Battle Subway Singles
Streak: 93
Team: Gengar, Garchomp, Suicune
Gengar@Focus Sash
Timid 4/0/0/252/0/252
Levitate
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Destiny Bond
Garchomp@Yache Berry
Jolly 4/252/0/0/0/252
Sand Veil
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Substitute
Suicune@Chesto Berry
Bold 252/0/252/4/0/0
Pressure
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Rest
I already used Gengar in Gen 4, and it still works well and can often kill two opponents with its attacks and Destiny Bond. I prefer Focus Blast over other options like Sludge Bomb or Energy Ball, because it helps against a lot of opponents and has perfect coverage with Shadow Ball. The 70 % accuracy is annoying, but if it misses, Gengar survives with 1 HP, and I still can use Destiny Bond to kill at least one opponent.
Although I don't really like Garchomp, it's without a doubt one of the best Pokemon for Battle Frontier/Subway, and as it covers Suicune's electric weakness and doesn't share its weakness to grass (like many other ground-types), I used it in this team. It also can switch in Thunder Waves or most attacks with paralysis chance that can be dangerous for Gengar.
I forgot to teach Garchomp Outrage before I sent it to Gen 5, and didn't have TM Stone Edge and Rock Slide, so I kept the moveset it had, and it worked okay, but I missed Outrage sometimes, and I think I should use it over Dragon Claw or maybe Sub.
But Sub helps against many status users like Spiritomb with Will-O-Wisp or Grass-types with Leech Seed, and also against OHKO users.
As I didn't have a Life Orb and couldn't use Focus Sash (as Gengar already has one), I chose the berry to protect Garchomp against Ice attacks I don't expect or I cannot take with Suicune (because the opponent has a move that is problematic for Suicune).
Suicune got Scald in Gen 5, and I had heard it was really good now, so I tested it and it works quite well. It can set up on a lot of opponents and sweep whole teams with some boosts. It can also take status problems, as it can use Rest to remove burn, paralysis and poison, it's Chesto Berry can negate a sleep move at least once, and Scald can remove freezes, what is really great as it has to take many Ice type moves that were targeted at Garchomp. The biggest problem it has are crits, because I can't safely setup on many opponents as I always have to fear a crit, and I must Rest at relative high health if I don't want to risk a KO by crit.
I lost mainly due to misplay against a legendary team with Terrakion, Landorus and Virizion.
First I used Shadow Ball instead of Focus Blast against Terrakion, then I switched out to Garchomp (I thought Garchomp would be faster, because some battles before it was, and I didn't know the base speed of most new pokemon and I never use the subway moveset list while battling), Garchomp survived Stone Edge followed by Close Combat only with a few HP and then I sacrifized it against Landorus. Suicune killed Landorus (after taking ~30 % damage from Landorus' Attack (i forgot what it used), then Virizion killed it with a Leaf Blade Crit and Gengar couldn't do enough damage and was already down at 1 HP.
Battle Subway Doubles
Streak: 303
Team: Tyranitar, Latios, Excadrill, Gyarados
Tyranitar@Air Balloon
Adamant 172/252/4/0/4/76
Sand Stream
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Protect
Latios@Life Orb
Timid 4/0/0/252/0/252
Levitate
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Draco Meteor
- Protect
Excadrill@Ground Gem
Adamant 4/252/44/0/36/172
Sand Rush
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Protect
Gyarados@Lum Berry
Adamant 4/252/0/0/0/252
Intimidate
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Bounce
The idea was to build a team based on Sand Stream with Excadrill. As Hippowdon is not really good in Doubles Tyranitar was soon set as second Pokemon. As I prefer doubles and as Tyranitar and Excadrill have many weaks in common a single Pokemon cannot cover, I build a team for doubles.
As Tyranitar and Excadrill share many weaknesses, especially against some multi-target-moves like Earthquake, Muddy Water or Surf, I didn't want to lead with both of them. If I would place neither of them in the lead position, this would limit the flexibility of my team, as I wouldn't be able to switch something in Water, Fighting or Ground type attacks. So I decided to lead with one of them and this one was Tyranitar, because I must first bring Sand Stream before Excadrill can use it.
