Platinum/HG/SS Battle Frontier and DP Battle Tower Records

[Groombridge]

DP Doubles, 137 wins

- -
Rain offence team

Starmie @ Focus Sash ** Mersenne
Timid, Natural Cure
6 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
Rain Dance/Surf/Thunder/Ice Beam
- Rain setup, sweeper

Toxicroak @ Expert Belt ** Cerenkov
Adamant, Dry Skin
116 HP, 252 Atk, 140 Spe
Fake Out/Helping Hand/Low Kick/Sucker Punch
- support, physical coverage

Kingdra @ Life Orb ** Vela
Modest, Swift Swim
200 HP, 252 SpA, 56 Spe
Rain Dance/Surf/Draco Meteor/Ice Beam
- sweeper, secondary Rain setup

Ludicolo @ Leftovers ** Zeeman
Bold, Swift Swim
134 HP, 252 SpA, 124 Spe
Leech Seed/Surf/Grass Knot/Ice Beam
- sweeper

Not a great run, but on the leaderboard at least. I lost due to a bad first turn: I should have flinched Lapras, since Heracross couldn't kill Starmie due to its Sash.

1
Flinch Hera, RD
Lapras: Psy Croak, KO

2 Me: Kingdra
Kingdra Surf, Starmie Surf: Hera KO, Lapras 45%
Lapras TBolt Starmie KO

3 Me: Ludi. AI: Scizor
Kingdra Surf: Scizor 65%
Ludi GK Lapras KO

4 AI: Tyranitar
TTar SE, crit Kingdra KO

TTar was the killer: Kingdra can deal with so much in the Rain, but SS removed that advantage.

The TTar was probably the Choice Scarf one, so it outsped Kingdra outside the Rain. The crit Stone Edge didn't matter all that much: Kingdra would have needed to hit TTar twice for the kill, taking out Scizor in the process. Two LO hits plus Sandstream takes off 26%; it had lost 20% to LO already plus residual Surf damage. So TTar would have had to miss completely and not had a Scarf, or missed twice; unlikely.

This loss, like many before, was due mostly to lack of attention. Pearl is so slow that I don't just play the game, I play while watching TV or whatever. So much time in battle is spent watching the slow-ass animations for pokeballs etc, or for messages to appear and disappear, that it feels like I spend most of the time waiting - and I might as well be watching Lost while I do. So many times, I've made a move selection and turned to the TV, then looked back and wondered what the AI did during its turn. This obviously leads to losses, and getting on tilt without realising it. This time around, I was aware that one Lapras had Psychic, but I flinched Heracross anyway.

Recent comments from Bozo and Jump have helped me decide to rock Platinum:

yeah i fell in love with platinum all over against after my run to "lol 499", every single move selection takes a full second longer to kick in than in plat

and when you use curse it takes aaaaaaaaages to go through all the messages. but on plat if youre hitting the screen with the stylus, its faster than even d/p amnesia.

I suspect that with increased speed, I could 'play the game' more. I'd probably still watch TV at the same time, but that would be my 'background' activity instead of BT (multishirking FTW).

After I lost, with the usual feeling of irritation, I played some other DS games I hadn't played in a while. GTA:CW surprised me with how quickly it started (no Game Freak message, immediately skippable title screen), and how quickly I was into the game. Pretty sure that's a much bigger game than Pearl too. I even saved it in less than ten seconds!

I switched to Advance Wars DS after that. Turn-based, but so much faster - you can tap through anything, menus are faster and more responsive. The game is as fast as you want it to be, whereas Pearl feels like it's stuck in first the whole time.

So goodbye to 2006. Time to get up-to-date: it's 2009 now!

That was all kind of tangential to the BT. I have actually made a small change to my team, giving Croak 140 Spe EVs to beat the 170 Spe EV Metagross, which is Meta 1 in DP. (140 Spe EV/31 IV Adamant Croak at lv.50: 123 speed. 170 Spe EV/31 IV +Spe nature Meta at lv.50: 122 speed.) This Meta is only used by Collector Kelton (set 1 pokes), but Kelton is the only trainer to use Blissey 1 in the game. Bliss 1 is Counter/Toxic/DT/Softboiled @ Leftovers, HP/Def: goddamn Kryptonite to my team. Without Croak, I lose to it every time, so I gave Croak the speed to beat his Meta, so it if leads, Croak and Starmie can focus fire that bitch off my screen (thanks to Jump for suggesting a method to do this: Fake Out/Surf, Surf/Low Kick kills all Metagross).

