Battle Maison Discussion & Records

[Korados]

Phew, I was able to beat Dana in Super Triples! I have the video for the normal Triples fight but not for the Super Triples because I forgot to save the video. But I made a picture of the trophies! Sorry that it's so blurry.
But you can see the date on the Touchscreen as proof. That was Chateleine number three for me! Big thanks to Eppie for his great team! :D

Normal Triples: VRNG-WWWW-WWWK-3HYT

 

[turskain]

He leads with Exeggutor 4. No problem: I'm well-acquainted with that, and know that I can beat it while keeping my entire team at full health.

Whimsicott used Encore (it failed); Exeggutor used Trick Room
Whimsicott used Encore; Exeggutor used Trick Room
Switch to Durant; Exeggutor used Trick Room
Durant used Entrainment; Exeggutor used Trick Room

As I always did, I go to Drapion to set up a bit until Exeggutor Explodes. If my boosts are good, I can start killing stuff; if not, I can just stall out Trick Room and switch back to Whimsicott, then set up Entrainment again.

Drapion used Substitute; Exeggutor used Trick Room (as expected)
Drapion used Acupressure (Drapion's Speed rose sharply!); Exeggutor is loafing around
Drapion used Protect; Exeggutor used Explosion.

I have a Sub and a Speed boost (bad in Trick Room, good when Trick Room runs out) and can easily Sub/Protect stall out TR, so I figure I'm in a good spot.

Chef Nicoise sent out Emboar!

...oh shit. Emboar 4 can set up a Sub that Drapion can't break, and Sub renders Entrainment useless. Trick Room's continued presence means I have to wait it out until I can get in Durant. I decide to scout and stall out Trick Room a bit. I'm panicking.

Emboar used Focus Blast (Sub broke); Drapion used Acupressure (Drapion's accuracy rose sharply!)
Drapion used Protect; Emboar used Focus Blast

It has now used Focus Blast two turns in a row, so I'm hoping it really likes the move. I can stall it out a bit and hope for Focus Blast misses, but once it runs out, it's throwing out 100% accuracy Flamethrowers, and I might take a big hit from Focus Blast this turn. I switch out to Whimsicott, hoping to Encore it into Focus Blast (or Flamethrower. Or Scald. Anything but Substitute).

Emboar used Substitute!

Fuuuuuck. This looks pretty bad, so I decide to do the only thing that kind of does something: Encore the Substitute (note: this is really stupid, but it didn't make a difference).

Whimsicott used Encore! Emboar used Substitute!

Switch to Durant, Emboar used Substitute!

I can try to break its Sub with Aerial Ace, but then the Encore will end. I go back to Whimsicott. Emboar used Substitute; its Encore ended. Encore again!

Whimsicott used Encore; Emboar used Substitute.

Now to use Taunt for massive damage!

Whimsicott used Taunt; Emboar can't use Substitute after the Taunt!
Whimsicott used Encore (it failed); Emboar has no moves left! Emboar used Struggle!

...aaand the flimsiness of my strategy comes into full view. Emboar can't be locked into Struggle and is now forced to attack.
Whimsicott used Encore (it still failed), Emboar used Flamethrower. Whimsicott fainted!

Okay, I know I'm pretty screwed if I don't find a way to break that Sub and set up Drapion (note: that is CLEARLY not going to happen, but I'm not thinking straight). I go to Drapion and pick Sub. It uses Focus Blast and hits; Drapion is down to 69 HP, I set up a Sub.

Emboar used Focus Blast; Drapion used Protect
Emboar used Focus Blast (Sub breaks); Drapion used Acupressure (come on, evasion! Nope, it's Speed...at least I'm faster now)
Drapion used Protect; Emboar used Flamethrower
Drapion used Acupressure (Attack rose sharply!); Emboar used...Scald? Drapion lives with 16 HP
Drapion used Protect; Emboar used Scald
Drapion used Knock Off; Emboar's Substitute faded! Emboar used Scald (magically don't KO me, please). Drapion fainted! (Whoops)
Durant used Aerial Ace! Emboar's Salac Berry boosted its Speed (and it probably got a Blaze boost as well...yay). Emboar used Flamethrower; Durant fainted!

Breaking the Sub with Aerial Ace after switching in Durant after Encore and then going back to Whimsicott when its Encore ends on that turn looks like the "right play" in retrospect; no matter what it does, you should end up in a good position.

If it uses Flamethrower, you can Taunt/Encore it into a non-Sub move (or get killed by a burn proc) and set up Entrainment once Whimsicott dies as it no longer has the Sub. If it uses Substitute again (which shouldn't happen with Emboar having Flamethrower to OHKO Durant), you can Encore it into Substitute, and repeat the Encore/switch in Durant/break sub/switch in Whimsicott maneuver until it no longer uses Sub (or runs out of PP).

At a glance, switching in Whimsicott and Encoring the Sub if the enemy uses it (and doing normal Taunt/Encore/Memento things if it doesn't) and applying the Durant switch sub-breaking maneuver seems like the preferred play against threatening Substitute users in a pinch as long as Durant can break the sub. To that end, using Superpower over Iron Head to destroy Empoleon4's Substitute and deliver equivalent damage against many others seems like a good change to make - between Aerial Ace, Superpower and X-Scissor, Durant should be able to "break all Substitutes" while also hitting Terrakion, Cobalion and others.



Howewer, this battle had the additional complication of TR being up after Explosion (which is only possible against Exeggutor4, and rarely Reuniclus2 from Ace Trainer Jai and Hex Maniac Mara), but it played out "perfectly" in that TR ran out without much happening and Emboar used Substitute on the turn when Whimsicott came in, and not before. What if it used Substitute instantly while TR was still up?

1. Exeggutor uses Trick Room

2. Exeggutor loafed around

3. Exeggutor used Explosion

Emboar comes in

4. Switch in Whimsicott - Emboar used Substitute

5. Whimsicott used Encore -- Trick Room ends

6. Switch Durant, break sub, switch Whimsicott, win battle

If it used Substitute or Focus Blast (like in this warstory - those two "should be" its preferred moves), that would work out perfectly - but there is a risk of it using the weaker Flamethrower and burning Whimsicott on the switch-in to OHKO it through Sash on the fourth turn of Trick Room. That doesn't seem like a risk you can avoid - but Emboar4 is the only Set4 Fire-type with Substitute and it has stronger moves it should prefer AND it would only matter against an Exeggutor4 lead, which is very rare in combination with Emboar4 - Emboar4 is Set-A and Exeggutor4 is Set-B, so Chef Nicoise is pretty much the only trainer that can run this specific combination.

 

[Berry Juice]

I've just been getting into the Maison a bit more seriously these days—I'm home for the break, and have no schoolwork. I got myself to battle 50 and was subsequently demolished by the Chatelaine. I had become far too confident after not even having broken a sweat through the first forty-nine battles, and didn't spend much time looking at what sets she used. Initially just glancing at the Serebii page for the Chatelaines, I first assumed that the Wigglytuff/Purugly team she used in regular singles would be used again here. This was, obviously, not the case, and there was quite a bit of surprise when she led with Landorus.

Again, I should have looked at a listing of her sets, to see that Lando was scarfed, but I didn't, and I immediately went for an Ice Beam off Greninja. Focus Blast came first and cleanly OHKO'd the frog (why is it that, whenever *I* use Focus Blast it never hits?). Greninja always does a great deal of work against just about any matchup, and had he not been eliminated, I would have had no trouble cleaning up the rest of the Chatelaine's team with Ice Beam.

So Greninja dies on the first turn, and I do the only thing I can—switch in Aegislash. Aegislash doesn't care about the first Focus Blast (why didn't she switch?) and launches a Shadow Ball, which takes Lando down to 25% or so. Having realized that her Landorus can't touch Aegi at the moment, she switches it out and into Thundurus. Thundurus dies to two Shadow Balls, leaving me facing a scarfed EP Lando with two mons weak to Ground.

I King's Shield, hoping that lefties recovery would be enough to let me take an EP. It wasn't. Aegi dies. I switch in Blaziken. I protect to get a Speed Boost off, hoping that Landorus doesn't have speed EVs. It did. Blaziken goes down, and I lose my run.

In retrospect, I'm not sure that I could have guaranteed a win here. Here's the best-case scenario:

1) Lead Greninja, Lead Landorus
2) Switch out to Aegi. First Focus Blast doesn't do anything
3) Kill Thundurus (or Tornadus, depending, with Shadow Ball)
4) Lando is sent out. Aegi eats an EP, and dies, assuming it's taken something from Thundurus
5) Greninja is sent out. Has a 52% chance to survive. OHKO's and then some with Ice Beam
6) Tornadus is sent out. Greninja OHKOs.

Or, alternatively (now that I think about it, I'm fairly certain this guarantees a win):

1) Lead Greninja, Lead Landorus
2) Switch out to Aegi. First Focus Blast doesn't do anything
3) Switch back to Greninja as Thundurus goes for the Crunch. This way, Aegi is unharmed.
4) Lando is sent out. Switch back to Aegi to take the incoming Focus Blast
5) Tornadus will then be switched in. Switch out Aegi to Blaziken to sack it. If Hurricane misses, great, I win. It probably won't, though.
6) Greninja Ice Beams Tornadus to eliminate it.
7) Lando Focus Blasts Greninja
8) Aegi is sent out. Gg.

Now that I'm thinking about this, I realized that I also could have switched in Blaziken to Thundurus' Crunch, Protected first turn, Flare Blitzed to finish it off, and then rampaged through the rest of the team at +2/+3.

Basically, there were so many better ways to do this than I did. I messed up, big time.

At this point, I should probably list my team:

Lead/Sweeper - Greninja @ Life Orb - Bred in OR/AS by me
40 atk/218SpA/252Spe - Naive nature - Protean
31/31/31/31/31/31
Gunk Shot
Ice Beam
Hydro Pump
Extrasensory
From what I'm reading here, many of you would shudder to see that I use Gunk Shot and Hydro Pump—horrendously inaccurate moves—over other, more accurate counterparts. I realize that they're unreliable, and was initially hesitant to use them, however, thanks to Protean, I can still use the move to change type and become resistant to an attack. Gunk Shot is especially synergistic when combined with a Dark base typing, and it's really fun to switch types (even if GS misses!) to tank a Focus Blast, Moonblast, or Energy Ball.

I often find that Greninja is able to 3-0 many teams through virtue of its coverage. Ice seems to be really good, offensively, in the Maison. Not sure if this is just me, though.

Pivot - Aegislash @ Leftovers - Bred in OR/AS, also by me. Took forever to get this IV spread. I have a ton of 31/31/31/31/31/31 by-products, though :p
252HP/30Atk/228SpA - Quiet nature - Stance Change (duh)
31/31/31/31/31/0
King's Shield
Shadow Ball
Sacred Sword
Iron Head
Slow as is possible to take many hits in Shield form. It still gets out-slowed by certain things like Slowbro and Rhyperior, but there's else wise very little that can go slower than it.

I found that 252atk isn't really necessary, so I instead invested a bit in Atk to guarantee a 2HKO on 252Def Sylveon (outside of the Maison, of course). If I want to adapt this Aegi for doubles, I also have bred Wide Guard and Destiny Bond onto it, if I see those moves have merit.

Aegi isn't as good as I think it could be without priority, but this isn't a sweeper, it's a pivot that lets me actually switch something in without it dying, like my other teammates are wont to do, at the slightest breeze that blows the wrong way. Shadow Ball ends up not *quite* OHKO'ing a lot of things, but this is very, very, good for me, as my final teammate relies on things being *almost* dead.

Sweeper - Blaziken @ Blazikenite - bred in X/Y
4HP/252Atk/252Spe - Adamant nature - Blaze (unfortunately)
31/31/31/31/31/31
Power-up Punch
High Jump Kick :(
Flare Blitz
Protect
Swords Dance straight up doesn't work in the Maison. Power-up Punch is chosen over this as Blaziken doesn't need to be at +2 to sweep—+1 is fine, an PuP can clear out a weakened opponent, like something with Sturdy, who would otherwise OHKO a SD'ing Blaziken with EQ, whilst simultaneously getting a boost. +1/+3 can be reached through this method by Protecting, Punching, and then Protecting again. This Blaziken is as frail as frail can be (well, it's not that bad, but it's pretty bad defensively), but a stupidly high base Attack stat combined with speed and attack boosts is pretty hard to stop. A Blaziken at +1/+2—which is very easy to achieve—is essentially a win condition, only stopped by sashes, who are then easily dealt with by the remaining team members.

High Jump Kick is a godawful move. I absolutely hate it. It's kind of necessary though—Sky Uppercut doesn't hit nearly hard enough. If only Blaziken got CC. There have been many games lost as a result of HJK missing. Most of the time, just spam Flare Blitz, and it'll probably die anyway, unless it's a Rock/Water type—in that case, click HJK (or, if you're boosted enough, PuP), and pray.

So. Do you guys have any suggestions here? Changes? Alterations? Sweeping modifications? I'd like to get some input on this Maison team.

Just saying, the Chatelaine's Tornadus is holding a Yache Berry, so Greninja's Ice Beam wouldn't OHKO from full health, while Hurricane will almost always KO after LO recoil and Focus Blast always does, assuming Greninja is weak to it.

