Battle Maison Discussion & Records

[ReptoAbysmal]

I am extremely pleased to see you get that kind of mileage out of Trevenant. Ol Trevvy was a bit of a problem child for me, through no fault of its own. I think the only poke to be more frigging annoying to breed was Clefable. RNG was just not being any help whatsoever.

So I finally get my desired Trevenant with Harvest and 0 speed, and none of the time is rewarded because in the abysmally low chance it was rolled, it was put onto some horribly uneven team which was destined to be steamrolled. While it hit sufficiently hard, Chesto Rest wasn't as abusable as I'd hoped, aaand yeah the repeated losses. I've made bad teams survive before, but Trevenant had developed a bit of a stigma.

So when I made the couple of huge trims to the roster, away it went. But your success makes up for all that. Excellent job! The sunny day presence is a really nice coincidence, also, since Harvest gets to be more than a coin flip.

I figured if you'd had a joke battle with QC Walrein you'd have already posted about it, but I'm hoping you get to experience at least one battle with three successive Sheer Colds and at least one proc before you quit playing.

I'm nearing 200 wins with my own runts, myself, but it's only loosely tied to my random format.

 

[Smuckem]

I figured if you'd had a joke battle with QC Walrein you'd have already posted about it, but I'm hoping you get to experience at least one battle with three successive Sheer Colds and at least one proc before you quit playing.

Oh, I have though: I managed 42 wins with Dusclops/Imperfect Electivire3/ your Cherrim/Trevenant/Exeggutor/Walrein, and it was the sixth 'mon for 21 Master Balls during Battles #46-50 (so it was involved in the Dana Battle for that run, though it didn't actively participate there). In both cases, it scored four-five KOs throughout, so it has pulled its weight (though I haven't saved any replays of it doing its thang).

Not to say I won't be using Walrein at all anytime soon: I was impressed by how well Chef Cobb's team shalacked me to end this streak, so I am pairing my Replica Froslass4 up with Abomasnow2/Walrein3/Politoed4/Kingdra4/Mamoswine4 in order to see how well it drives in my hands. Hail spam away!

EDIT: That plan went to shit pretty fast...the above hail team managed 25 wins before being stopped by Giorgi, of all trainers. A Grass/Bug specialist should be cake for a team of Blizzard spammers, right? Well, having half the team be Grass-weak is probably not the best idea, and it didn't help matters that Bugs strong against Ice were heavily featured, on top of having plenty of anti-Ice coverage. So, in the end this potentially devastating squad was felled by Durant/Leafeon/Escavalier/Pinsir/Gogoat/Volcarona (Set 3). Pitiful.

Gardeners are the strangest Maison trainers around, I feel. The Grass/Bug archetype simply seems...out of place among all of the others, I guess? This despite the fact that, flavor-wise, it makes perfect sense. I don't know, maybe I'm imagining things or it's late or something.

EDIT 2: Was curious if any of the regulars on here know lolnub well enough to inquire about an update to his 100-win Triples streak. It's been so long that I doubt he has proof vids left, but if he got there and then went on an indefinite hiatus (as he says), the streak could still be active, and he still has a chance to add himself to the Triples leaderboard.

 

[Josh C.]

I promise I won't make regular updates like this, but seeing as I've surpassed the 1,000 mark with my Super Singles team (1,200 wins and counting), I felt compelled to provide a more comprehensive write-up. Hopefully you guys will find this to be an interesting read, whether you want to try out the team or not. It'll also come in handy for my own reference in the future! (NoCheese, would you mind linking my streak to this write-up whenever you get round to another update? Thanks in advance!)

Current Streak

Here I'll provide details & analyses for each of the members. I won't be explaining the EV spreads too much, though, since turskain already did that here.

Dragonite (M) @ Lum Berry
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Multiscale
31/31/31/x/31/31
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Roost
52 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpD / 188 Spe

With a superb mix of power, bulk, reliable recovery and good typing, Dragonite ranks among the best setup sweepers to use in the Maison. He hits like a truck after a couple DD boosts, with Lum Berry providing reassurance against all sorts of status running rampant. It's not uncommon for him to single-handedly destroy teams in as few as 4 turns! Besides recovering half of your HP, Roost paired with Multiscale acts as an effective PP-stalling tactic, granting more chances to setup. Alongside Aegislash, the fairly common EdgeQuake combo can also be pivoted around. While Dragonite suffers from 4MS to an extent (options like Extreme Speed, Fire Punch etc. have their merits), I believe this set combined with the EV spread gives him the most mileage.

Aegislash (M) @ Leftovers
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Stance Change
31/31/31/x/31/31
- King's Shield
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Sacred Sword
252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe

Oh boy, Aegislash does not disappoint. With a unique ability and move that grants him amazing defensive & offensive presence, not to mention great offensive/defensive typing, this mighty sword can find many opportunities to setup. STAB/Fighting coverage + SD & King's Shield is standard fare, but the reason I'm still raving about Aegislash is that he works so damn well. Attack-lowering effect? Check. Continuous recovery with Leftovers? Check. Amazing defense/power at the click of a move? Check. Priority STAB & move that bypasses evasion & defense boosts? Check and check. It was nice knowing you, Curse Umbreon. Being a Toxic absorber is also nice.

Greninja (M) @ Choice Specs
Nature: Timid
Ability: Protean
31/x/31/31/31/31
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
- Dark Pulse
- Scald
92 HP / 12 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 204 Spe

Perhaps more unconventional than the other two, but by no means less effective, Greninja proves why he is a major force to be reckoned with. With excellent coverage and power backed up by Protean, this frog is designed to pivot into mons threatening Dragonite & Aegislash, and take them out quickly without fuss. The EV spread + Choice Specs may appear odd at first glance, but this variation essentially retains the same power as a LO Greninja with added bulk, while sacrificing a little Speed. The select few threats he's outsped by are handled with Aegislash, anyway. With the absence of recoil alongside the investment in bulk, Greninja can take on would-be threats such as Vaporeon4 & Weavile4. You'd also be surprised how unproblematic being Choice-locked is the majority of the time, which goes to show the impressive defensive synergy offered by this lineup. Provided you play smartly, of course.


In summary, the general strategy of this team is to find as many setup opportunities as possible with minimal risk. The way you do that is switch around to get yourself into a more favourable situation. Or, y'know, clicking DD from the get-go also works sometimes.


I also decided to write up a compendium of sorts regarding potential threats/setup opportunities in the lead scenario, to complement turskain's original list. I therefore tried to avoid repeating situations previously covered.

A-Z

Absol4: DD then EQ, pray for no BrightPowder hax.
Accelgor4: Switch to Aegi, SD once then Shadow Sneak (otherwise you’ll get stuck in an Encore cycle).
Aggron4: Switch to Greninja, Scald it. Worst-case scenario is Aggron has Sturdy, gets burned & KOs you with Metal Burst. Otherwise, +1 Nite is worth it.
Avalugg: Switch to Greninja, Grass Knot KO (if it’s Sturdy, it’ll only go for EQ/Stone Edge on a Water-type Greninja).
Blaziken4: Speed Boost – DD into Outrage. Blaze – Get to +2 or more for EQ KO. Just be mindful of your health and the fact that Blaziken will try to match your speed with Flame Charge.
Blissey4: DD into Outrage. Good chance Blissey will use one or both of the first 2 turns to Toxic.
Braviary4: Switch to Aegi, setup to +6 while stalling out Tailwind with King’s Shield.
Carracosta4: Switch-stall Rock Slide/EQ PP.
Charizard4: DD into Outrage.
Chesnaught4: Switch-stall Stone Edge/EQ PP. Nite can stall with Roost ‘kinda’ safely on his own, but crits are a thing so I wouldn’t recommend it.
Clawitzer4: Switch to Aegi, setup.
Cofagrigus4: Switch to Greninja, Dark Pulse 2HKO.
Cradily4: Easy +6 setup with Aegi, Sacred Sword KO.
Drapion4: +1 EQ KOs, keep Roosting until Drapion SD’s so you end up with a full-health Nite.
Dugtrio4: Easy +6 setup with Aegi, just King’s Shield every time it goes for Dig.
Dusknoir4: Switch to Aegi and setup, its Shadow Sneaks do pitiful damage after a King’s Shield or two. Just be wary of Destiny Bond under Trick Room shenanigans.
Eelektross4: Get to +2 or more then Outrage, you can usually remain at full health by Roosting on a Protect.
Electivire4: DD into Outrage.
Electrode4: DD into EQ. Bad luck if it Taunts first turn.
Entei1/2: Straight EQ.
Exploud4 (Scrappy): ...I’m a little stumped on this one. Last time I encountered it I switched to Aegi only to cop a Focus Blast to the face, instead of Icy Wind. Maybe just stay in with Nite & Outrage, I guess??
Ferrothorn4: Switch to Aegi, +6 Sacred Sword KO.
Forretress4: Switch to Aegi, setup.
Gengar4: Switch Aegi in on Sludge Bomb/Destiny Bond, switch Greninja in on Shadow Ball, Dark Pulse KO. Having a relatively healthy Greninja’s better than a potential non full-health Nite locked into Outrage.
Gigalith4: Switch to Greninja, Grass Knot.
Gliscor4: Switch to Aegi, Sacred Sword to break Sash, back to Nite so you can setup to +6 while Roosting off damage.
Goodra4: Straight Outrage. Best not to risk a Blizzard crit, since Greninja can’t reliably come out on top afterwards (Thunder’s para chance).
Gothitelle4: Shadow Tag – DD into Outrage. Else – Switch to Greninja, Dark Pulse. I’ve sometimes swept the rest of the team with +1 DP after shaking off Flatter’s confusion.
Gourgeist4: DD, Roost off the damage if it Rock Slides. If it Trick-or-Treats then Shadow Forces, I’m afraid you’ll just have to take a hit while Outraging at +3.
Granbull4: Switch Aegi in on Ice Fang/Play Rough, King’s Shield on Crunch, switch Greninja in then Ice Beam (should be fine after 2 rounds of LO recoil).
Haxorus4: Straight Outrage.
Kangaskhan4: Easy Aegi setup.
Landorus1/2: Switch to Greninja, Ice Beam.
Lapras4: Switch to Aegi to avoid a potential Body Slam. If it already used Perish Song, switch to Greninja and take it out with Grass Knot.
Lickilicky4: Switch-stall between Nite & Aegi to drain EQ PP, + dodge a potential Explosion.
Lilligant4: Switch to Greninja, Ice Beam KO.
Luxray4: Intimidate – Switch to Aegi, I’d advise only SD’ing once into Sacred Sword. You’re gonna get T-Waved no matter what, but you can always King’s Shield in consequent turns to aid recovery.
Magnezone4: Straight EQ.
Metagross4: Switch to Greninja on Trick, giving Metagross the Specs. Switch back out to Nite on EQ/Protect, setup for free.
Milotic4: Switch to Greninja, Grass Knot, switch to Aegi as it Rests, setup. Not too worrisome since Milotic has to rely on Sleep Talk turns, Surf doesn’t do that much anyway. You can always keep it alive but deal enough damage to force it to Rest again so you get more recovery.
Muk4: Switch to Aegi, setup. Much like Dusknoir, Muk’s Shadow Sneaks are nothing to worry about.
Registeel1/2: Straight EQ. 1 is setup fodder as you can easily force it to Rest. If it’s 2, EQ again so as not to risk flinch shenanigans.
Reuniclus4: Switch in Greninja on Trick/Psychic. If Trick, Aegi can setup for free as it goes for Focus Blast. If Psychic, you’ll still get 1 free setup turn, you’ll just lose your Lefties and take a little Psychic damage afterward.
Samurott4: Switch to Greninja, Grass Knot KO.
Scrafty4: Outrage after +2 is a fairly safe bet, just watch out for boosted Paybacks if Multiscale is broken.
Seismitoad4: Switch in Aegi on Poison Jab, setup for free while King’s Shielding on Dig.
Serperior4: Contrary – DD into Outrage. Otherwise, you can easily get to +6 while remaining healthy.
Shiftry4: Get to +6 while stalling out Sucker Punch PP. You can easily come out with a full-health Nite, too.
Slaking4: Switch in Aegi on Gunk Shot, King’s Shield on every non-Truant turn, get to +6.
Slurpuff4: Switch in Aegi on Dazzling Gleam, switch in Greninja on Flamethrower, Ice Beam twice. Barring a high-roll Dazzling Gleam crit, Greninja should make it through.
Talonflame4: DD into Outrage.
Terrakion1/2: Switch to Aegi, King’s Shield. If 1, switch-stall EQ/Stone Edge PP. If 2, setup with Aegi.
Torterra4: Switch to Greninja, Ice Beam KO.
Ursaring4: Switch-stall EQ PP, setup with Aegi. You don’t wanna get screwed over by Quick Claw.
Victreebel4: Switch in Aegi on Sludge Bomb, free +6 since you can King’s Shield on Solar Beam.
Volcarona4: Get to +2 or more, Outrage. I usually go for +3 since Volc tries to boost alongside, leaving me at full health.
Wailord4: DD into Outrage.
Zapdos2: DD into Outrage. It’s not worth trying to boost further/stay at full health cause BrightPowder/Double Team is a thing.

