still around, Rock Tomb+Scald handles the Rhyperior as well.

Battle 536 vs Sophie/Kevon - Vileplume3 / Weavile2 / Rapidash2 / Vespiquen3
Every battle from here will be timestamped.

• t1 switch out latios to blaziken. quick claw activates! protect weavile. vileplume sludge bombs blaziken, enemy weavile ice punches blaziken, freezes. down to 42hp.
• t2 switch weavile out gastro. enemy weavile kos blaziken with ice punch. vileplume crit drain punches gastro, down to 135hp.

A really surprising Sludge Bomb. It's not the first time I've seen it but it still happens pretty rarely. Oh, and a freeze on top of that. The recording curse lives on. Enemy Weavile Ice Punch was a roll to KO Blaziken but because of the freeze, I had to gamble it so I did. I clicked Flare Blitz to thaw and KO but it didn't happen thanks to Ice Punch. Switching in Gastro on this Vileplume is safe as it doesn't have a single Grass move.

• t3 weavile sent back out. fake out enemy weavile. vileplume drain punches weavile down to sash, quick claw stolen. earth power to enemy weavile.
• t4 protect weavile. enemy weavile whiffs ice shard. vileplume whiffs drain punch. earth power kos enemy weavile.

Getting Weavile sent back out meant I could Fake Out so I went for that on the opposing Weavile and hit it with Earth Power. Vileplume was kind enough to Drain Punch Weavile this time so I was able to take the Quick Claw from it, nice.

• t5 kevon sends out vespiquen. ice punch to vesp. weavile dies to vileplume drain punch. vesp bug buzzes gastro to 45, 96 after sitrus berry. scald kos vesp.

This was risky as I found out after that Gastrodon could have died to a crit Bug Buzz. Luckily, it didn't happen. I think a better play here would be to Protect Gastro and let Weavile die to Vileplume's Drain Punch still. Then when Latios is sent back out, I can Tailwind+Scald to finish off Vesp.

• t6 latios sent back out. psychic kos vileplume.
• t7 sophie sends out rapidash. psychic to rapidash. rapidash megahorns gastro down to 9. earth power kos rapidash.

Psychic is a roll on this Vileplume but it's nbd. Like I said, it doesn't have a Grass move so Gastro can easily finish it off if it has to. Rapidash could be scary depending on how many times Focus Band goes off. Luckily, it didn't happen here. The Megahorn into Gastro over Latios was a bit of a surprise but it's fine.

Battle 656 vs Christa/Gunner - Electrode2 / Dewgong2 / Ambipom3 / Slowbro3
A different kind of Dewgong. You'd think a Dewgong without OHKO moves would be a breeze but you'd be surprised.

• t1 fake out electrode, set tailwind. dewgong encores latios. womp womp.
• t2 switch latios out to gastro. throat chop to electrode. trode whiffs twave on gastro, dewgong ice beams gastro down to 153.

I've seen T1 Encore before and I've also seen t1 Disable as well. It's not very fun but it can be preferred to getting Ice Beamed. The Encore forces me to switch Latios out and I figured Gastro was the best switch as it can eat a Thunder Wave should Electrode target that slot, which it did. Throat Chop is a chance to KO after Fake Out which I didn't get, unfortunately but it's fine.

• t3 switch gastro out to blaziken. trode dies to throat chop. aftermath puts weavile at 110hp. dewgong ice beams blaziken down to 130, freezes.

God dammit, Dewgong. Why do you have to be such a nuisance. Blaziken getting frozen is actually not the worst thing as Flare Blitz can thaw it out but cmon, give me a break.

• t4 christa sends out ambipom. ambipom fakes out blaziken, down to 63hp. throat chop to ambipom. dewgong ice beams blaziken down to 33.
• t5 blaziken thaws with flare blitz, kos ambipom. down to 10 after recoil. throat chop to dewgong. dewgong disables blaziken's flare blitz.

Oof, that's a strong Fake Out. It's fine, not the end of the world. Blaziken still survives this turn and I can finish off Ambipom on the next turn.... and then Dewgong Disables Blaziken. Not a big deal. It's fine. This one is actually fine as Flare Blitz isn't needed much more this battle.

• t6 low kick kos dewgong.

See, told ya.

• t7 gunner sends out slowbro. quick claw activates! psychic kos blaziken. throat chop to bro.
• t8 latios sent back out. quick claw activates! flamethrower kos weavile. energy ball finishes off bro.

Slowbro tries to Quick Claw its way to a victory but the battle is pretty much over as Throat Chop and Energy Ball are enough to finish it off. Still, this battle was pretty annoying. This Dewgong can be pretty random as you can see but it's not the most threatening thing in the world. Still recommended to remove Christa's side first.

Battle 670 vs Kristy/Nadia - Zapdos2 / Blissey2 / Absol2 / Bastiodon3
I told you the Blissey would be back. Kristy/Nadia are a pretty cursed duo. Let's go over why.

• t1 ice punch+ice beam kos zapdos. blissey flamethrowers weavile down to 52.

Focus Band could possibly give Zapdos a chance to live here. It has Ancient Power which it likes to use on Weavile a lot. Getting the omniboost isn't the end of the world but I would very much like to avoid seeing it. Really glad Zapdos is gone. The Blissey is Serene Grace so a Flamethrower burn is more likely. I'm pretty sure the Absol behind Zapdos can survive Ice Punch+Beam if Weavile gets burned so very glad I didn't have to deal with that. Should be fine, right?

• t2 kristy sends out absol. latios gets murdered by sucker punch. ice punch to absol. blissey finishes off weavile with flamethrower.

Well. This Absol knows Swagger/Night Slash/Sucker Punch/Taunt. Because of this, it's a 50/50 on what it decides to use on Latios. This came up during my ZongHarry streak as well where it would either Night Slash or Sucker Zong. It's not too much of a problem there but here, it is. Anyway, Latios drops to the Sucker Punch and as a result, Absol now lives the Ice Punch. Even with a crit, I wouldn't be able to KO it because it has a Sash. Thanks ILCA. Weavile dying to Flamethrower wasn't good either.

• t3 blaziken and gastro sent out. low kick finishes off absol. blissey tri attacks blaziken, it crits and freezes blaziken. down to 61. scald to blissey, burns.
• t4 flare blitz thaws blaziken, hits blissey. blaziken dies to recoil. blissey tri attacks gastro, down to 150 and freezes. gastro instantly thaws and earth powers blissey.