As you said, Gunk Shot and Hydro Pump are very unreliable, especially if you want to go for a long streak(do you?). I'd really get rid of them, and use Surf and Grass Knot. About Gunk Shot giving Greninja resistances to Fighting, Fairy, and Grass, I think it's irrelevant. Most Fighting-type pokemon can be handled by Extrasensory, and your back-ups can exploit Fairy- and Grass-type pokemon. I guess things like Medicham, Gallade, and Scrafty might trouble Greninja then, but Aegislash should deal with the former two. As for Scrafty, sets 1 and 2 literally can't touch Aegislash(well, set 2 has Rock Slide, but lol). Set 3 can be rather easily dealt with, as Aegislash can switch in on a HJK or Focus Punch aimed at Greninja and can then start using KS to lower Scrafty's attack until Payback becomes too weak(beware of Substitute shenanigans, though), and you can always switch between Blaziken/Greninja and Aegislash to stall out its moves and fish for HJK misses. Set 4 is almost always 2HKOed by Blaziken's Power-Up Punch, unless Scrafty uses Drain Punch between turns.

This takes me to the next point. You should definitely use Low Kick>HJK on Blaziken. It has perfect accuracy and doesn't have a terrible secondary effect if it misses. In the aforementioned Scrafty4 case, it's always 2HKOed, regardless of Drain Punch or Leftovers healing. The power variation might seem unreliable, but there aren't many pokemon that can take both Low Kick and Flare Blitz easily and pose a threat to the rest of the team(we have Ninetales, Lanturn, and Talonflame. can't think of anything else). I would also replace PuP with SD, but it seems to work for your team, so I'll just leave it at that.

Your team has a big weakness to Ground-type moves, as seen in your loss(well, it was more because you didn't know the chatelaine's pokemon's sets, but yeah). Greninja does take care of most of them, but considering its bulk, you can't just rely on it. There are also pokemon like Landorus2(the one in your loss), Donphan4, and Garchomp3(maybe there are more) that completely ignore the speed advantage due to a Choice Scarf or Quick Claw, and can KO all of your pokemon with the right move. I'd add a Ground resist/immunity there, but I'm not sure what to suggest. Need help from others here.

Your team is similar to this one, so you might want to read that post too, as yours also seems to be weak to lead Suicune(one of the reasons why I suggested Grass Knot)

:)

also

unrelated to the maison

The 30 attack EVs on Aegislash aren't really needed to guarantee the 2HKO on Sylveon, even on the max HP/max Def variants:
30 Atk Aegislash-Blade Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Sylveon: 122-146 (60.3 - 72.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
4 Atk Aegislash-Blade Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Sylveon: 122-146 (60.3 - 72.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
You might want to take these EVs and put them in SpA, then.

 

[faith_grins]

Well, Team Blitzkrieg lost at battle 178 to a misplay followed by a misclick.
8NFG-WWWW-WWWK-3KLD

I foolishly believed Heracross to be packing either Brick Break or Close Combat, either of which it clearly would have selected against Kanga, so I wound up switching Latios into a Megahorn. Well, no worries, really, Kanga can easily take a Megahorn if that's what Heracross is going to pick against her, and Fake Out + Return will KO just about anything that don't resist them. And then my thumb accidentally hit Sucker Punch instead of Return, and there goes my streak.

It's kind of frustrating to lose to this, since just about any other play I could have made would have won that match. Even just misclicking first would have won because Viegoh would have gotten the KO with a free switch. Hell, Kanga being invested for Speed instead of HP would have won even with both mistakes.

Since the team proved resilient enough to require multiple, consecutive mistakes to lose, I'm going to give it another shot and see if I can eke it past the 250 mark. But in re playing through the gauntlet, I figured I would take this opportunity to do a proper writeup with some strategy discussion. Despite the team itself being kind of "blah," I have done a writeup of it anyway because the all-aggro-all-the-time nature of the team makes the strategy for it more universally applicable than to just this team. Veterans of battle facilities probably already know exactly what's going down, but new players might appreciate seeing a simple team in action, and hearing the thoughts that go into building one.

Team Breakdown

Latios @ Choice Specs ("Viegoh")
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP/252 Sp. Atk/252 Speed
Timid Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

Specs lead. EVs are obvious, although Kanga is the correct answer to opposing Lati@s 2,3 and Gengar 4, so I might consider cutting a few Speed EVs to speed creep Terrakion and add a little bulk. (Every member of this team has survived a blow with exactly 1 HP at some point during my 200+ battles, so more bulk is definitely appealing to me.)
Coverage might seem odd because Ice Beam covers very, very little that Dragon Pulse and Thunderbolt do not cover between them, but the fact of the matter is that Surf does not score any notable KOs on foes that Viegoh should stay in on anyway. (E.g.: Surf does not KO any Heatran or Tyranitar set, and Viegoh already beats opposing troublesome leads like Terrakion or Tyrantrum with Psyshock and Dragon Pulse, respectively.) Ice Beam is just generally safer to lock into than Thunderbolt, so it proves useful in covering Flying types.

Kangaskahn @ Kangaskahnite
Ability: Scrappy-> Parental Bond
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Sucker Punch
- Return
- Earthquake

Mega Kangaskahn. I don't need to explain this, I think, other than to mention that its EV spread is built for bulk rather than speed because a vast majority of the hits Kanga takes are taken on the switch anyway, so I find it more valuable to be able to make repeated switches than to outspeed a few threats.

I have opted to forgo Power Up Punch because the philosophy of this team is to just go for the kill and beat the enemy straight up rather than to try to get set up for a sweep. Having said that, Power-Up Punch in place of Fake Out could certainly give Kanga more oomph, if that's the sort of thing you're looking for.

Darmanitan @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Speed
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-Turn

Darmanitan is here almost exclusively for Flare Blitz. It's useful that she resists Ice-type and Bug-type attacks that frequently get aimed at Viegoh, but that's not why she's here. It's important to note that Flare Blitz hits harder as a neutral hit than anything else on this set does even with 2x damage.

Rock Slide is by far the least-used move on this set, and if I wasn't a completely lazy schmuck, I would probably trade it out for Superpower, but I am, in fact, a lazy schmuck.

Jolly nature with Life Orb hits a good mixture of speed and power. Choice Scarf misses the Flare Blitz KO on a enough Fairy types (I'm looking at you, Sylveon 2!) that I otherwise don't like dealing with that I prefer the punch of the Life Orb.

As I mentioned, the general philosophy of this team is uncomplicated - don't try to set up for a sweep, just find the member of the team who can deal with the threat in front of you right now. Don't worry about what's coming down the pipeline, just get to 3v2, or 2v1, and clean that up. If I might be allowed a sports analogy, this team is playing Man to Man coverage, not Zone defense. Just cover your man and let the next play worry about itself.

To paraphrase NoCheese, I think it is better to have team members who are strong in a bad situation than to have team members who are amazing in a good situation. I feel like that's where Mega Kangaskahn really shines, and I think the fact that this team is fairly unremarkable but for her is a testament to how absurdly broken Mega Kanga is. This team tries to maximize the ability to hit hard when you're in, as well as creating opportunities to switch out. Kanga can often come in on expected Dark or Ghost attacks targeted at Viegoh, and Darmanitan can come in on Bug, Ice, or Fairy attacks. At the same time, Viegoh can switch in on Ground attacks aimed at the Monkey and Fighting attacks aimed at Mama and Baby Kahn.
Viegoh is the lead because he is the hardest team member to bring in without a resistance or immunity to take advantage of. As such, he provides the most value to the team if I have to create the fewest amount of switches for him possible. I also generally believe that if you're going to bring a Specs or Band user, they should be your lead because they function best when used to score a fast KO and switch out, and Viegoh does that excellently. The ape was chosen because it has a lot of power and exactly enough bulk to make one switch without sweating it too much. After that its job is basically to score a KO and then be KOd to open up the revenge kill.

It's worth noting that as an All-Out attacking team with no Lum Berry, this team has no answer to status other than to have it land on the team member who is least needed for this battle. In general, Darmanitan will be KOd if she is brought out, so it's best to use her as a status sink. (Poison will deal less damage than Flare Blitz recoil will anyway, and Paralyze is only bad if it happens to cause full paralysis before Darmanitan gets off a single attack - once she's gotten off a Flare Blitz or Earthquake, she's already served her purpose, since Viegoh or Kanga can almost always clean up a foe at half health, which Flare Blitz is all but guaranteed to reach. The ape is also immune to Burn, but Viegoh doesn't really care that much about a burn anyway, so it's not notable that she can eat them.)

It's worth noting that for the Gauntlet, I don't bother looking up Trainers or sets - I just play based on what I think the worst-case scenario is. I think that mindset can be helpful for people just getting started in the Maison, since they won't have a large number of sets they've already learned or memorized.

So, let's get to the battles, huh? Starting off with a fairly typical, boring one.

Battle 28

2ZYG-WWWW-WWWK-3M7W
So we start off with Sceptile. As I mentioned, I don't look up sets or perform calcs during the Gauntlet, I just deal with what's in front of me, so I wasn't anticipating Sceptile actually outspeeding. That could have been bad if it had landed a crit, but luckily it doesn't and I get the Ice Beam KO. Strictly speaking, if I'm facing a Grass type that could actually threaten Viegoh, the obvious move is to switch to Darmanitan, and that actually could have worked out better for this match, but the team in general is robust enough that it doesn't need to be played perfectly all the time, so I don't sweat small misplays like that.

Next up is Goodra. I know that Ice Beam will take a good chunk out of the dragon, but it won't score the KO with all that special bulk, so I swap to Darmanitan, since she is the best cannon fodder. Not 100% sure why I use Earthquake there instead of Flare Blitz, but it doesn't matter because I got it within striking distance for either Kanga or Veigoh. Darm goes down and I opt for Veigoh to come back in, since my thought process is generally to give free switches to Veigoh if I have a choice in the matter. Dragon Pulse for the KO.

Finally we have Alakazam. Basically there's no Alakazam set that beats Kanga 1v1, so I know I've got this locked, so I just toss the Dragon Pulse to see where it gets me. Answer: easily within Fake Out territory, although it doesn't matter because this turns out to be an Alakazam set with nothing but attacks, so I just Sucker Punch it for the KO anyway.

Next!

So, already we've observed that small misplays are not terribly punishing here. Even if Viegoh had been KOd by a critical hit Dragon Pulse, the match would have gone down the same way, just with Darmanitan scoring 1 KO instead of 0. So, just keep your cool and deal with what's in front of you as best you can. Don't sweat the small stuff. Next up, Pseudo-legendaries and an OU stall machine!

Battle 30

TDZG-WWWW-WWWK-3PJT
Right. Tyranitar. That's not great - he's clearly going to go for Crunch, and I don't have anyone who gets a solid OHKO on him. I opt for the Sacrificial Primate, who blessedly does not take a crit Crunch. As it happens, she gets the max damage Earthquake for the KO. Yay, lucky! This is actually a serious argument as to why I should swap Rock Slide for Superpower or Fake Out for Power-up Punch, as either of those are much better answers to Tyranitar than I currently have. But it doesn't matter for now.

Next contender: Metagross! Yeesh. All sorts of physically bulky, and this one happens to be packing an Occa Berry, so it survives the Flare Blitz. This is where not looking up sets could have potentially bitten me, as Earthquake would have gotten the OHKO. Life Orb recoil + Sandstorm damage might have finished off the red ape anyway, but it would have been Viegoh coming in on Ferrothorn, not Metagross, which would be better from a purely tactical standpoint.

And finally, Ferrothorn. My line of thinking here is to ultimately swap to Kanga and swap back to Viegoh to hit with Ice Beam on the spikey plant's weaker side, but since it decides not to set up against Kanga, I wind up just Earthquaking it to death.

This team is bad news for me all around, but thankfully I manage to scrape by. And remember kids, looking up sets can help, even when you have multiple coverage moves against your current foe!

OK, not bad. Tackling two physically bulky opponents with a physical attacker. Impressive, Doctor Jones, but it still won't get you the artifact. So let's see a team that's more like an actual worst-case scenario for us.

Battle 35

65HW-WWWW-WWWK-3U6K
Escavalier lead. This isn't strictly-speaking a worst-case lead against this team, but it's pretty bad. The only good answer to the bug is Darmanitan, and even she is KOd by a critical hit Megahorn. The odds of that are poor (~5%), and thankfully the Maison was merciful to me today, but if it had happened I would have been scrambling.

Next up, Heracross. Thankfully, this is Viegoh for the revenge kill, and it's an easy one - a mere Psyshock, and the loss at 178 is avenged!

And finally, Hydreigon. If I had not been locked into Psyshock, this would have gone very differently, as a single Dragon Pulse ends it cleanly, but as it happened I was forced to switch out. Kanga winds up only getting in the Fake Out chip damage, but it scarcely matters since Viegoh outspeeds and cleanly KOs for the win. Again, I don't look up sets while I'm running the gauntlet, but It's worth noting that this particular Hydreigon outspeeds Adamant Kanga no matter what, so even if I were invested for speed, this still would have been up to Viegoh to close the deal.

This battle goes pretty well, all things considered. Coverage member for the lead gets the KO, second member gets an easy KO with the free switch, and it's 2v1. Not very many things can stop you at 2v1 when you're built for coverage.

Next up: Thunder hax!

Battle 38

JQCW-WWWW-WWWK-4XAT
Choice Scarf Thunder, which also gets the paralysis. Thankfully it doesn't cause full paralysis and I get in a quick kill.

I'm including this battle simply to make this point: when I have a team member who's been hit by status they don't like, they are immediately fodder. In this particular case, I don't feel as though I need to provide someone a free switch, but if I had, I would have let Viegoh stay in. As it happens, I am quite familiar with the Kanga vs. Nidoking matchup in the Maison, and I know who wins, so I just make a simple switch... and wind up ultimately eating a crit Earthquake for my troubles. But, no worries, Kanga can take that kind of punishment.