In Platinum, none of the Metas have any speed, so Croak's going right back to 252 HP/6 Spe. And better still, none of the Blisseys have any Def EVs! In DP, all of them do, and three of them have Counter. In Platinum, Croak's Expert Belt Low Kick OHKOs every one of them, every time. More Signal Beams all round, which are bad for Starmie and Ludi, but we'll see how it pans out. I have to get to the damn Frontier first...

When I get around to putting together a singles team, I have the nicknames already lined up:

• Flocke - a Glenscarfer, exploiting the AI's 'loophole'
• Smokey - Smeargle with Transform and Judgment
• Jacob - leave unrevealed for as long as possible, then use Destiny Bond

Season 6 FTW. Good luck, pokemon trainers...

 

[Grissom]

i tried tower again this morning using the same team and lost to a legendary trainer, it was a close one too :(

912 | Raikou | Jolly | King's Rock | Thunder Fang | Crunch | Iron Head | Return | Atk/Spe
896 | Zapdos | Serious | Yache Berry | Thunder | Drill Peck | Thunder Wave | Rain Dance | Atk/Spe
903 | Registeel | Modest | Lum Berry | Flash Cannon | Thunderbolt | Thunder Wave | Amnesia | HP/SpA

i'm such a noob i didn't know raikou was faster so he outsped me
raikou used crunch, sash activated, gengar used shadow ball
raikou used crunch, gengar fainted
i send out machamp
raikou used return, machamp used dynamic punch, raikou fainted
foe sends out zapdos (damn it)
machamp used dynamic punch, zapdos confused, zapdos used thunder, machamp fainted
i send out latios
latios used psychic, zapdos fainted
foe sends out registeel
latios used surf (about 1/4 damage), registeel used thunderwave, latias is paralyzed
registeel used amnesia, latios used surf (he had like 3/5 hp)
registeel used flash cannon, latios used surf (2/5)
registeel used flash cannon (i survived with 6 hp), latios used surf, critical hit!
registeel fainted, life orb recoil (oh fuuck), latios fainted
damn it, i should've won
omg i suck

 

[Ben of Oz]

So I'm a dumbass and forgot that Weaville appears in Ice AND Dark categories in battle hall. Ruined a 149 streak I had with

(F) @ Focus Sash ** WHATEHFU
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 16Atk/240SAtk/252Spd
IVs: 29/31/28/31/24/31
Nature: Naive
~ Outrage
~ Draco Meteor
~ Earthquake
~ Flamethrower

I saw a lot of people using Sala having trouble with high defense pogeys, particularly H438 | Regirock, so I figured, why not mix it up. The basic strategy is use outrage to fuck everything up, and earthquake or flamethrower everything that resists (read: steels). I only use Draco Meteor when 1. DM + Outrage is the only way to 2HKO or 2. Draco Meteor OHKOs and nothing else will, and I've decided that it's too risky to try for a 2HKO. It's ridiculously powerful, but 90% accuracy is the worst.

This still gets killed by that stupid Focus Sash Weaville. If anyone has any idea how a dragon can beat him (besides Fling w/ razor claw), please tell me.

I don't really change the moveset at all; Draco Meteor and Outrage do enough damage to 2HKO or OHKO virtually everything in Battle Hall that doesn't resist Dragon. I do wish I had HP Grass for Water and Rock so I wasn't carrying a useless Flamethrower.

Any feedback or criticism would be much appreciated.

 

[CBshuckle]

Aaaargh, lost at 79 today at the doubles platinum tower, 6 away from the leaderboard, not that I probably would have been added anyways...

Whatever, I recently had the weirdest battle ever - I got haxed the whole way through, and I would have lost, except the very last turn I got some luck as well.

Turn 1:

My garchomp w/yache berry (no SD) and LO zapdos vs. a gyarados and a latias. I switch chomp to bronzong to avoid being OHKO'ed by latias and I use discharge. Zapdos goes first (stupid modest latias faking me out) and kills gyarados, does ~20% to latias, and of course crits AND paralyzes bronzong leaving it with about 30% (it's ev'd in defense not sp. def), so latias cleans up bronzong with draco meteor. The paralysis was just for the extra obligatory hax.