Blissey, you are the worst. Getting a crit AND a freeze with Tri Attack should be against the rules but it's not. I went for Flare Blitz to thaw, but Blaziken obviously dies to the recoil. I did think at the time maybe it was better to hit Gastro with Flare Blitz but Blaziken was gonna die to Tri Attack anyway because of the previous crit:
252 SpA Blissey-2 Tri Attack vs. 12 HP / 4 SpD Blaziken on a critical hit: 96-114 (61.1 - 72.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Blissey-2 Tri Attack vs. 12 HP / 4 SpD Blaziken: 64-76 (40.8 - 48.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

I'm pretty sure that Tri Attack was also going into Blaziken. Gastro getting instantly thawed was pretty lucky though. Maybe I could have got that luck with Blaziken..? Nah, I'd need to crit the Low Kick as well. Anyway, the rest of the battle turns into Gastro vs Blissey. Gastro gets a burn with Scald but it's not enough. Blissey just constantly heals with Soft-Boiled and it eventually gets a burn of its own on Gastro thanks to Tri Attack. I wasted my own time here as I watched my Gastro die. Huge bummer. I had a feeling a loss would have happened with either this duo or Hans/Benny. Oh well. Disappointed but it's fine.

Phew, this was a long one, sorry. Anyway, that's LatiVile. It was fun and I didn't expect to play it for as long as I did. This was my 5th attempt with the team. I could have maybe played around with the backline a little bit more but I was confident Blaziken+Gastro could do well. I'm not sure what else would work there. That's all for now.

 

[Salomé]

Sundrop's Reign

Proof | Paste​

Hi everyone! My name is Salomé, and I'm excited to submit my Master Class Battle Tower streak, rightfully dubbed as ''Sundrop's Reign'', which ended at 442 wins (see update #1 and update #2 & the loss in the posts below). This team is centered around incredibly tight synergy, AI abuse, and flowchart-style gameplay, often turning seemingly dangerous threats into solvable puzzles, which makes this comp incredibly addicting and fun to play.

Showcases
Battles 245 through 252 (Sorry about the Coke can blocking a bit of view, at 3:50 I remove it haha)
Battles 294 through 301 (I fixed the perspective around 6:20)
Battles 343 through 364 (I get better at recording here xD)
Battles 399 through 413

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The Stars of the Show!

Ashwick (Heatran) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 31/xx/HT/31/HT/31
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Dark Pulse

"Checkmate on turn one. Whether you know it or not."

She deals with nearly any Steel, Fire, Fairy, Electric, Grass, Ice, Psychic or Ghost type lead. Just click the corresponding coverage move for an OHKO, or a 2-3HKO if it can't OHKO Heatran with super-effective moves. Heatran making the battle at least a 2v3 early creates already VERY good odds in your favor with Perish Trap secure lurking in the back.

Note: Jane-4 likes to switch out her Ninetales into Dragonite after you land the first Earth Power. I use that knowledge and always switch out to Azu after the first Earth Power, to Aqua Jet/Perish Trap the Dragonite. In the cases she doesn't switch, no harm done, Azu can soak up the damage from Hex and I switch back into Heatran.

Heatran can also win vs. a lot of neutral lead MUs that cannot 2HKO her, especially when the opponent's mons in the back don't require Heatran to stay healthy. She can even take down plenty of teams just by herself. RIP to Jerrell-3 and Barrett-1 who kept showing up.

Flamethrower & Earth Power are essential. There is no need for the inaccurate Fire Blast or Magma Storm, as Flamethrower secures all the important OHKO's. Scarf Dark Pulse is great against teams with Psychic or Ghost leads like Latis, Cresselia, Espeon, Gengar, Starmie and Dusknoir that are awkward for Latios or Azu to switch into. Plus, the 30% chance to flinch is always nice. Flash Cannon takes care of the Fairies, good neutral STAB, and ensures TTar in Sand takes enough damage for Energy Ball clean up in cases where you need to sack her to TTar.

Don't switch but sack Heatran vs. Kristy-2's Sash Starmie lead (after a Dark Pulse), Demetri-3 and Demetri-4's Sash Electrivire lead (after an Earth Power), Layne-3's and Layne-4's Drapion leads (after an Earth Power), and Palmer-3's Sash Heatran lead (after an Earth Power).

Switch to Latios or Azu when it's a bad lead MU in other cases. Mainly baits in EQs for a safe Latios switch in, or switch to Azu against (strong) physical leads to reset with Perish Song for a Perish Song counter 2 or counter 1 switch back into Heatran or Latios. Sometimes, you need to switch into Latios and then double switch to Azu for momentum (against a Mamoswine, TTar or Dragonite leads for example).

Scarf provides great early game pressure or late game clean-up potential. With Timid+Scarf, she outspeeds all non-scarf users in the Tower bar Timid max speed Electrode, which doesn't matter. She is notably faster than Dugtrio, Crobat, Scarf Abomasnow, Scarf Rampardos, opposing Scarf Heatran and Scarf Togekiss (as the latter two run Modest nature). Scarf+Timid Heatran outspeeds any opposing scarfer that has a base speed of 88 or less running Modest/Adamant nature. Lastly, you still outspeed many mons after being paralyzed from Discharge/TBolt hax or TWave. Many mons that use TWave often do have little to no speed investment. Just keep in mind, paralyzed Heatran with Timid nature+Scarf still has 105 total speed.

Baits for: Ground, Fighting and Water type moves.

Defensive synergy:

• Latios is immune to Ground via Levitate, and resists Fighting and Water;
• Azumarill resists Fighting and Water;
• Flash Fire punishes attempts at incoming Fire type moves, the AI will usually go for a Fire type move against her once if they lack other super-effective coverage;
• Resists or is immune to notably: Dragon, Ice, Fairy, Bug and Poison.

Solren (Latios) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: HT/xx/HT/31/31/31
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball

"Sure, he locks in a move. And with it, your fate."

Nukes anything that he is super-effective against. Even when locked into a move on the next incoming mon, the neutral damage is brutal due to Specs, so Heatran/Aqua Jet can revenge KO, if you need to stay in and sack Latios to perserve HP on Heatran/Azu. Specs STAB Psychic does incredible neutral damage, too.

Latios is a perfect switch into Ground, Fighting or Water type moves intended to hit Heatran and retaliate. Notably deals with the Waters & Water/Grounds. Water-types never click Ice coverage on Heatran, giving you a free switch in. Also, Latios' natural bulk makes him live basically any non-STAB Ice type attack, for when you need to 2HKO.

Latiosalso deals with the Legendary Birds. And he takes down with all the dragons with Ice Beam, especially after Aqua Jet chip on Sash Garchomp or Multiscale Dragonite.

Latios is very lethal when pre-firing moves due to Perish Song forcing switches if you can get him in safely on count 2 of the timer instead of the safer count 3. Dents teams enough for Heatran/Azu to clean up.

It has of course an amazing and comfortable speed tier to run Specs, and the faster threats, e.g. Weavile, Starmie, Raikou, Floatzel, Alakazam, and Aerodactlyl, and threats that speed tie like opposing Timid Lati@s, Frosslass, Espeon and Gengar, are all neutralized or checked by Heatran or Azu.

