What's the fastest team to get the Rotation Trophy? I noticed all the teams listed require some setting up but I prefer to just hit hard out right and finish the battle quickly.
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Battle Maison Discussion & Records
- Thread starter NoCheese
- Start date
You're probably going to want to use fast, extremely threatening mons like Mega-Kangaskhan that require little to no setup - Khan makes her own with PuP, and only requires some team support. Allies like Greninja and Aegislash will take out some threats to Khan, so the fourth can probably help with the other two. Note I'm not familiar with Rotations, but a team like that should provide enough manpower to get you throw rotations fast, although undoubtedly it'd fail towards the higher part of streaks. I...don't think rotating changes stat boosts (it doesn't do Confusion, Slow Start, Toxic stage, etc....), so it might be fun to momentarily switch out Kanga to an immediate King's Shield Aegislash. Anyway, find something that works. Best of luck!
Hey guys! I'm really noob with this, so expect silly questions from now on -like this one-. I want to collect every trophy and right now I would like to try Super Doubles. However, I want to do it just with my favorite ones or at least give them a try. Can I create a good team with some of the following ones or it is impossible even for a trophy? -Typhlosion, Gardevoir, Gallade, Milotic, Altaria, Dragonite, Nidoqueen-
It's plausible, but they'd need to be IV bred and EV trained, Maison competition is just too stiff in the Super modes. M-Gardevoir is viable, as is M-Altaria. Dragonite is, Nidoqueen could be, Gallade.....I don't know. If you want to use just your favorites, your first priority is to figure out what fits and what doesn't. I think Typhlosion has some nice spread moves, so that could work. Altaria is complete dead weight unless you Mega Evolve it, so keep in mind that if you choose to include it on the team. Nidoqueen cold work decently, as could Gardevoir. Gallade and Milotic are up in the air to me: I just don't think they have the raw power (although Gallade has some nice support moves) to back up a team. Dragonite is a general all-around good mon, so that would fit. You might have a tough time using just your favorites though, so be careful.
Who would be a better partner with Life Orb Discharge Thundurus-T?
I'm using Adamant Scarfchomp now but was also thinking of Jolly CB Landorus-T with a stronger Earthquake and Intimidate.
I'm using Adamant Scarfchomp now but was also thinking of Jolly CB Landorus-T with a stronger Earthquake and Intimidate.
Scarf Typhlosion + Char-Y lead is great, I got my doubles and triples trophies using this strategy.
I've been trying Mega Slowbro out in singles and so far it's been quite an effective sweeper. It sets up effortlessly on so many things (I'm running CM/Rest/Scald/Iron Defense btw). My current team is standard Sash Gengar, M-Bro and Normal Gem Snorlax with Return, Self-Destruct, Crunch and EQ. Probably not the best teammates, but they do have decent synergy, plus I like the unintentional Gen1-only gimmick. I'm thinking of swapping out Snorlax for something faster, as its low speed has almost cost me a few games that were won solely due to M-Bro's sheer impenetrability.
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Well, my streak in Super Triples has reached 200. It's still ongoing, but I'm taking a break; it's also in ORAS, but it doesn't necessarily use anything ORAS exclusive (only some Pokemon caught in ORAS only, but they can be transferred). Here's the team.
Left Pokemon:
Tornadus (M) @ Life Orb
Modest / Prankster
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
- Tailwind
- Hurricane
- Taunt
- Sludge Bomb
Center Pokemon:
Blastoise (M) @ Blastoisinite
Modest / Torrent -> Mega Launcher
IVs: 31/xx/31/31/31/31
- Water Spout
- Aura Sphere
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
Right Pokemon:
Thundurus (M) @ Damp Rock
Modest / Prankster
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
- Thunder
- Rain Dance
- Taunt
- Dark Pulse
All Pokemon above have EVs of 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe.
My front lineup is absolutely wonderful, almost never failing to do their job. Blastoise simply protects and Mega Evolves into Mega Blastoise to jettison its Special Attack into insane levels while preserving its health. The genies usually set up Tailwind and Rain Dance on the first turn with priority. Blastoise can then proceed to sweep everything with Water Spout, as it outspeeds everything in the Maison at this point. Luckily, the other two Pokemon aren't useless and take advantage of the rain to fire off Thunder at troubling Water-types and Hurricane at Grass-types. Sludge Bomb hits bulky Fairies, with just a little bit more power than neutral Hurricane. Dark Pulse on Thundurus is just to snipe across the field on rare occasions. Both have Taunt to stop most Trick Room setters on either side, or two potential setters. For Aromatisse, I prefer to either immediately Sludge Bomb + Water Spout (no Tailwind since Trick Room = slow Pokemon anyway), or Rain Dance + Hurricane + Water Spout. With Slowbro and Slowking, I can deal with them with Dark Pulse and Hurricane well enough.
A few notes:
- As I said, this team reliably stops Trick Room most of the time, though it isn't perfect.
- By using Protect and double setting instead of Mat Block, I can ensure Blastoise's health and safety from status, priority, or Fake Out.
- I haven't encountered trouble with Sun teams; they're swept by Water Spout most of the time, with the non-Fire-types being taken care of easily.
- Sand teams are also weak against Water, so not much trouble there.
- Hail teams can tend to be more troublesome if Snow Warning isn't there, as setting up Hail might disturb my Rain. However, most of the time they don't set up Hail, instead opting to hit my two Ice-weak targets.
- Rain Dance isn't totally vital to the function of my team anyway, as it only helps the three lead Pokemon out.
- Tailwind, on the other hand, is pretty much what got my team this far, so it's almost always needed; this is why I have a Sashed backup setter.
- I've found Fake Out to not be too disruptive. Targeting Blastoise is okay. Hitting Thundurus doesn't matter, because setting Rain up next turn grants the effects right away. On the other hand, Tailwind's speed boost is irrelevant the turn it is used, so it is imperative that it gets used immediately. If the opponents aren't slow, but Tornadus is hit by Fake Out, I'll often switch out Blastoise while Tailwind gets used.
- Dry Skin and Water Absorb Pokemon are handled very well. Hurricane hits them all hard, and Thunder can also be used if they're on Thundurus's side. If either of them should die, Greninja hits all of these Pokemon hard and with ease.
- If an Electric-type hits Blastoise on Turn 1 when it Protects, then it'll often go for the genie on its side for Turn 2 if it's still alive, which means Blastoise doesn't usually worry about taking a Thunderbolt if it already protected itself from one.
On the the rest of the Pokemon!
Greninja (M) @ Expert Belt
Hasty / Protean
IVs: all 31
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Mat Block
Let me explain. The reason it's Hasty and has Attack IVs is because it used to have Gunk Shot. It also used to have Hydro Pump because it was on a Gravity team, but I've since changed those to Grass Knot and Mat Block. Gunk Shot was actually on there at the beginning of the run, but I fished for Heart Scales. Anyway, its job is to come in and Mat Block, then either help out with offense or switch out if Mat Block might be needed again. Like I said, Greninja's offensive moves cover the things that might threaten Blastoise defensively. Hits hard and is the second fastest member of the team. Expert Belt is just there to further boost its power against most targets without Life Orb, because Tornadus would rather hit harder. Dark Pulse lets it hit across.
Aerodactyl (M) @ Focus Sash
Jolly / Pressure
IVs: 31/31/31/xx/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Tailwind
- Wide Guard
- Rock Slide
- Aerial Ace
Sashed Aerodactyl is my backup Tailwind setter. It's fast, but if it needs to set up next turn, the Sash is there, and for some reason the Maison Pokemon don't like to hit it twice because I guess they expected it to die with one hit anyway. If a Pokemon dies as Tailwind peters out, Greninja comes in and Mat Blocks just for safety. I was debating between Wide Guard, Rain Dance, and Taunt for the second slot, but Rain Dance wasn't totally important and already was lasting eight turns; Taunt wasn't useful enough; Wide Guard was the most situational, but protected me from Surf, Rock Slide, Blizzard, and Explosion, which was appreciated. Rock Slide just to hit things weak to it, which is surprisingly a lot; I can hit Moltres or Articuno first and then set up Tailwind next. Aerial Ace for evaders and to hit across. I didn't go for Earthquake because Aerodactyl is always on the sidelines, which means that Blastoise or Greninja would be hit.
Staraptor (F) @ Choice Band
Jolly / Reckless
IVs: 31/31/31/xx/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Brave Bird
- Double-Edge
- Close Combat
- U-turn
This is pretty much my hard hitter that comes in when something bulky needs to be finished, with Suicune and Lanturn being the first examples coming to mind. It wasn't originally planned for this team, and had Choice Scarf which explains the Jolly nature over Adamant. With Choice Band, it wreck everything with its first three moves. U-turn is often used to weaken something for Water Spout or break Sturdy, leading into Greninja who Mat Blocks immediately. A lot of different Pokemon could go in this slot, though. Still, I'm satisfied with Staraptor, especially Brave Bird hitting across the battlefield.
There it is, my 200-streak team. I'll post with updates when I'm at 300 or when I lose (which will include a Battle Video as well).
Left Pokemon:
Tornadus (M) @ Life Orb
Modest / Prankster
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
- Tailwind
- Hurricane
- Taunt
- Sludge Bomb
Center Pokemon:
Blastoise (M) @ Blastoisinite
Modest / Torrent -> Mega Launcher
IVs: 31/xx/31/31/31/31
- Water Spout
- Aura Sphere
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
Right Pokemon:
Thundurus (M) @ Damp Rock
Modest / Prankster
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
- Thunder
- Rain Dance
- Taunt
- Dark Pulse
All Pokemon above have EVs of 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe.
My front lineup is absolutely wonderful, almost never failing to do their job. Blastoise simply protects and Mega Evolves into Mega Blastoise to jettison its Special Attack into insane levels while preserving its health. The genies usually set up Tailwind and Rain Dance on the first turn with priority. Blastoise can then proceed to sweep everything with Water Spout, as it outspeeds everything in the Maison at this point. Luckily, the other two Pokemon aren't useless and take advantage of the rain to fire off Thunder at troubling Water-types and Hurricane at Grass-types. Sludge Bomb hits bulky Fairies, with just a little bit more power than neutral Hurricane. Dark Pulse on Thundurus is just to snipe across the field on rare occasions. Both have Taunt to stop most Trick Room setters on either side, or two potential setters. For Aromatisse, I prefer to either immediately Sludge Bomb + Water Spout (no Tailwind since Trick Room = slow Pokemon anyway), or Rain Dance + Hurricane + Water Spout. With Slowbro and Slowking, I can deal with them with Dark Pulse and Hurricane well enough.
A few notes:
- As I said, this team reliably stops Trick Room most of the time, though it isn't perfect.
- By using Protect and double setting instead of Mat Block, I can ensure Blastoise's health and safety from status, priority, or Fake Out.
- I haven't encountered trouble with Sun teams; they're swept by Water Spout most of the time, with the non-Fire-types being taken care of easily.
- Sand teams are also weak against Water, so not much trouble there.
- Hail teams can tend to be more troublesome if Snow Warning isn't there, as setting up Hail might disturb my Rain. However, most of the time they don't set up Hail, instead opting to hit my two Ice-weak targets.
- Rain Dance isn't totally vital to the function of my team anyway, as it only helps the three lead Pokemon out.
- Tailwind, on the other hand, is pretty much what got my team this far, so it's almost always needed; this is why I have a Sashed backup setter.
- I've found Fake Out to not be too disruptive. Targeting Blastoise is okay. Hitting Thundurus doesn't matter, because setting Rain up next turn grants the effects right away. On the other hand, Tailwind's speed boost is irrelevant the turn it is used, so it is imperative that it gets used immediately. If the opponents aren't slow, but Tornadus is hit by Fake Out, I'll often switch out Blastoise while Tailwind gets used.
- Dry Skin and Water Absorb Pokemon are handled very well. Hurricane hits them all hard, and Thunder can also be used if they're on Thundurus's side. If either of them should die, Greninja hits all of these Pokemon hard and with ease.
- If an Electric-type hits Blastoise on Turn 1 when it Protects, then it'll often go for the genie on its side for Turn 2 if it's still alive, which means Blastoise doesn't usually worry about taking a Thunderbolt if it already protected itself from one.
On the the rest of the Pokemon!