I honestly don't know which Gengar set this is, but it really doesn't matter. Gengar 1 loses to switching back and forth between Viegoh and Kanga (Hypnosis/Nightmare/Dream Eater doesn't work on paralyzed Viegoh, and Shadow Ball doesn't work on Kanga) and any other Gengar set is going to lose to a Sucker Punch, so I Sucker Punch, and hey, what do you know, it wasn't Gengar 1.

OK, so status doesn't stop this team dead in its tracks. Good to know. Moving on: have I mentioned how much I hate Veterans? Because I really hate Veterans.

Battle 45

KNHG-WWWW-WWWK-46NT
I have never seen a Veteran lead with a Regigigas before, so I am actually somewhat unprepared for how to proceed from here. As it happens, I wind up picking the optimal strategy. The key thing here is that Regi isn't a threat for the first few turns, so you need to capitalize on those Slow Start turns even though he's probably going to try to stall them out. He starts by trying to confuse, which is a simple fix (switch), and winds up poisoning the member of the team who least cares about it. Flare Blitz does what it was meant to do and I don't have to figure out what to do with a second Confuse Ray.

Against any Landorus whose set you do not yet know, the right move will always be Viegoh. This is an example of an easily exploitable AI tick, and in this particular case it hurts double because it choice locks it into something that can't hurt my current team member. Ice Beam. Moving on.

Oh, Entei. So, regardless of which set this is, my reasoning here is that it's going to be best to sac Darmanitan to get Viegoh back in for at least neutral coverage, and try to finish him off with Kanga. Since the ape is already poisoned, I figure that's the path that least reduces my future options. As it happens, he Calm Minds in front of me twice and I get to KO with successive Earthquakes and win with a full team still standing.

Well, that went relatively painlessly, given that I had no clue what the lead was going to do. (Honestly, I'm used to seeing Regi in doubles, not singles.)

Who cares? Encore!

Battle 46

T3EG-WWWW-WWWK-47CY
Remember how I just said I had never seen a Veteran lead with a Regigigas before? Not only did it lead with one twice in a row, it led with the exact same set and opened with the same two moves!

That's all I've got to say, here. Nothing really tactically interesting about this battle, I just thought that was funny and I wanted to share.

And, the last one for now: Chatelaine Nita!

Battle 50

KQ5W-WWWW-WWWK-4BG6
Because this fight can potentially be annoying (Oh, god, why does the one fixed fight in Super Singles lead with a hax mon?!) I actually endorse switching teams just for this battle if your team does not have any particular advantage against the genies. But I don't do that, here.

I don't look up these sets, but I've fought this battle enough to know them by now. Viegoh leads with Thunderbolt because it's really the best thing he can do, even though it guarantees he'll have to switch once Tornadus is down. If I had led with Kanga here instead, Return would get a clean OHKO and it would almost certainly try for the Focus Blast even if it happens to have Prankster. (You can Fake Out if you're at all concerned about the calc for Return.) Sadly, Fake Out + Sucker Punch has a chance to KO, but not a guarantee, so Return is still the better call. So, really, either way we're just going for the KO and praying Prankster doesn't turn up to screw us over.

Against Thundurus, Viegoh must switch out, because he can't afford to take a Crunch, and he is absolutely the best answer to Landorus, as previously discussed. I elect to bring in the ape because she's less important for this fight than Kanga. As it happens, the ape goes down. So, now it's up to Kanga. Thankfully, "built for bulk" is the right call for this particular fight, and Fake Out + Return will always score the KO, even on a Wild Charge crit. I use Fake Out first because a) I use Fake Out on anything I know doesn't have Inner Focus on principle, and b) I want to make sure Sitrus Berry doesn't screw up the KO. And it doesn't. Hooray.

As noted previously, against Landorus, switching to Viegoh is always the right call, and here that applies double because we know its set has nothing but not very effective moves, whether or not it locks itself into Earth Power. Interestingly enough, the genie opts for Earth Power despite the Focus Blast coverage available to it. Levitate makes him pay for that.

All too easy.

I've also got a battle video of a Walrein 4 who gets two KOs in a row against me, if anyone's interested, but I didn't include that because it's only interesting for the successive OHKOs. (0.9% chance, counting the Brightpowder activation!)

 

[GG Unit]

VaporeonIce, you've alluded to the winning play. Emboar does really, really like to use Focus Blast - so much that it will use all 5 PP before going to Flamethrower even against Glalie. With that in mind, you could have just used Knock off as you let Emboar break the Sub and then take Drapion down to 25-30% without fearing a Scald/Flamethrower burn before switching to Whimsicott as Emboar would then go for the knockout blow rather than use Substitute.

Trying to think of why I don't have too many memories of 2nd Pokemon with Substitute following early Explosion in my streaks other than Emboar, and I suppose the main reason is that Glalie has more weaknesses. Most trainers will have something that would hit it harder than pretty much every Sub user except for Emboar, so they'd send that Pokemon out 2nd instead.

When Emboar comes out 2nd after a limited amount of set-up turns (this has happened quite a bit against Battle Girls/Blackbelts when Emboar follows lead Machamp, Throh, or Breloom) I have some comfort in knowing that Emboar definitely does like Focus Blast; even against Glalie it will use all 5 Focus Blasts before going to Flamethrower, so it's a free switch for Sableye.

What I do against other Sub users depends heavily on how many Sub/Protect PP Glalie's used to that point. I'm sure a Glalie at 100% health, a Sub, and 4-5 turns' worth of prior boosts is more likely than not to come out on top against even Emboar, let alone something like Empoleon or Kangaskhan which won't break a Sub after the appropriate defense gets to +2 or so, but I like to have Sub/Protect PP left for the 3rd mon. In those cases, Taunt and then sacrificing Sableye so Durant can come back in removes all doubt.

If I don't have as many Sub/Protect PP left or my boosts are decent by the time something explodes, I'll likely go on the attack; there have definitely been some 10-15 turn battles where an Emboar came in 2nd and missed 2-3 Focus Blasts as Glalie took it down.

 

[marbleduck]

Just saying, the Chatelaine's Tornadus is holding a Yache Berry, so Greninja's Ice Beam wouldn't OHKO from full health, while Hurricane will almost always KO after LO recoil and Focus Blast always does, assuming Greninja is weak to it.

Didn't see that. I guess I have to rethink this further—switching Blaziken into a Crunch and getting speed boosts off seems like the best option at this point.

As you said, Gunk Shot and Hydro Pump are very unreliable, especially if you want to go for a long streak(do you?).

I do. Well, that's my goal, anyway

I'd really get rid of them, and use Surf and Grass Knot. About Gunk Shot giving Greninja resistances to Fighting, Fairy, and Grass, I think it's irrelevant.

You're right about this—the reason I originally had Gunk Shot on Greninja is because I didn't have a good answer to fairies before I bred up that Aegislash. It does mean that I'll have to make a Timid one though :(

This takes me to the next point. You should definitely use Low Kick>HJK on Blaziken. It has perfect accuracy and doesn't have a terrible secondary effect if it misses. In the aforementioned Scrafty4 case, it's always 2HKOed, regardless of Drain Punch or Leftovers healing. The power variation might seem unreliable, but there aren't many pokemon that can take both Low Kick and Flare Blitz easily and pose a threat to the rest of the team(we have Ninetales, Lanturn, and Talonflame. can't think of anything else). I would also replace PuP with SD, but it seems to work for your team, so I'll just leave it at that.

So there aren't any specific threats that are no longer able to be taken care of as a result of the power loss in Low Kick?

Your team has a big weakness to Ground-type moves, as seen in your loss(well, it was more because you didn't know the chatelaine's pokemon's sets, but yeah). Greninja does take care of most of them, but considering its bulk, you can't just rely on it. There are also pokemon like Landorus2(the one in your loss), Donphan4, and Garchomp3(maybe there are more) that completely ignore the speed advantage due to a Choice Scarf or Quick Claw, and can KO all of your pokemon with the right move. I'd add a Ground resist/immunity there, but I'm not sure what to suggest. Need help from others here.

I hadn't thought of how weak I am to ground. Aegi isn't OHKO'd by anything, but can't OHKO any of these in return. As was said, suggestions are welcome here.

also

unrelated to the maison

The 30 attack EVs on Aegislash aren't really needed to guarantee the 2HKO on Sylveon, even on the max HP/max Def variants:
30 Atk Aegislash-Blade Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Sylveon: 122-146 (60.3 - 72.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
4 Atk Aegislash-Blade Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Sylveon: 122-146 (60.3 - 72.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
You might want to take these EVs and put them in SpA, then.

Thanks :p

I have no idea what I meant to put those 30 evs into. Def, maybe? I had done a bunch of calcs on my laptop, and then didn't have my document on me when I was EV training the aegi, and assumed that I wanted them into Attack. Perhaps it was a spread-reduced Garchomp non-LO EQ.

One more question: are the sets post-chatelaine significantly different than the sets pre-chatelaine? I haven't run into any legends yet, at all, and I see many references to the Dogs and the Genies here.

 

[Berry Juice]

So there aren't any specific threats that are no longer able to be taken care of as a result of the power loss in Low Kick?

Well, HJK's whopping 130 Base Power means it hits harder on everything, so I'm sure some OHKOs turned into 2HKOs, and some 2HKOs into 3HKOs. An example is Umbreon, which is cleanly OHKOed by an unboosted HJK, but is only 2-3HKOed by Low Kick. It isn't really a threat(can only really use Curse and you can just boost alongside it), so I didn't point it out. I just pointed out the ones that threatens the rest of the team if given a free turn(Ninetales uses CM, has a Passho Berry for Greninja and roasts Aegislash easily, Lanturn uses Stockpile, Talonflame uses SD(although it would rather KO Blaziken I think), etc).

I have no idea what I meant to put those 30 evs into. Def, maybe? I had done a bunch of calcs on my laptop, and then didn't have my document on me when I was EV training the aegi, and assumed that I wanted them into Attack. Perhaps it was a spread-reduced Garchomp non-LO EQ.

Nah:
252+ Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 30 Def Aegislash-Shield: 132-156 (79 - 93.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Shield: 134-158 (80.2 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Aegislash survives an Adamant non-spread EQ from Garchomp even without Defense investment. I'd just go with 252 HP/4 Atk/252 SpA, really.

One more question: are the sets post-chatelaine significantly different than the sets pre-chatelaine? I haven't run into any legends yet, at all, and I see many references to the Dogs and the Genies here.

After the Chatelaine battle(or battle 40, idr), set 4 becomes much more common for regular(non-legendary) pokemon. It doesn't mean sets 1-3 won't appear anymore, they'll just be rarer. As for the legendary pokemon sets, sets 1 and 2 will be the most common, but sets 3 and 4 might appear occasionally.

 

[VaporeonIce]

turskain, that's basically what I came up with for most other Substitute users, but with Drapion instead of Durant breaking the Sub: switch out to Whimsicott immediately, Encore the move, switch to Drapion, break the Sub with Knock Off (works on Feraligatr and Empoleon, for example), rinse and repeat until the opponent faints. If I'm remembering correctly, Emboar is the only Sub Drapion can't break (excluding Pokemon that aren't dangerous, such as Shuckle, and Cobalion 3, who is EXTREMELY rare and is almost never partnered with Pokemon that Explode, especially those that Explode quickly...and Drapion can stall it out of Iron Heads if necessary). That doesn't actually work for Emboar 4. The problem is that, while Durant is able to break the Sub, Emboar immediately sets up another one (because it's locked into Sub by Encore). My new strategy for Emboar 4 is...don't let it happen. Just, don't. The trick is to make sure that Explosion leads don't blow up against Drapion. If Durant is out when Emboar comes in, the AI will be baited into Flamethrower; if Whimsicott is in, I can just use Taunt (though I'm sure it will Flamethrower anyway). Here's how I handle Explosion leads:

Explosion users

Muk 4: Switch immediately, Entrainment, switch back and forth to stall out Gunk Shot. Let Whimsicott take a hit, go to Durant, spam Protect. Eventually it will Explode. If Emboar comes in, it will be baited into Flamethrower.
Exeggutor 4: Same thing, but instead of going to Drapion, switch back to Whimsicott. Taunt (it will try to use Trick Room), back to Durant, KO with X-Scissor.
Carbink 4: Set up Drapion; it usually takes a while to blow up. But if Emboar 4 DOES come out, I'll definitely use the strategy you came up with! (Note: I'm way disappointed in myself that I didn't think of it)
Skuntank 4: Switch to Drapion, spam Substitute, set up Acupressure on the turns the Sub is up. This should leave Drapion with low enough HP that Emboar will try to KO.
Ground types: Not a concern; they'll use up their EQ PP against Drapion first, letting me set up a bunch. Atk, SpDef, and Evasion can all ruin Emboar's chances against Drapion, and EQ has enough PP (when backed by Truant forcing the skipped turns) that it's never been a problem.
Cryogonal 4: No strategy here; unless it uses Hail turn 1, I'm forced to sacrifice Whimsicott just set up on the free turns. I usually get at least three or four of them, and a single Speed boost will make it spam Icy Wind.
Lickilicky 4: I never see this thing, but Taunt turn 1 and hope it Explodes (it usually does). If it Body Slams, use Memento. This is really not an ideal opponent to face, but like I said, I almost never face it and it usually kills itself or gives me enough time to set up Drapion a bit.

Everything else appears on teams that I otherwise consider "non-threatening."

The big risks are Explosion/HJK leads that don't leave Whimsicott alive (the prime culprit being Cryogonal 4). Lead Poison Heal Breloom kills itself after Entrainment (there isn't a more reliable strategy for it without compromising Durant's bulk by giving it Attack EVs), which can allow something like Emboar to come in and cause problems...but Poison Heal Breloom isn't exactly common. Breloom isn't rare, but the whole "1 in 3 chance" works against it.