Turn 2:

I send in Sashgar, opponent sends in tyranitar. I have gengar use shadow ball to hopefully finish off latias, it survives with a milimeter while zapdos uses HP Grass against tyranitar doing about 40%. Then, latias uses draco meteor (white herb restored its power), leaving zapdos with a milimeter as well, and finally tyranitar's payback leaves gengar with 1 hp due to sash. End of turn = all 3 of them dead.

Turn 3:

I send in my full health chomp against a 60% health tyranitar and... an aggron comes out! Easy victory, right? Not quite - QC activates, aggron uses ice punch which does 60% due to yache, EQ kills aggron and leaves tyranitar with 1 hp due to stupid focus band activating. Tyranitar uses avalanche, a 100% accurate move so I'm dead... but no! It misses because of sand veil, and I'm free to clean it up next turn.

 

[Eppie]

Why is only Jumpman added to the scoreboard? -_-

 

[Jumpman16]

i added bozo too! lol ive thought about adding other people but i've been busy with the suspect test SEXP stats and voting and paragraph submissions and to be honest it's peterko's thread and updating it is his responsibility and he's been "gone" three weeks now...i understand wanting to take a break for whatever reasons but that's kind of a long time. i might do some more later

 

[CBshuckle]

At least please add my doubles arcade record (pic in my sig, description below), as it's the only doubles arcade record for now.

 

[CBshuckle]

Platinum Doubles Arcade: 78

Gengar
Levitate
252 Sp. Att / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Timid
-Shadow Ball
-Thunder Bolt
-Focus Blast
-Destiny Bond

Gengar pwns, even without the helpful focus sash. Even with focus blast's shaky accuracy, it still comes through (sometimes) in the clutch and helps deal with all those annoying ice pokes. Destiny Bond I use rarely but can be pretty helpful.

Garchomp
Sand Veil
252 Att / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Jolly
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Aerial Ace
-Stone Edge

There's no SD here because it's pretty useless in doubles. Aerial Ace and Stone Edge are mainly filler although they aren't NEVER used. Generally turn 1 I'll have gengar attack an opponent super effectively and have chomp use EQ if I don't think gengar will OHKO because chomp will finish off the weakened poke and deal damage to the other one. If I know that gengar will OHKO, generally I'll use outrage to severly weaken the other one. While he is taken down pretty easily with ice attacks and there is twice the chance of encountering an ice attack, a lot of the time I can defeat my opponents without taking a single hit.

Metagross
Clear Body
172 HP / 252 Att / 84 Speed
Adamant
-Earthquake
-Explosion
-Bullet Punch
-Meteor Mash

Metagross was very difficult to take down, even with super effective non-STAB'ed attacks. Explosion was never really used, but I can't replace it because it would be difficult to get back again. Meteor Mash's subpar accuracy wasn't too huge of a problem, although it could miss in a crucial spot.

In the end, I lost to luxray, bronzong, and medicham. Yea, you're like "WTF? how could he lose to them" Well, one stupid word: FOG. fog is such a (BAN ME PLEASE)... every single possible important hit missed, and my opponent's attacks barely missed at all. In the end, I might have made 1 or 2 mistakes, but if there had been no fog I definitely would have won. Oh, and the CPU got a crucial critical hit. Surprisingly, I used this same exact team before with one minor difference - metagross was a lead instead of being the reserve, and with that team the best I could do was 29. By simply switch one poke, I got 49 more wins. Actually, I did get very lucky sometimes:

One time, it was metagross v donphan 1v1, and I won because donphan's fissure missed 3 times in a row (there was no fog or anything to decrease his accuracy).

Another time, all my pokemon were burned by the arcade panel and I was up against a legend team - latios, regice, registeel. Turn 1 latios went first and OHKO'ed chomp with ice beam. However, I got a lucky crit, killing latios with shadow ball while regice did ~70% to gengar with his own ice beam. Metagross went in. The next turn, I used destiny bond with gengar, and meteor mash did ~75% to regice while regirock killed gengar with rock slide so regirock died too. The next turn, I managed to pull out the win with metagross' earthquake.