Greninja (M) @ Expert Belt
Hasty / Protean
IVs: all 31
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spe
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Mat Block
Let me explain. The reason it's Hasty and has Attack IVs is because it used to have Gunk Shot. It also used to have Hydro Pump because it was on a Gravity team, but I've since changed those to Grass Knot and Mat Block. Gunk Shot was actually on there at the beginning of the run, but I fished for Heart Scales. Anyway, its job is to come in and Mat Block, then either help out with offense or switch out if Mat Block might be needed again. Like I said, Greninja's offensive moves cover the things that might threaten Blastoise defensively. Hits hard and is the second fastest member of the team. Expert Belt is just there to further boost its power against most targets without Life Orb, because Tornadus would rather hit harder. Dark Pulse lets it hit across.
Aerodactyl (M) @ Focus Sash
Jolly / Pressure
IVs: 31/31/31/xx/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Tailwind
- Wide Guard
- Rock Slide
- Aerial Ace
Sashed Aerodactyl is my backup Tailwind setter. It's fast, but if it needs to set up next turn, the Sash is there, and for some reason the Maison Pokemon don't like to hit it twice because I guess they expected it to die with one hit anyway. If a Pokemon dies as Tailwind peters out, Greninja comes in and Mat Blocks just for safety. I was debating between Wide Guard, Rain Dance, and Taunt for the second slot, but Rain Dance wasn't totally important and already was lasting eight turns; Taunt wasn't useful enough; Wide Guard was the most situational, but protected me from Surf, Rock Slide, Blizzard, and Explosion, which was appreciated. Rock Slide just to hit things weak to it, which is surprisingly a lot; I can hit Moltres or Articuno first and then set up Tailwind next. Aerial Ace for evaders and to hit across. I didn't go for Earthquake because Aerodactyl is always on the sidelines, which means that Blastoise or Greninja would be hit.
Staraptor (F) @ Choice Band
Jolly / Reckless
IVs: 31/31/31/xx/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Brave Bird
- Double-Edge
- Close Combat
- U-turn
This is pretty much my hard hitter that comes in when something bulky needs to be finished, with Suicune and Lanturn being the first examples coming to mind. It wasn't originally planned for this team, and had Choice Scarf which explains the Jolly nature over Adamant. With Choice Band, it wreck everything with its first three moves. U-turn is often used to weaken something for Water Spout or break Sturdy, leading into Greninja who Mat Blocks immediately. A lot of different Pokemon could go in this slot, though. Still, I'm satisfied with Staraptor, especially Brave Bird hitting across the battlefield.
There it is, my 200-streak team. I'll post with updates when I'm at 300 or when I lose (which will include a Battle Video as well).
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Mega Gardevoir and Mega Altaria can both spam hugely powerful Hyper Voices so pick one of those. Typhlosion can abuse Eruption the same way so he's good to go. Dragonite is a Maison Singles staple but I'm not sure how good he'll be in doubles, if you do decide to run him though, don't use Outrage as it targets an opponent randomly. I quite like Nidoqueen myself, and she should pair with your Hyper Voice attacker nicely as Earth Power should deal with the Fire / Steel types that resist it. She also gets cool stuff like Ice Beam, Thunderbolt and Flamethrower to abuse Sheer Force + Life Orb, as well as Helping Hand to help its partner. So something like Mega Altaria / Gard and Life Orb Queen in the front with Choice Scarf Eruption Typh and something else in the back might not be horrible
I would suggest Ninetales if it wasn't for its all-around mediocrity, maybe try Meowstic/Whimsicott/Klefki with Sunny Day?
I used Ninetales in Doubles for pretty much all of Gen 5, its not complete and total dead weight but... Mega Gardevoir + Typhlosion doesn't gel well with it. The only reasons to use Ninetales is pretty much:
1) MegaZard-Y is unusable because Mega slot is taken. This is true for your team, so +1 for Ninetales.
2) Chlorophyll lead. Due to speed mechanics, MegaZard-Y and Prankster Sunny Day won't activate Chlorophyll on Turn 1. Ninetales is the only possible way to have a Chlorophyll boost on Turn 1. Not abusing Chlorophyll at all here, so -1 for Ninetales.
3) Team synergy: if adding Ninetales is overall beneficial for defensive and/or offensive synergy, ie it covers Fairy-, Ice-, Grass-, Steel-, or Bug-types without overlapping too many Rock- or Ground- type weaknesses. Ninetales does nothing Typhlosion doesn't do, aside from being more willing to switch into attacks (since Typhlosion needs to keep its HP as high as possible). -1 for Ninetales.
4) Odd as it sounds, I'd actually vouch Role Play as a good reason to use Ninetales - but only if you have teammates with good abilities. Chlorophyll (ChloroTales was a legit threat in Gen 5), No Guard (Inferno/WoW), Solar Power, Levitate (dodge EQ's), Lightningrod (Walls a ton of Electric types), Storm Drain (priceless), Water/Volt Absorb, Contrary (Overheat), Prankster (Sunny Day, WoW, Hypnosis) etc. None of this team's abilities make Ninetales more threatening or annoying, so -1 on Ninetales.
So, I'd say Sableye might be best for Prankster Sunny Day. Taunt is nice in the Maison, Sunny Day is obvious, and WoW helps patch Gardevoir's physical bulk. Its lone Fairy weakness shouldn't be much of an issue either.
Meowstic, Klefki, and Whimsicott stack weaknesses with Gardevoir (Or Typhlosion, in Klefki's case). Meowstic offers Fake Out, good for Gardevoir on turn 1 but imo its not offering much else. Klefki has Crafty Shield and Metal Sound, and can heal a bit with Draining Kiss. Metal Sound tends to miss, though. It has no overlapping weaknesses with Gardevoir, but does share Ground with Typhlosion (plus, Gardevoir+Typhlosion+Klefki= "Oh fuck, a Flash Fire Entei, I forgot the Maison hacks"). Magnet Rise can allieviate the Ground problem though.
Whimsicott gives the most horrifying Fire weakness of all, but Fake Tears having 100% acc and being able to Taunt Thundurus is shnazzy. Not many things like eating Sun+STAB Eruption or Pixilate Hyper Voice at -2 Sp. Def, even if they resist it. Of course, Tailwind, Encore, Stun Spore, and a few other things are usable as well.
tl;dr Ninetales isn't THAT bad, but imo its a bad fit for your team. Sableye could be good. The aforementioned Prankster Sunny Day users have their pros and cons as well. I would suggest something to crush Fire types as they wall Fire+Fairy, though I'd avoid Earthquake for multiple reasons unless you run Magnet Rise Klefki.
Perhaps you could take a look at at the post below, that uses both M-Gardevoir and Talonflame in the team. While it may certainly be Triples, much of it is just as applicable to Doubles as well. Talonflame can also make a pretty good partner with Lead Typhlosion as it has priority Tailwind and a pretty speedy Sunny Day either way.
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/battle-maison-discussion-records.3492706/page-120#post-5992973
There are other posts as well that feature Mega Gardevoir as the main sweeper in a Doubles/Triples team too. Turskain's report on M-Garde is worth looking at here. http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/battle-maison-discussion-records.3492706/page-97#post-5833076 is his first team and http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/battle-maison-discussion-records.3492706/page-99#post-5869910 is his second iteration
Furthermore, at the risk of boasting, i did do a pretty nice streak with M-Garde in Super Multis as well, link here http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/battle-maison-discussion-records.3492706/page-108#post-5928717
In there, i did outline certain threats to M-Gardevoir. While it does have very solid special bulk, it had pitiful physical defenses and a strong Rock, Ground or even Return will knock it out. A good partner is someone that can provide, priority and Fake out Support, allowing Garde to just spam all the Hyper Voice
My second streak with Dusclops / Aron / Mega Camerupt / Eelektross has ended, this time at 544 wins. The team is identical to that described HERE, except that I've replaced Camerupt's Flamethrower with Protect, and Eelektross's Superpower with Hidden Power Ice.
Protect is an amazing upgrade, as it solves a lot of really awkward problems with having Camerupt in when I need to reset Trick Room. With my previous version of the team, the expiration of Trick Room was a huge pain, as Camerupt was liable to take a bunch of damage on the reset turn, rendering Eruption worthless even if the camel avoided being KOed. I could play around this to a degree by bringing in Eelektross for the reset turn, but it still resulted in me essentially having to throw away a bunch of Eelektross's health to get Trick Room back up. Protect solves the issue nicely. There's no problem keeping Camerupt in while I reset Trick Room, and because the expiration of Trick Room is less of a problem, I'm better able to take more conservative lines while Trick Room is active, using Protect with Aron in appropriate situations without feeling bad about "wasting" a Trick Room turn. I originally thought Flamethrower would be important to give me a powerful Fire-type attack even when Camerupt was at low health, but with Protect allowing Camerupt to survive the Trick Room turn without taking damage, it gets itself into such a situation far less often. Why run a move to mitigate the harm from a problem when I can just prevent it all together?
With Protect, it's important to remember that it's not always correct to Mega Evolve immediately. This is most relevant when Camerupt comes in right as Trick Room expires. Ideally, Camerupt wants to attack with Trick Room up and the sun shining. If Camerupt Mega Evolves immediately while Dusclops sets Trick Room, Camerupt will go first on the next turn, and so Dusclops won't be able to use Sunny Day before Mega Camerupt attacks. However, if Camerupt holds off on Mega Evolving on the Trick Room turn, it will still keep its non-Mega Speed on the next turn, and so under Trick Room, Sunny Day will go first.
The Hidden Power Ice inclusion on Eelektross is more debatable, as I don't use it a lot, but I didn't use Superpower much either, and the team is soft to Dragon-types after Aron faints, so I feel much safer with an Ice-type move in my back row.
I lost to Owner Cyril with Honchcrow / Eelektross / Porygon2 / Archeops, misplaying against Archeops's Protect and Honchcrow's Sucker Punch, with a critical hit by Honchcrow on the last turn as the final nail in the coffin. Though I had no problem setting first turn Trick Room in my losing battle, my strong feeling throughout the streak was that such a failure, likely through a Blizzard freeze or Rock Slide flinch, would be the most probable cause of my demise. Dusclops is bulky enough to often just plow forward and set Trick Room on the second turn after a first turn flinch, counting on Camerupt to pick up the slack from Aron getting beaten on if it fails its second turn Protect, but a freeze is obviously more problematic. Accordingly, I'm strongly tempted to try out Cresselia as a backup Trick Room setter, replacing Eelektross. Cresselia has remarkable bulk and like Eelektross is conveniently immune to Earthquake, which helps cover Camerupt's weakness to Ground-type attacks. Cresselia has a bit too much Speed to be ideal under Trick Room, but by holding a Power Lens or the like, it can remedy that, and it's not clear that Cresselia really needs to be faster than almost everything under Trick Room anyway. It also has a wonderfully broad support movepool to boot. Trick Room is obvious, but after that, Helping Hand, Moonlight, Protect, and a plethora of attacking options led by STAB Psychic and hits-everything Moonblast are all worthy of consideration. It's almost certainly overkill, but if there's one thing more fun than full health Eruption in the sun, it's full health Eruption + Helping Hand in the sun. Just the thought of that makes the little kid in me smile!
Continued good luck on the streaks, all!
Proof video: SPSW-WWWW-WWX8-5Y8A
Protect is an amazing upgrade, as it solves a lot of really awkward problems with having Camerupt in when I need to reset Trick Room. With my previous version of the team, the expiration of Trick Room was a huge pain, as Camerupt was liable to take a bunch of damage on the reset turn, rendering Eruption worthless even if the camel avoided being KOed. I could play around this to a degree by bringing in Eelektross for the reset turn, but it still resulted in me essentially having to throw away a bunch of Eelektross's health to get Trick Room back up. Protect solves the issue nicely. There's no problem keeping Camerupt in while I reset Trick Room, and because the expiration of Trick Room is less of a problem, I'm better able to take more conservative lines while Trick Room is active, using Protect with Aron in appropriate situations without feeling bad about "wasting" a Trick Room turn. I originally thought Flamethrower would be important to give me a powerful Fire-type attack even when Camerupt was at low health, but with Protect allowing Camerupt to survive the Trick Room turn without taking damage, it gets itself into such a situation far less often. Why run a move to mitigate the harm from a problem when I can just prevent it all together?
With Protect, it's important to remember that it's not always correct to Mega Evolve immediately. This is most relevant when Camerupt comes in right as Trick Room expires. Ideally, Camerupt wants to attack with Trick Room up and the sun shining. If Camerupt Mega Evolves immediately while Dusclops sets Trick Room, Camerupt will go first on the next turn, and so Dusclops won't be able to use Sunny Day before Mega Camerupt attacks. However, if Camerupt holds off on Mega Evolving on the Trick Room turn, it will still keep its non-Mega Speed on the next turn, and so under Trick Room, Sunny Day will go first.