Oops. Probably went a little overboard there, oh well. But I hope I've provided some knowledge & insight behind my thought processes in utilizing this team to its fullest potential. After all, it was turskain's write-up that first got me interested; so in turn, this isn't just for my reference, but for anyone else willing to give the squad a go. That's the important thing, so I hope I've done it enough justice. Cheers!

 

[Ewgrooss]

^ in all fairness, Ferrothorn beats Tyrantrum pretty handily with Intimidate taken into account (Gyro Ball is a guaranteed 2HKO even with no investment whereas -1 Head Smash is like a 4HKO with his spread), if you're looking for an actual counter to that thing Ferrothorn is probably the best you're gonna get after Aegislash / Garchomp as far as Maison-viable Pokemon go. And the typing synergy with Gyarados is legit sweet.



Gyarados + Ferrothorn works typing synergy wise (as seen by Carl's 354 streak with Gyara / Ferro / Gliscor), but on the other hand Gyarados + Dragonite doesn't seem too good because they have no defensive or offensive synergy to speak of (especially Rock is big with how easily Ferrothorn is gonna get worn down), and Dragonite also does little to cover Gyarados + Ferrothorn's weaknesses and some more specific Pokemon that the combo is weak to, like Togekiss, Slurpuff, and Barbaracle.

Take what I'm saying with several grains of salt because I haven't played singles in like five months, but overall I get the feeling that this team lacks offensive presence / power on the backups and will be too easily overwhelmed. If the lead is unfavorable for Gyarados, this team won't sweep, and while Dragonite / Ferrothorn can probably defeat one of the types you want them to without much trouble, they're 100% gonna get worn down in the process because they're slow + not too powerful, meaning the opponent will likely break through your team if they bring multiple foes you rely on Dragonite or Ferrothorn to handle. In theory, that seems like bulky Dragonite's main problem, how it has trouble killing foes in a format where the opponent doesn't switch, which is especially bad if the foe can set up on it. Looking at the leaderboard, pretty much every goodstuff team in the top 10 runs multiple setup Pokemon, the lone exception being my Greninja / Scizor / Gliscor (of which Greninja generally is not gonna get worn down because it's not supposed to take any hits in the first place and Gliscor is, well, Gliscor and kind of counts as a setup Pokemon anyway), so that kind of suggests already that the lack of sheer potential power is gonna be an issue.

If you're open to changing your Pokemon, a suggestion might be swapping out Dragonite for Garchomp to better synergise with Gyarados. Setwise, I like SubSD, but since that leaves you boned even harder by Togekiss, I'd rather go with Iron Head over Sub. For Gyarados, it might be an option use the same spread I did (84 HP / 212 Atk / 36 Def / 4 SpD / 172 Spe), which is tailormade to always defeat Garchomp4 (though i don't want to figure out all scenarios vs Ferrothorn right now, it might be less bad in practice to face than I feel it is right now). And on Ferrothorn, Protect's intended purposes seem too nonspecific and situational to me--how about running Thunder Wave instead to slow down Pokemon like Latios?

In all fairness, aside from Electric / Rock, Garchomp still isn't super at patching up the holes in Gyarados + Ferrothorn (e.g. Noivern, Togekiss), but I don't want to just recommend Gliscor (which Gyarados + Ferrothorn really really wants) and it should still work reasonably well :/

Wow thank you so much for the feedback. Tons of great ideas in there. Finding that third leg for Gyarados + Ferrothorn is proving a bit difficult. I agree Gliscor is probably the best answer, but i wanted to try and fit in bulky Dragonite. Im only at around 40 wins so far and havent found any glaring weaknesses yet. Garchomp sounds like a possible solution as it walls off electric types, but Ive found Ferrothorn can handle them without much problem. Manectric gave me a bit of a problem, but I found a pivot switch into Ferrothorn on the electric attack, then out into Dragonite for the Overheat works fairly well since the -2 essentially renders it useless, and allows Dragonite to heal up and finish it off. I liked Dragonite as an easy switch to cover Grass, Bug, and Fighting, which is why I thought he would work better than Garchomp originally. Another option I was thinking about was a standard calm mind Latias set, but that still doesnt cover the fairy or bug weakness. I think youre right about thunder wave for Ferrothorn, Protect / Leech Seed is usually overkill, and Ive found that crippling some threats would prove helpful.I need to find the time to give this team a trial run and start highlighting some of the problem sets posed by the legendaries, but work and life have taken over for now.

 

[Rody]

This is more a general battle tower/maison question but I figured this might be the right place to ask it..

If if were to face this Garchomp:

Garchomp
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Fire Fang

and my pokemon is Starmie, will the AI always use the Super Effective move, and thus use Crunch, or will the AI use the move that does the most damage (Outrage).
Does anyone have any experience with a scenario like this?

 

[Smuckem]

So I used turskain's damage calcs and came up with:

252+ Atk Garchomp Crunch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Starmie: 116-138 (85.2 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Starmie: 129-153 (94.8 - 112.5%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

In strict terms of math, the AI should virtually always pick Outrage. Every once in a while, it will do something different just because (I've had Maisonmons use resisted attacks on my 'mons when they have better options plenty of times, though me being a Triples guy could probably mean the AI's thinking "double- or triple-team one guy and let the damage pile up").
This assumes your standard special attacker Starmie with no real defensive investment, your build might vary of course.

Oh yeah, as the Maison article states:

Though the AI does account for weaknesses and resistances, it will choose to go for the KO over a super effective hit that is not a guaranteed KO. When multiple moves may KO or none of them will, the AI typically chooses its strongest move, adjusted for weaknesses and resistances, although there is some variation when several moves are close in effective power.

There is a little bit of overlap of terms of damage output for the two moves, so the ratio of Outrage:Crunch usage would be (my guess) roughly 80:20.

 

[JT Hitman]

Woo! Halfway to 1K now.

Team changes

Slowbro (F) @ Rindo Berry [Serenity]
Ability: Oblivious
Nature: Sassy
IVs: 31/2/31/31/31/0
EVs: 252 HP / 52 DEF / 204 SP. DEF
-Trick Room
-Scald
-Heal Pulse
-Sunny Day

I took Repto's advice so I won't have to worry about Serperior4 anymore. No complaints yet.

Clawitzer (M) @ Life Orb [Cheddar Bay]
Ability: Mega Launcher
Nature: Quiet
IVs: 31/31/26/31/31/0
EVs: 252 SP. ATK / 252 HP / 4 DEF
-Water Pulse
-Dark Pulse
-Aura Sphere
-Ice Beam

Heh. Not much of a change, but I managed to acquire one of these bad boys and had to replace the other one immediately. Easily one of the coolest looking shinies there is.

Cresselia (F) @ Mental Herb [Moon River]
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Relaxed
IVs: 31/26/14/31/31/2
EVs: 252 HP / 180 DEF / 76 SP. DEF
-Trick Room
-Psyshock
-Moonblast
-Moonlight

Finally managed to catch one of my own. Yeah, I said Cress was too fast to function as the lead Trick Roomer for this team, but as the backup setter she's great. She replaced Dusclops mainly because I really wanted an Earthquake/Fissure immunity somewhere even if she can't tank hits quite as well as 'Clops can. Moonlight makes up for that somewhat.

HJEW-WWWW-WW4H-L2RV - #500
When everything goes smoothly

D5CG-WWWW-WW4H-L3VG - #487
When everything goes horribly wrong

STGW-WWWW-WW4H-7N6Y - #427
YO DAWG I HERD U LIKE TRICK ROOM

 

[RockRox93]

I tried again, after a long time, Super Doubles. I decided to use Scizor and I've built a team around it. Some members were in the boxes for a while so they're not optimal and some changes could be made to them.
I lost at battle 55 (I'm not very good, my record was 60) but this time I managed to arrive at the Chatelain with almost no difficulties, so I'd like to try again with the same team.

The team

Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Swords Dance
- Protect

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Rain Dish
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Scald
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam

Arcanine @ Expert Belt
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Protect

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Overgrow / Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 22 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Leech Seed
- Protect

So, some explanations: I really wanted to use Scizor, and liked that Swords Dance set. The main problem was that Scizor alone could not setup easily, and there was also its 4x Fire weakness.
To help Scizor, I choose Ludicolo, it has Fake Out support and can easily KO some threat that have Fire moves while Scizor protects. With Assault Vest it can take some special hits, but it's a bit frail on the physical side.
Usually Ludicolo and Scizor out on the first turn can do a lot and even win the entire match.

What if Ludicolo goes down or can't KO Scizor's threats? Scizor is always targeted by a Fire move... Well, that's Arcanine's job, with Flash Fire it can take Fire attack forever, Flare Blitz does a lot of damages and Extreme Speed can take out opponents with low health. Arcanine's spread it's strange, i think I took that from smogon BW analysis and put Protect instead of Close Combat/ Morning Sun because was one of the first Pokémon I bred in XY and didn't have access to some Egg Moves.

Last but not least, Mega-Venusaur. There's really not a reason why it's the last member, I wanted to try it in the Maison and was not bad, it can take lots of hits and stall a bit in difficult situations with Giga Drain / Leech Seed / Protect.

Some things that I'd like to change:

- Arcanine EVs spread, maybe there's something more useful or tailored for the Maison? Also Flash Fire helped me a lot, but Intimidate is also good. Changing that can make Scizor Fire weakness worse (but Arcanine can still take Fire hits instead of Scizor) but can help other members if the opponent are intimidated. Also about the item: Arcanine hold Expert Belt because I didn't want it to hold a Choice Band and Life Orb was already taken. There's something else better?

- Ludicolo has Rain Dish, because while I was breeding I didn't care a lot about its ability, since i wasn't planning to use it in a Rain team. Some opponents use Rain Dance, so there are a few situations were Ludicolo's ability can make the difference.

- Mega-Venusaur was put there as a filler, maybe there's something else that could take its place and have a better sinergy with the team?

Apart from that, do you guys have some advices regarding the team or even in general? I always get around 50/60 battles but can't seem to get better than that...

 

[Lumari]

I tried again, after a long time, Super Doubles. I decided to use Scizor and I've built a team around it. Some members were in the boxes for a while so they're not optimal and some changes could be made to them.
I lost at battle 55 (I'm not very good, my record was 60) but this time I managed to arrive at the Chatelain with almost no difficulties, so I'd like to try again with the same team.

The team

Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Swords Dance
- Protect

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Rain Dish
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Scald
- Grass Knot
- Ice Beam

Arcanine @ Expert Belt
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Protect

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Overgrow / Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 22 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Leech Seed
- Protect

So, some explanations: I really wanted to use Scizor, and liked that Swords Dance set. The main problem was that Scizor alone could not setup easily, and there was also its 4x Fire weakness.
To help Scizor, I choose Ludicolo, it has Fake Out support and can easily KO some threat that have Fire moves while Scizor protects. With Assault Vest it can take some special hits, but it's a bit frail on the physical side.
Usually Ludicolo and Scizor out on the first turn can do a lot and even win the entire match.

What if Ludicolo goes down or can't KO Scizor's threats? Scizor is always targeted by a Fire move... Well, that's Arcanine's job, with Flash Fire it can take Fire attack forever, Flare Blitz does a lot of damages and Extreme Speed can take out opponents with low health. Arcanine's spread it's strange, i think I took that from smogon BW analysis and put Protect instead of Close Combat/ Morning Sun because was one of the first Pokémon I bred in XY and didn't have access to some Egg Moves.

Last but not least, Mega-Venusaur. There's really not a reason why it's the last member, I wanted to try it in the Maison and was not bad, it can take lots of hits and stall a bit in difficult situations with Giga Drain / Leech Seed / Protect.

Some things that I'd like to change:

- Arcanine EVs spread, maybe there's something more useful or tailored for the Maison? Also Flash Fire helped me a lot, but Intimidate is also good. Changing that can make Scizor Fire weakness worse (but Arcanine can still take Fire hits instead of Scizor) but can help other members if the opponent are intimidated. Also about the item: Arcanine hold Expert Belt because I didn't want it to hold a Choice Band and Life Orb was already taken. There's something else better?

- Ludicolo has Rain Dish, because while I was breeding I didn't care a lot about its ability, since i wasn't planning to use it in a Rain team. Some opponents use Rain Dance, so there are a few situations were Ludicolo's ability can make the difference.

- Mega-Venusaur was put there as a filler, maybe there's something else that could take its place and have a better sinergy with the team?

Apart from that, do you guys have some advices regarding the team or even in general? I always get around 50/60 battles but can't seem to get better than that...

You're on the right track. I like how you picked your leads so that one of them can actually support the other as well as remove its counters rather than just throw two strong mons together--also good to see that you picked your third mon to patch up the largest weakness of your leads. That said, it does fall a bit flat when you're choosing your fourth mon--that one should be patching up threats your initial three are still shaky against. Scizor / Ludicolo / Arcanine looks pretty soft against strong Flying-types, weak to Gyarados, and troubled by Electrics--you could use Thundurus-T (the standard bulky Specs set that turskain (on one of his Triples teams) and I used, with TBolt / HP Flying / GK / Volt Switch) to patch up those weaknesses pretty well.