I'm pretty much set on the Entrainment/X-Scissor/Aerial Ace/Protect set for Durant. Entrainment is duh; Aerial Ace beats non-Poison Heal Breloom, which is really important; X-Scissor is obvious for Espeon. Protect is actually the centerpiece in my strategy against Mienshao 4, though. It goes like this: Switcheroo turn 1, switch to Drapion turn 2 (survives HJK), use Protect turn 3 (Mienshao loses 50%), switch to Durant turn 4 (it pretty much always survives HJK with the Defense EVs, barring a Reckless crit), Protect, Mienshao faints. Mienshao usually uses Fake Out turn 1, and if it does, I just Encore that, use Entrainment, and Protect with both Durant and Drapion. Protect is also useful against lead Hippowdon 4; occasionally the game just doesn't want me to get any crits (I like to save at least 10 Knock Off PP), so switching to Durant on a loafing turn and blocking its attacks to stall it out of PP and set up Drapion again without any problems while it spams its Rest/Curse PP.

In the Feraligatr match, the right play was to use Knock Off rather than switch. With Whimsicott out of commission, things are a lot harder, but I would be able to pull through here, and against most other Sub users, anyway. Feraligatr's options were:

Sub (i.e. what it actually did): Break the Sub (then it's under 25%), go to Durant, Entrainment:
252+ Atk Torrent Feraligatr Waterfall vs. 172 HP / 108 Def Durant on a critical hit: 121-144 (78 - 92.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Waterfall: 252+ Atk Feraligatr Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Drapion: 60-72 (33.8 - 40.6%) -- 43% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
Flinches could be a pain, but if it gets three of them, it will go for the kill, allowing a free switch to Durant

Dragon Dance: +1 252+ Atk Torrent Feraligatr Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Drapion: 135-159 (76.2 - 89.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
Flinching is a risk, but if that happened, I would go to Durant. It would still need a crit to KO Durant; anything short of a flinch against Drapion AND a crit against Durant would allow me to get off an Entrainment.

Of course, a dangerous third Pokemon could make me lose, but very little can actually OHKO Durant (and most Fire-types hit harder than Feraligatr), meaning I have very good odds of switching back to Durant to use Entrainment against the third mon (if I do KO it with Knock Off).

 

[GG Unit]

The hail made that battle tricky because normally Knock Off until it's under 25% would always be the right thing to do, but 2 Knock Offs (if it had used something besides Sub) and 2 rounds of Hail damage KOs Feraligatr. Even that would've probably been fine since Feraligatr coming out 2nd against Drapion rules out Darcy having just about anything with a Fire move as the 3rd team member so Durant still would've had a good shot of coming in and getting off the final Entrainment (not sure if the battle video backs that theory or not, correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[VaporeonIce]

Breaking the Sub with Aerial Ace after switching in Durant after Encore and then going back to Whimsicott when its Encore ends on that turn looks like the "right play" in retrospect; no matter what it does, you should end up in a good position.

If it uses Flamethrower, you can Taunt/Encore it into a non-Sub move (or get killed by a burn proc) and set up Entrainment once Whimsicott dies as it no longer has the Sub. If it uses Substitute again (which shouldn't happen with Emboar having Flamethrower to OHKO Durant), you can Encore it into Substitute, and repeat the Encore/switch in Durant/break sub/switch in Whimsicott maneuver until it no longer uses Sub (or runs out of PP).

At a glance, switching in Whimsicott and Encoring the Sub if the enemy uses it (and doing normal Taunt/Encore/Memento things if it doesn't) and applying the Durant switch sub-breaking maneuver seems like the preferred play against threatening Substitute users in a pinch as long as Durant can break the sub. To that end, using Superpower over Iron Head to destroy Empoleon4's Substitute and deliver equivalent damage against many others seems like a good change to make - between Aerial Ace, Superpower and X-Scissor, Durant should be able to "break all Substitutes" while also hitting Terrakion, Cobalion and others.



Howewer, this battle had the additional complication of TR being up after Explosion (which is only possible against Exeggutor4, and rarely Reuniclus2 from Ace Trainer Jai and Hex Maniac Mara), but it played out "perfectly" in that TR ran out without much happening and Emboar used Substitute on the turn when Whimsicott came in, and not before. What if it used Substitute instantly while TR was still up?

1. Exeggutor uses Trick Room

2. Exeggutor loafed around

3. Exeggutor used Explosion

Emboar comes in

4. Switch in Whimsicott - Emboar used Substitute

5. Whimsicott used Encore -- Trick Room ends

6. Switch Durant, break sub, switch Whimsicott, win battle

If it used Substitute or Focus Blast (like in this warstory - those two "should be" its preferred moves), that would work out perfectly - but there is a risk of it using the weaker Flamethrower and burning Whimsicott on the switch-in to OHKO it through Sash on the fourth turn of Trick Room. That doesn't seem like a risk you can avoid - but Emboar4 is the only Set4 Fire-type with Substitute and it has stronger moves it should prefer AND it would only matter against an Exeggutor4 lead, which is very rare in combination with Emboar4 - Emboar4 is Set-A and Exeggutor4 is Set-B, so Chef Nicoise is pretty much the only trainer that can run this specific combination.

Edited my original response; turns out this doesn't actually work, for the reasons I discovered in the battle itself. When Durant breaks the Sub, Emboar is locked into Sub and immediately sets up another one. As far as I can tell (and I thought pretty hard on this for quite a while), if Emboar 4 comes in against Drapion and sets up a Sub, the battle is over (barring insane Acupressure luck).

GG Unit , that should actually work sometimes; the risk comes when Emboar uses Sub earlier in the process. Let's say it uses Sub on turn 1 (which it does sometimes) while I Knock Off. Knock Off doesn't break the Sub, so I Knock Off again while it breaks my Sub with Focus Blast. Then it can just use Sub next turn. If Focus Blast misses on the turn after the second Sub, then Drapion will have broken Emboar's Sub again. That means Emboar can use Sub again, putting it at 25%, into Blaze range, and making Flamethrower the preferred move. Emboar having terrible luck with Focus Blast is another risk; if it only hits once out of five times, I'd have to risk a burn just to take some damage, which is less than ideal. I think that taking any steps possible to avoid a non-set up Drapion facing off against Emboar is pretty crucial. Fortunately, the Earthquake users that are common on Black Belt/Battle Girl/Hiker teams certainly help, as they'll usually send out an EQ user before Emboar.

Here's the battle video: LE7G-WWWW-WWWK-5MKE

 

[turskain]

Edited my original response; turns out this doesn't actually work, for the reasons I discovered in the battle itself. When Durant breaks the Sub, Emboar is locked into Sub and immediately sets up another one. As far as I can tell (and I thought pretty hard on this for quite a while), if Emboar 4 comes in against Drapion and sets up a Sub, the battle is over (barring insane Acupressure luck).

GG Unit , that should actually work sometimes; the risk comes when Emboar uses Sub earlier in the process. Let's say it uses Sub on turn 1 (which it does sometimes) while I Knock Off. Knock Off doesn't break the Sub, so I Knock Off again while it breaks my Sub with Focus Blast. Then it can just use Sub next turn. If Focus Blast misses on the turn after the second Sub, then Drapion will have broken Emboar's Sub again. That means Emboar can use Sub again, putting it at 25%, into Blaze range, and making Flamethrower the preferred move. Emboar having terrible luck with Focus Blast is another risk; if it only hits once out of five times, I'd have to risk a burn just to take some damage, which is less than ideal. I think that taking any steps possible to avoid a non-set up Drapion facing off against Emboar is pretty crucial. Fortunately, the Earthquake users that are common on Black Belt/Battle Girl/Hiker teams certainly help, as they'll usually send out an EQ user before Emboar.

Ah, damn - didn't consider that at all. How about Confide? Encore, switch to Durant, and sac Whimsicott to use Confide through Sub twice. Emboar hits 252/4 Drapion pretty hard even at -2, though:

-2 252 SpA Emboar Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Drapion: 54-64 (30.5 - 36.1%)

-2 252 SpA Emboar Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Drapion: 42-49 (23.7 - 27.6%)
(42, 42, 42, 43, 43, 43, 45, 45, 45, 46, 46, 46, 48, 48, 48, 49) -- breaks sub 10/16 of the time

And there's the burn risk as well, so it doesn't seem viable. Switching out in anticipation of Emboar sounds great, howewer.

At this rate I'll have to start playing Durant/Gyarados/Drapion with Confide on Durant myself to get in on the Durant "fun".

 

[GG Unit]

Edited my original response; turns out this doesn't actually work, for the reasons I discovered in the battle itself. When Durant breaks the Sub, Emboar is locked into Sub and immediately sets up another one. As far as I can tell (and I thought pretty hard on this for quite a while), if Emboar 4 comes in against Drapion and sets up a Sub, the battle is over (barring insane Acupressure luck).

GG Unit , that should actually work sometimes; the risk comes when Emboar uses Sub earlier in the process. Let's say it uses Sub on turn 1 (which it does sometimes) while I Knock Off. Knock Off doesn't break the Sub, so I Knock Off again while it breaks my Sub with Focus Blast. Then it can just use Sub next turn. If Focus Blast misses on the turn after the second Sub, then Drapion will have broken Emboar's Sub again. That means Emboar can use Sub again, putting it at 25%, into Blaze range, and making Flamethrower the preferred move. Emboar having terrible luck with Focus Blast is another risk; if it only hits once out of five times, I'd have to risk a burn just to take some damage, which is less than ideal. I think that taking any steps possible to avoid a non-set up Drapion facing off against Emboar is pretty crucial. Fortunately, the Earthquake users that are common on Black Belt/Battle Girl/Hiker teams certainly help, as they'll usually send out an EQ user before Emboar.

Here's the battle video: LE7G-WWWW-WWWK-5MKE

Yeah, the main thing is that Drapion doesn't need to get involved against a lead Exeggutor. Whatever comes in 2nd on loafing Durant will be less likely to do something to gain momentum than if it had come out against Drapion since Durant will be more of a target for KOs. That won't totally eliminate the possibility of Emboar coming in 2nd after something else KOs itself early, but Exeggutor's something that always explodes the first chance it gets on Drapion; if Drapion gets to set up 3 Acupressures before an Emboar comes in, the odds of you not having at least 1 boost in Attack, Special Defense, Evasion, or Speed are about the same as the odds of a critical hit.

Those odds, combined with the fact that Emboar would have to use Substitute at all the right times and also come through with a 10% burn, tell me you can't do much more in that situation.

 

[DK Quagmire]

Hello there just want to discuss my current win streak at super singles using a fun team, which is super NOT viable but also funny to watch at the same time as its already got past Battle Maison leader Nita on round 50. LOL

I don't expect this to be submitted to page 1 or anything because i'm still going on. Only taking a brake at after winning battle 61, but its my take on Durant using Hoenn Pokemon (except I AM using Durant). Brace yourselves for the most hilarious Pokemon to be used in the Battle Maison... EVER!!

Durant* Flik
Ability: Truant
Nature: Jolly
Held item: Choice Scarf
Entrainment
X-scissor
Iron Head
Arial Ace

Torkoal* Smokey Joe
Ability: White Smoke
Nature: Naive
Held Item: Air Balloon
Shell smash
Protect
Eruption
Super Power

Crawdaunt* Dr. Zoidberg
Ability: Adaptability
Nature: Adamant
Held item: Focus sash
Swords Dance
Protect
Knock off
Aqua Jet

Yep you seeing an NU Pokemon here. Torkoal is an intimidating force to be reckoned with at +6 SAtk/Atk with no hope for your A.I opponents removing those stats with white smoke, and even outruns, well EVERYTHING that isn't scarfed. THATS INSANE RIGHT!?!
I don't know who can set up a +6 Eruption, without baton pass support, but Torkoal does this 99% of the time, using only Durant Support. This will never work in real life battles, but we know the AI don't like switching 99% of the time :P
I easily won against Nita, after getting the turn 1 Entrainment on Nita's Thundurus, and I calmly switched to Torkoal, set up, and used Eruption for 3 straight OHKO's. Sadly though I didn't save that match, but I saved a scary near miss battle (no. 37) in which Torkoal takes the game with only 18 hp remaining, after my team got pretty much destroyed by a lead Venusaur with Protect, Sub, Leech seed and sludge bomb, with black sludge.

If anyone wants to watch that match the code is: 8P3W-WWWW-WWWK-FLUS
My Durant doesn't have a Nickname in the video, because I was still thinking off one at the time. On a note, none of my Pokemon have had any PP ups used on them, so I run out of Eruption PP after using it 5 times. It also shows the reason why I don't run Earthquake ;)

I admit that this team lost once or twice in testing with different items such as White Herb to restore the effects of shell smash, and eject button Durant, which didn't work out well, against an electrode, but it's been pretty consistent so far. Had problems with lead protect spammers, which make me scream, and only once or twice did an opponent actually switch out. (maybe they where choice locked. I don't know i don't play this enough to care).
Bright powder has caught me off guard a few times, and anything with Sturdy or focus sash really gets me too, since they then slaughter my X3 shell smashed Torkoal or brake my Crawdaunts sash >:( (this is usually the 2nd or 3rd Pokemon though)
Flash Fire Chandelure is my only cause for concern, as I can't touch it with Torkoal, which is why Crawdaunt is nice to have on the team, as it resists both its stab moves pretty well.

