Battle Tree Discussion and Records

[Milhau5]

So, thanks to the wonderful QR team from turskain of Hitmonlee/Tapu Koko/Latios/Scizor-Mega, I reached a streak of 138 wins in Super Doubles. Edit: now with more definitive video proof:

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Before I post the replay video of me losing, I want to share some things I learned about the AI that I couldn't seem to find online (skip to "HOW I LOST" if you know all of it or don't care):

• There is a big reason Hitmonlee should ALWAYS be in the first slot: to attract paralyzing moves (Thunder Wave, Glare) and Fake Out. The PAR user will enter an endless loop of spamming the status move into him, because it can't recognize his ability; it just does a check for "ifParalyzed" every turn, and will keep using the move until that gets flagged as 'true'. So, you get free turns a lot :). Fake Out users will always go to him, so Protect to keep the Sash intact.
• There is no consistent behavior with how Earthquake is used. A lot of times, the user is paired with a bird or levitator so it doesn't matter. Sometimes, the non-EQ partner will actually protect. Sometimes, the EQ user will just kill their own partner; I witness a veteran EQ his own Entei to death.
• There's no consistent behavior with Protect either. You might just waste your Z-Move. Trust me, they're not predicting you.
• Pokemon with boosting moves will always go for that move first, foregoing Super-Effective attacks. might go for the move twice in a row (possibly more) before launching an attack. I don't know if that's consistent or not because every boosting Pokemon I KO'd immediately or just after the first boost. The exception is the battle video below. If I had a greater sample size, or knew how it works beforehand, I might have managed that last fight better.
• In the Subway and Maison, a Choice-locked Pokemon would switch if it was locked into a move doing no damage. This applies to doubles as well, in a weird way. They have an intended target, rather than trying to just blindly hit both Pokemon. How do we know this? If you switch that chosen target out and bring in a Levitator to a Choice-locked EQ user, for example, the scarfed mon will switch out, even if it can do damage to the Levitator's partner.

HOW I LOST
Battle Video: 3TRW-WWWW-WWW8-W9DT
Trainer: Black Belt Arnold
Team:

• Nidoking 4 (Earthquake/Poison Jab/Megahorn/Protect @ Buginium Z)
• Volcarona 4 (Hurricane/Quiver Dance/Bug Buzz/Heat Wave @ Leftovers)
• Golurk 4 (Hammer Arm/Earthquake/Shadow Punch/Fling @ Iron Ball)
• Escavalier 4 (Megahorn/Iron Head/Swagger/Reversal @ Custap Berry)

I lost so bad that I didn't even see the last two, so any conjecture involving hindsight knowledge of the rest of the team is totally useless. Volcarona was always a problem for this team...nothing that couldn't be handled by double-targeting. Sure, Volcarona 4 is one of the few that does not die to Fake Out + Specs Thunderbolt, but it can be killed on the next turn while it sets up. Actually, it can be knocked out ONLY if both attacks hit max damage roll...so, no guarantee at all, assume the team up won't kill.
However, I did not count on it having as dangerous a partner as Nidoking. This changes things. Knowing that Koko is going to be targeted (in addition to already being walled by Nidoking), and that Volcarona won't go down this turn, do I risk losing one of my powerhouses right away? Based on the above analysis that the AI can recklessly use Earthquake, I decide to fake out Nidoking to give Koko a chance to land as much damage as possible with Tbolt, with the intent of (possibly) killing Volc next turn with Sucker Punch.
Next I switch into Latios, and eat a Poison Jab to the face (did a lot so I'm assuming Sheer Force). And then, the worst thing happens...Suck Punch fails. That can only mean...yep...Volc not only got up a second Quiver Dance, but got two turns of Leftovers recovery.
I now protect Latios in case of Bug Buzz, because the way I see it: Sucker Punch Volc, survive at 1 HP, and then kill with Sucker Punch next turn so Latios gets a free Psychic on Nidoking. Even if Lee got ganged up on that turn, Volcarona would still be in kill range for Mega Scizor Bullet Punch (based on eyeballing it). Instead, the turns after bringing Latios in plays out as such:
Latios Protects
Nidoking Protects
Hitmonlee uses Sucker Punch
Volcarona hits with Hurricane, and gets the confusion on Lee
Probability dictates that this match was still winnable even after two boosts. But, once Lee hit himself in his confusion, it was over, I didn't keep trying after that.
WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE: Double up into Volcarona, but with Volt Switch instead of Tbolt. Bring Latios in and accept the damage. Have Latios kill Volcarona since Lee couldn't, and just accept that Latios dies to either Megahorn or Savage Spin-Out. Just play it from there. No matter what, one of my special attackers is going to have to die just to kill Volcarona. This was truly a counter-lead. Feel free to critique my playing and make suggestions, but I feel like no matter what there would be a heavy cost just to dismantle the lead.

 

[Worldie]

Your lead alongside Oranguru should be able to destroy lead Escavalier in one or two hits and preferably have an answer to the dark types that can OHKO Oranguru or come close to it. For what little it brings to the table, one of the most annoying enemies I can face tends to be Shiinotic. They run almost all bulk and have Spore, and usually come in at the most inopportune times.

Doubling on this Shiinotic hate, I have noticed so far that for most Trick Room comps, having a lead which features double status / taunt user, and Effect Spore users like Shiinotic are the most nightmarous thing to have against as lead.
You are forced to take a pretty big gamble, either risk the status on the setter, potentially denying TR to go up in first place, or get the status on your fake outer. A real Loss/loss situation where you need to have a backup plan.

My personal experience has shown that status on fake outer is usually less troublesome than status on the setter, unless you run a comp capable of dealing with TR not going up. When my Scrafty gets statused, I usually just leave it to die since expecially if Burned it completely denies its damage and has not much point in staying in, outside of shuffling it in for another Intimidate/Fake out and get a free swap in after it dies.

Also re- on TR dedicated AI pokemon: it's worth reminding that even the TR dedicated mons have 31 speed IVs despite -nature and 0 EVs. Thus your pokes will 0 IV will underspeed equivalent TR dedicated AI pokemon, but you need to be mindful of the existence of several Iron Ball holders.

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

Also re- on TR dedicated AI pokemon: it's worth reminding that even the TR dedicated mons have 31 speed IVs despite -nature and 0 EVs. Thus your pokes will 0 IV will underspeed equivalent TR dedicated AI pokemon, but you need to be mindful of the existence of several Iron Ball holders.

Correct, and while this is really helpful for those instances (such as Mega Steelix, an adamant base 30, who hits 50 speed and thus can be outsped by 0IV negative-natured 50s, who hit 49 speed) there were a lot of new additions or revamped sets. These made many pokemon I considered viable offensive teammates during 6th gen into much less reliable flunkies. Base 50 is nowhere near as safe as it was last gen, though it's still quite good.

It matters a little more for Oranguru (58 lowest attainable and strategically feasible speed) because the discrepancies allow enemies to move before it can Instruct, which gets to be problematic for it or your sweeper, if it needed that second attack just to net the KO. This is one of the main reasons I hate Shiinotic, because I'm practically guaranteed to eat a Spore or Moonblast if circumstances are not perfect.

I also raised that particular point because he showed interest in specifically Jellicent, who was phenomenal last gen but sits at the same speed as Oranguru and suffers the same problems. While leading allows it to deal with some of those, its lack of power will become very apparent. Without sand, Gigaliith is guaranteed to survive doubles Water Spout, for instance. You will be meeting many things it simply cannot punch through, and needing to set up rain is asking for more trouble.

The Iron Ball holders are less of a threat this gen than before IMO. Fling is pretty easily predicted and the move is wasted on Protect. I care about Conkeldurr for other reasons.

