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Carl · Mar 25th, 2008, 4:15:27 AM

Well it's 3am and I just hit my highest streak yet... unfortunately losing in the process. I was going to hold off on posting my team here until I (hopefully) made the top 3 but considering how tough those are to reach, the fashion I just lost, the time I've spent on BT, and the actual current time, it seemed appropriate for me to reveal what I've been toying with.

My current record is 117.

I've been pounding the BT with this team for the last week or two after I was inspired by reading this thread again. Before these past few weeks, my all time high had been 54 (twice) using a team that tried to bash the AI before it could bash me. The usual suspects of Garchomp/Tyranitar/filler. After checking out the updated records, I decided to go for a much more AI abusive approach. My first run was extremely successful from my standpoint as I cruised to 75 victories before making a costly mistake. I chalked it up to human error. Then I had some humbling slaps in the face as a I lost a few times before even hitting 50 wins. I didn't change the team but rather my approach to using it and thus now 117 with a loss I can blame on luck rather than poor play.

Wobbuffet @Lum Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 4HP/252Def/252SpDef
Nature: Calm
- Encore
- Safeguard
- Counter
- Mirror Coat

Encore was the main inspiration for this team and Wobbuffet is actually a surprisingly solid BT pokemon. I've been abusing the BT moveset lists like it's my job during these runs to best predict how I can take advantage of the opposing lead. Obviously if the opposing pokemon has all damaging moves I'm going to use Counter/Mirror Coat. For those that have non damaging moves, it really depends on the pokemon. It took a while to get a feel for which ones I should still Counter/MC and which ones I should Encore but I think I'm getting better at making the right call. I've noticed some pokemon (Lanturn/Glalie for example) react based on the move I choose which is really lame. If I Encore, I'm getting attacked but if I use Mirror Coat, they'll use Confuse Ray/Hail. Lum Berry and Safeguard are pretty self explanatory. I'd love to be able to fit Destiny Bond in here but I think the benefits Safeguard can bring are better overall.

Anyway, Wobbuffet can usually take out one pokemon with Counter/MC or lock them into something easy to setup on thanks to Encore.

Gengar @Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4HP/252SpAtk/252Speed
Nature: Timid
- Counter
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Destiny Bond

You've all seen this before. After deciding I wanted to use Wobbuffet, Gengar was my next choice. It's really as good as it looks on paper in terms of AI abuse. The main reason I chose Gengar was because it is immune to 3 out of the 4 possible OHKO moves and is way more useful than some of the Sturdy pokemon. Best single pokemon anyone can use in the Battle Tower, no question.

Lucario @Muscle Band
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 4HP/252Atk/252Spd
Nature: Jolly
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- ExtremeSpeed

After noticing I had two weaknesses to ghost and more importantly dark attacks, I decided my 3rd pokemon had to be resistant to both. Lucario was an obvious choice. It has power, the ability to setup, a priority move, and key resistances. Originally I was using a Life Orb and Bullet Punch over Crunch but that left me really open to Cresselia and I barely ever used Bullet Punch. I liked Life Orb's power but I hated recoil damage and being as frail as it is, I figured Lucario didn't need to be killing himself, too. Jolly because I love speed and I can usually get in the attack boosts.

It's pretty obvious what I want to do here. Get Wobbuffet to Encore a status or stat upping move and then get Lucario in to setup. Encore lasts a minimum of 4 turns so if Wobbuffet catches something like Calm Mind I can get at least two Swords Dances in after the initial Encore turn and switch. Getting certain moves Encored like Stone Edge or Crunch can also be easy set up points. If Wobbuffet catches Double Team, I usually switch to Gengar and hope to kill it before Encore ends with my backup plan being to Destiny Bond. Lead OHKO users still scare this team despite Gengar's presence mainly because sometimes they use OHKO moves and sometimes they don't. Usually I Encore them and hope they don't use it/miss. If they do miss, I switch to Gengar since Sash will eat a second OHKO if it's Sheer Cold and obviously they miss otherwise. If they use a regular attack, Wobbuffet can act accordingly. The other potential problem, though I've been lucky with this, is sleep status. I have to Encore sleep users and if a Hypnosis or something hits then Lum Berry solves this. Safeguard next turn on the miss or eat the sleep considering I have to be extremely unlucky for Wobbuffet not to wake up before Encore ends. Not the most ideal situation, but it works around it. A general "weakness" I've noticed is water pokemon. They tend to be bulky and usually don't give me good openings for setting up Lucario so a team full of them is a pain.