...which unfortunately ends up leaving you with a pretty big weakness to Rock (Scizor and Ludicolo can do some things though, and Thundurus should run GK anyway and Thunderbolt hurts too, but yeah). I feel Thundurus would work decently with Scizor / Ludicolo for covering Flying-types and Gyarados alone, but I can't shake the feeling that there's a better option over Arcanine here (which doesn't seem to offer anything essential apart from a Fire immunity anyways) and the only option that really comes to mind right now is Wide Guard Swampert (which can also actually beat the Fire-types it's switching in on and seems to have pretty good synergy with Thundurus-T).

Additionally, I'm not a great fan of Scizor as a lead--I've used it a fair bit in doubles, and I've found it works phenomenally well as a backup. It's a great cleaner with LO Bullet Punch, but it really needs its foes weakened so that it can snipe them to be at its best. Which naturally is not gonna happen if you're using it as a lead; from the looks of it it'd rely a little too much on Swords Dance, which you're not gonna be able to set up consistently in Doubles. And a couple miscellaneous things: it's extremely minor, but Swift Swim would be better on Ludicolo for giving you a better matchup against opposing rain teams. And if you are gonna consult the smogdex for maison doubles sets, it's better to look at the doubles and VGC tabs.

I honestly don't have _that_ much faith in a lead Scizor / Ludicolo pairing (or lead Scizor in general I should say), but you're on the right track, and it's good to see you try thinking about how your team... can work as a team, so gl on your runs :0

 

[RockRox93]

CUT

As I said in my precedent post, the fourth team member was pretty random, so it's good to hear some suggestion, I'll surely try Thundurus-T with the set you used.
I already changed Ludicolo ability in Swift Swim with an ability capsule (why didn't I think of that before?) and I'm thinking of swapping Arcanine for Heatran (which does the same and even better, it's not weak to rock and can hold an Air Ballon to avoid ground weakness for a while) or even Rotom-H (Levitate, some backup electric moves, but it's also weak to Rock like Arcanine). Also never tried Swampert but I have one already bred so I could try that, which seems fun!

Thank you for your support and suggestions!

 

[Eppie]

Hello Battle Maison.

After a break from Pokémon for roughly 6 months after reaching 4,000 wins with Dusclops/Aron/Kangaskhan/Conkeldurr I decided to play some Maison again with a non Trick Room team.

I am currently at 200 wins.
Battle #200: ANVW-WWWW-WW4Y-FJ68

Vs.

Greninja @ Focus Sash
Nature: Timid
Ability: Protean
IVs: 31/00/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6 HP/252 Sp.Atk/252 Speed
Lv. 50 stats: 148/90/87/155/91/191
Mat Block - Ice Beam - Dark Pulse - Grass Knot

Standard Greninja. Max speed because I prefer the coinflip over the knowledge of not outspeeding enemy Greninja.

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Scrappy (Parental Bond)
IVs: 31/31/31/00/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk/6 Sp.Def/252 Speed
Lv. 50 stats: 180/194/120/58/121/152
Fake Out - Double-Edge - Power-Up Punch - Sucker Punch

PuP Kangaskhan. In an earlier version I ran Jolly nature but the loss of power was notable. After one or two PuP's her power is insane. 6 Sp.Def EVs to ensure Download boosts Attack.

Staraptor @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Reckless
IVs: 31/31/31/00/31/31
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Speed
Lv. 50 stats: 161/172/90/49/80/167
Brave Bird - Double-Edge - Close Combat - U-Turn

Reckless Staraptor. Only outsped by two or three Pokémon. Staraptor's base Attack isn't that great but the combination of speed and coverage made this a fitting and refreshing member for the team. Speed could be dropped tot 161 for slightly more bulk while losing the coinflip with Entei.

Scizor @ Life Orb
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Technician
IVs: 31/31/31/00/31/31
EVs: 172 HP/252 Atk/4 Def/76 Sp.Def/6 Speed
Lv. 50 stats: 167/200/121/54/110/86
Bullet Punch - Bug Bite - Knock Off - Superpower

Kinda standard Scizor. Choice Band would be better but having a choiced back up isn't all that great when things don't go the way you want them to go. 4 speed EVs gives the jump on a few important Pokémon: Emboar, Flareon, Gothitelle, Umbreon and Walrein.

I mentioned Sylveon in an earlier post which was part of the first version of this team (Greninja/Jolly Kangaskhan/Staraptor/Sylveon). While Sylveon is a very awesome Pokémon I felt the lack of priority back up wasn't ideal.

 

[Yosher]

I've got an idea for a Super Singles team (it could probably be used in doubles too with some adjustments) and before I developed it too much I thought I might post here to see what other, more experienced Maison battlers think.
The basic idea is entry-hazard abuse, and would look something like this:

My lead would be the entry hazard setter, perhaps additionally being a spinner or slow Baton Pass/Volt Switch/U-Turner for a safe switch-in for the next pokemon. (Forretress maybe?)
Following up would be a bulky phazer either with Dragon Tail/Circle Throw or Whirlwind/Roar and HP recovery in some form, either passive (e.g. Leftovers) or instantaneous (e.g. Recover). It could possibly have a defensive stat boosting move as well, like Calm Mind or Iron Defense. Substitute would be pretty good too.
The third pokemon would either be a backup phazer, a sweeper (probably mixed) or a combination of the two.

Aside from what's above, some other options I could think of were putting on the phazer/s moves like Will-O-Wisp, Toxic, regular attacks, resttalk and weather depending on my team's types and abilities.
What I really want to know is if this kind of team would be viable for the Battle Maison and what pokemon you would recommend for it.

Thanks for any feedback! :)

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

Looks like the battle facilities will be getting a new Sheer Cold user in the form of (spoilers expunged). Looking forward to it.

 

[GG Unit]

I've got an idea for a Super Singles team (it could probably be used in doubles too with some adjustments) and before I developed it too much I thought I might post here to see what other, more experienced Maison battlers think.
The basic idea is entry-hazard abuse, and would look something like this:

My lead would be the entry hazard setter, perhaps additionally being a spinner or slow Baton Pass/Volt Switch/U-Turner for a safe switch-in for the next pokemon. (Forretress maybe?)
Following up would be a bulky phazer either with Dragon Tail/Circle Throw or Whirlwind/Roar and HP recovery in some form, either passive (e.g. Leftovers) or instantaneous (e.g. Recover). It could possibly have a defensive stat boosting move as well, like Calm Mind or Iron Defense. Substitute would be pretty good too.
The third pokemon would either be a backup phazer, a sweeper (probably mixed) or a combination of the two.

Aside from what's above, some other options I could think of were putting on the phazer/s moves like Will-O-Wisp, Toxic, regular attacks, resttalk and weather depending on my team's types and abilities.
What I really want to know is if this kind of team would be viable for the Battle Maison and what pokemon you would recommend for it.

Thanks for any feedback! :)

Seems like too much of a deliberate handicap; the point of Singles is that the vast majority of the time you're facing some low-tier Pokemon that will allow you to set up as much as you'd like. Phazing completely forfeits that advantage. Not to mention that deliberately moving last allows OHKO users to tee off on you.

Pretend you had the option of entering Singles battles with only 2 Pokemon but SR + 2 layers of Spikes on the opponent's side of the field (aka you had a magical perfect suicide Spiker lead that could get hazards up against Espeon, never got outsped/Quick Clawed and flinched/frozen/paralyzed/slept or just straight up KOed before it could move, and never allowed opposing leads to set up and sweep your team). Even if that were guaranteed, would you go into battle with 2 phazers knowing that if you use Roar/Whirlwind, stuff like Magic Bounce, Magic Guard, Suction Cups, and Soundproof can screw you over and Dragon Tail/Circle Throw means you can't touch Fairies or Ghosts (or anything else 10 percent of the time)? With only 12 moveslots and 3 Pokemon available in Singles, the cost of designating one of your team members as a sacrificial pawn is so steep that it's only worth it if a teammate is able to maximally boost its stats as a direct result of the sacrifice.

 

[Codraroll]

Looks like the battle facilities will be getting a new Sheer Cold user in the form of (spoilers expunged). Looking forward to it.

New gen, new battle facility, new thread (which we haven't made yet). Please keep all Sun & Moon discussion to the appropriate sub-forum, for spoilers' sake.

 

[Yosher]

Seems like too much of a deliberate handicap; the point of Singles is that the vast majority of the time you're facing some low-tier Pokemon that will allow you to set up as much as you'd like. Phazing completely forfeits that advantage. Not to mention that deliberately moving last allows OHKO users to tee off on you.

Pretend you had the option of entering Singles battles with only 2 Pokemon but SR + 2 layers of Spikes on the opponent's side of the field (aka you had a magical perfect suicide Spiker lead that could get hazards up against Espeon, never got outsped/Quick Clawed and flinched/frozen/paralyzed/slept or just straight up KOed before it could move, and never allowed opposing leads to set up and sweep your team). Even if that were guaranteed, would you go into battle with 2 phazers knowing that if you use Roar/Whirlwind, stuff like Magic Bounce, Magic Guard, Suction Cups, and Soundproof can screw you over and Dragon Tail/Circle Throw means you can't touch Fairies or Ghosts (or anything else 10 percent of the time)? With only 12 moveslots and 3 Pokemon available in Singles, the cost of designating one of your team members as a sacrificial pawn is so steep that it's only worth it if a teammate is able to maximally boost its stats as a direct result of the sacrifice.

Hey, thanks for the feedback. I didn't realise just how many things I had forgotten. Perhaps some overlapping of their roles would make it more viable? What I mean is if they all were able to set entry hazards and phaze, I wouldn't have to make one my "sacrificial pawn," as you put it. Or maybe my lead could double as an evasion baton-passer with Double Team/Minimize?

As for what you said about all those abilities, Mold Breaker would sort them for both setting the entry hazards and phazing with Roar/Whirlwind (apart for Magic Guard, which I could theoretically have a counter attack specifically for those Pokemon that have it). If I were to go with Circle Throw, I could still hit Ghosts with Scrappy or Odor Sleuth/Foresight and up the accuracy to 100% with a Zoom Lens, since the Pokemon is always going to be going last whenever it uses Circle Throw.

I feel like the options I've suggested cover what you've pointed out, though I'm beginning to think this might be better in a doubles format, since I'd have more moveslots and an extra Pokemon to work with.

 

[GG Unit]

Hey, thanks for the feedback. I didn't realise just how many things I had forgotten. Perhaps some overlapping of their roles would make it more viable? What I mean is if they all were able to set entry hazards and phaze, I wouldn't have to make one my "sacrificial pawn," as you put it. Or maybe my lead could double as an evasion baton-passer with Double Team/Minimize?

So after taking 5 turns to set hazards and phaze you get to do less than 50% to an average Pokemon. Meanwhile CB Tyrantrum used Head Smash 5 times, or you gave QC Donphan 5 chances to use Fissure, or Tornadus got 5 chances to hit and confuse with Hurricane, or hundreds of other bad things could have happened.

 

[PrivateJoker]

The problem with hazard based teams is that they don't kill fast enough. Enemies in the maison have all manner of shenanigans they will throw at you, and even if you can beat them 90% of the time, you're still gonna lose 10-20 battles in. Hazards work in competitive play because it's easier to spend a turn setting up stealth rock to secure more OHKOs than it is to spend 6 turns maxing out your setup sweeper. In the maison, you can actually get access to those maxed out setups, which would be impossible to do in competitive play. And you need them, because the maison isn't best 2/3.

 

[Yosher]

So after taking 5 turns to set hazards and phaze you get to do less than 50% to an average Pokemon. Meanwhile CB Tyrantrum used Head Smash 5 times, or you gave QC Donphan 5 chances to use Fissure, or Tornadus got 5 chances to hit and confuse with Hurricane, or hundreds of other bad things could have happened.

The problem with hazard based teams is that they don't kill fast enough. Enemies in the maison have all manner of shenanigans they will throw at you, and even if you can beat them 90% of the time, you're still gonna lose 10-20 battles in. Hazards work in competitive play because it's easier to spend a turn setting up stealth rock to secure more OHKOs than it is to spend 6 turns maxing out your setup sweeper. In the maison, you can actually get access to those maxed out setups, which would be impossible to do in competitive play. And you need them, because the maison isn't best 2/3.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it. I guess this wasn't as good an idea as I thought. I think I'll stick to my triples team.

 

[Ojo46]

Hey guys. I need help in devising a Cresselia set. I'm wanting to try her out on Singles and see how it goes. I know I'm definitely going to have Moonlight on her with Leftovers with a Bold nature, but I'm on the rest. I'm thinking Calm Mind as one possible move, with maybe Psychic, Moonblast, Substitute or Toxic as the last move. And for EVs 252 Def/252 SpD or 252 HP/252 Def?

 

[Psycho Cut]

Hi All,

I'm trying to come up with a Rotations Team built around Perish Song, having heard it was quite a powerful move to use in Rotations. However, after some initial testing I realised the mechanics didn't quite work as I thought they would and so now I'm not so sure where this perceived strength comes from.