But like I said, these are more considerations than a testament of what does and doesn't work. Last gen I broke over a thousand wins with a fucking Iron Ball Gardevoir of all things. This gen, Vikavolt/Crabominable/Guzzlord lasted well over 100 battles before getting stomped into the ground as anticipated. Jellicent has enough coverage moves to 2HKO most setters and as a lead, dual Water Spouts are enough to remove crud like Steelix/Gigalith/Hippowdon/etc. However, for reliability's sake this means Jellicent would need 4 speed EVs to ensure the jump on Oranguru, and with TR up Instruct would precede it. Then there's just the fact that it's too squishy for consistent Water Spouts. Primarina has the same speed as Jellicent and is much stronger at the cost of immunities, and I enjoy using mine on TR teams. I still wouldn't want to lead with it, though. If pairing water types, I would run Araquanid before Wishiwashi because of Entrainment (weather changes too often as it is.)

Man, I really hope triples comes back soon. I have just too many guys to play with, and triples was my incentive to train/use most of them.

 

[Thessbmzocker]

I did it! I made 50 wins with my trusty Lopunny! And her two bodyguards. My run isnt over yet, Ill update how far Ive come once I get defeated but I wanted to get my Lopunny out there!

It was a long and hard battle. But I still did it because I like Lopunny so much and just wanted her to have a 50win streak. Even if it wouldve meant for me to replay the battle tree over and over and over again. In the end, it only costed me 5 replays, as they all ended in the 40 battle range, but mostly not due to HJK miss but rather unexperience with the opponents Pokemon. I must admit that maybe I shouldnt have used Lopunny. I wouldve gotten a 50 streak much much faster with other Pokemon, but copying other peoples stuff just isnt my thing. And I love to play with my favorite Pokemon. Anyway, lets get to my team:

My Team

Kiara (Lopunny) (F) @ Lopunnite
Ability: Cute Charm
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Return
- High Jump Kick
- Fake Out
- Ice Punch

Entei @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 26 Def / 6 SpD / 6 Spe
- Sacred Fire
- Stone Edge
- Extreme Speed
- Iron Head

Brisingr (Aegislash) (F) @ Normalium Z
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Brave Nature
- King's Shield
- Swords Dance
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Sneak

If you recall I said I would change something about the team. And what I did was Aegislash. It used to be a special attacker, but I instead took my physical one for all the tries that came after my first attempt. Because it has a way to set itself up and attack with a priority. Which helped quite a lot. My Entei is a Soulsilver event Entei. It is hyper trained, as its IVs are rather bad. The other two are from ORAS and are 31 IVs. Threats to this team were a Hippodown, usually Blazikens and Togekiss. I didn't run into any other threats but Im sure there are more. This team is far from being actually good but I like it. And thats what counts for me the most. (Also that custap berry from Reds Blastoise took me by surprise....)

My 10th win: UK9W-WWWW-WWW8-WPSX
My 20th win is sadly missing.... so instead you get the 29th win. 3Z4G-WWWW-WWW8-WPSQ
My 30th win: HPTW-WWWW-WWW8-WPTX
My 40th win: Y2GW-WWWW-WWW8-WPT9
And finally my win over Red : VDZW-WWWW-WWW8-WPTK

So yeah, will give another update once I will be defeated. (Probably in the next 10 matches lol)

 

[Worldie]

Congratulations on making it to 50s with your favourite pokemon!
Don't be unoptimistic though: with USUM coming and the very likely return of Tutors, maybe we could see M-Lopunny get her hands ( ? ) on some other Stabs or priority that would allow it to actually be a competitive pick over the bigger brother Mega Kangaskhan.

Besides, remember, there's a few very nonconventional pokemon in the top 10 streaks, both in singles and doubles.
It's not necessarly impossible to make an apparently inferior poke to work.

And anyway, if someone won VGC with a Pachirisu, how hard can it be to win Battle Tree with a M-Lopunny? ;)

 

[Thessbmzocker]

Congratulations on making it to 50s with your favourite pokemon!
Don't be unoptimistic though: with USUM coming and the very likely return of Tutors, maybe we could see M-Lopunny get her hands ( ? ) on some other Stabs or priority that would allow it to actually be a competitive pick over the bigger brother Mega Kangaskhan.

Besides, remember, there's a few very nonconventional pokemon in the top 10 streaks, both in singles and doubles.
It's not necessarly impossible to make an apparently inferior poke to work.

And anyway, if someone won VGC with a Pachirisu, how hard can it be to win Battle Tree with a M-Lopunny? ;)

That is true. And I put Entei out there too. At least I think no one else used him before in the battle tree but I may be wrong about that. And you're right, hopefully we see some more moves for Lopunny. Shes kinda being a Flareon right now. With having great stats but her movepool being really lackluster. Its either using a move that only works good on heavy opponents, or a move that may miss/get protected against and makes her loose half her HP... I mean you could use drain punch or power up punch but I dont know... they work a lot better on Kangaskhan because of the 2 hits.

However I do know not to use Lopunny in doubles. She wont survive long in there...

 

[Smuckem]

The S.R.C. has been updated through here. The list has gotten to the point where it's stating to get a bit huge, so I'm bound to miss someone qualified for it or make an error on it at some point. As always, let me know if you spot either of these!

While I'm glad to see this ongoing MegaPunny business, I would say Thessbmzocker's work is not done yet: since I think your Entei set is superior to the Scarfed thing I used for Fight Club (Remix), your next goal is to crack 101 wins with it. I demand that you do this: the best of the Legendary Canines deserves better than what I've brought it to so far.

I have been struggling with Tree lately myself, best I have managed since Fight Club (Remix) is 89 wins; I think that, much as is the case with ReptoAbysmal, the lack of Triples is killing my motivation to plug away at the Tree, at least with any real care and focus. That won't be a problem for long, though: the continuing influx of QR teams is keeping me going for now, and a few of us are concocting a little something over at the Discord channel that we hope to get off the ground soon...

 

[Thessbmzocker]

101 Wins? Im not too sure if I can pull that off with Lopunny.... not saying I wont try in the current run... but like once I loose with Lopunny I might look for a different Team instead. However I can promise to include Entei into it. Lets see if I can get 101 wins :3
Also thank you Smuckem for including me in the Stamp Run teams :) And sorry I forgot about your Entei... Maybe I shouldve read the thread more carefully.

 

[Smuckem]

Happy days, after a long couple of months of not bothering with it, I went back to my current Super Singles attempt...and finally have my Singles stamp!

Back in late April, I was in the process of assembling the QR3, and while doing so I was dicking around in all of the Super formats, just testing things out. About a week or two after the BP Global Mission ended, I tried out the Doubles QR sample team PGL provided and got a pretty disappointing streak of 16 wins with it. Despondent, I went with the Singles sample team next and actually got to 21 wins with it. Other Doubles QR teams then occupied me, and I abandoned the attempt...

...until this evening, when I jumped back into it, something I had been contemplating for most of the preceeding week. I got to 35 wins, and when I beat a Heidi team including Blissey4, I suddenly realized I may have my Singles opportunity to make something happen. So, I began to pull up silver_angel 's database, stopped multitasking while playing, and got to work playing carefully and attempting some piecemeal Singles tactics when possible. I drew an easy match with Grimsley at Battle 40, got one Veteran in Battle 43, managed some easy opponents in the remaining matches (Scientists are not nearly as threatening as they are in Doubles, Minun will forever be...Minun, and it's fun being able to play a format where Choice item holders are completely predictable)...and just like that, my first crack at Super Mode Red.