As I said earlier, I changed the way I played this team rather than the pokemon in it. The main difference besides more experience with how the AI plays is that I try to keep Wobbuffet alive now. In earlier runs, I would gladly leave Wobb in after it killed something with Counter/MC to die when it was low on HP. However, this is actually a bad idea. If Wobbuffet faints the first AI pokemon but takes a lot of damage in the process allowing it to die as well is essentially a wash and puts the game at 2-2. The AI is at an advantage here since there's no guarantee that I don't have to sacrifice my incoming Gengar. A Double Team user or something Gengar can't Counter/bash in two turns will instinctively force me to use Destiny Bond. Then it's a non SD'ed Lucario versus a mystery pokemon and that's not a fun situation. By not sacrificing Wobbuffet and switching out if I can, I can legitimately save Gengar for "last" and bank on Destiny Bond to win the match if it comes down to being "1-1". A near dead Wobbuffet is not as useless as it seems..

My loss went like this: Lead Roserade which happened to be one of the pure attackers and not the Encore bait variety. Shadow Ball criticalled while I Encored. Wobb has about 1/4 of its HP left and I switch out to Lucario. Shadow Ball does enough damage to be noticeable. Next turn I Swords Dance and am faster (so actually it was the Sleep Powder Roserade) and get hit by another Shadow Ball which lowers my SpDef. Not wanting to risk the CH next turn, I kill off Roserade with Close Combat. I'm not sure if Crunch would have done enough but I wasn't taking any chances. In comes Tangrowth. I Close Combat again figuring I'll take a chunk of HP, finish it off with Gengar and then Destiny Bond the last pokemon for the win. Quick Claw activates, Tangrowth uses Earthquake and I lose Lucario. I send in Gengar. I probably should have used Counter here but knowing the AI if I did I'd get hit by Sleep Powder and wouldn't even have a shot to get lucky with Shadow Ball. I SB and Tangrowth is half health now but in the yellow while it uses Payback and activates Focus Sash. I can still win this thanks to Wobbuffet being saved but Quick Claw activates again and Power Whip seals the win for the AI.

OK sorry for how long this is but most of this was for me personally to just type out and feel good about. Now that it's after 4 (man this took forever to type up), I'm going to bed. Opinions on my team are welcome. Argh BT..