Firstly, as only the active pokemon is "hit" by Perish Song, how do you get around having to predict whether or not the opponent will rotate to a non-Perished pokemon, meaning you'd want to use Perish Song, or keep a Perished Pokemon in, meaning you'd want to use a different move.

The initial idea was to "kill something (probably using destiny bond) so the opponent can't switch" and then stall out Perish Song. The other idea I also had was to use Mega Gengar to both use perish song and trap opposing Pokemon from switching out. However, I realised this would require a lot of prediction, as you'd need to rotate Mega Gengar to the active position at just the right time, and doesn't stop the opponent simply rotating out. Sure, that gets you a guaranteed Perish Song, but Mega Gengar's clock is literally ticking at this point.

I had the idea of stalling it almost indefinitely with a Lvl 25 Meoswtic with Protect / Substitute / Recycle / Filler and a Focus Sash, in conjuction with a Wish Passer (who can also keep Gengar healthy).

However, that doesn't get me round the problem of being unable to guarantee a Perish Song on each Pokemon without stalling them out one by one. Although having just written that, maybe I could lead with Perish on Gengar, rotate between the combo of Meowstic / Wish Passer until the pokemon that has been perished is dead, then switch in Gengar again and repeat. Would that work? Assuming I've KO'd something before.

That would leave me with a team of (Mega Gengar) / Meowstic / Wish Passer / Sharpedo (speed boost + destiny bond)

Anyone help me with this conundrum?

EDIT: Wait, I don't need to make it that complicated... I could just use a Poison Heal Gliscor to stall out the turns, maybe baton passing it some speed boosts with a Blaziken, who also has Protect if it ever needs to stall. That would also remove the need for a Wish Passer (?) allowing me to use (Mega) Gengar / (Mega) Blaziken / Sharpedo / Gliscor.

 

[turskain]

The shark returns. Posting a streak of 1676 wins in Super Doubles.

Team Sharknado​

1. Set details

Sharpedo @ Focus Sash ** USP Fang
Ability: Speed Boost
Nature: Naughty
IVs: 0/31/0/x/0/31
EVs: 252 Atk, 4 SAtk, 252 Spe
-Waterfall
-Crunch
-Destiny Bond
-Protect

Bred for minimum defenses with an RNG'd Ditto.

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite ** Brainiac
Ability: Scrappy
Nature: Adamant (streak #2) / Jolly (streak #1)
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Spe
-Return
-Sucker Punch
-Drain Punch
-Fake Out

Regular Kangaskhan. Drain Punch and Return over Low Kick and Double-Edge to keep its HP as high as possible, so that the AI will prefer to target Sharpedo over it and for recovering HP after taking damage from spread moves.

Landorus @ Life Orb ** Hammerhead
Ability: Sheer Force
Nature: Timid
IVs: 31/2/30/31/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
-Earth Power
-Psychic
-Hidden Power [Ice]
-Protect

Psychic as the coverage move to hit Fighting-types super-effectively.

Aegislash @ Leftovers ** Repulsor
Ability: Stance Change
Nature: Quiet
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/0
EVs: 252 HP, 220 SAtk, 36 SDef
-Shadow Ball
-Flash Cannon
-Wide Guard
-King's Shield

2. Comments

I'd tried Sharpedo/Kangaskhan before, with underwhelming results. In addition to the streaks I've posted I also tried a Kangaskhan/Sharpedo/Thundurus-T/Aegislash team.

Fast forward a little, I ended up doing Dream Radar RNG and I had to think of what nature/spread I would want to use with Sheer Force. I mostly wanted to use it in Doubles and Triples, so it would definitely have Protect on the set - Earth Power and HP Ice seemed like mandatory options, leaving the third slot attack for either going mixed Rock Slide, or picking a coverage move like Psychic, Sludge Bomb or Grass Knot.

Rock Slide scared me off because of its low accuracy, so I dropped the option for mixed attacking and decided to go for Timid with a minimum Attack IV to minimize confusion self-hit damage. (The Attack IV being exactly 2 results in 70-base power HP Ice in GenV, while still having the same attack stat as 0 Attack at level 50.)

In the process of thinking of what kind of Landorus to RNG, I realized it could be a good partner with Sharpedo/Kangaskhan - with resistances to both Pokémon's weaknesses, and LO SF Psychic to deal with Fighting-types that threaten Kangaskhan.

I RNG'd the Landorus and first took for a spin in Subway Doubles using a Starmie/Toxicroak/Landorus/Scizor team. Subway's pretty different from the Maison and I didn't get far in it, making it to 190 wins over 3-4 attempts, the team didn't seem that good either. Landorus did seem very strong in Doubles, though.

Following the Subway trip, I transferred it to OR and filled out the Sharpedo line-up with the Wide Guard Aegislash I'd used with Raikou/Greninja/Salamence before, with the intent to protect Landorus from Blizzard and Wide Guard and generally aiding with the Sharpedo strategy matching up poorly against spread moves.

For the first attempt, I used a Jolly Kangaskhan, as I'd used with Sharpedo before since the Speed was definitely needed with previous iterations of the team. The attempt surprisingly reached 954 wins, with a loss to poor play and bad luck against Contrary Serperior3 evading attacks with BrightPowder and sweeping my team. It was a pretty frustrating loss and I really wanted to give Adamant Kangaskhan a shot, since the backline of the team was much stronger than that of previous iterations to the point that taking some worse lead match-ups with Sharpedo/Kangaskhan due to the lowered Speed would be a small enough disadvantage to allow a bit of extra power.

The second attempt ended up breaking 1000 and then cruising past my previous Doubles PB. I didn't expect to get so far since the first attempt felt quite lucky.

Regarding Sharpedo's nature, I originally picked Naughty without thinking much about it. During this streak I used the mass damage calculator to compare Lonely and Naughty; Lonely is OHKO'd by a handful of weaker Earthquakes that Naughty survives, while Naughty notably always falls to Greninja4 Hydro Pump. While Naughty does result in Download giving foes a Special Attack boost, a better match-up against Greninja4 by making it target Sharpedo with Hydro Pump most of the time seems like an advantage. Lonely resulted in Sharpedo being in OHKO range for a greater number of enemy sets, but the sets against which it guaranteed KOs for the AI didn't seem particularly threatening compared to Greninja4.

3. How to play

The team's basic idea is simple: use Protect on Sharpedo to bait attacks that would KO it to create space for Kangaskhan to move freely and punch holes in the enemy team, then attack with a +1 Speed Sharpedo and Sucker Punch to clean up one or both foes on Turn 2.

In practice the opening is a lot more versatile than this. Kangaskhan carries Fake Out; somewhat commonly, you'll encounter a match-ups that call for using Fake Out on one foe while attacking another with Sharpedo and purposefully allowing Sharpedo to drop to 1HP, then using Protect on Turn 2 while Kangaskhan finishes a foe off. With Fighting- and Electric-type immunities in the back-ups covering the leads' biggest weaknesses, there's also a lot of room for maneuvering the leads out of bad match-ups by switching - for example, against Mienshao4 it's an option to Protect on Sharpedo while switching Kangaskhan for Aegislash to make it hit itself with Hi-Jump Kick and put it into KO range for Sharpedo on the next turn.

Expending Sharpedo's Focus Sash is an acceptable sacrifice in most cases - dropping it to 1HP only increases its baiting ability, and gives it the option of using Destiny Bond to go for a KO. Using Fake Out on a dangerous enemy while attacking with Sharpedo and getting its Sash broken, then going from there on Turn 2 possibly with Destiny Bond use is an option when dealing with foes such as Walrein4, Trick Room setters, and others that require Fake Out control. There are times where it can backfire such as Hail, Sandstorm, priority attacks, and the like, but those are inherent weaknesses with excessively frail Sash holders such as Sharpedo.

While Sharpedo is the main lead gambit, switching it out immediately or after using Protect is also an option, especially if Landorus or Aegislash can come in on attacks they're immune to or take little damage from.

4. Shark repellant

Sharpedo depends heavily on Focus Sash to function optimally, and Hail/Sandstorm break its Sash. Sometimes, there is the option of switching to Landorus or Aegislash on Turn 1 and stalling out the weather while Sharpedo stays in the back. For Rasmus and Cobb specifically, Wide Guard Aegislash usually matches up well against them with Wide Guard blocking Blizzard and Earthquake, making fighting without Sharpedo not as dangerous.

Sharpedo also dislikes priority attacks. Weakened slower priority attackers can sometimes be handled with Sucker Punch.

Since both leads rely on moves that make contact, getting punished by contact abilities can't be avoided. Sharpedo fares particularly poorly if nailed by Static and losing its Speed advantage, on top of the chance to be fully paralyzed.

With a fully physical lead pair, Intimidate makes things unpleasant especially with Punk Guy Puck's Intimidate spam line-up. The back-ups do usually have switching ability, but especially double Intimidate puts the team at a really big disadvantage from the start and Puck runs dangerous sets such as CB Staraptor and LO Tauros that are not safe to switch into at all.

Walrein4 deserves special mention because of the team's softness to it. With Greninja teams, Mat Block and Protean Grass Knot go a long way towards shutting it down, but this team has no super-effective attacks against Walrein aside from Drain Punch which only matches Return's damage. On the bright side, Mega Kangaskhan Return and Landorus Earth Power do decent damage to it - but both attacks fall short of putting it into KO range for Sharpedo's Crunch. Aegislash is slower than Walrein, leaving it suspectible to being OHKO'd before it gets to move. Walrein should generally be taken out ASAP with Fake Out + Crunch + Drain Punch, if possible. I've had very good luck against Walrein in these two streaks, with few OHKO move connections even if Lax Incense activated and no close battles against it.

5. Battle videos

Y7RG-WWWW-WW4F-SCNN - #1677

The loss of the second streak. Brief write-up below.

HSWW-WWWW-WW4F-SCZS - #955

The loss of the first streak. Major misplays against Contrary Serperior3.

P32W-WWWW-WW4J-AYJE - #1283

A close battle against Cobalion3 with a lot of Swagger.

6. #1122 warstory

Turn 0

Punk Guy Puck sent out Salamence and Gyarados
I sent out Sharpedo and Kangaskhan
Salamence's Intimidate hits Sharpedo and Kangaskhan
Gyarados's Intimidate hits Sharpedo and Kangaskhan

vs.

-2

-2

Double Intimidate. With both leads at -2, I don't want to keep either of them in and go for a double switch. Since Sharpedo is more likely to get targeted, I switch Aegislash into its slot and Landorus in Kangaskhan's.



Turn 1

Switch out Sharpedo for Aegislash
Switch out Kangaskhan for Landorus-T
Salamence used Dragon Claw on Aegislash - Aegislash 85%
Gyarados used Dragon Dance

+1

vs.

90%

Gyarados, unknown set, grabs a boost. Salamence is revealed to be Salamence2. Both back-ups match up poorly against Gyarados, but I had to make the double switch to get rid of Attack drops to get started.

Gyarados could be a set with Speed EVs that outspeeds Landorus at +1, so I go for Protect to bait and scout.


Turn 2

Landorus used Protect
Gyarados used Aqua Tail on Landorus - Protect
Salamence used Dragon Dance - Salamence +1 Atk/Spe
Aegislash used Shadow Ball on Gyarados - 70% - Gyarados's SDef fell

70%, +1

+1
vs.

96%

Gyarados reveals its set as Gyarados4. The match-up is still bad and I don't want to risk Landorus dying, so I go for a switch to Sharpedo and use King's Shield on Aegislash in case of an EQ.



Turn 3

I switched out Landorus for Sharpedo
Aegislash used King's Shield
Salamence used Dragon Dance - Salamence +2 Atk/Spe
Gyarados used Dragon Dance - Gyarados +2 Atk/Spe

70%, +2

+2
vs.

100%

Outplayed by the AI. Now there's two foes at +2 outspeeding my whole team. Howewer, Sharpedo should be able to bait their attacks and outspeed them after a Speed Boost or two, so this is still a somewhat reasonable situation to be in.



Turn 4

Sharpedo used Protect
Salamence used Dragon Claw on Sharpedo - Sharpedo Protect
Gyarados used Earthquake - Sharpedo Protect, Aegislash 38%
Aegislash used Shadow Ball on Gyarados - Gyarados 15%

15% +2

+2
vs.

44%

+1

Sharpedo baits out Dragon Claw, and after Speed Boost it now outspeeds Gyarados. Salamence is still faster, but Sharpedo is Sashed and will be able to outspeed it after one more Speed Boost on the following turn. I go for Crunch to finish off Gyarados and use King's Shield on Aegislash just because.


Turn 5

Aegislash used King's Shield
Salamence used Dragon Claw on Sharpedo - Sharpedo 1%
Sharpedo used Crunch on Gyarados - Gyarados KO
Jensen sent out Arcanine to replace Gyarados

+2
vs.

50%

1%, +2

In retrospect, Aegislash resists all of Salamence2's moves and it should always target Sharpedo, so no need to use King's Shield, and I could've stayed in Blade form and attacked, with only Salamence choosing Rock Slide and getting a flinch on Sharpedo as a losing scenario.