The Hidden Power Ice inclusion on Eelektross is more debatable, as I don't use it a lot, but I didn't use Superpower much either, and the team is soft to Dragon-types after Aron faints, so I feel much safer with an Ice-type move in my back row.
I lost to Owner Cyril with Honchcrow / Eelektross / Porygon2 / Archeops, misplaying against Archeops's Protect and Honchcrow's Sucker Punch, with a critical hit by Honchcrow on the last turn as the final nail in the coffin. Though I had no problem setting first turn Trick Room in my losing battle, my strong feeling throughout the streak was that such a failure, likely through a Blizzard freeze or Rock Slide flinch, would be the most probable cause of my demise. Dusclops is bulky enough to often just plow forward and set Trick Room on the second turn after a first turn flinch, counting on Camerupt to pick up the slack from Aron getting beaten on if it fails its second turn Protect, but a freeze is obviously more problematic. Accordingly, I'm strongly tempted to try out Cresselia as a backup Trick Room setter, replacing Eelektross. Cresselia has remarkable bulk and like Eelektross is conveniently immune to Earthquake, which helps cover Camerupt's weakness to Ground-type attacks. Cresselia has a bit too much Speed to be ideal under Trick Room, but by holding a Power Lens or the like, it can remedy that, and it's not clear that Cresselia really needs to be faster than almost everything under Trick Room anyway. It also has a wonderfully broad support movepool to boot. Trick Room is obvious, but after that, Helping Hand, Moonlight, Protect, and a plethora of attacking options led by STAB Psychic and hits-everything Moonblast are all worthy of consideration. It's almost certainly overkill, but if there's one thing more fun than full health Eruption in the sun, it's full health Eruption + Helping Hand in the sun. Just the thought of that makes the little kid in me smile!
Continued good luck on the streaks, all!
Proof video: SPSW-WWWW-WWX8-5Y8A
So I jumped on #battlemaison the other day and got talking with The Dutch Plumberjack about what the most reliable 1v1 'mon would be, since I've been planning to try double Destiny Bond again with my brand new Counter Gengar (courtesy of TDP) and Mega Sharpedo. I figured Dragonite is pretty reliable since he's mostly scared of Ice types (especially Weaville4 with Fake Out + Ice Punch + Sash) and Aerodactyl4 / Archeops4. Max HP + Atk with Yache Berry beats all of those things so I started breeding for one but I totally just realised that Froslass4 walks all over D-nite (unless it misses Blizzard). I know there is absolutely no Pokemon that can beat every set 1v1 in the Maison, but there will be a time where I need to sack both my D-Bonders to the opponents first 2 'mons, leaving me in a 1v1 situation. I think the best way to look at it would be: which teams / combos of Pokemon are most likely to put me in that situation and plan my third around that. My team so far is:
Teagan (Gengar) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Hasty Nature
IVs: 30/10/0/30/31/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Counter
- Destiny Bond
Mitsukurina (Sharpedo) @ Sharpedonite
Ability: Speed Boost (Strong Jaw)
Adamant Nature
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Crunch
- Waterfall
- Protect
- Destiny Bond
and what I was going to have:
Dragonite @ Yache Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Adamant Nature
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Extreme Speed
I was thinking Yache Berry Garchomp could be used as well, but would rely on Rock Tomb to beat those annoying fast Ice Types (Weaville + Froslass) which has a pretty shaky accuracy;
Garchomp @ Yache Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
Jolly Nature
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EV: 244 Atk / 12 SpDef / 252 Spe
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb
- Iron Head
This loses hard to Togekiss4 though (among other things)... So yeah, share your 1v1 ideas with me!
Teagan (Gengar) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Hasty Nature
IVs: 30/10/0/30/31/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Counter
- Destiny Bond
Mitsukurina (Sharpedo) @ Sharpedonite
Ability: Speed Boost (Strong Jaw)
Adamant Nature
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Crunch
- Waterfall
- Protect
- Destiny Bond
and what I was going to have:
Dragonite @ Yache Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Adamant Nature
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Extreme Speed
I was thinking Yache Berry Garchomp could be used as well, but would rely on Rock Tomb to beat those annoying fast Ice Types (Weaville + Froslass) which has a pretty shaky accuracy;
Garchomp @ Yache Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
Jolly Nature
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EV: 244 Atk / 12 SpDef / 252 Spe
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb
- Iron Head
This loses hard to Togekiss4 though (among other things)... So yeah, share your 1v1 ideas with me!
I'd probably pick Gliscor, and here's why:
This team is REALLY vulnerable to hax. My initial reaction to Yache Berry Dragonite was "Yache Berry is meaningless if they freeze you" (which they will). But hax isn't limited to Dragonite. Electric-types have no reason not to use T-Bolt on Gengar. Ice-types have no reason not to use Ice Beam or Blizzard. Everything is practically baited into using Thunder Wave against Gengar, because the AI REALLY likes Thunder Wave when you're faster than them. You have nothing to switch into that. Tornadus's Hurricane can also confuse Gengar. Gliscor gets around some of these issues by switching into Electric-type moves. You can switch Sharpedo in on an Ice move, then bring Gliscor in on whatever non-Ice move is used next, and stall out the opponent if they're slower than Gliscor. This is still pretty crappy against Froslass (who your team HATES on account of Focus Sash and speed-typing with Gengar) and Weavile, while having a few other problems (Tornadus will still mess you up badly, but at least Sharpedo's Crunch will OHKO). But the Electric-weakness is the biggest thing that stands out to me, and a Ground-immunity seems essential. Gliscor beats most slower Ice-types more reliably than Garchomp, simply because it can PP stall them rather than crossing its fingers and hoping it doesn't get crit/frozen.
Maybe try Chansey. You have D-bond for anything that could set up and Gengar to switch in to Fighting moves. You could even speed creep stuff like Tyranitar and Bouffalant to make Chansey a safer switch-in so you can keep Gengar's Sash.
VaporeonIce I never considered Gliscor actually, he does sound really interesting (and who can argue with his viability here? lol) so I might give him a try
GG Unit Chansey was actually my first idea (TDP also suggested it) but I didn't want my team to be a total rip of R Inanimate's Subway team (Gengar / Chansey / Froslass). Chansey does have a smaller pool of Pokemon that can outright KO it though, Terrakion1 can with Expert Belt Close Combat (every other set is a 2HKO, unless set3 wants to Swords Dance First, set4 can flinch with King's Rock), Medicham4 OHKOs with High Jump Kick, Mienshao4 has a chance to (6.3%). I think there's a few other Close Combat users that threaten it as well. I think Chansey would work best with a Ghost Type switch in, which means not leading with Gengar, or using something else instead of Sharpedo (Mega Banette could work, but I want an ORAS mega for my initial trophy run). How does Chansey deal with Ghost Types? Like do you just Toxic stall them?
Other 1v1 ideas:
GG Unit Chansey was actually my first idea (TDP also suggested it) but I didn't want my team to be a total rip of R Inanimate's Subway team (Gengar / Chansey / Froslass). Chansey does have a smaller pool of Pokemon that can outright KO it though, Terrakion1 can with Expert Belt Close Combat (every other set is a 2HKO, unless set3 wants to Swords Dance First, set4 can flinch with King's Rock), Medicham4 OHKOs with High Jump Kick, Mienshao4 has a chance to (6.3%). I think there's a few other Close Combat users that threaten it as well. I think Chansey would work best with a Ghost Type switch in, which means not leading with Gengar, or using something else instead of Sharpedo (Mega Banette could work, but I want an ORAS mega for my initial trophy run). How does Chansey deal with Ghost Types? Like do you just Toxic stall them?
Other 1v1 ideas:
- Air Balloon Aegislash
- Protect + Disable + Encore + Rocky Helmet Alakazam
- Sturdy + Mirror Coat Avalugg
- Wobbuffet
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Hey, guys! Thank you very much for helping me. I've finally got my doubles trophy and mega Gardevoir was amazing ^-^ I also won Triples/Rotation/Multi with some of the pokémon I listed before and I'm really happy! I will put the details later, but here's a preview.
Multi: M-Gallade/Typhlosion with Steven's Aerodactyl and M-Metagross
Doubles: M-Gardevoir/Milotic/Garchomp/Typhlosion
Triples: Nidoqueen/M-Gardevoir/Glaceon/Dragonite/Typhlosion/Gallade
Rotation: Milotic/Dragonite/M-Gardevoir/Gallade
There's only one left and that would be single battles. This may be the hardest one since I would like to use M-Altaria (She's the only one mega in my team I haven't used in the maison). I don't want to use Durant/Mega Kanga/Greninja because I've gotten every trophy with my favorite pokémon, so it would be kinda meaningless xD I'm not sure about her partnerts though. Cloyster can destroy Nita, but I don't know how to use it properly in order to reach her. Besides, I don't think M-Altaria can support it. Any advice?
Multi: M-Gallade/Typhlosion with Steven's Aerodactyl and M-Metagross
Doubles: M-Gardevoir/Milotic/Garchomp/Typhlosion
Triples: Nidoqueen/M-Gardevoir/Glaceon/Dragonite/Typhlosion/Gallade
Rotation: Milotic/Dragonite/M-Gardevoir/Gallade
There's only one left and that would be single battles. This may be the hardest one since I would like to use M-Altaria (She's the only one mega in my team I haven't used in the maison). I don't want to use Durant/Mega Kanga/Greninja because I've gotten every trophy with my favorite pokémon, so it would be kinda meaningless xD I'm not sure about her partnerts though. Cloyster can destroy Nita, but I don't know how to use it properly in order to reach her. Besides, I don't think M-Altaria can support it. Any advice?
Chansey is a VAST upgrade over R Inanimate's Gen 4/5 Blissey thanks to its improved physical bulk; when I used it in Rotations, it beat so many things, it was insane. It would regularly take down Veterans by itself. R Inanimate's set also utilized Counter on Blissey to KO things; a Chansey set with Toxic, Seismic Toss, Softboiled, and Aromatherapy seems like it would work better (but Counter could work over Aromatherapy). It seems like R Inanimate's strategy involved using Destiny Bond with the first two Pokemon in most battles. With Chansey, I think the most common turn 1 move would be switching Gengar out for Chansey (but letting it faint against risky opponents). That way, the Destiny Bond users become a "back up," meaning Chansey rarely has to face the Pokemon that threaten it. Then, when powerful physical Pokemon come in (most of which are using a Fighting move or Earthquake), you just switch out to Gengar for free. You could lead with Chansey just as easily; I don't really know which one is better. Gengar's advantage is that it has better odds of taking out a Pokemon that threatens Chansey with its attacks without relying on D-Bond.
And yeah, Chansey beats Ghosts by Toxic-stalling them. It can beat most opponents that way, really.
Well, I beat the ORAS maison. It was a very fun grind (except AI multi, which was still just as terrible) with two really cute new teams, an old one that got a pretty significant buff in ORAS, and an old one that honestly didn't need any. I didn't use any ORAS megas but I did use a bunch of tutor moves (count sort of for trying new stuff I guess? I only recently learned how to RNG, too late for it to provide me with any tutored mons for the XY maison). I've got plenty to say about each one so I've put everything in hide tags ^^ everything is currently paused at 50 (except singles, which is paused at 200), but I'll be sure to wrap up these streaks later n_n
So, yeah, I intend to wrap up all these streaks (maybe except multi), probably starting with rotations because I don't want to brain failure that that mode seems to induce to carry over to any of my other streaks. (Btw if somebody happens to have a singles battle vid against lead Empoleon4 lying around that I can use for mock battling purposes, that'd be incredibly swell ^^), and I'll also be doing a new Greninja/Mega Blaziken run in Doubles once I've lost my current streak and have RNGed the mons that I need on old games... but first I'll need to actually beat those old games, as well as do well in school and play Majora's Mask 3D(so damn hyped lol), so I'm not sure how soon I can get to it, but w/e. For now, this was fun ^^
tl;dr: Greninja is a god and multi sucks.