Red came at me with Venusaur/Snorlax/Blastoise (Set 4); this was my first time truly attempting to utilize the whole "switch-stalling" thing I keep reading about, with some success: Venusaur4 was drained of attacking PP, Snorlax4 was drained of all Ground-based PP and was weakened enough that I was able to eventually wear it down (but not before I lost track of its attacking PP and lost my lead to it ), and isolated Blastoise4 before sacking my bulkymon so that my cleaner could safely finish the job. A good start that was nearly screwed by me wearing down mentally and playing recklessly for several turns in the middle, but either way...



What sort of squad got me this long-hoped-for victory?

This one, bizarrely enough.

Me and Josh C. have been looking into the specifics of the team, and we think we have the sets down now (6IV unless otherwise indicated):

Salamence (Lvl.60) (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate --> Aerilate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 5-8 SAtk
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake

Tapu Lele (Lvl.100) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 94 HP / 252 SAtk / 164 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Energy Ball

Aegislash (Lvl.51) (F) @ Ghostium-Z
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Atk / 4 Def / 136 SpA / 4 SpD / 8 Spe
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Shadow Sneak
- Flash Cannon
- King's Shield

A few notes:
- Playing Psychic Surge + some priority is a tricky tactic I simply cannot adjust to--I had three occasions during this run when I went for Shadow Sneak under the Surge, and subsequently lost Aegisalsh on the same turn all three times
- As one would expect, playing a team like this without the benefit of Subs or any form of healing is grating. On the flip side, the defensive synergy of the DSF is well-documented and was still enough to get me out of some tricky situations in this case
- I found it most efficient to get Salamence to +2 or +3 before going on a rampage, as this was usually enough to blow through the opposition and outspend pretty much every Scarfer I ran into. I did, however, manage to get it to +6 once, against third mon Cradily4
- I got hit with A LOT of Ice attacks; it was only through the grace of the RNG gods that I never got frozen or hit myself in confusion; definitely include some way to work around that as best you can with your Singles teams. This included Articuno2 getting one Mind Reader/Sheer Cold attempt in, getting blocked, and then deciding "fuck it" before launching tow more Sheer Colds straight. Didn't get hit, but that was a lead opponent to face
- This was the run where I discovered that Scientist Cal only carries Slowking4 and not 3; also, Ace Trainer Lea only carries Darmanitan4 and not 3
- silver_angel's database was an invaluable and asthetically pleasing resource for this run; try that shit sometime!

I will definitely not be pursuing this any further: the inherent flaws in this team make it impossible to carry on a streak of any appreciable length (one gets the feeling that Game Freak deliberately designed this QR with the kinks in place so that Trainers would get the basic feel of the DSF featuring MegaMence strategy and then improve upon that design), and I just find Singles as a whole boring (probably the main reason I don't play the meta at all these days). However, I'm happy to have gotten this arduous task out of the way and further proving the worth of the QR3. Let's keep building upon it, everyone!

NOTE: If anyone else bothers trying out this QR team, check the EV spreads on it and make sure that me and Josh got the numbers right; don't care about Singles enough to proofread my own math.
NOTE 2: For you Breeders that frequent the thread, the QR team's creator seems to have some idea of the whole matching balls concept: this team is housed in Dive/Heal/Luxury Balls, respectively.
NOTE 3: This Singles stamp run made me realize the magnitude of what those on the various Singles leaderboards have accomplished over the years; y'all insane, and if I ever meet any of you irl, I will give you five dollars for your efforts. Godspeed, you maniacs.

 

[Hamber]

Reporting a completed streak of 166 wins for Super Doubles. Didn't quite make it to the 200 mark but I might try again with possible improvements to the team.

Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Nature: Timid
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power Ice

Notes

Pretty standard Koko. Swapped Grass Knot for HP Ice to hit certain x4 weak Dragon/Ground mons, and since Celesteela already has Energy Ball that provides a better match-up against Ground types.

Alolan-Raichu @ Life Orb
Nature: Modest
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Fake Out
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Electro Ball

Notes

This Raichu features all Electric attacks (except Fake Out) with max Spe Electro Ball. Didn't use Grass Knot for the same reasoning as Koko, and I felt that Psychic was a bit underwhelming in terms of power. Psychic hits Poison and Fighting types super effectively; most of which, isn't a threat to the team, so it seems the best use of Psychic would be for hitting Ground types (which M-Mence and/or Celesteela deals with fairly well) and mons with Electric immunity. I wanted to try out Electro Ball because Raichu's speed allowed it to do massive damage if used on the appropriate mons. Max Spe EVs in order to maximize Electro Ball damage (which is based on relative speeds), and because HP investment didn't help much for Raichu. Some Calcs on Electro Ball (Raichu sits at 324 speed with max Spe EVs):
(150 BP) < 25% of 324 = 81 speed and below
(120 BP) 25-33% of 324 = 82-106 speed
So basically Electro Ball does more damage than Thunderbolt for about half of the mons in the Tree. Above 106, Electro Ball has 80 BP and above 162, is reduced to a mere 60 BP. That's why I kept Thunderbolt, for faster mons, hitting them with constant 90 BP. Faster mons are usually more fragile, allowing Thunderbolt to generally do pretty good damage. Conversely, Electro Ball punishes slower, often bulkier mons and TR users, guaranteeing some OHKOs and dealing heavy damage to even resisted hits. I won't mention them all because there are quite a handful of them that it OHKOs, but to put it in perspective, Electro Ball almost 2HKOs Blissey-4 (252+ SpA Life Orb Raichu-Alola Electro Ball (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Blissey in Electric Terrain: 142-169 (43 - 51.2%) -- 5.9% chance to 2HKO). Even without Terrain, 150 BP Electro Ball plus Life Orb hits like a Z move (195 BP after Life Orb boost). Also chose Life Orb to boost Raichu's average SpA since I didn't mind the recoil. With only Electric type attacks, poor Raichu is rendered helpless against Ground types and mons with Electric immunity. There are relatively a few of them in the tree so it's up to the Raichu's teammates to get rid of them.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Dragon Claw
- Return
- Earthquake
- Protect

Notes

Pretty standard Mence. For the back up, I wanted someone who was a reliable counter to Electric resists/immunities (Dragon, Grass, Electric, Ground), bulky enough to switch in safely, and fast enough to compliment Koko and Raichu's high speed. M-Mence seemed to fit the bill. Dragon Claw for Dragon types (if for some reason Koko wasn't able to KO them), Return for Grass types, EQ for electric types, plus a Ground immunity. M-Mence has great bulk and speed, with Intimidate further enhancing the team's bulk and even providing Koko/Raichu a chance to survive an opposing EQ.

Celesteela @ Steelium Z
Nature: Timid
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Flash Cannon
- Energy Ball
- Flamethrower
- Protect

Notes

For the second back up, I still had the same criteria as with M-Mence, but this time I also included that it should be someone who could counter M-Mence's weakness. A steel type seemed like the best partner, countering 3/4 of it's weaknesses, and with Celesteela's part Flying type, M-Mence can EQ freely, and get another free switch in against Ground types. Max Spe and SpA to maintain offensive pressure and a Z move to help activate BB and quickly gain momentum. Energy Ball for Ground types and Flamethrower for Steel types (specifically certain Ground and/or Steel types that M-Mence has some trouble dealing with, even with EQ). The main drawback from using Celesteela is that glaring Electric weakness but can be used to your advantage by baiting them with Protect, while the partner takes out the threat.

The Team

I found it similar to turskain, lolnub, and MrMarc's teams with lead Koko + Fake Out/speed boosted mon and Dragon + Steel back ups. General strategy is straight forward enough to follow. I guess the biggest threat to the team would have to be Electric types, especially for Celesteela, and Raichu if they sport Electric immunity. M-Mence also takes neutral damage from Electric attacks.