I love how many set-up leads like Dragonite, Garchomop, Salamence, TTar, Feraligatr and Gyarados carry Earthquake/Waterfall and the AI prioritizes EQ/Waterfall over setting up on Heatran, giving you a safe switch in to Latios. Then, you outspeed and OHKO (or 2HKO when safe) the opposing mon. I have only seen the AI very rarely go for the set-up move on Heatran when they carry EQ as I went for the Latios switch, but then you double switch to Azu and Perish Song and go from there. After soaking the EQ with Latios, always double switch to Azu on Sash Garchomp, TTar in Sand and Dragonite with Multiscale still in effect, as Latios cannot OHKO them and they threaten to OHKO Latios if you don't double switch.

Ice Beam has a 56% chance to OHKO Dragonite through Multiscale. Ice Beam also has an equally 56% chance to OHKO opposing Latios. You can risk either in some cases for a faster battle. You generally want to double switch to Azu on Dragonite, Latios (and TTar) for a safer route.
Ice Beam KOs Salamence through Yache Berry and Energy Ball KOs Rhyperior through Solid Rock (Ice Beam doesn't).

Baits for: Ice-, Dark-, Bug-, Dragon- and Fairy-type attacks, which are easily handled by Heatran or Azumarill.

Defensive synergy:

• Immune to Ground moves that threaten Heatran;
• Resists Electric-type attacks for Azu, though you usually want to switch in Heatran on Electric-type mons for Earth Power damage;
• Resists Water for Heatran;
• Heatran quad resists Bug and Fairy, and resists Ice and Dragon;
• Azumarill walls most physical threats that aim to prey on Latios’s average physical bulk, and resists Dark;
• Azumarill is immune to Dragon.

Sundrop (Azumarill) (F) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Sap Sipper
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
IVs: HT/31/31/31/HT/0
Relaxed Nature
- Perish Song
- Protect
- Rest
- Aqua Jet

In Dutch we don't really say ''I love you'' we say ''Anti-cheese, anti-wall, anti-set up, anti-stall'' & I think that's beautiful :)

Sundrop is the tempo anchor. She traps walls, stallers, and setup sweepers with Perish Song, and buys free turns with Protect + Rest. This to force switches that Heatran or Latios can take advantage of, gain momentum and/or to Perish Trap the opponent's final mon for an easy secure.

Due to her base stats and max defense investment, she soaks up any physical attacker's damage, even when boosted. Only physical attackers that are choice banded and have a super-effective move can 2HKO her. For nearly the rest of the phsyical attackers in the Tower it's a 3HKO or more. In most cases their moves just tickle. Either way, a safe Perish Song on the 3HKO's or more due to Protect and Rest. She also has respectable natural special bulk. Many special attackers can 3HKOs at minimum when they hit her for neutral damage, also great to Perish Trap when needed.

Azu is Relaxed + 0 speed IVs because if you're down to a Perish Song 1v1, the slower Pokémon wins due to fainting last to Perish Song. Any low speed IVs probably work though, Azu is already very slow. Just be careful to not end in a 1v1 against Curse users, or the handful of mons that are naturally slower (like Shuckle or weird, slow negative speed natured mons).

Make sure you PP Max Perish Song and Protect due to Pressure abusers like Articuno and Suicune. You need be able to trap cycle them multiple times during the battle sometimes.

Aqua Jet is mainly used against lead Sash Garchomp, Sash Blaziken, breaking Dragonite's Multiscale, or finishing off low HP threats. It has a variety of clutch uses besides that.

Due to Azu's slow speed, knowing when to click Rest early instead of Protect is important. If you take too much damage, you can't Rest anymore as they outspeed and KO Azu. For example when you got crit early, or against stronger special attackers, or when you know you need to Perish Trap secure their last, bulky mon later in the match and need Azu healthy.

The fact that Perish Song ignores Protect, Substitute, and evasion is hilariously broken against cheesy strats. Sap Sipper is unnecessarily good for Azu too. She completely walls Breloom, for example.

Something simple to keep in mind: with decision making, make sure Azu never remains alone in a 1v2. She can't win that, unless you're sure the mon she switches into is in Aqua Jet range and you can underspeed and safely Perish Trap their final mon without getting 2HKO'd. Generally, it is always safer to avoid this situation regardless, in case there is a chance the AI randomly switches their low HP mon out when Azu comes in.

Also, play careful around Soundproof mons, mainly Exploud. Azu can't Perish Trap them, so do not end up in a 1v1 vs. them. Both Latios and Heatran 2HKO Exploud.

Baits for: Grass-, Electric-, and Poison-type moves.

Defensive synergy:

• Immune to Grass via Sap Sipper. Same with Flash Fire, the AI doesn't know Azu has Sap Sipper until they try at least once;
• Immune to Dragon, dancing around Dragon and Ground with Azu and Latios is very lucrative;
• Resists Water, Fighting, Dark, and Ice type moves intended to hit Heatran and Latios respectively;
• She also deals with bulky waters that have (strong) Ice coverage against Latios.
• Heatran is immune to Poison;
• Heatran and Latios deals with Electric-type attacks/mons due to natural bulk and Scarf Earth Power/strong Psychics.

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Team Concept and Gameplan

This team revolves around tight synergy, smart pivoting, and exploiting the AI’s switch and move predictability. Scarf Heatran and Specs Latios apply immediate offensive pressure and scoring key KOs with their coverage, while Azumarill uses Perish Song to trap or force out walls, setup sweepers and stallers and deals with Sash/Sturdy with Aqua Jet chip. Her bulk, typing and Sap Sipper grant crucial immunities that let her pivot safely and scout or stall dangerous threats, often setting up free switches, as you force them out.

Due to the excellent type+ability synergy, the team thrives on baiting/predicting incoming super-effective moves, gaining huge momentum and predicting forced switches via Perish Song for devastating punishment, turning nearly every battle into a flowchart that ends with victory very consistently. This team makes it really easy (and satisfying!) to punish opponents locked into Choice-item moves. Between the pivoting and great typing synergy, playing around Choice items is simple and often gives you a huge advantage.

Getting familiar with damage calcs is crucial for piloting this team effectively. I’ve spent a lot of time using the excellent BDSP Battle Tower-specific calculator to internalize the important interactions, and that prep significantly improves consistency and reduces risk. If you’re planning to try this team, I highly recommend studying key calcs to succeed with it.

Locking into a choice move isn't scary considering this is a 3v3 singles format, and the team's amazing type+ability synergy. You can plan ahead with the Serebii trainer catalogue, use the option to damage calc before you make a decision when needed, and Azu often allows prefiring a choice locked move because of Perish Trap forcing switches.