Vs. Nita: MYBQ-WWWW-WWX5-3KTR
No. 200: DLGW-WWWW-WWX7-AF9B
(note: up until battle ~135 I used a shiny Scizor that I RNG-bred on SS a couple of weeks ago because a friend of mine wanted a shiny Scizor and I still needed a perfectly-IVed Scizor for team Suizomence on Platinum. (talk about hitting two birds with one stone, eh?) Afterwards I switched to a regular Scizor bred on OR for aesthetics (red>>>>>green) + nicknameability reasons, they're not nicknamed yet in the vids because I haven't thought up a nick for Greninja yet, lol)
Because I used the mindless pile of brokemons Khan/Aegislash/Dragonite in XY, I wanted to use some mons I actually liked in ORAS - the ones I really wanted to try were Greninja (such coverage, I like it, not surprising considering Starmie was my favourite battle facility mon in past gens, not to mention it can do so much more than spam Mat Block), Gliscor (an old favourite that I was really happy to see doing well here) and Mega Scizor (astounding setup sweeper and extremely badass) Around November-ish I had thought up two teams I had incorporated them in, the first one being Dragonite/Mega Scizor/Greninja (decent but quite frail so not sure if it can get past ~100) and Charizard X/Suicune/Gliscor (rejected because unlike Khan Charizard isn't Focus Blast bait so Hurrrnadus would probably screw it over). I then realised that those three favourites would actually fit much better on a single team that happened to fit the standard goodstuffs rule of 'have a lead that beats an obscene amount of stuff and have two backups that beat/set up on the stuff that beats your lead'. If the rumours from OU are right, Greninja beats quite a large amount of mons, and Scizor and Gliscor can switch in on (basically) everything that threatens it. So this time I actually built a legit singles team rather than throw a bunch of brokemons together. It doesn't have a stat-boosting lead, Mega Khan, or dragon, but who cares? I love every single one of them, they did exactly what I wanted them to do and way more, and their synergy is just insane. I adore it *_* here we go.
Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31 (will add Xes here and everywhere else when it's not past midnight)
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot
-Dark Pulse
Completely and utterly standard. Dark Pulse >> Extrasensory because fighters are Gliscor bait. This thing genuinely surprised me (I never really used LO Ninja in OU, I never really played that much against humans to begin with and it never seemed to find its way onto my teams, not to mention I haven't played OU for months now and I'm not really gonna be able to use Ninja there anymore now, lol), but it's just astounding how hard this thing hits and how much it covers. I've swept complete teams with it, and if it beats the opposing lead and my team can handle the second mon, the battle is pretty much over. If Greninja can beat the opposing lead but Scizor can also set up on it (possibly after some Gliscor PP stalling), it's generally better to have Scizor set up, but if Greninja beats the second mon it's usually best to make it a 3v1 battle immediately.
Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spe
-Bullet Punch
-Bug Bite
-Swords Dance
-Roost
44 Spe puts it at 101, right above the crowded 100 tier. The moves are completely standard... and for good reason, because damn this thing is good, the amount of things it sets up to +6 on and the ease with which it does so, often coming out on top with nearly full health, are downright amazing - and if it sets up fully, the game is over unless the opponent has a bulky Fire-type or like Zapdos or something. What I especially like about Scizor, however, is that it effortlessly switches in and fully sets up on all those Trick Room setters I've grown to hate in my Triples runs. It just feels so damn good to think 'yup, I won' whenever I see an opponent lead with Bronzong, Cresselia4, or freaking Aromatisse4.not to mention it's a hard counter to Muk4, get rekt haxxing sludge puddle
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Nature: Careful
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 212 HP / 4 Atk / 36 Def / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
-Substitute
-Protect
-Earthquake
-Toxic
I love this Pokemon, seriously, it's right up there with Starmie and Shaymin - it has the most amazing design and I've been in love with it ever since I terrorised Platinum five years ago with my skillful set of X-Scissor/Night Slash/Fire Fang/Ice Fang. Anyway, Gliscor's HA made it an unwelcome sight in wifi battles - I'm sure everybody has faced one on one occasion, seen its Sub go up, and realised he/she was pretty much down to the mercy of the flying scorp. That's exactly what Gliscor does to the AI in the battle maison, draining PP like there's no tomorrow, and occasionally squeezing in a Toxic to have them rot away. We've all seen Jumpman's team so we all know how utterly amazing Gliscor is ^^ honestly, this is a Ground/Flying-type that switches in on an Ice-type, sets up on it, and 'sweeps' a team. (#185 or so, vs. Regice/Heatran/Raikou n_n) Gliscor is specially defensive because a) it has enough natural physical bulk to take on most physical attackers anyway, and b) the things you want to switch it in on tend to be specially offensive anyway if my experience is anything to go with. The EV spread is probably self-explanatory: full SpD investment and the highest Poison Heal number (212 EVs) leave 44 EVs. Putting them all into Speed is tempting because it allows Gliscor to Toxic the a**hole known as Zapdos2 before it uses Double Team; however, that Speed tier isn't entirely empty, and Speed ties are obviously bad news for SubToxic Gliscor because you want to alternate SubProtect as reliably as possible. There isn't much of relevance in that tier, but unfortunately it contains Landorus1 and 4, and because Gliscor is my go-to switch-in for lead Landorus (out of fear for Lando2) you kind of really don't want to tie those. 4 Spe put it at 116, which ties nothing. Gliscor prefers to outslow opponents anyway in order to be guaranteed to come out on top with a Sub, so ya. As such, the remaining 40 EVs are invested into physical bulk - well, actually, that would leave Gliscor with four wasted EVs, so those are invested into Attack.
While this team has reached 'only' 200 so far, it has completely exceeded my expectations - perhaps not unsurprisingly, because these three are the kind of mons that happen to have more to them than meets the eye (especially Gliscor). That said, there are still some mons I'm scared of facing (not gonna do a really elaborate threatlist right now because too long but I can still put some things I noticed as I went along). Fire-types in general are something I'm a bit scared of; Scizor obviously hates them, and no matter how amazing Gliscor is, you do have to be careful not to put too much of a burden on his shoulder. Darmanitan4 especially is the reason why I always try to have Greninja finish something off with Surf against an opponent that can have him on his roster, just in order not to lure him out. If he comes out against a Grass-type Ninja and Scizor is already dead, Gliscor can take a Flare Blitz and KO in return with Earthquake (probably needs the recoil in order to do so, don't really recall, but it does work), but yeah, not something I'd be keen on facing. Additionally, Gale Wings Talonflame OHKOes both Greninja and Scizor. Gliscor on the other hand is guaranteed to beat it by having it kill itself via recoil from continuously breaking its subs, but it can't switch in on it, so if Talon comes out against Greninja/Scizor, I have to sack it :| Ironically, lead Tornadus is also pretty damn annoying: Torn2 is Gliscor bait but beats Greninja, while Torn1 loses to Greninja but likes to use Hurricane, so Gliscor can't switch in on it. Mother of 50/50s. I /think/ it's safer to switch to Gliscor because in the event of Torn2 I'd come out on top with a +6 Scizor, while I'll lose a Pokemon anyway if I guess wrong.
Gardevoir4 is also pretty damn annoying to face as a lead because of that enormous coverage. Gliscor can stall it out of PP but can't take two Moonblasts so I have to pivot it in via Scizor -which inconveniently leaves Scizor at too low HP to set up on it- but it does work I guess, unless it crits; Scizor can also OHKO it with +2 BP (can't unboosted because Babiri Berry, damn you GF), but again that relies on not getting critted. If all else fails, Greninja can 2HKO with Surf but it will kill itself via LO recoil in the process. One time it got ugly though when it traced Protean, but fortunately Gliscor ended up with 10 HP remaining after setting up a sub and it has 'only' 28 (subtracting the Moonblast on Scizor and the Focus Blast on Gliscor) attacking PP it can hit Gliscor with. Gyarados4 is pretty damn scary if I'm not set up but even if it leads (which it hasn't done yet) Scizor should be able to counter it (+2 BB+BP is a likely KO while +2 Aqua Tail doesn't even KO with a crit, +4 BP also 2HKOes but that's dangerous because while Scizor can take +3 AT it can't take two at +2)... but then there's also this thing:
744 | Empoleon4 | Calm | Petaya Berry | Surf | Substitute | Blizzard | Whirlpool | HP/SpA
...yeah, this one actually terrifies me, and if I face it in the lead position and the backups are anything decent (hint: Fire-types, hint: starters), I'll probably lose. If it comes in on Gliscor it loses, but I legit don't know what I should be doing if it leads because there's no telling what it might do against Greninja (if someone has a battle vid against this thing, gimme pls). Gliscor can switch in on Sub, Scizor can switch in (Surf does 47% max) but you don't want it to Sub down because Torrent+Petaya=scary, and if it uses Whirlpool things get sticky as well because you can't Roost away then... so I guess open with Grass Knot (36-43%) to take a Surf, switch to Scizor and take Blizzard, use BB to take its Petaya Berry, and just see what to do from there? Ugh....
[19/02 edit, faced a lead Emp4 as well as a backup one that came in on Greninja: open with Grass Knot, switch in Scizor on the baited Blizzard, SD, and go from there. Empoleon will set up a Sub at some point (either against Water/Dark Greninja or Scizor, otherwise just Roost spam until it does I guess), GK+Sub recoil don't put in Petaya range, not even in Torrent range, Surf doesn't come close to OHKOing Scizor even with a crit so stay at high health with liberal Roost usage, and +2 BB easily kills Emp after breaking the sub. Worst that can happen aside from a Blizzard freeze is a fatal Surf crit after breaking the sub (Scizor is faster so will have to take a Surf after Roosting), in which case Gliscor kills Emp. It is convoluted, but it's doable - not as bad as I thought at least lol, Gyarados is worse (public enemy #1, already faced it three times by now; just spam GK, it beats Greninja if it chooses its moves perfectly -DD twice, Rest, Aqua Tail twice or DD+AT- but then gets RKed by Scizor, if Gyara misplays just once Greninja beats it. Don't want to think about what happens in the event of a crit), as is Aerodactyl (public enemy #2, fortunately only faced as backup yet. Switch in Gliscor and spam Protect, if I can't pull off a double protect it will take Gliscor down but it will also waste all of its PP in the process unless it crits, so Scizor gets a free run to +6 plus a free Roost. If it does crit, unboosted BP still OHKOes. Hard switch to Scizor and kill with BP can work as well but is extremely risky since a crit is a likely OHKO, and if it then crits Gliscor as well I outright lose). Will elaborate once I lose lol]
[02/03 edit: lost after an 810 win streak and elaborated here]
Otherwise, however, the team actually looks pretty strong so far - but honestly, even if I lose at 201, this streak means so much more to me than the 330 streak with Khan and stuff, simply because of how much more I love this team ^_^ Fortunately the opponent brings only 3 mons and leads with only one, and I really haven't explored the team's potential to its full extent, so we'll see how far it gets. Every time I think up a new threat not named Empoleon I actually manage to figure out some way I should be able to handle it, and honestly, this isn't triples, if you can only use three mons you can only cover so much... I guess I'll just have to surprise myself...
(btw, I had thought up this team November-ish, but because of naughty OT reasons I could only use it like ten days ago, and of course Meleeace1478 had already posted a Greninja/Megazor team in the mean time, so I believe a small 'whoopsie' is in order...)
No. 200: DLGW-WWWW-WWX7-AF9B
(note: up until battle ~135 I used a shiny Scizor that I RNG-bred on SS a couple of weeks ago because a friend of mine wanted a shiny Scizor and I still needed a perfectly-IVed Scizor for team Suizomence on Platinum. (talk about hitting two birds with one stone, eh?) Afterwards I switched to a regular Scizor bred on OR for aesthetics (red>>>>>green) + nicknameability reasons, they're not nicknamed yet in the vids because I haven't thought up a nick for Greninja yet, lol)
Because I used the mindless pile of brokemons Khan/Aegislash/Dragonite in XY, I wanted to use some mons I actually liked in ORAS - the ones I really wanted to try were Greninja (such coverage, I like it, not surprising considering Starmie was my favourite battle facility mon in past gens, not to mention it can do so much more than spam Mat Block), Gliscor (an old favourite that I was really happy to see doing well here) and Mega Scizor (astounding setup sweeper and extremely badass) Around November-ish I had thought up two teams I had incorporated them in, the first one being Dragonite/Mega Scizor/Greninja (decent but quite frail so not sure if it can get past ~100) and Charizard X/Suicune/Gliscor (rejected because unlike Khan Charizard isn't Focus Blast bait so Hurrrnadus would probably screw it over). I then realised that those three favourites would actually fit much better on a single team that happened to fit the standard goodstuffs rule of 'have a lead that beats an obscene amount of stuff and have two backups that beat/set up on the stuff that beats your lead'. If the rumours from OU are right, Greninja beats quite a large amount of mons, and Scizor and Gliscor can switch in on (basically) everything that threatens it. So this time I actually built a legit singles team rather than throw a bunch of brokemons together. It doesn't have a stat-boosting lead, Mega Khan, or dragon, but who cares? I love every single one of them, they did exactly what I wanted them to do and way more, and their synergy is just insane. I adore it *_* here we go.
Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31 (will add Xes here and everywhere else when it's not past midnight)
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot
-Dark Pulse
Completely and utterly standard. Dark Pulse >> Extrasensory because fighters are Gliscor bait. This thing genuinely surprised me (I never really used LO Ninja in OU, I never really played that much against humans to begin with and it never seemed to find its way onto my teams, not to mention I haven't played OU for months now and I'm not really gonna be able to use Ninja there anymore now, lol), but it's just astounding how hard this thing hits and how much it covers. I've swept complete teams with it, and if it beats the opposing lead and my team can handle the second mon, the battle is pretty much over. If Greninja can beat the opposing lead but Scizor can also set up on it (possibly after some Gliscor PP stalling), it's generally better to have Scizor set up, but if Greninja beats the second mon it's usually best to make it a 3v1 battle immediately.
Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spe
-Bullet Punch
-Bug Bite
-Swords Dance
-Roost
44 Spe puts it at 101, right above the crowded 100 tier. The moves are completely standard... and for good reason, because damn this thing is good, the amount of things it sets up to +6 on and the ease with which it does so, often coming out on top with nearly full health, are downright amazing - and if it sets up fully, the game is over unless the opponent has a bulky Fire-type or like Zapdos or something. What I especially like about Scizor, however, is that it effortlessly switches in and fully sets up on all those Trick Room setters I've grown to hate in my Triples runs. It just feels so damn good to think 'yup, I won' whenever I see an opponent lead with Bronzong, Cresselia4, or freaking Aromatisse4.
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Nature: Careful
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 212 HP / 4 Atk / 36 Def / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
-Substitute
-Protect
-Earthquake
-Toxic
I love this Pokemon, seriously, it's right up there with Starmie and Shaymin - it has the most amazing design and I've been in love with it ever since I terrorised Platinum five years ago with my skillful set of X-Scissor/Night Slash/Fire Fang/Ice Fang. Anyway, Gliscor's HA made it an unwelcome sight in wifi battles - I'm sure everybody has faced one on one occasion, seen its Sub go up, and realised he/she was pretty much down to the mercy of the flying scorp. That's exactly what Gliscor does to the AI in the battle maison, draining PP like there's no tomorrow, and occasionally squeezing in a Toxic to have them rot away. We've all seen Jumpman's team so we all know how utterly amazing Gliscor is ^^ honestly, this is a Ground/Flying-type that switches in on an Ice-type, sets up on it, and 'sweeps' a team. (#185 or so, vs. Regice/Heatran/Raikou n_n) Gliscor is specially defensive because a) it has enough natural physical bulk to take on most physical attackers anyway, and b) the things you want to switch it in on tend to be specially offensive anyway if my experience is anything to go with. The EV spread is probably self-explanatory: full SpD investment and the highest Poison Heal number (212 EVs) leave 44 EVs. Putting them all into Speed is tempting because it allows Gliscor to Toxic the a**hole known as Zapdos2 before it uses Double Team; however, that Speed tier isn't entirely empty, and Speed ties are obviously bad news for SubToxic Gliscor because you want to alternate SubProtect as reliably as possible. There isn't much of relevance in that tier, but unfortunately it contains Landorus1 and 4, and because Gliscor is my go-to switch-in for lead Landorus (out of fear for Lando2) you kind of really don't want to tie those. 4 Spe put it at 116, which ties nothing. Gliscor prefers to outslow opponents anyway in order to be guaranteed to come out on top with a Sub, so ya. As such, the remaining 40 EVs are invested into physical bulk - well, actually, that would leave Gliscor with four wasted EVs, so those are invested into Attack.
While this team has reached 'only' 200 so far, it has completely exceeded my expectations - perhaps not unsurprisingly, because these three are the kind of mons that happen to have more to them than meets the eye (especially Gliscor). That said, there are still some mons I'm scared of facing (not gonna do a really elaborate threatlist right now because too long but I can still put some things I noticed as I went along). Fire-types in general are something I'm a bit scared of; Scizor obviously hates them, and no matter how amazing Gliscor is, you do have to be careful not to put too much of a burden on his shoulder. Darmanitan4 especially is the reason why I always try to have Greninja finish something off with Surf against an opponent that can have him on his roster, just in order not to lure him out. If he comes out against a Grass-type Ninja and Scizor is already dead, Gliscor can take a Flare Blitz and KO in return with Earthquake (probably needs the recoil in order to do so, don't really recall, but it does work), but yeah, not something I'd be keen on facing. Additionally, Gale Wings Talonflame OHKOes both Greninja and Scizor. Gliscor on the other hand is guaranteed to beat it by having it kill itself via recoil from continuously breaking its subs, but it can't switch in on it, so if Talon comes out against Greninja/Scizor, I have to sack it :| Ironically, lead Tornadus is also pretty damn annoying: Torn2 is Gliscor bait but beats Greninja, while Torn1 loses to Greninja but likes to use Hurricane, so Gliscor can't switch in on it. Mother of 50/50s. I /think/ it's safer to switch to Gliscor because in the event of Torn2 I'd come out on top with a +6 Scizor, while I'll lose a Pokemon anyway if I guess wrong.
Gardevoir4 is also pretty damn annoying to face as a lead because of that enormous coverage. Gliscor can stall it out of PP but can't take two Moonblasts so I have to pivot it in via Scizor -which inconveniently leaves Scizor at too low HP to set up on it- but it does work I guess, unless it crits; Scizor can also OHKO it with +2 BP (can't unboosted because Babiri Berry, damn you GF), but again that relies on not getting critted. If all else fails, Greninja can 2HKO with Surf but it will kill itself via LO recoil in the process. One time it got ugly though when it traced Protean, but fortunately Gliscor ended up with 10 HP remaining after setting up a sub and it has 'only' 28 (subtracting the Moonblast on Scizor and the Focus Blast on Gliscor) attacking PP it can hit Gliscor with. Gyarados4 is pretty damn scary if I'm not set up but even if it leads (which it hasn't done yet) Scizor should be able to counter it (+2 BB+BP is a likely KO while +2 Aqua Tail doesn't even KO with a crit, +4 BP also 2HKOes but that's dangerous because while Scizor can take +3 AT it can't take two at +2)... but then there's also this thing:
744 | Empoleon4 | Calm | Petaya Berry | Surf | Substitute | Blizzard | Whirlpool | HP/SpA
...yeah, this one actually terrifies me, and if I face it in the lead position and the backups are anything decent (hint: Fire-types, hint: starters), I'll probably lose. If it comes in on Gliscor it loses, but I legit don't know what I should be doing if it leads because there's no telling what it might do against Greninja (if someone has a battle vid against this thing, gimme pls). Gliscor can switch in on Sub, Scizor can switch in (Surf does 47% max) but you don't want it to Sub down because Torrent+Petaya=scary, and if it uses Whirlpool things get sticky as well because you can't Roost away then... so I guess open with Grass Knot (36-43%) to take a Surf, switch to Scizor and take Blizzard, use BB to take its Petaya Berry, and just see what to do from there? Ugh....
[19/02 edit, faced a lead Emp4 as well as a backup one that came in on Greninja: open with Grass Knot, switch in Scizor on the baited Blizzard, SD, and go from there. Empoleon will set up a Sub at some point (either against Water/Dark Greninja or Scizor, otherwise just Roost spam until it does I guess), GK+Sub recoil don't put in Petaya range, not even in Torrent range, Surf doesn't come close to OHKOing Scizor even with a crit so stay at high health with liberal Roost usage, and +2 BB easily kills Emp after breaking the sub. Worst that can happen aside from a Blizzard freeze is a fatal Surf crit after breaking the sub (Scizor is faster so will have to take a Surf after Roosting), in which case Gliscor kills Emp. It is convoluted, but it's doable - not as bad as I thought at least lol, Gyarados is worse (public enemy #1, already faced it three times by now; just spam GK, it beats Greninja if it chooses its moves perfectly -DD twice, Rest, Aqua Tail twice or DD+AT- but then gets RKed by Scizor, if Gyara misplays just once Greninja beats it. Don't want to think about what happens in the event of a crit), as is Aerodactyl (public enemy #2, fortunately only faced as backup yet. Switch in Gliscor and spam Protect, if I can't pull off a double protect it will take Gliscor down but it will also waste all of its PP in the process unless it crits, so Scizor gets a free run to +6 plus a free Roost. If it does crit, unboosted BP still OHKOes. Hard switch to Scizor and kill with BP can work as well but is extremely risky since a crit is a likely OHKO, and if it then crits Gliscor as well I outright lose). Will elaborate once I lose lol]
[02/03 edit: lost after an 810 win streak and elaborated here]
Otherwise, however, the team actually looks pretty strong so far - but honestly, even if I lose at 201, this streak means so much more to me than the 330 streak with Khan and stuff, simply because of how much more I love this team ^_^ Fortunately the opponent brings only 3 mons and leads with only one, and I really haven't explored the team's potential to its full extent, so we'll see how far it gets. Every time I think up a new threat not named Empoleon I actually manage to figure out some way I should be able to handle it, and honestly, this isn't triples, if you can only use three mons you can only cover so much... I guess I'll just have to surprise myself...
(btw, I had thought up this team November-ish, but because of naughty OT reasons I could only use it like ten days ago, and of course Meleeace1478 had already posted a Greninja/Megazor team in the mean time, so I believe a small 'whoopsie' is in order...)
Vs. Nita/Morgan: DSZG-WWWW-WWX7-AFJN (worst possible lead matchup but the hax in my favour made up for that)
(disclaimer: I didn't hold back here so I may come off a bit too harsh/bitchy towards the multi AI, but I also feel everybody so far has beena bit way too mild towards it, lol)
First off, I legit don't understand how you guys can say AI multi got any better than in X. I entered it in high spirits, looking to built an actually cute team to go with Steven's mons, but really soon I ended up longing for my good old Charizard/Raikou partner because Steven completely and utterly sucked. I realise I should also be seeking blame with myself for struggling with this mode (which I am, dw, my choices for my mons certainly weren't optimal), but if I reach 50 in four out of five attempts in X and this partner supposedly is objectively a lot better than in X, I can't help but expect to get the trophy without too much difficulty and/or cookie-cutter teams. Call me a sore, spoiled, whiny bitch (you'd probably be right, especially considering how much I lucked out with that Zard/Kou partner on X); it's just that all the earlier posts on the ORAS multi AI got my hopes way up and had me except them to actually... cooperate, and I was sorely disappointed.
We all know what mons Steven uses, but I'll list them anyway for good measure:
Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rock Head (iirc)
Nature: Jolly
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Rock Slide
-Fire Fang
-Ice Fang
-Thunder Fang
Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Adamant (probably)
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def
-Meteor Mash
-Zen Headbutt
-Hammer Arm
-Bullet Punch
Aerodactyl is, put bluntly, the most revulting trash I've ever had the displeasure of using on a maison team. It can't deal any damage at all, which results in it making some laughably terrible decisions (using Thunder Fang on something like Bronzong while the other opponent was Braviary) and even if it did pick the right move, it hardly inflicted more than like 30% on a non-super effective hit. Metagross was a bit better because he does have the power he needs, but that EV spread is terrible (I mean really) and his move choices were occasionally quite questionable as well (trying to Hammer Arm your way through Forretress while the other opponent is Leafeon and my mon out is Gastrodon... yeah...), not to mention the undesirable accuracy of his moves and his occasional tendency to finish off faster foes with any move other than Bullet Punch. I had been talking with turskain on IRC a bit about Steven, and he said he'd prefer his Scarfmory/Golem partner any day. Go figure. Add on to that the really idiotic thing that your lead is only decided when you embark on your streak, and I hope my annoyance is a bit justified
Anyway, because all the other teams had the usual red flags (really terrible accuracy, erratic support moves, etc etc) I was stuck with Steven. Initially I tried using Hyper Voice MegaGarde (a mon that I'm abusing the hell out of this iteration of the maison because I've got access to tutor moves now) and Mat Block Greninja as a backup (lack of inspiration), but since a backup Mat Block proved to be really underwhelming and MGarde seemed to appreciate a switch-in to Poison- and Steel-types as well as a Trick Room check and because absorbing Water-type moves looked cool for Aero, I swapped out Greninja for Gastrodon. While both Garde and Gastro did what I wanted them to do, this still didn't remotely work out like I hoped, mostly because Steven was being an idiot but also because Gastrodon required support in the removal of Grass-types (I tried Rindo Berry for a bit, but they OHKOed right through it), and if you're counting on an AI partner to support you, you're doing it wrong. So instead, I turned to an approach that others had tried before me.
my lead:
By-Tor (Greninja) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Mat Block
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot
-Dark Pulse
my backup:
Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace -> Pixilate
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/30/30/31
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
-Faerie Scream of Death
-Psyshock
-Hidden Power Ground
-Protect
So, yeah. I wasn't too keen on leaving Garde out just yet (especially because of his matchup against Morgan's team, lol), but this time, I used Mat Block Greninja as a lead. As long as Steven sends out Metagross first, that's as good as it's gonna get. Greninja can protect Metagross for one turn to let him do his thing, and /if/ Metagross hits something it usually ends up dead, and from there you're often good to go. While I'm generally not a fan of Mat Block in doubles if it doesn't involve some sort of setup (such as Mega Blaziken's Speed Boost, Mega Lucario's Nasty Plot, or the snowball effect that Aron sets in motion) because that 1-0 lead you can take can easily be turned around into 1-2 or 2-3, this works better in multi because you can isolate one trainer here. And while the free turn from Mat Block sort of patched up Metagross's flaws (slowness+tendency to lose a turn from missing), isolating a trainer sort of patched up the problem of Aero's unreliability because he was able to make up his mind against a single foe. I got the trophy on my first run with this setup, heh.
