[atsync]

I have started playing again after a short break (well, I say break but I was actually doing some RNG stuff). I'm using Zoroark/Suicune/Dragonite, but now Dragonite is Jolly with 84hp/252att/172speed. This allows it to outspeed Jolteon after 1 Dragon Dance and gives him extra bulk (plus hp isn't divisable by 4 so that means 4 substitutes from full health), in exchange for some power.

So far, the power drop has not been that noticable. There was one moment where 2+ Earthquake failed to OHKO Rhyperior (I still won easily) but other than that Outrage still KOs the world. I did face 1 Jolteon (backup, bot lead) and the extra speed was great, though it was annoying because it chose to Charm me first (so I was faster but I was at -1 attack lol). That meant another Dragon Dance so I ended up taking Thunder anyway but it didn't do that much. I killed it when I was at 2+ speed and 0 attack, but the follow up was a Dragonite which died to Outrage.

Still, I don't regret changing to Jolly. The benefits outweigh the downsides in my opinion.

Oh, and I faced Choice Band Archeops early on. Oh god I hate that thing. This would be one of the few things that Focus Sash Zoroark would be good for. Head Smash OHKOs Zoroark and the recoil is conveniently not enough to activate Defeatist. So in goes Suicune who takes over 50% from Head Smash (if it crits then I better hope that Dragonite can solo the rest of the team though I'm guaranteed 1 Dragon Dance at least). Of course, Suicune could set up on Defeatist Head Smash if it weren't for the fact that it kills itself before I can get any boosts!

This time I chose to Calm Mind after the first Head Smash. I think from now on I'm just going to Rest straight away. The problem is that full power Head Smash + Defeatist Head Smash left me with 7 hp. I'm pretty sure the first hit was a high damage role (it seemed to do more damage than when I faced it in the loss in my last streak), but the point is that one crit is enough to kill Suicune and Rest would allow me to survive relatively healthy. Then I just have to hope that Suicune or Dragonite can beat the rest of the opponents team. Not ideal, but it's the best I've got with this current team.

The only alternative would be to give Zoroark 116 HP EVs. This guarantees that Archeops activates Defeatist after the first Head Smash, giving Suicune more time to boost up a bit before Archeops kills itself. But I don't like the sound of taking that much power or speed (or both) away from Zoroark since it needs as much as it can get. I think I'll just leave it as is for now and just hope I don't face it too often. Who knows, maybe it'll miss the first Head Smash some time lol.

So yeah I'll see how far this goes. I do feel that the change to Jolly is an improvement so I would like to at least get close to 182 wins...

EDIT: Actually, I'm also starting to wonder whether I should get rid of Substitute on Dragonite, maybe for Fire Punch, Extremespeed or even Roost. It is a good move but I have very rarely used it because Multiscale + Lum Berry provide good hax protection anyway. It is still nice to be able to set up on status spammers though and I'm sure I'll come across a situation where Substitute saves me.