Mar 25th, 2008, 4:15:27 AM	#302
Carl or Varl Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 4,530 Gear Station	Well it's 3am and I just hit my highest streak yet... unfortunately losing in the process. I was going to hold off on posting my team here until I (hopefully) made the top 3 but considering how tough those are to reach, the fashion I just lost, the time I've spent on BT, and the actual current time, it seemed appropriate for me to reveal what I've been toying with. My current record is 117. I've been pounding the BT with this team for the last week or two after I was inspired by reading this thread again. Before these past few weeks, my all time high had been 54 (twice) using a team that tried to bash the AI before it could bash me. The usual suspects of Garchomp/Tyranitar/filler. After checking out the updated records, I decided to go for a much more AI abusive approach. My first run was extremely successful from my standpoint as I cruised to 75 victories before making a costly mistake. I chalked it up to human error. Then I had some humbling slaps in the face as a I lost a few times before even hitting 50 wins. I didn't change the team but rather my approach to using it and thus now 117 with a loss I can blame on luck rather than poor play. Wobbuffet @Lum Berry Ability: Shadow Tag EVs: 4HP/252Def/252SpDef Nature: Calm - Encore - Safeguard - Counter - Mirror Coat Encore was the main inspiration for this team and Wobbuffet is actually a surprisingly solid BT pokemon. I've been abusing the BT moveset lists like it's my job during these runs to best predict how I can take advantage of the opposing lead. Obviously if the opposing pokemon has all damaging moves I'm going to use Counter/Mirror Coat. For those that have non damaging moves, it really depends on the pokemon. It took a while to get a feel for which ones I should still Counter/MC and which ones I should Encore but I think I'm getting better at making the right call. I've noticed some pokemon (Lanturn/Glalie for example) react based on the move I choose which is really lame. If I Encore, I'm getting attacked but if I use Mirror Coat, they'll use Confuse Ray/Hail. Lum Berry and Safeguard are pretty self explanatory. I'd love to be able to fit Destiny Bond in here but I think the benefits Safeguard can bring are better overall. Anyway, Wobbuffet can usually take out one pokemon with Counter/MC or lock them into something easy to setup on thanks to Encore. Gengar @Focus Sash Ability: Levitate EVs: 4HP/252SpAtk/252Speed Nature: Timid - Counter - Shadow Ball - Thunderbolt - Destiny Bond You've all seen this before. After deciding I wanted to use Wobbuffet, Gengar was my next choice. It's really as good as it looks on paper in terms of AI abuse. The main reason I chose Gengar was because it is immune to 3 out of the 4 possible OHKO moves and is way more useful than some of the Sturdy pokemon. Best single pokemon anyone can use in the Battle Tower, no question. Lucario @Muscle Band Ability: Steadfast EVs: 4HP/252Atk/252Spd Nature: Jolly - Swords Dance - Close Combat - Crunch - ExtremeSpeed After noticing I had two weaknesses to ghost and more importantly dark attacks, I decided my 3rd pokemon had to be resistant to both. Lucario was an obvious choice. It has power, the ability to setup, a priority move, and key resistances. Originally I was using a Life Orb and Bullet Punch over Crunch but that left me really open to Cresselia and I barely ever used Bullet Punch. I liked Life Orb's power but I hated recoil damage and being as frail as it is, I figured Lucario didn't need to be killing himself, too. Jolly because I love speed and I can usually get in the attack boosts. It's pretty obvious what I want to do here. Get Wobbuffet to Encore a status or stat upping move and then get Lucario in to setup. Encore lasts a minimum of 4 turns so if Wobbuffet catches something like Calm Mind I can get at least two Swords Dances in after the initial Encore turn and switch. Getting certain moves Encored like Stone Edge or Crunch can also be easy set up points. If Wobbuffet catches Double Team, I usually switch to Gengar and hope to kill it before Encore ends with my backup plan being to Destiny Bond. Lead OHKO users still scare this team despite Gengar's presence mainly because sometimes they use OHKO moves and sometimes they don't. Usually I Encore them and hope they don't use it/miss. If they do miss, I switch to Gengar since Sash will eat a second OHKO if it's Sheer Cold and obviously they miss otherwise. If they use a regular attack, Wobbuffet can act accordingly. The other potential problem, though I've been lucky with this, is sleep status. I have to Encore sleep users and if a Hypnosis or something hits then Lum Berry solves this. Safeguard next turn on the miss or eat the sleep considering I have to be extremely unlucky for Wobbuffet not to wake up before Encore ends. Not the most ideal situation, but it works around it. A general "weakness" I've noticed is water pokemon. They tend to be bulky and usually don't give me good openings for setting up Lucario so a team full of them is a pain. As I said earlier, I changed the way I played this team rather than the pokemon in it. The main difference besides more experience with how the AI plays is that I try to keep Wobbuffet alive now. In earlier runs, I would gladly leave Wobb in after it killed something with Counter/MC to die when it was low on HP. However, this is actually a bad idea. If Wobbuffet faints the first AI pokemon but takes a lot of damage in the process allowing it to die as well is essentially a wash and puts the game at 2-2. The AI is at an advantage here since there's no guarantee that I don't have to sacrifice my incoming Gengar. A Double Team user or something Gengar can't Counter/bash in two turns will instinctively force me to use Destiny Bond. Then it's a non SD'ed Lucario versus a mystery pokemon and that's not a fun situation. By not sacrificing Wobbuffet and switching out if I can, I can legitimately save Gengar for "last" and bank on Destiny Bond to win the match if it comes down to being "1-1". A near dead Wobbuffet is not as useless as it seems.. My loss went like this: Lead Roserade which happened to be one of the pure attackers and not the Encore bait variety. Shadow Ball criticalled while I Encored. Wobb has about 1/4 of its HP left and I switch out to Lucario. Shadow Ball does enough damage to be noticeable. Next turn I Swords Dance and am faster (so actually it was the Sleep Powder Roserade) and get hit by another Shadow Ball which lowers my SpDef. Not wanting to risk the CH next turn, I kill off Roserade with Close Combat. I'm not sure if Crunch would have done enough but I wasn't taking any chances. In comes Tangrowth. I Close Combat again figuring I'll take a chunk of HP, finish it off with Gengar and then Destiny Bond the last pokemon for the win. Quick Claw activates, Tangrowth uses Earthquake and I lose Lucario. I send in Gengar. I probably should have used Counter here but knowing the AI if I did I'd get hit by Sleep Powder and wouldn't even have a shot to get lucky with Shadow Ball. I SB and Tangrowth is half health now but in the yellow while it uses Payback and activates Focus Sash. I can still win this thanks to Wobbuffet being saved but Quick Claw activates again and Power Whip seals the win for the AI. OK sorry for how long this is but most of this was for me personally to just type out and feel good about. Now that it's after 4 (man this took forever to type up), I'm going to bed. Opinions on my team are welcome. Argh BT.. __________________ frlg snorlax. Last edited by Carl; Mar 25th, 2008 at 4:20:28 AM.