 

[Grissom]

hey jumpman, did you breed a new drapion for bt? because it says Adamant on your post or was it just a typo?

(M) @ Black Sludge ** DRAPULA
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252HP/252SpD/4Spe
Nature: Adamant
~ Crunch
~ Acupressure
~ Substitute
~ Rest

 

[Jumpman16]

no, good catch, as i was coincidentally just updating my youtube vid with my correct Drapula spread. I decided that I needed to focus much much more on initial defense, so 252HP/252SpD/4SPe Adamant went out the window for Careful and a 252HP/56Def/196SpD/4Spe spread. This meant 121Attack/130Defense/127Special Defense became 110Attack/138Defense/132Special Defense, and I don't miss the extra Attack at all (because I don't need it).

 

[Grissom]

ah ok, thanks for clearing that up

 

[CBshuckle]

Here's a team I've been thinking about making, very similar to ChineseDood's doubles rain team, although I'm making some significant changes.

Lead 1:

Electrode @ Focus Sash
Soundproof
252 Attack / 4 Special Attack / 252 Speed
Hasty
-Rain Dance
-Thunder
-Explosion
-Protect

Lead 2:

Ludicolo @ Lum Berry
Swift Swim
132 HP / 252 Special Attack / 124 Speed
Modest
-Fake Out
-Surf
-Grass Knot/Ice Beam (probably grass knot)
-Protect

Almost the same two leads, except I'm trying electrode over jolteon mainly due to explosion, a very nice move plus as it's the only physical move on my team I need something to deal with blissey (it's an easy OHKO). Turn 1 = Rain Dance + Fake Out, Turn 2 = Explosion + Protect usually, or I could Protect + Surf depending on the opponents, etc.

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Swift Swim
228 HP / 252 Special Attack / 4 Speed / 24 Defense
Modest
-Surf
-Draco Meteor
-Dragon Pulse
-HP Grass

228 HP is for a LO number (179 HP, to be exact), while 4 Speed is the minimum in Rain to outspeed Timid Electrode

Latios @ Choice Specs
Levitate
252 Special Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Timid (or modest?)
-Surf
-Thunder
-Dragon Pulse (for the accuracy)
-Psychic

Very powerful, even with timid, although modest might be better. Thoughts? I haven't tested this team yet but it looks pretty good although tyranitar and other weather-changers could be troublesome.

 

[thelaytonmobile]

Does anyone here have HG/SS? I was wondering if the Frontier movesets will once again change to reflect the new Move Tutors, egg moves etc.

 

[CBshuckle]

If I were to use specslatios, would timid or modest be better? Also, should I use draco meteor or dragon pulse? Draco Meteor's 90% accuracy could be bad, but the power difference is quite significant...

 

[Buba]

Now on 105 wins in Single Tower. Using Bozo's team. I will give more information when I lose(hoping not soon)

 

[ZagZag]

Now that the main page has been updated I have noticed that Peterko's streak seems to have been removed. Why is this?

 

[Lightsabre]

I notice that some people actualy LV up their opponent's pokemon in the Castle... why? does this add battle or castle points? because it seems like a huge waste of castle points

EDIT: ah thanks for clearing that up. that'll help me when I make my castle run

 

[CBshuckle]

Because you get an extra net 6 CP per level up, and if you have a garchomp a lvl 55 aggron won't make much difference compared to a lvl 50 aggron.

 

[Jumpman16]

and it only costs 1CP per poke to do it so in the early stages it is a strategic way of playing the castle to accrue a lot of points early

anyway, i will be brief about the new reformatting of the records page, but i am kind of forced to say something so i will be blunt as well. peterko, i appreciate you taking my suggestion that the dates of records, but i dont think anyone but you and maybe bozo agree with the way you've decided to recognize records now. it doesnt make any sense to marginalize the efforts of those people who have not yet lost in their current streaks. and the timing of such a decision is "dubious", to put it lightly. i would appreciate you posting in this thread to explain yourself but i'm going to "strongly recommend" you revert the page back to the way it was

 

[Bozo]

i added bozo too! lol ive thought about adding other people but i've been busy with the suspect test SEXP stats and voting and paragraph submissions and to be honest it's peterko's thread and updating it is his responsibility and he's been "gone" three weeks now...i understand wanting to take a break for whatever reasons but that's kind of a long time. i might do some more later

thanks :) i was wondering if my d/p score was ever going to appear!