What the ORAS approach to the AI partners did right was establish a level playing field and provide everybody with a partner that can reasonably be expected to help you get the trophy, as well as provide better default partners. However, 'better' than the X ones is all that those default partners are, and there are a bunch of other partners out there for X that are just as good or better than the ORAS defaults (I'd rate Steven on par with my Hawlucha/Slaking partner, and way inferior to my Charizard/Raikou partner - honestly, a Choice item goes a very long way in reliability), while there weren't any better partners out there for ORAS (how could there be?). Some of the X partners were simply hopeless, whereas a bunch of others could beat the chatelaine, as long as you managed to solve the puzzle of fulfilling the conditions (i.e. choosing partners) under which they could do so (in Steven's case, Mat Block Greninja/lead Metagross). ORAS did provide us with one such partner, for which some have already solved that puzzle for us to copy/get inspiration from (which wasn't doable in X because everybody had way different partners and the defaults were hopeless), but kind of left us with that sole partner. What I'm getting at is that AI multi in ORAS is 'better' in the sense that you don't have to go around begging for FCs in order to find a partner that gives you more than a snowball's chance in hell to beat the format. On the other hand, the 'Intelligence' is just as terrible, while the partners qualitatively certainly aren't better than the ones potentially available in XY. (To those guys with the 180+ streaks, you're damn prodigies, lol. You cracked the Steven puzzle, and yeah then you can go on until hax or misplays screw you over ^^ but I think this would also have been possible in XY multi, but that's just harder because collective theorymon to crack a single partner isn't possible for obvious reasons) AI multi in XY is way better in the sense that it allowed a great deal of creativity, which was stifled in ORAS by there simply being only one viable partner. I've heard there are some odd souls out there who actually enjoyed AI multi in XY in a weird adventurous sort of way, but ORAS offers them nothing at all. That's quite a shame, because for everybody else this was a 'let's get this over with and never look back' sort of format on both games anyway.
(disclaimer: I didn't hold back here so I may come off a bit too harsh/bitchy towards the multi AI, but I also feel everybody so far has been
First off, I legit don't understand how you guys can say AI multi got any better than in X. I entered it in high spirits, looking to built an actually cute team to go with Steven's mons, but really soon I ended up longing for my good old Charizard/Raikou partner because Steven completely and utterly sucked. I realise I should also be seeking blame with myself for struggling with this mode (which I am, dw, my choices for my mons certainly weren't optimal), but if I reach 50 in four out of five attempts in X and this partner supposedly is objectively a lot better than in X, I can't help but expect to get the trophy without too much difficulty and/or cookie-cutter teams. Call me a sore, spoiled, whiny bitch (you'd probably be right, especially considering how much I lucked out with that Zard/Kou partner on X); it's just that all the earlier posts on the ORAS multi AI got my hopes way up and had me except them to actually... cooperate, and I was sorely disappointed.
We all know what mons Steven uses, but I'll list them anyway for good measure:
Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rock Head (iirc)
Nature: Jolly
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Rock Slide
-Fire Fang
-Ice Fang
-Thunder Fang
Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Adamant (probably)
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def
-Meteor Mash
-Zen Headbutt
-Hammer Arm
-Bullet Punch
Aerodactyl is, put bluntly, the most revulting trash I've ever had the displeasure of using on a maison team. It can't deal any damage at all, which results in it making some laughably terrible decisions (using Thunder Fang on something like Bronzong while the other opponent was Braviary) and even if it did pick the right move, it hardly inflicted more than like 30% on a non-super effective hit. Metagross was a bit better because he does have the power he needs, but that EV spread is terrible (I mean really) and his move choices were occasionally quite questionable as well (trying to Hammer Arm your way through Forretress while the other opponent is Leafeon and my mon out is Gastrodon... yeah...), not to mention the undesirable accuracy of his moves and his occasional tendency to finish off faster foes with any move other than Bullet Punch. I had been talking with turskain on IRC a bit about Steven, and he said he'd prefer his Scarfmory/Golem partner any day. Go figure. Add on to that the really idiotic thing that your lead is only decided when you embark on your streak, and I hope my annoyance is a bit justified
Anyway, because all the other teams had the usual red flags (really terrible accuracy, erratic support moves, etc etc) I was stuck with Steven. Initially I tried using Hyper Voice MegaGarde (a mon that I'm abusing the hell out of this iteration of the maison because I've got access to tutor moves now) and Mat Block Greninja as a backup (lack of inspiration), but since a backup Mat Block proved to be really underwhelming and MGarde seemed to appreciate a switch-in to Poison- and Steel-types as well as a Trick Room check and because absorbing Water-type moves looked cool for Aero, I swapped out Greninja for Gastrodon. While both Garde and Gastro did what I wanted them to do, this still didn't remotely work out like I hoped, mostly because Steven was being an idiot but also because Gastrodon required support in the removal of Grass-types (I tried Rindo Berry for a bit, but they OHKOed right through it), and if you're counting on an AI partner to support you, you're doing it wrong. So instead, I turned to an approach that others had tried before me.
my lead:
By-Tor (Greninja) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Mat Block
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot
-Dark Pulse
my backup:
Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace -> Pixilate
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/30/30/31
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
-Faerie Scream of Death
-Psyshock
-Hidden Power Ground
-Protect
So, yeah. I wasn't too keen on leaving Garde out just yet (especially because of his matchup against Morgan's team, lol), but this time, I used Mat Block Greninja as a lead. As long as Steven sends out Metagross first, that's as good as it's gonna get. Greninja can protect Metagross for one turn to let him do his thing, and /if/ Metagross hits something it usually ends up dead, and from there you're often good to go. While I'm generally not a fan of Mat Block in doubles if it doesn't involve some sort of setup (such as Mega Blaziken's Speed Boost, Mega Lucario's Nasty Plot, or the snowball effect that Aron sets in motion) because that 1-0 lead you can take can easily be turned around into 1-2 or 2-3, this works better in multi because you can isolate one trainer here. And while the free turn from Mat Block sort of patched up Metagross's flaws (slowness+tendency to lose a turn from missing), isolating a trainer sort of patched up the problem of Aero's unreliability because he was able to make up his mind against a single foe. I got the trophy on my first run with this setup, heh.
What the ORAS approach to the AI partners did right was establish a level playing field and provide everybody with a partner that can reasonably be expected to help you get the trophy, as well as provide better default partners. However, 'better' than the X ones is all that those default partners are, and there are a bunch of other partners out there for X that are just as good or better than the ORAS defaults (I'd rate Steven on par with my Hawlucha/Slaking partner, and way inferior to my Charizard/Raikou partner - honestly, a Choice item goes a very long way in reliability), while there weren't any better partners out there for ORAS (how could there be?). Some of the X partners were simply hopeless, whereas a bunch of others could beat the chatelaine, as long as you managed to solve the puzzle of fulfilling the conditions (i.e. choosing partners) under which they could do so (in Steven's case, Mat Block Greninja/lead Metagross). ORAS did provide us with one such partner, for which some have already solved that puzzle for us to copy/get inspiration from (which wasn't doable in X because everybody had way different partners and the defaults were hopeless), but kind of left us with that sole partner. What I'm getting at is that AI multi in ORAS is 'better' in the sense that you don't have to go around begging for FCs in order to find a partner that gives you more than a snowball's chance in hell to beat the format. On the other hand, the 'Intelligence' is just as terrible, while the partners qualitatively certainly aren't better than the ones potentially available in XY. (To those guys with the 180+ streaks, you're damn prodigies, lol. You cracked the Steven puzzle, and yeah then you can go on until hax or misplays screw you over ^^ but I think this would also have been possible in XY multi, but that's just harder because collective theorymon to crack a single partner isn't possible for obvious reasons) AI multi in XY is way better in the sense that it allowed a great deal of creativity, which was stifled in ORAS by there simply being only one viable partner. I've heard there are some odd souls out there who actually enjoyed AI multi in XY in a weird adventurous sort of way, but ORAS offers them nothing at all. That's quite a shame, because for everybody else this was a 'let's get this over with and never look back' sort of format on both games anyway.
Vs. Evelyn: QR9G-WWWW-WWX7-HF2M
I wanted to try something different for the doubles trophy because I wanted to prove to myself that I didn't need Mat Block Greninja to win it, so I threw together a cool team of Doubles-viable mons that worked fine together :)
Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace -> Pixilate
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/30/30/31
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
-Faerie Scream of Death
-Psyshock
-Hidden Power Ground
-Protect
Weavile @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Jolly
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Fake Out
-Knock Off
-Ice Punch
-Protect
Gary (Gastrodon) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Nature: Quiet
IVs: 31/X/31/30/31/31
EVs: 124 HP / 108 Def / 224 SpA / 52 SpD
-Scald
-Earth Power
-Ice Beam
-Protect
Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spe
-Bullet Punch
-Bug Bite
-Superpower
-Protect
Mega Garde was one of those mons that I really wanted to try in ORAS because of access to tutor moves (I only learned RNG November-ish, too late to get anything for the XY maison), and Weavile is just Weavile: one of the many incredibly badass mons introduced in the Golden Age of Sinnoh. You slapped it on your team and were psyched seeing it demolish Team Galactic and the League, but when you then in high spirits entered your skillful Night Slash/Dark Pulse/Ice Punch/Avalanche set into the Singles Battle Tower and saw it get utterly demolished, that made for one of your less pleasant memories. Anyway, as we all know, Weavile legit sucks in anything in-game singles-related, but he happens to some valuable assets for Doubles: Fake Out, and terrible bulk that makes it a magnificent lure. turskain's Mega Gardevoir with Triple Fake Out triples team has already succesfully paired Mega Garde with Weavile. The sets are probably straightforward: Mega Garde uses dual STAB moves as well as Protect, while HP Ground is used for troublesome Steel-types, especially Heatran and Magnezone - Shadow Ball is kinda useless when your partner has Dark-type STAB. Weavile's moveset is completely standard, and the Sash is not only mandatory in order to keel over from two hits rather than one but also because a 1HP Weavile is terrific bait to allow Garde to fire off more Hyper Voices.
Gastrodon works decently with Mega Gardevoir because it covers two of its weaknesses (Ghost being covered by Weavile) and provides a Trick Room check. The EV spread is pulled straight out of my ass and is supposed to be an arbitrary blend of turskain's AV spread and R Inanimate's 919-win streak Subway spread, because I wanted to run Protect because I used it on Multis first. Gastrodon probably needs some serious fine-tuning; I was thinking of switching to the AV set (and breed in Clear Smog lmao, that spitback I got off Wondertrade ages ago had Mirror Coat (makes sense) / Yawn (ok...) / Counter (duality much?) / Amnesia (seriously, what the hell) and I only noticed Clear Smog was an egg move after I had already bred it. Nobody has ever accused me of being diligent for a team that's just meant to grab the trophy lol) and I was also thinking of swapping out Ice Beam for Icy Wind because Grass-types are covered fine between Weavile and Scizor, and Icy Wind would at least give Gastro some additional utility - it's not like this team wouldn't at least appreciate some speed control. Then I'll also get a 31/X/31/31/31/0 IV spread like anybody does (regarding this spread, I once stupidly though up HP Electric Gastrodon as a backup for Greninja/Mega Blaziken -that makes a bit more sense than it looks like but w/e, hopefully I'll come to post more about that in due time and it was still a bad idea anyway- and I was bored when I bred this).