Arcanine as the 3rd Pokémon is bad news, as it might carry Extreme Speed to take out Sharpedo. I go for Protect and attack with Aegislash - in case Aegislash dies, I have Fake Out in the back to outprioritize Arcanine on the next turn and enable Destiny Bond use.



Turn 6

Sharpedo Protect
Arcanine Extremespeed Sharpedo - Sharpedo Protect
Salamence used Dragon Claw on Sharpedo - Sharpedo Protect
Aegislash used Shadow Ball on Arcanine - activated Sitrus Berry - Arcanine 60%

60%

+2
vs.

56%

1%, +3

Aegislash doesn't get targeted, revealing Arcanine's set as Arcanine4. I don't want to switch anything into +2 Dragon Claw so Sharpedo has to go down - I picked Destiny Bond on Sharpedo on the off chance Arcanine would opt to target Aegislash instead of Sharpedo.

In case Extreme Speed finishes off Sharpedo, Salamence's Dragon Claw should be redirected into King's Shield to drop its attack - so Sharpedo's death should also put me in a better position.



Turn 7

Aegislash used King's Shield
Arcanine used Extremespeed on Sharpedo - Sharpedo KO
Salamence used Dragon Dance - Salamence +3

I sent out Kangaskhan

60%

+3
vs.

62%

The AI opts not to attack, going for Dragon Dance instead - probably because Sharpedo's Speed boosts had passed its Dragon Dances already. The possibility hadn't occurred to me at all, and now Salamence is outrageously boosted while Aegislash can't use King's Shield again. The situation is out of control.

Not wanting to sac Aegislash yet, I switch it out for Landorus expecting Flare Blitz. Fake Out from Mega Kangaskhan will control the runaway Salamence in the meanwhile.



Turn 8

I switched out Aegislash for Landorus
Kangaskhan used Fake Out on Salamence - Salamence
Salamence flinched
Arcanine used Flare Blitz on Landorus - Landorus 33% - Arcanine takes recoil damage

33%

vs.

40%

+3

Landorus takes quite a big hit - in retrospect the switch may have been a risk:

252 Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Landorus: 100-118 (60.6 - 71.5%)
252 Atk Arcanine Extreme Speed vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Landorus: 45-53 (27.2 - 32.1%)

The damage roll on Flare Blitz ended up being on the lower side and Landorus didn't end up in KO range for Extreme Speed.

Salamence's still out of control, so I go for Sucker Punch to try and get the KO while Protecting on Landorus to bait.


Turn 9

Landorus used Protect
Kangaskhan used Sucker Punch on Salamence - Salamence KO
Arcanine used Flare Blitz on Landorus - Landorus Protect

Jensen sent out Staraptor

40%

vs.

33%

Thanks to Mega Kangaskhan having an Adamant nature and Salamence2 being Lonely, the calcs worked out very nicely:

252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Fake Out vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Salamence: 73-87 (42.9 - 51.1%)
252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Salamence: 97-115 (57 - 67.6%)

Exactly 170 minimum damage with Showdown's Parental Bond approximation, for a guaranteed Fake Out + Sucker Punch KO. With the Jolly Kangaskhan I had on the first version of the team, the odds would have been much worse:

252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Fake Out vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Salamence: 67-81 (39.4 - 47.6%)
252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Salamence: 90-106 (52.9 - 62.3%)

Salamence2 doesn't actually run any special moves, so the reason for its Lonely nature is a mystery.

With Staraptor as the last Pokémon, I should be able to win from here with Aegislash beating all Staraptor sets as long as I take out Arcanine.



Turn 10

Landorus used Earth Power on Arcanine - KO
Staraptor used Close Combat on Kangaskhan - KO

I sent out Aegislash to replace Kangaskhan

-1
vs.

33%

Staraptor is not the Scarf set, enabling Landorus to move first and finish off Arcanine. Close Combat and its Speed reveals its set as Staraptor3, having won the Speed tie with Kangaskhan.

In retrospect there was still a risk at this point - if Scarf Staraptor were to KO Landorus, a CH from Arcanine on Kangaskhan before it gets to move could still lose me the battle. Using Sucker Punch on Arcanine just in case might've been the safer move, as Staraptor is a non-factor for Aegislash.



Turn 11

Landorus used Psychic on Staraptor - KO

(nothing)
vs.

33%

Psychic finishes off Staraptor after a Close Combat defense drop.

The battle was very nasty, the amount of boosts Gyarados and Salamence managed to accumulate after dual Intimidate on the leads took all of my momentum right at the start was very scary and Arcanine as a back-up with a priority move against Sharpedo was not good. The most dangerous moment might've been switching Landorus into Flare Blitz - a higher damage roll could've been disastrous. In the end the last Pokémon ended up being Staraptor, so even if Landorus got taken out by Extreme Speed, as long as I was able to finish off Arcanine after cleaning Salamence a winning position of Aegislash against Staraptor should've been possible.

What if the last Pokémon was something like Krookodile? With Wide Guard, Aegislash should actually win against most Krookodile sets, stalling out Earthquake PP with Wide Guard while recovering to full with Leftovers recovery and having King's Shield for Crunch/Pursuit afterwards. In general with a full-HP Kangaskhan and a damaged Aegislash, most of Puck's sets should've been winnable against as long as Salamence and Arcanine were removed first. In case the last Pokémon had Intimidate, things could've gotten rough - but a low-HP Aegislash should bait Arcanine, and most of Puck's sets over preferring Mega Kangaskhan so it might not have been as bad as it seemed.

7. #1677 warstory

Turn 0

Veteran Sibyl sent out Regice and Suicune
I sent out Sharpedo and Kangaskhan

vs.

Regice might cause a paralysis proc with Thunderbolt, so I go for Fake Out on it and attack with Sharpedo.



Turn 1

Kangaskhan used Fake Out on Regice - Regice 66%
Sharpedo used Crunch on Suicune - Suicune 75%
Suicune used Calm Mind
Regice flinched

+1

66%
vs.

Sets are revealed as Suicune1 and Regice1. I'm not particularly worried about anything, so I double target Suicune expecting it to get KO'd or use a non-attacking move.



Turn 2

Sharpedo used Crunch on Suicune - Suicune %50
Kangaskhan used Return on Suicune - Suicune 1%
Suicune used Surf - Regice's Sitrus Berry activated - Regice 74% - Kangaskhan 70%
Regice used Focus Blast on Sharpedo - Sharpedo KO

I sent out Aegislash to replace Sharpedo

1%, +1

74%
vs.

70%

The KO is missed, and Suicune goes for Surf despite Sharpedo not being in KO range for the move - Sharpedo going down is not what I expected at all, and puts in a pretty bad spot to lose it for nothing.

I go for Drain Punch on Regice to KO it and recover Kangaskhan's HP back to full.



Turn 3

Kangaskhan used Drain Punch on Regice - Regice 1%
Suicune used Rest
Regice used Focus Blast on Kangaskhan - critical hit! - Kangaskhan KO
Aegislash used Shadow Ball on Suicune

Regice survives and takes out Kangaskhan with a CH. At first I felt really bad about this since I thought I'd made a big misplay, but doing the calcs after losing the battle and looking over the video a few times...

252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Fake Out vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Regice: 55-67 (29.4 - 35.8%)
+1 0 SpA Suicune Surf vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Regice: 28-34 (14.9 - 18.1%)
252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Regice: 138-165 (73.7 - 88.2%)

The total damage between the 3 attacks Regice took is 118%-142% - likely KO after Sitrus Berry recovery. But since Sitrus Berry activated after Suicune hit it with Surf, we can deduce that it had exactly 139 HP on this turn - to activate Sitrus Berry, Regice would need to have 93 HP or less out of 187 maximum HP. Sitrus Berry would recovery 25% of 187 rounded down, which is 46 HP - leaving it with 139 HP at most, assuming Sitrus Berry activated on the highest HP number possible.

Parental Bond Drain Punch first hit: 92, 94, 94, 96, 96, 98, 100, 100, 102, 102, 104, 104, 106, 106, 108, 110
Parental Bond Drain Drain second hit: 46, 48, 48, 48, 48, 50, 50, 50, 52, 52, 52, 52, 54, 54, 54, 56

Drain Punch's minimum damage roll with the Showdown calculator's Parental Bond approximation is 138 damage, just 1 below 139. Just in case, I calculated the two hits independently above - the result is the same, with 92+46=138 minimum damage dealt. For Drain Punch to miss this KO and Regice having activated Sitrus Berry earlier, it had to have exactly 139HP after Sitrus Berry and Drain Punch needed to deal two consecutive minimum damage rolls - if either of them rolled even a 2/16 low damage roll, Kangaskhan would've gotten the KO.

Accordingly, Regice's chance of surviving Drain Punch was 1 out of 256. Using Return would've had a 100% chance to KO, but it would miss out on Drain Punch recovery.

Then Focus Blast lands a CH to OHKO Kangaskhan - without the CH, Kangaskhan is not KO'd as it had been healed to 100% by Drain Punch. Three 1/16 rolls in the AI's favor in a row is a 1/4096 chance - "only" as unlikely as three consecutive CHs. In addition, Focus Blast connected both times it was used.

I made two major mistakes during this battle that contributed to the loss - the first is double targeting Suicune on Turn 2 - I should've double targeted Regice for a guaranteed KO with no risk of Sharpedo dying. The second was sending out Aegislash after Sharpedo died - Landorus could've Protect baited or finished off Suicune, and there was no reason to bring in Aegislash other than a bad call of "Landorus ice weak, better send Aegislash" ignoring the details of the situation at hand. The hax were truly absurd, though, so I'm not that mad about losing even if my plays weren't optimal.



I'm skipping the rest of the battle due to laziness and the character limit. It's a straightforward match-up loss after the disastrous start with Landorus and Aegislash facing down 4 enemies - I stall a while with Wide Guard, but Raikou last Pokémon is not a winnable match-up without great luck.

While grinding the Factory after losing the streak, I finally got the Gold Print in it with a streak of 53 wins in Lv.50 Factory, played on a SoulSilver cart. It only took around 350-400 hours of Factory play over the course of 2 years.

First off, in Lv.50 you can look up the exact sets the enemy trainer is using and their IVs according to their trainer class and name: http://www.smogon.com/forums/thread...tle-tower-records.52858/page-117#post-2861763

TRE's post above explains it; here is a cheatsheet with all the necessary information for look-ups in one place (credit to TRE, I only combined the data for faster look-ups): http://pastebin.com/Cs4g05wu

AI opponents in battles 1-6 of Round N will use either Tier N, or Tier N-1 Pokémon. For example, in Lv.50 Round 5, the first 6 trainers will use either Set1 Pokémon with 12IV or Set2 Pokémon with 16IV, depending on the specific trainer. The 7th trainer in a set will use Tier N+1 Pokémon; in Lv.50 Round 5, you would always encounter Set3s in that battle. There is one exception to this rule - Thorton 1 in Lv.100, who uses Tier 5 sets (all sets including legendaries) with Tier 4 IVs (12IV), despite the baseline sets of Round 3 being Tier 3. In Lv.50, Thorton plays by the rules and uses Set1s with 12IV.

You don't necessarily have to be familiar with the mechanics; in practice, all you need to do to is pay attention to the trainer's name at the start of the battle, Ctrl+F it in the cheatsheet above, and look up to see what sets and IVs the trainer group they are in runs and you're set.

These mechanics result in a large difference between Lv.50 and Lv.100 - in Lv.50, you have full knowledge of enemy sets and IVs in battles 1-48 after seeing the trainer name. In Lv.100, this only applies to IVs; for Lv100, you have knowledge of what enemy sets trainers use in Battles 1-27 (aside from Thorton 1) but that information is already revealed by the Factory attendant before the battle, and Round 5 trainers have a 50% chance of being Set4 users, while Round 6 and after exclusively feature "all sets" trainers.

This is the main reason I play Lv.50 over Lv.100; I've tried Lv.100 a few times, but found it a lot more difficult to adapt to compared to working with full set information in Lv.50.



I didn't keep track of the first 28 battles due the AI being stupid and making largely random moves during those rounds. Howewer, there are specific methods I follow when playing rounds 1-4:

-In the first 14 battles, I swap every battle, regardless of its effect on the quality of my team. This is to gain two elevated rolls during the Round 3 draft phase - which will be two "super line" Set1s, in order to have a better chance of beating Thorton 1, who runs Set1s and is the main early roadblock in Lv50 if your team is composed of weak "normal line" sets. Swapping a lot in these rounds is actually not that risky, even if you end up carrying very weak Pokémon in the second round; the AI behaves very randomly in the first two rounds, and weaker "normal line" sets have very bad movepools, usually including moves such as Leer and Growl and much less damaging moves that can hurt you compared to super line sets. While the AI is equally stupid in Open Level, the bad sets in Lv50 early rounds really seem to bring out the worst in it giving the player a greater advantage.

-Starting from Tier 3 sets, the movepools get more similar to super line sets, which makes Round 3 significantly more hazardous than the first two. The two Set1s from swapping at every opportunity will help mitigate this in addition to tremendously improving your odds against Thorton, depending on what species the RNG handed you. In Round 3 I swap as I feel like - the largest advantage of swapping heavily comes at the start of Round 3 in Lv.50, and the effects become lesser from there on out.