Before using Torkoal I was trying out Altaria with Altariaite (Playing Omega Ruby) with a Dragon dance, protect, Return and Earthquake set up, but after loosing a run due to hax from Burn, I started looking at quicker set up Pokemon. Stuff that can swords dance or shell smashers on this thread as another set up option and on the compatible list and thought "Well if I pick the obvious choice... Cloyster... then everyone will think i'm copying and if I do decide to have it, I'll have to change out Crawdaunt, because can't have 2 water types, and I like Crawdaunt. I want a Pokemon to tackle its weakness to grass types as well, which Leaves me with Magcargo and Torkoal. looks at move sets... Torkoal has Eruption... i'll take that!"

btw, Iv'e never had an opponent use a ground move on Torkoal so I should probably switch its item to leftovers, white herb or lum berry. Its a tough choice.

 

[SimicCombine]

Why not run Earthquake over SuperPower? Earthquake hits all your Flash Fire Mons barring Moltres, especially Chandelure.

 

[cant say]

Hello there just want to discuss my current win streak at super singles using a fun team, which is super NOT viable but also funny to watch at the same time as its already got past Battle Maison leader Nita on round 50. LOL

I don't expect this to be submitted to page 1 or anything because i'm still going on. Only taking a brake at after winning battle 61, but its my take on Durant using Hoenn Pokemon (except I AM using Durant). Brace yourselves for the most hilarious Pokemon to be used in the Battle Maison... EVER!!

Durant* Flik
Ability: Truant
Nature: Jolly
Held item: Choice Scarf
Entrainment
X-scissor
Iron Head
Arial Ace

Torkoal* Smokey Joe
Ability: White Smoke
Nature: Naive
Held Item: Air Balloon
Shell smash
Protect
Eruption
Super Power

Crawdaunt* Dr. Zoidberg
Ability: Adaptability
Nature: Adamant
Held item: Focus sash
Swords Dance
Protect
Knock off
Aqua Jet

Yep you seeing an NU Pokemon here. Torkoal is an intimidating force to be reckoned with at +6 SAtk/Atk with no hope for your A.I opponents removing those stats with white smoke, and even outruns, well EVERYTHING that isn't scarfed. THATS INSANE RIGHT!?!
I don't know who can set up a +6 Eruption, without baton pass support, but Torkoal does this 99% of the time, using only Durant Support. This will never work in real life battles, but we know the AI don't like switching 99% of the time :P
I easily won against Nita, after getting the turn 1 Entrainment on Nita's Thundurus, and I calmly switched to Torkoal, set up, and used Eruption for 3 straight OHKO's. Sadly though I didn't save that match, but I saved a scary near miss battle (no. 37) in which Torkoal takes the game with only 18 hp remaining, after my team got pretty much destroyed by a lead Venusaur with Protect, Sub, Leech seed and sludge bomb, with black sludge.

If anyone wants to watch that match the code is: 8P3W-WWWW-WWWK-FLUS
My Durant doesn't have a Nickname in the video, because I was still thinking off one at the time. On a note, none of my Pokemon have had any PP ups used on them, so I run out of Eruption PP after using it 5 times. It also shows the reason why I don't run Earthquake ;)

I admit that this team lost once or twice in testing with different items such as White Herb to restore the effects of shell smash, and eject button Durant, which didn't work out well, against an electrode, but it's been pretty consistent so far. Had problems with lead protect spammers, which make me scream, and only once or twice did an opponent actually switch out. (maybe they where choice locked. I don't know i don't play this enough to care).
Bright powder has caught me off guard a few times, and anything with Sturdy or focus sash really gets me too, since they then slaughter my X3 shell smashed Torkoal or brake my Crawdaunts sash >:( (this is usually the 2nd or 3rd Pokemon though)
Flash Fire Chandelure is my only cause for concern, as I can't touch it with Torkoal, which is why Crawdaunt is nice to have on the team, as it resists both its stab moves pretty well.

Before using Torkoal I was trying out Altaria with Altariaite (Playing Omega Ruby) with a Dragon dance, protect, Return and Earthquake set up, but after loosing a run due to hax from Burn, I started looking at quicker set up Pokemon. Stuff that can swords dance or shell smashers on this thread as another set up option and on the compatible list and thought "Well if I pick the obvious choice... Cloyster... then everyone will think i'm copying and if I do decide to have it, I'll have to change out Crawdaunt, because can't have 2 water types, and I like Crawdaunt. I want a Pokemon to tackle its weakness to grass types as well, which Leaves me with Magcargo and Torkoal. looks at move sets... Torkoal has Eruption... i'll take that!"

btw, Iv'e never had an opponent use a ground move on Torkoal so I should probably switch its item to leftovers, white herb or lum berry. Its a tough choice.

Cool team! If you're going to exploit Durant you may as well use stuff that otherwise wouldn't work in the Maison. You haven't provided EV spreads which is kinda disappointing. I did some calcs and it looks like you only need 156 speed EVs on Torkoal to outspeed the whole post-battle 40 Maison (156 with Naive gives 66 speed, the lowest to get above 258 (Scarf Manectric) at +6 with 266) which leaves 100 EVs to put in attack. I would give him the Sash though since after dropping your defences with Shell Smash he'll be easy to pick off with priority. Since Crawdaunt is already slow and will probably be cleaning up with Aqua Jet anyway I'm assuming you're running max HP + attack so he probably doesn't need a Sash so bad so he can probably have the Lum berry (or even a Splash Plate / Mystic Water for Aqua Jet sweeping). You could maybe check speed tiers to apply speed EVs so you can outrun targets that you'll hit with Knock Off but I haven't looked into that...

As for threats, off the top of my head there's Floatzel4, if it leads it can mess up Entrainment with Protect. Max HP Crawdaunt can survive a Waterfall + Low Kick combo (without a crit) so it should be able to switch in and OHKO with Knock Off. Depending on what comes out next you could either sac Crawdaunt to get Durant in for free to Entrain and set up Torkoal, or switch if the opponent can't hurt Durant too badly. There's also Carracosta4 which can't be OHKOd if it has Sturdy, has Weakness Policy which will activate if you hit it with Superpower which will allow it to wreck. Easy enough to handle if it leads thanks to Truant...

Can't think of anything else at the moment. Good luck with the streak!

 

[VaporeonIce]

Over the past few months, I've been building up my winning streak in XY Super Singles. I've held off on buying ORAS so that I could focus on winning more in Singles, because I definitely felt like Whimsicott/Durant/Drapion could go further than they did. This time around, I'm 99.8% sure I'm not the first person to REACH this mark (and I believe Jumpman16 may have something big planned for us), but I'm at least the first person to post about it. So as my reward to myself for finishing my final exams, I'm posting an ongoing streak of 1500 wins in XY Super Singles. I'm pretty pleased to be the first to post 1500 wins, given my insane obsession with symmetry and the fact that I was the first to post 500 and 1000 wins in Singles. That said, I don't expect the trend to continue into 2000 wins :) The team (specifically, Durant) has gone through some modifications, some of which were during the streak itself. Here are the current sets:

Whimsicott (M) @ Focus Sash (Fluffy Bunny)
Ability: Prankster
Nature: Timid
EVs: 44 HP / 244 Def / 220 Speed
~ Taunt
~ Encore
~ Switcheroo
~ Memento

Durant (F) @ Choice Scarf (The Bug Life)
Ability: Truant
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 220 HP / 4 Atk / 108 Def / 84 SpDef / 92 Speed
~ Entrainment
~ Protect
~ X-Scissor
~ Aerial Ace

Drapion (M) @ Black Sludge (Plaguarism)
Ability: Battle Armor
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpDef
~ Substitute
~ Protect
~ Acupressure
~ Knock Off

Team Plaguarism strikes again! Durant is the only one who has undergone any changes, since Whimsicott and Drapion do their jobs perfectly. It's amazing how much tweaking Durant can patch up holes in the team, though.

The factor motivating the change (from the old 172 HP/108 Def/228 Speed spread) was a battle (sometime after #1000 in this streak) in which Carbink 4 2HKO'd Durant with Power Gem (note: it usually didn't use Power Gem on the first turn; it seemed to select moves somewhat randomly) then Exploded unusually early against Drapion, leaving me to face off against Hawlucha 4. I managed to win thanks to some early evasion boosts (Flying Press missed a couple of times), but it left me well-aware that Durant should probably be EV'd to survive two Carbink Power Gems (since it's the second time that's happened).

I was looking for how to rearrange EVs, but I REALLY didn't want to take away Durant's ability to survive Breloom 4's crit Focus Punch. Then I wondered: does Durant really need all that Speed? It never comes in against Manectric 4 while it's actually holding the Scarf (I always Switcheroo it away). Same with Terrakion 2. 92 Speed EVs lets it outspeed Scarfchomp by one point (who I could see myself needing to switch Durant in against, thanks to Worker Rasmus's high number of Exploders). I could dip lower, but I like this spread, particularly because it allows me to use Taunt against lead Entei, Memento if they use Flame Charge, and still outspeed them.

I put 84 EVs into SpDef to allow Durant to always survive two non-crit Carbink Power Gems (I can Switcheroo its Score Lens to reduce the crit chance). Then I dumped the rest into Defense (except for the lonely 4 EVs, which went into Attack) for a spread of 172 HP/4 Atk/156 Def/84 SpDef/92 Speed. I eventually decided that I should check to see if that's actually the most efficient spread. In pretty much all situations, shifting around the EVs and putting them in HP instead of Defense didn't matter, except for this one:

252 Atk Blaziken Flame Charge vs. 220 HP / 108 Def Durant: 132-160 (81.9 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Blaziken 4's Flame Charge does not OHKO a full-health Durant without a crit. I had one battle against a Black Belt where lead Medicham 4 KO'd itself against Drapion (as it always does; unfortunately, there's no way to safely have it self-KO against Durant) and he switched in Blaziken 4. I knew that, if it had Speed Boost, I was screwed (fortunately, in this case, it didn't). If I switched in Whimsicott and it used Flame Charge, it would have +2 Speed, giving it enough to outspeed and KO Durant. Fortunately, it didn't have Speed Boost. I briefly considered 252 Speed on Durant to outspeed +2 Blaziken, but I knew it was better to keep the EVs that beat the threats I HAD encountered (e.g. lead Mienshao 4 using HJK on turn 1) than the ones I hadn't. But with this particular EV spread, I have a trick up my sleeve for that very situation:

Turn 1: Medicham uses Fake Out (it has always used Fake Out or Detect turn 1, but it uses Fake Out far more frequently)
Turn 2: Whimsicott uses Encore. If it didn't try to use Detect, switch to Durant, use Entrainment; if it did use Detect, Encore that, switch to Drapion, set up a Sub. Either way, Durant is at full health.

Set up as much as possible against Medicham (you can actually get several turns if you managed to hit it with Entrainment just by letting it hit Drapion's Subs with HJK). Then, when Blaziken comes in, this happens:

Switch to Whimsicott. If it chooses Flare Blitz, Whimsicott faints and Blaziken is at +1 Speed, meaning Durant outspeeds and hits it with Entrainment. If it uses Flame Charge, Whimsicott lives (barring a crit) and uses Encore. Now Blaziken is faster than Durant, but it's locked into a move that can't KO Durant without a crit, allowing me to use Entrainment most of the time. And while this situation involves relying on getting hit twice without any crits, I have to stress that this is a situation (opposing lead KOs itself early, then Speed Boost Blaziken comes in second) I've literally never encountered in over 3000 battles with this team. And the team can beat it the overwhelming majority of the time. That's pretty cool.

Obviously, this doesn't work against all early self-KO leads (most of them will do damage to Durant), but I believe Blaziken will use Flare Blitz far more frequently, particularly against Drapion. I'm somewhat worried about it coming in against Durant and picking Flame Charge (since it will KO AND boost its speed, assuming Durant has taken a bit of damage). But I'm keeping my strategy of trying to have Durant (or, preferably, Whimsicott) in against opposing leads when they KO themselves, simply because I feel that Emboar 4 is a bigger threat than Speed Boost Blaziken 4 (Emboar 4 kills me regardless of its ability if it comes out at wrong time, Blaziken 4 only kills me if it uses Flame Charge AND has Speed Boost).

So I've gotten a lot better at beating the (very low probability) threats that can cause problems for this team. Other than the "early Exploder + Speed Boost Blaziken/Sub user" threats I've identified before, here are other threats I've identified, but never experienced:

Flame Body second Pokemon + third Pokemon Terrakion, Cobalion, Scrafty, or Umbreon: In most battles, I can keep both Whimsicott and Durant alive, allowing me to switch out of a potential Flame Body Pokemon and use Entrainment on it. Drapion can stall some of them (e.g. Magmortar, Heatran 2, Heatran 4) out of PP, letting them KO themselves with Struggle. I didn't list third-Pokemon Virizion because I think Knock Off + Durant Aerial Ace should KO (it's very rare that Durant doesn't survive), and Terrakion will sometimes lose to two burned Knock Offs + Aerial Ace as well. But if Drapion gets burned, Scrafty or Umbreon will stall it out. The biggest Flame Body threat is Volcarona, because I can't switch out against it, even if my whole team is alive, unless Drapion has almost all of its PP left. That's because Volcarona can KO with Bug Buzz through Substitute (but has only tried to use Bug Buzz before running out of Heat Waves ONCE in the entire history of this team, which was battle #1175 that I lost), meaning I have to waste a ton of Protect PP just to stay safe. Talonflame gets special note, because I can scout its ability by waiting for it to use Brave Bird. If it's priority, it's Gale Wings, meaning no risk there.

Second or third Pokemon Cobalion 3 when Drapion is low on PP: I only need 15 Sub+Protect PP to stall out its Iron Heads, and I almost always have more than that. Still, it's a potential risk.

Lead Blaziken 1: This appears on two of out 100 trainers, each of whom have 72 (18*4) sets, making it a 1 in 3600 chance. Still, I'm glad I've never faced it. I would be able to set up Entrainment on it just fine and set up some boosts, but unless I got early Defense boosts without Special Defense boosts (thus baiting it into using Flamethrower instead of HJK), I probably wouldn't be able to set up fully. It's not quite as bad as I thought it was (I can just let it keep breaking my Subs with HJK until I feel I have decent boosts), but it's not great, since I can still only get about 8 boosts max if it hits with HJK every turn.