As mentioned earlier, knowing when to sack Heatran after getting a hit in Turn 1 to guarantee the win is important too, mostly against unfavorable Sash lead MUs that Latios and Azu also have an awkward MU against. Kristy-2's Sash Starmie lead (after a Dark Pulse), Demetri-3 and Demetri-4's Sash Electrivire lead (after an Earth Power), Layne-3's and Layne-4's Drapion leads (after an Earth Power), and Palmer-3's Sash Heatran lead (after an Earth Power). Easy games from there. Kristy's Starmie's Hydro Pump isn't a garantueed OHKO even.

The gameplan is clear:

• Good lead for Heatran? Yay, in most cases a guaranteed win already.
• Bad lead for Heatran? Switch in Latios or Azu and nuke it (with Latios) or force it out with Perish Trap (with Azu) to reset. In rare cases, you need to switch to Latios and then immediately double switch to Azu, or vice versa, for better momentum.
• Third option: As mentioned before, there are a handful of teams where you need to sack Heatran after landing a hit on their lead.

Mid battle Perish Trap:
Switching Latios or Heatran in on timer count 2 of Perish Song is often optimal for gaining massive momentum, if you can confidently survive the incoming hit, you’re able to pre-fire a powerful move into their forced switch the next turn, which you can predict using the Serebii catalogue, often securing a clean KO or pinning them with your next switch. This aggressive pivoting can break the AI's tempo entirely.

Switching on PS timer count 3, by contrast, guarantees a completely safe pivot, if you do not want to overextend. Letting you preserve HP with Latios/Heatran and reposition against something you predict, can outspeed, and cleanly OHKO, or 2HKO without fainting.

However, timer count 2 switching comes with risk. If you miscalculate damage or predict wrong and Latios or Heatran faint on the switch, or if the AI decides to let their trapped mon go down just to eliminate your pivot (which has happened to me three times, iirc mainly with Ace Trainers or Palmer), you can lose tempo fast, though in a lot of cases still not an instant loss. It’s a powerful momentum tool, but it is best when you're sure the switch is safe. Also, there are a handful of trainers who have 2 teams with the same lead, making predicting what comes in on the final count of Perish Song, and thus selecting which move to lock into, sometimes harder depending on the match. Keep that in mind when you go for the timer count 2 switch.

End game Perish Trap:
Of course, in many cases Azu can trap the opponent's final mon with Perish Song and secure the win if it isn't a strong special attacker with super-effective coverage against Azu (who are dealt with by Latios or Heatran anyway). It isn't always necessary due to the raw power of Latios and Heatran and mid battle Perish Song resets, but when the opponent is down to their last mon, that being any set up sweeper, wall or stall cheese, then it is a guaranteed secure.

Also not unimportant to note: Having access to the Serebii trainer catalogue and knowing the full teams/movepools gives this comp a massive planning edge. In many cases, knowing that Azumarill can Perish Trap secure the endgame if needed provides essential peace of mind, frequently allowing you to play more aggressively or high-risk/high-reward damage calc lines with Heatran or Latios earlier in the battle, knowing Azu can cleanly secure the 1v1. That back-pocket inevitability creates breathing room that makes tight matchups feel far more manageable.

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Threats and Notable Battles

From worst to best bad matchups:

Reporter Josie-1, Jogger Sherman-2, Clown River-2 All OHKO move spam leads that Heatran can't deal with. Lead Walrein from River and Dewgong from Sherman and Josie usually use Horn Drill/Fissure turn 1 on Heatran respectively. So, switch to Latios Turn 1 (immune to Ground, which is neat for the Walrein MU), fire off a Tbolt Turn 2, and hope they don't land the Sheer Colds. Then, another Tbolt for the 2HKO. I want to stress: the remaining mons of the teams are laughably easy for this team, especially when Latios managed to take out their lead. So the problem is really only their OHKO move spam leads.

Horn Drill is a Normal-type move, so Latios always needs to dodge 2 OHKO moves from the Dewgong leads. Walrein CAN be as scary in the rare cases where he randomly goes for Sheer Cold onto Heatran Turn 1 as you switch in Latios, forcing Latios to dodge two OHKO moves from it too. There is a 60,14% chance Latios dodges both hits. One on the switch, one after landing the first Tbolt, factoring in the 2.5% chance Tbolt paralyzes Turn 2 + they full para's Turn 3 (this has happened to me once LOL). However, only if Latios goes down to the first Horn Drill or Sheer Cold on the switch and cannot get a Tbolt off, it can be game over. At least against Josie to due the CC Blaziken in the back that threatens Heatran. Against River or Sherman, you can still go into Azu, dodge an OHKO move and force it out with Perish Song stall and go from there, as the other mons on their teams aren't threats to Heatran+Azu. Even with Josie, Blaziken can probably still be taken out by a bunch of Aqua Jets + Rest due to it lowering its defense stat with CC.

So far, there was one case where Latios fainted due to OHKO moves. In this instance, he went down to the second Sheer Cold on Turn 3 after landing the first Tbolt on turn 2, and thus I still won. It is less tricky to come back if Latios faints on turn 3 than on turn 2, since in most cases Latios does enough damage with Tbolt for Heatran to revenge KO their lead. Even if it can't immediately revenge KO, it is unlikely Heatran goes down to another OHKO move, of course. If they go for Rest during the attempt of a 2HKO, you can switch in Azu to force it out with Perish Trap and go from there. As I said, the remaining mons on the opponents team do not do much against Heatran+Azu apart from Blaziken. Even when alive, Latios has never been needed back in at all after he took care of their leads.

They haven't stopped me, but these bulky OHKO move leads are the ''biggest'' threat to this team.

Jogger Ryne-1 Luckily only ran into him two times. Can be a difficult one because his lead Timid max speed Latias threatens everything if Bright Powder procs on Turn 1 or Turn 2 Dark Pulse. Dark Pulse has about an 84% chance to 2HKO his Latias (factoring in Bright Powder and Dark Pulse's chance to flinch Turn 1). Then, it is a straightforward battle from there.

If you happen to get very unlucky with the 16% chance to miss Dark Pulse Turn 1 or Turn 2 (with no flinch turn 1), it gets very very tricky. There isn't a lot you can do due to Ryne-1's team comp and due to the coverage on Latias. It is basically game over in that case, if there is no further hax in your favor. However, there is still a ~33% chance to save the streak, bringing the total chance to win this battle to 89,3%, with the following route:

You can only try to fish for a 30% chance to flinch with a second Dark Pulse if you missed the first one, so the third one then has a 82% chance to take Latias down and Heatran stays alive to check opposing Heatran. If it does, yay, you can still win because all members are alive and reasonably healthy enough. If you do not flinch and Heatran dies after finally damaging Latias Turn 2, you need to switch in Latios and pray to win the speed tie the following turn with Ice Beam. And only if you do, you then need to switch to Azu to reset your choice lock on the incoming Heatran. You cannot stay in because it will trap you with Magma Storm. Double switch back out to Latios as it always lives a Magma Storm + Dragon Pulse, and then you need to fish for the 15% chance to 2HKO the incoming Heatran with Tbolt because your own Heatran is already down. This, either the Dark Pulse flinch or the speed tie + 2HKO with Tbolt, has a combined chance of ~33% chance of winning the game still. Because then, you can switch in Azu and Perish Trap his final mon, the Latios.