-In Round 4, the trainers you face will use either NFE Set2s and Set1s. Since you start with Set1s and elevated Set2s in the draft, you have a big advantage over the AI in this round compared to earlier rounds and unlike the first three rounds, Battle 7 in this one is not skewed against you.

Battle logs starting from Round 5

In the Print streak, I arrived at Round 5 with a record of 28 wins / 19 swaps.

Since I'm doing trainer look-ups in every battle, I know what sets I'm facing from the outset. All calcs are done with the appropriate IVs, which make a significant difference. Write-up is directly based on the notes I took while playing, so some details are missing.


Round 5

498 Empoleon Adamant Razor Claw Drill Peck Aqua Jet Shadow Claw Rock Slide Atk/SpD
712 Weavile Adamant Focus Sash Night Slash X-Scissor Metal Claw Counter Atk/Spe
682 Armaldo Adamant Choice Band Stone Edge Superpower Earthquake Giga Impact Atk/Def
557 Politoed Impish Chesto Berry Dive Brick Break Hypnosis Perish Song HP/Atk
580 Porygon2 Quiet Iron Ball Tri Attack Thunderbolt Recover Trick Room HP/SpA
538 Slowking Adamant Quick Claw Zen Headbutt Aqua Tail Earthquake Curse HP/Atk

I chose Weavile3/Armaldo3/Porygon22. Excellent draft, Weavile with Sash Counter and Armaldo with Choice Band as huge upgrades over their Set2 counterparts. Slowking2 is a bad physical set, so I chose Porygon22 with Trick Room/Recover to fill out the third slot.

Weavile OHKO'd Claydol, took out Swampert with Counter, then KO'd Gengar. I swapped out Porygon2 to bring in Swampert1 @ Shell Bell, which is one of the best sets in the Factory. Good BST, great typing, the right moves, okay item, Protect to scout (not as important in Lv50, but not a bad thing to have) - if it had Leftovers, it would be pretty much perfect.

Expecting Thunder Wave from Miltank1, I switch to Swampert on Turn 1 and the prediction is correct. Swampert then beats Miltank, and Exploud revenge kills Swampert.

252+ Atk Weavile Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Exploud: 97-115 (48.2 - 57.2%) -- 92.2% chance to 2HKO

Weavile has the 2HKO on Exploud, but Exploud uses Torment as its first move against Weavile preventing another use of Night Slash, so I use X-Scissor next and finish it with Night Slash on the following turn. In retrospect, I could have also used Metal Claw - while its accuracy is an unnecessary risk, in case it hit I could have 3HKO'd Exploud1 with Metal Claw + X-Scissor and keep Night Slash as Weavile's strongest move available for hitting the 3rd foe - if Metal Claw were to miss, I could fall back to using Night Slash again for a high chance to KO it anyway.

The last Pokémon is Electrode1, which takes out Weavile, then sets up Light Screen on Armaldo while being finished off by Earthquake.

Vileplume1 scares me a lot because of Sleep Powder and 4th generation's very powerful 1-4 turn sleep. Making any switches would risk being crippled by Sleep, so I start attacking with Night Slash right away. With Def/SAtk EVs, Vileplume survives two Night Slashes and KOs Weavile; I sent Swampert to finish it.

Second foe is Glaceon1. I click EQ for the 2HKO while Glaceon uses Ice Beam twice without freezes or CHs to drop Swampert to 10%.

Last mon turns out to be Electivire1. It revenge kills Swampert, then uses T-Wave on Armaldo without getting any full paralysis.

Lucario1 is a very scary match-up, resisting all of Weavile's attacks, OHKOing Armaldo, and being a major pest. After a bit of panic and considering saccing Weavile, I run the calcs:

252+ SpA Lucario Aura Sphere vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Swampert: 87-103 (44.1 - 52.2%) -- 16% chance to 2HKO

If I sacced Weavile, I would have to take a 2v2 with a damaged Swampert, and possibly lock into a move on Armaldo without knowing the final Pokémon - on the other hand, if I switch to Swampert right away and this 16% 2HKO comes to pass, I'll lose right out and get swept by Lucario1. I decide to take the risk and switch to Swampert...

Lucario used Flash Cannon! It's not very effective

No CHs or BrightPowder activations follow allowing Swampert to take out Lucario, and the two back-ups are cleaned up easily.

Ampharos2 has Thunder Wave, Focus Punch, and Fire Punch as moves it might use on Weavile - I switch to Swampert expecting Thunder Wave, which it uses. Clean sweep.

I switch to Swampert again on Rhyperior2's Fire Punch, wanting to preserve Weavile's Sash. Rhyperior survives Waterfall with 1% (Solid Rock), but misses Aqua Tail in return.

Tentacruel2 comes out afterwards - I keep in Swampert, surviving Giga Drain and KOing back with EQ. My notes and memory are missing exactly what happened afterwards, but I did win the battle despite Metagross2 potentially being a disastrous match-up for Weavile3/Armaldo3 - Night Slash crits? I don't know.

The next battle is good with the Water-type.

I consider swapping out Armaldo to bring in Metagross or Tentacruel to avoid a Water weakness, but conclude that Weavile and Swampert should be able to handle 2 Water-types well enough for Armaldo to not be a liability.

I counter-sash Lucario3, which uses Blaze Kick - no burn, luckily. Weavile then CH OHKOs Slowbro3 and finishes Slowking3 aftewards.




Battle 36 is apparently good with the Dark-type.

Round 6

680 Nidoking Modest Expert Belt Earth Power Sludge Bomb Ice Beam Shadow Ball SpA/Spe
696 Heracross Adamant Coba Berry Megahorn Stone Edge Facade Shadow Claw Atk/Spe
777 Mr. Mime Modest Choice Specs Psychic Charge Beam Shadow Ball Focus Blast SpA/SpD
844 Shuckle Calm Leftovers Toxic Substitute Double Team Sandstorm HP/Def/SpD
784 Hariyama Adamant Scope Lens Cross Chop Earthquake Stone Edge Poison Jab HP/Atk
723 Flygon Timid White Herb Draco Meteor Earth Power Flamethrower Giga Drain SpA/Spe

I picked Flygon3, Mr. Mime4 and Heracross3 as Shuckle and Hariyama are quite bad, and Nidoking3's typing was unfortunate. Flygon to lead because of its high Speed.

Houndoom2 has Focus Sash and Reversal, so I 2HKO with with Giga Drain + Earth Power just to be sure. Tyranitar2 @ Choice Scarf comes in after to revenge Flygon with Ice Punch - I choose to sac it over risking Heracross on a switch. Ice Punch does not CH or freeze, and Megahorn connects to take out Tyranitar2. Jynx2 is outsped and CH'd with Shadow Claw to clean up.

Armaldo2 uses Swagger on Turn 1, so I switch to Heracross and pick Stone Edge which connects. I do calcs on Kangaskhan2, and Facade + Draco Meteor would not KO, so I have to risk Megahorn accuracy - it connects, Kanga2 2HKOs Heracross3, and Flygon3 revenges with Earth Power. Last Pokémon is Meganium2.

Next battle is good with the Ground-type.

Garchomp3 @ Focus Sash is a really, really bad lead match-up, and I panic instantly. It outspeeds and OHKOs Mr. Mime and Flygon/Heracross match up quite poorly against it. I've no choice other than to sac Flygon - in a strange mistake, I use Earth Power on Flygon and follow up with Megahorn (100% & 85% accuracies) instead of using Draco Meteor and Facade (90% & 100% accuracies). It ends up working out anyway as Chomp does not flinch Heracross with Dragon Rush and Megahorn connects, howewer.

After the very dangerous lead MU, Heracross sweeps the rest and Mr. Mime finishes off Quagsire.

I swap in Garchomp3 to replace Flygon3, making my current team Garchomp3/Mr. Mime4/Heracross3.

Rampardos misses Head Smash on Turn 1 while Aqua Tail brings it to 10%. After finishing it with Aerial Ace, out comes Staraptor for Intimidate. Doing calcs, -1 Stone Edge would not KO (Garchomp3, Adamant Atk/Spe, outspeeds Staraptor3, which is also Adamant) so I decide to sac an ally to get rid of Intimidate to maximize the odds of killing Staraptor, since it would sweep both of my remaining Pokémon in case Garchomp failed to deal with it.

Which to sac, Mr. Mime4 or Heracross3? After a bit of thinking I decide to sac Heracross, since it has more HP in order to deal more recoil damage (in case Stone Edge misses once, resulting in Staraptor being weakened by two instances of recoil damage) and Mr. Mime's Special stats would give it an advantage for taking on Ice Beam users as last Pokémon that would threaten Garchomp.

After I sac Heracross, Stone Edge connects as Chomp outspeeds and KOs without a fuss. The third Pokémon turns out to be Vileplume3, which is taken down with a CH Aerial Ace.


Staraptor3 @ Muscle Band is a good set, and I pick it up to replace Heracross since the defensive synergy on the team is nonexistent and Staraptor's Intimidate could help out Mr. Mime in a pinch. I will have a big Ice weakness with both Garchomp3 and Staraptor3 on the team, but Garchomp has a Focus Sash to help mitigate that so I go for it anyway.

Current team: Garchomp3/Mr.Mime4/Staraptor3

Next trainer is good with the Grass-type.

Roserade3's got Sleep Powder, which is always scary - I didn't consider making a switch to Staraptor because of the possibility of the move. I click Aerial Ace, hoping for no Poison Point activation in case it uses Leaf Storm, and status-protective Poison Point activation in case it goes for Sleep Powder.

Aerial Ace CH OHKOs Roserade without activating Poison Point. Out comes Cradily2 - it's a weak specially attacking set, so I switch to Mr. Mime in order to keep Garchomp's Sash intact for the last Pokémon. The last Pokémon is Sceptile3, cleaned up uneventfully.

Ampharos2 has Focus Punch and Fire Punch as possible moves against Garchomp - expecting Focus Punch and fearing Static, I opt to use Stone Edge despite its low accuracy in order to avoid making contact. Stone Edge hits on Turn 1, distrupting Focus Punch and finishes Ampharos on Turn 2.

Out comes Hippowdon2. Making a misplay, I keep Garchomp in - I was being lazy and didn't look up or remember that Hippowdon2 only carries Ground-type attacks, making Staraptor a free switch-in in this situation. Instead I use Aqua Tail twice while Hippowdon2 misses Swagger, then connects - afterwards I switch out to Staraptor anyway, so my mistake ended up not mattering since Hippo never broke Garchomp's Sash. Staraptor cleans up Hippowdon and Dusknoir2 last mon goes down easily.

Ninetales4 (Modest nature) wins the Speed tie with Garchomp3 - Ninetales4 has a base Speed of 100 with an IV of 24, resulting in a Speed stat identical to that of base 102 Garchomp's 20 IV Speed stat - 148. Stone Edge connects, though, grabbing the OHKO.

Out comes Gengar4. I consider predicting Shadow Ball to bring in Staraptor, but Gengar outspeeds Staraptor and has a Modest nature which in combination with its IV advantage gives it a nearly guaranteed OHKO on Staraptor. I go for Dragon Rush, which misses - Gengar finishes off Garchomp with Sludge Bomb after.

252+ SpA Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Mr. Mime: 104-126 (92.8 - 112.5%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

The calc really isn't good - but there is one saving grace: Mr.Mime4 had the ability Filter, reducing super-effective damage and allowing it to survive the blow and KO back with Psychic. The last Pokémon was Pinsir3, outsped and OHKO'd by Mr. Mime.




Round 7

??? Vespiquen - I didn't note what set it was because lolvespiquen
437 Roserade Calm Coba Berry Sludge Bomb Magical Leaf Stun Spore Mud-Slap SpA/SpD
828 Ampharos Quiet Zoom Lens Thunder Focus Blast Signal Beam Power Gem HP/SpA
682 Armaldo Adamant Choice Band Stone Edge Superpower Earthquake Giga Impact Atk/Def
872 Walrein Modest Leftovers Surf Ice Beam Signal Beam Hail HP/SpA
928 Suicune Bold Lum Berry Hydro Pump Blizzard Shadow Ball Hail Def/SpA

Promising draft - Armaldo3 which was very effective in Round 5 on this streak makes another showing, this time with 31IV. Suicune3 in the R7 draft is maybe the first time I have seen a legendary Pokémon in Lv.50 - elevated sets in the Round 7 draft are the first place where you can encounter them in Lv.50 (the second one is Thorton in Battle 49).

I'll definitely want Armaldo3 and Suicune3 on my team - the third choice isn't as straightforward. Roserade1 is a little awful with Magical Leaf as its Grass STAB, so I don't want it and Walrein would stack weaknesses with Suicune - leaving Ampharos4 as the main candidate.

What order to lead them in? On one hand, Choice Band Armaldo in the lead position could pick up quick KOs. Howewer, its base 45 Speed is horrid and I would prefer having a faster lead if possible. I decide to put Ampharos4 in the lead position, with the intent of swapping it out for a proper lead ASAP.