Threats

The usual mons threatening Koko + Raichu leads:

Electric types - The go-to move is usually Dazzling Gleam and Thunderbolt (if no Electric immunity). Next best option is M-Mence EQ.
Ground types - Switch to Celesteela then Energy Ball/Corkscrew Crash (Z move sometimes does more damage).
TR users - Surprisingly not much of a threat compared to Electric/Ground types probably because Electro Ball OHKOs some TR users thanks to their low speeds. Fake Out and a Thunderbolt (or two) also works.
Tailwind -
Alolan-Marowak - Switch to M-Mence and 2HKO with Return.
M-Sceptile - Dazzling Gleam KOs after Fake Out damage.

The main threats are already under the category of Electric/Ground types so I didn't bother to include some more non Electric/Ground type threats.

Loss

Battle 167 vs. Raz
43HW-WWWW-WWW8-XCHS

Double targeted Zam to avoid tracing Surge Surfer. Double targeted Electrode next in case Jolteon had Volt Absorb but with Light Screen took three hits instead of two. It sounds weird but in hindsight, should've switched Koko to Mence on that predicted Fake Out Weavile since M-Mence survives non crit Ice Punch at -1. Either way, still would have lost Celesteela in the process but gives M-Mence a chance to EQ while Koko at the back could clean up with Dazzling Gleam. Instead I go for Thunderbolt on Weavile and that double freeze pretty much sealed the deal.

Any comments/suggestions/advice to help improve the team is much appreciated but I want to stick with Electro Ball Raichu since it's too fun to pass out on.

 

[Hamber]

Where do you get those animated sprites btw

 

[hypno28]

Any comments/suggestions/advice to help improve the team is much appreciated but I want to stick with Electro Ball Raichu since it's too fun to pass out.

If you're set on using Electro Ball, maybe the EVs help, but if not/otherwise you're wasting a ton of EVs on unnecessary speed. Modest with 0 EVs lets it hit 260 speed with Electric Terrain up, fast enough to outspeed everything except Aerodactyl-1. All of your EV spreads could probably be optimized though.

 

[Thundersamurott]

Where do you get those animated sprites btw

Well you can look here: http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/xyani/

 

[Thessbmzocker]

I get mine from this website, it has XY, ORAS, SUMO..... Ive used it for years now ^^'' https://www.pkparaiso.com/rubi-omega-zafiro-alfa/sprites_pokemon.php
Little update: Im at 60 wins so far with my MegaPunny team. Only 2 were close so far, both being with Megagross. I think that might be a problem for my team. It hits quite hard. Also MegaBro could be a potential threat to my team. So far Ive gotten away if I predicted the mega evolution but if it crits my aegislash at the wrong turn it will win as Slash needs at least 1 SD, and neither Entei nor Punny can do much against him, with Surf and Psychic....

 

[silver_angel]

- silver_angel's database was an invaluable and asthetically pleasing resource for this run; try that shit sometime!

Thanks! I'm happy to hear that it can actually help some people!

As for me, I've just got my 15th stamp with the super multi. It ended up being easier than expected in the sense that I didn't lost a fight once I decided to use Mega Khan and Dragonite instead of mega charizard X. I was paired with choice scarf Typhlosion which is really interesting in its predictibility of using eruption (I already used it on X/Y to get 50 wins in multi). When it does not use it however -- typically using focus blast instead --, this usually means big troubles ahead.

Fight 49 was pretty funny (a posteriori I should say) because on the first turn one of the opponent used explosion, what KOed all the pokes, and the same happened in turn 3 except Nite survived with 2 HP.

If I went to the 200 victories on X/Y, I don't feel like trying it here, since it is harder (opponents have mega pokes and Z cristals), and there are no triple fights, which were way easier than the singles or doubles.

 

[Darth_Scorpion]

Just managed to get my Multi's stamp! I've taken a break due to adrenaline (and I forgot to save the video due to same), but here's a little round-up:

Battle 50

My team is Choice Scarf Gardevoir/Assault Vest Golisopod while Cynthia has Garchomp-3/Lucario-3 for reference.

T0: Blue sends out Exeggutor (which has to be 2), Red sends out Blastoise-?.
T1: Garchomp EQ's, Gardevoir Shadow Ball's Exeggutor into the red, Blastoise Hydro Pumps Gardevoir (revealing Blastoise-4), Exeggutor sets Grassy Terrain rather than Z-moving.
T2: Garchomp EQ's, Gardevoir KO's Exeggutor with SB, Blastoise Blizzards missing Gardevoir but KOing Garchomp.
Blue sends out Alakazam-?, Cynthia sends out Lucario-3.
T3: Alakazam Megas (revealing 3), Lucario Megas, Gardevoir SB's Alakazam, Alakazam KO's Lucario with Focus Blast, Blastoise Hydro Pumps Gardevoir.
T4: Gardevoir switches for Golisopod, Alakazam Shadow Ball's Golisopod, Blastoise Hydro Pumps Golisopod.
T5: Golisopod KO's Alakazam with First Impression, Blastoise Dark Pulses Golisopod.
T6: Golisopod switches for Gardevoir, Blastoise Dark Pulses Gardevoir.
T7: Gardevoir Thunder Bolts Blastoise and paralyses, Blastoise KO's Gardevoir with critical hit Hydro Pump. :-S
I send out Golisopod.
T8: Custap berry activates, but Golisopod KO's with First Impression before it matters.
Red sends out Lapras-?
T9: Lapras uses Psychic, Golisopod uses Leech Life.
T10: Lapras uses Z-move Shattered Psyche (revealing Lapras-4), Golisopod survives into the red and uses Leech Life.
T11: Lapras uses Psychic, Golisopod KO's Lapras with Leech Life.

I've never been more thankful for Golisopod's bulk...

I'll post a team write up if I get past 60.

Edit: Lost at 53 - Crabominable has a habit of ending my Multi's runs... :'(

 

[WaifuPuff]

Evening!

Long time reader, since probably the Pearl/Diamond/Platinum days and I'm a first time poster.

I wanted to post my 105 win Super Singles team here, but first, I just want to thank everyone who's contributed to this incredible forum for years for all the tips and guidance. I also hadn't seen this team in the leaderboards and I wanted to contribute if I got past 90 wins. Anyways, I'm not the most eloquent writer, so I'll just get right into it.

Much of this is adapted from Insanemaniac's guide from the Battle Maison (in ORAS I believe, no X/Y), so I'll link his team here if you want more details of the team, which is essentially a copy of his/her's (lol).

@insanemaniac
Greninja / Mega Blaziken / Gliscor

http://www.smogon.com/forums/members/88565/
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/battle-maison-discussion-records.3492706/page-129#post-6046740

My battle video code of my losing fight is
N4KW-WWWW-WWW8-2M9U

(I'm new to posting here and sending video codes, so forgive me if it doesn't work, I'll include a screenshot of my win streak from my phone)



Anyways, here are the stars of this run.

