Lost at battle #402 vs Benji with Rotom-M-3, Garchomp-3, Tyranitar-2. Original write up
here; just the team:
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 60 SpD / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Rock Tomb
- Confide
With Jolly, 228 Spe and Choice Scarf it hits 231 speed stat, which is enough to outspeed everything but Terrakion-2, Entei-3, Garchomp-3 and Manectric-4, the rest of the EVs aren't optimal and need some kind of fine tuning (at least I should change them to something like 196 HP, 84 SpD, 228 Spe so Download users won't get the SpA boost). Earthquake is for KOing some scary stuff I can't really setup Mence on and the other 3 moves are straight up support, so I can get Mence in a situation to fully setup. Knock Off really comes in handy vs. opposing Pokémon who carry Life Orb or Choice items, because they lose power/speed and won't kill themselves anymore with LO or won't switchout when out of PP with Choice item. Rock Tomb is to drop the speed, so Mence can substitute before it has to tank a move, which is important so I won't get untimely critted and can avoid attacks and secondary effects, which could cripple Mence or fuck me up otherwise (Rock Slides flinches, Tbolts paras, Psychic and Shadow Balls SpD drops, Swaggers, and other moves). Confide does a really good job in allowing Mence to setup on a lot of special attackers. And together with Landos high speed and Choice Scarf it basically means that Landorus has never take a hit at full damage, if I don't want it to, since Intimidate lowers the opponents attack and I can lower the SpA with Confide, which is nice.
Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 4 SpA / 20 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Haze
- Toxic
- Recover
12 Spe to hit 57 speed stat, which is an empty speed tier. The rest is just to have a lot of physical defense. Had a more special defense based Toxapex before, but since it needs to tank a lot of strong physical moves like Head Smash, Stone Edge, Outrage and Explosion I went with this more physical defense based approach. Attacks are pretty standard too and it does its role really good, which is Toxic stalling stuff Mence can't setup on or PP stalling things like boost moves or strong attacks, so Mence can later come in and setup himself. EVs could use some fine tuning too btw, like maybe going for 61 speed stat, so it is faster then Hippowdon-4, Rhyperior-3, Gastrodon-4 and Exeguttor-A-2 and distributing a few more EVs in SpD.
->
Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 44 Def / 164 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Frustration
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
The best Mon to use in Battle Tree Singles IMO. It has great bulk, speed, attack, typing, ability, movepool... it's pretty ridiculous. And if you can setup to +6 you won't need more then Adamant 4 EVs and Frustration. It can OHKO everyhthing but ~50 sets, only 12 sets can't get 2HKOd and 6 of the 12 are some Set-1 or Set-2 Mons. No need for Earthquake or more offensive EVs at all. 44 Speed EVs to outspeed base 80 with positive speed nature and 252 EVs (like Blaziken-3, Gardevoir-3, Glalie-3, Medicham-3, Togekiss-3). It speedties with Gyarados-34, but that don't matter since I Toxic stall them anyways. Used 244 HP EVs so I can Substitute 4 times and still have 1 HP and because I had 8 EVs to give out in the end I dumped them into HP to make it max. For the defensive EVs I'll just show a bunch of damage calcs for you to get an overall idea on what Mence can set up on, highlighting some more important benchmarks.
Changed the EVs from Landorus to 196 HP, 84 SpD, 228 Spe, which came in handy in battles #264 and #270, since Porygon got only Atk boost in this games, which made them much easier, everything else was unchanged.
Kicking myself a bit, because I lost due to several dumb missplays I made and not to a bad matchup and bad luck... Battle Video from battle #402: 3GKW-WWWW-WWW5-THEF.
I should have used Confide T1 to either tank the Z-Move or the WoW from Rotom, but I instantly switched to Toxapex to tank the Z-Move, but it used WoW. So now Rotom could either use the Z-Move or Volt Switch I didn't want to take the gamble and switch to Lando or Mence, since if it used the wrong move it could have fucked me up (Z-Move could KO Lando, Volt Switch does decent amount of damage to Mence), so I stayed in and used Recover. It Volt Switched out to Garchomp, which was fine, 'cause I could just switch Lando into the Earthquake. Since it didn't mega evolve I knew it was the scarfed set, so it would switch out after I switched to Lando. So now I could EQ to hit anything but Rotom-M or Flygon-4 on the switch, or Confide in case he switches to Rotom-M again. I decided Rotom-M was the bigger threat, so I used Confide, while he switched to Tyranitar... I instantly switched to Toxapex, while it didn't mega evolve and used Dragon Dance. Since I couldn't just stay in a possible +1 EQ from Ttar-3 with Toxa, I switched back to Lando, but it DD'd again. And since I couldn't stay in a possible -1 Ice Beam from Ttar-2, I switched back to Toxa, and it DD'd again. At this point I thought I was royally fucked, but it DD'd again and I could Haze. Then I used Scald to get it in EQ KO range and it got burned, so I just stalled it to death with Toxa. And as it turned out, it was Ttar-2 without EQ and with IB. It switched to Garchomp again, so I switched to Lando. So I used Confide in the switchin to Rotom and switched to Toxa to finally tank the Z-Move. Then I somehow thought, I just need to kill Rotom-Mow, need to get Chomp locked into EQ and I win, so I switched back to Lando to slowly get it in KO range from Frustration from Mence. But after Lando was already dead and I have to decide which Pokémon I get in, I realized, that Chomp would just lock itself into Outrage and I lose when it gets like 1 critical hit or 2. So I got Toxa in, let it Volt Switch out to Chomp, go to Mence and setup 1 DD and 1 Sub and win after that. DD on the switch from Chomp to Rotom, and Sub to tank the WoW from Rotom, but it Volt Switches out instantly to Chomp. Since Mence was only at +1, Chomp was faster and KO'd with Outrage. I succesfully stalled Chomp with Toxa, but vs Rotoms Volt Switches it had no Chance...