Kingdra4 uses Draco Meteor on Ampharos and CHs for the OHKO. I bring in Suicune to wear down Kingdra as it's at -2 SAtk and will only drop further.

Doing the calcs, if I set up Hail Blizzard will 3HKO Kingdra, whereas Shadow Ball has a very low chance to 4HKO without a Special Defense drop. I decide to set up Hail and go for the 3HKO, at the cost of suffering Hail damage on Suicune in return. Since Kingdra will drop itself to -4 or -6 anyway, it might have been better in the long run to take the likely 5HKO on Shadow Ball and tank an extra hit from Kingdra over suffering repeated Hail damage.

Blizzard 3HKOs Kingdra in Hail as expected, and Suicune is left with 42HP as the second Pokémon Ursaring4 shows up. This is a very bad position, with Suicune as good as dead and only a choice-locked Armaldo left able to fight - I switch to Armaldo, so that I can switch Suicune to sac it and reset Choice Band later even at the cost of taking a little extra damage on Armaldo. I'm hoping for Return as I switch in to minimize the damage...

Ursaring used Cross Chop, dropping Armaldo to 65%

Not a good move choice there. I click Superpower, and Ursaring uses Earthquake to bring Armaldo to 50HP before being KO'd.

The last Pokémon out is Dusknoir4 @ Muscle Band, a strange physical set. With Armaldo locked into Superpower, very heavily damaged, and Suicune as good as dead, I panic and assume I've lost - as I switch into Suicune, it survives with a handful of HP left!

870 Dusknoir Adamant Muscle Band Shadow Punch Earthquake Brick Break Rock Slide Def/SpD
0+ Atk Muscle Band Dusknoir Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 252+ Def Suicune: 29-35 (16.5 - 20%)

Dusknoir's attack, which I didn't calc in the actual battle as I had to switch to Suicune to reset Choice Band if nothing else, turns out to be weaker than expected, and 42 HP Suicune takes it. I go for Shadow Ball to weaken it, and Armaldo's CB Stone Edge outspeeds and connects to secure the win. Very dangerous battle, and fortunate 3rd foe to allow winning from a very bad position with two nearly dead slow Pokémon left!

I swap in Kingdra4 to replace Ampharos4.

882 Kingdra Modest Wide Lens Hydro Pump Draco Meteor Blizzard Signal Beam HP/SpA

Current team: Kingdra4/Armaldo3/Suicune3

Kingdra swept this battle on its own by connecting Hydro Pump twice and OHKOing Marowak with Draco Meteor (maybe a CH, I chose 99% accurate Meteor for more reliable cleanup so I can finish it with my back-ups easily). Nothing else in my notes about this one.

Of greater interest is Infernape4, which I swapped in to replace Kingdra.

769 Infernape Jolly King's Rock Flare Blitz Close Combat Earthquake ThunderPunch Atk/Spe

Current team: Infernape4/Armaldo3/Suicune3

Infernape outsped and OHKO'd the Ambipom3 (Adamant) lead, then I switched Armaldo into Drapion and OHKO'd it iwth EQ, and cleaning up Mismagius was a simple matter.

Mismagius3 is an alright set and I considered taking it, but it didn't really fit into the synergy that the three Pokémon I had already did.

685 Mismagius Timid Wise Glasses Shadow Ball Energy Ball Icy Wind Destiny Bond SpA/Spe

Nothing in my notes about this one aside from the sets - Infernape must've swept 1v3.

Absol outsped and OHKO'd. On Marowak3, I decide to damage it and sac Infernape over risking a switch into outrageously strong Thick Club-boosted attacks. After CC damage, it still required Hydro Pump connecting from Suicune to secure the KO, and it did connect succesfully. Third foe is Mismagius3, on which Suicune survived 2 Energy Balls with exactly 1HP remaining while 2HKOing back with Shadow Ball.

If Mismagius had 2HKO'd my Suicune3, there's a chance I could've lost, or it might have used Destiny Bond on my last mon Armaldo in which case the battle may have been a tie scenario. Usually in a tie the AI wins by default in genIV Frontier (unlike in the Maison where it follows the same death order tiebreakers as Wi-Fi battles), but I've no idea how the AI using Destiny Bond for a double KO would work in this case - luckily, I didn't get to find out.

Mismagius3 is still a decent set and a possible swap option, but I decided to pass on it before and kept my decision.

Hariyama3 is a horrible set with DynamicPunch.
648 Hariyama Adamant Life Orb DynamicPunch Fire Punch ThunderPunch Ice Punch HP/Atk

I go for CC to damage it, as DynamicPunch can just enable it to sweep me depending on luck. Its first DynamicPunch hits and OHKOs Infernape. I bring in Suicune, needing Hydro Pump to connect to take it down; it connects.

Out comes Dusknoir3. It has Thunder Punch and SDef EVs, so I switch in Armaldo to 2HKO it with Earthquake, which it does without any incident. The last foe is Lucario3, which finishes off Armaldo with Close Combat; after a Special Defense drop, Suicune's Hydro Pump connects and OHKOs it while it uses Shadow Claw, opting not to use its most powerful move for some reason.

Lucario3 is a good set, and a better one than Armaldo3 - but I don't really have a slot for it on the team due to its overlapping weaknesses and coverage with Infernape, which is even faster and stronger.

Since the second Thorton fight coming up next is a Tier8 trainer, I noted down the items present in this battle to rule out sets in the next one: Muscle Band, Life Orb, Scope Lens, King's Rock, Lum Berry, Choice Band

Thorton sends out Cresselia as his first Pokémon. Cresselia's Frontier sets are:
907 Cresselia Bold Heat Rock Psychic SolarBeam Moonlight Sunny Day Def/SpD
921 Cresselia Bold Lum Berry Psychic Toxic Double Team Moonlight HP/Def/SpD
935 Cresselia Modest Wise Glasses Psychic Shadow Ball Energy Ball Charge Beam HP/SpA
949 Cresselia Modest Leftovers Psychic Ice Beam Signal Beam Moonlight HP/Def/SpD

With an Infernape lead, I'm in a really bad situation. Sets with Moonlight wall Suicune outright, and Infernape also lacks the damage to deal significant damage while suffering STAB Psychic in return. Armaldo3 lacks X-Scissor unlike its Maison counterpart with Choice Band, leaving Stone Edge against a faster Cresselia as its only move... everything's going to hell, pretty much.

I forgot about the Lum Berry entirely despite just having written down the items of the previous battle in my notes, in retrospect Cresselia2 was ruled out because of that. It wouldn't have changed the play, though; with all my three Pokémon matching up poorly against Cresselia and likely losing to it 1v1, I had to start by attacking with Flare Blitz no matter what.

Infernape used Flare Blitz! Critical hit!
Cresselia used Sunny Day!

Amazingly, the Cresselia set is the only one with a huge "click this to throw the battle" move, and on top of that Infernape CHs it to bring it to 40% health remaining. This match-up could not have gone any better than this, and for Cresselia to pick Sunny Day over Psychic is amazing AI behaviour luck on top of that...

0 SpA Cresselia Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Infernape: 110-132 (74.3 - 89.1%)
252 Atk Infernape Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 252+ Def Cresselia: 55-66 (28.2 - 33.8%) -- 0.3% chance to 3HKO

With the critical hit, a Sun boost on the second turn, and Thorton's huge throws I'm now in a massively advantaged position to take out Cresselia and sweep with Sun-boosted Flare Blitz right of the bat.

And that's exactly what happens. Thorton sends out Articuno next, which is OHKO'd without revealing its set, and then reveals Machamp which is also OHKO'd as Infernape finally drops from recoil damage, having all-killed Thorton alone in a miracle sweep after a potentially disastrous lead match-up.




Round 8

822 Drifblim Docile Lax Incense Shadow Ball Air Cutter Silver Wind Explosion HP/Atk
875 Crobat Adamant Razor Claw Cross Poison Brave Bird X-Scissor Zen Headbutt Atk/Spe
481 Dragonite Adamant Lum Berry Dragon Claw Aerial Ace Thunder Wave Dragon Dance Atk/SpD
593 Leafeon Jolly Brightpowder Leaf Blade Last Resort Curse GrassWhistle Atk/Spe
472 Gyarados Careful Razor Fang Aqua Tail Ice Fang Bite Rain Dance Atk/SpD
828 Ampharos Quiet Zoom Lens Thunder Focus Blast Signal Beam Power Gem HP/SpA

In this round, the Factory trainers will be Tier7/Set4 trainers, and Tier8/any set trainers, so I start taking notes of the items present in the draft and the battles to get more information on enemy sets.

The draft is pretty good. Dragonite, Gyarados and Leafeon are the strongest Pokémon in the draft - Crobat4 could be alright, but with Dragonite they'd share too many weaknesses. I go with Gyarados1/Dragonite1/Leafeon2, with Gyarados1 in the lead to avoid leading with Ice weakness and having its Electric-weakness partially covered by Leafeon while providing Intimidate.

Intimidate hits Donphan, removing its White Herb and revealing the set. Since Donphan2 has Counter, I go for Rain Dance + Aqua Tail to avoid risking getting surprise KO'd - Gyarados secures the KO after tanking a Gunk Shot.

Out second comes Pinsir, unknown set without announcing Mold Breaker, so it has to have Hyper Cutter. I attack with Gyarados to scout, and get KO'd by Rock Slide, revealing its set to be Pinsir1.
422 Pinsir Adamant Coba Berry X-Scissor Earthquake Rock Slide Swords Dance Atk/Def

This is a terrible match-up. With Coba Berry removing its Flying-type weakness, Dragonite can't boost to +1 and OHKO it with Aerial Ace; and Leafeon's only attacking move is Leaf Blade, while Pinsir outspeeds Dragonite and threatens a Rock Slide 2HKO so attacking right away with Aerial Ace to get rid of Coba Berry is also not possible.

252 Atk Leafeon Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Pinsir: 27-33 (19.2 - 23.5%)

My only hope is GrassWhistle on Leafeon - it's faster and a 3-4 turn sleep could still salvage this match-up. Fingers crossed...

Leafeon used GrassWhistle! It missed!
Pinsir used X-Scissor!

Leafeon survives the hit with 10%. Time to try again.

Leafeon used GrassWhistle! Pinsir is put to sleep.
Pinsir is asleep. (1 turn of sleep elapsed)

So far so good. Now I'll have to switch to Dragonite and hope that it continues to sleep long enough for Dragonite to boost once and use Aerial Ace twice.

Switched in Dragonite
Pinsir woke up! Pinsir used Earthquake!

A 1-turn Sleep - luckily, the AI decided to cherry tap Leafeon with Earthquake, at least letting Dragonite get in for free. There's nothing I can really do at this point, I will need big crits after boosting once or Rock Slide from Pinsir has to miss to avoid losing.

Pinsir used Swords Dance
Dragonite used Dragon Dance

Pinsir's now set to OHKO Dragonite. The hax needs to come now.

Dragonite used Dragon Claw! It's a critical hit!
Pinsir KO'd

Right on cue, the hax I need to win shows up at the exact right time. The last Pokémon is Arcanine with Intimidate as its ability, either Set2 or Set4 after ruling out items, and I use Dragon Claw, then T-Wave after finding out that it was Set2 (from it outspeeding +1 Dragonite) to prevent any EndureSalac hijinks.

I swapped in Arcanine to replace Gyarados. Arcanine2 is a good set, with high Speed and better typing synergy with teammates than Gyarados had.

616 Arcanine Jolly Salac Berry Flare Blitz Thunder Fang Reversal Endure Atk/Spe

Items in the last battle: Salac Berry, White Herb, Lum Berry, Razor Claw, Coba Berry, BrightPowder

Current team: Arcanine2/Dragonite/Leafeon2

The trainer name look-up revealed this one to be a Set4 trainer. Rhydon4 is a Frontier classic:
804 Rhydon Adamant Quick Claw Earthquake Stone Edge Megahorn Horn Drill HP/Atk

Quick Claw HKO move users, back when sets not named Donphan4 still ran them commonly.

Doing the calcs, 200BP Reversal from Arcanine did not have a chance to OHKO the set, so I have to either sac Arcanine and revenge kill it or switch Leafeon on a small risk of Horn Drill. I take the Leafeon switch and tank Stone Edge, then Leaf Blade KOs without any Quick Claw activations.

Out comes Golduck4. Leaf Blade barely misses the KO and I sent in Arcanine to revenge kill it with Flare Blitz, as Golduck is faster than Dragonite.

Gallade4 last Pokémon is OHKO'd with Flare Blitz.

I decide to make no swaps - Gallade4 is alright and possibly preferable to Leafeon, but I don't want to give up Leafeon's Grass-typing and much higher Speed for it.

Items in previous battle: Salac Berry / Lum Berry / BrightPowder / Quick Claw / Scope Lens / Wacan Berry

I start attacking Cresselia with Flare Blitz right away. It turns out to be Set4 after Leftovers recovery, and Arcanine survives two Psychics after two turns of Flare Blitz recoil damage with 2HP left. A third Flare Blitz brings Cresselia to KO range for Leafeon, which revenge kills it.

Out comes Moltres. Staring down a terrible match-up for a change, I click GrassWhistle and start praying that I get lucky again like I did against Pinsir.