There is also no way for you to perserve Heatran Turn 1 and switch in Latios or Azu on the Latias due to her coverage. They are important pieces for the other threats on this team. They cannot take much damage from Latias otherwise they can't check the other mons. The only route I see right now to comfortably win the match is that you have to go for the two Dark Pulses with Heatran on Turn 1 and 2.

Of course, this battle is only difficult if you miss either Dark Pulse, with only 16% chance of that happening, and even then there still a ~33% chance to claw back into the fight.

The first time against Ryne is my favorite memory though LOL, where I did get super unlucky and missed the first Dark Pulse and lost the speed tie with Latios, but I still won and you won't believe how..

Here is the turn by turn game

• Turn 1 | I go for Dark Pulse into his Latias with Heatran.. and Bright Powder dodges it. She lands a Surf, I’m chunked but still alive.
• Turn 2 | I go for Dark Pulse again, it hits this time, but no flinch. She lands a second Surf and Heatran goes down. I know I had to keep Heatran healthy but yeah ''nothing much else I could do from here than hoping for a flinch'' I thought since his Timid Latias has perfect coverage against my team.
• Turn 3 | I bring in Latios, praying to win the speed tie, and of course I lose the speed tie. She hits Dragon Pulse, gets me low, but I survive and KO her with Ice Beam
• Turn 4 | His Heatran comes in. I know he has sash and I am locked into Ice Beam, so I switch to Azu on the expected Dragon Pulse. Free pivot.
• Turn 5 | I click Perish Song, thinking I’ve got the upper hand, but he Magma Storms me, I didn't expect that and honestly forgot that it traps me and I can’t switch out. I’ve now Perish trapped myself..(I learned from that, never stay in with Azu on a Heatran)
• Turn 6 | I Protect to burn a count of the timer and scout his next move. Still trapped. He stays in.
• Turn 7 | I go for Aqua Jet, get some chip on his Heatran.
• Turn 8 | Final Perish count. He switches Heatran out into Latios, I get another Aqua Jet off on the switch-in, softening it up a bit for Ice Beam. Then Azu goes down to Perish Song.
• Turn 9 | I bring in Latios (mine is Timid, his is Modest). I outspeed and KO his Latios with Ice Beam, ~80% chance thanks to that Aqua Jet chip from Azu.
• Turn 10 | It’s just his near full HP Heatran vs. my low HP Latios locked into Ice Beam. I was about to forfeit but then I was like, screw it, going for the 10% freeze.. and it freezes LMAO.
• Turn 11+ | Heatran stays frozen for like seven turns. I keep Ice Beaming, slowly chipping it down despite quad resistance, until it dies frozen solid. The battle is over, I won. I truly felt like a BDSP Battle Tower NPC resident with the amount of RNG I pulled off.

That 10% freeze chance + frozen solids for 7-8 turns in a row definitely made up that ~16% lose chance against the Latias, and losing the speed tie to her. It's what Sundrop deserves.

The second battle against him went much smoother due to both Dark Pulses hitting Latias right away. Latias then goes down before doing anything serious, and Heatran stays alive to check the opposing Heatran later with a Scarf Earth Power after or before Aqua Jet chip. From there, Azumarill handles his Latios since he has no way to hit her super-effectively, or provides pivot support. Latios stays healthy for late-game pressure as it's guaranteed faster than Ryne's Modest Latios.

Fisher Bryon-1 Mold Breaker Sash Rampardos (no safe switch in on Earthquake for Latios), Quick Claw Bastiodon, Shuca Heatran. Only fought him once. This match demands tight pivoting and sacking both Azu and Latios.

Switch to Azu Turn 1 > Aqua Jet to break Sash > switch to Latios, eat a hit and KO Rampardos > switch in Azu on incoming the Heatran and sack her > Switch in Latios and use Thunderbolt on Heatran. Then, sack Latios to perserve HP on your Heatran. When you bring Heatran in, spam Earth Power from here on out. Earth Power guarantees a KO despite the Shuca on his Heatran after the Tbolt damage. Only the Bastiodon left, but it can't hurt Heatran, except for severe freeze/para hax. Even if QC procs, it is a clean 2HKO with Earth Power. There is probably more routes but I haven't had too much experience and it can get dangerous fast if you missplay even once.

If Rampardos went for Stone Edge on the Turn 3 switch or for Rock Polish to hit you on Turn 4, there is a 18,75% chance Latios gets OHKO'd by Stone Edge (due to accuracy, regular damage rolls, and the higher crit chance), before it can KO Rampardos. Then it's probably game over as you need Tbolt damage later into his Shuca Heatran to KO it with Earth Power after with your Heatran. There might be more paths to victory, but for now, from my current experience against him, the route I picked was fairly safe.

Officer Tavon-3 and Tavon-4 lead with a Sheer Cold bulky Lapras but are less scary than the OHKO move spammers mentioned earlier. Lapras almost always goes for Surf on Heatran, so Turn 1 you switch to Latios to soak up the Surf and then he tends to click Freeze Dry on Latios, which you always live even with the Surf chip, for the 2HKO on his Lapras with Tbolt. The rest of the match is then easy.

Rarely he goes for Sheer Cold on Latios Turn 2. If Latios goes down to Sheer Cold or to a Freeze-dry crit against Tavon-4, you can still win. Via the following route: Switch back in Heatran and click Flamethrower, take a million from Surf, Flamethrower again, for the 2HKO on the ~50% HP Lapras after the Tbolt damage from Latios earlier. Gengar comes in, switch to Azu on the Shadow Ball, switch back in Heatran on the Sludge Bomb. Dark Pulse to bring Gengar into Aqua Jet range, and sack Heatran to Shadow Ball. Azu Aqua Jets to finish Gengar, and then Perish Traps the Miltank. This route has saved me the streak once before after Latios went down to a Sheer Cold.

I always face Tavon-4, never fought Tavon-3. Tavon-3 is unwinnable if Latios goes down to Lapras, because Regigigas doesn't go down to Heatran move+Aqua Jet like Gengar does, nor can you Perish cycle it with Azu first, because after the damage taken from Surf, Heatran cannot live a Drain Punch from Regigigas on the count 2 switch of the Perish Song timer to attempt to 2HKO the Miltank that's forced to switch in. Lapras also 2HKO's Azu with Freeze-dry so switching Azu before Heatran doesn't work either.