Lead Speed Boost Yanmega: I immediately switch to Durant and use Entrainment. If it doesn't crit, Durant lives, Yanmega is baited into attacking again, and it gets hit by Entrainment. If it does crit, I switch back to Whimsicott, use Memento, and set up Drapion against a -2 Yanmega. I've actually had Yanmega 4 crit Durant on the switch and still won this way (without too many problems), but it does pose a risk, particularly with Bug Buzz SpDef drops.

Lead Hippowdon 4/Umbreon 4 if I never get any crits: Once I'm down to about 10 Knock Off PP, I switch back to Durant and Protect stall them, then switch back to Drapion and set up again once they're out of attacking PP. They're more boring than threatening.

I don't even think about Quagsire 4 anymore. It almost never appears. When it does appear, it usually chooses the wrong moves and dies against Drapion, and at least Durant (and sometimes Durant AND Whimsicott) are still alive when it comes out, meaning I can easily set up against it by hitting it with Entrainment again. The main risk comes with an Unaware Quagsire 4 back-up following a Taunt lead, because Taunt leads waste all my Protect PP and prevent me from switching out and setting up again. But I pretty much never have to switch out of Unaware Quagsire anyway, because the AI makes dumb choices.

Anyway, I'm not exactly in a position to "race" against people if they do decide to destroy my streak. For all of its strengths, Team Plaguarism is still slow as hell. In a typical week, I'll win about 100 battles. Plus, I want to play Omega Ruby when I get it (I asked for it for Christmas), so I'll be playing that in my free time rather than continuing this streak. I do plan to keep playing XY Super Singles on commutes, which will maybe net me 10-12 battles a day on the weekdays. I'll also play it on the flight home, so I should accumulate wins quickly (for this team) for a little while. Of course, "quickly" for this team is like, 200 wins a week, tops, compared to stuff like Jumpman's team, which can probably manage 1000 wins a week.

I hope people enjoyed this read (or parts of it, anyway). I feel very privileged to be a part of this community, and very lucky to have found a team that works so well. The Battle Maison thread (and Orange Islands in general) is a uniquely fun and awesome place on Smogon. Good luck, everyone! See you in Hoenn :)

Proof video: ZWSW-WWWW-WWWK-H744

 

[turskain]

Nice streak. The "Durant no longer needs the Speed with priority Switcheroo removing Scarves and you could invest in SDef instead" idea was mentioned in the hilariously inaccurate post that I made half a year ago, but it was pretty forgettable because "why would Durant need anything but Entrainment and a Choice Scarf?". It's funny to see how far Durant has come since with all the theorymon and insane amounts of Durant hours by you and GG Unit, with even the moves besides Entrainment becoming useful and various EV spreads being used to good effect.

I played my own Durant team for 200 wins. Probably not going to play much more, but the theorymon is entertaining and since Durant is the topic, I might as well post what I've got.

Durant/Gyarados/Drapion

Durant @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Truant
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 HP / 28 SDef / 228 Spe
-Entrainment
-Confide
-Protect
-X-Scissor

Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 4 Spe
-Waterfall
-Substitute
-Protect
-Dragon Dance

Drapion @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 196 SDef / 44 Spe
-Knock Off
-Acupressure
-Substitute
-Rest



Here are the lead notes. 129 Maison Pokémon covered.

Abomasnow - Confide; switch Drapion; set up
Absol - Entrainment; if Lax Incense miss, switch Drapion, use Substitute, if Swagger and self-hit, switch Durant, switch Drapion, Substitute, repeat until you get a Sub up and stall out its Punishment PP, set up Drapion
Accelgor - Confide; switch Drapion; switch Durant; re-Confide; repeat to decrease Encore PP and weaken it so that Drapion can get encored into Acupressure 1-2 times afterwards
Alakazam - Entrainment
Archeops - Entrainment; Intimidate if it fails repeatedly
Articuno - Entrainment on Set1-2; Confide on Set1-4 and Set3-4 due to the risk of Set4
Aurorus - Entrainment
Bastiodon - Entrainment
Blastoise - Entrainment
Blaziken - Entrainment
Bouffalant - Entrainment; pray it doesn't Protect
Braviary - Entrainment
Carbink - Entrainment; it may Explode, but lol Carbink at -1 and super-effective Power Gem on Gyarados makes it unlikely
Carracosta - Entrainment
Chandelure - Entrainment
Charizard - Entrainment
Chesnaught - Entrainment
Clawitzer - Entrainment
Claydol - Entrainment; it will Explode early
Cradily - Entrainment; if Protect, ???
Cresselia - Entrainment
Crobat - Entrainment
Delphox - Entrainment
Dewgong - Entrainment
Drapion - Entrainment
Dugtrio - Entrainment; if Protect or miss, switch Gyarados, switch Durant, set up Drapion with Intimidate if it uses Substitute (do not keep Gyarados in without Entrainment; Toxic is a risk)
Durant - Entrainment; Intimidate if it fails
Eelektross - Entrainment; Flamethrower OHKO, so it doesn't use Protect
Electivire - Entrainment
Electrode - Entrainment
Emboar - Entrainment
Empoleon - Entrainment
Escavalier - Entrainment
Espeon - switch Drapion
Excadrill - Entrainment
Exeggutor - X-Scissor
Flareon - Entrainment
Floatzel - Entrainment; if Protect, switch Gyarados and bring Durant back in for another try - repeat until you succeed. If Gyarados gets crit with Waterfall before Entrainment succeeds, throw your hands in the air, let Durant stay in and pray it doesn't crit Durant on top of that
Flygon - Entrainment
Forretress - Entrainment; typically Explodes when Gyarados has 1-2 DDs and a Sub
Froslass - Entrainment
Gallade - Entrainment
Garchomp - Entrainment
Gardevoir - Entrainment
Gastrodon - Entrainment
Gengar - Entrainment
Gigalith - Entrainment
Glaceon - Confide; don't switch Drapion on Blizzard (sac Durant), set up Drapion
Gliscor - Entrainment on Set4; may have Set2 (Baton Pass) on Worker Rasmus
Gogoat - Entrainment
Golem - Entrainment; may explode early
Golurk - Entrainment
Gothitelle - Entrainment
Granbull - Entrainment
Greninja - Entrainment
Gyarados - Entrainment
Haxorus - Entrainment
Heatran - Entrainment
Houndoom - Entrainment
Hydreigon - Entrainment
Jolteon - Entrainment
Kingdra - Entrainment; if Protect, switch Gyarados, switch Durant, re-Entrainment; if Durant dies to Sniper CH Draco Meteor, Kingdra is at -2 after Intimidate broke its White Herb earlier and Drapion sets up
Krookodile - Entrainment
Landorus - Entrainment; if Protect (Set3), switch Gyarados, switch Durant, try again - alternatively, set up Drapion with Intimidate if Sandstorm damage is a concern or repeated Entrainment attempts fail. Set4 will explode early, but there's no playing around it as Durant can't safely come in on it after eating an Earthquake on Turn 1.
Lapras - switch Drapion; if it doesn't use Block, Sub up and switch out on Song's last turn; if it uses Block on the switch, Knock Off and pray
Latias - Entrainment; if Protect (Set2), switch Drapion, switch Durant (always survives CH DM), re-Entrainment; if Lax Incense miss, go to Drapion, Knock Off the Lax Incense at +0 (sac Drapion if needed), re-Entrainment
Latios - Entrainment; if Protect (Set2), switch Drapion, switch Durant (always survives CH DM), re-Entrainment; if Lax Incense miss, go to Drapion, Knock Off the Lax Incense at +0 (sac Drapion if needed), re-Entrainment
Leafeon - Entrainment; if Protect, Intimidate and retry
Lickilicky - Entrainment; switch Gyara if it misses
Lilligant - Entrainment
Luxray - Entrainment. Luxray2 (Puck/Jensen) has Roar, but it does not use in on Gyarados as Discharge is an OHKO
Magmortar - Entrainment; it has Protect but Overheat OHKO, so it will not use it
Magnezone - Entrainment; pray Set3 doesn't dodge it with BrightPowder against Roller Skaters and Jai
Medicham - Entrainment; if Fake Out, switch Gyarados and back and repeat; keep Gyara un-evolved so it uses Psycho Cut instead of suiciding with HJK
Metagross - Entrainment; if Protect, switch Gyarados, switch Durant, try again, repeat until it works
Milotic - Entrainment
Mismagius - switch Drapion; if it doesn't use Mean Look, Sub and switch out on Song's last turn; if it uses Mean Look on the switch, Knock Off and pray
Moltres - Entrainment
Musharna - Entrainment
Nidoking - Entrainment; if Protect, switch Gyarados (EQ), switch Durant (Poison Jab), re-Entrainment
Ninetales - Entrainment
Noivern - Entrainment
Probopass - Entrainment
Quagsire - Entrainment
Raikou - Entrainment; Set1 and Set3 have Volt Switch, pray they don't use it on Durant (they like Thunderbolt) and Set3 has Protect. If Set3 Protects on Turn 1, sac Drapion in hopes of it using Volt Switch to something more pleasant; if it were to KO Durant without a succesful Entrainment, you lose anyway so anything helps
Rampardos - Entrainment; if Protect and it KOs Durant, PP stall Head Smash with Gyarados and set up Drapion with Intimidate
Regice - Entrainment
Regirock - Entrainment
Rhyperior - Entrainment; if Protect and it KOs Durant, Intimidate to set up Drapion
Roserade - Entrainment; if Protect, let it use Leech Seed and switch Drapion to set up
Salamence - Entrainment
Sceptile - Entrainment; if Protect, let it use Leech Seed and switch Drapion to set up
Scrafty - Entrainment; if Protect, switch Gyarados, go back in, and try again
Seismitoad - Entrainment
Serperior - Entrainment
Serperior - Entrainment
Shiftry - Entrainment; if Protect or Fake Out, switch Gyarados, switch Durant, re-Entrainment
Skarmory - Entrainment; attack right away (TOP THREAT)
Skuntank - switch Drapion; use Substitute on Explosion (Fire Blast burns don't matter because it has Rest, so a straight switch preserves Durant with little cost)
Slowbro - Entrainment
Slowking - Entrainment
Slurpuff - Entrainment
Spiritomb - Entrainment
Staraptor - Entrainment
Steelix - Entrainment
Suicune - Entrainment; if Protect, re-Entrainment until it succeeds
Swampert - Entrainment
Sylveon - Entrainment; watch out for Set2 (Baton Pass) on Furisode Girls
Tauros - Entrainment; if Protect, switch Gyarados (EQ immune), switch Durant, repeat
Tentacrual - Confide; switch Drapion; set up
Thundurus - Entrainment
Torterra - Entrainment; if Protect, let it use Leech Seed and switch Drapion to set up
Trevenant - Entrainment
Tyranitar - Entrainment
Tyrantrum - Entrainment
Umbreon - Entrainment
Vanilluxe - Entrainment
Vaporeon - Entrainment
Venusaur - Entrainment; if Protect, let it use Leech Seed and switch Drapion to set up
Victreebel - Entrainment
Vileplume - Entrainment
Virizion - Entrainment
Volcarona - Entrainment
Wailord - Entrainment
Walrein - Entrainment
Weavile - Entrainment; if Fake Out, switch Gyarados, switch Durant, re-Entrainment; if Freeze on Durant or continued failure, switch stall Taunt and set up afterwards
Whiscash - Entrainment
Zapdos - Confide on Set1-2 (Drapion avoids being 3HKO'd by -1 Magnet Thunderbolt); Entrainment on Set1-4 as Set4 won't use Protect and has Volt Switch, and presents a greater threat
Zebstrika - Entrainment; pray it doesn't use Volt Switch

There's a lot of praying involved, so it probably isn't going to elevate Durant+2 to Whimsicott/Durant/Drapion's level - but it seems like a competitive Durant+2 setup to me.

The main reason I finally got around to it was that no one was using Confide on Durant. I only used it briefly, but I can definitely say that Confide on Durant is great for Durant+2 teams that carry Drapion, and can be absolutely hilarious sometimes - in one battle, Durant used Confide on Articuno4 and crippled it all the way to -6 Special Attack (with it using Protect and missing one Blizzard) and still survived to cripple another day.

Edit: fixed sorting, added a few more words

 

[VaporeonIce]

turskain, I like it! Confide is definitely a cool trick. The defensive Drapion spread turns it into less of an "instant win wrecking ball, lulz I can OHKO Terrakion," but with Rest, you should be able to beat most of the things that would stall you out (Scrafty in particular would have problems breaking Drapion). My big concern would be stuff like Cobalion and Terrakion, but Gyarados Intimidate switching should be able to cut them down to manageable levels.

I actually totally forgot about Baton Pass Gliscor 2 on Rasmus's team (I've fought Baton Pass Sylveon a few times, but its teammates are awful, so I never worried about it). Agility makes it a real problem for Team Plaguarism. I think I'll just hit it with Entrainment (using Taunt on turn 1; Whimsicott tanks Acrobatics anyway) and spam Knock Off. It does 25%ish on the first hit and takes 4-5 hits to KO after that, meaning Gliscor has to boost twice and Baton Pass out on its third attacking turn to live. One problem is that I don't know which Gliscor set it is right off the bat (unless it tries to BP or use Agility turn 1), since three of them have Acrobatics. I'm saving a damage calc for Set 1, though (252+ Atk) compared to sets 2 and 4 (0 Atk), so I can tell which one of those it is. Then set 4 might hit Drapion with EQ while I Knock Off, but that's fine, because Drapion survives comfortably.