FroGlenn the Greninja

Item: Life Orb
Nature:
Ability:
IV's: 31HP/ 26-27Atk/ 31Def/ 31SpA/ 31SpD/ 31Spe
EV's: 4HP/ 0Atk/ 0Def/ 252SpA/0 SpD/ 252Spe
Stats: 148HP/ 101Atk/ 87Def/ 155SpA/ 91SpD/ 191Spe
Moves:
Grass Knot
Surf
Dark Pulse
Ice Beam

My thoughts: Jack of all trades, speedy special sweeper... FroGlenn (an homage to Frog from Chrono Trigger) is my opener and many fights start and end with him. He has incredible coverage and Protean gives him both a little boost and a little extra defense if you guess your opposing Pokemon right. Most of the time, choosing an attack with him comes down to trying to OHKO or 2HKO vs. trying to stay alive. I usually only switch him out if an electric Pokemon is facing me (most often to my Gliscor). Grass knot can hit like a truck, but check out your opponents weight, because that definitely makes a big difference. If you don't think you can 2HKO an opponent, I'd switch him out for Blaziken or Gliscor asap. Life Orb gives him a bit more power, but it does it with a bit of life. He almost always takes down at least 2 before he bites the dust (unless I switch him out in the first turn, haha)


Hellfyre the Blaziken/Mega Blaziken

===>

Item: Blazikenite
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Speed Boost / Speed Boost
IV's: 31HP/ 31Atk/ 31Def/ 11SpA/ 31SpD/ 31Spe
EV's: 4HP/ 252Atk/ 0Def/ 0SpA/ 0SpD/ 252Spe
Stats: 156HP/ 189Atk/ 90Def/ 108SpA/ 90SpD/ 132Spe
Mega Stats: 156HP/ 233Atk/ 100Def/ 126SpA/ 100SpD/ 152Spe
Moves:
Low Kick
Protect
Flare Blitz
Earthquake

My thoughts: He is the wild card of this group because of his type coverage and his type strengths/weaknesses. I often find him tearing through Steel and Grass walls, Ice pokemon (which both Greninja and Gliscor have a lot of problems with) or anything that can't be easily or swiftly taken care of by the other two. Low Kick runs like Grass Knot above, so lookup the weight on that opposing Pokemon. Fire Blitz hits like a freight train, and as insanemaniac writes, the fights are generally not too long, so the recoil lost in using Fire Blitz isn't too terrible in the big scheme of things. I often find that he is easy to switch into as long as the attack he faces when switching in isn't super effective against him. Protect is nice to use at the start of the fight to get a Speed Boost (usually, one is all you need to out speed nearly everything the Battle Tree can throw at you, except for Pokemon with a Choice Scarf or if Trick Room is in effect, but those don't come around too often). Earthquake rounds out the package, usually used when you KO one pokemon, and the one that comes in is strong against fire and fighting. Although he might be the least used Pokemon of the team, he is integral to its overall success (you can see the side story below, but you can definitely skip it, haha)

On a tangent, I actually made this team in ORAS and when Sun and Moon came out, I was able to transfer all 3 of these Pokemon, but I could not get a Blazikenite for this guy until about a month or two ago, so I put in a perfect IV Dragonite running Multiscale with a Lum Berry whose moves were Roost, Outrage, Fire Punch, and Earthquake and the team fell apart (I tried other well trained Pokemon, but that Dragonite was the most successful). It was an odd situation to have had this really wonderful ORAS team but missing the item on Sun/Moon (in my case, Moon) that really brought the team together. I could barely get past 40 wins until I had Blaziken back.​

Blobster the Gliscor

Item: Toxic Orb
Nature: Careful
Ability: Poison Heal
IV's: 31HP/ 31Atk/ 31Def/ 30SpA/ 31SpD/ 31Spe
EV's: 212HP/ 4Atk/ 36Def/ 0SpA/ 252SpD/ 4Spe
Stats: 177HP/ 116Atk/ 150Def/ 58SpA/ 139SpD/ 116Spe
Moves:
Substitute (16/16 PP)
Protect (16/16 PP)
Toxic
Earthquake

From the various Battle Towers, Maisons, Trees, etc. I've always been drawn to Mixed Walls and Gliscor is definitely a very strong one. I've run with Umbreons and Ferrothorns and Vaporeons, but this one has been my most successful one. I think Gliscor, especially for this team, has the right set of typing, speed, and ability to safely switch and cover for the other two while still having a very effective way to kill (toxic, then stalling with Substitute and Protect) and a surprisingly powerful STAB move for a wall in Earthquake (I'm often surprised how much damage it does, even it isn't super effective). Honestly, I've made a lot of mistakes in my run to 105 wins, mostly because I'm distracted when I'm climbing the tree (watching a show or getting some reading done) and I don't always pay attention to the moves that go on or I get lazy and I don't look up a Pokemon's type or weight (for Grass Knot or Low Kick) and something surprises me and boom, I'm either down 1 or 2 Pokemon. Blobster (affectionally named by my wife, who thinks he looks like a cross between a bat and a lobster) consistently covers for my mistakes or my lapses in attention. Whether it is nullifying an electric attack thrown at FroGlenn, dodging a ground attack aimed at Hellfyre, or if a switch needs to happen because one of the other Pokemon is confused, immobilized by love, or anything... This guy is like a Troy Polamalu safety. He has everyone's back. Getting to the nuts and bolts of it all, you can see above that I maxed out Substitute and Protect. Being able to take a hit, throw out a Protect or a substitute, and whittling down the opponents Blizzards/Surfs/Waterfalls/Ice Beams/practically any move really makes this sucker tough to KO. Toxic Orb gives quite a bit of healing over time, and when paired with an alternating sub/protect cycle, you can outlast 2 or 3 Pokemon... provided you can sneak in a Toxic in there, and the opponent can be poisoned by it. The other advantage of healing by being poisoned is that it prevents you have getting another status placed on your Gliscor. On my next run, I'll probably try to max out the PP of Toxic and Earthquake as well. I've definitely had a few close calls where more PP in those two would have made a difference. Just watch out for Ice Moves. If you got up against an Ice Pokemon and you have Blaziken around, I'd switch him out for Blaziken. Generally though, once this guy goes in, I don't switch him out. It's slow and ugly, but Blobster can grind it out with the best of them.



Overall, I really felt like I could have gone further and I plan another run soon (and hopefully I can surpass 105 and add to this list). I've just found a lot of guidance one these forums and I wanted to share and contributed some of the knowledge I've gained running this fun and dynamic team. While this is my first contribution, I hope it isn't my last! If you have any comments or critiques, I'd be happy to hear them, otherwise... Enjoy!

 

[SilverLining]

Posting an ongoing streak of 1000 in Super Singles.

It's the same team as I posted about before, but I'll include the set details here as well (link to the other write-up is here).

Picture Proof

The Team

CyberDuck (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Def / 188 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 1 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic
- Confide

KOKORO (Aegislash) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 84 SpA / 156 SpD / 12 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute
- King's Shield

Isabella (Salamence-Mega) (F) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Atk / 4 Def / 196 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute
- Roost

Threats

Dragon Dance users

Charizard-4, Altaria-3, Gyarados-3, Gyarados-4, Tyranitar-3, and Haxorus-4 can give this team trouble due to none of the team members particularly wanting to take boosted hits. Porygon2 generally goes for Toxic and ends up fainting unless for some reason the opponent chooses to Dragon Dance itself to death. Switching carefully between Aegislash and Salamence can also help lower Attack enough to take it out, generally with Aegislash. Latios-4 also has Dragon Dance but its attacks aren't as threatening to the team.

Taunt users

Seeing as how this team only has four attacks that actually deal damage, Taunt can be quite an issue. Weavile-4, Vanilluxe-4, Tornadus-4, and Thundurus-4 are the most common Taunt users this team faced, and of the four, Weavile-4 is potentially the most dangerous. It can hit Salamence with Ice Punch and Aegislash with Night Slash, both of which doing good amounts of damage. However, Weavile generally goes for Ice Punch against Porygon2 after Taunt so the switch to Aegislash is safe (barring getting frozen, of course). From there it will either use Taunt (forcing a switch) or Night Slash (which runs into King's Shield), so it can eventually be dealt with. The best way to describe how to beat Taunt users is to switch frequently and utilize the game's propensity to use Taunt over other moves. Critical hits are the main thing to watch our for when switching around to avoid Taunt.