Now that the main page has been updated I have noticed that Peterko's streak seems to have been removed. Why is this?

i was wondering this too - i mean, i'm happy to "be number 1" in platinum since peterko has accidentally disappeared, and jumpman's record is apparently inferior since he hasnt yet lost ;) but then when i checked it, it says it was last edited by peterko, which really confused me. and leads me to this post:

anyway, i will be brief about the new reformatting of the records page, but i am kind of forced to say something so i will be blunt as well. peterko, i appreciate you taking my suggestion that the dates of records, but i dont think anyone but you and maybe bozo agree with the way you've decided to recognize records now. it doesnt make any sense to marginalize the efforts of those people who have not yet lost in their current streaks. and the timing of such a decision is "dubious", to put it lightly. i would appreciate you posting in this thread to explain yourself but i'm going to "strongly recommend" you revert the page back to the way it was

i'm not sure what you mean to say i am agreeing with, but personally i liked it better the other way. i know it isnt designed to marginalise people with unfinished streaks, but it seems ridiculous that the person who has the top streak is not at the top of the list. i mean the richest person in the world is the guy with the most money, even if he is still alive and therefore still accumulating wealth.

i guess there is some argument to having a general rule of "finish your streak and then we'll add you". some people might say "ive just got 180* can you add me" and then post the next day "its 200* now add me" and keep going like this. but i think the 2364* for example is different. if a truly "important" milestone has been reached (eg becoming #1 lol) i think it warrants editing in, even if the streak is unfinished and maybe even still active.

EDIT: perhaps have some kind of policy of allowing someone to ask for their unbroken streak to be added, but not updating it anymore unless either (a) they lose, (b) they absolutely guarantee they will not play it again, or (c) have become number 1.

also, i see an argument for separating d/p streaks with tradeback moves to an extent, but i think having completely separate lists is probably going a bit far. i mean, we live in the present, not the past, so everyone has access to the same moves now. sure, put them in a different colour, or italics or whatever, so that people who used the old moves only can have the recognition they deserve, but again it just complicates things, and maybe marginalises the (legitimate) achievements of people. if we were to follow this logic, then the d/p wifi battle tower records would need 3 separate lists:

1. pre-platinum days
2. post-platinum days for people who used tradeback moves
3. post-platinum days for people who did not use tradeback moves (and therefore had the hardest time of all, since the opponents can use them).

this just seems unfeasible, and completely against the spirit of this thread which, simply, is to list which people have the biggest numbers on their screen. if it were me organising it, i would have it look something like this:

Diamond/Pearl
Note - (i) grey lettering indicates the use of moves not originally available in D/P, and (ii) asterisks indicate a streak which has not yet come to an end.

1. Bozo (595) - Latias, Registeel, Salamence
2. Jumpman16 (499) - Cresselia, Latios, Scizor +Battle #500 Warstory
3. Peterko (459) - Latios, Skarmory, Snorlax
4. Team Rocket Elite (330) - Gengar, Blissey, Froslass

etc.......

Platinum
Note - asterisks indicate a streak which has not yet come to an end.

1. Jumpman16 (2364*) - Mesprit, Drapion, Garchomp & video of 2359-2364 & some other videos
2. Peterko - wherever the links went...
3. Bozo (459) - Latias, Registeel, Salamence
4. garo (413) - Uxie, Registeel, Dragonite
5. Dr.Dimentio (313) - Uxie, Registeel, Garchomp

i don't really see the need to format colours in for the top 3 or anything like that.

also, i guess the dates are interesting, although they of course aren't 100% accurate - eg i wasnt able to report some of my streaks until weeks after they occurred in some cases.

finally, having extra information about people's other streaks seems superfluous. eg why does my 165 streak "deserve" to be near the top? it's not like these are lists of the "best people" but rather the best streaks. i mean peterko and jumpman have both broken 2000. to me that means they are about as good battlers as any person could hope to be, and therefore pretty much the equal of eachother. peterko had some bad luck at that particular point, before jumpman did (or would if he continued). just like when i got to battle 500 in d/p and it was easy - doesnt mean i'm "better" than jumpman/peterko, just that my game decided to allow me to keep going.

i hope this all doesnt sound too "judgemental". i just think the thread has gotten a bit complicated, and that it is now a little misleading, with unbroken streaks somehow being pushed to the fine print.