Tyranitar has good bulk but lots of weaknesses, especially against Fighting, so I needed a Pokemon that can deal with most Fighting types, has a Ground immunity (as I already have two Earthquakes and Ground type weaknesses) and must be able to deal with as many opponents as possible. In Gen 4 I had used Latias successfully, but I thought in this team Latios would be better, because it can score more immediate OHKOs. Latios is a great partner for Tyranitar as he can OHKO almost every Fighting-type, is immune to ground and can hit almost everything hard with its powerful STAB attacks. Latios and Tyranitar also cover most of each other's weaknesses.
Then I needed one more Pokemon that covers types that might be dangerous for my team (Water, Ground, Fighting, Ice, Bug), and I didn't find many good pokemon that were not weak to one of those types and resist most of them. I finally choose Gyarados, as it resists Water, Fighting and Bug and is immune to Ground and neutral to Ice, and it has the great ability Intimidate that helps him as well as its partner to take physical attacks better.
Moveset Explanations:
Tyranitar has an adamant nature and max. Atk to hit as hard as possible, 76 Init-EVs help to outspeed all Metagross sets (except the naive one, that cannot OHKO with Meteor Mash) and also all Scizor sets, which is helpful as Scizor is annoying, because it can threaten both of my leads with it's super effective STAB and I cannot KO it in one or two hits. The other EVs are placed in the defense stats to maximize bulk.
The moves are nothing special, Rock Slide and Earthquake as useful multi-target-moves with good coverage and Crunch as secondary STAB with more power against a single target, and Protect is always useful in Doubles.
Air Balloon is a very useful item as it allows Excadrill (and Gyarados) to use Earthquake while Tyranitar still is able to attack and doesn't need to protect. Tyranitar also doesn't have to fear to be hit by a super effective Earthquake (or other ground type move) immediately, which also helps to switch in Excadrill safely without the risk of getting hit by Earthquake.
Latios' nature and EV split are straightforward, so that it can outspeed and OHKO almost every Fighting type as well as many other foes. Psychic is useful especially against Fighting types, but also as reliable STAB without negative side effects. Draco Meteor has imperfect accuracy and causes a SpA drop, but I sometimes need the pure power of this move to get a quick OHKO. It also OHKOes every Dragon type (even Haban Berry Kingdra is OHKOd most of the time), that could be problematic if I let them attack with their powerful STABs, especially Outrage because it's unpredictable and hits both Latios and Tyranitar hard. Thunderbolt hits Water and Flying types for super effective damage, as well as steels for neutral, so I don't have to use Draco Meteor so often.
Life Orb helps Latios to do even more damage and the recoil is acceptable for this massive power increase.
Excadrill has also maximized Attack to hit as hard as possible, 172 Speed EVs are enough to outspeed everything in the Battle Subway, the leftover EVs are put in the defenses to maximize bulk (as Excadrills HP base is already high it's better to put most of the EVs in the defenses, as my Excadrill does not have perfect IVs (HP and SDef are 28, all other important stats 31) I changed the split for maximum overall defenses a bit).
Earthquake is a powerful STAB and mulit-target move that gains additional power by Ground Gem, which allows Excadrill to get much more KOs. I didn't use Focus Sash because the sash is useless if I switch Excadrill in an attack (that is not electric or poison), and Excadrill has decent bulk and usually doesn't need the sash anyway. Rock Slide is another mulit-target move and again provides good coverage, X-Scissor rounds off the set and allows Excadrill to hit most Grass-types hard an it's useful sometimes when I cannot/don't want to use Earthquake.