Critical hits

Goes without saying. Confide saves this team, but critical hits ignore all the efforts Porygon2 puts in to lower Special Attack, so it's something to be wary of. Playing it safe with Recover and Substitute can mostly mitigate the effects of critical hits.

Calm Mind + Rest users

Not really a threat so much as an annoyance. Toxic and Confide are the go-to moves to eventually force Special Attack down to -6 despite Calm Mind, and then Salamence can generally come in and get enough boosts to get by.

Salazzle-3

The combination of Focus Sash, Nasty Plot, and two good STAB moves makes for a notable threat. Nasty Plot works twice as fast as Confide so at most Confide will only slow the process. After flinching, Porygon2 generally goes for one Confide because it can take a +1 Fire Blast comfortably, and then spams Recover until it either faints or stalls out all the Fire Blasts. Once all the Fire Blasts are gone, it can't deal any damage to Aegislash so the threat ends. But the prospect of being hit by +6 Fire Blast and Sludge Bomb is bad enough to warrant mention.

Minor threats

Contrary can be a problem, particularly on Serperior-4 who has to spam Choice Specs Leaf Storm. It's almost impossible not to lose something on the way to taking out Contrary Serperior. Toxic helps out a lot, assuming it hits. Porygon2 can take a +2 Leaf Storm at full health (barring a critical hit), so that helps. And sometimes Leaf Storm misses, but don't count on that. ... Cobalion can be annoying because Toxic does nothing to it, but the Calm Mind one can have all its Flash Cannons stalled out by Aegislash and the other ones don't deal enough damage to Aegislash to make it really dangerous (unless the Swagger + Psych Up one gets to +2 or higher, but even then King's Shield is the savior against Iron Head). ... Terrakion could be dangerous, but switch-stalling Earthquake and Rock STAB PP is pretty easy, even with the threat of Swords Dance. Watch out for sound-based moves against Substitute but they're not very common. ... OHKO move users could pose a threat but Aegislash is immune to two of them and Salamence is immune to another. Sheer Cold is the main issue, though users are few and far between. Abomasnow-3 is outsped by the entire team, Glalie-3 likes to use Protect and Substitute, and Salamence outspeeds Walrein-4. That leaves Articuno-2 and Vanilluxe-3, and the best strategy is to hope for a miss or a different selected move and get a Substitute up on Aegislash.

Battle Video

Q6SG-WWWW-WWW8-3WDV

To explain the extra Dragon Dance usage, I had thought of getting a new substitute up (and therefore trying to get Toxapex to get rid of the existing one) but then realized it was completely unnecessary. I also didn't really need to get to +6, but because I don't always play with the databases open, I try to get to +6 every time, even against the Special Trainer class every ten battles where their entire rosters aren't hard to remember. Or maybe I was angry that Salazzle-3 came up on battle 1000.

Now that I achieved 1000 wins, I don't know how much more Tree I want to do. But at the same time, I still haven't found Anabel, now in over 1350 battles with this team, so perhaps I'll still feel motivated to keep going until I finally find her. I started keeping track of every Special Trainer I faced, starting at 410, so I guess I'll include that as well.

List of Special Trainers faced

410 Sina
420 Plumeria
430 Cynthia
440 Wally
450 Colress
460 Grimsley
470 Grimsley
480 Grimsley
490 Grimsley
500 Cynthia
510 Wally
520 Grimsley
530 Cynthia
540 Sina
550 Grimsley
560 Colress
570 Cynthia
580 Sina
590 Kiawe
600 Kiawe
610 Cynthia
620 Plumeria
630 Kiawe
640 Kiawe
650 Wally
660 Sina
670 Plumeria
680 Kiawe
690 Sina
700 Cynthia
710 Wally
720 Wally
730 Cynthia
740 Wally
750 Colress
760 Colress
770 Plumeria
780 Plumeria
790 Colress
800 Kiawe
810 Grimsley
820 Kiawe
830 Colress
840 Grimsley
850 Wally
860 Wally
870 Plumeria
880 Colress
890 Grimsley
900 Colress
910 Grimsley
920 Colress
930 Kiawe
940 Colress
950 Colress
960 Grimsley
970 Grimsley
980 Kiawe
990 Colress
1000 Plumeria
1010 ?

Long story short, the archetype of "Normal type + Aegislash + Mega Salamence" works. While this isn't the only instance of Porygon2 on the leaderboard, I'm certainly happy I was able to take it all the way to 1000. Best of luck to everyone on their quests through the Battle Tree!

 

[phoenix0wright]

Congrats on the massive winning streak, SilverLining! As someone trying to find a good mixed wall, I was wondering if you could explainwhy you run Confide on P2 over something like T-Bolt or Protect? I've thought about using P2 myself.

 

[SilverLining]

Congrats on the massive winning streak, SilverLining! As someone trying to find a good mixed wall, I was wondering if you could explainwhy you run Confide on P2 over something like T-Bolt or Protect? I've thought about using P2 myself.

Thanks!

I chose Confide because the team was struggling against heavier-hitting special attackers, particularly Magnezone-4, which also has additional bulk from the Assault Vest. Confide also has 32 PP, which could potentially come in handy for stalling things (although that's never been the case for me). I had initially been running Thunder Wave but I never used it much. I've sometimes thought about trying to fit in another attack, but ultimately I use all four of its existing moves too much to sacrifice any of them. Nothing is immune to Ice Beam so I chose it over Thunderbolt, and Recover is good enough for stalling with Toxic. I would say that Confide is important for my team but it might not be for yours, so perhaps your build won't need it.

 

[Altissimo]

http://www.smogon.com/forums/thread...ith-extra-alola.3512924/page-167#post-7446656

gunna leave this here

 

[Worldie]

Ahhh good old double protect "hax". i've lost to it once as well, RNG is cruel sometimes. (But also won a match for it, so heh, no complaints :P )

 

[GG Unit]

Posting an ongoing streak of 1000 in Super Singles.

It's the same team as I posted about before, but I'll include the set details here as well (link to the other write-up is here).

Picture Proof

View attachment 85845

The Team

CyberDuck (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Def / 188 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 1 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic
- Confide

KOKORO (Aegislash) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 84 SpA / 156 SpD / 12 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute
- King's Shield

Isabella (Salamence-Mega) (F) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Atk / 4 Def / 196 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute
- Roost

Threats

Dragon Dance users

Charizard-4, Altaria-3, Gyarados-3, Gyarados-4, Tyranitar-3, and Haxorus-4 can give this team trouble due to none of the team members particularly wanting to take boosted hits. Porygon2 generally goes for Toxic and ends up fainting unless for some reason the opponent chooses to Dragon Dance itself to death. Switching carefully between Aegislash and Salamence can also help lower Attack enough to take it out, generally with Aegislash. Latios-4 also has Dragon Dance but its attacks aren't as threatening to the team.

Taunt users

Seeing as how this team only has four attacks that actually deal damage, Taunt can be quite an issue. Weavile-4, Vanilluxe-4, Tornadus-4, and Thundurus-4 are the most common Taunt users this team faced, and of the four, Weavile-4 is potentially the most dangerous. It can hit Salamence with Ice Punch and Aegislash with Night Slash, both of which doing good amounts of damage. However, Weavile generally goes for Ice Punch against Porygon2 after Taunt so the switch to Aegislash is safe (barring getting frozen, of course). From there it will either use Taunt (forcing a switch) or Night Slash (which runs into King's Shield), so it can eventually be dealt with. The best way to describe how to beat Taunt users is to switch frequently and utilize the game's propensity to use Taunt over other moves. Critical hits are the main thing to watch our for when switching around to avoid Taunt.