 

[GG Unit]

I don't even think about Quagsire 4 anymore. It almost never appears, it usually chooses the wrong moves and dies against Durant when it does appear, and at least Durant (and sometimes Durant AND Whimsicott) are still alive when it comes out, meaning I can easily set up against it by hitting it with Entrainment again. The main risk comes with an Unaware Quagsire 4 back-up following a Taunt lead, because Taunt leads waste all my Protect PP and prevent me from switching out and setting up again. But I pretty much never have to switch out of Unaware Quagsire anyway, because the AI makes dumb choices.

Nice, I knew your team could do more than its previous streak! This part makes the fact that I lost at aroud 450 to an Unaware Quagsire that used all the right moves (EQ every time except Curse the one turn I used Protect to get out of crit Earthquake damage range) AND got a crit AND Durant wasn't healthy enough to switch in thanks to a reduced accuracy crit it took all the more annoying.

For Umbreon 4 can't you just PP stall it without Entrainment? If you Taunt it with Whimsicott, switch to Drapion, switch back, Encore, and repeat the process, you can remove most of its Payback PP. After that, it can't do anything to Drapion and should be due to start Struggling just after you've used 21 Acupressures.

 

[VaporeonIce]

Nice, I knew your team could do more than its previous streak! This part makes the fact that I lost at aroud 450 to an Unaware Quagsire that used all the right moves (EQ every time except Curse the one turn I used Protect to get out of crit Earthquake damage range) AND got a crit AND Durant wasn't healthy enough to switch in thanks to a reduced accuracy crit it took all the more annoying.

For Umbreon 4 can't you just PP stall it without Entrainment? If you Taunt it with Whimsicott, switch to Drapion, switch back, Encore, and repeat the process, you can remove most of its Payback PP. After that, it can't do anything to Drapion and should be due to start Struggling just after you've used 21 Acupressures.

Oh yeah, that is what I do against lead Umbreon. I often don't bother with switching back and forth, though; I just use Taunt, switch to Drapion, and set up on it. It's Hippowdon that's the problem. Umbreon is annoying if it comes out second or third (generally third) and I never get any crits against it, but I will start to stall it out with Drapion if my Knock Off PP gets low. I once used Taunt -> Encore EQ until Whimsicott's health was low -> Memento -> skip Entrainment and go straight to Drapion against Hippowdon 4 (it didn't have Sand Stream, IIRC), figuring I could stall it out of EQ easily and that Crunch would do laughable damage. I did win without too many problems, but my boosts were crappy (no Defense for a LONG time and not much Evasion) and it boosted enough to break my Subs with Crunch. It made me nervous enough that I didn't try again. Thankfully, I usually get crits against Hippowdon eventually, saving me the time and effort of blocking its attacks and setting up again.

I don't mean to claim that Quagsire 4 isn't a threat, because it definitely is. It's more than keeping my team members alive has become so automatic that I don't need to go out of my way to really think about it the way I do with Flame Body. But I do modify my strategy a little bit to account for it. For example, I'll often have Whimsicott Encore an enemy move that can 2HKO Durant if it gets a crit, then switch Durant into the attack and use Entrainment. That usually leaves Durant alive, because crits are rare and I generally don't have problems, even if Durant faints. It's a fairly good strategy, because having all three Pokemon alive helps me get out of potentially problematic Flame Body situations. But against trainers who are likely to have Quagsire (Hikers, Workers, Chef Carlos, Pokemon Rangers), I'll use Memento instead to help ensure Durant stays alive and healthy (enough). It hasn't been necessary so far, but overpreparation never hurt.

 

[DK Quagmire]

Cool team! If you're going to exploit Durant you may as well use stuff that otherwise wouldn't work in the Maison. You haven't provided EV spreads which is kinda disappointing. I did some calcs and it looks like you only need 156 speed EVs on Torkoal to outspeed the whole post-battle 40 Maison (156 with Naive gives 66 speed, the lowest to get above 258 (Scarf Manectric) at +6 with 266) which leaves 100 EVs to put in attack. I would give him the Sash though since after dropping your defences with Shell Smash he'll be easy to pick off with priority. Since Crawdaunt is already slow and will probably be cleaning up with Aqua Jet anyway I'm assuming you're running max HP + attack so he probably doesn't need a Sash so bad so he can probably have the Lum berry (or even a Splash Plate / Mystic Water for Aqua Jet sweeping). You could maybe check speed tiers to apply speed EVs so you can outrun targets that you'll hit with Knock Off but I haven't looked into that...

As for threats, off the top of my head there's Floatzel4, if it leads it can mess up Entrainment with Protect. Max HP Crawdaunt can survive a Waterfall + Low Kick combo (without a crit) so it should be able to switch in and OHKO with Knock Off. Depending on what comes out next you could either sac Crawdaunt to get Durant in for free to Entrain and set up Torkoal, or switch if the opponent can't hurt Durant too badly. There's also Carracosta4 which can't be OHKOd if it has Sturdy, has Weakness Policy which will activate if you hit it with Superpower which will allow it to wreck. Easy enough to handle if it leads thanks to Truant...

Can't think of anything else at the moment. Good luck with the streak!

My Torkoal has 252 Sp. Atk and 252 Speed with 4 atk if that helps. (Its a 5 IV bred on the new ORAS Battle resort with 22 sp def IV)
For Crawdaunt, i just took the one i had from my competitive X and Y battles, and dumped protect and swords dance on it. it has 252 Atk and 252 Speed with 4 HP (IV's all maxed except sp. atk)
I don't know much about the speed tiers so just know that having max speed gives me the best chance at outspeeding stuff, even Pokemon with the same speed stat as me. But knowing that i might have some wasted evs, is good for me to invest in other stats. so thanks for the info.

Well anyway, I lost my run at 64 streak, due to a Misclick. A Lead Tyhplosion koed Durant after Entrainment, and I sent in Crawdaunt, and i went for protect, during the turn of the turn of truant and swords dance on his attacking turn. (i need to remember that if something kos Durant that i get a FREE set up move) so i took a power herb Solarbeam to my sash, and the second Pokemon Victrebell was faster than me and weather balled me, then Torkoal tried to use shell smash, and took a Sludgebomb, and when I used Eruption, it did hardly anything. Probobly could of tried to use Super power here, but didn't think a +2 super power would enough to KO a Victrebell.

I'm already grinding again though (At 20 again already). Not gonna let a silly thing like that ruin it. I WILL get to 70 win streak using Torkoal!
but i'm already planning on a replacement for Crawdaunt though, since i'm actually looking for a faster Water type Pokemon. Relying on aqua jet isn't enough to secure wins. Thinking of trying out Sharpedo. I'll let you know if I loose again and go for this..

EDIT: i don't want to double post so i'll say this. I lost again, due to turn 1 protect stall so decided to run sharpedo instead. all ready got my 5 iv bred Carvanha with Speed Boost, and iv'e got 252 atk evs already, but here's the thing. Where to go from here. Do I use mega sharpedo, or keep it the same. I want to try a focus Energy/ Scope lense set, which I think would be amazing with Durant support. With protect, focus energy, waterfall and crunch. But I would need to know the minimum amount of speed evs which I don't know how to work out online. If a +6 speed Torkoal can outrun scarf manectric with only 156 speed evs, then maybe something similar for sharpedo?
Also if I choose to mega after the +6 speed (so no scope lense. I guess dump substitute in the focus energy slot) how many minimum speed evs would I need then?
Smogons main naughty nature set with the life orb has 152 speed evs, which sounds about right for a +6 speed Sharpedo to outspeed alot of things, but I think it could get away with less speed investment and still outspeed a scarf pokemon in the battle maison. Help would be appreciated here.
"2nd EDIT: found a speed calculator online, and a +6 speed sharpedo with zero speed evs has 460 speed. well that well an truely outspeeds Aerodactyl 1 then (looks at battle maison speed tiers) ;)

 

[Doubt]

So, not very experienced with the Maison, but I'm looking to get into it - I have a few fully IV bred mons and a couple of ones that are already EV trained (I also have a 6IV ditto so I can breed new mons fairly easily). I'm looking for a super singles team and am thinking something like this:

Kangaskhan@Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Jolly (mostly because I don't have an Adamant parent)
EVs: Undecided. Thinking 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
IVs are perfect except for SpA
-Power-up Punch
-Earthquake
-Sucker Punch
-Return
For this I mostly just took VaporeonIce's set because he has a huge streak going on and M-kang is crazy powerful and a good all-around mon.

Metagross@Life Orb
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SpD/252 Spe
IVs are perfect.
-Ice Punch
-Pursuit
-Meteor Mash
-Zen Headbutt
This is one I already had EV trained and bred, just using the set from the XY strategy dex. It was off of the mega set, but I think the set is flexible enough not to matter. I'm thinking of switching out Ice Punch or Pursuit for Earthquake and adding some other undecided move as well, so I'm not really sure.

Greninja@Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 Def/252 SpA/252 Spe
IVs are perfect except for Atk
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot
-Dark Pulse
-Hydro Pump
Another pre-trained one. Will probably switch out Hydro Pump for Surf if I want to use this thing in the Maison, and I've attached an Expert Belt because it'll boost most of the moves Greninja uses (that and Life Orb on Metagross).

As you can probably tell, I have no experience in Super Singles (or Super anything, haven't even unlocked them. Is it just 50 streak in regular?), so all critiques are welcome. Right now I'm fairly limited in number of parents with HAs and whatnot (if anyone has spitbacks or anything, I have stuff I can trade you for it in my shop thread in my signature, especially looking for stuff like Entrainment Truant Durant), but here's a quick list of what I do have already bred (also on an AS card, so I can use dexnav and whatnot):

List

Talonflame (Already trained, running 80 HP/252 Atk/176 Spe Adamant Gale Wings, 31 in everything but SpA, Flare Blitz/Brave Bird/Tailwind/Roost)
Charmander (Timid, Blaze, 31 in all but attack, presumably bred for Mega-Zard Y. Got it from Wonder Trade so IDK)
Electrike (Timid, Lighting Rod, Perfect IVs)
Mawile (Adamant, Intimidate, 31s in all but SpA)
Horsea (Modest, Sniper, 31s in all but Atk)
Haxorus (Already Trained, running 16 HP/252 Atk/240 Spe Adamant Mold Breaker, 31 in all but SpA, Poison Jab/Dual Chop/Dragon Dance/Earthquake)
Aegislash (Already Trained, running 252 HP/4 Atk/252 SpA Quiet, Perfect IVs (meaning 31 Spe, the one time I don't want it :P), Shadow Ball/Flash Cannon/King's Shield/Sacred Sword)
Gastly (Timid, perfect IVs)
Scyther (Adamant, Technician, perfect IVs in all but SpA. Has Razor Wind and Night Slash egg moves)
Venusaur (Already trained, running Modest Overgrow 252 SpA/252 HP/4 SpD, perfect in all but SpA, Synthesis/Sludge Bomb/Energy Ball/Leech Seed)
And that's it for now. I can breed most everything else fairly easy, but if I need HA or egg moves I'll probably need a parent (unless it's Dexnavable).

 

[cant say]

So, not very experienced with the Maison, but I'm looking to get into it - I have a few fully IV bred mons and a couple of ones that are already EV trained (I also have a 6IV ditto so I can breed new mons fairly easily). I'm looking for a super singles team and am thinking something like this:

Kangaskhan@Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Jolly (mostly because I don't have an Adamant parent)
EVs: Undecided. Thinking 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
IVs are perfect except for SpA
-Power-up Punch
-Earthquake
-Sucker Punch
-Return
For this I mostly just took VaporeonIce's set because he has a huge streak going on and M-kang is crazy powerful and a good all-around mon.

Metagross@Life Orb
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SpD/252 Spe
IVs are perfect.
-Ice Punch
-Pursuit
-Meteor Mash
-Zen Headbutt
This is one I already had EV trained and bred, just using the set from the XY strategy dex. It was off of the mega set, but I think the set is flexible enough not to matter. I'm thinking of switching out Ice Punch or Pursuit for Earthquake and adding some other undecided move as well, so I'm not really sure.

Greninja@Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 Def/252 SpA/252 Spe
IVs are perfect except for Atk
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot
-Dark Pulse
-Hydro Pump
Another pre-trained one. Will probably switch out Hydro Pump for Surf if I want to use this thing in the Maison, and I've attached an Expert Belt because it'll boost most of the moves Greninja uses (that and Life Orb on Metagross).

As you can probably tell, I have no experience in Super Singles (or Super anything, haven't even unlocked them. Is it just 50 streak in regular?), so all critiques are welcome. Right now I'm fairly limited in number of parents with HAs and whatnot (if anyone has spitbacks or anything, I have stuff I can trade you for it in my shop thread in my signature, especially looking for stuff like Entrainment Truant Durant), but here's a quick list of what I do have already bred (also on an AS card, so I can use dexnav and whatnot):

List

Talonflame (Already trained, running 80 HP/252 Atk/176 Spe Adamant Gale Wings, 31 in everything but SpA, Flare Blitz/Brave Bird/Tailwind/Roost)
Charmander (Timid, Blaze, 31 in all but attack, presumably bred for Mega-Zard Y. Got it from Wonder Trade so IDK)
Electrike (Timid, Lighting Rod, Perfect IVs)
Mawile (Adamant, Intimidate, 31s in all but SpA)
Horsea (Modest, Sniper, 31s in all but Atk)
Haxorus (Already Trained, running 16 HP/252 Atk/240 Spe Adamant Mold Breaker, 31 in all but SpA, Poison Jab/Dual Chop/Dragon Dance/Earthquake)
Aegislash (Already Trained, running 252 HP/4 Atk/252 SpA Quiet, Perfect IVs (meaning 31 Spe, the one time I don't want it :P), Shadow Ball/Flash Cannon/King's Shield/Sacred Sword)
Gastly (Timid, perfect IVs)
Scyther (Adamant, Technician, perfect IVs in all but SpA. Has Razor Wind and Night Slash egg moves)
Venusaur (Already trained, running Modest Overgrow 252 SpA/252 HP/4 SpD, perfect in all but SpA, Synthesis/Sludge Bomb/Energy Ball/Leech Seed)
And that's it for now. I can breed most everything else fairly easy, but if I need HA or egg moves I'll probably need a parent (unless it's Dexnavable).