Gyarados is totally offensive again, because it can still take hits well and should be able to hit as hard as possible and to kill the dangerous opponent before he kills one of my Pokemon. Dragon Dance is a great boost move that allows Gyarados to become faster than many foes, while boosting its already high attack. In spite of this, I don't use DD often because most times Gyarados just has to take hits and eliminate their users. But Dragon Dance is still usefull especially in close battles and it allows me to use freeturns from partner's protect (if used properly) or a double KO (usally from Excadrill's Earthquake) for a boost. Waterfall is a reliable STAB, Earthquake is useful because it hits both opponents and Bounce is great for coverage and a powerful move especially against Fighting and Grass types. It also can work as a pseudo-protect, I didn't use the real Protect as I thought all moves were too important to drop them, and Gyarados rarely needs Protect anyway.
Although this team obvioulsy works great, there are still many foes or effects that are dangerous to my team.
The Pokemon I feared most when playing this team was Ferrothorn, as it has high defenses on both sides, Latios cannot do much with not very effective attacks and the others also cannot do much more than trying to beat him with some neutral Earthquakes or Bounce. But even worser, Ferrothorn can use Curse to weaken those physical attacks while boosting its own Attack. I faced about 10 of them in my streak, and all but one I was able to beat as its team partners weren't really problematic for my team (and because they almost never used Gyro Ball, although I don't know why).
Ferrothorn is the most dangerous threat to my team, but there are much more pokemon and effects that are problematic for my team:
- Fighting types, that survive Latios' Psychic, especially Terrakion and Virizium, but as they always attack Tyranitar, I can just Protect and 2HKO them with Latios, if their partner doesn't threaten Latios
- Pokemon with Blizzard, as they both do massive damage to Latios and destroy Tyranitar's Balloon, and I don't have a good switch-in against Ice-type attacks; Freezes are rare, but annoying
- opposing pokemon that benefit from sandstorm, especially Sand Rush Excadrill, Garchomp and Gliscor, but also many Rock types
- steel types that don't take much damage from Earthquake and/or Latios' attacks (e.g. Ferrothorn, Scizor, Excavalier, Bronzong, Skarmory)
- other weather effects, also most times I get one or two kills while they setup the weather and then they lose anyway; and as my team doesn't depend too much on Sandstorm anyway, I can deal with teams that remove sandstorm and bring other weather effects without problems most of the time
- Trick Room (+Curse): Trick Room is annoying to a relativ fast team like mine, but usually i can just outstall those 4 turns with Protect and switches. But if one opponent brings Trick Room and the other uses a boost move, especially Curse, I am forced to attack, which almost led to a loss once, and in some other battles I had also problems because of this combination.
- Pokemon with random non-STAB Fighting attacks, mainly Focus Blast from Thundurus, Tornadus, Alakazam, Gardevoir, Regigigas, Regice..., but also others like Close Combat Arcanine and Superpower Flareon; but after playing a bit, those opponents become predictable (even without the subway moveset list), and I just Protect with Tyranitar or switch out to Gyarados if needed.
- Hax, but as items such as BrightPowder and Quick Claw as well as attacks like Double Team or OHKO moves became rarer, this is not such a big danger than it once was
- and maybe some more things I forgot to mention...
I lost to Scrafty, Charizard, Raichu and Ferrothorn: (video: 26-39851-65693)
Tyranitar + Latios vs. Scrafty + Charizard
Scrafty tightened its focus.
Charizard Crunch Crit on Latios, Latios fainted.
Tyranitar Rock Slide, Miss against Scrafty, Charizard fainted.
Scrafty Focus Punch, Tyranitar fainted.
Moxie raised Scrafty's Attack.
Gyarados + Excadrill vs. Scrafty + Raichu
Excadrill Earthquake, Raichu sash, Scrafty survives with ~ 40 %.
Raichu Thunderpunch, Gyarados fainted.
Scrafty Hi Jump Kick, Miss, Scrafty fainted.
Raichu was killed by Sandstorm.
Excadrill vs. Ferrothorn
Ferrothorn Protect, Excadrill Earthquake.
Excadrill Earthquake, Ferrothorn Gyro Ball crit, Excadrill fainted.
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Note:
- You get a Lansat Berry after 105 and a Starf Berry after 203 battles (as someone posted here before), but you don't get anything after 301 battles, there is just a person saying something unimportant like "We both won 300 battles..."