Critical hits

Goes without saying. Confide saves this team, but critical hits ignore all the efforts Porygon2 puts in to lower Special Attack, so it's something to be wary of. Playing it safe with Recover and Substitute can mostly mitigate the effects of critical hits.

Calm Mind + Rest users

Not really a threat so much as an annoyance. Toxic and Confide are the go-to moves to eventually force Special Attack down to -6 despite Calm Mind, and then Salamence can generally come in and get enough boosts to get by.

Salazzle-3

The combination of Focus Sash, Nasty Plot, and two good STAB moves makes for a notable threat. Nasty Plot works twice as fast as Confide so at most Confide will only slow the process. After flinching, Porygon2 generally goes for one Confide because it can take a +1 Fire Blast comfortably, and then spams Recover until it either faints or stalls out all the Fire Blasts. Once all the Fire Blasts are gone, it can't deal any damage to Aegislash so the threat ends. But the prospect of being hit by +6 Fire Blast and Sludge Bomb is bad enough to warrant mention.

Minor threats

Contrary can be a problem, particularly on Serperior-4 who has to spam Choice Specs Leaf Storm. It's almost impossible not to lose something on the way to taking out Contrary Serperior. Toxic helps out a lot, assuming it hits. Porygon2 can take a +2 Leaf Storm at full health (barring a critical hit), so that helps. And sometimes Leaf Storm misses, but don't count on that. ... Cobalion can be annoying because Toxic does nothing to it, but the Calm Mind one can have all its Flash Cannons stalled out by Aegislash and the other ones don't deal enough damage to Aegislash to make it really dangerous (unless the Swagger + Psych Up one gets to +2 or higher, but even then King's Shield is the savior against Iron Head). ... Terrakion could be dangerous, but switch-stalling Earthquake and Rock STAB PP is pretty easy, even with the threat of Swords Dance. Watch out for sound-based moves against Substitute but they're not very common. ... OHKO move users could pose a threat but Aegislash is immune to two of them and Salamence is immune to another. Sheer Cold is the main issue, though users are few and far between. Abomasnow-3 is outsped by the entire team, Glalie-3 likes to use Protect and Substitute, and Salamence outspeeds Walrein-4. That leaves Articuno-2 and Vanilluxe-3, and the best strategy is to hope for a miss or a different selected move and get a Substitute up on Aegislash.

Battle Video

Q6SG-WWWW-WWW8-3WDV

To explain the extra Dragon Dance usage, I had thought of getting a new substitute up (and therefore trying to get Toxapex to get rid of the existing one) but then realized it was completely unnecessary. I also didn't really need to get to +6, but because I don't always play with the databases open, I try to get to +6 every time, even against the Special Trainer class every ten battles where their entire rosters aren't hard to remember. Or maybe I was angry that Salazzle-3 came up on battle 1000.

Now that I achieved 1000 wins, I don't know how much more Tree I want to do. But at the same time, I still haven't found Anabel, now in over 1350 battles with this team, so perhaps I'll still feel motivated to keep going until I finally find her. I started keeping track of every Special Trainer I faced, starting at 410, so I guess I'll include that as well.

List of Special Trainers faced

410 Sina
420 Plumeria
430 Cynthia
440 Wally
450 Colress
460 Grimsley
470 Grimsley
480 Grimsley
490 Grimsley
500 Cynthia
510 Wally
520 Grimsley
530 Cynthia
540 Sina
550 Grimsley
560 Colress
570 Cynthia
580 Sina
590 Kiawe
600 Kiawe
610 Cynthia
620 Plumeria
630 Kiawe
640 Kiawe
650 Wally
660 Sina
670 Plumeria
680 Kiawe
690 Sina
700 Cynthia
710 Wally
720 Wally
730 Cynthia
740 Wally
750 Colress
760 Colress
770 Plumeria
780 Plumeria
790 Colress
800 Kiawe
810 Grimsley
820 Kiawe
830 Colress
840 Grimsley
850 Wally
860 Wally
870 Plumeria
880 Colress
890 Grimsley
900 Colress
910 Grimsley
920 Colress
930 Kiawe
940 Colress
950 Colress
960 Grimsley
970 Grimsley
980 Kiawe
990 Colress
1000 Plumeria
1010 ?

Long story short, the archetype of "Normal type + Aegislash + Mega Salamence" works. While this isn't the only instance of Porygon2 on the leaderboard, I'm certainly happy I was able to take it all the way to 1000. Best of luck to everyone on their quests through the Battle Tree!

This at best comes across as a super lucky streak where the luck is in not having anything more than 'moderately bad' occur over an enormous number of battles. Porygon2 isn't close to as specially bulky as Chansey, and relying on the latter's Substitute and Natural Cure to defeat something that would have easily ended my streaks had Chansey been frozen/crit/fully paralyzed/confused an extra time or two was so commonplace as to be not be particularly noteworthy. Even if you somehow had a Battle Armor Porygon2, it seems inevitable over 1000 battles that something like taking a STAB Thunder/Thunderbolt and getting parahaxed would at best leave you in a situation where Porygon2 is gone and the lead's Special Attack hasn't been reduced enough for Aegislash or Salamence to set up a Substitute, which is pretty much game over there.

The reliance on 90% Toxic for Dragon Dance leads also seems pretty glaring as even with good accuracy luck, you'd find yourself in plenty of situations where the Dragon Dancer takes P2 down and then has time to get off at least one more boosted attack (I obviously get that once you hit Toxic you'd be spamming Recover). Even if you play smart and bring out Salamence/Aegislash and then switch to the other to take a resisted hit, having one of those weakened against the wrong matchup means it no longer can counter what it needs to. Considering that these variants of Salamence and Aegislash are even more dependent on crippling than the standard ones, that would easily end a streak. That's even before considering all the 50/50s with sets; for example, Toxic is probably the last move you'd want to use against a Charizard-Y lead as it means that best case it will spread out a bunch of damage across your team while fainting before anything can set up.

 

[Level 51]

Hi everyone! As part of my plan to produce concrete proof that Level 51 isn't a mindless Phero/Lele robot, I've undertaken a Super Multis streak without either Pheromosa OR Tapu Lele on my team! The reason for this is simple: Pheromosa and Tapu Lele kind of suck in Multis. Oh well. Reporting a completed streak of—rather frustratingly—99 in Super Multis with AI Partner.

+

Anyway, here's the team! I paired with Colress, who used Porygon2-4 and Metagross-4. In retrospect Porygon2-3 would have been a way better set, but while acknowledging that is one thing, running into Colress, with Porygon2-3 and Metagross-4, with Porygon2-3 as the lead and Metagross-4 in the second spot, AND remembering to scout him, is another matter entirely. This team incorporates a lot of patterns noticeable in other high-performing 2v2 streaks: notably, the Mega Salamence / Mega Metagross pairing hearkens back to cannibal and ProjectTitan313's human Multis streak, while my lead resembles Pav A Nice Day's Choice Specs Tapu Koko from his AI Multis streak (which Volt Switches out into said Mega Salamence, a la turskain's Raikou / Salamence Super Doubles streak from Maison days).