M-Kang can deal with almost anything by itself so its teammates can be built to deal specifically with stuff that Kang can't handle. First thing that comes to mind is fighting types, and you're current team has no way of dealing with them at all. The easiest solution to that is to swap in your pre-trained Aegislash, I'm going to say to replace Metagross as Greninja is quite a potent Pokemon in the Maison and Metagross will have trouble sustaining a streak as it's STAB moves are inaccurate (I think the only way it would be able to work is running a Hone Claws set with a jolly nature). Now that the Life Orb is free, you can give that to Greninja instead, or maybe even a Focus Sash to give it a safety net incase it misses a KO. As for its move I would highly recommend replacing Hydro Pump for something more accurate (ie: Surf), Extrasensory is a good move too as it can be used against Fighting types that trouble Kangaskhan (although you won't be able to switch Gren in on them with its Dark typing), just don't drop Dark Pulse as it will be useful against Ghost types that Kangaskhan may not be able to hit with Sucker Punch.

Beating the Chatelaine should be easy enough, Kangaskhan can beat either Tornadus or Thundurus if they lead, if she leads with Landorus then you can easily switch to Aegislash to take the obvious Focus Blast, she'll then be locked into it which will give you a free turn to Shadow Ball her switch in, which will be Thundurus as it has Crunch. King's Shield on the Crunch to drop her stats and KO on the next turn with Shadow Ball (Shadow Sneak will only just miss the KO here which would leave you in Blade-Forme when she attacks). She'll send Landorus out which can OHKO with Earth Power, you could swap Greninja out for Choice Band Talonflame here who can get a free switch in and get a free Brave Bird off as she switches to Tornadus which can OHKO it on the switch (if it doesn't, just use it again). Then she will just be left with Landorus which will use Extrasensory because Talonflame resists its other moves, allowing you to Brave Bird it to death...

 

[Darkflagrance]

Here's Aegislash soloing the Super Singles Chatelaine battle. I just wanted to boast a little (and also show how she can be cheesed). If you have an Aegislash, you should be able to do the same thing. It's just a stance dance Aegislash from the first month of XY.

UG8G-WWWW-WWWK-VBNX

If she led with Landorus, I'd go to Dragonite to take the choiced earthquake and dance up. If she led with Tornadus I would switch to assault vest goodra and hopefully damage it enough to bring it into priority range.

 

[theyen]

Big pic

Hello guys, long time lurker here. Reporting in with a 186 win streak in ORAS Super Multi Battle with Steven as my AI partner

My Sets

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability Trace -> Pixilate
Nature: Timid
31/31/31/31/x/31
-Hyper Voice
-Psychic
-Shadow Ball/Thunderbolt
-Protect

Terrakion Focus sash
Ability: Justified
Nature: Jolly
31/31/31/31/31/31
-EQ
-Rock Slide
-Close Combat
-Poison Jab/X-Scissor

(Got this off the GTS. A pretty nice find, I must say)
Steven


Aerodactyl@ Focus Sash
Ability: Rock Head
Nature: Jolly
-Rock Slide
-Fire Fang
-Ice Fang
-Thunder Fang


Metagross@ Metagrossnite

Ability: Clear Body -> Tough Claws
Nature: Adamant
-Meteor Mash
-Bullet Punch
-Hammer Arm
-Zen Headbutt

The core of this set is M Gardevoir's Pixilate charged Hyper Voice, which everyone knows wrecks a huge chunk of the Maison, having few immunities while also being a spread move that goes through Subs and doesn't hit your own teammate. Psychic is there to kill off the Poison type pokemon that resist Hyper Voice. Shadow Ball is for Trick Room Psychics and to ensure Gard is not utterly walled by Steel types, although Thunderbot does hit Slowbro/King a little harder. Protect is essential in Doubles as always. Terrakion is there as a back up pokemon with EQ, Rock slide and Close Combat hitting the Fire, Steel and Poison Pokemon that Hyper Voice cannot touch And Gard cannot reliably kill. While Poison jab is there for defensive Grass types and for Soundproof Mr.Mime, i feel that X-Scissor is overall better, esp for the pesky TR Setters later in the match. I choose Focus Sash to ensure that Terrakion can get off an essential hit to finish off the match

M-Gard too works pretty well with Either of Steven's Pokemon. Aerodactyl serves as a defensive cover for M-Garde. With its positive base 130 speed, it outspeeds most of the Maison and can fire off STAB Rock Slides full of Flinch Hax that stop fast pokemon, like Talonflame, Braviary and Weavile from killing MGard. Hyper Voice + Rock Slide is pretty Strong mixed damage and ensures that you do not get walled if you get two physically or specially buily leads. In fact, all of its moves have a chance to flinch, with the fangs providing their own delicious status effects. Aerodactyl might just be the gift from the Cheating Maison AI themselves. There were plenty of instances, where a chance flinch stopped a Pokemon faster than Gard just as it MegaEvolved from killing it.:) I have had double flinches, Thunder Fang applying paralysis and flinching at the same and a few lucky freezes to boot. Because of this M-Gardevoir is able to survive a bit longer firing off its boosted Hyper Voices. On the defensive side, Aero's typing helps to alleviate some of M-Gard's weaknesses namely strong physical attacks as well as SE physical attacks. Flying type means lead EQ is very uncommon and is one less move that can drop Gard's health to less than half. Rock/Flying draws in Rock moves that can KO Gard, Electric moves that might cause paralysis and SE Steel moves that are a major danger to Gardevoir. Focus Sash further arguments his offensive and defensive capabilities, allowing him to fire off multiple flinchy Rock moves. Nonetheless Aero has his own problems as well. While his Rock Slide is quite powerful, his fangs will only do mediocre damage, even as a 4X SE move falling to OHKO Ferro or Gliscor without a Crit for example. The Ai selection can get pretty wonky at times, going for the SE moves rather than the double flinch chance of STAB Rock Slide. Furthermore, hax can go both way as none of his moves are 100% accurate. Moves can and will miss and you will need to be prepared when Rock Slide fails to connect and that Brightpowder Glaceon activates Hail and his cloak of evasion. If Aerodactyl falls, MegaGross can step in and do cleanup duty.

Terrakion too has his own synergy with Aerodactyl. EQ goes off without a hitch thanks to Aero's Ground immunity. Double STAB Rock Slide is a good chunk of damage and Flinch hax is sure to occur. CC covers the Steel, Rock and Ice types that give Aero headaches

MGard and MGross is a very devastating combination in the Maison. By themselves, they are legendary-equivalent base stats Pokemon slaughtering others with more than 100 BST less than them. Together, they are a pretty formidable force. MGard draws out lead Poison Pokemon, where it can protect and then let MGross KO them with Zen Headbutt. Coverage move in Hammer Arm ensures SE hits against Steel types while the speed drop means that the team is not totally crippled in Trick Room. Meteor Mash is a powerful STAB and the attack boosts are not too uncommon, making it a pretty nice bonus. Bullet punch is great priority, shutting off Custap Berry plays, beating TR and picking off weakened Pokemon so the remaining one can eat a full force Hyper Voice. Beyond that its has extreme defensive bulk, surving EQs and Overheats that the normal form wouldn't have been able to. However, almost like Aerodactyl, all but one of Steven's moves lack perfect accuracy, although its defenses mean that misses are not so crippling

All in all, Steven is indeed a pretty competent AI partner, carrying my team at times until i lost due to my reluctance to switch. Move choices can get a little wonky at times, as it loves using SE attacks and not using priority when it is clear it will get outsped but nonetheless, it was a pretty good team

Top Threats

Steel Types - A real pain in the butt. Resists Hyper Voice and Stone Edge and hits 3 out of the 4 pokemon SE.

Heatran -> BIGGEST Threat. Walls Aerodactyl completely, 4x resist Hyper Voice with Shadow Ball being a 3HKO at best. Kills Aero, Gard and Terrakion with Flash cannon while obliterating MGross with Overheat. Responsible for my loss at battle 187

Ferrothorn - Problematic with an Aerodactyl lead. Draws his attention with Fire Fang that nonetheless fails to KO while also breaking sash with Iron Barbs. Nonetheless, poses little offensive threat and can be focused on with Fire Fang/Hammer Arm) and Shadow ball

Cobalion - Survives Spread Hyper Voice, unlike its buddies and can reflect back with Metal Burst, as i was afraid would happen in the Chantelaine battle. Thank god for that lucky flinch. Otherwise can KO with Iron Head, especially when it outspeeds normal Garde as a lead. Firefang/Hammer Arm and Hyper Voice takes care of it otherwise

Aggron4: Shadow Claw is a OHKO on Gard and has no stone moves that would target Aero usually. Spdef investment also stops it from being a 2HKO of Hyper Voice. Luckily Terrakion hurts it with 4X Close Combat

Fast, offensive Pokemon

Braviary - needs to protect if seen as no rock moves means it will target Garde with BB instead of Aero. Rock Slide may not be a clean OHKO. First turn Protect + second turn swap to Terrakion is advised if paired with Aero

Crobat(1,3,4)- Speed Ties with Aero, Rock Slide is a 2HKO but Cross Poison onto Garde is a clean kill. Best chance is to protect First turn and then switch to Terrakion second while Aero kills it with RS. If paired with Metagross, Zen Headbutt is a clean OHKO

Gengar- Outspeeds Gard and can either deal massive damage with Shadow ball or kill outright with Sludge Bomb while resisting Hyper Voice. Luckily is frail. With Aero, Protect+ Rockslide will do the trick. However with Megagross is problematic as it may choose to hit it instead of Garde with Shadow Ball, although Mgross will still survive and KO with Zen headbutt. Huge problem

Darmanitarn4 - Choice Scard Flare Blitz outspeeds Aero, so no chance of flinching and Garde is a primary target. Needs to protect first turn, while Aero and Metagross kills it

Nidoqueen/King - Must use either Psychic or Protect first turn, else will kill with Poison Jab/Sludge Bomb. Outspeeds Metagross first turn so if do not use either moves, spells early exit for M Garde

Electrode - Most Electrodes outspeed Aerodactyl and shortens its time on the field Electrode 4 has soundproof, threatens with strong Thunder on either Aero or Metagross and can set up Light Screen to weaken Hyper Voice. Electrode3, although no Soundproof, carries Air Balloon to stop a Terrakion EQ. While weak against the rest, Thunderbotl still hurts Aero a lot, not counting Paralysis hax.

Mr Mime4 - Soundproof Variant that can 2HKO with Shadow Ball. Thankfully is mediocre otherwise

Trick Room

The bad news is that if you ever meet a TR Setter, there is a pretty high chance that you cannot KO and it will set it. Bronzong is especially annoying, resisting Hyper Voice and serving us a good dose of our own hax with Rock Slide under Trick Room. The Good news is that you would have done massive damage otherwise in the process and this team can cope in TR pretty well, Metagross especially. Furthermore, being a Multis Double, there is an equivalent chance that the opponent pokemon is just as boned. In this environment. Aerodactyl and Terrakion can adsorb hits with his focus sash, while the megas perform the cleanup duty as seen in one of our battles. MegaGross performs admirably. Hammer arm lowers his speed which is great in TR, while its priority partly negates the condition. Furthermore, it 4x resists Psychic, leading them to having to fire off Shadow Balls that don't hurt as much as it should.

Sample Battles
Battle 50 against Chantelaine Morgan and Evelyn- SAAG-WWWW-WWWK-NSUS
Against Morgan and Evelyn, any two leads would have been ok except for a Cobalion one, which it had to lead off with. The Flinch hax on it was pretty lucky and might have been crucial to winning the battle, though on hindsight i think the better play might have been to protect first turn so as to outspeed Cobalion one turn later

Battle 101 - R8VG-WWWW-WWWK-NSMQ
(Double Steel lead into a Trick Room team and Escaveiler Backup)

A Particularly tough battle which demonstrates the power of MegaGross, Koing 3 out of 4 of the Pokemon. Protect is valuable, with the weakened MGarde drawing attention away from Megagross while it wrecks through the entire team

Battle 148( Double Freeze) YCJW-WWWW-WWWK-UHAJ

Hax of the worst variant strikes! It starts off when Megagross misses two moves in a row on Brightpowder Glaceon under Hail which then worsens when Garde gets frozen by Blizzard. Thankfully, Aero shows its mettle by killing off Alakazam and Glaceon before Gooey Goodra comes out. The Speed drop allows it to freeze Aero, Thankfully, Garde's bulk is seen here as she survives long enought to out last the hail turns and Blizzard so that Terrakion gets a guaranteed KO
Battle 187(Lost battle) - ZXEW-WWWW-WWWK-UH28

Heatran rears its ugly head and is my ultimate demise. On hindsight, sending in Terrakion and Sacking MGross in EQ would have been the best play Turn 1 as Heatran did prioritise MGross and Lanturn set up in my face. Delay in killing Heatran means Lanturn gets to become unkillable and gets freeze hax twice on my pokemon.


Overall, the Multi AI is way better this time around and MGross is a beast!