[garo]

Ok here´s the thing, since we all know switching pokes in the middle of a battle is an essential part of the competitive metagame, as well as prediction, so again since we all know since the ruby battle tower the AI has its limitations, so if the AI cheats on us with insane hax, we need to figure out ways to control it and don’t let the luck beat us, the primary objective is to win 100 battles and get a star for the trainer card, then some trainers wants to get a higher streak and maybe make a list (hi peterko lol) with the best streaks listed on it. A well designed team with good pokes can reach the 100 streak within no more than five tries I think, in the process you surely figure out that even with a good team you can lose against a pathetic poke just because the insane hax, so if you want an almost foolproof team to reach a good streak you need more than a good team with great synergy, what you need is a strategy involving your three pokes, even better what you need is a way to manipulate the AI without cheating, a way to control the hax… I mean the insane hax lol, a way to take the AI on a walk to the park like a dog and leave the AI with no other choice than do what you want.

So the tower was implemented for first time in third generation, since then a big flaw in the AI is the lack of switching capabilities of it and with the fourth generation we have at our disposal a locking item that don’t raise the attack, that’s right the choice scarf, finally the puzzle is complete and we can abuse this flaw without mercy, so last august I designed a team trying to abuse this flaw, the obvious limitation is that you only can use three pokes and using one for the tricker purpose leaves you with two slots, I already had an alakazam tricker so I took it, then I searched for two pokes that could resist the whole 17 different types and also had good defenses, I picked dragonite and registeel, electric attacks remained uncovered and magnezone could do the job but I picked registeel anyway because it has amazing defenses on both special and physical sides. I don’t exactly remember the EVs distribution and movesets of my first team but they was kinda bad because I didn’t research a lot and I didn’t put effort making the team I mean I suddenly had the idea and in two days I was battling with the new team, I reached above fifty victories but I didn’t even was close at reaching 100, so after a few tries I stopped battling at the tower and focused on other things like the other four stars.

This year I battled again at the tower, it was around February or march I think, and I trained few teams: double team based, blissey based, rain dancer ludicolo based and so on. Then I saw the jumpman´s post where he posted his new project: a switcheroo team, I was glad that somebody was putting effort in a team abusing the switching flaw, and I dusted away my old tricker team but I was busy at school leaving me not enough time to improve it, so now I finally finished and used my team at the tower getting this great record: 276 victories in a row.

First of all I researched the different possibilities of trick/swticheroo pokes because I felt alakazam wasn’t good for the job, I mean alakazam is a great versatile poke but with other niches, I picked rotom because it has enough speed to outspeed everything with some EV and the choice scarf, it electric typing covers my lack of electric resistance and also has thunder wave and confuse ray for support, I didn’t think about the fourth slot it just finished with shock wave when it reached level 50 lol, then came the tough decisions keep or toss dragonite and registeel, I kept both.

rotom@ choice scarf (look a little pathetic ghost!!, wait a minute……)
levitate
252 hp / 49 def / 49 sp def / 160 spd (this is the spread my rotom required because the bad IVs, so basically just give rotom the required EVs to reach 134 in speed, give 252 EVs in Hp and split the remaining EVs in the defenses)
timid
*
trick
thunder wave
confuse ray
shock wave

In first place registeel, with its great defenses and the most important factor: it is the only pure steel type (mawile is too weak to take hits) meaning it has 11 resistances and one immunity (only five more types to cover lol), and surely it needs the great defenses to stall because the lack of recovery move (beside rest obviously), so its defenses and resistances give him enough time to raise its defenses and attack, while it recovers hp from lefties that eventually become more hp restored than hp lost, indeed with a registeel fully set upped even super effective moves barely scratch him (never more than 30 hp lost), your only threat are critical hits (unstabed critical super effective hits can´t OHKO him in most cases) for this reason and for the status afflictions as well is why substitute is in the moveset, so basically after set upped 3 amnesias an 6 curses make your substitute and iron head the opposition, any poke without rest will fall easily, even resistant types will fall in two or three turn most of the times, pokes with stat up moves and rest are the bigger problem here you will beat them anyway but only after a long stall war, for this reason I recommend to put some PP UPs in registeel moves to make his stall job easier .

registeel@ leftovers (what the hell are you looking at with those seven eyes!!)
clear body
252 hp / 128 def / 128 sp def
hardy (impish is the right nature but I only have this registeel hardy so I use it)
*
iron head
curse
amnesia
substitute