Tavon stopped my 442 streak due to freeze on Latios and a Surf crit on Heatran with his lead Lapras, though. A 1 in 300 chance.

Bird Keeper Allie-2 and Allie-3 have the same Lapras lead as Tavon-3 and Tavon-4, but even if Latios goes down (it happened to me before due to Sheer Cold), Heatran+Azu can take down her teams easily with smart pivoting. Heatran 2HKOs the 50% HP Lapras with Flamethrower if you dodge Sheer Cold and you live Surf always > Aerodactyl comes in, so switch to Azu on the EQ > Perish Song > Rest > Switch on count 2 of the timer as you live a Rock Slide with Heatran, pre-fire Earth Power into the incoming Electrivire, another Earth Power for the KO > Perish Trap Aerodactyl for the win.

Tavon's teams are a little scarier than Allie's if Latios goes down due to Gengar's Sludge Bomb threatening Azu/Regigigas not being able to be 2HKO'd by Heatran. Tavon-4 can still be won if Latios goes down, Tavon-3 cannot. Though, I luckily never seen Tavon with his Regigigas team.

Collector Edmund-2 I have only fought him once but QC TTar lead is scary as you're not able to OHKO it due to Sand and its natural bulk. This team is more difficult than the other QC TTar lead team, Kellen-3, because Aerodactyl outspeeds Latios. If you want to risk that Quick Claw doesn’t proc, it’s a straightforward battle. Quick Claw proccing is the only problem here. Due to his natural bulk, Latios always lives a Shadow Claw (and Dragon Claw from Kellen-3) from TTar if it doesn't crit, giving you a bit of room to risk the QC proc. Both lack Crunch.

For the safest route though: Turn 1 switch to Latios on the EQ > then double switch to Azu on the Dragon Claw so you take no damage on the switch, rather than switching in Azu Turn 1 > Turn 3 set up Perish Song > Protect > Rest > switch to Heatran on the incoming Cresselia and 3HKO with Dark Pulse. Switch to Azu on the TTar coming in and Perish Trap again. Rest again to stay healthy even though you stay asleep now. Now, you can go for a switch to Latios when the timer count hits 2 of Perish Song as you can dodge an EQ and prefire an Tbolt into the Aerodactyl that's forced to switch in the turn after. Sand is still up, so it isn't an OHKO, but you live a Crunch so Tbolt again. Only TTar left, so plan A: switch to Azu on the Dragon Claw, and go from there. Perish Trap once you wake up, which is fairly safe since TTar can only barely 3HKO Azu, plus you have all three mons still alive. Plan B: You can also switch into Heatran on the Dragon Claw instead of Azu, go for Flash Cannon, into sack, into Latios revenge kill, but then you gamble twice that Quick Claw doesn't proc. Still, even if both Latios and Heatran go down to severe QC hax, you can still safely switch in sleeping Azu to do plan A anyway, especially now Sand is soon gone.

Worker Layne-3 and -4 His lead Drapion is difficult to deal with, combined with his mons in the back. His Drapion can hit all of the team with strong super-effective moves, and cannot be OHKO'd by Heatran or Latios, so no safe pivots to either Azu or Latios. Fought him four times now, and it is unlosable if you play it well.

You need to sack Heatran to get an Earth Power off, then switch to Latios to revenge KO the Drapion. He will go into Salamence in the next turn, so easy switch to Azu to soak the scarfed Outrage. He will be forced to switch into Weavile so just click Aqua Jet on his switch and keep Aqua Jet-ing. Rest once you get low. Aqua Jet is a 6-7HKO but you win this exchange, especially with Rest. It is a funny way to deal with a threat but there is not really another way. It doesn't go for Ice Punch every turn, it often goes for Ice Shard too, so the chance of freezing is low during this exchange. It did happen to me in one of the battles but I thawed out in time for a Rest. In general, be sure to be healthy with Rest near the end so Salamence's Thrash isn't a 2HKO later. Once it's down, Protect on the incoming Salamence to burn a turn of Thrash. Then, you Perish Song and stall with Protect into another Rest, as Thrash is at best a 3HKO and he can hit himself in confusion anyway. For team 3, the flowchart is pretty much the same, and youn can tell from the moves Weavile uses against Azu which last Pokémon he has in the back, thus which team you're battling. Magmortar is just a 2HKO with Psychic.

About 25% of the time, Earth Power does enough damage to Drapion for Azumarill to revenge KO with Aqua Jet so Latios doesn't need to come in. This is giving you an easier flowchart against Layne-3, as he will switch in Magmortar on your Azumarill, rather than the Weavile on your Latios. You can then switch in Latios on Magmortar and 2HKO it with Psychic, and then switch to Azu to Perish Trap the Weavile to secure the win.

Ace Trainer Abbey-3 is not a big threat, but can snowball (haha) quickly if misplayed. I only battled her once, but the route is stable if you follow the right flowchart. Turn 1 is simple: OHKO the Abomasnow with Flamethrower. Mamoswine will come in next, so pivot to Latios on the EQ, then double switch into Azumarill to begin a Perish Song cycle. Azu not only soaks up any damage Mamoswine does but also burns through the Hail turns set up by Icy Rock Abomasnow. Hail up is dangerous because of her Mamoswine's Lax Incense and Snow Cloak combo. Even though you outspeed and OHKO this non-Thick Fat Mamo, if you try to land a hit too early with Heatran on Turn 2, you risk a costly 28% chance to miss Flamethrower. Hence the pivots to get a Perish Song off first.

When the Perish timer hits 1, switch into Latios. Mamoswine tends to click Icicle Spear on Azumarill a lot for no reason, which makes the usual ''timer is on 2'' switch-in on a predicted Earthquake unsafe. It would've been ideal here so you can avoid any OHKO moves by already prefiring a Tbolt on the Walrein that is forced to switch in and then landing a free 2HKO the following turn. However, you can't risk it. Latios can't die to a random Icicle Spear from Mamo as it is the answer to Walrein. By waiting until the timer hits 1, you ensure Latios enters cleanly.

Now, against Walrein, you go for the 2HKO with Tbolt. Latios needs to dodge a single OHKO move and push through Bright Powder twice. But even if it doesn't, Heatran can clean up with Flamethrower. As long as you've landed one Tbolt through Bright Powder, it's guaranteed to finish the job. This Walrein has Ice Body instead of Thick Fat, and the Tbolt + Flamethrower combo secures the KO even with Hail healing still in play. Afterward, now that Hail is gone, you can fire off another Flamethrower to OHKO the Mamoswine if it doesn't dodge with the Lax Incense alone. If it does dodge and Heatran goes down, Azumarill can then Perish Trap Mamoswine again to lock in the win regardless.

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There’s a clear pattern: the toughest matchups for this team are OHKO move spammers that Heatran can’t safely handle. But I wouldn’t call this a true weakness. These teams are rare, and their success hinges on low-probability RNG rather than actual counterplay, like Bryon-1 or Ryne-1. I cannot recall any other standout opponents right now, but I’ll update this section if I encounter new threats in another streak.