GrassWhistle connected on the first try, and I switched in Dragonite to start using Dragon Dance. Moltres slept for 4 turns and I boosted to +2, then KO'd it before it got to move. GenIV 1-4 turn sleep in the Factory is ridiculously strong if it connects.

The last Pokémon is Hippowdon2, revealing its set by using Curse as it gets cleaned up.

I swap in Cresselia4 to replace Leafeon.

949 Cresselia Modest Leftovers Psychic Ice Beam Signal Beam Moonlight HP/Def/SpD

Items in the last battle: Salac Berry / Lum Berry / BrightPowder / Persim Berry / Leftovers / ??? (Moltres's set remained unknown)

Current team: Arcanine2/Dragonite/Cresselia4

Next trainer is good with the Normal-type.

Look-ups revealed the trainer to be a Set4 user. Shiftry4 outsped and KO'd with Flare Blitz after tanking Sucker Punch, then Endure on Lickilicky4 Earthquake into a SalacReversal sweep from Arcanine.

Items in last battle: Salac Berry / Lum Berry / Cheri Berry / Lax Incense / Leftovers / Muscle Band

The AI leads with unknown set Floatzel. Since Floatzel sets may have priority moves or Double Team/Rain Dance, I don't want to keep Arcanine in and risk EndureSalac on an unknown set and instead switch in Cresselia.

Cresselia eats Surf on the switch-in, revealing the set to be Floatzel3.
684 Floatzel Modest Wave Incense Surf Ice Beam Focus Blast Rain Dance SpA/Spe

I'm expecting that the AI will set up Rain Dance, preventing Moonlight from recovering health so I go for Psychic instead. The AI decides to attack with Surf instead, CHing Cresselia into KO range for the next Surf, finishing off Cresselia.

Now that I know Floatzel's set, I have to risk EndureSalac and hope that it uses Surf over setting up Rain Dance. The AI cooperates, giving Arcanine a Salac boost and allowing it to finish Floatzel3.

Out comes Houndoom. Two sets have Focus Sash... it turns out to be one of the Sash sets, taking down Arcanine after activating Sash.

I send in Dragonite with the intent to Dragon Dance twice, then attack and hope to sweep. Houndoom uses Crunch, and its first Crunch inflicts a crucial Defense drop - the second Crunch drops Dragonite to 10% HP as a result. Out comes Hariyama as the last Pokémon - after the Defense drop and the added damage Dragonite took because of it, Fake Out will KO and lose me the battle if Hariyama is carrying the move.

Hariyama used Fake Out!

The streak ends with a record of 53 wins / 30 swaps, falling 5 short of atsync's Level 50 record.

 

[Altissimo]

Factory. That word makes me see red. I still haven't ever gotten 49 wins and it is something that is going to haunt me forever.

Congrats, on both the doubles streak and the Factory.

 

[Smuckem]

6. #1122 warstory

Turn 0

Punk Guy Puck sent out Salamence and Gyarados
I sent out Sharpedo and Kangaskhan
Salamence's Intimidate hits Sharpedo and Kangaskhan
Gyarados's Intimidate hits Sharpedo and Kangaskhan

vs.

-2

-2

Double Intimidate. With both leads at -2, I don't want to keep either of them in and go for a double switch. Since Sharpedo is more likely to get targeted, I switch Aegislash into its slot and Landorus in Kangaskhan's.



Turn 1

Switch out Sharpedo for Aegislash
Switch out Kangaskhan for Landorus-T
Salamence used Dragon Claw on Aegislash - Aegislash 85%
Gyarados used Dragon Dance

+1

vs.

90%

Gyarados, unknown set, grabs a boost. Salamence is revealed to be Salamence2. Both back-ups match up poorly against Gyarados, but I had to make the double switch to get rid of Attack drops to get started.

Gyarados could be a set with Speed EVs that outspeeds Landorus at +1, so I go for Protect to bait and scout.


Turn 2

Landorus used Protect
Gyarados used Aqua Tail on Landorus - Protect
Salamence used Dragon Dance - Salamence +1 Atk/Spe
Aegislash used Shadow Ball on Gyarados - 70% - Gyarados's SDef fell

70%, +1

+1
vs.

96%

Gyarados reveals its set as Gyarados4. The match-up is still bad and I don't want to risk Landorus dying, so I go for a switch to Sharpedo and use King's Shield on Aegislash in case of an EQ.



Turn 3

I switched out Landorus for Sharpedo
Aegislash used King's Shield
Salamence used Dragon Dance - Salamence +2 Atk/Spe
Gyarados used Dragon Dance - Gyarados +2 Atk/Spe

70%, +2

+2
vs.

100%

Outplayed by the AI. Now there's two foes at +2 outspeeding my whole team. Howewer, Sharpedo should be able to bait their attacks and outspeed them after a Speed Boost or two, so this is still a somewhat reasonable situation to be in.



Turn 4

Sharpedo used Protect
Salamence used Dragon Claw on Sharpedo - Sharpedo Protect
Gyarados used Earthquake - Sharpedo Protect, Aegislash 38%
Aegislash used Shadow Ball on Gyarados - Gyarados 15%

15% +2

+2
vs.

44%

+1

Sharpedo baits out Dragon Claw, and after Speed Boost it now outspeeds Gyarados. Salamence is still faster, but Sharpedo is Sashed and will be able to outspeed it after one more Speed Boost on the following turn. I go for Crunch to finish off Gyarados and use King's Shield on Aegislash just because.


Turn 5

Aegislash used King's Shield
Salamence used Dragon Claw on Sharpedo - Sharpedo 1%
Sharpedo used Crunch on Gyarados - Gyarados KO
Jensen sent out Arcanine to replace Gyarados

+2
vs.

50%

1%, +2

In retrospect, Aegislash resists all of Salamence2's moves and it should always target Sharpedo, so no need to use King's Shield, and I could've stayed in Blade form and attacked, with only Salamence choosing Rock Slide and getting a flinch on Sharpedo as a losing scenario.

Arcanine as the 3rd Pokémon is bad news, as it might carry Extreme Speed to take out Sharpedo. I go for Protect and attack with Aegislash - in case Aegislash dies, I have Fake Out in the back to outprioritize Arcanine on the next turn and enable Destiny Bond use.



Turn 6

Sharpedo Protect
Arcanine Extremespeed Sharpedo - Sharpedo Protect
Salamence used Dragon Claw on Sharpedo - Sharpedo Protect
Aegislash used Shadow Ball on Arcanine - activated Sitrus Berry - Arcanine 60%

60%

+2
vs.

56%

1%, +3

Aegislash doesn't get targeted, revealing Arcanine's set as Arcanine4. I don't want to switch anything into +2 Dragon Claw so Sharpedo has to go down - I picked Destiny Bond on Sharpedo on the off chance Arcanine would opt to target Aegislash instead of Sharpedo.

In case Extreme Speed finishes off Sharpedo, Salamence's Dragon Claw should be redirected into King's Shield to drop its attack - so Sharpedo's death should also put me in a better position.



Turn 7

Aegislash used King's Shield
Arcanine used Extremespeed on Sharpedo - Sharpedo KO
Salamence used Dragon Dance - Salamence +3

I sent out Kangaskhan

60%

+3
vs.

62%

The AI opts not to attack, going for Dragon Dance instead - probably because Sharpedo's Speed boosts had passed its Dragon Dances already. The possibility hadn't occurred to me at all, and now Salamence is outrageously boosted while Aegislash can't use King's Shield again. The situation is out of control.

Not wanting to sac Aegislash yet, I switch it out for Landorus expecting Flare Blitz. Fake Out from Mega Kangaskhan will control the runaway Salamence in the meanwhile.



Turn 8

I switched out Aegislash for Landorus
Kangaskhan used Fake Out on Salamence - Salamence
Salamence flinched
Arcanine used Flare Blitz on Landorus - Landorus 33% - Arcanine takes recoil damage

33%

vs.

40%

+3

Landorus takes quite a big hit - in retrospect the switch may have been a risk:

252 Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Landorus: 100-118 (60.6 - 71.5%)
252 Atk Arcanine Extreme Speed vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Landorus: 45-53 (27.2 - 32.1%)

The damage roll on Flare Blitz ended up being on the lower side and Landorus didn't end up in KO range for Extreme Speed.

Salamence's still out of control, so I go for Sucker Punch to try and get the KO while Protecting on Landorus to bait.


Turn 9

Landorus used Protect
Kangaskhan used Sucker Punch on Salamence - Salamence KO
Arcanine used Flare Blitz on Landorus - Landorus Protect

Jensen sent out Staraptor

40%

vs.

33%

Thanks to Mega Kangaskhan having an Adamant nature and Salamence2 being Lonely, the calcs worked out very nicely:

252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Fake Out vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Salamence: 73-87 (42.9 - 51.1%)
252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Salamence: 97-115 (57 - 67.6%)

Exactly 170 minimum damage with Showdown's Parental Bond approximation, for a guaranteed Fake Out + Sucker Punch KO. With the Jolly Kangaskhan I had on the first version of the team, the odds would have been much worse:

252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Fake Out vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Salamence: 67-81 (39.4 - 47.6%)
252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Salamence: 90-106 (52.9 - 62.3%)

Salamence2 doesn't actually run any special moves, so the reason for its Lonely nature is a mystery.

With Staraptor as the last Pokémon, I should be able to win from here with Aegislash beating all Staraptor sets as long as I take out Arcanine.



Turn 10

Landorus used Earth Power on Arcanine - KO
Staraptor used Close Combat on Kangaskhan - KO

I sent out Aegislash to replace Kangaskhan

-1
vs.

33%

Staraptor is not the Scarf set, enabling Landorus to move first and finish off Arcanine. Close Combat and its Speed reveals its set as Staraptor3, having won the Speed tie with Kangaskhan.

In retrospect there was still a risk at this point - if Scarf Staraptor were to KO Landorus, a CH from Arcanine on Kangaskhan before it gets to move could still lose me the battle. Using Sucker Punch on Arcanine just in case might've been the safer move, as Staraptor is a non-factor for Aegislash.



Turn 11

Landorus used Psychic on Staraptor - KO

(nothing)
vs.

33%

Psychic finishes off Staraptor after a Close Combat defense drop.

The battle was very nasty, the amount of boosts Gyarados and Salamence managed to accumulate after dual Intimidate on the leads took all of my momentum right at the start was very scary and Arcanine as a back-up with a priority move against Sharpedo was not good. The most dangerous moment might've been switching Landorus into Flare Blitz - a higher damage roll could've been disastrous. In the end the last Pokémon ended up being Staraptor, so even if Landorus got taken out by Extreme Speed, as long as I was able to finish off Arcanine after cleaning Salamence a winning position of Aegislash against Staraptor should've been possible.

What if the last Pokémon was something like Krookodile? With Wide Guard, Aegislash should actually win against most Krookodile sets, stalling out Earthquake PP with Wide Guard while recovering to full with Leftovers recovery and having King's Shield for Crunch/Pursuit afterwards. In general with a full-HP Kangaskhan and a damaged Aegislash, most of Puck's sets should've been winnable against as long as Salamence and Arcanine were removed first. In case the last Pokémon had Intimidate, things could've gotten rough - but a low-HP Aegislash should bait Arcanine, and most of Puck's sets over preferring Mega Kangaskhan so it might not have been as bad as it seemed.

Love how Puck became Jensen halfway through the battle.
Hold up, wouldn't the way Turn 2 went simply narrow down the set to be either Gyarados 1 or 4? Based on the log, you wouldn't know for sure until Turn 4 (when it used Earthquake).
I was actually kind of hoping you had drawn the worst-case scenario of all four opponents having Intimidate--it would have interesting to watch you try to wriggle out of that one.

I love the modern-day Flygon3/Ampharos4/Heracross3 getting some mileage/use, I've always felt that the former two are easy sets to "Plug 'n' Play" into Sand and Trick Room teams, respectively.

While on the subject of things you used/could have used:

Battle logs starting from Round 5

Round 8

822 Drifblim Docile Lax Incense Shadow Ball Air Cutter Silver Wind Explosion HP/Atk
875 Crobat Adamant Razor Claw Cross Poison Brave Bird X-Scissor Zen Headbutt Atk/Spe
481 Dragonite Adamant Lum Berry Dragon Claw Aerial Ace Thunder Wave Dragon Dance Atk/SpD
593 Leafeon Jolly Brightpowder Leaf Blade Last Resort Curse GrassWhistle Atk/Spe
472 Gyarados Careful Razor Fang Aqua Tail Ice Fang Bite Rain Dance Atk/SpD
828 Ampharos Quiet Zoom Lens Thunder Focus Blast Signal Beam Power Gem HP/SpA

Roller Skater I (mostly)...so of course, you chose the one guy who's not like the others to be part of the team.

 

[turskain]

Smuckem, if Gyarados was Set1 it would have taken a lot more damage from Shadow Ball, only Gyarados4 has the special bulk to shrug it off. To be honest I didn't remember Gyarados1 had Dragon Dance or consider the possibility, because that set usually distinguishes itself by spamming Thunder Wave more than anything else.