On the other hand dragonite doesn’t have great defenses, it is just above the average but it is capable of set up faster than registeel and has a reliable recovery move: roost, so it can easily switch in when you face a ground, water, grass,fighting or bug move, also you can set up with dragonite when you face any set up move, some status inflict move, low powered moves like shadow ball from one of the cresselias (the one that make damage less than half on rotom lol), basically DD six times while recovering periodically, make your substitute and sweep, the only pokes that will resist an outrage (besides the focus sashed ones obviously and some focus banded) are some steel types like aggron and steelix but aren’t the big issue, I only faced once both of them on the same trainer (second and third pokes of one of the policeman I thought) and anyway dragonite kill them lol, indeed many steel types die with one outrage anyway.

dragonite@ persim berry (don’t say fat dragon or he will kick your ass)
inner focus
252 hp / 252 atk
adamant
*
outrage
dragon dance
roost
substitute

Well… now I will list the possible threats this team may face.

1 : Burn status, Flame body pokes, will-o-wisp. 543 Nidoqueen Modest Wide Lens Earth Power Sludge Bomb Fireblast Blizzard HP/Sp. Atk - Every time that you face a fire attack in your first turn you must be careful because the chance of getting burned, the same for flame body pokes and will-o-wisp users, when you successfully trick the fire attack or lock the flame body poke immediately switch out rotom because you may need help from him later if you get really unlucky and dragonite can´t KO the last poke, then you will face a weakened poke and if registeel can´t switch in to set up safely, is here where a confuse ray or a thunder wave from rotom save your ass, if you face a will-o-wisp user before switching out rotom is recommendable to paralyze and confuse the foe, with 75% accuracy and these statuses you have a good chance at switching in dragonite and substitute before became burned, you must set up with dragonite obviously because if registeel gets burned becomes death weight for the team, so you must get 6 DD as your priority and then substitute with the maximum health you can to prevent dying in the next turns from burn damage, if the flame body poke doesn’t represent much risk is recommendable wait until he dies from recoil damage from struggle, this way you prevent become burned before facing the second poke. The reason because I listed nidoqueen here is that dragonite only got burned immediately in the switch out less than five times in my streak and mainly because this poke, each time I faced nidoqueen she burned my dragonite in the switch out with fireblast and become burned since the first is more dangerous than get burned on later turns, indeed the couple of times I don’t win easily came with nidoqueen burning dragonite and registeel finishing the weakened last poke.

2 : Abomasnow.- The trouble here is snow warning while being the lead of the trainer, each abmasnow I faced get locked in ice moves and never in grass moves meaning I need to switch out registeel and with the endless hail nullifying the lefties recovery the safest way I found is count the turns while you use amnesia and exactly when he uses the first struggle switch out dragonite, set up twice and substitute, the majority of pokes in the tower struggle five times before dying but each abomasnow I faced has hp divisible by four, so keep it in mind.

3 : 790 Gastrodon Sassy Quick Claw Earthquake Waterfall Stone Edge Curse HP/Sp. Def .-I don’t know exactly how the abilities are picked in the tower, I don’t remember well but I think I faced the same lanturn with lefties and confuse ray twice, the first time I couldn’t paralyze him because volt absorb but the second time I faced him I tried again and I succeeded meaning he has illuminate, so the only time I faced this gastrodon as the foe´s lead he beat me because is the only sticky holder that represent danger to my team I can set up on the other ones, but this one with curse, stone edge and earthquake is impossible to set up on his face, so when I faced him I tried switching between registeel and dragonite, wasting earthquakes on dragonite and vanishing stone edges on registeel, when he ran out of stone edges he also had used some curses, but anyway I prepared to set up with dragonite, he QC while I was set upping and almost killed dragonite but I roosted away the damage, but again when I started outraging he QC and fainted my dragonite, obviously rotom and registeel didn’t stand on his way. I think that if I face him again as a lead there will be two options: trick and hope he has storm drain (I wrote about lanturn because of this) or confuse him since the first and switch out dragonite to kill him before he use curses too many times, after all he doesnt have a recovery source so maybe attack quickly is the best option, also he needs one curse to 2HOKO dragonite with stone edge so that will be an advantage if he wastes one turn hitting himself for the confusion or missing a stone edge(I know this is too dependent of luck but this guy is really hard as a lead).

Next I describe how to use this team, this isn’t specified turn by turn because the number of turns are very variable, the marks means steps read each step and pick the best action for the situation, even with this outline it’s very important the use of personal experience at the tower and maybe do something different as you see it fit.