As for Scizor, between triples runs on X I dabbled around in Doubles with a condensed version of team Clockwork Angels (Greninja/Mega Blaziken/Hydreigon/Azumarill, reached like 137 on the one run I was being serious about it), which taught me a lot of things, one of those being that a bulky-ish unit with a priority move is a terrific backup for a doubles team. Because running Azumarill alongside Storm Drain Gastrodon isn't the smartest thing to do, I used the best all-round Maison mon (alongside Greninja and MegaKhan): Scizor. The moves should be straightforward (dual STABs+Superpower to kill a bunch of annoying things but most importantly Ferrothorn and Blissey). 44 Spe IVs put it at 91 Spe, above Lanturn4 (87) and the extremely crowded 90 tier.
I'm not sure how good this team exactly is and how far I can bring this streak, but who the fuck cares, it's fun as hell and my main goal for ORAS maison doubles is finding the optimal backups for Greninja/Mega Blaziken anyway. (which I think I have, but it requires some past-gen RNG, and, by extension, rebeating some past-gen games, so I've got plenty of time to do some other stuff first ^^)
[12/04 late edit: lost due to a screwup after a streak of 283 wins, with a new Gastrodon with the mentioned improvements)
I wanted to try something different for the doubles trophy because I wanted to prove to myself that I didn't need Mat Block Greninja to win it, so I threw together a cool team of Doubles-viable mons that worked fine together :)
Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace -> Pixilate
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/30/30/31
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
-Faerie Scream of Death
-Psyshock
-Hidden Power Ground
-Protect
Weavile @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Jolly
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Fake Out
-Knock Off
-Ice Punch
-Protect
Gary (Gastrodon) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Nature: Quiet
IVs: 31/X/31/30/31/31
EVs: 124 HP / 108 Def / 224 SpA / 52 SpD
-Scald
-Earth Power
-Ice Beam
-Protect
Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Spe
-Bullet Punch
-Bug Bite
-Superpower
-Protect
Mega Garde was one of those mons that I really wanted to try in ORAS because of access to tutor moves (I only learned RNG November-ish, too late to get anything for the XY maison), and Weavile is just Weavile: one of the many incredibly badass mons introduced in the Golden Age of Sinnoh. You slapped it on your team and were psyched seeing it demolish Team Galactic and the League, but when you then in high spirits entered your skillful Night Slash/Dark Pulse/Ice Punch/Avalanche set into the Singles Battle Tower and saw it get utterly demolished, that made for one of your less pleasant memories. Anyway, as we all know, Weavile legit sucks in anything in-game singles-related, but he happens to some valuable assets for Doubles: Fake Out, and terrible bulk that makes it a magnificent lure. turskain's Mega Gardevoir with Triple Fake Out triples team has already succesfully paired Mega Garde with Weavile. The sets are probably straightforward: Mega Garde uses dual STAB moves as well as Protect, while HP Ground is used for troublesome Steel-types, especially Heatran and Magnezone - Shadow Ball is kinda useless when your partner has Dark-type STAB. Weavile's moveset is completely standard, and the Sash is not only mandatory in order to keel over from two hits rather than one but also because a 1HP Weavile is terrific bait to allow Garde to fire off more Hyper Voices.
Gastrodon works decently with Mega Gardevoir because it covers two of its weaknesses (Ghost being covered by Weavile) and provides a Trick Room check. The EV spread is pulled straight out of my ass and is supposed to be an arbitrary blend of turskain's AV spread and R Inanimate's 919-win streak Subway spread, because I wanted to run Protect because I used it on Multis first. Gastrodon probably needs some serious fine-tuning; I was thinking of switching to the AV set (and breed in Clear Smog lmao, that spitback I got off Wondertrade ages ago had Mirror Coat (makes sense) / Yawn (ok...) / Counter (duality much?) / Amnesia (seriously, what the hell) and I only noticed Clear Smog was an egg move after I had already bred it. Nobody has ever accused me of being diligent for a team that's just meant to grab the trophy lol) and I was also thinking of swapping out Ice Beam for Icy Wind because Grass-types are covered fine between Weavile and Scizor, and Icy Wind would at least give Gastro some additional utility - it's not like this team wouldn't at least appreciate some speed control. Then I'll also get a 31/X/31/31/31/0 IV spread like anybody does (regarding this spread, I once stupidly though up HP Electric Gastrodon as a backup for Greninja/Mega Blaziken -that makes a bit more sense than it looks like but w/e, hopefully I'll come to post more about that in due time and it was still a bad idea anyway- and I was bored when I bred this).
As for Scizor, between triples runs on X I dabbled around in Doubles with a condensed version of team Clockwork Angels (Greninja/Mega Blaziken/Hydreigon/Azumarill, reached like 137 on the one run I was being serious about it), which taught me a lot of things, one of those being that a bulky-ish unit with a priority move is a terrific backup for a doubles team. Because running Azumarill alongside Storm Drain Gastrodon isn't the smartest thing to do, I used the best all-round Maison mon (alongside Greninja and MegaKhan): Scizor. The moves should be straightforward (dual STABs+Superpower to kill a bunch of annoying things but most importantly Ferrothorn and Blissey). 44 Spe IVs put it at 91 Spe, above Lanturn4 (87) and the extremely crowded 90 tier.
I'm not sure how good this team exactly is and how far I can bring this streak, but who the fuck cares, it's fun as hell and my main goal for ORAS maison doubles is finding the optimal backups for Greninja/Mega Blaziken anyway. (which I think I have, but it requires some past-gen RNG, and, by extension, rebeating some past-gen games, so I've got plenty of time to do some other stuff first ^^)
[12/04 late edit: lost due to a screwup after a streak of 283 wins, with a new Gastrodon with the mentioned improvements)
Vs. Morgan: Y8NW-WWWW-WWX7-TXF6
The Ferocious Feline, Mega Nuke, the Drooling Dragon, and the Creepy Chunk of Chewing Gum are back! This team received a godsend from the ORAS move tutors, and considering I had also thought up a few other things to patch it up even further, I gave my XY team (kinda standard dual screens, found here, lost after 214 wins to three consecutive crits from Aerodactyl4's Stone Edge) another whirl, and it was still just as broken (as in 'being the sole determining factor in allowing a bad player to outperform a good player', lol I hadn't touched this mode in six months but I still suck at it) as it ever was. Most of the teambuilding process is outlined in that post, I'm mostly gonna address the upgrades here.
Mittens (Meowstic-M) @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Nature: Bold
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 SpD
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Safeguard -> Heal Bell
-Thunder Wave -> Psyshock
As soon as I read the move tutor lists in the ORAS demo dumps, I knew I was gonna recycle this team because one particular thing stood out as nothing short of a godsend for this team: Heal Bell Meowstic-M. Apart from the obvious crits, getting Toxic on the otherwise near-unkillable Clefable was one of this team's biggest weak points, and Heal Bell makes that completely irrelevant, not to mention all the other hax it negates. Unfortunately it doesn't remove confusion (unlike Safeguard, which does prevent it), but that's a really minor tradeoff. If I can beat my previous run with this team it will be because of this one move, I'm serious, it just makes it that more reliable. The best thing is, Meowstic now finally has a legit, tangible niche over Boo-Boo Keys ^_^ (apart from 'better defensive synergy'and 'less hateable design') I now also run an attacking move in Psyshock over Thunder Wave, not only because of Taunt (which is pretty rare beyond battle 40, although getting hit by it does legit suck) but moreso because of the chip damage (also useful for burning turns in TR, I'd rather have Meowstic take one blow than Luke if that helps stall it out) and because Thunder Wave was pretty damn useless anyway. While Prankster Thunder Wave obviously is dumb, braindead, and the most skill-less strategy since Prankster screens, it's not suitable for rotation battles because its targets are highly specific and (in case of boosting sweepers) kind of really need to be hit right away, and whenever I used it it felt like some weird blindfolded Russian roulette of some sort. Sunny Day (for screwing over weather teams) and Trick (tricking back Choice items) are still options in this slot, but even aside from the Taunt thing I think Psyshock is just more useful overall, not to mention Meowstic has already scored a lot more kills on this run (even cleaned up an entire mono-Poison team on one occasion) than the one kill it scored on the previous one (yes, seriously, Taunt-induced Struggle to finish off Sash Bisharp ftw.)
Anubis (Lucario) @ Lucarionite
Ability: Justified -> Adaptability
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Nasty Plot
-Aura Sphere
-Flash Cannon
-Dark Pulse -> Protect
The team's special sweeper, hits disgustingly hard with Adaptability and Nasty Plot, and is put in the first team slot in order to give Porygons the wrong Download boost and because he doesn't care about Intimidate. His frailty is mitigated by my screens, and it's not like he /needs/ to set up in order to demolish stuff and any hard counter to Cresselia2 is welcome in my teams. The only relevant change I made over the X version is swapping out Dark Pulse for Protect, which I came up with only minutes before starting my current run n_n Coverage moves are generally bad news in rotations because they have specific targets, and while Dark Pulse still was a useful move to spam against Psychics and Hex Maniacs, Flash Cannon is generally rather safe against them as well (not to mention every single target of Dark Pulse is specially offensive, and it's not like I've got an Unaware Calm Mind Clefable in the back). Protect provides a bunch of neat utility options that I felt like trying out; the obvious one is ensuring a safe Mega Evolution against faster opponents, but it can also do nice little things like burning a Trick Room turn, safely rotating to the front in order to switch out, scouting Choice-locked mons (if you're lucky), having an early Fake Out bounce off, etc (but honestly, the only useful things I had in mind were the MEvo, the TR thing, and the switching). It's not a lot, not in the slightest, but it provided some nice peace of mind for a moveslot that's kinda dead anyway and I ended up using it more often than I had envisioned, so I think I'm gonna stick with it.
Glaedr (Dragonite) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Nature:Adamant -> Jolly
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Dragon Dance
-Dragon Claw
-Extreme Speed -> Roost
-Earthquake
Physical sweeper, this time with a Jolly nature to outspeed Aerodactyl, Jolteon, and (I guess) Crobat after only one DD. I'm still not sold on this change because of the loss in power it incurs, but I'm not 100% comfortable with swapping out DClaw for Outrage because I really like my flexibility in this format, and Life Orb > Lum is also an option but comes off a bit too mad scientist-esque when combined with Multiscale. The other relevant change I made is Roost > Extreme Speed, which was the epitome of a niche move/panic button anyway, while Roost is obviously great in tandem with Multiscale and really helps in setting up and (again) burning TR turns. So: nature: not sure; move: happy n_n
Tingle (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Nature: Bold
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
-Moonblast
-Flamethrower -> Stored Power
-Calm Mind
-Moonlight
If any sweeper sets up alongside my mons, this thing screws them over (hard counters Volcarona4 n_n). I chose Clefable because it's the only Unaware mon that doesn't suck and it had good defensive synergy with the rest of my team. Apart from the Speed EVs (used to be 12 -which hits nothing in the Maison- for god knows what reason), the relevant change here is obviously Stored Power > Flamethrower. The other three moves are mandatory for obvious reasons, and the coverage move essentially decides whether you want to be walled by Steel- or Fire-types. It used to be Flamethrower because the OU analysis recommended it back then and I couldn't reteach Stored Power (yes that Clefable wasn't bred for the maison, and back then I still cared about battling against humans) but that caused my team to shit its pants every time Heatran showed up; Stored Power is the obvious fix and is objectively better anyway when you're an Unaware CM Clefable with screen support and as such can boost to +4 and beyond without any issuesexcept crits against like 80% of the maison, not to mention Lucario is already considerably 'fk steel' to begin with. Clefable didn't have to do much on my way to the trophy, but the few times it did it looked as just unkillable as it did on my previous run (where it only died in the lost battle).
I'm gonna finish this run with this team and I'm pretty curious where it will end, because it's objectively better than its X iteration (the only thing I'm not sure at all about being Dragonite's nature) but considering its vulnerability to crits I don't know how lucky I was to get to 214 in the first place. It's actually pretty damn cool to be revisiting the team that got me my first decent streak, but the format honestly isn't that exciting and the plays with this sort of team are too braindead for my tastes, so I probably won't be doing any subsequent attempts if this one fails.