 

[Rave]

On an unrelated note I very much approve of the new organisation for people with more than one ranked streak.

1. Bozo (459) - January 4th, 2010 - Latias, Registeel, Salamence;
Bozo (174) - November 13th, 2009 - Latias, Registeel, Garchomp;
Bozo (165) - October 26th, 2009 - Salamence, Suicune, Blissey

It looks much nicer. I don't see why one person shouldn't be able to take more than one place on the leaderboard, but it's not my place to talk.

I don't actually post in this thread, but I look at it a fair bit, and I thought that this was innovative.

bye ^_^

 

[Jumpman16]

i'm not sure what you mean to say i am agreeing with, but personally i liked it better the other way. i know it isnt designed to marginalise people with unfinished streaks, but it seems ridiculous that the person who has the top streak is not at the top of the list. i mean the richest person in the world is the guy with the most money, even if he is still alive and therefore still accumulating wealth.

yeah that's all i meant by "maybe bozo" since for whatever reason you are now at the top of the first list in gold, and if peterko is going to take another month-long hiatus from checking his thread then he would appear to want to keep it that way for quite some time

and to me it's either an intentional marginalization or unintentionally ridiculous, i hope it's the latter because i let peterko make this platinum thread last april under the impression that he was reasonable and responsible. i dont think anyone would have complained if i would have made it given i had like a tenth of the posts there

i guess there is some argument to having a general rule of "finish your streak and then we'll add you". some people might say "ive just got 180* can you add me" and then post the next day "its 200* now add me" and keep going like this.

"finish your streak and then we'll add you" lends itself to rushed, erratic playing and actually makes the point of these threads to lose, no matter where you are, in order to get equal recognition. it doesn't seem reasonable to me and the timing of it makes it seem dubious. and people posting unfinished records and posting "im at ### now" and expecting their records to be updated every time has not really been a problem in this thread at all in the last year

anyway with all that said i'm pretty sure peterko remembers that im an admin and i can do whatever i want whenever i want, but i figure i would try to get him to explain himself before doing anything

also i broke my battle hall record and i'm at 250, this time with kingdra: 27-32190-80555...under the new apparent rules though im not supposed to edit myself in cause i haven't lost yet? lol

 

[Chinese Dood]

I kinda think it should be like: don't post about unfinished streaks unless you came up in at least one rank in the records... unless you're at number 1 (in which case post whenever because you're special), so like if I were at 120 streak at #9 rank, and #8 is at 130, then I won't post until I'm at least 131. And then not post again until I beat whatever #7's streak is.

But yah, I didn't think we really had any problems with this recently. Just saying that if we do have a problem in the future, maybe that's the route to undertake.

 

[EeveeTrainer]

stop it, peterko is obviously trolling all of you

( i know a good troll when i see one )

 

[Bozo]

i guess i'm more trying to find an acceptable middle ground. i realise everyone likes to have their names on the list, but also that it takes time for someone to keep the lists updated.

i have absolutely no problem with unfinished streaks being in the list. why would i? an unfinished streak is obviously better than a finished one. but on the other hand, perhaps peterko wanted the unfinished streaks by themselves so he didnt have to move everything around all the time. if they were actually "streaks in progress" rather than "i got to xxxx and im not going any further" then they could certainly be kept to the side until they are finished for minimum of disrupting. but with that said, if one of those streaks in progress gets to say the top 5, then by all means edit them in, because people look to the leader board to see where they are, and it would be good for it to be as accurate as possible. at the moment, its ridiculous that someone could come from another site, have a 5 second look at the thread and see that the "top score on smogon" is just 459, when really thats about a fifth of the top score (which in theory could go waaaaaay higher given that it is unbeaten).

i'd like to see what peterko's reasoning is, but if he doesnt come back for a while, probably jumpman should (if he is willing of course) take over the running of the first post so the thread can go back to what it was always meant to be - a place to discuss the BF, and have your records kept up to date.