*Always start with trick unless when you face gastrodon, in this case read the above analysis about this poke.

*Every time you have the opportunity to use thunder wave and confuse ray do it (confuse ray is not recommendable if the poke uses a recoil move or will struggle in few turns), but remember that is highly recommendable keep rotom alive and switch out the poke that will set up before rotom dies.

*If you locked the opposition successfully in a direct attack switch out the resistant poke, set up , substitute and sweep. In the rare case that you face an electric attack (938 Zapdos) set up with registeel.

If you locked the opposition successfully in a set up move, then switch out dragonite, set up, substitute, roost and sweep.

If you locked the opposition in a status inflict move or a stat lowering move (like hypnosis or tail whip, except with toxic) then first paralyze and confuse with rotom, then switch out dragonite, substitute, roost, set up and sweep (when facing moves that will paralyze like thunder wave is better to set up with registeel in my experience ).

If you locked the opposition in a low damage move that will do less than 25% to dragonite switch out him, set up, substitute and sweep.

If you locked the opponent in a fire move read the above analysis.

***Notes.-It is recommendable to use the BT database and improvise in the rarely case that you detect a potential problem not stated here.
When previously set upped with registeel and face on the second or third poke one that can’t be 3HKO, uses rest and a set up move like a curselax, in this case you will face a long stall war (remember to use PP ups so you can stall easier) , you must use curse and amnesia while renewing the substitute until the opposition runs out of attacking moves and starts using rest every turn (do not use iron head because he will rest and last longer before runs out of attacking moves), when this point is reached switch out dragonite and set up while he keeps using rest, then sweep.


But unfortunately all good things come to an end, this is the natural way of life and my great streak ended this way:

Turn 1
Rotom switched ítems with moltres
Moltres used flamethrower and got locked.
Rotom lost around 70% of its health

Turn 2
Moltres used flamethrower
Rotom fainted
Dragonite switched in
*My first mistake of the battle, I should not have left him die.

Turn 3
Moltres used flamethrower
Dragonite lost around 25% of its health and got burned
Dragonite used dragon dance
Many turns (10 turns for example) with moltres attacking and dragonite healing while it gets 6 DD and a substitute.
*dragonite burned on the switch out, this can’t be good

Turn 14
Dragonite used outrage
Moltres fainted
Dragonite is hurt by its burn (like 48 hp remaining and a sub)
Trainer sent out regirock
*more bad news, regirock cant be OHKO with dragonite burned

Turn 15
Dragonite used outrage
Regirock lost like 70% of its health
Regirock used stone edge and broke the sub
Dragonite is hurt by its burn (like 25 hp remaining)

Turn 16
Dragonite used outrage
Regirock fainted
Dragonite gets confused, persim berry snapped it out of its confusion
Dragonite is hurt by its burn (like 2 hp remaining)
Trainer sent out heatran
*Damn!!!! This cant be truth, heatran cannot be OHKO with dragonite burned, rotom is fainted and face heatran with registeel without previous set up is the worst nightmare because the x4 resistance to iron head and the stabed fire moves.

Turn 17
Dragonite used outrage
Heatran lost around 60% of its health
Heatran used stone edge
Dragonite fainted
Garo sent out registeel
*at this point I just prayed for a critical hit that obviously didn’t show his face.

Turn 18
Heatran used fire fang
Registeel lost around 40% of its health and got burned
Registeel used amnesia
Registeel is hurt by its burn and got some hp from lefties.
*in a stupid choice I used amnesia because I thought heatran had magma storm (I should have used the BT database more in my streak), anyway since I saw “registeel got burned” I knew that that was the worst scenario my team could face.

Turn 19
Heatran used fire fang
Registeel lost around 40% of its health
Registeel used iron head
Registeel is hurt by its burn and got some hp from lefties

Turn 20
Heatran used fire fang
Registeel fainted


Here is it, finally the end of this post, if you fully read it thanks for your time I hope you enjoyed it, feel free to use this team, post your opinions and any suggestion on how to improve it further, I will try more streaks with this team but I don’t think I would do that soon because this 276 battles needed like 26 hours of playing and this is a lot of time I think, but anyway I’m very happy I reached a good streak and it totally worth the time, also I’m happy because I used dragonite one of my favorite pokes (the second one, my favorite is mewtwo but it is banned in tower, I have more favorite pokes but this is not a favorite poke thread lol), so again thanks for reading, see ya!!