19/02 update: lost the streak at 148 or so in the same way as the previous one, thanks to multiple crits on Clefable (once again the only battle in the streak where Clefable fainted, heh). Apparently that 214 streak was a lucky break after all :< All my adjustments turned out to be spot-on (including the Jolly nature because I could easily just boost twice thanks to Roost), which is both good and bad, because I'm so stubborn as to want to have the numbers reflect this version being better, lol. And while it's pretty damn hard to lose with this team 'outside of hax', that's one of many bits of competitive logic that don't apply in the maison - this team basically screams 'crit me and crit me again', so while I don't really lose my rotations streaks to misplays the team still sort of sucks because of faulty teambuilding. One adjustment I can come up with to reduce my vulnerability to crits is Sub>Earthquake on Dragonite.
Despite what I said prior and even though I find this format kinda dumb, I just might try again after I wrap up my other streaks because I'm an idiot and I'm more than a bit annoyed that I didn't beat my previous record with an objectively better team - however, in its current iteration, building a streak with this team comes down for like 80% to 'don't get too many crits', which is not a challenge I'd like to take part in.
The Ferocious Feline, Mega Nuke, the Drooling Dragon, and the Creepy Chunk of Chewing Gum are back! This team received a godsend from the ORAS move tutors, and considering I had also thought up a few other things to patch it up even further, I gave my XY team (kinda standard dual screens, found here, lost after 214 wins to three consecutive crits from Aerodactyl4's Stone Edge) another whirl, and it was still just as broken (as in 'being the sole determining factor in allowing a bad player to outperform a good player', lol I hadn't touched this mode in six months but I still suck at it) as it ever was. Most of the teambuilding process is outlined in that post, I'm mostly gonna address the upgrades here.
Mittens (Meowstic-M) @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Nature: Bold
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 SpD
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-
-
As soon as I read the move tutor lists in the ORAS demo dumps, I knew I was gonna recycle this team because one particular thing stood out as nothing short of a godsend for this team: Heal Bell Meowstic-M. Apart from the obvious crits, getting Toxic on the otherwise near-unkillable Clefable was one of this team's biggest weak points, and Heal Bell makes that completely irrelevant, not to mention all the other hax it negates. Unfortunately it doesn't remove confusion (unlike Safeguard, which does prevent it), but that's a really minor tradeoff. If I can beat my previous run with this team it will be because of this one move, I'm serious, it just makes it that more reliable. The best thing is, Meowstic now finally has a legit, tangible niche over Boo-Boo Keys ^_^ (apart from 'better defensive synergy'
Anubis (Lucario) @ Lucarionite
Ability: Justified -> Adaptability
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Nasty Plot
-Aura Sphere
-Flash Cannon
-
The team's special sweeper, hits disgustingly hard with Adaptability and Nasty Plot, and is put in the first team slot in order to give Porygons the wrong Download boost and because he doesn't care about Intimidate. His frailty is mitigated by my screens, and it's not like he /needs/ to set up in order to demolish stuff
Glaedr (Dragonite) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Nature:
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Dragon Dance
-Dragon Claw
-
-Earthquake
Physical sweeper, this time with a Jolly nature to outspeed Aerodactyl, Jolteon, and (I guess) Crobat after only one DD. I'm still not sold on this change because of the loss in power it incurs, but I'm not 100% comfortable with swapping out DClaw for Outrage because I really like my flexibility in this format, and Life Orb > Lum is also an option but comes off a bit too mad scientist-esque when combined with Multiscale. The other relevant change I made is Roost > Extreme Speed, which was the epitome of a niche move/panic button anyway, while Roost is obviously great in tandem with Multiscale and really helps in setting up and (again) burning TR turns. So: nature: not sure; move: happy n_n
Tingle (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Nature: Bold
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
-Moonblast
-
-Calm Mind
-Moonlight
If any sweeper sets up alongside my mons, this thing screws them over (hard counters Volcarona4 n_n). I chose Clefable because it's the only Unaware mon that doesn't suck and it had good defensive synergy with the rest of my team. Apart from the Speed EVs (used to be 12 -which hits nothing in the Maison- for god knows what reason), the relevant change here is obviously Stored Power > Flamethrower. The other three moves are mandatory for obvious reasons, and the coverage move essentially decides whether you want to be walled by Steel- or Fire-types. It used to be Flamethrower because the OU analysis recommended it back then and I couldn't reteach Stored Power (yes that Clefable wasn't bred for the maison, and back then I still cared about battling against humans) but that caused my team to shit its pants every time Heatran showed up; Stored Power is the obvious fix and is objectively better anyway when you're an Unaware CM Clefable with screen support and as such can boost to +4 and beyond without any issues
I'm gonna finish this run with this team and I'm pretty curious where it will end, because it's objectively better than its X iteration (the only thing I'm not sure at all about being Dragonite's nature) but considering its vulnerability to crits I don't know how lucky I was to get to 214 in the first place. It's actually pretty damn cool to be revisiting the team that got me my first decent streak, but the format honestly isn't that exciting and the plays with this sort of team are too braindead for my tastes, so I probably won't be doing any subsequent attempts if this one fails.
19/02 update: lost the streak at 148 or so in the same way as the previous one, thanks to multiple crits on Clefable (once again the only battle in the streak where Clefable fainted, heh). Apparently that 214 streak was a lucky break after all :< All my adjustments turned out to be spot-on (including the Jolly nature because I could easily just boost twice thanks to Roost), which is both good and bad, because I'm so stubborn as to want to have the numbers reflect this version being better, lol. And while it's pretty damn hard to lose with this team 'outside of hax', that's one of many bits of competitive logic that don't apply in the maison - this team basically screams 'crit me and crit me again', so while I don't really lose my rotations streaks to misplays the team still sort of sucks because of faulty teambuilding. One adjustment I can come up with to reduce my vulnerability to crits is Sub>Earthquake on Dragonite.
Despite what I said prior and even though I find this format kinda dumb, I just might try again after I wrap up my other streaks because I'm an idiot and I'm more than a bit annoyed that I didn't beat my previous record with an objectively better team - however, in its current iteration, building a streak with this team comes down for like 80% to 'don't get too many crits', which is not a challenge I'd like to take part in.
Vs. Dana: HBQW-WWWW-WWX8-6YBE (holy shit such sloppiness)
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. These are the exact same ~950-1 W/L ratio Clockwork Angels from that tragic streak I posted about last week (only now actually all six of them pentaperfect, lol), so for any further detail on strategy and such I refer you to that post.
By-Tor (Greninja) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Mat Block
-Dark Pulse
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot
The Snow Dog (Manectric) @ Manectite
Ability: Lightningrod -> Intimidate
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Thunderbolt
-Flamethrower
-Volt Switch
-Protect
Bob (Talonflame) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
-Brave Bird
-Taunt
-Tailwind
-Protect
Galbatorix (Azumarill) @ Wide Lens
Ability: Huge Power
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31 (the perks of breeding with a 6IV Ditto I guess? :x)
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
-Waterfall
-Play Rough
-Aqua Jet
-Protect
Flashheart (Blaziken) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Speed Boost
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Flare Blitz
-Low Kick
-Rock Slide
-Protect
Eddie (Hydreigon) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Dragon Pulse
-Dark Pulse
-Earth Power
-Protect
This team didn't have any trouble at all getting the trophy (as can be expected of a team with a W/L ratio like that) and I think I should seriously be going for 1000 this time (holy shit just as I wrote this I realised how daunting it is to make this explicit; but yeah, judging by everything this team has shown me I can't help but think it should be possible. Oh dear. Just gotta hope the game eject happens in AI multi this time)
(12/04 late edit: mission accomplished)
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. These are the exact same ~950-1 W/L ratio Clockwork Angels from that tragic streak I posted about last week (only now actually all six of them pentaperfect, lol), so for any further detail on strategy and such I refer you to that post.
By-Tor (Greninja) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Mat Block
-Dark Pulse
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot
The Snow Dog (Manectric) @ Manectite
Ability: Lightningrod -> Intimidate
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Thunderbolt
-Flamethrower
-Volt Switch
-Protect
Bob (Talonflame) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
-Brave Bird
-Taunt
-Tailwind
-Protect
Galbatorix (Azumarill) @ Wide Lens
Ability: Huge Power
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31 (the perks of breeding with a 6IV Ditto I guess? :x)
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
-Waterfall
-Play Rough
-Aqua Jet
-Protect
Flashheart (Blaziken) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Speed Boost
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Flare Blitz
-Low Kick
-Rock Slide
-Protect
Eddie (Hydreigon) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
-Dragon Pulse
-Dark Pulse
-Earth Power
-Protect
This team didn't have any trouble at all getting the trophy (as can be expected of a team with a W/L ratio like that) and I think I should seriously be going for 1000 this time (holy shit just as I wrote this I realised how daunting it is to make this explicit; but yeah, judging by everything this team has shown me I can't help but think it should be possible. Oh dear. Just gotta hope the game eject happens in AI multi this time)
(12/04 late edit: mission accomplished)
So, yeah, I intend to wrap up all these streaks (maybe except multi), probably starting with rotations because I don't want to brain failure that that mode seems to induce to carry over to any of my other streaks. (Btw if somebody happens to have a singles battle vid against lead Empoleon4 lying around that I can use for mock battling purposes, that'd be incredibly swell ^^), and I'll also be doing a new Greninja/Mega Blaziken run in Doubles once I've lost my current streak and have RNGed the mons that I need on old games... but first I'll need to actually beat those old games, as well as do well in school and play Majora's Mask 3D
tl;dr: Greninja is a god and multi sucks.
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Well, my Triples streak has ended at 260 wins. It was basically a misplay of me selecting Double-Edge over Brave Bird. I forgot that Tailwind doesn't last a long time and that Staraptor now held Choice Band (it had Scarf in other modes). So once automatic center happened, I was screwed because Raikou outsped. I definitely should've chosen Brave Bird as sniping across would've been a win. Here's the team again, and sorry, but I had to quote my old post which is actually literally on the same page (yup, I lost really quickly). I'm not quite sure how to link to the post instead, so if anyone can tell me how, this not tech-savvy person would appreciate it.
Here are some battle videos.
CTAG-WWWW-WWX8-XH9Y
Just a basic battle that shows how the team works.
6CNG-WWWW-WWX8-XHAT
Had some trouble with Swift Swim, but Wide Guard saved me.
JRKW-WWWW-WWX8-XHBM
The losing battle against a Veteran, forgot his name but he's the one with the quote about being hunky. Oh, how I wish I could take back the Double-Edge.
Anyway, I'm working on getting my other trophies now, so I'll definitely be back!
The only change I made on the team was making Tornadus's EVs into 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpAtk. This allowed me to survive a crit Brave Bird from Talonflame, which threatened me before. Tornadus maintained 131 Speed to still outspeed the rest of the maison. I also handed it Mental Herb over Life Orb.
Here are some battle videos.
CTAG-WWWW-WWX8-XH9Y
Just a basic battle that shows how the team works.
6CNG-WWWW-WWX8-XHAT
Had some trouble with Swift Swim, but Wide Guard saved me.
JRKW-WWWW-WWX8-XHBM
The losing battle against a Veteran, forgot his name but he's the one with the quote about being hunky. Oh, how I wish I could take back the Double-Edge.
Anyway, I'm working on getting my other trophies now, so I'll definitely be back!
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You can take a look at this team which had a decent 77-win streak with M-Altaria as its core. i used this pokemon to limit myself to those that could be caught in ORAS but then you can use Milotic in place of Azumarill as your bulky water
I think you'd still lead with Gengar to see if you can get a free OHKO on the opponent's lead or a necessary KO on something that needs to be taken out. You can probably experiment with the move that's not Softboiled, Sub, or Seismic Toss because Chansey can definitely Toxic stall ghosts, but it can also defeat them about any way it wants to. The only Ghost that can do any meaningful damage to Chansey is Chandelure, which can do around 50% with +6 Heat Wave - that thing's probably not even going to boost all the way up before it starts wasting those 10 PP, and even if it does you have ample opportunity to set up a Sub or +6 Evasion. In other words, anything you can KO with Toxic you can also KO with 3-4 Seismic Tosses or by PP stalling.
Thanks! If I used Milotic, which kind of pokémon should I have to complete the team? Dragonite/Garchomp would share M-Altaria's weaknesses, and Gallade/Typhlosion/Gardevoir would be too fragile, right? I just can't decide @o@