Thanks to the team’s airtight synergy, Perish Song utility, and strong type/ability coverage, most matches are entirely manageable with solid play. Smart pivoting, accurate predictions, and planning ahead, alongside damage calcs when needed, reduce the risk greatly for this team.

Because of the combination of immediate pressure from Heatran and Latios and the control power of Perish Trap, most cheese abusers like Quick Claw, Focus Band, or evasion are far less threatening, other than the ones mentioned.

Even the threats listed above nearly all have stable lines to victory unless extreme RNG stacks up. I’ve had games where I was frozen, crit, and Quick Claw’d/Focus Banded/Bright Powder dodged in the same battle, and still pulled through.

This team is consistent, deceptively oppressive, and precise. It's a flowchart engine with answers for everything short of back-to-back RNG disasters. But even then, when piloted carefully, it still creates backup paths to claw back control.

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History of the Team

It all started when I used this Azumarill build together with Sash Gengar lead and Yache Berry SD Garchomp for getting to the Normal Class 105th win-streak on the first try using this team for the Trainer Card star. Here is the full guide on that team.

I then went through a lot of trial and error in both my BD and SP games for Master Class. Gengar wasn't a strong or reliable lead anymore I noticed very fast. Though, Heatran wasn’t the first option I tried as lead after. I tested quite a few options like Cloyster, Gyarados, Garchomp and others, also in combination with other team members like Scizor. But I kept running into counter leads that I personally couldn't play well around. That might say more about my own preferred playstyle than the viability of those mons, but they just didn’t give me the consistency I needed to build a long streak. When I realized how insane both the offensive and defensive synergy was between the typings+abilities with my favorite members I had tried at that point (Latios and Azu), I added Heatran.

Next to that, I started with Life Orb for Latios for more freedom and adaptability, but the recoil really wore him down over the course of the battle, which is especially unfavorable since keeping him at full HP makes the difference between surviving and getting KO’d in many important MUs for OHKOs/2HKOs. On top of that, it didn’t hit quite hard enough for me. I quickly realized that with good planning and predictions and with Azu forcing switches midgame if needed, I could safely lock into choice'd moves.

I've also done a couple of rows with Latias over Latios, thinking the bulk would be more important, but decided to switch back for better chances at crucial higher damage rolls in clutch situations.

At first, I've ran Modest over Timid with Scarf Heatran in earlier attempts, but realized in a few key matchups or situations where Heatran gets paralyzed, the extra speed gives an important advantage. The extra damage from Modest isn't needed. Also, no more speed ties with my girl Bird Keeper Anissa who also has a Scarf Heatran lead but runs Modest.

Lastly, I did change some mons/items around in the earlier rows with the different gym leaders at the end to counter them specifically. For example, adding Ancient Power to Heatran, adding Surf to Latios, swapping around Scarf and Specs between Heatran and Latios, or adding TTar as lead over Heatran during a few rows. Once the gym leaders and Cynthia were done, I kept this team as is!

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The Loss

The loss at a streak of 442. I am a bit sad because the loss was due to back to back hax, but I am so proud of this team and myself for piloting it so well up until this point.

Tavon got me. One of the threats I mentioned. He hadn't appeared in a WHILE with this team, but I battled this team a bunch of times and he hadn't gotten the upperhand.. until now, with back to back hax.

Turn 1 - I switch to Latios on his Surf targeting Heatran.
Turn 2 - I get a strong Tbolt off. He hits me with Freeze-Dry, like he does typically. He very rarely goes for Sheer Cold into Latios, though. So, ''Phew, No OHKO move'' is what I thought. I live guaranteed, even with Surf chip. BUT he freezes me... 10% chance.
Turn 3 - I stay in, hoping to thaw. I don't and he takes Latios down with another Freeze-Dry.
Turn 4 - I switch back in Heatran, Lapras is at about 50% due to Sitrus Berry after the first Tbolt earlier. I click Flamethrower as that 2HKOs at this range, and he cannot OHKO me with Surf. BUT he crits with Surf, OHKOing Heatran.
Turn 5 - Poor Sundrop left, which cannot do anything in a 1v3 obviously.

Yikes. If Latios didn't freeze, Tbolt would've 2HKO'd and everything would've been fine, like it normally goes against him. Even if Latios froze or got crit by Freeze-Dry and went down, Heatran+Azu together together could have won still comfortably with smart pivoting if Heatran didn't get crit by Surf, even with Heatran at low HP. His Gengar comes into the Heatran, I switch to Azu on the Shadow Ball, then back into Heatran on the Sludge Bomb > fire of a Dark Pulse to get him to Sash, sack Heatran to Shadow Ball > Aqua Jet the Gengar > Perish Trap his Miltank.

Now, because I lost to his lead Lapras, I am not sure if it was Tavon-3 or -4. If he had Regigigas instead of Gengar, then after the freeze on Latios I would've lost anyway as Regigigas doesn't go down to Heatran move+Aqua Jet. Though, I have never seen him use that team before.

I calc'd and I couldn't have gotten the 2HKO on 50% HP Lapras with Dark Pulse, fishing for a flinch to avoid damage entirely, nor would I have needed to if I didn't just get crit lol.

I lost to a 1 in 300 chance of losing here (freeze + not thawing + random crit).

My team doesn't lose to just bad luck or stupid hax, but this was insane. Anyway, I am a bit salty but still incredibly happy, too.

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I built this around a 0 Speed IV shiny Azumarill I hatched early in the breeding process, and it inspired this entire comp! She's been the MVP ever since. Sundrop's cute, unassuming, and the most dangerous mon in the tower.

The streak ended at 442 wins (see update #1, update #2 & the loss in the posts below). I probably forgot to mention a bunch of cool stuff about this team, but I am excited to hear your thoughts about this team and whether you want to try it! If you have questions or want to discuss the matchups and planning in detail, feel free to let me know too!

Finally, I just want to give shouts out to GG Unit with his Glalie team. It was so fun to use myself in my trial and error runs on my Brilliant Diamond game earlier this year and that gave me the love for the battling in the BDSP Battle Tower, and to hmsa2012/Franklin, his team/run and YT content inspired me to seriously attempt my own runs.

 

[Salomé]

Streak Update:
First of all, thanks for all the kind words in the Discord server, I appreciate it!!

Now guys, I paid 6 euros to edit this video because the size was too big for free usage of editors LOL. I hit the 301st streak! A bit tougher MUs than the previous vid and the rows in between, but no teams I hadn't faced multiple times before, and as always we pulled through! Much more beautiful piloting of this team than in the previous video, too. Could have made a few different, smoother plays here and there though, but no missplays that matter.