I should have Confided until Rotom used the Z-Move and switch stalled the PP from Rotom afterwards, or I should have used EQ the first time Chomp switched out, or I should have used Toxic on Rotom and swichstalled until it died later on, when I just needed to get rid of it and let Chomp lock itself into EQ, or I just should have DD'd a second time instead of subbing... FML
If anyone wants to try out the team, I made it public as a rental team:
https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-444F-4C81
And here is my own Cheatsheet I made along the way with it:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UrPBHYrhm380umaQaMxsvsRH2h7xVvKEcoyaLXLbiN8/edit#gid=7306794
Including my journey from battle 201 until my loss and on how to play a lot of different lead matchups. But it's not completed and maybe around half of the matchups are only theorymon'd and not actually tested in battle. And sometimes it depends on the trainer type on how I play a lead matchup. For example when I face this trainers, who have a lot of fast Pokémon it's most of the times safer to just get 1 DD and maybe a Sub up with Mence and then try to sweep, than just stall the lead like Crobat-4, because when you stall the lead to death with Toxapex Alakazam, Noivern or Greninja could come in next and cause some major problems.
Some more battle videos from the run (would be more, but there is a limit of 10 videos you can have public at the same time...):
Battle #294 vs Levi (Chari-Y-3, Infernape, Blaziken-3; 45 turns): AJBW-WWWW-WWW5-TK39
EQ T1 since it could have been Chari-X, switched to Toxa and sacked it so I could Confide it once while I also sacked Lando, then needed to just get up 1 DD with Mence to outspeed and setup full and sweep. Nearly lost because Air Slash got high rolls most of the time and then it crit me once when I was Roosting without a Sub, bringing me down to 3HP.
Battle #300 vs Sina (Oranguru-4, Glaceon-3, Lilligant-3; 29 turns): FG2W-WWWW-WWW5-TJT7
Was really tired and really nervous when I played that battle, since it was like 6am in the morning and
I never hit 300 wins before. Somehow failed to notice that Oranguru-4 has Foul Play, so I started setting up Mence after confiding Lando to death. When I had +2 Atk/Spe with Mence and healthy HP i killed Oranguru and Glaceon came in. I should have just switched to Toxa and stalled it with Toxic, because Glaceon-3 doesn't die to Frustration due to Focus Sash and Glaceon-4 can avoid it, but I stayed in and it was Glaceon-3 with sash and killed me. Got lucky that I just could Toxic stall the last Pokémon with Toxapex.
Battle #305 vs Samantha (Latios-M-4, Regice-3, Virizion-3; 21 turns): FK5G-WWWW-WWW5-TJSM
Had to sack Lando vs Latios and finish it off with Mence. Got lucky that she didn't have Raikou, Thundurus or Zapdos in the back and could Toxic stall the last 2 mons with Toxapex.
Battle #362 vs Mechabob (Regigigas-2, Registeel-3, Cobalion-3; 60 turns): W9FG-WWWW-WWW5-TJRY
This should have been an easy battle with just setting up Mence and sweeping, but because I am dumb I got Mence toxed so I couldn't setup (I tried but it wasn't possible). Had to PP and Toxic stall Regigigas and PP stall Registeel.
Battle #377 vs Placido (Articuno-2, Entei-1, Registeel-2; 41 turns): 7VLG-WWWW-WWW5-TJR2
My nightmare-matchup returned: Articuno-2. And this time it played completely differently then the last time at #166, it spammed Ice Beam until it was out of it, and after I switched to Toxapex I predicted a Mind Reader so I switched back to Lando and it died to said Ice Beam lol. So this time I didn't even had it at -1 SpA, but it again I got lucky by not getting unlucky and it didn't freeze or crit me and in the end I could setup Mence and sweep.
Battle #386 vs Niara (Delphox-4, Venusaur-3, Infernape-3; 10 turns): 3MJG-WWWW-WWW5-TJL8
Something funny for the end. Intimidate from Landorus used Delphox White Herb and after Rock Tombing it, it stole the Scarf from Lando with Magician lol. Because Niara only uses starter Pokémon I decided I still setup as far as possible with Mence and try to sweep, which I did.
And now back to the drawing board for me... Cya with another team. :)