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tri Attack
- Thunder Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Ice Beam

Porygon2 is such a good Pokemon. I don't understand why, but it just is. Even with 252/0 it has enough bulk to take a vast majority of the hits that will be thrown at it, while the 252+ investment in Special Attack mean that it actually does a lot of damage. Download is a really strong ability when it activates a Special Attack boost, letting Porygon2 do way more damage than you'd think it should. It's easy to forget that this thing actually has a pretty respectable Special Attack stat of 105, and it sure shows. The only downside of this set was that Colress really enjoyed using Thunder Wave, even on things that one really shouldn't be Thunder Waving—I lost my streak when it Thunder Waved the opposing Synchronize Lum Espeon-3 and then proceeded to get fully paralysed 3 turns in a row. I'd attribute this phenomenon to the possibility that the AI thought that my Electric Terrain would boost Thunder Wave, but that's neither here nor there, huh? Sometimes, though, I was pretty grateful for the speed control Thunder Wave afforded me, making opposing Tyranitar or Gyarados leads a lot less pressuring on my resources since I could be fairly sure they would wind up paralysed even if they did get a Dance off. The rest of the set is pretty alright—notably, Shadow Ball hits some fun stuff like a lot of TR setters, though Porygon2 tends to never use it on Turn 1—and all in all Porygon2 delivered way above what I expected from it, even with a half-brain-dead AI controlling it. Poor duck, it's not your fault your trainer is so bad.

Oh, also, Download technically lets you determine enemy sets from Turn 0 in some edge cases, but I never actually did that.

Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body → Tough Claws
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Meteor Mash
- Brick Break
- Bullet Punch

There's a few reasons why Metagross-4 is a good choice to give to your AI partner. For one, it's extremely easy to use, since it just has 4 attacks, all of which deal a lot of pain in the right situations. Furthermore, the AI actually knows how to use Bullet Punch properly, so it's a fairly safe bet to rely on it to finish off a weakened Pokemon in Bullet Punch range, taking a little of the enigma out of the AI's opaque logic sequences. With bulk, power, and speed—enough for the Tree, at any rate—the only downside is probably the AI's fondness for Brick Break's secondary effect. If you notice the opponent get a screen up, you can be almost sure your AI will try to break the screen, whether it's actually a good move or not. I've almost lost off this thing Brick Breaking an opposing Salamence instead of finishing it off with Zen Headbutt. There's not much to say about a set as simple as this, but Metagross is fearsomely effective even in the hands of an AI and it's probably flat out one of the best Pokemon you could entrust to your lifeless partner.

With this stuff to work with, I looked into my Battle Tree box, and pulled out Tapu Koko and Salamence. As mentioned earlier, these have some great synergy together—Salamence gets a surprising number of safe switch-ins since nothing really tries to use a paralysing or sleep move on Tapu Koko, and Tapu Koko also encourages opposing Garchomp-3 and Landorus-2 to lock into Earthquake and Earth Power respectively, making Salamence an absurdly good switch-in into a lot of the situations where I couldn't leave Tapu Koko in, whether by Volt Switch or a normal switch. Salamence also has the added benefit of providing Intimidate, making Porygon2 stick around a lot longer and also actually deal damage beyond just Thunder Waving stuff. Here's the sets I used:

Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot
- Volt Switch

Classic Choice Specs Tapu Koko. There's not much to say here, except I suppose to point out Grass Knot; I found it an important tool especially against Mamoswine leads, which threatened an OHKO onto both Tapu Koko and Salamence. I never really found myself wanting to use Hidden Power Ice, since Thunderbolt generally does more damage on all the Dragon/Flying types, and I'm not leaving Tapu Koko in on Garchomp just in case it's Garchomp-3.

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 6 SpA
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Flamethrower
- Protect

Two noteworthy things: firstly, Flamethrower with a Jolly nature. I had Dragon Dance on this the first two times I tried Super Multis, but I never used it and I lost my second streak to a Ferrothorn + Mega Scizor because I couldn't do enough damage. Flamethrower was the obvious replacement; even without investment and a negative nature it does good damage to threats like Ferrothorn, Mega Scizor, Escavalier, and—perhaps somewhat interestingly—Steelix. However, I forgot about the fact that this Salamence wasn't Hyper Trained in Special Attack, so I got this streak with a Special Attack IV of 6. Take from that what you will, I guess.

The other odd thing about this set, which is a little less obvious, is the inclusion of Earthquake when neither of my allies can Protect against it, neither are immune to it or even resist it, and indeed it even hits Metagross-4 super-effectively (and might 2HKO it, I think). This was pretty much a necessary evil, allowing me to do some semblance of damage to annoying Police Officer Pokemon like Gigalith and Tyranitar when Porygon2 refused to get KOd to let Metagross in to actually damage them before they get out of control (I almost lost this streak to Gigalith-4). Other than that, the set is pretty simple, hitting a nice speed tier at 187, tying only with Hawlucha-1 and -4, which are obviously not huge threats (note that the empty speed tier at 186 is not attainable, since 232 EVs give a stat of 185).

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So, on to the loss itself! It was battle 100, I was once again rushing through battles a bit because I wanted to go to sleep after 100 (which, ironically, I technically did), and out pop Kiawe and a random Golfer. I'm quite upset by this, since Kiawe is definitely the hardest special trainer for this team, with annoying Pokemon like the semi-broken Mega Kangaskhan and Marowak-"I'll redirect all your Thunderbolts"-Alola. Eeveelution Golfers are either really good for the team, with stuff like Vaporeon and select Glaceon sets being OHKOed by Tapu Koko, or really bad, when Porygon2 insists on Thunder Waving into Synchronize or when Umbreon-4 sets up one Curse too many. No prizes for guessing what happened in the battle.

As Turn 1 starts I face down an opposing Espeon and Mega Kangaskhan; I'm aware that Tapu Koko might get deleted this turn by Fake Out + some strong attack from Espeon, but I don't want to risk losing Mega Salamence, or having it heavily dented, since that would likely force me to lock Tapu Koko into an attack without prior knowledge of all my opponents' Pokemon. I indeed lose Tapu Koko turn 1 to Fake Out + Hyper Beam, and Kangaskhan is duly paralysed by Porygon2.

It all goes downhill from here; playing too safely allows Porygon2 to launch a Thunder Wave at a Lum Berry Espeon, which can only end in tears. Umbreon-4 shows up in the back and gets one Curse off, so I can only bring it down to 50%, outside range of an OHKO from Mega Metagross' Brick Break. Hope springs anew when Kiawe's second Pokemon is revealed to be Talonflame-"completely incapable of damaging any Steel- or Rock-type"-3, but Metagross takes more damage than I expected from Payback, and it doesn't even go for the potential Brick Break critical hit onto Umbreon, instead opting to Zen Headbutt the Talonflame because "it does more damage". Thanks, Colress.

Selected Battle Videos:
#47: 5FUG-WWWW-WWW8-2SPQ: A close call of some sort, probably. I don't really remember.
#79: GKLG-WWWW-WWW8-2SQ2: I forget what's in this video. Maybe it's worth watching?
#95: FU3G-WWWW-WWW8-2SQL: Illustrating the importance of Protect not only as a move to scout your opponent's moves, but also your ally's. Also, to burn turns while Porygon2 uses Thunder Wave.
#100: 57HG-WWWW-WWW8-2SQZ: Loss video.

That was a fun post to write. I'm not too upset about this loss, since I didn't put that much time into it, unlike my two prior Doubles streaks; also, I probably should have lost the streak a couple battles before this, but I got a lucky critical hit onto an opposing Articuno with Salamence's Double-Edge. Apologies for the following missing items from this post: (a) edgy / pretentious quote; (b) quirky proof photo; (c) actual thought put into recording the Battle Videos and explaining them. I might edit in the latter at a later time, but this is highly unlikely, since probably exactly 0 people are going to watch these videos anyway.

 

[Zerox27]

Hi everyone, I am getting a late start on Gen 7 but I'm about to beat the game and I'm getting ready to bring over all my breeding stuff from Gen 6to start the Battle Tree! Mainly, I'm looking for recommended sets for Salamence so I don't waste time not having an egg move or something silly when I start breeding them. It's looking like it only potentially needs Dragon Dance? Should I go Adamant or Jolly?