Sorry about the high contrast sometimes, my phone wouldn't always focus well and I was too nervous to do anything about it. Also the perspective is a bit wonky, I forgot to zoom out a bit before I started recording, I fixed that at 6:20 so you can see the TV screen fully.

I fear I was a bit addicted to the BDSP Battle Tower this weekend, but now I will rest.

 

[EHStar]

Finally several years after reaching rank 10 master doubles I found motivation to try my hand to reach rank 10 master singles. Looking through the forums I saw Burning Justice's Magneton lead which I was intrigued with. I am a magneton enjoyer and the goal was to get the tower ribbon on garchomp so I thought I could make something work.

Magneton @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Tri Attack
- Volt Switch

Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance

Gyarados @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Dragon Dance

Sturdy scarf magneton is actually quite a capable lead, outspeeding many mons while dealing respectable damage and having a pivot option. It's often worthwhile to save sturdy on this mon too for revenge kills. Tbolt/flash cannon/volt switch are pretty much non negotiable. I only clicked tri attack once versus a jolteon when I was probably better off switching anyway, perhaps shock wave or discharge or even thunder wave is better here. Not having to worry about a variety of OHKO moves is also an incredible feeling.

Gyarados is an amazing partner for magneton since magneton baits so many ground moves. It's super easy to bring it in. Initially I tried leftovers which was ok but I think lum berry is much better overall. Don't really need a wacan berry, just try have your other mons deal with electric move users. I just used crunch to have an option to hit shedinja other than rough skin, however it actually was pretty nice against certain mystical fire/calm mind latias. Strength/ice fang might be other options but crunch was ok.

The great thing about this team is the AI is incentivized heavily into using certain moves: bring in gyara on the ground move on the magneton, then bring in garchomp on the electric move on the gyara. This ability to bait moves and pivot along with double "sashes" actually makes a fairly consistent team, which is one of the main struggles of the tower.

Garchomp needs no introduction. SD/EQ/outrage is pretty self explanatory. Iron head is mainly for togekiss but also hits a few ice types for a potential hail mary flinch. Sash is good for trading with faster dragons and fighting ice types. Garchomp's 102 base speed and gyarados's 81 base speed allow them to get the edge on so many base 100s/80s respectively.

There is one parasol lady with a toxic orb breloom lead with rock tomb/spore/sub/bulk up that I've lost to twice so be wary of her. Thunder wave magneton might be the best way to win here, or replace crunch on gyara but that thing is a demon.

 

[Salomé]

Streak update: Current streak is 364.

I was really feeling it today so I pushed on and decided to record the last 3 rows, because I love showing off the well-oiled machine this team is. Here is the showcase of streak 343 through 364 together in a long video, for anyone interested!

Boy, I got crit a LOT this session, most of them didn't matter though.

The only true scare was battle 5 in the final row against Hiker Aldo, due to TTar's EQ crit on Azu, meaning I couldn't Rest to keep Azu healthy in order to Perish Trap him later again. So, I had to hope for the 64% chance his QC wouldn't proc twice against Latios/Heatran, which it luckily didn't.

I could have played the Palmer-1 battle in the second streak better. Technically Azu always wins here, but if there was a possibility he switched Heatran out to Cresselia, poor Sundrop would've been doomed. I went for the Ice Beam 56% chance to OHKO Dragonite on Turn 2, because even if Latios doesn't OHKO and goes down, there are still easy paths to win, as Latios cannot touch his other mons anyway. However, it is generally best to make sure Azumarill never ends up in a 1v2 even if the mon you switch her into is in Aqua Jet range and you can Perish Trap the final mon. This is in case the AI randomly decides to switch out. Thus, during this battle it was safer, and a secure win, to double switch Azu in for Perish Song + Aqua Jet. This is the route I normally go for, as seen at the end of the third streak.
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The first battle in the third streak against Jarred was hilarous, two Ice Beam freezes from Latios in a row? It didn't matter for the outcome, but it was funny to see happen.

Anyway, let's goooooooo!

 

[Salomé]

Streak update: The loss at a streak of 442. I am a bit sad because the loss was due to back to back hax, but I am so proud of this team and myself for piloting it so well up until this point.

Tavon got me. One of the threats mentioned in my submission and team guide post. He hasn't appeared in a WHILE with this team, but I battled this team a bunch of times and he hadn't gotten the upperhand.. until now, with back to back hax.

Turn 1 - I switch to Latios on his Surf targeting Heatran.
Turn 2 - I get a strong Tbolt off. He hits me with Freeze-Dry, like he does typically. He very rarely goes for Sheer Cold into Latios, though. So, ''Phew, No OHKO move'' is what I thought. I live guaranteed, even with Surf chip. BUT he freezes me... 10% chance.
Turn 3 - I stay in, hoping to thaw. I don't and he takes Latios down with another Freeze-Dry.
Turn 4 - I switch back in Heatran, Lapras is at about 50% due to Sitrus Berry after the first Tbolt earlier. I click Flamethrower as that 2HKOs at this range, and he cannot OHKO me with Surf. BUT he crits with Surf, OHKOing Heatran.
Turn 5 - Poor Sundrop left, which cannot do anything in a 1v3 obviously.

Yikes. If Latios didn't freeze, Tbolt would've 2HKO'd and everything would've been fine, like it normally goes against him. Even if Latios froze or got crit by Freeze-Dry and went down, Heatran+Azu together together could have won still comfortably with smart pivoting if Heatran didn't get crit by Surf, even with Heatran at low HP. His Gengar comes into the Heatran, I switch to Azu on the Shadow Ball, then back into Heatran on the Sludge Bomb > fire of a Dark Pulse to get him to Sash, sack Heatran to Shadow Ball > Aqua Jet the Gengar > Perish Trap his Miltank.

Now, because I lost to his lead Lapras, I am not sure if it was Tavon-3 or -4. If he had Regigigas instead of Gengar, then after the freeze on Latios I would've lost anyway as Regigigas doesn't go down to Heatran move+Aqua Jet. Though, I have never seen him use that team before.

I calc'd and I couldn't have gotten the 2HKO on 50% HP Lapras with Dark Pulse, fishing for a flinch to avoid damage entirely, NOR WOULD I HAVE NEEDED TO IF I JUST DIDN'T GET CRIT lol.

I lost to a 1 in 300 chance of losing here (freeze + not thawing + random crit).

My team doesn't lose to just bad luck or stupid hax, but this was insane. Anyway, I am a bit salty but still incredibly happy, too.

Proof & Video of streak 399-413 I recorded yesterday, for anyone interested!

Original submission and team guide

This is the end of Sundrop's reign, and soon the end of my break from work. This has been really fun and addicting so I might return to this challenge, for now thank you for reading, and for the kind words on Discord! If anyone wants to try out this team, discuss the team, or has questions about MUs etc. let me know!